Help a Noob Out

[OGSnarfVader]

 

Hello to all my fellow gamers.  I am new to Wows, coming over from Wot Blitz.  My friend has been playing wows for a while and I've decided to give it a go.  Honestly I am bad...I mean bad, and I apologize to any that have had the displeasure of being on my team (though you may have been seal clubbing).  

I am here today to ask for help with my understanding of this game.  I believe that good habits in game breed good results.  What good habits should I be learning at the lower tiers to make me a better player? 

How do you kill your enemy on here without getting killed or taking massive damage?  In other words how do mitigate damage allowing you to carry?  If you were new to Wot Blitz I could give you a list of skills to work on to become a far more successful player.  In addition Wot B has a solid YouTuber, Bushka on Blitz that demonstrates these skills and preaches them throughout his catalog of vids.  All I've really found looking for vids on this game are Chase and Jingles.  Neither of the two really were my cup of tea.  Are there better vids for noobs out there?  Thank you for your time and may the Gods of RNG always look favorably upon you.

 

[renegadestatuz]

Welcome to WoWs and to the forums! Two other youtubers/streamers you could check out are Noster and Flamu.

 

Min a side note, there seems to be a lot of blitz players coming over lately.

[Shield380]

Welcome! I came from Blitz too, a proud member of Triarii (III) over here!

 

WoWs is a fantastic game! The forums are a great place to read funny discussions, watch glorious meme battles, and talk to old farts like me about tactics. Flamu has some great videos out there and Notser is also very good. Check out those links for their channels. Aerroon is also good.

 

Hope this helped! Quote this and let me know if you have any further questions about anything, anything at all!

[Lert]

The same basic tips that apply to WoT and WoT Blitz also apply here. Don't be the easy target. Don't be the first one spotted. Don't try to fight the entire enemy team alone.

[OGSnarfVader]

Thanks for the replies I will definitely check out the recommended YouTubers. I appreciate the input from the forum community as I believe learning from others experiences helps immensely.

[SireneRacker]

A good start into the game is Jingles' "How to not suck" video. It is superficial but gives good info for the three main ship types.

 

For specific recommendations you should make a replay and upload it somewhere. Then post a link into this Forum so the Community can look for advice that is based on your performance.

[m373x]

Practice, watch videos, ask questions, don't use free xp to skip ships, don't buy premium ships higher than your tech tree progress. Remember that you are operating a ship that has momentum and plan your moves as well as predict enemy moves way ahead of time. You should be fine.

[Stauffenberg44]

Watch a number of videos about various ships--vids by iChase and Notser are a good start. Fair seas!

[Fog_Heavy_Cruiser_Takao]

Watch Yuro

[RogueFlameHaze]

Check out some youtubers, and dont immediatly return to port when you sink. Stick around and observe the other players to learn new tricks or ways certain ships are played.

[scruffycavetroll]

 

Hello to all my fellow gamers.  I am new to Wows, coming over from Wot Blitz.  My friend has been playing wows for a while and I've decided to give it a go.  Honestly I am bad...I mean bad, and I apologize to any that have had the displeasure of being on my team (though you may have been seal clubbing).  

I am here today to ask for help with my understanding of this game.  I believe that good habits in game breed good results.  What good habits should I be learning at the lower tiers to make me a better player? 

How do you kill your enemy on here without getting killed or taking massive damage?  In other words how do mitigate damage allowing you to carry?  If you were new to Wot Blitz I could give you a list of skills to work on to become a far more successful player.  In addition Wot B has a solid YouTuber, Bushka on Blitz that demonstrates these skills and preaches them throughout his catalog of vids.  All I've really found looking for vids on this game are Chase and Jingles.  Neither of the two really were my cup of tea.  Are there better vids for noobs out there?  Thank you for your time and may the Gods of RNG always look favorably upon you.

 

 

Welcome to the game. 

 

Firstly, this will take time to grasp however, it isn't that complicated. Like all games, you'll pick things up as you play, you just need to be patient and play through the learning curve.

 

The good news, is THERE IS NO PREMIUM AMMO HERE!!!! That's what keeps me away from WOT. 

