Highlights of the upcoming IJNDD Line

[Hayashio]

Akizuki

 

Normally you would start from the bottom on a new line. Since it's more of a cross-over, and many ships have been re-tiered or repositioned, I will skip over the complications and compile a few key things that have been changed to the IJN Destroyers at the end. Now to the new tier 8 gunboat for the Japanese, the Akizuki.

The Akizuki class is probably one of the most prime class of destroyers used by the IJN during World War 2. The key difference to the rest was of course mainly in armament, since the Akizuki didn't field a lot of torpedo tubes like a Fubuki, but instead got good AA capabilities and guns with smaller but faster hitting shells.

 

 

That's just about how she performs ingame too. Here's a list of main features:

1. Slowest high tier DD ingame (33knots) 2. Blistering fast reloads and punchy guns for it's calibre. (100mm) 3. Single quadruple torpedo tube with good damage and reload. (20k dmg) 4. Mounts Engine Boost, Smoke and Torpedo Reload acceleration. (all at once) 5. Huge hitpoint pool of 20400 6. Good turret rotation at 11.4 seconds. 7. High shell velocity. (1000m/s)

 

The guns

 

Very capable little guns. While the maximum damage is not as high as with other destroyer, the sheer rate of fire makes up for it. They are accurate and have the Highest shell velocity in game at 1000m/s. with AFT you can get the range up to 12.2km. They turn fast, 11.2 seconds. Low calibre means you will be able to fire at destroyers and do full damage most of the time with AP. Sides of cruisers and superstructure of BBs are easy targets for Aki AP. HE is a bit less effective, I found that you can only really set people on fire, or damage low armour targets like RNCLs or Destroyers (although AP was more effective there). It has been voiced that the guns are a bit inconsistent. I agree to some extent, but I've found them a lot better than the ones found on RN ships. Fire chance is 5%, which is compensated for by fire rate.

 

 

The torps

 

Very nice torpedoes. They do 20k maximum damage, have 10km range, are arranged in a single tube midship. The reload is 112 seconds, but you have the Torpedo Reload Acceleration consumable, which knocks down the reload to 4 seconds! Effectively giving you 2 charges of torpedoes every 228 seconds. The torpedo firing angle is a bit shallow, but still very usable. It's a nice addition to the already exceptionally powerful guns.

 

 

The maneuverability

 

Let's face it. The Akizuki is no fast ship, nor is it very maneuverable. It's got a top speed of 33kn which means you'll be running Sierra Mike flags if you want to get anywhere fast. The rudder shift is 4.6 seconds and it has an appalling circle of 760 metres. That's 30 metres worse than the tashkent, and that thing goes 47 knots on a good day. It's engine boost is vital for it's mobility, and has a slightly faster reload on the premium consumable of 6 seconds over the conventional boosts found on IJN and USN DDs.

Nevertheless I found the speed managable, just keep your flags on your ship and use the engine boost only when you really need to, this way you can stay effective in the fight right until the end. And don't try to outrun cruisers. 80% of the time they will be faster. Don't get into such position in the first place.

 

 

The survivability and concealment

 

Aki has the highest hitpoints of any tier 8 DD. It beats the Fatkent by 700 hitpoints. The ship can really take a beating. As one enemy Khabarovsk player said after a fierce gunfight:

"That's one hell of a strong Jap"

While the Khabarovsk manages to kill the Akizuki, he is left on a crippling 3000 hitpoints. The scenario could've gone differently if Akizuki had all of it's guns pointed at the ship right until the end. The Akizuki boasts average amour for it's class: 13mm for the superstructure and 19mm all around the ship:

 

The concealment of the Zuccini on a fully spec'd captain is 5.9km. You can fire concealed at a range of 8.9km. this means that you have a 3.3km window to engage targets without being detected.

 

 

The AA armament

 

Those dual purpose guns push the Akizuki's AA capabilities way past those of the American lines. A stock Akizuki(B) has an AA rating of 46. My current captain with BFT, AFT and the 500.000 20% range upgrade bring the AA rating up to 73. The maximum engagement range of the 100mils is 7.2km (5km unupgraded). You can engage air targets undetected up to approximately 5.8km range. The damage going down from highest to lowest calibre is 83, 43 and 32 DPS. If you only slightly invest in the Akizuki's AA, you will be a very capable AA platform.

