HEPL! Mogami, the lovable scamp - Playing tips, if you have any?

[RAHJAILARI]

Hi all, since our dearest fiend @Excavatus recently started a thread on Gneisenau, I got this brilliant idea to do the same on my newest crush, THE MOGAMI! Along the same lines, so asking for tips on the little bugger. I am currently getting about average games on it as far as I can make out, I usually score some 43-44k per game, but having a decent game seems to be very highly situational and of course one often ends up in tier 10 games, where it seems almost impossible to do anything more than to present a floating target for the big boys.

 

What I have noticed so far:

1) Mogami is basically unarmored, with its citadel duct-taped to the main mast, if any BB so much as sneezes in your general direction (from any distance) you are toast. Also, the much advertised "Angling" seems to be utterly futile... I have never noticed any heavy shell of any caliber actually bouncing from anywhere or from any angle. They detonate very impressively tho.

2) And this is strange, is it just me or does this happen to everyone? Mogami is ALWAYS a priority target to be knocked out the instant you fire your first salvo, regardless of if you are the first or the last one in you team to fire, every enemy will instantly drop everything they might be doing at the time and focus on you. What's up with that anyways? I have no idea what is going on here.

3) Good torps and concealment, so I often use it as a kind of an awkward super-sized torpedo-boat instead to harass oncoming enemy BB's but this only works, if they are coming towards you, so the opportunities are limited (also, please drive in straight lines and do not dodge). Placing torps to go behind islands to surprise oncoming enemy and torping Cruisers or DD hiding in smoke has also proved rewarding.

4) I use IFHE and 155mm guns, as I wanted a break from the usual 10*203mm IJN Cruiser configuration. It has been fun and sometimes quite a devastating DD hunter though the slow turret traverse somewhat hinders performance (and also the fact than once you start firing every enemy will immediately switch targets and begin focusing on me). Also works well on RN and other CL. I have used AP from short (roughly 10km or less) ranges on other CA with some success although it does not seem to work so well on higher tier (9 or 10) Cruisers but perhaps that is to be expected.

5) Due to the short 15km gun range, you always end up close to the front line and so it is pretty much impossible to just snipe and spam HE, one has to try and play aggressively within 12-15km range though that is risky and may instead lead to ignominious demise rather quickly. That said, I have also had some very good games just playing defensively (survive long enough and you will do more damage, of course).

6) I have tried to learn using islands for cover as much as possible, if there are any to be had in the middle of the map, so that I would fire a salvo, just before going behind it, then turn or break a little or if it seems like many are focusing on me stop behind it until concealed again. But many high tier maps are quite open and do not provide opportunities for such guerilla tactics.

7) WASD occasionally seems to make things even worse, since I get citadelled even when hit in the stern while wiggling my posterior as fiercely as I can.

8) AA is quite poor, so I opted just to config the ship with a hydro and choose the vigilance skill to help combatting DD's instead. Of course, this always seems like a bad idea, whenever there is a Carrier in play.

 

I think I am slowly beginning to get the hang of it perhaps, but of course there are still way too many horrific disasters and far too few awesome successes to be quite sure. Any tips will be greatly appreciated.

[Excavatus]

11 minutes ago, RAHJAILARI said:

Hi all, since our dearest fiend @Excavatus

If it is an unintended Typo... thanks for it

If it is not.. thanks for it.. I laughed out loud in the office and my manager asked me what the hell I told him someone called me a fiend on interwebz!

His face was priceless!

 

On the subject.. I have no idea about the Mogami.. So it is better for me to shush! and read!

 

The only thing I can say.. My kagero captain knows how to citadel mogami when he sees it broadside..

[RAHJAILARI]

That was my evil scheme to get you in trouble... Though I have a nagging suspicion that you might well turn out to be one too, if ever in the opposing team...

[Excavatus]

2 minutes ago, RAHJAILARI said:

That was my evil scheme to get you in trouble...

I dont want to dreail the subject but.. I am a dinger in the end.. so what the hell..

 

You cant put someone who's nickname is animal even used by the management, sometimes in company e-mails by mistake, by calling him a fiend :)

 

can you imagine a sentence like this!

 

"As the animal stated in previous e-mails...."

 

and then no body takes it anymore serious...

[RAHJAILARI]

Aww... Foiled again then...

[Randschwimmer]

@RAHJAILARI:

Exactly my thoughts after 2 years and some 500 matches with this little ship.

High tier maps are not friendly with this badly armoured, short ranged CL without smoke.

I try to shot only when enemy is unaware.

And keep wiggling like in Nürnberg. Priority target and incoming fire alert are your friends.

