Capra76

I agree about AFT + MS for a 14 point captain, but for a 19 point captain is BFT + AR worth it over FF + another 1 pt skill? Also the value of FF may go up over time as more players get up to the T7-9 and you have to put up with HE spam from 2 or 3 RN BB per game.

Is firefighters now a must as a BB captain skill?

Best bet for the OP would be to get onto the PT server and play the ships for himself.

This kind of thing: Although what I would really like is one that makes the it easier to read the names and ships of dead players.

Farra and EG are both 7.6 km base (6.6 km with camo and CE), Gnevny is actually steathier at 7.0 km (but will less frequently have a CE captain), all IJN and T5's are stealthier, only Mahan (7.9 km) and LM/Minsk (7.7 km) are worse. The concealment isn't on it's own the end of the world, it's the combination of it with the handling that makes it a problem. But then the 150 mm guns are what are supposed to make the ship great, and if you stick with the 128 mm then you have the HE DPM of an IJN ship (well Shinomne anyway) on a lousy torpedo boat. Take a look or WarshipsToday or elsewhere at the number of DD games per week at each tier, outside T9/10 they're barely being played.

Can anyone tell me which mod changes the after battle results page to be more readable, I've gone through the official one and Aslain and can't find it.

Well for me the three things combine to turn something that on paper looks quite good into something that in practice is anything but. The concealment shares last place amongst T6 DD with Farragut and can only outspot a couple of T7's by a small margin, it's workable but not good. The torpedoes are decent enough although the alpha is on the low side. The problem is that when you combine the below average stealth with the poor handling you end up being forced into launching the torpedoes from close to maximum range, at which point the natural spread of the weapons over distance and the poor alpha means few hits for minimal damage. But then you're trading the ability to fight other DD effectively for a gimmicky and situational chance to fire one AP salvo into cruisers, and I'm not sure this is a good trade. I guess part of the problem is it feels like the guns for the whole line are balanced around the 150 mm guns that only two of the ships have, which leaves them very good at doing one thing only and pretty bad at everything else. There's two ways to look at that, is it a good thing to have so much health, or is it a sign of a ship that really is struggling and needs the T9 size HP pool to be somewhat competitive. I suppose the real problem is that pretty much all mid tier DD (maybe even up to T8) are mediocre these days hence why they're just not being played that much anymore. BB have had two years of power-creep whilst DD have had nerf after nerf to the point where I just can't be bothered with them any more. I think this is starting to become a serious problem in the game, there are too few DD at lower tiers and those that are about seem to be less experienced players, which then spoils the game for other classes who either lose on points or get wiped out trying to cap in CA or BB.

Hybrid, AKA at everything. Hopeless guns (AP is good, but what does that mean for a DD), mediocre torpedoes, poor concealment, poor maneuoverability, not very fast, terrible smokes and eats BB AP like crazy, what does it have going for it? It gets a hydro, that makes up for everything doesn't it, well except for the fact that it's so damn sluggish that even if you do pick up the torps on hydro you still can't dodge them and the concealment is so damn awful that you'll never live long enough to get within hydro distance of anything else. Is this ship a joke by WG? I mean the other T6 DD are not great (Farra is under-rated) but this feels worse than all of them and I was under the impression that it is one of the better ships in the line! Best tactic I've found so far, right click, sell, do something else, because as far as I can see the rest of the line is garbage as well.

Now think about how a DD encounter actually works, especially around caps. Sail towards each other head first, make contact at about 6.0 km, throttle back and turn to drop the speed as quickly as possible then once you're down to 12.5 kn hit smoke and only then do you turn on the radar. The 10-15 seconds that you are visible before you get into smoke are safe enough unless BB already have guns pointed in your direction, the extra 15 - 20 seconds that radar keeps the enemy lit up for are murder with the whole of your team now having time to get at least one salvo off at him.

Sail to visual contact with non-radar DD (about 6 km), smoke, radar and watch him melt as he's focused by about 1/2 the enemy team whilst you're safe enough in you bubble of smoke. Basically every other DD in the game becomes obsolete.

My guess it that the large number of Iron Dukes at T5 is having an effect on MM, possibly drawing the T5/6 CA/DD into their games thus pushing T7 ships up into T8/9 MM.

So the question I have, is it worth it from an economic point of view? I'm close to a 19 point captain on Bismarck, which I can use to generate elite XP for all my captain training requirements so the 50% XP bonus is of little value to me, is there any other advantage to Nelson or should I keep my free XP for something else?

However the ship in smoke is in a known location and is either stationary or moving very slowly, whereas the one outside of it is usually hidden and/or moving quickly enough to evade return torpedoes.

A man goes into a pub in a small town and, for whatever reason, gets introduced to the clientele. There’s Farmer Jack, Barman Jim, Maurice “Dancer” and Sheepshagger John. After a few pints, the visitor’s curiosity gets the better of him and he asks John what’s with the nickname. “See this pub?” asks John, “I built it, but they don’t call me Pubbuilder John? I’m the local doctor, I saved Barman Jim’s life once when he choked on a peanut, but they don’t call me Lifesaver John. Every year, I supply a huge Christmas tree for the village green, but the don’t call me Christmas Tree John. “But you shag one lousy sheep…”

Captain skill introduced in patch 5.3, nerfhammer applied in 5.5, in game for under 3 months total.