Ministry of Balance Reports: Buffs, Nerfs, and Commanders

March 2, 2023

Welcome to the Ministry of Balance for the March 2023 update of World of Warships: Legends. We have a bunch of changes coming this time, including updates to some Commander skills! (Spoiler alert: Go All Out got slashed!)

We're also making the first pass on Tier VIII ships, bringing up some of the lesser performing ships like Maine and Ibuki and toning down the impact of the top performers.

Buffs

Tier VIII Maine

Maine has been fairly underwhelming for many players, and she hasn’t been performing well overall. We've decided to significantly improve her survivability by increasing the HP of her hull while reducing the amount of HP in her individual components. This will make her a tougher target by enabling her to absorb more fire while taking less damage; however, some of her modules may be easier to disable now.

HP for stock hull increased from 70,000 to 72,000
- Bow HP reduced from 12,500 to 3,800
- Casemate HP reduced from 33,000 to 9,800
- Stern HP reduced from 16,750 to 5,000
- Hull component HP reduced from 72,200 to 54,000
- Magazine HP reduced from 48,200 to 36,000
- Steering gear HP reduced from 28,900 to 21,600
- Superstructure HP reduced from 10,000 to 3,000
HP for upgraded hull increased from 77,000 to 80,000
- Bow HP reduced from 12,500 to 4,200
- Casemate HP reduced from 33,000 to 10,900
- Stern HP reduced from 16,750 to 5,600
- Citadel HP reduced from 72,200 to 60,000
- Magazine HP reduced from 48,200 to 40,000
- Steering gear HP reduced from 28,900 to 24,000
- Superstructure HP reduced from 10,000 to 3,300

Having reduced HP in a particular section of a ship like the bow means that area will saturate faster, which will result in your overall HP taking less damage.

Tier VIII Ibuki and Ibuki B

The Ibuki duo has been performing poorly, though they saw great improvement thanks to the fix to their turret traverse last update. We're improving their shells and the reload on Ibuki B to make them even more competitive.

Maximum HE shell damage increased from 3,300 to 3,650
Maximum AP shell damage increased from 4,700 to 5,150

The main battery reload time for Ibuki B was also decreased from 13.7 to 13 s to match the standard Ibuki.

Legendary Tier Colbert

Colbert is a tremendous ship in the right hands, but she has poor battle impact and a poor winrate while her damage output is also lacking in all but the most experienced player's hands.

Main battery reload time reduced from 3.5 to 3.2 s
Amount of HP restored by Repair Party increased from 180 to 238 per second

Improved German Secondary Guns

As promised, we're fixing the German secondary guns that had legacy HE penetration characteristics. After this, all German medium and large caliber secondary guns will have the correct HE penetration values. The most impacted ships are the German battleships and battlecruisers from Tier VI to Legendary tier.

5.9-inch (150 mm) secondary guns: HE penetration increased from 37 to 38 mm
5-inch (128 mm) secondary guns: HE penetration increased from 31 to 32 mm

Nerfs

Nerfs are a sour pill in many ways, but let us assure you that in every case in this update, the impacted ships have been overshadowing their peers in several ways, especially in the case of Prinz Rupprecht and August von Parseval.

Tier VIII Prinz Rupprecht

The prince of Tier VIII is getting brought down a notch, but not too badly as we know many of you love this ship!

Main battery reload time increased from 30 to 32 s
Secondary battery reload time increased:
- 4.1-inch (105 mm) guns from 3.4 to 3.5 s
- 5.9-inch (150 mm) guns from 7.5 to 8 s

Prinz Heinrich

This ship is leading the Tech Tree ships at Tier VI, standing head and shoulders over the others. We're reducing her damage output to compensate.

Main battery reload time increased from 30 to 33 s

Delny

Delny is proving to be a tricky ship, and we're aiming to reduce her overall damage output without changing her main battery firepower.

