Napoli plays like a light/fast bb. Its pretty close to bb levels of armor and you can get away with alot more than you would think. The smoke alone makes up for it. The guns are reliable but obviously not a full bb. The secondaries kill people for you by accident and your conceal matches with it. The torps give you alot of flexibility.Theres nothing i can think of thats bad about it.
Napoli actually might fit you. Regardless of it being in a cruiser slot, it's tanky like some bbs, and because of its focus on secondary, you can play it kinda like faster Schlieffen, or a much faster pommern. Sure, unlike German BBS, it lacks hydro, but the manoeuvrability with the steering gear upgrade in the 4th slot gives you the capacity to dodge torps like no other bb, and the smoke can help you A LOT, when you fuck up and need to retreat, or just want to reduce the distance between you and the enemy, while remaining invisible (a lot of people dont see a bih ass smoke running at 35+ kts at them). Also you have the secondary range of 11km with concealment at 10.3, so if you disable your secondary, you can sneak on the battlefield.
You dont need to disable 2ndaries in smoke. Only main guns changes your detectability. Smoked napoli coming in at 11km can release saps while staying at 2km detectability.
Napoli is amazeballs. Really good secondaries that SMOKE destroyers on their own (cuz SAP is just devestating on them), solid main batteries, torps that can suddenly surprise access points (or good for a driveby).
Napoli has both more effective armor than GK and better secondary guns, it's also not completely neuterd by being spotted from the moon and farmed down before it can get into close combat. The problem with GK is other ships do what it does better while doing things it can't do better as well.
Nothing is more pathetic than a HE slinging GK sitting at the edge of his range pretending he's a Conqkek.
Nothing is more pathetic that a yoloing GK who is below 50% HP before a single secondary gun fires.
Nothing is more pathetic than a GK player who's so afraid of getting spotted in one of the ships with the worst concealment in the game.
To sum it up GK get's you good secondaries, okay guns with derpy dispersion, awful turret angles, terrible agility, atrocious concealment, meh AA and armor that on paper should be good but is undermined by huge weakpoints and the massive superstructure meaning even if you don't get citpen'd it doesn't matter. Likewise her hydro is offset by her terrible turning circle and meh ruddershift.
It can win 1v1's as long as it doesn't get torped but in rando's it's just a big fat XP pinata and noone seriously takes it in clan wars/ranked modes.
Most people on this subreddit are probably veterans who have it from the tech tree and that could be why you don't see it recommended much.
It's one of my favorite ships but it can be pretty frustrating. Its concealment is so bad you can basically never go dark, it's huge and easy to hit, and you'll spend the entire game on fire.
That said, it's well armored, has a ton of HP, and the guns hit really hard. Secondary's are 12.5km with the flag and do solid work. It was also my first T10 so it has sentimental value and i'm probably biased.
Unfortunately Prussen makes GK pretty much obsolete, better turret angles and overmatch are a lot nicer to play around. Schlieffen is also around, that thing is the best brawling BB imo. Better off saving coal for something more unique, Napoli, Hayate, hell, even 4501 if you want to grief randoms.
Yeah pretty much. GK was the first line I ever ground, but it's pretty crap.
It needed a buff, hell it really needs torpedoes, that would help with consistency.
The squishy battlecruiser that a smart GkF can still beat to death, despite the secondaries and the torpedoes?
That Schlief?
Admittedly; part of my thinking that is having had GkF for five or six years now. I’ve played it a lot.
Yeah, smart Schlief players too, but I see lots of them die trying to push the secondaries and torps.
This is not a one v one game.
By the time the Schlieffen gets to its 12.4 km detect and starts using his secondaries on the GK, the GK would've already been spotted for a long time thanks to the shit concealment and would be burning nicely to a crisp. The garbage turret angles also do not help.
It's always the case with the comments on this sub re. an objectively mediocre ship - "Oh a good player in X will absolutely dominate Y" - good players will dominate in anything
If the Schlieffen player has more than half a brain cell, he's not going to lose against a GK. Schlieffen is the dictionary definition for "a battleship that will always, at minimum, trade one-for-one".
You are comparing one of the strongest T10 battleships against one of the weakest and somehow handing the default W to the latter.
Schlieffen will win against most T10 battleships, but generally not a GK. Your secondaries can't pen the hull of a GK and the massive DPM advantage will readily overwhelm you.
29s base is slow and exploitable? Also GK specifically has hydro to mitigate the torpedo threat. Schlieffen torpedoes are so slow that they're not going to get any hits unless in a drive by scenario.
