It would have to rely on spotting it for its teammates to remove but as you know from playing random battles how well that works. Ships such as Salem completely negates a Smaland as Smaland have no chance to fight against one. Smaland: This is one of the best DD hunters in the game along with numerous other strengths, but it is not in S because it have absolute counters. To quickly summarize, it because I am only looking at the skill ceiling, from the perspective of top end players But my knowledge of them is specific to my playstyle too, so I’m definitely curious to your rationale. These are the ones I feel are out of place. They are too impactful in matches to be that poor of a ship. Petro - enough Balans to sit higher than an F.Somers - a force despite poor AA consisting of nothing more than Harry and his Colt.Shikishima & Slava when played correct (skill ceiling) would at least be B range.3.3 second reload + Shimakaze damage shells + reload torpedo boost. Hayate is such a middle of the road ship - screams C.Bourgogne - This feels like an A or possibly S+ ship: Speed / MB Range / Reload Boost.Smaland - With “skill ceiling” being a part of the equation, would S+ be a better fit? DPM + Radar.Salem - Shorter radar, no legendary upgrade, + super heal strikes me as A.You want your smoke to come back off cooldown as soon as possible and Shima have that, while Somers have a longer smoke, it is not fit for its role since it isnt a in smoke HE spammer and have to wait a long time before it can have the safety of a smoke charge again.

To quickly set a smoke to fire its guns, to escape from an enemy DD, or to cover from CV. Finally Shima's smoke is much more fitting for its role. Shima also have much better shell velocity and can put up a good fight against DDs. Shima have more DPM and much more fire/min, this allows it to reliably set fires to targets that have to damage control the flooding. Shima is 2 tiers higher than Somers mainly due to its guns. While Yoshino having more hp allows it to stand more ground to hold off pushes, its higher HE pen also helps against very heavily armored targets. Zao have better concealment and better dispersion allowing it to better alpha strike down DDs. I would point out Zao being the same tier as Yoshino and Shima being 2 tier higher than Somers (granted, yes Shima is better for random than Somers where Somers is better in division/ competitive, but 2 tier above seems harsh).

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