I never have figured out what I am doing wrong, but I almost always die way before everyone else if I am playing with ships ranked 5 or higher. Then any ship below rank 5 I dominate in way too easily.

Beyond my skill, World of Warships takes forever to play a match and has about five minutes of downtime before reaching a position to start firing at the other ships. Then some of the ships take too long to reload and by then you are already dead if you miss. But it is a cool game and I prefer playing as the aircraft carrier most of the time.