As previously mentioned, you should not be too hasty to get away from your starting ship. The full explanation for that is in my last post, but the real reason you will want to avoid getting off to too quick of a start in this game is that certain ship classes have complex gameplay mechanics, and worse, can be unforgiving when you make a mistake. Sticking with the tier one starter ship for a while will give you a chance to experiment with the controls and basic gun mechanics while you figure things out, as well as giving you an arena to screw up in that will be pretty forgiving.
If you want to advance, and lets face it, who doesn't, you should probably try out the American cruiser line. The American cruisers aren't inherently easier than other ships, but they capitalize on the things you learned in the first tier ship, such as basic maneuvers, gunnery, and teamwork. What they don't have is torpedo armament (except for the tier 4 and 5 ships), fragile health, and poor maneuverability. These are the three things that get people killed the most, after lack of teamwork.
You should avoid playing destroyers as your first tech tree to grind out, as they are fragile, rely on torpedoes, and also rely on stealth mechanics. Without doing a little reading, or watching some expertly delivered tutorial videos, these ships can be an absolute dead end for new players to captain. Torpedoes, as I have said before, are difficult weapons to master, and can become a bigger habit to your own team than to your enemies if mishandled. The single most common mistake I see new players making in the game is spamming torpedoes at the enemy fleet without knowing their range. Torpedoes typically have a much shorter range than most guns, and have a slow travel time (faster than a ship travels, but slower than a shell). This means that if you fire torpedoes at a ship 10km away, and your torpedoes only have a 5km range, you've wasted your time, and any friendly ships nearby will be in danger. Make no mistake, if a friendly gets killed by your torpedoes, it will be your fault. Friendly players have enough things to pay attention to without worrying about their allies blowing them up from behind, so the line, "you should have been paying more attention" is pretty weak. DD's also rely heavily on sharp maneuvers and stealth to stay alive. The number of DD captains I see ploughing into islands and being obliterated while they are stuck on a beach really does emphasize the point that new players need to spend more time in slower ships, doing their maneuvers far from land. Finally, stealth mechanics are complex, and will not save you until you learn them properly. Most new players will captain their DD, firing blind shots into mountain sides out of sheer lack of attention span, which immediately reveals them at longer ranges. In short, don't play a rogue if you like walking in the sun.
Battleships are also a ship that newbies should take to slowly. While the potential for screwing up is smaller indeed, these ships still have major problems that make them unfriendly to new players. Notably, battleships require very large areas to turn their ships around. They also are slow to shift their rudders from side to side, meaning that all maneuvers require advanced planning in order to pull off effectively. These are not ships that respond well to a captain suddenly changing their mind about direction, or being caught by surprise. A good BB captain must always plan their maneuvers and even their gun rotations, as well as having an excellent all round perception, and feel for the pace of the battle. When circumstances develop, a BB captain must react before things get out of hand, and make no decisions after the moment has passed. In other words, new players need not apply. Also, new players are likely to get overly excited by the prospect of a BB's excellent armour and huge health pool. This leads them to bite off more than they can chew, and get dead at the tip of a torpedo volley. The most common mistake of BB captains? Sitting still and firing from a distance instead of staying mobile. The number of battles I've seen lost because the friendly BB's just sat their and did not react to the battle boils my blood. The other most famous mistake is when BB captains plot a perfectly straight course and switch to gunsight view, never switching back. The Mighty Jingles comments endlessly on this one, joking at how many BB captains sail straight into easily avoidable torpedoes, when even the slightest course correction would save them.
Don't captain a carrier without watching a video first... That is all.
Hopefully this gave new WoWS players some thoughts on how to not suck at the game. Really, I do want to help, and to see the overall quality of the gameplay improve. Next time I'll talk a little about the low tier American cruisers, and give you an idea of what to expect. I won't warn you off the Japanese cruisers, as they are damn good fun to play, but just remember that they always carry torpedoes, and until you learn how to use them, you definitely shouldn't touch such weapons.
Happy sailing.
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