It doesn't matter when you class them as chiefs only when you first class them as
reload gunners. That is the time when you lose out on reload/accuracy growth.

I'm not sure why my response, meant for the CV crew classing thread, has landed here...

Weight Does Matter on BBs

Angus is correct Level them to at least 89 Yamato or even higher.

The correct Guns for the Yamato arrive at 91. If you later use the AA
on CVs (few do) you have great AA Guns.

103 or even 120 if you can Level then AA on many different ships pushing it ahead.

Weight plays almost no role in the survivability of a CV. If it's being shot at, it's too
late, and the chance of you over-displacing a CV6 are pretty low unless you're feeding
them potatoes all day.

Actually there is no point to not class them when they reached the reload cap. That is
depending on how many vets/experts you put on and whether or not you boost them. With a
normal BVE (100 vets, no rookies left) they should hit the reload cap around lvl95 if I'm
not mistaken.

edit: no wait, there is a point to still not class them. If you power level them to 120 and
class only then they'll be lighter. :P

Everything you wanted to know about this is in the Longrooster Sticky.

If you have already classed your armament sailor into gunners, then it is too late and
you should class as soon as you can.

Don't fret, you can overcome this to some extent by spending $$$ on MEGAvets. Or
just dump them and start over.

You should wait as long as you can before classing your armament sailor to dp gunner.
One good way to do this is to use your armament sailor to fire hedgehogs in the t-slots
of your Mog/Kongo/Fuso/Ise/Nagato.

As late as possible.

If he's already been classing them on time (or at any point made them AA/DP gunners), he
might as well go for chief. All of the problems with IJN AA gunners (loss of reload...
and repair) are in the first classing, while subsequent classing gain crew that can at
least partially offset this.

As for actually trying to hit the reload cap... good luck. My info the FAQ is partially
incorrect and partially out of date. It will be updated when I finish getting better
data, but the point of keeping them armament sailors until at least level 62 still stands.

I assume he class everything on time except chief dp gunners yet.

Meh, there's alot of opinions on the level to class AA gunners for IJN, personally I'd like
this to be open for discussion.

If you have a B65, Class at lv 63.

If you don't have a B65, class at lv 89.

If you have less than 70 vets, class at lv 100. (I think that's right at least..)