Against a destroyer it isn't much damage, but everything adds up. However, thanks to the wonder of fires and module damage you can do two things: first, fires are free damage. With HE, your damage will vary considerably. To kill a destroyer at the same tier it would take around a minute to kill one with just launching AP (this assumes you ALWAYS hit with EVERY shot). Honestly, the most likely scenario is that it will overpen, which means if it DOES manage to hit with all four guns it will do 1000 damage. If it pens, it will either over-penetrate for 250 damage or it will hit for 1/3 damage, or 833 damage. It will either bounce for no damage, or penetrate. Since DD's don't have citadels, it will never do that 2500 damage. With AP it will do a maximum of 2500 damage, as opposed to 1900 with HE (along with a pre-nerf chance of fire). The most powerful DD gun is the one on the Gremyashchi, since it wasn't affected by the Soviet DD nerf.

As others have said, HE is probably best for DD on DD action.

Jackal world of warships ap vs he