Make Napoli Work

[Silent_Hunter94]

Hello All. I had bought Napoli a long time ago, but had forgotten about it. Recently I decided to use it in ranked, but I can't seem to make it work. I don't have any Italian captain above 10 points, so It's not well setup for secondary build, but the guns are not working as I expect them to be. In one of the matches, I had a full broadside of a Montana, but despite firing four salvos at him, I barely did 9k damage. Now I am not an unicum player, but I after 4500 battles I know how to damage any ship. I tried it in a few more matches, but except to broadside thinly armoured cruisers, I can barely get it to damage anything in good numbers. I was even in a nose to nose battle with a full health Des Moine. It kept on knocking my turrets out and taking chunks out of my superstructure with AP,  while my shells kept on bouncing, failing to damage its turrets or were over pens(which I was expecting). According to wows wiki, its AP shell's performance is better than HE, and I can't keep firing HE with 17 sec reload.

 

Any suggestions of how to play Napoli would be helpful, well except the secondary style, which would take me some time to set up.

[Shaka_D]

How many games have you played in it? Maybe you just had bad rng for a bit or were unlucky.  How is she performing for you in randoms? I too haven't played mine much, but have seen her being used to great effect by quite a few players. Might give it a go this evening to see how it all goes.

[RuruushuVuiBuritania]

Stay kiting and try to use your unimpressive DPM as best you can. Played it extensively in Typhoon League but I don't feel it is really amazing except for staying alive in Randoms and Ranked. It is a Petro without amazing AP power. If the enemy shoot at you, they won't shoot your more fragile teammates, giving them the chance to do damage back.

[Silent_Hunter94]

17 minutes ago, Shaka_D said:

How many games have you played in it? Maybe you just had bad rng for a bit or were unlucky.  How is she performing for you in randoms? I too haven't played mine much, but have seen her being used to great effect by quite a few players. Might give it a go this evening to see how it all goes.

Didn't play it in random yet, I avoid tier X's as much as I can. Too much fighting from long ranges and very little credit earning, something I am always in short supply of.

[Silent_Hunter94]

18 minutes ago, RuruushuVuiBuritania said:

Stay kiting and try to use your unimpressive DPM as best you can. Played it extensively in Typhoon League but I don't feel it is really amazing except for staying alive in Randoms and Ranked. It is a Petro without amazing AP power. If the enemy shoot at you, they won't shoot your more fragile teammates, giving them the chance to do damage back.

I did try to do that, but I am still in bronze league, and even Napoli will not survive being focused when the battleships are hugging the border. I tried playing it like Riga and petro with nose in and slow cruise, but Napoli is not as strong as those two.

[tocqueville8]

Just now, Silent_Hunter94 said:

I don't have any Italian captain above 10 points, so It's not well setup for secondary build

 

I don't get it.

If you want to buff your secondaries on a cruiser, the main thing you should take is the upgrade in slot #3. Top Grade Gunner might help, but you want to have concealment first, and possibly RPF, too.

 

Just now, Silent_Hunter94 said:

I was even in a nose to nose battle with a full health Des Moine. It kept on knocking my turrets out and taking chunks out of my superstructure with AP,  while my shells kept on bouncing,

 

A nose-to-nose battle with a Des Moines is a losing propositiong for the Napoli (and indeed, for most cruisers): her DPM is pathetic.

 

The guns alone are not enough to have good games in this ship: you need the torps, the secondaries and the smokes.

[RuruushuVuiBuritania]

2 minutes ago, Silent_Hunter94 said:

I did try to do that, but I am still in bronze league, and even Napoli will not survive being focused when the battleships are hugging the border. I tried playing it like Riga and petro with nose in and slow cruise, but Napoli is not as strong as those two.

It is easily as tanky as Riga, and somewhat comparable to Petro. The trick is kiting, being with your stern towards the enemy so you can use your disgusting concealment to engage and disengage. Use your speed and concealment to get good positions for torpedoes and citadels, before kiting away. Secondaries can do well against ships that are not a torpedo threat to you.

