World of Warships: New ships, Soviet battleship arc, Nerf to Aircraft Carriers and much more!
13 min readAs update 0.8.3 is slowly approaching (I suppose that it will come on the 25th) the content for update 0.8.4 is starting to show up.
Let’s have a better look at all these upcoming additions and changes!
4 Upcoming New ships
No less than 4 new premium ships are coming to the game. 3 of them being tier X ships and the last one is tier V.
Soviet cruiser Smolensk, tier X
The Smolensk is based on an actual project of AA cruisers for the Soviet navy post-World War 2. The ship carries quadruple turrets with 130 mm guns (same guns as the Grozovoi).
If you want to learn more about this design (and if you can read Russian), here is a document covering various designs that were proposed:
Russian AA cruiser designs
Regarding the ship’s performances, they are as follows:
Hull:
- Hit points — 32 400.
- Plating — 13 mm.
Main battery:
- Main battery — 4×4 130 mm.
- Firing range — 15.6 km.
- Maximum HE shell damage — 1 800.
- Chance to cause fire — 8%.
- Maximum AP shell damage — 2 600.
- Reload time — 4.5 s.
- 180 degree turn time — 6.0 s.
- Maximum dispersion — 132 m.
- HE initial velocity — 950 m/s.
- AP initial velocity — 950 m/s.
- Sigma — 2.00.
Torpedo armament:
- Torpedo tubes — 2×5 533 mm.
- Maximum damage — 14 400.
- Range — 8.0 km.
- Speed — 60 kt.
- Reload time — 131 s.
- Launcher 180 degree turn time — 7.2 s.
- Torpedo detectability — 1.2 km.
Anti-air:
- AA defense short-range: continuous damage per second — 211, hit probability — 85 %, action zone 0.1–2.3 km;
- AA defense mid-range: number of explosions in a salvo — 7, damage within an explosion — 1 120, continuous damage per second — 325, hit probability — 90 %, action zone 2.3–3.5 km;
- AA defense long-range: number of explosions in a salvo — 8, damage within an explosion — 1 890, continuous damage per second — 327, hit probability — 90 %, action zone 3.5–6.0 km;
- AA sector reinforcement — 25 %, sector reinforcement time — 10 s, sector reinforcement shift time — 10 s.
Maneuverability:
- Maximum speed — 35 kt.
- Turning circle radius — 750 m.
- Rudder shift time — 8.2 s.
Concealment:
- Surface detectability — 12.8 km.
- Air detectability — 5.6 km.
- Detectability after firing main guns in smoke — 5.9 km.
Available consumables:
- 1 slot — Damage Control Party
Action time 5 s; Reload time 90 (60) s;
- 2 slot — Hydroacoustic Search
Action time 100 s; Torpedo detection range 3.5 km; Ship detection range 5.0 km; Reload time 180 (120) s; Charges 2 (3);
- 2 slot — Defensive AA fire
Action time 40 s; Damage per second by AA defenses+100%; Damage within the explosion radius of shells fired from medium- and long- range AA defenses 100%; Reload time 120 (80) s; Charges 2 (3);
- 3 slot — Smoke Generator
Action time 20 s; Smoke screen dispersion time 89 s; Reload time 240 (160) s; Charges 1 (2); Action radius 450.0 m; - 4 slot — Repair Party
Action time 28 s; HP per second 162.0; Reload time 120 (80) s; Charges 2 (3);
I really don’t like the 13 mm bow and stern idea but at the same time, I’m so hyped by the rest of the ship.
French cruiser Colbert, tier X
After the massive baits that were De Grasse as planned and Bayard, we are finally getting Colbert! The Colbert, built in 1956, was an anti-air cruiser built by the French navy. The ship, as built, was carrying a total of 8 dual-purpose twin turrets equipped with 127 mm guns and 10 twin 57 mm anti-air mounts. In 1972, she received a major refit to become a guided missile cruiser.
In 1993, she was turned into a museum ship until 2007. The ship’s lack of fund (despite the fact that the state was supposed to pay the maintenance costs…) and on top of that the creation of the association “Let’s sink the Colbert” (massive idiots…) forced the closing of the museum and it’s in 2016 that she was scrapped.
Regarding the ship’s performances, they are as follows:
Hull:
- Hit points — 36 100.
- Plating — 13 mm.
