Your Waifu is SHIP's highly opinionated and extra-biased AL Unlisted Guide (MADDY'S ADAL ULCER EDITION)
"Hey, hang on a second! Where's MY waifu? I looked at the Guides and yet she's not there!"
Well, dear reader, barring an accidental deletion on my part I am sorry to say that she didn't make it on the Tier Guides; whether it is because she failed to meet the evaluation criteria or has proven to be entirely irrelevant outside of waifu purposes, the end result is this.
Not to despair, though! As mentioned in the Tier Guides, even untiered units can be put to use (though they won't make it easy on you), but if you'd like to have a clearer picture of who didn't make the cut and why, here's a shortlist for it.
[03/01/2021]
KMS Roon (not the Idol one) joins the Untierless Guide on account of being... a trainwreck of a kit and superceded entirely by her Idol version.
- Saddled with a detrimental ammo swap mechanic that prevents her from fully harnessing her power at all times (and locks out better ammo mods entirely) and a hitshield skill that is only marginally better than Prinz's by virtue of being a guaranteed proc (and the least said about the Dev35 buff it enjoys, ie. having them spawn at the start of the fight, the better), Roon has always had little to offer to anyone but wehraboos. Now that good, even great, KMS vanguards are releasing - and her Idol version avoids all the mistakes the original did - there is just no point whatsoever in blighting your dock with her presence.
KMS Elbe joins the Unlisted Guide on account of being... Weser but less interesting.
- Remember her? She's the only quasi-kinda-self-healer the KMS has, not that she's supposed to stay in harm's way to begin with. Lacklustre damage output coupled with the usual CVL issues (poor statlines, low plane counts) prevented her from being ever a serious option.
- Elbe is no different for pretty much the same reasons, despite (or perhaps also because) of the slightly more aggressive kit.
KMS U-1204 joins the Unlisted Guide on account of being... a purple sub.
- rip underwater toilet
[05/12/2021]
Hiyou META joins the entry below on account of being... well, just read below.
- If it's any help, she's better than the original. Kind of. Ish. Then again, given how poor the base unit was, it would've been exceedingly hard to do worse.
[04/10/2021]
Hiryuu META, Ark Royal META, Helena META, Souryuu META, Fusou META join the Unlisted Guide on account of being... part of the META failed concept.
- So here's the thing about METAs. When coming up with them, the devs clearly had some sort of vision for the gang, one that entails slashing supportive capabilities for more damage, to go with their edgier personas and whatnot. This translated, for the most part, in lots and lots of barrages.
- That is all well and good in theory. However, the support skills that got slashed were often the main reasons behind the units' success and those barrages do not compensate in damage or pattern quality for the loss.
- What you're left with, then, are units that behave mostly like the old unit and deal a tiny bit more damage, at the cost of their utility. This may work out alright for Ark Royal, who was always stronger than useful, but units like Helena lost a lot for little gain.
- In short, none of the META are in any way meta-relevant. Utility is lacking and the damage increase is not significant enough to matter. Expect more failures in the future.
[18/09/2021]
Katsuragi joins the Untierless Guide on account of being... a testbed for PvP skills.
- This one has been the subject of some debate. Not because she's good, of course, but because she is interestingly bad.
- Her kit seems to have been designed with PvP in mind, specifically around preserving concealement and debuffing Acc/Rld (which are of some importance in PvP and none in PvE). The damage reduction for carriers is a lot less interesting and about as relevant as all backline defensive skills are, that is to say they're note.
- Her damage output isn't that bad, per se, but as she lacks offensive buffs and half her barrage is better at looking pretty than destroying things, she's bound to fall behind.
[26/07/2021]
Ami and Mami Futaba join the Untierless Guide on account of being... painfully generic.
- Really, they're just purple subs. They do nothing special and lack offensive skills, though if you want to be generous, you could say they help a vanguard hanging onto dear life just by being summoned.
Akizuki itsuko joins the Untierless Guide on account of being... a munitions ship.
- Why do they insist with this failed concept? Granted, this one is considerably better than Kashino in an Idolmaster fleet below 4 Idols since she can pack a decent punch with all the FP buffs and the legitimately good Idolmaster-focused debuff, but she's still a munition ship.
- Can't fight properly, can't tank properly. Could be worth some consideration in an Idolmaster fleet, if you keep it small, but very questionable regardless.
[10/02/2021]
ROC Ying Swei and Chao Ho join the Untierless Guide on account of being modern day Ping Hai and Ning Hai... except Yat Sen does not work on them.
- Could've been good, those two (mostly Ying Swei); they have a decent complement of guns and barrages to provide a solid baseline for a Kai, and something for the obscene-but-mandatory buffs to work with, and are mechanically interesting with their eschewing normal AA guns for terrible torpedoes (would be an improvement, since most CL aren't good at shooting up anyway and giving up the pretense is better than the alternative).
