Verblonde

I probably should have said: I was comparing fully upgraded Lightning with Cossack, both with standard SE captains. I get 18,000 hp for Cossack, and 18,700 for Lightning - that's enough difference to matter now and again...

To get a handle on how the 'new' rockets behave, have a go in Ops, especially now - Aegis provides great practice against a range of targets (and the convoying ships don't shoot back at planes, for some reason). I did a quick run through with Ark Royal last night (on the NA server - they get patches a day earlier), and was getting about the same number of rocket hits as before; *but* this wasn't against targets that can see where the machine gun rounds are going and manouevre to avoid your rockets. To get a sense of how the changes impact proper battles, you'll have to try against real people who are trying not to get hit...

It's only down one turret: Tone has four turrets, all at the front; meanwhile Atago has five turrets, with 'only' three of them at the front. Besides turrets, Tone gets the same torp angles as the regular silver line (Atago's can launch far further forward).

You're quite right; for f2p, Lightning is glorious. I generally prefer Cossack though, because of the extra turret, longer reach on the torps (helpful in a radar-heavy environment), even if you only get the one launcher, and the engine boost. Lightning's AA (for what it's worth) is rather less dreadful though, and she does get a few hundred more hp. Edit (and at the risk of giving WG ideas): if Lightning had a permaflage option that did to her economy what a T10 one does, I'd probably play her a lot more; she is very good!

A sort of healing class (perhaps it would be easier to 'just' implement the healing circle mechanic from Ops?) might be an interesting addition, although I wonder how keen people would be to play it, given that you wouldn't get to do much actual proper shooting? Some sort of finite time/charges consumable area heal thing might work if it was felt that - kind of - a cleric type class was needed; stick it on something with guns and such, and then you could still blow stuff up. Of course, this would be laughably unrealistic (and that's saying something given some of the things we already have in the game)...

Besides what @ColonelPete said, you may well be making yourself more likely to be yelled at: You have 228 Random battles, and your most played tier is T9. 99%+ of your battles are in DDs, and your WR is not yet where you would want it to be. Nothing justifies being offensive in chat/messenger, but you are a lot more likely to get abused than average: You are playing one of the most influential classes in the game (DDs), so if you play well you will have a disproportionate positive influence, and if you play badly, the reverse is true. If you rush up the tiers too fast (you have), and don't play all classes (you haven't) you are substantially more likely to play badly, and - in a team game - that will annoy your team-mates. So, learn to play all the classes, and do so at less intimidating tiers, and the abuse will lessen dramatically. Yes, there will always be a few d*ckheads, but you won't trigger more typical players by actively being a liability. If you don't care to get less bad, I would suggest switching to BBs; besides being easier than DDs, you will still do something useful just by sitting there in range of the enemy - you'll attract fire that otherwise would have been directed at more important targets.

The various 'CV Gods' on the forum would probably take issue with the first part, and having seen some of them in battle, I would tend to agree. A good CV player dramatically increases the chances of their team winning, so the trick is - if you want to play CVs - to git gud, and it matters more that you are than in pretty much any other class. I'm not certain the latter part is true; I'm a DD main, so I'm generally happier without aircraft around; there are exceptions though e.g. whenever I take Halland out, I actively hope for CVs (especially if they're T8s). It also depends a bit on how good the CVs are; if I'm facing a typical (idiot) CV, that makes me happy almost regardless as it probably gives me almost free rein while they're farming my side's BBs for meaningless damage. None of that makes CVs a well-designed class, and any CV is a menace in competent hands; luckily most CVs in the game aren't competent (especially me on the extremely rare occasions I take them out in PvP).

