fumtu

I agree that some IJN dds should have torpedo reload booster as separate consumable. Akizuki definitely should have it. Maybe Shiratsuyu should also have it as a separate consumable and Hatsuharu, Kagero and Yugumo at least as a choice instead of speed boost.

Well you can say same thing for current Hatsuharu. It also could be out-spotted by Kamikaze/Fujin. While its concealment is noting special (7km) it's still stealthier than Farragut (7.6km) or Ognevoi (7.7km) and the same as Anshan (7km but with camo). Even at T7 only Shiratsuyu should have better concealment. But unlike Mutsuki you get one triple torpedo launcher more (33% more torps), two guns more than Mutsuki (with upgraded guns) and much stronger AA. And Mutsuki with just to guns at T6 or any other tier is just pathetic. And you have possibility to increase Fubuki speed with a flag to somewhere around 36.75km.

If they wanted Fubuki class dd that didn't "live" long enough to be get upgrades they could find better choices than Shinonome like Shirayuki or Murakumo. They at lease had longer war carrier and took part in some well known battles.

You can say that for all of them. Fubuki and Hatsu will be better than Mutsuki at T6, same for Akatsuki and Shiratsuyu compared to Hatsu at T7, Akizuki will at least bring something different to T8 and Yugumo is definitely an improvement to Kagero. But question will any of them be competitive to their opponents at respective tiers. I'm not to optimistic about that. Nerfing their gun HE for 300 points and 2% fire chance while only marginally buffing RoF for majority of the line won't help them much. They turret rotation is horrible consistently for all ships in the line. With progression ships have more tools to detect and dodge torps, more health and at higher tiers even cruisers can heal themselves but for some reason as you go higher IJN torps get longer detection range. Except removal 15 and 20km torps, which could be justify, they didn't offer anything for compensation. Hatsu and Shiratsuyu, in so called gunboat line, should benefit from a better stealth fire range but average RoF and nerfed HE (DPS) will greatly limit their damage output especially against BBs. But I wonder how long will take till they nerf that too. Maybe one or two ships could shine but I guess that majority will stay at the bottom of all stat lists (I really hope that I'm wrong about that). Especially once KM dds came along.

From Sea-Group site Seems there wouldn't be any nerf to Kamikaze and Fujin. If I'm not wrong WG has done the same for Gremy which retained its HE when they nerf 130mm HE from 1900 to 1600. Also seems that IJN dd line could be split in 0.5.15.

Didn't notice but on wows-numbers.com all new (and down-tiered ones) destroyers that use 127mm guns have 7% fire chance.

Yes you are right, 10 deg per sec is good for that tiers, except maybe for T5, more because of current MM but still not bad. And yes they could take place of the best or the most useful dds in the game. Maybe not tier for tier but still not far from top.

He did get torps right. New Kagero will have 62kn torp as stock and 67kn as upgraded version. Its reload rate should be 8.5 rpm, range (with GFCS) 9.4km and turret traverse speed of 30sec/180deg. http://wows-numbers.com/ship/4076746448,Nowaki/

Well RoF is good. Turret traverse for T9 and T10 is good, T6 and T8 acceptable considering that they use 150mm guns, T7 quite slow but still better than IJN, T2-5 average. Looks really good. Agree. Even before they release new IJN dds they look far from top or even balance. Really hope they will buff them. And I would accept faster, stealthier but lower damage torps over slower, easer detectable but higher damage ones any time. IJN dds are really loosing they purpose.

So seems that all KM dds can stealth torps just like IJN. Their torps were faster and had lower detection range than IJN but deal less damage and have shorter range, at least for some tiers. So they should be able to provide better hit ratio but with less damage than IJN ones. These stats for KM DDs look promising, but I feel a little sorry for IJN dds. This line, at least mid and higher tier ships, already looks as better choice if you want a ship that can stealth torp and be able to use its guns. Comparing with US and RU dds in the gunboat role they seems good balanced with maybe somewhat worse HE but better AP. Not sure what turret traverse times and RoF of those 127mm/150mm/128mm guns will be but I guess that 127mm and 128mm will have a good RoF.

My guess, higher tiers T8-T10 could have longer range torps, maybe up to 10-12km, but mid and lower tiers will probably have 6km once. Also I expect that 127mm will be standard for higher tier dds and Type 1936 with 150mm a premium.

Kamikaze R was sold in the EU. I think that Kamikaze (not R) was only available on the Asia server. But seems that recently some players in the EU received in game offers to buy Kamikaze (not R) for doubloons. I meet at least one of them in the game. Kamikaze I bought is Kamikaze R.

Kamikaze R was available in the shop for purchase twice since Project R. I missed event but bought mine in June. So it is a premium that was sold for money.

Wow, they really found the way to screw them more. So their AP and HE would deal same damage as US one but with much much slower turret traverse and RoF. Shiratsuyu will have the lowest DPM of all T7 dds, both HE and AP. But it will have a torpedo reload booster, which is great. But I really don't understand logic here, Shiratsuyu should be a gunboat and they nerf its guns and (kind of) buffs its torps.

