Anti-aircraft Fire

This page is a work in progress.

Anti-aircraft fire in World of Warships is divided into 3 distinct categories: continuous damage output, flak bursts, and the sector reinforcement burst. While most ships have some form of AA fire, they will possess varying amounts of both continuous fire and flak burst damage output, whereas sector reinforcement burst damage output is relatively constant and dependent on class. AA mounts can also be destroyed in battle, reducing the effectiveness of AA fire. Aircraft themselves can also reduce incoming fire using various skills and modules as well as manoeuvring.

Damage auras
All ships that possess AA damage output continuously deal damage in an area of effect around their ship. This area of effect is divided into 3 distinct auras: short range, medium range, and long range, though some ships possess fewer auras. Damage auras stack (so a squadron that is within the short range aura would also take damage from a ship's medium range and long range auras as well) and apply their full damage to every squadron in range. Multiple ships' auras also fully stack against a single squadron.

Flak Bursts
Flak bursts are fired by a ship's long-range AA mounts and appear as black clouds with orange (or red, while buffed by the Defensive AA Fire consumable) explosions in the flight path of enemy planes. These deal high damage to every plane passing through them in an area of effect whose size varies slightly with AA gun caliber. Some ships lack a long-range aura (for example, Kleber and Regolo, and their respective tech tree lines) despite having a medium-range aura that may have a longer range than 3.5km

Flak burst count
All ships have a base number of flak bursts they fire per salvo. The listed number on the in-game statistics is specifically a ship's maximum flak burst count, which is then modified by the accuracy stat of a ship's AA defenses. The average flak count a ship will fire is this modified number, with the minimum being the same 'distance' away from the average as the maximum.
 * 1) For example, Grosser Kurfurst's base maximum flak count is 6, and her AA defense accuracy is 75%. This means that on average, GK will fire 4.5 bursts (rounded to 4 bursts by truncation)

Flak burst targeting

 * 1) Flak burst range
 * 2) * Flak bursts begin to fire when squadrons enter a ship's maximum AA range and continue to place bursts in a squadron's flight path until the planes are closer than 3.5km. For example, if a squadron is exactly 3.5km away from a ship, but flying towards the ship, flak guns can fire bursts that appear within 3.5km of the ship (in the flight path of the planes) that are still effective.

Aircraft counterplay against AA fire
Understanding how aircraft are able to reduce incoming aircraft fire is as important as knowing how to maximize your own anti-aircraft fire. CV players have a plethora of options ranging from their own input to various commander skills for minimizing plane losses.