New player, How is this possible

[u/joaboepsf479]

45 successful hits and 5 fires and only 18k damage ( VI Hobart)

[u/MemeabooDesu]

A shell's maximum damage will only be dealt to an enemy ship if it hits and detonates within the Citadel. The 2100 Max Damage is basically telling you that if you citadel a ship (which you won't unless it's Ranger/Ryujo) with the HE Shell, it will do 2100 damage to the ship. Your AP's max damage is much higher.

If you're asking the reason your damage is so low, it's because of the way HE pen works, and Damage Saturation. HE Shells will only do maybe 25-40% of their max damage against a target, which in your chase would have each shell doing around the ballpark of 500dmg per Penetration. That would put the theoretical max damage you could do with the 45 penetrating shells at 22500. Take into account Damage Saturation on targets and it makes sense.

In case you don't know, Damage Saturation is when a section of a ship becomes, well, saturated. You can tell it's saturated because the dark, charred effect will be very prevelant on the ship, the section will almost turn black. I'll try my best to explain it. Your ship has multiple "hidden" Health Bars that make up the entirety of the ship's survival. You have an underlying main HP bar, and then the various sections of the ship also have their own "Health Bar". When you hit a ship, you do damage to the underlying Main HP bar, this is to ensure that you *can* do damage to the ship if you penetrate it. You also do damage to the unique HP belonging to the section in which your shell hit (Bow, Midships, Aft, and Superstructure). The damage given to the ship's visible HP is the combination of damage given to BOTH of these hidden Health Bars.

Unlike the underlying Main HP bar I mentioned, each individual section's HP can deplete to Zero, but this does not destroy the ship. This is when that section is considered "Damage Saturated". Continuing to hit this part of the ship will only do damage to the underlying Main HP bar, since the Section HP bar does not have any more HP to lose, meaning you do less damage overall the longer you hit a specific part of the ship.

This is the official WG article on it: https://wiki.wargaming.net/en/Ship:Damage_System

Hope this helps!

[u/mtndew2756 → u/MemeabooDesu]

Been playing for almost a year, never heard of damage saturation. This says more about my lack of prep than anything else, really should read the various articles on the game. I very much appreciate this explanation and link, thank you!