Verblonde

This. Atlanta is a spectacularly bad choice for a newer player at the moment...

I'm interested to hear people's views on this too: although I haven't look too closely, Paolo Emilio looks like it might be a bit of an acquired taste for me - am I correct that it can be spotted from the moon? So far, my least favourite DDs (at least for PvP) have been the ones with poor concealment...

She's great fun, although I'm entirely dreadful in her; one of my 'go to' picks when I want a bit of Coop hilarity. To do well against real people requires a lot more garlic-flavoured skill than I currently possess, alas...

I'm afraid you're doing it wrong - used judiciously, IJN DD guns can be highly effective (and no, I don't mean only the dakka ships). Not using them (at appropriate junctures) is foolish in the extreme. Shinonome is good, assuming you've taken the time to get the hang of IJN torp boat play; I have a TA captain on my Fubuki, and with that arrangement, the two ships are at least as good as each other (assuming standard torp captain on Shinonome), with Shinonome perhaps having a slight edge (torps are good enough, and the guns are better). Is Shinonome the best T6 DD? Nope (it's probably T-61). Is Shinonome rubbish? Not even remotely; there was a reason it was one of the nastier opponents in the last T6 competitive mode. (BTW it's worth putting the national cammo on her too - earnings go up dramatically if you do.)

Nah, not yet; my impression is that - unlike Smaland - you get very little to justify the absurd price-tag. I'll probably pick her up one day, if I ever reach the point of 'far too much free xp and nothing much to spend it on', but - based on my usual rate of play/grinding new lines - I'm probably a year or two away from that at least. If Hayate was in the 750K-1,000K free xp range, I might make the effort, but as it is - nah.

I really ought to try Z-35 in randoms, if only to see if she's as wildly unsuitable as I suspect; she might be worthwhile in some of the T8 'small map' competitive modes though (although I would probably take Loyang for preference). I suspect the first step with Z-35 is to forget you're in a KM DD, and alter your play style accordingly; plus, of course, you get the 'RN style' short-but-numerous smoke, which lends itself to frequent gun engagements... Orkan is one of my current favourites at T8; I'm slightly ashamed to say it's the combination of being a healing Lightning (albeit less sneaky) with the radar that at least half the player-base seem not to know about yet! It seems a bit unsporting to gun down some hapless berk who thinks they're invisible parked in their smoke cloud... Friesland is useful to have ('main battery hits' and 'fires' missions become hilariously easy for a start), but I wouldn't view her as essential.

Presumably, it all comes down to resources and space in the calendar, plus a bit of reference to size of target market (I imagine there aren't too many WOWS players in Vatican City for example, so no heroic flag missions for them) etc. Whilst it's always funny to watch the Greek nationalists get their knickers in a twist (yet again), I don't see any harm in putting some sort of easy mission chain in for whatever their national/independence day is - perhaps a few cammos en route, and a Greek flag at the end. That seems to be the model applied elsewhere. Before we all get too dismissive of the 'little nations', it might be worth recalling that Canada's Thanksgiving is getting a small event this weekend and that's not exactly a mighty occasion outside this country...

Z-35 is rather fun; just know what you're getting yourself into! Bear in mind that the French DDs play very differently to the Ikeas: the French are significantly faster (and get the weird damage thing), but the Ikeas have the heal (and, importantly in the current meta, vastly superior AA). I find the Ikea line to be much more fun than the French (I have both to T10), but then I'm not that keen on the 'dakka/speed tanking play style as only option' approach. That said, for me, Terrible is another 'glorious for Coop' pick. Note: Friesland is the odd duck in the EU line: she gets smoke, lacks torps, and - significantly - doesn't get a heal. If you want an approximate sense of how Smaland works, give Orkan a try; although they aren't exact analogues (better AA and the rocket speed booster on Smaland, whereas Orkan is a bit like a radar Lightning with heal and no smoke), the general approach is quite similar. Although a complete waste of free xp (2 million?!), Smaland is really rather splendid - perhaps my favourite T10 at the moment.

