tocqueville8

I'm saving for the Neustrashimy. I wouldn't get the Yoshino: I have the Azuma and I like her, my WR in her is about my T9 average. The Azuma has worse armor and no torps, but her heal reloads much more quickly. The Salem is really good for carrying games, my WR in her is 5 points above my T10 average. As long as you don't show broadside to a BB at close range, it's hard to have a truly bad game in the Salem: great survivability against HE spam and low-caliber AP, excellent firepower at mid range, very strong when nose-in, lazy shell arcs that make it easy to fire over islands. Def AA makes you a very tough target in the late game, when the enemy CV might have to focus you down. TL;DR: Salem gudbote

Could you remove all the UI, such as plane reticles, smokescreen zones and the likes, from endgame screens? The following would look beau-ti-ful if it weren't for those white circles:

Well that's just mean!

Nice carry in the Alaska in Silver: (soooo glad I didn't get a single flag from this: it would've spoiled it!) Apparently the Akizuki on my team didn't *quite* like my directions: Not sure why he chose to open with "sh**y Germans", of all things... Not that his contribution wasn't in-va-lua-ble:

Ship coupons renew every 6 months or so, but they cannot be cumulated. Camos, flags and special upgrades renew much more often, I think every month or so.

I mean...it sounds good, but I'm no short of torpedoboats at high tiers: Halland, Chung Mu, Yugumo, Asashio, Shima...and I'm still looking at the Hayate for free xp. I considered buying the permacamo for the Grozovoi, or applying the one from the campaign to the Udaloi, because I enjoyed their versatility: the Neustrashimy would give me something similar, I guess: superheal+great concealment is a nice gimmick...

As long as we're necroing... I had a bit of a meme going on with my div buddies about a year ago, as I was grinding my first high-tier BBs: I got AP-farmed by Neptunes a couple of times, so I started targeting them before anything else, especially in my new Jean Bart, often getting First Blood and/or Dev Strike, sometimes with blindfire. We'd start a game saying "oh look, a Neptune!" and then competing to get the kill. As it turned out, I found the ship stupidly powerful with proper positioning, which is exactly what I expected: Yes, the smoke-firing penalty is worse than usual, and the armor might as well not be there, but the DPM is awesome, the torps are powerful, the AA is insane.

The fire chance of each bomb is kind of a meaningless number when each part of the target ship is going to be hit by so many bombs as to inevitably set it on fire. Also, reducing the bombed area looks more like a buff to me, since it increases the bomb (and damage) density of the consumable. Remember, this thing's main purpose is to evaporate (semi-)stationary targets.

I don't have the Marco Polo, but she seems to be unremarkable: - very vulnerable broadside on - very resistant to HE spam - decent dispersion - short-ranged AA Since they nerfed SAP damage to DDs, I don't see the point. Imho, if you spend that kind of coal on a ship, she should have some gimmick to make her different enough from her tech-tree counterparts, be they of the same nation or a different one. The Marco Polo just seems like a Soyuz without the fast-reloading repair parties and different, but not necessarily better, gunnery. The Marceau, on the other hand, is hilarious: - absurd DPM - good AA - insanely fast, which is great for repositioning and influencing the battle - French dmg saturation (I think...) - actually decent concealment for that kind of ship: 7 km means you can use RPF to vector in on stealthier DDs, and that 1 km gap is quickly crossed going at 50 knots.

There are 247 Ohio replays with a YT video on the website. There is ONE Z-44 replay with a YT video on the website. I kinda wanted to get it, try a low-expectation ship so to speak, but those numbers made me reconsider...

I'm tempted to go FDR, if anything because she was built for real and I like the name... ...but I'll probably get the Plymouth, for the versatility (and I've visited the place).

I'm pretty much in your same situation, at least since I "won" the auction: 250k coal to spare and the only ship different enough to entice me is the Neustrashimy...or the Z-44, because I enjoy trolling myself a challenge. I was going to suggest the Salem, which I got in anticipation of resetting USN CAs and has been a strong performer for me so far, but since the Des Moines is already your second-most played ship, maybe you've had enough of that playstyle, I dunno... There's also the option to spend it on Papa Papa flags (with each coupon renewal) to farm more free xp. Let's say, 240k coal, 6.4k for 20 flags, but coupons are for -25% and -50% discounts, so either 3.2k or 4.8k, average 4k... ...so 240k/4k * 20 = 1200 flags, which can bring in the order of 1-2M free xp, depending on WR, camo, premium time and other flags. That's 2-3 full resets on the cheapest line (Harugumo), so depending on the bonus maybe 30k Research Bureau points, or halfway to an Ohio, if you're into that.

The Asashio is excellent: - great concealment and good alpha to deal with DDs - obviously, she's the scourge of BBs - the range on the torps is so good you can often bypass radar cruisers and strike the BBs behind them - with that range, sometimes you can even snipe CVs

Used to be the Hosho, now Orion. You can citadel cruisers even with HE, and you have the best AA in the tier.

Imho Priority Target is wasted on the Shimakaze. I only used it on French and Soviet DDs before the rework, and I can see using it on an AFT Smaland, Z-46 or Z-52, but the Shima is just not a gunboat. I wouldn't take extra flooding chance either, instead turret traverse: 23 seconds is just bad, you basically out-turn your own guns. 1) Flooding chance instead of Preventative Maintenance is dubious, since an incapacitation can reset your torpedo reload completely. I'd rather take it on DDs with lower flooding chance and lower alpha, like Pan EU or German. 2) If you're so concerned about the ability to win knife-fights against wounded gunboats, why take Superintendent instead of Adrenaline Rush? Just my 2 cents.

Unless you go for a flank and never touch a cap, you're often going to knife-fight to some extent, even in a Shima, especially at the start of a game. As long as there is no CV, or there is one but doesn't go for you or you smoke up at the right time, that damage you took early trying to contest a cap might be the only damage you take the entire game. In short, you might take 70% of damage by minute 5, but only 10% more for the rest of the game. In which case, AR is going to be an excellent pick.

1) Slightly better for pure torpedoboating: if you're on a flank you don't need RPF as much, and your main problem might be a CV, so you want the extra smoke charge. 2) Slightly better for DD-hunting, taking advantage of your concealment.

You seem to be a Co-op main, in which case I'd heartily recommend the Marceau, a hilariously fun ship in that format. I know it's a DD, but trust me, you'll feel like Superman flying around. If we're talking Randoms, I would advise you not to get a premium above Tier 6, as you seem to be struggling at T5 already. The Dunkerque was my first purchase for real money and my most played ship to this day: fast, good gun handling, fairly easy to play.

As long as she's early access, you can use any German captain in her without retraining: I'm running my 18-pointer from the Z-46. I mean, you'll need a captain for the branch eventually, but you can take your time farming some free cpt xp elsewhere.

You mean before Concealment Expert, right? The current 6.3 km is competitive with Jervis, Gadjah Mada and Akatsuki, though clearly not with Shira and Haida.

She doesn't have the stopping power, concealment or consumables to shine in Ranked, for sure. But some of those memelords who went on about "tIEr oNE DpM" just underestimated how much the insane accuracy of these guns can do for the ship, in terms of what percentage of that DPM actually reaches the target. The improved German HE doesn't hurt, either. Give her a slightly better gun reload, or an extra smoke, and better reload on the torps, and you've got a truly strong ship, if one that needs a different playstyle than usual (which is a good thing, imho).

Some quality time in the good old Amagi: 1) new personal potential damage record: in an otherwise horrible defeat, of course : 2) Final game in the regrind: with a record 5 upvotes (nice people ) and now the ugly duckling!

I'm leaning Plymouth for my next steel purchase. The Plymouth looks like a weaker but safer Minotaur. Fewer torps, worse AA and heal, but radar is very nice to have and, importantly, the lower rate of fire should leave you more time to look around between salvoes, improving your survivability through situational awareness. I've recently got the permacamo for the Mino, and I like the ship a lot, but sometimes having to keep up the dakka is too distracting, or I just need radar but I'm obviously running smoke because I'm not some yahoo... The Austin, on the other hand, seems like a specialized Wooster that trades radar for torps, and higher sustained DPM for higher burst DPM. I like the Wooster, but she's a below-average performer for me, and I'm much, much, much worse still with the Colbert, another smokeless spammer. Also, I'm pretty sure that the reason I still do okay with the Wooster is that sometimes I manage to surprise and melt a DD using RPF+radar, so even if I generally don't play well, there are going to be a few games where radar gives my team a nice advantage at some points, which offsets poor decisions I make at other times. With the Austin I'd get no such option. Keep in mind, I mostly play solo, so I value smoke more than other people might. Last night, over 2 games, I was blessed with 3 random DDs that smoked up my Colbert without me even asking for it, and I easily did about 180k in each game, so if you can get some of that action the Austin is also a solid pick, I'd say.

I grind pretty much all lines at once. I grind ships I don't like, stacking camos and special flags on them, when I get some premium time. Because I don't like them, I'll often play them poorly semi-on-purpose, I guess, which leads to worse WR, which leads to me not liking them, etc. Some tech tree ships I enjoy anyway, so I might grind them even with a standard account (Mogador, Kiev, Amagi right now). If I'm not grinding, I prioritize ships where I can farm free cpt xp, so mostly premiums, and ships that play somewhat uniquely, like Fuso, Salem, Marceau, Emilio, Worcester, Asashio, Minotaur... I only play (reasonably) "meta" ships in Ranked, meaning Alaska over Seattle and Kitakaze over Fletcher. I don't want to be a burden on the team, so I'll use a decent ship with a strong captain, and barring some coincidence (I had Yamamoto on the Kitakaze before I restarted the line, and I was also grinding the Z-46 with an 18-pts guy), that means a premium. I *tried* to raise my horrible Nagato WR a while back, and even got the permacamo as an incentive, but it just didn't work. There are a couple of ships where my stats are so good that, out of vanity, I'm refraining from playing them again: Daring and Hood. Or rather, I would play them if I still had élite captains on them, but since the rework they're stuck at 19 points and I can use this excuse... On the other hand, I keep playing the Halland even though I have the worst luck with it: I just don't have the patience to go pure torpedo spamming, but every time I try to force a move, cap, or whatever, I run into another DD and they gun me down with extreme prejudice, despite me taking the reload mod. It's my most played T10 DD by far, yet arguably my worst performer. It's one of those cases of the moth being drawn to the light even though it's bad for it. I also keep playing Colbert even though I'm crap at it, because it's fun to go pew pew pew

Don't we get weekly special signals now, basically? Imho it's never been easier to grind free xp, so just dew it and start saving up again later: the Nelson's a nice ship, and she's getting withdrawn!