Sir_Sinksalot

Because winning gives ALL the team a progress star, regardless of doing f-all and being carried. Also, the unfair distribution of XP rewarded for each class "playing to it's role" creates situations where a player loses a star for not finishing first on the losing team even though they played better and did more meaningful contributions than the guy who was credited first place. So all in all the mode just encourages botting and spamming battles in a "Quantity over quality" since ultimately if your teams a full house of terrible players you're gonna lose and it will only take one teammate "padding" to make you lose a star and ironically it was this negative brand of "I don't want to lose a star" instead of a positive "I want to win a star" mindset that sowed the seeds of defeat from the very beginning. What I did, as mentioned before, is switched to the most powerful and impactful ship I could play to suit that fast paced and low player count mode which is? That's right, a toxic CV. Edit- Actually that was last season. For this season what I did was an excellent tactic called not playing the game for weeks. It worked great, you should try it. No CV's or subs or stupid teams or anything.

WoT+ would sell like hotcakes in WoWS IF.... instead of blocking 3 maps we can instead block 2 classes of "ships" we don't like. So long CV and subs!! Whhhooooya!

So just your typical squishy armored pitiful AA Nagato battle then.

Faster BB's with faster reload times are more flexible, more involving and have more potential. In other words their more fun and can relocate when needs be and are fast enough to keep up with flank pushes and not miss out on targets by being too slow and too late for most engagements. Slow BB's with slow reloads are rather dreary, limited, situational and have a higher level of importance placed on landing each salvo which in a game soaked with RNG and all kinds of stupid bs can be more frustrating and boring to play with lots of downtime between each reload where you're basically doing nothing(and perhaps being farmed) and lots of time plodding about the map like a snail also doing nothing, missing out on targets, getting trapped on a failing flank while your faster teammates sail away and relocate to better position etc. Both will have their moments of glory but with slower ships that also have a slow reload, it's less often.

For cruising.

And ironically this would be one of the most suitable game modes for subs. I'd even take my free ones out for a little try if I could play them in Ops.

Failing to stop my ship properly behind an island and instead casually drifting out in front of most the enemy fleet "Wooopsadaisy, nothing to see here, please turn around for a second or two... no? awww... "

In regards ranked and the addition of subs. We knew this was coming sadly, WG mentioned something like "We want all ships of all classes and tiers able to play in all game modes" or something along those lines. Well fine, but as others touched on in the comments, in a 6 v 6 mode which also includes CV's, that's simply a level of toxicity beyond my tolerance levels, so combined with the reduction in Steel and fact I can get Steel from BP simply for playing whatever I want at practically any tier a want, you can count me out of any further Ranked participation after this season ends. I'd also add to that the fact that Steel has devalued as a game currency in light of the addition of T11 ships which has effectively made T10 Steel ships an inferior choice. When I play a game, I do so for fun. This is and should be the primary reason for anyone to play a game. Life has enough bs and stresses coming down the tracks without the need for me to take on more baggage voluntarily and I'd urge caution at WG devs in that regards because only the most dedicated WoWS fans are willing to put up with that and I'm not sure those would amount to a large enough playerbase to sustain the game as a viable business. Casuals like me, which I'd guess make up the large majority of the playerbase and income, will simply play some other game of which there are many. Gaming is a very competitive market. I can only speak for myself but as a casual WoWS player I certainly find the game less appealing to play and more annoying to play of late. Now, I'm a BB main so take my comment as such. Maybe it's not as annoying for players that enjoy other classes more. As for Steel ships, they are far less attractive than they were as top dog. This might lead to the introduction of T11 Steel ships but... thread carefully in that regards too since the "premium account only" economic running costs of a T11 ship might be a deal breaker for some players that would still be bound to playing a T10 ship for economic reasons unless a T11 Steel ship comes with a economics benefits we've not seen on T11 ships thus far and that would indeed make a T11 Steel ship very attractive and exclusive in that regards. I'd guess T11 Steel ships being introduced is a certainty though. They will most definitely be added at some point. Ranked, I actually had to switch to playing CV's myself this season once I arrived at Silver League because in this 6 v 6 format they can simply wreak havoc and naturally increase the chances of that all important winning requirement and preserving a star in defeat. When it comes to a reward system based on winning I'll play the best ship for that mode rather than a ship I'd actually want to play, simple as that, and in this mode I discovered my T8 BB's struggled against CV's while a Ruski Pobeda is most devastating free-play way I could get the job done on a consistent level. I'm not a CV player though, so that both highlights the fact that I'm playing something I don't really want to out of necessity(therefore not particularly having fun) and just how broken and over-powered CV's are that I, a complete CV novice, can simply pick one up and dominate many a ranked battle against very strong surface ships played by very experienced players. The games not much fun at the moment and none of the events or new content can gloss over that.

Ya. The problem here is, as I see it. 1. Due to the relatively new addition of BP, which adds hefty amounts of Steel rewards(and RB points), WG devs probably made the decision to reduce Ranked Steel incomes in an effort to partially offset BP Steel gains since they probably felt player were now bagging way too much Steel. 2. The problem with this setup is A. Steel and RB points are arguably the main attraction and reason for players to upgrade to a premium pass for even more of them, not so much the early access or submarine tokens bs of late. So that makes Steel a source of revenue for WG and therefore unlikely they would nerf the amounts of Steel(and RB points) obtained via a BP season. B. Here's the snag for WG moving forwards. Because simply playing ANY mode almost pacifies as a contribution towards RB, and Ranked now offers less Steel which was arguably the only real reason for many to play Ranked, this now makes Ranked far less attractive to play since well, a player can still play whatever ship they want but instead at almost any tier they want and in any mode they want and will STILL get chunky amounts of Steel along with RB points whereas with Ranked a player gets pigeon holed into playing a very specific tier and mode which as we know, can be more frustrating than it's worth. Now, what that also means is WG devs might soon decided to reduce the amount of available Steel to be obtained from a BP season to make Ranked more attractive and worth bothering with again BUT, will most likely reduce Steel income from the non-premium BP rewards while leaving the premium BP upgrade as it is to keep it attractive for people to pay money since the end-game reward for BP, as mentioned, is generally bs of late making the Steel and RB points the main attraction. This will obviously stand out as more of a pay2win move too since well, that's exactly what it will be. Pay money, get more Steel and RB points, simple as. Can't dress it up any other way. So imho the main issue here that has given rise to changes in Ranked Battle rewards has been the addition of BP which WG devs are still clearly tinkering with and is a work in progress, more changes to come undoubtedly.

Useless players = useless battles

How insultingly lazy and pitiful. Have a thumbs down. No new content here even though I contacted @Seraphice months ago as some might recall. Several times actually including a PM requested an Irish tricolor if not the Irish Naval flag. "Hello! Yes I saw your message there!For St. Patricks day I assure you there is plenty :)" This is just same old Shamrock flag and consumable camo's they've been running with for years. Really? It' so hard to create this little flag for new content? It's basically a case of just changing the colors of any existing tricolor for fork sake...

Well, since that's the case you should finish the job and apply those 4 points to Manual Secondary Battery Aiming. With commanders secondary battery skills it's nearly a case of all or nothing. A player shouldn't waste 3 skill points on extending secondary range if they're not in a position to also select the 4 point MSBA for significantly improved accuracy, regardless of what equipment you choose. You're just not going to hit anything at long range with your secondary batteries without the 4 point accuracy buff so it's a waste of what could have been a far more useful 3 point skill at that point. The only exception might be if a player ignores the 3 point range skill and instead takes the 4 point accuracy buff. Some higher tier BB's have a pretty decent secondary range by default along with secondary equipment and signals so if they don't have a 21 pointer or might prefer to put the 3 points on some other skill they can just go with the 4 point secondary accuracy buff but certainly never take the 3 point range skill buff without the 4 point accuracy buff too. When you get the chance to reset the skill points for free, have already decided where you want that "fancy" commander to go. This boils down to what ships you play most but regardless, I feel this is a case of needing two commanders. One for a secondary build, and one for a more typical primary battery/tanky BB sort of build. You just can't fill both rolls with a single commander without being overly compromised and gimped in one area or another, and I think that was the point when WG devs came up with these skills and their points requirement.

Any ideas? Too easy? Too Hard? The vast majority of players don't seem to give a flying F. Worse still is how most players appear to play as though it's their first WoWS battle EVER PLAYED. Not just atrociously bad players but completely bereft of awareness, skill, tactics... everything, SO bad. Randoms has elements of that too but not on such a scale and not to that all time low level of standard and that's not me bragging about my own ability, I'm average as balls but these players make bots look unicum.

