Stubborn Red Stains?

[Spud_butt]

hi fellow skippers. tired of those stubborn red stains on your WT signature? just can't seem to get them out? keep coming back on you after a couple bad days? do your red stats have you down?

there's a solution that actually works! I am not talking about rerolling, hacks or quitting the game. this one really works!

1) find a way to take ownership of your mistakes, errors and weaknesses in the game. LWM's guide is very helpful. there are players that will go into a training battle or comment on your replays.

2) beg, borrow or steal some patience. it will require a lot.

3) figure out what type, and the line of ships you like best, and that works best for you.

4) set up some guidelines so you can have more fun and less frustration in the game. 

patience was the toughest for me. my biggest weakness in the game was being too aggressive, and rushing/pushing forward exposed, with no support, so I had to find a way to be patient in game. at 2600 random battles, I had solid red stats. every category was red. I will not be satisfied with average stats, it will take me thousands of battles to effect the change i'm looking for. buttloads of patience.

at 2600+ random battles, I pulled my ishizuchi out of mothballs, where I had parked it due to horrid early results. with it's fast reload, accuracy, high speed, decent turn rate, and crap AA, it plays more like an IJN CC. after I learned about starting fires (it's a little torch), and staying back near max range (armor blows vs other T4/T5 BBs), the only thing that was getting to me was the pile of crap directed at me in battle chat. I was staying alive late into the battles, doing a lot of damage, carrying the team occasionally, which was a new experience, and having some fun seal clubbing. after a dozen battles, discovered that I was so focused on the battle I didn't have time to respond nor care about battle chat. that really helped with enjoying the game. helping to win some battles did too!!

with the CC like play in the itchy, decided to pull my takao out of mothballs. I had a riot, with basically the same playstyle as the itchy plus some pretty good torps on board. used the Takao for a while, partly to train the captain, and partly for free XP to get into the mogami, which was a pretty easy transition. wasn't really paying attention to my stats, but they were climbing significantly. I was having more fun with and in the game, which is more important that stats. atago went on sale, I read all the reviews, and bought one. 1st ship purchase in the game, and absolutely love it. the ship may be a bit OPed, but helped to give me some confidence that was badly lacking with lousy results and stats. between the mogami, takao and atago, got my captain up to 17 points, collected a few credits, piled on the XP, and it got even more fun. 

about halfway up the Ibuki grind, and it IS a grind. see elsewhere for comments, videos and guides about the ibuki, it's a prime example of a WG booby trap bomb. even so, i'm hanging in there a bit above average stats, and for the most part enjoying the boat for limited battles. looking forward to the zao, think it will fit my playstyle well. by the time I am into the zao, will have well over 3k random battles in. this is how long it took me to figure out which type I belong it, which line, and some clue of how to play them. patience is required.

i set some simple guidelines to reduce the frustration. after 3 consecutive blowout losses, i'm done for the night. i might play one of my non-favorite ships in CoOp, other than that, mostly just step away. the losses have to be blowout losses, if they are close, hard fought, fun battles, losing is not a big thing. in a blowout loss, MM and RNG figure to play, and i don't want to deal with feelings of futility in the game. had more than my quota of that.

one other thing has evolved for me in the last couple hundred battles. every ship in the game has a role. i utterly, totally suck, and i do mean the vacuum of deep space suck, in the orion, which showed up in my port magically. utterly hate the play style, just the turret turn rate all by itself kills me, i don't WANT to have patience for that. so i re-purchased my isokaze, minekaze and even the muttsucky. 3rd battle in the iso, there were 4 (four) orions. i sank three of them. see! even british BBs have a role!

got rid off all the red in my sig except one, and it's now a flashing red light, alternating with orange. while i prefer having one block of each color, with the black background, it's satisfying to see improvement. also, WT system is a flawed system, but does serve as a good indicator of tendencies, patterns and improvements. it's best not to try to use it as anything else.

i certainly have a long, long way to go, and a LOT left to learn in the game. currently i am working on ammo switching as needed, i seem to have a knack for always having HE loaded when the CAs are broadside to me.... lol.

any player that has improved their stats significantly, over a long period of time, is more than welcome to post thoughts on this, a couple of you helped me considerably during my darkest (red) months.

[cheereereerios]

Just want to say good job, the recent numbers show a steady and sustained climb in performance, so it's real. It's happening!

[Stauffenberg44]

23 minutes ago, not_acceptable said:

i set some simple guidelines to reduce the frustration. after 3 consecutive blowout losses, i'm done for the night. i might play one of my non-favorite ships in CoOp, other than that, mostly just step away.

Exactly what I do. I call it "Not at home for Mr. Losing Streak thanks!"

It is the defeats that are handed to you as an MM diktat that chafes most players; e.g. a team that refuses to contest caps and forms a fishball to one side as the sharks scoop up the caps and close in on them, picking them off one by one--so much for 'safety in numbers.'

These foregone conclusion losses (even when you clearly played well yourself at least) are irksome as you are basically wasting valuable time just to feel aggravated. Now and then would be fine, but it is daily.

