I love this ship: P.E.F.

[Gavroche_]

This ship ticks off all of the boxes in my "traits in a good battleship" checklist. She's fast, she has super accurate guns, and she has good AA. To me, she reminds me of a cross between the Kongo and the Yorck. Other BBs are hit or miss when it comes to cruisers, but this ship is super consistent against enemy cruisers. 

I can see why some people hate her, since she's not like any of the other tier VI battleships. Ships like Fuso and New Mexico have shotgun dispersion, but are good at closer ranges. Ships like Warspite and Bayern have slow turrets, but super hard hitting shells. However, in all of these battleships it takes forever to actually get into position. Her fastest contemporary is Fuso which is still almost 3 knots slower. I absolutely hate spending 5 minutes getting into position only to find all of the enemy team dead.

I know her guns have lackluster penetration when fighting enemy battleships, but the best way that I've found to counter this is to shoot at the upper belt and superstructure of enemy battleships. I never shoot HE with this ship since your AP overpen does almost as much damage and I've gotten full pens even on battleship superstructures. Her survivability is 'meh' but she at least has the speed to run out of dangerous situations, unlike other tier VI BBs. However, her AA is almost Tirptiz levels!

Spoiler

I genuinely hope we get more BBs like her.

[Crucis]

@Gavroche_  I want to really like the PEF, but her lackluster pen really holds her back.  All her other good points would make her a joy to play if only her penetration wasn't so lame.

[mofton]

My view that 'you shouldn't tell people they're wrong for having fun' is seriously tested by positive statements about PEF!

[neikobryant]

It seems that 75-80 percent of my AP shells are over pens. That's my only complaint.

 

[Th3KrimzonD3mon]

24 minutes ago, mofton said:

My view that 'you shouldn't tell people they're wrong for having fun' is seriously tested by positive statements about PEF!

Mofton, Mofton, we love you as you are, don't ever change.

 

OP, I happen to like PEF a lot, as well.

[ExploratorOne]

She is fun for me, too.  I also find the upper belt to be the place to shoot on BBs.

[Admiral_Thrawn_1]

5 minutes ago, ExploratorOne said:

She is fun for me, too.  I also find the upper belt to be the place to shoot on BBs.

What’s the max range PEF can effectively attack from? And does it do better with or without the Aiming mod 1? Oddly enough some ships really need Aiming mod and some do well or even better without it. Still trying to figure these things out on PEF, so have been having to get within Secondary gun range as much as possible to ensure scoring good hits.

[Battleship_Elisabeth]

I think her AA is very nice, her dispersion is good, and despite her lack of a turtleback, she's an extremely hard battleship/battlecruiser to citadel.

Unfortunately, for me, playing ships of this type comes down to one thing: alpha strike. Can a given battleship's guns routinely punish players for doing dumb things, provided that I shoot well?

And the answer for PEF is a definitive NO. Her ordinance, by any standard, is horrid - it has disappointing turret traverse, low ROF for its size, negligible fire chance, massive falloff of kinetic energy over modest distances, and bad raw pen. The ship is absolutely embarassed in this category by most (all?) tier 5 battleships, including - inexplicably - Konig, whose guns are both smaller AND of an older design.

That's dumb, and I frankly find it mildly insulting as a 'connoisseur' of battleship progression. 

You can like the PEF all you want. But she doesn't have 'it' where it counts the most.

[Umikami]

PEF is not the best ship I have ever played.

PEF is not the worst ship I have ever played.

I am happy for you that you like and enjoy yours as much as you do. 

See you in the game, 07!

[DouglasMacAwful]

Super accurate guns?  We must be playing a different ship.  I finally finished the nerves of skill missions. Worst grind I've experienced so far in this game.  Removed PEF from primary ships to put in port to rust... never to be sailed again. 

[Sidelock]

Slowly but surely, i have come to understand this ship play like an mixture of Gneisenau and Graf Spee. You have the AA, secondaries and speed to flank like Gneis, but with guns that behave very similarly to Graf Spee (Shatter at the slightiest angled ship, you need to aim at upper belt and decks for damage). I like the speed and AA and so far is not Op but not Garbage either. It really makes you work hard for damage. Still think this ship, while not bad is worst than Duke of York (yeah DoY IMHO is actually better than PEF).

Really the worst freemium but not unworkable either. Just very Meh.

[lron_Dog_of_Jutland]

10 minutes ago, Battleship_ContediCavour said:

I think her AA is very nice, her dispersion is good, and despite her lack of a turtleback, she's an extremely hard battleship/battlecruiser to citadel.

Unfortunately, for me, playing ships of this type comes down to one thing: alpha strike. Can a given battleship's guns routinely punish players for doing dumb things, provided that I shoot well?

And the answer for PEF is a definitive NO. Her ordinance, by any standard, is horrid - it has disappointing turret traverse, low ROF for its size, negligible fire chance, massive falloff of kinetic energy over modest distances, and bad raw pen. The ship is absolutely embarassed in this category by most (all?) tier 5 battleships, including - inexplicably - Konig, whose guns are both smaller AND of an older design.

