Verblonde

I'd be fascinated to be a fly on the wall in some of WG's meetings (perhaps some sort of hazmat suit would be in order?): on the one hand, with their Russian trousers on, they clearly haven't got over getting thumped at Tsushima or that beastly incident with the Germans in the forties, not to mention the fact that all this appears to be prevalent in their Russian market too; on the other hand, think of all the vodka you can buy with the money to be made from EU and NA, neither of which have any of the same insecurities, and find obvious examples of 'Russian Bias' hilarious/irritating (delete as applicable). So, money versus not giving the Germans/Japanese anything nice? What's an enthusiastic connoisseur of Madam Olga's Esteemed House of Vodka & Negotiable Affection to do...?

Additional: I do feel that we should probably approve of dockyard ships being 'non-essentials'; imagine if some sort of semi-OP monster was locked behind 5K doubloons and all that grind (<cough>Benham<cough>). As it is, if one doesn't want to spend the doubloons/time, there's no significant loss really. Based on what I've read, I'm viewing her as kind of like a more dakka-orientated alternative to Z-44's torp truck; so, fun for a change, but if you particularly want to win, there are better choices.

Yeah, I will, although mainly because - from what I read - she's less dull than the new silver DDs (it takes quite a bit of effort to make me mildly unenthusiastic about a new destroyer line, so props to WG there). Besides that, higher tier premiums are always handy to have around (snowflakes and suchlike)...

I'm slightly ashamed to say this'll be me too, I think - although, slightly in my defence, I'll only be using her against hapless bots in Coop...

I probably will: she's a) a DD, and b) real! That said, I'm probably at least one more (maybe two, or even three) regrinds away from having enough points to get her - I've got to Yugumo on my latest run through, so more work to do and I don't touch regrinds if I'm not getting the x2 bonus (it's simply not worth the effort/aggravation)...

I'm not going to get into the 'who fooled whom, and who is/is not an idiot' stuff; it's all deeply unproductive. Perhaps of more use would be some tips when contemplating buying a premium ship: Take the 'marketing blurb' with an enormous bucket of salt; WG don't usually flat-out lie, but they do use the same sort of language that other advertisers use. They want you to think that things are more desirable than they actually are (think rationally though: there are no really OP things in the game, so how likely is something to be all conquering just because some dubious Russian blurb writer got over-excited?). Seek alternative perspectives i.e. ask on here "is this thing any good?" - you'll get a range of answers (and if you unhide your stats, at least some will be tailored to you specifically), which will - depending on who's answering - inform your eventual decision. Watch/read reviews and, as much as possible, familiarise yourself with who is making the review and to what degree their preferences align with yours (LWM is usually a good first stop: https://forum.worldofwarships.com/topic/210980-mouses-catalog-of-ship-reviews/) Is the premium nerfable? A new consideration; some/all (we don't know yet) of the newest premiums are liable to nerfs. While this may be a good thing for the game, it potentially gives you less time to get your money's worth from your purchase, so bear it in mind. Do you have a good enough captain to put in the thing (and/or are you prepared to buy one if not)? A lot of premiums (regular silver ships too, come to that) get noticeably better with a decent captain for them; 10 points is usually the minimum, but more can often be highly desirable. So, lets apply some of this logic to Yudachi (which I happen to like, personally, although I play her for fun, not because she's any kind of monster): What WG say: 'Good concealment' is wildly subjective, but it could be a lot worse; according to the wiki (https://wiki.wargaming.net/en/Ship:Yūdachi) she has a base surface concealment of 7 km (six and a bit with the cammo and CE) - that's not bad, so I would let them off here. 'Long range', 'powerful', and 'high damage' torps is all perfectly accurate - they are; you'll notice that speed isn't mentioned though - 57 kts base (not disastrous, but not impressive). TRB being separate from smoke is true too (and unusual), although checking/asking *which* TRB it is would be wise (I'm working, so I can't). So, look for the gaps in the blurb - what aren't they talking about? Is the AA dreadful (yes, from memory); are the torps slow; what about the guns (although this is an IJN torp boat, so what does one expect?); and so on? Ask other people: if asked, I would say (in a put-on Edinburgh accent) "she's no bad, but she's no great..."; leaving aside the Trainspotting references, I would say she's an unremarkable T7 torp boat, very vulnerable to planes, and you need to boost the torp speed (although with %-based boosts these days, don't get your hopes up). She is also a T7, which means no concealment module, and with the recent(ish) MM changes, you're going to get regularly rogered. TL;DR Haida and Z-39 are both far better, which is probably why they're being removed soon; Yudachi is fine, but not impressive; file under 'non-essential'. What about reviews; well LWM's summary is this: Not as kind as I am (and she's a lot better at the game than I am!). On the up-side, Yudachi pre-dates the 'nerfable premium' change, so she won't get any worse outside of global changes. As to the captain, only you know your answer to that; for me, I have - I think - several 19 pointers available, so I can get close to 'as good as it gets', so that takes some of the edge off for me. FWIW I didn't actively buy Yudachi - mine fell out of a Satan Box, or similar...

