asalonen

Well that is impressive! I managed to put it through the side of a Tier IX though, a Neptune. It was my final banzai charge when the battle was lost, and I wanted to die with honor. The word on the street is that at 10 citadels in an Asashio there's a special, hidden prize.

That being said, it is the most devastating bunch of torpedoes a BB can catch. Not a bad specialization there? However, especially combined with their massive distance I think it can be just too attractive to over-do it, and keep spamming way far from a zone of comfort. Better play a bit closer and risk being spotted, since it is not necessarily the end of the world (or the battle). Disclaimer #2: I don't necessarily play Asashio well at all. Too early to tell.

I got Asashio very recently, have 11 games with it so far. However, I feel like I'm developing a feeling for it. Obviously most of the damage is with torpedos, but so far 10 out of 13 kills are with guns. They are generally destroyers who spotted me. I usually turn away to avoid being torped, wiggle to minimize damage from fire when the red starts chasing, and fire back if I have no real choice or feel like I can win the duel. With two out of three turrets in the back, the chances are good! Disclaimer: It's possible that I get spotted too often. I likely should be more cowardly especially in the early phase of the battle.

The complaint being specifically about T8, right now, is somewhat off the mark. Yes T8 matchmaking was harsh, but WG just adjusted it. I haven't gathered any statistics since the change, but it doesn't feel like I'm up-tiered 80 % of the time anymore. Of course you still face T10 a lot, and the average T10 player is somewhat better, so some games will be tough -- In fact as tough as the game can come. However, better that way than all games being the same. The matchmaking is really quite fine right now! I occasionally feel that the game *ucking sucks. Mind you, it's not a particularly rare feeling in life in general. Some of the grinds are damn tedious. Taking some time off works for me. So far I've always found it a blast when I start playing again.

Finished the Daily Mission Hard combat mission, and got some good flags. I took out my Kronhstadt, put on the Revolutionary camo, as well as Zulu, Wyvern, Scylla, Basilisk and Leviathan Signals. Then some favorable matchmaking and plan suka blyat bam bam bam:

I actually wouldn't know -- I haven't got the Shenyang yet, since I've been overly comfortable in the Phra Ruang. Phra Ruang has more than 2 km zone for stealth firing torpedoes if you have Concealment Expert. In its tier that's huge once you learn to utilize it well. What comes to truly unashamed sealclubbing, we used to play in a division of three König Alberts. The arrival of Orions kind of killed that, since Orions used to be so common for a long time. These days possibly the most outrageous thing is a Hosho accompanied by two Yubaris.

There are many ships in tiers 3 and 4 that are ridiculously strong in the right hands. Ishizuchi is almost as bad as Orion. The Russian cruisers Bogatyr and Svietlana are ridiculous if you throw in EM, BFT, DE, AFT and the veteran player. You can print High Calibers like Nelson prints Dreadnoughts. It's mostly about the quality of the average opponent, though. I play Phra Ruang quite a bit, because it's really quite relaxing sitting in the smoke and watching BB's sink. However, it is difficult to get rid of the guilty feeling of being where you don't belong.

All-time XP record -- still haven't cracked the magical 3000. Our only DD died early on, but I managed to kill the enemy Kagero plus two others, take the caps and shoot down most of the enemy planes while doing it. I don't know why the Essex kept coming against the strongest AA in game...

So, anybody else in love with this mighty fine little boat? I got it on day 1, and for two months now it's been my favorite ship. Some may be a bit stronger, but none are more fun! And it really can be strong. After 68 randoms my WR has been hovering around 65 % for a while now. This isn't meant as a brag, but rather to point out that I don't do that well in most ships. Skill-wise, there are some tough choices to be made even if you have full 19 points. Here's what I went with: 1: Priority Target (debatable, but I'm too used to it to play without) 2: Expert Marksman (turret traverse is too slow otherwise, especially close to enemy) 2: Last Stand (to keep moving, since so often only speed can save you) 3: Basic Firing Training (situational DPS) 3: Survivability Expert (possibly debatable, but I often find myself in very low health) 4: IFHE (situational DPS) 4: Concealment Expert (no explanation necessary) The same skipper works very well in the Aigle, if you have it, and also La Galissonnière from the tech three. Module-wise, Engine Boost Modification 1 is an absolute must in slot two. 3 minutes instead of 2 minutes per charge is huge. It also compensates for not having Superintendent. Playing style: This spec is strictly intended for playing close and personal, close to your concealment range. Consider yourself a DD hunter and a torpedo boat. You could go for the Russian gunboat style with AFT and DE instead, but the gun ballistics are not really suited for it. In the same tier, Kiev is much better for that style of play. I avoid firing my guns unless I'm confident that somebody will likely die, or nobody will be firing back. You want to save your precious HP for... Go in for the kill. Hit the turbo, and charge the destroyer in the smoke, or the cruiser camping behind an island, head-on. When you're homing in at 54 knots they have very little reaction time. If you use the guns, rotate them to the correct direction early, and preferably hit the reload boost only when you have all guns on the target. Don't ever waste it. If the fish is too big, focus on getting the torpedoes home instead. Patience. If you don't feel like you have a good chance of getting the kill, or the risk is too high, wait for a better moment. Use the speed to go to a different location, and spot for the team. Repeat: Surprisingly often, you don't die when charging the enemy. If you start getting a lot of fire, just use the speed to get away. Most of them will have a difficult time hitting you. Depending on the line-up, I sometimes use my first turbo immediately to go into the nearest cap well before anybody else. You'll have enough time to turn around, and ideally park behind an island with your nose towards the nearest exit. In closing, I like it especially because it plays different from everything else. Le Terrible is the antithesis of sniping, tanking battleships. The manliest, most arrogant maneuver is often the best course of action. It's not easy, but it really, really, can be strong.

