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For the improving CV players!

Table of Contents Introduction tl;dr (30s summary) Skill level Who should play this line Captain build and ship upgrades Line Characteristics Armor and Durability Main Armament Secondary Armament Torpedoes Anti-Air Defense Ship Launched Depth Charges Maneuverability Concealment Consumables General Playstyle Early game Mid Game Late Game Ranked Clan Battles Individual Ship Rating Gameplay Tips Final Thoughts Sources used If you just want quick gameplay help, I recommend reading the "Captain build and ship upgrades", "General Playstyle", and "Gameplay Tips" sections. These section headers will be highlighted in green for convenience. Use Ctrl+ F to find the section you are looking for. Introduction The following is my review of the Russian "Light Cruiser" Tech Tree line, aka. the Nevsky Line. My assessment is current as of 4/18/2023 in patch 12.3 Barring major changes, this guide will remain relevant throughout the future. tl;dr: Tier 5-8 are glass cannons. Fragile hull but excellent firepower. They kite enemies while burning them down. Tier 9+ trades firepower for powerful AP and 12km radar to become versatile utility ships. Specialize in fighting DDs and other cruisers, but BBs are fair game when kiting. Mid-tier cruisers are average at best, but the T8 and above are powerful. Nevsky is very strong in Clan Battles if supported with a smoke DD. In fact so good she is completely banned in King of the Seas 15. This guide can also apply to the following premium ships: Mikoyan Kirov Molotov Lazo Ochakov Skill Level Skill Level: Mid Fast shells help newer players lead targets Kiting playstyle is easy to understand Squishy mid-tier cruisers can get punished even when angled properly Poor maneuverability makes it difficult to dodge Skill Ceiling: High Powerful team utility allows them to effectively fight all ship classes Low DPM for a CL, targeting specific sections of a ship is necessary to maximize damage Open Water kiting is harder to pull off than other cruisers Who should play this line Recommended for: Team Support/Anti-DD Capabilities - 12km radar and railgun ballistics makes them deadly against DDs Damage farming- While less durable than other dedicated kiting cruisers, their high effective DPM more than compensates Competitive Players - Nevsky is a common pick in Clan Battles and KotS when she isn't banned Not recommended for: Aggressive Brawling - Russian CLs instantly explode as soon as it gets within 5km of other ships, the Petropavlovsk line is better suited for close combat Players who hate squishy ships - Vulnerable citadels make them easy targets if the player isn't careful Dancing - RU ships are clumsy and will struggle to dodge. Captain Build and Ship Upgrades Recommended build: https://share.wowssb.com/wVja Take the skills in the numbered order. This is the generic cruiser build that almost every ship runs. Provides a good balance of survivability and increased firepower. Skills: Incoming Fire Alert - I recommend this first for beginners mostly because of the squishiness that is mid-tier cruisers. This isn't a substitute for situational awareness but provides an additional warning if an unseen threat is trying to dev strike you If you are confident in your abilities, then take Gun Feeder for the quick AP shells Consumable Expert - Useful buff for hydro and radar, Adrenaline Rush - Standard skill pick for extra firepower Concealment Expert- Standard cruiser pick for better positioning and not getting instantly focused at the start of the match You must have this skill by the time you research the Tier 6 Budyonny. Don't advance past Tier 5 until you have this mandatory skill or otherwise you will suffer horribly Superintendent- +1 radar and heal dramatically improves your late-game potential You should have this by Tier 9 Dimitri Donskoi Top Grade Gunner - Extra DPM is very useful when shooting at the DD you just radared. The -8% bonus otherwise is difficult to sustain, so has a lower priority than other skills Survivability Expert - +3500 HP provides a minor buff, so a lower-priority skill Grease the Gears - Either this or the 1pt skill you didn't take before Alternative Skills Radio Location - Viable for dedicated anti-DD builds so you aren't guessing where the DD is before radaring. Sacrifice Survivability Expert and a 1pt skill for this skill Focus Fire Training - Nevsky's base AA is surprisingly capable due to her 6.9km range and 8 base flak. Run with DFAA if you are constantly fighting CVs. Don't take this for any other RU CLs though, their AA is irredeemable at best. Upgrades: Main Battery Mod 1 - Standard mod to reduce the risk of guns getting knocked out Surveillance Radar Mod 1- The extra 6s is very helpful for getting off 1-2 more salvoes Aiming System Mod 1 - Standard mod for better dispersion Propulsion Mod 1- I run this because I do a lot of stop-go juking. Steering Gears is also fine if you do a lot of turning Concealment System Mod 1 - Standard mod for staying undetected Main Battery Mod 3 - Helps offset Nevsky's relatively slow reload. Range mod is a viable alternative on Asia server due to their meta But if you are on any other server, learn how to get close without blowing up :D Co-op/Operations only build: https://share.wowssb.com/31A2 Lighthouse build maximizing firepower over everything else. I don't recommend this outside PvE as players will quickly farm you down. Unique Captains: The Znamensky brothers are essentially generic 10pt captains for the CL line, but that's enough to immediately get Concealment Expert so you can actually play on Tier 6+ ships. Ovechkin is a similar story, but the improved Survivability Expert makes him slightly more useful (if you take it of course). Kutneszov is a decent legendary captain if you get first blood to activate his free Superintendent skill. However, Will to Victory is rarely useful due to how fast the CLs die. Sometimes you don't even get the chance to activate if a BB finds your citadel. He isn't worth the coal investment though. Save him for the Russian BB or CA line. Basically, the special captains are better served on other ship lines. But if they aren't needed elsewhere, don't hesitate to use them if only to start with a 10pt captain. Note: Znamensky brothers are available in the armory for 35k coal or 1500 doubloons Ovechkin is a 1-time special event captain who is unlikely to return. Kutneszov is also available in the armory for 175k coal. Armor and durability Mediocre - Average HP pool Lightly armored all-around Awful citadel placement and protection, frequently takes citadel hits when broadside No torp protection Tier 8 and below except T5 Kotovosky Poor torpedo protection for Tier 9-10 Tier 5-8 armor layout (Budyonny used as an example): Tier 9-10 armor layout (Alexander Nevsky as an example): Citadel comparison: The RU BB and Petro line used up all of the stalinium and left none for the light cruisers. Tier 8 and below are some of the most explosive ships in the game due to their massive citadels. It literally takes up half the ship and extends above the waterline. Worse, the armor belt actually works against them as they are too thin to resist BB HE shells, yet thick enough to arm their AP rounds. Even CL AP shells will citadel your broadside. It isn't a one-off ship like Omaha or Konigsberg. It is an entire tier bracket of ships that will randomly disappear if so much as a strong gust of wind hits your broadside. Ignoring the BB problem, their thin armor and large size render them vulnerable to other cruisers and DDs. Basically these ships have practically no way to resist damage other than hoping the enemy does not shoot them. Thankfully Tier 9 Donskoi and Tier 10 Nevsky are much sturdier than their predecessors. They won't immediately die to any BB broadsides due to their smaller citadel size. The belt armor is still thin, but the narrower citadel creates a dead space where shells can detonate instead of the citadel. Adding an icebreaker bow helps to prevent bow/stern citadels. Both ships also gets a torpedo belt, though it's mostly useful against planes. Donskoi and Nevsky are still fragile overall so don't take direct fights against other ships when possible. tl;dr: Main Armament Normal cruiser dispersion (pretty good) Tier 5-8 have high HE DPM, T9-10 is mediocre Tier 5-8 have poor AP penetration, Tier 9-10 AP are on par with heavy cruisers Very Fast shells and flat ballistics Average Turret traverse speed Average Turret firing angles Among the longest base range of comparable cruisers Significant smoke firing penalty Tier 6-8 Cruiser Ballistics shown: Alexander Nevsky's dispersion, ballistics, and AP pen is shown: Their armor may be complete crap, but at least their shells are amazing. Stalin's order forces them to ignore air drag, resulting in extremely fast shell travel times. Under ~12km, they are actually faster than BBs shells. Combined with their cruiser accuracy and flat arcs, gg to any DDs trying to dodge them. Keep in mind the same flat arcs makes it difficult to fire over islands. You can still lob over to an extent, but not the same as other cruisers. If you need to get close, ask your DDs for smoke instead. Just don't get too close or enemy DDs will spot you firing in smoke. Soviet CLs also a very high base gun range, though this is more out of necessity given their armor scheme. Like other light cruisers, HE is your main source of damage. Not the best in terms of sheer DPM, but still quite good due to their ballistics. Mid-tier cruisers can pen 25mm of armor, which is good enough for cruisers and DDs. BBs will shatter your HE, so aim at their superstructure or set fires instead. IFHE is not recommended as you still can't pen Tier 8-9 BB armor while still costing 4pts to use. They will output the damage if you can survive long enough. The HE shells behave differently for the high-tier ships starting with Tier 8 Chapayev 30mm pen will pen any cruiser and Tier 7 and below BBs, though T8+ BBs still need IFHE to pen Now she can pen everything that's not a Tier 8 BB bow/stern or a Tier 10 CV flight deck. Same ballistics as the mid tier cruisers, but you will find it harder to hit fast-moving targets like French DDs or Henri IV. Donskoi and Nevsky actually lose some DPM, but partially compensate for even faster shells. Even 55kt Klebers will struggle to dodge your shot. While the increased velocity is useful for aiming, it also makes their AP surprisingly deadly. Citadels are possible broadside cruisers at ~8km and below, but remember this includes yourself. In fact you will explode faster than whatever you are shooting at, so avoid getting close unless there is no other option. At T9-10, the shell are so fast the AP shells effectively have heavy cruiser penetration. Nevsky can reliably citadel most cruisers at 12km, even out to max range on some light cruisers. In fact, just treat Donskoi and Nevsky's guns as you would a heavy cruiser gun. Fire HE at angled ships, BBs without DCP, and DDs. AP is effective against anything broadside even out to 12-15km. For the Tier 8 and below cruisers its simple, spam HE. Superstructure first, then go for fires once his DCP is down. Forget AP exists unless you paypal an enemy cruiser to show broadside. tl;dr: Rapid fire railguns. HE is good at all tiers. AP shells are mediocre until Tier 9-10, then become just as good as heavy cruisers Secondary Armament Normal secondary dispersion (aka very inaccurate) HE shells: Poor Armor Penetration Low practical DPM Low maximum range Close range is the last place you want to be in a fragile cruiser. If they are firing at anything bigger than a DD, you are unlikely to live for long. Not that the secondaries matter anyways, they are warning rounds. Nothing more. tl;dr: Funny when you are awarded "Close Quarters Expert" achievement. Not so much when they shatter on the BB about to send you to the shadow realm. Torpedoes Low damage per torp Extremely limited range Long reload Low visibility, difficult to spot without hydro Imagine it is 1942 and you are fighting in Stalingrad. You have no ammo left, so the commissar ordered you to charge across no man's land to throw a grenade into the enemy MG nest. Replace no man's land with open water and grenades with torps and you have the Soviet cruiser torpedo experience. 95% of the time you will die before getting in range of torps. 4.9% you will die after you get your torps off. 0.1% the afk BB will destroy your torpedo tubes before you shoot them. 8km torps doesn't change their usage much. You can sorta kite with them, but then again anything under 8km has higher DPM than you. tl;dr: Last ditch defense for point-blank combat. If you are thinking about using them, something has gone terribly wrong Anti-Air Defense Flak - Weak T7 and below, above average T8-10 Long - Poor DPS, average range Mid - Mediocre - average DPS Short - Non-existent, both literally and practically Overall - Insufficient to fight off same-tier CVs There exist 2 kinds of RU cruiser AA: Kinda useless and utterly useless. Only Nevsky falls under the former category due to her 6.9km AA range and above-average flak. You can squad-wipe entire attack waves with a lucky DFAA-boosted flak burst. Most of the time though the enemy will just dodge and drop on your forehead as normal. And that's the only cruiser with actual AA. Everyone else has literally no chance even with DFAA. As for surviving CV attacks, that part is easier: You adopt the fetal position and cry. Anything AP will citadel you, HE bombs and rockets still deal heavy damage, and torp bombers are impossible to dodge with BB turning radius. On the bright side, you sit so far back that most CVs will target your allies first. tl;dr: Only Nevsky has acceptable AA. Everyone else is suffering :) Depth Charges (Ship launched) Rear mounted DC launchers Exception: Nevsky, she has forward firing Low damage, low numbers dropped To be honest, I don't know why the devs bothered giving line depth charges. Subs can force you to run away for fear of torps and permaspot. If you try to get close, his team will just nuke you, assuming the sub doesn't just shotgun you out of mercy. And the biggest insult of all, you probably won't kill the sub in 1 pass. They are so bad that they may as well not exist. That being said, you can still shoot surfaced subs with your guns. At the very least force them to waste battery time while you run away. tl;dr: You effectively have no ASW. Shoot the pings with your guns instead. Maneuverability High top speed Widest turning radius, worse than most BBs Average rudder shift time Soviet cruisers by far have the large turning radius of any cruiser lines. Sometimes they are even worse than the BBs at the same tier. Rudder shift is normal, but that hardly matters if they can't turn in the first speed. On the bright side they are quite fast so they can sorta reposition quickly. Not as fast as the French, but still quite good. Because of this, they perform best in open water. They should still shoot over islands when possible, but they will easily perform a Notser if you aren't careful. tl;dr: Good for straight lining, not so good when enemies are shooting you Concealment Poor surface detection Average aerial detection RU light cruiser surface detection is poor at the mid-tiers and only gets worse. Don't expect to get close, though thankfully there is rarely a need due to their excellent shell ballistics. Air detection is acceptable as it matches their long-range AA when fully concealment spec. This won't stop the CV from permaspotting or finishing you off himself. tl;dr: Bad to worse, but you generally have to play far back anyways Consumables Standard Cruiser Damage Control Party Standard Hydro OR DFAA Standard Spotting Aircraft (Tier 5-7) 12km radar (starting at Tier 8 Chapayev) Standard Cruiser Repair Party (Starting at Tier 9 Donskoi) DCP, Hydro/DFAA, and repair party are the exact same as most other cruisers. Nothing remarkable. Tier 5-7 cruisers have access to spotter planes that extend their gun range by 20%. Usually the range is overkill and more often its used to shoot ships in smoke. On the other hand 12km radar is a complete game changer. DDs cower in fear as they can't dodge your railgun ballistics. Ambush them in smoke and you are guaranteed to halve their HP before radar wears off. While the radar doesn't last as long as their US or British counterparts, the extra 2km range more than compensates. Use it wisely and you can decide the fate of the match. tl;dr: Standard cruiser consumables. 12km radar is an extremely potent anti-DD tool General Playstyle The Russian CL line can be split into 2 phases: Long range glass cannons and true jack-of-all-trades utility cruisers. Long-Range Glass Cannons: The former applies to any ship Tier 7 and below. Their playstyle is straightforward: kite at range, farm damage, and hope you don't spontaneously combust. Clever positioning and use of islands becomes important to mask your fragile hull. If you can find a good island, then you can burn down entire teams for little risk. Of course, enemies aren't very cooperative and you will inevitably need to play open water to maximize your game impact. The optimal engagement range is ~10km - max gun range. Their concealment isn't the best, but it's good enough to get into position. Closer is fine against DDs and cruisers, but you want to give BBs a wide berth if he is looking in your direction. You can burn him down in time, but you don't want a few lucky AP citadels to ruin your plan. Staying at range will help you dodge and get lucky with favorable dispersion. This plays into your strength of fast shells anyways. You can easily land shells at longer distances that other cruisers will struggle with. If the BB is distracted or shooting someone else, then by all means get closer. Getting closer lets you kill targets quicker so you can start snowballing earlier. Other cruisers can out-DPM you up close and BBs overmatch your bow. So still exercise caution when closing in. Tier 8 Chapayev falls somewhere in the middle of the 2 phases. She has the same firepower as Shchors, but now carries the fearsome 12km radar to counter DDs. As a result she can support DDs in the early game, but usually cannot sustain into the late game without smoke support. Focus is still on kiting to farm damage, but you can now make plays if a DD msiplays like smoking in your radar range. Jack of all Trades Utility Cruiser: The true jack-of-all-trades utility playstyle applies to Tier 9 and 10. What they trade in raw firepower they more than compensate with railgun ballistics and durability. Leading targets is now a point-and-click adventure. In fact, new players usually overlead until they get used to the guns. Hitting DDs becomes trivial under 10km, and a mild exercise under 15km. Bigger ships are even easier to the point you can target specific sections of BBs to light multiple fires. You can sit comfortably at max range and have no problems hitting targets. Just remember you need to get close if you want to actually impact the game. Unfortunately, your shell arcs are so flat that you can no longer fire over islands efficiently. This isn't a big deal though as your durability is just good enough to survive in open water. As long as you angle and dodge properly, you will out trade anything that isn't a supership. Remember you aren't a tank, you will die easily to misplays so don't get overconfident in your heal. Like with Chappy, stay close to the caps early game to pick off oblivious DDs. Ask your friendly DDs for smoke. They can take the cap while you pick off any DDs trying to contest. After the early game, transition to a kiting cruiser role or continue to play for objectives depending on how the game is progressing. It is up to the player to decide the best course of action. Early Game (20:00 - ~15:00 ingame time) Tier 5-7 cruiser playstyle is straightforward: Farm damage. Use your high speed to position on the flanks or behind islands. Shoot at DDs when you can, but your survivability comes first. You may get a few shots when getting into position, but otherwise cruisers and BBs will be your focus. Tier 8-10 can take a more aggressive approach and support DDs with their 12km radar. Use islands or allied smoke to safely approach the cap. Islands are usually to tall to fire over, but you can still use them to conceal movement or block potential crossfire. When your radar covers the cap, turn away into a kiting position. This way you can ambush the DD if he tries playing the objective. Don't forget hydro incase the DD tries torping you. In standard battles (i.e. no caps except the home cap), adopt the T5-7 kiting cruiser playstyle I've discussed above. You can still support your DDs, but winning HP trades and farming damage will better set you up for late game. Radar is still helpful for zoning DDs or ambushing them in smoke. Mid Game (~15:00 - ~5:00 in-game time, or until ~4 ships remain on each team, whichever comes first) After the first ~3-5 minutes, look at the minimap and team health and take stock of the situation. For the radar cruisers, also pay close attention to the DD lineup For the most part, even the radar ships will play like other kiting cruisers. Your job is to whittle down the enemy so you can move in later. No HP = No threat, so the faster you kill the enemy the better. Always shoot the DD if he shows up. Killing him will deny enemy vision and eventually force his supporting ships to back off. Then your team can push in and take the position for free. Radar cruisers also have the option of staying near caps if the enemy DD wants to contest. See Gameplay tips on how to use radar. Otherwise they play the same as other kiting cruisers. If you win your side early, its generally better to go back through spawn. RU CLs are very bad at pushing and will die to anything bigger than a cruiser. Not that you should be leading the charge anyways, that's the BB's job to push enemies. You are there for anti-DD support. If there is notable enemy opposition and you can't push quickly, consider rotating through spawn instead. Depending on how your other flank is performing, you may have to go back anyways to prevent a complete breakdown. The last thing you want is enemies to run amok in spawn and catch your broadside in a pincer attack. The faster you react, the sooner you can kite the enemy breakout and farm more damage. Do your job well and you can even stop the push altogether. Don't be afraid to pop 1 radar to check where the enemy DDs are lurking. Late Game (5:00 to end of game, or when there only a few ships on the map) Hopefully the game is already won because your Russian bias won't save you from capitalist HE spam, or even a healthy BB from shoving into your face. You are at a DPM disadvantage in the close combat meta that favors tanky and high DPM ships. DDs still fear you, but other cruisers and BBs will find you easy prey. That being said, the initial endgame setup matters a lot more than individual ship capabilities. Your disadvantages may not matter if you are just fighting nearly dead BBs and DDs. The overall strategy remains the same for every team: Obtain/maintain the point lead. Healthy ships should run down the enemy while damaged ships provide support or take unguarded caps. Usually it's best to group up as you can pick off lone enemy ships. Against enemy cruisers or BBs, hang back and let your allied BBs soak up damage while you blast away. If DDs are the only ship left, then take the lead and use your hydro to screen for torps. Radar cruisers can also radar the unfortunate DDs and punish them for existing. Quick Individual Ship Assessment The last time I've played the Tier 2-4 ships was 6 years ago. I will refrain from giving my outdated opinions about them. Not that it matters as Tier 5 and below is just co-op with more rewards. Remember these assessments are my own opinion Other players may rank the ships differently, but that doesn't necessarily mean their assessment is wrong. Kotovosky: 4/10 Welcome to mid-tiers where every cruiser has no armor and literally everything is trying to kill you. Our first stop is Kotovosky, a typical Russian light cruiser that sets the tone for the rest of the line. Fast shells, fast in a straight line, and fast to port if a BB sneezes in her general direction. Though to be fair, the latter is normal for any mid-tier cruiser. Her decent firepower and fast shells lets her stay at range. Very important as she needs as much time to dodge as possible with her poor maneuverability. To avoid beating your DDs back to port, use your high top speed and go for the flanks. Be in a position where BBs can't easily shoot back, whether it be behind islands or on his side. Don't be the first in, let your teammates draw fire before opening up. With luck the enemy BB will tunnel vision on your allies and let you farm in safety. Keep an eye on their turret movements. If the turrets are turning to you, a retaliatory salvo is likely to follow. Start dodging now if you don't want to hand out free dev strike medals. These tactics will serve you well throughout the grind, so practice them in the mid-tiers where enemies are less competent. Budyonny: 4/10 Our next stop is Budyonny, an up-gunned Kotovosky that also has no armor. Oh and everything is still literally trying to kill you. More guns and more range is good, but that's about it. BBs still see you as a soon-to-be dev strike medal and 2 CV games/2+ sub games are the norm. If you haven't learned how to dodge or at least angle, then you better start learning now The same tactics I've mentioned with Kotovosky will also work for Budyonny and the rest of the line. Ideally avoid getting shot at by hiding behind islands, in smoke, or be off to the side. If you get shot at, then make it hard for the BB to hit you. Use your high speed and rudder to throw off his aim. The further away, the less likely he will hit. Go dark and he will likely lose interest in you, that's when you come back into range and farm him again. The key to success for mid-tier cruisers is really just surviving battles. Their damage output is quite obscene if you can live long enough to use it. Don't hide in A1 of course, but learning to survive in high DPM ships will greatly improve your overall skill. Shchors: 3.5/10 Basically a Budyonny with an extra turret. And still no armor Shchors gains +33% more firepower, but at the cost of the dreaded Tier 7 matchmaking. BBs and even heavy cruisers can almost ignore your HE while nuking you in return. IFHE lets you pen the cruisers, but you will never pen T8+ BBs bow and stern under any condition. It's not even worth taking IFHE because of the loss in fire chance. Oh, and you still explode if a BB looks at you funny. At least you can walk all over T7 and below cruisers and DDs who foolishly reveal themselves. Surviving the constant CVs and 4-5 BB matches is the hard part. Shchors fares poorly in Tier 6-7 ranked meta mostly due to her lack of utility. She has the firepower to kill ships, but what can you do when your DDs suicide and the meta cruisers are in permasmoke. The BBs also take a while to kill and can easily 1 shot you didn't pay your RNG tax. Oh, and have fun grinding her twice for the Petropavlovsk line. Chapayev: 8/10 Funny how one consumable turns a mediocre ship into an amazing one. Though to be honest, that's half the story. Upgrading the HE pen to 30mm also does wonders for her effective HE DPM. Fighting higher-tier cruisers still sucks, but at least you actually damage them. She still retains Shchor's amazing base DPM, so you will quickly farm down enemies if you live long enough. Back to her consumable. Her radar is arguably the strongest of all ships when accounting for tier. Not only does it reach out to 12km, but she can also stealth radar poor DDs and smash them with her excellent ballistics. Just imagine being a new player in your stock Tier 6 DD and having to fight a ship that punishes you for just existing. Yeah lol this isn't fair. Only her poor durability and ineffectiveness vs. CVs holds her back. i.e nothing new. But if you can play around those threats, Chappy will literally burn down entire teams with little effort. Not even DDs are safe from her wrath. In ranked, Chappy is hard to play due to the BB-heavy meta. It sucks when everyone tryhards in OP BBs like Massachusetts and Lenin and 1 mistake will cost you a star. Still, none of them can replace you in your anti-DD role. Support your DDs and win the game in the first few minutes. Kite the BBs when they inevitably push in. Teach them that no amount of capitalism will beat true Russian bias. In Tier 8-9 ranked meta, take Donskoi instead. Don't gimp yourself with an inferior option. Dimitri Donskoi: 6/10 Donskoi is fairly underrated for a Tier 9 cruiser. While she doesn't have the raw damage output of her predecessor, her upgraded railguns give her AP enough pen to threaten broadside targets. BBs and cruisers must think twice before showing broadside, lest they get hit by a 8-10k salvo or even a few citadel hits. Even faster shells allow her to keep up with faster ships. Klebers and Henri IV can't simply outrun her shells like they could with lesser cruisers. More importantly, Donskoi is the first CL that at least tries not to explode when stared at. Her durability is somewhat better than Chappy, but by no means is she a tanky ship. Range is still the best defense, and there is no need to get closer unless you need to radar a DD. With a 12.4km surface detection and 12.0km radar, you will absolutely wreck DDs before they can escape. Expect to remove at least 1/3 of the enemy DD's HP with each radar charge if used correctly. As long as you aren't fighting superships or subs, Donskoi should prove a very capable ship. It is a similar story in ranked where Donskoi's anti-DD capabilities can prove game-changing. A well timed radar can net you an early kill and snowball into a win. She is less effective in BB heavy matches, but you can jump out of queue if it doesn't look good. Alexander Nevsky: 7.5/10 Though uncommon, Nevsky is a solid cruiser in randoms. Her long-range firepower is well suited for the high tier meta while radar lets her engage careless DDs who wander into range. In fact, her shells are so fast she can reliably hit DDs out to her max range. Try that in any other ship. She is effective against every surface ship and especially DDs. Note that I specifically said surface ship. Nevsky may have the best AA in her line, but it's still not enough against competent CVs. You can't even do anything against subs unless he is a paid actor. Otherwise Nevsky is just a souped-up Donskoi. Stay at range and farm down enemy ships. Ask for friendly smoke when possible. They take the cap, and you kill their DDs in return. And don't forget to use AP against broadside targets. In ranked, Nevsky has above-average performance due to her anti-DD capabilities. She also performs well against most other cruisers but can be tricky due to her poor survivability. Nevsky cannot make aggressive plays unlike her cousin Petro. An unlucky citadel or torps can ruin your game, and your chance to save your star. Nevsky is a powerful Clan Battles and King of the Seas ship due to her insane utility and effective long-range DPM. She is often paired with a Somers/Gearing to lock down caps. When positioned correctly, it is very difficult to out-trade or takes caps under their protection. Experienced teams know this and will focus fire Nevsky whenever possible. That being said, Nevsky smoke combo was too OP and she is banned for KotS XV. (Brisbane apparently is still fine) Keep in mind Nevsky fares worse in small-scale formats as she is heavily dependent on smoke support. Gameplay Tips: Most of these tips apply to other cruiser lines HE vs. AP For Tier 8 and below, HE is practically your only good shell option. AP pen is bad and requires significant enemy cooperation to use effectively. Avoid using it unless the target is under ~10-12km and broadside. You can citadel some cruisers starting at ~8km, but aim slightly above waterline for consistent pen damage. Don't bother trying against BBs. Aim for the upper belt. HE is very effective against other cruisers and DDs. You can hit them almost anywhere and expect to deal damage. T6-7 cruisers may struggle against T8-9 heavy cruisers, so treat them as if aiming at a battlecruiser. Speaking of which, battlecruisers have a vulnerable 25mm bow/stern. Aim there if the superstructure is on fire or severely saturated. T8 Chayapev has 30mm HE pen, so follow the Donskoi and Nevsky section below. Tier 9 Donskoi and Tier 10 Nevsky also carry excellent AP shells in addition to their HE. Use their AP like you would for a heavy cruiser. Expect to citadel most broadside CAs under ~12km and CLs under ~15km Against BBs, focus on the upper belt and stern section. Their fast shells are more likely to over-pen the narrower bow section. Don't bother going for citadels unless you are under ~5km, and only try if the BB lacks a turtleback. HE remains simple to use and can now pen 30mm of armor. Still not enough to pen T8+ BB bow/stern, but cruisers and T7 below BBs are generally fair game. As always, if the DCP is down then aim for different sections to light multiple fires. Switch to AP if he is presenting broadside though. AP pens deal consistently more damage than gambling for fires. Getting close in the early game Mostly applies to the Tier 8-10 ships. Tier 7 and below should focus on flanking, though getting close is ok if there isn't an enemy BB on your side. Aggressive early-game positioning is important for supporting your DDs and keeping enemies off the cap. If you haven't already, turn on ship detection radius and radar range on the minimap. We will use this to check our position to ensure radar covers the entire cap The most common way to get close is with islands. Use them to block line of sight as you approach. As you approach the rock, then turn out so you are in a kiting position by the time the enemy spots you. No need to chose a rock near the cap. 12km radar lets you stay relatively far back while still being able to cover the entire cap. If you have a friendly smoke DD, you can ask him nicely to lay down a smoke. You can cover even open-water caps with a well-placed smokescreen. Make sure not to get too close as your smoke-firing penalty is high. For open water positioning, use your DD as an early warning detection Stay approximately 7-8km behind him and ask him to smoke 4-5km before he enters the cap. This way you get radar coverage of the cap should the enemy DD try contesting. Remember to use hydro as an angry smokescreen attracts a lot of fish. Friendly Smokescreen Donskoi and Nevsky synergize well with DD smokescreens, letting them get close without the need for islands. Works best with coordinated divs, but sometimes you can also coordinate with random DDs in chat. For coordinated divs, ask your DD to stay 2-4 km in front. Tell him to lay smoke the instant you are spotted. The DD should curve the smoke at the end to give you room to maneuver in case random torps happen to spawn nearby. For random DDs, I recommend you ping where the DD should lay the smoke ahead of time. You don't want to be typing into chat while a BB snipes you across the map. Remember to compliment him once the smoke is laid. Example smoke from a random DD I communicated with: Support the Objectives (Applies to radar cruisers) As long as you have radar coverage, enemy DDs cannot take the cap safely. It doesn't even need to be a capture point. You can also camp the buffs in Arms Race and kill DDs trying to steal the juicy banana. Make sure the radar covers the entire cap and have hydro running if its a torpedo DD. Once your guns are in position, press your I win button and punish the DD. Alternatively, you can hold on to radar for a bit to farm some defended ribbons. Captures takes 60s for 1 ship, and 40s for 2+ ships. So use radar by the ~20s mark for maximum farming. Don't hold on too long in case the DD is awake and dodging your shots. Example of Donskoi moving up to radar:https://streamable.com/f1wa7v General kiting rules: (Useful for all ships) The goal of kiting is to out outtrade the enemy and slow his push. It's like holding the high ground, making it harder for enemies to hit you while you have an easier time hitting in return. However, this comes at the cost of giving up space. Oftentimes it's a cap, but it can be a valuable chokepoint or even allow the enemy to flank your team. A good kiting position is one that best balances survivability and damage output while forcing enemies away from their next objective. Typically you will be kiting near max gun range due to your fragility Focus on out-trading the enemy, deal more damage than they do to you. Bow in ships are easy to hit and your HE ignores their angling. Cruisers take priority, but BBs are great for farming witherers. Radar cruisers can also drive off DDs if they get too close. On bigger maps, can also draw enemies away from your team. Instead of running towards your team, run at a ~90° to the enemy push to setup a crossfire. Either the enemy gives you free broadsides or they send a few ships after you. You may even convince them to turn back to spawn, buying valuable time for your team. When the enemy is sufficiently weakened, you can counter-push and punish them for letting you live. Their death an acceptable price for failure. Beginner Dodging Tips (Applies to all cruisers) Russian cruisers don't have the best maneuverability, but every salvo dodged gives you more time to farm damage. Speed and range are your biggest assets. Above ~12-14km gives you enough time to mitigate damage. Below that, prediction is necessary as you can't turn fast enough. Aside from basic turns, the easiest method to dodging is to simply hit the brakes and turn out. Once the shots pass over, immediately re-apply full engine power so you can evade the follow up salvoes. Congrats, you have successfully dodged 99% of enemy salvoes. This is good for 1 salvo, but smart enemies will catch on and adjust next time. Other than this, maintain your speed and keep turning to make yourself a harder target. Advanced Dodging Tips (Applies to all ships) Once you learn the basics, efficient dodging comes from understanding the psychology behind how players aim. For example, worse players tend to underlead shots while better players tend to overlead. Against weaker players, you can easily dodge by running full speed in a straight line, at least until they adjust their aim. Good players will still nail you, so you turn out and hit the brakes to dodge their first salvo. Funny enough this can sometimes backfire as you can dodge into a poorly aimed salvo if you overestimate the enemy's skill level. Doesn't help that sometimes you get citadeled while angled anyways. I use Z-46 as an example of dodging on player psychology In this scenario, I'm contesting a cap while being radared Since I am radared, enemies expect me to run away and aim at the bow Instead, I go backwards and completely dodge everyone's salvo, taking no damage in the process. Tallinn's radar only lasts 15s, so I only need to dodge 1 salvo, maybe 2 from cruisers. I can go on, but the general idea remains the same: do the opposite of what the enemy expects. If you can master his skill, then you can save your HP for important situations where you can't avoid damage. Dodging Torpedoes For a visual demonstration, click here for a video by OverlordBou that goes over the basics of dodging Dodging torps itself is mostly predicting where torps are likely coming from, then not being in that area or angling. Before the match starts, take note of how many torp DDs, IJN CLs, and subs you are facing. During the early game, your DDs and CV should be able to spot which of those ships you will be fighting. Ideally keep a DD in front so he can keep the torp threats in check, or at least spot them. Have hydro running to detect the torps earlier, but remember it's not a substitute for basic awareness. Stay angled to their general direction and keep varying your speed. Most DDs torp at the white line, so you will unlikely get hit if you constantly adjust your course. Even in the unlucky event the torps are on point, at least you are prepared to dodge. When you spot the torps, quickly turn parallel to them. Turning into them is the best way to dodge, but be careful of your end position. It does you no good if you get stuck bow in with no way out but broadside death. Turning out is not as effective, but will leave you in a better defensive position against surface ships. In practice though, your starting angle will determine if you turn in or out. Also, don't be that guy that uses hydro after the torps are spotted. Spotting torps that have already passed does you no good. Farming Fire Damage The idea is to juggle fire damage between multiple ships, earning you witherer and/or arsonists in the process. BBs and large cruisers are good targets as they take the full 60s fire duration. As soon as you light 1 fire, immediately switch targets. Skilled players will usually let 1 fire burn, but others may immediately DCP 1 fire. If the enemy does use DCP, time your next HE salvo so that it hits just after the immunity period ends. Most BBs DCP lasts 15s, with Japanese BBs taking 10s and US BBs 20s. If done correctly, you can light a permanent fire that drains up to 20% of their HP. DCP cooldown is 80 seconds, so keep spamming them until they catch fire. RU CLs are excellent fire starters so you will have little trouble relighting fires. You can even target individual sections to light multiple fires. While farming damage feels great, do not tunnel vision so hard that you lose track of the match. Farming does you no good if you ignore the DD taking your home cap for the win. This Daring clip is a good example of rotating fires on multiple enemies: Daring multiple fires example 720.mp4 Adrenaline Rush Abuse (Works with all ships) Everyone benefits from Adrenaline Rush, but you will notice it more at higher tiers. Mid-tier cruisers tend to exist in 2 states: full HP and dead so AR may not give as much benefits. High-tier cruisers can control their HP better so AR can offset their lower DPM. When you are down to your last heal, save it for when you drop below ~20% HP. Maximize your benefits until the enemy starts shooting back. Yay CV matches :( (Applies to every ship) Isn't it great when your AA with DFAA does literally nothing to stop incoming strikes? Fortunately CVs tend to go for other targets, but always be careful if the CV has marked you for destruction. Literally any CV squad can deal heavy damage. Pre-angle the ship in case the enemy CV flies his planes near you. Use allied AA support if possible. Try to stay in open water to give yourself room to maneuver. Torps and AP rockets are your biggest threat. Bow/stern into them ASAP. The rocket squads are especially fast and can deal 10-20k to your broadside if you aren't vigilant. AP bombs are also a grave threat but requires you turn broadside to mitigate their damage. Keep turning and most CV players will struggle to lead properly. The other armaments are also dangerous, but they are a lower priority if say 2 BBs are looking for your broadside. Not all games are winnable (Applies to everyone) The most important tip. You will get unwinnable games from time to time. Even the best players with the most try-hard divisions cannot win 100% of their games. At the end of the day, World of Warships is a game designed for entertainment (and trolling with Russian bias for clickbait) If WoWs is making you miserable, it's time to take a break. Get up, walk around, do something productive. Anything to get your mind off of WoWs. You can always come back later. Final Thoughts While the line starts out as generic long-range HE spammers, it matures into an all-around platform that can fight effectively in every situation. The sheer amount of tools and firepower they bring to the table is only held back by their lack of durability. Hardly a concern for veterans, but newer players may have trouble balancing survival and aggression. Still, Nevsky is a must-have for any player looking to play in competitive formats. If not for actually playing the ship, it's important to understand a ship you will commonly fight. Of course I still recommend them in randoms due to their sheer firepower. You may explode in the process, but not before burning down half the team in the process. Despite their potential, it's funny that the line generally gets overshadowed by the Petropavlovsk line. Everyone complains about the bow in Petro, but apparently Nevsky in smoke is ok (until KotS 15 at least) For some reason I had a lot more success regrinding this line on my alt. I don't know if it's because it matches my anti-DD playstyle or if I'm lucky, but if it works it works I guess. This is currently my 5th Tech Tree line guide, and my 8th overall. Currently I am focusing on tech tree guides as they are rare to come by, but I occasionally review premium ships if I get time or take a particular interest in them. Unfortunately King of the Seas and irl commitments means my next guides may take longer to finish. Also the embedded clips from external sites either do not work or have horrible quality. I would be using gfycat or imgur, but the former died and the latter gifs go at 3 fps. (gifv won't work for some reason) Instead you have to click the link to go to their site. Kinda sucks when you have to click to watch the clip. I think ~5 people clicked on the video links in my previous guides. :( Uploading the files directly here partially solves the issue, but I'm limited by a 50mb total limit. So ~2 videoes at most gg. My next guide will be the dockyard ship Daisen followed by the French DD line. If you want to learn how a particular line works, let me know and I might be inclined to (eventually) make a guide for it. For more guides, I've created an index thread: And since you made it to the end, have this clip of an unfortunate Shimakaze: Nevsky Radar 720.mp4 Sources Used Wows-ShipBuilder: https://app.wowssb.com/ Used for all relevant ship parameters. The dispersion and ballistic charts are also very helpful to visualize how good/bad your dispersion is. WoWs Shiptool: https://shiptool.st/ Excellent for comparing entire tiers or class of ships In-Game Armor Viewer Poor mid-tier cruisers WoWs wiki: https://wiki.wargaming.net/en/World_of_Warships Their articles on exact gameplay mechanics is quite handy.

