The Aoba

[Kruzenstern]

I actually do more avg. damage in the Aoba than the Cleve atm, but that is probabaly just chance with 12ish battles in either. Got a lot of early ending Domination battles in the Cleve lately...

 

As for the japenese cruiser tree, I would have done that differently anyway, with Aoba at 5, Myoko at 6, Mogami at 7 and  Chokai at 8, and some balancing done to reflect the tiers.

[seyyah]

 

At least one of the four changes would be good. Or all four, i wont be angry for sure:

1. Increase turret rotation speed

2. Increase ship turning speed

3. Increase torpedoes launching arcs

4. Last, but definitively most important: shrink citadel, it's like al this ship is one big citadel, it's bad when light cruisers shoot you, but one salvo from any BB and you're dead.

 

all of those are ships structural statistic... meanwhile manipulating rotation speeds might be possible the torpedo arcs and ship's hitbox isnt something could be changed i'd say... 

[Vanhal]

 

all of those are ships structural statistic... meanwhile manipulating rotation speeds might be possible the torpedo arcs and ship's hitbox isnt something could be changed i'd say... 

 

Changing rotation speed is easy, they did it two times already on all IJN destroyers. Possible change to torpedo arcs is reduced mainly by model. I doubt anyone would see the clipping, but if it's historical right now i don't mind, the arcs clearly indicate Aoba torps are purely defensive weapon. Changing hitbox would be even easier i guess, as hitboxes are invisible, well, boxes inside visible ship model so i don't imagine scaling them is particularly hard. That say, that big citadel is main problem of IJN cruisers from tier 3 to 10, and it seem to get even worse after launch of CBT.

 

I actually do more avg. damage in the Aoba than the Cleve atm, but that is probabaly just chance with 12ish battles in either. Got a lot of early ending Domination battles in the Cleve lately...

 

As for the japenese cruiser tree, I would have done that differently anyway, with Aoba at 5, Myoko at 6, Mogami at 7 and  Chokai at 8, and some balancing done to reflect the tiers.

 

I also have more fun in Aoba than Cleveland, but that's fault of my incredibly bad luck in Cleveland (you can see my awesome win ratio on it). About the Aoba tier i would first want to see Furutaka, but Myoko is definitely not the material for 6 tier. IJN cruisers tiers are good, but all of them need some buffs, like making them not blow up after first salvo or buffing their torps so they actually can be useful.

[mr3awsome]

As for the japenese cruiser tree, I would have done that differently anyway, with Aoba at 5, Myoko at 6, Mogami at 7 and  Chokai at 8, and some balancing done to reflect the tiers.

 

I'd say no to that, because it stretches later cruiser development out, whilst compressing earlier cruiser development.

I mean who doesn't love WWI vintage light cruisers?

[seyyah]

the torpedo arc on IJN CAs are goes towards backwards becausae of some physic problems when torpedoes enter the water, unlike destroyers, when CA's launch them torpedoes fell from even higher deck to water surface, its enough to make torpedoes fail, and if they were thrown forwards they'll really crash into water so they threw it towards back and made the fall softer....

 

for tier balancing, Furutaka was the first CA class of IJN so theres not much way for it to be tier 6 instead of Aoba which is a vastly improved version of it. for Myoukou class, they are pretty much same as Takao class, and those ships could be called as "the best" CAs of IJN... theyll be much more OP than Cleveland. As i've been saying since my first post, biggest problem of Aoba is that her counterpart is not suited for that tier. Aoba can do awesome things in its battle tiers... It fits its tier perfectly i dare to say... 

 

I actually do more avg. damage in the Aoba than the Cleve atm, but that is probabaly just chance with 12ish battles in either. Got a lot of early ending Domination battles in the Cleve lately...

 

As for the japenese cruiser tree, I would have done that differently anyway, with Aoba at 5, Myoko at 6, Mogami at 7 and  Chokai at 8, and some balancing done to reflect the tiers.

 

now now... Choukai is Takao class, and Takao class is slightly better than Myoukou class (they are both tier 8). if you put a monster like Myoukou class to tier 6 many balances will break... and same goes for Aoba going down to tier 5... wait till you see Furutaka... IJN's this cruiser tree is really good... 

