Verblonde

Thanks all for the feedback - next time there's a free respec, I'll try switching AFT to Manuel Secondaries and see what happens...

Nope. The EU is an association of European countries; Europe is a geographical area - one does not equal the other. I like them a lot, especially T7+. They do benefit from a better captain; I suspect a lot of the ones we've seen in battle the last few weeks will have been running with what they were supplied with i.e. 3 points, plus whatever was earned by playing. The rocket propelled torps are great fun, even if they don't do much damage; you have to play differently with them, because you are going to struggle to Dev Strike things like a regular DD will - don't do a close torp run without a foolproof exit plan (unless your target is on his last legs). The guns are 'good enough', especially with BFT, but you'll be mainly trying to use torps to maintain stealth (which isn't terrible, but isn't spectacular either). I love having enough AA to rather mess up an average CV's day (the ones with DefAA especially), and the heal is also splendid. There are certainly far easier DDs to play, and the lack of smoke will be a deal-breaker for a lot of people, but I do think they're an excellent addition to the game. Isn't it two non-Ikea premiums - Blysk and Friesland, with a third to follow at the end of the month?

<chuckle> I usually describe them as semi-manly. As it stands, I'm running secondary upgrades in slots 1&3, with main battery in slot 6 of Fat Freddy (most of my games are in Tirpitzes and Scharnhorsts) and this captain: I believe the technical term for this build is probably 'idiotic', but it's fun and manly enough for me with BFT/AFT (and upgrades), whilst being almost sufficiently tanky to get away with it (at least for a player of my standard). I actually find the non-manual secondaries to be really useful as a warning that some sneaky DD has got too close without my noticing (usually if I don't have hydro on at that time, or if I'm Tirpitz etc.)... Believe it or not, this set-up worked pretty well in that mental 1v1 Sprint thing we had a while back!

That's what I did, on the following basis: Plenty of time to get the permaflages (in the context that I'm dividing my time between boats and tanks at the moment). I did it in two batches; the first batch got me to T7, where I paused to make sure I actually liked the things; after that I went to T9, with a bit of luck on paid bundles. Because I definitely had time to get the permaflages, that offset the doubloon outlay somewhat, to a level I would consider 'a bit dumb' rather than flat-out idiotic (especially since I got the T10 too). The spare tokens at the end got me the last of the silver I needed for Moskva (yay, future semi-premium). I agree though - WG should have had the permaflage missions for a couple of weeks after the patch hits; they'll have lost some early access sales by not doing so...

This is why - even on my manly ships - I almost never take Man Sec; the extra damage rarely makes up for the use of four points to get it (compared to, say, FP)...

Skane is good, but do you have time to grind the permaflage before the mission ends? If not, there isn't much point in paying gold now - just buy it for silver tomorrow...

That's exactly what that particular captain is mainly for (although mine is technically assigned to Fubuki, I think)...

It's one of the Halloween permaflages (I wouldn't be surprised if it's available again in the autumn) - there are several 'steampunk' type ones; I rather like the silliness of them... BTW suggest joining a clan; whilst it won't help you aim better, it'll provide a source of people to division with, plus (usually) some helpful economic bonuses.

If you stick Torp Tubes Mod 1 on the thing and TA on your captain, it gives you 12 km fish going at 65 kts, which isn't wholly disastrous (the T7 silver torp boat with zoomy torps, but no TA, gives a bit more damage, but less range, for the same speed)... Edit: I'd still rather play Z-39 or Haida though...!

If you'll permit me to quote myself from an earlier post: Doh! My bad. My initial instinct was that this was the case, but I was too lazy to double-check if I'd forgotten some weird build or other...

