Verblonde

Cheers! Won't be worrying about that one then, for the moment - more Xmas crate fodder, perhaps.

I've slightly lost track - what's the state of play with Odin? Last I heard she was sort of a T8 Scharn (which sounded fun to me); do I assume correctly from the latter part of the above sentence that it's been carefully adjusted to be rubbish now?

Would it be glorious? Hells, yes! Would it be magnificent? Indubitably! Would it be remotely good for the game? Ah... (I would *love* to be able to unload six launchers worth of fish at hapless souls, but my unfortunate boring sane side says nah!)

Pretty much what @ForlornSailor said. Personally I go with the following thought process: Russian cruiser T8+: yes, 12 km (with the exception of Smol). American cruiser T8+ yes, 10 km (or 9, but assuming 10 is safe, if we're keeping things simple). T9+ RN cruiser and T8+ PA DDs: maybe; assume they do until they pop smoke. 10 and 7.5 km respectively. Weird premiums: Belfast, Atlanta, Sharkbait, MO and the upcoming Ikea things; I can never remember the radar ranges for these (even though I have most of them!), so I assume 10 km to be safe, until I do remember/look it up. If you want a really short version, if you're feeling blonde: Russians 12 km, and everything else 10 km. Wildly inaccurate, but erring on the side of caution; probably won't get you sunk, but you'll miss opportunities to play closer to the edge.

I suspect optimal choice will depend on what you're playing, and with whom. Radar is worth a lot if your team-mates shoot at what you light up. If. She strikes me as fun and interesting, if not necessarily exactly world-conquering OP, and - crucially - she's pretty too! We'd all be up in arms if she were too fearsome (reeee - P2W and all that); as it is (and without seeing the details) she looks like an entertaining addition that won't break the game. I call that a result.

Maybe I should have said "I like her a lot" instead - she's my second favourite T7 DD, after Haida...

If WG manage not to do anything excessively stupid in the meantime, it'll be an insta-buy for me too... I'm tentatively thinking of her as a smokeless Haida, with radar instead of hydro (and T8, obviously), combined with Ikea torps/AA - that sounds right up my strasse...

I'll wait and see, but not with baited breath - WG's track record on this sort of thing is a bit flaky, to say the least. Although, in the spirit of fairness, one should recall that the T6 and T7 premium DDs are both excellent...

Thanks everyone for the warnings about this - normally, I'm a sucker for almost anything DD shaped, but it sounds rather like this is one to avoid (6 km torps? Seriously?!)...

Technically it is, in terms of what it's detecting/warning about; but that does mean if your DD had its guns locked on to the target and then switched to torps, the gun count for the target will drop by one. It's a semi-unintended consequence, similar to RPF warning the enemy that there is a DD sneaking around out there... If you're feeling a bit sneaky, you can make use of this: Don't lock onto the target with guns in the first place (I often drive around with torps selected as my default state, to avoid warning people that I'm aiming at them in the first place). If you lock onto a target with guns, switch to torps, and then back again - without firing your torps - you can assess if the target knows about PT (or even has it in the first place) without expending your torps. No reaction means you don't have to worry, whilst a reaction means the target is awake/knowledgeable and will need a bit more finesse to strike.

From the news story for the next patch: From what I read, she sounds potentially rather interesting/fun. For a start, I gather we have a new ship for getting CQC awards with...!

Personally, I (DD main) think that the current radar isn't unreasonable - no, really - although I imagine we will get a radar spike when the new Russians are released, as we did with the US equivalent. From my perspective, most radar ships give something up to get radar, so if you can work round the radar they're arguably easier to deal with than many non radar equivalents. I actually find radar to be less of a problem for my DDs than CVs, at least in general. Of course, it helps if your side knows to sink radar ships, and the skill of the radar ship driver matters a lot, but that's true of most threats in the game... I still think that a chaff consumable might have some legs though; I've haven't thought this through yet, but you could perhaps work it along similar lines to smoke, only rather than vision it would block radar (same characteristics otherwise, for simplicity, and it would need to be visually different in game). Any smoke equipped ship could take it, and would give up their smoke to do so. Personally, I would generally keep smoke on my ships, but I'm fairly sanguine about radar in general.

