#i do get a bit more hp with the crit damage build though so that's probably helping

[adozentothedawn]

My friends, enemies, frenemies, foes, buddies, fuddies, and everyone else, let me tell you a tale of a wild adventure I just went on. It involves unspeakable violence, daring rescues, shocking conspiracy twists, and the state of the world. And most importantly, a very, very, very bugged, Baldur’s Gate 3 playthrough attempt. Strap yourselves’s in folks, it’s gonna get wild.

Our story starts with me deciding to ditch my current playthrough for a bit to start designing my next character. I threw on the game, clicked on New Game and watched as the cutscene started playing. And then I committed a grave sin. I got impatient cause I didn't want to sit through the cutscene and just get to the character creator. I spammed space a few times which didn't do anything. And then. I pressed esc. The screen went black. But instead of being able to build my character, I was suddenly here:

Ya. Just a group of naked guys and the default Dark Urge. Who is the only one to get clothes. So naturally I had to start exploring what the fuck this is and what I could here. The what the fuck question is probably answered with some technical details about developer stuff that I don't know about. As for what I could do...

Mostly just kill the other dudes. Who are called Dummy. So I kinda just did that.

You can do this by either punching them to death with your 1 damage attacks (also when you crit, the damage does not get higher), or you can use your weapons in your inventory! For example by throwing them, which is what I did cause I forgot you could just equip them. You can though.

You can't move the character though, the speed is set to 0 and jumping is turned off cause you're immobilized. The game is lying btw, despite the character icon, there are no clothes anywhere on this map, except on the Dragonborn. Who is btw the only one with more than 1 hp, specifically with 26. More fun facts, only the black guys have penises. The white guys only have Ken crotches. No not vaginas, I did check, Ken crotches.

They all have same stats of 10 on everything, have the race Human and the class None. Only I got weapons though. It was one of like 8 types, but I threw them all so only see that cleaver here. The rest are on the floor.

Fun fact also: When entering turnbased the game still registers the dead guys from your assigned party.

They are also still in your party. Still naked. But now dead on the ground. They also got the xp I got from killing everyone!

This map also allows for a day night cycle, which is influenced by how close to the character the camera is. It's night when you're close, when you get away from them the shadows move until it's day.

As for the excellent question of where this map even is: It is the character creation map! It's not just a background it's a full on map you can scroll around on! The corner is cut off as you can see, but north and east you can just scroll until the character leash is tight. Look it's the bird statue and the platform!

And now the most shocking of all reveals: That landscape from the dreams you can see in the background here? The pavillion and floating rocks? Yeah it’s fake. It’s a giant movie screen in space.

Yeah so that was my adventure in the bugged character creation. xD I have one last surprise! If you have any suggestions on what I should try doing there, you can give them to me! Cause I have a working save that loads directly there. Still bugged. Still very funny.

[fragmentofmemories]

what's your opinion on subclassing in eo? i know you like to experiment with party composition and strategies so i'd like to know if you have any favorite unconventional class/subclass combos

Thanks for the ask! and honestly I don't really have an opinion that much different from other people.

It's a great mechanic that lets you essentially fill any hole you might have in your party, or minmax a character's best features.

Lack a healer or tank? Turn your character into one. Want to squeeze an extra bit of damage, dodge rate or whatever? Subclass into something with the one self-buff or passive you need.

But sadly, many people tend to focus only on the minmaxing part, to the point I often see tips like "subclass into gladiator/bushi, everything else is worthless."

And I feel that is really reductive of what subclassing can be capable of. Let's take EO3 as an example.

A fun thing I like to do is doing a Monk/Zodiac build.

"Because monks have high TEC right?"

No, because Fire Mastery, Singularity and Ethereal Charge affect Breakfire Fist.

Combine STR accessory stacking alongside any other buff/debuff, and you'll have your monk potentially deal tens of thousands of damage per hit with the right setup.

I see people often focusing only on a monk's supportive aspect, that with subclassing them into sovereigns and such.

But just like any other healer in EO (except herbalists who do not exist), leaving them to only healing duty is genuinely a waste of their true potential — as weird as that sounds.

And before you ask, you don't need the weapon exploit to make monks good. In fact, if you know how Fist Mastery works, you'll soon realize the exploit actually makes them worse (At high STR and Lv10 FM, their ATK stat is lowered if they equip a weapon).

Monks in EO3 are in the same place as EO1 Alchemists and EOX pugilists, as one of the most misunderstood classes. In the sense that people don't really know how to use them.

Other fun builds I'd like to make are Ninja/Buccaneer. Combine skills like Lady Luck (extra Crit chance), Swashbuckling (Multihit chance with normal attacks) and Kubikiri (Instakill chance with normal attacks). It only takes around level 50 or so to get all these skills maxed, and when you do it's pretty fun.

Knives also happen to have a high amount of forge slots, so you can further customize your character by either increasing their ATK, stats like HP, or even adding an extra effect on top. Combine that with accessory stacking and/or cloning, and you can actually deal plenty of damage even if the instant kill doesn't trigger.

After all, it wasn't until eou that they nerfed normal attacks (of course).

Lastly, though it has nothing to do with combat, I ocassionally like subclassing everyone into farmers. In doing so, I can give them the Waste Not skill for up to a 25% drop rate increase.

The reason for this is to more easily farm stat books from the enemies that drop it. It's a slow process, but being able to more easily get stat boosters — especially early on — is really helpful.

Formaldehydes and Lucky Hammer exist, of course, but those aren't easily available until the late/postgame. And the ones you do get early on are usually reserved for stratum bosses.

Moving onto other games, EO4 I admittedly kinda rushed over it gameplay-wise, and I've long since lost my 100% save. So I can't for certain give any build ideas.

I do believe dancers' normal attack and dodge skills are generally useful on anyone, as is landsknechts' Vanguard on medics. Not for healing, but for Star Drop and other attack skills (of course).

Nexus I did replay recently, so in quick succession (since this post is getting too long):

Survivalist/Ninja. Using it to further increase the former's Dodgetank abilities (meaning extra Hazy Arrows, and general survivality).

Pugilist/Shogun for Peerless Demon (More damage the more hits per turn) and Bloody Lance (More damage per enemy killed.) Conveniently enough, a pugilist's best weapon has an AOE skill, and it can actually be acquired near the start of the game if you farm enough. So...

Medic/Protector entirely for yuri reasons /j (actually because of anti- skills, and Shield Flare. Calling back the whole "subclassing to fix holes" thing.)

Technically EMD2 also has subclassing, and the idea of a protector with AOE skills is very enticing. But it's Japan-only (of course).

Funnily enough, I don't think I experimented much with subclassing myself. Once I get to 3 HD I am thinking of maybe doing something like, idk, Farmer/Gladiator for a meme Stun Attack build (lol).

[crystalelemental]

The unfortunate thing is that, in spite of Bravely Second being as poor story as its predecessor, I am...kind of enjoying this gameplay quite a bit.

Bravely Default's class system I remember being more annoying to me, and couldn't fully articulate why. I think this game handed me the answer. Apparently your damage scales DOWN if you aren't proficient in the class, making experimentation a nightmare. Go figure.

This game does not do that, resulting in a more streamlined experience, I suppose. Moreover though, I'll have a difficult time continuing to talk about Bravely Default 1 because I legitimately do not remember it. So I'll only talk on this game's merits.

Your introductory set of classes defy convention. It's not the expected Black Mage, White Mage, Knight, whatever fourth. Instead, you get...well, options kinda similar but different a bit.

First up is Wizard. This takes inspiration from Black Mage, but notably integrates the Brave/Default system in a way I like. See, Wizard spells are AoE by default, hitting everything for fairly low damage. However, this is combined with Spellcraft, which lets you customize how the spell operates. Initially, you get Needle and some other type. By using these, you take up a second action, but deal concentrated damage that's...actually pretty huge. At later spellcraft levels, you get access to my personal favorites, Hammer and Mist. Mist applies a persistent spell effect for three turns, while Hammer is just tremendous damage dealt as blunt damage. Hammer dealt 3600 on a crit once. For comparison, a special move from Edea dealt around 1200. It's great damage. The Mist is even more nutty. See, you can combine these effects with general spells as well. So I got the Red Mage class, and can combine Fira with Mist to apply an AoE fire burst every turn. But the real money is in supportive effects. See, I can also use Mist with Cura, to provide a mist that will restore a solid amount of HP every round. I have not tried with Raise, but I assume it works comparably. So this is a great effect, I adore Wizard skills. Admittedly, I currently took their Spellcraft skill and applied it to my Red Mage, in order to build up the BP accumulating skills. I think Wizard is the better base class; two skill slots for Spellcraft is a lot. Worth it, but a lot.

Next up is Charioteer. This is a sort-of offensive class, in that its function is to build weapon proficiency every action in battle, and has early access to a great +20% Phys Atk buff as a skill. In truth, I don't care for it. Charioteer isn't doing anything too interesting. There's a toss weapon skill I haven't used. That might do it. There's also the ability to equip three weapons, taking one on the head part, which is fine but never my style. I value defensive ability too much. So this one's shifted off.

Then you get Fencer, which is a bit more rounded. Fencer works with stances, having Wolf Stance to boost offenses 25%, and aurochs stance for defensive boosting of the same value. There's also Falcon Stance but that's later. By rank 4, Fencer gets the ability to use skills in either stance that shift them to the other. Which should be cool! Unfortunately, when you use Brave, all actions are counted under the current stance, so as far as I can tell you cannot just use both interchangeably to keep pressure going. Sad. Moreover the later phases will give options like immediately starting in Wolf Stance, or letting buffs persist as you stance change. Their big final skill is 4x0.8 damage to random targets, which...look. I just got Swordmaster. Our skills can swing for 3x damage without separating hits. I am not particularly worried. Fencer is interesting, but I feel like the most interesting aspect of it fell short of expectations so it will not be staying.

Lastly there's Bishop, the spin on White Mage. Bishop seems to just...do exactly what White Mage does. I literally cannot tell the difference. The spells are the same, down to the time you get them. I have no strong feelings about them.

The first distinction decision is Thief or Red Mage. I went Red Mage because come on. Thief does stealing stuff, but Red Mage does magic, so obvious decision even outside of the ethical conundrum. Red Mage has a few skills that can restore BP, and my main focus is on "Restore 1BP when you evade." I have a feeling there will be a combo with this.

Like Astrologian! Who I hate. I'm sorry, it's a single-target impermanent buff of like 30%, it's not that good. It can boost evasion by its second tier of spells, which can combo with Red Mage a bit, but there's going to be better I'm sure.

Then there's the decision between Summoner and Swordmaster. I got Swordmaster because come on, I'm not gonna side against Mephilia. This gives skills for follow-up attacks and counters at full damage, which is delightful. I needed a new physical class too, since I didn't care for the first two.

Right now the party is Bishop (Yew), Swordmaster (Edea), Red Mage (Magnolia), and Fencer (Tiz). I haven't encountered anything too difficult, and no game overs yet. We'll see. Chapter 2 is usually a serious increase in challenge with these games. Our next skill should be dealing with this Catmancer assassin, and let me tell you, Catmancer will definitely be on the team.

[goosetrainer]

Thank goodness the palkia/dialga raids are 5☆, couldn't have dealt with another mewtwo fiasco.

Quick guide this time, them being lv. 75 makes them much easier to deal with and leaves more options to choose from; but they're still legendaries, so I'll drop some guidelines and a couple builds.

About both:

They're both dragon tera, both know Draco Meteor (only dragon type move of their set) and Fire Blast. They wipe the player's stats modifications and ability once at 80% HP left, and their own twice at 75% and 50% time left.

Draco Meteor can be exploited if you can survive it comfortably once (bring a non-fairy type with enough special defense/HP), let it hit you so the enemy's special attack goes down by its own and you only have to care about your offensive power.

However, since there are TWO enemy side stat wipes, and they are fairly close, you would have to survive a full-strenght Draco Meteor thrice!

The other way is to bring a fairy type and make your own special defense (via Calm Mind and Amnesia).

In any case, it's more efficient to buff your own statistics than debuff the enemy's.

DIALGA

Lots of coverage here, mainly in the form of Steel Beam (BAD news for fairies!). It also has a move that can lower your special defense (Earth Power) and a once-per-battle scripted Iron Defense.

It looks incredibly hard to beat on paper, but in reality it's still only lv. 75 and can be done with a common all-purpose Azumarill (you know the one: fairy tera, max attack & HP, huge power, shell bell, belly drum + play rough? Remember to teach it or make it remember Amnesia)

The trick is to NOT terastallize. It'll be a bit slower, but Steel Beam hurts a lot when you lose the resistance from the water typing and maybe it was me but it kept critting >:(

Instead, use Amnesia at the start of the battle, attack until the shield goes up (NO Belly Drum before that), Amnesia again - possibly 2-3x, then check how much life you've got left and see if you can slip a Belly Drum before attacking with Play Rough.

Keep in mind that you will probably die at some point (not gamebreaking, I won after fainting twice in the same try so it's doable) and if you do you have to reapply at least one Amnesia each time you come back. On the other hand you don't need to use Belly Drum, because Dialga will have a preference for Steel Beam which, while strong, also hurts the user - you can literally spend the entire duration of the shield setting up and watching it go down by itself.

