I agree, I noticed that it has much better natural armor. I would at least get 10k attack before I died. It helps a lot if your gunners are at lvl 20 when you start. The duals are nice but they are a bit short of range. I think the best ship from lvl 12 to lvl 30 is the ECL Duca Degli Abruzzi. It has lots of space on its R slots and comes with trips and duals just for the ship. You can mount around 5.0 or less armor. This will let you ignore the pesky FFs and shoot at the DDs, CLs, CAs. I think after playing BB for awhile auto FCS is good for noobs and getting lots of exp just by clicking but manual allows you to land all shells on your target and gives you more range once your expierenced. Italy is fun though heh:)

I don't know. of the 4 that I've gone through (RN, RM, MN & IJN) I've found the Jaguar to be one of the better DD1s. 

of course, I might just like the 5 R slots with the level 15 dual turrets on them for pure damage dealing when you're block shotting :P 

If you stick the lev 32 6" singles on it then you are ready for some serious damage, they are very powerful for 6" (might be because of there very fast velocity) and a quick reload speed.

They are not to be messed with, I've seen a pack of 4 wipe out a whole fleet in blitz.

In my opinion, the SN DD is the best for GB purposes; it has a sizeable number of T-slots, allowing the most useful employment of 'both' torpedoes (fore) and depth charges (aft).  What's more, her aft-most T-slots can launch directly astern - greatly reducing the chance of being damaged by your own depth charges (as they are already behind you, rather than abreast, when you launch).

As per blitz, I'd have to second the vote(s) for Jaguar - especially if you don't get your gunners a few levels ahead of your operator through missions, etc..  At level 12, France is the only nation that offers a 5-inch single; allowing a properly played, level 12 crewed Jaguar to pummel level 12 crewed ships of other nations.