Ministry of Balance Reports: German Commander Refit & More

Welcome to the April edition of the Ministry of Balance! We've got a bunch of new Commander skills and changes to Commander skills coming this update, mostly from updating the German Commanders with unique skills and rebalancing other skills–including the highly debated Will to Rebuild change. There’s a ship’s tonnage worth of tweaks to cover, so let's get started!

Changes to Existing Skills

Legendary Skills:

These changes apply to every Commander who can use the listed skills. We’re aiming to reduce the multitool use of Will to Rebuild while making the alternative Legendary skills for battleships more appealing and effective.

• Will to Rebuild has earned a substantial cut, but more importantly, it's not going to create any unmanageable situations anymore:
  • Rate of HP restoration per second reduced from 0.5 to 0.3%
    • This is sufficient to counteract the damage from 1 fire.
  • Will to Rebuild now restores Saturation up to 20%.
    • This means that ships should no longer become damage-saturated to a point where Will to Rebuild still restores HP and you cannot deal any damage to the affected ship, effectively wiping out any possibility of abuse and making other Legendary skill choices more attractive, depending on the ship.
• Farsight has received tweaks to both its active and passive effects, and it should become more useful:
  • Activation range increased at lower ranks from 1.5/2/2.75/3.5 km to 2/2.5/3/3.5 km 
  • The debuff that removed a Repair Party consumable charge has been removed. Farsight no longer has any trade-offs.
• Running with Scissors has become a little more powerful and consistent, minimizing the trade-off:
  • Main battery shell dispersion trade-off is now a static 3% at any rank instead of the previous 2/4/5/6%
  • Activation distance improved from 3.5/4.5/6/7.5 km to 5/6/7/8 km
• Fight Fire With Fire has had one of its effects changed:
  • Static fire damage reduction swapped with fire reduction per active fire: 6/9/12/15% of damage, depending on rank
    • This increases the effectiveness of this skill against large amounts of fire damage and enemies that are effective at starting fires.

Commander Inspirations:

• Fire Alarm inspiration for Reinhard Scheer has received a simple buff:
  • Damage Control Party cooldown reduction improved from 0.15–3% to 0.25–5%
  • Risk of catching fire reduction improved from 0.25–5% to 0.35–7%
• Hearty inspiration for Karl von Müller has been dialed back a little:
  • Maximum cruiser speed reduced from 0.25–5% to 0.2–4%
• Shifty inspiration for Erich Bey has been cut to be less of a "default" choice for destroyers:
  • Destroyer detectability reduced from 0.25–5% to 0.18–4%

Commander Skills:

These changes apply to every Commander who can use the listed skills.

• You Should See the Other Guy has been made more appealing:
  • Risk of catching fire reduced from the static 10% to progressive 5/4.5/4/3.5%, depending on rank
• Observant Rage has become a little more conservative:
  • Torpedo detectability range reduced from 3/7/11/15% to 3/6/9/12%
  • Rudder-shift time increase steps changed from 5/5/5/10% to 4/6/8/10%, depending on rank
  • Destroyer main battery reload time boost reduced from 2/4/6/8% to 2/3/4/5%
• Exposé has received an extra effect:
  • Sonar duration increased by 3/4.5/6/7.5%
• Listen Closely has had its power redistributed:
  • Sonar cooldown time reduction cut from 20/30/40/50% to 15/20/25/30%
  • Sonar charge count reduced from 1/2/2/2 to 1/1/2/2
  • Sonar duration cut decreased from 25/35/45/50% to 9/11/19/15%.
• Fortified has received an extra effect:
  • Maximum HP increased by 0.75/1.5/2.25/3%

New skills

German national Commanders aren’t only getting skill tweaks, they’re also getting some new skills! Otto Ciliax should now be the premier Commander for your German alternative battleships, and Erich Bey can make your torpedoes even stronger and faster. Other changes also include a new Legendary skill for Karl von Müller. These new skills have been added to the Commanders and do not replace any skills on their cards; you can choose to take advantage of the new skills or ignore them. Here are the details:

Erich Bey: Torpedo Royal (4th Row Skill)

• Improves torpedo speed by 0.5/1/1.5/2 knots
• Improves torpedo damage by 3/4/5/6%
• Increases torpedo detectability by 25/50/75/100 meters

Maximilian von Spee: On Sunset (4th Row Skill)

• Reduces torpedo visibility by 75/100/125/150 meters
• Reduces destroyer visibility by 1.5/2/2.5/3%

Günther Lütjens: Loyalty to the Navy (4th Row Skill)

• Improves cruiser shell grouping against other ship types, except for carriers.
  • Improves cruiser shell grouping when shooting at battleships by 2.5/4/5.5/7%
  • Improves cruiser shell grouping when shooting at cruisers by 1.5/2/2.5/3%
  • Improves cruiser shell grouping when shooting at destroyers by 1.5/2/2.5/3%

Karl von Müller: Emergency Bell (Legendary Skill)

• Passive Skill:
  • Cruiser time to reach full engine power reduced by 4/6/8/10%
  • Cruiser rudder-shift time reduced by 4/6/8/10%
• Active Skill (activates whenever ship's HP is below 45/50/55/60%)
  • Improves both passive skill effects to 19/21/23/25%

Otto Ciliax: Highly Educated Crew (2nd Row Skill)

This skill is designed to work hand-in-hand with the German alternative battleships’ limited Damage Control Party consumable.

• Increases secondary gun range by 6/9/12/15%
• Increases Damage Control Party charges by 1/1/2/2

Otto Ciliax: Advanced Schemes (3rd Row Skill)

• Increases secondary gun damage by 2/3/4/5%
• Increases secondary gun chances of causing fire by 1/1.5/2/2.5%

Franz von Hipper: Knight's Spirit (2nd Row Skill)

• Increases battleship shell damage against other ship types, except for carriers.
  • Increases shell damage when shooting at battleships by 4/6.5/9.5/12%
  • Increases shell damage when shooting at cruisers by 1.5/3/4.5/6%
  • Increases shell damage when shooting at destroyers by 1.5/3/4.5/6%

Other Changes

King George V and Duke of York

Due to updates that were required to fix holes in their turret armor, King George V and Duke of York became more vulnerable. They have received an improved Repair Party to balance this:

• Extra charge added (Duke of York)
• Repair Party cooldown reduced from 80 to 60 seconds
• HP restoration per second increased by ~25%
• Ship parts have more HP restored, making them a little harder to saturate after Repair Party is used compared to the old consumable

Radar Mechanics

Due to the changes in how Radar functions outlined in the April patch notes, we’ve improved the duration of Black and Orkan's radars.

• Orkan's Radar duration increased from 15 to 20 seconds
• Black's Radar duration increased from 13 to 19 seconds

Misc

There are also a few user-interface changes for Commander skills; for instance, some skills are no longer classified as "Unity" or "Confrontation."

Some modifiers and skills have received updated descriptions, such as Angelo Iachino's Go Away and Burn it Down.

The following ships have received minor updates to their armor models:

• Brandenburg
• Odin
• Amalfi
• Paolo Emilio

Let's see if you guys decide on a new meta and if this works out and spices up the good ol' Germans. Keep turning the tide!