Help with Essex

[xXxGhostRiderxXx]

Hello

 

Back again, this time for the Essex. 

 

Have to say I'm a little disappointed by the Essex, it just seems to be a clone of the Lexington, the only difference being you get a fighter this time with the strike loadout. But whatever.

 

So, what loadout should be used on the Essex and how do people think it fairs against the Taiho? 

 

Cheers 

[AlwaysBadLuckWithTeams]

Distract him. Make sure he sees you escorting your t plane with your fighter to one flank; he has to re-act by using both fighters. Boom - strike on the other side with your dive bombers while pulling back the bait over friendly aa.

 

P.S.: Maybe cv sub forum next time.

[22cm]

US CVs are really not up to the JP CVs. If you really want to play CVs, play JP.

[Reyte]

US CVs are really not up to the JP CVs. If you really want to play CVs, play JP.

 

ignore 22mm, he has not much of a clue of cvs, especially hightier cvs.

 

U ve 2 choices as Essex of how u play.

 

Choice no1: be the agressor

 

U ll learn that a 1-1-3 can pack quite a punch against capital ships. U ll probably now this already from the lexington. That beeing said, u ve got a fighter this time which makes dtuff easier. With one fighter u ll able to hold of one or even both of taihos fighter. U just need a good straf of his fighter group, even if u only manage to kill one group or damage only one, atleast u ll be able to make the remaining fightergroup busy and do ur strike. In worst case, he ll ve 3 fighter. Same tactic also works kind of vs essex gameplay no2 - which I ll explain later. This tactic is usually only neccesarry if the enemy cv protects his own ships. Even when u focus on dealing damage with 1-1-3, u shouldnt be careless about them. Essex only has 90 replacements. So each essex squad 1-1-3 should ve 18 planes in total. 18 fighter means once u lost 3 whole fighter squadrons, u ll be out of them. If the game already doesent go that well u might be not able to protect anyone from attacks. Since battles tend to be chaotic and the best cv players wont be able to protect everyone u might wanna send ur strike without fighter cover or send them somewhere else once they ecorted the strikeplanes sucxesfullys)  might still want to use ur fighter to kill of floatplanes so ur strikeplanes wont get too in accurate. USN DBs ve the tendency to stll hit despite beeing panicked. So its up to u, how to use ur fighter. 

 

More important is the target choice. Usually the bigger the target, the better. U ll be able to wreck not so smart yamatos in one go. Just use 2 DB first to lit some fires. Either he lets it burn or he exstinguishes it almost instantly.keep in mind that ships ve different immunity times, in which u can cause more fires and flooding, but those wont last. Dont hit USN BB earlier than 20sec after they exstinguished, for tirpitzes 15sec, for iJN BB it is 10sec. For cruisers overall 5 sec. Once this time passdd u divebomb and torpedobomb him again. 2 fires and a fullduration flooding might just kill it, if the alpha damage doesent do it already (alphamage is inconsistent, flooding and fires are better) against high tier usn bbs its more difficult and sometimes might not work out if they manage to kill the Torpedobomber too fast. Sometimes the opprtunity is too small and I can recommend using the planes the orher way around (for example target ship is already turning away and wont be a good target soon or enemy planes are comming etc). Cruisrs can be good targets aswell. Russian, german and IJN cruisrr players sometimes dont even use aa consumable. 

 

Hitting dds is pure RNG with american. If u feel like its ur lucky day, go ahead and try it. 3 american dbs can devastate dds, but might aswell miss. If u dont perform or kill stuff in ur cv, chances are high u ll lose the match. Hitting dds with american TB isnt that easy, either. I recommend using TBs against DDs if they r stationary or ll have to go in a easy predicable way. 

 

Hitting CVs isnt that great of an idea. Theoretical its really devastating, if u would handle them like BBs and order attacks the same way. Since t8+ cv ve aa consumable its unpredicable to know how good an attacks goes if he starts to use aa ability. While certainly possible, i cannot recommmend it. If u land in a double cv match with t7 cv it might be valid to snipe the t7 cv to make ur cv play easier that match.

 

Choice no2: be the defender

 

U can also go 2-1-1. U ll ve for each squadron around 22-23 planes, so 45 fighter planes and either 22/23 torpedobomber/divebomber. Ur main role is to negate the enemy cv. So u ll ve to rely on predicting the enemy cvs next attack and defend it. This needs a good amount of practise and knowledge about maps. Nothing is worse than letting an enemy cv strike, while ur fighter are idling around the map despite beeing undamaged and with full ammunition. Its ur task as 2-1-1 Essex to stop the enemy cv from doing damage; if u dont do it u ll be most likely be useless for ur team. That beeing said the enemy cv ll most likely still do some damage. Thats why u still ve some torpedo and divebomber. Only one squadrons each is severly limmiting. Usually u should avoid going for ruiser at all cost and only attack IJN BB and or stock/lowertiered usn bb. Otherwise u wont even be able to drop the torpedos at all. This one of the reason I find this loadout too limmitting. Having so many fighter in replacements doesent neccessarly win u games, it might in the long run but maybe u wobt even reach the end game. Overall only having only so few strikeplanes limits selfdefense vs rushing dds and CA. Damage and kills are usually the stuff which wins games. Planekills not. (My 103 personal planekill record in midway was a loss, and it wasnt even close to a win).

