That seems to be Wargaming's thing. I hate it, I can't imagine how anyone thinks it makes for a better game, but they always do it.
Still never tried this one, but my biggest gripe with World of Tanks was that I'd keep getting matched with enemies two tiers higher. It was rubbish knowing that there were some people on the other team that I probably couldn't damage unless I got lucky.
Regardless, they make piles of cash, so they must know what they're doing in terms of tempting players to keep on grinding - just keep playing/spending and maybe one day you could own that tank/ship that just outgunned you.
Well, you can damage ships and tanks 2 tiers above you, but what they have is an artificially large health point buffer and capabilities which is pronounced in both cruisers and destroyers, the ability to hose you down with big salvoes of shells frequently and torpedoes. The torpedo salvo numbers is ridiculous, I call it obscene. This seems most pronounced at the Tier 8-10 level. In other words it seems worse when you are in an 8-10 match, as an 8, versus being say a 6-8 match, as a 6.
The other problem is random battles, ie pickup matches where a bunch of strangers are thrown together and the competence of the team varies. I’m too casual to participate in ranked clan matches and consequently you can end up on terrible teams. The worst is at the end of a losing battle, frequently the long run away where you are being pursued by multiple ships and they slowly whittle your health away until you blow up. Now you can just turn into them and go out in a blaze of glory, but the run away tactic, you can get more points shooting while you run.
I’m going to give it a week and it’s very possible I’ll go back, I’ll spend more time at tiers 3-7, than 8, my highest ship.
I was kind of pissed in the Japanese line of Battleships, after having an excellent T6 Fuso, ending up with the wimpy T7 Nagato which I always regarded as a feared ship. You can watch the latter’s armor melt in a good hit.