Nagato, useless?

[TheCoolBird]

So, I've been trying to use the Nagato. After using the Fuso, I soon learned it was different play style. I had troubles with the Myoko as well, but I've learned how to play it more now. But I don't understand how the Nagato can play well against any other BB. So far I have the second hull, which I upgraded too as soon as I could.

Her armour is weak, and I find even trying to angle isn't working for me. Shots penetrate me, and I'm taking heavy and critical damage in a lot of battles. I can go from having most of my health, to not that much in a few seconds. I can survive, when not being fired at. When I stay further back, I'm unable to hit anything. Shells can be right on an enemy ship, yet they all either fall under or go over. I come out of battles with little hits, and the ones that hit are usually over pen.

So far it's just costing more than it's worth. Sure I gain money, but not that fast. While with the Fuso, I know it doesn't require as much skill, I was doing a lot better. Is this just unluckiness?

 

What are some tips, that can really boost me up with the Nagato? I don't want to drop the BB line as of the time it took to get to where I am. I've been looking at guides on how to angle, and so on. I'm either doing it wrong, or it's just not helping. I'll still use the Nagato for a while, but so far it's just been poor games.

 

 

 

[Close_Quarters_Expert]

Nagato is a much harder ship to play than Fuso; Fuso will hold your hand where Nagato will chop it off.

 

I'm actually contemplating doing a Guide on Nagato as she seems to phase a lot of people. All I'd say for now is this; don't sell her! Amagi is a BEAST! Nagato is also a very fun ship once you find your feet with her. 

 

Nagato needs to be played like an oversized cruiser with good bow armour and range. If you treat her like you would Colorado or Gneisenau, she'll punish your decisions hard. It's all about allies, allies, allies. Being alone in Nagato is no good. Get to the second line (DON'T CAMP/SNIPE), support your allies (PUSH WITH ALLIES) and use your extreme Alpha damage to put serious hurt on broadsiding enemies; regardless of class. 

 

If you want, we can go into game sometime and take them out? I get moderately good results from my Nagato (though a little below what I get from Colorado; around 2k base xp a match since I started getting more used to her) so could it help being with a fellow Nagato player for a few matches?  

 

Finally, just bear in mind; she's by no means the strongest ship in the line from an overall game-play perspective. I actually find that she's very similar to Kongo give or take a few thousand health and 8 knots. 

[Guillotine]

I have hard time impacting the game in fully upgraded nagato, aim is ok but dispersion feels off. Shells tend go over or short and i fight at 8-15km range. Latest games have been bit better but overall fuso shotgun style was racking more hits even at long range.

[RUSSIANBlAS]

Fuso may feel more accurate because of the large number of shells and it's shotgun dispersion whereas Naga fires less shells with tighter accuracy (less forgiving as a result).

 

If you own a Warspite then the Nagato plays very similar strangely.

[VC381]

Nagato needs to fight at medium range. Angling should work fine as long as you don't get too close. About 15-16km is a sweet spot, you can citadel most BBs at that range, including T8 (yes, Germans too) and some T9 (well, mainly Iowa).

 

If you find a Scharn/Gneis/Bis/Tirp in your face, the trick is either to aim slightly below the main deck (if you caught them broadside) or just below the front turrets if they angle. You can hit 10k-20k salvos on them with just normal pens if they are too close to citadel.

 

Having said that, you should mostly be trying to punish cruisers. You're not super fast, but fast enough to get where you need to be and support your team's push. I know it might be hard to believe if you had a few bad games, but Nagato has the best dispersion at her tier at those ranges I said before. But because you have fewer guns you need to practice aiming more. When you get it right though, cruisers don't know what hit them. If you stay second line they might assume they're safe, and then you start hitting double citadels and farming devastating strike like a boss...

 

I think you should keep practicing. Nagato is a very good ship and once you get used to it, Amagi plays the same way but does everything better. I personally had the opposite experience, I was very frustrated with Fuso but Nagato was a revelation. I think she still holds my all time damage record. I suppose though if you keep trying and you just don't like the style then there is no point torturing yourself, the game has enough variety and other lines.

 

Good luck!

