Cleveland Help...

[AllysaRockz]

So by the title, I'm having problems on how to play this horrible ship. It looked like a lot of fun at first, but now it's just a tedious and god awful grind of a ship. To give you an idea of what I mean... I'd rather have my Omaha again to face the Tier 8 boats, than this floating pile of AA Guns. And yes, Tier 8s. Not a typo. >.<

 

If I play it safe, I end up doing little to no damage, and usually end up too far away to use this ships, tbh, pretty sad range. If I play aggressively, I get targeted because, once again, I have to close to 14.6km to attack anything, and that's close enough for the BBs to murder me and any pretty much any other T6 cruiser in the game to spam their HE at me. If I play supportive, attacking at opportune targets, the shells take forever to get anywhere, and most ships can evade the worst of my barrage, whilst being able to nail my fat ship.

 

So. How on earth do I play this thing? (And yeah, Ima pretty salty.)

[clowlock]

Correction, you have to close to less than 10km to effectively fire back, you can say thanks to Wargaming for nerfing the Cleveland into dust.

Don't worry, the best course of action is to dump all of the USN ships and start grinding another line.

[poeticmotion]

Use terrain. Learn how to use islands to block the red guys from killing you while you kill red guys.

 

Fight in a support role, sticking with BBs and letting them tank while murdering planes for them and he-spamming targets of opportunity (and don't forget...Cleve's fame is as an HE spammer, but her AP is solid against cruisers showing their broadsides.)

 

Or try a different line, because USN cruiser gun ergonomics don't get much better. :/ 

[AllysaRockz]

So after reading what you two said... basically I'm grinding a lost cause? If that's so, why on earth hasn't WG done something about it then if the ship is so garbage? I honestly don't believe that, sorry guys. >.> It doesn't make sense that this ship, being the last ship in the USN Tree to have the 152mm guns, is honestly the worst ship out of the six to have them.

[dmckay]

Correction, you have to close to less than 10km to effectively fire back, you can say thanks to Wargaming for nerfing the Cleveland into dust.

Don't worry, the best course of action is to dump all of the USN ships and start grinding another line.

 

NO.  American players tend to be overly fearful and tentative. Too many just will not fight until it is too late. Russians come right at you and focus fire and kill.  They bring it.  All of em.  Not a damn thing wrong with American ships except too many players seem to have bought into "just surviving" and will not get it on until it's too late. You said it....get under 10k where you can hit something.  Sniping at loooong range is a losing tactic. Can't hit crap...most of em. My 2 cents. 

[AllysaRockz]

 

NO.  American players tend to be overly fearful and tentative. Too many just will not fight until it is too late. Russians come right at you and focus fire and kill.  They bring it.  All of em.  Not a damn thing wrong with American ships except too many players seem to have bought into "just surviving" and will not get it on until it's too late. You said it....get under 10k where you can hit something.  Sniping at loooong range is a losing tactic. Can't hit crap...most of em. My 2 cents. 

 

But every other ship in the game, excluding Russian Cruisers (past tier 6) and DDs, will start firing the AP instead. So even if I was to do that, and maybe do 4k a salvo in HE damage, they'll just citadel me multiple times and kill me in under a minute...

[BGrey]

 

But every other ship in the game, excluding Russian Cruisers (past tier 6) and DDs, will start firing the AP instead. So even if I was to do that, and maybe do 4k a salvo in HE damage, they'll just citadel me multiple times and kill me in under a minute...

 

Watch:

[poeticmotion]

 

But every other ship in the game, excluding Russian Cruisers (past tier 6) and DDs, will start firing the AP instead. So even if I was to do that, and maybe do 4k a salvo in HE damage, they'll just citadel me multiple times and kill me in under a minute...

 

Cleveland is probably the HARDEST cruiser in the game to citadel. Her citadel is small and not easy to figure out where it is. One of the major strengths of the Cleve is that even when a Cleve driver does dumb things like sail broadside on, she's so difficult to citadel. She's not a tank, you can kill her pretty easily, but you have to do it the long way, by hammering her. You're not going to see her get killed by a single multiple-citadel salvo, unlike most cruisers. 

