World of Warships 0.7.11 Supertest: Penetration Mechanics and Other Changes

The mechanics of causing damage to bulges, AA defense guns, Secondaries and a completely destroyed part of the ship have been changed. Now if they hit these areas, the ship will be dealt a guaranteed damage equal to 10% of the maximum damage of the shell or torpedo. The new mechanics will reduce the number of cases when, upon receipt of the “Penetration” ribbon, no damage to the ship’s HP was inflicted.

These changes will slightly increase the amount of damage received by almost all ships in the game, however, it’s not expected that their lifetime will noticeably decrease. In case these mechanics have a strong influence, Wargaming will take measures and improve the combat characteristics of the affected ships.

After improving the mechanics, there will be only one option to get the ribbon “Penetration” without any damage – the explosion of a shell in the turrets of the Main Battery and causes damage only to the module of the ship, without affecting the overall HP, but Wargaming is already looking for a fix.

Bulges will now be considered as a part of the ship’s armour, that can receive damage. To avoid illogical situations, their armour was standardized. Now they have a thickness not less than the hull of the bow or aft of the ship.

Interaction of large-calibre armour-piercing shells with Destroyers

Testing of this mechanic continues that will help to solve rare issues when large-calibre shells cause excessive damage to destroyers. This happens when the ship is at an angle to the trajectory of the shell. In this case, the penetration mechanics takes into account the angled armour, which allows the shell to arm and causes significant damage inside the hull.

During the testing, a limit was added to the maximum damage from armour-piercing shells. Now for all destroyers, the damage from the shells doesn’t exceed 10% of its maximum value. This limit only works on a calibre of 280 mm and more.

Despite the fact that 10% looks like a small number, for destroyers, such an impact will cause significant damage to their HP. For example, the maximum damage of the battleship Montana is 13,500, or 1,350 for destroyers. In a salvo of the ship – 12 such shells and the maximum damage can reach a value of 16,200. For example, for the destroyer Shimakaze with 17,900 HP, such damage will be very significant.

The change will not affect the destroyers Harugumo and Khabarovsk, because the level of damage they receive is normal and reducing its number will increase the combat effectiveness of these ships.

Of course, this implementation will affect the interaction between destroyers and battleships and some heavy cruisers. Ships with a calibre of more than 280 mm will have to be more careful in choosing their type of shells in different game situations. A short-range salvo with armour-piercing shells will still cause considerable damage to the destroyer and will not allow the enemy to safely rush and drop torpedoes.

Considering the new mechanics, the destroyer’s commander may be less worried about situations where an occasional salvo threatens to lose half of their HP or even take the ship out of the active combat.