How to Atago

[joshua011]

So, I got an Atago in a big chest (along with De Grasse and Perth), and had never played Russian CAs before, Only cruisers played is UK CLs up to emerald and Belfast. So how do you play the Atago with no smoke generator? 
Btw suggestions on playing De Grasse and Perth would be nice as well.

[Goose21891]

Wiki is a decent starting point.

Atago: http://wiki.wargaming.net/en/Ship:Atago

De Grasse: http://wiki.wargaming.net/en/Ship:De_Grasse

Perth: http://wiki.wargaming.net/en/Ship:Perth

 

As are LittleWhiteMouse's Reviews

Atago: (A bit out of date with regards to a few mechanics that have changed or been removed in last 2 years)

 

De Grasse: 

 

Perth: 

 

[Dr_Venture]

51 minutes ago, joshua011 said:

So, I got an Atago in a big chest (along with De Grasse and Perth), and had never played Russian CAs before, Only cruisers played is UK CLs up to emerald and Belfast. So how do you play the Atago with no smoke generator? 
Btw suggestions on playing De Grasse and Perth would be nice as well.

How do you atago is how you cruiser in general...

Repeat after me: Side equals death. Side equals death. Side equals death. Side equals death.

Now that you know the basics, here are some fun facts. 

1.) Ignore the fact you have torpedoes. You will want to use them, don't. To get an arc you'll want to turn and use them...and then you die. The torps are there for when you pass by a target or great for when you run away. Use the training room and get a feel with the arcs.

2.) You can set more fires than a B29 raid on tyoko with the right set up. At long range you set fires...at close range you use AP. The IJN cruiser line excels at napalm, but their ap is no joke. 

3.) Concealment is life. A seen Atago is a dead Atago. You want to know how many ships are targeting you and where they are. This ship is VERY unforgiving of poor placement.

4.) Don't be greedy, pretend that 3rd turret isn't there. You wanna have a narrow profile for return fire. I've lost many times to ships hitting me because I got greedy and wanted to dpm someone with another turret. It's nice if its able, but tbh it's not worth it. Set up so you get a consistent flow of damage.

5.) SIDE EQUALS DEATH - PERIOD!

Enjoy you're new toy.

[Sovereigndawg]

59 minutes ago, Dr_Venture said:

1.) Ignore the fact you have torpedoes. You will want to use them, don't. To get an arc you'll want to turn and use them...and then you die. The torps are there for when you pass by a target or great for when you run away. Use the training room and get a feel with the arcs.

and when ships are coming from behind islands or to force a turn. Don't get caught broadside while doing this.

[Sovereigndawg]

2 hours ago, joshua011 said:

along with De Grasse and Perth

Both good in scenarios. Great XP/Credits/Captains Points potential, however not all scenarios are good.

[collisionSpace]

3 hours ago, joshua011 said:

So, I got an Atago in a big chest (along with De Grasse and Perth), and had never played Russian CAs before

Well good news, you still won't be playing a Russian CA.. 

[My_no_no_spot]

38 minutes ago, collisionSpace said:

Well good news, you still won't be playing a Russian CA.. 

Yeah I saw that also.  Atago, when played correctly, is an HE beast.  Your profile is low but very squishy.  Support the BB's and spam your HE.  You're not intended to be a DD hunter but your torps will come in handy when pressed into close combat.  

[AdmiralThunder]

The 1st thing I would suggest to improve at Atago is to realize it is a Japanese ship not a Russian one LOL (sorry had to). 

Atago is like all the other IJN CA's. Fast with crap for armor (Zao is actually pretty tough). Best played from range as an HE spammer. As someone else said the ship is not a great DD hunter as the guns take way too long to reload for that. Stay back and burn everything down. Torps have long range which is a blessing and curse. Careful of TK's.

Be very careful as you are playing at tiers you don't have the experience for. You have obviously used free XP and premium ships to skip tiers/standard ships and to jump up to the higher tiers. That can be an issue. Hurts you and hurts your team. Best advice I can give for playing Atago is to park it until you play the standard ships in the game up to at least T7-T8 without skipping so many ships as you have ( haven't even played the ones you have much).

The best advice I got from the guy who got me into this game was NOT to rush up the tech tree and NOT to get into Premium ships that were way higher in tiers than my actual skill level was. I think that is good advice. Take it FWIW and understand I mean no offense by any of this.

[vonKaiser]

Allright.  Atago, Japanese Cruiser by the way lol.  Current holder of my maximum damage record in the game and the only time in this game i ever broke the 200k damage mark lol.  Lets get some things out of the way early.

Guns are good, HE is good, AP is good in the right circumstances (Broadside, close range)

Turrets rotation is abysmal and with the setup of them some will always be rotating.  If your bow on chasing, turret one and two are OK, but 3/4/5 will have to traverse the ship.  When kiting, 3/4/5 will be good (well 4/5 will be good, turret 3 has a bad angle of firing) and turret 1/2 will be rotating. 

Torpedos are good and with stealth build, you can have a small window of stealth torping, however the amount of broadside you have to give to get them to fire puts a giant "SHOOT ME" sign on your citadel.  BB in the distance and try to stealth torp, sure go for it.  Other then that though save the torps for the smoke clouds that might not expect it or on the enemy who's getting aggressive and chasing you around the edge of an island

 

So all that out of the way, what does the Atago excel at?  Well ranged fire starting for one.  Seriously it's accurate and the amount of fires she can cause is surprising.  Her reload a little on the long side but that turns it into a double edged sword much like HE slinging British BB's.  Salvo one starts fires, enemy repairs, by the time you're reloaded and if you're at range, second salvo might be hitting when the damage repair goes on cooldown meaning fires the target can't do anything about.  Range is good, rudder and turn is kinda slow so you're going to want to pre-plan your maneuvers and where and when you're going to turn, broadside is your enemy, however that's not to say she's not badly armored.  Kiting away from the enemy at an angle, as long as they don't land the shells on your back deck will net you a surprising number of bounces.  At lest in my experience.  Running away angled she just feels tanky.  Well as long as you don't get a big old BB on your tail that is.  

So basically what you have is a decent ROF, fire starter with good concealment and a surprising torpedo armament that can catch people off guard.  One mistake though and you'll pay for it.  So stay at range, always be kiting and light the world on fire.

[joshua011]

First battle 80,000 dmg, great ship and print credit well. Just stay 2nd line, WASD often, and don't show broadside and it's a great ship.