Angry YouTuber Review of the New Destroyer Skills

[LittleWhiteMouse]

You wanted a deep dive!?  You'll probably get it!  Cuz I'm nice like that!  But we can't focus on that now!  Now is the time for raw emotional and sensationalism!  Now is the time for being irrationally angry about change!  Now is the time to dust off a tired meme and apply it to the new commander skill system!  Here we go starting with Destroyers!

• GARBAGE– I hate it!  Who knows why?  Maybe it sucks!  Maybe it's boring!  Maybe I resent how it was implemented in the game!  Only wieners take this skill!
• Mehskill – It's alright but it's probably pretty boring.  Don't be surprised if it's overly situational or if it comes with severe drawbacks.  Most skills will fall into this category.
• Gudskill – Great choice!  If not outright optimal, then this skill will get you a lot of mileage and may define the game play of a given build.
• OVERPOWERED – So broken, you guys!  This is so powerful it's ruining the game!  Only jerks take this but you don't dare go without it! I totally don't because I'm clearly a saint!  No, you can't look at my builds!

I'm not only going to rate these skills, I'm also going to talk about them a little and their efficacy.  A lot of these are opinion based but I am going to throw some math at you on occasion just to make it appear like I know what I'm talking about.  Finally, at the end, I'll cover some examples of destroyer builds for those who want some help there.

For other articles in this series, please follow the links below:

• Cruiser Skills
• Battleship Skills
• Aircraft Carrier Skills

Destroyer Tier 1 Skills

There are no outright winners among the tier 1 skills.  That's probably a good thing, but it's hard to be excited about any of these first skills on offer.  They feel like mindless busywork, a compulsory fundamental before they let you play with skills that really matter.

TL:DR:

• Grease the Gears: GARBAGE
• Liquidator: Mehskill
• Consumable Specialist: Mehskill
• Gun Feeder: Mehskill
• Incoming Fire Alert: Mehskill
• Preventative Maintenace:  Mehskill

Open the spoiler tag to read my break down of each skill.

Spoiler

 

  Grease the Gears  - Increase the main battery traverse speed by 15%

Hear me out.  The new implementation of the "increase traverse rate" skills is butt-tacular.  Rather than being a flat value, it now scales depending on how fast your gun traverse is.  Slower traverse rates end up with slower gains, thus the ships that need this skill the most benefit from it the least.  For example, Gremyashchy has a glacial 5º/s traverse rate.  This skill bumps it up by a paltry 0.75º/s.  While Sims, with her glorious capitalist 34º/s rotation rate gets increased by 5.1º/s!  The ships that need this skill don't gain enough from it and those that do see a huge increase don't need it.

Even with special commanders giving a boost to this skill, it's still not a worthwhile pick.  Not while it's percentage based.

VERDICT: GARBAGE

  Liquidator - Chances of causing flooding +30%

This skill (along with some other new skills that I'll cover) modifies the existing flooding calculation formula.  My best guess is that the flooding formula now looks like this (to be corrected once WG confirms):

Flood Chance = (1 - [Torpedo Protection]) x (1 - ) x (1 - ) x 0.33 x [Torpedo Flood Chance] x (1 + ) x (1 + ) x (1 + ) x (1 + )

Where:

• Torpedo Protection is the stat listed in port and only applies to hits that strike the ship's anti-torpedo bulges.  So Yamato's 55% would equal 0.55, Zao's 19% would be 0.19 and Asashio's non-existent anti-torpedo protection is 0.  If it strikes anywhere but the anti-torpedo bulge, this value is also 0. 
• is the Damage Control Modification 1 upgrade which goes in slot two of tier III+ ships.  If present on the ship being hit, this value is 0.03.  Otherwise this value is zero.
• is the new battleship commander skill Enhanced Anti-Torpedo Protection.  If present on the ship being hit, this value is 0.1.  Otherwise this value is zero.
• Torpedo Flooding Chance is a hidden stat and varies considerably, often exceeding 100%.  For example, the tier II German destroyer V-25 on its upgraded G/6 AV torpedoes has 173% flood chance, which would be represented here by 1.73.  Compare that to everyone's favourite destroyer which single-handedly removed all battleships from the game, Asashio, which has a 436% (4.36 in this formula). 
• is the Victor Lima signal.  If present on the attacking ship, this value is 0.04.  If not, the value is 0.
• is the Juliet Whiskey Unaone signal.  If present on the attacking ship, this value is 0.15.  If not, the value is 0.
• is the LIQUIDATOR skill.  If present on the attacking ship, this value is 0.3.  If not, the value is 0.
• is the new aircraft carrier commander skill Proximity Fuse.  If present on the attacking ship, this value is 0.1.  If not, the value is 0.

Knowing whether or not this skill is worthwhile depends on (1) how good your own torpedoes are and (2) knowing how good the anti-torpedo defence is on the target ship.  For example, let's plug in Asashio hitting Shikishima.  We'll do this four times:

1. Both ships stock, with Asashio's torpedoes with a 436% crit chance and Shikishima with a 55% anti-torpedo defence.
2. Asashio stock and Shikishima with heavy anti-torpedo defence.
3. Asashio with Liquidator and Shikishima stock.
4. Asashio with Liquidator and Shikishima with heavy anti-torpedo defence.

Case 1:  Both ships stock

• Flood Chance = (1 - [Torpedo Protection]) x (1 - ) x (1 - ) x 0.33 x [Torpedo Flood Chance] x (1 + ) x (1 + ) x (1 + ) x (1 + )
• Flood Chance = (1 - 0.55) x (1 - 0) x (1 - 0) x 0.33 x [ 4.36 ] x (1 + 0) x (1 + 0) x (1 + 0) x (1 + 0)
• Flood Chance = 0.6707
• Flood Chance = 67.1%

So with both ships stock, Asashio will cause a flood 2/3rds of the time against Shikishima's anti-torpedo bulges.

Case 2: Asashio stock and Shikishima with heavy anti-torpedo defence.

• Flood Chance = (1 - [Torpedo Protection]) x (1 - ) x (1 - ) x 0.33 x [Torpedo Flood Chance] x (1 + ) x (1 + ) x (1 + ) x (1 + )
• Flood Chance = (1 - 0.55) x (1 - 0.03) x (1 - 0.1) x 0.33 x [ 4.36 ] x (1 + 0) x (1 + 0) x (1 + 0) x (1 + 0)
• Flood Chance = 0.5652
• Flood Chance = 56.5%

This is a fairly noticeable drop in flooding chance.  Now Asashio is causing flooding in just under 3 hits out of 5 as opposed to 2/3

Case 3: .Asashio with Liquidator and Shikishima stock

• Flood Chance = (1 - [Torpedo Protection]) x (1 - ) x (1 - ) x 0.33 x [Torpedo Flood Chance] x (1 + ) x (1 + ) x (1 + ) x (1 + )
• Flood Chance = (1 - 0.55) x (1 - 0) x (1 - 0) x 0.33 x [ 4.36 ] x (1 + 0) x (1 + 0) x (1 + 0.3) x (1 + 0)
• Flood Chance = 0.8417
• Flood Chance = 84.2%

This is a pretty noticeable improvement (though not an outright 30% jump) over case #1.  Asashio will flood Shikishima in 5 out of 6 instances.

Case 4: Asashio with Liquidator and Shikishima with heavy anti-torpedo defence.

• Flood Chance = (1 - [Torpedo Protection]) x (1 - ) x (1 - ) x 0.33 x [Torpedo Flood Chance] x (1 + ) x (1 + ) x (1 + ) x (1 + )
• Flood Chance = (1 - 0.55) x (1 - 0.03) x (1 - 0.1) x 0.33 x (4.36) x (1 + 0) x (1 + 0) x (1 + 0.3) x (1 + 0)
• Flood Chance = 0.7348
• Flood Chance = 73.5%

Not only is this nearly a 50% improvement over Case #2, it's an improvement over Case #1, with Asashio causing floods in about 3/4s of hits. 

The problem with this skill (if the non-stop math in near infinite combinations needed to figure out if its a viable choice or not) is that once your flood chance exceeds 100%, any extra bonus it provides is moot.  Striking outside of the anti-torpedo protection (or hitting a ship without it) is all kinds of overkill.  You're probably going to flood them anyway and this skill was unnecessary.  Again, this involves doing some quick calculations to figure out if it's worth it or not.  For example, take the Mark 15 Mod 0 torpedoes off of Mahan (190% torpedo flood chance).  If you hit a cruiser with no anti-torpedo protection, upgrades, etc, you have a 62.7% chance of causing a flood per hit.  With the skill, that now jumps to 81.5%.  That's kind of nice.  But do the same with one of Haida's fish (282% torpedo flood chance) and it's 93% stock and 121% with the skill.  That's a bit of a waste.

Now, it's possible the math works out differently -- for example, if Liquidator adds 30% directly to the Torpedo Flood Chance before any multiplication shenanigans take place.  Similarly, the new defensive skills for battleships may operate different than what's listed here.  This is a best-guess based on how Wargaming has applied these formulas in the past.  The point still stands that you need to math it out.

What this means is that there's no easy answer here.  Even on a torpedo destroyer which is slinging fish as its primary damage dealer, there could be better options based simply on the anti-torpedo protection of her most common targets and the torpedo flooding chance of her warheads.   This is a whole lot of text just to say "it depends".  And don't take it on Friesland, you weirdos.

VERDICT:  Mehskill

  Consumable Specialist - Reduce the reload time of Catapult Fighter, Spotter Aircraft, Defensive AA Fire, Main Battery Reload Booster and Torpedo Reload Booster by 10%.

Destroyers get Catapult Fighters  and Spotter Aircraft?  I suppose anything could happen in the future.  As it is, the main reason to take this skill is if you're playing a lolibote with MBRB or TRB whose performance really leans in on these consumables.  If anti-aircraft firepower had more teeth then maybe this would be worthwhile on an AA picket-ship.  As it is, this skill is merely nice to have, not meta-defining.  Don't underestimate it as a backup choice for the aforementioned ships, though. Obviously, if you don't have any of these consumables, don't take this skill.

VERDICT:  Mehskill

  Gun Feeder - Reduces the time taken to switch shell types when all main battery guns are loaded by 50%

Few destroyers have (1) a long enough reload for this to be useful and (2) make regular use of both ammunition types.  If it weren't for some special commanders having bonuses on the previous version of this skill, I think we could have seen this skill nixed altogether for destroyers and not been worse off for it.  Yes, the Extra Heavy AP Shells skill is supposed to synergize with this skill and make each look more juicy, but the reality is that HE shells do most of the heavy lifting for destroyers.  Those few that do reach for AP shells aren't hurt by shooting the HE already loaded and selecting AP for the next cycle.  This is generally a waste of points with some very (VERY) specific exceptions. 

