Will Nelson Work for T7 Rank?

[Plaatduutsch]

I have a feeling that next ranked is going to be T7, though I really prefer T6

I mean after reaching R5.

with its floating citadel 

blind on its own

deck with oil 

slow as snail

Can it really compete with Schornhorst?

[pewpewpew42]

Oh yeah. The heal will let it tank a ton without much support, and the HE blast radius makes it a joy to play carriers with. You can kill 30 AA guns in a single salvo.

On the downside, good Nagato players will citadel you all the time and the AA is weak. If you've played your cards right, islands can cover you from big guns and their CV will be busy having to defend a fleet with crippled AA.

[RipNuN2]

As with many of the RN HE spamming BBs, it's reliant on teammates far too much to influence the match towards wins. Just about any of the other T7 BBs would be better for that influence imo.

[Panzer1113]

If tier 7 is picked, BB options expanded greatly with now four RN BBs that can be used.  

[CLUCH_CARGO]

Pick the ship you can carry the team with. After all if you don't carry nobody will.{ This is the attitude needed to progress in Ranked}

[Toxic_Potato]

I finally have time to compete in ranked. If it is tier 7 I am bringing a stealth firing 10 torpedo launchin DD....Nelson sounds like an excellent target....umm choice!

[GrandAdmiral_2016]

KGV is pretty much the only choice if you play RN BBs in Ranked. With an SM flag up she gets enough of a speed boost to move around and stay out of harm's way. She is not a ship to yolo in at any time, loves company a lot. I have all 4 RN T7 BBs and I love Nelson for the ability to tank, burn, and hit hard with 16-inch AP at optimum range, but her speed is what makes me leery about taking her out in Ranked. Hood is a decent ship in the right conditions but you have to play her like a heavy crusier with no secondaries, and she is vulnerable at range if improperly angled. Only 8 barrels and the 4 at the back, even with Hood's gun arcs, are not going to see enough action to have an impact, plus she turns like brick. Speed is her only advantage. Duke of York needs something to hide behind. Without cover, you are toast (literally!), even with her Ronson firestarters! I would not even think of using her in Ranked. Scharnhorst it will be for me, as far as BBs go for a T7 Ranked, as bad as I am in her. If I take out a DD it will be Mahan or Blyskawica.  Cruiser will be Fiji or Belfast, as I have not mastered Atlanta at all.

[SinisterSe7en]

1 hour ago, Plaatduutsch said:

I have a feeling that next ranked is going to be T7, though I really prefer T6

I mean after reaching R5.

with its floating citadel 

blind on its own

deck with oil 

slow as snail

Can it really compete with Schornhorst?

 scharnhorst can really cause problems for nelson even outside of torpedo range. That thin armor belt is easily penetrated by scharnhorst's 11 inch guns.

the playbook for a nelson just seems more limited and predictable than scharnhorst.

Without a very conscious team guarding your flanks, i can see nelson not working for many, for the simple reason that scharnhorst isn't 'as bad' when out of position, and doesn't need to worry as much about a suicide turn+has the speed to correct positional mistakes, which nelson severely lacks.

nelson is not completely devoid of options or chance, when properly positioned and posted her guns with their tight groupings will sing a few lullabyes to ships that risk it, but i give the edge to scharn when pubbing.

nelson, to me is a risky divboat if you're planning ranked shenanigans.

[HazeGrayUnderway]

Nelson should be fine.  She'll tank that damage with aplomb.  She doesn't have to worry about Musashi citadeling the s--t out of her.  Her gunnery will provide steady damage.  Personally, I expect her to overall be at the top of VII BBs in Ranked just like she does in Randoms.

Anyways, here's how last Tier VII Ranked ended.

 

Some of the changes since that last VII Ranked ended:

- Belfast is no longer on sale but rest assured, tons of guys still have her and do not be surprised when she shows back up strong.

- Hood, KGV, DOY, Nelson have arrived since then for RN BBs.

- Gadjah Mada from PADD line is now here.

- Kaga is in the game also.