From a play experience, I have to say the AA is very good. It will of course lose effectiveness as the carrier planes gain in tier, but it'll make carrier players think twice before attacking you.

 

 

The Verdict

 

The Akizuki is probably my favourite ship in the game as of yet. Great guns, good AA, decent torps. The only thing it's lacking is speed. The guns don't always feel consistent. I don't feel that it is overpowered. If anyone was wondering if they should go down the parallel line, I would say go for it. Unless you really can't deal with slow destroyers, the Akizuki will be a lot of fun and an absolute damage beast. There is a lot more to say but I think I'll let the video do the talking. Please enjoy the Akizuki's (mostly) average game:

 

excuse the frame fluctuations, recorder is having some problems.

[Hayashio]

About the IJN "Gunboats" and line changes

 

Are they really gunboats? No, they're not. I would only consider Akizuki a gunboat, however it is more of an AA platform. The "Gunboats" or rather "Destroyer-Line-Which-Actually-Has-Gun-Range-And-Doesn't-Completely-Suck-AAwise" have very good torps like their torp boat counterparts and from tier 7 onwards can equip 3 consumables instead of 2.

Changes-wise, we have a torp nerf for all the tier 5 IJNDDs. Torpedo speed and reload has been nerfed, Minekaze now only has 57knot torpedoes. Mutsuki was moved to tier 5 as well. Both boast their usual 6 torpedoes, Minekaze with 3x2 launchers while Mutsuki with 2x3 launchers. Mutsuki has better AA capabilities over the Minekaze.

At tier 6 we have the Fubuki and the Hatsuharu.

Fubuki loses the option to mount the 15km torpedoes and has no longer got the choice between A, B and C hull. B hull no effectively removes the 3rd gun, and you'll require this hull to use the 10km torpedoes over the 6km ones.

Hatsuharu stayed effectively the same, with slight changes to hitpoints, 3knots loss on top torpedoes.

Tier 7 is now the Akatsuki (not to be confused with the Akizuki) and the Shiratsuyu.

Akatsuki has 1 extra tube over the late Hatsuharu(old TVII) like the Fubuki in 3x3 setup. but otherwise identical torps (slight buff to reload by 6 seconds over Hatsuharu's torps).

Shiratsuyu has better range than the Akatsuki by 0.6km but one less barrel (2x2 and 1x1 127mm guns). It's torpedoes are in 2x4 setups with a reload of 112 seconds vs the Akatsuki's 76. But! Shiratsuyu mounts the torpedo reload consumable, which means you can fire off 4 salvoes of torps within 4 seconds. I am not going to say much about this but the implications of potential damage with 16 torpedoes are there. Out of the new destroyers, I'd say Shira and the Akizuki are the ones people should be keeping an eye on.

Tier 8 gives us the above mentioned Akizuki and Kagerou, retiered. Kagerou can no longer mount F3s and has the choice between 2 sets of 10km torpedoes, one which is a clear upgrade over the other. Kagerou has the otherwise got identical gun handling as the current tier 9 Kagerou.

Tier 9 brings us the Yugumo. While it's a pretty ship, it's got more than just good looks.

 

 

Yugumo can mount the F3s or predecessor's 10km top torpedoes. She also has a fire range of 11.1km over the old Kagerou's 9.4km.

 

Happy hunting!

[RUSSIANBlAS]

Looks like buffs for torp DD finally. Speed reloading torps should cripple any BB if played right. Hopefully it won't get the BB pushing for nerfs. 

 

I look forward to the Akizuki, might even free xp it and forget about the over priced Missouri.

[NoirLotus]

T8 Kagero is a pure nerf compared to actual Fubuki : less range on guns, no 15 km torpedoes, 2x4 torps instead of 3x3 and longer reload.

 

Akatsuki could be interesting with 3x3 torps at T7 and good speed.

