If you only want the best, then purchase elites. Or you can do what I did.. Slowly upgrade to elites when they become available on trade for a good price. CVs are a cash cow.

If you play a nation with lower than average fighters then you'll want elites, my RN fighters are Elites. and it helped a lot against T2 planes when leveling. For US i'd say that 11 was fine.

now as you only need +11 for fighter, the ones you have now are good but you need to give them alot more vets and experts to be usefull as you get T3 in 5 lvls and boost them also it will give 20% extra ability and in ability growth aswell

only if you want to start the grinding again

if you want to do that get elite fighter pilots plus 1 elite fighter pilot but turn it into a seaman

For a US cv, your crew looks fine. Maybe boost the fighters and get vets and experts on them, but no need to go back and redo elites unless you really want to.

It doesn't matter when you boost them, it does the same effect if you boost them at lvl 1 or lvl 120, if i were you i would boost them and vet/expert them.

its true the when to boost doesnt matter, but, but , but, ftrs have no ability caps sooooo.........

A +11 is ok, but it will get dominated by US (and most other nations) evbe pilots, because of the no cap thing. the strength of a US CV is its ftrs, this should be the first sailors you make the best possible.

some sailors have ability caps like reps or gunners and these are where you cut your cost to play down.  there are several post about US ftrs and ftrs in general. the vets and experts are probably the most important stat on ftrs, but without the cap a +13 most of the time will beat a +11 with all things =/=.

also if you havent classed them as ftr squad leader yet dont.......I hear tell about that cutting down the max number of sailors per pilot.

take advantage of events and get as many vets as possible. what i do is w/e i get less than 50 or so rookies i try to convert a few experts up to vets.

so the real question is, good enough or great ftrs. is the reward worth the time put in.

I grinded 3 CV BO's to get my ftrs where i am happy with them.

if some thing has changed I havent heard of it. I do not think it has. to the best of my knowledge ftrs, planesman, and engies do not have a cap.

all sailors do not cap, most do but a few do not.

you do not have to put any actual money into ftrs if you take advantage of events or trades.

150 vets is easily attainable by level 110, and ftrs gain experts all on their own quite well.

 0-70 is not that hard of a grind but, 70-120 with inferior ftrs will be a nightmare.

0-70 takes a couples weeks or a month, from 70 to 120 will take months or a year. 0-70 is easy, 70-120 is long grindy grindy. the high levels is why its called a grind.

if anyone "KNOWS" (not guesses) different, please let me know.

also, please do not misinform other player, thats not nice.

I have USN CVS..CV BO is presently lvl 100.   Have Essex, Lexington, & Ticonderoga CVs.

A boosted Elite FP is the way to go.    I presently have 3 lvl 87 non elite boosted FPs and two lvl 80 Elite boosted fighter pilots.  (I won the elites in drops and steadily leveled them up.)

The non elites have 100 to 109 vets, full experts, and a few rookies whos job is to be killed.  The Elites have 80-90 vets, full experts, and a few rookies.


When you calculate true ability of the fighter pilots, the elites although they have fewer vets, fewer experts, and smaller crew counts because of being 7 lvls less.....the Elite FP are as good or slightly better then the no elite fighter pilots.

In this case, the Boosted elites are equal to boosted fighters 7 levels higher.   As the Elites lvl up, they will surpass the non Elites.  

In battle, the elite FPs are as deadly as the 7 lvl higher FPs.   

You want to get Elites and boost them.   Those are the best.   The only better FP would be to win or  buy a Hero sailor, boost him and make him into a fighter pilot.