World of Warships- Top 5 WORST Techlines To Grind

[@davidnorburg2271]

It's ironic Italian gunnery is so wonky. In an after action report during WW2 Admiral Cunningham remarked on the excellent Italian marksmanship. He told subordinates it was better than his own ships capabilities.

[@strykerk992]

problem is weegee built the lines around SAP, sansonetti, and dead eye but when dead eye was removed there wasn't anything else the ships had going for them and unless you have a shit ton of gold laying around its a pain moving sansonetti back and forth between regolio, columbo, and venezia.

[@faynk.6247]

Here is the reason for the Italian trait of Inaccuracy but high pen guns which originally come from Roma way BEFORE the Italian tech tree BB “The guns were the most powerful weapons of their caliber, comparable to those of much greater caliber. This was largely due to their exceptional muzzle velocity, although this came at a cost. The high velocity and energies in the firing chamber lead to a much faster rate of barrel wear compared to other naval guns, and also resulted in excessive dispersion at long range.” Cannone da 381/50 Ansaldo M1934 from wiki

[@marnickfox9891]

The same about the germans thier battleships were more accurate during ww1 and ww2 and the torpedo protection was even that good that the crew had to scuttle the bismarck to sink it.

[@Belly6815]

The pain of inaccurate BB's is real. The horrible irony of WG, German naval ships had pretty good main gun accuracy based on their engagements of WW1 & 2 but they decided on gimmicks that are worthless over actual rewarding to play 😅😢

[@marnickfox9891]

Well they should lower the german max dispersion by 50 meters on every bb and add 10% extra torpedo protection gneisenau and 40% extra bismarck and fdg and 45% for the preussen and hannover that will be realistic tbh.

[@jabaited]

The IJN Heavy Cruisers and German BBs are victims of power-creep Italian BBs and Dutch Cruiser are victims of over-gimmicks Slight mention : Pan-Asia DDs and German 150mm DDs also slightly suffer from gimmicks but they got a few buff to make them slightly more fun and relevant

[@hashteraksgage3281]

Japanese heavy cruisers are a solid line, agree with the rest

[@Pide0piper]

@@hashteraksgage3281 agreed

[@kaollachan]

pan american cruiser in the other hand >.> oufff

[@Swordphobic]

what, you don't like the pan american light cruisers? Found them to be far more fun than the asian or the japanese light cruiser lines. @@kaollachan

[@kaollachan]

@@Swordphobic well only small AP and very squishyy , it is more the gimmick, as you need to put yourself in danger ( get out of detection to charge it, sure it is nice to have those super heal back fast, but you can get deleted so quick too. i do prefer a bit more the IJN light with they torpedo range and angle ( but can t really get used to the long reload of the gun) as the pan asia, nice for farming ribbon^^

[@deaks25]

I can see why the UK CL's are on here, despite them being my favourite line. The ships are excellent: Leander, Fiji, Edinburgh and Minotaur are superb ships at their tier (Heck, Leander gets restricted during T6 Clan Battles, she's THAT good), but it is probably still one of the hardest lines in the game; not just because the squishy nature of the ships, but also the AP-only guns. However, the line will definitely teach players highly transferable skills; for one, the AP-only ammo means you HAVE to learn to aim; targeting superstructure, upper belt, bow/stern etc rather than just hurling shells are the main belt and how to actually kite; not just avoiding most hits, you have to learn how to dodge whole salvos because any hit can be a proper vibe check. So while I do want to disagree because the ships are actually great, I can't. The Japanese CA's I actually play as a HE-spamming, constantly kiting light cruiser, basically how most people play Atago. At that point, they are quite fun. Plus, Furutaka is a beast at T5, I think she still holds up really well and I would say is still better than any of the other T5 heavy cruisers that exist. One line I pretty much hated the whole way up was the British Heavy Cruiser line. Goliath is the only really good ship in there, the rest are a best 'meh'. Abermarle is garbage. I can't think of a reason why I'd play that line over the US or Soviet, or even Japanese line aside from being able to hum "Rule Britannia". I don't dare touch the Italian BBs; being a Cruiser Main, I'm used to accuracy and decent rpm. A line of slow reloading, inaccurate guns sounds utterly infuriating.

[@meneldal]

Are you considering the recent nerf with the Leander? It probably pushes out of the restriction worthy category imo. It was a good reward after suffering with the emerald so it is quite sad.

[@travisboehl4063]

When i still played i got lucky with a crate and got to skip from t5 to the Fiji

[@zorkatasic-ls1tv]

I like Drake more than Goliath... Goliath is too large, etc... but i didnt play that many games with G as with Drake...

[@mknote]

That wasn't how Deadeye worked. With Deadeye, your accuracy was increased if there were no enemy ships spotted within your base detection range. _That's_ why ships sat at the back of the map; so no enemy ships would be close enough to them to stop Deadeye from working.

[@roys.1889]

I think the difference between 5 through 2 is that if you do everything right with these lines they're super fun and rewarding to play. The problem with the Italian BBs is that you could be doing everything right just like with the other lines and _still_ get fucked over by the game because the shots you absolutely need to land just miss. Yes this is also a problem with the German battleships but I'd argue it's manageable in close quarters where it belongs. I've whiffed so many shots in the Italian line and I only ever feel like I deserved 1 out of every 10 whiffs I end up with.

[@anttihelin6820]

Playing Japanese CAs is literally bringing a knife to a gun fight.

[@wombat4191]

They literally have guns, so it's not "literally".

[@Fackeldackel]

And yet some people still say they are balanced and cruisers overall in a fine state. Most of them work at WG.

[@jackaubrey8614]

Well, if the fight's in a 'phone booth, what's the problem? I find them pretty tough oponents when well played - they can take a surprising amount of hits.

