The Akizuki might have a problem

[ImperialAdmiral]

On my way to Akizuki!

I hope she is as fun as Shiratsuyu which I love so far.

 

Captain for Akizuki is alrady prepared. Will try the strongest AA build I can get.

[Elenortirion]

Captain for Akizuki is alrady prepared. Will try the strongest AA build I can get.

 

for full AA spec I miss only module [using aiming mod instead] and it's already on 61 AA rating xD

 

as for viability in practice - I am able to reliably shoot down planes of hakuryu, is haku choose to try to permaspot me and will leave planes within 3.7km from me, when she chose to drop me instead then I will get some but not enougth to mattter all that much

 

but god take care of the pilots of ryujo task forces if their commander will order them to attack my aki - for these, for the first tiem since like forever I have wiped out whole sqaudron, before they could drop >.>

[DominusEdwardius]

Full AA spec Akizuki is hilarious, poor carriers don't know what hit them Those carriers will try to light me up and strike me but they regret it every time, I often end up with the most plane kills on the team

 

[ImperialAdmiral]

 

for full AA spec I miss only module [using aiming mod instead] and it's already on 61 AA rating xD

 

as for viability in practice - I am able to reliably shoot down planes of hakuryu, is haku choose to try to permaspot me and will leave planes within 3.7km from me, when she chose to drop me instead then I will get some but not enougth to mattter all that much

 

but god take care of the pilots of ryujo task forces if their commander will order them to attack my aki - for these, for the first tiem since like forever I have wiped out whole sqaudron, before they could drop >.>

 

Full AA spec Akizuki is hilarious, poor carriers don't know what hit them Those carriers will try to light me up and strike me but they regret it every time, I often end up with the most plane kills on the team

 

I might be wrong but I think you can boost her AA rating to aprox. 70 if using correct perks and captain skills.

 

Really can't wait for her. I was never so hyped for a ship from a regular tree before.

[DominusEdwardius]

You can but I'm torn between better dispersion (you do actually notice it) and more AA range (so you can basically AA invisi fire). Just remember that just cause you do have good AA doesn't mean you have to use it, you probably should turn it off if you are trying to sneak up on something. Although it is incredibly useful for swatting those annoying spotter aircraft out of the sky

 

[ImperialAdmiral]

You can but I'm torn between better dispersion (you do actually notice it) and more AA range (so you can basically AA invisi fire). Just remember that just cause you do have good AA doesn't mean you have to use it, you probably should turn it off if you are trying to sneak up on something. Although it is incredibly useful for swatting those annoying spotter aircraft out of the sky

 

Yeah I know. I forgot to turn it off on Poi when I was hiding in smoke while enemy Shokaku was sending all his assault squadrons against me. Didn't end up well...

[VeteranGamer84]

Full AA spec Akizuki is hilarious, poor carriers don't know what hit them Those carriers will try to light me up and strike me but they regret it every time, I often end up with the most plane kills on the team

 

The CV planes will get their planes melted even before they spot you!! Hahaha... OMG!!

[Elenortirion]

 

 

I might be wrong but I think you can boost her AA rating to aprox. 70 if using correct perks and captain skills.

 

Really can't wait for her. I was never so hyped for a ship from a regular tree before.

 

tooltip tells me that if I'll mount the aa mod 2 my aa rating will jump to 73 >.>

I'm tempted to swap the mod just for the lulz

You can but I'm torn between better dispersion (you do actually notice it) and more AA range (so you can basically AA invisi fire). Just remember that just cause you do have good AA doesn't mean you have to use it, you probably should turn it off if you are trying to sneak up on something. Although it is incredibly useful for swatting those annoying spotter aircraft out of the sky

 

akizuki don't sneak up on things, akizuki wreck things trying to sneak up on her!

but then yea I agree that it's a tought choice between these two....

[ImperialAdmiral]

Bought her minutes ago :3

 

What is better to take? Expert Marksman or Last Stand?

[Verdius]

Bought her minutes ago :3

 

What is better to take? Expert Marksman or Last Stand?

 

Last stand. You WILL have your engine or rudder damaged and Last Stand can make all the difference when it comes to escaping or dodging torps/shells and surviving.

[Spellfire40]

Last part with mixed ammo vs a IJN DD.

Aki is a Suport ship you get in a Close fight with a real Gunboat and they rip you a new one. Range and the time to add up on damge together with limited Speed servely restrict it. And yea you shoot down planes .. but if a Lexi Comes with 1000lb Bombs your in a world of pain. IS it Fun? Yes. Does it is a really efective weapon? only in specific circumstances.

