User blog comment:FlammeumDraco333/Tales From the Not so Blocky Seas/@comment-27797576-20150812020452

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Probably the single best upgrade in the US Tree, period. Well, that and the North Carolina. They make the grind of the US worth it, after the mehs of the other battleships. They are really where the US battleships go from good to great.

My South Dakota is a really decent ship, and has proven it's worth after a bit of fine tuning.

Guns
The best part about them is the better guns. They both get the Mark 6, triple barrel, 16"/45. They are so much better than the 16" on the colorados. While they have a very long reload of 18 seconds, they have good range, at 330, great dispersion at that range, and high damage of 2650. They also have, from what I can defer, higher than average turret traverse, which allows the guns to get there faster to bear down in a broadside. Overall, these guns are a huge upgrade over the guns from the other US battleships.

Armor
The armor is the next big leap, in terms of the ship. If you sacrifice some HE ammo in the main battery, and remove 4 secondaries, you can get huge amount of armor. Mine used to have 20/20/20 deck, and 14.7/21/14.7 belt. I've removed two more for almost 16" fore and aft on the belt. The health behind the armor is also pretty beefy, being able to sustain large amounts of punishment from all calibers, even some of the larger calibers.

Speed
One of the next best things about the South Dakota is it's speed. At max speed, it is capable of 25.4kts at max displacement, which is a huge leap in speed from the sluggishly slow 19.7kt Colorado and even slower Nevada.

Turning and Acceleration
The acceleration is average, and actually considering the speed increase, the acceleration is worse than previous ships, and balances out the higher speed. The South Dakota turns....... Like a whale. It's turning is really poor. Unlike the Colorado and Nevada, where they can easily turn away from incoming torpedoes to dodge them, the South Dakota simply can't turn fast enough, far enough, to allow it to dodge torpedoes effectively, or steer away from an allied ship to avoid collison(hampering both of you). This also means you have to plan your route rather well, which also requires you to pay attention to where all allied and enemy ships are so you can plan ahead with your turning. This can exhaust you from playing, but in general, it still pans out rather well

Stats

Max Displacement: 45,519

Speed at Max displacement: 25.4kts

Main weapon slots: 3

Secondary weapon slots: 10