AnotherDuck

First point doesn't have anything to do with balance. Has only to do with popularity. Some BBs have too much AA. With speed, I'd be more concerned about the IJN DDs, since a few of them can't even outrun some cruisers, especially looking at some of the new IJN DD stats. The main problem I have with the long range is the camp sniping gameplay it promotes. BBs hiding way in the back, far behind cruisers, since they might get their paint scratched. Far too many matches I've been following the cruisers and DDs towards a cap ihn my BB, while having another BB way behind me. Just because you can doesn't mean you should. And the worst part of that is that those BBs will surivive the longest, which means they think they do well, as they can farm damage over a longer time than everyone else, even if they're much worse at it, especially relative to when in the match it really matters. Overall I'd say BBs are relatively balanced. They need a few tweaks, such as the AA, but I think the most tweaking needs to be done to make cruisers more resistant to getting nuked by BBs.

Correct. Well, not quite. But they've played characters of the right nationality, so it's okay, right?

A nice all-American voice for them yanks would be nice. I'd pick Jean Claude Van Damme. Germans also need someone more famous. Arnold schwarzenegger would be good there. Russians I'm not too familiar with, but Peter Stormare does a good one. Brits absolutely need a true Brit. I'd suggest Sean Connery, but he's Scottish, and we can't have that. I'd take Kevin Costner instead. Japanese... Well, I'd just have to pick George Takei. He's just awesome.

For some reason, I see mostly T7 matches, no matter if I'm playing Gneis, Buddy, or Emmy.

Got one today. Just 250 flooding flags. Whee. Probably one of the most useless ones I could've gotten.

I finally managed to turn my win rate around to positive again. Just the last bunch of matches, but still. A trend has to start somewhere. Had a lot more fun playing the game now than previously. Probably related.

I usually play Igor, and I prefer being the only Igor. Reason being, most damage is fire damage, and having more of that ship doesn't really do that much extra damage. One more ship is only really useful in the last battle, where there are tons of targets, and Rasputin is much harder to set on fire in the first place. If you're alone, you can easily do 150k-200k damage, of which 70%-80% is fire damage. You can also provide good support for catapults your Jackals inevitably forget about, and finish off low-health Zikasas. You don't actually need to kill Rasputin. If you sail on the inside (north of Rasputin, south of Transilvania), Rasputin will usually go far enough south that you can just sail past, if you have enough ships in the circle.

Personally I just wonder what's up with my own win rate recently. It's been going steadily down. It's not even over 50%, where prior to that it's been above 60% most months. It's still decent in in Ranked, and there individual player skill matters more, so I don't think I've suddenly just become bad at the game.

I find some of the Russian ones (well, I'm only up to Buddy) to have great AP. Kirov in particular can citadel other cruisers at any range, with great accuracy at ranges outside almost all equal and even +1 tier ships. But then there's that current meta with BB overload... The IJN cruisers are also awesome at deleting destroyers. IJN already have the best HE, and since HE is great against destroyers, you'll take two-three decent salvos to kill a destroyer from full health. The range isn't that great, but the accuracy is well within manageable levels.

I have ''Nagato'', but not a secondary build. Haven't bought Amagi yet, because money was spent on Germans, Brits, Russians, and before that T9 DDs of non-Russian origins (that now have fulfilled their purpose of getting to T10, but got a new mission with bribing gently convincing Takao to come to my fleet). Nagato doesn't do too well in close quarters. Still, mission isn't that hard anyway. Just yolo a bit, and eventually you'll get it. I forgot to check, but I'm most of the way through Bayern's xp collection to the next tier, probably close enough to just free-xp it away. But probably not even necessary. As a DD player, neither kills nor torpedoes is something I even care about. I'll get them eventually. As mentioned above, I'm using Fletcher and Kagero to get Takao (although horrible luck with teams so far, way below my usual win rate), so I often get torpedo strikes, and I quite often get First Blood (roughly twice as often as average), which isn't the only kill I get most of the time. I'm only up to Buddy, but that's a ship I've neglected due to the German BB invasion. Should really take her out more, as I do want the higher tier Russian cruisers.

I find the Japanese cruisers Furutaka, Aoba, and Myoko, very fun to play. Not yet gotten higher than that, though, since I've played the ARP versions way too much. Russian cruisers I'm also only up to Buddy, but that's a nice ship. Very tanky for a cruiser, and especially compared to the preceeding Kirov (which is still fun, but half as tanky as the average British cruiser).

I'm only really having trouble so far with the actually winning T9-T10 battles part. Mostly because of teams that die 6:2, before I even have a chance to carry anything. Eh, that's statistics. And at least the economy makes it not that bad, even with those crap matches, even without premium (although with economy flags). The nation kill one is probably going to be more annoying more later on, though. Also probably going to be a pain to play the rarer nations, which in turn would make them even rarer... Also wondering about the mission for secondary battery hits. Not yet there with the German BBs, but once I get there, probably no problem. Not that I need the ship, though.

If you're in a battleship, you WANT more cruisers. They're easily penetrated and can't do as much damage to you as other battleships. The reason there are so few cruisers in the first place are because all battleships have driven them away. I'd much rather have three cruisers spamming HE in my general direction than three battleships spamming AP in my general direction.

It's not new. Just a bit trixy. And most people try to avoid it for some strange reason.

The other reason to shoot catapults in a DD is that you might as well, since you're spotted anyway, and not firing your guns isn't really helping anything. Shooting HE at the Zikas doesn't really do much either. You don't have the fire of the Igors or the power of the Jackals. You'll usually be of most use shooting those catapults that are around corners, or through the gaps in the mountains. I usually just click one of the catapults in range, then right click and just keep shooting while doing other stuff. The Zikas do turn to get hit by fewer torpedoes (or they at least don't drive in a straight line), so it isn't as easy as torping your average straightliner. Raspy is more of a straightliner than the Zikas, and a bigger target. Most common reason to lose: Some idiot decided to go off alone, or go and hunt the trailing Zikas. Or worse, more than one idiot. I sometimes fire a few shots at them, but only because I'm turning and don't have much to do at the moment, and the ships do have guns on both sides. Second most common reason to lose: Jackals do jack about the catapults. In one game with three Jackals and me as the only Igor, I took out eight catapults, doing most of the damage to most of them. That's just a waste of firepower. Third most common reason to lose: People die way too early. Usually the Blades. Sometimes the catapults just get lucky despite turning, but more often it's someone yoloing for that perfect torpedo drop. Don't get too close. One time we almost lost because some brilliant Blade torped a Zika with the Trans just behind, and hit that ship too. Which meant flooding. And the Trans did indeed sink due to flooding. Two seconds after mission completion.

Yeah, that event doesn't compare at all to what you do normally. You do best if you're the only Igor around, since then you basically have monopoly on the fires, and with that MM, you should also very rarely need to switch to AP if there are any ships around. My record is around there as well. Gone past 200k total damage a few times, and fire damage is about 70%-80% of that.

I find it a fun event. I've had a lot of fun playing this mode. Mostly losses, and two wins. Just need to learn how to play your ship well, and communicate the strategy to the other players. The last bit is the most important part.

I've won twice, with Blade and Igor. I think I was the sole ship of the class both of those times. A few other tips: Always focus on the catapults first. Always use AP on catapults, regardless of ship. It's been mentioned, but this is by far the most important part. Catapults have a minmum range. If you're in a Blade and get within that (forgot exactly, but around 4 km, give or take 1), you're not going to be shot at. There might be a range where the catapult still aims at you, but can't actually hit. Which ships stay in the circle kind of depends. Usually I'd say the Jackals, but if you only have one Igor, that one stays within. Just never sail directly beside the Trans, since then you can't fire in that direction. You have to be a little bit away to be able to fire over her. Ignore the trailing Zikas. Put some stray shots or torpedoes that direction if you have the opportunity while turning towards better targets, but don't purposefully go after them. If you're the sole ship of a type, you need to be extra careful, and unless you're in a Blade, stay in the circle (meaning you'll have most targets in range most of the time). You also need to focus more on your primary task, as that's what you're uniquely best at. If you're in a Jackal, make sure there are no catapults within range before you shoot at Zikas. If you're in an Igor, fire one salvo at each Zika within range to spread the fire damage. You can most of the time leave the catapults to the Jackals (since you probably have three of those). A Blade does much the same as usual, just don't get too close to the Zikas. Also, not having all different classes when you reach Rasputin makes it much harder. It's the combination of fire, flooding, and direct damage that makes it manageable. If you know all of this, make sure to communicate it to everyone in the team.

Today I managed to torp a battleship to death while avoiding her shots as well as several air-dropped torpedo salvos. Then I killed a carrier. Then RN CL armour happened. Probably my best game in Danae so far.

Where did OP find all these RN CLs spewing smoke in ranked? I've never seen a single one. Personally I've not had a problem with smoke. —Benson captain.

Today I went to ranked battles to escape the insanity of the random battles, which just keep failing for me. There's just so much more carrying potential in ranked. Then again, a Benson has a little bit larger backpack than a Danae...

I had an awesome match in Ranked. 117k damage and 2.5k base xp. That includes a 10-torp hit (well, sank after 8) in the torpedo belt of an Amagi, and some skillful (lol) dodging of torps.

For some things, like the Damage Control Party and Repair Party, it makes sense that you pay for just equipping them. You're basically hiring people to be ready for those events, so it doesn't matter if you use them or not; they still get paid. You can probably say the same about a few others that would require extra staff to work, like pilots, equipment maintenance, and stuff.

I got a good start in that battle, with a lucky kill on the Chappy (I was actually aiming for the battleship, but I knew the Chappy was around there). Then I got back the A cap and another kill, but after that I just messed up going back to where you were at the B cap. I really should've survived that encounter, and turned away before it got too bad. I'm way too aggressive for my own good. After that, I found it to be an odd match. Several ships just went off on their own, with more or less success. It's really a coin toss who wins in those situations, if it's reasonably equal before it.

Yeah, torpedoes will take out any ship. Some battleships can eat full salvos by some destroyers and still live, but generally, eat a salvo, and you wash it down with salt water. I was referring to the guns, though. Any gunboat, in particular the fast-firing ones like Tachibana and the USN DDs, can very quickly melt down a cruiser of equal tier showing a broadside, as that allows for good penetrations and citadel hits. In the right situation, the RN cruisers can do much the same.