Fletcher Drivers??

[Frog0321]

I just got my Fletcher. What is the ideal equipment loadout I need for this boat? By slot from left to right would be very helpful. Thanks in advance for your time!!

[Captain_Dorja]

ok here goes. This is how I have mine set up. I don't know if I'd 100% recommend 1 thing, but I will get there in a second.

Equipment Slots left to right
Main Battery Mod 1 - Less detonations, less gun incaps, gun incaps repair faster.

Gun Fire Control System 1 - More accurate is nice, but really, there isn't much in those slot I really want or need on a DD.

Torpedo Tube Modification - faster torp reload at slightly increased risk of torp incaps. Fletcher torps are excellent, and should be your primary weapon. You want to get that reload down as much as humanly possible. I haven't really noticed more incaps from this mod.
Propulsion Mod 1 - Fewer engine incaps is always nice
Propulsion Mod 2 - I know lots of people go for rudder shift, but really, DD rudder shift is already instant on the Fletcher. I stop and shoot in this boat a lot. I want to get back up to speed faster. I want to get back to speed after lots of turns faster. I want to get back to speed after losing engines faster.
Concealment Mod - duh it's the only choice.

Captain skills - I am going to take this a bit father and give my captain's skills
Tier 1 - Situational Awareness (duh) and BFT so I know when I am spotted and can fire my guns a bit faster
Tier 2 - Last stand and torpedo armament expertise - Like I said above, torps are the main weapon. Get that reload down. Last Stand to make engine/rudder hits just irritating, not instant certain death.
Tier 3 - Superintendent - Lots of people take Vigilance and use prem smoke to get an extra charge. I don't want to pay the 22,500 credits for that charge. I use Super. There are plenty of other ways to prevent BBs behind me from dying or torpedoes, and about 2/3 of them are out of my control. Essentially, I play this one a bit like the old saying "I'm not my brother's keeper." I do my best to keep them alive from torps by spotting and killing the source. I leave it up to them to actually do the avoiding.
Tier 4 - AFT - This is a bit questionable in usefulness tbh. I like it for 2 reasons. 1) - I don't have the dubloons to drop all my skills and get Demo Expert. 2) When the circumstances permit it, I do like harassing fire on BBs from stealth range. I guess I also like the longer AA range for when I actually feel that I need to turn on my AA and swat at a plane or two, but really, even on a Fletcher, no one cares about AA
Tier 5 - My 18th point will get my Concealment Expert

My advice for playing the Fletcher is this. Fletcher is basically a Benson on steroids. If you liked the Benson and did good in her, Fletcher is more of the same, but better. Fletcher is an amazing torpedo boat and should be played as a torpedo boat first. Her guns are certainly good, and can be very useful, but don't fall into the trap of firing your guns too often and spoiling your chance of a nice torpedo attack. 1 torpedo hit will do more damage than like  40 gun hits, and with the base 5% chance of fire, shooting high tier ships, you won't likely get much fire damage. Mainly, use your guns to kill enemy DDs in point blank range gunfights, or to finish off low HP targets. I came around and island on a Baltimore who was on about 12,000 HP. The range was about 6km. I loaded AP and put him down before he could fire at me twice. In that kind of a fight, you can load AP and pen cruiser hulls or super structures really easy. You can also do it to BB super structures, but you need to be pretty close, like 6-7km or less. Additionally, you can use the guns to harrass enemy BBs, but if you do that, stop firing nice and early, give yourself like 60-90 seconds to re-position so they don't know where you are anymore, close in and kill them with torpedoes. Remember, even with those guns, Fletcher is a torpedo boat with auxiliary gun-fighting ability, not a gunboat with usable torpedoes.

[10T0nHammer]

Depends on what your goal is. I use it as a torpedo boat so I go with:

 

 

1. Tier 1

• Basic Firing Training: A secondary captain skill which provides a nice 10% boost to your AA and decreases the reload rate of guns under 139mm by 10%. 

1. Tier 2

• Last Stand: A ship with a knocked out engine or rudder retain 85% of their usability.  A great for those who like staying in the thick of it and keep on fighting! 
• Torpedo Armament Expertise: Decreases torpedo reload time by 10%. The best choice for tier 8-10 DDs. The torpedo reload times start getting excessive and every second helps.  

1. Tier 3

• Vigilance: It allows you to spot torpedoes 20% earlier. Great for Knife fighters and to keep you from dying from those annoying random torpedoes that just catch you off guard.

1. Tier 4

• Demolitions Expert: 3% increase to start of fire for each shell. My personal favorite and I would recommend this over the other two choices.

