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Actually they have stated that no new CVs were supposed to come out before the rework, but Kaga kinda disproves that unless they ship it with the rework (which I believe is highly unlikely). Alternatively WG could've just meant new nations/lines.

The concealment mechanics themselves prevented cruisers from ever countering DDs until the fairly recent addition of radar. You'd either need another DD or CV to spot, but cruisers alone were never able to counter DDs in a timely fashion. And yes, CVs tended to go for BBs. After all when you're capable of striking anything and everything regardless of AA, why bother with hard to hit targets? That still doesn't mean CVs weren't essential for countering DDs. And plenty of spotting happened when you asked for it. Besides, just look at what happened when CVs went extinct. The whole "torpedo soup" dilemma and IJN torp nerfs ring any bells? Wat. Draws happened because the conditions in which they would occur were common (aka the timer running out). That was changed and is the sole reason why draws are more rare today. It has literally nothing to do with CVs. Besides, if anything CVs back in CBT prevented draws because they would kill everything anyway since they didn't need to fear murderblobs unlike now. I agree that the counter system itself does not promote teamplay. It was never really supposed to in the first place. It's just a basic game design choice when creating different classes in what you envision as a team game. This exposes a fundamental flaw (something you, too, have failed to address): While there is no reason not to teamplay, there is no reason to do so as well. This gets exacerbated by the fact that winning, as you rightly pointed out, is a secondary objective, your personal performance is what counts. CVs were supposed to (emphasis on "supposed to") address that flaw. After all, your personal performance will get cut short harshly if you stray out too far alone, encouraging you to stay together. Staying together on the other hand enables you to use your various utilities to your team's advantage, whether you like it or not. Go as a team or face imminent, unrewarding death. A fairly easy way to promote teamplay, no? Doesn't mean that it's fun but it sure is effective. Now, obviously this didn't go as designed and with WGs "balancing" decisions things only went downhill from there. The whole system became broken the moment a class disappeared from frequent play at a crucial time when the meta began to take shape and WG has done literally nothing to address the core issue, thus resulting in BB overpopulation, which in turn causes DD overpopulation. So, to come back to the actual topic, if you want less DDs in MM you'll have to cull the number of BBs first. How to go about it? Well, dasCKD had a bunch of imo great ideas in the thread he created.

Gremy and Nikolai were the only overpowered premiums if I remember correctly. Atago was vastly inferior to BFT-AFT Mogami (as was any T8 cruiser, really).

Because, unlike with every other class, a CV's damage potential can be completely denied with extremely harsh consequences for the CV, regardless of input from the opposing CV. If people however aren't using the widely available tools they've been given to do so then that's not a CV problem, no?

When comparing and balancing ships skill itself is a non-factor. All ships can perform well if a skilled player captains it against scrubs, so when comparing ships and the situations you put them in you have to assume that everyone is on the same skill level, be that high or low. In the case of the low tier CVs, even if their opposition is skilled, they would not have been able to counter a strike even if they huddled into one big pile because the AA on that tier is worthless. Likewise with Belfast. It doesn't matter how skilled the opposition is, the tools she's given have no widely available counters at her tier and leave her with very few weak spots, thus she's overpowered although not by much. As I said previously, putting Hydro and Radar into one slot would be enough to make her balanced.

I think it's the general consensus among skilled CV players that Hosho, along with Langley, Zuiho and Bogue, were actually OP. In low tiers there truly aren't any counters to CVs aside from the opposing CV. You can strike even big groups of ships with impunity because the AA in those tiers is so hilariously weak (or, alternatively, because the planes are too strong). The damage you could deal per strike was also ludicrously high due to everyone's low HP pool and non-existant TDS. They deserved a nerf. How WG went about it however was beyond stupid.

That is if the train actually has the conviction to push through in the first place. And from what I've seen, they don't in 9/10 games. CVs may deny lemming trains (or make it a weak strategy) that would otherwise be effective without them, but such things apply to every other class as well. If there are no DDs in a game, strategies that usually don't work may become very powerful and so on. It's just a much more rare occurrence for a class other than CVs to be missing in a match these days (though cruisers are becoming somewhat rare in high tiers, ironically making high tier CVs even more powerful).

Not even remotely what I was talking about. Also there is a difference between having a basic scenario you have to adhere to and a realistic depiction of everything. Seems like you're unable to differentiate between loose and strict guidelines.

Which is a problem with CVs how? If there's a weakness in the formation to exploit then that's not much of a formation. Isolated ships are exactly that, isolated and thus deserve to be punished anyway. Fact remains that the inherent influence a CV can have on a match is spotting and spotting alone. Everything else is given to him by either his own or the enemy team. I mean, yes, I understand that the skill gap between good and average CV players is a problem, but so is it with every other class. The average player skill in general is abysmal. It's the primary reason why CVs currently can have so much influence on a match, because the class itself is basically designed to punish mistakes. You're funny, I'll give you that.

Oh, well, nevermind then. I think that's more WG's fault for trying to force too many roles on cruisers they were never intended to play instead of addressing the core issue at hand.

So I guess we should give both Iowa and Edinburgh Radar, since their sister ships have it? Brilliant logic right there. Tirpitz came from a time when WG held to their word that premium ships would not be more powerful than tech tree ones. I guess people aren't used to such a thing now. So to everyone blabbering about how she needed a buff because she was less powerful than the other T8 BBs: Yeah, that was kinda the point.

Tbh judging from the videos it actually seems fairly easy to use once you get some practice in thanks to them keeping the inverted spread and their higher speed.

Even minor coordination will cripple a CV. Fact remains that CVs have counters beyond the opposing CV. If you don't use them then that's not a CV's fault, no? That's not to say CVs don't have problems (IJN vs USN balance just to name one of them), but fact remains that demanding WG to "fix" CVs when it's a global problem in player skill across all classes is beyond delusional.

Guess what was originally meant to counter DDs? Hint: It wasn't cruisers. The "removal" of CVs has hurt this game far more than they ever did when they were OP. Literally every problem we've had so far can be traced back to it. Yes, CVs were OP and the meta they created wasn't fun, but nowadays CVs are to a point in which even 2-3 ships sailing together are mostly immune to a strike, enabling them to push/flank/etc. Which is largely fine. Also draws/no caps tended to happen even without CV input. A lot. Stop making them the cause of it, because they never were. Have you even read this sentence? Because it is contradictory af. Teamplay doesn't happen if you can do just fine on your own, as evidenced by the current meta.

Cruisers and basic teamplay counter CVs. Too bad not many slots are open for cruisers these days when you have 5 BBs and 5 DDs per team. And don't even get me started about teamplay.

After routinely saying that NO is not worth anyone's time she somehow seemed to just click with me towards the end of the grind to Baltimore. I honestly don't know what it is that changed, but I thoroughly enjoyed my last few games with her. If I had to chalk it up to a change it'd probably be the stealth fire removal as it makes having a shorter range actually useful in some situations. Then again maybe I just took too long to adapt. One thing about her still remains however. Her AA is anemic, especially against same or higher tier aircraft, at best suitable for self defense and nothing else. As a USN cruiser that's kinda an unacceptable trait to have imo.

Why have you not removed the Type 93 (Shimakaze stock) torpedoes or at least changed them to something more useful yet? Right now they're basically worthless with their excessive spotting range, but they increase the torpedo stat in port, thus fooling novice players into thinking that these are superior to the other choices Shimakaze offers.

They don't dis- or encourage any sort of behavior that others aren't already willing to do anyway, aside from sticking together (which quite frankly people should do regardless of CV presence).

Because everyone plays more aggressively when there's a CV in the game. Oh wait. Seriously, stop the illusion that CVs somehow deny aggressive play. CVs deny at best individual aggressive play and they do that as much as denying individual passive play.

Don't those exist as decoration on islands?

Maybe this is what they're gonna do with the rework. Give all CVs hilarious secondaries. (Seriously, I can see it happening with WG)

I dunno, I think OP has a point. I say WG should give Leander Gearing rof to compensate for her low range. That'll balance everything out. On a more serious note, Leander is fine. It's a great ship.

2x TB squads were removed from US CVs because they were overpowered. But what is overpowered for tech tree ships is not overpowered for premium ones. Is balans comrade xaxaxaxaxa

From what I've seen you should play strike to at least keep up with Taiho in the damage department. You can still establish air superiority with one fighter if your enemy is inferior in skill (of which there are aplenty) and if he's equal or superior two fighters won't help you anyway. Dunno about upgrades. I choose fighter ones on my IJN CVs, but the first and only time I have played Ranger the service times almost made me die of old age.