Captains, keep em' or train em'?

[_Big_Lou_]

Good afternoon, Captains of the fleet. I had done some searching and could not find the right type of topic for my question (I'm trying not to be lazy), so here goes:

 

Do people typically train up one elite captain and use them on their top ships or do they take new captains on each new ship? I can see some pro/con on each side so I am looking for thoughts and rationale.

 

On a side note, it seems like the holiday potatofest is coming to a close so, hopefully, games start to make sense again.

 

Happy hunting and keep your crow's nest dry.

[Terrible_Turtle]

Some ships absolutely need higher tier captain skills.. DDs especially. 

 

For example, RU destroyers are severely gimped without AFT and DE.

 

USA destroyers can likewise be somewhat handicapped without CE. 

 

It really just depends how much you hate the "grind". 

[ArIskandir]

It boils down to your resources, as F2P the optimal is train a captain for the line as you will be discarding your old ships (you need those port slots) and training those guys is very time consuming.

[HazeGrayUnderway]

There are some ships that you could stuff a 0 or 3 pt captain on them and perform well.  After taking my high pt RN captain from Neptune for Minotaur, I stuffed a new 3pt captain on Neptune.  Performance hasn't dropped.

 

There are some ships that necessitate high pt captains to even perform in an acceptable level.  Go ahead and play a RU DD without AFT as you go higher in the tier.

 

Personally, I use my best captains on my most played ships.  But over time I have had more decent pt captains to spread the love.  And again, some ships make working up a new captain much easier.

[Sir_Godz]

Do yourself a favor and re-grind captains. 

 

Once you grind through a ship and captain you will be kicking yourself having to play another bucket load of games in that ship with a meager captain to enjoy the fruits of the grind. Look at a lot of streamer ports. Constantly moving captains up to the new ship for the better play paying dubloons all the way only having to pay again to put them back on the lower tier ship to play them again.

 

Higher tier ships usually have a much more potent set up and are a little easier to play without a developed captain whereas lower tier ships hugely benefit from captain perks. 

 

Also high tier ships don't make much money at all unless you are an elite player so you will have to supplement credits by playing mid tierish and you will do a lot better playing those with developed captains.

 

I have 15+ point captains in all my ships of 40+ in port and I don't have to pay dubloons which are not cheap at all to play a well set up ship of whatever type as my whims move me.

 

If anything I would recommend prems to help with the credits and captain deving. Also with a prem if you did move a captain then on the new ship if you elect not to retrain with dubloons that captain will only enjoy 50% of those abilities and by puting that new ship assigned captain onto the prem, the prem will have full use of the skills immediately and the xp gained on the prem still accounts for retraining. In short the prem allows you to retrain a captain on the new ship without suffering through the partial skill allowance and the credits earned during that will net you the first upgrades on the new ship which is usually the very worst of grinding any new ship.

 

 

[Sir_Godz]

There are some ships that you could stuff a 0 or 3 pt captain on them and perform well.  After taking my high pt RN captain from Neptune for Minotaur, I stuffed a new 3pt captain on Neptune.  Performance hasn't dropped.

 

There are some ships that necessitate high pt captains to even perform in an acceptable level.  Go ahead and play a RU DD without AFT as you go higher in the tier.

 

Personally, I use my best captains on my most played ships.  But over time I have had more decent pt captains to spread the love.  And again, some ships make working up a new captain much easier.

I agree with the RU statement. Likely the hardest grind in game without high spec captains. Still tho, getting to AFT isn't that bad as getting the next 4 points after that. Annoying weekend yes but they are so much fun it's still worth it rather than re-grinding a captain again on the same ship.

[aethervox]

Uncertain why you say, OP, keep em or train em?

 One should keep all trained Captains, if possible.

After all, they take time to train.

My method;

I only play PvP, no premium ships & no premium account tho I do buy Doubloons for purchasing power.

I grind all my Captains buying a 3 skill Cpt to start a new tech line.

I transfer the first Captain in each line up the tech tree & where I keep an Elite ship below a higher tier ship, I place a new 3 skill Captain there.

I have 21 ships atm and 13 of them are now working on their level 5 Cpt skill (most others on level 4).

There are likely faster ways, however, this is how I have done it.

[Cpt_RickSchwifty]

I keep my highest EXP captains in my T8 and T6 ships for ranked.

 

 

Then I prioritize my "favorite" ships as in the ones I have already played through but still like to take out, then finally my T10 ships.

 

I trained a new Captain for my Gearing and it only took about 6-7 games to get him to 10 points. So it is pretty fast to train up a 10 point captain in anything above T7 if you equip some flags and cammo and get a good game in. If you are new to the game I and like the line you are grinding I would retrain your captain to the new ship.  

 

 

I grind all my Captains buying a 3 skill Cpt to start a new tech line.

I transfer the first Captain in each line up the tech tree & where I keep an Elite ship below a higher tier ship, I place a new 3 skill Captain there.

 

This is going to be the best way especially if you are newish. If you do not have the doubloons to buy a 3 point captain just get the 1 pointer. 

