Mainline Russian DDs Smoke or Heal? Other Build Thoughts?

[pikohan]

Just wanted to take a quick poll on whether people are running smoke or heal on their mainline Russian DDs (Kiev/Tash/Khab).

 

Been running a heal build for my first 20ish Tashkent games, and doing alright, but I'm finding that I either die without using all the heals, or I survive with lots of health left, and therefore I don't feel like the heal is all that helpful. I also don't feel like the smoke would be that helpful either though, what're other people doing?

 

 

 

Other build thoughts: for upgrades and skills I'm fully invested into "don't give a damn about concealment":

 

• Main Armaments 1, Aiming Systems 1, Main Battery 3, Propulsion 1, Steering Gears 2, Steering Gears 3
• PT, LS, DE, SE, AFT, and probably BFT, AR, PM when I get the points.

 

That build feels pretty good, I assume everyone is pretty much running that? Anybody running something significantly different?

[Xero_Snake]

While I'm halfway done on my assessment on Soviet destroyer leader line, I'm not entirely certain yet. But I do know that switching between smoke & repair, you would consider what role you would take for your fleet/team.

 

For recon, you may have less risk with smoke. If you take repair instead, extra precaution is needed. I had tough luck with stock Tash with repair sometimes.

 

To be an escort or an interceptor, use repair for better survival. Most of all, Survivability Expert is a must for it.

[Strachwitz666]

Smoke,, I would still run smoke even if I could get heal (only have a T5 RusDD). As you note you either die or live , and not use all heals anyway.

Besides given heal for a DD  ain't many HP might save you from a kill  hit "sometimes", . Smoke will save your butt alot more than a heal in a DD , and also smoke can help out others, saving their butts as well. Seems awfully selfish to have a heal for such a small " suicide" boat anyway.

[Grevester]

heal on tashkent, even with the extra range it is very susceptible to damage. getting that back is important. 

On Khab, it's a different story. Even with less range than tash, it's way more durable. This is due to the 50mm 'citadel' plating which results in DDs getting 0 damage non penetrations with HE, all 203mm cruisers will 0 damage as well even with IFHE with the exception of Henri, being the only one that can with IFHE. While some still choose to run heal on Khab anyway, which does make it more formidable on its own, taking smoke will not only increase the versatility of your Khab, but you can assist your allies with it as well.

 

Edit: in regard to your issues with running heal on Tash, I usually end up using 2-3 a game. This may be because I see heal as a resource and not a self help tool. I often find myself in situations where I can tank or draw attention to myself, thus sparing my allies some focus fire or helping another DD save his HP for later. I do this while monitoring the situation around me, like if the other dds i'm currently contesting have more hp than me, then i can't do something without lowering their health first in some way etc. I'm fully aware that what I am talking about isn't easy to always keep in mind. It's a team playstyle i've adapted by playing Khab so much that has translated into every ship I play now.

best I can say is to remember that your HP pool is not only your life bar, but your teams life bar. Sometimes you will need to do things that you will receive damage for doing, but could be the difference between an ally dying or living a minute or two longer.

[InclinedToRun]

I almost have my khabarovsk, and I would certainly recommend heal on tashkent, and khab will probably be the same story.  When you use the smoke you have to slow down which you should never do in a soviet "DD"  You should always try to use your speed to dodge shells, and never rely on smoke/ stealth

[Umikami]

Smoke

it is better to avoid damage than it is to take it and heal it

[m373x]

Smoke is pretty decent on Tashkent since you have great range that targets can't escape easily, I still prefer heal though. I also went for EM on Tashkent.

Because of the 50мм armor plating Khabarovsk takes massive damage from battleship AP penetrations often so I would always go for the heal. I also enjoy drawing fire away from my allies so being visible is a huge plus for me. I have seen few players make very good use of the smoke though.

[Seamus_44]

Heal, without a doubt on the Khab. Have an impressive number of Dreadnoughts, and yesterday two gamesthat added another High Caliber, Confederate, and Solo Warrior. Without heal I'd have died long before.

[Carl_the_Cuttlefish]

 

Heal. Smoke makes you play too close in, especially in the Tashkent's case. If you've got your guns blazing most of the game, like you should in this line, your going to take a few shots and the heals work nice to repair those. Smoke makes you try to play these ships too much like traditional DDs, which doesn't fit their speciality. 

 

It takes a little while to get used to no smoke to run away in for a DD, but once you figure it out, it's not an issue. 

 

[pikohan]

Thanks for the thoughts, folks. I've been sticking with heal and today it probably saved my butt. Took some non-overpens down the length of the ship for almost all my health and I think I would have died if I hadn't healed just before. We'll see how much that happens, though.

