tocqueville8

"As goes Ohio, so goes the nation!"

Trying to level up Cunningham for my newly-acquired Plymouth, I had my first game in the Nelson in ages: Still a defeat, as you can see

Honestly, that replay you asked for advice on was a bit of a flex

In my experience, nothing will "force" teams to do anything. A few days ago I saw 6 teammates, most of them BBs, too afraid to push a lone enemy Salem. They delayed taking the easiest cap ever, and it was only a miracle (and the enemy team trying to win harder) that allowed us to prevail. Not to mention Epicenter games ending with 8-9 ships still remaining on the losing team. In most ships, not knowing what's on the other side of that island will only make me more cautious, not more aggressive. Also, more frustrating than being permaspotted and dropped by a CV is being permaspotted and torped by a DD, with much less counterplay as well. That's a lot more likely to happen if there's no CV in the game.

I would say the counterplay is in the long game: - do what you can with your AA - angle to make yourself an unappealing target: most CVs will choose to go for someone who's paying less attention - win the game otherwise and live long enough to eventually go sink the CV yourself, which is very cathartic My main complaint isn't actually about the AA, rather about CVs being almost immune to fires as well as insanely tanky at T10: I can Dev Strike a Ryujo with my Fuso, but a Yamato gets mostly shatters (with HE) on a Midway's deck... Other than that, I actually prefer CV games because I get early warning as to what the enemy team is doing, which lowers the risk of unwelcome surprises.

It's simpler to just turn on the circles on the minimap: sometimes you can even use them to slip past the planes undetected, as long as they weren't going *directly* for you.

German or IJN (Harugumo line, mostly). British as well, but they play at shorter range, usually around caps, which is riskier and requires more finesse, imho. USN DDs have crappy range on their torps until T7. Their smokes are almost too long to be practical and take forever to reload, so they're more for division or team play (Clan Battles). Also, their guns have really poor ballistics and fire chance. I would not recommend them, they've been powercrept over the years imho. I would also suggest Pan Asian DDs: sure, their torps can't hit other DDs, but they're great against larger enemies because they're only detected at the last moment. Also, the line has arguably the best smokes: decent duration, decent reload, and 5 charges without upgrades: they're useful for farming large ships, disengaging from DD fights and hide from planes. Keep in mind that no line is completely consistent: - the Shiratsuyu is in the gunboat line (Harugumo), but she's more of a torpedoboat - the Jervis has so-so concealment, while the Lightning is excellent in that regard - same with Mahan vs Benson - the Z-46 is a lot better than the Z-23, imho - the Fushun has super slow turrets, the Gadjah Mada is ok, but from the Hsienyang onward they turn on a dime - etc.

Yup, I remember that video. Total BS on Jingles' part imho. The idea that just because you have strong AA (and slow speed, and no smoke) you should be able to park your DD in the middle of the map during a 2xCV game, and I guess stop all the planes like Neo stopping the bullets, is just nonsense. THAT would be toxic. And I say this as someone who has a permacamo and a permacaptain for the Oland.

It's probably going to get better. Ise and Tone have just been released, so lots of people are trying them for the first time. In a while they'll get bored with them and we'll mostly go back to the usual team composition, just like in the past I've seen games with 6 Smolensks or 7 Thunderers but now they're not significantly more common than any other ship.

I don't think I've ever lost a turret in the Salem. Incapacitated, sure, but not permanently. It's not like she's a Jean Bart In the middle-to-late game going nose-in is often a very powerful move, as long as you make sure you're not going to be crossfired or overmatched (or you bait 16'' guns into shooting your belt). Going for reload helps in particular during the late game. Range is nice to have, of course, but you can usually get closer anyway, while reload sometimes is a kill-or-get-killed perk, and it can be decisive in securing a DD kill, as well. I'm just saying what works best for me: I even tried the AA mod to get the +2 flak bursts during Def AA, and I naturally tried Range as well, but I eventually settled on Reload and never looked back.

What is the current meta? Dead Eye is gone, there are plenty of BB captains that get close and personal, and I've seen several games with over 8 cruisers per side, the kind of environment where the Salem's ability to heal HE damage in nose-in confrontations should be (carefully) exploited. On the contrary, if you don't need IFA (I still take it, and my Salem captain is actually more of an Alaska captain, so Gun Feeder is a must), you could probably maximize your short-range firepower: In deer-in-the-headlights situations like the one the OP found himself in against the Pommern, that 8% faster reload can be decisive in sinking a BB before she can let off the salvo that kills you. It's a bit overpriced at 4 points, but it synergizes well with the superheal and the short-range radar, provided you pay attention to crossfires. I wouldn't take Top Grade Gunner on your average kiter CA (IJN, French, Ita, etc.) unless I was going for a risky "lighthouse build", but the Salem is especially strong when fighting within her concealment radius. Together with the Reload Mod, we're looking at a 19% DPM buff. Meanwhile, the extra fire chance is a bad deal, imho: for 2 points you get the same benefit as a single fire signal, and besides you should be using AP a lot. With the Salem's rate of fire, the limit to your fire-setting output isn't really the fire chance, rather the ability to hit and permafire the bow and stern section as well, after the easy fire on the center of mass. I mean, the fire chance helps, but I would say the bottleneck is your aiming vs these lazy shells. Just my 2 cents.

