El2aZeR

Imo there is no reason to use IJN CVs over USN ones. The former are overspecialized in killing BBs, getting both long range torp drops and AP bombs. They're really good at it to be sure, but that won't necessarily win you matches. And it's not like USN CVs are slouches when it comes to dealing with capital ships either. On the other hand IJN CVs are a bit easier to use. They turn a lot better when attacking and their reticle is a lot less sensitive to boot. Long range torp drops also means you deal with campers better, being able to stack multiple waves of torps on a single approach (Fara likes to do this with the Haku in his videos), so IJN CVs may actually have more of an advantage here when the rework hits live. But regardless USN CVs have the upper hand thanks to their versatility. I'm currently contemplating whether I'll refund the entire IJN line or not.

Generally speaking bots and players aren't really that different in target behavior when it comes to reworked CVs so they get demolished either way. In one of my last games I hit down a Fletcher player to <100 HP with my first squad at the beginning of a match which instantly made him ragequit. And as Darth has said, no DD possesses enough DPS to do anything meaningful against aircraft even with DFAA. Not even the Grozovoi. Best thing you can hope for is that the enemy CV is a potato and will fly through flak bursts.

Here, allow me to crush your hopes and dreams real quick: All AA cruisers are extremely vulnerable to CVs when DFAA is on cd or on their own. A single TB squad is usually enough to clear out any cruiser via crossdrop without any counterplay options. Needless to say island camping doesn't work anymore either so if cruisers want even a slight chance to survive they need to move around, making themselves targets for BBs.

I liked heal on DBs better. It gave them a reason to exist, being a reliable damage dealer that can push strikes through even against heavier AA opposition. Without the heal rockets are far better against soft skinned targets while torps can be used against everything else. Either buff DBs so they become viable again or move the heal back.

When you see someone play DDs on the PTS.

I rose up and seized the means of damage farming just like WG intended. Praised be the rework!

CVs can harass DDs to death on every tier. Your only option is to go back to T2. I'm not even joking. The concept is fundamentally broken, thus cannot be balanced.

New first blood record: 1:25 mins. Also another DD killed 1 1/2 mins later. 300k damage and 9 kills for 17 planes lost. Seems balans. Seriously tho, under NO circumstances should you play a DD in 0.8.0.

My average damage is dropping because I kill the enemy team too fast. T_T

Red tracers now indicate whether a side has been reinforced or not. I found it largely unnecessary to care about that tho.

First kill in less than 2 mins: In a current CV I would be about done launching my planes at this point. Also Confederate in less than 7 mins. Bottom tier AA is completely useless against higher tier planes even when stacked. As expected considering the nerf.

DFAA is actually pretty effective now if you spec full AA, killing entire squads within seconds. If you do not DFAA merely enhances your AA from almost non-existent to meh. Full AA builds are therefore still required to counter CVs. DFAA is still useless because the CV can just abandon his squad when you use it and come back when it goes on cd. Just played this: We're essentially now back in a state where good CVs dominate hard and mediocre/bad CVs fail.

Nope, saw it on Fara's stream. I guess only STs etc. get them.

Saipan gimmick: Smaller squads and attack wings but Midway planes. Only gets Tiny Tims for RFs. Enterprise gimmick: Tight RF spread not affected by turning (RIP DDs), AP DBs have a theoretical alpha strike of 30k damage PER WING but have a comparatively large drop pattern (still about the same as in the current version). Gets T7 planes. 6th upgrade slot has been removed. Kaga gimmick: tons of reserves to the point where you can practically ignore losses but planes are a bit fragile. Gets HE DBs. GZ gimmick: FAST planes. Like seriously FAST planes. The TBs and DBs have the same max speed as the RFs on the Midway (260kn). RF rockets (slightly worse than Tiny Tims in pen and damage) hit almost instantly so no leading required. AP DBs still have circle drop but it's MUCH tighter now. Secondaries are still hilarious. Hydro has been removed.

