Recommend me a Tier VIII premium cruiser

[StarbuckTheThird]

I'm considering a Tier VIII cruiser and wouldn't mind some input.

 

Ships I'm eyeing up:

 

Frontrunner is Irian because she has the 2nd longest range guns of all Tier VIII's (prefer not to get to up and personal) and decent looking(?) torps, but slightly put off by her having no heal (big deal?).

 

Bagration has longer range, but worse reload and torps and am kinda bored with Russians.

 

Eugen & Mainz also catch my eye, same range guns as Irian and both have heals, but worse torps.

 

anyway, those are the front runners as my ignorant mind see's it. Any input, advice, thoughts or not-to-scathing comments welcome.

[Yedwy]

Irian is ok for kiting role, she is squishy though...

 

Bagration is pretty decent pick

 

Mainz doesnt have a heal

 

I would take Bayard if I was you or wait for the new Belfast 43 coming Soon (TM)

[DasTongle]

2 hours ago, StarbuckTheThird said:

I'm considering a Tier VIII cruiser and wouldn't mind some input.

 

Ships I'm eyeing up:

 

Frontrunner is Irian because she has the 2nd longest range guns of all Tier VIII's (prefer not to get to up and personal) and decent looking(?) torps, but slightly put off by her having no heal (big deal?).

 

Bagration has longer range, but worse reload and torps and am kinda bored with Russians.

 

Eugen & Mainz also catch my eye, same range guns as Irian and both have heals, but worse torps.

 

anyway, those are the front runners as my ignorant mind see's it. Any input, advice, thoughts or not-to-scathing comments welcome.

 Hello, Irian is a Sverdlov Class Cruiser like Kutuzov but without the benefit of the Smokesceen, if you wish to go all spamy with HE then Mainz is the better choice at that tier because she has a baked in IFHE allready. Torpedos should not be a deciding factor to be Honest.

If you want to learn Flanking and Mobile Cruisers Atago and Eugen come with the aforementioned heal and therefore do forgive one or two mistakes at the beginning. Atago has  great and accurate Guns the Low Range she makes up with good concealment and 10km torps with favorable angles.

Bagration and Bayard are advanced picks when you are a bit better understanding them. As firsts they are not really to recommend i think.

Belfast 43 is a cashgrab if i ever saw one, not as strong as her T7 Sister.

[lafeel]

Atago. The oldest tier 8 premium in the game and still one of the best.

[rurkovsky]

Atago is really good and heal makes difference at t8 as you wont feel much useless after 30k BB salvo at match start. Dont count Eugen out as well as its great pick for 1vs1, 3vs3 sprints we all hope to see in future.

Bayard have best server stats and it is dpm monster with MBRB, guys make ridiculus damage per battle on her. And Mainz is always great choice. 

What about Anchorage? Seems to be quite strong. Either finish directives or buy them.

 

[tyco]

Mainz is a serious thread against all tiers. I dont mind being uptiered with it. High rof, high damage, good pen and decent mobility.   It has torps and evil firing arcs. 
Its still a glass cannon without a heal.

 

I like it most of my premium cruisers.

[_HomTanks_]

3 hours ago, StarbuckTheThird said:

Frontrunner is Irian because she has the 2nd longest range guns of all Tier VIII's (prefer not to get to up and personal) and decent looking(?) torps, but slightly put off by her having no heal (big deal?).

Irian doesn't have access to heal but is a nice ship when it comes to burning ships from distance and good deep water torps with 13.5KM range. 

 

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Bagration has longer range, but worse reload and torps and am kinda bored with Russians.

Bagration is a nice ship with long range guns as well, but shorter ranged normal torps (Bagration torps have no surprise  element). Having access to heal makes Bagration more sustainable.

 

Quote

 

Eugen & Mainz also catch my eye, same range guns as Irian and both have heals, but worse torps.

Prinz Eugen and Mainz are very different. Mainz doesn't have heal while Prinz Eugen does which makes a big difference in terms of staying in the game longer. Prinz Eugen has better concealment, HP and bigger gun caliber (203mm, hence better penetration from distance), HE/AP damage than Mainz while Mainz has better rudder time, turning radius, gun reload time (hence DPM). They both have 6KM torpedoes. Overall, Prinz Eugen is a safer pick due to having access to heal.

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anyway, those are the front runners as my ignorant mind see's it. Any input, advice, thoughts or not-to-scathing comments welcome.

 

Out of four, I'd pick Bagration or Prinz Eugen due to having heal, to answer your question, yes heal makes a big difference as tier 8s end up in tier 9-10 games quite often where almost all cruisers have heal.

[Yedwy]

1 hour ago, DasTongle said:

Belfast 43 is a cashgrab if i ever saw one, not as strong as her T7 Sister.

Does she still have radar+smoke+hydro?

[_HomTanks_]

37 minutes ago, rurkovsky said:

Atago is really good and heal makes difference at t8 as you wont feel much useless after 30k BB salvo at match start. Dont count Eugen out as well as its great pick for 1vs1, 3vs3 sprints we all hope to see in future.

Both Atago and Prinz are nice ships with different play styles (as u know).

37 minutes ago, rurkovsky said:

Bayard have best server stats and it is dpm monster with MBRB, guys make ridiculus damage per battle on her. And Mainz is always great choice. 

Bayard is a nice one but more difficult to play compared to others. Think of general player pop.

37 minutes ago, rurkovsky said:

What about Anchorage? Seems to be quite strong. Either finish directives or buy them.

 

Played one T9 game with Anchorage yesterday. Reload time of the guns is 15.6 seconds. It feels like a light Goliath long reload, good hitting HE. AP is not bad either but it relies on dumb enemy ships to give broadside. Torps can be surprising as people don't know this ship very well yet. I torped an enemy Chung Mu in his smoke with one torp hitting around 17K dmg. Can't write more about it since played only one game.

