HaachamaShipping

That's actually why Hotspot instead of 3 caps in a line also got 4 caps in diamond shape with 2 caps already owned. The 4 caps with 2 pre-capped mode was introduced to help avoid games where one team sucks so hard that it loses on reaching 0 points from dying with no point source.

Having read through all of this, I'm none the wiser. All I get is that you need to be likely not very bright and not much in control of your own emotions. But that much I knew before already. As an aside, it indeed is common that people run into others from the same clan, intentional or not. I say that as someone who syncdropped into randoms, both in division and on my own (to troll my fellow clan members at T2) but also encountered such divisions just randomly by playing at the same time. Also, I do at times contemplate shooting a team mate, usually when I find them really useless and infuriating. I then wonder for a bit whether I'd just stomach a few rounds on pink (not pink has consequences), but in the end, I leave it at the thought. Though I recently got pissed enough at a Jervis that camped behind a rock behind the rest of the team, that after I lost most hp of my Gneisenau to enemy attack and pulled back, I launched a set of torps in the general direction of the Jervis as an "encouragement". Didn't even need to maneuver to dodge it. Promptly got torped by Jervis and his division mate in a Myoko (Myoko hit two torps, went pink, Jervis hit one for the remaining 2k hp and went pink too). I'm not going to say I'm a saint or that my behaviour was recommendable, but honestly... in line with your logs, this kind of response, which isn't even likely to achieve much (like, I had a hearty laugh at them actually going out of their way to actually kill my utterly crippled ship and managed to both pink themselves for what exactly?) only suggests that these kind of people just aren't the sharpest tool in the box.

No.

I honestly don't get the people who think that anyone who doesn't play for fun is just an obsessed no-lifer that should stop playing, cause it's a game, so you shouldn't have to play it seriously. Thing is, even if teams are random, WoWS is a team game and it's a competitive game. One team loses, one team wins and the objective of the game is to help your team win. If you just want to steam around without any care in the world, I bet there is some ship simulator 2018 out there. It's like if you went to your local football field and told the people on the field that they should stop playing, cause they are actually trying to win and it is just a game; after all, what's wrong if one of the players finds it more fun to observe how the grass grows in the corner instead of contributing meaningfully to the team? And I no, this isn't some profession, so we don't need to expect everyone to be treat this like professional e-sports with money on the line, but you could at least try to do your best to win... or at the very very least not try to shame those who do. And following that line of thought, there's absolutely nothing wrong with players wanting to see their performance improve, being curious about container contents (honestly, I have no f-ing clue what that is supposed to do in that list), feeling proud about getting achievements (a good few are achievements for average players. If you earn a High Caliber, you can be proud of it) or play more than 3 games a day. Heck, I played like at least a dozen games today, which is unsurprising, given Clan Battles, but that's not a sign to quit, just as I doubt you tell people to quit it just because they meet every friday evening to play a few hours of poker or tabletop RPG. Goodness, can we not get this crap for trying to actually be nice and responsible and help the team pull a win?

Pretty much what all others said, so, just going to add two things. On premiums you can get for free: WG hands out free premium ships every now and then, which can range from questionable to outright OP (typically they are rather balanced though). As a collector, you want them all, as a F2P player, the most interesting ones though are in the Tier 6 to 7 bracket. T5 and lower turn not much of a profit. T8 and higher I'll talk about in a bit, but those don't get handed out for missions. T6-7 is a sweet spot for F2P players where they can get good returns. Apart from being in this bracket, you also want the ship to be good, so you can reliably farm credits. For example, earlier this year, WG handed out Indianapolis for free, which is a T7 USN heavy cruiser, but its performance is lackluster and I'd not recommend it for anyone trying to grind credits. Can be done, but you need to be good and it's likely no enjoyable experience. Currently, there is one premium T6 that is announced to be given away for free, which is the Prinz Eitel Friedrich, available during Christmas holidays for some grindy missions. This is a fast T6 German battleship, with lackluster but workable stats and I would think a decent player could get some credits out of it. Another T6 ship that is available is the T6 IJN destroyer Shinonome. Shinonome is the final reward of the Honourable Service campaign, requiring high tier ships and is a very good T6 destroyer. It certainly should allow credit farming if one is a decent destroyer player. From a recent stream of Flamu though, where he looked at the upcoming campaigns, it seems Shinonome can be earned during the "In the Name of His Highness" campaign during Christmas season as well, which would make the ship vastly more accessible, also for the thread creator. Other than these, there exist the premiums in the arsenal. Here, the only ship in the T6-7 spread is aigle, which is not necessarily bad, just overly complicated to get my recommendation as a credit grinder. Far better are the higher tier ships, which typically have very good grinding potential and come with premium camo (like all premiums), reducing service cost. The issue here is, you frankly aren't very good at the game and even if you had a Salem, you'd just get devastated every battle and not earn anything. But these are otherwise decent options for free players who can play effectively in high tiers. On getting better: Frankly, to get better it's best to look up youtube videos on the matter, as people there can show you how to play. For mechanics, WG has released a new series of videos that are called "How it works" and can be accessed under "Video Tutorials" ingame or just looked up on youtube. you can also stick around the boards and maybe later look for a clan that can help you. As you are a carrier player, I also recommend that you learn how to manual drop, as I'm not sure you know how. At least that's what the stats seem to indicate. You can use the side @thiextar brought up to check on your progress. It might be depressing, but it's a good way to monitor progress. I personally was in the red too a long time ago, but have steadily been improving and it's nice when you can watch an upward trend.

