Ship classes
 | Destroyers (DD)
Destroyers serve a number of roles in the game. They can be used to seek out enemy ships for the big guns on their team to target, to launch torcreep salvos at enemy ships, and provide additional anti-aircraft cover for friendly vessels. They are also incredibly maneuverable, and the fastest class of ship. These do not have citadel hitboxes, so to sink them and deal more damage, use high explosive rounds! |
 | Cruisers (CA or CL)
Cruisers are the most diverse class of warship. Designed to react fast and with deadly force, they act as a destroyer shield for larger ships and as anti-aircraft platforms for the team. They can fight toe-to–toe with other cruisers and some can utilize torcreepes to damage capital ships. However, their citadels are easy to hit for massive amounts of damage, so be careful to protect your own! |
 | Battleships (BB)
Battleships are the quintessential "heavy hitters" of World of Warships and offer a triple threat to their opponents. Massive firepower coupled with heavy armor make them the juggernauts of the sea. Secondary gun batteries make them a serious threat to smaller vessels, and the many anti-aircraft guns lining their decks offer a tremendous amount of anti-aircraft defense. Use high explosive rounds to light them on fire, as armor piercing rounds won't do as much damage. When you're the commander, use HE rounds against ships smaller than you, and AP against enemy battleships. |
 | Aircraft carriers (CV or CVE)
Aircraft Carriers are the game's stand-alone, multi-role ship, bringing RTS-style gameplay to the battle. They carry three kinds of aircraft: Dive Bombers, Torcreep Bombers and Fighter Planes. Each aircraft type plays a specific role and a carrier can have more than one group of aircraft in the air at any one time. Aircraft from a carrier can attack enemy aircraft, scout enemy ships or planes, attack enemy ships directly and escort or cover friendly ships and aircraft. Hunt these down and destroy these as soon as possible, as, in the right hands, they can pose a massive threat. |
How do I sink a ship without getting sunk myself?
They say that any sophisticated technology is easier to destroy than to actually build and warships are no exception. Which shells should you use and where should you shoot when you want to see your opponent sink before you do? Just keep reading.
One goal, four methods.As much as it can seem that way, naval fighting isn't really that complicated. All that talk about strategy and tactics is only relevant until the first shots get fired and ships get hit. After that, all bets are off and you will do good to know how to sink an enemy ship in the fastest, or at least the most reliable, way possible. Still with us? Good! Now that the drill-sergeant talk is over, let's go over the three ways in which you can send the enemy captain back to port.
Pierce the armor!When in doubt, just shower the enemy with armor-piercing shells and hope that some of them penetrate the hull and cause damage to internal compartments and modules. But it isn't just like that – you need to actually aim at parts of the ship where the shells can hit more than air. You want to be firing at the citadel – the ship's central area, housing the most essential units, such as engine rooms, boiler rooms and magazines. Hitting the engine or boiler room will stop the ship, hitting (and penetrating) the ammunition magazines will blow it up. That is what you want to see!
To protect your citadel and magazines, angle your armor and never, ever go broadside against an enemy (unless that enemy is me, then please, by all means, go broadside). Angle so that you can still get all guns on target, but keep as close to perpendicular to your enemy as possible. Sometimes, your citadel will still get hit, but it will happen far less often than usual.
The downside of this approach is that penetrating the strongest armor, which the citadel is usually wrapped in, isn't the easiest thing to do. You have to also take into account that distance, angle of attack and shell size matter. On that note, remember to always lead your target. But about that some other time...
Light 'em up!Don't you just love the smell of a barbecue? Then you want to be firing high-explosive (HE) shells at your enemy. The advantage of this approach is that less aiming is necessary as it doesn't really matter where you hit, so long as you hit the deck and whatever is above or on it. Superstructures, gun mounts or smoke stacks – they all burn very nicely and in some cases significantly reduce the combat capability of the enemy ship. Burning aircraft carriers, for example, cannot launch (or land) any aircraft from their deck. And battleship commanders – well, psychological warfare works as well! However, HE rounds cannot penetrate the citadel of any ship! The only real way to avoid fires is to avoid getting hit, which is quite difficult.
Flood them!A bit obvious for a headline, but bear with us. If you manage to pierce a ship's hull under the water-line, she will most likely start to flood. There is one way of ensuring this: torcreepes. Not only will the enemy ship lose large amounts of hit-points, they also slow down significantly. In naval combat, where maneuverability is key, this will often result in a one-way ticket back to port for the enemy. However, there is a way to avoid constant torcreep hits:
always assume there is a cruiser or destroyer looking at you, with torcreepes primed.
Always. Throughout the whole battle, vary your speed, and turn at random to throw off the aim indicators that any and all torcreep-equipped ships have.
Ram them!This one should be obvious. You charge full steam ahead into ships that are close enough to you in order to sink them. Be careful, however, as this also deals large amounts of damage to you. This should only be used as a last resort, and it may not always succeed. Ship size, class, speed, and impact angle all matter here. For the record: it's incredibly satisfying to split a destroyer in two and bash straight through them as a battleship.