It is not rocket science, but it does require situational awareness and knowledge of positioning.

[Silent_Hunter94]

1 minute ago, tocqueville8 said:

 

I don't get it.

If you want to buff your secondaries on a cruiser, the main thing you should take is the upgrade in slot #3. Top Grade Gunner might help, but you want to have concealment first, and possibly RPF, too.

 

 

A nose-to-nose battle with a Des Moines is a losing propositiong for the Napoli (and indeed, for most cruisers): her DPM is pathetic.

 

The guns alone are not enough to have good games in this ship: you need the torps, the secondaries and the smokes.

I have taken that upgrade, but the captain skills are gun feeder, priority target, adrenalize rush, and concealment expert. 

I knew I was gonna get sunk as soon as I found myself nose to nose with Des Moine, but I was expecting to do more than 5k damage before he did that.

[Silent_Hunter94]

4 minutes ago, RuruushuVuiBuritania said:

It is easily as tanky as Riga, and somewhat comparable to Petro. The trick is kiting, being with your stern towards the enemy so you can use your disgusting concealment to engage and disengage. Use your speed and concealment to get good positions for torpedoes and citadels, before kiting away. Secondaries can do well against ships that are not a torpedo threat to you.

It is not rocket science, but it does require situational awareness and knowledge of positioning.

I will try to focus more on kiting, maybe try it in random a little bit.

[tocqueville8]

Just now, Silent_Hunter94 said:

I have taken that upgrade, but the captain skills are gun feeder, priority target, adrenalize rush, and concealment expert. 

 

So far so good.

Take Superintendent as well, TGG/RPF (or both) and eventually something for quality of life, like IFA or LS, if you have points left.

 

The main advice I can give is to only push when you can get a 1v1, 1v2 fight, otherwise just roam around and kite like a normal cruiser.

Flanking is often a good strategy to create one of those "segregated" fights.

 

Also, make sure you have spotting if you're going to use your smoke to dumpster someone with the secondaries.

 

And mind your smoke-firing penalty: if you're smoking up, say, to avoid a carrier drop while you get behind cover and heal, it's probably fine; but using it while brawling instead of just letting the secondaries and torpedoes do the work, is to waste the smoke.

[BLUB__BLUB]

2 hours ago, Silent_Hunter94 said:

Hello All. I had bought Napoli a long time ago, but had forgotten about it. Recently I decided to use it in ranked, but I can't seem to make it work. I don't have any Italian captain above 10 points, so It's not well setup for secondary build, but the guns are not working as I expect them to be. In one of the matches, I had a full broadside of a Montana, but despite firing four salvos at him, I barely did 9k damage. Now I am not an unicum player, but I after 4500 battles I know how to damage any ship. I tried it in a few more matches, but except to broadside thinly armoured cruisers, I can barely get it to damage anything in good numbers. I was even in a nose to nose battle with a full health Des Moine. It kept on knocking my turrets out and taking chunks out of my superstructure with AP,  while my shells kept on bouncing, failing to damage its turrets or were over pens(which I was expecting). According to wows wiki, its AP shell's performance is better than HE, and I can't keep firing HE with 17 sec reload.

The trick is to know what you can pen and then set fire to the rest. I have YOLO'd a Montana in Clan Battles with Napoli. He died. 

I died too but only after due to his teammates. I often use it just to push. Sort of like a Petro, nose in they can't easily kill you.

 

2 hours ago, Silent_Hunter94 said:

Any suggestions of how to play Napoli would be helpful, well except the secondary style, which would take me some time to set up.

Keep good track of which ships go where. Then DERPrise them by rushing them from behind island. 
If you keep their HP in check you'll kill them. or burn them down a bit first. Your torps should be the finishing blow. 

In case of lack of suitable stupidos, you will just have to set some on fire, which is "by occasion". 
Usually I find enough in random battles though... every game at least one. I have only 9 random games so far, but I like it.

 

1 hour ago, Silent_Hunter94 said:

Didn't play it in random yet, I avoid tier X's as much as I can. Too much fighting from long ranges and very little credit earning, something I am always in short supply of.

