World of Warships Final Review: Pan-European Tier IX Premium Destroyer Velos

Ladies and Gentlemen, we are here today to witness the arrival of the first Greek ship in the game. Velos will soon be fully released and it is time to see what it is capable of.

Velos will first be available through a Portal Campaign Adventure similar to the one we had with Black. Afterward, at the beginning of 2023, she will be available in the Premium shop for 63,49€ or in the Armory for 19 300 doubloons only. The ship sadly enters the restrained club of tier IX ships only available for paid currency/money.

Now the question is… is Velos worth the money? Is she able to step up from being a simple Fletcher sidegrade? Here is my opinion.

Historical background

Velos started life as USS Charrette, one of the many Fletcher-class destroyers of the U.S. Navy. The ship was laid down in February 1942, launched in June 1942, and commissioned in May 1943.

After her commissioning, the ship was deployed in the Pacific and spent the major part of the conflict on screening duty for carriers and battleships. She also took part in a few raids to sink Japanese ships, mostly convoys or small combat units. After the war, the ship was placed in reserves and later on decommissioned in January 1947.

In June 1959, the ship was transferred to Greece and renamed Velos. She took part in almost all Greek and NATO exercises and was also deployed during various crises with Turkey.

Velos/Charrette’s most notable action wouldn’t be an act of war but instead, an act of mutiny. In May 1973, under the command of Nikolaos Pappas, the ship that was taking part in a NATO exercise anchored at Fiumicino in Italy. The captain and his crew refused to return to Greece as a form of protest against the dictatorship of the Junta and a press conference was organized to reveal the horrors of the regime. While the captain, six officers, and twenty-five petty officers remained in Italy as political refugees, the rest of the crew were advised (to not say ordered) to stay on board the ship and later return to Greece in fear of retaliation against their families. A month later, the ship returned to Greece with a replacement crew.

After the fall of the Junta in July 1974, some of the officers returned to the navy. Commander Pappas reached the rank of Vice-admiral and served as the chief of the Hellenic Navy General Staff from 1982 to 1986.

Velos was decommissioned in February 1991 and in 1997,  the Hellenic Navy General Staff declared her a Museum of the Struggle against the Dictatorship. The ship changed locations a few times but since September 2019, she is anchored on the waterfront of Thessaloniki.

In World of Warships, Velos appears as she was in Greek service. She is very similar to the classic U.S. destroyers in terms of characteristics but gets a shorter main battery reload time and the Engine Boost and Defensive AA Fire consumables are in separate slots.

Ship’s preview

Ship’s commemorative flag

The camouflages

The permanent camouflage of Velos comes with the standard permanent tier IX economic bonuses:

• +10% Credits
• +100% XP
• +100% Commander XP
• +100% Free XP

A special camouflage called Greek Trireme will also be available:

The Good and the Bad

The Good

• High rate of fire on the main battery
• Ballistics perfect to lob shells over island covers
• Fast torpedo reload
• Choice between narrow and super-narrow torpedo spread
• Strong torpedoes with high damage and high flooding chances
• Good torpedo firing range
• Great agility
• Good concealment
• Long duration Smoke Generator
• Defensive AA Fire and Engine Boost in separate slots for what it’s worth

The Bad

• Only four guns
• Poor ballistics for targets actively maneuvering at long range
• Only a single torpedo launcher
• Relatively low HP pool
• Unimpressive anti-air DPS, even with consumable active
• Weak flak barrage
• Jack-of-all-trades but master of none

Modules

Hull	Engine	Gun Fire Control System	Main battery	Torpedoes
Velos	Propulsion: 60 000 HP	‎‎SUO Mk 9 Mod. 1	127 mm/38 Mk.12 on a Mk.30 mod.0 mount	‎Mk16 mod. 1

General Characteristics and Playstyle

Consumables
Slot 1	Slot 2	Slot 3	Slot 4
Damage Control Party Work time: 5 s Cooldown: 40 s	Smoke Generator Number of charges: 3 Work time: 30 s Cooldown: 160 s Smoke radius: 450 m Smoke duration: 127 s	Engine Boost Number of charges: 3 Work time: 120 s Cooldown: 120 s Speed bonus: +8%	Defensive AA Fire Number of charges: 3 Work time: 40 s Cooldown: 80 s Damage from continuous DPS: +50% Damage from flak explosions: +300%

Velos, even though she now serves under the Greek flag, remains a U.S. destroyer almost as classic as you can get. The only characteristics that differentiate her from the rest are that Engine Boost and Defensive AA Fire are on different slots and she has the same torpedo spread as Pan-European destroyers.

