Aerial Combat

Revision as of 00:05, 10 September 2019

Aircraft Movement

Squadron Control

Individual squadrons are controlled using the WASD keys and the mouse. Aircraft will automatically retain a set forward throttle, regardless of player input. Squadrons are steered using a combination of the mouse and the "A" and "D" keys. The "W" and "S" keys are used to apply a limited time boost and air braking, respectively. The amount of remaining boost is indicated by the curved bar on the left side of the HUD when controlling a squadron. Boost will automatically regenerate when not being used, but captains can also use the Engine Cooling squadron consumable to immediately replenish the boost bar.

Left-clicking will begin an attack run. While in the attack mode, squadron control remains the same.

Pressing "F" when controlling a squadron will relinquish control of the squadron, returning both the captain and their aircraft to the carrier. Aircraft expended in an attack run will automatically return to their carrier.

Catapult Fighter, Fighter, Patrol Fighters and Spotting Aircraft

Catapult Fighter  and Spotting Aircraft  cannot be controlled by the player, and move around the map automatically. They can go as far as 4.23 km away from the ship for Spotting Aircraft, and 3.24 km for Catapult Fighters.

For aircraft carrier captains, the Fighter consumable is automatically activated when the carrier is spotted by aircraft. Each consumable consists of a squadron of four fighters that rotate around the vessel at a distance of 3 km. They will attempt to engage enemy aircraft within their range.

Aircraft carrier controlled squadrons have access to the Patrol Fighters consumable. Similar to the Fighter consumable, when activated it will place a squadron of four fighters at the location in which it was activated. The fighters will attempt to engage enemy aircraft within their range. Patrol fighters last for 60 seconds, allowing them to be used as a passive scouting tool by carrier captains.

Air-to-Air Combat

Air-to-air combat is performed automatically through the usage of the Fighter, Catapult Fighter  and Patrol Fighter consumables. When activated, AI controlled fighters will appear and engage enemy aircraft within their range. The aircraft created from the Catapult Fighter and Fighter consumables will follow their host ship, while Patrol Fighters will remain where they were activated. All three consumables have limited life spans.

Anti-Surface Combat

Aircraft Carriers in World of Warships have three types of anti-surface weapons; Attack Aircraft, Torpedo Bombers, and Dive Bombers. Attack Aircraft utilize a large number of small-caliber rockets to light fires and strike fast, maneuverable vessels that are lightly armored. Torpedo Bombers carry air-dropped torpedoes that can cause floods, and are best suited against slower, less maneuverable targets. Finally, Dive Bombers carry either HE or AP bombs that are released directly above an enemy vessel, and can be used effectively against most targets.

Attack Aircraft

Attack aircraft are aircraft that carry a large number of HE rockets. The rockets have relatively low penetration values, so their damage output against heavily armored ships is negligible. Their primary use is to start fires on enemy vessels, and to harass lightly armored destroyers. The Inertia Fuse for HE Shells skill can be used to improve their penetration, although taking this skill is not usually recommended for an aircraft carrier. The carriers of the United States Navy have access to two types of rocket; a small, "traditional" rocket, and the much larger "Tiny Tim" rockets that feature higher damage, penetration and fire chance over their counterparts, at the cost of the number of rockets carried per plane.

Attack aircraft are arguable the easiest of the three weapon types to aim, as they have the fastest sight stabilization and a fairly small strike dispersion. They have no arming distance and have an easy to use aiming reticle.

Torpedo Bombers

When performing an attack run with torpedo bombers, captains will notice a yellow are in the attack cone; this is the distance in which the torpedoes must travel before they arm. If a torpedo strikes before arming, it will not do damage. The torpedo attack cone also closes quite slowly, so captains should take the time to plan out their attack runs before beginning them.

Dive Bombers

Dive bombers are the third and final type of aircraft carried by an aircraft carrier. They come in three forms; HE bombs used by the United States Navy carriers and Kaga, AP bombs carried on Imperial Japanese Navy carriers, Graf Zeppelin and Enterprise, and a high-altitude HE "carpet bomb" found on Royal Navy carriers.

