Verblonde

If you look at your stats, you see this (for 1,606 random battles, which really isn't that many, although it's not newbie territory either): This is not the sort of distribution one sees if sufficient time has been spent at the lower tiers. We also see this: This is not about stat-shaming, and there is nothing wrong with focusing on your favourite ships more than others; however, only 5 games in DDs makes it extremely apparent that you can't possibly know how they work, especially since the highest tier one you've played is T3. Being shot at by something doesn't give you an understanding of how that something actually works. Your comments suggest strongly that your problem isn't with any particular ship per se, but rather a lack of understanding of the game's general mechanics. You also mention that you've been playing the game for two years +/-; bear in mind that there have been some significant changes in that time, so what you may have learned about mechanics when first starting out may well not be the case today (besides CVs, smoke firing changed significantly). If you actually want to do something about this, the wiki might be a good place to start, specifically the bit about spotting: https://wiki.wargaming.net/en/Ship:Detection

FWIW my higher tier Ikeas currently have upgrades that focus on torps, and captains that focus on dakka; the original reasons I did that were a) to prop up the guns/AA and b) to have captains that worked on Friesland and Blysk, as well as not wanting to put all my eggs in one basket i.e. I haven't specialised the silver Ikeas too hard in either direction. Turns out that this approach also incidentally produces a pretty decent Orkan captain...

My feeling is that the radar is manageable, but the current CVs are not - due to the difference in time that you're spotted for (much longer with planes), at least for most DDs. Of course, you have to play differently with lots of radar about, but it's nothing too unreasonable, at least not at the moment. Naturally, I reserve the right to change my opinion when the Russian cruisers turn up (although my guess is that I'll just change ship choices with a particular emphasis on long-range torps)...

My feeling is that it's a bit situational; it's splendid for fighting smoked up buggers, but in general I wouldn't give smoke up to get it. Since Orkan doesn't get smoke even as an option, you don't feel like you've lost anything (kind of), and being able to see the foe at 7.5 km is significant improvement on Lightning's hydro range. The overall utility of DD radar - IMO - is largely in inverse proportion to how many 'proper' radars the opposition has though...

Awesome! I did wonder vaguely about doing that for a laugh (someone suggested it prior to release, as I recall), but I'm a big enough liability to my team already...! Maximum points for style!

After first two randoms (both victories, slightly to my surprise, although I male chickened-up the first one somewhat: honestly, officer, that island leapt out in front of me!), in the hands of a sub-par player: Yay: It's basically a Lightning, which is hard to go *too* wrong with (which covers much of the 'yay' stuff off)... Nice guns, of course, plus you get Mighty Secondaries too - cower in fear, puny mortals (no CQC expert medals yet, alas)! Fast, if anaemic, pan-EU torps, with 12 km range. Radar is nice to have, even if the range is only 7.5 km - splendid for fighting sneakier DDs. Great fun, and not broken OP. The heal, obviously. Boo: The usual stuff for recent Pan-EU ships i.e. no smoke etc. Doesn't get the usual RN 'furry dice' baked-in acceleration boost, or defensive hydro (but you do get the radar; having both would probably be OP, especially in competent hands). Although the AA is 'good' by DD standards, it isn't 'Ikea' good (and no DefAA), so a more normal approach to CVs is called for. It would have been nice to have RN single fire torps, given only one launcher, but this isn't really a killer for me. For reference, I've gone with a fairly typical 'dakka' upgrades build, with coal radar upgrade in slot 2 (although I may switch it out for speed boost instead at some point, as I'm not entirely convinced of the utility of 24 sec radar, versus 20 sec, and I usually get a lot of use out of speed boost in almost every battle with smoke free DDs, so 3 mins versus 2 mins might be more useful); my initial battles were with my 19 point BFT captain from Halland. So, overall, my initial impression is that WG have actually done quite a good job here; if you want an OP monster, Orkan isn't it, but if you want something fun and reasonably different to other things she's well worth a look. Not a DD for newcomers to the class though, but that's true of almost anything without smoke. WG didn't mess up? That must be the cue for another almighty PR-balls up...!