Do you have a means to generate steel? If you do, it's generally better to keep the resources coupons for the steel ships, as coal is a lot easier to generate for an average player. I massively favour DDs, so my cruiser views may be distinctly flaky: IMO Flint is quite nice to have, but ludicrously over-priced, especially since they nerfed the living faeces out of her. Mine gets an occasional run-out in Narai and/or Coop, but that's about it. If AA still mattered, Flint would be more worthwhile (as I recall, she used to be able to do the 'stealth AA' trap thing like Atlanta, pre-reework), but as it is - nah. At least Atlanta has radar, which makes her unpleasant for DDs, but in the T7 CL with smoke and torps role, Flint is rather surpassed by things like Fiji...

That was my original instinct, but then I thought "F*ckit!" - subs may ruin the game soon, so I may as well have my fun while it lasts, and if - by some miracle - subs turn out to either not matter much or (about as likely as the Bolshoi hiring me as their next prima ballerina) be a good addition, then yay.

Lightning is pretty decent, and well worth having if you have the resources spare; mine largely gathers dust though, as I have Cossack (twice, technically), and in most regards I find her better, and that's before you factor in the economy and being able to run whatever is your best captain from any RN ship...

Unless I'm getting really forgetful in my old age, Tone's planes take longer to become available too - three minutes, versus two for Ise. I've just given Tone a couple of goes in Coop before work; so far, she feels (to me i.e. a blithering incompetent in cruisers) a bit like an Atago with a turret missing, and regular silver line torp arcs, but gaining the occasional air-strike. She certainly appears to be interesting to play, and - as a DD enthusiast - the three minute gap between plane launches will make her less of a nuisance from a spotting perspective. Edit: it probably goes without saying these days, but she does get the 'may be nerfed' label.

Less negatively, the 'ignore' function is an entirely majestic addition to the forum; make use of it and there is less risk of particular people bringing out the worst in you. ('You' meaning the general 'everybody', of course.)

I wouldn't worry about that too much: playability is far more important. As they stand, they'll get dumped on from a great height by planes (from many and various sources, it seems; a T8, for example, could easily face a T10 CV, plus one or more T8-T9 hybrids all at once) - it's unrealistic to expect much enthusiasm for anything that lacks the tools to at least somewhat deal with aircraft, at least at the higher tiers. It certainly wouldn't be the first tree to change character as you progress up through the tiers, if T8+ (say) were given the means to defend themselves.

Whilst I'll never say no to new DDs (despite having my faith shaken a bit by the recent KM additions), I think this aspect would make Italians a potential hard sell: given the current hard-on enthusiasm WG have for planes, anything that can't keep them at arms-length - at least a bit - is going to struggle. At least the top tiers could be given some sort of (spurious?) post-war AA refit perhaps? That said, Italian DDs - being real and everything - should have been much higher up the priority list than bleedin' fictitious Russian CVs...! Bonus points for several of them being rather pretty too.

Isn't she the only T10 BB that's real? (or, have I forgotten something?)

In my defence, playing at anti-social hours often means you're the only human player on the team; one silly mistake and you're looking at a draw at least... (Time zones.)

Incidentally, @The_Angry_Admiral if you want to play around with different ship/captain configurations without committing to things, and see how the numbers work out, this site is useful to know about: https://wowsft.com/ship?index=PGSC706&modules=11111&upgrades=000000&commander=PCW001&consumables=1111&pos=0 (It should open on your HSF Graf Spee, but all the other ships, more or less, are in there too.)

She won't; worst-case is forgetting to select any captain skills, in which case she'll make no difference (although you'll still get captain xp, which you wouldn't have, I think, if you'd forgotten to enable a captain altogether). BTW take the performance numbers, that pop-up when you hover over a ship's thumbnail at the bottom of the screen, with a pinch of salt - it you want a more accurate picture of what your ship's numbers look like, it's usually better to look in the relevant sections on the upper right of the port screen when you have your ship selected. Edit - some examples: (No captain) (with CE-equipped captain; you'll note the upper two detectability distances have got smaller i.e. better, by 10%)

Which stats? If you mean things like concealment, and reload time, you want them to drop! (6 km concealment, say, is better than 7 km). There are also (I think - I don't use them) captain skills that buff one thing, and debuff another - it could be something like that. BTW read this for more on how captains work: https://wiki.wargaming.net/en/Ship:Commander

You don't - any captain can command any premium of the same nation (with the occasional multi-nation captain excepted) with no penalty and no retraining necessary.