Main battery:
- Main battery — 8×2 127 mm.
- Firing range — 15.5 km.
- Maximum HE shell damage — 1 850.
- Chance to cause fire — 9%.
- Maximum AP shell damage — 2 450.
- Reload time — 3.0 s.
- 180 degree turn time — 6.0 s.
- Maximum dispersion — 132 m.
- HE initial velocity — 808 m/s.
- AP initial velocity — 808 m/s.
- Sigma — 2.00.
Anti-air:
- AA defense mid-range: number of explosions in a salvo — 11, damage within an explosion — 1 260, continuous damage per second — 795, hit probability — 90 %, action zone 1.0–3.8 km;
- AA defense long-range: number of explosions in a salvo — 6, damage within an explosion — 1 680, continuous damage per second — 223, hit probability — 90 %, action zone 3.8–6.0 km;
- AA sector reinforcement — 25 %, sector reinforcement time — 10 s, sector reinforcement shift time — 10 s.
Maneuverability:
- Maximum speed — 33 kt.
- Turning circle radius — 620 m.
- Rudder shift time — 9.2 s.
Concealment:
- Surface detectability — 12.4 km.
- Air detectability — 6.0 km.
- Detectability after firing main guns in smoke — 5.6 km.
Available consumables:
- 1 slot — Damage Control Party
Action time 5 s; Reload time 90 (60) s; - 2 slot — Hydroacoustic Search
Action time 100 s; Torpedo detection range 3.5 km; Ship detection range 5.0 km; Reload time 180 (120) s; Charges 2 (3); - 2 slot — Defensive AA fire
Action time 40 s; Damage per second by AA defenses+100%; Damage within the explosion radius of shells fired from medium- and long- range AA defenses 100%; Reload time 120 (80) s; Charges 2 (3); - 3 slot — Engine Boost
Action time 180 s; Maximum speed +20%; Reload time 120 (90) s; Charges 2 (3); - 4 slot — Repair Party
Action time 28 s; HP per second 180.5; Reload time 120 (80) s; Charges 2 (3);
Logically, the ship will have the same kind of armor as the Bayard but once again, not a fan of 13 mm bow and stern…
As for the rest, I was really not seeing Colbert as a tier X ship. The firepower should be decent of course but I’m not sure if this ship will do too well in general at this tier except for the anti-air that is pretty nuts.
Side note: the guns are the same as on the Harekaze with the 3 x 1 setup.
American destroyer Somers, tier X
Another ship that I was really not seeing at tier X, the U.S.S. Somers, lead ship of the Somers-class of destroyer leader.
Built in 1935 and 1936, the ships were meant to counter the large destroyers of the Japanese navy. The over-weight and top-heavy ships were carrying initially 4 twin turrets with 127 mm guns and 3 quadruple torpedo launchers.
The Somers saw extensive action in World War 2 in the Atlantic ocean, intercepting German ships and escorted the Free France warships Richelieu and Montcalm among everything else.
She also took part in the invasion of Normandy as a convoy escort and exchanged fire with coastal batteries near Toulon.
In the end, the ship was scrapped in 1947.
Regarding the ship’s performances, they are as follows:
Hull:
- Hit points — 17 300.
- Plating — 19 mm.
Main Battery
- Main battery — 4×2 127 mm.
- Firing range — 11.7 km.
- Maximum HE shell damage — 1 800.
- Chance to cause fire — 5%.
- Maximum AP shell damage — 2 100.
- Reload time — 5.0 s.
- 180 degree turn time — 12.2 s.
- Maximum dispersion — 103 m.
- HE initial velocity — 792 m/s.
- AP initial velocity — 792 m/s.
- Sigma — 2.00.
Torpedo armament:
- Torpedo tubes — 3×4 533 mm.
- Maximum damage — 17 900.
- Range — 16.5 km.
- Speed — 66 kt.
- Reload time — 108 s.
- Launcher 180 degree turn time — 7.2 s.
- Torpedo detectability — 1.4 km.
Anti-air:
- AA defense short-range: continuous damage per second — 31, hit probability — 95 %, action zone 0.1–1.8 km;
- AA sector reinforcement — 50 %, sector reinforcement time — 5 s, sector reinforcement shift time — 5 s.
Maneuverability:
- Maximum speed — 39 kt.
- Turning circle radius — 620 m.
- Rudder shift time — 3.9 s.
