Developers must have taken our demand for more gold ships very seriously, judging by the fact that they released a 30 000 gold ship in the November update, the USS Massachusetts. Exhilarative! So, is the ship even worth it tho? I mean, you’d expect a ship so expensive to live up to its price, right? Read on.
Overview
Mass is equipped with three missiles, two locked cannons, one locked grenade launcher, two torpedoes, three autocannons, and six AA. To be clear on paper, that is not a weak setup at all. It’s just weak compared to its main competitor, the Pyotr Velikiy, which I’ve already written an article on.
I did a test of burst damage with both of these ships and posted it on YouTube, you can see it here. It’s a huge difference in favor of Pyotr, even though Massachusetts costs almost 3 times as much. Stupefying.
This, paired with its awful speed, mobility, and huge hitbox means this ship is really not a threat on the battlefield if you encounter someone who knows what they’re doing or a stronger opponent such as Pyotr, Yamato, or Moscow. However, because this is a review, I will tell you how to play it and what to equip it with for maximum efficiency.
The equipment
If I had to use Massachusetts, I’d put on:
Or, alternatively, you can use full laser / Garpun AA defense if you’re planning on fighting carriers.
The Playstyle
Massachusetts is a slow, clumsy target that will get picked apart in open waters. Stay away from the enemy. Move behind rocks and as always target carriers because they still pose a threat when you’re hiding. Your AA is mediocre, keep that in mind.
Due to Massachusetts being a slow ship, every mistake you make when it comes to the positioning will be punished heavily, similar to Yamato. You have stealth, so try taking advantage of it to surprise your enemy.
You are the most effective against fragile ships such as DDG(X), Jeongjo, or Type 058. You can tear them apart in the right circumstances using your superior HP combined with decent firepower. You can get up close to these ships to increase your chances, but watch out when fighting heavy cruisers and battleships as they will most likely kill you at close range (if it’s a 1 on 1 battle).
Careful around submarines. Yes, you have a grenade launcher and 2 torpedoes, but subs nowadays are going to power through that and kill you anyway if you expose yourself too much or allow them to get underneath you.
Flexibility
Massachusetts is fairly well equipped to deal with all sorts of ships at medium or long range, however, it only does one thing very well and that’s dealing with fast ships. It does not have any close-range weapon such as a grenade launcher (it has something that resembles a grenade launcher but I’d honestly just call it a torpedo defense system since it’s pretty bad at shooting ships) and the torpedoes are cool but don’t really matter much, just like the autocannons. They can be crucial sometimes but let’s be honest they get blocked/avoided most of the time.
Statistic-wise, Massachusetts has good HP (about the same as Pyotr) and stealth capabilities. However, it’s extremely slow and not mobile so it’s kinda annoying getting to places without being hit a thousand times. In that sense, it’s similar to Yamato.
You could compare Massachusetts to Pyotr. It would be an unfair comparison but these two ships are similar in a lot of things. They both have three missiles, two torpedoes, six AA, and 390-400K HP, but the big difference is grenade launchers, cannons, and mobility. When it comes to cannons, Massachusetts’ are better because of their damage and projectile velocity. However, Pyotr is faster, has slightly more HP, and its grenade launchers make it deal a lot more damage per burst.
This means Pyotr takes the cake in every way, statistically and equipment-wise, lol. Massachusetts is a good offline grinder but if you plan on doing that, just buy Yamato.
Conclusion
To be honest, Massy is not worth it. I feel bad for the people who spent real money to buy it and are trying to cope, but maybe next time a ship like this releases and it costs 30k gold, wait and see if it’s good before buying it.
Playing with it felt like a retarded version of Pyotr, basically the same vibes as Missouri, which is funny because I had hero equipment on it. All I like about Massachusetts are the cannons because they require less skill to use.
Massachusetts has an identity crisis (pay me extra) regarding its classification. It’s supposed to be a battleship because of its BB hull number, but in the game, it’s classified as a cruiser.
P.S. Joppuyo wanted me to mention it looks similar to Zumwalt so he can include this picture of them standing side by side.
