Cleveland: out of reach....?

[Humbug_1]

I want that ship so bad, very fast, very fast firing, massive amount of guns..... i'm trying my hardest to work my way up there but everytime i venture out in Tier 5 Omaha i'm put in Tier 6 and 7 full of Cleveland's so i just get my [edited]handed to me in seconds, usually by Cleveland and her extremely tight grouping of massive salvoes, 1 hit takes 25% off with the next 5 seconds later, 15 seconds later your dead.....

 

I'm getting really sick of being placed in Tier 6 and 7 Battles with a Tier 5 ship, it will take me 3 months to build up the XP like this and i'm already getting board of 0 progress everytime i play the game, i think i have done more than my fair share of being cannon fodder for higher Tier players.

 

I'm begging to feel like this game has nothing left to offer, if its not fun and you can't rank up what's the point?

[Admiral_H_Nelson]

Well at the time of writing you have 11 victories from 18 battles in the Omaha, so it hasn't all bee bad now, has it? 

Omaha is a fun ship. There are a lot worse ships to do a "grind" in! Be thankful you are not playing the Furutaka in the same tier!  

 

You are making much better progress than I did when I was working my way to get the Cleveland, so instead of feeling bad, give yourself a pat on the back.

 

The Cleveland is a very nice ship, but it won't give you instant god-like powers like you see on YouTube. You'll still need to learn to play it properly, like all ships.

 

EDIT: I see that you are grinding Furutaka, and like most of us finding it hard work. You are doing a much better job with Omaha. Cheer yourself up with that thought.

[lup3s]

it will take me 3 months to build up the XP like this

 

are you playing Coop or what?

 

btw don't overestimate the Cleveland ; it'll lose most of the times when confronted with the Aoba.

[Humbug_1]

Thanks for the encouraging words yes i'm also grinding Furutaka and Karlsruhe.....

 

I agree Omaha is a fine ship, i was doing really well with but lately i can't seem to catch a break, not the fault of Omaha in anyway, its just fustraiting to be dropped into rounds where a lot of the ships are a higher Tier, and at Tier 5 that's difficult because with a lot of Tier 6 ships its when they start to get properly serious.

[KptStrzyga]

I want that ship so bad, very fast, very fast firing, massive amount of guns.....

Oh, there is big dissapointment ahead of you... Cleveland is only good at AA and at shooting quickly. Hitting targets - not so much. And it`s not as fast as you think it is. 

[Panocek]

In terms of plain Rate of Fire, Omaha fires faster. Cleveland has slower RoF, 7.5 vs 8.6, only number of guns improve (12 total). Cleveland is tad slower and less nimble than Omaha, shell velocity is awful to the point even BBs can evade your salvos.

 

AA is the best per tier though, combined with limited plane count many carriers will simply not attack unless they really want to. Also survivability is good enough so if there aren't many battleships around, you can go brawling with other cruisers and fast firing 152mm AP at close range often will shrek them.

 

And USN cruisers from Pepsicola onwards are degrading on performance, or rather stuck at the same level when enemies improve with tiers.

[_Flyto_]

I'm a few thousand XP off the Cleveland myself at the moment, and share your pain about being placed against T6/7 cruisers. It seems to me that around T4-6 the light cruisers make a major transition from the WW1-era guns-scattered-all-around concept to the all-guns-in-turrets approach. The Omaha is half way through this transition, and in cruiser-on-cruiser action IME suffers against those that have fully made it (Cleveland, Koenigsberg).

Meanwhile the IJN is fielding heavy cruisers by T5, which doesn't necessarily make them better but means that you really don't want to get hit side-on.

 

My solution to this: I fitted my Omaha out for destroyer-hunting, and mostly play it like a less-agile Pheonix. Having guns distributed all around the superstructure is an advantage here, when you're not so much worried about the number of barrels pointed in the same direction but your ability to get at least one pointed in a given direction Right Now. I use the module that gives faster traverse speeds with a lower rate of fire, and make DDs my priority target, usually with success. I figure that that - which I can do better than a higher-tier cruiser - provides a better service to my team than getting shot to pieces by Clevelands and others.

 

If you happen to be nearby, it's also surprisingly satisfying to park yourself under a dogfight and watch the enemy planes fall to pieces :-) Shame it has little benefit in XP.

