Hayashio

It's not just elevation, it's training speed as well as being able to load the gun in combat. Type 3s required the gun to be at a very low angle (up to 10 degrees at most) to be loaded. The mount's traverse speed also couldn't reliably track a fast moving target like a plane. The Imperial Japanese navy only considered the Type 3 model B (including mod. 2) and the Model D as true DP.

In no way did I say that I condone this nerf to her concealment and maneuverability. All I said was that the changes are not just a nerf but a trade. Whether it's a good or a bad trade is mostly subjective at this point. I like my destroyers nimble and stealthy, but you cant have everything if you want to hold on to the little balance that most tech tree ships still have. Will I play Aki post nerf? No. Kitakaze is much better. That doesn't mean that 6.1 or 6.0 concealment isn't workable. Rudder shift? Thorn in the eye, But it's 1 second. I am not fond of these ultimately stepping stones of ships until you reach something actually palpabale, but it is the way it is.

Kitakaze and Harugumo in Preview! Kitakaze and Harugumo are the final addition to the Japanese off-branch Destroyer line. Both ships are still Work in progress and the information presented here is of the first test iteration! History Kitakaze was a planned improvement of the existing Akizuki class. V7 – or Akizuki-Kai, as the project was named, called for an improved propulsion system, a revised torpedo armament, and even more cost reduction and streamlining in the manufacturing process. And while Kitakaze retains this historical background, Harugumo is entirely fictional (backed however by historical speculation – how contradictory that sounds!). WG refers to it as a presumed successor of the Akizuki line based on direction of development found in historical evidence. In-game rundown Kitakaze takes up the T9 position. She’s has same 10cm Type 98 gun with which the Akizuki is armed, as well as stronger AA armament. Finally, she is the first ship to receive a sextuple torpedo launcher. Modules Harugumo is the second tier 10 Japanese destroyer. She is armed with 5 of these 10cm Type 98 naval guns in twin turret setups, as well as a single sextuple torpedo tube. Both ships have a AA suite consisting of HAC 25mm guns, Bofors “Chi” single purpose AA, and the DP Type 98. In terms of AA, Harugumo and Kitakaze are almost identical. The only difference being the fact that Harugumo has an extra Type 98 mount, while losing 2 Type 96s. Consumable Choice Both Kitakaze and Harugumo receive the same consumables as their T8 sister, which are of course Smoke Screen, Engine Boost and Torpedo Reload Booster. A fun little fact I've found is that while running the premium consumable as well as the mod.3 torpedoes, the time difference to you having your booster and your torpedoes ready is about 3 seconds, meaning that in essence you have 3-5 charges of 2x6. Engine boost is the normal one: +8% Speed, and the smoke is also identical to other Japanese destroyers. Captain Spec To those that played the Akizuki, you know that there are quite a few Captain builds you can go for. Here are the ones I used during testing: Name/Captain Points T1 T2 T3 T4 Strefs' Japanese Gunboat Priority Target Last Stand, Torpedo Acceleration Survivability Expert, Superintendent IFHE, Concealment Expert Harugumo can shoot into the next map across! AKA "this is totally viable!" Priority Target, Expert Loader Last Stand Survivability Expert AFT Concealment, Expert, IFHE Full AA Priority Target, Expert Loader Last Stand or AR BE or Superintendent AFT, MAA, Concealment Expert Gameplay and Conclusion Kitakaze Pros: • Good rate of fire • Hard hitting torpedoes • (¼ Penetration!) • Decent Concealment Cons: • Slow • Mediocre maneuverability Harugumo Pros: • Good rate of fire • Hard hitting torpedoes • Large hitpoint pool Cons: • Mediocre maneuverability • Bad Concealment torpedo dispersion rant Why are the gaps in the centre always so terribly large? Unless your target is twice the size of Alaska, you're going to have a hard time hitting anything. I don't mind dispersion thrown my torpedoes about a bit on the edges, but the middle? really? Considering the Torpedo prediction indicator is always at centre of mass, hitting stuff really becomes a lottery game outside of 8km. Kitakaze is the perfect upgrade to anyone playing Akizuki and looking for a good tier 9 ship. She’s decently armed, has access to the 3m consumable slot, and after the rebalance she will receive improved speed, which will make her very competitive. That, and the fact that Akizuki will lose concealment (and maneuverability), should really make Akizuki players consider switching to Kitakaze. There’s no real downside, considering how T8 MM throws you into T10 matches more often than not anyway. While she can certainly fill the role of a support vessel (in a CV escort role, second line fire support, etc.), she can definitely hold her own against equal tier and even some T10s. Harugumo is a bit of an acquired taste. While she has an increase in firepower of 25%, as well as better range, with the upcoming speed changes to Kitakaze I don’t truly see a reason to play this ship. She is way too big and easily detected. While she has a healthy hitpoint pool of around 29k with SE, you’ll quickly find that much of this will be lost in the first few engagements. Due to the 19mm all-round (and 13mm on the guns, gah!), you become a very easy target for most cruisers and BBs. Harugumo can certainly take on destroyers, but she cannot outspot them, not even the Z-52. You can spec Harugumo for range (reaching a total of 17.5km maximum), though the high arc and high drag shells will take 20 seconds to reach target at maximum range, and most shells, with a penetration of 21mm (IFHE), won’t deal too much damage to most targets equal tier. While these points are true and will stay the same unless they are addressed, I should mention that she may become much more viable with the ¼ penetration changes for HE. This would allow 10cm Type 97s to penetrate up to 32mm of armour (with IFHE). Overall the first test of the new Japanese destroyers was quite interesting, and while not all of them are my cup of tea, looking at the changes, I can certainly see these ships becoming interesting picks, more so for randoms than anything, but interesting picks regardless. A little notice. For here on out, I will be giving away CCT boxes in my preview posts. Hidden in this post today is a secret code word (or rather phrase). The first 2 players that find them and PM me the code will receive 1 CCT Box.

