Three underrated ships, and some thoughts on Warspite.

[Rina_Pon]

Blyskawica:

Got this in a Summer Lootbox. I can't recommend it to anyone since the Polish navy is a dead end so its utility in the game as a premium ship is almost nil, but as a DD there is a surprising amount to like considering Blysk is normally only talked about in conjunction with the advice to get Haida instead (or Sims, or Z-39). Blyskawica is a very bland DD at first glance. No gimmicks, no obvious distinguishing features: Good guns, good survivability, good torps (sneaky, but slow), reasonable concealment. It's not obvious what you are supposed to do with it all,  so let me tell you: 45 knots, with flag and boost. 7 guns, with flat arcs and decent traverse. All you have to do well in this ship is to wait out the opening stages of the match, until the enemy DDs have been detected and weakened. 4 times out of 5 though, they'll continue to press the attack. You vector over to intercept. As long as they are not of the hydro+smoke variety, you stand to win the engagement easily. Keep broadside, all guns firing, they'll kick the bucket in three volleys max. Once that job is done you can cap or hunt BBs as you please. Also noteworthy is the very comfortable agility relative to the top speed. Going full blast and dodging, you make a very difficult target to hit. (full disclosure: I think Sims is more fun overall though, and not just because I can install my 18 point Gearing captain in her - though that undeniably helps.)

Yorck:

I didn't like this ship for the longest time, probably because I kept playing her like a Myoko, ie. too close to the enemy, too concealment reliant. York is much more different then Myoko than the raw stats suggest. Played well, Yorck is every bit as strong as Myoko, but appreciating its unique strengths is the key to success. Forget the torps, and for the most part forget the AP unless you are handed a golden broadside opportunity. The HE has 1/4 pen (meaning, if I have this right, up to 52mm penetration) so even if the per-shell damage is light, there are far fewer shatters and more damage overall. The shells are very high speed. Meaning you can hit things accurately from a very long way away, and do lots of damage to well armored targets as well as lightly protected ones. The advice to play this ship is quite simple: stay 4-5 km behind your squadron and support them by setting fire and damaging targets that your other ships struggle to damage. Typically bow in heavy cruisers and battleships, but also the fast moving boats like Russian and French DDs that American guns struggle to connect with. The additional subtlety that separates a good Yorck player from a great one is damage management. You want to be more than an HE spammer - Algerie and Schorrs do that well already. You want to make your health pool and good armor count for your team. In other words, you need to make yourself a target and draw fire to take pressure off your team when needed... but doing that without dying is one of the more advanced skillsets in the game.

Yugumo:

You don't hear a lot of praise for Yugumo, Shima has such a hold on the popular imagination and Fletcher is unquestionably as the best T9 DD. In essence though, Yugumo is to Kagero what Ibuki is to Mogami. Take a Kagero - already a finely optimized torpedo destroyer - and add some potent DPM together competent AA, but double down on the best-in-class concealment. If that combination doesn't scare you, it should. I've stood toe-to-toe and gunned down Kitakaze in this thing, and even Fletcher, provided I have range and spotting advantage, would need to think carefully before pressing an engagement. Tier 8 CVs also need to think the pros and cons over before attacking, provided they spot me in the first place. And then there's the torps. The upgrade modules allow for some nice choice of loadout: the fast 8 km F3 torps, or the slower Type 93 12 km ones. I recommend the 12 km ones, since you can safely torp camping radar cruisers, and send spreads down the entry corridors to the cap zones to fish for kills early game. The 8 km torps work better late game where you are free to get close as you like to isolated enemy BBs, but generally speaking early game damage is preferable to late game damage. Speaking of damage, the warheads on the Type 93 is enormous, good for almost 24k per hit. With TRB, which, yeah - I mean is there any other way to play? - that's ~400k potential damage incoming to the enemy team. As long as you stay cool and don't get cocky (keep track of your enemy's radar ships at all times), Yugumo provides nearly impenetrable protection for your team's flank.

Warspite:

Not underrated. Warspite is loads of fun and rightfully known as such. The secret, if there is any, is to get that 16" AP working for you to maximum effect. 381 mm overmatches ... [calculates] 25mm plating and lower.  (26.6 formally, but it rounds down and there is no 26mm armor in game afaik). Most T7 and lower BBs (yes, including you...) are covered in 25mm. If you have the misfortune of facing a North Carolina or Bismark, run away and switch to HE. And even lower tier German BBs  are well enough armored that you'll need to choose your shell placement carefully, but for something like New Mexico angling against you for example, you can easily teach them a painful lesson in gun calibers and the overmatch mechanic, usually involving multiple citadels and short trip back to port. Rounding out Warspite's virtues are some nasty HE which comes in very handy against destroyers, and a potent secondary battery - which while worth spending captain points to get AFT is not much more than fun fireworks most of the time so the 3rd upgrade module is better spent on Aiming Systems, or, more controversially, AA Guns Mod 1*. Also very, very nimble for a BB, I think it's worth investing in vigilance at the earliest oppotunity to get the most out of your torpedobeats.

*I thought this was the prudent choice during The Great CV Terror of 0.8.0~0.8.4. I think it's safe to switch back to Aiming Systems now.

 

[keskparane]

Meh.. ships aren't bad.. mm is.

I have a small collection of ships with terrible wr all because of mm. I don't blame the ships because they perform fine. Only thing they lack is ability to stop team yolo.

[RalphTheTheatreCat]

3+1=4.……………………………………………………….

 

But yes.   The Warpsite is ridiculously good at time and those guns punish everything they hit.  The York is fun as long as you just forget HE and AP is your main shell.   The HW lacks damage and has a low fire rate but the AP dishes out 5600 damage.  That's nothing to sneeze at.

[MeglaGnome]

My picks for underrated ships :
1. GK. Still a beast, just needs very patient play-style in the current meta. Your aim is to preserve HP at all costs for the first 6 minutes, then get in a brawl with the reds _ONE AT A TIME_. ITs not really a BB at all, its a petrol soaked concrete block with a meat grinder welded on the front.

2. Shiratsuyu : The definitive mid tier torp boat. Play it with torp reload booster. Be patient, stay safe, but only just safe, release fish. 

3. Ichizuki : Once it was awful, now surprisingly good in T4-5 matchmaking as a genuine battlecruiser. Good HE and accurate guns.  Can delete cruisers regularly with AP. Can burn down red BB's Will give you instant feedback if you give broadside, by way of exploding, but reasonably survivable if you keep your angle.

4. Lazo. As long as you stick to the plan, stay safe, lob HE from 15km+ and use the plane freely, it racks up 100K damage surprisingly easily. The effective range is very long for a Tier 7. Uptiers OK, and routinely survives the match when top tier.

[Grygus_Triss]

I still have a soft spot for Yugumo, she's one of a small number of T9 tech tree ships I keep. She IS a better Kagaro, and the Kagaro is a great torp boat. And she has guns that even a gun DD needs to be wary of.

And as she has one of the best concealment in tier, she, like many DD, does not suffer getting uptiered that much. Just need to watch for Radar.

And while you don't hear much praise for Yugumo, you don't hear much bad for her either. At least, nothing that isn't said about the rest of the IJN torp boat line.

[Reinhard_of_Avercland]

My 3 picks would be:

1. Edinburgh

She can be deceptively tanky against cruisers, and the superheal emphasized that strength even further. If the player has a decent amount of situational awareness (and some guts), radar can be a better option than smoke. Coupled with a very low surface detection range, she can trap any DDs that overextend themselves. I enjoy her than Minotaur because the latter blows up much easier somehow.

2. Shenyang

She might always find her torpedoes against her in the DD vs DD situations. But she has some hard-hitting guns with comfortable shell arc to compensate that. She also boasts the highest top speed without engine boost at T4. Her AA is almost non-existent, but her very low air detection range (2.1 km with CE & camo) with force the CV players to fly past her, and make a wild guess after turning around. However Shenyang's plentiful smoke charges with allow her to disappear from the CV players' sight. Shenyang also has 2 options on torpedo range. The stock one will allow her to stealth torp even without CE & camo. The upgraded one will not allow her to do the same with the same setup, but still convenient enough with only 100m shorter than her stock surface detection range.

