_Teob_

I have around 1100 battles in the Gearing with a total WR of 67% - I know exactly how well it can or can't carry. I am very familiar with this boat and I am telling you straight up that it is not a good carry. It's a good support but you rely heavily on your teammates being good. Smoking a bad team doesn't actually do anything other than waste a smoke. The Gearing's AA is anemic at best. Def AA will keep you alive for another 2 minutes tops versus a good CV because the Gearing is very slow. The Grozo's AA is scarier and more effective because of the way that ships is commonly specc'd. And the Grozo is faster. This makes it harder to hit. Although to be fair any DD will die if a good CV really wants you dead. The Z52 has the same torpedo DPM as the Gearing but the torpedoes are fired more frequently and are faster. This means that the potential for flooding is much higher. The Z52 is also much faster than the Gearing which means that you can get around the map quicker and be where you need to be at the right time. Lastly the arcs on the Z52 guns are significantly more usable and it has more range on the guns. I would take better range on the guns than on the torpedoes any time. The Shima is indeed heavily reliant on torpedoes but if you do hit torpedoes your target will really feel it. Although I agree that I would probably take a Gearing over a Shima. The Khaba is in a different league altogether and not worth mentioning in the context of this discussion. It's not a "traditional" destroyer. The Gearing's main issue is that it's a Jack of all trades master of none. - Its guns have great DPM... at 6km. The arcs make them very difficult to use at longer distances and the range is terrible. - Its torpedoes are fast and stealthy... but do less damage than the Fletcher's and the reload is not great either. What's more the 16km range is not needed most of the time. Honestly if you hit something with torpedoes at 10+ km it's less about skill and more about luck. - Its stealth is on par with most DDs at t10 - nothing special. - It was the best DD at contesting caps. Now it will straight up lose against a Z52 and it will probably lose against a Grozovoi or at the very least, it will lose most of its health. - It's the slowest DD at t10 - It's fat so it takes catastrophic damage from AP not only from BBs but also from cruisers. And if you give broadside to a Z52, 4-5k salvos are not unusual. I have killed Gearings in my Z52 in less than 20 seconds. with guns alone. This all means that its carry potential is severely limited but its support potential is quite high. It's a good ship for supporting others and hope they carry you. Three more aspects: 1) in the past 2 weeks, the only DD that has a worse win rate than the Gearing is the Shima (at t10). 2) if the proposed smoke changes/nerfs go through, then the Gearing becomes even less relevant 3) if the Pan-Asia DDs are released in their current form the Hsiang Yang will make the Gearing struggle to justify its spot on a team.

I think all ships will be viable to varying degrees.

You vastly overestimate the Gearing's potential to carry a team. You also consider the Gearing to be the best cap contender which is objectively not true. Like I said, it's a decent boat but it's not amazing at anything currently.

For what it's worth, I am against more radar at high tiers in general, but I especially oppose its introduction on DDs. There's more than enough of it around and I especially dislike radar on ships that have the same radar range (or higher) than their detection range. That said, if the short duration radar consumable would replace the smoke consumable (like for RNCAs) then I think that would have the smallest impact while still having a gimmick. Also, from my experience on the Black, radar won't help you kill other DDs in most situations but it does help you force caps - no DD will hang around when lit up by radar. It has a massive impact on the game, make no mistake about it.

Yeah, pretty much... it's like an old Lexus - it was really cool when it came out. And it can still handle itself now but it's certainly not top of the line anymore at all.

