I would reccomend going the Somers route with your first bridge operator. If you raise a second one, take him on the Gearing route. That way by the time you can get the Timmerman, your gunners should be high enough level to use the dual 5" 54s or the dual 6".

I had no problem in the gearing, If there were a big advantage with the somers would be the fact its a little harder to hit. Most players who use gearing are more cannon and somers players seem more toward torps

When the game started-"should i get sommers or gearing?"
"Get sommers are you stuiped! gearing sucks!!!"
4 months since game started-"should i get sommers or gearing?"
"Sommers all the way! it can pwn the gearing!!!!!"
8months since game started-"should i get sommers or gearing?"
"How many fucking times do i have to tell you! SOMMERSS!!!!!oneene!111"
1 yr since game started-"what should i get sommers or gearing?"
"dude get geari*PHOOT!*!!!!....*arrow goes through neck* get sommers dude dont listin to him"

so as u can see the sommers has been the dominate speices from the start =P

The real answer is neither. Why? Read on and I'll explain.

L
E
V
E
L - Ship, Dur, Mounts, Cost
12 - Fletcher, 6700, 5R/2T, 36,504
17 - Gearing, 7500, 3R/2T, 47,880
19 - Somers, 7400, 4R/3T, 72,000
26 - Timmerman, 7200, 4R, 11,970 refit cost
26 - DDX, 7500, 5R/1T, 73,000

The Fletcher is the sleeper in the USA DD group. You get it at L12 and in theory it can last you to 30-35. It's weakness is it's 6700 durability and that it can't mount twin 5-inch guns. It can mount twin 4-inch guns and two torp launchers.

The Gearing to Timmerman path never appealed to me. You can't use all your crew with the Timmerman, nor the DDX for that matter. You lose two gun mounts, which also annoyed me. Even with the extra durability it just didn't feel like an upgrade to the Fletcher.

Somers is a nifty ship. I've toyed with only installing the two rear guns, the three torp launchers and no ammor to make this an decent torpeado whoring ship. I use Light HE ammo and peck away long range guns. Really only good for "all welcome" games. You can probably get more XP over time using a DDX but it's worth a night or two goofing around in, in order to get used to whoring torps. It's initial cost is so abusive that you probably won't be able to ammor it up when you get. Thus, a tricked out Fletcher will own a fresh un-armored Sommers.

Timmerman, I'll leave this ship to someone else. Again, the few gun mounts and low crew made me wonder why anyone would use this ship.

DDX is the crown jewl of the U.S. DD line. It's only weakness, if you can call it one, is that it only has one T mount. Otherwise, it feels like you're in a Fletcher with better guns and more durability. It too doesn't mount a full crew and that might annoy some.

So, my recommendation is Fletcher from 12 to 26 then go DDX. Pick up the Somers to play around with torps. Use the extra cash you'll have to ammor up your Fletcher.

i prefer somers,it has a more trop.
Do u think that the new dd in japan is very weak when u compare it with z99 and ddx......

SOMERS!!!

Wait a minute, you sound like to can already get the DDX, but if not you should definitly get the SOMERS, its smaller, more gun slots, more torp slots, and its SEXY LOL, buts its true, the Gearing gets to remodel to Timmerman and its a good gunshiop, but you probably get the DDX already, and ithe remodel money is kinda of a waste of credits.

PS. Its your choice, you won't be stupid fpr picking Gearing, she's a good vessal too.

somer is the way to go until the ddx

Somers 4 guns 3 torps.
Gearing 3 guns 2 torps. (Note slightly more gun space)

For Somers I would wait till gunners are level 20 at least and probably for Gearing as well. At level 20 Fletcher can have decent guns as well so might want to just skip these 2 now unless crew weight becomes a problem.

Somers is a fine ship and that includes gun platform. (Level 20 double 5/38's are what I used.)

DDX is better than both BUT again limited by your gunners level.

Some suggest 5/54's for DD's but I find the weight to be a problem. Perhaps if you run light crew or with empty crew slots they work but I keep full crew and full slots. I did run with only one torp slot on the Somers however to keep weight down. Somers is also a good ship to train new crew on as others have mentioned.

Really I'm not sure why anyone would go Gearing now since DDX is a better gun ship than Timmerman.

stay in fletcher till you get a DDX it blows both of those out of the water.

True. Somers are tw with 3 slots.. Gearing DDR only have 2 while timmerman has none.. But, if you're into guns, DDR is the better option. DDX is upsetting everyone. LoL