- Ranger will be the 2nd USN CV Revamp ship to undergo Ranked.  Lexington has spectacularly failed in VIII Ranked.

- Algerie is also in.

- Shiratsuyu was hit with the nerfbat shortly after that last VII Ranked, she was one of the principal torpedo slingers against the smoke camping that was going on.  As you can see, she did very well in VII Ranked, but it will be interesting to check how well she does post-nerf.

- Indianapolis got a few buffs not long ago.  Will this be enough to take her from the dregs with Ranger?  Time will tell! 

 

I remember a lot of people talking about how Radar and Smoke drove VII Ranked, and torpedoes to flush out smoke users.  Will be cool to see how it all shapes up with all these changes, additions.  Will French BBs arrive before next Tier VII Ranked?  Hmm.

 

[Admiral_Thrawn_1]

3 hours ago, pewpewpew42 said:

Oh yeah. The heal will let it tank a ton without much support, and the HE blast radius makes it a joy to play carriers with. You can kill 30 AA guns in a single salvo.

On the downside, good Nagato players will citadel you all the time and the AA is weak. If you've played your cards right, islands can cover you from big guns and their CV will be busy having to defend a fleet with crippled AA.

Except that Carriers tend to get phased out in Ranked, well at least in T6 and T8 Ranked they did since Ranked teams are far more likely to travel together which overlaps AA and to actually have some good AA equipped. This makes it really hard for CVs to actually kill or enemy do damage effectively unlike in Randoms where you can have many far more clueless players that not only Wonder off, but fail to equip with much of any AA.

 

That is why when I play Ranked my Cruisers get equipped with Hydro instead of Defensive AA because you just don't see CVs much at all as opposed to Randoms where I definitely usually carry the Defensive AA Consumables lol.

[Rangestalker]

At first glance I thought this said Willie Nelson work for T7 Rank? 

I thought sure if you paid him enough. 

[StoneRhino]

@HazeGrayUnderway I think Nagato will have another strong showing as well.

[slokill_1]

I tried the Colorado in T7 ranked and couldn't make it work.  It was just too slow and couldn't get out of trouble if it had to.  Even though it's tanky, and had the 2ndary build for anti DD work.

Gneisenau was way better for me.

Fiji could be a contender too.

And if I could play DD I'd probably use the Ganja Mama.

[MrDeaf]

I think Scharnhorst is the better ship overall, even if Nelson has its zombie heal.

Cruisers are better at HE spam.

 

If there is a CV in play, well, Gneisenau is the only realistic AA oriented BB at T7.

[awiggin]

People seem overly infatuated with the HE on the Nelson, it's AP is quite effective.

[AlcatrazNC]

I think Nelson will be among top-good pick for ranked. Unlike KGV with her 356mm guns, you have 406mm gun which mean AP will do a lot of damage against cruiser and unlike Hood which has been released before introduction of RN BB, you also has great HE and RN monstruous heal. It comes at a price of a raised citadel (wow a BB with a citadel ? what the hell is that ? ) and no rear guns but as long as you play as a team and stick with your friendly, you shouldn't have any issue with this ship.

 

You can and will tank a lot (especially HE spam and fire) while being able to return fire and basically being a treat to any ship (Cruiser ? AP. BB angled ? HE. Start giving broadside ? AP).

[HazeGrayUnderway]

1 hour ago, StoneRhino said:

@HazeGrayUnderway I think Nagato will have another strong showing as well.

Nobody gave Nagato the time of day before or during that Ranked Season.  Yet she pulled some good numbers there.  Not only did Nagato average 53k, she was the ONLY ship to break the 50k dmg average.  Scharnhorst, Saipan, Hiryu, Belfast, Pre-Nerf Shiratsuyu... None broke 50k.  All while still having that important 50% WR for Ranked.

57 minutes ago, slokill_1 said:

Fiji could be a contender too.

Last Tier VII Ranked, everyone was so focused on being upset about Belfast that Fiji was pulling similar performances, yet nobody said a word   Check the stats I posted in my earlier reply, Fiji did amazingly well!

