Ranked Battles: Eleventh Season - Discussion Thread

[FreakinBiber]

36 minutes ago, Rusty_9 said:

Two days ago = this ranked season. Check

 

This ranked season = T9. Check

 

Mino /= T9. Check

 

#brainfartmaybe 

Mino -> Neptune....of course...

 

(same sort of citadel-bag... :-) )

 

 

 

[Raziel_Walker]

So far I like the T9 and arms race combo. (DD main player with kitakaze/Z-46)

 

49 battles played, just reached rank 5. The real frustation part will start here.

30 wins, 19 losses.

So guess that means about 1 in 4 losses I manage to save my star.

 

[Leepants]

I only have 4 T9s - Missouri, Z46, seattle and Buffalo. 

I'm having SOME (small) success with Z46 (I'm not a good player, frankly), but can[t really seem to make teh CLs work. 

Is this normal? I'm yet to try the BB in ranked.......

 

Thanks.

 

Edit:- only 13 point captain in Seattle, so no IFHE.

[Face69__]

54 minutes ago, Leepants said:

I only have 4 T9s - Missouri, Z46, seattle and Buffalo. 

I'm having SOME (small) success with Z46 (I'm not a good player, frankly), but can[t really seem to make teh CLs work. 

Is this normal? I'm yet to try the BB in ranked.......

 

Thanks.

 

Edit:- only 13 point captain in Seattle, so no IFHE.

If u think u r not super unicum hardcore god dont go for CL's, they r rly hard due to tons of hard hiting BBs, and dont even try seattle without ifhe, thats rly bad idea. 
From ones u listed, i would go with Missouri coz shes the most competetive.
I finished this season with most games at Black and Musashi.

[Leepants]

MANY thanks for your reply and tips - hugely appreciated :)

 

I shall take your advice :)

[HaachamaShipping]

35 minutes ago, Leepants said:

I only have 4 T9s - Missouri, Z46, seattle and Buffalo. 

I'm having SOME (small) success with Z46 (I'm not a good player, frankly), but can[t really seem to make teh CLs work. 

Is this normal? I'm yet to try the BB in ranked.......

 

Thanks.

Frankly, I don't play DDs in this Ranked, as I only have Yuugumo, which I view as not too ideal for this job. DDs are however the most influential class. BBs meanwhile are likely the easiest to get solid performance in, but they are the least influential. CA/CLs are the middle ground. If this was normal Ranked, I'd frankly not bother with Neptune, but play Ibuki. But as it's Arms Race, Neptune is imo the better pick for match influence.

 

What's hard with CA/CL is that these ships are absolutely unforgiving to mistakes. Mess up and you die. Play Neptune or Seattle, mess up your positioning, you are gone in one salvo from a BB or Kronshtadt. What they give though, is tremendous ability to murder DDs... at least if you get a radar CL. Which is why I take Neptune, because it's a great anti-DD boat and obviously when DDs are most influential, whatever can kill DDs fast and reliably is influential.

 

In your case, I'd play Missouri, because it's a good BB. Though, try to not sit too far back, try to push up a bit to make that radar count. If you push behind a cruiser or DD, they also provide torp spotting. 

[Leepants]

4 minutes ago, Seiranko said:

Frankly, I don't play DDs in this Ranked, as I only have Yuugumo, which I view as not too ideal for this job. DDs are however the most influential class. BBs meanwhile are likely the easiest to get solid performance in, but they are the least influential. CA/CLs are the middle ground. If this was normal Ranked, I'd frankly not bother with Neptune, but play Ibuki. But as it's Arms Race, Neptune is imo the better pick for match influence.

 

What's hard with CA/CL is that these ships are absolutely unforgiving to mistakes. Mess up and you die. Play Neptune or Seattle, mess up your positioning, you are gone in one salvo from a BB or Kronshtadt. What they give though, is tremendous ability to murder DDs... at least if you get a radar CL. Which is why I take Neptune, because it's a great anti-DD boat and obviously when DDs are most influential, whatever can kill DDs fast and reliably is influential.

