Final Review: Italian Tier VI Premium Destroyer Leone

2 years, 3 months and 13 days… 27 months and 13 days… 836 days since the Leone entered supertest. Today, Leone is FINALLY getting released after such a long time, jumping between live testing and dev hell. Was it worth waiting for so long to get that ship? Well… let me tell you what I think of it.

She will be available in the Premium Shop and for 5 300 doubloons in the Armory.

The Historical Background

The Leone is the lead-ship of the Leone-class of destroyers from the Regia Marina. She was launched in October 1923 and completed in July 1924. In total, 5 ships were planned for this class but only 3 were built: Leone, Pantera and Tigre.

All 3 ships had fairly empty careers with the only major action they took part in was the attack of the Allied convoy BN 7 in October 1940. The attack was a failure as they only inflicted light damage to the lead transport ship before being repulsed by the cruiser HMS Leander.

The destroyers remained at dock in Massawa until the very end of ground operations in East Africa. Their commander ordered them to steam out on 31 March 1941, for a naval bombardment against targets around the Suez canal, in a mission without return. Leone ran aground off Massawa on uncharted rocks and was sunk by her sister ships. After being spotted and harassed by British aircraft, Pantera and Tigre reached the Arabian shores, where their crews scuttled them.

The Good and the Bad

The Good

• Decent HP pool
• 8 shells per salvo
• Good HE alpha damage per salvo
• Fast torpedo reload
• Long torpedo range
• Same Smoke Generator as U.S. destroyers
• Decent turning radius

The Bad

• Large ship for her type
• Terribly long main battery reload
• Terrible ballistic
• Bad firing angles
• Only 4 torpedoes per salvo
• Very slow torpedoes
• Below average damage per torpedo
• Low speed
• Only 2 charges of Smoke Generator
• Below average concealment

The camouflage

The permanent camouflage of the Leone provides the classic bonuses for tier VI ships:

• -3% to surface detectability range
• +4% to maximum dispersion of shells fired by the enemy at your ship
• -10% to the cost of the ship’s post-battle service
• +50% to experience earned in the battle

Modules

Hull	Engine	Gun Fire Control System	Main battery	Torpedoes
Leone	Propulsion: 42 000 hp	SDT 6	120 mm/45 Vickers-Terni 1924	533 mm Si 270

General Characteristics and playstyle

Consumables
Slot 1	Slot 2	Slot 3
Damage Control Party Work time: 5 s Cooldown: 40 s	Smoke Generator Number of charges: 2 Work time: 30 s Cooldown: 160 s Smoke radius: 450 m Smoke duration: 118 s	Engine Booster Number of charges: 3 Work time: 120 s Cooldown: 120 s Effect: +8% Maximum speed

Waiting such a long time for such a mediocre ship… On paper, the Leone is somewhat of a gunboat but in action, she (really) isn’t good at it. Her firepower is simply lacking and while she has the alpha damage, the reload is so long that the actual damage output is decent at best. When fighting other destroyers, she also gets crippled by her firing angles may it be when kiting or chasing.

Her mobility also limits her to get into good position or if need be, to escape a fight with her 34 knots base top speed.

Another massive black point is that she only has 2 charges of smoke meaning that you will have to use them wisely.

Main Battery

4 x 2 120 mm/45 Vickers-Terni 1924
Maximum Firing Range	12.080 km
Reloading Time	9.5 s
180 Degree Turn Time	22.5 s
Optimal firing angles at the front	40°
Optimal firing angles at the rear	40°
Sigma	2.0 sigma
Maximum Dispersion	106 m
Shells
Type of Projectile	HE – 120 mm proiettili HE 1918
Alpha Damage	1 700 HP
Damage	770 HP
Penetration capacity	20 mm
Explosion size	0.37
Fire chance	6 %
Projectile Speed	850 m/s
Air Drag	0.405
Projectile Mass	23.15 kg
Type of Projectile	AP – 120 mm proiettili AP 1918
Alpha Damage	2 100 HP
Projectile Speed	850 m/s
Air Drag	0.405
Projectile Mass	23.15 kg
Projectile Krupp	2 000
Projectile Detonator	0.01 s
Detonator threshold	17 mm
Ricochet Angles	45° – 60°

The firepower of the Leone is decent at best and, as explained above, is all about the alpha power rather than the sustained DPM. The reload is tragic for such guns and unless you are fighting a low-tier IJN destroyer or something similar, chances are that a trade with another DD will not go well. Against cruisers and battleships, you can farm some good damage and if the cruiser isn’t too far, you can try to use AP on its upper belt where at least, you might get some penetrations.

The biggest issue of her guns is also their ballistics. If you are trying to shoot at a destroyer kiting away from you, above 7 or 8 km, you will have a lot of trouble hitting anything because of how much velocity the shells lose over the distance.

Torpedo Armament

Her torpedoes are really awkward to judge. They are very slow, you only have 4 of them and the damage is…. decent at best BUT they have low detectability range, fast reload and long range,  meaning that spamming them against battleships ends up being quite effective.

Anti-air Armament

Yeeeeeaaaahhh…. literally any carrier will just have a field day with her. Even to shoot down fighters, she will take ages with such low DPS.

The Armor

Final Opinion

Nope, nope, nope. I definitely cannot recommend that ship in any way. I would even feel sorry for you if you get her in a Christmas container.

Her firepower is lacking, her torpedo power is decent if enemy battleships are kind enough to hit your sea mines, she doesn’t have good mobility and the concealment is nothing worth writing stories about.

836 days to wait… for this…

Recommended build

This is the build that I was running on Leone during testing. If you want, you can swap Swift Fish with Priority Target.

For the order, I recommend going the following way:

• Preventive Maintenance
• Last Stand
• Survivability Expert
• Concealment Expert
• Adrenaline Rush
• Superintendent
• Main Battery and AA Specialist
• Swift Fish

This concludes my review for the Leone. We can now finally forget about her. Thank you for reading this article!

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Have a good one and see you soon!

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Yuzorah

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