At tier II, the Japanese destroyer is where it's at, with its obnoxious 8 km torps and good concealment values.  Dresden is good, but it takes around 5615655456 hits to kill another ship.

 

 
I kept my Dresden and St. Louis for a really long time. You can bring the HE fiesta with those things.


I still have a fully loaded out Omaha too. That is just a really freaking solid cruiser.


I think the IJN CA line is probably the best line in the game. They just keep getting better and better and are really balanced capability wise.


Once you get more time under your belt you'll figure out what kind of playing style you like and that will dictate what line or lines of ships you play a lot.

I don't think I've ever been as inconsistent in a game as I am with this one.  Some games are awesome and I'll sink 3 ships, land tons of hits, and have tons of fun.  Others I get sunk in the first 2 minutes of the round and barely land any hits.

Know the feeling.  Am getting the hang of DDs and Torp usage, though.  A lot of times I can get to 6-7 km before I get spotted; pop smoke and start jinking more and can, on occasion dump a load at 2-3 km...kick the engine in the ass and get clear about half the time, at that point.  Ate a couple BBs that way, though one took 5 torp hits and blew my arse out of the water.  Was easy kill for the cruiser coming through my smoke, though.  

One game I'll get 60-100 hits, the next...less than 10...    

Good advice on DD's and CA.  Honestly, once you play the Tier 4 / 5 / 6 BB's you won't ever want to play the South Carolina again.  It does ok on Tier, but once you start playing + 2 tiers consistently with it, you'll hate life.  Too slow to move, to slow to traverse, and really meager gun range.    For a Tier 3 seal clubber the USSR Derzki Destroyer is where it is at.  While the torps are only like 3km, they reload in like 0.00000001 seconds and you have literally infinite supply on hand if you fire in single batteries.   If you can close on the slower moving ships (Like the S. Carolina, Myogi, enemy tier 4 carriers, etc.) you will be laughing like a mad man.

15 torpedo hits in a game is fun.  Usually takes 9-10 to kill a full HP battleship.

Derpski Most Glorious Yoloboat.

Dah Komrade!   "Y" for "Yolo" is not coincidence!

I'm about to uninstall.  I cannot win in ANY ship, not even in my ships that have the highest win rates.  Oh sure, I still play them well, but just continue to get screwed over by this stupid game.  

Over 100k damage in a Cleveland and about everything else I can think of to try to lead the team to victory, and they still either yolo rush or line hump.  Not a 1, NOT A SINGLE 1, had ANY clue how in the hell to play.   Either "W" 5x into the middle, or sail into the line and let it adjust course and speed for them.  It was a turkey shoot for the other team.  1 win, 4 losses in a row tonight.  

I'm  almost below 55% overall.  Think that is the "sell" point for me.  I play to win, and when it is clear that despite my efforts, I'm going to get continuously screwed by MM and RNG in their efforts to allow the lowest common denominator to have fun playing the game (fun = yolo rush up each line in the tech tree), why put in the effort?







I'm open to suggestions guys...I've tried solo, we've run divisions, high tier, low tiers, etc.   I might just turn off the chat for good.   Even my helpful suggestions are largely unheeded, and usually my frustration gets to me in a night like to tonight and I don't add any value anyway.  Just hoping beyond hope that some moron that thinks he's actually playing good might get the message clearly in his brain that he is hurting the team with his god-aweful game play.

Not to be rude but in game chat 99 out of 100 people don't care what you, or anyone else, suggests.  I honestly don't see most of what happens in chat during the match, I'm usually too busy trying to line up shots, avoid obstacles or avoiding incoming fire.  I think if you uninstalled chat it might lower your blood pressure a bit although I do enjoy seeing all the colorful phrases and bad spelling the madder you get .

I took tanks seriously up until the point I realized I was taking it too seriously.  I'm not putting that kind of emotional investment in another game, it is after all, just a game.  If I stop being entertained and having fun, I'm not playing anymore.

Wait for team battles?  those should be fun, assuming we get enough guys aboard.


I had the same night last night, and after a few losses, I quit.

Last night I couldn't pay to get a win...

...this afternoon I have done rather well, and...best game in a DD, so far.  Knowing me, probably a fluke.  








It was a glorious run.  

Too bad my premium had expired.  

I guess I'm done.  3 games tonight, 0-3, none even remotely close.   2 kills in each, top XP in all 3.  54.96 overall now.  Said I was done under 55%.  25% win rate last 7 days   Guess they called my bluff.  Sucks walking away from premium time and close to 15,000 doublons, but fastest way out of a hole is to stop digging.

This battle was the final straw.   3 minutes in we have already lost 4 ships (4th died right after this screen shot) and I'm alone vs. 6 enemies.  What kind of stupid morons are playing this game that can't even survive 3 minutes?