Use healing cheers sparingly, keep them in case you get burned by Fire Blast, or for when you're done maxing out your attack and special defense but you risk going k.o. and the Shell Bell won't heal you enough.

You could try Leftovers instead, too. It's a bit more annoying but the healing is better (and not dependent on how much damage you deal, which is not a whole lot, this time...)

Azumarill can also learn Light Screen via TM, forgot about it so I can't say how efficient it would be and when to use it, but could def help

All in all not the cleanest solution in my repertoire, but I would hope everyone and their mother has a raid-grade Azumarill by now u-u

PALKIA

Would have loved to use Azumarill on this one as well, but it has Thunder (AND Rain Dance) so no can do.

Great results with Florges, though (which is nice since there are event mass outbreaks of Flabebe rn). Any other pure fairy type with good special bulk and access to Calm Mind (OR both Amnesia and Nasty Plot/Swords Dance/Belly Drum, depending on which offensive stat is higher) and Moonblast (or whatever other strong fairy type move your pokemon of choice can learn) will do. Other strong contenders we didn't try are Sylveon, Clefable (especially with Magic Guard!) and maybe Scream Tail.

Palkia, too, between Draco Meteor, Fire Blast, Hydro Pump, and Thunder, has great supereffective coverage, but thankfully they all only hit fairy neutrally. Just need enough special defense to tank everything.

Our Florges had 252 EVs in special defense and special attack (and 4 in HP), a Shell Bell, and only ended up using Calm Mind and Moonblast. Sylveon-Clefable-Scream Tail would use the exact same build of course.

They're less common pokemon to have for raids (unless that was your choice for the Charizard event), but once they're ready the battle is extremely easy. Use one single Calm Mind at the start of the battle, Moonblast until your stat modifications get nullified, now use 6x Calm Mind, terastallize if you can (if not use more Moonblast(s) to charge), and simply more Moonblasts until Palkia goes down.

You can use a healing cheer if you end up paralyzed by Thunder, but there's plenty of time so you can even ignore it and let your walking bouquet miss a couple of turns, without fear of being kicked out. You can 100% ignore burns from Fire Blasts too, as it doesn't have any effect on your special attack and you heal much much faster than the chip damage it deals.

If you want to be safer you can bring moves like Draining Kiss, Wish, or Synthesis for emergency healing, but again you could literally do this battle with 2 moves only >:)

More info

Other useful things you may want to know.

-the natures seem fixed (Quiet for Dialga, Modest for Palkia). The IVs apparently not, though. They will have 4 stats at random with max IVs, and the other 2 with random IVs. I didn't reset a lot but I think the IV spread is fixed as long as the location is (in other words: if you're looking for a different IV spread, you have to change the date - or wait for it to change by itself. If you save in front of the den - or, really, anywhere - the IV spread is fixed again, and needs another date change to change again). Keep it in mind if you're looking for certain stats.

-they do not have their signature moves yet (will learn them at a higher level)

-their ability is basically useless in these raids, so pretend they don't have one

-I didn't mention that Dialga also has Trick Room (it actually works to your favor if you bring Azumarill, but only for the first 5 turns) and Stealth Rock (deals some damage upon reentering from a ko, not much of a problem unless you bring like. A Talonflame. Do not bring a Talonflame).

-advanced trick for Dialga: if you think you're going to die on the next turn (let's say you are at 10HP left, no sp.def. boost, and you can't be sure Heal Up will bring you back to over half HP): you try and terastallize. If you're lucky, Dialga will kill you with Steel Beam instead of Earth Power or Fire Blast, and the doubled damage to you (because of your type change) will mean double recoil damage to itself. If you're EXTRA lucky and Azumarill acts first you can also get more direct damage from a tera-boosted Play Rough. Not a game changer but anything helps!

-Dialga again (sorry that's the one from the version I own so I had more time to mess with it, lol): Dudunsparce, Umbreon, BELLIBOLT, and Mudsdale npc allies are... not as necessary as with Mewtwo, but definitely very very welcome

[dailycharacteroption]

Pop Culture Builds 12: The Hunter (Bloodborne)

Ah yes, Bloodborne, one of many difficult “Soulsborne”-style games in which the horrors you encounter are brutally powerful and quick, and only with great care and skill can they be overcome… but you will still die a lot, and each death is canon thanks to some weird mystical circumstance that causes you to come back.

Bloodborne in particular is notable for being the “werewolf” one until suddenly it’s the eldritch horror one, but we’ll leave it at that to preserve the mystique for those who haven’t played it or watched it be played yet.

The player character, known as The Hunter is of variable origin, though the one thing that seems to remain true is that they came to the cursed city of Yharnam in search of the Paleblood, which is not adequately explained what that is. However, they seek it to “Transcend the Hunt”. Which is also unclear, though theories range from ending the nightmare over the city to transcending their humanity in some way.

Either way, the Hunter wields a firearm and powerful melee weapons that are able to switch between modes based on what the situation requires, often a smaller, more agile mode and a heavier one designed to deal heavy damage to massive, dangerous foes.

Of course, the Hunter is not limited to these weapons, and can collect many strange eldritch and magical items throughout their travels.

For the purposes of this build, we’ll be mostly ignoring the origins and focus on a build revolving around the blunderbuss and saw cleaver, as that weapon combination is what is used in most of the game’s promotional materials.

 Ostensibly, the hunter is human, and you can certainly play them as such. However, after consuming so much tainted blood they are occasionally able to transform into a more feral state. So perhaps beastkin (either standard or werewolf-kin)? It’s really up to you.

For the class, it took me a bit to consider, but I think the hunter works best as a slayer with no archetype. They are, after all, skilled at reading monstrous foes to better avoid their attacks and strike for their weaknesses, after all. And they are quite adept at finding all sorts of horrors lurking here and there.

As far as talents go, Blood Reader is good for getting an idea of how much hp a foe has left, Bleeding Attack (via rogue talent) is perfect for racking up damage, Firearm Training (via rogue talent) for proficiency with your gun, as is Combat Training. Meanwhile, advanced talents that prove useful to the build include Assassinate, Deadly Sneak, Evasion, Hunter’s Surprise, and Swallow’s Reversal.

In terms of feats, Improved Critical is useful, but what is truly critical to the build is the Improved Feint line, bolstering their ability to create openings in their foes’s defenses to get that sneak damage off. Definitely also pick up Dodge and Mobility. Also consider taking Two-Weapon fighting if you want to fight with gun and blade together.

The trickiest thing with this build was figuring out how to do the weapons and other equipment, but I think I’ve come up with an elegant solution. The hunter blunderbuss sadly cannot be a true blunderbuss due to it being one-handed, but dragon pistol is a decent replacement, particularly when supported with enchantments. The saw cleaver was more difficult, but I settled on the weapon having a unique enchantment similar to a lesser form of the transformative ability, able to shift between two forms. The first I based on a drow razor, though any light or one-handed weapon with a larger than normal crit range is good, preferably with a bane enchantments against humanoids (shapechanger) or monstrous humanoids. Meanwhile, the alternate form I based on a dwarven waraxe, though any weapon with a big damage dice and crit multiplier is good, and works best loaded with the keen enchantment and a generally high bonus.

Beyond this and their armors (which favor lighter garb to maintain mobility), the Hunter collects a lot of magical and mundane items in their travels to harm foes, protect themselves from harm, and the like. As such, take every opportunity to pick up weird wondrous items they can pull out in various situations, be they directly emulate any of their canonical “Hunter’s Tools” or not.

But perhaps you want to emulate another one of the hunter weapons? Certainly the Hunter Pistol can easily just be your choice of pistol, but the trick weapons remain, well, tricky. The threaded cane would probably be a mace and whip sword or scorpion whip, for example, whereas the kirkhammer would be a silver longsword that can turn into an earth breaker, and so on.

Beyond that, perhaps slayer doesn’t suit you? You can easily play an inquisitor or occultist instead, using the spells and magical abilities of those classes as a reflavored stand-in for Hunter’s Tools.

With their powerful shapeshifting weapons, many players will instantly recognize the inspiration for this build, but I think it has plenty of merit beyond that.

[tysonfurybattlepass]

If your ocs all had to fight battle royale style who would be the ultimate victor?

oh man, this is a tough one. i think it would boil down to two of them: kali and machairodonis

it would be easy to think that kali, being the biggest and tallest, would have a field day with the others, but i think there’s more to it than just busted ass stats.

see, kali may be fuckoff gigantic, but her special ability list isn’t really geared toward combat. she’s not a fighter build; she’s a survivalist build. her unique cheek teeth are designed for filter-feeding krill out of the water, but are not useful as weapons in combat. her claws are thin and small, so her paw swipes only do blunt force damage (make no mistake though, this will still absolutely kill pretty much anything smaller than her). she’s also an ambush predator that relies heavily on the stealth and mobility bonuses she gains when in deep water. on land, she’s significantly slower and more awkward. most notably though, she doesn’t really fight all that often. kali is solitary and rarely interacts with other sapient species, much less throws down with them. so, while she is hands down the most powerful and most well defended character in my roster and certainly can fight, she’s at a significant experience disadvantage compared to some of my career fighters. that being said though, her thick subcutaneous fat means that she has near unparalleled defense, and it is very difficult to land a crit on her.

that’s where my boy mach comes in. machairodonis as an adult is the second largest of the lineup, with thick bones and a tanky, powerful frame. he’s a career wrestler and a very experienced fighter, with the speed and reflexes of a cat and the pure brute physicality of a grizzly bear rolled up into one. this alone means he’d give kali a run for her money, but he also has a very powerful signature ability that’s unique to his species: razor teeth. the positioning, size, and serrated edges of mach’s front teeth allow for a ‘cookie cutter’ effect that does absolutely brutal damage even without a crit. if he does land a crit, it inflicts an automatic heavy bleed status effect, draining the opponent’s hp over several minutes. depending on where he lands the bite, this accumulation of damage could be enough to catch him the w by just waiting until the opponent succumbs to blood loss or shock. and with his saber canines, he likely has a high enough base damage output to get theough kali’s thick skin and fat. his forelimbs are also highly flexible in comparison to other sabercats’, granting him a bonus to all grappling attacks.

they both have the ability to one shot each other, but kali can do it from a longer distance. mach has to get past her crippling paw strikes to secure a grapple and land a solid bite on her in order to crit, and likely he would then have to retreat to safety and defend until kali succumbed to the bleed damage. there’s also the very real possibility of him being bitten and shaken out of his skin on his way out. ultimately it would boil down to who could control the range; kali would try her best to keep the fight long and swing at mach with her paws, aiming for his head and spine, while mach would look for an opportunity to tackle and land a bite in a critical area like her neck.

honorable mentions include kairoh and megnatereon, who are undoubtably the most skilled combatants but their small size and relatively low defense makes fighting against mach or kali unfeasible. kairoh is the most experienced fighter out of all of them, and only a bit smaller than mach, but her less specialized teeth do less damage and her lankier frame means she’s more susceptible to blunt force. megantereon is the most versatile, with incredibly high crit damage from his gigantic saberteeth. he’s highly mobile both on land and in the trees, and his athleticism (plus impressive stealth) makes him difficult to hit. however, he’s diminutive compared to the rest of them, meaning he’d have to do a no-hit run on every single opponent in order to not get completely wasted.

here’s a rough size comparison. from heaviest to lightest: kali (1,375lbs), machairodonis (880lbs), kairoh (765lbs), megantereon (400lbs)

[christmas-shenanigans]

Session 7 definitely the last one Sat 13 Jan 2024

I have a scrunchy lunch. Skabb is feeling better. Valeros will throw himself off something if we don’t finish this fight tonight. Halbrecht goes to get some tea. And we’re off!

Would the old baggage like to maybe fuck off? Has she considered surrendering? She considers, and decides to whack Wee Jock with her spoon instead. Then she’ll hit Halbrecht; and then Grabby Cat (Skabb is outraged). Cries of “that rotten bitch!”

Halbrecht is writing a naughty list of his own. It’s just got the one name on it. Grabby Cat wants to grab something on fire and go on a kamikaze mission up her ass.

Christmas Elves do snowballs, Skabb is nearly dead. Oh wait - she ignores cold damage. “I feel healthy.” Another goes for Half-Brick, he is pleased when it misses - the next is a crit, though. 21 damage to him total. “Excellent. I’m not even dead. Ha.”

Valeros. “Hello.” He gets an attack of opportunity, if he has that ability - he does not. The elf escapes him, marks him as prey, and throws a snowball at him. Another throws one at the back of his head for another 9 damage.

“I’m allergic to Christmas after this,” Halbrecht announces. “You’ve ruined it.”

The Faerie does a Heal; Valeros requests that if he is to die, can he at least be done in by the hot faerie. “No promises.” The DM refuses to tell us who she’s healing.

Psychotic goblin is up. “Well I’m a dying psychotic goblin, so…” She looks at her potions. “1d6? That’s wank, innit.” She casts her own Healing spell instead with her wand - using Overcast. She’ll never need it again, so who cares if it breaks? She does a 2-er, for 15 HP back. “Better than a kick in the pants,” Wee Jock observes. Skabb hides for her last action.