[@thevoicestoldmetoagain4627]

​@@wombat4191You wanna know whats messed up? Look up the definition of "literally". People have been using it wrong in such high numbers the past 10 years, official dictionaries have added that into the definition.

[@wombat4191]

@@thevoicestoldmetoagain4627 yeah I know. Its real dumb.

[@Evangeline.F]

British CL and IJN CA mid-tiers are actually pretty solid. Leander and Fiji have had a good reputation for a long time and deservedly so, because at tiers where every cruiser just blows up from BB shells, the Leander or fiji aren't especially vulnerable. They don't take 203 mm AP well, but most people don't even know that. However with smoke and heal, these ships can survive and their dpm for the tiers is pretty alright. For IJN CAs, Furutaka, Aoba and Myoko are all straight up good ships for their respective tiers. 32-48 mm decks, highly accurate 203 mm guns, good hp pools and kiting torps really don't make them too hard to play, even now. Mogami and Ibuki suffer a bit in higher tiers and Zao required buffs and still is mediocre. German battleships to me, aren't that terrible. I think they work best as hybrids, where you invest into secondary range and the manual secondaries and the rest in survivabilty and main gun battery reload (with module), which gives you a not very accurate BB, but it's still reasonably accurate, the line after Bayern has good reload and while they are not the premier brawlers, they are jack-of-all-trades, you can stay at range and survive (not hard in the most armoured BBs of the game with almost unhittable citadel) and brawl lategame, where your ship outbrawls still most of the opposition. Battlecruisers might be more dopamine rush, but that's also what they are designed for kinda and in return they don't have the prolonged staying power or even gun performance at range (accurate, yes, but no penetration). Italian BB, I don't think that the lower tiers are all that bad. But I also don't think that the upper tiers are even good. Colombo salvos can do massive damage... but so can Montana or Conqueror salvos (especially if you count fires). The Colombo has no range, a pitiful hp pool and no accuracy (you can see all of these things in the clip played). I honestly think the line basically peaks at the Francesco Caraciolo, which has subpar accuracy, but at least it only has 33s reload, instead of the crippling reload penalties later ships get, it has overmatch guns for its tier with high penetration (same gun at tier 10 lost its charm) and as you don't get dumb smoke, they just handed you a pretty good hull, which means in practical terms, FC is like a Nagato or Colorado that traded in some of the accuracy for a better armour scheme and speed. Ship even is reasonably stealthy for its tier, basically like a T7 Roma.

[@ashleighelizabeth5916]

I pretty well agree with everything you wrote, it's a good assessment and counterpoint to SLM. British light cruisers are way better than the heavies IMO. German BBs are absolutely best when built as hybrid (honestly ALL secondary BBs are best when built for both secondaries and survivability) and they are a lot better to play than Italian BBs for sure. And yes I agree Doria and FC are good but once you hit tier 8 that line is the worst kind of dogmeat found in the game.

[@Evangeline.F]

@@ashleighelizabeth5916 Thanks for your response. On the light cruisers being better than the heavies, I would say that depends on tier and playstyle. At tier 10, the Goliath and the Minotaur are both extremely good ships, with Minotaur offering extremely high dpm and scaling incredibly with player skill, especially when played with radar. Smoke Minotaur meanwhile isn't any more influential than the Goliath. As both well plaed are just hard to kill farmers, just that Mino deals damage faster at the cost of not drawing any fire away from the team (while Goliath can tank million of potential damage quite effectively). At other tiers, I would argue the British CA are worse than the CL, as Devonshire, Surrey and Albemarle aren't terribel, but they are nowhere near as tanky or good damage output to compete with the CLs farming from smoke. Drake is imo better than Neptune though, just because Drake is more versatile while Neptune is a bit too clumsy to effectively do the radar ship role well. I would say British CA can make a convincing case of a bad grind though, because Hawkins, Devonshire, Surrey and Albemarle are all ships that have built in frustration to pay for their repair party.

[@petewilkinson1832]

In the Dutch cruiser line from the T8, Haarlem, upwards I'm starting to enjoy them much more, just unsure whether it's worth really building into the airstrike side of things. Thanks for all of your ship videos, muchly appreciated.

[@devonellis2520]

Oh airstrikes are super worth it. These ships are all about starting permanent fires. You need to get good at counting. Basically light a ship on fire with your main guns, watch him hit the DC, wait it out, the drop and airstrike on him.

[@TheKythia]

Dutch T5-T7 was a breeze. They are super nice to play and got a really fun rear armor belt for kiting. Tier 8 seems to be the problem. It tries to be a Mini-Scharnhorst, but has tiny guns, no range mod yet and is generally just awful to play.

[@Crokatec]

Yea pre tier 7 Dutch cruisers were great with insane AA but once you get to Haarlem, you’re just a slow clumsy punching bag with mediocre guns

[@octaviusmorlock]

Exception to German Battleships: Gneisenau. It's functions like a Pommern at T7, with- admittedly- a shorter range. For a techline ship, it's just nuts. I'd say it's main weakness is T9 BBs. But then, that's true for most T7s. And if you get to be the top tier... (Insert bear roaring) Oh, and on British light CAs... People complain about subs and CVs being op while Edgar exists.

[@V1P3RR11]

couldnt agree more. Enjoyed the Gneisenau a lot during the grind.

[@marnickfox9891]

Tbh I grinded the whole line but I hated the gneiss the most speed is good armor okay but torps get knocked out easily and you just lack the firepower since you only have 6 main guns.

[@octaviusmorlock]

@@marnickfox9891 And that's why you build into the secondaries.

[@Taz_XE076]

As an Italian BB main I'm both offended and slightly in agreement

[@junkiexl86]

My condolences. That was the most frustrating and rage-inducing line I ever went down.

