senseNOTmade

I think low to mid tier Russian BBs are the way to go. High tier is probably fine too, but it does require a bit more forethought and knowledge of radar ranges, penetration angles- stuff like that. Below tier 8 cruisers tend to be pretty underpowered, as they lack heals and radar; the maps are small; and their shells shatter a lot. Most cruisers under tier 6 simply do not have any way of dealing with BBs. DDs can absolutely dominate at lower tiers, but there's a LOT of CVs around these days, plus DDs are always more complex to play. That leaves BBs, of which the Russians are probably the easiest/strongest at every tier. If you get sick of those, perhaps try French CAs- those are also pretty decent at all tiers. Bottom line: most BBs will do nicely, especially at lower tiers.

Two things: 1) You've shown that there is no evidence in your data that MM is rigged, NOT proven that MM isn't rigged. It's a pedantic distinction, but important to the statistical method. 2) Ranked battles MM is rigged, in a way. Players increase in rank until their number of wins and losses roughly equals, creating a bias towards ~50% wr especially in the late season. Perhaps a more persuasive test then is to see if the winrates of opposing teams are statistically equal, and that team winrates are reasonably close to normally distributed.

I rolled some dice for you. Rngeezus says play Hindy. We mustn't disappoint Rngeezus. In all seriousness, Moskva is a static island camper whose main advantage is the ability to sustain positions other cruisers can't survive. Her playstyle revolves around the meta and positioning. Hindy is much more of an active brawler- probably way more fun in Co-op.

The answer is yes- the tier 7 USN premium DD Sims has a baked-in XP bonus. To my knowledge, it is the only ship in the game with such a bonus not linked to camo or flags. Note that when grinding fXP, the formula is: baseXP*(XP modifiers)*(fXP modifiers). Since getting fXP modifiers is a lot easier (basically the +777% fXP flag alone will do it), you should focus on taking camos/flags which boost your XP modifiers. For example, the +200% XP camo is better for grinding fXP than any camo which includes a fXP bonus.

1. DERZKI!!! (with Okhotnik as a close second) 2. Cleveland 3. desMoines 4. Conqueror (or Montana) 5. Minotaur

I'd honestly go for the Nelson, if it's still being sold.

I think the overall message tends to be that players rarely take really 'optimal' ships into ranked. Even at higher ranks, the lack of coordination in team comps means that people must take ships which can fulfill most roles, which usually comes down to whichever ship they personally perform best in. That, or people just take whatever they're currently grinding legendary mods on. That said, if I were to guess: I assumed that Smolensk would be another ship which works in randoms but lacks the features needed in competitive gamemodes. Having seen so many smolensks in KoTS though I'm starting to second-guess myself. Perhaps we will indeed see a bunch of these sailing around. That will put a damper on any ship which is vulnerable to HE spam and struggles to deal with smoke. Republique and Bourge are both gonna have a rough time. GK will be even less competitive. Henri and Zao might see themeselves replaced in the flanking/long range HE spamming role, though I typically don't see many Henris in ranked anyway. Conversely, long range radar ships like Stali or DM might gain new utility. Personally I really enjoyed taking smoke mino into tier X ranked these past few seasons. There wasn't much radar around and you could take these great positions contesting the B cap and supporting your DDs early on. But again, my impression is that Smolensk might well be able to do this better.

As most others, I use the mod station. Score timers- like DouglasMacAwful, I'm shocked this isn't part of the base game. Even the aesthetics fit in. Running lights is decent- mostly useful in bow-on positions where it's hard to see the direction of smoke relative to the funnels. It gets used shockingly often in CB, where bow-tanking is common and people have this annoying habbit of being extra-tricksy with their engines. There used to be a mod which allowed you to draw directly onto the minimap. Very useful in CB where you can make sure everyone has it, but I haven't been able to find this mod in a long time. Lastly, I find there are several mods which show the overall healthpools of each team, and how those healthpools are distributed. I've found a mod which adds green healthbars to the ship lists on either side of the screen. It's invaluable in giving a quick overview not only of which team is winning the health game, but which team is doing a better job focus firing. This is, at the end of the day, an attritional game.

200 hits in a friesland is nothing. Frankly, I'm surprised you got up to 45k with that. British BBs have huge HE shells. You want to be aiming at the upper hull at least, as well as the bow-stern to set additional fires. In fact, with most ships you want to be aiming at the upper hull, not directly at the superstructure. Depending on the ships involved, 3-4k can range from excellent to ok. 177 shell hits also doesn't seem like that much depending on the ship. In a DM for instance 1-2k is average per salvo (once saturation sets in), and 177 hits quite normal. That's why you get such a short reload and such good AP. In a Henri, Zao or Hindy you might expect up to 4-5k per volley, but here the range matters a great deal, as well as if you hit the turrets or not. When in doubt, youtube can be a great resource. iChase still has some excellent guides on penetration mechanics and how to aim, so you can make sure there isn't anything you're missing. I'm decently sure they're still up to date, despite being a few years old by now. Also might be worth simply watching replays from unicum players in the ships that you own- I always find watching those extremely informative.

Looking at the ships you have in port, you have several which are absolutely dependent on IFHE. This is extremely important to keep in mind: some ships are balanced under the assumption that you have certain captain skills. Ships like the Cleveland, Atlanta, Nueve de Julio, etc. are unplayable without IFHE on your captain. On these ships, IFHE can raise your HE alpha by 400-600% (unless you're super accurate when aiming at the superstructure). It's more important than concealment expert. Before buying a ship or starting a line, it is essential to research which skills you need in order to play it.

Yes, it is tanky. BBs can't citadel it from the front, especially at short range. However, the upper bow can still be penetrated, so you don't want to just sit there, and plunging fire can get your citadel. It also tanks HE spam better than the Stalingrad, though it still burns easily (it has a very weak heal). The AP feels amazing, espcially with the legendary mod. Incredibly fast shells and incredibly accurate. That said, they still don't hit very hard and the DPM is lousy. Once you've played the Stalingrad it's very hard to go back to them, since the Stali is nearly as accurate and far harder hitting. The Henri is a kiter. I was shocked when I first got her: she's so big and turns so slowly compares to the SL. But after a few games I realized the gameplay is exactly the same, just at even longer ranges. If you liked the previous french cruisers, then you'll like the Henri. If not, then she won't change your mind. Zao I've only played occasionally. Great ship, and can really control a flank when there's no DDs around (this is especially relevant in CB). Great guns, great torps, great concealment. That said, if you ask her to do anything other than kiting, you'll be disappointed. I've done you a favor and entered these three ships into a random number generator. Rngeezus says you should get the Moskva. This is now objective fact.

The problem for HE spammers is that they rarely have the firepower to kill a BB on their own. They depend on focus fire and hard hitters securing the kill. Last night my clan had a big realization that because of this, the GK is actually one of the best BBs to take in Clan Brawls. A single cruiser, even a desMoines or Yoshino, simply can't deal with him fast enough to stop him pushing in and breaking their team. So it's clear that the way to stop HE spam is to make focus fire difficult. That means big maps, lots of tall islands and smaller teams. That all said, I'm not sure this would actually improve the game. Focus fire takes skill and teamwork. BBs are already tough and strong. While we were happy to find out that the GK is viable in Clan Brawls, simply having the BB push through every battle because his counters have been made impractical doesn't stay interesting for very long. In the end, you gotta ask if the solution here isn't just for you to get better at playing BBs...

So, you can potentially get 50k freeXP from a SC, so maybe that's a good answer. But in my mind, 50k freeXP is one of the best SC rewards you can get, with most camos and flag rewards being worth significantly less. At the same time, you also have a tiny chance to win a premium ship, including the removed ones, which could easily be worth millions of freeXP. So I'd say that a risk-neutral evaluation would say that a SC is worth about 20k freeXP. Personally, I'm probably pretty risk-averse, so I wouldn't pay more than 10k freeXP for a SC. I also have lots of camos and flags already, and don't really need any more premiums (I already have a Missouri), so the SC rewards ain't worth that much to me. On the other hand, a player who has all the tech tree ships unlocked and knows how to grind freeXP might be far more willing to shell out freeXP for other rewards. Such a player might only be missing a few premiums, increasing the chances that he gets one of those from a container (I think?). Such a player might actually be quite risk-seeking, and find it worth-while spending upwards of 70-80k freeXP on a container. I guess my overall point is that it really depends on what else you can do with your freeXP, and what your attitude to uncertain rewards is.

Uh, don't do this. Please. The #1 reason I see new players quitting this game is when they buy their way into higher tiers and then get frustrated because they don't know what's going on. High tiers are not inherently more challenging, but there is a greater focus on meta and mistakes are far less telegraphed. You will die for mistakes you don't see from enemies who are doing things you don't understand. This game does a TERRIBLE job teaching itself to new players. Unless you start at the bottom and work your way methodically and SLOWLY to the top, taking care to watch plenty of youtube tutorials and learning from each of your mistakes, you will never learn how to properly play. I cannot emphasise this enough. I can see on your stats page you already have tier 8 ships. This is a terrible mistake, and it will ruin your fun in the long term. With less than 200 battles you should not be past tier 5, if not tier 4. Buying premiums isn't going to save you from the frustration- only practice will. I know this sounds harsh, but I've seen this happen too often and there's really no need for it. High tiers isn't going anywhere. It'll all still be here waiting for you in 6 months or a year or two years. But please, please, please, have the patience to wait until you are ready. As for the Atlanta, you need at minimum a 14 point captain with both CE and IFHE. Many also recommend the range upgrade, which is a valid choice, but personally I prefer having a shorter range to make island campign easier. For people with a bit of experience it is fairly easy to camp behind islands and burn down BBs as they push into you, but really good players udnerstand that the main role of this ship is DD hunting and contesting caps, and will often play accordingly to win the game, even if it means lower damage totals.

This is where I must admit to some bias. I hate the french cruisers. They bore me to death. They are the most absolute standard, plain, no-thrills, monotone, unchanging cruiser line in the game. I kept grinding and grinding this line, hoping beyond hope that the next ship would excite me in some way. They disappointed me to the last. The French cruisers in my opinion are totally identical relative to their competition throughout the entire line. If you liked the ship which preceeded her, then you'll like the Alge. If not, then like me you will continue to be disappointed.