HaachamaShipping

I would guess Ranked can earn easy confed or HC.

And I was thinking "maybe we'll get 30% off T8 BB like every year. Might buy a Vanguard or Gascogne". But no... Guess I'll just consider resource ships, until they decide I have to buy coal containers that include one random coal ship.

It's not a given that you need to take damage to contribute and your example depends a lot on who takes damage. Is it better if 5 DDs take 10k damage or 1 BB takes 50k? Is it better 5 BBs take 10k damage or one Nevsky takes 50k to the face and is dead? What matters is not tanking, it is to get the better trade. You shouldn't take damage for no gain, because it's a poor trade. Meanwhile if the team can deal damage without taking any, that is a good trade. Hiding also does not mean you can't use your firepower. Entire cruiser lines exist that can hide in smoke and use their guns. Enough islands are low enough to fire over them. The only thing you remove by hiding is your ship as a spotter and as a potential target. So, hiding can be a very good idea if: there is someone who already does the spotting better. DDs or CVs for example are much safer in this role than most cruisers, so if those are present, let them do the job and support from safety when possible. there is no need to present your ship as a target to try distract from a more high value target or force an enemy disengagement. Distraction attempts are basically unreliable, as it requires people to prioritise you. If you run out in a GK to try distract from some open water broadside Minotaur, then people are unlikely to start shooting GK over that Minotaur. Forcing a disengagement is more reliable, if it basically is to put a threat to an enemy that they bugger off or get hit hard. But if neither is the case, no reason to try deliberately tank just for tanking's sake. Most cruisers aren't meant to tank BB guns anyway. And especially in randoms, tanking for team mates basically puts a lot of trust into allies to make something worthwhile out of your sacrifice. Frankly speaking, most of the time, I do not think that someone who unnecessarily mispositioned their ship is necessarily the kind of player I trust to carry the game. And dying for others doesn't help you nor the team, if all you get is some cool potential damage, because unless you traded well and set them up for victory, you can then watch your team waste it. If you play conservative, at least you can try to turn it around, which is not an option for those already sunk.

AA as balancing factor in 2020... Champagne and Slava also are a vastly different concept to Florida (itself a T7 ship). If you uptier a KGV-class to T8, you'd probable end up with a ship that either is just braindead HE spam version of Monarch or has trouble standing out compared to Monarch. Personally, I'd go with 2.0 sigma and improved pen angles and maybe a nerf to fire chance.

Not once you get more warnings and a forced restriction to coop mode.

Turret plating is fairly standard, run main armaments mod 1 to avoid losing turrets and don't get shot in the turret sides. But that goes for any BB and Pommern is no outlier. Also, the powerful armour usually refers to hull armour, as said before, not the plating on turrets or any protection on torpedo tubes (which is nonexistent, the torp tubes have no protection).

Smart island positioning is also a skill. Half the islands in high tiers can't be fired over either, making them pretty terrible, except for reducing angles from which one can get shot. But let's be real, most cruisers are about as smart in how to position a cruiser as the BB players, just in a different manner.

Grozovoi defAA will get you killed by giving your position away, as any competent CV player will remove you from the game. The main defense you got against CV in a DD is to not be found. 20 km torps aren't the best means of getting stuff done, but they are the best playstyle for not being found without being completely useless. Obviously, if you feel that a CV compromises DD gameplay, the issue shouldn't be what DD to play, but go play a different class.

