West Virginia in the shop

[RAMJB]

"glass cannon"?. Do you consider the New Mexico or Arizona glass cannons?

Because this ship has exactly the same armor, and only 5% less health than a fully upgraded New Mexico.

"Only thing special about the ship are guns". You know this ship was part of a series of five battleship classes called the "STANDARDS" ,right?. Now think about that for a second XD

 

 

I do understand people not liking a given ship, or not enjoying it's playstile. But I don't when they begin making stuff up to justify it, seriously....

[Karasu_Browarszky]

4 hours ago, invicta2012 said:

So given that we have Mushashi (Yamato guns at Tier IX), West Virginia (Colorado guns at Tier VI), can we have Repulse? Tier VI guns as Tier V would make just as much sense....

 

Along with the Prince of Wales.

[Lexmechanic]

Some ships are must-buy for me, I also don't hesitate much when a ship offers really unique gameplay. When there's some doubt, I use 'quality of life' as a metric. In the case of the WV'41, speed is a big downside and a surefire source of constant frustration. I'm tempted by the guns, I'll admit, but not enough. She should end up in the Arsenal or even in the Tech Tree doubloon section soon enough.

[BLUB__BLUB]

38 minutes ago, ScoutMkoll said:

Some ships are must-buy for me, I also don't hesitate much when a ship offers really unique gameplay. When there's some doubt, I use 'quality of life' as a metric. In the case of the WV'41, speed is a big downside and a surefire source of constant frustration. I'm tempted by the guns, I'll admit, but not enough. She should end up in the Arsenal or even in the Tech Tree doubloon section soon enough.

I'd get WV for coal, but for real money I prefer Warspite. 

[Chaos_Umbra]

11 hours ago, _DeathWing_ said:

Besides big guns, nothing special about this ship. Totally agree with him about that. Same as Mutsu... glass cannons. Dispersion is awful maybe even worse than Mutsu. Plus the speed is shite. Never liked the Colorado mostly because of the speed and that's the same reason why this ship is also meh for me. 

 

I would say that Mutsu does at least differentiate itself a but more than the WV as it has torpedoes which the Nagato does not.

[HaachamaShipping]

13 hours ago, invicta2012 said:

So given that we have Mushashi (Yamato guns at Tier IX), West Virginia (Colorado guns at Tier VI), can we have Repulse? Tier VI guns as Tier V would make just as much sense....

First off, noone cares about T5 or lower guns, because at these tiers, all ships have 19 mm extremities. A Nassau can overmatch a Kongo bow. Everyone overmatches everyone, except for ships that actually have reinforced bow plating. Second, Myogi is getting better pen on the Type 5 shells. Doubt they'd give it Type 91 shells, but this might get pretty fun.

11 hours ago, RAMJB said:

"glass cannon"?. Do you consider the New Mexico or Arizona glass cannons?

Because this ship has exactly the same armor, and only 5% less health than a fully upgraded New Mexico.

"Only thing special about the ship are guns". You know this ship was part of a series of five battleship classes called the "STANDARDS" ,right?. Now think about that for a second XD

 

 

I do understand people not liking a given ship, or not enjoying it's playstile. But I don't when they begin making stuff up to justify it, seriously....

To be honest, New Mexico's survivability never struck me as outstanding. And it really isn't. Now with new repair party we might start talking, but before that it's a slow brick with underwhelming hp pool and susceptible to overmatch and IFHE spam. Getting uptiered vs T7, a Shchors can easily take over 5k of your hp out with one HE salvo, as will be the case with West Virginia. And that's 10% of your hp pool. Similar with a Myoko and may RNG have mercy on you if you get farmed by a Helena or Atlanta.

 

And no, you don't need to make stuff up to claim that WV is not blessed in survivability and that it the guns are its one redeeming point. That's exactly what the ship is. against AP, it'll likely get by, especially top tier, but mess up and any huge chunk of hp lost stings much more than in most other T6 BBs. And the "standard" type battleship doesn't mean these ships were all lackluster unimaginative designs. It means they were all built according to a unified set of requirements in certain areas, like 21 knot top speed. And ingame, West Virginia, like all USN premium BBs will soon be left as a ship that in many areas like repair party, turning speed, etc. is not following the "standard" of USN BBs... but basically the standard of all BBs.

 

I don't think the ship is necessarily bad. In T6 competitive it might see fair usage. But it certainly has paid a lot for these guns.

