I really liked your geometry lesson, but I would add a few more very valuable hints for new players. If you are, say 6km from target, but target is moving AWAY from you - your torps are not going to catch it. Also, it is important to remember the RELATIVE speed. If your torps are chasing someone - enemy will have way more time to react. That is why torpedoes are such a great defensive (!) weapon in WoWS. Another cool trick is a cognitive overload of an enemy ship (especially destroyer) when you start shooting with your guns right before your torps approach the target. Enemy often doesn't know what to do - dodge your torps or start firing back.
Hey Raptor. First of all, ive always been a big fan of your Learn to Play series. I'm revisiting the series after awhile to see if it will rekindle any interest on behalf of myself to play WoWS again after being away for almost a year. Anyway, love the content...keep up the good work 👍
I'm an IJN trop DD main so this is going to be a fun series to watch. I may know a lot of it but it is fun to see if you concur. I think maybe, from limited experiance, the IJN torp boats may take a little more planning and stalking patience. The aiming of torpedoes for where the ship will be in range when it isn't now is also confuses your target. When you are spotted and have launched torps and run away they may think you were never in range and not change course and speed. In a rare match when I played randons (CoOp main) my Mutzuki gunned down a Kamikaze, it was repeatedly trying to torp me but I was continiously turning and could keep the guns on him well enough to do him in. In CoOp I like a flank where I can target ships that are intent on going somewhere, especially when they are not being shot at and tend to go straight and full speed. (a good day for Asashio) I don't know if humans dodge torps better than the bots since the bots often seem to know when you have launched. (in CoOp the flank often works better because the bots mostly charge straight ahead and it is hard to get good angles and not get spotted and run over.) A good paraphrase from a line in the movie "The Battle of Britian", "a 109 can shoot you down in 13 seconds so turn every 10."
Yes! Was looking forward to the next learn to play. Continued thanks for you're great learning content! Enjoying playing both American destroyers and heavy cruisers and Japanese heavy cruisers a lot more. Keep up the awesome work!
Thanks Raptor for the very good introduction to the Japanese Torpedo DD line. I will try them out and I am curious to see how they compete to my favorite European torpedo DD line. BTW, I never choose RPF for my DDs, but this match proved there is a lot into it.
I'm slowly changing my thinking on Radio Location. For years I've believed that in randoms, experience trumps RL in terms of knowing where to find/where to look for enemy ships. Subs have changed that equation a little bit, but I think there are ships out there that can benefit from the skill in nearly all situations.
If you like playing the European DDs you will be amazed at how much damage the IJN torps do. You can run up on a BB and delete him in one salvo. It's suicide in the European DDs they just don't hit hard enough, unless your target is very low on HP. RPF is a main skill for my DD captains and some cruisers (the ones that may go DD hunting). You know where your closest target or threat is is compared to you and sometimes which side of an island to aim some suprise for an approaching ship.
The piece of advice about using open water has really changed my approach for the good. Sometimes it is just the simple things that help. Not long ago you were talking about scaling down your WOWS content. Glad you are perservering. Think that WG is slowly changing for the better-but I may be in the minority!@@SeaRaptor
Hi Reptor, so I tried out Mutzuki. Yes it exactly behave as you described. I had some very nice matches in it with lots of torpedo damage. However you need the conceal captain skill. I took it out with 6.00 km concealment and that was sometimes challenging. Guns are funny. You see just single shells flying towards your enemies when you shoot to the aft. It's a fun boat to play. Let's see if it's tech tree successor does it as good as little mighty Mutsuki.
See my previous response: Unique upgrades: Many (not all) Tier X ships have special upgrades that can only be mounted on that ship. These are available to purchase in the Armory with Research Points. wiki.wargaming.net/en/Ship:Upgrades#Unique_Upgrades_.28.22Legendary.22_Upgrades.29 Dazzle is a 4-point commander skill. The "420 blaze it" comment is Zath's joke about Harugumo builds that utilize the unique upgrade and are built for smoke.
