Is anyone else trying to use the higher tier French CA's?

[Psychodogstick]

 

 

Seems to me they are a rare sight, have people already decided they really are not worth it?

 

Got to admit they are the most unfun ship class i've used to far in this game for a long time, just so weak.  Yet there are so few comments about them on the forums?

[Aragathor]

Well, the line is new and those who haven't freeXP'ed to high tier are grinding. I'm at T5 right now and not interested in heavy grinding.

Getting a nice spread across tiers takes time and I'm sure there are people who wait until the baguettes get buffed to really go up in them. Because right now they are in a bad place from what I've seen.

[Psychodogstick]

Yeah having played the T8 and 9 and judging what ive seen off the few Henrys  yup they really are that bad at the moment.

 

How the hell did these things get passed Beta testing?

 

Not one unique point that is good about them, just a series of poor's and averages across the board when you compare different facts from cruiser to cruiser.

 

Playing them to their strengths when you really cant find one isn't very easy (other than running away from the enemy)

 

Its like some sort of bad french cliche they made, "its French so lets make sure it cant fight and can run away fast",  If it wasn't so stupid it would be funny !

 

 

[xXx_Blogis_xXx]

do play t8 now , its fine , bit paper , but sure nice ca, t6 was tragic , and t7 was not so good

[Comrad_StaIin]

T7 and T8 are amazing ships below is garbage

still need to get Saint Louis and HIV

[_DeathWing_]

[Psychodogstick]

Sitting at the back spamming HE from range might be great for Flamu, who is well known, but for the average Joe player with no rep sitting at the back = a serious amount of chat abuse from other players for hiding.

 

Still maybe some of these ppl will read this thread and get an education on the only way to play Frenchies, run at the rear spamming from long range hoping not to be primary.

 

[mtm78]

Even flamu get's chat abuse man, you should watch his streams it's funny as hell. Usually those are the people ending in the bottom of the team in the scoreboard off course

 

Look, with BB meta you are FORCED to snipe, simple as that. I was pretty aggressive when I started playing, it was glorious. Brawling ships, getting those juicy AP citadels. But then BBabies flocked to the game, and we got more BBabies per game then cruisers. That means cruisers who play aggressive in the open are just damage pinjata.

 

And that's not just French cruisers.

[Exocet6951]

WG finally changed a lot of things with them, and they're finally pretty damn good.

It's a shame the core concept in uninspired, but at least they're functional. 

 

Even the Henri got her three most important things fixed(/to be fixed soon): deck armor, AA, and air drag on her shells.

I don't necessarily agree on her max speed nor rate of fire buffs, but she's now well on her way to being a good tier10.

[GeorgeT1012_gt]

So far I'm at tier V and I like very much the tier IV Dugay-Trouin that I will keep. I'm intrested in the tier VII Algerie, I don't think I'll get any tier higher than that, I'm just fine with the last built ship. The T VIII is a real design, I have found the blueprints of this ship. I have found nothing about the others, maybe its like the Izumo or Hakuryu, that are heavily modified existing concepts, or something like that.

[Shadowotaku]

I tested french CA and tire 8 and 9 are the Best ships in the whole line. Idk how is now Henry with his faster reload but he was realy bad ship. If i personaly decide to grind french CA i will stop at tire 9 and will never buy Henry

[Sander93]

Yeah having played the T8 and 9 and judging what ive seen off the few Henrys  yup they really are that bad at the moment.

 

Are we playing the same game? Because the Charles Martel is straight up overpowered at tier 8 right now. Saint Louis felt the same in the test server.

I have 120k average damage so far lol and I've only had 'good' games till now, nothing special. The amount of damage this ship can rack up is insane IMO.

[Hoggbert]

I jumped straight to the T5 french cruisers and been enjoying every ship up to and including the current t8 i have.

They're very well rounded, with good manouverability, good speed (with boost) good arcs, good turret placement, good turning of turrets etc. etc.

They might not be special in any particular way, but by far the most well rounded cruiser line (and for a jack of all trade ship the cruisers are supposed to be, thats not a bad thing).

The Algerie feels like a better Hipper one tier below and the Charles Martel is by far the strongest t8 cruiser i've tried so far.

[rigawe]

I guess it's coming from me, but I have a lot of trouble with the Algérie.  I miss T6 already. I didn't notice trouble with the steering gear on T5 or T6 but on the algerie oh boy, I'm even wondering if last stand could be an option...

And to make things worse she's the ugliest in the entire line.

 

If someone has some tips I'll gladly take it.

[Exocet6951]

I'm not going to lie, I'm blocking on the tier5.

I just don't get it.
The DPM is awful. I barely managed to kill a Nicholas in a 8km duel before it dealt as least as much damage to me as I did to it. So DD hunting? Not really it's forté
Harassing BBs? Unless you have IFHE, you're relegated to trying to nail superstructure hoping you start fires, because it's not with a sad 45 shells per minute that you're dealing actual HE damage.
Going for CA/CLs ? Same problem, you're just not outdamaging them.

So what is it good for?
Can anyone give pointers to those trying to reach those higher tiers ?

[Azakeit]

For me I played like a coward through the T8, spamming HE long range.

 

I was hoping the T8 speed/AP/armor to be better, but no....

[anonym_MfZ6T7iwWpUC]

I guess it's coming from me, but I have a lot of trouble with the Algérie.  I miss T6 already. I didn't notice trouble with the steering gear on T5 or T6 but on the algerie oh boy, I'm even wondering if last stand could be an option...

And to make things worse she's the ugliest in the entire line.

 

If someone has some tips I'll gladly take it.

In the T5 I would loose engine/rudder at least 3 times a game. Not noticed it much on T6 yet.

 

Looking forward to the Algerie. I have the T7 Myoko, but the faster turret and rof on Algerie could be interesting.

[Poster_2015]

I guess it's coming from me, but I have a lot of trouble with the Algérie.  I miss T6 already. I didn't notice trouble with the steering gear on T5 or T6 but on the algerie oh boy, I'm even wondering if last stand could be an option...

And to make things worse she's the ugliest in the entire line.

 

If someone has some tips I'll gladly take it.

 

Algerie is a pure HE spammer. Sit at range, and burn the world. Its not just that she is a good ship at setting fires as Flamu posted, its also that she actually lacks qualities for brawling, and AP are rather bad. Still its a good enough firestarter to get me around 100k dmg per game on average - being very very nice for t7. I agree though I find that playstyle frustrating. Still its a good ship, if not very inspiring. 

I'm not going to lie, I'm blocking on the tier5.

 

I just don't get it.

The DPM is awful. I barely managed to kill a Nicholas in a 8km duel before it dealt as least as much damage to me as I did to it. So DD hunting? Not really it's forté

Harassing BBs? Unless you have IFHE, you're relegated to trying to nail superstructure hoping you start fires, because it's not with a sad 45 shells per minute that you're dealing actual HE damage.

Going for CA/CLs ? Same problem, you're just not outdamaging them.

 

So what is it good for?

Can anyone give pointers to those trying to reach those higher tiers ?

 

Depending on how you plan to go with captains, IFHE turns tier 5 and 6 into respectable ships. Without it, indeed they are somewhat lacking. Still the Nicholas problems, Id rather attribute to whoever was behind the steering wheel. My salvos at low level DDs are around 4.5-5k , and given their HP it really doesnt take long. If they deal comparable damage ... they have 10k , you have 25k, if they deal realistically 6-8k dmg in return, its to be expected if the DD player is somewhat competent, and not the end of the world for you.

 

 

Are we playing the same game? Because the Charles Martel is straight up overpowered at tier 8 right now. Saint Louis felt the same in the test server.

I have 120k average damage so far lol and I've only had 'good' games till now, nothing special. The amount of damage this ship can rack up is insane IMO.

 

Well I have 2 things to say. 1 is that CM is a very fine ship, and actually fun to play. After the HE spamming Algerie, you get a slightly better firestarter here - enough to justify one tier up. However as a bonus you get a competent brawler, with pretty good AP shells as well.

 

On other hand, I wouldnt call it overpowered, but i DO understand how you feel about it. Let me ask you a question - did you play a decent amount of games in other t8 cruisers recently? Because over last 6 months the power creep at t8 was absolutely massive for cruisers. It might not be a bad thing, because they felt rather underwhelming, but its just a fact. Both Chapayev, Kutuzov and Mogami got the IFHE superpower on their 155mm guns, skyrocketing their dmg potential. New Orleans got a 25% DPM boost + camo almost equal to its radar. Hipper got better HE shells (although honestly its a bit lacking now). 6 months ago Charles Martel WOULD be overpowered, right now 120k average damage for a *competent* damage dealer like yourself, is nothing outstanding at t8 cruiser. 

 

To further emphasis on the power creep - I used to play a lot in Atago, and considered it definitely the best t8 cruiser. Now its middle of the pack at best, and lower portion above the Hipper at worst. Just because Atago didnt change, while everything around her did. 

[Exocet6951]

 

 

 

Depending on how you plan to go with captains, IFHE turns tier 5 and 6 into respectable ships. Without it, indeed they are somewhat lacking. Still the Nicholas problems, Id rather attribute to whoever was behind the steering wheel. My salvos at low level DDs are around 4.5-5k , and given their HP it really doesnt take long. If they deal comparable damage ... they have 10k , you have 25k, if they deal realistically 6-8k dmg in return, its to be expected if the DD player is somewhat competent, and not the end of the world for you.

 

 

It's just that I never had so much trouble with DDs with any other CL.

Every single shell that misses (due to RNG of just missing) means the enemy DD gets 2 shots on you. And on a ship with no armor and little hp, all those extra hits add up.

