New Orleans - respeccing my Capt - advice please

[MagisterAurelius]

So with the new 5.3 skills and the free captain respec I would like some advice on New Orleans.  Until I'm certain CVs are coming back with a vengeance I don't see an AA spec being ideal.  I'm really thinking about a stealth build for New Orleans.  I have the concealment upgrade along with Main battery 1, the main battery accuracy, and the two firefighting/repair upgrades. 

 

right now my captain is a 10 pointer and I'm really thinking to go full stealth with CE.  Since I'm planning this route what are the best level 1-4 skills to take on my way to 5?  EM at 2 is usually a no brainer.  Right now 1, 3 and 4 I'm having difficulty deciding.  Advice is appreciated.  Thanks!

[sargentmki]

#1

1 is basically a gimme on almost every ship except CVs. (And BBs at lower levels)
Situation Awareness (6th Sense for those Tankers out there)

Since your a Cruiser, with a Huge citidel not knowing your spotted can and will get you killed. To many Games I see Cruisers driving straight at the start of the game and just plainly don't think they are spotted until they lose 75% of their health to a BB across the map. 

The rest of the upgrades are meh. AA boost helps, but if you want any sort of significant AA threat this isn't where you find it. (Either get defensive fire, or manual Aim at level 4) The Expert Loader is interesting, but defiantly not enough to overcome SA. 

 

#2

Don't get expert Marksmen the increase turret traverse isn't needed if you Gun Mod 2 (Increase traverse at the cost of reload)

get this instead:

Last Stand, If your rudder explodes, and you don't have your repair your dead. Same goes for your Engine. If you play near cover (like me) having this will KEEP YOU ALIVE In games where you just plainly would die otherwise. Hell you can dodge DD torps with this, but will explode if you don't. This is far to critical of a skill to NOT take. Especially against an increase in turret traverse. 

 

#3 

At this level there are some plain NOs and a few actual options. That I will go into individually.

Torpedo Acceleration: Fantastic upgrade, if you actually had torps

High Alert: This will cut down your repair party by 10%. So around 6-10 seconds. The speed increase isn't going to make or break you in most games. 

Vigilance: They just buffed this by 5% more, making this more useful, especially with the faster torp upgrade out there. IMO This can save your skin from 1 or maybe even 2 torps. At these tiers this could mean life or death. I play my Cruisers very aggressively and this is the main upgrade on them most of the time. (On my IJN cruisers I don't since they have useful torps)

Dogfight Expert: Sounds like a cool upgrade, but since your driving a boat not commanding a bunch of fighters its useless.

Superintendent: Your Defensive Fire generally wont be used 3 times unless you last to the end of the match and the CV MUST kill you with planes, and has no patience to wait out your boost.  Same goes for your Hydro Search. You defiantly have enough planes. So the only real reason to get this is for the tier 9 and tier 10 heal, the same one the BBs get. At any lower tier this is an arguable upgrade due to the situation nature of your consumables. 

 

Overall I'd say go with the Vigilance upgrade. You will get the most out of it the most consistently. 

 

#4 

For the New Orleans there are really only two options. The Aircraft Servicing Expert and Survival Expert all do basically nothing to this ship. Manual Fire Control can be useful for your 8 127mm cannons, but being a Cruiser your generally better off using Defensive fire and dodging rounds than trying to make the most out of your 8 guns. Even later tiers I wouldn't suggest taking this. Since if you don't aim its actually a negative. 

Demolition Expert: This one is pretty relevant, especially for a USN Cruiser, since your are totally reliant on your cannons to do damage. 3% might not seem like much, but that's more than the difference between the OP Kiev of a few patches ago and the new "improved" Kiev of now. I don't know the fire formula breakdown, but personally I don't care. If it means 1 more fire every few games Ill take it. 

Advance Fire training: AFT's gun upgrade doesn't apply to your primaries, but the 20% AA Range increase helps a lot on the next two ships. This ship not so much, since the range is already not that amazing. Only get this if you like AA support in the first place.

 

summary of recommended. 

SA 1

LS 2

Vig 3

DE 4

total: 10

 

If you don't mind spending real cash to redistribute Id grab these:

Basics Of Survivability lvl 1- to many helpful boosts for 1 point. 

AND OR

Fire Prevention lvl 2 - 7% can save your skin at least a few games. 

 AND OR

Expert Marksmen lvl 2 - Get your round off against a new target maybe 1-2 seconds faster, or remove the Mod2 upgrade and rely on this instead. 

AND OR

High Alert lvl 3 - At this point this is raw survivability. not much, but it will make an impact over time. 

Then redistribute them once you get your 5

 

 

 

 

[KromaBaSyl]

Last Stand?

 

I have literally never had my engine or steering knocked out in this boat, not worth it.

 

SE

EM 

SI 

DE, but ATF 

[DukeRamulots]

I went stealth build on mine so situational awareness, last stand, high alert, moar HIT POINTS!!, and concealment expert. This way you can stealth fire at all those pesky BB's.