Priority Target vs. Preventative Maintenance

[Landing_Skipper]

I always take Preventative Maintenance on DD builds. Getting a gun turret knocked out when you might only have 2 or 3 is huge. Losing a torp launcher, even temporarily, might be even worse depending on what you’re driving. Seems like a no-brainer. 

However, just watched a video on the Aigle where Flamu recommends Priority Target for a “gun boat build.”  Also, one of the best Z-52 players I’ve ever run into strongly recommends PT.

I think the Khab is the only DD of mine that has PT, and that’s not really a DD is it?  

So when does PT make more sense than PM for a DD?  I always run PT on cruisers.  Udaloi and Kiev might do better with PT. Gearing might just cuz it’s so fat and lazy. Yugumo?  If I’m spotted, they’re shooting at me. There’s no mystery about that. 

P.S. my understanding is that Preventative Maintenance does not help AA or secondary guns.  If anyone confirm or refute that, please speak up. 

[RipNuN2]

AFAIK it makes more sense on DDs that play like little cruisers who don't rely on stealth as much. You are right PM doesnt affect AA or secondary guns as those things cant be incapacitated just destroyed.

[BrushWolf]

Knowing if someone is targeting you is important for all ships but it can be life or death for a DD.

[Gavroche_]

IMO it's a big deal to know the difference between sailing into a cap with 1-2 people targeting you and 6-7 people targeting you.

[Rusty_Python]

I take PT on most of my ships, simply because it helps me know how aggressive(or not) I can be.

[desmo_2]

I used to equip Preventative Maintenance, because like you I believed losing a gun or a torp launcher on a DD which is short on both could be a game-breaker.

When Priority Target became a new skill I was slow to warm up to it.  My thinking was if you play like everyone is always aiming at you, a captain skill telling you exactly how many was kind of a waste.

But, Flamu and others highly recommended it, so when we had a free skill reset I decided to try it on a couple of my cruisers.  Oh, wow.  It DOES make a difference!  I put it on most of my BB's, too.  With a BB if that number starts to jump above 2, it may be a fine reminder that you are broadside to someone you weren't watching out for.

Finally, I tried it on some DD's, but with reservation.  Yep, just as valuable on many of my DD's.

Now the majority of my ships have Priority Target as the first captain skill, and only a few DD's still have Preventative Maintenance.

[SireneRacker]

I use PT on most Destroyers and Cruisers, even some Battleships. Knowing whether or not I can pull a maneuver is of much use, and it tells me when I should disengage.

[Lert]

57 minutes ago, Gavroche_ said:

IMO it's a big deal to know the difference between sailing into a cap with 1-2 people targeting you and 6-7 people targeting you.

 

46 minutes ago, _Maho_Nishizumi_212 said:

I take PT on most of my ships, simply because it helps me know how aggressive(or not) I can be.

^

 

[Rusty_Python]

I usually take PT first, then double back and grab PM when I have the point to spare.

[pmgaudio]

I don't have ANY cruisers or DDs that do NOT HAVE PT.... never will....

[Landing_Skipper]

Thanks for the responses.  

It’s funny how slow I can be to adopt some new things. RPF made sense right away, but Priority Target on a BB just seemed dumb. “Just assume everyone is trying to shoot you.”  However, after that free skill reset, I tried PT on a few BBs. When there are 2 ships in front of you but the number suddenly jumps to 4, it pays to figure out WHY.  Especially in Musashi when a Montana across the map may be getting ready to penetrate your easy side citadel in an inpleasant way.  

Last night I was playing Gearing.  It would’ve been really helpful to see that number jump to 6 or 7 the instant I was spotted instead of finding out half the enemy team was shooting at me when their shells arrived. 

[NCC81701]

PT only works on Main guns, so when people switch between guns and torps you can see your PT number go down by 1 and then go back up by 1 and be able to tell approximately when they've launched torps at you. 

[Landing_Skipper]

7 minutes ago, NCC81701 said:

PT only works on Main guns, so when people switch between guns and torps you can see your PT number go down by 1 and then go back up by 1 and be able to tell approximately when they've launched torps at you. 

And when I’m driving a torp DD I torment BBs with this on purpose. If I’m really after you, you never see my number at all. While torps are loading or I’m positioning to sink your teammate, I toggle between guns and torps just to make you nervous. 

[NCC81701]

6 minutes ago, Landing_Skipper said:

And when I’m driving a torp DD I torment BBs with this on purpose. If I’m really after you, you never see my number at all. While torps are loading or I’m positioning to sink your teammate, I toggle between guns and torps just to make you nervous. 

And it's up to the BB player to determine if it's a false positive or not based on other contextual information like last spotted position, orientation and team dispositions. Having PT means you have more information to work with which is pro-active rather than PM which is a re-active skill where it only works after you've been hit. 

[Landing_Skipper]

1 minute ago, NCC81701 said:

And it's up to the BB player to determine if it's a false positive or not based on other contextual information like last spotted position, orientation and team dispositions. Having PT means you have more information to work with which is pro-active rather than PM which is a re-active skill where it only works after you've been hit. 

I don’t disagree. Just think it’s important to point out that the PT number can and is manipulated by some red guys. 

[Sabot_100]

29 minutes ago, NCC81701 said:

PT only works on Main guns, so when people switch between guns and torps you can see your PT number go down by 1 and then go back up by 1 and be able to tell approximately when they've launched torps at you.

