The Missouri, Captain Seagal, and the Cook

[Sovereigndawg]

Haven't seen this mentioned yet if it has been I apologize. Experimenting with the MO I chose not to go with the recommended builds. There was a couple of things that I did, that I like. The first was to go with Captain Seagal. Even if you are against his presence in the game, ( which I am not and I hope for more Captains like him, maybe John Wayne ) He has some really good perks. With Expert Loader he switchs shells in 25% of the time it takes you to reload. He also gets an extra .5 degree of turn per second for Expert Marksman. In the third upgrade spot I got Main Battery Modification 3 ( -12% to loading time -13% to traverse speed ) The extra .5 degrees per second offsets some of the decrease in turret rotation. The 12% decrease to loading time brings the load time down to 26.4 seconds. This brings the amount of time to switch shells down to 6.6 seconds. Of course this comes at the expense of either -11% dispersion ( which can really help the poor dispersion ), + 25% to damage for AA ( which is amazing since the AA is at 96 with no AA perks ), or -20% to the reload time of the secondaries.

 

With MBM3 I save 3.6 seconds on reload time and only .9 seconds on shell switching. I did a secondary build except for the -20% secondary reload time. Is it more desirable to 1; go with the -11% dispersion because of the rather large stock dispersion rate? 2; change it all to an AA build, there is not always CV's in the battles and a good CV captain is going to shy away from her in the first place and she has really good stock AA? or 3; Go for the full Secondary build and get -20% on secondary reload?

 

I am asking here because it costs a lot of credits to change it around and experiment with each one.

 

The cook is cool to see walking around on the ship, but a crew manning her decks would be way way cool.

 

6.6 seconds is very fast for switching from HE to AP or visa-versa but 7.5 is not too much worse. Any input on this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance and good hunting.

[DukeRust]

I find very little benefit in using HE on Missouri. Your chance of citadelling everything except DDs is too great to give up. BBs can repair fire dmg. And even vs. DDs you're likely to get overpens and do 1350 dmg a hit (using AP). And sometimes you get the big smacko and do a lot more.

 

And, you know, you have to be at all 9 guns fully loaded and ready to fire to get the benefit of fast-switching. If you fire one salvo, like to judge aim or force them to maneuver, and you switch ammo types, it takes the full time. It might be useful vs. DDs, but that's what your secondaries are for and what your teammates are for.

 

I think only Dispersion or Rate of fire modules are worthwhile, and of those, I think Dispersion is much better. Iowa has really poopy dispersion and her shells are very slow and lobby. Even with the -11% dispersion, I'm constantly annoyed by her poor spread patterns.

 

But, to reiterate, the turret traverse buff is great. The ammo swapping is not so great on a giant BB because I don't feel HE is used NEARLY as much as AP.

 

But I'm a sucky Mo player

[legoboy0401]

I find very little benefit in using HE on Missouri. Your chance of citadelling everything except DDs is too great to give up. BBs can repair fire dmg. And even vs. DDs you're likely to get overpens and do 1350 dmg a hit (using AP). And sometimes you get the big smacko and do a lot more.

 

And, you know, you have to be at all 9 guns fully loaded and ready to fire to get the benefit of fast-switching. If you fire one salvo, like to judge aim or force them to maneuver, and you switch ammo types, it takes the full time. It might be useful vs. DDs, but that's what your secondaries are for and what your teammates are for.

 

I think only Dispersion or Rate of fire modules are worthwhile, and of those, I think Dispersion is much better. Iowa has really poopy dispersion and her shells are very slow and lobby. Even with the -11% dispersion, I'm constantly annoyed by her poor spread patterns.

 

But, to reiterate, the turret traverse buff is great. The ammo swapping is not so great on a giant BB because I don't feel HE is used NEARLY as much as AP.

 

But I'm a sucky Mo player

 

What about for AZ? Would Steven Seagal Expert Loader be helpful for the Arizona, who's 14 inch/45 AP shells struggle against higher tier, especially Tier VIII, BBs?

[DukeRust]

I don't know Arizona, so I'm loathe to give any (bad) advice. I'll say that in my Scharnhorst BB (T7), which has tremendously small guns, I use HE all the time. I recall being downtier in some lower BBs and using HE when there weren't many enemies left. But AP is a general purpose ammo for a BB. Kind of like HE is for (most) cruisers. You're taking up a skill point to get expert loader when you could be buffing your guns or lowering your time you're on fire. I said elsewhere that Scharnhorst would be the perfect ship for Expert Loader. German Cruisers would also be perfect. And maybe the upcoming German DDs. But since Seagal can only be in US ships not a ton come to mind.

 

I mean, you'd want a ship that uses HE maybe at least 1/3rd of the time to be worth that skill point. Otherwise, you want Basic Fire Training and/or Basics of Survivability.

 

My 1 cent.

[TenguBlade]

I find very little benefit in using HE on Missouri. Your chance of citadelling everything except DDs is too great to give up. BBs can repair fire dmg. And even vs. DDs you're likely to get overpens and do 1350 dmg a hit (using AP). And sometimes you get the big smacko and do a lot more.

HE is quite useful for dealing with bow-on battleships and German CAs.  I find myself using HE in my Iowa rather often, but not enough to justify using Expert Loader.  I still think that skill was meant more for CAs even if BBs get the biggest benefit on paper.

[DukeRust]

I don't have an Iowa, but I have a missouri. If someone goes bow on, I lob over them and try and go through the deck. Even if it fails, and it usually doesn't, it keeps them bow on and using less guns.

[_Guderian]

I find the expert loader buff on Seagal is mostly useful in cruisers. In a BB I run AP most of the time, and it takes so long to switch, even with expert loader, that I usually prefer to fire off what I have loaded before switching. I use Seagal in my Cleveland whose AP can murder broadside enemies, but often needs to spam HE. When a DD pops out I can switch ammo almost immediately and change targets. Makes me a little more dangerous in Ranked.