[MR_Barbarossa]

I am not sure if that is realy a tier issue. I am noticing that right now ships with more lower caliber guns have advantage over ships with less guns but with higher caliber. As I know it should be oposite. Clevelands ,for example, with their preety low (152 mm) caliber guns can penetrate BB and do a lot of dmg. I didnt notice any significant differences between penetration abilities of higher caliber guns compared to lower caliber guns. The only difference seems to be only amount of dmg done. As a result caliber is not so important any more and ships with more guns and faster reload are dominating.

 

Aoba should have advantage over Cleveland at long range, while Cleveland at close range. Aoba should pen other ships much easier at long range than Cleveland. It will always stay lightly armored, but it can get other advantages. Actualy it already have tham but it seems that is something wrong with dmg models if any piv-piv gun can pen BB.

[JapLance]

Not impressed with the Aoba at all.

 

A tier V Omaha has just wrecked me with his rate of fire. He sunk me, but he went down with me thanks to a last second spread of torpedoes.

 

This cruiser needs some buffing. Number of guns is out of the question (ahistorical) so rate of fire and/or armour are the only options, in my opinion. Alternatively, put it a tier lower.

[Khul]

I am not sure if that is realy a tier issue. I am noticing that right now ships with more lower caliber guns have advantage over ships with less guns but with higher caliber. As I know it should be oposite. Clevelands ,for example, with their preety low (152 mm) caliber guns can penetrate BB and do a lot of dmg. I didnt notice any significant differences between penetration abilities of higher caliber guns compared to lower caliber guns. The only difference seems to be only amount of dmg done. As a result caliber is not so important any more and ships with more guns and faster reload are dominating.

 

Aoba should have advantage over Cleveland at long range, while Cleveland at close range. Aoba should pen other ships much easier at long range than Cleveland. It will always stay lightly armored, but it can get other advantages. Actualy it already have tham but it seems that is something wrong with dmg models if any piv-piv gun can pen BB.

 

I am only speculating here but I'm assuming as--from posts where supertesters & alphas have alluded to it, dotted all over the forum--the armour models aren't working yet then yeah, for now high-numbers of guns have a massive advantage over ships with only a few turrets (the ol' spray & pray).

 

I hated the Aoba with a passion & couldn't do jack with it. But on my final game it finally seemed to "click", I achieved a decent sort of performance (not good, but like decent) but by that stage I was thoroughly sick of it & sold it.

 

I will say, having bought the Mogami, that installing the buffed rudder add-on is as far as I can tell a must for Japanese cruisers, imo, 'cos my main complaint with the Aoba (well apart from nearly unusable torpedo launcher placement & its fragility & it utterly glacial turret rotation) was the fact it steered like a pig & made dodging very difficult indeed. My Myogi is capable of dodging even 6" shells, as long as I'm paying attention & have a bit of room, at about 10km.

[Fansadox]

I think the Aoba is a bit to slow in turning.

Also its very weak in damage soaking.

 

Guns are good and torps are ok.

 

Love the looks, hate the play.....

[J_E_B_A_I_T]

place your bets:

 

will they ever change japanese CAs, or actually all CAs back to a useful level like in the weekend tests/alpha or will they keep on catering the game to BBs?

[Orlunu]

same goes for Aoba going down to tier 5... wait till you see Furutaka... IJN's this cruiser tree is really good... 

Modernised Furutaka was almost identical to modernised Aoba.  The differences were essentially just in weight and some underwater bulges on Aoba, as well as a bit of AA.

 

I am not sure if that is realy a tier issue. I am noticing that right now ships with more lower caliber guns have advantage over ships with less guns but with higher caliber. As I know it should be oposite. Clevelands ,for example, with their preety low (152 mm) caliber guns can penetrate BB and do a lot of dmg. I didnt notice any significant differences between penetration abilities of higher caliber guns compared to lower caliber guns. The only difference seems to be only amount of dmg done. As a result caliber is not so important any more and ships with more guns and faster reload are dominating.

 

Aoba should have advantage over Cleveland at long range, while Cleveland at close range. Aoba should pen other ships much easier at long range than Cleveland. It will always stay lightly armored, but it can get other advantages. Actualy it already have tham but it seems that is something wrong with dmg models if any piv-piv gun can pen BB.

Yeah, that makes sense.  It could be due to the incomplete armour models.

[Takeda92]

I actually had a lot more fun in Aoba than Mogami. Mogami seems way more fragile than Aoba when it comes to critical hits.. or maybe you don't get to shine against tier 4s like you do in Aoba!