VERDICT: GARBAGE

  Incoming Fire Alert - Provides a warning when an incoming salvo is fired at your ship from a distance of more than 4.5km

I wish I could say we're finally getting into the Gudskills, but Incoming Fire Alert is just a poor man's Priority Target.  Now, to be fair, I've always favoured the latter over the former when they had the same cost.  With Incoming Fire Alert being cheaper, it now has a role.  It's advised to take one of these two skills; not both.  So figure out what you can afford.  Priority Target is the better skill, make no mistake, but Incoming Fire Alert isn't bad. On some destroyers, particularly those that operate without smoke and bombard targets from a distance in open water and use active dodging (read: French, Soviet and some Pan European DDs), there's a lot more mileage to be gained from this skill.

VERDICT:  Mehskill

  Preventative Maintenance - Reduces the risk of main turrets, torpedo tubes, steering gears and engine becoming incapacitated by 30%.

This is probably the safest of all of the destroyer skills at the first tier.  Every single destroyer can make reasonable use out of this skill and it's likely to end up as the default choice on my commander skill builds going forward if only for simplicty's sake.  It is not the optimal choice by a long shot.  All this does is fiddle with the RNG associated with critical hits (read: temporary incapacitations) against the aforementioned modules, and these values can swing wildly.  It does not prevent guns and torpedoes from being destroyed.  If your build only allows for a single point to be spent on tier I skills, then there may be a better choice than this one for your specific destroyer.  However, if you end up with a point leftover and nothing to spend it on, then this is going to be the go-to.

VERDICT:  Mehskill
Note:  Still likely to end up in a disproportionate number of builds.

 

Destroyer Tier 2 Skills

Tier 2 has one must-have skill, which is convenient for the sake of unlocking all of the overcrowded juiciness at tier 3 and above.  But there are at least a couple of other skills worth considering, points allowing:

TL:DR

• Pyrotechnician: Mehskill
• Swift Fish: Mehskill
• Consumables Enhancements: Mehskill
• Extra-Heavy AP Shells: Mehskill
• Priority Target: Gudskill
• Last Stand: OVERPOWERED

Open the spoiler tag to read my break down of each skill.

Spoiler

 

  Pyrotechnician - Chance of a main or secondary battery HE shell causing a fire on a target is increased by 1%.

The 0.10 version of this skill is one point cheaper and half as effective as it used to be.  The overall trend with patch 0.10 is to make the chance of setting fires lower while making it less comfortable for battleship and battlecruiser players to take fire mitigating skills.  For specific destroyers, this skill is a must have, even with its reduced efficacy.  Just be aware that while this skill is generally good for most destroyers, it's not going to fit in everyone's build.

VERDICT:  Mehskill

  Swift Fish - Increase torpedo speed by 5%.

BEWARE!  This is (again) a percentage based improvement that provides more benefit to those that need it less.  The gains on a 55 knot torpedo are 2.75 knots while a 72 knot torpedo gets 3.6 knots.  The extra speed on torpedoes reduces the reaction time enemies have to avoid incoming fish.  When combined with the Torpedo Tube Modification 1 the gains are much more appreciable.  With World of Warships' distance compression, an extra five knots shaves about half a second (fast fish) to just over a full second (stupidly slow fish) off reaction times.  For torpedo destroyers, this is a nice skill to have if you can afford it.  For everyone else?  Your points could definitely be better spent.

VERDICT:  Mehskill
Note:  While a reasonable choice for torpedo-specialists, it's not a top-tier one.

  Consumables Enhancements - Increase the action time of Hydroacoustic Search, Surveillance Radar, Smoke Generator and Engine Boost consumables by 10%.

For most destroyers, this skill is a waste of points.  You know the sort -- the ones that come with the standard assortment of consumables; Damage Control Party, Smoke Generator, Engine Boost.  The extra 10% emission time on smoke gives them maybe one more puff out of the exhausts.  The increase to the Engine Boost time is nice, but spending two skill points to increase just that?  It's totally not worthwhile.  I could condemn this skill to the GARBAGE pile were it not for select ships that gain ridiculously from this skill. 

Slap this skill on a ship with a Crawling Smoke Generator or Exhaust Smoke Generator and watch the magic happen.  My bias is totally showing, but this skill is a must have on Haida.  With the special upgrades on her Crawling Smoke Generator and equipping the X-Ray Papa Unaone signal, this skill gives her smoke an additional 13.5 seconds worth of active time!  Her Hydroacoustic Search benefits similarly, with a similar double-stacked load-out with a special upgrade and Sierra Bravo signal gaining an additional 21.6 seconds!  Haida is easily the most dramatic winner where this skill is concerned, but select Italian, German, American and Pan European destroyers also significantly benefit.  To be clear, this is not as effective as having an additional charge of each consumable.  However, for it's cost it's pretty impressive.

If this affected more ships positively, I'd rate it higher, but I have to balance it out by how poorly it works with the majority of destroyers.

VERDICT:  Mehskill

  Extra-Heavy AP Shells - Damage of main battery AP shells increased by 5%.

This is an interesting skill, if only because it's (1) inexpensive and (2) it encourages more dynamic use of different ammunition types.  The catch is, of course, that destroyer AP rounds are so incredibly situational what with the difficulties of fuse sensitivity, a general lack of penetration, over-penetrations against those few targets they can strike and auto-ricochet mechanics.  For those few gunships that can capitalize on this, this is a great way to pad your numbers.  However, it's overall effectiveness just isn't there for most destroyers.

VERDICT:  Mehskill

  Priority Target - The detection indicator addtionally shows the number of opponents on the enemy team that are currently aiming at your ship with their main batter guns.

I cannot sing high enough praises for this skill.  It was a steal at 1 point and it's still very much worth it at a cost of 2 points.  For those not gifted with god-tier situational awareness, this skill lets you know when you are well and truly scuppered and when there's still a fighting chance.  It lets you know how many of your opponents are considering putting shells down range at your face.  What makes this skill so powerful, however, isn't just the alert that's telling you when you're being targeted with guns.  It's that it also tells you when you're not being targeted by guns when you're spotted.  Whenever a player switches from guns to torpedoes, the number indicator on Priority Target drops by one, giving you advanced warning that it's probably time to adjust course and speed.  The utility of this skill is a godsend and it's priced just right to be worthwhile but still an investment you have to balance around.

VERDICT: Gudskill

  Last Stand - The ship remains partially able to sustain speed and manoevrability with the engine and steering gears incapacitated.

This skill was a must-have in all previous versions of the commander-skill builds.  It remains a must-have and it should be the second skill picked up for any captain.  Without it, destroyer survivability drops into the toilet.  I am honestly surprised this hasn't been rolled into destroyer game-play as a built-in feature of the ship type, but I suppose they needed something to suck two skill points away from players.  Always take this.  Always.

VERDICT: OVERPOWERED
Note:  Consider this skill mandatory.

 

Destroyer Tier 3 Skills

The point of the tier 3 skills seems to be to distracted you with an over-abundance of choice.  These skills all form the core of many builds and are (almost!) all great.  It's hard to go wrong here.

TL:DR:

• Main Battery & AA Specialist: Gudskill
• Fill the Tubes: Gudskill
• Adrenaline Rush: Gudskill
• Intertial Fuse for HE Shells: Mehskill
• Superintendent: Mehskill
• Survivability Expert: OVERPOWERED

Open the spoiler tag to read my break down of each skill.

Spoiler

 

  Main Battery & AA Specialist - Reduces main battery reload time by 5% and increases continuous AA damage by 10%.

This went under the name 'Basic Fire Training' under the old system but it's been cleverly modified.  First, it no longer affects what few secondary guns are present among destroyers.  Second, the improvement to reload times is only 5% instead of 10%.  Third, it affects all destroyer gun calibres, not just those of 139mm or smaller.  German destroyers rejoice!  For a gunship build, this is all but a must-have.  And let's be clear:  You're taking it for the improvement to your reload speed.  The improvement to AA power is just an incidental bonus no one should really care about.

VERDICT: Gudskill

  Fill the Tubes - Reduces the reload time of torpedo tubes by 10%.

What Main Battery & AA Specialist is for gunships, Fill the Tubes is for torpedo-destroyers.  Any lolibote that likes to sling fish should make room for this in their build.

VERDICT: Gudskill

  Adrenaline Rush - Decreases the reload time of the main battery, secondary battery and torpedoes while increasing continuous AA damage by 0.2% for every 1% of health lost.

In the before times, this was a must-have skill for two points.  It was priced competitively and provided an immediate performance increase as your ship began taking damage.  This turned health management into a key component of optimized play, with the use of heals (when available) weighed against the benefits of improved damage output.  It was pretty neat.  While the benefits of this skill have not diminished, the increased cost of this skill is a lot harder to fit into select builds.  At 50% health, this represents a 10% reduction to torpedo and gun reload times simultaneously.  If you can afford it, this is a great skill.  If you can afford it.

VERDICT: Gudskill

  Intertial Fuse for HE Shells - Increase the armour penetration of main and secondary battery HE shells by 25% but decrease the baseline fire-chance of shells before modifiers by 50%.

IFHE, as it's commonly shortened to, is a contentious skill for destroyers.  It is patently worthless for the majority of destroyers out there but the knees of the bees for those few that can truly capitalize upon it.  The changes to armour values made in 2020 greatly reduced this skills efficacy for small calibre guns in the pre-0.10 meta.  That hasn't changed now.  It's built in drawback is more damaging now than it used to be.  While the penalty for using IFHE has not changed, it is more difficult now to claw-back the loss to a given ship's fire-setting ability.  This skill belongs only in select builds and should otherwise be avoided.

Don't get my Mehskill evaluation wrong.  This skill is incredibly powerful when applied correctly.  But it gets applied correctly in so few cases, it's easy to get wrong.  To that end, it's harder to give it a higher rating because that will simply encourage people to take it when they don't need it.

VERDICT:  Mehskill

  Superintendent - +1 charge of each consumable.

This has the potential to be a very powerful skill, especially for ships with game-changing consumables.  But there's a catch here.  It's only powerful if you make regular use of the additional charges it provides. How often this needs to be is, frankly, up to the individual player.  If it ends up being the dramatic, deciding factor which let you hard-carry to a Solo Warrior victory, then obviously you're going to have more forgiving tolerances than someone looking to scrounge the greatest number of bonuses over the biggest sample of games.  I can only rate Superintendent as being "nice to have" -- a three-point filler to round out a build rather than being a deciding feature of a commander's skills.  Don't take this skill "just in case". Take it because you know you'll use it.

VERDICT:  Mehskill

  Survivability Expert - Increase the destroyer's hit points by +350 per tier.

This skill seems so boring, so unimaginative, but it is too good.  Not taking this skill is the equivalent of taking a 152mm HE shell in damage for every two tiers of the destroyer in question before the game even starts.  Do you want to start your tier VIII destroyer matches with being hit four times by a Cleveland-class cruiser?  No?  Didn't think so.  You must assume that anyone who knows what they're doing has this skill built into their destroyers, thus going without puts you at a disadvantage.  This skill synergizes with Repair Party consumables to increase the raw amount of health healed per charge as well, so it's doubly important for those ships that regenerate.  Like Last Stand, this is a skill-tax.  You need to take this skill to optimize your build and it should be present on any destroyer.  It should be the third skill selected every time.  No exceptions.

VERDICT: OVERPOWERED
Note:  This skill is also mandatory.

 

Destroyer Tier 4 Skills

These skills are a surprising mixed bag.  Concealment Expert remains a staple of almost every destroyer build but the rest all mix clauses and conditions which undermines their efficacy.  They are, for the most part, situational, good for select builds and select circumstances but with catch after catch to be aware of.  Unlike the tier 3 skills, it's possible to steer very wrong here and end up wasting points.

TL:DR:

• Main Battery & AA Expert:  Mehskill
• Swift in Silence: Mehskill
• Radio Location: Gudskill
• Fearless Brawler: GARBAGE
• Concealment Expert: OVERPOWERED
• Dazzle: GARBAGE

Open the spoiler tag to read my break down of each skill.

Spoiler

 

  Main Battery & AA Expert - Increase main battery range by 20% and damage from AA explosions by 15%.

Increasing a destroyer's range is contentious.  There's lots to consider here before pulling the trigger.  (1) Do your guns have ballistics conducive to firing at long(er) ranges?  (2) Is the increase in range worth the increase in detection distances when firing? (3a)  Is your destroyer fast and agile enough to return fire? (3b) If it can't actively dodge, can it at least make good use of island cover?  These are all just elaborate ways of asking:  Can you hit anything with increased range and can you survive the inevitable return fire when you poke the bear?

It's worth noting that this skill has changed somewhat from its earlier incarnation.  It no longer boosts the range of a destroyer's secondaries (what few exist out there).  This skill also modifies the efficacy of the flak explosions generated by the destroyer.  However, flak is ... yeah.  It works great against bots but it's of little use against experienced players.  Take this skill if you need the range, not if you need the AA power.

VERDICT:  Mehskill

  Swift in Silence - Increase the ship's speed by 8% but only while the ship is undetected.  Increase her main battery reload time by 5%.

This is effectively a semi-permanent Engine Boost consumable for your destroyer so long as she doesn't get sniffed out.  For sneaky torpedo destroyers that aren't using their guns very much anyway, this is a very handy skill.  Japanese destroyers in particular benefit from this with the combination of their detection range and lower top speeds relative to other lolibotes out there, which can help them control engagement distances.  Mind the two caveats though.  It only works while the ship is undetected.  It also hampers the reload time of their guns.  I like this skill a lot, even if it's only going to end up in very select builds.

VERDICT:  Mehskill
Note:  Mouse still loves this skill.  She just can't rate it higher because of its shortcomings.  She's also referring to herself in the third person for some reason.

  Radio Location - The direction to the nearest ship is indicated to the player.  The indicated ship will be alerted that they are being tracked.

Ah, yes.  The skill that promised to end destroyer game play as we knew it.  That didn't happen (though it could be argued that it was another nail in the slowly assembling destroyer coffin).  This is a very powerful skill with both offensive and defensive uses.  This is one of those skills that if everyone could afford it they would take it, but with bigger fish to fry, it doesn't always end up in various builds.  That is as true now as it was before.  If you can swing the cost, grab this skill.  But I doubt you can afford it.

VERDICT:  Gudskill

  Fearless Brawler - one additional flak explosion, +5% to ship's air and surface detectability ranges.  While detected, reduced reload time of main battery guns by 10%.

Oh, this skill deserves some mockery.  This is the sister-skill to the cruiser Top Grade Gunner and battleship Dead Eye skill in that it if you slap it onto the wrong ship, it baits you into playing it wrong.  Being detected in a destroyer is generally bad news.  Even for those ships who excel at open water firing, such as some of the French, Pan European and Soviet destroyers, being able to control the distance at which they are seen is important.  The 5% increase to all detectability ranges is a bitter pill to swallow.  The fact that they added a miscellaneous AA boost to this in order to balance it out is laughable.  The 10% increase to DPM is just potent enough to make fingers itchy enough to try this skill out, but on the whole it's going to be a loser move for the majority of destroyers out there.  The DPM increase from this skill does not work if you're not being actively spotted which means if you regularly use smoke or island cover, it's time you're missing out.  This skill feels too expensive for four points.  It has its uses, don't get me wrong, but I'm going to be melodramatic here to stir up some controversy and hopefully scare people off from taking this on their Farragut, Akizuki or Mahan.

VERDICT: GARBAGE

  Concealment Expert - Reduce the ship's air and surface detectability ranges by 10%.

This skill is boring but ridiculously powerful.  It's a must have for the majority of destroyers out there.  Even those where this skill isn't quite optimal, it's still hella good and you could certain do worse.

VERDICT: OVERPOWERED
Note:  This will be your fourth skill taken in most builds.

  Dazzle - Increases the dispersion of enemy gunnery by 20% for 15 seconds immediately after your ship has been detected.

This only applies to shell-fire.  It doesn't do anything to bombs, torpedoes or rockets.  You're still going to have to Just Dodge™ out of harm's way there.  It's important to keep the efficacy of dispersion modifiers in mind.  This balloons up the size of the dispersion elipse of incoming shells but it's a percentage increase.  For example, let's say your little destroyer gets lit by Surveillance Radar and there are three other ships all taking pot shots at you from 14km away: Moskva, Montana and Zao.  Here's how this skill affects the dispersion of each:

• Montana's horizontal disperison increases from 200m to 240m.  This is significant and you might get away with taking fewer hits!
• Moskva's horizontal dispersion increases from 130m to 156m.  This might help.  Maybe?  Perhaps one shell from the salvo will stray?
• Zao's horizontal dispersion increases from 120m to 144m.  This is even dicier.  Yes, it's bigger, but it's not really enough to guarantee anything.

