The tier V and VI sweet spot

[Gebbly]

Hi All,

After playing around a bit I think tiers V and VI (and some lower tier) are my sweet spot for fun. Some interesting ships and features and I can potato at that tier without upsetting the unicums :)

The lower tier European destroyers have been fun and I have a blast in the Hawkins (tier V RN heavy cruiser) and Leander (tier 6 RN light cruiser).

 

Has anyone got any suggestions for ships of tier VI or below that they have particular fun in?

[ThePoisonDwarf]

Nurnberg is nice.

[Miscommunication_dept]

10 minutes ago, Gebbly said:

Hi All,

After playing around a bit I think tiers V and VI (and some lower tier) are my sweet spot for fun. Some interesting ships and features and I can potato at that tier without upsetting the unicums :)

The lower tier European destroyers have been fun and I have a blast in the Hawkins (tier V RN heavy cruiser) and Leander (tier 6 RN light cruiser).

 

Has anyone got any suggestions for ships of tier VI or below that they have particular fun in?

If you like Leander you should really try Perth. Crawling smoke with HE and it’s own spotting in the form of hydro and a plane. I also think Graf spee is very good but don’t buy it yet! Wait for the dockyard.

[invicta2012]

Tier V and VI are really well balanced - largely because of all the international treaties around at the time, which means fantasy projects didn't get built and there is a natural balance.

 

If you like cruisers then Nurnberg is popular. Personally I prefer heavy cruisers so I would say Devonshire, which is the best of the British CAs, and Pensacola, which has now been buffed out of all recognition. She has slow turret traverse, but otherwise she's easily a Tier VII.  The Japanese ones are also good - Furutaka takes a while to get going (she has lots of options for hulls and guns which can be a bit confusing) but it's a great ship. 

 

French and British DDs are the best silver lines but if you fancy spending some money, T-61 is one of the best destroyers in the game. 

[TeaAndTorps]

Unpopular choise perhaps, but I do find Aoba fun. Relatively agile, and if you can make the slightly sluggish gun handling work for you the ballistic properties of the shells work nicely for me at least. A very good kiting cruiser (esp. given torp angles), and that's a playstyle I like. Farragut is fun too, as long as you're not facing T8s, if you like knife-fighting DDs.

[TeaAndTorps]

Dallas was also hilarious fun last time I played, but I've not been playing WOWS for the last several months so haven't tried it since the IFHE changes

[Gebe_]

Furutaka is a beast.

[kfa]

Kamikaze, Shinonome, Perth, Mutsu, Warspite, Fuso, Ark Royal

[Nov_A]

Ryujo and Ark Royal.

[Purnylla]

I mainly play co-op games, but I remember having quite some fun in the Omaha. I'm currently saving up coal for the Marblehead, which is a Omaha-clone if I understand correctly. Not everyone seems to like the Omaha though.

 

And for brawling, the Bayern seems pretty decent for its tier.

 

I'm also still enjoying the even lower tiers by taking my Albany and Charleston in co-op. Not everyone seems to like co-op though, and I'm not sure if these ships would be similar fun in randoms. 

 

 

[bratisla_boy]

Il y a 2 heures, ThePoisonDwarf a dit :

Nurnberg is nice.

I struggle with Nurnberg, I first played her island hopping but ... yeah. If someone has pointers, I would be grateful ^^

Hydro is wonderful, though.

[Procrastes]

2 hours ago, gopher31 said:

If you like Leander you should really try Perth. Crawling smoke with HE and it’s own spotting in the form of hydro and a plane. I also think Graf spee is very good but don’t buy it yet! Wait for the dockyard.

This!

 

Another personal favourite is the T-61. She has an amazing toolbox with smoke, hydro and fast-loading torpedoes, but her anemic guns force you to play intelligently and with forethought. In other words, she rewards clever play but punishes mistakes, which is a very good combination of traits as I see it. 

 

If you like middle-tier heavy cruisers, you'd probably also like the Essex. Good traits overall, and a heal that lets you recover from some (but not all) mistakes. 

 

And if you are looking for a mid-tier battleship that is also good for operations, the Warspite is a good and solid choice in my opinion. If you want one for tier V ias well, I'd advise you to take a look at the Pyotr Velikiy!