[Spud_butt]

1 minute ago, Stauffenberg44 said:

Exactly what I do. I call it "Not at home for Mr. Losing Streak thanks!"

It is the defeats that are handed to you as an MM diktat that chafes most players; e.g. a team that refuses to contest caps and forms a fishball to one side as the sharks scoop up the caps and close in on them, picking them off one by one--so much for 'safety in numbers.'

These foregone conclusion losses (even when you clearly played well yourself at least) are irksome as you are basically wasting valuable time just to feel aggravated. Now and then would be fine, but it is daily.

well put. and i LOVE the 'fishball' reference. in fact, i am going to steal that, and use it in place of 'lemming train' from now on, as it has a nautical ring to it.

[Stauffenberg44]

6 minutes ago, not_acceptable said:

well put. and i LOVE the 'fishball' reference. in fact, i am going to steal that, and use it in place of 'lemming train' from now on, as it has a nautical ring to it.

Yes it does! Here's an image to go with it:

[Lert]

Can't believe I not only agree with a post from not_acceptable, but even upvoted it. But, there you have it.

I've always said that setting and achieving goals is worthy of respect and congratulations and I stick with what I said.

[cheereereerios]

Btw, not sure if you have tried or not yet, but next time ranked comes along, make sure to play it. It will really reinforce the lessons you are learning, probably give you new ones to slowly integrate, and result in another burst of improvement.

I played in Season 5 but just a few games. Made steady progress and then didn't achieve my goal of ranking out in Season 6 (with 300-something games played in that season). Kept playing, watching videos, improving my own play, and ranked out this last season for the first time (around 250 games). And my random numbers since then have been much, MUCH higher than before.

Patience is huge! (That, and listening to your inner voice saying "this is a bad idea THIS IS A BAD IDEA!")

[Spud_butt]

2 minutes ago, Lert said:

Can't believe I not only agree with a post from not_acceptable, but even upvoted it. But, there you have it.

I've always said that setting and achieving goals is worthy of respect and congratulations and I stick with what I said.

thank you, thank you ver ver mush, lert. there is nothing, and i do mean nothing, quite as satisfying as a grudging, reluctant compliment.

and BTW, you were one of the players who posted some comments that really helped me out a couple months ago, when i was strongly considering a frustration quit.

while you're around, do you think it's possible to get two types down, or are the challenges and complexity such that it would be above the capabilities of a player (like me) that has taken a long, long time with some significant struggles to start getting one type and line down??

[Lert]

Just now, not_acceptable said:

While you're around, do you think it's possible to get two types down, or are the challenges and complexity such that it would be above the capabilities of a player (like me) that has taken a long, long time with some significant struggles to start getting one type and line down??

Best way to improve I've found is to concentrate on one playstyle of ship. Like you said in your OP, Ishizuchi and Takao / Atago for example, play very similarly. If you alternate playstyles a lot you'll spend more time readjusting than improving. Tomorrow is another day, you can play the different playstyle ship then.

I see the same when I switch from, say, Blyskawica to Alabama or Arizona. I love all three of those ships, but after a few rounds in Blyskawica my Alabama / Arizona game is balls, and vice versa.

[Spud_butt]

4 minutes ago, cheereereerios said:

Btw, not sure if you have tried or not yet, but next time ranked comes along, make sure to play it. It will really reinforce the lessons you are learning, probably give you new ones to slowly integrate, and result in another burst of improvement.

I played in Season 5 but just a few games. Made steady progress and then didn't achieve my goal of ranking out in Season 6 (with 300-something games played in that season). Kept playing, watching videos, improving my own play, and ranked out this last season for the first time (around 250 games). And my random numbers since then have been much, MUCH higher than before.

Patience is huge! (That, and listening to your inner voice saying "this is a bad idea THIS IS A BAD IDEA!")

yeah, played ranked, and got up to rank 11 before overwhelmed with frustration. and yes, my stats and enjoyment both had a significant uptick in random afterward.

my inner voice is used to being ignored. this may sound strange, but after starting to listen and respond to it in game, with generally very good results, i started listening and responding at work, and what was passing as my dating life.... and a couple months later i was just offered a really good job that my inner voice said 'apply' and i did (for a change), and dumped my GF, which was badly overdue. it was actually far easier than admitting my errors and play style was causing a big chunk of the losses, low enjoyment and poor stats in the game. so this is a case of game stuff working in real life.

[Spud_butt]

10 minutes ago, Lert said:

Best way to improve I've found is to concentrate on one playstyle of ship. Like you said in your OP, Ishizuchi and Takao / Atago for example, play very similarly. If you alternate playstyles a lot you'll spend more time readjusting than improving. Tomorrow is another day, you can play the different playstyle ship then.

I see the same when I switch from, say, Blyskawica to Alabama or Arizona. I love all three of those ships, but after a few rounds in Blyskawica my Alabama / Arizona game is balls, and vice versa.

good points, i do have major issues adjusting and readjusting to playstyles. just 2 battles in the orion, in which i was nowhere close to adapting successfully, took me 4 battles to get back into the ibuki.

it might have helped if i had mentioned that playing the isokaze, minekaze and muttsucki felt strangely similar to the IJN CAs at a slightly higher speed, with the capacity to cap and contest before the red CAs showed up. even improved some with a few more torp hits, which translated back to the ibuki nicely. i keep forgetting the ibuki torps are available, and good. do you see a similarity there, or was that an anomaly that will just screw up my overall play??

[PrairiePlayer]

I had a bit of the same experience in the Zao.  I started out playing very well with the Zao by staying at range and unloading HE on any target I could reach.  My damage and kill rates were well above average, win rate was decent and I was having a good time with the ship.  Then I started listening to comments in chat accusing me of being a coward because I was not charging caps and generally mixing it up.  I changed playing style and tried to be much more aggressive and my game went straight down the toilet.  

 

I am trying to get my old Zao mojo back by playing the way the ship should be played and I can see a little progress (very little so far).  I intend to get back to enjoying the ship but it will take a lot of patience and I agree with the "three and out" rule with poor losses.  It was my own fault for even paying attention to chat but lesson learned.    

[cheereereerios]

For different playstyles/ship types, it likely just depends on the player. I play all three types (lol) and find it helps since I can generally know what that sort of ship is likely to do, where they are probably running to, etc.

[Spud_butt]

10 hours ago, PrairiePlayer said:

It was my own fault for even paying attention to chat but lesson learned.    

it's hard NOT to listen to chat, when you want to be a good team player. when I just say 'screw it' and play the way I know the ship works best, i'm so into what to do next that there's no time to read the chat, much less adjust my play for it. sometimes it's sort of amazing watching the replay, and seeing how pissed off the entire team of potatoes was.

7 hours ago, cheereereerios said:

For different playstyles/ship types, it likely just depends on the player. I play all three types (lol) and find it helps since I can generally know what that sort of ship is likely to do, where they are probably running to, etc.

you have about twice the numbers of battles I do, and even if I hit unicum for the next 3k battles I play, will not have your stats. pretty sure I am not functioning at the same level you are. I might try working some DD play into the mix, but don't think i'm going back to BBs much anymore, it's just more of a switch than I can handle with ease. holy crap, just read 27 battles at almost 60% win rate yesterday? at T8? I think I just stat crapped myself.

[Junkieturtle]

I use Tide to get rid of red stains.

Yeah, I went there...

[DDJohnston]

22 hours ago, Stauffenberg44 said:

Exactly what I do. I call it "Not at home for Mr. Losing Streak thanks!"

It is the defeats that are handed to you as an MM diktat that chafes most players; e.g. a team that refuses to contest caps and forms a fishball to one side as the sharks scoop up the caps and close in on them, picking them off one by one--so much for 'safety in numbers.'

These foregone conclusion losses (even when you clearly played well yourself at least) are irksome as you are basically wasting valuable time just to feel aggravated. Now and then would be fine, but it is daily.

I try to honestly look at the losses and see if I made a mistake, or if I could have done better.. If I made a mistake, fine, I'll learn from it.  .If not, then I don't count it as a loss in my mind.  For example, a loss where I did good damage, tried to win, but the rest of the team just wasn't up to it, and I finished #2...I just shrug and go on.  

I also ignore anything toxic in battle chat.  I'll take direction if someone with a clue is giving them; i.e. if they make sense.  Anyone grandstanding or toxic, I just ignore.  If you come to my port after the battle to curse at me, you'll get reported and blocked.  I have no time in my life or game for negative people and/or a holes.

I do use the CoOp escape sometimes, too, though.  

[DDJohnston]

5 hours ago, Junkieturtle said:

I use Tide to get rid of red stains.

Yeah, I went there...

What do you do for the brown ones?  (Red shirt, brown pants, right?)

 

[Stauffenberg44]

29 minutes ago, mavfin87 said:

I try to honestly look at the losses and see if I made a mistake, or if I could have done better.. If I made a mistake, fine, I'll learn from it.  .If not, then I don't count it as a loss in my mind.  For example, a loss where I did good damage, tried to win, but the rest of the team just wasn't up to it, and I finished #2...I just shrug and go on.  

Yes my bottom line is feeling I played well, or at least half-decent, win or lose.

I am starting to seriously consider Coop as a safety valve finally.

[DDJohnston]

12 minutes ago, Stauffenberg44 said:

Yes my bottom line is feeling I played well, or at least half-decent, win or lose.

I am starting to seriously consider Coop as a safety valve finally.

After a couple of coop games the frustration eases, and I can go back if I'm still in the mood for WoWS.  I think of it as a cooldown period before stopping or continuing for that session.  

[Spud_butt]

15 hours ago, Junkieturtle said:

I use Tide to get rid of red stains.

Yeah, I went there...

yeah, so did I. tag #1 "tide"

it also works on brown and green stains as well.

[Spud_butt]

dammit !!

red stain is back AGAIN !! must have had [edited]major string of defeats in their somewhere.... 

I know at one point as a DD main, my W/L was at 42.83%, WTR was 724, avg damage was 13k, and EXP was only 486, but for crying out loud, that was only for a couple months and 1000 battles or so??

L M A O  oh, well, I have to go to work now...  :o(