When it comes to the gameplay, even though Wargaming intended her as a gunboat destroyer, she is in my opinion closer to a hybrid destroyer. Her firepower is quite good to farm damage from smoke or even in the open with her great agility but her torpedoes are also nothing to ignore. It might be only five torpedoes per salvo but they reload incredibly fast and they are the same torpedoes as on Fletcher and Gearing. As a whole, the ship is just a massive return to the basics. No special gimmicks and not specifically designed for one thing. She is a good old jack-of-all-trades U.S. destroyer.

If you want to see the ship in action, here is a commented replay of one of my games:

Main Armament

4 x 1 127 mm/38 Mk.12 on a Mk.30 mod.0 mount
Maximum Firing Range	12.140 km
Reloading Time	2.5 s
180 Degree Turn Time	5.3 s
Optimal firing angles at the front	34°
Optimal firing angles at the rear	30°
Sigma	2.00 sigma
Maximum Dispersion	106 m
Shells
Type of Projectile	HE – 127 mm HE Mk32
Alpha Damage	1 800
Penetration capacity	21 mm
Explosion size	0.38
Fire chance	5 %
Projectile Speed	792 m/s
Air Drag	0.347
Projectile Mass	24.5 kg
Type of Projectile	AP – 127 mm AP/SC Mk38
Alpha Damage	2 100
Projectile Speed	792 m/s
Air Drag	0.347
Projectile Mass	25.0 kg
Projectile Krupp	2 598
Projectile Detonator	0.01 s
Detonator threshold	21 mm
Ricochet Angles	45° – 60°

The main battery of Velos will make any U.S. destroyer player feel right at home. Her guns have the same ballistics and damage stats as those of Fletcher and co. However, unlike Fletcher, she only gets four guns instead of 5 but in return, the rate of fire is much higher. In terms of damage output, it puts Velos slightly above Fletcher at 172 800 theoretical HE DPM compared to 161 677.
It will not win her any prize considering that, in terms of smoked gunboats, there are things like Groningen/Friesland and Kitakaze that have far better DPM than her. However, it will still provide Velos with a solid source of damage. Against any torpedo boat destroyer or to farm damage from smoke, her guns will be perfectly fine. Also, Velos has the classic U.S. ballistics, making it very easy for her to use or bypass island covers. However, it also makes it harder to hit enemy destroyers at long range when they are actively maneuvering.

Torpedo Armament

The torpedo armament of Velos, while limited to one launcher, still presents a valuable asset. The torpedoes are the same as on Fletcher and Gearing. This is great as they remain to this day some of the best torpedoes in high tier with good damage and flooding chances as well as solid range.

The main difference is that compared to Fletcher with a reload time of 106 seconds or Kidd with 122 seconds, the torpedoes on Velos reload in 60 seconds. You might be limited to five of them but with how fast they reload, these torpedoes still represent a great threat to enemy ships. Also, just like the other Pan-European destroyers, you have the choice between a narrow spread and a super-narrow spread. It is particularly useful when you are sure of getting the correct lead on your target.

Anti-air Armament

The anti-air of Velos is nothing special at all. While it is nice that she gets a 4.0 km mid-range anti-air aura, the DPS is absolutely nothing impressive, even with the Defensive AA Fire consumable active. The same goes for the flak barrage with its low number of flak explosions.

The Armor

Final Opinion

Velos is by all means a ship from another time. From a time when radars, reload boosters, and destroyers with Hydroacoustic Search were either non-existent or limited to one or two ships. A faint echo of what the game used to look like.
She is stuck being a gyros-flavored Fletcher, not bringing anything of value to the game, and not having anything to really set her apart from her big sister. It is not helped by the fact that she is only available for money or doubloons. A shame for some of the Greek players that were looking forward to getting this ship.

Outside of her DPM (which gets utterly outclassed by Groningen and Friesland), torpedoes with narrow spread, and her tiny concealment advantage over a Fletcher, she just doesn’t bring anything that would make her worth spending money on. Even if she were available for a free resource, I still would put her quite low on the priority list. Now… don’t get me wrong, it’s by no means a bad ship. I would, in fact, consider her to be quite balanced honestly.

Recommended Build

For the Velos, I recommend the following commander build and upgrades:

If you have Jerzy Świrski available, I obviously recommend him for the improved Adrenaline Rush. Also, you can switch Fearless Brawler for Fill the Tubes and whichever 1-point skill you fancy if you want.

This concludes my review of Velos. Thank you for reading this article!

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Also if you are new to the game or want to get back to it, feel free to use my Recruiting Station code for free goodies such as Premium ships, premium time, and more: https://warships.net/yuzorah

Have a good one and see you soon!

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Yuzorah

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