[_Dracarys]

6 hours ago, Plaatduutsch said:

I have a feeling that next ranked is going to be T7, though I really prefer T6

I mean after reaching R5.

with its floating citadel 

blind on its own

deck with oil 

slow as snail

Can it really compete with Schornhorst?

Question is, can it compete against the Lyon?

[awiggin]

4 minutes ago, HazeGrayUnderway said:

Nobody gave Nagato the time of day before or during that Ranked Season.  Yet she pulled some good numbers there.  Not only did Nagato average 53k, she was the ONLY ship to break the 50k dmg average.  Scharnhorst, Saipan, Hiryu, Belfast, Pre-Nerf Shiratsuyu... None broke 50k.  All while still having that important 50% WR for Ranked.

Last Tier VII Ranked, everyone was so focused on being upset about Belfast that Fiji was pulling similar performances, yet nobody said a word   Check the stats I posted in my earlier reply, Fiji did amazingly well!

I wonder how the numbers would break down for just the players who reached tier 1.

Lets face it, you have a lot of players that couldn't get close, you have to wonder how much numbers are skewed due to that.

[StoneRhino]

5 minutes ago, HazeGrayUnderway said:

Nobody gave Nagato the time of day before or during that Ranked Season.  Yet she pulled some good numbers there.  Not only did Nagato average 53k, she was the ONLY ship to break the 50k dmg average.  Scharnhorst, Saipan, Hiryu, Belfast, Pre-Nerf Shiratsuyu... None broke 50k.  All while still having that important 50% WR for Ranked.

Last Tier VII Ranked, everyone was so focused on being upset about Belfast that Fiji was pulling similar performances, yet nobody said a word   Check the stats I posted in my earlier reply, Fiji did amazingly well!

So true but like the lead up to this last season with the Alabama and Enterprise before they gut punched everyone.  There is something to be said for pure in your face brutality.

[HazeGrayUnderway]

Just now, awiggin said:

I wonder how the numbers would break down for just the players who reached tier 1.

Lets face it, you have a lot of players that couldn't get close, you have to wonder how much numbers are skewed due to that.

Unfortunately we got no way of knowing.  I bet WG does, though.  It'd be interesting to see.  Then again, guys I've known to Rank out have changed ships.  They stick to one ship that was working for certain rank levels and had to switch to another one when things stopped working out.

 

There was also one crazy guy that Ranked out with Indianapolis.

[StoneRhino]

9 minutes ago, awiggin said:

I wonder how the numbers would break down for just the players who reached tier 1.

Lets face it, you have a lot of players that couldn't get close, you have to wonder how much numbers are skewed due to that.

For most of the season Nagato was top BB in damage and WR. It was not until Ranked started to slow down that the easier to play KM BBs passed her wr.

[awiggin]

3 minutes ago, StoneRhino said:

For most of the season Nagato was top BB in damage and WR. It was not until Ranked started to slow down that the easier to play KM BBs passed her wr.

Probably shouldn't be a surprise, seems like Nagato would be more likely to be played by veteran players. 

[MaxL_1023]

Depending on what maps WG uses Colorado might also see some use - since the HP buff it has gotten a fair bit tankier.

I think Nelson will do fine, but it will be vulnerable to poor positioning and getting deleted by broadside volleys. 

[Lord_Slayer]

so long as she doesn't face a good CV driver, Nelson should be fine for ranked.

She has good HE and AP and good firing arcs so she can keep a good angle to the enemy.

Hood is going to be situational. While she has the speed, her guns will either shine or flop depending on RNG.

DoY is a simple hell no. I've seen to many of those erased quickly in Random. That isn't to say you won't see some, but I don't expect them to last long.

Scharnhorst is a good candidate because she has a good mix of speed and decent firepower.

Gneisanau, while having the best speed of all the BBs at her tier, she only has 6 main guns and RNG can play havoc with you.

Nagato also has a good mix of speed and fire power, her secondaries aren't too shabby either.

 

As has been said, last Rank 7 battles was the battle for radar. If you had radar on your team, you were pretty much set. Belfast, on sale at the time of the battle, was pretty much the ruler of the caps.