tocqueville8

It sounds like your aiming and angling are as good as your punctuation and spelling

I'm pretty sure my Colbert and D7P had a radar or two in reality...

Honestly, I thought playing Colbert in Ranked was a bit of a joke, but she turned out to be perfectly viable This team, though... These guys were more cooperative: at some point the Friesland appeared out of nowhere and smoked me up Very satisfying win in the Aegir, with a semi-AA build that a certain Shokaku was too stubborn to stay away from EDIT: made it do YT: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifm1VAo1z4c

And as I said, I'm fine with that. Higher risk, higher reward. I'm not complaining about an OP ship, I'm complaining about a ship I feel has a low skill floor and is unfun to deal with. At least Stalingrad has some ridiculous accuracy and an easier-to-hit citadel...

Des Moines is squishier, less forgiving. Definitely more fun to play against. Yamato captains don't typically put themselves in trouble and then berate the team for "not supporting them". I've seen several Petro ones that headed straight for the nearest island, dropped anchor, got burned down/crosstorped/etc., and blamed the team. They thought they were being clever by playing their coastal defense simulator, or maybe sidescraping like one does in WoT (I imagine: I've never played it myself...). Halland is a bit of a standoff DD, what with the torps and the AA, so it doesn't make players feel they're entitled to more help (which the team is often not in a position to give) because they have Petro's in-your-face playstyle.

I think the plating is the biggest issue with the Petro. I used to play the JB a lot a couple of years ago, and while the frontal firepower was awesome, you paid dearly for it if there was a Musashi, an IFHE light cruiser or any heavy cruiser slinging HE at you. If you were caught nose-in by overmatching or HE-penning ships, you could melt in a minute. Obviously, the Petro has much lower alpha, and no reload boost either, but the plating makes her a lot tankier. She's also a much smaller target. In short, I just think she's bad for the game. Maybe not OP, but she encourages bad habits. I'm seeing a lot of Ranked players just driving her to the nearest island and parking there, playing like a coastal battery simulator, because it's reasonably effective, requires zero adaptiveness and, while it might turn out to be a strategic mistake (they get flanked and crossfired), it's never a tactical mistake (they're not going to get Dev Struck like a regular cruiser showing broadside). I think the Des Moines, with a higher risk, higher reward design, is better for the game.

The range on French secondaries used to be outstanding, but iirc they buffed it on most BB lines around a year ago, with the captain rework. It's still best in the game or so, but not that special anymore. However, the real issue is you need IFHE on the 100s to pen anything: otherwise those guns are for fires only. Basically: 7) Lyon has lots of secondaries with good caliber, but only 25% of her guns at the front: not ideal in coop 8) Richelieu needs IFHE and iirc few of her secondaries face forward, but at least 100% of her main guns do. And she gets good speed + boost. 9) Alsace, ditto, and only 67% of her guns at the front. But I think she has more secondaries facing forward. 10) République has good secondaries, capable of penning superstructures and DD hulls, but only 50% of her guns are at the front. In Randoms, French secondaries are probably only worth it on Alsace, Flandre and République, but they're not recommended due to their 32 mm plating. For what it's worth, I had decent results with a full-secondary République back in the day, and I didn't even have a full build (no Fire Prevention). However, that was before Pommern and German battlecruisers had been introduced, so the competition was lighter.

Imho they should test a compromise: - CV spotting works "normally" if the planes are within AA range, or close to it - CV spotting is minimap-only if the planes are within the current "air detection radius", but not exposed to AA That way, spotting would be possible, so DDs couldn't just go rampaging around, but it would come at a price: BBs wouldn't stay spotted for 3-4 km before being able to shoot down the fighters, with no counterplay.

Yes, it does. - SAP overmatches just like AP (14.3 rule) - SAP has better pen angles than AP, typically - SAP has a fixed penetration value, like HE - SAP can't overpen, like HE - SAP can't cause fires, like AP Keep in mind though that the SAP pen angles are so good that often times you should pen even if you can't overmatch.

You want Shikishima gun sound without paying 24k steel for it? Out of my way, you pleb!

The stock reload is 36 sec, worse than most Tier 9 BBs. Plus a lot of players go for accuracy in slot #6.

But earlier I lost a game while on Flambass's team: some scrub Midway got us both

Is this going to be the 3rd thread in a few days where I recommend the Marceau? Salem is also an overperformer for me, and a good pick for coop as well: high rate of fire, improved AP angles against bow-in bots, strong AA for extra xp. Kearsarge is powerful but kind of boring: slow reload, rocket planes every couple of minutes...honestly, her main gimmick is being ugly

THREE torpedo hits in the Sherman? Were you using them fancy acoustic torps you need to ping for?

Q: Why did the Bismarck cross the map? A: To join the 4 other BBs and feed the Benham on A

If she's anything like the Friesland, and the consumable setup + high dakka suggests so, the Forrest Sherman is probably less forgiving than the Marceau. The reason is that smokescreens are torpedo, radar and even hydro magnets, and they also make you me careless because, once I drop one, I feel I must "make the most of my investment", sometimes taking a torp as I angle to use all my turrets, or not noticing the flank is weakening and I should gtfo. The Marceau, on the other hand, is never committed to a point of the map, and she has the speed to reposition at will. In fact, she encourages you to, as you don't want to waste your speedboost, once activated. Worst-case scenario for the Marceau: overextend and be forced to trade on bad terms. Worst-case scenario for the Sherman: eat torps in your smoke, get radared and finished off with guns by someone you can't even see.