[BLUB__BLUB]

3 minutes ago, Riselotte said:

and may RNG have mercy on you if you get farmed by a Helena or Atlanta.

THIS.... if they ever buff USA BBs, let them burn a little less. 

[HaachamaShipping]

Just now, BLUB__BLUB said:

THIS.... if they ever buff USA BBs, let them burn a little less. 

It's not the fires. It's the raw damage. Fires are manageable. Losing 5-7k to a Helena every 8.5 seconds is not.

[invicta2012]

8 minutes ago, Riselotte said:

First off, noone cares about T5 or lower guns,

Well, OK. Let's have the Revenge class at Tier V. Slow as hell, but 8 x 15 inch should sort out a few issues with Guilio Cesare, Nikolai and Viribus.... shouldn't it?

[BLUB__BLUB]

5 minutes ago, Riselotte said:

It's not the fires. It's the raw damage. Fires are manageable. Losing 5-7k to a Helena every 8.5 seconds is not.

If you let that happen indeed it's not. But the fires coming from it will not be manageable either.

[HaachamaShipping]

Just now, invicta2012 said:

Well, OK. Let's have the Revenge class at Tier V. Slow as hell, but 8 x 15 inch should sort out a few issues with Guilio Cesare, Nikolai and Viribus.... shouldn't it?

First off, Viribus Unitis has yet to show that it can do actually more than just be an annoyingly hard to kill target, given the lulzy combo of German dispersion and 1.5 sigma it was announced with, as well as a staggering 20 knot speed and a hp pool that belongs to T3, so broadside hits or torps will do a ton of damage relative to hp pool. Second, no, it would not. You still cannot overmatch them any more than a a New York or Iron Duke can and those two likely get better dpm than your ship. Just to take Viribus Unitis, the 19 mm upper bow you can go through with any BB, the 150 mm lower bow... yeah, you can bounce Yamatos with that. If you were in need of cracking these nuts, Iron Duke at T5 or Ishizuchi at T4 are way better.

3 minutes ago, BLUB__BLUB said:

If you let that happen indeed it's not. But the fires coming from it will not be manageable either.

Spoiler

Before first shot. Note timestamp.

First salvo...

Results

Me in Helena vs bot Colorado (stock). As can be seen, it took me barely over a minute to utterly destroy a stock Colorado. Though a player would last longer, as they can manage damecon and repair party. But key here is, even though I pretty much targetted all four different sections and put it on fire in all four places (with stationary bot not putting it out unlike actual players), the fire damage was only 18k, direct damage was 31k. If this had been an actual Colorado that puts its fires out and gets a repair in, that discrepancy only grows. This is what I mean with it's not the fires, because the fires only accelerate the demise, they don't seal it, given a Standard-type BB once caught with its 21 knots is hard-pressed to get out.

[HaachamaShipping]

Just for comparison, ran the same test again with less squishy targets.

Spoiler

I know #FusoLivesMatter, but Fuso is a very resistant ship, so I picked it for the first comparison. Time before first shot.

First shot did like 2.2k and set a fire.

Took a good bit longer to kill. As Fuso takes hardly any big salvos, fire damage actually slightly exceeds the damage dealt.

Testing vs the Queen of HE resistance at T7, Gneisenau. Time at first shot (had forgotten to change map, so it took a bit longer to get into a good position).

After we torched the ship from bow to stern, shots do minimal damage at the bow section.

And minimal damage at the stern section.

Lulzy amounts of damage at a mostly saturated superstructure (compared to what we did on the other two ships anyway).

The absolute inverse of the Colorado, 19k direct damage, 32k fire damage (on 5 fires) was needed to bring this ship down).

I hope this ilustrates why

• direct damage matters more than fires
• Standard-type BBs are squishy compared to other ships that can take way more HE hits (damage per hit on Fuso and Gneisenau are about as much, on Colorado I did way more damage while actually scoring fewer hits).

Fires are basically just overhyped, but a West Virginia will have to live with the fact that any HE-spammer will take out large amounts of hp with a single salvo and there's no way to angle and little means of running away.

[RAMJB]

1 hour ago, Riselotte said:

 

To be honest, New Mexico's survivability never struck me as outstanding...

 

 

Because it isn't. Nor is the survability of any of the T6 BBs, they're all equally and terribly vulnerable to cruiser HE spam, some a bit more than others but none can stand 152mm with IFHE anywhere but on their belts, so whatever difference there is between them, is usually moot in that regard.

