Kleber

Kleber

• Crazy Fast
• Excellent Gunnery
• Ambush Artist

Scope:

On a continuation of Legendary Tier Reviews during v 3.10, which this review encompasses MN DD Kleber. Kleber is an unforgiving, untamed monster capable of dominating many situations in capable hands. Kleber is a GREAT ship, with a HIGH skill floor and an EXTREME skill ceiling.

As a reminder, Legendary Tier ships are not considered Premium Ships and as such are subject to balance changes. Kleber recently underwent a nerf which reduced her torpedo range from 8km to 6km. I acquired Kleber upon completing her bureau project some time ago.

Captains, you will see the current customized LT metric which includes a pair of lists, one short featuring just LT, and a larger list which incorporates LT and Tier VII.

Rating Matrix:

• [BAD, WEAK, AVERAGE, GOOD, GREAT]
• {LOW, MODERATE, HIGH, EXTREME}

History:

Ordered as an improvement off of the 2 existing Mogador-Class Destroyers, (Mogador, Volta) the Kleber Class was inherited to feature improvements made through lessons learned through wartime experience. 4 ships were ordered, some, originally intended to feature 130mm guns. The ship's construction and design were subsequently halted after the French surrender in 1940. The ship was never built.

The Mogador Class was a larger (300t), faster improvement over Le Fantasque Class which featured larger dimensions and improved propulsion systems; and conversion of Le Fantasque's 5x single open mount 139mm main battery into 4 (super-firing, 2 fore, 2 aft) semi enclosed twin-turrets featuring the Canon de 138 modele 1929.

Strengths:

• Access to MBRB
• Punchy Guns
• Great Torpedoes
• Extremely Fast
• Agile

Weaknesses:

• Smokeless
• Unforgiving
• 1 MBRB Charge
• Weak AA
• Very High Skill Floor

The Basics:

What chalks herself up to be arguably one of the highest skill floor destroyers, Kleber's difficulties mount quite high, but is only eclipsed by her outside influence on the battle. Capable of pushing 50+ knots, Kleber is the fastest ship in the game currently, and this alone allows her to have an outsized role in map control and area denial. Kleber's speed allows her to contest critical areas of the map in ways that other ships just cannot as they would not be able to close specific gaps on the map in time, and the result is getting caught awkwardly out in the open.

Kleber has access to Main Battery Reload Booster (MBRB) which will cut her reload in half for 15s and has access to an improved speed boost which reaches 20% power improvement over the usual 8%. Coupled with the top speed on the map, and the strongest boost, Kleber is a rocket ship that is near able to pick her engagements, and their locations, at will.

The downside here is that Kleber has average concealment when she's not actively using witchcraft to slash her concealment to the mid 4km mark and is herself a juicy target covered in the typical 19mm of plating, large health pool and lacking a heal. Given she's lost quite a bit in her gunnery range between versions, Kleber rests much more on a torpedo focused hybrid than her other version found on PC (Kleber has not yet come to Blitz).

We are going to dissect these changes.

Kleber has a pair of interesting playstyles, either crucial area contests or flank artistry, a great Kleber will generally contest several points of combat throughout the battle, often attacking from an unforeseen approach.

Offense:

• GREAT

Kleber has inarguably great offensive statistics, even in this weird form. I mean, weird. The Kleber I'd come to know and love on PC is a much different take on her on Legends, and the result, is a drastic shift in her playstyle. Gun heavy Kleber becomes Ninja Torpedo Kleber? And what's worse, this arguably made her even more lethal, especially when she is one of the most dominant predators on the high seas.

Let's start with the main battery range, and following the current Destroyer Metric, we will chew threw Kleber just like Shimakaze and Gearing before her.

Main Battery Range

• Khabarovsk: 12.3
• Kleber: 11
• Gearing: 10.7
• Shimakaze: 10.7

11km is not bad, in terms of gun range. But it's quite a far cry from her 13.6km base range on PC. Guess what, Khaba actually has BUFFED gun range from her stock PC stat of 11.7km.

