Panocek

Not quite - German 105 have by default 25mm pen, compared to IJN 100mm 24mm. With IFHE both reach 32mm threshold. Firing arcs are presumably in Hinden favor due to guns not being copy/pasted hastily into deck and are in different heights, not interfering with one another. That and Hindenburg handles short range fight MUCH better due to, I dunno, not having moon sized citadel

Ability to mine salt with overnerfed ship?

inb4 Black B during black friday thingy

And its going to matter so much because there are so many ships with 66mm armor bits

Same with AFT

Not on lowtiers. Heck, even mid tier USN have somewhat questionable AA.

Considering planes fly at mostly constant altitude, I guess manual flak placement in basically 2d space could be a thing, as manually aiming entire available AA akin to War Thunder... dunno. I mean, it can be fun when you can focus on it, but in the middle of a shipstorm, not so much. Actually, flak could have two modes - continuous "stream" or "wall of flak". Either as toggle or, more likely because Wargaming - part of Manual Massive AA

I wonder how DD/torpedo cruisers manage their gameplay switching between guns and torps all the time some hax must be at play

And yet WG pulled Kron and Musashi from sales due to serious overpopulation... on RU server, as EU was mostly fine

Rather they're powercrept by Sinop, as she is 3rd 406mm armed battleship at tier 7, excluding premium Nelson. KGV, Gneisenau and Lyon have smaller guns

But does matter for WG, as they do their balans mostly based on RU stats

First decent battle in Le Faptasque. That ship is quite likeable, if tricky to use. Event camouflage matches Richelieu one in goofiness, or rather straight up recycles fancy brass bits.

Kamikaze R, Tachibana Lima and Albany? Though you could argue if first two should have alternate colors are they literally are alternate color ship Haven't completed gulag collection so can't check if Nikolai/Okt.Rev gets alternate colors as well.

