Pensacoola Dissatisfying ship

[Kraynos]

is the worse ship ever made: 

-1 mm can penetrate you 

- everyone leaves their targets and focus you

- your repair cost 55K+ 

- you dont earn well and if you win your credit is NEGATIVE

- By the time we reach MARS you will still be in stock Pensacola trying to grind

 

i wish there was an option SCRAP instead of sell i would do it with all my heart content.

 

Just a rant cause it's the only ship that feels dissatisfying in winning and losing

[Philipp_ab_exterminatore]

The stock Pepsi feels extremely under powered thats true but once elite it is a very good ship. Grind it in ranked if your not enjoyin it as it will perform better when not facing higher tiers

 

[Kraynos]

The stock Pepsi feels extremely under powered thats true but once elite it is a very good ship. Grind it in ranked if your not enjoyin it as it will perform better when not facing higher tiers

 

each time if i win or lose  55K credit deducted, i got bankrupt

the ship need alot of XP to be fully upgraded and it feels better if i start griding other faction like IJN

for now am back to old tier to grind more credit 

[Historynerd]

is the worse ship ever made: 

-1 mm can penetrate you 

- everyone leaves their targets and focus you

- your repair cost 55K+ 

- you dont earn well and if you win your credit is NEGATIVE

- By the time we reach MARS you will still be in stock Pensacola trying to grind

 

i wish there was an option SCRAP instead of sell i would do it with all my heart content.

 

Just a rant cause it's the only ship that feels dissatisfying in winning and losing

 

If you'd like an advice, it's not a good idea to judge a ship in its stock form; wait until she has been fully upgraded, and then you can have a complete picture.

[Kraynos]

 

If you'd like an advice, it's not a good idea to judge a ship in its stock form; wait until she has been fully upgraded, and then you can have a complete picture.

 

even with fully upgraded it's still a glass canon, low RPM, cost alot to auto-refill amunition, the citadel be protected with full hull, even with angling that nylon armor is not helpful

ppl with fully upgraded pensa also comment how bad the citadel is

 

i'll juts leave it in the port maybe some day the dev decide to rework it.

[Historynerd]

 

even with fully upgraded it's still a glass canon, low RPM, cost alot to auto-refill amunition, the citadel be protected with full hull, even with angling that nylon armor is not helpful

ppl with fully upgraded pensa also comment how bad the citadel is

 

i'll juts leave it in the port maybe some day the dev decide to rework it.

 

I personally found the Pensacola (fully upgraded, of course) to be quite good, especially regarding her armament; ok, her guns aren't the fastest ones in the West, but ten 203 mm guns that deal quite a bit of damage, both AP and HE. This was just my impression, though.

[Vaderan]

Sorry to tell you that, but it´s not the ship, it´s the captain. Players get spoiled by the "special" performance of the Cleveland, since the Cleveland seems to be the peak of the lowbob ships.

Don´t get me wrong, i am not saying you are a lowbob. Thing is, the Cleveland is so easy (and different) to play, compared to the Pensacola, it makes the Pensacola (especially when stock) look rubbish.

Where the Cleveland is the baseball bat, the Pensacola is the katana-sword. Cleveland can always cause some damage, the Pensacola requires a trained hand,otherwise it will inflict more damage to the player than the enemy.

 

You have to figure out, what the Pensacola can do, and what not. What the Pensacola can do:

 

-provide good AAA cover, once it has the B hull.

-provide superior AAA cover with B hull, AAA radius upgrade and captains perks which support the AAA. The AAA rating doesn´t tell everything, so you have to look at the details: with all upgrades, medium range AAA DPS of the Pensacola is almost twice as high, compared to the Cleveland. At medium range, the Pensacola wreaks havoc ammong hostile squadrons.

- The Pensacola is the King in terms of cruiser destruction. Her moderate  RoF and awesome accuracy allows for expert citadell sniping on enemy cruisers. Once you get a hand for lead and aim, it is possible to easily score several citadell hits with one broadside. This allows the Pensacola to easily take on any enemy cruiser, foolish enough to show his broadside.

- Chasing DDs is possible aswell.

 

Things a Pesnacola should avoid, unless it wants to get sunk quickly:

 

- show the broadside to anything with a caliber of 130mm or more.

- take on a BB while the BB is able to focus on the Pensacola.

 

Make sure you get the B-hull asap, it provides more AAA, more HP and brings 2 additional guns to the main armament. Second, you want to get the range upgrade. Then go for whats left.

Get practice in it (if necessary, play coop) and you will see, even the stock Pensacola can take easily on enemy cruisers...

 

 

 

[RapscallionDK]

I wish everyone getting to the pensa would get this advice: Do not play it stock!

