Fletcher vs Gearing

[Jaegaer 180]

Ok, 4 more games in Gearing, 4 losses wiht less than 50k average damage. Every single battle had at least 3 radar cruisers so the chance to smoke and spam was mostly zero. Also one game 2 Shimas spammed a 30 torp carpet into my smoke and I couldn't escape it because Gearing ass so fat.

Ditched it, bought back Fletcher, 2 games, 2 wins, 125k dpg... DESPITE getting the same shit MM (Tears of the Desert twice with 3 Chapayecs, a Missouri and a Baltimore on enemy team while we have a Belfast and ample Mogamis/Atagos...).

Torpedo reload on the Fletcher is just dank. You can spam these things like mad while still able to gun down everything in sight. You also don't need any range on the Fletcher bc the base range is perfect (unlike Gearing) so speccing the Fletcher as a torp boat with 120s reload on the torps is entirely viable.

[yoyoya2 528]

But holy shit Fletcher torps are deadly, they are the only torps I keep getting hit by 

[publord 20]

Recently got this spaceship and I love it.

The thing is that TA make the torps even better than fletcher imo. At 71 kts and 13.2km they catch so many people off guard. Dev strikes against complacent minotaurs/neptunes are hilariously common because 71 knots don't give any shits about your hydro

My one complaint is how sluggishly it turns compared to fletcher. 

[RollerCoaster47 758]

7 hours ago, publord said:

Recently got this spaceship and I love it.

The thing is that TA make the torps even better than fletcher imo. At 71 kts and 13.2km they catch so many people off guard. Dev strikes against complacent minotaurs/neptunes are hilariously common because 71 knots don't give any shits about your hydro

My one complaint is how sluggishly it turns compared to fletcher. 

Fletcher torpedoes are still better. They hit harder, have better concealment, and reload faster a tier lower. They're arguably the best torpedoes in the game actually.

[Birkovic 135]

I only just purchased the much hyped Fletcher. Before embarking on this wonderful journey, do you skillfull captains have any words of advice: Must have captain perks, videos to watch or top builds? (or should I just go and read reddit while watching Flamu and Aerroon, like I normally do?)

Thank you in advance o7o7o7o7o7o7

[Rodrigopine 184]

My advice, for what it's worth, is to play it like a torpedo boat that happens to have good close range guns. Most of your big damage should be from metal fish. Guns are for self defense, harassment from smoke/hard cover, finishing off low health targets, ambushing other DDs at the edge of your concealment. You won't win gun trades against other non-us DDs at ranges outside of 7.5km. There are a lot of enemy cruisers that will melt you in a couple of salvos, so you're best giving them a wide berth until you get a feel for the ship and know when you can ambush and when you need to fade. Part of that is knowing the enemy's cool downs so if you know they just used radar or hydro you can press that advantage. Hope this helps.

[RollerCoaster47 758]

Honestly my Gearing has virtually the exact same build as my Shimakaze. The only difference is that on the Gearing I sometimes swap out a skill for Demo Expert to give me more fire starting ability. When I buy the Fletcher back it will have that same build as the Gearing too.

[Birkovic 135]

Upgrades on the Fletcher when running defensive AA:

MBM 2 or AA range?

I'm still a novice but doesn't MBM only provide a marginal improvement on a DD?

[cheereereerios 44]

MBM2 is better dispersion, better secondaries, and torpedo traverse, correct? Yeah, I usually take it on DD's if only to spin the torps around faster, but if you are specializing to DF, the AA range would obviously be better.

Got the Fletcher when tech tree ships were discounted a couple weeks ago. Niiiiiice. (Basically same captain setup as my IJN DD captain as well.)

edit: but Lol Yang laughs at all DD's in the cap now. 

[cheereereerios 44]

Got the Fletcher a couple weeks ago, and good gravy it is just as advertised.

28 games, 71.% win rate (solo), 63.5k damage, etc etc etc. It's just godly.

[Rodrigopine 184]

Finally bought the Gearing during the WG anniversary sale and played 2 games in her last night. What a fat, clumsy, slow DD she is. I tried playing her like a Fletcher last night but the slow speed and maneuverability made evading detection and torpedoes  problematic. Sure you get 16km torps but if you try and hit ships at range the spread is loose enough to leave big gaps easily navigable by Yamatos. If you try to get close like a Shima or a Fletcher to launch torpedoes if you get detected you can't get away fast enough to avoid eating damage. And boy does she eat damage. For a top tier ship WG needs to show her some love.  