Colbert may not be the strongest one, but she's the one I found myself playing the most, by far. That's over 4 minutes straight of French speed boost, with the highest sustained HE DPM in the game

Tier 5 ---> 200 RB points Tier 6 ---> 500 Tier 7 ---> 500 Tier 8 ---> 1500 Tier 9 ---> 1500 Tier 10 ---> 6000

Be advised, that thing is so good in co-op that you'll get reported for hogging all the kills!

Insane, hilarious win. Looks pretty good, huh? Well, it's not, because this is my hp at this moment: Also, everybody sinks except me and the full-hp Queen Elizabeth. And we lose B I head middle to get it back, telling the QE to run away and run down the clock "for insurance". She follows me Out of smokes, I get the cheekiest cap in history, then go down. But the Weimar is on 3k, so he should be dead in one volley, right? Right...? EEEEE Wrong!!! Weimar caps B back unmolested Oh, and the QE eats 2 torps from the Akatsuki (already a Kraken for him). AND, double permaflood: from 53k to 2k in a minute Yup, we're boned Or are we? QE finishes the Weimar, Fubuki opens up with the guns, but he's in smoke and the QE survives the 20 seconds of bloom on 456 hp! The QE almost f***ed it up, but honestly I can't be mad at the guy: with fewer than 100 games, he's probably still used to protected matchmaking

Frankly I can't recall the last afk player I saw in Ranked. Nor the last yoloer. I do remember a 45-47% Salem who clearly failed his way to Gold (!!!), but in general I liked the experience. If there are griefers who just afk to get all the rewards as quickly as possible, well, I haven't met them. It's hardly an issue imho. I can see people playing more relaxed once they're in it for the rewards and not the stars, but that might actually make them play better... Also, the lack of divisions seems to make matches more balanced, somewhat compensating for the greater randomness of smaller teams.

That's why I said "at least one" tech tree line, meaning I don't think it's worth to get Auboyneau if he plans to grind NOT A SINGLE French line.

If you want to get Auboyneau at all, it's better now than later: a regular captain with more skills is going to be worth more than a special one with fewer skills. If you plan to play De Grasse and grind at least one tech tree line, possibly BBs (French BBs are fun: I've even regrinded them once), maybe the captain is better, as he brings something to every ship class. Frankly, I've never bought an expensive commander for coal, but that's largely because I got some for free and I have several strong "regular" captains already. The Marceau can probably do very well with just a 13-pointer.

In a way, the Marceau plays more like the Fantasque, which can bring her concealment down to 6.4 km, than the Kléber, which has 7.8 unless you take the Legendary Upgrade (which, again, turns her into a completely different animal). The torpedoes are more similar between Fantasque and Mogador/Kléber, while Marceau has slower, weaker ones that reload slowly as well. But she has more room to use them from stealth, like the Fantasque (and the Aigle) and unlike the her T9-10 tech tree cousins. As for the Gearing comparison, I don't see it, other than for the slow shells. The Gearing needs a full gun build and the fire chance skill to beat a stock Marceau in DPM and fires per minutes. The Gearing can take Def AA, but then she's going to be 20-40% slower than the Marceau, ceteris paribus, depending on the latter's speed boost. The Gearing plays more like a traditional DD, with her reasonable speed, traditional concealment, cozy smokes and the extra ability, compared to most of her peers, to torpedo second and third-line targets from over 15 km away. Granted, I've only played the Gearing as a torpedoboat, possibly with an AA twist, but I find her reassuringly generic. On the other hand the Marceau, and her fellow French DDs, is like Einstein relativity to Galilean relativity: at high speeds, your perception of space and time changes dramatically

I voted Marceau based on the title, but your captain situation suggests Auboyneau is a better investment at this moment. That is, assuming you intend to go up (or down?) at least one French tech tree line, or get some more premium ships in the future. Otherwise, better to have Marceau with a regular captain than Auboyneau with no decent ship to put him on. But you have the De Grasse, right? I haven't played the Kléber in her standard form, only with the Legendary module, which changes the playstyle altogether. But I've played the Mogador extensively, the same way most people play the Kléber. Imho the Marceau is very different: 1) better concealment means you can catch isolated DDs and murder them before they escape 2) better turret traverse means she's more comfortable in knife-fights and can take Preventative Maintenance as the 1-point skill 3) slower ballistics mean she can comfortably use island cover, instead of exposing herself by open-watering: you might get very good at it, but it will always involve trading some hp 4) good AA (usual caveats apply) means she can actively chase down carriers if there's an opening in the enemy formation: Marceau will earn you a lot of AA Expert awards: None of the DDs you've played has prepared you for the Marceau, nor would the tech tree line imho. The Kiev (assuming you ran a heal) might look like it, but she's closer to the Kléber imho: good ballistics, bad concealment, not very good AA. Having said that, I can't recommend her enough. She's a very versatile ship and a clear overperformer for me: Solo Randoms - Overall Randoms - As I've written on another thread yesterday, I think the Marceau is one of the most fun ships in the game, but she's not going anywhere for now and the captain might be a better option for you. I don't have him myself (nor will I ever, probably) so I can't comment, but he's surely better than any generic French dude with fewer points.