Cleveland Captain for Ranked

[gillhunter]

Assuming that the up-coming ranked season will be tier 6 how would you set up your skills on a 13 point captain? 

[RipNuN2]

If you plan to use all points, I would think PT, PM, EM, AR, DE, and CE would work well. If you are concerned about CVs you could change it up for more AA focused skills if you want.

[Admiral_Oblivious]

I would argue for IFHE over CE. From personal experience my performance in the cleveland after switching was like night and day. I went from sucking and ready to give up on US CA/L's altogether to preforming moderately well to quite good, making the cleve my favorite cruiser. 

[FloatingTankAce]

I have a 13 pt captain and hopefully will be 14 points soon. 

I currently have PT, EM, Vigilance, and IFHE. When I get 14, I will get CE. IFHE is great but I really think the concealment will be a huge help in all scenarios. 

[RadSammichEater]

With a 13 point captain I'd still take IFHE first and use the extra penetration damage to your advantage. Depending on the map, you can use the islands to conceal yourself...or your friendly Farragut's smoke.

 

My build in order of priority:

1) Priority Target

2) Adrenaline Rush

3) Demo Expert

4) IFHE (this is your 10th point, save the 3 you have for another 4 pointer)

 

Now comes your next skills:

5) Concealment Expert

6) AFT

7) Your 19th point would be Preventative maintenance in my opinion.

 

That's how I have mine set up for now. The order of priority can be swapped if needed, but I feel like that's a stong build. Expert Marksman can be swapped in place of Adrenaline Rush if you feel like the turrets are too slow for swapping targets. Also to note...if you have an Atlanta, this build works great for it.

[ForgMaxtor]

My Cleveland skipper is currently at 15 points and I have him built like this, with one point currently unassigned:

 

- Priority Target:  IMHO mandatory for all cruisers.

 

- Expert Marksman:  I also love Adrenaline Rush but I hate losing shots of opportunity at things like DDs because I can't spin my turrets around fast enough to get a shot off before they disappear.

 

- Demolition Expert:  To maintain a decent fire chance with IFHE.

 

- IFHE:  REALLY ups your damage output potential, especially against angled or nose-in BBs.  In Ranked, everyone is going to be running premium consumables and all the signal flags they can mount, so fires are going to burn shorter and cause less damage; this makes direct HE damage more desirable.

 

- Concealment Expert:  Helps your survivability considerably; the best armor is not being hit at all because they don't see you.

 

So, to return to the OP's query re: what do do with a 13 point captain, I'd probably do as above taking IFHE first, and grind as much as you can between now and the actual start of Ranked to get that 14th point so you can get CE, if not right as the start of Ranked then not too long into the season.

 

Worth noting I run my Cleveland with AAMod2 in the second slot, giving me 6.0km long-range AA, which I think gives me sufficient of AA to defend myself and my team.  I do not see the need for BFT to further boost AA for Ranked, as any enemy CV in ranked is guaranteed to be T6 -- even without buffs, Cleveland's AA eats T6 planes for breakfast.  In Randoms, Cleveland's AA is even a significant threat to T8 planes. 
 

Hypothetically, if I had a 19 points Cleveland captain, especially for Ranked I'd probably take Vigilance next (since I run Defensive Fire and not Hydro in the consumable slot), and then Adrenaline Rush.  I doubt CVs will be all that popular in this Ranked season, but if I'm wrong about this and there are CVs in nearly every Ranked battle, then I can see an argument for getting AFT with the 15-18 points to get the DF panic bubble all the way out to 7.2km followed by Dual Catapult Fighter with the 19th point, which in addition to further strengthening anti-air can function as a poor man's Vigilance for detecting torps and nearby DDs.

[AJTP89]

I have a 10pt. (I think, not quite 14 yet at least).

I run PT, EM, DE, IFHE.

Next will be AFT, toss up between SI and BFT. Then DCCA and PM. We'll how soon it gets moved to T8 (dedicated cpt on it).

 

I also run the traverse mod. Keeping those turrets on target through tight turns is key for surivability.

 

I can see a case for CE too, but I'm doing fine as is.

[centarina]

I have my cleveland with   pt/ar/de/ifhe      in the mod, I run turret traverse module which takes the reload to 8.4 sec 

[HMCS_Devilfish]

Cleveland is a ship were I put all the Captain skills into guns so it would do as much damage as possible,The AA already rocks on this boat so any energy put there other than flying AA flag is wasted for me, moduals I went with rudder shift to avoid shots

luckly I have Steven Segal as Captain this give you faster shell switch 1.9 seconds when loaded and faster turrets with expert marksmen, set up with guns it has done as much damage at times as my X Zao

 

do use anything that reduces fire on the Cleveland.. it burns easy