 

In your case, I'd play Missouri, because it's a good BB. Though, try to not sit too far back, try to push up a bit to make that radar count. If you push behind a cruiser or DD, they also provide torp spotting. 

 

Yeh, when I play BBs (except JPN) I tend to get stuck in....... I bought Buffalo (I have Des M) to play with. I shall be selling it! lol. I MAY buy Neptune instead and see how I go.....

 

But Missouri will be used. 

 

Again, thanks! 

[HaachamaShipping]

16 minutes ago, Leepants said:

 

Yeh, when I play BBs (except JPN) I tend to get stuck in....... I bought Buffalo (I have Des M) to play with. I shall be selling it! lol. I MAY buy Neptune instead and see how I go.....

No, don't! Neptune is like the most ridiculous cruiser there is at T9 imo when it comes to what I said about cruisers. Half the ship is citadel, literally. This ship is mostly less armoured than DDs (for real!) and its concealment is pretty bad for what it is. The saving grace is that in Arms Race you can try fix it with concealment buffs and you don't get crossfired as much. Also it has insane dpm. But no amount of dpm helps when you are dead and the Neptune dies way too easily to be recommended for people who struggle with more manageable radar cruisers.

[FreakinBiber]

In this mode and with Seattle or Neptune you rely on a DD Buddy that smokes you in.

On top you will easily get radared by the Russian long range Version - and particularly in lower ranks quickyl focussed and blepped.

(Have seen this happen again yesterday to two Players from Typhoon/Hurricane Clans...and they typically know how to play)

 

Look at the metas - mostly you will see

BB heavy: 3/4 BBs - 1 Cruiser - 2/1 DDs.

or

DD heavy - so 1/2 BBs - 1 Cruiseer - 3/4 DDs..

 

Good luck with Seattle/Neptune in a BB heavy game....

It is very tough and the game mode Arms Race requires you to get close.

Long range BB sniping and HE spamming might not be a promising approach...

 

And Seattle is - in whatever mode - nearly unplayable with a 13 PT captain imho.

14 or even better 17 is a min. (PT, AR, SI, CE, IFHE is min.) - DE and AR then on top....

 

In your Buffalo you can at least bow-tank a bit...

Have fun with Missouri - ranked is always a great learning experience...(at least for me I can say that....)

 

Rank 5 and below sees mainly:

 

BBs: Musashi and Jean Barts (have hardly seen Missouris there), some Alsaces

CAs: Kronshtadts and Dimitris

DDs: Black, Kitakaze, some Jutlands and Z46

 

have seen hardly anything else..

[tsounts]

Not amused by this season, zero team play.  People either ignore the bonus areas, yolo or camp.  The worst are those that try to save their star without helping anyone during the battle.

[Aragathor]

35 minutes ago, tsounts said:

Not amused by this season, zero team play.  People either ignore the bonus areas, yolo or camp.  The worst are those that try to save their star without helping anyone during the battle.

For how long have we been telling WG that the save a star mechanic is bad? I think I'm too old to remember.

[GarrusBrutus]

2 hours ago, FreakinBiber said:

Have seen this happen again yesterday to two Players from Typhoon/Hurricane Clans...and they typically know how to play

You would be surprised about the abysmal skilllevel of the average typhoon (and to some extent even hurricane) players.

[FreakinBiber]

I would love to receive 2 stars each for the 2 best performing players of the winning team instead of not loosing one as best on the loosing team...

 

Found so far that teamplay happens. However, particularly in 10-6 ranks players seem not to be used to the different modus.

Communication always lacks a bit which I find sad. At the begging some " I go there - try to get this cap - I put Radar on in 10 - will get you smoke...". would be great...

 

The modus punishes teams with camping BBs - so quite a few players have to adapt their style...

DDs have to really find the right balance... its a refreshing modus...

