tocqueville8

I found them a bit...jarring. Last time I played Hermes, staying as close to each enemy wave as it's possible in the Atlantico (which is pretty slow), I had a good match (200k dmg, 100k plane damage, or something), while taking next to no damage. Then in Aegis, after dealing with the first wave in the middle, I set myself to kite the one coming from NW, but I got focused by 5 Myokos or whatever, and got melted in a minute. It seems that the bots now shoot on reload, with good aim, and they pretty much all focus on the most exposed target. Like...5 or 6 ships shooting just at you/me. That's...fine, I guess, but it makes the whole thing a bit too binary: you can die in 20% into the operation without even overextending significantly, or still be full hp at the end despite only playing 1-2 km farther away.

On premium and elite tech tree ships, ship XP is basically just an accounting device.

That's why they added superships, to make people spend all their credits. If they didn't cost as much to buy and play, high-tiers would be full of them, which would devalue ships that have been in the game since forever, many of them historical, like Yamato, Shimakaze, Daring, Des Moines and Midway. You really need to perform much better to make a profit a high tiers, but you're struggling even at Tier 7-8

It's 200 games, right? Not that one is truly ready then, but at Tier 6 after 60 games the OP is inflicting this on himself

The vast majority of "Try Your Luck" chests are small, and most players go for "more resources" every time, unless they have a mouse slip. I can see choosing flags or economic bonuses instead, as a new player, but never TYL. Supercontainers are just very rare, overall. The really low tiers have always had very few human players, as beginners get "protected matchmaking" where they're only paired with other beginners, which aren't very many. Bots are very common below Tier 5 even outside of protected matchmaker: a couple of weeks ago I played Tier 2 and 10/12 players on each team were bots. Nevertheless, sometimes the MM gets screwy and you play 1v1, 2v2 games in Randoms, which the maps aren't really designed for. Yup, low-tier cruisers are notoriously squishy, plus the maps are smaller and it can be hard to keep track of who's aiming at you. I always take Incoming Fire Alert and Priority Target, but even those only help so much in something like an Omaha. That's kind of your fault, with all due respect: the protected matchmaking works for up to your first 200 games, but not if you play Tier 5 or above, and I see you're already at the E. Gaede. That's a no-no. If you go back to Tier 4, you should enjoy protected matchmaking again for the remainder of your first 200 games. I suggest you try that. While we're at it, this should go to the "Newcomers" section. I'm not trying to belittle you: I played a lot of Wyoming, Izyaslav and Charleston myself before moving up to the mid-tiers for good. Tier 5 was kind of my horizon. Then a couple of months with Fuso, Queen Elizabeth, Dunkerque, Fubuki, New Orleans, etc., and only later to Tier 8.

Only barely: 3° to the stern and 5° to the bow.

I'd add to the list that Iwami has an extra heal (or rather, stock Hizen only has 3 heals for some reason) and much better turret traverse (35 instead of 45 seconds stock). That essentially amounts to 6 free captain points on the Iwami, 2 for Grease the Gears and 4 from Emergency Repair Expert, which can be put into, say, IFHE and secondary accuracy. The improved rudder means you can take Engine Mod "for free" and have much better agility around islands. Ditto with the sigma: it largely makes up for having fewer barrels, so that it really comes down to the reload, and Iwami is just so much better there... I'd say so, which is why I never got her. I have good captains on Bismarck, Preussen, Rupprecht and Schlieffen; I got a free Tirpitz from Santa; I got Odin and Scharnhorst back then. And I have the GK. Granted, none of these is a Tier 9 premium, but Pommern just wouldn't add much overall. I'd rather keep my coal for the next "interesting" ship (F. Sherman, Napoli, etc.) The torps are basically just for jousting: they hit much harder, but they're also spotted twice as early as those of the Pommern. The main guns don't punch as hard as those on the Izumo, but I found them good enough, and that's with a secondary build. The secondaries, on the other hand, are great: the range is so-so, but the accuracy is very good, and if you set up a couple of brawls it shouldn't be too hard to get around 200 hits, for maybe 45-50k damage. You need IFHE, but you can afford it because your turret traverse is good. Overall, I find her a good package, and very versatile: good main guns with good handling, good concealment, good rudder, good armor (lean hull, 50 mm deck), great secondaries, torps just in case. Obviously, you want games with no CV and maps with lots of islands: you're not going to get them every time, but she's an excellent ship when you do, and still a decent ship otherwise.

