World of Warships- How To Instantly Get Better At The Game

bro secretely told us we have a skill issue and thought we wouldnt notice

I just played with a good friend last night, he’s up to tier 5 BB. It gave me an appreciation for how hard this game can be for new players. We played 5 matches in a row where he was blown out of the water before getting any appreciable damage and he got discouraged.
For new players who don’t want to spend all their free time learning crucial information from guides, third party sites, and RUclips. Combine that with the severe difficulty curve and the grind increase, I can see why so many players get to tier 5 or 6 and give up.
It’s a bit like when people first start DnD. Sure, the basics to get up and running are simple, but getting good takes a serious amount of time, study, commitment, and practice.
For those majority of more casual players, that can be very demoralizing and daunting. Suddenly, right around tier 5 or 6 you have to decide if the juice is worth the squeeze and I don’t fault the many players who decide it isn’t.
Playing well is where experience and credits come from, so when you can’t play well because you’re vastly outclassed that hill to climb looks even taller. I understand why so many players get to mid tier and quit. Trying to grind when the xp and credits needed skyrocket AND it’s harder to earn them because your competition gets much more severe means people either double down or walk away. People who don’t have 300 hours to spare to start getting decent are going to walk away.

Really nice to see people still making content for us who are fairly new to the game.

I appreciate the work you put into this vid however, I suggest most player don't want to sift through reams of data to play a video game. Positioning with an emphasis on "team play" as well as communication with your team is much more useful to the average player in my opinion. Also, knowing how spotting works i.e. smoke will not conceal a heavy cruiser firing from smoke with main guns or you can be spotted behind an island if the tallest part (mast) of your ship extends above the island.

A useful thing I've found is that while TECHNICALLY there's no way to "test-drive" a ship, if you join up with the Public Test Realm you can take out any tech tree ships and try them out and see how you like them.

It took me 1 week to master gunnery in WOW. Again I was in the US Navy over 34 years ago and am a Surface Warfare guy. Battleships were still in service when I was in.

Want to get better at this game? Don't pay your way to the higher tiers. Learn about concealment distances, radar distances, hydro etc.. Do not sit at the back thinking you're safe - the only thing you are doing is taking yourself away from combat. Go and look for targets to shoot and help the frontline - they aren't just there to spot for you while you hide at the back. Use your minimap and learn the ships or ship class you are playing.

I've played since mid-May, and I watch a lot of clips from YT, Flamu, PQ, and you Lord M. I try to learn how to play, but it's really hard. It's not simple, at all! I got a Kracken, but that was in a random match with tier 4-5 in a Myougi. I have one T10, StV. Really hard to get a good game in T10. I play the Asian server, I don't know if that matters. Players do seem to be very aware of how they position their ships. I have my best games in T5-7, also the most fun. More newbie videos please, one for each ship type, or one for each country... Keep them coming!

I would argue things like shell weight and krupp value aren't actually all that important. Personally I'd argue the only real important values to know when it comes to main guns are;
14.3 is the division for overmatch. (Take the size of the shell divide it by 14.3 and you've got your overmatch.)
Your reload rate.
Turret Traverse.
Gun Size.
Shell Types.
Range.
Sigma.(Hidden Value)
With a slight nod to turret angles, (technically hidden value but can be estimated in game)
Past that and it's mostly just moot. Like does it really change your decision making process to know Montana can "only" pen 500mm at 18.4km? No not really, if you see a broadside ship 18.4km away you are going to take that shot, regardless of if your AP can cit or not.
To me it feels like Wargaming is just us just enough information on our guns to make informed decisions on how the guns will perform without overloading us with information that to the average person means absolutely nothing. Like without knowing the exact pen formula knowing the Krupp, air drag, fuse timer, arming threshold, all don't really matter. Like I'm a roughly 55% win rate solo player, have been over 55% multiple times only to get hit with some bad luck and knocked back down. I don't know most of how a shell works, because that information really doesn't matter.
To get good at the game you don't need to know your shell weight. You more need to know things like positioning, build up your situational awareness, the best way I learned to do this with any game is to mute the game and force yourself to go off of what your eyes can see, learn when to push and when to kite, it's not as simple as just sit at the back of the map. Learn that your 1 and 2 keys both do something and when to use each of them. Commander builds, and what to avoid. Aiming, where to aim and don't just blame every miss on bugs, it was likely your fault look into why you missed and correct for that. The "turn out bug" has been a feature of the game for a very long time. It's nothing new. Don't focus to much onto one ship class, learning how the others play will help you to counter them. A lot of those "overpowered islands" cruisers use, have weaknesses, you just don't know what they are. Don't be afraid to watch your own replays to see where you could have done things differently. That can also help improve your situational awareness, to see the moments you can clearly see you made a mistake.
Remember most of all, "more gg equals more skill" never take a loss personally, it's a game it's meant to be enjoyed. If you can't find it within yourself to say "gg" at the end of a battle, then it's time to take a break for a bit.

