Angry YouTuber Review of the New Battleship Skills

[LittleWhiteMouse]

NOTE:  Expect to see some changes to formulas as more systems get clarified over the coming days and weeks.

It's time for more deep diving into the new skill system.  This time, I look more closely at battleship performance who have, thanks to a single skill, ruined World of Warships almost as badly as Aircraft Carriers did back in 2019.  If you like your superlatives, there's going to be a lot of that here.  For giggles sake, I will continue to be evaluating these skills based on a completely arbitrary sound bite system:

• GARBAGE– I hate it!  Who knows why?  Maybe it sucks!  Maybe it's boring!  Maybe I resent how it was implemented in the game!  Only wieners take this skill!
• Mehskill – It's alright but it's probably pretty boring.  Don't be surprised if it's overly situational or if it comes with severe drawbacks.  Most skills will fall into this category.
• Gudskill – Great choice!  If not outright optimal, then this skill will get you a lot of mileage and may define the game play of a given build.
• OVERPOWERED – So broken, you guys!  This is so powerful it's ruining the game!  Only jerks take this but you don't dare go without it! I totally don't because I'm clearly a saint!  No, you can't look at my builds!

For other articles in this series, please follow the links below:

• Destroyer Skills
• Cruiser Skills
• Aircraft Carrier Skills

Battleship Tier 1 Skills

There are a lot of trash-tier skills at the first level for battleships.  Be very careful where you spend your points.

TL:DR:

• Gun Feeder: Mehskill
• Pyrotechnician: GARBAGE
• Consumable Specialist: Mehskill
• Emergency Repair Specialist: Mehskill
• Incoming Fire Alert: GARBAGE
• Preventative Maintenace:  GARBAGE

Open the spoiler tag to read my break down of each skill.

Spoiler

  Gun Feeder - Reduces the time taken to switch shell types when all main battery guns are loaded by 50%

On destroyers, this skill was bloody GARBAGE but on the long reload of battleship guns where having the right ammunition loaded at the right time makes all of the difference?  There's a lot more legs here.  This skill fits in nicely to a lot of builds provided you have the points for her.  She's not the best tier 1 skill out there, but you could do worse.

VERDICT: Mehskill

  Pyrotechnician - Chance of a main or secondary battery HE shell causing a fire on a target is increased by 1%.

Let's do worse.  You don't take this skill to buff the fire performance of your main battery guns -- you take it for your secondaries.  And as we'll see the deeper I go into this dive through battleship skills, the more you'll see that secondaries are not in the place that they were.  This skill provides the smallest of buffs to an already highly situational weapon system.  On your main battery guns, the gains here are miniscule.  Do not bother with this skill except in very VERY specific circumstances.

VERDICT: GARBAGE

  Consumable Specialist - Reduce the reload time of Catapult Fighter, Spotter Aircraft, Defensive AA Fire, Main Battery Reload Booster and Torpedo Reload Booster by 10%.

There are some battleships where this skill has a little more value than others.  The consumables here to look out for are Main Battery Reload Booster (so your French premium battleships) and Spotter Aircraft.  The former greatly improves your damage output and it's always nice to have that ready when the perfect opportunity arises.  The latter, it has been discovered, helps reduce vertical dispersion on your main battery guns while activated, which is so weird but if you're the type who gets happy in the pants at the thought of tighter dispersion, it's something worth capitalizing upon.  It's again not my first pick tier 1 battleship skills but it's not terrible.

VERDICT: Mehskill

  Emergency Repair Specialist - Reduce the reload time of Damage Control Party and Repair Party by 3%.

This skill is so boring but it's the best of the bunch.  Increasing survivability on battleships is generally the way to go towards optimizing a build (more on that later).  Just on it's own, it reduces the reset timer of these consumables from a typical 80 seconds down to 77.6 seconds.  Note there are some weirder timers out there, such as Warspite's Damage Control Party and Georgia's and Massachusetts' Repair Party just to name a couple.  You're still better off having these just in case.  This is my go-to default skill at this tier, dull as it is.  This said, it's hard to call it a .  It doesn't do enough to warrant that.  Just be aware that this is generally going to be your best pick at tier 1.

VERDICT: Mehskill
Note:  This skill is your first pick for battleships.

  Incoming Fire Alert - Provides a warning when an incoming salvo is fired at your ship from a distance of more than 4.5km

This skill has much less value on battleships than it does on destroyers or cruisers.  It's not that battleships can't actively dodge, they're just terrible at it except at very (very) long ranges.  If you want something like this, skip this skill and grab Priority Target at tier 2 instead. 

VERDICT: GARBAGE

  Preventative Maintenance - Reduces the risk of main turrets, torpedo tubes, steering gears and engine becoming incapacitated by 30%.

By and large, battleship modules are much better protected than those of any other ship type in World of Warships.  You can't, for example, knock out a battleship's engines through near-miss HE blasts. Their guns are highly resistant to critical damage owing to their enormous hit point pools.  It's important to note that this skill does not help mitigate your modules from being destroyed.  Main battery guns and torpedo tubes can still be blown off.  This skill merely helps with reducing the chance that individual hits will cause critical damage and temporarily disable them.  Barring the few battleships with torpedo tubes, this skill is not worthwhile. I'ma be melodramatic and hit this with a GARBAGE label, even though it does have some uses in some extreme cases.  Barring those VERY FEW exceptions, stay clear of this skill.

VERDICT: GARBAGE

Battleship Tier 2 Skills

There's even more bad skills at this tier.  Be very careful with your selections and how your final build maths out.

TL:DR

• Grease the Gears: GARBAGE
• Inertial Fuse for HE Shells: GARBAGE
• Consumables Enhancements: Mehskill
• Vigilance: GARBAGE
• Priority Target: Gudskill
• AA Gunner: GARBAGE

Open the spoiler tag to read my break down of each skill.

Spoiler

  Grease the Gears  - Increase the main battery traverse speed by 20%

This skill makes me so mad.  This is a skill that a lot of battleships need for the sake of improving their quality of life.  I still have awful memories of Warspite's 2.5º/s turret rotation rate from the first year of the game's life.  Back in the day, Warspite received +0.7º/s from this skill's predecessor.  Had her original version (with its glacial stock turret traverse) been present in 0.10.0, this new version of the skill only gives her 0.5º/s.   I probably would have gone insane suffering through that. Here's some of the more common turret rotation rates and you can see how much this skill gives:

• 72s for 180º: +0.5º/s
• 60s for 180º: +0.6º/s
• 45s for 180º: +0.8º/s
• 30s for 180º: +1.2º/s

Thus the battleships that need this most benefit from it the least.  Those that benefit from it the most have little need of it.  It's all kinds of backwards.  It's hard to recommend this skill when it's bonuses are so improperly weighted.  Still, when in need, you have to take what you can get.  Despite the GARBAGE rating (because I hate this version of the skill), this will end up in more than a few builds.  This should go back to a flat value regardless of the turret traverse speed.

