I’ve created this basic guide on World of Warships, or WoWs in short, to teach players the basics of the game. We’ll be looking at ship classes and what their roles are, basic mechanics, and overall dos and don’ts.
Foreword
Well, nobody really expected this.
I didn’t
So World of Warships is on Steam now? Great! Great… New players are always good for an online game.
Honestly, I am glad about this, really, I am. But I am also aware that with new players flooding in, a lot of people won’t know what to do, and will want to learn about the game, how to master it.
How to play better.
As for myself, I am a long time player of World of Warships (got my hands on a beta key back in the day) and a Forum Community Contributor. If you don’t know what that is, it’s just about as much as the name implies. Players that create content for the community to enjoy. However, I usually write about newly released ships and such. Thus this’ll be my first guide.
Before we go on, I want to clear up a couple of misconceptions.
Firstly, World of Warships is by no means a realistic game, it’s arcadey in nature. If you’re in for some historical naval combat, this is not the game for you.
Second, this is not the release of World of Warships. This game has been around for the better part of two years now. This is the Steam release. People owning a WG account will likely be able to make use of it on the Steam version. All you have to do is rename the steamapi.dll
Lastly, This guide will cover only the basics. there is so much to learn in this game, I cannot possibly teach you everything. You have to go out and try things out. Sometimes things work out and you learn something new. All this guide is here for is to enable new players to better get accustomed to the game mechanics.
So without further ado, let’s jump right in. This guide will have segments in written as well as in video form. Fair seas to you captains o7.
Absolute Basics
The Basic guide
Here you will find the video explaining the basics of world of warships, like classes, ammo, and consumables.
Specializing, Advanced Basic Techniques
Advanced Techniques
So you’ve watched the basic guide video, or perhaps you don’t think you need to watch it, since you know the basics already. Good, here are some further pointers to specific classes.
Techniques all Ships Benefit from
Angling:
Angling your amour is a good way of bouncing enemy shells. Due to the nature of ships, you have a very effective pike front on every vessel, perfect in deflecting enemy fire. Side armour is also more effective at bouncing shells when sailing away from a target. Avoid being broadside in any ship as much as possible**. Even if your armour is overmatched by the enemy guns, you will provide a smaller profile, making your ship harder to hit.
**the only exception for this is in some destroyers. Destroyers have thin armour, in which case angling will increase the overall effective armour, allowing for higher caliber shells to arm and do full damage.
Kiting:
A effective tactic in more maneuverable ships. Fight the enemy on your own terms by sailing away. Shells take time to reach the target, sailing away make landing hits on you more difficult. Combine this with angling to make it very hard to hit you. Traveling at an angle while sailing away offers smallest chance of getting sunk.
Map awareness
Keep an eye on the battle as often as possible. check in which ships are spotted, where the enemy is moving. This prevents you from getting flanked, also, inform your teammates of what’s happening if they are not aware.
Sharing Consumables
Maximize your consumables’ effectiveness by using it together with teammates. Lay a smokescreen for ships in trouble, flush out destroyers and torpedoes with Hydroacoustic and Radar.
Destroyers
Destroyers, after carriers, are likely the most important ship class in the game. They are not very difficult to get started in, but they do require a lot of knowledge and skill to be operated effectively.
Stealth Fire
This is no longer part of Destroyer gameplay. It has been removed with the 0.6.3 patch of the game.
Reading the Situation
Is this a driving exam? No! it’s just smart play. At the start of operation, you should inform yourself of everything that you possibly can in terms of team setup, map position, cap points, possible escape routes, locations of islands.
How many radar ships does the enemy team have? What is their range? Which destroyers does your team field? Which direction is the enemy pushing the most?
Spotting and Capturing
As the ship with the best concealment, it’ll be your job to go in and do the capturing of positions. As you will be on the spearhead of an attack, you will also provide spotting for your teammates. Keep in mind that firing will reveal your location.
Effective Tactics
- Spotting
- Capturing
- Map awareness
- Sharing Consumables
- Angling
Cruisers
No team can successfully lead an operation without the aid of cruisers. They provide AA, as well as intelligence support, and are key to a victory in more ways than you’d think. After carriers, they are the hardest class to truly master, but will reward the wielder with high amounts of damage and enjoyable games.