I think it comes down to - in essence - whether or not you grasp how vision mechanics work (and build your ships/captains accordingly); I think the key reason I do well with mine (and as well in Mutsuki too) is that I get how vision works in the game and can leverage it effectively. Based on personal observation (and rare accusations of cheating, that I'm not nearly good enough to get more often!), quite a few people struggle with vision in the game; for such people, anything sneaky will be harder to get the hang of. The other key skill area is knowing what to do when detected (assuming your opponents know you're a serious threat); escaping effectively when someone has got to within 5.4 km of you can be a challenge, and not everyone can do that, adding another thing that can be difficult to master. If you already know how to Sneaky Torp Boat, Kami gives you everything you could realistically wish for (apart from AA), but not everyone can do that, so making the OP definition of 'any fool can do well in it' a bit tenuous in this case. (Of course, I suck in BBs, and supposedly they're easy, so what do I know...?)

Aye, and that does make a difference (particularly if you get surprised just after launching on someone), but as others observed, unless your target is being an idiot, being able to fire as fast as the torp reload will allow in Kami isn't that common. So, you are only rarely able to wring the maximum theoretical dpm out of Kami's torps, which closes the gap a bit, and makes other factors more relevant. In summary: Kami is powerful, but (IMO) not OP, and the fundamental reasons she does well are much more about the players than the ship; combined with that, the problem is not such that it's remotely worth WG having to field the riots that would ensue from nerfing a premium ship (that wasn't advertised as such). The most useful thing to do with regards to Kami (besides playing CVs if you want to make their lives miserable) is to push WG to improve their learning materials for newer players (and their uptake)...

That extra range matters, I suggest: as someone mentioned earlier, it's not that frequent that you can fire Kami torps uninterrupted (slightly taking the edge off the reload advantage; the better damage per torp on Mutsuki is marginal, so not worth worrying about), and having an extra km of wiggle room with Mutsuki does seem to make a difference, at least at my skill level. FWIW: (Tiny data-set, of course)

Mutsuki: same concealment, extra km range on the torps, and they're only 5 kts slower (no mods/skills); my WR in her is higher than in Kami (although small data-set, of course)...

T-61 says hi. To repeat: Kami isn't that powerful; the reasons even players like me can be so lethal in her are only partly the ship; it's much more about player knowledge and skill: You rarely meet radar (so far, only three T7 premiums have it, and one is discontinued, so they're uncommon). Low-mid tier BBs often struggle with anti-torp kung fu (mainly because they don't try and evade until they spot the torps, which is generally far too late). The obvious predators (CVs, other DDs, and supporting cruisers) don't know what they should be shooting at first, although - to my personal relief - that's also true at higher tiers too. A sensible team will note that they're facing a Kami (and therefore almost certainly an experienced player), and make sure they play accordingly; most teams tend not to be sensible in my limited experience (I only have 36 battles in variations on Kami).

I was wondering about mentioning her - she's arguably nastier than Kami at the tier, if you have a basic understanding of game mechanics, and especially given the prevalence of CVs at the moment. That smoke/hydro combination is more unpleasant than 'just' 5.4 km concealment against average players...

Torps are decent for their tier, but not ridiculous (if you fail to avoid Kami's torps, you're *really* knackered if an Ikea starts launching against you). The concealment can be class-leading (5.4 km) if you build her right, but then so is the silver equivalent. The Kami sisters are certainly good, but they aren't *that* good, and they do have a couple of glaring weaknesses, most notably complete vulnerability to CVs (bearing in mind that they face the T4 CV plague, as well as T6) and profound weakness against gunboat DDs. What makes Kami nasty to face (and certainly a priority target, which goes double for Kami R, as no one inexperienced has that version) is the player using it; very, very few people with them are newbies (mine fell out of a SC a couple of years ago, but that's vanishingly unlikely) and *that* is what makes them nasty. I can wreak havoc in mine (on a good day), but only against people who don't understand vision mechanics; a competent player will still take me to the cleaners. BTW my WR is higher in one of the silver T5 IJN DDs than in Kami; if you get your wish and Kami got nerfed (which it probably won't for reasons that have been outlined ad nauseum), I'd be doing just the same things only in non-premium ships... (Edited for stupid typo)

This. After a brief dalliance with Silver in the first season, I've stuck to Bronze ever since - it's simply more fun, and even a potato like me can make a positive difference (slightly to my surprise). I smell the law of unintended consequences...

