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Point is, if a BB catches a torpedo and survives, it is still a threat. A Bismarck at 30k hp is still very dangerous. If a Hipper eats a torp, a 20k hp Hipper is way less dangerous and a DD that eats a torp is usually dead or on 1-2k hp and will be easy pickings if ever spotted. And Asashio torps are basically Kagero torps with better concealment. If a BB eats Kagero torps, it is just as crippled. The question now is, do you want a DD that has to put in the bit of extra effort to make sure torps hit a BB or do you want to put in the extra effort (and prayers) to somehow get enemy cruisers killed. I know which is the more reliable when push comes to shove.

Steel campaign is a shortcut around competitive formats as without steel gained from other sources you won't get much. Most players who partake in competitive formats have multi-class experience and players with more than one class are better than BB mains on average. T-61 is most played ship and tops the chart. Fuso has 6%, which is sizeable and is doing better. Warspite at 5% is doing better. PEFs don't run into PEFs way more often than these ships run into each other. I'd take that argument with a grain of salt. I can say most people I know who bought it for the steel are people who want to skip a season, because it's effort, not because they cannot play it. As said, many use it to get up to Stalingrad, not people who never played anything before and now get a Flint at best.

Nothing indicates these assumptions of yours have any more substance than my argument. Literally nothing. And Ranked is as good an average MM as it gets for the PEF. Only T6s, no T7s or T8s, which the PEF deals way worse with than the WV.

WV is promoted differently. PEF basically gets pitched at people who have an interest in steel to buy early, because anyone who does not grinds it for free or doesn't bother for the most part. WV is just a typical T6 premium and has a grand total of 8k battles so far (even though I like the ship, personally for example I just did not find the time to play it) and pitched at anyone who likes Colorado play or just mid tier USN BBs. And then there's also the following statistic which shows a bit of a different image of how great this ship is: So, clearly, there's more to statistics than some simple look at the comparison of random battles. And personally, I take West Virginia over PEF into ranked any day. Only reason I'd not take WV for BB would be because I have a Warspite or because I want to play a more influential class.

You do realise that most of the battles it gained over the last month were battles by the same people who played it in the first few days, due to how much the ship gets pushed by campaigns, missions, directives, etc.? Additionally, the data even for the next few days will be skewed, as the ones who get it for free within only a few days are mostly people who have the ships, experience and premium to get it fast, while maybe at the end we'll see a few F2P players getting the ship for free and potatoing around.

You can call me Seiranko... or Riselotte.

Pretty sure they adjusted that part for EN, as you cannot get past 100.

Imo, any claim like this pretty much shows why torping BBs is the most retarded specialisation that exists. No other class in the game gives less of a f*** about eating a torp and no other class is on average still as dangerous after eating a torp as it was before (except maybe cV, the only other thing these torps can hit).

I think the main issue is two-fold: Amount of credits that need to be grinded and amount of nations required. The grind is completely different for three types of players: Those with PEF and at least one high tier non-German ship can complete this in one afternoon. Like me. Not going to argue people who spend money shouldn't have some easier time, but the issue comes when put into proportion with others, because... Those without PEF, but with enough other ships. 6 nations. So, either you got all the main nations at a decent level, or you have to spend your time grinding 4 million in some T5 of the nations you neglected. Personally, I think I got a fair number of games and I could just do that, because I branched out and have pretty much all nations with at least one T8 in port. But I'm a paying customer, I have premium and was able to afford getting there and keeping all my ships I wanted to keep without selling off most. The minor nations can help, but those are typically premium only and are at best T7. Those who aren't a good few thousand games in and only have 5 or less nations. Not even lines, but nations. Any player who is even just remotely new likely falls into this. Maybe you didn't like one nation much, maybe you didn't have time yet. Take the British, most of their lines are straight up not recommended to new players and I'd not fault anyone who skipped them, because they didn't feel like playing their squishy light cruisers or HE cancer BBs up to now, rather focusing on more conventional lines to learn basics. To these people, the 4th directive is a complete FU by WG. And at the end of all this awaits a ship that basically is mediocre at best. If WG was worried about the steel, they could have increased the difficulty of the steel missions, but at least allowed newer players to get an easier Prinz Eitel Friedrich. Because after spending a week or so planning out what combination of ships might get it done and grinding through, I doubt anyone would feel the Christmas spirit anymore.

It needs to have a combination of aspects that seem like a fair trade-off vs others on the tier in that role and which allow for a reliable performance without having to invest disproportionate amounts of effort and skill to get there. PEF as it is right now is just a ship that I feel like I could do better in most other T6 BBs and no other ship has made me more happy to see CVs in the match. Double CV games are basically what this ship loves, because plane kills can be farmed nicely and it gives the ship purpose. I expect the AA to get the nerfbat with 8.0 though and either WG will have to make adjustments to restore the AA or (hopefully) they'll actually rethink whether ships should be balanced mostly around AA. Not even the likes of Atlanta or Kii are balanced around AA alone, they still have strong points against surface ships.

