Syrchalis

To give my opinion to this matter: Sniping the enmy CV depends on various reasons for me. My CV's strike potential My survivability (usually that is equivalent to my AA rating) The enemy CV's strike potential The enemies' survivability (their AA rating + their skill) The enemy player Basically, don't bother sniping in certain scenarios. For example Shokaku versus Lexington. Lexington has Midway-Level AA. Shokaku planes do not have the incredible survivability of T10 planes, so you're basically throwing T1 Eries at a Montana. It's frustrating and not worth it. Shokaku versus Shokaku it can be worth it, but again, Shokaku has surprisingly good AA for a IJN CV and the tier. Taiho or Hakuryu in a mirror matchup make better targets, because their AA sucks. If I know the enemy is good at avoiding death and doesn't go for me, I will usually not go for them either, because I will just waste my time while he has an impact. If he is completely focused on sniping me, but I'm in an AA-heavy ship I also usually ignore them, because they have no strike potential as long as they go for me. Basically I take one for the team in that case. Players always get angry if caught offguard. And that's the number 1 reason to die from a snipe. I never die in my CVs if I see it coming, but I do sometimes when I get surprised. In general CV sniping is risky and not worth it, if the enemy isn't bad. Right now most players are bad, so you can snipe all you want and it's solid. Ranked I wouldn't do it in ranked however, because if you nuke 1-2 ships before you die, you might have already won the game. It simply takes too much time. WIth so few ships around a single BB, CA or DD kill is simply worth so much more, especially since there is no strike-heavy CV in T5-8.

Or there is, because people perfectly aim at where the enemy would be... if they wouldn't slow down, speed up, turn left or right. That's the reason their aim is so bad. Okay, okay, enough BS theories.

2 150k battles today that I lost. And another 140k one. In some of them I even capped. You can't fix a completely underperforming team.

I wont buy Izumo. All I ever wanted was the Amagi. And I'm completely happy with it. Sometimes the lack of armor is annoying, but the speed, turning and firepower make up for it. It has amazing secondaries too and the AA is - like for all T6-8 ships, far too strong for the tier. I don't fear no carrier in ranked.

If I want to cheer up I play a game in my Essex. Snipe, kill, kill, kill, win. Easy. Though I do enjoy my Amagi a ton, so most of the time I dont need cheering up.

After that last match I can't complain =p You know what I mean^^

For the amount of time I play, I barely see any forumites. Seems to be not an issue on my end though, as I'm not to be seen by them either. Only met mtm78 yesterday, but not in the game but teamspeak.

Yay, Information without a complaint about the game.

If I decide I want to attack a lone, not teamplaying BB as Midway or Essex in full strike setup, that cannot cap or protect the team from enemy bombers, then yes, I think that unprotected, lone BB should die. Newsflash, Yamato can eat all 12 torpedos and 14 bombs from Midway and still not die. Montana can take a bit less, but Montana also has even stronger AA, that actually kills a few planes before the drop (if it's completely alone). If I broadside a BB as cruiser from 10km I don't expect to survive either.

What are you saying? That I as a lone BB should be completely invulnerable to planes just because I'm a single tier higher? Because that's how it is right now. NC has even better AA. Sadly from T6 to T8 you have barely a shot as CV if you're at the same tier. If enemy is just a single tier higher you can completely forget attacking. The fact cruisers get consumable at T6 fittingly doesn't help.

Why AA sucks: T4/5 AA is super weak, carriers are generally new to the game, slow planes and low reserves go well with the weak AA, but in general it's annoying to be defenseless in this tier. Something should be done so that ships can at least defend themselves a bit against carriers. T6-8 AA is ridiculously strong, everyone can go solo without being punished. AA monsters like [insert any US cruiser] make a large area entirely invulnerable to planes, even with 2 tiers difference. BBs at T8 have so much AA not even T8 CVs have a real chance to attack them - that is if they are solo, if anything else is nearby you can forget it anyway. Plus cruisers get their consumable here. T9-10 AA is somewhat balanced. If you are alone you are easy prey, but once two BBs drive together it gets hard and if a cruiser is also nearby you will have trouble dealing any damage. I can see this from both sides. My Amagi lolwrecks any CV that isn't T9 or T10. I have a game with 47 plane kills against a Hiryu which I disrespectfully killed with my secondaries, because he just couldn't touch me - note that I was alone the whole time. Then in my ARP Kongo with 7.2km AA range (AFT + AA module) I can't touch planes. I shoot down one sometimes, but mostly it's pointless. So yeah, we need some defense on T4/5 and severe nerfs to the insane scaling of AA at T6-8 (without overnerfing it).

Hakuryu I think is heavily underrated. People cry about Midway all day long, especially the BB Mafia - truth is, Hakuryu is a lot better, but it's much harder to play and it's strength is in balance, not solely in destroying ships, which induces much less hate for it. That usually leads to people only caring about Midway. The only reason Hakuryu winrate is down is because you need so much attention and micro management for 8 squads and because it doesn't do that well in strike setup. It's literally the only ship that should use air superiority setup.

OP relevant user name.

For me its doing a superb job as always. 100k damage games and oneshotting cruisers left and right. Just now an Atago didn't see me behind an Island and got First Blooded + Devastating Striked. I had some bad spread RNG today too, but it didn't seem to be a consistent issue, so yeah... RNG.

Taiho is good but I really have to say that Essex simply reigns supreme. It is IMO the best CV in the game. My personal rankings: (= equal, >= slightly better, > better, >> much better, *complicated) Langely >= Hosho Bogue << Zuiho Indepedence < Ryujo Ranger << Hiryu Lexington =< Shokaku Essex > Taiho Midway * Hakuryu Langely beats Hosho slightly if you are really good with the slow torpedo bombers. Hosho scores better on average because for new players it's a lot easier to get accustomed to CV gameplay if you have twice as many chances to improve, also cross torping is an option. The reason Langely pulls ahead is because you will always win air superiority. Bogue simply sucks. All layouts suck. Slow, vulnerable, bad reserve (even less than Langely! without upgrade) Zuiho meanwhile gets the good 1/2/1 layout and lots of reserve for T5. Independence sadly suffers from Ryujo having better strike and better air superiority decks. 1/1/1 is great, but 1/2/2 or 3/1/1 is simply better. Plus Ryujo has a significant advantage in reserve planes too. Ranger has weak planes, like Hiryu, for the AA they face, but Hiryu has more bombers and the Ranger Layout options really blow. Either you got no damage or lose air superiority hard. 1/1/1 is an uphill battle, because Hiryu simply always has 2 planes PER TYPE more in the air than you. Lexington has a wonderful 2/1/1 layout which brings it a lot closer to Shokaku. The problem is Shokaku get tough 130-150 kt bombers and the Lexington has really slow ones, which can hardly attack anyone who knows how to delay the attack for AA damage, because AA is far too strong on T8. If people are retarded Lexington wins though (as I had to experience...) Essex is really powerful, essentially a T9 Midway, without having to worry about the dominating fighter setup of a Hakuryu. Taiho is not bad at all, but it just can't compete with an Essex with just 3 fighters or even 2 in bomber setup. What makes Essex the clear winner is that it is a high priority target for Taiho (because you deal insane damage, unlike Lexington) - BUT Essex has one of the strongest AA in the game and usually people spec into it too. Taiho meanwhile is hopelessly lost 1vs1 if it has no fighters nearby. Midway against Hakuryu is a bit complicated. If both CV players are mediocre Midway wins because of the same reasons Essex does. However if both are good Midway is hopeless, since 4/2/2 simply dominates air AND water. If you play with many good players and division Midway loses even more power, while Hakuryu wins power.

Welcome to the CV world, where everyone insults and flames you if you bomb them (doesn't matter that they are alone and fail to dodge in time) but if you oneshot a CA... oh wait, you also get flamed. Guess this is justice in some way?