I'm a newer player, but I've put in 250+ games in the Mutsuki and I can tell it really isn't for everyone (I guess it applies to all IJN torp DDs though). The guns are next to useless, and while the stealth torping is solid at this tier, it's arguable if it's truly worth it. My main gripe with it is that since you have the absolute worst guns of anything from T5 to T10 by quite a bit, you are reeeeally dependent on outspotting other DDs and having your team deal with them, which in random battle sometimes just doesn't happen... (and you're liable to come across Minekaze/Kamikaze/Fujin even if you're extra careful, which also have better guns than you, or even worse, run into a sub). There are few things more frustrating than keeping an enemy DD outspotted for a minute and not a single shell flying their way, doubly so if they have Radio Location and keep trying to chase you down as you can do nothing but run (and this is also how you'll probably die at the very end of the match). Moving to Fubuki the better guns really are a breath of fresh air, but your concealment is now no longer particularly special so you can't play the outspotting game to the same extent. She's also a lot slower and really feels sluggish to handle, so she gets chased down even harder (but you might actually have a chance at scraping a kill depending on the enemy's HP, or a hail mary torp), but it does feel nice to lay down a big carpet of torps or use them to cover multiple options better. The impact of IJN DDs in the early game feels very questionable to me with the lackluster cap contesting and your team is one set of guns short, with torpedoes also being of questionable reliability. People say they excel in the mid to late game but even this has caveats and generally I feel you're better off having a ship that can play the early game well too. I can see it working way better in divisions though, but that kinda goes for everything.
A solid analysis. The IJN torp botes don't get a lot of love for many of the reasons you mention. They rely more on teammates - especially in the early game - to do their gunfighting for them.
Do you have any quick tips for how to play the other IJN DD line? The Akizuki is one of my favorite classes, so I am grinding for her. Currently at the Hatsuharu and I'm having trouble contributing with only 2 launchers and 2 guns; and the AA is real but not actually that dangerous for even T6 aircraft.
Sadly I'm not sure I can help here, as much as I would like to. I have always struggled with Akizuki, most notably with her handling. I'm game to give it a go, but I would temper expectations. I know that Aki is one of Hapa Fodder's favorites, so maybe I should ask HIM for advice and tips!
@@SeaRaptor Thanks for the reply, and I appreciate the insight. Every other resource tells me the Akizuki is really good, and the other half tells me it is really bad; so I have no idea what I'm getting myself into.
Aki's main battery is really good. It's a touch quirky - you have to spend some time learning shell ballistics and penetration values to really get maximum work out of it - but once you figure it out the guns are capable of insane things. Aki's hull is a handicap you have to work around. She's sluggish, handles badly, and responds slowly to engine commands (the subsequent ships in the branch also have these problems). Overall she's kind of a mixed bag. If you can get used to the handling, the guns more than make up for it. I just struggle mightily with how she handles.
Mutsuki is too good at its tier. 8km torps that go 69 knots with great damage. Not to mention the 5.4 km stealth . I've had 100-120k+ games in this ship while being undetected the whole game. This ship is imo the best for learning stealth torping
It's funny to hear you say that you think Mutsuki is a touch OP, because back in my day (LOL!) Minekaze was grossly OP and Mutsuki was barely average. But you're right, this stealth on this hull with these torps is really good.
It's the old acronym for what is now Radio Location. Radio Location is the captain skill that gives you the curved arc in the middle of your screen showing the direction to the nearest enemy ship.
Yeah, as Ray said the skill called "Radio Location" was originally called "Radio Position Finding". So us old farts still think of it as RPF sometimes.
Methinks 99% of players aren't going to have a commander over rank 6 or 7 (and even that's just from buying them as elite) by the time they're trying to use tier 5 ships, with how abysmal commander xp is in this game, so maybe you should've talked about the concealment *without* the commander skill getting involved?
I could have, but honestly a 10-point commander isn't that hard to grab. Getting up to a single 4-point skill isn't outrageously difficult. Once upon a time that skill cost 5 points and the entry point for destroyer play was significantly worse.
I don't know, it feels to me like the only possible way (obviously without spending anything premium-related) to get a 10 point commander by that point in the tech tree is to buy *several* 6 point commanders, then turn and retire them for 25% of their commander xp, so that you can free-xp your one 6 point commander to keep up to 10. Battles just give so little commander xp that I don't think a commander will get above rank 3 or so on their own from playing through the line normally up to that point - 7 if you got a 6 point commander early on. So with that context - *how* is a 10 point commander not hard to grab? Because it does seem outrageously difficult (or expensive from buying and retiring 6-point) to me. (Genuine question, it would improve quality of play so much to know if there's something I'm missing here.)
I just realized I forgot about coal, which you get a lot of for free early on. I suppose that's a way to get *one* 10 point commander, if they have one for your nation!
Minekaze gets faster reload and less range, so it's a tradeoff. Mutsuki can hang back a little farther at the expense of having to wait longer for her torpedoes to come back. That patience is an important skill to develop before moving on to Fubuki and Akatsuki, IMHO.
I really liked your geometry lesson, but I would add a few more very valuable hints for new players. If you are, say 6km from target, but target is moving AWAY from you - your torps are not going to catch it. Also, it is important to remember the RELATIVE speed. If your torps are chasing someone - enemy will have way more time to react. That is why torpedoes are such a great defensive (!) weapon in WoWS.
Another cool trick is a cognitive overload of an enemy ship (especially destroyer) when you start shooting with your guns right before your torps approach the target. Enemy often doesn't know what to do - dodge your torps or start firing back.
Hey Raptor. First of all, ive always been a big fan of your Learn to Play series. I'm revisiting the series after awhile to see if it will rekindle any interest on behalf of myself to play WoWS again after being away for almost a year. Anyway, love the content...keep up the good work 👍
Welcome back, and thank you!
That amazing water droplets glitch 31:33
Happens all the time when I pause the game. =D
I really appreciate the Geometry class and also love the choice of ships line for a Learn To Play series!!! 🤩
Glad it was helpful!
Thanks mate. Playing this beast as a pure torpedo boat with the long lance torpedoes, and it is a blast.
I'm an IJN trop DD main so this is going to be a fun series to watch. I may know a lot of it but it is fun to see if you concur. I think maybe, from limited experiance, the IJN torp boats may take a little more planning and stalking patience.
The aiming of torpedoes for where the ship will be in range when it isn't now is also confuses your target. When you are spotted and have launched torps and run away they may think you were never in range and not change course and speed.
In a rare match when I played randons (CoOp main) my Mutzuki gunned down a Kamikaze, it was repeatedly trying to torp me but I was continiously turning and could keep the guns on him well enough to do him in.
In CoOp I like a flank where I can target ships that are intent on going somewhere, especially when they are not being shot at and tend to go straight and full speed. (a good day for Asashio) I don't know if humans dodge torps better than the bots since the bots often seem to know when you have launched. (in CoOp the flank often works better because the bots mostly charge straight ahead and it is hard to get good angles and not get spotted and run over.)
A good paraphrase from a line in the movie "The Battle of Britian", "a 109 can shoot you down in 13 seconds so turn every 10."
Yes! Was looking forward to the next learn to play. Continued thanks for you're great learning content! Enjoying playing both American destroyers and heavy cruisers and Japanese heavy cruisers a lot more. Keep up the awesome work!
Good video, as always, torp destroyers aren't always my favorite, but great ship types to have on your tool belt
love "Learn to play" series !
Thanks Raptor for the very good introduction to the Japanese Torpedo DD line. I will try them out and I am curious to see how they compete to my favorite European torpedo DD line. BTW, I never choose RPF for my DDs, but this match proved there is a lot into it.