Wee Jock the Ever-Living takes his turn. He is going to give Mrs Claus “a bit of a bonk on the head.” DM, laughing: “Only fair, I suppose.” He does 19 total damage including Rage and Cold Iron damage, and goes for an Intimidating Glare. The number is red. “… Um, hero point?” 17 isn’t super good, but maybe she’ll roll low…? Well, a 32 isn’t low, so. No. He swings his Hammer again, but a 13 misses.

Zorya spots an elf glaring at Valeros through the window of the building opposite from her perch on the roof, and takes advantage of the distraction to shoot it - sneak attack as well will kill it! She shoots Mrs Claus and rolls a 20, petitioning the DM. “She’s exhausted now, right? Her AC is lower now, right? Because it’s Christmas?” Generously, and probably in the interest of not going for a session 8 of the Christmas Special, he agrees and takes 4 off her AC. Zorya’s 20 hits. “But she doesn’t accept my lovingly gift-wrapped sneak attack damage.”

Mialee kills the Christmas Faerie! How de doo dis! “Straight through the eye. Don’t worry Valeros, she didn’t know what hit her.”

Valeros, with no more reason to live, trudges outside and halfheartedly hits something. He isn’t even excited when he gets a howdy doodis. Wee Jock tries to cheer him up with talk of hiring a prostitute in the goblin village, but he’s not interested. He crits against the last bauble bomber as well, but doesn’t kill it. He kind of shrugs, and that’s the end of his turn.

Halbrecht can do Battle Healing for two people. He rolls two Medicine checks, one for himself and one for Wee Jock - he rolls 32 both times! Two critical successes, so 4d8+10 each. Halbrecht: “… Holy shit.” 34 for Wee Jock, and 26 for himself. Not too shabby. That’s his first action. Wee Jock: “Back in the game!” (IRL Wee Jock thanks him, “because the real Wee Jock never would”.) Halbrecht takes a swing with his hammer but misses, and raises his shield.

Mrs Claus takes her attacks at Wee Jock, Halbrecht and Grabby Cat again. She has a really bad round - 19 (crit fail), 18, and 12.

The elf at the window marks Mialee as prey and throws two snowballs at her head, and misses both times. “Cheeky!” “There’s a lady behind you,” Wee Jock warns her. “Well she’s going to get an elbow in the face.” Another elf attacks Valeros but misses. And that’s all the elves, because we’ve killed the others.

A bauble bomber throws some red bombs at Wee Jock. He doesn’t even notice. He notices the 20 to hit, though. Another flings some more at Valeros; he’s too busy staring at his feet to see them.

Skabber is fed up of all the mooching around that’s going on, gets stuck in a door and has to request to be moved. “You can’t get out because you can’t reach the door handle.” She wants to slap Valeros as a free action. “Snap out of it!” She yells. She has discovered that she has a Fireball left and flings it - but rolls a crit fail. She was going to try and hit Mrs Claus, uncaring that she will hit her friends. “Who cares? We’re all dying at the end of this!” For her mercenary attitude, she is awarded a Hero Point, which she immediately uses to re-roll her Fireball. Mrs Claus fails her save! Sadly so do Halbrecht, Wee Jock and Grabby Cat - the latter is off the map now. Skabb turns to Valeros. “This is all your fault.”

Wee Jock says, in a shocked voice, “Warm! Warm!” He pats himself out and attacks Mrs Claus for a 20, which now hits thanks to her reduction in AC. She is no longer flanked, however. But! The DM rules that she is still reeling from the Fireball, so her AC will stay at 20 for the rest of the round. He tries for another Intimidation (14), but she's having none of that.

Zorya tries to determine who looks sicklier, the elf or Mrs Claus, but she is distracted by the latter’s wedding ring which she has just spotted gleaming on her finger. She takes all three attacks at her, and two hit. She’s fixated on the ring now, and makes up her mind that it'll be hers by the end of this fight.

Mialee takes an attack at Mrs Claus and nearly kills her, then crits her next hit! Mrs Claus falls, with the tinkle of sleigh bells, and fades to nothing - taking the ring with her. “Nooo!” Zorya cries from the roof.

Mialee sets her sights on an elf for her last action, but misses. She gets a Hero Point for sleighing Mrs Claus. (Arf arf.)

Valeros kills a bauble bomber. He swings his sword in a Zorro-esque manner, carving a “V” into his chest. He shoots at an elf with his short bow, crits, and rolls 19 crit damage. The elf is down to her last hit point. “Grand. Wait, wait! If you were to watch Robin Hood Prince of Thieves, that bit with Christian Slater where he takes out the arrow, runs his thumb across it and shoots it. That’s what Valeros just did.”

Halbrecht inquires as to the health of two of our enemies. One is looking sickly, the other is fresh as a daisy. “Well we’ll see about that then, won’t we.” He casts Searing Light against the injured one - Howdy doodis! “Turns to ash, and dust, his still very surprised face lands on top of the pile of dust.” He raises his shield for his last action. “I think that might be the first time I’ve hit something in this whole adventure,” he says, and is awarded a Hero Point.

The Christmas elf, having just seen Mrs Claus fall, stops throwing snowballs. She takes her bow off her back and takes aim at Halbrecht. Her bow refuses to work so she does snowballs after all. 27 hits for 5 and 4 Cold, and Halbrecht is down to 5hp. (Skabb: “I feel partly responsible.” Halbrecht: “That’s because you are.”)

She throws some snowballs at Zorya but they miss, and another throws some at Mialee. “Miss, miss, miss,” Wee Jock calls - and they all do! The bomber throws all his bombs at Wee Jock - only the green hits. He takes 1 acid and two persistent. More splash damage, for Halbrecht.

We only have two elves and a bauble bomber left! Skabb cheers. She is told there is one on the roof. “Can I scuttle up the chimmer?” Halbrecht, laughing: “Who talks like that?!” It turns out the one on the roof is Zorya, so she doesn’t do it. She wants to bite the elf’s finger, and then “suck the juice out like a straw.” 28 hits - and how de doo dis! “Really slowly, so I can savour the blood.” There is a house with a table full of baked goods behind her. “Are any of them rotten?” she asks, and is disappointed when they are not. She brightens when Wee Jock tells her he still has some squiggler jelly.

Wee Jock: “Advance… Corner… Then hit in the groin with a - ohhhh, that’s a bad miss.” He swings again and gets a howdedoodis! “Bauble your way out of that one, you dead prick.” He still has a go left. Mialee’s window licker friend is still alive, so he advances, ending up right back where he was. “Hiya,” he says to Halbrecht as he passes. “I’m on my way to murder someone.” (He then remembers he can’t move as he's run out of actions, and takes it back.)

Zorya drops off the roof, sneaks up on Mialee’s friend, and stabs her. With no more movement she will stand there and wait to get smacked. “Don’t worry, I’ll kill her before she gets a go,” Mialee tells her. And then crits her next shot!! The elf is still up - but isn’t she flanked, with Zorya there? That counts, the DM says, and lets her do her sneak attack damage for another 3. Mialee shoots again. Another hit, and more sneak attack and cold iron damage! “Dead?” No, sadly for Zorya. Mialee’s last attack misses so she Hero Points it, but still misses.

Valeros moves down the map looking for Skabb to give her... something, I don't hear what. He zings an arrow over Zorya’s head at the elf. 20 hits, but he only does 1 damage.

Halbrecht finds one! “Aaaaaaaand… Divine Lance! Oh.” 14 misses. “That was a signalling lance.” That was his whole turn. “You’re all very welcome.”

The elf escapes Zorya and moves. “Where’s that bitch gone?”

Skabb has a quick squizz out the door to make sure no-one’s there. (Zorya deletes herself and has to be put back.) The DM turns Skabb around because she’s stuck in the door again. She can’t see anyone, so she prances around the room, “making the wettest, soggiest bread with all this jelly” (so that’s what Valeros gave her!). She wants to know if there are bugs she can add in; there are not. “In that case,” she says with glee, “I have a spell slot left. Vomit Swarm!” She pukes up a load of bugs, stamps on them, scrapes them up and spreads them on her toast. “Valeros does a full retch,” he announces. “Have a disgusting Hero Point,” says the DM.

Wee Jock vaults over some barrels, but can’t see any targets. Disappointed, he uses all his movement to get to the Christmas tree fire to warm his toes. He spots the elf, who is cowering in a house. “She’s here!” he yells.

Zorya moves up, spots her, and shoots - pinning her to the wall and killing her, taking out the last opponent. “You have successfully booted in the door of Christmas Land, and murdered all the inhabitants,” the DM tells us, to general cheering. Skabb makes us something disgusting as a treat to celebrate; Valeros and Zorya both lose their lunch at the mere sight of it.

Halbrecht does a big Heal. Valeros: “You are the best goddamn Cleric.” Mialee doesn’t need it as no-one has managed to so much as scratch her.

We’ve got some powder to find. Zorya finds some presents in the northernmost building and immediately forgets the powder. Skabb joins her and starts smashing presents. Wee Jock and Halbrecht actually look for the powders. They find hundreds of notes with names on, each with either a smiley or frowny face next to them. Skabb, Zorya and Mialee don’t care to find their own names; they already know.

Halbrecht, Valeros and Mialee make Perception checks (Skabb finds some whiskey). Halbrecht finds our names - Skabb, Wee Jock, Zorya are all naughty and the rest are nice - except Valeros, who has both a smiley and a frowny face next to his name. (We thought Mialee would be naughty; but if we refer to her character sheet it specifically says: “flaws: none.”)

Mialee and Valeros see that the reindeer stalls are empty but they find a bunch of bottles. We are looking for a powder (Skabb and Valeros are messing around with the sleigh). Skabb and Mialee both spot a bottle of iridescent powder - Mialee snatches it before Skabb can get it, but she tips a bit out into Skabb outstretched paw. Skabb licks it up and starts to float!

(Zorya has been investigating the presents - she finds three that she believes are of considerable value, and squirrels them away before anyone knows she has them.)

To the magic item vote! Only Skabb voted silently, the rest of us forgot to send the DM messages so we have to do it out loud. Wee Jock is torn between Mialee and Valeros, voting for the latter in the end because he stayed most in character. Mialee votes for Zorya, because she got some great kills. Halbrecht votes for Valeros because he needs cheering up. Valeros and Zorya both vote for themselves, because of course they do.

(Skabb picks Zorya up with her new flying ability and flies her around the room.)

We have two tie-breakers! Tied in first are Mialee and Skabb, who both roll a d20 - Skabb rolls a 3, and Mialee a 4. The second tie break is between Zorya and Valeros - Zorya rolls a 14, and Valeros an 18.

Mialee wins overall, with Skabb second, Valeros third and Zorya as a runner up. It was close; we all were within 1 or 2 points of each other, the DM tells us.

We take the powder back to the village and are awarded with the magic items by Tallywhacker (Skabb hides a poo in his office). These will be converted into magic items for our main campaign, and Zorya wins a potion as a runner-up prize. The talk turns a bit scatological after that, but we have saved the day! And maybe done really good things for the gnomes. Yay!

The DM tells us that it is our duty to remind him to Keep It Simple, Stupid, for next year so we don’t end up with another two month Christmas Special. I don’t know… I kinda like it. :)

[prismatic-glow]

I'm bored, so i'm gonna main a random character || p1

Hello everyone! A bit of a different post for today but I wanted to switch things up. I really enjoyed making my last series so today i'll be starting a new one where I document my whole process of building + maining a new character for a bit

For those of you that like my more educational content, i'd still love if you stuck around for this one because it will cover a lot of my thought process and you might be able to pick up some tips along the way.

Let's begin!!

╰┈➤ part one : ̗̀➛ goals

Obviously the description of "building and maining" a character is kinda vauge. So, here are the criteria i'm giving myself for this challenge

: ̗̀➛ level 90 the character

: ̗̀➛ crown a talent. This one is a maybe but i'd like to do it. Consider it an "extra credit" assignment for myself lol

: ̗̀➛ all artifacts have the correct stats + correct set

: ̗̀➛ at least a 60/120 or 70/140 crit ratio

: ̗̀➛ a complete team for them (not a team that will carry them though, aka hyperbloom)

: ̗̀➛ a "functional team". A team that isn't just for the showcase, but is somewhat practical for everyday use

: ̗̀➛ kill a boss with the team in a somewhat impressive amount of time. I'm not talking any crazy nukes since my Mona isn't built yet but around 5-10 seconds is the goal. I'm not gonna try to reach 100k or anything crazy with them though since if it's a "bad" character that's probably a waste of my resources

╰┈➤ part two : ̗̀➛ selecting the character

ok, so you have no reason to trust me on this but I 100% promise the character I get is the first one I roll.

I plugged all my unbuilt (all level 60 or below) characters into a wheel and, incase you're curious, here's the list:

Lynette, Mika, Candace, Dori, Yun Jin, Kirara, Gorou, Thoma Chongyun, Dehya, Charlotte, Freminet, Faruzan, Heizou, Mona, Kayea, Ninnguang, Kujou Sara, Amber, Razor, Collei

Gonna spin it now and then immediately write my first thoughts so, here we go!