It's a pretty common mission I think. So far I've been using the T7 Helena specifically to pacify that missions ASAP which features 5X3 mains with an 8.5 second reload which stood out for it's number of mains and reasonably ok'ish reload but I've never actually explored other ships which might have fewer guns but might actually average more main battery hits due to a much faster reload and maybe also a better range combo etc. What ship due you guys think or know that does the best job at pumping out the most amount of main battery shells... per minute? per 30 seconds? Kinda depends on how long the target lasts too but obviously we'd be using the shell type that deals the least amount of damage to each particular target and aiming and parts that take the least damage and non-pens since it's all about trying to rack up as many main battery strikes and not about trying to deal damage and actually kill the target.

My guess would be the decision for submarines inclusion in WoWS and which modes they're included in rests with just one or two overpaid and clueless bell-ends that have never actually played the game and were hired to stimulate business based on their achievements and accomplishments in some non-related game which they haven't been able to actually replicated in a long time ago but got hired on merit for that one outdated achievement that no longer holds relevance for the game they now apply that "skill" on. I suspect the vast majority of those working for WG as part of the WoWS team for years already know that subs in this game would never gel with the style of gameplay and also disagree with them as much as the players.

Rise of the potato!

Ya, work your backside off and still lose a very one-sided rofl stomp featuring teammates that were either AFK or utterly hopeless. "But you finished top of the losing team so didn't lose a star! What's the problem you lazy bum?" Ya epic. Especially 4-5 times in a row and literally made no progress in ranked for that entire session and probably and hour of gameplay. You sat down, clicked battle, played for an hour and literally gained nothing other than the delightful experience of witnessing the human gene pool regressing around you. In fact you probably lost a start in the last battle of that session after finally getting triggered by a run of such auto-lose teams and played red-mist mode which is never a good idea. Much fun and progress were had. Well, come back tomorrow sir and do it all over again but maybe you get 4-5 wins a row for picking your nose instead because that's always possible too. Either way, you don't get rewarded for playing well amidst a team of hopeless sea cucumbers that lose, nor punished for playing worse than a bot when on the winning team, all of which eventually makes "Just spam battles with the fastest ship you can, yolo at the enemy, get in a few token shots, get killed, rinse and repeat and through sheer volume of quantity over quality you'll eventually get the required wins for the loot" a very attractive proposition.

Nope.

I'm not even looking to finish this latest BP's standard mode let alone considering to upgrade to premium. It's worse they're getting and WG are now clearly using BP to lump their unwanted trashcan classes that are the top 2 most flagged prayerbase griefers onto to the playerbase, garnished with perma-cams and economic bonuses in an effort to make them appear as attractive ships and classes worth getting and playing. The last iteration featured an early access to the T8 Nebraska which is just a tech-tree ship ultimately and as mentioned, a ship that features a broken form of attack, aka, aircraft. This latest BP sinks(literally sinks) even lower by rewarding British Submarine tokens which is another class they can't properly balance, a class the vast majority don't want, a class the cast majority never asked for, a class at one point WG themselves stated would never featuring in the game because it couldn't ever be balanced, and again, they're dressing it as something lucrative, appealing and as something a player should really want and be happy to get. But who's fooled by any of this? Apart from the minority of players that actually want and enjoy submarines and fapping about with aircraft in a ship vs ship game, who's actually gonna be fooled by the transparent ploy? I was basically given the other submarines for free up to T8 and I STILL don't care about them. Sure, sadly I'll exploit CV's in Ranked Battles because they're so over-powered, easy to play and have a massively unfair advantage over EVERY surface ship but I'd certainly be delighted to see them get the big nerf-kick in the balls they and all aircraft surely need and deserve. Ok, the hybrids are not a problem just by themselves since they may well actually offer the only balanced form of aircraft attack I've seen since their attacks are only limited and respawn much slower than a full blooded CV but the point is that it's just another addition of broken and annoying aspects in the game for effectively extra airplanes in a battle already featuring a CV. So instead of being spotted and attacked by just a CV's aircraft, it's now possible to be spotted and attacked and focused by aircraft launched from a CV, launched from a BB, launched from a cruiser, and even DD's are starting to dip their toes into WoWP mode. bs in other words. If you're going to have several ships in a battle capable of launching aircraft flights to spot and attack ships then at least have the sense to exclude CV's from such battles so other ships have a chance to breath and actually dare to have brief pockets of fun. How does having even more airplanes than just the CV's alone in a battle translate into better gameplay? And the answer is it doesn't obviously, and then while you're trying to avoid attacks from waves of aircraft launched by several ships and coming from several directions, you also have some classy dude with his submarine's pinging your ship and launching homo-torps. Great fun honestly, and also take a full broadside from a T11 BB while you're trying to dodge that lot.

Code expired. Damn! No camo container for me! The tragedy of it all!

A Tier 7 ship of your choice in the armory is around 6-7k doubloons with the 25% discount plus that's going to be a ship you actually get to choose unlike this randomly dropped ship which will most likely not be the one or class you wanted so unless you actually care about any of the other low % container(0.4% sort of drop rate chance) or the bloatware filler in between of economic bonuses etc then there really isn't any value in it imho.

I kinda figured that's how the hybrid BB/CV era would play out amongst most the nooby playerbase so that screenshot(albeit just one battle and as bottom tier ships to be fair) comes as no surprise. With a lot of players I'm encountering, I figured trying to perform two class tasks at the same time would be a bridge too far for many. I figure it would take a player with a particular skillset(I will find you and I will kill you!) and ability, an awareness and reaction time to extract the most from two classes that are not as strong as either class outright. So while players are trying to play the CV element of their hybrid their BB is AFK'ing across open waters or sitting full broadside to enemy ship lol! Or as you outlined, simply parked behind an island like something an actual proper CV might do. But of course it's not a proper CV so if a player is tucking their AFK BB behind an island while they fly their "nowhere as strong as an actual CV" flight of aircraft at enemy ships then all they're actually doing is just playing a really bad CV and would be better off just playing a CV. Equally when they switch to the BB mode of that ship, the likes of the Nebraska has only 2X3 mains with a 30 second reload time and they're the N-C type of US balloon chuckers that struggle with that long-range damage dealing since targets have about... 3 hours to react between shots fired and shells arriving lol. Surely with a ship that awkward and vulnerable it has to play the long range game whenever using it as a BB apart from the odd end-game push to rout a defeated enemy team etc. I know the Kearsarge is a T9 ship but at least that gets twice the main battery capacity as the Nebraska and I'm guessing the aircraft are probably better too in some way be it damage dealing or flight reload times? I know the Kearsarge has a slower reload time for twice that main battery firepower but the reload booster practically makes them about the same and while it also chucks balloons at least there's twice the amount which offers that whole area saturation "a few will probably hit something" thing lol. The Delaware alternative only has 8 of the same main battery boomsticks. Also, I deleted Nebraska pretty easily while playing BB's and yet the Kearsarge is tanky as F. Not sure if that's the reality but that's what I'm encountering so I'm guessing the Nebraska just can't hold up to taking shots thus can't afford to be exposed very often and probably why those players you were talking about felt the need to sit behind an island but that just comes back to the point about how they would have been most likely far better served playing either a proper CV or a proper BB. Instead of getting some of the best perks of both classes it seems they're getting the worst of both classes.

Good ideas? In this game?? No no, we won't be having that now! Here at WG we only like ill-conceived, half-baked and poorly executed ideas that are detrimental to game balance, reduces player enjoyment and mostly things that nobody asked for and things that were received with an overwhelming negative feedback! Get it right my boy!

Indeed and no coincidence I'm in Silver for reasons you outlined. For me silver league is the "Goldilocks" of this current RB season imho though Bronze was kinda ok too and another nice opportunity to play lower tier ships that don't get out of port much in with my normal T8 or T10 pref go-to tiers. What's put me off the most this season even more than clueless or selfish Bobs botting about spamming battles for wins without any actual effort or positive input from themselves is the power of CV's since they're included. I'm a BB main. I'll dip my toe in other classes to mix things up a bit but normally it's just BB's. So I was initially looking forwards to enjoying playing some of my favorite T8 BB's but they were getting slaughtered by CV's and a side order of Massa's and other OP premium ships. Same deal with teammates. The result was almost already forecast just by which team had the tech-tree ships and which team had the powerful premium alternatives. So in the end and on the back of getting pommeled by CV's and OP ships and suffering frustrating battles with clueless or uninterested Bobs playing crappy ships I went and tried my hand at CV's in RB for myself and indeed this was a dramatic shift in effectiveness when it came to countering OP ships, countering clueless or botting or AFK teammates and in countering enemy CV's. Ya, sadly the most reliable way of winning and countering everything wrong with RB was by actually playing what is most wrong with RB right now, CV's, in a sad showing of "If you can't beat em, join em!". It also imho highlights just how powerful and toxic CV's are that I, a clueless CV player with literally no experience playing them outside of Ops was so effective at tilting the outcome of battles all by myself and even against a pretty strong enemy line-up while teamed with a pretty weak bunch.