Theory and Composition
NOTICE: The first part of the guide ONLY focuses on the composition of a backline fleet and disregards the skills/stats of a ship in particular.
Basic Compositions
What is a good backline/main fleet composition? There are four main choices one can choose from:
2 CV 1 BB | Line them up like this: CV | BB (flagship) | CV |
2 BB 1 CV | Line them up like this: BB | CV (flagship) | BB |
3 CV |
3 BB |
We will call each composition A, B, C, and D respectively.
Abbreviations and a Ship’s Role
Before we begin, we will discuss what each abbreviation means and what role they play in the overall battle:
CV(L)s:
CV are made up of two classes: Carriers (CV) and Light Carriers (CVL). Both perform the same role in that they sent out airstrikes against the enemy, however, certain CVLs will trade in a plane slot for an AA slot (Anti-Air).
In general, CVs are excellent damage dealers that are capable of wiping enemies from the map. They also have a unique mechanic where an airstrike (when called in) will delete/remove any enemy attacks (rounds/torpedoes) on screen. This mechanic is not found in BBs. The advantage of this mechanic as it allows for the player to avoid potentially deadly situations by clearing the screen of enemy attacks.
BB(C/M):
BBs are made up of three main classes: Battleship (BB), Battlecruiser (BC), and Monitors (BM). Each, like in CVs, perform the same role with differing aspects. In general, their durability are as follows: BB > BC > BM.
All three function as damage dealers with focused strikes called “salvos.” When called, they send out x amount of shells (dependent on the gun) towards the general location the player called them in for. Unlike CVs, BBs require at least decent equipment to deal damage and thus they may not perform as well compared to an airstrike. BBs, in addition, do not have the unique mechanic of CV and thus are unable to delete any enemy attack in progress.
In late stages or high levels for a BB, i.e. when you LB them, they perform better. Instead of one salvo, they can follow up with a second or even a third salvo. This marks the increase in performance of BBs from being inferior to CVs to being critical in a composition.
BBs are also able to equip secondary guns (DD/CL, depends on the battleship). What this means is that whenever an enemy boat, such as the suicide boats, draw near enough they will fire upon it. This is important as it may lead to the deletion of the suicide boat and prevents damage to your backline. In addition, this allows your frontline to not tank the suicide boats and instead focus on the more pressing issues.
These three classes, however, generally have one weakness: poor AA stats.
What does that mean? Here are the explanations:
- Low AA values means that their AA guns deal less damage to airplanes.
- Low AA values means that they take more damage than usual.
Does that mean I should stick to CVs? No:
- Current EN worlds do not have significant air threats that a properly equipped fleet with decent AA equipment cannot deal with.
- As long as you have a decent AA setup, you can trust your frontline to move into position to delete the planes from the skies. If you wish to know more, refer to Frontline Guide 101 for the AA mechanics in detail.
Battleships provide large benefits that poor AA values rarely, if ever, offset their use on a battlefield.
Each Compositions’ Benefits
Let us begin discussing the backline compositions in detail:
A Composition: CV | BB (flagship) | CV |
What are the benefits to this? You get 2 airstrikes within close time ranges of each other and thus can easily do double airstrikes consecutively for fast deletion. This also gives you two “clear” buttons to delete any enemy attacks. Finally, you have a battleship in the middle to tank suicide boats as well as provide cover fire against them.
In early gameplay, the battleship salvos may seem to be inferior to CV airstrikes, but with the right equipment and LBing them they can easily provide enough damage to one-shot a boss or clear a screen of concentrated enemies.
Why do we put the BB in the middle? Well generally so the BB can provide cover fire for both CVs rather than just one. There are instances where it is preferred to have the carrier as the flagship due to higher HP and/or tankier, but it is generally a good idea to put the battleship in the middle for the covering fire.
B Composition: BB | CV (flagship) | BB |
What are the benefits? You get two salvos that allows you to wipe out a particular enemy or a cluster of enemies. In addition, you provide two backliners that can fire against suicide boats, i.e. they can cover both themselves and the CV in the center. The CV here provides 1 “clear” button and allows an airstrike.
