Sub_Eleven

It's not about being harder or easyer to play, it's about becoming near obsolete when battleboats can do pretty much everything a cruiser can. This is most prominent on tiers 7 through 9 with the USN cruisers as an extreme example. Surely wargaming has the same statistics available from the various websites we players use? This is not something that just popped up, it's a trend that has been going on for the last couple patches. The playerbase shifts more and more away from cruisers (and carriers for that matter) and into battleboats and destroyers. You got to be asking yourself; "Why is that?" Although the release of the german battleboat line is a convenient answer, I highly doubt that's the case. It's more likely to be the abysmal performance of high tier cruisers (tier 10's excluded) when compared to the other types of ships. The Royal Navy CL's are in a tough spot even during development.. Believing they will change anything in the current meta, and cruiser balance in general, is a tad naive to say the least. No offense.

I would have a little more faith if the IT and PR departments were run by the muppets. Oh well, better luck next time.

Gee, I wonder why that is

Hence I excluded tier 10's. Cruisers get a last powercreep at tier 10, so they fare better then the lower high tier ships. Always being top tier in a match also helps a lot. The main problem lies with tiers 7 to 9 in combination with the current meta. Well if you had a fun game, good for you I guess. The majority however finds it very hard to have fun right now in high tier cruisers. Especially the USN ones are UP and they are fighting an uphill battle with the battleboat heavy matchmaking. I agree with you cruisers are not entirely useless, but they are under par by a large margin. If nothing is done, we end up with 2 ship classes (or 1 when destroyers get their final nail in their coffin). That's not an exciting prospect to me.

I clicked it! Didn't like the singing much but the dancing was awesomeness. Really wonder why the dancer was such a shorty though, the woman was taller then he was o.O

I think you have a point there. How many of the high tier silver cruisers (excluding tier 10's) are being played just to have fun? Not because they are grinding a line, but simply because they are a joy to play? I can imagine the premium cruisers get a lot more playtime then their silver cousins simply because they are better equiped to deal with the current state of the game. This is true for myself at least although I only have the Kutuzov, no Atago (yet). The MK has a smoke screen to give it higher surviability and great balistics to rake in the coins. Atago has good stealth and a heal to make it last long enough to do some damage. Sure I can have a fun game in the Baltimore, but it's a whole lot less likely. Why play an UP wreck of a ship when I can play the MK (which doesn't care much at which tier it has to fight anyway) which is actually fun, trains y captains faster and prints me lots of credits? Silver high tier cruisers really feel like an endangered species.

Sooooo cruisers are OP? WTF is a cruiser? Is it like a pink talking unicorn at the end of the rainbow who can play blackjack, the piano and riverdance on two hooves?

Wine her, Dine her, Call her, Hug her,Hold her, Surprise her, Compliment her,Smile at her, Laugh with her,Cry with her, Cuddle with her,Shop with her, Give her jewelry,Buy her flowers, Hold her hand,Write love letters to her,Go to the end of the earth and back for her.

In a previous discussion, a lot of people expressed interest in tier 10 permanent camouflage. Especially if it would offer a repair discount and / or earn more credits. Most people didn't seem too interested in the extra experience offered by most permanent camouflages in the game right now (personally I'm loving my Fletcher's camo with the 100% xp bonus, training my 3rd dd captain on her). A poll I made a while ago, showed that although the majority of forumites didn't spend a single coin on permanent camouflage, quite a few had spend a lot of money on their beloved keeper ships. With a price adjustment catering more towards the masses, camouflages could be a good source of revenue for wargaming in the future.

Just got the 50 for my sole tier 10, nothing for my 3.4k ish battles. Implementation seems a bit wonky, hope they will fix it soon. Edit: stupid tinypic autoresize

So rude of him to laughed it! Why didn't your essex sink the kiev btw? It's not like it's very stealthy or agile?

Trololol

Russians I agree, when compared to their competion. USN? Are you sure you are talking about high tiers? Because every one of em, save for the Des Moin, is dead last in pretty much every stat o.O

Search is your friend. Failing that, the info is on the portal.

Can't wait for the japanese I-400 carrier sub, maybe a tier 10?

That's exactly what I'm afraid off; when the game got released cruisers were meant to make up the majority of most fleets, by being more versatile then the more "specialist" ships like battleboats and destroyers. Current matchmaking does not reflect this at all. It's growing more and more into a stale boring stagnant state with 5 battleboats, 5 destroyers and some premium cruisers at high tiers. Throw in a carrier once in a blue moon. When only 2 out of 4 classes of ships are so dominantly present, something is clearly wrong. I'm not a developer so I don't have a clean cut solution for this, but it does get annoying and boring. Playing cruisers at all tiers while having fun at the same time is a tough cookie right now. It's better to stick to low and mid tiers, or play tier 10's due to their power creep (and always being top tier obviously). That does feel like a shame.

There is a difference between being able to invisifire with moon arcs and low fire chance, and doing it with railguns with high native fire chance, and being able to use DE skill (that is basically what you are suggesting). Not sure if that would be a good development.

From the NA server: http://forum.worldofwarships.com/index.php?/topic/86013-us-cruisers-a-tale-of-ugly-abused-and-nerfbatted-moder-marvels/#topmost

I have Last Stand on my Kuma...

Wouldn't it get abused if it could invisifire with DE and her gun arcs though? You can still do it, if you take AFT but you'll lose either CE (not really an option) or DE or SE.

IJN destroyers need some love at higher tiers, we just have to wait how the sub branch reshuffle will turn out (Shima seems fine though, she has pretty nice guns. Just a lot of Shima skippers ignore them for some odd reason). Haven't played the russian high tiers yet but they seem to be doing rather well. They are ships I'd rather avoid in my USN gunboats if I have the option. Going up against a Udaloi or a Kabab in a Benson or Fletcher (my most played destroyers) ends badly most of the times. Gearing does much, much better due to it's higher rate of fire and extra gun, but often times its easyer to keep them spotted then to trade in a large portion of your health for a kill secure. Yes, USN high tier dd's are good and fun to play, but they are not OP. Hitting anything other then a battleboat over 10km range with their orbital moon arcs becomes quite the challenge.

It's no secret high tier cruisers are in bad shape, specially the tier 7, 8 and 9 ones. The tier 10's to a bit lesser extend due to the power creep at the last tier (Des Moin and Zao in particular). The influx of the german battleboat masses in queue is certainly not helping the situation. Cruisers role in the game was defined as support ship with tasks like dd hunting and providing AA cover. Recent patches only increased the AA mounted on battleboats to the point where some have more effective AA then their cruiser counterparts, who ironically, were intended to keep said battleboats save. Even *IF* there is a carrier present in a high tier game (and that's a pretty big if, mind you) most carrier captains just resort to destroyer hunting because it has less risks and higher rewards. Carrier gameplay as it is now, is just not attractive or rewarding enough for the general playerbase. In open beta, very few battleboat captains would reverse while bow tanking because it would be a death sentence by planes if they didn't have several cruisers backing them up. With less and less carriers present *AND* willing to risk dropping on battleboats, there is nothing stopping the average joe doing exactly that, save for other battleboats (who will bounce a lot of their shots) and destroyers. German high tier battleboats come with hydro so they will spot those torpedoes from miles away. Charging into a smoke cloud is also no problem with hydro active. This leaves very few threats for the average battleboat skipper. Hunting destroyers surely must be the way to go for cruisers then. Although I do not agree with the latest radar cooldown buff ( I think it was fine the way it was, as a cruiser captain that is) they got it, and it helps a bit spotting the little buggers. I don't expect to be able to kill a destroyer solo in one radar duration, but you simply lack the tools to punish them effectively when you catch one. Besides dodgeing torpedoes you need to keep angled while manouvering, pray your turret traverse keeps up and get enough hits on target in the short window of opportunity you have. It's easyer with lower caliber guns as they tend to have higher rate of fire and better turret traverse, but on some of the 203 mm equiped cruisers it's a pain. On top of that you have the russian railgun equiped destroyers light cruisers who will citadel you to the bottom of the ocean if you happen to have to angle towards battleboats and are forced to show broadside. Cruisers really need some improvements to be competitve on par with both battleboats and destroyers in the higher tiers. Encouraging more carrier play will help as well to make them more useful. Improving maneuverability on cruisers might help or give them slightly better hydro (maybe more, but shorter duration charges?). Defo need some faster turret traverse on the slower ships (yes you Baltimore). A support ship who can't really support is kinda of a waste in a team setup. Hence the 5 battleboats, 2 cruisers, 5 destroyer line up games who seems to become the rule, rather then the exception.

First win of the day in my Benson. Nice chunck commander xp

^ That. The turrets are simply to slow to keep em pointed at red ships closeby. (As a so called dd hunter, turret traverse could really, really use a buff)

Free xp the B hull, New Orleans is a tough ship to play as it is, don't torture yourself with the stock configuration. Her armor is better then Pensacola's, just don't expect to bounce many 406mm shells. It's just a cruiser after all.