World of Warships: Tier X Japanese Premium Cruiser Yoshino – Review
6 min readLadies and Gentlemen, the new Tier X Premium (or Freemium) cruiser Yoshino is now final and fully released. The ship costs 248 000 units of Coal without using the coupon and 186 000 units of Coal when using it.
Let’s talk about the better Azuma.
Japanese Tier X Cruiser Yoshino: Azuma as it should have been from the beginning.
Her camouflage gives the standard Tier X Premium camouflages bonuses.
With the alternative color scheme, she looks like this:
The Good and the Bad
The Good
- Good main battery accuracy
- Strong HE alpha strike
- Very good torpedo armament (AND DON’T USE THE 20 KM ONES!)
- Solid anti-air
- Good concealment
- 30 mm plating unlike the Azuma
- Up to 5 Repair party charges
The Bad
- Large target
- Low HP pool for a super-cruiser
- Large turning radius
- Exposed citadel
My Opinion
Let’s make it simple. I love Yoshino. She feels like the perfect mix between Henri IV, Zao and a bit of Atago for the torpedo firing angles.
Health pool
The Yoshino boasts a 61 800 HP pool which is relatively low for a ship of this size. Moskva, for example, has a higher HP pool with 65 400. However, do not just stop on this. A ship’s HP pool isn’t what defines if it’s good or not.
Main batteries
| 3 × 3 310 mm/50 Type0 | |
| Maximum Firing Range | 21.290 km |
| 180 Degree Turn Time | 36.0 s |
| Reloading Time | 18.5 s |
| Optimal front firing angle | 35° |
| Optimal rear firing angle | 30° |
| Sigma | 2.05 sigma |
| Maximum Dispersion | 217 m |
| Shells | |
| Type of Projectile | HE |
| Alpha Damage | 5 100 HP |
| Damage | 2 770 HP |
| HE penetration | 51 mm |
| Explosion Size | 1.64 |
| Chance to Cause Fire | 27 % |
| Projectile Speed | 836 m/s |
| Air Drag | 0.281 |
| Projectile Mass | 448.8 |
| Projectile Krupp | 1 |
| Type of Projectile | AP |
| Alpha Damage | 8 650 HP |
| Chance to Cause Fire | -0.5 % |
| Projectile Speed | 836 m/s |
| Air Drag | 0.244 |
| Projectile Mass | 448.8 |
| Projectile Krupp | 2 365 |
| Projectile Detonator | 0.033 s |
The main batteries of the Yoshino pack a serious punch. The HE, boasting a high alpha damage, a high fire chance and also 51 mm of penetration, will allow you to melt enemy ships nicely. Now, if you want to really melt everything (Except Friedrich), you can go with Inertia Fuse for HE to reach 67 mm of penetration and by such penetrate the deck of the S. Soyuz, Kremlin, Yamato/Musashi or Izumo buuuut…. I don’t really think that it’s worth it. This HE does already more than enough damage.
As for the AP, it isn’t the completely nuts AP of the Stalingrad. Against cruisers, it works great at any range but against BBs, it’s already less powerful at long range.
The accuracy is also solid and you won’t have much trouble hitting your target at any range. The ballistic also helps on this matter as the shell travel time is quite good with 12s to reach the target at max range.
Finally, the gun handling is also quite comfortable with the 36 s time for a 180° turn and the firing angles are more than fine, especially when kiting.
Secondary batteries
| 8 x 2 100 mm/65 Type98 | |
| Maximum Firing Range | 6.0 km |
| Reloading Time | 3.0 s |
| Sigma | 1.00 sigma |
| Shells | |
| Type of Projectile | HE |
| Alpha Damage | 1 700 HP |
| Damage | 280 HP |
| HE penetration | 24 mm |
| Explosion Size | 0.28 |
| Chance to Cause Fire | 6 % |
| Projectile Speed | 1000 m/s |
| Air Drag | 0.331 |
| Projectile Mass | 13 |
| Projectile Krupp | 480 |
Well, not much to talk about it, I don’t think that anyone is crazy enough to run a secondary build on this ship. These are the good old Japanese 100 mm so they will hurt enemy destroyers if you ever get to use them aaaaand… well that’s it.
Torpedo armament
| 4 x 4 610 mm Quad | |
| Reloading Time | 171 s |
| Maximum Distance | 12.0 km |
| Optimal front firing angle | 35° for one torpedo tube 70° for both torpedo tubes |
| Optimal rear firing angle | 35° for one torpedo tube 70° for both torpedo tubes |
| Damage | 23 767 |
| Speed | 67 kt |
| Surface Detectability | 1.7 km |
| 4 x 4 610 mm Quad | |
| Reloading Time | 167 s |
| Maximum Distance | 20.0 km |
| Optimal front firing angle | 35° for one torpedo tube 70° for both torpedo tubes |
| Optimal rear firing angle | 35° for one torpedo tube 70° for both torpedo tubes |
| Damage | 20 967 |
| Speed | 62 kt |
| Surface Detectability | 2.5 km |
What would be a Japanese cruiser without torp… ah right, there is Azuma… The Yoshino on her side has the choice between 2 types of torpedoes. The 20 km ones that YOU SHOULD NEVER USE and that are only good at getting pink because you teamkilled someone or the 12 km torpedoes that are a very nice weapon if you ever need to get closer of when kiting away.
