World of Warships Ranked Battle Tips

World of Warships Ranked Battle Tips by jasdaw

Ranked battles require a different mindset than random battles. Below are some of my thoughts on how to mentally prepare for enjoying and succeeding in the ranked season.

Primary Goal: Focus on scoring more points than the other team, not sinking the other team. Once you learn this, you will be surprised how few people actually get it.

1. Team score is more important than personal score.
2. Never forget that every tick of zone ownership adds points to the team score. (+9 this season)
3. Ships in enemy controlled zones limits their point gain.
4. Ship kills are fun, but not the goal. They are just a another method for scoring points.
5. Sniping is rarely an effective early/mid match tactic. Instead, it simply reduces your teams’ effectiveness on the main source of points, the objective zones. A BB with full health at the end of the match was probably carried by his team; you have many more of them than the rest of your team…use them.
6. Know you target priority based on ship size. In general, target the smallest ship you can reliably hit. DDs are game winners in ranked because they can capture zones quickly and easily with their speed and stealth. If you are a BB or CA/CL firing at battleships in the early game you are most likely contributing to a loss. There will be plenty of time in the end game to finish off full health battleships, so avoid it until then.
7. That torpedo spread that might kill you is also trying to force you to turn away and leave the objective.
8. If you lose two or three matches in a row, take a break and let your mind relax.
9. Ranked battles are fast, intense, and can have dramatic sways of points in the mid/endgame.
10. Blaming your team in chat is often a terrible distraction, even if both the arguers are already sunk. Try to avoid being that guy. .
11. If you are 1 or 2 salvos away from dying, focus on staying alive to keep the score up.
12. Don’t sit broadside in smoke screens. Good DD captains will launch torp spreads at enemy smoke in an attempt to fish for a kill/chase you off point. As an addition to this, launch torp spreads at enemy smoke, to fish for a DD kill and/or force them off point.

EDIT: More food for thought: In addition to hiding a pesky DD, smokescreens are also an element of battlefield control. They act like a wall to scare cautious captains away from and area and as a baited trap for overly aggressive captains to charge into. Correctly recognizing which it is, while in the right ship can lead to rewarding action.

More Tips by Lord Gloomy

Tip 1: Capping the majority of the points is the single most important act you can do in the game. 2/2 cap points on 2 cap maps and 2/3 cap points on 3 cap maps will skyrocket your teams chances of winning.

Tip 2: Resetting an enemy’s cap points as they try to capture your base is the second most important act you can do.

Tip 3: Destroyers can quickly get to the fringe points to cap them as well as scout the enemy teams deployments. They can also use their stealth in the mid game to cap.

Tip 4: If you are a cruiser or battleship, learn to share healthpools with your team-mates, be aggressive and get inside of cap points. It is extremely frustrating to see a battleship out at 20km lobbing and missing shots while the enemy strolls in and takes a capture point. Until you are inside or extremely close to a cap point, you should not be turning broadside or away from the battle.

Tip 5: If you are inside a cap point, you are usually denying the enemy that space, forcing them to drive further away from the objective if your team is punishing them too much. It will take them even more time to get back into the objective.

Tip 6: If you have the majority of the cap points do not feel pressured to push against and fire against the enemy. They will lose quickly unless they assault your position which can let you setup ambushes and optimal firing solutions.

Tip 7: Winning is all that matters, if you need to sacrifice your ship to go deal with someone about to cap your point and change the tide, it is a well worth trade.

Tip 8: Try to vocalize a plan in the beginning of battle. And pressure a centralized area as a group. In A/B/C cap points send the whole team to B to go fight, while a quick destroyer caps a/c. Again securing the majority of the cap points is the quickest way to victory.

Tip 9: Try to stay calm. I personally got very frustrated last night, realize you will lose and sometimes it will be out of your control, get ready mentally for the next game and try to educate people as much as possible.

Winning Strategy by Grandma

WIN-Strategies:

1) Map with two cap bases => Hold base cap zone & kill all enemy ships OR hold both cap zones and hide from enemy fire.

2) Map with three cap zones => Send DDs to cap zones (if available). Capture two cap zones AND hold them with fleet. Stay back and defend the zones.

3) Map with four cap zones => Send DDs to cap zones (if available). Capture at least two cap zones AND hold them. Fight for a third cap zone.

Basically there are only four simple tactics to winning most games:

a) DDs must cap

b) Fleet defends the cap zones.

c) Capping has absolute priority with ca. 80% win chance. Ego-Shooting and CV chasing is mostly worthless.

d) Leave one cap zone to the enemy and only infiltrate their cap zone with DDs (no capital ships).