- Alas, what propped up Ping/Ning even after the Kai was the ludicrous EvaRate buff granted by Yat Sen, turning them into a somewhat shooty wall for simpler times; these have no such fortune, and bite the dust very quickly without contributing much along the way because of their atrocious statline.
[27/01/2021]
RN Vincenzo Gioberti joins the Untierless Guide on account of her atrocious statline.
- The highly cursed amalgam of HMS DD efficiencies (mediocre guns, above average torps) and French contretorpeilleur stats (high FP, middling torpedoes) ensures she is left desperately wanting for DPS. The 30s barrage, while pretty strong, is also on a 30s cooldown and therefore woefully inadequate as a substitute.
[01/10/2021]
IJN Kashino joins the Untier Guide on account of her being the worst designed unit since Repair Ships.
- Statline. Look at it. Just look at it, the pathetic 76 FP at lv120 on a piddly single DD gun mount and no secondaries of any sort to speak of; or marvel at the nonexistent AA, even for the depressing IJN standards in the field, or the subpar Evasion even at level cap, or the pathetic 14 speed if she's not in an IJN fleet.
- Skills. Her purpose as an ammo vessel, purportedly, would be to support the fleet. She is meant to do that with special pieces of gear granting buffs to certain hull classes. Suffice to say, the buffs are abysmal and in no way make up for the pathetic unit carrying them, and her actual skills only slightly make her tougher instead of helping the rest of the fleet.
- Costs. 10 whole Oil for this trainwreck is about 10 more than warranted.
- In short, a complete and unmitigated disaster on all fronts. Super hard pass.
IJN Kumano joins the Untier Guide on account of her being Suzuya but bad.
- Statline. Check Suzuya out in the Unit Guide; what goes for her, goes for this one. Technically good, but...
- Skills. ... unlike Suzuya she is meant to tank or off-tank, a job to which she is rather unsuited due to the atrocious Evasion and less-than-stellar defensive suite; and of course, her offence isn't any better than her sister's.
- In short, a downgrade to her predecessor.
IJN Chitose and Chiyoda join the Untier Guide on account of her being CVL pretending to be CV. Poorly.
- Statline. The crux of their issues lies squarely here: as CVL with a DPS focus, they are inherently disadvantaged compared to their CV peers (lower Aviation, smaller plane count, much lower ACV) and have nothing to make up for it.
- Skills. Technically good, but the two lack the stats to capitalise on them. All they realistically accomplish is being strong for a CVL, and just mediocre by CV standards.
[07/06/2020]
HMS Little Illustrious joins the Untier Guide on account of her abysmal damage and inferior support compared to her already very questionable predecessor.
- As it turns out, taking away the high efficiency of her fighters from a severely underpowered fighter-focused CVs causes more issues than the gifting of a middling barrage does; though the damage output is rather similar on paper regardless, the unreliability of the barrage puts her convincingly behind.
- The flash attack sounds nice on paper, but is riddled with issues. The damage is abysmal and fixed (96 dmg), its potency quickly decreases over the course of the already short active time (4s) and it's even proc-based, just to make matters even worse.
- The statline is inferior too, compared to Illustrious. In short, hard pass.
USS Astoria, Quincy and Vincennes join the Untier Guide after a revision, on account on their terrible statlines and poor kits.
- Even the most competent of the bunch, Astoria, barely manages to DPS as hard as Portland Kai (not a DPS monster by any stretch) while being horrifyingly frail due to the truly atrocious Luck and low-ish Evasion.
- The AA boost could be interested, on units that were capable of exploiting it to a greater degree (and more importantly, survive the battle in worlds where AA does matter).
[26/05/2020]
Due to popular request, HMS Victorious joins the Untier Guide for a variety of reasons.
- A kit that's suited to taking on BBs... by facetanking their shots, which a carrier can't do for long (PvE BBs pack HE, and enemy Ignitions melt HP regardless of armour class), and by taking a poor generalist loadout, which does not synergise well with any specific supporter and simply lacks in Efficiency compared to many other options.
- The damage boost ONLY applies to BBs, leaving BC as well as any other hull class completely ignored; the 25% chance for +100% damage is a poor excuse for an actual skill, and yet is better than her main one.
- Worst Reload out of any carrier in the game. She's exceptionally slow with nothing to show for it.
MNF La Galissonniere joins the Untier Guide, on account of her proving below-average CL DPS, average staying power and no support.
- Not much to add here.
MNF Vauquelin joins the Untier Guide, on account of her sharing Tartu's poor statline and her boost not doing enough to rescue it.
- Idem.
MNF Tartu joins the Untier Guide, on account of her having a poor statline and a CL/CA buff that's nowhere near impactful enough to make her worth taking.
