RUSSIANBlAS

Nice... I tried in a Warspite last season too and all I saw were Dunkers getting drilled by 15" AP... I guess in the right hands 30 knots of fairly heavy armour with a decent reload could really make a difference even if the armour got seriously over matched by Bayern, Warspite and Mutsu. Saw plenty of radar Chapys, a few Edin and NOs were rare but you had radar cruisers almost every game and the ones that didn't were a bonus for everyone I found. A team of Lo Yangs would be an issue as multiple uses of Hydro is pretty broken but if a Lo Yang goes the spotter cap he's greatly weakened as the Hydro can't work for the team. But yeah I couldn't get Cruisers to work as the moment you made a wrong move you'd eat 50% damage or more. It's what made spotting DDs the optimal role in my eyes as all you have to do is sail around un-detected and your team mates do the work for you. Of course that's easier said that done but if you've had multiple seasons to practice this... Now someone here could argue that's lazy and I'm being carried but even if my DD damage is on the low side, how comes the WR rises? Plus I'd get quite a few +1 Karmas come in after good spotting games. That came with experience in the Harekaze, you can usually tell at what point a Lo Yang is going to Hydro you so you're already turning and running. Of course, if the Yang is with his team then you're going to be blown up but that's why you engineer scenarios where you're off to one side or there's more of your team behind you. This may mean you losing the cap but they'll hopefully pay for it. A running Harekaze with speed boost and facing directly away from a Lo Yang has a decisive firepower advantage, you've still got 66% of your DPM with 4 guns whereas the Yang has 2 guns and 50% DPM. Mind you that has backfired for me as I've had my engines knocked out multiple times The thing I think I'm getting at is you have to engineer solutions where your team's firepower is stronger at that particular moment. That's how spotting DDs work I feel as if you only spot a few targets it's obvious to your team who needs to be shot dead. As long as you can stay alive that snowballs into stars. Again some might argue that's being carried but again I'd disagree since you are conducting your team into something that works together even if the individuals are just shooting at targets rather than actually interacting with each other. Hah yes I've sunk multiple torps into the sides of BBs with Sims and they've lived. Your scenario with a Gniesi is especially infuriating as any other DD would have utterly nuked them. Still, Sims torps were the counter for Belfasts and other smoke campers. Yang's 6.7km torps were strong in theory but they only had one move, anything that''s not aggressively pushing you is likely not to get hit by them which simply isn't good enough as you need that flexibility of being able to deny areas or harass longer range targets. If a T7 Ranked happens again I might try with Sims even if the smoke meta seems greatly nerfed down. Then again the Belfasts will need their cover

I've tried with BBs in every season I've taken part in seriously, that's 5 in total. One where I only made Rank 5 and the others where I all hit 1. I really have no idea how anyone gets R1 in a BB as time and time again I watch DDs yolo or make bad moves then you're completely sh@fted as you're powerless vs DDs without spotting. I got tired of seeing that cr@p and learned how to be a good little DD spotter and here I am, this is the 3rd R1 season I've had with DDs. Is Lo Yang really that powerful? I couldn't make her work for whatever reason but my Harekaze pick was a deliberate counter meta pick as I knew I'd be facing a lot of mediocre Lo Yangs and I knew their ins and outs. Beside there were plenty of Radar Cruisers to cut out that Hydro rubbish. Only so many place in a cap u can camp behind with Hydro active and they're often either easily flanked or just avoided. A game is 20 minutes long so you can afford to let a Lo Yang have it's moment with a cap hydro, in long games it's not uncommon for everyone to run out of consumables. That's when natural concealment (Harekaze and Kagero) can get quite interesting. Can compare Lo Yang torps to the Sims ones however Sims torps are "ok" at T7 since the ship has such monstrous brawling guns and ships have far lower HP/torp belts at T7. 11k damage for a torpedo at T8 before reductions is pathetic and you have to hope for a flood or the cover to HE DoT spam them down after the repair.

Your first and only mistake is playing in the Super League. I always take a break after Ranked seasons, the last thing I want to do is play more ultra try hard games with 100% of the players being try hards

It's quite a grind, I finished it earlier tonight. R1 for a 4th time, could have done it in less maybe but I failed to think things through properly... The rewards are awful anyway as WG fail

Roma's guns are seriously powerful once you get used to it. Cruisers can take citadels when facing away or bow in and I've even citadelled an angled Monty with Roma's shells slammed into her deck

Yeah I did it last season in a Gallant, Free 19 point Dunkirk captain to use. I had no idea why WG didn't see that as it was almost an exploit... I still think Harekaze is better but I would say that, superior concealment and torps that hit everything. The amount of times I've hit DDs smoke camping or just randomly is enough to be worth quite a few stars. Also the T8 PA DD's trump card (radar) means you give up smoke... Oh and lol, no way am I playing CB after this season of Ranked. Was bad enough forcing it into Xmas...

Neptune was pretty good at killing DDs but your concealment sucks as it's more than your radar range. Mino concealment is frankly crazy and with the radar module you get almost a minute of True Sight so all DDs in range die unless something nukes you

Well they're different games. Tanks is far faster paced so you waste less time watching other players do badly. Community is worse than here however which is saying something

Ranked out... Took 284 games which is way more than I anticipated as I hit R3 in about 80 games. Looking back I likely messed around too much instead of sticking to the formula I know. This season has felt even campier than previous ones, maybe due to the map selection and smoke nerfs, as a result I found a niche to exploit as the spotter DD. Started out using Aki which I actually quite liked but was too fat and slow for my play style. Moved onto the Lo Yang which wasn't as good as I initially thought. Your DPM is relatively low, and nothing else is that good. Most telling was the torps, you either had bad 9.2km ones that did cr@p damage for T8 or 6.7km ones which were deadly but relegated you to being a knife fighter as you couldn't deny whilst spotting wide. Hydro actually isn't as strong as what people make out, you just avoid the islands a Lo Yang tries to cheese. It's actually double edged as once a Lo Yang cheeses an island, they often find it hard to escape from there as everyone knows where they are. Tried BBs, Amagi and Monarch were nice but both suffer from the age old BB Ranked problem in that they cannot contest caps all that well and are the mercy of the DDs. Cruisers too, NO and Chapy I tried but Cruiser play was too knife edged. One good BB salvo and you were f**ked. In the end I found them too frustrating. Excellent DPM with Chapy however. Tried Kidd but her main problem is she simply has rubbish torps, even though I've been killed by a Kidd's torps. The fact you only have five means you seldom change games with them. Wanted to play CV but not enough at the times of day I played at. Settled on Harekaze of all ships, in the 4-10 Hull Configuration. That's the B Hull to most of us. Harekaze has an excellent blend of DPM, concealment and torps. None are the "best" other than Concealment when you're tied with the Kagero. Your role is the outer spotter and you almost never fire unless something has been chopped down for you as you will never win knife fights due to your low HP. Having a ready 19 point captain helped. Lo Yang's were not a huge issue, that's why you save your smoke and speed boost for those turning away moments. As long as you play smart you are the outer spotting King. Kageros can't stand against you and all the other DDs can't do enough damage to you with only 2 front guns where as you can fire 4 to the rear whilst running. Spotting DDs have to play very conservatively as your HP will be useful late game. Also RPF NEVER goes out of fashion, it probably won me more than a few stars. Quite how some DDs still don't use it I really don't know... I have to disagree with Flamu's assessment of Ranked DDs however he obviously isn't the last word in what's good and what's not. Not entirely sure if I'll do Ranked again even if the next season is Black. Sorry but WG's rewards are fairly sucky now. Going to do something else with my life for a bit like play WoT or go outside

Actually I'm loved... Pretty high Karma level

I suck, it's just that I think I do everything competently Guess I could reroll my account and be an instant Unicum

All the time. No you almost never see the end game. You hide in an island cap, kill all the DDs then your job is pretty much done. Anything after then is a bonus.

Yeah Chapys aren't that big a threat as they're not going to be landing many shots at longer ranges even with high velocity guns. As long as you're not ambushed by more than just the Chapy and have turned too late... I tend to get big results in Mino as I hide behind islands so any radar is deep within the zone, no escape.

Not being revealed in the first place is the way not to take big AP damage in a DD. A lot of the time, being shot at by BBs in a DD means you've made a mistake somewhere...

Not being killed by radar ships isn't all that difficult if you learn all the ships, their radar ranges and their likely camp spots. If you die to them as a DD you've likely messed up. Now the debate about whether they control games is another matter as the threat of them often makes you unable to contest caps... There are a few crazy radar ships like Belfast and Minotaur that can have their detection range lower than their max radar duration which can make things quite challenging

I do not condone virtual money laundering Seems to be no in-between however. Either someone is always short of credits or has so much meaningless.

The negative emoji are useful for that Hood Torpedo thread

Hell no, I had enough stress trying to get there at the allotted times then having to do 3 hours solid last season. The game mode really isn't my thing...

I've moved onto the Amagi in Ranked now. Last game I had someone accused me of having an RNG Booster. I'm still laughing about it now

As long as you play fairly safe, e.g not under attack from 2 sides then BB turrets are pretty much unkillable. Sides or back and they can be knocked out. WG buffed turret tanking ability awhile back. I remember losing both front Iowa turrets once. The rest of that game was fun

I'm only at 11 pts, need to club seals harder as it's my GC captain... Got FP first as it was more important on GC. CE when I get to 14. I really think the folk who complain excessively about the accuracy use Roma at long range Damage feels reasonably consistent at the correct range. Quite an interesting BB as it's somewhat harder to use than most of the pack out there and has weaknesses that makes doing well rewarding.

Here's a tip for the ones having problems. If you are further than 15km from your target then don't even bother firing. It'll derp 9 times out of 10 and just frustrate you. Especially so if shooting Cruisers. Under 10km really don't be surprised when your AP goes right through Cruisers doing that annoying 1k damage per over pen. Either back off to longer ranges or nail them during a turn, your gun velocity will often citadel them as they turn. Roma's rewarding if used correctly. Feels well designed for a Random Battle BB, will likely catch out the un-initiated

I'm starting to get the Roma. Growing on me quickly but Hood in her current no Torpedo form is still my waifu. Roma guns will always be divisive but they're perfectly workable. She just probably isn't appropriate for Ranked... No weeabo by the way with my Hood obsession

Played it a few more times and it's an interesting ship. Probably best employed at about 10km to 14km or so. Very rare you get citadel strikes even on Cruisers but you can get a consistent 3k to 6k+ vs the vast majority of stuff that isn't bow in. That's probably what's key as it adds up over time to be something respectable. The guns are nice once you start firing a few and learn their trajectory, even if they do derp hard at max range (e.g don't even bother just get closer before clicking). A bit like the Hood in some ways. The tests continue

Yeah in Random Battles there's a hell of a lot of angling at all tiers. A lot less in the higher tiers of Ranked. Which is Roma's possible problem, higher tier BBs have immunity zones that aren't seen before T8. Things like 32mm bows and really thick belt armour etc means even 16" shells from nearly point blank range can be 0 damage bounced. A bow in higher tier BB can often completely nullify what would nuke most lower tier ships. My game has almost DL'ed and I'm taking a mini break from Ranked so it's almost Roma time