Aircraft carriers are one of the more interesting types of warships in World of Warships. Aircraft carriers are blessed with the unique ability to send out airplanes to do your bidding and offer a unique game style that requires proper timing, strategy, and skill to pull off well.
If you’re picking up the basics of aircraft carrier gameplay, our guide is here to move you forward and help you win. Here are some pointers on how to make your aircraft carrier more useful in a match.
How to Best Use an Aircraft Carrier in World of Warships?
One of the best tips we can give to make yourself more useful in a match is to ensure you have as low downtime between attacks as possible. Travel time and distance from your target are keys to getting this aspect of gameplay correct.
If you’re too far from the target or unwilling to attack “mediocre” targets, your damage output suffers greatly.
At the start, aim for making about one attack per minute. The best way to keep track is to use a pen and paper. Whenever you send artillery at the enemy, make a note on the paper, a single checkmark will do.
When the match is over, look at the total duration and divide it by the number of recorded checks. Most people overestimate how many attacks they do otherwise.
Aim for more drops in a match until you reach a figure that’s closer to one and a half attacks per minute.
Putting your carrier closer to the enemy improves how many attacks you can make since it reduces travel time. However, always have a backup plan to escape from encroaching ships. Carriers are not particularly great at ship-to-ship combat, so know when it’s time to high-tail it out of range.
Your plane movement is also pivotal.
Don’t hold down the “W” key all the time since it prevents you from making snap decisions and dodging. If enemy fighters or AA (anti-air) weapons start raining on your aircraft and kill them, your carrier becomes almost useless.
Additionally, you can use your moving planes to scout out enemy units. Don’t deploy them just to scout, though. If you manage to grab an enemy’s location mid-attack, that’s great. If not, don’t waste planes on reconnaissance.
WoWS requires teamwork, and you should listen to your teammates’ callouts. However, don’t be afraid to move and attack on your own. As a carrier player, you’re responsible for attacking and what happens afterward, and your teammates can help out or do their own thing in the background.
The best targets you can pick as a carrier are destroyers and ships on the enemy team. Carriers are great at providing pressure against the winning ship, and their air support is unmatched.
Powerful AA enemies will be the bane of your existence. If you want to attack ships with AA weapons, use a modified slingshot approach and bait out enemy fire. When your planes are in the air, pressing “F” makes them fly up out of enemy ship weapon range. You can dart into enemy fire range and duck out to provide a smaller window of opportunity when your planes are in danger.
The slingshot approach is one of the most complex mechanics but is so powerful it had to be virtually removed.
The strategy consists of dropping a few planes before the target. It allows the rest to slingshot up in the air and stay out of enemy fire for a while. The planes that drop ordnance on enemy ships will immediately shoot up, while the rest stay relatively safe in the backside immunity zone. This maneuver ensures the most planes survive an attack and can be redeployed afterward.
Keep in mind that you need an extreme amount of practice to execute slingshots while staying accurate, so regular drops might end up doing more in the meantime.
Keep Your Planes in the Sky
The best advice we can give to budding carrier players in WoWS is to ensure their planes are used correctly and stay intact. Decision-making, a sound strategy, and precise maneuvers will separate the good players from the rest. It’s up to you to practice and not give up after a few bad calls.
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