[@bryanorendorff3357]

Interesting video. The big thing to note, I think, is that the take includes stock components. Stock ships are pretty rarely better than their fully upgraded version that you just got out of a tier below and you obviously have to play them one tier higher. I was so frustrated with this game mechanic, I'll call it, that I refuse to use stock ships anymore. Any line grind I do, first thing is to upgrade the stock ship with free XP. Best use of free XP there is, if only to keep your sanity and keep enjoying the game. I've grinded the IJN heavy cruiser line twice. First time going through the stock ships and the second time without (and also with premium time and being a more experience player). The first time was awful. The second time was quite good. I'll take the Aoba over pretty much any other T6 cruiser if given a chance. Myoko, maybe not, and I'll admit the first time I did grind the line that's where I stopped and then had to grind it through in coop. The issue is IJN cruisers tend to lack a flexible play style. You kite, or you die, and that's about it. But they do what they do really well.

[@comrade7324]

You saved me from the German battleship line, (I had watched the extra history Bismarck series) but after this I got to the Bayern then switched to Japan to get the Yamato. Ironically I ended up getting the Bismarck from a one off unsinkable Sam crate.

[@klmnts]

ITA CA's are so painful as well during the low-mid tiers. While Venezia smashes almost everything, Trento SAP shatters on almost everything at its tier (including DDs). USSR DD lines are kinda sad too, especially Ognevoi. At least her torps got buffed at some point. Not that 2x3 6km BS anymore. The German 150mm DDs are also some of the saddest DDs to play in. Why does Z-31 have tier 1 dpm? At least you don't need much to get good PR on it. The TX of the above lines are all pretty good, the grind is something else.

[@dominquedoty458]

Jesus...when you mention about the hit the flagpole. And the engines go boom? I play destroyers! and just one hit. Even if the HEs miss. SUDDENLY CRITICAL ENGINE DAMAGE!!!😱 It's like every time!! I even get hit in the bow no damage. And oop Engines busted!

[@catguy9229]

American super bbs should be on this list. You can take a nap, get a drink, and have a small conversation before the guns reload.

[@Crappyfocus]

Kansas kinda sucks but Minnesota is great. Its just one poo ship

[@lightbluewaves5526]

Honestly this is what I think the Dutch CA line needs: - The light cruisers guns should get a second or 2 faster reload - Haarlem and Johan should be heavy cruisers and not large cruisers, gouden leeuw can be considered a large cruiser. -all ships should get an accuracy buff In my opinion with these buffs than the line would be much better

[@mattgearytransplanted]

if they gave the airstrikes the drop time of the tromp that would help greatly too.

[@syhcoach]

As I recall, I didn't really feel like I suffered as much with the British light cruisers as I currently am with the UK heavies. But let that go, as I did the lights years ago. I think my biggest pain point in all the years I've played is the US battleship line. Actually turned me off from BBs for a long time, until I eventually got the N. Carolina. The T1-7s are just SO SLOW! Which is why I'll probably never attempt the new ones (Kansas, Minnesota, and Vermont). But I admit: my favorite BB is the USS Massachusetts (but then, I'm local to the real ship).

[@rhysrichards7188]

number 5, the uk line of light cruisers, i found it easy as thats what i started with it. so it was easy for me. but i think once youve learnt the game and then play this line it would be hard. the ones i hated were the us vermont line and the German bb gk line. hated them with a passion lol

[@Joshua-fi4ji]

Minnesota not so bad, but Kansas and Colorado are painful.

[@thecivilizedshark4283]

@@Joshua-fi4jiMinnesota is just Kansas at tier 9. It also hurts to much to know that Iowa probably has better dpm…

[@Joshua-fi4ji]

@@thecivilizedshark4283 When I did the grind, I did pretty well in Minnesota. The accuracy and pen felt a lot better than on Kansas. I have any interest in replaying Minnesota much of the rest that line though. Vermont is such a good ship that it makes the grind worth it and I did end up free xping Kansas. I don't have Iowa, but Missouri is still really good, despite having a worse heal.

[@thecivilizedshark4283]

@@Joshua-fi4ji I haven’t played the Minnesota, only the Kansas but I was just pointing out that they have the same exact guns with the same exact alpha values. I don’t know if I want to finish grinding the monstrosities just because the lack of gun upgrade at tier 9 and my amount of credits do not encourage me to do so. Also I’m not sure about the pen on the Minnesota but I think it’s probably fine.

[@Joshua-fi4ji]

@@thecivilizedshark4283 all I can say is Minnesota didn't feel anywhere near as bad as Kansas for me. I'm unsure exactly what made her guns perform better. Regardless, Vermont is a really good ship if you can get past the grind.

[@chicagodon7112]

You mention grinding, how do you do that? The only way I know how to get new ships are to buy them for dubs or spend free xp for them. But grinding for ships is new to me.

[@dbvetter7485]

Do certain characteristics get better on ships you re-grind? I thought I heard that somewhere.

[@thevoicestoldmetoagain4627]

Im working up German BBs lately. On the battlecruisers right now, building them all for secondaries. Going to build the other line for main guns and tankiness. Not a big BB player either but trying to get some secondary brawlers, ive realized the battlecruisers are pretty fun compared to the Colorado line.

[@thevoicestoldmetoagain4627]

Colorado line left a bad taste in my mouth for BBs

[@junkiexl86]

@@thevoicestoldmetoagain4627 It was years ago when I did the US BB line, back when Montana was the only T10. I thought Colorado was a great ship honestly. Slow, yes, but it was very tanky when angled, more so than most BB's at the tier, at that time and the guns were pretty accurate and consistent for a BB. I hated it speed at first but it helped me a lot as I was a newer player then and its slow speed meant I was paying more attention to the minimap and positioning better as a result. I ended up with a 67% WR in it by time I unlocked the NC.