From one filthy BB main to another, love the use of Ace Combat 4 music

More of this type of content please SLM. I have been playing a few years and thought I had found all the goodies, but the websites you shared are incredible tools. Only though education will we ever have a decent player base in this difficult game. Thanks,

How to get better?
Use the map and improve situational awareness.
Look what enemy is doing and dont be reactive, be active. In wows if you are reactive, its already too late, as game is slow paced anyway.
Take opportunities with clueless enemies, clap broadsides, learn when to hold fire, when to shoot, when to go undetected.
Try not to die before using all your heals.

This 47 yr old Noob grew up watching GI Joe, so I already know Knowing is Half the Battle! Yo Joe!

Great Vid, Bro. One of the best you've done. I know some facets of wows are "arcadey" but the details about actual gun dispersion/pen/overmatch, combined with general lack of understanding about armor and the angling of it, are probably the least understood by the player base. Some of that is young gamers usually play a multitude of games, lacking the time to really learn how to get good. Most first person shooter games don't require this; strategy games don't require it, but in this game... can be winning knowledge. 👍👍

What you do with your minimap is huge....learning to pay attention to map awareness and where ships are and distances from them so you know what is in torp range, radar range, gun range, etc....where protentional flanks may come from or be for you...is massive. So many new players I have talked to in clan and such still have the minimap small and in the corner. Make it big and visible so you can use that information. It is massive...not only for staying alive, but also doing dmg from learning predictable positioning.

My brain hurts - so much extra information to absorb. All good stuff but my brain gets overload issues!!!

One of the best things for a new, but committed player to do is look into some port mods, I run 2 in particular, the first is pretty basic, it tells you right on the details tab whet your overmatch is, second is the extended tech tree, being able to study the premium ships, see their guns and armor can give you a boost when fighting them

3:16 That Akatsuki must have the best AR ever

my god, over matching 68mm armor? that's nuts

This was great information. I appreciate you sharing this.

SLM trying and failing to kill-steal that Helena on 2 XP at the end LOL

Very clear explanations. Thanks.

Two things that are important about shells you didn't mention are bounce angle for ap/sap and arming threshold/fuse timer

These info should be baked into the game. It's amazing to see that such important info is not even mentioned in the client!

I've been playing WOWS now for over seven years. I can safely say that the best way to get good at WOWS is practice, practice, practice.
Co-op battles are a great place to practice your aiming, your tactics and how to survive. And while it doesn't accurately portray the different environment of Random and Ranked battles, honing your aiming and manoeuvring skills goes a long, long way.
I think many newbies make the mistake of transitioning to Random and Ranked battles a little too quickly. Do some time in Co-ops first.

Try to play in team, for example if you have a bb, a cruiser and a dd in one cap work together to get the enemy dd first and then cap, try to help your teammates, don't rush one side and leave the other alone, etc.

In a nut shell: Know your vessel. Know enemys vessels. Know your mates vessels capabilities. Aknowledge different objectives of your team mates. Know what helps your team most.
As a DD main: I know you want the cap... but hey look at the minimap once at least to understand why I hesitate to run into 3 russian cruisers lurking on the other side 😂. Understand at least that even spotting them for ya is near to a suicidal mission 😅.
So 2nd last one: Know situation on the mini map.
Last one: patience - often it's easier to re-cap, hold and win. The one capping first is the one at highest risk to be taken out within first 3 mins.
Cruisers need first to get in good position to support their DDs. Same as BBs for their cruiser mates.
An example: When I wait near cap with a Minegumo (Torper, conceilment 5.4) then do not get mad. The opponent DDs are DD hunters (my death if I try to charge them) but they got way higher conceilement... I will keep them the whole time spotted and open while they get the cap. Shoot him down and I will cap for you and hold it as best as possible 😊. That's how we should combine our forces.
Beside all technical knowledge I state that real skill is to play together and combine different strengths for a successful raid.