Ping me when team battles start...maybe then actually playing to win will be worth something.

If anyone from wargaming is reading...you guys really need to rethink your business plan.

That's what I was running into last night, we'd get one, maybe two enemies...and, the other team would wipe the sea floor with our remains.  

no, the fastest way out of a hole is to realize that you're not in a hole.  

i just went and looked you up, and your win% in a lot of individual ships is outstanding.  then i reread your post, and it boils down to you quitting because you don't win as much as you want to.  it's like you derive no joy from actually playing the game--like the only thing that matters to you is whether you win enough games above the server average to keep you interested.  whether you win enough trophies.  which, of course, depends on 11 other strangers in the internet, and how they perform.  so basically, your enjoyment of a ship arcade game is based almost entirely on other people, not yourself.

look--people have fun in different ways, and i certainly can't tell you how you should think.  but i just don't understand why you give other people so much power over you.  i like playing ships.  i get happy when i win, and bent out of shape when i lose.  but mostly, i enjoy the actual act of playing.  of maneuvering and shooting.  if i have a great game and lose, i'm pissed...but i still enjoyed (derived pleasure from) playing.  where i get frustrated is when i don't perform well, but that's 100% on me.  for me, what this game (or any competitive game) is about is how i do when i play the game.

just like in WOT, it seems like you're so fixated on the numbers that you forget this is supposed to be a fun way to spend your time.  that's what this really comes down to--you are willing to quit on a game because your win number fell below a certain threshold, which means that the number is more important to you than actually playing the game.  you would rather not play than to see a certain number displayed on your stats page.  that's your business, i guess, but i don't understand it at all.  


but that stuff is neither here nor there.  from a more practical perspective, if you want to bump up your win rate, get into the ships you can carry in, and play those a lot.  look at your fuso--73% win, 54K avgdmg in 40 battles.  why not play that ship more?  granted those numbers will probably come down as you get more games in (regression to the mean is a thing), but from the looks of things, you can do some carrying in that tub.  but it looks like you ground right past it.  look at your minekaze--you clearly know how to make that ship work.  the thing is, you like playing cruisers.  cruisers are great and all, but they're support ships--they're hard to carry in.  so why not play murderdeathkill ships that can sway the outcomes of battles, vice escorts?

basically, you have a lot of lines going, you're transitioning into higher tiers on a lot of those lines all at the same time, and you don't have a lot of games in anything but your murmansk.  IMO it's pretty simple--either concentrate on grinding (in which case your winrate is automatically going to suffer), or concentrate on your winrate (which means playing fewer ships more frequently).  looks like you're trying to do both at the same time, which (combined with the competitive stuff mentioned earlier) sets you up for misery.

just my thoughts--YMMV.

That is a great way to look at it, siren.

 

Hi Siren...I appreciate your thoughts.  It is a lot like what finally drove me away from tanks, and I know you watched me flame out over there as well.  Sorry you had to see it twice, as I'm sure it isn't pretty!!  .   No matter how hard I play right now, I no longer have any impact on the outcome of the game, as if it is fixed outcome before the battle even starts.  That takes the thrill out of it for me.   I have fun winning, and not even sure how to describe the discomfort and frustration that comes from losing.  

That drives me to do competitive things in real life (competitive shooting, basketball, softball, etc.), and draws me to competitive games like this.   Sometimes I can look at a loss, that was a good battle down to the end, and say to myself "Man, sucks we lost, but it was a heckuva game and I enjoyed it."   But I just am not at all wired to be able to think that about a game where my team plays so absolutely crappy that it isn't a close battle, that it isn't a fun fight.  You are right...I am dependent on 11 other random people on the internet that may or may not give a crap about winning, may or may  not even understand how to pilot their ship, or how to lead with their guns.   So I am at the mercy of those guys.  But has the general player base gotten so much worse that now I'm individually playing WORSE than them?

I realize I'm being whiny bitch about this hole thing, especially complaining about having a WR that just dropped below 55%, when that in and of itself is by many measures respectable and most people on the NA server would kill for.  It isn't as much as the number itself being 55, 56, or even 52%....its about keeping it going in the right direction.  The fact that it has been going down so rapidly for so long now is so incredibly frustrating to me.   I know that I won't win all the games, and that is expected.  But once I hit a milestone, and want to be able to maintain that level of competitiveness.   But 25% over the last week, really?   I could bot my way to a better win rate than that I think by just entering the battle, hitting "W" 5x and then walking away.  I look at most of the players that have been on my team that play really poorly, and even they have like a 45% win rate.

But I some how play my way to 25%?   With an average damage close to 2x the server average, K/D ration better than 2x the server?  That is about as statically probable as Hillary Clinton winning those 6 consecutive coin tosses in Iowa last week!!!  