 

Also, as I already stated in previous reply, people forget to use AP in Cleveland, but she has very good AP in addition to her HE. Switch to AP when fighting cruisers in most circumstances and you'll do serious damage.

[AllysaRockz]

Alright... so from the two posts above, if I understand correctly I should be using AP regardless of the cruiser I'm fighting, unless they're angling to me? And use HE to deal with battleships? (And yes, I watched the video.)

 

 

Cleveland is probably the HARDEST cruiser in the game to citadel. Her citadel is small and not easy to figure out where it is. One of the major strengths of the Cleve is that even when a Cleve driver does dumb things like sail broadside on, she's so difficult to citadel. She's not a tank, you can kill her pretty easily, but you have to do it the long way, by hammering her. You're not going to see her get killed by a single multiple-citadel salvo, unlike most cruisers. 

 

I have to stop you there though. I get citadeled in this thing hell often, so I don't agree with that statement. In fact, I've citadeled the Cleveland in my Omaha. Granted it was at close range and the Cleveland Captain wasn't looking my way so I didn't just get obliterated, but the citadel is pretty easy to hit if you know the general baseline on how to hit them in the first place.

  God, I feel like such a nerd. >.>

[dmckay]

All cruisers are pretty weakly armored except a few. They are cruisers..not BB's.  The St Louis is  kinda a tank and one of the exceptions.  What other cruisers do you all feel are armor tuff?  It's not many of em IMO. Enlighten me cause I sure have not played them all.

[poeticmotion]

Alright... so from the two posts above, if I understand correctly I should be using AP regardless of the cruiser I'm fighting, unless they're angling to me? And use HE to deal with battleships? (And yes, I watched the video.)

I have to stop you there though. I get citadeled in this thing hell often, so I don't agree with that statement. In fact, I've citadeled the Cleveland in my Omaha. Granted it was at close range and the Cleveland Captain wasn't looking my way so I didn't just get obliterated, but the citadel is pretty easy to hit if you know the general baseline on how to hit them in the first place.

If you say so. I can nail the citadel in most cruisers reliably, as I had to learn to adapt to German cruisers. Still rarely get one on a Cleve. Conversely, Cleve is one of my most-played ships and I've rarely gotten citadeled in her. My experience is totally different than yours. 

 

And yes, generally, use AP on cruisers unless angle is severe. Battleships...HE spam most of the time. In German cruisers I do sometimes use AP and just try to place shots on the superstructure or other weak points, but if you have to take on a BB, HE spam is generally your friend. 

[ArcDeath]

I love my Cleveland fully maxed out! Very effective against DDs and BB. Great AA platform too!

 

[IceSerpen7]

If you say so. I can nail the citadel in most cruisers reliably, as I had to learn to adapt to German cruisers. Still rarely get one on a Cleve. Conversely, Cleve is one of my most-played ships and I've rarely gotten citadeled in her. My experience is totally different than yours. 

 

 

Cleve has citadels to the front of the front smoke stack and to the rear of the rear smoke stack with nothing between them. The only thing you need to do is to aim either a bit behind or a bit in front of your usual aiming point and Cleve goes under. In other words, just aim between turrets and the nearest smoke stack.

[AllysaRockz]

So, just a final little update... I wanna thank y'all for all your help in showing me and telling me how to use this ship. I FINALLY think I'm getting a hang of it. Had my first decent battle in it after seventeen battles, 96k damage. Almost broke my all time. xP But again, tyvm, especially to BGrey for that Cleveland video. That was a lot of help! <3

[GearWheel]

Correction, you have to close to less than 10km to effectively fire back, you can say thanks to Wargaming for nerfing the Cleveland into dust.

Don't worry, the best course of action is to dump all of the USN ships and start grinding another line.

 

Agree.  Only gets worst later.  US Cruiser line is bad.  Ships are weak all round.   IJN cruiser line you get torpedo's, a great help.

[ArcDeath]

Love my Cleveland, especially against destroyers and AA