I play Napoli in randoms and CB only. 

 

1 hour ago, Silent_Hunter94 said:

I have taken that upgrade, but the captain skills are gun feeder, priority target, adrenalize rush, and concealment expert. 

I have a 21 pointer... which DOES make a difference.

 

1 hour ago, Silent_Hunter94 said:

I knew I was gonna get sunk as soon as I found myself nose to nose with Des Moine, but I was expecting to do more than 5k damage before he did that.

Usually I sink DM in CB, but make sure he used his radar and hydro before you run him down. 

He'll use his HE on you (his AP doesn;t do much to your nose), but if you play it right, you will  take him from close. 

Make sure a teammate is spotting him. Then come from behind a mountain and rush him. And then that DM will die. 

 

What you want to do with it is set fores from distance, and when the game winds down you can yolo half-dead ships easily.

Make sure somebody else spots them, come unspotted, use the smoke and finish them off. Ideally - div up with a DD.

[Yedwy]

1. Take range module in slot 6

2. Boost the HE shell damage

3. Farm tears from max range

[BLUB__BLUB]

33 minutes ago, Yedwy said:

1. Take range module in slot 6

2. Boost the HE shell damage

3. Farm tears from max range

The only problem there is the short (very...short....) games that you get nowadays.

In 20 minutes it can rack up a good score though. In 5, not so much... 
So when I see it is gonna be 5... I find myself a nice, unsuspecting victim... 

[OldschoolGaming_YouTube]

4 hours ago, Silent_Hunter94 said:

Hello All. I had bought Napoli a long time ago, but had forgotten about it. Recently I decided to use it in ranked, but I can't seem to make it work. I don't have any Italian captain above 10 points, so It's not well setup for secondary build, but the guns are not working as I expect them to be. In one of the matches, I had a full broadside of a Montana, but despite firing four salvos at him, I barely did 9k damage. Now I am not an unicum player, but I after 4500 battles I know how to damage any ship. I tried it in a few more matches, but except to broadside thinly armoured cruisers, I can barely get it to damage anything in good numbers. I was even in a nose to nose battle with a full health Des Moine. It kept on knocking my turrets out and taking chunks out of my superstructure with AP,  while my shells kept on bouncing, failing to damage its turrets or were over pens(which I was expecting). According to wows wiki, its AP shell's performance is better than HE, and I can't keep firing HE with 17 sec reload.

 

Any suggestions of how to play Napoli would be helpful, well except the secondary style, which would take me some time to set up.

Im going for Napoli next I think. Look at Potato Qualitys videos on it on Youtube, maybe you can pick up something there. Seems like secondary build is a waste, apparently you get better accuracy with range mod.

[Andrewbassg]

6 hours ago, Silent_Hunter94 said:

Hello All. I had bought Napoli a long time ago, but had forgotten about it. Recently I decided to use it in ranked, but I can't seem to make it work. I don't have any Italian captain above 10 points, so It's not well setup for secondary build, but the guns are not working as I expect them to be. In one of the matches, I had a full broadside of a Montana, but despite firing four salvos at him, I barely did 9k damage. Now I am not an unicum player, but I after 4500 battles I know how to damage any ship. I tried it in a few more matches, but except to broadside thinly armoured cruisers, I can barely get it to damage anything in good numbers. I was even in a nose to nose battle with a full health Des Moine. It kept on knocking my turrets out and taking chunks out of my superstructure with AP,  while my shells kept on bouncing, failing to damage its turrets or were over pens(which I was expecting). According to wows wiki, its AP shell's performance is better than HE, and I can't keep firing HE with 17 sec reload.

 

Any suggestions of how to play Napoli would be helpful, well except the secondary style, which would take me some time to set up.

Hmmm... don't look at Napoli as a .."good" ship. Look at her as a fun ship. Not like Yolo Emilio but fun.  Kiting and tankiness is her main strengths, the secondaries are for fun and a helping hand. Don't try to build into them or into range( I tried that), choose the reload instead.

