Word of advice on the FdG, do not get the 420mm guns. Stick with the 406mm. The 420mms are considerds a newb trap. You don’t get any significant benefit on overmatching with them, they fire slower, and while they do more damage per shell your theoretical DPS drops. Add to that the typical KMBB dispersion when you miss with the 420mms it hurts you more than missing with the 406mms. I actually ground out most of my way to the GK on the 420mms before someone set me straight.
As for the dispersion changes, they’re just adjusting the shape of the dispersion, not the values of it. There will be less drift horizontally, a but more drift vertically. Right now KMBBs have a elliptical dispersion pattern. The test was to give them the same cylindrical pattern other BBs have. It’ll make them a tad better at angled/chasing/head-on enemies, a tad worse at broadside enemies.
I finally completed the Buffalo grind last night. Holy hell that ship was a turd. I got the Research Bureau unlocked, decided to reset my KMBB line so I could finally have some cash again and get in on this new progression.
0.8.11 dropped, along with Snowflakes. So I just removed a T8, T9, T10 snowflake from my stable of ships. D’oh!
I reset two lines when they added Research Bureau, US BB and Heavy CA. Regretting doing at the same time now. I’m going to limit myself to one reset line at a time once I finish the regrind. Thankfully Tier X in WoWS is much friendlier economically than in WoT.
In addition to the Puerto Rico, save up that Coal for a Thunderer or another Tier X premium ship. There are several real good ones out there.
Tell me about it. I just looked up my old WoT account on Noobmeter. I have 117 rounds in my ST-I, my one and only T9 tank. From what I recall I don’t even have all the upgrades of the tank unlocked yet. 117 rounds!
Meanwhile in WoWs my most recent T9 grind was the Buffalo. That ship was a turd for me. 47 rounds before I got enough XP/FXP to get out of it. 47 rounds to unlock all upgrades and the next ship in a ship where I was just dogging it.
For comparison I did the same thing in my Ibuki in 27 rounds. The main difference between the two was the Buffalo was around a 45% WR whereas the Ibuki was closer to 65%.
I picked up the Yoshino. It got a “meh” review on the forums and the wiki. Other coal ships getting much higher marks. However, one of my two 19pt captains is my IJNCA captain. I don’t regret it in the slightest. She’s shaping up to be one of my top performing ships.
Yeah. I’ve avoided the Yoshino so far. Only ships I regret now getting right now are the T9 annual premiums Missouri and Kronshtadt. My next target for coal is the Smolensk.
I got the Missouri and while I do take it out from time to time, I neither like or dislike it. I think the meta right now makes it a pain to play largely beacause…
My next target for coal is the Smolensk.
The Smolensk is a thing. Honestly it, and other ships like it (Kleber, Mogador, Kitakaze, Worchester) just make T9, T10 BB battles a chore Low detection radius, high rate of fire, high chance of fire. Often when you bumble into range of one of those ships you either lose 2/3rds of your health to them as you sloooooowwwwwly back out. Or you lose 2/3rds of your health to the BBs waiting for you to turn broadside.
I like free stuff, so I’m reluctant to criticize Wargaming on their drop rates, but with my luck and their unpublished drop rate chances, I don’t expect anything out of them and so am pleasantly surprised with anything the crates do produce.
I kind of like the collections mechanic, where one can slowly earn rewards from regular play, those free crates seem to regularly drop a collection item, and some credit is given for duplicates.
Whether it’s to get us hooked on gambling, or because Wargaming is in the Christmas giving spirit, they are giving us four free containers with this new patch:
HOW CAN YOU GET YOUR GIFTS?
Grab your first free presents—as many as four Santa’s Gift containers—right in the game!
Enter your Port, click the New Year banner on the screen with the cargo container ship—and the first two containers will be yours.
Head to the festive section of the Armory to collect the other two containers!
I’m looking forward to trying the Puerto Rico building chain, but since I’ll be out of town for a week during the latter parts of the chain, I’m considering taking advantage of their cash option to assist with the building, rather than spend money on “Santa’s containers” gambling.
I’d drop doubloons on on the ship, not the crates. The only crates I have opened have been from 3 sources.
Daily awarded crates.
Awarded from missions of any type (snowflakes, monthly missions, etc)
Purchased with currency that was awarded to me for free (the themed resources like the current Italian stuff).
I’m not saying that WG hasn’t gotten coin from me. They have gotten so much coin from me. But all of it has been in the form direct purchases of coin for a specific ship and or prem time.
So, Santa crates, I get the 4 and then any I earn from missions, no more. The Puerto Rico, dropping coin on accelerating the building process is a direct purchase, so is OK.