I'd go Boise/Atlanta. Atlanta is fun, Boise likely too and pretty powerful.

For one, Fuso's plating doesn't just mean it doesn't get HE penned, it also means it can get silly ricochets of AP when angled. Next, Mutsu might be rare, but that's not a reason to discount it and it's in the shop the alternative. If you are just looking to bounce same tier AP, Mutsu can bounce the 14 inchers just fine and against the 15 inchers it can mitigate damage if it avoids getting shot from where the central citadel deck can be overmatched. As to whether there are T6 BBs that stand up better to HE spam from a Helena or Atlanta (not that there are no T6 HE spammers), I refer to my comparison above. Fuso for example eats way less HE damage, given its extensive plating, with damage per HE shell comparable to what I get on Gneisenau, while Standard type just eats all the HE pens. And the faster BBs do have an easier time disengaging. So, no, the differences aren't negligible. Nor is the comparison against higher tier opposition of no importance as it's a T6 ship that will see T7 and T8. If we only went with same tier opposition, Dunkerque would be way better than it actually is. You know, when it doesn't get utterly destroyed by Amagis, NCs and Bismarcks, or Nagatos, Colorados and Gneisenaus. So, I'd caution to make light of the fact that WV basically couples second lowest hp pool at its tier with crappy HE resistance, lack of torp protection and being open to overmatch everywhere except the belt at the waterline. In T5/6 matchmaking, for example, WV has to mind the exact same threats as Mutsu, with the difference that WV can mess up more against BBs and get away with it, while Mutsu, while not better armoured, has the speed and hp pool to more flexibly deal with threats that aren't threatening citadel shots, like cruisers or BBs that it is properly angled towards. WV might be good. I certainly can see it popping up in stuff like T6 CB, but when it is brought then because of its guns, not because of the survivability skills. And honestly, I can see why in a T6 CB environment with all the cruisers, WV might actually be less favourable than the other options, as the one target it will be good at demolishing will be the one enemy BB, for everything else it's no better than Mutsu or Warspite.

Just for comparison, ran the same test again with less squishy targets. I hope this ilustrates why direct damage matters more than fires Standard-type BBs are squishy compared to other ships that can take way more HE hits (damage per hit on Fuso and Gneisenau are about as much, on Colorado I did way more damage while actually scoring fewer hits). Fires are basically just overhyped, but a West Virginia will have to live with the fact that any HE-spammer will take out large amounts of hp with a single salvo and there's no way to angle and little means of running away.

First off, Viribus Unitis has yet to show that it can do actually more than just be an annoyingly hard to kill target, given the lulzy combo of German dispersion and 1.5 sigma it was announced with, as well as a staggering 20 knot speed and a hp pool that belongs to T3, so broadside hits or torps will do a ton of damage relative to hp pool. Second, no, it would not. You still cannot overmatch them any more than a a New York or Iron Duke can and those two likely get better dpm than your ship. Just to take Viribus Unitis, the 19 mm upper bow you can go through with any BB, the 150 mm lower bow... yeah, you can bounce Yamatos with that. If you were in need of cracking these nuts, Iron Duke at T5 or Ishizuchi at T4 are way better. Me in Helena vs bot Colorado (stock). As can be seen, it took me barely over a minute to utterly destroy a stock Colorado. Though a player would last longer, as they can manage damecon and repair party. But key here is, even though I pretty much targetted all four different sections and put it on fire in all four places (with stationary bot not putting it out unlike actual players), the fire damage was only 18k, direct damage was 31k. If this had been an actual Colorado that puts its fires out and gets a repair in, that discrepancy only grows. This is what I mean with it's not the fires, because the fires only accelerate the demise, they don't seal it, given a Standard-type BB once caught with its 21 knots is hard-pressed to get out.