Because Wargaming knows players get very excited anytime gunnery dispersion is mentioned, it's hard not to feel like this skill is bait.  It gives the potential for shells to miss but it does not guarantee it.  A ship with high sigma will still group shots towards the centre of its reticule.  I think this is one of those skills that demonstrates its efficacy on the spreadsheets but not in individual matches.  It's meant to reduce the overall effectiveness of Surveillance Radar or getting out-spotted by planes and other lolibotese, giving time for the destroyer to wiggle and dodge its way to freedom.  It's not like this skill is going to tell you which shells it deviated.  It provides nothing in the way of feedback to let you know that it's working.  I can understand if a player feels frustrated when they do take big hits even when this skill is up and running.  Short of the game actually telling you what shots were specifically deviated, you're just going to have to take it on faith that this skill works. 

The funny thing is that this skill can also work against you and get you hit in extreme cases.  If someone's aim is off as you're accelerating away, who's to say that the increased dispersion doesn't assist a poorly aimed volley from scattering a hit onto your cute butt that would have otherwise missed?  This is especially true from long-range fire with larger dispersion patterns.  Up close, this skill is all but worthless.  If you're knife fighting another destroyer, it might scatter one or two shells into the drink but I wouldn't hold my breath.

You can gamble if you want, but I'd rather have skills which I feel that have an immediate, measurable effect.

VERDICT:  GARBAGE

 

Building to a Deadline

Full, 21 point commanders are going to be a rare commodity over the coming weeks and months.  To this end, I think it more important to focus on how to spend your skill points and in what order.  Ten point commanders are a good starting point and should be the focus of any new player as their first end-goal.  Generally speaking, any destroyer in the game benefits from the following 10 point skill build:

• Start with the tier 1 skill of your choice.  When in doubt, default to Preventative Maintenance.
• Take Last Stand next.
• Survivability Expert is your third skill.
• Finish with Concealment Expert.

That's it.  That's your simple 10 point commander.  Last Stand, Survivability Expert and Concealment Expert should always be locked in.  There are very (VERY!) few exceptions where you'll play around with these three skills and most players won't have to worry about deviating from them.  The only tier 1 skills I would consider other than Preventative Maintenance would be things like Liquidator for select torpedo boats (but again, depending on the math based on the variety of targets she faces), Consumable Enhancements for select ships with powerful consumables like Surveillance Radar and Torpedo Reload Booster, and Incoming Fire Alert but only if I couldn't afford Priority Target.  Like I said, it's easier just to default to Preventative Maintenance when there's any uncertainty here.  It's good enough for a 1pt skill.

After this, things get more complicated, but things can still be simplified to general builds following destroyer role-stereotypes.

Generalist

This build is for destroyers with good guns but not one that specializes in any kind of specific prey.  These destroyers that flex to any number of roles as needed.  They cap, provide forward vision, smoke for their allies, they bombard targets of opportunity and occasionally put fish in the water.  They do it all and as such they tend to do best with flexible, generalist builds.  Expanding their toolkit is important so Superintendent is generally a good purchase, as is Priority Target to help with situational awareness.  Round this off with the skills Main Battery & AA Specialist and Adrenaline Rush to improve gunnery and you're good to go. 

There's some flexibility here too.  If you want an immediate improvement to fire setting, drop Adrenaline Rush for Pyrotechnist and take a tier 1 skill of your choice.  Alternatively, if you want to focus more on fish than guns, just swap Main Battery & AA Specialist for Fill the Tubes.  Bam, you're good to go.

Torpedo Destroyers

Everyone's favourite wannabe ninja-assassins benefit from builds that focus upon torpedo reload times and improving their concealment and speed.  These aren't ships that want to engage in gunnery duels at all if they can help it, with their main battery firepower being a mere afterthought.  To this end, a 21 point build takes the 10pts from before and it expands it with Fill the Tubes, Radio Location and Swift in Silence.  This is an elegant, simple build that forgoes any pretense of having reasonable gunnery for putting more fish in the water and staying away from things that can hurt you.  One of the four point skills may be dropped for one of the following combinations if you prefer:

• Superintendent + either Liquidator or Incoming Fire Alert
• Priority Target + either Pyrotechnist or Swift Fish

The goal of the former is to increase the number of charges on helpful consumables, such as Engine Boost, Torpedo Reload Booster or Smoke Generators and should be selected if Swift in Silence is dropped. This leaves a single skill point remaining which should be used to double back on another useful tier 1 skill that fits the player's needs.  The second option focuses on improving risk-management for times when the destroyer gets spotted and is best taken if Radio Location is dropped instead.  They can either buff their torpedo speed (preferable) or put a bit more punch in their guns to try and follow up floods with a perma-fire.

Bombardment Gunship

Screw subtlety.  You're an angry smoke cloud and it's time to rain the pew pews and make battleships (and the occasional cruiser) regret their life decisions.  There is a lot of variety in this build depending on your ship's tier, gun calibre and ballistics.  The staple to this build is Main Battery & AA Specialist for the increased rate of fire.  From here, it becomes a question of priorities.

• Make sure you take at least one situational awareness skill.  I prefer Priority Target but you can swap this for Incoming Fire Alert if your ship has good range and agility and you'll only have one point remaining.
• If your destroyer has good ballistics for long-range fire, then take: Main Battery & AA Expert.  Skip if if you don't. 
• Do you have great AP shells you'll use regularly?  If so, take Extra-Heavy AP Shells.  Skip if you don't.
• If your ship benefits from the extra HE penetration, take Inertial Fuse for HE Shells.  Skip it if you don't.
• If your destroyer has really good consumables,, take Superintendent next.  If they're trash or you never run out, skip this.
• And finally, pick from among the following to round out your build:  Adrenaline Rush, Pyrotechnist and Radio Location.

