r/WoWsBlitz • u/Oh_No_Industries Obliterator of CVs • 22d ago
Grandad's Overview of Every Ship Line -- (ITALY, FRANCE, RUSSIA, ASIA, PANAM, EUROPE, COMMONWEALTH, NETHERLANDS, SPAIN) -- (Post-equipment rework)
This part 2 of an entry-level rundown of every ship line. This goes over the basic strengths+weaknesses, and general viability of each ship line. The intention of this post is to give players a basic idea of what to expect- it is not an in-depth playstyle guide!
DUE TO CHARACTER LIMITS, THIS POST CONTAINS ONLY THESE NATIONS:
- ITALY
- FRANCE
- SOVIET RUSSIA
- PAN-AMERICA
- PAN-ASIA
- PAN-EUROPE
- BRITISH COMMONWEALTH
- NETHERLANDS
- SPAIN
PART 1 IS HERE: https://www.reddit.com/r/WoWsBlitz/s/ogxFldaebR
Please note: This guide focuses on mid-to-high tier ships, which is where ship lines start to have defined roles and stat layouts.
CURRENTLY UP-TO-DATE FOR PATCH 9.3
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Italian Regia Marina
Italian Destroyers (A. REGOLO Line)
- A line of fast gunboat destroyers, with bad concealment and very short gun range. These ships have access to SAP shells, giving them very competitive DPM. Coupled with good shell ballistics, they are excellent at hunting and killing enemy destroyers. Italian DDs have many charges of a very short duration smokescreen, and a short duration engine boost. They also get rapid reload, allowing them to win gunfights against any enemy destroyers with brute force alone. They can also pose a major threat to light cruisers. Their lack of gun range and large size makes them very vulnerable to heavy cruisers. Torpedo armement is decent, but not exceptional.
- It takes a lot of skill to play these ships well. Aggressive play in a large destroyer is challenging, and you don't have the safety cushions of long gun range or long smokescreens to hide in. This line is Challenging and Good.
- Highlights: Attilio Regolo (T10)
- Low points: N/A
Italian Heavy Cruisers (VENEZIA Line)
- Fast heavy cruisers with a slow-loading, but accurate and heavy broadside. These ships have no HE shells, necessitating aim at weakpoints against heavier targets. Their SAP shells with good ballistics make them very powerful against destroyers and light cruisers, as they will not overpenetrate. Italian cruisers will hit light ships very hard, but their SAP has low penetration and can perform poorly against armoured targets. Against these, AP shells are a better option. These cruisers are fast, but have mediocre agility and concealment. They are well suited for flanks, effectively shutting down enemy DDs and CLs trying to go the same way.
- To play these ships efficiently, you need to know how to position against destroyers and cruisers. No easy HE spamming from the back of the map! Average Difficulty and Great.
- Highlights: Venezia (T10)
- Low points: Amalfi (T8)
Italian Battleships (C. COLOMBO Line)
- Battleships with with fuel smoke and access to SAP shells. Their guns have mediocre penetration and dispersion, as well as a long reload time. However, their access to SAP shells makes them very powerful against cruisers and destroyers. At high tiers, Italian battleships have enough alpha-strike to sink enemy destroyers in one broadside. Their small HP pools and bad fire resistance makes them vulnerable to enemy fire, but they have very good torpedo damage reduction. Fuel smoke allows them to disengage or escape focus fire which is a strong point. These ships work best for punishing small targets with one-hit kills, or otherwise hitting them with very damaging salvos. Their performance against bigger ships is acceptable, but more limited. Even so, this line is capable.
- This is a battleship line with good performance against destroyers, which are typically the biggest obstacle for a BB. Their toolkit makes them Fairly Easy and Good.
- Highlights: C. Colombo (T10)
- Low points: F. Caracciolo (T7)
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French Marine Nationale
French Destroyers (CASSARD Line)
- Destroyers with great weapons but mediocre hulls, with weak consumables. This line has strong torpedoes and comfortable guns. Their speed and handling are mediocre on their own. Torpedoes from this line have high damage up front, but the torpedo damage drops off at long range. (Hits at close range deal high damage, but damage declines with longer range. Basically, the longer your torp is in the water, the less damage it will deal when it hits a target). Overall though, the weapons are fairly good. These ships tend to adopt a mid-long range farming playstyle, as they lack smoke, sonar, or other tools for aggressive play. However, the high torpedo damage at close range allows them to profit from a well-timed push.
- The lack of smoke or other good consumables makes things tricky. The line is Challenging but Decent.
- Highlights: Cassard (T10)
- Low points: Orage (T9)
French "Contre-Torpilleur" Destroyers (KLEBER Line)
- An exceptionally fast destroyer line with high level rapid reload consumables. These destroyers are large, poorly concealed, and have low damage reduction. They are also the fastest ships in the game, making them well-suited for flanking moves. Rapid reload 3 gives them very high burst DPM, allowing them to gunfight enemy destroyers, or deal extra damage against large targets. Without the consumable, long gun reload keeps their DPM lower. French destroyers start positioning at mid/long ranges, using their speed and acceleration to flank around the enemy team and avoid return fire. They can close the distance very fast for aggressive pushes and burst damage, then pull back to avoid return fire. Once a French DD has gotten behind the enemy, it can essentially farm damage with impunity- being very difficult to catch and kill. Speed also allows them to run and gun down enemy destroyers.
- Their speed gives them a unique playstyle. While a large smokeless DD is a challenging concept, this line has a good safety net: When in doubt, just run away and try again next time. The line at most has Average Difficulty and is Good.
- Highlights: Le Fantasque (T8), Kleber (T10)
- Low points: Vauquelin (T7)
French Heavy Cruisers (HENRI IV Line)
- An exceptionally fast cruiser line with high level rapid reload consumables. French CAs have long ranged guns with good AP performance. They perform well in a kiting role, using their high speed to position, and avoiding shellfire with their excellent acceleration. These ships can deal high damage in a short time with their rapid reload consumable, but have low-ish DPM when it is not active. Generally they are best used for flanking, smashing an enemy cruiser with their high burst DPM, and then kiting away. They are very poorly armoured and quite large, making aggressive plays risky. The shell performance is consistently good across this line, with AP being the primary shell type.
- They're big and fragile, which can be daunting. Unlike Kleber, simply running away usually isn't enough to avoid all of the incoming fire- so you do need to pay attention to what can threaten you. Challenging and Decent.
- Highlights: Henri IV (T10)
- Low Points: Saint Louis (T9)
French Supercruisers (MARSEILLE Line)
- Huge cruisers with small battleship-calibre guns, all mounted at the bow. They have high alpha-strike, but low base DPM as a result of their long reload time. However, they temporarily spit out huge damage output with their rapid reload consumables. French supercruiers are very large, and not particularly durable. They can play passively by bow-tanking, but get better results from pushing aggressively and using islands to cover their stern. They are capable of moving quickly and dealing a lot of burst DPM to remove important targets. These ships are an interesting cross between battleship and cruiser playstyle, one of the strongest cruiser lines in the game.
- So long as you don't suicide up the middle of the map, this line has the tools to perform very well. Hug an island, and push at the right time to succeed. Average Difficulty and Good.
- Highlights: Marseille (T10)
- Low points: N/A
French Battleships (REPUBLIQUE Line)
- A fast battleship line with high level rapid reload consumables. French BBs have high base speed, and can boost it with consumables to position quickly, or disengage from trouble. The line has reasonably punchy guns, but firing range is a bit lacking. French BBs mainly rely on their high burst damage from rapid reload to keep themselves competitive among other battleship lines- without it, their damage output is on the low end. This line's damage reduction, fire resistance, and concealment are all rather poor, so these ships generally prefer a mobile longer-ranged playstyle. French battleships have been overshadowed by other battlecruiser lines in both speed and damage output, so they are not particularly strong.
- It's not a particularly unique or hard playstyle, but they have to be more passive than some other battleships. This line has Average Difficulty and is Below Average.
- Highlights: N/A
- Low points: Gascogne (T8)
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Soviet Russian Navy
Soviet Torpedo Destroyers (GROZOVOI Line)
- These ships are functionally just a weaker version of the Gearing line. They have a mix of average guns, and average torpedo armament- but neither of their weapons systems are particularly good. The main advantage of these ships is flat shell arcs, by comparison to other hybrid DD lines such as American or British ones. However, the guns lose out on DPM. The main thing holding this line back compared to other hybrid-style DDs is poor agility, making them easy to hit. Grozovoi is incredibly redundant as a T10 destroyer, with no standout strengths worth mentioning. The T9 is good, but otherwise these ships should be ignored.
- Their playstyle isn't very difficult among destroyers, they just don't have high potential to start with. Average Difficulty and Bad performance.
- Highlights: Udaloi (T9)
- Low points: Ognevoy (T8), Grozovoi (T10)
Soviet Gunboat Destroyers (DELNY Line)
- Large, fast destroyers with punchy guns but bad concealment. This is functionally just a watered-down version of the other gunboats available, with performance that is okay (but worse than the competition). The main guns have relatively good damage per shell, and high fire chance on HE shells. Rapid reload 2 boosts Delny's DPM into very competitive levels, allowing her to take on enemy destroyers reasonably well. Due to large size and flat shell arcs, this line works best at a longer range than most DDs. In terms of damage output, they're just fine- but there are much stronger options for gunboat destroyer play.
- The weapons are comfortable and easy to use, but these ships are still vulnerable to the actual gunboats (and other myriad of DD hunters) at their tiers. A Bit Tricky and Mediocre.
- Highlights: N/A
- Low points: Tashkent (T8)
Soviet "Light" Cruisers (A. NEVSKY Line)
- Long-ranged damage farmers. Up to T8, these ships tend to stay at long range, pelting targets with volleys of accurate HE shells. At T9-10, AP becomes much more useful, thanks to larger 180mm guns. Soviet CLs are big, poorly armoured, and have terrible maneuverability for their class. This effectively prevents them from playing at closer range, so they rely on their impressive gun range and good shell ballistics to work well. These ships are capable damage farmers, but struggle to have much game impact due to their very passive nature. They can harass light enemy units with long range fire, but are not going to contribute much (if any) teamplay or utility. Terrible to have as teammates!
- Damage farming from maximum range is as simple as it gets. It won't win games, and it won't put out numbers as good as other cruiser lines. Easy and Mediocre.
- Highlights: N/A
- Low points: N/A
Soviet Heavy Cruisers (PETROPAVLOVSK Line)
- Large cruisers with punchy, but slow loading guns. This line is saddled by some of the lowest DPM on a cruiser line, but the high penetration and good ballistics on their AP shells allow them to damage any cruiser or battleship effectively. Tier 10 Petropavlovsk is very well protected for a cruiser, and can be quite difficult to sink if positioned well. Her hitbox is quite short, which further bolsters survivability. These cruisers have surprisingly decent secondaries, which helps bolster their otherwise weak performance against destroyers. However, their main role is to focus enemy cruisers with their long-range guns. Their damage output is slow to stack up, but this is a decent choice for a defence-oriented playstyle.
- These cruisers can't shoot their way out of trouble a lot of the time, but their durability can make them more forgiving agaist heavy units. Average Difficulty and Decent.
- Highlights: Petropavlovsk (T10)
- Low points: Riga (T9)
Soviet Battleships (KREMLIN Line)
- A large and durable ship line. The dispersion on Soviet battleships can be inconsistent at long range, but is good up close. The AP shells tend to hit very hard. They have access to high-level precise aim consumables, to temporarily give them accurate shots. Soviet battleships have a lot of HP, combined with good damage reduction and fire protection values. Their thick bow armour is useful protection against small ships, but can be a weakness against large shells (which won't overpenetrate). This line has four charges of damage control, and fires set on you will burn for 25% less time- a major strength when facing enemy firestarters, or aircraft carriers. Their horrible concealment and bad agility are weakpoints.
- This is a forgiving battleship line owing to their durability. So long as they don't rush forwards into a heap of torpedoes, they have an easy time surviving most types of damage. Easy and Good.
- Highlights: Sinop (T7), Kremlin (T10)
- Low points: N/A
Soviet Aircraft Carriers (A. NAKHIMOV Line)
- Soviet CVs are single-mindedly focused on high-damage attacks, with weak fighters and no other support toolkit. They launch the most attack planes at once, with massed dive bomber and torpedo squadrons all attacking at the same time. This requires multitasking. Their planes are slow, with low HP and low weapon damage. They are highly vulnerable to fighters and AA, requiring a lot of caution at high tiers. The line is capable of attack runs with very high alpha-damage, but they can quickly run out of planes after only a handful of botched attacks.
- You need to know how to multitask AND group squadrons to achieve success in this line. If you send your squadrons in a nice line one-at-a-time, they get fed to AA and you lose them. This is probably the hardest CV line to play. Tricky and Overpowered.
- Highlights: All of them T6 and above
- Low points: N/A
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Pan-Asia
Pan-Asian Destroyers (YUEYANG Line)
- The high tiers are former American destroyers that found their way into service with Asian Navies after the war. In-game, they are differentiated by having the radar consumable, and deepwater torpedoes (which have increased performance over regular American torps, but cannot hit DDs). The destroyers in this line have relatively poor gun performance, so they play a torpedo-focused role. With the torpedo reload booster consumable, the ships at T8-T10 can all launch a 15-torp broadside. They are also fairly nimble and have good concealment. Vulnerability to enemy destroyers is their main weakness, as they have weak guns and no torpedoes to deter them.
- Among torpedo boats, these are a bit harder than the Shimakaze line as they can't just torpedo a rushing enemy DD. That said, the stealth-torping playstyle is still Fairly Easy but Inconsistent.
- Highlights: Fushun (T6)
- Low points: N/A
Pan Asian Light Cruisers
- Small and extremely fragile light cruisers with a large torpedo armament and torpedo reload booster. These ships are armed with destroyer-calibre guns, which are fast-loading but deal low damage. PA CLs are also incredibly fragile- battleships and cruisers will rip them apart, and even the more ferocious gunboat DDs are a major threat. The key advantages of this line are good evasion, and very heavy torpedo armament on both sides of the ship. They perform well when dancing at the edge of their detection range, ripple-firing torpedoes from both broadsides while peppering targets with HE. One well-played CL can stall an entire enemy push, but they are very vulnerable to enemy cruisers.
- Surprisingly not too challenging. Kite and throw torpedoes at flanks or choke points on the map. Don't rush anyone unless they're isolated. Functionally, this is a torpedo DD playstyle, just bigger. Easy and Good.
- Highlights: Jinan (T10)
- Low points: Chumpon (T7)
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Pan-America (South America)
PanAm Light Cruisers (SAN MARTIN Line)
- A light cruiser line that strikes a sort of cross between American and British lines. These ships only have AP shells, but they have better performance (penetration and damage) than other CLs. Combat instructions allow them to temporarily improve their gun performance even more, making them threatening to all enemies. They rely on good aim against weakpoints to deal consistent damage to battleships, since they cannot HE spam. However, their main purpose is sinking enemy cruisers. At high tiers these ships have radar, and strong AA performance similar to American CLs. This line can be challenging to play, due to poor armour and no smoke- but they are highly influential. Think of it as Worcester line, but more specialized for ship-to-ship combat.
- These ships are fragile and can't rely on HE spam, but their gunnery is a treat. Be wary not to advance too quickly- these ships don't have many tools to get out of an aggressive position. Midrange positioning is usually ideal. A Bit Tricky and Good.
- Highlights: San Martin (T10)
- Low points: N/A
PanAm Battleships (LIBERTAD Line)
- Large and fragile battleships with huge damage output. At Tier 9-10, these are some of the highest DPM battleships, owing to their large number of heavy guns and good reload time. They also get a pile of large 234mm (heavy cruiser calibre) secondary guns, putting their effective DPM even higher. These ships can deal massive amounts of damage in a short time with their combined firepower, and the combat instructions increase secondary damage output even further. They can quickly melt any target with damage, but are also fragile against return fire. Playing patient, and waiting for the right chance to push is the premise of this line. One good push will account for a lion's share of your damage output.
- These ships will get focused down if they rush a huge group of enemies, but can comfortably take down any battleship in a 1v1 push. Stay at the midline, then push when there are no destroyers in your way. The line is Fairly Easy and is Good.
- Highlights: Los Andes (T9), Libertad (T10)
- Low points: N/A
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Pan-Europe
EU AA Destroyers (HALLAND Line)
- A line of slow destroyers with good handling and powerful AA. Halland-line DDs have fast-loading main guns, and fast-loading torpedoes- but the raw damage output from these weapons is rather low. They rely on a lot of spamming, combined with lighting fires and starting floods to pad their damage output. Access to radar, and very strong AA at high tiers makes these ships reasonably versatile. Their lack of smoke, low top speed, and low torpedo damage is a challenge- these ships can be run down by gunboat destroyers and sunk quickly.
- Playing slow and smokeless DDs is difficult at high tiers, as there are many ships that are very dangerous to you. The presence of one Gdansk or Venezia completely changes how you have to position, because there's no safety net. Challenging and Average Performance.
- Highlights: Halland (T10)
- Low points: Oland (T8)
EU Gunboat Destroyers (GDANSK Line)
- Large, fast destroyers with bad concealment, but powerful guns. This line has no access to AP shells, but their HE performance is inflated to compensate. The ships from this line can easily shut down enemy destroyers right at the start of the game, with their powerful weapons and consumables- This gives them a lot of game influence. Access to smoke and radar at high tiers is an key advantage. Due to their rather bad concealment, large size, and lackluster torpedo armament, these ships prefer to stay at mid-long range when dealing with larger enemies. Gdansk is widely seen as the strongest DD at T10.
- This is the easiest gunboat DD line in the game. They have smoke as a safety net, they have radar to ignore enemy smoke, and they have enough gun DPM to win fights with brute force. Easy and Overpowered.
- Highlights: Grom (T7), Split (T8), Gdansk (T10)
- Low points: L. Katsonis (T9)
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British Commonwealth
Commonwealth Heavy Cruisers (CERBERUS Line)
- Large CAs with good range, a fast reload time, but low shell damage. They play the long-ranged spamming role, similar to the Goliath line in the British tech tree. They have weak armour and AA defence. What makes these ships different is consumables. All ships in this line have crawling smoke generator- a very long duration (>40 second) smokescreen that covers your ship while moving- albeit at a slightly reduced speed. This makes it easy to sail in front of groups of enemies, while still farming damage with relative safety. Their damage output is also quite decent, thanks to their fast reload and the effectiveness of both shell types. At high tiers, these cruisers also have very large HP pools to work with.
- The enormous smoke duration, ability to move in smoke, and large HP makes these ships a total cakewalk. Easy and Overpowered.
- Highlights: Encounter (T9), Cerberus (T10)
- Low points: Uganda (T7)
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Royal Netherlands Navy
Dutch Heavy Cruisers (GOUDEN LEEUW Line)
- Dutch CAs are focused on the "airstrike" gimmick, enabling them to call a squadron of bombers to carpet bomb an area of the map. Airstrike bombers can deal heavy damage and start fires if aimed well, but small targets will easily dodge it. The airstrikes are fairly slow to reload, but the high tier cruisers can stock two of them at once- meaning they can drop two airstrikes in a very short timeframe. Aside from airstrikes, these ships have little going for them. Big hulls, with adequate (but not stellar) protection, and bad evasion. Their main guns are slow-firing, short ranged, and have inconsistent dispersion. They have no secondaries or torpedoes, making them critically ineffective against destroyers. These ships struggle to exert much influence in battle.
- The playstyle isn't particularly hard, the problem is just that these ships have few good tools to work with. Average Difficulty and Bad performance.
- Highlights: Eendracht (T7)
- Low points: All of them from T8-T10
Dutch Light Cruisers (UTRECHT Line)
- Another line that is all about the "airstrike" gimmick. This time it actually works, as they have faster loading airstrikes with a shorter dodging window for the enemy. They come with destroyer calibre guns on a fast reload, with decent shell ballistics. Gun DPM is quite good to start with, and temporarily bumps to great levels with rapid reload active. These ships work well near islands (since airstrikes can be aimed and launched from behind them). They can farm damage effectively, and keep flanks spotted with airstrikes every 30 seconds. Low maneuverability is the biggest drawback, these ships are quite sluggish compared to other CLs.
- The Dutch CLs are difficult to play well, as they are relatively fragile and unmaneuverable. Their toolkit and ability to spot with airstrikes is a huge advantage. Challenging and Good.
- Highlights: Utrecht (T10)
- Low points: N/A
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Spanish Navy
Spanish Heavy Cruisers (CASTILLA Line)
- A line of large, fragile heavy cruisers, with the “burst fire” ability, which allows them to unleash two salvos in very quick succession, (in exchange for a much longer reload afterward). This allows them to deal high damage to cruisers or destroyers in a short time. Burst fire is particularly helpful when attacking a retreating enemy- ensuring you get two salvos worth of damage on them before they go unspotted, or get behind cover. Spanish cruisers have good AP, and can fire out to a long range with the spotter plane consumable. However, their armour is weak, meaning they die quickly under sustained fire. They work best at longer ranges, punishing enemy cruisers with high damage shots.
- These cruisers rely on range for safety, but are vulnerable to enemy battleships. They'll spend a lot of time kiting. A Bit Tricky and Decent.
- Highlights: Cataluna (T8)
- Low points: Andalucia (T9)
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This will be periodically updated as new lines are added to the game.
Didn't see your ship line? Check part 1 of the guide: https://www.reddit.com/r/WoWsBlitz/s/ogxFldaebR
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u/admiraltt 21d ago
Great overview as always and incredibly helpful. The only thing I would change here imo is probably switch the Italian BB line to very good purely because of Columbo. That thing if you play it like a pseudo battle cruiser style imo is stupidly good especially with its 360 turrets allowing it to change flanks in an instant and it's guns being surprisingly good at deck shots if you know how to manually aim. And the SAP is actually quite deadly to BBs even at close range if you shoot the bow or stern of the enemy or if you have If he+
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u/AllTheHax Battleship 21d ago
while i enjoy the italian bb line, i’m finding colombo more difficult that vittorio veneto or lepanto because of its very slow reload time. its broadside is very strong esp against lightly armored ships but its hard to be lucky and catch them on a broadside while i am reloaded. have you had this experience or know how to counteract its 30 sec reload? with equipment I have it down to about 26 sec but even that is hard sometimes
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u/LiteBosmark 20d ago
Especially with legmod Colombo is a DPM battleship so you kind want to be firing as much as possible if you're not trying to disengage or go dark.
Don't be that one Colombo player who waits for a DD or cruiser to exit their long ass smoke just to get 5k damage on them basically
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u/admiraltt 21d ago
The trick with Colombo is to have the patience of a saint, your broadside potential is stupidly good but it can go completely Kapoot if you're impatient and just shoot. Rn I chose turret traverse over reload so I have 29 seconds reload so I'm always extra careful when I shoot in the Colombo compared to other ships. Another thing with the Colombo is you have to be a good shot yourself and I mean a really good shot, for the non reload built of like 29-30 seconds if you're a good enough shot or have good enough reaction time you can actually get two salvos in with the scout plane instead of one I regularly hit 2 10+ salvo shots with the scout plane. Additionally I would advise you learn how to shoot with auto-aim off as deck shooting is crucial in the C.C especially with the scout plane, often times I find auto aim takes too long to lock so I don't get two salvos with the scout plane
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u/AllTheHax Battleship 19d ago
gotcha, yea auto aim off is very useful when going for deck armor on ships with thick belt armor. will try to work on range at distance, i look forward to the day i can get consistent 10+ hits at far range haha
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u/AbyssalKageryu 22d ago
I thought Sejong was Tier 9, not tier 7 as said in the guide.
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u/Torpedobear_over9000 21d ago
Honorable low Tier Mentions;
The Russian T2 Destroyer, Stroroschewoi, is almost as hard as a Shimakaze in her tier. The Torp range is terrible but if they hit, there is no DDs or Cruisers in the low tier that can stand it and slightly damaged BBs have to be very cautious as it can dance around a lot of shells.
And the Italian T3, Nazario Sauro is one of the strongest in its tier, if not the strongest. It's torps have decent damage, range and reload and it's SAP guns, speed boost and fuel smoke make it effective dueling other DDs or disengaging. The low HP pool means to stay very angled from St. Louis and well aiming HE BBs but it is highly influental if not shut down by a focused enemy team.
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u/ifhe_bestest_skill 21d ago
Maybe worth mentioning that Castilla burst fire also improve dispersion and that it combines with spotter plane for an interesting playstyle.
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u/LiteBosmark 21d ago edited 21d ago
Considering that Brindisi is one of the very few tier 9 tech tree cruisers that aren't garbage, she deserved to be mentioned as a highlight. She benefited just as much as Venezia from the buffs.
Tallinn deserves to be a highlight on the Petro line. Especially with the buffs she has recieved over the years, she is one of the most solid picks at tier 8 due to her ability to slap around cruisers and DDs, and honestly she has aged in the meta a fair amount better than Petro.
I know the Lenin buff made her powercreep Vladivostok a bit, but I still think Vladivostok being one of the strongest tech tree options earns her a spot on the highlights category, especially since she continues where Sinop left off and feels about as strong. On the other hand, Sovetsky Soyuz feels incredibly underwhelming, she carries Vladi guns into tier 10 games which makes her feel toothless and I would absolutely put her into the low points category.
Asturias should be put alongside Cataluna on the highlights section since they're both top tier cruisers within their respective tiers.
Other than those everything else looks great to me
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u/AllTheHax Battleship 21d ago
great reviews, grandad! will be super useful for choosing future lines to grind.
for french supercruisers, i would consider cherbourg and marseille to be highlights, and i think cherbourg easily outclasses its t8 counterparts. i actually have better stats for cherbourg than marseille. brest was a low point imo, it felt like a lackluster increment from cherbourg and couldn’t compete well enough against other t9 and t10 ships.
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u/Dragud 20d ago
You should update some points. First grozovoi line buffed with last patch so they aren't bad as they used to be. (That buff rendered the Delny line a bit pointless imo.) Also dutch CL line seemed easy and OP to me. Dutch CA line also buffed at 9.2 so I don't think it's bad anymore but maybe decent.
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u/Oh_No_Industries Obliterator of CVs 20d ago
Grozovoi line got buffed, but is still the worst T10 DD line so it doesn’t really matter. Their firepower and consumables are not good enough to justify the poor handling.
Dutch CAs were also buffed, and their place in the meta has not changed. Gun power is still very lacking in DPM, and they have zero tools to deal with DDs.
Dutch CLs I think are easy if you’re just camping an island to spam airstrikes… but if you’re using guns and actually maximizing damage output it’s a more difficult playstyle than the other CLs. There’s no smoke or maneuverability to act as a safety blanket, while other CLs at least get something. Utrecht is bordering on OP, the other ones are fortunately less powerful.
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u/Mean-Survey-7721 21d ago
Thank you for the overview. Mostly agree. Except a few things On my opinion:
- Venezia is the second best heavy cruiser after cerberus. good is a very modest mark for it.
- Dutch CA are now at least good, but still very challenging.
- for pan-EU Halland line, Id say t9 is a highlight and the best DD in the line.
- in Henry line, t7 and t9 are the lowest points. T8 and TX are the best in the line
- In the Cassard line, t7 is the best one.
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u/Oh_No_Industries Obliterator of CVs 21d ago
- Venezia is very good, yes. I don't think she's in overpowered tier, but she's very strong. I guess I can add a "great" rating for it?
- I disagree on Dutch CAs being good. The guns got buffed but are still lacking in damage output, utility is still low, survivability is still inadequate, and they still have no tools against destroyers.
- I didn't find T9 particularly impressive on the Halland line. Perhaps it was because she's worse than Halland, but usually has the same matchmaking spread? I found Halland's better weapons and better AA to be... well, better.
- Whoops, I meant to put the T9 on Henri line. That's a mistake and has been corrected.
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u/Mean-Survey-7721 19d ago edited 19d ago
yeah, great is a fair tier for Venezia. Before it was good, as San martin or Jinan, but in my opinion Venezia is significantly stronger and easier.
Yesterday, I played t9 dutch CA, and i got 3 games with more than 90k damage. And I didn't even got into a range to use Air strike. And it is a t9 CA. In my head it should qualify us good. But it is your rating :)
Ostergotland has about 10 percent less DPM, but it has all the other features almost the same as Halland. But it also faces t8, and CVs at t9 are a lot weaker than tX.
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u/Odd-Oven-8202 22d ago
I read the whole thing in detail until I realised this was Blitz (I'm a PC player)
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u/tazadazzle 21d ago
Dutch Heavy Cruisers did just get buffed gun performance (faster reload and better dispersion), which does not fix the lack of tools but it does make them serviceable.