 

The turrets are horrible in stock.

 

Free XP the upgrades, and then start playing.

 

Yes the Pensa has worse armor and easier to citadel but imo its all worth it for the 203mm guns.

 

Using AP i eat Clevelands for breakfast.

 

You just gotta stay cool and not be the first sight the enemy BBs spot.

 

No more long range derp HE spam. This is the ship to actually learn not to be the focus as on end Tiers you will always no matter the ship be the focus of BBs.

 

I was dissapointed by the pensa aswell in the start but now its my favorite ship to challenge my self in.

 

 

[AgarwaenME]

If you find the pensa underwhelming (though while it's not nearly as good as the cleve, it's not really bad  either) you should just stop playing USN CAs right now, As every ship after the pensa is more or less the same, just worse comparably to other ships of similar tiers.

[pra3y]

 

even with fully upgraded it's still a glass canon, low RPM, cost alot to auto-refill amunition, the citadel be protected with full hull, even with angling that nylon armor is not helpful

ppl with fully upgraded pensa also comment how bad the citadel is

 

i'll juts leave it in the port maybe some day the dev decide to rework it.

 

I was up against an Iowa the other day and by angling/pointing myself at his broadside it took the Iowa 2/3 salvos under 10km to actually sink me, and I was at 1/3 of my health. So the Pensacola's armor isn't really that bad.....unless you get hit broadside. But to me it applies to almost every cruiser I've played so far (tier 7 for both line, especially the IJN ones like Furutaka,Aoba and Myoko) except the Cleavland where you get hit in the citadel very easily once you show your broadside.

 

In any case like what the rest have mentioned once the Pensacola has been upgraded it is a pretty good ship.

[Philipp_ab_exterminatore]

I have fully upgraded Pepsi and I like it just dont show your side Toa BB when its loaded

 

[Kraynos]

 

I was up against an Iowa the other day and by angling/pointing myself at his broadside it took the Iowa 2/3 salvos under 10km to actually sink me, and I was at 1/3 of my health. So the Pensacola's armor isn't really that bad.....unless you get hit broadside. But to me it applies to almost every cruiser I've played so far (tier 7 for both line, especially the IJN ones like Furutaka,Aoba and Myoko) except the Cleavland where you get hit in the citadel very easily once you show your broadside.

 

In any case like what the rest have mentioned once the Pensacola has been upgraded it is a pretty good ship.

 

this along with ingame statements is the reason why am gona follow the main stream and ditch cruisers at T7+

 

Edit: this felt dramatic , what i mean is i am gona  switch to BBs until i get like 10M credit to get back with cruisers

[Panocek]

Well, Pepsi (with upgrades of course) is I'm afraid the best USN ship for their tier armed with 203mm guns... Nope Orlean and Balti aren't an improvement, while they meet tougher opposition. Even CV population in high tiers isn't high enough to justify playing them for AA only.

[piritskenyer]

I have to agree with Panocek here (hi Pano btw), when completely upgraded, she's one hell of a ship. If one knows what one's doing that is. The upgraded guns have pretty good penetration and accuracy and if you can shoot just about any cruiser in the broadside, you just made a shitton of money in one doubleclick

 

[RAMJB]

Pensacola has been some of the most fun I've ever had in WoWS. Even from stock (Which honestly it's not a good ship stock) I was having good times with it. I guess me loathing the HEspam boats has to do with it XD.

 

Ship is made of glass. No doubt about it, nobody tries to deny it. But every cruiser from tier 7 upwards feels like made of glass, even those with pretty good armor for a cruiser, as even good armor for a cruiser doesn't stand BB fire. It's all about maneouvering at long ranges, giving weird shot angles, timing your maneouvers to never show a broadside, and relying on good long range aim rather than on clicking the fire button as fast as you can.

It's not a lonewolf ship - you get primaried, you die. But in a group with other 2-3 ships this thing shines. Has really good AAA, so works well as escort of big battleships, has very good maneouverability so you can make your enemy miss his shots, is rather small for a cruiser (japanese ones are massive in comparison, not as maneouverable and easier to hit as a result, and are also floating citadels), and has very good concentration of fire (5 guns in both bow and rear aspects is VERY respectable for a heavy cruiser) so keeping your ship steeply angled is not the great drawback it is in japanese cruisers (you can fire 50% of your battery both to the front and rear. Japanese ones can only shoot 40% of it, and that's a BIG deal in cruiser vs cruiser fights).