WG presumably know that many experienced players hate the lower tiers (T4 CVs, anyone?); this will be deliberate design, as a lot of folk will do one of: Use up some/all of their free xp reserves, so removing it from the economy. Spend money on converting free xp, to skip the problem tiers. Win-win, from WG's perspective (plus, they'll get similar results in the tiers people actually like to play, due to players wanting to avoid playing stock ships)...

This. I've reground the IJN torp line several time now, to get Colbert (having a break now though); the problem - from my perspective anyway - is that unless you play a *lot* it's quite easy to inadvertently miss out on rewards from other events/missions whilst your - usually higher tier - ships from the line being reground are missing from your collection. Since such events (SCs/Xmas boxes/snowflakes etc.) often coincide with times when you could be playing enough to make a regrind practical, such a likelihood of missing out increases. Regrinding would be a lot more attractive to me if such 'missing' ships still existed in your port as some sort of 'ghost' that qualified you for any reward you might miss out on due to the regrind (or any reward that didn't require anything harder than a single win in coop).

I feel your pain, as one of the DDs in question, although a DD that actually parks is usually all kinds of dead if the enemy is remotely awake. This does illustrate the need for team play: your own side's DDs and cruisers should be making life as difficult as possible for the opposing DDs; your BBs should be prioritising sinking the enemy cruisers (to protect your DDs), *especially* if they have radars, and so on. Camping BBs has always been a problem - some people just don't understand that they aren't doing any good back there; they're probably too keen on eating paint chips or similar. If you want to be useful as a BB, try and follow a respectable distance behind your side's cruisers and DDs, with a view to blapping anything they can't handle, tanking some damage (run away and heal when appropriate), and generally scaring the enemy; that said, you need an escape route planned if you get 'special' DDs/cruisers that suicide in front of you, so leaving you exposed. All this stuff does take practice though, and at least some team-mates who don't have a lower IQ than their own underpants. A fix for the latter is to play in a division when you can; at least then you have one or two players who are on the same page as you.