Funny.

Main Battery Range

• Khabarovsk: 12.3
• Hsienyang: 11.5
• Paolo Emilio: 11.4
• Udaloi: 11
• Le Fantasque: 11
• Kleber: 11
• Akizuki: 11
• Tashkent: 10.9
• Friesland: 10.9
• ZF-6: 10.8
• Lightning: 10.8
• Lo Yang: 10.8
• Shimakaze: 10.7
• Yudachi: 10.7
• Gearing: 10.7
• Z-23 15cm: 10.6
• Kagero: 10.6
• Fletcher: 10

11km is on the higher side, but it is not the card topper she sees on other versions.

Shell Diameter

• Kleber: 139
• Khabarovsk: 130
• Gearing: 127
• Shimakaze: 127

Kleber fires some very punchy 139mm shells. This is well above the usual shell diameter, and your target will FEEL getting hit.

Main Battery Reload

• Gearing: 3
• Khabarovsk: 5
• Shimakaze: 6.5
• Kleber: 7

Kleber keeps her 7s reload on 4x2 139s. This part stays the same, and rightfully so.

Ricochet Angles (o) Potential/Guaranteed

• Gearing: 45/60
• Shimakaze: 45/60
• Khabarovsk: 45/60
• Kleber 45/60

Like every other destroyer, Kleber has the normal normalization/ricochet values.

Muzzle Velocity

• Shimakaze: 915m/s
• Khabarovsk: 900m/s
• Kleber: 840m/s
• Gearing: 792m/s

840m/s is kind of slow in the sense of muzzle velocity, however, these shells have lower drag values and good weight to them; meaning they carry quite well over longer ranges. Kleber is an adept long-range gunner when the situation calls for it.

Fuse Time (s)

• Gearing: 0.01
• Shimakaze: 0.01
• Khabarovsk: 0.01
• Kleber: 0.025

Due to her meatier shells, Kleber has a slightly longer fuse time. This actually works in her favor, because of the weight of those shells, they are excellent for penetration accessory/auxiliary armor, and will have the fuse time to score full pens.

Shells per Minute

• Gearing: 120
• Khabarovsk: 96
• Kleber: 69
• Shimakaze: 55

Without MBRB, Kleber has a low shell count, but is quite punchy due to her larger shells.

Shells per Minute

• Akizuki: 160
• Kleber: 137 (w/ MBRB)
• Friesland: 133
• Gearing: 120
• Fletcher: 100
• Khabarovsk: 96
• Lightning: 80
• ZF-6: 75
• Hsienyang: 73
• Lo Yang: 73
• Tashkent: 72
• Kleber: 69 (w/o MBRB)
• Shimakaze: 55
• Kagero: 53
• Le Fantasque: 50
• Udaloi: 48
• Z-23 15cm: 45
• Paolo Emilio: 45
• Yudachi: 44

A Kleber with MBRB active will generally shred anything it encounters. This number gets very very scary quick if you start factoring this number as citadels, which given the larger meatier shells, is absolutely a plausibility.

180***^(0)*** Turret Traverse (s)

• Fletcher: 5.3
• Lo Yang: 5.3
• Hsienyang: 5.3
• Gearing: 7
• Friesland: 7.2
• Lightning: 9
• Udaloi: 9
• Khabarovsk: 9
• Kleber: 10
• Akizuki: 11.3
• Kagero: 15
• Yudachi: 15
• Le Fantasque: 18
• Paolo Emilio: 18
• Tashkent: 18.6
• Z-23 15cm: 22.5
• Shimakaze: 23

Kleber's turrets snap, but not quite as snappy as Gearing's. What's important here, Kleber cannot out-turn her gunnery and she will have absolutely no issue getting her guns to target. Kleber also has some forgiving firing angles, which allows her to be a ranged, spamming, kiting, fire-starting nuisance.

HE Alpha

• Z-23 15cm: 2200
• Yudachi: 2150
• Le Fantasque: 2000
• Kleber: 2000
• Gearing: 2000
• Paolo Emilio: 1950
• Fletcher: 1900
• Tashkent: 1900
• Udaloi: 1900
• Lo Yang: 1900
• Hsienyang: 1900
• Khabarovsk: 1900
• Shimakaze: 1800
• Kagero: 1800
• Friesland: 1750
• Lightning: 1700
• ZF-6: 1450
• Akizuki: 1200

Hilariously, Yudachi has some punchy HE shells, otherwise this list goes fairly as expected. 2k HE Alpha per shell, and unsurprisingly, x8 yields a broadside of 16k HE Alpha. For those asking, Gunboat Yudachi is about as effective as an IFHE Minotaur or Spotter Plane Baltimore. Reason being, Yudachi has weaker EHP values than many T6 Destroyers as a T7.

HE Broadside

• Kleber: 16,000
• Khabarovsk: 15,200
• Gearing: 12,000
• Shimakaze: 10,800

Though those values are stock and in vacuum potential, Kleber hits like an angry mule. Aside from her range differences, PC and Legends Kleber have fairly identical gunnery performance values.

HE Damage per Minute

• Kleber: 274,285 (w/ MBRB)
• Gearing: 240,000
• Friesland: 233,333
• Akizuki: 192,000
• Fletcher: 190,000
• Khabarovsk: 182,400
• Lo Yang: 138,182
• Hsienyang: 138,182
• Kleber: 137,143 (w/o MBRB)
• Tashkent: 136,800
• Lightning: 136,000
• ZF-6: 108,750
• Le Fantasque: 100,000
• Shimakaze: 99,962
• Z-23 15: 98,507
• Kagero: 95,290
• Yudachi: 94,853
• Udaloi: 91,200
• Paolo Emilio: 89,477

Angry Kleber noises.

HE Penetration (mm)

• Kleber: 23
• Gearing: 21
• Shimakaze: 21
• Khabarovsk: 21

23mm HE penetration gives Kleber access to the normal array of targets and this is nice but doesn't break any key thresholds. The next would be 27mm

HE Penetration (mm)

• ZF-6: 32
• Z-23 15cm: 25
• Le Fantasque: 23
• Kleber: 23
• Paolo Emilio: 22
• Yudachi: 21
• Gearing: 21
• Fletcher: 21
• Khabarovsk: 21
• Tashkent: 21
• Udaloi: 21
• Lo Yang: 21
• Shimakaze: 21
• Hsienyang: 21
• Kagero: 21
• Akizuki: 20
• Lightning: 20
• Friesland: 20

Definitely not the best, but far from the worst.

Fire Chance

• Kleber: 10
• Khabarovsk: 8
• Shimakaze: 7
• Gearing: 5

Kleber has excellent fire chance % and is a great fire starter in terms of a DD. MBRB is also excellent for starting several perma-fires in short order.

AP Alpha

• Z-23 15cm: 3700
• Paolo Emilio: 3000
• ZF-6: 2950
• Le Fantasque: 2700
• Kleber: 2700
• Khabarovsk: 2600
• Udaloi: 2600
• Tashkent: 2500
• Gearing: 2300
• Shimakaze: 2200
• Yudachi: 2200
• Fletcher: 2200
• Lo Yang: 2200
• Hsienyang: 2200
• Kagero: 2200
• Lightning: 2200
• Friesland: 2100
• Akizuki: 1700

Kleber has chunky AP, if you can manage to make it work. This AP has a fuse time that is too long to arm against most destroyers, though anything thicker than 21mm should be an easy target.

AP Broadside Weight

• Kleber: 21,600
• Khabarovsk: 20,800
• Gearing: 13,800
• Shimakaze: 13,200

21,6k Alpha is quite good for a destroyer to say the least.

