RUSSIANBlAS

There's plenty of topics already. But in short: WG hates the EU but employs community staff to pacify us. (Try not to look at other regions news sites, saves some anger)

BB do detonate, mostly via torps under the turrets which is fun and engaging as it's a choice between flooding through the bow or taking it on the belt and risking detonation... wow... The fort would have had a Devastating Strike award with a little more damage

I've had good Hatsu games but it's not great for the tier anymore, the T7 thing with the torp reload looks mind blowing in comparison and you'll fight the same ships anyway. WG trolled with the tree re mix. True but it's out of reach for a lot of players. Not Flint bad but still a fairly exclusive club as the last set of tasks need T10 and good ability unless the easy tasks like damaging ships is repeated multiple times.

As per the topic. Prior to the captain skill changes, it was 15 points when captains really felt like they started getting good over lesser points endowed ones. It has definitely changed due to the max cost of a skill being 4 points rather than 5, so skills such as CE and the +1 CV Aircraft skill are available to everyone with 10 points (not hard to grind). However do you think 10 points is enough for a captain to be effective? Personally I feel it is 14 points as with that amount of points you can take two level 4 skills. e.g the dreaded German BB AFT and Manual Secondaries build. Or you might argue its 18 points, as with the above example you can stack Manual AA ontop off a full Secondary Bismarck to make her a floating fortress with weaknesses that have been covered for. I think its worth a discussion anyway as WG may have in-inadvertently raised the bar for strong ship captains rather than made it more accessible to the average player.

IMO USN BB need Expert Marksman. NY Turrets are slow as hell. I actually feel only the Germans and Dunkerque can get by without EM. Even with EM I don't think any US BB even with Steven Segal equipped out turn the higher tier German turrets. You may feel differently but CE over FP here, I don't think fire spam is that big a deal when managed well.

I don't find the controls "that" bad, atleast not enough to be actually messing up my game big time. Altho I do see some lag and derps, but I attribute some of those to the planes needing to turn. It's why I'm considering taking the 2/0/2 Saipan into Ranked as she's elegant and streamline. No need to F around with lots of weak planes like the Hiryu.

With three level 4 skills you can get by with 18 points for a BB atleast. Directional Centre for the double plane spawn is enough. I guess Preventative Maintenance is nice but it isn't make or break. I feel 14 is a safe amount for most ships, some don't get "really" good until they get right up to the top, such as some BBs and RU DDs. I've got 14 on my Saipan and after the essential CV skills I'll pump it into AA buffs to frustrate the Hiryu's in Ranked

It's squishy and has no torpedoes which makes me wonder if it's ultimately limited. However I'm sure I'll be proven massively wrong...

I'd argue Nikolai is op but only because of her opposition... You think Fiji is better? I'm fairly close to unlocking her and "may" use her for Ranked as I did it in the Atago last time and Fiji has the blend of attributes that feel agreeable on paper.

Let others comment too but there's plenty of material out there. Little White Mouse's review describes it fairly http://forum.worldofwarships.com/index.php?/topic/70339-premium-ship-review-rocn-lo-yang/

Honourable Service campaign. The requirements are pretty high, you need a good spread of T8 to T10 ships. A bit OTT for a fairly good T6 IJN DD I feel but oh well...

Most folk should see a gentle curve upwards, or atleast you would hope so! Or it means you're making no progress...

Personally NO, it's just a Hull C Benson with a situational Hydro. Yes there are some that swear that Hydro has saved them and have stacked up kills of lesser DDs because of it but you could say the same about Defensive AA fire that the Benson can equip instead and tell all those CV bombers to "Go away pls". Its not a bad ship, just a very high price of entry. I own one because I won it in a Santa box. Wouldn't have paid for it.

Meanwhile the Hatsuharu is utterly awful...

Just wait until Ranked. Same map, same start position for hours on end...

I haven't taken any sort of Damage mitigation for any BB so far except Nikolai and FP. My Yam may have FP but I don't play her enough to care. Flags, Prem Consumables and intelligent play goes a long way and the skill points can be invested elsewhere.

It's been around a lot longer than 10 days, pretty sure it's been knocking around since before Xmas. I imagine it'll just appear one day without any hype.

One day I'll move up to the Grosse KurryWurst. Have about 100k xp on the Fat Freddy. Doesn't GK need Manual AA? She's pretty easy to bomb due to her obscene size.

I killed a Scharn in my Leander yesterday. The guy didn't take me seriously and ate torps&AP. I'm thinking of grinding the Fiji for Ranked. So many guns...

If anything that would be due to the top tier meta and not the ship as it's just a buffed Bismarck.

Isn't higher tier CV about killing the DDs? I've won a few in the Shokaku over the last few days with awful total damage but I've weeded out DDs so my team could lemming train in safety.

WG were clearly sore that some folk preferred the Atago to their silly 1950s cheat cruiser (Kutuzov) so they buffed her with IFHE so hard that BB levels of total damage are now routine as long as you can avoid being shot.

Feels like arming time is about two seconds, or a bit more than the length of a long BB like a Kongo. There is an optimal drop point that even a DD can't dodge.

Considering I've spent about 30 mins today testing minimum Torp Bomber arming distance then gone out to test it on live subjects I don't think we I want to see an activation line either

I've said for awhile all the Permanent Camos should closer resemble Premium Ship bonuses with better repair and credits but that would undermine WG's PLS BUY PREM policy...