Warship Classes are the different types, or roles, of warships in World of Warships. There are currently four main classifications of warships (One being an exception) in the game, found listed below.
Aircraft Carriers[]
Aircraft Carriers are the game's stand-alone, multi-role ship, bringing RTS-style game-play to the battle. They carry four kinds of aircraft: Dive Bombers, Torpedo Bombers, Scouts and Fighter Planes. Each aircraft type plays a specific role and a carrier can have more than one group of aircraft in the air at any one time. Aircraft from a carrier can attack enemy aircraft, scout enemy ships or planes, attack enemy ships directly and escort or cover friendly ships and aircraft.
Comparable to battleships in terms of displacement, aircraft carriers nevertheless run faster. Turning significantly reduces the aircraft carrier's speed and their rudder shift is very slow in comparison. As a result, ships of this class can reach a high speed quickly but can’t change their or speed heading very quickly.
- Keep your aircraft carriers on the fringes of the map and avoid direct engagements with enemy ships. Take advantage of the fact that your aircraft can fly further than the enemy’s shells and torpedoes. Be prepared for sneak attacks by carefully placing your carrier and monitoring your surroundings for any signs of possible danger or holes in the battle line.
- Utilize the variety of aircraft at your disposal to attack any opposing ship. Deploy fighters to neutralize the enemy’s counterparts and “clean up” the map for your other squadrons. Approach a target from the flanks with torpedo bombers and utilize dive bombers attacking from the forecastle to trap opponents and gain an advantage.
- If you’re not afraid of taking risks, try to keep a closer distance between your vessel and the target to shorten the time it takes to launch your next air attack, as well as more action for your secondary guns to score more battle rewards.
Battleships[]
Battleships are the quintessential "heavy hitters" of World of Warships and offer a triple threat to their opponents. Massive firepower coupled with heavy armor makes them the deadly juggernauts of the sea. Secondary gun batteries make them a serious threat to smaller vessels that come within range, and the many anti-aircraft guns lining their decks offer a tremendous amount of anti-aircraft defense.
Despite their clumsiness and large size, battleships can accelerate to significant speeds. However, they react slowly and need a lot of time to stop. A battleship captain has to be extremely careful as a quick destroyer can take advantage of this situation.
- Plan your route. High inertia makes it difficult for a battleship to stop or change course.
- Use scout airplanes to avoid ambushes but remember - the enemy may locate and try to destroy them before you can identify any danger.
- The most penetrable areas of this ship are the elements of horizontal (deck) and vertical (belt and barbettes) armor, so be sure to hide these weaknesses from the opposition.
- Be wary of exposing your broadside, as your Citadel will become penetrable by perpendicular gunfire.
- Try to be out of range of enemy guns during the entire battle.
- While navigating the map on your appointed course, use that time to utilize the battleship’s air defense to protect your fleet.
Cruisers[]
Cruisers are the most balanced class of warship. Designed to react fast and with deadly force, they act as a destroyer shield for larger ships and as anti-aircraft platforms for the team. They can fight toe-to-toe with other cruisers and some can utilize torpedoes to damage capital ships. Certain cruisers are more suited for the anti-aircraft role (If you know your weaponry, you know that certain guns are 'dual-purpose'), able to decimate large groups of aircraft if they get close.
Being the most hybrid class, cruisers have features of both destroyers and battleships in terms of dynamics. Light cruisers resemble the former, whereas heavy cruisers are closer to the latter.
- American cruisers are perfect for anti-aircraft defense with their dual purpose weaponry and sophisticated anti-aircraft. Japanese cruisers have torpedo tubes that make their firepower virtually comparable with that of heavy destroyers along with some heavy artillery.
- A single cruiser is a significant threat but a group of cruisers spells disaster for any enemy ship that is unfortunate enough to run into them.
- The anti-aircraft effectiveness of cruisers greatly increases when in a group, while enemy ships are decimated under the continuous torrent of fire from an organized team of cruisers.
- Those who fully master control of a cruiser will be among the elite captains in World of Warships. Only those players who excel at multitasking will truly be in full control of this dangerous class of warships. Managing intelligence, maneuvering to avoid torpedoes, hunting destroyers, firing artillery and launching torpedo salvos— all of this will make a cruiser captain unstoppable.
- However, despite the number of advantages, armor sometimes lets the user down (Since its thin enough for AP shells to do some massive damage, but thick enough to let the said shells to explode inside the ship). Cruisers are very vulnerable to AP broadsides, especially from battleships. This is due to the citadel being exposed during a broadside. If the broadside lands onto this area, your ships will suffer some massive damage (Enough to drain all of your hitpoints in some cases).
Destroyers[]
Destroyers serve several roles in the game. They can act as scouts (To spot targets for your big artillery), launch torpedoes (For area denial and/or countering enemy battleships), and/or escort larget vessels.
Nimble and extremely agile, destroyers are capable of increasing their speed and stopping quicker than any other class. Their rudder shift time is that of the fastest of any heavier class, which is useful to respond to changing situations.
Of course, they have some quite abyssal protection but this is of course expected. An upside of destroyers is the fact that they do not possess a citadel like cruisers of battleships, making AP sometimes a bad choice against destroyers (Since AP that over penetrates does less damage than a properly penetrating AP shells in which the shell explodes inside the ship).
Given destroyers’ small drought characteristics, they can easily pass shoals and ignore deep-water torpedoes (In contrast to the latter, the heavier classes would suffer heavier damage, notably flooding), which almost none of the other classes are capable of.
- The power of destroyers is in their speed and maneuverability, as well as high rate of fire. Their swiftness compensates for the disadvantage of light armor. Utilize this to your full advantage.
- Destroyers are a fast and lethal weapon in battles against hulking battleships. If approached in the right direction, the destroyer can fire off a torpedo broadside at close range.
- Closing distances is a risky choice for a destroyer but it can pay off as the precision of torpedo attacks increases significantly as you close the gap between you and your target.
Submarines[]
Submarines are a new class of warships that were added to World of Warships. Of course, they can dive but only for a limited period. They are also vulnerable to depth charge attacks by certain warships. Unlike in reality where torpedoes were set at a single bearing, torpedoes can be guided via sonar (This can be done by 'pinging' the bow and stern of a target) in which the launched torpedoes would slowly turn towards the target. As of now, the only submarine implemented is U-995.