 

But you are correct, you need at least 13 pointer to make her work. Grease the gears, Feeder, Consumable enhancements, PT Adrenaline and then I would recommend Top grade gunner.

 

 

 

 

 

That's my cap and the build

[Louis2brosGummer]

11 hours ago, Andrewbassg said:

Hmmm... don't look at Napoli as a .."good" ship. Look at her as a fun ship. Not like Yolo Emilio but fun.  Kiting and tankiness is her main strengths, the secondaries are for fun and a helping hand. Don't try to build into them or into range( I tried that), choose the reload instead.

 

But you are correct, you need at least 13 pointer to make her work. Grease the gears, Feeder, Consumable enhancements, PT Adrenaline and then I would recommend Top grade gunner.

 

 

 

 

 

That's my cap and the build

Thanks might try that as well although I need to reset in that case :( I'm at 37% wr or so. Damage wise it's underwhelming compared to even the T8 Amalfi. I might have been unlucky with the teams though as well at the start, as there were a lot of steamrolls but let's see how it develops. 

[Andrewbassg]

54 minutes ago, Louis2brosGummer said:

Thanks might try that as well although I need to reset in that case :( I'm at 37% wr or so. Damage wise it's underwhelming compared to even the T8 Amalfi. I might have been unlucky with the teams though as well at the start, as there were a lot of steamrolls but let's see how it develops. 

Be always on the move, never stop and use the smoke if the situation get too hot ( Ie too many are targeting you). Remember your smoke penalty and if reds are close don't fire your guns. Don't build into concealment,  that's why you have smoke. Its not a high ROF or DPM ship however it can do stuff. Still not the easiest ship. Don't over extend, don't remain alone and always kite. Pick your fights wisely.

 

I played only in ranked her,  in randoms things are quite a bit different but the general rules still apply. :) 

[KillStealBoss]

19 hours ago, Silent_Hunter94 said:

I had a full broadside of a Montana, but despite firing four salvos at him, I barely did 9k damage

Are you serious? 

[tocqueville8]

2 hours ago, Andrewbassg said:

Don't build into concealment,  that's why you have smoke

 

I disagree there.

 

The smokes might be needed to disengage or to reach an ambushing position, but they're limited in number and duration, even with the 2 point skill, which only adds 10% action time.

 

If you build into concealment, take the secondary mod in slot #3 and the flag, the window between surface spotting range and secondaries becomes quite small.

With some care (terrain, where are the enemies pointing their guns at the moment...), you should be able to reach a position to use your secondaries without activating the smoke, which you save in case you need it to disengage.

 

Both TGG and RPF are good on this ship, but the concealment is awesome.

 

20 hours ago, Silent_Hunter94 said:

Any suggestions of how to play Napoli would be helpful, well except the secondary style, which would take me some time to set up.

 

I just had this game: 20220119_113023_PISC510-Napoli_23_Shards.wowsreplay

Nothing too fancy, just a quick top-tier 1.6k xp win. Kraken, but with 2 killsteals.

 

But look at the damage: 

 

 

The secondaries did almost half my total, more than HE and AP combined.

 

I flanked early, brawled the JB that pushed into the cap, then smoked up and turned away to kite the Bismarck, who thought he could outbrawl me.

After securing the flank, it turned into a steamroll, but I still managed to catch their Oland (it's not much faster than the Napoli) and do 8k to him with the secondaries alone.

 

Basically, this ship has to kite sometimes, but her typical damage output (it could vary depending on citadels and permafires) more than doubles if she gets to use her secondaries.

Even if you build fully for main guns, your HE DPM is much worse than that of a Hindenburg or a Zao.

[SodaBubbles]

I played it in CB for my NA clan. Hate it. Low DPM, poor dispersion, and armor that trolls you ("sure, I can bounce tha --" BLAP). The smoke gimmick doesn't work in Ranked because someone is always spotting you. 

Playing Shim and Republic in NA Ranked, and love seeing them on Red, w/o sonar they cannot hunt me, and they are food for BBs. 