 

The Cevat is that in the new patch having a MAX 19 point captain is going to be a HUGE bonus. Thus you really want to focus on getting one ASAP. 

 

I would advise you stick to two ship lines, and two captains and get them to T10 and 19 points ASAP. Wargaming often releases rewards based on T10 level ships, and someone like me who has 2,000+ games but only a single T10 but 5 T9 ships gets screwed. Ever since the dragon flags were released I have begun to just focus everything on 1 or 2 ships and getting them to T10. 

 

 

[Tulisang]

While I tend to dispose of a new assigned captain & go with one (elite, and or non-elite) in reserve to grind I more often than not do not coin/accelerate training. I usually do not focus on one captain, but a half-dozen or so .  It's somewhat an arduous task in mentally keepin' track of whose goes where, and noting if and or when there is some improvement (or to be had) tho'. 

 

. . . Higher tier ships usually have a much more potent set up and are a little easier to play without a developed captain whereas lower tier ships hugely benefit from captain perks. 

 

However this tip appears to be cogent.

[Gomez_Adams]

I have been training one captain all the way for each line and started a second. Here's how I'm doing it:

 

German BB Captain is now 15 point. I moved him to each new BB as I advanced. He's now in the Bismarck.

German CA Captain is now 10 point. Ditto that but I stopped grinding German CA's for now, so he's stuck at T5.

 

USA BB Captain is about 12,000 XP away from 15 point. I did him the same as the German BB Captain. He's now in the newly acquired Colorado.

USA CA Captain is 10 point and same as the German CA Captain as I started focusing on BB's.

 

Japanese line I stopped grinding altogether. I still play the Atago from time to time and have a 10 point CA captain doing that. The BB Captain in the Fuso is 10 point and has 3 towards 15 point.

 

All of that in 1200 games. Not too bad if you ask me.

[Fedge_123]

I'm probably in the minority, but I train a new captain for every ship, and keep almost every ship (and it's captain) I earn in my port.  I usually use premium ships and Co-Op to train my captains before putting them in their permanent vessel for further 'seasoning'.

[1nc0mp3t3nt_1]

As a German BB captain, my ship is not ready for random battles unless it's got a full secondary specced captain. 15 point is bare minimum one should be taking to battles in tier 8+, no excuses.

 

You are effectively taking a stock ship and deserve all the negative karma that a potato player gets if you are not optimizing your ship fully before taking to PVP with other players.

[Gomez_Adams]

I'm probably in the minority, but I train a new captain for every ship, and keep almost every ship (and it's captain) I earn in my port.  I usually use premium ships and Co-Op to train my captains before putting them in their permanent vessel for further 'seasoning'.

 

It would be nice to do that.

 

But being at such a huge disadvantage of captain skills for any new player makes that impossible.

[gurudennis]

It's generally sensible to train up one captain per tree and keep pushing him up the tree as you go (preferably with gold retraining to avoid the grind).

 

However, this logic becomes complicated in a number of cases:

1. You want to keep a ship mid-tree and feel that she needs a good captain to work. Recruiting a special captain for that purpose may be a good idea, but either way you have to grind a new captain now.

2. This is not the first line for a given nation. In certain circumstances it makes sense to reuse a high-level captain from another line of the same nation. But then it's not worth it until T5 if you crunch the numbers, so you end up playing with a separate new captain up until that point which gives you a reserve captain with 6-10 points.

 

As a general recommendation, avoid hiring new captains for each new ship as you go up the line if possible. For each new line, do your research and have an approximate strategy given what ships may end up being keepers.

[_Big_Lou_]

Uncertain why you say, OP, keep em or train em?

 One should keep all trained Captains, if possible.

After all, they take time to train.

My method;

I only play PvP, no premium ships & no premium account tho I do buy Doubloons for purchasing power.

I grind all my Captains buying a 3 skill Cpt to start a new tech line.

I transfer the first Captain in each line up the tech tree & where I keep an Elite ship below a higher tier ship, I place a new 3 skill Captain there.

I have 21 ships atm and 13 of them are now working on their level 5 Cpt skill (most others on level 4).

There are likely faster ways, however, this is how I have done it.

 

I would not, and see no point in removing a captains. You were right to call out that clarification. My approach has been to keep my captains with their ships and let them learn as I play that ship. I have sold several of my very low tier ships, but tend to keep most of my previous ships. I do like the idea of a hybrid between new captains for each ship and elite captains with that being a rotation. Example: Keep playing the top US BBs (tier 7-10) and rotate previous captains from earlier tier ships.

 

Thanks!

[Mulletproof]

Retraining captains is usually what i save my flags for. Mitigates time and cost immensly.

[Fletcher7_1944]

My system is kind of all over the place, lol.   If I liked the ship- and intend to keep playing it regularly- the captain stays put.  In that case, I'll use another ship to grind up a captain for the new ship I'm grinding for.  

 

  If I don't care for the ship, or don't plan on using it for fun or credit grinding, the captain gets moved up.