[quickr]

Bayard or Mainz

[Origin47]

Mainz because not it has quarter pen on it's HE, it can actually pen 38mm (all the juicy US BB decks), while normal light cruisers with ifhe only pen 37mm. The dpm is very good and it has 40mm of icebreaker. Although squishy, the turtle back helps and it cannot be overmatched like hipper's turtle back. You also have 8 tops per side for when you require them. The downsides are lack of heal, concealment and speed (acceleration included). At the moment I am having the most fun playing this ship.

 

Anchorage might be an option. It is a Buffalo hull and it trades radar and some dpm (15.5 secs reload) for smoke and 4 fletcher torps on each side. I am not mentioning heal because baltimore, whicita, cleveland do not have it either.

 

I am not speaking about other T8 cruisers as these 2 are my only premium one's and I do not consider the others worthy of getting. PBag might be an exception. :)

[UnterSeeBot]

Bayard or Wichita these days, best one trick CL premium vs best multitool CA premium.

[Yedwy]

2 minutes ago, LoveZeppelin said:

Bayard or Wichita these days, best one trick CL premium vs best multitool CA premium.

I really like Wichita BUT all the cruisers he mentioned are flanker/kiter type except Bagration and she can do it in a pinch due to having really long range and heal, if he is looking for that type of cruiser Wichita is not the answer here and neither is Atago due to short range, Atago is a great ship but in todays hightier meta she is not really beginner friendly...

[That_Other_Nid]

Depends a little on captains. Ships with heal really need superintendent to get the best out of them. Irian is nice but the torp spread is large. Atago has been power crept but the heal plus the torp range and arcs do make up for that, it is also fast. It is a kiting specialist like Japanese CAs. Can't really comment on the others. I have Kutuzov and the lack of heal is not a huge issue with its range and DPS but for other less ridiculously OP cruisers it might actually matter.

[kfa]

2 hours ago, Yedwy said:

 

I would take Bayard if I was you or wait for the new Belfast 43 coming Soon (TM)

Just dont be surprised if it will be the halfway reward before Plymouth at the christmas dockyard, like Gorizia-PR

[Yedwy]

9 minutes ago, kfa said:

Just dont be surprised if it will be the halfway reward before Plymouth at the christmas dockyard, like Gorizia-PR

Might be athough T8 would be uncommonly generous TBH much less an op cashgrab material cruiser... I would sooner expect Strasbourg and IDK Hizen? combo...

[kfa]

2 minutes ago, Yedwy said:

Might be athough T8 would be uncommonly generous TBH much less an op cashgrab material cruiser... I would sooner expect Strasbourg and IDK Hizen? combo...

have you seen the current stats of the '43? its a nerfed t7 belfast, with a t8 tag slapped on it, after odin/anchorage/oklahoma it really smells like a free wg ship

[Yedwy]

2 minutes ago, kfa said:

have you seen the current stats of the '43? its a nerfed t7 belfast, with a t8 tag slapped on it, after odin/anchorage/oklahoma it really smells like a free wg ship

Nope but if she still has smoke+radar+hydro combo with half decent base stealth OR rudder you can bet its gonna be fugly to meet one in any DD... Just as fugly as meeting her other self...

[Ocsimano18]

Atago is a solid kiting workhorse, it has heal, good armor ad good guns and the best torpedo arcs.

Irian is fun because it has Kutuzov guns and long range deep water torpedos.

Anchorage is very interesting to play, get it if you can.

Belfast 43 is a likely candidate for the Christmas dockyard event.

 

[UnterSeeBot]

22 minutes ago, Yedwy said:

I really like Wichita BUT all the cruisers he mentioned are flanker/kiter type except Bagration and she can do it in a pinch due to having really long range and heal, if he is looking for that type of cruiser Wichita is not the answer here and neither is Atago due to short range, Atago is a great ship but in todays hightier meta she is not really beginner friendly...

Wichita is actually quite durable. As for flanking and kiting, you need speed for that, which means Bayard.

As for range, Atago's 15.78 km is quite standard for this tier. (Wichita 15.83, Cheshire 16.1, Ochakov 16.1 km). Obviously, for long range HE sniper spam, bagration, Irian and Mainz are better choices (17 km+), but sniping from ultra long range is neither kiting nor flanking, but a more passive dmg farming support role.

For this reason, Bayard is the most suited, having a speed booster, MBRB, good AA for when out alone,  and a good compromise on the range of 16.44 km, positioning it between the sniper HE spammers Bagration and pals and the medium range sluggers (Wichita, Anchorage, Cheshire, Atago).

Bayard may no longer be fashionable, but it is the standout best of the bunch. Speed, air defence, high burst dps, good range, all attributes of a quality flanker. Oh, did I mention it is also quite manouvrable when you feel the need to dodge long range bb AP salvos?

[Yedwy]

Yep thats why I said he should look at Bayard... ^^

[_HomTanks_]

1 minute ago, Yedwy said:

Yep thats why I said he should look at Bayard... ^^

I don't think Bayard is a good choice for the OP. He needs safer to play cruisers.

[Ocsimano18]

I played one game in Bayard and it was not really fun. It's very squishy. It's not a ship for everyone.

[UnterSeeBot]

27 minutes ago, Yedwy said:

Yep thats why I said he should look at Bayard... ^^

I run my FR legendary captain with my Kleber dd build on Bayard, which is unusual, works a treat. Though new upcoming captain skills will open up new possibilities/remove others.

[UnterSeeBot]

5 minutes ago, Ocsimano18 said:

I played one game in Bayard and it was not really fun. It's very squishy. It's not a ship for everyone.

ONE game?