Qualification - Is it worth it?

[The4thAmigo 135]

Are there any gains to be had from paying for "expert" qualification for aircraft crews?  Is it better to save the SL and just max out the crew instead?  As you get into higher tiers it becomes way too expensive to consider and could cost millions of SL.  I stupidly paid for some in Tier III but I think I wasted my SL.

[Noir89 2,578]

18 minutes ago, The4thAmigo said:

Are there any gains to be had from paying for "expert" qualification for aircraft crews?

Maxedout Crew = 50%

Expert Crew (Silver Crew) = 30%

Ace Crew (Gold Crew) = 20%

 

1) Maxed out Crew + Expert = 80% of the max effectiveness.

2) If you have a Expert Crew (Silvercrew) you start "researching" the Ace Crew for free.

 

--> i personally dont use any vehicle without a Expert Crew, i rather farm SL before using it without.

[Real K Soze@live 407]

1 hour ago, Noir89 said:

2) If you have a Expert Crew (Silvercrew) you start "researching" the Ace Crew for free.

 

Are you sure about this?

 

Imho the RP counter for an "ace crew" (example 570k RP for ace in 5.0 plane) starts from scratch even with a rookie crew...

 

1 hour ago, Noir89 said:

--> i personally dont use any vehicle without a Expert Crew, i rather farm SL before using it without.

 

Fully agree, same here. If i like a plane i always play to get the ace qualification.

 

1 hour ago, The4thAmigo said:

Are there any gains to be had from paying for "expert" qualification for aircraft crews? 

 

Of course there are. But imho it is only worth the SLs if you know the plane upfront and you will use it for a longer time.

 

I mean it is quite simple - are you good enough with this plane to grind and able to earn the addditional SLs for "expert" fast enough.

 

So the challenge is to know this upfront.

 

Some of the increased crew efficiencies shine in rare 1vs1s, others like gunner reload time or repair time will help you more often..

 

1 hour ago, The4thAmigo said:

Is it better to save the SL and just max out the crew instead?

 

Imho both topics "expert qualification" and "crew level" are related, but not a question of alternatives.

 

Crew level reflects your success of the crew slot in general with an impact on the pilot qualification for a chosen plane.

 

The fellow player above tried to point out the impact of the combination of both.

 

As far as remember you played arcade last year, so you use multiple crew slots - which makes it even harder to get a crew level of 75. 

 

[LeChance 926]

I very early on in my playing got into the habit of setting ANY vehicle I got to Expert crew whenever I put it in a slot. The primary reason was that once set to Expert crew, each and every game in that vehicle, in that slot added to the progress towards the FREE Ace qualification. Being only Basic does nothing to help with the Ace. Besides Expert adds +3 to everything, Ace adds +2 . . . so Expert is literally the better deal . ..  overall. It is an additional SL cost, and that does get kinda pricey as you work your way thru the tree to higher tiers, but imho . . . still worth it. With almost 3/4's of a BILLION Silver Lions earned in the game and 48 million on hand, I can safely say I have "given back" . . . . lol. But hey . . . you can't take it with you, so . . . .

Edited April 24, 2023 by LeChance

[The4thAmigo 135]

I appreciate the feedback.  I do have one ace crew in a B-25 but the flight model is still the same, I still get shot down just as much and my gunners are just as useless.  I didn't see any value in it.  I would think a crew operating at 100% efficiency would give you a minor edge in something at least.

[LeChance 926]

It can be hard to notice some differences, by the time you earn a FREE Ace, you have played many games in that vehicle and minor changes may be hard to "feel", it is not radically different & I am sure it varies from one vehicle to another. Just as a stock vehicle can be quite a bit different than it is once spaded. Also, the crew skills affect vehicle performance differently with the various vehicle types. Naval crew skills make a much bigger difference than tanks or planes, quite noticeable really. But all those things come with time. Just have to reside yourself to the fact that if a vehicle you are playing is Aced, there is nothing more the game can give to you, and if spaded . .  that's as good as it gets . .  something else to consider

Good Luck!