How To Overcome Operations Aegis Guide. The video consists of the history of the Video, best positions to counter the glitch, and how to handle the final wave down the 10 line. If want to know how to handle it properly, I suggest watching the whole video as it makes the difference between a defeat and small victory.

How To Overcome Operations Aegis Guide. The video consists of the history of the Video, best positions to counter the glitch, and how to handle the final wave down the 10 line. If want to know how to handle it properly, I suggest watching the whole video as it makes the difference between a defeat and small victory.

Table of Contents Introduction History Skill level Who should play this ship Should I spend 51k RP for Illinois? Captain build and ship upgrades Ship Characteristics Armor and Durability Main Armament Secondary Armament Anti-Air Defense Anti-Sub Airstrikes Maneuverability Concealment Consumables General Playstyle Early game Mid Game Late Game Ranked Gameplay Tips Final Thoughts Sources used If you just want quick gameplay help, I recommend reading the "Captain build and ship upgrades", "General Playstyle", and "Gameplay Tips" sections. These section headers will be highlighted in green for convenience. Use Ctrl+ F to find the section you are looking for. Introduction The following is my review of the Tier 9 US premium battleship Illinois. She is available in the Research Bureau for 51,000 Research Points (RP). Players will need to research 5x Tier 10 ships before they can access RB. Each line reset gives 10k RP, or 20k with a 2x bonus. 3-5 resets are necessary to research her. My assessment is current as of April 2, 2023 in patch 12.2 Barring major changes, this guide will remain relevant throughout the future. Summary: Stock Iowa hull with Buffalo guns. DPM-focused battleship with a kiting cruiser playstyle. History The real-life BB-65 USS Illinois was to be the 5th Iowa-class battleship to be built for the US Navy. Due to the US Navy prioritizing CV construction, Illinois and her sister ship Kentucky remained unfinished by the end of World War 2. While both ships would eventually be scrapped, there were various proposals to convert Kentucky including a guided missile battleship concept and of course the anti-air battleship concept. This particular refit represents the SCB-19 project, though in-game Illinois is probably slightly different than the actual blueprints. For more information, Drachinifel covers the SCB-19 project in his video: Side note: Considering Kentucky was the more likely of the 2 to be converted, I find it odd that WG went with Illinois instead. Perhaps they are saving Kentucky for another premium concept (please no BBG-1) Skill Level Skill floor: Mid Durable in a kiting cruiser role, but new players may mistakenly play her as a BB Getting close for effective DPM can be a tricky affair Shells are hard to aim at typical fighting ranges past 13km Skill Ceiling: Low-mid Kiting cruiser playstyle is easy to master Close-range firepower will reward aggressive players if timed correctly Positioning can be tricky due to the relatively high surface detection and slow shells Who should play this line Recommended for: Unique concept - Illinois is currently the only DPM focused BB in the game BB main battery ribbon farming - Uniquely suited for this mission due to her RoF Credit farming - Tier 9 ships are excellent credit farmers and Illinois is no exception Not recommended for: First-time RB ship - Ohio is generally regarded as superior and only costs 10k more RP Competitive modes - Lack of crossfire or tanking potential leaves her without a useful role. Cruisers can do the kiting role without taking the BB slot Should I spend 51k RP for Illinois? While Illinois has a respectable performance, she faces stiff competition from other Research Bureau ships. Ohio stands out in particular as she is a very strong Tier 10 BB and only costs 10k more RP. Colbert is a funny dakka-dakka machine and Vampire 2 is a solid DD with hydro. For Tier 9 ships, Paolo is a funny yolo boat and Siegfried is a cruiser with a BBish playstyle. I argue their playstyle is more unique than Illinois's reskinned kiting cruiser playstyle. Basically, it isn't an easy decision from a pure gameplay perspective. She is definitely fun to play if for the funny 8" autoloader go brrrrrrr memes. If other ships doesn't seem appealing, then by all means get Illinois. If you have played US heavy cruisers, then you will easily transition over to Illinois. Captain Build and Ship Upgrades Standard US BB build: https://share.wowssb.com/Jo9k If you can't afford or don't want to create a designated Illinois captain, then the standard US BB captain build will work. It's practically the same build but trades Demo Expert and Vigilance for Preventative Maintenance and Grease the Gears. There isn't much of a difference, so take this build if the captain also plays on any of the US BB lines. Dedicated Illinois build: https://share.wowssb.com/YW9w Take the skills in the numbered order. Main Battery Mod 1 - Standard module to reduce risk of guns getting knocked out Damage Control System Mod 1- Standard module for BBs Artillery Plotting Room Mod 1 or Main Battery Mod 2- All of the slot 3 upgrades aren't really useful tbh. I take the range upgrade for easier BB farming at 18km, but you shouldn't be shooting at max range unless there is literally no other target. Steering Gears Mod 1- Helps offset Illinois's slow rudder shift, but prop mod or DCM2 are also fine if that is what you normally run. Concealment System Mod 1 - You need to get close to offset your shell's slow speed. It's not worth running any other upgrade in this slot. Artillery Plotting Room Mod 2 - US BB exclusive upgrade. Invaluable for improving your accuracy. Reload mod is also fine for better close range firepower Skills reasoning: Preventative Maintenance - Reduces the chance of guns getting knocked out Brisk- Illinois can use her high speed to stealthily get into position before opening fire Adrenaline Rush - Mandatory skill for all BBs. Gives you free firepower for tanking for your team. Concealment Expert - You need all the detection-reducing modifiers due to your slow shells Fire Prevention - Another mandatory BB skill as you will almost certainly be lit on fire. This takes priority over Emergency Repair Expert as saves you more fire damage in the long run. Emergency Repair Expert - Extra heal is very useful for late game, but is a lower priority than the other 2 skills. Vigilance - Helps somewhat with dodging torpedoes. Priority target is also fine if you use the PT counter trick Demolition Expert- Helps slightly with getting witherers and arsonists Alternatives: Basics of Survivability - It's ok, but her Improved Repair Party offsets the need to reduce fire/flooding duration Gun Feeder - Useful if you have Halsey or a Doe brother for the improved version This build is largely the same as other BB tank builds, but with Demolition Expert to increase her fire starting chance. To be honest, anything past the 18th point will have very little effect on your performance. So pick whatever skill you feel like if you don't agree with my suggestions. Unique Captains: While the Doe brothers provides little benefits, their starting 10pt makes them usable without having to invest exp for a 4pt skill. Halsey's -20% reload time is powerful if you can constantly get the Confederate achievement. In terms of difficulty, it's roughly the same as Iowa. Illinois is more consistent, but Iowa can get lucky with a few dev strikes. Armor and durability Small HP pool, but uses the improved US BB heal like Iowa Similar hull to Iowa, lower citadel but weaker turret armor Citadel itself is well below the waterline, and difficult to hit Average in terms of armor protection 25% Torpedo Protection System, poorly protected against torpedoes External Armor: Internal Armor: Turret Armor Citadel Waterline Illinois shares a nearly identical hull with the other Iowa class battleships, but with a few critical differences. The armor itself is almost the same including the 38mm deck, large superstructure, and belt armor. However, Illinois's citadel sits far below the water line. As a result, Illinois rarely takes citadel hits even when showing full broadside. However, Illinois comes with ~11k less HP, giving her the 3rd lowest HP pool of all Tier 9 BBs. Tier 8 North Carolina has almost the same HP pool, but is considerably smaller and harder to hit. An improved repair party somewhat compensates, but it's not enough. Especially since her armor can't resist enemy shells like a German or Russian BB. The rear citadel is especially vulnerable as that 16mm bulkhead armor isn't stopping anything. Anything with 32mm overmatch will citadel your aft, but thankfully those ships are uncommon. It doesn't help her turrets are vulnerable to getting knocked out. The 203mm turret face won't stop a BB shell head-on, leading to frequent incapacitation if the enemy aims correctly. Even high-penetration cruiser AP rounds will cause issues under 10km. 25% Torpedo defense system also happens to be one of the worst with 1-2 torp hits enough to cripple your ship. Her elongated bow and wide turning radius does her no favors either. Basically if something is torping you, good luck because you will need it. Not to say you can't tank of course, but avoid running headlong into heavy focus fire. tl;dr: Same survivability as Tier 8 North Carolina, a BB one tier lower. Also poor turret protection. :-| Main Armament Battlecruiser dispersion, accurate by BB standards Best HE DPM of any BB AP with enhanced pen angles is surprisingly useful, but don't expect citadels Slowest BB shell by a large margin, expected since it's literally US heavy cruiser shells Excellent turret angles, can fire 30° off the bow and stern Short main battery range Dispersion and shell flight time: Illinois uses the exact same shells as the high tier US heavy cruisers, which makes her gunnery more like cruisers than other BBs. Her battlecruiser dispersion is good, but not on the same level as a proper cruiser, even with the -11% dispersion slot 6 upgrade. Cruiser ballistics also hurts as Illinois struggles to hit anything past 15km Any slight maneuver is enough to dodge your shells, assuming you have enough lead in the first place. In this regard, the 18.5km range isn't too limiting as you can't hit anything anyway. You can increase the range to 21km, but this is mostly for slightly better vertical dispersion. At least the turrets themselves turn fast enough for most fights. The angles are also really good as you can remain completely angled while firing all guns. However, fragile turrets can lead to frequent incapacitation at inconvenient times. AP shells: AP-wise, it's a general downgrade but at least has its benefits. Enhanced AP bounce angles of 60-67.5° degrees means you can penetrate at steeper angles, more than what many players expect. The penetration is also good enough to citadel most cruisers under 12km. With a 9s reload and 12 gun salvo, you can land multiple citadels before the enemy angles. Unfortunately, this comes at the cost of threatening cross-map salvoes normally expected of a BB. Enemy BBs can gamer turn at longer ranges knowing you cannot delete them. Illinois can still rack up damage if the enemy stays broadside, but there isn't the fear of instantly losing 30k in 1 salvo. HE Shells: Like other cruisers, HE is your primary damage dealer. In fact, Illinois has the best HE DPM of any Tier 9 BB. When factoring in accuracy differences, Illinois's damage output is roughly the same as Buffalo. With 32mm HE pen, only certain heavily armored sections of BB and cruisers can resist it. Doesn't matter how they angle, they will burn down all the same. Overall HE remains your primary ammo type due to its reliability. AP offers burst damage that can prove decisive in close range fights. The right shells in the right place can make or break a close game. tl;dr. Trades long range crossfire potential for close range DPM. Secondary Armament 7km base range, 10.5km max range Bad effective damage output Like most other ships, Illinois secondaries are not worth investing into. Poor base firepower and awful accuracy means they do literally nothing past 7km, even if fully upgraded. Instead, they take away precious captain points that could have gone into making Illinois tankier. Don't mistake her for a Georgia or Massachusetts. Illinois brawls with her main guns, not some puny secondaries that can't hit the broadside of a Hannover. tl;dr: Brawl with your main guns instead Anti-Air Defense Good AA for a Tier 9 BB Powerful Flak and mid-range AA Illinois AA is actually quite good for a Tier 9 ship. Only a few cruisers and BBs with DFAA active can surpass her. This is useful for facing Tier 8 CVs... and nothing stronger. Tier 10 and super CVs can easily punch through your AA with minimal losses. Even determined Tier 8 CVs will break through and deal heavy damage. CVs will gladly trade a few planes for 10-20k salvoes, something almost unavoidable with your large hull. Unless the enemy CV is a potato, play cautiously and try to stick near AA bubbles for support. Torpedo and AP Dive bombers are your biggest threat. Always angle to them whenever possible. HE and Skip bombers still do a lot of damage, but you can heal through their damage unlike the TBs and AP bombs. Rockets are mostly an annoyance as they need to hit the superstructure to deal damage. If the CV is wasting them on you, that's an attack not going for your DDs. tl;dr: Good, but not really Anti-Sub Airstrikes Same ASW as other Tier 9 battleships Illinois shares the same depth charge airstrikes as some other same-tier battleships Deals minor damage, but the extra range is very useful for hitting subs at standoff distance That being said, multiple airstrikes from different ships can 1 shot subs if everything hits. Airstrikes can also be used to bait out enemy AA, giving keen players a rough estimate of the enemy’s position. tl;dr: BBs have the best ASW due to their range, quite ironic Maneuverability It's practically the same as Iowa, which is to say only good in a straight line. With those stats it takes at least 15 years to turn the ship, which makes dodging torps somewhat hard. Or dodging island, or dodging anything really. 32.5 kts isn't even that good nowadays with some BBs pushing 35-40kts. Illinois is still fast by BB standard, but with all the 40-60kt cruisers and DDs running around, she feels a lot slower nowadays. tl;dr: Good luck doing anything but going straight Concealment Mediocre detection for her effective gun range Poor aerial detection While her surface detection is actually good by BB standards, it's fairly high for her short range guns. It can be troublesome getting close enough to reliably hit enemy ships. Her survivability can somewhat compensate, but not so much in high tier matches. Against superships, either you die getting close or aim off screen at 20km ships. Air detection is like every other BB, easy permaspot gg. Good luck getting close in CV matches. Unlike other BBs, Illinois can actually shoot inside smoke without getting detected across the map. It's not as good as cruisers, but at least you can use friendly smokes in some situations. tl;dr: Technically good, but mediocre in practice considering her close range playstyle Consumables US BB Improved Damage Control Party US DCP offers excellent protection against fires and flooding due to their extended duration. Gives you a lot of time to run away or go dark before getting lit on fire again. 80s cooldown is the same as other BBs, so don't carelessly DCP 1 fire. US Improved Battleship Repair Party (Same as Iowa) The improved repair party is the same as the US Montana line. Even with no captain skills or heal signals, the repair party will restore up to ~12k HP or about ~18% of your HP. Unfortunately, Illinois's small HP pool means she can't take full advantage of it, but at least you are more resistant to fire/flooding damage. You likely won't get the full healing effects by the 4th heal, possibly earlier if you took citadels or torps. Illinois only has those 2 consumables. No spotter plane or other fancy gimmicks to worry about. tl;dr: Excellent DCP and repair party. Where is my spotter :-( General Playstyle Illinois is essentially an Iowa hull with Buffalo firepower, combining to create the game's biggest kiting cruiser (for now). With her excellent bulk and firepower, she is easily the best HE spamming BB in the game. Even better than some cruisers at this role. However, this comes at the cost of not being able to do typical BB things like dev striking cruisers across maps or tanking for your team. Farming damage is easy, but converting it into a win is the hard part. While she can damage farm in the early game, she performs better in the mid-late game where she can close in on the enemy. 8-12km is your optimal engagement, though expect to play most of the battle at 13km to max range. Farming BBs and large cruisers will be the bulk of your damage. While you angle to their AP, your HE spam will burn them down and eventually force them away. Even tier 10 BBs struggle to trade evenly Only the overmatch BBs like Yamato will threaten your kiting playstyle. Cruisers are still important targets, but your slow shells can make it difficult at longer ranges. Funny enough other kiting cruisers will out trade you past ~14km due to their superior accuracy and your inability to dodge. Illinois can win trades under ~12km as her bulk lets her outlast the competition, but this isn't realistic until late game. Unlikes your DD players, most enemies actually have self-preservation instincts and won't let you walk up to them. DDs are a similar story as you can't hit them past the concealment range. However, if you somehow get under 10km, your rapid fire guns will make short work of any DD. Of course, this assumes you survive the constant waves of torps they will probably send at you. Just remember you aren't a Battleship, but a kiting cruiser that happens to have a BB designation. Your goal is to farm enemies early game to setup your mid-late game plays. With high bulk and DPM, she is excellent at counter-pushing after farming enemies to death. Patience and aim is the key to mastering her playstyle. Early Game (20:00 - ~15:00 ingame time) Illinois is at her weakest during the early game due to her inability to snipe important targets. Recklessly charging in with such a big ship is just asking to get farmed down by half the team. Instead, do what every position guide says for literally every ship and run to the flanks. You aren't going for cross shots yourself, but limiting enemy crossfires is a good idea. The goal is to get into a good farming position and left click on enemies until something happens. In down tier matches, don't be afraid to sacrifice some HP to get closer. Losing some HP is a small price to pay for better shots and a slight AR boost. You will primarily be shooting at cruisers and BBs, but don't ignore the DD fight. Even a few hits can decisively swing the fight, and you get 2 chances to other BB's 1. If you are unlucky and get the middle spawn, you can try camping one of the center islands to get closer. This varies by map, but sometimes there is enough island cover to sit close to the enemy. Two Brothers is a good example and you can even turn around to camp enemies in mid. Mid Game (~15:00 - ~5:00 in-game time, or until ~4 ships remain on each team, whichever comes first) After the first ~3-5 minutes, look at the minimap and team health and take stock of the situation. If the enemy is strong and looking to make a push, yay free damage. Bow in ships are easy to farm and you don't have to run immediately due to your massive HP pool. Against light enemy pushes, you can even just back into them to ensure they don't get away. Just don't be a sitting duck if a DD or sub is throwing torps at you. Give up ground if they are torping, and report the sub for ruining your otherwise easy game. Most games will be roughly even with neither side having a decisive advantage. In these situations, cap control usually comes down to whoever wins the DD fight. Illinois has the DPM to help, but rarely gets close enough to land important salvoes. Still, don't pass up the shot if the opportunity presents itself. In the meantime focus on out-trading the enemy BBs and cruisers. You have the bulk to withstand unlucky hits unlike your lesser cruiser brethren, so bait enemies when appropriate. You can even do the classic US CA bow-in island tactic if there isn't overwhelming enemies. If you are playing into the enemies' weak side, push in to finish off low health ships. Other BBs are better at leading the charge, but Illinois does fine if you are closer. Once the side is secured, rotating back through spawn is usually the better play. Illinois can farm out BBs, but cruisers and torpedo DDs are very difficult to deal with. If the latter are kiting you, rotate through your own spawn instead and guard against any counterpush Late Game (5:00 to end of game, or when there only a few ships on the map) Late game Illinois is quite powerful due to her ability to 1v1 most ships in the game. Only secondary BBs, torpedo DDs, and some high tier ships will give you trouble. Everyone else you can run up and abuse your close range DPM to win the fight. As usual, the overall strategy is to obtain/maintain the point lead. Healthy ships should run down the enemy while damaged ships provide support or take unguarded caps. Usually it's best to group up as you can pick off lone enemy ships. Use your HP to push enemies away and clear the cap for your DDs to take. You can also just sit on your cap and block any attempts by the enemy to take it. Few enemies wants to fight you at close range, so position yourself so enemies can't avoid you. Ranked Illinois is pretty good for a Tier 9 ranked BB, though probably not top tier like Musashi or Rupprecht. BB/Large Cruiser heavy matches are ideal where she can farm their pushes with little effort. As long as you don't show broadside, you will outtrade everything except Musashi and Rupprecht (in secondary range). Afterwards, you should still have HP to spare when counterpushing. Her main problem is actually the early game DD fights as her poor ballistics prevents her from safely contributing. Sometimes the DD fight decides the match before you can do anything about it. Past the early game, just farm enemies faster than your allies get farmed. Focus on radar cruisers and yoloing German BBs. Holding 2 caps is the key to winning, so rotate to critical areas if needed. Gameplay Tips While Illinois is considered a BB, many US heavy cruiser tips also apply to her HE vs. AP Illinois follows the same logic as the US CAs. HE is your primary ammo type as it pens the majority of armor you will be facing. Anything it can't pen, it can light on fire anyways. Doesn't matter how the target angles, HE will deal consistent damage. At mid-long ranges, target the superstructure. Dispersion isn't good enough to target individual sections, but stray shots can light other sections on fire if you are lucky. Against predictable targets at close ranges, try targeting the bow/stern if they aren't saturated. You may also light a fire if lucky. If the target is showing broadside, then switch to AP for maximum damage. They are best used under 10km due to shell flight time, though they remain effective against oblivious enemies at longer ranges. For cruisers, aim for the smokestacks and rear guns to maximize the chance for a citadel. If the enemy angles, you can usually sneak a citadel hit under the bow turrets unless he completely bows in. As good as your AP is, you can't overmatch Tier 6+ cruiser bows, so switch back to HE and continue farming. Gun Feeder is highly recommended as you can quickly switch back to AP if he accidentally shows too much side. Against battleships, aim for the upper belt for constant penetration damage. Don't bother going for citadels unless you are under 4-6km and the BB is completely broadside. Correct use of both shells is necessary to optimize your Illinois gameplay. Farming Fire Damage The idea is to juggle fire damage between multiple ships, earning you witherer and/or arsonists in the process. BBs and large cruisers are good targets as they take the full 60s fire duration. As soon as you light 1 fire, immediately switch targets. Skilled players will usually let 1 fire burn, but others may immediately DCP 1 fire. If the enemy does use DCP, time your next HE salvo so that it hits just after the immunity period ends. Most BBs DCP lasts 15s, with Japanese BBs taking 10s and US BBs 20s. If done correctly, you can light a permanent fire that drains up to 20% of their HP. DCP cooldown is 80 seconds, so keep spamming them until they catch fire. Illinois is one of the best BBs for farming witherers due to her excellent fire starting capability. Spread the HE love and you will be rewarded with easy 150k games. While farming damage feels great, do not tunnel vision so hard you lose track of the match. Farming does you no good if you ignore the DD taking your home cap for the win. This Daring clip is a good example of rotating fires: https://i.imgur.com/NUUMeYX.mp4 Illinois Engagement Ranges While the shells perform best at ~5-12km, her bad concealment sometimes makes it difficult to get close at the start. Practice leading enemy ships at longer ranges; good players should be comfortable landing hits at ~15km on cruisers and ~18km on BBs. This way you are still relevant if you can't get close for whatever reason. Higher damage output = faster enemy kills which can snowball into other advantages. If you are at low HP or there are a lot of threats, then play further back. Better to play safe than to die a horrible death in 2 minutes. Remember you are a threat as long as you live. Even a heavily damaged ship can repair and become a threat in just a few minutes. Getting close in the early game While difficult, aggressive early-game positioning is still important for maximizing your firepower. Every kilometer helps when you are shooting orbital shells that take 70 years to land. If you haven't already, turn on ship detection radius on the minimap. We will use this to check our position to ensure we don't get prematurely spotted The most common way to get close is with islands. Use them to block line of sight as you approach. You can shoot over some islands, but it's generally not necessary due your high survivability. Leave the island camping for your allies. Instead, use islands to mask your broadside as you do the turnout. This puts you in a kiting position to receive an enemy push. If there is a CV in play, then watch for his planes before committing to a position. Getting spotted at the wrong time will cost you a lot of HP, not only from the CV but from the enemy team getting free shots. If he commits to the other side, that's your opening to get closer. Adrenaline Rush Abuse (Works with all ships) Everyone benefits from Adrenaline Rush, but BBs are especially well suited due to their ability to control their HP. High HP pool and good armor means you can safely fight even at half HP. As long as you don't overaggress, you essentially have +10% DPM for the rest of the game. Keep in mind sometimes it's better to heal early if you are expecting a major fight. This way your next heal is ready to go once the fight starts. Your DPM instantly drops to 0 once you die, so don't procrastinate on your heal. General kiting rules (Useful for all ships) The goal of kiting is to out outtrade the enemy and slow his push. It's like holding the high ground, making it harder for enemies to hit you while you have an easier time hitting in return. However, this comes at the cost of giving up space. Oftentimes it's a cap, but it can be a valuable chokepoint or even allow the enemy to flank your team. A good kiting position is one that best balances survivability and damage output while forcing enemies away from their next objective. Illinois kites well between ~12km - 15km. Bow in ships are easy to hit and your HE ignores their angling. Don't be afraid to get closer if the enemy doesn't have much firepower. You are quite tanky for a kiting ship, and getting closer increases your damage output. Of course if there are a lot of enemies mashing W, just run away. Focus on out-trading the enemy, deal more damage than they do to you. On bigger maps, can also draw enemies away from your team. Instead of running towards your team, run at a ~90° to the enemy push to setup a crossfire. Either the enemy gives you free broadsides or they send a few ships after you. You may even convince them to turn back to spawn, buying valuable time for your team. When the enemy is sufficiently weakened, you can counter push and punish them for letting you live. Think about where to position 2-3 minutes ahead This is the part WG is referring to when they say "World of Warships, the thinking man's action game". No individual salvo will win you matches, but positioning your flamethrower is what decides the match over time. Even a slight increase in damage output can win flanks faster, snowballing into advantages in other areas a few minutes faster. A lot of this comes down to experience and judging each side's relative strengths. For example if your other side loses a DD early on, they will likely give up the cap and possibly move away due to a lack of spotting. You may need to switch flanks to prevent a total collapse. Act as early so you aren't caught flatfooted when the enemy pushes in. Turret Management It's important to pre-aim your guns rather than turning to react. Japanese ships generally have slow turret rotations speed, To do this, point your guns to 1 side and lock them into position with either Ctrl + X or holding down Right Mouse Button. This prevents the guns from rotating while you get your shep into position. When you are done angling, disengage the lock. Done correctly, the guns should be in position ready to punish any target in your area. Dodging Torpedoes Not taking torps is kinda important if you want your heal to function properly. For a visual demonstration, click here for a video by OverlordBou that goes over the basics of dodging Dodging torps itself is mostly predicting where torps are likely coming from, then not being in that area or angling. Before the match starts, take note of how many torp DDs, IJN CLs, and subs you are facing. During the early game, your DDs and CV should be able to spot which of those ships you will be fighting. Ideally keep a DD in front so he can keep the torp threats in check, or at least spot them. Stay angled to their general direction and keep varying your speed. Most DDs torp at the white line, so you will unlikely get hit if you constantly adjust your course. Even in the unlucky event the torps are on point, at least you are prepared to dodge. When you spot the torps, quickly turn parallel to them. Turning into them is the best way to dodge, but be careful of your end position. It does you no good if you get stuck bow in with no way out but broadside death. Turning out is not as good, but generally will leave you in a better defensive position against surface ships. In practice though, your starting angle will determine if you turn in or out. Playing in a CV match Rockets are the only weapon type you aren't too worried about. Thick armor will usually prevent significant damage, though fires are still a problem. Turn into them when possible, though they move so fast even this may not be possible. Torpedo bombers will absolutely wreck you if they can cause flooding. Turn into the torpedo bombers to minimize your profile. If you think the CV is a potato, you can even slow down and try for a complete overshoot. This will make you vulnerable to follow up attacks, so don't do this often. Their ability to strike your citadel and deal unhealable damage counters your repair party, so dodge them at all costs. For AP DBs, turn broadside to avoid their bombs. Against torpedo bombers, turn parallel to the attack and present the narrowest profile possible. If you can't avoid the torps, then aim to receive them on the bow or stern. You can always heal bow/stern saturation damage, you can't heal much citadel damage. Rockets and HE DBs are lower priority since you can heal most of it back. While your AA can defend against lesser CV players, the constant spotting ruins your positioning game. There isn't anything you can do to stop planes spotting you across the map. Island can help you get close, but beware the CV can turn them against you. If you are stuck in open water, gg have fun kiting enemies at max range. For defending against attacks, try to be in open water where you have space to dodge. Good CVs can use islands to sneak inside your AA range and take minimal damage. Be careful of enemy BB cross fires, but Illinois is unlikely to take citadels anyways. Not all games are winnable (Applies to everyone) The most important tip. You will get unwinnable games from time to time. Even the best players with the most try-hard divisions cannot win 100% of their games. At the end of the day, World of Warships is a game designed for entertainment (and reading WoWs April Fools jokes) If WoWs gives you a match like this, it is telling you to take a break: (Thanks WG) Final Thoughts Overall Illinois is an interesting take on the kiting cruiser playstyle. Although she is both tanky and has good firepower, she has to get close to use the latter effectively. This is acceptable when farming BBs, but uniquely puts her at a disadvantage against a decent cruiser past 13km. They will have no problems hitting you while dodging everything in return. Hopefully you get 4+ BB matches due to her ability to farm other BBs. Illinois doesn't make decisive or flashy plays but grinds enemies down in a war of attrition. Because of this, I merely rate her above average at best. Sadly NA matchmaking tends to be unforgiving due to 3 BB matches and constant uptiering into superships. There isn't much you can do once the enemy starts snowballing. On the bright side, she is easy to play due to her similarities with other US ships and an easy playstyle. You should also have a high-level captain available to maximize her effectiveness. To be honest, it's nice having a fun to play ship that isn't overpowered. So far most players have enjoyed playing her, myself included. If you decide on buying Illinois, you won't regret your purchase. This is currently my 3rd Premium ship guide, and my 7th overall. Currently I am focusing on tech tree guides as they are rare to come by, but I occasionally review premium ships if I get time or take a particular interest in them. My next guide will be the Russian Nevsky line, followed by either the Italian or French DD line. If you want to learn how a particular line works, let me know and I might be inclined to (eventually) make a guide for it. For more guides, I've created an index thread: Since you have made it to the end, have this unusual Illinois dev strike: Sources Used Wows-ShipBuilder: https://app.wowssb.com/ Used for all relevant ship parameters. The dispersion and ballistic charts is also very helpful to visualize how good/bad your dispersion is. WoWs Shiptool: https://shiptool.st/ Excellent for comparing entire tiers or class of ships In-Game Armor Viewer Well, gotta show the armor even if it doesn't exist. WoWs wiki: https://wiki.wargaming.net/en/World_of_Warships Their articles on exact gameplay mechanics is quite handy.