[JapLance]

Enjoy Omaha while you can. Cleveland might be a better ship, but you probably won't enjoy it as much.

 

And not only because of its horrific way of shooting, but because Cleveland faces harder, faster and better armed tier 8 battleships which get 0 damage from its pitiful 6in shells while have no problems themselves wrecking Cleveland in one well aimed salvo.

[Gojuadorai]

the cleveland is meh  at best its only real upside it eats planes like crazy if you tech it right.

but well you face cv 1 in 4 battles.

 

if you want a nice cruiser get the aoba and start playing random not coop youl make the xp in notime...

[Admiral_H_Nelson]

the cleveland is meh  at best its only real upside it eats planes like crazy if you tech it right.

but well you face cv 1 in 4 battles.

 

if you want a nice cruiser get the aoba and start playing random not coop youl make the xp in notime...

 

But then he'll have to grind the Furutaka. The most "Marmite" ship in the game IMHO. 

 

(You are right though, the Aoba is a very nice ship)

[KptStrzyga]

the cleveland is meh  at best its only real upside it eats planes like crazy if you tech it right.

but well you face cv 1 in 4 battles.

 

Pro tip: when grinding USA cruiser division with carrier. Planes guaranteed. Lots of them. 

[Nefczi]

I personally find Omaha to be a superior ship than Cleveland.

It makes up lacks in sturdiness with mobility, nimbleness and smaller size. Cleveland has massive firepower but it has one major weakness - horriblly long shell travel time and high arc, making this ship much less effective at 12+ km ranges.

 

So when fighting Cleveland in Omaha, stay at range, keem maneuvering and he wont be able to hit you reliably, while you can hit it easly, as Omaha shells have much better shell velocity and flatter arcs. At 14-15km you can dodge entire salvos easly. Omaha, can maneuver and keep firing due to guns placed all around the ship. Use that.

 

Clevelends are really not as scary as their reputation, if you know hot to exploit their massive weakness. 

[Jagdpants_666]

In terms of plain Rate of Fire, Omaha fires faster. Cleveland has slower RoF, 7.5 vs 8.6, only number of guns improve (12 total). Cleveland is tad slower and less nimble than Omaha, shell velocity is awful to the point even BBs can evade your salvos.

 

I have a Cleveland that I very rarely sail, and indeed the shell velocity is the main kicker for me. Once your shells have finished travelling to the upper stratosphere and back down, your target could well have moved to another quadrant. Its guns are awesome once you get to a mid/short-ish range engagement, provided you have someone else nearby getting focused instead of you, but yeah - for an admittedly at best mediocre player like myself, the Omaha is simply a better ship.

 

@OP: The Omaha is a fine ship - it can indeed struggle in T6-7 battles, and if you find yourself caught in a string of those that will absolutely impact your performance, but maybe in your eagerness to grind through to the Cleveland you are playing it a bit too aggressively? I know I did.

[Humbug_1]

 

I have a Cleveland that I very rarely sail, and indeed the shell velocity is the main kicker for me. Once your shells have finished travelling to the upper stratosphere and back down, your target could well have moved to another quadrant. Its guns are awesome once you get to a mid/short-ish range engagement, provided you have someone else nearby getting focused instead of you, but yeah - for an admittedly at best mediocre player like myself, the Omaha is simply a better ship.

 

@OP: The Omaha is a fine ship - it can indeed struggle in T6-7 battles, and if you find yourself caught in a string of those that will absolutely impact your performance, but maybe in your eagerness to grind through to the Cleveland you are playing it a bit too aggressively? I know I did.

 

Yeah probably, i think i am charging in to much, early success with Omaha doesn't help that, it perhaps gave me the impression its more of an Über ship than it actually is.

[Sub_Eleven]

Whats with the taco bashing? Its pretty good at tier 5 no?

 

Cleveland can be fun to play, it still shines when hunting dd's (and to be frank most current dd drivers suck which makes this easyer). As an AA platform it can be great, but you will struggle fighting other cruiser captains who know what they are doing.

[Admiral_H_Nelson]

Whats with the taco bashing? Its pretty good at tier 5 no?

 

 

It's a ship that seems to have a knack (1) to it. If you don't get the knack then you really, really struggle and become very annoyed with it.

 

Other people have the knack (or manage to learn it) and make it work well for them. Good luck to them.