 

Comparably, I had no trouble utterly murdering DDs with an Omaha, where the plethora of guns and RoF could unrelentingly pummel targets and break modules, whereas on the Bertin, it's a very modest salvo every 12 seconds. That doesn't frighten anything. I've had Russian DDs actually coming to fight me because they knew that they could get close and unleash 2km torpedo walls without suffering too much damage getting there. And they would win if I didn't have nerves of steel when it comes down to close range torpedo timing.

[Poster_2015]

I think you exaggerate, although Omaha really has a decent firepower (up to 7 guns at 7 sec reload vs 9 at 12 is definitely a 33% better firepower). However the alpha is better, the shell trajectory is a bit better for french one, and while they are all squishy, Omaha seems easier to dmg due to the height. 

 

Still the point is, tier 5 and 6 french are simply lacking compared to their rivals, but IF you take IFHE, they become rather easy to grind though.  I cant help but wonder, why galissoniere is pretty much exact copy of budyonny except worse at EVERYTHING except torp range (but then 2 torps are not really scary lol). Even the speed boost... WITH it on, Galli is just 0.5 knot SLOWER then Budyonny without lol. But IFHE is so overpowered skill at this tier, that even frenchies took just few games to get past for me .

[mrcha84]

T8-Charles Martel was a very nice(even awesome) ship for its tier and MM.On the other hand,T9-St.Louis feels like useless floating turd.Think of it as just a bigger T8 with same guns,worse cammo,same armour,bigger silhouette and for the final nail in its coffin comes the T10 MM...Sorry,but St.Louis has nothing to offer in T10 MM...Either you're going to make DMG from behind and most likely lose the round or supporting your DD's or any kind of agressive play will cost you an instant citadel,going down to dave jones locker room...

[Isalani]

Loved the Charles Martel. Insanely good damage dealer (though it lacks any other type of impact).

Still figuring out how to make St Louis work though.

 

edit: In fact it feels to me like WG developed this line to deal with the BB meta. They're good ships to sit in the back spamming HE at BB's (shell travel is too bad to hit anything else at those ranges) while dodging shells. They kinda suck at anything else. I'm actually dissapointed when the enemy team doesn't have 5 BB's while I'm playing a french cruiser ^^

[1000guns]

Still stuck at trash-gali, my god that ship is awful compared to the t5. She takes MASSIVE damage from everything, i had noob BBs fire HE salvos for 8k dmg while angled at me (!!)... 

I really hope that it gets better later on, love playing cruisers but this is just a serious headache so far..

[tajj7]

I'm not going to lie, I'm blocking on the tier5.

 

I just don't get it.

The DPM is awful. I barely managed to kill a Nicholas in a 8km duel before it dealt as least as much damage to me as I did to it. So DD hunting? Not really it's forté

Harassing BBs? Unless you have IFHE, you're relegated to trying to nail superstructure hoping you start fires, because it's not with a sad 45 shells per minute that you're dealing actual HE damage.

Going for CA/CLs ? Same problem, you're just not outdamaging them.

 

So what is it good for?

Can anyone give pointers to those trying to reach those higher tiers ?

 

I thought the tier 5 was excellent, very fast at 39 knots, decently agile, good range at nearly 15km for a tier 5 and fast shells that started a lot of fires. 

 

Reload is quite slow but that is one of the few downsides, it's also so paper AP from most stuff overpens.  You also have hydro and good solid long range/fast torps so it's not bad in ambush situations.  

 

You also have 6 of your guns forward so can bow in without losing too much firepower. 

 

Also as far as I can see most of the French Cruisers have very fast turning turrets so need for EM, so you can spec AR straight away. 

 

Only took me 9 games to unlock the tier 6, but I averaged nearly 60k damage with it which I think is pretty decent for a tier 5 ship.  Generally I went for fire damage against BBs, the reload didn't bother me because the decent turret traverse, good range and good arcs meant you are landing lots of your shells on target. 

[Exocet6951]

 

I thought the tier 5 was excellent, very fast at 39 knots, decently agile, good range at nearly 15km for a tier 5 and fast shells that started a lot of fires. 

 

Reload is quite slow but that is one of the few downsides, it's also so paper AP from most stuff overpens.  You also have hydro and good solid long range/fast torps so it's not bad in ambush situations.  

 

You also have 6 of your guns forward so can bow in without losing too much firepower. 

 

Also as far as I can see most of the French Cruisers have very fast turning turrets so need for EM, so you can spec AR straight away. 

 

Only took me 9 games to unlock the tier 6, but I averaged nearly 60k damage with it which I think is pretty decent for a tier 5 ship.  Generally I went for fire damage against BBs, the reload didn't bother me because the decent turret traverse, good range and good arcs meant you are landing lots of your shells on target. 

 

When I wrote the post, it went 34 knots.

Maneuvering a bit lowered that to 30. 

 

That alone took out most of the purpose of the ship.