Keep in mind that while Akizuki will have a nerf to her detection and maneuverability, she will still receive the 1/4 penetration on her guns, making her a damage farming monster if played correctly. It's much less a nerf due to her being too powerful, as it is a nerf to facilitate the extra penetration power.

THE RIDDLE HAS BEEN SOLVED! The hidden code phrase was The Ducks are back! Congratulations to the winners. (hidden in the text were letters with a different font, as well as being back to front for extra difficulty!). To those that didn't get it in time, I'll be doing more of these in the upcoming previews, so if you're interested in picking up some of these crates and camouflage, you'll know where to find it!

Forget quadruple memes, I present to you: SEXTUPLES. This should clear up any doubt whether sextuples will be the most effective torpedo launchers in the game. More on Harugumo and Kitakaze soon.

@StringWitch

There was a question asked back when the first sextuple tubes were teased. The question paraphrased was basically asking, whether these torpedo tubes would behave like quads, or more like quintuples. Ideally you'd want quint performance, because generally speaking, you'd still have a single torpedo going somewhere in the direction of where you aimed. The fact that quadruple torpedo tubes' dispersion would more often than not throw a huge gap in the middle of the salvo is probably already known to most of you guys, and this is of course a problem, since you are trying to hit the target in the middle, not 1-2km to the front, and back.

Spoiler: I missed that ship.

DEV QnA WG 15/06/2018 Here's my transcription of the latest Dev QnA with WG's balancing department. I left out some questions (some intentionally, some unintentionally) but I did get most of them. Bold is the question normal font is the answer, and finally any little additions from me are in italic. Note that this isn't 1:1 what the devs said, as it is my personal transcription (apologies in advance for any dents I didn't manage to buff out). Is the tendency of powercreep intentional, or is it a side effect? A hard question - during the years we develop new ideas and mechanics. We don't want to powercreep the game with new ideas, but sometimes it happens. Why is it harder in BBs to punish other BBs broadsiding? From a historical standpoint BBs were supposed to withstand damage from other BBs. Will Zao receive HP buffs? from the survivability point of view, Zao is okay. She has good agility, stealth and range. She will, however get the 12km torpedoes Will CVs get rebuffed again? We're currently working on a new version of carriers, so of course they will be rebalanced. Therefore everything in regards to carriers and planes will be revisited, that includes AA, captain skills as well as the CVs themselves. Do you have any plans to buff Gearing? She was kind of buffed with the Fletcher torpedoes. She's kind of in a nice spot, since she is needed in competitive games. She is also in a good spot for Randoms. Will upgrades and modules receive buffs/nerfs? We don't have such plans. Will BBs overpenetrate with no damage, and if that is the case, what about AP German DD and others CAs and CL? CA AP will no longer bounce on DDs, due to the rework of the destroyer armour layout. We will investigate how BB AP will deal damage to destroyers i.e. Japanese AP. Comeback mechanics for ships of tier 7-8? The reason why not all ships have a heal, is that most nations already have it at t9, and the new module slot. We're looking into making t7-8 cruisers receiving something to allow them to come back. But it will likely not be a heal. T9-10 seems to promote sitting at range and sniping, will this be addressed? It's difficult, you see. The game is more interesting to play if you push. In theory, it sounds like a good idea to cut down the ranges, but that leads to a difficult situations. For the majority of players, playing as safely as possible seems to be the obvious choice, pushing requires quite a bit of understanding of the game, and carries risks. It might be considered for the future. Combined arms (WoT+WoWs/WoWp)? Not possible at the time. What could a tank do to a ship? ;) Rework to Radar for Line of sight instead of going through islands? It has been discussed. Radar is pretty straight forward, if the DD is undetected, you pop the radar and you spot him, providing he's inside the radar's range. (we don't want to overly complicate it). There are considerations for radar countering consumables. Clan Wars with rewards like in WoT (gold, etc.)? We want to develop clan activities further. We've been discussing Global Map, many times. It might not necessarily be the greatest for world of warships. It is possible to have something like this in the future, but not for now. Battlecruisers as a custom class? They're in the game right now, and they function as such, therefore creating a separate icon is a bit of a redundancy. Will we get destroyers with a choice of DWT/Normal torpedoes? With Asashio, we wanted to minimize confusion. Therefore a single choice of torpedoes can be picked, or rather, is available. More accuracy for secondaries? The secondaries are viable as they are right now. It's quite powerful but not overpowered. So, no. Pan-Asia Hsienyang same setup as Benson? DWT torps are quite effective, therefore she isn't in a bad spot, not over or underperforming. We'll look into this if anything changes. Conqueror top guns, reload buff? We don't want to buff straight away. That would mean that instead of using the smaller guns, players would just switch to the other guns and spam HE anyway. We do want to do something different Short range AA gets destroyed really quickly, deliberate? Yes, Mid and short range AA was very lightly armoured, therefore it makes sense that HE splash knocks them out quickly. Have any ships had their matchmaking weight adjusted? No, nothing affects the matchmaking of ships, nor do player stats. What criteria do you use to determine what bracket a premium will be placed in? First, it's a guess, then it gets set up, and it goes into the balancing/testing process. Do stats and abilities come first? The stats go first of course, since it's directly from the ship's history, then we can do adjustments according to the tier it fits best. How much time does it take to see whether a ship doesn't perform as desired? Depends - Normal ships 1-2 months. We of course check the stats from the first week, but generally better players get the ship first. How long does it take to determine whether changes to a ship are successful? Sometimes too long! Difficult, sometimes. For instance, conqueror, stat-wise, it's not the greatest ship. From a community perspective, it is infamous. Radar performance effect on Destroyer population? the DD population is currently affected by the American-arc. A lot of cruisers, less DDs. That goes for any new branch though (i.e. BBs and DD influx, etc) How are hitpoints determined? Formula for every class (displacement, different factors) from that an approximate health pool is determined, and is later tweaked. There are rules how we calculate parameters of a ship, generally we leave it at that, but sometimes we need to tweak it (buffs, nerfs) Izumo getting some love? Regards of the Izumo - We will look into her, she's not that bad off, even though people like to complain. It is however somewhat underperforming. It is a bit hard for people to ajust to the new playstyle from the good old Amagi. Keep in mind that this was the first BB line. similarly with Nelson, which was considered with the RNBBs, but was not chosen due to different playstyles. Is the Giulio Cesare the Nikolai of T5? No, at the moment it doesn't look like it, but we will look into it. Ships that are highly reliant of IFHE, do you make specific changes according to ships that rely on this skill or not? We look into the stats of our supertesters/production testers, and then we decide what to do with the ships. Com Perks are part of balance of a ship, of course we want it to be well balanced on average. Of course we're not just looking at average numbers. When we release a ship to production test, we benchmark the performance. We look at how players do in similar ships, and how these compare. When balancing a ship, do you factor in divisioning? The divisioning factor is not a primary part of the balancing. Although we do consider this. Do you think, the future CV rework will have an impact of every t4+ ship? Yes. Absolutely. The AA will be reworked, we'll see what else we need to change, hopefully not too many drastic changes. Why is it that