Have heard of people doing this. Therefore I have started rotating targets when I can't or won't actually be shooting at them just to mess with them. Start targeting ships way out of range or while reloading with torps or behind islands with guns to cause them to react. As others have mentioned, the torp aim assist is also a great way to get a speed/direction estimate for a ship. A tool the US CAs don't get.

[SkyRail]

my solution to PT / PM is...I take both. 

[Harv72b]

10 hours ago, RipNuN2 said:

AFAIK it makes more sense on DDs that play like little cruisers who don't rely on stealth as much. You are right PM doesnt affect AA or secondary guns as those things cant be incapacitated just destroyed.

This basically covers it.  If you're playing a destroyer that likes to openly fire (not in smoke etc), then PT is going to be much more valuable to you.  If you're playing a destroyer which leans more on its stealth and/or smoke firing, PM is probably a better choice (note that it also reduces the chance of having your engine knocked out...not like that ever happens in a DD ).

7 hours ago, Landing_Skipper said:

Last night I was playing Gearing.  It would’ve been really helpful to see that number jump to 6 or 7 the instant I was spotted instead of finding out half the enemy team was shooting at me when their shells arrived.

When you're talking about T10 matches, it's generally pretty safe to assume that every ship within range is shooting at you whenever you're spotted.

[sasquatch_research]

Hey

For me; I always take PT first on my DD's and my cruisers, but usually take PM 1st on my BB's since I know they can take punishment.  Later as I have most of the skills I want, I will go back and pick up PM on my cruisers (especially on higher tier ones) and my DD's.  I use PT only on BB's that are quite squishy, one being Dunkerque, not that it's bad but doesn't like being shot at and is limited in it's ability to turn away from a fight unlike a full fledged BB.  I like to know how many is targeting me when I'm in a soft ship, when I see more than 2, it's time to turn for sure.

 

Pete

[Rusty_Python]

[HazeGrayUnderway]

I often go with PT over PM, even on my Battleships.  That big warning of something like 6-8 people targeting you needs to be acknowledged ASAP and proper action taken, even in a BB.  If you got something like 6 ships already hitting you even in a BB, it's too late.  With the warning, you can take action sooner and prevent yourself from committing even more to a big mistake.

 

Knowing if you're being targeted, knowing when people are switching away from you as a target, is very useful information.

 

In addition, it helps against certain DD players to know when you're about to get torpedoed.  PT use against DDs are a funny little mini-game by itself.  There's fun ways to screw with someone's PT as a DD 

NVM, this is DD focused.

[gil5461]

I use PT on every ship,I can still fight with a torp tube or gun knocked out....cannot if sunk

[tmGrunty]

You are asking the wrong question.

The question is not "when does PT make sense?" because the answer to that is "always" as it provides so much valuable information.

The real question is "on what ships do you need PM?".

 

To answer this question we have to look into what that skill does. 

I helps to prevent your main guns, torpedo tubes, rudder and engine getting incapacitated or even permantently destroyed for the weapons.

• Now rudder and engine are not that cruicial because you should be running LS anyway so this only plays a very minor role when considering PM.
• For the guns it is very rare to even get them incapacitated when you are running MAM1 and since the turret HP buff ~1y ago I have yet to lose a turret permanently, So losing a gun for only a couple of seconds is a) rare and b) hardly game changing anyway.
• The interesting and important part are the torpedo tubes. Why? because losing them while you are reloading not only knocks them out but also resets the reload time. Also torpedo tubes are more prone to being incapacitated then guns, especially if you run the torpedo reload mod on T9+ destroyers.

With that information in mind we have to look at high tier (T9+) DDs that have weak torpedo tubes.

And from my experience there are only 2 out there that really have issues with losing them and those are the 2 IJN DDs Yugumo (seriously this ships loses torp tubes like crazy) and the Shimakaze.

And those 2 ships are the only ones where I take PM as my first and only T1 skill.

The other nation's DDs either must have more HP on the tubes or they aren't getting hit as often due to placement or whatever. But I hardly ever lose torpedoes on them so PT is the choice here.

 

Now keep in mind that if you go with a regular 1 T1, 2 T2, 3 T3, 1 T4 skill build path you will have 1 spare point to put into PM/PT at 19 points. So for most ships you can get both T1 skills anyway assuming your captain will be maxed out eventually.

[sasquatch_research]

Hey

I think sometimes there is a unintended mis-guidance when we talk about Captain skill because everyone like to talk about the 19pt Captains.  Not everyone can nor do run a 19pt captain on their ships; well for them what do you take.  I think a more accurate approach would be to quote a 10pt. captain (Base skills) and then give order from there to the 19pt point capt.  I have seen a shift in a few of the CC's videos doing this and I think it's a great idea.  I myself finally got my 1st 19pt. captain and I have a lot of ships in the 10-14 pt area and others that are in 6-8 pt range.  I also do not typically sell my ships and only in the last year moved my captains forward to increase their skill (maybe my bad applies).  If we mention the core 10pt skill first for each ship, maybe it will help with some of the confusion on each ship a person gets.  One of the DD guys made a very handy spreadsheet on DD builds in which he listed the core 10pts, and then the additional skills thereafter which is very handy (sorry I forgot his name, good work though), the same would be handy for cruisers, BB, and CV's and just needs to be updated maybe quarterly.  Just a thought.

 

Pete

[tmGrunty]

I think you are talking about my spreadsheet.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1iCCOHVM4kw5aBIKDYi0Ym6LnNBiFPcFrGI_89m2B_Rg/edit?usp=sharing