HaachamaShipping

Just as a note, while the IJN cruisers get improved HE damage and fire chance but not AP, for general usage, any ship from Furutaka and up benefits a lot from knowing when to use which type of ammo. IJN AP isn't actually that special as a shell (compared to German improved damage, USN and RN improved pen angles, Soviet penetration), but it's mostly due to the characteristics of the rest of the ship, Furutaka overmatches same tier cruiser bows, so AP is often more used than HE. Aoba and Myoko should note that at their tiers, RN cruisers can still be overmatched by 203 mm guns. Myoko also has a 10 gun broadside, which is absolutely devastating. Only Pensacola matches that, but Pensacola lacks the IJN accuracy. Myoko can basically slap careless Fijis around that think their cruiser is the boss of T7 by just nuking it with 10 AP shells straight through the bow. Mogami, Atago and Ibuki have respectable concealment. At this point, these cruisers become AP threats because they combine their broadside power and accuracy with the ability to outspot many cruisers or to spot stealthier cruisers almost at the same time (e.g. Edinburgh enjoys little advantage over Atago, Neptune gets straight outspotted by Ibuki). Intercepting enemy cruisers that are unsuspecting can yield great results. Zao adds one thing ontop of the already strong package: shell speed. Catch a target offguard and they have little time to angle or duck into cover before the shells arrive. Obviously, most IJN cruisers play around their improved HE damage, but the proper use of AP when given the opportunity supplements the core concept of IJN cruiser gameplay, which is alpha damage over dpm. In terms of dpm, ships like Atago or Zao pretty much suck compared to same tier competition. But the ability to deliver devastating salvos at the right moment with pinpoint accuracy is what makes these ships still strong. A lot of those citadels up there were two AP salvos on a full hp Mino, which pretty much ended that person's match participation. Two HE salvos would've been maybe 10-12k damage and nothing more. Rest were salvos on a Salem that thought it could just spam me down with its HE dpm (which it could've, had I only used HE) but presented too much broadside, as well as some Henri (I still think Zao is likely one of the most useful ships to counter Henri use in CBs with).

Yes, it's on B hull. If you use reload mod, I'd recommend going range upgrade first though, as the 15 km range is not good and spotter plane helps less than just having 16.5 km all the time. With range mod, go hull first. Rudder shift, AA buff and spotter plane are just more useful at that point.

Yes, it is ok to dislike ships if they don't suit your playstyle and you don't feel the fun in playing them. Many people have such ships. Personally for example, I absolutely don't like the Stalingrad. It does not suit my usual playstyle, it is cumbersome and to me just the right combination of boring and unwieldy that I cannot find the fun in playing it (though I still get pressed into the role for CBs...). However, I wouldn't go and make a topic "Stalingrad sucks", because that'd be silly. It's not a bad ship. It's just not my kind of ship (to the point I just suck it up and look like a complete scrub in it with my random battle stats, rather than go and play another random match in this ship). Similarly, it's good when players recognise that a ship that does not suit them is not necessarily a bad ship and can make an objective evaluation of ships' strengths and weaknesses. This also is important because it helps one's development as a player, given that being able to not just blame the ship for everything leads to improving one's own play and recognising properly the strengths of ships one dislikes still helps in facing these ships. If I were to think that Stalingrad sucks, I'd likely get wrecked by one somewhere down the line, because I underestimate the ship in the hands of good players. Similarly, if you just yolo a Gneisenau, because "lol, those guns can't hit crap", you might be in for some harsh suprises.

Met @Strefs and @Xevious_Red during CB. Nice battles, poi...

Hello arman. I'm Cagliostro. Not all premiums are exceptionally bad vs Aircraft. Kii, Alabama, Massachusetts, Atlanta, Salem are all doing decently well against most aircraft. Some are struggling. And they always have struggled. But I can tell you, good CV players will kill your BB regardless of its AA. Welcome in the post-rework world. How can you see people behind islands? If allies spot them for you. Same applies here. And no, smoke is not just for escaping. Sorry arman. I was not able to replicate this issue. My BBs work just fine. Even can kill DDs at times without relying on weird consumables. I think this issue may be on your side. Could you maybe check your ships? Maybe sell and rebuy them? Does the issue still persist? Yes, it is. Ships have stats beyond consumables, like armour, or gun caliber and reload and such. Please try to consider these too. Sadly, I fail to see the problem, so no can do. If you change Basic Firing Training, Advanced Firing Training and Manual Control of Secondaries to Fire Prevention, Superindentent and Concealment Expert, the quality of your games might improve a bit. Alabama's secondaries are not good, relying on them gets you killed. No problem. I hope this was helpful to you.

I'm not sure what exactly you think the role of DD is, but it must be something strange, given Hipper and Yorck are not replacements for DDs. Did you ever consider that them being a lot clumsier has something to do with you deciding to compare a Hipper with propulsion mod and stock hull to top hull BBs and top hull steering gears mod T6 cruisers? Overall, what is the point of this thread? I don't see it.

JoAT is always solid. EL obviously doesn't matter if you only spam HE, but if you want to play Zao properly and actually use the AP when given opportunity, EL is better than IFA. IFA is basically for people with no situational awareness and no idea how to interpret the PT counter. Personally, this is why I use EL...

