Ranked Season 8: General Discussion

[MrConway]

Captains,

 

We would like to invite you to a discussion about the 8th season of ranked battles!

 

As always feedback is very welcome!

[TomaszuJerzy]

Any news about superleague this season. All my previous experiences with superleague end up in que. One time they were giving away containers for everybody so there was actually people playing but that lasted maybe a day. Any chance it will be worth playing this time?

[Aragathor]

I find it in poor taste how the announcement, or the lack of it, has been handled.

Just dropping the start date, but not the end, in the patch notes shows that ranked battles are an afterthought.

Also there's zero information given about the superleague.

[_HomTanks_]

If it will start this weekend, timing is not good for many customers/players. An important portion of the players will be on vacation for Christmas and New Year's. Previous seasons WG cared about the amount of participation to the ranked seasons but if they start ranked season a day before Christmas or a couple of days before New Year's, this ranked season may end up having much less participants. Instead, they could give time people until mid-January to come back from their vacations. 

 

Another thing is the Tier. There are 8 premium ships in T8 that are waiting for their buyers in docks and WG may be expecting to bloom the sales with them? Maybe for a short period. Although there isn't a ship like Belfast in Tier 8, I am sure that this ranked season with this tier will not require as much skill set as it required in tier 6. On the other hand, i understand that there should be difference in ranked seasons, like keep playing in same tiers will not be fun. As an idea a solution could be starting the season with low tiers at the beginning like Tier 6 in rank 23-18, then Tier 7 in rank 18 to 12, and then Tier 8 in rank 12 to 1.

 

Anyhow, i think amount of participation is more important than the tiers at the moment and timing should be done carefully. 

[Teekesselchen]

Below T9, class balance is still pretty bad.

On T8 there are two cruisers that will be good. Atago and Kutuzov. One has outstanding concealment and a heal, the other has a smoke.

• Chapayev has a nice utility in her radar, but her concealment and armour scheme are terrible, she eats citadels from the most absurd ranges and angles, and has no heal to make up for it.
• Mogami has concealment instead of radar, but also terrible armour without heal. Again the biggest issue isn't that she can get citadelled from broadside, but that she can get citadelled from impossible angles.
• New Orleans is caught between bad armour and low DPS.
• Hipper has the entire damage output of a potato.

Maybe Charles Martel can be a positive surprise but I don't count on it. Seemed kind of decent in random battles, but also somewhat mediocre.

 

Thing is, in random battles one can make up for these issues just fine. With so many players it's much more feasible to avoid getting shot at by big guns, since there are so many more ill positioned targets to pick away at. In a ranked environment that becomes a whole lot harder.

 

Also now we have the issue of Kutuzov not even being sold anymore. I would feel pretty unfairly treated if I was new to the game and get greeted by the joy of eating IFHE spam from smoke, only to learn that I couldn't even return the favour.

[RUSSIANBlAS]

It's time for the wallet warrior competition folks.

 

I'm ready with my credit card ships 

 

It'll be Kidd with a 19 point captain for me!

[urr027]

I watched Flamu's video on this ranked season ships, neither Atago nor Kutozov were his top cruiser picks.

[wilkatis_LV]

Any chance we see the 2 BB per team limit ever again? Would be sad to see this season too devolve into 6 Bismarks & Tirpitzs vs 6 Bismarks & Tirpitzs every game with 1 random DD thrown somewhere in the middle.

[MasterEraserCoH]

10 hours ago, L8viathan said:

If it will start this weekend, timing is not good for many customers/players. An important portion of the players will be on vacation for Christmas and New Year's. Previous seasons WG cared about the amount of participation to the ranked seasons but if they start ranked season a day before Christmas or a couple of days before New Year's, this ranked season may end up having much less participants. Instead, they could give time people until mid-January to come back from their vacations. 

 

Another thing is the Tier. There are 8 premium ships in T8 that are waiting for their buyers in docks and WG may be expecting to bloom the sales with them? Maybe for a short period. Although there isn't a ship like Belfast in Tier 8, I am sure that this ranked season with this tier will not require as much skill set as it required in tier 6. On the other hand, i understand that there should be difference in ranked seasons, like keep playing in same tiers will not be fun. As an idea a solution could be starting the season with low tiers at the beginning like Tier 6 in rank 23-18, then Tier 7 in rank 18 to 12, and then Tier 8 in rank 12 to 1.

 

Anyhow, i think amount of participation is more important than the tiers at the moment and timing should be done carefully. 

