Best Destroyer for Tier 8 Ranked Battles? Is kidd TOTALLY OP

[AltSeagullBBM]

What is the best DD at tier 8 for ranked battles?

Is the Kidd so OP at tier 8 that it will totally ruin the balance of ranked battles?

 

[Spooooooooooooooooooooon]

I like Harekaze personally

 

[Dr_Venture]

I was gonna say the Z-23 would be a good choice, but the fire rate on the 150's is so low it'ls gonna get stomped on in the close range DD fight.

 

Yet long term...it might be a good choice, when you can citadel cruisers.

[VTAdmiral]

I suspect Benson. As usual.

[Peregrinas]

27 minutes ago, Dr_Venture said:

I was gonna say the Z-23 would be a good choice, but the fire rate on the 150's is so low it'ls gonna get stomped on in the close range DD fight.

 

Yet long term...it might be a good choice, when you can citadel cruisers.

Nah, the Z-23 with 150's is a really good ship and very potent at killing DDs by utilizing smoke+hydro, the only problem is that Lo Yang gets German hydro while Z-23 doesn't (that Lo Yang buff should not have gone to the hydro)... 

Still, not sure if I want to try Z-23 (don't know how many people will run Lo Yang in ranked, but Lo Yang will be the death of me if I run into one), or the Amagi which I will research real soon (and I don't want to play around with Bismarck/Tirpitz for this tier 8 season now that AP dive bombers are around). 150mm Gaede got me my last rank 1, and I did very well with both 150mm Gaede and Z-23 in random as I went up the tech tree.

[Landing_Skipper]

Kidd is not better than Benson C-hull spec'd for AA.  Single torp launchers hurts more than I expected.

Lo Yang has hydro.  Very good hydro now.

I love the Z-23 but the smoke nerf hurt her badly.  Firing guns in smoke is 3.4 km versus only 4.4 km hydro.  Remember that smoke detection used to be 2 km.  A 1.0 km window between hydro detection and being seen in smoke is just not enough.  Lo Yang, in contrast, has 5.4 km hydro detection and only 2.7 km detection upon firing in smoke.  That's a 2.7 km buffer.  Much more workable.

Akizuki could be a contender for Ranked IFF there's a CV.  Fitted out right, she is a DD killing machine.  Torps are potent.  Unfortunately, Ranked seems to bring out the RADAR.  That makes any DD sad, but it's worse for Akizuki because of her big size, poor handling and low speed.

[Khafni]

I am going to roll with Lo Yang this season. Her buffs make her a very competent T8 DD now.

[SilverPhatShips]

I think the kid is going to be a great ship in ranked battles Fletcher's a good boat

I don't have one

 

but I do have a loyang and will probably try that one for the main

and that akizuki will be a fun ship also

and Benson's always a work horse

 

[jdlobo]

Kidd is definitely strong, but it's Kidd drivers that are generally OP. :)

 

[shoy07]

1 hour ago, Spooooooooooooooooooooon said:

I like Harekaze personally

 

What do you run on the HazeKare? 

 

I have the C hull USN guns- which I don’t use often because there are only 3 of them. I have it all  torp reload, booster, no smoke , AR and 10 percent Reload on on toros.  Thinking of switching to the B Hull for ranked...Her detect is sick 

[Kevik70]

40 minutes ago, jdlobo said:

Kidd is definitely strong, but it's Kidd drivers that are generally OP. :)

 

I hope so, I'd like to get some serious use out of mine.

[HazardDrake]

Kidd has potential, but it depends on the maps and meta. 

 

Harekaze and LoYang could easily prove to be superior. 

[HazardDrake]

32 minutes ago, shoy07 said:

What do you run on the HazeKare? 

 

I have the C hull USN guns- which I don’t use often because there are only 3 of them. I have it all  torp reload, booster, no smoke , AR and 10 percent Reload on on toros.  Thinking of switching to the B Hull for ranked...Her detect is sick 

I go C hull and torpedo reload booster, but pick BFT to boost her AA against spotters and CV. Also for the boost to the gun reload  

 

I don't run IFHE and with no smoke you arnt gonna be sitting still spamming shells anyway. So the extra pen on the 5"/54 guns help a lot for self defense. 

[inktomi19d]

Don’t underestimate the Kidd's heal — It allows you to play very differently. I risk a lot more fire in the Kidd than in other DDs, because I can recover most of what doesn’t kill me. If I see another DD at half health and he has 4 teammates all more than 10km out, I’ll go for it in the Kidd. I use the Kidd to spot while other DDs smoke a lot too, again because I can take the hits. 

[IronWolfV]

Lo Yang if I run DDs in ranked.

[WhatIsTheOdds]

I don't see how Kidd is supposed to be balanced compared to the other DDs. LoYang is also significantly better than Hsienyang in almost every statistic on top of having hydroaccoustics 

[KaptainKaybe]

I suspect Kidd will shine due to it being great against other DDs as well as carriers, the latter which tends to be more common in Ranked. But overall, I don't think Kidd or any other DD will dominate the meta in the same way Belfast did when it was tier 7.

[Vaidency]

Kidd's ability to trade hits with other DD's and then disengage and repair the damage is going to make it extremely strong.

 

Akizuki outguns every other tier 8 DD by a large margin but its sluggishness makes it really vulnerable to support fire coming in from BB's or just getting blind torped in a cap.  It might be a contender but will probably be difficult to play.

