What´s the point of the Gearing...

[triumphgt6]

5 hours ago, RAHJAILARI said:

 

 

How about, if the radar actually worked more, like it did in the real world? You see, radar of the time actually had quite a few "blind areas" it could not see into. For example, it did work just fine on open sea BUT any object immediately in front OR close behind a landmass would be indistinguishable to it. Problem solved!

 

This would allow a ship to remain undetected, if they were located immediately hugging an island in front of it or within a short distance behind it. Those on the side or further away from an island (maybe 1-2km distance) would still be detected though...

 

Also, just like the number of CV's, the number of ships equipped with radar should be limited to 2 per team, this would still leave some gaps in the coverage, which a plucky DD might be able to exploit (perhaps, if you're lucky and good both).

If radar really worked like it did in real life, it would be on all the time. Even with blind areas, this would be much more powerful. There would also be far more ships with radar. The present arrangement with very limited time on radar and a long cool down seems reasonable for what is an arcade game.

I do agree however that radar equipped ships should be present on either both sides or neither. We had a battle a week or two back with two Belfasts against no radar cruisers at tier 8 and it was a roflstomp. I was in one of the Belfasts and it just seemed unfair. I know that sometimes this can be countered but it requires a good brave player, and these are at times a bit rare!!

[WeGreedy]

If I remember correctly Gearing was the first tier ten ship I unlocked about two years ago.

I enjoyed the whole USN destroyer line, even Gearing, but for me it was definitely no improvement over Fletcher (more of a downgrade).

Sure, she has great, fast firing guns and long range torpedoes, but that does not make up for the long torpedoreload and loss of quite a bit maneuverability.

Even with the ability to stealth fire (I am glad that it is gone) and no radar around, I enjoyed Fletcher much more, so I sold my Gearing a long time ago.

Two weeks ago I felt like getting a high tier USN destroyer for divisioning up (smoke and spotting), so I bought a Gearing again.

I tried the "new" Torpedo Acceleration skill, which is quite nice since I have no need for 16.5km torps, but there is still that awful reload.

I will keep this short, I ended up selling her a second time. Right now I have a Fletcher in my port and I do not regret buying her again.

Maybe I will grind the Hsiang Yang (Sunmer-Class) when it is out...

[zappori]

I played gearing way back on PTR and never bought it. I think I researched US dd line along with ijn line right after game went live.

[RUSSIANBlAS]

Meh Gearing...

 

I unlocked it awhile ago and basically haven't bothered. I've only got a 10 point captain, I'm saving my Elite XP to dump into a ship that actually matters (like something for Ranked maybe not a T10 showboat). I play it now and again but it doesn't inspire me. 

 

I really can't see a reason to use it over a Fletcher. As others have said Gearing is fatter and takes more damage, plus the torps reload slower. 

 

A Fletcher feels like the pinnacle of the USN DD line as there is coherency from the Mahan, to Benson and the Fletcher as the top ship. 

[Quetak]

I dont know guys, maybe im doing something wrong with Fletcher but Gearing is simply stronger in my hands than Fletcher.

Solo stats:

 

[Daxeno]

Topic moved to the appropriate section.

 

Daxeno

[Fredater]

I have 325 battles in the Gearing so far with 54% winrate and it took time to adjust and find a workable play style. 

I really enjoy playing it as a support DD and i dare to say that Gearing is by far the best DD in terms of carrying a team to victory. 

I think i had 150 battles before i got a hang of it and accepted its role after lots of testing different tactics.

Downside with that play style is that your average damage goes down significantly as if you would play it more selfish. But in the end its all about winning. 

• As a support DD you keep the enemy DDs away and kill them off in situations you dictate. Except IJN DDs they are snacks for a Gearing.
• Dont be too aggressive because BB/CA APs will kill you.
• Never pick the engine boost consumable but go with the AA one. Because CVs tend to like to focus you and It is your duty as a support ship.
• Dont go in a knife fight if you dont have to or only when it is on your terms, sure you got good chances to win the fight but it will likely cripple your health and that will impact alot on the rest of the battle.
• You should be able to fight off KM DDs quite easy tho, learn how to handle KMs hydro/smoke tactic. Also you absolutely crap on Fletchers and lower tiers US DDs.
• Keep the fighting at 5-7km and Gearing thrives, disengage if you get focused alot and/or when the distance no longer is in your favor.
• Beaware of torps and try to predict them the best you can. It's mostly a random torp that kills me in a Gearing in a knife fight, so they are your worst enemy. Consider to pick Vigilance as a captain skill.
• Khaba is rarely a problem for you as that OP ship mostly keep 10km distance or above but your job is to keep him focused and ask your team to focus him down. You'll be surprised how fast a khaba melt when focused properly. You want Khaba to be as weak as possible in case you need to fight him in the later part of the battle. Never pick a fight with him if you dont have the upperhand. Khabas usually kite away tho when you attack so make sure to deal as much damage as possible when you can and disengage the attack when your shells start to miss. Use AP when he show full broadside. Never show broadside ever to khabas. It's very importent to learn how to handle khabas in a Gearing because that ship will crap on you if you let him.
• The same goes to other Gearings, it's alot of fun fights tho, but it is a fight to the death and that is rarely worth it, especially not in the early part of the battle.
• Ask your team to focus radar CA's whenever you spot them and have a escape plan when you get spotted by them. Learn the different radar ranges and play accordingly. Never enter a cap when there is a radar CA around.
• Gearing is the number 1 cap contester. Learn how to handle the KM smoke/hydro trick and you will laugh how they run away from you in full panic. 
  
  This works very good for me atleast and my winrate start to climb so it sure is a workable role for the ship. I aim for 60% in the ship as a personal goal. 

[Hugh_Ruka]

On 8/30/2017 at 10:18 AM, Drake847 said:

I am one Desmo Driver that got hold of the Radar upgrade and i must tell you killing 2-3 dds in Radar time of 56 secs is common .A gearing is a Good fighter (as Long the captain knows what he is doing) even against a Z52 . Small hint dont broad with a Z 52 his AP will kill you fast .And hope his Klingon cloaking device is on cooldown . If not JUST RUN AS FAST YOU CAN .Depending on the size of your balls towards him or away .

 

I'd love to meet the idiots you play against if you can do what you describe ... I am a kamikaze style player (Udaloi, Tashkent), I do contest caps as a rule in ANY DD I play. I die to radar very rarely, usually it's bad positioning and not watching the map that kills me.

 

Radar is not a problem for any sane DD captain.

[Drake847]

Hugh it is hard to hit your fast Ships . Normaly a sane Tashy or Uda wont cap .Or stand in smoke. But i get it very often that Us t8-tx and Jap Dd stand in thier smoke . Thats the Moment you get them with Radar .

Desmo humble 42% hit Ratio 54% win rate and 55 k dmg avg(112 battels so far ) .

[Hugh_Ruka]

16 hours ago, Drake847 said:

Hugh it is hard to hit your fast Ships . Normaly a sane Tashy or Uda wont cap .Or stand in smoke. But i get it very often that Us t8-tx and Jap Dd stand in thier smoke . Thats the Moment you get them with Radar .

Desmo humble 42% hit Ratio 54% win rate and 55 k dmg avg(112 battels so far ) .

 

At tier IX/X I only drop smoke to hide other ships or if I pull a Notser and need to GTFO. I also use smokes as decoys to draw out radar .... basically lay a smoke screen, launch torps in the direction of enemy ships and run ... the result is usually a wasted radar (a few times a stupid Kagero or similar parked in my decoy smoke, you can guess the result).

[SuddenLife]

I play both with Gearing and Fletcher, and I was very surprised when I found out that Gearing in many aspect was a downgrade from the Fletcher.

My biggest issue with Gearing is that it's so vulnerable to BB AP - It only takes a few hit from a BB to do massive damage. I really hope Wargaming will fix this issue, because BB's are not supposed to be the biggest threat to DD. 

In my opinion BB AP should only over penetrate, because a penetration hit on a DD is so damn devastating.

 

[Drake847]

12 or 9 Overpens from a BB also hurt . What realy has to be fixed (and they work on it ) is the double AP pen Bug .

[RUSSIANBlAS]

Gearing is so mediocre that I forgot about her when I counted my T10 ships for the Anniversary rewards lol...

 

She's fat so takes big AP BB damage. I'd rather use her slimmer sisters Fletcher and Benson as being the best knife fighter is largely irrelevant when you can't survive being shot when you're spotted.

 

Nice torps I guess...

[tsounts]

Guys, I love my Gearing over Fletcher.... I find her very versatile! Maybe I'm a weirdo

[EmilyFara]

6 hours ago, tsounts said:

Guys, I love my Gearing over Fletcher.... I find her very versatile! Maybe I'm a weirdo

But what does the Gearing do that the Fletcher doesn't do better? The torps aren't bad, but 16,5km isn't needed... lets be fair. 10km is enough. And the rest is either equal or favours the Fletcher.

[El2aZeR]

4 hours ago, stewie533 said:

But what does the Gearing do that the Fletcher doesn't do better?

