User blog comment:Shinhwalee/Major Event Preparation Guide for Admirals/@comment-25733368-20151017132547/@comment-25733368-20151029012411

@Arkeyy, this reply is going to be long because there's a lot to explain.

1) You don't need CAV. I cleared last event on Hard and the only place where CAV were of any use was E5, second easiest map of whole event which you could easily clear with Mogami. In harder maps you can usually switch CAV with CA and Myoukous Kai Ni are stronger than Tones. When CAV is specifically required, it's sittuation where Tones aren't needed. Having strong CAV is a luxury, nothing essential.

Meanwhile you are REQUIRED to have CL in combined fleet. And all the hardest maps since Fall are Combined Fleet. You want the absolute best CL to increase your chances of beating events.

2) You have no idea what are you talking about. There are a lot of expeditions which require a CL - most notably ex5, ex21 and ex37. Using Abukuma with daihatsu there instead of other CL offers straight out gain. You can't question that. It's obvious calculation. You don't understand the game mechanics and aren't capable of thinking why things happen. You most likely heard that it's not worth using Akitsu Maru in Tokyo Express if she only holds one daihatsu and are now trying to apply same "logic" to Abukuma. It doesn't work like that. Abukuma is a CL. If you used Akitsu Maru, you used her instead of sub or destroyer. In Abukuma's case you don't lose anything. There's only gain. That's why you should get her as soon as possible.

When you go into discussion, you're supposed to at the very least understand your own points. If you don't, then you shouldn't attempt disagreeing with others at all.

3) "but if abukuma somehow derp'd her opening torp(opening torp against Ru), you would want jintsu who COULD PROBABLY deal decent damage against Ru with here DA"

Jesus christ, your train of thought is so fallacious I don't even know where to start. You're assuming that Abukuma will miss, then you assume that Jintsuu will hit, next you assume she will deal decent damage and based on that you decide that Jintsuu is better? No way in hell. You can't compare things. Stop.

You are completely wrong about Abukuma vs Jintsuu.

First of all, you overlooked half of Abukuma's advantages. It isn't merely opening torp. It's decently powerful opening torp and her closing torp is also stronger than Jintsuu's. Another important aspect is that if you equip Abukuma with torps, her range is short, meaning it is guaranteed that your CAs will shoot before her in shelling.

Second of all, you overestimate value of shelling. In combined fleet, torpedo is much more accurate than shelling attacks. If it's a choice between two, opening torpedo is much more reliable at dealing damage than crappy double attack (remember that Jintsuu has three slots so her DA has mere 50% activation rate)

Third of all, you fail to understand meaningfullness of opening torpedo. It's separate battle phase which always occurs before shelling. You get a free hit. Abukuma's torpedo is enough to kill the DDs and enough to chuuha middle ships like Tsu. It's very important because those ships have very high evasion and it's very common for whole escort fleet to target one Late Model DD and keep missing only to watch as that DD kills someone with very accurate closing torpedo. The accurate opening torpedo can eliminate this DD before shelling even starts. There are less enemies in opposing fleet so there is a higher chance your BB or CA will start the shelling by targetting opposing carriers or battleships, further decreasing the threat and improving your chances.

Finally, there is no other ship in the game which benefits from torpedo cut-in more than Abukuma (also making her prime Maruyu target for the future). With two Quints her opening and closing torpedo become much more powerful, not far from the damage cap. As mentioned above, her range becomes short with such setup which is beneficial for the fleet because even the weakest CA is better (both in damage and DA activation rate) than any CL, including Jintsuu, in shelling so you want them to attack first. While this point might not apply to new admirals, they might still want to bet on torpedo cut-in if devs force them to fight against high armor enmy. And there's no better CL than Abukuma to use torp cut-in on.

tl;dr Abukuma isn't overhyped. You simply fail to understand half of her good points. Please refrain from "correcting" others in subjects you aren't well-versed in.