1. Tier 5: 

• Concealment Expert: 10% improvement on concealment. Makes ya harder to spot!

Slot 1:

Main Battery Modification 1: Increases survivability and repairs your turret faster. -20% chance of detonation. -20% of main guns being knocked out or destroyed. -20% repair time on your knocked out guns!

Slot 2:

Fire Control System Mod 1: Increase main battery firing accuracy. Hey can’t win if you can’t hit right?

Slot 3:

Propulsion Modification 1: Increases Survivability and accelerates repair time of the engine. -20% risk of engine knockout. -20% engine repair time. I choose this one over steering because you can’t steer without an engine anyways!

Slot 4:

Propulsion Modification2: -20% time to reach full speed. I prefer this of the two because getting to top speed usually saves my butt more.

OR

Steering Gears Modification 2: -20% to rudder shift time. A faster rudder is never a bad thing, especially if you enjoy knife fighting DDs!

Slot 5:

Concealment System Modification 1: -10% to detectability. Pretty straight forward, very useful for 2 million credits. Nothing annoys people more than being constantly spotted!

With Concealment Expert, you will never be out spotted except for a Kagero, so long as you can pay attention to enemy build and the minimap, you will never be caught off guard. You will want to shorten your already quick reloading torpedoes as those will be your bread and butter. The stock reload on those is around 102 seconds so you can get it down to a pretty nice number. I use Vigilance over torpedo acceleration or SI because, while playing selfishly is more rewarding, spotting torpedoes earlier for your team is always a huge plus in my book. Reason I go with Demo Expert instead of survivability is because you are supposed to play as a torpedo boat and not get spotted and get into gun fights as often as other ships. However, you still want to have the option to gun down things like BBs and CAs and thats where DE comes in very handy. It increases the fire starting chances so spamming HE via invisible fire is a pretty good tactic while waiting for torpedoes to cool down.

 

My list is pretty straightforward but feel free to ask if you have any questions.

[Wyngs_2015]

Grats on getting your Flech. I cant remember slot by slot, sorry. The 2 most important IMO are the concealment perk and captains skill. Everything else is gravy. Also Last Stand

 

EDIT:

Captains Skills (I have a 16 point Captain)

Tier 1: Sit Awareness, Basic Firing Training

Tier 2: Last Stand

Tier 3: Vigilance

Tier 4: Survivability Expert

Tier 5: Concealment Expert

 

Modules:

Torp Mod 1, Guns Mod 1, Torps Mod 3, Damage Control Mod 1, Steering Gears 2, Concealment Mod 1

 

Im a brawler, tend to punish DD's with their cruisers still around, so I tend to take damage. I do however intend to get the torp reloading Captains skill when I get the points, not that I really need it. Also, this is the Captian I use in my Atlanta, meshes nicely..............

[Captain_Dorja]

Me and 10T0nHammer do it pretty similar, except he takes vigilance and I take smoke If I ever get my hands on a few dubloons again, I will probably swap out AFT for Demo Expert, but I don't know. I like the 14.1km range over 11.8km range, even if I fully acknowledge it to not be that useful often times. Without AFT the stealth firing window is only 1.4km, but I don't really stealth gun that often in her.... I really could go either or on AFT/DE but I'd probably say Demo Expert is better in most cases. I wonder which is better on Gearing... that captain will end up in a Gearing sooner or later.

[Frog0321]

My Captain is good. I need the boat module upgrades. I usually shoot it out with other DDs and torpedo everything else, unless the CA/BB have lower health then I will cannon them. I am excited

 

[mofton]

Oh man, I'm pretty close to my Fletcher XP wise, credits... d'oh!

 

Would it be fair to say that there are 2 schools of thought on this:

1) Absolutely maximize damage output and rely on the inherently low detectability and general destroyerness to stay alive

2) Go for a bit more survivability on the logic that you'll live longer and have longer to do more damage?

 

How often do you find you get your torps knocked out with the Torp Mod?

 

Also is there any point to Propulsion Mod 1if you're running with Last Stand? You'll still get it KO, but with LS and premium repair will you be ok?

 

I'm inches from a 15pt captain on Benson and keen to keep him and the Benson for ranked, but have an 11point skipper sitting unused in my Colorado I could transfer. Some difficult decisions ahead...

[Wyngs_2015]

Oh man, I'm pretty close to my Fletcher XP wise, credits... d'oh!

