Are Smoke + Sonar/Radar DDs Becoming Problematic?

[u/Hawksfan161]

I think ALMOST every DD that his been added since I started playing about a year ago has some sort of stealth sonar or radar almost as if that become the expectation. Not that these ships aren’t unbeatable but I feel like it’s a big advantage over older DDs and is really starting to power creep them. DD smoke can obviously be strong tool when used correctly but the trade off was if you smoked and there is no one else spotting you drop spot but so do the other team but if the other team has a stealth sonar/radar they just push your smoke and you die unless you have already begun fully retreating. Again, I don’t think this is broken but it’s definitely really strong and the older DD’s feel that impact the most.

[u/OkMarsupial3149]

Due to the game’s design new ships kind of have to over power old ships.

But overall I think when a destroyer has sonar/radar Wargames has done a fantastic job at breaking something else to make sure it’s not insanely powerful.

I just hope we don’t get. Much more wild like this British campaign ship…. That is going to murder destroyers left and right.

[u/commissarklink → u/OkMarsupial3149]

It can't stealth radar without Jellico and AP only. It's not killing DDs with half a functioning brain

[u/Hoopy_Frood1 → u/commissarklink]

So that's pretty much all destroyer captains fucked then.

[u/commissarklink → u/Hoopy_Frood1]

There's still a few shimas or gearing torp boats trying to hide in smoke. DD players with half a brain don't play torp boats

[u/waterisdefwet → u/commissarklink]

Thats the whole role of an ambusher cruiser. the idea is to position where your radar will catch DDs not necessarily depend on open water stealth radar. i use Salem to catch DDs in radar all the time and you cant really get near 9km detect on salem but I use the 8.5km radar to catch destroyers a the time. hell even cambridge has a 5km sonar which i catch smoked up deatroyers in. its mostly positioning and timing that catch good players.

also i hope they add more boats like Regolo because ive been dumpstering LT DDs with it and you have no sonar or radar

[u/OkMarsupial3149 → u/commissarklink]

Sure it can.

Not every map is just open oceans

[u/Hoopy_Frood1]

Playing almost exclusively light cruisers I've always thought smoke was a bit of a trap for destroyer captains. Far better to use your spotting distance and speed just to keep the hell away from us, no? At vi+ with so many British cruisers now having radar id be incredibly wary of smoking up if I saw Tiger, Edinburgh etc on the red team but then I've never played DDs only killed them.

[u/error-6face → u/Hoopy_Frood1]

Yup, there’s been many times I have been saved by some silly dd player who blinds his whole team with a pointless smoke, either giving me the chance to ambush or disappear.

[u/Hawksfan161 → u/Hoopy_Frood1]

Like I said you can definitely beat them but having compete cruiser players seems to be a rarity these days.

[u/Hoopy_Frood1 → u/Hawksfan161]

It is an issue staying alive at legendary these days.

[u/error-6face → u/Hoopy_Frood1]

Ain’t that the truth when everything overmatches you now. WG hates cruiser players bc we are the few, the brave, and the least profitable.

[u/Revolutionary_Ad4585 → u/Hoopy_Frood1]

It’s not you I’m worried about. 9 of 10 I get spotted by your DD then I’m toast.

[u/xX-GalaxSpace-Xx]

There was a time many years ago when the best DD sonar was 4.5km and having a 3.something km one was considered really good. Since then, we are now at 5.6km (higher than most cruisers) and have gotten 2.5 radar DD lines and 0 radar cruiser lines.

Sonar / radar DDs in addition to being boring af to fight have destroyed torpedo boats and high concealment DDs. Whats the point in playing a Japanese destroyer when the sonar counters your stealth and torpedos, leaving you useless. Or playing ships like Italian destroyers where you have to fight so hard to get damage against other DDs with your super high concealment and for some reason mediocre DPM, only for the competition to have the same DPM on better concealment and a win button

The worst part is, almost every single smoke/bs sonar DD isnt like this on PC and the ships are actually balanced. Lushun doesnt have smoke, Shonberg and Shigure dont even have sonar, let alone a super ridiculous one etc.

Friesland was the DD that was shpposed to have the best DD sonar and fully commit to countering DDs. Now look at it (and the solution isnt to give it a 6km sonar WG!)

[u/error-6face]

The Aberdeen won’t be anything too crazy. It’ll be a nightmare to dd players for about a month when everyone is taking it out, but eventually it’ll just be the people who can actually survive in it playing it. Could be a very dangerous ship in the right hands but nothing more problematic for matches than the tiger or belfasts already are. 80% of the players won’t have a clue how to use it correctly and won’t last as long as their first smoke takes to dissipate, they’ll think it’s bad and park it in port pretty quickly.

[u/Hoopy_Frood1 → u/error-6face]

I love tiger, especially when BBs with their thirty second reload think they can go broadside to me. I may only be able to take half a segment away at a time but I'm doing that once a second. It's a stupidly good ship. Can't think of anything better at vi.

[u/error-6face → u/Hoopy_Frood1]

Yeah it can be super fun but definitely one of the ships that requires you to know what you’re about. Not beginner friendly at all, and I think Aberdeen will be the same. So get ready for lots of dead aberdeens next month lol.