Can you swap the positions of the CV with a BB that’s more tankier? Yes of course! With two BBs, you can have only one provide secondary fire to defend your CV.
NOTE: While one should achieve this kind of layout of the CV being a flagship, there are many circumstances that prevent this from being the ideal setup. Indeed, if one of the BBs is a barrage-based ship (has a skill that launches a barrage at the enemy) it is generally better for her to be the flagship. If the CV has weak health, it should be noted that she shouldn’t be flagship either.
C Composition: CV | CV | CV |
Benefits? 3 clear buttons! Plus, you get three airstrikes which allow for rapid delete of enemies on a screen or even a pesky boss. You trade any protection against secondary fire for the ability to call in rapid hard-hitting attacks against any enemy that is running around.
Does it work? Yes, it does and it does extremely well! However, be cautious of how effective it is in higher worlds. In higher worlds, suicide boats become increasingly more common and more deadly to your ship girls.
Does that mean I need to ditch 3 CV comp in higher worlds? Well, no. If your frontline is up to the task, then you do not need to worry about suicide boats. However, that depends on your frontline to tank the damage or to destroy them as fast as possible. Thus the higher you go, the increasingly less practical it becomes to depend on a 3 CV composition.
D Composition: BB | BB | BB |
Benefits? Triple salvos, durability, and anti-suicide boat protection. This is great if you want to focus your strikes on specific enemies rather than the general anything goes of carrier airstrikes. However, you lose the carrier’s special mechanic of deleting any incoming attacks and thus you may be more prone to taking more damage or having to tank deadly situations.
Does it work? Early on this composition is much weaker than CVs as you don’t get any follow up salvos and you need decent guns in order to bring out the damages of each barrage strike.
Does it work late stage then? Oh definitely! In higher worlds you can easily go triple BBs and clear maps without issue. The major advantage of this is that the threat of suicide boats is diminished greatly and thus allows your frontline to concentrate in wiping out the enemy rather than worrying about the pesky devils.
Pros and Cons
Let’s discuss which one is better or what serves what.
Both C and D are excellent in deleting enemies on screen and can serve excellently in wiping out bosses. A and B are both trail behind C and D in this regard with A > B in damage potential. Now does that mean B is bad? No, that just means you are trading damage potential for tanking and anti-suicide boat fire.
Between C and D which are easier for a beginner to create? C as it requires less equipment to achieve a deadly affect whereas D requires LBing and decent guns for any significant damage. As you progress, D becomes more effective as a choice.
For A and B, which one is best? Well A for striking ability while B for tanking. A allows you to double airstrike with a follow up salvo. B allows you to do one airstrike with double fire salvo. As stated before, A is best for deleting while B provides tanking and some safeguard against suicide boats.
Repair Ships and Their Roles [REWORKING]
At some point you might encounter Vestal or Akashi. What are they? They are repair ships (AR). They provide healing outside of battle and they heal during a battle as well. They also increase your ammo count for the fleet they are in.
Now you may be wondering, where do they fit in the backline composition? Well they are generally used for farming purposes as they are weak and provide little benefits. Use them cautiously as their benefits do not outweigh losing a DPS source and they heal the frontline at a pace much worse than that of either Shouhou or Unicorn.
Possible compositions? If you’re using them, your main goal is to reduce oil cost and thus should stick to:
AR + BB
AR + CV
Either works with BB providing cover fire and CV providing airstrikes.
Can you use them in general with a full backline? Yes, you may, but you may find yourself weaker than usual.
For a detailed analysis by Wiz, check here.
Recommended Backliners [REWORKING]
The list below focuses on the utility a ship can bring to the backline composition. It focuses primarily on their skills and then their stats afterwards. This list includes minor tiering, but its main goal is to recommend backlines rather than define a meta. You may consider it as a tierlist for backline if you wish, but that is not its purpose.
Tier Quality (Best to Worst): T0 > T1 > T2 > T3 > T4
Focus of this recommendation list: For EN gameplay only. Any ships not available for EN are disregarded. In addition this is mainly for new players, but can serve for older players. For a detailed and a more meta-following list, check this Tier Guide by Wiz.
