Chaos_Umbra

Don't worry they work half the time when you reach tier 8 and by tier 10 they are usable...

Prefer Free XP but would accept anything else except the Research Bureau, I'm not touching that massive pile of

Not really I do reasonably well in the PEF, Zara on the other hand was just about playable... would have had it easier in, Myoko, Helena, New Orleans, Fiji, Algerie, Schores and probably York too (though I played it pre-buff... in fact had more fun in the old T7 Pensacola!!! Before it was buffed as well). All of the ships listed beat the Zara in every stat across the board and don't have limitations like can't damage bow in targets, or no Hydro available and the Groizia is basically a Zara that gives up even more just for a German Hydro...

Except Perth is based on a good ship the Leander, the Gorizia is not cause the Zara has had it's usefulness limited due to gimmicks and just down right terrible stats... The starting points are completely different one is one of the best cruisers of that tier, the other is probably the worst...

Cornflakes in Vodka!!!

Still on average 700% harder than the grind for the PEF last year...

What was the worst thing added this year... Research Bureau!!! Sure it is not at the level that the original NTC concept was, but all that was changed was a re-branding of the same thing and changing Buffing tier 10 ships to Obtaining Broken tier 10 ships, but at least you could just ignore the abomination and weren't forced to do it cause it was only 2 ships... for now... and won't break the game too much. But now you want to Force us to Re-grind lines!!!! Cause that is what it will be doing by moving them to the RB. Why should I have to re-grind the entire line when if I want to play lower tiers well I could just take out one of the ships I kept cause it was FUN TO PLAY!!! If you wanted to give an incentive to play lower tiers you should have just put missions of lower tier ships which you can grind to give cosmetic stuff for the ships you replay or even Unique upgrades for lower tier ships that actually do just change the play-style and not out right buff it. The current system is purely designed to get Free XP and Credits out of players accounts as all you need to do is play 1 mission in the top half of the tree for each ship in CoOp (Much incentive to play lower tiers here...) and if some people don't have enough Free XP or Credits it is designed to persuade them to convert XP or buy credits in the store to make money, and what rewards do you get out of it more Tier 10 content so much for giving an incentive to play lower tiers... In fact this year thinking back I'm having trouble remembering anything good added to the game cause everything has either been unbalanced, Half broken, Fully Broken, a Complete disappointment or down right cancerous. After thinking for a while I came up with 2 things, the re-instalment of the Gun Bloom Bug and the Clean up of the Port and Tech Tree UI... that is it...

Anything that isn't the Italian line, all cruiser lines have their pros and cons but all have the tools to have and effect on the outcome of a match. The Italians do not, they only become playable at tier 7-10 and even then you will have a hard time swinging a match in your favour as they are so hindered in soft stats for some very questionable Gimmicks.

That doesn't help with the base xp requirements... Basically every mission needs a 0 taken off, then maybe reduce some of the rewards a bit if they think they are too good (the 2k steel on stage 7 for example... to 400 steel for 34k free xp not 340k).

TBH this whole Puerto Rico mess is the perfect way to finish a year of bad decisions and questionable balance decisions. As was said the CV Rework implementation; simply was not ready for live release. Top 3 French DDs; cause not only having the best gun power is not enough they need torps that are better than F3 IJN ones with a faster reload... NTC/Research Bureau; I still see this as a bad addition cause wasn't the problem about having too much players at tier 10, makes sense to make people free Xp some lines back to tier 10 to get better tier 10 ships, rather than giving an incentive to play mid tiers, like grind stuff for mid tier ships with mid tier ships... RU BBs; entire line broken. Smolensk; nuff said. Italian cruiser line release; with so many gimmicks they can barely operate in the mid to low tiers, where they only get playable at tier 7-8 and only decent at tier 10... And now this mess... ignoring the Subs ATM as they did not suddenly thrust them into the game and are going though testing on a completely separate server.

You can still see the 1k Doubloon cost in the background lol.

I have...

Were you playing in a Division? That is the 2nd requirement.

HP doesn't matter if it is a lot easier to avoid damage, Hydro means you won't be taking torpedoes, Range is fairly irrelevant with the Shell arcs, smoke is a Gimmick that has too many sacrifices for little gain, AP damage doesn't matter if your shells actually pen better and you have almost half the reload so really when the Trento can do 4700 the Duca does 6000, AA on both is bad and the Duca has Deff AA to help out, if you are relying on secondaries something went seriously wrong... Trento has the equal worst armour of the tier along with the Molatov, except the Molatov has a faster rudder, much better stealth and a slightly smaller citadel, Trento's is the worst of the tier with the worst concealment with one of the worst rudders, French are double hulled and Japanese are smaller with more armour and better stealth and better rudder. The Abruzzi has a Fk'd up armour scheme and is worse than the Duca in every way and that is why it has a heal, it still has a smaller citadel than the Zara though... Check your facts next time...

Expect anything less from WG, only players that can play the game like it was a full time job will be able to get it for free.

Not really; Much smaller citadel Spaced armour 80mm+35mm compared to 70mm on the Trento Better stealth 10.6km compared to 12.7km Almost half the reload Much better Muzzle Velocity Much more reliable AP Can damage bow in targets cause HE doesn't ricochet Can cause fires 2 Second faster rudder shift makes dodging easier Has Hydro for dodging torps and hunting DDs in smoke Can you tell me one stat where the Trento is better other than Turning Circle??? In fact I could do better in some tier 8 games in the Duca D'Aosta than the Amalfi...

I think we can all agree that the only thing WG did well on the ships is the models... They are very pretty in port and once I have finished the Grind that is where they will stay... unless I feel like being a masochist and actually playing one in Random Battles...

Fairly low??? it has just about the tallest citadel of all tier 7 cruisers? only thing it has is that the Belt is above average in thickness... The Zara is playable, but I could do better in basically any other tier 7 cruiser, have more fun doing it and be able to damage Bow on targets... Tier 8 is better, but still the SAP limits your damage when your not facing idiots... Damage seems to vary in games from only 30k to 150k depending on how many broadsiding idiots there are on the enemy team and how many RU BBs there are...

Well SAP is more likely to work with BB guns than cruiser guns at least...

Ironically I managed it in the Zara on 2 Brothers map down the channel, killed a Massachusetts's in the channel and Richelieu on the other side... Landed 10 torps... though I will say the Richelieu would have killed me if he didn't just use HE... I ended up Sinking due to the Fuso then the rest of the team threw the match, so the ships do have the yolo rush ability though you kinda rely on the enemy being stupid...

Tiers 6 and 7 + 8 when top tier. I find there are too many players that have no clue or are toxic at tier 10, plus the meta becomes a massive camping trip. In the mid tiers there is also more variety in ships so you can never get bored.

What I'm saying is that in very specific circumstances it can be used to cover a fair distance to launch a point blank attack which can be very powerful but only in certain situations unlike Hydro that is always useful, and that was probably WG's thinking when not giving the ships Hydro. What I suggested was to limit the use in this case and to change it so it is more of a retreat tool, so you go in kill your target up close then use the smoke to go dark turn around and retreat from the rest of the enemy fleet then with the shorter duration you can have more charges and a faster recharge thus improving it's usefulness in most situations rather than being afraid to use them cause you have so few. Then cause the offensive use has been almost removed then WG could give them Hydro back so you can at least rush ships hiding in smoke...

Sorry to say but the tier 5 was a small high point in the line cause the armour and stealth of the thing... Tier 6 is complete garbage though... Tier 7 meh... Tier 8 can be good when given the right situation... Can't say much about the tier 9 still grinding to unlock it...

I'm not disagreeing with you, was just saying that the AP DPM suffers cause the theoretical high alpha on the SAP means that to keep the SAP DPM in line with other cruisers the reload then has to be crap. IMO SAP is one of the big negatives of the line and a gimmick for the sake of a gimmick, the smoke is similar, just that the cons added to the ships for it out weigh it's usefulness, I think the smoke should be made shorter and more of them with a faster reload thus removing the offensive usage of the smoke to make it more of a use to turn around and disengage tool... then they might be able to give the ships Hydro... In 10 out of 10 situations the Duca D'Aosta is more fun to play than any of the tech tree ships...

I meant every other T10 Cruiser out AP DPMs the Venezia... and it is all due to WG dropping the reload to make the SAP DMP match the other cruisers HE DPM...