[Mayv]

After playing a few games in Akizuki, I can say she is a situational ship.

Against lower tier enemies she is strong. Her HE can pen DD hulls and BB superstructures.

She can struggle against equal and higher tiered enemies. With HE you can only pen DD and some CA superstructures. Other wise you have to rely on AP. You can pen BB superstructures with AP up to your max range of 12km.

However your AP is near useless against angled targets.

This can make damaging enemies tricky at times, Akizukis speed of 33knots can make re-positioning difficult or too time consuming.

Against angled BBs you can only set them on fire.

If enemy DDs have the sense to angle, they will beat you in a gunfight, again Akizukis speed making it hard to disengage.

Only one torpedo launcher makes landing hits even more difficult compared to other DDs. Although once every 4 minutes, with the premium consumable, you can launch a spread similar to a Kagero.

AA is nice. Shooting down planes frequently enough with only AFT and the AA range module. Will try her with MAA instead of CE soon.

 

I feel I have yet to get the best out of her.

[ImperialAdmiral]

First battle was unfortunately pretty bad. Everything is stock and I need to retrain captain. Plus I made a stupid mistake.

But I have general feeling of this ship. Very slugish and slow even with mods. Artillery is the fun thing though. Also very long AA.

 

Edit: Cool ship but just like it was mentioned. Very situational and definitely not for tier X matches. Everything is faster than you. It HAS to be with the fleet. If you are left alone you are done for.

AP does good damage agains bbs superstructures.

[Kancolle_Kongou]

 

you mean with HE?

[or when angled?]

 

and also deck - not only superstructure but deck as well....

 

not sure which one is worse to aim for xD

 

i use AP on DDs,BBs cruisers, but on BBs i start with HE  to get a fire and then switch to AP.

 

Sure HE can pen dds. just feel like AP melts them easly.

[Spellfire40]

First battle was unfortunately pretty bad. Everything is stock and I need to retrain captain. Plus I made a stupid mistake.

But I have general feeling of this ship. Very slugish and slow even with mods. Artillery is the fun thing though. Also very long AA.

 

Edit: Cool ship but just like it was mentioned. Very situational and definitely not for tier X matches. Everything is faster than you. It HAS to be with the fleet. If you are left alone you are done for.

AP does good damage agains bbs superstructures.

 

​And there lies the Problem: Whats a DDs Job? DDs that cant cap are pretty much useless In cases there only a few DDs you are slow and slugish. a RU DD for all ist bad detection can at least exploit left alone caps later on thanks to their Speed. Conceilment expert on aki? sure if you either dont Need DE or AFT? wich means your slow and slugish and you got detect earlyer you do see them by Benson Fletcher Gering YU Shimma..... go figure.

[Elenortirion]

What is better to take? Expert Marksman or Last Stand?

 

from experience when my aki cap was in training I must say that Last Stand is a must have, a situations when this skill is the only thing between your aki sinking, and getting away to live up to next fire exchange just happen waay to often to pass on the skill

 

Aki is a Suport ship you get in a Close fight with a real Gunboat and they rip you a new one.

 

as for the moment being the only "real gunboat" that have in 1v1 "riped me new one" was khabarovsk and it did so with torpedoes [no room to dodge these when you are in less than 3km from the guy launching them xD] and by now have been shredding to pieces fletchers, and bensons [in direct close range fire exchange such duels were leaving me with noticeable crippled hp though] also I think I've got few udalois by now

 

bah I have even record of shredding to pieces a roon and being just a seconds from doing same to hipper, didn;t make it with hipper though because our team got 1k points 30 seconds to early

 

the only gunboatey ship that is posing a threat to aki I haven't deleted in 1v1 yet is gearing, and thats because I never meet gearings in 1v1 - for some reason when this one is present in a match he is always acompanied by at least two other ships xD

 

And yea you shoot down planes .. but if a Lexi Comes with 1000lb Bombs your in a world of pain.

 

for the moment being as I have already had few matches when enemy CV tried to kill me, the only one that actually succeeded was hakuryu, lexis rarely tries, and when they do, they los enought of planes to me to reconsider their target choices

 

and that hakuu that got me was tripple-crossdrp and while turning from the third salvo I've turned back into first one hence sinking - thee is a propability that if I changed direction of turning after dodging second dop I could have got away with it, I shall see when I'll meet competent haku again, as the last one I've met was using all his planes in sligtly scattered autodrops that even a child could dodge......