post global changes, certain ships were not adjusted? i.e. Blyska and Kutuzov? Kutuzov was balanced initially with skill rework in mind. Blyskawica's performance is okay, she isn't the best on her tier, but it works. Will Roma get buffed? No, that is not planned. She has trade-offs. Shima 20km, WHY? Players like the 20km, and many players still use them, they are easy to play with, and they don't overperform. It's a perfect example of ship that is super popular, but not powerful. The opposite would be a carrier, who has a lot of power, but isn't particularly popular. Plan to nerf the HE penetration of german CAs? It's kind of a national trait to have improved HE penetration. We do not plan to nerf it. Montana has got the worst guns for a T10 BB. plans to improve? No, Montana is in a good spot. Will there be compensation after the CV rework is implemented? Absolutely, we try to compensate players accordingly (note generous compensation). HE drag value nerf? It would be an option. But for the time being RNBBs are not overperforming. Long range HE spam would be less effective, but it will most likely not change the playstyle of the majority of players that like to practice this kind of play. It would also punish players that don't practice this playstyle, as they'd have to readjust. With the amount of radar, will DDs receive stealth fire again? There are no DIRECT changes to radars planned. We have considered adding consumables to counter it. Tweaking AP bombs to deal more damage to t8+ BBs as opposed to no damage? Not for the time being, we're currently focusing on the CV rework. Upcoming special modes: Is there a timeframe for their arrival? We have a seperate team that dedicate themselves to test new game modes. It is quite difficult and requires a lot of experimentation. As you know the most successful tests come with events. (no ETA) What tiers will they be at? There are currently multiple tests on different tiers, but that has not been decided yet. Manual secondary control? The biggest issue is the change of context. Even with the 30 reload, there is still a lot going on. WoWs Blitz has this feature. Stats show that not a lot of people actually use this feature. Changes torpedo dispersion? It's worth taking a look into. Tier 9 ranked? Very few people keep their T9s. Therefore we have to take this into consideration. We're asking people to spend a lot of credits for them to rebuy ships just to participate. How are premium ships decided on? That opens up several questions. Does the community influence the choice of premium ships? Yes. Perfect example would be Haida. Another example: Roma. Of course we do listen to players and we try to accommodate to this. As for the roadmaps on premiums. There are many different factors. Community, distribution of existent Premiums, which classes and nations have premiums already. Among other factors. How successful did you find for this ranked season? The best season was s.4, the current season, s.9 was the second most successful ranked season. The general reception was good. some players loved t10 others hated it. There is an experiment to make a more casual season this year. Are there any other changes for the Supercontainers? Something that we want to look at, but not just the SCs, the whole logic behind the regular containers. We're not satisfied with how the work at the moment. Stalingrad staying in the arsenal forever? Stalingrad will stay there, if we *do* plan to remove it, we'll notify everyone in a timely fashion. Are you willing to reveal what the next big line for WoWs is going to be? We can't reveal the exact ship lines here. It will be revealed quite soon, though. (Gamescom??) Rewarding players for playing the objective? We have already added quite a few features which incentivizes players to play closer to the objective, and we plan on adding missions to reward this. Individual specific keybinds for consumables? Difficult with 8~ consumables and only 5 maps. We did consider allowing to swap the slots in which consumables can be placed. No decision have been made yet. Dedicated spectator mode? It's in works, there are changes already on the server-side. The biggest issue to add this to the production environment, is there needs to be a fundamental rework of the in-game HUD. The basis is 6 years old, so changing it is very work intensive and takes a lot of time. I wish I could say that we can deliver this year, but I doubt it. Teaching players to improve? the problem with education is that it is entirely up to the person themselves to improve, people who want to get better will always find ways to improve, people that don't, won't. We do want to create a place where people can learn, with tutorials, and hints, more of that in the future. What about the render changes, how's the progress? It is progressing. It is much less of a render problem, than a client filter problem. We want to introduce it in 0.7.7, but there are issues with it. We're are trying our best to fix it, and we're working on it. If not 0.7.7, then it will be a must for 0.7.8? CV Rework open the ability to field BBV and CVE? Yes. Radar to be taken into account for matchmaking? Difficult. Matchmaker is very sensitive. It might work at some peak hours, but not at all times, therefore not planned. Multiple Spotting Icon info? We need to look into it. Carrier sales on hold until Carrier Rework? Yes. Game really slow in port, as well stuttery, is this going to be fixed? It's a challenging thing, but we are working on it. Carrier input limited by UI? Yes, we're working on improving it. No ETA. Do we want to increase the role of support activities in terms of credits and experience points? We don’t want to go too far into this. You will still get a decent amount of credits and XP for spotting and tanking, but at the end of the day we still want to reward the actions that lead your team to victory, which is, capturing points, sinking ships and dealing damage. Any chance of allow this to be displayed in game or at the end of the game? With the current system it is impossible to say in real time what amount of what is calculated in which way in real time, therefore displaying this is impossible. The problem is, it had been tested in World of tanks, displaying what actions reward the player the most, he will try to exploit the system. Adding premium ships as bots in training room? More customization for the training room can definitely be considered. We need to bounce back with the team. How about giving XP by giving a smoke screen to your allies? Unfortunately these hardcore economy questions I cannot answer. Perhaps these can directly be asked in a QnA for economy. Consumables like an AOE heal? Yes, we’re considering looking into consumables like this. Special captain on carriers with plane trails? Absolutely possible (Fara: Doit). Is the introduction of Steel and Coal the new way of receiving reward ships for CB and Ranked seasons? Yes, the rewards were getting somewhat out of hand. Steel and coal should streamline it.

