Azur Lane Equipment Tiering System Explained
Ever wondered what this stands for?
All of your equipments have this notation on the top right of their stat windows. It is an indicator of equipment tiering.
This is a separate system that gives you information about the strength of the equipment, in addition to the color rarity.
Sub-T3 Equipments Are Transitional
Usually three tiers (T1, T2 and T3) exist for the SAME equipment(equipment with identical name/image), with T3 being the best and T1 being the worst.
Tiering is used to show you whether the version of this equipment you have is the strongest one. If it is not T3, then a better version of the same weapon exists.
In this picture, you see that the US 127mm Twin is T3 at gold rarity, T2 at purple and T1 at blue. However, the US 406mm MK6 starts its T3 at purple, and ends with T1 at grey. Color rarities do not correlate with specific tier numbers. Rarity progressions(gold>purple>blue>grey) do.
For the same weapon, a higher tier version is STRICTLY superior to a lower tier weapon, meaning that they higher tier weapons are better in all stats without tradeoffs.
To illustrate this:
T3, Purple 406mm MK6: Damage = 60x3, Firepower = 25 at 30.02s/shot, HE shells.
T2, Blue 406mm MK6: Damage = 55x3, Firepower = 12 at 31.60s/shot, HE shells.
T1, Grey 406mm MK6: Damage = 50x3, Firepower = 5 at 33.19s/shot, Normal shells.
(All stats are base stats with no enhancements.)
Therefore, if you have a higher tier version of an equipment, there is no reason to use the lower tier version. T1 and T2 weapons are therefore by definition transitional weapons for new players before they get the final best versions. It is better to not waste your resources to investment in these equipments(though moderate investment is still appropriate).
NOTE: T0 weapons exist. This tier rating indicates that they are unique weapons with only ONE version available. No strictly superior/inferior versions exist. This does not necessarily mean it's a good equipment. It just means that it's outside the T1-3 system and exists as a unique equipment.
T3 Weapons Can Be Better than T2 and T1 Even In the Context of Equipment Rarity
Even when comparing to equipmetns of different name/image, the tiering number can give you some insight into the strength. In fact, the tiering number can be MORE useful than the actual rarity of the equipments.
Classic example:
Gold 533 quint(T3)'s base damage is 156x5 at +10
Purple 533 quint(T2)'s base damage is 140x5 at +10
This is expected so far, because T2 is strictly worse than T3
But how do these two compare?
Same rarities, different tiers.
Probably not so easy at a glance.
The T3 533 quad(left) is 156x4 at +10, reload 23.14s.
The T2 533 quind(right) is 140x5 at +10, reload 27.83s.
What's your decision?
Due to salvo spread you're probably not gonna hit with all the torps anyway especially in auto. In that case you might want to go for damage per shot, which means you'd pick the T3 quad.
The reload is also pretty significantly faster for the T3 quad.
Even if we assume all shots hit all the time(unrealistically giving T2 quint the advantage), T3 quad still beats T2 quint with theoretical DPS because of faster reload (26.97 vs 25.15).
This is why T3 weapons usually have higher quality than T2. Therefore when they are the same rarity, you should really look into the stats before you choose to use a T2.
Let's compare the T3 533 quad to the T3 533 quint for some more insight.
This time, it's same tiers, different rarities.
The T3 533 quad(left) is 156x4 at +10, reload 23.14s.
The T3 533 quint(right) is 156x5 at +10, reload 26.44.
What's happening here? It turns out both weapons have the same kind of ammo, dealing identical damage despite of color rarity.
In a lot of torpedoes at least, weapon tiering decides ammo quality. They are the same because they are the same caliber(533mm) and same tier (T3). The only reason the quint is gold is because it holds 5 shots per salvo. But this doesn't necessarily mean it's strictly better than the quad (remember, unless they are identical weapons of different tiers, they can't be strictly better/worse). The quad still reloads faster. So it's trading off one shot per salvo for a faster reload.
The take home message from this section is that, when comparing same-rarity weapons, you are likely better off with the one that is T3. Comparing different colored weapons at same tiers might show stat tradeoff and not strict superiority/inferiority.
Avoid Sub-T3 Planes at All Cost
Planes are more tricky. But the general rule is that you should pick T3 planes over T2s when they are in the same rarity.
The reasoning is that although they may display the same weapons(4 x 12.7mm MG, 2x500 lbs bomb etc), these plane weapons also exist as multiple versions across T1-T3.
If your plane is T3, all of its weapons are T3.
If your plane is T2, all of its weapons are T2.
Therefore if you are comparing a T3 and a T2 plane of the same rarity carrying same weapons, you are comparing 4 x 12.7mm MG T3 to 4 x 12.7mm MG T2, even though the game doesn't state the difference.
The base damage display for planes are very inaccurate because the plane weapons have many characteristics that affect their damage output(i.e. machine gun/cannon firing angles, bomb AOE...) therefore it should not be used for plane comparisons.