Presumably a reference to this: (Part of the modules changes bit of the notes for the upcoming patch).

That's not a bad thing, at least not for the game. She's available for coal isn't she (Vampire II's the RB ship?)? I might even pick her up if she's rubbish - blasting bots in CVs can be vaguely fun at times, especially when there are CV related missions on...

Modest PSA: in case anyone missed it, there is a day of free premium account to be had - there's a 'click to participate' type button buried in the last expandable section in the news item apropos the new patch.

@Klopirat beat me to it! Some additional minor notes: I mentioned Narai as it's the only Op currently available for T7 ships; the other Ops are all T6 (which is worth recalling if/when you need to perform a similar exercise a tier lower). Captain training/retraining is one area where WG make their money - it's a lot easier/faster to move captains up the tiers with you if you spend money (doubloons). This one one area where having suitable premium ships can help: in the case of the OP, a captain has moved from Gneis to Bismarck; if you spend the doubloons (assuming a shortage of elite captain xp), the captain will be 100% trained for Bismarck, so no problem. Not everyone has the spare money/doubloons though, so the alternative route is to partially train the captain for Bismarck (where his skills won't work properly) and then play him in a premium ship (where his skills will work) until he's fully trained and his skills kick in on Bismarck. Of course, this approach still requires a suitable premium ship, but some of those are available free (assuming you define coal/missions as free). You'll often see people referring to ten points as being a significant benchmark for captains (ten plus is 'good enough'; fewer points not so much); the reason for this is the Concealment Expert (CE) captain skill, and the soonest you can get that is ten points (you have to take one each of the 1,2, and 3 point skills before your first 4 point skill). With the exception of some of the fatties (CVs and some BBs), CE is usually the first 4 point skill you pick, and it's perhaps the most important if you make any use of concealment. Concealment, and the associated vision mechanics are so important to doing well in the game that much emphasis is made of the ten point mark. There are some 10 point captains available for coal in the Armory [sic] if you don't have the doubloons/elite captain xp available...

I'm too lazy to wade through five pages (!) of replies to this ill-judged post. There are basically two possibilities here: You're trolling, which seems most likely given the foolishness of this suggestion. You're not trolling, in which case this is an epic L2P issue. If it is the latter, there are plenty of people on here who are willing to help novices learn; you'll just get more helpful responses (i.e. not peals of laughter) if you avoid the "I haven't learned how the game works, so it needs to be changed to match my level of (lack of) understanding" type posts. If the former, well - good bait. Five pages? Jayzus!

I would always go with ships, at least as long as there are interesting ones that you don't have. Partly this is because there is more tangible benefit to having a premium (or semi, for the T10s) compared to the difference between a standard 10 point captain and a 'magic' one; besides that, a ship does give you something new to play (in general, perhaps excluding some of the more blatant copy-paste efforts), plus you get snowflakes a few times a year where you get something useful for - essentially - just playing a premium. The final (potential) obvious benefit is that premiums prevent you getting the same ship again from loot boxes and missions etc. (where applicable - less pertinent, so far, for T10s).

I've voted that I'll spend as before, as that's the closest answer. But, in all cases, whether or not I push the button depends on judgements about whether I'll get value from whatever it is that I'm contemplating; 'value' being thought about in similar terms to how I would have thought about beer money, say, before the doctors told me to knock it off. So, for instance, if every premium that gets release hereon in gets the 'may be nerfed' tag, that's good for the game, but makes me less likely to buy them; this change means that theoretically I have less time to get 'value' from the purchase before it gets 'YYed' - in practical terms, it makes it less likely that I'll buy anything high tier that isn't a DD. An alternative example would be permaflage: the thing with Moskva means I don't reflexively buy permaflage for almost everything any more. In other words, I will spend as before, but as 'as before' included value calculations based on my likelihood to getting value for that spend, then WG's actions are quite likely to result in my spending less, it's just that it won't be a principle thing, but based on selfish practicality...

I'm going to regret this, aren't I...?

Short answer: yes, for silver ships. You can, of course, move commanders between premium ships without penalty and/or the need to retrain. You'll need a separate commander for each; probably the optimal approach (depending a bit on available resources) is to move the good commander to the T8, and recruit a new one for the T7; after you've done that, thrash the nuts off Gneis in Narai, to get the captain to a more respectable level. If you have the doubloons available, starting with a ten pointer will speed things up a bit.

Who? Have I missed a bold new voice amongst the more artistic members of the forum community?

I can't imagine there is the slightest possibility that it will be otherwise...!