Talk:Summer 2015 Event/@comment-26825520-20150819074630/@comment-4125495-20150819091608

IMO Maya K2 is slightly better than Akizuki.

Akizuki is good at one thing, and that's AACI. Day battle otherwise she's a middling destroyer (firepower is middle of the range compared to Kai-2 DDs) and her low torpedo stat make her (and Teruzuki) both the worst destroyers in the game at night attacks (since it's FP + Torpedo stat). Even the Mutsuki-class has 128 basic attack power at night (49 FP + 79 Torp) where Akizuki is only 111 (57 + 54). Hell, even Libeccio will hit better. Night battle is a destroyer's bread and butterso by taking Akizuki you're consciously gimping your night battle chances. That might be worth it (on a lot of maps it is) but sometimes it's not.

Maya K2 meanwhile retains her Kai stats which are extremely good - only Chokai K2 and the Myoukou K2s are better in terms of pure combat, and while that makes her the worst of the pure CAs in Kai2, she makes up for it with that incredibly high AA and AACI. What that means is you can put in a high angle gun and her special AA gun to enable AACI, plus some combination of main guns or torpedoes for a night battle DA/CI setup and she can do both fairly effectively (though obviously doesn't have high luck for CI attacks and won't outperform a CA with a dedicated night battle setup). That fourth slot she has by virtue of being a CA is incredibly useful.

Akizuki is a great ship. Generally her AACI is going to be more effective than Maya's. But Maya is a better all-rounder. Not to mention that being a good CA she'll be able to help clear trash on a boss encounter and able to take a harder hit without having to turn the fleet around and head home.

If AACI is paramount or I need a DD or lighter ship for routing or I expect the rest of the fleet to be able to clear a boss at night, I'd take Akizuki. Maya K2 otherwise.

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For leveling up Abukuma, could try sub hunting in 4-3. It's faster than 3-2-A grinding though not as safe. As long as no one else has a Sonar + Depth Charge combo she should be able to get MVP a fair amount of the time on the sub nodes even pre-Kai (though escorts and CVLs may steal it sometimes). Once she's at Kai (luckily has a really low Kai level!) and has that extra slot, 4-3 will be way faster as you can throw in an extra sonar to all but guarantee MVP on sub nodes. 5-2 grinding might also be an option at higher levels. That's a lot of sorties in a short space of time to go from 1 to 75 though.