Hi guys, As you might know, WGFest opened yesterday in Moscow. Wargaming spoke, among other things, about the some of the roadmap ahead in 2018 for World of Warships. The presentation started of with a recap, we're going to skip that, since let's be honest, you guys have been here, and know what's in the game right now. They also presented some statistics from clan battles on the CIS server, which also has limited relevancy for us, and talked about the top 3 clans in Typhoon league. Now, what's new? Event Arcs Wargaming wants to implement something called event arcs. What that basically is, is a period of time where the whole theme of the game is based around a certain nation, and/or ship line (most likely with each new release). This includes, but is not limited to, a special commander for said nation and ship class, and a special, nation themed port. The first line to have this implemented is going to be the new French BB line. This sounds like an awesome idea. Not only will you be able to pick up a new special commander for the new lines, but you'll also be able to receive a new port. This means content, content, content! I know special commanders have been a much requested feature, and the added bonuses will surely bring joy to a lot of players. (what do you guys think?) New USN Cruiser Split This isn't news per-se, but WG touched on the new cruiser split happening in 2018 for the US cruisers. To those that missed it: If this goes like the IJN/RU split, I definitely recommend keeping your Cleveland in port. Wargaming states there will be a lot of bonuses for those that have the Baltimore too (wink, wink, nudge, nudge!). Worcester looking definitely like a Minotaur, only time will tell what exactly the play style is, but think RNCL, but maybe with HE? We'll see. Clans Are Getting Some Love Seems like Wargaming likes the way the Clan mechanics are develloping. Clan wars was an overall success. You can expect to see more clan oriented game modes and rewards for this high tier gameplay! We're also going to see new upgrades for the naval bases. Seems like it's the prime time to join a clan. If you haven't and are thinking about doing so, these are some news that might be of relevancy to you. As for all people that are in a clan already, awesome stuff! Some More PvE Stuff Similarly to clan wars, PvE seems to have been a great success. To comemmorate this, Wargaming has been busy making new, more challenging PvE missions. If you haven't played these CooP missions yet, I thoroughly recommend them. They're a lot of fun. A lot more relaxing than randoms too, and you can earn some sweet medals and consumables while doing so. It's nice to see that the less competitive people get attention too. Stark contrast, huh? PvE and Clan wars. More, uh, In Game Cash? I have some mixed feelings about this. Wargaming wants to add new currencies that you can spend in the game. I do hope it won't be another premium currency. Though if you have played tanks, or maybe World of Warplanes (it's actually pretty good, honest!), you'll have seen things like tokens, and such. In WoT you can buy some extra bonus effects for installed modules or consumables with a special kind of currency (I honestly don't know what it's called though). You can earn it by playing Tier 10 and/or the new ranked game mode (Also tier 10). In WoWp you can collect token via daily missions to unlock the new bomber class. Wargaming said that we'll be able to spend this special currency on camo, flags, etc. That I am sure many will welcome. Blasting around in a Tier 10 ship to gain some credits to blast on some Sierra Mikes doesn't sound bad, right? Furthermore you'll be able to revisit some of the old events, maybe pick up that Kamikaze R that you didn't manage to get because of work. Not bad, though I think it's a shame since that'll make those ships just a little bit less special. Our Calls Have Been Heard! I know WG is actively trying to make the game as frustration-free and fun as possible. Though at times it may not seem like this, the following news will be pretty big for a lot of. Wargaming admitted it. Detonations can't stay the way they are right now. While I don't know what they have planned, and I highly doubt that it will be completely removed from the game, they are clearly aware of it and are trying to find a way to, make it less, you know. Annoying, infuriatin- ANYWAY They're also continuing work on CVs since that's an eternal problem still, and want to improve the matchmaker, so you don't end up in tier 9 all the time, while playing your Belfast, you sealclubbing monstr- Some Nice Little Tid-Bits We'll be seeing player emblems making it into the game. Those of you that played LoL (and I am sure a lot of other games have it too), will know what I am talking about. You'll have the choice of selecting an emblem ingame to complement your name, and ranked season rank. You cannot upload your own image (god forbid the amount of monitoring that would require) and WG says that you will have a big enough choice, but we'll see. There's also a new port camera, which will make looking at your boats more...cinematic...? Accessible...? We'll see! Finally we'll see a new free premium ship, the cruiser Varyag. There was a big emphasis on this ship. While it's history is surely important, it was a bit more of fan-service for the Soviet side of the world. Free ships are awesome though. Go Varyag! that's V A R YA G, not a fancy form of a Russian swearword! As always, discussions welcome. What do you think of these changes and upcoming features? Strefs out!