The traditional dive bombers found on all but the Royal Navy carriers are probably the most difficult weapon type to use, as their aiming reticle is fairly hard to understand, and properly "leading" a target before entering the attack run takes quite a bit of practice to get right. The payoff is extremely high fire chance and good damage.

The Royal Navy aircraft have an aiming system similar to that of Attack Aircraft rockets, and are thus far easier to use.

Aerial Bomb Types

Icon	Description
	High Explosive Bombs are packed with impact-fused high explosive, with the primary intent of inflicting high amounts of module damage and setting fires.
	Armor-Piercing Bombs have armor-piercing caps and are fused to penetrate the extra layers of horizontal armor found on battleships, as well as some cruisers and aircraft carriers. They tend to over-penetrate when used against light ships.
	Skip Bombs are also filled with impact-fused high explosive, but are dropped at water-level height. These bombs can either be released several skips away, far from the reach of most anti-aircraft artillery, or directly on top of their targets.

Bombs Equipped

Nation	Bomb Type	Damage	Armor Penetrated	Fire Chance	Deployed Aboard
	AN-M64	7,300	42mm	41%	IV Langley, VIII Hornet
	AN-M64	7,300	53mm	46%	VIII Nebraska, IX Delaware, X Louisiana
	AN-M65	9,200	53mm	52%	VI Ranger, VIII Lexington
	AN-M62	5,600	42mm	32%	VI Independence, VIII Yorktown
	AN-M62	4,900	244mm	N/A	VIII Enterprise
	AN-M60	3,600	328mm	N/A	VIII Hornet
	AN-M66	11,200	67mm	64%	VIII Saipan (B), VIII Sanzang, X Midway, X Franklin D. Roosevelt, XI United States
	AN-M633	5,400	42mm	31%	X Essex
	AN-M56A1	16,000	85mm	91%	XI United States
	Type 99 No. 25 mod. 2	2,500	174mm	N/A	IV Hosho
	Type 99 No. 25 mod. 1	4,600	174mm	N/A	VI Ryujo (stock)
	Type 3 No. 25 Mk. 4	5,100	228mm	N/A	VI Ryujo, VIII Shokaku (stock)
	Type 2 No. 50 Mk. 1	6,200	283mm	N/A	VIII Shokaku
	Type 90 No. 50 Mk. 2	8,800	55mm	50%	VIII Kaga (B)
	Type 99 No. 80 Mk. 5	6,800	351mm	N/A	X Hakuryu, X Taihō, XI Sekiryu
	FAB-100	6,100	32mm	35%	IV Komsomolets, VI Serov
	FAB-250	6,100	32mm	35%	VIII Pobeda (stock)
	FAB-500	8,700	55mm	49%	VIII Pobeda, X Admiral Nakhimov
	FAB-500B	7,500	55mm	43%	VIII Chkalov
	PC 500a	4,000	149mm	N/A	IV Rhein
	SC 1000	12,200	69mm	69%	VI Loewenhardt
	PC 500c	7,000	227mm	N/A	VI Weser, VIII Parseval (stock)
	PD 500	5,800	344mm	N/A	VIII Graf Zeppelin (B)
	PC 500	7,800	256mm	N/A	VIII Parseval, X Richthofen (stock)
	PC 1000	8,800	331mm	N/A	X Richthofen
	SC 1000	11,100	69mm	63%	X Max Immelmann
	40 lb. G.P. Bomb	2,300	18mm	8.7%	IV Hermes
	40 lb. G.P. Bomb	2,300	19mm	9%	VI Ark Royal
	250 lb. G.P. Bomb	4,700	33mm	27%	VI Furious, VIII Indomitable
	250 lb G.P. Bomb Mk.I	5,600	33mm	32%	VIII Implacable
	250 lb G.P. Bomb Mk.I	4,700	33mm	27%	VIII Colossus
	500 lb. G.P. Bomb	6,400	41mm	36%	X Audacious, XI Eagle
	500 lb. G.P. Bomb	4,300	109mm	N/A	X Malta
	500 lb G.P. Bomb Mk.I	6,400	52mm	36%	XI Eagle
	150-kg G.P. Mle 1930	3,600	219mm	N/A	VI Béarn
	500-kg G.P. Mle 1930	6,100	32mm	35%	VI Béarn

Anti-Air (AA) Defense

Unlike the artillery or torpedo armament in World of Warships, anti aircraft guns do not calculate trajectories or have limited fields of fire. Due to the large number of AA guns and high rates of fire, doing so would place an unacceptable load on the servers. Instead, anti-aircraft armament works using auras, with each aura having a maximum range. The ranges overlap and reinforce each other.

