I thought this might be interesting to share. As some of you may know I'm rather fond of Khab (1924 randoms, 292 ranked matches). Ahem.

I've tried different Khab configurations in randoms and ranked.

1. stealth build: PM, AR, LS, SE, SI, RPF, CE, Concealment System Mod 1
2. dakka build: PM, AR, LS, BFT, DE, IFHE, AFT, Steering Gears Mod 3

The stealth build was the most effective in ranked (or well, the least ineffective). It allowed Khab to act at least somewhat in the capacity of a DD and it was very good at hunting down DDs (under good conditions it can catch them before they can turn around). I believe these two functions made it more viable in ranked because taking out or deterring the enemy DDs is a pretty valuable function in ranked. However the stealth build isn't effective in randoms. You're almost exclusively limited to playing a sorta-kinda DD and DD hunter and you sacrifice a bunch of gunpower, maneuverability, range and fire chance to do so. Most DDs in randoms die early and there's usually enough ships around to make hunting them impossible until late match (and it's anybodies guess if at that stage there's even any DDs left).

The dakka build was nonviable in ranked. It often ran into problems with contesting a cap, had trouble catching DDs which could see it from orbit and it's nearly outspotted by both Minotaur and Zao which can be... pretty unhealthy. On top of that the return fire in ranked is pretty accurate and focused and with BB AP mechanics being what it is made it ineffective to try to dakka because Khab has neither the armor nor the health pool or super heal to withstand that. However the dakka build is the most effective in randoms. The return fire is usually not as good and as focused as in ranked, hunting DDs isn't as important, and the capacity to kill ships (at 20% health it has a higher HE DPM than a stock Des Moines) means it can actively help shift the balance of power in a match (also has a higher carry potential).

I've found it pretty interesting that two configurations of the same ship can have vast differences in effectiveness depending on the gamemode.

In the case of ranked it enabled me to rank out with 292 matches in khab, 54% WR and 5% star saving rate (not great by any means, but I simply wouldn't have ranked out in the dakka build). In the case of randoms, the stealth build has about a 40% WR and 50k average dmg while the dakka build can be around 60% WR and more than 100k average dmg.

P.S.

Both builds have serious difficulties with consistency and survivability because it can eat multiple BB AP full pens from any angle at any time from any distance from any BB, seen or unseen. By the time the BB pops up on the minimap/viewport the shells are most of the way already and dodging becomes futile. Such hits are usually game-ending for Khab because it's getting deleted outright or has to retreat for the next 5 minutes to heal up.