VC381

Ha, I did this to grind Ibuki. Maybe that's what tanked my WR in it, poor crew morale from wearing enemy colours! I would not be surprised if Kii and/or Mutsu make an appearance in this sale. @Verblonde that's why I mostly play fast BBs with good gun handling. You can do the mid-range thing like a cruiser but with much deadlier alpha potential. But BBs for me are more about look and feel and eating the game's eye candy than optimum performance. I play them when I want to chill because they're easy to do well in and just enjoy the ride in an iconic ship. That's why I'm far more likely to buy a BB just because it's an interesting design, in spite of potentially poor game performance.

I would love to contribute more to this discussion but between work and clan battles commitments I won't be able to play Ashitaka until tomorrow... So too late to affect anyone on the fence. I think it ultimately comes down to what you find more important in your battleship. In a way, I guess this would be a real cruiser main's battleship. If the guns are accurate you use speed and range as your armour, do the "Amagi wiggle" and accept the odd derp while surgically removing enemy team members. For collector value, I think "what-if" ships have a niche of their own, especially those cancelled due to the Washington treaty that are generally well known and documented. While we do have Amagi, that has WG fantasy upgrades. Plausible, but not as "pure" as Ashitaka. Classic dreadnought looks are another niche, and we have precious few of those unadulterated especially at the more interesting mid-high tiers, one that never sailed will have to do. So I guess she is at the intersection of two niches but nevertheless a very interesting ship from that point of view. For a few of us anyway.

Well... @1MajorKoenig, has WG been reading my mind or do I have a crystal ball? To be honest, last time Ashitaka was on sale I persuaded myself not to buy her due the general negativity surrounding her. Even though I'm under no illusions about performance and just want the ship for her classic good looks and min-maxed battlecruiser playstyle. But at 50% off I doubt I'll regret this even if the buff doesn't come through. And if it does... oh boy... Straight up tanking ability IMO isn't important on a flanking/kiting battlecruiser. Buffed Ashitaka might not dethrone Hood but it will take the undisputed top spot for gunnery at T7. That's what matters most, taking enemy ships out before they can take you (or your team-mates) out.

I owned 2 already, there are not too many things I want. Lo Yang was tempting but too soon to spend. I'm happy to wait and see though, if it's last day and it's cheap I might get myself a surprise.

Another 8 ships Major, and I doubt they'll go T5 or lower as that won't make good flashy deals. So a very decent chance of getting something you might like. What are you after? I'm crossing my fingers for Ashitaka But there are a couple of others that would tempt enough.

I'm at 38/48 and sitting on 38 duplicates so technically 45/48 if I convert today. But I missed almost a dozen containers I could have got from missions due to being on holiday. So if I was here the whole time I would have completed the collection easily without spending anything. Also, I'm still getting items from daily normal containers, so with a bit of luck I could complete it anyway in a few weeks (no rush). So yeah, it looked like a lot but honestly not that hard for a regular.

Having 4 points not spent also gives more options. I'm not saying AFT doesn't work, just that personally I know any benefit I would get from it is too situational to justify the cost.

@Procrastes I completely agree many DDs are more comfortable with EM but the problem with the Z-39 (don't have but do have Z-23) is that the guns are 150mm and don't benefit from the bigger EM bonus for small guns. So EM on Z-39 only nets you 1.8s turn time (20.7 vs 22.5) while for example on GM you get 3.6 seconds (14.4 vs 18). It may be the make or break between keeping guns on target or not, and I do use EM on cruisers with 20-25s turn time, but on a DD where spare points are so hard to come by it's harder to justify for a small gain.

*ahem* 16 sec rudder shift means 16 seconds from full right to full left. Neutral to half is only 4 seconds. Even so, I'm sure it's not that hard to learn to aim at max range and play the ship super safe like that but as I said you don't have to. I still maintain I have no issues playing Atlanta within her base range and as much as possible in the open. Maybe I'm not fully optimising my damage output but I do pretty well in terms of game impact/WR anyway and I have a lot of fun.

