Some Thoughts on Clan Battles

[Thirsty13_CCW]

Dear Wargaming,

 

Some thoughts on clan battles now that they are underway and we've had a chance to play a few battles.

 

Maybe a couple of seasons down the road T10 would have been a good idea if everyone knew that was the eventual goal. It would have offered time to focus on grinding a line to properly earn a ship and be ready. The loaners are a nice idea but they way its been implemented is poor, Your asking me to take a ship I've never seen before potentially from a line I haven't spent much time playing and suddenly be competitive with it. Ohh and you won't let me mount even a standard camo. Thats not right and its not fair. The limited numbers of loaners and the fact that they rotate again puts loaner players at a disadvantage. Just when you start to figure a ship out you lose it and have to start again. Plus your potentially being forced to play with a ship that doesn't suit your play style. Especially since there is only one BB allowed per team.

 

Back during team battles you allowed mercenary players to join which meant a team that was a man or two short could still play. But in clan battles (the details of which were released only recently) we have to have 7 clan members to get into the fight and there are restrictions on people jumping around from clan to clan. I'm sure you can appreciate that for many of us slotting time to play isn't always easy. Families, lives, work, all have a way of taking our time. Especially given how long clans had to really recruit for ranked the lack of ability to have a mercenary or two is a fail on your part. 

 

So how would I fix it? First T10 is a bad idea this season but that ship sailed. So for a limited time allow players to choose any T10 they want and use it in ranked, clan, and co-op battles. This would allow players a little time to find a ship that suits them. At the deadline players would be able to choose one ship of each type for the remainder of ranked battles. Second loaner ships need to be able to mount at the very least a standard camo with the detectability and dispersion benefits. Third clans should be able to allow mercenaries into battles when not enough clan members are available. Having us sitting around hoping another clan member logs in so we can continue does not benefit anyone.

 

Thats's my two cents. What are yours?

[Viper069]

I think the biggest issue here is that you are playing Ranked battles.

[Spyde]

T10 has been amazing for Clan battles. So many ships work at T10 compared to the others.

 

 

I have seen all 4 battleships.  3 Are 100% Viable, 

I have seen all T10 Cruisers being Viable except The Mino.  

Destroyers can all be used except Grozovoi.

 

 

 

No other tier has this many Ships that can compete for balance.

[Kevik70]

32 minutes ago, Spyde said:

T10 has been amazing for Clan battles. So many ships work at T10 compared to the others.

 

 

I have seen all 4 battleships.  3 Are 100% Viable, 

I have seen all T10 Cruisers being Viable except The Mino.  

Destroyers can all be used except Grozovoi.

 

 

 

No other tier has this many Ships that can compete for balance.

All ships (except CV) can be used its just many of them are not as effective as others in ranked. (cough dds cough)

[Darksaint1071]

Seeing as I just cracked open my first Tier VIII ship, you can do the same as I have done... stay out of Clan Battles for now.

I know that I'm not ready for the highest level of game play yet, and when I am, I want it to be in a ship that I can be an adequate participant in. "Rentals" are a decent enough idea, but it's not for me.

In the mean time, there are still all sorts of options for an enjoyable evenings worth of game play.

[Kapitan_Wuff]

[DDGPhalanx]

2 hours ago, Ski206 said:

Some thoughts on ranked battles now that they are underway and we've had a chance to play a few battles.

 

Got excited, thought I missed something, then realized that when you say "ranked," you mean "clan". 

 

Anyways, for people who wanted to participate in clan battles, they promulgated the details over a month ago. Frankly, clan battles aren't the time to learn a new ship, just like ranked isn't the time to learn how to manual drop with a Ryu. I imagine people that are entering clan battles with rental ships aren't performing very well on the whole. 

 

The better strategy would seem to be that, knowing clan battles will be tier X only, one would build a clan and get acquainted with each other, and each other's ships, by divisioning in random battles. If your clan mates don't all have tier X ships to begin with, why put yourself at a competitive disadvantage by having a team full of players trying to learn on the fly against more experienced clans that already know their ships? 

 

Even if they allowed you mercenaries, and even if they made the changes to rental ships for you, all that would do is make your clan cannon fodder for the clans that have their own tier X's and the perks that come with them. You should understand that the majority of clans participating are people who have played together for a while, have good chemistry and superior understanding of the game, and will wipe the floor with clans that're getting their first taste of tier X play.

 

As for lowering the tier requirement for clan battles, doesn't that cheapen the mode, especially when you consider the rewards they're offering? All considered, it sounds like you want it to just be easier when this mode more than any other was designed for tournament-style competition. It's supposed to be the hardest, and most competitive, mode. So guys like me who don't do clans/teams, and guys like you who play more casually than competitively, shouldn't want to take away from those who had already peaked and needed a new challenge. 

[Ariokk]

2 hours ago, Spyde said:

T10 has been amazing for Clan battles. So many ships work at T10 compared to the others.

 

 

I have seen all 4 battleships.  3 Are 100% Viable, 

I have seen all T10 Cruisers being Viable except The Mino.  

Destroyers can all be used except Grozovoi.

 

 

 

No other tier has this many Ships that can compete for balance.

We've used Mino with some success in our clan's battles. It's not foolproof but there are ways to implement it.

 

[Thirsty13_CCW]

13 hours ago, DDGPhalanx said:

 

Got excited, thought I missed something, then realized that when you say "ranked," you mean "clan". 

Edited my post and fixed the "ranked" error. Not sure how I managed to screw that up.

13 hours ago, DDGPhalanx said:

 

Anyways, for people who wanted to participate in clan battles, they promulgated the details over a month ago. Frankly, clan battles aren't the time to learn a new ship, just like ranked isn't the time to learn how to manual drop with a Ryu. I imagine people that are entering clan battles with rental ships aren't performing very well on the whole. 

 

The better strategy would seem to be that, knowing clan battles will be tier X only, one would build a clan and get acquainted with each other, and each other's ships, by divisioning in random battles. If your clan mates don't all have tier X ships to begin with, why put yourself at a competitive disadvantage by having a team full of players trying to learn on the fly against more experienced clans that already know their ships? 

So we've had a month to recruit enough people to a clan that we will want to play with and can get online in large enough groups at the right time. Frankly that's not a lot of time if your clan isn't going to take all comers. Also a month isn't a lot of time to try and level up to a T10 ship if your not someone who plays constantly. As fate would have it I cashed in free XP for the Mo not long before the details came out which meant I couldn't just free XP my way to a T10 ship. I appreciate that rentals are being made available but its would be nice if WG allowed rental players a bit more of a chance to find a ship that works for them and get some play time in it. And lets be honest the lack of camo is just plain stupid. 

13 hours ago, DDGPhalanx said:

 

Even if they allowed you mercenaries, and even if they made the changes to rental ships for you, all that would do is make your clan cannon fodder for the clans that have their own tier X's and the perks that come with them. You should understand that the majority of clans participating are people who have played together for a while, have good chemistry and superior understanding of the game, and will wipe the floor with clans that're getting their first taste of tier X play.

 

As for lowering the tier requirement for clan battles, doesn't that cheapen the mode, especially when you consider the rewards they're offering? All considered, it sounds like you want it to just be easier when this mode more than any other was designed for tournament-style competition. It's supposed to be the hardest, and most competitive, mode. So guys like me who don't do clans/teams, and guys like you who play more casually than competitively, shouldn't want to take away from those who had already peaked and needed a new challenge. 

If my clan is cannon fodder for a group of highly skilled players then so be it. If their skill is greater than ours they deserve to win. I'm not looking for easy. I'm looking to create a level playing field. That I can choose a ship that suites my play style and equip her with the same performance enhancements available to anyone else doesn't cheapen the mode. In fact it enhances it because it means I'm not forced into battle with a handicap. If people really want a challenge then they should want the mode to be as competitive as possible. the current rental scheme does not promote that.

 

Side note a number of well known commentators have remarked on the fact that most completive play takes place at T8 not T10. But as I said that ship has sailed.

 

[Pope_Shizzle]

The game is 2 years old.  It can't constantly cater to the lowest common denominator.  End tier ships need end tier content.  Tier 10 is the only tier that matters.  It's the top tier.  It's what you grind for.  Tier 10 is where the best ships are. Tier 10 is the best balanced tier in the game.  Why even have tier 9 and 10 ships if all they are is port decorations?

[renegadestatuz]

9 minutes ago, Pope_Shizzle said:

The game is 2 years old.  It can't constantly cater to the lowest common denominator.  End tier ships need end tier content.  Tier 10 is the only tier that matters.  It's the top tier.  It's what you grind for.  Tier 10 is where the best ships are. Tier 10 is the best balanced tier in the game.  Why even have tier 9 and 10 ships if all they are is port decorations?

[RadSammichEater]

11 minutes ago, Pope_Shizzle said:

The game is 2 years old.  It can't constantly cater to the lowest common denominator.  End tier ships need end tier content.  Tier 10 is the only tier that matters.  It's the top tier.  It's what you grind for.  Tier 10 is where the best ships are. Tier 10 is the best balanced tier in the game.  Why even have tier 9 and 10 ships if all they are is port decorations?

This. Of all things that motivated me for tier 10 in this game...clan battles have been a huge motivation to finish grinds. 

[Thirsty13_CCW]

So Great use clan battles as a motivator.  But you need to allow enough time for people to react. Most players aren't going to be able to leap up to T10 in a month. So announce season one in T8 and all subsequent seasons in T10.  That gives people time to react and focus their grinds towards ships they want to use they next series.

 

But that didn't happen and what we have isn't optimal either hence the subject of my post. I'm not ant T10 for clan battles. I'm just opposed to how they did it this time around.