Hakuryu – Japan
Very strong and hard-hitting torpedoes, this is a large squadron size of torpedo bombers. This aircraft carrier is very helpful for hitting your enemies in the center or at the torpedo bulge, and you can spam the bombers. If you hit the center or torpedo bulge, it’s hard to heal. The superb armor of Hakuryu is its main advantage.
The main issue is landing the torpedoes because they spread out. You only drop two, and the planes are fast but have low health. Winning random battles with Hakuryu is the best option, in my opinion. The AP dive bombers helped deal with citadel damage, which was unhealable. The planes are fast, but RNG balances it. Properly lining up the drop will likely connect and get citadels. To properly use the World of Warships Best Aircraft Carrier Line, you must know which targets to strike with the AP dive bombers and where to drop the bomb.
Midway – US
The United States line is a versatile carrier in the game. They have HG bombs with high-damage torpedoes. At tier 10, Midway has a unique reticle style that takes a while to aim, but once you get used to it, it’s easy to play the carrier. The planes have decent HP, speed, and good rockets to deal with destroyers. HE bombs have high maneuverability on turns during the drop, making them effective in dealing with destroyers.
When considering the World of Warships Best Aircraft Carrier Line, it’s important to know that Midway has an armored flight deck and good anti-air to defend itself against a few planes, but it turns like a truck. Midway, Lexington, and Ranger are solid carriers. The Ranger is weaker because it has only two torpedoes and three bombs, making it difficult to hunt down destroyers. Midway and Lexington are beginner-friendly carriers with enough HP for you to tank some AAA shots and also some flak, but they also have standard plane speeds and standard ordinance. Midway is very solid in random battles, and it’s a carrier that lets you think more like a carrier player.
Audacious – British
Audacious can be a good choice for the World of Warships Best Aircraft Carrier Line, but it does have several downsides. Its bullets have low penetration and its flooding and fire chance values are not high enough to be useful. The planes are tough and have standard speeds, but Audacious struggles in battles against heavily armored or anti-air ships. It’s not a good choice for solo random battles and relies heavily on matchmaking. Audacious gets hit the hardest in tier-10 battles and has fallen out of the meta.
The aircraft carrier Audacious is probably the easiest line for beginners, but tier VIII and tier X can be difficult and not very fun. It would perhaps be better if they increased the penetration for raw damage output or buffed the fire and flooding chance to use the line. However, we would suggest the Midway line, even though the Audacious line is easier to grind. The impact is so different that it’s not worth considering the Royal Navy line until last.
Richthofen – Germany
Manfred von Richthofen is next on the World of Warships Best Aircraft Carrier Line list, a German aircraft carrier line. They focus on citadel damage, meaning they deal unhealable damage to their targets. They have fast planes and very fast torpedoes to deal with destroyers. However, after the recent updates, they have become more difficult to use because the rockets now fire at a different angle and are less reliable. Many players consider this line very dependent on luck, making it frustrating to play.
To be successful with this line, you need to know which targets to attack with rockets, how to aim your bombs, and where to aim your reticle. Dive bombers are inconsistent, and AP rockets require a broadside target. The German line is not generally very good, and players have had more success with a supportive role. In random battles, this line is highly dependent on the matchmaker and the availability of targets. The Tier VIII aircraft carrier currently performs better than the MVR. The German line is risky when considering the World of Warships Best Aircraft Carrier Line and should be used to create crossfires.
Nakhimov – Russia
The Russian line is the latest addition to the game. They attack with their entire squad, the flight squadron. If you take off with eight planes, you strike with all eight planes at once. The plane’s HP is low, the lowest in the game, and the plane speed isn’t the best either. The rockets on these carriers are similar to Midway’s Tiny Tims, with high fire chance and penetration because there are many rockets per plane. So, sometimes, you can hit a battleship for 20k-25k.
The torpedo’s arming distance is long, but the speed is nothing fancy. The skip bombers are the main ammunition of the line, but the planes will die quickly. One hit with flak means the entire squadron will be wiped out. The anti-flak skill helps to compensate for this a little bit. If a good carrier player handles this line, they can dominate the game.
However, Tier 10 Admiral Nakhimov has a very bad armor layout where it’s an open citadel side armor. It’s easy to be killed, and the deck armor is only 50 millimeters, which means HE bombs will do full pen damage and cause many fires. AP dive bombers will citadel the Admiral Nakhimov almost guaranteed 99% of the time. If a carrier spots Admiral Nakhimov, it’s easy to deal with, and it opens up the battleships to fire at it and possibly delete it from the map. This carrier dies quickly, so it’s not an S-tier carrier, but it’s a god if you only think about its damage output and carry potential.
Max Immelmann – Special Ship
While the other special freemium ship, Woomera, is great for farming in random battles, the Max Immelmann relies solely on attacking broadside targets. If the ship angles or sits bow in, finding your bombs and torpedoes will be challenging. Also, if you drop bombs from too high, they won’t bounce on the water.
Despite these downsides, the Max Immelmann is great for ranked or random battles due to its fast planes, quick plane regeneration, the ability to conserve planes, and powerful skip bombs with good penetration values of 68 millimeters and a high fire chance of about 70%. It’s worth it, like being a “breacher” – keep throwing bombs at a target, and it’ll eventually fall. You should ideally place it at the side of the eight. If a destroyer has its AA off and sails towards you while you’re in a squadron, you won’t be able to land bombs on it properly. That’s why some Max Immelmann players invest in secondaries to deal with potential destroyer threats.
Franklin D. Roosevelt – Special Ship
The Franklin D. Roosevelt is a carrier with strong planes that could carry many of them per squadron. Each attacking flight is made up of two planes that drop a lot of bombs. It has different types of bombs, including HE, rockets, HVARs, and torpedo bombers. You can drop four bombs per plane, so you drop eight total with your attacking flight. The carrier can turn 360 degrees while keeping the reticle on target, which can confuse battleships, cruisers, and destroyers that are turning. The carrier’s bombs are very good because they have high penetration and cause fire damage. However, it would be best if you targeted the bow or stern of other ships to use them effectively.
There are also some downsides to the carrier. First, its planes are very slow. Second, the carrier has large squadron sizes, which can be good for attacking the same target repeatedly but also increases the risk of losing planes to enemy fire. Finally, the carrier has a 25-second downtime, limiting its ability to launch chain strikes against targets that have healed, smoked, or disengaged quickly. In random battles, Franklin D. Roosevelt was not as powerful as some people claim, but it excelled in ranked and clan battles. It is no worse than other carriers, which can spot your ships. Thus, it puts the carrier at the end of our list of World of Warships Best Aircraft Carrier Lines.
Conclusion
That’s all for our guide on World of Warships Best Aircraft Carrier Line in 2024. If you’re unfamiliar with carriers, it’s easy to complain about them, but they require a different play style and game knowledge to be used effectively. Some players can even make a Hakuyu more intimidating than an FDR, even though the Hakuyu may not have the same tankiness as the FDR. It’s all about the technique you use. We hope this guide helps you select the World of Warships’ Best Aircraft Carrier Line.
