VC381

So last night I had a string of bad teams but on my second to last game I planned to play there was this guy who was doing well (against the odds). I had worked hard so far and was low HP so I ran over and smoked him up, just spotted for him, he said thank you, we clawed the game back, he followed and supported me against the last enemy DDs while I scouted for them and their torps, and we won. I complimented him and I figured since I wasn't going to play much more I may as well send him all 7 compliments I had available so they don't go to waste. I didn't realise he would get a notification but it seems he did and he must have worked out it was me because he sent me a message after the battle being really humble and thankful and I just thought... Isn't this great? We need more players like this guy. And then I realised, most of the time compliments just go into this black hole, this tiny number hidden on your profile that nobody can ever see. It's awful! That Karma number needs to be in huge font on the team screen in every match, with banners on your name that get more elaborate the higher the number is. It needs to be on all the various stats pages. People need to know who's a nice guy and who isn't, and they need to know their little tokens of appreciation aren't going to waste. It doesn't need to give any reward, or status or anything but it's such a great system to create little incentives for players to be nicer, to make everyone feel better about their games... If only it was used properly! It needs to be seen!

You can pick and choose. I don't value Vigilance highly because as Kyoshi said you have hydro for smoke safety. If you are playing cautious and smoke-heavy I guess you don't really need EM. But I like to do silly things like shoot on the move between smokes or when stopping doesn't make sense, so I need it to shoot and dodge. On Fiji the turrets can't track at full turn even with EM. But AR is probably the single strongest 2-point skills if you're really only planning to get one. Great synergy with being able to heal.

1st row - PT 2nd row - EM, Smoke screen expert, AR 3rd row - SI 4th row - CE Obviously go for CE first but seems you already have 14 points so that covers it. I know that's a lot of 2-point skills but I genuinely find everything else on the upper rows a bit useless and those skills are actually really good. Full AA spec I'm told is hilarious T9 and up but as you said you probably won't get there. Leander is good, Fiji is pure unmitigated awesome, Edinburgh is... OK but overshadowed given how spoiled you just were with Fiji. Good luck!

Because it's not what you say, it's how you say it, that determines whether people take it positively or not.

It was lucky but that means it was at least possible to start with; which means it could have still happened later on in a hypothetical engagement. But yes, outside of random things like that a prolonged BB vs BB fight would have resulted in significant damage to both sides, which the RN could successfully retreat with but was more or less a "sink later" guarantee for any German ship caught out.

Myoko experience is enough to be able to Atago very effectively since the ship is very similar while being better in every way. You're also assuming hidden stats=bad stats which is really quite prejudiced. If the guy wanted to spend his money and is having fun with his new ship, who are you to judge him for that?

Yes. Tier for tier one of the strongest and most versatile cruisers in the game. However... that doesn't mean it's easy to play. If you don't already have T8 experience and ideally IJN cruiser experience you will have a very rough ride. If you know IJN cruisers this basically does everything you expect, and usually better.

I don't think Hood would have turned to full broadside, probably just enough to use all guns and keep a moderate angle. But you're right in principle. The ranges at which various weak points in Hood's armour became exposed were calculated against the RNs own 15" guns. The German 38cm had completely different ballistics properties (that the RN could not have known about). Oddly, at the historical engagement ranges, Bismarck's shell trajectories were too flat to seriously threaten Hood's "famously thin" deck armour or even the weird weak spot through the upper belt and the deck slope. They were so busy trying to close the range past where this weak spot would have been against their own guns they were actually getting close enough to risk straight up main belt penetration without realising. One thing that always surprised me about that article is that it ignores heel. A ship that size in a high speed turn would be heeling probably 5 degrees or more towards the outside of the turn. Add in normal roll motion in that seastate and you're probably looking at the ship heeling up to 10 degrees (worst case) towards the incoming shells. That completely changes the geometry of where the shell could have gone through the armour and invalidates normal immunity zone calculations (that are done assuming the ship is upright).

I'm not talking about how relevant it is NOW, I'm suggesting that it should be made better so it becomes relevant.

Edinburgh is a slight disappointment after Fiji because of her lackluster turning but she does get access to the concealment module (hello 9km detection) and an improved heal that's pretty hilariously strong. She's less of an agile brawler but still very capable as a hunter/stalker and is good at playing the long game. But I'm telling you, if you like quick rudder shift and ships that generally handle like sports cars, USN are the only ones that will deliver.