My advice would be to stop playing them in Ranked. 

[yagron_the_real]

I played her in ranked, and I had decent success. Her biggest weakness is main gun DPM. Unless you catch someone broadsiding in a range you can cit, you'll have a rough time outtrading the enemy. On the other hand it has good base conceal, exhaust smoke and good armor. This allows you to get to positions where most other ships will have a hard time getting to. The trick is to be aggressive enough to cause headaches for the opposition, but not so aggressive you die. If you can rush someone 1v1 for instance, you can get the kill against most ship (well probably dds you should be cautious with...no hydro and torps hurt).

The secondaries are great, but I consider them a boon, rather than something I want to shape my tactic around.

[Yedwy]

Sec builds on Napoli are fun but they are not worth building for if one "wants to make her work", unless you are going full sec and torp build for PvE purposes and that is a completely different can of worms it best to build her for range...

[Louis2brosGummer]

Some good tips here, thanks. The gimmick is not always the way to go indeed I get that, same as with Emilio, it easy to die early in the Napoli if impatient due to radar hydro, planes, subs  spotting you. On the other hand the games where I was patient to wait for an opportunity half the team died already and there never was an opportunity to do something useful other then to hang back and spam HE. Sample rate is still on the low side to have a final judgement so I will keep trying as I think it can do better. It should at least be able to get more average DMG than it did until now. I really like the Italian. Cruisers, Zara and Amalfi and Venezia are great ships, maybe the Napoli also needs SAP for the main guns...

[Andrewbassg]

10 hours ago, tocqueville8 said:

I disagree there.

  

The smokes might be needed to disengage or to reach an ambushing position, but they're limited in number and duration, even with the 2 point skill, which only adds 10% action time.

 

 If you build into concealment, take the secondary mod in slot #3 and the flag, the window between surface spotting range and secondaries becomes quite small.

With some care (terrain, where are the enemies pointing their guns at the moment...), you should be able to reach a position to use your secondaries without activating the smoke, which you save in case you need it to disengage.

 

 Both TGG and RPF are good on this ship, but the concealment is awesome.

 

Good point. However its base reload is 17 sec. With this build I cut that down to 15 and from  12.7 km I have 13.8. If I build into concealment I would lose DPM and maneuverability.

9 hours ago, SodaBubbles said:

I played it in CB for my NA clan. Hate it. Low DPM, poor dispersion, and armor that trolls you ("sure, I can bounce tha --" BLAP). The smoke gimmick doesn't work in Ranked because someone is always spotting you. 

 Playing Shim and Republic in NA Ranked, and love seeing them on Red, w/o sonar they cannot hunt me, and they are food for BBs. 

 My advice would be to stop playing them in Ranked. 

.I beg to differ sir. One thing that this ship is great is to bully Shima's walls of skill :)

[tocqueville8]

6 hours ago, Yedwy said:

Sec builds on Napoli are fun but they are not worth building for if one "wants to make her work", unless you are going full sec and torp build for PvE purposes and that is a completely different can of worms it best to build her for range...

 

But at range her DPM is just bad. Any heavy/large T10 cruiser out-trades her, and her only good quality are the ballistics.

Having good armor is also kind of pointless if you stay so far you can probably just dodge a bit.

 

On the other hand...

 

I just had a game where I pushed a bit too early (though 27k dmg to DDs certainly helped securing the flank...), and the secondaries did 45k in a few minutes.

If you set up a couple of brawls, which isn't hard with concealment to get close plus smoke to make the turn and kite at 8-9 km, they can do 40-80k damage, depending on the plating of your targets. Imho that damage, in close quarters, is more decisive than some  c hip damage you can do with AP at 17.5 km, or an extra fire you can set.

 

Last 13 games for me in the Napoli:

- all solo

- 8 wins, 5 losses

- 1.3M damage (100k per game), 457k from the secondaries (35k per game)

- highest damage: 219k, 72k from secondaries

- highest secondary damage: 90k, in a 148k game

 

As you're not always going to be using the secondaries, it's impressive how much they can do when you do get to use them.