[@Joey_Liu]

I grinder towards the German bb Gsnesenau and Bismarck and honestly, I don’t regret it. Yes there were many battles where it was just a miserable experience but when you get into those brawling moments, especially in tier 8 brawls, it’s such a fun experience and one of the best bb gameplay I’ve ever had. Top tier bb gameplay really isn’t my play because the engagement play is mostly long range. Managing to torpedo an Iowa in the gnesenau and performing the best in a uptier tier 9 game. That was the best. But I do agree with you sealord that the German bbs definitely shouldn’t be the first bb online to grind. Surprise, I though you were going to bring up the French bb cause I’m currently grinding it and yeah it can be quite miserable at time.

[@V1P3RR11]

Bismarck is pretty horrible tho , all t8 BBs fare better than it.

[@stephencocker5312]

Just finished grinding the British Light Cruisers. Yes you do get deleted very often. Just have to work out how to deal with it. Just like the slowing down thing.

[@tillposer]

I managed to fastgrind the Fat Freddy during the Asymetrics event, ditto the Buffalo, so that was possible. As to the the Italian BBs, I've had some surprisingly pleasant games now with the Caracciolo, but indeed I'm waiting for the hammer to fall. And I haven't girded my loins yet for the Ibuki after the citadel fest that was the Mogami... On a different note, I must say I'm very pleasantly surprised by the Panasian DD line, once getting the hang of the Fushun I had very interesting games even if my team lost and the Ghadja Madha had a very promising start. I had been dreading that line, but so far they are really nice... Now I got all the BB, CC and DD lines up to T7 complete...

[@notmyrealname8064]

Skip the Veneto. Seriously. It is absolutely miserable.

[@zorkatasic-ls1tv]

Ohhh, thats why I grinded to tier9 italian bb, i cant even rmmbr its name and refuse to grind to Colombo... Dutch cruisers, well yeah, you find yourself infront of Bb or few enemies - and? No torps, shells fly all over the place...but i do love golden lion and johan de witt. I play them as island huggers and in some cases kiters...Amazing you mentioned all my terrible grind times i had... You forgot italian dd of lower tier has 6,9km gun range ???

[@Lyle_K]

I feel like tier 6 and up every British light is really strong and the reason people struggle is mostly a skill issue.

[@nicz7694]

Even Emerald was pretty fun and good imo. People just overstay brainlessly and get blapped and blame the ship. Emerald is the real introduction into the CL line imo

[@j_taylor]

The ships are quite decent, but the skill floor is real.

[@Andreas_T]

The worst in my opinion is Neptune. Its a comparible big ship and has bad detection range which makes it far more explody than minotaur.

[@zublacus]

Gearing/Zao smoke train in KOTS used to be a thing.....now why on world would you take a Zao, when you have a Nevsky?

[@OliverButOllie]

That’s why I went down the British heavy cruisers instead of the light cruisers. Since they only have AP and are really squishy

[@cyberwaste]

I found the Italian battleships from tier 7 onwards to be good. Just do not show your side to anything ever. They can bow tank really well. I once one shot a Moskva from full hp to 0 when he showed me his side in my Lepanto from 7km away. The ships have good concealment in general and they're pretty quick. The guns are really inaccurate, so you're rewarded for using that concealment to get closer.

[@wynlord]

The very first line i completed was the Italian line. wows doesn't due them justice. Wonderful ships in real life.

[@beeseumz]

How in Gods name is the Jinan not on this list, that line is miserable from start to finish

[@Crokatec]

Fr chumking or whatever that ship was called is legit the worse ship in the game

[@raducirlig17]

the Brit Light Cruisers i have a problem with being on the list... yes they sometimes explode when a BB so much as looks at them the wrong way but they are incredibly usefull too... they get very good concealment, so they can surprise DDs , smoke or radar and hydro. better AA than most same tier cruisers and u get to use it if u sit in smoke, torps are good for their respective tiers. in my mind these cruisers can make or break a match, they are so versatile, when u get a match with no subs or dds in it guess what, these guys can be your dds.

[@SilentBobC]

Showing the ship tree whiles talking about them would've done new players like me a great deal. So when i actually go into the game ill know where to find them

[@MrKawaltd750]

The French DD line isn't a cakewalk either...

[@ashleighelizabeth5916]

They are challenging but the IJN torp boats are worse until you get to the end to me and the Italian DDs are just hot garbage.

[@PzDarby]

But Mogador and Kleber kinda compensate the awful grind

[@pierreharder7552]

Really? I am having an absolute blast, currently at T6. Only frustrated when 70 shots ignite no fire on the BB.

[@mehdi.9307]

hey Sealord, I really wanna become a history teacher like you . Can you tell me what did you studied in College or University so I can do the same thing and be a history teacher in schools?

[@kaollachan]

sea lord with that list i was thinking that real steel ship are often worst than blue print and other napkin ship. what would be the best and worst real ship line to grind?

[@strykerk992]

best real steel ship line is probably the US heavy cruiser line ending with Des Moines the only ship to not exist is buffalo but said design was real and would have been the closest to laid down and commissioned out of all the paper ships. Worst line would probably be the British CV line everything bellow the super ship is mediocre to trash to play cv wise. honorable mentions that were real steel ships that still hold up in the meta tech tree wise are Yamato, Iowa, Daring line, USN dd line, and the Pan Euro torp boat line (mostly real steel ships except the mid tiers) (ie halland ostergotland and visby ect.)

[@Poopster4U]

The Italian line grind was the absolute worst experience and I actually hated playing the game, it was like work or homework.

