Verblonde

It's not completely ridiculous - the TRB build for some of the IJN torp boats can work well (e.g. Kagero), although they have much better inherent stealth to work with. As you know, I'm not a good player, and the approach that seems to be most promising for me so far is to try and act like a very fast cruiser: dash between cover, making use of your guns in brief bursts before breaking contact again - the reload booster (as others have said) is very helpful if you can manage to ambush an enemy DD (or light cruiser). You are ludicrously fast too - at full-tilt and at longer ranges, the amount of lead required to hit you with guns is huge, and can be made use of. Also, the 8km torps can be quite useful at times. For the discerning potato (so, me), they are a very long way from being easy mode, but I do think they're worth playing...

Being used to 'normal' DDs, I wasn't expecting to like the new French ones; after a few plays (up to T7 only, admittedly) my view is changing - they do seem rather fun, although I still suck royally in them. The crucial thing is that they play almost nothing like a conventional DD, and that is going to cause a lot of people (including me) difficulty, as you have to learn a new playstyle - a high skill level one too to boot. Presumably, once the initial enthusiasm has died down, they'll become a bit of a 'niche' thing; ordinary players will continue to dabble, and the unicums will be terrifying in them...

This will be contributing to your CV woes - the RN DDs generally don't have the AA to work well in a CV environment; mine had been in mothballs almost entirely until the recent CV nerfs meant that CVs largely vanished from most games. My feeling (fwiw) is that the DDs that suffer least are those with actively good AA (for a DD), which usually means US, PA, KM or Russians (US especially), and/or those balanced around having lousy detection ranges (the relevant Venn diagram predictably has a *lot* of overlap), since they suffer least from the spotting aspect of CVs. The T8+ dakka IJN DDs hold up okay as well.

This basically describes my approach: besides accepting that I'll get spotted a lot more, I try and do as much damage to the CV's initial probe as possible, and hope that he'll chase someone else for a while. The trouble is that this only works with solid AA, and DDs that lack this are largely forced to play like sub-par cruisers when a CV is in play - it's this latter that I'd like to see some sort of solution to (that isn't nerf CVs until they can't even sink a Kagero, say).

It's a good thought, hence why (or possibly not!) WG tested the idea, as already mentioned. My feeling is that it's a bit unnecessary if you're in a DD with competent AA, assuming you keep an obstacle between you and the enemy fleet during the initial DD-plane encounter; it also probably wouldn't do enough for DDs with poor AA - dead in half a minute versus dead in a minute (slight exaggeration, but you know what I mean) doesn't really make much difference. Given how much CVs have been nerfed (and may be about to be further nerfed), I don't think it's unreasonable for we DD drivers to have to play slightly differently if there is a CV present. What I do think needs fixing is the almost total vulnerability that some DDs have versus planes. All that assumes typical CV players; if you face someone like @El2aZeR then the correct procedure is to thrust your head as far between your legs as flexibility will allow and endeavour to kiss your donkey good-bye...!

A couple of friendly observations, if I may: I suggest you might want to take what others say in game a bit less seriously - I gather that pretty much every online game has a few idiots, and WOWS is no exception, If they bother you, report them and move on. I would also remind you that WOWS is a team game - it is your duty to not deliberately ruin the game for your team-mates, even if provoked. If I knew you'd deliberately gone afk or suicided because of what some idiot said in game, I'd probably report you too. If you aren't prepared to do the minimum for your team, don't play team-games - it's really that simple. This rings all kind of alarm bells; whilst there is plenty of scope for original tactics etc. in WOWS, you still need to be mindful of what your ship can/can't do and what your team is up to (see earlier point about team game). If you are doing whatever the h*ll you want without any consideration of the needs of the team, I'm not surprised you're getting grief; everyone gets some grief, but to get a lot of if usually takes some effort. You're not entirely Doomed though: if you want to play a bit more casual (as it were), play Coop - at least when there is a reasonable population online, it basically doesn't matter what you do, your team will still win, so you can be a bit more selfish (don't do it when you're one of only 2-3 real players though - that's a Richard move). Equally, it's not that hard to get better (so reducing the abuse in PvP), if you put your mind to it - you're in a clan, so ask clanmates for tips/pointers. Also, if you're getting bewildered, ask on here - people are usually pretty helpful vis-a-vis sensible questions. Edit: after 8.5K games, you should really know all this stuff though...

