I'm on WoWs now guys, and i'm a noob.

Agree. That sweet, sweet DPM makes the threat of a dev strike worth it. I try to like BBs, but other than the Scharn that 22-35 second reload kills me. DM on the other hand can follow up with another volley in 5.5 seconds.

Yurei, that's why I'm trying to hard to save up the Free XP for the Missouri. It may still have a 29 second reload...but it's fast. I'm back at about 250k Free XP, but the trash Yorck is making it hard not to spend.

That's why I do like the Scharn. Great armor and a more livable reload. Sure the guns can't hit as hard as "real" BB guns, but they are still good.

The Shinyhorse is, by far, my best BB. She really is an oversized cruiser, complete to the murderous torps. The Kii and the Hood are fairly fast BBs but the handling is, well, lacking. Nelson is a hilarious flamethrower but her handling is right up there with her looks…… bless her heart….

I’m really hoping they don’t nerf the Giulio Cesare from the current test version as that is one tier V BB that I just might be able to love.


Englush, the Russian DD lines are really speedy gunboats with a payoff at tier X with the Khabarovsk, quite possibly one of the best cruisers in the game. (Did you know that the English translation of Khabarovsk is “Russian Bias”?) The Russian Cruisers are really hit or miss. Some are complete trash, while others are pure Stalinium…

As for the French, all they have so far are Cruisers. They can be dominant in one match, and food in the next. Quite fast, decent handling, good guns, lackluster torps, and armor that adds another layer of RNG everytime a shell hits.

I'm going to assume you're referring their cruiser lines. 

French: spaced armor seems to act a "black hole" for AP shells fired at you. It's not reliable, but it can save you. They are kind of long range HE spammers primarily and normally have slightly above average speed, but have access to speed boost consumable making them very fast and very hard to hit by the average player when speed boost is active.

Soviet: in general fantastic guns. Some of the fastest shell speeds, decent ship speeds, horrendous turning circles (some larger than battleships), mediocre armor, and decent turret traverse. I think they are very, very strong ships and the T8-T10 have the longest range radars in the game. Moskva is kind of a unique animal - and is almost a battlecruiser. These wreck DDs inside of 14km and wreck everything else at any range. They are somewhat easy to citadel if not angled very properly. And again...I can't stress this enough...other than Kutuzov, the handling/turning is atrocious. But those guns!

RN BBs are probably the most noob friendly ship line out right now, but I don't think they are very rewarding because you can sail them like an absolute idiot and still do well. If you "learn" with RN BBs and then try to play other classes, you may be in for a world of hurt. KM BBs would be second. I can really think of any noob friendly cruiser lines, but Russian or French would probably be the closest because they have range and speed on their side with no real "stinker" ships in the line. IJN is kind of rough, though the T7, T8, and T10 ships are good.

This is all so very helpful! Thanks!!

Didn't know the IJN DDs and USN cruisers were nerfed so hard, but I haven't paid that much attention to that kind of stuff -- just knew the general info (they were good) which is why I went with them first.

I really like lights in tenks, which is why I thought I might enjoy DDs...and I have, the few I've played. So will continue with those, I think.

Will certainly try the BBs -- probably the British just because I suck and need the leeway, then move on to KM and IJN.

Will also consider the Soviet destroyers, keeping in mind their limitations, but have heard they are just gunboats and wreck.

So...48 games in and I...I have a 37% win rate.

     

Not like I'm finishing at the bottom every match, either. I'm usually top three or four -- just no clue where to go on some maps, and have no idea on how to carry. And...man, I suck in DDs. Just lack the situational awareness of knowing when to rotate and how to get torps to hit anything.

Maybe I should just play bots...

Which DD line are you playing? They all play very different.

Jap DD's should NEVER be firing their guns unless you have been spotted by an enemy DD and your torpedos are reloading. Stay outside detection range (the dotted line on the mini map" and launch torpedos at distracted targets. 8 and 10km torps are devastating to the unsuspecting. Do NOT get spotted by anything if you can avoid it. This should be your main priority. You want to remain an unseen threat, a constant danger of being invisi-torped. An enemy team who doesn't know where you are will be frustrated by sudden and often unavoidable spreads of torps from seemingly nowhere.

Soviet DDs are gunboats, the exact opposite of the japs. Stay near other ships on your team, and cover them from enemy dds. If you get spotted and a lot of shit is focusing on you, pop a smoke screen and sit stationary in your smoke, and continuously fire at any enemies you can see. Never attempt to close for a torp run on an enemy ship who is aware of your presence.

German DDs are a bit of a middle ground. They have decently strong guns and slightly longer range torpedos than their soviet counterparts. Their playstyle seems to be the most flexible.

I havent played american DD's just yet but from what I understand they have extremely fast firing guns with very high shell arcs, so you sit behind small islands and shred anything that comes in range.

I've been playing the Japanese and American DDs, but am finding the former to be tough given how they have to be played. I simply don't have the map knowledge or awareness to know how to set up effective ambushes at this point. The USN ones are a bit easier because they aren't so torp dependent and have those pewpewpew guns.

The more I play, the more I'm finding cruisers to be good for n00bs -- or at least this one. The St. Louis is crazy good, and the tier III IJN is more enjoyable than I was expected. Just got the Phoneix yesterday and think I'm gonna like it. Also going up the Brits, and might do the Soviets as well, though I hear the lower tiers are tough (or is that their DDs?).

I did get the Bellephron (or whatever the tier III Brit battleship is) and ... wow, the accuracy RNG on BB main batteries is just ... ooof. Still going to give them a shot, but quite frustrating.

Cruisers are most certainly not noob friendly. Saint Louis is just a little OP for tier 3. Slow, but decent armor and literally made out of guns. Higher tier cruisers are much more fragile.