the other thing is, what's up with the BB drivers? I mostly drive CA's CLs (I have a couple of T7 BBs, but all of my T10's are DD's and CA's CL's).
Don't know if it's just the new guys, but more often than not, they're using the CA's as a shield. I mean, okay. but It's suppose to be the other way round, CA's support the BBs. were not there to spot for you (that's the DD's or CV's job). we're there to keep DDs and the other CA's CL's off of you. If we die right off the bat (because you wont move up), you're not safe, your just next.
(rant over)

Can you make a video dedicated to all those rare terminologies used by the WoWs community. For example, overmatch, turtle back armour, Ice breaker bow, etc... ?

Thanks microsoft for Exel, lol jokes aside its a rabbit whole alright!, I just woke up and you hit me with spreadsheets. No more office talk LOL thank you and take care.

I love this ...thank you sir very very much for this

Good video, but I think there should be a part 2 and 3, because there is a lot more to becoming a good player than just knowing stats.

I got one for you, the New Orleans, the Baltimore (the CA class of American ships) vs BB's. (esp the New Orleans). More often than no, Match Maker puts the New Orleans up against a BB, she has no torpedoes. her guns can't pen BB armor. I think once or twice on T10 the CA was able to get through Yamato armor for a citadel hit. but that's pretty rare and you have to know where to hit her.
the question, what's the secret, how does NO (or any of the other lower tier CA's combat a BB (and live to tell the tale)??

Hold your horses for a moment SLM... All the stats and specs about shells in the spreadsheets are basically two things: 1) a way to make shells move in a 3D digital space. 2) an illusion of 'scientific precision'. They aren't and indicator of performance in any way because from the moment you press 'battle' to the last second of a game, the "RNG" co-decides what happens. And acknowledging that means admitting that it's not much more than throwing a dice. Sure, there are fixed parameters that work in a binary way like detection but there's too much BS. As one of your fellow YTers said it this week: the game should have the tag "comedy" . Fire & flood chance, citadels, overpens/shatters and the biggest one of all: pen damage ... throwing dices. Just think about why WG won't publish ballistics specs in an arty game ... So to anyone considering grinding a few hundred or thousand hours : know that the best team doesn't always win...

hahaha about 2 business days to get to the target :D :D @ 07:51

it still astonishes me how toxic some of the wows players are regarding skill in this VIDEOGAME, like common you're probably an adult and then you act like winning this game is the most important thing ever? I mean yes it might be frustrating to see someone new who doesn't really know what to do but do you really have to be so damn toxic towards them? That's just really fricking childish imo. Not everyone has this game as their top priority and after all it's still just a game meant to be fun.

Air drag similar to ballistic coefficients in small bore rifle slugs, big heavy for caliber better against wind and energy retention down range compared to light shell of same caliber.

Thank you Sea Lord.

Question: Did anyone face crashes with code error -nvlddmkm 153 (0) :'\Device\Video3', 'Error occurred on GPUID: 100'. Send report to WG and they tald me are the GPU Drivers. I did clean instalation but still the same problem. Any advice? Nvidia RTX 2060.

I do like your videos, even though you do mostly BB stuff. (from time to time, I even pick up new trick or two).

The real trick is trying to keep track of all the ships that keep entering the game bc you need to be concerned not only about the ships you are driving but also all the other ships that you may be up against and/or teamed with. Research is key but not sure where to start. Suggestions SLM?

love the ace combat 4 music

Please please please can you make a guide with all the updates and changes on how to aim ASW airstrikes based on the the sub ping indicators. I cant tell you how many times I see a sub ping and I think the sub is moving in one direction, launch my ASW only to find out soon after that hes in the the complete opposite direction... I feel like that sub ping indicator has a surprising amount of information but we arent overtly told in game how to decipher the ping indicator. For example, is the concave the direction they are moving, or the direction of the front of the sub? Is the way it moves, does that indicate again movement or direction because a sub can be facing forward but moving in reverse. Maybe im just bad and need more practice but i think if people could more accurately target subs the frustration level around subs would go down.......maybe just maybe.

