World of Warships: New Upgrades
10 min readThere’s always room for improvement, and everyone always wants more. In Update 0.7.6. most Tier X ships will get special upgrades tailored specifically for these ships. We’re calling them legendary upgrades.
The aim of these upgrades is to adjust the characteristics of a ship to make it perform better in a specific role or offer an alternative style of gameplay. However, the legendary upgrades are mounted into existing slots and have balancing parameters. We want the legendary upgrades to add to the variability of ship loadouts while keeping ships in balance with each other, even if one ship has the legendary upgrade and another does not.
To obtain a legendary upgrade, you’ll have to complete a chain of combat missions in that ship. Let’s take a closer look and explore the pros and cons of the new upgrades, which will occupy slot 5 or 6, depending on the specific ship.
Battleships
Republique (Slot 6)
- –18% to main battery loading time
- –13% to main turrets traverse speed
- –24% to main battery maximum firing range
Pros: The trump card of Republique is the quick reload of her main batteries. The new upgrade pushes this even further, which is good in itself. It should also enable commanders to take advantage of situations when an enemy turns and exposes a side of their hull. Having loaded guns at that moment can be decisive.
Cons: In exchange, Republique sacrifices some firing range and some traverse speed of her main turrets. The latter will sometimes make it harder for her to get shots off while she’s actively maneuvering. At the same time, the maneuvering will become more important because, with a shorter firing range, trading shots with enemy ships will be a bit more dangerous.
Großer Kurfürst (Slot 6)
- –15% to main battery loading time
- –15% to secondary battery loading time
- –7% to main turrets traverse speed
- –8% to main battery maximum firing range
Pros: The new upgrade will most likely be favored by those who love to get up close and personal in Großer Kurfürst. Her armor layout, large pool of Hit Points, and—most importantly—powerful, long-range secondary guns make her an excellent fit for this role. The new upgrade makes a perfect addition to this concept, reducing the reload time of her main and secondary batteries.
Cons: If the upgrade is mounted, the exchange is simple—better close-combat capabilities for weaker long-range performance, specifically firing range.
Yamato (Slot 6)
- –6% to main battery loading time
- –7% to maximum dispersion of main battery shells
- –19% to main turrets traverse speed
Pros: Yamato is most effective at long range, taking advantage of her gun ballistics and tight shell dispersion while moderating her drawbacks: slow turret traverse speed and high citadel. The new upgrade will consolidate her role as sniper battleship by improving her accuracy.
Cons: If you’re more into active maneuvers and mid-range shootouts, this upgrade may not be your cup of tea. The slower turret traverse speed will likely be frustrating.
Montana (Slot 5)
- –30% to flooding recovery time
- –15% to fire extinguishing time
- –70% to steering gears repair time
- –30% to rudder shift time
Pros: This upgrade grants Montana additional maneuverability as well as reduced duration of floods and fires—extremely helpful for any battleship. These boosts will make Montana much more effective as a dynamic fighter at medium distances, especially pushing the frontline.
Cons: The new upgrade takes up slot five, where every upgrade affects ship survivability. Thus, you’ll face a dilemma: avoid damage through the concealment upgrade, avoid torpedoes with the acquisition range upgrade, or fight fires and floods more effectively while at the same time avoiding enemy fire with the rudder shift boost from the legendary upgrade. There is no straightforward answer to that—choose the one that best suits your playstyle.
Conqueror (Slot 5)
- +13% to main turrets traverse speed
- –80% to steering gears repair time
- –40% to rudder shift time
Pros: Unlike the upgrades we’ve already described, this one basically offers an alternate way to play the ship. If you want to play a maneuverable battleship, Conqueror with this upgrade is a good choice indeed.
Cons: As with Montana, if you mount this upgrade, you will lose either a bonus to concealment or to torpedo acquisition range.
Cruisers
Zao (Slot 6)
- –20% to rudder shift time
- –7% to maximum dispersion of main battery shells
- +8% to main battery maximum firing range
Pros: Upgrading Zao presents you with not one but two tough decisions: range or rate of fire and concealment or maneuverability. On the one hand, her guns are already accurate, so boosting firing range is a solid option—she can reach out and touch targets farther away; on the other hand, higher damage per minute is always a good thing to have. As for concealment vs maneuverability, there’s no single right answer there either. As we’ve already mentioned, this is the eternal dilemma of all cruisers and the “right answer” is a matter of taste. The new legendary upgrade offers an intermediate solution, increasing firing range, accuracy (hence the damage of a full salvo), and rudder shift time.