This is true when kiting as well. It's easier to control going in and out of concealment by firing at the edge of your range on a chasing target. Sure you can do this with longer range too but it's also harder to hit and increases chances of spotting by others.

+1 to no AFT. You can't use it properly and it messes with your concealment when firing. If you're not comfortable with the short range the ship probably isn't for you.

Yes I am, and overall it looks well designed, quite minimalist as it should. But somehow it's being a data hog.

Wasn't sure where to put this but I guess it goes here. Why is this forum so badly optimised for mobile data usage? When I browse here on my phone my usage chart just goes up and up during the day even when not doing anything else. All I'm doing is reading and writing some text. Are the image resources not cached properly and downloaded each time I refresh or load a new thread? Avatars not thumbnailed properly? Where is this high usage coming from and what can I do to reduce it?

Do I have it backwards then?

If there's only one or two and I'm not at risk of cross-fire, yes. It's agile enough to do this although I do try to limit exposure by doing it in small "bursts" with a planned disengage. This may be an island but it can just as easily be going dark (the short range helps a lot with that). As I said I do use islands as armour too, but not significantly more or differently than I would in most other cruisers.

Yeah, I think dispersion generally is a lot better than people realise until they have a bird's eye view to actually see it properly. The other weirdness from the PoV is how steeply shells seem to fall. For me the main use of the spotter is extending the range on a small number of ships that can actually make use of that. The main issue I have is actually with broadside targets, shots fall short with a typical waterline aim so you need to deliberately aim high to compensate.

I do not presume to tell you how to play a ship you're doing well in, as I said I acknowledge it's a valid playstyle. My issue is with saying it's the "only way". And yes, you can play Atlanta kiting, dodging, ambushing, it's just about picking your moments depending on the situation. I fire over islands too when I have to, I just do it as a stop-gap in between doing all the other things. Same with Cleveland.

I hate it when people say stuff like this. It is a valid way to play the ship, and I'm sure it's effective and reasonably easy to learn. It's also boring as hell and largely unnecessary. Of course, Atlanta is a love/hate thing and it's not a ship for everyone, but reducing it to a single playstyle is just misinforming potential players.

Interesting. I hope this means all T7s (including BBs) will be 50% off. I'm looking forward to the rest of the sale if that's the case

Yup, this helps a lot.

Perhaps, but I'm sure they have solid reasons for not wanting to give doubloon discounts by the back door. It's understandable they want to control what is or isn't on sale more strictly. The upside is they can sell premium ships at larger discounts potentially than they would otherwise want to discount doubloons. I think whining about this business decision comes across a little entitled. No, it's actually a pretty good ship, but the historical reputation coupled with the fact it's premium means it's largely played by complete newbies who bought in to T8 after just starting the game.

Ugh... So much whine in this thread it's unreal. To the guys who already "have everything", what hoops does WG need to jump through to please you? Never mind that you are a minority. The sales format is standard marketing strategy. They're making money by aiming at people who would probably never buy these ships full price, so they're getting something when they would have got nothing. It's that simple. The one day at a time format also works to tempt people to buy a great deal now but then maybe buy another a week later when something else they really wanted comes on an they already forgot about their previous expenditure. I've been playing for a while and have quite a few premium ships but I know there are a couple more I would like to have where I was hesitating at full price. And they are great deals! T8s normally come with -15% if/when they're discounted, so -30% is an incredibly good buy. Lo Yang is a great deal and I'm tempted but I'm holding off because it's only day two and she's not in my top 3. But overall I am more likely to eventually spend something than not (come on Ashitaka -40%).

They are also testing incorporating this function in a future patch. To be honest I used to hate the view but I forced myself to learn it and now it's not too bad. Still a bit annoying.

Yup, seen this too. As soon as the target is stationary shots fall wildly short. Basically need to aim at funnels to get citadels. It's really weird but so reliable I almost compensate for it naturally now.

SE is better than BFT at 3 points. If you're going dedicated captain go CE and then EM. Leningrad works as a typical AFT long range spam boat but it's far more versatile than that and is really fun with stealth torping and some skills to give it a bit of brawling ability.