My main impression of this ship is that it blows up. A LOT!
Regularly disintegrates vs anything that has any penetration - 4.5", 4.7", 5", 130mm - the larger DD guns are perfectly capable of turning your ship into flying metal at any range! And of course larger guns too, but at 4.7 mercifully you don’t face as many of those.
And to torpedoes too - a torpedo hit on hte magazine and you blow up - the armour is insufficient.
In return your 6" guns are fine vs DD’s, but do not have enough penetration to do significant damage to any reasonably armoured ship - found myself opposite a Prinz Eugen - my salvoes hitting at 6 km were doing 1-2 crew casualties and little or no penetration damage. I think I did him 2-3% crew casualties while being dismantled, and then I blew up to a 203mm shell. Now 4.7 vs 5.7 you don’t expect to win, but this was pathetic.
Did manage a good exchange with a Furutaki - probably because it was shooting at something else…but blew up from a torpedo before I could sink it 
And it is slow - stock about 43kph IIKRC (in AB), maxing at 62 kph
Well every ship on this BR is perfectly able to ammorack another opponent with careful shot - and with that in mind I dont think dArc is anywhere above average in ammoracking potential - I half spaded the ship and havent got a single ammorack
So does every other vessel including BBs, what is your point?
155 Sap can damage eugen with no issue. Of course you wont win a 1v1 but thats obvious since there is a1.0 BR gap between them
That is whiny dumb and effortless. Ship is modelled correctly so what do you propose? It cannot be 4.3, it suits well 4.7 and is enjoyable glass cannon efficient in killing destroyers and providing air cover.
I think you are playing a different game then lol. torps are very lethal if they hit near the magazine and best idea is to tank them midship or at the very tip of the vessel.
Ah yes - “overexposing myself” in a game that has essentially no cover…
I learned early that French ships should not lead the charge, and conversely that if I’m facing French ships then I should start with them as the easy kills!
Very tip of the bow is best - and yes other ships get sunk by torps to magazines - but they do not routinely BLOW UP due ammo explosions from said hits - many French ships just instantly disintegrate in a manner I have never seen before.
yeah the point of naval is not to paint yourself as the best target, since closest and widest silhouettes will inevitably attract more fire. Changing course, exposing as little as possible of your sides and staying behind other ships will help you a lot. for the same reason leading a charge is dumb idea on any ship overall. You are correct in second sentence, since the other point is to start from the easiest targets to decrease enemy firepower asap
I can safely say that 300kg - 900kg of tnt equiwalent exploding in the near vicinity of ammo magazine is going to kill you, you can survive it on some ships but they aint gonna be on 4.7
Spaded Jeanne d’Arc today and then completed research on Emile Bertin, so J d’A will only be a back up spawn from now on. Have to say it wasn’t as dire as I feared and I actually had quite a few decent games. The dismal games were more a result of awful map design coupled with a dubious MM today. Every game was 5.7 - full uptier - a Prinz Eugen or two or three in every game and the very occasional Belfast. Funny that no players in regular tech tree 5.7s seemed to be enjoying these down-tiers, but the same names in Eugens kept popping up game after game. It wasn’t always a problem and I could still have decent games in Jeanne d’Arc, unless it was one of those abysmal maps where you have just one spawn point option and it’s open to fire from the enemy spawn. The only game function of 4.7s on such maps is to guarantee even the stupidest 5.7 player or bot gets some free kills.
TBH, the ship itself isn’t terrible; the game often is.
Just reviewing my French Navy Service Record. To spade Jeanne d’Arc took 22 battles (9 wins), which makes it my most played French ship (it won’t stay as my most played). To spade the slightly higher rated Primauguet took just 11 battles (8 wins). Of the ships I’ve played more than 10 times J d’A has the lowest win rate and Primauguet the highest, and that’s not a coincidence.
Jeanne d’Arc would probably make a decent convoy escort leader in EC, able to see off patrol craft and DDs while providing decent AA cover without the need for great speed. It just doesn’t suit the standard games, especially if it’s never top BR. Eight games today all 5.7, bar one at 5.3; same yesterday from 14 games playing mix of 4.7/5.0 line ups. Thirteen games now played at 5.0 and not a single 6.0 encountered. Just wondering whether the game turned into Prinz Eugen Thunder over the weekend?
Likely a bunch of people taking advantage of players grinding up through the French tree - 6.7 games have usually taken a wee while to start for me on the other side of it, which implies there’s a lot at 5.7 and fewer above that.
No matter if I play BR 4.7 or 5.0 (RB) → every single match is BR range 4.7 - 5.7.
There are a lot of Eugens around for whatever reason. Matches are mostly filled with bots, running aimbot scripts. They either remain stationary at spawn point or drive in a straight line. Always leave after losing 1 ship.
Playing French 4.7/5.0 is a horrible experience. With Jeanne D’Arc I’m happy to survive the first 30 seconds (and that’s not exaggerated). Any opponent, from any angle and distance can one-shot this bizarre ship. And being fully uptiered in every single match ruins most of the fun anyways, even when using the somewhat better other French cruisers.
It’s really sad to see the current state of Naval RB.
Quick tip about the bot. Always wait at the beginning of the match for everyone else to spawn, all the way until the game forces you into the match (obviously go for the spawn with the most friendly ship, or else you’re gonna be singled out). The bots won’t target you as much. Once that’s done, Focus on easy targets such as Moffetts or Frank Knoxx, and set a course to the closest cover you can find. Once you’re having a cover the bots that will eventually target you will ultimately forget you, and it’s just like turkey shooting at that point. Most of my experience have been that until now : I have good KD ratio on all my ships because shooting at bots that don’t care about you is really easy.