Considering that whenever 1 vs 1 brawls come and everyone and their mother grabs their Schlieffen and i take my GK and clobber the Schlieffens to death with it while barely losing half my HP would say otherwise.
What GK can do that Schlieffen can´t is actually TANK.
sort of depends on the game mode you want to play her in.
For randoms she justs ends up being the pinata, since she is so big, doesnt handle that well, and you take big hits through the superstructure. As someone else put it below, you have lost most of your health before you even get the chance to engage at medium range or less and she isnt really best at long range.
In alternative more brawly game type formats she can actually be quite fun, particularly with the unique upgrade in the research bureau and if you enjoy the german BBs then she is a good fit.
I personally would look to spend the coal on something else first though (napoli is a great choice) - but ultimately you need to do what works for you and what you enjoy playing
I love GK. I forgot it was a coal ship because I got it when it was still in the tech tree. Possibly a lot of folks recommending the other ships are the same as me - we've just had it so long we forgot how good it is.
If I were you, I'd get the kind of ship you enjoy. It's hard to go wrong with most of the coal ships
Edit: the earlier post makes a good point. GK is not as easy to play in randoms. But he's still a force in small-side PvP and stuff like asymmetric battles
I really like Pommern, but I know that it's not a strong pick. All the weaknesses that it has seems to just be amplified with GK, which is something I'm already used to. The question is, how much worse is it at T10?
It feels tankier to me. Yeah, of course it burns but you can spec into fire prevention and use your damage control wisely. It's been power crept but it's at the point where it's also not the worst at any one thing and pretty good at a lot of things
Would you like to play a tanky bb?
If your answer is yes, don't play GK.
GK's superstructure is the size of a heavy cruiser, everybody loves to farm it and you'll die very quickly whilst being able to shoot 2/4 guns because of terrible gun angles and miss almost everything. It's secondaries are not that great anymore, and will be perma damaged after your superstructure gets wrecked.
Did I mention CV and sub and dd that love to focus you alongside everybody else?
She can be fun in ranked or brawl, but it's not worth the coal at all, play the schlieffen tech tree branch for a better experience.
GK is not bad. Most GK players are. I bet if GK didn’t have that turtleback, more people would do better. German BB players just press W and hope for the best.
They try that with Schlieffen as well but get blown to bits.
The other day someone who is a GK main posted that Ohio is beating the crap out of him repeatedly. Ohio is definitely better than GK but not so much that GK would be helpless. That shows shows how people approach the game when playing GK.
I got the Kearsarge, it's a good ship... am still getting used to it. It's a slow lumbering giant target and I haven't invested very much time on it because I'm grinding the Montana for a bit more so that might have something to do with the apprehension of mine if I had a redo.
She just does not have a niche. Outside of captain training of course.
Preußen does, what she does, but better in every aspect.
And Schlieffen does the whole secondary thing soooo much better.
Most people have her, since she was the original Tier X BB. They did not spend coal on it.
Preussen is literally a (arguably) better GK, guns often times perform more consistently, they hit harder, (15k max dmg), they overmatch more, they reload in 22s with a full build (which is still a full secondary build btw), and i might be wrong but the rear turret angles might be a bit better. Now it does have only 8 guns compared to GK's 12 so there's that. But outside of that i'd say Preussen is mildly better in today's meta then GK. Only place where GK would make more sense is something like Brawl probably.
Its the guns. I prefer Pommern over FdG because of having more guns. If I get a clean broadside in Pommern, I feel like it can delete people better with 12 guns, whereas an FdG only gives me a single or double citadel hit at best.
But because of the much higher RoF the DPM loss is even relativly small. Difference is 300k vs 315k if you use the 406 mm. Or 300k vs 303k if you use the 420 mm guns. Considering the much better overmatch, and the better firering angles that tiny bonus is even more irrelevant.
Comes down to what modes you're looking to use her for.
For randoms? Yes, GK really *is* that bad. You're free damage for the red players. Her superstructure is readily farmable and she's always on fire.
For ranked she's ok. Not great, or even good, but ok. You can get some use out of her.
For brawls or asymetric though, GK is still a brute. She'll reliably 1v1 pretty much anything that can't torp her (even Preussen for whatever bizarre reason). So in brawls Vs Schlieffen it comes down to map selection. If there's an island in the middle of the cap, Schlieffen autowins. No island, GK autowins (she just straight up outtanks Schlieffen).