 

Choice no3: be useless unless...

 

Well technically u could go the whole "defend ur teammates" a step further and go with the very useless 3-0-2 essex. Why useless? Well its hardly imagineable to be of much use for ur team if u can only bring 2 DB into battle which arent reliable, either. U could go all game only for bbs with that but its just not that great. At some point u ll be forced to attack something other than a bb so...

 

Just dont do it. I can only imagine it beeing useful in a double cv game and even so, u might not ve enough time to kill enough planes to make it worthwhile for urself.

 

 

 

Take everything with a grain of salt. I assumed u would know how to drop/ fighterbarrage. Certain things might not work out everytime. In the end those are just my assumptions after playing a good amount of battles in cv. Taiho is probably overall better ( taiho can murder dd effortless, has a better hull since its an armoured cv) than again think of essex as capital ship killer, in 1-1-3 it should be better than Taiho when attacking bbs. Contrary to lexington and midway it has relativley good concealment (can ve around 13,5 way better than midway which is around 16, lex was 15 if i remember correctly). Overall its also easier to play than taiho since u ve to manage less squadrons. Problematic is only the long maintenance time for planes and hevay rng on db. I would also consider the the handling of the planes bad ( cricling before dropping) but thats more the maintheme of the usn cv line. Overall a fine cv, tough maybe not as good at it once was.

 

[22cm]

 

ignore 22mm, he has not much of a clue of cvs, especially hightier cvs.

 

You dont have to be so jealous,  even if you are small,  you ll get some girls.  Eventually. 

 

Ignore what the small guy says.  Worst tier 9 ship on the EU server for the last 2 weeks has been Essex,  with an aweful 47.85% win rate, the worst,  as the stats on warships.today show it. Also has the worst XP gain on tier 9.

 

It s not you,  it s the ship. While good players like Reyte can still make it work,  they would get better results in other tier 9 ships. It is the worst tier 9 ship for a reason. Stats don t lie. On all tiers,  4-10,  JP CVs outperform regular US CVs. The only US CV that s better is Saipan,  because it s premium. 

[pra3y]

US CVs are really not up to the JP CVs. If you really want to play CVs, play JP.

 

Nah its just that USN CVs suffer from poor loadout compared to IJN ones. With their loadout, IJN CVs are generally more flexible and forgiving, therefore much easier to play from Hiryu onwards. Compared to IJN, USN CVs are the "hard mode" of CV gameplay.They have very poor loadouts but their strike planes, mostly the TBs are ridiculously hard hitting compared to IJN ones. They generally enjoy AS with their fighters as well. But all that require a CV player to use them properly to be effective.

 

Im boasting here. I've twice been in  tier 8 matches in my Inde where in both cases there is a friendly Shokaku. Both times I beat the Shokakus in terms of exp earned (top) while they were lower mid in the team's ranking and damage as well. Its very challenging but not impossible. It is both the ship and the player. Lol at least Reyte is giving OP relevent advice. Both of us are just arguing over CV play style.

[22cm]

 

Nah its just that USN CVs suffer from poor loadout compared to IJN ones. With their loadout, IJN CVs are generally more flexible and forgiving, therefore much easier to play from Hiryu onwards. 

That may be the reason,  I was just showing the effect:  any JP CV outperforms its US counterpart on its tier,  and this is on all tiers,  4-10, not only from Hiryu onwards. 

 

The other thing is player-related,  a bot/ noob in Shokaku will still be a bot/ noob. When the players have comparable levels,  JP CVs are outperforming USs. 

[pra3y]

That may be the reason,  I was just showing the effect:  any JP CV outperforms its US counterpart on its tier,  and this is on all tiers,  4-10, not only from Hiryu onwards. 

 

The reason why i put from Hiryu onwards is because of the 2/2/2 loadout as well as IJN planes getting better. Between tier 4~6 USN CVs enjoy complete AS over IJN CVs. At least in my view. That therefore limit the damage potential of IJN CVs at those tiers.Heck even a 1/1/1 Inde can out perform a 3/1/2 Ryujo and wipe out all its fighters. Its also why players in Zuihos have problem against Bogues.As long as the Bogue has 1 fighter squad, even if both players are at the same level, the Bogue can conpletely shut down the Zuiho.