It's super hard to become better unless you're playing with people on chat and people that don't suck. It's truly a team game

To instantly become a better player at the game spend $5,000 and buy Tier 11 superships, and tons of doubloons so you can buy every legendary upgrade and flag to make ship more powerful, more likely to set fires, floods, extend your secondary range, improve your speed, etc.

All these numbers are kind of broken anyways.
A meter isnt a meter, a kilometer isnt a kilometer and a knot is absolutely not a knot in this game.
Just measure the stuff. Torpedos go hundreds of knots, ships are over 1km wide and carriers are larger than a city,

I like the 42cm gun that gk have 😊

Very simple way to get better: accept criticism, apologise, and ask how to improve (works for real life too!)
Doesn't matter if you play casually or competitively, if you messed up, you messed up.

I'll stick to being mostly a stinking DD player for now. I like movement in the game, can't stand camping too much.
Had an odd game tonight. Only 1 solo cap, 2 cheap kills (Shima for 1k, Napoli for 6k). Had around 19-21k HP. I was low tier T-8 Ashasio, in a mostly T10 game. My XP ended up at about 2850. Seemed real high for what I contributed.

Hey Sealord, sorry to nit pick (again, I guess) at 04:45 you say that "... 460mm shell, that's how far around it is", the calibre is the diameter, not circumference. Though I'm pretty sure you probably just misspoke and knew that, yeah? This mainly for people who aren't aware.

the spotting mechanic is the hardest thing to learn.

That Atlanta player is dense lol.

How bout that big Atlanta magnet u had on the Mass?

I wish they had a flood chance on torps... like they have a fire chance percentage for HE-Fires

So, to become better at this game I simply should get into naval war engineering, no problem!

Me after a month and a half of playing: hopefully i get good at this soon...
'8 months to a year to get a good grasp of the game'
😭

I'm a simple weaboo. I see ship, I shoot ship. I use DD, I hold W and torp. I use CV, I annoy one ship at a time. I use sub, I go underwater. I use Brit'sh ships, I burn enemy. It's just simple, guys.

Do any of the third party sites take into account the value of Atlanta strap on armour?
Jeez that guys ate those shells for you!

This is not useful advice for beginning and poor players. This is advice for people who want to go from average/good experienced players to advanced good/great players. The primary failures of inexperienced/poor players to play well have to do with not understanding the role their ship should play in a team game, not recognizing the general strengths and weaknesses of the classes of ships, not keeping an eye on the score/clock/overall situation, not knowing how to use their ship's abilities properly (e.g. detection range, smoke firing penalty, torpedo range, radar/hydro, etc.), not understanding where to aim at enemy ships and with what ammo (in general, rather than knowing that ship X has extra belt armor while ship Y has an icebreaker bow). Perhaps even a short tutorial on how to set up the mini-map display to show useful ranges for each ship would help many poor players.
My biggest complaint about poor players at low and mid-tiers is their tendency to play far too defensively in the opening and middle stages of the game, effectively removing themselves from the fight when it matters most. They play to stay alive, not to win as a team, and they are too risk averse when team aggression and mutual support is the better path to getting ahead on kills/damage early and securing the win. The frustrating part of that strategy is that occasionally it rewards them with a great game (i.e. partial reinforcement is the strongest behavioral modifier) when their teammates have almost won it, but they get to mop up and claim the victory against multiple nearly dead enemies.
Part of the blame for a poor player base belongs with Wargaming. The lower tiers used to be fun and competitive enough for good players to stick around in and still enjoyable for newer players to work their way slowly through those tiers and explore the different feels of each country's navies. But WG so strongly disincentivizes playing T2-T4 for experienced players it is hardly worth our time, and because WB also allows people rapid (almost immediate it appears) vaulting to the top tiers for new players they never spend the time in the minor leagues where these most basic skills and general understanding of game mechanics is learned.

How can any of that trivia you just blurted out help a new player?

"Instantly?" I think not. More like months/years of study and memorization.

