Battle Worthiness of American Cruisers T7 +

[Hanz_Gooblemienhoffen_42]

Hey there USN CA drivers,

 

Just looking for a few opinions, and not a war plz.

 

I have just unlocked the  Pepsi and researching the rest of this line, trying to decide if its worth working my way up this line at this time?. I will certainly finish this line eventually, but from what i can see, read, and watch the USN CA fleet feels very much like a support line more than the IJN which just seems more "battle worthy".

 

By battle worthy I simply mean a ship that can start an engagement or take the initiative, a ship that can "give and take" a bit before simply vanishing beneath some 16" shells. Especially the "give" part.

 

I'm not looking to take on BB's and the like, but would prefer to be able to initiate battles with CA's and DD's.

From what ive seen the simple addition of the torps with good range and seemingly more powerful gun arrangements make them better overall damage dealers and initiators of combat.

 

It just seems the really excellent AA def make the USN the superior support ships. They seem to specialize in doing opportunistic damage (203 mm guns still hurt no matter what nation fires them) but most importantly they must avoid taking damage and thus will mostly remain in their BBs shadow all game.

 

I know how to do that, and don't mind doing it as a role from time to time..but really don't want to specialize in it for the next 3 tiers...if you know what I mean?

 

As i say I have read, watched and researched so I've done a bit of a numbers analysis...really looking for those opinions that demonstrate the story that's not told in the numbers, if you know what I mean?

[pmgaudio]

bacon

[pmgaudio]

And for serious. the Pen is not on paper the best, prolly the worst...but as far as playing it... it plays fine,, much better  IMO than the numbers say, IF you play it like you should.. carefully, like glass and stay at range and away from BBs..

I have seen quite a few people say they think it is crap and do better in it than in their Cleveland, so.... it is def battle worthy... used it last rank season. did well

[Batwingsix]

I made it to 8 and was working on 9. Gave up on the line when CV's played their magic disappearing act when they fixed the MM and damage so they weren't wrecking balls anymore. They have to be played more as a support role if anything now by focusing fire on a target with the team. If you are lucky enough to have an enemy CV... you are still a good AA platform, but they are not shining stars like their competition... excluding the Yorck lol

[crzyhawk]

I honestly prefer my Pensacola to my New Orleans.  I believe the Pensacola is the high point of the American cruiser line as it stands.  It's armor sucks, but I prefer the gun layout, and it "feels" more nimble to me.  NOLA's armor is better against cruisers, but it's rarely cruisers that I find troublesome anyways.

 

Stats do not agree with my opinion.

[magdaragat]

I always play it like a DD

[alexf24]

Pensacola is my highest USN CA. Mogami my IJN CA.

I like both and at the time preferred the Myoko (equivalent T7), but Pensacola is not a bad ship. It needs to be played carefully, not at the front, but sniping from range.

 

It is squishy and has an awful concealment but the guns are excellent by I prefer Myoko.

 

[Much later update - after 0.5.3]:

Sold the nerfed Mogami and re-purchased Myoko. Finished the grind for Pensacola and just got NOLA (very new at it by I like it better than Pensacola already). Wish it had torpedoes, but NOLA makes a fine DD hunter.

[thelastholdout]

I've made it to the New Orleans, and so far it hasn't been a great ship. The guns do fine damage, but even fully upgraded the DPM is barely more than the IJN ships', which doesn't even come close to making up for the IJN line having torpedoes, better firing arcs, and higher fire chance. IJN ships also almost always have way more HP than their USN counterparts, which is fracking ludicrous.

[Fletcher7_1944]

  I voted for bacon- because bacon.

 

Haven't worked my way that far up the totem pole yet, so I really can't say. 

[Hanz_Gooblemienhoffen_42]

thanks for the responses.

 

Hmm...its a hard decision..as it don't like grinding too many ships at the same time. The Pepsi I will get..but i think i'm going to slow down there.

 

Clev. is good in its own way..but honestly by the time I had finished the Aoba I actually preferred its accuracy and hard hitting AP to the Clev's high dpm, high angle HE rain of death. Not that you couldn't fire AP from Clev..it was just the Aobas dbl punch of AP and torps made it a harder hitter in a single salvo or torp run. And the Aoba had pretty strong HE of its own.

 

Just kinda feels like, esp with absence of CVs, one of the "aces" in the USN's sleeve is lost. If CVs were still as much a threat I would say that the torp advantage of the IJN is somewhat negated by the superior AAA support, which can really benefit yourself, your team, preserve HP for your BBs and assist your own CVs aircraft. Which while not exciting..can win games...which i would say on the whole kinda equals things out...more or less.

 

Zao just seems the type of reward a T10 should be..while the Des Moines kinda looks..."meh" by comparison...esp with so many 16"+ shells at that tier.

 

Also Bacon wins poll in a landslide.

 

WG.. Bacon is clearly OP...plz nerfz.

[UrbnNinja]

I've made it to the New Orleans, and so far it hasn't been a great ship. The guns do fine damage, but even fully upgraded the DPM is barely more than the IJN ships', which doesn't even come close to making up for the IJN line having torpedoes, better firing arcs, and higher fire chance. IJN ships also almost always have way more HP than their USN counterparts, which is fracking ludicrous.

