Talk:List of light aircraft carriers by upgraded maximum stats/@comment-175.156.15.246-20140523222447

AV vs CVL

I am writing this because when I was less experienced I didn't know whether to leave Chitose-A as an AV or upgrade to CVL, hope this is useful to newer players. I ended up modernising at Chitose level 35 and then again at 50, but I always had lingering doubts about what would happen if I had left as AV. Being a theorycrafter I decided that perhaps I should try leaving Chiyoda as AV while levelling up and judging the outcome through experience.

http://tinypic.com/r/5zjgba/8

I now find AVs to be much more useful, at least to have 1 at early levels. The reason is that CVLs, as a whole, don't really perform any role particularly well in the game right now. The only map that needs them is 5-2, but you only really need 1 CVL, and 5-2 is a map you can do once and then forget about it(mostly). One common purpose they both share is the ASW, which, for the most part, AVs are better at. This is because AVs can ASW even at red health, and have generally higher ASW stat because you can equip depth charges. One Zuin and 2 type 3 depth charges can let your AV decimate normal subs, and even elite subs in 同航戦 when line abreast(horizontal), with about 50 ASW damage per hit before armour reduction. Even with 2 Junker and 2 Ryuusei a CVL's ASW is not as high. Because both CVLs and AVs have no base ASW stat, this is a consistent damage output across levels. In comparison CVLs struggle to do ASW, because there is a chance that the enemy subs will significantly damage your CVL during opening torpedo phase, rendering her unable to even launch planes during the shelling phase. This happens annoyingly often on 1-5.

This is relevant because there're daily and weekly quests to sink a required number of subs, and I daresay AVs are much better suited to 1-5 for this task, with one Zuin and 2 depth charges being optimal. 1-5 is also a great place to level-up your DDs for 3-2.

However, the only exception to the ASW advantage is if you equip the CVL with the Akitsumaru gyrocopter, by which their ASW can go above that of AVs, but the expense required to LSC Akitsumaru, trial and error, generally makes this quite an uneconomical proposition unless you already have Akitsumaru. I am also discounting the possibility of monthly-reward equipment.

What about the other combat-related aspects? CVLs can launch other carrier planes, but in almost every situation you'd rather have a CV than a CVL. As aerial combat and bombardment is reliant on the number of planes in a slot, strictly speaking CVLs will always get outgunned by enemy carriers(esp in PVP), losing you the crucial air superiority, while the planes' spreading of damage mean the bombardment can't reliably destroy anything. Since bauxite consumption is based off the number of planes lost, rather than the individual ship's consumption, CVs are far better at this task despite their increased ammo/fuel cost. In scenarios where you need both air superiority and ASW, splitting your CVL's slots between fighters and Ryuusei/Junker generally means your ASW damage will only amount to scratch.

On the other hand, if the situation calls for it, you can spam midget submarines on your torpedo-stat-modernised AV in the knowledge that the opening torpedo salvo will quite reliably instagib one of the opponents weaklings or significantly damage their capital ships. It's also worth noting that AVs are in the same repair tier as destroyers and light cruisers, so their repair time is two-thirds that of a comparable CVL.

CVLs to CVs are very much like CAs to BBs, except that CVLs have similar bauxite cost to CVs: you rarely ever really need CVLs. AVs on the other hand have a strong ASW niche, especially for dailies and weeklies. As such it's advisable to leave at least one of the Chitose-class as AVs.