Looking for tips... starting with crew skills and the 'grind'

[SKurj 77]

may as well be a complete newb to WT.  I did play ground a few years back, but didn't stay long.  I've played that other more arcadey naval game too..

 

anyways, i am still figuring out the interface, and tonight i played a few AB and unlocked RB...  I will be focusing on IJN and possibly GE , but my primary goal would be to move up the IJN line.

 

In what order should i prioritize my crew skills?  

is running a prem ship like Yubari in RB the quickest grind?  or?

 

I currently only have Yubari, Mutsuki and Satsuki and run them in the same line up for now.

 

Can i turn off the torp aiming guide?  Once it's on i can't seem to get it to turn off until i want to use it again or am i sol?

 

 

i see abit of stuff out there on the web, but lots is out of date ....  

[Jareel_Skaj 266]

17 hours ago, SKurj said:

In what order should i prioritize my crew skills? 

It depends on a ship, but Fire extinguishing, Fire prevention, Main caliber reload speed are always good starters. For a second choices Repair Rank (just to have a free repair while you AFK like in the other modes), Crew interchangeability, Enemy torpedoes detection distance, Auxiliary and AA gun reload & accuracy, Distance fuse set accuracy, Unwatering time and Breach repair.

Least important: Survival leadership (you should always fix 1 thing at a time) and Air targets detection distance

 

17 hours ago, SKurj said:

is running a prem ship like Yubari in RB the quickest grind?  or?

Yes, running premium account and/or premium ship are the quickest way to grind.
Also if you want to play Japanese ships, just don't bother with RB, it's a waste of time (unless you play it for pleasure, than feel free to, just keep in mind it's very inefficient). Play AB where you benefit from the free reloads of the Long Lance torpedoes and use them all throughout the match. RB is best in Italian, Soviet and USSR destroyers/coastal (exceptions apply).

 

17 hours ago, SKurj said:

Can i turn off the torp aiming guide?  Once it's on i can't seem to get it to turn off until i want to use it again or am i sol?

You mean the green/red one? Press the same button again that you used to turn it on. If you mean the white one (lead indicator) - the only way to turn it off is to dump all torpedoes, but that indicator is extremely useful, as it's giving you a hint on what manoeuvres the enemy ship do if it's obscured by anything (e.g. trees).

 

Edited Tuesday at 20:05 by Jareel_Skaj

[Measured 86]

Just a comment on the "Enemy torpedoes detection distance" .. this is useless in RB (at least what it shows for me) as the minimum value is the same as the maximum value, which is 10 meters (0.01 km is 10 meters). In AB it does have a difference (but not much.. 100m)

 

Edit:

The Arcade equivalent.. 80 meters base to 100 meters top:

Edited Tuesday at 11:35 by Measured

[Jareel_Skaj 266]

8 hours ago, Measured said:

this is useless in RB (at least what it shows for me) as the minimum value is the same as the maximum value, which is 10 meters (0.01 km is 10 meters). In AB it does have a difference (but not much.. 100m)

 

Actually... you're right. I edited my original post to strike it through. In AB what you get from fully upgraded crew skills alone (without upgrading qualifications) is just 10 meters, which might make a difference in some of the most narrow escapes, but... feels too situational to be worth all that investment. Top upgrades go over 600 crew skills, which is a huge commitment, better spent on other stuff.

[kkang2828 1,088]

On 24/01/2023 at 11:22, SKurj said:

may as well be a complete newb to WT.  I did play ground a few years back, but didn't stay long.  I've played that other more arcadey naval game too..

 

anyways, i am still figuring out the interface, and tonight i played a few AB and unlocked RB...  I will be focusing on IJN and possibly GE , but my primary goal would be to move up the IJN line.

 

In what order should i prioritize my crew skills?  

is running a prem ship like Yubari in RB the quickest grind?  or?

 

I currently only have Yubari, Mutsuki and Satsuki and run them in the same line up for now.

 

Can i turn off the torp aiming guide?  Once it's on i can't seem to get it to turn off until i want to use it again or am i sol?

 

 

i see abit of stuff out there on the web, but lots is out of date ....  