That's dumb, and I frankly find it mildly insulting as a 'connoisseur' of battleship progression. 

You can like the PEF all you want. But she doesn't have 'it' where it counts the most.

 

+1

[USS_Taylor_Swift]

1 hour ago, Gavroche_ said:

she has super accurate guns

 

  Reveal hidden contents

My PEF must have received faulty guns then.

[GambitHG]

I just got a battle in her, but I think I'm too tired from the grind to appreciate her properly right now. Maybe I'll have a better view after I sleep... 

[Radar_X]

There are definitely some mixed feelings on the PEF and we genuinely appreciate everyone providing their feedback (yes even if you hate it) as it provides the team crucial information on the feel of the ship and how it's being used.  

[Vaffu]

1 hour ago, DouglasMacAwful said:

Super accurate guns?  We must be playing a different ship.  I finally finished the nerves of skill missions. Worst grind I've experienced so far in this game.  Removed PEF from primary ships to put in port to rust... never to be sailed again. 

I agree. They have some of the worst dispersion of any BB I have played.

[Vaffu]

53 minutes ago, PinkoCommieScumbag said:

My PEF must have received faulty guns then.

Out of upvotes but +1. Those guns are horrifically bad.

[Gavroche_]

1 hour ago, Admiral_Thrawn_1 said:

What’s the max range PEF can effectively attack from? And does it do better with or without the Aiming mod 1? Oddly enough some ships really need Aiming mod and some do well or even better without it. Still trying to figure these things out on PEF, so have been having to get within Secondary gun range as much as possible to ensure scoring good hits.

I have found her maximum effective range to be maxium range for cruisers and CVs, but sub 13-14km for BBs. Around that limit you have trouble aiming for a specific part of a ship and if you don't hit the perfect portion of a BB you just don't do any damage.

But for fat CVs though...

Spoiler

 

[ReddNekk]

I love seeing my PEF rusting in port. That bote has to be the least enjoyable Premium ship that I've ever played. The only things that she excels at is stopping shells and torpedoes.

[Vekta408]

Everything about the PEF is fine except for the main guns. I had more success with the AP experimenting with it and HE. The HE isn't very useful even on angle targets so far. It has to get fairly close for the AP to really feel decent. The armor is workable, secondaries are good, AA is nice, speed is good, handling is fine. But it gets old really fast fumbling more with getting reliable damage out of the guns. The ship is overshadowed by others of its tier and not just a tiny bit. Can't really complain for a free ship but it is what it is.

[MaliceA4Thought]

3 hours ago, Admiral_Thrawn_1 said:

What’s the max range PEF can effectively attack from? And does it do better with or without the Aiming mod 1? Oddly enough some ships really need Aiming mod and some do well or even better without it. Still trying to figure these things out on PEF, so have been having to get within Secondary gun range as much as possible to ensure scoring good hits.

Purely from my exp...( your mileage may vary..  etc etc etc)

Max range..  maximum..  I'm not sure how, but i citadelled a warspite at absolute max range in one match on a snapshot.  With regards to cruisers, no problem at max range, but the ship shines when you close in and get the secondaries going.

Aiming Mod 1   definate yes on this ship for me having tried both set-ups.

In my setup, I am full AFT/BFT and carry secondary flags as well, but not manual secondaries and i farm CQE awards with her and makes her "relatively" comfortable against DD's trying to get to close.

I know she doesn't match with everyone, but even with people of every ability playing her for the missions, she is doing really well in the stats tables and normally a mission will see a ship drop in the tables because of the mass usage at all levels.  After 90k battles, she is starting to look like a genuinely strong ship purely on stats which means quite a lot of people must be getting her to work.

Being a definate Royal Navy person, it's almost embarrasing to know that my win rate in her is better than my warspite, but so is my main battery accuracy.

[Taichunger]

The main guns are hugely frustrating, but I can't see how they could be upgraded without making the ship OP. She's fast, reasonably tough, and her secondaries and AA (at least til the Sky Artillery premieres) are good. Also, have you noticed how well PEF fires over islands?

She's fun to play and I've really enjoyed my time in her. It takes a lot of effort to get good damage out of her and I enjoy the challenge -- she is reminiscent of Vanguard and Hood, two ships I really like. Because of the idiotic restricted T4 MM I have only been able to play one match at T6 in her, but at her own level she did very well and she appears to be well balanced.

It's so strange to compare the deft balance of a ship like PEF which indicates competence and good understanding of the game, with the mindblowing stupidity of the CV rework.  *sigh* 

 

[ObiphanKenobi]

Spoiler

 

[IfYouSeeKhaos]

Definitely puts the wonky in wonky German dispersion. After the Nerves of Steel mission mine will become (Port) Queen Eidel Fredrich.

[Alabamastan]

    I greatly enjoy this ship. I do wonder if people who question its accuracy understand that the ships that fill the battleship slot at that tier are not really all that accurate. Warspite and Arizona are the two standouts from the top of my head. The combination of speed and armor and anti aircraft mean no matter what the environment you are in you can give yourself time to make the main battery work. Its not too unlike Scharnhorst in that general respect, another ship with a battleship label and guns that are not all that big..