These torpedoes have the same kind of firing angles as the Atago with one torpedo launcher facing forward and the other facing backward.
Armor protection
The Yoshino’s bow, stern and torpedo bulge are 25 mm thick like most Tier X cruisers. As for the sides and the deck, they are 30 mm thick which, unlike the Azuma, allow you to bounce up to 420 mm AP shells.
As for the main belt (and by such the citadel), it is 178 mm thick for the part above the waterline and then, it tapers to 144 mm and then 96 mm. I will simply give the advice to not give broadside to battleships. While her armor is trolly most of the time, you aren’t going to laugh if the big guys hit the citadel of this ship.
The turrets are decently protected with a 305 mm face. The sides are first 152 mm and then 127 mm thick, the back is 305 mm thick and finally, the roof is 102 mm thick.
Anti-air armament
| 8 x 2 100 mm/65 Type98 | |
| Sector range | 3.5 km – 5.8 km |
| Hit chance | 90 % |
| Sector’s damage | 410 |
| Sector’s damage frequency | 1.57 s |
| Sector’s damage per second | 267 |
| Flak clouds number | 8 |
| Flak cloud damage | 1540 |
| 12 x 2 40 mm/60 Type5 | |
| Sector range | 1.9 km – 3.5 km |
| Hit chance | 90 % |
| Sector’s damage | 210 |
| Sector’s damage frequency | 0.75 s |
| Sector’s damage per second | 280 |
| Flak clouds number | 7 |
| Flak cloud damage | 980 |
| 6 x 3 25 mm/60 Type96 Triple 14 x 3 25 mm/60 Type96 Triple 24 x 1 25 mm/60 Type96 mod. 1 | |
| Sector range | 0.1 km – 1.9 km |
| Hit chance | 85 % |
| Sector’s damage | 140 |
| Sector’s damage frequency | 0.24 s |
| Sector’s damage per second | 583 |
| Sector reinforcement | |
| Sector reinforcement bonus | +25% |
| Sector reinforcement time | 10 s |
| Sector reinforcement shift time | 10 s |
Well… with the recent change to the constant DPS mechanic, don’t worry, you will be shredding planes with this anti-air. Its only downside is that it relies on flak damage quite a fair amount which isn’t the best since skilled players will avoid the flak clouds reliably.
Maneuverability and Concealment
| Maximum speed | 34 kt |
| Turning Circle Radius | 920 m |
| Rudder Shift Time | 13.9 s |
| Surface Detectability | 15.12 km |
| Air Detectability | 10.73 km |
| Detectability After Firing Main Gus in Smoke | 11.7 km |
In that department, except for the turning radius that is quite atrocious, the Yoshino is doing quite well.
If you go for a full concealment build, the surface spotting range can go down to 11.9 km and the air spotting range goes down to 8.7 km. This concealment will allow the ship to move on the flank and then proceed to hammer enemy ships in range.
Consumables
Slot 1 | Slot 2 | Slot 3 | Slot 4 |
 Work time: 5 s Cooldown: 90 s |  Consumable charges: 2 Work time: 40 s Cooldown: 120 s |  Consumable charges: 2 Work time: 60 s Cooldown: 135 s Radius: 3 km |  Consumable charges: 3 Work time: 28 s Cooldown: 120 s HP regeneration speed: 0.5 % HP/s |
 Work time: 5 s Cooldown: 60 s |  Consumable charges: 3 Work time: 40 s Cooldown: 80 s |  Consumable charges: 3 Work time: 60 s Cooldown: 90 s Radius: 3 km |  Consumable charges: 4 Work time: 28 s Cooldown: 80 s HP regeneration speed: 0.5 % HP/s |
 Consumable charges: 2 Work time: 100 s Cooldown: 180 s Torpedo spotting range: 3.5 km Ship spotting range: 5.0 km |  Consumable charges: 3 Work time: 100 s Cooldown: 360 s Boost: +20% maximum firing range | ||
 Consumable charges: 3 Work time: 100 s Cooldown: 120 s |  Consumable charges: 4 Work time: 100 s Cooldown: 240 s Boost: +20% maximum firing range |
Conclusion
The Yoshino is a well-rounded ship that will be comfortable to play for both the beginners and the experienced players that enjoy the roaming cruiser playstyle. She is also well fitted for flanking approaches thanks to her concealment and torpedoes. I personally recommend this ship without any hesitation. If you didn’t use your coal for Georgia or any other ship, you can happily go for that one.
Recommended build
During the testing of the Yoshino, I used the following captain build and upgrades:
Captain build:
- Priority target
- Expert Marksman
- Adrenaline Rush
- Superintendent
- Basics of Survivability (alternatively you can go Expert Loader and High Alert or Jack of all Trades)
- Concealment Expert
- Fire prevention
For the captain, you can go for Yamamoto if you have him for all the nice bonuses coming with him or you are a weeb and you use the Azuma captain to go full Ara ara~. 
Upgrades:
Main Armaments Modification 1
Damage Control Modification 1
Aiming Systems Modification 1
Steering Gears Modification 2 or 
Damage Control System Modification 2
Concealment System Modification 1
Main Battery Modification 3
Sadly this time, there will not be a giveaway for this ship, you will have to grind for it on your own. Still, thank you for reading this article!
About Author
always take the torps with the longest range.
period 😉
TKs aren’t that hard to avoid, and I love getting my kills minutes later when I’ve already forgotten that I was firing at someone.