Concealment:
- Surface detectability — 7.4 km.
- Air detectability — 3.1 km.
- Detectability after firing main guns in smoke — 2.8 km.
Available consumables:
- 1 slot — Damage Control Party
Action time 5 s; Reload time 60 (40) s; - 2 slot — Smoke Generator
Action time 30 s; Smoke screen dispersion time 130 s; Reload time 240 (160) s; Charges 2 (3); Radius 450.0 m; - 3 slot- Engine Boost
Action time 120 s; Maximum speed +8%; Reload time 180 (120) s; Charges 2 (3);
Hum… I’m really not sure of what to expect with this ship. The anti-air is laughably bad (so bad that even Le Terrible has a stronger anti-air), the gun DPM is not very high but in the meantime, her concealment is fairly good and she has a lot of torpedoes.
American destroyer Hill, tier V
The Hill is apparently based on a project of destroyers leaders for the U.S. navy:
The project was a 1525 tons destroyer leader carrying 5 single 127 mm guns and 3 triple torpedo launchers, one on the centerline of the ship and 2 on the sides.
Regarding the ship’s performances, they are as follows:
Hull:
- Hit points — 12 100.
- Plating — 10 mm.
Main battery:
- Main battery — 5×1 127 mm.
- Firing range — 11.3 km.
- Maximum HE shell damage — 1 800.
- Chance to cause fire — 5%.
- Maximum AP shell damage — 2 100.
- Reload time — 4.0 s.
- 180 degree turn time — 12.0 s.
- Maximum dispersion — 100 m.
- HE initial velocity — 792 m/s.
- AP initial velocity — 792 m/s.
- Sigma — 2.00.
Torpedo armament:
- Torpedo tubes — 3×3 533 mm.
- Maximum damage — 11 733.
- Range — 5.5 km.
- Speed — 56 kt.
- Reload time — 66 s.
- Launcher 180 degree turn time — 7.2 s.
- Torpedo detectability — 1.1 km.
Anti-air:
- AA defense short-range: continuous damage per second — 31, hit probability — 83 %, action zone 0.1–1.8 km;
- AA defense long-range: number of explosions in a salvo — 1, damage within an explosion — 560, continuous damage per second — 48, hit probability — 88 %, action zone 1.8–5.8 km;
- AA sector reinforcement — 50 %, sector reinforcement time — 5 s, sector reinforcement shift time — 5 s.
Maneuverability:
- Maximum speed — 38 kt.
- Turning circle radius — 560 m.
- Rudder shift time — 3.1 s.
Concealment:
- Surface detectability — 7.4 km.
- Air detectability — 2.9 km.
- Detectability after firing main guns in smoke — 2.8 km.
Available consumables:
- 1 slot — Damage Control Party
Action time 5 s; Reload time 60 (40) s; - 2 slot — Smoke Generator
Action time 30 s; Smoke screen dispersion time 115 s; Reload time 240 (160) s; Charges 2 (3); Radius 450.0 m; - 3 slot — Engine Boost
Action time 120 s; Maximum speed +8%; Reload time 180 (120) s; Charges 2 (3); - 3 slot — Defensive AA fire
Action time 30 s; Damage per second by AA defenses+200%; Damage within the explosion radius of shells fired from medium- and long- range AA defenses 200%; Reload time 120 (80) s; Charges 3 (4);
Well, I guess that she will do fine for a tier V premium. The biggest issue when comparing her to the Nicholas is the terrible concealment with on top of that very short range torpedoes. Then again, I’m not really an expert with low tier ships, especially destroyers.
As usual, I will do for all of these ships a detailed article.
Russian battleships arc, Victory competition
ST, Victory competition, new unique commander
Friendly competition “Victory” goes on in the 0.8.4 update. Rules of the event remain the same, but the rewards are changing.
New collection dedicated to the Russian and Soviet navy consisting of 8 parts is coming. For completing the sub-collections, you will be able to gain containers, a second flag and alternative camouflage color scheme for the Soviet destroyers and cruisers. For the whole collection you will be able to set the second flag and alternative camouflage color scheme for the Soviet battleships.
For successes in the competition you will get a new temporary resource, which can be used to get different in-game items, Murmansk cruiser and special containers with the chance to get one of the Soviet premium ships: Okhotnik, Molotov. Leningrad or Lenin.
