Skill Floors/Ceilings of Ship Classes

[Terrible_Turtle]

Before you choose a specific class or ship to play, it's important to know how forgiving it is and how much potential it has when you've learned its tricks. This can be loosely defined as "Skill floor" and "Skill ceiling".

 

A ship with a lower skill floor will be extremely forgiving of mistakes. A ship with a lower skill ceiling limits your potential effectiveness in game even when you've mastered the ship. With that said, each and every ship, when helmed by a skilled individual, can make generalizations like the ones below pointless. 

 

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Battleships: Generally, battleships are the most forgiving since they have so much health. As such, they're a perfect way to be introduced to WoWs. However, their lack of mobility and their dependence on RNG lowers their potential a bit. 

 

-Low floor / low ceiling

 

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Cruisers: Less forgiving than a battleship and not as stealthy as a destroyer, cruisers occasionally fill an awkward void in the current meta. Their skill floor is a little higher than a BB since you need to be even more situationally aware. These ships shouldn't act alone and are supposed to SUPPORT their comrades, not charge in and tank. The versatility and number of options with cruisers can be a strength, but it can also be a weakness if you don't know how to manage this versatility. 

 

-Medium floor / medium ceiling

 

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Destroyers: Since there are 3 flavors of destroyers, we can't lump them all in to a single category. In general, I'd say the IJN and RU DDs have the easiest playstyles because they have a specific role that you rarely deviate from.

-IJN DDs are supposed to stay undetected and launch waves of torpedoes, although their effectiveness is often dependent on incompetent enemies.

-On the other hand, RU DDs will always be detected, and you'll be mashing that left mouse button for the duration of the match. Their contribution to the game is slow and steady, whittling away at the enemy team for the duration of the game.  

-USN DDs fall between the two in their role. As such, you need to choose when to use your guns and when to use your torpedoes, both of which can be extremely effective. The average population seems to have difficulty balancing the role of USN DDs, hence the typically poor win rates. 

 

-RU DD: Medium floor/ High ceiling

-IJN DD: Medium  floor/ Medium ceiling

-USN DD:  High floor / High ceiling

 

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Carriers: Carriers easily have the highest skill floor. It has a steep learning curve and you'll have a bad day if you can't multitask and plan ahead (Macro-scale and micro-scale). It also has the highest skill ceiling as a result and rewards you commensurate with your skill. CVs can also be considered a force multiplier. While they can rarely carry a team by themselves, their presence and the skill of their captain can easily swing the tide of battle.

 

-High floor / High ceiling

 

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[Hifumin]

I pretty much have to agree across the board.

[gurudennis]

Nice write-up! A few comments:

 

1. Battleships don't necessarily have a low ceiling relative to cruisers in general. I would personally classify them as low floor / medium ceiling.

 

2. Much like in the case of DDs, I would separate out the cruiser branches:

    - USN CA: high floor / low ceiling

    - IJN CA:   medium floor / medium ceiling

    - KM CA:   high floor / medium ceiling

    - VMF CA: high floor / medium ceiling

[Dapider]

Just play russian bias ships. No skill required!

 

Think Wargaming just need to make all the new players read this before they truly start on a class they may end up hating/doing bad in! Take my +1

[1nv4d3rZ1m]

I dont know about the ceilings, I personally believe most people dramatically underestimate the effect highly skilled BB players have. There is a level of performance BBs provide for highly skilled individuals that most people dont experience or realize especially when the captain can put ships into the right situations. Its not hard to see that purple players often do substantially better in BBs than blue or green players which wouldnt be the case if there was a low ceiling limiting the upper level of performance. 

 

CAs also have widely varying skill levels, the IJN CAs from tier 7 up are often relatively lower skill ceilings but ships like the Mogami and Zao can reward highly skilled individuals a lot more when people understand when to use AP and how to deal with slow turret traverse on CAs. 

[LuckyStarFan]

I think you underestimate battleships and overestimate destroyers. 

 

DD are extremely flexible and can recover from being out of position.  They don't need a lot of aiming skill as their guns have tight dispersion and cycle very fast and torpedoes have automated prediction.

 

BB can die just because they went the wrong way at the start of the game.  They need a lot more team/map awareness because they are slow to react.  You have high dispersion values and only get to fire once every ~30 seconds.  Newer players without a good sense of aiming will find getting used to battleships difficult.

 

DD have a higher skill ceiling than BB because they can do so much more when the player utilizes them correctly.  The only really easy part of being a BB is that you have armor and the ability to repair your very large HP pool.  These are nullified by DD/CV torpedoes, citadels from enemy BB and of course focus fire from CA/CL when you are out of position.