[Batwingsix 721]

5 hours ago, Uncle J Wick@live said:

 

Are you sure about this?

 

Imho the RP counter for an "ace crew" (example 570k RP for ace in 5.0 plane) starts from scratch even with a rookie crew...

 

 

 

Yeah, you wont gain any XP towards ace until the crew is at expert. You can play 10,000 battles with it at basic and upgrade and there will be 0 crew experience towards ace

[Batwingsix 721]

5 hours ago, The4thAmigo said:

I appreciate the feedback.  I do have one ace crew in a B-25 but the flight model is still the same, I still get shot down just as much and my gunners are just as useless.  I didn't see any value in it.  I would think a crew operating at 100% efficiency would give you a minor edge in something at least.

 

Ace crew for the B-25 = 

 

Less spread on bomb drops (They will deviate once dropped which is most notable the higher altitude you are)

The aircraft wont deviate in flight (if you fly straight and level with a basic crew you can watch the gun reticle move around, as you increase crew skills that stops until there is no deviation at a maxed out crew)

Guns take longer to jam during cyclic fire

Re-arm and repair speeds at the airfield go down to a few seconds with minimal damage, and will be substantially faster with heavy damage

Crew (including pilot) are less prone to being killed in a single hit from a round outside of a cannon shell

Crew wont suffer from GLOC from sustained high G maneuvers as fast

Gunners will target faster (both AI and when player controlled)

 

So yeah, there is a difference, it just doesnt make a massive difference unless it is a situation where that split second could save you.

[Real K Soze@live 407]

1 hour ago, Batwingsix said:

Yeah, you wont gain any XP towards ace until the crew is at expert. You can play 10,000 battles with it at basic and upgrade and there will be 0 crew experience towards ace

 

Thx for clarification, never tried it due my habit to buy expert level :-)

 

 

[Real K Soze@live 407]

1 hour ago, Batwingsix said:

So yeah, there is a difference, it just doesnt make a massive difference unless it is a situation where that split second could save you.

 

Good summary, the main practical benefit from my pov is the extreme fast gunner reload time in the air.

 

6 hours ago, The4thAmigo said:

I still get shot down just as much and my gunners are just as useless.

 

Assuming that you are able to fly and to use manual gunners at the same time and your situational awareness is good enough to spot incoming fighters at longer ranges, you are able to open fire at very long ranges (around 1.8 to 2 km) and spraying them down or at least scare them away until you reach friendlies. You outrange every other gun with 0.50 cals except Swedish 13.2 and this insane cannon in the ITP which can (depending on speed) kill you at around 2 km. So keeping a constant pressure on attackers to evade your constant stream of return fire slows them down and the fast reload time ensures that you can keep this level of pressure hjgh. I mean the main goal is always to keep attackers as long as possible inside your but outside their gun range.... 

 

Furthermore the extremely short target tracking time and good accuracy at close ranges of the ai gunners helps you a lot if you are able to dodge high speed dive attacks and force enemies to overshoot, the few seconds when they fly close near your are usually enough time for them to kill them. You can test this quite easy if you attack ai planes flying straight; all you have to do is to close in from below to avoid their gunners and your upper turret will kill them easy without any effort. If you are too fast your tail gunner will finish them.

 

Ofc, this works best with an ace crew and a level 75 crew slot. And in some planes you get surprisingly often to totally unexpected ai gunner kills. I scored several dozens of not intended kills with my SM 91 in case i messed up BnZ attacks - and during the few seconds when disengaging/extending they fire a few shots and boom. Same when i flew P-61s or Ju288s on my old inactive account.

 

Have a good one!

 

[The4thAmigo 135]

Ok so I'm bringing this back up to ask a clarification.  If I have a fighter and max out the crew points for everything but gunner skills, does the lack of gunner skills have an impact? Should I put points in gunner skills even though I'll never use anything with a gunner in that slot?

[anyuser 5,136]

Gunner skills only affect gunners and nothing else.

No need to skill it on slots where you won't use planes with gunners.