[Aernir]

It didn't really feel like it when I played through it, but the Aoba has been a fairly consistent performer for me. If I compare it to my Cleveland, it's not that much of a difference in average damage output, with 38k  vs 42k in favor to the Cleveland. Granted, that's over a small sample size of 34 (Aoba) and 22 (Cleveland) battles. The IJN 203mm cannons in general seem very good at punching holes through the citadel of other cruisers, with the torpedoes being something you just keep in mind for those situations where they might turn into a very nasty surprise, especially if you can lure someone to chase you around a corner.

[Bl4ckh0g]

Buffing the Aoba's Rate of fire might not be the best idea. That ship already has the fastest RoF among the CAs excluding the Des Moines. If they move the Cleveland to Tier 7 or 8 and fix the amour issue The ship might shine as a long range sniper. If you absolutely want to buff it then buff the mobility and maybe the reduce her spotting range. Maybe give her more health but If she'd have a more sensible RoF on her guns, (I'm speaking here about 4-4,5) then she might get rekt in tier 7 battles due to having less guns than Mogami and Pensacola. 

 

[Vanhal]

place your bets:

 

will they ever change japanese CAs, or actually all CAs back to a useful level like in the weekend tests/alpha or will they keep on catering the game to BBs?

 

In alpha that was not the "useful level". It was "OP as [edited]and killing everything" level.

[McLeod]

I quite like it although sometimes it feels like a floating citadel, maybe boost it's hitpoints a bit, 5k less than Cleveland is a big difference.

[krautjaeger]

I just got this today, and I'm like lol is this ship for real? It's a keeper for sure, I simply love it. :-D

[_ramrus_]

I heard it's bad, and I wish I could say it's bad, but it's only bad against Clevland that want's to kill you.

[Coenraad]

I kind of like it but i have problems doing damage to BB's with AP. Anyone else have this issue? I struggle vs any T5 BB and up, even wne aiming for citadel. Seems i have to resort to HE.

 

 

Edit: Oh and when you are against 6 fuso's on the enemy team that sucks. I literaly got 2 shotted by "heavy damage" hits

[Origin47]

In my opinion, the Aoba needs a reload buff; to 7.5 seconds. 10 seconds feels way to long, for a salvo of just 6 shells, even if the guns have a higher caliber than the ones used by the Cleveland (which has a salvo of 12 shells).

[CandyVanMan]

I really really liked my Aoba, but it was my first t6 ship, so I didn't do as much damage as I wanted, but the accuracy seemed to be good, and I felt I could "assassinate" high value targets very well with it.

[Kyono]

I thoroughly enjoyed my Aoba. On many an occasion those gun salvos of mine wiped the floor with enemy ships. Once took out a Cleveland in 2 salvos from full HP to dead in just over 10 seconds. Done the same to Kongos and Fusos.

[Orlunu]

Well, looks like I've just got to learn to git gud.

 

Fair enough.  That's not exactly something new to me.

[WhoCares01]

They could "merge" Furutaka and Aoba, making the latter the hull upgrade of the former, and put them on T6. The Agano (3x2x6" + 2x4xT93) could become T5.

That still doesn't solve the match-up vs. the american tree. Maybe move the Omaha to T6, and put the Oakland (variant to the Atlanta with 6x2x5" and 2x4 torps,  or additional AAA), to T5. Cleveland could become a Premium (T7?).

So that would put Agano vs. Oakland at T5 and Furutaka/Aoba vs. Omaha. I'd guess that would have an advantage of USA on T5 (more so if Oakland also has the torps), and Japan on T6.

But what do I know, as I don't have access to the beta (yet)

 

 

[Alcor_Panzer]

Look, the Aoba is a 1920s pre-London Naval Treaty heavy cruiser. The Cleveland is a mid-WWII modern (by WWII standard) cruiser built outside the Treaty Limit. The Aoba will never, ever able to fight toe to toe against a Cleveland class and that's reflected in the game.

 

The problem is that Japan lacks an appropriate tier 6 cruiser (Aoba should be merged with Furukata), and with the current armour/shell penetration scheme (invisible to the players at the moment), fast firing 155mm guns are more powerful than 203mm guns (unless you get automatic Des Moins ones). In fact, with the current mechanics, we might just as well arm the Yamato with 30 x 155mm guns instead of 9 x 480mm guns.