User blog:Reikyu/Dealing with yasen soft cap on CLTs

AKA why I'm thinking of giving up on cutinkami.

This will look at comparing DA and torpedo cut-in setups for CLTs.

From the combat thread for reference:

Night Battle Basic Attack Power = Firepower + Torpedo

Attack Power After Caps = x + sqrt(pre caps attack power - x), Where x represents the attack power cap.

Attack Power Soft Cap = 300 for Night Battle

Pre-Cap Modifiers in play: Night Battle Special Attacks

For night battles, specifically CLT, you have primarily two ways to equip your ship.

Double Attack: 2 guns + ko-hyoteki = 120% damage modifier x 2 hits

Cut-in: 2 torpedos + ko-hyoteki = 150% damage modifier x 2 hits

The advantage of double attack is that it procs very reliably. The advantage of torpedo cut-in is that it has a higher damage modifier. Both layouts are pretty popular for CLT depending on a variety of factors like admiral playing style, ship luck, ship fleet position, and enemy strength. Let's take a closer look at what goes on when the damage calculations are made.

Base FP on Kitakami/Ooi Kai Ni: 63

Base Torpedo on Kitakami/Ooi Kai Ni: 139

Double Attack

Your standard double attack setup for a CLT is 2 x 15.5 yellows + ko-hyoteki

FP(77) + Torpedo(151) = 228 yasen power x 120% double attack damage modifer = 273.6 damage pre armor/ammo

Torpedo Cut-in

Your standard torpedo cut-in setup for a CLT is 2 x quints + ko-hyoteki

FP(63) + Torpedo(175) = 238 yasen power x 150% cut-in damage modifier = 357 damage pre softcap/armor/ammo

As 357 is over the 300 softcap for night battle, we take the square root of the excess and add it to 300 to get 307.55 damage pre armor/ammo

As you can see, a CLT loses a lot of potential night battle power by going over the softcap. A DD doesn't have this problem as their base stats are a lot lower than a CLT. Right now we are looking at a 34 attack point difference which is pretty significant, but is it worth the chance of a failed cut-in? A successful cut-in will be worth 34 x 2 damage over the double attack (pre ammo). A failed cut-in will be worth... something horrible more often than not.

If you didn't notice, I'm using basic equipment for this example. While you can +4 or +6 your quints for extra attack damage for your opening/closing torpedo strikes, it will have barely any effect at all on your night battle power due to the softcaps. A double attack setup doesn't have this problem, and upgraded guns can allow you to get close the gap somewhat.

Double Attack with Prinz guns + ko-hyoteki

FP(83) + Torpedo(151) = 234 yasen power x 120% double attack damage modifier = 280.8 damage pre armor/ammo

Double Attack with +4 20.3(3)s + ko-hyoteki

FP(87) + Torpedo(151) = 238 yasen power x 120% double attack damage modifier = 285.6 damage pre armor/ammo

And who knows what the future might hold. Upgradable prinz guns? Upgradable ko-hyotekis? Unless they uncap that 300 the CLT torpedo cut-in has nowhere to go.