And on top of that, the last weekis I've been playing EXACTLY to the advice you gave...  Been playing the following ships that I'm good at, that are my "go-to" ships, that I know I can carry in, and have done it before:

- Cleveland
- Murmansk
- Mogami
- Fuso
- Minekaze
- Phoenix (trying to drop down)
- Atlanta
- Tipritz


The only ship in that group that I have a < 50% win rate is the Tirpitz, and that is in large part to the recent losing skid.  I'm playing my favorite ships, that I long finished grinding months ago, that I can carry games in (reference the 5 kill Cleveland loss a few posts above).   Hell, maybe I need to find some of my really bad ships and play them...maybe that's what is going on...the game and its new Skill Based MM is punishing me for having a good win rate, and when playing a good win rate ship, makes it that much harder to win a game.   Maybe if I have a really crappy recent win rate and I play a really crappy ship, maybe I can fool the MM algorithm and get a win.


So yes....I'm just really frustrated, and taking a break, walking away, whatever it may be seems to be the only real option.   Sure, I enjoy hanging out and running divisions with you guys....and that does make some of the bad games much easier to bear, and definitely makes the good games so much better!   But this is one of those cases of I'm hitting my thumb with a hammer, going "OUCH!" and then doing it over and over again.   Like the saying goes, insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

Something is clearly broken...with my play style, with my account, with MM, RNG, the player base, something for me to go from regularly winning a high % of the time, to now struggling to get to 50% for a day, and routinely having nights where my win rate for that night is way below server average.   That just makes no sense to me at all if I'm playing the exact same ships that I was playing to get to that level of wins in the first place.  

Heck, I wish I could say I was grinding a new ship that I really sucked at, or that I have been playing like a total tomato, then I could at least pin it on something that made some sense at all.   This just doesn't make any logical sense to me at all.  By almost all stats (other than WR and survival) I'm playing some of the best I've played.



Sorry to vent....just need to pour myself a bourbon and maybe I'll relax a bit.  Who knows, maybe I'll even dull the pain enough to try playing some more...

man, i have a big mouth, and i'm sorry if i'm out of line.  i just get bummed out when people aren't having a good time.  when i looked you up, i half-expected to see ship winrates just on the plus side of average.  but instead, a ton of ships were high 50s, 60s, and even into 70s.  goddamn dude--that's awesome.  i guess my point is that you're good at this game, so dammit--enjoy being good at it!  enjoy hitting those sweet leads on kiting cruisers.  enjoy setting up exactly the right geometry for a torp run.  enjoy the tactical side--being able to force the enemy out of what he wants to do, and into what you want him to do.  even when i'm losing, i take a lot of pleasure in the little things.  just like zombieland.

of course, since i posted all that crap, karma intervened.  just closed out the NY, and went on a crazy losing streak to finish grinding to the NM.  yeah...i deserved that.

I even jumped on to see if you were playing. We got a division of 3 Sims going, and went 43 wins out of 45 matches.  You should have been there! We couldn't lose.

 

I've been grinding ranked the last few days, got to rank 8 last night...  Damn they throw a lot of flags at you for ranking up...

I've been grinding.... Work.

LOL!   Even if I was there and you guys really did play 45 games, you guys wouldn't let me in...I don't have a Sims.    Just a Mahan or Byzvasaksichky for Tier 7 DD.    

Gonna see what ranked is like.   Last season it seemed like when I was kicking but in Pubs, I was getting slaughtered in Ranked.   Maybe the opposite also holds true.   If that doesn't work maybe I'll spam co-op for a while until whatever is wrong with my account passes through and things get back to normal.

No kidding man...was starting to wonder if you went full Bolmnebreg before I did and just packed up and left the game.  Hadn't seen you in a few weeks.

Yeah. It's been fun. So much fun. I only barely managed to get 160 pearls for the R drawing.

To Anshan or not to Anshan.



I have a warspite and a Mikhail.

speak up!  we used to help each other out on Tanks.

 

Well the Kamikazi is fun

So I thought what the heck, might as well play tonight, and try out the Kamikaze (which for those of you that didn't get one...its literally a Minekaze with slightly slower top speed, and worse AA, but slightly faster torp reloads.)

Played a game in Co-op mode and of course stomped the other team.  Decided to test the theory I had about ranked battles (Success is inverse to Random battle performance) and proceeded to go 5-0 and get up to Rank 15 or something.  

Incredible how completely bi-polar this game can be, and how it makes me act bipolar too sometimes!

I just didn't end up playing enough games was the problem. Can't help me if I'm not online/stuck at work/otherwise occupied.

Do you like the Gnevny? Do you like Free XP?

Well the Anshan is for you! It's an even better Gnevny with usable torpedus AND a camo that gives +100% free XP!

Only reason I bought it.

