Carrier Air Group balance needs major improvement

[9thFLT_Hunt]

I'm worried about the updates to Carrier matchmaking, because the carrier tiers are not balanced as is, and matching carriers tier by tier is only going to make it worse.  Right now, both IJN and USN airgroups have major issues.

 

In late Alpha, the US Carrier wings were adjusted to remove a second torpedo squadron, this gutted US striking ability, because US carrier captains can no longer use hammer and anvil attacks to bracket enemies with torpedoes.  This forces said captain to make very difficult close in manual drops because single automatic drops are easy to evade.  Dive bombers have had little in the way of striking power from the beginning, as they use HE bombs and are completely dependent on the RNG for hits, I'll be lucky if a strike scores a single bomb hit on even the largest, slowest target, and even if it does, the best I can hope for is a small fire.  Dive bombers just don't have the DPS to make up for the loss of the second torpedo squadron.  A consequence of this is it encouraged US Carrier captains to use the fighter heavy wings, which further gimps their offensive ability but also plays a part in the major issues of the IJN carriers I'll go into next.

 

Since IJN carriers received the extra torpedo squadrons that the Americans lost, they have no issue with striking power, but only until the American fighters show up.  Because it was decided that IJN flights would have two less aircraft then USN ones, IJN fighters are at a massive disadvantage.  US fighter flights just have too much of a numerical advantage.  Because of this, my IJN fighters are routinely torn to pieces by fighters even one or two tiers below them.  This is made even worse by the USN captain's propensity toward the fighter air groups.  The numerical advantage completely negates any advantage my fighters might have had otherwise.  There are often battles where I cannot even launch planes because the enemy positions his fighters to intercept any launched strikes, and my planes are no match for theirs.

 

Also, I can't help but notice that all the carriers have half strength airwings, their stats say they can carry twice as many planes as are available in battle.

 

Ultimately, what I think might help would be to even out squadrons to five or six planes on both sides to let the individual advantages of each side's planes shine, and either boost damage/hit probability of dive bombers or return the missing USN Torpedo bomber squadrons

[TurboT]

Just curious if  you've read the upcoming patch notes and seen the chart someone posted in another thread about changes to CV loadouts and plane DPS?

 

[John_Carter_of_Mars]

Just curious if  you've read the upcoming patch notes and seen the chart someone posted in another thread about changes to CV loadouts and plane DPS?

 

 

link?

[9thFLT_Hunt]

I read the Dev Bulletin, it just had a note about the change in MM matching.  I didn't see anything that suggested a change to loadouts.

[John_Carter_of_Mars]

I read the Dev Bulletin, it just had a note about the change in MM matching.  I didn't see anything that suggested a change to loadouts.

 

all IJN carriers tier 8 and under lost their thee torp squadron loadout.

[thelastholdout]

And at the same time, though I've been unable to confirm this, IJN squadrons now carry more fighters, which makes the supposed "air superiority" role of USN fighters a fracking joke. If the IJN CV so chooses, it can supposedly now run a 3-1-1 loadout of planes, which means it can equal the fighter strength of the "air superiority" USN loadout AND still have more offensive capability against ships.

 

WHAT IS THE POINT OF USN CVS IN THIS GAME AGAIN? APPARENTLY THERE IS NONE ANYMORE.

[TurboT]

Here is the link for those who'd like to read:

http://forum.worldofwarships.com/index.php?/topic/44548-chart-of-ijn-cv-loadout-plane-changes-in-041/

 

[TurboT]

And at the same time, though I've been unable to confirm this, IJN squadrons now carry more fighters, which makes the supposed "air superiority" role of USN fighters a fracking joke. If the IJN CV so chooses, it can supposedly now run a 3-1-1 loadout of planes, which means it can equal the fighter strength of the "air superiority" USN loadout AND still have more offensive capability against ships.

 

WHAT IS THE POINT OF USN CVS IN THIS GAME AGAIN? APPARENTLY THERE IS NONE ANYMORE.

Uhh... 

 

I think you need to think that one through.. 

 

A 3-1-2 IJN CV may be able to better handle USN Fighters, but loses considerable anti ship damage in the process.  Please remember, an IJN CV only has 4 planes per squad, which is four torpedoes in the water, at a wide spread.   A USN CV has 6 planes per squad, more torps in the water in a tighter spread.

 

 

[9thFLT_Hunt]

yeah, as long as the american fighters have the numerical advantage in each individual flight, they will still hold superiority over the 4 plane japanese flights.  The carriers carrying more planes isn't going to make a big difference here, except for providing more fodder for the US carrier captains.

 

I feel like pointing out that the way public test is set up doesn't actually allow us to test everything.  Sure they gave us a ton of credits and Doubloons, but we don't get any XP and the test only runs through saturday,  How am I supposed to test the supposed carrier changes if I have to spend the whole time grinding up to carriers?