With 7 bombers per squad and favorable RNG you can come pretty damn close, although those perfect strikes are pretty rare.

Well, the armour scheme is not without its flaws but she has a very low citadel with a 305mm main belt sloped outwards to increase angle to incoming shells. She should angle about as well as any other ship at that tier at close to mid range. Anyway sorry for jumping on you but over-simplification with regards to Hood's weaknesses "triggers" me somewhat there's a lot more to it IRL than what people think and that's compounded by how unrealistic the game is, so we have to deal with trying to guess how it might actually work here when she's released.

Except that's one of those "facts" that everyone knows but isn't really true. Hood's armour has some issues but for the most part it is equivalent to Warspite and Nagato/Mutsu and actually better than Amagi.

The point is feelgood. To know you are appreciated and also to know that when you appreciate other people your appreciation is not going to waste. I don't think people realise how much a system like that, properly implemented, can make everyone playing happier and even encourage many to behave better even if there is no "real" reward.

It got removed from T4 and T5 CV, you will get it when you unlock Independence. Yes, I know it's dumb, but WG decided it's for the best, so have fun!

Ok, I agree they could improve it. Here's an idea. Do not allow downvotes, but have it gradually bleed away over time. So the only people who have high Karma are those that got it recently and keep getting it.

The Pensacola and NO are still brawlers. They have very good concealment to help get into range and escape, turn exceptionally well and (unlike Cleveland) have turrets that can actually aim at full turn. They also have flatter arcs and more potent shells which make them a threat at any range they can reach. Of course, you lose the rate of fire with Pensacola, but it gradually builds back up.

Alright, I'm sold (I think). Now to wait for some kind of discount...

Well, without invisifire now there is no need to stick to A-hull so you don't sacrifice HP, rudder shift and AA for the optimum 155mm experience. But I think the fact you can't invisifire kills it, for me that was the only thing that made 155mm setup viable. The traverse buff is token, Myoko level is still glacial by cruiser standards and the firing areas suck so you need to expose broadside to use all the guns, now in plain view as well. Having played the 203mm setup and found it actually very balanced and enjoyable, I don't think I'll be going back. There are just too many ships now that do spamming way better, why force Mogami into a sub-optimal version of them? Besides, the IJN is about sneak and alpha matters more than DPM when the rest of your tools are geared more towards hit and run.

Wow, so much negativity! Sure, there are salty losers who will report for the sake of it but there are also nice people. If the system was more visible the nice people would also have a reason to compliment more so it would even out. Who knows, it might even make some people less salty if they see their good actions get compliments.

Because they're actually fun? No seriously, it's a matter of perspective. Cruisers might be harder to play but they actually offer good reliable damage output at decent range (unlike a DD) without the slow, sluggish and RNG dependent playstyle of a BB. They don't do one thing extremely well like each other class is meant to but they also actually have an answer to every other class. You say having no big strength is a weakness, I say having no real weakness is their biggest strength. That's the definition of versatility, they become what you need them to as long as you know when is the right time to do what. And because everyone thinks they're weak, there's no pressure on you to do what the team "expects" because nobody is sure what your role is. So they're very well suited to an adaptable, opportunistic, fluid playstyle, and that makes them really enjoyable. But most people like playing things where their role is dictated to them and they just need to focus on doing one thing well rather than thinking too hard, so cruisers get a bad rep.

If you know what you're doing strike Lex will deliver. Those bombers don't fail to put a smile on my face.

You could turn this into a poll. Also, be wary of certain ships reputation resulting in mis-information and over-generalizing on a whole line. US T7, 8 and stock T9 cruisers have more or less same arcs as IJN. T6, upgraded T9 AP only and T10 are indeed worse but that line changes a bit as you go up it. It's not as consistent as the RN one. If you've mastered RN cruisers I say go for US. They're the only other cruiser line that can truly brawl and be very aggressive but they do it differently to RN, relying on seat of your pants dodging instead of smoke tricks and (T7+) bigger guns. The others are easier to play and get good stats in but also not as fun an interesting in my opinion.

IFHE only benefits smaller guns, not useful on Pensacola or Graf Spee. Pensacola really really needs CE. Graf Spee up to you if you want to use those 4 points somewhere else but IFHE isn't the place.

Doh! Brainfart! I guess he does have DE and CE...