How to: Grozovoi?

[Citrusss]

Hello lads, 

 

So, with USSR DD missions I decided to buy the last missing Soviet destroyer, which is Grozovoi. Now, I've heard it's a lot like Gearing. But I don't have that one, so I tried to play it like Fletcher. Apparently, she's nothing like it. I had 4 or 5 matches and all are the total wipe-out of my teams and yet I haven't even had a chance to make any difference. Every match my real thought was "is this the reason Khabarovsk had to be nerfed that much?". Doesn't plays like a gunboat - guns are not too bad but not nearly as great either; doesn't have amazing USN smoke, have laughable torpedoes, barely has any concealment (still need to get that 10th point but still). 

 

Therefore the question: how should I play it to make it work at least, be great at best? 

 

I play a lot of IJN DDs and think I'm great at them, playing USN DDs and doing okay, played German DDs - okay too, thus I know some ideas on how to play the class and take advantage of "national treats" in general and now I need this great community's advice. 

[BladedPheonix]

I think I-chase has a video on it? its a pretty good AA-DD from what I've heard, ( I know, crazy right?)

[Citrusss]

12 minutes ago, BladedPheonix said:

I think I-chase has a video on it? its a pretty good AA-DD from what I've heard, ( I know, crazy right?)

Stock AA rating is 47, with all upgrades and skills it can be buffed to 80-ish. given DFAA can be good. But I don't see any point in strictly AA build of any DD. Seriously, points are better spent elsewhere. I tried Udaloi on AA - becomes usable like 5% of the time. 

[thegamefilmguruman]

Playing Groz without CE puts you at a huge disadvantage.  You need that 6.0 km conceal.  You play it by cautiously contesting caps.  If you have a friendly shima/gearing, let them go first.  Don't overextend.  Run the gun reload module+BFT to get your reload down to 3.1 seconds.  Now you can gun duel gearings.  Get SE and LS.  You'll want them.  Try not to get shot at by BBs, their AP will mess you up something fierce.  Outside of around 6-8km you should be able to gun down any dd not named Khab in a straight fight.

[KamiSamurai]

How to Grozovoi? Easy.. Play Khab! In all seriousness this is a boat I am still struggling with to figure out correctly. 

[Citrusss]

12 minutes ago, thegamefilmguruman said:

Playing Groz without CE puts you at a huge disadvantage.  You need that 6.0 km conceal.  You play it by cautiously contesting caps.  If you have a friendly shima/gearing, let them go first.  Don't overextend.  Run the gun reload module+BFT to get your reload down to 3.1 seconds.  Now you can gun duel gearings.  Get SE and LS.  You'll want them.  Try not to get shot at by BBs, their AP will mess you up something fierce.  Outside of around 6-8km you should be able to gun down any dd not named Khab in a straight fight.

Thanks mate! Will try that one now. Need to get some captain point though. Just got CE and need to try it out

[thegamefilmguruman]

Just now, Citrusss said:

Thanks mate! Will try that one now. Need to get some captain point though. Just got CE and need to try it out

It makes a huge difference.

[V1triol]

I struggled at first and really didn't like it but now I think it is fun without being hugely strong.  It wrecks DD's (except for the Khab obviously) and is good at contesting caps.  Although to be fair it does ok against the Khab at close range with the AP but at medium/long range you wont win unless they are bad.The AA helps and is more useful than you may think and allows you to not have to worry about spotter planes or CV's hovering planes over you as much plus giving a good bubble to teammates.  If you spec into AA you can really shred planes.  Other than the AA and the ability to bully other DD's it really has nothing special but it is ok at everything (it can gunboat, it can stealth torp, it can contest caps etc). It's never going to be the best at any specific role so it's real strength is its versatility.  It rewards good positioning and if you can get sustained fire on an enemy with either island cover or smoke you will start a lot of fires with the ROF it has.  When you get low hp with AR and BFT you spew out a lot of shells.

[Sabene]

It is very much like an AA Benson, but with better guns and health.

 

Concealment can get down to 6.0 km

 

Good AA rating naturally and has Defensive Fire consumable.