Disclaimer: I haven't tried the reworked CV's. I have only played the current CV's in co-op briefly. However, I have played the game a lot in all tiers, and I do understand numbers. Current RTS CV's have a high skill floor. That's why the average guy in Hakuryu or Midway can't crack 50 %. However, check the top 10 % or top 5 % of server population and you'll see the highest win rates in the game. There are players who have leveled out above 80 %. They have the highest skill ceiling and game carrying potential of all ships. This current combination can suck big time. If you match the average Hakuryu against the top 5 % Hakuryu the game is damn near decided for the other 22 from the get-go. I'm sure the top 5 % Hakuryu will have a blast but the others not so much. It's an unusually boring game even for the winning side's players. I don't see any way around the fact that at least the skill ceiling must be brought down. I'm also sure that there's absolutely no way of doing this without the current CV veterans feeling like CV gameplay is "dumbed down". However, CV's currently aren't popular and their players are a small minority. In the end, I'd like to see more CV's in the game, since the average game with CV's is more interesting than the average game without. As far as I'm concerned, lowering the skill floor and making the gameplay more attractive for the average guy is the way to go. Possibly the rework will suck initially, but I'm hoping that WG has better success balancing them out than what we currently have.

From a player who never plays carriers, some points come to mind. If there are planes in the battle, I sure as hell prefer to have them controlled by a human. The human factor is why I play PvP in the first place. My only issue with CV's today is the fact that they have simply too much carrying (or losing) potential. The skill disparity between the CV players can be near impossible to overcome for the unfortunate side. This does need some attention from a balancing point of view. When I tried CV's in co-op, I didn't like the RTS thing at all. This is not a problem for me, but it's a problem for WG if too many people think likewise. As I understand it, this is currently the case. Carriers have been part of the game, and have been sold to many people. I don't think players generally want them gone, but improved. I personally don't want them gone, since battles with CV's tend to be more interesting than the ones without. Finally, WG has spent a lot of effort on the redesign to make CV's more balanced and more attractive. Thus the OP's proposal is not only radical but completely moot, since there's exactly 0.00 % chance of them being removed from the game.

I've been wondering about this, since I've always been able to get higher win rates in destroyers than in battleships. Cruisers are somewhere in between, and I haven't played carriers. I feel like I know how to play each ship type, or at least I don't do anything massively stupid in any of them. In individual games sure, but consistently I hope not. To see if it's just me, I checked the EU server stats from WOWS Numbers. More specifically, I checked the average win rates in different ship types in the highest three tiers 8, 9 and 10. Also, I checked only tech-tree ships (because premiums are not as well balanced, and played by a selected population), and only the top 10 % of the server population. The results: Carriers have about 73 % win rate, destroyers about 70 %, cruisers about 68 % and battleships about 66 %. This should reflect the carrying potential of each ship type reasonably well? The above win rates are essentially the same in all three tiers. Some individual ships are out of the line, for example Lexington seems to suck compared to Shokaku.

Thanks for bringing the topic so very alive, sir! Seriously though, do you really think that factors such as bugs or kill stealing don't equally affect all players? Or do they really drag down the stats of some seriously unlucky bastards even after hundreds, if not thousands of games? Meaning the point where the numbers start to become statistically significant in the first place.

I have 299 randoms in Krasny Krym. I bought it because of the outrageous name, as a trollboat. I also had a skipper in Bogatyr and later Svietlana that fits perfectly, since they play the same. You keep your distance, keep doing unpredictable circles and keep spamming HE. For the skipper, EM, AFT, BFT and DE all highly mandatory. The ship sucks. It's not much better than Svietlana, but you get tier 5 matchmaking. The hydro can be useful if you need to hunt destroyers. The AA is better but still sucks. However, I do have a win rate just shy of unicum, 59.5 %. I believe it's because the ship sucks so bad that you're a low-priority target for the enemy, so you can usually keep the spam going for a good while. Le Terrible, meanwhile, can be a very strong ship. It's just very difficult, and takes time and dedication to master. Krasny can just as well be played sh*t-faced.

