Just unlocked Independence

[phydaux42]

I just unlocked the Independence.  What do I need to know?  Other that remembering how to do Alt Drops?

[Wulfgarn]

Few months old but still viable.

[Doctor_Vopper]

The Independance is the last US CV in the line that if played well can be competitive with the IJN CV's. I am loving her right now

[Estimated_Prophet]

Forget the Air Superiority loadout and just use stock, (1-1-1,)

 

If worst comes to worst; just blow off Randoms and play your CVs in Co-op.

[devastator5000]

The Independence is the last US CV in the line that if played well can be competitive with the IJN CV's. I am loving her right now

 

I wouldn't say that High tier strike like the Lex are very good ships if you know how to handle her and can be smart and outmaneuver your IJN counterpart.

 

OP while the Indy is fun she is also cruel mistress as T6 is the first of the heavy AA tiers and you will start to lose planes faster not to mention that your reserves are still very small so be careful, plus T8/7 MM will start to get very annoying very fast

[Shels]

The Independance is the last US CV in the line that if played well can be competitive with the IJN CV's. I am loving her right now

 

I've done quite well in the T7-9 USN CVs, grinding through the Essex at the moment.  You're more specialized running the USN load-outs if you don't use the balanced one, which I rarely have because of the fewer total planes you can put in the air at once.  Though for the Independence, I did grind using the 1/1/1.  I did quite well with the strike Ranger and Lexington, and am doing well with the Essex.  In fact, I kept the Ranger and play it as much or more than my Essex.  Lexington air-groups weren't a significant improvement over the Ranger, but AA brutality ramps up even faster.  Essex finally gets a fighter in the strike package, which makes a huge difference.

 

Main thing with the Independence is the still extremely limited hangar capacity, right when AA is starting to drastically improve and it is almost certain you will encounter cruisers with defensive fire.  I typically had to play her passively at the beginning, focus on spotting front ships, maybe harassing DDs, and providing fighter cover.  Then once the match got about 8-10 minutes in, ships have started taking some module damage, AA is decreased, they're no longer full HP, and more likely to be distracted, at which point I could then make attack runs with a much better chance of success.  Don't expect to alpha strike someone out, you are going to have to rely on damage over time from flooding or fires.  I suggest hitting with the torp bombers first - if they cause flooding, even when there are DBs nearby, almost everyone will repair the flooding.  If they don't, just keep them in sight of your DBs - they'll either repair or let it go the entire time - yes, I've seen that - and you'll get the full flood damage, otherwise once they pop that damage control, you wait for it to expire, then light them on fire.  Some players will pop that damage control on flooding right away even if they see the DBs, gambling that you won't be able to set them on fire.  I have usually won that gamble with well setup DB drop - if most of those bombs hit, it usually causes at least one fire.

 

Some people like to go strike with the Independence, but I found that giving up the fighter squadron for only one DB squadron wasn't worth it, especially since if you encounter your T6 IJN counter part Ryujo, unless they are running the 3/1/1 flight module, they will have only one fighter squadron, and assuming equal upgrades and you aren't dogfighting over enemy ships, you should win nearly every time.  Three fighter to fighter encounters and they'll be out of fighters.  Go strike and anything but another strike Independence can shut you down or stall you badly, and you can't put enough squads in the air to keep that damage rolling in fast enough,  Two of the things I really liked when I moved from the Independence to the Ranger were 1: double the hangar capacity (37 -> 73 planes) and 2: four strike squadrons versus three.  That's enough to reliably alpha strike out a counter-part CV, or DOT him out if they don't use that damage control wisely, and enough squads in the air that at least a couple are always getting through to keep dispensing the damage.

[phydaux42]

The thing I'm noticing now is that my fighters are are much weaker.  I guess that's because my captain is still retraining and I don't have the fighter module upgraded yet.

[Surtosi]

 

Learn to love the 1-1-1 load out. you can do exceptionally well with it by learning to watch for ships coming off repair. you'll get arsonist and liquidator every day if you're patient and send out the fighters first and use the strikers one at a time. BBs could always hit you the minute you were spotted but now cruisers will start being able to too and that's when you learn about line of sight, islands, and predicting where the DDs are trying to skirt around to get to you.

