tocqueville8

I suspect because bad players (no offense to the OP) might actually play worse in a div than they would solo. With BBs, they might stay very close to one another, creating no crossfire but giving torpedoboats an easier target. With DDs, they might also sail together, leaving large sections of the "front" unscreened. Those "tactics" are actually worse than going solo and just trying to be useful wherever you spawn. In my experience, strong players tend to div up with ships of different type, say Gearing+DM or FDR+Bourgogne+Halland, so that they complement each other well. Bad players tend to div up with the same type of ship, often literally the same one. Whenever I see a 2xTirpitz division I say to myself "wait...they're about to do something stupid", and I'm usually right

Well, special commanders are worth more now that you can rotate them on different ship types, but they only come with 10 points initially, so they might not be better than your regular captain at the moment. For example, if you have, let's say, a 15-cpt German captain that you use on your Agir, Z-39 and Tirpitz, he's probably going to be just as good as Lutjens with 10 points. Also, at least 2 special captains can be unlocked with the campaigns, so there's no hurry to buy one from the Armory, imho. You're nowhere close to having the Des Moines, so I'd consider the Salem. You're also nowhere close to having the Kleber, so I'd consider the Marceau as well (she doesn't play quite the same, but she's not too different, either). Both of those ships overperform for me, so I'd recommend both, and they would give you a different experience from what you've played so far. As for the Napoli, I don't have the coal to get her, but she seems like a specialized brawler, so if I were you I'd wait a bit before getting her, until you're more comfortable at high tiers. Napoli secondaries seem to be devastating to enemies showing even just a bit of broadside, plus they're very accurate. And you can use the smoke to get in a good position to use them. They're probably inferior to HE secondaries against nose-in targets, but if the situation is more chaotic than that, SAP will do fine.

No but they are welcome. "Broadsiding morons", as you call them, are plentiful, but you'd still want all the DPM you can get to dispatch them more quickly. Well, these things have amazing DPM, and besides, with SAP angles you'll get a lot of pens even against semi-angled targets. If someone's nose-in, pop your smoke, get close and torp them.

Huh? These secondaries are about twice as accurate as stock GK secondaries. The small ones pen DDs/superstructures/CL bows, the large ones pen over 32 mm. Alright, they don't set fires, but SAP can rack up the damage if the target shows any broadside. You also have torps to rush obstinate nose-in players, a crawling smoke to conceal you as you go in, and a fighter to spot should that become necessary. Honestly, as far as brawling goes, it sounds like a pretty good package.

I guess their purpose now is to keep count of how common they are.

I once had a capture interrupted when the timer read "0.0" It's like physics breaking down near the Planck scale: WoWs behaves oddly around 1/100ths of a second.

That's pretty reasonable if you div up with other <50% WR players. I mean, not everyone divs up to pad their stats...

Well, the Neustrashimy is a very versatile DD: good torps, great heal, decent guns, good AA (for what it's worth), excellent concealment. She's not as gimmicky as a French DD or a Friesland, let's say: her playstyle is pretty much that of a standard mid-tier DD, just improved a lot by the consumable selection. She's also quite good in Ranked, as the heal will allow you to make some risky moves and stay relevant in the late game even if you take huge damage. However, she is expensive... At the opposite end of the spectrum, you have the Z-44, which is obviously a one-trick-pony but also, I imagine, a fairly unique experience.

Yes, and you get 10k points as a bonus the first time. Apparently, you can reset a line, research it with free xp, not buy it, then once the 2x bonus reloads in 3 months you reset it again and research it again, and this should give you a 4x bonus when you finally buy the ships and play them. You wouldn't have to wait 3 months in practice: you can wait until the last day to activate the first bonus, then complete the job the next day, when it reloads. I haven't tried it yet, but if it works (you'd basically be stacking the 2x reset bonuses), that's over 40k RB points for about 1.3M free xp (if you reset a DD line) and half as many credits as you would normally spend. Throw in the initial 10k points, and you can already buy yourself a Siegfried or a Paolo Emilio.

I think I'd rather be able to move my Friesland cpt. to the Dutch nation, as he's got a different build than Pan European captains, anyway. That way, I'd be able to use him to grind Dutch cruisers, once they come out of early access. Will that be possible?

Fault Line map: slow-a** T5-7 BBs spawn in the middle, have to spend 6 minutes getting to the fight, which is always on the flanks, and by then it's often already been decided. In general, BB players huddling together, sometimes 3 or 4 of them in a couple of adjacent squares, with no intention to create a parallax and a crossfire. Also, people who absolutely waste hydro and radar, using them 5 minutes too early or 1 too late.

