The State of Diana and Aurora

[Captain_Rownd]

When I started playing a year ago Diana and Aurora were doing pretty well in Tiers 2 and 3 against the old USN and IJN ships.  They had the advantage of lots of long-range 152mm guns and good hit points, to make up for a disadvantage of being slow.  Their position was eroded a bit when the Russian and German cruiser lines appeared, which are a bit faster with lots of rapid fire guns (though smaller).  Still, Diana and Aurora were doing OK.  However, Diana and Aurora seem to be struggling a bit for me with the new RN cruisers added to the mix.  The RN cruisers are a LOT faster, and Caledon has torpedoes.  I did try Diana's AP hoping to use her armor advantage, but wasn't getting enough RN citadels or higher average damage versus HE+fire to make that worthwhile.  The RN ships zoom around while Diana and Aurora struggle to turn or adjust range.  Diana/Aurora can't chase them, and can't run away from them.   It gets ugly when a few RN sharks zoom in and focus them.  I still have good games in them, but also get pecked to death far more than before the RN cruisers appeared.   These ships have gone from feeling quite tough to feeling quite vulnerable, and the main problem seems to be how slowwwwwwww they are.

 

[CorradoG60]

It's the same for my Smith and Tachibana.

 

But I still manage to kick some butt.

 

Besides these low tier ships are for training newer players or to just have some fun with.

[alexf24]

I feel your pain. I like both but for a long time I play them (almost daily) only in Coop when warming up (along with Emden and Albany). They make for fun captain trainers in Coop, and a nice quick warm up for the real thing.

 

I do not play them in PvP since I dislike seal-clubbing (ok, I do play T4 a bit). and I find T7+ more fun anyway. With the faster British CLs they do have a disadvantage.

 

The banana boat (mentioned above), and the likes of Umikaze and Wickes can still do well. Slow early cruisers, are tougher to do well in.

[SyndicatedINC]

The issue is they are not armored as they should be for a protected cruiser.  They bleed pens that should be shrugged off, at essentially the same rate as their peers. 

 

 

[Special_Kay]

Weymouth has a fairly effective turtle back. Caledon through Emerald have a 3" belt, which would take battleship HE to citadel. However, the latter three do have a juicy citadel space that rests far above the waterline, so if ever you see one broadside, that's where you put your AP (of any calibre). Failing that you can try for upper belt hits; the armour there is very thin, and supposedly RN CLs are more effective at fusing incoming AP shells than other ships, so you shouldn't see overpens as often.

[pewpewpew42]

No pain felt. Never gotten any premium ships, never planning to.

[Kojo401]

I have an Aurora and the thing is probably the slowest most boring plain jane premium there is but it is still a decent ship. There is a lot of island cover in low tier to abuse with it's high arcs and respectable range.

[thegamefilmguruman]

You used the words tough and AP when referring to DIana and Aurora.  Wat?

 

In all seriousness, though, Diana and Aurora, and especially Aurora, got hit hard by the BFT/EM/AFT nerfs.  A year ago you could get 13.6km range with your HE and your guns actually turned.  Now you have nearly the same range as everyone else, but less speed than two lines, and less armour than one, along with large spotting distance and bad shell arcs.  I honestly think the Aurora at least needs a range buff (but the AP won't go that far says WG...so?  The AP is crap) and probably a turret traverse buff.

[AVR_Project]

The Aurora and Diana are 'Armored Cruisers' .. as opposed to the 'One Shot Speed-bumps' which are the low tier RN light cruisers.

In other words, they can take a few serious hits before dunking.

Yes, ships will peck away, but it takes many pecks.

A gang of Auroras against a gang of Caledons is not a fair match -- for the Caledons.

[Wolcott]

I seriously doubt that WG would neglect such an iconic ship. Until they decide to rebalance Aurora, keep praying for Stalin to reach out from the depths of hell to guide your shots.

[Captain_Rownd]

No pain felt. Never gotten any premium ships, never planning to.

 

A ship is a ship.  Diana was my first ship - it came with my account via ASUS promo code - and is still the ship I have the most games and XP in.   

 

[Captain_Rownd]

The Aurora and Diana are 'Armored Cruisers' .. as opposed to the 'One Shot Speed-bumps' which are the low tier RN light cruisers.

In other words, they can take a few serious hits before dunking.

Yes, ships will peck away, but it takes many pecks.

A gang of Auroras against a gang of Caledons is not a fair match -- for the Caledons.

 

I have not found the RN to be easy kills for Diana/Aurora guns.  You're hoping for citadels and fire, but don't always get them.  In return the RN AP does regularly hurt more than a mere peck.  Caledon has a slight gun range advantage over Aurora, a large speed and manouvering advantage, and those flexible single shot torpedoes as a finisher. One of the few times I've used Diana's 2.5km secondaries was finishing off a Weymouth that had little trouble charging right up to me. 

[thegamefilmguruman]

 

I have not found the RN to be easy kills for Diana/Aurora guns.  You're hoping for citadels and fire, but don't always get them.  In return the RN AP does regularly hurt more than a mere peck.  Caledon has a slight gun range advantage over Aurora, a large speed and manouvering advantage, and those flexible single shot torpedoes as a finisher. One of the few times I've used Diana's 2.5km secondaries was finishing off a Weymouth that had little trouble charging right up to me. 

 

Aurora doesn't have AP outside maybe 4km.  Forget you have it, it won't pen due to velocity loss.  Use its HE.

[TenguBlade]

Diana and especially Aurora haven't been doing too well since the captain skill rework.  That was what made them work whenever they got uptiered - it's not as common now as it was when I sold my Aurora, but when you face T5s in that thing you are in for a bad time.

 

The introduction of new ships is just making it more and more obvious.

[HazeGrayUnderway]

The AFT/BFT nerf hit many CLs very hard.  It used to affect 155mm or less, so a lot more CLs got the benefit.  Now?  Those CLs aren't doing so hot.

[SyndicatedINC]

 

I have not found the RN to be easy kills for Diana/Aurora guns.  You're hoping for citadels and fire, but don't always get them.  In return the RN AP does regularly hurt more than a mere peck.  Caledon has a slight gun range advantage over Aurora, a large speed and manouvering advantage, and those flexible single shot torpedoes as a finisher. One of the few times I've used Diana's 2.5km secondaries was finishing off a Weymouth that had little trouble charging right up to me. 

 

That is the issue, it should be a mere peck, because your armor should be bouncing more, however in an attempt to make them more useful against BBs they gave RN a higher pen value, and thus the protected cruisers suffer heavily.