Ok I got Candace! Honestly not too sure how to feel about this. One one hand her infusion should allow her to function as a DPS but since she's HP scaling, my options are limited when it comes to choosing teammates. Honestly, I think I can do this. ALSO she's super pretty and I love her design which is a plus. The wheel allllmost landed on Charlotte which is a bit of a bummer because I was eventually planning on building her but, oh well

╰┈➤ part three : ̗̀➛ build and team ideas

if you aren't interested in this kinda thing, skip to the end this section for a summary :D

ok, now I actually have to figure out a build for her. Before looking at any guides, the sets that stick out to me for maybe being viable are:

Nymph's Dream for Hydro damage bonus and attack. The attack won't boost her skill or burst damage but could help her normal attacks especially since her scalings are less than impressive. But the fact that a) one of the stats is useless for 2/3 of her kit and b) that the domain is super inefficient to farm + I have no preexisting pieces for it makes me not want to go for this set

The second set that once I immediately was drawn to after thinking of it was Marrechausse Hunter. Not only does it boos her normal and charges attack damage, but the 4pc will help a ton with crit stats. Of course, this does mean running her with Furina but I promise i'll take off her artifacts once it's time for a showcase since her summons will 100% destroy everything. The other benefits of this set are that I already have a few pieces and that I don't mind farming it for Noelle and Furina

Unfortunately the KeqingMains guide for Candace is only up to date with 4.3 but looking at the artifact section, 2pc/2pc is only 3-5% worse than Nymph's Dream. From this I think it's safe to assume that Marechausee Hunter will be at worst, only a bit less damage than ND

note: I asked on the KQM discord and it seemed like people agreed

As for weapons, I unfortunately don't have any 5 star Polearms so my options are kinda limited. Of the polearms I have, the only one that I think could work is White Tassel but with 4pc MH the crit rate might be too much when factoring in CR from substats

Other than that, Missive Windspear could work for Vaporize

I could also use Dragon's Bane for EM but atp I'm just gonna wait till artifacts are done

note from the future that i'm adding later: will probably go with missive windspear

Finally, it's time to decide a team

Because of her set, Furina is needed. I should also slot in Kazuha because it's Kazuha. For the last slot, I have a few choices

Bennet is an obvious choice for the Attack. I could also go Xiangling on 4pc Tenacity for Attack + Attack from passive + Pyro application. Probably a worse choice than Bennett

A strange but not horrible choice would actually be Lisa! Her ascension passive shreds the DEF of enemies. She can run 4pc Noblesse to buff attack and as a catalyst, can use TTDS for even more attack!

I think i'll try both Bennett and Lisa in the final showcase to see which has more damage

As for the practical team, I think a Taser (electrocharged) team with Sayu/Beidou/Furina would be a ton of fun. I chose Sayu for the teamwide heal bc I don't have Jean and she's already built

Honestly this practical team ig getting me kinda excited to play her!

╰┈➤ part four : ̗̀➛ build/team summary

if you skipped this last part, welcome back! Here's a summary of what I talked about above

Artifact Set: 4pc Marechausse Hunter

Artifact Substats: ATK/Hydro DMG/Crit DMG

Weapon (undecided but probably gonna use MW): White Tassel/Missive Windspear/Dragon's Bane

Team 1: Furina (no artifacts so she doesn't destroy the enemies)/Kazuha/Bennet or Lisa

Team 2: Sayu/Furina/Beidou

╰┈➤ part five : ̗̀➛ what i'm gonna do today

Unfortunately neither her talents or the weapon materials are available today and I already condensed my resin so I'm just gonna farm level up mats lol

Okay, that's the end of the post! Remeber to drink some water today (hydro woaaah)

k bye!!

[c6jpg]

hi zero ! i had a question if you're willing.. what numbers are you seeing with your ayato's e skill? and what artifacts set are you using on him? :0 i have him but i can only hit a measly 4k or so with his e.. i see everyone else getting like. 16k+ and i'd love to utilize him to his fullest protentional T_T

hello hello! mine (lvl 80/90) is hitting about 7/8k unbuffed at talent level 9 and I'm using 4 piece HoD and black sword. with the team comp I have him in right now (kazuha, yun jin, zhongli) I get about 23/24k when all the buffs are up (zhongli shield for geo resonance + everyone else's ults)

people hitting 16k+ unbuffed probably just have any combination of a 5* weapon + good artifacts + possibly constellations?? or are also using a team comp that helps boost his damage. also his base attack is kind low so getting his attack up definitely helps, although it’ll depend on your overall stats

I wish you luck with building him, at the end of the day it's really just an artifact grind 😭😭😭😭😭

[grailfinders]

Fate and Phantasms #263: Carmilla (Rider)

Today on Fate and Phantasms we're building the phantom thief Mistress C! Otherwise known as Carmilla (Rider). Despite the title, we're not actually making her a rogue, and especially not a phantom one. Instead we're making an Ikea rogue by cobbling together bits from Shadow Sorcerer and Battle Smith Artificer. She'll still be plenty roguish by the end of this, but now she'll have two dogs and on occasion a car too.

Check out her build breakdown below the cut, or her character sheet over here!

Next up: Chuunibiyous strike back!

Race and Background

As usual, changing into a swimsuit doesn't make you a different race or change your childhood. That means Carmilla is still a Vampire from Planeshift Ixalan, giving her +2 Charisma and +1 Intelligence, as well as 60' of Darkvision, Vampiric Resistance to necrotic damage, and two totally unique features, Bloodthirst and Feast of Blood. The former lets you make a melee attack against a grabbled, incapacitated, restrained, or willing creature. They take 1d6+1 damage, and their max HP is reduced by the die roll while you heal the same amount. That reduction lasts until a long rest, and it instakills someone if their total HP hits zero. Kinda niche, but if someone in your party knows polymorph it might come in handy.

The other feature, Feast of Blood, quite fittingly feeds off the last skill. If you drink blood as part of a Bloodthirst attack your speed increases by 10', and you have advantage on strength and dexterity saves and checks for a minute.

We're also picking up a variant of the Noble background, giving you proficiency with History and Intimidation instead of persuasion. We do get it back later, but we can't really get intimidation from anywhere else.

Ability Scores

Your highest stat is still Charisma, though you get more use out of deception this time around than intimidation. The big changes start with your second-highest stat, Intelligence. All those wonderful toys you use had to come from somewhere, after all. Your Constitution is also pretty solid- you're a vampire that hangs out in the sun, so it's gotta be. Your Dexterity is okay. You're more of the "hiding in plain sight" kind of thief, but you can slip past a laser grid if you need to. Your Wisdom is lower than usual since you're giving in to your whims this summer, but we're dumping Strength. If you need brute force you usually just run them over.

Class Levels

Sorcerer 1: Starting off as a sorcerer is... okay. Your Constitution save proficiency is pretty good, and I guess Charisma saves being good isn't the worst. You also get proficiency with Deception and Persuasion checks. (toldja we'd get that back.) Since you're a Shadow sorcerer you start off with Eyes of the Dark. That means your darkvision works at 120', and there's an extra bonus we'll talk about at level 3. More immediately useful is your Strength of the Grave- once a day you can make a Charisma Save to prevent yourself from dropping below 1 HP. The CR goes up the more damage you take, and you can't use it at all on a crit or radiant attack. Paladin cops and rival thieves are your worst enemies here. But that's not all! Sorcerers can also use Spells, powered by your Charisma! Spells like Friends to slip past a bouncer with advantage on charisma checks, Minor Illusion to fool a security camera, True Strike to get the drop on a guard, the only time true strike could possibly be useful. (Though this only works on melee attacks, so it's still useless!) Since we're a pseudo-rogue, pick up Blade Ward as well for a kinda-sorta uncanny dodge. For leveled spells, pick up Mage Armor so you can fight in a bikini slightly better, and Magic Missile for your pistol.

Sorcerer 2: Second level sorcerers get a Font of Magic, giving you sorcery points equal to your level each long rest. This lets you turn spell slots into points and vice-versa. Right now this means you can cast spells like Distort Value one more time per day, but that should help you swap out a diamond for a fake more easily.

Artificer 1: We're swapping over to artificer now, mostly for the tool proficiencies. Now you have proficiency with thieves' tools, just like a real rogue! Being an artificer also lets you use Magical Tinkering to add minor magical effects to tiny items, turning a pebble into a portable speaker in case you need a distraction. You can also cast and prepare another set of spells using your Intelligence. This means you can swap them out on long rests, so don't get too caught up on picking spells. That being said, it's time to upgrade that fancy visor you've got with Detect Magic. You can also use Disguise Self to turn into a socialite, and if that doesn't work jump out the penthouse window and survive thanks to Feather Fall. Also, more cantrips. Guidance makes you a little more skilled in skill checks, and Message gives you a fun little way to force your calling card into someone's head from 100 feet away. It's not physical, but we'll fix that later.

Artificer 2: Second level artificers get Infusions, ways of turning boring, regular items into super special magic items. For example, an Enhanced Arcane Focus makes your spells stronger for an enhanced pistol. If you'd rather go the old-fashioned way, turn a hand crossbow into a Repeating Shot to make it magical and get around that pesky loading requirement. It also only leaves behind bullet holes like a real gun! Stick your loot in a Bag of Holding to hide it, and use a Rope of Climbing to make a quick getaway with a grappling hook! A getaway, at least. It's not super fast.

Artificer 3: Okay, here comes the spice. At third level you become a Battle Smith, so you can use your intelligence instead of dexterity or strength when using a magical weapon thanks to being Battle Ready. This also makes you proficient with martial weapons, so that Repeating Shot can come in real handy if you run out of spell slots. (To figure out how many slots you have, check your PHB in the multiclassing section. Your spellcaster level is equal to your sorcerer level plus half your Artificers level rounded down. E.x. rn you have 4 1st level slots and 2 2nd level ones.) You can also create a Steel Defender, a construct that you can command with your bonus action to fight with you- a.k.a. dog #1. You choose its design, so depending on your ascension it can be a normal dog or a cool cyber-dog. Either way it can attack, repair constructs and items, or deflect attacks. To help you repair your dog you can create The Right Tools for the Job over a short rest, creating any one set of artisan's tool's you'd need. One last thing is your free subclass spells. Neither Heroism or Shield are particularly in-character, but they're free.

Artificer 4: Use your first Ability Score Improvement to round up your Intelligence for better bullets and artificers spells as well as your Charisma for a harder time dying and better sorcerer spells.

Sorcerer 3: Finally back in sorcerer for a bit to get Metamagic. Now you can use your sorcery points (remember those?) to customize your spells. Subtle spells don't have somatic or verbal components, perfect for using them in the middle of a casino with armed guards. Alternatively, use a Distant spell to stay out of their line of sight. To help further, Eyes of the Dark improves here- you can cast Darkness either normally with a slot or by spending sorcery points. If you do the latter, you can even see through your own smoke bomb. I always wondered how people did that... Also, pick up Knock. It's loud, but it'll get most doors open pretty quick. Besides, what kind of phantom thief doesn't let the guards catch a glimpse just as they get out of reach?

Sorcerer 4: Use this ASI to become a Skill Expert thanks to the skill expert feat. This gives you +1 Constitution for an extra 8 HP, as well as proficiency with Stealth and a doubled proficiency with Deception. Nobody would ever think the socialite Carmilla was the mysterious Mistress C, not even if they saw that stack of calling cards you keep in your purse! You can also Control Flames to cut off the lights, and you can Wither and Bloom to suck some blood Each creature you choose in a 10' radius sphere makes a Constitution save, halving the damage they take on a success. On top of that, one creature in the same area (you, obv) can spend a hit die to heal up a bit. Waay less finicky than that bite you've got.

Sorcerer 5: Fifth level sorcerers never fail anything thanks to their Magical Guidance, letting you spend a sorcery point to re-roll a failed check. It's no Reliable Talent, but very few things are. If you want a more direct bloodsucking approach than withering people, Vampiric Touch lets you attack creatures directly with melee attacks, dealing damage and healing you for half the amount dealt.

Sorcerer 6: Sixth level shadow sorcerers can create a Hound of Ill Omen as a bonus action. It's almost a dire wolf, but it: is medium, not small, has half your sorcerer level in temporary HP, can move through objects, and always knows its target's location. Every turn the hound moves directly towards the target and attacks them if possible. If dog #2 get into melee range the target has disadvantage on all saves against your spells. This dog only lasts 5 minutes, or until it/its target hit 0 HP. Also, you can cast Tongues now. If you're going to play the part of a metropolitan socialite you'd better know how to talk to people.

Sorcerer 7: Seventh level sorcerers get fourth level spells. Honestly high level spells aren't that roguish or carmillish, but Confusion can still work to spread a panic in a crowd just as well as a concerning rumor.

Artificer 5: Fifth level battle smiths have an Extra Attack each action. You also get second level spells like the freebies Branding Smite and Warding Bond. Again not to character, but they're free. Unlike the other spells we'd want, like Enhance Ability to empower your skill checks with advantage on one kind of them for a minute, Kinetic Jaunt to speed through security without provoking opportunity attacks, and either Magic Mouth or Skywrite for your fancy, flashy calling cards.

Artificer 6: Sixth level artificers have Tool Expertise, a.k.a. doubled proficiency in all tools that have it. That's a +10 to thieves' tools checks now, btw. To make it even sillier, you can use your new infusions like Gloves of Thievery to add another +5 to your sleight of hand and lockpicking checks. Or use a Spell-Refueling Ring for more spells and more sorcery points, either or.

