HaachamaShipping

I guess you meant amateur, but yes. Though for the mere basics, still good enough.

It is five seperate slots, as can be seen here.

As long as it follows the scheme of the current large cruisers, certain things are very likely and having at least deck and upper belt armour on par with T9/10 heavy cruisers is pretty much a given. If it isn't better. And if Alaska gets a 32 mm bow, it basically is at least as tanky as some French high tier BB or the likes of Amagi and Izumo. Which for a BB would be mediocre, but for a cruiser is insane. If it gets a 27 mm bow, it is not as insane, but still on a level with all the normal tech tree cruisers up there and no weaker than Kronshtadt. It is highly unlikely the Alaska will receive any less armour than that, because the ship is an oversized heavy cruiser, not a super-Worcester. And for a cruiser, any of these armour numbers is tanky, especially combined with the likely very high hp pool. Will it get oneshot if someone catches the side? Yes. But that can happen to every cruiser. The real question thus is, what will the ship get aside from the few things that are pretty much a given (like high hp pool and armour that is no weaker than Des Moines)? Things like concealment, consumables, maneuverability, ahistorical armour/citadel buffs, silly ammunition choices, ...

Angled, they cannot. They can blast through the bow. Beyond autobounce angle, pretty much all BBs except maybe Sharnhorst at a steep angle can punch through the main belt. But most BBs also can just blast through an unangled Kurfürst's side...

It is called game balance. It'd be absolutely ridiculous to have a Daring that has higher dpm than a Harugumo, better maneuverability, better concealment, better torp reload, better fire chance (these are all already the case with the teased stats) and then 1/4 caliber pen ontop, bypassing the need to get IFHE to penetrate superstructures on non-DDs with HE. And as for shell weight and penetration... Guess which cruiser line gets 1/4 caliber pen on HE shells, yet has the lightest HE shells of them all?

32 mm angled only gets overmatched by Yamato. 32 mm upper belt and deck would mean being on par with the squishier BBs. Beyond autobounce... just aim lower and go straight for the citadel.

Angled, that's enough against AP. Could be susceptible to HE spam though, if the upper belt/deck is just 32 mm plating (which likely is the minimum these sections will have, while the bow will be either 27 mm or 32 mm, depending on how tanky this ship is supposed to be).

Well, there's basically three options on the table and they might all sound not too great, but no point beating around the bush: Quit the game, because you don't enjoy the game and there is no point playing something unenjoyable. Accept the status quo and just stop caring. Try to improve your own gameplay. First two options are basically self-explanatory. Third option though... yes, you are not good at this game. That has little to do with mechanics and likely more to do with you lacking an understanding of them. I'd say, if you do pick the third option, then you are best off trying to watch youtubers who play WoWS and read up on what people say how ships are played, look up mechanics on the wiki, maybe seek out people who are willing to help you, like a clan, stating you are willing to learn and want help. This game is not exactly intuitive in all its mechanics, so much is missed if one does not have sources to information outside the game (like these boards), so it's not really something that's specifically on you, but if you want to avoid losing most of your games, it's better to learn how to play the game properly. Or you accept that things will stay as they are, in which case, option 1 or 2. Pick whichever you find more enjoyable.

I'd expect less shell velocity, but superheavy shells and silly AA values, because American.

More like, good luck trying to hit anything smaller than a BB with your autodrop only squadrons. It's possible to hit cruisers (more IJN with cross-drop potential than USN) if they mess up (happens at that tier), but still easier to bet on crossdropping BBs than some CL and certainly better than trying to go for DDs. But yeah, Yuubari AA at T4 is viable and needs no buff. Yes, you might not shred a lot of planes, but together with Yuubari's agility, it's more than enough to foil any attempt at killing you and even just killing two squadrons already wiped out half the attack capacity of a T4 CV, given their limited hangar size.

