Druid or Vampire 2 (or possibly Gibraltar)

[GulvkluderGuld]

Need to decide on a new RB ship. I have Småland and Ragnar and Daring already. Love all three. 

Options are Druid and Vampire 2, and I'm leaning toward Vampire. Dont see what Druid brings to the table that the others dont already have. You rarely want to sit bow in in a DD anyway. 

 

Gibraltar: while i love Mino, this one looks like a combination of all the bad things of Minotaur and Goliath.

 

Recommendations?

[lafeel]

Vampire 2, hands down at that.

[General_Alexus]

There are some iland locations where you can shoot without beeing detected even though it should be possible, because there are some bugs/features in the render system.

Druid is the only ship that can abuse thouse locations with 100% of its DPM due to turret layout.

But yeah that is the only senario I can think of where druid realy shines.

[Camperdown]

I only have Vampire 2 and like it very much.

[DDG_121]

I've both Vampire and Daring, and still lean towards Daring even when playing Ranked. But that's me of course.

[Yedwy]

52 minutes ago, GulvkluderGuld said:

Need to decide on a new RB ship. I have Småland and Ragnar and Daring already. Love all three. 

Options are Druid and Vampire 2, and I'm leaning toward Vampire. Dont see what Druid brings to the table that the others dont already have. You rarely want to sit bow in in a DD anyway. 

 

Gibraltar: while i love Mino, this one looks like a combination of all the bad things of Minotaur and Goliath.

 

Recommendations?

Dont go Gibraltar she is 2 fragile for what she is and only good for farming pepegas in Randoms…

 

Now both Vamp and Druid are good botes BUT the former is just a Daring sidegrade while the latter has its own flavour

 

I have all btw

[Hakssor]

Druid is more unique and can train commanders for UK. 

[Miscommunication_dept]

Druid is amazing fun and there is nothing like it in game.

 

It's like a tiny Des moines with smoke. It absolutely melts  destroyers that give even a hint of broadside even the likes of Ragnar.

It can also farm very well  and can really hurt all kinds of cruisers at close range. 

I never wish I was in another ship while playing my Druid.

 

Vampire looks like a Daring sidegrade, the long smoke downtime and lack of heal make it uninteresting to me so I have not bought it.

Make no mistake though, a good player using smoke and hydro is hard to stop without radar backup.

 

Gibraltar is really fun, it's AP hits  destroyers  very hard and overmatches smolensks and Minotaurs. I do think it gives up a little too much compared to a Goliath though.

 

For me I would recommend Druid first of all so many destroyers and cruisers still don't seem to understand what it can do.

[Chaoskraehe]

Vampire is great

 

Gibraltar is fun

 

Druid doesn't have torps and only AP, so i'll pass

[Hirohito]

1 hour ago, Zimbiye said:

I've both Vampire and Daring, and still lean towards Daring even when playing Ranked. But that's me of course.

I dont have Vampire, but my immediate reaction when I saw her was that I would probably stick to Daring.
A crawling smoke can cause more harm than good at times, as it gives your position away and keeps going even if you just wanted to break LOS for a brief moment to get away, possibly harming your chance to spot while you get out of dodge.
Plus I like having a decent torpedo option, and 5 torps just arent cutting it for area denial or wide patterns.

[Verblonde]

4 hours ago, GulvkluderGuld said:

Options are Druid and Vampire 2, and I'm leaning toward Vampire.

My ill-informed view is that it depends a bit on what you're after: Vampire is undoubtedly a better ship by most standards (think T10 Haida, is the usual view); you'll probably get more use out of her, and she's a solid pick for things like Clans, where you can rely on support (she's also sufficiently different to Daring to be interesting. Of course, you do need a captain for her, and she suffers from the old 'no tech tree' problem.

 

Druid meanwhile is more of a curio; she's certainly interesting, but she isn't a 'bread and butter' thing i.e. you'll perhaps be less likely to play her hugely often, but rather only when you want a challenge and/or something a bit more unusual...

[tocqueville8]

Druid thrives in messy games, when there are broadsides everywhere and careless DDs running around.

And if she's not the only target, either, so she doesn't get focused.

 

However, she just sucks at doing DD things: spotting, capping, stalling flanks. Her games can be excellent or crap depending on the MM. If her flank collapses and she has to retreat, she's got nothing to do: no torps, no HE, no guns at the back...

 

Then again, she is more unique.

Vampire 2 looks stronger (I don't have her...), but she's basically a different combination of features already found on Daring, Friesland, Z-52, Haida...

[GulvkluderGuld]

9 hours ago, gopher31 said:

Druid is amazing fun and there is nothing like it in game.

 

It's like a tiny Des moines with smoke. It absolutely melts  destroyers that give even a hint of broadside even the likes of Ragnar.

It can also farm very well  and can really hurt all kinds of cruisers at close range. 

I never wish I was in another ship while playing my Druid.

 

Vampire looks like a Daring sidegrade, the long smoke downtime and lack of heal make it uninteresting to me so I have not bought it.

Make no mistake though, a good player using smoke and hydro is hard to stop without radar backup.

 

Gibraltar is really fun, it's AP hits  destroyers  very hard and overmatches smolensks and Minotaurs. I do think it gives up a little too much compared to a Goliath though.

 

For me I would recommend Druid first of all so many destroyers and cruisers still don't seem to understand what it can do.