1. PRO TIP: you're the quarterback of an all-passing game, stay in the pocket your friendlies make as best you can and no DD or DOOMDROP from the enemy CV will kill you. Try to hide on the map edge or stay in the spawn and you will die. a lot. with no damage. from me.
2. Pro Tip2: when you don't see the enemy planes, they're usually all grouped up somewhere. 6 squads is hard to learn to manage and even at T10 most players just DOOMDROP. If you're "skilled" you should get excited as now you can take your single fighter and strafe the whole blob to death, which evens up the numbers game pretty quick.
3. ProTip3: Until now everyone could do whatever they wanted and the match went either way, now you need to specialize and prioritize to win. Kill the targets most dangerous to yourself, then your BBs, then your CAs. Scout for your DDs hiding in their smoke and they will murder everything (money for nothing! Thanks spotting bonus!)
4. FinalTip: You've been burning/flooding the enemy, prioritizing ships most dangerous to you right? Don't discount your secondary guns, no enemy expects the CV to charge at them and if they're down to 1/3 health you have the firepower and hit points to win most of these engagements.  Too many times I've turned a match around by running down my pursuer while bombing the weakest enemy on the map. Double Strikes this way are the closest thing to a 360 no-scope headshot WOWS has to offer.
5.  

[Reyteitoku]

Its an okay cv, it just is somewhat gimped by mm. Took me like 5 games to be finally toptier for once. Stick with 1-1-1, its still the best unless you face a very bad t6 cv every game. Unlikely.

 

Not even ryujo hated so much beeing uptiered.

[StoneRhino]

Forget the Air Superiority loadout and just use stock, (1-1-1,)

 

If worst comes to worst; just blow off Randoms and play your CVs in Co-op.

 

Quoted for truth.

 

The manual skills are easy but take time to get good with.  Really just hold the "Alt" key and learn to aim.  You can also use the auto drop like a DD's lead indicator I showed someone not long ago in another thread as a learning tool.

 

Edit:  Found the thread.  Its a good stop gap until you get better.

http://forum.worldofwarships.com/index.php?/topic/113434-wheres-the-directions/

[Shadowrigger1]

What you need to know is the Independence is a Pile of crap, and you should use the  Ryujo.  Even in Co-Op you are going to be crap damage and receiving Crap XP. I can easily triple my damage and nearly double my XP in CO op using the IJN CVs over the US CVs.

[Palladia]

What you need to know is the Independence is a Pile of crap, and you should use the  Ryujo.  Even in Co-Op you are going to be crap damage and receiving Crap XP. I can easily triple my damage and nearly double my XP in CO op using the IJN CVs over the US CVs.

 

If you're doing crap damage in the Indy it's because you suck at manual drops.  Which,  honestly,  is fair.  I didn't really start getting the hang of them until the Ranger.

[Shadowrigger1]

 

If you're doing crap damage in the Indy it's because you suck at manual drops.  Which,  honestly,  is fair.  I didn't really start getting the hang of them until the Ranger.

 

manual drop bombs are pure RNG, it has NO skill involved at all.  

 

You get for your best load out,  1 fighter, 1 bomber, 1 torp  squadron.    compared to  1 fighers, 2 DBs 2 TBs on the IJN.       IJN DBs have a smaller manual drop radius making their bombs hit way more often than USN with a little less damage per squadron,  but who cares, you have 2, they have 1.

[Palladia]

 

manual drop bombs are pure RNG, it has NO skill involved at all.  

 

You get for your best load out,  1 fighter, 1 bomber, 1 torp  squadron.    compared to  1 fighers, 2 DBs 2 TBs on the IJN.       IJN DBs have a smaller manual drop radius making their bombs hit way more often than USN with a little less damage per squadron,  but who cares, you have 2, they have 1.

 

Manual drop torpedo bombers.  Exact opposite of RNG.  Dive bombers yeah,  we all know about that RNG man.  But USN torpedo bombers have about nine thousand less damage potential then IJN torpedo bombers at that tier. Course yeah,  you're right on dive bombers but USN have a better fighter squadron at that tier.  

 

That being said,  no one is going to argue that USN and IJN are balanced.  IJN has a clear advantage across most tiers and the tiers it doesn't,  is because it doesn't have an AS loadout.  Once it gets that it does literally everything better then USN does.  We've been complaining about it for quite a while now.  Used to it was...somewhat mitigated by the fact that the Essex and Midway were monsters,  meaning you had a real goal to work towards.  Now though?  Those ships suffer almost as bad as the rest of the line.

[Shadowrigger1]

That is the point,  manual drop DBs for USN are crap, the spread is too wide, so you have 1 squadron of marginal DBs that when they do hit, will hit hard. but the IJN will hit more often  and with 1 extra squadron making it a better damage dealer.

 

As for manual drop torpedoes.  USN have again 1 TB squadron who have too many planes in it,  they also have a Divergent spread making it harder to near impossible to hit all your toprs on a ship. they are not efficient at all, where as the IJN TBs have a Convergent spread and less planes making it MUCH easier to hit all torps on a target, and again, it has an extra TB squadron making the damage even better.