I'm not sure about Range Mod on the Salem. Sure, it could help doing some chip damage from safety at range, but because the ballistics are so bad, it's often useless against anything more agile. It also limits your ability to win bow-in confrontations at short range, to capitalize on radar (DDs and British CLs) and in general to deal damage in most circumstances. If you take Halsey (faster turret traverse) and use RPF (your guns are less likely to be turned the wrong way), the turret traverse penalty from the Reload Mod isn't that important. As for your game, pushing up in front of a Pommern was a very risky move: sure, she can't overmatch your bow, but you could've been torped and ended your game there. She also had a fair amount of backup, and you were so far ahead that all the enemies around would naturally focus on you. I'm also skeptical about your decision to leave the Northern flank once the Pommern went down. You guys had 1 DD + 1 CA against 2 DDs up there, but instead of your using the Maerker's spotting and your "muscles" to clean up and then converge middle from a flanking position, you gave up, left the Thunderer unescorted, and came, where the enemy team actually had 2 overmatching BBs (Amagi and Montana) that could spell trouble for you. By not cleaning up the North, you missed on an opportunity to crossfire the bulk of the enemy in the middle/West, and instead you got crossfired yourself by the Venezia eventually. I mean, you won and you did good damage, but in most scenarios the best way to help the team is to spread out and gain map control for crossfire. Near the end of the match, you had 8 ships all crammed inside your own base or just outside of it: the enemy team kind of didn't know how to approach your "deathball", but most teams do. Also, at the end you pushed into an obvious crossfire, but the game was most likely won, so I can't blame you for seeking more damage and xp.

My point is that the CB games I've been in were mostly long-range HE spamfests with almost stationary targets and only 1 BB per team. No one got killed "quickly", no one would get Dev-Struck (or even citadelled, for the most part) and it mostly came down to focus fire, HE pen vs plating, DPM, and a little bit about ship agility (rudder vs acceleration) or superheals. In the meta I saw, Hindenburg and Goliath appeared to be stronger than Petro and Stalingrad, that's all I'm saying. Maybe there's more variety in the higher leagues, I dunno...

Can someone explain to me the appeal of the Petro for CBs? I've only played a few dozen matches as a mercenary in Storm League, so my experience is limited, but the standard setup was clearly: Halland + FDR/Midway + Petro + Ohio/Shikishima/Bourgogne + assorted Stalingrads/Goliaths We did come across a strong clan with a triple Marceau + Bourgogne lineup, and a double Salem on another occasion, but they were by far the exceptions. I don't really see the point in bringing 12 km radar when there's usually only going to be 1 DD, and one that has no smoke and can torp you from 15 km as well, and there's pretty much always a CV for spotting. Also, Petros and Stalingrads kind of melt during long-range snipefests when faced with a Hindenburg (to which I switched) or a Goliath, don't they? I mean, there are plenty of cyclones, but the visibility is 14 km, so again radar isn't that useful, I guess...

So: 1) the Shiki always has better shell flight time 2) the Shiki has less AP pen at "short range", where the problem is more likely to be overpens, and more AP pen at "long range", where the problem is more likely to be bounces (against other BBs). Sounds like the best of both world, tbh...

Can I get a source on that? I'm positive she has better ballistics than the Yamato, so I logically assumed better penetration as well...

It is, just keep in mind that the PR weighs you against the other players' performance in each ship, which can be misleading for new ships, as well as rare or expensive ones. Since so far you haven't played a single T3 tech tree ship, allow me to suggest some beginner-friendly lines: BB - British and Japanese CA - French and Japanese, both very straightforward; I'd stay away from the Minotaur line for now DD - anything that's not French, and I'm not a fan of the USN ones either (slow shells, hard-to-use smokescreens) Your to-do list should look something like: - learn to aim at straightlining targets - learn about the concealment mechanics (gun bloom, fire penalty, smoke-firing penalty, turning off your AA in a DD, etc.) - make sure your captain builds are reasonable, grab the must-have skills (e.g. Concealment Expert on DDs, Fire Prevention on most BBs...) asap - victory conditions (caps, kills, timer, points for ships sunk/lost) - learn to aim at turning targets, particularly cruisers about to show broadside - enemy consumables (radar, hydro, smokes, superheals, reload boosts...) - learn to use chat, F keys and minimap pinging - armor schemes: all-or-nothing vs dispersed armor; general rule and exception for HE pen; IFHE and common plating values/thresholds - enemy torpedoes: range, reload, number per launcher, which ones are deep-water, which BBs have them and which cruisers don't - learn to manage your Damage Control Party, learn to taxi other people's - overmatch mechanic and which ships have what gun caliber - angling against CVs (at the very least, it makes you a less appealing target) - ammo selection, in relation to armor schemes, as well as distance, angling and ballistics - learn the approximate "stealth hierarchy" for DDs and cruisers at a given tier, e.g. Haida > Gadjah Mada > Jervis > Vauquelin. You don't need the exact values, just a relative idea of who will outspot whom. - strategic positioning: go with teammates of different classes, to complement each other. BBs should create a parallax to crossfire, DDs should each screen different areas (unless one has bad concealment, in which case he'll act as support), etc. - strategies: flanking, kiting, pushing, holding, kill-securing - tactics and tactical positioning: island hugging, capping stern-in, bow-tanking, torpedo rushing, torpedo ambushing, AA trap, radar/hydro trap, ramming, speed-juking vs rudder-juking, baiting a turn into your torps, going dark, etc. You don't need to learn everything tomorrow (I screw up even after 20k games), but every bit you know more will enrich your repertoire.