 

  This has resulted in my having a ton of 8-10 point captains, an even greater amount of 4-6 pointers, and a small handful of 11-13 pointers- and none any higher.  I've kept ALL of my US and German BB's, and most of the cruisers from those lines.  I'm only up to tier 5 in any DD line, and tier 5 and 6 in the Rus and IJN CL/BB lines.  I have a Leander that I earned through the convoy mission- but had barely started Danae, so that ship has a low point captain in it.

 

  US BB's I'm up to North Carolina, and have most of my good captains in this line, as I play them all a lot.  German cruisers and BB's are at tier 7, and both of those have 12 pointers in them.  There are a couple of other good ones ( in Nurnberg,  and Konig)  I mostly moved my German Captains up, as the low tier Cruisers weren't that great, Nassau is so hillarious it doesn't need a high skill captain, and Kaiser wasn't really to my taste.

 

  The other day I discovered that I have TWO Pensacola captains being ground in two premium ships, lol... ( Arizona and Indy) He'd be a lot higher, if I'd simply ground up ONE, lol.  New York's captain got promoted into Colorado, and the next is nearly to 10 again between it and Texas.  Wyoming's got tapped for North Carolina.

 

  In a nut shell:  Each time I level up past tier 5, I have to find a decent captain to put in it.  Either by pulling one out of my butt, or by training one up in a lower tier while I grind through a higher tier ship.   Low tiers ships, I just start out with a 3 pointer.

[_Big_Lou_]

My system is kind of all over the place, lol.   If I liked the ship- and intend to keep playing it regularly- the captain stays put.  In that case, I'll use another ship to grind up a captain for the new ship I'm grinding for.  

 

  If I don't care for the ship, or don't plan on using it for fun or credit grinding, the captain gets moved up.

 

  This has resulted in my having a ton of 8-10 point captains, an even greater amount of 4-6 pointers, and a small handful of 11-13 pointers- and none any higher.  I've kept ALL of my US and German BB's, and most of the cruisers from those lines.  I'm only up to tier 5 in any DD line, and tier 5 and 6 in the Rus and IJN CL/BB lines.  I have a Leander that I earned through the convoy mission- but had barely started Danae, so that ship has a low point captain in it.

 

  US BB's I'm up to North Carolina, and have most of my good captains in this line, as I play them all a lot.  German cruisers and BB's are at tier 7, and both of those have 12 pointers in them.  There are a couple of other good ones ( in Nurnberg,  and Konig)  I mostly moved my German Captains up, as the low tier Cruisers weren't that great, Nassau is so hillarious it doesn't need a high skill captain, and Kaiser wasn't really to my taste.

 

  The other day I discovered that I have TWO Pensacola captains being ground in two premium ships, lol... ( Arizona and Indy) He'd be a lot higher, if I'd simply ground up ONE, lol.  New York's captain got promoted into Colorado, and the next is nearly to 10 again between it and Texas.  Wyoming's got tapped for North Carolina.

 

  In a nut shell:  Each time I level up past tier 5, I have to find a decent captain to put in it.  Either by pulling one out of my butt, or by training one up in a lower tier while I grind through a higher tier ship.   Low tiers ships, I just start out with a 3 pointer.

 

With this many average captains, are you at a disadvantage? In other words, how much of a difference does an elite captain make?

[muswp1]

I usually have one captain per line and rotate them in and out of my premium ships.  None of my premiums have dedicated captains except for the ARP ships which can't train regular captains.   All of my captains are 12 point and above.

[Fletcher7_1944]

 

With this many average captains, are you at a disadvantage? In other words, how much of a difference does an elite captain make?

 

Well, I have 98 ships in port- most of those average captains are on ships I either don't play often, or on low tier ships where they're being trained up.

 

  As for how much difference, it depends on ship type, tier, and game mode.   I only have a handful of ships (not counting DD's) I'll bring to random matches- and these all have at least a 10 pointer.   Captain skills make less of a difference in pve, with the exception being those ships which can benefit from AFT improving their main gun range.   As of now, the best defensive skills are low level, so they can be used with newb captains.   Stealth matters little to none in pve- the bots know where you are anyway.

 

  In pvp, generally, the higher you go in tiers, the more those high point skills matter.  ( or simply loading up on the other lower point skills you missed the first time around)

 

  I tend to use elited ships of tier 5 and lower to grind captains points, mostly in pve.  Down there, it doesn't matter that much.   The side benefit is all the credits and free xp/convertable xp I build up- which come in handy when I level up ships.   Imo, the modules and upgrades are more important than captain skills.

[Skpstr]

Uncertain why you say, OP, keep em or train em?

 One should keep all trained Captains, if possible.

After all, they take time to train.

My method;

I only play PvP, no premium ships & no premium account tho I do buy Doubloons for purchasing power.

I grind all my Captains buying a 3 skill Cpt to start a new tech line.

I transfer the first Captain in each line up the tech tree & where I keep an Elite ship below a higher tier ship, I place a new 3 skill Captain there.

I have 21 ships atm and 13 of them are now working on their level 5 Cpt skill (most others on level 4).

There are likely faster ways, however, this is how I have done it.

 

That's exactly what I do, except I spend doubloons on training past 11 points.

 

Although I do have one premium, a free Spee, that I just got.