coldsteelfury

Hi, I just played a game in my Bismarck and got into an extended secondaries battle with a Massachusetts. I noticed the Bismarck secondaries fire AP and not HE. When I checked my port, the settings still think the Bismarck secondaries shoot HE. I think there is a bug. The Bismarck secondaries fire silver rounds that look like AP, not the usual orange ones which normally look like HE. Not a single fire was started despite multiple hits. I don't think this was due to the fire chance but becomes the shells are silver AP. Needs to be looked at. Think this is a bug.

Hello Would like some advice for my Scharnhorst: (1) When entering brawling distance with an enemy BB who maintaining a rigidly front on or angled silhouette, my 280mm AP shells richocet. Am I better off trying to aim my AP at the superstructure or switch to HE? (2) In the above scenario, am I better getting in as close as possible or coming to a stop and pummel each other at short range? Which is better for Scharnhorst? (3) What's the best way to do a torpedo "drive by"? I find that I need to get extremely close to the enemy ship before launching torps to avoid my fish getting dodged. But the problem is as soon as I angle out to get into my torp's firing angle I cop a brutal AP broadside. I normally win the fight at this range but I take some extensive damage. Is this the best way to do a torpedo run (I.e. angle out, fire, angle back in)? Or should I literally aim my bow at the other ship and attempt to scrape the side of their hull whilst moving past them before launching torps? Will the "scraping past" technique mean I cop fewer hits and will my torps have enough time to arm? Or will they bounce harmlessly off the enemy ship because we're too close? Advice please.

Either something has changed in the patch.... or I've been very unlucky.... or the skill level of the player base has risen substantially in the last month or so.... But since the latest patch I'm finding I am catching fire a lot more often. Catching fire is normal when playing a BB but I'm talking about having 3 - 4 blazing fires near instantaneously. It's happened to me in a number of matches now and it's bizarre as that never used to happen to me before. It used to be the case that if I started getting HE spammed I'll cop a single fire, maybe two if I'm unlucky.... now when I'm advancing with my team I get hit with one or two salvos and suddenly have three simultaneous fires blazing across my ship. Then another salvo comes in and sets off a fourth fire. If I'm suddenly playing unicums with god like aim so be it but it all seems very odd. This almost never used to happen to me before. When it used to happen to me it was usually because I'd been overly aggressive and HE spammed from both sides. Now I'm coping 3 - 4 fires when I'm angled and advancing with team mates... is anyone else experiencing this too? These simultaneous 3 - 4 fires just because one lame cruiser decides to target me seems really odd. Even in my ZAO, which starts fires like crazy, usedn't to do that.

