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Worcester is a Legendary American light cruiser whose 152mm guns farm HE fires and sustained DPM. Surveillance Radar (9 km) is the cap-control consumable on top, so she sets fights as well as winning them. Both shells run cohort-strong (top-decile AP at 561,951 AP DPM and top-decile HE at 386,341 HE DPM), making her a dual-threat gunship: keep AP up against broadsides and citadels, and switch to HE against bow-in ships, superstructures, and the thin or angled targets AP over-penetrates or bounces off. AA (689 AA DPS at 6 km, +100% Defensive AA flak burst) is heavy enough to make her the team's air-defense anchor on top of the lead role; CV strikes route around her, not through. Standout traits: best fires per minute in Legendary CAs (21.1) and end-plate armor (32 mm).
Hold 12-15 km from a contested cap with an island close enough to break sightline when focus shifts. Push the radar forward only once the destroyer fight is yours; burning the drop to fish for a lone DD kill leaves the next push with no answer to smoke or vision. Your guns lose penetration at range, so aim AP at broadsides you can still citadel and put HE into superstructures and upper-hull sections, rather than the bow-in or belt armor your shells bounce and shatter on.
The consumable's value is locking down a cap your team can take, not stealing a single salvo on a lone DD. Burn it early to fish for a kill and the next push has no answer to smoke or vision.
9 km range, 30 s duration. Detects all enemy ships within a fixed radius regardless of line-of-sight. Controls caps and punishes smoke-firing DDs.
32.0 mm bow and stern plating, both in the top bracket of Legendary CAs. Same-tier guns can't overmatch the ends.
No stat falls into the cohort's bottom decile across Legendary CAs. Stable baseline in every category, no glaring weakness to play around.
Worcester is a Premium ship and not available to unlock in the Tech Tree. Acquisition path: Premium/Event.
Pair with a commander whose unique skill complements her main armament; check the build tool for current recommendations.
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Where Worcester sits among Legendary CAs (22 ships). Notable standouts are shown first; the rest of the cohort-ranked stats are in the expand below. Acquisition variants (Black Friday, Founders Edition) are counted once with their base ship, not as separate peers.
Not standouts for Worcester -- here's where she sits on every other ranked stat in the cohort. Stats tagged NORM are tied across more than half the cohort, so the value is the cohort default rather than a standout.
Damage Control Party∞ charges · 60 s reload · 5 s active
Sonar2 charges · 180 s reload · 96 s active · 4.44 km ship detect 
Defensive AA Fire3 charges · 140 s reload · 25 s active · +100% flak burst boost
Surveillance Radar2 charges · 120 s reload · 30 s active · 9 km radar range 
Catapult Fighter4 charges · 80 s reload · 90 s active · 5 km patrol radius 
Repair Party2 charges · 80 s reload · 28 s active · 6,356 HP (14% of max HP) total heal (per charge) All values are ship base stats with modifications and upgrade changes denoted inline.
Numbers the spec table cannot show directly: alpha-strike math, DPM, dispersion, AP penetration. Click the formula chip on any row to reveal how it is calculated.
Horizontal dispersion ellipse width at max range, from the verified WoWS dispersion model: $\sigma_H = \left(\dfrac{R}{30}\cdot\dfrac{\text{idealRadius}-\text{minRadius}}{\text{idealDistance}} + \text{minRadius}\right)\cdot 30$ $= \left(\dfrac{15339}{30}\cdot\dfrac{8-1.1}{1000} + 1.1\right)\cdot 30 = 138.8\,\text{m}$How wide your shells scatter at 10 km, from the same dispersion model as the max-range figure above. Picking a fixed range makes this number directly comparable from ship to ship: max-range dispersion makes a longer-range gun look worse even when it's tighter at any common range. The interactive Dispersion tab on the Charts card plots the full curve from 0 to max range.Vertical dispersion ellipse height at max range: $\sigma_V = \sigma_H \cdot \text{radiusOnMax}$ $= 138.8 \cdot 0.6 = 83.3\,\text{m}$How tall the same scatter ellipse is at 10 km. Comparable from ship to ship for the same reason as the width value above.50%-hit horizontal radius: $\sigma_{H,50} = \sigma_H \cdot \text{GetHalfHitsRatio}(\sigma)$ $= 138.8 \cdot 0.314\;(\sigma = 2.05) = 43.6\,\text{m}$50%-hit vertical radius: $\sigma_{V,50} = \sigma_V \cdot \text{GetHalfHitsRatio}(\sigma)$ $= 83.3 \cdot 0.313\;(\sigma = 2.05) = 26.1\,\text{m}$Standard cruiser dispersion baseline.Canonical community AP formula (jcw780/wows_shell), evaluated at muzzle velocity: $P = 10^{-7}\cdot K \cdot m^{0.69} \cdot d^{-1.07} \cdot v_0^{1.38}$ $= 10^{-7}\cdot 2692 \cdot 59^{0.69} \cdot 0.152^{-1.07} \cdot 762^{1.38} = 319.5\,\text{mm}$. Matches the in-game spec card.Same formula at the ship's max firing range (19.2 km), where the shell has slowed to 321.7 m/s: $P = 10^{-7}\cdot 2692 \cdot 59^{0.69} \cdot 0.152^{-1.07} \cdot 321.7^{1.38} = 97.2\,\text{mm}$.In-game data: 30 mm = 152 mm caliber / 5.07 (non-standard HE penetration ratio).floor(152 mm caliber / 14.3) = 10 mm (AP auto-penetrates plating this thick or less).AP shell over-penetration splash radius; scales with shell mass. Wickes 102mm = 3, standard 152mm CL ~ 20, Iowa 406mm ~ 270, Yamato 460mm = 400, Incomparable 650mm = 550 (max). Larger value = bigger splash damage area when AP over-pens.All 12 barrels bear on the broadside.180 degrees / 25 deg/s traverse speed = 7.2 s.2,200 HE damage x 12 broadside guns = 26,400.3,200 AP damage x 12 broadside guns = 38,400.26,400 HE full-salvo alpha x 60 / 4.6 s base reload = 344,348.38,400 AP full-salvo alpha x 60 / 4.6 s base reload = 500,870.26,400 HE full-salvo alpha x 60 / 4.1 s installed reload (Main Battery Mod. 3 = -10%) = 386,341.38,400 AP full-salvo alpha x 60 / 4.1 s installed reload (Main Battery Mod. 3 = -10%) = 561,951.12 broadside guns x 60 / 4.6 s base reload = 156.5.12 broadside guns x 60 / 4.1 s installed Artillery reload = 175.6.156.5 shells/min x 12% fire chance = 18.78.175.6 shells/min x 12% fire chance = 21.07.Sum across every AA aura on this ship of (aura.continuous_damage x 3.5 x aura.hit_probability). Here: (157×3.5×0.9) + (40×3.5×0.85) + (24×3.5×0.9) = 689. Covers AA-only mounts plus dual-purpose secondaries (Bismarck 105mm, USN 5"/38 cruiser secondaries) and dual-purpose main batteries (Sumner-class 5"/38, Akizuki-line 100mm). Formula validated against in-game captures on California, Sumner, Manfred von Richthofen, Dante Alighieri (exact) and within +/-17% on the remaining verified ships.Longest-reaching aura across AA-only + dual-purpose auras.SUM over AA auras of (aura DPS x aura range km). A plane crossing the AA bubble is exposed to each aura for a time proportional to that aura's range, so long-reach DPS is worth more than the same DPS in a short bubble. Units: DPS*km; used to rank overall AA threat across the cohort.Hull HP 45,400, distributed across 5 hull zones, each with its own plate thicknesses, saturation cap, and pen thresholds. HP caps are the exact in-game values, not estimated.
Overmatched by 7 guns here: Incomparable SE 25IncomparableYamato and 4 more. Angling still helps against the rest.
AP can citadel a flat broadside even at range. Stay angled and avoid showing the full side.
Superstructure and extremities take HE pens and AP overpens from nearly any gun: steady chip damage. Fire resistance 40%, fires burn 30s. Range-by-range in the ballistics tool →
| Section | Plates | HP cap | Threats | Tactic |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bow | 32 mm primary (range 32–40 mm) | 1,400 (3% of HP) | Overmatched by 460mm+ (Aki, Musashi)Angle bounces 410mm32 mm: HE pens from 203mm+ | Bow-tank fits behind this exterior plate. Saturation is FAST here; the cap is often only a few thousand HP. |
| Hull (midship) | 25 mm primary (range 6–102 mm) | 34,100 (75% of HP) | Overmatched by 380mm+ (Alsace, Bourgogne)Angle bounces 356mm25 mm: HE pens from 150mm+ | Largest HP pool. Citadel sits behind these plates; thinner deck and side plating absorb the rest. |
| Stern | 32 mm primary (range 6–102 mm) | 3,600 (8% of HP) | Overmatched by 460mm+ (Aki, Musashi)Angle bounces 410mm32 mm: HE pens from 203mm+ | Mirror of bow. Same fast saturation. |
| Citadel | 127 mm primary (range 25–127 mm) | ≈ 165,500 (effectively no cap) | Citadel pen: full damageOver-pen: ×0.10 damage | Effectively no cap; citadel pool sits at ~165k HP on every ship. An AP citadel penetration deals the shell's full damage, the biggest single hit available; only over-penetrations are damped, to ×0.10. |
| Superstructure | 16 mm | no cap | Any HE ≥16 mm pens at full damage | Any HE ≥16 mm pens at full damage. HE-spam target, and the section saturates fast (often only a few thousand HP). |
| Turret (module, per magazine) | separate HP pool, does not drain ship HP | 22,700 magazine HP | Magazine detonation1–30% chance · below ~75% HP | Per-turret powder-magazine HP. Detonation chance scales from 1% (no mag damage) to 30% (full mag damage); this range is the in-game value. Detonation can't roll while the ship is above ~75% HP (the standard detonation-protection threshold, not a per-ship stat). Smaller magazines saturate to the 30% ceiling faster. |
| AA mount (76 mm mount) | separate HP pool, does not drain ship HP | 200 per-mount HP | Destroyed at 0 HP | Per-mount HP for the heaviest AA on this ship. An AA mount destroyed at 0 HP stops shooting down planes for the rest of the battle; DCP does not repair destroyed mounts. HE shells specifically target AA mounts since the small-caliber HP pool falls fast. |
| Rudder (module) | separate HP pool, does not drain ship HP | 13,600 module HP | Incapacitated at 0 HP | When module HP reaches 0 the rudder locks at its current angle until DCP repairs it. Repair via Damage Control Party. |
Saturation cap = HP a section can absorb before further damage to it is reduced (the "bow-tank" effect). Citadel pool is ~165k on every ship (effectively no cap); damage is gated by pen/over-pen multipliers instead. Superstructure saturates fast but HE always pens regardless of the plate thickness. Rudder (and other module HPs) are a separate pool from ship HP: damaging a module doesn't drain ship HP. Incapacitated modules like the rudder and engine are restored by DCP, but secondary and AA mounts destroyed at 0 HP stay out for the rest of the battle.
Balance updates affecting Worcester. Cards are condensed; use each source link for full context.
Every custom exterior Worcester can equip, from in-game data.
Filtered to official World of Warships: Legends pages where this ship is a focus, reward, line member, or high-context variant mention.