Would rate Druid good enough for competitive eg. clan battles? Or more of a situational ship? Needs to be good at doing DD things and coming out on top, needs to be able to farm bow in soviet cruisers.

I already have Daring for the quick smoke-pewpew playstyle and giving up the single launch torps is a HUGE loss 

[Miscommunication_dept]

10 minutes ago, GulvkluderGuld said:

Would rate Druid good enough for competitive eg. clan battles? Or more of a situational ship? Needs to be good at doing DD things and coming out on top, needs to be able to farm bow in soviet cruisers.

I already have Daring for the quick smoke-pewpew playstyle and giving up the single launch torps is a HUGE loss 

Vampire would surely be better in competitive. You buy Druid for a unique playstyle  and it's ability to deal with all classes.

Vampire is a chief cap contester, probably the best as long as their are no radar ships around.

[Trench4nt]

Vor 20 Minuten, GulvkluderGuld sagte:

Would rate Druid good enough for competitive eg. clan battles? Or more of a situational ship? Needs to be good at doing DD things and coming out on top, needs to be able to farm bow in soviet cruisers.

I already have Daring for the quick smoke-pewpew playstyle and giving up the single launch torps is a HUGE loss 

 

The problem with the crawling smoke, particularly in competitive is, once you are forced to use it, you are "spotted" for 2min. I own Haida (basically a Vampire at T7) and this has always been an issue although the hydro is quite strong. With respect to random matches, I believe the ship performs quite well cause it penalizes enemy DD mistakes. But I prefer Daring's hit and run playstyle.

[MoveZig]

Here's what I want to know, can Druid's shells overmatch DD bows or does it become the most useless ship in the game if the enemy DD players have the sense to go bow-on?

[DDG_121]

2 hours ago, gopher31 said:

Vampire is a chief cap contester, probably the best as long as their are no radar ships around.

Don't forget Z-52 with the 6 km hydro.

[lafeel]

1 hour ago, MoveZig said:

Here's what I want to know, can Druid's shells overmatch DD bows or does it become the most useless ship in the game if the enemy DD players have the sense to go bow-on?

From what I have seen the answer to the first half is a no, which makes the second half, sadly, a yes.

[ReapingKnight]

I already have the Vampire II and my issues is now Which of the remaining tier Xs to get: Druid, Colbert, Slava or Gibraltar.

[Miscommunication_dept]

30 minutes ago, Zimbiye said:

Don't forget Z-52 with the 6 km hydro.

And half the dpm.

[Miscommunication_dept]

1 hour ago, MoveZig said:

Here's what I want to know, can Druid's shells overmatch DD bows or does it become the most useless ship in the game if the enemy DD players have the sense to go bow-on?

Overmatch? No but you can bury a lot of shells in turrets and superstructure and the DD you’re fighting will be unable to get all its guns to bear and in most cases will be at half dpm and be unable to launch torps. Usually they end up losing turrets, turning to torp then melting.

 

Many destroyers also have flat sterns so take a lot of pens when running away.

 

Destroyers angling is far less of a problem than you might think.

[tocqueville8]

2 hours ago, MoveZig said:

Here's what I want to know, can Druid's shells overmatch DD bows or does it become the most useless ship in the game if the enemy DD players have the sense to go bow-on?

 

That's rarely a problem (how often does a DD go bow-in against a Mino, for that matter?), plus at short ranges you can still hit their superstructure.

The Druid murders DDs that show even a hint of broadside, as long as they don't kite away. Most of her hits are full AP pens, and you'll probably take the skill for +7.5% dmg, too.

 

The problem with Druid is her best concealment is 6.6, so it's just hard to get the drop on an enemy DD: you have to use islands or follow a stealthier DD, but that exposes you to ambushes by radar ships, especially if the CV didn't do her job spotting in the game opening.

[tocqueville8]

2 hours ago, ReapingKnight said:

I already have the Vampire II and my issues is now Which of the remaining tier Xs to get: Druid, Colbert, Slava or Gibraltar.

 

I switched to a full reload build for the Colbert after watching some videos, and I've found her very addictive

[General_Alexus]

5 hours ago, MoveZig said:

Here's what I want to know, can Druid's shells overmatch DD bows or does it become the most useless ship in the game if the enemy DD players have the sense to go bow-on?

No, and that is actually a good point. I still remember the Ranked game where I had my Grosewoy against a Druid, started at Half its HP, no other shipy around. Bow in with 2 turrents HE 3sek reload against his 2 turrets 1.5 sek reload, I came up way ahead. I dont know how it would have went if he went for my turrets (maybe he did and I got lucky RNG wise)

[General_Alexus]

3 hours ago, tocqueville8 said:

 

That's rarely a problem (how often does a DD go bow-in against a Mino, for that matter?), plus at short ranges you can still hit their superstructure.

The Druid murders DDs that show even a hint of broadside, as long as they don't kite away. Most of her hits are full AP pens, and you'll probably take the skill for +7.5% dmg, too.

 

The problem with Druid is her best concealment is 6.6, so it's just hard to get the drop on an enemy DD: you have to use islands or follow a stealthier DD, but that exposes you to ambushes by radar ships, especially if the CV didn't do her job spotting in the game opening.

I won several fights with my Kleber against Minos by going bow in, having AP threat myself and torping them at point blank with supperior torpedo angels of Kleber.

Bow in against a Druid and they cant kill you, problem is you rarely get thouse 1 vs 1 encounters. Druid is most dangerous if it get a crossfire on you from an unexpected angle.