El2aZeR

Well played, eliastion! Sorry I didn't greet you. Didn't notice your name until after the match ^^

Ahahahahaha Yeah, remember the last time CVs went pretty much extinct? Fun times with the whole DD meta thing. Though I guess you're gonna say the same things against DDs next when CVs are gone, huh? "Majority of players have no fun when DDs are in the game." "DDs ruin the game with torpedo soup." "Game experience is horrible with DDs." "Wargaming should focus on the average player." etc. etc. etc. Really, does your failure to understand basic game mechanics have anything to do with my supposed "love" for CVs?

Meh, to each his own I suppose. I still maintain that flanking should still be done with a more substantial force even if only for the sake of increased effectiveness. Mogami is in the unfortunate spot of being a former T7 which got up-tiered to T8 with almost no changes (hence why Myoko maintains better AA than Mogami). It should've gotten changed, really, but WG took the lazy route. What I meant was that the average player cannot even comprehend that you should turn into torps, so more complicated AA mechanics are probably beyond their scope as well.

Well, true that. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Yes, AA is an incredibly unfun mechanic on both ends, but it's probably the best we get considering most players are too stupid to even comprehend that they should turn into torps to dodge them and not away. And it does perform it's role imo. Lone ships (that are not AA cruisers) can be struck without too many losses, while a small group of ships presents a far riskier target and a bigger group is pretty much invulnerable. And that's how it should be. AA is also a balancing factor, ships with (comparatively) low AA are usually compensated for by excelling at other things (low tiers excepted). By holding your position in the back row you get far more DPS time than if you had snuck around to get to a flanking position, balancing it out. Unless you do it with a couple more teammates that can actually exploit broadside positions, flanking is ineffective more often than not and is more likely to leave you exposed. Plenty of experience tells me otherwise. Even the stealthiest BB will always get spotted long before you do even if you're several km in front of him (unless ofc you overextend far beyond "safe" distances), giving you more than enough time to haul your behind back to friendly AA cover. You only need to know the AA ranges of your teammates and derive from that how far forward you can risk being. Ah, yes, ofc, that's a trait that applies solely to CVs, I forgot. Oh wait. Seriously, the amount of ignorance you are displaying is mind boggling.

I mean, I'd personally prefer it if more people would play AS. It'd give me a far easier time when playing CVs. Still doesn't mean I'd advice someone to do it, though. Let me give you a quick rundown as to why USN AS is worthless af: - they cannot scout. The moment they do so they're either not in the position to cover their team OR they give up on what little damage they can do and let their scouts get intercepted in the process - they cannot deal damage as they lack the potential to do so and will pretty much always get intercepted - they cannot cover the entire team, the moment they split their fighters they're giving up air superiority - they cannot cover their own strikes and/or scouts, granting the enemy CV easy plane kills. The moment they attempt to do so is a free ticket for the enemy CV to get a strike through WHILE losing air superiority in the process - they have already failed if their enemy gets a single strike through, as the enemy CV will then have had more influence on the battle than they will ever have the entire game - they have likewise failed if they lose air superiority even just once, as this means that the enemy has free reign and can do whatever they want for a substantial amount of time I can go on if you want to. I find it far easier to outplay and get Clear Sky against AS CVs than against strike ones. AS has a hilarious amount of counters, meanwhile the only way AS can counter you is if you're stupid.

UI, economy and the balance between USN and IJN need fixing. Other than that, they're largely fine and performing their roles as intended. Maybe introduce preferential +/-1 MM for CVs. As it stands right now a top tier CV in a match mostly populated by lower tiers is almost granted omnipotence, while it's incredibly painful for the CV the other way around, far more than with other classes.

Stick with stock loadouts on both. 1/1/0 Bogue is arguably one of the most powerful CV decks you can play right now. The extra bomber on the Independence is not worth giving up your fighter for. DBs in general are rather worthless on USN CVs until T8 where you get the 1000lb bombs that actually do decent damage. Haven't played Ranger yet, but was planning on sticking with 1/1/1 with her. I'd switch to strike starting from Lexington. Never, EVER start playing AS. It's the most worthless thing you can ever do in this game. EDIT: I retract my statement about 1/1/0 Bogue being powerful with the recent removal of manual drop at her tier. I'd however still continue to recommend it as the other two loadouts are still inferior in terms of utility.