2018/09/18 – Reformatting this section to provide more detailed information and to advise a new player or a current experienced player more in what is a good backliner. In addition to the general ideas that go behind carriers. There will, after the rework, exist a list but it’ll be focused more on recommendations with the complete removal of the minor tiering that is present.
Carriers
Carriers, like before, are split into CV and CVLs. This distinction is important for hardmode as it may require the deployment of a CV which a CVL cannot meet as a requirement and vice versa. It is recommended that you keep a CV and a CVL up to a decent level for hardmode purposes.
Carriers, in actuality, are more divided into two categories: Damage and Support. The names of these should be self-explanatory, but damage carriers focus on dealing damage and wiping out the enemy as fast as possible. Support carriers deal with either buffing the backline, frontline, or even healing the frontline.
NOTICE: Saratoga and Lexington fit both roles and will be included at the end with an explanation.
Let us begin with the damage carriers or DC for this guide’s purpose:
Damage Carriers
Damage carriers, like stated before, focus on dealing raw damage either at once or quickly. Their skills are focused on increasing their DPS or raising the possibility of deploying a second wave right after the first one. These are critical for any boss-killing fleet running a CV in their backline composition and less so for mobs, where endurance vs damage is preferred.
T0:
Enterprise: The best of the carriers that one may find in dealing damage. One of her major strengths is her ability to perform without any synergy with any other ship and therefore makes her ideal for compositions that wishes to gather differing CV/BBs.
Skill: Her skill, known as Lucky E, allows her to have a 40% (70%) of dealing double damage and grants her temporary invulnerability. This skill is the best of all DC ships and instantly grants Enterprise a DPS well above any carrier or even carrier combo.
Pros: Highest Air Power, best Reload speed of all CVs, best Evasion, and best anti-air power.
Cons: High oil consumption.
How to Get: Medal Shop Exchange (80 medals and can appear on rotation) or construction from the Special Gacha.
T1:
Akagi + Kaga (Akaga) Combo: This combo pair induces tremendous synergy due to their second skill boosting both of their Air Power stats by 15% (35% max). In addition their first skill reduces the cool-down time of their first airstrikes and thus allows for quick and deadly attacks within the first moments of a battle.
Individually they are both are good carriers, however, they are nowhere close to their maximum air power when paired. It is highly recommended you pair the two on a fleet.
Skills: Their first skill reloads their initial airstrike by 20% (50% maxed) and thus you can potentially reduce your initial airstrike wait time by half. Finally their second skill boosts their Air Power stats by 15% (35% max) when paired.
Pros: Farmable, high Air Power stats of any CV (losing to Enterprise), healthy health pools, 2nd and 3rd best reload stats of any CV.
Cons: Oil consumption cost, poor evasion, and requires both to get the maximum benefit.
How to Get: Farm 3-4 (Fox Mines)
T2:
Ark Royal: The first Elite ship on this list, Ark Royal’s skills focus entirely on the potential of dealing damage. She is both farmable and cheap in oil consumption compared to Akaga or Enterprise and thus may serve as a replacement when farming.
Skills: Her first skill allows her to, 100%, drop a second wave of torpedoes from her torpedo bombers. In addition it slows down the enemy by 30% (60%) for 8 seconds. This, right off the back, allows her to deal more damage than a comparable CV with the same equipment and stats. Note, however, this second wave of torpedoes depend on the skill’s level.
Her second skill is one of her charms, Raid Carrier, which provides a 15% (25%) chance of dealing double damage from her airstrikes and thus allows her to mimic Enterprise’s first half of her skill.
Pros: Above average health, cheaper than SR carriers, and respectable anti-air stats.
Cons: Poor evasion, reload speed, no fighter slot thus her AA potential drops significantly.
How to Get: Farm 6-3 or from Special Gacha
——
Hornet: Overall she performs the same role as Ark Royal (above) with the exception her first skill has a chance of procing for a airstrike from B25s. The negative part of this is that it isn’t a guaranteed thing like Ark Royal’s second torpedo wave.
Skills: Allows the potential deployment of B25s in an airstrike and thus raises her airstriking capability. In addition she has Raid Carrier and thus gives the potential for dealing double damage from her airstrikes.
