Visibility

Hi folks!

Today, I'll leave some thoughts about visibility, and how it can be used in your playstyle. Visibility in World of Warships is affected by several factors:

• ship class - smaller ships like destroyers have much lower visibility than large ships.
• modifications - in higher tiers, ships can be outfitted with superstructure mods that reduce visibility (usually by 10%)
• camouflage paint - besides giving other perks, they usually reduce the visibility by a couple more %

In the game, visibility is marked by the dotted circle around your ship, with the full line being the range of your currently selected weapon. 

Firing guns

Once you fire any of your main or secondary batteries, your visibility will bloom, and it will take a while of you not firing them for it to go down again. The impact this has on your strategy depends on the ship type you're sailing, and what kind of build you're going for.

Battleships

Being the largest ships out there, battleships usually get spotted first, easily halfway across the map. Stealth isn't really something required for battleship strategies, since you'll be mostly firing from behind your destroyer / cruiser screen at range. That said, if you build for lower detection range, and manage to show up in a place where you're not expected early in the game, you can get a slight advantage out of it - but I probably would use the modification slots for more important things.

Cruisers

Smaller than battleships, they're still relying mostly on their main guns to deal damage, and once the firefight is up, they're easily spotted. That said, if your main gun range is larger than your visibility, you can get the first salvo off against an unsuspecting target, provided they're spotted and you aren't.

Destroyers

Here, visibility really comes into play. Especially Japanese destroyers with their relatively weak guns and long-range torpedoes can benefit hugely from low visibility. A common attack pattern is to sneak up just outside spotting range, fire a salvo of torpedoes at an unsuspecting target, and get out again unspotted. American and Russian / Soviet destroyers have much shorter torpedo ranges, so it's harder for them to pull of these "stealth strikes". Still, getting out of spotting range means you won't be shot at by long-range, fast-firing cruisers. Dropping smoke screens also helps quite a bit.

So after you've dropped your torpedoes, and you haven't yet been spotted, hold off on the gunfire - it might be a better choice to turn, get some distance and stay out of sight. Of course, once you're spotted, you might as well open up with the main guns. Again, US and Russian destroyers have the advantage here, they're close-range fighters.

Carriers

Having a low visibility on a carrier can help hiding it from enemy eyes, but there are two factors to consider - first, there's a good chance of an enemy carrier in the game, and planes are very good at spotting. Second, it's easy to see where you should be just by following the planes, since they're visible across the whole map.

In general, camouflage helps in the game (how I hate the games where I got hit by two loads of torpedoes in my "Admiral Hipper" without even ever seeing the enemy Kagero class once). But, as always, it depends on your ship class and playstyle.