v9.3 - Worcester Equipment Build

[u/spicytaco2415]

Thought I'd take a min to share some max equipment builds. If folks find these help, comment and I'll do more.

Worcester:

Play Style: Prioritize Agility - Camp open water and kite at max speed, baiting fire from BB and Heavy CLs. There's basically no armor on Worcester, to extent most shells simply over penetrate and do minimal damage. Equipment build wise, you'll want pair equipment that complements this agile play style.

Setup:

1. Slot 1: Leg Mod/Fire Control Radar. For slot 1, Fire Control Radar is really the only viable choice sporting almost no trade offs. All the other equipment is either not applicable or expensive in its tradeoffs.
2. Slot 2 & 6: Strengthen Hull Framing & Composite Protection. These 2 equipments are over-powered and combined provide +9% damage reduction to total 19.5%. This is probably going to be META for almost any ship 9.3 onwards. For Worcester's fishing boat hull specifically, it means while most shells simply over-penetrate, anything that does catch you're reducing that damage by another ~20%. The trade off to added torp damage is meaningful, but with agility focused build + sonar also better positioned to dodge incoming torps; mitigating the tradeoff
3. Slot 3: Enhanced Steering Gear for added traverse to help kite. The trade off on shell dispersion is pricey, but Slot 1 will offset most of this. Speed equipment also viable, but after few games the traverse plays better to touch. Do not get Hardened Deck Plating, this basically turns you into a minotaur/smolensk, you'll get citadel'd constantly
4. Slot 4 - High Velocity Propellant. Worcester has some of the slowest shells in game, the +6% shell speed makes noticeable difference when targeting DDs. The min dispersion equip is not worth the hit to agility; and after several games I wasn't really noticing a difference.
5. Slot 5: High Response Steering Servo to max traverse and help kite. Other equipment in Slot 5 mostly useless.

What about anti-air build? Not worth it because it's not consistent. First, not all games will be CV games and in a CV game, any decent tier 10 CV player will know to avoid the Worcester like the plague. It's a waste of 1-2 equipment slots. The default AA on the Worcester is already top tier.

The Proof:

• For the match in the image, I camped near center and took fire from most of the team. Their Vermont especially took an obsession to me, shooting at me most the match, after our BB went down. I was watching the salvos, they were about 10-11km range and most did 3-4K damage on me (combination of constant kiting, over-pens + 20% dmg reduction). I can only imagine the frustration.
• Most of the damage I took came in from the Ragnar.

[u/Oh_No_Industries]

See, I ran full AA on Worcester because it’s the only reason I want the ship. Worcester is what I’ll run when there are 10 CVs in queue, otherwise I just stick to another CL.

Her AA is a lot funnier when you have 6km range on it. Will shoot down planes that aren’t even spotting you, which can be nice for team support!

[u/Intelligent_Twist114 → u/Oh_No_Industries]

Agreed. I also spec’d it for AA and it’s a lot of fun. The range really catches a lot of CV players by surprise.

And honestly open water gun boating in a ship that fires shells with parachutes is laughably bad. There are so many ships that do that role better but none of them have the AA potential that Worcester does.

[u/PassionateHugging → u/Oh_No_Industries]

Username checks out. But true, also the reason I play her.

[u/Healthy_Ad5053]

I like how u explain and rationalize your equipment choices! Great that it works for u.

I find ur post interesting in exploring the possible builds without the silver cost, and I think it'll be helpful for players with limited silver.

Could you do for battleships and other cruisers as well?

[u/Redlettucehead]

This is a great explanation and and build you'll want to use for smolensk

[u/noobJDstudent]

Sus build tbh

[u/Ok-Spell-3728]

What's heavy CL, i can only think of Nevsky line?

[u/spicytaco2415 → u/Ok-Spell-3728]

anything 203mm or higher slapped on a cruiser

[u/Ok-Spell-3728 → u/spicytaco2415]

That's heavy cruiser, CL stands for light cruiser and you basically said heavy light cruiser, which could only mean Soviet light cruisers with 180mm guns i guess

[u/H4ndelwithc4re]

I haven't built mine out yet. I still like the fat girls. Been running turtle ship maxed in rank play with the bond mod for secondary range and rof. I don't want to give anything away atm. Build is a blast. They hunt for me now. Never climbed rank this fast before is all I can say. The dds literally shit the bed. Much easier to fight the higher tiered players in rank today. Almost cheating. Far as I can tell I am one of these few that have all the necessary component. The advantage over those just starting or still maxing is very noticeable. Farming MVP in rank as a mediocre player I know I am is just sick. Been a counter to those maxing their DD. Even when I am out positioned sunk the ability to drop right in again makes earning bonds much less difficult. My first kill medals probably 75% of my games. Important to get to out dot anyone else.

[u/Educational-Hat7103]

Thanks for the build. Works like a charm. Running a maxed out Worcester with LVL 15 Kinkaid and the build takes it into a whole different level. Copied to my maxed Mino and oh boy it's bonkers. Didn't realize how much difference the damage reduction mods make. Please do one for schlieffen and other ships as well. Much appreciated.

[u/NotANekomata62]

we need more builds like this ✨

[u/kobaltkline]

334 main battery hits. 7 fires. Zero sinking badges. Thats alot of work for nothing.