Pros: Above average health, cheaper than SR carriers, and respectable anti-air stats.
Cons: Poor evasion and reload speed.
How to Get: 5-3, 7-2, and from Special Gacha
T3: (Poor Man’s DCs)
Now you might be asking: wait… what if I don’t have any of them? Thankfully there are DCs that can still provide that needed alpha strike, but these are nowhere as good as the ones above.
Hiryuu and Souryuu Combo: Their second skill increases both ships’ Air Power stats and thus allows them to increase their damage output. This activates when they are paired together. If you do not have a good combo of CVs these two can serve you well. In addition Souryuu’s first skill provides a nifty buff to your frontline. You can consider these two, when paired together, to be damage carriers and support carriers.
Stats: Average
How to Get: World 3 except for 3-4
——
Bogue/Ranger/Long Island Trio: The great thing about each of this ships is their ability to possibly rearm their airstrikes immediately after the first one is launched. The rate of this is 5% (15% max) and thus allows them to pump up their damages. In addition they can be ran solo (no synergy between the three of them).
Pros: Cheap to run
How to Get:
Bogue: World 2 and World 4+ (except 4-3)
Ranger: World 3+ (except 4-2 and 8-3)
Long Island: 1-4 and 3-1 (others exist. Check Wiki)
Light and Special Gacha.
—-
Hermes: One of the interesting features of Hermes is her having Raid Carrier. This allows her to potentially deal double damage whenever she launches an airstrike at 15% (25% max).
Pros: Cheap to run
How to Get: World 2 and World 4+ (except 4-4).
Support Carriers
What are support carriers and what are their roles on the battlefield? Their main objective is to buff the frontline (even backline) and/or to provide a healing factor. They aren’t geared for pure damage dealing, which DCs (damage-orientated carriers) are more suited for. Support carriers (called SC from now on) are to ensure that the frontline endures as long as possible and/or provide buffs to increase damage (such as increased reload speed).
T0:
Unicorn: Unicorn is one of the best support carriers that any fleet can have within their employment. Her healing skill which procs 100% of the time allows the frontline to stay alive for a much longer duration and can even be the key role for victory in a fight. Her second skill buffs the reload of the frontline and thus allowing them to achieve a higher DPS than normal.
Skills:
Her first skill is focused on healing, which is initiated with an airstrike. It provides a 3.5% (8% max) healing boost the frontline.
Her second skill is focused on reloading, which is active all the time. This provides a 5% (15%) bonus in reloading and thus leads to a higher DPS.
Pros: Second highest health pool of the CVLs, above average Air Power for a CVL, a healthy reload stat, and decent evasion.
Cons: One of the highest oil consumptions of the CVLs and trades one of her plane slots for an AA gun.
How to Get: 4-4, 5-4, Special Gacha, and late world maps (Check wiki)
——
Shouhou: Akin to Unicorn in her utility, her main strength is that the player can farm for her early on in 2-2, 2-3, and 2-4. Her flaw compared to Unicorn is that she does not have a skill that aids the frontline nor backline (kai provides one, but is not available in EN).
Skills:
Her skill allows a 3.5% (8% max) healing whenever an airstrike is called in. This allows the frontline to survive much longer than without her.
Pros: Highest evasion (equal to a few other CV(L)s), cheap compared to Unicorn, and farmable early on.
Cons: A worse Unicorn in nearly every fashion.
How to Get: Farm World 2 except for 2-1 for her.
T1:
Illustrious: Illustrious is one of the better SCs one can have in terms of both as a flagship for tanking and for supporting the frontline. While she lacks the ability of Unicorn or Shouhou’s healing, she can apply a shield that is equal to 5% (10% max) of her own HP to the frontline units for 8s. This means one can use her ability, when she calls in the airstrike, to allow the frontline to tank significant damage for 8s.
Skills: Her shield skill is one of the best in game as it applies 5% (10% max) of her own HP and applies it to the frontline for 8s.
Pros: Heavy armor plus a decent health pool allows her to serve as a flagship in a C or B composition.
Cons: Expensive to run.
How to Get: Available from Medal Exchange (80 medals) and from Special Gacha.