 

My whole point was, IJN CVs are Far superior for Credit and XP gain,  Co-op or PvP.   He needs to know that. because USN CVs are nothing but aggravating and hampered.

 

*edit..  Adding tot he Co-op aggravation, because of mirror match making, you are going to run into nothing but Opposing Independence's, where a lot of time they are going to run Air Superiority and completely shutting you down because their fighters are just going to lock you up.   In Co-op, it's a fast game, you are going to be getting so little XP in some matches it's like, What's the damn point ?

[Herr_Reitz]

Q: When they talk about redoing carriers - is this one aspect they intend to address? It makes zero sense to me that carriers would be so unbalanced against each other - it seems there is quite a gap between the USN and IJN, from everything I read on the forums. 

 

I forced myself to start playing carriers but now I'm starting to enjoy them. I'm not too far from the Independence - so another question would be - ought I stop at the Independence and switch over to the IJN line? 

 

I want to enjoy playing carriers - not be frustrated playing carriers ;-) 

[Carrier_Lexington]

Q: When they talk about redoing carriers - is this one aspect they intend to address? It makes zero sense to me that carriers would be so unbalanced against each other - it seems there is quite a gap between the USN and IJN, from everything I read on the forums. 

 

I forced myself to start playing carriers but now I'm starting to enjoy them. I'm not too far from the Independence - so another question would be - ought I stop at the Independence and switch over to the IJN line? 

 

I want to enjoy playing carriers - not be frustrated playing carriers ;-) 

 

Ranger is the upper limit, then, on how high you can go. Lexington has a frustrating grind (seriously? A 1/1/1 at T8, of all places?), and Essex and Midway demand excellent performance and/or a premium account in order to make any money out of them.

[Carrier_Lexington]

To the OP:

 

If you plan on playing AS, then you absolutely need to learn how to read the mini-map and predict where your opponent's planes are going to be. And that's a skill that, as a Strike/Balance(Midway Only) player, I can't help you with.

 

However, if it's a Strike CV you want to play, you have to learn how to evade and deal as much damage as you can in the short window that you have to deal it in. This means DoT stacking. Simply enough, if a ship was on-fire (enable the Alternate view and watch the healthbar closely) and is suddenly not, you can bomb and strike them to get DoT that will stick for its full period. Also, if no one is shooting HE at your target, send one of your dive-bomber squads or your torpedo squad to set it on-fire/flood it, then wait for them to burn damage control, and hit 'em with the remaining two squads.

[StoneRhino]

If you are playing an AS Independence just don't que up. Your aircraft kills are basically redundant because of higher AA in most games and you don't even have the damage potential to slow an enemy push if you need to. Strike you are at the mercy of any cv with fighters.

 

1-1-1 is the way to go hands down. You retain those destructive usn strafes with the damage potential to hammer any nail that sticks out.

[Herr_Reitz]

If you are playing an AS Independence just don't que up. Your aircraft kills are basically redundant because of higher AA in most games and you don't even have the damage potential to slow an enemy push if you need to. Strike you are at the mercy of any cv with fighters.

 

1-1-1 is the way to go hands down. You retain those destructive usn strafes with the damage potential to hammer any nail that sticks out.

 

Stone it seems so far so good... timing is an issue for me with the manual strafe and drops. I'll get it sooner than later tho ;-) I wonder how the OP is doing to date? 

[StoneRhino]

My default response it to just hold alt and learn to aim for the manual skills.

 

However my position has softened some since you have to learn the alt skills at t6.

 

http://forum.worldofwarships.com/index.php?/topic/113434-wheres-the-directions/page__pid__2842491#entry2842491

 

I left a post here with some pics about using the auto drop cone as a lead assist. Its not perfect but will give you a crutch until you get better. Strafe with usn fighters just spam it until you can aim better. Takes time but no different than learning to lead.

 

You can type in the op's name at warships.today and see how he did.

[Herr_Reitz]

Thanks - also went out and watched some iChaseGaming carrier video on manual drops. 

[StoneRhino]

Ichase is an amazing player as are most of the cv replayers. There is a really good set of videos on all things cv. Lost the link when phone updated but a little search fu in "General gameplay" should find the thread with the link

 

Edit:  Found it

http://forum.worldofwarships.com/index.php?/topic/124293-a-guide-to-carrier-gameplay-by-farazelleth-of-the-eu-server/page__p__3001360__hl__carriers%20learn#entry3001360