I would hold on to the Fletcher, friend. Like I said, the Gearing is not a bad boat so I wouldn't sell it under any circumstance. But I've had it for a long time so I have a 19pt Fletcher captain and a 19pt Black captain as well so I am not giving anything up by having it. I think that the Fletcher is a better boat. The whole situation is a bit like armor penetration works. You need to have a certain amount of penetration to go over a threshold otherwise it's pointless. I realize this sounds mad, but I'll explain. The Gearing loses in a gun fight against the Khaba, Z52 and Grozo (although the Grozo is by far the easiest out of this bunch). The Gearing will also lose a fight against a Benson or Fletcher if they are kiting away and the Gearing is forced to chase. Everything else the Gearing will pretty much eat for breakfast. The only difference between the Fletcher and the Gearing is that the Fletcher also loses to the Gearing in a straight 1v1. But apart from that the Fletcher also kills everything else as well. Slightly slower but not a massive issue. On top of that, the Fletcher also has the second highest torpedo DPM at high tiers with around 140k (Shima has 180k). The Gearing on the other hand has a much lower torpedo DPM at 100k. So the point is, by playing the Fletcher you add the Gearing to the list of ships you don't want to screw around with... but you take much less AP dmg, you do a lot more torp dmg and are generally more agile. That's why I don't rate the Gearing too highly at the moment. But I actually do really like the torpedoes on the Gearing because of the range... and if they had the same damage as the Fletcher ones, I think the Gearing would be in a much better place (despite still having lower torpedo DPM than the Fletcher).

Well that's the thing - at high tiers DDs aren't the main damage dealers in any ranked game. Torpedoes, despite having lower damage, can still cause flooding, which, coupled with HE spamming brits, should yield interesting results. I think it will be Lo Yang then Benson/Z23 and then everything else I guess. I am not familiar with the Harekaze. Edit: Also what @Negativvv just said.

You cannot push something out of smoke with RPF reliably. At 2km or less, dodging torpedoes becomes VERY dicey. You did make me realize something that I had forgotten, which is you cannot push a Lo Yang either as hydro lets him see you WAY before you see him and your torps are kinda ineffective as well. I also think the z23 might be a good option as well due to the really fast torps.

The Lo Yang will be the best DD for ranked t8. The hydro means that you can smoke and spam safely and you can force caps (something that no other DD can do).

Yeah I am still not a massive fan of the Gearing. I used to be. I have over 1k battles in it and my stats suggest I am decent at playing it but I think the Z52 in particular almost replaces it. The Z52 is better at hunting DDs, it's better at contesting caps and they have near identical torpedo DPM but the Z52 can fire them more often. Yes, the Gearing guns have better theoretical DPM but it's difficult to make use of that because DDs will smoke or outrun you and the range coupled with the arcs means that hitting even a BB while it's moving at 10-11km is not that easy. I don't think the Gearing is a bad boat. I just think it's too far into the whole jack of all trades, master of none aspect.

There you go - you reacted the same way I did but you were more apprehensive due to the tone of the OP. That proves my point, there are lots of nice people. I took his tone as a cry of desperation (totally understandable from a stats point of view).

Haha! I am not trying to be nice, I swear! I am just trying to be constructive. Also, a lot of people on the forum are in fact very nice and I've had polite debates. I think people forget it's a game and they take arguments personally. I try to not do that (although my patience has been severely tested on occasion - I still mention the whole "I play Kagero therefore I know Gearing" thing with more than just a bit of bitterness) On topic: game is not rigged.

Look, I get it. People are less than kind. Some are outright nasty. It's unfortunate and I wish it were otherwise but we play the hand we were dealt. However, you have to understand their frustration. You have indeed made several threads where you started off by discussing perceived imbalances and then, once those were dismissed you progressed to conspiracy theories all the while seemingly ignoring the main argument, which is that your prowess at this particular game is insufficient to be able to actually have a discerning opinion. Now saying that, I don't believe that your arguments should be dismissed because of your stats and some people did take the time to address your concerns but you didn't seem to pay that much attention to that. Look, contact me in game, if you want, and I will spend some time with you and potentially give you some tips and tricks that I have been given as well - nobody is born an expert at anything. I promise that once some of the more opaque mechanics are explained you will see the game differently.