Table of Contents: Introduction Skill level Who should play this line Captain build and ship upgrades Line Characteristics Armor and Durability Main Armament Secondary Armament Anti-Air Defense Anti-Sub Airstrikes Maneuverability Concealment Consumables General Playstyle Individual Ship Rating Gameplay Tips Final Thoughts Sources used If you just want quick gameplay help, I recommend reading the "Captain build and ship upgrades", "General Playstyle", and "Gameplay Tips" sections. These section headers will be highlighted in green for convenience. Use Ctrl+ F to find the section you are looking for. Introduction The following is my review of the Japanese Battleship tech tree line. My assessment is current as of March 2023 in patch 12.1. Barring major changes, this guide will remain relevant throughout the future. Summary: Mid-long range Battleship with great guns. Sluggish handling, but usually well protected. This guide is also relevant to the following premium ships: - Ishizuchi - ARP Kongo, Haruna, Hiei, Kirishima, and HSF Hiei (all Kongo clones) - Mutsu - Ashitaka - Ignis Purgatio and Ragnarok (Warhammer 40k ships, Amagi clone with slightly better accuracy for worse reload) - Kii - Bajie (Pan-Asian BB almost-clone) - Hizen - Musashi - ARP Yamato (exact same stats as Yamato) - Shikishima Skill Level Skill floor: Low Great survivability due to their thick armor and high HP pool Excellent torpedo protection lowers the consequence of not dodging torps Very simple playstyle with few notable gimmicks, beginner BB players can focus on the basics without being overwhelmed Archetypical BB playstyle: Tanky ships that can land devastating salvoes when blessed by the Emperor Skill Ceiling: Low Turret rotation can be difficult to manage but provides valuable experience for beginner BB players Sluggish handling can make repositioning or target acquisition difficult While accurate at long range, leading targets requires practice due to the average ballistics Who should play this line Recommended for: Long-range gameplay - Better accuracy than other lines past ~12km (this is not an excuse to snipe at 20km at full HP) Direct engagements - Japanese BBs can outdamage and outlast other lesser ships in mid-long range fights Beginner BB players - This line trains many good habits that carry over to other lines Not recommended for: Competitive viability- Mediocre performance in ranked and clan battles Aggressive pushing - Sluggish turrets and poor maneuverability makes them unwieldy in close combat Captain build and ship upgrades Recommended Battleship Tank Build: https://share.wowssb.com/W31f Take the skills in the numbered order. Preventative Maintenance - Reduces the chance of guns or rudder being knocked out. Grease the Gears - Japanese BBs have awful turret traverse, so Grease the Gears will slightly fix that problem Adrenaline Rush - Mandatory skill for all BBs. Gives you free firepower for tanking for your team. Fire Prevention - Reduces the number of times you will be lit on fire. Extremely useful for every BB Concealment Expert - Useful for positioning and controlling your fights. Emergency Repair Expert - Extra heal is very useful for late game, but is a lower priority than the other 4pt skills Basics of Survivability - Ok skill, but not nearly as useful as the other skills. Normally I would recommend Concealment Expert first for BB lines. However, Japanese BBs are an exception due to their mid-tier ships having awful base concealment. You will be spotted no matter what on the smaller mid-tier maps. Therefore I suggest taking Fire Prevention first, then Concealment expert once you get Amagi. Upgrades: Main Battery Mod 1 - Standard module to reduce risk of guns getting knocked out Damage Control System Mod 1- Standard module for BBs Aiming Systems Mod 1 - You need every dispersion reduction modifier you can get Steering Gears Mod 1- Japanese BBs have the worst rudder shift, so SGM1 is necessary to offset this issue Concealment System Mod 1 - Concealment is simply too useful to pass up even for BBs. The ability to control when you fight is extremely powerful Main Battery Mod 3 - Faster rate of fire is always better, you don't need the extra range Co-op/Operations only build: https://share.wowssb.com/dbXj Secondaries build for maximum close-range firepower. I don't recommend this build outside of PvE as their secondary firepower is quite poor. Unique Captains: The Suzuki brothers have enhanced Emergency Repair Specialist, but that -1% doesn't lower the cooldown by even 1 second. i.e You literally won't notice the difference. Still, the Suzuki brothers are nice as starting with 10pts lets you start with Fire Prevention. Japanese DDs take priority for Suzuki, but it's fine to put him in BBs if you have no one else better. The Suzuki brothers are available in the armory, one for 35k coal and the other for 1500 doubloons. Yamamoto is a powerful captain, but battleships do not benefit as much as other lines. His biggest benefit is the enhanced Grease the Gears, which shaves off a second or 2 off the turret traverse. +1 consumables is ok if you don't have Enhanced Repair Expert, but the extra heal/other consumables are needed more on other lines. Second wind is a funny skill, but its steep requirements mean by the time you earn a Kraken, the game has already been decided. The heal is also wasted as it is essentially a 2-minute standard repair party. It cannot heal back "unrecoverable" damage like torpedo hits. That being said, you are effectively immune to fires for ~120s when it does activate. -34% reload time provides a funny DPM boost. I've gotten Yamato's reload down to 13s when Second Wind activated. Still not useful as the game ended 30s later, but it's hilarious to see it in action. Armor and durability High HP pool, usually one of the highest of their tiers Robust Torpedo Defense System, also one of the best in their tiers Small superstructures - can be hard for DDs and CLs to inflict direct damage Thick deck armor Somewhat vulnerable citadels - Poorly angled IJN BBs frequently take citadel hits Note: Japanese BB ship design varies wildly between tiers. There are a lot of exceptions to the above traits compared to other lines. Tier 10 Yamato external armor example: Internal armor plating: Japanese BBs are generally hard to kill when played properly. A combination of high HP pool and good armor scheme makes them very durable even under intense focus fire. Their generally small superstructures and thick deck means sub-152mm HE rounds struggle to deal direct damage. High-tier BBs get 57mm deck armor that will shatter even heavy cruiser HE shells. Fires are usually your biggest threat as they ignore armor and deals percentage damage. Angling is also very important due to their vulnerable citadels. BBs at close range can easily hit your raised citadel despite the thick belt armor. As long as you angle, you can bounce almost any AP round that comes your way. Unlike other BBs, torpedoes are more of a mild inconvenience due to IJN BBs having excellent torp protection. A torp that would cripple other ships would deal only half the damage against IJN BBs. That being said prevention is still the best medicine, so always dodge torps when possible. Note: All BBs of the same tier share the same chance to catch fire. i.e No individual ship is statistically more vulnerable to fires than other ships. That is a combination of bad luck and confirmation bias. tl;dr: Quite tanky when angled properly, not so much when broadside to other BBs Main Armament Unique dispersion formula, trades close-range accuracy for better long-range dispersion (~12km) Tighter horizontal dispersion, but worse vertical dispersion Longest main battery range of any tech tree line Average - slower than average shell flight times Slowest turning turrets, average firing angles Excellent AP shells with high penetration High HE alpha, but poor fire chance Slow reload Yamato's dispersion is shown: Japanese BBs use a unique dispersion formula. Horizontal dispersion is significantly worse than other BBs until roughly ~8km. Past this range, Japanese BBs scale better than almost every other BB line. Unfortunately, this trait doesn't apply to their vertical dispersion. It starts bad and remains bad at all distances. Compared to other BBs, IJN BBs start with poor base accuracy, but retain their accuracy over longer distances. The combination of great horizontal and bad vertical dispersion results in a more circular dispersion ellipse compared to other BBs. It has its ups and downs, but overall it's beneficial past roughly 12-14km. Individual sigma values between individual ships vary, but high-tier ships have higher sigma leading to tighter dispersion. To quickly summarize their accuracy, they are poor under ~8km and become notably better past 12km. Synergizing with their long-range accuracy, IJN BBs also have the longest main battery ranges in the game. Their ballistics are generally average, so don't use your accuracy as an excuse to snipe past 20km. You are a battleship, so don't be afraid to take hits if it means you one-shot the enemy in return. Taking hits will also boost your adrenaline rush bonus, offsetting your slow reload speeds. Unfortunately, Japan's lack of WD-40 means their turrets turn extremely slowly. This severely hurts them at close range or in other situations where you have to react quickly. Even turning around will take your guns out of the fight for a minute or 2. The firing angles are at least acceptable, but you can't fire a full broadside without exposing a little side yourself. Like every BB, AP rounds are your main ammo type. High armor pen lets you reliably penetrate all but the thickest plates of armor. You will frequently land citadels hits on broadside cruisers at all ranges. Some BBs like German BBs have turtleback armor, making it very difficult to hit their citadel. Still, landing multiple pens on their broadside will deal heavy damage. Starting with Tier 7 Nagato, overmatch also contributes to their overall effectiveness. Even if cruisers angle to you, your shells can ignore the bow/stern armor and deal damage anyways. Yamato and Satsuma can even overmatch BB 32mm bow/stern armor. Japanese BB HE is actually good, but there is rarely a situation where it is better than AP. Though they are bad at starting fires, they have the 2nd highest alpha damage behind the British BBs. Great against DDs and angled BBs, but lack of fire chance means AP will cause more damage in the long run. Spamming HE will only cause players to laugh at you for playing like a potato. Only use against the above ships if you have no better targets to shoot at. tl;dr: AP is your bread and butter. HE is usable but reserved for specific situations. Secondary Armament Normal secondary dispersion, i.e can't hit the broadside of a Satsuma 140mm guns are an exception as their dispersion formula is the same as other accurate BB secondaries like Georgia and German battlecruisers Relatively low range Typical near-useless secondaries common to many BB lines. Japanese BBs also hate close-range combat as their main gun dispersion becomes notably worse than other BBs Investing into secondaries doesn't fix their problems Just don't bother with it unless you are exclusively clubbing bots. If you want to take a secondary BB into randoms, play Iwami or a German BB/BC. tl;dr: Play Iwami if you want a Japanese BB with good secondaries Anti-Air Defense Flak count: Low Long: Tickles enemy planes Medium: Literally doesn't exist unless you count Satsuma Short: Irrelevant, and doesn't shoot anything down anyway Nothing is more historically accurate in World of Warships than Japanese ships getting smashed by CVs. Like irl, the BBs only get 2 kinds of AA: useless short-range and practically useless long-range AA. No matter how many 25mm guns you put on your ship, infinity x 0 AA is still 0 AA. Longe range AA is slightly better, but any half-awake pilot will just ignore it. If you are alone, enemy CVs will easily get off 2 attacks, potentially 3 if they have enough planes. You can still angle to attacks, but don't expect to dodge if the enemy maneuvers around you. Rockets are the least of your worries. You cannot dodge them, but at least the worst they can do is set fires. Dive bombers are another story though. IJN BBs are so thicc that even a blind pilot can hit every bomb on your ship. HE bombs will consistently deal 10-20k while lighting multiple fires. AP bombs will just double/triple cit you for 1/3 your HP per run. Skip bombers aren't fun either, but at least they have a chance to shatter on your belt. Japanese BBs surprisingly fares better against torpedo bombers than other BBs due to their excellent torpedo protection. You won't shoot anything down, but at least the torp belt does a good job of reducing damage. If you can't dodge the plane torps, take it on the belt. Better to eat the damage than to risk a permaflood. tl;dr: Just watch the video in the spoiler ASW Airstrikes Same ASW as other same-tier battleships Long range, but low damage Japanese BBs share the same depth charge airstrikes as some other same-tier battleships Deals minor damage, but the extra range is very useful for hitting subs at standoff distance That being said, multiple airstrikes from different ships can 1 shot subs if everything hits. Airstrikes can also be used to bait out enemy AA, giving keen players a rough estimate of the enemy’s position. tl;dr: Safe spammable damage. Subs are still miserable to face Maneuverability One of the slower lines with the exception of Kongo and Amagi Small turning radius with exception of Kongo and Amagi Slowest rudder shift of all tech tree BBs For the most part, Japanese BBs are slow dreadnaughts that trade maneuverability for survivability While they have relatively small turning radiuses, their glacially slow rudder shift negates this advantage. Even taking rudder shift in slot 4 doesn't help that much. All this combines to form a large clumsy ship that can't react to developing situations. The Japanese battlecruisers (Kongo and Amagi) are exceptions as they trade armor for their high top speed. Still can't turn for crap, but at least they can actually move around the battlefield. tl;dr: Japanese BBs don't dodge. They tank hits with their face, just as the emperor intended. Concealment Mid tier BBs have the worst concealment in the game High tiers are better, but still quite bad Awful air detection, but that's expected of a battleship Anything Tier 7 and below are a lost cause. Smaller maps and high base concealment means you will be spotted no matter what. For example: Fuso has 18.3km base concealment, with 16.5km being the lowest you can get No matter which map Fuso gets, she is spotted as soon as she takes 2 steps out of spawn. It's a better story for Tier 8+ ships as they can reduce their concealment to a more manageable ~14km radius. With so many high firepower threats running around, building concealment is essential for long-term survival even for Japanese BBs. You can tank better than most BBs, but that doesn't mean you will last long against 5 ships shooting at you. Like all BBs, their aerial detection is quite bad. There is almost no way to avoid plane spotting when a CV is in play. Everyone will generally play further back, but this arguably plays into your favor due to your accurate long-range guns. You still don't want to get hit by CV attacks, but at least you don't have to change your playstyle. tl;dr: The only BB line that can be seen from space Consumables Japanese Battleship Damage Control Party(DCP) 10s immunity period 80s cooldown Japanese BB DCP is notably weaker than BBs from other tech tree lines. The short immunity period means enemies can quickly relight fires asfter only 10 seconds. Be careful when timing DCP. You don't want to take a flood when your DCP is down. Standard Repair Party Heals 14% damage over 28s at baseline 80s cooldown Repairs: 100% of fire damage 50% of pen damage (both HE and AP) 10% of citadel damage 4 charges Same basic repair party available to most battleships. Important consumable for surviving into the mid-late game. Spotter Plane +20% range for 100s, also raises the camera allowing for easier shots over terrain 4 charges 240s cooldown Available starting with Tier 5 Kongo While you don't need the extra range, the camera change is quite useful for hitting ships in smoke or behind islands. It also doubles for spotting ships behind islands, though only do this when necessary due to the 6 minute cooldown. Fighter Plane (shares slot with spotter plane) Fighters hover for 60s, shoots down 3-4 planes 3 charges 90s cooldown Available starting with Tier 7 Nagato Generally useless when compared to the spotter plane. It doesn't actually stop the attack, but shoots the planes down after they finish their run. The fighter plane can stop 1 follow-up attack but this doesn't matter if the CV won't attack more than once or against Russian CVs. Just stick with the spotter plane so you can snipe the CV across the map. tl;dr: Weak DCP, normal heals, usable spotter plane. We don't talk about the fighters. General Playstyle Japanese BBs are essentially everything that you envision a battleship should be, massive imposing ships that can eliminate ships at long range. With 20+km range, you can strike fear into broadside cruisers even from across the map. Thick deck and belt armor provide excellent protection as long as you don't show broadside. Don't be afraid to tank for your allies. They take less damage, you get a free Adrenaline Rush boost. At roughly under 10km, their guns become unreliable due to their relatively worse dispersion and slow turret traverse. Above waterline citadels is also a concern, showing broadside to enemy BBs will result in heavy damage. Not that they can't perform but you have to be careful around ships that excel at brawling range like German BBs. It's quite hard to get close anyways due to your slow speed and poor concealment. Japanese BBs perform best at mid-long range, roughly between 12-18km. At these ranges, excellent AP performance and good accuracy will result in frequent citadel hits. Vary your positioning depending on the enemy strength. If you are facing weaker ships and torps are not a threat, get closer to press your firepower advantage. Against stronger opposition like several HE spammers, might be better to play safe and stay further back. Once committed to a flank, it is hard to dislodge them for both the player and the enemy. Enemies will find it hard to kill a kiting BB without lucky fires or torps. The IJN BB player will find it equally as hard to rotate flanks should he be needed elsewhere, though the long maximum gun range offsets this problem. Think of IJN BBs as powerful sledgehammers, utilizing brute force to win fights. However, they lack the tactical flexibility to quickly adapt should they misread the situation. Successful players will pick off vulnerable ships while tanking for their team. They will also anticipate where they are needed 3-5 minutes in advance, giving them as much time as possible to prepare. Early Game (20:00 - ~15:00 ingame time) In the early game, IJN BBs are best played between mid and the flanks due to their poor mobility and excellent gun range. For most maps, this roughly corresponds to positioning above the caps. Here, they can attract enemy fire while their allies wrestle for the flanks. Any enemy trying to do the same risks showing broadside. They can also quickly switch flanks by simply turning the guns around. Not every map has enough room for flanking, or sometimes you spawn mid. In that case, your positioning will be similar to that of a kiting cruiser or battleship. Wherever you decide to position, your goal is to create crossfires and pick off vulnerable ships. DDs and broadside cruisers are your priority. Getting them out early can snowball the flank, and potentially the match. Broadside BBs are fine but don't lose track of potentially better targets. Play it safe early on. No need to rush to your death. Give your DDs and/or CV time to spot the enemy deployment before you commit to any important moves. Mid Game (~15:00 - ~5:00 in-game time, or until ~4 ships remain on each team, whichever comes first) After the first ~3-5 minutes, look at the minimap and team health and take stock of the situation. If your side is weak or about even, you get the easy job of kiting the enemy to death. See the "General Kiting Rules" in Gameplay Tips for more info. If all goes well, you will farm a lot of damage while the other flank hopefully hasn't died. In less-than-ideal situations, it may be necessary to run to the other side of the map to reinforce a failing flank. You can rush over in 2-3 minutes and hopefully stem the bleeding. While you may not save the flank, you can still save the game by preventing the enemy from gaining complete map control. If you get the strong side, then set up for a potential push. Prioritize enemy DDs so your own can move up. Depending on the map layout, you may need to advance slowly so you don't expose broadside to the other flank. Still, try and move up so you can tank for your team. With some luck, you can annihilate the enemy and push into their spawn uncontested. Maybe even snipe the CV if you are lucky enough. However, in most games both teams will generally duke it out for several minutes before 1 side is forced to retreat. IJN BBs excel in this style of combat as the majority of the fighting occurs within their optimal gun ranges. Besides broadside ships, also focus on bow-in cruisers like US heavy cruisers. Your big guns can punch right through their armor, forcing them to slowly back away or die trying. If they try turning out, now they have to show broadside to you. Always keep tabs on the rest of your team and anticipate if you need to help them. If you are in mid, just turn your guns and you can start helping immediately. Of course, getting closer helps alot against more mobile targets. But you can snipe stationary targets who may not expect a cross-map shot. Late Game (5:00 to end of the game, or when there are only a few ships on the map) Hopefully the game is decided by this point as late-game pushes tend to work against IJN BBs. The late-game meta favors ships who excel at 1v1/2v2 close-range fights, something you are definitely not good at. Don't let this deter you though, there are far more important factors that decide the late game like positioning and remaining HP. You will still bully cruisers and Yamato/Satsuma will punch through the bow of any BB they face. Either way, the overall strategy is to obtain/maintain the point lead. Healthy ships should run down the enemy while damaged ships provide support or take unguarded caps. Usually it's best to group up as you can pick off lone enemy ships. As a BB, your job is to spearhead advances with your massive HP pool. Lesser ships will be forced to run away, letting you or your allies take and hold the caps. You can also just sit on your cap and block any attempts by the enemy to take it. Force enemies to work around your massive durability so your allies have the breathing room to support you. Quick Individual Ship Assessment The tier 3-4 ships face so many bots that I can't give an accurate assessment of their capabilities You will quickly grind past them, so it matters little. Kongo: 5/10 Kongo remains a decent Tier 5 BBs despite being one of the oldest. Unlike other Japanese BBs, Kongo plays more like a battlecruiser. i.e worse survivability but higher speed. She is very fast for a Tier 5 BB and her enemies will frequently underlead their shots. Combined with her high HP pool, she is surprisingly hard to kill even with her lack of armor She somewhat lacks in the firepower department, but it's good enough for most situations. She isn't as tanky as other BBs, so avoid getting drawn into direct slugging fights. Use your mobility to get into ideal positions, catching enemies off guard as you punish their broadsides You can still tank if needed, but be prepared to run if you start taking heavy damage. Otherwise, she plays the same as other Japanese BBs. Punish broadside ships and focus DDs when possible. Fuso: 8/10 Fuso is a hilarious mid-tier monster. She reloads ridiculously quick for a 12 gun BB, almost 20% faster than other comparable 12 gun BBs. Although she is the least accurate BB, this provides little comfort for the lightly armored cruisers dodging her shotgun salvoes. AP works wonders against cruisers, though their low armor pen makes them less effective against BBs. Thankfully Fuso also carries powerful HE rounds, letting her deal with angled BBs when needed. The hull is not quite as good, but it gets the job done for most game. High HP pool and minimal superstructure makes it hard for cruisers to damage her. The citadel is poorly protected, so always stay angled when fighting other BBs. Due to her pagoda masts, Fuso has the absolute worst surface detection in the game. You will be spotted no matter what you do, but this hardly matters. Enemies will just see their impending doom without being able to do anything about it. As long as you angle properly and dodge the torps thrown at you, Fuso will carry you to the top of the scoreboard. In ranked, Fuso ranks as one of the better tech tree BBs available. Her ability to outtrade almost every ship makes her a powerful asset to any team. Nagato: 5.0/10 Nagato is surprisingly good considering Tier 7 ships usually get shafted in Tier 9 matchmaking. Her mid-long-range playstyle lets her transition smoothly into high-tier matches. Tier 8-9 ships outclass you, but you can do reasonably well with proper support. The 410mm guns are a major upgrade over the old 356mm guns. Though you only carry 8 of them, its high caliber lets you overmatch equal and lower-tier BB bow/stern armor. 2.0 sigma also makes it deadly accurate against anything that shows broadside. On the other hand, the armor is a slight step backwards. While she has a large HP pool, the citadel is poorly protected especially in the rear. 26mm deck armor also makes her vulnerable to most cruisers to face, though you are still somewhat safe against DD caliber guns. It's not the worst armor scheme, but getting surprised citadel is never fun. Oh and your rudder frequently breaks because WG says so. No other IJN BB does this and I have no idea why. Here is a replay of Nagato in action: Amagi: 6/10 Tbh I want to rate Amagi higher, but 90% of her games was pure suffering due to uncooperative teammates. Anyways, Amagi is also a battlecruiser like her Tier 5 counterpart Kongo, trading armor for higher speed. In fact, she is currently tied with Kongo for the fastest Japanese BBs in the entire line. 32mm plating can bounce BB AP shells, but heavy cruisers and some light cruisers can quickly tear her apart. Use your speed to stay at a safe distance while your main guns wear them down. At least your citadel is difficult to hit due to your turtleback armor. Amagi uses the same 410mm guns as Nagato, but with 10 guns instead of 8. And less range for some reason. They are still good guns, but you will feel their lack of range and penetration when fighting Tier 10 ships. Broadside cruisers will still eat citadels, but don't expect to citadel many BBs. Pen damage still does a lot of damage, so don't be discouraged if you can't citadel high tier ships. Overall Amagi is still a good ship and actually one of the better-handling BBs for her tier. She feels like she has just enough of everything to succeed in most games. Only CVs and subs will pose a consistent threat. Unfortunately Amagi is not well suited for ranked nor clan battles. Due to the close range meta of those formats, brawling BBs like Massachusettus and Vladivostok outclass her. Lack of durability also hurts her in direct fights, something she can't avoid in either formats. Izumo: 6/10 Izumo has come a long way since the beginning of the game. When WoWs was first released, she was widely considered the worst ship in the game. Her AP rounds had ~Tier 6 BB levels of penetration and her armor was trash. Basically she was a decent Tier 7 BB that was misplaced into Tier 9 matchmaking. After 7 years of gradual buffs, Izumo has matured into a solid BB. She is no Musashi or Georgia, but she is quite strong for a tech tree BB. With 57mm deck armor and almost no superstructure, cruisers and gunboat DDs will struggle to hurt her. Either they aim for the bow/stern section, upper belt armor, or hope for fires. BBs have similar issues as their AP rounds will ricochet when angled properly, at least most of the time. Her citadel is somewhat high, but not easy to hit in practice. The main issue actually comes from her unusual stern layout. Starting with Izumo, Japanese BBs have flat stern panels where enemy AP rounds can penetrate. Problematic when the enemy is directly behind you. Due to her all-forward turret arrangement, Izumo has a notable blind spot in the rear where enemies can farm her for free. The turrets themselves don't even make use of the all-forward arrangement. The middle turret cannot rotate the full 360° degrees and the 3rd turret is just a misplaced rear gun with worse firing angles. Oh, and you can't use your front gun for kiting unless you like showing broadside. It's no wonder the Japanese went with the Yamato design irl. At least her shells are quite good. In fact, they are one of the fastest in the game. Even maneuverable enemies will find it hard to dodge your attacks. Because of this, you can comfortably stay at range where you can still hit enemies while minimizing your poor turret angle disadvantages. Izumo can still kite, but it's fairly tricky due to her turret angles. Like other Japanese BBs, Izumo doesn't perform well in the ranked or CBs meta. This time though, it's less of Izumo's fault but rather Tier 9 is full of far superior premium BBs. Georgia literally runs circles around her, Rupprecht (not a premium ship) will secondary her to death, and Musashi is practically a tier 10 version of you. Izumo can still win when played properly, but I would advise a different ship if you want to rank out faster. Yamato: 5/10 I find Yamato to be surprisingly just average for being a legendary ship. Besides having a normal turret layout again, Yamato is one of the few BBs that can overmatch 32mm armor. French and British BBs cannot angle to you at all, your shells just overmatch anywhere they hit Your AP is so good there is almost no reason to use HE, even against DDs. However, slow reload and only having 9 guns gives her a somewhat underwhelming damage output compared to other Tier 10 BBs. Slow turret traverse doesn't help as it can cost you salvoes on briefly-lit ships Her armor performs better at long range thanks to her 57mm deck armor and 410mm belt armor. While her citadel sits high above the water, thick belt armor protects you at longer ranges (roughly past 16km) At closer ranges though, enemies can take advantage of your "cheek" citadel weakness. Unlike most BBs, Yamato's citadel is more octagonal in shape. Even when angled properly, the citadel shape creates a flat surface under the 1st and 3rd turret which enemies can exploit. Because of this, sometimes it's better to ignore the rear gun when fighting under 10km. It's not like you perform well at close range anyways, so only get close when its safe or you have to make an aggressive play. Again, Yamato isn't a bad ship, but she doesn't feel as strong as other powerful threats at her tier. It doesn't help that some superships significantly outclass her, despite being just 1 tier higher. Of course, I may be biased due to my impressively bad luck with IJN BBs. But that is why I recommend looking at other players reviews so you can get multiple perspectives. As usual, Yamato is rarely used for clan battles and ranked. In ranked, Yamato suffers at close range due to her cheek citadel weakness. Heavily armored German and Russian BBs also somewhat negates her overmatch advantage. Can't overmatch 50+mm deck armor and the bow/stern sections are hard to aim at. Even after WG banned literally half the BBs for clan battles, Yamato struggles to find use due to her poor mobility. She is simply too slow to make plays in the fast-paced environment of CBs. Satsuma: 8/10 Satsuma's hull is essentially a scaled-up version of Yamato, including the same strengths and weaknesses. 59% torpedo protection gives her the strongest torpedo belt in the game. She also resists gunfire equally as well, though ships can still exploit her large superstructure and cheek citadel weakness. Fires are actually her biggest threat, so play carefully if gunboat DDs and light cruisers start focusing you. On the bright side, your 8x 510mm guns will smash everything it hits. 3 Citadel hits is enough to dev strike almost every cruiser in the game. And if that's not enough, you only need ~3 salvoes to charge up your combat instructions. It doesn't even have to hit. As long as the shells land near the ship it counts. When activated, you can expect to hit at least 5 shells if you aimed correctly. Basically she becomes a dev strike machine if your aim is on point. The 510s are less reliable against light cruisers due to frequent overpens, but shooting while they angle can somewhat fix this. DDs are also an issue, but there isn't much you can do to fix your poor close range dispersion or hitting dodging DDs at range. They are still high-priority targets so take every good shot you can get. Remember, an overpen still does ~10% damage to your average DD. While her 510mm guns are undeniably strong, the main gimmick is her unique combat instructions. After landing enough shells (usually 3-4 salvoes), she can activate her combat instructions to make her next salvo super accurate. The ability OP on paper, but the gamble lies both in your ability to aim and your target's ability to dodge. Observant enemies can dodge your salvo and waste your efforts. Still, a dev strike or even a 30k salvo on command is game-changing when used properly. Also, keep in mind an uncharged meter will start to degrade after ~45 seconds. You have a ~15s grace period in between salvoes before you lose progress. Once fully charged, you can hold on to the funny button for as long as you want. Just don't wait too long for that perfect shot. A sub-optimal use is better than never using it. Lack of mobility is always an issue, but at least this doesn't hurt your damage output. Don't need to get close to an enemy if you can slap him across the map. Overall I would consider Satsuma to be the best of the 3 super BBs, with Patrie coming in second and Hannover a close third. Her guns will single-handedly carry games when aimed properly while she can comfortably tank entire teams at long range. Lack of mobility and utility still puts her at a disadvantage when dealing with DDs, so I still rate Conde and Annapolis as better overall. Still, Satsuma is fairly easy to play for a supership. If you can play Yamato, you can certainly play Satsuma. Gameplay Tips Most tips can also apply to other ships Researching Priorities (Applies to all tech tree BBs) Always research B-hull first, use free exp if you have to. Japanese BBs gains a massive boost in combat effectiveness when they research the B-hull upgrade, more so than other lines. You don't want to be playing a crippled version of your ship at high tiers for 5-10 games. Engine upgrade is nice, but not strictly necessary to do well. I still recommend it as the extra mobility helps a lot in many situations. For longer grinds, the extra performance will make the easier in the long run anyways. Range upgrade is the only one you can truely skip. All IJN BBs already start with enough range, so another 2km doesn't help much with the exception of Amagi. Only get the extra range if you plan on keeping the ship after the grind. Don't rush up the line (Applies to all tech tree BBs) The grind is not about the destination, but about the journey of self-improvement. Mid tiers are a great learning environment, letting you make mistakes without getting overly punished. If you rush up the lines too quickly, you won't learn the valuable lessons to be successful at high tiers. You will suffer as everyone will mercilessly farm you for free damage. Don't be the teammate everyone dreads, take your time and don't burn yourself out on the grind. AP vs. HE (applies to all BBs) AP is your primary shell type as they are effective against all but heavily angled targets or ships with no armor. With some luck, you can deal heavy damage to broadside cruisers and BBs. HE is reserved for healthy DDs and bow in BBs that you cannot overmatch with AP. They have great alpha damage, but aren't exactly good at starting fires. Keep an eye on enemy DCP usage, and time your salvoes for when the immunity period ends. Vs. DDs, AP vs. HE depends on their health. HE is superior against high HP DDs, both for damage dealt and for breaking every single module on the ship. At around 1/2 to 1/3 HP remaining, AP becomes better due to its consistency. As damaged DDs can be heavily saturated, HE will start dealing less damage. AP doesn't care as it will always deal 10% damage via overpens. You also have a slightly larger target since AP can travel underwater and still hit the ship. Against cruisers, ~10-16km usually gives you the best damage output. Citadel and full penetrations are more likely while you are less likely to overpen ships, especially light cruisers. Realistically speaking though, just fire whatever round thats loaded. If you try switching to the "optimal" round, the DD will have likely escaped by then. As long as you hit the DD, you will deal significant damage. For Yamato, Shikishima, and Satsuma, their AP overmatches 32mm so they almost never use HE even against DDs. Timing your Shots (Applies to all BBs) BBs are not about spamming salvoes, but punishing vulnerable enemies at the right time. Of course, most enemies have some sort of self-preservation instinct and won't give you broadsides for free. This is where allies come in handy. Most players will prioritize whoever is shooting at them, and will dodge accordingly. If he is shooting They can angle to your allies but give you broadside if he doesn't know you exist. Once he commits to his turn, that is when you strike. By the time he sees your shot, it's too late. Crossfires (Also applies to other battleships and large cruisers) If you and your allied BBs position correctly, you can ensure enemies must show broadside to either of you. Not only will the enemy take heavy damage, but you can limit their movements for fear of showing broadside. Setting up crossfires requires some social distancing and a bit of geometry. Typically this is done with 1 BB in middle (you) and another on the flank. From mid, you can even set up multiple crossfires on both flanks on wide-open maps. Below is an example of a crossfire: AP overpens everything :( AP will overpen in 2 situations: The armor is too thin to arm the shell, or the shell passes completely through the ship before exploding. In the first scenario, BB shells fuses will only arm on thick plates of armor equal to 1/6 of the gun's caliber. For example, Izumo's 410mm AP rounds needs a minimum of 68mm to arm the fuse. Typically this means only the belt, bulkhead, and other citadel armor sections are thick enough to activate the fuse. In the second scenario, some ships are so thin that AP shells simply pass though before then detonate. This isn't as common, but a few ships like Atlanta and Smolensk make notable use of it. Aiming at or slightly below waterline will let shells arm on the water before penetrating the underwater armor into the ship's citadel. This doesn't always work due to BBs being inherently inaccurate, not to mention you can completely miss if you aim too low. Against cruisers, you can actually shoot them while they are angled. Shells will have enough time to arm if they travel the length of the ship. Of course overpens are inevitable in practice. Some targets have weird armor profiles and other times your BB dispersion refuses to cooperate. When in doubt, better to aim too high than too low. Aiming too high will give you overpens on the superstructure, but it's better than completely missing the target when you aim too low. Note DDs are an exception as BB AP damage is capped at 10% i.e. BB AP shells always deals overpen damage even if it is registered as a full pen. Engagement Ranges While I said the ideal IJN BB fighting range is roughly 12-18km, this doesn't mean you only fight at those ranges. Against weaker enemies, get closer and press home the advantage. Sure your close range accuracy isn't as good, but getting closer still improves your dispersion. The faster you end the fight, the faster you can snowball your advantage. If you are at low HP or there are a lot of threats, then play further back. Better to play safe than to die a horrible death in 2 minutes. Remember you are a threat as long as you live. Even a heavily damaged ship can repair and become a threat in just a few minutes. Adapt your positioning to the situation at hand in order to maximize your effectiveness. Think about where to position 2-3 minutes ahead This is the part WG is referring to when they say "World of Warships, the thinking man's action game". While individual salvoes can decide games, the ability to position for such shots gives you the best chance for success. A lot of this comes down to experience and judging each side's relative strengths. For example if your other side loses a DD early on, they will likely give up the cap and possibly move away due to a lack of spotting. You may need to play aggressively to win your flank or consider switching flanks to prevent a total collapse. Act as early as possible as you need time for your slow hull to lumber into position. Close Quarters Combat Japanese BBs are somewhat mediocre at close-range combat due to their slow turret traverse and bad dispersion. You can still smash cruisers, but there isn't much you can do once the enemy gets to your broadside. Try to stay at ~5-10km, close enough to hit shots but far enough to avoid torps and other hazards. Change up your speed and rudder and remain unpredictable. Whatever you do, don't let the enemies get close enough for a drive by. Your raised citadel and large size means anything can either score multiple citadels or torpedo dev strike you. Your own turret will struggle to retaliate, sometimes even letting the enemy go unpunished after the drive by. Take the ram if you can't kill him in time. Both of you may die, but it's better than dying for free. Certain Japanese BBs also have a "cheek" weakness where they can be citadeled when angled. Yamato is the most famous example, though Satsuma and Nagato also suffer from this. Smart enemies can exploit this weakness, so be especially careful when getting close. Adrenaline Rush Abuser (Works with all ships) Everyone benefits from Adrenaline Rush, but BBs are especially well suited due to their ability to control their HP. High HP pool and good armor means you can safely fight even at half HP. As long as you don't overextend and die, you essentially have +10% DPM for the rest of the game. Keep in mind sometimes it's better to heal early if you are expecting a major fight. This way your next heal is ready to go once the fight starts. Your DPM instantly drops to 0 once you die, so don't procrastinate on your heal. General kiting rules (Useful for all ships) The goal of kiting is to out outtrade the enemy and slow his push. It's like holding the high ground, making it harder for enemies to hit you while you have an easier time hitting in return. However, this comes at the cost of giving up space. Oftentimes it's a cap, but it can be a valuable chokepoint or even allow the enemy to flank your team. A good kiting position is one that best balances survivability and damage output while forcing enemies away from their next objective. Usually this is done on the edges of the map, but BBs with sufficient long range performance (Like IJN BBs) can also sit in mid, potentially crossfiring ships on both flanks. Japanese BBs kite well at ~11km - 18km gun range. While they are durable, the slow speed can make it difficult to outrun fast pushes Don't be afraid to run early if the entire team is mashing W in your direction. Focus on out-trading the enemy, deal more damage than they do to you. On bigger maps, can can also draw enemies away from your team. Instead of running towards your team, run at a ~90° to the enemy push to setup a crossfire. Either the enemy gives you free broadsides or they send a few ships after you. You may even convince them to turn back to spawn, buying valuable time for your team. When the enemy is sufficiently weakened, you can counter-push and punish them for letting you live. Their death an acceptable price for failure. Turret Management It's important to pre-aim your guns rather than spending precious seconds reacting to new threats. By the time your guns are on target, he may have already angled and a golden opportunity will have been lost. To pre-aim your guns, point your guns to 1 side and lock them into position with either Ctrl + X or holding down Right Mouse Button. This prevents the guns from rotating while you turn your ship into position. When the ship is near your desired angle, disengage the lock and you are good to go. Pre-aiming your guns is also important if you plan on doing drastic maneuvering like dodging CV attacks or rotating guns to the other side. Starting early reduces the amount of downtime before the guns can rotate back into position. Dodging Torpedoes Not taking torps is kinda important if you want to stay healthy. For a visual demonstration, click here for a video by OverlordBou that goes over the basics of dodging Dodging torps itself is mostly predicting where torps are likely coming from, then not being in that area or angling. Before the match starts, take note of how many torp DDs, IJN/Pan Asian CLs, and subs you are facing. During the early game, your DDs and CV should be able to spot which of those ships you will be fighting. Ideally keep a DD in front so he can keep the torp threats in check, or at least spot them. Stay angled to their general direction and keep varying your speed. Most DDs torp at the white line, so you will unlikely get hit if you constantly adjust your course. Even in the unlucky event the torps are on point, at least you are prepared to dodge. When you spot the torps, quickly turn parallel to them. Turning into them is the best way to dodge, but be careful of your end position. It does you no good if you get stuck bow in with no way out but broadside death. Turning out is not as good, but generally will leave you in a better defensive position against surface ships. In practice though, your starting angle will determine if you turn in or out. CVs are using you for target practice :( While CVs don't change your playstyle all that much, a lack of AA means they will ruin your day at will. If the enemy CV is focusing on your side, play safe and don't get too aggressive. Stay near allies for AA support. You can space out if the enemy CV is playing on the other side. If your CV is playing your side, consider holding your shots for when he spots a target of opportunity. You can time your salvo just as the enemy is spotted broadside, potentially dealing huge damage before the enemy can react. Enemies will try to dodge CV attacks, even if it means giving you broadside. Again, time your salvo to when your CV does his attack run. When done correctly., the enemy will dodge your CV's attacks right into your salvo. You get free damage while your CV doesn't. A win-win situation. While you can't dodge, you can at least make it harder to line up a good shot. Rockets deals relatively low damage, therefore low priority You can turn parallel to the attack run, but don't make yourself vulnerable to other ships in the process. Not a good trade if you dodge a 5k rocket salvo only to eat a 20k BB salvo instead. As I mentioned in the AA section, Japanese BBs are slightly more resistant to torpedo bombers. Not that you want to take torps, butBBs aren't good at dodging torps anyways. Still, you want to turn into the torpedo bombers to make life more difficult for the CV The 2nd and 3rd strikes might not be possible to dodge, so try to take the torps on your belt. This minimizes the chance of taking a permaflood. Dive bombers are also quite deadly, with AP bombs able to take out 1/4 of your HP on a lucky run. Unlike other planes, always turn broadside to the DB attack run. You will probably still take damage, but getting hit by 1-2 bombs is better than all 6. Skip bombers are essentially sideways launching HE bombers, so treat them like a long-range rocket attack. Turn into them if you can, but don't give up your broadside to other BBs. Passive matches, it's been 15 minutes and no one has taken a cap Japanese BBs perform well in passive matches. If everyone wants to sit at range, that's fine. Your superior range and accuracy tilts the fights in your favor. Don't play too passively though, you need to tank shots for your lesser-armored allies. Getting close still makes your shots more accurate, though do this when it's safe to move up. Not all games are winnable You will get unwinnable games from time to time. Even the best players with the most try-hard divisions cannot win 100% of their games. At the end of the day, World of Warships is a game designed for entertainment (and farming dev strikes for youtube content) If WoWs is making you miserable, it's time to take a break. Get up, walk around, do something productive. Anything to get your mind off of WoWs. You can always come back later. Final Thoughts Overall the Japanese Battleships are a solid beginner friendly line. Many aspects of the line will provide valuable lessons, but not to the point of handholding the player. Instead, players can take these lessons to heart so they can avoid making similar mistakes in the future. Lessons that will serve them well once players move on to more exotic lines. Japanese BBs may look vanilla, but underestimate their capabilities and you will get dev struck back to port. As this is my 4th tech tree line guide and 6th guide overall, feedback is welcome so future articles will be of higher quality. I focus mostly on tech tree guides, though I will publish premium ship guides if I find them interesting enough. If you want to learn how a particular line works, let me know and I might be inclined to (eventually) make a guide for it. Due to my busy work schedule, I expect to publish a guide roughly every 3 weeks - 1 month. It's hard work to make each guide, even if I reuse a lot of gameplay tips. Not to mention I play each ship several times to get a good feeling for their capabilities. Paper stats tend to differ significantly in the real world, so it's always important to play the ship to assess its practical performance. Since you have reached the end of the guide, have a complementary dev strike as a reward: For a list of guides I've published, refer to this thread: Sources Used Wows-ShipBuilder: https://app.wowssb.com/ Used for all relevant ship parameters. The dispersion and ballistic charts is also very helpful to visualize how good/bad your dispersion is. WoWs Shiptool: https://shiptool.st/ Excellent for comparing entire tiers or class of ships In-Game Armor Viewer Tbh, I wish WoWs would get a hit penetration simulator similar to [edited]. Would make armor tests a lot easier to assess Various clips used Be sure to check out both Lord_Zath and OverlordBou on twitch and youtube. OverlordBou streams regularly on twitch and provides ship reviews and funny wows moments on youtube. Zath provides replay commentary for both his twitch and youtube channel. I recommend sending him replays of ships you struggle with.

The following is my review of the Tier 9 Premium Japanese "Large Cruiser". Azuma's performance is current as of January 18, 2023 or patch 12.0. Barring major changes, this guide should stay relevant throughout the future. Summary: Azuma is the Japanese take on the large cruiser playstyle. No torps, but gets powerful guns and fast cooldown repair party. Note: I will be using the term "Large Cruiser" to refer to ships with 283mm guns or larger that are classified in-game as cruisers. Examples include Azuma, Alaska, Stalingrad, etc. While this may not be historically accurate, this is done to avoid confusion with similar ships(i.e. Battlecruisers) that are considered battleships in-game. Note 2: AL Azuma has identical performance to her non-weeb sister ship, differing only by aesthetics. If you are concerned about my qualifications, as of writing this guide, my alt account holds the #1 NA leaderboard spot for AL Azuma with a 70% WR, 142k average damage, and 1.7 kills per game. Captain build and ship upgrades: Recommended build: https://share.wowssb.com/t3B6 Gun feeder - Faster switch to AP rounds to catch the occasional broadside cruiser Priority target - Good to know how many players want to farm you Adrenaline Rush - Free firepower for tanking damage. The faster reload becomes very useful in the mid-late game. Concealment expert - Better concealment = better ability to position. You don't want to be spotted broadside to a BB as well. Take the skill in the numbered order. This is the same captain build as the Japanese heavy cruiser tech tree line. I strongly recommend at least a 10pt captain before you enter battle. I consider 10pts the bare minimum for the ship to function as advertised. Next skills are: Superintendent - +10k HP is powerful in the late game where most ships are close to dead. Top Grade Gunner - -8% reload time is powerful, and not hard to activate. You don't have to actually fight at close range, an enemy behind a tall rock can also activate the skill, letting you farm his allies. Grease the Gears- Helps offset Azuma's poor turret traverse. You can take this earlier if you constantly have issues getting guns on target Survivability expert - Buffs your HP so that it doesn't end with an awkward 50 HP. Spotter Plane build: https://share.wowssb.com/JyBQ Alternative build for using spotter planes. For upgrades: Slot 1: Main Battery Mod 1 - Dead turrets means no firepower, which leads to great sadness. Spotter plane mod is a viable alternative if using the spotter plane build Slot 2: Hydroacoustic Search Mod 1 - Extends your hydro duration, helpful for dodging torpedoes. Available in the armory for 17,000 coal. Damage control Mod 1 is a cheap alternative if you don't want to invest coal Slot 3: Aiming System Mod 1 - Better accuracy = more hits, which leads to happier players. I don't recommend Main Battery Mod 2 for better turret traverse unless you are really struggling with turret management. Slot 4: Steering Gears Mod 1 - Makes her rudder somewhat more bearable. Slot 5: Concealment System Mod 1 - Concealment is better than steering in the long run. The ability to position closer is more important than better maneuverability Slot 6: Main Battery Mod 3 - Azuma already has enough range, and the spotter plane is used during the few times she doesn't. Armor and survivability: - 58,350 HP pool - Citadel sits distressingly high above the water - 22% Torpedo belt protection - 60s fire duration 25mm bow/stern and 27mm deck armor is normal for a Tier 9 cruiser. She can bounce 381mm AP rounds off her side armor, but anything larger will punch through without issue. Being such a large ship with thin armor, she is a favorite target of HE spam. If she isn't careful, high DPM light cruisers and DDs will quickly burn her down. The 178mm belt armor is also thin by large cruiser standards, but at least better than a heavy cruiser. Apparently, the British and Japanese had an in-game arms race to design ships with the easiest-to-hit citadels. Fortunately, the Japanese took second place only because they remembered to armor their citadels. This does Azuma little good as even an unlucky battleship will land a citadel if Azuma is showing broadside. The tapered citadel rear also works against her, catching unlucky citadels even when fully angled. On the bright side, her citadel roof armor will bounce practically any AP round. Aside from the random butt citadel (classic Japanese cruiser problem), Azuma shouldn't take citadel hits when properly angled. Aircraft AP bombs will ignore this, but that's a problem I will discuss in her anti-air section Despite her citadel issues, Azuma is still a tanky cruiser. Her high HP pool lets her shrug off a torpedo or citadel hit that would cripple other cruisers. Fast reloading heal also gives her unexpectedly high survivability. Getting a 2nd heal off 40 seconds faster lets her both keep fighting for longer or lets her quickly return to the fight. Overall Azuma is very durable when played correctly. Good players can prove an unkillable thorn on the enemy's flank, forcing several ships just to deal with her. However, if a battleship finds your broadside, that's a quick trip back to port. tl;dr: Don't show broadside and everything will be alright. Just spam repair party until the holes go away. Main Armament: 9x 305mm/50 Type 0 guns 19.1km range 20s base reload 36s 180° turret traverse Can fire 35° off bow, 30° off stern 5100 HE shell damage 52mm HE pen 27% Fire chance 138k HE DPM 8650 AP shell damage 21mm overmatch 45-60° Ricochet angle AP pen: 0km - 614mm 5km - 509mm 10km - 425mm 15km - 361mm 20km - 313mm - Dispersion is in between normal cruiser and battlecruiser dispersion - Fast shells, very similar to German BB shell speed Azuma's guns are well-balanced combining battleship ballistics, Japanese accuracy and enhanced HE to create a formidable gun platform. The guns are very easy to aim and have good dispersion. I've been able to hit DDs reliably out to 15km, something only Moskva or Stalingrad can match. 19.1km range is sufficient for most games, and she can use her spotter plane if additional range is needed. Her turret firing angles are optimized for kiting, letting her fire all her guns while being completely angled. However, her slow 36s turret traverse time makes it harder to switch targets or keep guns on target during hard turns. Forward arcs are also mediocre. Azuma risks her vulnerable citadel if she uses her back gun at closer range. HE is your primary ammo type, dealing consistently good damage to every target. 52mm HE pen lets her damage all but the thickest deck armor. While 20s reload sounds slow, this actually works in favor of Azuma. Since battleship DCP lasts up to 20s, Azuma's next salvo is naturally timed to hit just as it ends. You can rack up a lot of witherers and arsonists with just a few well-timed salvoes. Azuma AP is also good, though in practice it is not commonly used She will reliably citadel broadside cruisers at all ranges and even most battleships under ~8km. Best of all, Azuma's AP will overmatch 16mm bow/stern armor found on some light cruisers. Azuma will easily demolish these cruisers with a good salvo or 2. However, the reason AP isn't used often is mostly because the long reload works against her. By the time you switch, the target may have already angled again, wasting a valuable salvo. That being said, you can preload AP if you are fighting certain light cruisers like Minotaur or if you are trying to catch a broadside cruiser by surprise. Overall Azuma is a powerful HE spamming cruiser, though with usable AP in specific situations. Anyone can find success with just HE spam, but good players will learn how to get the most out of her AP. tl;dr: Practically point and click aiming. Excellent HE overshadows her also good AP shells. Secondary Armament 8x Twin 100mm/65 guns 1700 HE damage 3s reload time 7km range 6% fire chance - Normal secondary dispersion Your secondaries are mainly for show. They rarely deal any damage, assuming you even get close enough to use them. Just ignore they exist and be happy the one time they actually do something. If you want a secondary cruiser, buy a Napoli instead. Anti-Air Defense: Flak: 6 inner + 2 outer Long: 0.0km - 5.8km 207dps Near: 0.0km - 2.5km 203dps Azuma's flak and long-range AA is surprisingly good for a Japanese ship. Only Takahashi and Neptune have better long-range AA. A wall of 8 flak clouds can also pose (somewhat of) a challenge for less experienced players. When combined with AA from other ships, the wall of flak has a decent chance of stopping your average Tier 8 CV attack. Note that I said average Tier 8 CV attack. Tier 10 and super-CVs will literally ignore your AA. Her close-range 25mm guns may as well not exist since they don't have any range. (just like irl) DFAA does little to change the matchup. Unless the CV hits a flak cloud, the planes will strike you as normal. You will shoot down 1-2 extra planes, but this rarely makes a difference. Due to her large size and thin armor, she will take massive hits when the planes inevitably breakthrough your AA. Doesn't matter what ordinance they use; rockets, torps, and bombs will have no issues penetrating her 27mm armor. AP bombs are especially dangerous assuming RNG is against you. Tbh, just be glad that Malta cannot AP citadel you with her carpet bombers. BB maneuverability does her no favors as it makes it easy for enemies to line up their attacks. Overall any CV game is an Operation Ten-Go reenactment waiting to happen. Tier 9 MM also sucks as she can face 3 tiers of CVs. 2 of which see her as target practice Your best chance for survival is to hug allied ships, hope the enemy CV is busy on the other side, or pray the enemy CV is a paid actor. tl;dr: Azuma's AA is historically accurate. :( ASW Airstrikes Maximum Charges: 2 Number of DC per attack: 2 Damage: 4200 Reload time: 30s Range: 7km Welcome to part 2 of hell. If unkillable planes doesn't sink you, then undodgeable torpedoes will. Homing torps will home onto the pinged section of the ship until they reach a certain distance from the ship. At that point, they will continue straight, allowing the ship to dodge with some last-minute maneuvering. The bigger the ship class, the further out it will stop homing. Battleships have the largest "dead space" where the torpedo cannot home, destroyers have the smallest. Cruisers are firmly in the middle. Unfortunately, Azuma is considered a cruiser for this purpose, even though she has battleship maneuverability. If you are not already completely angled to torps, you will get hit even if hydro is active. Your DCP only lasts 5s, so the sub can immediately regain lock on so the torps will hit anyways. If that's not bad enough, subs can easily shotgun despite what some sources may state otherwise. As for hurting the sub itself. You only get 7km ASW while Tier 8 subs get 12.5km range torps. Even if you do hit your ASW, it does very poor damage. The only good thing Azuma has is her high HP pool. At least you can tank more hits before going down. In 99% of submarine engagements, your only good option is to run away. Not very fun nor engaging, but it's better than taking 50 sub torps up the aft. tl;dr: Azuma is fish food for any sub that's not completely afk. Maneuverability: 34kt Max speed 920m Turning radius 13.9s Rudder shift Azuma is surprisingly fast in a straight line, placing in the top quarter of Tier 9 cruisers for top speed. She can reposition quickly, whether pushing your strong flank or rotating to the other side. To balance her out, everything else about her maneuverability is awful. 920m and 14s rudder shift is battleship-level maneuverability. Not a fun time when you are trying to dodge islands or enemy attacks. Instead, Azuma relies more on her bulk than dodging shells to survive fights. Concealment: Surface detection: 14.7km base 11.9km best Aerial detection: 10.7km base 8.7km best In keeping with Japanese cruiser tradition, Azuma is very stealthy for her size. 12km is just good enough to ambush most ships, whether it's a destroyer or a broadside cruiser. At that range, even DDs will struggle to dodge in time. You still need someone to spot, but a well-executed ambush can win the fight before it begins. If things go south, you can also use your concealment and speed to disengage. Her air detection isn't quite as good, so best avoid getting close in a CV match until you know where his planes are. Consumables: Standard Cruiser Damage Control Party (DCP) 5s immunity period 60s reload Standard Defensive AA (shares same slot as hydro) 4 base charges, 5 with superintendent +50% continuous damage +300% flak damage 40s active time 80s reload time Standard Hydro (shares same slot as DFAA) 3 base charges, 4 with superintendent 5.0km surface detection 3.5km torpedo detection 100s active time 120s cooldown time Spotter Plane 4 charges base +20% main gun range 100s active time 240s reload time Fast cooldown Repair Party Heals 14-17% of total HP 4 charges, 5 with Superintendent (1 extra heal compared to other cruisers) 80s reload time Azuma is one of the rare ships to use the fast cooldown repair party. It heals the same amount as a standard repair party but has a cooldown of 40 seconds instead of the normal 80s. This lets Azuma stay in the fight much longer than other cruisers as you can get 2 heals off instead of 1. With a bit of dodging, a well-played Azuma can kite almost indefinitely. Either farming enemies to death or forcing them to go somewhere else. Hydro is recommended over DFAA. Azuma maneuvers like a brick, so you need extra time to dodge torpedoes. Gameplay Skill floor: Low Easy to use guns on a decently protected hull. Her playstyle is simple to learn and works well with other kiting cruisers like Japanese CAs. The only reason it's not any lower is because of her citadel. Skill Ceiling: Low 95% of Azuma's gameplay is just farming. Not much else to learn except the occasional push She also can't hard carry games due to her lack of utility. Randoms performance: Below Average - Average Azuma is the Tier 9 Japanese large cruiser, available for 1 million free exp or 228k coal. While has battleship-ish handling and firepower, she retains the core kiting cruiser playstyle of farming down enemy teams so her own team can push later. She plays best between 12-16km, giving her the optimal balance of firepower and survivability. Of course, she can play closer against weak enemies or sit further back if 3 enemy Satsumas are trying to farm dev strikes off a poor Tier 9 cruiser. Early Game For her early game, position as close as possible to the enemy or cap before you start kiting, ideally about 10-12km from the enemy DD. This way you are in position to snipe the enemy DD in the initial engagement. A 10k salvo on a DD can win the fight before it even begins. Enemy radar ships are also high priority, forcing them away will give your DDs much-needed breathing space so they can cap. Abuse your superior health and shell ballistics to outtrade the enemy. Don't be afraid to establish dominance early on. You have 5 heals to fall back on for mid and late game. Avoid aggressive maneuvers until you know where all the enemy ships are positioned. In the eventuality that your DD is actually a paid actor, just fall back to standard kiting tactics. Mid game: Mid-game tactics is mostly a reaction to how the overall game is progressing. This falls under 3 general categories: Farm your side, farm the other side, or push your side. Ideally you would stay and continue to farm your side of the map. A large enemy push is the dream scenario; if it's just you and 3-4 ships, you will easily top the scoreboard with some good kiting. In more realistic matches, both sides will hunker down and just trade shots for the next 5-10 minutes. Azuma is good at this role and can trade comfortably against most ships. The clear exception being superships. Always keep constant tabs on the enemy flank. If the other side is collapsing, you may need to rotate back as soon as possible to kite the inevitable push. Your goal is to buy time so your flank can hopefully push through before getting surrounded. Sometimes after winning your flank, it is easier to rotate back through spawn rather than chase the enemy down. It depends on your position and where the enemy ships are likely to go, so the best choice varies from game to game. If you heavily win your side, you can actually push through the enemy spawn and out-flank them. Azuma can quickly get into position before farming enemy broadsides. This won't happen too often as this typically leads to blowout matches, ending the game before you can actually farm damage. Typical enemy reaction is also to run towards the nearest corner, also robbing you of your well-deserved stats :( Late game: Hopefully, your win (or farm) is secured by the time the late game rolls around. There isn't any specific tactics for Azuma since the correct play is different for each game. That being said, Azuma's extra heal gives her a major HP advantage while other ships are close to death. The general idea is to secure the caps and pick off their weakened ships. Closer ships should take the caps and healthy ships to defend them. Running down enemy ship maybe necessary if you are behind on points. Ranked: Mediocre Azuma isn't considered good in ranked mainly due to her limited utility. A lack of radar means she cannot deal with DDs without support. The heavy T9 BB meta is also an issue as Azuma cannot push into them. Still, she performs well in the kiting role and even 1 good salvo can nuke the DD and win the game. Farming damage can also save your star, but remember you can't rank out by saving stars. Tl;dr: Play Donskoi or Alaska and your teammates (and karma) will thank you for it. Other Useful tips: Getting close in the early game: Aggressive early-game positioning is important for supporting your DDs and keeping enemies off the cap. If you haven't already, turn on ship detection radius on the minimap. We will use this to check our position to avoid getting too close. There are a few ways to safely get close: For domination games, you can use the cap as a reference point. Turn out just before your detection radius covers the other side of the cap. If done correctly, this positions you perfectly to shoot into the cap while a small buffer acts as a warning when the enemy DD tries contesting. See the example below: You can also use islands to get closer, turning out just as you approach the island. This way you start the fight in a kited position while you cover your DD taking the cap. Any DD will find it difficult to dodge an Azuma salvo under 10km. If you are supporting a DD in open water, use him as an early warning system. Stay approximately 6-7km behind him. This way the enemy DD will spot you and your DD at the same time, achieving maximum surprise with your first salvo. Ideally get into kiting position just before the shells start flying. Finally, the last technique is to simply use the middle of the map as the reference point. Even suicidal DDs won't get far enough to spot you before making the turn. Not as ideal as the previous methods, but it's better than getting too aggressive and getting dev struck trying to turn out. General kiting rules: (Useful for all ships, especially kiting cruisers like Zao) The goal of kiting is to bout outtrade the enemy and slow his push. It's like holding the high ground, making it harder for enemies to hit you while you have an easier time hitting in return. However, this comes at the cost of giving up space. Oftentimes it's a cap, but it can be a valuable chokepoint or even allow the enemy to flank your team. A good kiting position is one that best balances survivability and damage output while forcing enemies away from their next objective. Azuma kites best at roughly 12-16km from the enemy. Closer to 12km is fine for same-tier or lower ships, but 15+ km might be necessary against powerful high-tier ships like Des Moines or Satsuma or against an overwhelming force. You also may need to open the distance if a DD is spotting you unopposed. Either way, your goal is to draw enemies away from the rest of your team. This is done by threatening a crossfire. If the enemy goes for the objective, then you can shoot AP into their valuable broadsides, forcing them to send a few ships to deal with you. Distracting 2-3 enemies can have a decisive impact as your team deals with less enemies. Pushing: While Azuma is not a strong pushing cruiser, she can still push against 1 or 2 ships (not including battleships). Healthy BBs will survive long enough to kill you via overmatching your bow, but Azuma usually wins against a cruiser or DD. Ideally have an allied BB tank for you, but don't be afraid to use your own HP. Using the back gun is risky at close range due to mediocre forward firing angles, slow rudder, and high citadel. I don't recommend using the back gun under 8km unless you absolutely need to finish off the enemy or it's a DD/CL. The faster you finish off the enemy, the sooner you can help your other flank. Optimizing damage against multiple ships (Works better with faster-firing cruisers, but can also apply to Azuma) The idea is to juggle fire damage between multiple ships, earning you witherer and/or arsonists in the process. Lighting a fire usually causes the average BB player to immediately use DCP. Since most battleship DCPs last 15s, your next salvo will be ready by the time his immunity period ends. US Battleships have 20s immunity period, so wait a few extra seconds before shooting. With a bit of luck, your next salvo should light a perma-fire on him. You can then move on to the next victim while you rack up free fire damage Smarter players will hold their DCP, choosing to burn on 1 fire instead of risking getting lit on 2 or 3 fires. In this case, just let the 1 fire burn while you shoot someone else. With luck, you can get multiple fires running on different ships. When one fire burns out, you can switch focus and relight the fire. Keep in mind Azuma deals most of her damage through raw penetration hits, not fires. It is also often better to focus on 1 target so you can completely remove that threat. Target selection: (Applies to all ships) Generally speaking, DDs and cruisers are your priority targets. DDs rarely get spotted, so any good salvo should be taken when possible. Radar cruisers are high priority as DDs hate them. Their general lack of mobility and/or durability also makes them easier targets than other cruisers. Battleships are great for farming, but aren't an immediate threat unless they yolo in. More important to note their position and avoid showing your broadside to them. Pre-aiming the guns: (Also applies to battleships) Azuma guns turn slowly, so it is important to have guns on target before the fight starts. When turning to kite, lock your guns to the side pointing to the enemy. This can be done by holding the right mouse button or Shift + X. If an important target pops up, rudder can turn the ship and get your guns on faster. Just try not to show broadside to a waiting BB in the process. Playing in CV games: While CV games are not fun for most ships, Azuma hates being a damage pinata for even the most potato CV player. Play more passively at the start until you know where the CV has spawned. If he is on the other side, then you can play normally for a while. CVs usually focus on their side of the map. If you are unlucky and you have the CV side, then turn out before you get plane spotted. You will probably be fighting at max gun range, so focus on farming enemy BBs and cruisers. Range is important here. if the CV attacks you, then you have room to maneuver. Immediately start running get as far away from enemy surface ships as possible. This way you can completely focus on dodging the CV. Showing broadside is less of a concern as range gives you time to dodge, or let dispersion hopefully save you. When done correctly, you can mitigate most of the damage while wasting the enemy CV's time. Abusing Adrenaline Rush (AR): AR is extremely useful for Azuma, reducing her reload to more manageable levels. This is best done by letting a fire burn as fire damage is 100% repairable. Of course, this means you will take more focus fire, but her fast heals can offset this to an extent. Deciding between survivability and firepower is heavily dependent on how much firepower you expect to face. As a general rule, always save your last heal until you are under ~7k HP. And use it once you are getting shot at. This maximizes the benefits of AR while providing the same amount of survivability. Cunning captains can also use this trick to bait out "finishing" shots from low-health ships. Not all games are winnable: Probably the most important tip. You will get unwinnable games from time to time. Even the best players with the most try-hard divisions cannot win 100% of their games. At the end of the day, World of Warships is a game designed for entertainment (and farming whales for profit) If WoWs is making you miserable, it's time to take a break. Get up, walk around, do something productive. Anything to get your mind off of WoWs. You can always come back later. Final Thoughts: Recommended for: - Japanese captain training - Consistent credit farming - Easy to play ship - Weebs (AL Azuma) Not recommended for: - Players wanting high-performance ships, many Tier 10 coal are better choices - Interesting or unique playstyle. Many other coal ships offer better variety for gameplay. Kearsarge, Tromp to name a few examples - Fast-paced gameplay - Destroyers are better choices (not Z-44, she is still bad) Azuma is a good Tier 9 premium for newer players seeing to fund their high-tier tech tree grinds. Not only is she easy to play, but she also requires minimal resources to function. A 10pt captain and ship upgrades are all you need. Maybe a heal signal if you are tryharding. Because of this, she also doubles as a captain retrainer when grinding up the Japanese tech tree lines. For experienced players, she can be a relaxing ship to play. Perfect for days when you want high-damage games without much effort. Still, Azuma is an expensive investment. I strongly recommend doing research on other Tier 9 and 10 ships before you decide on your purchase. Since players will inevitably compare Azuma to Yoshino, I will give my opinion here. Personally, I find Azuma better tier for tier. Her fast reloading heal will save her in many situations that would kill Yoshino. Yoshino does get 30mm side armor and 20km torpedoes, but the 20km torps aren't very useful. They tend to bait inexperienced players into giving out free citadels instead. The 30mm armor may bounce 406mm/420mm guns, but T10 sees a lot of overmatching 431mm+ AP shells being thrown around. It's not really an advantage once you factor in tier difference. Of course, Yoshino still beats Azuma in overall performance. But unless the matchmaking Gods punish you with superships in every match, then Azuma wins due to more favorable matches. However, if you have one, then there is no rush to get the other. Their playstyle is 95% the same, 5% being the torpedoes (that will miss anyways). Overall Azuma is a decent, though underrated ship. Though I was satisfied with her gameplay, most players will find her playstyle boring and one-dimensional. She is very consistent, sometimes too consistent as she does the same thing every game. Azuma can't make game-changing plays like a radar cruiser, nor can she land devastating strikes like a battleship or a torpedo salvo can. Instead, Azuma wins games through attrition, farming enemies out until they are no longer a threat. Successful players will apply constant pressure, setting up her team to win the late game. Sources used https://app.wowssb.com/ - Used for all relevant ship parameters. I highly recommend using them to test-build your ships before investing points into your captain. https://shiptool.st/ - Used for ship comparisons World of Warships armor viewer - Used to show how vulnerable Azuma's citadel is As this is my first ship guide, feedback is welcome so future articles will be of higher quality.