T2:
Yorktown: Yorktown is the next best choice if the player doesn’t have either T0 or T1 SC ships. Her second skill provides a 5% (15%) boost in escort damage for 8 seconds and thus is great in temporarily increasing DPS of the frontline to finish off survivors of an airstrike(s). Her first skill provides her with a second change in survival (boosts her own HP) and delivers an airstrike for free, thus allowing her to act as a minor tank.
Skills:
Vengeful Strike: Heals her up to 15% (25%) of her HP once it hits 20% or below. Provides a free airstrike which damage increases with level.
Fleet Carrier: Provides 5% (15%) increased damage for the escorts for 8s after an airstrike (does not stack).
Pros: (As of OBT) you have her.
Cons: Mediocre stats.
How to Get: Drops in 3-4, 7-2, and can be constructed from Special Construction.
Saratoga and Lexington
Saratoga and Lexington can be described as hybrids of both damage and support due to their skills. These two sisters are exceptional compared to most CVs (arguably only losing to Enterprise and Akaga) and any fleet will do well in employing them. Their unique ability is their skill in launching barrages at a rate of 20s (10s at minimum), which allows them to act as a poor man’s BB in dealing shell damage.
In damage carrier tiering, they can be rated at T1.5 and support tiering, T1.
Skills:
Covering Fire: Every 20s (10s) they are able to launch supporting fire against enemy targets. The damage of each shell increases with the skill’s level.
Fleet Carrier: Provides 5% (15%) increased damage for the escorts for 8s after an airstrike (does not stack).
Pros: Best HP pools of CVs along with their covering fire skill.
Cons: Mediocre to below average in every other stat, especially reload.
How to Get:
Lexington: 2-4 (Check wiki for other zones)
Saratoga: 4-1 (Check wiki)
Both are available from Special Construction.
Battleships
Battleships provide one of the defining points of any composition and are needed in end-game content. They provide protection against suicide boats (backline only) and are tanky with (generally) heavy armor. Their salvos are capable smashing apart the toughest of enemies and are fantastic in wiping out close-clustered enemies. Yet they need more investment than carriers to work better and in addition, they need LBing in order to achieve high efficiency (thus are generally not ideal for farming).
These girls come in three flavors, ranking in both durability (general) and in oil cost: Battleship (BB) > Battlecruiser (BC) > Monitor (BM).
Their armor: BB – Heavy, BC – Medium, BM – Light.
Like in carriers, there is support and damage dealing battleships, but this distinction is much less important than that of carriers. In general, most are geared towards damage dealing with few having any notable supporting skills.
Notice: South Dakota as her own dedicated section.
Damage Battleships
We will begin with damage battleships or DB as they will be referred to in this guide. These battleships like damage carriers are put into fleets for one purpose: to smash the enemy. This list focuses primarily on the skills that the DBs bring onto the table and their stats second.
T0:
Hood: Hood is one of the best damage dealers in game with the addition of the best health pool of any BB. Her barrage is the best of any battleship and is capable of covering the battlefield with deadly fire. It doesn’t hurt that her barrage skill also increases the reload speed of the backline. An issue of Hood, however, is that she is a BC and thus only has medium armor, making her more susceptible to taking fire than a BB.
Skill: Glory of the Royal Navy provides a 40% (70%) chance of activation whenever she fires her gun. When activated her follow up strike will unleash a powerful barrage, most effective in the middle, that can and will blanket your screen. In addition it provides a reload buff to your backline so your CVs/BBs can unleash their payload as well.
Pros: The best health pool, best evasion outside of monitors, best reload, and best AA.
Cons: Expensive to run compared to Elite BBs and only has medium armor.
How to Get: Heavy Gacha and Medal Exchange (80 medals when she appears).
T1:
Rodney/Nelson: The main charm of these two are their BIG SEVEN skill which unleashes a devastating barrage (damage based on skill level). Consider them as Elite versions of the Hood and less expensive to run in addition to that.
Skill: BIG SEVEN has a 20% (40%) chance of procing whenever a salvo is launched. When activated, they will follow up their first salvo with the BIG SEVEN barrage. Leveling up this skill is recommended in order to increase its lethality.
