AL Tier List

NOTE: Fumiruiru is only available on JP/CN servers.  She is a collab ship, from a collab which has low prospects of ever being run on EN, and thus this analysis may never be relevant to EN players.  She is included purely for the sake of completeness, due to the lack of healers in the game. Tier: Support 3 The REAL worst healer in the game.  Fumiruiru has a 60% chance to heal the lowest-health ship for for 10% of her own max HP when she airstrikes.  One ship, as opposed to three for the other healers.  It can technically heal backline ships (which the other healers cannot do), but it is unlikely to do so, as the targeting system does not work properly. Or, to be more accurate, it works exactly as described, and it happens to be bad.  It targets the damaged ship with the LOWEST HP , not the ship that is MISSING THE MOST HP .  Meaning, for example, it will heal a DD with 1799/1800 remaining HP, rather than a BB with 4000/8000 remaining HP. ...

Tier: Support 2 Typically considered the worst healer in the game.  Arizona heals the frontline for 10% of their max health when she fires her main gun.  While this is technically more than Unicorn and Shouhou (who heal 8%), Arizona only triggers her heal 50% of the time (while Unicorn and Shouhou ALWAYS trigger their heal).  So, more realistically, Arizona heals 5% of the frontline’s max HP. Further complicating matters, the CVLs can run actually GOOD planes while keeping short airstrike cooldowns, while Arizona has to run guns with crappy DPS to optimize her healing output.  She is also Caliber Restricted with trashy AA guns, meaning that she offers no support other than healing (whereas Unicorn and Shouhou maintain the CV/L utility of clearing enemy shells).  The CR is the biggest kick in the balls, as it completely negates any benefit of running a BB over a CV/L.

Tier: Support 1 The second of AL’s two premier healers.  Just like Unicorn , Shouhou heals the entire frontline for 8% of their max health every time she airstrikes. Shouhou has a very unusual loadout of Dive Bomber/Torpedo Bomber/AA gun.  While this means her airstrikes usually reload slower than Unicorn’s, it also means that they deal much more damage (although the damage is still quite a bit lower than a CV, due to lower AVI and only 2 plane slots). Also buffs backline AVI by 15% on airstrike.  A stronger effect than Unicorn’s second skill, but also more narrow. Shouhou’s Dive Bomber: a "brief" discussion Shouhou’s Torpedo Bomber will unquestionably be the gold Barracuda, as it boasts by far the highest damage, and nearly the fastest reload, of any Torpedo Bomber. Her Dive Bomber, however, is debatable.  Conventional wisdom has been to run the Comet , as it reloads relatively quickly (and thus screenclears and procs her heal more often) while still ma...

Azur Lane Support (Healer) Tier List This tier list is for to Azur Lane's dedicated support ships.  All of these ships offer survival and other support skills that cannot be replicated by anyone else - however, in exchange, they deal much lower (and in some cases NO) damage. As such, these ships are only run when their support skills are actually necessary - generally on clear fleets, on auto, or in extremely difficult content. Support Tier 1 Shouhou , Unicorn Support Tier 2 Arizona Support Tier 3 Fumiruiru (JP/CN only)

Tier: Support 1 One of AL’s two premier healers.  Every time Unicorn airstrikes, she heals the entire frontline for 8% of their max health.  Yeah it sounds pretty crappy, but healing is very premium in AL and this is the best you can get. Damage output is very mediocre, as she carries a loadout of Fighter/Torpedo Bomber/AA gun, has typical low CVL AVI, and has no damage-oriented skills.  As a result, Unicorn only sees use when her healing is actually necessary (such as on clear fleets, or on auto). Reload Command used to be decent, but the reload rework made it noticeably weaker.  Still a cute little support bonus. Unicorn vs Shouhou When compared to the other premier healer - Shouhou - Unicorn has several distinct advantages.  Her Fighter slot contributes much better to both AA duties and Air Superiority, and allows her to optimize her airstrike cooldown shorter - allowing her to screenclear and heal faster.  Her passive support skill also does...

Tier: 0S Strong main gun stats, reasonable secondary and AA gun stats, and reasonable durability.  Helena is the premier damage amplifier for all backline-focused strategies, as well as a solid general-purpose Gun CL. Skill: Radar Scan A 40% damage buff for the entire fleet is A LOT OF DAMAGE.  Actually, let me rephrase that.  Considering how much damage some backliners (such as {Jean Bart} or the {Formidable} Special) can deal in a short timeframe, it is an OBSCENE AMOUNT OF DAMAGE .  The cooldown also lines up with most backline skill cooldowns and airstrike reload times, as well as the reload time of the Mk6 and similar BB guns, meaning that these can effectively utilize Helena’s damage amp even on auto.  60% proc rate is very reasonable, considering the ridiculous amount of extra damage this skill provides.