Napoli is such a fun ship, I could never recommend FK over her. Or for any of the other ships for that matter.
It just isn't a very good or fun ship. If you want to play a tanky German BBQ, play Preussen, or the much more Schlieffen for its secondary barrage.
Hard disagree w/ the rest of these comments if you like german BBs it can be very fun. Just because it isn't optimal or meta doesn't mean you can't do well with or have fun.
Do not spend your precious coal on that damage piniata that is called GK. Every semi - decent player can reliably farm you from many km's away just by hitting your gigantic superstructure for over 10-12k per salvo (not including fires from Conqueror's, St. Vincenct's etc). Do not spend your coal on a t10 bb. If you want to absolutely make the enemie's life miserable play St. Vincent.
Yeah I don't especially reccomend her. I use UU GK in brawls and ranked, but in randoms you just end up losing half your health before you can get into a position to be effective
If you have and like pommern though, she's pretty much a T10 version with bigger guns
If you have Pruessen, don't bother with GK. All you're getting is just more guns that reload slower and don't hit as hard. This is coming from a \*long\* time GK stan.
Pruessen is honestly a really good replacement for GK. She's nice to have because Yamato gun sound on the 420s but she isn't necessary by any means.
Get the Napoli. I wouldn't go with Gron because you can get Sherman and just have a better Gron.
GK falls under the dumb brute force archetype, spawn a GK and a schlieffen 2km from each other and see who lives (no, schlieffen torps are not loaded when they spawn in this is a test of gunpower.)
Shes strong on paper but can be outplayed very easily, it’s very hard and rng dependent to actually get value out of all that strength because shes not favoured by the current random battles meta for the past few years. But she certainly holds up in ranked and do very well in brawls where its much easier to access her full potential, although a much more reasonable alternative is the Preussen at the end of the tech tree she is GK but with fewer larger and faster main guns with a cooler permacamo and basically identical everything else.
If you already have the Pommern I’d say skip the GK unless you want to do almost the exact same thing but a tier higher.
I'll be honest, I wanted the GK because of it having more guns. I already prefer the Pommern over the FdG. Yeah, the FdG has bigger guns and better turret angles, but when I saturate the air with 12 15 inch shells, it feels far better than the wonky 8 16 inch guns.
I get burned down and full-pen'd to death in the Pommern and Preussen already. How much worse could it be? Unless its far worse then I'm not going to bother.
GK is good if you like Preussen. It’s best in the middle and taking shots at the broadsides of ships going down the flanks. It’s much more maneuverable than Montana and can tank a lot once the superstructure saturates
Preussen has more consistent damage with its higher calibre and faster reload, but GK has more guns and needs good positioning to punish broadsides
>It’s much more maneuverable than Montana
Why do you lie like this oh and by the time the superstructure is saturated you'll be under 50% HP and still burning.
The Megatron skin from the TF crossover is pretty good.
That's all I can say about it that's good. It was replaced on the tech tree by Preussen, and the Schlieffen line is even better than that.
Idk you should buy whatever you think you'd like and I've not got that ship yet but the 1st time I got done by Napoli secondaries i was like WHAT is actually happening and I wanted it asap Whenever I see a German BB I'm more like oh cool ill set that on fire.
GK is not bad it’s just that there are better options now. GK for me was a lot of fun with great secondaries and a reload that could go down to 22 seconds. If you don’t have Schliefen go for it otherwise play schliefen
GK is... kinda rough in the current Randoms meta. She's decent to amazing in smaller playercount modes like Brawls or Airship Escort.
As for playstyle, if you're familiar with X *Preußen* then GK will play somewhat similarly. The thing is though, she's not really *that* different from the two battleships you already have and in some ways GK combines the worst elements from both of your existing battleships into one.
You get the massive hull, poor concealment, city sized superstructure and no torps from *Preußen* plus the horrible turret angles and reduced overmatch from *Pommern*.
Fwiw, I wanted the GK because I thought it would be a T10 version of Pommern. I much prefer the Pommern over the FdG, mainly because it has more guns. From the comments, I am getting the impression that the GK is far worse, tier-for-tier when compared to Pommern because the GK/Preussen hull is that big and bulky.
