Help with Missouri/Iowa

[Teahee]

I recently acquired the Missouri, paying for the last 150k free experience because I was impatient and greedy. The problem is, I really cannot seem to get the hang of playing it. Statistically, my Missouri is well below my other ships, and with over 60 games, it cannot be attributed to teams or RNG. Please give me advise on how not to be a complete root vegetable. 

 

I have spec-ed both captain and ship into stealth, using the accuracy mod rather than reload mod. Generally I try to stay at distances of 15km or so, before pushing bow into the enemy once they have been whittled down enough. Where applicable, I try to support DDs with the radar, however often end up getting "trapped" bow onto the enemy fleet with no way to retreat. 

 

Is there some key aspect of gameplay I am doing wrong? Please share with me your experience on how to play the Missouri/Iowa. 

[DeadManxDan]

I've had fairly good luck with Iowa and Missouri.  Generally in the beginning I like to cruise around in concealment and fire at people who forget I am there then when the team needs that heavy backing or there is a opportunity to push in I do it fairly quickly to try and not give them time to position against me.  However if you really want to be OP in the Missouri div up with a fletcher and let him give you a smoke corridor to drive into a cap.  That being said I heavily prioritize shooting dds if they are within 10km. 

[Estimated_Prophet]

Sixty games? You must love high-tier gameplay; more than I do at least; (only 15 games in Missouri; 10 PvP, 5 PvE.)

 

If you're running stealth build; one thing I've done is move towards one side where I'm partially sheilded by terrain from part of the enemy fleet, then throw my weight in to support the ships pushing up on that side. Do your normal going dark and kiting, try to help overwhelm the reds there, then move on somewhere else.

 

Of course; always be on the lookout for a broadside shot on another part of the map.

 

Maybe just relax, don't play the ship so much, and just get used to it at a slower pace.

[MrKilmister]

I recently acquired the Missouri, paying for the last 150k free experience because I was impatient and greedy. The problem is, I really cannot seem to get the hang of playing it. Statistically, my Missouri is well below my other ships, and with over 60 games, it cannot be attributed to teams or RNG. Please give me advise on how not to be a complete root vegetable. 

 

I have spec-ed both captain and ship into stealth, using the accuracy mod rather than reload mod. Generally I try to stay at distances of 15km or so, before pushing bow into the enemy once they have been whittled down enough. Where applicable, I try to support DDs with the radar, however often end up getting "trapped" bow onto the enemy fleet with no way to retreat. 

 

Is there some key aspect of gameplay I am doing wrong? Please share with me your experience on how to play the Missouri/Iowa. 

 

Missouri and Iowa are definitely best configured and played in stealth mode, using her speed to constantly reposition out of detection range between opportunistic shots at reds showing their sides. She can hit hard but she's very squishy. She isn't going to be a consistently effective or successful ship, like say the Bismarck can be.  Whether the Iowa or MO are the right tool for success in battle is highly situational. From my own experience I've been the guy who one battle carried hard on Shatter map... basically solo...  sinking 5 reds, getting a Kraken and had the red team laud my effort in chat... In the next battle on Mountains map my team gave me stick for flanking around the other side, undetected by the reds, because they wanted me to play a medium to close range brawler role from the beginning...  NOT what the Iowa is made for. 

 

The armor buff on the Missouri is minor.  If anything, her extra tanky forward bulkhead probably invites more bow-on camping, which IMO is not the best way to play the Iowa class unless it's a forced situation. If WG wanted to reduce the amount of bow on camping, I can not fathom why the chose this approach to buffing the MO. They should have also lowered he citadel box an entire deck lever, to the waterline, which is historically accurate and would have certainly made bow-on camping much less attractive. She would have been so much better without crossing the line over to the OPed side.

 

I just got the Missouri last night after I earned enough XP on my Iowa to unlock the Montana and I had over 500K free XP available for MO. The truth is the only reason I ultimately chose to get the Missouri is she a credit and XP making machine on steroids. 

[Teahee]

Thanks for all the great feedback everyone. Hopefully I can work out how to play it properly soon. 

[_Marines]

Missouri and Iowa are definitely best configured and played in stealth mode, using her speed to constantly reposition out of detection range between opportunistic shots at reds showing their sides. She can hit hard but she's very squishy. She isn't going to be a consistently effective or successful ship, like say the Bismarck can be.  Whether the Iowa or MO are the right tool for success in battle is highly situational. From my own experience I've been the guy who one battle carried hard on Shatter map... basically solo...  sinking 5 reds, getting a Kraken and had the red team laud my effort in chat... In the next battle on Mountains map my team gave me stick for flanking around the other side, undetected by the reds, because they wanted me to play a medium to close range brawler role from the beginning...  NOT what the Iowa is made for. 

 

The armor buff on the Missouri is minor.  If anything, her extra tanky forward bulkhead probably invites more bow-on camping, which IMO is not the best way to play the Iowa class unless it's a forced situation. If WG wanted to reduce the amount of bow on camping, I can not fathom why the chose this approach to buffing the MO. They should have also lowered he citadel box an entire deck lever, to the waterline, which is historically accurate and would have certainly made bow-on camping much less attractive. She would have been so much better without crossing the line over to the OPed side.