I would think forgetfulness is likely the top culprit, at least for better players - we had a nekked Kagero in a high tier game I was in earlier, and he ended up being one of our top performers, if I recall correctly. Whilst I would never deliberately run without cammo, it logically should have a relatively minor impact if I ever forgot.

+1. I'm not sure what needs to be done about it, but it's the only Op I actively avoid - I would love to see it 'fixed' (whatever that turns out to mean), as it's a nuisance to have a week with no fun Op to play. (I know you can do others, but I lack the patience to organise a suitable division)

I do (that's where my Alaska came from, not that I would use her in Ranked, as I suck in her); I find that thinking in terms of JB etc. having been bought for coal is a 'mid case' in terms of caution i.e. if I assume I'm facing a unicum in every JB, I'll be too cautious and lose; if I assume it's a 'weekender' who paid money and has no experience, I'll get cocky and lose; assuming coal is a reasonable mid-case. Crucially, I suspect the bulk of JBs running around are somewhere in the range above that falls within 'coal-weekender' and so aren't too much of an issue; if there was a plague of unicums in them, then it might be a different matter.

Whilst things may change at scarier ranks (I've stopped at 10 to preserve my sanity), as a DD driver, I tend to be less worried by things like JB and Georgia - they're often driven by people for whom it's their first T9 ship (or close to), due to being available for coal...

This. In spades. I think I mainly used a mixture of Black (smoke/radar always helpful in a DD-heavy environment) and Jutland - the latter partly because I was making heavy use of Haida in the last Sprints and it plays similarly.

Some sort of cap on DDs wouldn't be a bad thing (says the DD main, in the interests of full disclosure); the only potential snag that I can see is that it might magnify the impact of any skills gap amongst the DD players - *if* I don't do anything prodigiously stupid (big 'if), my impact seems to be much greater when there are fewer DDs in play. Given their potential impact on the game via spotting, I still find it suprising how few players focus DDs when they get spotted; my view could have just been coloured by the weekend though.

It's usually the less bright ones that do that - the better BB players realise that if they lose their side's DDs before the enemy does, they're largely blind and therefore deader than plaid...

Agree. To counter the usual 'WG won't make any money' argument, they could launch some sort of 'make a silver behave like a premium' (only without the lack of nerfs) thing for money/doubloons. The main reason I mostly play premiums in competitive modes (T10 excepted) is that most of my silver ships at the relevant tiers have lost their captains to higher tier ships.

As I said in the locked thread, I really don't like epicentre, but it could be worthwhile if people learned to play it properly (which almost certainly includes me as well)...

I got Black thanks to the snowflake thing last winter and like her a lot: excellent base ship (she's a Fletcher - what's not to like?), with the splendid smoke/radar combination, albeit mitigated by torps that run at a similar pace to tectonic drift!

As per usual, I've got to Rank 10 and called it a day - after that, it becomes too frustrating for me. That said, I've rather enjoyed the games I've played (all but one in DDs), and the balance between classes, although favouring BBs, was pretty decent most of the time. I like having at least one game mode that's free of CVs, even if it means having to rebuild ships' loadouts to be optimal (even if I was thinking of doing that anyway, given the dearth of CVs in regular modes). If WG ever manage to genuinely get CVs into some sort of sensible place, I wouldn't object to them returning to Ranked at some point though.

This. As a DD main, I *really* dislike Epicentre; that said, it's almost entirely because a large chunk of people (probably me included) seem to have no idea how to play the mode. I suspect if people stopped trying to play as they would in more campy maps, things would improve rather - of course, I could just be being a delusional optimist.

Are you able to play even a single battle in Clans? If so, that'll get you a free captain respec for a few days (at least, I think it's still on)...

I was under the impression that Clans was supposed to be Wed-Thu, and Sat-Sun - did I misunderstand?

I have mine on (when I remember); when you're as dreadful at the game as I am, a few funny colours don't make much practical difference. I do react slightly differently to opposition ships with the tracers on though: at the very least, they're often an indication of a player that has at least played enough to earn said commander, so a little more caution may be called for (and I don't lose much if it's just someone who bought it from the shop)...

Many thanks - seems to have worked!

Welcome! I'm sure you have plenty of advice available via your brother, however do feel free to ask for input on here should you need it - as you probably know, the WOWS community is usually pretty helpful. Good luck!

Right, first of all: unless you have more RL money than the gods, *never* sell a premium, even if it's more pants than the entire underwear department of M&S. You'll earn the same silver just by playing the thing fairly quickly, and if/when the ship in question comes up in a mission, you'll either get a metric butt-load of silver, or doubloons. So, just don't do it. Having got that out of the way, rather than a specific 'buy x', I would suggest thinking along the following (sometimes contradictory) lines: One of the more useful things you can do with a premium (besides earning more silver) is captain training, so it's helpful if you have premiums that work well their silver counterparts' captains e.g. Sims works well with pretty much any US DD captain from T7 at least; Scharn is good with a Gneis/Bismarck captain, and so on. If you do this, it allows you to cycle captains through multiple daily win bonuses, maximising the return on your daily playing time. If it's useful to be able to farm credits etc. premiums that work well in Ops are good to have (typically, you want at least three ships that are good for each Op - premium or silver - to avoid paying 75K silver for a quick restart). Most T6 BBs do well in the T6 Ops, and Scharn is great for Narai (the T7 one); it's possible that some of the other Ops that are currently on hiatus will return, in which case different options will be optimal. Pick things where you're confident that you'll enjoy playing them a lot; the major advantages of premium ships tend to be maximised if you play them repeatedly (you also get the best return on what is quite an expensive purchase if you're buying real money ones) and you want to avoid that being a chore. Do you care about competitive modes (Clans/Ranked)? Much of the time, these are held at tiers where there are premiums e.g. the current Clans season is positive bulging with premium ships (DDs especially); a premium that you can do well with in competitive can be useful, especially since you can sometimes put your best available captain in it without retraining. Pick things where you can reliably do a lot of damage; most in-game rewards are largely predicated on doing plenty of damage, so you want things that play to that. Good picks will vary from player to player, depending on which things a given player gels with. Beware of premiums that require a specific atypical captain build to do well with; that's not to say you should entirely avoid them (MA is glorious for example, but does require a manly captain, which the rest of the US BBs don't), but be aware that they won't be much use as a captain trainer until you get their captain to 19 points. Save money! In general, WG are what is known technically as robbing swine i.e. premium ships are generally over-priced. What this means is that it's a good idea to buy premiums on sale, if you can, or (ideally) get ones for in-game resources i.e. coal, free xp, and steel. Also, it's worth checking any premium (new ones especially) against existing ones for price - some have a few quid stuck on top of what they 'should' cost e.g. I vaguely recall the recent Poi DD was about five UKP over the odds. Think about CVs: whilst CVs are currently a bit on the rare side after several nerfs, it's possible that WG will take actions that bring them back; when the CV population exploded, it made stealth-based ships (DDs, expecially) largely unplayable - including the premiums. For example, Cossack and Asashio became largely worthless until the CV population plummeted recently. Note that trying to predict where the CV-AA balance will end up is essentially futile, but be mindful that anything based on stealth could easily get rogered in the future (again). The whole CV thing is mitigated if the ship in question can work in a CV-free mode that you enjoy (Cossack has been splendid in Clans this season for example). That's not exhaustive, but it gives a few things to meditate upon before waving your cash at WG...

FWIW my first ten captain points for DDs almost always looks like this: Needless to say, I'm not suggesting it's 'right', but rather an option. My first point always used to be PM, but after a few thousand games I decided that knowing how many people were pointing big guns at me was more useful than the reduced chance of module damage when I got blasted due to not knowing that half the enemy team was taking an interest. LS is pretty much universally accepted as the only viable first pick for two points. I find the extra hp that SE provides saves me quite frequently, plus I run premium consumables (at least when in randoms/competitive) which reduces the need for SI slightly; I do usually take SI on future passes through the skills though. CE is essential for your first four pointer (with the possible exception of DDs where you superglue the fire button down, so mainly Russians).