 

I'm undecided about Akizuki : her HE are too weak against DD and her speed is really not great + only 1x4 torps, so you can only really spam shells on BB at 10 km ...

[Hayashio]

T8 Kagero is a pure nerf compared to actual Fubuki : less range on guns, no 15 km torpedoes, 2x4 torps instead of 3x3 and longer reload.

 

Akatsuki could be interesting with 3x3 torps at T7 and good speed.

 

I'm undecided about Akizuki : her HE are too weak against DD and her speed is really not great + only 1x4 torps, so you can only really spam shells on BB at 10 km ...

 

Akatsuki is an outright upgrade over the Hatsuharu. I think players will find the transition from Fubuki to Akatsuki better than what we have ingame at the moment. As for the Akizuki.  Speed is bad. Real bad. I played her once or twice without Sierra Mikes, since then I don't think I played a single match without them.  Once you mount those, the speed becomes somewhat managable. You mention the torpedo tubes, but Akizuki gets the reload consumable, which means you can fire twice within 4 seconds. It has a cooldown, though.

That's not the problem the Aki faces. At least not it's biggest problem. The HE is measly, only really useful to set fires or light targets. The AP is good for broadsiding ships, but can't effectively overmatch a destroyer facing you. I've put a couple of dozen games into the Akizuki now. The Akizuki's turn circle is a big problem. It's like playing a tashkent, but without the speed. You'd think a destroyer of this velocity would turn on a dime. It makes the Aki feel very lumbersome. But it doesn't stop there. Yes, the Sierra Mike flags bring the speed up to 34.6kn which is only slightly slower than the Fubuki, but once you dare to even as much as touch A or D, you will bleed speed like nothing before.

 

[MoveZig]

Since I started playing I've dreamt of a firespamming cruiser that can take a beating without worrying about citadels, and has good stealth along with the ability to swat down annoying planes. This Akizuki sounds just about right. That said, with that maneuverability and lack of hydro, this is one DD I'll be taking Vigilance on.

[Slauter]

Can we see what will tech tree look like? I've got free exp on Isokaze, Minekaze and Mutsu (maybe Fubuki too), but if i need to grind it through Hatsu i'd rebuy it instantly, just to have less to grind later.

I'm wondering will there be tier/tier exp/silver compensations, free cpt retraining options etc.

[Hayashio]

Can we see what will tech tree look like? I've got free exp on Isokaze, Minekaze and Mutsu (maybe Fubuki too), but if i need to grind it through Hatsu i'd rebuy it instantly, just to have less to grind later.

I'm wondering will there be tier/tier exp/silver compensations, free cpt retraining options etc.

 

 

 

 

[AnotherDuck]

From what I've seen, Akizuki is basically a cross between Khabarovsk and Tachibana. Which might not be all that powerful, but can be very fun.

[Raziel_Walker]

Such slow torps on that new minekaze..

[Slauter]

 

 

 

 

 

That split is very strange with Mutsu at T5, Fubu and Hatsu at T6. It would be fair if WG would delete our T4-5+ DD's and captain settings (on all Jap ships), save our progress and offer us a chance to unlock and buy whatever we pick from the tech tree, after the release, with collected exp and silver spent on curent ships in our ports. I would like to try Fubu at T6 but also to have both T7's and T8's.

Disslike so many changes.

[Nethraniel]

 

That split is very strange with Mutsu at T5, Fubu and Hatsu at T6. It would be fair if WG would delete our T4-5+ DD's and captain settings (on all Jap ships), save our progress and offer us a chance to unlock and buy whatever we pick from the tech tree, after the release, with collected exp and silver spent on curent ships in our ports. I would like to try Fubu at T6 but also to have both T7's and T8's.

Disslike so many changes.

 

I think we shouldn't be too fixed on names of ships, The split will probably be a tier by tier replacement of the current designs. If they are very generous, WG could let us keep also the ships by name.

[Elenortirion]

That split is very strange with Mutsu at T5

 

well the weirdest part for me is still having mutsuki in "better torps" line and minekaze in "better guns line".......