AFT or DE on tier 7+ US CAs?

[Katyusha_454]

Is it better to go with the increased AA performance, or better chance of fires on these ships?  My Pensacola captain has AFT since he was a Cleveland captain back when AFT worked on 6in guns, but I'm not sure how useful it actually is.  But then again, DE tends to be better on fast-firing guns, which only the Des Moines really has.  I have a 10-point captain who hasn't yet selected a tier 4 skill that I'm gonna drop into the New Orleans and I'd like to know which skill will be better.

[Nuk_]

At the moment, I'd go with DE.

[ckupf]

I went with both... and MCAA, used AFT first since they are primarily escort ships and I use the same captain for my Atlanta.

[DemonicTreerat]

AFT - only useful on USN cruisers if you intend to babysit BBs against a threat that often isn't present and when it is present will just avoid your charge. Plus due to the 5"/25 & 5"/38 getting a gutted rate of fire because of  "reasons", the other use for AFT on non-DDs (improved secondaries) is pretty much moot.

 

DE - since HE (gag) is pretty much mandatory for facing battleships and destroyers you might as well get as much use as possible out of it. And a higher fire chance means that if you do hit a DD you have a better chance of converting it into a mobile beacon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[HazeGrayUnderway]

AFT Pensacola and New Orleans for AA purposes is pointless, because their AA is actually quite s--t.  AFT on Atlanta, Baltimore, and of course, Des Moines, helps towards pushing these powerful long range AA boats to their best potential in that capacity.  Atlanta gets the double benefit that it also increases main battery range, which is useful at plinking BBs at range or safer, better lobbing of shells over islands.

 

Now, whether you want to spec against a threat that is almost never seen (CVs), well, that's a different thing altogether.  Having a great AA spec means nothing if most of your games have no CVs.

[CraftsyDad]

AFT Pensacola and New Orleans for AA purposes is pointless, because their AA is actually quite s--t.  AFT on Atlanta, Baltimore, and of course, Des Moines, helps towards pushing these powerful long range AA boats to their best potential in that capacity.  Atlanta gets the double benefit that it also increases main battery range, which is useful at plinking BBs at range or safer, better lobbing of shells over islands.

 

Now, whether you want to spec against a threat that is almost never seen (CVs), well, that's a different thing altogether.  Having a great AA spec means nothing if most of your games have no CVs.

 

 

Isn't this the truth? I'm really not seeing a lot of CVs these days but I love my AA defensive fire. I have AFT, DE and am closing in on my third level 4 skill but am considering going all-in on CE. I would love to get the manual AA - level four skill but I just can't justify it in my head. If I see a CV once in every 5 games then I consider that a positive. CE would seem to help me more with the current game dynamics of lots of BBs and DDs.

 

 

Would people want manual AA fire or CE? Curious minds would like to know

[Ujenele]

 

I have respec'd all my USN capt's away from AA.  I have gone so far as keeping the B hull on my Colorado because the C hull swaps secondaries for AA.  CVs are too rare and when they are on the map 80% of the time they are not a real threat, just a nuisance.