Hipper build?

[Rina_Pon]

Alright, you know who you are. I need your advice.

I'm too much of an Atago hand to properly "get" Hipper. I'm missing the little tricks. I'm playing like a regular IJN heavy cruiser and it's just mediocre - because, obviously, it's not an IJN heavy cruiser. I get that its tankier, and I make use of that, I get that the HE has 1/4 pen. I get that the AP is good at close range. It's just not coming together and I struggle to pull over 40k dmg.

First off, I need to sort out the choice of modules and captain skills. Prioritize AA or invest in survivability? Concealment or rudder shift?

[Adorable_Arona]

For me personally,

Captain Skills

PT EL EM AR SI BoS DE CE

Upgrades

Main Armaments 1, Engine Room Protection, ASM 1, Prop mod 1, Concealment

There's more efficient build out there, but this got the job done

[Rina_Pon]

1 hour ago, Earl_of_Arland said:

Captain Skills

PT EL EM AR SI BoS DE CE

Upgrades

Main Armaments 1, Engine Room Protection, ASM 1, Prop mod 1, Concealment

Thanks. Trying it out it feels quite comfortable.  I was surprised you took the Prop Mod 1 rather than Steering Gears, but I switched anyway and found it went ... surprisingly ok.

[Verytis]

Got last stand instead of EM since Hipper already has boosted turret turn rate, to deal with engine problems. I just fit dmg con 1 instead of engine room protection.

I wouldn't really call it tanky considering it lacks heal and noteworthy armour. A few HE salvos can eat up your HP. HP that you want to have, if you hope to have a chance at pulling off torp ambushes in lategame. You come out from behind an island and say "surprise *****" with your gimmicky 6km torps.

 

[Adorable_Arona]

3 hours ago, Verytis said:

Got last stand instead of EM since Hipper already has boosted turret turn rate, to deal with engine problems. I just fit dmg con 1 instead of engine room protection.

I wouldn't really call it tanky considering it lacks heal and noteworthy armour. A few HE salvos can eat up your HP. HP that you want to have, if you hope to have a chance at pulling off torp ambushes in lategame. You come out from behind an island and say "surprise *****" with your gimmicky 6km torps.

I shared her captain with my future Hindenburg, which would fit the reload mod, so i spec it in advance as i didn't like the slowness after playing Roon without EM. I think last stand is good if you found her engine very problematic or big HE shells flying a lot.

SI, i use it, again, since i share it with my Hindenburg. Then again, i found the additional fighters and hydro to be very useful to boost her minimal advantage.

Her enemy is surprisingly not AP, but rather HE, especially big caliber boi. Her turtleback is angled in such a way that AP shells striking the belt from short to medium range would have to do another autobounce check on the turtleback, which most of the time would bounce and exit the ship before fusing (beware of ships that do overmatch your deck however).

Prop mod because she's a long ship, which means slow turning rate and very high speed bleed.

[Manacetamol]

 

[Rina_Pon]

6 hours ago, Earl_of_Arland said:

Prop mod because she's a long ship, which means slow turning rate and very high speed bleed.

That's a different take. I was thinking it was useful for stop-start dodging, as opposed to rudder shift which helps with kiting. Which is better depends on whether the enemy is typically in front or behind you, or to the side.

[Adorable_Arona]

4 hours ago, Rina_Pon said:

That's a different take. I was thinking it was useful for stop-start dodging, as opposed to rudder shift which helps with kiting. Which is better depends on whether the enemy is typically in front or behind you, or to the side.

This tbh. I found Hipper hard to rudder kite due to her long size (so respond slowly to helm) and the bleed associated means your turn would also be slower.