BattleShip Commander Skills

[Hawk819]

Hi, 
 

 I'm still a little green, and I need some advice. What skills will I need for all ships in the game? please specify by ship class and which ones would do me a good service in my playability. Thank you. Good luck and fair seas, and Godspeed. 

[Mesrith]

Battleship-centric commander and equipment guide.

[Hawk819]

Thank you for the link. 

[CapnCappy]

Seriously consider vigilance over superintendent. Would you prefer to be able to heal a little more over a battle or be annihilated by a spread of torpedoes?

 

Personally, I find that I don't eat spreads anymore in ships with vigilance that aren't air dropped by a CV. And that equates to living a LOT longer to use my heals.

[Mesrith]

Seriously consider vigilance over superintendent. Would you prefer to be able to heal a little more over a battle or be annihilated by a spread of torpedoes?

 

Personally, I find that I don't eat spreads anymore in ships with vigilance that aren't air dropped by a CV. And that equates to living a LOT longer to use my heals.

 

I'm actually using Vigilance quite a bit now, but I don't think it's necessary below tier 8.  There's enough of a jump in torpedo numbers at tier 8 that it's starting to become mandatory.

[alexf24]

I changed to Vigilance some time ago, on all my BBs and a few of the higher tier gunboats where you knife fight.

 

[Noobitz]

I would consider grabbing 2 or 3 tier 1 perks and both superintendent and vigilance at tier 3, knowing you'll eventually have to use doubloons to respec at higher tiers to grab the tier 4 and 5 perks. BFT, [edited], and SA are fantastic tier 1 perks (considering each only costs 1 point) for a BB. BFT buffs AA and secondaries. [edited]cuts fire and flooding damage - the BBs major problems. And SA can tell you a lot once you have a feel for how spotting works.

 

Tier 2 is the no-brainer - you get faster turret traverse with EM. This goes for many ships.

 

At tier 3 Superintendent is fantastic as is Vigilance. So it might make sense to simply plan on respecing later. The tier 4 and 5 perks I would pick for BB are AFT and concealment. But I'm not sure they are a lot better than Super and Vigilance. AFT does extend range of AA and secondaries a great deal and people love concealment. Some pick Manual AA at tier 4, but you have to select targets manually or it's worthless. AFT works automatically and buffs secondaries.

[Noobitz]

LOL The initials for Basics of Survivability was "[edited]".

[Hawk819]

I wonder, is there any guides for cruiser commander skills? 

[Noobitz]

For DDs I think it depends on whether you are US, IJN, or Soviet. IJN are best played more as pure torpedo boats, US as hybrid gun-torp, and Soviet more as pure gunboats with occasional ambush or defensive torping. However, when guns are called for, don't be the IJN DD who fails to shoot and dies as a result.

 

All DDs need to know when detected, excluding maybe some high tier Soviet DDs. So tier 1 is situational awareness, IMO.

 

Tier 2 is last stand as DDs lose propulsion and steering all the time. But torpedo armamament expertise and expert marksman could be equally or more helpful depending on the ship's torpedo load time and turret traverse and whether guns or torps are main weapon.

 

Tier 3 is probably torpedo speed or superintendent. But torp speed for sure if high tier IJN DD with torp range to spare. Super means one more smoke, speed boost, defensive fire, or radar - helpful.

 

Tier 4 could be AFT or demo expert for gunboats.

 

Tier 5 is probably concealment.

 

The new skill which buffs HP 400 per tier is good for DDs as well due to DDs having so little HP. As is Vigilance for anti-DD DDs like US or Soviet always picking fights with other, IJN especially, DDs.

 

For my IJN Myoko cruiser captain (with eventual Zao in mind) I use situational awareness, expert marksman, superintendant (kinda want vigilance but will want extra heal at tier X), and demolition expert to buff excellent fire chance. I will take concealment expert at tier 5.

 

For US cruisers, manual AA might be better at tier 4 if you want to enhance strengths of the line. Or again, the extra HP perk at whichever tier that is, 4 iirc. Cruisers and DDs can use the HP buff a lot more than BBs as it's a fixed amount per tier. Concealment is critical for invisi-fire on high tier cruisers. Everyone takes that at tier 5 on almost everything, plus the concealment module and concealment camo.

 

CVs are completely different. Check Flamu, iChase, or Notser on YouTube for commander skills rundowns post patch 0.5.3.

[Noobitz]

I meant hydroacoustic on the one ROK DD, not radar. An extra hydroacoustic could be very helpful in DD knife fights.

 

For CVs I recommend the torp speed at tier 3 and torp bomber reload at tier 2. But I only have low tier CVs. Do check out Flamu and Notser who have done complete captain perk rundowns for all ship types recently, including US and IJN CVs up to tier 10. They are much better than I am.

[Noobitz]

Note that an odd ship like the Atlanta might be best captain perked differently than other cruisers. Atlanta's small guns can still get range from AFT after 0.5.3. As it is best fighting DDs or in the AA role, you might want BFT and AFT in addition to situational awareness and demolition expert. That's two tier 1 and 4 perks. Its defensive fire is unlimited, so vigilance is probably the best tier 3 for the Atlanta. You don't need superintendent.

 

Point being, the specific ship may dictate your best choices. Certain ships within lines have odd strengths and weaknesses. Some Soviet DDs need turret traverse help. Whereas the Atlanta's guns, a cruiser, are very fast even when stock. Nearly every other cruiser and every BB does require expert marksman, but it's a waste on the Atlanta.

 

Anyway, good luck and have fun. Dig into your ship stats and your playstyle to figure out your best choices. And be sure to check out the real experts on You Tube.

[KaptainKaybe]

I went BFT -> Expert Marksman -> Superintendent-> AFT.

 

I don't find there are any must have Tier 5 skills for BB captains that couldn't be spent elsewhere, so with remaining points, I'd get: Situation Awareness (for detecting destroyers and soon to come wall or torps), Vigilance (for reasons stated above), and High Alert (less useful, but still life saving potential).

 

MUCH LATER EDIT: Correction ... switched all my ships to start with SA. SA is waaaay too useful and is almost a skill tax.

[Chef_MD_1]

  I don't know if I should ask these here but here goes.

    -  I know that if I buy a new ship and I bring up my captain from my last ship, my skills are lessened (50% or whatever). 

    -  If I take that skilled captain and put him on a lower tier ship ( so that I can accelerate his progress faster), will I also be ''penalised''?

           

Thanks for any advice and sorry if I didn't post this in the right thread.

                                                                                        

                                                                                                                       Chef

[DeMatt]

  I don't know if I should ask these here but here goes.

    -  I know that if I buy a new ship and I bring up my captain from my last ship, my skills are lessened (50% or whatever). 

    -  If I take that skilled captain and put him on a lower tier ship ( so that I can accelerate his progress faster), will I also be ''penalised''?

           

Thanks for any advice and sorry if I didn't post this in the right thread.

                                                                                        

                                                                                                                       Chef

 

If the "lower-tier" ship is a premium ship, then the captain won't be penalized.  However, if the "lower-tier" ship is a regular ship, the captain will not have any effect from his skills, nor will he gain retraining experience.

 

So, for example, if you took a Colorado captain and started retraining him on the North Carolina, he would get full benefit from his skills while commanding an Arizona, but if you put him in a New Mexico, he gives nothing and receives nothing.

[Judge_Dredd_TJ]

Question, I thought we could transfer a commander from reserve to a different ship (same nation and BB to BB) and then pay some doubloons to not have to retrain the commander?