Essex

[C6tom]

I have played Carriers for a long time. I have played only American Carriers and I have both premiums. Now I am not going to consider myself a expert CV player but I don't really consider myself a horrible one either. I have generally done at least average in every carrier I've played. ( Saipan, Enterprise and Midway being my favorites). Now being a History buff I really wanted to like  the Essex and use it well but as you can see from my stats I do horrible in the Essex and i'm not sure why.  Does anyone have tips for playing the Essex especially now that it has only the one load out?  ( I did horrible in the Ranger as well but no one likes the ranger)

Thanks for any and all help. 

[Ducc_ducc]

Have you played IJN CVs? In particular hiryu, play it like a hiryu.

[LordBenjamin]

25 minutes ago, C6tom said:

I have played Carriers for a long time. I have played only American Carriers and I have both premiums. Now I am not going to consider myself a expert CV player but I don't really consider myself a horrible one either. I have generally done at least average in every carrier I've played. ( Saipan, Enterprise and Midway being my favorites). Now being a History buff I really wanted to like  the Essex and use it well but as you can see from my stats I do horrible in the Essex and i'm not sure why.  Does anyone have tips for playing the Essex especially now that it has only the one load out?  ( I did horrible in the Ranger as well but no one likes the ranger)

Thanks for any and all help. 

 

Pre-match look at the enemy ships AA ratings to see which BBs you can safely strike and which to avoid.

Dive bombers are quite good, I personally use HE and like to look to drop them on destroyers early in the game.   Keep them loitering around if allies are shooting at the DD even if they're getting shot down.    I try to keep planes alive in mid-match if enemy is clumped together or other CV is active in using his fighters to protect the fleet.   I usually pull them between east/west  hoping to drag his fighters over bombers or forcing them to take a longer path around an AA bubble.    While it's nice to keep your bombers/fighters together sometimes a CV player will focus on trying to shoot down your torpedo bombers over your dive bombers.   If that's the case keep your torp planes on one side and DBs on the other and they'll sometimes avoid the DBs.  Having full squads late game when AA guns are destroyed by HE and they're the last on their flank is pretty key towards turning some losses into a win.  

If it sounds like I'm advocating being passive don't be like that, just don't be reckless with plane losses