If you run out of map and end up in the map border, well, happens. If you are deliberately running into the map border, well, don't do it, because it is retarded. Not in the sense of "OMG, it abuses the screwy interaction at the border" but more a "You are deliberately gimping your own performance being in a place where you are far away from the objective and also lost most of your engine power". That's an issue of low-tier CVs only being able to autodrop. Not of the border interaction. Do this crap in a match with CVs that can manual drop and enjoy being the perfect target. Similarly, DDs that know what they are doing will wreck you, long range HE spam will be annoying, any BB that catches your broadside will likely adjust aim and hit your near-stationary ship. If people are not capable of adjusting, they likely would be about as unable to hit you if you used your WASD keys. It really is a minor issue and current punishment is pretty appropriate and I see no real issue there.

Might be worth it on a Minotaur with legendary upgrade for extreme smoke memes. Also, it generally makes it harder for enemies to torp the entirety of your smoke cloud and gives more room to move around to dodge torps. But worth 2 points? At most, because there's not a lot you really have to invest in on a RN CL. Giving them 1/4 pen right out of the box would be the death nail of the IJN alt line. I'd consider it the ultimate insult, even with the suggested DD armour nerf, as you basically are putting the Akizuki line before the choice of taking IFHE for gameplay as usual or take other skills to maybe get better at killing DDs (RPF) at the expense of anti-BB and anti-CA capabilities of their HE (they'd need to spam AP only to actually hurt, preventing fires). An RN line with inherent 1/4 pen would not need to make that choice ever, they could just take RPF and be happy or take DE, to boost their already better fire chance even more and insult the Kitakaze/Harugumo even further.

Yeah, pretty much just pick the 406s and play it as a larger Bismarck. The FdG certainly is not a great ship, but if you buy into the "High-tier meta shifts and you cannot brawl", you basically get a ship that has no point being played over any other T9 BB. Yes, it still will tier for tier be worse than the mighty Bismarck, but it'll still feel like an actual upgrade, having bigger guns, faster reload (with 406s) and more hp. And if you hang back, you just get farmed, while you curse your guns and get nothing done. FdG kind of is a throwback to the Gneisenau. While Bismarck has not much trouble getting to its comfortable range of 11 km or less, Gneisenau already had the issue that you are absolute crap at range and want to get in close to dominate others with your torpedoes and secondaries, but it easily causes you to overextent. FdG again has this issue and you'll need to be more wary about overextending once again. Personally, I use on the FdG the same build I use since the Gneisenau, which takes AFT and Manual Secondaries, but gets BoS and SI as 3 pointers. Getting Fire Prevention instead of SI might be an option too, but I absolutely don't see a point of taking BFT on these battleships over BoS. yes, it boosts your secondary damage output from underwhelming to slightly less underwhelming and it boosts your AA from mediocre to okish, but the one aircraft type you hate most (AP DBs) can drop a Des Moines, so why do you think they won't still be able to drop your FdG? BoS meanwhile helps trivialise fires with Damage Control Mod 2 and the -20% fire duration signal. With fire prevention instead of SI, you actually become pretty much the most HE resistant T9 in the game (because FdG has a large part of 80 mm and 50 mm deck that is not penetrated by HE from anything but BBs and Yorck/Hipper/Roon/Hindenburg in the 50 mm section).

I wouldn't even go for intentionally silly play in T4-6. Only at T3 and lower you likely find the kind of mess that makes it a free for all, everything goes. As for seizing an opportune moment to make a more daring, but still calculated play... you can do that till T10. Just, you need to really know what you are doing and have made the proper risk assessment, but it can be quite valuable when you can pull it off. That's not dumb suicide rushes, normally also not being crazy just for the sake of being crazy. Typically, it should be a play for the sake of maximising your team's chances of victory, doing something the enemy didn't foresee is just added bonus. For example, using German BB hydro to actually go on the offensive against DDs at caps and take the cap off them. If I notice an enemy DD doesn't enjoy too much support, you can really ruin their day and there are enough people who wouldn't expect a BB to be this aggressive. But that follows a proper analysis and accounting for potential risks and alternatives and relies on me knowing how the ship handles and what I can expect. And typically, if you didn't miscalculate, it isn't hard to pull that off, because even if you eat a torp, a dead DD and a secured cap is worth the sacrifice. 40% odds aren't worth it, if you don't have to.

Like why H&K produced UMP is being all Murican? Was pretty funny though.