[@mq5190]

I am grinding the Italian BB line and am at tier 9 at the moment. I did get early acces ships for free back then (basic t7 and such), but only continued the grind recently. I struggle to get decent games with it as the inaccuracy coupled with low caliber, despite its shell volume make it frustrating to play. For every one game of the Lepanto, I have 5 great games on the Duncan which im grinding next to it.

[@Joshua-fi4ji]

The T10 is really good, so much better than Lepanto and I just finished that grind the other day. Lepanto just seems to get awful dispersion way too much. Felt like I'd be better off with Marco Polo most games.

[@agaXM]

​@@Joshua-fi4jithe 1,9 sigma of Marco Polo definitely helps

[@nicz7694]

I actually liked Lepanto. Best way to get some XP is to load SAP and give 1-2 Salvos to every enemy and their superstructure. I usually have 15-25k Salvos just because I farm their superstructures while keeping my distance to survive the early match

[@Joshua-fi4ji]

@@nicz7694 I only ever played Lepanto in ranked mind you and whilst you do get those strong salvos, most of them past 15km only get 1-3 hits due to the accuracy. Still better than Veneto and Caraccio though.

[@nicz7694]

@@Joshua-fi4ji Hmm I guess Luck was on my Side :D Im only the average guy but I managed to keep a 70% Winrate throughout the grind with solid damage. Same for FdG. I guess these "underdogs" just work for me. I think the worst BB grind I had was Japanese BBs past Nagato. Never really enjoyed Izumo and Amagi and even Yamato is pretty shit for me. I really dont like the Japanese Ballistics :D

[@redhelmetmann]

Dam I wish I saw this before I grinded to level 9 on the Italy BB. Didn't think the grind was too hard. Though 32 sec reload time is horrible.

[@Balanar6236]

I heard somewhere that German BBs are one of the best and I started with that as a new player. boy this video is pain

[@SuperTkevin]

Japanese ca's en t5-t7 are pretty good, i can do well in zao too but mogami and ibuki are just pain

[@junkiexl86]

Yea the IJN CA's are still good. Good HE alpha and fire chance, though a bit too high reload imo, abysmal AA and horrible torp angles. Other than that, they are solid ships. The problem is they've been power-crept and now there are lines like the UK CA's that basically do the IJN CA's job better and more consistently.

[@renown16]

the british light cruisers were my first line, then st vincent and goliath

[@David-ux5wn]

The British light cruisers have improved pen angles. The Soviet light cruisers are laughing, having amazing penetration, survivability and much better shell arcs. And also HE with great fire-starting capabilities. The British light cruisers occupied an interesting niche. But with Soviet light cruisers around they are basically obsolete.

[@junkiexl86]

You can play the Biritsh CL's a bit more aggressive and precariously thanks to the smoke, smoke the Russians dont have. But yes, both Russian cruiser lines (esp Tallinn, I LOVE Tallinn) and the Italian cruisers were some of the most fun I had in this game, all the way down the lines.

[@grzegorzkapica7930]

Leander is a beast for it's tier. Especially when dd players smoke up in fornt of it. I used to love T6 ranked games in Leander.

[@ethernil]

I grinded the original russian dd line when it was first released. It had exactly 2 good ships, Kiev and Khabarovsk. And Khaba was nerfed into shit tier. I don't think any grind will ever be worse than that.

[@onaucc9899]

My Vote would be "Any DD line that you don't have a 10 point captain for and enough elite captain exp to entirely retrain up to t10"... Now i love DDs, but oh boy... a few years back, when i just started playing, almost gave up DDs because pretty much every DD is unplayable without the conceal. So unplayable that i'd say make that perk built into all DDs, baseline, or at least a 1 or 2 poitn skill.

[@jaywerner8415]

"British Light Cruisers decelerate 40% slower" Probably because they Accelerate instantly AND do not loss speed while turning. Haven't played them in a while but they are pretty fun. Long as you don't suicidally charge an enemy battleship you can hold your own vs other cruisers with angling and making use of the Armor belt. I feel like the German BB line, instead of going for the Secondary build, you go for a Mid Range RPM build. But yeah that line is ROUGH with the main guns seemingly refusing to hit what your aiming at most the time, or when you DO hit its a over pen. At LEAST you can say they got pretty solid Armor all round, not that it means much with their MASSIVE superstructures. The only thing i HATE about the Dutch cruiser line, Tier 4 to tier 7 IS THE SAME GOD DAME CRUISER with the only difference being how many guns they have. LAZY WG IS LAZY! The Japense Crusiers.....i mean at least they are good kitting ships right? Bait the enemy into following you and watch them eat ALL of your torpedos. Aw yes, The Italian BBs, the only BBs that can only do 10% damage to DDs with BOTH ammo types, and their secondaries are USELESS.

[@tomkroebel]

Would suggest to put the new german DD line (which are clumsy with slow torps and no hydro) in place of the british light cruisers which can be really strong if you play them right!

[@xenon3127]

But they don't have a citadel and are only 4 ships, 3 to grind. But yeah, the cruisers on the list are actually fine for the most part.

[@eeNPeeCee]

Surprised the pan asian cruisers arent on the list. Just got to jinan yesterday and the entire line is barely playable. The jinan itself is actually pretty funa nd very strong in certain situations but the entire line, including even the sejong, is just so hard to have impact

[@strykerk992]

You need to go to the flank your team is going to lose, its purely a defensive ship you need people pushing into not you pushing into them top get the most of it. if you are going to play offensively you need a dd or 2 in your div to make it work. Hope this helps.

[@petar213]

hahahahha "explode if you look at them a liitle bit too hard" true true

[@frijin490]

Why EU DD torpedo line wasn't in the list, weak torps and no smoke.

[@p_nilly]

Disagree about German BBs, the line is totally fine. Tanky and fun. Weakpoints in the line are FDG and Gneisenau but those have been bad for ages and ages.

[@junkiexl86]

That beacuse you didnt grind the German BB line before the dispersion buff lol. Regardless, the lines arent bad, they just struggle in the current meta. They're nowhere as tanky as people think they are. Its hard, almost impossible to Cit due to the turtleback, but to balance that, they take ridiculously high pens, which means you melt faster even angled, then another "tanky" BB like the Russians etc would do in same situation.

[@p_nilly]

@@junkiexl86 Agree, I wasnt around when they did have the awful dispersion (but I've seen and read about it) They do eat a lot of pens but they are a menace if you time the push correctly as the secondaries will chew up the enemy. As for the Russians, while super tanky I find them less enjoyable to play as the long reload and slow turrets really hurt

[@Goofygooberston]

I personally really enjoyed JN CA's. I've played on and off since closed beta and they've been the line I've had success with most consistently weirdly enough (until Italian CA's and French CA's came out, those things rule). I think it's a really good line to understand CA fundamentals as far as situational awareness and positioning is concerned. Their strength is building into their concealment and making fair fights your teammates are in unfair in their favor. Their 203mm's are great with the HE for doing chip/chunk damage depending on what you're shooting at, combine that with fires as well as pretty good torpedos and you can really be a problem. Their main issue is that they're pretty powercrept. You can't afford to take on 1v1s and if your team is subpar (which, considering the game you're playing, it always will be). Then you're screwed.

[@hrhagadorn]

Ibuki is my longest running T9 ship that I haven't finished the grind. Mogami was pretty fun but Ibuki is a ship i just can't enjoy. I think its because I picked up the Azuma pretty early on and she si one of my favorite ships. Ibuki compared to the Azuma is not a fair fight. I'll finish it one day but she was my maybe fourth T9 and I have a lot of T10s but not Zao.

[@philipreber3314]

In my opinion one of the things the IJN CAs suffer most from is that people play them like a ktiting Hindi or Nevsky and build them the same way. The thing u have to realize is that zao with one less concealment upgrade and heavy he still has the same concealment as Hindi or nevsky full conceal no heavy he. So the Dpm is far better when compares than it looks or hinidi/nevsky are build with really bad conceal. Another thing is the best in tier for CAs ruddershifttime, they all have ruddershift as light cruisers and when u build acceleration and ruddershift u loose a bit if the absurd conceal u do not use anyway to get a manuverability monster. So in conclusion yes the IJN CAs have extremely bad armor and sometimes eat frustrating random cits but with their manuverability they often dodge all salvos and the firestarting on those is crazy. I often reach 2 million Potential in zao bc i run reload so just 16km range in a open water cruiser, makes u target number one but it is not unusal for me to get like 500k Potential with no single healthpoint lost.

[@dach829]

12:40 wind power lol

[@sargisshirinyan207]

The only ship I'd say skip with free XP in the British light cruiser line is Neptune. Every other ship is really good, Fiji for example is a beast!

[@NotTheRookie]

5. German battleships 4. Dutch cruisers 3. Italian destroyers 2. U.S. Fattleships (Kansas-Vermont) 1. Italian Battleships

[@zander8752]

Personally I love love love the British light cruiser line but ye they are a bit hard to get used to coming from other cruiser lines

[@davidscoltock3970]

The British CLs teach caution while the BCs teach audacity

[@richardcutts196]

I once was trying to kill a ship and it would not die. It was down to the last few points and no matter where I hit it mothing. Finally killed it by hitting the top of the funnel.

[@junkiexl86]

Thats called over-saturation. Once a section of a ship is saturated no more HP can be farmed from that section. This is one of the main issues UK short fuse AP and Italian SAP struggle with the most.

[@blszekken4013]

Surprused not to see the Yodo line here. I have grinded the entirety of Takahashi (or am doing so at the moment) in coop. I cannot take the slow reloads on horrible guns with HORRENDOUS angles

[@jorgjorgsen7528]

have you ever played the panasia cruiser line? the worst! aship with low range sitting in smoke at the frontlines without hydro, i was waiting for it to be no1 in this list...

[@junkiexl86]

Well like most things, this is just HIS opinion. Of course not everyone is going to agree, thats the blessing and curse of subjectivity.

[@Skaitania]

The Dutch mid-tier cruisers are light cruisers that basically have to get into brawling range, but with nothing to keep them alive there. No speed, no armour, no heal, no torpedoes. Nothing. And even when you try to kite, where light cruisers should excel, literally any other line does it better with more range, speed or some way to mitigate damage. I do better in my TV.Exeter in a Tier VII match than in the TVII.Eendracht just because Exeter can heal, is smaller, stealthier and has pretty much the same range. Yes, she is a premium, but no one has ever called the Exeter overpowered. Imagine a Königsberg or Emile Bertin instead. It's tragic.

[@joecarlson6428]

The British Cl's citadel starts at the weather deck. Haven't tried the Japanese CAs, why. I ground the German BBs in coop when GK was tier 10. The FDG is a mediocre BB. The Preussen is better but the GK is still my favorite. If range is an issue I will play Ohio or Montana. The Dutch CAs have short range main battery and weak armor so are difficult ships to play and to slow for Coop. The Hindenburg stands up better than the GL.

[@olhristov]

Surprised you didn't find a spot for italian DDs. These things are crazy awkward to play.

[@jbktkj]

Zao is one of my faves, fun to play.

[@junkiexl86]

You'd love the Goliath then lol. I found the entire Goliath line to be just a better and more modern IJN CA line at each tier. Does basically everything they do, just better and more consistent. Dont get me wrong I still like the IJN CA line, its just been power crept to hell and with the addition of the UK CA line, theres just little incentive to play IJN CA's anymore, atleast for me.

[@davidwhitfield6025]

Wow no American BB line? They were such an awful grind until you got to the North Carolina in my day. Have they improved because I still think the T4 - 6 American BBs still look terrible and easy meat

[@pedrohicken3884]

That line was unforgivable. I free xp’d my way to Monty and Vermonty

[@Fackeldackel]

Once you get to NorCa the line is amazing. NorCa, Iowa and Monty are perfect and not as braindead and unreliable as other BB lines.

[@junkiexl86]

I enjoyed the grind and subsequent re-grind after reset (Montana line). NY though is hot garbage in my hands. I hate that ship

[@davidwhitfield6025]

@@junkiexl86 Some T5/6 BBs are fun to play (Agincourt is still a riot imo) but the New Mexico and New York are slow, stinking manure and I didn't enjoy the Colorado either. They are painful to run through. Anyway his channel, his opinion must be respected.

[@junkiexl86]

@@davidwhitfield6025 I hated thier speed at first, but they made me better. Being slow it made me look at the minimap more and thus position better since you know youre slow so you are forced to be more strategic as a result. Colorado can bounce shells like no other angled and has deadly accurate guns for a BB and T7. I ended with a 67% WR in her by time I unlocked NC years ago. NM is just a shotgun, but can dev strike like a mofo if you play her smart.

[@alexroselle]

IJN Cruisers being so mid must be because the devs still haven't forgiven Japan for the Battle of Tsushima, so they keep buffing Russian ships even harder

[@xzarial6652]

I’d have added the Italian dd line in here somewhere!

[@SuperCrazf]

I enjoy playing Yodo and have a decent winrate with it but yeah, it absolutely sucks and it desperately needs some buffs

[@jamiebrigance7999]

The 3-7 are fairly good battleships for the Italian line is go down when u hit t8 and up

[@nicz7694]

I found the T7 dogwater and Lepanto actually really good

[@junkiexl86]

Youre the exception then. Pretty much all the Italian BB's are a dumpster fire. Honestly, if anyone thinks differently, they problably have limited experience in other BB's. Go down the UK Battlecruiser line (St VIncent) and then come back and tell us how good the Italian BB's are as they are night and day different (and not in a good way).

[@junkiexl86]

The Germans are proably a bit better to grind now. When I did the line, it was well before the German dispersion buff. Gnau was an absolute struggle with only 6 guns and that horrific dispersion. Ended up just buying the Sharn and free XP'ing to the Bismarck. The absolute worst atm is the Italian BB's. You keep thinking it's going to get better the next tier and never does. Its a struggle all way through. Italian cruisers were complete opposite. I had a blast with that line.

[@hellisia-celeste-evangelin8925]

For italian bb wargaming based themself on the fact they use bigger SAP caliber and have some of the best velocity for a bb shell when in real life italien was one of the only country to never équipe most of theyr naval gun with SAP shell and for theyr bb they add some of the best accuracy système and add better hit to target thant british royal navy

[@ArmorPiercing11]

The only Italian BB that I thought was actually very good is the Lepanto. The Columbo is just ehh. I could have never researched the Columbo and treated the Lepanto as if it was the t10 and been completely happy.

[@extaslash7077]

Italian battle ships were my first battleship line to grind...

[@junkiexl86]

My condolences.

[@extaslash7077]

@shawnelliott7793 the Columbo is fun at least but before that... the only other ship that was really fun is the tier 5 one

[@fortinero3361]

Dealing with SAP in a CA/CL is painful, you can't be rewarded for angling correctly or such, so it's ok the bad accuracy, what they should do is lower the angle of ricochet of SAP, not make frustrating a line due to terrible accuracy, but well, WG...

[@junkiexl86]

Well they have nerfed the ricochet angles of SAP 3 times aready. You think it was bad now, you should have seen in back when it was introduced and 80-85 rico angles. Now its down to 70-75. SAP is still frustrating at times, esp if they are angled or saturated.

[@CrissTRG]

I just gave up on German BBS the t9 is horrendous and I am seriously thinking of selling it and buying the Iowa

[@junkiexl86]

You wouldnt regret it. I loved the NC-Montana. They've held up very well all these years. I'm bias against the German BB's, I still have a bad taste grinding that line years ago, well before the dispersion buff. Guns were wonky as crap and you take so much pen damage to offset the turtleback armor. Angled, the Iowa for instance was way tankier than the FDG beacuse of that, not to mention far better AA and gun consistency with the US BB's.

[@CrissTRG]

@@junkiexl86 yeah man the t9 german bb is not clicking on me, her range is kinda shit for a t9 bb the accuracy is not great so spoting plane is kinda irrelevant and the secondaries are meh aswell

[@junkiexl86]

@@CrissTRG FDG is a rough sell. I would say it gets alot better at T10, but since GK is no longer on the tech tree, I cannot. The Preussen isnt much better than FDG other than 457mm over-pen city guns when they do hit. The entire line is over-shadowed by the Schlieffen line imo.

[@wombat4191]

**taps forehead meme** Don't have a learning curve from other CL's to British CL's if you haven't played other CL's. Mino was my first ever T10 :D

[@Warsaw1]

I don’t grind anymore I play the BP to get the T8 ship and then free XP to the T10

[@nicz7694]

Funny, German BBs and Italian BBs have been my most favourite Grinds. I loved FdG and Bismarck, Gneisenau was kinda trash imo. Andrea Doria was good, The T7 kinda sucked and Veneto was also meh due to shitty reload. Lepanto was Godlike on the other hand.

[@bryanfan3175]

I’m suprised the US dreadnaughts aren’t mentioned

[@crazycat8284]

Italian battleships are fun! not even close to the worst techline!!

[@isoantsa]

I have reseted German BB line 3 times and has not suffered too much? Well maybe i am just stupid and bad player who doesnt know any better :)

[@AggrarFarmer]

I resseted german BB line 8 times so i disagree german bb line is fine. Italian BB line is rough but Colombo is one of my fav BB.

[@monshtR]

Bayern is decent, but Gneisenau and Bismarck good? Nah they got powercrept hard, Bismarck can be good in certain situations, but Gneisenau is just pain to play, especially when uptiered, cuz u lack the shell volume. Just compare it to other t7 bbs and you see why its painful. @@yok-fk5li

[@eragonrank5303]

I think the Gneisenau is actually pretty fine, where other T7s leverage gun power, you leverage armor and speed instead. It's just different enough that people find it weird and hard to use.

[@p_nilly]

@@monshtR Gneisenau guns are wonky and I've managed to miss a perfectly broadside BB at 5km with all 6 shells more than once. Bismarck is awesome. FDG just eats full pens and has terrible gun accuracy so I'd say that is much worse than Bismarck

[@junkiexl86]

@@p_nilly I havent touched the German BB line since the dispersion buff, so they are probably more comfortable to play now, but when I grinded that line years ago, its was painful.

[@glad1us112]

If I said I loved the italian bb grind would a hitman be called on me, because you'll need more than 1

[@arthinugami]

Why don't they just buff secondaries? Solves snipping problem and underpowered German BBs

[@gregoryfolsom7882]

Prewatch guesses: ITA BBs RN CLs (everything besides Fiji and Minotaur are garbage) IJN CAs ITA DDs French BBs

[@richardbell7678]

My experience is that the UK heavy cruiser tech line is a worse grind than the light cruiser line

[@junkiexl86]

Both are good for what they do. UK CA line to me felt like a better and modern IJN CA line that doesnt sit there with thumb up ass if target is steeply angled and/or heavily saturated like the UK CL line. CL line plays around smoke which can make the line seem more impactful and exciting. CL line though is a notorious noob trap for those less experienced that rely too heavily on smoke and over-extend thinking they are safe inside it.

[@corpsmitty]

I got a Bismarck in a crate and it made my life so much easier lol

[@danialzkz6594]

How?

[@corpsmitty]

@danialzkz6594 idk I haven't played for a few years and I logged in and had a few crates, one had a whole ass Bis in it. Needless to say I was pretty stoked.

[@NotLakeline]

Can we get top 5 best grinds sometime soon, trying to get some recommendations for my next couple tier 10s. ❤❤

[@evolutionari]

Not gonna lie, the grind to the Golden Lion was the worst for me.

[@xdgamer0189]

yeah the tech tree just misses a premium battlecruiser or something

[@DvdV1337]

So far i've had fun with all of them. No idea where you're coming from.

[@junkiexl86]

I hope this is sarcasm, otherwise its a perfect example of "This doesnt fit my beliefs, so everyone else is wrong"

[@jonathanbaron-crangle5093]

German BB line when they could actually shoot stuff down too.!!!!!

[@MartinAleksanderAksnes]

I just reseted the German BBs line to get the Ohio, actually I like german BBs, I use secondary build 🙂

[@andrewgwiazda8758]

The Soviet BB are absolutely shit to grind through.. Tier XIII AND TIER IX are paper dragons...the Kremlin however, is 100% worth it

[@hideshisface1886]

British light cruisers... I don't quite think they have truly a bad grind in mid tiers. Leander is... ok, not amazing, but not horrible. Fiji is fantastic. Tier 8 and 9 are ok, but not fantastic, nothing too terrible. Minotaur is very fine. The real problem are the low tiers. Danae is pretty bad, but Emerald is donwright dreadful. It has colossal citadel, few guns, horrid gun angles and generally miserable firepower. That is a problem. Your first "proper" ship still feels horribly outdated, and, to put it bluntly - sucks horribly. German BB line is just not spectacular. tier 8 is fine. Tier 10 is great, but the damnable line is generally hampered by powercreep and map design. Dutch line I did not grind, honestly. But from perspective of fighting against them. They are annoying to face due to airstrikes, and they get hilariously dangeorus when there is ton of them around because of that. But for a lone player... They seem underwhelming and not very threatening. Japanese heavy cruisers - they are not exactly bad, there is nothing really "wrong" with them these days... Except they are horribly powercreeped. They used to be WORSE - Furutaka used to be completely and utterly garbage, with terribly innacurate guns and abysmal penetration. Myoko used to be plagued with absolutely unplayable turret traverse of around 45 seconds, which was abysmal. And yet - with all the buffs these things received, they are simply outclassed due to powercreep - they have no gimmicks, but their hard stats are nowhere near good enough to make up for it - there are plenty of ships around that have both gimmicks AND are universally better as well. Now... Italian BBs... I didn't even dare to try this line. I looked at it, and I just knew it was not worth the frustration.

[@AlpMapper]

I respect your opinion, but I do disagree with this list when it comes to the British Light Cruisers. I would say I only really didn't like Emerald, the tier 5 light cruiser. Other then that, I think it is actually a fun line to grind, not miserable. Fiji at tier 7 is one of the most solid ships within tier 7 out there. I do acknowledge your points, but it is just that I personally disagree with them. Have a nice day.

[@mattgearytransplanted]

how many years in now and I've never gotten american battleships past tier 5. too slow. shells are too floaty. I know from my Missouri I won't enjoy the top of the line that much so I'm never gonna do it. and that's just the normal line - the heavy line looks even more unbearable for my preferred playstyle.

[@joelfunk8730]

Pan Euro DDs. Anemic torps.