Learning to shoot straight comes with time and practice (plus, don't forget that at lower tiers especially, a lot of ships struggle to hit the side of a barn from the inside); everyone is different, but I found that playing ships with plenty of dakka helped with things like leading targets etc. - because you have a fast reload, you can correct your aim as you go, until it starts to become almost reflex; with some tweaking for varying ballistics, those reflexes should transfer over to almost anything else. BTW do you have the alt interface on, and more suitable reticle than the default (I use one with diagonals, as that makes aiming at things that aren't sailing straight a bit easier). Re: hitting citadels. The key thing is to know where they are (roughly); it's worth taking some time to look at the ships in your port with the armour viewer. For example: This is my Chapy, filtered to show 'vital ship part' and 'main battery mount' armour; the short version is that - generally - when someone gives you broadside, you want to fire at the middle of the ship, just above the waterline, to maximise your chance of a citadel. Bear in mind that not all ships have a citadel above the waterline, some are smaller/bigger than others, and some lack a citadel entirely (DDs). The ideal thing to do is learn how every ship is configured and aim your shots accordingly; I for one have failed miserably in that endeavour, so if you turn out to be similar, the 'aim centre, just above waterline' mantra should do you okay. BTW on the subject of citadels, bear in mind that some ships have 'turtleback' armour (typically KM); on BBs especially, it can make them extremely hard to citadel - a lot of the time, it's better not to even try and focus on regular pens instead. If you haven't found it yet, this may be a useful resource: https://wiki.wargaming.net/en/Ship:Armor_Penetration

Not really, *if* the DD player knows his business. The 'problem' with radar is that all of the (highly effective) counters are based on knowledge and skill; if you haven't had a chance to get even a modicum of that yet, you're going to be in trouble (it's one reason why newbies probably shouldn't play DDs initially). Radar counters are not along the lines of 'play something with good AA', or 'mount DefAA'; that's not to say that countering planes doesn't have elements of skill too (quite the reverse), but rather that you have essentially no equipment/captain skill crutches to counter radar, so producing a potential skill gap. I'm not saying that radar doesn't change how you approach the game as a DD (the fact that it does is a good thing - more variety and more interesting challenge), but rather that - assuming some basic knowledge and experience - it's easier to deal with radar than planes in DDs in general. Only if they don't know what they're doing (or are trying some clever flanking manoeuvre at the risk of losing capping opportunities); what they should be doing is trying to acquire the enemy fleet and/or baiting the radar that's there. Not really - it's two players' games you ended because they (and possibly their team) lacked the skills to play in an environment with radar. Bear in mind that Chapy is the first Russian radar ship that most people will see, so you'll quite often encounter folk who haven't got the hang of dealing with 12 km radar and/or don't know how important shooting radar ships is - you only have a 1.6 km stealth radar window (assuming full stealth build) - that really isn't that much. If a DD is facing a Chapy (assuming no CV), say: He knows you're out there (unless he's an idiot who doesn't look at the team makeup, either during loading or just after), and he knows where the islands are (unless he's an idiot who ignores the minimap). During the initial 'closing' phase, the DD should chart a course that gives him the maximum amount of visibility whilst still enabling him to dash behind an island if radared, although how quickly and how likely it is that he'll need to hide should be fairly straightforward to estimate; he should also be bearing in mind where other unspotted ships should have got to with time as well. The first opposing ships to be spotted will probably be the fat lads and highly visible cruisers; the DD will then quickly asses who is spotted and where - from that he can infer likely positions of unspotted radar ships, and where he should head to avoid being radared excessively by known/suspected radar ships. The DD should *want* to be radared early on; if he's doing it right, the radar ship will waste a charge (Chapy only has 4, tops) on finding the DD in a position where he can't be overwhelmed with fire (hopefully, the radar ship will open up too - in the case of Chapy, this means you can now be seen from 17.3 km away) and will then be unable to use his radar for two minutes in Chapy's case (assuming premium consumable, since that's all we'll have soon). These timers matter - for the majority of the time, Chapy isn't a functioning radar; she's an active one for only 20-24 secs every two minutes - yes, you can do a lot with those 20+ secs, but equally a knowledgeable enemy has got a whole two minutes to do lots with. After that, it's 'just' a matter of moving around the radar circles of the relevant ships, and trying to get them to trigger at less useful moments; meanwhile if the DD's team aren't idiots they should be blowing spotted radar ships out of the water. The DD can sometimes take direct action against the radar ship too - less good players will often just park their radar boat somewhere, rather than playing more actively; that sort of style is asking to be torped (which can sometimes be done whilst also triggering another unnecessary radar use). That's just the basics, plus you're having to layer in what to do about other ships on the enemy team that are also threats; radar is just one part of the threat spectrum, and fairly straightforward to deal with, but you *must* have knowledge to do it. I've recently been playing the Russian T8-9 cruisers (to get Moskva before it goes premium); they're good and fun ships that you can do a lot with, but they aren't a magic bullet - most of the DDs I caught with their pants down did something stupid; it wasn't because of the mere existence of radar (and bear in mind I should have a better idea than many of what DDs are trying to do, based on my main class). In conclusion, radar doesn't need nerfing, but rather (as with so many things) better information needs to be available to players, and those players need to read it (as well as not rushing up the tiers - people should start learning this anti-radar technique at T5, when they run into things like Atlanta, Sharkbait, and Belfast, and then scale up from there). Being sunk repeatedly by radar is generally an L2P issue (I should know!), whereas being sunk repeatedly by planes often isn't (although you can indeed make planes' lives harder with technique as well, it's just not to the same degree).