AP Damage per Minute

• Kleber: 370,286 (w/ MBRB)
• Gearing: 276,000
• Khabarovsk: 249,000
• Kleber: 185,143 (w/o MBRB)
• Shimakaze: 121,846

The DPM charts you've seen already prove heavily why Kleber leans so much on her gunnery and MBRB. Or should I say, cannot lean into her gunnery. Kleber has just 1 charge of MBRB, and this greatly limits her ability to engage in gunfights on this platform. The MBRB Active values are downright fantastic for a large fast destroyer leader, and without, point much more towards a weaker Torpedo-Focused Destroyer which prefers concealment over open water gunfights.

Like me, you probably just focused on the top numbers at first blush, go back and spot out the bottom numbers, and you will see exactly why 4.4km speed boost torpedo Kleber is the meta. Kleber without MBRB actually sits slightly closer to Shimakaze in gunnery than Khabarovsk. Think about it.

It's basic survival, not rocket surgery.

Torpedo Alpha

• Shimakaze: 23,767
• Paolo Emilio: 23,767
• Yudachi: 20,967
• Kagero: 20,967
• Akizuki: 20,967
• Khabarovsk: 19,500
• Kleber: 18,400
• ZF-6: 18,400
• Le Fantasque: 18,400
• Gearing: 17,900
• Hsienyang: 17,000
• Fletcher: 16,633
• Lightning: 15,533
• Udaloi: 15,100
• Tashkent: 14,400
• Z-23 15cm: 14,400
• Lo Yang: 11,600
• Friesland: 0

Kleber has some pretty average, or just above average torpedo alpha damage, fortunately, Kleber has wonderful Torpedo Armament spaced with 4 triple launchers, 2 per side which leaves 6 torpedoes per side, with amazing reload times.

Torpedo Range

• Gearing: 16.5
• Shimakaze: 11
• Khabarovsk: 6
• Kleber: 6

Another push towards that 4.4km concealment meta. 6km Torpedo Range does Kleber no favors, especially when she has access to ridiculous concealment values.

Torpedo Range:

• Gearing: 16.5
• Shimakaze: 11
• Kagero: 10
• Akizuki: 10
• Lightning: 10
• Yudachi: 10
• Z-23 15cm: 9.5
• Fletcher: 9.2
• Lo Yang: 9.2
• Hsienyang: 9
• Le Fantasque: 8.3
• Tashkent: 8
• Udaloi: 8
• ZF-6: 8
• Kleber: 6
• Paolo Emilio: 6
• Khabarovsk: 6
• Friesland: 0

172k is broken, I'm sorry to say it, but this is why Kleber over-performs. Her access to a short reload (just over a minute) is why her Torpedoes are so lethal. Kleber can do this un-concealed hidden wag (an S-maneuver) which will allow her to fire multiple sets of very fast, fairly punchy torpedoes.

6km is shorter than her 7km reach on PC, though this is nerfed, it's still quite viable in terms of the Auboyneau torpedo-focused playstyles.

While Benham came heavily nerfed from her PC version to Legends to prevent exactly this situation, this version of Kleber is just a faster, better hidden, more lethal and more survivable Benham. Another consideration is that Paolo Emilio makes similar moves, and again, arguably less effective due to longer reload.

Torpedo Damage per Minute

• Kleber: 172,003
• Shimakaze: 139,749
• Khabarovsk: 117,000
• Gearing: 77,205

This 77s reload contributes heavily to her 172k DPM, on otherwise slightly above average, fast torpedoes.

Torpedo Reload Time (s)

• Shimakaze: 153
• Gearing: 136
• Khabarovsk: 100
• Kleber: 77

These numbers mirror her PC counterpart, in terms of Torpedo performance, and reload.

Torpedo Concealment (Km)

• Khabarovsk: 0.6
• Gearing: 1.4
• Shimakaze: 1.7
• Kleber: 1.8

1.8km Torpedo Concealment is weak, but her torp speed is fast enough to help average out her reaction times.

