FR25 Review from Daily Bounce

[Verblonde]

If anyone is feeling the urge to get hold of FR25, this review from the Daily Bounce might be of interest: https://thedailybounce.net/world-of-warships/world-of-warships-final-review-italian-tier-vii-premium-destroyer-fr25/

 

A select quote: "FR25 is simply bad. It is sitting in that awkward spot of trying to be a gunboat but without the proper firepower to back it up. It also is trying to be a low-tier Paolo Emilio but is far too sluggish for that and also lacks the torpedo power."

 

Personally, I tend to be interested in almost any DD; this one was already giving me pause though, due to being T7 and all the other things going on at the moment to make DDs' lives miserable, and if this review turns out to be consensus, this may well end up being the first premium DD I actually don't want (and yes, I even have Karl von Schönberg!)...

[lafeel]

Still better than Leone tbh..

[Aragathor]

8 minutes ago, lafeel said:

Still better than Leone tbh..

Italian premium DDs AKA Born to be Bad.

[lafeel]

12 minutes ago, Aragathor said:

Italian premium DDs AKA Born to be Bad.

Well not everyone is so fortunate to have a Paolo..

[Verblonde]

18 minutes ago, lafeel said:

Still better than Leone tbh..

<shudder> I'd forgotten about her; or - perhaps more properly - my memory had blocked her out in self-defence...!

 

As a matter of interest, which premium DD do people generally feel is the most dreadful?

[Jethro_Grey]

I played only one in coop with it, but the article is on point for the most part. 

 

It's like a Aigle with Italian smoke and 6km torps.

 

The HE is anemic, was fighting a bot York and a Schchors, and all i got out of that engagement were ~900 damage and one fire with 30+ hits.

Should have used SAP, my bad. Speaking of which, SAP murders DDs, but It's gonna be difficult to keep them at arms length and reliably hit a weaving target. 

Shooting the Sinop was a complete waste tho, as neither HE nor SAP did anything to it.

 

The yolo potential is there, especially against same and lower tier BBs, but since you can meet TIX BBs like Musashi, you might wanna make sure you can kill the target. 

 

Need to play more games, but my first impression is: eh...but with a nice camo.

 

 

 

[lafeel]

6 minutes ago, Verblonde said:

<shudder> I'd forgotten about her; or - perhaps more properly - my memory had blocked her out in self-defence...!

 

As a matter of interest, which premium DD do people generally feel is the most dreadful?

Fenyang. 

[Jethro_Grey]

Just now, lafeel said:

Fenyang. 

Personally, i like Fenyangs evil twin brother, the Ship Smasha. 

Imo, it's a not bad, you just have to work harder. 

 

And the most Dreadful DDs are all the ones that have a german flag (except ZF6 and T61). 

[Verblonde]

1 minute ago, lafeel said:

Fenyang. 

That's a surprising pick; okay, she's worse than Aki, but does she really plumb the true murky depths...?

 

Whilst I don't usually take mine out in proper game modes (well, I have Lo Yang, for a start), I think I'd much rather play her than Schönberg, for example...

[lafeel]

6 minutes ago, Jethro_Grey said:

Personally, i like Fenyangs evil twin brother, the Ship Smasha. 

Imo, it's a not bad, you just have to work harder. 

 

And the most Dreadful DDs are all the ones that have a german flag (except ZF6 and T61). 

Could say the same for the Z-35 personally. Won't defend the Z-44 though, no siree.

[lafeel]

5 minutes ago, Verblonde said:

That's a surprising pick; okay, she's worse than Aki, but does she really plumb the true murky depths...?

 

Whilst I don't usually take mine out in proper game modes (well, I have Lo Yang, for a start), I think I'd much rather play her than Schönberg, for example...

She's a gunboat DD that has serious issues with actually, you know, gunboating.

 

And don't even get me started on those extra deep deep water torps that can only hit BB's that she's saddled with to boot..

[Verblonde]

Just now, lafeel said:

She's a gunboat DD that has serious issues with actually, you know, gunboating.

