Through the Spy Glass: Constellation

Constellation was one of the planned Lexington-class battlecruisers, and she would have been one of the fastest and largest warships of her time. While she was never actually completed, two of her sister ships were converted into aircraft carriers.

Let's take a look at her in-game qualities and a suggested Commander build to maximize her potential! 

Constellation is a unique battlecruiser experience that requires the enemy team to think carefully before they commit to their mid- to late-game strategy, especially when pushing to capture objectives or aggressively secure a flank. Her eight 16-inch (406 mm) main battery guns hit hard… and when paired with her incredibly versatile consumable set of Radar; Repair Party; and a choice between Catapult Fighter, Spotter, and Enhanced Secondary Targeting, she becomes the perfect multitool to help your team respond to enemy engagement with great efficiency.

Final Boss XII’s suggestion for this ship’s Commander build focuses almost entirely on reducing her main battery reload as much as possible. If you’re quick enough with your response, this build allows you to squeeze two full salvos out within her 9.9 km, 30-second Radar duration! This is a big advantage when trying to remove an enemy ship that has anchored in an advantageous position or a destroyer that’s preventing your allies from being able to push further.

He recommends the following build: William Sims with his Built to Last base trait, increasing your HP per ship tier by up to +400. This increases Constellation's total HP to 66,100.

• Flammable Cannonier to increase your main battery range by up to 8% and shell grouping by up to 5%; however, it comes with the trade-off of also increasing your risk of catching fire by 13% (we’ll use the newly reworked Fight Fire With Fire Legendary skill later to counter this as best we can).
• Crisscross to increase your battleship guns’ traverse speed.
• Marksmanship to improve your main battery dispersion by up to 10% at the cost of worsening your rudder-shift time by 5%.
• Reaching Out XXL to provide additional main battery range.
• Fight Fire with Fire to reduce the fire damage your ship takes over time for each active fire by up to 15% and remove all damage-over-time effects (including flooding) from your boat when you receive three concurrent fires while your Damage Control Party consumable is on cooldown or fully depleted.

Regarding Inspirations, you should try:

• Ding Ruchang to improve your main battery reload time by up to 4%
• Paolo di Revel to improve your battleship main battery reload time by up to 6%

Crush your enemies with Constellation, and turn the tide!