Premium Ship Review - USS Arizona

[LittleWhiteMouse]

Please be aware that all of the statistics and performance discussed in this post by Lert and myself reflect the version of the ship as she appeared during the testing period.

These are subject to change before release.

 

'Murica.

 

The following is aimed at new(ish) players looking to find a little more information about various ships from events, for premium currency or for real-world cash. The goal is to allow players to make an educated decision before parting with their time and money and to find premium vessels that suit their chosen style of play, whether that is competitive, cooperative, or simply for fun. The idea here is to elabourate on information not commonly available through reading statistics and provide some (heavily) biased anecdotal evidence to encourage or dissuade you from making your purchase. The usual disclaimers apply: everyone knows the Matchmaker clearly loves me because I spend money so that's why I occasionally get really good games, not because I have any particular skills of note.

 

Other articles in this series:

• Ships for Doubloons: Atlanta, Texas, Tachibana, Atago, Ishizuchi, Diana, Aurora,Murmansk, Molotov, Mikhail Kutuzov, Emden, Tirpitz, Campbeltown, Warspite, Blyskawica
• Limited Release Ships: Fujin, Kamikaze, Katori, Yubari, Gremyashchy, Imperator Nikolai I, Anshan, Lo Yang, Smith, Sims, Marblehead, Indianapolis, Arizona, Saipan
• Gift & Reward Ships: Albany, Arkansas, Iwaki, Mikasa,
• Arpeggio of Blue Steel Ships: Kongo, Kirishima, Haruna, Myoko
• Condensed Reading: Mouse's Quick Summary of Premium Ships

 

Without further ado:

---

The Tier 6 United States Navy Pennsylvania-class Battleship

Arizona

"Firepower: Accept no Substitute"

 

Quick Summary:  A typical mid-tier USN Battleship armed with twelve 356mm rifles:  slow, tough, hard hitting.  No bells, no whistles.

Cost:  Undisclosed at the time of writing this article.

Patch & Date Written:  06.28.2016, Patch 0.5.7

 

Closest in-Game Contemporary: New Mexico Degree of Similarity: Clone / Sister-Ship / Related Class / Similar Role / Unique The Pennsylvania-class Battleships were a predecessor of the New Mexico-class and it shows.  Both are of the Standard-type Battleships with a focus on improved protection with the "All or Nothing" armour scheme and a similar (slow) speed.  The Arizona in game represents the 1940 refit with her dual purpose 5" guns mounted around the superstructure, a deck above her 5" secondary casemates.  Compared to the New Mexico, she has similar speed and firepower, but with improved durability, different main battery guns and AA compliment.

 

PROs:

• Armed with twelve 356mm rifles, giving it comparable broadside alpha strike to the New Mexico & Fuso.
• Apparently has a good sigma value assigned to its guns.  Despite the same linear dispersion as USN BB guns, her groupings feel very tight by comparison.
• With float plane and modules, able to reach up to 22.3km.
• Rather nice secondary gun battery of nine 127mm guns off each side.
• Good turning radius of 640m.
• Highest hit point total of any of the tier 6 Battleships at 57,200.
• Has a minimum of 25mm of armour over her deck and fore and aft ends, making 356mm rounds unable to easily overmatch her anywhere, leading to a lot of surprising ricochets.
• Good torpedo protection, reducing damage by 39% against strikes hitting her bulges.

CONs:

• Slow rate of fire at 1.7rpm per gun (35s reload)
• Slow, with a maximum speed of 21.0 knots.
• Slow rudder shift time of 14.6s
• Her armour effectiveness falls away against 15" and greater sized rifles, and can receive citadel hits through the bow this way.
• AA compliment is short ranged and not very potent, with a maximum reach of 4.2km.

 

Simply gorgeous.  The Pennsylvania-class is one of my favourite looking USN Battleships.

 

"So it's basically a New Mexico?"

This was the chorus to which my test-games were played in the Arizona.  I was unable to provide any answer, bound by an NDA as I was.  So let this be a belated 'yes'.  The Arizona (and the Pennsylvania-class) is basically a New Mexico-class Battleship.  There are differences of course, subtle ones, but these differences make for a surprising change in game play.  As a top tier ship, the Arizona is as tanky as an Imperator Nikolai I, which is saying something.  Lert's joining me once again (but he's staying in his box!) to provide a direct comparison to the other tier 6 Super-Dreadnoughts to better evaluate her performance.  I think he had a really great time in the Arizona and I know he's got some right and proper bragging to do.

