help with the langley

[[OTG] Idemus]

I was highly motivated to get to the carrier gameplay in this game because it sounded cool and different. I had a lot of fun playing destroyer, and maybe I don't have a concept of how much xp I should be getting, but...man, i need 68k to get the next carrier? I'm lucky if i get 600 with the langley. I assume i must be doing something wrong, cause i get 800-2k per match as a comparable destroyer (depending on how long i last). Am i just that good at destroyer? Or that bad at carrier? Is the langley just that bad? Are carriers just low xp yielding ships?

If the langley is subpar for its tier, can i get xp using other more effective ships (aside from the obvious Free XP and conversion to free XP). It seems like only ships that have the desired ship in the upgrade path can gain progress directly to unlock it. True?

[Donegali]

The reason for the 68k XP is that you jump up 2 tiers instead of the 1 tier you jump in the other classes. Out of the the 3 tier 4 carriers, I would say that the Langley is currently the worst. Carriers get expontentially better as you go up the tiers, provided you can learn to dodge the increased AA. My CV ave. damage is a lot less than my surface ship classes, but I have played a lot less games in CV.

If you are Idemus in game as well, you are doing extremely well in all the ships you've played, although with such few battles this will level out the more you play (if you keep playing as you are, then thank god you're on a different server!!). The XP you are quoting is about right for DD's.

There is no quick route to getting XP other than as you mention, each ship tier needs to be played to unlock the next. I tend to keep any free XP I accumulate to unlock the upgrades immediately on the next ship at tier 6 and above.

To finish off, if you are Idemus in-game, just keep doing what you're doing, your stats are looking disgustingly good for 24 games played!

[DeviousDave]

Rule number 1 on how to play the Langley...

Don't play as the Langley, seriously, she's a absolute dog of a carrier, you'd be better off either in a Hosho or Hermes (American carriers get much, MUCH better later on in the tree though with arguably the best tier 8 and 10 carriers in the form of the Lexington/Enterprise [Premium] and Midway)

As for Tier 4 Carriers, they are all underpowered to compensate for the fact that tier 3 - 4 AA is either:

A) Weak (with the exception of the Yubari [avoid like the plague unless you want to lose a lot of planes] who has access to def fire AA)

B) Non existent (some tier 3 ships have NO AA)

However of the available carriers the Hosho has the strongest weapons and fastest planes but the worst health per plane and poorest handling characteristics during an attack run (takes ages to get your aiming reticule to shrink requiring longer run ups on the target)

She also prefers going for larger targets such as battleships and cruisers as her dive bombers use AP bombs that do the most damage when they hit a citadel (hint. drop from high up and with boost against battleships to punch through their deck armour and lower down with breaking against cruisers to avoid over penning them) although her rocket fighters with practice are very, VERY good at DD hunting thanks to high damage per rocket (only 4 per plane however) and great accuracy (aim at the bow of your target to allow for rocket travel time, you can easily land 5 rockets per attack for about 30% of a DD HP pool)

The British Hermes has the slowest planes of the three carriers but also the toughest planes with excellent handling and an aiming system that lets you pull of accurate shots from almost right on top of your target WHILE ALSO MANEUVERING (British CV's have excellent aiming... at the cost of damage)

She comes with great torpedo bombers that use the same torps as the Langley but with more damage and great rocket fighters that fire 6 rockets per attack (same as Langley) but with better aiming, damage and accuracy.

Her dive bombers (level bombers) however leave much to be desired, carpeting a section of the ocean with micro bombs rather than diving and aiming. This means that against anything smaller than a BB most bombs will miss and against BB's they tend to bounce off the deck armour doing little to no damage.
Once in a while however, when the stars align, you will get 8 -10 of the bombs to hit and detonate, and then watch in glee as a single bombing run knocks a third of a BB's hp off on one swift strike.
Basically you at the mercy of RNG (but try dropping slightly more early than you think you need to,and attacking BB's from the aft - it seems to help with getting hits and actual penetrations for some reason)

So it pretty much comes down to if your interested in tier 4/6/Operations/can't be bothered grinding in meh ships - in which case the British/Japanese CV lines might be a better choice as they have great low tier carriers but get more 'meh' at higher tiers (their not bad [exception being the Implacable which is almost Langley levels of dog] but overshadowed mainly due to OP US CV's) Or if your interested in Tier 10 CV's in which case the Midway (or tier 8 Enterprise if your willing to drop cash for it) are the better choices.

Edited due to spelling

[[OTG] Idemus]

Originally posted by Donegali:

The reason for the 68k XP is that you jump up 2 tiers instead of the 1 tier you jump in the other classes. Out of the the 3 tier 4 carriers, I would say that the Langley is currently the worst. Carriers get expontentially better as you go up the tiers, provided you can learn to dodge the increased AA. My CV ave. damage is a lot less than my surface ship classes, but I have played a lot less games in CV.

If you are Idemus in game as well, you are doing extremely well in all the ships you've played, although with such few battles this will level out the more you play (if you keep playing as you are, then thank god you're on a different server!!). The XP you are quoting is about right for DD's.

There is no quick route to getting XP other than as you mention, each ship tier needs to be played to unlock the next. I tend to keep any free XP I accumulate to unlock the upgrades immediately on the next ship at tier 6 and above.

To finish off, if you are Idemus in-game, just keep doing what you're doing, your stats are looking disgustingly good for 24 games played!

Thx for the response and the compliments, I am Idemus in game. I guess if I am doing really well, I would have a skewed view of what I should be getting score-wise, but it does seem like i should expect to earn less with the langley regardless. You say each ship tier needs to be played to unlock the next...does that mean that, for example, i could play the tier V battleship and get xp towards the tier VI carrier? Cause that would be a heck of a lot faster. I've only paid attention to sequential upgrades i guess.

[[OTG] Idemus]

Originally posted by DeviousDave:

Rule number 1 on how to play the Langley...

Don't play as the Langley, seriously, she's a absolute dog of a carrier, you'd be better off either in a Hosho or Hermes (American carriers get much, MUCH better later on in the tree though with arguably the best tier 8 and 10 carriers in the form of the Lexington/Enterprise [Premium] and Midway)

As for Tier 4 Carriers, they are all underpowered to compensate for the fact that tier 3 - 4 AA is either:

A) Weak (with the exception of the Yubari [avoid like the plague unless you want to lose a lot of planes] who has access to def fire AA)

B) Non existent (some tier 3 ships have NO AA)

However of the available carriers the Hosho has the strongest weapons and fastest planes but the worst health per plane and poorest handling characteristics during an attack run (takes ages to get your aiming reticule to shrink requiring longer run ups on the target)

She also prefers going for larger targets such as battleships and cruisers as her dive bombers use AP bombs that do the most damage when they hit a citadel (hint. drop from high up and with boost against battleships to punch through their deck armour and lower down with breaking against cruisers to avoid over penning them) although her rocket fighters with practice are very, VERY good at DD hunting thanks to high damage per rocket (only 4 per plane however) and great accuracy (aim at the bow of your target to allow for rocket travel time, you can easily land 5 rockets per attack for about 30% of a DD HP pool)

The British Hermes has the slowest planes of the three carriers but also the toughest planes with excellent handling and an aiming system that lets you pull of accurate shots from almost right on top of your target WHILE ALSO MANEUVERING (British CV's have excellent aiming... at the cost of damage)

She comes with great torpedo bombers that use the same torps as the Langley but with more damage and great rocket fighters that fire 6 rockets per attack (same as Langley) but with better aiming, damage and accuracy.

Her dive bombers (level bombers) however leave much to be desired, carpeting a section of the ocean with micro bombs rather than diving and aiming. This means that against anything smaller than a BB most bombs will miss and against BB's they tend to bounce off the deck armour doing little to no damage.
Once in a while however, when the stars align, you will get 8 -10 of the bombs to hit and detonate, and then watch in glee as a single bombing run knocks a third of a BB's hp off on one swift strike.
Basically you at the mercy of RNG (but try dropping slightly more early than you think you need to,and attacking BB's from the aft - it seems to help with getting hits and actual penetrations for some reason)

So it pretty much comes down to if your interested in tier 4/6/Operations/can't be bothered grinding in meh ships - in which case the British/Japanese CV lines might be a better choice as they have great low tier carriers but get more 'meh' at higher tiers (their not bad [exception being the Implacable which is almost Langley levels of dog] but overshadowed mainly due to OP US CV's) Or if your interested in Tier 10 CV's in which case the Midway (or tier 8 Enterprise if your willing to drop cash for it) are the better choices.

Edited due to spelling

Thx for the reply. Sounds like I'll need to stick with the langley regardless if i need to play it to upgrade to the next one (which it sounds like will be much better), but it does seem like maybe i'd want to try some of the other countries' carriers as well. I guess im in for a painful grind to get to a better carrier in the american tree. I also think some of the teams i played with may have been doomed to fail from the outset and may have colored my early experiences. It seemed like we all did poorly. Thx for the tips on bombing runs too btw, i look forward to AP bombs.

[Donegali]

Originally posted by OTG Idemus:

Thx for the response and the compliments, I am Idemus in game. I guess if I am doing really well, I would have a skewed view of what I should be getting score-wise, but it does seem like i should expect to earn less with the langley regardless. You say each ship tier needs to be played to unlock the next...does that mean that, for example, i could play the tier V battleship and get xp towards the tier VI carrier? Cause that would be a heck of a lot faster. I've only paid attention to sequential upgrades i guess.

You're welcome, always nice to see new players do so well. It does start to get more difficult once you hit tier 5 as you will start meeting tier 7 ships.

Unfortunately you have to grind the same ship line to get the XP, there is no easy way to get passed the Langley by grinding other ships unless you want to start paying money and converting free XP.

[Firewalk]

At least the Ranger is a significant improvement. Langley has decent rocket planes and that's about the nicest thing I can say about her. She can whip low tier DDs but her torps are hilariously weak and her bombs tend to shatter against anything. I do NOT miss that boat.

- RA -