Mostly, the Chapayev is more a Shchors with radar than a Budyonny. You cannot tank shells much. You are a bit better armoured, but with the matchmaking at T8 being what it is, Shchors will crap on T6 BBs, Chapayev can go try avoid getting blapped by Montana or Alsace. The ship handles slightly better than Shchors though (890 m turning radius instead of 900 m, lol) and get decent concealment. Go for IFHE first, CE later, as with concealment mod you get Shchors-grade concealment already and the HE pen is a must, as otherwise you basically rely on hitting superstructure and setting fires, without having any great impact. Even if Chapayev has radar and is good at hitting DDs up to the radar range with ease, it is not a cruiser that can just go near the cap without cover and proper accounting for risks, because it still is way too squishy for tanking BBs. Most of the time, you'll be back to Shchors-style long-range HE spam and kiting to deal with BBs, before you can go in and deal with ships you can actually tank. The radar requires quite a bit of skill to be used efficiently. Keep in mind that you should use it to play the objective, but also don't just think you're some radar bot that can camp behind an island you can't shoot over, being useless for a good few minutes trying to get into that crappy position and getting out of it, just for 20 seconds of radar where possibly noone ever really got an effective shot at the DD (or they might even just hide behind an island). Way too often as a DD, I could really just wait out Chapa radars, because of that. Also, personally, I found the lack of spotter plane a bit sad, given I ran premium spotter on Shchors for how useful that plane was, but radar is worth it and it is not just an anti-DD weapon. you can also use it at critical times to scout around islands if necessary or in a cyclone, because the absolute worst thing that can happen to you is running into a BB at 8 km.

Frankly, I think if the Brit DDs would have stats in line with the other DD lines and powercreep the Japanese, it would likely be the lesser of two evils, compared to a line that seems balanced compared to the IJN line. Because being balanced around IJN is kind of a terrible deal, especially when you somehow are a gunboat line, because then you likely end up sucking compared to the other gunboat lines. The issue that certain lines powercrept the IJN line is a seperate one, imo. And in a way, Daring does powercreep the Harugumo before that boat even got out and the concealment/hydro/maneuverability combo of the current RN DD line does most of all threaten IJN stealth boats. So, preserving the IJN line's competitive edge certainly seems to not rank too high on WGs list of priorities.

Well, that'd be the IJN DD line. And frankly, I'd not wish any other line to be like IJN, because while okish, overall the whole line is very mediocre and the greatest highlights are typically the few in the line where the guns aren't completely outclassed.

RN CL torp range is sufficient to be useful and versatile. The RM cruisers lack speed on their torps, only the IJN has good range and speed. Given all cruisers are pretty much gunboats though, it is worth pointing out, the RN cruisers are not limited to largely 6 km suicide torps like the Germans and Soviets.

Leander has 8 km range on torpedoes, so it beats the DDs easily. It also can only stealth torp approaching ships, as it has an 8.8 km detectability. For cruisers though, RN is likely the best torp line after the IJN, with only the French having longer range too (9 km) but triple launchers and godawful concealment, making the use of torpedoes far less convenient. In cruiser terms, there's nothing short range about RN torps.

Fpr self-preservation, this is not needed. For fleet screening, if you ever screened in randoms for deep water torpedoes, especially Asashio, then you'd know it's a fairly unrewarding, boring and often also ineffective job. Balancing a DD around its ability to detect torpedoes with a limited time up consumable is just going to end in a lot of frustration.

Go for the elite exp. If you have no 19 pt captain, Nelson or Hood. Both are more forgiving in captain skills than Warspite, which wants EM, which the DD line won't need. Hood has allround good soft stats and basically can get away with running a completely unsuitable captain. Compared to Nelson also better turret traverse (though Nelson will go bow on most of the time anyway) and the lack of SI is less repair lost.

Don't give people dumb ideas, please. Thanks.

It's to avoid people honking their horns for 20 minutes straight.

I wouldn't mind if PEF wasn't making sense compared to the typical German playstyle and was offering a different playstyle. But the issue is, even in that case, it offers most if not all the typical German advantages, while plugging important disadvantages.