Post by Cap'nKaitoGhost on Jun 12, 2018 1:51:43 GMT
Through a friend's generosity, I was recently gifted the Abruzzi. With d'Aosta and Cesare being my favorite ships in game, naturally I was very interested in the tier 7 spaghettibote. I'd watched the videos, read the reviews, and was very aware of her incredibly lackluster reputation. Still, d'Aosta also has a bad rep and I greatly enjoy playing her. I thought "She can't be all that bad, can she?"
Yes. Yes, she can.
First things first, though. She's an utterly gorgeous ship. Long, sleek, and sexy looking. And she drives as good as she looks. A sea-going Ferrari.
She came with 25 personal missions to increase xp. "A perfect opportunity to push my d'Aosta skipper to 14 points and unlock IFHE," I thought. I took her into co-op to get a feel for her, but quickly realized that was a waste of the xp boosts. So into randoms I went.
At first, I tried playing her at range, where I could take advantage of her superior speed and agility to dictate the engagement. Unfortunately, what she has in looks, she utterly lacks in teeth. Her ballistics at that range are terrible, making landing hits a challenge. And anything with armor ends up shrugging off what shells do actually hit. Granted, I don't have IFHE yet. I do have Demo Expert, so I was setting fires often enough. Indeed, about half of my total damage in Abruzzi comes from fires. Her torps, while long ranged, are so slow that they almost never hit anything, especially from 10 km out. So, ranged play doesn't work.
I started moving up, trying to provide close support for my DDs. After all, d'Aosta excels at it, so theoretically Abruzzi should too. Unfortunately, the reality is that when you're that far up, once you get spotted you tend to get focused down. Abruzzi can't repel focus fire of that magnitude. The heal, while neat on a tier 7 CL, simply isn't enough to keep her in the fight. I ended up using it more as a fire control system in order to save my damage control for when things really hit the fan.
The crappy HE wouldn't be such a big problem, if her AP wasn't also terrible. For some reason, she gets worse AP than d'Aosta. At close to mid range, d'Aosta can shred broadside cruisers with her AP. Abruzzi struggled to do anything at mid range, or against even slightly angled targets. I was watching Furutakas and Atlantas laugh her AP off at 10 km.
Abruzzi's weapons just utterly suck. I couldn't buy a win in her today. And this was with the magical tier 7 MM. I don't think I was ever bottom tier in a random match with Abruzzi. I'd hate to face tier 9s.
That's not to say I didnt have fun in her. She can torpedo beat like a boss. One match I had both a Zuiho and an Independence try to focus me down the entire latter half of the match with only a single torp hit as a result. Another, I got the first 2 kills of the match contesting B cap, only to immediately potato myself aground and get deleted. And at the end of it all, when my 25 boost ops were used up, I had taken my Italian CL captain up to 13 points. She always turned a profit for me, too. She has a lot of potential to be a great ship, she's just held back by her guns. Unlocking IFHE should help immensely, I hope. If I had bought her myself, I dont think I'd be regretting it now. Maybe WG will buff her guns eventually.
While I don't enjoy her as much as I do my d'Aosta, I do see myself playing her regularly (although, maybe just in co-op for a while). And I'll be damned if she doesn't look pretty sitting in my port.
Yes. Yes, she can.
First things first, though. She's an utterly gorgeous ship. Long, sleek, and sexy looking. And she drives as good as she looks. A sea-going Ferrari.
She came with 25 personal missions to increase xp. "A perfect opportunity to push my d'Aosta skipper to 14 points and unlock IFHE," I thought. I took her into co-op to get a feel for her, but quickly realized that was a waste of the xp boosts. So into randoms I went.
At first, I tried playing her at range, where I could take advantage of her superior speed and agility to dictate the engagement. Unfortunately, what she has in looks, she utterly lacks in teeth. Her ballistics at that range are terrible, making landing hits a challenge. And anything with armor ends up shrugging off what shells do actually hit. Granted, I don't have IFHE yet. I do have Demo Expert, so I was setting fires often enough. Indeed, about half of my total damage in Abruzzi comes from fires. Her torps, while long ranged, are so slow that they almost never hit anything, especially from 10 km out. So, ranged play doesn't work.
I started moving up, trying to provide close support for my DDs. After all, d'Aosta excels at it, so theoretically Abruzzi should too. Unfortunately, the reality is that when you're that far up, once you get spotted you tend to get focused down. Abruzzi can't repel focus fire of that magnitude. The heal, while neat on a tier 7 CL, simply isn't enough to keep her in the fight. I ended up using it more as a fire control system in order to save my damage control for when things really hit the fan.
The crappy HE wouldn't be such a big problem, if her AP wasn't also terrible. For some reason, she gets worse AP than d'Aosta. At close to mid range, d'Aosta can shred broadside cruisers with her AP. Abruzzi struggled to do anything at mid range, or against even slightly angled targets. I was watching Furutakas and Atlantas laugh her AP off at 10 km.
Abruzzi's weapons just utterly suck. I couldn't buy a win in her today. And this was with the magical tier 7 MM. I don't think I was ever bottom tier in a random match with Abruzzi. I'd hate to face tier 9s.
That's not to say I didnt have fun in her. She can torpedo beat like a boss. One match I had both a Zuiho and an Independence try to focus me down the entire latter half of the match with only a single torp hit as a result. Another, I got the first 2 kills of the match contesting B cap, only to immediately potato myself aground and get deleted. And at the end of it all, when my 25 boost ops were used up, I had taken my Italian CL captain up to 13 points. She always turned a profit for me, too. She has a lot of potential to be a great ship, she's just held back by her guns. Unlocking IFHE should help immensely, I hope. If I had bought her myself, I dont think I'd be regretting it now. Maybe WG will buff her guns eventually.
While I don't enjoy her as much as I do my d'Aosta, I do see myself playing her regularly (although, maybe just in co-op for a while). And I'll be damned if she doesn't look pretty sitting in my port.