Starting to use the xp flags on the Wyoming, want a New York...might do the same on the Phoenix; debating it.  Sold the So. Car.  Good ship...did fairly well with it; but...the Wyoming is a better hammer.  

Kawachi is a cow...a fat cow.  Though it has been surprisingly durable a couple times.  The Kolberg seems to be a step back, for the germans.  Tenryu is hit, or miss, for me...one match I'll hold a flank by myself, the next...the damn first mate hits the shiny red button that says 'Do not touch!'.  

Hence the offer......  

If you think the Kolberg is bad, just wait till you meet Karl.

And yeah, Tenryu is a floating cit. Kawachi is bad and should feel bad, Myogi is just as bad, Kongo is god mode.

All your hate for the Kolberg and Karl will be abated when you meet the Konni.  Might still be favorite boat.

this.  the early pain of those lines is a filter to make sure only the truly motivated will achieve god mode.  konig, nurn, fuso, nagato...erection-worthy.

I mean we would play a few matches for one another, on each other's accounts if someone needed help.






 







He ate a lot of lead paint at school.
 
 

Just a suggestion that I've tried to do.  Keep certain flags for when you will really appreciate them.

 
I use the captain XP flags all the time, because the sooner the better, for upskilling your captain, right?



But, the extra ship XP flags, I save for higher tiers.  Getting through the tier 3-4-5 ships is a walk in the park compared to the tier 8-10 ships.



I have 550-ish flags to decrease my repair cost.  I have saved them all for tier 9-10 ships.  The Yamato costs about 250K to repair, if sunk.



 




 

Well, I have 60 xp flags; figured I'd use 10-20 to get a couple tier 5s going for the Kaiju thing this month...heh, can't sneeze at a free ship.  

(ETA)  After using a couple, I've come to the conclusion that I need to use them for the 1st boosted win, and if I'm on a roll.

And, why are you never in TS? do you still have shitty internet? blomenberg plays on an amish telegraph line, but he manages, for the most part, when he isn't using up all his bandwidth typing death threats to his teammates.

Mostly because I need to listen to the computer.

I can, usually hear, and/or see, when I need to stop playing and let the comp rest.  Goal is to replace it this year, hopefully.  Figure I don't watch tv, I game usually and, watch shows via internet when the connection is good enough.  

So, what happens is heat...for the most part.  Figure the computer is being used 10-16 hours a day, currently, between gaming, surfing, job hunting, and watching vids.  Recently, I haven't dared to turn it off.  Has some odd failures on reboot if you power it down, so I just put the screen into sleep mode and cross my fingers that it will still be on in the morning.

Depending on what troubleshooting thread I've come across...it's a dying video card, a dying power supply, a dying motherboard, a dying SSD...or, just needs to be taken apart and new heat paste done.

Oh. And yes, that's why I'm so dense. High lead content.

Lulz...8400 to unlock the next IJN BattleAbortion...end match with 8394.  

i do pretty much the same--best to hoard flags.  i only use ship XP flags for modules, and captain XP flags for retraining.  the SM for example is fantastic in DDs, but since they're so hard to come by (double strike), i hoard them relentlessly.  about the only flags i use regularly are the fire and flooding control on BBs.

finally ground the new mexico.  hated it at first because i didn't notice there was an immediate range upgrade.  was trying to fight on large, open maps with 13.6km max gun range.    that thing can take some abuse, but holy god i can't deal with it's seaturtle-like speed and maneuverability.  might have to buy the myogi just to remember what driving fast feels like.

After playing the Kiev, all other DDs feel more like Cruisers.  Especially, the Japanese ones.

 

I forgot how terrible not having the level 4 captain's skill on DD's is. I"m desperately trying to get them for my Blys and Gearing.

needed to retrain my NY captain to the NM, so without thinking, i switched him into the sims.  yeah...a BB captain.  no SA, no last stand.  i was dead in a hurry.

Well, delayed on the New York; got the Langley.  And then upgraded the planes since the stock ones created a vacuum on the hangar deck imploding my shiny new carrier.    There is nothing more useless than a carrier that ran out of planes.  Couldn't even catch up to the BBs to add my AA fire to theirs and/or interpose my hull between them and torps.  

Now to get the hang of manual aiming with the torp bombers.  

So, I understand that WG is a buisness, but I'm kinda bummed they're selling the kamikaze, I wanted to be a special snowflake.

They know that there are lots of special snowflakes that want to feel like special snowflakes, but weren't special enough to earn one, so they'll sell it to them.   To be honest, it is a great scam to get someone to pay for a minekaze.  I think the event was more valuable for the other things I earned along the way credit wise as well as flags, etc.

I think it is a really fun little ship and will keep it and just sell my keeper minekaze, but not sure I'd buy it.

The Anshan is cheaper too. I might snag one.