[2022] A moment of relaxation with some California love!

She's got great firing profiles with fast, accurate shells. They don't overmatch much, so finding a comfortable spot mid-map allows you to threaten both flanks while cruisers move wide to take position.

I meant ballistic/firing performance.

Her base turret traverse is similar to the Yamato in forcing her to be at range. Definitely worth considering taking Main Battery Mod 2 (+15% Turret Traverse) and potentially the Commander 2-pointer as well if it's a big concern. You can drop the Turret Traverse to 43.5 sec/180 degrees with a basic commander, or 41.7 sec/180 degrees with a Doe Brother or Halsey.

California's base firing range is 19.9km. It's nice to take the range extension in slot 3, but if you aren't landing shells at 20+km it's not going to matter overmuch. Plus you can choose Spotter Plane for situations where you did need to reach further to touch someone.

US Battleships don't get the -dispersion Upgrade in Slot 3, so you're only losing range and a 5%/-5% secondary buff interaction.

I recall there being a Reddit post talking about how longer firing range translates to better Vertical Dispersion, but in practice I really haven't felt much of a result from the concept. Barring that theory, Slot 3 is just a choice being firing range and turret traverse.