VERDICT: GARBAGE

  Intertial Fuse for HE Shells - Increase the armour penetration of main and secondary battery HE shells by 25% but decrease the baseline fire-chance of shells before modifiers by 50%.

Remember my beef with Pyrotechnist?  The same applies here.  You do NOT take IFHE for the sake of your main battery guns.  It's just not worth it.  No, it's not even worthwhile for your Royal Navy battleships to bump their penetration up past a given threshold to be able to citadel a couple of extra cruisers for the memes.  The loss of fire setting on your main battery guns is just too punitive.  The ONLY reason to take this skill is to buff the penetration of of your secondaries.  This said, there are very few battleships which actually benefit from it.  The poster-child is Massachusetts, where this skill bumps the penetration of her secondary shells up to 26mm, allowing her to directly damage the extremities of some (and not all) cruisers and tier VI and VII battleships.  But even then, you have to ask if taking Pyrotechnist wouldn't be the better option there to go for fires instead. The 100mm guns on French battleships lack the penetration needed to directly damage the hulls of tier VIII+ destroyers and this skill finally gives them the teeth needed to do it.  But is it worth it?  Probably not.  Do it for the memes, not for the performance.

VERDICT: GARBAGE

  Consumables Enhancements - Increase the action time of Hydroacoustic Search, Surveillance Radar, Smoke Generator and Engine Boost consumables by 10%.

Finally, something worth investing into.  This skill falls clearly in the "nice to have" catergory rather than the meta-defining category.  If you have points left over, then it's nice to have a bit more time on whatever fun consumables your ship happened t come with.  It's not likely to make a world of difference, but every now and then this will result in a fun anecdote.  Do note that Smoke Generator includes ALL Smoke Generators in the game, including the Exhaust Smoke Generators on Italian battleships and Crawling Smoke Generators that will invariably show up when Wargaming magics a fictional British Commonwealth battleship into existence. 

VERDICT:  Mehskill

  Vigilance - Extends torpedo acqusition range by 25%.

I'm going to spend way more time on this skill than it deserves.

• Vigilance stacks with Hydroacoustic Search.
• Vigilance also stacks with the Torpedo Lookout System upgrade (5th slot), increasing this from 1.8km to 2.25km.
• Torpedo Lookout System does not stack with Hydroacoustic Search.

So why would you want this skill?  Ostensibly, it will help you stay torpedo safe.  However, if you're buying this skill thinking it will greatly reduce the number of torpedoes that will hit you, I'm sorry to disappoint.  The increased reaction time this provides will not be enough to guarantee you a Yuro Torpedo Beats montage each and every game. What this skill will do is help reduce the number of hits you take on average over the course of many games. So if you might have taken 3 torpedo hits from a salvo, maybe you'll only take two.  Maybe.  Pro-active dodging skills (varying course and speed, not sailing predictably, keeping an eye on Priority Target, etc) will serve you much better than this skill will. 

This skill is really only for those that are the saltiest of salties when it comes to taking torpedo damage.  It is a whole point cheaper than it was but you can do so much better with those two points.

VERDICT: GARBAGE

  Priority Target - The detection indicator addtionally shows the number of opponents on the enemy team that are currently aiming at your ship with their main batter guns.

I ♥LUV!♥ this skill.  Its utility for battleships admittedly peaks in the mid-tiers where close-range torpedo-destroyers are much more plentiful. You see this skill lets you know when GUNS are being pointed at you.  It will not flag someone that has torpedoes up.  Thus it has a secondary purpose of letting you know when someone switches from guns to fish (and back again).  For those players unaware, they can give away their launches in this way, allowing you to pre-emptively turn and dodge the fish before they're even spotted.  Against incoming gunnery, it's less effective for battleships and generally serves more of a warning as to when you've over-extended.  Still, it's a handy skill to have and totally worth the two points.  This is my go-to skill at tier 2 for battleships and is the second skill I pick up (almost) every time.

VERDICT: Gudskill
Note: This skill will end up in a lot of battleship builds.

  AA Gunner - Increases continuous AA damage and flak explosion damage by 10%.

Just don't.

VERDICT: GARBAGE

Battleship Tier 3 Skills

We've had to wade through a lot of garbage to finally get to the good stuff -- and there's a lot of good (or at least interesting) stuff at this tier.

TL:DR:

• Super Heavy AP Shells: Mehskill
• Long-Range Secondary Battery: Mehskill
• Adrenaline Rush: Gudskill
• Basics of Survivability: Gudskill
• Enhanced Anti-Torpedo Protection: GARBAGE
• Expert AA Marksman: OVERPOWERED

Open the spoiler tag to read my break down of each skill.

Spoiler

  Super-Heavy AP Shells - Increase main battery AP shell damage by +5%, increase duration of flooding and fire critical damage by 30%.
Okay, this skill is pretty interesting.  First up, let's talk about those very (VERY) serious drawbacks.  Effectively this increases the damage-over-time effects done by fires and floodings by almost a third.  Here's the math on what percentage that is of a battleship's hit points, including the influence of different fire duration mitigation upgrades, skills and signals.  The base value will be on the left in default text colour and in brackets in Mehskill orange, we have the amount with this skill.

Versus Fires:

• Single Fire vs Stock 18% over 60 seconds (23.4% over 78 seconds)
• Single Fire vs 15% Modifier:  15.3% over 51 seconds (19.9% over 66.3 seconds)
• Single Fire vs 20% Signal: 14.4% over 48 seconds (18.7% over 62.4 seconds)
• Single Fire vs two 15% Modifiers: 13% over 43.4 seconds (16.9% over 56.4 seconds)
• Single Fire vs 15% Modifier + 20% Signal: 12.2% over 40.8 seconds (15.9% over 53 seconds)
• Single Fire vs two 15% Modifiers + 20% Signal: 10.4% over 34.7 seconds (13.5% over 45.1 seconds)

Versus Floods:

• Single Flood vs Stock: 20% over 40 seconds. (26% over 52 seconds)
• Single Flood vs 15% Modifier:  17% over 34 seconds (22.1% over 44.2 seconds)
• Single Flood vs 20% Signal: 16% over 32 seconds (20.8% over 41.6 seconds)
• Single Flood vs two 15% Modifiers: 14.5% over 28.9 seconds (18.8% over 37.6 seconds)
• Single Flood vs 15% Modifier + 20% Signal: 13.6% over 27.2 seconds (17.7% over 35.4 seconds)
• Single Flood vs two 15% Modifiers + 20% Signal: 11.6% over 23.1 seconds (15% over 30.1 seconds)

This is, of course, assuming that this damage gets past the battleship's Damage Control Party... and let's face it, they will. While floods are less likely, it's pretty safe to assume you'll be taking at least one full-burn fire per game.  This damage can be fully recovered through a Repair Party, but this is an understandable burden upon both consumables, all to receive a 5% DPM boost with AP shells.  Is it worth it?  That depends how survivable your battleship is.  Royal Navy battleships tend to laugh at fire damage (but they also tend to laugh at the premise of firing AP in the first place...) where as it's more serious for a Japanese battleship.  On the whole, I have to say that this probably isn't worth the hit to battleship survivability, but for those times when you are landing citadels?  Bigger numbers = bigger memes.

VERDICT:  Mehskill

  Long-Range Secondary Battery Shells - Increase secondary battery range by 20%.

This does exactly what it says on the tin.  In general there are really only two kinds of battleship where it's worth improving secondary performance:  German battleships and a handful of select premiums from other nations (including but no limited to:  Warspite, Massachusetts and Georgia).  Buffing French secondaries is contentious but you can do it if you're one of the two people still playing Gascogne on the regular.  This skill is a must-have if you're going all in on secondaries.  Avoid it otherwise.

VERDICT:  Mehskill

  Adrenaline Rush - Decreases the reload time of the main battery, secondary battery and torpedoes while increasing continuous AA damage by 0.2% for every 1% of health lost.

If you can afford this skill, scoop it up.  Battleships are very well setup for taking full advantage of this skill.  Their universal access to a Repair Party gives players a tremendous amount of control with this skill, allowing them to choose when to maximize firepower and when it's better to heal back some health. 

VERDICT: Gudskill

  Basics of Survivability - Reduce the repair time of fires, flooding and module damage by 15%.

This was THE staple of battleship builds in the before time.  It remains a very strong survivabilty plus-ultra! skill.  You can't go wrong with fitting this into your battleship builds as you can all but guarantee suffering at least one fire that you can't put out per match.  It's effectively giving your battleship more health and that's one of the type's greatest strengths.  This forms one of the two 15% modifiers you can use to diminish the duration of flooding and fires (the other being the Damage Control System Modification 2 upgrade).  Courtesy of the wiki:

 

Modifiers	Total Flooding Damage	Flooding Duration
Total damage	20.0% of base health	40 seconds
With one -15% modifier	17.0% of base health	34 seconds
With a -20% modifier	16.0% of base health	32 seconds
With two -15% modifiers	14.0% of base health	28 seconds
With one -15% modifier and a -20% modifier	13.5% of base health	27 seconds
With two -15% modifiers and a -20% modifier	11.5% of base health	23 seconds

 

Fire Modifiers	Total Fire Damage	Fire Duration
Total damage	18% of base health	60 seconds
With one -15% modifier	15.3% of base health	51 seconds
With a -20% modifier	14.4% of base health	48 seconds
With two -15% modifiers	13% of base health	43 seconds
With one -15% modifier and a -20% modifier	12.2% of base health	41 seconds
With two -15% modifiers and a -20% modifier	10.4% of base health	35 seconds

VERDICT: Gudskill

  Enhanced Anti-Torpedo Protection - Torpedo damage reduction increased by 10%.

This plugs into the flooding calculation formula.  This formula changed with patch 0.10.0, but we can infer it to be something akin to the following:

Flood Chance When Striking Anti-Torpedo Belt = (1 - [Torpedo Protection]) x (1 - ) x (1 - ) x 0.33 x [Torpedo Flood Chance] x (1 + ) x (1 + ) x (1 + ) x (1 + )
Flood Chance When Striking Anywhere Else =  [Torpedo Flood Chance] x (1 + ) x (1 + ) x (1 + ) x (1 + )

EDIT: Wargaming finally got around to giving us the correct formula!

Flood Chance When Striking Anti-Torpedo Belt = (1 - [Torpedo Protection + - ]) x (1 - ) x 0.33 x [Torpedo Flood Chance] x (1 + ) x (1 + ) x (1 + )
Flood Chance When Striking Anywhere Else =  [Torpedo Flood Chance] x (1 + ) x (1 + ) x (1 + )

Where:

• Torpedo Protection is the stat listed in port and only applies to hits that strike the ship's anti-torpedo bulges.  So Yamato's 55% would equal 0.55, Zao's 19% would be 0.19 and Asashio's non-existent anti-torpedo protection is 0.  If it strikes anywhere but the anti-torpedo bulge, this value is also 0. 
• is the Damage Control Modification 1 upgrade which goes in slot two of tier III+ ships.  If present on the ship being hit, this value is 0.03.  Otherwise this value is zero.
• is the skill Enhanced Anti-Torpedo Protection.  If present on the ship being hit, this value is 0.1.  Otherwise this value is zero.
• Torpedo Flooding Chance is a hidden stat and varies considerably, often exceeding 100%.  For example, the tier II German destroyer V-25 on its upgraded G/6 AV torpedoes has 173% flood chance, which would be represented here by 1.73.  Compare that to everyone's favourite destroyer which single-handedly removed all battleships from the game, Asashio, which has a 436% (4.36 in this formula). 
• is the Victor Lima signal.  If present on the attacking ship, this value is 0.04.  If not, the value is 0. 
• is the Juliet Whiskey Unaone signal.  If present on the attacking ship, this value is 0.15.  If not, the value is 0.
• is the Liquidator skill.  If present on the attacking ship, this value is 0.3.  If not, the value is 0.
• is the new aircraft carrier commander skill Proximity Fuse.  If present on the attacking ship, this value is 0.1.  If not, the value is 0.

This skill adds directly to the anti-torpedo protection value found in port (less the aircraft carrier skill Proximity Fuse).  This is much more potent than than simply being a multiplier, increasing not only the chance to resist floods but also mitigate received from the immediate blast when taking hits on the ship's anti-torpedo belt.  The catch is, of course, that hits need to land there in the first place in order to activate.  As nice as this bonus is, it's a hard sell at 3 points, especially given how points-starved battleships are to get quality-of-life improvements.

VERDICT: GARBAGE

  Expert AA Marksman - Increase Priority Sector AA damage by 25% and the number of flak explosions by +1.