TLDR: Just remember that when the color rarities are the same for two planes, pick the T3.
All of your equipments have this notation on the top right of their stat windows. It is an indicator of equipment tiering.
This is a separate system that gives you information about the strength of the equipment, in addition to the color rarity.
Sub-T3 Equipments Are Transitional
Usually three tiers (T1, T2 and T3) exist for the SAME equipment(equipment with identical name/image), with T3 being the best and T1 being the worst.
Tiering is used to show you whether the version of this equipment you have is the strongest one. If it is not T3, then a better version of the same weapon exists.
In this picture, you see that the US 127mm Twin is T3 at gold rarity, T2 at purple and T1 at blue. However, the US 406mm MK6 starts its T3 at purple, and ends with T1 at grey. Color rarities do not correlate with specific tier numbers. Rarity progressions(gold>purple>blue>grey) do.
For the same weapon, a higher tier version is STRICTLY superior to a lower tier weapon, meaning that they higher tier weapons are better in all stats without tradeoffs.
To illustrate this:
T3, Purple 406mm MK6: Damage = 60x3, Firepower = 25 at 30.02s/shot, HE shells.
T2, Blue 406mm MK6: Damage = 55x3, Firepower = 12 at 31.60s/shot, HE shells.
T1, Grey 406mm MK6: Damage = 50x3, Firepower = 5 at 33.19s/shot, Normal shells.
(All stats are base stats with no enhancements.)
Therefore, if you have a higher tier version of an equipment, there is no reason to use the lower tier version. T1 and T2 weapons are therefore by definition transitional weapons for new players before they get the final best versions. It is better to not waste your resources to investment in these equipments(though moderate investment is still appropriate).
NOTE: T0 weapons exist. This tier rating indicates that they are unique weapons with only ONE version available. No strictly superior/inferior versions exist. This does not necessarily mean it's a good equipment. It just means that it's outside the T1-3 system and exists as a unique equipment.
T3 Weapons Can Be Better than T2 and T1 Even In the Context of Equipment Rarity
Even when comparing to equipmetns of different name/image, the tiering number can give you some insight into the strength. In fact, the tiering number can be MORE useful than the actual rarity of the equipments.
Classic example:
Gold 533 quint(T3)'s base damage is 156x5 at +10
Purple 533 quint(T2)'s base damage is 140x5 at +10
This is expected so far, because T2 is strictly worse than T3
But how do these two compare?
Same rarities, different tiers.
Probably not so easy at a glance.
The T3 533 quad(left) is 156x4 at +10, reload 23.14s.
The T2 533 quind(right) is 140x5 at +10, reload 27.83s.
What's your decision?
Due to salvo spread you're probably not gonna hit with all the torps anyway especially in auto. In that case you might want to go for damage per shot, which means you'd pick the T3 quad.
The reload is also pretty significantly faster for the T3 quad.
Even if we assume all shots hit all the time(unrealistically giving T2 quint the advantage), T3 quad still beats T2 quint with theoretical DPS because of faster reload (26.97 vs 25.15).
This is why T3 weapons usually have higher quality than T2. Therefore when they are the same rarity, you should really look into the stats before you choose to use a T2.
Let's compare the T3 533 quad to the T3 533 quint for some more insight.
This time, it's same tiers, different rarities.
The T3 533 quad(left) is 156x4 at +10, reload 23.14s.
The T3 533 quint(right) is 156x5 at +10, reload 26.44.
What's happening here? It turns out both weapons have the same kind of ammo, dealing identical damage despite of color rarity.
In a lot of torpedoes at least, weapon tiering decides ammo quality. They are the same because they are the same caliber(533mm) and same tier (T3). The only reason the quint is gold is because it holds 5 shots per salvo. But this doesn't necessarily mean it's strictly better than the quad (remember, unless they are identical weapons of different tiers, they can't be strictly better/worse). The quad still reloads faster. So it's trading off one shot per salvo for a faster reload.
The take home message from this section is that, when comparing same-rarity weapons, you are likely better off with the one that is T3. Comparing different colored weapons at same tiers might show stat tradeoff and not strict superiority/inferiority.
Avoid Sub-T3 Planes at All Cost
Planes are more tricky. But the general rule is that you should pick T3 planes over T2s when they are in the same rarity.
The reasoning is that although they may display the same weapons(4 x 12.7mm MG, 2x500 lbs bomb etc), these plane weapons also exist as multiple versions across T1-T3.
If your plane is T3, all of its weapons are T3.
If your plane is T2, all of its weapons are T2.
Therefore if you are comparing a T3 and a T2 plane of the same rarity carrying same weapons, you are comparing 4 x 12.7mm MG T3 to 4 x 12.7mm MG T2, even though the game doesn't state the difference.
The base damage display for planes are very inaccurate because the plane weapons have many characteristics that affect their damage output(i.e. machine gun/cannon firing angles, bomb AOE...) therefore it should not be used for plane comparisons.
TLDR: Just remember that when the color rarities are the same for two planes, pick the T3.