None of them really; this is made worse by the fact that, currently, you see more T4 CVs (with Hosho being a particular nuisance) than any other tier, so making hiding from the buggers more or less a non-starter. Basically playing low tiers against CVs sucks something that is hugely unpleasant to suck. That said, things do get a lot better once you're past the T4 CV plague, and have acquired a wider skill-set yourself. Some pointers (in no particular order) from a DD main: Firstly, be aware that a good CV player is going to kill you more or less no matter what (at almost any tier); WG have messed up the AA-CV balance/gameplay such that a sufficiently skilled player will more or less always get to you if they really want. You have to come to terms with this, so as to reduce damage to your monitor when you feel the urge to put a boot through it, having been on the receiving end of such a skilled player. Luckily, they're rather rare - in randoms, anyway. If you're a big ship (cruiser+) you generally don't want to be isolated; it's harder for a CV to strike a 'blob' of more than one ship (or at least harder to strike it multiple times). This stuff applies to these ships generally - don't over-extend on general principles: if a CV doesn't get you, a surface ship will. BTW, this doesn't mean the whole team should lemming, but rather try and be within AA range of at least one other ship with tolerable AA. A DD that's doing it right will be alone, almost by definition - for DDs you want to generally hide/run away as the situation dictates. Try and arrange matters so your ship is optimally orientated with regard to the incoming planes: in very general terms, this means bow towards incoming torps, and side on to at least some bombers. There is a lot of variation though; what you're trying to do is to present the smallest target for the planes to hit, but this sometimes can not be consistent with making you harder to hit in the first place (for example, bombers with an elliptical drop pattern along their course want to line up with your long axis for maximum hits, so giving them side makes this harder, *but* driving straight towards them if they spotted you late can mess up their aim, assuming you aren't spotted from the moon). If you're a DD, look at your spotting distance from the air and your AA range (press and hold 'h' in game, by default); if AA range is greater, then you want your AA off when it's not actually in use - 'p' is the default toggle. When your AA opens up, the distance the planes can see you becomes your AA range, and this range is often enough to spot you and launch an aimed attack; with AA off, most CVs won't have time to spot and then make a considered attack (unless they have a good idea where you are already). Have an idea how good (or not) your AA is on a DD; most are pretty weak, so you want to leave it switched off except in extremis. Returning to the general subject of positioning, you want to keep an eye on this for a number of reasons. For a start, a lot of the threat from CVs (especially for sneakier ships) is that they spot you for their friends; a CV may well not kill you directly, but the opposing surface fleet will. Keep an eye on islands etc. - you can put these between you and surface threats whilst you deal with the planes. Also, you need to try and think ahead a bit; being attacked by planes can often mean you change course - if you aren't careful, this can result in you giving broadside to scarier surface enemies who are just waiting for this opportunity; try and have an idea where such threats are so - if possible - you can take evasive action that doesn't put you in even more danger (sometimes, it can be better to eat the damage from the planes than expose yourself to some surface monster). If you are in a DD with good AA, it can sometimes be worth letting the CV know that as early as possible (especially if the CV is lower tier than you); if you give the first set of planes a bloody nose (or shred it entirely), a more pedestrian CV player will often leave you alone, in favour of easier targets. This only works with a few DDs, and you want an island between you and the enemy whilst attacking the planes, to avoid the surface combatants scragging you when the planes get you spotted. If you have the slightest warning that the CV in question may be a competent player, don't try this! WG's helpful advice on the subject of plane attacks is words to the effect of 'just dodge'; this makes a lot of players really annoyed as, for the bulk of ships, it's spectacularly unhelpful/pointless. For at least some DDs though (the more nimble ones), it is a practical proposition, although not being found in the first place is almost always better. Try and keep track of where the incoming planes are, and wiggle like a wiggling thing, to try and mess up their aim, drive between their torps etc. (this also makes it harder for any surface ships that may be taking an interest to hit you). Be aware of sector reinforcement and how it works (and probably map it to a more useful control than the default - I have it on a spare mouse button, for example); it's often not much use if you're the target, but it can be very helpful if you need to engage planes passing to one side of you and/or going after a team-mate. I find it essential for DDs particularly. As you progress, developing good captains should be something you concentrate on (for a start, you really want at least 10 points from T5 and up); this isn't directly an AA/CV thing, but some skills do usefully boost your AA, and some are simply not worth taking. My view, for what it's worth (on the AA boosting skills): BFT is worth it if you have small main guns that are also boosted (so, mainly DDs, and things like Atlanta/Smol etc.), or you've already taken all the other skills that you need, but after you've completed your 'baseline' build. AFT is only worth it if it provides you with a useful bonus to surface capabilities (this usually means things like Smol/Colbert/Atlanta where you might want the extra main gun reach, or secondary monsters like MA and the higher tier KM BBs); don't take AFT for pure AA reasons. MAA is generally considered worthless, or simply not worth four points. That's just a few things to have in mind; it does all take practice and a bit of learning though - don't worry if you make a mess of things initially though; at time of writing, you're showing 95 random battles - this isn't bad, but it isn't a lot. If you haven't already, have a look at some YouTube tutorials (iChase is usually good), although keep an eye on the date - you want recent stuff, as the games has changed a lot in the last year, *especially* vis-a-vis CVs. As well as this, it's a good idea to join a clan, especially one with members who are happy to teach (ideally you want to be using voice comms too, so people can give you feedback in real time - Discord and TS seem to be the most common, although you can use the in-game voice); besides the learning/divisioning advantages, a lot of clans have a developed base that provides all members with economic rewards. To reiterate though: against a good CV player, there really isn't much you can do (there are several such players on this forum who can explain why far better than I can); all of the preceding is about dealing with an average player, and those you often *can* do something about (especially at the moment, where we have so many rusty/new players in the game).

As resident theologian, it's obvious: you've angered the wrathful volcano gods, and they demand sacrifice. Chuck a few sacrificial inexperienced young men/women into the nearest suitable crater and your problems will be solved. Simple. Trust me, I'm your spiritual adviser...etc.