Anti-aircraft auras

Guns up to 28mm are considered short range; guns up to 85mm are considered medium range; and weapons with a larger caliber are long range.

• All auras deal continuous AA damage to the last plane in the squadron.
• Long range auras include flak clouds that can severely damage aircraft if not avoided.^[1][2]
• Like secondary batteries, AA guns will start to reload as soon as an enemy plane come into range of any of your ship's AA guns. Thus, for the very first air attack on your ship, AA may not inflict damage on the squadrons until your AA have been armed. This mechanic may change in the future.
• Losing AA mounts will reduce the amount of consistent dps your auras will be able to put out, and reduce the amount of flak clouds that can be generated. The location of the destroyed AA mount does not matter in that regard, as each gun works in all directions. This also means that the sector reinforcement remains unaffected aside from the reduced damage dealing.
• The usage of Defensive Fire practically takes the damage you would be dealing to the plane and multiplies it with the factor x2.\

Below are the characteristics of the German Tier 8 Premium Cruiser Prinz Eugen as an example.

Short Range Aura

Details of Prinz Eugen's short range air defenses

Prinz Eugen’s short range aura works at a range between 0.1 and 2km. Within that aura 184 damage are being dealt every second. However, this damage is not guaranteed, and a hit percentage is given at 81%. This means that every second there is an 81% chance that this damage is being dealt to the plane.

Medium Range Aura

Details of Prinz Eugen's medium range air defenses

The medium range aura is active out to 3.5km. Just like the short range aura, a consistent damage of 173 is being dealt every second with a 85% chance.^[1]

Long Range Aura

The detailed statistics of Prinz Eugen's long range defenses

The furthest reaching aura is capable of delivering damage at ranges between 3.5 and 5.8km. Following the rules of the short and medium range aura, a consistent damage is being applied. However, this value is noticeably lower than for the other auras with 91 dps and a hit percentage of 85%. What makes up for the low consistent damage are the flak clouds which are generated. These clouds are constantly generated after a short cooldown and spawn in front of the enemy aviation, and will deal its damage to all aircraft which fly through them. Up to six clouds with each dealing 2100 dps stock mean that the same planes from Shokaku would be unable to survive even one direct hit. However, since these clouds only deal damage on those planes that fly through them, they can also seem ineffective when the squadron dodges these clouds.

Note that not all ships are able to produce a long-range aura. These ships cannot generate flak.

Sector Reinforcement

Every ship has the ability to focus the AA firepower on one side of the ship, which will result in the other side having a weaker defense.

The phases of sector reinforcement

This increase in AA fire only affects the continuous fire, not the flak bursts. The screen which allows for the sector assignment is by default the "O" or "~" key, and after assigning a side for increased defense a timer starts, after which the sector has been successfully reinforced. The increase in firepower and the timer depend on the ship type.

Using Prinz Eugen as an example again, and only looking at the long range aura. When no sector has been assigned, a plane approaching from the starboard side will be facing the continuous dps of 91 and the six generated flak clouds with each dealing 2,100dps. The player now assigns the starboard side as the reinforced sector, and after ten seconds the damage will be increased to 114dps consistently and 2,100 from every flak cloud. The plane now flies over the ship and enters the zone in which the port side long range AA is active. The damage in that sector is reduced to 68dps consistently and 2100dps from each flak cloud.

Other Facts

• Activating the Defensive AA Fire consumable will also immediately activate AA fire without the need to press P.
• Deactivating AA fire will immediately terminate the Defensive AA Fire consumable if it is active, and begin its cooldown. This can be used to shave a few seconds off until the next charge is ready.

Notes

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} As of Update 0.8.7 medium range AA does not include flak clouds. See https://worldofwarships.com/en/news/game-updates/update-087-french-destroyers-part-2/
2. ↑ NA CC LittleWhiteMouse has done research on continuous AA mechanics : Link