The Best of the Fleet

World of Warships is a free-to-play naval MMO that made it’s debut in September 2015. Focusing on naval warfare, it features historical ships from some of the world’s largest navies. Starting at tier 1 and ending at tier 10, players earn experience which allows them to unlock some of the most powerful ships of the early to middle of the 20th century. For new players, it can sometimes be difficult to know which ships are worth grinding for in the effort to reach tier 10. In this guide, the best performing ships of each class at that tier will be detailed to give an inside view on why they’re the best of the fleet.

“Eyes in the skies”

Let’s start with aircraft carriers, or CVs, as there isn’t much choice between them. Why? There are only two tier 10 CVs in the game so far: The USS Midway and the Imperial Japanese Navy’s Hakuryu. With an astonishing win/loss ratio of 57.9%, the clear winner is Midway, which is on average nearly 8% more victorious than Hakuryu.

Midway is able to easily overpower it’s IJN counterpart with its superior fighter aircraft, giving it air superiority which allows its bombers to strike other ships without the fear of enemy fighters. It’s bombers also have an advantage: they’re built stronger, and can take more of a beating from enemy anti aircraft weaponry, which means more of them make it back to resupply and rejoin the fight. Finally, Midway has more planes per squadron which gives it the edge over poor old Hakuryu.

“Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!”

Now let’s blur the lines a little with Destroyers, or DDs. DDs are small craft that mostly rely on stealth and torpedoes to remain competitive against larger ships with bigger armaments. There are currently three tier 10 DDs in game, each with their own flair. The IJN’s Shimakaze is the typical ninja torpedo boat. The USS Gearing follows, with a nice mix of guns and torpedoes. Finally, Russia’s Khabarovsk brings it in with spectacular guns but less than ideal torpedoes.

With an average W/L ratio of 53.1%, Khabarovsk takes the cake against Shimakaze’s 50.3% and Gearing’s solid 50% . Torpedoes, while deadly when they hit, are much easier to avoid than the eight 130mm cannons that Khabarovsk is known for. This makes it easier for captains of this Russian terror to wreak havoc on the enemy team, as they do not have to rely on their targets sailing in straight lines into torpedoes to do major damage to them. And when Khabarovsk does land a few torpedo hits, it’s just the icing on the cake.

Khabarovsk is also the fastest ship in the game, allowing it to flex around the map with blistering speed. However, it should be noted that Khabarovsk isn’t nearly as sneaky as it’s peers, so they do have the stealth advantage.

“Out-shoot what you can’t outrun, outrun what you can’t out-shoot.”

World of Warship’s jack-of-all-trades class comes in the form of cruisers. Bigger than destroyers and smaller than battleships, at tier 10 we again see three contenders: the USS Des Moines, the IJN Zao, and finally the KMS Hindenburg of Germany’s Kriegsmarine. Zao currently holds the highest W/L ratio of the trio, with an average of 53.2% battles won, followed by Hindenburg at 51.9 and Des Moines at 50.1%.

What makes the Zao so special is its versatility. The ship has twelve 8 inch guns, mounted in 4 triple turrets. The guns have powerful armor piercing shells and very good high explosive shells as well, giving it good offensive capabilities against all ship classes. Zao also carries two torpedo launchers on each side of the ship, which fire 5 torpedoes each, that come in handy during close quarter fights.

For those times where she can’t outgun her foes, she’s the fastest cruiser of the three as well, allowing her to relocate if the need arises. These factors ensure that any captain who knows his or her’s… stern from his elbow will be a contributing factor towards the team’s victory. The only true downside to the ship is AA armament: Stay away from those enemy bombers!

“Broadside to a battleship? That’s a paddlin.’”

Lastly we arrive at battleships, or BBs. Battleships are by far the largest ships in the game, heavily armed and armored. They’re also the slowest at everything: reloading, getting from point A to point B, turning, you name it. What makes BBs appealing to players is the insane amount of damage they are able to dish out with a single salvo fired from their main guns. Many are able to instantly kill certain ships if they manage to hit the target in the citadel, the vulnerable belly each ship has (minus DDs, for game balance), which makes their shells do their maximum allotted damage.

So out of the two currently in game, the USS Montana and the IJN Yamato, which one is the best? Japan wins it again, with Yamato’s 54.2% average victories to Montana’s underwhelming ratio of 49.5%. Yamato is sadly woefully overpowered compared to Montana. She has nine 18 inch guns that have superior armor penetration characteristics to poor Montana’s dozen 16 inchers. Her armor is also the thickest of any ship in game, meaning that it bounces enemy shells. A lot. Finally, she is able to repair more damage to her ship than Montana, allowing her to sponge damage for the team way more effectively.

Check out this video for some battleship gameplay featuring the Yamato https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRTn6MEpKaI

So there you have it. The best ships of the 4 classes currently available to play at tier 10, ranked by their win/loss ratio. One thing to note is that World of Warships, being less than a year old, is very actively introducing new ships, features, and re-balances to the game to help make it entertaining to veteran and novice players alike. That said, this review might become obsolete in the next patch, but we won’t know until then. In any case, smooth sailing, and good luck on the high seas!

Source for stats:

*Statistics were from the North American server of the game