The Drake, apparently.

Radar ships? She's a kiter, who cares... Planes? Def AA is actually reasonable on a kiter, imho. The heal is also a plus. Dev Strikes? I always run IFA+PT on cruisers, so it's not all that common.

Eye in the Sky (2 cpt points) makes the plane last 50% less, but the cooldown is also cut in half. And you get more charges to compensate. You can also mount the coal module in slot #1, to bring the duration up a bit. It's useless on the Goliath though: she has no plane, so you have to run Range Mod then. I do, together with Rudder in slot #5. Honestly though, the simplest solution is just to try Range Mod on the Drake, if you're uncomfortable: I'm using it on the Goliath (which I don't play much tbh), and I've tried it on the Buffalo in the past, as she plays similarly. As for Sejong/Jinan, they're kind of supposed to go near the caps, shoot DDs if spotted, smoke up, and prevent the enemy from pushing using their HE and torps. It's not really about the "meta": it's just what the line is designed to do. As usual, I agree with @Panocek here: if you're out of range, your DPM is zero. A 13% buff is just not all that impressive and it's probably less decisive than a dozen decisions you're going to make every single game.

Drake has a spotter and she can take the range module: I don't see where the problem is.

Coal, steel, FXP and RB ships are all called "freemiums"...

It also helps to have that mod that shows the remaining hp on both teams: you could just look around (it only works within line of sight, I think), but it gives a good quick read while you're in the middle of a fight.

EDIT: made it to YT: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnIvJr30Mpk

This, honestly. Especially close games, where anything could've made the difference. Some common tactical mistakes: opening fire too early during the turn, or just before the smokescreen fully deploys getting carried away after a power-play. Example: Sleeping Giant, Colbert, middle of the game. I capped A, went into B, sank 2 DDs and a sub along the way. Good stuff. But then I decided to push the enemy Hindenburg to my North instead of going South, with the rest of the team, and help them contain the enemy push from C. The Hindenburg outtraded me: not a disaster per se, but I could've done 2, 3 times more with the safe option. With DDs in particular, sneaking near islands instead of spotting (especially radar cruisers), torping, screening for torps etc. Again with DDs, smoking up to farm when low on hp. Even bad players will blind-fire you. Just accept you have to use your torps, even if they suck. Happened to me a couple of weeks ago in the Elbing. Turning right after going dark. Incoming Fire Alert (should you take it: I do on all cruisers) doesn't work if they blind-fire you, and you might get citadelled out of nowhere. Some common strategic mistakes: Giving up on your team too early. Committing to a nose-in position too early, which often leads to trading damage 1-for-1, instead of trying something cleverer. Being the one that makes first contact and taking too much damage early on: it's mostly an issue for DDs with poor stealth or BBs/cruisers that have no screen, but decide to go in anyway. You might still have a good game, but winning it might come down to a 1v1, and then you need all the hp you can get. Happened to me today in the Paolo Emilio. Kiting towards the map border instead of the center, ending up far from the rest of the action. Just in general, kiting someone you should actually take on. For instance, you're in a cruiser, you have to kite a BB and a gunboat, but then the BB dies or leaves and you keep kiting the DD like it's Jerry chasing Tom . You waste your time and lose map control in the process. Going for the target-rich environment instead of securing kills in unfair fights. Happened to me today in the Colbert: we went ahead by 3 ships and 3 caps, got overconfindent, started throwing. I went middle to repel the other half of the enemy team (Bourgogne, Nevsky, Yoshino...), but I was alone: I should've gone North to help our Preussen deal with their Yamato. Now, our Preussen was a total coward, but he could at least serve as a decoy. The opposite: helping someone who doesn't need help, basically aiming at a killsteal, instead of supporting the rest of the team repel the brunt of the enemy push. Going for free/safe caps instead of helping the team. Capping is fine, but don't get greedy for the points if someone else's already doing it: I've seen sometimes 5-6 ships cramming into a cap like zebras at the watering hole, like it gave a heal or something, instead of spreading out for better map control. That's a safe cap. A free cap (not contested, but you're the only one there) is better, but only if you're also spotting, torping, screening, etc. Staying close to ships of the same type. Generally, BBs should spread out to crossfire, DDs to spot, contest caps and crosstorp, cruisers to support. The main exception is 2 DDs going together to increase the chance of an early gun kill, otherwise it's usually a mistake. Some of these may seem trivial, but everyone makes trivial mistakes sometimes

