Dutchy_2019

Few things: - OLD PREMIUMS CANNOT BE NERFED BY DIRECT TARGETING!!! So the old OP ships and Loot Box / Super Container desirables are and still WILL be OP. This targeted nerfing ONLY goes (presumably) for NEWLY released Premiums, Flanders being the first), or Premiums that are DIRECT copies of Tech Tree equivalents (ARP Yamato, some of the Chinese Lunar NY ships, for instance). According to Mr Gibbins, Premiums HAVE BEEN BUFFED in the past when needed. And NOBODY complained about it then. Can WG do a better job at balancing premiums? Probably. But even the testing process is seriously handicapped, and it is a complete illusion to be able to perfectly balance ships upon release every time. Even with the effort made to make the pool of Super Testers a cross section of the player base, the testing group (Company Employees, Community Contributors, Super Testers) will not be a perfect cross section. The most reliable data you only get when playing the Test Ships on the main server: and we all know how a vocal group complains about that. Has WG messed up in the past releasing OP / Broken ships? Definitely, for whatever reason (accident, incompetence, etc.). Some ships only turn out OP / Broken at a later date in a given environment, simply because people have missed things by accident. Telling is StatsBloke's recollection of PetroPavlovsk. The first KOTS after it was released, NONE of the teams / players / organizers involved in KOTS figured she was OP; many considered her actually weak. Turned out they were completely wrong, and that within the KOTS environment she is pretty much broken. Same - per words of Mr G. - the opinions about Smolensk and Colbert - where many testers pre-release allegedly figured Colbert would be more toxic to the game than Smolensk. So - if for whatever reason - an OP Premium is released, or suddenly becomes OP because of global changes - what are the options WG has? 1. Uptier the ship: The community made that an absolute no-go with the completely broken T5 Giulio Cesare. Hands off of our completely broken ship. WE PAID FOR IT! 2. Nerf the ship directly: Immediate threats of law suits, assuming they would not get immediately in trouble with various consumer laws, since a Premium is a direct 'ship for cash' product. Already look at the complaints about WG nerfing coal and steel ships. 3. Global nerf: Again, would cause more problems than it solves, since it would also hurt balanced ships. 4. Completely remove ship from the game: We all saw the mess that will create with the Christmas Loot Box mess last December; People wanted compensation for the ship, but NOT accept ANY roll backs - even though them HAVING the premium brought them numerous benefits in game (including potentially getting a number of other ships through directives in which they used those premiums). Apart from the money involved, you get into the sticky issue of whether someone who has had the ship for years should get the same compensation as someone who has bought the ship a week ago. 5. Remove the ship from sale/availability: That is what they are doing now, but is something that does hurt the company financially. The problem could be WG getting into a 'Sell OP Premium, create hype, nerf it into the ground cycle'; that would probably get them into legal trouble again (see point 2).

To expand on the comments of Isuroku Yamamoto: All your bases: Seems decent idea, I cannot see too much issues with encouraging bad game play with that one. Defender: I would say a mix of base defended and points taken of while defending. Hailstorm: Will encourage bad game play, even more fire spam, and the proliferation of toxic ships up the wazoo (Smolensk spam anyone ?) Indestructible: Might be a good one. Restless wanderer: Rewards / encourages bad play (1 and 10 lining, immediately leaving your cap to go to the other side of the map), while punishing good play (holding the flank and such). Killshot: Only encourages bad behaviour, frankly I would say it encourages parasitic game play; you already can see it happening when there are 'Destroyed' ribbon directives, this will only make it worse. Let others do most damage, wait for the opportunity (thus NOT contributing in ANY meaningful way to the team) and get the kill. The people actually playing the game get NO reward. Spearhead: Let us reward the easiest / least vulnerable class to play - the CV. Guaranteed award for ANY CV player 30 seconds into the game; not even working brain cells needed for that. Teamplayer: Again, reward the easiest / least vulnerable class to play - the CV. Near guarantee for every game for ANY CV player with more than a single functioning brain cell. In the mean time, DD players who go for this award will (a) generally be massively yelled at by the team, and (b) not reap ANY decent XP award for this, while getting yelled at by the team. The only way to compensate for that is to massively buff the XP gain for spotting damage (which automatically means a massive XP buff for the CV's as well).

Yes, there are Toxic Bots... Always look for torpedoes from completely unexpected directions.