I'm slowly changing my thinking on Radio Location. For years I've believed that in randoms, experience trumps RL in terms of knowing where to find/where to look for enemy ships. Subs have changed that equation a little bit, but I think there are ships out there that can benefit from the skill in nearly all situations.
If you like playing the European DDs you will be amazed at how much damage the IJN torps do. You can run up on a BB and delete him in one salvo. It's suicide in the European DDs they just don't hit hard enough, unless your target is very low on HP.
RPF is a main skill for my DD captains and some cruisers (the ones that may go DD hunting). You know where your closest target or threat is is compared to you and sometimes which side of an island to aim some suprise for an approaching ship.
Thanks for this. Very useful
Glad it was helpful!
The piece of advice about using open water has really changed my approach for the good. Sometimes it is just the simple things that help. Not long ago you were talking about scaling down your WOWS content. Glad you are perservering. Think that WG is slowly changing for the better-but I may be in the minority!@@SeaRaptor
I need to try it out with a stealthy DD soon.
Hi Reptor, so I tried out Mutzuki. Yes it exactly behave as you described. I had some very nice matches in it with lots of torpedo damage. However you need the conceal captain skill. I took it out with 6.00 km concealment and that was sometimes challenging. Guns are funny. You see just single shells flying towards your enemies when you shoot to the aft. It's a fun boat to play. Let's see if it's tech tree successor does it as good as little mighty Mutsuki.
I agree that you really need the concealment skill. Mutsuki on a 6km detection gives up her largest advantage over most of her opponents.
Radiolocation- I am finding it useful for hunting subs, particularly on ships that don’t get hydro. Slotting it on more cruisers now, also.
Question...in KOTS when you're announcing the rosters, what is meant by:
Dazzle (for a destroyer)
420 blaze it all harugamo
Unique upgrade
See my previous response:
Unique upgrades: Many (not all) Tier X ships have special upgrades that can only be mounted on that ship. These are available to purchase in the Armory with Research Points. wiki.wargaming.net/en/Ship:Upgrades#Unique_Upgrades_.28.22Legendary.22_Upgrades.29
Dazzle is a 4-point commander skill.
The "420 blaze it" comment is Zath's joke about Harugumo builds that utilize the unique upgrade and are built for smoke.
@@SeaRaptor appreciate it. Missed the previous response because my notifications weren't on for some reason. 🤨
Love the content! Happy Holidays!
First! Btw is Defence worth buying?
No idea, haven't played it. Will give it a whirl tonight.
I'm a newer player, but I've put in 250+ games in the Mutsuki and I can tell it really isn't for everyone (I guess it applies to all IJN torp DDs though). The guns are next to useless, and while the stealth torping is solid at this tier, it's arguable if it's truly worth it. My main gripe with it is that since you have the absolute worst guns of anything from T5 to T10 by quite a bit, you are reeeeally dependent on outspotting other DDs and having your team deal with them, which in random battle sometimes just doesn't happen... (and you're liable to come across Minekaze/Kamikaze/Fujin even if you're extra careful, which also have better guns than you, or even worse, run into a sub). There are few things more frustrating than keeping an enemy DD outspotted for a minute and not a single shell flying their way, doubly so if they have Radio Location and keep trying to chase you down as you can do nothing but run (and this is also how you'll probably die at the very end of the match).
Moving to Fubuki the better guns really are a breath of fresh air, but your concealment is now no longer particularly special so you can't play the outspotting game to the same extent. She's also a lot slower and really feels sluggish to handle, so she gets chased down even harder (but you might actually have a chance at scraping a kill depending on the enemy's HP, or a hail mary torp), but it does feel nice to lay down a big carpet of torps or use them to cover multiple options better.