I believe there's currently a mod in the modstation that displays the WR of each opponent when you see him (not sure if it works on the CV's planes though). Maybe that can help you gauge the level of aggression you can take, decide when it's safe to push or not, etc. One little trade secret, which I often fail to apply myself, is to sometimes sail in "innatural" ways, like stopping still or ramming an island, to avoid greater danger. For instance, if your DD gets radared while nose-in in the open, sometimes the best thing you can do is slow down and wait it out. You might be tempted to turn away from danger, but you'll take a lot more damage for showing broadside. Ditto in BBs: sometimes you get too close to the people kiting you, so just go dark, let them move away, and dmgcon once they're out of your detection. If you turn away, you'll both show broadside and be left behind on your pursuit: even if you survive, you might be too far to help later on. You're not like those sharks that have to keep swimming in order to breathe: you're more like an ant, often changing direction in response to outside stimuli, even if "looks indecisive".

Make RPF work on them while they're submerged. Yesterday a sub div went for our spawn to kill our CV. I rushed half the map in my Kléber to reach them (it's ok, we were clearly winning), and did reach them, but it took me like 8 minutes to sink the second one, as he kept going under and turning away. When a DD is on top of a sub, the sub's only recourse should be to shotgun his torps or to ram. Other than that, he should be screwed, like a BB getting torpedo-rushed or a cruiser showing broadside at 7 km.

Best: probably Jean Bart, considering she holds several of my records despite being the first high-tier freemium I ever got. Worst (by performance): I think Carnot. It's the Slava complex: she's squishy and AP-focused, so I go middle and look for broadsides. Unfortunately, that has less impact than making a beeling to the flank and kiting with HE, like I would do in plain old Ibuki... Worst (by replay value): Kearsarge or Neustrashimy. Both good ships, but the gimmick doesn't really give them an identity, so I'm never interested in taking them out.

@Communist_Loli

As long as divisions are allowed, calling it "Randoms" is a bit of false advertising anyway tbh. The synch-drop is a minor issue, by comparison, as it's a toss-up between making the problem twice as bad and removing it altogether (assuming people don't throw for their clanmates).

At least they can't throw for one another. See the recent OHBOY/YOBOY fiasco...

I'm mildly proud to say I picked up neither the Smolensk nor the Thunderer (nor the Nakhimov, so far).

They all have one: it's 1 up to Tier 3, then it falls all the way to 0.5 at Tier 10. I think it's done to let higher tier ships have more and/or faster-firing guns, but without turning the game into a raging inferno. The alternative was to lower the fire chance per shell, but that would've looked lousy in the weapon description. For some reasons, all CVs have a 0.8 coefficient, which is pretty bad at Tier 8 and 10, but their fires end almost immediately... As anyone sensible

Not quite. High tier ships have a fire resistance coefficient between 2/3 and 1/2 (even lower for superships), so you expect significantly fewer fires. Then some ships have Fire Prevention and Dmg Con Mod 1, which take away another 15% or so. Then there are ships with DmgCon active. Then there's saturation, when you hit a ship already on fire in that area. Then, finally, there's some bad luck, but not as much as you think. Just looking at some of my screenshots: Ibuki, 244 HE hits, 18% fire chance (stock + 1 flag) = 44 fires, but actually only 14, about 3 times fewer Salem, 202 HE hits, 15% fire chance (ditto) = 30 fires, but actually only 11, about 3 times fewer again Colbert, 840 HE hits, 7% fire chance (stock) = 59 fires, but actually only 11, over 5 times fewer (lots of saturation) Now, you were really unlucky with the Sherman (13 times fewer fires than you'd naively expect), but 435 hits isn't even that many on such a fast-firing ship: it's one good game's worth of them, but you could've done twice as many or so. I'm not criticizing your gameplay: I'm just saying it's still a small sample.

There are enough sources of frustration in this game even without detonations, so I always take the flag on DDs. And I double-check if I'm playing Ranked or in a division. Basically: if I'm playing a premium ship, I can afford it, and if I'm not, it probably means I'm regrinding the line, so it's worth it as an insurance for the economic boosters I'm using.