 

Edit: Cool ship but just like it was mentioned. Very situational and definitely not for tier X matches. Everything is faster than you. It HAS to be with the fleet. If you are left alone you are done for.

 

if multiple enemies are determined to continue pursuit for you then yeah I agree that if left alone aki is pretty much screwed up, although I had a few matches, ones of those where I've got topper of my stats for the moment being, when I have been left along [map strait cap B], disrupted a BB, cruiser and too shimas from cappign for a while[sitting on cap smoke firing on a BB mostly], and then after realising that I was left alone, I did managed to break away, and all enemy ships were too busy finishing up with caps to pursue me

 

​And there lies the Problem: Whats a DDs Job? DDs that cant cap are pretty much useless In cases there only a few DDs you are slow and slugish. a RU DD for all ist bad detection can at least exploit left alone caps later on thanks to their Speed.

 

at this point I'm leaning toward saying that "universal DD job" is slightly misdefined, although I think that aki fits nicely into gextremegunboat on the scale from I think it was ichase's vid on differences between gunboat and torpedoboat, and I feel like agreeing with flamu [i think he have said it] that akizuki is goign to take tashkent's job

Conceilment expert on aki? sure if you either dont Need DE or AFT?

 

I don't use HE often enought to justify demo expert, although AFT is very usefull skill, still working on getting points for CE

 

overally in my experience with aki as long as I play it thoroughtly instead of yolorushing [this last one works only in end-game stages against single cruiser who dare to underestimate your guns, when you do not have anything really too loose anyway ] I seem to get her working nicely, still need to figure out how to get more expies  as global average seems interestingly high atm, and I don't get cracked the formula of tactics to achieve it comfortably yet, although I think I've cracked the matter of how earn silver on the ship..... [took slightly longer than I'd like tbh xD]

[ImperialAdmiral]

Yeah, took the last stand. Engine breaks constantly on her.

 

I had 3 quite good games with Akizuki today (also two wins finally XD) and I have to say it is a crowd control ship. Even if you don't inflict much damage you make larger ships panic and retreat. Man that is really fun to watch.

AA on her is just glorious. I have more plane kills than with VIII-X cruisers. I covered Kurfurst today and together we took down 1/3 of Haku's planes on focused attack.

 

I think of taking now survivabily expert to have that HP boost.

Torps are also quite nice if you are in right situation.

 

[Elenortirion]

Even if you don't inflict much damage you make larger ships panic and retreat.

 

yeah sometimes it reminds me of those funny moments on Roma: total war when enemy heavy infantry morale was breaking up in the mibble of them charging down your troops xD

 

had already few cruisers behaving just like that against my aki [at first valiantly rushing toward me, because what a DD could possibly do to a cruiser, then after a barrage of those 100mm guns changing their opinion and starting to retreat.....]

 

but then I must say that for the moment being my preliminary assesment stays true - the ship shines most when you are able to coordinate properly with other people in your team

[cro_pwr]

 

yeah sometimes it reminds me of those funny moments on Roma: total war when enemy heavy infantry morale was breaking up in the mibble of them charging down your troops xD

 

had already few cruisers behaving just like that against my aki [at first valiantly rushing toward me, because what a DD could possibly do to a cruiser, then after a barrage of those 100mm guns changing their opinion and starting to retreat.....]

 

but then I must say that for the moment being my preliminary assesment stays true - the ship shines most when you are able to coordinate properly with other people in your team

 

And thats the dumbest thing you can do tbh...

But, I still (once again, didn't play it yet) feel that Benson is so much better all around DD, and that when I get Aki, she will go out of port only for some s**t and giggles games, while Benson will still be my boat that i will drive when trying to be serious.

My oppinion might change ofc, but well, just feel that way ATM. I simply have a feeling that Aki is too situational, where Benson is good in all situations.

[Elenortirion]

 

And thats the dumbest thing you can do tbh...

But, I still (once again, didn't play it yet) feel that Benson is so much better all around DD, and that when I get Aki, she will go out of port only for some s**t and giggles games, while Benson will still be my boat that i will drive when trying to be serious.

My oppinion might change ofc, but well, just feel that way ATM. I simply have a feeling that Aki is too situational, where Benson is good in all situations.