Please don't.

I don't want to spend too much time dwelling on anti-aircraft firepower skills.  Wargaming shied well away from making them anywhere near effective on battleships, so don't bother.  This skill increases battleship sector priority from a 35% damage bonus to 43.75% for a grand total of 15 seconds.  Hooray.  For the record, I'm only labelling this overpowered to troll people who don't actually read the full post.  This skill is really trash.   Maybe you could meme this on Thunderer or Vermont with their Defensive AA Fire and surprise a CV before all of your small and medium calibre AA guns get shot off by HE shells and MAYBE get that to happen one game in ten.

VERDICT: OVERPOWERED

Battleship Tier 4 Skills

While destroyers see the glut of their best skills at tier 3, for battleships it is unequivocally at tier 4 where their game-play defining skills reside. 

TL:DR:

• Dead Eye:  GARBAGE
• Improved Secondary Battery Aiming: Mehskill
• Close Quarters Combat: GARBAGE
• Emergency Repair Expert: Gudskill
• Concealment Expert: Gudskill
• Fire Prevention: Gudskill

Open the spoiler tag to read my break down of each skill.

Spoiler

  Dead Eye - Reduces horizontal dispersion by 10% so long as there are no visible enemy ships inside of her surface detection range.

Why is this skill causing such a fuss?  This skill makes battleship guns more accurate so long as they are far enough back that they don't have any opponents visible inside of their surface detection range.  So a skulking destroyer or hovering aircraft lighting them up doesn't disable this skill -- only an enemy that's visible to them inside of their detection range.  Naturally this synergizes beautifully for battleships with lower concealment ranges, so taking skills like Concealment Expert give more play to this skill, as does the (still) OVERPOWERED Concealment System Modification 1 upgrade in slot five that I wish would die in a fire. 

The 10% bonus is signifciant, but it's not as powerful as some people make out.  Right now it's being heralded as the bees knees when it's more like an earwig's ankle.  People are, of course, losing their collective poop over this skill and using it as an excuse to play passively.  It's worth remembering that passive game play has always been chronic in World of Warships, especially at higher tiers, so it's not like Dead Eye is singularly responsible for bringing about a plague of border-humping scrub-[edited].  What it has done is made it socially acceptable to be a border-humping scrub-[edited].  You spent four points on this skill, and by golly, it's your right to use it, right? Ugh.

But I am nothing if not stupid about over-emphasizing a point, so let's look at some data.

Roma, doing one of my standard dispersion tests.  This is 180 AP shells fired at a stationary Fuso-bot at a range of 15km.  The bot has no camouflage.  Shots are coming in from right ot left.

Dead Eye isn't a universal bad thing.  It's a blessing for some ships that have been neglected over the years.  Roma, for example, has notoriously bad shell scatter.  Combine this with her high-velocity shells generating constant overpenetrations against cruisers inside of 12km ranges and her gunnery just isn't fun.  But Roma is a surprisingly stealthy battleship and when coupled with the Dead Eye skill, her gunnery becomes much less frustrating.  I'm not sure this speaks so much to the benefits of the skill as much as it does on how easy it would be to "fix" Roma to make playing her a consistently fun experience.  Anyway, Roma (and her disappointing Azur Lane clone, AL Littorio) are the poster-child to the good that this skill can do

This is 180 AP shells fired at a stationary Fuso-bot at a range of 15km.  The bot has no camouflage.  Shots are coming in from right to left.

The problem people are having is with ships that didn't have dispersion issues before.  Thunderer, my blessed-child, is particularly culpable here.  Using Dead Eye, her horizontal dispersion at 20km drops from 201m with Aiming System Modification 1 down to 181m.  Before Dead Eye, to have this same level of horizontal, she had to be within 17.5km.  That's the effect of the skill on horizontal dispersion.  It's like being 2.6km closer than you were before.  But the effects do not stop there.  It also modifies vertical dispersion which (for the first time) is finally being unpacked.  Dead Eye (combined with Aiming System Modification 1) gives Thunderer the same dispersion area at 20km as she would have at 11.3km or so.  Yeah.  That's huge.

After having blown my brain up doing the math and doing multiple proofs, I was pointed towards this handy tool where you can demonstrate it for yourself:

https://jcw780.github.io/wows_ballistics/

Play around with it.  You can alter the accuracy and range parameters to account for dispersion mods and range mods (increasing range reduces vertical dispersion) -- that's why Gun Fire Control System Modification 2 is now making the rounds instead of Main Battery Modification 3 in slot 6 builds at the moment.

And just when you thought this skill was a shoe-in for every build, you HAVE to keep in mind that this skill is absolute trash in lower-tiers and PVE modes.  Bots don't give a crap if you're border humping.  They will drive straight at you and deactivate this skill in short-order.  Lower-tiered maps are claustrophobic affairs with chunktacular surface detection ranges.  Fuso is the poster child for this getting (at best!) a 16.5km surface detection range.  Almost any same-tier cruiser that can shoot back deactivates this skill, so don't bother.  However, there are exceptions.  Viribus Unitis (ew) is incredibly stealthy, so she can make use of this.  So it's not like taking this skill is idiot proof and always a must-have.

Now, will this skill win you games?  Probably not!  Yes, it's going to help you farm damage like no tomorrow.  I see Dead Eye as influencing battleship game play in the same manner the Royal Navy battleship introduction did:  It's encouraging all sorts of damage-farming at the expense of playing objectives.  Farming big numbers feels good, though, so fighting against Dead Eye's influence is difficult.   Until you've been on the receiving end of bad teams, suffering battleships doing nothing but lobbing hail mary shots across the map, it's hard to see the damage being done.  Oh well.  It is what it is.

VERDICT:  GARBAGE
Note: I'm not going to give it a reasonable rating, partly because it will cheese some people off, but more to the point:  I want you to stop and weigh the evidence and think.  The reality is that this skill will end up in most people's builds because it's easy to use and it's an immediate power boost when it works.  While doing big-damage can win you games, it can also cost you them.  Look, we all know the score.  If you sit at the back of the map and do nothing but farm damage, you're hoping that someone else spots for you and plays the objectives because you can't.  If winning matters, you'll eventually have to get off your butt and push.  What Dead Eye has done is made it so that the first person to do so gets punished.  And so does the second and the third.  It's another building block that is cementing static play into this game and harkens back to the "good ol' days" before Surveillance Radar where constant walls of fish would blow your face off, or when smoke was an opaque wall that anyone could fire out of without being detected.

