how to do more damage

[gribby91]

I'd like some advice.  I seem to get destroyed after just a couple of hits, yet when I hit a ship with several shots theres just not a ton of damage and I have very few kills.  I'm using tier 4 US Cruiser.  AP rounds against heavy ships and HE against DD's.  Help!

 

[1SneakyDevil]

1. Don't give BBs your broadside or you get citadeled.

2. Don't give cruisers your broadside under 10 km.

3. Use HE on BBs.

4. Use AP on broadside cruisers.

5. You're good on the DDs.

6. Use your WASD constantly to keep changing the angle of your ship to dodge shells.

7. Sacrifice three goats to RNGesus so you get the good damage rolls and bounce shells shot at you.

[Spartias]

Positioning saves lives... and takes lives...

[Ducky_shot]

Don't rush in, let your dd's spot targets for you. Use the islands to your advantage and like others have said, don't show broadside to enemy ships. Sometimes the smart play is to stop shooting, go unspotted and run away to a different position. Learning when to do that and when not to is half the battle

[Dr_Powderfinger]

1 hour ago, gribby91 said:

I'd like some advice.  I seem to get destroyed after just a couple of hits, yet when I hit a ship with several shots theres just not a ton of damage and I have very few kills.  I'm using tier 4 US Cruiser.  AP rounds against heavy ships and HE against DD's.  Help!

 

It may seem counterintuitive, but you don't want to use cruiser AP rounds vs. angled, armored targets(BBs or even CAs). Load HE and set them on fire for better results.

There are some exceptions, but cruiser AP generally works as the superior choice only vs. closer range, broadside targets (cruisers and some BBs).

...

 

[iDuckman]

^ This.

Pay attention to two things.

1.  The angle of the target to you.  At angles <60° AP will bounce off. 
2. The hit ribbons on the right side of the display.  They will show if your shells are penetrating, over-penning, crunching, or bouncing off.  If I'm not familiar with a ship's armor vs. my AP, I'll load a salvo or two and look at the ribbons to see the effect.

Also, there are several sections to a ship that take damage independently.  Watch, re-watch, and digest the How It Works video series from WG.  Here's the first.

 

 

[gribby91]

Thank you all for the advice!

[CylonRed]

Look to YouTube for some good videos by iChase, Notser,  Mighty Jingles among others.  iChase has some really good basics videos including one he put up on the last day or so.    You do have to experiment some - for a long time early on I did a ripple fire of my guns but did not do nearly as well till I fired the entire salvo at once.

Without knowing what ships you are playing really detailed info for the ship can't really be given.   Posting a replay would help - how to enable replays:

https://na.wargaming.net/support/en/products/wows/article/19060/

[BullHalsey]

One thing in addition to all the good advice; be sure to have the T1 commander skill Priority Target, and make good use of it.  When the indicator shows you have been targeted, make sure you immediately turn and angle away from the threat location/bulk of the enemy team.

Watch the videos, Flamu is an excellent source.  Focus on one improvement at a time, in this case on not being slaughtered.  Figure out how to survive and still contribute but remember you are always worth more alive then dead.  If your skill level is low and developing, so be it.  Focus first on learning how not to get dead, then work into increasing your average damage.

[Harv72b]

In addition to the resources mentioned above, check out Mejash's Twitch stream.  He's very knowledgeable in Warships and is also quite good about interacting with his chat.  Flamu is also a good YouTuber to watch, particularly for his ship-specific build videos (although I'm sure his videos on low tier US cruisers will be outdated by now, the general advice still applies).  Also, once you have replays enabled you can send a couple to LordZath for a personalized review of your play along with advice on where you can improve (and of course watch his videos on YouTube).

Low/Mid-tier US cruisers are difficult to play.  The lack of armor & relatively large citadels mean that you get punished severely for every mistake you make, and playing low tier US cruisers generally means you're a new player & prone to making mistakes.   Just keep at it and learn from experience...the biggest humps for a new player to get over are map awareness and positioning, both of which will be driven home repeatedly in ships like the Phoenix and Omaha.  Ammo choice is less about which ships you're firing at and more about the ranges & angles they're maintaining relative to you; again, there are tons of great YouTube videos to watch for more detailed instruction on this. 

It's also worth your time to look into joining a clan.  Not only will this give you a ready-made group of people who you can division with and learn from, being in a well-established clan will net you bonus XP in all your matches and discounts on each new ship you purchase, among other perks.  If you'd rather not do the team play thing at this point, there are also plenty of clans which exist solely for the direct benefits.

Finally, always remember that in Warships is not about how much damage you do, but about where you do the damage.  "Farming" an AFK battleship for 60k damage looks impressive on your post-battle results cards, but it doesn't help your team nearly as much as doing 20k damage against two active destroyers (and sinking them) would.  Don't get caught up in the "I did more damage than you did" play style--it all too often leads to long-term results skewed significantly under the magical 50% win rate and a mentality which prevents improving upon that.

Welcome aboard!