New Orleans - need advice with this ugly duckling

[loppantorkel]

I'll use this thread too for some NO advice.. What 4th commander skill do you recommend? DE, AFT, SE? Manual fire control is hardly worth it, is it?

[Panocek]

Manual AA is pointless on Nope Orlean and slightly less so on Baltimore/DM. If you care about carriers and/or want to cosplay AA screening with ship, go AFT, otherwise Demo Expert to improve barbecue capabilities against angled battleships/cruisers

[C4PT41N_0BV10US]

Well, I'm testing Survivability Expert on Des Moines right now. I mean, it kinda works, but I can't feel the difference Just like every other skill from tier IV

 

[allufewig]

Baltimore has HP regen. Baltimore has armour that actually does it's work against other CA's, Baltimore has slightly better RoF and freedom AP shells. It's still crap, but it's less crappy then NO, which is just tier VII CA placed on tier VIII.

 

 

I disagree here. Baltimore is suckyness to the max. You lose agility, you lose camo. Your DPM is back at Pensa-Levels (oh great, lol) and theres some few more mm of armor, but you feel even more gimped because shell arcs. All you get that is truly useful and that the NO was lacking, is the heal. But for me, this never could compensate for advancing a tier upwards. New Orleans was somewhat painful, but Baltimore (the 20 or so battles I endured it) was excruciatingly painful.

 

But it was always a battle between NO and Balti for the title of the true turd of the line.

 

@Guvkluder: Youre probably not doing that much wrong actually. You could try to exchange some of your survival-rate into more damage. Try to frequently seek battles preferably with other cruisers, against which NO works best because of ist combination of armor and AP. That way you can also relieve your DDs of some stress. I always went straight "in-your-face" with other cruisers, and it worked reasonably well. Otherwise the best thing to do is keeping valuable teammembers alive, so they can do the heavy lifting.

[C4PT41N_0BV10US]

I disagree here. Baltimore is suckyness to the max. You lose agility, you lose camo. Your DPM is back at Pensa-Levels (oh great, lol) and theres some few more mm of armor, but you feel even more gimped because shell arcs. All you get that is truly useful and that the NO was lacking, is the heal. But for me, this never could compensate for advancing a tier upwards. New Orleans was somewhat painful, but Baltimore (the 20 or so battles I endured it) was excruciatingly painful.

 

But it was always a battle between NO and Balti which is the true turd of the line. 

Well, I disagree. You drop the weakspot at rear, you get guns that bring world of pain on close range, you get freakin HP, you get armour and AA. Also, as for camo, remember that everyone else also goes up with detection range, so that cancels itself out. But, yeah, both of them are horrible, so it's a moot discussion Des is the jewel here  

 

[allufewig]

Des is the jewel here

 

 

That anyway.

 

It might also greatly benefit from patch 5.10 which will buff the normalization of US 203mm AP shells from 4,4 to 7°. Maybe AP-spamming will become a thing.

[C4PT41N_0BV10US]

Recently I heard a lot of "power creep" here and there, regarding CA's. And apart from NO and Baltimore, which were always very bad ships from OBT times, I just don't see it. Moskwa is not a problem for Des, neither is Hindenburg. Same on tier VI, although Budionny looks like a dangerous competition for Cleve, since he's much more accurate. Now, if they want to buff muh cruisorz - I take all the buffs like a meth junkie and ask for more. But the way I see it - it's all well on cruisers front. On my way to Zao btw, loving Ibuki so far

 

[Panocek]

Recently I heard a lot of "power creep" here and there, regarding CA's. And apart from NO and Baltimore, which were always very bad ships from OBT times, I just don't see it. Moskwa is not a problem for Des, neither is Hindenburg. Same on tier VI, although Budionny looks like a dangerous competition for Cleve, since he's much more accurate. Now, if they want to buff muh cruisorz - I take all the buffs like a meth junkie and ask for more. But the way I see it - it's all well on cruisers front. On my way to Zao btw, loving Ibuki so far

 

I've played both Cleveland and Budionny and I stand by Cleveland all the way. Rashian 152mm indeed have better ballistics (IIRC 10.5s for 16.6km) but ship itself is abysmal - giant, no armor, lackluster agility. Every close and personal moment, bread and butter for Cleve ends badly in Bud. Basically its the ship for blue line players who want to fire big guns, without being fired upon by big guns.

[22cm]

Well, I'm testing Survivability Expert on Des Moines right now. I mean, it kinda works, but I can't feel the difference Just like every other skill from tier IV

 

A ship it definitely works on is New Orleans, it has less HP than Cleveland, 2 tiers lower, ffs!

[damo74]

 

A ship it definitely works on is New Orleans, it has less HP than Cleveland, 2 tiers lower, ffs!

 

That explains why mine dies so easily, was in a division with two Atago's last night. Game after game the enemy ignored the Atago's and shot at my New Orleans.

[piritskenyer]

 

That explains why mine dies so easily, was in a division with two Atago's last night. Game after game the enemy ignored the Atago's and shot at my New Orleans.

 

Low HP targets are usually prioritised unless they represent an insignificant threat level. That is down to the fact that the basic rule of team-based MMO shooters is to reduce the enemy team's firepower. That's why damaged targets and targets with otherwise low HP to boot get focused down brainlessly. This can be exploited of course if a team is tunnelvisioning on low HP targets, but it's usually a sensible tactic.

[22cm]

 

That explains why mine dies so easily, was in a division with two Atago's last night. Game after game the enemy ignored the Atago's and shot at my New Orleans.

 

Not only the lower HP,  but smart players also know Atago has repair,  so NO is easier to kill. I would also target you first in a division with 2 Atagos,  and I m not vey smart. 

[cro_pwr]

 

I've played both Cleveland and Budionny and I stand by Cleveland all the way. Rashian 152mm indeed have better ballistics (IIRC 10.5s for 16.6km) but ship itself is abysmal - giant, no armor, lackluster agility. Every close and personal moment, bread and butter for Cleve ends badly in Bud. Basically its the ship for blue line players who want to fire big guns, without being fired upon by big guns.

 

I love my Cleveland, but Budy has HUGE range advantage over her, so it allows you to spam your HE more and burn everything you see from behind the island, or from 17km range...

its just 2 completely different playstyles and the only thing they have in commin is that they are HE spamming cruisers.

[22cm]

When I actually sat, and thought (meditated under waterfall of BB shells) what is NO good at. Well, she kinda can brawl, but she has the least amount of HP. She also doesn't have torps for this finishing moves or deterrent. And that's it. She can't kite, cause of this stupid weakspot, she can't escort, cause her AA is weaker then few BB's and CA's, she can't hunt DD's with 14s reload guns with average balistics. I mean, cmoooon. She's worse then Atlanta, which at least has it's DD-wrecker niche. 

 

 

Worst tier 8 cruiser. 

Best AP:  Hipper

Best HE:  Chapayev/Mogami

Best range:  Chapayev

Best AA:  Hipper

Best camo:  Mogami

Best radar:  Chapayev

Torps:  all the others,  Mogami's quite usefull. 

 

As a bonus,  to compensate for this,  NO gets the lowest HP of all of them, and a huge weakspot in the butt that helps to get citadels from range from almost any position…    I mean the bow is tanky enough, but if you try to dodge or if the BB noob misses the target and shoots a little bit over…  citadel.  

 

 

[damo74]

 

Not only the lower HP,  but smart players also know Atago has repair,  so NO is easier to kill. I would also target you first in a division with 2 Atagos,  and I m not vey smart. 

 

Of course. The fact that the Atago has better camo than the New Orleans doesn't help either.

 

Anyhow. i have given up on the turd that is the New Orleans, as I have just acquired the Admiral Hipper, which seems to be a much better ship.