Something Missing After Tier 6?

theBRUCENATER · September 25, 2016

Is it just me or is the USN missing something when it comes to tier 7, the only ship being slightly worth a damn is the Mahan, and all the other ships are so outclassed its not even funny. Not to mention repair prices make you feel like you are pissing in the wind. I could use some general tips on how to play Pensacola, Colorado, and Ranger and I'll list my current issues with each one. (Not arguing nerf/buff just want to know how I can play these better)

Pensacola

- No armor meaning any BB with half a brain can citadel you from almost any distance.

- Guns while amazing and pack a awesome punch, reload times can kill you if you miss.

-AA nobody plays high tier Cv's almost with 1/4 games having no CV's in game

Colorado

-Started playing Kawachi and Nassau not too long ago, then moved back to playing my Colorado and it felt like the same guns

-Rudder shift time is worse than the Titanic's when a Iceberg is coming up

-I've heard everyone say it should be played as a brawler whenever possible, however, with German Bb's being more popular than the pope at the moment you have to deal with amazing secondaries and possibly torpedoes. Even then their Cit is impressively small while I seem to be torn apart like a paper bag at any angle.

Ranger

-hehehehehe Saipan

-Insane repair prices put a huge negative sign next to my credit account

-The sight range on this thing is freaking huge, feels like I'm driving Death Star around with how far away people can spot me.

-The dive bombers I feel like their dispersion has increased (could be just bad luck) but my current pilots should be assigned to the William D. Porter for being such idiots (wiki that ship if you don't know who it is)

-Can't make any headway into getting the Air Superiority loadout with stock sucking so much.

Anyways thats my issues, if anyone can please help give me some tips I'd appreciate it,

YukikazeFortunateBeaver · September 25, 2016

Is it just me or is the USN missing something when it comes to tier 7, the only ship being slightly worth a damn is the Mahan

what about atlanta?

theBRUCENATER · September 25, 2016

Also, can we please have the William D Porter as a premium ship, and have it occasionally fire torpedoes randomly or just turn into land for no reason? Or give it depth charges that keep on falling off the back leaving a trail of explosions, with guns having sprites with crewmen wearing dunce caps. If you get destroyed, actually give points to the team you were on the whole time?

BlackOpsAkula · September 25, 2016

what about atlanta?

Isn't the Atlanta a CL that thinks its a DD?

theBRUCENATER · September 25, 2016

what about atlanta?

Haven't tried it, I'm excluding premium ships in this.

YukikazeFortunateBeaver · September 25, 2016

Isn't the Atlanta a CL that thinks its a DD?

no its a dd. dont ruin its dreams

Haven't tried it, I'm excluding premium ships in this.

ah alright

Pope_Shizzle · September 25, 2016

The Pensacola should be tuned for efficient gun usage. Ignore anything that is solely devoted to her AA. AA improvements on tech tree USN cruisers that are not named Cleveland, Baltimore or Des Moines are pointless. You simply don't have the long range AA to be of use to anyone but yourself.

Colorado is definitely a victim of power creep and German BB's that can't be citadeled.

I don't have a Ranger and can't comment except that whenever I see one on my team I wish it was a Hiryu.

ZombieFlanders · September 25, 2016

Pcola is similar to the other T7s CAs, nice guns but no armor. myoko and yorck get lit up just as easy.

the colorado is a good when upgraded, seems maybe youre still stock. its a good ship since it was buffed.

ranger, i dunno, dont play CVs.

Terrible_Turtle · September 25, 2016

Yeah, the Colorado was officially dethroned as the T7 brawling BB.

Pepsi has always been a glass cannon. Sometimes you have great games, sometimes you don't. Overall, I'd say the Myoko is a more consistent ship.

Haven't played the Ranger.

Yes. The Mahan. Enough said.

mohawkdriver · September 25, 2016

It's the USN line in general; weak and anemic. I want to love the line, but I can't. I'm up to the NO and the Benson, but I just can't bring myself to go past the NY.

ckupf · September 25, 2016

Colly and Mahan have a case to be the best tech tree ship of their class at tier 7. Ranger sucks, Pepsi is fine. No idea what you're talking about.

Estimated_Prophet · September 25, 2016

As non-premium ships go; Colorado; tanky, wish it had more guns. Mahan; I think it stinks, but for some reason I don't understand I actually did well in it... Fully upgraded, but without modules, (I forgot to instal them,) and with a CE capatain in S4 of Ranked. N.O; no idea, don't have one. Ranger; Have heard of it's lousy reputation, but think I have done well in it.

AVR_Project · September 25, 2016

We are talking about tier 7 US GRIND ships:

I've taken the Ranger out of Co-Op once... and it was pitiful. It kind-of stays there. I usually move the Ranger Captain over to the Saipan.

Ground all the way through the Karloradue.... Yes, it's painful. It's a good brawler, but not with a pack of destroyers, or torpedo bombers. I think I can count the number of 'good' missions on one hand.

The North Carolina is well worth the effort. Even the A-Hull NC is good Random Battle material.

I've got the Pensacola. I occasionally take it out of Co-Op whenever my win rate is too far above 50% and needs knocked down a bit. Inside Co-Op, it has the distinction of being the most bot-TK'd ship I have.

Only up to tier 5 DDs on the US line.

...

Only have time for a couple missions a day anyway.

Estimated_Prophet · September 25, 2016

I've taken the Ranger out of Co-Op once... and it was pitiful. It kind-of stays there. I usually move the Ranger Captain over to the Saipan.

Ranger captain is training in Saipan, and doing well in both...