Artificer 7: Seventh level artificers can have Flashes of Genius, adding their intelligence modifier to nearby checks or saves intelligence modifier times per day. That's a +3 bonus three times a day, a.k.a. you can now have a +19 to your lockpicking check if you really focus.

Artificer 8: What the heck, let's make it an even 20. Use this ASI to bump up your Intelligence a bit for more flashes and a stronger gun.

Sorcerer 8: Hey, back to back ASIs! Max out your Charisma, it's your main spell stat. Also, pick up Greater Invisibility so you can stay hidden even while you attack any detectives on your trail.

Sorcerer 9: Ninth level sorcery means fifth level spells, and we can finally get what we came for, Animate Objects! Turn a couple objects into living things you can command on your bonus action. You can animate up to Huge sized objects, so making your car should be a cinch now.

Sorcerer 10: Sometimes you need to speed things along before the cops come. When that happens, it's hard to beat Quickened spell, our metamagic option for this level. Turn an action spell into a bonus action spell, just like that. You can also use Mending to heal Dog #1, or Seeming to further befuddle the cops with a body double.

Sorcerer 11: Eleventh level sorcerers get sixth level spells! Your funky visor finally comes in handy thanks to the spell True Seeing, Unlike true strike, this one's pretty handy. It lasts an hour with no concentration, and while it's up your target has truesight so they can see through darkness and illusions, and they can even see invisible creatures, the true forms of shapeshifters, hidden doors, and the Ethereal Plane. If you're looking for a vault, casting the "find the vault" spell is handy.

Sorcerer 12: You can use this last ASI to max out your intelligence if you want, but I want a little more Dexterity instead for a higher AC.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

First up, your social skills are ridiculous, especially coming from classes that aren't know for that kind of thing. With a +17 to deception and flashes of genius to push that number even higher, you can even give a rogue a run for their money. You also come packing a solid modifier for Intimidation and Persuasion, so you can always mix things up if you need to.

You're also great at outnumbering your opponents, cutting off their movement options and tilting the action economy in your favor. With two dogs and Animate Objects up you can have 3-10 allies on the field at a moment's notice.

You play dirty. Gang up on your enemies, trick them into thinking you're just a pretty face, strike at them from the darkness- if you were actually a rogue this build would be ridiculously strong.

Cons:

You're not a rogue. Being able to heal yourself with your attacks or never missing is cool, but it doesn't compare to a high-level sneak attack at taking someone out quickly. You also don't have reliable talent, which is rough for a skill-focused build.

With slightly over 100 HP and an AC of 15, you're not a frontline fighter. It's not as bad as most casters, but if you end up surrounded, it'll get ugly fast.

You use two casting modifiers, which means we don't have time to focus on your dexterity or constitution, both of which would have been useful for the build.

[archived-kin]

obey me cast + their genshin mains

i woke up at like three in the morning and scribbled this all down

not a formal writing piece so i haven’t formatted it like one, but i thought this was a fun idea!!

lucifer: diluc

they both have Fatherly Issues (in very different ways though)

probably inwardly makes fun of diluc for not liking wine

doesn’t really have any emotional attachment??? he just keeps diluc because he does a lot of damage and helps kill enemies quick

he actually has pretty good luck with getting 5 stars before he’s even hit pity, but he has awful luck on the event banners in terms of getting the featured 5 star - he’s never once won the 50/50 when he actually reaches it

gets really good artifact and weapon drops though so all of his levelled-up characters have super overpowered kits

he’s never actually looked up any recommended character builds, he’s just smart enough to figure out what all the stats mean and build his characters accordingly

has not touched his serenitea pot since he got it

not actually great with battle strategy and elemental reaction, he just tries to hit as hard as he can at all times

all of his characters are built dps because he doesn’t know how to build supports or healers

never teleports anywhere (he still hasn’t even unlocked half the waypoints)

didn’t realise the statues of seven healed until really late into the game

doesn’t bother with the reputation quests/bounties

all of his characters are still on that black glider that amber first gives you

it took him ages to finish the archon quest in mondstadt because he didn’t want to go into the cathedral

mammon: zhongli

accidentally got zhongli on like his very first event wish and has mained him ever since

he thinks it’s really funny that zhongli never has money (even though he also often has no money)

apart from that he likes the idea of playing the character that literally makes all the mora in teyvat

was actually considering switching after he finished the liyue archon quests because he absolutely hated how zhongli handled the whole thing but he didn’t want to give up that big pp damage

still doesn’t know that you can climb up onto dvalin in the stormterror battle

mixes and matches artifacts, but the ones he does use have really good stats and sub stats though so the lack of a set bonus doesn’t make much difference

didn’t realise you could increase talent levels until ar 50

loves doing the blossoms of wealth and hasn’t let his mora drop below 100k ever since he accidentally used it all up levelling his team to lv60

immediately does a wish as soon as he gets enough primos, unless it’s an event banner for a character he doesn’t like

he also ignores the story and hangout quests for the characters he doesn’t like

dabbles in the serenitea pot but doesn’t have the patience to really commit to it

forgets to do his commissions until the very last minute and lets his resin fill up to 160 before remembering that he’s not supposed to let it get full

is terrified of spiral abyss on a molecular level

levi: barbara

he loves idols so of course barbara is his favourite

has her built dps and does more vaporise damage with her charged attacks than some people’s 5 star bursts

ended up building lisa as a dps too because she makes fighting the oceanid for the cleansing hearts much easier

somehow still gets barbara to heal enormous chunks of hp as well??

has all three of her talents crowned, she’s lv90 and so is her 5 star weapon, plus all of her artifacts are +20

he likes getting the event 5 stars even if he’s never going to build them, they just make him feel superior in his luck

has really bad artifact drops which makes him really frustrated because he knows exactly how to build his characters with the perfect stats, he just can’t get the right artifacts!!!!!

keeps getting crit dmg, crit rate and atk% sub stats on defence circlets and it makes him die a little more on the inside each time

he despises jean because of how she makes barbara feel and desperately wants mihoyo to make a moment where jean tries to fight something but fails and barbara then steps in and takes it down immediately

never gets barbara’s constellations with makes him very upset because he wants c6 so BAD

nearly cried when he got barbara’s happy birthday voiceline

somehow got his serenitea pot to adeptal energy 20k within like two weeks but it doesn’t look good?? it’s just a whole bunch of 4 star furnishings shoved wherever there’s room

is pretty much always online at any given time

has nearly every single achievement in the game (goddammit just GIVE HIM THE RELIABLE HELPER COMMISSION)

satan: diona

this is not up for debate

he saw her in the character archive and immediately decided that if he didn’t get her he was quitting the game

luckily for him it was xiao’s banner around this time and he managed to get c3 diona from that alone

much like levi with barbara, he managed to build her so that she does enormous amounts of damage but still performs her shielding/healing really well

he prioritises her over everyone else but because of this diona is still his only fully-built character

all talents crowned, all artifacts +20, etc

hates draff with all his heart and refuses to buy anything from him

will murder you if you refer to diona as a loli in front of him

i’m aware keqing also sort of looks like she has cat ears but as far as i know that’s just her hair???

if anything i feel like satan wouldn’t like her because he’s offended that people think those chunk of hair look remotely like a cat’s cute lil ears

chose all his other team members based solely on whether or not their skill set would benefit diona

refuses to use any of the characters lucifer uses and got legitimately angry when he found out lucifer had started building diona to help with spiral abyss

spends like five minutes at a time making diona jump into water because he thinks the cannon ball animation is the cutest thing in the world

if a boss he’s fighting manages to kill diona, he gets so angry that he pretty much obliterates it immediately after

asmo: lisa

partially because she’s pretty and her personality is right up his alley, and partially out of pettiness because he sees so many people slandering her

doesn’t know how to build anyone, he’s only got a good lisa build out of sheer luck

none of his other characters have remotely good builds. like, maiden’s beloved on tartaglia?? really, asmo???

squealed when lisa called traveller a cutie

talks to her while he’s running about doing quests or battles

plays pretty sparingly so his ar is relatively low and he barely has any characters outside the starters

usually gets levi to one shot the bosses for him when he needs to ascend/upgrade the talents of his characters

(levi agrees because it gives him a pretty big power trip)

he also likes kaeya and has him in his team but lisa’s magic is just so pretty to him

spends all his primos on the standard banner trying to get lisa constellations but he still only has c4

all of the solo boss battles he’s won were only won out of sheer luck

adores the concept of the serenitea pot, but he doesn’t like a lot of the furnishings available

desperately wants a character customisation function

died seven times trying to do the stormterror fight and had to have levi do it for him in the end

still doesn’t done any of the story quests that you need a key for

spends most of his free time finding some pretty landscapes, changing the time, and taking pictures of lisa doing one of her idles against the sunset

beel: xiangling

decided he liked her as soon as he did her story quest

he’s only gotten up to floor 4 of spiral abyss because he only did floor 3 to get her

still only has c2 :((((

always has to have snacks with him while he’s gaming because xiangling’s voice lines remind him of how hungry he is

desperately wishes she was real because he wants to taste how good her food is for himself

likes cooking a bunch of dishes in-game, but he also gets frustrated because they all look so GOOD and he can’t eat them

doesn’t really know how building works but he does vaguely know what stats are good and how set bonuses work

doesn’t like hu tao because she’s mean to xiangling >:( plus belphie despises her and beel rarely likes anything his twin dislikes

is low-key upset that xiangling’s story quest was so early in the game because he didn’t appreciate it enough at the time and he hasn’t seeb her in-game for ages

still doesn’t have any 5 stars apart from the traveller, but he does have literally every 4 star in the game

is the type to bring xiangling to pyro domains but luckily she does some pretty good physical dmg as well so his teammates don’t get as mad

takes some time out of every day to find every food/ingredient vendor in the game and buy out their entire stock

still has never run out of mora somehow????

belphie: qiqi

i made this choice partially because of that one halloween belphie ur where he’s dressed up in a jiangshi costume

aside from that i feel like she just sends his big brother instincts haywire

he cried a little bit when he read her backstory, not gonna lie

like satan, he will kill you if you call qiqi a loli

somehow managed to build her as a physical dps that does like 5000 per hit?????

(he has unholy artifact luck and all of qiqi’s artis have atk, crit dmg and crit rate as their stats and sub-stats, plus aquila favonia)

he started out building her as an all-around dps but then he realised that her burst and skill couldn’t do much in terms of damage since they’re healing-oriented, so he decided to build her physical since that the only type of dmg she can constantly apply

and qiqi still heals reliably because her healing is scaled off her attack, which is like monstrously high???

qiqi hates hu tao so of course belphie does too

he still refuses to do her story quest and didn’t touch her banner or character trial

really really wants a qiqi banner for constellations but is aware that that is incredibly unlikely

doesn’t trust baizhu and wants zhongli to adopt qiqi since he seems like a much more reliable dad

heard the theory that xiao is the adeptus that killed qiqi and therefore also despises him even though it hasn’t even been concerned or anything

diavolo: eula

don’t get me wrong diavolo definitely gives me pyro vibes but i feel like he’d just feel so bad for how the mondstadters misunderstand and mistreat eula in her story quest that he’d immediately go to spend all his primos on wishing for her

he’s got r2 broken pines and a full pale flame artifact set with some pretty decent stats and substats on her so she does pretty enormous damage

it’s lucky that eula’s move set doesn’t require anything too strategic because all diavolo does is button mash

all of his characters are physical damage dealers because he doesn’t really know how to do elemental reactions

(because of this though he’s awful at fighting a lot of the bosses, especially the oceanid)

his favourite boss battle is the weekly golden house trounce domain because he can always smack childe down really quickly

he’s stinking rich so he can afford to spend just about as much money as he wants to get any character he wants

like he got all the way to pity on eula’s banner and lost the 50/50 to mona but he just bought more primos and got all the way to pity again to get eula

on the other hand he got broken pines twice in two ten rolls on the weapon banner and he wasn’t anywhere near pity for that

he joined levi along with satan and asmo to have a go at doing the golden house fight in co-op and he managed to pretty much oneshot a lv90 childe in phase 1 and phase 3 with just eula’s burst

(he spent phase 2 recharging it)

barbatos: venti

this is at least 70% because venti is also called barbatos

he somehow knows pretty much everything there is to know about building characters well and he’s built venti with both attack and elemental mastery

got venti on his first banner and managed to get to c4 on his rerun

doesn’t appreciate how much venti drinks and actively buys the non-alcoholic juices from angel’s share to give him as if that’ll help????

is terrified of fighting the wolf because it’s immune to anemo

(don’t ask how he managed to get the hurricane seeds for ascending venti)

can pretty much fire off venti’s burst as soon as it’s over because his energy recharge is somehow also insane

diligently collects all the recipes and masters every single one of them

his serenitea pot is literally so perfect looking????? i don’t know how to describe it everything just fits together flawlessly

diavolo offers to buy him primos because he’s got more than enough money but barbatos doesn’t wish a whole lot so he usually refuses

(diavolo knew he mained venti and liked him though so he bought him a bunch for the rerun anyway)

he still doesn’t have any five star weapons but stringless works really well on venti anyway so he doesn’t mind

doesn’t really like co-op, prefers to just wander around in his own world

simeon: yanfei

simeon definitely gives me hydro vibes and he probably mained a hydro before yanfei, but i feel like he happened to get her on zhongli’s banner and decided he really liked her as soon as he started trying her out

he adores her little ‘boom boom!’