 

Sure, it has no torpedoes, and the guns don't fire as fast as in the myoko but the difference is negligible in that department. Probably the biggest drawback is how bad it's concealment is. But other than that the ship is just great. It's just not a lonewolf-er nor a kamikaze "all in for a torpedo run" ship, nor a HEspam boat. But being none of those doesn't mean is bad. Well driven this thing is very ,very ,very good.
 

[RAMJB]

. Nope Orlean and Balti aren't an improvement

 

Don't know about the Baltimore as I'm not there yet, but I'm currently playing the NO, just unlocked the hull mod, and I can tell the ship is indeed an improvement over the Pensacola. 60% of the firepower concentrated in the front means staying angled is less costly in offensive power, much better belt armor means if you keep that angling the ship's going to bounce enemy 8'' shells (and that's a HUGE deal), but avobe all the concealment is godlike. I don't own the range upgrade yet , but with a 10.8 km detection range using the proper camouflage upgrade and skin, and that upgrade, you can stealth fire with this ship while in the pepsicola each time you hit that fire button half the map would see you.

 

Not to mention that concealment range is amazing for survability if you know how to keep yourself at a range. In a Pensacola you get primaried, you're going to be under a hailstorm until you move out of 15.2km from the nearest enemy and stop firing. In a NO you get primaried, you stop firing, you move away as fast as you can and 20 seconds later you're invisible again as long as noone is below 11km from you. At a range this thing is a very, very VERY good ship.

 

This ship even without the upgrades has been a very very nice surprise for me. Only downside is that is one tier higher (and as such you'll see a lot more tier X stuff) but the concealment improve alone makes more than well worth. It's much better than the Pensacola. And I loved the Pensacola to bits, so, yeah, there's that.

[Nefczi]

Pensacola may be a fun and capable ship in right hands(I personally like it much, much more than Cleveleand), New Orleans is no doubt an improvement over Pensacola. But it doesnt change the fact that those US tier 7+ ships are underperforming in compare to both, IJN cruisers and battleships in general. Its definatelly not a level of furutaka underperformance, but its still underperformance. 

 

As Pensacola isnt a bad ship, a Myoko is overally more capable ship, stats dont lie. While new Orleans is an upgrade to Pepsi, its not really a major upgrade. On the other hand we have a Mogami, which is a massive improvement over already better Myoko.

 

The fact that ships like Pepsi or NO can be fun and some ppl can do well with them, doesnt mean they are fine or balanced. Maybe if AA role was more rewarding AND more impactfull, those high tier US ships could be called fine/balanced, maybe. But right now, the AA is a very situational and not rewarding strenght .

 

Overally those tier 7+ US ships are underdogs.They are one of the least impactfull ships overally, which is reflected by the average stats, especially win rates. Only some DDs from those levels are in worse place.

 

[oosel]

you know for a fact if you go steaming in with the dd's to try and cap its game over so you then escort the cv or bb and are then accused of being a camper as the cv's almost never follow the fleet and quite a few of the bb's will tussle with other bb's outside your effective range anyhow......its a nice ship until you are detected by more than 2 ships at which point you spend more time keeping your broadside safe so i find myself only using this ship when im playing at home as you have to concentrate while using it theres no chance i use it when im at work

 

[Panocek]

 

Don't know about the Baltimore as I'm not there yet, but I'm currently playing the NO, just unlocked the hull mod, and I can tell the ship is indeed an improvement over the Pensacola. 60% of the firepower concentrated in the front means staying angled is less costly in offensive power, much better belt armor means if you keep that angling the ship's going to bounce enemy 8'' shells (and that's a HUGE deal), but avobe all the concealment is godlike. I don't own the range upgrade yet , but with a 10.8 km detection range using the proper camouflage upgrade and skin, and that upgrade, you can stealth fire with this ship while in the pepsicola each time you hit that fire button half the map would see you.

 

Not to mention that concealment range is amazing for survability if you know how to keep yourself at a range. In a Pensacola you get primaried, you're going to be under a hailstorm until you move out of 15.2km from the nearest enemy and stop firing. In a NO you get primaried, you stop firing, you move away as fast as you can and 20 seconds later you're invisible again as long as noone is below 11km from you. At a range this thing is a very, very VERY good ship.

 

This ship even without the upgrades has been a very very nice surprise for me. Only downside is that is one tier higher (and as such you'll see a lot more tier X stuff) but the concealment improve alone makes more than well worth. It's much better than the Pensacola. And I loved the Pensacola to bits, so, yeah, there's that.

 

Two triple turrets are good when you're chasing someone, not so much if you're chased. Sure, camo can be helpful, but then salvo of 9 203 every 30s or so won't earn you monies, or win battles. Not that constant shelling battleships with 203 potatos will do either.

 

Though when galaxies align, things happen

 
 

 

[piritskenyer]

HARDER! HARDER! Carry harder! 