 

Benson hasn't been power crept that much and is still a solid all around DD.  It was by far the most popular choice the last time ranked was tier 8.  It's still good.

 

If you want to just be a bird dog for your team, Kagero/Harakaze does have the best concealment by a decent margin.  The old tier 8 version of Fubuki was viable last time around and this will probably work for people who want to make it work this time.

 

As for the rest of the tech tree DD's, I don't think they'll see much play.  Z-23 is just kind of an inferior Lo Yang and not that great on its own merits.  I think Ognevoi is just kind of a worse Benson most of the time.  Hsienyang is basically a worse Benson all of the time.  Kiev is kind of like trolling your own team because it's basically giving the enemy team an extra DD so you can play a cruiser with no citadel.

[MrKilmister]

I played Yolang (with 15pt captain) the first time last weekend. I went into C cap on Trap map, positioned my boat to get protection behind the island just inside the cap zone and I spotted an enemy Kidd in the circle before he spotted me.  I smoked up, hydroed and easily annihilated the Kidd faster than I can gobble up a piece of chocolate cake. The Kidd might as well not had Repair Party because it was useless against my position. 

[Hyyena]

The non-premiuns i take benson, have a st*p*d AA and is a good gunboat.

The premiuns i take kidd, still have a even more st*p*d AA and is a good gunboat too... but fails in have torps, a ranked is a game with a lot BBs and DDs, have more torps and guns to fight other dds is = more chances to win.

 

Z-23 is a fun ship, but slow guns... i dont know, maybe?

IJN dds are terrible if the red team isnt a total potato.

Kiev is anoying, but dont take caps.

 

And remember, the ranked have cvs.

[Uber_Ghost]

I really don't remember seeing many CV's last season...especially as you ranked down.  Maybe Tier VIII will attract more CV's captains. 

Regardless, the Lo Yang is the DD that I fear the most.  If there's a Lo Yang on the red team, then your capping strategy is significantly impacted.  The Kidd is also a very close second due to it's heal.  The Benson is also a reliable threat.  In short, the USN DD's should prove to be very strong.  But, with the exception of that first cap, DD's tend to get focused fired by the fleet.  How valuable will the Kidd's heal be in that scenario?  And, if you're not running into CV's more than 50% of the time, is a Benson more valuable?  The Kidd may well prove to be the alpha DD with it's new bag of tricks.  But, until I see consistent CV's and a lack of focus fire, I'm thinking the Lo Yang is the potential DD MVP. 

The Harekaze and Kagero will fill in that scouting/torping/flanking role quite well.  You're not going to push caps with these two, but that's not really the point.  Never underestimate the value of a DD captain who can keep the reds spotted while dishing out some torp misery.

The rest of the bunch is a mixed bag.  But, if you're good enough and have the time, then you can make the the perceived "worst" DD into a rank #1 machine.

Now, if you could somehow control the combinations of DD's on your team, these ranks might differ dramatically.  But, as is, you just pick one DD and hope your other DD's don't melt in the first few minutes.

[YeOldeTraveller]

Currently, I only have Kidd and Benson for DDs at Tier 8.  I've unlocked Kagero, but have not purchased/upgraded her yet due to limited credits.  (Like Tier 6 last season, I just got to Tier 8 in any significant manner.)

I think Kidd might be the more flexible choice unless CVs are very scarce, then I will use Benson.

I've been contemplating buying Harekaze for a while now, so I might pick her up before the season is done.  B-Hull looks intriguing.

[Ramsalot]

My money is on LOYANG.  4 charges of 5.43km hydro that has active time of 108 seconds backed up with 4 charges of smoke that is active for 124 seconds, with only 2.7km of detectability when firing in smoke.  The faster fish hits pretty hard and goes at 68 knots, it's perfect vs other DDs on cap.  With maxed captain you can have build with all of the ranked essentials including radio location, with smart positioning that DD is going to have advantage over anything else in the tier.

[madmikey77]

Lo Yang will likely be the DD of choice for people who own it.

The buffed Hydro is a game-changer. In the past tier 8 ranked season the short Hydro range made the Lo Yang pretty meh, but now that it’s buffed the Lo Yang can dominate caps.

[SloppyJ0e]

9 hours ago, Landing_Skipper said:

Kidd is not better than Benson C-hull spec'd for AA.  Single torp launchers hurts more than I expected.

Lo Yang has hydro.  Very good hydro now.

I love the Z-23 but the smoke nerf hurt her badly.  Firing guns in smoke is 3.4 km versus only 4.4 km hydro.  Remember that smoke detection used to be 2 km.  A 1.0 km window between hydro detection and being seen in smoke is just not enough.  Lo Yang, in contrast, has 5.4 km hydro detection and only 2.7 km detection upon firing in smoke.  That's a 2.7 km buffer.  Much more workable.

Akizuki could be a contender for Ranked IFF there's a CV.  Fitted out right, she is a DD killing machine.  Torps are potent.  Unfortunately, Ranked seems to bring out the RADAR.  That makes any DD sad, but it's worse for Akizuki because of her big size, poor handling and low speed.

I definitely agree with this sentiment.  I believe that Akizuki could really be a contender with her RoF, lethal torps, and just the outright amount of spam she can dish out while contesting caps.  I'd be interested in seeing how competitive she can actually be!