Difference between revisions of "User:_Fantomex_:na/sandboxAmmo"

Revision as of 01:37, 29 November 2017

Overview

All ships in World of Warships rely on one or both of the two shell types at some point. Whether it's your main guns or secondaries, it's important to understand how the two shell types behave and when to use them to achieve optimum results in a battle.

Simply put, AP shells do more damage, but require careful aiming to achieve penetrations, while HE shells do less damage, but in turn light fires and ignore angling.

All ships with main battery guns have the option of firing HE or AP (with the exception of tech-tree British cruisers). Secondary guns are set to fire a specific shell type and cannot be loaded with the other type. You can see what shell type they fire by hovering your mouse over the secondary gun stats in port.

When to Use AP

Armor Piercing (AP) shells do damage by penetrating the target and then detonating inside the ship. AP requires, in general, an un-angled section of armor that is thin enough to penetrate. As such, AP is effective against broadside targets and weakly armored targets.

A 4,000 damage AP salvo from a Destroyer on a Yamato at mid-range. Note the penetration ribbons on the right.

Battleships should be firing AP at most targets, as their large caliber and high penetration allows them to usually do damage upon successful hits. Aiming for the waterline on most targets should be fine, but some heavily armored Battleships have belt armor thick enough to bounce other Battleship AP shells, so aiming above the main belt will work better.

Cruisers should fire AP when presented with an almost completely broadside target. Cruiser guns have significantly lower penetration than a Battleship guns, so more careful aiming is required to hit lightly armored sections of armor. A goo rule of thumb is to aim for the armor belt just below the deck line on most Battleships, and at the waterline for other Cruisers and Aircraft Carriers at close range.

Destroyers do not normally fire AP, but if presented with a perfect broadside at close range, regardless of the target's class, you should load AP. Even the 100 mm guns on the Akizuki are capable of landing a couple thousand damage AP salvos on a broadside Battleship. Destroyers can also use AP against other broadside Destroyers, but if you notice a lack of damage you should switch to HE.

When to Use HE

HE should be used when firing at an angled heavily armored target, or when firing at a lightly armored target. HE in almost all cases should be aimed at the targets superstructure or bow and stern sections. HE can also be used in a strategic fashion to destroy Anti-Aircraft guns on enemy ships to allow a friendly carrier to strike them easier.

Battleships should only fire HE at another angled Battleship at range. Their AP damage is consistent enough the HE is usually not worth using. Against Destroyers, the question of HE vs. AP largely depends on the situation. If you are GUARANTEED to get a shot on a Destroyer, then spend the 15-30 seconds to reload HE. If you need to quickly fire a shot off while a Destroyer is spotted, fire whatever shell type you have loaded (usually AP).

Cruisers primarily fire HE. Their AP simply doesn't have the penetration required to get consistent damage on non-broadside targets, so HE is the go-to shell type. Furthermore, a Cruiser's rate of fire allows them to rapidly light and re-light fires on multiple targets to stack significant fire damage. Cruisers should also fire HE against Destroyers.

Destroyers, like Cruisers, primarily fire HE at every target, unless they present broadside. Keep in mind that if you are a "torpedo-boat", your primary source of damage is your torpedoes, and you should limit the amount you use your guns.

Basic Mechanics

This section highlights a few of the basic and most important mechanics concerning the two ammunition types. Further information can be found in the Gunnery and Armor Penetration section.

AP

Armor Piercing shells offer high damage potential, but require careful aiming and knowledge of enemy ship armor schemes. When firing AP at a target, four things can happen:

1. The shell strikes heavily angled armor and ricochets
2. The shell hit un-angled armor, but still fails to penetrate and shatters
3. The shell over penetrates the enemy ship by striking armor that is too thin to arm the fuse and deals 10% of its listed damage
4. The shell hits armor thick enough to arm the fuse and penetrates, doing 33% of the listed damage, or 100% if it penetrates the citadel

It is entirely possible to have all four happen in one salvo. There is also the peculiarity of a single shell doing all three forms of damage (10%, 33% and 100%) simultaneously. It is not entirely clear if this is intentional game design or not, and is difficult to reproduce.

High Explosive

Penetration

High Explosive, like AP, requires a penetration to do damage. However, unlike AP, HE ignores armor angling and cannot over penetrate a target (although it can still citadel). HE will do 0 damage on shatters, 1/3 damage on penetrations and 100% damage on citadel penetrations. HE penetration can be calculated for most ships by dividing the shell diameter by 6 and rounding to the nearest whole number.

Example:

The Tier 8 IJN Cruiser Mogami has a gun size of 155 mm. Using the Shell Diameter/6 rule, we get a value of 25.83 mm, or 26 mm. This would allow the Mogami to penetrate armor sections up to, but not including, 26 mm at any angle.

For British Battleships, German Battleships, and German Cruisers, the HE penetration is calculated by dividing the shell diameter by 4 instead.

Example:

The 203 mm guns found on the Tier 8 German Cruiser Admiral Hipper have an HE penetration of 203/4 = 50.75 mm = 51 mm.

HE penetration can be increased through the use of the Commander Skill, Inertia Fuse for High Explosive, which increase the penetration by 30%. Using our two previous examples and multiplying the penetration by 1.3:

Mogami: 25.83 * 1.3 = 33.58 = 34 mm

Admiral Hipper: 50.75 * 1.3 = 65.975 = 66 mm

This is useful for allowing light cruisers with 150-180 mm guns to achieve over 32 mm of penetration, allowing them to damage the bow, stern, and plating of many high tier Battleships. It is also useful for the Tier 8 IJN Destroyer Akizuki, which has 100 mm guns, allowing her to damage other equal and higher tier Destroyers with 19 mm plating.

Fires

Fires are the primary form of "Damage over Time" in World of Warships, with the other being flooding, and is a vital source of damage for Cruisers and some Destroyers.

High Explosive shells have an attributed fire chance to them, however, it is important to note that higher tier ships have greater built-in fire resistance that reduces this fire chance. The chance can be increased through the use of signal flags and commander skills.