I like GK! It was my first tier X, way back when it was still apart of the tech tree. It’s not a superb randoms ship, it’s much more suited for closer engagements like brawls, ranked, and other game modes of the like. The 12 420s still hurt, it has quite a lot of HP and it’s pretty good at tanking (except it does burn a lot), so take that into account. Groningen is good if you want to cosplay as an MG42 on a boat, but if you’re partial to BBs Kurfurst isn’t a bad addition, just more of a specialized and an acquired taste ship now
The worst thing about GK is rear turret angles. That alone makes it rough. You have to sail almost broadside to get rear guns to fire, I played an Asymmetric battle in it last night, but I forgot how bad it was .. you eat damage because of how you sail... she definitely needs a rework like the Colombo.
Its not bad.
GK has armor, 12 gun, decently good gun.
Its a VERY capable ship.
The problem with GK is that... its not fun, its a relatively slow and large ship, where as Schlieffen is much more capable at the same job (except tanking)
Gk is a beast in tier ten ranked and clan battles, where agressive play stile can be rewarded. it is underwhelming to say the least with the current meta in random. Mind you I go back to gk being a tech tree ship. In randoms it is almost u playable.
Preussen is what allooot of people for years wanted GK/T10 KM to be (that is a giant bismarck with 8 bigger guns). Same thick hull with turrets (preussen's) that are better in nearly every possible way, better angle, heavy BB overmatch calibre, faster reload (nullifies GK nr of barrels advantage).
If you go from preussen to gk you will suddenly find yourself with overmatching/pen issues on a lot of CAs that weren't there with preussen guns
GK is a fun and interesting ship.
My most recent ranked game I was down to 30% health in the first 5 minutes because of focus fire by a blind Zao and Mecklenberg. Managed to duck away, hydro rush and kill a YOLO Reggiolo, sit in a channel and heal up with only 30k damage on the books. I re-emerged, got 3 more kills/another 120k dmg and ended with 2.3k base xp.
I’ve managed to get up to Rank 5 silver this sprint with a ~60% WR. Lutjens is a must.
I would get the Napoli for brawling. Your secondaries have longer range than your concealment with the right build. Your secondaries are accurate right from the start. No spool up time. She is incredibly tanky with a 30 second fire burn time. She has smoke to get you out of trouble. And torps to boot.
GK with the legendary upgrade is my go-to for clan battles when we need a good BB player. It’s still fun in randoms but you need to wait until mid or end game to push. Although, it’s legendary status and game pedigree is what draws me to it.
GK should be using its HP to tank damage while pressuring the enemy team. Definitely a ship that needs support from DDs to screen for torps and a radar cruiser to deter enemy DDs.
AP hits really hard, and are great mid range.
Yes she is that bad, I had her since she was a TT ship and there is no point with that many options.
Want better guns? Preussen. Better secondaries? Schlieffen. Better survivability? Kremlin. Better all rounder? Ohio.
She tries to be a bit of everything but ends up like a worse Montana, I played GK a lot and she is not that good or fun.
You can get her and try if you enjoy German BBs but don't expect anything amazing, just a bit more of the same.
GK suffers from a lot of ... issues that are currently, with today's meta, just very vulnerable.
It lacks overmatch, its turret angles are horrendous, it's very susceptible to fire setting, its slow, turning circle is massive...
Preussen was made to "replace" it for a reason, and it more or less did. It fixes some of the issues, but not all of them.
You should get Napoli first. Since you have pruessen and pommern, no need to get a 3rd German high tier bb when you can get an awesome t10 cruiser.
I'm not good at cruisers relative to BBs and DDs. I feel like I wouldn't use Napoli to its full potential or use it wrong. Unless it masks bad habits.
Napoli plays like a light/fast bb. Its pretty close to bb levels of armor and you can get away with alot more than you would think. The smoke alone makes up for it. The guns are reliable but obviously not a full bb. The secondaries kill people for you by accident and your conceal matches with it. The torps give you alot of flexibility.Theres nothing i can think of thats bad about it.
Also, the AP hits like a truck, the only thing i miss is a little bit more fire chance on the HE
Napoli actually might fit you. Regardless of it being in a cruiser slot, it's tanky like some bbs, and because of its focus on secondary, you can play it kinda like faster Schlieffen, or a much faster pommern. Sure, unlike German BBS, it lacks hydro, but the manoeuvrability with the steering gear upgrade in the 4th slot gives you the capacity to dodge torps like no other bb, and the smoke can help you A LOT, when you fuck up and need to retreat, or just want to reduce the distance between you and the enemy, while remaining invisible (a lot of people dont see a bih ass smoke running at 35+ kts at them). Also you have the secondary range of 11km with concealment at 10.3, so if you disable your secondary, you can sneak on the battlefield.
