For what, 2 years? it just dominated every lobby, without any real counter. Matches were won or lost at top tier based upon which had the most Scharnhorsts, all other factors were irrelevant. Uptiers were constant also, given both the fact this was pre-decompression and there was nothing to drag Scharn up. That only changed when they add the fire propergation mechanic which hit the Scharnhorst the hardest due to short ammo lifts, but until then, you nailed a micro weakspot, which is largely RnG or you just fired 100s of rounds into it. That is only if you were in one of the few ships that stood a bit of a chance of penning said spot, like Hood (and again, only really after they buffed Shrapnel damage or whatever it was) and even then, I spent a bulk of that era just… not playing battleships, as to avoid the mess that was top tier
By the time Gneisenau came round, people had learned the new weakspot for Scharn AND you had a bunch of very low skill premium players that did stupid things AND you have a lot more ships that can counter them, with much higher pen AND they were dragged up to the new top tier just as often as you had to face them in an uptier.
So… TLDR. I still get a small amount of irrational panic when I see a Scharnhorst come round the corner, even though I can usually deal with them in my first salvo in a ship like Hood or Rodney, meanwhile if I see a Gneisenau I just see a free kill usually.
Though still very annoyed that Gneisenau and Sevastopol have 22.7 seconds reloads and not their IRL 70-80 seconds reloads but British 15" and 16" ships can’t have their IRL 25 and 30 second reloads respectively
Though I have been meaning to replay some of the dreadnoughts at some point, to get out of the hell that is Soyuz Spam basically repeating the above history. But I do worry a little that they might not have the necessary pen to actually hit said weakspot. So might still remain an annoying ship to face in uptiers.
(though as for what I think the debate is regarding dealing with a Scharn or Gneis at short ranges. Ive one tapped many at ranges of sub 5-6km, in Hood, Rodney and Vanguard. So can definetly be done)
Hiei is the odd one out since she’s still in her 1910s battlecruiser configuration. I haven’t used her. Yet. Morvran hit the nail on the head why Scharnhorst is straight up hated.
Yeah, I agree. A little concerned about Scharn ending up too low though ( a few seem to argue that she should go down because of the smaller guns, but I think they still hit quite hard) . Still can be very OP in a downtier
No, Atlanta should not be the same battle rating as Dido
Dido doesn’t hit had. Maybe single round can be, but entire salvo makes Atlanta more deadly than Dido
Not only the Shrapnel belt but maint belt too is stronger thing of Atlanta compared to Dido.
Rear ammunition storage can be covered with angling so not a big problem imo
That penetration is the only reason why Scharnhorst can be at 7.7. If she has high penetration as Gneisenau, she would be at same or higher BR than Bismarck.
It definitely hits harder than Atlanta. Yes, Atlanta has more guns but Dido’s extra penetration at similar ranges, especially compared to Atlanta is a huge advantage.
Unlike Atlanta, with its 12.7cm shell rooms, Dido is mostly empty space, which is another point in favor of Dido.
Conversely, Dido has less - but still fairly respectable - firerate at 6 second reload to Atlanta’s 3ish (2?) seconds.
Dido also has slightly higher velocity shells although this difference is mostly negligible.
Edit
My reasoning for being same battle rating is fairly simple: Dido has unreasonable survivability for a 5.3 CL thanks to near untouchable magazines and excellent guns when fighting anything that isn’t a Hipper or Deutschland class.
Atlanta has better firerate and projectile number but comes at the cost of notably worse survivability in the process.