GulvkluderGuld

Like literally, what can I do with it in stock config? Every other ship outranges it by 3 km (14 km stock range) and will beat it up 1v1. I wouldnt even THINK of getting that close to BBs at tier 7+. Cruisers outrange it in poke-wars. It cant go off on its own. I dont have turret traverse to kill dds. WTF!? What kind of fights can I take? Or are the first 40k xp on this ship meant to be played as a passive AA bot from hell?

Thanks Woel. Not sure what you want to engage at close range? Most people tell me the Pepsi is a sniper. I already angle and work on my technique to shoot "over the shoulder". I stay at 10+ km range if I can. Thus i invested in the Fire Control System, and it has already doubled the amount of hits and XP i earn pr. battle. Though still miserable, it is now around 700 xp/battle. I play USN DD as my second line, so using terrain to my advantage is like 2nd nature. It sounds to me like you often stray a bit from the main fight (= meeting of the lemmings). What I don't understand, is how you can take the Pepsi to just 10 km range and not get hammered by every single BB and cruiser on the enemy team (because you are then in front of everybody else on your team). Could you describe what you find good terms for pepsi? Isolated targets? Vs specific cruisers? No battleships? hunting DDs? LOL that made me laugh . Seriously: Looked a bit at the next ships and you may be right. Maybe will be switching over to carrier and DDs like everybody else

Please help me then, how do you play it? I'm looking at 30k XP for the Hull and turret upgrades and I'm already close to giving up on cruisers altogether and switching over to USN DDs The thing is: 1) Stock Pepsi is outranged by other cruisers. How am I supposed to snipe, when everybody spots the shiny tier VII closing beyond 17 km and goes omnomnom nom nom and switches target (before I reach my own 14 km range)? 2) paper armor and very bad maneuverability compared to the Cleveland and most jap cruisers makes angling next to useless. And how is this thing supposed to harass, when it loses so much speed on turns? 3) Stock pepsi turret traverse make it unsuitable for killing DD's (isn't that was cruisers are for?). Using the upgrade module that increase turret traverse takes it from underwhelming to just bad in this department. Yes this ship may get citadel hits on BBs of same tier at extreme range, but due to paper armor, return fire from said bb (even when bows on) will often take away 50+% of its hp. In conclusion, I am at a loss as to what role this ship can perform, except dedicated anti-air babysitter. As for cruisers in general: I loved them up to tier 5 (omaha). Now I like brawling hit'n run tactics and skirmishing and the US cruiser line < tier 6 is just perfect for this playstyle. High ROF, high turret traverse and quite good guns as well as excellent speed and maneuverability lets them hold their own in any skirmish. From tier 6 cruisers takes on a completely different role as slow, sluggish escort ships with mediocre maneuverability. However, I find the whole metagame at tier 7+ very different from lower tiers and much more tactical, due to even cruiser firing ranges going > 15 km. The result is often an immense snoozefest with everybody camped at max range for 20 mins and much more frequent draws.

Same situation. I know how you feel mate. I total 1 ship kill and about 100.000 dmg over 4 games in the Pepsi - almost all of it earned in the last match (LOL), when i finally got the Main Battery Mod II to make the turrets turn faster. Cannot recommend this mod enough on the stock Pepsi, to at least make the grind bearable. As for the Cleveland, it's a great ship, but it has a very different playstyle from the Omaha & lower tiers. With forward facing guns on the and torpedos, they could pretty much go where they pleased. With Cleveland, it is different. You need to know your limits. 1) It's the first USN cruiser that can't go solo or lead the push as the first ship. 2) It teaches you to hit from max range (the HE spam on BBs) ~14 km and also teaches you to angle your ship. 3) it teaches you to go for citadel hits against other cruisers. The Cleveland absolutely wrecks other cruisers in any 1v1 or 1v2 scenario if properly played and no BBs are around to ruin your day. In one of my last games i took her in against an Atlanta and a Myoko at 8ish km range and pulverized both in about a minute for about 1/3 my hp. Against DD's I never had problems one- or two-shotting them at 4-5 km or closer. After 10-20 games I regularly racked up 50.000 dmg. Just persevere =)

As a both a Carrier and DD driver, here is my input: As DD: If this happens, go park next to your carrier (or any good aa cruiser, make sure you know which cruisers are good for aa). The carrier driver will then remove the planes to avoid having them shot down. Now is your chance to disappear. In my tier V Nicholas (fully upgraded) it takes about 5 mins to shoot down a fighter squadron parked overhead. I once spent an entire match as target practice for 2 carriers, taking every bomb and torpedo they had and sailing with fighers overhead for 15 mins. Not fun for me perhaps, but it left my team free to do whatever they wanted....with predictable results (eg. despite their numerical advantage, they lost horribly) As Carrier: I rarely have the fighters to spare for parking over DD unless 1) There is no carrier on opposing team. (in which case the problem is with MM) 2) There is a DD rushing the map border or somewhere else at the start of the match, presumably to get behind my team and assasinate me and the BBs. (Minekaze players, I'm looking at you!) AFAIK destroyers already can (and do) use their main armament as AA guns from tier 4-5ish.