[RAHJAILARI]

Yeah. I did have them both at first. But since it seems that I am the priority target EVERY time and the constant ringing of the incoming fire just made me bloody nervous wreck so I got rid of them and took the adrenaline rush instead. So nowadays I just always assume by default to be the priority target if anyone is pointing the same way and keep dodging and wiggling even if it seems like no-one is aiming at me. I have not noticed much change in terms of survival rate (it is still surprisingly high at 46%).

 

I admit that to keep maneuvering even if there seems to be no immediate danger is sometimes frustrating but on the other hand the extra reload speed does help in terms of added damage in the moments before my inevitable demise.

 

I have kinda accepted that in any game with this ship, I WILL take heavy damage at some point so it seemed like a logical choice.

 

 

[ollonborre]

I use my Mogami with the 155 IFHE and ofc concealment expert. However I have fallen for the rudder module instead of the concealment module. 10 km concealment is still very nice and once you do get spotted around 4 seconds of rudder shift makes you really hard to hit. 

 

However islands are your true friend. It is no Cleveland but you can lob shells without much issue over most landmasses. And that is it pretty much, I use islands whenever possible and rely on manuverability when I'm not in cover and so far it is working pretty well.

[Skyllon]

Mogami is not an easy ship to play. It requires constant attention to your surroundings. Positioning is everything with it, because you don't want to be flanked. BBs are mortal threat but 203mm volleys will wreck it as well. You basically don't want to be shot at.

 

I play it with speed flag, that makes it insanely fast and concealment mod of course. I found DF to be more usefull though. With no AA only way to survive CV strike is to panic the aircrafts and since you stay at the back most of the time, you can also help other ships with it as well. At the start of the game I always support destroyers and try to ambush them whenever I can, but with no islands as cover it is risky.

 

It took me quite some games to figure out how to play Mogami and recently I have success in it more often then before. Unfortunately grinded it right after it got nerfed to bits and can hardly say that I had lot of fun  in it. It got restored bits of its former glory with turret rotation buff, but it could still use little bit of love.

[ShinGetsu]

With 155 and IFHE, play like a large Atlanta.

Mogami requires you to be vicious. Use islands. Ambush. Catch DD unaware. Drive mad BBs using covers and concealment. Don't get caught in open water.

 

You can play a bit more like a normal IJN ship when in tier 6-8 battle, but in tier 8-10 you have no choice but to do that. Luckily the broadside of 15 x 155mm guns with IFHE give you an insane burst.

[RAHJAILARI]

Everyone else play Mogami with 155 & IFHE too? well maybe I got that part "right" at the least.. @ollonborre an interesting idea to switch CE for better rudder shift, it never even occurred to me before, but may well be worth it... Because, you know, you have to dodge constantly anyways. I might give it a try...

 

Yeah, brother @Skyllon I have also experimented with speedflag and found it very useful. it also seems it throws off some players, who do not take enough lead and end up just water-spouting in my wake. So that is definitely useful, also good for changing positions to quickly go where you are most needed. Good point.

 

@ShinGetsu noticed the bit about open water after many unfortunate wipeouts (weel, what can I say.. I am a slow learner), truly sucks. Just can't wiggle well enough to avoid the hailstorm of shells. Though the idea of swapping concealment module for better rudder shift is truly intriguing...

[pra3y]

Well i grinded the mogami before they buffed the 155mm. Used the 203mm instead. I swear by IFA and map awareness. With both, playing cruisers don't feel bad.

[RAHJAILARI]

Heh yeah, @pra3y used to have IFA too, but found that it was wrecking my nerves always going off and stuff (mebbe something wrong with my playstyle always ending up as priority target tho) so I changed the cap skills a bit. On the other hand, my survival rate HAS improved much from the abysmal 20% it was when I started to Mogami so go figure.

[Celandri]

well all IJN ships got issues with focus fire symdrome (Myoko - Mogami Ibuki) as they have high chance of making fires and citadells weaker than pensacolas.

this happened imoho from closed beta and been stuck there since.

 

with the 155 guns. play it like a raider, raid a few shells run away and get hidden so they loose you on map and shoot again.

with the 203 guns i usualy play it like a heavy cruiser, going wee back to the secound line and shoot when you see everyone is fighting

[RAHJAILARI]

Oh yeah, just to clarify...Playstyle...

 

My typical Mogami game begins like this (after some initial little skulking):

 

Then - Inevitably at some point it goes like this:and continues like this

 

Then, and when frustration piles up sufficiently it ends like this: Chances are 50%/60% of it all ending with a boom or not.

 

Occasionally results are incredibly good, often they are horribly bad, but mostly I'm just mediocre. Though I do hope to keep improving, slowly but surely.

[pra3y]

2 hours ago, RAHJAILARI said:

Heh yeah, @pra3y used to have IFA too, but found that it was wrecking my nerves always going off and stuff (mebbe something wrong with my playstyle always ending up as priority target tho) so I changed the cap skills a bit. On the other hand, my survival rate HAS improved much from the abysmal 20% it was when I started to Mogami so go figure.

 

Hahahaha it still works for me though. I just built it up from there, applying stealth gameplay and map awareness into the mix. I guess for different people it works differently though it feels like a cheat skill to me when I play CAs. Think about it. It's the only skill that tells you exactly when you're getting shot at and how many people are shooting at you (as compared to PT which only tells you the number of people aiming at you). 

[RAHJAILARI]

Exactly so, my friend. But I sh*t my pants every time I find out that all 12 freakin' enemies are actually shooting at me (and this presumably happens every time) and with their barrels red-hot and spamming 156 shells per second straight at my direction. So I decided that indeed Orwell WAS right and ignorance is a bliss. Instead I'll just settle for being a full-time paranoidiac instead of getting a hernia for actually knowing all this to be true.

 

Seems to have worked and the 2 points I invested into Adrenaline Rush instead are paying off methinks. Of course the tradeoff inevitably is the occasional unexpected LOL-pen but I seemed to get them even before anyways, so I guess it might just be a part of a Mogami-life then.

 

I have always been determined to stick to my ultimate goal of being just another deluded fool.

[Lord_WC]

I generally played it by doing close support (with 203s). Just ghost your DDs and if they scout an enemy DD or a cruiser instagib it and cloak back. It's a pretty good ship for that.

[RAHJAILARI]

Indeed @Lord_WC good Sir, I have been practicing just that kinda thing (not quite there yet, requires good timing and planning to survive it) but there has been a few successes recently. The issue of every enemy ship instantly focusing on me makes it kinda hare-rasing experience and occasionally very difficult to escape from.

 

Hmmm, come to think of it. Someone did suggest that I could take a steering gears mod instead of more stealth. That could indeed be helpful there.

[Lord_WC]

2 minutes ago, RAHJAILARI said:

planning to survive it

Don't sweat it too much, you won't survive, I also have very bad survivability on it. I don't think it's meant to do that. You just take out/cripple 2-3 DDs, it's more than enough to win the match.

[Tyrendian89]

9 minutes ago, Lord_WC said:

I generally played it by doing close support (with 203s). Just ghost your DDs and if they scout an enemy DD or a cruiser instagib it and cloak back. It's a pretty good ship for that.

for that, the 155s are significantly better - more raw alpha per salvo, more shells, better rate of fire resulting in double the DPM... there are very very few ships that are scarier for a DD than a 155mm armed Mogami suddenly opening up from under 10km. The 203s only shine at longer-range AP performance (assuming the 155s have IFHE to get the necessary HE pen). And if you want to play a 203mm Mogami,  I cant help but wonder why you wouldn't just play an Atago instead...

[RAHJAILARI]

Thanks @Tyrendian89 and Yes, I do have IFHE. Kinda figured it would be almost mandatory here.

[Lord_WC]

7 minutes ago, Tyrendian89 said:

for that, the 155s are significantly better - more raw alpha per salvo, more shells, better rate of fire resulting in double the DPM... there are very very few ships that are scarier for a DD than a 155mm armed Mogami suddenly opening up from under 10km. The 203s only shine at longer-range AP performance (assuming the 155s have IFHE to get the necessary HE pen)

155 AP is bad against cruisers, doesn't overmatch Atlantas and things like that. You can kill DDs just fine with 203 HE and for cruisers 203 AP is much better.

But I guess it is very dependant on the team composition - I played it a few months back when there were less DDs and more CA/CLs, so bringing something to take out cruisers instantly was beneficial.

 

Also, let's not forget that 155s have 36s turret traverse while 203s have 30. That's a significant advantage in CQB. And I abhor slow turret traverse, because it makes me choose between proper angling or proper firing angles. Nothing's more annyoing when your ship is outturning your guns.

 

I play Atago as well, you have to play Mogami if you want a Zao.

[RAHJAILARI]

That makes sense yeah. Guess it also depends on the role you want to specialize in. Might have to think carefully the kinda modules I have as well as the captain skills to get it all to sync for best results.

[Tyrendian89]

Just now, Lord_WC said:

155 AP is bad against cruisers, doesn't overmatch Atlantas and things like that. You can kill DDs just fine with 203 HE and for cruisers 203 AP is much better.

But I guess it is very dependant on the team composition - I played it a few months back when there were less DDs and more CA/CLs, so bringing something to take out cruisers instantly was beneficial.

ever been hit by a 155mm Mogami AP broadside at 9km? It's not pretty... and at the ranges that you can sneak up to people, you dont really need the extra pen of the 203s either... as for overmatching Atlantas (there isnt really anything else "like" them) - you'll probably make even shorter work of them with the sheer volume of 6" HE to be honest, at least more reliably, and it's better against angled non-Atlanta crusiers as well. I just dont see many arguments to recommend the 8" guns on the Mogami, not with how large the difference in DPM is...