HaachamaShipping

Sovietsky Soyuz is the tech tree ship...

What do you want to get? There's so many questions. Like, do you want it for the T7 or to grind beyond T7 or just for fun? Do you prefer BB gameplay or cruiser gameplay? Any specifics you want out of the ship? Overall, both ships are decent for their tier, not very special. In terms of powerlevel, Yorck is the better ship overall and for ranked, but Nagato might be more comfortable to play in randoms, because while Nagato isn't any longer top tier T7 material, it still is an okish BB and BBs are more forgiving and Nagato might not be a Sinop, but it still isn't complete trash even when uptiered. Yorck meanwhile is a cruiser and vs T9 also isn't garbage, but cruisers just are less forgiving. Obviously if you are of the opinion that you want the mighty yamato sooner than Hindenburg, go play Nagato. In terms of what comes after these two ships, Yamato and Hindenburg are both quite strong T10s that can hold their own. If you like BBs or cruisers more than the other, then that should make your choice obvious. Yorck HE dpm: 116k (5 rpm x 8 barrels x 2900 HE damage) Roon HE dpm: 128.6k (5.7 rpm x 9 barrels x 2500 HE damage) (146.1k with MBM3) Are you comparing to stock Roon? Yorck does outdpm the Hipper though. Frankly, Yorck for its tier is pretty passable, Hipper is anaemic, Roon returns to passable, Hindenburg is quite strong.

Imo, prop mod on ships with engine boost is worth it only in few cases: DDs you take it on those that often stay in a smoke or in some place and might need to accelerate, while not needing to open gunboat. IJN DDs are a prime example where I'd go prop mod despite already getting engine boost, as I hardly ever would need a faster rudder, but acceleration/deceleration helps get moving or stop if you see torps coming or other weird stuff. USN DDs would be similar to me, while for French or Russians, I'd go rudder, so as to be better able to dodge with rudder, while speed boost handles the aceleration/deceleration and you typically should run speed boost when open water gunboating with them, while being shot at. For cruisers, only case that comes to mind is Henri, now that they nerfed its acceleration to bits. Most cruisers already run rudder over propulsion and those where I do run propulsion on don't have a speed boost (e.g. USN CAs, which play a lot around island cover) On BBs, you run damage control mod. And even if you think you can skip it on stuff like Georgia or Gascogne because fast heal, I'd go rudder to go with the speed if I were to deviate from the build.

Propulsion mod enhances acceleration, speed boost increases acceleration and maximum speed. You can get even more acceleration from speed boost with propulsion mod, but you won't get faster than without propulsion mod.

Low fire chance per shell would be bad if you don't just throw more shells out than most other ships at your tier, meaning stuff like flags or DE have a disproportionate impact on your ability to set fires. For a ship that doesn't need IFHE, the Nürnberg is hands down the best fire setter at T6, anyone who's better has to live with the fact they cannot pen even same tier BBs. And even then, they'd be barely better. Similar results you get for Königsberg, München, Mainz and Hindenburg. Yorck, Hipper, PE and Roon are overall rather mediocre for the job.

Arsonist is way easier to accomplish than Liquidator, on par imo with Witherer. Pick right ship and right target and you easily get it. Liquidator meanwhile is basically impossible to get. German cruisers aren't bad, as fire chance per shell may be crap, but when you throw out this many shells, it adds up. There's a reason the Mainz can reach levels of non-IFHE Chapayev in terms of fire setting, while keeping its great 38 mm pen and the Hindenburg outperforms the Zao and among heavy cruisers only gets outdone by the Des Moines and Salem. As to how to get Arsonist I'd say, if you try mid-tiers, IJN CA are a decent choice, due to decent fire chance, decent tankiness and not having enhanced pen. After all, if you want to get the achievement, you want a ship that can set an enemy on fire, does not die from return fire and actually doesn't do much in pen damage compared to fire chance. Something like Hindenburg for example would be good only if you actually leave people to burn inbetween not just non-stop shell them till they die, as you'd get way more pen damage. Something like Smolensk meanwhile is made for the job, setting ridiculous amounts of fires while doing crap all in raw pen damage.