 

well I must admitt that trying to handle aki as I do with my more all-rounder DDs [lel old kagero lel] brings me nothing but quick trip back to docks

 

on the other hand playing her as I wanted to play my cruisers seems be working much better [definitelly better than playing cruisers in mention this way ]

 

with that "dumbest thing to do" you mean starting to run away from aki after trying to rush her down, or aki yolorushing cruisers when the game is so late into lategame that there is nothing to loose at this point anyway?

 

for my current experience, the worst thing a cruiser [of any tier] can do when facing aki is to show broadside I have once in an already lost match nbuked down over 75% hp roon, starting the fight with less than 1/3 of my hp - sicne game was lost anyway, and there was no other enemy ships in vincinity I just decided to die honoraburu way and ended up killing roon - both of us were just as much surprised by this output [his first salvo reduced me to scratch of health, and while he was reloading I just spammed ap shells in his beautifull broadside tryign to find the citadel, foudn it twice, rest was just regular pens

 

but then ships that angle properly in short range are posing some difficulties, and I may change some of my assesment of the ship, when most of people will learn to angle against aki, even as a DD in longer ranges [between 10-12km range] it is not as much hurting as in this ranges you get mostly plunging hits anyway, where alot of them boucne of superstructure, and squash into deck already xD

 

[PS. I am yet to find benson that will defeat my aki none of those I had oprotunity to vcombat, survived it regardless of the fact if I have or have not been finished off by his friends a seconds later ]

[DominusEdwardius]

The only time I find myself loosing destroyer duels is when one or more cruisers decide to butt in on my fun and I end up loosing health very quickly as 203mm shells start raining in  Honestly, some cruiser players, can't they see I'm having fun wiping their destroyers from the face of the map

 

[ImperialAdmiral]

 

yeah sometimes it reminds me of those funny moments on Roma: total war when enemy heavy infantry morale was breaking up in the mibble of them charging down your troops xD

 

had already few cruisers behaving just like that against my aki [at first valiantly rushing toward me, because what a DD could possibly do to a cruiser, then after a barrage of those 100mm guns changing their opinion and starting to retreat.....]

 

but then I must say that for the moment being my preliminary assesment stays true - the ship shines most when you are able to coordinate properly with other people in your team

 

Very fun ship nonetheless. Very unique among all those ships that feel pretty much the same. Have to put some more effort in mastering her.

[Elenortirion]

 

Very fun ship nonetheless. Very unique among all those ships that feel pretty much the same. Have to put some more effort in mastering her.

 

indeed, same here

[cro_pwr]

 

with that "dumbest thing to do" you mean starting to run away from aki after trying to rush her down, or aki yolorushing cruisers when the game is so late into lategame that there is nothing to loose at this point anyway?

 

 

If the situation is dire as you said, or if it isn't (in some cases), you have 2 possibilities.

1: to rush that DD down

2: to get into more comfortable range where you cannot get torped so easily but can still hit him

 

By rushing him down, and then stopping your rush to run away, you have done dumbest thing possible. You have to turn, and while turning you are the easiest target to torp, and while turning (especially against gunboats) you are showing too much of your broadside for too long asking to get melted by gunboat AP.

So choose one, but god please don't change your mind in between

(Explanation about dumbest thing you can do)

[Elenortirion]

 

If the situation is dire as you said, or if it isn't (in some cases), you have 2 possibilities.

1: to rush that DD down

2: to get into more comfortable range where you cannot get torped so easily but can still hit him

 

By rushing him down, and then stopping your rush to run away, you have done dumbest thing possible. You have to turn, and while turning you are the easiest target to torp, and while turning (especially against gunboats) you are showing too much of your broadside for too long asking to get melted by gunboat AP.

So choose one, but god please don't change your mind in between

(Explanation about dumbest thing you can do)

 

kk I see

well his first broadside piece I have got was when he tried to get his aft turret to fire on me, and at this point seeing his hp melting [he also fired both launcher torps which I have dodged] seems like he decided to finish the turn launch torps from second side hoping for hits and then probably retreat while angling.

 

thing is though I have left that smoke as soon as my div mate shiratsuyu got killed by very same hipper and I was steaming full speed onto him

[so one could say I DD rushed a cruiser trying to rush a DD smoke ]

 

[as for direness of situation - their match was already lost tbh we had all caps half their team was dead, so the only additional "threat" from me and my div mate was possibility of us getting to hakuryuu and killing him off, I allowed myself for that yolorush against the hipper only because match was already won, and my potentiall death would not change that in any way]