Captain Skill Guide

(Note: DD = Destroyer, CA/CL = Cruiser, BB = Battleship, CV = Aircraft Carrier)


---One Point Skills---

Expert Loader: The least useful one point skill. You are better off just firing what you have loaded most of the time as long as you are following the meta. (DDs and CLs keep HE loaded and only switch to AP if apropriate, CAs and BBs keep AP loaded and only switch to HE when apropriate).

Basic Fire Training: Get this if you are a spammy CL with guns 155 or lower. Some US DD may want to get this. Battleships may want to get this if they are secondary rigged.(Nagato, Yamato, etc.) It helps with AA but honestly id get this pretty late if i were only taking it for AA.

Basics of Survivability: If you are stacking this with the -15% mod as well, it can be quite good on ships with the heal skill, since you can just let fires burn. I wouldn't take it unless I was also taking that mod. It replaces the rudder shift time so a BB must really think about whether its worth it or not. This leaves it decent for t9 and 10 CA fireproofing efforts, but its not a skill anyone should take right off the bat. tl;dr - Must have for BB's if you don't want to burn to a crisp.

Situational Awareness: Knowing when the enemy can see you? Yes please! Not only this tells you if the enemy will shoot at you, it also "detects" DDs in your surroundings. Detected with no enemy in sight? There's a DD roaming around! A must have for DDs, CL, CV, very helpful still for CA and BBs. Easily lets you know if you can sail in a straight line or not.

Expert Rear Gunner: This is supposed to be for CVs but the perf to planes is so weak that most people use Situation Awareness.

---Two Point Skills---

Expert Marksman: Brilliant skill for all slow turning turrets, even with the recent nerf. It looks small but it adds up. On BBs, it shaves between 7 and 10 seconds of turret rotation time. Count 7 seconds in your head. Yeah, that's the amount of time you couldn't shoot at the enemy because your guns were not there. Pretty irrelevant on DDs that have fast turret turn though.

Torpedo Armament Expertiese: Must have for CVs, extremely helpful for Torpedos DDs. Anyone else can skip it.

Fire prevention: Check http://forum.worldofwarships.com/index.php?/topic/38735-fire-prevention-and-demolition-expert-the-math/ for the math. It is pretty underwhelming and worth ignoring altogether.

Incoming Fire Alert: This will help you improve your dodging skills by warning you of incoming fire, preferably on cruisers or long range DDs. Not a must pick but a bit of help to you survivabliity.

Last Stand: This is an excellent perk for ships that tend to take often crippling shots, DDs and CLs. It's the difference between life and death for a DD. It allows you to keep a bit of maneuverability if your Damage Control Party Consumable is on cooldown. Far less useful on BBs or CVs.


---Three Point Skills---

Torpedo Acceleration: This is a brand new skill. I have not used it and haven't read enough feedback about it to make an accurate description. To me the trade-off is weird, better used on mid-range torpedoes engagements, but I'm not sure the +5 knots is worth a 3 points skill. Quite useful for CVs.

High Alert: Pretty good all-round skill to have for any ship. Not much else to say, it boosts by quite a lot your survivability.

Vigilance: Being able to see torpedoes coming from further away. To be used if you're sick of getting torpedoed by stealth DDs all day long. Not a must-have though, this is still a 3 points skill. Maybe if it were only one point it could be worth it, but if you are waiting until torpedoes are detected to try and doge them you have already waited too late. Its main use would be in detecting torpedoes in a larger radius if you are screening for your team, if you are a sneaky DD or something.

Dogfighting Expert: Another skill aimed at CVs captains that is very underwhelming. The boost is not only weak, but also very situational.

Superintendent: One more smoke screen, fighter launch, etc. Useful if you're pro at staying alive for quite some time. Helpful on BBs with one more healing kit, or with AA specs Cruisers, or gunboats DDs. It loses a bit in helpfulness if you use premium consumables.

---Four Point Skills---

Demolition Expert: Take this if you are a flamethrower. Even if the percentage looks lower than Fire Prevention, the math behind it (http://forum.worldofwarships.com/index.php?/topic/38735-fire-prevention-and-demolition-expert-the-math/) makes this skill pretty good on most DDs, and to a lesser degree Cruisers. It is additive to your base fire chance meaning it will be a good ~30% fire chance upgrade for CLs and DDs and ~20% for CAs. Its not as good as as that sounds, and in practice you will not set that many more fires per game, but you will set noticeably more fires.

Advanced Fire Training: Take this too, in fact take it first, if you are a flamethrower. A constant stream of spam on a BB at longer range is better than a closer range one that may set one additional fire. BBs should take this for secondaries and AA. CAs should take this for AA. Basically everyone except carriers should take this. You can skip it as a DD now since DD guns were nerfed against anything not a DD, and US DD guns are not going to be hitting enemy DDs at their max range reliably even with out this upgrade.

Survivability Expert: Another new Perk. I don't have enough feedback to tell if it is worth the 4 points or not. Would mostly be used on DDs since the health increase would be more significant.

Aircraft Servicing Expert: Must have for CVs, and that is it. The 5% extra hitpoints are better than they sound and they can stack with the +15% extra hipoint mod that you can take at t9 and t10, so its pretty good. Demolition expert is potentially viable if you are running a loadout with a lot of dive bombers.

Manual Fire Control for AA Armament: For AA specs only, and a must have. Cruisers will most benefit from it, although US BBs can use it if they go brawling.

---Five Point Skills---

Last chance: This seems very situational, too much so to be a valid 5 points skill.

Manual Fire Control for Secondary Armament: This is a new perk that made a lot of people excited. The results from the Test Server showed that BBs and some CA with secondaries specs are a valid choice. Nagato and Yamato are two ships that come to mind that can benefit from this. It may not always be useful but more of an ace up your sleeve against a DD that thinks to finish you off. Going for a secondary build is a meme but is always fun.

Preventative Maintenance: Things this will help, it wont help enough. Everyone else says its not worth the points. Maybe when biscuit comes out and WG historical accuracies its rudder, this plus the mod will become mandatory or something.

Concealment Expert: Take if you are a DD. Take if you really know what you are doing with your cruiser build. What I mean by that is, you need to pass through the stage of realizing this is a bad skill to take as a cruiser, and then come full circle. Only afterwards can you kind of think it may be neat and intentionally take it as a sort of alternative silly choice. Some battleships(Iowa) can benefit from this as well with a stealth/concealment build.

Air Supremacy: Must have for CVs. The extra fighter is good, extra bomber is good. It does NOT add an extra torpedo bomber.

Jack of All Trades: Expensive perk that adds even more survivability to your ship. Battleships and cruisers with the heal skill should take this instead of going back and getting the 10% repair skill cooldown, because this is a 10% cooldown to their heal AND their repair, for only 2 points more. It also goes well with premium consumables to allow a more consistent spam of them.