And we are early in the season - things are not sorted and people need to adapt....

 

GarrusBrutus - how come they are in clans that high in the clan leagues?

Only a selected group of the clan allowed to play in clan battles as "lead team"?

just wondering....

(I am only 1 year with the game and half a year I did not really bother much....)

[GarrusBrutus]

3 minutes ago, FreakinBiber said:

GarrusBrutus - how come they are in clans that high in the clan leagues?

Only a selected group of the clan allowed to play in clan battles as "lead team"?

just wondering....

(I am only 1 year with the game and half a year I did not really bother much....)

Exactly that. For example: Barcelona does not have 22 Messi's in their squad. A player in a Barcelona shirt does not mean he is of Messi's skilllevel. Same applies to wows: You can have a clan full of potatoes with 7 superunicums dragging them to Hurricane. 

[HaachamaShipping]

2 hours ago, FreakinBiber said:

In this mode and with Seattle or Neptune you rely on a DD Buddy that smokes you in.

On top you will easily get radared by the Russian long range Version - and particularly in lower ranks quickyl focussed and blepped.

(Have seen this happen again yesterday to two Players from Typhoon/Hurricane Clans...and they typically know how to play)

Frankly, I don't rely on smoke when playing Nep. Not on my own (I run radar) and not on allies. Relying on smoke gets you killed, given that in Ranked most good cruiser players got radar, half the BBs got radar and even some DDs get radar. You get radared, you die. I rather try to work with hard cover. I don't care if I get radared behind an island, if noone can shoot me. I likely won't get insane damage totals, but if I sit in a vital spot with 9.45 km radar range in Nep, it means DDs loath to push that, as radar goes through islands and my allies might shoot them. Cover also means, I might set up in positions where it is very likely that whoever spots me stumbles into my radar range, so if I pop radar, I can delete a flanking DD. Obviously, if there is a Fletcher, Black or Kitakaze setting up a smoke for me in a good spot, I use it (and give karma), but relying on smoke easily makes one careless.

[kimko11]

crappy gamemode

 

[OddityNZ]

I like the game mode even if its only to change things up, The same gameplay I see in randoms is what there is in ranked, Neptunes who go broadside in there own smoke.

DD's doing their own thing or not being supported and dying in the first 4 minutes.

 

The thing with the capture points is that it kind of makes teams split up at the start to get the capture points and then it unfolds from there.

 

If you ignore all the other types of caps and just go for the heals and the main cap that seems to work..

[HaachamaShipping]

1 hour ago, OddityNZ said:

I like the game mode even if its only to change things up, The same gameplay I see in randoms is what there is in ranked, Neptunes who go broadside in there own smoke.

DD's doing their own thing or not being supported and dying in the first 4 minutes.

 

The thing with the capture points is that it kind of makes teams split up at the start to get the capture points and then it unfolds from there.

 

If you ignore all the other types of caps and just go for the heals and the main cap that seems to work..

I'd say, take caps depending on what the ship makeup is. For example, the more DDs there are, the more heal nodes become important. If you get radar cruisers, the concealment nodes become important. BBs basically take just about everything. Obviously, you cannot count on allies making use of buffs, but it typically is best to try get relevant buffs, provided you don't throw your ship away doing it. Especially cruisers and DDs should try to keep that in mind, as CLs will prioritise concealment over heal, while DDs are the other way around (both benefit a lot from either), so it's often up to proper cooperation to win games. If I in my Neptune don't help my DDs get repairs, then we'll likely lose, but if my DDs get me one or two concealment buffs, I can become an invaluable help.

[LeGiry]

NO JOLLY ROGER ?!?!!?!?!  WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY??????????

[zetruenando]

My frustration is that it feels very random. I'm stuck oscillating between rank 12 and 10. I play the Jean-Bart and the Jutland, maybe not the best ships but not bad either. Now in the Jutland, I try to cap the buffs and spot out the enemy  DDs, things that aren't rewarded compared to damage performance so feeling like I had enough of this season.