Of course I'm kind of cheating, as the captain has his Air Supremacy skill, so extra fighters and dive bombers for both ships!

Covalence · September 25, 2016

Colorado

-Started playing Kawachi and Nassau not too long ago, then moved back to playing my Colorado and it felt like the same guns

-Rudder shift time is worse than the Titanic's when a Iceberg is coming up

-I've heard everyone say it should be played as a brawler whenever possible, however, with German Bb's being more popular than the pope at the moment you have to deal with amazing secondaries and possibly torpedoes. Even then their Cit is impressively small while I seem to be torn apart like a paper bag at any angle.

Are you playing the stock hull? That's the only one with lethargic rudder shift, second hull and above have decent shift time, especially with the rudder upgrade. The Colorado turns on a dime quickly when fully upgraded.

Otherwise yeah the ship suffers. Artificially low HP pool, takes citadels bow on, and retains the anemic 21 knot speed limit.

Disagree on the guns though, they have good accuracy for the tier, especially from ~15km under. You might be noticing accuracy problems because you only get 8 guns to play with compared with the 12 on the New Mexico.

I try and play mine from mid-range, where I can stick with the team (and not die getting caught out alone) while still being able to hit things reliably. Brawling went out the window when the German BBs arrived.

centarina · September 25, 2016

Colorado: I find it quite excellent. good accurate hard hitting gun, pretty tanky. works great from 10-15km range. I seem to do well with it.

P-cola: I am stopped grinding at p-cola. its a decent ship that really requires skills. good agility and strong gun, but so fragile. not an easy ship for most poeple.

mahan: first real stealth torpedo DD. its main fault is bad concealment and slow speed where you are running into T8s a lot. not a fun ship, but not a horrible grind. just kinda meh.

MnemonScarlet · September 25, 2016

Colorado was very fun for me to level through post-buff - I enjoyed playing her more than I had Nagato. Gneisenau unfortunately has guns that're almost as punchy and is just flat better in most other areas though. And brawling with Gneis means potentially eating torps. Can't comment on the other two ships.

BURN_Miner · September 25, 2016

It's the USN line in general; weak and anemic. I want to love the line, but I can't. I'm up to the NO and the Benson, but I just can't bring myself to go past the NY.

I can only assume that you base your assumption on stats and stats alone? Don't let "server averages" fool you, lol. A well played "anything" in this game, in the right hands can do extremely well. Before a slew of "ya butts" come from you or the expected "it's just 1 person or 1 game" response, it truly isn't and these aren't Unicums. Even an average player can perform "extremely well" and well above average in a ship that is performing at rock bottom according to "server average" statistics. All it takes is getting to know the ships strengths and weaknesses which takes more than 30 matches or in other words, just long enough to unlock all the researchable modules and upgrade to another ship.

All I can attribute this to is a goldfish effect and people say "Meh, the ship is trash" and move on.

Heck, even the N.Y. isn't as bad as most people say. Yes, it suffers from the "middle turret syndrome, however it is very tanky and can dish out some good damage. The middle turret is situational, but can be used when the opportunity calls for it. Decent rudder-shift with the module allows it to dodge torps, etc.

Since you haven't even gotten to the New Mexico, you don't know what you're missing, but then again I can only assume you've gone to Warships.today and seen it was at the bottom of the list with only an average of 38k damage. So no point in getting to it right?

The Colorado "used" to be really odd and underperform. I say "odd" because it had a niche with its AA platform, which it still has, along with its armor. That said, they buffed it awhile ago and does pretty decent now.

North Carolina, firing arcs have been worked on as well as other things, IE general buffs to bring it more in line. However, as I said above, when learned any ship can perform well if learned and used to its strengths. Even before the buffs to it, it was a good ship.

Iowa, well, W0_9, need I say more? lol I will though, the ship is awesome and can be a frigen freight train (incoming reoccurring statement) if used to its strengths and properly.

Montana, No idea here. lol Still learning her myself. I know that her armor is not what the actual paper specs where supposed to be (or as someone has dug up) and are far below the Yamato's armor, so there is a dependency there.

Anyway, you blanketed an entire line without going above T5. If you care to learn the line, IE take your time to get into battle, be able to armor angle (it's not like other lines), learn a little bit different play style than other lines, it is a fun line. Just don't base it off of damage alone, lol. When I hit my New Mexico in stride (meaning go on a New Mexico binge), I can pump out 75k-100k games in damage on a fairly regular basis, a really good game 150k, top game has been 200k. The ship can take a beating as well, my highest "livable" game has been 89k damage taken (defending a cap in a Tier 8 game) and dishing out 102k damage.

Vindicationn · September 25, 2016

The Colorado is nothing but food for other T7 BBs. The experience of playing it is fresh in my mind and I'm still actively playing/grinding the other T7 BBs.

The Nagato is obviously the sniper. It's boring but effective. My current damage totals are silly for the amount of effort I've put in to it. Her armor is crap but that's no surprise by now for the IJN line.

The Gneisenau and Scharnhorst are the brawlers. Their main batteries are inconsistent but they have the best secondaries, the best armor, the best speed and in the Gneisenau you also have the best AA. The key here is speed. They have such a huge advantage over the slowish Nagato at 24 knots and the hilarious 20 knots of the Colorado that both ships can simply run down the other two and their armor scheme will protect them while they do so.

The Colorado theoretically is the mid-range guy but again it doesn't have the speed to dictate any engagement and quite frankly I'd still rather be in Nagato for mid range support. It's AA is also crap despite supposed national flavor.