[Jarkorsis 92]

They need to improve Torp reload by a bunch. Also buff acceleration a bit.

 

Another advantage Fletcher has is gun range. You can shoot 15 km. (Yes it takes some practice but after playing U.K. CLs it is not to hard an adjustment.)

[Rodrigopine 184]

The Gearing's identity just seems weird. Because of it's size and handling characteristics it can't really brawl, the torpedo reload is a bit too long to consistently harass a push, firing from smoke is super risky because of the hull being big and the handling being sluggish means torpedo evasion is dicey.

I think it'd be an interesting ship if they went with a brawling DD build, buff handling and acceleration, hit points and slightly better concealment. Make it the ship you don't want to see appear at 5km. This would also give it a different identity from other top tier DDs.

Or as you mentioned they could make it bit more of a torpedo boat with faster reloading and quicker torpedoes. Maybe feel-wise it should be a refined Fletcher?

[RollerCoaster47 758]

7 hours ago, Rodrigopine said:

The Gearing's identity just seems weird. Because of it's size and handling characteristics it can't really brawl, the torpedo reload is a bit too long to consistently harass a push, firing from smoke is super risky because of the hull being big and the handling being sluggish means torpedo evasion is dicey.

I think it'd be an interesting ship if they went with a brawling DD build, buff handling and acceleration, hit points and slightly better concealment. Make it the ship you don't want to see appear at 5km. This would also give it a different identity from other top tier DDs.

Or as you mentioned they could make it bit more of a torpedo boat with faster reloading and quicker torpedoes. Maybe feel-wise it should be a refined Fletcher?

You and I must not be playing the same ship....

Oh, never mind, I see you've only played two games in it yet you feel qualified to critique it.

[map381 264]

If I remember correctly, the Gearing can get down to 5.9 concealment, which is the same as the shim.  

[cheereereerios 44]

Have had Gearing for a bit now. I only have a 10-pt captain in her (PM/LS/SE/CE) so far. Originally I built with the torpedo reload upgrade, but I've swapped it out for main gun reload.

Brawling is fine, but you have to play it smart and pick your spots. At the beginning of the game in a cap with 6 other ships also shooting at you isn't the time. Later, hunt down stray DD's and pulverized them. You have a firepower advantage pushing at them with 2x2 turrets.

Not sure what points I'll do next, either BFT or SI, AR, and maybe RPF for the last 4, or TA and I dunno what else.

Edit: Whereas with Fletcher I mostly play it as the best IJN DD in the game, using the guns in opportunistic situations. Trying to force the Gearing into that gameplay doesn't work as well, so I'm trying to use its strengths more.

[Rodrigopine 184]

13 hours ago, RollerCoaster47 said:

You and I must not be playing the same ship....

Oh, never mind, I see you've only played two games in it yet you feel qualified to critique it.

Overall I've got 2,087 games played in DDs. In the last month I've played 126 games in DDs, mostly at tier 9 and 10. I'm pretty sure I'm allowed to have an opinion about the ship based on relevant related experience. If your experience is different with the Gearing then mine and others who have commented negatively then why don't you explain how you've employed it successfully instead of making a sarcastic comment with zero educational value?

12 minutes ago, cheereereerios said:

Have had Gearing for a bit now. I only have a 10-pt captain in her (PM/LS/SE/CE) so far. Originally I built with the torpedo reload upgrade, but I've swapped it out for main gun reload.

Brawling is fine, but you have to play it smart and pick your spots. At the beginning of the game in a cap with 6 other ships also shooting at you isn't the time. Later, hunt down stray DD's and pulverized them. You have a firepower advantage pushing at them with 2x2 turrets.

Not sure what points I'll do next, either BFT or SI, AR, and maybe RPF for the last 4, or TA and I dunno what else.

Edit: Whereas with Fletcher I mostly play it as the best IJN DD in the game, using the guns in opportunistic situations. Trying to force the Gearing into that gameplay doesn't work as well, so I'm trying to use its strengths more.

@RollerCoaster47 Here's a good example of what I was just talking about.