 

Watch some new player videos by Ichase, Jingles, notser, flamu to help get you started. You may not have liked them, but watch them anyway, the more input the better. 

 

Then understand how spotting and concealment works (Concealment / gun bloom is changing today so that's somewhat fortunate for you). 

 

Understand how AP & HE work and when to use them. It's not that hard. 

 

Like WOT, angling is key here. Avoid showing broadside when you can, although you're always going to be broadside to someone (just have to hope they aren't looking at you). You have to get used to using your WSAD haxx. Turn, speed up, slow down constantly. 

 

Practice in PVE...yeah the rewards absolutely suck, but get your bearings there...or just jump into PVP suck it up and go, rewards for a bad game in PVP are the same as a good one on PVE. So PVP will level you up faster. 

 

then you have to learn the ships, and this takes time. 

 

Add me if you'd like and we can div up sometime and I'll try to help, not that i'm the greatest, but I'm far from terrible. 

[Stauffenberg44]

Oh and play around in Coop rather than Random to avoid a string of losses in Random and end up traumatized. lol

[StingRayOne]

find someone to div up and chat with for a while as you fight, never sail alone. Always at first stay near AA cruisers when a carrier is around.

[sbcptnitro]

I actually came over from Blitz, too, but that was a while ago.

[vonKaiser]

OK I pulled up your stats to get an idea of how you've played.  Let me just start out and say you're moving up the Tiers WAAAAAY too fast.  I did the same thing in both Tanks and Warships.  You're going to want to stay at the lower tiers for now, learn the basics, put them into practice, then when you've got that going for you and can somewhat do them without thinking, then start moving your way up.  Again not trying to be rude or anything.  You seem to like your German BB Kaiser though, she's a good ship, I'm a fan of her as well so for now I suggest picking a ship you like, sticking with it, learning every little quirk of her.  Don't think about the whole game and the entire lines, just focus on one thing to becomes good with for now.  As far as the game goes?  Well Iw rote this out a bit ago for someone who was having similar troubles in the Nassau, I'll modify it and paste it below.  Wall of text but hopefully it will help. 

 

Let's give you a rundown.  This game is a series of rock paper scissors.  Rocks are Battleships.  Paper are Destroyers.  Cruisers are Scissors. 

 

Battleships beat up other Battleships and destroy cruisers.

Destroyers look for big old lumbering battleships and destroy them

Cruisers go looking for Destroyers to pick on. 

 

This is a very simplified version of the mechanics.  So you're sailing along in your Kaiser, enemy Battleships are your big threat, Cruisers will load High Explosive ammo and set you on fire because the guns aren't going to do major chunks of damage in single salvos, and the Destroyers are the major thing to watch out for due to torpedo salvos that will delete you from the game with little warning.  So what do you, as captain of your shiny Kaiser do?

 

Battleship vs. Battleship.  Two giants of the ocean slugging it out.  You have some of the heaviest armor at your tier.  Enemy battleships will have trouble penetrating you for citadel hits.  Those are the big hits you take that results in the game sounds becoming muffled.  Here's a good time to point out the 3 different types of hits you can do with your guns in World of Warships.  1st is the Overpenetration.  Your shell has hit a lightly armored portion of the ship and has not gotten enough resistance to detonate.  These types of hit will do 10% of the max damage of your shell.  Next up you have the Penetrating shot.  Your shell has hit, penetrated the armor and exploded inside the ship dealing 33% of your shells listed damage.  Last is the citadel shot.  Not only has your shell penetrated the armor but it has hit the crucial machinery spaces inside the ship (Boilers, powder storage etc) these shots are the one that does that muffled sound effect and nets you full, 100% damage of your shell.  Two other types of shell impacts are bounces (you hit on an angle and your shell doesn't have the velocity/penetration to punch through the armor) or a shattered on impact where your shell hits but does not have enough penetrating value to get through the armor, those will result in no damage. 

