Look at Me in my Zee Twenty Three

[Rina_Pon]

The famous advice from The Godfather, part II comes to mind with the Z-23:

Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer.

This German Tier VIII DD is a lot like Mafia muscle. Brutal violence skillfully deployed at the right time and place.

It is less fun to play than other DD lines as your job is straightforward and a bit repetitive: stay out of trouble until the time comes to smash someone's head in.

That said, the Z-23 is an effective and useful ship, a bodyguard to keep your team safe and hold a flank solid. It is in no way a "bad" DD.

Okay, so how to you play the Z-23?

1. You build for, and play around, your Hydro. If you aren't making bank from this consumable, you may as well play a different DD line. Equip the enhanced Hydro consumable, run SI. Find as many uses for it as you can think of:

a. It's a personal anti-torpedo shield. When it's up, you cannot be torped. EZ cap is EZ.

b. You can catch unsuspected DDs in smoke with classic "deer in the headlights" ploy where you hydro them and later smoke up yourself so you can shoot them and they can't shoot you back.

c. It's an anti-torpedo shield for your teammates. Don't underestimate the value of this. Just sitting in front of a group of friendly ships with hydro up neuters enemy DD attacks for a couple of minutes, it can be a real lifesaver when facing e.g. Asashio.

2. Remember the "keep your friends close" part of the quote. You have 6.2km concealment, not good enough to be playing far away from your support. Stay close enough to your team that any enemy DD that chooses to get into a fight with you is going to take return fire from both you and your team.

3. CVs are a particular pain. If one has it in for you, you just have to retreat back to a friendly AA cruiser or maybe a Euro DD for help. Don't try to go stick it out.

4. KM DDs are something of an OG version of the British line, in that they are built to defend rather to attack. You want to wait for an enemy DD to blunder into you, rather than the other way around. General advice for DDs: "play carefully and don't overextend" is doubly relevant to the Z-23. When facing bad odds (i.e. T9 games, games with 12 km radar or CV) stay back until you see the game develop. No pressure to cap early.

5. I build with TAE to bring the already fast torp reload down. Torps are not great, but they aren't bad either, and while the Z-23 is a hybrid generally you'll not want to be open-water shooting at anything not a DD so the more torps you can pump out the better. Plus the buff to the already fast reload can catch people out that aren't expecting a second so quickly.

6. You have two options for guns, 4x 128 with quick reload and 5x 150 mm with slow reload. Less dakka-dakka on the 150mm means it feels less impressive, and it is in fact a 12% reduction in dpm - but the alpha increases from 6k to whopping 11k which is nothing to sneeze at. Plus the penetration on the AP makes it formidable when you are smoked up with broadside targets to shoot at. In my view both guns are viable, but on balance the 150mm are better.

Build (0.9.9) [Lutjens 15 points] PT-LS-TAE-CE (PM-LS-EM) <- this is not ideal, but he moves between several other ships.

[_Raikii]

Honestly surprised that you seem to describe CVs simply as an uncommon inconvenience (I could have assumed incorrectly). Especially with the current state of carriers (exclude 0.9.9 unintentional changes), when an AA cruiser isn’t going to save you. Perhaps you have better tactics when dealing with and dodging squadrons? Still though, in the current meta I wouldn’t expect many destroyers to perform well, Z23 being rather indifferent.

[LawrenceXVIII]

I had this nimi for a long time now.

She's the best est Swiss Army Knife kind of DD.

[Rina_Pon]

19 minutes ago, _Raikii said:

Honestly surprised that you seem to describe CVs simply as an uncommon inconvenience (I could have assumed incorrectly). 

CVs are a common inconvenience.

All I'm saying is that the Z-23 is no Oland or Kidd or even Benson in the AA department, nor can it easily disappear like Kagero can.  Your best bet when you find yourself focused is to retreat back to a group of friendly ships.

Actually the worst thing for Z-23 is to have an idiot CV on your team who won't help you at all when you try to cap. All the smoke and hydro is little use if the enemy CV owns the sky above you.

[Onlinegamer]

[Rina_Pon]

Ah, now I get the reference to "Nimi" above. 

[Ireina_Victorica]

Quote

Zee Dash Twenty Three

I'm very much disappointed you didn't call her Nimi for obvious reason.

Anyway, thanks for the insights (right on time too, as i'm about to repurchase her)

[hurricaneflyer]

What's a 'nimi'?

[GoodMorning_MFs]

52 minutes ago, hurricaneflyer said:

What's a 'nimi'?

Nickname of Z23 in Azur Lane

[hurricaneflyer]

2 minutes ago, rookieFTW said:

Nickname of Z23 in Azur Lane

[Manacetamol]

1 hour ago, hurricaneflyer said:

What's a 'nimi'?

Ni=2

mi=3

[hurricaneflyer]

5 hours ago, Manacetamol said:

Ni=2

mi=3

Ah, so the secrets of weeb culture are revealed...

[Leo_1408]

LOL! In the civilised world it is Zed Twenty Three.