[Procrastes]

16 minutes ago, bratisla_boy said:

I struggle with Nurnberg, I first played her island hopping but ... yeah. If someone has pointers, I would be grateful ^^

Hydro is wonderful, though.

With the Nürnberg, you'd do well to try and keep the distance and do most of your shooting while kiting away. You have good range and nice ballistics, and two of your three turrets are situated on the aft deck.* (They also turn 360°, which is a nice feature to have, especially if you find yourself as the pursuer instead of the pursued.) Keep wiggling your cute little German butt and stroke your pursuers gently with HE - but if you happen to come across any cruisers that give you broadside at 12 km range or less, switch to AP and citadel them to Kingdom Come! If you still end up being cornered at close range, you have access to some really heavy torpedo armament (with the proper build) - but don't go showing off your own broadside just to get some torps off.

 

But perhaps most importantly, don't be discouraged if you get blown out of the water with alarming frequency! If you are not being shot at by at least half the enemy team, you are probably doing something wrong - fighting against the odds is almost as large a part of being a light cruiser captain, as it is the domain of the dashing destroyer commander. Accept that you will not survive! 

 

 

* Historically for this exact purpose, actually, as the Kriegsmarine expected their light cruisers to do most of their fighting while running away from the Royal Navy.

[NobleRipper]

1 minute ago, Purnylla said:

I mainly play co-op games, but I remember having quite some fun in the Omaha. I'm currently saving up coal for the Marblehead, which is a Omaha-clone if I understand correctly. Not everyone seems to like the Omaha though.

 

And for brawling, the Bayern seems pretty decent for its tier.

 

I'm also still enjoying the even lower tiers by taking my Albany and Charleston in co-op. Not everyone seems to like co-op though, and I'm not sure if these ships would be similar fun in randoms. 

 

 

Definitely agreed, to all except the Bayern/Albany which I don't have ;)

 

Personally I really like the Emerald in Co-op (vastly prefer it to the Hawkins as it happens, which I just can't seem to get on with) due to the smoke and torpedoes, but then I'm a sucker for two launchers per side as on the Omaha and Duguay-Trouin. Also saving for Marblehead!

 

2 hours ago, Gebbly said:

Has anyone got any suggestions for ships of tier VI or below that they have particular fun in?

 

Sounds like I don't have much new for you OP, as you've already got a lot of what I'd recommend! For what it's worth though, at T5/6 I'd mention/second the Furutaka, Warspite, Leander and Devonshire; London is ok, but I don't enjoy her as much as the other two RN T6 cruisers. Pensacola has some really fun guns, as does the Italian Monty at T5 if you can get the hang of the SAP (and overlook the glacial turret turning and reloading speeds). Having fun with Emile Bertin at the moment as well as I'm currently grinding the French and Italian cruiser lines. The T5/6 Euro DDs are fun little boats, but I find they benefit enormously from careful skill/upgrade selection. Kongo is always worth a go, fast battleships can often be useful for fulfilling directives if nothing else. Planning on picking up the Bayern(/Gneisenau), Iron Duke/Queenie and possibly Furious soon, although the latter will be pure Port Queen status only.

 

Lower down, I actually have a lot of fun in the RN light cruisers (first line I went up) and Yubari...

 

Of course, T6 puts you in prime position to play Ops if that's your thing, and there's a whole extra discussion about what works well there (although Leander won't do you wrong). @lossi_2018 is a good bet if you're interested in that area.

[Purnylla]

7 minutes ago, NobleSauvage said:

but then I'm a sucker for two launchers per side as on the Omaha and Duguay-Trouin.

If you like two torps on each side, the Genova might be worth checking out. Although I'm not a huge fan of the ship, I did score quite a few kills with it during the Italian cruiser event. I don't like it a lot because I'm more of a gunboat-guy, and the Genova has a longer reload time. The torps are quite amazing though.

 

And if you like torpedos, you might like the Smith. 3 single torp tubes with a 11 sec reload on a tier 2 boat. It's... different. :P

 

Although slightly higher tier, if you like torps combined with some brawling, the Gneisenau or Scharnhorst can be quite fun. Although gun accuracy can be a pain at longer ranges in randoms, the secondaries and torpedos are quite enjoyable in co-op. :) 

 

[NobleRipper]

6 minutes ago, Purnylla said:

If you like two torps on each side, the Genova might be worth checking out. Although I'm not a huge fan of the ship, I did score quite a few kills with it during the Italian cruiser event. I don't like it a lot because I'm more of a gunboat-guy, and the Genova has a longer reload time. The torps are quite amazing though.

