Verdict on Nelson?

[Hopeless_Guppy]

On 8/22/2017 at 1:45 PM, P2Win said:

This ship is OP for it's tier. Anyone who says otherwise should stick to playing DD.

Well I say otherwise and I suck in DD's anyway but this thing, I did the grind for it, and wish I hadn't, nothing I do can make this thing work, by the time you get to the battle, the other team members have turned away,this thing has the manoeuvrability of a brick, range is crap, reload is far too long, and the speed, omg if you ever get to the top speed it takes a mile or two to slow down, if you want to use an island as cover forget it, this thing does not slow down, by which time you are dead.

 

This ship is the worst advertisement to do anything with the Brit BB line, I have the KGV but won't be going any further, monarch looks me, and I cannot be arsed with the grind to the higher tier ships.

 

Nelson, the only BB to make me rage quit, I despair if a division buddy takes this steaming pile of crud out, if you have not already got this ship, best advice, avoid it totally.

[Hopeless_Guppy]

On 1/4/2018 at 2:56 PM, CaptainJackX said:

It's a good bb with a pretty unique all forward main armament configuration.

Pros: best repair party and HE shells among tier 7 ships.

Cons: really slow: if things go wrong you cannot disengage easily; unreliable armor: if you are being targeted and focused, repair party won't guarantee you get out alive, especially in close combat, where enemy bbs can citadel you easily through your bow (incredibly frustrating) and enemy dds can damage you for max torp damage (really bad torp damage mitigation).

 

Nelson has its own rules of engagement:  not as tough as believed, it has to avoid first line and close combat, always being ready to retreat to make the most of all his repair partys; just stay at medium/long range and let them burn ;)

 

 

I find that is the problem though if you are not first line, then you are out of range, only reason i have here in my port is that  did the grind, what a waste that was.

[rnat]

20 hours ago, NoobySkooby said:

I find that is the problem though if you are not first line, then you are out of range

You have more than 18k of range. Unless all your other BBs are camping at their max range you should be able to comfortably sit a few km behind the front line and use your guns.

[MRGTB]

I play the Vanguard far more than my Nelson nowadays. Both can be citadel pretty easy and a big weakness for both ships. But at least the Vanguard is a lot more agile, and much faster to dictate distance with other ships trying to get at you. I find the Vanguard somewhat less frustrating to play than the Nelson can be at times when getting focused on too much and not having the speed to get away from a crab.

[lafeel]

1 hour ago, MRGTB said:

I play the Vanguard far more than my Nelson nowadays. Both can be citadel pretty easy and a big weakness for both ships. But at least the Vanguard is a lot more agile, and much faster to dictate distance with other ships trying to get at you. I find the Vanguard somewhat less frustrating to play than the Nelson can be at times when getting focused on too much and not having the speed to get away from a crab.

On the other hand there is no denying that the  Vanguard's 381mm guns do not (quite) have the same impact as the Nelson's 406mm guns do.

[HaachamaShipping]

5 hours ago, MRGTB said:

I play the Vanguard far more than my Nelson nowadays. Both can be citadel pretty easy and a big weakness for both ships. But at least the Vanguard is a lot more agile, and much faster to dictate distance with other ships trying to get at you. I find the Vanguard somewhat less frustrating to play than the Nelson can be at times when getting focused on too much and not having the speed to get away from a crab.

Vanguard is T8, Nelson T7. But I do agree, I prefer playing Hood to Nelson. More agile, less all-or-nothing armour.

4 hours ago, lafeel said:

On the other hand there is no denying that the  Vanguard's 381mm guns do not (quite) have the same impact as the Nelson's 406mm guns do.

Except for 27 mm armour enemies, Vanguard guns do have more impact, because Vanguard has a good bit more pen than Nelson. Nelson's 406 mm are barely better than Mutsu guns in penetration. Vanguard guns meanwhile are on Bismarck/Tirpitz level (beating Monarch, but behind Roma and the French). Nelson's guns basically are good for AP because they are T7 and can wreck stuff with overmatch.

[lafeel]

2 minutes ago, Seiranko said:

Nelson's guns basically are good for AP because they are T7 and can wreck stuff with overmatch.

Nelson's AP also does more damage when it penetrates/citadels, which was what I was referring to.

[HaachamaShipping]

5 minutes ago, lafeel said:

Nelson's AP also does more damage when it penetrates/citadels, which was what I was referring to.

That it does. Though 11.7k vs 12k is not a game-changing difference.

[lafeel]

4 minutes ago, Seiranko said:

That it does. Though 11.7k vs 12k is not a game-changing difference.

Does add up the more shells you land to be fair, and Nelsol even has a entire extra barrel.

[HaachamaShipping]

Just now, lafeel said:

Does add up the more shells you land to be fair, and Nelsol even has a entire extra barrel.

Nelson has an extra barrel, but no, it does not add up, given Vanguard has 25 s reload, so in a dpm contest it wins.

[almitov]

On 8/22/2017 at 3:45 PM, P2Win said:

This ship is OP for it's tier. Anyone who says otherwise should stick to playing DD.

 

Imho Nelson is far too matchmaking-dependent to be called OP. It is definitely very strong but is easy to deal with once you know the ship.