 

Would it be fair to say that there are 2 schools of thought on this:

1) Absolutely maximize damage output and rely on the inherently low detectability and general destroyerness to stay alive

2) Go for a bit more survivability on the logic that you'll live longer and have longer to do more damage?

 

How often do you find you get your torps knocked out with the Torp Mod?

 

Also is there any point to Propulsion Mod 1if you're running with Last Stand? You'll still get it KO, but with LS and premium repair will you be ok?

 

I'm inches from a 15pt captain on Benson and keen to keep him and the Benson for ranked, but have an 11point skipper sitting unused in my Colorado I could transfer. Some difficult decisions ahead...

 

Ive been doing the same thing. I kept a 14 point Captian and am using him to train up in my Benson, 16 point in the Fletch. I use the Atlanta to train both as well, however much prefer the concealment of the 16 point captain for that. Its great fun watching DD and CL drivers crap their pants when an Atlanta suddenly pops out of now where and is already in effective gun range lol. 4 salvoes later and no more DD, about 6 for the average CL, especially if he turns broadside.

 

The propulsion mod is kind of redundant if you have last stand IMO. I dont get my tubes knocked out a lot because I also used torp mod 1, which compensates somewhat. It works okay, get your torps reloaded in a decent amount of time and leaves your captains skills open for Last stand.

[Frog0321]

Thank you all for the info and suggestions!! I am up and running and all upgraded. Kicking [edited]as long as I can fight the urge to rush in to cap  

 

[SneakyBote]

I've been experimenting with torpedo acceleration and survival expert on my Fletcher. The Fletcher is already an extremely maneuverable DD with high gun DPM, and giving it faster torps and more HP (20.7k total) really accentuates it's close range capabilities. The torpedo speed (71 knots) is very useful when attacking cruisers; it's the difference between a cruiser turning away from your torps taking two hits instead of one. I still need to finish training this captain up to concealment expert (2nd 15 point DD skipper), but with the 5.8km detection range I think this build will be amazing at pushing caps-until more people start getting their hands on radar :/

[Formerly_Wu]

I'm weird, so take my advice with a grain of salt, but I run an AA-spec brawler Fletcher and do fantastically well.

 

Captain Skills: Basic Firing Training, Situational Awareness, Last Stand, Vigilance, Survival Expert, Concealment Expert

 

Equipment: Main Battery 1, AA Mod 2 and 3, Propulsion Mod 1 and 2, Concealment Mod

 

Rationale is that Main Battery 2 only increases accuracy by about 7 meters, and taking a hit while your torps are on reload totally negates the purpose of the torpedo mod. Meanwhile, I have cruiser-level AA, especially after the recent patch. I swat down spotter planes almost immediately, take good chunks out of incoming strike planes, and can make CVs pay for trying to perma-spot me with fighters. My record for a game is 32 plane kills, and it's not uncommon to get in the teens and compete with the CVs themselves. Plus, it clearly suprises and annoys the CV captains, which is gratifying all on its own. Many times they'll fixate on you and go on to waste multiple strike wings and spotter squadrons that could have been used against the rest of your team.

 

You have to adjust your playstyle a bit if you're used to nothing but stealth torping. Play aggressive but watch your positioning. Focus on area control and countering enemy DDs- you shouldn't be afraid of anything short of a mirror match, Gearing, or IX/X Soviet. Hold on to your smokes- don't worry so much if you're spotted, it's not as big a deal as you think. You can deny a big portion of the map just by strategically revealing yourself while staying evasive. Only fire one torp salvo at a time unless it's a sure thing- having an emergency torp salvo is very useful to deal with surprises or sudden opportunities, and without torp reload skills you could find yourself stuck.

[Simzee]

I'm weird, so take my advice with a grain of salt, but I run an AA-spec brawler Fletcher and do fantastically well.

 

Captain Skills: Basic Firing Training, Situational Awareness, Last Stand, Vigilance, Survival Expert, Concealment Expert

 

Equipment: Main Battery 1, AA Mod 2 and 3, Propulsion Mod 1 and 2, Concealment Mod

 

Rationale is that Main Battery 2 only increases accuracy by about 7 meters, and taking a hit while your torps are on reload totally negates the purpose of the torpedo mod. Meanwhile, I have cruiser-level AA, especially after the recent patch. I swat down spotter planes almost immediately, take good chunks out of incoming strike planes, and can make CVs pay for trying to perma-spot me with fighters. My record for a game is 32 plane kills, and it's not uncommon to get in the teens and compete with the CVs themselves. Plus, it clearly suprises and annoys the CV captains, which is gratifying all on its own. Many times they'll fixate on you and go on to waste multiple strike wings and spotter squadrons that could have been used against the rest of your team.

