THE GRINDSTONE TRIBUNAL:

We had a lot more regular players of this title, and plenty willing to weigh in this time. Dreskar and I are once again joined by Karis and Karochi, and I also invited ACEPILOT666 along, as he was the only other person who put in as many hours as we did.

Setch Dreskar:
World of Warships is an interesting game, with a lot of time and effort put into its visual and sound design. Barring my usual dislike of Wargaming’s business practices I do have to give them credit for making a game that is very enjoyable to sit back and play. The biggest issue with the game is the downright terrible community, a phrase ‘too stupid to live’ could easily be applied here as the situational awareness and attempted glory hounding will often bring the game down. These people seriously hamper the game, and sadly with this being a wargaming title the stupid goes all the way up the tiers since you can still make your way up while being shit. This is a title where bringing in more friends is highly encouraged and can make for some hilarious bits of joy.
Recommended?: YES, bring friends to make the experience more enjoyable.

Karochi:
Having played WoWS for a month or so now has left me feeling very ambivalent towards it. On one hand I can clearly see that the base game is interesting, unique and plays well (except detonations, why the fuck are those a thing?). On the other hand a majority of the time I’ve spent playing the game has been yelling at how ridiculously shit my team is. Unlike other team games you can’t just fill your group to solve this issue. Even if you bring a full division the other 3/4’s of your team will probably still lose you the match. However, there are those rare few matches where everyone seems to have their shit together and you have a really thrilling game.
Recommended?: YES

ACEPILOT666:
My time with WoWS has been fun. I mean its the Usual WG community so if you’ve played WoT you understand the community and how fucking stupid they can be. Teamwork? Nah fuck that Yolo suicide into the team and then bitch about “noob team” cause they are 27Km back and the team is in no position to support the idiot that decided to Yolo it in his DD or japanese cruiser. But the moments you get players with 2 brain cells to rub together and work with you it’s a thing of beauty as you slaughter all in your path. Now I feel the ships work as intended and I LOVE the plunging fire mechanic (to bad cruisers are lazy and just spam HE when plunging AP is better) but whatevs. And the balance feels good with Japan preferring speed and longer range at the cost of accuracy with the american preferring armor and accuracy with better AA.
So all in all I love the game but my 2 major gripes is the RIDICULOUS BB damage and accuracy RNG in the game with main AND secondary guns (much like arty in WoT) but when you get that detonation (or “ammorack”) its a thing of beauty, and carrier plane min torp launch distance (I’m sorry .8km?! How the fuck you dodge that when IRL most dropped them 1.5 at the MINIMUM!) but its whatevs, I guess if they got their planes through AA they deserve damage.
Recommended?: YES

Karis:
I’ll admit, I had no expectations for this one. While I’ve played many games in a similar vein to this, such as World of Tanks, and Warthunder, this was untested waters for me. (pun very much intended) While I have always had a love of Naval Ships of this era, being the son of someone who was in the navy, I had absolutely no clue how Wargaming would handle this one. Glad to say I wasn’t disappointed.
The mechanics are easy to grasp, the game looks beautiful, the soundtrack is amazing, and each ship for the most part feels like it should. And I’ll just say now, nothing is more satisfying than nuking someone who is not paying attention with a full volley of torpedoes.  With so much to like about the game, what can I say that’s negative?…
…
…Oh right, the people you’ll be playing with.
Oh my Lord, this community is shit.  I mean complete fucking garbage.  People not knowing how to play their ship class, people not working as a team and just going off on their own and dying, and not to mention the fleet of armchair generals who feel like they just NEED to explain why THEY have the best plan to win, and why YOU are a dumbass for not listening to THEM.  FIVE FUCKING MINUTES AFTER THEY HAVE ALREADY DIED!  I have never wanted to team-kill these annoying little 12 year old shits so bad in any other one of these games, but these people have had me close, more than once.
Even with all that…
Recommended?:  YES. While the community may suck, the game itself is still solid enough that I can suggest giving it a chance.

ChaosD1:
Yep, this is exactly what I wanted out of this game.
It was touch and go for a while. World of Tanks started to annoy the piss out of me, with the community of that game reaching League of Legendary Asshole status, and World of Warplanes being a poorly balanced, nigh-abandoned game of Sky Bumpercars, I started to lose all fucks involved with World of Warships (I swear it was going to be called “World of Battleships” once…) In fact when the beta was announced I didn’t even BOTHER trying to get into the game… and when reports came in that it was fun to play, I still couldn’t be assed to do anything about it.
I’m rather glad I found the time to be assed. This is easily my favorite of the military arena shooters out there.
There’s something that just feels natural and satisfying about leading shots from miles away (kilometers away, whatever shut up), using just a bit of instinct to see if you can land those shots… launching a volley of torpedoes a good while back to be suddenly rewarded with a bunch of bonuses for completely obliterating a poorly focused Battleship. (I resisted all temptation to yell “B5, MOTHERFUCKER!” when I got a sinking shot on an enemy target. I thought the hell out of it though.)
Frustrations aren’t uncommon though. I launched into matches where I immediately blew up because some asshat in an allied destroyer thought it would be hilarious to empty his torpedo tubes into my hull, and make that obnoxious “kitty face” into the chat. I’d been travelling with a good crew of ships until I entered the range of the first enemy ship, only to see my entire fleet decided to travel in the other direction and leave me a focused target for the enemy team. There’s plenty to curse out in this game, and it can get to the point where I just can’t be bothered to play for a while. Part and parcel of this kind of thing, but there’s something about it that lets me keep putting with it.
Overall, it’s solid and Wargaming’s best offering.
I’m a little bummed Wargaming apparently abandoned the three vehicle war modes, but I’m not holding my breath for Gaijin to give this a shot anymore.
Recommended?: YES.