The most important reward for the second part of the competition is a new unique commander Nikolay Kuznetsov. He has two talents:
“Hidden reserve” – activates with obtaining the “First blood” achievement and gives 1 charge for all consumables of the ship.
“Will to win” – activates once per battle, if ships HP drops below 10% and give following bonuses for 30 seconds:
Effect of the “Damage control party” consumable is applied to the ship (no consumable charges spent);
Dispersion of shells fired by the enemy at your ship increases by 20%;
Effect of the “Repair party” regenerating up to 7.5% HP (no consumable charges spent).
These talents do not work in Clan battles.
Besides that, this commander has one improved skill: “Jack of all trades” lowers the reload of all consumables by 10% and not by 5%.
“Will to win” talents stands out because of the trigger condition. It activates easier than other talents. But it’s worth to consider that it will activate when the ship is almost destroyed and gives less bonuses than talents of other unique commanders. Besides that, Nikolay Kuznetsov has only one improved skill, and this is an additional balancing factor.
The way the new commander performs may further influence the development of the system of unique commanders.
Please note that the information in the Development Blog is preliminary.
This new captain will for sure be really useful on the Russian battleships, especially with the “Hidden reserve” ability fitting well the limited number of damage control party. As for the buffed Jack of all trades, it’s not bad but it’s nothing stellar either.
Also, that “Will to win” ability should create some pretty funny situations, especially with Kreml.
New Map “Greece”
It is designed for tier IX — X battles and in two versions for the “Domination” mode: with 3 or 4 control areas. Local weather is also present on this map and will be applied with the 25% probability for tier X battles.
Although the map is filled with a large number of islands, their height allows not only to use them as cover, but also to attack the ships hiding behind them, if they are spotted by allies.
From the top, the map looks relatively interesting but exploiting covers will not be very easy as a lot of islands seem to be relatively flat. Overall, I will certainly not spit on a new map, yet there is one little thing that irritates me and it’s the local weather… Of course, it could be worse, it could be cyclones but I really don’t like this mechanic.
Aircraft carriers preparation time
One of the most important points in interaction between aircraft carriers and other ships is the possibility of very early spotting of most of the enemy team. It significantly affects the tactics of battle and often deprives the ships with good concealment of their advantage at the very beginning of the battle. To reduce the impact of aviation on the detection of teams, we have introduced a preparation time for takeoff of squadrons at the beginning of the game. It will depend on the level of the aircraft carrier:
- Tier IV — no delay;
- Tier VI — 15 seconds;
- Tier VIII — 30 seconds;
- Tier X — 45 seconds.
This change, together with time it takes the squadron to get to the targets, will allow teams to start moving to the control areas and take good positions. We will watch the effect of this change closely and introduce further changes if needed.
As of right now, I guess that this change will somewhat help to reduce the early spotting but it might be even easier for the CV to strike destroyers as they will be already further away from other ships reducing the anti-air that you will have to face.
Personally, I still think that introducing a spotting delay for planes like for radar would be much more effective.
12th season of Ranked battles
ST, 12th ranked season.
The 0.8.4 update will feature a new ranked season with teams of 7 tier X ships. A new achievement will be issued for achieving the first rank. The number of ranks and steel doesn’t change compared to the 11th season.
After updating the aircraft carriers’ gameplay in 0.8.0, many changes based on your feedback were done to improve the interaction of this class and other ships. Considering the introduction of the squadron take-off preparation time at the beginning of the game, we believe that aircraft carriers may be added into the ranked battles. After the gameplay changes, they have become practically the “new” class, they changed the game and will change ranked battles. There will be no more than 1 carrier for each team in the new season. Carriers are especially effective against solo targets, but a group of ships is able to protect itself from aviation, so maps and modes were chosen to let the ships support each other, but not force the whole team to stay together.
Battles will take part in “Domination” and reworked “Epicenter” modes, the latter being the same as “Rings of Saturn” from the 0.8.2 update: control areas are captured independently.
Similar to Clan battles, rental ships for ranked battles are introduced for the case where you don’t have tier X ships but you want to try ranked battles. These ships will be given for battles on a certain class, so the rental destroyer may be obtained after a battle on a tier VIII or higher destroyer. This will let players use their already obtained skills. Battle results with rental ships won’t count for the ranked emblem progress and you can’t get battle achievements with them.
