Reinhard_of_Avercland

Well the thing is... Deadeye still kills the intended diversity, while at the same time it is worsening the already passive meta. The current state of the cruisers, which is literally suffering a deadly pandemic is the anecdotal evidence on how much negative impact which Deadeye carries into the game. Sure the generalist build is still working, although it costs more to achieve. However, why bother with the subpar builds when the sniper build is easier to achieve? I mean the sniper build (which is of course the one that requires Deadeye) can be achieved with just 14 points. Secondary requires 17 points, and generalist requires 21 points. And if we talk about the effectiveness of each builds based on the PR, sniper build still trumps over the other builds because it allows the user to ramp up their damage counter easily with barely any risk of being sunk. Call me pessimistic, but the current trend really shows how bad Deadeye actually is for the game. Usually the bad trend only happens in our server, which has been famous for the passive meta anyways. However this trend has spread to the other servers, including to NA where the former Asia players claimed to be better because there are less campers.

The problem is not only specific at how strong the ships are individually. But also how well they are when paired with each other. The most popular team composition on last season proved to be nigh unstoppable because it consisted basically 7 battleships, with 5 of them having the trump card against destroyers (which were supposed to be the natural counter of the battleships). If another tournament is held today, the only change to the team composition is Thunderer replacing Kremlin. Because Kremlin itself proves to be obsolete in the current state of the game, while Stalingrad is still relevant because it's basically a battleship with cruiser tag. The draft-pick system that is being tested is not going to affect anything because it only gives the team leader the ability to forbid his/her teammates to play specific ships. Sure everyone hates Thunderer. But that doesn't mean they forbid their teammates to play it. Instead this draft-pick will be used to prevent their teammates to play ships they deem to be useless. Especially when the team is into the highly competitive mode, where losing is never an option.

Eh? You get free signals from the obviously depressing battle. I'd consider it a consolation prize.

Riga is actually decent in the Bronze League of the current Ranked season, So I'd advice to not skip it. Devonshire - I find the ship to be kind of okay in Random. Although just like Aoba, you have to be ready when the BBs decide to focus on you. The heal does not really help against BBs, but it does against cruisers because most cruisers she meets don't have it. Surrey is worse, although Narai exists for that reason. Albemarle is a nightmare, I actually skip her. Drake is a lot better than Albemarle. But just like Devonshire, you have to be very picky on when & who to engage. Amalfi is good. I find her easier to grind through than Charles Martel.

From what I've seen, the majority of those who still play & enjoy it are the ones that whinge the least. This group of players either don't care whatever WG throws onto the table, or those who only play the PvE stuffs. There are many things which prove that phrase holds some truth. We, the old farts simply can no longer trust WG to handle the wishful thinking properly because WG has been continuing their bad streaks on making bad decisions. The recent Commander Skill rework raised the hopes of many because initially the rework seemed to benefit the aggressive players (especially those who love to brawl in their BBs) rather than the passive players. But WG shot their own foot by adding one skill that trumps the other options, Deadeye. And although WG intended to promote diversity on how the players configure their ships, the truth is nowhere near that. The supposedly "Messiah" of all updates (because it seemed to promise the end of the passive meta) becomes the "Demon" that everyone condemns (because it actually makes things worse than before).

Didn't we have something like that called "King of the Sea" tournament? I remember the last season was already rage-inducing because the majority of the participants only took Kremlin & Stalingrad. And that was before Thunderer became popular. I'm not saying you shouldn't suggest anything to WG. However your recent suggestions contain wishful thinking that might work on paper, but not on practice for numerous reasons. Things that work well on PvE don't always work on PvP. You might find it fun & effective to sail directly to the enemy's position with the Japanese BBs in Co-Op & Scenario. But doing that in PvP battles like Random & Ranked will certainly result in instant death because they are not even designed for CQC. Even the German BBs, the ships that are supposedly to be effective at CQC, are not faring much better on most occasions. And then of course in many WoWs forums, you can always find people complaining about somethings in the game. Deadeye, CV, HE-spammers, etc. Although none of those things are really apparent on PvE. But that's because the bot-controlled ships on PvE don't know how to utilize those things.

I suppose they do stack to each other. Tashkent's gun? Yes if you intend to have full Soviet DD vanguard. Tashkent has a skill that buffs are Soviet DDs with Soviet guns. I'm inclined to encourage you to get it nonetheless. The gun is also only available from point exchange in Northern Overture event. And if that gun gets added into the Core Shop, it would certainly cost 800 Core Data (like the French quad 380mm).