My (less competent than @Bear__Necessities) perspective, in no particular order: Between the two, I prefer Haida, as she's more fun (IMO), but Z-39 is probably better as an 'army of one'. Haida can be alarmingly effective if people shoot at what you spot. For me, the key advantage Haida has is superior concealment; that gives you an edge in spotting and determining if/what/when you engage. Z-39 has dramatically longer-ranged hydro, but Haida's runs for much longer (especially with the coal mod); with Zed you need to time the consumable's use more carefully, whereas with Haida you have hydro for pretty much entire extended engagements. Haida fires a lot faster, but Zed does more damage, and gets the nasty AP option (if you remember to use it) as well. As others have said, Zed is rather tougher. Haida requires more skill to use her torps effectively, and she simply can't cover the same area at once that Zed can, but the latter can't single fire (which can be very useful at times). Haida is more nimble, but given that she has fewer hit points, she needs to be. Rolling smoke (coal mod recommended) can be very useful for Haida, but you do need to recall that when you're inside it, you can't spot; so, to make maximum use of it you (ideally) want someone spotting for you, or alternate short spotting dashes with dropping back into smoke to fire. Of course, as long as your smoke is running, you are telegraphing your approximate position, whereas Z-39's conventional smoke allows you to sneak off somewhere else whilst the opposition attack your smoke. Personally, I have both ships (including on my NA alt), but if I had to pick one: Z-39 is more consistent and predictably good; if you want a safe bet, pick her. Haida is harder work, and will punish you if you aren't paying attention; if you want exciting and fun, pick her (but be prepared to royally mess up now and again).

A good starting point is the Clans section of the forum: https://forum.worldofwarships.eu/forum/508-clan-recruitment/ That'll give you an idea of what's out there; have a look and see if there is anything there that might do the job. I can't remember what account level you need to be at to join a clan, so you *may* have to get a certain number of battles under your belt first...

Z-39 is being removed at the same time as Haida (https://worldofwarships.eu/en/news/sales-and-events/premium-shop-0104-departing-ships/), alas, so has the same timeline as the latter. Which to get of those two if you can only get one is quite a difficult question; they're both very good, but Z-39 is perhaps more reliable regardless of MM, whereas Haida is perhaps rather more fun (if harder to do well with). If you can't get either before they're removed, Cossack is outstanding - she's one of the best DDs tier-for-tier in the game (IMO, of course); the only problem - which is why mine don't get used as much as they should - is the lousy AA, which means you only have your smoke if a CV takes an interest in you. Admittedly, RN smoke is the type you want when Just Dodging, but it would be better to at least take a few of the buggers with you. Cossack and Haida, for obvious reasons, are very similar; besides lacking Mighty Secondaries ("cower in fear, puny mortals!"), Cossack doesn't get crawling smoke, which is the root of their differences in play style. So, Cossack is a fine choice.

Thank you - you too! BTW another suggestion (not directly playing related): suggest joining a clan as soon as you are able; the main reason for doing so is that - if they have a developed base - there are useful economic bonuses to be had. If you aren't interested in competitive play, or don't feel ready yet, there are plenty of more casual clans out there (which basically exist to bag said bonuses). Joining a clan isn't 'forever'; you can change clans, although there is a cool-down period between leaving one and being able to join another.

None are 'must' haves - IMO - but there are plenty that are very much worth having. It's really a case of finding the ones that work most effectively for you. For example, I view Halland as a high priority ship to have with all the damn planes around (and now we get Glorious and Historical Russians too - great.), but you do need to be able to play smokeless DDs to make use of her; meanwhile, Shima is - I believe - one of the most played DDs and I view her as decidedly non-essential (I usually prefer LU Gearing for 'sneaky torp truck' duties)...