Please note that the information in the Development Blog is preliminary.
Nope. Nope, nope, nope. Wargaming this is a terrible idea. The aircraft carriers were already too effective against surface combat ships during the test season of Clan Battles so in Ranked battles where the organization is… somewhat lacking, it will just be a butchery. Also, I won’t even start on the idea of rental ships, this is just as bad.
Dynamic daytime in port
Dynamic daytime changes introduced in the ports of Philippines, New York, Saint Petersburg, Zipangu, Hamburg, Naval Base and Ocean ports. If you change your port on one of these, the timer will start ticking and the port’s visual will change accordingly to it.
New camouflages
For Alabama ST, veterans of supertest:
- -3% to detectability range.
- +4% to maximum dispersion of shells fired by the enemy at your ship.
- +10% Credits per battle
- -30% ship’s post-battle service
- +100% Experience per battle
- +300% Free experience per battle
And just like that, I regret to not be a supertester. Boy, this camouflage looks just amazing…
For Stalingrad, obtainable with Copper:
- -3% to detectability range.
- +4% to maximum dispersion of shells fired by the enemy at your ship.
- +20% Credits per battle
- -50% ship’s post-battle service
- +100% Experience per battle
That one though… I am really not convinced. It’s not ugly but it’s really not a camouflage that I would use over the normal one or the War paint skin.
Smaller changes
Rework of the map Trap
the “Trap” map changes: all the objects are slightly shifted to the upper right corner. The A area won’t border two map edges and it will allow for more active play.
For comparison, this is the current map configuration:
Removal of the citadel of tier I ships
Tier I ships’ citadel replaced with ship’s vital part, as for destroyers. This will decrease the probability of ships being destroyed with a couple of salvos.
Too bad, these citadels at tier I were quite funny…
Damage done to planes
Damage done to planes is now shown on the post-battle statistics screen.
It would have been nice to have that from the very beginning…
This is for now everything that was revealed regarding the content of the update 0.8.4. Thank you for reading this article and on this, have a good one!
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Harekaze uses the same guns as Midway, not as Colbert
Yes but that’s the thing. The 127 mm guns used by the French navy on the Colbert and De Gr***e are the same guns used on the U.S.S Midway
That new soviet cruiser, main guns I laughed not cause there bad far from it, 4.5 reload & 16 guns lol…I feel sorry for any destroyer caught in its gun sights..but then again fighting this thing even in COOP as a destroyer would be a painful ( bots can’t navigate the map for a damn but they basically never miss at tier 10…)
Can you please send a note to wargaming sharing that the worst idea of all ia allowing carriers to ranked again. Since they are not in clan battles (for a good reason) they will only make our lives miserable. I hope that you will be able to give a constructive feedback, CV in ranked will make any DD, Zao or Henry completely obsolete. I have one out of ten battles per evening with no CV and only then I have fun. The only thing keeping me from quitting the game are clan battles cause no CV. Was the same thing with the last ranked season, so please Wargaming don’t do it!!!
Love those T10 ships – my coal, wallet, steel … whatever they are selling these… is ready! 😀
But to my opinion the good old CVs are still better than the new “Rework”. You can fight back by boosting the AA. No bull**** immunity gimmicks like the so called “sling shot divers”. Also you can deplane them. Now they are just wrecking all ships specially destroyers. Heck even high tier BBs which supposed to counter planes in large numbers can’t fight back. Plus the AP bombs are so nerve wracking by hitting the citadel and causing fire. Please do tell them that they should return the old “all in” drop rather than dealing with 3-4 waves in a single squadron drop.
In my opinion the captain from the campaign it’s auite interesting, not only for Soviet battleship but I think it would work very well for high tier destroyers, having an increased dispersion of shells incoming makes it even harder to hit, the free repair its always useful on a ship that has such a small hp pool, ok the upgraded talent might not be the best but the hidden reserve can work wonders with some ship, getting a extra heal or a extra smoke can be very useful, just imagine such a tramite on a ship that has reload booster consumable, it would be extreamly useful, or on a ship like Japanese’s dd’s That have torp reload booster, or imagine on a ship that has the amount of consumables that Wooster has damn that would be scary
I like where this is going to be honest, now I just wish for a special German commander with increased secondaries skills, like the annual firing training only that’s it allows you to select 2 targets not only one and increases precision, this would make secondary builds more relevant in games