When I read all this about cruisers "hunting" DDs and BBs "tanking", that just is not how the game works and if one looks at some good players, they also don't treat t that way, because it doesn't work. It would be more useful to consider the game and ships' roles therein in terms of "zoning". A BB zones out cruisers, as it poses a major threat to their existence. Cruisers zone out destroyers, as they pose a major threat to their existence. Unaccounted for destroyers pose a threat to anyone and thus can zone out people. A good BB thus is not the one that tanks, it's the one that can deny enemies their participation in the fight most effectively. Tankiness is a sub-function in that what is harder to remove is going to be a threat longer and what is harder to kill might push in your face and push you out if noone else can kill it easily. Cruisers also will not hunt DDs, but a Moskva does not need to hunt DDs, it knows that the DD will likely not get unnecessarily close, in fear of the radar and certainly cannot smoke up in radar range or be dead. If a Moskva supports a friendly DD, the radar basically means it's a 12 km zone of no smoke for easy disengagement if the DD runs into the Moskva's allied DD. Now, as a consequence, it should be clear why cruisers abuse islands, because that basically keeps them in their forward positions longer. Battleships too shouldn't fight on the map border, but not because they "don't tank", but because they won't threaten anyone effectively, unless they are some Slava. But just to go back to what I said at the start, if we look at some explanations by good players, someone like Yuro in his German BB vid clearly shows, play mid range, don't be an idiot to go in for brawl and tanking. Because something like GK is a hard to kill ship at mid range that still can bring all its guns to bear when ignored, yet angle fast enough when targetted to have the best combination of hard to remove and effective main battery threat for the ship. And we also see ingame, typically, a successful push doesn't come to be because the BBs tanked a ton of damage and the cruisers hunted DDs, but because one side got the upper hand and utterly zoned out the opposition, which either withdrew or stayed and died, with rather minor losses for the pushing side, because the main thing isn't to tank, it's to deny the enemy effective positioning to damage you or hold ground. And obviously CVs just crap on things and don't care. But that's a seperate issue. Also, while I said cruisers zone out DDs, that is oversimplified, a good few also are just there to zone out other cruisers or BBs. Smolensk for example is a peak example of an anti-BB zoning tool, as it has crap all means to detect DDs short of running into their smoke with hydro, but smoke + annoying fire setting makes it hard to dislodge for BBs and too taxing for most players, so they disengage or die. But with cruisers like Smolensk, but also other similar ships, you don't necessarily need a BB to tank. You just need someone to scout, you need the dpm people in the right place to support (with islands being great options) and the BB's job then is to make sure that anyone trying to rush the allied cruisers across the cap gets blapped in the open. That they can do even by being further behind than the allied cruisers. And I get, it's not the way some people think this game should work, but it is how it works. In spoiler I add an example, just because it came to mind, but people can choose to ignore it. Also because it's German, as you can't choose the language in which salty people call you out in. And I don't usually do chat conversations or screencap them, but this just showed this kind of "tanking" mindset too well. Also, one reason why I hate maps like Ocean that have garbage for cover, because hiding behind islands isn't some misplay. For some it is a major gameplay option. Sadly WG never added a map that only has narrow corridors so BBs can complain about how their ships are unsuited to dodge a 15 torp Shima spread without freedom to navigate, just to highlight why maps should have a variety of features, but hey, some also think Ocean is the epitome of map design (unironically).

Honestly, the 20 km torps still got their place in the game... on a Yoshino. Just as an auxiliary armament you throw in for area denial and to synergise with main battery if someone damecons the flood or permafloods after dameconning fires.

Hood and Warspite both have low pen, Warspite has better accuracy, Hood has improved ricochet angles. Hood also has actual armour. Warspite vs T8 is quite a bit worse off than Hood vs T9, because Warspite is outclassed in every regard (as are most T6 BBs), while the Hood can tank T9s pretty well still and be a menace to cruisers due to its improved ricochet angles. Vanguard meanwhile has so much better guns than both of them, not to mention, it still gets good HE alpha if the enemy angles. Monarch has 1 more gun, but is less accurate and has less hp, but better concealment. Sinop has 406 mm guns, is vastly less accurate and isn't even that much tankier except maybe vs a Musashi or Italian SAP shells. Sinop also doesn't reload in 25 seconds. DoY as is isn't great, but it's basically supposed to be a KGV that has worse reload for better AA, better protection against DDs and better AP (given it has improved ricochet angles). Having hydro also doesn't mean rushing in and doing secondary brawls, unless you like throwing your ship away. Hydro also means being able to stay around a flank with a DD around or getting someone out of their smoke. And no, QE secs are crap. Warspite has better secondaries and is the highest tier British BB with meaningful secondaries, as QE has the more modern dual purpose 114 mm guns which are good for AA, but not good vs ships and everything after that is 8x2 134 mm, which is utterly inadequate to deal with anything.

Hood and Vanguard are solid ships, Warspite and Thunderer among best in their tier. This can literally happen to any T7 BB and Hood still has the best speed and hp pool to not get killed by CV fast. If defAA was what you got Hood for, you shouldn't have bought it before the changes and the sigma buff Hood got to make up for the defAA change is a more significant buff. Vanguard's guns are about as good as Monarch's, so they are a way better version than the T6 ones you see on QE. Both of these ideas lack any sense for the game, with secondary buffs being absolutely meaningless given the minimal secondary armament the T7+ RN BBs have and radar on a T7 BB is absolute bonkers.