A-MA-ZING comeback in the Kitabote This is what it looked like after a few minutes Then the enemy Strasbourg, whom I'd HE-spammed a bit, took issue with my playstyle So anyway, I started torping: And wouldn't you know... Then Kraken on a greedy Oland, who went for our spawn even though they had a massive lead: Then bow-tanking the Neptune with Second Wind. Actually, it took me about 10k to realise I should've bowtanked a British CL: sometimes I just forget how to play this game... Finally, RPF guides me to the Neustrashimy for kill #7 Tah-daa! Honestly, I don't think I'd ever seen a comeback where the winning team was 6 ships behind. Surprisingly, I didn't even get 3k xp for this performance, probably because I was top tier and didn't cap anything. Still, it was exciting

I'm not especially fond of the Odin, and I barely ever play her, but as far as T8 ships go she's a clear overperformer for me. The Agir...I'm sure I'd do okay with her, but I basically never thought to myself "oh crap, they have an Agir on this flank", that's my point. I understand your argument about "sustained brawls" vs "instantaneous brawls", but to me the advantage of good secondaries is in multitasking, as in "I can use them to damage and set fire to this BB that overextended in front of me, while I use my main guns to blap that cruiser 6 km behind". What you describe is something that has to use terrain to get close and then charges to deliver those torps: it's fine, and situationally very strong, but you kind of need to isolate yourself from the fight before you go for it, I reckon. To be clear: I would've gotten the Agir anyway, normally, but I'm saving the Free XP to buy my way into more Research Bureau points. I'm at least mildly interested in all the ships (I only have the Emilio and Colbert so far), as well as some Legendary Upgrades (I recently got the one for the Kleber, and I don't regret it). Cheers.

I only have Plymouth and I find her...challenging, but rewarding. She feels like a Mino-that's-let-herself-go, being slower, with half as many torps, horrible turret angles and bad AA... BUT ...you can't argue with the smoke + radar + hydro combination. In some games, you'll have to play like a clumsier smoke-Mino, farming good damage with that 16-guns broadside (landing 8-10k volleys is soooo satisfying) while basically never using your radar, and in others you will take some support and go murder a DD in the cap early on, basically winning a flank by minute 5. She's just very versatile, if less exciting than the Mino. It's almost as if the Plymouth should've been the T10 of the line and the Minotaur a premium. The radar is functionally a stealth-radar, the citadel is lower so you'll take less catastrophic damage, and the slow turret traverse will remind you of the more traditional British CLs like the Fiji or Edinburgh...but that radar will win you some extra games, no question. Also, the slower gun reload is actually a good thing, imho, as it allows you to keep an eye on the surroundings, maintaining situational awareness, while still having enough time to aim each salvo accurately. As for the Austin, she's probably going to be my next purchase. She's very vulnerable to HE, but her 32 mm belt actually allows her to tank the AP of most BBs in the game, if she angles correctly. Between that and the torps, she's actually a menace to BBs in close quarters, unlike the Wooster, which has to run for her dear life when they decide to charge her.

I'm curious: what are those? The credit-making coefficient? Fuse-arming threshold? You can check most things, from the armor profile to the consumables, either in Port or on https://wowsft.com/

The Gneisenau has a 50 mm deck, which is all but impervious to cruiser HE spam, and an icebreaker bow that will bounce some high caliber AP. Also, a good turtleback for citadel protection. The Agir has none of these things: the deck is only 30 mm (a Worcester or an Akizuki can pen it without taking IFHE), there is no icebreaker (27 mm bow plating will shatter 15''/380 mm AP shells, but not larger ones) and the citadel is fairly easy to reach. Personally, I don't have the Agir, I could easily afford the Agir, but I don't want her: she's just not scary to me, she's not a hard-to-deal-with ship. Unless you're in a DD, camping inside your smoke, and the Agir charges you with that 6 km hydro, or you're in a cruiser and you show broadside at mid range (you shouldn't do that in front of anyone...), imho she's just not a big threat. No radar, either. Unlike the Odin, which has a 32 mm bow and therefore can brawl most high tier BBs (provided she's not being crossfired), the Agir will get obliterated through the bow by any Iowa, Soyuz, Amagi or République captain that knows what he's doing. TL; DR: The Odin may be undergunned, but armor-wise she is a battleship. The Agir is a cruiser, and thus much more vulnerable. Cheers

