I just came back from a 8 month Hiatus and booy the game is on fire! (literally)

[Bademeister02]

Hey people,

 

two weeks ago i finally decided to get my PC going again and reinstall WOWs. I quit playing it due to technical issues and RL-stuff in February 2019 and hadnt touched it since then.  Download, installation etc didnt took long and once i started the game i was greeted with a free 14 day trial for the Tirpitz (yay thx WG) and a personal mission to get a free Bismarck for something like "play a game and get 1000XP". Nice start isnt it? Wanted a Bismarck for quite some time so i was reasonably happy with my reentry into WOWs. Until i played the first matches 

 

Keep in mind i am not a bad player (according to my stats)and that i can usually adapt to changes inside this game. But it seems that hightier gameplay became some kind of struggle during my absence! I will probably adapt with time but until now i am not having much fun doing it^^ 

 

In my first matches with ma newly acquired german BBs i tried doing my ususal BB thing and slowly (!) pushed a flank to support my DDs (yes i am the missouri player that liked to use his radar for instance) from a range where my main battery might actually hit something. Everything went well until i got into 10km range of the cap circle and magic smokescreens bloomed everywhere while a firestorm descended upon me."What is this?" i asked myself while frantically trying to dodge the usual torps and air attacks until i realized it was a pair of smolensk feasting on me. It did take approx. 30 secs until i had to bail with a full turn to flee into island cover but only to get blapped across the map by a Kremlin that hadnt even moved outside their spawn. Well nice start lets be more cautios next game. Tried hanging back a bit more back, only to see my DDs getting slaughtered, Cruisers either sitting in smoke or getting blapped while the BBs hugged the spawn or the sidelines. And a lonely T8 german BB trying to utilise island cover to get somewhat close to our objective. But of course only to get focussed to death by several aggressive smokescreens and islands^^

 

So i left my BBs behind and tried to have some fun in my DDs. It was Fletchertime! Battle starts, only one radar and a single cv so lets see where the planes and the radar are. DM is on the other side of the map and planes were harassing another poor soul so lets try to get the cap. Capping starts but its of course contested. Well i got Cruiser support behind me and i am in a fletcher right? Pushed a bit forward to see whats inside the cap and found a Friesland waiting. Nice surprise and a quick death for me. I did manage to shave half of his health but i never really had a chance. Oh well so much about the good old USN "gunboat" DDs. Tried Shima for some time but got hunted down by a Jutlands and some nice CV rockets so i said well [edited]it and got the cruisers out. 

 

Ouch. Not a good decision. Zao? Try dodging Kremlin, Monty and Yama AP from across the map, while Conq, Smolensk will burn you alive. Ok just stop shooting and get undetected. But look a DB squad of that midway is coming for me^^ Wait that smokescreen over there with a smolensk inside looks like it has no protection from its teammates, lets try rushing it with AP. Wait what? No citadels on the broadside and this thing has torps too ? 

 

You see, i had quite some struggles within my first matches. Getting back into the game with my usual approach that worked in 2018 and early 2019 wasnt working anymore. I am currently doing better, but only because i do play even more cautiously. Gunfights in my Fletcher? Nahh better torp the cap from distance. Close quarter cap-support in my cruisers? Nah better stay back and either longrange HE/torp spam or hugging the islands as if it was your gf and spam everything that moves. Pushing a flank in my BB? Yes if you are part of the lemming train. Otherwise you better not...Playing aggressively was hard before i left, but its even harder now. As if WG does not want me to play that way.

 

After playing approx. 50 (dont know the exact numbers) battles since my return to WOWs i am a bit lost here. What is WG trying to do with the game? How on earth do they think the introduction of ships like Smolensk, Friesland, Colbert or the Soviet BBs would benefit the game? Didnt they refrain from giving Mino HE because it was deemed to be to annoying and OP? And now they introduce exactly that into the game (atleast i can citadel mino^^)? Is more HE-spam and general dakka really better for the game? Well after seeing a Wladiwostok beeing focused by my whole team (and not sinking to it) it seems that some new ships can keep up with the recent changes to the game, but the old ones are definitively left behind. After beeing away from the game for 8 months i feel that the powercreep is real and WG seems to only enforce it further with the recent additions. Seeing the planned Italian cruisers with their special shells only adds to this thought imho (but lets wait and see...they are non soviet silverships afterall). I am really grateful about the gifts WG gave me for coming back but i really dont know if i will be playing much after finishing the recent directives and grabbing that free t6 (thanks for that aswell). It feels like every change WG did during my absence, pushed into the direction of "get more range between you and you opponent otherwise you are dead". And this doesnt work for me. 

 

There you have it. My "short" impression of coming back into the game. I know there will be guys saying "noob just l2p" and "Smolensk/Friesland arent op, just smokefire them" but my point stands nonetheles. The powercreep during my 8 months of absence is real and its sad to see your old trusty ships beeing outperformed and inadequate to the new meta changes. And it seems WG doesnt care at all about this.

 

Now hit me ^^

 

Bademeister02 

[kapnobathrac]

Cliffs: op is being smashed by Smolensk 

[LoveYouTooBuddy]

He's delusional. Everything is fine!

Everything is fine...

 

 

[Bademeister02]

31 minutes ago, kapnobathrac said:

Cliffs: op is being smashed by Smolensk 

Thank you for this totally necessary and true summary of my post^^ Thats exactly what i was trying to say! 

[Panocek]

Spreadshiet says you're having fun...

[Fatal_Ramses]

Good to see that new/old-players are noticing the horrible direction this game has taken in year 2019.

Got me the ru T8 bb a couple of weeks ago and the gameplay on that is just retarded. Point bow towards enemy and laugh when yamato shells bounce off you. Enemy sighted? no worries just hit that reverse and back into a corner, in a war of attrition nothing beats the soviet war-machine.

[loki51]

Pretty much every older ships are obsolete with every new ship introducing. BBs now only for target practise. Daka daka HE spam are golden rule of the game design now. Thats why they add more and more ships like this. And result is that most of the games end like all spread all over the map as far from caps as posible simply because behind every island are 1 ship with super fast flamethrowers that take you down faster than you turn a ship around.  Games above tier VIII are one big fiery hell.  

[kfa]

@Bademeister02 if you want a quick summary about the current state of wows check this out, its like a TL'DR version

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odPl7Ka-P-4

[BanzaiPiluso]

After reading this I went out on my Yamato and got 1700000 potential damage and only made 20K damage.

Got burned constantly by a  Smolensk that I could never see. I finished 5th on my team.

 

Smolensk and the likes can kill the fun in any battle.

[Bademeister02]

1 hour ago, kfa said:

@Bademeister02 if you want a quick summary about the current state of wows check this out, its like a TL'DR version

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odPl7Ka-P-4

this vid is hilarious and sad at the same time^^ but oh well what use in complaining. Time to earn some coal probably.