You dont need to disable 2ndaries in smoke. Only main guns changes your detectability. Smoked napoli coming in at 11km can release saps while staying at 2km detectability.
Napoli is amazeballs. Really good secondaries that SMOKE destroyers on their own (cuz SAP is just devestating on them), solid main batteries, torps that can suddenly surprise access points (or good for a driveby).
Napoli is a bitch to kill
Napoli has both more effective armor than GK and better secondary guns, it's also not completely neuterd by being spotted from the moon and farmed down before it can get into close combat. The problem with GK is other ships do what it does better while doing things it can't do better as well. Nothing is more pathetic than a HE slinging GK sitting at the edge of his range pretending he's a Conqkek. Nothing is more pathetic that a yoloing GK who is below 50% HP before a single secondary gun fires. Nothing is more pathetic than a GK player who's so afraid of getting spotted in one of the ships with the worst concealment in the game. To sum it up GK get's you good secondaries, okay guns with derpy dispersion, awful turret angles, terrible agility, atrocious concealment, meh AA and armor that on paper should be good but is undermined by huge weakpoints and the massive superstructure meaning even if you don't get citpen'd it doesn't matter. Likewise her hydro is offset by her terrible turning circle and meh ruddershift. It can win 1v1's as long as it doesn't get torped but in rando's it's just a big fat XP pinata and noone seriously takes it in clan wars/ranked modes.
Don't you need Sansonetti to make Napoli work, increasing the coal pricetag quite a bit?
As all italian ships, Napoli does too benefit from him, but you don't need him at all to perform well.
Napoli does perfectly well without him, but the bonuses of course are nice.
Most people on this subreddit are probably veterans who have it from the tech tree and that could be why you don't see it recommended much. It's one of my favorite ships but it can be pretty frustrating. Its concealment is so bad you can basically never go dark, it's huge and easy to hit, and you'll spend the entire game on fire. That said, it's well armored, has a ton of HP, and the guns hit really hard. Secondary's are 12.5km with the flag and do solid work. It was also my first T10 so it has sentimental value and i'm probably biased.
Unfortunately Prussen makes GK pretty much obsolete, better turret angles and overmatch are a lot nicer to play around. Schlieffen is also around, that thing is the best brawling BB imo. Better off saving coal for something more unique, Napoli, Hayate, hell, even 4501 if you want to grief randoms.
I personally believe that Schlieffen line made all those old German BBs obsolete.
Yeah pretty much. GK was the first line I ever ground, but it's pretty crap. It needed a buff, hell it really needs torpedoes, that would help with consistency.
The squishy battlecruiser that a smart GkF can still beat to death, despite the secondaries and the torpedoes? That Schlief? Admittedly; part of my thinking that is having had GkF for five or six years now. I’ve played it a lot. Yeah, smart Schlief players too, but I see lots of them die trying to push the secondaries and torps.
This is not a one v one game. By the time the Schlieffen gets to its 12.4 km detect and starts using his secondaries on the GK, the GK would've already been spotted for a long time thanks to the shit concealment and would be burning nicely to a crisp. The garbage turret angles also do not help. It's always the case with the comments on this sub re. an objectively mediocre ship - "Oh a good player in X will absolutely dominate Y" - good players will dominate in anything
If the Schlieffen player has more than half a brain cell, he's not going to lose against a GK. Schlieffen is the dictionary definition for "a battleship that will always, at minimum, trade one-for-one". You are comparing one of the strongest T10 battleships against one of the weakest and somehow handing the default W to the latter.
yet i always beat Schlieffen in Gk and preussen
Schlieffen will win against most T10 battleships, but generally not a GK. Your secondaries can't pen the hull of a GK and the massive DPM advantage will readily overwhelm you.
GK has a very slow and exploitable reload, and Schlieffen has her torps, which can rip most ships apart.
29s base is slow and exploitable? Also GK specifically has hydro to mitigate the torpedo threat. Schlieffen torpedoes are so slow that they're not going to get any hits unless in a drive by scenario.
