MidnightPhoenix07

Yep. Got it during the split event in the first week from a lucky token drop, so I was able to take advantage of all four weeks of missions. Played my 29 battles (since one of my third week co-op teams insisted on throwing), and by the start of that third week I was counting down the battles until I could retire it to permanent snowflake status.

Yep, sticking to bronze here to ‘casually’ farm steel when I feel like it (and when I want to pull out some hair). Typically I’ll just play enough to get the first two sets of steel every other week, which comes out to all of a few battles every couple days after finishing my regular grinds and missions. If ranked was my only source of steel, I’d probably go up to silver, but I also have CB steel to grind.

The wows subreddit? There’s normally a decent amount of salt to be mined on a daily basis there.

Both Russian lines are great all the way up (with the exception of Tallinn, still really dislike that ship). The German line is pretty reliable and fun to play if you like kiters. I’m just about finished my grind up the Italian CA line and it’s been a very enjoyable experience since t5. As far as strength and skill ceiling goes, DM is still one of the top ships, and the rest of the line’s still decent. But with the prevalence of planes, long range engagements, and 30mm overmatch it’s more of a struggle to play well in comp (especially CB). I’ve also heard a lot of good things about Mino, but so far that line hasn’t been as enjoyable as some others for me.

According to WG in one of the Q and A’s on reddit (back when they still did them), the captains were priced with a coupon baked in. If they did add a coupon for them, they’d then have to increase the normal price of the captains. The intention was for their price to be about the same as a ship, just in this case with the coupon already included.

It was added as part of the PTS session for the split, but never showed up in the main client. I think at one point it was brought up in a thread and the official response was they were looking at the possibility of adding it, but nothing ended up happening. I know personally I’d rather have that pattern than the one we currently have, but it seems like we’re going to be stuck with the current pattern for a while longer.

Definitely a great pick for co-op, much more so than something like Yoshino/Azuma (although at least Yoshino has the torps) or Immelmann. Secondary builds are arguably more valid in co-op because of the closer range and shorter battle length, and the diminishing benefits of concealment or an extra heal. The guns are also much more suited to close range rather than the longer range of randoms, and you have the hydro and torp combination. Probably the only things I’d say it has going against it in co-op are the turret angles (as already mentioned) and especially the longer reload. That being said, I will eventually get it myself, but it’s slipped a little further down the priority list than it was at on release.

I was torn between those two for my last purchase as well on the 16th (using the December coupon on the last day as has become my norm lately). Initially I was leaning slightly more toward Shiki since I don’t have Yamato or any plan in the near future to grind out any of the IJN BBs (now that I’ve switched my focus more toward cruisers and soon destroyers). Having Shiki would therefore give me both the BIG BOOM! (tm) gun sound and a ship that would fill the Yamato sniper/32mm overmatch role in my port. I ultimately went with Austin though, since it was by far the more unique of the two, with Shiki potentially becoming my next steel ship (pending other future steel ships and removals). Since it is somewhat like Yamato, if Shiki ever did get pulled before I have the steel to buy it, the option to grind Yamato is still there. Of course, since it isn’t a huge change from Yamato, I don’t expect it will get pulled any time soon when ships like Stalingrad and Bourgogne are older, more popular, and much more different from their tech tree counterpart. Now, FDR on the other hand... that’s a steel ship I expect to get pulled eventually.

Pretty unlikely in my opinion. Neustrashimy/Black/Flint were swapped because they weren’t popular picks, since they competed for the same limited currency against t10s that had a lot more competitive use. How long they were available had no real bearing on that swap, at least officially. As Bourgogne is a) a popular steel pick (to the point of being one of the most recommended by far); b) a t10 that’s therefore usable in most comp modes/seasons; and c) a pretty strong ship in the hands of decent+ players, it’s doubtful WG will swap it to coal. Will it be pulled eventually? Almost certainly, especially since it meets the criteria of being both strong and a very popular pick (although not to the extent of ships like Smol or Mass before they got pulled). But if/when that happens, I would be extremely shocked if that announcement is accompanied by one saying it will return for coal.

Same. I’ve had my port reset when we get an event redesigned port like everyone else has, but the only time I’ve ever had my carousel reset is when my preferences corrupted and everything was set back to defaults. I did find out during the last bounty event (my first) that some of the carousel settings (especially the filters) are computer specific and shared to all the accounts rather than each account having separate ones. Not sure if the PTS account or other region accounts on the live version have that same shared setting though, since I haven’t played PTS in over a year and only have an NA account.

First coal crate of the day. So only four crates after that comment.

Yes

Same. I’ve had plenty of games with more than two bots though, so that part of the feature has definitely been fixed at least.

Agreed. Either a full download, or much more than just a few months of no updates. The only time I’ve ever had to download that much at once outside a new installation was when I updated my mobile gaming rig after not using it for close to nine months.

Nope. This one went to steel, just like my last one. Bourgogne back in September with the June 2020 coupon, and Austin last night with the December 2020 one right before the refresh. Back when my steel income was slower, I primarily used them on coal ships just because I didn’t want them to go to waste, and having to spend less coal was nice. Even now, if I can’t afford a steel ship that interests me when the coupon’s up, I’ll definitely use it on a coal pick. But steel is too valuable to not take priority when it comes to coupon usage. And at this point my coal stockpile builds up quick enough that buying full price coal ships isn’t as big an issue anymore. My last three coal ships have all been full price, and 4-6 months later I have enough for another at full price.