I don't like how this skill is implemented.  If they flipped its activation around -- had it only working while directly spotted by a visible enemy, then it would have been more interesting.  If they slapped it with a 15% reduction to rates of fire, then it might have been more interesting.  As it is: hump border, fire boolets, farm damage.

  Improved Secondary Battery Aiming - Maximum dispersion of secondary battery reduced by 35% against set priority target.

This skill has made almost as much fuss as Dead Eye but for the opposite reasons.  It's precursor, Manual Fire Control for Secondary Armament was a two-tiered system, providing tier VII+ ships a 60% boost to their accuracy.  This is what has everyone in a fuss.  This skill is (rightly) seen as a nerf to high-tier battleship secondaries.  Coupled with Dead Eye, it marks a shift in the meta away from close-quarters engagements.  There's more to the story than that, though.

First of all, let's touch base on Wargaming's own counter-arguments to this nerf-business.

1. With the precursor to this skill, only the secondaries that could aim at the target would fire.  All other secondaries remained silent, even if there were other targets at which they could shoot.  Under the new skill, all secondaries with enemies in range and line of fire will engage targets, with secondary guns capable of hitting the priority target focusing upon it.  Those guns opening up on the priority target get the 35% bonus while the other guns have normal dispersion.  This is a 'nice to have" feature but it's seldom going to be relevant.  It's very much a feature that's more prevalent at mid-to-low tiers rather than higher tiered battles, despite the disparity in secondary ranges.  Lower-tiered matches are more likely to see close-range brawls, what with the combination of claustrophobic maps and shorter torpedo ranges on destroyers. 
2. This lower-tiered benefit appears again with this second point.  The older version of the skill had its efficiency divided by tier.  As I said earlier, the higher tiered ships benefited from a 60% dispersion buff.  Lower-tiered ships had to make do with 15%.  Combined with the inability to fire off both sides (again, more common in lower-tiered matches), this 15% bonus was not seen as worth-while and this skill was only worth taking on tier VII+ battleships. Thus this 35% dispersion bonus is a huge buff for lower-tiered battleships.

I have to admit, I am glad to be able to take this on Warspite or König Albert and blast some n00bs with my secondaries.  That's neat.  However, this comes at the expense of reduced efficacy of secondaries on higher-tiered ships.  Wargaming did buff the secondary accuracy on select high-tier German battleships to compensate somewhat for this loss of overall performance.  But this raises another issue:

Players have little to no grasp on battleship secondary accuracy in the first place.

Of course people are going to be up in arms about taking some of their accuracy away from them.  The general ignorance on how much accuracy was taken away only makes it worse.  All we have are nebulous big numbers to go by with most players having NO IDEA how big the dispersion area was to begin with.  Like, there's a whole hierarchy of battleship secondary accuracy most players are largely ignorant about.  Generally speaking, battleship secondaries fall into three broad categories.  Here's their horizontal dispersion radius at 2.5km intervals.  The top value is their base dispersion at that range with the second being the current fully upgraded value (Mike Yankee Soxisix signal (5%) + Secondary Battery Modification 1 (20%) + Improved Secondary Battery Aiming (35%) -- just over a 50% reduction (50.6%).

Secondary Horizontal Dispersion

Dispersion Type	2.5km	5km	7.5km	10km	12.5km
Standard (Most battleship secondaries)	173m 85m	315m 156m	458m 226m	600m 296m	743m 367m
German (Tier VII+ German battleships + PEF)	139m 69m	248m 122m	356m 176m	465m 230m	574m 284m
Accurate (Massachusetts, Warspite 152mm, etc)	113m 56m	195m 96m	278m 137m	360m 178m	443m 219m

This is a far cry from what Massachusetts used to enjoy.  To get the same dispersion she once had at 10km, when fully upgraded,  she now has to get within 5.8km.  Yeah, it sucks.  High-tier secondaries got worse.  Low-tier secondaries got (much) better.  From my cursory deep-dive into datamining, Prinz Eitel Friedrich and Warspite are the two big winners to come out of this change but I'm sure I'll find others the further I go.  There's a lot to unpack here but I've done enough math this week.

"How did she get such great secondaries!?"

VERDICT:  Mehskill
Note:  For select lower-tiered battleships?  This is totally a Gudskill.

  Close Quarters Combat - Reduce secondary battery reload time by 10%.  When a spotted enemy is inside secondary range, reduce main battery reload times by 10%.

This is totally a PVE-mode skill.

Do you like jousting?  This is a jousting skill.  Co-Op bots LOVE to joust, and this skill will help pad your numbers in your secondary-meme boats.  This is a great way to accelerate completing those "get X-number of secondary hits" missions but it kinda hinges on you having a specific commander you dust off for just these occasions.  Otherwise, this skill is hella-expensive for what it gives you.  Adrenaline Rush will largely give you the same effect for one point cheaper provided you're bleeding health.  The biggest problem here is that it ONLY kicks over when there's an enemy inside of secondary range.  That's such a limited window of opportunity to take advantage of this.  Yes, in a close brawl, this skill will be the deciding factor with all things being equal, but if you're going into a brawl where all things are fair, you're doing it wrong.  Battleship brawls and jousts should be decisive "I win" moments and not a gamble.

This skill isn't worth it.  The secondary buff alone should be 20% before I'd even consider it.  This is effectively the old Basic Fire Training skill with a 1 point stupid-tax.

VERDICT:  GARBAGE

  Emergency Repair Expert - Adds an additional charge to both Repair Party and Damage Control Party while increasing their action time by 10%.

Now this is a spicy skill.  It's effectively a four-point Superintendent upgrade laser-focused on increasing battleship toughness at the expense of providing extra charges for anything else.  Before patch 0.10.0, this was the meta.  It's arguably still a very strong skill but the four-point cost is difficult to afford.  This big draw (for me) with this skill is the extra duration on Repair Party.  More time equals more heals.  Here's how that breaks down:

Stock

• Standard Repair Party: 0.5% health per second over 28 seconds. (14%)
• Select Royal Navy Battleships: 0.6% health per second over 28 seconds. (16.8%)
• Montana-line American Tech Tree Battleships & Oklahoma:  0.66% health per second over 28 seconds (18.48%)
• Nelson, Lion & Conqueror:  2% health per second for 20 seconds (40%)

With Emergency Repair Expert

• Standard Repair Party + : 0.5% health per second over 30.8 seconds. (15.4%)
• Select Royal Navy Battleships: + : 0.6% health per second over 30.8 seconds. (18.48%)
• Montana-line American Tech Tree Battleships & Oklahoma + :  0.66% health per second over 30.8 seconds (20.328%)
• Nelson, Lion & Conqueror + :  2% health per second for 22 seconds (44%)