You said in the beginning, It's an Arcade game, that's why it's broke. When it first came out it was fun, just like WOT was.

hello

Just because all that information is available don't mean it's needed to play the game well. Don't even need it to min/max the game for those that want to compete at a higher level. This is just what happens when you mix a passion for naval warfare + play a lot of world of warships, you get must know everything and think it's important. And no, there are no real physics inside a video game. Just take a shot at a friendly target, magically those big heavy BB shells seem to do nothing on impact, they been whisked away by the anti troll software.
Everyone learns at a different pace, just get out there and play the ships you like, watch some game play videos on the ships you like, you will get better. If you do like to nerd out of stuff like this, look it up. Like almost anything doing the thing is the best learning tool, and watching those that do it well.

Hi, there is nothing instant in improving your performance, like getting new ships its a grind to get better. The only thing instant is a dev strike.

Play Columbo, shoot stuff, repeat 😂

As a new player, I've notice you must protect the flag area, seems bots who are the biggest population don't do that....

I have played with you. You are not a team player. Your motto is "every man for himself".

So are people actually memorizing all of this info to be effective in game? That's a lot of information to take in.

Just play Co-op only like most players do. You don't need to play randoms at all!

Its not getting instantly better when you need to study and memorize all this hidden information. I guess i`ll just keep playing this casually, cause i dont have all that time to invest.

Would you say the information is "Oversimplified"?
"Theres a tax for that"

To play WoWs well one needs to finish WoWs university, memorize parameters of hundreds of ships, have eagle eye and most importantly have great luck to compensate for the game's RNG :)
If one does not do and have the above they experience will be miserable.

WoW is not a Game to play after a workday.

you can be better at any server but not here at Asia 😂

Only a sad minority would seek out this information or remember each nuance of each ship, most will have a life!

The deliberate irresponsibility of game designers when they deliberately hide information to make their players worse is idiotic.

Who else just points and clicks lol

Yo

@3:40 you should of really ended off your argument that the game has a low floor but a high ceiling when it comes to the skill of the players. You ended it off with saying that its simple as the players want it to be simple. Even though your entire videos argument is that the game is not simple past its surface.

i need more time

If you know how to play a slot-machine...you can play WOWS.

Im playing this game now 3 months on pc i was playing it before 4 years on ps but because the gameplay is so bad i went to pc n to be honest i should have bin earlier on there. But anyway i know how to aim n know also the weak spots from the most ships n yeah never go broadside. I like to play CV or Destroyer sometimes but i always will be a battleship player on WOW.

Ayy

"There is physics in the game." Yeha , some bullshit physics, like overpens.

Calling either WoWS or WoT “simply” is insulting lol

The game is simple if ur a gamer nothing crazy here

There is a mod for adding overmatch to your stats

The player base is absolute trash these days.

How To Instantly Get Better At The Game: Turn it off and uninstall and then never play it again. Problem solved.

How to get better:
Don't get into this game 😅

LOL WOWS have nothing to do With Ships . The MM and Playing the System is what you need to know . No Matter what your skill is it the Team that Matters and you can't pick Your team . I wonder how many battles he had to play to get a good REPLAY LOL

no one actually cares about the air drag coefficient. there's now way to calculate or understand what that means on the fly.
the game has built-in travel time indicator in the ALT view. that's the result of the drag coefficient and the only number that matters.

WoT is kindergarten compared to WoWS.
I had maybe 5 years of WoT and very occasionally watch a KK video over the last 6 years since I uninstalled.
You still go to exactly the same spots on each map and play the same game over and over.
WoWS needs different positioning every single game.

I can't become a better player, my WR is stuck at 46. And nobody likes me and wants to help me. there is no hope for me, i should just uninstall even though i like playing this game and trying my best, it will never be good enough. i will never be good enough. i am a dead weight to every team or clan, i am a loser, i was born one so it shouldn't be surprising.

With all due respect, Sea Lord, this is terrible advice. At least for a video with that title. The first thing people should learn is not the detailed characteristics of their guns. Learning how not to die is much more important. And that includes proper positioning, among other things. If there is one simple advice you could give someone to make them a better player, it would be to use the minimap more often. You should be throwing a glance at it at least every 30 seconds. I see so many players, both new and old, who don't seem aware of their surroundings at all. And that's a sure way to get killed.

It's a shit game. Utter garbage. Three weeks of back-to-back losses in T10. Absolute waste of time. It's not worth the effort. Tons of better games out there, where you actually get a game and not a rollover.

How to get better at wows?
Mt baton - "Git good scrub!"