The impact of IJN DDs in the early game feels very questionable to me with the lackluster cap contesting and your team is one set of guns short, with torpedoes also being of questionable reliability. People say they excel in the mid to late game but even this has caveats and generally I feel you're better off having a ship that can play the early game well too. I can see it working way better in divisions though, but that kinda goes for everything.
A solid analysis. The IJN torp botes don't get a lot of love for many of the reasons you mention. They rely more on teammates - especially in the early game - to do their gunfighting for them.
🙋🏼♀ Thx.
Do you have any quick tips for how to play the other IJN DD line? The Akizuki is one of my favorite classes, so I am grinding for her. Currently at the Hatsuharu and I'm having trouble contributing with only 2 launchers and 2 guns; and the AA is real but not actually that dangerous for even T6 aircraft.
Sadly I'm not sure I can help here, as much as I would like to. I have always struggled with Akizuki, most notably with her handling. I'm game to give it a go, but I would temper expectations. I know that Aki is one of Hapa Fodder's favorites, so maybe I should ask HIM for advice and tips!
@@SeaRaptor Thanks for the reply, and I appreciate the insight. Every other resource tells me the Akizuki is really good, and the other half tells me it is really bad; so I have no idea what I'm getting myself into.
Aki's main battery is really good. It's a touch quirky - you have to spend some time learning shell ballistics and penetration values to really get maximum work out of it - but once you figure it out the guns are capable of insane things. Aki's hull is a handicap you have to work around. She's sluggish, handles badly, and responds slowly to engine commands (the subsequent ships in the branch also have these problems). Overall she's kind of a mixed bag. If you can get used to the handling, the guns more than make up for it. I just struggle mightily with how she handles.
Mutsuki is too good at its tier. 8km torps that go 69 knots with great damage. Not to mention the 5.4 km stealth . I've had 100-120k+ games in this ship while being undetected the whole game. This ship is imo the best for learning stealth torping
It's funny to hear you say that you think Mutsuki is a touch OP, because back in my day (LOL!) Minekaze was grossly OP and Mutsuki was barely average. But you're right, this stealth on this hull with these torps is really good.
What does RPF stand for please?
It's the old acronym for what is now Radio Location. Radio Location is the captain skill that gives you the curved arc in the middle of your screen showing the direction to the nearest enemy ship.
@@RayT314 Thanks Ray
Yeah, as Ray said the skill called "Radio Location" was originally called "Radio Position Finding". So us old farts still think of it as RPF sometimes.
Methinks 99% of players aren't going to have a commander over rank 6 or 7 (and even that's just from buying them as elite) by the time they're trying to use tier 5 ships, with how abysmal commander xp is in this game, so maybe you should've talked about the concealment *without* the commander skill getting involved?
I could have, but honestly a 10-point commander isn't that hard to grab. Getting up to a single 4-point skill isn't outrageously difficult. Once upon a time that skill cost 5 points and the entry point for destroyer play was significantly worse.
I don't know, it feels to me like the only possible way (obviously without spending anything premium-related) to get a 10 point commander by that point in the tech tree is to buy *several* 6 point commanders, then turn and retire them for 25% of their commander xp, so that you can free-xp your one 6 point commander to keep up to 10. Battles just give so little commander xp that I don't think a commander will get above rank 3 or so on their own from playing through the line normally up to that point - 7 if you got a 6 point commander early on.
So with that context - *how* is a 10 point commander not hard to grab? Because it does seem outrageously difficult (or expensive from buying and retiring 6-point) to me. (Genuine question, it would improve quality of play so much to know if there's something I'm missing here.)
I just realized I forgot about coal, which you get a lot of for free early on. I suppose that's a way to get *one* 10 point commander, if they have one for your nation!
The 60 second reload sucks. I like the minekaze better because of it. But need the shima so will grid this line up.
Minekaze gets faster reload and less range, so it's a tradeoff. Mutsuki can hang back a little farther at the expense of having to wait longer for her torpedoes to come back. That patience is an important skill to develop before moving on to Fubuki and Akatsuki, IMHO.