Tier: 0 By far one of the best CVs in the entire game.  With a strong block, support skill, and insane barrage (with 100% proc chance!), Essex is extremely hard to beat. Skill: Valorous Avengers Essex’s barrage launches several extra planes that launch sweeping torpedoes.  Damage and AoE are both very high.  Enemies hit by the barrage torpedoes are affected by the exclusive Flooding DoT (see Saratoga ), except the base flooding damage is more than TRIPLE that of Saratoga.  This gives Essex obscene amounts of damage, even against the ch12/13 bosses that have 80%+ damage resistance to planes.  To top everything off, the barrage has 100% proc chance.  Virtually all barrages that come even CLOSE to this power level only have 70-80% proc chance, while Essex is guaranteed to use hers every airstrike. The 10% damage buff against BBs is very small, narrow, and not very useful.  But you also don't care because everything else is so busted. Skill: Cove...

Tier: 3S This was taken from my first clear of the 12-4 boss.  Note that this is ORIGINAL 12-4, not the heavily nerfed baby mode version that EN got. Have I got your attention now?  Good.  Because this is a perfect example of why low-tier ships can still pull their weight, and you should not disregard them simply because they aren’t tier 0/1. Long Island is your typical CVL: Fighter/Bomber(in this case dive bomber)/AA gun.  Respectable efficiencies on the planes, ~80% on the AA gun which is kinda crappy, gets all the plane hangar expansions you want.  Respectable AVI (by CVL standards anyways).  Hardly the most impressive, but she’s more than reasonable. Where Long Island starts to get nutty is with her first skill.  Unlike seemingly similar skills, Fast Takeoff actually gives you a REAL AIRSTRIKE CHARGE.  This means the Fast Takeoff airstrike is a proper airstrike, and thus clears the screen of bullets, provides AA suppor...

Tier: 1 Kinda crappy base FP, but her skills give a total 35% FP buff making it actually pretty good.  On retrofit Hyuuga loses a MG mount, but in exchange has her main gun’s efficiency raised to a staggering 180%.  Given that the first volley has a 20% multiplicative damage buff when manually aimed, and follow-up volleys are auto-aimed (and thus often miss due to lack of shot leading, or target the wrong enemies), this is a very worthwhile tradeoff. As a aviation battleship, Hyuuga replaces her secondary gun with a seaplane, and can perform airstrikes.  Unlike CV/Ls, BBVs can only store one airstrike charge, and seaplanes are much slower to reload than normal planes.  They also have rather crappy damage, as the only seaplane currently available on EN only carries a single 500lb bomb (note that this is quite a bit better on JP/CN, as those servers have access to a seaplane with a 1600lb bomb).  Still, it clears enemy attacks like a CV/L airstrike, and is fre...

Tier: 1 By now you should know how I feel about caliber restricted ships.  So seeing one in high tiers should warrant attention. Alabama’s barrage is actually insane.  3 powerful volleys of AP that adjust their horizontal spacing to strike enemies, with a DD scattershot across your own area to kill suicide ships (helping to offset being CR).  Throw on strong main guns and some of the best AA guns that BBs have to offer, and you have a serious monster.  This is one of only 2 CR ships in the entire game that I feel is actually worth warping your fleet to accommodate their drawback (the other being Georgia ).  An amazing pick for ch12/13, as these maps have no suicide boats and massive AA requirements. Skill: Lucky A Alabama get some bonus evasion from her skill, which is kinda relevant as BBs have very bad EVA.  Sadly, because it’s a skill, it doesn’t count towards hardmodes, but oh well.  The torpedo damage reduction is only relevant in PvP, as t...

Tier: 4 Another day, another crappy AA CL.  This time with a twist of PvP. Juneau follows the same mold as her peers - trash guns and torps, with extremely high AA.  With mediocre durability and no damage to speak of, she is a poor choice for virtually all PvE circumstances. Skill: Martyr In PvE, this skill is basically worthless.  When a ship sinks, it reduces your rating, which in turn reduces loot and exp rewards for the entire fleet.  Of particular note, you lose the guaranteed ship drop if you are fighting a boss.  To say nothing on the morale complications of repeated sinkings.  Your ultimate goal should be to simply not lose ships, period, not sacrifice them. Juneau in PvP PvP, however, is a different story.  There is no penalty for ships sinking in PvP, and 25% is a LOT of health (especially when combined with Pearl Tears).  Combined with Juneau’s mediocre durability, she makes a very powerful sacrificial lamb, stalling the opp...

