Final Review: British Tier X Freemium Destroyer Druid

Well no. It turns out that we are actually getting 2 tier X destroyers, one after the other, for Research Points. Ladies and Gentlemen, the Druid and her impressive auto-loading 127 mm guns will arrive in the Armory with Update 0.10.5 for the hefty price of 56 000 Research Points.

Worth? Not Worth? Are those guns able to compensate for the complete lack of torpedoes? Here is my opinion on the subject.

Historical Background

When first announced, people believed the Druid to be based on the “Super-Daring” which were meant to be large destroyers succeeding the Daring-class and armed with the newly designed auto-loading 5″/56 guns. The QF Mark N2 was meant to be the navalized version of the Mark N1. These guns had a planned rate of fire of 40 rounds per minute, able to fire 100 rounds before having to wait 5 minutes for the guns to cool down to acceptable levels and fire again.

The class intended to carry these weapons was canceled in 1953 and as such, all work on these guns and mountings was abandoned soon after.

In World of Warships, we are getting what is essentially an upscaled Battle-class destroyer with two twin turrets armed with the 5″/56 QF Mark N2. The ship doesn’t have any torpedo armament but instead an extensive AA armament with no less than four 40 mm Bofors Mk VI and eight 20 mm Oerlikon Mk V. (Don’t get your hopes too high though, her AA is nothing crazy.)

The Good and the Bad

The Good

• Third highest HP pool of all tier X DDs, right behind Harugumo (and far in the distance, there is Elbing)
• Same Repair Party as Daring
• Great effective AP DPM
• Amazing ballistic
• Amazing AP performances
• Improved ricochet angles
• All-forward main battery
• Short-Burst Smoke Generator, very useful for an aggressive playstyle
• Same short-range hydroacoustic Search as the other British destroyers
• British Improved Acceleration

The Bad

• Only four guns
• No HE shells
• All-forward main battery (yes, it’s a double-edged sword when forced to kite away)
• No torpedoes
• Low Maximum Speed
• Large Target for a destroyer
• Poor concealment

The camouflage

The permanent camouflage of the Druid provides the classic bonuses for tier X ships:

• -3% to surface detectability range
• +4% to maximum dispersion of shells fired by the enemy at your ship
• -50% to the cost of the ship’s post-battle service
• +20% credits earned in the battle.
• +100% to experience earned in the battle

Modules

Hull	Engine	Gun Fire Control System	Main battery
Druid	Propulsion: 60 000 hp	Mk X mod. 1	127 mm/56 QF Mk N2

General Characteristics and playstyle

Consumables
Slot 1	Slot 2	Slot 3	Slot 4
Damage Control Party Work time: 5 s Cooldown: 40 s	Short-Burst Smoke Generator Number of charges: 6 Work time: 10 s Cooldown: 70 s Smoke duration time: 40 s Smoke radius: 600 m	Short-Range Hydroacoustic Search Number of charges: 3 Work time: 180 s Cooldown: 120 s Torpedoes spotting range: 3.0 km Ship spotting range: 3.0 km	Repair Party Number of charges: 2 Work time: 10 s Cooldown: 80 s HP regeneration speed: +1%/s

Ladies and Gentlemen, there is a new AP machine gun in town. The Druid with her fast-firing 127 mm guns and their beefy AP shells are here to turn any opponent you will face and that won’t be fully angled into Swiss cheese.

This destroyer presents a set of characteristics perfectly suited for guerilla-like engagements. She will melt pretty much any destroyer that she will face with her great effective AP DPM and for cases where she has to disengage fast, she has the short-burst smoke and Royal Navy destroyer acceleration. She also has a Repair Party to recover and get back in for another round. “Sadly” she used to have the same Repair Party as Neustrashimy but it was changed and is now the same as on the high tier British destroyers. I say sadly because, with the old Repair Party, she simply was a tier XI. You could just face rush literally anything and print a new ship when needed.

While the ship’s firepower and survivability are among the best for a tier X destroyer, she still has two weaknesses. The first weakness is that if an enemy ship fully angles against her, the effective DPM will drop significantly and there are no torpedoes to compensate. The second weakness is her lack of speed as she is, with Daring, the slowest tier X destroyer with a top speed of 36.8 knots with Sierra Mike equipped. While it’s not that big of an issue, she also doesn’t have the best concealment so you need to be careful when approaching capture points.

If you want to see the ship in action, I recorded a game with her available here:

Main Battery

2 x 2 127 mm/56 QF Mk N2
Maximum Firing Range	12.100 km
Reloading Time	1.8 s
180 Degree Turn Time	7.2 s
Optimal firing angles at the front	0°
Optimal firing angles at the rear	30°
Sigma	2.0 sigma
Maximum Dispersion	106 m
Shell
Type of Projectile	AP – 127 mm AP 58 lb Mk N2
Alpha Damage	2 200 HP
Projectile Speed	975 m/s
Air drag	0.23
Projectile Mass	23 kg
Projectile Krupp	2 800
Projectile Detonator	0.005s
Detonator Threshold	12 mm
Ricochet Angles	60° – 75°

When it comes to her firepower, the Druid is more or less the destroyer version of Minotaur. She is only able to fire AP but, said AP shells have improved ricochet angles, short arming time and reduced arming threshold. The reduced arming threshold and arming time are especially important as they make it extremely hard for AP shells to over-penetrate the target.

Unlike the Minotaur though, the ballistics are fairly flat. In fact, she has pretty much the same shells travel time as Kléber and the AP penetration is not bad at all either as you can see below:

It is, in fact, perfectly possible to citadel cruisers with her.

This main battery is, however, a bit of a double-edged sword. With the all-forward armament, you can perfectly go straight at an opponent and, as such, present a smaller target but at the same time, when kiting, you will be forced to stay at a 30° angle to be able to shoot at whatever is after you.

Anti-air Armament

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeell…. even though she has a truckload of 40 mm Bofors, her DPS really isn’t anything impressive and it’s not the flak explosions that will compensate for it. Thankfully, with the short-burst smoke generator, you will have a “cover on-demand” from the pesky carriers.

The Armor

The Druid presents the standard armor protection of tier X destroyers. In her case, it’s actually not great when looking at her turrets. These turrets are massive and since they aren’t well armored, you will often see them getting crippled.

Final Opinion

Were you already having trouble picking between the different ships available for Research points? Well too bad, Druid won’t make it easier. I really had a blast with that ship and her combination of high effective DPM and high survivability. I can only recommend you this ship, especially if you are already the type to like the general playstyle of the Daring.

One thing to keep in mind with the Druid is that you will want a specialized captain for the Improved AP shell damage.

Recommended build

During the testing of the Druid, I was running the following Captain skills:

• Preventive Maintenance
• Last Stand
• Survivability Expert
• Concealment Expert
• Adrenaline Rush
• Superintendent
• Main Battery and AA Expert
• Incoming Fire Alert

Alternatively, you can take Aiming System Modification 1 instead of Smoke Generator 1.

This concludes my review of the Druid. Thank you for reading this article!

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Have a good one and see you soon!

Yuzorah

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