It's not the fires. It's the raw damage. Fires are manageable. Losing 5-7k to a Helena every 8.5 seconds is not.

First off, noone cares about T5 or lower guns, because at these tiers, all ships have 19 mm extremities. A Nassau can overmatch a Kongo bow. Everyone overmatches everyone, except for ships that actually have reinforced bow plating. Second, Myogi is getting better pen on the Type 5 shells. Doubt they'd give it Type 91 shells, but this might get pretty fun. To be honest, New Mexico's survivability never struck me as outstanding. And it really isn't. Now with new repair party we might start talking, but before that it's a slow brick with underwhelming hp pool and susceptible to overmatch and IFHE spam. Getting uptiered vs T7, a Shchors can easily take over 5k of your hp out with one HE salvo, as will be the case with West Virginia. And that's 10% of your hp pool. Similar with a Myoko and may RNG have mercy on you if you get farmed by a Helena or Atlanta. And no, you don't need to make stuff up to claim that WV is not blessed in survivability and that it the guns are its one redeeming point. That's exactly what the ship is. against AP, it'll likely get by, especially top tier, but mess up and any huge chunk of hp lost stings much more than in most other T6 BBs. And the "standard" type battleship doesn't mean these ships were all lackluster unimaginative designs. It means they were all built according to a unified set of requirements in certain areas, like 21 knot top speed. And ingame, West Virginia, like all USN premium BBs will soon be left as a ship that in many areas like repair party, turning speed, etc. is not following the "standard" of USN BBs... but basically the standard of all BBs. I don't think the ship is necessarily bad. In T6 competitive it might see fair usage. But it certainly has paid a lot for these guns.

AA specialisations won't hold up much anyway with CV rework.

Yes. For T7 that is adequate though and Gneisenau synergises well with such ranges. Top tier, Gneisenau doesn't need to fear closing in to such ranges as long as it is aware of torp threats, bottom tier, it will need to pick engagements carefully, but will want to close in at times anyway to utilise its great equaliser, while the armour allows to tank T9 shells more comfortably than any other T7 BB (except Scharnhorst, for obvious reasons). So, the range may be limited, but is workable, the dpm however is top notch (basically 80-90% of the top dpm secondaries in high tier) just that they pen everything. Only Kurfürst with IFHE can boast that too, Massachusetts cannot, Bismarck, Scharnhorst cannot. Actually, FdG with buffed secondaries would be able to do it with IFHE, but has barely more dpm. And when top tier, Gneisenau doesn't even need IFHE. Lastly, there are far fewer things in the MM spread of Gneisenau that get 50 mm or better plating, as it is mostly just German BB and Izumo. Everything else is inbetween 10 mm (Omaha...) and 38 (Iowa). There are no 50 mm plating cruisers and Izumo has far less impervous deck area than Yamato.

Tier for tier, Gneisenau is better, as it can pen everything in its tier. With IFHE it can pen everything in its spread. And it has good dpm for T7.

Honestly, I bought the Shadow Mutsu bundle given a clan mate insisted on playing Mutsu during T6 CB and I wanted to see how Mutsu fares, before investing in a WV. From my experience, if we discount weekend teams and morning hours, the ship is solid enough and the lackluster pen is still enough to get normal pens on most things, if not outright cits, because it doesn't overpen that often. The lack of AA and the overmatchable citadel deck are more serious issues, forcing a very battlecruiseresque playstyle of trying to not tank large guns, but bullying smaller ships (including smaller gun battleships). And Mutsu does have the hp pool to bully things that cannot overmatch her.

