I bought a Z-39 so you don't have to

[Rina_Pon]

Z-39 is apparently going to be retired, so - despite already owning the T-61, I decided to pick up this German T7 premium DD.

Z-39 is the same ship model as the T8 tech tree DD, the Z-23. It has the Z-23's upgraded guns (150 mm) with even longer range (11.8 vs 10.8), the B hull (19,600 hp), and the stock torpedoes (8.5 km). It has the same mods as the T8 ship, with access to slot 5 (concealment mod 1), and the same T8 hydro (5 km).

I am embarrassed to say I cannot figure out what WG nerfed from the Z-23 to fit the Z-39 in at T7. Playing the two ships back-to-back last night, they felt the same except for the torpedo range. The only thing stopping the Z-39 from being stoopid broken at her tier is the fact that Z-23 itself is no power flex at T8. Both ships can do honest work, but their role and playstyle is - like most torp-based DDs - for the most part largely tier insensitive. Z-39 being able to fight T5 ships instead of T6 is as irrelevant as Z-23 having to fight T10 ships instead of T9. Especially now that T7 is going to see T8-9 DDs more often than not, there is little difference between Z-23 and Z-39 in terms of MM advantage.

So if you just want to experience the playstyle, my advice is to grind the Z-23 for free. It's the same boat, and you get longer range torps.

If you are an established player, however, a premium DD makes sense to own because of the new captain rules. You can drop any high point BB or CA captain into the Z-39, and now you can outfit him with optimized DD skills. It saves you from having to train and lock down another high value captain.

Though if you are going to buy a premium German DD, why not just get the T-61 as being cheaper and better? T-61 is prettier and - while I won't say more powerful tier-for-tier - easier to do well in. If you are a casual DD player, T-61 for sure.

In skilled hands, though, it might just be that Z-39 has greater potential. In her review LWM sets the skill ceiling on the ship at the highest possible, "extreme". I think she was on to something.

 

EDIT: I had the ship's crews run over the ships to look for differences. Seems the Z-39 is missing a gun mount...

 

 

[Moggytwo]

I've always liked Z-39, and it is an extremely strong ship.  She has an excellent overall win rate of 53.7%.  She is strong in many ways, and her only distinct weakness is fairly low dpm.  She never feels particularly amazing at anything, but her overall power belies that feeling.  I very much disagree that you would be just as well off playing Z-23, since Z-23 is distinctly average for tier 8, while Z-39 with the same health, better detection, better gun range, better AA, but worse dpm and torp range, is very much comparable in power to Z-23 yet is a tier lower.

Something to note as well, is that while she has always been very strong (borderline too strong imo), she has recently been significantly buffed with the skill rework.  Previously her 150mm guns did not gain any effect from the range and dpm buffs of AFT and BFT, but now those skills do apply to 150mm guns.  I suspect this is one of the primary reasons why she has made the list of ships to be removed.  She also got the HE pen buff that the other KM DD's got, so her HE shells went from 25mm pen up to 38mm pen.

[Rina_Pon]

13 minutes ago, Moggytwo said:

I very much disagree that you would be just as well off playing Z-23, since Z-23 is distinctly average for tier 8, while Z-39 with the same health, better detection, better gun range, better AA, but worse dpm and torp range, is very much comparable in power to Z-23 yet is a tier lower.

My point was that MM nulls that distinction, since 70% of your games will be T7-9 anyway.

[Moggytwo]

19 minutes ago, Rina_Pon said:

My point was that MM nulls that distinction, since 70% of your games will be T7-9 anyway.

They shouldn't be, because the match maker won't let you do more than 40% of battles at bottom tier.  Also, if you're in a tier 7 DD, you're matched against a tier 7 DD on the enemy team.  Plus I'd much rather be in a Z-39 in a tier 9 battle, than a Z-23 in a tier 10 battle.

[Mechfori]

Or better still, just wait it out . New b anch of German DD is about to drop and look like you get pretty much the taste of such and more

[zergling_]

9 hours ago, Rina_Pon said:

My point was that MM nulls that distinction, since 70% of your games will be T7-9 anyway.

when I think of what advantage being a tier lower, GC comes to mind

[Rina_Pon]

Just now, zergling_ said:

when I think of what advantage being a tier lower, GC comes to mind

Yes but if you buy Z-39 specifically to bully T5 ships you aren't likely to get you're money's worth.

5 hours ago, Mechfori said:

Or better still, just wait it out . New b anch of German DD is about to drop and look like you get pretty much the taste of such and more

I do hope WG manages to put the alternate German DD line into a good place, but it's not looking promising so far. The concept was (french DD but with armor instead of speed). Playerbase: "that's novel, but it will never work". Playerbase is proved correct, so WG gives them smoke. Which of course makes them stupid overpowered so WG must nerf reload times. At which point, you have these ships which are basically specc'd the same as the old tech tree DDs, except with no hydro and a bit more armor/hp and worse torps. Playerbase: "we told you so."