[Exocet6951]

Nagato needs to fight at medium range. Angling should work fine as long as you don't get too close. About 15-16km is a sweet spot

 

This is why we have max range sniping BBs...

[1MajorKoenig]

She's good at midrange but can brawl amazingly in favourable conditions. However you can't force it as good as in a German BB because of a lack of good armour.

 

Her guns can be outright amazing but at times will fool you so bad that you want to scrap the whole ship.

 

She wasn't really ever my favourite ship and I finally sold her for credits to buy the Hindenburg.

 

Nagato is not a bad ship but I feel by now she was surpassed by the new lines somehow. On the other hand she still got these guns that can dish out these insane volleys - if RNG is with you :-)

[Kittykami]

Nagato is one of my favourite ships in the game, her ability to utterly smash other ships with her outstanding accuracy is a real blast once you get used to it. 

 

She is tricky to play though - her tight groupings mean you'll hit little or nothing if your aim is even slightly off and she requires a judicious use of angling to be tanky. Any lewd broadside flashing will have you eating a ton of damage. 

 

Play her right though and she'll be your best friend :3

[lup3s]

http://forum.worldofwarships.eu/index.php?/topic/62762-nagatos-role/

 

I am quite lazy so I'll just copy-paste my post from there

I've added some extra commentary in blue.

 

The Nagato has the same amount of guns as the Colorado (4x2), less than the Scharnhorst (3x3) and more than the Gneisenau (3x2). I wouldn't say 8 guns is "very few".

Compared to the Fuso (6x2), the Nagato has indeed few guns. The higher amount of shells the Fuso can put out broadside makes it feel more accurate (more shells = more chance to hit), while the Nagato is actually more accurate gun-for-gun (iirc).

Imo, bad RNG is more 'visible' when you fire less shells. Hence you might get more "wtf .. ?"-salvoes with the Nagato than with the Fuso.

 

The Nagato, albeit having awesome secondaries and decent manoeuvrability, has never really been THE brawler at T7; this would have been the Colorado

Generally, USN BBs are better brawlers than IJN BBs.

However, the KM BBs have pushed aside the USN BBs as top brawlers (mainly due to their turtleback armour).

 

 

How to Nagato?

> be aware of enemy BBs; the Nagato is probably the easiest T7 BB to citadel

> angle your ship; despite having the largest health pool, the Nagato has the least armour and is the least tanky

> don't rush towards the enemy fleet at the start of the battle; as mentioned above you can't tank very well in the Nagato

This doesn't mean you should camp at the back. You can move up with / just behind your fleet at full / half engine power.

> don't brawl with USN or KM BBs; especially the KM BBs as both T7s have torpedoes

Of course, if you have a lot more health than the enemy BB, you can go brawl with them if you want to. But still beware the KM torpedoes or the USN manoeuvrability!

> try to engage enemy BBs at medium to long range; you can close in to finish them off though

In my opinion, 'medium to long range' is about 10-15 km.

 

If you have a good aim you should wreck every cruiser in range.

Of course, the closer you get, the more likely you'll land those juicy citadel hits.

 

Btw, if you have the time, take a look at these videos by Flamu.

He's a very good player and gives really good advice (imo).

 

 

 

[RUSSIANBlAS]

I think an issue is that at higher tiers every BB is expected to have good armour and speed. Both Naga and Colo have suffered power creep. 

 

 

[RUSSIANBlAS]

Played a game in mine last night, got blown away with the rest of my potato team. Did get a 27k salvo on an Amagi though, something the Germans around her tier could only dream of.

[Close_Quarters_Expert]

∆ This. THIS is what you sail Nagato for. The ease of doing this kind of alpha. 

 

[RUSSIANBlAS]

The Germans are a little under gunned. You only really notice this if you go back to IJN/USN BB after extensive KM play and marvel at the big numbers!

 

Back to the topic though, the Naga armour is okay really. Always angle and focus on survival. Don't be too keen to get the rear turrets into play, it's better to stay safe than risk a massive cit. 4 16" shells will still make anything outside of a top tier BB consider their options

[SirAmra]

I had a blast in the Nagato. Same with the Colorado.

Bow in when loading next salvo. Whenever I could I always fire all guns on target.

Facing tier 7s, I played aggressive and battling tier 8-9s I used the 410mm guns at longer ranges....never ever showing broadside.

I felt the ship to be quite bouncy. But if u show broadside....well...bye bye health.

But as cpt_Cowper said: Amagi makes it all worth it. It`s a powerhouse.

[Artech52]

As someone trying to learn this ship who's taken a few too many heavy damage hits, this is a really helpful. I want to like this ship, I really do, but I just keep screwing up.

 

Will try again with the pointers here and see how things go.

[xenopathia]

I was accused of hacking after a 35K salvo -on a Nagato-  (06:45)

 

Nagato made a big mistake showing a broadside to Nagato.

[RUSSIANBlAS]

I was accused of hacking after a 35K salvo -on a Nagato-  (06:45)

 

Nagato made a big mistake showing a broadside to Nagato.

 

My favourite part of online gaming. When the accusations start to fly, that's when you know you're good 

[HidesHisFace]

So, I've been trying to use the Nagato. After using the Fuso, I soon learned it was different play style. I had troubles with the Myoko as well, but I've learned how to play it more now. But I don't understand how the Nagato can play well against any other BB. So far I have the second hull, which I upgraded too as soon as I could.

Her armour is weak, and I find even trying to angle isn't working for me. Shots penetrate me, and I'm taking heavy and critical damage in a lot of battles. I can go from having most of my health, to not that much in a few seconds. I can survive, when not being fired at. When I stay further back, I'm unable to hit anything. Shells can be right on an enemy ship, yet they all either fall under or go over. I come out of battles with little hits, and the ones that hit are usually over pen.

So far it's just costing more than it's worth. Sure I gain money, but not that fast. While with the Fuso, I know it doesn't require as much skill, I was doing a lot better. Is this just unluckiness?

 

 

What are some tips, that can really boost me up with the Nagato? I don't want to drop the BB line as of the time it took to get to where I am. I've been looking at guides on how to angle, and so on. I'm either doing it wrong, or it's just not helping. I'll still use the Nagato for a while, but so far it's just been poor games.

 

 

 

 

Fuso could play at very long ranges due to sheer volume of fire.

Nagato can't. She is a mid-range ship - preferably 14km or less. Her guns hit like a truck - even non-citadels can wreck German BBs for 14k dmg or more.

 

Her armour is weak, especially when broadsiding - you must learn to keep her pointing towards the enemy at the extreme angle of rear turrets. Any other angle, and you risk getting penetratated - but at such extreme angles, she may be quite resilient.

 

Another thing - don't be afraid of closing in against cruisers and even destroyers - your secondaries, with proper build are deadly. 

That being said, she is a bit overshadowed by new German BBs, but she is still no easy target if she is played right.

 

However, Nagato has terrible stock grind. Almost no AA, low HP and her ammo is downright horrible - with stock Nagato, spam HE, I'm not even kidding, AP is that bad.

[RUSSIANBlAS]

I wouldn't get closer to a DD in the Naga unless you've got a full secondary build and if you know for a fact they've just shot all their fishes.

 

Better served with the main gun accuracy module imo.

[xenopathia]

 

My favourite part of online gaming. When the accusations start to fly, that's when you know you're good 

Exactly! Being accused is an honour

 

 

[xenopathia]

I used secondary module but those AP shells dont really work well and changed it to AA module.

[TheCoolBird]

Thanks for the tips everyone, I'm doing a lot better in the Nagato now. Getting citadel hits, and not dying instantly. Struggling to win with some teams though, but enjoying the overall ship more now. 

[CavScorpion_2014]

Thanks for the tips everyone, I'm doing a lot better in the Nagato now. Getting citadel hits, and not dying instantly. Struggling to win with some teams though, but enjoying the overall ship more now. 

 

Great to see someone ask how to improve rather than just raging and then applying the advice - Give this man a cookie!

[Guillotine]

Got my avrage dmg to steady climb after this thread, last 2 games 80-120k dmg per game. But it reflects differense to fuso how hard it is to grasp. Thou doing all dmg in the world still doesnt fix stupid teams ;)

[xenopathia]

Look at this lovely dispersion: