World of Warships

The Game Room
1

The game has been out for a year and a half, so quite a few here are probably already familiar with it. I started playing this past weekend and have enjoyed it so far.

If there are any dopers who play this I’d appreciate any advice you might have to new players who are looking to advance from beginner to intermediate skills.

One thing I find a little disconcerting is how quickly one can be eliminated from play. One minute you’re navigating your destroyer around an island and seconds later you round the proverbial corner to find a cruiser is lying in wait that blasts you out of the water with two salvos. I get the impression this doesn’t happen very often to experienced players. Perhaps I’m spending too much time sailing around and should loiter for longer times before approaching areas - wait for some other fool to find out where the bad guys are lurking and let THEM ‘walk point’?

After getting blown away without so much as incapacitating a single ship, I decided to use the camera to watch other players go at it after I died. What I found was the experienced destroyer captains were constantly moving in a zigzag motion and were almost never getting hit. To be honest, though, I couldn’t understand how they were able to aim any shots at opponents while doing this. Are they firing and navigating while in binocular view? Can one hit targets with any accuracy while not in binocular view?

I managed to purchase an Erie class gunboat and the first two US light cruisers available, and just bought a South Carolina class battleship. Concerning ship types/classes: are there any tactical differences in how destroyers/gunboats are used vs how cruisers should be played? How about battleships? I managed to play my BB twice yesterday and got torpedoed both times before ever inflicting any serious damage. Should BB’s stay clear of the islands? Seems like their superior range would be a great asset but it certainly didn’t play out that way the few times I tried out the battleship.

Any advice or strategies to share on how to improve play is appreciated.

2

I used to play a lot and got half-way decent at it. Unfortunately it’s been so long now I have forgotten a lot of it so I will give some general ideas (in no particular order).

  1. Different ships have different detection ranges. Destroyers can get in a lot closer than big ships before they appear to the enemy. I think there is an indicator if you are spotted but not sure. Anyway, use that to your advantage. Note that different ships have different stats for this. Learn them and learn your enemy. Knowing you can get close without being spotted is key (and hope planes don’t overfly your position while you’re making a torpedo run). I’d frequently get very close to carriers if their planes did not spot me.

  2. For a destroyer definitely stay close to islands that you can duck behind. Out in the open ocean you are easy pickings. The reverse it true for battleships. You want them in as open an area as possible else destroyers will pop out and torpedo you. This is not always possible but do your best.

  3. Destroyers usually have smoke. If you get spotted pop the smoke, turn back into the smoke and run away.

  4. Torpedoes against other destroyers are usually a waste. Save the torpedoes for the bigger ships (that said I have got some torpedo kills on destroyers…definitely doable).

  5. Situational awareness is important. If you see a distant ship going somewhere consider where that might be and find a good ambush point.

  6. Most times with your guns choose the ammo that starts fires. For battleships choose the armor piercing rounds. A citadel hit is the jackpot hit and what most aim for. A citadel hit with armor piercing rounds from a battleship is devastating. For destroyers your armor piercing rounds do not amount to much so set fires. (There was a US destroyer which had a crazy fast main gun…that thing would cause no end of problems to other ships.)

  7. Watch some YouTube videos on how to aim your guns. There are plenty to be found. With practice, like any game, you’ll get the hang of it. You can steer your ship while in binocular mode.

  8. Torpedoes are hard to aim. Choose a wide spread unless close and lead the ship you are aiming at. Something you have to get a feel for. Different ships have different torpedoes (strength and range and speed) and how many they can shoot at once. Again, learn the details of your ships and others you are likely to face. Note they also have a minimum range so point blank does no good.

  9. If you see torpedoes coming in to you maneuver to evade. That usually means turning into them or away from them. You may still get hit but you want to minimize how many hit. On occasion you thread the needle which is exhilarating when you pull it off and maddening if you were the one who just missed a sure thing.

  10. Battleships are fun but not the end-all, be-all ship. Plenty of times I purposely chose to zoom around in a destroyer. They can cause a lot of trouble. Each ship has its good and bad points. Find one you like.

3

What Whackamole said. Although I didn’t go past tier 6 and wasn’t particularly good

Destroyers are hideously vulnerable at the start of the match so you need to be cowardly and cautious. Stay on the edge of your detection range to find the enemy ships but don’t engage. Let your bigger gunned allies take the shots you spot if you can.

As things thin out you’ll be able to get closer. If you’ve got good torpedoes there’s nothing more satisfying than getting a good spread into a Battleship or Carrier. Learn how to use them properly and you become a late-game force. With the Japanese low tier destroyers I rarely used my (anemic) guns at all.

Personally I went with close spreads almost exclusively, they’re much harder to evade and can result in multiple hits if your target screws up and turns broadside to your spread. I’d fire one salvo on the ahead side of the aimpoint, and then tack and fire the other side slightly behind the aimpoint for good results. A lot of times you’ll catch some hits and go down though.

4

It is important to note different detection ranges means just that.

You can be smack dab in the middle of the ocean with zero cover and the sun shining and see the battleship clear as day but he cannot see you…at all (some battleships have spotter planes so those can mess you up).

As long as you are outside his detection range you are effectively invisible.

Shooting your cannons at him will make you visible (I think).

Shooting torpedoes does not make you visible.

5

The other thing is that these “World of…” games are pay to win. Whales who spend loads of cash will always have a big advantage over you. What takes you a month of grinding they can just buy.

From what I hear from some of my friends that got addicted, be prepared to spend a minimum of $30 a month to be competitive.

6

It’s more “pay to grind more quickly” in general. Premium time ups your credits and XP per battle a lot. And the main attraction of premium vehicles in tanks and ship is the sheer amount of credits they print. Having said that there have been some disgustingly OP premium vehicles in tanks, I don’t play enough ships to comment.

7

I’ve run into this before with other games and it is majorly frustrating. Who needs skill when your advancement can be purchased with plastic? Thing is, you’d think these individuals would feel their victories were somewhat hollow but evidently that’s not the case. Oh well, I suppose the game companies love them for it. After all they’re not in it not to entertain but rather to make money. Entertainment is only a means to that end.

8

Different ship types use different strategies. But also note, the different nationalities also have detail differences that might affect your gameplay.

For example: Think of American destroyers as gunboats, as American torpedoes (in the early tiers) are fairly short ranged. While you can lurk behind an island or smoke, hoping the enemy comes close enough to you to get torp hits, the role of an American low tier destroyer may be more of an anti-destroyer one (good gun battery), and a spotting one (ships you are spotting are also revealed to your team mates). Also consider using your smoke to shield the friendly battleships and cruisers on your team, allowing them to fire at the enemy, while preventing accurate return fire. (They must be IN the smoke to see through it, otherwise they must rely on someone else’s spotting.) American destroyers are tricky to play, but some players find it more rewarding once they get that style mastered.

Japanese destroyers, at least up until the more recent patches, are torpedo boats, with their (much) longer ranged torps, and lower detection radius.

Destroyers will probably stick to firing High Explosive (HE) shells, which have a much better chance to start fires (which is a damage over time effect) on their target.

Destroyers have very little armor, so you are going to need to use your maneuverability to try and make yourself a hard target.

Also, for all classes, making yourself a narrower target by keeping the enemy off your bow or stern can help (although your own gun and torpedo arcs may make this a tricky thing to do). This is called “angling”, and angling your armor also slightly increases the chance of “bouncing” enemy Armor Piercing (AP) shells. (Armor penetration chances and shell dispersion are handled by the server.)

When you are in between matches, you can see your ship’s details in the harbor. Always take note of your detection ranges, gun ranges, torp ranges. Investing silver dublooms(me no spell) which is the in-game money you earn fighting matches) to upgrade your ship, and to buy consumables, can and will modify your ships particular abilities. “Captain skills” can also do this, although I haven’t played around with that, yet.

At first, I was turned off by the “health bar” approach to naval combat, but there is still a bunch of depth hidden inside this gem of a game!

9

Eh…not so much in this game.

As mentioned it is more pay to avoid grinding to get higher tier ships.

Lower tier ships are pitted against other lower tier ships so not like the whale with the tier 8 ships is wrecking all the tier 1 ships.

If you buy a top tier ship you will play other players in top tier ships and usually the guy who bought his ship gets his ass handed to him by the people who learned the game and earned their ships.

10

I forgot:

Some destroyers also have good AA defenses. You can hang around battleships or carriers and help shoot down incoming planes (and as mentioned use smoke to help hide them if needed).

I remember the US destroyer I really like: USN Fletcher

It is kind of an all around boat but its torps are pretty good (not great but better than a lot of US destroyers) and its main gun has a crazy rate of fire (a shot every 3.3 seconds). It usually messed up other destroyers in gun battles and I’ve even caused havoc on some battleships with it (yeah…you do not want to get in a gun battle with a battleship but sometimes you find yourself there so you do what you can before you die).

11

Thanks (especially to Whack-a-Mole) for the great responses so far.

I’ve got 5 of 6 ship slots filled with tier I-III ships. Is there a way to sell off some of the low tier ships when higher ones become available, or am I going to be stuck with a fleet of pre-Great War gunboats squaring off with Bismarks and Yamatos later on?

Any advice on lower tier American cruiser game play? I watched a couple of the aiming videos yesterday and have already seen my game play improve a bit.

12

There is a way to get rid of unwanted ships (to free up ship “slots” in your account). Unfortunately, I don’t remember of the top of my head how to do that.

The match-maker (which is a server side function) will group up ships into matches with similar tiered ships, at a tier difference no greater than 2 tiers. A tier 1 ship will never fight a tier 4 or higher ship. Your tier 3 cruiser may be “top tiered” in a match with ships ranging from tier 1 to tier 3. Or, you may be “bottom tiered”, being a tier 3 in a match with tier 3 to 5 ships grouped together. (Did I explain the match making clearly enough?)

13

I forgot to add:

EACH gun fired every 3.3 seconds and it had five guns. I would set it so the guns would fire individually rather than a broadside then fire more than a shot per second at my opponent. Hard to say but it seemed to really take people by surprise as they are getting constantly hit by a very rapid succession of hits (and start fires they just put out). Great fun! :cool: