A Plea: Stop taking DDs into Scenario battles

[Mahrs]

I know what you're thinking: "I'm a TOTALLY bada$$ DD driver, I am awesome!"  Maybe you are...and that would make you the rare, rare, rare exception.  

 

I've done a few of these now and I have run across exactly ONE DD that wasn't absolute dead weight that his team had to carry.  If you're that guy, get down with your bad self.  If you're more of a regular guy, pick a ship that might actually help your team win.  

 

That is all.  

[BlailBlerg]

So. You're readily admiring DDs are basically useless in comparison with the same skilled person playing a different ship?  Gee. 

[Stampz]

So what you're saying is DD are underperforming?  (At least in PvE)

[wdarkk]

Just now, Stampz said:

So what you're saying is DD are underperforming?  (At least in PvE)

I'm pretty sure everyone realizes this. The only real use for a DD in Scenarios is smoke screens.

[Grizley]

The scenarios are set up so that all that really matters is the dpm of the ship. Cruisers rule dpm, so they do well in scenarios.

 

BB are occasionally useful for alpha if they can shoot straight, but generally you want all CA other than a BB to play torp catcher on raptor rescue.

[kerensky914]

Well, we all know its hard to get by in a DD in PvE play.  The bots are way too good at dodging torpedoes and they focus fire on DDs.

[JackBinary]

1 minute ago, kerensky914 said:

Well, we all know its hard to get by in a DD in PvE play.  The bots are way too good at dodging torpedoes and they focus fire on DDs.

 

That is the chief issue with bringing DDs into scenarios.

Bots are expert WASD haxxors + Focus fire the ship with the least HP.

 

Strip those two things away and It'd be a pretty good idea to bring a DD or two into a scenario.

[Black_Jack_Honour]

 Depends. The mission where you rescue and then escort the Liberty ships, yeah, my KamiR tore that up.

5.4 detection meant I could set up well north of main fleet after smoking them and launching torps at first wave. Then pepper the second wave with

torps softening them up, and using HE while their guns were pointed elsewhere. Making that round of ships fewer in number and health for

main group to deal with. Mainly noticing that the bots target what they can see and is closest to them. So stealth torping worked fine on them.

 Then I'd be in position to smoke and spot the third wave with the liberty ships. Torping the ones on the flanks. From there I was set to boost to the cv

spawn point, and be practically on top of them when they did spawn. After torping them into the drink, It was a matter of harassing the wave that spawned further over.

5.4 detect and 7 k torps allowed me lots of ambush time and opportunity.

 

So, I'd say there are exceptions to the OP.

[Mahrs]

Right, I guess it's really not news: DDs have very limited ability to add anything to the PvE missions and, even then, only when played well (or very well).  Virtually every scenario I've played comes down to taking enemies off the field quickly...and I hardly ever see a DD manage a worth while contribution to that effort owing to the Bot-Elite-WASD-hax.

[TheKrimzonDemon]

Gaede works quite well in them, so does Farragut. DD's with poor speed, poor smoke, and poor guns aren't going to help, I agree. Mutsuki, Minekaze, and the Kama Triplets don't help the team, nor do the T5 and 6 RU DD's. However, saying all DD's need to stay out is the wrong way to go about it.

[Umikami]

28 minutes ago, Mahrs said:

DDs have very limited ability to add anything to the PvE missions

And so instead of asking WoW to correctly fix and balance these ships you chose to tell them to stay out of the game because it's ruining YOUR experience?

Oh, yeah ,,, jumpin' in that line right away.

otra lloron

[ForgMaxtor]

Depends upon the scenario.

For example, a especially Farragut can be very effective in Raptor Rescue.  Farrgut's primary job is to lay down big, long smokes for the Raptor CV as well as the rest of your team.  Then you stay out of the smoke and spot targets does the shooting.  There are also several bot IJN DDs in the Raptor scenario that have to be found and killed quickly before they can get close enough to launch torps at Raptor and the transports. -- A Farragut with RF is ideal for this job.   And having a DD on the team in Raptor makes it much easier to hunt down the final bot CV at the end, and get ships into the finish circle before Raptor does, both of which are necessary to get 5 stars.

As for torping bots, it's not so difficult once you get the hang of it.  Bots are extremely good at turning precisely to comb a gap the torp spread -- a bot never fails to dodge be cause it's tunnel-visioned into the gunsight, nor do bots over- or underestimate the torpedobeat and sideswipe a torp the way a human player sometimes will.  But they are also very predictable; they only dodge torps that are actually spotted, and they turn into torps in pretty much exactly the same way every time.  So if you fire one set of torps, wait 4-5 seconds, and then fire a second set based on the predicted turn, it's pretty easy to score hits.

But other scenarios I'd definitely advise against bringing a DD.  E.g., Defense of Newport.  I have tried Farragut on this one, but this one really plays like defending against a Zerg rush in an RTS --  the Farrgut's good smokes don't compensate for the loss of DPM compared to a CL -- to do well in this one you really need a team of mostly high-DPM gun cruisers, backed up with one or two BBs, and a CV to provide spotting and do TB attacks on the bot BBs.

[_WaveRider_]

Absolutely Farragut in Raptor. Smoke north and spot/draw fire. Fight and draw fire then heal when with Raptor. When Raptor sets off a couple of DDs come from North West. And of course the 2 CVs to hunt.

 

I've found DD is great for this mission. Used Leander or Perth for other missions.

[ValkyrWarframe]

I've found there's a use for DDs.  Ernst Gaede, Gnevny, and Farragut have AP that can wreck the lightly-armored cruisers found in most Scenarios from pretty surprising distances; the problem is you have to play selfishly if you're going to make the most of their guns.

 

Raptor Rescue in particular has a good niche for the Farragut since the DDs there are usually in very good positions to wreck the allied ships.  Plus, you can use DF to provide panicking against enemy planes and the 5th gun isn't of much use when your DPM overwhelms the Japanese smol botes.