tocqueville8

My guess is the Austin: - insane DPM on demand - nasty torps (a Fletcher launcher on each side) - 32 mm extended belt, which should allow you to bait the AP of, say, a Georgia and take very low damage - let's not even talk about the AA...

I edited my comment to include a review of my performance with both. I think the main selling point of the Shiki over the Yammy (better DPM for lower alpha isn't always a net positive) is the AA: - an isolated Yammy is the easiest T10 BB to farm for a CV, and she suffers from that reputation - the Shiki isn't exactly a no-fly zone, but she has enough flak and mid range DPS to deter continuing attacks until the very late game, when the CV has no other choice. The AA allows you to go alone a bit more safely, and that's important for crossfires. Another, less-discussed stat is that the Shiki's shells travel faster, which works out to an additional accuracy buff.

Since I only have the Shikishima, let me just say that: 1) Before the captain rework, at least you had the option to build her for secondaries. Not the best idea, but a fun one. 2) After the rework she was arguably stronger thanks to Dead Eye, which made it VERY easy to land 15k salvoes even at 19-20 km or so. I know snipers aren't "exciting", but trust me, that accuracy + overmatch was a very satisfying combo. 3) Since they removed Dead Eye I went for ERE: the ship is a bit tankier, but she just feels less rewarding. 4) Having said that, she's still way better than the Yamato imho: my average dmg is 12k higher, and more importantly my average WR is 12% higher (53 to 65). Granted, I played her after the Yamato, so I was more experienced, and Yamamoto helped with the turret traverse, but still, that's a huge improvement in performance for me.

That's a nice build, but I think I'd lose Pyro (going from 12% to 13% seems unremarkable) and instead take Last Stand and I guess IFA (I take it on every cruiser, it's a quirk of mine). I thought SI was pretty much mandatory, but with the smoke module, flag and duration skill, it looks like it's impossible to squeeze a 4th charge in there, so I guess I'll save my points.

Apparently that's how Fearless Brawler works, though I couldn't be certain as I haven't equipped it anywhere yet.

The FDR looks great to farm achievements (and downvotes), but since they don't give flags anymore I don't really see the point. She was built in steel, though... The Austin looks fairly close to the Colbert, which is great for stress relief but also very hard to play, at least with my "skills". Honestly, I think I'll just get Plymouth for the versatility.

Why not? The condition is that the enemy has to be within your "standard detectability range", not the smoke-firing penalty.

Even at mid-range (i.e. someone else is spotting the enemy DD, or we were basically alone so neither smoked up and we kept shooting at each other as we increased the distance) you can feel the accuracy working in your favor. Also, I notice that it's a lot easier to hit citadels on those juicy mid-tier cruisers: I've had 3 or even 4 critical hits in a single salvo, occasionally. Finally, 4k salvoes on broadsiding BBs are pretty common, and it's also easier to set fires to specific sections of the target.

I disagree there. DDs often need to shoot at other DDs, which are also small, so the accuracy still matters. For instance, the Z-31 has about half the linear dispersion of the Maass at the same distance, meaning the target ellipse will be about 25% the size. That's insanely accurate. With the Mass, if you're anywhere past suicidal range, you will miss some shots at the enemy DD even if our aim is on point, while with the Z-31 you will often hit 4/4 even at considerable distance. And since in order to damage BBs and cruisers you often need to hit specific points (citadel, superstructure, upper belt, broadside bow sticking out of an island...), the accuracy matters there, as well.

1st ship I've got from a SC since the lovely Viribus Unitis a year and a half ago.

Yup, the Marceau is a beast (a mako shark, likely). It's not even about the damage, though you can use islands to farm quite well. Imho it's just the speed, which gives you tremendous map coverage and influence. As long as you don't rush the early game, you should be able to exploit the gaps in the enemy formation later on, and you have the speed and AA to go murder their CV if you so choose.

Fewer ships to worry about and they tend to stick together more than usual, so it's easier for CLs to use terrain and farm them without getting crossfired. More overmatch with the new thicc BBs, which is satisfying for them, I suppose. Personally I'm having fun with the new BBs, French DDs and the Colbert. Also, people seem more relaxed in chat, possibly because these battles have no impact on players' stats.

Well, SE and ERE are mutually exclusive, since SE isn't available on BBs anymore. But yes, flag+ERE+mod gives you something like 70% more healing than normal on a BB with 4 stock heals, assuming you manage to queue up all that damage, and about 90% on one with 3 stock heals (Nelson, Conqueror...). That's why removing flags for achievements was such bollocks: Dreadnought flags were some of the most common and most impactful.

Maybe it's not the answer you're looking for, but if you upload them to https://replayswows.com/ the "best" replays (I'm not sure who or what makes the determination: could be a human, could be an algorithm for all I know) will be uploaded to Youtube, where you should be able to watch them many patches later. From my experience, about 50% of the replays I upload make it to Youtube. For instance: my 1st upload was my 1st ever Solo Warrior game, from patch 0.8.10, and it's still visible (pls don't hate me for playing CV )

Yes, the heal is (% of ship hp healed per second) * (ship hp) * (duration of the heal). Therefore: 1) if you take Survivability Expert ---> more ship xp ---> more heal 2) if you take ERE ---> more duration ---> more heal 3) if you take Ship Consumables Mod 1 (5th slot, though basically no one takes it) ---> more duration ---> more heal 3) if you take the India Delta signal (formerly the "Dreadnought" achievement flag) ---> more % hp healed per second ---> more heal

Ditto, though at some point I took a break to try Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, which I recalled a childhood friend of mine's father playing some 20 years ago while we were building Legos on a playdate... Turned out to be a superb game, in case anyone's interested.

