Full Interceptor Build Not Viable in Randoms

[Maddau]

Since I love the idea of a support carrier focused more on protecting my teammates than dealing damage, I tried a full interceptor build (all four of the support skills along with Squadron Consumables Mod 1) on Audacious in random battles during 10.0.  I ended up switching back to a more standard (for me) damage mitigation and accuracy skills before the end of the free skill resets with 10.1.  I've kept an American 19 point captain with the full interceptor build, however, for use in ranked and eventually clan battles.  I made good use of this full interceptor captain in this last ranked season, and I saw on YouTube that @Ahskance (a much better CV player than me ) preferred this as well for ranked.  With the smaller number of friendly ships to protect, you can make it work, and it is very powerful against FDRs, which are fairly common in competitive.  

What cripples the use of the full interceptor build in random is the -25% patrol times that is the penalty of the 4 point Enhanced Reaction skill.  With the Squadron Consumables Mod 1 in slot 5, the longest you can keep the Interceptors on station is 67 seconds, the first ~7 seconds of which are warm up time, where they won't shoot anything down.  Without the SCM1 in slot 5, you are limited to 45 seconds patrol time, with, again 7 seconds of that for warm up when you first call them to patrol.  I've found that I'm more effective in random battles using SCM1 along with the 1 point Search and Destroy skill as well as the 2 point Patrol Group Leader skill at preventing strikes against my teammates due to the 90 s patrol times this allows.  I've shot down more planes on average using this configuration as well, since the red CV is less likely to wait out the patrol fighters, and more willing to hazard sending his planes into the fighters for a strike in the hopes of recalling his surviving planes before my fighters shoot them down.

Unless Wargaming wants the full interceptor/support CV to be limited to competitive modes, they need to eliminate or significantly reduce the  -25% action time of the fighter/interceptor consumable that is attached to Enhanced Reactions.  A 25% penalty is a high price to pay for any 4 point skill.  Alternatively, they could leave ER as is and move it down to a 3 point skill, while moving Interceptors back up to the 4 point skill where it started and adding a buff that prolongs the patrol time if you select interceptors, effectively cancelling the -25% penalty on ER.  ER is a great skill, and makes fighters work they way I always wanted them to, but the negatives outweigh the power of the skill except in ranked and (I'm assuming) clan battles.

[Ahskance]

The loss of the Flight Deck Mod in slot 5 translate to an effective decrease in offensive power (less planes to use overall)

If you are electing to play a Defensive Oriented CV, you would expect to have a reduction in offensive power for the increase of power elsewhere.

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Wargaming might use the new fighter talents as a test case to see what enhanced fighters can do, and if the baseline fighter consumables should be altered to match.

[Maddau]

11 minutes ago, Ahskance said:

Wargaming might use the new fighter talents as a test case to see what enhanced fighters can do, and if the baseline fighter consumables should be altered to match.

Yes, frankly with ER, I feel like fighters are now acting the way they always should have....except the drastically decreased patrol time.  I'd like to see this become standard not just for patrol and CAP fighters, but also for catapult fighters.  Everyone complains about CVs being soooooo OP (I know you hear it more than I) and that AA doesn't do anything.  Actually, it is fighters that don't do much of what they should do now.  ER fixes that, but at a high cost.

[Shannon_Lindsey]

Since I have not been a CV main since the CV rework, my number of battles have been limited, but I have been trying a tempo strategy for using interceptors, and it seems to work well. The decline in offensive power comes mostly from the need to strike on a constant regular clock in order to get the next flight of interceptors in place, meaning target selection can be very sub-optimal. It also means putting the CV at greater risk since the interceptors from second squad on do their best work on the weak side where the AA is weaker.

[SgtBeltfed]

I suspect this may be intentional.

One of the things that WG did with the rework is keep one CV from shutting the other one down, then having the run of the match. Which is fine for randoms.

Now, having it as an option for competitive play, where people are building teams and it not being a place to learn how to play, I can see a place for it.

[Merc_R_Us]

Yeah I don't see a defensive CV build as a viable, especially in random. If you drop those on my squadron, all I have to do is press F.

In my opinion, if you want to play more support, take the consumable equipment upgrade. That will make your fighters hang around for a full 90 seconds, which is awesome for spotting.

[Ahskance]

On 2/19/2021 at 8:10 AM, Merc_R_Us said:

Yeah I don't see a defensive CV build as a viable, especially in random. If you drop those on my squadron, all I have to do is press F.

In my opinion, if you want to play more support, take the consumable equipment upgrade. That will make your fighters hang around for a full 90 seconds, which is awesome for spotting.

Depending on your flight time, making you hit F can be fairly influential.  Especially if there's only really one hotspot to influence at the moment.

[Merc_R_Us]

18 hours ago, Ahskance said:

Depending on your flight time, making you hit F can be fairly influential.  Especially if there's only really one hotspot to influence at the moment.

Indeed it can, however there are often at least two, and, given that you can make those latch on to one plane to clear them out, it's entirely too situational for the 3(?) Points, imo.