First of all, I do actually beat you by ~6% in Gneisenau winrate, which is significant (4k more average damage too). Second, I'm not saying it's the best T7 BB, but it's competitive and has strong tools to work with to carry games. I didn't end at 60+% WR by chance (given it's my second-most played ship). So, keep your snarky comments to yourself.

Random starfish lover... Also, bump.

Your build is just fine. No need to switch. extra hp and BoS don't make too much sense. As Pete says, both are kinda a waste and BoS you only use on supercruisers or cases like in a CB build for ships like Moskva. Would switch the BFT though. EL + JoAT. The dps on Atago is poor. 3 points BFT makes it not much better.

Ju87 Stukas are as underpowered at T8 as D4A Suiseis are. Yet they work. You just need a different gimmick apart from speed.

We don't get Bf109s, we get Me155s.

Would call that into question. I also at times devstrike ships with German BB at max range. Sometimes RNG gives you that. Typically it does not. I feel like there is one moment where the aiming reticule narrows quickly, where it might still catch up to actual value and thus a drop is narrower than might have been indicated.

Take some flooding flags and prioritise the extremities of a ship and you get decent floods. It's typically not what you do, because it's basically going out of your way to maximise flooding damage instead of killing ships fast, but I'd say it's safer than with a DD. In a DD, you are restricted in target selection, reload slower, are easier to counter and the allies might kill the target. With CV, you can just go to some backline camper out of friends, torp them, watch them slowly flood to death, noone can steal that kill.

Yeah, but it might matter in cases where you have to turn around sooner.

Note that these all stem from a time where Liquidator was earnable by just getting a flood on any ship that had its damage control down, no repair party and 40-60% hp left. With new floods, you basically have to get at least two floods that run for some time. Biggest chance imo would be a CV, where you just repeatedly snipe the bow, then let it flood. (Also, why is the thumbnail for a Shima game a Perth?)

I actually start the run at like 7 km already, so that for most of the time inside flak I get the aiming damage reduction. Drop just at last moment to get as much out of immunity window as possible. Even for shortening torpedo aiming distance? I think most of the CV upgrades are rather minor if you do the math.Heck, I kinda do fine in plan losses even without SE... Not that I say it's useless though, the alternatives are likely similarly situational.

Replay bug. The guns are aimed were the reticule shows them to be aimed, not where the replay displays them. Common issue.

Most ships are unaffected by this because it either does not apply to them or it isn't useful given their gun ballistics. AFT basically is there for Russian DDs and Atlanta/Flint, I guess. Secondary builds... yeah it works. With the AA part being nerfed though, I find it hard to justify it as a 4 pt skill now though. Aircraft armour reduces damage taken by continuous dps, flak burst is not continuous dps. AFT counteracts if anything SE on planes. BFT counteracts aircraft Armour. If you don't fly into flak though, you also don't care about AFT. Same here. I'd say, it'd already add some viability to AFT if you'd replace additional damage with additional explosions, just like with the first AA module.

Met @___V_E_N_O_M___ and one of his clan mates in a late night match. Dunno who queued for this long, but thanks to topkek matchmaking, it was a pretty fun round. I complimented you folks for being nice in chat and cause the Harekaze did a great job.

Because I'd see your CV coming from miles away, turn around and just kill you with planes, negating your speed advantage for the most part, as the distances are a joke, as is GZ alpha vs CV for the most part. The only CV at T8 that GZ is ever going to catch is Kaga and I gladly wreck your ship with glorious 12 Tenzan squad that has like 50% more strike power than GZ TBs and AP DBs likely won't work. That's why if I was the GZ, unless I absolutely had to, I'd open the distance to make more favourable trades as the transit time gets longer.

Might I ask, how much did you try to make it work before you went here to shittalk the ship? And at what point do planes become useless vs CVs? And funnily enough, for GZ, it might be even a good idea to run off into the distance, given in a CV vs CV fight, GZ's dpm relies on plane cycle time, not on alpha. The longer the distance between CVs, the greater the advantage of a GZ over the enemy. The shorter the distance, the more an enemy CV is going to wreck the GZ. At 18 km for example, a GZ is far more likely to win a CV fight vs a Kaga than at 10 km.

Not my experience, neither offensive nor defensive. It's not easy, but certainly doable and if you actually don't die to AA, CVs with clumsy maneuvering and soft superstructure is basically a perfect target for most rockets, HE bombs and torps. Most of the time, there's better targets around though. Except it's a workable CV?

Oh damn, a GZ being able to secondary fight another GZ. I guess Mutsuki is a gunboat now, for it can gun down other Mutsukis?

Given the premium CVs all have similar age, similar audience, similar availability, the GZ actually leading in stats even if it has only existed for a couple months is a strong indicator that the ship is doing ok. Not to mention, if people manage to achieve similar overall stats as with others, yet report that they need to still learn it, that hints at good potential for development still, unlike a ship where people say its hard and they start out lower than comparable cases, where you might end up on similar ground one day, but it's not guaranteed. By all metrics, GZ at the very least is balanced compared to the other T8 CVs. Even if people complain about the lack of alpha damage and about how flimsy the planes are (ffs, they aren't even that terrible, they are on Shokaku level and a good bit healthier than Kaga paper planes), the ship can perform. The torp nerf seems almost necessary purely so as to avoid making the ship a pure torp spam platform in the hands of experienced players, because if the ship had even just Kaga torp alpha, I'd totally ignore the AP DBs for most of the game, given how painfully easy it is to torp drop targets with the GZ.