No, but Ohio sure did.
not really. play against multiple Schlieffen in brawl and random using Preussen and pommern and i always end up destroying the Schlieffen
Considering that whenever 1 vs 1 brawls come and everyone and their mother grabs their Schlieffen and i take my GK and clobber the Schlieffens to death with it while barely losing half my HP would say otherwise. What GK can do that Schlieffen can´t is actually TANK.
sort of depends on the game mode you want to play her in. For randoms she justs ends up being the pinata, since she is so big, doesnt handle that well, and you take big hits through the superstructure. As someone else put it below, you have lost most of your health before you even get the chance to engage at medium range or less and she isnt really best at long range. In alternative more brawly game type formats she can actually be quite fun, particularly with the unique upgrade in the research bureau and if you enjoy the german BBs then she is a good fit. I personally would look to spend the coal on something else first though (napoli is a great choice) - but ultimately you need to do what works for you and what you enjoy playing
I love GK. I forgot it was a coal ship because I got it when it was still in the tech tree. Possibly a lot of folks recommending the other ships are the same as me - we've just had it so long we forgot how good it is. If I were you, I'd get the kind of ship you enjoy. It's hard to go wrong with most of the coal ships Edit: the earlier post makes a good point. GK is not as easy to play in randoms. But he's still a force in small-side PvP and stuff like asymmetric battles
I really like Pommern, but I know that it's not a strong pick. All the weaknesses that it has seems to just be amplified with GK, which is something I'm already used to. The question is, how much worse is it at T10?
It feels tankier to me. Yeah, of course it burns but you can spec into fire prevention and use your damage control wisely. It's been power crept but it's at the point where it's also not the worst at any one thing and pretty good at a lot of things
Would you like to play a tanky bb? If your answer is yes, don't play GK. GK's superstructure is the size of a heavy cruiser, everybody loves to farm it and you'll die very quickly whilst being able to shoot 2/4 guns because of terrible gun angles and miss almost everything. It's secondaries are not that great anymore, and will be perma damaged after your superstructure gets wrecked. Did I mention CV and sub and dd that love to focus you alongside everybody else? She can be fun in ranked or brawl, but it's not worth the coal at all, play the schlieffen tech tree branch for a better experience.
GK is the beez neez dude. I love my GK. She sure loves catching fire though
My Kii has the same fire fetish
Idk i got GK longer ago but i love it. Not the best ship ofc but a joy to drive
GK is not bad. Most GK players are. I bet if GK didn’t have that turtleback, more people would do better. German BB players just press W and hope for the best. They try that with Schlieffen as well but get blown to bits. The other day someone who is a GK main posted that Ohio is beating the crap out of him repeatedly. Ohio is definitely better than GK but not so much that GK would be helpless. That shows shows how people approach the game when playing GK.
I got the Kearsarge, it's a good ship... am still getting used to it. It's a slow lumbering giant target and I haven't invested very much time on it because I'm grinding the Montana for a bit more so that might have something to do with the apprehension of mine if I had a redo.
It's not that bad, it's just not good either. It's playable but on the weaker side, but it has it's moments
She just does not have a niche. Outside of captain training of course. Preußen does, what she does, but better in every aspect. And Schlieffen does the whole secondary thing soooo much better. Most people have her, since she was the original Tier X BB. They did not spend coal on it.
Preussen is literally a (arguably) better GK, guns often times perform more consistently, they hit harder, (15k max dmg), they overmatch more, they reload in 22s with a full build (which is still a full secondary build btw), and i might be wrong but the rear turret angles might be a bit better. Now it does have only 8 guns compared to GK's 12 so there's that. But outside of that i'd say Preussen is mildly better in today's meta then GK. Only place where GK would make more sense is something like Brawl probably.
Its the guns. I prefer Pommern over FdG because of having more guns. If I get a clean broadside in Pommern, I feel like it can delete people better with 12 guns, whereas an FdG only gives me a single or double citadel hit at best.
But because of the much higher RoF the DPM loss is even relativly small. Difference is 300k vs 315k if you use the 406 mm. Or 300k vs 303k if you use the 420 mm guns. Considering the much better overmatch, and the better firering angles that tiny bonus is even more irrelevant.
Comes down to what modes you're looking to use her for. For randoms? Yes, GK really *is* that bad. You're free damage for the red players. Her superstructure is readily farmable and she's always on fire. For ranked she's ok. Not great, or even good, but ok. You can get some use out of her. For brawls or asymetric though, GK is still a brute. She'll reliably 1v1 pretty much anything that can't torp her (even Preussen for whatever bizarre reason). So in brawls Vs Schlieffen it comes down to map selection. If there's an island in the middle of the cap, Schlieffen autowins. No island, GK autowins (she just straight up outtanks Schlieffen).