Its hard to suggest premium ships when you don't even know what playstyle you like. Also keep in mind premiums are not safe from "indirect" rebalancing which seems to be WG flavor as of late, making sweeping "tech tree" or "game mechanic" changes, like UK battleship citadel raise, including premium Duke of York. Also keep in mind tier 6 and 7 can participate in PvE Operations, where you can have fun and when winning with 4+ stars, you can make decent exp and credits as well. US: destroyers (DD) - high rate of fire and good turret traverse, but slow shell velocity, thus they excel in short range brawls over caps for example. From tier 7 gain ability to launch torpedoes from stealth with tier 9, Fletcher, being IMO pinnacle of a "no nonsense" destroyer, whole line also have long lasting smoke and from tier 5 onward access to "Defensive Fire AA" to temporarily crank up their AA, but at expense of Engine Boost. light cruisers (CL) - high volume of fire but again, slow shell velocity. It can be frustrating to hit agile targets at range, but also you can use almost any island as cover. tier 7, Helena is one of the best ships of the line, I guess you can't argue with 15gun salvo every 8s. From tier 8 gain radar heavy cruisers (CA) - infamous American Piercing (improved ricochet angles) makes them prime anti cruiser tool, shell velocity is on slower end. From tier 8 gain radar and 27mm hull plating, allowing to ricochet 380mm and smaller AP shells. Tier 6, 8 and 10 are IMO great ships - Pensacola pack hefty 10gun salvo at tier 6, Baltimore have nice mix of firepower and survivability while Des Moines combines CA firepower with CL rate of fire battleships (BB) - until tier 8 they are all glacially slow and their all-or-nothing armor scheme makes them exceptionally vulnerable to HE as well overmatching AP shells. Fun starts from tier 8, as you get workable speed with decent accuracy and, typical for US, "no nonsense" ship design. IJN: destroyers - main branch are torpedo oriented, but from tier 7 their guns are nothing to sneeze at, having one of the heaviest alpha at expense of reload and turret traverse. Side branch from Akizuki onwards are gunboats, relying on their brutal and overbuffed artillery, but are slow to moderately fast and VERY clumsy, almost cruiser like. heavy cruisers - high accuracy and improved HE shells but slow reload. Decent concealment, high speed and serious torpedo armament, but from tier 6 launchers are facing backwards, so more of a kiting weapon. All ships are IMO good, tier 6 Aoba is somewhat overshadowed by Pensacola though battleships - one of the most consistent BB guns, but ships are kinda all over the place - tier 5 Kongo is battlecruiser, trading armor for speed. Fuso is 356mm shotgun with 12gun salvo, on other side Nagato is 410mm "scalpel". Amagi is again battlecruiser but combining accurate 410mm guns with 10gun salvo. Izumo is... speschul and Yamato reigns as "battleship killer", as only her (and her sister ship Musashi) can overmatch 32mm plating, used in battleships. Germany: destroyers - from tier 6 onwards they shift towards "large destroyers", being, well, large in size, but also having extraordinary hp pool. Torps are somewhat weak in terms of damage, but are fast, quite stealthy and quick reloading. Gunnery and ship concealment are somewhat lacking though. Smoke is short duration, but when used together with their Hydroacoustic Search, they can prove themselves to be extraordinary pain in the arse when contesting caps. cruisers - up to and inculding tier 6 they are glass cannons of light cruiser variety, from tier 8 their tankiness start to show up, mostly due to hidden citadel. Entire line have improved HE penetration (1/4 rule instead 1/6), also good range and "German Hydro" with increased range and duration battleships - "tanks" trading main gun accuracy for improved secondaries and all around armor, favoring close combat. High tiers also have access to Hydroacoustic Search to spot torpedoes early as well flush DDs out of smoke. Russian: destroyers - almost entirely focused on gunnery and from tier 7 onward they turn into large destroyers, they also have very high speed to help them with "speed tanking" when they pester enemy team with their standard issue, Russian, Bias, 130mm. Torpedoes, concealment and sublety are not their forte. Minibranch of Ognevoi, Udaloi and Grozovoi is all over the place - first one is freaky torpedo boat, then you shift into all out gunboat and then tier 10 is "gun oriented hybrid", so to say. cruisers - long range spammers with high velocity railguns, fast in straight line but VERY fragile. At the end you have eternal Camrade Moskva - first Large Cruiser in game. Massive hp pool and armor scheme giving borderline ridiculous survivability when angled correctly. Guns are small (for a Large Cruiser) but with quick reload and pack massive punch because russia. Concealment doesn't exist though. battleships - current flavor of the month (year?) - high accuracy on close to mid ranges, very tanky when angled correctly, decent concealment and speed. Aren't completely idiotproof though. UK: destroyers - generalists to the extreme. Okay gunpower, okay torps, okay speed, okay concealment, nothing extraordinary one way or another. They have very short duration smokes but many of them, also long lasting "defensive" short ranged Hydroacoustic Search. Tier 8, Lightning for some reason have 2nd best concealment on her tier, combined with solid gunnery, Hydro and god tier handling makes her excellent cap contester. Tier 9 and 10 use smaller guns and for HE to damage even destroyers IFHE skill is needed. Reload becomes ridiculous tho. cruisers - until Leander they are very mediocre, and line in general is limited to AP shells only. Granted, seriously overbuffed AP in terms of ricochet angles and fuse sensitivity, but AP nonetheless. Tier 7, Fiji is one of the best cruisers of her tier, while tier 9 and 10 are living embodiment of "high risk, high reward" - they are absolute glass, but when positioned correctly they can bury pretty much anything with sheer weight of ordnance. battleships - cruisers are AP only, so battleships are HE only They have access to AP shells, but more often than not, HE remains safer option, especially when guy on receiving end doesn't want to show broadside. France: destroyers - newest additions to the game, from tier 5 they switch into large destroyers. And as WG is running out of gimmicks, they lack smoke, but have Main Battery Reload Booster to temporarily crank up gun reload and French grade Engine Boost, giving 20% bonus instead usual 8%, as "running frenchies" meme must live on Very tough line to do well IMO and completely powerless against carriers cruisers - relatively normal cruisers, but with Engine Boost and Main Battery Reload Booster. From tier 8 onward they get improved variant of Engine Boost, allowing them to exceed 40 knots of speed. Combined with good range, it opens up playstyle similar to Russian gunboat destroyers - high speed, open water shenanigans battleships - line with focus on speed and relatively small caliber guns with Lyon being "exception" - 16gun salvo, although with questionable turret layout, severely reducing amount of guns when you need to maintain angle. Richelieu, tier 8 serves better when played as battlecruiser than "battleship proper", as her armor can't handle HE spam nor massage from Yamato class. But with Engine Boost (because reasons) she can outrun quite a number of cruisers. Unique gun placement with all guns facing forward, which can prove to be a nuisance when running away.

fixed? When we're at it, AFT could seriously see some AA oriented buff, as increasing flak damage, when half the ships doesn't even have flak doesn't make muchos sensos, even by WG standards. Dunno, reducing minimal flak range from 4km to 2km?

Is quite okay, especially as there is almost no flak to worry about

You could say we were "almost there" in terms of balans in previous patch. But then suddenly no one is interested in playing balanced carriers, which may or may not put whole endeavor in question. Heck, boss can consider it even a waste of time and resources, which may or may not be rewarded with one way ticket to gulag hotel Double post strikes back

Then why putting effort in modelling, coding and roughly balancing new DD line, when WG could put out more (premium) battleships? Sabotage from DD separatists in dev team?

fixed

While also removed said flak from 2/3rd of destroyers in game, including brand new addition

You haven't expected game developed by Russians for (Belo)russian publisher, aimed at Russian market to have less than glorious Russian toys have you? To see what happens when you portray WW2 era Ruskies in less than glorious fashion just see Company of Heroes 2 fate in Russia

DD can't pen at all unless IFHE'd Z-23 And as ship went live, direct nerfs are... unlikely.

And I fully intent on getting one, just need to wait till winter for coupon. That or missing 70k coal. Though by then I'd almost expect WG to come up with Kebab 2.0 outfitted with these quad 130mm, because what would be better than HE spamming monster? HE spamming monster clocking 48kts

And? 13 fires from 577 hits gives 2.25% actual fire chance if I can into math. 10.5k exp is nice, but says jack ship about actual base exp and hence game contribution.