With the India Delta signal

• Standard Repair Party + :  0.6% health per second over 28 seconds. (16.8%)
• Select Royal Navy Battleships + : 0.72% health per second over 28 seconds. (20.16%)
• Montana-line American Tech Tree Battleships & Oklahoma + : 0.79% health per second over 28 seconds. (22.18%)
• Nelson, Lion & Conqueror + : 2.4% health per second over 20 seconds. (48%)

With the India Delta signal and Emergency Repair Expert

• Standard Repair Party + + : 0.6% health per second over 30.8 seconds. (18.48%)
• Select Royal Navy Battleships + + : 0.72% health per second over 30.8 seconds. (22.18%)
• Montana-line American Tech Tree Battleships & Oklahoma + + : 0.79% health per second over 30.8 seconds. (24.39%)
• Nelson, Lion & Conqueror + + : 2.4% health per second over 22 seconds (52.8%)

So you can see it's only a modest bump up in health -- not overpowering.  For Soviet battleships, the double-dip into improving their Repair Party and Damage Control Party makes it extra appealing (though not so much that the 3pt Superintendent price tag isn't sorely missed).  If you can afford this skill, it's worth while but it might not make the cut given how costly battleship builds have become overall.

VERDICT: Gudskill

  Concealment Expert - Reduce the ship's air and surface detectability ranges by 10%.

This skill is still boring, still powerful though traditionally less necessary on battleships than on destroyers and cruisers.  However, with Dead Eye keying off your surface detection range, you bet your buns that this skill ends up on a lot of builds these days (along with range & concealment upgrades) in order to give the largest window possible to drop improved-dispersion bombs.  It's easy to underestimate the power of reduced surface detection but its one of those tools to control engagements.  This is again one of those skills that matters more in PVP modes than it does in PVE, in part because bots tend to go for destroyers and cruisers first and also bots tend to charge constantly so stealth matters less for battleships.  Overall? Grab this skill if you can afford it.

VERDICT: Gudskill

  Fire Prevention - Reduces the change of being set on fire by 10% and reduces the maximum number of fires burning on a ship from 4 to 3.

This was arguably the most important battleship skill you could take before patch 0.10.0.  This skill greatly increases battleship survivability when HE is being thrown about.  And HE is still being thrown about a lot.  While the reduced fire chance is nice to have, it's really not that effective.  The reason for taking this skill is to reduce the maximum number of fires from four to three.  What's more, it makes stacking multiple fires more difficult for the opponent as it merges the two amidships sections into a single section.  Normally, the length of the ship is divided into four quadrants with each quadrant capable of supporting a fire.  This skill merges the two centre quadrants into a single big one.  Thus it's more difficult for your opponent to hit multiple sections at once by simply aiming for the ship's centre of mass. 

You can pretty much guarantee to suffer a permanent blaze or two in a given match.  Depending on your other skill choices, Fire Prevention's worth varies from absolutely-must-have (for example, if you take Super-Heavy AP Shells) to simply being a good idea.

VERDICT: Gudskill

Let's take a look at a few example builds for battleships so people can adjust their skill choices before the free-resets expire.

The Boring Battleship Build

With very little variation, the "perfect" battleship build before patch 0.10.0 looked like this:

Old timey.

It was ridiculous how much mileage I could get out of a single jpeg when it came to recommending skill builds for a single ship type.  Battleship skill variety had truly stagnated.  At best you might move Expert Marksman (tier 2, circled on the left) over for High Alert or Jack of All Trades; skills that reduced the reset timer on important consumables.  Even if your battleship had great secondaries, this was still the way to go.  Building for survivability paid off more than the secondary memes, disappointing as that sounds.  That still didn't stop a few idiots like myself form building for secondaries, but still.

This build survives to the present day but it's been modified and it's more expensive than it was.

When in doubt, this is arguably the safest build you can take for your battleships.  It doesn't matter if its a German brawler, a British HE-spammer or a delicate French sniper.  If you don't know how to build your battleships and you're worrying about screwing up, this is the way to build your ship.  It's not the most efficient, but it'll do, pig.  It'll do.  Start with the red circles then pick up the squares as you can.   You'll pair this with the traditiona battleship survivability upgrades, namely Damage Control System Modification 1 & 2 and Concealment System Modification 1.  Follow this up with a glut of appropriate combat signals and you're as tough as you can get.

The Battleship Brawling Build

Also old-timey.  Because of the skill's inefficiency below tier VII, ower-tiered battleships dropped Manual Fire Control for Secondary Armament (tier 4, far left) and Expert Loader (tier 1) to grab both tier 3 skills instead of having to pick between them and then snatching up a tier 2 skill of their choice.

I'm glad you've come to your senses and managed to read past that boring ol' survivability build.  Now we can talk about the interesting stuff.  Before patch 0.10.0, high-tier secondary-builds were fairly standardized too.  Again there was some small variation but this happened only if the given battleship needed to take Inertial Fuse for HE Shells.  Lower tiered battleships had to make a few changes but with the new skills, one build fits all regardless of tiering.  There's a bit of wiggle room here to pick skills to your liking.  I have not left room for taking Inertial Fuse for HE Shells, but you may drop one of the skills in the rectangles that you feel benefits you the least.

 

It's Not Border-Humping, It's Meta

Shut up.

 

Conclusions

I swear to god, if I look at that dispersion formula again before the week is out, I'm going to scream.

Next up, Cruisers!

 

[Mono_De_Mantequilla]

Ah, good to see the follow on to the DDs.

[Chain_shot]

10 minutes ago, LittleWhiteMouse said:

For the record, I'm only labelling this overpowered to troll people who don't actually read the stuff I read.  It's really trash.

Sneaky lol

[Zenn3k]

I don't get how you yourself can post comparative shots showing Deadeye making a MASSIVE impact and then say its garbage and does nothing, that makes zero sense to me.     

Since you marked a really bad skill as overpowered as a joke, I must assume you marked an overpowered skill as garbage to try and get people to stop using it??

[LittleWhiteMouse]

2 minutes ago, Zenn3k said:

I don't get how you yourself can post comparative shots showing Deadeye making a MASSIVE impact and then say its garbage and does nothing, that makes zero sense to me.   

GARBAGE– I hate it!  Who knows why?  Maybe it sucks!  Maybe it's boring!  Maybe I resent how it was implemented in the game!  Only wieners take this skill!