 

The Lert Box Once again LittleWhiteMouse has granted me space in her review to air my own thoughts about an upcoming premium. And this time it's a doozy. The USS Arizona.   Perhaps the most often requested premium ship, certainly the most notorious. Endless threads have been started where very vocal people air their opinions on whether or not this ship should be in the game. That, however, is not a discussion for this thread. Most people will base their decision to buy this ship or not based on historical symbolism rather than the ship's in-game performance. For everyone else, there's this thread.   Historically the Arizona was the second of the Pennsylvania-class super-dreadnoughts, built during the WWI years. They were armed with twelve 14" L/45 guns, and lessons learned from the Pennsylvania-class led to the New Mexico-class, armed with twelve 14" L/50s. So how does Arizona compare to New Mexico? I'll throw Fuso into the comparison as well. Why not Warspite? I'm afraid LWM will have my head if I say anything negative about her favorite boat ship.   Note that this review is based on Arizona's performance as she was during the testing period. I can not guarantee her stats won't change before release.

 

Options

There's nothing surprising about the Arizona's list of options.  She has a spotter aircraft, but no option to swap this out for a fighter.  For modules, she has access to the standard options for USN Battleships: She has Artillery Plotting Room Modification 1 to boost her range instead of Aiming Systems Modification 1 which tightens dispersion.  The secondary effects of these mods are identical.

 

Consumables: Three slots

• Damage Control Party
• Repair Party
• Spotter Aircraft

Module Upgrades:  Four slots.  Standard options for USN Battleships
Premium Camouflage: Tier 6+ standard. This provides 50% bonus experience gains, 3% reduction in surface detection and 4% reduction in enemy accuracy.

 

All the 'Murica you can handle!

The USS Texas is the more gimmicky of the two USN Battleships.  The USS Arizona, though lacking any form of specialty, is reliable and steady.

 

Artillery

Primary Battery: 356mm guns in 4x3 turrets in an A-B-X-Y arrangement.

Secondary Battery:  8x1 127mm dual purpose guns, 10x1 127mm casemates.

 

You're going to love the guns on the Arizona.  Forget everything you know about USN gunnery.  Though these guns share the same linear dispersion values as other USN ships, the hidden sigma values appear to be rather generous.  While the dispersion value gives the outer nominal maximums that shells may fall, sigma dictates where within that spread shells are likely to travel.  The larger the sigma value, the better.  This leads to less wonky shots and more shells landing where you point the guns.  In World of Warships, Battleship sigma falls between 1.5 and 2.1 with ships like the New Mexico and Fuso (and their shotgun-blast weapons) with a 1.5 value.   Though not to cruiser levels of accuracy, those familiar with the HMS Warspite's or the Nagato's guns should feel quite at home with the grouping of shell fall from the Arizona.  This allows her to take advantage of it's rather large base range of 16.0km which boosts up to 18.6km with Artillery Plotting Room Modification 1 and can jump even further up to 22.3km with her float plane.  Though you shouldn't count on it, it's quite possible with this good in-game dispersion to collect a handful of hits (or even citadel hits) on vessels in the opening minutes of the game that are still steaming in a straight line, thinking them safe from harm.

 

In terms of raw hitting power, the Arizona's guns are comparable but not quite up to par with the other vessels armed with 356mm rifles at tier 6, losing out on a few hundred hit points worth of damage. In addition, she has a rather long reload at 35 seconds per gun.  The Arizona thus trades damage and rate of fire for accuracy.  It's up to you to be the judge if this is a worthwhile trade, but I must say that her gunnery felt very comfortable to me.

 

The Arizona has a decent secondary gun battery compliment, composed of two sets of 127mm guns.  The first are casemate mounted weapons with high velocity HE shell.  These are arranged with three facing forward, two facing backwards one either side.  The second set of guns comprises part of the AA armament of the vessel and are dual purpose 127mm rifles with a faster rate of fire, better chance of setting ships alight but a poorer muzzle velocity.  With a 4.0km base range, these aren't great but they certainly can work to your advantage, especially at the close ranges where the Arizona excels.

 

Lert goes ape with twelve 356mm rifles at a poor, unsuspecting cruiser.  There was nothing left but a bad smell.

 

The Lert Box Artillery: At first glance the ships are even in this department. All are blessed with a dozen 14" rifles in slow turning turrets, but that's where the differences begin.  The guns compare thusly:   Arizona: 4x3 356mm L/45 16km base range 35s reload 60s traverse 792 m/s AP / 834 m/s HE and 13.75 m/km dispersion   New Mexico: 4x3 356mm L/50 14.9km base range 34.2s reload 60s traverse 823 m/s AP / 861 m/s HE and 14 m/km dispersion   Fuso: 6x2 356mm L/45 41st year 21.8km base range 28s reload 56.3s traverse 775 m/s AP /805 m/s HE and 11m/km dispersion   The shells they fire compare as follows:   Arizona:  356mm AP Mk 16, 10300 max damage, 356mm HE/HC Mk 22, 5000 max damage, 30% fire chance New Mexico:  356mm AP Mk 16, 10500 max damage, 356mm HE/HC/ Mk22, 5000 max damage, 30% fire chance Fuso: 356mm AP Type 91, 10200 max damage, 356mm HE Type 0, 5700 max damage, 25% fire chance   Fuso has the highest theoretical DPM, the best range, the best accuracy but the slowest muzzle velocity and the lowest fire chance. Fuso handily wins this category. Arizona and New Mexico are very evenly matched, with Arizona winning the range game and New Mexico being slightly easier to hit with because of the higher shell velocity. That said though, I'm giving second place to Arizona, with New Mexico a very close third. Short range is the curse of the american dreadnoughts, and the 16km base is just that bit easier to work with han the 14.9 new Mexico offers.   Note that the accuracy uses the raw numbers given by WG. I have no access to the sigma values of these ships. That said, I suspect after 50-ish battles in Arizona that her sigma is rather good, compared to New Mexico and Fuso.   Arizona: 2 pts New Mexico: 1 pt Fuso: 3 pts   Secondaries: Arizona and New Mexico both boast 18x 127mm secondaries that fire an 1800 dmg HE shell with 9% fire chance out to 4k base. These are divided into 10x anti-surface guns with 960 m/s muzzle velocity and 7s reload, and 8x DP guns with 657 m/s velocity and 4.5s reload.   Fuso has 4x2 127mm firing a 2100 dmg HE shell at 725 m/s velocity every 5s. These shells have an 8% fire chance and fly out to 4km. Furthermore she carries 14x 152mm firing a 2900 dmg AP shell at 855 m/s every 10s. These guns reach 4km as well.  It's no contest here. Fuso wins, with Arizona and New Mexico drawing.   Arizona: 1 pt New Mexico: 1 pt Fuso: 2 pts

 

The Arizona has the same secondary gun compliment as the New Mexico.  Though not overwhelming, it's certainly far better than the pathetic guns found on the New York-class and can cause some good hits against destroyers that get too close.

 

Maneuverability

Top Speed: 21.0 knots

Turning Radius: 640m

Rudder Shift: 14.6s

 

There should be few surprises here.  The Arizona is a Standard-Type battleship -- a series of Battleships that were designed to all move at approximately the same speed.  If you look between the Colorado, New Mexico and now the Pennsylvania-class in the form of the Arizona, you're going to see that same magic number pop up:  21 knots.  The good news is that they all handle roughly the same too, making the shift between one vessel and another very comfortable.  Speaking of shift, like most premium vessels, the Arizona doesn't have a good rudder shift time.  This makes her turns predictable, even if they do have a rather small radius of 640m.  Make sure you plan your turns well in advance.

 

Like many Battleships, it will take the Arizona over a minute to reach full speed from a dead stop.  It takes her 27 seconds to turn 90' at full speed.

 

The Lert Box Arizona manages 21 knots, shifts her rudder in 14.6s and needs 640m to turn around. New Mexico reaches 21 knots, shifts her rudder in 13.5s and needs 640m to turn around. Fuso speeds along at 24.5 knots, shifts her rudder in 14.9s and needs 740m to turn around.   Again, New Mexico and Arizona are very close together. Are you starting to see a pattern here? It's not a coincidence that they're both called 'standard' battleships. At first glance only the rudder shift is different between the two, but there are some more subtle differences. New Mexico is a lighter ship with a more powerful engine. She accelerates a hair quicker than Arizona and doesn't lose quite as much speed in the turn. Arizona is just more sluggish than New Mexico.   Fuso is faster and has a competitive rudder shift, but her larger turning circle combined with her length compromises her ability to dodge torpedoes. She turns worse than both New Mexico and Arizona, but not that much worse, and her additional speed gives her a flexibility that the two American fighting ladies just can't compete with.  I rank them as follows:   Arizona: 1 pt New Mexico: 2 pts Fuso: 3 pts

 

The Arizona has some surprising wiggle in her tush.  Here she's dodging destroyer launched fish, making them smack into it's allied Kirishima.  Someone just turned pink!

 

Durability

Hit Points:  57,200

Armour Protection:  Up to 343mm.  Minimum 25mm(!)

Torpedo Damage Reduction: 39%

 

Are you all ready for this?  The minimum armour over the bow sections and deck of the Arizona is 25mm.  I'll let that sink it.  Twenty-five glorious millimeters.  Can you feel it?  Can you feel how wonderful that is?  It's enough to make a girl squeal with delight, clap her hands and twirl on her swivel chair, that's so awesome.  What's that?  You don't understand why 25mm is such a big deal?  Here's why:

 

25mm x 14.3 = 357.5mm

 

That calculation is the minimum sized caliber of gun needed to overmatch and penetrate 25mm of armour regardless of the angle of impact.  Overmatching is the mechanic which allows a significantly sized shell to ignore armour angling and punch clean through thin bits of plate.  Hits from less than the overmatch value, striking at greater than a 60' angle will shatter and do no damage.  This means, bow on, the armour penetration rounds from the 14" rifles off of the Kongo, New York, Texas, New Mexico and Fuso are utterly incapable of penetrating the front of a properly angled Arizona.  The Imperator Nikolai I can go suck an egg with her 12" rifles -- she can't mess with this.  Did you aim a little high and splash the decks instead?  The Arizona doesn't care.  25mm there too.  Your 356mm round is going to slide right off into the drink.  This makes her one of the tankiest Battleships at her tier, right up there with the Warspite.  The only hope said warships have of doing damage is reaching for their High Explosive shells and hope for some fires.  Meanwhile, your six rifles should be causing all kinds of havoc while they try and figure this out.  Often, players never do.

 

The only real weak spots are the gun casings of her secondary batteries.  But you've got to be wicked accurate to bulls eye one of those at range and while moving.  This is unlike the New Mexico which has 16mm deck armour, which means shots lobbed high or aimed at her turrets can drop down through the decks and still score penetrating hits.

 

This all changes, sadly, when you're facing a Warspite or anything tier 7 or higher.  Their guns are sufficient to over match the 25mm and turn you into swiss cheese.  The Warspite can (and will) citadel you clean through the bow.  Don't even try pulling this off against a Colorado or Nagato (or any of their bigger sisters).  When facing these opponents, angle yourself and try and bait them into shattering their rounds off your belt armour instead of poking holes beneath your #1 and #2 guns.  Otherwise, you're in for a world of hurt.  Thus, the success of the Arizona's durability in Battleship duels largely comes down to what you're facing.  Me?  I try and guess where their biggest gunned ships will go and be elsewhere to make my armour count.

 

If you didn't notice, the Arizona has the largest hit point totals for her tier, outdoing even the Fuso by 100hp.  This has the added side effect of making her Repair Party just that fraction bit better too.  Each charge heals back 8008hp (compared to the 7448 of the New Mexico).  So in short, your ship is better armoured and tougher than a New Mexico and better able to recover damage to boot.  The only place where the Arizona lacks slightly over her successor is her anti-torpedo bulges which reduce torpedo damage by 39% as opposed to the 42% of the New Mexico.  Oh well, small price to pay for being utterly impervious to 356mm rounds when properly angled.

 

The Lert Box Arizona has the highest hit point total, beating Fuso by 100 and New Mexico by 4000. New Mexico and Arizona have almost the same armor profile, with the same 'all or nothing' layout, the same belt thickness, the same extremity thickness and very near the same armored deck thickness. Fuso loses in the armor department with a thinner belt, thinner armored deck vs thicker secondary gun armament.   Fuso's torpedo belt negates 34% of the damage any torpedo striking its belt does. Arizona makes do with 39% and New Mexico beats them both with 42%.   The in-game result of this is that Arizona and New Mexico are similarly tanky versus their own tier. Properly angled, they'll bounce up to 14" AP fire all day long, while offering only their two forward zones for HE. It's against 15" and 16" that they start to fall apart though. Those guns can overmatch part of their bow and give the shooter straight access to the citadel armor itself.   The Fuso driver on the other hand is less lucky. Although a properly angled Fuso can be a problem to deal with, it's nowhere near as tanky and resilient as a similarly angled Arizona or New Mexico. The Fuso player also has the added drawback that the he has a lot less firepower to work with when bow on than the captain of the American fighting ladies.   Arizona's additional hit points beat out New Mexico's slightly better torpedo protection. Both are similarly tanky vs 14" fire. Fuso lags behind, being squisher and easier to kill than both Americans. All three ships are vulnerable to 15" and 16" AP fire.  I rate them thusly:   Arizona: 3 pts New Mexico: 2 pts Fuso: 1 pt

 

Five enemies in front?  No problem.  Lert's got this.
(And he did, too.  It was kinda scary.)
 

Concealment & Camouflage

14.4km Surface Detection, 11.1km Air Detection

 

I don't think there's any surprises here.  As a large surface vessel, the Arizona is going to be spotted from a long ways off.  The good news is that her surface detection range is well inside her main battery range, so you never have to worry about not being able to hit back.  With her premium camouflage, this drops down to a flat 14.0km detection range.  Her camouflage is the standard tier 6+ type, with 50% bonus experience and the usual 3% concealment and 4% disruption bonuses.  So yeah, pretty standard stuff.

 

The Lert Box Arizona can be seen from the surface from 14.4km out (14km with her base camouflage) and 11.1km from the air. New Mexico is visible from 14.2km on the surface and 11.3km by air. Fuso will be spotted at 18.9km by sea and 12.2km by air.     Going with base values without camouflage, Arizona and New Mexico are only a few hundred meters apart with New Mexico being stealthier by sea and Arizona by air. Using the base camouflage wins both by a few hundred meters, until New Mexico puts a camouflage on and wins again. However, it's so close that I'm going to call that one a draw.  Fuso loses though. Big time.   A word on the color scheme: During the time of testing, the paint job on Arizona was incorrect. She had the white mast tops and 'navy blue' paint of Measure 1 mixed with the blue weather deck of Measure 21. For proper Measure 1 her weather deck should've been unpainted teak. The consensus is that she was wearing Measure 1 when she sunk. This has been reported many times by many supertesters. Time will tell if WG will correct the color scheme or not. If not, I'm sure a mod will emerge very soon.   Arizona: 2 pts New Mexico: 2 pts Fuso: 1 pt

 

If you remove the camouflage, you keep the red turret roofs.  Historically, these were used to aid in aerial identification.  They work!

 

Anti-Aircraft Defense

AA Battery Calibers: 127mm, 28mm, 12.7mm

AA Umbrella Ranges: 4.2km, 3.1km, 1.2km

 

Alright, now for a bit of bad news.  The Arizona has bad AA power.  Let me qualify bad:   It's not terrible, but it's not good.  

 

The Arizona appears as she did after her 1940 refit (or at least close enough to).  She doesn't have the late-war anti-aircraft armament that makes the Texas such a dream boat.  Her 127mm dual purpose mounts are also the pre-war version, not the handsomely powerful 127mm/38s we've come to love on ships like the North Carolina or Atlanta.  This leads to a disappointing range (4.2km vs 5.0km) and not-as-nice hitting power either.  Without Oerlikon and Bofors mounts, her close in armament also suffers leading to a reduced hammerblow when aircraft finally close for their attack runs.  She has a total of 115dps with all mounts firing, half of that coming from her 127mm guns.

 

Ship Name	Total DPS	5.0km	4.2km	3.5km	3.1km	2.5km	2.0km	1.2km
Texas	345			187			158
New Mexico C-Hull	193		58	75			60
Colorado C-Hull	352		58	161			133
Fuso C-Hull	121	40			81
Warspite	157	38				79	40
Arizona	115		58		27			30

 

So while the Arizona shares the same long range punch as the Fuso or Colorado, it's when planes get up close that she just can't provide sufficient answer to deter enemy aircraft.  You can try padding this with modules and Captain Skills, but it's only ever going to be a band-aid solution to one of her greatest flaws.  Watch out for D3As.

 

The Lert Box Of these three, only New Mexico's AA suite can be considered 'adequate'. It still won't shoot down swathes of enemy planes, but at least it stands a chance of shooting down a bomber or two before they drop. Fuso's teeth reach out a bit further than both American ship's long range AA, but she lags behind New Mexico in DPS. Arizona brings up the rear.   Arizona: 1 pt New Mexico: 3 pts Fuso: 2 pts

 

Overall Impressions

Mouse' Summary:

• Super tanky when top tier, able to make fools of 356mm armed Battleships.
• Guns are great.  Her accuracy combined with having twelve rifles is brutal.
• Slow and a little clumsy despite her tight turning circle.
• Vulnerable to aircraft.

 

I don't have a lot of bad things to say about the Arizona.  She doesn't have any real gimmicks, but then, she doesn't need them.  She's just an overall solid ship that's very forgiving to play.  So long as you grasp the basics of Battleship game play, the Arizona will deliver some very nice returns.  You'll do a lot of damage.  You'll tank a lot of hits and you'll generally have a good time.  She's not some super-ship, though.  It remains to be seen how she'll stand up once the Royal Navy and the German fleets join World of Warships later this year.  Her bane are anything over 356mm in caliber, so the 15" rifles that should predominate the British (and possibly the Germans) at tier 6 could mean trouble.  For now, though?  Rejoice in your impunity and go farm some nice damages.

 

The Lert Box Let's tally up, shall we? Arizona accrued 10 points New Mexico scrounged up 11 points Fuso honorably gathered 12 points   So, by this rating, Fuso is the best T6 battlewagon, New Mexico second and Arizona third? Well, one must remember that my scoring is subjective, and other people might rank them differently in each category. Furthermore, some differences are very slight, such as the main guns category between Arizona and New Mexico. However, there is a reason that Fuso is one of the most beloved ships in the game and New Mexico is considered more of a workhorse by many. It's not that New Mexico is a bad ship - far from - its just that Fuso is more flexible. And people love flexibility.   So where does that leave the subject of this thread? Arizona is right where she needs to be, in my opinion. She's a USN 'Standard' battleship. She performs as required, she's competitive with New Mexico. She's nothing special, apart from being a slightly more solid brick than her younger cousin is. Though if I'm completely honest, apart from the AA Arizona plays just like a New Mexico without the engine upgrade. She's a solid ship that does solid damage and boasts solid performance - until she has to go up against 15" and 16" armed enemies that just overpower her armor, while bouncing Arizona's return fire.   Unfortunately I'm a collector, a battleship main and T6 is my favorite tier, otherwise I'd have given Arizona a pass. With her being a competitive T6 battlewagon and of enormous historical significance, I'm going to have no choice but to open my wallet.

 

Would I Recommend?
I guess the better question would be would I recommend her over the USS Texas?  The Arizona lacks a gimmick.  She's just an all around solid ship, a full tier higher than the Texas.  She puts out more shot, more accurately and at longer range while being tougher against all enemy attacks except for aircraft.  In my opinion, she's the better ship.  However, the charms of the Texas (including that great 'Murica custom paint job that's coming) can't be undersold.  If you want to shoot down planes?  Get a Texas.  If you want to wreck ships, get an Arizona.
 

• For Random Battle Grinding:

Mouse:  Abso-freakin'-lutely.  With twelve guns, you'll rack up bucket loads of damage while shrugging off tons of return fire.  Playing the Arizona in randoms is sha-mazing.  And she looks great too!  You can count on her to be as solid a performer as a New Mexico which will make for great Captain Training.  Credit earning wise, she is a Battleship, so if you reach for those premium consumables to pad your performance, you won't make as much as you might otherwise.

Lert:  No. She doesn't research anything, and there are other tier 6 premiums that are just as good at grinding credits but better able to deal with higher tier opponents. I'm looking at you, Warspite.

 

• For Competitive Gaming:

Mouse:  She's not the best choice.  She's not a bad one either, though.  In Dreadnought duels, her armour can be bested by the 15" guns off of a Warspite or anything bigger, but that doesn't mean she's trumped by them.  She's still got teeth to spare and can give almost as good as she'll take.  Her big weakness, like the other standard-type battleships is her lack of mobility which will make it difficult to provide any flexibility to your team in an competitive environment.  Be also aware that she's quite vulnerable to AA power if that's a staple feature in the environment in which you're playing.

Lert:  Get a New Mexico instead. Same playstyle with better AA, just a few thousand less hitpoints. Or a Fuso, more flexibility, better range, more accurate. Or a Warspite, faster than an Arizona, better healing potions and her 15" rifles pack a whallop.
 

• For Collectors:

Mouse:  Absolutely.  It's the USS Arizona, for crying out loud.  She's one of the most famous USN Battleships with good reason.  If you pick up the ship, do yourself a favour and spend some time getting to know about her history, the political situation of the times and the events leading up to her tragic loss.

Lert:  ... Do I really have to answer this? It's the Arizona for crying out loud.
 

• For Fun Factor:

Mouse:  Very yes.  The Arizona, when she's top tier, is an absolute blast to play. I find myself trying to set up duels with enemy Arpeggio of Blue Steel Kongo-class Battleships at every opportunity.  They're so prevalent right now and it's always a great time when you can get them to commit to a brawl they're not going to win.

Lert: Eh. Are slow bricks 'fun'? If you kept New Mexico because you enjoyed her, you might want to consider getting an Arizona as she plays very similar but earns more credits and trains an American battlewagon captain.

 

  

Lert wouldn't compare the Arizona to the Warspite, so I guess I'll do it.

"The Warspite is the bestest ship, much more better than any other ship in the game and you're all a bunch of doo-doo heads for even considering another ship to be comparable to my most favouritest ship!  So there!"

 

Outfitting your Arizona

Recommended Modules

The Arizona is a pretty standard outfit.

• For your first slot, I would recommend grabbing Main Armaments Modification 1.  This increases the survivability of your guns -- and if you plan on tanking with your face, they'll take a lot of hits, so this will help keep them in game. 
• For your second slot, it's again a no-brainer in my opinion.  Grab Artillery Plotting Room Modification 1.  This will boost her range from 16.0km to 18.6km which is already very nice.  Her decent accuracy will make those Hail-Mary shots a lot of fun.  The nice side effect of this mod is that it will also boost your Secondaries up to a range of 4.2km.
• For your third option, I take Damage Control System Modification 1 -- mostly because all of these options are downright terrible for Battleships.
• And for your fourth option, you have a choice.  I would strongly recommend Damage Control System Modification 2 to reduce the amount of time a fire burns (and save yourself 1544 damage per full burn).  You can expect more than a little HE thrown your way when battleships start bouncing AP.  Otherwise, you can grab the ol' reliable Steering Gears Modification 2 to drop your rudder shift time from 14.6s to 11.7s.

 

Recommended Consumables

The Damage Control Party on your Arizona may find itself increasingly taxed due to all of the high explosive that may (and should) be thrown at your vessel.  I would strongly recommend upgrading to the premium version of this consumable.  Depending on how well you do in most of your games, it may be worthwhile to also grab the premium version of your Repair Party.  In both cases, this will reduce the reset timer of the consumables in question.  In addition, you will get an extra charge of your Repair Party which may help keep you in the game longer.

 

Recommended Captain Skills

You don't need any form of special build for your Arizona.  Without any weird gimmicks, whatever allotment of skills you've selected for your other USN Battleships will do very well.

• For your first skill, i would recommend Basics of Survivability to further reduce the amount of time your ship burns.  If you haven't taken Damage Control System Modification 2, this will reduce the amount of damage from fires by 1544hp that burn their full duration.  Basic Fire Training is a reasonable choice too, which improves the performance of both your AA guns and Secondaries.
• For your second skill, take Expert Marksman.  This will reduce the time it takes your guns to rotate 180' from 60s down to 48.6s.
• At tier three, I prefer Superintendent for the extra charge on my Repair Party.  However, High Alert is handy to reduce the reset timer on your Damage Control Party down from 120s/90s to 108s/81s.  Vigilance is nice to give advance warning for incoming torpedoes from destroyers which are increasingly long ranged at this tier.
• At tier 4, Advanced Fire Training should be considered the best choice.  This gives additional reach to both your AA guns and Secondaries to 5.0km and 4.8km respectively for your 127mm mounts.
• At tier 5, Jack of All Trades is your best choice, again to help mitigate the very long reset timer of your Damage Control Party.

 

[Lert]

[Lord_Zath]

Nice review.  I'd post my thoughts but I'm still under NDA (I think - still new to this!).  I'll post my thoughts when the ship goes on sale.

[landcollector]

LWM, you have a typo regarding the extended range for Arizona in the Artillery discussion section- it reads 18.3 km rather than the correct 18.6 km given near the end of the review.

[HeinzSchultz]

Oh a Warspite that is more armored.

 

[Crucis]

Lert, what a wuss for not including the Warspite out of fear! 

 

Come on, man up and add the Warspite to this review!!!

 

[1Sherman]

Great review. Also, if none of you will make the comparison to the Warspite, I will.

Warspite has shorter range.

Warspite can't take broadside shots like New Mexico/Arizona can.

Warspite has fewer guns.

Warspite has a worse Damage Control Party, with only 5 seconds of immunity compared to 20.

Warspite has less AA than New Mexico, better AA than Arizona.

Warspite has worse turret traverse.

Warspite has better secondaries.

Warspite has bigger guns.

Warspite has equal to or better dispersion.

Warspite has better HP Regen.

Warspite has less HP than Arizona.

Warspite has better speed.

Warspite has better maneuverability.

[LittleWhiteMouse]

LWM, you have a typo regarding the extended range for Arizona in the Artillery discussion section- it reads 18.3 km rather than the correct 18.6 km given near the end of the review.

 

Thanks.  Got it.

[Lert]

Lert, what a wuss for not including the Warspite out of fear! 

 

I left out Warspite because of formatting / post length reasons. LWM has redone the format for her reviews to keep them more readable and likes to keep them to around a certain wordcount. Me comparing three ships already takes up a lot of room, and adding a fourth would've just made it even longer. Add to that that this is still LWM's article and I'm just a guest author, and there's why I didn't include Warspite, despite one sitting in my port and thus readily available.

 

The quick and dirty though is that Warspite tanks with her healing potions and smacks hard with accurate 15" rifles and nasty secondaries. Arizona tanks with her armor and puts out reliable volumes of 14" fire instead. Warspite has a better AA suite and turns better, Arizona has the higher damage output potential vs lower tiers and Warspite vs higher tiers. TBH I consider them fairly equal, and would not hesitate to take either into a pub match.