she also works really well doing big damage with vaporise which is good because simeon plays a lot with luke, who mains barbara

he low key identifies with how yanfei doesn’t want to focus on her identity as an immortal half-adeptus because simeon himself often wants to forget the fact that he’s a divine being and just live peacefully

often forgets that yanfei gets a lot of her dmg from charged attacks and just keeps doing normal attack combos until he registers the scarlet seals and realises he needs to hold the button down

nearly all of his characters were basically backseat-built by levi and solomon

even though his team is pretty powerful he still dies a bunch because his battle strategy is just ‘stand there and keep hitting the attack button until it dies’

keeps running off of cliffs and forgetting to plunge/glide and just dying to fall damage

back when he was like ar20 he accidentally wandered into liyue early and immediately got killed by a treasure hoarder

spent like ten minutes of his first stormterror fight just running off the end of his platform before someone told him he was meant to glide

luke: barbara as well

if you’ve seen my post about barbara and luke being siblings you’ll understand why i’ve made this choice

aside from that luke just likes barbara because she’s one of the nicest characters in the game

plus she’s a deaconess in a church and he’s an angel so

unlike levi he’s got her built purely as a healer, but she heals so MUCH

luke’s entire team is just support characters?? but their support is so good that they kind of make each other dpses in their own right??

his strategy is to keep his whole team at full hp and deal relatively small but very steady increments of damage

unfortunately this means he isn’t great at the artifact and weapon/character enhancement domains because they’ve got time limits

wants to have a pretty serenitea pot but he just can’t get it to look how he wants it to

like levi, he doesn’t like jean because of how she makes barbara feel (and also how jean just refuses to take any sort of older sister role for her)

got her to c6 on a single event banner because she just kept coming home (he wasn’t complaining though)

is contemplating building her dps because he thinks it’d be cool if she did a bunch of damage like levi’s barbara

likes to just sit and wait for her to do her dancing idle because he thinks it’s cute (will immediately make her move and cut off the other one though because it’s about jean and he doesn’t like her)

solomon: albedo

they both look sensible but they’re both just mad scientists on the inside

doesn’t really know how albedo’s burst and skill work, just keeps tapping buttons whenever they’re available

if he didn’t have albedo he’d probably main a catalyst but he relates to how curious albedo is about just about everything

(plus he does like his design)

always gets the limited time 5 star on his first ten pull on the event banners????? is he using his magic somehow??????

and also somehow gets really good weapons and artifacts????

he knows enough about artifacts to know what to put on who so all of his characters are really well built

he’s the type with eight lv90 5-stars with lv90 5-star weapons and fully upgraded artifact sets in his character showcase

his signature is ‘hack me i dare you’

constantly getting friend requests from fellow players who want an op friend to help them in domains and against bosses

but unfortunately even if solomon has a bunch of overpowered characters he is very bad at using them

gets all the elemental reactions wrong, uses the wrong element against the wrong enemy, forgets to do things like putting albedo’s skill down before his ult, and he can’t aim with any of the archers

like i said he just taps buttons and hopes for the best

because of this he’s still at floor 6 in spiral abyss

[dourpeep]

Hello!!! Can I ask for ur opinion as a fellow albedo simp? I was planning to pull for him in phase 2 and I'm almost done farming his books and talent mats. That leaves me for artifacts. The thing is...i want albedo to be my main dps xD even though I know that majority of the people tells me he's better off as sub dps or support 💃🏼 like idc about meta i wanna main him HAHAHAHA but even if i know its fine to build a character the way u want them too, what are ur thoughts on dps albedo? Thanks a lot!

Ngl, building him as a sub dps and building him as dps are pretty much all in the same! I'll cover a bit more than just artifacts first in case anyone else is curious about Bedo so without further ado!

First thing is first-

To really capitalize on dps Bedo, it really is recommended to get him to c2. This is because his c2 buffs his burst (both the initial bloom and the fatal blossoms) based off 30% of his defense. Normally, Albedo's burst scales with his attack, something that isn't really ideal (thus why he's viewed more as an off field sub dps) because you'd have to juggle both defense (skill), attack (burst), crit rate, and crit damage in order for him to deal decent damage—and having to worry about getting good rolls and artis for four different stats is much more difficult than only worrying about three!

Of course, you don't have to if you don't have the means or don't have enough saved to get cons since, really, his skill does all the work in terms of dps, but it definitely does help to have c2 (if you can! Please be responsible in spending for gacha games nodnod).

The second thing is his weapon. Albedo's best in slot is unfortunately a limited weapon made for him, Cinnabar Spindle. I'm hoping you have it because it does make a big big difference in his damage output- I can't test it at the moment but the big amount of def that you get along with the attack (since before cs, his bis was a 3* weapon, namely Harbinger of Dawn) is the upside of having it. You get a big boost to his skill because the substat is defense% and the passive beefs up his skill even more!

But that being said, Harbinger of Dawn is still good because the substat is crit damage and it's passive gives you crit rate (as long as your hp is above 90%). Also, it's a 3* so it's fairly easy to get it to r5 (that's 28% crit rate right there nodnod). So if you don't have the Cinnabar Spindle, it isn't the end of the world.

Now with artifacts, Husk of Opulent Dreams is undoubtly his bis artifact set.

Due to his ability to proc geo dmg every 2 seconds with his skill, he can easily keep up with Husk's curiosity stacks. I do suggest you switch off him when running around so you don't need to worry about hitting enemies 4 times to get back all the stacks, but I won't judge if you want to run around as the Chief Alchemist nodnod

But continuing! Really, the artifacts you want for him are pretty standard: def/geo/crit (timepiece, goblet, hat, respectively). And I mentioned substats earlier.

Ahhh I think that's just about it! I feel you- screw meta I'm going to build whoever I want as a dps- luckily though Albedo holds pretty well considering he is meant to be sub dps and support. OTL of course, considering the time and effort it takes to get those SSS artis...

Ah man, makes me want to go and run Husk to see if I can beef him up more

[hematomes]

genshin impact: the neverending suffering of artifacts’ farming

hi, don’t forget to drink water, do you daily commissions in genshin and get your daily bonus on the mihoyo lab website thingy

so today, since all... idk, 12 of you seemingly asked for it, i’ll be rambling about genshin’s artifacts and how to boost your character’s performance with them. get ready for broken english and me going on and on about stats (but not too much bc i hate maths). let’s goooo

quick disclaimer before we begin: this is just the opinion of one (1) single player. i just enjoy the strategy a lot and the fact that this forsaken game forces me to think long and hard about stats. at the end of the day, if you’re satisfied with your DMG, you don’t have to listen to me.

finally, if you want personalised help in building a specific characters, i’ve been studying most of them (especially 4* since I have all of them zkzezek) so you can DM me anytime! or even go with the asks if you want to remain anon, i don’t mind. i’m happy to help anyone!!

table of contents

I. data about the different artifacts (stats when maxed out, info)

II. ideal stats for each type of character

1. main DPS

2. sub/burst DPS

3. healers and tanks

III. CRIT rate/DMG and the 1:2 ratio

I. data about the different artifacts

so, first, a little bit of info/data about the artifacts!

you’ll get an added substat at lvl 4, then substats will improve every 4 levels. one random substat improves, so you’ll have to pray and cross your fingers

the substats cannot be the same as the main stat

5* artifacts go up to lvl 20, 4* to lvl 16 and 3* to lvl 12

the percentage bonus is added on your character’s base stats

the flower and the plume’s main stats are always HP flat and ATK flat. focus on their substats to pick the best

added bonus: every set of artifact has extra lore in the archive. for example, eula’s set (pale flame) has incredible lore about the fatui harbingers and has dangerously increased my need to see scaramouche again

and now, the maxed out stats of artifacts. i’ll go over 5*, 4* and 3* for new players!! baby genshin players are literally the best idc.

flower: 3* goes up to 1,893, 4* to 3,571 and 5* to 4,780

plume: 3* goes up to 123, 4* to 232 and 5* to 311

HP%, ATK%, DEF%, elem DMG bonus%: 3* goes up to 23.1%, 4* to 34.8% and 5* to 46.6%

phys DMG bonus%: 3* goes up to 28.8%, 4* to 43.5% and 5* to 58.3%

EM: 3* goes up to 92, 4* to 139 and 5* to 187

ER%: 3* goes up to 25.8%, 4* to 38.7% and 5* to 51.8%

CRIT rate%: 3* goes up to 15.4%, 4* to 23.2% and 5* to 31.1%

CRIT DMG%: 3* goes up to 30.8%, 4* to 46.4% and 5* to 62.2%

healing bonus%: 3* goes up to 17.2%, 4* to 26.8% and 5* to 35.9%

a. sands of eon/timepiece

so the sands of eon aka the timepiece is quite decisive for the type of character you’ll be doing: either a main DPS or a support (tank/healer/sub DPS). as such, it has similar drop rates & maxed out levels on the big 3 stats: HP, ATK and DEF. however, when building a support like a sub DPS or a healer that relies on their ult (like diona for example), you’ll need energy recharge (ER), which is a lot rarer. elemental mastery (EM) isn’t generally recommanded as a main stat, it’s best to find it in sub stats. DEF% is also not a good option unless it’s for specific characters that rely on their defense, like albedo or noelle.

basically, a main DPS will most likely have a ATK% timepiece, while a support would need an ER%. that being said, supports like xiangling must also have a good chunk of elemental mastery because her ult can deal insane amount of damage with elemental reactions. you’ll need to balance both ; for example, a weapon with elemental mastery (like dragonbane) and a ER% timepiece, or good EM/ER substats etc.

b. goblet of eonothem

the goblet is where you’ll typically get your elemental/physical DMG bonus. it’s the only artifact that gives this bonus at all (it’s not found as substats). you can also drop EM, ATK%, HP% and DEF%.

there’re little characters that would need phys DMG. if you’re building a physical DPS, consider their base ATK and the stats of their normal/charged attacks. albedo, for example, would not be your typical phys DPS. the main phys DPS that exists is razor, and now there’s also eula; razor is an especially good physical DPS bc he gets a phys bonus either way so at lvl 80 + a lvl 20 goblet you go up to 105% phys DMG bonus. however, electro DPS is also a nice option! claymores tend to be very good physical DPS because their normal attacks easily go over 100% of their ATK, but i heard that fischl and xiangling are viable as well. all in all, anyone can be a physical DPS, but some of them are better off as elemental DPS. you do you, though!

c. circlet of logos/hat

the hat is crucial, because it’s where you’ll get your main CRIT rate/DMG. CRIT is super important, especially with your DPS; i’ll talk more about the best way to build CRIT in a bit, but just know that the main theory is building the 1:2 ratio: 50% CRIT rate and 100% CRIT DMG.

you might also know that there’s the healing bonus, needed for... healers. like crit rate/dmg, you’ll only find the healing bonus on the hats.

II. ideal stats for each type of character

now that that’s out of the way, let’s talk about the ideal stats for each type (main DPS, sub/burst DPS, healers, tanks).

1. main DPS

there’re a lot of good main DPS characters in genshin. mine are xiao, yanfei, razor and hu tao, for example. there’s also childe, ganyu, ningguang... and usually you’ll build them the same way (with exceptions). as such, your goal would be at least 1.5k ATK% (unless your DMG depends on something else, like hu tao and how it relies on her HP%), 50% CRIT rate and at least 100% CRIT DMG.

your substats priorities would be: CRIT rate/DMG > ATK% > EM (unless it’s a physical DPS) > ER%. there’s always exceptions, like hu tao once again (i talk a lot about her but im pissed bc i can’t drop a good HP% timepiece).

as such, your timepiece will generally be on ATK%, with CRIT rate/DMG subs. elemental mastery is an added bonus on characters like hu tao, yanfei, etc. DEF% and HP% are generally secondary (except for hu tao because, as i said, her DMG relies on her max HP & her burst on her health bar status), so focus on the big 3. flat stats (no percentage) aren’t very good either, but better than nothing.

your goblet will be either on ATK% or on elemental/phys DMG bonus%. the easiest way when you’re building a set is to leave the goblet as your broken set (aka the 5th piece with no set bonus), since the drop rates on elem/phys goblets are very low.

your hat will be on CRIT rate/DMG, depending on which one you need. ATK% is a viable alternative, but crit is really good. however, if you’re just starting to build, you can use a temporary ATK% hat.

2. sub/burst DPS

support DPS are very interesting characters to build and play. unlike DPS who focus on DMG/ATK/etc, this time you’ll have to balance energy recharge% and elemental mastery. the substats are also very important and should be focusing on ATK%, EM and ER%.

when building a support, you need to keep in mind that they’ll be buffing your main DPS’ damages, so they rely a lot on elemental reactions. which is why your substats priority becomes ER% > EM > ATK%. CRIT is always good but not as important, especially if you have around 200 EM and your main DPS is already past 50% rate/100% DMG.

your timepiece should be on ER%. with a sub DPS that relies on their burst, the ideal ER% is around 150%, especially if they need a lot of energy to build their burst. xingqiu, for example, is better around 170%, but chongyun would be fine at 150%. since the timepiece is the only artifact with the ER% bonus, it’s kinda crucial.

your goblet needs to be either on elemental DMG bonus% (not physical!) or ATK%. EM can be an alternative, especially if it helps you reach +50% on elemental reaction DMG. otherwise, elemental DMG bonus% is the safest option.

your hat should be on EM or ATK%. EM is better because it’s super rare and really helpful for elemental reactions so, if you drop one with good substats go for it.