[Moggytwo]

14 minutes ago, LittleWhiteMouse said:

Grease the Gears  - Increase the main battery traverse speed by 20%

This skill makes me so mad. 

Thus the battleships that need this most benefit from it the least.  Those that benefit from it the most have little need of it.  It's all kinds of backwards.

How on Earth does this get a garbage rating?  BB's are often unable to fire when they want to because their guns are traversing.  This skill directly reduces the time between shots when this is an issue, and so is a clear dpm buff, and also a buff to the times when you need to fire those guns right now!

I understand completely that it's a frustrating implementation.  They should definitely change it to not be a percentage based increase.  The old implementation was way better.  Having said that, the reason why it's so frustrating that the implementation is poor is because it is such an important skill, and as such even with the crappier implementation it can't possibly be a garbage skill, and it is still the best skill at this tier, and the sole tier 2 pick in the BB cookie cutter build (there shouldn't be a BB cookie cutter build, and all other skill trees have quite diverse build options, but for BB's in this patch, there most definitely is one).  If you're not taking this skill in you're BB, you're just nerfing yourself.

[Nolo_00]

Just now, Moggytwo said:

How on Earth does this get a garbage rating?  BB's are often unable to fire when they want to because their guns are traversing.  This skill directly reduces the time between shots when this is an issue, and so is a clear dpm buff, and also a buff to the times when you need to fire those guns right now!

I understand completely that it's a frustrating implementation.  They should definitely change it to not be a percentage based increase.  The old implementation was way better.  Having said that, the reason why it's so frustrating that the implementation is poor is because it is such an important skill, and as such even with the crappier implementation it can't possibly be a garbage skill, and it is still the best skill at this tier, and the sole tier 2 pick in the BB cookie cutter build (there shouldn't be a BB cookie cutter build, and all other skill trees have quite diverse build options, but for BB's in this patch, there most definitely is one).  If you're not taking this skill in you're BB, you're just nerfing yourself.

I have a feeling it's another one of these...

7 minutes ago, LittleWhiteMouse said:

GARBAGE– I hate it!  Who knows why?  Maybe it sucks!  Maybe it's boring!  Maybe I resent how it was implemented in the game!  Only wieners take this skill!

 

[Rouxi]

27 minutes ago, LittleWhiteMouse said:

  Enhanced Anti-Torpedo Protection - Torpedo damage reduction increased by 10%.

This plugs into the flooding calculation formula.  This formula changed with patch 0.10.0, but we can infer it to be something akin to the following:

Flood Chance When Striking Anti-Torpedo Belt = (1 - [Torpedo Protection]) x (1 - ) x (1 - ) x 0.33 x [Torpedo Flood Chance] x (1 + ) x (1 + ) x (1 + ) x (1 + )
Flood Chance When Striking Anywhere Else =  [Torpedo Flood Chance] x (1 + ) x (1 + ) x (1 + ) x (1 + )

Where:

• Torpedo Protection is the stat listed in port and only applies to hits that strike the ship's anti-torpedo bulges.  So Yamato's 55% would equal 0.55, Zao's 19% would be 0.19 and Asashio's non-existent anti-torpedo protection is 0.  If it strikes anywhere but the anti-torpedo bulge, this value is also 0. 
• is the Damage Control Modification 1 upgrade which goes in slot two of tier III+ ships.  If present on the ship being hit, this value is 0.03.  Otherwise this value is zero.
• is the skill Enhanced Anti-Torpedo Protection.  If present on the ship being hit, this value is 0.1.  Otherwise this value is zero.
• Torpedo Flooding Chance is a hidden stat and varies considerably, often exceeding 100%.  For example, the tier II German destroyer V-25 on its upgraded G/6 AV torpedoes has 173% flood chance, which would be represented here by 1.73.  Compare that to everyone's favourite destroyer which single-handedly removed all battleships from the game, Asashio, which has a 436% (4.36 in this formula). 
• is the Victor Lima signal.  If present on the attacking ship, this value is 0.04.  If not, the value is 0. 
• is the Juliet Whiskey Unaone signal.  If present on the attacking ship, this value is 0.15.  If not, the value is 0.
• is the Liquidator skill.  If present on the attacking ship, this value is 0.3.  If not, the value is 0.
• is the new aircraft carrier commander skill Proximity Fuse.  If present on the attacking ship, this value is 0.1.  If not, the value is 0.

It's hard to rate this skill very highly. It's dependent upon torpedoes striking her anti-torpedo belt in the first place.  In addition, there are some torpedoes with such a ridiculously high flooding chance on their torpedoes, this skill will do little to nothing at all.  It's best use is probably to mitigate aircraft carrier torpedoes floods, but even then, it's hard to see the value here, especially for three points.  Drop some torpedo crit chances into the formula and see for yourself.  This skill is really lacking.

VERDICT: GARBAGE

Does this skill not reduce damage taken from torps? Why do you only talk about floods.

[Beleaf_]

+1 for the Kriegsmarine meme

[Moggytwo]

Just now, Nolo_00 said:

I have a feeling it's another one of these...

Fair enough.

Of course, LWM is a respected voice in the community, and if she is doing things like not recommending GtG because she doesn't like the implementation, then people will listen to her, take a sub-optimal build, and be less effective in their BB's because of it.

Here is the BB build: 1-ERS, 2-GtG, 3-AR/BoS, 4-DE/CE/FP.  That's it, everything else is worse.  There is so much diversity on the other skill trees, but for BB's, it is cut and dried.  This is just a reflection of some of the fundamental issues with BB's, that have been around for a long time, but are being brought into sharper focus by the skills rework.

Hopefully WG make some real changes to provide options to BB's, and encourage them into mid range, when they announce their 0.10.1 skill rework balance changes.  There are some pretty huge issues for the class though, and it would take a lot more than a few mild captain skill balance changes to fix them.

[LittleWhiteMouse]

11 minutes ago, Rouxi said:

Does this skill not reduce damage taken from torps? Why do you only talk about floods.

It does.  Thanks, I added a line to correct the omission in the text.

[Nolo_00]

2 minutes ago, Moggytwo said:

Fair enough.

Of course, LWM is a respected voice in the community, and if she is doing things like not recommending GtG because she doesn't like the implementation, then people will listen to her, take a sub-optimal build, and be less effective in their BB's because of it.

Here is the BB build: 1-ERS, 2-GtG, 3-AR/BoS, 4-DE/CE/FP.  That's it, everything else is worse.  There is so much diversity on the other skill trees, but for BB's, it is cut and dried.  This is just a reflection of some of the fundamental issues with BB's, that have been around for a long time, but are being brought into sharper focus by the skills rework.