As much as the secondaries of the Bayern are better than Warspite's, the practical difference is small, given it's a T6 ship where range and accuracy is limited. On the flipside, Bayern has a much easier time brawling ships of higher tier if it has to, because much of the ship is reinforced. This is pretty much the only area you can overmatch on Bayern and the only thing most cruisers can pen, apart from superstructure. If you are up against something like NC, you could try to close in and get citadels in its side before dying. Warspite meanwhile has its main belt, much of the rest is 26 mm. It will eat most cruiser HE shot at it and can be overmatched with ease by any BB with 38 cm guns or larger that don't hit the main belt. Anywhere on the bow or upper belt suffices. This means that most BBs of higher tier will just delete you as you try to close in. For contrast, btw, the Nelson, as you bring it up. Nelson has a giant nose of 26 mm that indeed is absolutely horrendous for closing in against big guns. But Nelson has other strengths than brawling, but Nelson also can outlast the Warspite easily against certain enemies. Cruisers for example struggle much harder vs Nelson, as the entire midsection is 32 mm, thus shattering HE and the superheal trivialises fire damage. Nelson thus also can more reliably bounce shells off its midsection from BBs.

Nah, Bayern isn't probably the better brawler, it's unquestioningly the better one. Not because just secondaries, but also because, yes, the armour on the Warspite isn't exactly great. Most of Warspite is 26 mm. Citadel is relatively save and you can bounce stuff off your belt, but compared to the Bayern, which has a reinforced lower bow, a better upper belt etc. Bayern vs Warspite Bayern can overmatch pretty much anything on Warspite that isn't the main belt. Warspite has to snipe the upper bow or stern to pen an angled Bayern reliably. The strength of Warspite would lie in its marksmanship and ability to hit things at range, where the Bayern is only average.

You mean the hydro you don't get, instead you are locked into a half-strength defAA. Also, I certainly have more fun experiences than to play a ship that handles worse than a Thunderer with guns that don't overmatch most cruisers, 180 mm belt that is on the level of a friggin Nevsky and a concealment value that is beyond crap. 2 km gap between radar range and concealment no hydro Stalingrad guns are among the crappiest cruiser guns for killing a DD Stalingrad cannot punish people that angle, because little overmatch and even a somewhat angled T10 BB isn't going to care at range, because your pen is not Slava level.

Ah yes, the broken state of Yolo Emilio. If it charges you, you cannot just turn away by paying attention and kiting it till the smoke runs out? Not like most cruisers get a consumable to counter its smoke. And yolotorping DDs works mostly just against the most braindead of DDs, while gunnery-wise the PE is pretty crap vs angled targets. Meanwhile go outrun a 100+ knot plane squadron that you can't just shoot to bits. And sure, PE can catch you in situations where you can't easily turn, but that pales compared to the dilemmas a CV can set up, especially ones with AP rockets or high torp alpha.

Republique?

It still was the first to be able to threaten the citadels of BBs. Even if it was absolutely derp. Ägir has also a much better citadel protection and can torp. Doesn't make it OP. Kronshtadt most of all is a massive amount of hp and a nice waterline cit for a T9 cruiser, but its accuracy is straight up garbage for a cruiser, its dpm is poor, its HE resistance is questionable, it can get overmatched, has a weakpoint under the frontmost turret. So even if you drive the thing in the other person's face to make up for the accuracy, a Stalingrad just has to work on not getting flanked, a Kronshtadt has to hope the enemy doesn't know where to aim to just overmatch the bow and get some cits. Like most supercruisers, Kronshtadt loses out against any angled T9 normal cruiser, due to the disparity in effective dpm and fire duration and unlike the actually kind of OP Alaska, Kronshtadt hasn't got that level of submerged citadel, the improved deck, the improved ricochet angles to even cope with somewhat angled targets and the supercruiser accuracy. Against BBs, Kronshtadt is basically a T7 BB. A Gneisenau has better armour protection, better guns and a set of torps. Against DDs... well, I think that there's bigger threats than a Kronshtadt at T9.

We had Kronshtadt. Remember how that thing was "OP"?

Its ability to set up crossfires in a meta that otherwise only has 1 BB. That's not OP per se, it's just that the meta of CB made this quality highly desireable. On the flipside, there exist ships like Minotaur or Conqueror that are pretty much never CB meta, yet aren't exactly underpowered in randoms, the main game mode of WoWS.

Contrary to popular belief... short fuze is hardly the issue against BBs. Most BBs don't have that much space between citadel and belt, or they have way too much defenses inbetween. What British BBs do have though is appaling levels of AP penetration. Including the Waspite. These ships typically pen rather little, so most belts at range are too thick. Warspite at T6 is still pretty okish due to the tier, but it set the trend for all T6 big gun BBs, bigger guns meant WWI ammunition, thus crap pen. WV is the exception. What QE does have is even lower pen than Warspite though and at range, too little to get through most belts at the tier if they are even somewhat angled. Uptiered it can get worse. Something like KGV or Monarch, QE would only pen within 13 km if they are pretty much flat broadside.

Warspite has 2.0 sigma, same as QE. The only BB with 2.1 sigma alongside Yamato is the Baijie.

Ah yes, Myoko totally needs a buff... How about buffing the Furutaka while we are at it?

QE's pros: free ship short fuze AP means less overpens while the HE isn't great by British standards, it's better than Warspite's one of the best AA suites at T6. If not the best. Warspite's pros: better turret traverse better secondaries better damecon better heal (20% more hp per tick)

Hindenburg HE is only not good if you look at individual salvos and ignore the fact that it has one of the fastest reloads of any heavy cruiser on 12 guns. Like Mainz, which has the same issue that the individual HE shell looks like pure garbage. But by just throwing enough of them out, the fires and pen damage racks up. Zao is only godly if you can pen, a matter that most often for Hindenburg is an afterthought. Also, I have no clue what you mean with "firing arcs". If you mean the shell arcs, no, they are about identical. If you mean firing angles of the turrets, no, Zao isn't better there, Hindenburg actually wins out.

Petro has almost BB levels of pen, but overmatches neither 25 nor 27 mm. Against Petro, the only factors in regards to bow/stern that matter is the geometry, not plating strength and how easy it is to find a place not angled enough to not ricochet. But anything Petro pens at any range that has 25 mm it will still pen at 27 mm. Fire setting capability of Hindenburg vs Zao: Hindenburg fires 6.98 shells per minute with 17% fire chance (DE and all signals). Zao fires 4.38 shells per minute with a 22% fire chance (same assumptions). With 12 guns, against a ship with 0% fire chance reduction coefficient, you would set on average 11.56 fires with Zao, 14.23 with Hindenburg. I hate to break it to you, but no, the Hindenburg for pure farming sets more fires and does more damage. Also "effective" damage, because while a Zao shatters even on USN 38 mm BB belt, Hindenburg can pen GK even. And you can doubt the dpm numbers, but it doesn't change them. You can do the math yourself if you want. As to better gun arcs... Hindenburg has almost the exact same ballistics as the Zao. If left 1v1, Hinden can just melt a Petro and that way faster than Zao could ever hope to accomplish.

Mino can be great, so can most of the high tier RN CLs. But then you get hard-countered by some Stalingrad or Alaska and fun is cancelled. Doesn't help that you are also free cits for any MvR and you can't do much against getting plane spotted, because CVs can just disrespect your AA now. That "AA bubble" is a joke and a half. Also, emblematic for the great state of the game, last time I played Mino, I got a nice no CV match, got to radar a DD, got to outplay a Petro and another DD around some island, then got oneshot by a Thunderer with an HE salvo, because 114 mm of HE pen. Zao is basically same deal to me. If you get the right matchmaking, not too many Kremlins and Petros, no CV, Zao can still do some nice work, can still do ok with its superb accuracy, good HE bunch, good maneuverability, stealth torps. But often MM will just frustrate the hell out of you and other ships just are more reliable. Hindenburg eats less damage because it has better citadel protection and better hp pool, so damage is less relative to what t is on Zao. Also an extra repair. Most BBs don't care about 27 mm, nor do any of the cruisers except rare Siegfried. Zao usually has range mod, sits at 179k HE dpm. Hindenburg usually has reload mod. That is 209k HE dpm. 40k difference or an almost 17% edge in dpm. Of course you can build reload mod Zao, if you think turning turrets is overrated and your 40.8k hp "heavy" cruiser can survive at 16.2 km range. But even with reload mod, Zao only goes to 203k and frankly, before I go play a 16.2 km range Zao, I go and play Goliath with its 16.8 km range, 166k dpm but 59 mm of HE pen that actually gets through almost any deck in the game and can survive at that range. And you sure can try wreck other cruisers with HE. Against DesMo and Worcester it works at range, Henri works too, Hindenburg and Nevsky if played well will however be an absolute pain, given they got comparable or better ballistics, dpm and hp edge, Petro and Moskva shatter most of your shells due to 50 mm deck, Venezia has a massive dpm edge, hp edge, comparable ballistics and a disengage option at the press of a button and the Goliath will just outlive you by nature of having almost 50% more hp with a superheal, 40 mm deck and a side made of belt ontop. The reason Zao is garbage in competitive isn't campy meta. It's CV + Petro meta. If you are in a meta where concealment is easily negated, CV can drop AP bombs freely and most cruisers gor 50 mm plating on much of their ship, bringing the lowest hp pool and the worst HE pen among heavy cruisers just doesn't cut it. There's at least 5 cruisers at that point that are a better investment if all you want is not a Petro.

I don't see any of that mattering really. Unless "a bit more" is "massively more". Zao has by far the worst hp pool of any T10 heavy cruiser and 27 mm is only useful vs Bourgogne at T10 and otherwise a few lower tier ships that weren't a major issue anyway. Meanwhile Zao has gotten massively shafted in recent years by: concealment getting negated by CVs CVs and overmatching BBs making the low hp pool a massive liability Russian BBs and ever more tanky cruisers that Zao has trouble penning more cruisers getting released that can deal with those ships the Zao struggles with Hindenburg getting buffed to significantly outdpm Zao again When Yoshino came out, people were like "Why play this over Zao?" Well, turns out, being able to not die to two MvR drops, being less affected by getting overmatched and being able to pen 50 mm of plating just is a much better deal most of the time. And additions like Venezia, buffed Hindenburg and Goliath just do the job better now. On the flipside, what are you going to give to the Zao apart from some more hp? Giving it better reload for example would affect its matchup against ships like DesMo, Hindenburg, Henri, Nevsky and Venezia, but it still wouldn't matter against the likes of Petro or Moskva that you still can't pen half the time. And I don't see that being the buffs the Zao needs. On the other hand, giving it more pen means that we see a pen inflation the way we saw an armour inflation. Imo, Zao is on the way to becoming the next Minotaur, a ship that works great in the right situations but just does not work in certain others and will not be back in any competitive meta for the foreseable future.

Still garbage, just less so.

SAP originally had its own protection, to avoid Venezias devstriking DDs. Well, that was removed in testing. Now it follows general rules, which means SAP does the same checks as AP when interacting with an armour plate, just with a fixed pen value, better ricochet values and detonation right after impact. Also means mid-tier SAP cruisers can ignore angling of ships like Fiji or Leander. Higher caliber SAP still only doing 10% damage means that the SAP there was basically handled like high caliber AP shells.

Smolensk has twice the amount of guns and only about 2/3 the HE pen, this change is a 100 m effective detectability increase. It's a nerf, but hardly of the massive kind that makes it impossible to go up against DDs.