 

And don't even get me started on those extra deep deep water torps that can only hit BB's that she's saddled with to boot..

True, but the AP is moderately worthwhile, which elevates her above the entirely awful (plus you get used to the torps, especially if you've played Asashio); whilst I'd never actively recommend anyone actually buy Fenyang (despite having her twice) I'd suggest we need to look elsewhere for the truly appalling.

 

Harekaze II makes a noble reach for bloody awful, but has competent sonar (and usable torps), so falls short? I still keep circling back to Schönberg; there's plenty of mediocrity out there, but not too much actively dreadful...

[lafeel]

9 minutes ago, Verblonde said:

Harekaze II makes a noble reach for bloody awful, but has competent sonar (and usable torps), so falls short? I still keep circling back to Schönberg; there's plenty of mediocrity out there, but not too much actively dreadful...

Ooof I forgot she actually existed. She's a contender all right..(Hare 2 that is)

[BLUB__BLUB]

1 hour ago, Verblonde said:

As a matter of interest, which premium DD do people generally feel is the most dreadful?

Silliwangi... 

[Verblonde]

13 minutes ago, BLUB__BLUB said:

Silliwangi... 

She occurred to me too, but I'd suggest she's arguably better than Harekaze II, yet most probably in a similar league. So, another one reaching for the acme of awfulness yet falling short of being an unmitigated disaster...?

[lafeel]

21 minutes ago, Verblonde said:

She occurred to me too, but I'd suggest she's arguably better than Harekaze II, yet most probably in a similar league. So, another one reaching for the acme of awfulness yet falling short of being an unmitigated disaster...?

Well the biggest problem they both have is that there exists a clearly superior ship of the same nation, and type. Harekaze 1 for the Hare2 and the Lo Yang for Silliwangi.

[Jethro_Grey]

Played her in ranked now, and she seems to be more fun then expected. 

While FR25 doesn't deal well with BBs and angled cruisers, DDs get murdered and broadsiding cruiser can get punished. 

 

Starting to like this boat, the only thing that irks me really are the torps. 

I yolo'ed the TVII ITA BB and landed 5 torps but that BB survived with more then 1/3 of its health, which was a bit of a bummer. 

 

I am getting Yolo Emilio vibes here, as the ITA smoke allows for some fun maneuvers or to get out of an sticky situation.

The only letdown being the anemic HE and the not-so-hard hitting torps.

 

Need to play more games. 

 

 

Harekaze II is so bad, it's almost a german DD.

 

[Ocsimano18]

33 minutes ago, Jethro_Grey said:

Played her in ranked now, and she seems to be more fun then expected. 

While FR25 doesn't deal well with BBs and angled cruisers, DDs get murdered and broadsiding cruiser can get punished. 

 

Starting to like this boat, the only thing that irks me really are the torps. 

I yolo'ed the TVII ITA BB and landed 5 torps but that BB survived with more then 1/3 of its health, which was a bit of a bummer. 

 

I am getting Yolo Emilio vibes here, as the ITA smoke allows for some fun maneuvers or to get out of an sticky situation.

The only letdown being the anemic HE and the not-so-hard hitting torps.

 

Need to play more games. 

 

 

Harekaze II is so bad, it's almost a german DD.

 

Isn’t T7 ranked where the majority of players are below 45% WR?

[Animalul2012]

Gnevny is the worst dd ever. Crap guns,crap DPM,crap pen,4km torpedoes LUL.

[BrusilovX]

4 hours ago, Verblonde said:

Harekaze II makes a noble reach for bloody awful, but has competent sonar (and usable torps), so falls short? I still keep circling back to Schönberg; there's plenty of mediocrity out there, but not too much actively dreadful...

I started to read that and thought 'are you off your head' then I saw the "II" and yes, you're right.

 

[invicta2012]

17 hours ago, lafeel said:

Could say the same for the Z-35 personally. Won't defend the Z-44 though, no siree.