Yes, this change is not perfect. Current stats are far from desired but at least they are progress compared to current state in the game. Some stats could/should be changed but some of those you mentioned are hard to expect. Mutsuki that use only 6km torps with just two guns will be a terrible ship at any tier. Even with the four guns that current stock Mutsuki use wouldn't be much improvement. Putting it as a first ship of the "gunboat" branch is just stupid. Not that Minekaze would be much better in that role. IMHO Mutsuki should stay the same as it is now just tier lower, with both torp options and gun reload time drop to 10s instead of current 12s. If Minekaze is about to "lose" its torps, replaced with slower one, it should get a buff to its guns maybe, with turret rotation drop to 25.71s (as Kamikaze) and reload time to 8-9s. It will have a somewhat better guns (barely) than Kamikaze/Fujin but worse torps for better balance. I think that both line should have something specific, Hatsuharu-Shiratsuyu-Kagero-Yugumo line should have better torps, slower reload but with torpedo reload booster as additional consumable or at least as a choice instead of speed booster and guns with slower reload, while Fubuki-Akatsuki should have guns with better reload time and faster turret rotation but they torps should stay one step behind. For example Hatsu will have two torp options, 59kn and 62kn, both 10km while Buki should have 6km and 10km one with 59kn speed. Shiratsuyu stock than would be 10km/62kn while Akatsuki 10km/59kn one. Shimakaze is a different story and I don't have an idea what to do with it. Just like Akizuki which is really specific compared to all other IJN destroyers. Then you would have some kind of balance between lines one with somewhat better guns and the other one with somewhat better torps. Now they seems very similar with same guns and same torps with a difference of launchers reload time and a little more noticeable in maneuverability and concealment. Don't see how that could led to separate "gunship" and "regular" lines when ships in both lines, with exception of Akizuki, looks just like variations of current regular IJN destroyers with some improvements. But this are just my thoughts (currently) based on stats and my ideas/wishes. Yes I would like them to be great. But I don't think that WG want the same. The best we could expect is at least to make them better and more competitive. Currently they are not. Recently released RN CL line and Belfast don't give me much confidence that WG won't screw this.

This is probably done because of balance. If they give Shinonome 10km torps it would be much better than the regular Fubuki. So you have option between premium Fubuki with 6 guns and 6km torps or regular Fubuki with 4 guns and 10km torps (and better AA). Maybe not the best choice that is necessary for balance (if that word really mean anything to WG).

You get something, you lose something. Shiratsuyu (seems) keeps its 5 guns with hull upgrade unlike Hatsuharu and it has faster RoF but its turret rotation is slower, 30s to 25.7s. Maybe doesn't seems like much but playing both Minekaze and Kamikaze which have the same turret rotation speed difference this could be noticeable. Shiratsuyu has two torpedo tubes more but its reload time is much slower, 94s compared to 76s for stock and 101s to 82s to upgraded ones. This is 19s is a huge difference. Also Hatsuharu is 2.5kn faster (36,5kn to 34kn), its rudder shift time is better (2.3s to 3.1s of Shiratsuyu) and has 10m better turning radius. By all statistic list, for T7 ships, Hatsuharu is close to bottom. Only some US ships (not Mahan) have worse statistic. So to be better Shiratsuyu would need some buffs of something extra to be competitive with other dds at T7. By current available stats in some areas its better than Hatsuharu but in some others its worse. I don't think that would be enough to be competitive with others.

Everything depends how they rework/balance them. IJN dds definitely need some buffs especially their guns. Now they have chance to make them more competitive becouse, together with US cruisers, they are quite low on all stat lists. I don't expected for them to be great, just a better. Some of those new dds looks like improvement, Fubuki and Hatsuharu should be better than Mutsuki in almost any way, Akatsuki looks better/more versatile than Hatsuharu just like Yugumo compared to current Kagero and Akizuki could be quite interesting. On the other hand Shiratsuyu doesn't look much better than Hatsuharu. I think that Isokaze could still be playable but that Minekaze will suffer heavily when it lost its torps. I generally like IJN dds and I really hope that WG won't screw them whit this change.

Yes, but Shinonome torpedo launchers angles are not great. It won't be easy to lunch your torps without showing your broadside. One problem with all IJN premium destroyers is that they are not suitable to retrain a captain with TA. Hope that WG have plans for some other premium destroyer except Shinonome.

Looks like some kind of Steampunk based theme.

At close range it will struggle because of slow turret rotation and slow reload. But it could be good at medium ranges. It have better DPS than Ognevoi and with AFT and CE it could have a small margin for invisi-firing. It probably won't be something special but I doubt that it could be worse than stock Mutsuki.

I found this on NA forum. Tthis could be just one of test configurations, but it bring some confusion to what we thought that we'll get. Honestly there is only one real gunboat compering them to their US or RU counterparts and that is Akizuki. All the rest you can put in one of the two lines. If you compare current (unofficial) stats that are available for two T7 destroyers, Shiratsuyu and Akatsuki, you won't find much differences. Both have same guns with same RoF, same turret traverse speed, same shell choices. Only differences are that Shiratsuyu has one km longer range and a marginally better dispersion while Akatsuki has one more gun (better DPM) and better angles of the second turret. Also Shiratsuyu have lower concealment which would mean larger range of stealth firing. Now question is what WG consider a gunboat characteristics. But one thing is sure, putting Yayoi into gunboat line is ridiculous.

Well maybe you would be a lucky and have a chance to play both Fubuki and Akizaki on the same line I also considering to buy it. Yes its stats are not great and I would prefer some others Japanese destroyers but still ... this could be interesting and it is a Japanese destroyer that would be available soon.

Maybe the last chance to get yourself a premium IJN destroyer with those great Type 92 torpedoes before they nerf Minikeze and make Kamikaze/Fujin better ships than its regular cousin.

Seems nicely balanced, not OP at all EU NA