The +50% xp bonus for a win resets every time, so if you're grinding something you can progress quite a bit...

Aren't there already like 200 BBs in the queue, and only 3-4 DDs? Seriously, it should be super-BBs only: let the secondaries have their fun!

I'd save the Coupon for steel if there's a chance of getting a steel ship in the future, especially since you have that ridiculous (no offense) amount of coal. Speaking of coal cruisers, the Charleston is hilarious and well worth her cost. As long as you pay attention to CVs, she's really strong for that meta. If you're into low tiers at all, she's a great ship to boss newbies around, get krakens and the likes.

Airstrike cruisers are still a WiP, so I'm not even considering them. CVs clearly counter ships with crap AA, but if their target is paying attention (DDs turn off their AA until the last moment, everybody angles appropriately and uses sector reinforcement) their damage output can be lowered considerably, to the point where they're just ineffective. Against someone who maneuvers smartly, my Kaga will land 1 torp, 2 at most; but against someone who just parks nose-in next to an island like he's playing a cover-based-shooter, it's 3 torps minimum, usually 4. Broadside DD? 8k with Lexington rockets, at least before the recent changes (I haven't played her in a while) Nose/stern-in DD? 1-2k only. Sure, CV (superunicums) are very dangerous, but the same can be said about the other classes, if perhaps to a lesser extent. If AA is so ineffective, why do most CV captains pre-drop and often only carry out a single strike? Being able to shoot down ALL incoming airplanes wouldn't be "counterplay", it would be Neo stopping the bullets. Maybe I'm an idiot, but even after 20k games I'm more likely to be Dev Struck by a DD I wasn't even aware of, than seriously farmed by a CV, yet I wouldn't say torpedo-DDs are OP, far from it.

Of course, one-use camos are often better than the standard premium-ship (or even special-ship, at T10) camos. And I agree it's better to save them for premium time, clan battles or days with +100% or +200% bonuses. However, premium ships don't earn more xp per se: they might if they're stronger than their tech-tree counterparts, otherwise no. So if you're grinding free xp or cpt xp, putting the same camo on a tech tree ship or a premium ship will give you the same benefits (assuming the ships are equally good for you), but one had her own, free camo. Is it as good? Maybe not, but it's free, so you're saving a "juicy" camo for a tech tree grind. For instance, as long as I'm having the same good game, putting a "juicy" camo on the Alsace or the JB will give me the same ship xp, free xp, (free) cpt xp, but on the Alsace the ship xp will help me grind the République, while on the JB it's basically wasted. Maybe it's just me, but I grind free xp together with ship xp on tech tree ships, as the bonuses to the latter help the former as well, and I grind cpt xp and credits on premium ships, which are more likely to have maxed-out captains. Free xp bonuses and ship xp bonuses multiply each other, while cpt xp and ship xp bonuses do not, as far as I recall. Of course, I don't put a lot of special signals on a stock ship, only a fully-upgraded one. Cheers :)

I'm sorry, does that mean "bad concealment" or "good concealment"?

I'd say it depends on those smokescreens: the Emilio can use them to evade planes...once, then the cooldown is a bit punishing. Maybe if Emilio and Daring had a baby...

As you said, it's rare for the CV to focus you unless you're one of the last few players standing, possibly the one that most directly threatens the CV or the one who's capping somewhere. I mean, my Randoms record for planes shot down used to be (until a recent Halland game where the enemy Kaga threw her planes at me for the lulz) 61 in the Smaland (vs a Hakuryu). That's a fair amount of planes, but it made sense because I was capping their base on Standard Battle and I had been pretty aggressive the entire game. But in Ranked, recently, I had a 120+ plane kills game in the Alaska (again vs a Kaga) that was perfectly legit. Maybe it was a bad Kaga captain, but those are plentiful in Randoms as well. What happened? Well... - I was the last one standing - I had about 60% hp, so I could tank some damage - I was chasing the CV around the islands, so she couldn't strike me effectively with her torps. In that circumstance, and in 1v1 brawls (I remember some Odin vs GZ duels...), you need all the AA you can get, and it's certainly a useful investment. It's just that most games either don't have a CV or they are decided well before it comes down to 3v3 duels or something like that. So really, the reason AA skills are usually a bad investment has also something to do with how common steamrolls are, and the likes.

I don't get it. I'm okay with a line that has slow (and stealthy) long-range torps, basically like Italian cruisers, but what does that have to do with the MAS? The Motonavi Armate Siluranti had a couple of short-range torps, so they were used more for directly rushing big targets, much like you would in this game with a Paolo Emilio or a Derzki. What you're proposing, if I understand correctly, is spammable long-range torps for area denial, which remind me of low-tier French DDs (7-8 km torps at T2-5). That's kind of the opposite approach compared to the MAS.