 

The question shouldn't be what Gearing does better but what her role is supposed to be. Gearing is a knife-fighter and opportunist, she excels at utterly demolishing opposing DDs from an ambush position. That requires a fundamentally different, and imo much more difficult, playstyle than Fletcher, which is a torp and general jack-of-all-trades DD, but if pulled off right has potentially more game impact (as specializing in killing DDs usually does).

Where Gearing specializes in, she dominates, while Fletcher offers more versatility at the cost of knife-fighting ability. This makes Fletcher more useful in a lot more situations to be sure but she is decidedly inferior to a Gearing in the key role the latter occupies.

Thus trying to build a Gearing like a Fletcher and expecting her to perform as such or even comparing them is a mistake imo. They occupy entirely different ends of a spectrum. Fletcher plays the quintessential IJN DD role (and currently replaces them in it), while Gearing is perhaps closer in playstyle to USN cruisers (DM in particular), using positioning and map awareness to get the drop on your enemies, pumping them full of lead so fast they sink to the bottom of the ocean before they can effectively react, or abusing island cover to spam a rainbow into an enemy capital ship in the (usual) case that your torps are not available. Whether or not you like or can adapt to such a playstyle however is entirely up to you.

[tsounts]

8 hours ago, stewie533 said:

But what does the Gearing do that the Fletcher doesn't do better? The torps aren't bad, but 16,5km isn't needed... lets be fair. 10km is enough. And the rest is either equal or favours the Fletcher.

Gearing is a nice dd hunter, particularly if supported.  I like her torps too.  Yes, she is slower and more cumbersome than Fletcher but I don't know, for some strange reason I like this chunky dd.  She was the first ship I ever wanted to play when I started watching WOWs' clips.

[EmilyFara]

4 hours ago, El2aZeR said:

[...]

Thus trying to build a Gearing like a Fletcher and expecting her to perform as such or even comparing them is a mistake imo. They occupy entirely different ends of a spectrum. Fletcher plays the quintessential IJN DD role (and currently replaces them in it), while Gearing is perhaps closer in playstyle to USN cruisers (DM in particular), using positioning and map awareness to get the drop on your enemies, pumping them full of lead so fast they sink to the bottom of the ocean before they can effectively react, or abusing island cover to spam a rainbow into an enemy capital ship in the (usual) case that your torps are not available. Whether or not you like or can adapt to such a playstyle however is entirely up to you.

Than I've been playing the USN DD line wrong. Because ever since there were only 2 nations I have been playing the USN DDs roughly the same (adapting to changes like stealth firing and the introduction of RADAR and long range SONAR of course).

But to each their own.

[El2aZeR]

8 hours ago, stewie533 said:

Than I've been playing the USN DD line wrong.

 

Perhaps comparing Fletch (and the rest of the USN DD line) to IJN DDs is wrong, but it is the closest thing imo. The beauty of the USN DD line is that with the exception of Gearing they're extremely versatile, capable of adapting to pretty much every situation. The line just ends with a ship that is extremely specialized which contradicts the philosophy of the rest. It isn't surprising at all Gearing is considered worse than Fletcher because she represents such a radical change and for the longest time I was of the same opinion until I changed up my build and playstyle completely.

[EmilyFara]

1 hour ago, El2aZeR said:

 

Perhaps comparing Fletch (and the rest of the USN DD line) to IJN DDs is wrong, but it is the closest thing imo. The beauty of the USN DD line is that with the exception of Gearing they're extremely versatile, capable of adapting to pretty much every situation.[...]

And I love them for that exact reason. And I've been quite succes full with them. Gearing is just disappointing. Won't give up on her though. I WILL make her work... somehow... sometimes... Not like the *curses* cruiser lines.

[_Teob_]

Yeah I am still not a massive fan of the Gearing.

 

I used to be. I have over 1k battles in it and my stats suggest I am decent at playing it but I think the Z52 in particular almost replaces it.

The Z52 is better at hunting DDs, it's better at contesting caps and they have near identical torpedo DPM but the Z52 can fire them more often.

 

Yes, the Gearing guns have better theoretical DPM but it's difficult to make use of that because DDs will smoke or outrun you and the range coupled with the arcs means that hitting even a BB while it's moving at 10-11km is not that easy.

 

I don't think the Gearing is a bad boat. I just think it's too far into the whole jack of all trades, master of none aspect.

[walter3kurtz]

3 hours ago, Teob_VG said:

Yeah I am still not a massive fan of the Gearing.

 

I used to be. I have over 1k battles in it and my stats suggest I am decent at playing it but I think the Z52 in particular almost replaces it.

The Z52 is better at hunting DDs, it's better at contesting caps and they have near identical torpedo DPM but the Z52 can fire them more often.

 

Yes, the Gearing guns have better theoretical DPM but it's difficult to make use of that because DDs will smoke or outrun you and the range coupled with the arcs means that hitting even a BB while it's moving at 10-11km is not that easy.

