Through the Spy Glass: Salem

The last-ever heavy cruiser—and the last remaining one—Salem is a Des Moines-class ship. She was laid down just months before the end of World War II and commissioned in 1949. After serving in the Atlantic and Mediterranean, Salem was decommissioned to become a museum ship in 1959. You can visit her in Quincy, Massachusetts.

Salem is an American Tier VIII Premium cruiser armed with nine 8-inch (203 mm) main battery guns that fire AP shells with significant maximum damage potential, and she also possesses potent anti-aircraft defenses. In addition to that, Salem features a great consumable loadout that complements her strengths: two charges of +200% Defensive AA Fire, two charges of Repair Party, and a choice between two charges of 8.5 km Radar with a 40-second duration or two charges of 3.5 km Sonar with a 100-second duration.

While testing Salem for this article, Final Boss XII felt the ship was pretty strong overall, and that the biggest point for improvement should be the ship’s main battery traverse time. His Commander-build suggestion focuses on complementing Salem’s hard-hitting AP while increasing the ship’s concealment and turret traverse to give her a little more versatility and flexibility.

We recommend the following build: Norman Scott with his Directed Impact base trait, improving your main battery shell grouping by up to 5%.

• Beyond Range, improving your main battery reach by up to 10%.
• Igniter, improving the fire-starting chances of your HE shells by 3%.
• Punch Through, improving your cruiser’s main battery AP shell damage by up to 10% and your AP shell penetration multiplier by up to 6%.
• Fixated, improving your cruiser main battery shell grouping by up to 5%, and your main battery dispersion by up to 5%
• Fully Packed, providing an additional consumable charge for each of your ship’s consumables (giving you an additional Radar charge) and improving their cooldown time by up to 5%. If your ship is within proximity of an allied ship, it improves your consumable cooldown time by up to a further 30%.

Regarding Inspirations, you should try:

• Gunichi Mikawa, improving your cruiser’s detectability by up to 6%.
• Charles Madden, improving your main battery reload time by up to 3% and main battery traverse speed by up to 5%.

Turn the tide with Salem!