Erm, I believe @Hanse77SWE was trying to be helpful; as your stats are hidden, it's difficult to offer specific input for your situation. If we know how many battles (and in which modes) you have under your belt, pointers will be more sensible, we'll know how accurate your estimation of 'many' battles is, and be able to respond accordingly. My expectation is that if you're asking how to buy Iowa, then you must be pretty new, as that is suggestive of not having worked out how the tech trees work yet...

Not as such, but T5 comes as a nasty shock to a lot of newer players (230 random battles at time of writing is pretty new): this is the point where you first venture into the +2MM bracket, and it feels a bit worse still as you don't get -2MM either, due to the protected MM up to and including T4. The other thing to be mindful of is that T5 is - often, but not always - about as low a tier as the more experienced players tend to be starting to be found at; this means that you're sometimes going right into the teeth of at least some folk with several thousand battles and much more developed captains (e.g. ratbags like me with things like Kami, T-61, Z-39 and so on). Basically, this transition calls for some revision of one's playing style; a little more circumspection tends to be called for, after the free-for-all often found at lower tiers.

I don't play BBs that much (because they smell and their mothers dress them funny), but I thought the whole 'flavour' of the Russian BBs was they were optimised for short(ish) to medium range? Speaking as a BB target, I don't really worry about Russians that are trying to snipe (in the same way I don't worry about KM BBs taking pot-shots from the backline either)... Reminds me: I really should get round to free-xping Gangut (on the basis that she's about the only real thing in the tree)...

FWIW this is where my 19 pointer will end up: This assumes normal random opposition, and a mediocre player (that'll be me): First ten points goes to the standard DD build: PT, LS, SE, and CE. After that, I went with BFT to prop up the dakka, followed by AR (you can make a good case for taking AR as soon as you get to 12 points; I went with BFT as you spend a bit more time with higher health levels, and I wanted the boost to AA as well). Next was SI, for the extra healing potion, with PM my last point as you tend to get bits shot off a lot of the time... I used upgrades to boost the torps, rather than captain skills; you could argue in favour of TAE in place of BFT, if you want to go 'full torp'. I would have liked to have taken RPF too, but - in randoms anyway - I felt the benefit of using those four points elsewhere would have been greater. To provide a bit of context, I've played T5-8 enough to get the permaflage, and the T9 enough to be able to unlock the T10 on the day of release, but - as I said - I'm not a good player, so this build is with that in mind. In terms of actual live captains, most of mine are currently 13-15 pointers, and 18 points on the T9. Edit: if I was building for a mode like Clans, I would probably go with this:

There are a fair number of clans out there who are either fairly relaxed about this sort of thing (you're still earning oil for them, for a start, every time you get a container), or exist entirely for the economic bonuses. So long as both you and they are open about availability/motives etc. you shouldn't struggle to find a clan. As you'll have seen from the economy article that was linked to earlier, earnings aren't necessarily linked to impact - there's lots of stuff you can do in a DD that helps win games, but does very little for your finances. Concentrate on doing damage, and especially large amounts of damage as a proportion of your targets' hitpoints, and you should see your earnings improve and losses decrease.

Also, it's very worthwhile sticking coal upgrades (yup - plural) on her, especially the hydro one (the other being smoke); the run time on the hydro in particular becomes truly glorious...

Haida is great fun, but don't forget that she's a commonwealth ship so one needs a bunch of spare elite/free xp to get the captain up to a reasonable level (unless you can get a package with a 10 pointer included)...

For someone of my (rather low) standard, it's all rather ghastly - I struggle to carry at the best of times and, at the moment, lockdown appears to have brought out everyone who has no idea how to play (even by my pretty low standards). I suppose the best we can hope for is that if lockdown lasts long enough, at least some of these folk will get the hang of things eventually...! If it makes anyone feel better, exactly the same thing seems to be happening in WOT too - to the extent that (even after my recent almost two year lay-off) I'm even starting to look only mildly incompetent!