Torpedo Speed

• Kleber: 75
• Shimakaze: 67
• Gearing: 66
• Khabarovsk: 58

9.23s reaction time is kind of below average, but it's not completely abysmal. Kleber's torpedoes are heavily compensated by their reload, and their speed.

Torpedo Reaction Time (s)

• Khabarovsk: 3.98
• Gearing: 8.16
• Kleber: 9.23
• Shimakaze: 12

I'll be honest, this version of Kleber is just odd to me. That's not going to deter this ship from ranking very well, as she does have access to excellent (albeit severely limited) values. With such a fast reload, solidly performing torpedoes, excellent speed and concealment values which allow her to get dangerously close to targets and ensure a high hit count.

What's worse, Kleber has the ability to encroach and hunt her own predators with the same fast approach, whether she opt for her gunnery or torpedo ambush. As long as Kleber holds her access to absurd concealment values, Kleber will continue to hold extreme potential rankings, as she can both engage, disengage, and ambush at will. This is the fastest ship on the map, with access to absurd concealment and very reliable armament: while the skill to unlock this throughout the battle is quite high, it is as well inarguably effective and near limitless skill ceiling in many situations.

Defense:

• WEAK

Kleber is the kind of ship that relies exclusively on her ability to control the range of engagement for success. While she is also the fastest ship on the seas, she is also smokeless and relies heavily on being able to outrun her opponents. The kicker here is, that most fights where Kleber dictates the terms of engagement, she is in the advantage and will win. Defensively, Kleber is quite weak and her prowess rests heavily on killing her opponents or running away. While she's quite adept at outrunning her opponents, she lacks smoke and is also similarly weak to aircraft.

Base HP

• Khabarovsk: 22,500
• Kleber: 21,900
• Gearing: 19,400
• Shimakaze: 17,900

21,9k base HP is quite strong, and while Kleber tends to lean heavily into concealment to snipe out unsuspecting prey; it is more than enough to lean into a few gunfights with the proper conservation of health.

Stock Base HP

• Paolo Emilio: 24,400
• Khabarovsk: 22,500
• Kleber: 21,900
• Tashkent: 21,500
• Akizuki: 20,400
• Z-23: 19,500
• Gearing: 19,400
• Udaloi: 18,800
• Le Fantasque: 18,500
• Shimakaze: 17,900
• Friesland: 17,600
• ZF-6: 17,000
• Fletcher: 16,700
• Lo Yang: 16,100
• Lightning: 15,900
• Hsienyang: 15,500
• Kagero: 15,100
• Yudachi: 13,200

Generally, I don't tend to run Will Sims' Inspiration unless he's on Violette.

Effective Health Pool

• Khabarovsk: 28,772
• Gearing: 22,600
• Kleber: 21,900
• Shimakaze: 17,900

Effective Health Pool

• Khabarovsk: 28,772
• Tashkent: 27,500
• Udaloi: 24,000
• Kleber: 21,900
• Gearing: 19,400
• Shimakaze: 17,900

With all things and there heals, 21.9k is strong, but not as strong as others.

Armor Profile

• Khabarovsk: 19 plating, 25 deck, 50 cheeks, 50 belt.
• Gearing: 19 plating, 21mm belt
• Shimakaze: 19
• Kleber: 19

Covered in 19mm plating, Kleber is not very resistant to incoming fire, but will tend to force a lot of over-penetrations. Defensively, Kleber is quite weak. Kleber relies on all out speed and offense to score critical positional advantages. Her AA Aura is not strong enough to repel a full squad, and her lack of smoke results in forcing Kleber to disengage or die in disadvantageous situations.

Anti-Air Suite:

• AVERAGE

Kleber won't be shooting down full squads, that's a simple fact. While Kleber has the ability to run out of radar quite quickly, she lacks smoke and has slightly above average AA in terms of DPS; the result is that Kleber is profoundly weak to aircraft as they can just hover over her and keep her spotted. Like most destroyers, Kleber has little health to negotiate and as such concealment is her ally.

