World of Warships Final Review: U.S. Superdestroyer Joshua Humphreys

Ladies and Gentlemen, a new pair of superships are getting released and considering that their Auction is just around the corner, it’s time to see what we are dealing with.

First and foremost, let’s talk about the auction as Kunming and Joshua Humphreys won’t be alone.

Items available at the Lighthouse Auction:

• Commonwealth Tier VII Destroyer Premium Haida
  • 15 000 doubloons as the minimum bid
  • 750 lots available shared by the EU, NA, and SEA servers
• U.S. Superdestroyer Joshua Humphreys
  • 100 000 000 credits as the minimum bid
  • 825 lots available shared by the EU, NA, and SEA servers
• Pan-Asian Superdestroyer Kunming
  • 100 000 000 credits as the minimum bid
  • 825 lots available shared by the EU, NA, and SEA servers
• 110 000 Coal
  • 325 000 Free XP as the minimum bid
  • 3 525 lots available shared by the EU, NA, and SEA servers
• Commemorative flag of the U.S. Tier IX Premium Battleship Georgia
  • 37 500 Free XP as the minimum bid
  • 450 lots available shared by the EU, NA, and SEA servers

If you have doubloons to spare, Haida is definitely something that I would recommend you grab. Quite the powerful ship to say the least.

Historical background

Joshua is potentially based to some extent on designs of anti-submarine warfare destroyers/frigates from the second half of the 1940s.

There are obviously some pretty significant differences. In the real designs, the main battery was with 76.2 mm guns and the torpedoes were on fixed mounts, just like on the Forrest Sherman.

Alternative firing mode settings:

• Reload time: 35 s
• Interval between shots: 1,5 s
• Number of salvos in a firing sequence: 3
• Max damage of HE shells: +50%

Ship’s preview

The camouflage

The permanent camouflage of Joshua Humphrey comes with the standard permanent supership economic bonuses:

• +200% XP
• +200% Commander XP
• +100% Free XP

The Good and the Bad

The Good

• Improved ballistics compared to previous ships
• Very fast turret traverse
• Great firing angles
• Alternative firing mode with increased HE shells damage to deliver bursts of damage
• Torpedoes with a high firing range of 16.5 km
• Decent torpedo reload time
• Strong anti-air for a destroyer
• Second best concealment among superdestroyers
• Access to the U.S. Smoke Generator with improved smoke duration
• Access to the U.S. destroyers improved Defensive AA Fire
• Good HP pool

The Bad

• No main battery reload time improvement over Gearing
• No more access to the Mk 16 torpedoes with their lower range but higher damage and faster reload time
• Second slowest superdestroyer
• Large turning radius
• Large size, making her an easy target
• 21 mm side armor which can be detrimental as it makes it easier for AP shells from destroyer and cruiser to arm when hitting that plating

Modules

Hull	Engine	Gun Fire Control System	Main battery	Torpedoes
Joshua Humphreys	Propulsion: 80 000 HP	‎Mk11 mod. 1	127 mm/54 Mk.18 in a turret	‎Mk17

General Characteristics and Playstyle

Consumables
Slot 1	Slot 2	Slot 3
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: 130 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 Continuous Damage: +100% Damage from shell explosions: +300%

Joshua Humphreys is one of those superships that stays well in line with the previous ship and almost only offers improvements over it. She even manages to do so without going into the overpowered territory like some others.

Compared to Gearing which, these days, got pushed back in the realm of the torpedo-focused destroyer, Joshua is more of a hybrid destroyer thanks to her much better gun handling and the alternative firing mode. At the same time, her torpedo armament remains the same as that of Gearing, giving her solid area denial capabilities or simply delivering deadly torpedo salvos on unaware enemy ships.

The best part with Joshua is that, unlike the rest of the superdestroyers, her concealment somehow gets better compared to Gearing. Now… it is only by 10 m so it will make no difference but at least, you will not be losing any freedom of movement compared to the previous ship.

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

Main Armament

3 x 2 127 mm/54 Mk.18 in a turret
Maximum Firing Range	12.080 km
Reloading Time	3.0 s
180 Degree Turn Time	4.5 s
Optimal firing angles at the front	23°
Optimal firing angles at the rear	23°
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	5.7 m
Fire chance	5 %
Projectile Speed	808 m/s
Air Drag	0.367
Projectile Mass	31.75 kg
Type of Projectile	AP – 127 mm AP/SC Mk38
Alpha Damage	2 100
Projectile Speed	808 m/s
Air Drag	0.367
Projectile Mass	31.75 kg
Projectile Krupp	2 298
Projectile Detonator	0.01 s
Detonator threshold	21 mm
Ricochet Angles	45° – 60°

Compared to Gearing, Joshua is getting an appreciable improvement on her main battery. Firstly, the ballistics is much better than Gearing as Joshua is equipped with 127 mm/54 caliber guns. This means higher initial velocity and heavier shells.

This gives you a much easier time when fighting other destroyers or when shooting at enemies at long range. Additionally, she has much better firing angles and better turret traverse time.

While she doesn’t get a damage output buff over the Gearing, her capacity to deal damage still receives an improvement as it will be easier to hit the target. However, Joshua has access to an alternative firing mode that gives you a big burst of damage for three salvos. Obviously, the usage will be the same as usual. Only use this alternative firing mode when you are facing a low HP target, you are about to lose line of sight on it or you are just about to disengage from a fight. Otherwise, you will just cripple yourself.

Overall, while Joshua isn’t going to end up a gunboat destroyer, her firepower is much more appreciable than that of Gearing.

Torpedo Armament

2 x 5 533 mm Mk14 Mark 17
Reloading Time	116 s
Maximum Distance	16.500 km
Optimal firing angles at the front	52°
Optimal firing angles at the rear	50°
Damage	17 900
Flooding Chance	301%
Speed	66 knots
Surface Detectability	1.4 km

If you were used to the Mk. 17 torpedoes on Gearing, you will be right at home with Joshua. She is equipped with the same torpedo armament and since she has pretty much the same concealment, you will already be used to the positioning as well. These torpedoes, with their infamous 16.5 km firing range, are well known for their area denial capabilities as well as for the completely random hits that you get with them at times.

Sadly, the Joshua loses the ability to use the 10.5 km Mk.16 torpedoes which were appreciable for the higher damage and faster reload time at the cost of the range. Then again, 16.5 km was a bit overkill for torpedoes so it wasn’t that big of a trade.

Anti-air Armament

The anti-air of Joshua Humphreys is quite strong with high DPS on the medium and long-range anti-air as well as strong flak barrage. On top of that, she gets the improved Defensive AA Fire consumable of the U.S. destroyers. If you end up in a division with a CV player, it will be useful to have that consumable equipped. Otherwise, you will be better off with Engine Boost.

ASW Armament

Shipborne depth charges
Reloading Time	40 s
Number of charges	2
Bombs per charge	12
Damage	5 100
Sink speed	21.5-32.2 m/s
Explosion radius	800 m
Fire chances	21%
Flooding chances	43%

The Armor

External armor protection:

Final Opinion

Joshua has been a very pleasant experience. She definitely feels like an improvement over Gearing on almost all aspects outside of the loss of the Mk.16 torpedoes. Her improved ballistics gives her much better chances when engaging targets at long range, she has good concealment compared to other superdestroyers and her alternative firing mode is nice for opportunistic salvos before going back to cover.

I wouldn’t be ready to drop dozens of millions of credits in Auction for her but she is for sure a solid ship.

Recommended Build

For Joshua Humphreys, I recommend the following commander build and upgrades:

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

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Yuzorah

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