Best Russian dd line

[Soviet_2021_1]

I'm looking for something fast and sturdy.

[Torenico]

Personally I liked both lines, almost equally. They're all good DDs up until Minsk, but I think it the style kinda dies out on that particular ship. It ain't bad, but it's often paired against Tier IX destroyers and radar ships in general, plus the lack of AA becomes a true problem with the ship being unable to survive attacks from Tier VI CVs and virtually defenseless against Tier VIII ones. I haven't played Kiev and Tashkent for ages now, but I remember Kiev was the first ship I did very well in (despite playing it before it had a heal), Tashkent was good but I would like to revisit it one day.

Some people say Khaba is a downgrade, I think not. It's different, the 50mm plating can be a blessing or a problem and iirc it has worse range than Tashkent. It's a big DD, a true big boy, the firepower is pretty damn good if you know how to use it... I used to solo things like Des Moines or Worcester because you can open up the distance between you and the cruiser and using the superior ballistic of the russian DDs you can kite him very comfortably. I don't take Concealment (capt skill) on neither of these ships, Khaba has like 9.something km, horrible yes but I feel like concealment is useless there. I also tried the UU and ended up dropping it, you gain range in exchange for BB-like rudder shift time.

I just unlocked Grozovoi and I have no interest in playing it right now. The split begins pretty poorly with Ognevoi, in my opinion a pretty bad DD. You have bad firepower with just two turret, two guns, with horrible dispersion and bad reload, concealment is good for being a russian boat and the torpedoes are bad on the damage department but the reload is good. I was super surprised by Udaloi, I played it exclusively this ranked season and it's just a great DD, you have better concealment than the french speed boats but you have a heal AND smoke, so you can disengage at will and also heal back your hp, it's damn easy to survive if you pick your fights in a correct manner. The firepower is not as spammy as other gunboats but you have good range and great ballistics, if you open up distance on a ship you can become really annoying. You have torps mounted on both sides of the ship, allowing for 15 torpedoes in the water or french-like yolo runs.

[BadgerXC]

Like you say, I don't think the Minsk is a bad destroyer at tier 7. Tier 7 has match maker challenges. Then when you add in that you will be going for 214,000 XP  to unlock both lines makes the grind a challenge.

[thehelmsman]

Khabarovsk has been trash for quite a while, so Grozovoi is by default the better pick at tier 10, though only by default. It's workable, but there are better options out there. Udaloi is solid, if a bit situational owing to the lackluster concealment; it makes up for this with the combination of gun range and the excellent consumable toolkit, which gives it remarkable survivability in the current meta; it works like a mini-Tashkent with much better flexibility. Ognevoi is trash, a mediocre boat in just about every respect, which essentially means it never has any real advantages to leverage.

Tashkent and Kiev are still hilarious (Tashkent is basically an un-nerfed Khaba with one less turret) and fun to play, just not really competitive any more since Mogador and Le Fantasque have largely usurped the role of pesky long-range dakka dakka spood beest.

Overall, the Grozovoi line is better, but it's relative, and you have to suffer through one of the worst tier 8 DDs to get there.

--Helms