Khabarovsk

Khabarovsk was the first true gunboat introduced into World of Warships. As such, many of the gunboat mechanics and balancing changes that have been made to gunboats happened around or because of Khabarovsk. The ship as it stands today definitely wears the scars of multiple balancing iterations, but it remains a capable gunboat. Let’s dig into the tier 10 Soviet destroyer, Khabarovsk.

Offensive Tools

Guns

Khabarovsk is, first and foremost, a gun platform. There’s definitely a lot to love about the 130 mm guns and their shells. Khabarovsk has 8 rifles in 4 mounts, which fire every 5 seconds, reach out to 11.24 km, and have a maximum dispersion of 99 m. Captains with good aim have the ability to hit not just enemy ships, but specific areas on enemy ships. This allows them to light multiple fires and do damage to areas of the ship that aren’t yet saturated.

When looking at Khabarovsk’s main battery numbers you’ll likely notice that the range is limited. Being less than 11 km from enemy cruisers in an armored destroyer that turns poorly is risky, so I recommend enhancing Khabarovsk’s gun range to squeeze as much damage out of the ship as possible. Specifically, consider modification slot 5. Your choice here depends completely on whether or not you have access to the ship’s Unique Upgrade, which is called Master Fire Control Director. If you have access to this modification, I recommend using it. With the Unique Upgrade equipped, your guns can reach out to a much more comfortable 14.8 km, and they reload in 4.1 seconds (or less, depending on captain skills).

Defensive Tools

Speed & Survivability

I was careful here not to use the word “agile” which is how I would describe some destroyers. Khabarovsk should be thought of as a very fast ultra-light cruiser rather than a destroyer, and speed on this ship specifically refers to straight-line speed.

To use speed as a defensive tool, you should build for as much of it as possible. Khabarovsk starts with a base speed of 43 knots, and when you add Sierra Mike signals (+5%) and the Engine Boost consumable, the ship has enough forward and reverse speed to make enemies miss despite its abysmal rudder shift and large turning circle radius. Use angles and your accelerator to dodge instead of your rudder, and you’ll live longer.

When you’ve taken too much fire, use your speed to disengage and your Repair Party consumable to gain back some health (I recommend using Repair Party instead of smoke). This process of fighting on your terms can lead to huge amounts of damage, and as the match goes on Khabarovsk becomes more and more dangerous.

It’s worth mentioning that I considered putting “armor” as a defensive strength here, but ultimately decided against it. Khabarovsk has 50mm armor plating which can be very beneficial, but it can also arm AP shells. In the early days of Khabarovsk, enemies would treat it like any other destroyer and constantly fire HE at it and the armor works well for shrugging off some of that damage. However, the armor will also arm AP shells and leave you eating full penetration damage from heavy cruisers and even battleships at times. So, while the armor is worth calling out, I would stop short of calling it a definitive strength. It’s really more of a double-edged sword than anything, which gives more skilled captains an additional advantage but can punish inexperienced players.

Support Tools

Psychological Warfare & Evasion Tanking

There are few types of ship which can cause more irritation than open-water gunboats. When you add in excellent main battery accuracy, Khabarovsk is among the best ships in the game at forcing enemies to do things they didn’t plan to do.

Use the main battery to land 2 or 3 quick salvos on an enemy destroyer who has just been spotted, forcing them scamper for cover. Light enemy battleships on fire, forcing them to use their Damage Control Party, and then light them on fire again. Use your AP on the superstructure of broadside battleships and cruisers to do significant chunk damage. All of these things make enemies turn, or accelerate, into mistakes which your teammates can take advantage of.

If you play Khabarovsk as a ship that can dictate every engagement, you will use your speed to get within ideal firing positions, as well as to get away and disengage. Done over the course of a match, this process wears enemies down. “Someone shoot that DD!” is something you see in chat a lot when an enemy knows how to play Khabarovsk well. Those moments make it fairly common for Khabarovsk to rack up millions of hit points of potential damage.

When you taunt enemies into firing, because you know you can dodge it, I call this “evasion tanking” and it’s something this ship can do very well. It takes practice, but over time you may find that you are able to keep enemies focused on you instead of teammates, leading to much longer lives for everyone on your team.

What To Do

ABS + CTO (Always be shooting, change targets often.)

So how do you combine these tools? I’ve touched on some of the tactics already, and I want to call out that Khabarovsk is designed to be an excellent solo ship. If you can isolate any enemy ship into a one-on-one fight, you have the tools to win almost every fight.

Start the match as a middle-line support and damage ship. You should look to move up early with one of your cap contesting and spotting destroyers. As ships are spotted, immediately begin firing, providing early gun support and letting the enemy team know you have claimed that area for team Khabarovsk. Very few destroyers will take a fight against a Khabarovsk at range, and even fewer have a chance of winning. Scare off or sink enemy destroyers early to eliminate your spotting disadvantage.

Before you get too far into a contesting situation, turn and begin kiting away. Continue using your guns to light fires on larger enemy ships forcing the larger ships to use their damage control party, opening them up to longer duration fires and other damage types, such as flooding. The trick is to light a fire, change targets, and light another fire. Continue cycling through targets and avoid getting too focused on a single target unless you either have no other options or need to burn down a single target yourself.

As the match proceeds, keep an eye on the minimap and use the ship’s speed to reposition and help flanks that have enemies advancing aggressively. Done correctly, you can separate an enemy from the herd, isolate them, and wear them down or kite them out of position.

If you’re lucky, your team will kill all of the ships that outspot you. If this happens, go silent and get into a position against ships that have their turrets pointed away from you. Do damage to them until they turn their turrets (which means they are turning away from a friendly ship) and go silent again. Doing huge piles of damage while neutralizing enemy ships is a superpower for Khabarovsk, and it’s some of the most fun you’ll have in the ship.

What To Avoid

Overcommitting

One of the easiest mistakes to make in Khabarovsk is overcommitment. The ship is fast, and its guns are fun. It’s easy to get caught up using the guns and lose track of just how far in a direction your speed has taken you. Playing Khabarovsk well is a constant tug-of-war between pushing into an area and moving away from an area while still exerting some control over it. As you’re learning to play the ship, make a point stay a little further back and move up slowly. This will give you a chance to learn when to commit, and when to leave. Remember, Khabarovsk has bad detectability, and with its relatively limited range it only has a couple of kilometers of room in which to play to its strengths. Managing that distance carefully is difficult but is the difference between a great match and an early exit.

How To Fight It

Team Play & Focus Fire

Khabarovsk is an excellent solo ship. That’s what it is designed to do. A good Khabarovsk captain will flank and isolate enemies into disadvantaged situations. If you find yourself in a one-on-one fight with a Khabarovsk, your options are to try to retreat (which is hard because Khabarovsk is likely faster than you) or do as much damage as possible. With this in mind, fighting a Khabarovsk solo should always be a last option.

Instead, work with teammates to outspot Khabarovsk, and then focus on landing as many shells as you can. While damage may be hard to come by, Khabarovsk has very weak rudder and engine armor, so even secondary shells will often disable them. Without the ability to use speed to dictate a fight, the Khabarovsk will be easier to damage and may choose to disengage. Your first priority isn’t to kill an enemy Khabarovsk, it’s to keep it from killing you.

Overall Opinion

FUN

Over time, a lot of adjustments have been made directly to Khabarovsk to make it less powerful, and plenty of changes to the game around the ship have provided other ships advantages that indirectly nerfed Khabarovsk. In that same time, other gunboats have been introduced and the playstyle has matured. This process has left the ship in a very different place than when it was introduced, both as a unique ship, and within the “gunboat” meta.

While Khabarovsk always required a unique playstyle to be effective, over time that playstyle has gotten harder and harder to be effective at in Khabarovsk, while becoming easier and easier to be effective at in another ship. Because of all of this, there are plenty of people who dislike the current ship and its place in the game.

The fact remains, however, that the ship is a gunboat with some of the best guns available. While the skill ceiling to be effective has gotten higher, the ability to impact or even outright control a match still exists, and in these moments of success Khabarovsk can become a challenging but addictive ship to play.

Takeaway: Khabarovsk is a very high skill floor, and high skill ceiling, ship, but when played effectively is still one of my favorite ships to play.