Shagulon

Atlanta seems to be the best premium ship to me. It is unique and really high DPM. Agreed don't jump straight into high tier games with your shiny new premium ship, you will be fooked over quick style.

Ah so all the XP comes from the proceeding ship in the tech line, minus the free XP. I see. Grrr, that has wasted me a lot of time. I thought it was per tech branch. Oh well good job it was fun playing those lower tier games

So I think the general concept for the design of these two Navy destroyer trees, is that the IJN have long range sniping torpedo gameplay, and the US have short range torps with a great main gun. This approach is not a million miles away from the reality. However, I always think that balancing is a game of fine adjustments and soft counters. At the moment it is very tough to use torps as the US, and if you ever get into a fight with a US Destroyer as IJN DD you're in big trouble. I would propose ever so slightly smoothing the differences between the two. Yes keep the two philosophical differences, they work very well. I think they were just done a bit too severe. If you watch the IJN DDs main gun turn it will just make you laugh.

Thx for the responses guys, still that doesn't make sense to me. My free xp is universal, I get that. But for the tier VIII IJN DD, I need 50000 credits. I have about 10000 free xp, but I'm only 5000XP off the tier VIII target. So where has the other 40000XP come from. Is that the normal silver star XP (middle figure on the screenshot)? When I'm playing lower tier ships in that ships tech tree (e.g. a tier II IJN DD), does that ship XP count towards my tier VIII DD of the same tech tree? I know the free XP does, and that the captain gets the ship XP, but the same ship XP doesn't seem to count towards progression to the tier VIII IJN DD. Do I have to earn all that XP from the ship below it?

Anyone have the impression they're mostly the bottom tier ship in a match? I seem to be continually a couple of tiers below the highest. I realize that this cannot be possible in the laws of probability and is more to do with psychology...

That just repeated the information I already know and mentioned in my question...

Anecdotally, I went up the US DD tech tree fairly quickly over the weekend. My win ratio and win loss ration is dramatically higher with these ships. Not exactly scientific feedback. I'm a better player now, and have become pretty good with main cannons by using the IJN DDs first, so I think both those factors help. That and the hard torpedo nerf (both direct and indirect) that happened in 0.3.1. They're quite fun too! Going for crits on the engines before being able to fire torpedos is quite fun. Again I can only do this at lower levels, half decent players just pwn you when you get cocky.

What was it - like 60 credits? I'll give you some of mine to cover it....

It depends on the tier I guess. Later tiers I find tend to give with the higher tier ships

It does seem a bit crazy to enforce certain aircraft loads, where's the strategy in that?

The DDs (according to youtube streamer Jingles) in alpha were pretty OP. They had the guns of the US DDs and the torps of the IJN DDs. The alternate nerf for each line was/is their attempt at nerfing them in a historic way. I just think they swung the nerf bat too hard at the IJN DDs main gun. It is slower than many much larger caliber guns in the game and looks/feels wrong. If they are caught by a US DD it is almost certain death.

I guess that is what all new players think. It is a good map, learn your ships capabilities, ranges etc. Try to think in terms of a team, stick close by others. It is actually a good map and what naval combat actually was. This isn't world of tanks (who actually also mainly fought on open plain ground too).

I get this all the time. There are lots of sounds playing at the wrong team, even when you go back to port....

Well you were lying about having tier IX DDs earlier were you not?

it is fairly easy. Keep away from islands. When you see a DD approach, turn and travel away while firing. Try and stay near CAs, they have a much higher rate of fire and can kill DDs easily.

Ah good tips, so seems that maybe IJN mid tier DDs hit a rough patch. Maybe they need a little look at balance wise... I'll grind through them to VIII I do use a lot of you tactis, especially using the first salvo to make a ship turn. Trouble is, any decent players turn away, and then you're pretty much gonna miss with the second anyways.

Everyone loves a good argument... Anyway, back to the thread topic, this is more about balance between destroyers which I find too heavy in favour of US DDs. They're almost the hard counter IJN DDs. If that is the aim then so be it, I will avoid them and stay closer to CAs. Is anyone having any good results with DDs above tier Vi or VII? If so what is the trick/tactic? And Ioval, as for having tier IX DDs, I've checked your profile and 60 ish games with DDs does not get you there.... You lose credibility with all this BS.

HE shells seem the biggest problem. I would prefer to see a dynamic much more around fir and causing system failures like steering, engine and loss of guns. I don't like to see myself zipping around a BB in my gun boat doing 1K to 2K damage to a heavily armoured BB with my puny 120mm guns. I should be disabling guns and rudder to finish off with torps. as US DD I tend to not need to go to torps with the amount of damage I'm doing. I agree that the chance to cause fire, with fire as it is now, is too great. Reduce the chance of causing fire, or reduce the effects of fire (I don't like the latter choice as I like the mechanic of repairs and when to use them). Battleships with tight turning circles is ok as a way to differentiate between nation fighting styles and adds to the strategic depth, but as with many of the mechanics they introduce, it is all too severe. These things need to be subtle differences, but crazy like this. Such massive maneuverability makes torps almost useless which isn't great.

So far Iothos everyone in this thread disagrees with you. Can you concede the possibility that you may be wrong? I know you play DDs, but not very much, and probably not to a high tier. So really I recommend you play them more and then re-asses. They're pretty tough to play vs decent players at higher tiers. If you play at VI upwards, it is rare to see more than one DD per side. I haven't reached above VII yet, as frankly it becomes very difficult to gain any experience. That's with IJN anyway, I'm finding US a bit easier due to the insane amounts of HE damage that is flying around. However, please do not confuse that balance mistake with how OP DDs are.

Their stealth is really the only thing that keeps them alive. I see you play mostly cruisers so I'm surprised you think DDs are even remotely. OP The only thing OP about them is the new HE round effects, but everyone has that. Torpedos only really catch out the new players, higher tiers everyone knows how to avoid them easily, and the new US battleships turn as easily as cruisers, so there is very little IJN DDs can do beyond the lower levels.

I see a lot of people complain they can't go toe to toe with a BB in a CA, I think this is as it should be. A CA is a shielding ship, there to protect BB. I guess people just got used to the CA being good at everything.

Have to agree. I went one on one with a battleship with my Sims today, and I was doing 1K to 2K per shot every 10 seconds, he was having problems hitting me. I think this seems imbalanced. I know DD is a counter to BB but the thing that does the killing should be the torpedo not the puny main gun firing HE.

My win rate for DDs has improved a lot since everyone started playing BBs, so destroyers are a great counter to them. People are only playing BBs as they are the new toys (many dislike CVs as their gameplay is a little different).

I get sound stuttering. I also sometimes hear a sound (e.g. gurgling of a destroyed engine) when I go back to port. There do seem to be a few sound issues since 3.1 I must confess to not loving the smaller caliber guns. They sound like rifles sometimes. Also, are there some gun noises that don't come from players (e.g.ambient sounds).

I also think that the shells landing in the sea could do with a little polishing. So you get those really high spout water splashes. plus some of the ship explosions and damage effects could be improved or add more variety.