Verblonde

If you're going to make heavy use of her, perhaps the coal mods might be worth considering? I don't think I've got them on mine (well, maybe just hydro), but I would do if I was using her for PvP a lot. Thinking about it, I probably should go and check after work...

Of course not - that would be barbaric. Surely, we all know that the correct theological approach in these circumstances is to chuck someone into the nearest volcano...?

I have all those enabled anyway. I was mainly commenting on whether you need your AA toggled off, or whether it doesn't make any difference. For instance, not all the Kagero sisters are the same: some have AA/detection the same, and at least one has a 0.1 km difference; doesn't usually make a difference, but just once in a while... BTW OP: if you can, it's worth mapping the 'reinforce sector' button to an alternative mouse button; clicking that also activates AA at the same time (assuming the sector thing isn't on cooldown), and can be easier/faster to do if you're trying to manage both air and surface threats at the same time...

Additional (and slightly at a tangent): whatever you choose, don't forget your 'p' key - if your AA range is longer than your air detection range, keep your AA off until it's actually needed - it's an easy way to blow stealth when planes come calling (and I don't think you need to do it on any other class). If you can't remember your AA range and air detection distance (I usually can't); press and hold 'h' in-game...

As others have said, the IJN and American lines are probably your best bet for learning to DD, although neither fits your 'ideal exactly', at least not at all tiers. Americans are 'good enough' at everything, but not usually awesome at anything (unless you count their smoke). IJN are mostly about the torps, until T8, where you get the first 'dakka' option (Aki) on the alternative line. The Americans will teach you about gunnery with floaty arcs, and about how to ambush people (you don't get a stealth torp window until T7); making use of smoke is another skill-set that you'll develop (bonus points for not blinding your own side). The Japanese will teach you about abusing vision mechanics (you will come to love the number 5.4) and how to torp; don't disregard their guns though - used judiciously, they can ruin people's day. Minor note: the US get access to DefAA (can't remember from which tier - 6?) and can have sufficient AA to keep mediocre CVs at bay (don't rely on it though, or waste time building into it). After the IJN/US lines, perhaps look at the original Germans (the new ones are meh, with the T7 being bloody awful) and/or the British (lower tiers can be frustrating, but T8+ are glorious)...

Nah - anyone with Friesland will keep her; she's just being removed from 'sale'... Edit: ignore me - I misread; you obviously do lose Friesland if you swap her out for the Dutch replacement.

For some reason, this old Monty Python thing came to mind:

Entirely true, although presumably WG would hide behind the (rather pitiful) figleaf of 'global changes'. (Don't mind me though, I'm just grumpy because I joined the game too late to stealth fire at people in my DDs.)

<breaks out the pom-poms>

As you know, one of the positives (perhaps the only one?) of the captain rework is the whole 'multiple class skill-trees' thing, meaning that one can pick any class to be a captain trainer. This means you have quite a few options. Orkan is a good trainer for Pan-EU (provided you're comfortable with the radar thing, as that's what makes her), and her heal means her skill build has fairly solid overlap with the regular silver line (Halland, in your case). My approach was to generally use ship mods to buff torps, and captain skills to focus on dakka; since Orkan has weaker torps (one launcher), that works well. In that case, you could move your Friesland to the Dutch version. I gather there is at least one Dutch premium incoming, so there will be captain trainer options there too, although we don't know yet if they'll be any good/fun. For the Pan-EU trainer, you also have the upcoming Ragnar (https://blog.worldofwarships.com/blog/152) although we don't know yet if she'll be any good, or for which resource she'll be available - it could easily be another bloody silly 2 million free xp effort. She could potentially also fill the gap if you move your Friesland to the Dutch nation (well, you know what I mean - get the copy-paste version). Of course, the option is there to just have both versions! I think I read something about a Dutch Leg-end, but I can't remember what was said. There is a splendidly mustachioed captain incoming, but I can't remember if he is actually legendary or not...

That shouldn't be happening - if it is, it's a bug, and time to mud-wrestle the customer service department... The torps do need to be 100% reloaded though; 99.99999999999% won't do it.

Nah: any time you try and put a captain on a silver ship he's not trained for, you have to pay (resources or doubloons). Any time you put a captain on a premium (of the same nation), he'll work fine, but you aren't formally retraining him for that ship. So, he can go back to his original silver ship for free, but any other silver ships will cost. A couple of examples: Jervis captain -> Gallant (free; premium) -> Cossack (free; premium) -> Lightning (pay; new silver ship). Jervis captain -> Gallant (free; premium) -> Cossack (free; premium) -> Jervis (free; captain still trained for original silver ship). New IJN captain from Armory -> Harekaze (free; premium) -> Atago (free; premium) -> Musashi (free; premium) -> Kaga (free; premium) -> Mogami (pay; captains from Armory come specialised for that nation's T1 ship). In that last case, you'll be using a different skill tree for each class (BB skills on Musashi, cruiser ones on Atago, and so on); although not strictly on-topic, be mindful of this as well. FWIW a lot of my captains which get used on multiple premiums have generalist 'good enough' builds that work - as much as possible - on all premiums for the relevant class, rather than being specialised for just one. I do this because the cost of respeccing captains makes the retraining between ships costs negligible by comparison - until WG sort out the captain's skills definitively, it's wise to keep as many with their captain points unassigned as possible.