Dunno, I actually found it quite negligible like all IJN AA. Rocket spread has been increased for Midway. Still murders DDs tho. Enterprise has the old small spread in addition to a smaller base spread.

And what, pray tell, are supposed to be her redeeming qualities? Stealth is all she has and she has no way to exploit it. Also implying that a mere 70 battles is representative of anything.

Quite frankly I would hold off on buying a premium ship right now (especially premium DDs). The CV rework goes live in less than 2 weeks and regardless of whether it will be a show or not, it will change the meta dramatically.

I'll just leave this here: (Video isn't mine btw.) @MrConway I'm pretty sure this isn't supposed to happen? Although I'm not exactly against nerfing the survivability of BBs.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Next AL event on EN is confirmed to be "Winter's Crown". Starts sometime at the end of February. More info here: https://azurlane.koumakan.jp/Events/Winter's_Crown Notable ships: Sheffield grants a ton of extra survivability provided she has more HP than other ships in the vanguard at the start of a battle. Duke of York is a monstrous BB all around.

Arma 3 and Touhou 10: Mountain of Faith.

But I guess we'll see. Generally speaking the patch looks like even more of a nerf to AA to me which is hilarious.

Of course, which is why the main competitive modes, aka clan battles, organized tournament play and to a lesser degree ranked, are not random. These are however not the main gamemodes of this game and were likely never meant to be. That's completely fine in my eyes. Not all games are designed to be played competitively after all. I have played competitive CS for a long time in the past so I definitely know where you're coming from. It's just that my expectations of WoWs as a competitive game go only so far. What I can expect however is that people know at least the very basics of the game which is another thing WoWs utterly fails at as you've already pointed out. This, unlike the decision to use random MM, is definitely something the developer has ed up. I can't even necessarily blame all these potatoes for their failures because a good chunk simply doesn't know any better. WG provides practically no instruction beyond "use WASD to move and mouse 1 to shoot". And ofc they never find out that what they're doing is wrong because, again, the economy actually rewards them for it.

No, it is not. That is probably because all the games you can think of are popular and/or have organized leagues to ensure competition and thus a sufficient playerbase. That is not the case with online multiplayer play. And there are quite a few hugely popular games in which random MM works. The point however in these games is that the less skilled get left behind and they get left behind hard. In this game they get catered to. Also for most of its lifespan CS largely had "random MM" as did pretty much every game, really. The addition of ranks is fairly recent when considering the overall lifespan of the franchise. To quote some examples that have already been given: Armored Warfare had a system that equalized towards 50% WR, which ultimately shafted skilled players tremendously and benefited no one but the worst of the worst. Mechwarrior Online has a soft tier divided MM that suffers from literally the same problems as we do in a completely random system. Quite frankly any skill based MM system that doesn't involve a hard split in the playerbase will fail. OW does this with MMR, SC2 with leagues, CS with ranks and so forth and so on. However to support such a system you need a big enough playerbase. WoWs fails that requirement hard. A mere <30k players on the most popular server is pitiful and not even remotely close to what is needed. With a hard split you'd do nothing but ludicrously increase the queue times for skilled players, while a soft split will do nothing as it doesn't do anything anywhere and is as such a waste of time. That WoWs doesn't have skill based MM is thus not something I'm upset with. I can even agree that it is what is needed. What I can be upset with however is that the random failures I have to play with are even allowed to do so without penalty and, even worse, are rewarded for bad play. The economy system that is supposed to punish trash for failing may as well not even exist nowadays. It is that forgiving. In any other game failures just get their teeth kicked in left and right. Here they are catered to and rewarded. Imagine if you could fail your way up the ranks in CS by always losing but padding your stats. Doesn't matter that you never play the objective and thus intentionally sabotage your team in the process, as long as you can ensure a positive K/D ratio you'll be Global in no time. That's WoWs' economy in a nutshell.

Guess what, that's because random MM isn't actually the issue, while skill based MM will either have no impact at all or ultimately be beneficial to no one but the most potatoes.