I have them all already too...

And it probably will! Incidentally, getting lower tier ships isn't necessarily a bad thing - a lot of them are actively fun and worth having (even Krispy Kreme is a giggle if you aren't taking things too seriously). Not all are stinkers (<side-eyes at VU>)... I actually rather like Yudachi; with the zoomy torps upgrade and a TA captain, she's quite a worthwhile torp boat (although the AA is still truly dreadful).

I lot of people seem not to; it's one of the most helpful tips I got when I first started. The same toggle also turns secondaries on/off, although that's not often as important as *most* ships get spotted before they are in secondary range. Also, remember to check at the beginning of each game; the last state of your AA is remembered by the game - if you get sunk with AA on, it'll still be on for the next game BTW have you found the 'range' options for the minimap? If you hold down ctrl and click on the cogwheels by the map's corner, you get a bunch of tick boxes (amongst other things) - these enable you to switch on range circles on the map for more things than the defaults; if you're concentrating on dealing with planes, then having AA range on is a good idea, along with aerial spotting distance. I personally have pretty much everything turned on, although it can get a bit cluttered on some ships.

It might be funny for a little while though - imagine the BB tears...!

Guessing you don't play DDs, or possibly haven't found the the minimap yet? DDs can pop smoke? Yes, a lot of them can (not French, Ikea and a lot of things with TRB though), but if you hide in smoke, you're effectively a temporary mission kill (and you might be an actual kill if anyone torps the smoke cloud, or knows how to shoot at tracers), which is a good way to lose - to be useful, a DD generally has to be very active i.e. not skulking in smoke. Besides which, planes don't last a few seconds (like radar), so they just spot you again when you come out (or drop fighters which still will spot you, while they head off and do it someone else). AA from cruisers and BBs is strong so that makes planes okay? For a DD this is nonsense - much of the time, if you're firmly within AA range of a bigger ship you're doing it wrong - DDs are meant to be forward of the main fleet, scouting and capping; by definition, this means you aren't covered by your allies, *and* a plane will spot you for far longer than a radar will (it's the spotting that sinks you, not the planes themselves - usually). To deal with radar, 'all' you need to do is keep an eye on your minimap and maintain situational awareness (which even a muppet like me knows to do on general principles anyway); each radar ship is effectively a 'risk of detection' circle if it isn't on cooldown - don't go into those circles in a DD without an exit plan, or if the risk is worth it. Easy. The fact that the in-game radar (and hydro) can see through islands isn't in practice terribly important; shells/torps don't go through islands so you still can't be shot, even if the opposition know you're there. Sure, for a few seconds, they know exactly where you are, apart from 'behind that island', but if they can't shoot you, who cares? Recall also that the bulk of DD AA is largely useless; the behavioural/play methodology to deal with radar is easier and you don't have to do it for as long, whereas planes can effectively shut you down for an entire game, if the CV player gets the urge. The only way that radar is nastier than planes - from the DD's perspective - is if the DD player is entirely hopeless at situational awareness, such that they are surprised every time they're lit up by the radar ships on the other side...

