HaachamaShipping

*usable guns Literally the only thing that is good about the guns is the ballistic arc. Other than that, the damage per gun is standard, the number of guns is slightly above average, the reload is bad (negating prior point), the turret traverse is bad. If these guns are even remotely worth calling "good", then I have no idea what T8 DD guns you'd ever call "bad". You likely can play well, given how dumb random players often are. Asashio just always had a low skill floor and a low skill ceiling. If you can live with that, that's basically it. And no, having a harder time to deal with cruisers, so you need to teamplay more is not indicative of a higher skill ceiling. Laying smokes and providing fire support like an Asashio can be done by a Kagero too. Also, I agree, the ship is a mistake, it likely will stay around. Personally, I don't see a reason to hand WG money though for their questionable design. If it was like RN BB HE and essentially free, maybe I'd try it (just so people don't argue I have no clue what I'm talking about), but when my wallet is all I can do to vote, then that I do. Personally, I'd rather buy a less broken design or save it up for one.

It's broken in that it is frustrating to be at the lower end of the power spectrum in such a match. But the differences are fairly manageable as said before and WG does compensate you. Damage done to ships of higher tier is rewarded more than damage done to same tier or lower tier. T8 is very much capable of still playing against T10, in contrast to something like T5 against T7.

Until WG fixes it, the only recommendation is to play only T8 ships that you are grinding towards T9 you feel very comfortable with For example, in my case, I wouldn't recommend T8 premiums, because some are just straight up "why?" I do play mine, at times, but only the ones where I feel like I'm ok if I get into T10 matches. Tech tree ships, only those I grind and the handful of ships that really stay good, even in T10. Which basically is almost every T8 BB, almost every T8 DD and of the T8 cruisers, I guess every cruiser not called Hipper.

Play more T7. If you cannot break even at T8 without premium, you should work on your gameplay more. T8 is upmatched often, but frankly it's the tier that is least crippled by a +2 upmatch. All the BBs get high tier end-grade armour and all the DDs get the vital concealment module, so it isn't as terrible as T5 vs T7 or T6 vs T8. And something like a Chapayev or Cleveland can still be more useful to the team than a Roon or Ibuki one tier higher, because of the radar. If you get thrown into a T10 game with a T8 ship, it isn't that exciting, given you are basically weaker than most of them, but you still can do your job. Also, overmatch as a term describes an entirely different ingame mechanic, so the usage in this context creates a confusing title.

That I shouldn't play this game when my PC can't handle it. Was too hyped, kept ruining too many games by continually crashing.

Any BB does tons of damage to other BBs, when you know where to shoot. The only way to mitigate it is by reducing the area that is shootable for massive danmage. But it's why I give so little about the extremities armouring of König, as it isn't really hard to aim for the upper bow and get easy damage. Only ship that really can be hard to damage at times is OR. But for all other BBs, it's up to knowing where to aim and having that accuracy. Which naturally again favours accurate BBs like GC and Iron Duke. Also, sniping an Emerald in smoke is kind of... who cares? It shoots some AP shells every so often that typically bounce off the side and is no threat to anyone, if you don't go into torp range. If it stays stationary, use the minimap circle. More threatening are DDs or other cruisers that use smokes.

Stalingrad. Other than that, pretty much all T10 cruisers dish out a lot of hurt if they get a salvo full of citadels. Moskva has the ballistics to do it at range, else Zao and Hindenburg work too against broadsides at range, Henri can be pretty brutal due to large caliber and main battery reload booster. Des Moines has lazy arcs, but good pen and improved penetration angles, Minotaur and Worcester are only going to citpen most other cruisers at close range.

Abusing obstacles like terrain and smoke.

DDs are also my main issue, but that's one reason I play Iron Duke. HE secondaries and RN BB HE are the best ways to kill the little buggers. Kamikaze will be an eternal threat, regardless of what you spec into, so my personal recommendation is to just be ready to shoot them when they rarely pop up due to running into friendly DDs. And any other BB is also recommended to just shoot the DDs when possible. As for holding ground, König is not bad, but its basically the middle ground between flankers like Kongo and Giulio and the Iron Duke, which is a slightly better area defender. The only real flaw imo is the lack of a spotter plane. It can leave you painfully blind and makes it way harder to shoot over obstacles. But when that is your only real flaw...

There's one thing you could've done: Load AP. All you described is that you are being about as much of a noob shooting HE at cruisers as most of us were expecting. Thus your BB got its a** handed to it by one of the highest dpm cruisers in the game, because you didn't utilise the alpha strike potential your BB had with AP that goes straight through Des Moines armour (due to overmatch) and likely into the citadel... from any angle. At 7-11 km, you can one or two-salvo a Des Moines with basically any BB that has more than 40.6 cm caliber and can encounter Des Moines. Only cruiser easier to delete at any angle at T10 is Minotaur.

Akatsuki is weaker in concealment. Rudder shift disadvantage and tier for tier hp is not that much of an issue, given Akatsuki can actually run off and kite effectively, whereas Fubuki often lacks gunpower and speed. When Fubuki (and Kagero one tier later) manage to kite a DD to death, they lose way more hp in the process due to how much greater the disparity in gunpower is. Don't get me wrong, Fubuki is a decent ship and at its tier has a very strong niche, but Akatsuki gives up some of the stealth for all-rounder qualities. You retain Fubuki's excellent torp armament and 6.4 km concealment is still more than enough to torp BBs with ease, the concealment is mediocre and deserves some buff only because of new ships like Gadjah Mada, Haida and Jervis (I'd really just lower it to Jervis' 6.2 km), but mostly just matters when you contest a cap. The speed and gunpower mean when facing any of the DDs you still outspot (or a cruiser), you have a way easier time to stay away or fight your way out of it. Similarly, you aren't as much toast if you are stuck with an enemy DD you have to deal with on your own. You can actually use these guns for slightly more than self-defense at your tier.