Those stats are kind of meaningless, tbh. In low tier Randoms, especially with beginners' protected matchmaking, you'll run across a lot of bots, so a high kill:death ratio is to be expected. As for Ranked, I'm surprised you would break 50% WR with such low damage and k:d ratio. I'd guess you were lucky. Personally, I'd use this to monitor my progress: https://wows-numbers.com/player/580335494,CommanderPercy/?, as it's easier to filter for tiers, game modes, ship type, division vs solo, etc.

Alaska isn't that strong when faced with 16'' guns. It's just that a lot of BB captains opt for Bismarck/Tirpitz/Pommern, or even if they do bring the big guns they'll mostly use them against each other. I think the real problem is that some T9 cruisers are the worst in their line, especially Buffalo and Seattle, while there are many great T9 DDs.

Look, I've only ever played like 10 T2 games in a div, and the same for T3, but if I want to derp around in my Emden or Mikasa like the good old days, I paid for that privilege... ...and don't worry, you'll find plenty of triple unicum divs at T5 (Giulio Cesare and Kamikaze are the worst offenders) and beyond. You'll also find plenty of people with 10k games or more who still haven't got a clue. Personally, I found it beneficial to start multiple lines at once and to level off the grind for a bit at T4, enjoying ships like Sampson (T2), Charleston (T3), Izyaslav, Wyoming and Hosho (T4), before moving on to T6, where I also stopped for a bit (Fuso, Fubuki, Dunkerque). I also found it beneficial to watch replays on YouTube: I know Jingles isn't the most accurate narrator, but let's be honest, he's the one that introduced me to the game. It's called trolling: your clan trolled you, you got trolled. Ranked is not where you "practice". You want to know what you're doing, have a good captain and be prepared to think faster and differently than what you'd be doing in Randoms. As others have said, DD play is probably the most decision-intensive as well as the most impactful, and it would help you to remember thing like the best concealment and the torpedo loadout (number, range and approximate reload) of each of your counterparts on the enemy team. Also, which cruisers have radar, which ones don't have HE, and which BBs have hydro or their own torps.

Same, but she's sooo expensive (actually I'd like to get the Gallant, as well, though obviously not with the coupon) Which one's the one with DON'T TREAD ON ME written across?

Wooster permacamo would be nice...

You have 2000 games in cruisers, 3000 games in battleships, but only 100 in destroyers and 20 in carriers. Imho that's too unbalanced, as you need to have experienced those playstyles yourself, if not at T10 then at least at T6-8, to understand their decision-making. Recently you've been playing at a higher tier than usual, so it's okay to struggle a bit, but your PR has actually improved both in BBs and cruisers, so it might just be bad luck if your WR has gone down. For one thing, your damage output seems decent, so your aim is probably alright. Honestly, just upload a few replays to https://replayswows.com/ and we'll try to offer suggestions Also, if you can spare the time, do watch some replays from good players, especially if they're explained/annotated. It sounds time-consuming, but even just a few can teach you a lot of good tactics and "tricks".

The Immelmann might do well in slow, static, snipe-y games against large targets with strong AA you don't want to get close to, i.e. Clan Battles (I've barely played them, so take this with a grain of salt). She seems like a good damage farmer, but she probably doesn't have the biggest game impact, as a lot of her damage output is HE and fires. The Marceau, on the hand, can be very influential even with a low damage output, as she's great at: - murdering isolated DDs - repositioning to harass BBs (you don't need to sink them, just to make them retreat from the caps and herd them into positions where you team can surround them and crossfire them) or go hunt the CV - capping in the late game despite CV harassment: her AA is good enough, and the French damage saturation also helps Imho poor range and poor ballistics mean she's not a very good open-water gunboat, unlike the tech tree line and Soviet DDs as well, but she's better at doing strategically important things.

I just got the Huanghe from a SC: a surprise, to be sure, but a welcome one I searched some guides/reviews, but they're mostly from 2017-18, and thus outdated. So how do you build this thing? 1) an AA build seems attractive, since the base stats are solid and she'll see a lot of CVs at T6. Then again, they might not see her among the smoke clouds... 2) has anyone tried to play her as a DD hunter, with RPF? 3) Concealment yes or no? Doesn't the smoke make it unnecessary? 4) what about the buffed SE? Top Grade Gunner? 5) I'm assuming the TRB is just for yolo rushes, right? Thanks for your time