This is a good example of how to approach the new skill system for any ship, really.  Make a long list of everything that's decent for your ship and then try and lay them out in a priority system.  Start from what's most game-play defining and then walk your way back to the less important skills until you run out of points.

Lolibote Molesters

And what skill discussion would be complete if I didn't talk about HMCS Haida?  She's a really weird destroyer and made all the more so by changes to armour plating and IFHE last year.  Like many destroyers, there are skills I want to have but I am limited by those I can afford.  She's truly an oddball and her skill choice reflects that.  I took Priority Target, Main Battery & AA Specialist as my two must-haves.  This left me with six points to spend but with Superintendent, Consumable Enhancements, Adrenaline Rush and Radio Location all on my wish-list.  I eventually decided upon the following combination to strive for at 21 points:

• Priority Target
• Main Battery & AA Specialist
• Superintendent
• Consumable Enhancements
• and Liquidator to round things off.

Again, I settled upon this based on the priority system I described in the category above.  Lay out all of the skills you want.  Determine which skills help define the game play of your ship the most and pick those until you run out of points.

Conclusions

The new skill system is much like the old skill system.  While there are some interesting new skills, it's hard to argue that these have made a significant impact towards the destroyer meta.  Most disappointing (for me) is the lack of ability to build an effective AA picket ship. With AA skills scattered around as after-thought bonuses onto other skills, they cannot provide the impact needed to make a difference.  Overall, destroyers are in a pretty comfortable place with the skill rework, at least in terms of how their own skills benefit them. Their compulsory skills haven't really changed (other than the tier 1 skill) and there was always a fair bit of variety in the electives for different destroyer roles.  The rework hasn't changed this, which is a good thing, in my opinion.

Coming up next:  Battleships!

[Depraved_Miscreant]

Well said

[JBR40]

I posted this in another thread. The main point of why I do not like this rework is that for lower level DD captains (which I have a lot of) you now need a 12 pointer for in my opinion a payable DD. Where as before this could be accomplished with a 10 pointer.  Who knows I am probably way off base here and should just stick to playing cruisers. Yep I am one of those guys that need PT. Thanks so much for taking the time to get these valuable reviews out to us. 

+1,000,0000. Sorry I don't have one of those awesome gifs of the green up arrows 

[lloyd1701]

Good analysis as always. 'Fearless Brawler' should be renamed 'The Double Rudder Heal Kabarovsk Skill' since even French DD's will want some sneakabilty.

 

[Your_SAT_Score]

Remember it's more important to understand the purpose of the skill than it's overall rating. Some ships don't take overpowered skills and others take garbage skills as it suits their playstyle more. 

For example most DDs in Clan Battles will take Dazzling as it significantly mitigates the burst damage when focus fired under radar. Anshan and Leningrad captains may also take Grease the Gears as it helps offset their turret traverse.

Also, Liquidator just multiplies torp flood chance by 1.3x. Practically speaking, it ends up being a ~10-20% increased chance to flood through the TDS. Better taken on any non-IJN DDs going torp build. 

Also, I'd consider Consumables Expert a garbage skill. It's rare to use any of those skills constantly off of cd, defeating the point of reducing the reload time for these niche skills anyways. 

 

[DJC_499]

First, I agree with your comments, for whatever that is worth.....

Secondly, in selecting skills I laughed as to the concept of "diverse builds" and that the first four selections are so obviously that these consume 10 out of a a maximum of 21 points and also was thinking that I know LWM will be specifically commenting on this. Obviously every DD Captain out there will be taking the ones you noted, limiting us to nibble around the edges with a few remaining selections. I also take (I think on all) the Argus Eye and Adrenaline Rush (I remember when it was also referred to as "Rage" by one person) leaving only, at most, the selection of a total of 6 points. That is NOT leading to "diverse builds".

Thanks, as always, for your insights....

[Ensign_Cthulhu]

4 minutes ago, DJC_499 said:

and that the first four selections are so obviously that these consume 10 out of a a maximum of 21

You were taking them as mandatory in the 19 point world too, believe it or not - the only debate was whether you took PM and relied on your wits or PT and accepted an increased risk of stuff breaking.

[DJC_499]

2 minutes ago, Ensign_Cthulhu said:

You were taking them as mandatory in the 19 point world too, believe it or not - the only debate was whether you took PM and relied on your wits or PT and accepted an increased risk of stuff breaking.

Exactly!!! And how is this fact contributing to "new, exciting, and diverse builds" that were continually emphasized during this rollout?

[warheart1992]

So wait, cookie cutter builds are still pretty much the norm? Shocked I say, shocked!! 

Would just like to add that Fearless Brawler is a pretty decent skill as long as you don't mind playing selfishly in open water gunboats. I can also imagine ships like Smaland may be even better at murdering the DD opposition. 

 

[clammboy]

Thank you LWM great work as usual looking forward to your BB skill review +1 .

[lightspeed2131]

Is there a concise article regarding game designed torpedo flooding chances?  Might be helpful for decisions about the Liquidator skill.

[Ensign_Cthulhu]

1 hour ago, DJC_499 said:

Exactly!!! And how is this fact contributing to "new, exciting, and diverse builds" that were continually emphasized during this rollout?

We've never had situational skills before.