Hopefully WG make some real changes to provide options to BB's, and encourage them into mid range, when they announce their 0.10.1 skill rework balance changes.  There are some pretty huge issues for the class though, and it would take a lot more than a few mild captain skill balance changes to fix them.

Oh, the new skill trees are a mess, no doubt about that.

Of all the trees, I'd say cruisers have the worst one, with heavy cruisers and super cruisers having only a bunch of bad options to pick from. Destroyers and Carriers on the other hand seem to have come out ok.

Not great, but ok.

This may just be my impression, but LWM may be taking these most recent skill reviews and giving the new skill options the same level of respect that WG has to their implementation.

[GandalfTehGray]

Small typo in the Roma dispersion pictures. Says right "ot" left. @LittleWhiteMouse

[LittleWhiteMouse]

5 minutes ago, Moggytwo said:

Of course, LWM is a respected voice in the community, and if she is doing things like not recommending GtG because she doesn't like the implementation, then people will listen to her, take a sub-optimal build, and be less effective in their BB's because of it.

I can't in good conscience recommend Grease the Gears because the math is backwards.  For the points invested, you can get access to much better skills.  Quality of life so often gets sacrificed for survivability.  Priority Target is the better skill for increasing survivability than Grease the Gears.  If a battleship truly needs it (say, Yamato), then dump Adrenaline Rush for it and slap the extra point where you will.

[LittleWhiteMouse]

1 minute ago, GandalfTehGray said:

Small typo in the Roma dispersion pictures. Says right "ot" left. @LittleWhiteMouse

Thanks, when posts get this big, the built-in spell checker just gives up the ghost.  I'll be doing some proofing over the next day or so.  For now, my brain is pudding.

[AJTP89]

Good breakdown, definitely needed. Standard BB survivability build is still king despite changes, it's just more expensive and has less stuff in it. I'm with you on the new EM implementation, completely puzzled why it was done that way as it makes no sense to have it benefit the slowest rotating ships the least. This also confirmed what I've been realizing, to get to the same place as the old builds it's now more expensive and usually you lose something. Survival build now costs 2 more points and doesn't include EM or EL, and the only thing you gain that I can see is some small buffs to DamaCon and Heal cooldown. Not sure why WG thought that kind of change was needed.

Deadeye, yeah most people probably aren't actually able to shoot any better with it, it just gives them an excuse to sit back and snipe ineffectively. But the fact it encourages that kind of play should be enough to get it reworked (or removed). I think your +15% to reload addition to it is a great idea.

[AdmiralPiett]

Nice work! I'll probably be running boring, standard survival on most of the IJN line. Maybe dead eye on my Royal Navy given their concealment. Maybe. They might end up survival too. I insist on secondaries for my French, Kii, and Amagi because I hate myself.

[landcollector]

1 hour ago, LittleWhiteMouse said:

Back in the day, Warspite received +0.7º/s from this skill's predecessor.  This new version of the skill only gives her 0.5º/s.  Here's some of the more common turret rotation rates and you can see how much this skill gives: 

• 72s for 180º: +0.5º/s
• 60s for 180º: +0.6º/s
• 45s for 180º: +0.8º/s
• 30s for 180º: +1.2º/s

You might be mixing up Warspite and QE.  Warspite's base 180 traverse time is 54.5s now, not 72s.

[LittleWhiteMouse]

4 minutes ago, landcollector said:

You might be mixing up Warspite and QE.  Warspite's base 180 traverse time is 54.5s now, not 72s.

See, this is a clear case of my thought process not making it to typie-words.  I'll fix it.  The point I was trying to make was that old-timey Warspite, had she been present in 0.10.0, would only gain 0.5º/s with this skill... which would have sucked.

[landcollector]

1 minute ago, LittleWhiteMouse said:

See, this is a clear case of my thought process not making it to typie-words.  I'll fix it.  The point I was trying to make was that old-timey Warspite, had she been present in 0.10.0, would only gain 0.5º/s with this skill... which would have sucked.

Ah, I see.  Thanks for the clarification!

[iDuckman]

1 hour ago, LittleWhiteMouse said:

I swear to god, if I look at that dispersion formula again before the week is out, I'm going to scream.

[Slayer_Jesse]

I'm wondering on how the math shakes out for Montana with Super Heavy AP shells with her Unique upgrade.

Reinforced Emergency Response gives -10% fire/flood duration time. If i have everything else that reduces it, do you think the skill is worthwhile? Extra AP damage is nice, but Montana is relying on a lot of guns firing semirapidly rather than smaller numbers of big boomsticks like Yamato.

 

Also how would you rate some of the more garbage/meh skills like Grease the Gears and Preventative Maintenance for captains that get improved versions of those skills?

[mkal_1]

Wow did somebody hack LWM account seemed fairly emotional not the norm 

[Tokamak_Raven]

Deadeye is a must have right now, since everyone else has it and are playing the long range game. Even if you prefer an aggressive playstyle, everyone else is playing the deadeye meta, so you need it to compete.

[Your_SAT_Score]

There are several skills I think you are underestimating/overvaluing. 

Preventative Maintenance is also useful for BBs that have issues getting their turrets knocked out like French BBs. Doesn't deserve the garbage rating when the French BB line exists. 

Your assessment on Grease the Gears seems based on comparing her to the old version, rather than look at it's effectiveness for ships that can use her. It comes off closer to irrational rambling than objective assessment. 

I find PT is mostly useful for torpedo dodging. Knowing how many people are looking at you isn't that useful as the minimap usually tells you. Vs BB, you should be looking at where their guns are pointed and angle appropriately anyways. 

I'm surprised Adrenaline rush doesn't get the Overpowered designation. It's still a core take on every BB and is far superior to every other BB skill. All but the most passive or suicidal players will get a significant DPM boost from AR. 

For deadeye, I'd just not give a rating. I would draw a parallel with Deadeye and secondary spec BB. Both heavily encourage a particular playstyle to the point many players force themselves to use the skill, even if it's to their detriment. German BBs are notorious for suiciding into the enemy while Thunderers are notorious for sniping behind spawn. 

I think you are severely underestimating Close Quarters Combat. Close Quarters Combat is much easier to activate than Secondaries as the only prereq is to be in secondary range. You don't have to worry about secondary firing angles. Just being near islands is usually enough to find an enemy within your secondary range, even if your secondaries can't actually shoot it. I find it very odd that you rate Manual Secondaries as meh but CQC as garbage based on activation criteria. And CQC reduces main battery reload time, arguably much stronger than more accurate secondaries.