World of Warships – 0.6.1 PT – What the Flooding Changes Mean for you

Hello everyone,

A great post was shared yesterday on Reddit by beachedwhale1945, he created an extended post explaining what flooding changes mean for the players. A lot of details but please remember these are Public Test Data and it’s subject to change, meaning this could NOT make it to the live server in the current form.

Source: World of Warships Reddit

Update #1

First, thanks to Panda for letting me know about this post. Seems there are a few errors on the beachedwhale1945 post, because Wargaming didn’t share the information correctly. I’ve posted at the end of the article the new information and I will update it again if the values get corrected.

Source: World of Warships Reddit

Maximum flooding time has been decreased by 25% (from 120 seconds to 90 second)

Maximum HP that can be lost in flooding has been rebalanced:

• Low and mid tiers: Reduced
• High tiers: Increased

Goal:

• Increase the role of torpedoes in countering heavy ships
• Increase the role of IJN destroyers – their torpedoes traditionally have highest chances to cause flooding:

Changes by tier:

• I – III: – 33,3%
• IV: -16,7%
• V: -11,7%
• VI: -6,7%
• VII: -1,7%
• VIII: +3,3%
• IX: +8,3%
• X: +13,3%

Source, Reddit thread

Now, what exactly do these changes mean?

Flooding Damage is calculated by you ships maximum HP and is listed here. Thus the effects are not immediately obvious, particularly when coupling with DCM 2 and BOS. So, let’s examine this.

Since maximum ship HP varies, I will use tech-tree IJN battleships for this analysis. Thus the precise damage numbers will not apply to other ships, but the percentages are constant. All damages and percentages are from just a single flooding.

As you can see, the changes are mixed. The damage per second is rising by as much as 51% at higher tiers, and only tiers 1-3 see any improvement. If your DCP is on cooldown, in 6.1 flooding will hurt a lot more IF it cannot its full course. This is a nerf to all ships that are often hit by torpedoes from tier 4 on up, mostly battleships.

However, the maximum damage you can lose does drop quite significantly at low tier and rises at higher tiers. Flooding damage will now average at about 59% of your total HP pool, again from just a single flooding. If you foolishly used your DCP to repair fires the instant just before the flooding starts, you will be better off at tier 3-6 and worse off at tier 9-10 (tier 7-8 differences is negligible).

While the exact values are specific to the individual ships, since the damage is % based, they can be used for all ships at that tier. The relative differences will be the same no matter the ships max HP pool.

Reducing the effects

But what can you do to mitigate this? Obviously improving your risk of flooding with DCM 1 is now far more important at higher tiers. Also, reducing the cooldown on your DCP is now very important, making High Alert much more important. Torpedo avoidance abilities go without saying. However, what about reducing the duration? What about DCM 2 and BOS?

Well, the effect isn’t that great. Let’s use Yamato alone as an example. DCM 2 and BOS reduce flooding damage by 15% and all duration times stack multiplicatively. Thus, currently, taking one reduces flooding time from 120 seconds to 102 seconds and both to 86.7 seconds (add flags its 69.4). Next patch it becomes 90->76.5->65->52. As you can see, that doesn’t reduce the max damage you can take at high tiers, though at lower tiers it can. You have to take both for the same effect.

Now let’s look at DCP. For battleships, the premium cooldown is 80 seconds (save Warspite with 60), for destroyers 40, and for all other ships it’s 60. Your DCP will return unless you stack all three bonuses even in a worst case scenario, thus currently these are not IMO worth it for flooding alone.

However, in patch 6.1, things change. With just BOS or DCM 2, you reduce your flooding time to under the default cooldown. If you stack Jack of All Trades, High Alert, and Flags you can get the DCP cooldown to 64 seconds at the cost of 4 skill points. But BOS, DCM 2, and flags drop the flooding time to 52 seconds for 3 skill points, credits, and no rudder shift mod.

Build Ramifications

Let’s say you want to take EM as your turrets turn too slowly, as is the case on most BBs and CAs. After taking High Alert and JOAT, you have spent 7 skill points and have 12 left. You can now take only one 3 point and two 4 point skills. If you take BOS instead, you have 13 spare skill points, enough for an additional 3 point skill.

Let’s say your turrets are fine and you skip EM. If you take JOAT and High Alert (14 remaining), you can now take two 3 point and two 4 point skills and an additional 1 point skill. If you take just one, you have 16 skill points and can go to one 3 point and three 4 point skills. You can drop JOAT and High Alert for something like Adrenaline Rush and use BOS instead for the same points cost.

Now, DCM 2 competes with rudder shift in the 5th slot. You have to make a choice which you prefer for each ship. Remember, DCM 2 is in effect BOS that doesn’t cost any skill points and some ships have good rudder shift times already, but for ships with bad rudder shift times a 20% buff effectively mandatory.

Update #1

WG made several mistakes in their announcement; thus, not all data presented in beachedwhale1945’s post was correct.

The new flooding damage goes as follows: The flooding on all ships, regardless of tiers, lasts for 90s and burns 0.667%HP/sec for a total of 60% HP damage (rounded).

The old flooding damage, as you can see in beachedwhale1945’s post, drops as tiers go up: From Tier I to Tier X, 80%/80%/80%/70%/67%/64%/61%/58%/55%/52% (rounded).

What was wrong with WG?: They put the wrong number on denominators: e.g. -33% = (60%-80%)/60%, however, the correct math should be -25% = (60%-80%)/80%. The math conducted by WG was purely misleading and our fellow redditor just fell into the trap and drew a wrong conclusion.

For anyone who are interested in making comparison between old and new flooding mechanics, please double check with WG, or wait for the official announcement of Update 0.6.1.

About Author

Harkonnen

Tank Nut and Gamer Wannabe! Huge fan of tanks and World War II history. Playing video games since I was six years old, from Streets of Rage on my Sega Mega Drive to World of Tanks, I’ve never stopped since and will always love games.

See author's posts