Table of Contents: Introduction Skill level Who should buy the Z-42 Should I spend 27,000 steel for her? Captain build and ship upgrades Ship Characteristics Armor and Durability Main Armament Torpedoes Anti-Air Defense Anti-Sub Airstrikes Maneuverability Concealment Consumables General Playstyle Gameplay Tips Final Thoughts Sources used If you just want quick gameplay help, I recommend reading the "Captain build and ship upgrades", "General Playstyle", and "Gameplay Tips" sections. If you are deciding if Z-42 is worth it, then go to the "Who should buy the Z-42" section" These section headers will be highlighted in green for convenience. Use Ctrl+ F to find the section you are looking for. Introduction The following is my review of the Z-42, the Tier 10 Premium German Destroyer. She is currently available in the armory for 27,000 steel, or 20,250 steel after using the resources coupon. My assessment is current as of February 2023 in patch 12.1. Barring major changes, this guide will remain relevant throughout the future. Summary: Gunboat version of Z-52. Highly effective against DDs, but less efficient at farming damage. This guide can also apply to the Tier 8 Z-35, though her stats will differ. Skill Level Skill floor: Low-mid High survivability due to numerous defensive consumables Similar handling to the Z-52, allows for an easy transition Versatile weapons, acceptable torp boat if guns are too risky Skill Ceiling: High Short-duration smoke makes it harder to farm, also easy to run out of charges by the halfway mark Shell ballistics is hard to aim at longer ranges in a tier full of radar and aircraft Balancing DD roles like objectives, spotting, and dealing damage is hard even for experienced players Who should play this line Recommended for: Z-52 Enjoyers - Z-42 offers a similar playstyle but with more powerful guns. You can even use the same captain on both ships. Versatility - Like the rest of the Z-52 line, she performs well in many different situations DD Killer - Z-42 excels at killing other DDs due to her amazing AP and 6km hydro. Only gunboats and Smaland will beat her. Captain/Free exp grinding - She earns a lot of exp due to her Tier 10 status. Not recommended for: Ranked/Competitive - Radar cruisers generally makes her obsolete Unique playstyle - Z-42 playstyle isn't much different from the Z-52 line. Austin is a better choice for unique gameplay. Dedicated farming - Z-42 is a good gunboat, but she can't farm as efficiently as dedicated gunboats like Kleber or Sherman Should I spend 27,000 steel for her? Z-42 is a solid performing ship, though whether she is worth the steel will differ for each player. Players should understand their own ship preferences before making the purchase. If you know how Z-52 plays, then Z-42 will likely offer similar levels of enjoyment. The extra firepower comes in handy when farming damage or killing other DDs. Though the torps are weaker and turret angle is bad, I see Z-42 as a slight upgrade. If you are willing to pay 27k steel for a slightly better Z-52, then by all means do it. While Ragnar is a powerful DD, it's an apple-to-orange comparison. Z-42 behaves like an actual DD while Ragnar is an ultra-light radar cruiser. If you want traditional DD gameplay, then Z-42 is a good choice. If you want a radar cruiser-flavored gunboat, then Ragnar is better. Ragnar also has more potential in ranked and clan battles if that is more important. Bourgogne and Mecklenberg are good steel BBs for 1st-time steel ship buyers. If you aren't interested in playing DDs, then I recommend either of those ships instead. For unique gameplay, I recommend Incomparable and Austin instead. They are difficult to play but can be hilariously fun in the right situation. Research all your options so you don't regret your purchase later. While I recommend OverlordBou and MalteseKnight, there are many other good reviews worth looking up. Captain build and ship upgrades My recommended build: https://share.wowssb.com/Upej Main Battery Mod 1 - Standard module to reduce the risk of guns getting knocked out Hydroacoustic Search Mod 1 - Extends hydro duration to over 2 minutes. Provides amazing utility Aiming Systems Mod 1 - Z-42 is a gunboat, so you want better dispersion Propulsion Mod - Enhanced acceleration is far more useful than slightly better rudder shift Concealment Module - Kinda mandatory to ambush other DDs Main Battery Mod 3 - Standard upgrade for gunboats Grease the Gears is taken first to offset her sluggish turret traverse. Otherwise, the first 10 points are standard for almost every DD. Extra Heavy AP is critical for Z-42 as AP is her primary damage output. Then take Adrenaline rush for more firepower in the mid-late game. IFHE lets you deal with cruisers and bow in BBs more efficiently. The loss of fire chance is well worth the extra flexibility. Finally take -5% main gun reload for slightly more DPM. If you don't want to run IFHE, take Consumables Enhancement and Gun Feeder instead. Much easier to deal with unpredictable DDs who constantly change angles. Radio location is also a viable alternative for hunting DDs, but sacrifices a lot of firepower in the process. Trade IFHE and Extra Heavy AP if you want to use Radio Location. The last 1pt skill can be used for Grease the Gears. Shared captain build with the German Z-52 line:https://share.wowssb.com/CN81 If you can't make a dedicated captain, you can share this build with the Z-52 line DDs. Superintendent is not optimal, but can still be useful during long matches. If you don't need SI for Z-52, then take Consumables Enhancements and Gun Feeder instead. Lutjens: I highly recommend running Lutjens for the improved reload speed talent. 140 hits easy to achieve, and -7.5% reload time is extremely useful. All you need is an aggressive BB and 1 smoke puff for an easy DPM boost. I usually proc Lutjens by roughly the ~10 minute mark. Sometimes earlier if the enemy makes an early push. Armor and durability High HP pool, though not gunboat DD levels Typical thin DD armor plating Slightly larger than normal hull size Like other German DDs, she has a bigger HP pool than other universal-type DDs like Gearing or Shimakaze. The ~4k HP can prove decisive in surviving in DD fights or focus fire. Of course, having 0 armor means Z-42 dies very quickly to anything that hits. You won't survive a direct slugging match against anything bigger than yourself. Instead, your goal is to avoid taking damage in the first place. Smoke up, dodge incoming fire, and have your teammates tank whenever possible Keep your HP high for DD fights and other decisive plays where you can't avoid taking damage. tl;dr: Above average HP pool. Still squishy though. Main Armament Uses standard Destroyer dispersion Decent HE firepower, 160k DPM with 26mm pen Amazing AP firepower, arms on almost everything Awful firing angles, requires 45° angle to fire off the bow and stern Floaty shells, practically the same as Harugumo Short main battery range Z-42's accuracy and ballistics: Z-42's ballistics are overall acceptable. She uses standard DD dispersion, so nothing unusual regarding her accuracy. The shell ballistics are very similar to Harugumo, for better or worse. Great for shooting over islands, but difficult to hit maneuvering ships past 8km 12.6km gun range is good enough as you are unlikely to hit anything past that. Turret angles and handling: One of Z-42's main drawbacks lies with her turret angles and rotation speed. At minimum, she needs to angle 45° off the bow or stern to fire all her guns. In otherwords, you need to show broadside for maximum dakka. 18s turret traverse is also quite slow for a DD. You will struggle with keeping guns on target while maneuvering. Thankfully smoke and islands make this less of an issue. If you need to open water gunboat, you can use safely use 4 guns on the attack and 3 guns while retreating. AP Firepower Despite using 105mm guns, Z-42 actually boasts excellent firepower. Unlike other DDs, AP shells are your main source of damage. While the AP lacks penetration, the AP round only needs 18mm of armor to arm the shell. In other words, the shell will arm even on a wet paper towel. The short fuse timer of 0.010s prevents the shell from over-penetrating. Your AP will almost always deal full pen damage to other ships. This makes Z-42 terrifying against other DDs, with each AP salvo dealing 5k damage. To a ship class that has 20-25k HP. You can literally kill DDs in 4-5 salvoes. Lack of penetration power holds her back against larger ships. Though her AP DPM is 307k and the 3rd highest among DDs, it doesn't matter if the target is angled or even moderately armored. Your AP can't even pen 50mm past 10km, so use HE if there isn't much superstructure to shoot at. AP is best used at ~9km and below. Target the upper belt, bow/stern, and superstructure whenever possible. HE Firepower Though not as good as her AP, Z-42's HE remains a good fallback in situations where AP is ineffective. Nominally her HE is roughly middle of the pack, aside from her improved HE pen. Unremarkable damage output and fire starting abilities, though it is more effective against lower tier cruisers. However, this completely changes with IFHE. With 32mm pen, your HE will reliably damage almost all cruisers and lightly armored BBs. The loss of fire chance is well worth the increased damage output, though knowledge of BB armor sections is needed to maximize its effectiveness. Overall AP should be your primary ammo type. AP decimates broadside DDs and cruisers in short order. Not uncommon to kill full health DDs under 20 seconds when AP is used. HE is a useful back up ammo incase the enemy angles. No matter how the enemy angles, Z-42 can farm them out with enough time. tl;dr: Amazing AP, useful HE Torpedoes 10km range, mediocre but usable 13,700 torp damage, one of the worst at Tier 10 62kts, slow at Tier 10 100s, average reload speed 271% flood chance, relatively low for ship torps 2x4 torp arrangement, poor alpha damage per salvo Z-42 torps are surprisingly usable given her gunboat focus. 10km range and decent reload lets you spam them in most situations. Don't expect game-winning dev strikes, but landing even 1 hit is usually good enough. The torps are fairly stealthy, so you will hit DDs fairly often. Just remember you aren't a torpedo boat. You only fire 8 torps per salvo, and each torp does pathetic damage. It is meant to complement your playstyle, not supplant it. tl;dr: Mediocre, but useful enough Anti-Air Defense Flak: 4 inner, 1 outer, 1540 damage per flak Long: 0-5.2km, 115dps Medium: 0-3.5km, 77dps Short: 0-3km, 98dps Z-42's AA is actually not bad due to her 5 flak puffs. She can put up a reasonable fight against lesser CV players. However, you still won't last long against CV players with hands. As always, focus on avoiding being spotted in the first place. If that doesn't work, just dodge. Only use AA if you are detected. See the Gameplay Tips section for help on how to just dodge. tl;dr: At least you can shoot down fighters, eventually Depth Charges (Ship Launched) 2200 damage per depth charge, quite bad for a tier 10 DD 8 depth charges per attack, don't expect to kill subs in 1 pass Hydro helps with hunting subs Z-42 depth charges are launched from the rear of the ship. Unfortunately, Z-42 has a very weak anti-sub armament. Don't expect to kill enemies in 1 pass even if you land every depth charge. At least your 6km hydro can force subs to dive early, robbing them of spotting and situational awareness. I don't recommend charging subs unless they are completely isolated. tl;dr: You can spot subs, but not kill them. Maneuverability Average top speed of 36.5kts Somewhat tight turning radius of 670m Slightly fast rudder shift of 4.4s Compared to other German DDs, Z-42 is slower but has slightly better turning abilities to compensate. The differences are minor and Z-42 still has average maneuverability among Tier 10 DDs. As long as you don't need to warp across the map or make an instant u-turn, the Z-42 is maneuverable enough for the job. tl;dr: Average in all aspects. Good enough for the job Concealment Surface detection: 7.6km base 6.2km best surface detection Air/sub detection: 3.5km base 2.8km best air detection Smoke firing range: 2.6km Z-42 technically has average concealment, but this is a non-issue due to your 6km hydro With a 0.2km detection-hydro buffer, even stealthy DDs will struggle to avoid you. By the time they realize you exist, you will have already smoked up and sent AP rounds to their broadside. Against anything that does outgun you, you will outspot by miles, literally. Khabarovsk, Kleber, etc. will beat you in a 1v1, but they can't do anything against something they can't see. Air detection is about the same as other DDs. CVs will struggle to spot you without prior information. tl;dr: Good enough for the 6km hydro to work properly Consumables Standard Destroyer Damage Control Party 5s immunity period 40s reload time Normal DD DCP. Nothing remarkable. Short Burst Smoke Generator (Similar to RN DD smokes) Laytime of 10s Smoke dispersion time of 40s 6 charges base, 7 with SI 70s reload time The RN DD smokes trades damage farming abilities for more versatility. While less effective at farming, shorter smokes are better suited for short skirmishes or escapes. You can afford to burn a few smokes early and remain effective. However, the short duration smoke is ill-suited for allied support. Smoke does not allow cruisers to farm for any significant amount of time, though it can be handy for escapes. 6 charges sounds like a lot, but heavy fighting can quickly leave you empty by mid-game. German Improved Hydro 3 base charges, 4 with SI 6.0km surface detection 4.0km torpedo detection 120s active time 120s cooldown time While Z-52's hydro lets her pose a threat, that same hydro transforms Z-42 into a terrifying DD hunter. A 0.2km detection-hydro buffer is not enough for DDs to consistently avoid you. Once caught in your web of hydro, all that's left is to smoke up and kill the DD for free. Oh, and the hydro doubles as a torpedo spotter. Very useful for not dying to torps for both you and your team. Standard DD Engine Boost 3 base charges, 4 with superintendent +8% to max speed, improved acceleration 120s active time 120s reload Engine boost is also the as most other DDs, useful for repositioning and even dodging in a pinch. tl;dr: Normal DCP and engine boost, versatile smoke and amazing hydro General Playstyle Z-42 is essentially the gunboat version of Z-52, trading some torp firepower for improved gun firepower. The play style is basically the same but different. Her AP outputs amazing damage as long as you don't hit the heavily armored sections of the ship. When aimed correctly, she can quickly take down even the largest of enemy ships. Restrictive turret angles can hurt her DPM at times, forcing you to choose between maximum firepower and angling to enemy fire. The RN smokes are both a blessing and a curse. Great if you need to remain mobile, but less efficient if you can just sit in 1 spot and farm. While her torpedoes have lackluster performance, it's still good enough to burn DCP or slow down enemy movement. As a universal type DD, your focus should be providing vision and contesting objectives. You can do both with your 6km hydro and smoke by killing the opposing DD. Deploy hydro and smoke as soon as you are spotted. While the DD is making his panic turn out, punish his broadside with 5k AP salvoes. Once you kill him, you have both a cap and vision control. Gunboats like Delny and Kleber will still beat you in a fair fight, but superior concealment lets you dictate the engagement. Against Ragnar and Smaland though, their radar outranges your hydro while they easily outgun you. Either avoid them, outplay them, or rely on allied support. You will mostly be in the spotting role against bigger ships. Not that you can't smoke farm, but most of the time you are the only source of vision for your team. Open water gunboating is possible in some situations and your smoke can bail you out if you get into trouble. If someone else is providing the spotting, then farm away. Keep an eye on the radar cruisers and try to use islands when possible. Z-42's optimal engagement range is ~3-7km against DDs, and 6-10km against other classes. Get as close to DDs for maximum hydro spotting, though not so close he can torp you. For cruisers and BBs, smoke farming is best done below 8km to maximize your accuracy. Stay further back when open water gunboating though. Below 10km doesn't give you much time to dodge enemy fire. Like Z-52, the key to success is leveraging your flexibility. Some games require you to play the objective, others need you to farm out the enemy team. Z-42 can do both, but the skill gap lies in know which to do and when. Early Game (20:00 - ~15:00 ingame time) Early game can be divided into two general tactics: Going for objectives or securing the flanks In low DD matches or if the cap layout is favorable, then playing for the caps can give your team an early points advantage. If you can hold on to the caps, your team will accumulate a significant points advantage going into the mid-late game. See the "How to take caps and not die" section in Gameplay Tips for more info. In radar heavy maps or if you spawn far from the caps, it's generally better to focus on spotting. Early caps is nice, but not worth losing your ship for. By winning the flanks, you can set your team to win the side so you can take the cap later. Approach the flanks as you would a cap; once you get close to the midpoint of the map, get into a kiting position. Even if you have the advantage in a DD fight, don't play overly aggressively. Your primary job is to gather info, not to force plays. Average players aim for a 1 to 1 trade, skilled players can win fights while taking little damage in return. Once you know the enemy DD lacks support, that's when you move in for the kill. Abuse your hydro smoke combo. If you catch him bow in, congrats on the free kill. Even if he escapes, you've driven him off and now have the cap and/or vision advantage Now you can setup for a push or rotate flanks depending on how the game plays out. Mid Game (~15:00 - ~5:00 in-game time, or until ~4 ships remain on each team, whichever comes first) After the first ~3-5 minutes, look at the minimap and team health and take stock of the situation. If the enemy is strong and looking to make a push, congrats you get to farm damage. Torps can cause some mild discomfort, but the real killing power lies in your guns. DDs are your biggest threat, but if he dies then usually the push stalls. See the "Smoke + Hydro Gimmick" in Gameplay Tips for more info. Assuming all goes well, you will farm a lot of damage while the other flank hopefully hasn't died. If both sides potato and enemy walks into spawn uncontested, then gg farm damage. If your side is much stronger than the enemies side then set up for a potential push. Killing the DD will give you the freedom to spot and encourage your team to push. Cruisers generally hate being permaspotted, so pushing them away will also cause the BBs to run. Then your team can push in and take the position for free. Whether you actually keep pushing depends on the map and who is left. Pushing into the enemy spawn is great, but some maps funnel you into a chokepoint. Sometimes it's better to just rotate back through spawn instead of handing out High Calibers. Going back to counter an enemy push is also generally faster Most games will be roughly even with neither side having a decisive advantage. In these situations, cap control usually comes down to whoever wins the DD fight. If you have superior allied support and/or health, then play aggressively. Force a fight in order to kill the enemy DD. Even if you just severely damage him, you've done your job. A low health DD can no longer contest caps. (he can just dev strike your teammates instead) If killing the enemy DD is difficult or impossible, then rotate off and secure the other caps. Timely rotations can catch enemies off guard, netting you caps or even kills for minimal losses. If your other flank is failing, rotating over can prevent a total collapse. Though be careful if you are the only DD on your side. Many players will blindly follow DDs around, causing everyone to end up back in spawn and down all 3 or 4 caps. Remember to watch your consumable usage. It is easy to spam smoke and run out by the 10 minute mark. I was frequently running out of smoke in my longer games. Try to save at least 1 smoke charge unless there is heavy fighting or the game is almost over. Speed boost dodging is useful when fighting 1 or 2 enemies, letting you conserve smoke for the late game. Late Game (5:00 to end of the game, or when there only a few ships on the map) Unlike her tech tree sister ship, Z-42 is quite dangerous in the late game. The ability to 1v1 DDs can prove decisive for maintaining the points lead. Radar cruisers are always a pain, but hopefully you have a friendly BB or cruiser who can deal with him. Otherwise your spotting and DPM will contribute towards winning critical fights. Hopefully you have a smoke to take advantage of your allies spotting. Either way, the overall strategy remains the same: obtain/maintain the point lead. Healthy ships should run down the enemy while damaged ships provide support or take unguarded caps. Usually it's best to group up as you can pick off lone enemy ships. As a DD, your job is to provide spotting and/or take caps depending on the situation. Don't be afraid to draw attention if you are healthy. A dead ally can provide a massive point swing that can lose the game. Gameplay Tips Most of these tips apply to other DD lines. Even if you don't plan on buying Z-42, I highly recommend reading these tips to improve your overall DD gameplay. I will specify which tips also applies to other DDs. AP is your main ammo type Unlike most other DDs, AP is your default shell. 5 - 7k salvoes every 4 seconds is way too good to pass up. Against enemy DDs, you have to predict when he will go broadside. Most DDs will maneuver to get all their guns in the fight, with most over-rotating their ship in the process. Common times include the first few seconds of the fight and during the turnout. When done properly, you can land a devastating 7k+ salvo, even 2 that can end the fight You don't even have to worry about overpens as AP will always arm on DD hull plating. The only section you can overpen is the superstructure, but that's an unfortunate byproduct of dispersion. Against broadside cruisers and BBs, aim at the upper belt and superstructure. Under ~6km, your guns become accurate enough to target the bow/stern sections as well. I would generally avoid using AP past 10km as you are more likely to bounce off the deck and even shatter on the belt. Also, against healthy broadside BBs I actually recommend starting with HE even with IFHE. Once he is on fire, switch to AP so your shells deal more damage. This way you maximize both your fire and direct shell damage. HE remains useful against angled targets, typically cruisers and DDs who have wisened up to your AP tactics. Without IFHE, your HE is mainly for starting fires and sealclubbing Tier 9 and lower cruisers. 26mm pen is good, but not enough to pen most Tier 10 deck armor Aim for the superstructure and cruiser bow/sterns when possible. Against healthy BBs with no DCP, you can try lighting fires on the bow/stern as well. If you run IFHE, now your HE will pen 32mm armor sections Effective damage against Tier 10 cruisers and lightly armored BBs dramatically increases. While this comes at the cost of less fires, dealing direct damage is well worth the sacrifice. French BBs, British BB, and most cruisers become vulnerable everywhere even when angled. AP will still outdamage HE even with IFHE, so only use HE when the target starts angling. Hydro and Caps In certain caps, it is possible to trap other DDs with your long range hydro. You effectively become a super radar ship, keeping DDs permaspotted while staying safe behind islands. Just be careful around radar ships. 6km hydro is nice, but 10/12km radar is better. Good caps to hydro gimmick include the A cap in Hotspot, C cap on Neighbors, and the eastern most cap of Sleeping Giant Below is an example of the hydro gimmick in action: Smoke + Hydro Gimmick By far your most potent gimmick when fighting other DDs. Any DD that facechecks you will also be in your hydro range. Once trapped, smoke up gimmick him to death with AP. Make him regret ever playing DDs. If he has pre-deployed smoke, you can use it against him, masking your approach before you assassinate him. Instead of hydroing immediately, get to within 4-5km of his approximate position. If there are other enemies around, deploy smoke 1 second before using hydro. When executed correctly, the enemy will panic having been trapped by a hydro he cannot see. He has no escape route, so the only thing left for him is to accept his fate. I've included an example of the smoke gimmick in action: Just be careful of potential smoke rushes. Z-42 has good firepower, but not that good once the enemy angles. Healthy French DDs can rush your smoke and kill you at point-blank range. Save 1 set of torpedoes for this purpose. He can rush you, but even French DDs can't dodge at point-blank range. Finally, the ability to smoke/hydro gimmick is insignificant next to the power of the radar cruisers. Don't forget hydro is still useful for torpedo defense. Avoiding torps will save you and your team a lot of unnecessary AR boosts. You don't always have to smoke to escape (Applies to all DDs) Suppose you run into a ship you can't win a gunfight against. If he is at the edge of your detection range, just turn away and run. No need to blow smoke if you will go undetected in 3 seconds anyways. Oftentimes I see DDs smoke up and fire 1 salvo, only to lose spotting on the target. Basically they spend 1 smoke to deal 1k damage. Not exactly a good trade Also DCP if the enemy gets a lucky fire as it gives you a 2km detection penalty. How to take caps and not die (Applies to other universal type DDs) There are 2 general methods to taking caps: the standard approach and the reverse-in or KotS method Most of the time, you can just run full speed into the cap and turn away from the enemy. After entering the cap, turn away from the predicted enemy position so that your stern faces the enemy Don't forget to pop hydro so you don't get torped. If you get radared, you can immediately go forward to escape. In larger caps, you can back up a little to get extra spotting, but be careful when doing this against other DDs. You will be vulnerable during the transition from reverse to full forward. I've included a short video demonstrating this tactic: Whatever you do, DO NOT RUN IN AND IMMEDIATELY SMOKE. (at least not at the start of the game) Not only are you denying vision to your own team, but you are asking enemies to torp you. Hydro is not an excuse to sit in smoke, nor does it stop enemies from radaring you and chasing you out anyways. Do not be the potato DD that every team dreads. If the cap is heavily guarded with multiple radar ships and DDs trying to kill you, this is when you use the tactic of... ignoring the cap entirely. Unless your team is way behind on points, it is better to focus your efforts elsewhere, whether it is spotting the radar cruisers to death or going for a different cap. As a DD, you don't take fair fights or walk into obvious traps. Use your flexibility and work around the enemy. Strike where they are weak. Now if you are in a Clan Battle or some unfortunate setting where you have to take the cap under fire, then use the KotS method. It's actually similar to the first method, but instead of running directly into the cap, you slowly reverse in. This method is slower, but is much safer if you expect resistance like a radar ship. If you get radared, you can W out and try again in a minute. Just don't back into the exact same spot Smart enemies will throw torps, blindfire, or send planes to your old location as soon as you re-enter. Vision Control (Applies to all DDs) Vision control is a broad topic that deserves its own guide, but I will cover the basics here. The goal is to both spot the enemy ships while keeping the enemy from easily spotting yours. A blind team will be outmaneuvered and destroyed in short order. DD fights are the fastest way to win the vision wars. Not only do you kill the main source of spotting, but now it's easier for you to spot the enemy. Z-42 can win against anything not called a Smaland or Ragnar, so don't be afraid to fight other DDs for vision control. Prioritize keeping low health enemies spotted for your team to finish off. Don't be afraid to position aggressively to keep them spotted, though have a smoke ready just in case. Other good targets to spot are squishy cruisers and radar ships. Keeping them spotted gives your team a chance of killing them, or at the least forcing them away. The spotting game is a very complicated and dynamic one. A good position to spot enemies 1 game can be completely useless for the next. Unfortunately learning how to provide vision on the right targets requires consistent practice and situational awareness. Help, I'm being radared (Applies to all DDs) Russian cruisers are very annoying to fight due to their 12km radar and railgun ballistics. It's not as bad against US cruisers and RN Light cruisers, but getting caught under 7km is usually instant death. The key to fighting them is teamwork and splitting their attention. Always keep track of where the radar cruisers are positioned. If possible, skirt the edge of radar range so you can immediately run away if needed. Most players will radar early, so once you bait it just run out of its range and wait for it to end. Use speed boost to dodge their shells. You can even hide behind island in certain situations, but be aware of other enemies. Just because the radar ship can't shoot you doesn't mean his teammates can't. Once radar is down, you get 2 minutes to do whatever you need to do. Whether it is taking caps or counter-farming the radar cruiser. If he doesn’t radar, then follow the same tactics as open water gunboating. It’s extremely important to keep track of his turrets. If it’s turning towards you, a radar is likely to follow. You can use smoke to stop other ships from shooting you, but always stay at the edge of his range in case he radars. Radar DDs fall into 2 categories: Smaland/Ragnar, and everyone else. The Smaland/Ragnar match up is a disaster as they can beat you even at half HP. Your best defense is a combination of prediction, islands, and allied support. You will still take heavy damage, but at least you can make them pay a heavy price for it. Thankfully the other radar DDs are far easier to deal with, i.e Orkan, Hsien Yang, Chung Mu, Black, and Yue Yang. In fact, they are actually afraid of you. Sure they can radar you, but they can't beat you in a 1v1. You are more worried about the enemy ships behind them, but the 6s radar delay gives you time to prepare. Whatever you do, don't panic smoke until you know their radar is on cooldown. Not only will it not conceal you, but you will also block vision for the rest of your team who could have shot the radar ship. DD radar only extends out to 7.5km, so only smoke if you need to past this range. Note: Pan Asian DDs can only carry smoke or radar, not both. Assume they have radar until proven otherwise. If they have radar, just kill them the traditional way. Without smoke. Beginner Dodging Tips (Applies to all DDs) While the Z-42 isn't the best at maneuvering, she is good enough to dodge all but the fastest shells. As a general rule of thumb, DDs will struggle to hit you past 7-8km while cruisers and BBs struggle past 10-12km. As long as you stay mobile, you should be able to avoid major damage. Aside from basic turns, the easiest method to dodging is to simply hit the brakes and turn out. Once the shots pass over, immediately re-apply full engine power so you can evade the follow up salvoes. Congrats, you have successfully dodged 99% of enemy salvoes. Speed boost makes this tactic even more effective due to the increased acceleration If you have trouble knowing when to dodge, take Incoming Fire Alert Other than this, maintain your speed and keep turning to make yourself a harder target. Advanced Dodging Tips (Applies to all DDs) Once you learn the basics, efficient dodging comes from understanding the psychology behind how players aim. For example, worse players tend to underlead shots while better players tend to overlead. Against weaker players, you can easily dodge by running full speed in a straight line, at least until they adjust their aim. Good players will still nail you, so you turn out and hit the brakes to dodge their first salvo. Funny enough this can sometimes backfire as you can dodge into a poorly aimed salvo if you overestimate the enemy's skill level. Another example is shown in the video below: In this scenario, I'm contesting a cap while being radared Since I am radared, enemies expect me to run away and aim at the bow Instead, I go backwards and compleley dodge everyone's salvo, taking no damage in the process. Tallinn's radar only lasts 15s, so I only need to dodge 1 salvo, maybe 2 from cruisers. I can go on, but the general idea remains the same: do the opposite of what the enemy expects. This applies to all ships, but DDs have the maneuverability to take full advantage of this. If you can master his skill, then you can save your HP for important situations where you can't avoid damage. Damage Farming Tactics (Applies to all DDs) Z-42 can do both open water gunboating and smoke farming, depending on the situation. Open water gunboating is best done against distracted enemies or if you will take little damage in return. You will have to operate near maximum gun range, but this lets you maintain spotting and saves smokes for later use. Keep an eye on the Priority Target counter. If the number ticks up, it might be a good time to smoke or go dark. Otherwise keep an eye on enemy turret orientation. If it starts turning towards you, this is a good time to go quiet. German DDs cannot dodge as well as the French DDs, but it's good enough for short engagements. Smoke farming is more powerful as you can attack from closer ranges. While you can focus more on aiming, don't forget smokescreens are torpedo magnets. Always use hydro if it is available. At the very least be angled to their predicted vector. Ideal smoke ranges are between 7-9km, though this can vary depending on the enemy's movement. Against yoloing enemies, try to position the smoke off to his side. This way if he wants to run you down, he has to give broadside to your allies. Also keep torps ready just in case. Before you smoke, always make sure someone else is providing spotting. It is an awkward moment if you smoke up and deny your team's only source of vision. On the bright side, wasting 1 smoke isn't a big loss for you. Oh no, the CV only focuses DDs (Applies to every ship) Fighting CVs and hybrid BBs is never fun as they many will go out of their way to focus you. The longer you live, the more time they waste on you. Time spent not killing the rest of your team. Play cautiously if planes are buzzing around though. It's usually better to avoid combat until you know the CV isn't going for you. Last thing you want is to be caught unprepared and take the focus fire of 5 ships. AA should always be turned off by default. You aren't shooting down planes, so your best defense is avoiding them altogether. If the CV is actively going for you, then immediately get away from the enemy surface ships. Use allied AA support if possible. Try to stay in open water to give yourself room to maneuver. Rockets and HE bombers are your biggest threat. Torpedo bombers are also dangerous, but are easier to angle towards. As long as you aren't distracted, you should be able to dodge. If there are too many threats to dodge, don't be afraid to burn smoke. Losing 1 smoke is better than losing half your health. Not all games are winnable (Applies to everyone) The most important tip. You will get unwinnable games from time to time. Even the best players with the most try-hard divisions cannot win 100% of their games. At the end of the day, World of Warships is a game designed for entertainment (and watching salty players explode in game chat) If WoWs is making you miserable, it's time to take a break. Get up, walk around, do something productive. Anything to get your mind off of WoWs. You can always come back later. Final Thoughts Z-42 is essentially paying 27k steel for slightly better guns and a British smoke. She excels at smashing other DDs while being able to do DD roles herself like spotting and capping. If you have played the Z-52 line, Z-42's similar handling will allow a smooth and easy transition. The turret angles and smoke may take a few games but otherwise there isn't anything new to master. While Z-42 also doubles as a great support DD, you didn't suffer through multiple seasons of ranked and Clan Battles to help 40% WR potatoes survive a little longer. No. You are here to carry and Z-42 has the tools to do just that. Kill the enemy DD, take their caps, and farm the enemy when they push in. You won't get high-damage games or great PR numbers, but at least you can be satisfied with a better win rate. It's kind of funny that Z-42 was released just as I finished my Z-52 guide. Made it fairly easy to write the Z-42 guide since I just needed to write the stats and reword some of the Gameplay Tips. I quite enjoyed playing the Z-42, though definitely didn't like the cursed teammates she came with. Probably should have paid for the Premium MM package as well. (That was a joke btw). Oh well, it is what it is. This is currently my 2nd Premium ship guide and my 5th overall. Currently I am focusing on tech tree guides as they are rare to come by, but I occasionally review premium ships if I get time or take a particular interest in them. So far I have a US Heavy Cruiser Guide, a Royal Navy Battlecruiser Guide, a German Z-52 DD Line guide, and an Azuma guide. Not sure what line to cover next, though I favor one of the older or less popular lines. No CVs or subs though, I don't have any interest in them. If you want to learn how a particular line works, let me know and I might be inclined to (eventually) make a guide for it. Since you made it to the end, enjoy your complimentary torpedo beat: Sources Used Wows-ShipBuilder: https://app.wowssb.com/ Used for all relevant ship parameters. The dispersion and ballistic charts is also very helpful to visualize how good/bad your dispersion is. WoWs Shiptool: https://shiptool.st/ Excellent for comparing entire tiers or class of ships In-Game Armor Viewer Well, gotta show the armor even if it doesn't exist. WoWs wiki: https://wiki.wargaming.net/en/World_of_Warships Their articles on exact gameplay mechanics is quite handy.

This is an updated version of the one I posted on Reddit. Hopefully helps you better reflect and analyze your CV gameplay! As always feel free to share your thoughts and ask questions, and check out my channel for more content! https://www.youtube.com/@mercRus

Talking about different things to help ya get a little better! 0:00 Intro 1:56 Using AP Bomber Heal 3:32 Switching Operating Zone and waiting for heal 4:34 Positioning for the Endgame considering the situation 5:23 Angling the AP Bomb Drop 8:43 IJN BBs, the snake to my MvR Mongoose, or Mongoose to my snake.. idk Animals.. 10:33 Think about next target 11:35 Using fighter for better line-ups 12:55 Torps, 1st to position enemy, 2nd to kill enemy 13:59 Mistake was made. 16:03 Mistakes were made... 16:48 End Screens

Meant as a meme, but if you are looking to learn about or play Saipan will be worth a watch :)

Hello! This is my new comedy guide/review series to ships in World of Warships, made in the style of Rhiload's EVE Online videos aiming to provide a balance of jokes, actual useful advice, and ship reviews. The first video I uploaded was Paolo Emilio, one of my favourite ships in the game. Hopefully this guide will entertain you and help you get the best out of her/decide whether to get her! As always, please let me know in the comments or reply to this post with your thoughts and suggestions, and let me know which ships you'd like to see next. Cheers all!

Hey! I'm Razorwave, welcome to my forum post for my videos. I aim to upload a couple of times per week with World of Warships content, mainly the "WOWSnumbers guide" series, where I take a comedic look at a ship in WoWS, but also try to provide some real useful information too! These are made in the style of Rhiload's EVE Online videos, so if you are familiar with those you should know what to expect. With the Dockyard ending in around a week, I thought I'd make a video on Repulse, the best ship from this event (don't come at me) to give you guys a quick and comedic rundown on whether this ship is worth grinding if you haven't done so already! As always, thoughts and feedback are super appreciated, and let me know any ships you'd like to see Cheers!

Hello! This is my new comedy guide/review series to ships in World of Warships, made in the style of Rhiload's EVE Online videos aiming to provide a balance of jokes, actual useful advice, and ship reviews. This video almost made me go insane trying to get good background footage for it, so I really hope it was worth it! As always, thoughts and feedback are super appreciated, and let me know any ships you'd like to see Cheers!

Here is a quick video I made about quickly figuring out your different options and trying to figure out what plays are going to be best at keeping you alive and contributing to the team. I got myself in a little bit of a jam and didn't have any great options, so went with the one that had the best chance of keeping me alive. And the link is the embed does not work for some of you: https://youtu.be/KzCMVj26AUM

I have just recently completed my IJN BB grind, and I have thoroughly enjoyed it. My battleship play has improved significantly throughout the course of the grind, starting with dark green and teal pr in the lower tiers and capping it off with dark purple pr in the t9 and t10. My improvement was a result of both personal reflections and advice given to me by experienced battleship players. As such, a lot of the complaints and solutions that are written in this guide come from myself. I'm writing this guide so hopefully people can learn from my experience and reach a higher level of bb play. This guide assumes you already know basic game mechanics such as amour thickness, angling, overmatch, and ap and he pen. All of that is purely objective and you don’t need a guide to learn it, as such I have not included it here. Note: This guide is based heavily on the one written for destroyers by @DolphinPrincess. That guide can be found here. BAD (0-750 PR) – “Torpedoes are OP!” This probably a complaint every battleship captain at some point when they were very new to the game. It is mainly due to a lack of experience, as the counterplay for this is very simple. Solution: Vary your path and do not sail in a straight line. Pay attention to your concealment circle; if there are no ships spotted in your concealment range yet you are still spotted, it likely means there is a dd closeby. Make intentional random maneuvers and you will almost always dodge incoming torpedoes. Another good tip is to pay attention to your priority target, if the indicator suddenly shows one less ship targeting you, and then a couple of seconds later it flips back to what it was before, it could mean a destroyer shot torpedoes at you. BELOW AVERAGE (750-1100 PR) – “I cannot win because my teams are always garbage!” This is the classic complaint that a below average player will give. It shows a bad mindset, that you are blaming your teams for your losses instead of myself. Out of all the issues baring players getting to the next level, I would say this one is the biggest. It prevents you from reflecting on your own play and learning from it. Solution: Always assume friendly players are potatoes. Play the game as if you need to carry your team every match, and always value your own ship over your teammates. If this means you play selfish, so be it; if you are to reach the next level, you need to understand that every time you sacrifice your health for your teammates, you are giving a worse player more responsibility for winning the game. Additionally, after every game, look towards your own play and figure out what you could have done to have a higher impact on the match. It doesn’t matter if it’s a win or a loss, there is always room for improvement. AVERAGE (1100-1350 PR) – “Team no support” This complaint usually comes from those BBs who like to play “aggressive” and get really close to the caps and subsequently get farmed out and die in 5 minutes. Then they complain that their team didn’t rush in with them. This is a stupid proposition. Battleships are primarily a zoning tool that are used to gain map control or prevent the enemy from gaining map control. They do not require assistance of their teammates to have match impact because the whole point of having high alpha long-range guns is to be a metaphorical “fleet in being”. Your mere presence on a flank is as scary or punishing to the enemy as 3 cruisers combined. Solution: Wows is a game which is somewhat unique in that it heavily favors the defender. In that sense, the bb players that push in and die and expect their team to support them have a fundamental mindset error. It is that making a concerted effort to push a cap is often a worse choice than holding or kiting out that flank. This is not to say that you should never push a cap in a battleship. Always keep sight of your win condition. Usually in wows there is a push flank and a kiting/holding flank. Pay attention to the other flank and make your movements accordingly. For example, if you are on a push flank and your friendly kiting flank is collapsing faster than your push flank is pushing, then you should push into the enemy team at this point, because if you don’t then your team has no hope of winning. GOOD (1350-1550 PR) – “Whenever I play battleships everyone is always bow in and when I see broadsides I always miss” This complaint is symptomatic of a player who understands fundamentally what their role is as a BB player but is being held back by sub-optimal positioning choices. Additionally, often times I hear players at this stage blaming their mediocre performance in bbs on “bad aim”. I can say with absolute confidence (from my own personal experience) that aim is not a significant factor in performing well in BBs. It is almost always because of positioning, not aim. If one positions badly, they will rarely see broadsides. Thus, they expect that in order to get to the next level they must hit every single broadside accurately. However, if they improved their positioning, they would see a greater number of broadsides, and by extension hitting more broadsides (just based on probability of hit chance). *Note that the second paragraph is my own theory that I made based on my own observations – I don’t have any concrete data to support it. Solution: Make your positioning in battleships more intentional and direct. Don’t only think of which flank to go on, also think of the specific squares that you will have the most impact on. This is based on a number of factors, such as the size of your friendly force, size of the enemy force, or the positioning of your friendly bbs. Always try to create crossfires or simply how to put maximum pressure on the enemy. Battleship positioning in general is something that is pretty complex and warrants another guide on its own to explain all the nuances, and I wouldn’t be able to do it justice by explaining it in full details here. Maybe ill write a guide on it at some point. Regardless, at this point I would highly encourage you to watch the top players play battleships on twitch. You can learn a lot on positioning just by watching how super unicums position, learning why they positioning the way they did, and incorporating it in your own gameplay. With regards to aim vs positioning, I’ll draw a specific example from myself; I average 28% hitrate in yamato and 30% in Izumo, which are some of the worst among my friends and clanmates. Yet, in terms of pr and wr I have some of the highest. I attribute this fully to my positioning. VERY GOOD (1550-1750 PR) – “HE spam is OP” Contrary to the rest of these complaints, this one is personally one I have never ever had, but I have heard it a lot. HE spam is something that is mitigated by positioning. There are a few key tips you should learn and apply and you will get a whole lot better at mitigating HE spam. Solution: Read this guide: (again, thanks to @DolphinPrincess), take every single point to heart and apply it in your gameplay. I honestly had no clue why people complained about HE spam until I read this guide. I realized that every single thing in there I had already figured out on my own to apply just through careful postgame reflection of my own gameplay. It shows how important that aspect is to improving in this game. The one I would like to put heavy emphasis on is being stern in. This is a skill that I actually learned from playing cruisers before IJN BBs, and I found that it is extremely effective with BB play as well. There is really only two situations when you should be bow in. 1. Your team has already effectively won your flank, and you have decided to run down the rest of the flank in order to get to the enemy spawn as fast as possible. You should only be bow in to the enemy team when you are 100% sure you will trade very positively and come out of the engagement alive. 2. It is a clear stomp and you need to save your damage averages. GREAT (1750-2100 PR) – “Battleships are inconsistent in their match impact – some games you get a ton of damage and some games you do nothing” This is something I personally struggled with a lot as I was learning high level bb play. This is usually symptomatic of overcommitting to a position and only moving like 3-4 squares for most of the match. At this point, your early game positioning is strong, but you are not able to judge game flow to get the most impact out of your bb. Solution: Always think 5 minutes into the future. In 5 minutes, where do I predict the enemies to be? Where do I expect the enemy destroyers to be? Where will my friendly bbs be in 5 minutes (so I can make a crossfire with them potentially)? Which grid squares will maximize my match impact 5 minutes later? Where can I go to secure my win condition in 5 minutes? When do I need to start moving to get into this position? A result of this is that you will find yourself being much more mobile in any given battle, moving from flank to center, to flank, to enemy spawn as necessary. One key thing that you must realize is that even though you have a lot of range as a battleship, you also have a surprise factor. If you always shoot your guns, you constantly give up your position and make it easier for enemy ships to keep tabs on you, dodge your shots, and even potentially predict what your destination is and adapt accordingly. An aware enemy can drastically lower the impact you have after repositioning. UNICUM (2100-2450 PR) – “I am not able to use battleships’ heath to its full potential” These players struggle with Aggression control. They will position well but they do not efficiently manage their hp and use it as a resource to have more impact. Oftentimes they will end the match having gotten a lot of damage but still be on ¾ to full health, leaving the question “How or when could I have positioned more aggressively and used up more of my hp resource to have a better impact of the match”. Or, they will misjudge a threat and push into a position to have more impact, but they will lose much much more hp then they intended to trade away. Solution: This is currently the level I am on. I am trying to find the answer to this myself :P. Maybe in a couple of months when I find the solution, I will update this guide. Or maybe if any super unicum sees this guide they will offer their thoughts on it. SUPER UNICUM (2450+ PR) – “No counterplay toward CVs” jUStD0dgE Solution: uninstall Thanks for Reading

This article is dedicated to all WG-CC for their hard work contributing their time and effort to WoWS. As with any complex endeavor, a jargon — a set of specialized words or expressions — develops around a game. World of Warships's jargon incorporates nautical jargon as well as that specific to the game. As a result, there are many unusual terms that may appear in a discussion. Below is a list of some of the most common terminology that players may encounter. This list will attempt to explain some of the more common jargon found within WoWS that is not always readily apparent to the newer player, and also mention and give background to a few WG-CC or twitch streamers that will help the captain out. Please note that most of the following is not the authors own work, but put together from WoWS wiki, and other WG articles and fan articles. (Giving credit where credit is due) In order to have a guide available here in forums game guides and tutorials. Please also note that this glossary may be edited in the future if the author discovers more jargons, or more content to add to the list. :-) General Terms (by letters) Example: TERM | DEFINITION 899 Brigade: | A division which consists of a Tier VIII aircraft carrier and two Tier IX battleships. Usually formed to snipe-kill enemy aircraft carrier during battles. A AA - "Anti-Aircraft" usually refers to "AA" guns and capabilities (those guns capable of firing at aircraft). AA Sector - Refers to a side of the ship (port or starboard) where AA gunfire can be reinforced using the Sector Reinforcement mechanism. AAA - "Anti-Aircraft Artillery" or "Anti-Aircraft Armament" or "Triple-A". Same as AA. AFK - "Away from Keyboard". Considered unsportsmanlike conduct. AFT - Commander skill Advanced Firing Training. (before commander skill rework) Aft - Toward the stern of the ship. Alpha - 1) From Alpha Strike - The amount of damage a ship or weapon can do in a single strike. 2) Alpha Test - the first semi-public phase of World of Warships development. Amidships- The middle of the ship, roughly half way between the bow and the stern. Anchor - In battle, a position — typically on or near a flank and usually next to an island — that forces the enemy to deal with the anchor ship in order to win the flank. Angle-ed -ing - Orient a ship at an angle to the enemy such that the profile is narrow and the side armor presents a sharp angle that will bounce most shells. AP - Armor-Piercing shells. Ammo article. AR - Commander skill Adrenaline Rush. Area Denial - A spread of torpedoes that is used to deter or prevent an enemy or group from entering a desired location, or a consumable (esp. radar) use that prevents a ship from occupying or pressures a ship out of a location. B Term Definition Baguette - Nickname for ships from France. Bait-Dodge - A technique used primarily by cruisers and gunboat destroyers where a player baits the enemy to take a shot at his ship, only to evade, thus negating most or all damage. Balans - from 'balance' A term used ironically in reference to Russian/USSR ships being powerful. Banzai - Japanese equivalent for "WITNESS ME" i.e. suicide attacks (Ramming, YOLO rush). Sometimes accompanied by the war cry "Tenno Heika Banzai!"(Long live the Emperor!) Battery - A group or organizational unit of guns, usually by caliber and purpose. A battery is usually controlled by a common director. Battle Line - A continuous area of influence that extends between ships in a given sector. Advancing the line applies pressure to the enemy while pulling the line alleviates pressure. BB - Battleship. Beam - The breadth of a ship's hull at its widest point. BFT - Commander skill Basic Firing Training. (Before commander skill rework) Big Mamie - The nickname of the Tier VIII premium battleship Massachusetts. Blap - To do a large chunk of damage to an enemy ship. Blindfire - Salvos fired against a target that cannot be seen from the firing ship. Often done as counter-fire against a ship obscured by smoke. Boggzy - A WG-CC @Boggzy who has his own podcast, twitch streams, and also casts live KoTS commentary. Bot - A game-directed combatant. In a PVE mode, one side in battle is composed of bots. Bote - A joking reference to a ship. (A ship is not a "boat", so the misspelling.) Bounce - A shell hit that ricochets off the target due to the impact angle. Bow - Front of the ship where the porpoises hang out when underway. Bow in / Bow-on / Bow tanking - Facing the bow of the ship directly at the enemy. The orientation restricts the number of guns that can bear, but reduces the ship's target size and forms sharp angles that tend to deflect incoming projectiles. Bracket - When a well-aimed salvo misses to both sides of the ship due to dispersion. Brawl - A close-quarters engagement between ships. Some ships are better than others in this capacity. BRB - "I'll Be Right Back" Broadsiden. - 1) The long ("broad") side of a ship. Turning the ship's broadside to an enemy allows the greatest number of main battery guns to target the enemy, but presents a large, flat-faced target in return. The opposite of angled. Shells arriving perpendicular to a broadside are much more likely to penetrate than shells arriving at a sharp angle. 2) A salvo of all main guns that can bear on a target. Buff - To increase the effectiveness of a ship or mechanism. BZ - "Bravo Zulu" or "Well done". C Term Definition CA - Heavy cruiser. (The 'A' comes from 'Armored', but the post-WWI CA is distinguished by the larger caliber of its guns.) Generally assigned an anti-cruiser role. Camp-er -ing - To sit in one spot for the majority of the game. Usually pejorative. Cap - from 'capture' - n. 1) An objective circle. 2) The capture of an objective circle. v. Short for capping. 3) Name for a WoWS mascot with a playlist centering around "Cap" and his friend "Fishy" Capping - Attempting to control or capture an objective area or enemy base by occupying it. Carry - To perform far better than the rest of the team in an effort to secure a victory. Carwash - The soaking of an enemy ship with seawater splashes from shells that fail to hit. See 'bracket'. CBT-er- Closed Beta Test — an early period in World of Warships development following Alpha test. The test period was by invitation only. CC - Community Contributor. Community Contributors are players who assist and help other players of World of Warships, such as showing off their love for the game over their Twitch stream or by posting YouTube videos, running a fan site or Facebook page providing helpful answers, writing guides, running in-game events in our contest area, etc. They are basically players who voluntarily dedicate time and energy towards their love for World of Warships and in doing so, improve the online community experience for others! (side note: o7 to all of you CC - appreciate your hard work) CE - The commander skill Concealment Expert. Chad - Taken from a meme, this is similar to a "YOLO" rush, in which a single ship rushes forward to engage enemy forces. Chunk - A noticeable amount of damage, but not crippling. Cit / Citted- Citadel hit. Citadel - n. The vital areas of a ship containing engines, machinery, magazines, etc. v. To penetrate the citadel and explode within, causing great damage or 100% of the shell's maximum damage. Citadel City - A ship that is easy to citadel such as Emerald, Kuma, Omaha, Shchors, Hawkins, Mikoyan, Italian cruisers, British "Heavy" Cruisers, and "Light" Cruisers. These ships are preferred targets for early elimination. CL - Light Cruiser. A cruiser with smaller-caliber guns. Generally assigned an anti-destroyer or anti-air role. Clam digging - Running aground. Close inspection of an uncharted island. "Pulling a Notser". Cockpit - The place where the crew and the stewardae have their parties. Oh wait. That's World of Warplanes. NVM. Cockbote - Nickname for Tier X USN cruiser Worcester (rhymes with 'rooster'). Consumable - 1) Items that are expended in battle, notably signal flags and single-use camouflage. 2) A class of equipment that provides new or enhanced capabilities to a ship and is consumed in battle. Council - Nickname for Tier IX French battleship Jean Bart (due to her large amount of secondaries on her stern). Crossfires - Intersecting lanes of gunfire that make it impossible for the enemy ship to effectively angle. CTD - "Crash To Desktop". CV - Aircraft Carrier. (haet cv) D Term Definition Daily shipments - Small gifts for logging in each day - usually available with the advent of a new event. Damage Farming - Doing damage to enemy ships as the primary objective, possibly at the expense of team objectives such as winning the battle. Damage Saturation - When a part of a ship has sustained damage equal to its health pool. DB - Dive Bomber. DCP / Damacon - The Damage Control Party consumable or its use. DD - Destroyer. DE - The commander skill Demolition Expert. Death ball - A tight huddle of ships intended to protect against air attack by overlapping AA auras. Mutual defense is good, but a death ball is not recommended. Deleted / Deletion - When a healthy ship is destroyed instantly; see "Devstrike," "One-shot". Derp - Acting without skill or critical thought. Typically used by players to acknowledge a silly mistake (either in the battle or in chat). Derpitz - Nickname for Tier VIII premium KM battleship Tirpitz. Des memes - Nickname for Tier X USN cruiser Des Moines. Desync - A bug that some players experienced lag, i.e; delayed firing, delayed movement, sudden damage taken especially when high ping occurs. Detected / Detection - The enemy obtaining enough location information to target a ship. Detonation - A massive explosion caused by ignition of a magazine that destroys the ship. In Random battle it awards an achievement to the detonated. (The Juliet Charlie signal prevents detonation.) Devstrike - Short for "Devastating Strike". DFAA / DF - The Defensive AA Fire consumable. Disconnect / DC - When a player disconnects from the battle, whether accidentally or intentionally. Results in AFK. Disengage - Break contact with the enemy. Dispersion - The spread of shells fired in a salvo, typically described by the lengths of the axes of a containing ellipse. Vertical dispersion (the major axis) being the distance between the farthest and the closest shellfall (re: the firing ship), and horizontal dispersion (the minor axis) being the distance between farthest shellfall left and right. Doubloons  - A currency in World of Warships, similiar to WoT/WoP Gold. DPM - Damage (health points) per minute. Usually refers to the damage output of anti-ship batteries. DPS - Damage per second. Usually refers to the damage output of AA batteries. Draft - How deep the ship sits in the water. The distance from the waterline to the lowest point of the ship. E Term Definition "Earn your trusty flags" - "Detonation" - Earning flags from getting Detonated. (The Juliet Charlie signal gained from detonation.) Economy - The earning and spending of the many in-game currencies. EXP - Elite XP, or ship experience on Elite ships. ECXP - Elite Commander XP - experience earned by elite (19-point) commanders. ECXP farming - er - A player who uses 21 skill point commander on premium ships, with signals, with premium account, and other bonuses whose desired result is to farm high Elite Commander XP for the captains uses. Also a very effective way to gain the resource. Elite ship - A ship that has all of its modules, and all dependent ships, researched or unlocked. The term usually refers to tech tree ships as premium ships are always Elite. F Term Definition Farming - Taking advantage of a situation to accumulate a desired result. e.g. damage farming, farming fires. FDR - Abbreviation for "Franklin D. Roosevelt" tier X American CV (haet cv) Fighter - An aircraft designed and tasked to destroy enemy aircraft. See Aircraft. Fish - Torpedoes. Flank - An outermost side of a team's battle line. Flanker - A ship whose attributes make it ideal for holding or exploiting a flank. Float - v. The opposite of sink. A desired practice for a ship and her crew. n. A ship that maintains a position usually around the center of a battle formation for screening and line integrity. Focus Fire - Organized and repeated fire against a single target in the attempt to sink it or force it to run away. Frag rate / KDKill/Death Ratio. - How many kills (frags) you have vs. how many times you fail to float in battle. Freeboard - The height of a ship's side above the waterline. Fun and Engaging - Traditional phrase expressing frustration over a game mechanic. "Detonating is so fun and engaging." or also mean being focused by a CV. (haet cv) "Furry Taco" - Nickname for Tier V IJN cruiser Furutaka. G Term Definition G2G / GTG- "Got to Go." Gaishu - Gaishu_Isshoku. Probably the best WG-CC @Gaishu_Isshoku in terms of stats, running his own twitch streams. And also runs his own professional clan. GG - "Good Game". Also Big Grin. A sportmanship abbreviation for "Good game" GLHF - "Good Luck and Have Fun!" Also a sportmanship abbreviation for wishing well for teammates and/or enemies (!) alike. Going Dark - The act of disengaging or going back into concealment. Gold - A World of Tanks currency. The equivalent in World of Warships is Doubloons . Grind - The amount of time and effort it takes to play and progress through the tech tree, missions, or campaigns. Gun Bloom - When firing the main guns there is a "bloom" of fire and smoke that can be seen from afar. As a result, the ship's detection range "blooms" to the maximum range of the guns for 20 seconds. (Secondary and AA batteries do not bloom.) H Term Definition Hapa_Fodder - WG community manager @Hapa_Fodder and "Praefecti" for NA server. Also a well-loved mate in WoWS, USN Military vet, and history buff. He also runs NA community streams, usually with a guest. Hard Cover - An object, such as an island, that breaks line of sight or protects ships from incoming shells and torpedoes. Hard Spotted - Being spotted by a ship within the player ship's detection range. HE - High-Explosive shells. See the ammo article. Hold - A hold is usually near the center of the map near an island and is positioned for supporting fire on one or more capture points. HUD - Heads Up Display. Hull - The part of the ship that makes it float. Hydro - The Hydroacoustic Search consumable. I and J Term Definition iDuckman - A Wiki editor @iDuckman edits wiki and also helps players out on forums. Very friendly and quackable....er, should I say lovable.(About: 🦆 iDuckman 🦆 is an over-educated rules lawyer and a proud Texan — the not-laconic type. He loves his cruisers. Rumor has it that the witch, Salem, is considering his proposal of marriage. [<hiss> Get away from him, you witch!] (Naively, Sir Ducken believes that he owns a cat.) On the wiki, 'Ducky' sticks mostly to the rules pages, trying to keep up with ongoing, constant, never-ending improvements. Sir Ducken is the Deputy Team Lead. 🦆) IGN - In Game Name. IJN - Imperial Japanese Navy. Impregnator - Lewd nickname for Tier IV VMF battleship Imperator Nikolai I. Island hugging - Hiding behind an island for cover. Usually in an Anchoring or Holding position. K Term Definition Kek - Alternative to "LOL," indicating amusement. Kiting - The act of moving away from a superior chasing enemy while engaging them, thereby maximizing the risk/reward factor. Knot (Kn) - A unit used to measure the speed of ships on the water. 1 knot is equal to 1 nautical mile per hour. 1 nmi = 1.15 mi = 1.85 km. KoTS - "King of the Sea" a tournament run independently. First started by EU players, and now a WoWS well-known name where top clans from all servers compete for the top. KM - Kriegsmarine (Germany). KMS - A ship of the Kriegsmarine. "KMS" is not used in German. Presumably of an Anglophone source attempting to simulate the non-existent German term "Kriegsmarineschiff" or "Kriegsmarines Schiff". KS / Kill Steal - A misguided accusation for the act of eliminating an enemy ship without "earning" the kill. L Term Definition Lead - v. To aim a distance in front of or behind the target to counter its speed and direction. n. the amount offset. Lemming - A small rodent that inhabits arctic and sub-arctic tundra and taiga environments. Lemmings are believed to migrate as a large, mindless horde. Lemming Train - A group of ships that travel together in close proximity to one area or objective, often neglecting the capture of strategic points and leaving other ships without support. Lert - The black cat. @Lert (Lert is the black cat you see pawing around in the forums and also a friend of mouse, helping her with ship reviews and such) "LL / Load Lock "Late Load" - A frustrating glitch where the ship gets hung up on the battle load screen instead of entering battle with the team. The hang-up can last several seconds or the entire match. Killing the game client and restarting will usually bypass the glitch, but takes a while itself. Failing to enter battle can result in an unsportsmanlike conduct warning. Lit up - Spotted by the enemy, usually with radar. lol/LOL- "Laughing Out Loud", "Laugh Out Loud", or "Lots of laugh" Lolibote - (derived from Japanese slang) A destroyer. LOLcit / LOLpen- Receiving a citadel or penetrating hit from an unlikely angle. LoS - "Line of Sight". Lord_Zath - A certain skilled WG-CC @Lord_Zath which is calm, kind, and fun. (About: Lord_Zath was one of the first members of the EN wiki team, joining at a time when most wiki pages were but empty shells. His passion for photography quickly earned him the position of "resident wiki screenshot guru". Zath is also a Supertest Coordinator and a Community Contributor. An avid fan of World of Warships, he aims to teach players as much as he can with his streams on Twitch and his YouTube channel. You can see some of his favorite death pics on Twitter or join his Discord (https://discord.gg/5y2Nrx7) to submit replays your most epic replays!) LWM - LittleWhiteMouse, another skilled WG-CC @LittleWhiteMouse which is downright hilariously funny. (About: LittleWhiteMouse got her start writing guides on the North American forums. When she's not collecting skulls for her daddy's comfy chair or stuffing a certain black cat into a box, much of her time is spent working on reviews of premium ships for Ship Comrade.) M Term Definition Magazine - The area where explosives and ammunition are stored, usually in close proximity to the guns. Hits on this armored storage room are understandably deadly. Main - Usually prefixed with a type of ship, e.g. "DD main", "PVE main": A player who prefers and mostly plays a certain type of ship or battle mode. MalteseKnight - A skilled WoWS player @MalteseKnight known to be nice and friendly. He also has his own twitch streams. (fan of him) Meme-o-taur- Nickname for Tier X RN light cruiser Minotaur. Meta - The common practice in outfitting ships and fighting them in battle. "Ship X is ineffective in the current meta." Often references a map strategy such as camping or island hugging. MM / MatchMaker- The game's matchmaking system that groups players together for battle. MN - Marine Nationale (France). Mods - 1) Moderators - Forum moderators who maintain order in the forums. 2) Modifications - 3rd party game modifications that alter the game in some way. Some are illegal. Legal mods are often bundled in such as WoWS' ModStation and Aslain's Modpack. Mong Rush - Similar to Shoving, except with the bulk, if not the entirety, of your team's ships, all in one concentrated blob. MvP - "Most Valuable Player" MvR - Manfred Von Richtoffen N Term Definition Nerf - Decrease the effectiveness of a ship, a characteristic, or a mechanism. NS - "Nice Shot." NVM, nvm - "Never Mind." O Term Definition o7, <o - A text emoji representing a salute, typically used as a sign of respect. [O7] Devastating Strike - A Hurricane league professional clan which is made up of highly skilled players located on NA server. Accomplishing achievements such as multiple #1 in KoTS (King of the Sea) events, WoWS tournaments, and also finished off #1 in Verizon tournament of 2020 Global. OBT - Open Beta Test -ing -er: An early period in the game's development, after CBT. OOR - "Out Of Range." OM - Over-match OMW - "On My Way." One-shot - To destroy a healthy ship with a single salvo. May involve detonation. Op - Operation, syn. scenario, one of the choices in the Scenarios battle mode. OP - 1) Original Post -er in a forum thread. 2) Overpowered - Said of a game ship or mechanism that is unfairly powerful. 3) Over-Penetration. Open-Water Fighter - A ship who's gun arrangement or survivability is better suited for fighting in the open ocean, vs. using terrain. Ordnance - Generally, weapons. Usually, what is delivered by weapons: shells, torpedoes, bombs. Overmatch - A game mechanic in which large-caliber armor-piercing projectiles ignore thin armor on impact, regardless of angle. A shell overmatches a piece of armor if its caliber exceeds 14.3x the armor's thickness. See this table. Overpen - Over-penetration: A shell hit that passes straight through a ship without doing significant damage. See penetration mechanism. Awards a hit ribbon. P Term Definition PA - Pan-Asia Pasta - nickname players give to italian ships Paint Scraper - A torpedo that passes close enough to scrape paint from the hull. Pen / Penetration - When a shell passes the target's armor and explodes inside for significant damage. Perma fire - A fire on a ship that has recently used its Damage Control Party consumable, meaning the fire will deal considerable damage. Sometimes applied to flooding. Pink, pinked - The result of a penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct: the player's IGN and ship icons are colored pink. Poi - The infamous tic of an animé character. [1] The word has no meaning. Pop-es -ing - A consumable has been activated or used (Ex: "I just popped DFAA"). Port - 1) Nautical term for the left side of the ship. 2) A protected place to park the ship. Port Screen - The main screen of the World of Warships user interface. Potato - A poorly-skilled player. Not always pejorative. Preemptive launch - A salvo of torpedoes toward where an unseen target is predicted to go. Often used for area denial. Pressure - Attacking an enemy ship to achieve a desired outcome. That outcome includes but is not limited to; stopping a push, distraction, etc. Proximity Spotting - (sometimes Proxy Spot) Detecting an enemy by being within the assured detection range, which overrides all concealment. Detection. PQ - abbreviation for a twitch streamer Potato_Quality @Potato_Quality, the player is one of the best BB players in WoWS and also has his own YT channel with rich content. "Pulling a Notser" - Grounding the ship on an island, sometimes intentionally. Coined for WG-CC and YouTuber, Notser. Push - Moving closer to the enemy in an attempt to gain ground (or sea water) against them. PVE - Player vs. Environment; used to refer to Co-Op battles or Scenarios, where players fights game entities rather than other players. PVP - Player vs. Player; used to refer to Random, Ranked, and Clan battles, where players fights other players rather than game entities. Q and R Term Definition Railgun - A semi-joking term used to describe guns with very good ballistic performance and penetration, esp. Russian. Ram - To perform an intentional collision with an enemy, usually resulting in the destruction of both ships. Can be an effective tactic. "Ramming Speed" - A term used by a player meaning that the players ship is on course and speed for a ram. (From a classic) Random Torp(s) - An unexpected encounter with torpedoes, though said torpedoes may not have been aimed at the encounterer. Too often, wayward torps from an ally. Rekt - Wrecked. Badly damaged or destroyed. "I pushed around the corner and got rekt." Reverse Push - Reversing toward the enemy in a way that all of your firepower can be used while also giving your ship a viable escape. A form of kiting. RL / RDF - Commander skill Radio Location, a.k.a. Radio Direction Finding. RM - Regia Marina (Italy) RN - Royal Navy RNG - Random Number Generator, the output of which controls many occurrences in World of Warships. RNGesus - The embodiment of RNG. Praying to him for good luck in battle has a 50% chance of not working against one. Rounds - Shells. Ammunition. Rudder - A large flat surface used for steering a ship to port and starboard, usually located beneath the stern and behind the propellers. Russian Bias - A term used ironically in reference to Russian/USSR ships being powerful. S Term Definition Salt-y - What an angry player spews in chat. Screening - Advance ships scouting threats for larger ships. Sometimes, providing a smoke screen to help another ship break contact. Seal Clubbing - When a veteran player ventures into low tiers to fight inexperienced players — a controversial, if fun, practice. SeaRaptor - A certain skilled, lively, friendly WG-CC @SeaRaptor in WoWS. (About SeaRaptor: Joining the community in open beta, SeaRaptor00 also hails from . Having served his time herding kittens that just happen to look a lot like the other wiki staff, he is now semi-retired, though, as a self-appointed Apostle of the Church of Hindenburg, he still edits wiki pages. When not sinking ships on behalf of the Kriegsmarine or mining the game client for images, he can occasionally be found on Twitch casting competitive matches of World of Warships, such as King of the Sea. Also best friends with Lord_Zath, another well-loved WG-CC) Shadow - Following an allied or enemy ship using concealment to remain undetected. Shooting the bow - Passing close in front of another ship's bow. Shooting the Stern - Passing close behind another ship's stern. Shove - In competitive modes, a tactic involving a push up a flank, typically with cruisers. Sigma - A number representing the probability of a gun's shells falling close to the point of aim. The higher the more likely. Silver - Credits. Smoke Camping - Sitting still inside a smoke screen. Sniping - Typically, a battleship far from the heart of the engagement trying to hit enemy ships that are more than 15 - 20 km away. Not a popular tactic with teammates. Soft Cover - Something that obscures a ship from detection but does not protect from ordnance. Ex: smoke screens, weather. Spawn - Where on the map a ship or team starts a battle. "On X map we spawned in the NE corner." Spec-ed - 'fm. specialized' What a ship/captain is specialized for. "I'm spec'd for AA." (haet cv) Squat-ing - Hold a position, undetected, early in a battle to exploit a hole in the enemy lines mid-game. ST - Super Tester, a player who has volunteered to assist Wargaming in testing the game, and thus has access to unreleased ships - but also agreed to a Non-Disclosure Agreement about them, and cannot discuss them with non-ST players. Statpadder - Refers to someone who uses certain ship to inflate stats. Statpadder's stats may give a artificial picture of the player, making him seem better than he actually is. Also see Seal Clubber Starboard / STBD - Facing forward toward the bow, the right side of the ship. Stats - Player statistics. Stealth torp - Launching torpedoes while undetected. (The best way to launch torps.) Stern - The rear of the ship. The propeller(s) and rudder are located under the stern. Strats - Battle strategy. Stream sniping - Following the Twitch Livestreams of Community Contributors in the hopes of ending up in the same match as them. The ultimate goal is to find and sink them. Often considered poor sportsmanship. Superstructer - Structures on the deck of a ship. T, U, and V Term Definition Teamkill, TK-ing -er - Destruction of an ally, resulting in penalties. See this article. Tech tree - The ships of a nation organized by type and tier. Higher tier ships are more powerful. A player progresses upward through the tiers. Tedster_ - A wiki editor (About: Tedster is the other resident black cat, a wiki team member (and former lead wiki editor), and a supertest coordinator. He is a battleship player who started during the 2nd wave of closed alpha in June 2014, and he is probably whining somewhere about the simplification of the game over the course of testing and release or is making "back in the day" comments. When not attempting to citadel destroyers with whatever battleship is currently being tested, he plays artillery for the current top NA Clan Wars clan in World of Tanks, while also spending way too much time playing Kantai Collection, or reading Friedman-level tomes for entertainment.) "That's a Paddlin" - Phrase used by WG-CC 'The Mighty Jingles' to describe the often poor results of thinly-armored ships presenting their sides to hostile battleships. Tomato - A pejorative term used to describe players who have poor win rate/PR statistics. The term is derived the the color coding used by stat-tracking websites and mods, which display low or bad statistics in red. Torpedo belt / bulge - A specialised armor zone on the lower hull of a ship designed to mitigate torpedo damage. Torpedo Soup - A bunch of torpedoes churning up the sea. Torpedo Beat / Torpbeat - Skillfully maneuvering through torpedo soup without being rekt, especially to the sound of eighties European dance music. Torps / Torps out - Often, a chat warning to friendly ships that a ship has launched torpedoes behind friendly lines, and to take care to avoid them if possible. Turn-out - When a ship reaches a certain position on the map, putting itself at an angle where it can begin kiting once contact is made with enemy forces. TY - "Thank you" U2 - "You too." Unicum/Unicorn - 1) A highly skilled player, as evidenced by remarkable stats. 2) A name for one of the top players in the game, in terms of personal statistics. Usually refers to Winrate and/or PR Stats. From Latin ūnicus. USN - United States Navy VMF - Voenno-Morskoj Flot (USSR) W Term Definition Wall of Skill - A large wave of torpedoes, usually from a Japanese Torpedo Destroyer. Ironic. Wallet Warrior - A premium ship player. It can be used to describe players who buy a lot of premium ships, or pejoratively to describe inexperienced players who buy their way into the higher tiers by using a premium ship. Warcanoe - Nickname for Tier V premium ship destroyer Okhotnik. WASD - The principle keys controlling the direction and speed of a ship in combat. Often used to refer to maneuvering to avoid damage. "I used WASD hacks to dodge that wall of skill." Waterline - The perimeter area of the ship just above and below water. WG / Weegee - Wargaming.net. Weevee - Nickname for Tier VI premium ship West Virginia. Wide / Narrow spread - The choice of spread between torpedoes. Typically a narrow spread is preferred against a specific target. Wide spread is used for area denial or hunting destroyers in smoke screens. (On some DDs the choice is between wide-ish and single-shot.) WITNESS ME - "I'm going for the ram!" WITNESSED - Acknowledging a successful ramming attempt. WoWs - World of Warships. WP - "Well-Played." An abbreviation for a sportsmanship term congratulating your teammates or enemy teammates for a "Well-Played" tactic, maneuver, or strategy. X, Y, and Z Term Definition XP - Experience, used to research (unlock) ships and modules. YOLO - "You Only Live Once" — the necessary battle cry to let the team know that the player who just typed it into chat is about to do something very brave or very dumb (suicide charge). Zone-out - Using islands to prevent certain enemy ships from engaging your ship.

