While her guns are excellent, her torpedo armament is lacking.

Thanks to the special HE penetration attributes of the 100mm Japanese gun, use of Inertia Fuse for HE Shells is not required, but captains who do gain the ability to penetrate 37mm of armor. Using her AP shells against the flat, broadside hulls of enemy destroyers is likewise a valid option, as the 100mm shells will not over-penetrate them. Akizuki’s armor-piercing shells are deceptive: individually, they do very little damage, but her rate and volume of fire will ensure AP damage racks up quickly against un-angled targets. Her main battery is equally capable of chewing up battleship and cruiser superstructures with armor-piercing rounds or dueling enemy destroyers with high explosive ones. This is not necessarily a bad thing, as it enables her to fire over islands when needed. However, her shells lose velocity quickly, and around 10 km they will have a high ballistic arc similar to those of Atlanta. They are comfortable to fire and fairly easy to guide on to target. This gives Akizuki’s guns a relatively flat arc at close range. Also notable is the initial velocity of those shells: 1000 meters per second.

She can get all of her guns on target even while maneuvering, and their rate of fire rivals that of Tier X Gearing (although Akizuki’s shells do far less damage than Gearing’s). Akizuki sets the mold for later IJN gunboats.Īkizuki’s main battery is comprised of four (4) double 100mm turrets that turn quickly, roughly on par with those found in the middle tiers of the American destroyer line aboard Nicholas, Farragut, and Mahan.

She requires a very different approach than the typical ninja-like play style of other Japanese destroyers that attempt to overwhelm their enemies with torpedoes fired from stealth.

With Tier VIII Akizuki, the IJN tech tree 'gunboat' branch has her first true gunboat - a major departure from the rest of the Japanese destroyer line.

Update 0.7.2 world of warships