 

I feel that DD have a significantly lower skill floor than BB do, they're much easier for a new player to pick up and start using than a potentially frustrating and slow battleship.

 

A big thing limiting BB skill ceiling is that they are actually fairly reliant on RNG.  Even if you aim perfectly, your target can move or random dispersion can edge your shells so you straddle the target.  I think the best player in WoWs would do better and maximize their skill playing any class that is not a BB. 

[Terrible_Turtle]

I dont know about the ceilings, I personally believe most people dramatically underestimate the effect highly skilled BB players have. There is a level of performance BBs provide for highly skilled individuals that most people dont experience or realize especially when the captain can put ships into the right situations. Its not hard to see that purple players often do substantially better in BBs than blue or green players which wouldnt be the case if there was a low ceiling limiting the upper level of performance. 

 

CAs also have widely varying skill levels, the IJN CAs from tier 7 up are often relatively lower skill ceilings but ships like the Mogami and Zao can reward highly skilled individuals a lot more when people understand when to use AP and how to deal with slow turret traverse on CAs. 

 

Agreed, although one person's floor may be higher than another's ceiling. 

 

My reasoning for saying BBs have a low ceiling is because they have easily exploited vulnerabilities. Vulnerabilities which you can't do anything about.

 

Examples:

-If a CV is targeting you without mercy, you're pretty much done (excluding USN BBs).

-If you get caught unaware by DD torps, your lack of mobility and agility can be painful. Even the best players are susceptible. 

-If you're being invisifired upon, there's little you can do besides asking for help from your teammates.

-If you're trying to cap, you'll really only give the other team an endless supply of cap reset ribbons.

[BlazerSparta]

I disagree with CVs.

 

The skill floor is a little obscured, because of the current emphasis on manual drops, which takes time not just to master, but to get used to the controls.

 

A CV can still be brutally effective with a pure point and click playstyle.

 

CVs are a class with a fairly low floor; it might not be fun, but (assuming the opposing CV doesn't wipe the floor with you) a fairly unskilled CV can still have a decent impact on a match.

 

On the other hand, CVs also have a ridiculously high ceiling, where a skilled top tier CV can single handedly carry a match.

[Heinrike_Prinz]

-If a CV is targeting you without mercy, you're pretty much done (excluding USN BBs).

-If you get caught unaware by DD torps, your lack of mobility and agility can be painful. Even the best players are susceptible. 

-If you're being invisifired upon, there's little you can do besides asking for help from your teammates.

-If you're trying to cap, you'll really only give the other team an endless supply of cap reset ribbons.

I'd say BBs actually have a very good ceiling. If a CV is targeting just about any ship, you're pretty much done. If a CV really wants, particularly at high tiers, they can simply overwhelm AA defense. Waiting to slam something like a Des Moines with planes until friendly ships have beaten off a lot of it's AA guns can be done, and with a little skill, DDs can be crossfired. Near guaranteed kill, especially when done with good timing. 

If you get caught unaware by DD torps, you're lacking situational awareness. Always check where enemy DDs are, and change course and speed every so often to avoid solid lineups. I can't recall the last time I died to a DD in my battleships, it's mostly a matter of how much sheer volume of fire I take from ships. Yes, particularly in high tiers torpedo walls will prove difficult even if you're aware, but still you can minimize damage, and recover.

Invisifiring is solely a T8+ deal, and I can't recall ever taking constant invisfire in my North Carolina unless it's battleships with their CV spotting me. At that point, just keeping up maneuvers will negate damage. 

If you're trying to cap.....something as a whole with the team went wrong, if it's up to you alone to cap.....and you can't take out a single ship to avoid the resets....still more wrong. A smart BB captain will be just outside the cap, not inside to be reset bait, but not 10km away from the cap and 20km from the enemy ships. 

 

On top of all this, the sheer health of a BB is very moot. Besides volume of fire worries, many cruisers carry torpedoes and DDs...self explanatory. Other battleships especially. Unless a BB captain can properly know where to go and how and who to angle against, he's just a big pinata. Just yesterday there was a Colorado who despite my constant high damage rolls with my Warspite, never stopped being broadside. Four salvos from max range sunk a perfectly good battleship, for no damage to myself. He knew where I was, he had a solution. But while I was swerving mid reload to minimize profile, he sailed straight.....eternally. 

