Hello everyone and welcome back to another edition of DD tier review. T7 DDs took me a few more days then I'd like simply because I had to grind through all of them. T7 is "all new" as of the last ship content patch and thus, they were mostly locked for me.
Anyways, on to T7, class overview: At T7 level, DD captians get a taste of whats to come at end tier. These DDs are faster then there T10 big brothers and have defense level upgrades that greatly improve survivability. They suffer from lackluster torpedo layouts and 1 ship suffers horribly from ammo storage. We'll get back to that later below!
As far as DD vs other T7 classes: BBs are stronger, CAs start to become true threats and CLs start there raise as the ultimate main threat to the DD class. As you know, CLs are the arch enemy of DDs as such, there annoying level begins to set in. In particular, Leander and Atlanta are gun heavy and should be avioded unless there critically wounded.
With that said, lets take a look at the raw numbers:
Speed** = 4 bulkhead/gold rep/gold boiler. Best armor configuration for all DDs..
Name/# of guns/Shell Dmg/Rld time/Acc/Speed*/torp layout/DP/ Gun DPS/ Torp DPS - Numbers are in full research config
USN Porter 1945/2x4/825/4.31/C/42-51/2x3/37,050/1531/1058
UK J Class 1945/2x3/871/4.31/C/45-54/2x3/37,435/1212/1058
IJN Asashio 1945/2x3/834/4.31/C/42-51/2x3/37,750/1161/1164
KM Z1936A 1945/2x4/829/4.07/C/42-51/2x3/38,449/1629/1058
Reviewing the numbers above, lets talk about each DD:
KM: The Z continues the trend in KM DD gameplay. Its class leading alpha is still there. It feels slightly better in the agility deptartment. Takes a torpedo nerf regressing back to 2x3 torp layout. However, there are two issues one comes across that really hurt this DD. First, the gun layout is bad. Most 2x4 turret layouts feature two guns in the front and two in the back. Unfortunately, the Z has 1 turret in the front and 3 in the rear. This causes you to waste more ammo chasing small agile targets and in general, is just horrible for shooting chasing ships. That leads us to the most fustrating issue with this DD, lack of Ammo. Yes, the Z can only carry a max of 360 shells. Compare this to USN class leading 1280 ammo and you can clearly see, this becomes the main problem with this T7 DD. Unable to fully contribute to your teams success or running out of ammo at end game against a badly wounded enemy will cause great amounts of fustration as you grind out of the DD. Im not sure if this is a bug, I feel it probably is, but for now, this makes KM T7 grind the worst Ive done up till now. (not counting higher tiers)
USN: Porter continues the improvement with better alpha, a well balanced gun platform, speed, def and agility improvements. As with its T6 little bro, its lackluster 2x3 torp layout is designed to piss other players off rather then actually sink them... However, with all of the above, Porter is a great multirole warship that is able to be a near complete team ship... save for its stopping Torp power.
UK: J class like all T7 DDs gets improved alpha, speed, def lvl and slightly better agility then T6 brothers. Of note, the J gets an awesome 45-54 speed improvement. This makes J class 1945 tied for the 2nd fastest DD in game. Tied with T11 USN, IJN and KM. Yes! You get T11 speed at T7. Along with a high def lvl, UK flys around the map at light speed! Or, least thats whats going through your head when holding down the W key. The biggest change from T6 to T7 is the horrible 3x2 torp layout. J class losses 2 torps once again for the price of speed... meh, 45knts doesnt seem that great now, eh?
IJN Asashio 1945: At the mid tier range, IJN DDs are quite fun. There agile, hit hard with torpedos and have good DP to make a strategic retreat. This reflects well on the T7 DD. More gun alpha, agility and class leading torp alpha... wait what? Torp DPS out strips Gun DPS?!! What the.. is this the CL line? Lol, you might think that, but if only the kita were as fast, small and agile as ... wait, were not at T10 review just yet.. and so, that about sums up IJN mid tier DDs, torps good, guns meh. Still quite fun and has the potential to rekt ships if your not paying attention. Then again, isn't that a tactic of DDs....? :)
And then....... How DO they rank?
T7 vs other DD:
USN: Well balanced gun platfrom and ample amounts of shells make USN easy pickings in the anti-DD role
UK: Very fast and tanky, equates to good at running down DDs and taking them out of the fight.
KM: ahhh I almost.. almost put IJN at 3rd.. Still while KM has lack of shells, it has enough to deal with 1 DD... 2?.. well I hope you have good aiming skills.... Hahahaha.
IJN: How to defeat KM T7 gunship with worst gun platforms in game: dodge shells till KM runs out. kthx, GG.
T7 vs other T7 classes:
USN: Good guns, agility and mulitrole abilities leads to better team enhancement. 2x3 torps only good for finishing opponents! I warned you... -_-"
UK=IJN: So, UK can act like a scout and be very annoying and IJN can output more overall dmg if you let it torp.. I'd say there about even in there respective roles.
KM: Ammo... wtf. Seriously, what is a gunship DD that lacks ammo? Oh, the worst T7 DD by far... Thanks, see you at T8...
Well, I said there would be surprises at T7. But its not over yet, T8 has some good shake ups too! KM better have more ammo... Im just saying SDE...
My experiance playing DD: Well by the time you reach T7, you should start to understand the role in which you play. Depending on your nation's traits, team play is paramount. Your not going to win rambo style, I thought I explained that too you. Go 1v1 that Atlanta... right you bearly won.. feels like you can do anything right? Oh wait, that BB finished you off as you tried to escape. Great job, you just helped your team with a losing effort because sunk ships can't further help there team right?
May seem harsh. But think back to all those games you were on the outside looking in wondering, if I were alive, we could have won... Its those situations that indeed, you probably could have won had you made better desions when you were alive. Putting your self in a position to best help your team at the end of a game leads to more wins and increased happiness. This is the key to great DD gameplay. BB, CAs and CLs are dependent on each other more then DD class. While powerful, there weakness to other class can be exploited worse then DDs and there weakness. Harness that weakness and control the game flow. DDs are not that useless now, are they?
Added gun DPS and Torp DPS as suggested, thanks pegleg!!**
Thank you for reading,
Talentz