User blog:Kappakaze/Something on Nelson Touch

Together with Nelson a new attack type was introduced, the Nelson Touch.

For Nelson Touch to be able to trigger in the first place some conditions must be met:

-Nelson is the Flagship (Main Fleet in Combined Fleet)

-3rd and 5th ship can not be Aircraft Carriers CV(L/B)

-fleet contains no Submarines SS(V)

-Formation must be Double Line (Cruising Formation 2 in Combined Fleet)

-Nelson cant be Chuuha or Taiha

-has not triggered yet in the current sortie

-Fleet needs to contain 6 ships

-cant trigger in PvP

-Equip, Airstate, Detection and Day or Night Batlte do not matter.

Nelson Touch is a special shelling attack that can trigger whenever Nelson attacks and all conditions are met. Her attack gets replaced by 3 seperate attacks, the first one by Nelson, second one by the 3rd position ship and the third one by the 5th position ship. Each of these three attacks functions as a regular shelling attack would with a multiplier. This includes Hayasui who uses the Carrier Shelling Formula in Nelson Touch, but for crits the Proficiency doesnt matter.

The multiplier is postcap in Day Battle and pre-cap in Night Battle. Additionally it depends on the Engagement, for Green T, Parallel and Head-on the multiplier is 2, while for Red T its 2.5. This also applies for Night Battles. The attacks uses each ships specific modifiers and stats, such as Ammo Penalty and Anti Installation gear.

One thing to pay attention to is the condition of Nelson Touch only triggering once per sortie, it means that one has to plan ahead on where to try to use it. Nelson Touch triggering effectively adds 2 very strong attacks to your sortie with multipliers stronger than an AP Shell Cutin, but it is a tradeoff. Using Nelson Touch also makes all other attacks weaker than they would have been in Line Ahead (Cruising Formation 4). For Single Fleet this means all day attacks having a 0.8 multiplier instead of 1.0, and for Combined Fleets a 1.0 multiplier instead of 1.1.

It is still potentially a very efficient cleanup tool. As the first attack of a Battle it can potentially prevent up to 3 enemy attacks by itself. This makes Nelson Touch viable on preboss Nodes to enable a safer route to the Boss Node, but it also proves to be efficent on Boss Nodes to clear out escorting ships and enable more hits on the Boss itself.

However in Player Side Single Fleet against Abyssal Combined Fleet scenarios it will be able to trigger in every shelling phase, including the first shelling phase against the enemy Escort Fleet. In most cases Escort Fleets are relatively light and do not require a lot of power to go up against, meaning that if Nelson Touch triggers against it the strongest attack is wasted in a place where it is entirely overkill and additionally lowers the chances against the Main Fleet due to the lowered damage multiplier in Double Line.

In conclusion, if the Boss Node consists of a Single vs Combined Fleet Battle, then using Nelson Touch on a preboss Node would most likely be the most efficient choice to make.

For other Single Fleet Situations however one can decide whether they want the easier path to the Boss, or the extra damage potential on the Boss itself. In Combined Fleet the difference in damage between the formations isnt as big (only 9% in comparison to 20% in Single Fleet), the Main Fleet will always first Target the enemy Main Fleet, and only in the second shelling can the enemy Escort be targeted.

In a Carrier Task Force (CTF) Nelson Touch shouldnt be considered for preboss Nodes, again due to shelliing order of fleets. Against Single Fleets the CTF Escort will do the first shelling phase, and then what still remains after the closing Torpedos will go up agaisnt the Main Fleet. If Nelson Touch Triggered at this point, chances are only one of the three attacks is required to sink the enemy fleet, wasting two. A Surface Task Force (STF) doesnt have this problem as the Main Fleet engages first in every case.

The Nelson Touch multiplier being postcap in Day Battle opens up the possibility of previously unreachable damage numbers. If a ship were to cap a regular hit in Day Battle, then in Nelson Touch it would be able to reach 360 damage without a crit, and 540 damage with a crit. While relatively hard to achieve in Single Fleets, its easily possible in Combined Fleets.

In Night Battles Nelson Touch allows the vast majority of combat ships to hit the damage cap due to the multiplier being precap at Night.

Notes:

-regular shelling means no special attack multipliers, such as Cutins and Artillery Spotting

-Torpedo stat is included for Night Battle Nelson Touch attacks