[Double_G 4]

@Rodrigopine I would agree that the Gearing can feel somewhat awkward at times simply because it has an extremely unique play style. Most destroyers in the game have some form of gameplay that is relatively unique to its class: the Shima excels at being a torpedo boat; the Khab excels at being a quasi-cruiser gun boat; the Z52 excels at hunting other ships (mainly DDs) in smoke as well as being able to harass capital ships. While the Gearing does not surpass each of these in their own specialty, it has a foot in each of these doors. 

The Gearing is a fat ship with relatively poor maneuverability, which puts a strong emphasis on positioning because poor positioning will lead to it taking heavy penetration damage and torpedoes; however, the ship has an incredible DPM capable of trashing any DD (especially Japanese) that gets within its range. Because of this, it is an absolute bully when it comes to taking caps. Furthrmore, the fast reload allows you to cause significant fire damage to capital ships that get in your range, and the extremely long smoke duration allows you to stay in aggressive positions longer than the other tier 10 DDs. Its long-range torpedoes have relatively low concealment with a reload around 104 seconds (Shima around 117s) which allows the potential for torpedo damage at close and long range to your ship. It is not incredibly uncommon to have stray torpedoes hit ships that you didn't expect to hit simply because of the range; this characteristic is similar to the pre-modified shima with the 20 km torpedoes. Not to mention that the Gearing can equip defensive fire which basically rules out the possibility for a CV to strike you which is somewhat common for destroyers because they tend to be in front of the rest of the team and the first ships lit. 

It may not have the guns of the Khab, the torps of the Shima, or the hunting power of the Z52, but none of those ships have the versatility of the Gearing. 

[Rodrigopine 184]

I took a few days to consider the feedback from this post plus perusing some Youtube content and I did have greater success this weekend after applying this knowledge. It definitely has very different strengths and weaknesses than the Fletcher and that will definitely take some getting used to. Thanks to everyone that contributed info on the Gearing. I found it to be helpful in improving my approach to this ship.

 

[RollerCoaster47 758]

7 hours ago, Rodrigopine said:

I took a few days to consider the feedback from this post plus perusing some Youtube content and I did have greater success this weekend after applying this knowledge. It definitely has very different strengths and weaknesses than the Fletcher and that will definitely take some getting used to. Thanks to everyone that contributed info on the Gearing. I found it to be helpful in improving my approach to this ship.

 

The Gearing is the most bipolar ship I have played in this game. I ALWAYS do either 10-15K damage and then die or I do 100K+ damage in a good game. There's virtually no in between, EVER. In a good game I'm able to get solid torpedo volleys off, bully destroyers with less firepower, and make full use of my smoke to hammer away at battleships. In games I do shit in I get too aggressive, lose gun battles to other gun boat destroyers, and eat a torpedo I shouldn't have. Just once I wish I could be consistent with it instead of on one extreme end of the spectrum or the other.

[cheereereerios 44]

On 8/15/2017 at 9:46 PM, RollerCoaster47 said:

The Gearing is the most bipolar ship I have played in this game. I ALWAYS do either 10-15K damage and then die or I do 100K+ damage in a good game. There's virtually no in between, EVER. In a good game I'm able to get solid torpedo volleys off, bully destroyers with less firepower, and make full use of my smoke to hammer away at battleships. In games I do shit in I get too aggressive, lose gun battles to other gun boat destroyers, and eat a torpedo I shouldn't have. Just once I wish I could be consistent with it instead of on one extreme end of the spectrum or the other.

The higher tiers feel a lot like ranked to me - you almost have to be fairly conservative/passive at the beginning, staying alive through the first wave of carnage, so you can then start making an impact. Some days I do that better than others...

[Rodrigopine 184]

2 hours ago, cheereereerios said:

The higher tiers feel a lot like ranked to me - you almost have to be fairly conservative/passive at the beginning, staying alive through the first wave of carnage, so you can then start making an impact. Some days I do that better than others...

Yeah, the past 48 hours I've gone from being decent to complete shit in DDs. Mainly I guess it's been that I've gotten away with being super aggressive in the past but I guess now more players are on guard for this kind of thing. Cruiser captains in particular have been better with getting into safe positions early to radar caps without exposing themselves, so it's not uncommon to lose a big hunk of HP from getting lit and then focused. I had gotten used to wining trades early against enemy DDs and withdrawing before their support arrives but that no longer seems possible.