Tbf, it doesn't on Gneisenau either. If you want ships were reload really kinda offsets caliber matters, it'd be Kaiser, König, Bismarck/Tirpitz and Scharnhorst. Gneisenau's main battery is only acceptable, because of three factors, imo: The gun handling apart from accuracy and barrel count is great. The turret traverse is good, shell velocity is great, the penetration is decent, turret angles aren't great, but workable. The caliber of 38 cm is still an overmatch caliber at T7 and it still overmatches most cruisers it meets, even at T9. Contrast with PEF, where only Edinburgh gets overmatched at T8. A smart Mogami can go bow in and dpm you into the ground. But Gneisenau can get good numbers on other BBs of same tier, even if they angle. The guns are the weakest point in what otherwise is a stellar ship. Whether you take speed, armour, AA, secondaries, torpedo armament, the Gneisenau in all of these categories is best or joint best at its tier. It's turning circle isn't great, but it's basically the barrel count that keeps Gneisenau in check and the gun performance is sufficient when combined with an aggressive playstyle that combines the main battery with secondary battery and torpedoes. PEF just is not outstanding in most categories except AA, secondaries and speed and the secondaries are not on the level where they make up for the lack of main battery performance. They don't have that much damage output/accuracy and the ship in general will not stay alive in close range to do significant damage; contrast to 8 km Gneisenau secondaries, which can shred DDs and light cruisers pretty fast. On Gneisenau, I can savely select some smaller ship as secondary target and focus on the next threat, as long as I don't have to fear torps and the secondaries will kill it. That is not to say that PEF should become a T6 Gneisenau, but it certainly does not have in other areas the qualities it would need to make up for lackluster main battery performance. It has just enough that skilled players can get by, but you really have to work your behind off to get the numbers. I think LWM is right when she contrasts this ship with West Virginia, which basically puts all her good points in gun performance and is lackluster in all other regards. The only thing is that top tier, WV demolishes far harder than PEF, because in a T5/6 game, the mobility is sufficient, the armour is sufficient, the guns however take no prisoners. PEF has however also little on WV in a T7 or T8 game. It has the speed to try flex, but not the strength. WV you can just try be supportive of your T8s and put those guns to use which are competitive even for T8 (I'd argue Monarch, Richelieu/Gascogne and Bismarck/Tirpitz have straight up worse guns, just better platforms). That's way easier and more reliable than having to zip around the map to try get your T4 gunnery to actually get results. And survivability-wise, PEF has barely an advantage on WV either, so it's not a case of something like your typical uptiered German that can at least hope to not get utterly demolished. A good T8 BB player will absolutely wreck you, as hard as they'd wreck a WV, just that your return fire is an absolute joke.

At 10 km you can still get through upper belt and frankly, if you want stuff to die fast, especially Germans, AP can help a bit. In general, it's very useable against cruisers though. It has sufficient pen to be used at reasonable combat ranges, isn't plagued by something like old Yorck flight times and if you know where to aim, it sure hurts. Medium distance usage of AP (10-12 km), fired 30 rounds the entire game, 22 hits. 15 hits on Des Moines for 8 citadels. Deleted in two salvos. Could a Roon do that too? Likely. But hey, we gotta leave our niche for the AP specialist. I have no complaints.

Imo, the accuracy itself is satisfactory. I'd suggest watching where your shots fall and adjust accordingly, especially at range. The PEF does not share the high velocity shell ballistics with high tier Germans, so it might be a bit unusual.

I call it squishy because it isn't just 25 mm bow and stern, both which are massive, but 270 mm belt, and a citadel that is not hard to hit. Add to that that it is in the lower half of hp pools at T6 and the New Mexico looks comparably tanky, especially with the new Colorado heal. And why there is a point to "If you are broadside you get punished", we shouldn't neglect that an effective citadel protection while pandering to the unskilled is not without use for those who don't regularly broadside, as it increases the options at hand, especially at brawling. The kind of playstyle that would for example be successful in Gneisenau and sometimes necessary, will just get you utterly wiped out in a Nelson and a good bit is down to how easy it is to hit the citadel. So, ships with a citadel aren't necessarily unplayable, but it certainly can make a difference, especially on a ship that is lauded as a brawler.

When you can grind 4 million in PEF and 4 million in one other main nation for a total of 8 million or grind 24 million in 6 nations, which is preferable? Anyone with a PEF will likely try get the 4th directive done with PEF.

Given likely free respec, I would say going for AA is worthwhile just because we know it's a strong point now and we don't know if it'll still be one later. And it's lulzy having some T5-7 CV feed you all their planes. And Warspite is one of the strongest if not the strongest T6 BB because it combines this accuracy with overmatch. If Warspite had only accuracy and lousy pen on non-overmatching caliber, she'd be straight up garbage. Obviously worse than PEF is now, because 22.5 knots speed and worse auxiliary armament. Dunkerque has second highest pen in T8. Dunkerque can hurt BBs at range. Warspite preceeded the two and we aren't in 2015/16, when overmatching BBs at T6 was limited to some occasional premium encounter. Pretending the caliber standards are unchanged is like pretending IFHE isn't a thing and 25 mm plating is not susceptible to be farmed by light cruisers. 4 of them have 12 gun barrels and the 5th has a rather lackluster reputation, but at least brings penetration. Aigle's main issue is its concealment and lackluster firing angles, but it still gets great dpm and hp pool which means 1v1 it can wreck most T6 DDs. Kii traded some minor gun performance characteristics and some citadel protection for AA and a set of torps. It still retains the heaviest broadside at T8 and the same ammunition as the Amagi. Arguing PEF is like either of those two is an insult to Aigle and Kii. I don't even know if PEF could be compared to old Ashitaka, because old Ashitaka at least still had overmatch at its tier and only was in trouble vs T9 (though IJN HE shells at least would keep some punch). Sure, it'd be a nice world where all BBs were like PEF. But they aren't and as long as the rest is not, it's silly to pretend that just because BBs shouldn't snipe the issues at range are non-issues. I'll tell the next Bismarck/Nagato/West Virginia how I feel they shouldn't be able to snipe my ship from 13+ km away. I bet they'll care... Not that they need to be 13 km away. They can as well just derp you into the face. Compared to its tech tree counterpart, PEF has 3 more knots, a slight advantage in auxiliary armament and more accurate guns in exchange for being less well-protected and losing both overmatch caliber and penetration performance. Kii was blamed for being a ship with no clear concept, but really, Kii might not have clear strengths (except great AA), but it has basically the means to get by in every situation, because it might not be a first-rate brawler, but it has torpedoes to dissuade people from rushing it carelessly and those that do can feel the sting. It might not be as accuate as Amagi at range, but it is accurate enough and when it hits, it still hurts. PEF is a ship that has no clear concept and certainly is nowhere as versatile. It is fast and accurate, but its difficulties at penetrating at range preclude ranged gameplay, while for close range brawls, the ship lacks the dpm and accuracy is far less important when up close. It also has armour that is not very suited for brawls. You may not like it, but if this ship had guns that actually were workable at range akin to Kongo/Fuso guns, the ship would be far less terrible and would have a role as flanker and when uptiered as second line support. If this ship had better reload, it would maybe be able to go in for brawls and try to apply its dpm to overcome odds. As is, the ship basically sucks at range and close up it might pen but still is far from having a decent punch that can overcome the dpm of 12 gun ships.

Decided to use today to grind the rest of my PEF stuff and Ranked, as I'm busy later this month. Given I wondered how fast I could get it done with just Musashi and PEF, it took me less time than expected. Did Musashi first, as I thought I'd rather invest my camos and signals here, so if they run out for PEF, I at least didn't miss out on the Musashi returns. Musashi overall did quite well, though one has to say, I certainly wasn't the sole person with this idea and games in the morning were like: Not that it prevented the better Musashi to come out on top. (Third game is the Musashi spam) There was a fourth game, but while it was a win, results were mediocre, so didn't bother. Musashi actually allowed me to finally finish this... (Tasks not completed are mostly the ones related to specific T6 ships as trying to kill 5 ships with a 3 cpt point Nürnberg is something I cannot be bothered with) Dropped down from OP T9 ship with insane main battery and absurd tankiness to a ship that basically fires shells of wet toilet paper. It was a bit of a struggle staying relevant. Not much to say there, most games were filled with frustration, after 11 games (7 wins, 4 losses), I was done though: Pretty much the only result I felt like showing and only because the grind ended there. I really don't like the ship and just don't want to play it again anytime in the near future. Matches at T6 were not that much different than T9, btw: In the end, this whole ordeal took me 4 hours, but now I have enough creds to buy a T9 ship and I reached the 1 million free exp for Alaska. First thing I did after my PEF grind was to take out West Virginia, because I wanted to feel good with some nice gun performance and if the queue is filled with PEF, show these people what proper pen is like. Sadly MM said no and put me bvs T8. But unlike PEF, WV is not bothered. And they say "But every T6 BB has a hard time vs T8 enemies". Finally, I realised Ranked Season 4 was a thing and so I did my best to rank out today. Mostly used T-61 (only for the earliest games), WV, Mutsu, Aigle (middle ranks) and Shinonome (final games). I do wonder why did I bother. For the Rank 1 displayed next to my name so people don't think I'm terrible? But soon Ranked Arms Race starts and it'll be all for nought. And I don't want to play that.

Load AP.

If you want to use a shared captainm, the Bayern one likely works better. I use a Hipper/Eugen captain with BFT and AFT, which works decently well, as you want to boost that AA. In general, I'd say @1MajorKoenig's build works for a dedicated captain, but I'd replace PM with PT and Manual AA can be replaced with CE, as it is a more versatile skill. If you div with CVs, full AA is better though.

Bog standard tank build with nog standard tank and main battery improvements in mods. AA is not worth a damn, secondaries are lulz, but not competitive. Reload, imo. Fully upgraded it is almost 22 km range and 28 knots speed. With spotter plane, you shouldn't have issues with range, but dpm is always appreciated. Bow itself is 32 mm, 57 mm deck helps a lot though, as does the lack of superstructure. It's a middlefinger to HE spam, including German HE. Also a taste of Yamato, because Yamato basically just replaces part of the 32 mm section with 50 mm. A case could be made that this thing is more HE resistant than FdG (Yamato imo is clearly more HE resistant than GK). Dunno. It's passable, but wouldn't call it "good". 28 knots tops. Yamato is 1 knot slower, so get used to it. NC has same speed. The rudder shift is crap though. It gets a massive buff on top hull, but that still is crap. I'd frankly leave flanking shens to Alsace. The ship has enough range though. My first game I citpenned slightly angled Stalingrad at near max stock range. So... Izumo has incredible penetration due to fast shells. It has similar pen to Republique and thus outperforms Yamato below 15 km in terms of penetration. It just does not have the overmatch, but neither do ships like FdG, Lion or Iowa. HE is standard IJN: High alpha, average fire chance. Use vs DD. Stick to AP most of the time. Buff helped a lot. Both the tankiness and the concealment weren't there before, so you can guess how much this ship sucked when it gets penned by all HE and spotted from the moon. It still has trouble turning though, the AA is crap and the ship is pretty ugly. But Yamato is basically the same...just more beautiful and with better guns.

Not even running the best credit running build, with Musashi and PEF alone, I did it in about 4 hours (8:49 am to 12:55 pm). Took me 15 battles with 4 losses, 4 battles of which were Musashi (0 losses) and 11 which were PEF. I'm not some unicum, so I'd expect this to be about what you need as a paying customer. If you got the full credit flag suit, Missouri and better skills, maybe even a division, you might cut it down to 3 hours even. Pretty sure F2P is nowhere close to this.

Graf Spee is a weird ship, but Graf Spee has a lot going for her. PEF has not. Anyway, I'm finally done with playing this hunk of junk. Honestly, to whomever finds this ship fun, congrats. I find it crap. I think I said about everything I have to say about this ship before. If this ship is supposed to be a brawler, it lacks pretty much everything for it, from a decent armour scheme to a decent amount of main battery guns to turret traverse. It hasn't got any close range punch like the Scharnhorst/Gneisenau duo one tier higher or like 12 gun BBs at its own tier and when you try keep turrets on target under maneuvers, it struggles. It's a very unpleasant ship to play, even if the speed would have potential. And even a pen buff won't fix this, I still think it needs its reload and turret traverse restored to what it once was, when it was a solid ship (while the concealment can stay as is). Also, equipping a speed signal might not seem to make too much difference at first, but in my experience, it makes the difference between being able to dodge an autodrop by turning into the torps and eating one torp. Now, I'm off to playing something that actually is fun.

That's terrible for T6 even. That'd be basically T5 hp. Kaga as a CV sits at 51k even and the CV conversion resulted in lighter ships than planned originally. Ashitaka sits at 59k, Nagato at 65k at T7. I'd like to see a Tosa ingame, but I don't know if it really would be T7. The Ashitaka already shows how much it costs to get 10 41 cm guns into that tier and even if Tosa was slower, it shouldn't just be flat out better than Ashitaka or Nagato by getting added perks. Maybe at T8 it works better. It'd be slower than Amagi, so you can make it a bit stronger in other niches.

Yes, it is me. As for name change, didn't sleep last night. My decisions may be questionable. I decided though that I'd make 2019 a year filled with Arashio avatars, celebrating the seasonal CG. It was that, Kasumi or AL Amagi. Also, Arashio is not an available name, so I went for Seiranko. No clue, but I don't think it's a different server.

Dunno, depends, imo. I bought Musashi for coal with my last coupon just before hitting 7.12. Coal is more valuable if you want Salem or Jean Bart anytime soon, or if it conflicts with coupon choices (using coupon on Musashi now, vs maybe using it on a steel/coal ship later, potentially some that are yet to be released, like Azuma). Free exp meanwhile gains in importance the more you want to acquire Kronshtadt and/or Alaska (latter which made me buy Musashi for coal, as I'm not interested in Salem or Jean Bart in the near future and those two don't seem to be going anywhere anytime soon).