 

If you're a beginner in naval, don't start with Japan or Italy. They have inferior destroyers compared to the others. Torpedoes aren't hypervelocity superweapons here, unlike the other warship game. Even the Japanese long lances are chance-y weapons that require a lot of luck and skill. Both Yubari and Satsuki are very bad purchases(Yubari sucks, and no 250 GE 'beginner' prem is worth buying for grinding). You should have asked before making any purchases, but what's done is done. 

 

You should never run vehicles with highly dissimilar Battle Ratings in the same lineup unless you really know what you're doing. The matchmaker uses the highest BR vehicle in your lineup to match you, and you can see vehicles up to 1.0 BR above that figure. Such vehicles will generally be vastly superior to the ones that are 1.0 below, let alone anything even lower than that. In my opinion, the maximum difference of BR between ships within a naval lineup should be 0.3, except in special cases.

 

For ranks 1~3, it's decisively better to run a prem account than a prem vehicle. All vehicles, including premiums, have 100% research efficiency only up to one rank above their own, after which the efficiency decreases significantly and progressively depending on rank difference. The grind only really slows down from late rank 3 imo and you'll get there pretty quickly with just a premium account, so rank 1 and 2 prems that cannot research efficiently past that are not really worth buying other than as collector's items. Using a rank 3+ prem to research the early ranks is also bad, as you likely won't have an effective lineup around it, due to reasons explained above.

 

The torp aiming guide not turning off is a bug atm. It should turn off after you've cycled through all your tubes.

 

This is my personal order of prioritizing crew skills for bluewater ships: repair rank -> crew interchangeability -> main caliber reload speed -> auxiliary gunner accuracy -> auxiliary caliber reload speed -> air targets detection distance -> AAA gunner accuracy -> AAA caliber reload speed -> ship control -> fire extinguishing -> fire prevention -> breach repair -> unwatering time -> survival leadership -> distance fuze set accuracy -> leadership -> repair speed -> enemy torpedoes detection distance( -> surface targets detection distance -> radio communication)

 

If you want to hear the detailed reasons behind this order, please ask. As most guide videos will tell you, it's more beneficial to increase all the important skills at the same time, rather than trying to max each skill one by one. The required skill points increase exponentially for each consecutive level, and it's better to have a crew with multiple mid-level skills than a crew with one or two high level skills. 

 

If you're a new player, I strongly recommend doing a lot of research on the web and youtube, and ask a lot of questions here on the forums or reddit. If you're unsure if something on the web is outdated, ask us and we'll try to figure it out for you. Here are my tips below.

 

First, I recommend watching some general WT beginner guides on youtube. Basic stuff such as the hangar interface, economy, research, crew system, and matchmaker have changed very little over the years, so even the fairly old ones will help you there. The official wiki is also very helpful for such basic stuff for the same reason.

 

Next  check out the naval guide videos and channels featured in this playlist of mine: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbRfT9RpPYxr9ghF5WfJQ0U5_yXp8SYz6 .  Be aware that some of the videos are outdated but still have some useful tips. Also none of the ammo guides tell you this, but HEVT actually got nerfed against surface targets a while back. Normal HE now has a conical fragmentation pattern, and HEVT and HETF have spherical patterns. This makes normal HE more damaging in a direct hit on a surface target.

 

I highly suggest looking through the naval options and controls menu before you play naval. There could be some handy features that you're missing out on.

 

Now some tips on aiming in naval:

 

Go to controls - naval and bind your mouse wheel to "distance correction". This will allow you to manually range the guns without using mouse movement, and prevent you from having to aim so low that the target leaves the camera view.

 

You are firing from a moving platform, at a moving target, and it's 2-dimentional. Your own momentum is transferred directly to your shells. You have to account for the relative velocity and direction between you and the target in 2D, then factor in the shell flight time to calculate how much you need to lead, again in 2D.

 

So for example, if you and the target are moving in opposite directions and the distance is closing(the number under the target lock bracket), you need to aim far ahead of the target horizontally using mouse movement, and then set the actual range the guns are aimed at(the number below the center of the binocular reticle) a couple of hundred meters shorter than the current distance using either mouse movement or mouse wheel scrolling. If you get everything right and fire, the shells will fly towards the point where the target will be when they fall, and with luck you will get some hits.

 

Both the measured current distance and the calculated horizontal lead(the green V in RB) take time to update and are not always accurate. Use the green V only as a rough reference. The green V is also calibrated at the target's center, so you need to adjust your aim to hit specific parts.

 

It sounds very complicated and it is, but after a while it becomes natural and you'll be able to get off accurate shots even without the green V.  Also mouse wheel ranging bugs out within 2.5km so you need to mostly ignore the range numbers and aim primarily with mouse movement within that range.

 

Now for damaging and killing ships:

 

You need to learn to hit the enemy where it hurts. Even with the pseudo HP bar that is naval crew, all the crew are inside some kind of module, and you need to destroy those modules to kill the crew. External, open, and/or thinly armored modules are best damaged with HE, whilst internal and/or thickly armored modules require SAP(Common) or AP depending on the amount of armor you need to go through and the characteristics of each different shell.

 

Take your time to look at different ships in the hangar and learn their armor and where the critical modules are located. Usually the main/secondary/AA turrets, boilers/transmission, and the bridge have the most crew. Destroying these modules also critically impairs the target's ability to fight back or maneuver. There are dedicated crew compartments on each ship where “spare” crew are stationed, ready to replace dead crew whenever you initiate repairs. But whilst these contain a lot of crew as well, they can only be seen in the battle hit cam. And of course penetrating and detonating the primary magazines(not to be confused with shell rooms) with AP and SAP shells usually kills any ship in one shot.

 

Alternatively you can set fires with any shell although HE works best for this, and the fires kill crew over time and can spread to ammo racks and detonate them, unless it is put out. It is also possible to flood ships to the point of sinking, via multiple waterline hits and/or torps. But in most cases the crew will be nearly gone by the time any ship reaches this level anyway.

 

Shell type selection is just so heavily dependent on the situation and personal taste and different guns. Everyone should experiment as much as possible and find their own way with shell selection in different situations.

 

Fuze sensitivity and delay is also something to consider as well, if you don't want to overpenetrate the target and deal minimal damage.  Check the modifiers here for conversion of different types of armor into the standard RHA values: https://wiki.warthunder.com/Armour . Penetration calculations, fuze sensitivity calculations, and many other stuff all use RHA values, so this will come in handy.

 

Fighting superior ships in an inferior ship should be avoided whenever possible. Smoke screens can be useful for this.

 

If you ever want to get into using aircraft, despite the common misconception that torpedo bombers are meant for naval, aerial torps are much more difficult and less efficient to use than large bombs. Use a single or twin engined fast plane with at least a single 500kg/1000lb bomb or equivalent in total TNT explosive mass, go low and perform skip bombing or mast-height bombing, using islands for cover to sneak up on ships and avoid AA fire. Also AP bombs don't work, so just go with bombs with the most explosive.

 

You'll also want to have some fast coastal boats to cap points early to mid game, which will win you the match most of the time(which means more rewards). The reserve boats can work, but if you want to grind better boats, play a full coastal lineup below BR 2.3 so you won't meet destroyers or powerful high rank coastals. Ambushing big ships in tiny torpedo boats also happens to be one of the most fun things to do in naval.

 

Try to spawn later then everyone else, or spawn in your bluewater ship after you've captured a point in a coastal boat. This will save you from being targeted early on and getting deleted at spawn.

 

Finally I'd like to tell you that Naval Enduring Confrontation is available as an event mode from Thursday to Sunday every week. It’s a great multi-hour experience on a huge map that every naval player should try out after getting some decent cruisers.

 

Good luck on the high seas! If you have more questions or another specific area of naval that you want more tips on, feel free to ask at any time.

Edited yesterday at 04:42 by kkang2828

[kkang2828 1,088]

19 hours ago, Jareel_Skaj said:

Least important: Survival leadership (you should always fix 1 thing at a time) and Air targets detection distance

 

Actually I've recently found out that air targets detection distance makes the AI gunners open fire further out, so it's definitely not useless.

 

19 hours ago, Jareel_Skaj said:

RB is best in Italian,

 

Are you seriously recommending Italy to a new naval player? 

[Jareel_Skaj 266]

6 hours ago, kkang2828 said:

Actually I've recently found out that air targets detection distance makes the AI gunners open fire further out, so it's definitely not useless.

Was this actually confirmed and measured? Last I heard this was just a rumor backed by a confirmation bias. In-game files don't seem to indicate it to be the case.
 

6 hours ago, kkang2828 said:

Are you seriously recommending Italy to a new naval player? 

No. In fact, I never, ever recommend RB to any new player in any mode.
I'm just listing what performs better in RB and what performs better in AB.

Edited yesterday at 11:13 by Jareel_Skaj

[kkang2828 1,088]

1 hour ago, Jareel_Skaj said:

Was this actually confirmed and measured? Last I heard this was just a rumor backed by a confirmation bias. In-game files don't seem to indicate it to be the case.

 

Honestly idk. But I'm keeping it high on my order still cause it will at least let me "bracket" planes earlier.

 

1 hour ago, Jareel_Skaj said:

No. In fact, I never, ever recommend RB to any new player in any mode.
I'm just listing what performs better in RB and what performs better in AB.

 

And what exactly makes you think Italian destroyers/coastals are remotely good in ANY mode? Also I think people should start with whatever mode they intend to play in the end, especially with naval. It is quite difficult to adjust to RB from AB, and vice versa. For naval, aiming is also less frustrating in RB since RB allows mouse wheel range adjustments whilst AB doesn't, even with realistic aiming enabled. 

Edited yesterday at 12:22 by kkang2828

[Jareel_Skaj 266]

44 minutes ago, kkang2828 said:

 

Honestly idk. But I'm keeping it high on my order still cause it will at least let me "bracket" planes earlier.

OK, that's clear enough. Honestly, bracketing planes never was an issue for me, as even the basic spotting distance is 7.5km, which is sufficient for pretty much every secondary gun... and then 3,060 crew skill points for upgrading it to 8.5 km just never struck me as something more than one of the "least important" naval skills in the game.

44 minutes ago, kkang2828 said:

And what exactly makes you think Italian destroyers/coastals are remotely good in ANY mode?

That's a total offtop. Let's not go there, as it's a lengthy and nuanced discussion that doesn't deserve to be just thrown aside by a single blanket statement like that.
But it's not relevant for OP anyway, as noone here suggested him to pick Italy in the first place.

44 minutes ago, kkang2828 said:

For naval, aiming is also less frustrating in RB since RB allows mouse wheel range adjustments whilst AB doesn't, even with realistic aiming enabled. 

Oh, an interesting point of view. I strongly disagree with that one. Aiming in AB is by far easier.

In AB you do range adjustment by just aiming closer/further on a same scale you get on the initial lock on a ship in RB, and the game keeps it consistent in relation to the ship, so if you got shells on target you can keep on firing. Meanwhile in RB you need to constantly readjust for approaching/departing targets. It's just annoying and leads to a higher error rate than the automatic accurate calculation done in the AB.
You have literally 1 less thing to do in AB than you do in RB. Calling that "frustrating" is off the mark. Mouse wheel adjustment doesn't work in AB because there's no need for it. You don't seem to understand how the controls in AB work.

44 minutes ago, kkang2828 said:

Also I think people should start with whatever mode they intend to play in the end, especially with naval.

I think ultimately people should play the mode they enjoy. And as it stands now, AB naval has a much larger player-base and is much less frustrating for a new player than the RB naval, so it's a natural recommendation for someone completely unfamiliar with the mode. Once people get through the initial hops in the learning curve, I'm all for everyone experimenting with whatever they want to try out, regardless of the upsides or downsides, you do you.

[SKurj 77]

thats a lot to read ) i will need time to consume, but I will comment on my choice of ijn

I am not so concerned about the effectiveness of the ships themselves, i know you could give me the best ship and i would still suck in it.  my goal is to go to ijn bb's 

i am not bothered about the br differences too atm, but i imagine the teammates might be.  i played one rb i think but after it was recommended to run the low rank ships at least in ab, thats what i have been doing. i've had the eagles in this account for years no big loss, but hey they are the highest earning rp ships i have at the moment

until i figure the game out it makes little difference what nation i am using

i'll be cleaning up my lineup and try to keep similar br together

 

Edited 21 hours ago by SKurj

[kkang2828 1,088]

18 hours ago, Jareel_Skaj said:

OK, that's clear enough. Honestly, bracketing planes never was an issue for me, as even the basic spotting distance is 7.5km, which is sufficient for pretty much every secondary gun... and then 3,060 crew skill points for upgrading it to 8.5 km just never struck me as something more than one of the "least important" naval skills in the game.