Surviving
The most difficult part of cruisers is learning how to survive. Most cruisers lack armour, and have a relatively exposed citadel, thus being an easy target for enemy battleships. Play cautiously, make use of islands as cover. Do not expose yourself, and avoid showing broadside to enemy ships.
Supporting
You will likely be the bulk damage dealer. Even if that will not always be the case, you will do the most consistent damage, since the RNG on your guns is less spiked than on higher caliber guns. Running vital consumables like radar, hydroacoustic sonar, and defensive fire, you’ll be supporting your team in more ways than just by causing damage.
Effective Tactics
- Supporting
- Sharing Consumables
- Kiting
- Angling
- Map awareness
Battleships
Battleships might be the easiest class to get the hang of early, but there is a lot of things battleships players must learn to make most of their ship.
Maneuverability
Battleships. Are. Slow. Keep this in mind when position yourself. Don’t go off to a location where you cannot effectively push when you need to. Try to think ahead.
Adding to this, battleships have a tendency to be slow on turns and rudder shifts. Don’t rail-sail. Keep in mind torpedoes and enemy ships primed on you.
Discipline
The hardest part of sailing a battleship is allowing your ship to become damaged. As weird as this might sound, you are essentially a tank. Many players have a hard time not burning that DamaCon as soon as they’re set on fire the first time. I assure you it is not easy, but it’s part of playing a battleship well. If you hit that Consumable as soon as you get set on fire the first time, it will be on cooldown when you need it the most. 100% of fire damage can be healed back later. If you burn your consumable unnecessarily, it will be on cooldown when you need it the most.
Always remember. You cannot heal, if you’re dead.
Tanking
A battleship’s task is to get stuck in, without dying. Keep in mind that there is often a very thin line between the two. Tanking effectively means you draw the enemies’ fire, without being exposed to too much damage. It is difficult to explain this since each situation can be different. Just keep in mind that torpedoes hurt, multiple fires will wither you down and drop shells will do a lot of damage, regardless of your angle.
Effective Tactics
- Tanking
- Map awareness
- Angling
Additional: Consumables
Consumables
Ingame you will find many different types of consumables. This list (and it is bound to change with time) shows each consumable, what it does, and which ships carry this consumable.
Damage Control Party (DamaCon)
- Repairs any fire, flood or incapacitation. Has an active timer and a cooldown.
- Users: All (except Oktyabrskaya Revolucia)
Repair Party
- Repairs a percentage of damage done to vessel. Fully repairs fires and flooding.
- Users: Battleships, RNCL, All High tier cruisers (tier 9 onwards), Atago, Graf Spee, High Tier Russian Main Line Destroyers, Kidd
Smoke Generator
- Deploys a smoke screen during active time. Each dropped smoke “bubble” has it’s own decay time.
- Ships in smoke screens have decreased detection and a buff to detection range after firing
- Users: British CL, All destroyers, Kutuzov, Perth, HuangHe
Catapult Fighter and Spotting Aircraft
- Both aircraft circle around the user’s ship. Spotting aircraft will increase firing range while catapult fighters will engage and destroy any air contacts. Both have a limited flight time.
- Users: Battleships, Cruisers
Defensive AA Fire
- Multiplies the emitted AA damage per second by 3-4 times for the active time. Enemy aircraft’s drop patterns will be “panicked” and thus not be as accurate.
- Users: Hood, Cruisers, American Destroyers (t6 onwards), Russian Split Line Destroyers, t8+ Carriers
Engine Boost
- The engine boost consumable increases engine output and maximum speed for the duration of the consumable.
- Users: Destroyers, French Cruisers
Torpedo Reload Booster
- Reduces the torpedo rearm time to a couple of seconds.
- Users: Yuugumo, Kagerou, Akizuki, Shiratsuyu
Hydroacoustic Search
- Spots any vessel within the set radius of your ship (short range, long duration). Significantly increases torpedo spotting range, regardless of torpedo stealth.
- Users: Kriegsmarine Destroyers and Battleships, Cruisers, Lo Yang
Radar
- Spots any vessel within the set radius of your ship.
- Users: High tier Pan Asian DDs, British American and Russian Cruisers, Belfast, American Tier 7 Premium Cruisers
Original Link – Continuation of discussion
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