Anti-Air Damage per Second

• Gearing: 149
• Khabarovsk: 130
• Kleber: 102
• Shimakaze: 72

Anti-Air Damage per Second

• Friesland: 286
• Akizuki: 158
• Gearing: 149
• Fletcher: 135
• Khabarovsk: 130
• ZF-6: 110
• Kleber: 102
• Tashkent: 86
• Udaloi: 84
• Lo Yang: 80
• Lightning: 79
• Hsienyang: 77
• Z-23 15cm: 73
• Shimakaze: 72
• Le Fantasque: 68
• Paolo Emilio: 63
• Kagero: 36
• Yudachi: 11

More stuff showing that Kleber is quite mediocre all around, and she has an aircraft allergy, like most destroyers.

Anti-Air Range

• Khabarovsk: 5.2
• Gearing: 5
• Shimakaze: 5
• Kleber: 4.5

Maneuverability:

• GOOD

Let's start by summarizing first, then going over the summary one step at a time. Kleber is fast, with a wide turn radius and a below average rudder shift. This very high-top speed nudge her up from otherwise weaker to average ratings. Kleber is a large destroyer, and she handles like it.

Turn Radius (m)

• Paolo Emilio: 810
• Khabarovsk: 760
• Kleber: 740
• Akizuki: 730
• Tashkent: 730
• Le Fantasque: 690
• Shimakaze: 690
• Z-23: 680
• ZF-6: 670
• Kagero: 640
• Gearing: 640
• Friesland: 620
• Udaloi: 610
• Lightning: 590
• Yudachi: 570
• Lo Yang: 570
• Fletcher: 560

740m turn radius is quite wide but not extremely wide

Rudder Shift (s)

• Shimakaze: 3
• Gearing: 3.3
• Kleber: 4.8
• Khabarovsk: 11.1

4.8 is not murderously slow, but it's far from adeptly agile.

Base Top Speed

• Kleber: 44
• Khabarovsk: 43
• Shimakaze: 39
• Gearing: 36

Base Top Speed

• Kleber: 44
• Paolo Emilio: 43.5
• Khabarovsk: 43
• Le Fantasque: 42.7
• Tashkent: 42.5
• Shimakaze: 39
• Udaloi: 38
• Lo Yang: 38
• Hsienyang: 38
• Z-23 15cm: 37
• Fletcher: 36.5
• Gearing: 36
• Lightning: 36
• Friesland: 36
• Kagero: 35
• Yudachi: 35
• ZF-6: 35
• Akizuki: 33

Her 44-knot top speed base is what really pulls her up in the rankings. This 20% speed boost turns Kleber into a rocket ship which allows her to employ a wide array of tactics and map control that other ships could only dream of.

Concealment:

• GREAT

This section is going to be hilarious, please excuse me while I try to decode the witchcraft behind Kleber.

Stock Concealment (Km)

• Khabarovsk: 7.7
• Gearing: 7.1
• Kleber: 6.9
• Shimakaze: 6.7

Why is Kleber busted?

Her stock concealment would be a good place to start.

How on Earth is Kleber better concealed than a Gearing?

Giving Kleber access to all her weapons, minus some range and given better concealment is most certainly a recipe for an extremely lethal hunter. 4.4km concealment with 80-knot torpedoes...from start to finish, some targets may have less than 20s of reaction time from the moment the torpedoes leave the tubes. Engagements can be frighteningly fast given this concealment and her speed. In the hands of a competent captain, this is absolutely one of the most effective and lethal strategies currently in the meta.

Want to see something truly horrifying? A Kleber can actually dev strike a Minotaur with her MBRB, with repetitive cit-hits.

Kleber comes quite nerfed from her PC counterpart in terms of her gunnery, and quite buffed in terms of her 9.8km stock concealment. Khaba's is 10km.