All of these questions were asked by either NA, EU or Asia CCTs. The RU CCTs had a separate session.

As stated, they will look into this second alternative. They elaborated on the first point of having INDIVIDUAL keybinds for each consumable. They were referring to the matchmaker itself. Might be overbuilt, might be too fragile. As it stands getting a match is prioritized over having equal distribution of radar ships. Sure the idea itself might seem simple and straight forward, but putting it into practice might not be. Whether WG built themselves in with the way they handle the MM is a subject in and of itself, but from my understanding, it is not doable, or not worth the amount of possible damage it can do if it doesn't work out. Yes, but at the end of the day someone has to do the damage. Don't get me wrong, I don't condone the sit back damage farm. Someone still has to sink the ships though. Spotting alone won't kill an enemy, even though it might cause a DD captain a heart attack.

Torpedo launchers, especially quadruple tubes are notorious to throw huge holes between the mid section of the torpedo dispersion.

The questions? Asked by fellow CCTs. The transcription is mine. Some of it is original (the exact wording that was used), but most of it I have altered to be shorter (hence the up and down in quality). This is until the original recording is out, which, has a few more questions and is about 2 hours and 30 minutes.

correct

ABB I'd think (Aviation Battleship).

Kitakaze and Harugumo In [early] Preview The information presented in this preview is marked “Work in Progress”. The ships in question are therefore still subject to change. Take everything you read here with a grain of salt. History Kitakaze was what the Japanese Navy referred to as the “V7” project. It was supposed to be improved, more streamlined in production version of the existing Akizuki-class destroyer. Kitakaze was to be faster, have improved AA performance, be cheaper to produce, and feature an experimental 6×61cm torpedo launcher. A peak speed of 36.7kn was to be achieved, and existing work on the prior “V6” Super-Shimakaze was cancelled in favour of V7. The first few ships in the class were directly transferred, while the last set was to be purpose built. None were produced by the end of the war as shortages became greater and greater, and finally the war had ended. Harugumo is Wargaming’s take on what a feasible successor of V7 might’ve been like. She features even more AA, the experimental Japanese Bofors-Chi, as well as an extra 10cm mount towards the aft. There is no more history to this ship. In-game rundown I will not be mincing words and will straight out get down to business. There are a lot of stats that will be interesting but we’ll keep it for the actual review once they hit the live server. What is important right now are the big 4. Concealment, Maneuverability, Survivability, Armament. T9 - Kitakaze [北風] Kitakaze is, for all intents and purposes, a carbon copy of Akizuki, she has 400 more hitpoints, Identical Maneuverability and Concealment. That’s right, she’s still at 33kn. She is however, in addition to the 10cm DP guns, armed with a sextuple torpedo tube now. Kitakaze can dish out a respectably sized spread of torpedoes, albeit at a slower rate than Akizuki (torpedo reload times are dependent on how many torpedoes are in the tube). Pros: Decent torpedo Armament Very good AA armament Cons: Almost identical hitpoints to lower tier predecessor Torpedo reload time Still no defensive fire! Slooooow Conclusion Kitakaze will pretty much be the same as Akizuki. There are no major changes to how she plays. Her AA is scaled a bit to a more reasonable AA setup for T9+, even though she still doesn’t receive defensive fire. The torpedo tube can be considered a useful upgrade due to quad spread being atrocious, But we’ll see how these will perform on the live server (perhaps the new meme launchers). I’d have loved to see her gain her “historical” speed. But Then again, that’s something that might be included in future tests. T10 - Harugumo [春雲] Harugumo is where things start to become interesting. She’s Bigger, faster, and better armed than Akizuki and Kitakaze. Harugumo gains 4000 additional hitpoints. She also receives the same sextuple torpedo launcher, an additional 10cm gun mount (25% dpm increase!). Harugumo gains a top speed of 35.7kn (expect to bleed a lot of that in turns though!). Pros: Strong Armament overall Very good AA armament Sizeable hitpoint pool of 29100 maximum (SE) HISTORICAL CAMOUFLAGE (okay, that might only be a plus for me!) Cons: Detection range of 6.2km! Maneuverability of a small cruiser Conclusion Harugumo will suffer from the same problems both Akizuki and Kitakaze suffer from, but even more seeing as she will ALWAYS see tier 10. I am of course, talking about the fact that her guns don’t allow her to penetrate even tier 8 destroyers. While specing IFHE resolves this problem, you will still have a hard time penetrating cruiser armour. Setting fires will likely be a good way of farming damage off ships in Harugumo. Her fire chance might not be the best at 5%, she will certainly have the fire rate to do so somewhat reliably, should a captain choose not to spec for IFHE. Finally, she will be the least stealthy destroyer at her tier after Khabarovsk, so working with that will be... interesting. So that’s that! These are the new ducks and my initial opinion on both. What I’d like to see I’ve stated above, but here’s a TL;DR: Faster speed on Kitakaze – That’s about it. They both look fun, and should the 13mm change take place, they’ll be able to hold their own against even the most formidable destroyer foes.

Actually, they lose 4 kilometres of range. Type F3s have a total range of 8km, while mod.3 have 12, and mod.2 have 10. IFHE will be necessary as long as the 13mm DD don't reach public. 35.7kn is okay for a Japanese destroyer, but still quite slow for any other nation. 33 knots really hurts though.

probably like this (very scientific) image indicates.

