De Grasse

Although has poor AA Suite, do not be off put by this even being a tier 6 that will expose the De Grasse to a lot of C.V's Playing these Tiers, you can negate or completely avoid & throw off the attacking C.V Player by using Speed Boost prior just as Bombs & Torps being launched @ you. Skilled Evasive Manoeuvres will see you avoid any damage with less skilled players of C.V class.

Alternative Slot 4 Modificaton

I'm playing De Grasse with a 10 skill point captain, worth mentioning, I only play PVE Scenarios (Coop and Special Ops), as De Grasse is a Light Cruiser with a very high base speed and si equipped witha French Engine Boost, instead of slotting Steering Gear Modification 1, I inserted Propulsion Modification 1, with this setup you can, most of the times forget about the rudder, and instead play with the ship speed, to avoid sustaing damage, concrete example: you are short from far away by a Battleships, instead of turning hard top try passing under the enemy shells, you simply set the Engine to full reverse, and before you know you are steaming backward instead of forward and the shot will miss, same with airstrikes. This is because French Engine Boost gives a +15% speed boost both forward and backward (with the relevant acceleration/deceleration capacity), add the increased acceleration and deceleration coming from Propulsion Modification 1, and basicly De Grasse gets transformed into an oversized Gunboat Destroyer, with 6 strong enough Torpedoes that allows her to quicly dispatch enemy Cruisers and Destroyers, and good enough guns to harrass enemy Battleships until an allied ship, with bigger and stronger guns can come to dispatch them.