 

You have to adjust your playstyle a bit if you're used to nothing but stealth torping. Play aggressive but watch your positioning. Focus on area control and countering enemy DDs- you shouldn't be afraid of anything short of a mirror match, Gearing, or IX/X Soviet. Hold on to your smokes- don't worry so much if you're spotted, it's not as big a deal as you think. You can deny a big portion of the map just by strategically revealing yourself while staying evasive. Only fire one torp salvo at a time unless it's a sure thing- having an emergency torp salvo is very useful to deal with surprises or sudden opportunities, and without torp reload skills you could find yourself stuck.

 

Interesting build, I've got AA Mod 2 and my rating is 54.

I've stuck with reduced torpedo reload, 90 sec reload as I want to try this thing as a torp boat first.

Will see how many radar equipped cruisers are around, can always take the other AA mod if i start to see CV's regularly.

[centarina]

I just got fletcher on sale, but I need to save up 4-5 mil so I can finish upgrading it  lol.     saving 2 mil  is saving 2 mil and I did sell my bogue.     captain is an issue since I kept my farragut and benson.   I have 7 point captain that I can run for now.  farragut has 11 pointer if I want to swap it though. it would cost me too much.    so I will stick with 7 point from bogue (need to respec though since it has TA)

[Sarcastaclese]

I've taken the possibly cringe-worthy approach of maxing out AA skills and upgrades. Don't know how it will work out in the long run but I've had a blast in a couple of games already, swatting 22 planes in one of them.

 

Might not be meta or practical but it cements the image in my mind of the old Fletcher fleet DD in anti-kamikaze role. Dunno if I would go for a C-hull though like they did late war, where they dropped a torp mount for more AA.

[SeaRaptor]

Hammer and Dorja have pretty well laid out the two paths you can take your Fletcher: you can build it and play it as either a gunboat with solid torpedoes, or a torpedo boat with solid guns.  There's no wrong answer, it's just a matter of personal preference.  Both can be highly effective.  

 

I played a lot of IJN DD before moving to the USN line, so I prefer the "torpedo boat with solid guns" route for my Fletcher.  My Gearing is built the other way around and it's a different style of play.  

[centarina]

one of these days, I will have enough fund to get the mod so I can play it  lol.  I am still short a few mil for     conceal,  torp reload and engine.   

[atPrick__]

been a struggle for me with Fletcher...

 

[DedPan]

been a struggle for me with Fletcher...

 

 

The Fletcher didn't really start to work for me until I got all the modules researched, the torpedoes especially being the biggest help for damage.  I tend to favor the torpedo-boat style and only really use my guns on other DDs or stuff I can stealth fire , so I rarely see even 100 hits per game.  Almost 40 games in and I'm only now getting my average damage to creep over the server average.  That said she does basically anything you could ask for to at least some degree, and I'm absolutely loving the ship now that I'm finally getting the feel of it.  I suppose the analogy that she's like a better Benson is true, though even with that in mind it's still a matter of breaking her in and learning just how much farther you can push things and still get away with it.

[centarina]

Finally got my first match with fletcher in.     I still don't have 3mil   mod yet , but it is basically running like benson, but even stock, it is nice boat.  I had  untrained   captain, (now retrained  with 7   point of ability)  by the time I get it fully upgraded, I should be upto 11 point with  SE for lvl4 ability.   looking forward to getting the faster torp reload and better torps.   93k xp to fully upgrade lol.   going to be a while.  

 

2341 base xp with about 70k dmg.    sunk an iowa  and atlanta, 

[Mopic312]

So Centarinam, was this the first battle of the day? and what flags did you have on the ship? and are you a Premi players.....

 

 

By the by;  Yesterday I was in a dogfight with a Fletcher or is it called shipfight and was 1 shot by another Fletcher, never thought that could happen with guns;

[Gavroche_]

My fletcher is the exact same as yours except Vigilance instead of Superintendent and Demolition Expert instead of AFT.

Honestly, as long as you don't do something stupid and spec your fletcher as an AA destroyer I think you'll do fine.

[centarina]

So Centarinam, was this the first battle of the day? and what flags did you have on the ship? and are you a Premi players.....

 

 

By the by;  Yesterday I was in a dogfight with a Fletcher or is it called shipfight and was 1 shot by another Fletcher, never thought that could happen with guns;

 

it was x2 plus premium(1 day free from the event)     so x3   total.  no flag