 

Its driven me mad trying to work out why this is the one ship that has completely defeated me. (I like Aoba, for example)

 

 

(1) courtesy of google:

knack
nak/
noun: knack; plural noun: knacks

    an acquired or natural skill at doing something.
    "he had a knack for communicating"
    synonyms:    gift, talent, flair, genius, instinct, faculty, ability, capability, capacity, aptitude, aptness, bent, forte, facility, dexterity, adroitness, readiness, quickness, ingenuity, proficiency, expertness, competence; 

 

[Comrad_StaIin]

the Cleveland is not what it was in CBT (extremely OP) because they nerfed the gun arcs so you cant hit anything above 10km

[Gojuadorai]

 

But then he'll have to grind the Furutaka. The most "Marmite" ship in the game IMHO. 

 

(You are right though, the Aoba is a very nice ship)

 

furu is not nearly as horrible as people say....

problem is when you finally understand how to play it youre allmost in the aoba.

 

[Cosseria]

I think I'll gladly pay some bucks for a premium Cleveland offered at T 7 with pre-nerf shell V° and all the 32 Bofors guns it should have. I played it in the golden age of flat trajectory and that was an hell of an OP ship.

Omaha is a great ship, very agile for its size and with excellent artillery. Just engage CAs and BBs from your maximum range in order to be able to dodge shells. Give your captain the incoming fire alert perk and look around very often to check for incoming salvos. Then usual advice applies: don't show your broadside, try not to get too isolated from your allies, send up the figher not only in case of CV trouble but also if you feel a DD is nearby as sometimes it can spot torps.

One last advice: if you head straight for your target all the 6 bow guns can fire on it, you must aim with the rudder but you show a small profile while having the same bow firepower of a Cleveland. It works on some situations.

[mortuus82]

I unlocked this ship a few days ago i was reading the wiki and so far it performs more or less as expected, the AA guns are amazing 5km reach on the 127mm guns the 6 guns on each side is very effective if shooting HE shells and so on i so far dont regret i bought this.

 

Pros

• Excellent rate of fire with 4x3 turrets causing insane fire damage with HE.
• Fantastic AA defense causes havoc for all Aircraft Carriers and is a great battleship escort.
• Very durable for a light cruiser.
• Effective against destroyers and other light cruisers.
• Ship versatility can enable you to react as needed.
• Decent torpedo belt can endure roughly 3 torpedoes

[WildBlueYonder]

Now, historically did the shells have these bad arcs? I was thinking that maybe we could make a petition for a pre nerf trajectory, but balance it by moving it tier or something like that. Anyone?

[Cosseria]

Yes the shells had such arcs. Maximum firing range is theorically achieved with elevations between 40 and 45 degrees. But real ships also had firing calculators which took care of leading the target.

As I said, a pre-nerf Cleveland with more Bofors could make IMHO for a nice T 7 premium ship, so I'm all for it.

[WildBlueYonder]

Yes the shells had such arcs. Maximum firing range is theorically achieved with elevations between 40 and 45 degrees. But real ships also had firing calculators which took care of leading the target.

As I said, a pre-nerf Cleveland with more Bofors could make IMHO for a nice T 7 premium ship, so I'm all for it.

 

Wouldn't even mind if they just moved it to T7 directly and added a substitute.

[Cosseria]

In this case the demand should be extremely strong and widespread for WG to consider it. For example, even with all the outcry caused by the Karlsruhe and massive amount of complaints about it and intelligent suggestions for a replacement, as far as we know WG isn't taking steps to replace it in the line. I don't see them taking the fuss of developing a substitute for an already well liked - nowithstanding the nerf - ship, without a consistent return. Thus I suggested the Premium status.

[Panocek]

Yes the shells had such arcs. Maximum firing range is theorically achieved with elevations between 40 and 45 degrees. But real ships also had firing calculators which took care of leading the target.

As I said, a pre-nerf Cleveland with more Bofors could make IMHO for a nice T 7 premium ship, so I'm all for it.

 

With "historical" amount of Bofors guns (28, 4x4 and 6x2) and "historical" RoF of 10 shots/min, Cleve could handle herself just fine at tier 8.

Although I really would like to see "guns upgrade" to trade some RoF for shell velocity to flatten trajectory. I shudder how ineffective would be tier 10 Worcester, which leaked some time ago with exactly the same ballistics as Cleveland, but with RoF of 12.