Sad Essex Player

[ACEpickles]

I luv playing cv's, but with current state of the game I have to stay in Co-op. I am up to Essex but I am only an average player with cv's. I have man torping and bombing down but working on man strafe. So I feel I would be a detriment to my team in random play so I don't. I know they are working on a CV fix, but until then I will stay in Co-op. Happy Holidays.

[Pirate_Badcat]

Are you in a clan? If not I would like to invite you to check us out at http://www.pelagicpirates.org/

 

[X15]

USN's national "flavor" really screws them over competitively right now. The fix will come eventually and I hope it makes balance and ergonomics for CVs possible.

[ckupf]

USN's national "flavor" really screws them over competitively right now. The fix will come eventually and I hope it makes balance and ergonomics for CVs possible.

 

I love that people describe USN CVs as having a "national flavor," they are just worse than IJN CVs. That's their flavor, that they are completely outclassed at every tier except for the premium Saipan.

[LaughingLupine]

 

OP, just play Strike groups if you cant strafe. I admit its not my strong suit either.

 

I actually do pretty well against IJN Carriers which I also play. Know their strengths and weaknesses. They really do not have the sheer damage potential of a US Strike Group.  The 7 torp planes are deadly, and our bombs hit much harder.  Now I'm only up to Lex, but I love her and have no complaints against the Shockie. I'd rather see another Lex over there, but I don't think we are as out matched as some say.

 

 

[Palladia]

 

I love that people describe USN CVs as having a "national flavor," they are just worse than IJN CVs. That's their flavor, that they are completely outclassed at every tier except for the premium Saipan.

 

That's the excuse we get fed.  "Larger air groups and better at air combat!" is the USN 'flavor',  but then IJN get an AS that's far better at T6 and it never really gets re-balanced.  T8 introduces 1000pd bombs which...add something to the strike loadout at least.

 

But I promise you,  any of us here with any common sense completely understand that the USN CV's are just worse then their counterparts. Saipan not included.

[Terrakov]

Better config for the Essex??

[Shadowfury1156]

I think the one thing to keep in mind with carriers, just my experience, if you're even a bit better than the other guy (and keep in mind past tier 7 you never see 2 CVs in a game), it makes a big difference. Any skill difference is magnified by the nature of CVs, and it's one of the reasons I'm looking forward to the rework. All it takes is you accidentally losing a whole air group to fighters or vice versa to flip a team fight in a moment. IJN is better than USN only if both players are equally skilled. The balanced setups on any USN CV that's not the Independence are crap, as putting even less groups in the air keeps you at an even larger disadvantage against the IJN counterparts. The fighter loadouts never have enough fighters to fully control an IJN CV. Honestly I just eschew fighters and rack up damage. I don't snipe the enemy carrier (although the defensive AA has put almost everyone off that anyway), just attack ships and focus on turning a fight in my team's favor, because at a certain point it stopped being about doing damage and more about applying damage in the right place.

 

It's not too terrible for meta reasons, according to Warships.today USN carriers are almost twice as common as IJN carriers on every tier besides 9 and 10, and they're still more popular there, just a much smaller gap. You're mostly far more likely to run into another USN CV. Lots of opposition Lexingtons seem to also run no fighters, so it really comes down to who is better.

 

Basically, it's never hopeless, but it is, to varying degrees, an uphill battle to play USN CVs when the other guy is IJN. Honestly I find many people in Shoukaku that I get paired against haven't quite nailed managing everything, and usually they don't strafe either, which is a recipe for disaster as far as playing a Shoukaku because it's very hard to fight down a bomber group without running out of fighter ammo.

 

And keep practicing the manual torp drops, the way narrower spread from the 6 TBs is your actual advantage over the IJN.

 

Now if only plane kills didn't matter...