Count_pott

Cleveland: consumables/team build like this - https://wowsft.com/ship?index=PASC208&modules=1221&upgrades=144220&commander=PCW001&skills=6440288&ar=100&consumables=1111&pos=0 This uses IFHE, you may not be keen on it. If not taking it, you have tons more choice, I personally don't quite know what I would use. For DM I use a typical heavy cruiser build - https://wowsft.com/ship?index=PASC020&modules=1111&upgrades=144222&commander=PCW001&skills=4572169&ar=100&consumables=1111&pos=0 I just happen to take heavy AP rather than added health, as I share this build with Alaska. Honestly you can go either way. I also take range instead of both reload or legendary mods. T10 sucks with passivity these days, 15.8km range often isn't super comfortable with so many super BBs shooting at you from 20+kms due to being CV-spotted. Were I guaranteed a more fun game, I would swap Range for either Reload or Legendary upgrade. You could also go with a full radar build - https://wowsft.com/ship?index=PASC020&modules=1111&upgrades=144223&commander=PCW001&skills=4669705&ar=100&consumables=1211&pos=0 You specified no information on you preferred style of play, so it's hard to really show much other than what we favor personally. It's your ships, it's your setups.

Munchen existed before Weimar, for one. Munchen has better DPM than Weimar, and much longer range. Weimar's range is really limiting in Random and even some Ranked games (smart use of her spotting aircraft helps, but it is a gimmick). Munchen is much faster (then again, Weimar has The Gimmick to make-up for it). Weimar makes-up for it in Gimmicks (tm), healthpool, and torpedo power. The Mainz guns that Weimar has also have much better arcs than Munchen's. For comparison, here's my current build for all three (they share Lutjens): Mainz: https://wowsft.com/ship?index=PGSC518&modules=11111&upgrades=134220&commander=PCW001&skills=4670473&ar=100&consumables=111&pos=0 Weimar: https://wowsft.com/ship?index=PGSC517&modules=11111&upgrades=144200&commander=PCW001&skills=4670473&ar=100&consumables=1111&pos=0 Munchen: https://wowsft.com/ship?index=PGSC507&modules=11111&upgrades=134200&commander=PCW001&skills=4670473&ar=100&consumables=111&pos=0 They all share, unfortunately, that lackluster HE which means I end-up using AP most time with both Mainz and Weimar. I don't play Munchen anymore (because I only do ops nowadays, and both Weimar and Mainz are better for Ops) but I recall some great times in Random with her. I think it's a good ship with a different playstyle than typical German cruisers. That being said, I kind of do feel Weimar edges her now. In Random I do see a case for Munchen, with her speed and range though! OH and I didn't even bring-up Concealment... I just play too much ops. Munchen has 2kms on Weimar which at T7, or any tier, is huge.

LWM's post refers to top-tier, so it covers spread 5 to 7 for Maya, and 6 to 8 for Atago. https://shiptool.st/filter?g=TPD&ty=C&n=ABFGHIJRSUVWZ&tn=6&tx=8&c=top&p=gen&os=gen&op=Detect._by_sea&o=asc LWM is counting distinct Conealment values, not just ordering boats, since many Cruisers share values. 16th seems correct for Atago. I cannot recreate Maya's 51st rank if I remove duplicates in the same way; only if I strictly look at the ranking at https://shiptool.st/filter?g=TPD&ty=C&n=ABFGHIJRSUVWZ&tn=5&tx=7&c=top&p=gen&os=gen&op=Detect._by_sea&o=asc. She ranks 30th then. So still below Atago for her respective down-tier range. Maybe I missed something.

Hydro gives me confidence in when to run a push, when to round an island, in-general how to manage my positioning. When to push a smoke. When to sit in smoke. DFAA doesn't do that. If a CV wishes to attack me, it will. DFAA may mitigate or prevent a second attack, yes, but by this point, I am spotted. The amount of planes I (may) shoot down doesn't nearly make-up for my capability to manage pushes. I'm ok with AA: I know how to activate priority sector, I know how to use DFAA, I know when it's safe to activate (e.g. I turn it off when I'm in a DD and my AA range exceeds my air detection). I know to turn-off my AA to reset the DFAA starter. But this took no skills or knowledge to learn. Once I do this there's still not much I can do to avoid a strike. With hydro, I have choices, I have possibilities. I have to dodge. I have to activate the hydro AND I still get to play. With DFAA... I don't. I also don't really feel it helps me mitigate attacks in general, I hope the upcoming changes do help with that.

I've not played Ranked in a couple months, but I got really discouraged overall. I played a season where Bronze was T6, and I really liked games where I was able to influence the game. I play DDs and took out the T61 for that run. But I found that in CV games, the game impact was absolutely taken away from me, thus making my style of play irrelevant. This is by design, but the thing is, I get to play maybe once a month these days. Ranked was a potential option for me to get a few games a night and get re-motivated to play. I like that the games are shorter, that there's fewer enemies, that I need to think differently than in Randoms. But lower rewards (XP/FXP) vs. added frustration (due to CVs) just didn't work out for me. I want to play to have fun. Now if I play, it's Ops only. And just Mainz. Do you enjoy the smaller format? Yes. Does the hunt for Stars and the saving them for rainy days keep you riveted on your journey? No. It's frustrating. But I get it and I don't mind. (weirdly phrased question). Do you find the mode competitive enough to reach that balance between Randoms and Clan Battles? Imagine having a clan. I wouldn't know vs. CB but somewhat true vs. Randoms, and I like that Ranked requires more out of me.

Same response from WG. Email sent by mistake, here's 2 days of Premium account instead. This is absolutely insane. This content has 0 value to WG, it all already exists. It costs nothing to actually grant it to customers. And yet they'd rather admit being stupid and send a lower value compensation.

I tried to cut a ticket but couldn't find a single pre-loaded reason that matched my issue. I also couldn't find the option to cut a 'raw' ticket, without going through the selection process. If any of you folks have managed, could you please share the process?

An email promising stuff, clearly-written, to thousands of folks. And then it... not happening? WG, what are you saying?

I got an email promising 5 containers on login, + a Mission for more containers including a Super. None of the links work. They both just take me to steam. When I logged in, I had a German DD Container, and a French Container. That's it. (both collections I already owned). There is no Mission. So I'm a little confused here. What's going on? Intentional? Bug? Note that the email specifies that you cannot claim it after March 12th, but does not specify any start date. EDIT: also I got an Asian commander and about 2.3k doubloons..? Can't complain about that! But still unclear as to why that is :)

As a DD main, I am not against it, but I believe some changes are too much. First, they will reward CVs and Subs, which... well, especially the former, who don't need to risk ANYTHING to spot, absolutely do NOT need the buff. AA is useless and their ship remains hidden, yet they'll get the same rewards for spotting? In my DD, there's a constant threat of airplanes and Radar. Sure I can spot, and I'm glad I get the rewards, but there's a risk. This risk isn't there for CVs. (if AA was actually effective, I would be much more in favor). I also find that getting exactly the same rewards for spotting vs. damage to be a little exaggerated. I do not know what the previous % was, as I had always assumed none, basically. So maybe I simply lack context. I find BBs and CVs extremely frustrating and unfun to play, so I guess I won't feel the impact of the changes other than the spotting, so... no idea on what it means or whether it's good.

Thanks all, this is all helpful stuff! To add a couple things: * In CV games, I was never once targeted by an actual CV. In the Ise game, I was once dropped by its torpedo planes, but mostly it just kept me spotted. * I can manage my stealth a lot better without planes; I know how to avoid planes from the minimap, and indeed I always can cap before getting detected by them (key is to bait them to see the BBs while remaining out of detect, and take that window between 1st and 2nd strike to cap). The issue is random turns or their boats having RPF using it to direct planes. The comments on T6 CVs having an outsize impact were well thought-out. It's super weird that WG failed to account for this when designing this Ranked spring. If it's 100% obvious to a noob potato like myself, why isn't it to them? But well. There you go. Note that I only play a couple games (not sessions... actual games) a month, so this was likely the last time for a while I get to play. I had great fun in the non-CV games and would love to try Ranked again.

I've been trying Ranked, taking my T61 out in the Bronze league. I did ok in games without CV (2 wins, 1 or 2 kills each including a DD each time, and a couple caps each). Not carry-level, but I help. But in games with CV/Ise, both were losses. I was basically perma-spotted. Now, I know how to use another bigger boat's AA (HAHAHAHA AA...), I know how to use my smokes to hide if needed, I use islands, etc... I turn my AA off until I get detected, unless I'm in smoke or it's safe to do so. I know to turn into rockets, and broadside dive bombs. I won't claim to be 100% amazing at these tricks, but I do know them, and I use them. But somehow, in these games, I felt my battle impact diminish to virtually nothing, even when I got kills. Everything felt short-term, if that makes sense. Like I was playing catch-up. Now it's only 2 games, and it's a team game. I know other plays can impact, and I know CVs or airplane BBs are... peculiar (that last game, the Ise was down to 2k HP, but no one shot it to finish it off. Once it died, its planes were still up in the air and got a kill). I also cannot control the enemy team, or how good their CV/Ise is. I'm looking specifically from the perspective of the DD here. Am I forgetting anything from the bag-o-tricks? How does one play differently in CV games? Am I maybe missing something obvious? Or more likely, not-so-obvious? Cheers for any tricks!

Nice review, thank you! I happen to fully agree with it. San Diego isn't *bad*, but I don't find it all that interesting nor very useful in-game. She can be fun, but she takes a lot of mental effort to manage. I also took her out in operations, and thought 'oh man, fast-ish firing AP in Narai against all these low-tier cruisers!'. But she proved incapable of penetrating the citadels of even the T6 cruisers unless VERY close. Mainz has no such issue at all. 127 vs. 150mm I guess. So then I switched to SAP and found damage underwhelming because, well, I expected SAP. Not HE-with-no-fires-but-better-pen. Thankfully she's a light cruiser. It takes a lot of work to properly ruin these. She does have redeemable features. I'm unsure if they're enough to make this a regular ship for me. To me this is a perfect example of game/mission over historical accuracy. Which I am mostly fine with. I deplore the lack of consistency and just... basic logic (why are these 127mm guns so different from all the other, EXACT SAME 127mms in the game?), but they wanted a T8 Austin-ish, NOT a T8 Atlanta, and it IS what we got. I find the ship balanced and fit for this purpose.

The interesting thing about FenYang is, it actually has decent firepower (higher DPM than Lightning, at the same tier, for example) and AA (HA! HA! HA! Like it matters). The problem is, it's all so hard to use: * HE isn't great at 1.5k max damage (and that's assuming you have IFHE and can even pen destroyers). * AP is fantastic with both improved damage (>2k) AND pen angle (same as US Navy's heavy AP), as well as arming against 17mm e.g. Destroyer hulls. BUT, it's AP, and so it's just not as reliable to use. So every single one of its gimmick is situational and therefore, reduces the ship's reliability. Torp reload booster is good, but takes forever to load and its torps can't hit Cruisers and DDs. They also reload in over 2 mins. Bad HE is balanced by good AP, which is less reliable by nature. Its sluggishness is balanced by AA which... well. AA in WoWs may as well be fireworks. Such a shame. It absolutely could have been an interesting take on the Akizuki. For example, an AA-focused version of it, maybe, that DIDN'T need to lose its guns' gimmick. But well. That being said: monster in co-op (besides being a little slow).

If only. But they do not. See wiki and in-game description of its torps (I checked both). https://wiki.wargaming.net/en/Ship:Fenyang