Well, playing Narai in OPS to get some Free XP, and above all commander XP. Took out the old trusty Scharnhorst. Never thought that even with all players surviving, you could get close to a carry. That said, when I entered the harbour (after having the CV kill stolen from me), the Campbeltown and Dallas were still alive. Result: I ended up setting my overall damage record (all game modes, EU and NA). If not for the game ending early, it actually could have been very close to a 400k game (as the Colorado was still quite healthy when the game ended).

Same for me on NA. Regular container dropped Roma for me.

Played a four games in Ranked on EU in Ägir. I had one game where dubious BB play cost us the game, it should have been a win. The best game was this one; lucked out a bit with the kill on the Champagne, that was too close (I derped a torp drop), but got us the win. I am not sure whether the game was close, because I played it wrong in the middle (I did end up on I line), or I played it well, and managed to turn it around in the end.

For me, a mixed bag: - On occasion mindless blapping the guns (Co-op) - A distraction - Part of the WoWs (Twitch) community And yes, sometimes it gets frustrating when you see what other players are doing. Also, the massive amount of stuff dumped upon you (like Ranked, Brawls, Italian stuff, other missions) constantly and concurrently is on occasion a bit much.

To some extent true, but a >60% fire chance is absolutely ridiculous.

Not sure if I will. It all depends on how the mood strikes me; and if I do, I will probably play it for the rewards, and not for the camos. Though who knows....

Slowed down my playing some, no really special games lately. Tonight a probably still not truly special game in Randoms on NA, though I think I played it quite nicely in a Fubuki, using torps as well as guns when I could. The best reward dropped out of the Italian whatever container I earned; I guess a lucky day, as just before a CC container I won dropped me the Alabama.

- IMPROVE as an overall player. - Grind that line - Play something different than the backlining BB (that is the current meta). - Have fun / have a challenge

Know how to Scharnhorst in Narai, load her with Free XP flags and the best camo, and 5k Free XP might be on the low end. IIRC my record in Free XP in Narai, in Scharnhorst, full Free XP signals (economic and all dragon flags) and Spring Sky or Asian Lantern camo (the one that gets you the Free XP bonus) is close to 30k Free XP. Honestly, if you really grind Narai and has the right camos, one could get the needed Free XP in a single week; over Christmas I did that to get the almost 800k Free XP I needed to get my hands on Smaland before she was taken out.

Thank you!

Not sure - sitting on nearly 500k coal, but more interested in the Salem, Yoshino than Marco Polo. I will probably wait until the end of the second Italian event anyway - in case she might drop out of one of the Italian crates you can earn in the missions.

You can pay a credit penalty and then you can use the ships immediately again.

So let''s see what the crowd is saying: * KOTS = Extremely boring and stale because KOTS = World of Petro (or other USSR ship). Previous KOTS suffered the same problem, alledgedly. * Previous CB = Extremely boring because it was World of Graf Spee * CB Before that = Extremely boring because it was World of Venezia General problem: Clan battle and competitive is extremely boring because the meta is very stale because everyone runs the same comps. Population screams to do something about it. Various tournaments that have ship bans in them are considered quite successful (Verizon, Streamer's tournament, NA KOTS) because the bans are a factor in less boring games. Problem is some ships dominating meta. WG decides to interfere to prevent meta from becoming stale. Crowd complains. BTW, balancing around the majority of players over competitive players is more useful than balancing it around top competitive players (who play them in a non-representative environment anyway).

Tech Tree grind for German cruisers I am at the start of the Nurnberg grind for Yorck. I have now often played Konigsberg a mix of open water (near max range) and trying to use islands. I also try to be cautious at the start, and go dark in time. It seems to work quite well for me, based on average damage and other stats on NA; that said, it is a bit of high risk, high reward. And occasionally you do receive the ‘blap’. I also see your point about GC. I see your point about the shell archs. Thanks for the pointers and tips.

Just wondering as the noob I am: Isn’t the proposed play style not similar to that of say Konigsberg or Nurnberg, just using AP rather than HE?

True, though unfortunately even there the passive play is on the increase, it seems. Not to long ago I actually was complimented by someone for ‘finally being someone who pushed in his BB’.

I am whale and idiot enough to actually have bought the Ignis (cheapest package), and bought the base starter for Hizen (and completed the campaign). I got the Ignis because I am a sucker for fancy looking ships. Is either of them necessary? No.

I will play Bronze, that is challenge enough for me, and making my own goals there: Try to actually play the game. Learn from my mistakes. Try to contribute to the team - finish consistently in the top 3 of my team. Work on my DD and cruiser play. Train one or two captains up further. Get the rewards If I am getting frustrated, go play something other than ranked. Main effort on EU, and play some on NA, time permitting. Probable ships of choice: Aegir, Prinz Eugen, Cossack, Friesland and Asashio, with Aegir being the early favourite. Maybe play Mainz on NA.

My perspective, as a slowly improving player - dragged my win rate up to 48.8%, about 1500 games in Randoms over 2 servers combined - dabbling in ranked: There is an enormous amount of new players, most of who have rushed up the tiers, usually playing BB's. Part of that is anecdotal (me looking up stats after a game), part of it is relying on second hand info of people who run some MM Monitor mod (streamers mostly). So to expect them to play well in difficult to play classes in difficult circumstances is a bit much, me thinks. The wrong types of game play get rewarded massively in this game (especially for BB's) - giving you the false impression you are doing good. It is way too easy to rush up the tiers anyway (and of course there is the Premium / whaling / dumb luck with crates issue as well). Playing DD well is a lot of work for little reward most of the time, in both XP as well as in positive comments in the game. In higher tiers (especially when facing T9 or T10) mistakes get punished immediately for two reasons: ships are more powerful and there is a group of players who know how to use that power. This is much less the case in lower tiers. Do not underestimate the amount of bad BB play either. In chat behaviour (often by bad BB players) verbally pushing the DD or cruiser into bad play, just to avoid getting yelled at. Bad play by DD's and BB's forcing cruisers into a role they are not suited for (scouting), and thus making people quit cruiser play. Especially DD's are excellent ships for griefers and trolls to use. And we all know how well WG deals with consistent bad play and trolling by griefers. Also, what is 'bad' cruiser or DD play, especially when yelling at people that have been on a wholly different part of the map? To use an example from yesterday: I had a Paolo Emilio (who had spent much of the match at the other side of the map) pinging me 'wondering WTF the Aegir [=me] was doing'. I was at (admittedly) the B-line and quite far away from the nearest enemy ship. What he had missed was that: (a) I was kiting, as I needed to recover from getting caught early scouting too aggressively for our team (and yes, that was a bad play on my part) (b) I subsequently had been a target for anywhere between 1 and 4 enemy ships (DD and 3 BB's) for much of the game (lowest health about 7k) (c) that the closest enemy BB (a JB at 10km) had only been taken out seconds before (in a ram by one of 2 BB's on our flank), (d) the 3 of us (JB, Tirpitz and me) had been blocking the enemy pushing flank for most of the game. (e) with the enemy JB gone and having healed some, I was about to turn around and advance again anyway. (f) He also had no idea (yet) about the amount of damage I had done so far in the game (close to 60k or so at that point); ended up with 79k in the game. When I pointed some of that out (and he presumably saw my HP bar) he shut up. Looking for me, why DO I play cruisers and DD's, and my approach? I do NOT want to wait a long time to get into Ranked games. I want to learn and improve as a player in ALL classes. I do try to play for the team, no matter what class I play. This also means that I try to end up in the top 3 of the team, without becoming a back line camping fire damage farmer. Only playing BB is boring. I did OK in last ranked, and have been doing OK in (German) cruisers recently in T5 and T6 ships. And I want to see where I am at. I want to start earning some steel. I try out a few ships, and if these are not working for me, then I will not take them out in ranked anymore (so yeah, Cossack might end up in port for this season). I try to learn from my mistakes. If I get annoyed, or notice I am playing badly, I just quit ranked and try again later. And to be honest, if that is not good enough for some of you, then tough luck.

Played some Narai yesterday in Scharnhorst to get some easy (Elite) Commander XP. Some games were speshul (and yes, I did mess up one or two times). That said, two nice games:

Spent today playing Randoms and Operations to get some of the weekend missions done for tokens, and for Naval Battles. Ended up with two Krakens. The first, on EU, was a bit 'dirty' Kraken, finishing off many low health ships while HE spamming from range (just 'this' much short of outright kill stealing). In my defense, I was playing my first game in Emile Bertin in a T5-T7 game. The second Kraken, on NA, was hard work, landing me 2300 Base XP in a full T5 T5-T6 game. It was my second Fuso game, as I forgot to turn on Naval Battles for the first. Fuso's guns more or less behaved, for once. The Aoba in that game was a prime example of someone moving up the ranks too soon, hid behind an island most game, missing the enemy DD going after our CV. Turns out he had 33 Random games under his belt (and a well below 30% win rate).

I apologize in advance, but I will probably be polluting the ranked environment with my potatoness in cruisers and dd's, as well as BB's. I will do my best, and try to learn every game. As to OP: In the previous only T8 ranked the MM looked roughly similar. An Assashio's wet dream - though I fear that were I to bring her, it will of course be cruiser and CV heavy.