Same, but first need to see how it looks like in practice.

values are multiplicative, not additive. It is 15.3 km x 0.97 x 0.9 x 0.9 = 12.02 km

Shikishima only surpasses supercruisers at 17 km though. Close up it is much worse. While at range, it is only marginally better. So, calling it better is like calling French dispersion better than Russian dispersion, because at 20 km the French have the better numbers. Shikishima uses Yamato dispersion with 1 less metre increase of horizontal dispersion per km of range. Slava has an even more extreme horizontal dispersion model than Shikishima, but also extremely narrow vertical dispersion, which Shikishima has not. Overall Shikishima accuracy is fine though. Its inconsistency is more linked to shell count and the reason Yamato as a main battery platform still is the better choice.

A ship to surpass the GK... or more like a ship that will give enemies guaranteed Witherer...

Tech tree ships only, T10, I'd say Yamato or Kremlin are best for solid performance. Rest is ok too. Premiums included, Thunderer and Slava join in too. T5, tech tree, Pyotr Veliky is likely best overall package, Kongo being good too. Premiums included Giulio is OP, but withdrawn from sale. Bretagne has no speed, no hp, no armour and the guns are straight up worse than New York or Iron Duke. A König is a better ship than Bretagne, because it has comparable penetration, better armour, speed, hp and what not. And the secs on Bretagne are many, but have the longest reload. You aren't going to brawl with a no hp, no armour ship like Bretagne anyway.

And then you deal 38k alpha - torp belt if all torps hit. Unless you are fighting a Viribus Unitis, the BB either was damaged before you pulled that stunt, or you are now about to die. Even on a Normandie with its poor hp value, if it isn't already half dead, you might just throw your ship away. Something like New Mexico with 60% torp belt will just laugh in your face before blasting you with 12 guns. And then you have to consider that a BB might just turn around and suddenly the odds look a lot worse.

Drake

When you see a cruiser broadsiding or about to broadside in blapping range, yes. Also for crap like Atlanta that you can just delete from any angle. Consider it like when are you loading AP in something like Myoko. On Zara, the shell velocity also means it's good for snap shots, reaction time is pretty minimal and EL is a skill I highly recommend, especially with Sansonetti. Like the entire playstyle of Italian cruisers, AP is basically a highly opportunistic ammo, where entire games you don't load AP, while other games you find enough funny folks that AP actually does more than SAP, because you collect two digit numbers of cit ribbons. It's best to just keep in mind you have AP and what your AP is capable of, to use it in the right moment.

Dunno. But fun is up to the player. I might as well ask, why is playing Yoshino fun. I hear plenty of people who call it boring, yet watching people just burn down, fail to citpen the angled ship, cruisers getting citadelled at range because they forget it's a supercruiser or people eating 20 km torps that have 2.5 km detection range is kinda fun... to me at least. On the other hand, running full on secondary builds isn't something I typically enjoy much.

No.

Angled Drake typically will tank just fine for what you want from a cruiser. While doing also more damage, because it has barely worse dpm, while having way better accuracy. Lion is basically crappy as a BB in BB role and also isn't even as good in a cruiser role, while Drake can basically do the kiting role, but if necessary can also go in with hydro and torps and get stuff done. Drake compared to other T9 cruisers is a solid ship, Lion compared to other T9 BB is just the most boring uninfluential damage farmer that gets crap all done compared to most others.

Against HE? No. Against AP? Kinda. But if we take Drake, maneuvering mitigates a lot. Drake is a lot smaller and more maneuverable than the Lion. Additionally, if it gets citpenned (which isn't even going to happen too often on angled Drake), it can heal 50% of it, not 10% and it burns far less. Goliath is straight up tankier vs HE spam than Conkek and also can at least have Yamato AP bounce off the deck. So, yeah, if all you want is tank millions of damage kiting some BBs or cruisers, the Drake and Goliath are very much going to accomplish that while also still being equipped with stuff like hydro, torps and the ability to accurately hit ships smaller than a BB.

No, that'd be Umikaze.