Pros: Above average health and best firepower outside of SR ships.
Cons: Below average AA and their barrage skill requires leveling to be effective.
How to Get: 2-4 (Rodney), 2-3 (Nelson), and Heavy Construction (Check wiki for more info).
T2:
California: An excellent BB in dealing damage a player could get easily if in need of a decent BB. Her rarity being rare/blue allows her to be cheaper than Elite/purple or SR/gold ships when MLBed. However, she should be considered as a budget DC as Rodney/Nelson are superior choices when considering lethality.
Skill: Focused Strike procs at 15% (30% max) when she fires her main guns. This, potentially, allows her to double her damage easily and can cripple any high-health enemy within a single salvo. Drawbacks is that the rate this procs is low, especially at lvl 1.
Pros: Easy to get and cheap for a BB outside of monitors.
Cons: Mediocre stats.
How to Get: 2-1 and Heavy Construction (Check wiki for other drop areas).
——
Pennsylvania: Extremely similar to California with her stats and both can be used as budget BBs. However, Pennsylvania edges out compared to California due to her skill, which is much more consistent than that of California’s.
Skill: Big Sis Penn! Is a skill that has a chance of procing every 20s at a rate of 30% (60% max). This launches an unique barrage with damage being dependent on her skill level. Compared to California, this skill offers consistency and thus can out-DPM California’s 2x damage skill.
Pros: Easy to get and cheap for a BB outside of monitors.
Cons: Mediocre stats.
How to Get: 2-2 and Heavy Construction (Check wiki for other drop areas).
T3:
Warspite: Warspite’s skill is nothing spectacular outside of PvP as it focuses on the furthest ship from Warspite herself. When activated, this is basically a barrage that could provide the needed strike to end a game, but overall, it is terrible compared to other options. The main drawing point of Warspite are her overall stats.
Skill: Divine Marksmen is a skill that procs every 35s (15s at minimum) at the farthest enemy with the damage based on her skill level and guaranteed crit chance. The issue with this skill is that it focuses on the farthest enemy rather than say the closest or center enemies. This makes the skill dubious in usefulness.
Pros: Above average health, best firepower, and third best reload.
Cons: Extremely expensive for what she brings to the table.
How to Get: Special Construction and from Medal Exchange (80 medals and when she pops up).
T4:
Renown: Renown isn’t particularly great in any fashion besides her above average stats in reload and evasion. Her skill which provides increased damage for a subsequent salvo is great, but it doesn’t offset the DPS difference compared to Pennsylvania.
Skill: Final Glory increases a subsequent salvo by 10% (15% max) which provides a guaranteed, when LBed at least once, increased alpha strike.
Pros: Above average reload, evasion, and extremely easy to get for a new player.
Cons: Mediocre compared to others and worse than California/Pennsylvania.
How to Get: 1-4 and Heavy Construction (7-3 is also a farming area for her).
Farming Damage Battleships
These two BBs or monitors (BM) as they are actually known are special for one thing: cheap with a good barrage. If a player is looking for a ship that can just provide salvos, a good barrage, and being cheap-look no further.
The reason this guide splits them away from DBs is mainly to indicate their farming potential and that, generally, a full-on BB or BC is better on clearing worlds.
Erebus/Terror: To begin, anything discussed here are for both. They are, literally, the same in every stat and skill.
When one compares their stats to any other BB, they are worse in every single metric except their below-average reload and top-tier evasion stats. With many downsides, it becomes very hard to justify in employing them… in fact, why would you? Observe.
That is correct, the fully-leveled barrage of the monitors are extremely lethal and deadly. That is one of two of their main drawing points.
What’s the other?! They’re cheap. The average BB when MLB costs 15-12 oil (SR to N) whilst the Erebus-class ships at that stage cost merely 10 oil. At the high end, you are saving 5 more oil per run! This oil difference is even better when you don’t LB the monitors (if you need to, LB them once or twice).
How do I get them? Either Light, Heavy, or from drops on 4-3 (other Worlds exist, but they aren’t in in EN yet).
Skill: Infinite Darkness which provides a 30% (60%) chance of procing every 20s that fires an unique barrage (scales with level).
In case the link is broken, try this: Observe 2.
Support Battleships
Like support carriers, support battleships (SB for this guide) are backliners dedicated to buffing the team/frontline/backline or providing debuffs against the enemy. They don’t have great damage skills and thus must rely on other BBs or CVs to provide the DPS needed. In general, support battleships have niche roles within a composition and it is heavily advised to consider what you want.
T0:
Arizona: Arizona is critical for a fleet dedicated towards supporting its frontline if focused on a heavy BB comp or a CV comp. Her unique skill amongst BBs provide healing that procs at a rate of 50%, thus allowing her to act as a makeshift healer like Unicorn/Shouhou/ but worse in total theoretical healing. What makes her great when put in with say Unicorn or as the sole healing BB in a CV/BB/CV comp is that she provides protection against suicide boats. Even in a BB/CV/BB comp she is still great as she can depend on her compatriot and the CV to deal damage while she supports the frontline.
Skill: Eagle’s Tears procs at 50% whenever she fires her main gun. It heals the frontline’s fleet by 4% (10%) of their max health. If she procs 100% of the time, her theoretical healing is better than that of Unicorn/Shouhou.
Pros: Her healing skill is unique amongst BBs and thus can act as a healer with anti-suicide boat protection. To add, she’s easily obtainable early on like Shouhou.
Cons: Her healing skill, in practice, is worse than that of Unicorn/Shouhou and her stats are purely mediocre with nothing unique.
How to Get: 2-2 and from Heavy Construction (Check wiki for other sites).
T1:
Queen Elizabeth: While she doesn’t appear much, a quick glance at her skill can raise mainly possibilities. Indeed, she forms the core of the HMS Memes team, a term used to describe a fleet comprised entirely of or mostly of HMS ships. The reasoning behind this is to maximize her buffs for HMS ships and thus allows good to excellent HMS ships to perform above their original standings. However, this means that you should avoid using non-HMS ships to bring out her advantage and thus makes her a gimmick support ship.
Minor PvP Discussion: The HMS Meme team with her as the core makes this setup incredibly dangerous. With Warspite, you can automatically target the backline with impunity. With Hood, you are given the best barrage in game that is deadly to both the enemy’s frontline and, when it reaches the back, the backline as well. Fight against these kind of teams with caution.
Skill: Queen’s Order provides buffs to all stats (except health) at 5% (15% max). This is entirely passive and thus is an incredibly strong skill when in the right team lineup.
Pros: Above average firepower and one of the deadliest support skills possible for a BB/CV if used correctly.
Cons: Mediocre in every other stat and requires a rigid setup.
How to Get: 5-2 and Heavy Construction (Check wiki for other sites).
South Dakota
South Dakota: South Dakota is a ship from the Merit Shop and is worth it with what she provides to the team. Where Eldridge focuses on invulnerability as her gimmick, South Dakota acts as the tank of the backline. Her Focused Strike skill allows her barrages to be twice their lethality and her shield skill allows the frontline to survive heavy punishment.
However, her Strongest Shield skill directs 50% of the backline’s taken damage to herself and thus she can easily lose health at a rapid pace. Early on, her return in health is only a meager 20% and even when boosted, gains half of her lost health back at the end of the skill’s duration. This procs every 30s and thus can be dangerous if she begins to take significant damage.
It is heavily advised to not use her as the flagship unless you are sure you can use her skill to finish the battle and not cause her demise (which as the flagship means an automatic loss).
Skill: The Strongest Shield, procing every 30s, directs 50% of the damage taken by the backline onto herself. When done, 20% (50% max) of the lost health is applied back onto her.
Pros: Second highest HP after Hood, second best FP, best AA, best reload, and fourth best evasion for a BB (not including monitors). Skill allows the backline to tank only 50% of the actual damage when active.
Cons: Skill reflects the 50% unto herself and only heals 20% (50% max) of that loss health when the skill is done.
How to Get: Merit Points Exchange only (20k merit points).
Credits and Acknowledgements
Author: Essex/Dunkerque/Enbayft (EN Official Discord Server, same person)
Contributors: Falcon, 898235, and Wiz (EN Official Discord Server)