It's way too convenient and less embarrassing to use my good play to explain things in a video, so here's an explanation of how I screwed up a few nights ago and details on how I like to use spawn locations, the team list and the minimap to figure out how I'm going to play. Here's the YT link in case the embed doesn't work for people: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_Nuoxl1fAk

Try a new video style, enjoy lads

Nothing too earth shattering in this video today, basically playing cat and mouse with the enemy team on the flank in open water using their positioning and paying attention to the minimap to pick my spots to be aggressive. Hope it is of some help to someone out there. I haven't gone back to look, but I think this is my first random game in Bayard which I think is a pretty fun ship, but definitely limited in higher tier games by its range. and the link if the YT embed doesn't work for some of you: https://youtu.be/JV-ChYSuVtY Also, you can catch me streaming on twitch here: https://www.twitch.tv/ducky_shot_

I just got done with the first sprint. I'll be playing in Silver in the next sprint stage and I wanted to give some advice for CV players and those who hate CV's and want to learn how to counter them. My number one rule: KEEP A COOL HEAD: Don't get mad when you lose, just play the next game. If you need to take a break, do it. CV Players: F.D.R despite how awesome it is, is NOT a good ranked ship. Your planes are to slow and the games go by to fast. You MUST make an impact as a CV in the first couple of minutes and that usually decides how the rest of the game will go. Tech Tree CV's are much better because you need fighters to protect your DD's. That is your ABSOULTE number one goal. DD's make the impact, not CV's. That means you need to protect your DD's with fighters constantly throughout the match. Forget damage. DD's can capture objectives and have a tremendous impact in terms of scouting, damaging the enemy, and supporting the rest of the fleet. If you have to choose between damaging a ship and turning around to drop fighters because you see the enemy CV's rocket planes closing in on your DD, TURN AROUND AND SAVE THE DD. Damage is NOT YOUR GOAL, support and IMPACT is! That means scouting constantly! If you have the choice of loosing an entire squadron or sitting there and keeping the enemy lit up, keep them lit up! Teamwork above all else! This is especially true if the enemy is bunched up together and can shred your planes anyway. Don't kill all your planes just for one strike, learn when to attack and when to just keep them lit up. Wait for an opportunity! Now as for WHEN to drop fighters that is a different story. Scenario 1: IF you have ONE DD, then you need to first escort the ship with your rocket planes. Don't drop fighters just yet, WAIT until the enemy CV shows up. You want to persuade them to go for the middle objective, the one that both teams usually fight over. There is no need to drop fighters if the CV's rocket planes are not there yet. When your DD gets to the objective, THEN you drop fighters and scout for the rest of the enemy team. However lets say your DD is half way to the middle objective and your spot the enemy CV's rocket planes coming to intercept. Drop them as soon as you know they are heading towards your DD. Try to drop them a little ahead of the DD so the range of your fighters can help the DD cover more ground. Scenario 2: IF you have TWO or more DD's then you need to look at your team line up and see who has the best AA. Protect the one that has the least AA, have them be the one going for the middle objective and the other DD with good AA go to the closer team objective. For example: Shimakazie and Holland. Holland goes to the close objective and Shimakaize goes to the middle objective and YOU as a CV player cover them with fighter escort (as explained above). Now once you secure the objective you need to pick your targets carefully. First go for DD's if you can. Most of the time players in ranked are smart enough to be with their team or they just smoke up. If you attack a DD and they smoke up, that's good, make them waste it. Go attack a different ship and come back when their consumable is on cool down. While your waiting for that, attack BB's who are near their team, but still further away, but do NOT attack BB's or cruisers that are camping in the back and having no impact on the match. Don't waste your time, you need to attack ships that are actually having an impact, otherwise your just wasting YOUR impact and time! Finally, after enemy DD's are sunk, go for again, the ships that are having the biggest impact. As to how to counter CV's, here is some advice: 1.) If your a DD, turn OFF your AA if you are close to a friendly cruiser. It makes it harder to spot you and you'll be covered by your own carrier (hopefully), and your cruisers. 2.) Grouping up really works. You can shoot down lots of planes if your near each other, but not on top of each other. Remember this is a team game, in ranked teamwork makes the dream work. 3.) The second you see a CV coming your way, launch your fighter if you have one. Look for ships that have great AA and also a fighter consumable. 4.) Ask for support from your own CV, try and position your ship to be in front of his plane targets so that while he is on the way to strike the enemy, he can drop fighters to help you out. 5.) Smoke screens work okay at countering, but remember they are torpedo magnets! 6.) In ranked, I would recommend to reskill your commander and put a lot of points into AA defense. Most of the time ranked is won not by your skills on your ship, but rather the impact of the teamwork. If you have anything you would like to add, feel free to comment below! I'm sure I forgot a few things! Just remember, they are good CV players out there that actually care about their team! :) That's all I have for now, thank you for your time and I'll see you on the high seas!

The overmatch mechanic in the game is not something that new or even more seasoned players often think about or even know about when they are in game. It is the first 'check' that is made when you shoot at another ship (or they shoot at you) to determine whether or not your shells will penetrate. That's why it's actually good to know about and consider when positioning your ship for a head to head battle. Overmatch is the term that is used to describe the relative ratio of a shells caliber to the armor it will come into contact with. That ratio is 14.3:1. That means, if the shell is 14.3 or more times greater than the thickness of the armor, regardless of angle, it will penetrate. For low tier ships this is not too important to know about as the bow-in game play is not as relevant due to inexperience and armor tends to be so thin, most cruisers can overmatch other cruisers. At mid to high tiers, however, (tier 5+) players start to learn the advantages of being bow in from more experienced players on their team. This is also where there are far more distinct lines between ship armor thickness and gun caliber. Most cruisers after tier 5 have bow armor that exceeds 13mm, meaning that with few exceptions only battleships can overmatch their bows and not other cruisers as most cruisers between tier 5-7 are boasting 152mm guns; 13mm is overmatched by 186+mm guns. As you progress down the cruiser lines your bow armor will get thicker, usually from 13mm to 16mm and typically topping out at 25mm at tier 8. Battleships on the other hand, have bow armor at about 19mm at tier 5 and typically top out at 32mm at tier 8. Of course there are exceptions to this, such as the German BB's who tend to have this thickest bow armor with plating. The thickest is actually the tier 5 Konig with 150mm plating on its bow. Though there are areas of the bow with 19mm, the majority of the bow, specifically providing cover for the citadel, is 150mm. This means that a tier 5 battleship can actually bow tank every ship in the game under most scenarios. Further, due to the larger caliber of guns on battleships, and heavier armor overall, there is more of a propensity so go bow in against another battleship. This is where the overmatch mechanic is really worth understanding. The only 2 ships, per WarGaming's design, that are capable of overmatching the bow of (nearly) every ship are the Yamato and Mushashi with their 460mm guns; the largest guns in the game. Therefore, going bow in against them is ill advised. The only ships that are theoretically able to go bow in against them are the Kurfurst and the Frederick der Grosse as they have 60mm plating on their bows. Though there are places where the armor is only 32mm, the thickness that 460mm guns can overmatch, much like the Konig, this plating will prevent frontal citadels under most circumstances. Both cruisers and battleships are capable of bow tanking ships of the same type and tier. Knowing who can you go face to face with can be critical in certain battles, especially in competitive play. Once again, this is a particularly common tactic among battleships but cruisers can do it as well. For those that wish to know if you can be overmatched or overmatch a certain ship simply divide the ships gun caliber by 14.3. If your armor thickness is greater than that, you're good, if not, find another tactic. Similarly, you can multiply your armor thickness by 14.3 to find out the minimum caliber of gun required to overmatch your bow. Finally, if you don't know any of this info or just don't want to worry about doing the math, I've created a Google Sheet than can do the calculations for you or you can look up the ships by name. A disclaimer for this calculator though is I have not included clone ships, such as any of the ARP ships, which are clones of the Myoko and the Kongo. You can find the link below. If you have any trouble with it, find errors, or have some suggestions for improvement, please let me know. Bow In Calculator

I promised a while back that I would make a tutorial to help people make their own UI mod or to update ones that have been abandoned. This tutorial is aimed at doing a cosmetic UI mod ( such as the outdated one I made here ). It does NOT help with any complex mods that require coding knowledge. In this tutorial, I assume that you know how to use mods and how to install them. I also assume you have some knowledge of an image editing software (such as Photoshop), so you can edit your picture. This tutorial do not show how to actually edit the pictures, but rather how to have them appear in the game. What you will need: Resourcefulness. Not everything is spelled out here. You will need to test and explore things by yourself. Patience. You'll need it. WoWs Unpacker tools JPEXS Flash Decompiler (Free) or Sothink SWF Decompiler ($) Notepad++ (Free) An image editing software, such as Photoshop ($), paint.net (Free) or GIMP (Free) Resourcefulness. I cannot stress this enough. You will need to be able to look things up by yourself and test things out. You will not always find the answer ready for you. Starting tips A good way to find out how things are modded is to download other people’s mods and try to emulate what they do. This will help you figure out how to change some things. Incidentally, this is also how I learned how to do a UI mod. Do not hesitate to ask for help! It is my experience that most modders are happy to help and even provide with modified files when asked properly. However, do not steal their work... Lastly, share the knowledge! Find something new to mod or a new way to do it? Why not share the knowledge so more people can do it? Others will then be even more prone to help you or others when the time comes! The modding community is great, let’s continue this way! Extracting files To start modding, you will need to access the needed files. In World of Warships, almost everything is packed and needs a special unpacker to get access to. MajorRenegade has been very helpful in providing the link to the unpacker here! Major has also kindly added a small tutorial to use the unpacker. You’ll realize that it is very easy to use and allow you to find everything you need. Do note that from now on, I will assume that you have unpacked the files mentioned and needed to make the mod. Backgrounds A lot of things in the UI are very easy to change. For example, most of the background pictures are just jpg or png files that can be swapped. Just find a picture you want to use or craft one in your picture editing software and put them in the right folder. As a small note, when making or picking a background picture, I recommend taking into consideration what will be shown above it. You may not want to use pictures that will catch the attention more than the actual content of the page. Here is a small list of some of what I think most people will want to change first and their location: Tech Tree and Profile Tabs Background /gui/bg/ Maps Loading Screens /gui/maps_bg/ Operations Loading Screens /gui/pve/ Of course, there is a lot more stuff that can be changed easily just by changing the picture. You will have to explore by yourself and find what you need. Commanders Pictures Very similar to the background pictures, changing the commander pictures is done by swapping the picture used. Commanders can be found in /gui/crew_commander/. The “base” subfolder is the actual picture, while the “overlay” one is where the medals of the commander are shown. Base Change the pictures shown to what you want. Each nation has its own set of commanders and some nations have more than others. Special commanders have unique names and they will not be in the “pool” of pictures when recruiting a new commander. Overlay As mentioned above, those are the medals that change depending on the rank/level of the commander. Chances are you will want to change all of them to empty png so that they do not show. Ship Preview /gui/ship_previews/ and /gui/ship_previews_ds/ These two folders are used to change the picture of the ship at the bottom of the screen in Port and in the Tech Tree. The “ds” folder is used for the gray’d out pictures of ship you have not unlocked yet in the Tech Tree. These are very easy to change since you only need to swap the picture for the one you made. ship_previews_ds is a darken version of the picture that is used on unresearched ship in the tech tree To help you find the proper picture you can find a list of all the ship at the root of the unpacker, file named contentPackages.xml. However, below are the basic rules for the IDs to help you identify what you’re looking for (please note that some ships, mostly older ones, do not follow those rules). Alternatively, you can use the text file (global.mo) to find the corresponding ID. Ship Icons /gui/ship_icons/ /gui/ship_dead_icons/ /gui/ship_own_icons/ Ship Icons are very similar to Ship Previews. They have the same IDs and you only need to change the pictures to have them work. However, there is 3 sets of icons. The basic “ship_icons” folder is the one with the grey silhouette. They are the ones you see on the roster during battle and in port when using the compact carousel mode. The “ship_dead_icons” are obviously used for dead ship. Lastly, the “ship_own_icons” are used to identify the player, with the gold color. In some cases, when adding text to the icons for example, you will want to keep the icons from flipping in battles. To do this, you will need to mod a few xml files that can be found in /gui/unbound/. battle_loading.xml battle_stats.xml results_screen.xml team_structure.xml I will not go into details about what exactly needs to be changed, because I’m not sure how to explain it. However, I recommend getting an icon mod from an established modder (such as MajorRenegade's or hakabase's) and compare their files with your unmodified ones (using Notepad++). This way, you can see what gets changed and you can understand why they do so. Extra By default, ship icons have different sizes depending on class of ships. However, most Icon mods use similar size rectangle icons. This makes them unaligned in port when using the Compact Carousel. To align them, you need to mod the dock.xml found in the unbound folder. Find these lines and delete them. The icons will now be aligned properly in port! Find these lines and delete them to align ship icons in port. Do note that the line numbers may not be the same as they change everytime this files gets updated. Randomized Loading Screens To change the game loading screens (the ones when you boot up the game, not the battle loading ones), you can download the basic files for it here. All you have to do is change the pictures in the gameloading_res subfolder. When you start the game up, it will pick one of the pictures at random. Randomized Loading Screen Download Note: I did not make this and was provide by WG a while back. I did not find the original link so I'm hosting the files I used. Flash Files This is where the more “complicated” work starts. You will first needto get JPEXS Flash Decompiler, which is free. This will allow you to open the swf files and change the pictures in it. All the flash files are found in /gui/flash/. Basic JPEXS tutorial Open the swf file with JPEXS. Go in the “images” folder of the swf Locate the picture you want to edit Right-click on it and select “Export selection”. Save as PNG where you want. Edit the picture and save it as PNG again In JPEXS, right-click the picture again and select “Replace…” Select you edited picture. Save This is pretty much all there is to it. You export the pictures you want to mod. You do any editing you want to do and then you import the modded ones back in. Lossless2 vs JPEG3 JPEXS does a great job, but for some reason, it is not compatible with JPEG3 compression. This means that if you try to change JPEG3 pictures in it, they will break and not appear properly. To change those pictures, we have to use a special trick… Export and edit the picture normally Put the swf file and the picture in the PJEXS folder. It needs to be in the same location as the “ffdec.bat” file. Shift + Right-click in the folder and select Open command prompt ffdec.bat -replace filename.swf filename.swf # #.png lossless2 Hit enter Example: To change picture 529 (Clan battle icon in this example) in the service_lib.swf file, export it and mod it as wanted. Put service_lib.swf and 529.png in the PJEXS folder. Shift+Right-click in the folder and Open Command Prompt. Write ffdec.bat -replace service_lib.swf service_lib.swf 529 529.png lossless2 Hit Enter. You can open the service_lib.swf file and check the change. The file is now ready to use! There is an alternative to JPEXS that can deal with JPEG3 compression fine without using any of the coding trick. Sothink SWF Decompiler is another decompiler, however it is NOT free. So you guys can see if you think it is worth getting. Flash files of interest hud_lib.swf Contains many of the in-battle icons and the ribbons. lobby_graphics_lib.swf This is where the Port header is located. login.swf Contains the blurry background of the WoWs logo in the login screen (that red picture). options.swf Not whole lot in this one, but it contains the items found in the option screen. service_lib.swf This is the big file. It contains almost everything related to the UI in Port. Ressource List of modding tutorials NA Modding tutorial section EU Modding tutorial section

The captain skill rework has been out for nearly a week now and the battle lines are being drawn as BB's start to sit further and further out to make use of Dead Eye. Boggzy invites Doyl3 of [O7] Devastating Strike to discuss his skill guide and frequent co-host Borla of clan [KSC] to find out what all of these new skills mean for the meta of randoms and competitive and why you DON'T HAVE TO CAMP IN SPAWN as a BB ... Anchor: https://anchor.fm/gtkwows/episodes/Episode-066-Captain-Rework-w-Doyl3-of-O7-epetv9 YouTube:

With the arrival of the New Ranked Battles system come a variety of changes. Having a composition of 6 weekly sprints - This is different from past ranked Battles in that it resets each week and one needs to consider your time available throughout the event or you may miss reaching rank 1 on one or more of these sprints - That means you risk missing out on rewards - Perhaps the Higher Leagues are not the best for you. I managed to rank out Bronze League Last night in 16 games - 11 W & 5 L - With over 68%, I had Very good luck with my teams, most captains will require more games. And thanks to a clan mate of mine for suggesting this. I ran 14 different T8 Ships, quickly blowing off their Snowflakes in the process. A nice bonus! Bronze League has 4 irrevocable Ranks and requires 9 Stars, while Silver League requires 12 stars & has 2 irrevocable ranks - So the Big Question: Does one go through the qualifier round this week to rise into Silver for next week and subsequent weeks, or even rise to the Lofty Gold League for week 3, or just remain content in Bronze League. I Detail the changes to the system & offer some suggestions for you, so Let's jump in: