YUp I havent seen a premium ship come out that didnt have serious drawbacks, in an effort to maintain balance only 1 ship I saw could completely run a fight and that was the KItikami.
That depended on who was in the boat as well. I was in a match where a Kiti sank 4 ships with one full salvo (40 torps), but they were both enemy and allied. I also ate 2 of her torpedoes, which....hurt.
![that feels better :bhead](http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/Smileys/default/bangheadz.gif)
I did get out of that match alive, even if it was a loss.
![Smiley :)](http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/Smileys/default/smile.gif)
I was really thinking about picking her up, but she vanished.
![Sad :(](http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/Smileys/default/frown1.gif)
Personally, I'd love to see her back. The question is, HOW will they nerf her?
So basically putting in the grind time gets you further ahead than buying the good stuff? Are you comparing fully upgraded purchasable ships (if they can be upgraded) to fully upgraded earned ships?
That's kind of interesting if it's as I stated above. Although I'm guessing the grind is likely pretty onerous to get to the top shelf earned stuff.
Wiley.
Yes and No.
No:
If you put in the gold, you can convert the xp on a premium ship into free xp to use on other ships, much like Elite ships. However, premium ships earn more xp than their elite counterparts, as well as credits. Captains can be trained on them without having to deal with retraining them to the premium ship. Example: I can take my Kawachi Captain and move him to my Atago to get him trained up, then move him back to my Kawachi without having to retrain him to the Atago, then back to Kawachi. Now if I took my Kawachi Captain, moved him to Atago then on to my Kongo, THEN I would have to retrain him. But the retrain would only be for Kongo. The other thing to note is the repair costs of high tier ships. They are...expensive. You can very easily have no credits in a few bad matches where you are sunk quickly in T8-10. Premium ships do wonders, more so than elite ships, in the credits department. The T5 premiums are very solid in netting credits while not be so high in tier that you will lose out if you have a few bad matches.
Yes:
When OBT hit, Atago and Atlanta were pulled after a day or two because a lot of new guys were buying these ships and immediately getting wrecked and/or team killing (not intentional) with torpedoes. I think after a week had passed, they put them back into the shop. By putting in the time grinding, you learn the class better not to mention that your captain will be around what he should be in terms of tier as you progress.
The grind is real, regardless if you use premium ships or not in the grind. But you'll generally have more credits with the use of premium ships than without.
In the end, you don't need premium ships. You don't need premium anything, but I would recommend you keep a few other tiers around. I'd go nutz if was stuck on Izumo, not to mention broke. I need my CA fix as well, and I love to derp around with my Kawachi and Myogi.
![Big Grin :D](http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/Smileys/default/biggrin.gif)