Premium ship captains

[Crucis]

Question:  Do you guys use dedicated captains for your premium ships or do you use premium ships as trainers for your regular tech tree ships' captains?

I have always done the latter, but I have to say that occasionally one runs into a premium ship that has captain skill needs that don't mesh well with your regular captains.  The Atlanta is a glaring example, since it's nominally a cruiser, though it seems to do better with DD captains.  At the same time, I don't take AFT on my USN DD captains, but it can be useful on the Atlanta.

Another more current case for me is the Kutuzov.  It seems to be a ship that really does a lot better if you have IFHE.  But my Moskva captain doesn't have IFHE and IFHE really isn't a skill that's needed for the Moskva.  (He's only at 18 points anyways, but when I get the 19th skill point, I'll have 4 to spend, so I'm stuck between taking a skill to suit the Moskva or a skill to suit the Kutuzov.)  Also, I noted that neither of my other 2 highly skilled Russian captains (my Grozovoi and Khab captains) are well suited to the Kutuzov either.

 

So I'm curious what people would do in this sort of situation.  Just go with an inferior captain that's built for a regular tech tree ship, or possibly tweak a regular tech tree ship's captain to be good for both?  With the Moskva and Kutuzov, from the most popular captain builds there seems to be only one major difference.  The suggested Moskva captain takes AFT, whereas the suggested Kutuzov captain takes IFHE.  Everything else is the same.  

 

Opinions?  Comments?  Flames?

 

 

[Ulthwey]

You use premium ships to train your tech tree captains. 

For example, I use my KGV captain on Hood, Nelson, and Duke of York.

Trying to train individual captains for every premium ship you have is a waste of time and effort.

[Harv72b]

14 minutes ago, Crucis said:

So I'm curious what people would do in this sort of situation.  Just go with an inferior captain that's built for a regular tech tree ship, or possibly tweak a regular tech tree ship's captain to be good for both?  With the Moskva and Kutuzov, from the most popular captain builds there seems to be only one major difference.  The suggested Moskva captain takes AFT, whereas the suggested Kutuzov captain takes IFHE.  Everything else is the same.

Once you've hit 19 points, there's no real training that can be done with that captain so you might as well set him up for the non-premium ship of your choice and then start working on another Soviet captain with your Kutuzov.  The same would go for any line/ship combination, unless of course you use your premium so much that it would benefit you more to keep that captain spec'd for the Kutuzov (or whatever premium).

Up until that 19th point it's generally going to be best to spec the captain for the premium ship, since you're generally going to be earning more captain XP in the premium vs. a regular tech tree ship.  That's assuming that you're willing/able to spend the doubloons to re-spec him once you hit 19.

[Crucis]

27 minutes ago, Ulthwey said:

You use premium ships to train your tech tree captains. 

For example, I use my KGV captain on Hood, Nelson, and Duke of York.

Trying to train individual captains for every premium ship you have is a waste of time and effort.

 

That's what I do.  I'm no newbie here.  I was really asking about more of a corner case.  Of course. I use premium ships to train captains.  That's a huge DUH.   I was just curious about people's opinions regarding a corner case like this, rather than premium ship captains in general.

Plus, there aren't that many premium ships that I've found that seem to have slightly to strongly unique requirements that set them apart from normal line ships.  The Atlanta is probably one of the most extreme cases.  

It just sorta stinks that the Kutuzov seems to perform at its best with a captain that's not perfectly suited to the Moskva.  Though honestly, it probably would be well suited for lesser tier regular tech tree Russian cruisers, since they're light cruisers rather than heavy cruisers.

 

[Crucis]

14 minutes ago, Harv72b said:

Once you've hit 19 points, there's no real training that can be done with that captain so you might as well set him up for the non-premium ship of your choice and then start working on another Soviet captain with your Kutuzov.  The same would go for any line/ship combination, unless of course you use your premium so much that it would benefit you more to keep that captain spec'd for the Kutuzov (or whatever premium).

Up until that 19th point it's generally going to be best to spec the captain for the premium ship, since you're generally going to be earning more captain XP in the premium vs. a regular tech tree ship.  That's assuming that you're willing/able to spend the doubloons to re-spec him once you hit 19.

You might not be training THAT captain per se, but 19 point captains in premium ships are great for grinding out that Elite Captain's XP, which is very, very useful to have.

[UltimateNewbie]

1 hour ago, Crucis said:

Question:  Do you guys use dedicated captains for your premium ships or do you use premium ships as trainers for your regular tech tree ships' captains?

I have always done the latter, but I have to say that occasionally one runs into a premium ship that has captain skill needs that don't mesh well with your regular captains.  The Atlanta is a glaring example, since it's nominally a cruiser, though it seems to do better with DD captains.  At the same time, I don't take AFT on my USN DD captains, but it can be useful on the Atlanta.

Another more current case for me is the Kutuzov.  It seems to be a ship that really does a lot better if you have IFHE.  But my Moskva captain doesn't have IFHE and IFHE really isn't a skill that's needed for the Moskva.  (He's only at 18 points anyways, but when I get the 19th skill point, I'll have 4 to spend, so I'm stuck between taking a skill to suit the Moskva or a skill to suit the Kutuzov.)  Also, I noted that neither of my other 2 highly skilled Russian captains (my Grozovoi and Khab captains) are well suited to the Kutuzov either.

 

So I'm curious what people would do in this sort of situation.  Just go with an inferior captain that's built for a regular tech tree ship, or possibly tweak a regular tech tree ship's captain to be good for both?  With the Moskva and Kutuzov, from the most popular captain builds there seems to be only one major difference.  The suggested Moskva captain takes AFT, whereas the suggested Kutuzov captain takes IFHE.  Everything else is the same.  

 

Opinions?  Comments?  Flames?

 

 

Its a good question.  For instance, the skills for Belfast (DE, IFHE) are really not a good match for the rest of the UK CL line. I've been using my UK CL captains on the Belfast unmodified though, despite not being optimised for the Belfast.

I still do OK in the Belfast, but I think it is one of those ships where if you want to be the very best in her then you'll need a dedicated captain with DE and IFHE. 

 

Train > gain. 

[Crucis]

6 minutes ago, UltimateNewbie said:

Its a good question.  For instance, the skills for Belfast (DE, IFHE) are really not a good match for the rest of the UK CL line. I've been using my UK CL captains on the Belfast unmodified though, despite not being optimiased for the Belfast.

I still do OK in the Belfast, but I think it is one of those ships where if you want to be the very best in her then you'll need a dedicated captain with DE and IFHE. 

 

Train > gain. 

I have the Belfast, but don't play her a lot.  I don't recall if her HE shells desperately need IFHE or not to function respectably.  From what I saw in my first battle in the Kutuzov and from what I've read, it does seem like the Kutu does really need IFHE to perform well and not end up with lots of shatters.

I have to admit that I'm not a real fan of premium ships that don't synergize well with ships of the same ship type in the same navy.  Like you say, it makes using them effectively more difficult.  The Atlanta and Belfast may be more extreme cases than the Kutuzov.  The Atlanta is sorta like a DD on a cruiser hull, and isn't really a great cruiser trainer.  For all her faults, the Indianapolis is a better fit for regular USN cruiser captains, particularly heavy cruiser captains.

 

[FlashTX]

I use my tech tree captains in the premiums to train them in most cases.  However with ships like the Dunkerque have no tech tree, so I have been moving my CA captains in and out.  This is not an ideal choice using  CA captains in a BB, but I figured it was worth it and it has worked out just fine so far.  Now with a French BB line coming I will make a dedicated BB captain for the Dunkerque to use until the French BB line comes out then I will transfer it to a French tech tree BB.

[knice_destroyer]

@Crucis is a giant noob but has a sick mustache.   He can be on my team anytime.

[Crucis]

7 minutes ago, knice_destroyer said:

@Crucis is a giant noob but has a sick mustache.   He can be on my team anytime.

LOL.

 

You funny.  

[Crucis]

13 minutes ago, FlashTX1 said:

I use my tech tree captains in the premiums to train them in most cases.  However with ships like the Dunkerque have no tech tree, so I have been moving my CA captains in and out.  This is not an ideal choice using  CA captains in a BB, but I figured it was worth it and it has worked out just fine so far.  Now with a French BB line coming I will make a dedicated BB captain for the Dunkerque to use until the French BB line comes out then I will transfer it to a French tech tree BB.

I imagine a lot of people have been in the same (pardon the pun) boat with the Dunkerque, Flash.  I know that I have.  And I've done the same thing.  Though with the French BB line coming soon, I think that you're right that it's time to start thinking about making a new captain trained up with BB skills.  Or maybe take a risky approach.  If you have a French captain sitting in your reserve that's a 10/10 (10 unspent skill points), maybe stick him in the Dunkerque but don't assign any skills.  Just collect more captain's XP and wait until the French BB's come out before assigning the skill points.

[AlcatrazNC]

It really depend on the ship.

 

I use my Shinonome to both make credit and training commander/retraining commander of my Yuugumo. If I have to retrain my BB commander for instance, I'll put her in the ship I want her to be and use camo+signal to quickly retrain her.

 

My Gangut has a dedicated commander since it's the only Russian BB. But I can use her as a training ship if I decide to unlock my Donskoi or Khab someday. Same thing with Spee.

 

I like to have at least a 10pt commander on every ship premium ship I own. 

[UltimateNewbie]

20 minutes ago, Crucis said:

I have the Belfast, but don't play her a lot.  I don't recall if her HE shells desperately need IFHE or not to function respectably.  From what I saw in my first battle in the Kutuzov and from what I've read, it does seem like the Kutu does really need IFHE to perform well and not end up with lots of shatters.

I have to admit that I'm not a real fan of premium ships that don't synergize well with ships of the same ship type in the same navy.  Like you say, it makes using them effectively more difficult.  The Atlanta and Belfast may be more extreme cases than the Kutuzov.  The Atlanta is sorta like a DD on a cruiser hull, and isn't really a great cruiser trainer.  For all her faults, the Indianapolis is a better fit for regular USN cruiser captains, particularly heavy cruiser captains.

 

Ah, but 'function properly' and 'do the very best in her' are different standards of play. 

I agree it functions properly with a normal UK CL captain, but you're not going to break records in her.  But yes, she needs IFHE less than the Kutuzov as she sees more tier 6s and less tier 10s than the Kutuzov does. 

[FlashTX]

18 minutes ago, Crucis said:

I imagine a lot of people have been in the same (pardon the pun) boat with the Dunkerque, Flash.  I know that I have.  And I've done the same thing.  Though with the French BB line coming soon, I think that you're right that it's time to start thinking about making a new captain trained up with BB skills.  Or maybe take a risky approach.  If you have a French captain sitting in your reserve that's a 10/10 (10 unspent skill points), maybe stick him in the Dunkerque but don't assign any skills.  Just collect more captain's XP and wait until the French BB's come out before assigning the skill points.

Putting the 10/10 in the Dunkerque with no skills and just accumulating more points is a riskier approach.  I think I will just spend the Doubloons  when needed to reset the captains skills, but if I didn't have the Doubloons your idea has real merit!

[DDJohnston]

Depends on the ship.  Atlanta will get used as a cruiser trainer for the daily win, yes, but, I also take her out just to play her unique style and rain shells as from a bucket, because it's hilarious.  And I had a spare 10+ pointer for her after the Santa boxes this year.  So, the answer to the OP question is yes...and no.

 

[MrSharkswith]

In the Kutuzov's case, I don't think she needs IFHE to work, necessarily. I've found using just Demo Expert and AFT works rather well, although my main RU cruiser captain does have IFHE at the moment because he's in the Donskoi. I know that IFHE on the Moskva doesn't do anything for the 220's, so I'll probably respec when I get there, and just have a more AA and fire oriented Kutuzov.

But, yeah, it depends on the ship. I regularly run my AA cruiser set up in my Alabama or Missouri to change things up and to get more XP for them, but I don't think I'd run my survivability build  BB captain in my Indianapolis, for instance.