3. healers and tanks

they are absolutely vital in dungeons like the abyss thingy, because you can’t use food so you’ll need to heal with characters. currently we have qiqi, jean, zhongli if you have his c6 (god), diona, bennett, barbara (free) and noelle (free). there is two type of healers: those who only heal on their ult, like jean, bennett and diona (moreover, bennett only heals 75% but he gives an ATK% bonus so he’s still incredible), and those who heal with their elemental skill like barbara, c6 zhongli, qiqi and noelle. the first type will need a focus on their ER% while the second on HP% (except qiqi, it’s on her ATK%). zhongli in particular needs as much HP% as you can because at c0 he’s a tank & his shield is the best of the game. it relies on his HP%, so aim for around 30k at lvl 80. if you can go higher, even better! and if you want a run-down of my stuff for zhongli i can too, mine is at 49k HP and his shield is at lvl 10, so he can basically shield me from anything. anyway.

healers that rely on their ult

your timepiece will need to be on ER%. aim for at least around 150% energy recharge, maybe more depending on how much energy their ult needs. ideal substats would be HP%, the rest isn’t that important.

your goblet has to be on HP%. if you can get an ER% sub it’s even better.

your hat, in healing bonus%. same thing, if you can get an HP% and/or ER%, even better.

healers that don’t rely on their ult

this time, the focus would be on HP%, but ER% is always important so look for it in substats. same hat.

exceptions: qiqi, noelle

qiqi’s heal is based on ATK. her e is based on her ATK but the ult is based on the character that deals the DMG. meaning if qiqi has ult and the opponent is marked with a talisman, and if your character deals like a 1k DMG, they’ll get 1k HP. so switch your timepiece and goblet to ATK%, and keep your hat on healing bonus%.

noelle, however, relies on her DEF. same thing than qiqi, switch timepiece and goblet to DEF%. noelle as a healer/tank doesn’t have a very useful ult, but if you got lucky and have ATK% ou CRIT rate/DMG% substats, see if you can up her ER%!

III. CRIT rate/DMG and the 1:2 ratio

if you’ve done some research on the ideal crit rate/dmg, you might have heard of something called the 1:2 ratio. it basically means that you need to have half as much CRIT rate% as you have CRIT DMG%. the starter would be 50% rate & 100% DMG but, in my opinion it’s not really enough if you’re around AR 45 or aiming to clear the last stages of the abyss spirals. 50% CRIT rate is enough but if you can up your CRIT DMG% to like 125/150% it’d probably be the best. i got super lucky with my xiao and went up to 200% CRIT DMG, but it’s because he already has a CRIT rate bonus as you level him up so it wasn’t my priority.

anyway, i’ve been playing with around 50% CRIT rate on my DPS (except xiao bc he also has the CRIT rate polearm + his lvl bonus) and frankly it’s been enough for now. dealt a 98k with the hutao & mona ults combo, hu tao around 50% rate & 150% DMG while mona was at 30%/150%. naturally, the higher your CRIT rate, the better, but the 1:2 ratio is just a good start. don’t obsess over it!

conclusion

well, this was fun. now, it’s your turn: if you have questions or you disagree with something i said (very plausible, i might have said a lot of dumb stuff and i could be a terrible player lol), do tell! keep it polite though, i don’t want to start a fight but i’m always interested in other players’ experience. i’ll say it again: drink water. mwah

[crystalelemental]

Legendary Gauntlet Teambuilding - Uxie, Entei, Bulu

Man. We spoke too soon last month. I know, Latios, but I personally think outside of solo count, Latios has more threat potential than Bulu. Meanwhile Entei is super easy, and Uxie's only hard because of status change as a requirement. This one's setting up to be really easy. Kinda surprised we still haven't seen Terrakion or Raikou enter the fray, though.

General Overview As mentioned, this is an easy one. The overall reward is Crit Strike 2, so don't really sweat it. The nice thing about this fight is that the gimmicks are borderline nonexistent. Only Uxie really has one, with status condition and status change being necessary. As such, all Piercing Blows pairs go straight to Uxie, and all your Trap pairs, regardless of what else is going on, go there too. Entei is super flinch weak, while Bulu can be sleep chained and is also fairly weak to flinch though with less leeway for slow burn. There's really not much to talk about here.

Uxie Ostensibly the hardest of the three, due to the presence of a gimmick, Uxie's focus is that you need status conditions in Bars 1 an 3, and status changes in bars 2 and 3. Status conditions are your poison, paralysis, burn, sleep, and freeze, while status changes are interferences (flinch, trap, confuse), restrain, No Evasion from Thorton or SC Steven, and rebuffs. For all status, Uxie will heal off at the halfway point, and has Lessen values for each, which increase when removed. Restrain, No Evasion, and Rebuff avoid this and stick around. Burn is also notably stronger than other status, as it has a lower Lessen rate that allows three applications instead of two like the others. Flinch can only be landed once, so the challenge of Uxie is that while its damage isn't high, it's consistent. A last note is that Sure Crit and Sure Hit effects, which Uxie applies to itself on new HP bars, count as a status change and will allow a hit to be at full damage.

Team 1: Cheryl, BP Erika, Giovanni Easy money clear. Giovanni has incredible Ghost damage, and Cheryl offers the Sp Atk to get him rolling. BP Erika has both Toxic and Trap to check both gimmicks. Cheryl does have to watch out for Uxie's attacks, and its primarily physical. Iron Tail in the second half of Bar 1 can easily KO if you're not careful, so I do recommend popping her trainer move before that transition at minimum to get the defensive boosts.

Team 2: Roxanne, Ghetsis, Lucy Ghetsis is able to debuff both offenses, which is incredibly helpful against a fight like Uxie. Roxanne can boost Sp Atk for Ghetsis, and Spd for team gauge management. Lucy inflicts Toxic/Trap, which answers the gimmicks. Ghetsis' accuracy can be a problem, but some things just have to be dealt with. If you have Leaf and Eevee, she's ideal, as her sync will boost accuracy as well.

Team 3: Lodge Blue, Silver, Blaine While a bit odd, it does work. Silver is a strong nuke, and Blaine provides Sun support to maximize it. Silver can burn with Sacred Fire while Blaine has Trap from Fire Spin. Lodge Blue can boost team defense alongside crit rate, and top off Silver's Atk, but also has a flinch chance. It's not necessarily the most significant thing, because you only get one, but it can matter.

Team 4: Marley, MC Solgaleo, Brock MC Solgaleo's Sunsteel Strike bypasses Uxie's gimmick entirely through its Piercing Blows effect. This means, with the upgrade coming in the Alola VA event reruns, you have a pair that can max out its offensive stats just fine, and have no drawback. All you need is gauge, which Marley can provide, with Team Sharp Entry to cap crit. Brock is here for Potion support to keep Marley healed up, and to potentially roll some Defense Crush on Uxie to boost Solgaleo's damage output.

Entei Weak to Water and has Lessen Flinch 2, building resistance by 1 each recovery. Entei can be stalled to high hell, and is weak to one of the most common offensive types available. It is not hard to counter Entei. In compensation, however, Entei's got a few tricks. It will always buff a stat when it attacks: Bar 1 is Def, Bar 2 is Sp Def, and Bar 3 is Spd. Its third action in its first phase is Fire Spin, which can ruin a tank that isn't able to remove it or heal off passive damage. It has a good number of AoE moves such as Bulldoze and Eruption, and builds crit rate starting at Bar 2, and ending at +3 in Bar 3 for sure crits on moves. Bar 3 will give all its moves with a Burn chance a guarantee. Despite all this, Entei is not particularly threatening. Flinch is very common as an effect, especially in F2P circles and eggmons. Water damage is also plentiful, so it's not hard to manage on-type damage against it.

Team 1: Sycamore, Barry, Wake Crasher Wake has the flinch rate, and Barry has the nuke. Sycamore is a great addition, as his sync will cap all of Barry's relevant stats. Team Sharp Entry also saves Barry a TM use. And Barry has Full Heal, so you can get rid of the obnoxious Burn in Bar 3.

Team 2: Maylene, Lodge Rosa, Whitney Lodge Rosa is great here, because she has Vigilance to block crits, and some excellent offensive traits for Entei. Whitney can flinch, and has Defense Crush 4 on grid, which is excellent for supporting Rosa's sync. Maylene has Atk boosting, can boost team Spd/Acc with trainer move, and eventually help with Rock Smash, or heal with Drain Punch as needed.

Team 3: Marlon, Cyrus, Winona One of my favorite inventions from Gauntlet. Marlon provides a good defensive backbone, and has Team Pinpoint Entry to salvage Cyrus' accuracy issues on Hydro Pump. With Sharp Entry/Crit Focus, Cyrus can easily build up crit rate through Hydro Pump, and with Refreshing Rain/First Aid 4, he'll offset the damage taken from his own TM. Winona provides Rain and a very respectable flinch rate, which is all you really need for this fight.

Team 4: Cheren, Siebold, Sophocles It's a bit of a struggle, but it checks out. Sophocles's speed boosting allows you just enough gauge to manage their low gauge cost moves, and if you have 2/5 Cheren from this past Masters Day, he has MPR on TM and MGRs, which makes this more manageable. Siebold is supremely powerful. Super Preparation on his TM alongside Sure Crit into Crit Focus 1 is a very effective way to get him to max offensive potential. But I hope it's clear, you can swap Cheren for anyone better than Cheren and be fine. Though he does have Full Heal, which is nice for Bar 3 if flinches go bad.

Tapu Bulu Solo counts are a poor metric of ease. Latios has the highest solo count in the game, at something like over 200 possible solos, but a ton of them are really hard. Meanwhile, when trying to expand on Latios clears, you start to realize that its Sure Crit AoE spam is a danger when paired with Defense Crush/Mind Games. Meanwhile, Bulu here has effectively no AoE moves of note. Literally none. Everything that Bulu uses can be handled perfectly by a defense tank. Not a mixed defense tank, just defense. Hell, if you have Protect? You can cheese Bulu. You just need to blank Bar 3's Wood Hammer and you're completely safe. I could talk about Bulu's gimmicks. In later phases it'll jump to +6 Atk. In its final phase, it gets +1 evasion hoping that'll help. It can boost Def by 1 stage 50% of the time. It sets Grassy Terrain on entry and per sync. But it can also be sleep chained. And has no initial flinch resistance, so even with +3 resistance per recovery, you can get a solid 4 to set up. Even the rotating Flying/Poison weakness doesn't really change that Bulu is incredibly easy to handle with a defensive tank. I personally think Bulu's the easiest to manage.

Team 1: Hop, Kahili, Tech Farfetch'd/Nanu Kahili is excellent against Tapu Bulu. Her sync is quite impressive, and Defense Crush 4 is a really, really nice addition. Hop caps her needed offenses and is good at physical defense, with Potion backing him up. Tech Farfetch'd has matching theme skills and a good flinch rate with Leer, while Nanu has a strong debuff in Screech and a comparable flinch rate in Bite.

Team 2: Lodge Jasmine/Skyla, Blue, Agatha Blue is free now, and he's got some nice traits with the grid expansion. Ramp Up 2 on TM is excellent compression, and he has access to a 60% flinch rate that can stagger the fight a bit. Skyla is sufficient if Blue rolls MPR, providing great defense and speed to the team. But I have to mention Lodge Jasmine because this is one of her few specific victories, is supplementing Blue in particular. Also I'm starting to mention sleep bots. Agatha has matched theme skills to Blue, being from Kanto, and plenty of speed for his Hurricane spam.

Team 3: BP Barry, BP Falkner, Ramos BP Falkner is hilariously competent, I'm constantly surprised by his sync damage. Debuffing Atk/Spd per hit is also extremely nice. BP Barry complements him ideally, with crit rate from hitting a paralyzed opponent. Between paralysis, boosted defenses, Barry's recovery options, and Falkner debuffing accuracy, they should be fine. But throw in Ramos and you're untouchable.

Team 4: BP Janine, Koga, Will Koga is a competent sync nuker, and BP Janine offers literally every stat he could ever want. Will offers a nice flinch rate to keep Janine safe during setup, and can mess with Bulu with Confuse and Stop Hitting Yourself 5.

Final Thoughts Yeah, look, you're gonna be fine. If you're new to Gauntlet or Legendary Arenas in general, this is an excellent one to practice against. Bulu is piss-easy, Entei's not much harder, and Uxie is fairly low threat for something with a gimmick, so it's good practice for understanding how to teambuild around a stage's requirements. Take some of these teams for a spin, see how they go.

[goosetrainer]

Mari's Tera Raid Guide #13 - Blastoise

ARGH Home maintenance how am I supposed to move this thing around and try more scenarios, HUH? Jail for Nintendo!

Btw I recycled the Gallade from last time. I also forgot to change his tera type back to fighting and I still won with a lot of time left, lol. Dare I say it was easier?