- Idem.
[26/04/2020]
IJN Kiyonami has been removed from the Tier Guide, on account of being entirely obsoleted by IJN Naganami.
- Not much to say here. She's just better, as the +FP boost on a IJN DD was more of a cruel joke than an asset.
IJN Izumo has been removed from the Tier Guide, on account of her being a total waste of time and resources.
- Quoting from her old entry in the Tier Guide:
"One really has to wonder what has Izumo ever done to developers to warrant such a treatment.
As awful in AL as she is in WoWS, Izumo is bad by any standard - her barrage barely scratches Light Armour while being unable to bypass it due to the parallel shots, her 'defensive' skill harms her much more than it does protect her due to the complete absence of enemy BB AP (and prevalence of BB HE) and worse still, as a barrage boat she needs flagship slot... while sharing Mikasa and Nagato's nation.
Her only saving grace is the Dev35 barrage upgrade, turning it from a Bad Seven variant into an actual damage source, but the time and resources one must spend in order to acquire it - to say nothing about the higher Oil costs and comparatively poor efficiencies - make her an absolutely atrocious value proposition, especially when compared to the other AP specialists out there (Monarch, Georgia, Littorio, Alabama). Bad not just by PR standards but as a whole, there is little to no reason to ever use her over any other barrage boat."
[01/04/2020]
USS Marblehead did not join the Tier Guide, on account of her being - basically - a reskin of the worst CL in the game, Concord.
- The tagline says it all, pretty much. Atrocious DPS, low staying power, poor and generic skill, no redeeming feature.
[01/03/2020]
NP Pamiat Merkuria did not join the Tier Guide, on account of her being an unmitigated disaster.
- CL guns, backed by a meagre 120% Efficiency and a truly abysmal 83 FP. There are IJN DD who have more, for the reference; they won't outgun her, but they'll also have real torpedoes to lob at enemies.
- While her bulk isn't bad and the second skill may echo Eldridge's (except it's much worse), Eldridge is stronger and more useful... and Eldridge isn't useful to begin with, plagued as she is by low DPS already.
[27/01/2020]
USS Halsey Powell did not join the Tier Guide, on account of her being useless.
- Doesn't have the ASW prowess of Laffey, despite the ASW buff, and definitely not the DPS.
- Doesn't have the AA to compete with any AA DD, let alone AA CLs.
IJN Uranami did not join the Tier Guide, on account of her being useless and overcosted.
- The statline (very average IJN DD) is not good enough to warrant the purple Oil costs.
- The skills are terrible, with one being geared towards hunting DDs (something a DD with IJN-standard atrocious guns should not be doing) and the other being a minor heal whenever an ally dies (you NEVER want any of your units to die, not even in PvP).
HMS Amazon Kai does not join the Tier Guide, on account of her still being too weak to compensate for the exp boost.
[06/01/2020]
Due to popular request, here is why IJN Atago is untiered.
- In short: Atago is Takao but outright worse due to skillset (Focused Fire is a lot better than Arsonist) and statline.
- Takao's Focused Fire grants +100% Main Gun damage on a 30% chance, which considering she has only one Main Gun means she enjoys a +30% Main Gun Damage overall; Atago's Arsonist grants +15% HE damage passively, which coupled with her higher (135% vs 125%) Main Gun Efficiency more or less results in a +30% Main Gun damage for her as well. The issue stems from the fact that the buff only applies to HE, and a mere +15% HE damage doesn't nearly offset the benefits of AP versus Medium Armour (to the point where Atago should still use AP if appropriate); Takao has no such limitation and always enjoys her +30%.
- A minor point, but Takao's higher Luck (65 vs 48) results in her being tougher than her sister.
- In either case, the Furutaka-class can easily replace both.
[30/12/2019]
IJN Kasumi did not join the Tier Guide, on account of her being Kagerou but worse.
- Almost identical statline but costs +1 Oil due to purple rarity;
- Torpedo boost only works with a full vanguard and only affects IJN units;
- Lacks Chain Torpedo.
IJN Hatsuharu did not join the Tier Guide, on account of her also being Kagerou but worse.
- Similar but weaker statline;
- Same skills, but lacks Kagerou's Interference and the torpedo buff only affects DDs.
[09/12/2019]
Natsuiro Matsuri did not join the Tier Guide, on account of her middling statline and poor skillset.
- self-buff to guns is hilariosuly ineffective given the IJN DD baseline;
- self-buff and buff to damage reduction is low impact;
- barrage is okay but not nearly enough to offset its long charge time and not guaranteed launch.
Murasaki Shion did not join the Tier Guide, on account of her atrocious DPS and very poor skillset.
- damage reduction is very low-impact and suffers from the same pitfalls all screenwides debuffs do;
- barrage damage is low.