Yügumo in ranked

Statistics shows that Yügumo is one of the worst winrate ships in this ranked season. Why do I stick to it? Because “playing the meta” always means that your results aren’t from thinking but from better mechanic skills. The highest winrate ship is Jutland. Why? Because the current meta is that destroyers fight each other in the middle and the one with better aim wins. I never play the meta, because that adds nothing to the community but one more “skilled dude” who does what everyone else does, just better.

Instead I do the opposite of what other destroyer players do: flank wide, run from other destroyers and sink battleships. With that I have 53% winrate, 8% higher than the average Yügumo and I expect it to rise due to finally collecting all necessary knowledge to do it well, including peak time – off time. I have 64K average damage instead of 44K, like the ship’s average.

Why does it work? Because unless the teammates are braindead, they do not engage outnumbered. Sure, you sometimes get a “special needs” Kitekaze who contests the middle buff all alone against a Black + 2x Jutland, but most of the time the fellow players just resort to insults for “not helping” and avoid engaging outnumbered. The enemy is expecting all of our destroyers to play by the meta, so they don’t push aggressively, despite they could. Most enemies don’t have radio positioning, since they use all their points on more gun power. But even if they have, the nearest of us will be someone in the middle. Cruisers aren’t particularly popular this season, so the usual radar threats aren’t there. So – played well – a Yügumo can flank the enemy and get to the battleships at the back.

How to start? I wait for the buffs to arrive and go to the side with no buffs, because the side with buffs will likely have volunteers. There are exceptions, like when friendly destroyers want to go that way, but mostly it’s safe to turn towards the empty side. Especially if the first far side buff is concealment which the destroyers love. This doesn’t mean I won’t make a U-turn immediately if I see lemmings behind me.

RPF is mandatory for the Yügumo. Other captain skills are concealment, torpedo reload, +HP, last stand, adrenaline rush and preventive maintenance. Forget smoke, if you’d need it, you’re already cornered. Have torpedo reload booster, those extra torpedoes at the best moment are great. Throwing 16 fishes to unsuspecting battleships has great results.

Also you can fire spread torpedoes if the enemy is maneuvering use torpedo reload booster (8 seconds) count 8 more and fire another spread. If you are lucky the first spread caused flood, he used DCP, it has 13 seconds duration and the second spread will flood him for full time.

Your goal is not flanking, it’s sinking undefended battleships. Flanking is the tool for the goal. Ergo, keep doing it, until you

• Find and sink battleships
• Notice that the battleships are moving away from you
• You are radio-located and keep being located after going a bit wider.

If any of these happen, just abort flanking and return doing what destroyers are generally doing. A Yügumo is bad at trading shells, but are still better than being useless, away from everything. If you get hunted by enemy destroyers, get back to the team, or if that’s impossible, steer towards an island, hide behind it, watch his angle via RPF and torpedo rush him.

While hunting battleships, reist the siren song of buffs. Don’t wait for more than 20 seconds for a buff, unless you want RPF to clear or torp to reload or something. If you have somewhere else to be, don’t delay that for +5% whatever. Don’t forget that if the enemy is playing the meta, your team will be fighting outnumbered when someone engages. By the time it happens, you should be sinking battleships, not counting buffs.

Don’t yolo-rush battleships! The problem isn’t that it often ends up with a dead Yügumo. Trading one for a Missouri or Mushasi is great. With some practice, you can do it with acceptable results. The problem is that rushing doesn’t need torpedo range or concealment, therefore Yügumo isn’t a good pick for that tactics. If you want to regularly rush, play absolutely anything else because they all perform better than Yügumo. Especially Z which can Hydro behind islands and can move to action in the perfect moment. With Yugumo, only rush when cornered.

Watch the pre-game building numbers, if it doesn’t have at least 2×2 battleships, don’t join!

Don’t give up early, just because the team is behind. There are comebacks, work on them. One thing an RPF Yügumo is good at is blocking the final capture circle behind the little islands in it. RPF constantly tells where the enemy will come from and you can either keep running or turn and torpedo-rush.