Seeking Help with Carrier Gameplay in World of Warships - Struggling at Higher Tiers

[Hyper_Beetle]

Hey there, fellow World of Warships captains! I'm fairly new to the game and have recently started playing as a carrier. I'm currently working my way up the Midway line and just unlocked the Ranger. However, I'm facing some challenges and could really use your help.

In my very first battle with the Ranger, I got completely wrecked. My planes were getting shot down by enemy anti-aircraft defenses right away. I'm having trouble figuring out how to use fighter planes and boost consumables effectively. Also, I noticed that the enemy carrier was being aggressive and not retreating to the map's edge. Is this a good tactic for carriers?

I've heard from others that as a carrier, I should support my team by using fighters and helping out with destroyers. But I'm confused about how to target destroyers as a carrier. It worked relatively well for me with the Langley, so I feel like I must be missing something.

To be honest, I'm absolutely lost when it comes to playing high-tier carriers. That's why I'm reaching out to you, experienced carrier captains, for some guidance. I would really appreciate it if you could break down how to play the Ranger and excel with carriers at higher tiers. Any tips, strategies, or advice you can share would be incredibly helpful for me to get better at carrier gameplay.

Thank you so much in advance for your support, and I'm looking forward to learning from the experienced members of this community. Smooth sailing and fair seas to all!

[BOBTHEBALL]

3 hours ago, Hyper_Beetle said:

Hey there, fellow World of Warships captains! I'm fairly new to the game and have recently started playing as a carrier. I'm currently working my way up the Midway line and just unlocked the Ranger. However, I'm facing some challenges and could really use your help.

In my very first battle with the Ranger, I got completely wrecked. My planes were getting shot down by enemy anti-aircraft defenses right away. I'm having trouble figuring out how to use fighter planes and boost consumables effectively. Also, I noticed that the enemy carrier was being aggressive and not retreating to the map's edge. Is this a good tactic for carriers?

I've heard from others that as a carrier, I should support my team by using fighters and helping out with destroyers. But I'm confused about how to target destroyers as a carrier. It worked relatively well for me with the Langley, so I feel like I must be missing something.

To be honest, I'm absolutely lost when it comes to playing high-tier carriers. That's why I'm reaching out to you, experienced carrier captains, for some guidance. I would really appreciate it if you could break down how to play the Ranger and excel with carriers at higher tiers. Any tips, strategies, or advice you can share would be incredibly helpful for me to get better at carrier gameplay.

Thank you so much in advance for your support, and I'm looking forward to learning from the experienced members of this community. Smooth sailing and fair seas to all!

First of all, do not worry. New class, new problems and it's a new learning experience. For the moment your stats don't matter, what matters is you improving and understanding what to do. I am happy to see you chose the Midway line, it's a good line to start off with but on Asia it's not as good as compared to Hak. Don't worry though it'll serve you just fine to learn with.

Firstly how I like to think about tackling CVs each tier has a purpose. A purpose where you learn and experience new things.

Tier 4:

At tier 4 your learn how to perfect your drops, there's no AA at this tier. You should be playing and learning with your tier 4 CVs on how to get the best possible drops with every strike. This is also where I'd say try and learn against targeting destroyers and more nimble targets.  

Tier 6:

This is where AA picks up, you'll be facing tier 8s a lot so it makes you learn the hard way about conserving planes and selecting the right isolated targets in an up-tier. It's also where CVs have more carry power and punching power. You should spend a couple matches getting used to the drop patterns again, hopefully this shouldn't be too hard. After you've gotten used to the drop patterns the next thing to learn is target prioritization. In those tier 8 matches you WILL suffer hard and lose planes. This is why you should be able to figure out (By using the trusty minimap) what ships are all alone and vulnerable. These are the targets you go for. Also this is where you learn to use cover, islands, rocks whatever you can find. Minimizing the time AA has to shoot at you, minimizing your plane losses and such.

Tier 8:

This is where you should be more experienced. While yes you'll get into tier 10 matches, yes you will lose planes. However most tier 8 CVs have great punching power and if you remember how to do the things mentioned before:

Target selection

Using cover

Then you should be way better off. Also here is where I'd learn to position the CV more aggressively. Knowing when it's safe to go right up into a certain spot. Maybe it's the Two Brothers map and the middle has been secured by an Ally. Then you know you could move in towards the islands there to maximize your plane DPM. Tier 8 is just relearning the same mechanics and then applying them again against bigger scarier ships in your bigger scarier CV.

Tier 10:

This is where it all comes together. You are the best class in-game for carrying. You have control of what happens in battle and who dies. Your choices and decisions will easily influence the match. Hunting the DDs while harder than farming down the isolated BB will give you much more control of the battle but it won't give you the damage numbers. Your decisions here matter.

Now as for the Midway line specifically. When you're hunting DDs you use your amazing bombers. Take time to learn at the lower tiers, yes tiers 4-6 at how to hit an actively dodging target. Midway bombers can be quite agile while in the attacking phase so as long as you take the appropriate lead if you predict well you should be able to hit them.

Using fighters is another big topic, generally against a CV that knows what they're doing. They're not very useful, however for spotting key enemy ships they're 100% worth the use.

Positioning your CV is also important, I mentioned before about learning how to position. You need to know when being closer is the best option. The closer a CV is to the battle the more squadron DPM they're out-putting.

As for speed boost and healing. I wouldn't worry about healing yet as you should play the lower tier CVs. But for speed boost just imagine it as if you really need to kill something off/set perma fires/floods on an enemy ship.

Also remember the easiest part of this all... Is dodging the flak, the small black bubbles that pop up. As long as you're constantly changing speed and course you should be able to effectively dodge it all.

Hope this helps - Boob

[Unlooky]

On 4/8/2024 at 2:20 AM, Hyper_Beetle said:

To be honest, I'm absolutely lost when it comes to playing high-tier carriers. That's why I'm reaching out to you, experienced carrier captains, for some guidance. I would really appreciate it if you could break down how to play the Ranger and excel with carriers at higher tiers. Any tips, strategies, or advice you can share would be incredibly helpful for me to get better at carrier gameplay.

Thank you so much in advance for your support, and I'm looking forward to learning from the experienced members of this community. Smooth sailing and fair seas to all!

I'm not a good CV player by any stretch but I had a fairly good go of it when I played Ranger. 

First, it's important to note that the community says a lot of things of which only some are really true. The value of CVs comes from being able to create crossfire pressure and spotting in my opinion. 

On 4/8/2024 at 2:20 AM, Hyper_Beetle said:

I've heard from others that as a carrier, I should support my team by using fighters and helping out with destroyers. But I'm confused about how to target destroyers as a carrier. It worked relatively well for me with the Langley, so I feel like I must be missing something.

 

Fighters only serve to deter repeated attacks on the same target. I'd only bother attempting to use them for AA in a mid/late game scenario where a BB is getting focused. You should be using them to spot outside of enemy AA range. 

Targetting destroyers is situational. If you're missing drops on a DD in spawn, you're doing very little. You need to know when to target DDs and when to apply pressure by doing damage. Your HE bomber squad is extremely powerful against DDs. For the most ideal value, I would target either a DD uncontested (caused by your DD dying or leaving flank) or a DD in a position where my team can easily shoot them. 

 

You should also use Tier 6 as the time to learn how to dodge flak. It's mild at Tier 6, but definitely present and you can be deplaned if you are frequently eating flak. At higher tiers it will only become more severe. Change your direction and speed relatively frequently and you should be fine for tier 6. 

[Wolfswetpaws]

On 4/8/2024 at 2:20 AM, Hyper_Beetle said:

Hey there, fellow World of Warships captains! I'm fairly new to the game and have recently started playing as a carrier. I'm currently working my way up the Midway line and just unlocked the Ranger. However, I'm facing some challenges and could really use your help.

In my very first battle with the Ranger, I got completely wrecked. My planes were getting shot down by enemy anti-aircraft defenses right away. I'm having trouble figuring out how to use fighter planes and boost consumables effectively. Also, I noticed that the enemy carrier was being aggressive and not retreating to the map's edge. Is this a good tactic for carriers?

I've heard from others that as a carrier, I should support my team by using fighters and helping out with destroyers. But I'm confused about how to target destroyers as a carrier. It worked relatively well for me with the Langley, so I feel like I must be missing something.

To be honest, I'm absolutely lost when it comes to playing high-tier carriers. That's why I'm reaching out to you, experienced carrier captains, for some guidance. I would really appreciate it if you could break down how to play the Ranger and excel with carriers at higher tiers. Any tips, strategies, or advice you can share would be incredibly helpful for me to get better at carrier gameplay.

Thank you so much in advance for your support, and I'm looking forward to learning from the experienced members of this community. Smooth sailing and fair seas to all!

You created a topic just like this one, earlier.
Many good responses were provided to you, there.
Here's a link.  https://www.devstrike.net/topic/3533-seeking-help-with-carrier-gameplay-in-world-of-warships-struggling-at-higher-tiers/