Co-op Strategies for a New Paradigm

[Bilgetwidget]

I quit spending completely after the Puerto Rico kerfluffle, and my premium time is running out. Doubloons and econ flags are long gone. Playing high tiers, even premiums with perm camos is going to get expensive credit-wise. And now we have the Great Commander Rebork coming up. What's a poor PvE potato to do?

Since Rebork 2.0 will feature a 30-day free respec, I'm considering moving my best commanders (Ovechkin, Halsey, Capt Badadvice, Jingles, Bert Dunkirk) along with a dozen or so common and ARP waifu 19-pointers to Tier 3-6 ships (and of course the Mighty Mikasa!) to leverage lower repair costs with higher performance. Since 90% of the ships in my port are premiums, swapping them around for free will make it possible to play the big boys like Ohio when the credit supply permits.

Anybody else have a plan built around 100% free-to-play PvE?

 

[Efros]

Got around 550 premium days left so not yet in your boat. I will cease buying economic flags after the rework explodes on us and will probably follow a similar route to you. Whatever happens my regular splurging on the 300 flag pack is done with. I will confine myself to acquiring tech tree ships as and when I have the in game funds and only getting premiums via the coal and steel routes, I am done pumping money into this game.

[theLaalaa]

I make good credits in my T9 premiums, particularly my BBs.

T10's are only played for snowflake-type events and I don't buy premium 10's ever, at all.

My predominately PvE play has been, and should continue to be, profitable.

[SpudZero]

I haven't played in over a month, just a lack of interest mostly, and work has been very busy.
But I too have really slowed down on the spending for this game, I will however still buy from time to time things I find of good value to me.
But as @Efros has stated, I too am done pumping money into this game, WeeGee has been in self-destruct mode for too long now, and it's only a matter of time. 

[warheart1992]

Provided you team up with other players Operations can prove pretty profitable as well if you want fully PvE f2p. 

[AdmiralThunder]

29 minutes ago, Balon_Greyjoy said:

Since Rebork 2.0 will feature a 30-day free respec, I'm considering moving my best commanders (Ovechkin, Halsey, Capt Badadvice, Jingles, Bert Dunkirk) along with a dozen or so common and ARP waifu 19-pointers to Tier 3-6 ships (and of course the Mighty Mikasa!) to leverage lower repair costs with higher performance. Since 90% of the ships in my port are premiums, swapping them around for free will make it possible to play the big boys like Ohio when the credit supply permits.

You do know the free respec does NOT include free retraining right? The only "FREE" thing is resetting the skills. So if any of those Capt's you move are to a tech tree T3-T6 ships you have to pay for it as usual. And the perk of having a CV/BB/Cruiser/DD set of skills for each Capt doesn't help either as you still assign the Capt's to 1 primary ship and any move to a tech tree ship, of any class, requires retraining. Moving them around on Premiums is still free (for now - wouldn't put it past them to change that too).

29 minutes ago, Balon_Greyjoy said:

Anybody else have a plan built around 100% free-to-play PvE?

I am all set on Premium time. Bought a year of it in 2017 when I ran out and then have acquired bits and pieces here and there for free or as part of packages I bought. Haven't spent a dime on just PT since that 1 year in 2017. I am ok I guess for a bit...

Spoiler

 

[Ironshroud]

I do have premium time so I can't say exactly how the numbers work out with only free to play (although on the left hand side of the experience and credit page after every battle, it shows you the difference) but my take from seeing what tiers using premium in co-op make you the most credits, it seems tier 6 is the sweet spot, and throw in some operations and you'll be good.

[DrHolmes52]

If you have tier 9 premiums, play them.

Even in coop you should turn a profit without PT.

[Bilgetwidget]

17 minutes ago, DrHolmes52 said:

If you have tier 9 premiums, play them.

Even in coop you should turn a profit without PT.

I have a few. I'll look into that.

33 minutes ago, AdmiralThunder said:

You do know the free respec does NOT include free retraining right? The only "FREE" thing is resetting the skills. So if any of those Capt's you move are to a tech tree T3-T6 ships you have to pay for it as usual. And the perk of having a CV/BB/Cruiser/DD set of skills for each Capt doesn't help either as you still assign the Capt's to 1 primary ship and any move to a tech tree ship, of any class, requires retraining. Moving them around on Premiums is still free (for now - wouldn't put it past them to change that too).