I was under the impression that refunds are for players who accidentally purchased a ship or other item, or maybe they did it on purpose, but then read a review that made them change their mind ("now that I look at it, that other premium seems a better deal!"), and just want to roll things back. I never understood it to be a ***TRY THIS SHIP FOR FREE (5 games, refund 100%)*** policy. There was never such a policy, afaik. I had some free trials about two years ago (Gallant, Massachussetts, Duke of York), just like I had an unexpected coupon (Dunkerque), and I don't think I was the only one to get a free trial for the Kaga last year, but those were advertised to me personally, in the Armory or in Port. Granted, they were time-limited, not games-limited, but the point stands. The idea that one can simply buy all premiums, use them to farm credits and level up captains, and then return each of them after 5 games, seems extremely suspicious to me. This isn't a library, it's a company. And there are, what, 200 premium ships? Clearly that's not what the refund system is for, which is why I find it reasonable that you can ask for a refund, but they're not obligated to give you one. If I want to figure out a ship, I'll read reviews, I'll watch some replays available on the website, and I'll ask people in battle. TL;DR: I would certainly not call this "a new scam": 1) WG never advertised a generalized "you can try any and every premium ship for 5 games, refund guaranteed" policy 2) a two months old post by a community manager telling someone he could *ask* for a particular refund doesn't create such policy

From now on, I'm going to ask every trashtalker in chat "are you using your father's account?", so I don't accidentally ban some polite 40-year old

Best game so far in the LU Kleber. Considering I haven't even tried the standard build, buying a permacamo sounds intriguing... Also, a refreshingly high amount of xp on both teams

To me, a carry is when you personally turn around a losing game. It's not when you come 1st by xp or do great damage, or you get early, long-lasting caps. That's a strong performance, probably, but I wouldn't call it a carry. You can do that in a fairly even match. It's not when you get an early Dev Strike and things snowball from there: you might've won that game anyway, just differently. It's when you are, say, 1 cap, 200 points and 2-3 ships behind, but you pull some heroics and turn it around, and you have to play near-perfectly. For these reasons, I'd say for me a ship with high WR isn't necessarily a "carry" ship. Example: I have a high (much higher than average) WR in the Plymouth, likely because she's great at contesting caps, sinking DDs early, farming damage from impunity, etc. That stuff wins games, but mostly because it sets them on a nice course from very early on. But with slow speed, bad armor, bad AA, terrible turret angles and not enough torps for yoloing, she's just not good at pulling off heroics in the late game. Likewise with the Shikishima (until they removed Dead Eye): overmatching a BB in the opening for 15k, making her turn away and cede map control, wins games, so my WR with her is high. But she's not a "clutch" ship: she's slow and clumsy and she can easily be overwhelmed by more numerous enemies. On the other hand, the Salem is great for carrying: good AA, great heal, good frontal armor, great frontal firepower, radar. All that stuff is great for ambushing the last remaining enemy DD, or winning a bow-tank duel with almost any cruiser...even rushing some BBs, while being a tough nut to crack for the CV (AA is more important in the late game, as CVs have fewer targets among which to choose). Sure, she can't go up against a Vermont, but she can deal with most late-game situations and win isolated fights (it's up to you to create them, using terrain).

I finally resolved to get the Legendary Upgrade for the Kleber, a ship I hadn't played at all so far. The first few games have been...nice. She's no damage farmer with this build, and I'm sure many of those torps I could've landed even with the standard setup, but it looks to me like the experience is different and refreshing enough to justify the pricetag (1/3 of a Colbert, which I suck at), even though the economy is still bad. Some highlights: Also, the usual MM shenanigans from the "cruisers are dead" era

Happened to me as well, recently. I reckon bots are only added to pad the teams on low tiers: at high tiers long queues might lead to this. It's honestly not too bad.

Hmm...fun? The Emden and the Graf Spee not only play in completely different matchmaking brackets (meaning the former is more likely to see bots and the latter is more likely to see experienced players), they also have a completely different playstyle: the Emden circles about going pew-pew-pew and setting things on fire, while the Spee is an ambush predator, with powerful torps and massive guns for a cruiser. Considering they're both cruisers and from the same nation, they could hardly be more different, so you should play either, for a different experience. Cheers.

Mind you, she only shines in the middle game, when targets are abundant and you can stay close to friendlies for AA. As a slow ship with poor range, she struggles in the early game (especially on maps like Fault Line, where BBs for some stupid reason spawn central and have to waste 5 minutes sailing to the flanks) and in the late game as well, when you need speed to cap or chase down targets and CVs are more likely to focus you. She's not OP, she's not terrible: she's a mixed bag like most ships in this game.

Weird game in an F3 Shimakaze, but I'll take it.