Z-44 comes alive with the right set of captain skills. 10 torps on a 65 second reload is not to be sniffed at. We know her problem is vision control - no hydro, poor stealth  - but she does at least have some punch. You can also say the same for Fen Yang - what it can hit, it hits *hard*. And it also has the only "Special" camo I like - the medieval Chinese village/Lunar Dragon camo looks *fabulous*.  I also like Leone - she's a historical oddity rather than a valid DD template but plays fine. 

 

In terms of worst.... I'm not sure about Z-35 (and I'm not dropping coal to find out) but I think it's either Jurua (a lazy copy and paste job) or KvSchonberg, which somehow manages to be considerably worse than the big-gun version of Ernst Gaede which got removed from the Tech Tree. 

 

 

[Procrastes]

18 hours ago, Verblonde said:

As a matter of interest, which premium DD do people generally feel is the most dreadful?

I have the Karl von Schönberg. It is indeed dreadful, unable as it is to perform any task that is of use either to itself or to its team. It is easily the worst ship in my port, and the only premium ship I've straight up regretted buying (and I do have the Oleg!).

 

I never got the Leone, which appears to have been a good decision. Nor am I - in view of your timely warning, Captain Verblonde - likely to to make a bid for the FR25. Thank you for the heads-up!

[Jethro_Grey]

16 hours ago, Ocsimano18 said:

Isn’t T7 ranked generally where the majority of players are below 45% WR?

Fixed that for you.

[Verblonde]

5 hours ago, Procrastes said:

I never got the Leone, which appears to have been a good decision. Nor am I - in view of your timely warning, Captain Verblonde - likely to to make a bid for the FR25. Thank you for the heads-up!

Because I'm an idiot (which is, I believe, the correct term), and so others don't have to:

 

Some (very initial) thoughts based on a few Coop games, just to get a feel for her:

• She's quite pretty, but then you can get the same aesthetic for nowt with the French line, although FR25 gets bonus points for the Italian stripes on her bow. I got the basic 'ship only' package (whilst I'm an idiot, I'm perhaps not a *complete* idiot); if anyone really wants the Golden Sun permaflage, you have to get one of the bloated bundles (both of which include silver, if anyone was wondering 'why superships'), at least as of now.
• In terms of sneakiness, she's not entirely awful: 6.3 km with a CE captain. The specialised sneaks are better, but most things at that tier are similar or worse in this regard (although good luck when you get up-tiered).
• I've only played Coop so far, but the dakka feels (!) less awful than I was expecting, despite losing the French MBRB. The range isn't bad (especially if you use Sansonetti, and trigger his ability; 12.7 km base), and the ballistics could be a lot worse
• The YOLO torps are perfectly okay for Coop, but - due to complete absence of a stealth window - they're going to be much harder to use against real people. Of course, you can try the YOLO Emilio trick with the fuel smoke, but you only get about half a minute of smoke, so the usual stuff about having an exit plan when pulling that stunt applies.
• @Jethro_Grey's point earlier about the torps is well made - I managed to get five torps into a QE yesterday, and it didn't sink (well, not right away; a bit of dakka sorted him out but still...)! Pick your YOLO spots with care...
• It's worth mentioning the engine boost: FR25 gets the standard French 20% boost, not the 25% boost that the silver line gets; you're not as fast, but you can go for a lot longer (171.6 sec with coal mod and captain skill). Base speed is two knots slower than the silver T7 Italian DD as well.

So, she's fun in Coop; I can't see myself getting much use from her against real people  though (but I do have both of Haida and Z-39). As a mediocre player, I'm perhaps not as attuned to skill ceilings as most folk on here may be; for a typical farty, I reckon FR25 is perfectly serviceable, but many will probably get themselves killed trying to use the torps. As to the weighty matter of which premium DD is the most dreadful, I personally - so far - much prefer FR25 to Schönberg...!

 

Just to be clear though: I don't think FR25 is worth buying (especially not the bloated bundles), but rather that she isn't unutterably awful...

[RuruushuVuiBuritania]

So, then the general consensus seems to be that the Italian DD line is the first in recorded history to be better than its premiums? An interesting development to be sure.