[22cm]

The reason why i put from Hiryu onwards is because of the 2/2/2 loadout as well as IJN planes getting better. Between tier 4~6 USN CVs enjoy complete AS over IJN CVs. 

 

I ll post the stats today when I ll get back home,  but trust me,  it s as I said. 

[XbodzioXplX]

US CVs are really not up to the JP CVs. If you really want to play CVs, play JP.

 

Sorry but I dislike IJN CVs. The do not suit me in terms of:

- lower survivability

- lower number of planes in squadrons

- higher number of squadrons

- bombers seldom damage DDs

 

And I think it is good for the game that different branches has different gameplay style.

 

I like Essex because that 1 fighter squadron. You can def your planes, you can def your allies even if it just a little help.

 

[Malim0o]

US CVs are really not up to the JP CVs. If you really want to play CVs, play JP.

 

US and IJN high tier cv are fine

Midway and essex are a nightmare for all BB player (+ca without conso) but they are less efficient against dd than ijn cv

You can manage easily a weatherer with both 

So no taiho and hakuryu arent more powerfull than essex and midway

They are just skill dependent like all cv

[pra3y]

 

I ll post the stats today when I ll get back home,  but trust me,  it s as I said. 

 

No no i do trust you and stat wise you're correct. Its just that i feel playstyle wise  tier 4~6 IJN CVs can't really perform as well as their USN counter part.

[Reyte]

 

I ll post the stats today when I ll get back home,  but trust me,  it s as I said. 

 

stats do no tell the whole story, overall essex is a fine ship. Overall pros are not outweighed by its cons.

[DJ_Die]

 

- bombers seldom damage DDs

 

 

wait... what? If ypu know how to use manual aim on IJN DBs you can easily hit DDs.... On the other hand US DBs are perfectly able to miss a stationary BB

[22cm]

Here are the stats:

[22cm]

 

stats do no tell the whole story, overall essex is a fine ship. Overall pros are not outweighed by its cons.

 

Nope, but in the end pros and noobs will balance each other out, and thats why average values are statistically relevant.

[Reyte]

Here are the stats:

 

Because people are able to take the useless loadouts on USN CVS aswell, with IJN Cv its pretty much impossible to take a bad loadout ( 2-0-2, 3-0-2 alike). Ofc average damage ll be lower.

 

Apart from every direct comparison, Essex is a fine ship and can play its strike role better than a Lexington without losing utillity since it still has a fighter. Essex has its strong points over the Taiho, even tough also weaknesses. After all we ve different ships in the game, some ships are just better suited for doing damaage or sutaining damage than others. Soemthing which is difficult in plain WR, damage and kills comparisons. Compare ships like ZAO vs Des Moines or Montanas vs Yamato. Wich is better? Depends really on the MM and situation.

 

Having 4/5 of all your squadrons in strike planes ( up to 24-27 strikeplanes in the sky compared to taihos 20-22) is also quite menanceing.

 

But its probably difficult to understand, 22mm, u didnt play anything higher than a t5 CV.

 

You dont have to be so jealous,  even if you are small,  you ll get some girls.  Eventually. 

 Interessting point btw. Surely on point in this discussion.

 

 

 

[22cm]

Dont know who 22mm is, maybe one of your aliases, but maths and statistics beat personal experience anytime, and if you don t understand this, it s your problem.

 

Well, you started the ad hominem.

[Reyte]

Dont know who 22mm is, maybe one of your aliases, but maths and statistics beat personal experience anytime, and if you don t understand this, it s your problem.

 

Well, you started the ad hominem.

 

Too bad OP asked what we think about the ships themselfs and not about statistics.

 

 

 

[xXxGhostRiderxXx]

Thanks everyone for the input.

 

The Essex strike load out is definitely serviceable: I've already managed to make 200k damage with it and I'm a below average carrier player by stats with little experience of the class (I pretty much free xped the entire line ).

 

It just feels a little stale at times due to the similarities to the Lexington. 

 

[Syrchalis]

The Essex is by far my most played and beloved ship. But after the removed the 1/2/2 layout I don't touch it anymore. The 1/1/3 isn't bad, but it holds no merit against a 2/3/2 Taiho, which is basically the most perfect Layout you can hope for.

[XbodzioXplX]

The Essex is by far my most played and beloved ship. But after the removed the 1/2/2 layout I don't touch it anymore. 

 

 

Essex... Has that... loadout?

No wonder WG changed it!

[22cm]

 

Too bad OP asked what we think about the ships themselfs and not about statistics.

 

 

 

 

Read again what he asked.

[22cm]

 

 how do people think it fairs against the Taiho? 

 

 

Badly.

[Syrchalis]

The only advantage it has is it can snipe the Taiho while the Taiho can't snipe the Essex. AA consumable doesn't affect US bombers that much, so you can still hit with them. But it's not very effective as tactic.