Before I forget to mention it. #duckhype

USS Monaghan in Preview - A weird attempt at a torpedo boat? Unfortunately, WG removed my beautiful red font. So we'll do it in white (or black, or whatever it is for your forum style). As always very work in progress, thing's are subject to change! Take everything you read here with a grain (or pinch) of salt. A bit of history USS Monaghan was stationed in Pearl Harbor in December 1941. On the morning of December 7, she was to rally up with USS Ward - a Wickes class destroyer. Ward was on patrol and had made contact and disabled a submarine. Shortly before Monaghan could set out, however, Japanese planes came pouring in. While Monaghan engaged the air targets, she was notified of second midget submarine entering the harbor. Monaghan went to engage it, dodged a torpedo and then rammed the Ko-hyo, proceeding to drop depth charges on her. The explosions of the depth charges lunged Monaghan's stern into the air, catapulting the destroyer in a nearby barge. Damage sustained was minor, and she continued on her way. The ship Monaghan has received a few changes since the last time we got to test her. At first she was... Just a Farragut, then she was a Farragut missing her aft guns for some extra Bofors. Now she's a Farragut that's missing her aft guns, with a torpedo reload booster. Now doesn't that sound interesting? Alright, the matter isn't as trivial. I'll split this preview into 2 sections, seeing as Monaghan has 2 completely polar opposite hulls going for her. A Hull A Hull is basically Monaghan the way she was first introduced. In this form, Monaghan receives 13900 hitpoints, the standard 5' guns you'd find on most USN DDs in her bracket, an AA suite consisting of Oerlikons and DP guns. She has stock torpedoes with damage lingering around the 12k mark (64kn, 1.3km detectability, 87s reload). B Hull This is where things get interesting. Monaghan drops 2 of her guns for extra AA. instead of the usual 127mm main armament, Monaghan gets some extra 40mm Bofors mounts. These work to improve Defensive AA's output, but you won't be running defensive AA for a simple reason: B Hull benson has access to USS Benson's torpedoes. 55kn, 1.1km detection, 17k damage. Only one downside, it's the reload: 120 seconds. This is why you wil want to be running the TRB, which mind you, is a little different to the one you might be used to from the IJN destroyers. To summarize, we have a Hull that is basically a Farragut with one less gun, and we have a Hull that has superior AA, but completely lacks gun-power. Mounting the B hull makes no sense without the upgraded torpedoes, since the AA improvement is not significant to warrant taking out 50% of your batteries. Consumable Choice: You have access to a non-standard US smoke, The usual engine boost, and the choice between either Defensive AA or TRB. The problem is, with the A hull, Defensive AA only affects your DP, since you don't have Bofors mounts OR HAC. This leaves basically only the Panic, since the damage output is rather low - To put it into perspective, Hatsuharu's (yes, the Japanese destroyer) AA output comes close to Monaghan with Def AA (In raw stat numbers). With the B hull, you'll want to be running the Benson torpedoes, which means that the TRB is almost a must - seeing as it is your sole damage output, and 120s is a long time.. My recommendation: Either play it as a Farragut with TRB and one less gun, (A Hull, TRB) Play it full torpedo spec B hull (AR, SI, TAE, CE maybe even TA) Both options are viable, the former being more "reliable", the latter offering more interesting gameplay. [EXTRA] With the decent AA suite on the B hull, you could even opt to use it as a carrier division destroyer (lots and lots of Bofors!), this will however really bite into your combat effectiveness. Games: I compiled a few screenshots and one match in the Monaghan. Fig. 1: Monaghan in standard setup (A hull, standard 10pt commander build) As expected, Monaghan performs much like a Farragut in the standard setup, but loses out on an American smoke. She does however get the TRB, or DefAA while still retaining her engine boost. Fig. 2: Monaghan in torpedo build, accelerated torps (B hull, 19pt commander setup) In this setup, Monaghan has a decent stealth fire window, very competitive torpedoes, but unfortunately no real gun performance, the only real use for these guns is to finish of enemies (not unlike Mutsuki or Minekaze). Video: Monaghan with a 10pt captain, b-hull (the video speaks for itself, there is a little bit of explanation at the start and towards the end) Conclusion: Monaghan was refreshing. You know, the ship's a bit like an unfinished tech demo of a game, that somehow still manages to captivate you for multiple hours. The drawbacks are quite clear with the ship, but regardless, I feel inclined to try to make the ship work. Take note here please that I am now referring to the B hull Monaghan, seeing as the A hull is pretty "bland" in comparison (aka it brings no real new things to the table). I know it's not very competitive, or good for padding your winrate, but it brings me back to a time where I played silly ships for their unique gameplay - like the Katori - and not for their statpadability. I don't want Monaghan to be the next sealclubber down at tier 6. That being said, with good management the Monaghan can and will ruin an enemy vessel's day. So can I recommend it? That depends on what you're out for, it's definitely unique, but like I stated above, it's not a ship that will be super competitive. If Monaghan stays this way, she'll be a jar of Marmite, some will love her for her uniqueness, some will love her for her collection value. Others will just despise the way she plays.

I think this goes both ways. Good players will have a hard time finding a really bad ship, since they will perform decently in most ships.

Hello everyone! I bring some nice, juicy hi-res information from the CCT Summit in St. Petersburg! Without further ado, let's jump right into it BALANCE CHANGES: A quick word on buffs to existing ships. As some of you might be aware, Shimakaze is getting a concealment buff, she goes from 7.56 to 7.11km! German cruiser Admiral Hipper receives a faster rudder shift - 9.2 s - and an improved reload of 11.5s on upgraded hulls! Prinz Eugen receives the long awaited repair party consumable, making her probably one of the most desirable cruisers at t8 now! In addition to these ship changes, Aircraft spotting of torpedoes has been nerfed down to half of their base detection value. This means that a Japanese long lance with 1.6km detection range will only be spotted by an aircraft within 800m. ANTI-ABUSE: We now have a more unique Anit-Abuse system in works. Pink names will now be considered a warning, further offenses will result in a ban from Operations, Ranked, as well as Randoms, but will still let you participate in Clan Battles, as well as Training rooms and Coop. TIDBITS: There are a plethora of UI and quality of life improvements too. For instance, we now have the option to enable potential as well as spotting damage indicators. There are new ribbons for bombers, new achievements for carriers, as well as more extensive tool-tips on upgrades and captain skills (finally!). Incoming in the next few updates: matchmaker changes, I don't have the full information on this, so we'll have to wait and see. Some of the mid-low tier Battleships and cruisers now have access to float planes (Wyoming, Koenig, NY, Iron Duke, La Galissonniere!) Next ranked season will be T8 and T10: We are getting a new team based event: AMERICAN SPLIT! Probably not really news anymore, but there are definitely some interesting extras coming together with the USNCL/CA split! A unique captain, some interesting looking skins/camo, as well as a totally new collection! And, you are going to love this: NIGHT BATTLES! IJN Akizuki Line is getting more love. What we can expect: Kitakaze is Hull number 5077, not laid down, cancelled. She was to be the lead ship of the Super-Akizuki Class. 36.7kn top speed, 6 torpedoes in a single sextuple mount. Same 10cm Type 98 dual purpose mounts. Somewhat confusing, is this part: Project V6 was to be the improved Super-Shimakaze, which was later re-purposed to be the new Super Akizuki, or Akizuki-Kai-class. The actual designation of the Super Akizuki-class, was however, Project V7 . I don't think that this will really change anything in the long run. Then we have: Harugumo... didn't exist. This one's... A bit more fictional, She seems to have gotten an extra Type 98 mount, looks to be a little more sleek, but larger. Both boast improved AA over the Akizuki (dear god), Maybe Defensive Fire (my speculations, not WG). We don't know just yet. What I can tell you though, is that they are (at least Harugumo, but it looks like they're also on the Kitakaze) armed with 40mm Bofors "Chi" prototype AA guns. A huge improvement over those 25mms you find on virtually all Japanese ships exlcusively. The duck-hype is real, although these aren't really ducks anymore, if you call them this purely by their name.

