HaachamaShipping

Pretty much. View it as not having to rush enemies as aggressively anymore. You can do your best damage at like 8-11 km already, whereas Scharnhorst had to get within 8 km to get itse secondaries off and 6 km to use its torps (though effective range is often less than 6 km).

I have practical experience. I played quite a good bit of German BB. Without spotter you have not even 9 km distance to close and the radar runs out way before you would die at full hp. Three torps beats no torps and Belfast HE on your bow has only a little bit of easily saturated bow and superstructure to do direct damage to. Torps are more dangerous. Leander and Fiji? Yes. And Leander has 4 torps per side, which is why I called it more dangerous. It potentially can launch 8 torps at you and kill you. Belfast can't. I might also add, the worst case is eating torps and getting a flooding, then eating torps from the other side of the ship and dying. Fiji and Leander can launch torps from before they get proximity spotted and turn around, given they have hydro. Belfast can't abuse hydro anywhere as much, as it would get spotted if it fired its guns.

Within 6 km, Scharnhorst is better. Beyond 6 km, Bismarck has more hp, better armour, better secondaries, way better guns. Bismarck also gets hydro. The question now is, are most of your fights within 6 km or not? And that basically should help you get the point of why Bismarck is a step-up. Bismarck can zone out ships with secondaries up to 11.3 km, can reliably bow-tank BBs, has guns that are more useful at range and hydro can help a lot to avoid surprise torps (or even allows pushing DDs). If you want the more linear upgrade, get Tirpitz. It's Bismarck with torps.

I'd say, take caps depending on what the ship makeup is. For example, the more DDs there are, the more heal nodes become important. If you get radar cruisers, the concealment nodes become important. BBs basically take just about everything. Obviously, you cannot count on allies making use of buffs, but it typically is best to try get relevant buffs, provided you don't throw your ship away doing it. Especially cruisers and DDs should try to keep that in mind, as CLs will prioritise concealment over heal, while DDs are the other way around (both benefit a lot from either), so it's often up to proper cooperation to win games. If I in my Neptune don't help my DDs get repairs, then we'll likely lose, but if my DDs get me one or two concealment buffs, I can become an invaluable help.

Inbetween survivability skills, proper DCP usage and proper maneuvering, I highly doubt that. The only time that happens is basically if you get shot from long range and the Belfast kites you or something else prevents a straight push in. But in that case the radar/smoke combo doesn't count for anything either and the Fiji would still be a more dangerous target. Heck, the Leander would be a far more dangerous target to straight up push (just not as dangerous while you don't push). There's quite some difference between NA ToS and EU ToS and that's not because WG NA has the less competent legal team, but because their legal situation lets them get away with a lot more.

It can't torp stuff and radar/smoke is not a match for zombie heal. Especially not some T7 grade radar.

Belfast also lacks special acceleration, it lacks improved AP angles and Edinburgh does not just have normal repair party but the high-tier RN one. There is a synergy in radar + smoke, but there also is a synergy in smoke + torps (if you don't freak out getting shelled, you can push a Belfast from its smoke without having to fear eating torps). Also, Edinburgh gets 10 km torps that would allow to torp from stealth. Overall, at T8, Belfast gains far less of an advantage from its radar+smoke combo and basically could get a normal repair party that still is less powerful than the RN one.

...is OP imo.

I'd argue, give it a normal heal in that case. Belfast is the post-refit version. Not having torps is historical.

tfw you spam light construction to get the new maido CLs and no Curlew, but casually picking up the Chinese twins and ton of 3d5s. At least I got Curacoa and Chaser, but really, I want more maidos...

Arizona never had good AA. Why expect it to now have good AA?

T8 BB don't get overmatched by QE/Warspite/Bayern. So when discussing uptiering, no, the GC is no worse off. If anything, GC with buffed fire chance, more shells and not plagued by German HE unlike Bayern, is far better at dealing with T8 BBs than those three.

Giulio Cesare has barely worse pen than Bayern and even beats QE at ranges below 11 km (being barely worse above 11 km).

GC on one side, Warspite on the other. Tell me, how is that going to be a fair fight either? Frankly, T6 vs T8 is not a fair fight and never was supposed to be. Dunno how you play your Bismarck, but mine craps all over T6s, as any T8 BB should. Of course there's the Derpitzes on the enemy team that give me broadside and lose to my T6 BBs at times, but that's the player, not the ship. In that case still, something like NC is easier to kill, as it has a citadel and an NC that is dumb enough to broadside in front of a New Mexico that knows where to aim might die in one or two salvos. In the end, nothing is set in stone and if you get a premium, don't expect it to be set in stone. Even if the premium does not get changed directly, changes in circumstances might affect the power level or what if the game just one day closes cause it no longer turns a profit? Then it's gone too. and imo, while the hesitation to change premiums is well-founded, making them untouchable is not good either, especially with ships like GC, where it and Kamikaze basically dominated T5 Ranked Sprint hard. Good ranked ships on other tiers like T-61 or Loyang don't even come close to how OP these two are.

Frankly, Belfast doesn't need a retiering, it just needs a setup with a bit less powerful synergy. If you were to switch either the smoke or radar out for a repair party, that'd be already taking care of most of it. CVs are a seperate issue and if their excessive spotting isn't addressed at some point, GC retiering is honestly the least of our issues.

Hard to not notice it when your cruiser gets devstriked because it didn't reset...

It's less OP for sure, but it is by no means bad. The only part where it falls short is the hp pool and AA, but in most areas it's great.

Giulio Cesare with 27 knots and best concealment will still be comparable to other T6 BBs when facing T8s. Additionally resistant plating and internal bow. Arizona for example might have more hp, but vastly worse armour and much less chance to get away. Normandie has a bit more hp than Giulio, but is much much worse in concealment. And both arizona and Normandie are not what people call bad T6 BBs.

OMG, Giulio Cesare might get nerfed. Finally! And I say that as a GC owner. Would keep the ship even at T6.

Frankly, I don't rely on smoke when playing Nep. Not on my own (I run radar) and not on allies. Relying on smoke gets you killed, given that in Ranked most good cruiser players got radar, half the BBs got radar and even some DDs get radar. You get radared, you die. I rather try to work with hard cover. I don't care if I get radared behind an island, if noone can shoot me. I likely won't get insane damage totals, but if I sit in a vital spot with 9.45 km radar range in Nep, it means DDs loath to push that, as radar goes through islands and my allies might shoot them. Cover also means, I might set up in positions where it is very likely that whoever spots me stumbles into my radar range, so if I pop radar, I can delete a flanking DD. Obviously, if there is a Fletcher, Black or Kitakaze setting up a smoke for me in a good spot, I use it (and give karma), but relying on smoke easily makes one careless.

Gotta waste oil for drawing book anyway, so, well...

No, don't! Neptune is like the most ridiculous cruiser there is at T9 imo when it comes to what I said about cruisers. Half the ship is citadel, literally. This ship is mostly less armoured than DDs (for real!) and its concealment is pretty bad for what it is. The saving grace is that in Arms Race you can try fix it with concealment buffs and you don't get crossfired as much. Also it has insane dpm. But no amount of dpm helps when you are dead and the Neptune dies way too easily to be recommended for people who struggle with more manageable radar cruisers.

"Managing CV and squad at the same time is too confusing for players", but this isn't? Everyday again, I find out new things about this rework that leave me speechless.

Frankly, I don't play DDs in this Ranked, as I only have Yuugumo, which I view as not too ideal for this job. DDs are however the most influential class. BBs meanwhile are likely the easiest to get solid performance in, but they are the least influential. CA/CLs are the middle ground. If this was normal Ranked, I'd frankly not bother with Neptune, but play Ibuki. But as it's Arms Race, Neptune is imo the better pick for match influence. What's hard with CA/CL is that these ships are absolutely unforgiving to mistakes. Mess up and you die. Play Neptune or Seattle, mess up your positioning, you are gone in one salvo from a BB or Kronshtadt. What they give though, is tremendous ability to murder DDs... at least if you get a radar CL. Which is why I take Neptune, because it's a great anti-DD boat and obviously when DDs are most influential, whatever can kill DDs fast and reliably is influential. In your case, I'd play Missouri, because it's a good BB. Though, try to not sit too far back, try to push up a bit to make that radar count. If you push behind a cruiser or DD, they also provide torp spotting.

I like the Graf Spee/Ajax story.