WG Dev Team, You need to do something about your new CV meta. It needs a serious balance adjustment. Problem 1: The new CVs at higher tiers are like a premeditated murderer at a birthday party. At the start of the match they just look at the crowd and pick a target to focus all their air power onto: the hapless victim is completely powerless to defend themselves and dies. And this all goes down in the first five minutes of that match when people have barely moved from their starting positions and are surrounded by teammates. I've had it happen to me at the START of matches where my battleship was surrounded by my team and very near to our starting position on the map: for whatever reason, the enemy CV decided my ship was "The One" and proceeded to send onslaught of plane after plane against my vessel until I sank. My team mates couldn't help despite being next to me. My own AA was useless, even when supposedly "reinforced". This has happened too many times now. Problem 2: The recall feature of CVs is too open to abuse. Surface ships are too afraid to pop a DFAA or Fighter consumable because you're not sure if the enemy CV is going to do a recall and force you to waste your consumable so that they can pummel you later when the consumable wears off and is on cooldown. This is not effective gameplay. The price aircraft should pay for attacking surface ships is taking AA damage during the attack and taking AA damage whilst they escape.... not simply pressing the F key and warp jumping to safety. Problem 3: The spotting mechanics of aircraft needs to be revised. Surface vessels can only see the planes when they are literally on top of you. Also the enemy CV players are able to disguise the true strength of their squadron.... that single squadron of torpedo bombers suddenly morphs into 2 - 3 squadrons at a range of 5km. Basically surface ships never see enemy aircraft coming until they attack, they never see the true strength of the enemy aircraft, and the enemy aircraft use the recall feature to then disappear in a puff of smoke. CV aircraft have basically become invisible ninjas and there is almost no defence for the surface ships. Problem 4: CVs have utterly ruined destroyer play. What's the point of destroyers if CV aircraft can ninja in and out of an area and spot the enemy absent of any kind of risk? Flanking cruisers face similar problems to destroyers, as they're not intended for front line combat but for hiding and shooting as the opportunity presents itself... except they can't hide now thanks to CV enabled perma-spotting Problem 5: The new Manual Fire AA Control commander skill is useless. All you get is a 20% reinforcement bonus and a measly 2 second time saving when reinforcing sectors? Are you guys serious? This is a 4 point skill which is often used by players who've taken the time to invest in a 14 point commander. It's now pointless for surface ships to be a pure AA build because the crowning achievement of the AA build, the MFAAC commander skill, is now a pointless waste of time. Problem 6: (UPDATED!) Surface ship AA is a waste of time and useless. It creates pretty fireworks but not much else. If you're in a dedicated AA vessel you may actually shoot down a few enemy planes but you're still totally powerless to stop the enemy CV from hitting you or swarming you. Reinforcing your AA is also a waste of time and pointless: minimal effect upon enemy CV planes as the enemy CV normally tries to cross the axis of your ship anyway. Problem 7: (UPDATED!) The Fighter Consumable is a waste of time. It's too easy for enemy CVs to bait you into blowing your Fighter Consumable via use of the recall function. And why do the Fighter Consumable fighters return back to your ship as soon as they land three kills? I've been in situations where I'm being swarmed by enemy fighters in a supposedly decent AA surface vessel, I pop my Fighter Consumable and they return to base after downing three enemy planes even though there is time left for the Fighter Consumable planes to continue patrolling? Makes utterly no sense. The Fighter Consumable planes should patrol for the full duration of their consumable, no matter how many planes they shoot down. The action time for the consumable is pitiful anyway, so the 3-kill limit you've imposed makes absolutely no sense. Most of the time the Fighter Consumable shoots down ZERO enemy planes but if I'm lucky maybe ONE. Problem 8: (UPDATED!) CVs can only deal damage, they cannot provide air cover. CVs have absolutely no interest in team work now as their sole purpose is to deal damage faster than the enemy CV and cannot assist team mates with air cover. This means you can never take advantage of strategic positioning errors by the enemy team. See a gap in the enemy lines and want to cut off their escape? No can do because as soon you get into an advantageous position and cause the enemy ships to crap themselves, the enemy CVs see what you're doing, break off all other engagements and swarm you. Previously friendly CVs could provide you with air cover. Now you are encouraged to always play defensively whenever an enemy CV is in play because you have absolutely no defense against air attack... even if the enemy surface ships are wide open and begging to be pummeled from the opposite direction because they left a gap in their lines. Forget about intelligent map positioning and exploiting weaknesses in the enemy formation, as now you are forced to clump up together to survive like you're a character in a zombie movie. The Fighter consumable is a joke as is the reinforced AA and the MFAAC commander skill, so your ship is utterly defenseless against CV attack. This new CV meta has been out for many months ago. It's utterly unacceptable that the major flaws in this meta still remain unresolved 4 months later. Meanwhile you're churning out updates for new Soviet battleships. Who wants to play a Soviet battleship when the new CVs are ready to eat your shiny new Soviet battleship for lunch and your sole means of survival is praying to whatever God you believe in that the CVs attack someone other than you? I've read responses where you've said you're "listening to all the voices out there" and "if you feel like it" and the "data supports it", you might change something. Stop stalling and fix the issues now. They're not that hard for you to address. You've had long enough. (And we're all still waiting WG.... and waiting... and waiting... I want to say it's nothing short of disgraceful)

Update contains diddly squat to address ongoing balance problem with the new CV meta. Not good enough WG.

Land Of Fire minimap does not match actual map during gameplay. Islands are missing or in the wrong place on the minimap.

You're probably right. People troll each other on the internet a lot. But was my reaction really that unexpected? Friendly conversation suddenly turns snarky without any hint of a joke?

You most certainly do. You've been quite eager to criticise in this thread. And it was completely unwarranted too. To answer your insinuations: I never blamed anyone or anything in this thread. I said the Bayern stock hull is a POS, which is an opinion. Blame would be me finding fault with someone else for the fact that the Bayern stock hull is a POS and berating them for putting such a crap hull in the game, which is something I did not do. I already explained why your advice, whilst good, isn't always practical - you seem to think that's blaming circumstances. Again, it's called a difference of opinion and I wasn't bothered by the fact the stock Bayern hull was in the game and needed to be grinded through so your advice was a solution looking for a problem which didn't exist on my end (ie. no blame on my end except in your imagination). But still, you're determined to go to Negative Town... And it's not self-praise to refute an unwarranted criticism. You claimed I was being "impatient", I disagreed and said I was "very patient". Like how dare anyone "praise" themselves by rejecting your negative character assessments? Bragging and a difference of opinion are two different things