Cons: The upgrade has no drawbacks as such; it’s just that other upgrades could provide greater boosts to specific parameters.
Hindenburg (Slot 5)
- –20% to rudder shift time
- –70% to flooding recovery time
- –40% to fire extinguishing time
- –50% to main battery repair time
Pros: Hindenburg is one of the most solid cruisers, mostly thanks to her damage per minute, ballistics, and survivability. The latter is mainly because of the armor layout of the ship. The new upgrade will improve Hindenburg’s survivability even more, making it less vulnerable to indirect damage. In conjunction with improved rudder shift time and quick main battery repairs, Hindenburg truly becomes a “tanking” cruiser that can push a flank and draw enemy fire.
Cons: At the same time, if playing at closer range and tanking damage is not your style, you can opt for the concealment or rudder shift upgrades instead.
Henry IV (Slot 5)
- –12% to main battery loading time
- +8% to main battery maximum firing range
- +10% to detectability
Pros: Henry always seemed to be designed primarily for long-range engagements. Her high speed and accurate guns help her to deal damage and avoid enemy return fire. However, lack of a Spotting Aircraft did put a limit on her range; therefore it seemed logical to select the firing range upgrade over rate of fire. The new legendary upgrade is designed to remedy this issue and reinforce Henry in her role as a cruiser that constantly maintains pressure on the enemy.
Cons: This upgrade will make Henry the center of the enemy’s attention. You will need to exercise extreme caution when entering medium to close ranges, because, with the upgrade, Henry will be as detectable as a battleship. Also note that the legendary upgrade takes the slot of the rudder shift upgrade, so she won’t have that maneuverability boost to help dodge incoming fire.
Minotaur (Slot 5)
- +150% to total smoke screen generation time
- +10% to maximum dispersion of shells fired by the enemy attacking your ship
- –5% to detectability range by sea
- –15% to duration of smoke screen
Pros: This upgrade grants Minotaur a big boost to her smoke screen: the longer smoke generation time lets the ship cover larger areas in smoke and move freely inside them. This will create new tactical opportunities.
Cons: Although the new upgrade includes a concealment bonus, it is lower than what the ship could get with Concealment System Modification 1. This may not sit well with those who prefer to play Minotaur with the Surveillance Radar.
Des Moines (Slot 6)
- –50% to time taken to reach full power when accelerating (improved acceleration)
- –20% to rudder shift time
- –10% to duration of the Surveillance Radar
Pros: Equipped with Surveillance Radar and shooting over islands, Des Moines has always been quite good at controlling key areas. However, the cruiser lacked agility, which hindered her in some situations. The legendary upgrade helps the cruiser conduct battle in open water more effectively by improving her maneuverability and acceleration.
Cons: In addition to a minor drop in Surveillance Radar duration, keep in mind that the new upgrade takes up the sixth slot, which also contains improvements to fire rate, firing range, and AA guns.
Worcester (Slot 5)
- +10% to duration of Surveillance Radar
- +20% to duration of Hydroacoustic Search
- +20% to duration of Defensive AA Fire
Pros: The yet-to-be released Worcester will have a legendary upgrade as well. This ship is a true support fighter and has a wide range of consumables to deploy. She can carry Hydroacoustic Search, Surveillance Radar, and Defensive AA Fire, and the new upgrade will add extra value to them by increasing their duration.
Cons: Mounting the upgrade will make it impossible to improve rudder shift time or concealment, other useful upgrades that take the same slot.
Moskva (Slot 6)
- –11% to maximum dispersion of main battery shells
- +8% to main battery maximum firing range
- –13% to main turrets traverse speed
Pros: Like Yamato, Moskva excels at long range dueling, thanks to her accurate guns and solid armor. The new upgrade will improve both firing range and accuracy.
Cons: Keep in mind that, in addition to slowing turret traverse, the upgrade takes up slot 6, keeping you from selecting upgrades to rate of fire, AA guns, and an even greater firing range. In other words, you will have a very interesting choice to make.