I'm going to point at LWM about Mutsu pen: https://forum.worldofwarships.com/topic/175978-premium-ship-review-114-west-virginia-1941/?tab=comments#comment-4138034 It really is adequate for T6. I don't own WV, because I'm still on the fence about the ship, but given I own Dunkerque, I do know what it means to have too much pen at T6. Also, brawler Nagato died with the advent of German BBs and will stay dead as long as the MM is filled with them. The citadel weakness is only one aspect in addition to just not having competitive secondaries and potentially getting torped at close range. Unless you take away Nagato's citadel and give her secondaries with 4 secs reload, that thing is hard-pressed to ever win a brawl against a Gneisenau. Given how many chances are required for that, I frankly am more hoping for a brawling IJN BB at T8 in form of the Tosa-class, where they have more leeway in how they fit that ship out and historically it had torpedoes.

BFT is the easiest skill to take out of secondary builds. Mostly, because, let's face it, secondaries are secondary. Unless you get a terrible round in Mikasa, they shouldn't make up more than main battery damage. Now BFT doesn't increase the viability of secondaries (as AFT does by extending range, Man Sec does by increasing accuracy and IFHE does by actually making them pen more stuff), it just increases the raw damage output by about 11%. Now look at your typical secondary damage, slap 11% ontop and think about whether that is worth 3 skill points over getting BoS or SI for less fire damage or another repair party. On a ship that otherwise has no survivability skills in its build. BFT is currently good if you want a full AA build (where dps does matter) or if you are a gunboat with DD caliber guns. Soon it might also be out of a job there, because CV rework plans to reduce its utility to boosting short range dps, and frankly, I rather survive the fires/floods set by CVs with BoS than kill some of the utterly expendable planes on the way out.

I'd say no. As it is, Mutsu is more mobile, longer-ranged, more hp and pays for it with gun performance and a citadel weakness. WV over Mutsu only has it going for it that it has the pen and the better citadel protection. If you give Mutsu the full Type 91 shells, the thing in skilled hands powercreeps WV (and the rest of the tier) hard, being able to punch through ships at 20 km out with still quite accurate guns. And yes, WV is slightly better in AA, but nowhere good enough to not be food for CVs. It's likely easier to get use out of Mutsu's 4 km secondaries than out of WVs AA (and I'm talking as someone who actually tried, as I slapped my AFT Kii captain and a leftover Sec range mod on it, just to see where I'd get with that).

German T7 and up are basically Hood traverse. T9 and T10 slower, because you would take Main Battery Mod 3 that slows the traverse slightly in exchange for higher rate of fire (totally worth it though when you get 25 second reload on GK and 23 seconds on FdG).

First would be AFT, second would be Manual Secondaries or IFHE, third would be other. Why no FP? Because a full secondary build on Massachusetts is an 18 pt IFHE secondary build. There is no room for FP. Same with CE. As to whether you take Manual Secondaries or IFHE first, I'd take Manual Secondaries for the precision, but I guess some could make the case for taking IFHE first as it allows to pen light cruisers, lower tier BBs and the guns have inbuild 40% dispersion reduction compared to normal, so even without Manual Secondaries, they are less derpy than normal secondaries without the skill. Obviously though, they are still far from good without the full build. Frankly, you could also make a case for taking AFT last, which would gimp your range, but I usually take AFT first, due to AA range boost, which makes it to me the most valuable on its own. Manual Secondaries as on all secondary builds of T7 and above is a bit of a must, as it basically doubles your hit rate. I think I don't need to explain how that is significant. As for Propulsion upgrade, I think I already pointed out a few pages back that it's not worth it and you should take Damage Control Mod 2 like any normal BB. It's just that a certain someone's drowning it in crappy posts. But if you want an actually good ship, take your advice from people who actually can play secondary BBs decently well.

B-But... you'll never get the new art without retrofit!

That's kinda sad. Not that I don't believe you that it's a strong ship still, but that repair party together with 59k hp sure was nice at T7. Guess at T6, you get the effective hp pool nerfed drastically, as well as hp and that's how it is balanced. Oh, and 0.1 lower sigma. I'm really tempted. Unique voiceover or just portrait and name? Also, for anyone looking for it, here's LWM's review.

IJN still has slow turrets. German T7+ gets away without EM though.

Does it get Colorado's repair party?

Chances on it getting improved are low indeed. The only point I was trying to make that even though they didn't buff Dunkerque to relevance (like, why does it even have 1.7 sigma instead of standard 1.8? It's 8 non-overmatching guns of lowest caliber aren't going to be OP just because they can actually hit thing), the main line turned out ok. So, just because this ship likely will be crap, the main line might not be.