Guess my skill level is reflected here.....

[FreakinBiber]

I would love to receive 2 stars each for the 2 best performing players of the winning team instead of not loosing one as best on the loosing team...

 

Found so far that teamplay happens. However, particularly in 10-6 ranks players seem not to be used to the different modus.

Communication always lacks a bit which I find sad. At the begging some " I go there - try to get this cap - I put Radar on in 10 etc". would be great...

 

The modus punishes teams with Camping BBs - so quite a few players have to adapt their style...

DDs have to really find the right balance... its a refreshing modus...

 

 

[FreakinBiber]

1 hour ago, zetruenando said:

My frustration is that it feels very random. I'm stuck oscillating between rank 12 and 10. I play the Jean-Bart and the Jutland, maybe not the best ships but not bad either. Now in the Jutland, I try to cap the buffs and spot out the enemy  DDs, things that aren't rewarded compared to damage performance so feeling like I had enough of this season.

Guess my skill level is reflected here..... 

 

Unfortunately yes  - as you have 48% something Winrate overall there is no way to progress if you do not improve this significantly.

But those ranked seasons I found always a good way to  improve skills.

 

Jean Bart is a great ship for this ranked version I find. Fast, pushy, and firepower on demand. I run it with 70% WR so far and hope to rank out soon (Rank 2 at the moment).

(JB and Kron perform best for me - but always an individual thing).

 

Check your captain skill build - for a 19PT captain I recommend:

1: PT

2: EM and AR

3: SI and BS

4: CE and FP

IF you have 14 or 17 PT  only - leave AR and/or BS.

(so - Basic survivability build - but I take the secondary module in the upgrades)

 

Check your playstyle:

Load HE first - use reload to punish DDs early, flank and do not Cluster with other BBs and have a DD in front of you ideally.

(eg. go wide for that heal buff with engine boost).

Also nice: Shoot an HE volley to bow-in BB early - in many cases they will repair the one fire ("ah what shall happen, no torps, Long distance....")

If they do - reload Booster on - and 2 more HE volleys -> 2 perma fires....

 

and Train Train Train.

 

Jutland is a great ship too and according the stats it performs really well overall in this ranked season (53% WR or so) 

Personally I feel better in Z-46 for this specific mode (though I run both only with 50% WR so far in ranked - just 15 games or though and have not really adapted I guess).

(I am too agressive, whenever I play more defensive I tend to perform better)

 

Why I find Z-46 for the game mode better (if you have no Black):

 

-> Reload of Torps - you nearly send 2 sets of torps until Jutland has first one ready (meaning you can nicely flood the caps early)

-> the Hydro is super aggressive with its long duration and 5 km range (super valuable in low radar count games - I have seen quite a few in ranks 5-1 as often 3BBs vs. 3 DDs - or only 1 cruiser in between)

-> you do have RPF without harsh sacrifices (as on Jutland you need to run IFHE - which Forces you to scrifice BFT and AR for RPF)

 

Maybe it helps - enjoy.

 

Team up with a Kita or Black....

 

 

[zetruenando]

6 minutes ago, FreakinBiber said:

 

Unfortunately yes  - as you have 48% something Winrate overall there is no way to progress if you do not improve this significantly.

But those ranked seasons I found always a good way to  improve skills.

 

Jean Bart is a great ship for this ranked version I find. Fast, pushy, and firepower on demand. I run it with 70% WR so far and hope to rank out soon (Rank 2 at the moment).

(JB and Kron perform best for me - but always an individual thing).

 

Check your captain skill build - for a 19PT captain I recommend:

1: PT

2: EM and AR

3: SI and BS

4: CE and FP

IF you have 14 or 17 PT  only - leave AR and/or BS.