Destroyers
Khabarovsk (Slot 5)
Pros: Firing range is one of the main drawbacks of this destroyer. The new upgrade boosts it up to 14.5 km, bringing her playstyle even closer to that of a cruiser. This upgrade will be most effective in conjunction with the smoke screen.
Cons: At the same time, the variant with Repair Party will become harder to play, since the upgrade takes up the fifth slot, thus making the upgrade to rudder shift time unavailable. This, in turn, negatively affects the maneuverability of the destroyer and makes her more vulnerable.
Z-52 (Slot 5)
- –5% to detectability
- –15% to torpedo tubes reload time
Pros: Z-52 is a solid all-around ship that enjoys both effective artillery and good torpedoes, and the new upgrade will improve her torpedo potential even more.
Cons: With all bonuses, the ship’s detectability range can be gotten down to about 6.4 km; this is somewhat lackluster, and makes counter-destroyer play a tad more difficult.
Shimakaze (Slot 6)
- –25% to torpedo tube reload time
- +50% to risk of torpedo tubes becoming incapacitated
- –80% to torpedo tube traverse speed
Pros: The new upgrade makes torpedoes—the main weapon of the Japanese ship—even more dangerous. Compared to the Torpedo Tubes Modification 3 upgrade, the legendary upgrade provides a 10% improvement to reload time.
Cons: Torpedo tube traverse time will become comparable to the turret traverse time on many cruisers, making it much harder to quickly switch targets. You should always keep this in mind and plan your torpedo attacks in advance, at the same time keeping an eye on the overall flow of the battle. You don’t want to get caught in close combat with your torpedo tubes pointing the wrong way.
Gearing (Slot 5)
- –15% to detectability
- +5% to maximum dispersion of shells fired by the enemy attacking your ship
- +15% to main battery loading time
- +5% to torpedo tubes reload time
Pros: The new upgrade improves concealment of the ship, effectively bringing it in line with that of Shimakaze, the stealthiest destroyer in the game. Improved concealment will allow Gearing to contest key areas more effectively, detect other destroyers first, and get closer to enemy ships for torpedo attacks.
Cons: In exchange for improved concealment, the destroyer gets a penalty to rate of fire; however, she still maintains the ability to outdamage most other destroyers at close range through sheer rate of fire and being—usually—the first to open fire.
Yueyang (Slot 5)
- –10% to main battery loading time
- –10% to torpedo tubes reload time
- –15% to duration of smoke screens
- –15% to duration of Surveillance Radar
Pros: The new upgrade improves both types of armaments, reducing the reload time of torpedo tubes and guns, and makes her even more effective against enemy heavy ships.
Cons: The upgrade shifts the ship’s emphasis to direct damage-dealing, to the detriment of scouting and counter-destroyer play.
Grozovoi (Slot 6)
- –18% to main battery loading time
- –7% to main turrets traverse speed
- +10% to torpedo tube reload time
Pros: The main advantage of Grozovoi is her rapid-firing artillery with shell ballistics envied by many other destroyers. The new upgrade tends to reinforce the artillery potential of the ship by reducing gun loading time by 18%.
Cons: While the upgrade emphasizes the principal advantage of the destroyer—her artillery—it also weakens her already mediocre torpedo firepower even more by making the torpedo tubes reload more slowly.
Aircraft Carriers
Midway (Slot 6)
- +30% to attack aircraft HP
- –5% to aircraft cruise speed
Pros: The new upgrade increases the Hit Points of torpedo bombers and bombers. This will enable Midway to deal more damage per strike, since more aircraft will reach their target.
Cons: At the same time, the cruising speed of all squadrons will decrease, thereby extending the travel time of her strike aircraft and reducing the effectiveness of her fighters.
Hakuryu (Slot 6)
- +5% to aircraft cruise speed
- +10% to fighters HP
Pros: Faster aircraft will allow Hakuryu to respond more quickly to changes in the flow of battle; greater fighter durability will help in the battle for air supremacy.
Cons: Japanese aircraft have a modest HP pool, and the new upgrade will preclude the player from increasing the survivability of attack squadrons.
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