  Reveal hidden contents

 

I'm OK with retraining them the old fashioned way. I've also pretty much given up on tech tree botes beyond T5/T6 except a few I lucked into perma camos for like Cleveland and Lightning. I'll keep the ones I truly love playing, like the Hindeburg but the rest are headed for the credit shipbreaker's yard. The ones I keep will have locked-in commanders because as you say, transfers cost money for tech tree and that is out of the question.

[HayabusaZ]

I've been FTP for about a year now.  The only PT I have is when I acquire it in the game.  Then I usually try to progress my upper tier tech tree ships.  Otherwise I stick to mid-tier ships and low tier tech tree ships I'm upgrading.  My premium ships I still play since up to tier 9 I can usually do well with them and at least break even.  Best of luck adapting to the FTP mode.

[black_hull4]

59 minutes ago, Efros said:

Got around 550 premium days left

37 minutes ago, AdmiralThunder said:

[MarcusGod7207]

4 minutes ago, HayabusaZ said:

I've been FTP for about a year now.  The only PT I have is when I acquire it in the game.  Then I usually try to progress my upper tier tech tree ships.  Otherwise I stick to mid-tier ships and low tier tech tree ships I'm upgrading.  My premium ships I still play since up to tier 9 I can usually do well with them and at least break even.  Best of luck adapting to the FTP mode.

Same here, I have been playing FTP since I started about 3 months back. I don't come by premium time or ships often, and after a while, I started not to think much of it. Honestly, just don't sweat it, you progress slower, but progressing at all is such sweet victory.

[Ensign_Cthulhu]

I have about 400 days of premium time at the moment - enough, with things I'm sure to get in collections etc. and as stage prizes, to easily see me through to the 2021-22 New Year sale. That's 12,500 dubs I won't have to put into the game this year, and I can reassess 12 months from now where things stand. 

[Asym_KS]

I'm at just under 300 days now.  Plan A is to spend everything I have and stick to the lower tiers.....  Not sell the ships because of crates and snowflakes (till our host removes them as well.....)  Plan B is very similar but, create clan division(s) and only play in divisions one or two nights a week.  A retirement plan so to speak.  With most of the "real value" being degraded or removed from the game, what this all comes down to is:  "can we have any fun with what we have?"  So, ex-clan mates and I play as a division once a week now; and, I'm hoping to convince my current clan mates to do the same.......if more often......    I'd rather play a scenario with a few friends and just have some fun than, starting all over again in yet, another game that has gotten caught on the slippery slope most mature games find themselves on.........  I even play MWO once a month and still collect data from their forums for academic research in gaming cultures....  This game is added to that list of many games already on the slope.

There are only two responses to cultural Paradigm shifts:  1) acquiesce; or, 2) reject:  "I'm mad as heck and I'm not going to take it anymore....."  For those whom read about culture and technology interactions:  this is a Toffler wave event.....

[MasterDiggs]

I am going to put my commanders on tech tree ships that are economical to play but mostly play them on the premium ships and special ships I already have. I am focusing on using mainly my special commanders and eating the others.

I practically always make money on Des Moines and Harugumo so they are getting commanders.

My Des Moines commander will also play Missouri, Alaska, Sims, and Monaghan.

My Harugumo commander will also play my Myoko clone.  Yamato has a free perma camo so she'll keep Yamamoto.

For France I really only play Jean Bart and De Grasse so I will probably have one commander for both on Henri IV because he's already trained to it.

For Russia I will have my Tashkent commander play Smolensk and my Sinop commander will play Moskva. I haven't decided which of those crazy kids will play Lazo yet.

For Germany I really only play Tirpitz and T-61 anymore so I will probably have their commander assigned to GK. I have not decided if I want to keep a commander on Nurnberg yet. I have a 10 pointer on Hindy that I'll probably leave there.

For UK I will have commanders on Jutland and Fiji that will also play Thunderer and London.