From tier VI I find this to be the common pattern (currently at VII) with everyone staying at max range an trying to angle and snipe (at least good players). Meanwhile DD's fire stealth torps and carriers duke it out. After 20 mins of an immense snoozefest the games mostly ends in a draw. Only the HotSpot map where people HAS to play decisive (or die) is different. Thank God we have that map!

this

Bring a Murmansk of your own. Or another cruiser. Outlast them. I feel with you BB drivers though. In my Cleveland I often get "just a fleshwound" from BBs i set ablaze before going down (after 5+ mins of longrange fire exchange).

No experience with CBT, but just unlocked my Pensa and Looooord it is a nightmare. Turret traverse in particular is worse than some BBs, they traverse so slow you cant fire and turn (even at 1/2). Since Clevelands (17 km with commander skill) and aobas outrange it, I find myself unable to shoot for most of the game (did 5-10 hits an entire game). Omaha appears to be the peak of USN cruisers and it seems pensa is at the bottom. Praying the turret upgrade will change my opinion

Hey Guys, Clevelands being such a popular ship, I find myself in Cleve vs Cleve fights all the time. After getting killed by another HE spamming Cleveland (firing AP myself) I started wondering: Should I shoot HE instead of AP against other Clevelands? I have no trouble whatsoever getting multiple citadels vs other cruisers and sometimes even oneshot them with 4+ citadels in one salvo. However....Despite knowing where to shoot Clevelands (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgLsvV-Dfv4 at 4.44), i have enormous trouble getting any citadels with AP. Just fired up the training room and found that - 7 km range was the maximum where i could often (50-75%) get 1 citadel hit for every 12 shell broadside - 4,5 km range got me 1 citadel hit from 6 shells reliably - 2 km range or closer: still only 1 citadel hit for every salvo. Compare this to shooting Omahas, pensacolas, furatakas or aobas, where you easily can land 2-4 citadels at 5-7 km range with a broadside. Testing was done with both ships lying still in the water, broadside to broadside and aiming at the hitboxes shown by IChase. What is your experience? And what do you shoot? Based on this experience, I will probably be spamming HE untill 5 km range from now on.

The real Tirpitz was upgraded with torpedoes in 1942

Thank you for the link LuckyPat. Nice reading, and possibly an omaha buff to look forward to! It seems HE is definitely the way to go against clevelands, unless he is close and showing his broadside (eg not angling his armor). Thanks for the replies

Got as far as the Bogue and this is exacly what i do. tried the aa upgrade is useless at influencing the game, unless you are 1 v 2 carriers. have not tried the full offence setup, but crushed it's power with the stock Bogue by focusing his torp plane squad with my fighters. No fighters is unacceptable, if for no other reason than preventing enemy floatplanes from messing up your manual torp spreads. On the flipside, it is almost always possible to land 1-2 full torp spreads by playing smart, even when facing an aa config Bogue =)

Great idea. No cost to doing it. Pls Implement. oh and change reporting system to be more flexible (eg: Griefing/trolling option)

This is exactly the reason I like draws. To keep the enemy from winning, you can run away. I like that. It gives the losing side something to fight for. Also, provided you agree with the draw mechanic in the first place, some addictional reasons: It forces DYNAMIC gameplay, as the winning team cant safely camp in the cap-zone(s).

This Also, I read rumors about spotting damage getting implemented in the game. http://forum.worldofwarships.eu/index.php?/topic/21943-will-there-ever-be-spotting-damage/

This. FYI, shell flight time and trajectory was changed (nerfed). Try it. Cleveland is the first cruiser in the USN tree that really suck imo. Also this is not just my opinion (although I am biased ). There was a poll somewhere on the forum, about who would prefer Omaha over Cleve. AFAIK about 45% of 100 players would.

Correction accepted Nethraniel. Ok I understand your point. But let me ask you this: How often do you get into 3,5 km range of a cruiser (if you can help it)? I regularly blow up DDs with 1-2 broadsides, if they are dumb enough to get that close. The problem is spotting them in the first place (=5,9 km detection range) and smart minekaze players never enter detection range at all (or they quickly become very dead minekaze players). As for island cheese, the rule #1 is to never get close to landmasses in a cruiser, so I never had trouble with this. In addition, spotting the DD will probably not let me kill it (no line of fire). And finally, if I suspect a DD to be around the island, I just activate the spotting plane. The only use I can imagine for this skill is, if said DD pops her smoke within 3,5 km. Which happens maybe once in 25 matches or so. Now how often do your average Cleveland find use for the Defensive Fire consumable? For me to even consider sonar as a viable consumable, it would need to extend beyond 5-6 km range (=give me a way to spot if any pesky DDs are stalking me). And by all means let it be visible to the DD driver that it is active for the sake of counterplay ps: Forgot to mention, but I dont really have trouble with Minekaze torps, even when I dont suspect she is around. The Cleveland is maneuverable enough to easily dodges the torps or at most take 1 hit. Maybe higher tier, slower cruisers will find use for the skill. However, they might well benefit from taking the captain tier II torp detection skill instead and getting Defensive Fire as consumable.

USN DD captain here, happy to introduce you to our exciting life on the high seas Joking aside: It sounds to me like you gotten spoiled by the (unreasonably good) Minekaze stealth and developed a playstyle more akin to US DDs than IJN DDs. eg: running the gauntlet on the Minekaze carried a much lower risk than the potential reward. Thus, the fault is with you playstyle, not the ship (although I agree the IJN dd line does needs rework). Risk is supposed to be balaced with reward. - Running the gauntet is a high-risk, high reward scenario. I - Firing torps from concealment and zoning carries almost NO RISK. - The advantage of the IJN dd's compared to USN dds is their ability to make low risk plays, something that is impossible with USN dd's. - Thus IJN DD play (in my experience) revolves around torpedo spam from stealth and predicting when the opponent will be distracted enough be a duel with another ship to eat a facefull of torps. If you dont like this playstyle, I recommend you switch over to the USN. Personally I stopped playing my isokaze after I got to the USN tier 4 Clemson and realized i prefer the USN playstyle. And lastly I would just like to point out that it is most definitely possible to hit torps fired from steath in IJN dds, but it usually takes a long time and lots of torps. And more patience than I, a USN dd driver, possess However, the strength of the IJN DDs are they have the speed to run from anything and the range to hit from stealth, making them the best scouts in the game. They are also almost impossible to root out without carrier support, despite facing many ships. So no. I strongly disagree with your opinion. IJN DDs do not need better stealth. They have more than enough already!

Agree with the point about player skill. I had a horrible experience with the South Carolina, but that related mainly to the ship being too slow to keep up with the team. Any solo BB is dead meat for DD's - but there is nothing at all you can do about it as the BB driver. Why? Because the rest of your team goes charging off in the direction of the enemy cap at 25+ knots and leave you in the dust! ps: Imo Sealclubbing at tier 2-3 is done in Destroyers, american or japanese. Tier 3 BBs are zero threat to DDs so why would you sealclub in BBs?

No. Recall that Japanese carriers get a lot more squadrons too. I recently did some math on that, when I started playing carrier. Try to look at how many bonus planes IJN would get vs USN at tier X in a comparable setup. I find the current skill quite fair in theory (as I have no practice above tier IV).

Sonar range is at max 2,5ish km. Proximity detection happens at 2 km. Please describe to me ANY scenario, where that useless skill would bag my cleveland a kill that I would not otherwise have bagged anyway? Minekaze stealth and torp range are both in excess of 6 km. #1 rule of good jap DD players is to never, ever, ever enter detection range if you can help it. If you have trouble with jap DD's, use your spotter plane or ask your carrier driver for help. And if any of you Jap DD drivers ever see me in a carrier, I challenge you to kill me before you are doomed by the eternal fighter hovering over your head

Apparently it doesn't know how to turn or go around landmasses, when the ship is very close to them and you click on the other side? And after running the ship aground, it dont know how to reverse and clean up the mess it created! Today it happened to my Langley on New Dawn in a standard battle - twice (!) - and cost me the game too! Specifically at the island at I3 (lying on south side 300-500m off the coast, clicked on north side and autopilot ran me aground) Then later it ran me into the F2 island when on a northly cruise through the channel, I instructed it to go back south. Now has anyone else had trouble with this? I do NOT use waypoints I DO have collision warning (or whatever it is called in settings) enabled. WG please give Autopilot a brain! .

I was not aware this was the reason, but it would explain a lot. Now that I started paying attention, I've noticed that Autopilot certainly can move the rudder right and left (and often spams it from left to right and back several times a second when the collision warning sounds) I've started using exactly the same method, and when my ship is near islands, I disable autopilot completely. Also autopilot appears to become very very confused when you increase cruise speed to Full and I has to do any turning near islands. I found that most of my problems occurs in this setting. Maybe the poor dumb autopilot doesn't know that the ship's turning circle increases with speed ps: I am certain I didnt hit A or D. Today I saw it start to run my ship aground (again) immediately upon activating autopilot. I had to immediately disable it and manually reverse the ship clear of the island.

Yeah, but since there can't be anything wrong with me.... it will have to be that map right? First ragepost ever btw Just had a really frustrating day courtesy of Brothers so I picked our lovely forums to vent. Had a few more games on it, and now that I tell my team in chat to go lemming train, we seem to win alot more. ps: Gunship14 please take note it was said in a context with a suggestion of map-bans as a way to deal with frustration. I am sure that other players also get frustrated with with maps or ships from time to time. Banning it away is one way to make that frustration go away. I strongly disagree with negative attitude play and if you see me suicide, it will be by taking my cleveland into suicide range to citadel as many cruisers as possible before I go out ;)