Tier: 2 Basically the same as Saratoga , except without a retrofit and the corresponding extra stats and retro barrage.  Still very respectable as a CV. Has the same derpy 203mm gun barrage as Saratoga, except it’s a bit weaker due to lower AVI.

Tier: 1 Very high damage.  Also very easy to gear, as the best Dive bomber drops from 3-2. Good AVI stat and plane efficiencies. The gun barrage is mostly a cute historical reference (the Lexington class actually carried multiple twin 203mm guns at the start of WW2).  Fires 3 pairs of 203mm HE shots in sequence.  Each pair has its own targeting, which is very derpy and prone to missing.  The damage (if it hits) is actually decent, and a single shot pair has the power to kill suicide boats and weakened production ships.  A nice bonus when it actually hits, and makes Saratoga one of the few CV/Ls that can deal damage without using an airstrike.  (Note that, unlike most gun barrages, this barrage’s damage scales off AVI.  So your catapults actually buff it.) The retrofit barrage is where things get REALLY good. Launches several extra planes with homing torpedos that deal high damage AND inflict both Burn and Flooding damage.  Flooding damage...

Tier: 2 Rating these as the same ship, because they’re basically identical.  While Rodney and Nelson aren’t exactly the tops, they ARE very important for new players.  Good BBs are hard to come by early on (thanks in part to the game giving you a very shitty one to start with), and these are basically everything you need: real main guns and real secondary guns.  These are the standards to which I judge all aspiring BBs, aka The Rodney Test : if it has main and secondary guns as good as Rodney, then it is at least usable, and potentially VERY good depending on its skills.  Ships that do NOT pass the Rodney Test will need to rely heavily on their skills in order to avoid drastically slipping down in tiers. Please see {this overview} for why having CL secondary guns is important early game. Rodney and Nelson will ultimately be replaced by event BBs, which pass the Rodney Test AND have amazing skills on top of that.  However, that does not mean these ships are...

Tier: 4 Man 330 FP is a lot for a CA.  Wait, what do you mean she’s not a CA?  She has 5.3k hp! Meet Granny Mikasa, the eternal butt of jokes.  She was bullied on JP/CN release for her terrible stats and ill-fitting fleet buffs (IJN had no good BBs at the time, and all their good frontliners relied on torpedoes), and slipped into obscurity.  Then Manjuu grabbed the bully-bat and made the first good IJN BB, Nagato - who is ALSO a flagship-reliant IJN buffer, and thoroughly skunks Mikasa in every way possible.  She then slunk off to a dark corner, never to be seen again. Mikasa’s main gun is nothing short of terrible, and her secondary gun has sub-par efficiency (although at least it’s a CL gun).  Very uniquely, Mikasa does not have an AA gun - instead, she has an extra secondary DD gun.  This is not particularly helpful, as the DD gun shares targeting with her CL gun, and will thus mostly shoot stuff that’s already dead.  It also means that M...

Tier: 6 I sadly have to write a section on these.  Because every other mobile game drills it into the player’s head that the only good character is a max rarity character, so many new players initially think Gold Bullin is actually a good ship.  (Shameful admission: when I started playing on JP when the game launched, I initially thought that as well.  Oops.  I did realize my mistake pretty quickly, for what it’s worth.) Bullins are technically ships.  You can set them as secretary, put them in dorm, put them in fleets, give them gear, and even marry them.  However, they have basically nonexistent stats and no actual skills, and are not intended for combat.  They are used to limit break ships, taking the place of a duplicate.  Purple Bullin can be used to limit break any ship of grey, blue, or purple rarity, while Gold Bullin can ONLY be used to limit break gold-rarity ships.

Tier: 0 MAN I wanna know what Manjuu were smoking when they designed this.  80 more AVI than the next highest CVL, with 3 planes and good plane efficiencies to boot.  I actually thought she was a CV for a while, until I tried to put her in a CV-locked hardmode slot. Centaur carries a very uncommon loadout of Fighter/Fighter/Torpedo Bomber, which both gives her strong AA, and is the best possible loadout for contributing to Air Superiority (this mechanic does not currently exist on EN, but will be added with, and extremely important in, ch13).  While this normally would significantly cut her bombing damage (like on Illustrious), Centaur more than makes up for it with an extremely powerful barrage. The barrage sends out planes, which drop sweeping torpedos on crossing diagonal paths.  Very high damage, especially to targets near the center.  Large AoE as well.  It also slows damaged enemies, making them easier targets for other allies or another stored ...