I haven't bothered much with the Asian or European lines and that'll probably not change.

 

[gil5461]

the only things I have faithfully payed for since the game went live are my years worth of PT and any Premium ships I really wanted. I have always bought the Permo Camo's for all of my T-10 ships as after all that work and time it would be foolish to not get them. I have never had to worry about credit making playing high tier Co-op games because of this,in fact just the opposite as my credits continue to build and I have no actual uses for the still increasing credits which I have easily maintained at or over 300 million......other then Years supply of PT I plan on only spending monies for a Premium ship I consider to be a must have for me and that still depends on WG's ever increasing prices.

[Froggy_McFrogface]

10 hours ago, Balon_Greyjoy said:

I quit spending completely after the Puerto Rico kerfluffle, and my premium time is running out. Doubloons and econ flags are long gone. Playing high tiers, even premiums with perm camos is going to get expensive credit-wise. And now we have the Great Commander Rebork coming up. What's a poor PvE potato to do?

Since Rebork 2.0 will feature a 30-day free respec, I'm considering moving my best commanders (Ovechkin, Halsey, Capt Badadvice, Jingles, Bert Dunkirk) along with a dozen or so common and ARP waifu 19-pointers to Tier 3-6 ships (and of course the Mighty Mikasa!) to leverage lower repair costs with higher performance. Since 90% of the ships in my port are premiums, swapping them around for free will make it possible to play the big boys like Ohio when the credit supply permits.

Anybody else have a plan built around 100% free-to-play PvE?

 

I've been playing sans-premium for 6 or 7 months now, and I just play a bunch of T6-T9 to finance the T10's. My favorite ships are high-DPM cruisers, so it's easier to rack up ribbons and damage.

As far as the new skills, my commanders are already set where I want them and I'm totally cool with casually grinding the new points. I have a couple that are still AA-spec from long ago, so the free re-spec will let me skip the pointless AA skills and use the points elsewhere.

No intention of spending a dime on anything.

[HamAndCheez]

9 hours ago, Asym_KS said:

There are only two responses to cultural Paradigm shifts:  1) acquiesce; or, 2) reject:  "I'm mad as heck and I'm not going to take it anymore....."  For those whom read about culture and technology interactions:  this is a Toffler wave event.....

[TheCosmicTruth]

I've been FTP since forever™. It's scary to hear that you might run out of money in high tiers. Also, I have no premium time! Yay!

[USMCGal]

I am not running any purchased PT but use what I get as rewards where possible. I was very proud of myself for playing all day and getting the 16k bleeping base XP needed for the Oklahoma. First full directive I have completed in years. Got some Black Friday crates, got a couple of ships and PT and doubloons to purchase another ship possibly.

I had to really think about this but as I do not get too much time to play, (except during snow storms) the skill changes probably will not affect me too much come next year.

I still have no 19 point captains… But this is what I would do. 

1. Review WG's selected respec-make screen shots of each ships set skills and then set all captains to 0.
   1. As I play the ships again I will review the adapted specs via the forum and set mine to how I play and adapt where WG will let me, I mean as I can.
   2. Hopefully by then WG can fix any unintended bugs with said skills, lol
2. Dedicate 1 Captain to all Tech tree ships. (Which I currently do. I do not move captains ever. Yes I know this slows progress.)
   1. This would eliminate any need to spend anything to retrain your captain.
3. Put any special Captains on your premium ships only.
4. If you have 19 point captains then save as much ECXP as you can to make as many 21 point captains as you can come the change. (everyone is doing this already)
5. Once the change happens then and you are making ECXP again then slowly upgrade the tech tree ships to 21 as you can.
   1. They never said that 21pt captains would not make ECXP right?

Question: Have they said purchasing a captain with the ship, would be an additional cost, or will you still get a 0 skill point captain with a tech tree ship (i.e. not premium ship)?  

I think doing #2 alone would alleviate the cost of having to get your captain retrained. I would never spend doubloons for retraining. Play the thing in co-op until it is out of hoc and then continue. Even then playing your ship in random a few times with no captain skills would get it retrained faster….and who would know?