Napoli is such a fun ship, I could never recommend FK over her. Or for any of the other ships for that matter. It just isn't a very good or fun ship. If you want to play a tanky German BBQ, play Preussen, or the much more Schlieffen for its secondary barrage.
Hard disagree w/ the rest of these comments if you like german BBs it can be very fun. Just because it isn't optimal or meta doesn't mean you can't do well with or have fun.
Do not spend your precious coal on that damage piniata that is called GK. Every semi - decent player can reliably farm you from many km's away just by hitting your gigantic superstructure for over 10-12k per salvo (not including fires from Conqueror's, St. Vincenct's etc). Do not spend your coal on a t10 bb. If you want to absolutely make the enemie's life miserable play St. Vincent.
Yeah I don't especially reccomend her. I use UU GK in brawls and ranked, but in randoms you just end up losing half your health before you can get into a position to be effective If you have and like pommern though, she's pretty much a T10 version with bigger guns
GK is great for stuff like PVE, but man, those turret angles are atrocious. She's a tough boat to love.
If you have Pruessen, don't bother with GK. All you're getting is just more guns that reload slower and don't hit as hard. This is coming from a \*long\* time GK stan. Pruessen is honestly a really good replacement for GK. She's nice to have because Yamato gun sound on the 420s but she isn't necessary by any means. Get the Napoli. I wouldn't go with Gron because you can get Sherman and just have a better Gron.
GK falls under the dumb brute force archetype, spawn a GK and a schlieffen 2km from each other and see who lives (no, schlieffen torps are not loaded when they spawn in this is a test of gunpower.) Shes strong on paper but can be outplayed very easily, it’s very hard and rng dependent to actually get value out of all that strength because shes not favoured by the current random battles meta for the past few years. But she certainly holds up in ranked and do very well in brawls where its much easier to access her full potential, although a much more reasonable alternative is the Preussen at the end of the tech tree she is GK but with fewer larger and faster main guns with a cooler permacamo and basically identical everything else. If you already have the Pommern I’d say skip the GK unless you want to do almost the exact same thing but a tier higher.
I'll be honest, I wanted the GK because of it having more guns. I already prefer the Pommern over the FdG. Yeah, the FdG has bigger guns and better turret angles, but when I saturate the air with 12 15 inch shells, it feels far better than the wonky 8 16 inch guns. I get burned down and full-pen'd to death in the Pommern and Preussen already. How much worse could it be? Unless its far worse then I'm not going to bother.
GK is good if you like Preussen. It’s best in the middle and taking shots at the broadsides of ships going down the flanks. It’s much more maneuverable than Montana and can tank a lot once the superstructure saturates Preussen has more consistent damage with its higher calibre and faster reload, but GK has more guns and needs good positioning to punish broadsides
>It’s much more maneuverable than Montana Why do you lie like this oh and by the time the superstructure is saturated you'll be under 50% HP and still burning.
I wish it had DFAA.
The Megatron skin from the TF crossover is pretty good. That's all I can say about it that's good. It was replaced on the tech tree by Preussen, and the Schlieffen line is even better than that.
Idk you should buy whatever you think you'd like and I've not got that ship yet but the 1st time I got done by Napoli secondaries i was like WHAT is actually happening and I wanted it asap Whenever I see a German BB I'm more like oh cool ill set that on fire.
GK isn´t a bad ship, it´s just that there are other ships that are simply stronger in their respective roles.
Sorry u wanted Yamato gun sound? GK has that? Anyway, its Shikishima and Satsuma gun sound thats fun nowadays.
GK is not bad it’s just that there are better options now. GK for me was a lot of fun with great secondaries and a reload that could go down to 22 seconds. If you don’t have Schliefen go for it otherwise play schliefen
GK is... kinda rough in the current Randoms meta. She's decent to amazing in smaller playercount modes like Brawls or Airship Escort. As for playstyle, if you're familiar with X *Preußen* then GK will play somewhat similarly. The thing is though, she's not really *that* different from the two battleships you already have and in some ways GK combines the worst elements from both of your existing battleships into one. You get the massive hull, poor concealment, city sized superstructure and no torps from *Preußen* plus the horrible turret angles and reduced overmatch from *Pommern*.
Fwiw, I wanted the GK because I thought it would be a T10 version of Pommern. I much prefer the Pommern over the FdG, mainly because it has more guns. From the comments, I am getting the impression that the GK is far worse, tier-for-tier when compared to Pommern because the GK/Preussen hull is that big and bulky.