But in the end, isn't it one of the key challenges for WG to ensure that the game is enjoyable also for the bottom 5 %? If they think it sucks and choose to go, another group of players will be bottom 5 %, face the same choice, and the game is facing a downward spiral. So while I also wonder how exactly the sub 40 % guys enjoy it, I'm glad they do. On the other hand, I'm not entirely convinced that a skill-based matchmaking in random wouldn't be a good thing, especially in high tiers where players are plentiful.

In its tier, the closest counterpart must be Kiev. If you go for AFT and DE, they play quite similar with the obvious difference of Kiev having smoke. However, my gut feeling is that going the IFHE and BFT way, meaning maximizing the situational DPS with the reload booster, is most efficient. It calls for very aggressive yet disciplined gameplay. It's very rewarding when you start getting it right, and definitely the most fun I've had with a new ship in a long, long time. Also, a determined Le Terrible coming at you at 54 knots can be -- lacking a better word for it -- a terrible sight for the red ship.

Most ships yes, but not all. In the end, win rate is everything -- the brutally honest measure on whether you carry or not. Other stats just try to measure the different ways of getting there. With the ships that excel at dealing out damage, average damage is a good measure. But you can get too obsessed about dealing damage, and shoot at easy targets instead the ones that are the most immediate threat to your team. Le Terrible has been a bit of an eye-opener for me. My average damage is by far the lowest of the T8 ships that I've played in a significant number of battles. However, after getting a hang of it, my win rate is slowly creeping towards super-unicum. In Le Terrible, I don't shoot often, but try to maintain good awareness of the battle situation, and use the extreme speed to get the quick, important kills. Often this means charging and deleting a destroyer hiding in smoke, or a radar cruiser that's a pain for my team. The only statistic that thanks me, or that I care about, is win rate.

With destroyer guns you often get a warm, fuzzy feeling when the damage counter spins like a slot machine. Doesn't take much to get that going. With the battleship main battery you often wait for the super jackpot, and you need to master the ways of increasing your chances. I kind of suck at battleships -- my win rate is higher with cruisers, and way higher with destroyers. Not sure why this is so, as for some people it's the other way around. Nonetheless, in all tiers my highest average damages are with battleships.

Collected them snowflakes:

BFT, AFT and Manual AA for the skipper. AA Guns Modification 2 in the third slot for 20 % more range. The signal for more DPS. You also have a fighter available, but I didn't count it in the DPS (not sure how to do it anyhow).

If you have it, Dunkerque is VERY strong if you go for pure AA build and skipper. Most of the AA is high caliber, so throwing in everything including Manual AA you get a 7.5 km bubble with whopping 213 DPS to the designated target. The red carrier will not expect it. Also, I don't think it's a terrible trade-off what comes to sinking ships. I usually wouldn't run such a build unless in division with a carrier. However, guaranteed to be only facing T6 carriers and considering that I've seen plenty of Ryujos today, it seems like a feasible choice even solo.

I couldn't get the game to run on my TI-85, which is a bummer. Meanwhile I'm running it on a Core i5 with a mid-spec GPU, and it runs just fine maxed out. The latest Halloween scenario really hurt the frame rate, but generally it's very smooth. I'm running the game off an SSD and I generally enter the battles before my division buddies who have hard disks. For such a simple game there's a lot of disk I/O.

Yamato is THE ship that I have never really mastered. Possibly it's just difficult, or alternatively I just don't have the correct mindset for it. In any case, after 100+ battles I still don't have the comfortable feeling of really knowing what I'm doing. Stats support this too: I'm very average in the Yamato, while in many other high-tier ships I manage very good damage and unicum WR. Some of the points in this thread are probably spot-on. Personally, I think I generally play too close, especially considering how brutally accurate the main battery is with the unique upgrade. When I'm too close in such a slow ship with a juicy citadel, well... The secondaries aren't anything special either, and definitely not worth investing in. Whenever you end up in secondary distance with the Yamato, you just wish you had brought the Kurfürst or République instead. The point about preferring flanks to the center makes complete sense as well.

Le Terrible is the most fun I've had with a new ship in quite a while. It's very unique, very challenging, but can be very efficient and rewarding if you get it right. Paradoxically, the many ways how Le Terrible seemingly sucks are exactly what makes it fun for me: Gun DPS sucks except when you hit the booster. Time its use well and it can really pay off. Turret traverse and firing angles suck, so better be aware to which direction you likely want to shoot next. You can't dump all torps to one side -- not sure with how many T8 destroyers you need to deal with this, but I don't have others. No smoke, so better have a different plan B. You'd really want a 30-point skipper in it, so some tough choices to be made there. I would agree with buffing the guns slightly, in some way. Could be lowering the general reload just a bit, or maybe making the reload boost last 5 to 10 seconds longer. It wouldn't change the general nature of the ship. Possibly hydro? It would give you some additional survivability when charging the enemy DD's.