Sorry, but over a large enough data-set it is: over many games, a good player will make enough of a difference to win enough 'edge' cases to get their WR higher, whereas a bad player will have the reverse effect (and get a WR like mine, or - heavens forbid - even worse). That's not to say it's the *only* useful measure, but it is emphatically reasonable to say that - with a big enough data set - a 40% WR means a potato and a 60% WR probably means it's time to bravely run away... (There are a few exceptions of course e.g. a former unicum returning from a long layoff will be a bit rusty to start with, or someone hopeless who bought an account probably won't be as good as the account's WR suggests they should be, but these are rare)

I think this is pi$$ poor of WG, although I'm pretty sure it's entirely deliberate - I'm certain that they know that optimal builds for Clans are often different to those for Randoms, say, and it has very little to do with CVs much of the time. Guess they need a new diamond-encrusted doorknocker for the moonbase, or something...

There is some truth in that: I've been using the IJN torp line (repeatedly) to do the job for me; I think I free-xped to T5 and then played from there (free-xping modules for new ships) and it was actually quite fun - at least in part because the first time I went through much of the line I was still a newbie, so it's nice to see what the ships can do with a bit more experience. I also now have decent captains on all the ships where it matters, so subsequent runs through are less frustrating too (albeit slightly unfair on lower tier opponents, or would be if I were in any way competent)... There are issues with the whole RB thing though: I probably wouldn't have done it without a decent reward at the end (Colbert in my case, which I'm rubbish in, so no damage to game balance there), so if WG seriously want people to do this, and do so repeatedly, the rewards must be good, which risks introducing OP or potentially damaging 'must have' things into the game. I personally feel that the baseline (no bonuses) research points awarded are about 50% what they should be to make it worth doing the regrinds; if I'm not the only one with that view then WG won't get the numbers they want, which in turn feeds back into the previous point about the risk of introducing OP stuff to make regrinding irresistible. If you don't want to play the lower-mid tier bits of the tree, the whole thing does rather look like a shabby money grab...

I vaguely recall that she's another free xp ship - is that correct? If so, presumably she'll be another 2 million effort - that'll be a nope for me, much as I love DDs...

My feeling is that you may as well buy premiums that you like and will get a reasonable amount of use from, unless you want to go 'full whale'. For 'blocking' to be effective (effective defined as meaning you *will* get the high rarity ships in later boxes), you basically need to own *all* of the more common ones first. Or be spectacularly lucky.

For optimal i.e. best chance of winning - another vote for full tank build. For maximum fun and glorious manliness, you want a secondary build.

Besides the excellent advice already posted, be mindful of over-penetrations. This is where an AP shell basically goes in one side and out the other, without detonating (due to the shell not having time to arm); you do a lot less damage when this happens. It's quite common when you shoot some thinner ships, or poorly armoured bits of heavier ships. Broadly speaking, massive guns are more likely to overpen thin armour, with the likelihood decreasing as the guns get smaller and armour thicker, until you start doing normal pens (and if you extrapolate further, you come out the other side and start getting into shatter territory eventually). You can tell what's happening when your shells hit the target by monitoring the ribbons you're being awarded; if you don't get it right with the first few rounds, you can always switch ammo type and/or shoot different bits of the target.

Not really - I'm a sub-par player, and Chapy is fairly easy to deal with (as you'll probably find out shortly) - the run time on the radar, even with coal module, isn't egregious and she's pretty squishy; if the opposition know their business, you're in all kinds of trouble when spotted. With 12 km radar, you're great for covering two closer cap circles at once and exposing DDs for a few seconds, but you're quite easy to kill and have to play incredibly carefully to do meaningful damage. The trouble with Russian radar is that the short duration means that if your team aren't on their toes, much of your spotting won't be taken full advantage of (unless you're in a division and they know the radar is coming).