[Xero_Snake]

Great review. Also, if none of you will make the comparison to the Warspite, I will.

Warspite has shorter range.

Warspite can't take broadside shots like New Mexico/Arizona can.

Warspite has fewer guns.

Warspite has a worse Damage Control Party, with only 5 seconds of immunity compared to 20.

Warspite has less AA than New Mexico, better AA than Arizona.

Warspite has worse turret traverse.

Warspite has better secondaries.

Warspite has bigger guns.

Warspite has equal to or better dispersion.

Warspite has better HP Regen.

Warspite has less HP than Arizona.

 

Warspite is in WWI-era configuration, yes?

[Globemaster1998]

Excellent ship review as always Mouse! +1

+1 for Lert as well for providing information and assisting with the review!

[Camping4XP]

Not the Warspite so not going to buy.

[Lert]

Warspite is in WWI-era configuration, yes?

 

No. In game she carries her mid-30's refit with the 'apartment building' superstructure.

 

Warspite as built.

 

HMS Warspite post her 1937 refit

[Soshi_Sone]

I'm sold! 

[The_GoDDfather]

No longer in Club Wargaming?

[Xero_Snake]

 

No. In game she carries her mid-30's refit with the 'apartment building' superstructure.

 

Warspite as built.

 

HMS Warspite post her 1937 refit

 

How about the 15-in main guns characteristics? I recall their Mark I were significantly improved before WWII. If not upgraded yet, then this could be the reason Warspite placed on Tier VI.

[Ace_04]

Awesome review as always.  Great work from the both of you.

[Lert]

How about the 15-in main guns characteristics? I recall their Mark I were significantly improved before WWII.

 

Maybe in ammunition and fire control used. The guns / mounts / turrets remained the same during the refit, AFAIK. Not that they needed much upgrading, the 15" Mk I was an excellent weapon, so much so they even put some on the 1944 HMS Vanguard as primary armament.

[Dr_Richtofen]

Outfitting your Arizona

Recommended Modules

The Arizona is a pretty standard outfit.

• For your first slot, I would recommend grabbing Main Armaments Modification 1.  This increases the survivability of your guns -- and if you plan on tanking with your face, they'll take a lot of hits, so this will help keep them in game. 
• For your second slot, it's again a no-brainer in my opinion.  Grab Artillery Plotting Room Modification 1.  This will boost her range from 16.0km to 18.6km which is already very nice.  Her decent accuracy will make those Hail-Mary shots a lot of fun.  The nice side effect of this mod is that it will also boost your Secondaries up to a range of 4.4km.
• For your third option, I take Damage Control System Modification 1 -- mostly because all of these options are downright terrible for Battleships.
• And for your fourth option, you have a choice.  I would strongly recommend Damage Control System Modification 2 to reduce the amount of time a fire burns (and save yourself 1544 damage per full burn).  You can expect more than a little HE thrown your way when battleships start bouncing AP.  Otherwise, you can grab the ol' reliable Steering Gears Modification 2 to drop your rudder shift time from 14.6s to 11.7s.

 

For the second slot I mostly agree but have the question of could you also not consider Secondary Battery Modification 2 for the range and dispersion of the secondaries? Reason I thought maybe that would be it sounds like you want to close a bit with the Arizona and that could help with those closer in fights and slightly more defense from those DDs that try to get a little to close.

[Khafni]

Thanks LWM and Lert for another great review! I wish I could be thrilled with WG's decision to bring the Arizona into the game but I can't. To those who want her, congratulations.

[StingRayOne]

Thanks LittleWhiteMouse and Lert

excellent work on this

[AVR_Project]

Stands to reason:

It was mag'd by a 16" Battleship AP round with fins strapped on.

[DoomStomper]

Outstanding review as always, +1 to both of you.

 

Your conclusions seem to line up pretty well with what I was expecting based on Arizona's stats alone, but I'm extremely relieved to hear her guns have a decent sigma value.  Another guaranteed buy.

[BelgaraththeSorcerer]

I hope there is an Arizonapocalypse just like there was the Tirpocalypse so I can go stomp Arizonas in my Amagi 

 

[Retnav54]

Short and sweet - Mouse loves Warspite. I also love Warspite. Mouse likes Arizona. Sounds like good buy.


Warspite-like sigma value and accuracy, Warspite-like main gun range without APR1 (means AA and secondary builds a viable option), more boomsticks than Warspite (cause more dakka always better), better armor than New Mexico....

Plans to throw wallet at screen on July 4th.