Mik1984

Couple this with my idea of redesigning the survivability expert skill and you have excellent combo for tanking.

I agree that this skill is almost useless for anything else than a CV. Even if trading some range for faster torps is a bonus, it is not worth the penalty of the lost range and 3 skill points, as the additional range is also useful at many occasions and furthermore the shorter range you shoot at, the less valuable is the torp speed. Even if you end up with a net buff, that buff is not worth 3 skill points. Frankly, many ships would benefit from a reversed version of this skill, - 5kts speed +20% range. That change would play nicely with the incoming torpedo range nerfs, because it would make the game more dynamic and unforeseeable. You thing you are outside somebody's range, and there is a surprise coming.

I would say, that the Expert Marksman is good for all small cannons with more than 20s rotation and all big cannons with more than 30s rotation. Yes, it kinda sucks, but even a small bonus in a CA is valuable, as you can turn and shoot simultaneously, while in a BB you turn, shoot, turn, turn-back, shoot,

The creators of this game have made the skill choices for captains too much of a "paint by numbers". The Survivability Expert skill is underpowered for anything except DD's. It simply is not good enough compared to other choices. As much as it might provide +7% HP for CV and CA, these ships have other "MUST HAVE" skills on that tier, that are not an interesting choice between it and that bonus, and for BB's this bonus is pathetic and clearly inferior to a boost of +20% in secondaries/ AA's All captain skills in this game are poorly balanced. For example the +3% fire chance should be +4% for cannons of 139mm-299mm calibre and +5% for 300mm+ and bombs. - all to make those skills and interesting choice for every class. But then this is just me venting, WG doesn't really read this forum.

That would be the easiest solution. But regarding to what somebody said: That is not necessarily the case, as there are examples of games that successfully got around that through meticulous rebalancing. My beef is that WG makes nearly zero effort in this direction, while it is arguably the most important part of the game. It is not the chessboard graphics that make chess the game. Balance is far more core game experience as graphical features most people don't use anyway, since their computers aren't that powerful. Frankly in a PvP game, balance is the game period, and everything else is just flavouring.

What is the point in designing a skill that is sub-par on other ships? My idea is that survival expert should be viable for every class of ship or else WG if wants to go hard should develop a separate skill tree for each captain class. How about -10% damage from citadel hits(extremely good bonus for CA) + max 50% permadamage (not so good for 9 10 tier CA, but very good for batteships)+ it buffs the superintendent skill, which is mostly a noob honeypot for now, as you don't use the last charge at least 90% of the time anyway.

How effective is really that invisifire for DD's compared to the standard tactic of staying ahead of your fleet and scouting the field for them and making enemy invisifire impossible, capping zones, using islands for protection etc? I would say that OK, a build +1 awareness +2 last stand +3 torp detection +4 DE +4 AFT + 4 SE is a possible build for an USN destroyer. You need that DE if you want to effectively invisifire with US ships, which means you have to take SE instead of concealment. For USRR ships, you have to take in account that you have to be very far away form enemy ships to invisifire, yes you have more cannon range, and enough cannon range, but you don't get many occasions to do that outside of the situation where you are just helping to kill the last of the enemy ships faster. Maybe worth though, as it gives you the extra cash, even if most of your invisifiring will happen after the battle is already decided.

Yes it is the case. Skills are a paint by numbers. Why IJN dd's ? +1 reload + 1 situational awarness +2 turret rotation + 3 torp detecton + 4 survivability + 5 concealment + 2 last stand USN and USSR DD?s just skip turret rotation and take last stand instead, and take torp reload as the last two EVERYTHING ELSE IS SUB par CV? Here is really one hell of a paint by numbers, just choose +20% AA range for US CV's with no fighters. CA, is also paint by numbers, the only difference between them and DD's is that you chose turret rotation for both nations instead of last stand and +20% AA instead of survivability. BBs are the only class with some wiggle room. Every thing else has only 1 correct choice and everything else is sub-par.

But you would achieve a similar effect even without setting him on fire. You destroy DD's mostly through direct damage as fires do only damage based on %. The DD has to smoke and retreat, hoping you have no radar once he encounters a CA anyway. I don't think using a consumable is that much of a damage, he will retreat, reload, and he still has at least one charge. As I don't think that having superintendent as DD is very valuable, as you not so often have the chance to use the third charge anyway, the torp detection is far better. And you have to count with situation of setting him on fire, he putting the fire down and you setting him on fire again. That means you have to put 3-4 salvos into him to achieve that. What is the chance that he is still alive at that point + you really depend on that fire, since you don't have him pinned down like a sitting duck?

Never found that terribly useful, since smoke negates any increases to detectability through fires.

It does when you combine it with the lvl 3 skill of torp detection. Superintendent is VERY tempting, but if you can combine the both, you have a nice combo.

Sorry, I mistakenly assumed you said something that made sense. No, the +3bonus for CA is a honeypot. Spamming BB;s with HE is not your primary activity as CA, as you should rather choose targets you can damage more effectively, like other cruisers with AP. Frankly saying, as CA, BB's are the targets you AVOID fighting with, in order to fight CA's and DD's. Yes it does a little help, but look on your game summaries how much damage you cause by fires per game anyway? Most games you don't do any at all. Maybe it might make some sense though as CV's numbers are shrinking, but you do lose an extremely powerful AA boost, especially on upper tiers.

I would still choose the concealment on a BB which is not hopelessly detectable.

Hmmm, Yeah, except for the Russian one, as they mostly have hopless AA anyway, but who has a 10 lvl captain in a tier 4 cruiser anyway?

Ships that would benefit the most from those bonuses usually benefit much more from the +10% concealment bonus. So it remains an option for hopelessly detectable BB's.

Not really, the BB has only one skill at tier 4 which is +20% secondary/AA range, for CA's this is also a must have, as much as other skills may feel temping, the manual AA control is not as good as adding 20% to you AA range, and as CA you shouldn't be spending too much time annoying the enemy bbs. So really you have only one skill for BB's and CA's on tier 4, and you choose the same skill for US CV's with no fighters. @Crusherheads Suggestions? Aren't suggestions self evident?

What is the point of HAVING CAPTAIN SKILLS IN THE GAME AT ALL if X is a "DD skill", and Y is a BB "skill". What's the point of having captains in the game and having you pretend you are choosing skills for them?

Most of the skills are "paint by numbers". There is almost no wiggle room for any creativity with captain skill build.

Of course, it would be OP if it gave 20%HP to BB, but what if it gave +500HP per tier to CA and 600HP per tier to BB? Not so imbalanced anymore?

I don't think they are even trying. It would be so easy to balance the skills, especially if you have a large database of statistics regarding players. Step 1, discard the losing players with less that 50% winrate Step 2 look at which skills good players in what ships regularly avoid Step 3 think 5 minutes at what kind of a boost can you give to those skills Step 4 after 2-3 hours of work you have a design for a hotfix patch. There you go. They just don't care, they are lazy. Edit: How could they not have thought in advance about how some skills will be unbalanced boggles the mind. Was it so unforeseeable that if you give a health bonus independent of total HP it is going to be a super boon for DD's, just so for CA and nonsense for BB?

That's a dumb upgrade. What's the point of it? The stock white cone is enough to see ships within your cannon range, even if you extend the cannon range by 20% through the spotter plane.

That is a retarded question. What is the point of having the feature of selecting skills for captains if it is a one big exercise in "paint by numbers", because the designers do not want to give players an interesting choice in building up their captains in a different way, that is still not a fail-build.

I agree, there is simply too much matches WITHOUT any CV. The matchmaker should prefer to make the other pair of CV's wait and put them into the next match. Of course 4 CV should be put into one game, but only if 3 of the 4 are waiting for a long time already. Edit. But then, remember, these are EU forums, the almost WG doesn't read them. You are shouting into the wind.

For which non-premuim ships you can buy a permament camo? Like for example "Mogami"? Can you still buy one for Nurnberg?

Oh, yes I didn't get it because it was TERRIBLY UGLY. But now I regret because of the nice bonuses. ;)