 

I agree 100%! The only thing i liked about my New Orleans compared to my Pensacola was that i could get 11km detection range which made it nice to sneak up on other cruisers and hit them with AP rounds. But When it comes to Tier 8, I've been playing my Atago i find it's way more fun. The Torpedo option is nice if you can catch a BB coming around a mountain at 3km range. Plus my concealment is at 10.7km which is awesome. 

 

I think this post is really missing the fact that tier 7+ German Cruiser's give both a run for their money. When i play with my Atago and i see Mogami's running around i'm not as worried going toe to toe with one compared to coming in a 11km range of an Admiral Hipper. The Hipper hit's like a Semi truck with 5900 AP rounds and 4.6 reload. I think once you make it to the tier 8 - 10 Cruiser's the only real choices are German or IJN.

 

But Opinions are like butt holes everyone has one! haha  I'm just really enjoying playing the German Cruisers right meow. 

[Hanz_Gooblemienhoffen_42]

 

I agree 100%! The only thing i liked about my New Orleans compared to my Pensacola was that i could get 11km detection range which made it nice to sneak up on other cruisers and hit them with AP rounds. But When it comes to Tier 8, I've been playing my Atago i find it's way more fun. The Torpedo option is nice if you can catch a BB coming around a mountain at 3km range. Plus my concealment is at 10.7km which is awesome. 

 

I think this post is really missing the fact that tier 7+ German Cruiser's give both a run for their money. When i play with my Atago and i see Mogami's running around i'm not as worried going toe to toe with one compared to coming in a 11km range of an Admiral Hipper. The Hipper hit's like a Semi truck with 5900 AP rounds and 4.6 reload. I think once you make it to the tier 8 - 10 Cruiser's the only real choices are German or IJN.

 

But Opinions are like butt holes everyone has one! haha  I'm just really enjoying playing the German Cruisers right meow. 

 

Would tend to agree as i just bought the Konisberg and wow its AP is incredibly deadly to other CAs ..not to mention the range it has.

 

Not sure if it gets any better in Germ line but so far all of the ships seem very "glass cannon-ish"...but im only at T5 with those so not sure how it is as you move up the tiers?

 

an i just suffered through the Karl...so i have some PTSD from that experience.

[UrbnNinja]

I just got my Yorck couple nights ago and it's amazing. I Divisioned up with a guy who had an Admiral Hipper and the thing was just insane. From what i am starting to gather that the German line takes a pretty good change from T7 to T8

[SystemRename_1000614738]

I love my Pensacola, but I can't speak for anything higher than that. The Pen just needs to be played like a Pen - that is, it is it's own ship and has to be treated as such. It's not a Cleveland, it's not an Omaha, it's a Pensacola.

 

If I was compelled to answer if I think the IJN cruisers have an edge? I'd have to say yes, I think they do. But I've only played the USN line, so I only have one side to go from.

 

Anything that Pensacola can do, Myoko does better.

 

Except AA, but here's the rub: AA is meaningless anyway.  You either have the cooldown and panic torpedo bomber spread, or you don't have the cooldown and you shoot down 2 aircraft instead of 1.

[DukeRamulots]

 

Anything that Pensacola can do, Myoko does better.

 

 

 

I'll remember that the next time I'm in my ARP Myoko and can't get my super slow traversing turrets around before the enemy Pepsi get's two full salvos on me.

 

I'll also remember it when I get fired upon by a Myoko that could only get 4 guns on me because of horrible layout and then proceed to punch holes in it with all ten guns with my far superior agility, traverse speed, and gun layout.

 

The Myoko does a few things well, but it has a lot of shortcomings including it's poor agility, horrid turret traverse speed, abysmal torpedo arcs, and bad gun layout.

[hawkai]

the usn  ca lupper tier ca need some work for sure, but I really think all the upper tier ca need some kind of work, they just get 1  or 2 shot to easy by the bb, people are just not playing them much at the high tier, for the repair bill to be 1 or 2 shot and not have a chance to affect the game is just not worth playing them,  I am not the best ca player, i play to aggressive, in fact i do in all my ships, probably why i do better at dd,  but I would like to see some kind of fix so there are not so many dd in the top tier games and I can play my ca and at least have a chance in the game,

[R1CK]

I had a good game in my Baltimore yesterday, the opposing cv driver was raging in chat so hard lol. Games where the teams actual come at each other are where USN cruisers shine. Too bad that hardly ever happens.

[1Sherman]

I am close to researching the Pensacola and I must say, I'm looking forward to it. I think I'll enjoy having guns that don't go into the ionosphere when I fire them on my American cruisers again. The one problem is that after hearing the horror stories of people playing stock Pensacola's, I'm planning on using free XP to fully upgrade her and I currently don't have the dubloons to convert free XP from my NM or Blyskawica or the $ to buy dubloons to do so.

[R1CK]

The only upgrade I would free XP is the turrets so that they'll keep up with the ship turning- so you don't have to straighten out before shooting.