Love/Hate Kagero, a rant/review

[X15]

Before I get called out on it, yes, my sample size is a bit small at 40 battles. But I'm not trying to push The ultimate angry YouTube all encompassing super guide of how everyone should play exactly the same (Like and subscribe). This topic is more to express my frustration and simultaneous enjoyment of the Kag. 

 

I'll start with the parts of the ship that make it what it is:

 

5.4 detection, this is important for two reasons. Firstly it's incredibly low (obviously) but even more so than that, you have the lowest detection in your natural matchmaking spread.

 

The guns are a pretty lame, but don't forget they exist. If an enemy DD is a potato you can win that fight.

 

The torpedoes are very solid all round with a 2x4 setup and the only "bad" thing about them is the reload. Which I would like buffed, but is workable.

 

The AA...

 

Consumables are mostly standard DD, tho I am going to try out the 30 second reload booster you trade smoke for.

 

Maneuverability couldn't be more blah if it tried, you're not a benson, you're also not a kiev.

 

 

Now what makes this frustrating is that the Benson and Ognevoi both launch more torpedos more often, should win a gun fight every time, and are only .7 or so less detectable than you. And they get AA.  The Kagero thus becomes a quality over quantity torpbote deadicated to trolling danger close to capital ships. And by danger close I mean if the GK pops sonar he may detect you as well as your torpedoes.

Because of how popular USN and RU DDs are, and the nature of the Kag, you can generally expect a solid 2/3ds of the enemy team to be able to bully you. And that's if they don't outright counter you as you can meet every radar ship in the game. Tho honestly radar isn't all it's made up to be, it is still painful. 

 

I think Kagero needs some quality of life buffs. Maybe not all at once but I'd suggest turret traverse, torpedo reload, speed, engine power ratio, hp, or torpedo reload and smoke like shirat. The last point taking into account that shirat's reload booster is OP but Kagero's is less so, I'd even love a 40 second booster instead of 30 if I could dual mount it. Better torpedo arcs would help a lot too.

 

Moaning aside, the reason I love Kag is the detection. This is likely the closest you can get to playing a submarine in WoWs.. You take your meh speed and creep into a weird forward position and guess the path of the dumbest looking enemy. This usually means you're gonna derp a terp. Other times it means you're about to throw the cowardly British spam wagon under the sea like so much imported tea. And then you stalk away to find another poor sap. With surprising regularly you end up nuking a DD you didn't even know was in the area instead of your target. But that's just Kag life. Seriously, the unintended collateral damage is probably 25% of my damage in a match. 

 

Now, about planes. Because of your troll detection getting spotted is rare, even with a good enemy CV, it just takes too much energy to stay in your tiny detection zone. Friendly CVs are a bigger problem however. The pack of battleship zombies you're about to go jealous yandere on (ham for the uninitiated) is also a golden target for your CV. And nothing screws up a torpedo spread like spotted torpedo bombers. Not even poor man's hydro, spotter planes. I loved them as a BB driver, they are the second worst cancer as a toepbote.

 

In closing, I like the Kagero but hope herekaze is released as an upgunned kag, or Kagero gets buffed.

I don't recommend this ship unless you're confident in your  ability to predict player movements and know your maps. It can have some monster games on occasion, the flow of battle might also say no damage for you.

[_Sarcasticat_]

Harekaze's gonna be lit with those 5in/54-cals. But I mean the 100 Type 98s are nice. Only 3 turrets for each, instead of 4 like Akizuki, I don't know how effective she'll play. 

[WhatIsTheOdds]

WG still have not fixed the main problem of this ship being worse than Fubuki (now Akatsuki). Worse ship in every regard even torpedoes, with worse reload time on them and worse layout. You'd think they would do something since this was a problem since beta but nope here we still are. WG still have no clue what they are doing with IJN DDs or how to balance them.

[Panzer1113]

Grinding IJN, enjoying the Kag, but it can be a frustrating experience.  There are some games where you can sail around spamming torps, but if you run across any decent DD - you are dead meat.  At 8, seems to get up tiered a lot and when detected takes heavy damage.  I do like it, but can be a feast or famine boat.

[SireneRacker]

See it from the positive side, your guns with the upgraded GFCS have less range than Bismarck's Secondaries

[X15]

See it from the positive side, your guns with the upgraded GFCS have less range than Bismarck's Secondaries

 

With the new spotting mechanics this means I can engage and assassinate a low health DD or CA within 10km of everyone else and still drop off detection afterwards. I have not upgraded my range at all.

[Umikami]

Kagero was such a promising ship on paper, and such a bitter disappointment in reality.

( and I have removed the range modules on most of my non-Russian DD's, one or two german exceptions)

[GhostSwordsman]

I think Kagero needs some quality of life buffs. Maybe not all at once but I'd suggest turret traverse, torpedo reload, speed, engine power ratio, hp, or torpedo reload and smoke like shirat. The last point taking into account that shirat's reload booster is OP but Kagero's is less so, I'd even love a 40 second booster instead of 30 if I could dual mount it. Better torpedo arcs would help a lot too.

 

These, so much. It would really help Kagero out without making her too powerful.

 

Also, I'd love to have a slightly better turn radius and a slightly better reload. Currently, if you use the traverse module, you can get the turret traverse down to 22 seconds (without EM) for 180º, but you have a 7.1 second reload. I'd love to have it in the 6 second range instead. Wouldn't be powerful, as USN guns still fire twice as fast, but it would allow more flexibility in self defense and make it a bit more viable to use guns offensively.

[m373x]

Kagero will remain one of my all time favourite, however after stealth firing got removed the ship became even less competitive and I had to leave it rusting in my port. Definitely needs quality of life buffs. As Flamu said "If anyone brings a Kagero over a Benson to a competitive clan war game everyone will be laughing at them" which if you think about it is a laughable choice indeed.

[RightYouAreKen]

I shared my thoughts on Kagero recently.  

 

http://forum.worldofwarships.com/index.php?/topic/121943-the-case-for-kagero-in-the-post-063-world/

 

I've only got 22 games in her but still really enjoying her.  Like you said, her concealment is great at 5.4km.  I also keep her gun range low with the stock fire control module to keep her gun bloom down.  I think her guns, while sorta slow on the reload and somewhat slow to turn, are fine.  I have no issues punishing USN DDs and even the unsuspecting Soviet DD.  You get the drop on them and get a preemptive salvo on them, then back off and hit them some more as you retreat.  They might have ROF, but they miss often at 7-9km range, whereas I can routinely hit them back.  You also have more guns (6 vs 5).  In fact, when you're kiting them, you have 4 guns firing back at them whereas they only have two (unless they're angling a fair bit).  I have been playing her as a psuedo DD hunter + BB torper and have been having success.