(so - Basic survivability build - but I take the secondary module in the upgrades)

 

Check your playstyle:

Load HE first - use reload to punish DDs early, flank and do not Cluster with other BBs and have a DD in front of you ideally.

(eg. go wide for that heal buff with engine boost).

Also nice: Shoot an HE volley to bow-in BB early - in many cases they will repair the one fire ("ah what shall happen, no torps, Long distance....")

If they do - reload Booster on - and 2 more HE volleys -> 2 perma fires....

 

and Train Train Train.

 

Jutland is a great ship too and according the stats it performs really well overall in this ranked season (53% WR or so) 

Personally I feel better in Z-46 for this specific mode (though I run both only with 50% WR so far in ranked - just 15 games or though and have not really adapted I guess).

(I am too agressive, whenever I play more defensive I tend to perform better)

 

Why I find Z-46 for the game mode better (if you have no Black):

 

-> Reload of Torps - you nearly send 2 sets of torps until Jutland has first one ready (meaning you can nicely flood the caps early)

-> the Hydro is super aggressive with its long duration and 5 km range (super valuable in low radar count games - I have seen quite a few in ranks 5-1 as often 3BBs vs. 3 DDs - or only 1 cruiser in between)

-> you do have RPF without harsh sacrifices (as on Jutland you need to run IFHE - which Forces you to scrifice BFT and AR for RPF)

 

Maybe it helps - enjoy.

 

Team up with a Kita or Black....

 

 

Many thanks for your advice. I have retrained my JB captain so hopefully those fires won't burn me down quite so quickly ;)

[Face69__]

9 hours ago, zetruenando said:

Many thanks for your advice. I have retrained my JB captain so hopefully those fires won't burn me down quite so quickly ;)

Honestly, i dont know how JB performs so well, there was tons of musashi's when i was playing, and JB rly suffer hard from those volleys, basicly if musashi focus u, u will have very bad time. Thats around 12k every volley due to your non existing armor.

[FreakinBiber]

12 hours ago, DoktorScamp said:

Honestly, i dont know how JB performs so well, there was tons of musashi's when i was playing, and JB rly suffer hard from those volleys, basicly if musashi focus u, u will have very bad time. Thats around 12k every volley due to your non existing armor.

 

Meta might be different in 10-6 - and Musashi is with 16% really the most played ship.

So yes - if you face 3 Musashis in a game its a bit harder...

Rank 5-1 I have not seen so many of them - maybe 1 max 2 per game....

I ranked out yesterday playing mainly Kron and JB (63% WR and 73% WR).

 

Btw. -  a Mushi easily takes a 10k volley from you too bow on in a JB. Just shoot HE :-)

But in General - tactic is to avoid this of course.

 

You are fast and sneaky in a JB. You flank and get the juicy side of sit-back-Mushi.

(Till he turns his guns he ate at least 3 AP volleys broadside...)

 

Since you are fast you can also disengage easily (always have an Exit plan in mind in a JB)

 

What worked best for me - fight Musashis indirectly by supporting your DD.

HE loaded and reload Booster ready and you can support an early kill of an enemy DD so he is free to torp the slow Musashi later

while you kite away or hide a bit. No Musashi can/will be able to do this early in the game - they will be too far away to hit...

And Lord - those 5-8k HE volleys hurt DDs...

 

Overall - JB's are more demanding/difficult to play in my opinion (heavy cruiser style) - but also more impactful and rewarding.

Musashi is somewhat a save bet to save more stars. I lost way more often in Musashi but kept my start about every 2nd time...

(Stats wise both run a 50,97% WR Overall - Musashi played by 15,9% and JB by 6.5% of the Players).

 

Top of the Stats are according wow numbers:

Jutland (53,41% WR, played by 5%)

Kronshtadt (53,09% WR played by 5,5%)

Black (52,91% WR played by 3,5%)

 

then

Kitakaze, Missouri, Buffalo, Musashi, Jean Bart...

 

Yugomo, Izumo and Tashkent worst performing - oh wonder...