No, I think you're being overly critical and possibly a tad bitchy. Firstly when I said I was impatient I was a half serious and making good humoured comment about myself. As previously stated I'm a non-premium player who has grinded to T9 Izumi and T9 Ibuki, so clearly I'm a very patient person. Your advice was sound but not always practical. Collecting enough free XP as a non-premium player is not always feasible, as the free xp you gain per battle is negligible. It can quicker to earn XP directly on the ship with the poor hull, rather than fight a million unwanted battles on a fully decked out ship a tier lower to earn enough free XP. Neither approach is fun, everyone chooses their own poison. If you're a premium player then things are different, but not everyone goes premium. Secondly my post was about how the stock Bayern hull is a POS, not whether it's better to free XP poor hulls or grind through them.

You're right. Sage advice. However I'm not that patient and I made that mistake you mentioned with the T9 Izumo. I wasn't prepared to sell her after investing so much silver, so I just left her in port and figured I'd slowly grind her over the next ten years. Lucky for me, a year later, WG had some kind of promo and gave me two supercontainers with 50K free exp in each. I quickly upgraded my T9 Izumo hulls and now am peachy! (I was able to grind T9 Ibuki ok though without much issue)

What you're saying is true and wise advice, however I don't follow it. I'm a non-premium player and it takes me long enough to unlock new ships and I'm impatient. Yes, yes, I know. I figure my patience only extends as far as the non-premium grind! 🙂

According to Little White Mouses' review of the German BB line, T9 and T10 are not worth it and people should seriously consider stopping at T8 Bismarck. I wonder though if the Gneisenau's guns are unfairly maligned. Stats wise they are identical to the guns on Bismarck but it appears the guns on the Gneis attract more hate than the Bismarck's for wonky dispersion. I recall playing a game recently in a Bismarck with a full secondary build (hadn't yet got manual secondaries). A Zao had fired its torps at me and missed, so I was busy peppering the Zao with my secondaries and main guns. The Zao was running broadside within less than 10km, so I was pretty sure he was toast. My team had lost the match and I was being hammered by all the Zao's friends. However I still have time to fire at the Zao 3 - 4 times, all the meanwhile my secondaries were blazing at him. Guess what? My 8 main guns on the Bismarck couldn't hit the broadside of the Zao. I remember being blown up and think "What is the point of the Bismarck if an enemy cruiser had show me broadside, my secondaries blaze like hell and my main guns keep missing or over penning for minimal damage? So much for the Bismarck being the master close range brawler". I know how to aim and have deleted cruisers before for showing me far less citadel, so all my missed shots were 100% the Bismarck's wonky dispersion. But it seems the Gneis holds a special place of hatred for its dispersion when it only has one less turret. I suspect it's really not any worse than the Bismarck. I guess the one good thing about only having three turrets is that it gives you a strong incentive not to waste your time showing broadside when two thirds of your fire power are all at the front?

You may be right. For some reason I've suddenly become obsessed with the Gneisenau. I may suck playing her and she may be difficult to play, but I'm really intrigued by her super fast speed and torps. I know I probably won't be able to brawl most games without getting my face ripped off. But there is something pretty attractive about being fast and able to brawl up close and having a broadside of fish at your disposal. I've got a 10 pt commander already all locked and loaded ready for her. Should be fun!

Hah! 😀 Fuso was a long time ago for me. Back when it was just the Americans and Japanese. I have a vague recollection of being forced to YOLO in my stock Fuso because the range was something stupid like 12km? I also remember the Japanese BBs having the biggest guns in the game at the time, so dying a million times before eventually shot gunning someone in the face with 12 x 356mm rifles was glorious! Once I got the range upgrade, I remember one shot deleting ships left, right and centre in my Fuso. She was a killing machine. I remember being very bitter once I got the Nagato... I actually had to learn how to aim and thought that Nagato was broken because I no longer could single handedly Rambo 2 -3 enemy ships anymore and kill them quickly. 😂 No way you can get away with that kind of behaviour these days in Fuso and survive. Sadly Fuso is not what she used to be anymore. Players are more sophisticated and there are cruisers who can now hit you with long range HE which makes playing Fuso a floating target in ways she wasn't previously. Previously you could always hang back in an IJN BB and use your superior range to be safe from cruiser HE and delete people at will. Not anymore. My Fuso's favourite fish of the day was Kuma. Nowadays Fuso tends to get up tiered, so she no longer has the punch she used to have and is stripped of her "killing machine" status. I find her boring and frustrating to play these days and only bring her out if I'm feeling nostalgic.