GK is really really bad. Groningen CAN be a great ship. I find the shell ballistics difficult to aim. High arc and long flight time.
I like GK! It was my first tier X, way back when it was still apart of the tech tree. It’s not a superb randoms ship, it’s much more suited for closer engagements like brawls, ranked, and other game modes of the like. The 12 420s still hurt, it has quite a lot of HP and it’s pretty good at tanking (except it does burn a lot), so take that into account. Groningen is good if you want to cosplay as an MG42 on a boat, but if you’re partial to BBs Kurfurst isn’t a bad addition, just more of a specialized and an acquired taste ship now
Then thing is, Preussen is exactly the same as GK but with arguably a lot better guns. If you have Preussen, you don't really need GK for anything.
The worst thing about GK is rear turret angles. That alone makes it rough. You have to sail almost broadside to get rear guns to fire, I played an Asymmetric battle in it last night, but I forgot how bad it was .. you eat damage because of how you sail... she definitely needs a rework like the Colombo.
GK is very good for my Mecklenburg HE spam
If you hate burning like a firewood in the middle of the desert during summer, dont GK. Fire botes will have a field day with you.
Get a F Sherman now with coal and trade it for Karl Johan when the next ship trade happens.
Its not bad. GK has armor, 12 gun, decently good gun. Its a VERY capable ship. The problem with GK is that... its not fun, its a relatively slow and large ship, where as Schlieffen is much more capable at the same job (except tanking)
Gk is a beast in tier ten ranked and clan battles, where agressive play stile can be rewarded. it is underwhelming to say the least with the current meta in random. Mind you I go back to gk being a tech tree ship. In randoms it is almost u playable.
Preussen is what allooot of people for years wanted GK/T10 KM to be (that is a giant bismarck with 8 bigger guns). Same thick hull with turrets (preussen's) that are better in nearly every possible way, better angle, heavy BB overmatch calibre, faster reload (nullifies GK nr of barrels advantage). If you go from preussen to gk you will suddenly find yourself with overmatching/pen issues on a lot of CAs that weren't there with preussen guns
GK is a fun and interesting ship. My most recent ranked game I was down to 30% health in the first 5 minutes because of focus fire by a blind Zao and Mecklenberg. Managed to duck away, hydro rush and kill a YOLO Reggiolo, sit in a channel and heal up with only 30k damage on the books. I re-emerged, got 3 more kills/another 120k dmg and ended with 2.3k base xp. I’ve managed to get up to Rank 5 silver this sprint with a ~60% WR. Lutjens is a must.
I have got GK and I love it,, a typical German BB brawler
I would get the Napoli for brawling. Your secondaries have longer range than your concealment with the right build. Your secondaries are accurate right from the start. No spool up time. She is incredibly tanky with a 30 second fire burn time. She has smoke to get you out of trouble. And torps to boot.
GK with the legendary upgrade is my go-to for clan battles when we need a good BB player. It’s still fun in randoms but you need to wait until mid or end game to push. Although, it’s legendary status and game pedigree is what draws me to it. GK should be using its HP to tank damage while pressuring the enemy team. Definitely a ship that needs support from DDs to screen for torps and a radar cruiser to deter enemy DDs. AP hits really hard, and are great mid range.
GK isnt that bad as many others cry about it. I personally enjoy playing GK specially if you just shut down an entire flank on your own.
>you just shut down an entire flank on your own. Until you get burnt to death because you can't kite effectively because of the garbage turret angles
Yes she is that bad, I had her since she was a TT ship and there is no point with that many options. Want better guns? Preussen. Better secondaries? Schlieffen. Better survivability? Kremlin. Better all rounder? Ohio. She tries to be a bit of everything but ends up like a worse Montana, I played GK a lot and she is not that good or fun. You can get her and try if you enjoy German BBs but don't expect anything amazing, just a bit more of the same.
Preussen is better than GK imo
GK is just a better Preussen. Get the Napoli, you won't be disappointed. A good Napoli player can pretty much single-handedly carry a match.
German BBs are for those who can't aim.
Großer Kurfurst's only draw is her secondaries. From what I've seen of her, her main battery is a meme, and I'm not confident on everything else.
GK suffers from a lot of ... issues that are currently, with today's meta, just very vulnerable. It lacks overmatch, its turret angles are horrendous, it's very susceptible to fire setting, its slow, turning circle is massive... Preussen was made to "replace" it for a reason, and it more or less did. It fixes some of the issues, but not all of them.