Tier: 0 The only US BB you will ever see in T0, unless Manjuu starts adding more pre-dreadnoughts.  She only gets MG+1, but somewhat makes up for it with 165% main gun efficiency.  Just like every other US BB, Georgia is CR, meaning she does jack against suicide boats.  Unlike most of her friends, however, Georgia has an insanely powerful and versatile barrage that makes her shortcomings more than worthwhile. Georgia’s barrage has two components: “The Dunk”.  Fires two SHS shells with extremely high damage, which arrive at the target slightly after the main gun shells.  The Dunk is automatically aimed at the enemy closest to the main gun’s target center.  This is very important; most barrages (even the best) do not hit the entire screen, or hit parts of the screen for significantly less damage, and subsequently will have certain bosses or high-priority enemies outside their area that they cannot effectively damage.  The Dunk can be consistently ...

Tier: 5 Shitty PvP meme from 2 years ago.  Please do not use this, ever. Eldridge suffers from the exact same issues as every other US DD: she can’t decide on something to be good at, so she half-asses everything and is mediocre all-around.  Except she ALSO has to go the extra mile and have CA speed for some reason.  Very slow, she is an actual liability to your fleet and offers virtually nothing in return other than a half-decent barrage. Skill: Operation Rainbow Eldridge’s skill SOUNDS good, until you realize that 1) she’s a DD and should not be taking damage, 2) its proc chance is pathetic, 3) it starts on cooldown, and 4) it’s better to just run a DD with real speed so you can... not get hit in the first place.  She really has NO place in PvE. Eldridge in PvP Eldridge used to see use in PvP back when the game was new, where you would abuse the reset mechanics to make her skill’s proc chance irrelevant.  You can still do this if you REALLY want ...

Azur Lane PvE Tier List Tier Explanations Support Tier List Ship Reviews - new and unproven ships from recent events Tier 0 Centaur , Essex , Georgia , Jean Bart , San Diego Retrofit Tier 0S Helena Tier 1 Alabama , Gascogne , Hyuuga , Saratoga Tier 1S Shirakami Fubuki Tier 2 Lexington , Rodney/Nelson , Warspite (non-retrofit) Tier 2S Ranger Tier 3 Giulio Cesare , Norfolk Tier 3S Long Island Tier 4 Conte di Cavour , Juneau , Mikasa , Renown , Repulse Tier 5 Eldridge Tier 6

Tier: 4 Just like Repulse, except her skill is kinda worth something.  It still doesn’t make her main gun good, or fix any of Repulse’s horrible issues.  Also it doesn’t work on the first shelling because lol idk.

Tier: 4 Unlike your other “starters”, Repulse should be replaced as soon as possible.  She fails the Rodney Test spectacularly in every way: abysmal main gun, caliber restricted (her subgun is horrible even by CR standards by the way) and nothing to show for other than a inconsistent and very worthless skill (reload buffing is actually very weak due to diminishing returns). She also has trash AA and Medium armor (because BCs).  This is not what you want to be using as a new player, or an advanced player, period.  Possible contender for worst BC in the game, and probably worst BB as well.

WATASHI WA NUMBA WAN! Tier: 0   When you need planes dead, accept no substitutes.  With 2x gold AA radar, Sandy-R’s AA is literally over 1000.  And that’s BEFORE her starting skill kicks in.  Add 185% AA efficiency, and she can basically solo all your AA needs outside of ch13.   But she’s not all about AA, oh no.  With main gun +1, a new-and-drastically-improved Full Barrage, the ability to equip DD guns, AND a powerful timed barrage, Sandy-R can easily compete for numba wan with the best.  It is actually BETTER to equip DD guns on Sandy-R than CL guns, as the 138.5mm (127mm if you missed it) has comparable DPS while proccing her Full Barrage much faster.   She also has the best ASW of all CLs.   Not that you care, but on a blue moon it’s useful.   Sandy-R is a little squishy, but that can be easily fixed by putting her in the center of the fleet.  She also has horrible torpedos (some of the worst out of all CLs), but re...

Tiers T0: Completely broken, most of these ships break the game in half. T1: Very good, but not ridiculous. T2: Good. Basically the standard for a “good ship”. T3: Sub-par. The muddy brown mess where most unappreciated shipgirls find themselves. Nevertheless, you can still squeeze a couple of these into most content without significant issue. T4: Actually bad, these will rarely be worth the effort to level/skill, if at all. T5: If you read my analysis and STILL use these, I will be very sad. T6: Bullins XS: it would normally go in tier X, but something makes it kinda iffy. Please see analysis for further details. Ships are tiered based on their AVERAGE performance across all relevant content (basically ch10-12 and events). RNG effects are assumed to have the AVERAGE outcome (also factoring how powerful the ship is when it FAILS to get its random skill procs). PvP will not a tiering factor for the following reasons: PvP has different considerations and slightly differ...