Zao

[Mongrel Intruder]

I played 40 games with zao and i have a question. Is zao now the worst t10 cruiser or i am just retarded and dont know how to play this ship? Any tips to play this ship will be usefull.

[sneakybass]

I have It pick and choose your fights and use your stealth to gain the advantage shoot your torps hit with your main guns and when disengage your close to your detection line on the water..take at least a 15 point captain when running It . I like the ship a lot working on special upgrade for ship now....Armor Is not very strong use what It has to help you like torps you can shoot undected with torps with full concealment build , I dont like taking a ship out unless It has all Its ponts and skills maxed and It won't ruin your stats . I have 1900+ hours now of experience this game Is alot more fun around 900 hours for me before I really began to enjoy It don't tell Jack Im still trying to get cheaper costs for people with premium accounts and people with out one can suck a quail egg....

[sneakybass]

Its a good ship to knock out destroyers but don't over extend or you will die fast In this ship.......pick and choose your fights and have a way to desengage good luck..........

[Hiei]

*Wheels in the chalkboard from the side* Welcome to Nems' Class room.
I played much of Zao during my first couple clan battles. Now... How to Zao

Zao as mentioned has low armor and health pool. What you want to do is be some what kite-y. Move up slowly and fire on someone, wait for a bit if it seems like they are going to attack you, possibly go dark to move and then fire again.
I suggest priority target and if that lights up go dark and move a little bit before opening fire again.
This way you can get fires well and burn them. (BURN THEM LIKE WITCHES~~ BURN) *cough* I mean.. Class is out!

[Superczar]

Wasn't Zao supposed to be pretty decent with Yamamoto and the legendary upgrade?

[Reaper King]

You're an Assasin in the Zao. You flank then lie in wait. When you find a single cruiser or dd on their own you surpise them and mow them down with your powerful he and ap fired from 12 203 mil guns. You do not ever take a battle with a bb unless your hidden or at long range as your deck armor is good while your side armor is as fitctional as the ship itself. SO either play as a long range gun boat or a sneaky flanking ninja. Never ever brawl in this ship as in a brawl your terrible side armor and low health will spell your doom.

[Mongrel Intruder]

Originally posted by Reaper King:

You're an Assasin in the Zao. You flank then lie in wait. When you find a single cruiser or dd on their own you surpise them and mow them down with your powerful he and ap fired from 12 203 mil guns. You do not ever take a battle with a bb unless your hidden or at long range as your deck armor is good while your side armor is as fitctional as the ship itself. SO either play as a long range gun boat or a sneaky flanking ninja. Never ever brawl in this ship as in a brawl your terrible side armor and low health will spell your doom.

Problem is that every single T10 cruiser and most of the dds will outgun me because i have very bad HP and long reload on this guns.

[AndVencovsky]

Originally posted by Zephyr大和:

Originally posted by Reaper King:

You're an Assasin in the Zao. You flank then lie in wait. When you find a single cruiser or dd on their own you surpise them and mow them down with your powerful he and ap fired from 12 203 mil guns. You do not ever take a battle with a bb unless your hidden or at long range as your deck armor is good while your side armor is as fitctional as the ship itself. SO either play as a long range gun boat or a sneaky flanking ninja. Never ever brawl in this ship as in a brawl your terrible side armor and low health will spell your doom.

Problem is that every single T10 cruiser and most of the dds will outgun me because i have very bad HP and long reload on this guns.

thats just plain wrong, now its HP is very bad, in terms of raw damage it probably has the highest damage output of any cruiser in the game and a huge potential for starting fires, just try to stay as far as possible. in fact you can 2 shot full HP DDs by yourself just with the HE

[Totally Innocent Chatbot]

Originally posted by Zephyr大和:

Originally posted by Reaper King:

You're an Assasin in the Zao. You flank then lie in wait. When you find a single cruiser or dd on their own you surpise them and mow them down with your powerful he and ap fired from 12 203 mil guns. You do not ever take a battle with a bb unless your hidden or at long range as your deck armor is good while your side armor is as fitctional as the ship itself. SO either play as a long range gun boat or a sneaky flanking ninja. Never ever brawl in this ship as in a brawl your terrible side armor and low health will spell your doom.

Problem is that every single T10 cruiser and most of the dds will outgun me

They can't if you're kiting away like a good IJN CA player does most of the time. Just by angling your ship away from the enemy and playing with your throttle and rudder, at mid to long range at least half the shells enemies try to fire at you will miss entirely, and half of what does hit will shatter or ricochet. Meanwhile, if they make the mistake of trying to chase you down, they'll be incredibly easy to hit, you can almost always outrun them, and you can even throw your long-range torps at them for even more damage and disruption. Any battleship that tries to chase after you is at that point nothing more than a free kill, and any cruiser who does so will at best be at a significant disadvantage. Your HE alpha and fire chance are devastating for anything large (and for destroyers if they make the grave mistake of getting within spotting distance), and while your AP isn't anything special it's more than enough to punish foolish broadsides.

[Lavian]

Originally posted by AndVencovsky:

Originally posted by Zephyr大和:

Problem is that every single T10 cruiser and most of the dds will outgun me because i have very bad HP and long reload on this guns.

thats just plain wrong, now its HP is very bad, in terms of raw damage it probably has the highest damage output of any cruiser in the game and a huge potential for starting fires, just try to stay as far as possible. in fact you can 2 shot full HP DDs by yourself just with the HE

Despite her high damage, due to her low fire rate, her DPM is actually pretty bad. As in, her HE DPM is worse than Hindenburg's HE DPM despite Hindenburg having low-damage German HE bad.

As an IJN CA, she has dispersion that rivals DDs though. Her legendary upgrade also further improves her dispersion, meaning she has some of the most accurate guns in the game with it and ASM1.

She's got strengths (stealth, torpedoes, alpha strike damage, accuracy, etc.), but the rate of her damage output isn't one of them.

[Mongrel Intruder]

Originally posted by Lavian:

As an IJN CA, she has dispersion that rivals DDs though. Her legendary upgrade also further improves her dispersion, meaning she has some of the most accurate guns in the game with it and ASM1.

but after they nerf legendary mod, zao will not have good kiting abilities and will be ez target because zao guns are worst in T10 (in my opinion 13.7s reload is overkill in T10).