My feeling is that it depends a bit how 'gun heavy' you go on Halland; my Halland captain is really built for Smaland (Halland is just the silver ship he's assigned to), so most of the focus is on dakka - that works pretty well on Friesland too, although I think I have the 1 pt 'extra flooding' which is wasted in that case. Friesland doesn't get a heal, so there is perhaps less need for the 'extra consumables charge' too. If I were making heavy PvP use of Friesland, I'd probably go with a specialised captain if I wanted an optimal match between captain and ship...

At the moment, I believe it's still technically WiP; that said, the Dev Blog outlines where we are at the moment: https://blog.worldofwarships.com/blog/161 Short version: Friesland stays European, but will be removed from the store; a copy-paste version (although, presumably, with the 'nerfable' label) will be introduced as a Dutch ship. You'll have the choice to swap your Friesland for Groningen in 0.10.7; I don't believe I've seen anything in detail on captains yet, but I imagine the Leg-ends will stay European. I have Friesland, but don't play her that much; my sub-average perspective FWIW: Glorious dakka, but to make the most of it (in terms of raw damage numbers) you really need to camp in smoke which presents a couple of issues: first, you aren't spotting, and second, you're prone to being rushed/torped. No torps, and every fatty knows that; if you encounter anyone manly, they'll charge you and there isn't much you can do about it. You're pretty good against other DDs: smoke/hydro, and the ability to chuck out a *lot* of shells (assuming your turrets don't get hit) can ruin people's day, provided you have mates with you who can fend off the advances of the fatties. Outstanding for 'main gun hits', 'ribbons', and 'fires' missions in Coop (which is mostly what I do with mine). Real ship, which is always good. Edit: as @ThePurpleSmurf points out, the AA is very good too. I haven't made the effort in PvP yet, but I have seen good players make monstrously effective use of Friesland in the DD-hunter role; equally, I've taken lesser players to the cleaners in weaker gunboats, and even torpedoed a couple in their smoke...

Yes - all the time. As you say, you still lose modules, but it would be even worse without PM...!

Short version: no. Essentially, a captain can only be assigned to one silver ship at once (and you have to pay - doubloons or resources - to move captains between silver ships), although they can move between as many premium/special ships as you like without cost. When a commander moves from one silver ship to another, they 'forget' everything prior to the silver ship they were most recently assigned to. There's more on all this stuff here: https://wiki.wargaming.net/en/Ship:Commander

I suspect that you're rather better than the average CV...!

If you're only going to get one, I agree - it should probably be Ise. Besides what you mention, the plane cooldown on Ise is also much faster (2 min, versus 3 min), and you can use Ise in Ops (which you obviously can't with Tone). Edit: I should have included the phrase 'at the moment', as both Ise and Tone have the 'may be nerfed' label...

Yeah, good luck with that. It's not something I go in for (although I'm quite likely to report a blithering idiot in a CV due to their disproportionate negative impact on my team), but I'm afraid that you'll find sympathy for CV drivers is in pretty short supply around here. Unless/until WG unf**k CV-everyone else interactions, anyone who cares about not being reported should probably minimise their CV gameplay; either that, or get good (I'm more than happy to have a decent CV player on my side)...

As others have said, it's deliberate - this is part of how WG make their money; it also has the merit of providing players with an incentive to learn to suck less. If you're finding the silver economy hard work, it's worth refreshing your memory about what drives rewards i.e. relative damage, rather than absolute damage. Happily, focusing on this also increases your chances of winning: 10K damage on a DD will reward you far better than the same damage to a BB; as well as rewarding you better, sinking DDs tends to win battles. There's always a temptation to pound BBs (well, they do deserve it), as they're the biggest most obvious targets and usually easy to hit, but often the harder to hit things will have a far more positive impact on your earnings (and chances of winning)...

It is - I view her as an interesting (historical, as you say) healing cruiser, that gets an occasional plane launch as a bonus. I haven't played many games with her yet (and only a couple - I think - against real people), but you don't have the convenient potential synch between main gun reload and plane launches that you sometimes get with Ise; with the latter, it's possible to launch and strike a nearby target whilst your main guns reload, whereas Tone reloads fast enough that you will always miss potential shots whilst your planes are aloft. That's not necessarily a bad thing, as you can perhaps be doing things with your planes (like spotting DDs, say) while your ship has gone dark to heal. I should emphasise though that I suck in cruisers, so this is the perspective of someone who doesn't want to be bored, but isn't likely to carry in any cruiser - if you're after the view of a decent player, I'm most certainly not qualified!

I did; if I have to play T8 cruisers, I tend to prefer ones with healing potions, and she is quite interesting to play. Mind you, with three minutes between plane launches, she seems to mostly play like an Atago that has two fewer barrels, but doesn't have to give as much broadside to fire all guns (whilst getting the 'bravely running away' torp angles of the silver line. The planes give you that nasty spotting trick though, just not as often as Ise's do (until she gets nerfed)...

I haven't worked anywhere near the gaming industry, but in the areas that I'm familiar with, you have to be a little cautious with discounting new stuff (quite apart from the whole 'price establishment' business); if you train people to expect discounts on new stuff you risk those reductions simply becoming 'the price', which can mess your finances up if your planned P&L was built around the full price. If I were WG I might perhaps make modest discounts on new stuff available to anyone with at least a month of premium time on their account, or something like that; then again, I'm an unprincipled scumbag...

<thoughtful contemplative pause> Naaaaaaah!

Aye; it's the weekend though, which brings out the 'occasional' players, most of whom don't have the time to get good. I've spent far too much time on this game over the years, and my overall WR is only a measly 48% (plus change) - imagine how dreadful a lot of folk will be who only get to put in a couple of hours a week. If you actually want to progress in Ranked, generally avoid playing at the weekend...