Final Review: Pan-Asian Tier VIII Premium Destroyer Fen Yang

Just like every Lunar New Year, we are getting new Pan-Asian premium ships.

I won’t bother making full reviews of Sanzang and Wujing since they are pure copy-paste of Saipan and Alsace but for a short opinion: Don’t bother. Saipan is a hard carrier to play due to how little room you have for mistakes due to her low reserves and high restoration time and for Wujing… Alsace is a decent ship but not much more.

As for Fen Yang, here is what I think about this ship. Worth it or not? Able to stand next to Akizuki or Cossack? Let’s see that together.

Historical background

The Yoizuki (“Moon Visible as Day Joins Evening”) was the 11th ship of the Akizuki-class of destroyers from the Imperial Japanese Navy. She was only completed in January 1945 and as such, never saw any action.

The Akizuki-class were designed as anti-aircraft escorts, mostly to protect carrier battle groups. They were armed with what was at the time the best anti-air armament that the Japanese had available, the 100 mm/65 Type 98 (but at the same time were still carrying the infamous 25 mm AA gun). In total, 36 ships were planned but only 12 were completed before the end of the war. Out of the 12 completed ships, 6 would be lost in action. The rest were either scrapped or surrendered to other nations.

After being disarmed, Yoizuki was given to the Republic of China in August 1947 and would be used as a training ship from 1949 until she was scrapped in 1963. There were plans to rearm the Fen Yang with 100 mm guns and long-lance torpedoes salvaged from other ships as well as with 25 mm and 40 mm AA guns but the Korean war put an end to the project.

In World of Warships, we are somewhat getting what Fen Yang might have looked like after she was rearmed even though she is using the twin Japanese 40 mm.

The Good and the Bad

The Good

• High HP pool
• Fairly good firepower with good alpha strike potential
• Improved AP penetration angles
• Good anti-air for a destroyer
• Pan-Asian Smoke Generator
• Hard-hitting deepwater torpedoes

The Bad

• Requires Inertia Fuse for HE Shells
• Much slower rate of fire than Akizuki
• Sluggish with low speed and bad turning radius
• Torpedoes can only hit battleships and carriers.

The camouflages

Type 10

Lunar New Year

The permanent camouflages of the Fen Yang provide the classic bonuses for tier VIII 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
Fen Yang	Propulsion: 52 000 hp	Mk8 mod. 1	100 mm/65 Type98	Type90 mod. 1

General Characteristics and playstyle

Consumables
Slot 1	Slot 2	Slot 3	Slot 4	Slot 5
Damage Control Party Work time: 5 s Cooldown: 40 s	Smoke Generator Number of charges: 5 Work time: 30 s Cooldown: 100 s Smoke radius: 450 m Smoke duration: 70 s	Engine Booster Number of charges: 3 Work time: 120 s Cooldown: 120 s Effect: +8% Maximum speed	Torpedo Reload Booster Number of charges: 3 Work time: 1 s Cooldown: 160 s Torpedo reload time: 5 s	Defensive AA Fire Number of charges: 4 Work time: 40 s Cooldown: 80 s Continuous damage: +50% Damage from shell explosions: +300%

Let’s get this straight. No, the Fen Yang isn’t overpowered like Akizuki. She doesn’t have her huge DPM and cannot pen 30 mm platings with HE.

Does it mean that she is bad? Not really. In action, she is decent. Not bad, not yet another overpowered premium power-creeping older ships, she is just right. She does have a HUGE downside and it is that she needs Inertia Fuse for HE Shells to work. Without that skill, she can only penetrate 17 mm platings which limits her effectiveness a lot.

When it comes to her gameplay, she is still very similar to the Akizuki and your classic gun-focused destroyer but you rely on your AP a lot more. Keep in mind that you are really vulnerable against cruisers as your torps won’t hit them and as strong as her AP can be, the moment they angle, you are pretty much pants down.
As a valuable advantage, she gets access to the Pan-Asian smoke which will be very useful to safely deal damage when she gets the opportunity.

Main Battery

4 x 2 100 mm/65 Type98
Maximum Firing Range	12.460 km
Reloading Time	5.2 s
180 Degree Turn Time	11.25 s
Optimal firing angles at the front	30°
Optimal firing angles at the rear	30°
Sigma	2.0 sigma
Maximum Dispersion	109 m
Shells
Type of Projectile	HE – 100 mm HE Type98
Alpha Damage	1 500 HP
Damage	390 HP
Penetration capacity	17 mm
Explosion size	0.32
Fire chance	8 %
Projectile Speed	1 000 m/s
Air Drag	0.314
Projectile Mass	13 kg
Type of Projectile	AP – 100 mm AP Type98
Alpha Damage	1 900 HP
Projectile Speed	1 000 m/s
Air Drag	0.384
Projectile Mass	16.5 kg
Projectile Krupp	1 754
Projectile Detonator	0.01 s
Detonator threshold	17 mm
Ricochet Angles	60° – 67.5°

Let’s get things clear with her: If you want her HE to be able to do anything, Inertia Fuse for HE Shells is mandatory. Once you get that skill though, she ends up being an honestly nice gunboat, able to hold her ground against most other DDs at her tier except of course things like Akizuki unless the opponent plays poorly.

Against cruisers and battleships when you get on their sides, don’t hesitate to switch to AP. With the improved pen angles, you end up getting some nice chunks on them.

Torpedo Armament

When it comes to her torpedoes, they very much are a side-dish as you can only hit battleships and carriers with them and you only have 4 (8 when using the reload booster). However, as limited as they can be, when you have the occasion to use them, they pack a really nice punch.

Anti-air Armament

I will be honest, her anti-air is not bad at all, at least against tier VI and tier VIII carriers.
Both the long and mid-range have good DPS for this tier and she also generates 5 flaks which is fine enough to deal with the average player that will eat them as if they were cookies.

The armor

She simply has the classic destroyer armor with a 19 mm hull, 13 mm superstructure and 13 mm turret armor.

Final Opinion

Would I recommend the Fen Yang? Probably not. If you want a strong gunboat, just get Cossack, Le Terrible or simply grind for Akizuki. If you want a Pan-Asian DD commander trainer, just get Lo Yang.

The Fen Yang, while she is decent is overall just not worth it considering the competition. Quite ironic though. There are so many strong Tier VIII premiums that once we get one that is just fine, the ship ends up not worth taking.

Recommended build

Now that the commander rework is here, this is the build that I would recommend for Fen Yang:

If you have one of the Rong brothers, the special Survivability Expert is really nice to have. Also, you can swap Consumable Enhancement (useful for the longer Smoke Generator and Engine Boost) for Pyrotechnician to compensate for taking IFHE which is a mandatory skill on this ship.

This concludes my review of the Fen Yang. 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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