Amongst forumites, I suspect the answer may well be 'everyone'! It's the lockdown - the game is suddenly overrun with folk who probably wouldn't normally be playing, so it's the weekend/summer holidays every day of the week for the moment. Whilst it's exasperating (even for someone as tuberous as I am), on the up-side, some of them may stick around and git gud (or at least less hopeless) and/or stick around and spend money on the game; both outcomes are good as they should improve the health of the game in the longer term. In the meantime, we have to just resist the urge to excessively torp such people when they're on our own side....! FWIW WOT is similarly afflicted...

Some 'real money' approximations, for those who don't have a lots of gold already: 'Basic' ship-only option (but does include a slot): 10,300; needs 2 x 5,000 doubloons, plus 500 (minimum gold amount you can buy) = 29.13 UKP. 'Commander Pack' (includes bumf of limited value IMO): 18,125; needs 17,500 doubloons, plus 625 = 50.27 UKP. 'Admiral Pack' (includes bumf, plus some potentially useful flags, and a possibly actually useful 10-pointer): 21,250; 25K doubloons cost 69.30 UKP; 17,500 + 5,000 cost 62.37 UKP; there are several other permutations that get you closer to the exact amount, but value for money reduces with reduction in size of gold packages purchased. Personally, my opinion is that only the basic pack is worth buying (to provide context, Cossack is currently 27.86 UKP in the shop, which is in the same ballpark), unless you need a 6/10 point captain (or are an obsessive flag collector).

Balance changes from the Dev Blog: https://blog.worldofwarships.com/blog/12

I'd forgotten about her - she ought to be on my 'cruisers' list too; she's just a bit new to have fully sunk into my memory as a 'go to'...

Unless I'm grinding something, I usually use premiums, for the obvious economic reasons. Some favourites for Ops (that aren't Newport, as I simply avoid that one): DDs: although this is my 'main' class, I don't usually take them into Ops (although I might make an exception for the new Ikea ones, as they get a heal, which I feel is very important for Ops). Cruisers: Graf Spee is ideal for this (plus, I have the 'extra income' cammo), or Boise (for Narai); the former isn't far off being a BB in many respects, so you can step in if/when random BB team-mates are hopeless, and the latter can chuck out a lot of fire (and gets a decent heal). Like others, I do like the RN silver ones, but they're less efficient than premiums for silver earning. BBs: along with GS, these are what I usually take; Dunk, PEF and Arizona work well for T6, and Scharn and Ashitaka are very worthwhile for Narai (Kobayashi cammo on the latter jacks up the earnings too). CVs: Ark Royal; it's a premium, and I don't need to grind the T8 CVs from the regular tree, plus the torps are pretty glorious against bots. Generally, I pick things that are reasonably versatile, ideally, or have armaments that are particularly suitable for the Op in question (Scharn, for example, isn't spectacularly good in randoms due to its anaemic guns, but is great in Narai as most of the opposition isn't tanky enough to keep your shells out); I almost always play things with a heal.

Yes, but very few - many fewer than I normally would. Apart from the captains, only one bundle - I believe - has a decent reward i.e. coal in it; flags and cammo are far less compelling for me... (Plus, the Moskva business makes me even less keen than normal to spend on borderline things, so stuff needs to pass a higher 'so what?' threshold as well.)

Why would a delayed salvo be especially deadly for a DD...? (ref: https://www.yourdictionary.com/frist)

It seems there has been a notable change from the old "players will not lose anything" approach; curiously, WOT has launched a significant tech tree overhaul today, and - as far as I can tell - so far, there is every sign that they've followed this mantra. I do wonder if there has been any exchange of personnel between the titles semi-recently? It used to be WOWS that was the better title for customer service...

It's inevitable that you'll eventually get bored with almost all games at some point; for example, a couple of years ago, I got fed up with WOT, so I essentially stopped playing; returning again a few weeks ago, I discovered that the layoff had been enough to give the game back some freshness and I'm enjoying it again. WOWS will almost certainly be exactly the same at some point; despite the extra spare time (thanks, COVID), I've been playing it rather less of late, although at least part of that is down to the avalanche of people worse than me (which takes some doing) which means I reach frustration point much sooner. Try taking a break for a while (perhaps when your premium account runs out, if you have it); the worst that'll happen is you'll miss out on some reward ship or other which'll be largely redundant in six months...

Not even remotely - it's the game trying to teach you to learn how to use torps intelligently. Your torps; your responsibility. Always. As others have alluded to, if you don't want to be punished, don't fire torps where there is any chance of hitting an ally; if you do take the risk and it doesn't work out, always say sorry. Think of it all as a marvellous opportunity to get less bad at map awareness.

Scharn might have some legs, I guess - you aren't going to be facing T9 BBs that make her a bit flaky for randoms, and the extra volume of fire compared to some of the bigger gunned siblings might come in handy...? Easy for me to say though; I'll be giving my DDs an airing (as per usual)...

Thing is, you can make a good case that what is being given away for free is not what was paid for (i.e. the difference between a semi-premium ship's permaflage, which always is included with the ship, and a permaflage for a regular T10 silver ship, which isn't).

Clearly, we're missing something here; hang on... I know, we need a not-entirely-complementary nickname for 'buff submarines' folk. SSillies might do it...?

This. I may not even bother; it's only silver and my trust in WG not to muck this up somehow is currently at an historic low... (edited for minor illiteracy)

There wouldn't be the same need in that case, as the existing owners don't lose anything (although, you will recall that if you get a giveaway, or mission reward - that you have already - you get the same value in doubloons or credits, depending on specifics). Contrary to WG's position, the existing permaflage owners are losing something, specifically the ability to run a T10 silver ship with a better economy. Whether you view that loss as reasonable or not is a matter of opinion, but they certainly paid for that ability.

I'm keeping an open mind on subs for the moment, whilst being mindful of WG's almost preternatural tendency to mess things up. I wonder if people are hoping that subs will suddenly give them the ability to do better than they have with the existing mechanics? Sort of an underwater Tirpitz. I fear they will be gravely disappointed; it'll take the better players a few minutes to work out how to close down subs, I imagine...

Not at all (no equivalent to some shops' loyalty programs etc.). Quite the reverse it seems, given the Moskva thing...! That said, they do give away a lot of freebies, either directly or indirectly; usually, this sort of stuff is in direct proportion to how much you play. (I'm an utter whale, so I don't say that as a negative, but one should be realistic about this - anything you spend on WG is basically 'entertainment' i.e. money down the drain, in return for - hopefully - some fun.)

@popstrong - a small additional suggestion: you probably already know not to rush up the tiers (take your time, and learn as much as you can); as well as that, I would urge you to play all the different classes - at least a bit - this will give you an insight into what they can/cannot do, what they're trying to do, and how to stop them, which will make you more capable overall against whatever opponents you face in the game.

Leaving aside the preceding scuffle, some (possibly) semi useful information: Almost certainly not a cheat. A quick look at your stats indicate you're currently at T3 - is that correct? If so, you're starting to encounter things with torps, and the bulk of them have more than one launcher. Generally speaking, when you press fire with torps selected, you will launch the entire contents of one launcher, rather than absolutely everything. For example, if you have a look at the wiki entry for Clemson (https://wiki.wargaming.net/en/Ship:Clemson), you'll note that she has a pair of launchers on each side; there are a number of ways people commonly employ these, one of which is to launch the contents of one launcher, pause, and then empty the other. If both launchers are fired down the same general heading, it would look like the effect you describe. It's worth having a look in more detail at the rest of the wiki (https://wiki.wargaming.net/en/World_of_Warships); besides providing useful information about the various ships in the game, it also explains how the mechanics work, which are just as important as the individual craft you'll be facing (vision mechanics especially). BTW it's worth joining a clan at some point (soon is good), especially one that is happy to teach - as you might be starting to gather, there is a *lot* to learn about the game and learning in real time from others tends to be more efficient. Another good source of information is iChase's YouTube series (be mindful of the publication dates though - the game has changed a lot over the last year or so). Also, do keep asking questions on here, although you'll usually get a more helpful reaction if you phrase them in terms of "x happened to me - I don't understand?"; there are lots of forum folk happy to help, but if you've been around for a reasonable amount of time, you'll be a bit tired of the "x happened - it's a cheat/WG need to fix the game" which can result in a bit of prickliness now and again.