As a top-tier ship it's a beast. As mid or bottom tier it's... meh... Below are the pros and cons from my perspective:

 

+ Large caliber guns with relatively good AP;

+ Ridiculous RN HE damage and fire chance;

+ Great turret firing angles and all turrets turn from the bow side (no odd third turret like Izumo);

+ Zombie heal makes it a nightmare for HE spammers;

 

- Weak armor profile - takes lots of HE damage, is easily penned by BBs and can be overmatched by many other BBs (including itself) through the nose;

- High citadel;

- Relatively weak torpedo belt;

- Slow;

- Mediocre AA;

- Heal does nothing against torpedoes or citadel hits, hence can easily be negated from the pros.

 

Overall with Nelson I have ridiculously good or ridiculously bad games. I've had very, very few mediocre ones. I can agree that due to the T7 MM it is usually top-tier where enemies are made of citadels and sail broadside most of the time. In T8/T9 MM things change a lot - almost everyone overmaches and citadels the Nelson from the front/back/sides with ease, and ofc the heal does nothing against that.

 

PS: I play mainly BBs and have never had any trouble when facing Nelson.

[CPL_Sivi]

Well i havent seen vanguard or hood taking down full hp gneisenau well angled storming down the flank. My nelly took 67k hp off gneise in just 2 salvos. Now i love gneise but with just a bit off rng help nelson can murder anything. And no, i dont use ap. I love those nuke he way too much. Its just too much fun.

[HaachamaShipping]

43 minutes ago, CPL_Sivi said:

Well i havent seen vanguard or hood taking down full hp gneisenau well angled storming down the flank. My nelly took 67k hp off gneise in just 2 salvos. Now i love gneise but with just a bit off rng help nelson can murder anything. And no, i dont use ap. I love those nuke he way too much. Its just too much fun.

First off, unless citadels are involved, you need pretty much 17 pens or so to get this damage, which obviously a Hood or Vanguard can't do, because they only have 8 (smaller) guns (so 16 shells in two salvos). However, you also don't see Nelson do 30-32 knots, have any large no-pen zone for HE (like Hood) or reload in 25 seconds (like Vanguard). Meanwhile, you can guess, that if you just show broadside and let yourself get penned by most shells, Ashitaka or Lyon can do more damage. And unlike Nelson, something like Ashitaka, Nagato, Gneisenau or Colorado can actually citadel a Gneisenau through the bow, if they hit the right angle.

 

Also, Nelson is the one BB at T7 that seems most easily citadelled through its giant 25 mm bow. With some RNG a Gneisenau can take out good parts of Nelson's hp even when angled, though in general, the trick to handling that is to not just try run down a Nelson in the open.

[MrOverboard]

I am planning to get a high tier RN BB. Pages after pages still i cant decide what to do  

 

I have enought free xp for Nelson or enought money for Vanguard. Nelson's play style acceptable for me cs i have Jean Bart. On the other hand LMW says Vanguard is crap,even she suggested DoY vs Vanguard and i like conventional bbs more. It seems i gonna get DoY or KGV back, with pre camo 

[lafeel]

2 hours ago, CPL_Sivi said:

Well i havent seen vanguard or hood taking down full hp gneisenau well angled storming down the flank. My nelly took 67k hp off gneise in just 2 salvos. Now i love gneise but with just a bit off rng help nelson can murder anything. And no, i dont use ap. I love those nuke he way too much. Its just too much fun.

Can't over state the ability to overmatch the bow. Only three tier 7 BB's have that ability, the Nelson, Colorado, and the Nagato (and the Sinop)

 

EDIT: Le gasp, almost forgot the Ashitaka.

[CPL_Sivi]

Actualy 2 salvos caused 6 fires. Second salvo had caught gneise without dcp. He used heal but still burned down counting 67k dmg total. I know the downsides of nelson but i still love it for the he power. Not even jap he cant take down gneise in just 2 salvos. If u angle away on time u can burn down anything. Given u have rng on ur side.

[HaachamaShipping]

On 4/3/2019 at 1:25 AM, lafeel said:

Can't over state the ability to overmatch the bow. Only three tier 7 BB's have that ability, the Nelson, Colorado, and the Nagato (and the Sinop)

 

EDIT: Le gasp, almost forgot the Ashitaka.

T7 BBs have 25 mm bow, not 27 mm, as 27 mm is only German and American heavy cruisers from T8 up. Thus, Gneisenau and Hood also overmatch the bow of other T7 BBs.

[MRGTB]

On 4/3/2019 at 12:15 AM, TCG_OliveBranch said:

I have enought free xp for Nelson or enought money for Vanguard.

I have both ships, had the Nelson first and then got the Vanguard free in an air container bought. Ironically, I would not have paid to get the Vanguard, as I didn't like the sound of the ship at all. But ever since getting it, now I hardly play my Nelson and much prefer playing the Vanguard instead. It's ended up being a more fun ship to play than Nelson, mostly due to it's faster speed, good handling and better gun range.

 

If you're thinking about spending the money to either free up XP and get the Nelson, or use the money instead and get the Vanguard. Hmm, both are worthwhile choices and hard to pick between the two really, but now I would probably (having played both ships a lot) say go for the Vanguard first.