HaachamaShipping

Akizuki was an AA DD IRL. You can kill it with T4 Ark Royal planes with ease. And even pre-rework, it was not known for its AA. So, some IRL reputation means little. PEF was balanced to a good part about an AA that would even shred T8 planes if properly specced. Nowadays it's not even the best T6 AA BB. So, even for ships were AA was a more vital component in balancing, this doesn't mean much. Atlanta at least brings a radar and good dpm still. So, maybe it'll get buffed at some point, but I'm very skeptical about it and I'd rule out any buff that would make Atlanta a no-fly zone ever again.

It's base AA is ok for a T7 cruiser, but that's a low bar to set. The issue with Atlanta is and has always been since rework, that the ship's AA is mostly long-range. Long range AA is mostly modelled on flak buffs, not on dps. Even with a 50% boost by defAA, the base AA dps from the 5 inch guns and the Chicago pianos is a joke compared to what ships like Colorado or DoY throw out in base AA from their large number of AA mounts they have as BBs. And then consider that Atlanta has armour barely better than a DD, a small hp pool and when hit likely loses a good part of the mediocre close/mid range AA it has. Sadly got no screenshot, but last time I met an Atlanta in a match with Implacable, it basically lost 7k in a pass, 3k in a second pass (imagine what an Enterprise would do), then it camped an island, so I torped it (took only one, because the other was eaten by a Mogador right besides it) and did a bombing run. Overall, I think like 20k damage. Team finished it off. Planes lost to Atlanta: 6. A York that pops its fighter consumable (which Atlanta does not get) twice when being attacked can kill just as many planes.

I got two AA Defense Expert medals in the last few weeks (and the sole ones I got ever), one in Ark Royal and one yesterday with Bismarck in ranked (42 plane kills from a Kaga). And neither of these two is an impregnable AA fortress. I killed Bismarck/Tirpitz in my Ark Royal, you'd assume a Kaga would be able to do that too. On the other hand, it also almost brings a tier to my eyes when I can rocket strike an Atlanta with Implacable's Seafire rockets for 7k and take like a joke in losses in exchange for eradicating over a fourth of their hp pool in one pass. You wouldn't see that in pre-rework days. But a ship that basically has no real AA also has no noob filter. And VU has no flak explosions, as far as I am aware.

I mean, at least T5 means it has a chance to not be in a 4-6 CV T4 game and meet T7s instead.

T4, like Gangut.

It has T3 speed, T3 hp pool, a gimped repair party (at least last time it was tested), no real AA. If you want a sense of perspective, the König basically only gets beaten in terms of concealment, but is vastly better in speed, hp pool and AA, the New York gets beaten in armour but has better guns, AA and an effective hp pool that is over double the VU's, Pyotr basically is just better at everything with minimal disadvantage in stealth. They could've balanced this for T4 where it belongs, but chose not to. This is akin to putting the Fuso up to T8 and wondering why it is outclassed by the Bismarck, NC and Vlad.

Yoshino still is a supercruiser hull, it has more hp than your average cruiser, a fifth repair party and while its external armour looks like a joke, its internal citadel belt is no joke when properly angled. Meanwhile Yahagi can get devastated by even the slightest hit, because it's a T5 light cruiser without the kind of no-armour that EB has, nor the kind of lulzy plating Emerald and Krasny Krim have, which actually protect the citadel. Yoshino guns also aren't so-so. They have decent dpm, for their caliber the accuracy is excellent and while they lack the improved ricochet angles to kill properly-angled cruisers, these guns still can do work on broadsides. Yahagi meanwhile has shells that lose speed too fast to punch hard beyond close range. Now, onto Viribus Unitis... I could ask, is it fair that this ship is basically on the same tier as the Giulio Cesare? A ship with barely worse concealment but more tanky, better AA, vastly better speed, better turret traverse, ...? People then might point out that GC is OP and not what we should ask for in future premiums. Well, then I guess I can compare it to Pyotr Veliky, a ship that has vastly better speed and hp, an armour profile when angled that beats VU, silly Russian dispersion and turret traverse, better AA (which, btw is also Austro-Hungarian guns in Italian Minisini mounts) and same concealment as Giulio. Who buys this PoS that basically either gets uptiered vs WWII ships or gets thrown into 4 Houshou matches.

Model looks nice. That's about it. I bet I'd break the forum rules writing down my honest feelings about the ship and the "balancing effort" that led to it being T5.

Happens, just move on.

Weakest CV tier for tier is GZ and even that thing suffers from the fundamental flaw that against competent CV, there is little counterplay. And an Implacable might not devastate your ship with its bombs, but it's pretty much impossible to dodge those without the blessing by RNG and the rocket fighters are still no joke.

That's more of a Houshou issue than a general CV issue. Go play something like a Furious, lose all your torp bombers and watch how long it takes to get them back. And if you don't lose all your planes, so they return to the CV, aircraft restoration time is a pointless thing.

Musashi is insane, Kaga is great, Kii is solid, Shinonome is good, Ishizuchi and Tachibana are sealclubbing choices. But I guess we'll just ignore their existence.

Implacable. Because Enterprise would require too much skill.

After playing Ark Royal for a few days and inspired by OP AL Formidable release, I decided to go and continue a CV grind and get the Implacable, because why play peak performance if you can just be peak annoyance... Not exactly the greatest achievement ever, but I take it. Very balanced. Need to get better, but for now, I think I'll become a RN CV main.

With those torp angles, why would you want 8 km yolo torps?

Can one bomb submarines effectively?

You can keep the 155 mm guns on Mogami also on B-hull, you know?

Till you get fullpenned by BBs in your lumbering DD and die. The thing I pointed out above. If you just don't give a damn about team and want to yolo, play coop. Because you can't go and say "i cannot rely on team" in a thread where you openly disregard your team. At least try to do it in a battle type where you aren't screwing over 11 other players hard. Also, french DDs are likely the ones most suited to yolo rushes as described, due to: High speed special saturation mechanics short-ranged high speed high damage torps

Yoshino can demolish Alaska and Stalingrad though, given it's basically the best supercruiser to kill other supercruisers and the supercruiser least bothered by fighting other cruisers, due to having the most cruiser-like levels of HE dpm and concealment. It starts out like DD accuracy at 0 metres, matches cruiser accuracy at around 7 km and always will stay ahead of supercruiser accuracy, as it'd match at around 30 km, which no supercruiser reaches. Stalingrad at times achieves similar accuracy due to 2.65 sigma, but Alaska never does.

Ranger rocket fighters might be the most reliable single type of T6 carrier aircraft for DDs, but I'm very much inclined to argue that overall, Ark Royal is a strong competitor. The Skua's worse than the Wildcat in damage output and Wildcat can do 4 passes, Skua only 3. The Swordfish bomber however is a more reliable anti-DD weapon imo than the Vindicator DB (also if you need to blind bomb a DD) and all three planes of Ark Royal can start and execute attack runs within the limited detection range of DDs. Wildcat and Devastator are more limited there, while the Skua and Swordfish can just be slowed with S and potentially start a first run. The power of slow aircraft.

T8 BB, most have more AA than Hood though and the turning circle radius is nothing special either.

Ark Royal is no easier to deplane than Kaga really. In a sense, for beginners, Ark Royal is faster, because in Kaga, you throw away 96 planes, then you are screwed and have to pay the bill, because while reserves are deep, planes restore very slowly. In Ark Royal, planes restore fast, so if you have excessive losses, you get a few minutes to think about what to do better next time and if you screw up, you realise it before you take yourself completely out. Kaga has likely the higher skill ceiling thus, but Ark Royal is absolutely 100% more beginner-friendly (while not being useless).

No. Would be cool, but nope.

Smolensk isn't T5. There's a long list of cruisers with DD accuracy otherwise.

Correct. Krasny Krim btw, too, has DD accuracy.