 

[HazeGrayUnderway]

I keep a dedicated captain on a premium ship if that ship doesn't mesh with others of their line.  Atlanta is a good example for me because my other USN CA captains have builds that do not fit Atlanta's style.

 

Otherwise, I swap in captains in, out of a premium ship with those from similar ships.  I can toss in whatever German BB skipper I have with Tirpitz, Scharnhorst as they may have similar builds.  I swap in my Steven Seagal captain from Montana and Alabama.

 

Etc.

[hawkai]

I used premium ships to put a 10 pt captain in all my ships from tier 4 up, ships I like I take them up higher,  I have all the ships except cv, took me a year to do that, now I have dedicated captains for my premiums and use the free experience from my 19pts captains to take other captains up higher

[Playbuoy]

agree,

premiums with special needs like atlanta, kutuzov, belfast will be better with dedicated captains and will make more captain free xp (assuming they are t19)  than a suboptimal captain.

[Kizarvexis]

2 hours ago, Ulthwey said:

You use premium ships to train your tech tree captains. 

For example, I use my KGV captain on Hood, Nelson, and Duke of York.

Trying to train individual captains for every premium ship you have is a waste of time and effort.

 

1 hour ago, mavfin87 said:

Depends on the ship.  Atlanta will get used as a cruiser trainer for the daily win, yes, but, I also take her out just to play her unique style and rain shells as from a bucket, because it's hilarious.  And I had a spare 10+ pointer for her after the Santa boxes this year.  So, the answer to the OP question is yes...and no.

 

 

35 minutes ago, HazeGrayUnderway said:

I keep a dedicated captain on a premium ship if that ship doesn't mesh with others of their line.  Atlanta is a good example for me because my other USN CA captains have builds that do not fit Atlanta's style.

 

Otherwise, I swap in captains in, out of a premium ship with those from similar ships.  I can toss in whatever German BB skipper I have with Tirpitz, Scharnhorst as they may have similar builds.  I swap in my Steven Seagal captain from Montana and Alabama.

 

Etc.

 

I plan on doing what @mavfin87 and @HazeGrayUnderway have done and eventually have a dedicated captain for premium ships that are far enough removed from the others in the nation that a tech tree captain won't work well for them. I would like to have dedicated captains on premiums that need it, but I don't have a lot of 10pt captains and nothing over 14 right now. I plan on getting some dedicated premium captains, but that is for the far future. But for ships that are close to the tech tree, I'll just use a tech tree captain.

I don't play Atlanta a lot, but I'm sharing my Cleveland captain right now as I work my way up the US lines. I went with PT, EM, BFT, AFT, LS on a 12 pt captain for both. EM to help with not out turning the guns on Cleveland and LS to help protect the engine on Atlanta. When the split happens, I may have to change out the captain for the Cleveland depending on what happens with the move. I did get Kidd in a Santa box, so I may start sharing that 10 pt captain with the Atlanta instead. I had planned on using Kidd as an AA DD captain for some of those high tier US DDs that can benefit from an AA build.

With the RU DD split changing things around, I decided to go with the Gnevny captain for my Gremyashchy. I have PT, LS, SI, CE, EM as I feel that both of them need the turret speed help. I won't make a dedicated Gremy captain as the Gnevny is fine in both IMO.

Since you are at 18pts with the captain and it seems like you like to play the Kutuzov, I would be inclined to get IFHE, but leave the captain trained for Moskva while you train up another Moskva captain. If there is a lower tier RU ship that would better fit the Kutuzov build, then retrain that Kutuzov captain after a proper Moskva captain is built.  I'm only up to the Budyonny, so I'm not sure if another ship would fit your 18pt Kutuzov captain.

 

15 minutes ago, hawkai said:

I used premium ships to put a 10 pt captain in all my ships from tier 4 up, ships I like I take them up higher,  I have all the ships except cv, took me a year to do that, now I have dedicated captains for my premuims

 

You are what I aspire to be, but since I play 90ish% PvE, it will take a long while to get there.

[ExploratorOne]

I thought a good way (read on an old post) was to get a 19 point captain in a ship you enjoy playing in a line in which you have several premium ships.  You run that captain through the daily bonus or regular play to grind Elite XP that you use to train your other Captains.  In my case, I put a 19 point on my Cleveland and use him in Missouri, Indy, Marblehead, Sims, Arizona, Texas, and Atlanta; mainly Cleveland.  I have a 19 point in Charles Martel and he goes in DeGrasse and Dunkerque.  The Perth 19 point can now drop into the Vampire.  Bismarck Captain runs in Sharn, Tirp, and Eugen.  The UK captain also goes the rounds somewhat.

[desmo_2]

All of my premium ships sit in port with no captains, waiting for a visitor from a tech tree ship.

EXCEPT Belfast and Kutuzov.  These two ships really benefit from skills that I don't use on any of my tech tree ships.  Belfast, of course, really benefits from IFHE, which is completely worthless on any other British ship.

Some premiums will have unique characteristics that are departures from the rest of their national line, and therefore would benefit from a dedicated captain.

I also have a dedicated captain for Nikolai and Okt. Rev...for now.  I'm building a BB captain for the eventual Russian BB line.

[IronMike11B4O]

6 hours ago, Crucis said:

Question:  Do you guys use dedicated captains for your premium ships or do you use premium ships as trainers for your regular tech tree ships' captains?

I have always done the latter, but I have to say that occasionally one runs into a premium ship that has captain skill needs that don't mesh well with your regular captains.  The Atlanta is a glaring example, since it's nominally a cruiser, though it seems to do better with DD captains.  At the same time, I don't take AFT on my USN DD captains, but it can be useful on the Atlanta.

Another more current case for me is the Kutuzov.  It seems to be a ship that really does a lot better if you have IFHE.  But my Moskva captain doesn't have IFHE and IFHE really isn't a skill that's needed for the Moskva.  (He's only at 18 points anyways, but when I get the 19th skill point, I'll have 4 to spend, so I'm stuck between taking a skill to suit the Moskva or a skill to suit the Kutuzov.)  Also, I noted that neither of my other 2 highly skilled Russian captains (my Grozovoi and Khab captains) are well suited to the Kutuzov either.

 

So I'm curious what people would do in this sort of situation.  Just go with an inferior captain that's built for a regular tech tree ship, or possibly tweak a regular tech tree ship's captain to be good for both?  With the Moskva and Kutuzov, from the most popular captain builds there seems to be only one major difference.  The suggested Moskva captain takes AFT, whereas the suggested Kutuzov captain takes IFHE.  Everything else is the same.  

 

Opinions?  Comments?  Flames?

 

 

I have 32 19pt captains, it depends on what line and ship but as a rule I only have 1 dedicated premium 19 pt Captain and that is in Belfast. I use my Schorrs Captain in my Kutusov. Moskva is a dedicated 19 pt that just stays in Moskva. 

[Sinton]

5 hours ago, Crucis said:

I have the Belfast, but don't play her a lot.  I don't recall if her HE shells desperately need IFHE or not to function respectably.  From what I saw in my first battle in the Kutuzov and from what I've read, it does seem like the Kutu does really need IFHE to perform well and not end up with lots of shatters.

I have to admit that I'm not a real fan of premium ships that don't synergize well with ships of the same ship type in the same navy.  Like you say, it makes using them effectively more difficult.  The Atlanta and Belfast may be more extreme cases than the Kutuzov.  The Atlanta is sorta like a DD on a cruiser hull, and isn't really a great cruiser trainer.  For all her faults, the Indianapolis is a better fit for regular USN cruiser captains, particularly heavy cruiser captains.

 

Atlanta is a second home to my Cleveland Cpt.  She (Atlanta) will be a great trainer for the fast firing boats in the upcoming USN CA/CL split.  I now have enough premiums that I can train various Cpts. from different nations in a certain aspect that I want to employ.

[Skpstr]

I just do the best I can with the regular captains. For me, playing a premium with its own captain is a waste of time.

TBH, if I were into buying premiums, I would probably pass on Atlanta, simply because I have other choices for a trainer. At that tier, I'd honestly get Indy instead, because I'm more a BB/CA player, and that ship would get more use out of the skills her captains would have.