I think the skill changes alone are going to mess with the overall meta of Random more than Co-op. Games will probably be shorter again for both modes with these changes. That is what they have been shooting for all along. More port queens that only come out for snowflakes and no missions to grind anything that is fun to play, or was fun to play.  Not sure how this is fun. 

Fair seas everyone and good luck.

 

[HazeGrayUnderway]

Strictly F2P?  High Tier will be super expensive in Co-op because the gains are so pitiful compared to the running costs of a ship.  You want to play a Tier VIII / X CV in Co-op?  RIP.  They will be the worst credit losers.

 

Low Tier is also trash for gains.

 

Mid Tier V-VII will be where you're playing most the time, I think.  Premium Ships will be what you want.

 

Unless you play A LOT of Operations or put time in PVP Modes that drop a lot of rewards, Co-op has awful compensation.  The worst in the game.

[Bilgetwidget]

10 minutes ago, HazeGrayUnderway said:

Strictly F2P?  High Tier will be super expensive in Co-op because the gains are so pitiful compared to the running costs of a ship.  You want to play a Tier VIII / X CV in Co-op?  RIP.  They will be the worst credit losers.

 

Low Tier is also trash for gains.

 

Mid Tier V-VII will be where you're playing most the time, I think.  Premium Ships will be what you want.

 

Unless you play A LOT of Operations or put time in PVP Modes that drop a lot of rewards, Co-op has awful compensation.  The worst in the game.

The only T10's I play regularly are Ohio and Salem, which almost always at least break even. My beloved Hindy is for when I'm feeling flush.

Other than that, T5-T8 for me. I only have premium CV's, but I hate them, including Enterprise.

I've got 19-pointers on the Texas, Oklahoma, Warspite, GC, Arizona, and WV '41among others now. Boy howdy is that ever fun!

[HazeGrayUnderway]

7 hours ago, Balon_Greyjoy said:

The only T10's I play regularly are Ohio and Salem, which almost always at least break even. My beloved Hindy is for when I'm feeling flush.

Other than that, T5-T8 for me. I only have premium CV's, but I hate them, including Enterprise.

I've got 19-pointers on the Texas, Oklahoma, Warspite, GC, Arizona, and WV '41among others now. Boy howdy is that ever fun!

I still remember back in the day when I was new being alarmed by how much it cost to run my first Tier VII ship:  Colorado.

I wasn't familiar with why my Tier VIII Tirpitz was cheaper to run than my Tech Tree Colorado.  At the time I was off / on on my Premium Account.

 

Carriers are pretty awful earners in Co-op because they struggle in scoring well in this mode.  CVs need time to do their flashy numbers, but if these games are 3-5 minutes, you're lucky to get middle place in Co-op.  IMO, the absolute worst ship lines for Co-op are Carriers.  Practically anything else you can easily score well in.

I have almost all the Carriers in my port.  But I rarely play them because it's so much work just to get middle place and sh*t rewards.  RIP for Tier X CVs with some very punishing servicing costs, i.e. aircraft losses.  MVR, Hak, Midway, Audacious... Credit Money Pits in Co-op.  And that's with Premium Account running.  I shudder to think of the costs if I was not on Premium time.

[DJC_499]

I currently (only) have 12 19-Point Captains and based on analysis of this new approach will only need 7 to upgrade to the 21-Point level. This will allow me to have these Captains on the relatively few ships I actually play anymore. Since I mainly play premium ships I will have a few Captains helming (literally) a dozen or so total ships each. I have a couple of the Ovechkin Captains that will have one tier tree ship (often a Tier 10 BB including Kremlin and Montana) and then a small fleet of Premium BBs, CBs, CAs, CLs, and DDs. The remaining 5 19-Pointer may or may not get upgraded as I only rarely play them anyway, usually for a snowflake-like event.

Functionally, my recent play consists almost entirely of the following:

Massachusetts

Massachusetts B

Ohio

ARP Yamato

Yamato

Georgia

Musashi

Thunderer

Scharnhorst

Kutuzov

Only will take a handful of Captains for these....

[ZARDOZ_II]

I'll probably spend the first day or two of the rebork just resetting all my captains to 0.  Then take a break and keep an eye on the forums to see what shakes out.