HaachamaShipping

Both are still ok. Neither is better than the other aganst any of these threats.

For people who already own Musashi, but not the camo. It's the logical conclusion. It's obviously not what Harekaze had historically, as it's not a real ship, but it's a camo in line with IJN permacamo, replacing also unhistorical features in the model with more historically appropriate stuff like life boats. No, they were not. Absolutely not. Harekaze is more competitive than Yukikaze and a better ship by far. Yukikaze is a decent ship, but nowhere close to Harekaze when it comes to the versatility of the ship, given Harekaze is basically a Kagero that sacrificed hp and torp power to gain gun power and thus obtain more combat options, while Yukikaze sacrifices torp range for torp power, reducing the options it has (and Asashio limiting itself even further with its extreme specialisation). Montpelier is a worse Cleveland meanwhile.

They are different in that the Gneisenau sacrifices some in both aspects to gain the torps and almost cit immunity. And it's really what makes the Gneisenau a different kind of beast. Gneisenau isn't OP (though top tier absolutely unfair to T5s and T6s like any T7 really), but its high resilience and torps mean that even when bottom tier, a well-played Gneisenau is still a major threat, even to stuff like Musashi when it gets to close range. Sinop meanwhile is good at close range, but can get memed on if ever pitted against a ship that can rush its side. Also, it should be kept in mind, that Sinop only has 25 mm deck almost everywhere and will eat HE pens or overmatches from shells that hit the deck. Gneisenau is 50 mm there and apart from superstructure (which runs out of hp eventually), you cannot easily pen it with HE. And sure, everyone likes to complain about the Germans burning so well, but apart from being not true, most ignore that shooting Germans with 32 mm HE pen is some of the most unrewarding experiences ever, compared to something where you can pen the deck. Lastly, Sinop turret traverse is crap and can be abused at short range.

I have to say, I haven't actually had any major issues with the autopilot lately and the inclusion of reverse alone was a real necessity.

The amount of serious radar threats didn't increase much in the last few months. Like, the sole significant changes I can recall are the Nep getting its radar range closer to its concealment range, but almost noone ever plays radar Nep, and Baltimore getting radar beyond its concealment. One can live with that. As for hydro DDs, Harekaze always had to content with German DDs and Loyang. The addition of Brits did not much there, because their hydro is far too limited to be game changing for the Harekaze. Their concealment is a much more important factor. Rework is the real issue, but you can always bet on the vast majority of CVs being incompetent. And if the remainder pisses you off too much, then it's not like cruisers are in a much better position and BBs basically are just good due to heal and massive hp pool, but overall, it'd then be worth evaluating whether the game is worth playing.

They work like all special voiceovers. Special voiceovers are used when one of the following settings is chosen: Standard, which will play every normal captain in your set language and all special captains as themselves. the specific VO in question, e.g. HSF - Akeno Misaki, which will play every voice line as the specific captain in question, regardless of what captain is used or who in the battle says it. Even allied voice commands get replaced. National+, which plays all commanders in their national voices, except special captains get played as themselves. The main difference between national and national+ is that special voiceovers actually get played.

They are anime high school girls, duh. For what they are, they are ok. Imo, least "squeaky" ones: Moeka and Thea. More energetic: Akeno, Mei and Maron. Inbetween: Kouko. She makes weird voices instead. Weird as hell: Isoroku, though he is not up for sale. Overall though, they fall within what one would expect from buying Japanese language weeb captains and the voices are far less extreme than Yukikaze. On the other hand, the main difference between commanders like Thea or Moeka and the more pleasant AL captains like Dunkerque or Azuma are mostly age impressions, as the High School Fleet captains (for obvious reasons) sound younger. They cover a smaller range of voices, imo. Overall quality-wise, the HSF voiceovers are of similar quality, but while for example AL has voices like Azuma that are basically soft Japanese female voice that is pretty pleasant to listen to regardless of whether you are very weeb or just like female voices, the HSF captains all are high school guys with some more level headed ones and others being more energetic. On the other hand, none approach for example the level of Yukikaze.

I mean, even good T4 AA will not cut it anymore, so of course a T1 will fail at that.

Opinions may differ.

