

The cruisers with good AA are feared by CVs, so planes will avoid them like the plague. There are two types of cruisers in the game: cruisers with good AA and cruisers with bad AA.

One thing I'd advise against is taking an AA build (and not just because I play CV a lot). Radio Location might be useful for DD hunting cruisers (especially if you need to compensate for not having radar), but I don't have much experience with it. RN and other cap-support CLs benefit from Smoke Screen Expert and Vigilance, but I would consider both of these more as luxury skills (especially given the recent changes to RN smoke). Demolition Expert is best for ships which rely on rapid fire HE spam.

Depending upon the caliber of their guns, IFHE can increase the effectiveness of your cruisers significantly, especially if your play style involves lots of long range HE slinging at BBs. Other skills generally depend on the particular line you are grinding. Ive found Priority Target, Expert Marksman, Adrenaline Rush, Superintendent and Concealment Expert to be pretty universal amongst my cruisers.
