AnotherDuck

Regarding the concealment, Shiratsuyu is still a T7 DD, which are the largest DDs that don't get the extra concealment upgrade. That means that even if she's got great concealment for her tier, it's still worse than several DDs above and below her tier. Kagero and Yugumo work well with the torpedo reload booster without smoke simply because they can still out-stealth just about everything not themselves. Shiratsuyu can't. Essentially, it means you're going to have to not get overconfident play it more safe, and rely more on the torpedo soup method of playing. That's exactly the same kind of playstyle WG doesn't like. The high risk/reward playstyle of getting close to strike, which they've said they prefer to encourage, is actively discouraged yet again. It's kind of obvious that WG just doesn't get Japanese DDs and torpedoes. Or balancing properly after the playstyles and ship choices they claim they want.

If that doesn't happen when I'm on the enemy team, I'm facepalming. That's exactly what the team should be doing, so it means you're facing an above-average enemy team.

I've been playing different games than you, then. Sure, a lot of them just snipe, but there are those who do push (myself included). Those are the ones who're going to be punished the most. Not the ones sitting back with a bunch of other ships for a good combined AA rating and easily defended by friendly CV. Looking at the stats, no, they don't really overperform much. Sure, they're overall above average, but there's not a whole lot of difference. And if you want to look at overperformers, look at the premium ships. But the point is, the nerf comes exactly where it's not needed, and it only encourages even more sniping. It's like reducing tankiness to encourage people to play more aggressively.

And what do the AP bombs nerf? The battleships actually pushing, and especially the ones built for pushing.

Unlike the current BB (and with variations, CA) play, which is to stay at range, bow in, and spam spam spam AP. No real skill involved. Why is it that one thing isn't allowed for one type of ships, but is for another? WG can't live in the past. Back then a lot more people had no clue about how to avoid torpedoes, and now they're more informed, and torpedoes are nerfed to hell and back. So why keep the same mentality? The moment a DD focused on torpedoes gets decent stats, it gets nerfed hard. Battleships? Nah, let's create more overpowered ones to balance that out.

Shimakaze is an upgraded Yugumo with worse stealth. Fletcher is a straight upgrade of Benson. Playstyles are very similar to their predecessors, but Fletcher actually reloads the torpedoes rather than builds new ones from scratch, so it's far easier to play a hybrid style. Shima does have decent guns, which while they still won't cut in a gunfight against a gunboat, they can do in a pinch, or if you face lower tier Japanese DDs. Personally I like both Shima and Fletcher, for their different styles, but I also like Yugumo as well, which probably is a requirement to like Shima.

I play destroyers because I find it fun to play challenging ships. I play cruisers because sometimes I'm apparently a masochist. I play battleships because sometimes I like to relax, not worry about any mistakes, and still be able to perform just as well as better players of less favoured ships by WG. Wargaming hates torpedoes and stealthy ships. They can claim otherwise, but everything points to them loving battleships above diversity. If it looks big and strong, it should be tougher and stronger than anything else.

Well, destroyers have to get something, considering they cost as much as battleships. Or do you want realistic costs for the ships? Do you also want torpedoes will sink any ship in one or possibly two hits, and even if it doesn't sink them, leave them combat incapable for the rest of the game?

If someone tells you you're cheating or using hax or whatever, pat yourself on the back for a job well done.

Pepsi used to be worse than now. However, I still find that she plays a lot like Yorck or Myoko, but without their advantages.

It's not so much the surprise factor as it is the strategy you can form around it. Overall, you can be a lot less careful with where you're going. And a lot of the time, my combat involves me spotting the enemies and letting my allies shoot them.

For how you position yourself, I'd recommend Air Supremacy and Aircraft Servicing Expert.

RPF: Radio Position Finding, or Radio Location as it's now called.

Winning battles should determine stars. Experience should not. Anything that promotes selfish play over teamplay should be removed.

Why not kill them? They steal all my kills.

I think the main thing about AP bombs is that they're hugely effective on some select ships, while more or less incapable on others. The worst part is that they essentially promote more camping, since they're very effective against the German battleships, which at least promotes more interesting gameplay. AP bombs just reverse that trend back to camping. So far I've not personally been hit much by those, but I've noticed a higher lack of will to do anything other than snipe in battleships whenever those bombs are present in the battle.

No matter how bad it is, it's not worse than last P2W T7 ranked. It was only bearable bringing out Shira and torping smoke, but even that didn't help just how terrible that season was. This season isn't really that bad. Teams are almost always more coordinated than randoms, and most ships are reasonably balanced. I'd like to see more cruisers, but those do show up on occasion.

WG has mentioned that the vast majority of the bot reports they get turn out to just be incredibly bad players. Taking their word for it is up to you.

Met Dropsiq in a Ranked battle. Was on my team, he went to cap and defend the cap, while I went and flanked. We crushed the opponents. Top two players.

If you actually read the thread, you'd notice that that's not actually what it's about. It's that it contributes to the boring gameplay people don't like. Basically, WG doesn't know what they're doing. They (claim they) want to reduce the number of battleships, yet they keep giving people a reason to play them even more. They wanted to make torpedo gameplay more close range with higher risk and rewards, so they introduce radars which increases risk and comparatively increases rewards for long range torpedoes by making it too risky to get closer.

If she was using the 20 km torps (if you noticed either way), then a retraining (or new) captain is almost certainly the answer.

I use Radio Location on almost all DDs. Fletcher is one of them. It's a good tool if you know how to use it. Since Fletcher can outgun most DDs if you get close enough, it works as a chase tool. You can also use it to preemtively torp areas, or more precisely if there's a hidden capping ship or large smoke area. It also reveals a lot about what risks you can take.

I recently got a seven kill match in Fiji, along with the damage medals, and I rarely get a lot of kills (but consistently a few). Of course, when they all line up in a row, broadside on at close range... Anyway, yeah, Fiji is one of my favourite cruisers in the game (although I still enjoy Ashigara a lot). Fun to play, since as mentioned, she rewards aggressive play. However, due to the squishiness, you need to be careful. That's something you should've learned from the earlier RN cruisers, so it shouldn't be that much of a problem.

I think Yorck feels very similar to Myoko, but more awkward. Much better range, and better torpedo angles, but worse in every other regard. Probably not objectively true (I mean, German sonar is nice if you get to use it), but that's my impression of them. Anyway, both those ships are reasonably tanky compared to other cruisers, they've got good but slow reloading guns that perform well with both AP and HE, and they've got good torpedoes. The main problem I find is that the guns don't really have the accuracy that makes the range as useful as it could be, so you're not going to do that much damage that way. However, it does add up over time, especially if you have RNG fires going in the same direction as your shells. I think the worst range to play is medium range, which is one thing that makes Yorck awkward. At long range, you can rain HE and slowly impact the game, while at short range your torpedoes come into play, and if you handle your guns with care, the slow traverse isn't that bad. At medium range, you don't get to use the torpedoes, nor do you get to use the one advantage the guns have. I mean, sure, the AP works well at that range if you get a good angle, but so does any other cruiser AP. You get somewhat better aiming with HE, but again, nothing that differs from other cruisers.

WG have said they would like to have a tier 10 ranked season, but it's just not feasible due to how many players it would exclude.