Maximum torpedo damage reduced from 15,100 to 14,400
Torpedo launcher reload time increased from 129 to 140 s
Torpedo speed reduced from 65 to 60 kts
Torpedo detectability range reduced from 1.2 to 1.1 km

August von Parseval

Parseval is receiving nerfs after reigning over Tier VII carriers for a long time. These changes will reduce her damage output and longevity in battle.

Maximum bomb damage reduced from 6,200 to 6,100 for her stock hull
Maximum bomb damage reduced from 7,000 to 6,800 for her upgraded hull
Maximum torpedo damage reduced from 5,600 to 5,133
Hangar size for both AP and Torpedo bombers reduced from 15 to 14

Commander skill changes

This update, we’re adjusting many skills—particularly some of the French inspirations. Some are being improved and some notable destroyer skills are being changed up.

Buffs

Generally, applying these skills has resulted in reduced winrate for most players. We've decided to increase their effectiveness.

“Incendiary” Base Trait of Louis du Fournet

Maximum HE shell damage buff increased from +4 to +6%

“Expeditious” Base Trait of Émile Guépratte

Maximum battleship speed buff increased from +5 to +6.5%

“Mortar” Skill

Mortar is a dedicated gunboating skill; we're increasing its effectiveness to improve many gunboat style destroyers across the game.

Shell damage modifier increased from +2.5/+5/+7.5/+10% to +6/+8.33/+10.66/+13%

“Cloudy Daze” Skill

We've reduced the trade-off impact of Cloudy Daze substantially.

Engine Boost cooldown time reduced from –10/–15/–20/–25% to –5/–10/–15/–20%
Smoke screen dispersion time reduced from –20% to –5/–7.5/–10/–12.5%
Smoke screen deployment time reduced from –20% to –5/–7.5/–10/–12.5%

“Reaching Out” Skill

We've changed this skill to have greater focus and application for destroyers. The auxiliary buff to secondary battery range has been replaced with a buff to destroyer main battery reload. The skill's icon has also been updated to reflect this change.

Previously, this skill increased main battery and secondary battery range by 8%.

Reaching Out will now increase main battery range by 8% and reduce main battery reload by –1.5/–2/–2.5/–3%.

Nerfs

These skills have a significant impact on destroyer gameplay, with extremely high usage.

“Powder Keg” Base Trait of Philippe Auboyneau

Phillippe Auboyneau is performing extremely well among the French destroyers, so we’re reducing the effectiveness of his base trait.

HE shell damage buff for DD reduced from +0.25% – 5% to +0.175% – 3.5%

“Perceptive” Skill

Thanks to this skill's ability to show the direction to the nearest enemy ship, it’s proved to be very strong for hunting down or avoiding enemy ships.

Incoming damage to your destroyer modifier reduced from –2/–3/–4/–5% to –0.75/–1.5/–2.25/–3%

“Twist n' Track” Skill

Thanks to this skill’s ability to show the direction of the nearest enemy ship, it’s proved to be very strong for hunting down or avoiding enemy ships. These two skills were changed to provide a bit more variety, since their former stats made them a default pick.

Destroyer gun traverse speed buff reduced from +0.9/+1.8/+2.7/+3.5 to +0.5/+1/+1.5/+2

“Go All Out” Skill

Go All Out is a skill that lives in infamy. It’s getting dramatically reduced in effectiveness, as it was tremendously powerful and we received many requests to reduce its impact. You’ll be able to use this skill more often, but its effects have been cut in half.

Detectability while Engine Boost is active modifier reduced from –5/–10/–15/–20% to –2.5/–5/–7.5/–10%
Engine Boost cooldown time modifier reduced from +50% to +25/+28.33/+31.66/+35%

Other

As part of the bugfix to prevent Turret incapacitation from low caliber shells, the armor models of King George V, Duke of York, and Marlborough have been updated. For King George V and Duke of York, this also increases the HE resistance of the ships through thicker 26mm plating but the Citadel has been increased in size. Additional armor models may be updated in the future.

Study the changes, and turn the tide!