I absolutely agree here.

 

I was waiting for ranked to get my third 1st rank, but ranked 8 first got delayed because of the clan battles - so far so good.

 

So I was expecting (and many others ) that ranked would start around january/february since christmas will be packed with missions and specials right?

 

Now yesterday I stumbled across flamus vid about the upcoming season and it really caught me by surprise how quick they launch the season out of nowhere.

 

 

Sadly I will be on vacation as many others so why havent you announced it earlier and why didnt you pick a date 3 weeks later at least?

 

I think many wont have the time for ranked....

 

 

 

[Leo_Apollo11]

Hi all,

 

I really don't think that it is good idea to start "Ranked #8" right now because:

• the "Clan Wars" literally just ended
• it is holiday season (Christmas, New Year, Winter Holidays) when most of the people really spend their time with their families as a priority
• there are two brand new campaigns (time limited?): "Battle of the North Cape" and the "New Year Raid"

 

All this combined means that timing for "Ranked #8" is not chosen very good...

 

 

Leo "Apollo11"

[Oppressor_]

On 12/21/2017 at 10:08 AM, urr027 said:

I watched Flamu's video on this ranked season ships, neither Atago nor Kutozov were his top cruiser picks.

 

Watch me rain fire with both of that cruisers, as they will be definitely my main ships this season. 

 

Maybe LoYang will get a chance, just to make BBs life harder. 

 

On 12/21/2017 at 10:28 AM, wilkatis_LV said:

Any chance we see the 2 BB per team limit ever again? Would be sad to see this season too devolve into 6 Bismarks & Tirpitzs vs 6 Bismarks & Tirpitzs every game with 1 random DD thrown somewhere in the middle.

 

Semi trolling here, but it will more look like 3BB+4DD full of Bismarck /Tirp with LoYang/ Benson spam.

Eternal smoke pain will be real.

[_VAMPA_]

10 minutes ago, Exohoritis said:

 

Semi trolling here, but it will more look like 3BB+4DD full of Bismarck /Tirp with LoYang/ Benson spam.

Eternal smoke pain will be real.

than PA8 with Si JoAT= 7min permasmoke with 2 seconds window to take some fresh air

[Fizzy_Odin]

 

4 hours ago, _VAMPA_ said:

than PA8 with Si JoAT= 7min permasmoke with 2 seconds window to take some fresh air

Yup until Chapy shows behind island with a big smile :)

[Aragathor]

11 minutes ago, VooDooZG said:

 

Yup until Chapy shows behind island with a big smile :)

 

I'm 20k XP away from that ship. Can't wait to surprise people.

[Reniwn]

1 hour ago, Aragathor said:

 

I'm 20k XP away from that ship. Can't wait to surprise people.

You also need to research B-hull to obtain the radar. The last think I'd like to see in ranked is a chapayev with no radar. (Yes, I've seen it multiple times already)

[wilkatis_LV]

2 hours ago, Fubucky said:

You also need to research B-hull to obtain the radar. The last think I'd like to see in ranked is a chapayev with no radar. (Yes, I've seen it multiple times already)

 

Just wait for a NewOrleans with Floatplane Fighter

[CosMoe]

I agree that the starting day was poorly chosen and a January start would be much better.

 

The significantly shorter duration (5 instead of 7 weeks) would be okay if the amount of wins/stars needed to get to rank 1 would have also been reduced by the same ratio.

 

The reward for 7 times rank 1 is very underwhelming in both effort by WG and gratification for the player. Imho, the small picture indicates that while those two new camos will look very eye-catching that they will also be quite ugly. I prefer the clean, minimalistic look of their current camos.

 

All of this will probably result in a continuous decrease in ranked players because the investment of time, flags, and nerves is not worth it anymore, especially after you get the USS Black.

Maybe the 8-times reward will be really exceptional?

 

 

[wilkatis_LV]

9 minutes ago, CosMoe said:

The reward for 7 times rank 1 is very underwhelming

3 is a ship

5 is a ship

7 - expected a ship aswell not camos

 

Also rewards overall seem a bit meh, get to rank 12 and you've pretty much got all the flags, get 11 for 250 gold. After that there's basically no incentive to play apart from Rank4...2 which would be a grind anyway

[Aragathor]

11 hours ago, Fubucky said:

You also need to research B-hull to obtain the radar. The last think I'd like to see in ranked is a chapayev with no radar. (Yes, I've seen it multiple times already)

Dang, there goes my plan. Oh, well New Orleans has radar too.