 

Sorry, went off on a tangent but that information is crucial to know in any of the engagements you'll be facing.  So, back to what to do when you find yourself fighting an enemy battleship.  You want to punch through his side armor, while denying the opportunity for your opponent to do the same to you.  You want to keep angled, keep your bow pointed toward the enemy.  I find the best angling you can do is when your front turret is on target, but you keep your back turrets just out of the aiming arc so they can't fire.  Now I know what you're thinking, you're taking guns off target, limiting your damage potential against the enemy but there's important reasons for this.

 

1. You keep your armor angles, so while he's putting more rounds at you, they're going to bounce/ricochet off of your armor resulting in no damage
2. After he fires, he has to reload, while reloading you now have the opportunity to slide your aft end out, target your opponent and hit his broadside while he can't do anything about it. 

 

For example, here, my Konig Albert vs an Enemy Nassau

 

A decent example of angling against an enemy starting at the 13:27 mark.  Also gives you a trick on aiming against these German Battleships when you come face to face with them on the enemy team.  Aim at the upper belt line, not the waterline.  Remember when I went into the differences in hits up above?  Citadels are the best thing for damage of course.  But aiming that low means, with the dispersion of your guns, some shells are gonna land in the water and miss the target.  German Battleships are notoriously hard to citadel close in with the armor layout as well.  So if you find yourself, Kaiser vs Kaiser, he lands 4 shells at your waterline all for 33% damage hits, while you aim at the upper belt line and land 6 shells for 33% damage, who's going to win out in that war of attrition?  After those basics it's more about learning the nuances of particular ships.  Germans are rather poor accuracy wise at range, shining in the close in brawling ranges.  Japanese armor is rather poor compared to the other nations but they have good guns with good ranges.  America is a hybrid build in between, tending to stay half way between long range and brawler.  With more practice you'll learn where to aim at which ship to do the most damage that you can.  Waterline and citadels for those big damage numbers are always a plus, but sometimes, tactically it's not always the best option.

 

Next up, Battleship vs Cruiser.  Cruisers can be a bit tricky.  Lower armor values mean that hitting them in the wrong place with your Armor Piercing shells will result in a paltry 10% damage over pen shot.  Where a shell hitting them in the right place will delete them out of the water. 

 

Broadside?  That's a paddlin'

 

The thing that cruisers have to deal with you in return for the super squishy nature, especially down at the lower Tiers?  Torpedo's.  The last thing a cruiser should be doing when facing you is giving you the side of their ship.  If you see them making a sudden hard turn, well chances are it's because they're dropping torpedo's in the water at you.  Cruisers (except for MOST of the British) all have annoying High Explosive ammo was well.  This doesn't do as much damage as Armor piercing, but can cause fires that'll slowly eat away at your health pool.  Hint for fires, (It's not like world of tanks which is instant death sentence) 1 fire, not a big deal, all fire damage is repairable by your damage repair party.  2 fires, well, might want to think about putting it out.  3 or more, yeah you're health is going down at an alarming rate, extinguish them.  But keep in mind, when using the Damage control to put out the fires, you're vulnerable to more fires and flooding damage should a torpedo impact so use it wisely.  To deal with pesky cruisers?  Aim at the waterline, citadel and blow'em out of the water.  If they don't give you broadside, aim at the bow, Battleship guns are big and can still punch through most angled cruiser armor.  Even if the bow shells don't citadel, they're passing through a long section of ship so you'll still get those nice 33% damage hits.

 

Finally, the bane of the Battleship world, the thing that keeps a Battleship player up at night in cold sweats...  The Destroyer.  These little things are the paper to your rock.  Low detection range, fast, nimble and packed full of torpedo's all looking to punch holes in the side of your pretty ship.  You're large detection range means they can sail circles around you and never let you see them.  Certain destroyers have Torpedo ranges that exceed the detection range.  Meaning that while they're sailing around unspotted by you, they're dropping torpedo's in the water that you won't see coming until they uncomfortably close to your ship.  The key to dealing with destroyers one on one, is to remain unpredictable.  If you're sailing through open water, no other ships around in your detection range and you're spotted, well chances are it's a destroyer.  And if a destroyer is spotting you, assume he's setting up a torpedo attack run, you'll usually be right.  To avoid them, alter course.  Don't sail in a straight line.  Drop your speed, don't go sailing full ahead all the time.  At all ranges torpedos have a potential for devastating damage to your ship, but the further out they are, the more a minor, subtle course change will effect them.  even dropping to 3/4 speed for awhile is enough to throw them off at longer ranges.  You'll also want to keep a bow on approach to locations where you think the torps are going to be coming from.  This gives a smaller profile and easier to avoid position.  If you do get caught unawares you're generally going to want to NOSE IN to the spread.  Sure you'll take one or two, but that's better then 4 or more. 