 

I just got the Missouri last night after I earned enough XP on my Iowa to unlock the Montana and I had over 500K free XP available for MO. The truth is the only reason I ultimately chose to get the Missouri is she a credit and XP making machine on steroids. 

 

Spot on. While ships like Scharn, Tirp, Bismarck, and H39 can be successful at brawling, Iowa and Missouri are really just snipers. Sometimes I feel that the huge and weak citadels of these ships must have earned a bad rep or something, that everytime I show my citadel, no matter how small the window is, someone is going to fire a full salvo at me.

[Saxxonknight]

Haven't got the Missouri yet, but did get Iowa.  Holy crap for the actual capabilities of the real ship this is ridiculous.  Its possibly the least accurate ship I've had so far even with the 11% dispersion reduction.  Fully bracketed a cruiser at 7km whereas a Colorado, Nagato, New Mexico etc would have [edited] it and had 2-3 cits in the same situation.  North Carolina is more accurate and those were shorter guns in reality.

[DukeRust]

The armor buff on Missouri is massive. There is only one battleship in the game with a more armored forward/aft citadel and that's the Yamato. I've been able to bow fight any ship in the game and feel very comfortable.

 

If you don't division, and I don't, the worst part is being abandoned once you push. A Missouri is a massive target, bow-forward or not. Her secondaries are really pathetic and fire very slow shells with low fire chance, i.e., don't rely on them to take out DDs (or anything). People will disagree and say they go full secondary build, but the Iowa is very, very poor at it.

 

Bow on the ship is nearly as strong as any in the game at any tier.

 

I play her rather conservatively just because I've been burnt so many times. But Missouri is NOT a sniper. Her shells are far far far far (far far far) too slow with too much dispersion to be considered a sniper. Once you go visible when you fire, the enemy has, what, 15 seconds to change directions? Sure, if they can't change directions you'll get a few hits because of dispersion. But if you're trying to snipe at 20k, you're just going to get 10 hits a game for minimal damage. Move in, but make sure you got support. If you don't have support, the game is probably a potato festival anyway--or you're tremendously out of position.

 

Puttering in slowly, bow on without support will just make you suck down some torps you can't dodge.

[MrKilmister]

 

Spot on. While ships like Scharn, Tirp, Bismarck, and H39 can be successful at brawling, Iowa and Missouri are really just snipers. Sometimes I feel that the huge and weak citadels of these ships must have earned a bad rep or something, that everytime I show my citadel, no matter how small the window is, someone is going to fire a full salvo at me.

 

Sniping isn't really how I play the Iowa class BBs though. It's more about hitting from the 13 km to 16 km range, disengage, re-position and repeat.. 

[TacticalOni]

 

Sniping isn't really how I play the Iowa class BBs though. It's more about hitting from the 13 km to 16 km range, disengage, preposition and repeat.. 

 

Right there, Thats what I and a lot of other good Iowa players do. Move in, Shoot at stuff, soak up some damage, dissappear, reappear when you want, blow more stuff up. Rinse, repeat. 

[MrKilmister]

 

Right there, Thats what I and a lot of other good Iowa players do. Move in, Shoot at stuff, soak up some damage, dissappear, reappear when you want, blow more stuff up. Rinse, repeat. 

 

And it also can helps a lot to have some advantageously located terrain, AKA, natural armor when you make those turns away for the point of engagement.  ; )

[Bill_Halsey]

 

Sniping isn't really how I play the Iowa class BBs though. It's more about hitting from the 13 km to 16 km range, disengage, re-position and repeat..

 

I will have to point out that's what successful snipers do. Get to within 1-2 grid squares of a point you know they'll have to pass. Like a cap point. 15 km range is preferably where you have cover to one side from torps/shells. If they start coming in @ you, disengage and reposition.  

 

One thing I do in the opening phase is just move at half speed in the opening minutes. Only move at full speed if I'm disengaging or moving to another position.

Prioritize your targets: CA's first and DD's if you can take them. Leave the BB's for last. BB's are health sponges. High tier CA's have DC but you can wipe them out faster than they can heal.

[DukeRust]

Sniping has several connotations.

 

Long range = Missouri

Accurate != Missouri

Fast shots != Missouri

 

Missouri isn't a sniper. 15km isn't "sniping distance" unless you're a T8 Cruiser. The lobbed bowling ball shells of Missouri aren't sniper rounds, they can easily be avoided by anyone who is paying attention and has the ability to turn.

[MrKilmister]

Sniping has several connotations.

 

Long range = Missouri

Accurate != Missouri

Fast shots != Missouri

 

Missouri isn't a sniper. 15km isn't "sniping distance" unless you're a T8 Cruiser. The lobbed bowling ball shells of Missouri aren't sniper rounds, they can easily be avoided by anyone who is paying attention and has the ability to turn.

 

The nice thing about full concealment - also - is the ability to carefully move up near the cap, just close enough to support your capping DDs, while holding the radius of detection so it's almost tangent to the center of the cap. This allows play that isn't too passive, offering good opportunities to support with just enough time and space to to see the flow of the reds. When the big picture becomes more clear, the option hopefully remains to either overwhelming push through with the group or safely turn out in order to re-position accordingly.  That precise moment is often the decisive turning point in the battle.