Which is why these things need rewards. You make it sound like this isn't easy to fix. The low amount of cruisers per game comes from BB overpopulation (which is also largely responsible for the camping meta, really). Take care of that and we should see more cruisers per game. Spawning system needs improvements, I agree, but there are more pressing issues imo. A common misconception. A CV's survivability should not be measured in the hitpoints the vessel has, it should be measured by it's plane reserves. And those are far more limited and fragile than most people who have never played CV believe. 1-2 failed early strikes will practically ensure that you will have not enough reserves left to have a decent impact on the match in the latter half of the game. A CV may be "dead" long before someone guns it down. You can completely deny damage by sailing with as little as one extra teammate depending on what ships you both are playing. It's in fact the only class in the game you can do it against. If a CV has time to to comfortably set up a strike and get it to you with few plane losses then you deserve to take damage. Really, saying that taking reduced damage is not a counter is like saying angling is worthless because you can never completely mitigate damage anyway. A strike that does insufficient damage is always more punishing for a CV than it is for the target, because he has just wasted planes and time on you, neither of which he can afford to be wasting. Flanking becomes a lot more powerful with a capital ship or two backing it up. Flanking alone is rather worthless, especially if there is a CV in the game that can take over spotting for you, letting you focus entirely on dealing damage. This is especially true with IJN cruisers. Why would you ever want to flank and potentially expose yourself in a fragile cruiser that primarily spams HE shells from long range anyway? HE shells don't need to hit broadsides to work. Seriously, where does this notion come from that IJN cruisers should be used to flank?! If you're alone, then yes. And you deserve to be punished for it. You can easily take a forward position in front of your teammates and still have enough time to hightail it back into friendly AA cover if you see planes approaching from the horizon. With an AA bubble of 6-7km as is usual in high tiers, you can take up position as far as 10km up front, giving you more than enough leeway to do whatever you want to. As a bonus you will never be the first one spotted by planes (thus drawing fire away from you), you can lay down smoke to cover your teammates, spot enemy DDs, cruisers and incoming torps. Everyone wins.

Any AA cruiser would like a word with you. And when there are no CVs around everyone suddenly stops camping? Stop kidding yourself. This game is not about 1v1's, it is a TEAM game and people should start treating it as such. If you feel like CVs are making your life difficult by not allowing you to go off solo somewhere, they're doing their job correctly.

This change actually strengthens seal clubbers that use AS Bogue to farm Clear Sky. It was never in question how ineffective this stupid decision was going to be.

Is balans comrade xaxaxaxa

Why not swap Brooklyn and Cleve? I understand that it would break historical progression but it would make more sense balance-wise imo. Just give Brooklyn the St. Louis sub-class as top hull and you basically sacrifice a bit of AA for an extra turret, which doesn't sound like a bad trade at all. (Also the last time we had 15 barrels on T7 it got up-tiered and then smashed into oblivion with the nerfhammer.)

Stats assuming AS and AGM1+2 are taken: Hiryu T7 fighters: HP: 1777 * 5 = 8885 DPS: 64 * 5 = 320 Ammo (with DE): 76 (supposed) Kaga T6 fighters: HP: 1525 * 5 = 7625 DPS (without DE): 48 * 5 = 240 DPS (with DE and 1 tier difference): 53 * 5 = 265 Ammo (with DE): 99 T6 fighters will be vastly inferior to T7 fighters no matter what skills you take. Your only hope will be to outlast them with your superior ammo capacity, but the chance of that happening is incredibly slim. Even if, AS is gonna be worthless as is pretty much every AS loadout in the game. There's no need to discuss it.

If Hermelin can do this with her tiny 35mm belt: https://gfycat.com/ElderlyScalyCardinal Then you can bet that glorious 50-155mm stalinium belt can do it as well.

All ships could generate thick smoke that would be "heavy" enough to linger around at sea level by dumping fuel into their smoke stacks. Having dedicated smoke generators seems like a waste of space and tonnage tbh. Perhaps the best demonstration of the effectiveness of such smoke screens would be at Samar.

Getting rid of the stock torps would be a good start. ¬_¬

If Langley and Hosho are any indication, they'll go through harmlessly. I mean....

Well, some people *cough* avenger121 *cough* seem to be unable to accept that.

Not nonsense at all. The problem with Khaba was that she also countered things that were supposed to counter her, unlike with CVs where most players either don't know about or simply don't bother using their counters. Also apparently WG agrees with you that Khaba was UP what with the recent buffs she got. What if balance was already in a pretty good spot but the average player is simply too stupid to use the mechanics provided to him? That's the case in WoWs right now. Really, I hope you will never be in charge of balancing a game. With a mindset like yours great franchises would've gotten snuffed out in their infant states. Sail with a few teammates and planes will never bother you again (well, unless said teammates get blown up). If a CV can set up a strike without pressure, YOU'RE doing something wrong, not the CV. My exact words were that CVs cannot take a large amount of punishment. And they can't. Doesn't mean that they're porcelain vases that will implode if you so much touch them. I did say "ammunition" so people can better understand that plane reserves are limited whereas shells and torpedoes are not. While you make a good point about weapon survivability, personally I see plane-less CVs far more often than I see a DD with a busted turret or torp launcher these days. Fact remains that planes are limited in number and will deplete far more often than even a DD turret. And here's where you're wrong. CVs cannot strike anywhere because single AA cruisers or multiple ships banding together create AA barriers. Attempting to strike a target through those will result in an unfavorable plane/damage trade, making them a waste of time and plane reserves, neither of which you can allow yourself to do in a CV. Planes also have service and flight times that you can exploit. And again, CVs are limited in other areas that are crucial to the game, thus they need to be able to do the things they can do better than other classes. You seem to have missed the part in which I stated that the survivability stat is utterly worthless when it comes to CVs and that average plane losses per kill would be a much more accurate measurement. Alternatively you're dismissing it. Who knows? Still not seeing the point, huh. Fact remains that WG is bound by certain historical aspects. They even said so themselves in a recent Q&A. Spotting for CVs is one of them. So a ship that has to take minutes to "reload" and move their ordinance to it's target AND of which the damage output can be completely denied with far harsher consequences than simply missing shells or torps should now also do less damage? You're funny, I give you that. And in fact, you CAN nerf all those aspects. Survivability = Plane HP Flexibility = Number of squads, plane speed and service times Spotting = Number of squads But why would you nerf something that works rather well within it's designed boundaries? CVs destroy single targets yet cannot harm groups of ships, as intended. Yup, considering that if equally skilled TEAMS meet each other the chances of winning would also be equal. The individual percentage of how the different ship classes contributed to a victory however would not be the same even in ideal circumstances. Tanks and Healers are generally more important than DDs, a good dedicated AWPer in CS has higher potential impact than an equally skilled rifler, just to name a few examples. And unless you want to create one universal class and nation, it's gonna stay that way. So you would balance the game around the reality of random battles. Reality remains that the average player sucks and has no idea how to play his ship effectively. Wouldn't that mean you're catering to such players? Or are you alternatively basing your idea of balance on the current meta? The meta that was, again, formed primarily by scrubs? The meta in which everyone does whatever they want, whine about anything and everything and in which even scrubs complain about the lack of teamplay? Fun stuff, the game will be dead in a year, if not less.

Lower tier ships without smoke don't have plane handling equipment. Fighters still spot ships. Not sure what you're meaning tbh.

Yes, because if you'd be able to take both you would be able to spot the enemy with your plane while being invisible to them thanks to smoke.

Fairly old, but since it's not their highest priority I guess this'd still be the official answer.

I, a filthy f2p peasant, have finally managed to unlock glorious Trump Wagon! Now I will print tons of money and exp without ever having spent real money on this game! (Alright, I'll admit I once bought like 15€ worth of dubloons when they had the PayPal promotion thing.)