[Petty3rd]

Just something to keep in mind, smoking your team might prevent ~250k damage, but I can pretty consistently end most games with 2,000,000 potential damage by using a repair to shrug off hits and just dancing around while drawing fire and returning it.  People just see Khab and open fire on you while ignoring everyone else, if you smoke up and hide, they will go back to blowing up your teammates.

[Seamus_44]

On ‎6‎/‎18‎/‎2017 at 7:55 AM, Petty3rd said:

Just something to keep in mind, smoking your team might prevent ~250k damage, but I can pretty consistently end most games with 2,000,000 potential damage by using a repair to shrug off hits and just dancing around while drawing fire and returning it.  People just see Khab and open fire on you while ignoring everyone else, if you smoke up and hide, they will go back to blowing up your teammates.

That's an excellent point. There are some "experts" who do know the game, but have not done enough actually running heal and seeing the amount of fire you pull from teammates and live. Not only that, but if popping heal as getting hit hard or torped but a serious opponent (or several) will significantly help survival and the chance to make kills over being killed. In the solo warrior above I had to take out an Iowa too close for comfort to pull out the score. Heal let me do it.

[centarina]

I actually find that most people won't bother shooting at me in my khab.  there are few of better players, but as  long as I stay at 12km or more,  I pretty much get free reign to shoot at them.    that is why i have high survival rate in khab of 65%.   i also tend to wreck  DDs a lot if they try to shoot me at 6km.  

[Tsaron]

On 6/11/2017 at 8:55 AM, Pulicat said:

heal on tashkent, even with the extra range it is very susceptible to damage. getting that back is important. 

On Khab, it's a different story. Even with less range than tash, it's way more durable. This is due to the 50mm 'citadel' plating which results in DDs getting 0 damage non penetrations with HE, all 203mm cruisers will 0 damage as well even with IFHE with the exception of Henri, being the only one that can with IFHE. While some still choose to run heal on Khab anyway, which does make it more formidable on its own, taking smoke will not only increase the versatility of your Khab, but you can assist your allies with it as well.

 

Edit: in regard to your issues with running heal on Tash, I usually end up using 2-3 a game. This may be because I see heal as a resource and not a self help tool. I often find myself in situations where I can tank or draw attention to myself, thus sparing my allies some focus fire or helping another DD save his HP for later. I do this while monitoring the situation around me, like if the other dds i'm currently contesting have more hp than me, then i can't do something without lowering their health first in some way etc. I'm fully aware that what I am talking about isn't easy to always keep in mind. It's a team playstyle i've adapted by playing Khab so much that has translated into every ship I play now.

best I can say is to remember that your HP pool is not only your life bar, but your teams life bar. Sometimes you will need to do things that you will receive damage for doing, but could be the difference between an ally dying or living a minute or two longer.

The only thing you are not taking into consideration is the German CA's... tier 8-10 will wreck the Khab. Without IFHE they can now pen 60mm armor, and people that run IFHE on 203mm guns and up are either ignorant or idiots as the guns don't need IFHE in order to pen BB's with HE. The only other ship class that could as an option run IFHE is KM BB's. With the divisor of 4 instead of 6. Allows KM BB's to run HE vs all CA's/DD's. The can still get citadels vs CA's where as other BB lines can't and must run AP to hit the citadels.

 

Personally I prefer running heal on my Khab, yeah smoke could be useful for team play or to trade firing shots with a CA. However if your playing the Khab right you should never be sitting still and operating at max range. This allows you to disengage stealth up and heal if necessary, in addition with WASD hacks most CA's can't hit you while you're at speed and near max range.

[WhiteRecon]

The battle field is already full of smoke, I run scumbag build with heal.  They've nerfed range down so ridiculous that smoking will just get you killed.  Get your own damn smoke!

[bassmasta76]

I run heal as well.  People who [edited] about a DD not having smoke to cover them dont get it...  if enemies are shooting at me, then they arent targeting them, so it works for everyone.

 

B

[Destroyer_KuroshioKai]

I usually run heal.  Only time I dont is when I div.  I can drop smoke for my div while evasive tanking and spotting for them.  Its a good combo, I just have to play safer without the safety net of the heal.

[Xlap]

Im using heal on my Tashkent. I tried smoke but IMO heal is better. Tashkent can "speed tank" where you can run around at max speed and range spamming shells at the enemy team. You can avoid most of the damage and the few damage you take you can heal. All the time and resource the enemy lose trying to kill you is really worth. 

[Patosentado]

HEAL, the cover of those ships is speed.