What's not moot is your ability to hold AP damage - and on that only Bayern is better. Japanese and american (other than herself)  same tier BBs can't overmatch you (14'' caliber is useless against 25mm plating). Bayern can - but it's dispersion is bonkers and each shell does a lot less damage than yours. QE can - but it's short fuze means you're pretty much safe from citadels against them. Only Warspite is a real problem with accurate guns which overmatch your plating and standard fuzes, but again, his shells do quite a lot less damage than yours. Mutsu is such a rarity that it really can't even be considered a serious contender here, and that one IS indeed a weakly armored glass cannon on top of it.

You're literally untouchable for half the battleship opposition of your tier, and out of the other half the only one that poses as a consistent threat, is one that's quite uncommon to see.  So you have the 2nd best armor layout against AP of the tier (tied with the other american BBs), in a weapons/armor combo that downright better than any other T6 BB.

 

Yes, that's on a platform that's equally vulnerable to HE spam as any other T6 BB. I'm perfectly fine accepting that T6 BBs aren't what one would call tremendously resilient ,but within the scope of T6 BBs this one is not a glass cannon.


So if you're interested in a T6 BB premium, this one has to get the nod. The ship is what it is and should be analized in the context of it's tier. IF you begin comparing it with overtiered opposition then it begs the question of which T6 BB can really stand the incoming fire from an Helena or an Atlanta, because none can. That WV really can't either can't be used as an argument to say that's bad - because they're all equally bad in that regard. And so are most T7 BBs so for that matter, you're not that worse than almost any other BB in that bracket...

Yes, the healthpool is low, but other than that the ship's survability, compared with her same tier counterparts, is perfectly fine.

[HaachamaShipping]

Just now, RAMJB said:

 

Because it isn't. Nor is the survability of any of the T6 BBs, they're all equally and terribly vulnerable to cruiser HE spam, some a bit more than others but none can stand 152mm with IFHE anywhere but on their belts, so whatever difference there is between them, is usually moot in that regard.

What's not moot is your ability to hold AP damage - and on that only Bayern is better. Japanese and american (other than herself)  same tier BBs can't overmatch you (14'' caliber is useless against 25mm plating). Bayern can - but it's dispersion is bonkers and each shell does a lot less damage than yours. QE can - but it's short fuze means you're pretty much safe from citadels against them. Only Warspite is a real problem with accurate guns which overmatch your plating and standard fuzes, but again, his shells do quite a lot less damage than yours. Mutsu is such a rarity that it really can't even be considered a serious contender here, and that one IS indeed a weakly armored glass cannon on top of it.

You're literally untouchable for half the battleship opposition of your tier, and out of the other half the only one that poses as a consistent threat, is one that's quite uncommon to see.  So you have the 2nd best armor layout against AP of the tier (tied with the other american BBs), in a weapons/armor combo that downright better than any other T6 BB except warspite's...

Yes, that's on a platform that's equally vulnerable to HE spam as any other T6 BB. I'm perfectly fine accepting that T6 BBs aren't what one would call tremendously resilient ,but within the scope of T6 BBs this one is not a glass cannon.


So if you're interested in a T6 BB premium, this one has to get the nod. The ship is what it is and should be analized in the context of it's tier. IF you begin comparing it with overtiered opposition then it begs the question of which T6 BB can really stand the incoming fire from an Helena or an Atlanta, because none can. That WV really can't either can't be used as an argument to say that's bad - because they're all equally bad in that regard.

For one, Fuso's plating doesn't just mean it doesn't get HE penned, it also means it can get silly ricochets of AP when angled. Next, Mutsu might be rare, but that's not a reason to discount it and it's in the shop the alternative. If you are just looking to bounce same tier AP, Mutsu can bounce the 14 inchers just fine and against the 15 inchers it can mitigate damage if it avoids getting shot from where the central citadel deck can be overmatched. 

 

As to whether there are T6 BBs that stand up better to HE spam from a Helena or Atlanta (not that there are no T6 HE spammers), I refer to my comparison above. Fuso for example eats way less HE damage, given its extensive plating, with damage per HE shell comparable to what I get on Gneisenau, while Standard type just eats all the HE pens. And the faster BBs do have an easier time disengaging. So, no, the differences aren't negligible. Nor is the comparison against higher tier opposition of no importance as it's a T6 ship that will see T7 and T8. If we only went with same tier opposition, Dunkerque would be way better than it actually is. You know, when it doesn't get utterly destroyed by Amagis, NCs and Bismarcks, or Nagatos, Colorados and Gneisenaus.

