Like all American cruisers, she gets access to a bonus charge of her Defensive Fire consumable (up to a maximum of 5 total). In addition, her default camouflage is odd for a tier X premium with minimal economic bonuses.

She has no access to any kind of aircraft. Rather than choosing between Defensive AA Fire and Hydroacoustic Search in her second slot, Defensive AA Fire is the only choice. Hydroacoustic Search instead competes with Surveillance Radar in her third slot. Salem therefore has the option of doing something Des Moines can’t — she can equip Defensive AA Fire and Hydroacoustic Search at the same time. It’s up to the individual player if they believe that hydro is more valuable than radar, however.

Upgrades

Choices, choices, choices. This all looks terribly complicated, but there are really fourdecisions to make here:

Are you going to play an AA ship? If you are, then take the special upgrade, Defensive Fire Modification 1 (2nd slot), AA Guns Modification 2 (3rd slot) and AA Guns Modification 3 (6th slot) to maximize your AA power. If you don’t want to go quite so heavy handed, pick and choose among these for a softer AA build. AA Guns Modification 2 (3rd slot) arguably provides the most benefit for what’s sacrificed to take it. Now you need to choose how to emphasize your main battery. Do you want to go for range or DPM? For range, take Gun Fire Control System Modification 2 (6th slot) and look towards taking Aiming System Modification 1 (3rd slot) to help tighten up dispersion at these distances. Otherwise, Main Battery Modification 3 (6th slot) should be considered optimal to increase her rate of fire. How good are you at hiding behind islands? Propulsion Modification 2 (4th slot) and Concealment Modification 1 (5th slot) can help with this, with the former allowing you to back away more quickly if you get spotted and the latter helps keep you hidden. If you prefer a more active, open water play style then Steering Gears Modification 2 (4th slot) and Steering Gears Modification 3 (5th slot) may be more attractive alternatives in some form of combination.

Camouflage



Salem comes with Type 10 Camouflage. This provides: 50% bonus experience gains

10% reduction to repair costs

3% reduced surface detection range

4% increased dispersion of incoming fire

Firepower

Main Battery: Nine 203mm guns in 3×3 turrets in an A-B-X superfiring configuration. Secondary Battery: Twelve 127mm guns in 6×2 turrets. cruiser-caliber guns in the game. I don’t really care about her secondaries, so bleh to those even with their 6.0km range and potential 8-gun broadside. 127mm/38s aren’t going to win any prizes at tier X, especially off a cruiser. Without exaggeration or hyperbole, I’m of the opinion that the auto-loading 203mm weapons on the Des Moines-class are thecruiser-caliber guns in the game. I don’t really care about her secondaries, so bleh to those even with their 6.0km range and potential 8-gun broadside. 127mm/38s aren’t going to win any prizes at tier X, especially off a cruiser. You can keep your 305mm cruiser-killers on Stalingrad and Kronshtadt — they cheat, sneaking in battleship sized guns into a cruiser-competition.. These Soviet behemoths are amazing at what they do, have no doubt, but they exist on a whole other scale. Stalingrad and Kronshtadt both are capable of delivering massive citadel hits to unsuspecting cruisers and even angled battleships at the extremes of their range. However, they pay for this monstrous output by having limited effectiveness against smaller, squishier targets. The USN 203mm guns don’t have this issue, reflecting the US Navy as a whole in World of Warships with their jack of all trades style. The trade off is that they do not have the overwhelming superiority in one particular field that specialization grants which kinda hurts their final evaluation. Unlimited Powah

The core strength of Salem’s armament comes from her reload time. Despite being a heavy cruiser, Salem boasts a rate of fire on her 203mm battery that’s the envy of many light cruisers. Each one of her weapons cycles in 5.5 seconds (which may be reduced down to 4.8 seconds with Main Battery Modification 3). Combined with her larger shell, she easily competes with her tier X light cruiser counterparts and outperforms all tier IX light cruisers in damage per minute (DPM) races. This is insane. But, it goes beyond raw damage potential. Inertial Fuse for HE Shells commander skill to artificially boost penetration as 152mm armed cruisers do. This again leads to a higher fire chance. Salem doesn’t require as deep of a skill build to make her guns competitive, allowing her to specialize in other roles instead. Her larger shell provides two additional benefits in regards to her High Explosive (HE) rounds. A larger shell means a larger bursting charge which leads to an increased chance to set fires. She can hold her own when competing against the twelve-gun light cruisers (except for Worcester which is just nuts). Perhaps more importantly, her larger gun caliber allows her to penetrate a greater range of targets with her HE shells than a light cruiser. She doesn’t need thecommander skill to artificially boost penetration as 152mm armed cruisers do. This again leads to a higher fire chance. Salem doesn’t require as deep of a skill build to make her guns competitive, allowing her to specialize in other roles instead. It’s not just her HE shells that are remarkable. Salem’s AP shells are no slouch either. There are a lot of odd ducks among the tier 10 cruisers as far as AP shell performance goes — everything from Hindenburg’s increased damage to Minotaur’s extra short fuse timers. Salem’s gimmick is that she enjoys the improved auto-ricochet angles of other US cruisers. A check for ricochet doesn’t occur until it strikes a plate angled 60º to the perpendicular instead of 45º, leading to a lot more hits dealing damage against targets when positioning isn’t optimal. Her shells are much more forgiving despite having only modest penetration values. Still, Salem is fully capable of landing citadel hits against most other cruisers up to her maximum range provided she catches them broadside. Her AP shells can be devastating even to battleships as they cycle so quickly and stack damage so fast that even their enormous hit point pools quickly evaporate. At point blank ranges, Salem can make any exposed target cease to exist in short order. She is not to be underestimated. These guns aren’t dream weapons, however. They have some very real flaws, the most minor of which is her gun handling. The real issue is her lack of reach. Salem has just 70m more range than HMS Minotaur. With upgrades, at best she can project her influence out to 18.36km at the sacrifice of increased rate of fire. At a tier where battleships are (sadly) comfortable sitting back at extreme ranges and still punching in people’s faces for 20,000 damage at a time, this is a severe handicap. Salem must get close to deal damage. But at the limits of her own range, where her slow shell flight time leads high arcing ballistics, her predators weapons optimize. Trading fire out in the open will simply get Salem killed with very little to show for it. This isn’t like Hindenburg or Stalingrad where you can risk taking a face full of 16 inch AP shells and have a good chance of shrugging it off. Thankfully one of her weapon’s drawbacks is also their salvation.



Island Waifus Hey! Does your ship have a citadel that gives away more hits than a pitching machine? Are you piloting a brand new premium with shell arcs more peaked than maximum scaled chest-size slider of a Korean MMO? Is the effective range so short that you’ve caught your bored Azur Lane commander drooling enviously at her friend riding a baguette? Well, World of Warships has the solution for you: Presenting ISLAND WAIFUS! Yes, whore yourself by cuddling up to every cute stray bit of rock you come across. Ingratiate yourself with strange, seductive land masses and grind your keel against their shoals. Don’t worry about introducing yourself! They don’t want to know where you’ve been. They know you’ve got no scruples and you’ll leapfrog from one to the next so long as it’s to your advantage. Getting tied down to any one piece of the archipelago isn’t the way your Salem swings! You’re only there to spray your shells over their topography and avoid the consequences of getting caught in the act. Push in and out of her cover as the action gets hot and heavy! This largely defines Salem’s successful game play. Find an island that’s big enough to cover your ship but with hill features that aren’t big enough to block your shots (Salem doesn’t like her waifu being too busty but she’s also not into loli-islands). Make sure it’s in an area that can block line of sight from multiple vectors and even cover you from shell fire from one of these directions — you want to avoid being spotted if at all possible when you pull the trigger and you don’t want to be shot by their allies. Also ensure your island is close enough to the action where you can lend supporting fire. Don’t wait for enemies to come to you. Hose down your targets until the battle moves. When it does, find another waifu. Rinse and repeat. Success in Salem comes from having an in-depth knowledge of the map layout — which positions on a given map you can use and abuse to project Salem’s short range influence and keep your guns in the game. Turn her disadvantage into strengths. Her advantage is her rate of fire. You need to be able to put it to use to play this ship to its utmost.

Salem has good (but not amazing) gun arcs. You can use your X-turret to help you angle against incoming AP fire that’s 381mm or smaller. If you can fire your X turret at the gun mounts of what’s shooting you, you’re at risk for taking significant damage. Note this won’t save you from having your bow overmatched by larger caliber guns or from guns with improved autobounce characteristics. Summary: Amazing DPM potential with AP & HE both.

Can kill almost anything in short order at point blank ranges.

Make good use of islands to hide yourself so you can cycle your guns without interruption. Evaluation:

What it would have needed to be : The literal arms race for best Firepower at tier X makes evaluating which one is difficult with each ship going about it differently. To be clear, Salem (and Des Moines) has some of the artillery at her tier but her lack of torpedoes and the issues of range hurts. Still, given the way that Stalingrad is shaping up, I would be a fool to ignore her influence in this evaluation and this is why Salem (and Des Moines) loses out on the top spot. : The literal arms race for best Firepower at tier X makes evaluating which one isdifficult with each ship going about it differently. To be clear, Salem (and Des Moines) has some of theartillery at her tier but her lack of torpedoes and the issues of range hurts. Still, given the way that Stalingrad is shaping up, I would be a fool to ignore her influence in this evaluation and this is why Salem (and Des Moines) loses out on the top spot.

Defense

Hit Points: 49,700hp

Maximum Citadel Protection:

27mm bow + 127mm transverse bulkhead (bow on)

152mm belt (broadside) Minimum Extremities & Deck Armour: 27mm thickening to 30mm on her maindeck.

Torpedo Damage Reduction: 7% (ew!)

Let’s get the good out of the way first. Salem has thick armour for a heavy cruiser. She boasts a 152mm armoured belt and her extremities are 27mm with her deck thickening up to 30mm amidships. The former prevents Salem from being citadel hit by Royal Navy and German battleship caliber HE shells, even with their vaunted 1/4 HE penetration. The latter prevents Salem’s bow from being overmatched by 381mm and smaller AP shells. In addition, she has some protection against small caliber HE shells thrown by destroyers and battleship secondaries. Without Inertial Fuse for HE Shells, they cannot damage her directly. Even with it there are some areas of her deck that will remain immune.

Now, with that out of the way, let’s forget any pretense that Salem is a well protected ship.

The key fault with Salem’s protection scheme is (surprise surprise), her exposed citadel. This sits over the waterline, abutting against the outer hull of the ship. She has neither anti-torpedo protection nor any spaced armour to help absorb hits. If you aren’t properly angled, Salem will gobble up citadel hits from anything within her Matchmaking spread that fires a 203mm shell or greater from almost any range. Even when you are properly positioned, anything with a 406mm or greater will still punish you. When things go wrong for Salem, they go wrong very quickly and often catastrophically with little chance for recovery.

This largely mitigates the main selling feature of Salem — her improved Repair Party consumable. Salem boasts the ability of recovering between 40% (stock) to 48% (India Delta signal equipped) per charge, giving Salem a maximum potential of up to 145,124 hit points. You’re never going to be able to sell that many to the enemy team, however. Salem’s citadel is far too vulnerable. While she does queue up to 33% of citadel damage, she’s unlikely to survive long enough to make use of all of her available charges if you’re taking these hits in the first place.

Still, her Repair Party isn’t without its charms. She is tougher than Des Moines which is a welcome feature. Salem is functionally immune to fire damage. With her consumable being able to heal 100% of the damage done and each fire only burning away a maximum of 9% of Salem’s health, you can let four fires blaze completely before having to reach for her mega-healing potion (five if you’re using the India Delta signal). This doesn’t account for the HE sell damage that went along with it, but it is nice to know.

To me, this makes Salem’s Repair Party feel a bit of a poor purchase. To get access to it, she lost a standard American tier X Surveillance Radar and that doesn’t feel like a good trade in this case. But that’s just me.



This chart ranks the tier X cruisers (including Stalingrad while she’s a Work in Progress) by their potential hit point value. The value in red (left) is their base hit points. The blue bar is the absolute maximum amount of healing they can receive from their Repair Party consumable if it was optimized with 4 charges and using the Superintendent commander skill. It’s exceedingly unlikely that this amount healed will ever be actualized in game. Cruisers take citadel hits far too regularly which can often delete them outright without giving any opportunity to recover. However, if you can protect your citadel, Salem can be THE toughest cruiser in the game by sheer damage potential. Repair PartySuperintendent

Evaluation:

What it would have needed to be : A further tweak of her Repair Party, allowing her to queue up to 50% of citadel damage in the same manner as a Minotaur would have been welcome. This would let her maximize the output of her consumable. : A further tweak of her, allowing her to queue up to 50% of citadel damage in the same manner as a Minotaur would have been welcome. This would let her maximize the output of her consumable.

Agility

Top Speed: 33.0kts

Turning Radius: 770m

Rudder Shift Time: 8.6s

Maximum Rate of Turn: 5.3º/s

All kinds of “meh” here.

Salem isn’t fast. She doesn’t have an amazing turning radius. Her rudder shift time isn’t special. She doesn’t power through her turn especially quickly either. And that’s just for a tier X cruiser. If you stack her up against some of the more nimble boats in her matchmaking spread, Salem’s a dumpy thunder-butt. The only thing of particular note with Salem is that she preserves more speed in a turn than Des Moines does. This 0.2 knot advantage translates to a faster maximum rate of turn — not by much, but enough to be notable.

Otherwise? Salem wins no prizes. It’s good enough, I guess. I would have preferred to see a bit more pep in her engine to accelerate the see-saw motion that’s so often crucial to unmasking her guns out from behind islands and slipping back into cover when spotted.

Evaluation:

What it would have needed to be : It’s not going to happen. Salem is a stereotypical American (Heavy Cruiser) — fat and difficult to sway. : It’s not going to happen. Salem is a stereotypical American (Heavy Cruiser) — fat and difficult to sway.

Anti-Aircraft Defense

AA Battery Calibers: 127mm / 76.2mm

AA Umbrella Ranges: 5.0km / 5.0km

AA DPS per Mount Type: 90.6 / 334.8



Salem to CVs: No Fly Zone.

anti-aircraft firepower at tier X. Salem is definitely one of the contenders but this is title she shares with Des Moines (duh), Worcester and Minotaur. However, for all of the strengths of her AA armament, it’s not without its flaws. These nit-picky failings are, in no particular order: It’s a closer race than you might think for theanti-aircraft firepower at tier X. Salem is definitely one of the contenders but this is title she shares with Des Moines (duh), Worcester and Minotaur. However, for all of the strengths of her AA armament, it’s not without its flaws. These nit-picky failings are, in no particular order:

Salem’s AA power lacks range.

This seems silly to say when all of Salem’s AA guns reach out to 5.0km. While her guns do provide a solid wall of her maximum firepower when they stray into range, a 5.0km reach is no longer the gold-standard of AA defense at tier X. Ships like Stalingrad can project their large caliber auras out to 5.7km stock. Minotaur and Worcester can extend their reach out to 6.0km stock. The Des Moines-class of cruisers is lacking in this regard. Keep in mind, though, ships only spot aircraft from a range of 8km…

This seems silly to say when all of Salem’s AA guns reach out to 5.0km. While her guns do provide a solid wall of her maximum firepower when they stray into range, a 5.0km reach is no longer the gold-standard of AA defense at tier X. Ships like Stalingrad can project their large caliber auras out to 5.7km stock. Minotaur and Worcester can extend their reach out to 6.0km stock. The Des Moines-class of cruisers is lacking in this regard. Salem’s AA power lacks DPS.

Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. Salem doesn’t have good AA firepower? Seriously? No, not seriously. It’s only in a direct comparison with her peers that she’s found wanting and all of these contenders are frankly quite broken when it comes to how much punishment they can dish out to an unwary aircraft carrier. She’s fourth place overall (out of nine ships) at tier X for raw AA damage per second (DPS), outclassed by Worcester, Minotaur and Des Moines in first, second and third place respectively. This is a nit-pick, not a flaw.

Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. Salem doesn’t have good AA firepower? Seriously? Salem’s AA firepower is concentrated in vulnerable medium-caliber mounts .

This is nothing new but it is worth keeping in mind. Like many ships before her, Salem’s AA firepower is largely concentrated in her soft and squishy (and likely to die the moment an HE shell bursts anywhere near them) 76.2mm gun mounts. It doesn’t take very much damage to absolutely gut her AA firepower and neuter her defense.

. This is nothing new but it is worth keeping in mind. Like many ships before her, Salem’s AA firepower is largely concentrated in her soft and squishy (and likely to die the moment an HE shell bursts anywhere near them) 76.2mm gun mounts. It doesn’t take very much damage to absolutely gut her AA firepower and neuter her defense. Salem cannot ambush aircraft.

Salem’s aerial detection gets no better than 7.8km. She’s always spotted before aircraft slip into her AA bubble. Worcester and Minotaur both can keep themselves hidden from aircraft by disabling their AA fire and then only activate it when planes stray well within the reach of their guns, decimating the squadrons before the CV player can react.

Now before anyone gets on my case: none of this to say that Salem’s anti-aircraft firepower is irreparably damaged. If you start telling me Salem’s AA power sucks, I’m going to laugh at you. Salem just has to work to separate herself from the pack. She has the potential to be an excellent anti-aircraft vessel. If you want to make CVs cry (and who doesn’t?), you’re going to have to work at it. Proper specialization is necessary to win the crown here. Unlike the two light cruisers one-upping her, Salem is more likely to have better AA firepower in actual matches.

Minotaur does not have access to Defensive AA Fire .

As excellent as Minotaur’s AA defense is, she does not have the potential show-stopping killing power that Salem does with her consumable active. Minotaur is superior, without argument, to the Des Moines-class sisters when their Defensive AA Fire consumable isn’t active. However, we would be remiss to ignore this advantage they possess.

As excellent as Minotaur’s AA defense is, she does not have the potential show-stopping killing power that Salem does with her consumable active. Minotaur is superior, without argument, to the Des Moines-class sisters when their consumable isn’t active. However, we would be remiss to ignore this advantage they possess. Worcester’s dependence on IFHE makes taking a full AA build difficult.

Optimizing an AA build is expensive, requiring sinking points into Basic Fire Training, Advanced Fire Training and Manual Fire Control for AA Guns to top the charts. It takes a 14pt build to unlock that much. Worcester’s 152mm guns are heavily dependent on the 4pt commander skill Inertial Fuse for HE Shells to maximize their damage output. Worcester players must choose between a full AA specialized build or taking Concealment Expert — a helpful and potentially life-saving skill. The end result is that it’s easier for Salem and Des Moines to deeply specialize into AA firepower than it is for this top competitor. more likely to have the anti-aircraft firepower at her tier. She’s more likely to be the biggest threat to enemy aircraft deployed. Even with potential heavy hitters like Worcester and Minotaur, the protection she provides for her team is invaluable. This all depends upon the player, however, and how they choose to specialize their vessel. The simple fact is that even if Salem’s anti-aircraft firepower isn’t the , it’s still incredibly powerful and is a healthy contributor to CV player frustration at high tiers. She’s an excellent escort vessel and she’s fully capable of broadcasting a no-fly zone around herself. It’s really unfair when you get down to it. The end result from all of this is that Salem isto have theanti-aircraft firepower at her tier. She’s more likely to be the biggest threat to enemy aircraft deployed. Even with potential heavy hitters like Worcester and Minotaur, the protection she provides for her team is invaluable. This all depends upon the player, however, and how they choose to specialize their vessel. The simple fact is that even if Salem’s anti-aircraft firepower isn’t the, it’s still incredibly powerful and is a healthy contributor to CV player frustration at high tiers. She’s an excellent escort vessel and she’s fully capable of broadcasting a no-fly zone around herself. It’s really unfair when you get down to it. Let’s hope Wargaming fixes these broke-ass mechanics soon.

Evaluation:

What it would have needed to be : Salem needs more range to take the top spot. Even then, Des Moines with her 20mm Oerlikons, will always have more AA firepower than Salem, so she’s going to have murder her sister too. : Salem needs more range to take the top spot. Even then, Des Moines with her 20mm Oerlikons, will always have more AA firepower than Salem, so she’s going to have murder her sister too.