 

And if you like torpedos, you might like the Smith. 3 single torp tubes with a 11 sec reload on a tier 2 boat. It's... different. :P

 

Although slightly higher tier, if you like torps combined with some brawling, the Gneisenau or Scharnhorst can be quite fun. Although gun accuracy can be a pain at longer ranges in randoms, the secondaries and torpedos are quite enjoyable in co-op. :) 

 

Those sound good! The torps are a large part of the reason I'm going for the Gneisenau in fact :) I definitely prefer a brawling style in Co-op, so torps always useful.

[Procrastes]

1 hour ago, Purnylla said:

And for brawling, the Bayern seems pretty decent for its tier.

The Bayern is tough as old boots, she can take a beating that would put most other ships on that tier on the bottom. Just don't expect to hit very much at longer ranges (but then you shouldn't be fighting at longer ranges in any German battleship). I like her a lot, although I tend to prefer the Warspite in operations.

[Purnylla]

Another fun ship would be the Atlanta. I don't care if she's good or not, she has short range, but being able to aim 7 out of 8 dual-gun turrets most of the time, with a 5 second reload time (depending on commander skills), that's 14 shells flying through the air every 5 seconds. Or, close to 3 shells every second on average. 

 

I know it's a tier 7 ship, so slightly off-topic, but for the fun-factor, I consider her still being worth mentioning for those who like ships with an extreme rate of fire. :)

[Procrastes]

18 hours ago, Purnylla said:

I'm also still enjoying the even lower tiers by taking my Albany and Charleston in co-op. Not everyone seems to like co-op though, and I'm not sure if these ships would be similar fun in randoms. 

The Charleston is basically a premium St Louis, and you can't go very wrong in a St Louis.

 

But if you are looking for some really entertaining gameplay at those lower tiers, get the Bogatyr and put a captain with the Advanced Firing Training skill in her! You will be able to outrange just about anything other than a battleship, and unlike a battleship, you will actually be able to hit what you shoot at.

 

Get the Bogatyr, and put the world on fire. If you absolutely have to burn down every muthaf- - -a in the room, accept no substitute!

 

 

[Miscommunication_dept]

10 minutes ago, Procrastes said:

The Charleston is basically a premium St Louis, and you can't go very wrong in a St Louis.

 

But if you are looking for some really entertaining gameplay at those lower tiers, get the Bogatyr and put a captain with the Advanced Firing Training skill in her! You will be able to outrange just about anything other than a battleship, and unlike a battleship, you will actually be able to hit what you shoot at.

 

Get the Bogatyr, and put the world on fire. If you absolutely have to burn down every muthaf- - -a in the living room, there ain't no substitute!

 

 

Svetlana is a beast with the same setup.

8.6km concealment makes it a lot fun ambushing DDs

[Procrastes]

12 minutes ago, gopher31 said:

Svetlana is a beast with the same setup.

8.6km concealment makes it a lot fun ambushing DDs

Right you are. And she's got torps to boot. The Kuma may be slightly stronger overall, but you underestimate the Lady Svetlana at your peril!

[HaachamaShipping]

Molotov. Fast, good AP for its tier, 30 mm base pen, so you need no IFHE and can still start nice fires. 

[Jimbomaxi]

Wel, I love the T 4 Japanese cruiser Kuma. It´s fast, has lots of artillery (use it to HE-spam, the AP is a no no on her), AND she is very manouverable. So fun to play! My other favourite "low" tier cruiser is the French T 5 Emile Bertin. Top speed 40 knots, good artillery and, as the Kuma, very manouverable. Both ships do best going full speed turning and twisting, making the enemies missing you while you melt them down constantly shooting HE at them.  T6? The Nurnberg is a real good ship, and the Budjonny, Russian T6 cruiser with very good, and long range artillery is another real good cruiser, although she in my opinion lacks a bit of speed. 

[lossi_2018]

2 hours ago, Nov_A said:

Ryujo and Ark Royal.

Superb ships

[lossi_2018]

8 hours ago, Gebe_ said:

Furutaka is a beast.

Plus you get to type in FURUTAKAH!  when you get em cits haha :) this meta hurt her a bit though