Paolo Emilio or Vampire II For My First Bureau Ship?

[Lord_Argus]

I just finished a double line reset and I have enough research points to buy any one ship at the moment. The whole process was so easy that I'm not sure why I haven't done this before. I didn't want to use any free xp cause I'm stingy so I did all the battles with the Shimakaze and Harugumo lines. My question is what ship should I get? I'm partial to Destroyers so I was thinking either the Paolo or the Vampire. Which one you think is the best right now? Is the Vampire miles ahead of the Paolo?

[Ensign_Cthulhu]

I like to consider my premium acquisitions in the context of which other ships I have in that nation, what captains I have to put in them, and how they round out my entire fleet's capabilities. Both ships have a particular gimmick which dictates their playstyle. If you have and like Haida and you like Daring, you can sort of work out how Vampire 2 is going to play and whether she is for you. Paolo is a different matter, as there's nothing in the game quite like her.

My initial goal for first RB ship was Paolo, but I'm probably going for Vampire because I do have both Daring and Haida and I have a better idea of how to make Vamp 2 work (plus there's sentimental grounds; she's a ship built in steel that still exists and can be visited, she's Australian like me, and I've been there and seen her). Paolo would be a leap into the unknown.

I see much research in your future.

[deadmeat2012]

I am still a full reset away from getting Vampire but I do have Paolo. Honestly Paolo is a very niche boat, while she is a fun DD in her own right I would get the Vampire first if you can afford both.

[Patosentado]

Paolo Emilio was a real ship, saw combat in WWII, and served with upgrades well into the missile era

[Torenico]

Paolo seems really fun but not really for yoloing a BB, killing it and dying. That ship seems to be good to keep other DDs in check, for area defense, sure it has horrible concealment but few would like to get into a gunfight with a SAP-firing DD. Vampire II seems good as well, insane dpm and it's a strong enough pick for rankeds as well.

 

 

[Fel0niusMonk]

48 minutes ago, Patosentado said:

Paolo Emilio was a real ship, saw combat in WWII, and served with upgrades well into the missile era

Four ships of her class were built, but the Emilio herself was never completed.  Interestingly, they were classed as cruisers instead of destroyers.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitani_Romani-class_cruiser

[AJTP89]

2 hours ago, Torenico said:

Paolo seems really fun but not really for yoloing a BB, killing it and dying. That ship seems to be good to keep other DDs in check, for area defense, sure it has horrible concealment but few would like to get into a gunfight with a SAP-firing DD. Vampire II seems good as well, insane dpm and it's a strong enough pick for rankeds as well.

 

 

Paolo is absolutely not an anti-DD DD. That horrible stealth means other DDs can just keep you spotted and let their friends shoot you up. And while the SAP alpha is scary the ROF is very slow so you're going to lose DPM fights to any decent gunboat DD as long the captain isn't a moron and respects your SAP. And the torps are far too short range to be used for area denial.

Paolo is good at yoloing things, which makes it fun. Sure, you can just pick a target yolo in, but while you'll probably get them you're probably not going to get out alive. But if you pick your targets carefully, use islands as well as your consumables to get in position you can take out just about anything and get away with it. Even other DDs are targets if you set it up right. The trick with Paolo is picking the time and place for your ambush. But another DD scouting in front of their ships is just going to light you up and there's not much Paolo can do about it.

Vampire is more the anti-DD DD. Scary ROF, creeping smoke and hydro. That's a ship with the tools to contest a cap against other DDs.

[Mizzerys_Fate]

3 hours ago, Lord_Argus said:

I just finished a double line reset and I have enough research points to buy any one ship at the moment. The whole process was so easy that I'm not sure why I haven't done this before. I didn't want to use any free xp cause I'm stingy so I did all the battles with the Shimakaze and Harugumo lines. My question is what ship should I get? I'm partial to Destroyers so I was thinking either the Paolo or the Vampire. Which one you think is the best right now? Is the Vampire miles ahead of the Paolo?

The Yollo Emilio is extremely situational and requires above average skill.

The vampire 2 requires average dd skill....

Both are fun, but Vamp is more free to play rather than situational of the yolo

[alexf24]

Paolo Emilio is a one-trick pony.

Vampire II is a better Daring. Not easy to use, but powerful.

I skipped Paolo Emilio and got Vampire II

[Compassghost]

Paolo Emilio is if you want to have fun. Vampire II is if you want to try hard.

[_SterlingArcher_]

Honestly, even though DDs are your thing, Ohio is objectively the best ship to purchase for RP.

Although i will absolutely be getting Vamp2 over the YOLO Emilio (because ANZAC, obvs)

[MBT808]

3 hours ago, _SterlingArcher_ said:

Honestly, even though DDs are your thing, Ohio is objectively the best ship to purchase for RP.