I'd wager BBs have the highest floor. Just big damage and XP pinatas without a decent captain, and it's a wonder how people get to T7+ playing like that without improving. If you don't plan ahead, you'll be too far away from the battle. If you push too far, you'll get focus fired or torped. You can't keep up with pushing cruisers until later tiers, and many simply take the easy route of sitting back at max range 24/7 or diving in to make 1 kill and little extra damage and dying. There is an effective range for battleship guns, accuracy and penetration wise. Too close results in overpenetrations, turning your shells into peas(+threat of torpedoes). Too far, Time to Target and Accuracy suffers, making it easier to dodge. The sweet spot is a middle ground relevant to the performance characteristics of your guns. Some battleships can get closer (Tirpitz, flat arc low pen), others excel at mid (too much loss of pen at long range), and some like Yamato and Iowa have to sit back a little and use their speed due to overly strong guns for close engagements. 

[Wo_9]

Battleships are the least forgiving class in the game ;p 

 

sure you have all that health, but if you get caught out of position your either gonna sink or lose most of your HP.  staying to far back will also mean you will end up missing most of your shots, and each battleship has a different playstyle. all of them do not play alike at all.  

 

early tier US BB's for example have a very different playstyle to High tier USN Battleship's.  Iowa love's staying at mid range with its bow pointed towards the enemy, and to deny the enemy fleet from pushing up as long as you are alive and shooting.  

[LittleWhiteMouse]

An interesting analysis, but like many I will parrot that Battleships have a higher skill ceiling than you give them credit.  Clumsy, unmaneuverable and requiring a lot of forethought to carry games, Battleships reward the player that can think strategically, not just tactically.  If you're responding to the battlefield as it changes in a Battleship, you're already way behind the curve.  This is something a destroyer or cruiser can do, but not a Battleship.  A Battleship has to set up to predict events or dictate their outcome or their influence dwindles.

[Terrible_Turtle]

After the comments of several above, I'll concede that Battleships have a higher skill ceiling than I gave them credit for. 

[AquaSquirrel]

I agree with most of this but I have to ask.

 

Do you think that Cruisers at tier VIII and up should have a High skill ceiling?  They seem to have a much harder time of it high tier, with every battleship salvo threatening immediate destruction.

[MrDeaf]

Atlanta: Ultra hard mode, but really easy to play, once you understand you should be molesting islands

[EasyMode]

After the comments of several above, I'll concede that Battleships have a higher skill ceiling than I gave them credit for. 

 

It is.

 

Everyone love to focused on visible,big and slow target more than invisible,small and also fast target. 

[ryuukei8569]

After the comments of several above, I'll concede that Battleships have a higher skill ceiling than I gave them credit for. 

 

You are also completely missing the fact that battleships have a higher floor as well. I can tell that when you put this together you where only thinking about higher tier play, not low tier play or beginner play. Where as I am instructing two of my friends on the game, both of them are new to it, i can tell you this, battleships are not as forgiving as you think. Yes battleships have a lot of hitpoints, but those hitpoints only go so far in the face of lower tier HE and Torpedo spam, especially since most new players do not properly understand how to manage their hull heal. The other and much bigger factor, is aiming, and positioning. Many new players simply don't know where their Battleships need to go to be effective, and with the T3 battleships especially being very slow, can easily lead the BB player to be useless throughout the match because they decided to chug along to the wrong area of the map. And of course, aiming. Low tier BB guns are not remotely forgiving, especially to players that don't fully understand the aiming system. This can easily lead to a player being lucky if they get even a handful of hits throughout the match. On top of that, both South Carolina and Kawachi are absolutely brutal introductions to Battleship play. South Carolina because of its abysmal speed, and Kawachi because of its pathetic main gun range, and both ships have very bad dispersion. Wyoming is relatively forgiving to newbies, but Myogi is not, for obvious reasons. Compare this to the armored and protected cruisers at those tiers, the cruisers are far far easier for beginner players to use and do OK with. But also, national flavors are in play with cruisers as well. With Japanese cruisers  Tenryu isnt the easiest ship for newbies, but Kuma and up are all pretty forgiving and thanks to decent shell arcs and good HE throughout the line, Japanese cruisers overall stay fairly easy, while US cruisers remain relatively forgiving until pensacola, but then pensacola is massively more difficult to play in addition to being straight up underpowered, and Des Moines, is not easy to play on the NA server becuase its a close range fighting ship in a server where the sniper meta is so prevalent. German and Russian cruisers aren't difficult up to tier 4, but their difficulty in play takes a massive spike at Tier 5 because relatively speaking, they get incredibly fragile and have poor maneuverability for the benefit of having really good guns. But the play style of T5 and up German and Russian cruisers is not forgiving. But especially Russian cruisers reward extremely well for their playstyle.

[DokturProfesur]

Battleships? The most forgiving?

 

You make me laugh little man.

 

Tier 3 and 4 are awful, you'll never do meaningful damage unless you master the art of gunnery, and if you have no sense of awareness you'll find yourself melting faster than a cruiser ever could.

 

Being the most popular target in the game is not very forgiving comrade.