3. Lightning

There are not few who find her unappealing. With only 8km torp range, I admit she will always struggle against all radar cruisers & those supported by the latter. However she has 2 things to be boasted about. First, she is the stealthiest DD in her own line (tied with Cossack), and only falls a little behind the IJN torpboats. This of course makes her less clumsy than both her predecessors (Icarus & Jervis), and successors (Jutland & Daring). And such strength allows her to make the IJN torpboats anxious of her presence. Second, she is the only non-premium RN DD with more comfortable top speed at 36 knots (tied with Gallant & Cossack, but these two have engine boost). Put the radar aside (whether to outsmart them, or have someone to remove them), Lightning can be a dependable frontline support, especially since her hydro can screen out all hostile torps for a long duration.

[Rina_Pon]

6 hours ago, MeglaGnome said:

My picks for underrated ships :
2. Shiratsuyu : The definitive mid tier torp boat. Play it with torp reload booster. Be patient, stay safe, but only just safe, release fish. 

Does anyone claim that Shiratsuyu isn't anything but insanely good though? I've never heard anything bad being said about her.

It's not the most beginner-friendly boat because you don't (shouldn't have) the safety blanket of a smoke screen, and of course she's much less effective in CV games with significant air spotting, but apart from that... 

[MeglaGnome]

6 hours ago, Rina_Pon said:

Does anyone claim that Shiratsuyu isn't anything but insanely good though? I've never heard anything bad being said about her.

 

Fair comment, I just don't hear much said about her at all these days.

[dejiko_nyo]

Not yet even out of beta and already losing/antagonizing the player base. 

[Rina_Pon]

21 hours ago, RalphTheTheatreCat said:

The York is fun as long as you just forget HE and AP is your main shell.

Isn't it the other way around or have I been Yorcking the wrong way? I thought the light German AP shells have poor penetration at range, so rely on HE unless you are late-game brawling or have a clean broadside to shoot at.

 

[sfcgx3]

2 hours ago, Rina_Pon said:

Isn't it the other way around or have I been Yorcking the wrong way? I thought the light German AP shells have poor penetration at range, so rely on HE unless you are late-game brawling or have a clean broadside to shoot at.

 

HE is definitely the way to go.

i just played 2 matches after reading this with Yorck, doing 70k damage in one and 110k in the other.

when I opened fire with HE, it’s easy 3k per salvo. AP also good on broadside targets - 4-5k even on BBs

[Kamanah]

On 8/18/2019 at 2:14 PM, RalphTheTheatreCat said:

The Warpsite is ridiculously good at time and those guns punish everything they hit.

Unless its in my hands.... 😐

[Verytis]

Yorck is my 1st T7 CA, and I had no trouble with it.

You just shoot HE at angled targets as usual, and use AP when given good broadsides.

It still retains the decent HE, which is only lost at T8+.

Great rudder. Relatively small citadel.

Big guns that lets you punch people for being careless, as opposed to HE-all-day.

The main downside is the weak German engine, so you're not good at playing with speed.

[S4pp3R]

Myogi

She's got awesome gun angles and if you know how to play she's surprisingly tanky, add her speed, I think she's a gudbote.

Radar Minotaur

Love her, even managed to get 160k+ on flanks without DDs. Skillz, she rewards skillz.

Fiji

She always is overlooked due to Belfast, Atlanta, Flint... She is a superb ship and I often prefer taking her over Belfast due to heal and torps.

[S4pp3R]

Oh and as for Warspite, I'm just going to leave this here...

 

[Rina_Pon]

7 hours ago, S4pp3R said:

Myogi

For the most underrated ship in the game, Myogi gets my vote. You get speed, range, and accuracy at T4 where most BBs have none of the above. Ideal gun placement for kiting. Just stay far enough back that DDs don't make a rush for you, since 6 guns and long reload means they'll easily get you before you get them in any kind of 1 on 1 situation.

[S4pp3R]

On 8/20/2019 at 6:21 PM, Rina_Pon said:

For the most underrated ship in the game, Myogi gets my vote. You get speed, range, and accuracy at T4 where most BBs have none of the above. Ideal gun placement for kiting. Just stay far enough back that DDs don't make a rush for you, since 6 guns and long reload means they'll easily get you before you get them in any kind of 1 on 1 situation.

Tyty

Agreed, her tankiness is always underrated and she has that amazing Torp bulge!

Once I've built up my creds again (dropped to 5mil, now at 10) to 30mil defo looking at resetting the IJN BB line. The only ship I don't enjoy is Yamato (yes I know, take me out in to the paddock and shoot me). They're all amazing if you know what you are doing!