The complicated Relationship of a Destroyer and her Captain Bad AA, okayish concealment, heavy focus on torps. The smoke is sub-par, like all the Germans. It doesn’t get 150mm like the Gaede. Hit points aren’t something to write home about. But heck, I love this thing. And I’ll tell you why. Let’s first of all give this ship a run down. She’s got a solid amount of hitpoints. 14700, which is a lot worse than the 16500 you find on the Gaede. She shares the same type of guns you can find on the Maass, 4 of them. These are outright better than the ones on the Gaede. They reload faster, and the penetration feels a lot more consistent. In addition to these good guns, she has 2x4 torpedo launchers, which mop the floor with the Gaede’s. The reload is 22 seconds faster, clocking in at 68 seconds base. That’s better than Shinonome. And Shinonome has triples. T-61’s tubes are quads. While we’re at the Shinonome, did I mention that the torpedo concealment is 1.3km, which is 300m better than the Japanese ship? Then again that’s just Gaede torps. Her AA is basically Gaede, with nothing particularly great going on in that department. The Manoeuvrability is again, better than the Gaede. Shorter rudder shift and better turn circle by 90 metres. Lastly, concealment is again, a lot better. She’s got 400m over the Gaede, just like the Shinonome. Not the best in her tier but very workable. So In short, Maass guns, good concealment and torpedoes, bad AA and low hit points. Take away the guns and you’ve got a Japanese destroyer. Except these torps actually work, because they’re fast and stealthy. It’s no secret that torpedo heavy gameplay has had it’s peak and has since then declined rapidly. Ships that only focus on torpedoes tend to be very on-off performers. It requires your enemies to make mistakes, or you to be very risky. In addition to that, it seems that with every new update, this gameplay becomes and less supported. We’ve got spotter/fighter planes that spot torpedoes once, which makes them visible eternally. Now we even have deep water torpedoes that can’t even hit destroyers any more (more on that in my Pan Asia analysis). And everyone and their mother are running hydro (hello you German buggers). I mean even this ship runs hydro! It doesn’t matter what concealment your torpedo has if it gets spotted for 4km away due to perma-hydro ships. When an entire ship line goes from destroying multiple battleships per game to barely scraping by within a couple of patches, you know it’s time to change tactics. So why on earth would they bring out a ship like this? And why does it work so well? I am guessing you can find an answer to the first question yourself, as for the second: The bracket this ship moves in sees a lot less consumable madness than let’s say a tier 7 or 8 premium. The amount of carrier players has been dwindling for quite some time now, so your bad AA is not such a game breaker. The tier position is still very mid tier. This means you’ll be running into a lot of newbies, which makes hitting torpedoes easier. So at this tier, the prospect of a torpedo boat is not that bad, it’s part of the reason why the Shinonome works, she’s got good HE alpha too, though. The guns, like I said, are good, but you’ll be relying on your torpedoes for bulk damage still. As for the gameplay, and why I love this ship. It just performs. That’s all there is to it. It’s not a HuangHe without smoke, that really tries to kill you at every corner you take. It’s not an Ashitaka, which is basically an A-hull Amagi (I apologize if I trivialize things but it kind of is). It’s not a fragile Abruzzi. It genuinely feels fun to play. Your guns aren’t trash, your torps have a noticable “oompf” to them, and by the time you hit something with them, you’ll have a new batch reloaded to fire again. You can simply get stuck in, not worry too much about weaknesses, because this ship barely has any. Time and time again she does consistent damage, rewards players for good play, and doesn’t punish too much when a player makes a mistake (unless it’s a big one, as it should be). But I kind of feel like that’s exactly what’s wrong with her, and new destroyers in general. She doesn’t really have any weaknesses. What the T-61 is, is a Gaede but better. The only downside you have here is no 150mm guns. Big whoop. You get gun range, awesome torpedoes, and concealment. Who wouldn’t want those things? It’s a shame really, because I do like the Gaede, but I cannot go back to her after playing the T-61. A ship I feel like I have a very complicated relationship with.