 

Totally different from other RU DDs.

 

More nimble than other RU DDs but not as much as Benson or Fletcher.

[ihsasum]

Grozovoi play style is same as Akizuki, you operate it as a second line dd hunter. You sail slightly behind another stealth dd such as shima and gearing into the caps. if another dd is found, you enter your dd commarde's smoke or you smoke up yourself and shoot.

beware though, z52/46/lo yang will absolute crapon you.

if you play like a khaba, then you will have a fun time eating 11k-15k ap salvo from montana and die as first blood :)

general rule of thumb, shoot in smoke, torp outside the smoke

so i the build i recommand is priority target/incoming fire alert, last stand, AR, survivability expert, super intendent, consealment and aft

 

 

[HazardDrake]

Yea, you're gonna have an extremely hard time no matter what if you don't have a 10 point captain in it. Things will still be difficult at T10 until you have 14 points. 

 

I have a 19 point captain in mine and IMHO the Gearing is now officially power crept into irrelevance. Other than .2k better stealth that doesn't matter, Groz does everything Gearing does except better. 

 

My build is

 

PT

AR LS

SE BFT

RPF CE

 

Use your "short" gun range and rudder to abuse the bloom mechanics and poke in and out of detection when using the guns. 

[Komrade_Rylo]

You play grozovoi like you play literally every other Russian DD except Khab (which can be more aggressive). There is no special play style needed for her since she has the beautiful russian arcs with gearing RoF.

[HazardDrake]

11 minutes ago, Fog_Battleship_NCarolina said:

You play grozovoi like you play literally every other Russian DD except Khab (which can be more aggressive). There is no special play style needed for her since she has the beautiful russian arcs with gearing RoF.

Not so fast. Groz is a good torpedo boat as well. One should use them as often as

possible. 

[Komrade_Rylo]

3 minutes ago, HazardDrake said:

Not so fast. Groz is a good torpedo boat as well. One should use them as often as

possible. 

 

One should use torpedoes whenever logical in any DD. I have a grozovoi and while yes the torps are good, you have to be careful with them due to a rather long reload for fairly poor performance torpedoes compared to every other t10 DD with the exception of Khab.

[HazardDrake]

Long reload? Are we looking at the same ship?

[Komrade_Rylo]

1 minute ago, HazardDrake said:

Long reload? Are we looking at the same ship?

 

Same reload time as gearing for torps that do less damage, go slower, have far less range, worse detectability. I hope you aren't running torp reload on yours because the guns are the strongest aspect of the ship and what you should pour all of your upgrades and skills into.

[StormSurgeAlpha]

The Grozovoi was the last of the tier 10 DDs I had to acquire. After thinking about how I wanted to spec it out, I thought to forego the Concealment System Mod 1 and try out the Target Acquisition System Mod 1 instead. I do have CE so my SDR is 6.7km. The TLDR is: it is entirely possible to play the Groz like this. Yes, this loses an edge in open water encounters but I adjust my play style to mitigate this by using islands as cover when closing on a target, or engaging at a distance. With 3km assured acquisition, meeting someone at point-blank range coming around a blind corner is a thing of the past. This ensures you are ready for them in this case.

Because this is an uncommon choice among DD captains, it can bewilder them when they're sitting on the other side of an island, or when they're sitting in their own smoke as you advance on their position. I've had so many situations where TASM1 has given me the advantage in close-up encounters. It's really been a fun choice for me in this ship.

My 19pt captain has PM, AR, LS, SE, BFT, AFT, and CE. I've found the guns to be highly accurate and effective to the point I've wondered if they are overpowered. The Groz seems to melt most DDs with ease. The initial shell velocity is a whopping 950 m/s(!), the greatest among DDs, so those shells have incredible penetrating power. So, it's definitely a gun boat. And I use the 2x5 torps to great effect as well. 

[Vinidoanker]

Put smoke module on it. Shoot the  gun and feel like gearing with better arc of fire. The torp is mehh. Don't play groz like torp boat, cause it is gunboat. Damn good one even i play it less than 10 battle in it.