Although i will absolutely be getting Vamp2 over the YOLO Emilio (because ANZAC, obvs)

Siegfried isn’t a bad choice either. I’m honestly surprised they haven’t removed her yet from sale.

[Farm_Fresh_Eggs]

8 hours ago, Compassghost said:

Paolo Emilio is if you want to have fun. Vampire II is if you want to try hard.

I have both, and I agree with this guy

[UltimateNewbie]

Vampire is looking pretty good so far - it actually has me considering going through the pain of RB...

[shoy07]

12 hours ago, _SterlingArcher_ said:

Honestly, even though DDs are your thing, Ohio is objectively the best ship to purchase for RP.

Although i will absolutely be getting Vamp2 over the YOLO Emilio (because ANZAC, obvs)

Agree, if your looking for the "best" RB ship Ohio is the choice.

[Ensign_Cthulhu]

13 hours ago, _SterlingArcher_ said:

Ohio is objectively the best ship to purchase for RP.

I have Thunderer; I feel no need for Ohio. Yes, I know Ohio is sort of like Georgia secondaries with Thunderer mains, but it still feels like unnecessary duplication whereas Vamp 2 is sufficiently different from Daring to make it worthwhile.

[BlackAngelCom]

12 hours ago, MBT808 said:

Siegfried isn’t a bad choice either. I’m honestly surprised they haven’t removed her yet from sale.

They're not going to pull RB ships. It's possible to earn them without spending much (or any ) money but there's an alternate route for impatient people. 

[YouSatInGum]

17 hours ago, Compassghost said:

Paolo Emilio is if you want to have fun. Vampire II is if you want to try hard.

Good Readers Digest advice.Hydro

 

Don't have Vamp yet (waiting for next X2 bonus in a week so cost is only 700Fxp to me) but have had the YoloE for a while.  For me, I had a bunch of fun for while, but the replay value is very limited.  Yolo can't carry games in the traditional sense very well, but can tip things your way if you strike early on.... which is very hard to do consistently.  The brawler skill buff may improve YoloE a bit for normal DD ops.

Vamp2 appears to be another flavor of Daring... various CC have said it's not better or worse... just a bit different which resonates with my opinion.  Hydro makes it better at contesting caps while Daring heal makes it better at multiple DD knife fights.  Crawling smoke makes V2 better at farming BBs where short smoke makes Daring better at DD or other hit and run attacks.

[vak_]

23 hours ago, Lord_Argus said:

I just finished a double line reset and I have enough research points to buy any one ship at the moment. The whole process was so easy that I'm not sure why I haven't done this before. I didn't want to use any free xp cause I'm stingy so I did all the battles with the Shimakaze and Harugumo lines. My question is what ship should I get? I'm partial to Destroyers so I was thinking either the Paolo or the Vampire. Which one you think is the best right now? Is the Vampire miles ahead of the Paolo?

If you're looking for the "best" (i.e. more effective) ship, then Vampire II -- she can contest caps like a beast, can burn other ships like a beast, torpedo range is a respectable 12km and they hit like a truck.

Paolo is a fun and quirky ship, but it doesn't have nearly as much utility. Still, I very much enjoy her, no regrets about spending RP. Being able to do what is essentially a tier 2 torpedo boat yolo rush to tier 9/10 BBs is very satisfying.

If you have any questions about the two ships ask me, I have both of them. Not the best with them, but not the worst either thus far:

[misanthrope0]

22 hours ago, Lord_Argus said:

I just finished a double line reset and I have enough research points to buy any one ship at the moment. The whole process was so easy that I'm not sure why I haven't done this before. I didn't want to use any free xp cause I'm stingy so I did all the battles with the Shimakaze and Harugumo lines. My question is what ship should I get? I'm partial to Destroyers so I was thinking either the Paolo or the Vampire. Which one you think is the best right now? Is the Vampire miles ahead of the Paolo?

And realistically how long did that take you?  Even one line reset doesn't net you the Poalo, so despite wanting some for these ships I have declined to participate.

[vak_]

22 hours ago, Torenico said:

Paolo seems really fun but not really for yoloing a BB, killing it and dying

Well yeah, that's not that fun. You're supposed to yolo a BB, kill it and live :) I think many people make the mistake of always going all the way to the enemy BB, inside the 2km zone. If the BB has support, your best chance is to drop the fish just outside the 2km zone, and then haul your butt out of there. Modules and skill that extend the duration of smoke and engine boost are essential for your escape.

And yes, Paolo can wreck DDs like nobody's business, as long as you can work around the horrid concealment. Salvos that take out a third of HP of the enemy DDs aren't that uncommon.

20 hours ago, AJTP89 said:

Paolo is absolutely not an anti-DD DD

Well, it's not the best ship for this role, but Paolo can certainly function in it. Your salvo alpha, speed and durability work great -- as long as you mitigate the concealment shortcoming -- ambush from behind terrain or out of smoke, using another DD to spot and supporting it, sometimes just full speed ahead rush when you've become spotted, when you know the direction of the enemy.

18 hours ago, alexf24 said:

Paolo Emilio is a one-trick pony.

Not true at all. She's intended as a smoke yolo rushing boat, true, but she can do much more than just that.

[Jemention]

13 minutes ago, misanthrope0 said:

And realistically how long did that take you?  Even one line reset doesn't net you the Poalo, so despite wanting some for these ships I have declined to participate.

I'm not a fan of the RB but its not that hard to get 40k RP pretty quickly if you take advantage of the first reset bonus each season. Wait 1 day before the end of the season and reset either the Japanese DD gun line or the torp line. Next day after the new season starts, reset the remaining line. Now both lines will give you double the RPs and since they share the same Tier 1-4 base, its the most efficient. Either play or FXP your way up, 40k points. Combine that with the starting 10k or the points you get for doing enough daily missions and you easily have enough for a ship usually.

[Delicious_Flat_Chest]

paolo is nice if you wanna just troll around and do dumb crap

vampire is nice if you literally want z52 powercreep and have a high win rate ship. Vampire imo is an auto 60wr ship even with a bad player you should win most of your games solo. Div I wouldn't be surprised seeing 70s and 80wrs even at 100 games plus with how good it synchronises with stuff like smaland.

[Torenico]

21 hours ago, AJTP89 said:

Paolo is absolutely not an anti-DD DD. That horrible stealth means other DDs can just keep you spotted and let their friends shoot you up. And while the SAP alpha is scary the ROF is very slow so you're going to lose DPM fights to any decent gunboat DD as long the captain isn't a moron and respects your SAP. And the torps are far too short range to be used for area denial.

Paolo is good at yoloing things, which makes it fun. Sure, you can just pick a target yolo in, but while you'll probably get them you're probably not going to get out alive. But if you pick your targets carefully, use islands as well as your consumables to get in position you can take out just about anything and get away with it. Even other DDs are targets if you set it up right. The trick with Paolo is picking the time and place for your ambush. But another DD scouting in front of their ships is just going to light you up and there's not much Paolo can do about it.

Vampire is more the anti-DD DD. Scary ROF, creeping smoke and hydro. That's a ship with the tools to contest a cap against other DDs.

Sure, the concealment sucks (Interestingly enough, Paolo has the best concealment of all the open water fast gunboat DDs, these being Udaloi, Tashkent and Mogador) but the spotting DD requires someone to actually hit the Paolo, and a good Paolo player can keep himself alive even when under fire. Getting lit doesn't mean it automatically becomes a problem, some DDs live their entire lives spotted and do very well. Hell, I'd say that said DD dangerously close to a Paolo... heh.

In my opinion, a ship like Paolo shines in environments like Ranked/CBs, particularly the first. I played a lot of Udaloi this season, and the best way to play that ship is to pick attrition fights with other DDs, you don't have to beat him in your first fight, you need to cause enough damage to force him/her to disengage and limp back to his team. I would play the Paolo the same way, it can even dictate the rules of engagement as it has the famous italian "F this S I'm out" smoke to safely disengage/disappear as things get really hot. The SAP, while slow firing, can smack a DD real nice, few DDs would like to gunfight a Paolo tbh...

Why am I saying this? Because I'm seeing a lot of folks using a ship with a great potential like this just to rush a BB, kill it and then die. Maybe survive, in some cases, to try again but without much hp left. I think it's a fun thing to do, don't get me wrong, but there is a very viable alternative for area defense/cap control/DD control that few seem to use. I saw this clearly in a CB battle between my clan and O7, of all clans. We ended up winning by a close margin in a hard fought and very tactical game because our Paolo played like a complete boss to keep two DDs and one BB of the enemy team at bay, coming up on top during small firefights and keeping himself alive due to correct use of smokes and dodging. The moment I saw that brilliant play from our Paolo friend I immediately understood there is just more than "yolo and kill BB".

[Compassghost]

Paolo Emilio is only a one-trick pony if you choose to make it one. You can play serious mind games with Paolo Emilio like faking out a YOLO and causing an entire flank to run away or activate radar and hydro.

PE is also a solid island anchor, one of the few high-tier DDs to be able to do so because of its forward-facing torpedo tubes, and a support fire DD when paired with another DD open-water spotting as it can stealth fire like a Venezia if needed. It isn't as good as a French DD for chasing down torpedo destroyers, but it can do the same push technique on enemy smoke.

 

At a high level of play, you can even do reverse-smoke, where you rush in without smoke, activate it at 2km, and then smoke out of the combat zone.

 

Plenty of ways to make Paolo more than the YOLO boat if you care to do it but sometimes you just want to kick back and destroy some deadeye deadbeats.