whats the point of SAP shells?

[fat gaben]

I started playing italian line and i see no purpose of SAP , at begining i thought they are just HE shells with penetration power but later i noticed they are just no different than normal AP shells? any1 can explain?

[Jackson]

They have less pen than AP so never get overpens. Generally they're better. I see little reason to switch to AP most of the time myself. AP is good if you can pen thicker armor and hit a citadel like on a broadside cruiser close to you. SAP is good for anything else. Aim for super structures on heavily armored ships as the armor is thin there.

[fat gaben]

Originally posted by Jack:

They have less pen than AP so never get overpens. Generally they're better. I see little reason to switch to AP most of the time myself. AP is good if you can pen thicker armor and hit a citadel like on a broadside cruiser close to you. SAP is good for anything else. Aim for super structures on heavily armored ships as the armor is thin there.

yes whats the point? i can also use AP against ships super structure and i still would cause considerable damage? . I think its a bad trade-off to replace HE with SAP for any cruiser

[Ryuu]

https://youtu.be/zZzlivBoP8s You won't be able to cause 50%+ damage to a destroyer with one cruiser HE salvo unlike SAP.

[Sidian]

Originally posted by fat gaben:

yes whats the point? i can also use AP against ships super structure and i still would cause considerable damage? . I think its a bad trade-off to replace HE with SAP for any cruiser

SAP has way better auto bounce angles. Thanks to that, SAP can often deal damage when AP just bounces and deals no damage. And you get no overpens when shooting at the super structure of angled ships.

[Reaper King]

Thx for the video ryuu .That was very helpful for me. Learned alot.

[Firewalk]

They also utterly murder DDs and CLs with low hitpoints.

- RA -

[Hiei]

I often say the Italian ships have AP and better AP
Yes yes you're trading in fire damage which is a little random.
However you're getting far more reliable damage from it.

[Netharon]

My Halland fears no ship, except Venezia.

[Guara Ookami]

Originally posted by Netharon:

My Halland fears no ship, except Venezia.

I fear no men but that thing... It scares me...

[Jackson]

Originally posted by M4 SOPMOD II:

Originally posted by Netharon:

My Halland fears no ship, except Venezia.

I fear no men but that thing... It scares me...

Ven should probably fear most battleships :p

[Reaper King]

Originally posted by Jack:

Originally posted by M4 SOPMOD II:

I fear no men but that thing... It scares me...

Ven should probably fear most battleships :p

Yep As an Iowa player I can confirm that infact I love Ven their ♥♥♥♥♥♥ armor is beautiful as I can pen it with ease and then procceed to cit. Nothing scares me more in my Iowa then the Smolensk. That things is the one true thing I fear.

[Maj.Tryhard]

Originally posted by ;3443510323239872668:

Originally posted by Jack:

Ven should probably fear most battleships :p

Yep As an Iowa player I can confirm that infact I love Ven their ♥♥♥♥♥♥ armor is beautiful as I can pen it with ease and then procceed to cit. Nothing scares me more in my Iowa then the Smolensk. That things is the one true thing I fear.

I don't mind Smol at all when I'm running cruiser. I'll avoid them like the plague in anything else though.

[SofaKingA]

I was grinding the Italian line and think SAP is crap in my experience. I hear that until you get to the later ships like T8 and above it gets better for some reason. I agree, so far SAP has been a let down. My avg damage is much lower in the Italian line bc of them. I'm just gonna get to T8 and hopefully understand what the hell everyone is talking about.

[donalddawkins]

Sap is mediocre until Amalfi, where it's bearable

Then Brindisi is acceptable and finally Venezia is downright dangerously good

The sheer number of guns, coupled with the lack of overpen means you can get 10k a volley on larger ships, and downright delete destroyers at close range.

I reccommend using the spotter plane for plunging shots as well, as then you get straight into a lot of BB's weak deck armor and just farm raw damage.

AP in Italian ships is poor; poor angles, too much overpen.

If you're looking for an AP heavy cruiser, the new russian line should really tick your boxes.

[Boomer]

I have found SAP to be fairly reliable, though i only have 2 ships that use them.