What tier and what ship is good to learn to play DD's?

[Linkaex]

O7 Hi there captains! 
 

Just started playing this game a few month's ago and I really like to play DD's.
I rushed the USN line till tier 9 but lacking some basic skills. 
So which ships at what tier do you recommend to learn and improve my skills. 

For now I'm thinking the tier 4 pan Asian DD and the Vampire I got from some special event during Christmas. I also got the prem tier 6 British and the tier 7 Russian DD from the Xmass crates. :) 

[Teravius]

Im not really advanced but i found that tiers 3 and 4 in IJN and USN tech trees are absolutely great. Japanese will teach you patience and american will let you shot a bit and use some torpedoes too.

You also should play some russian gunboat to just feel the playstyle. Tier 4 there is also decent.

[stewie533]

The nicholas is a nice ship. It teaches you the basics of usn gunnery (with the upgraded hull). Otherwise the Farragut would do as well. Tier 6 might have a bit better matchmaking. 

 

I'm on a mobile device, so can't give extensive tips. But try to keep your gun fights with dd's between 0-7 or 8 km. This is the optimal range of the usn dd guns. 

Dont over rely on smoke. Don't be afraid to take damage, but don't take unnecessary damage either. 

If possible, try to bait other dd's to shoot you first and then get out of spotting range (keeps them spotted for your team while taking minimal damage yourself). 

[loppantorkel]

Clemson would probably give you a good advantage at a reasonable tier. Depends on how you want to play your dds though. If you're into torping, you might as well go another line than the US. Fletcher is great for torping, yes, but you still need to perform the other duties imo....

[Bunny_Lover_Kallen]

For IJN, the best (non-premium) low-tier DD, imo, is the Minekaze and I think if one wants to learn some decent lessons for IJN, it's a good boat for that. It comes with a 3x2 torpedo loadout, which is solid, but also with 4 guns, which have slow traverse speed, somewhat lacking reload, but great shell arcs. Which are the common characteristics of all IJN guns from tier V and up, with the exception of the Type 98 10 cm guns of the Akizuki (also found on premium Harekaze). Japanese DDs generally don't try to gunfight, but it's always a good idea to train your guns in the direction that is most likely to have enemies and to use them when you can basically farm free damage. Also, they can murder low-health DDs and some IJN DDs can be a credibly gun threat to other DDs when the enemy gets overconfident (I killed quite a few USN DDs that had a too high opinion of their aiming skills and tried to chase my Akatsuki). Obviously, being careless with IJN guns will get you sunk fast. In the end, they are for the opportunity shot, not your main weapon system.

[Culiacan_Mexico]

My advise on these DDs is from over two years ago.  The game meta has changed so...

 

Japan  Umikaze (T2) = a great ship to learn and practice stealth torpedo tactics.

USA Wickes (T3) = a very strong short range knife fighter that teaches positioning, stealth and battle tactics.

Russia Storozhevoi  (T2) = the start of a DD line that relies more on gun than torpedoes, but has powerful torpedoes. 

 

I would recommend you play each +50 games until you routinely beat the server averages for win rate and damage.  You should be so comfortable in a ships that when the game ends and you haven't done better than average...much netter than average... you should be shocked and annoyed with yourself.  Once you have reached that point, then you can move to the next ship in the line and start the process over.

 

[Jagod]

Actually I think the DD mentioned in the original post is quite fine for this purpose. The T4 PA DD has US Style guns and Minekaze-level speed/concealment (it is a Minekaze with Nicholas guns after all). This allows you to get around the map quickly and participate in knife-fighting. The stock deepwater torpedoes offer sufficient range to practice torpedo runs on cruisers and BBs while forcing you to pay attention to your guns and maneuvering against other DDs.

[Capra76]

My advice would be to play several lines up to T4 and then stick there for a while to get comfortable with the different abilities of each of them, only proceed once you're performing well in those ships.

 

T5 is not a good place to learn due to constant T7 MM.

 

Suggested order:

1. IJN to learn about torpedo play;
2. USN to learn about gunboating;
3. KM as a bit of a mix of the two;
4. SN - similar to USN at lower tiers but develops differently later on;
5. PA - a weird mish-mash of other lines with unique torpedoes, probably not a good place to learn.

[Beaker71]

On 28/01/2018 at 1:28 PM, Capra76 said:

My advice would be to play several lines up to T4 and then stick there for a while to get comfortable with the different abilities of each of them, only proceed once you're performing well in those ships.

 

 

Yeah, that's pretty good advice.
And if you're playing the USN - You get to play the clemson for a bit. I rushed past the clemson in my quest to get to tier 10.  Only went back to it after reading it was so good. And boy is it fun. Ok - I'm probably seal clubbing. But it makes the game enjoyable!

 

As for lines - USA for gun boats - plus the bad firing arcs mean you improve your gunnery skills

GER for learning torps, with a bit of gun play action. Only up to tier 6 myself (and I suck at the Gaede)  - but 2->4 are good, and I don't mind the tier 5 either.

Soviet DDs are just too different.