 

Timmy the Torpedo says "Bow in for safety kids"

 

So if you find yourself against an enemy Destroyer.  Stay unpredictable, try to predict his torps best you can and don't be afraid to blow him out of the water with whatever you have loaded.  If you have AP hit'em.  It's not gonna hurt ALOT due to small target and overpenetration, but a random 33% hit on a low health pool will really hurt'em.  Next salvo, load the High Explosive to wreck his modules.

 

That ends the copy and paste job but let me add one little last section into this giant wall of text.  Positioning.  I haven't played Blitz.  I played Tanks on the PC long ago, was a Tank Destroyer main, did Clan wars and the like.  I don't know how much experience you have in the Tanks section but I'll try to relate this next piece to that.  In Tanks, if you were a light tank you went zipping along the map spotting the enemy, knowing that you couldn't take sustained fire.  If you got your tracks blown off and you were spotted, you weren't going to last very long.  Same thing with a Tank Destroyer, minus the speed.  You wanted to be firing from cover.  Warships is a bit of the same.  If you're in a cruiser or a destroyer, you're far from your nearest team mate and you're rushing a group of 4+ enemies, they're going to focus fire on you and destroy you pretty quickly so you want to mitigate being overly aggressive.  Stay with the pack, give them a target rich environment so they're not always shooting at only you lol.

 

Hope this helped at least a little bit.  I tend to ramble, so apologies for that 

[Sampsonite]

Don't ask for subs....................................

[barbaroja_Ar]

Welcome!

 

You already started great! Use the forum, is has a lot of info.

 

Aside from the Tube channles mentioned, i suggest using the wiki http://wiki.wargaming.net/en/World_of_Warships it has a lots of info about the game and is a great place to look for info about ships.

Ships characteristics differ greately, and knowing your enemy is always a plus.

 

Good winds.

 

[Teske]

As may above have said, you've made a good start coming here. 

 

As long as you don't start a flame war or a fact-less rant, the people here a great about helping those still learning. Big thing to remember is that you are learning, don't expect to be as good as a 9k battle vet (yes, 9k battles is a lot over here.) And take your time grinding the lines, if you rush you'll miss out on important things the low tier ships teach you about for the next ship, you don't have to make tier 10 tomorrow, in fact most of us that have gotten up there find that the lower tier are more fun (I find the most engaging battle happen at tiers 6-8.)

 

Edit: Drop me a message anytime you see me, I enjoy helping players get better especially working one on one with them in division. As the Roman senator Seneca said, "While we teach, we learn."

[Kenjister]

Welcome!

Many people gave great advice already so here's mine:
Take the time to look around between each salvo.   Of course, not to the extent that you lose RoF, but in this game, positioning is key.  Due to the slower pace though, you usually won't notice your mistake until you've gone loooong past being able to do anything about it.  Try to take in the enemy positions frequently, and don't let any ships get on your sides.

For that matter, don't go broadside (sideways) to enemy ships for any period of time unless they aren't looking in your direction.  It's the fastest way to die.  

When maneuvering it's sometimes unavoidable to but it's the biggest way to get deleted by either torps or by AP shells.

[Cruxdei]

apply uour knowledge of leading a target from wot to wows.

that's basically the most important skill,oh and knowing your gun of course.

USN guns have moon arcs 

soviet guns have flat arcs and go fast(they are called laser guns for a reason)

kriegsmarine guns are middleground

IJN guns are long ranged(i think)