Unless you're after something *really* new that isn't available for doubloons, the best value - IMO, of course - is to do the following: Buy as many doubloons as you can afford, using the 30% off coupon. Use those doubloons to get your premium ship, ideally in conjunction with the 25% off coupon in the Armory [sic] (if you haven't used it already). Keep any remaining doubloons for something useful. As to the specific ships you mention (all IMO - from the point of view of a DD main): Le Terrible: definitive French premium DD, with all that goes with it - fast, good dakka, usable torps, and pretty mediocre stealth. Defining feature is the lack of smoke; I would avoid for this reason, unless you've played (and like) the silver French DDs to T8 at least. Loyang is still excellent, despite not being terribly new; used well, smoke/hydro (cruiser hydro, more specifically) can still be highly effective. In other crucial respects, she's Benson (for the fairly obvious reason), only you get the YOLO torps option, which I find more effective; either way, her torps can hit DDs, unlike most PA ones. AA is 'good enough' for a DD. Kidd: very good, if you're playing with people who'll shoot at what you spot, as your damage output is somewhat reduced by only having one torp launcher. In most important respects, she's a Feltcher at T8, with (for a DD) powerful AA, and - extremely usefully - a heal, although with the arrival of the Ikeas, this is less unusual at the tier than it was. Z-35: hilarious in Coop (great for any KM DD dakka/fire related missions), but one of the last things I would pick for PvP, due to the torps being far too short ranged to be good for anything besides brawling. In other respects, she's much like the silver KM DDs, so the lack of a stealth torp window hurts against real people. Avoid (Full disclosure: I got mine using the 30%/25% reduction route mentioned earlier, but only for use in Coop and for doing missions. I don't regret it; she's great fun for what I want her for, but there are far, far better choices for more general use.). So, without having looked at stats or anything like that, I would think that Kidd and Loyang are the best from your list; for general use and/or T8 Ranked, I might go with Loyang, whereas Kidd is a good choice for more team-play orientated uses (although she still does well in Randoms thanks to dakka, AA, and healing potion).

If any low-to-middling standard clans can make use of me (I'm not good enough for the serious clans - 48% WR overall), please PM me via the forum in the event I can be of service. DD main, with almost all the T10 DDs; probably most useful in one of the following: Smaland Halland Gearing (UU build) Daring (Only missing Khaba and Somers, as far as I recall, so others are available.) I'm on Discord, for voice comms purposes.

Instabuy? Any interesting DD (excluding 'spotted from the moon actually-small-cruisers'), ideally with ferocious AA, and - also ideally - historical. Dido (yup, I'm another one). Cavalier, probably. Pringle (after someone on here drew my attention to her a while back): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Pringle_(DD-477)

Dev Blog (hybrids and skip bomber test):https://blog.worldofwarships.com/blog/84

At the moment, I'm 'playing as normal' with my main focus being the Dockyard thing; any US tokens I get will get used for sequential bundles in the first instance - as others have mentioned, the dragon flags are worthwhile. I'll see how I get on with the weekend 'extra tokens' missions (and how many tokens you actually get from them) before I call it re: spending money for Florida... (Unless I'm missing something, literally the only use I have for the new silver BBs is for snowflakes.)

I'd be delighted to see more interesting low tier premiums; sadly, I doubt we'll be very lucky on this front - low tier premiums tend to be inexpensive and/or not usable for most missions (plus, I suppose there might be an increased risk of seal-clubbing if they were any good), so return on dev time would most likely be relatively modest, and fewer people might buy them due to the reduced utility?

If I read it correctly, the Musashi thing is a new permaflage for the existing ship, whereas ARP Yamato is a semi-premium clone of the existing silver Yamato (which is subject to nerfs, the same as the silver version, which was why I thought it possibly relevant to this discussion). I do like the ARP ships, despite not being remotely a weeb - an occasional bit of bright and shiny makes a nice change (plus, I can always switch it off if it gets annoying).

Neustrashimy is the one I really want, mainly due to being a DD main and already having the other two (I like Black a lot, FWIW, although the torps are hard work). I'm assuming they'll be re-released either as part of the Xmas/New Year events, or maybe the patch after, if WG want something exciting that doesn't require much Dev Work (assuming a lot of folk are off over the holidays)...

FWIW, this (mediocre standard) bit of the community has the following views: Alaska is generally consistently viewed as one of the best free xp ships available; as others have said, she's been around for a while so may well get removed before too long. Bear in mind the upcoming captain skill rework - as things stand, it looks like any cruisers that currently work best with a BB captain will be gimped, but that is all WiP and you'd need to get the views of super cruiser meisters to assess how badly Alaska gets clobbered. Friesland is fun, and her guns are terrifying against other DDs, but the lack of torps are a significant issue for many players. I've had mine for ages and at time of writing have a grand total of 1 random battle in her (!), due to having other things that are generally more effective against real people; she is extremely useful for missions in Coop though and I feel I've had decent value from mine for that alone (although I do intend playing mine more against real folk once I've got a bit more time to practice in her). Smaland is ludicrously over-priced, but for a DD main she is (IMO) easily the best option, provided you've got the hang of the regular Ikeas and have a decent captain to put in her: the guns are excellent (with a BFT captain, and reload mod), the torps are enough to make a nuisance of yourself with (despite the anaemic alpha), you have the monster (if short) engine boost, and - of course - the radar, which can really ruin smoke campers' days. Having a heal never gets old too, although you need it due to the lack of smoke. BTW if you care about silver earnings, all things being equal, Alaska and Friesland are true premiums so their earnings are better than Smaland. All things being equal.

If they had, it would have been high on my list too - maybe next year? I suppose, with the addition of the Ikeas, there are now rather more choices for the gentle art of DD Dreadnought farming...

As an addendum to the nerf/changes element of the discussion: https://blog.worldofwarships.com/blog/86 " Please, note: if necessary, balance changes may be applied to ARP Yamato."

Oooo, I rather fancy the idea of a black Cossack (you can never have too many Tribals after all), and possibly another pretty coloured Atago. As for Yamato, it'll depend entirely on how hard/expensive it is to get (since I think I have a permaflage for the silver version lurking somewhere, for when I get round to it)...

I'm not asking, I'm suggesting, and it would effectively be exactly the same in terms of essential mechanics; what would differ is that the 'premiumised' version in a player's port would have a tag that changed its behaviour from regular silver to that of a premium ship.. I don't believe nerfing is a problem; as I explained earlier, provided WG make it abundantly clear that any such ships are liable to nerfs etc. then players can make an informed choice - as per permaflage - whether they'll get value for money before any potential nerf or not. If you want a potential model for how this might work, just have a look at WOT Blitz, and the 'enrichment' options - these function in approximately the way I'm thinking, only they cover economics only (you can't swap crews around in Blitz). Why would WG do this? It would make them money, pure and simple, and - assuming they priced it right - without cannibalising their existing premium ship sales excessively. Edit: an extra plus for WG - assuming they're honest about wanting people to play more mid-tiers - is that people would be more likely to play those mid tiers if they had more 'premium' behaving ship options. For example, I imagine quite a few people would rather like their Leanders to be premium...

That might be one way of doing it; I guess it comes down to what you (or more pertinently, WG) want from the exercise in terms of which bits of the income calculation you want to boost and how close you would want these 'premiumised' silver ships to be to true premiums. I would think that something along the lines of the WOT Blitz permanent 'enrichment' thing (with the added ability to use any captain a la true premiums) might be the way to go; this would tweak the economy of the ship in a suitable way, without losing the ability to mount consumable cammos as per a true premium. Presumably, it would include a standard permaflage as well, which would be most people's default choice. Essentially, what you would be paying for is to do to a ship what WG did to Moskva when they did the recent line change...

My feeling is that WG would be in the clear provided they made really clear - from the very start - that 'premiumised' ships could be nerfed. It would be similar then to premaflage: we all know that a ship can be nerfed after you've bought permaflage for it; it's just a case of making a judgement as to whether one will get enough value from the thing (in relation to what you pay for it) before any possible nerf. In a similar vein, there would also be the risk of WG 'pulling a Moskva' on you; again, WG would have to be very clear that this could happen before selling anyone anything of this sort.

I've thought for a long time that some way to 'premiumise' a regular ship would be an excellent idea, with a couple of provisos: Most important, that the ship can still be balanced if the situation calls for it. For example, there seems to be a widespread thought that MvR needs nerfing; if that comes to pass, turning it into a premium should not make the ship immune to the nerfs; same should apply to whatever future ship we might be talking about. In other crucial respects it should act like a premium i.e. captain training, reduced maintenance costs, permaflage, possibly even earning coefficients. You have to 'elite' a ship before it can be 'premiumised' (economic reasons - see below). I don't believe this would have a significant impact on the game's economy: a player can choose to play a regular silver ship, a premium ship, or a 'premiumised' ship; provided everything is sensibly balanced, who cares? For example, you can't play Boise and Helena simultaneously; you aren't going to be suddenly rolling in extra credits if you premiumise Helena - the impact would be about the same as if you just bought/played Boise. If you could premiumise something before you finished grinding whatever comes next, then that might well upset the balance of the economy, if enough people did it...

That's an entirely sensible choice; I go 'torp' mods and 'semi-gunboat' captain (as above) for a couple of reasons (all strictly IMO, of course): The difference between torp expert and not, when on top of all the mods, isn't hugely striking; propping up the dakka with BFT makes you a bit more effective versus other DDs, and it makes your already formidable AA* even fiercer. Crucially though, I use the same captain(s) on Smaland, Orkan, and Blysk (Friesland too, come to that), all of which don't benefit particularly from a torp captain. For context, this is the ship build I run on Halland (and Oster too): (I was thinking of trying a full torp build as well, when the captain rework happens, as I have a spare 19 point Halland captain in reserve at the moment.) *'formidable AA' by DD standards, of course.