{Poll] Best T8 DD for Ranked (tech tree only)

[Admiral_Helena]

I have played BB, and then CV on Ranked. But it can be boring to switch back & forth with those 2. So I need a new ship that can refresh my salt steel-mining experience on Ranked. In fact I feel very confident when I play DD on Random despite the naysayers about CV's presence that ruin DD experience.

Summary:

The closest one to get is Benson. I'm currently at Mahan. However when I look at Benson's stats, she seems to have no significant improvement from Mahan other than concealment. The only other DD line I've made progress so far is the Soviet, currently at Podvoisky.

[S4pp3R]

Lightning, then Akizuki.

Akizuki can do better BB farming and is scarier for more classes but a well played Lightning is second only to monsters like Cossack or if it gets caught in a gimmick like long range hydro.

[Puggsley]

Pffft monsters like Cossack...........

Trying to do my first youtube vid, this old dog is remarkably resistant to OBR tricks.

Edit and done!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2SlbcbwOj4

[Rina_Pon]

Akizuki is certainly the most common pick, and is a reliably strong choice.

Benson is situationally strong, but too reliant on teammate support to be consistent.

Lightning is best because with this ship you have full mastery of your own destiny, with so many options available with which to take and maintain control of the game.

Z-23, Ognevoi, Le Fantasque are all about the same, being kinda bad but okay if you are good/lucky. Oland is better but dependent on having a CV in game to really shine, and easy pinned down once your location becomes known.

Kagero is poor, because so many games are going to be DD vs DD cap fights, capital ships are well guarded unless you can kill the enemy DD first, and Kagero is very poorly equipped to do that.

**

Basically, ranked is tight, close, and predictable. DDs will have to contest caps, fight enemy DDs and deal with CVs, and will usually end up very close to enemy ships. All those factors favor Lightning.

 

[Reinhard_of_Avercland]

Lightning is clearly right at the top on that list. The only con is the relatively short torp range. Most radars on T8 outrange her torps, the only exceptions are the DD radars such as Hsienyang (almost no Hsienyang players use radar though). But that doesn't mean her torps are useless, they are stealthy & can be launched individually. She also has hydro with long duration, so being hit by torp is virtually impossible. And the smoke is the icing on the cake.

Akizuki is totally specialized for damage farming. She has no trouble outgunning all her contemporaries. Her torps have decent reload speed despite the high alpha, I find her torps to be better than Kitakaze due to the fast reload. The only con is her concealment. With 6.1 km concealment, she gets outspotted by a lot of her contemporaries, although you can work around this by ambushing the DDs rather than to chase them in the open.

Benson is ok if you know who you should fight directly & who you should avoid. Although she is indeed bland compared to the others.

Kiev is rough. You can't play her as a proper DD. For Ranked, she will struggle to perform well. The only time Kiev can work if she gets someone else to do the spotting for her, while she goes pew-pew from the 2nd line.

Kagero is probably the worst on that list. Too much emphasize on torps.

I have yet to try Oland because I'm stuck on Silver League.

 

Anyway that's a lot of DDs within that category. You'd probably want to add GJ Maerker into the list once the new line gets released.

[THAI_THIEF]

Lighting but too sluggish when reloading torps 

Guns? okay