Saw Raskeria in his Zao today.

Die Signatur ist original von mir, aber viele haben sich dazu entschlossen sie zu kopieren nach einigen Threads von mir im englischen Forum. Was ich auch gut finde. Im deutschen Forum lass ich mich kaum blicken, weil da der Hass auf Carrier noch schlimmer ist und einfach die Chance eine anständige Diskussion zu haben so gering ist. @ Topic - AA auf T6-8 ist momentan viel zu stark. Ich hab in meiner Amagi nicht den Hauch von Angst gegen gleichstufige Träger und noch viel weniger gegen niedrigere. Eine Hiryu (d.h. ein einzelner T7 Träger) hat an mir 47! Flugzeuge verloren in Ranked (d.h. NUR AN MIR ALLEINE, kein Schiff war in der Nähe!). Das ging so weit, dass ich ihn nichtmal beschossen habe sondern einfach an ihn rangefahren bin und meine Secondaries in zerschossen haben, einfach weil er NULL Bedrohung war. Auf T9/10 braucht man halt mehr als die Flak von EINEM EINZELNEN SCHIFF um einem Träger effektiv zu kontern, aber so viel Teamwork ist zu viel verlangt. Da wird stundenlang geheult "nerf Midway - ich schieß solo nichtmal die Hälfte der Flugzeuge ab!" Genau wie man auch mehr als 1 Schiff braucht um Zerstörer effektiv zu kontern. Zerstörer/CV zum spotten und etwas mit Feuerkraft (CA) zum zerstören (oder ein US/RU DD). Das selbe gilt aber halt auch für Schlachtschiffe. Nur Kreuzer sind meistens leichte Opfer.

BBs are actually very powerful to hard carry games, like CVs were before the nerfs. Maybe not at T3, but starting with T4 they get really powerful, especially since they have the tools to deal with anything. Ranked game from yesterday:

Atm the problem with a similar system is the power of the plane types is not equal. Every carrier would go with a full torpedo bomber layout. Air superiority is worthless, because spotting has so little value and doesn't get rewarded. Divebombers rely on the enemy not having repair ready, unlike torpedo bombers, who can deal top damage no matter what.

Carrier sniping is boring. Unfortunately you can't just "not do it", because that's like sailing broadside as cruiser or BB or shooting your guns at max range all the time as IJN DD. It's just not intelligent to not snipe. No matter what the other carrier does, sniping him is always the best option: - Strike #1, he is bomber setup and tries to kill you - means eventually you die and the best way to survive is to kill him first - Strike #2, he is bomber setup and does not try to kill you, instead he focuses on other ships - due to the damage potential of carriers, he is the highest priority target to take out, plus the fact he is less manuverable than most ships and probably alone too - Air Superiority, he is fighter setup and ruins your damage - if you snipe him you will have a much larger impact on the game from then on It's risky, sure, but the risk is usually much lower than the reward. I'm really tired of this playstyle. That's why I've been playing so much BB and DD lately.

We both know what you meant.

In general IJN are a lot better, but also a lot harder to play. Your fighter setups are actually viable, because you have TBs. Downside is that using your squads solo is pointless in mid tier, as TBs and DBs die to OP mid tier AA if alone before they can even get close and fighters get wrecked too if alone. T10 - Midway is heavily outperformed by Hakuryu IF both play really well. Assuming average skill, Midway is better. The real problem of Taiho and Hakuryu is that they have sub par AA and will die for sure to a strike if they have no fighters up. Essex and Midway can wreck 6-12 planes during a strike just with their AA.

Going ad hominem after a comment like "he is a CV player so it's natural he is a noob" is kind of what you are asking for. Don't complain about the backlash of your actions.

I was joking. And you're calling him out because he is asking for help instead of running around without knowledge and performing worse for his team than he could? Come on, we want people to ask for help and read guides, without having to explain themselves.