Second hull is the only good option. First hull turns you into a stock Kagero, raising the question, why are you playing this ship. Third hull gives you best turret traverse for the worst gun dpm at T8. You'll be gunned down by T7s and some T6s. Second hull even without IFHE now has the best pen and best dpm. With IFHE, it becomes just better. Also, smoke. Before CV rework, smoke was already my preferred choice, because it lets you disengage and could be used offensively by farming BBs from smoke, but since rework, it is the single best AA defense DDs have and while it won't save you from good CV players, it at least helps against bad to mediocre ones, while TRB is just damage potential in return for taking immense risks in a ship with hardly any hp.

If you get blapped in Gneisenau, it better be by an Enterprise, otherwise, you got no excuse. The Gneisenau for T7 has excellent speed, excellent armour, excellent secondaries and torpedoes. Having only 6 guns that are not very accurate (but are overmatching, fast turning and fast reloading) is basically a balancing factor what is otherwise one of the best T7 BB hulls. People complain about Sinop being OP because it is armoured and accurate, but Gneisenau is armoured to a similar degree and a far better brawler and will usually beat any other T7 BB in a 1v1.

You don't need AFT on Harekaze. It's perfectly interchangeable captain-wise, but plays differently. Harekaze's 9.4 km range is used as an advantage to ambush enemy DDs that you can pick off, gun them down, then vanish as nothing else is in gun range anymore if the enemy smokes up/dies. Harekaze is not a dakka gunboat like the Akizuki, it is better used as a Kagero that can pick a fight. You also get the torp armament for that, given the stock Kagero torps have worse damage, but better reload (and the damage still is more than adequate). Obviously, when you really got nothing better to do anymore, you can smoke up and dakka to your heart's content at enemy non-radar ships. Imo, Harekaze is the best IJN prem DD you can get at any higher tier, with only Tachibana being stronger tier for tier (and Kamikaze sisters being unavailable). There is two caveats to this ship, which are: Do you want to spend money on WoWS still? Do you want to spend money on DDs still? If either of these is a no, then pass. If not, this thing is definitely worth buying. Harekaze is a very solid allround performer and very serviceable for randoms and ranked (for CB, Cossack is likely better scout due to being more nimble). The 43 Euro for the ship are pricey, but personally, I'd buy it, if I hadn't bought it already years ago. It even includes the camo and a flag (which was never sold before... I think), as well as the commander. Insofar, I'd say, the price is not out of the ordinary, given the commander itself is priced at around 5 Euro and camo is god knows what. This brings it closer to what other T8 prem DDs cost. Additionally, while a bundle, this is basically a very basic package, with sensible content, imo. Other than that, HSF Graf Spee is your ordinary Graf Spee with a nice looking camo. Nothing special. Comes with Thea Kreutzer. General Assembly is pretty pricey, but still a decent option if you really don't care and want it all. Commanders by themselves are 5 Euro per commander and solid voiceover. If you like your weeb captains, these are nice and I like them a lot.

While total hp pool is not great, effective hp pool considering repairs is nothing to scoff at. And a worse repair party, as well as worse concealment. Angled 32 mm does not get overmatched by anything but 46 cm guns. And the all-or-nothing armour was already in place before, the citadel change did nothing to change that and indeed, the citadel change only matters vs Yamato/Musashi here, because they are the sole ships that can hit the cit without first having to pen the massive belt. Indeed. So, why you hate the British too? Angled 32 mm does not get overmatched by anything but 46 cm guns. If you get hit for damage by a battleship with smaller caliber guns you would have eaten that damage also in something like NC or Richelieu. If you are angled, you also cannot just lolcitadel Monarch, as you either bounce off the bow, pen the superstructure or you have to get enough side to pen 381 mm of belt (the best at T8, btw). And there is no part of the citadel not covered by belt. It pays off in any BB to learn how torpedo ships work and to keep an eye out for potential torpedo threads and signs that may indicate that there might be torpedo ships around. Frankly, torp protection is one of the first things I'd be willing to sacrifice for performance in more important areas, because eating torps in the first place is typically a misplay, unless it's air-dropped ordnance. And thus people hate Monarch, because they don't realise what they could do with this ship. It's great when people think that Bismarck or Richelieu spamming HE is silly and shoot AP at all ranges, but when it's Monarch, where the biggest difference really is just short-fuze for less overpens (and a few fewer cits on a few selected ships), they need to load HE, because British. And there is a benefit to playing around your concealment range. It's called "hitting stuff more reliably". Also, fun fact, if you don't fight BBs with slow shells like USN or RN at range, the shells don't arc enough to get easy superstructure full pens, the biggest reason why people think the armour sucks too much, despite these ships doing that to basically any BB except maybe the Soviets. But even armoured behemoths like Kurfürst will regularly eat 20k salvos from Montana or Thunderer at range, courtesy of slow shells and great range.

And it isn't even OP.

Dunno what these changes will do to the shell performance overall, but certainly seems like a good step for Mainz.

tbf, Kaga regen is not very good for the quality of plane you get. It's the stupid amount of reserves that make it more than adequate to get through a match though.

"nerfs"... Literally the sole negative aspect of the new British citadel to me is how hard the Yamato craps on them, but apart from that, thanks for the improved repair party WG.

T3 paper design T4 Andrea Doria, pre-modernisation T5 paper design T6, Conte di Cavour, modernised T7 Francesco Carraciolo design T8 Vittorio Veneto T9 and T10, paper designs Reason for the T3 and T5 for paper designs is that the Dante Alighieri is too heavily armed for T3 and Conte di Cavour is better off as a non-OP version of GC at T6. With adjustments, it could fit onto T6, but Francesco Carraciolo as a 28 knot 4x2 15-inch gun design is perfectly serviceable at T7 with decent ammo, instead of T6 with WWI low pen ammo. If necessary, due to lack of designs, one could fit CdC at T5, FC at T6 and a paper design at T7. VV goes to T8 as peer of Bismarck, Richelieu, NC and Roma, T9 and 10 obviously would need to be some paper ships.

Maximise dpm, look for some island cover that allows you to just dakka stuff while giving broadside without risking your life. Kind of boring, but eh...

Because the presence of CVs does not excuse other crap being out of balance.

I'd switch DE to BFT if you really use the captain for all three ships. DE is useful, but BFT on two of them is more useful and IFHE with its improved damage is better than just setting fire for T5, when you get uptiered vs T7.

It was in comparison to IJN cruisers. Chapayev has 8s reload, so 7.5 rpm. 12x7.5x2,200=198k Mainz has 6s reload, so 10 rpm. 12x10x1,700=204k Feel free to do the math yourself. As to Hipper not having the pen, but Atago having it, yeah, no.

No. Only Zao gets better pen than German 203s. The only reason Furutaka can murder cruisers is same-tier cruiser overmatch and being a CA at T5 (a factor we have not yet even considered in the comparison with Atago), while Atago's main strength is getting to within 10 km. But at 10 km, a Chapayev or Mogami can work over broadside cruisers with AP too. It has better dpm than Chapayev and Kutuzov, so no. Also, with free IFHE and a higher shell output, it has pretty decent fire starting capabilities. As for shining in other areas over Chapayev, I think that trading a radar for 5k hp, better armour protection, vastly better close range torps, German hydro, a catapult fighter and an insane disparity in AP dpm can be considered a somewhat decent trade. It's not the greatest cruiser, but it certainly is not necessarily in urgent need of buffs. If it gets 27 mm bow, that'd be cool, but if not, it's not like the ship is horrid. The main reason I consider the armour nerf a bit eh is because it's just there to make Hipper look less bad in comparison, but Hipper needs more help than Mainz.

Mainz has Nürnberg reload, so, no, I don't think it needs a buff there. And while 27 mm mid-section is worse than 27 mm all over, Mainz still can tank small caliber T7s and T6s and some shots from T8s (just like Zao can tank the odd Montana shell). Nürnberg cannot tank crap. There is an upgrade in survivability, even tier for tier. It happens. But on the same note, you can at times one or two shot cruisers with a CL. Oneshotting cruisers is however not what these guns usually do, because most cruisers don't usually sail convenient broadside. Fun fact, if it'd be easy to do, Hipper which has similar AP broadside would actually be good.

Budyonny is not really more likely to die during a rush than a Nürnberg, so... If dpm does matter, then arguing that the dpm comparison among CAs of the same line is not of importance because they are alpha-heavy is just silly. Neither Furutaka nor Atago are ships that can ignore their low dpm. So, yeah, as dpm matters, it doesn't matter whether you deliver tons of damage at once or damage over time, reload matters. The only times it could matter are: if reload exceeds 20s and you actually start to flicker. Small advantage then, but not applicable here. If the damage you throw out at once is so significant it typically oneshots ships, so trades become unimportant. Most often, you aren't oneshotting things though in these cruisers. If you just shoot to get a fire, then go stealth. In which case, that is still not how you play IJN cruisers. Especially not ships like Atago and Furutaka with decent armour. So, yes, overall, saying that gaining one gun turret over two tiers and neglecting the considerably improved survivability is just doing the Mainz injustice.