That's a total offtop. Let's not go there, as it's a lengthy and nuanced discussion that doesn't deserve to be just thrown aside by a single blanket statement like that.
But it's not relevant for OP anyway, as noone here suggested him to pick Italy in the first place.

Oh, an interesting point of view. I strongly disagree with that one. Aiming in AB is by far easier.

In AB you do range adjustment by just aiming closer/further on a same scale you get on the initial lock on a ship in RB, and the game keeps it consistent in relation to the ship, so if you got shells on target you can keep on firing. Meanwhile in RB you need to constantly readjust for approaching/departing targets. It's just annoying and leads to a higher error rate than the automatic accurate calculation done in the AB.
You have literally 1 less thing to do in AB than you do in RB. Calling that "frustrating" is off the mark. Mouse wheel adjustment doesn't work in AB because there's no need for it. You don't seem to understand how the controls in AB work.

I think ultimately people should play the mode they enjoy. And as it stands now, AB naval has a much larger player-base and is much less frustrating for a new player than the RB naval, so it's a natural recommendation for someone completely unfamiliar with the mode. Once people get through the initial hops in the learning curve, I'm all for everyone experimenting with whatever they want to try out, regardless of the upsides or downsides, you do you.

 

All interesting viewpoints for me too. 

 

You DID tell him that "RB is best in Italian, Soviet and USSR destroyers/coastal". That's why I started talking about it.

 

Didn't know that aiming worked like that in AB. Still it's all the more reason for someone intending to play RB in the end to not try to learn aiming with AB first, since they'll have to almost totally relearn it anyway. If they plan to keep playing AB cause it's easier and more fun for them, it's totally fine.

 

8 hours ago, SKurj said:

thats a lot to read ) i will need time to consume, but I will comment on my choice of ijn

I am not so concerned about the effectiveness of the ships themselves, i know you could give me the best ship and i would still suck in it.  my goal is to go to ijn bb's 

i am not bothered about the br differences too atm, but i imagine the teammates might be.  i played one rb i think but after it was recommended to run the low rank ships at least in ab, thats what i have been doing. i've had the eagles in this account for years no big loss, but hey they are the highest earning rp ships i have at the moment

until i figure the game out it makes little difference what nation i am using

i'll be cleaning up my lineup and try to keep similar br together

 

 

As I said, it's best to start playing in whatever mode you intend to play in the end. But I guess Japanese destroyers are an exception, and I have to admit they are best used spamming torps in AB if you want to just grind through them fast.

 

As an experienced player, I say it does really matter which nations and ships you're playing, even if you haven't figured out the game yet and suck. Nations like USA, USSR, and Britain are so much better and easier for beginners, and you just don't know cause you haven't played them yet. It gets particularly apparent when you are going through 5.0~5.7 cruisers. But I guess I really can't stop you if you want the Japanese capital ships(i.e. battleships + battlecruisers) that much. Just be prepared for a lot of suffering, go in without high expectations, and be aware that capital ship gameplay may not be that fun compared to lower BR gameplay. 

 

P.S. And please just skip through the Japanese 5.0/5.3 light cruisers. They suck really really HARD. Worse than destroyers. Use the Akizuki and the heavy cruisers instead.

[SKurj 77]

I cleaned up my lineups and it went well last night, i broke down my lineups by rank, and while i still got nuked by bombers, i didn't fair too badly against ships.

 

Now is there anyway to see more details about the battle results?  I get a screen displayed after the match, and I can't seem to find again once i close it... the report in my mailbox doesn't have as much detail but  even the original battle report doesn't show how i did my damage, for example torps vs gunnery.. is this detail available anywhere?

[Dodo_Dud 5,024]

screenshot

 

[SKurj 77]

and another one...  when i go to "aim view" i find myself then having to zoom in further, is there a way to go to the last zoom level you used when you were in aim view? or do i have to zoom in everytime i leave aim view and come back?