That won't work. Not only because this mode is basically Random with restrictions on choices. But also because most ships that are eligible in that mode never encountered each other at all. Battle of Denmark Strait? Impossible because Hood is not eligible in that mode due to being a T7 ship. And Prince of Wales still doesn't exists. The Hunt for Bismarck? Same reasons. King George V being T7, and Ark Royal being T6. Dorsetshire, Victorious, Rodney, etc still don't exist. The Guadacanal Campaign? Same reasons, and the balance between the 2 sides would be way off, favoring the Allies completely. No one would want to sail in Kongou (referring to Kirishima) only to serve as easy target for players who sail in North Carolina (referring to Washington). And although Hiei survived in a duel against Laffey, this game wouldn't be able to replicate the result. Benson has enough alpha damage with the torps to sink a full health T8 BB, there's no way a Kongou could survive that although history proved the otherwise. If we look at the list of the naval battles in WW2, there was not a single battle where 2 sides fought each other fairly. They were one side outnumbering the other, or one side having undisputed superiority over the other. And most maps in this game are either purely fictional, or somewhat slightly based on actual maps. Okinawa for example; WG had to alter the islands because they favored one team over the other. Greece also had been altered for the same reason. Ocean is the only 100% historically accurate for this mode. But even so, those who hate that map are not in the minority.

The report system is indeed useless other than for reducing the player's karma, and 0 is the lowest minimum karma a player can have. So yeah if the "reported" player already had 0 karma before he/she gets reported, nothing will change as 0 - 1 = 0 according to the system. At best (or rather worst), it is merely a psychological weapon against the other players. The suspension happens most likely because someone contacted the CS department, and attached the screenshot of whatever you said as the proof. I called out a player with Kitakaze because he somehow managed to get blindtorped by Midway. I told him he could have dodged that easily had he not been focusing on saving stars. But nope, he took offense to that. The system needs to be reworked as it cannot tell the difference between criticism & verbal offense (insult). The chat suspension itself does more harm than good because it prevents the suspended players to use the radio commands & map pings.

Well... That's exactly what I pointed out. There's a thin line that separates "the meme playstyle" like using secondary build BBs, and utter foolishness. Bronze League is where the worst get stuck. Those who actually know how to perform well will reach the qualification phase. And it's up to their own on whether they want to advance to the Silver League, or not.

The event is full of pop culture references (plainly memes). This is the best one so far.

That's actually true. Bronze League is where the players can afford to fool around, and still climb through the ranks. Given that you know the basics of what to do & what not to do. Silver League is where you have to be serious. And unless you know how to perform well with the non-meta ships, you're most likely be better off sticking to the meta. Gold League is much like the Silver League, but with more salty players. You can't really afford to be remotely funny, which includes bringing ships that are obviously underpowered. I only made it to rank 5 on last season, and gave up once I got enough wins to collect the doubloons. So yeah you can either stick with the all-in-one MM in Random, the skill-based MM in Ranked (which includes all the salt from 7 seas), or commit exile to PvE where the skies are blue.

Oddly enough, it will be easier to know when a ship is using the DefAA. I mean now the only way to figure it out is to look at the flak bursts, which would have been too late to withdraw the squadrons without losing some planes. But with the new visual, it can be figured out by looking at the shell tracer which appear before the flak bursts. Incoming DefAA-baiting strat MK2: Electric Boogaloo

Because her voice doesn't fit the original design. I mean with that face, she would have to sound like Enty, or slightly pitched Wichita.

As what Helena & Fluffy said, this mode is way imbalanced at T8. Especially due to the presence of the post-war era ships in that tier. T7 still has some radar ships (Atlanta, Indianapolis, Belfast), and a lot of paper ships. So why don't they make it for T6 instead? Sure some nations would get shafted like the French only has Dunkerque (and on the Axis side at that) in the BB category. But the current lineup is totally favoring the Allies, the US being the dominant one due to their vast number of choices. Amagi was close to completion before the Washington Naval Treaty halted her construction. The Japanese chose to convert her to be a CV (not Kaga). But the Great Kanto Earthquake damaged her hull severely. The Japanese eventually scrapped her, and took some of her parts to speed up Kaga's conversion into CV.