Armor Guide: St. Louis - Menz Gaming | World of Warships

The tier 3 United States Navy protected cruiser St. Louis packs a massive amount of guns for a low tier ship and on top of that has great protection to help it shrug off a beating.  The St. Louis being a protected cruiser sees its vital citadel protected by being located mainly below the waterline and also having thick angled armor sitting inside the hull armor.  Being very small and well protected the citadel on the St. Louis is very difficult to penetrate outside of plunging fire due to the combination of size, armor thickness, and armor angle.  This World of Warships St. Louis armor guide will break down the St. Louis’ armor based on armor effectiveness, outline vital citadel areas, and provide relevant weak spots to focus on.

World of Warships St. Louis Armor Guide

Looking at the St. Louis you notice that most of the ship is poorly armored and is easily damaged by high-explosive shells since armor-penetrating shells have a high chance of over-penetrating.  Any green area(aft end, forward end, superstructure, etc.) does not house any vital components and will not cause a large amount of damage.  There are many guns located around the St. Louis in the poorly protected sections that can be knocked out easily but with the vast amount of guns at the St. Louis’ disposal it is a moot point.

Amidships(center of the ship) is where the St. Louis will take the maximum amount of damage your shells can cause.  Unfortunately the citadel area on the St. Louis is very small since only a small portion is visible above the waterline(outlined inside the white box) and in this area you can cause massive citadel damage, damage the powder magazine, and cause damage to the propulsion system.  Along the entire waterline above and below it there is a 76mm thick armor plate located behind the hull armor that is angled at 50° which gives it an armor effectiveness of 118mm.  This makes damaging the main belt area amidships that has 102mm armor on the hull plus the additional 76mm/50° armor plate very difficult for most ships facing the St. Louis.  Even outside of the main belt area on the forward/aft ends the waterline is extremely resilient against incoming shells and should be avoided.  There is some good news in that the St. Louis is susceptible to plunging fire since its deck armor is not very strong and the 76mm inner armor plate drops to 51mm and is not as angled making it easier to damage the citadel area.

Outside of the waterline the main belt “upper” section is 102mm thick but doesn’t house any citadel modules, although it will receive more damage than if you were to fire outside of the amidships area.  Above this area is the armored amidships area that has 13mm of armor protecting it which is slightly more than the 6mm found elsewhere on the St. Louis.  Focusing your fire amidships on the areas you can damage/penetrate will cause more damage than if you were to focus elsewhere and since the St. Louis has many guns centralized in this area you will knock out more guns in the process.

The superstructure of the St. Louis only has 6mm across it and is very vulnerable to high-explosive shells.  The coning tower is protected by 38mm which gives it slightly better protection than the surrounding areas but is still easily damaged if hit by most high-explosive shells.