Talk:World 5/@comment-145.53.88.193-20190126170057

New-new 5-5 is peak awful. In addition to new and improved SWP, it appears to me that the encounter distribution has been even more heavily skewed towards harder enemy compositions for higher HQ levels. I'm HQ 119 and I got the double-Re-plus-trollsub-in-line-ahead "fuck you" composition five out of five times while chipping, and then the other double-Re comp for LD. (One chipping run failed due to red T. Also preboss Re was really merciful this month, only stopping me once. Making this ironically one of the more effortless 5-5 clears of my recent career. But I can't shake the feeling that it was all exceptionally lucky.)

Key takeaways this time:

- After the failure due to red T I started using boss support. This did fuckall (70 damage to a Re, big help guys) except for the one time they saved a run by blapping a DD that had escaped the opening airstrike. So YMMV drastically.

- I did not use Ise K2. No matter how versatile she is, she just can't hack it against the likes of Re elite. I used an actual heavy hitter (Iowa) and made up the shortfall in FP with SPFs on Musashi, Suzuya and Zara. This only works if you have absolute top-shelf fighters (12+ AA) and SPFs, as well as named bombers with a bit of AA; I started with ~410 FP and after an encounter with double Wo flag in K would have barely enough left (~395) to beat double-Re in the boss node. I expect this to go wrong at some point in the future due to a Tsu slot wipe or whatever, and then it'll be a massacre. But this time it worked.

- Speaking of Zara, I think bringing her was a mistake. I liked her in old 5-5 and new 5-5 because she is tanky, has high day FP, and can bring an SPF. But new-new 5-5 is pretty much guaranteed to be decided in NB and then you need someone who can reliably punch through SWP's high armor, and Zara can't. Also her turn-stealing from a heavy hitter (due to innate long range) is much more of a liability now.

What are your experiences so far, especially w.r.t. the enemy compositions you encounter at your HQ level?