MUST

CARRY 

HARDER

 

Both matches were lost because I basically didn't have the range to hit the enemy ships as soon as possible (I'm grinding towards the FCS)

 

 

 

You will note that if not for the xp modifier of the winning team, I would have exceeded the enemy top xp earner's xp in the second match, and I would have bloody well neared the guy in the first one. 

 

I swear 10 rounds of AP to a broadside is when the magic happens. Oneshotting an Omaha from nearly full-health is just pure sealclubbing. Oneshotting a half-health Myoko after chasing down an Atlanta on the other hand is just exhilarating.

[vendettigo]

Sorry to tell you that, but it´s not the ship, it´s the captain. Players get spoiled by the "special" performance of the Cleveland, since the Cleveland seems to be the peak of the lowbob ships.

Don´t get me wrong, i am not saying you are a lowbob. Thing is, the Cleveland is so easy (and different) to play, compared to the Pensacola, it makes the Pensacola (especially when stock) look rubbish.

 

 

 

To be honest, i actually like Pepsicola a lot more than Cleveland, those guns with AP, even on t7 bbs can deal a lot of damage. Any cruiser except Cleveland (cause citadel is hidden in capitans cabbin inside glove compartment obvs) gets melted, 2-3+ citadels/salvo. The armor really sucks on her tho, just stay behind your bbs, let them take damage and by doing that you also provide AA support for them. Pepsi is just far superior to cleve imo, get it upgraded, stay at max range, around your bbs - unlike Cleveland shell velocity is awesome on Pepsi, you don't need to go inside 10km to hit anything moving above 25kts. 

 

 

 

[eLampo]

It's very situational in my opinion. Pensacola can be a lot of fun and it can be really hard to do good in.. I've had many games where pretty much every ship focused on me as soon as I came around in my cute little Pensacola.. In one of my last games I tried staying behind an Izumo, didn't help. The enemy North Carolina fired at me instead of the Izumo (as would I if I was in the NC).

If you manage to stay out of focus of enemy ships, you can do a lot of damage and actually have fun with the ship. For me this doesn't happen very often, sadly. I have been trying to grind the New Orleans but don't know if I will continue.

It feels pretty much the same with most of my cruisers though, thats why I'm not sure if I will continue grinding them or just stay at Tier 6/7.. and focus on grinding the BBs instead. At least for now.

I know that I'm not the best captain in the world, not even close, but there are ships I can do reasonably well in, just not the Pensacola.. 

[Ph3lan]

I am almost finished with the Pensacola, only 10.000 XP or so to go until the New Orleans and I am pretty sure it is not the worst ship ever made. Stock it has a hard time against its peers, but upgraded it is a pretty damn good cruiser. 
Like most cruisers you are extremely fragile which might be a bit painful if you got used to the Cleveland which is one of the most durable CAs for its tier in the game (due to the hard to hit citadel).
You have to get used to the fact that BBs can one or two shoot you if you let them hit you, so you should keep your distance and try to be unpredictable with your turns while peppering them with constant HE fire. The guns are extremely reliable and with AP you are the bane of every other cruiser, while HE works wonders against everything else. The penetration is even good enough that you can also use AP against BBs showing you their sides.

 

 

[Crysantos]

I am almost finished with the Pensacola, only 10.000 XP or so to go until the New Orleans and I am pretty sure it is not the worst ship ever made. Stock it has a hard time against its peers, but upgraded it is a pretty damn good cruiser. 

Like most cruisers you are extremely fragile which might be a bit painful if you got used to the Cleveland which is one of the most durable CAs for its tier in the game (due to the hard to hit citadel).

You have to get used to the fact that BBs can one or two shoot you if you let them hit you, so you should keep your distance and try to be unpredictable with your turns while peppering them with constant HE fire. The guns are extremely reliable and with AP you are the bane of every other cruiser, while HE works wonders against everything else. The penetration is even good enough that you can also use AP against BBs showing you their sides.

 

 

 

 

I agree on most points, I think it's a pretty okay-ish cruiser - but is there room for improvement to bring it a bit more in line with the Myoko or Cleveland? I think so, maybe tweak the size of the citadel or give it a slightly higher RoF / range. The stock version is really bad though ;)

 

btw. have fun with the New Orleans, I really love that ship.

[lankylad11_lankylad]

Pensa is good, you just need to not suicide against battleship clumps.  It gets good upgraded.  You can absolutely one on one a battleship, just dance every time he fires his guns, then lob a couple of salvos, then dance again.  You can also take out DD's.  I will admit it can be vulnerable at times, but I am told Norleans fixes that to an extent