I think that the team that supports their DDs better wins. It doesn't really matter how good a player is if the team actually shoots at spotted DDs. I've been in so many lost matches simply because I was spotting enemy DDs and engaging them and the enemy team fired at me while my team was busy farming 20k dmg on enemy BBs. I am positive that a team with kagero/yugumo spotting bots that are supported by cruisers/BBs will win over a team with Gearings/Grozovois with little to no support. On that note, one neat trick that I do is I tell my team to hold their fire until the first DD is spotted and then for everyone to fire at it once it's spotted.

Was a weird match that.And yeah, I was the only one spotting. I genuinely don't know what the other DDs were doing. I capped A, then 2 cruisers capped B then I capped C (and killed a really low health kagero) - although, to be fair I did have a lot of support on C. Then I was a smoke/spotting bot for most of the match. As soon as I could make a move without having a detrimental effect on the team, I dev struck a North Carolina. Ended the came on 60k, 2 solo caps and 1 partial cap, 2 kills. This on top of spotting all the enemy DDs constantly. I was a bit disappointed with my score at the end because I thought I did well. I mean the damage was obviously not great but I felt like I had a positive influence on the match. You played really well in that match. Also helped by the fact that the enemy DDs decided to inspect the smoke you were clearly firing out of.

The point is that we should have something to spend our credits on. I would like a clan vault for example where I could donate credits for other clan members (with some sort of anti gold farmer system in place).

Also, keep an eye out for smoke... If you are always in binocular mode, smoke doesn't actually render so you are probably going into a spider web without noticing, you big fat juicy fly. Also, don't come around close to islands (or stop for a couple of seconds before you do). Try to think what you would do as a DD.

Depending on my mood, Z52, Gearing or Grozovoi. It's rough out there for DDs at the moment though - I would go up a BB line if I wasn't totally enamored with DD game-play.

You are far too kind. But no, I can get quite nasty occasionally (much to my shame). I remember throwing a whole rage fit when a friendly Zao torpedoed me in my smoke (closest ship to him was like 12km away) and then he said that he wrote in chat that he fired torpedoes - IN MY SMOKE!... I tried explaining that look, when you're in a fire fight, trying to smoke a friendly BB, while launching torpedoes, chat might be missed and he shouldn't fire torps from the second line. He just said "well I hope you learned your lesson then, read chat next time!". I went ballistic. I guess the point is, you can step out of line occasionally but you have to make an effort to get to 0, I think. Like I would genuinely struggle now.

I don't think you get reported more than you get complimented. I don't want to make assumptions though, maybe you do absolutely amazing things which make the enemy team very angry. But the way I play I usually gain some Karma every day. I am on around 300 now without ever asking for it. And I am very sarcastic in chat occasionally and I will even make fun of people now and then - I am no angel by any means.

I have no recollection of that game at all haha.

I can't remember how I got it but I think it was one of the showmatches.

I disagree profusely with several things in the OP. Both the main premise and some of the tertiary inferences. So first of all, being down a cap at the start is not an issue.I always see people losing their minds. I see people yelling to get caps despite our team having a 400pt lead. Caps are general goals that are usually not worth losing a ship for. Secondly, about double DD tactics, cross-torpedoing is one of the most dangerous things in the game. If done well, the intended target has no way of dodging all of them. Also, having 2 DDs means that, once something does eat torpedoes, then one of the DDs can smoke and set the target on fire because he has an assured spotter. And capping with 2 DDs is always better than with one. To give you an idea, a Gearing will die if it finds itself fighting 2 Kageros. No DD (apart from the Khaba) fares well against 2 other DDs regardless of what they are. I will concede that triple DD divisions aren't great though. On a personal note, I used to play with a guy in double DD divisions all the time (he's taking a study break atm ). We have very similar play styles and I dare say we are both above average players. We carved a bloody path wherever we were. We would chew through the enemy team like Pacman through those... bubble things - shaky analogy but you get the gist of it. It got so much that we actually start to compete with each other for dmg. So yeah, to mirror what others have said, bad players are bad, it's just that it's more difficult to notice a bad player in other classes.