We've also never before had a system whereby we could train on premium ships of a different and potentially incompatible type without losing optimization. 

[RonJamesDio]

Thank you for your hard work, Miss Mouse! A voice of reason as always and greatly appreciated. 

[Skpstr]

1 hour ago, DJC_499 said:

Exactly!!! And how is this fact contributing to "new, exciting, and diverse builds" that were continually emphasized during this rollout?

To be fair, I don't think you'd ever get a skill system where your first four skills would be variable, simply because those will be the most universally important.

Where the diversity begins, is after that.

Having said that, I don't think the DD skills offer any more diversity than previous. Had they simply added the new skills to the existing ones, and then balanced the lot, it would have been an improvement.

[hanesco]

1 hour ago, DJC_499 said:

Exactly!!! And how is this fact contributing to "new, exciting, and diverse builds" that were continually emphasized during this rollout?

Destroyers were never using cookie-cutter builds. Sure, you used the same 10-point skills, but after that the variety of builds were rather good. And the rework hasn't changed that, you can still choose how to build your DESTROYER. I decided to capitalize it to show that I know cruiser and battleships probably have a cookie-cutter build already and the "diverse builds" promoted by WG is iffy to say the least, but it is true in the Destroyers section.

[Skpstr]

3 hours ago, JBR40 said:

I posted this in another thread. The main point of why I do not like this rework is that for lower level DD captains (which I have a lot of) you now need a 12 pointer for in my opinion a payable DD. Where as before this could be accomplished with a 10 pointer. 

 

IMO, they should address this.

One way would be to, instead of requiring the first four skills to be taken in order of ascending cost, keep it so that in the first 10 points, you need one skill from each tier, but don't enforce an order.

This would allow, for example, a 6-point captain (in any ship type) to have CE and PT.

[syp_twiz]

i have been watching CC's on twich, and no one has anything good to say about the new skills... it echoes the forum. Gameplay is terrible since the update, no one likes it. All we got out of community time with happa is "the devs will look at it and see if any tweaks need made" i was really disappointed there was no statement, no intent going forward, just your standard "they'll check the spreadsheet" pretty much. 

[Wolfswetpaws]

Thank you for sharing this, @LittleWhiteMouse.

Personally, I'm not happy with the skills rebork.

I'm one of "those guys" who put Last Stand on everything, including most of my CV's (because being 'dead-in-the-water' is not acceptable).  Can't do that anymore.

The capabilities have become more expensive to achieve (in skill points), or impossible to obtain (for a given ship type).  This restricts the "diversity of builds", despite there being more points theoretically available.

Priority Target?  I'm one of "those guys" who *knows* that every ship that can see me is targeting me.  I don't need to waste skill points on confirmation.  
And a study of torpedo attack methods and evasion techniques helps avoid being hit by torpedoes.  It doesn't eliminate being hit, just improves one's odds of dodging when maintaining situational awareness.
This is useful if one is crazy enough to chase DD's with a Battleship. 
For example, find them while they hide in a smokescreen by sailing up close and proximity detecting them.  Yeah, I do stuff like that all too often, for better or for worse.

Am I putting down Miss Mouse's work?  Heck no.  Her work is valued by all players worth their salt.

The details regarding the variable flood chances are most welcome information.

Again, thank you, @LittleWhiteMouse.  Your existence is a boon to the universe.

[Wolfswetpaws]

6 minutes ago, Skpstr said:

IMO, they should address this.

One way would be to, instead of requiring the first four skills to be taken in order of ascending cost, keep it so that in the first 10 points, you need one skill from each tier, but don't enforce an order.

This would allow, for example, a 6-point captain (in any ship type) to have CE and PT.

To piggy-back off of what you wrote.

I figure the cost of the skills should be listed, but the Captain can take any skill they can afford, without having to unlock a tier of skills by taking a lower tier of skills first.

Have 6 skill points?
Take Concealment Expert (4 points) and Last Stand (2 points) for a total of 6 points.
Take other skills as one can afford them, later.  
This way a low-point Commander can still play without hindering their survival too much.

[KilljoyCutter]

As noted elsewhere, Grease The Gears needs to be a percentage reduction of traverse time, not a percentage increase of traverse rate. 

That way, the ships with the turrets that take the longest to traverse, the ships that need the most help, would get the most help. 

 

[sapient007]

Funny and informative as always. Love the review. Thank you 

[SirPent13]

1 hour ago, lightspeed2131 said:

Is there a concise article regarding game designed torpedo flooding chances?  Might be helpful for decisions about the Liquidator skill.

 

Skip to 3:10 to learn about the actual calculation.

[FrodoFraggin]

Disagree with the BFT replacement being gudskill, it needs to be 10% or a two point cost.  I was going to avoid AR in my builds that had BFT, but the nerf to BFT makes AR at 3 points much easier to swallow.

[Ramsalot]

Looking forward to other ship classes.  After some fiddling around with new skills I simply select recommended skills and call it a day, having 21 skill commanders on all the favorite ships by now.  I had enough 19 pointers to upgrade 7 commanders of different nations to 21 points, so I have one for US, U.K., Japan, Germany, Russia, Italy, and France.  It helps that most of the ships I play, aside from T10, are premiums, so in effect I can play seven T10s with full skill set with pretty much every premium for those seven nations.  Different premiums of same class do call for different skill sets sometimes, so these sort of break downs are very useful to find middle ground, until specialized commanders can be skilled up.

[cmdr_bigdog]

LWM, Well done again. 

You are posting this very early or very late.   Either way I know how it is when you have something keeping you awake so you may as well "do something."

Take care.