9 hours ago, wilkatis_LV said:

 

Just wait for a NewOrleans with Floatplane Fighter

That happened to me once in random. I use the plane in coop, as radar is useless there and the plane is a good spotter.

I start the battle and realize that my consumables are all wrong.

[Fizzy_Odin]

9 hours ago, wilkatis_LV said:

3 is a ship

5 is a ship

7 - expected a ship aswell not camos

 

Also rewards overall seem a bit meh, get to rank 12 and you've pretty much got all the flags, get 11 for 250 gold. After that there's basically no incentive to play apart from Rank4...2 which would be a grind anyway

 

 

For Rank 1 you will got 50 camo and 5 Hydra flags -  wtf 5 flags !?!?!?!?  for rank 1 !??!?  you got 5 of each best flags just for playing few games on test server each patch, I just don't understand reward system for ranked ???

 

5 hydra flags - I don't know if I should laugh or cry :(

[RUSSIANBlAS]

1 hour ago, VooDooZG said:

 

 

For Rank 1 you will got 50 camo and 5 Hydra flags -  wtf 5 flags !?!?!?!?  for rank 1 !??!?  you got 5 of each best flags just for playing few games on test server each patch, I just don't understand reward system for ranked ???

 

5 hydra flags - I don't know if I should laugh or cry :(

I find the perm camp rewards for Flint and Black worse.

 

Like anyone who wins Ranked that many times needs the buffs those camps give?!

[ShinGetsu]

On 21/12/2017 at 2:29 AM, Teekesselchen said:

Below T9, class balance is still pretty bad.

On T8 there are two cruisers that will be good. Atago and Kutuzov. One has outstanding concealment and a heal, the other has a smoke.

• Chapayev has a nice utility in her radar, but her concealment and armour scheme are terrible, she eats citadels from the most absurd ranges and angles, and has no heal to make up for it.
• Mogami has concealment instead of radar, but also terrible armour without heal. Again the biggest issue isn't that she can get citadelled from broadside, but that she can get citadelled from impossible angles.
• New Orleans is caught between bad armour and low DPS.
• Hipper has the entire damage output of a potato.

Maybe Charles Martel can be a positive surprise but I don't count on it. Seemed kind of decent in random battles, but also somewhat mediocre.

 

Thing is, in random battles one can make up for these issues just fine. With so many players it's much more feasible to avoid getting shot at by big guns, since there are so many more ill positioned targets to pick away at. In a ranked environment that becomes a whole lot harder.

 

Also now we have the issue of Kutuzov not even being sold anymore. I would feel pretty unfairly treated if I was new to the game and get greeted by the joy of eating IFHE spam from smoke, only to learn that I couldn't even return the favour.

Martel is a standard pick in competitive, and it also works well in FFA.

So no reason it shouldn't work in Ranked. It has range, it's agile, it has DPM, and it has workable torpedoes.

 

However I think Kutuzov and Chapayev would be the safest pick.

Mogami drawback isn't the armor, it's the range.

 

As for DD, not much choices : Benson, Lo Yang, Kidd, Harekaze.

[RUSSIANBlAS]

11 hours ago, CosMoe said:

I agree that the starting day was poorly chosen and a January start would be much better.

 

The significantly shorter duration (5 instead of 7 weeks) would be okay if the amount of wins/stars needed to get to rank 1 would have also been reduced by the same ratio.

 

 

All of this will probably result in a continuous decrease in ranked players because the investment of time, flags, and nerves is not worth it anymore.

 

 

WG staff troll us when they say there's enough time this Ranked season even with the Xmas period...

 

Ranked can be stressful yeah, it's why I'll do it the most efficient way possible this time and not try my obligatory BB Rank 1 push. Wallet Warrior time!

[22cm]

I will go Chappy and Lo Yang for the added utility.

 

Also maybe Edinburgh and Bismarck/Tirpitz in case ranked battles count in the Puke of York campaign.

[RUSSIANBlAS]

28 minutes ago, 22cm said:

I will go Chappy and Lo Yang for the added utility.

 

Also maybe Edinburgh and Bismarck/Tirpitz in case ranked battles count in the Puke of York campaign.

 

I really want to Kidd but I've played enough Ranked to know torps are important so I'm leaning towards Lo Yang.

 

DDs maintain gun silence an awful lot in Ranked so I think Kidd may not be as strong as people think.