Slightly over 50% more firepower and 3 knots is not a sidegrade. Fiji is not a sidegrade to the Leander for pretty much gaining 50% more firepower and a slight bit more hp, but losing a torp per side, having a full km worse detection, being larger and a bit more sluggish on the rudder shift. The Akatsuki could use a stealth buff, but to ignore the rest the ship brings is kind of silly.

Git Gud. Des Moines is one of those cruisers that dies most easily if you throw a couple salvos of overmatching AP at it without giving it broadside to AP pen you back to port. Not that you ever heeded any of our advice before though.

https://forum.worldofwarships.com/topic/173813-mouses-morning-of-testing/ I assumed the new 10% module damage would be the same.

I'd say that's because people coming from Fubuki and going on to later ships cannot handle the concealment bump. Akatsuki just no longer is the same stealthy torp boat the others are, but it's a pretty solid ship still. It retains the rapid reloading 9 torp wall from the Fubuki with the very flexible 3x3 setup, has decent speed and gets decent gunpower for IJN. Against same tier opponents, Akatsuki is one of the less helpless IJN torp boats, imo and that counts for a lot.

That's two T10 DDs with the highest firepower by a margin dealing not even 27k damage in a minute. 27k 100% recoverable damage. That's a pitiful result for a full minute of firing. That's not even 1/3 of a Yamato and only about 1/4 of a GK (all the low hp T10 BBs have 32 mm all over and if Harugumos spam saturated sections instead of literally anywhere else on the ship for proper damage output, you can count yourself lucky in those ships). The only thing preventing this being a drawn out 5+ min affair with a target that heals up is that these Harugumos likely will set fires if they are intelligent about it. And that's assuming that BB lets the Harugumos farm them, without shooting back or disengaging. And lastly, you know what it sounds like if you soak up damage for multiple minutes without dying? Tanking. Those Harugumos could end a cruiser in less than 1 minute instead. So much for "tanking is impossible".

Thanks. And anything can screw over OR if it catches broadside. As said, it's the only T5 BB where I didn't need to derp from really close range to get me some citadels in Iron Duke. Angled, it can be a frustrating bounce fiesta, though then again... laughs in RN HE.

I played all, except NY (but did play Texas) in randoms and played Iron Duke, König, Kongo and Giulio in Ranked (1 crappy battle in Giulio, but I know Giulio, others know Giulio, I didn't want to actually play more battles and actually feel dirty for playing this OP ship). I also played against all of them in Ranked. The HE spam overall is not a real issue... to a degree. If you play any of the ships whíth large parts immune to HE, that matters against cruisers and DDs, while New York, Texas and Bretagne even get penned by DDs. And being able to just ignore that 1 odd cruiser for the most part or eating 2-3k salvos every so often sure makes a difference over the long run. But I also didnm't run FP and instead ran AFT to boost my secondaries and AA. Overall, as said in my post, I don't consider König bad. I had good results in it. It also is the best AA ship at the tier. It's just that the others I consider better and there are no ships to bridge the gap between 5 and 6 to showcase how large the gap really is. You go from tech tree ship with very competitive qualities to straight up not recommended.

It still has a time limit.

I took IFHE over CE. Thing with Chapayev is, it has unusually good concealment for a Russian ship and it has that Russian long-range radar. Even without CE, you can basically counterradar when spotted. In contrast to example Cleveland, where the radar is too short for it (though even on Cleveland I went IFHE first, because concealment without CE is basically on-par with full concealment build Chapa). Chapa isn't hard to play and a really good ship. Personally, would rate it as one of the best T8 cruisers, just because it has a good armament, detectability and radar. Regardless of MM, these are strong assets (contrast with Hipper, which is absolutely screwed if it's the only T8 ship in T10 match). The hardest part to get around with on the Chapayev is the ship handling. But if you diligently played through Shchors (recommended, it's a nice ship), you shouldn't struggle with Chapa. Try to get where nothing dangerous can shoot at you, ambush DDs, don't forget that you can shoot AP even at range, if necessary (cruiser broadsides are good targets) and have fun. I'm not sure whether new Cleveland is a better ship. Got both and Cleveland certainly is more sturdy and has better handling. And when a DD cocks up inside radar range, Cleveland radar duration makes sure it's dead. But Chapayev is the original T8 radar terror for DDs and as I played DDs during the USN CL release and after, Cleveland can be dodged. Chapayev railguns mostly hit and hurt. And when playing the ships, I appreciate the Cleveland very much, it is a very very good ship, but Chapayev has distinct and valuable advantages that really make it still a good ship and fun to play. For any ranked (or if we ever get T8 CB), these are likely the two top picks.

I don't use chat in general in these things, because I'm an unsociable loner.

Got Gallant and Bert, as I already own Warspite. Now waiting for the almost free Cossack. I don't see much of an issue with the grind. I look at the missions maybe on the last few days, to see if I got any left, but typically I get all done and suddenly get Hall of fame points. And I really just play whatever I feel like and at times not even well or excessively (given I've currently got other things to do too and came down with a cold at the start of the week so I didn't need more headache). The thing with the "grind" really is just the duration of it, not the intensity. But hey, almost free ship, so why complain?

If you remember, WG already swatted that idea down when you proposed Asashio to have different torp options. Unlikely they'd change it here.

Minekaze is "gun" line, Mutsuki is "torp" line.

What? She has the same Big 7 skill as Nelson and Rodney and basically fulfills the same role.