 

I don't think the Gearing is a bad boat. I just think it's too far into the whole jack of all trades, master of none aspect.

 

I have it researched but not bought. Would you advise for or against buying it and retraining a 19-point Fletcher captain. I would hate to waste credits and elite XP for something that's ultimately a letdown.

[RUSSIANBlAS]

13 minutes ago, walter3kurtz said:

 

I have it researched but not bought. Would you advise for or against buying it and retraining a 19-point Fletcher captain. I would hate to waste credits and elite XP for something that's ultimately a letdown.

Farm Elite XP in Fletcher, don't waste time and effort retraining imo.

 

Personally I find all T10 BBs and Gearing let downs. Khaba is nice but I don't use her much, only Moskva amazes me out of the 6 T10s I have.

[_Teob_]

12 minutes ago, walter3kurtz said:

 

I have it researched but not bought. Would you advise for or against buying it and retraining a 19-point Fletcher captain. I would hate to waste credits and elite XP for something that's ultimately a letdown.

 

I would hold on to the Fletcher, friend. 

 

Like I said, the Gearing is not a bad boat so I wouldn't sell it under any circumstance. But I've had it for a long time so I have a 19pt Fletcher captain and a 19pt Black captain as well so I am not giving anything up by having it.

 

I think that the Fletcher is a better boat.

 

The whole situation is a bit like armor penetration works. You need to have a certain amount of penetration to go over a threshold otherwise it's pointless.

I realize this sounds mad, but I'll explain.

The Gearing loses in a gun fight against the Khaba, Z52 and Grozo (although the Grozo is by far the easiest out of this bunch). The Gearing will also lose a fight against a Benson or Fletcher if they are kiting away and the Gearing is forced to chase.

Everything else the Gearing will pretty much eat for breakfast.

 

The only difference between the Fletcher and the Gearing is that the Fletcher also loses to the Gearing in a straight 1v1. But apart from that the Fletcher also kills everything else as well. Slightly slower but not a massive issue.

On top of that, the Fletcher also has the second highest torpedo DPM at high tiers with around 140k (Shima has 180k). The Gearing on the other hand has a much lower torpedo DPM at 100k.

 

So the point is, by playing the Fletcher you add the Gearing to the list of ships you don't want to screw around with... but you take much less AP dmg, you do a lot more torp dmg and are generally more agile.

 

That's why I don't rate the Gearing too highly at the moment. But I actually do really like the torpedoes on the Gearing because of the range... and if they had the same damage as the Fletcher ones, I think the Gearing would be in a much better place (despite still having lower torpedo DPM than the Fletcher).

 

[RUSSIANBlAS]

4 minutes ago, Teob_VG said:

 

I would hold on to the Fletcher, friend. 

 

Like I said, the Gearing is not a bad boat so I wouldn't sell it under any circumstance. But I've had it for a long time so I have a 19pt Fletcher captain and a 19pt Black captain as well so I am not giving anything up by having it.

 

I think that the Fletcher is a better boat.

 

The whole situation is a bit like armor penetration works. You need to have a certain amount of penetration to go over a threshold otherwise it's pointless.

I realize this sounds mad, but I'll explain.

The Gearing loses in a gun fight against the Khaba, Z52 and Grozo (although the Grozo is by far the easiest out of this bunch). The Gearing will also lose a fight against a Benson or Fletcher if they are kiting away and the Gearing is forced to chase.

Everything else the Gearing will pretty much eat for breakfast.

 

The only difference between the Fletcher and the Gearing is that the Fletcher also loses to the Gearing in a straight 1v1. But apart from that the Fletcher also kills everything else as well. Slightly slower but not a massive issue.

On top of that, the Fletcher also has the second highest torpedo DPM at high tiers with around 140k (Shima has 180k). The Gearing on the other hand has a much lower torpedo DPM at 100k.

 

So the point is, by playing the Fletcher you add the Gearing to the list of ships you don't want to screw around with... but you take much less AP dmg, you do a lot more torp dmg and are generally more agile.

 

That's why I don't rate the Gearing too highly at the moment. But I actually do really like the torpedoes on the Gearing because of the range... and if they had the same damage as the Fletcher ones, I think the Gearing would be in a much better place (despite still having lower torpedo DPM than the Fletcher).

 

 

I would think the meta has affected the Gearing very badly. She was created back before radar, widespread hydro, Khaba, KM DDs and the willingness of everyone to have a go shooting at DDs.

 

Fletcher beats a Gearing by simply not shooting and turning tail. You can then give the Gearing the middle finger as you slip into concealment and his bloom lights him up to everybody