Hey guys! Today we take a look back at the Tier X Japanese Heavy Cruiser Zao, enjoy!
Outro Music: Stranger Think- C418
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World of Warships- The Ship That Aged Like Milk
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zao WAS an amazing ship, she also WAS only 1 of 2 cruiser lines …
zao cant even get an HP buff …
They actually nerfed the Zao 20% rudder shift bonus of the legendary mod no so long ago. I raised hell over that one because it was a perfect example of why the community has no trust in WG collective intelligence level. But really, the singular problem with the game is the poor players causing crap matches over and over.
@robbie burtt The problem is if the community bitches about everything and we both agree it does, the opinion of that community becomes worthless. This means that when stupid shit like the ARP Yamato which should have just been a camo, it just blends in with all the other bitching.
It’s like if you had a friend who complained about every restaurant you go to, at some point you’d stop listening even when he is right on occasion.
@Marcus Jones Stinks Dockyards are a prime example of this, seriously the dockyards are a cash grab? The PR sure it was a fucking disaster and stupid system. The new dockyards include effectively every fix sane people wanted. The mission requirements are sane, the resources required to spend are entirely predictable and known when you buy the ship now. The dockyard is entirely a play for discount on a premium. I swear players in this game are secretly all masochistic, deliberately going out of their way to screw themselves so they can revel in it being screwed over.
@SuperToastBoi The problem is the communities view that everything is against the wishes for the community. WG could give everyone 20k dubs tomorrow for free and there would still be a massive shit storm about it. Don’t ask me how but God damn this community would find a way. If I was WG I wouldn’t waste my time listening to the community either.
@Nicoli Voldkif seems to me at least ” the community” isn’t the majority but the voices that suits WG.
tbh 20% rudder removal wasn’t too bad
But yeah it hurt
This ship and the Henry IV both suffer badly
Henri is still amazing idk what you are even saying.
Henri still holds its own, has high dpm thanks to reload booster and top tier speed by french engine boost grace. Maybe you are not playing it the way you should
The Henri has its own gimmick which is the reload speed booster, the Zao has nothing for it just standard heal, hydro and fighter or scout aircraft.
But then again Zao is a much more older ship made for the meta 4-5 years ago….
umm no, Henri is quite strong, just not as insanely broken like before
Why do you say that ? H4 is still amazng
According to WG, Zao’s armor and her fire power are good. That’s why they don’t give her any buff.
Literally one of the most obvious and dumb lies they have publicly stated recently
I mean what can i say, these devs don’t play their own game.
@Nathan Jones
As someone who has the Zao for the longest time all i could say is ”Huh?”
All IJN cruisers are floating citadel the Zao is not an exception, it get citadel damage from just a slightly boardside.
The citadel layouts is very simple, a huge block in the center above the water line, there is nothing troll about its citadel.
And no, the Zao armor is worse than the Hindenburg, it made out of 25-30 mm plate and torp bulge, It has no belt armor nor ice breaker bow like Russian, Italian or German cruisers.
Not sure what you meant by it being small, it is not the size of a large destroyer, it is as large as any other heavy cruisers and also rather sluggish with large turning radious.
It can not stealth torp unless is it built with concealment upgrade but even so the ship is not ideal to be used for stealth torping, it is too sluggish and lightly armor, and if it get caught either because you could not get out fast enough or a DD spotted you before you reach torp range, well, you are fucked, everything can lolpen the Zao, and 40k HP you die extremely easily.
Unlike the Mino tho which is not only more maneuver and better concealed but also has smoke if it could not retreat in time.
But then again you’re playing the Zao wrong if you try to become a torp boat.
I will say this for the zao: she is incredibly accurate (sigma and dispersion I think) and she makes you play smart. You can get away with alot less with the zao then other ships so she makes you a better player. I do agree she desperately needs some love. Also the torps are a trap only use em when your silent and don’t do what sealord did at the end there
You know Wargamings philosophy… Newer is better because we can make more money off it!
Don’t forget, “If it ain’t Russian, don’t buff it, nerf it!”
Thats WG for ya. Looking at the stats: “Those are good, we dont know what you’re on about” Dont even bother to play their own game
The problem with the Zao is the problem with the Japanese Cruiser line. From the Tier 7 Myoko through Zao…they all basically have the same amount of Health. The health of the ships does not improve as you go up the line, which is unlike all other lines. I think the Japanese cruiser line is strongest at tier 5 thru 7.
Myoko is a monster at T7 and Atago is at T8, they have great survivability, with incredible accuracy, and the armor can be pretty troll. The best way I heard it described is you just get a better turret layout, because that is Myokos biggest weakness, terrible gun angles and they are incredibly fragile, while Zao looks bloody good with the gun layout but she sure doesn’t seem like a T10 cruiser.
Remember some years ago she was buffed? She got the 12km Torpedos back than. She only got the 8km at first!
10km wasnt it?
I’ve just finished my Re-Grind of the Japanese cruisers and I actually really enjoyed it. I played the entire line as I would a light cruiser, rather than a heavy cruiser, so making sure I’m able to dodge shells (instead of simply angling to bounce shells), getting into safe-ish flanking positions and going undetected asap if I’m taking fire and then raining HE; I loved it. Aoba, Myoko, Ibuki and Zao were absolute joys to play because I could sit on a flank being an annoying sod. The amount of times BBs and even other cruisers gave up shooting at me because I was jinking like crazy and there were bigger, meaner targets they needed to shoot at was really satisfying. First time through was horrible because I wasn’t as experienced at the game and I kept trying to play like a USN heavy cruiser.
The power creep has made it one of the hardest lines to play well and the lack of utility in Competitive has hurt the line, but they are definitely still fun.
they should bring back the legendary mode that made it as agile as a DD
Cuz it’s clearly a bigger dd.
And it would help to dodge some dev strikes like you could get nowadays
SLM: You just had a bad luck streak. The game is so campy and HE focused now, that a ship like Zao is pretty ok.
Zap is he focused if that is the meta this ship should be amazing
I think this ship is is ok if not good but a slight buff is needed
What zap really needs is a lot of he spammers to be neffed to be pasiffec every ca utter then the British#premiums soviet and the us lines
@the soviet union Problem is the ship is up agaisnt Des Moines which is insane with its auto loaders, and incredible AP.
Ahh yes, WG consider this ship fine cause large amount of battles played
WGs latest statement to Zao: “Why should it need Buffs !? It is in a good state.”
They have no clue… It needs 10k more HP. And either more range or better reload.
Zao used to be able to stealth fire, when they changed the plume detection mechanic it killed the zao
and most of all, most of ships in the Japanese cruiser line were real unlike certain other other nations where their ships are purely based on Stalin’s fantasies
The whole game is aging like milk.
Sad but true 🙁
Trivia, Conqueror was once called “Mega Zao”, its derivation (thunderer) is still one of the ship considered OP in the game, not so much for zao…
The Zao used to be a nightmare way back in the day when you could fire beyond spotting range and stay undetected.