I like the looks of the Puerto Rico, I don’t yet have any Tier X ships (turns out I’m still suffering burnout from Wargaming grinding from WoT years ago, I just casually play what I feel like now), and like you I don’t mind spending money to support a hobby and devs that I’m enjoying. I had the dubloons in my account so I went ahead and bought the first shipyard guy … as I understand the shipbuilding mechanic/process, his impact is greater the longer he’s on the job, and since I know I’m going to miss a week when out of town, I went ahead and got him on the job working.
I do like that whole dockyard animation and all, pretty cool.
LOL, good luck! I bought some of the Black crates, because when I looked at the contents those were camos that I’m actually using, & I needed more premium time, so didn’t mind getting the low tier items out of those crates … I have not looked to see if the Santa crates offer similar value, where if a premium drops it’s an added bonus, not a waste if one doesn’t.
First match in the reacquired Konig. Forgot about the revamped ballistics on the KMBBs. First shot of the match on a broadside CA. 2 citadels later he’s making a B-line away from me. Muhahahahaa. I’m lucky to get 1 cit in a match, let alone 2 on the same ship with the same salvo. Got a 3rd on a broadside Dunkie. Where’s my “cackling maniacally” emoji?
LOL, congrats! That’s great news, glad to see the change makes them more equivalent / competitive with the other BBs.
As for the dubloon “booster”, I don’t have a feel for the grind required, but I hope I didn’t end up throwing those dubloons away … I don’t get as much enjoyment from crates as others do, like you I prefer to “pay as I go”, so I figure I’m in for another booster if required, especially to make up for being out of town for a week.
I went ahead and picked that first booster up, although the clock has not yet started ticking on the Puerto Rico construction. Being somewhat confident that I’ll need the help, when the construction actually does start in a couple of days I’ll be in at liftoff with the booster dude ticking away with no time lost.
The charity, Save the Children, sounds like a worthy cause, I’ll plan to donate, likely during Mr_Gibbins and/or The Mighty Jingles’ streams. I’ll keep a close eye on “the minimum suggested donation tied to the individual reward to obtain it”!
What You Can Get for Donating
On December 14, we’ll start taking donations that will go directly towards the campaign, meaning that any donations made in the time between then and the end of the stream will qualify you for rewards.
When donating via the link below, you’ll be given the choice of which reward to get, as long as the amount donated is equal to, or higher than the “value” of the chosen item.
During this time, you can give the minimum suggested donation tied to the individual reward to obtain it.
Apart from the satisfaction of having aided a good cause, here are some of the more tangible rewards you can claim:
Torpedo plushes.
Signed posters.
Rare ship bundles, including the likes of VII Belfast , IX Missouri , or V Kamikaze.
Here’s the rewards page, https://tiltify.com/+world-of-warships-community/charity-ship/rewards, … they are not unlocked so they are obscured a bit, and it is not easy to tell, but it looks like Kamikaze is tied to a $100 donation, while Kronshtadt, Belfast, and Missouri are tied to $200 donations?
I don’t understand the grid display with the same ships shown multiple times, with different unlock times. I wonder if it’s tied to individual stream times? I can’t imagine that when a digital item unlocks it is only available for a single donator, I would not think that there needs to be an auction format for a digital item, the more happy contributors the better all around.
Here is a graphic showing the rewards. The Helping Hand Commemorative Flag is a nice “token of gratitude” for anyone who thinks Save the Children is a worthy charity. For myself, I would not criticize anyone who had charity money in their Christmas budget and chose to use it on Save the Children.
Looks like need to click the graphic once to open it, then a second time to make it a readable size.
World of Warships seems to embrace their well deserved historical reputation for poor communication, but sometimes folks are able to tease information from them.
Why company staff create a discussion thread for an announcement, but then don’t return to answer specific questions and requests for clarification, in their own thread, that arise due to poor communication in the announcement, is a mystery to me.
I’m curious as to what the Hayate special event will be, that will be on the stream once they reach the $35K milestone, I don’t see that that is mentioned yet. Other listed items (steel, coal, Free XP, camo codes, etc.) I suspect are giveaway codes, but not sure if they are going to do a random lottery on stream for a Hayate or what.
Anyway, players have posted clarification info that is attributed to Wargaming in the thread, but without links:
“fem says they can sell out. there are limited numbers of each one offered. they unlock at different dates for different regions apparently.”
“fem says if they sell out of the reward you selected, the transaction won’t be completed.”
Once the available quantity of items is redeemed, the reward will no longer be available.
Your transaction will not proceed if the item is not available/sold out before you complete your transaction.
The people who are quick and successfully claim the reward will 100% receive the selected reward - it is not a raffle.
FWIW, I did already donate and go through the paypal process to claim the flag, which is already unlocked for claiming. Now just waiting for Wargaming to process their generous donation gift flag to my account.
Word is that what the graphic is illustrating is that it will be a vote on the currency for IJN DD Hayate. Also, the $5K donation threshold has already been reached, and Tuccy is leading the vote for who gets the pie in the face.
VII Belfast , 
IX Missouri , or 
V Kamikaze.