 

So, I'd caution to make light of the fact that WV basically couples second lowest hp pool at its tier with crappy HE resistance, lack of torp protection and being open to overmatch everywhere except the belt at the waterline. In T5/6 matchmaking, for example, WV has to mind the exact same threats as Mutsu, with the difference that WV can mess up more against BBs and get away with it, while Mutsu, while not better armoured, has the speed and hp pool to more flexibly deal with threats that aren't threatening citadel shots, like cruisers or BBs that it is properly angled towards. 

 

WV might be good. I certainly can see it popping up in stuff like T6 CB, but when it is brought then because of its guns, not because of the survivability skills. And honestly, I can see why in a T6 CB environment with all the cruisers, WV might actually be less favourable than the other options, as the one target it will be good at demolishing will be the one enemy BB, for everything else it's no better than Mutsu or Warspite.

[Yedwy]

In the end (as many times before) I decided to go for it since its rather cheap, does nice damage but I have 0% wr in it that 0 ziltch

[fallenkezef]

Seems like a collector job. Better guns and armour than Warspite but so so slow

[Aragathor]

18 minutes ago, Yedwy said:

In the end (as many times before) I decided to go for it since its rather cheap, does nice damage but I have 0% wr in it that 0 ziltch

Did you buy the standard version or the one with the banjo horn?

[Yedwy]

Standard one the cheapest

[BLUB__BLUB]

10 hours ago, Riselotte said:

Me in Helena vs bot Colorado (stock). As can be seen, it took me barely over a minute to utterly destroy a stock Colorado. Though a player would last longer, as they can manage damecon and repair party. But key here is, even though I pretty much targetted all four different sections and put it on fire in all four places (with stationary bot not putting it out unlike actual players), the fire damage was only 18k, direct damage was 31k. If this had been an actual Colorado that puts its fires out and gets a repair in, that discrepancy only grows. This is what I mean with it's not the fires, because the fires only accelerate the demise, they don't seal it, given a Standard-type BB once caught with its 21 knots is hard-pressed to get out.

Yeah, if he keeps sitting still in your reach he suffers MORE from the  Alpha-damage of IFHE T7 than from the fires.

But usually it would not happen like this. Normally, he'd get outta there after (quite...) a few hits, being on fire. 

THEREFORE the fire damage would relatively be much higher than the Alpha-IFHE damage. He'd get 2 or 3 fires, get away - and use damcon -

then you (or some other HE-spammer) set him on fire again, and he'd get away from your hiding place (OR you'd have to hide...),

and this means in reality he'd burn to death.

 

An unfortunate Colorado might NOT get out, well yes, then he's dead indeed due to the Alpha-damage.

Sort of same like me in Monarch shooting a Yamato. Yes I do alpha damage... but I cannot keep doing that

unless he is in an 'open' position (= dumb), even then I'd have to be in some kind of cover or he'll shoot me in half. 

Same as I do with uncareful HE-spammers in New York, Arizona or New Mex.

 

I think we both CAN agree though that West Virginia is much more vulnerable than some other BBs.

It is a bit larger (harder to miss) and awfully slow. And yes it will see lots of T7 and T8 (but not T9...).

The disadvantage (high dpm HE) is bigger there, but at T7/T8 it also has advantages. 

In a T8 game the New Mex guns are kinda 'meh', WV at least packs a good punch.

[jss78]

18 minutes ago, Aragathor said:

Did you buy the standard version or the one with the banjo horn?

 

I considered buying the special version with the rootsy horn (I think it's cool) -- but I decided it's cheaper to just play my perma-camoed Colorado and put on a Ry Cooder album on the background. Same mellow vibe. 

 

I'm undecided about getting the base pack. I think Colorado armour and guns at T6 will always be a good ship, if you're a decent BB player with understanding of angling and pay some attention to positioning centrally (so you don't get caught in an unhelpful position).

 

I think the problem here is I already got the Warspite which also brings those reliable guns at T6 -- and is just a bit more flexible in general. Also, the near-total lack of AA might be frustrating come CV rework. I fear a new meta with 3x Rangers/Ryujos per team.

[Robber_Baron]

21 hours ago, Karasu_Hidesuke said:

 

Along with the Prince of Wales.

Historically sure. The only problem I see is that there is already Hood, Nelson ánd Duke of York at that tier as premiums. They could copy DoY of course, like they did with the Kamikaze. I don't know about differences between DoY and PoW.

Not sure about WV. Maybe I should play Lolorado again instead, already have Arizona and New Mexico at tier 6.

[UltimateCheekiBreeki]

Just an stock Colorado, no AA, no torpedo bulge but better accuracy, that´s all. Enough arguments to spend 25€?? it`s your choice. :)

[Karasu_Browarszky]

2 hours ago, Robber_Baron said:

Historically sure. The only problem I see is that there is already Hood, Nelson ánd Duke of York at that tier as premiums. They could copy DoY of course, like they did with the Kamikaze. I don't know about differences between DoY and PoW.

Not sure about WV. Maybe I should play Lolorado again instead, already have Arizona and New Mexico at tier 6.

 

From a marketing point, it might make sense to introduce all of them, giving them slightly different build characteristics to make them also interesting from a game play point of view.

[HaachamaShipping]

4 hours ago, BLUB__BLUB said:

Yeah, if he keeps sitting still in your reach he suffers MORE from the  Alpha-damage of IFHE T7 than from the fires.

But usually it would not happen like this. Normally, he'd get outta there after (quite...) a few hits, being on fire. 

THEREFORE the fire damage would relatively be much higher than the Alpha-IFHE damage. He'd get 2 or 3 fires, get away - and use damcon -

then you (or some other HE-spammer) set him on fire again, and he'd get away from your hiding place (OR you'd have to hide...),

and this means in reality he'd burn to death.

 

An unfortunate Colorado might NOT get out, well yes, then he's dead indeed due to the Alpha-damage.

Sort of same like me in Monarch shooting a Yamato. Yes I do alpha damage... but I cannot keep doing that

unless he is in an 'open' position (= dumb), even then I'd have to be in some kind of cover or he'll shoot me in half. 

Same as I do with uncareful HE-spammers in New York, Arizona or New Mex.

 

I think we both CAN agree though that West Virginia is much more vulnerable than some other BBs.

It is a bit larger (harder to miss) and awfully slow. And yes it will see lots of T7 and T8 (but not T9...).

The disadvantage (high dpm HE) is bigger there, but at T7/T8 it also has advantages. 

In a T8 game the New Mex guns are kinda 'meh', WV at least packs a good punch.

It took about a minute to kill this non-reacting stock Colorado, which had 4 fires on it. There's only two scenaros how this plays out in an actual battle.

 

First is that the Colorado/West Virginia fails to escape with 21 knots to get out fast enough. In that case, it dies. A 21 knot BB is not going to get out anytime soon if it gets surprise farmed at 9-10 km and has to make the decision whether to push on to try to kill the threat or pull out and escape the over 14 km range of the ship shooting at it. Shchors would have even more range.

 

Second is that the Colorado/West Virginia actually manages to find some cover or outrun the range, because he wasn't caught completely trapped within range in the open, or he kills me, because I'm in  the open or any other scenario which actually prevents me from finishing the farm to their bitter demise. In that case, the Colorado/WV can just pop damecon and repair once it gets too close to comfort and is about to get out. USN damecon lasts 20 seconds, which compared to the ~1 minute it took to kill the ship is quite a significant timespan and within that time, I'm not going to set any fires. Afterwards I cannot. If I can afterwards still shoot at the Colorado/WV, then it'd revert to first scenario. And even if I get a salvo in after damecon runs out, one fire deals 18% of hp without mitigating factors, which means if the Colorado does use a repair, as long as it wasn't on silly low hp, the repair party counteracts much of it.

 

In either scenario, with a human captain using all means at their disposal to mitigate the even assuming they don't run a 17 pt tank build, but just 10 pt with SI and CE, with proper signal loadout and Damecon Mod 2, the amount of fire damage compared to penetration damage just shrinks further and becomes very manageable. Already with such a spec, you'd lose only 12.2% of hp per fire (which last 41 seconds), wich is 6.1k hp. One West Virginia repair party with signal restores 16.8% of hp, or 8.4k. Colorado repair party would return 22.1% of hp with signal, or 11k. So, assuming you don't stick around to the point where HE alpha damage already puts you perilously low, fires can be easily survived. And if you die to a fire, I doubt you can say it really was the fire that killed you and not the silly high amount of HE damage that depleted your hp to the point a fire could kill you.

 

The best way to manage this also is to be aware of your surroundings and from where you can be spammed, so that you don't push into situations where you might die helplessly. 21 knot BBs require a lot of thought into positioning and West Virginia needs more than most, given it gets standard repair party and is slower in a turn. Also not because of fires, but if you take 40k damage from pens alone, you permanently lost 20k hp, which to WV is 40% of its hp pool!

[BLUB__BLUB]

1 hour ago, Riselotte said:

It took about a minute to kill this non-reacting stock Colorado, which had 4 fires on it. There's only two scenaros how this plays out in an actual battle.

Actually there's more but we'll see.

 

Quote

First is that the Colorado/West Virginia fails to escape with 21 knots to get out fast enough. In that case, it dies. A 21 knot BB is not going to get out anytime soon if it gets surprise farmed at 9-10 km and has to make the decision whether to push on to try to kill the threat or pull out and escape the over 14 km range of the ship shooting at it. Shchors would have even more range.

Agreed. If you push too far in it, you are dead. Also, a HE-accident usually doesn't come alone.

He'll die in less than a minute. As soon as they spot him, all cruisers of the enemy team will be all over him.

 

Quote

Second is that the Colorado/West Virginia actually manages to find some cover or outrun the range, because he wasn't caught completely trapped within range in the open, or he kills me, because I'm in  the open or any other scenario which actually prevents me from finishing the farm to their bitter demise. In that case, the Colorado/WV can just pop damecon and repair once it gets too close to comfort and is about to get out. USN damecon lasts 20 seconds, which compared to the ~1 minute it took to kill the ship is quite a significant timespan and within that time, I'm not going to set any fires. Afterwards I cannot. If I can afterwards still shoot at the Colorado/WV, then it'd revert to first scenario. And even if I get a salvo in after damecon runs out, one fire deals 18% of hp without mitigating factors, which means if the Colorado does use a repair, as long as it wasn't on silly low hp, the repair party counteracts much of it.

Now here it gets interesting. Why would he pop damecon, and not let 1 fire burn out? I'd say he gets 3 or 4. THEN he gets out and pops damecon. Say 30 secs, 4 fires - 

Or he pops it after getting 4 fires, almost gets out and then gets two more. Now... that would be 10sec x4 fires (~12k HP) plus two more, another 12k. 

He'll then be at half health, just from that encounter. Even if he just gets hit by 4 shells and then two more. 

 

Quote

In either scenario, with a human captain using all means at their disposal to mitigate the even assuming they don't run a 17 pt tank build, but just 10 pt with SI and CE, with proper signal loadout and Damecon Mod 2, the amount of fire damage compared to penetration damage just shrinks further and becomes very manageable. Already with such a spec, you'd lose only 12.2% of hp per fire (which last 41 seconds), wich is 6.1k hp. One West Virginia repair party with signal restores 16.8% of hp, or 8.4k. Colorado repair party would return 22.1% of hp with signal, or 11k. So, assuming you don't stick around to the point where HE alpha damage already puts you perilously low, fires can be easily survived. And if you die to a fire, I doubt you can say it really was the fire that killed you and not the silly high amount of HE damage that depleted your hp to the point a fire could kill you.

could be - except if the former thing happened and leaves you at 50%, then you are repairing and get some more... it WILL BE fire that puts you down in the end.

 

Quote

The best way to manage this also is to be aware of your surroundings and from where you can be spammed, so that you don't push into situations where you might die helplessly. 21 knot BBs require a lot of thought into positioning and West Virginia needs more than most, given it gets standard repair party and is slower in a turn. Also not because of fires, but if you take 40k damage from pens alone, you permanently lost 20k hp, which to WV is 40% of its hp pool!

You have to make sure there is ALWAYS a friend between you and the enemy. Map awareness is key. 

ALso, you are right about the alpha-damage. You can't repair it (can repair part of it though), also the 'heal' will only do 8,4 K.

And while it is on cooldown, will do nothing. When you get hit while on cooldown, that fire will do full damage.

 

BTW the Colorado is the ONLY ship I ever had more than 2 fires on... maybe I am careful, or maybe it just burns pretty well.