Why is that turtle so fast

Edit: final version of the post now <3

Gallade lv.100

Tera type: Fighting/Grass/Water

Ability: Sharpness

Nature: Careful

Item: Shell Bell

IVs: max HP, attack, special defense

EVs: 252 attack, 252 special defense, 4 HP

Moveset:

-Sacred Sword (move reminder)

-Swords Dance (level up)

-Light Screen (TM) (only necessary for Fighting and Grass teras)

-Mystical Fire (egg move) (commonly learned by Gardevoir)

More tera types this time, order of moves changes a bit depending on which one you have. Grass type is for if you used my build for Venusaur, so that you don't have to use up more resources.

Usage:

Just like last time, open with 3 Mystical Fires - the difference here is that you're not in as much danger of dying with Blastoise, his opening moves are all defensive, and his AI will favor Hydro Pump over the other moves - it's strong but it has low accuracy. Yay for us! Be ready to use a healing cheer in case of a critical hit, though.

Next, 3x Swords Dance (again with healing from the cheer if needed), then terastallize, using Sacred Sword.

Here comes the tricky part, so pay attention:

The next phase has 4 dangerous scripted actions, in rapid succession, and in varying order depending on when you hit each threshold (2 Blastoise stat wipe, 1 player stat wipe, and 1 Shell Smash). What those do is first negate the sp.atk. drops from your Mystical Fires, then bring Blastoise to +2 sp.atk. (=damage doubled, compared to neutral), then wipe all your boosts so that you can't even count on those to survive.

This is why I chose Light Screen over Calm Mind, it won't be erased. And you can only use it once every 5 turns, so it takes less time. When and if to use it depends on a variety of factors:

-if one of your NPC allies is the Bellibolt, you may not need to use it all, because it may have put the screen up for you (To check: press Y while out of the moves menu, then select your pokemon. It should be towards the top-right of the screen, and the numbers next to it will let you know how many turns are left until it vanishes)

-fighting tera: try to use it after the first of Blastoise's self-stat modifications-wipe (should happen after your first Sacred Sword). That way it should be up for all of the scripted actions, which will happen in the span of 1-2 turns only, given how much damage you're dealing.

-grass tera: the timing here is important, because you deal less damage and it will take more turns to get there. If you use Light Screen too early, you risk it being down when you need it most. Wait for the turn before you break the shield (give or take after 4 Sacred Swords). Don't panic if you forget or the shield breaks too soon because of some crits on your part, it's actually pretty forgiving and you can put the Screen up after Blastoise's scripted Shell Smash.

-water tera: screen? Who needs a screen?

Break the shield with more Sacred Sword(s) if you haven't yet, and now Blastoise should use Shell Smash. Drop everything and use two more Mystical Fires (or a Light Screen if you need it and it's not up - see above - and then two Mystical Fires). No more than that, they will be wasted because of the next Blastoise stat wipe. And, actually, if you have Sylveon among the NPCs check Blastoise's status before using the second Mystical Fire - there's a chance the Sylveon lowered his sp.atk. already with Moonblast. The goal is neutral special attack, so as long as you don't see green upwards arrows next to Blastoise's special attack in the status menu, you're done with this phase.

Keep your eyes open for when Blastoise wipes your stat modifications. If it hasn't happened yet, use more Sacred Swords; when it happens, do 3 more Swords Dances (with healing cheer if needed), and then you're safe to spam Sacred Swords until the end. If you're out of heals, or if you're having bad luck with those and you can't heal enough, you can do 2 Swords Dances only and then start attacking right away to keep yourself alive, it'll just take some more time to finish. If it went well, you should still have plenty of time left!

On tera types:

Fighting was my first choice. You can find wild Gallades with it (as long as you have the bottle caps to train them), is defensively neutral to all of Blastoise's moves, is offensively supereffective on Steel, and makes Sacred Sword a monster of an attack. The drawback is that it does not resist Hydro Pump, which means little at the start of the fight, but can be a problem later when dealing with a +2 sp.atk., under the rain, murder turtle that's also faster than you. You have to be religious with defending yourself if you chose this tera, a forgotten Mystical Fire or Light Screen will be your end.

Grass was a happy accident. Sacred Sword deals less damage with it, BUT that means that Blastoise's scripted actions will have some time between them, and you can breathe. Plus it resists Hydro Pump - once you're terastallized, Blastoise will start using Flash Cannon instead. It's weaker and it doesn't get powered up by the rain, so it's easier to survive. Con 1: Flash Cannon has a chance of lowering your special defense. It hasn't happened to me, but I fear it could ruin the entire fight, so keep that in mind. Con 2: less damage = takes more time to win. It was still a good 1/5 of the total when I tried, so not too bad. Con 3: grass shards 🙄

Water: Better than Grass, honestly. Same situation offensively; better situation defensively, because it resist Hydro Pump and Flash Cannon, so it forces Blastoise to prefer Aura Sphere, which is his weakest attack, and without the annoying sp.def. drop. It can be a little annoying to have to use all those Sacred Swords in a row but you can go in with mo more than 3 moves, amazing! (advice: do not be tempted to use Aqua Cutter over Sacred Sword here. I chose Sacred Sword because it ignores changes to the target's defense, and that carapaced menace has Withdraw and Iron Defense. You will not make it)

TL;DR: 3x Mystical Fires (Heal Up cheer if needed), 3x Swords Dances (Heal Up cheer if needed), terastallize,start attacking with Sacred Sword, Light Screen (if it's not already up) before you break the shield, break the shield with Sacred Sword, 2x Mystica Fires after Blastoise's Shell Smash. If your stat modifications haven't been reset yet, use more Sacred Sword(s); when they have, 3x Swords Dance (with healing cheer if needed), then Sacred Sword all the way.

Pros:

-again, common pokemon to find

-you get some choice regarding the tera type this time

-recycled build if you used my grass Gallade with Venusaur

-only 3 max IVs

-less setting up than usual!

Cons:

-none of the tera types listed is readily available by breeding so you have to choose if you want to use bottle caps, tera shards, or try your luck with the tera dens

[prettycottonmouthlamia]

Fairy Gawain Servant Analysis (on launch date??? what blasphemy...)

Ma'am your bajonkadonks...

Fairy Knight Gawain

Saber

Max HP: 13,521

Max ATK: 8,721

Earth

Chaotic Good

Star Absorb: 99

Star Gen: 10.2%

NP Charge ATK: 0.74%

NP Charge DEF: 3%

Trait's: Brynhildr's Beloved, Demonic Beast Servant, Fae, Female, Humanoid, Round Table Knight (Stage 1 only), Saber Class Servant, Servant, Weak to Enuma Elish

QABBB

Quick = 5 hits, Arts = 3 hits, Buster = 2 hits, Extra = 5 hits

Quick NP Gain: 3.70%, Arts NP Gain: 2.22%, Extra NP Gain: 3.70%

Numeral of the Saint B

Increases own attack by 18% for 3 turns.

Increases own Buster performance on Sunlight Battlefield for 3 turns. (18% -> 28%).

7 -> 5 turn cooldown

Wild Rule A

Increases own Buster performance for 3 turns. (20% -> 30%)

Grants self Survival of the Fittest buff for 3 turns:

-Recovers own HP by 1000 when normal attacking.

-Removes one latest buff from enemy when normal attacking.

-If buff has been removed, 500% chance to reduce their defense by 10% for 3 turns.

8 -> 6 turn cooldown

Foul Weather A

Reduces party's damage taken for 3 hits, 3 turns. (500 -> 1000)

Grants self Regeneration buff for 3 turns:

-Charges party's NP guage. (10% -> 15%)

9 -> 7 turn cooldown

Magic Resistance C

Increases own debuff resistance by 15%.

Mad Enhancement A+

Increases own Buster performance by 11%.

Blackdog Galatine

Buster

AoE

5 hits

Increases own Buster performance for 1 turn. (20% -> 40%, OC)

Deals damage to all enemies. (300% -> 500%)

Increases own Max HP by 3000 for 5 turns.

Reduces own skill cooldown by 1.

Stomach Destroyer

When equipped on Fairy Knight Gawain,

Increases her own NP damage by 30%, and has a 30% chance to increase her Max HP by 500 for 3 turns when attacking.

Primary Role: Farmer, Solo

Secondary Role: DPS

Situational Role:

Fairy Gawain my beloved...Anyways the newest Buster Saber Gorilla has burst onto the scene, taking the name of Gawain from a pretty good Servant in his own right, so it'll be interesting to see how Fairy Gawain compares. For the sake of not spoiling everything, I won't be refering to her by her true name, just as Fairy Gawain for the rest of the analysis.

Starting off with her bases, Fairy Gawain has a very high base HP build with a pretty low base ATK to balance it off. This is generally a problem, as having a low attack tends to put a pretty unfortunate cap on your damage potential, but Fairy Gawain doesn't suffer from this as much as other Servants like Summer Medb does. Her card bases are pretty good though. A triple Buster kit will help her overcome her lower ATK thanks to the 20% of her ATK that gets added to every card's damage in a Buster chain. Her NP generation is pretty good too for her kit, with a good Arts and a pretty strong Quick and Extra. I can't give you the hard numbers, but it's better than it might initially seem and she doesn't struggle with NP generation.

Her first skill is Numeral of the Saint B, which is a weaker version of Gawain's first skill. Unfortunately for Fairy Gawain, she cannot set the Sunlight Battlefield effect herself, so she might require support in that regard if you want to make the most use of her in any battlefield. Like Gawain though, it acts as a really powerful steroid in its own right, boosting the damage of Fairy Gawain's Buster cards by about 51% just through this skill alone.

Her second skill is Wild Rule A, and I'll be honest, I really like this skill. It's not only another solid Buster buff, further increasing Fairy Gawain's damage, but it comes with some very nice effects on the side as well. In a solo setting, Fairy Gawain can use this skill to recover 4000 (4500-5000 with Command Code buffs) HP a turn, while removing multiple buffs from the opponent and inflicting guaranteed Def drops that further ramp her damage for the next 3 turns. In a team setting it can be a bit more unrealiable, but the ability to purge Buffs is really strong and shouldn't be underestimated, especially since it's very good over multiple turns in comparison to other forms of buff removal. The problem with this skill is easily apparent though: it's maximum value comes from enemies who use buffs, which doesn't even include every single Servant in the game and will have no effect against Permanent buffs either. But the upsides are still worth noting, and a 1000 HP heal on every attack each turn is generally good.

Her final skill is Foul Weather A, and this is probably her single best skill in her kit, which is surprising because its pretty simple. The first buff gives a 1000 damage cut for 3 hits, 3 turns, which is a pretty solid defensive buff that helps the entire party. The real meat of this skill is in the "Regeneration" buff it gives, which is a party NP charge for every turn, for 3 turns. The ceiling on this skill is 15%, which makes this skill really powerful not only as a way to patch up her own NP generation, but also to boost the NP generation of the supports in her crew too, which has a lot of positive results.

Her NP, Blackdog Galatine, makes Excalibur Galatine look like a bit of a joke. It not only gives her a 3000 Max HP buff for 5 rounds, which is essentially a 3000 HP heal you can't waste, it also gives her another Buster steroid AND reduces the cooldown on her skills by 1. This is a really, really good NP and makes Fairy Gawain a lot better than she initially seems. With her S2 and S1 on a non-Sunny field, this NP will do about 17,148 damage neutral on average, which isn't amazing but is fairly decent with her low ATK stat. On a Sunny Field, she'll hit for about 20,130 neutral on average, which is decidedly better, and with a couple of Def down drops she'll hit for about 23,542 neutral on average. That's really something for an AoE coming off of a low ATK stat, and it will get better with buffs and the right CE.

Grails: When you're Grailing a Servant who is at a higher rarity, you won't get as much out of the extra stats as you would for a low rarity Servant. But for a Servant with low base ATK like Fairy Gawain, it can end up making a different. At Level 100, she'll have 10,559 ATK and 16,394 HP, which gives her a lot of HP and puts her ATK at roughly the levels an ATK focused 4-star would have. This isn't an unnoticeable difference: on a Sunlight battlefield, her NP damage will go up to about 24,373 neutral damage on average and about 28,504 neutral damage on average with a couple of Def downs from her 2nd skill. If you really like Fairy Gawain but feel that her damage isn't quite as up to par as you might want, Grails are a pretty decent way to cover the difference.

Support Options:

Merlin is huge with Fairy Gawain. Yes that should be obvious as a Buster focused Servant, but Fairy Gawain's S3 provides a really powerful feedback loop. She will charge Merlin's NP a lot faster, which will result in Merlin's NP regen charging her NP faster, which will result in her using her NP more often, reducing the cooldown on her skills and letter her use her S3 more often. This also makes a good option for any Servant who can charge her NP faster through their NP, such as Tamamo, although you will often lose some damage in the process. Hans is also another good support, since he can provide extra crit support and damage + survivability through his NP. Leonidas can provide Taunt access and extra buster power, but the NP charges will also provide a lot of stars and more consistent Def up for himself. Other Buster supports are also good options, but they benefit less from what Fairy Gawain has to offer.

Of course, Gawain himself can apply Sunlight himself and provide extra buffs, while Ozymandius' first skill can be useful as well.

Command Code: Fairy Gawain really functions well with any number of Command Codes, although she tends to favor ones that improve her damage thanks to her lower ATK. She's not crit focused enough to favor command codes that benefit crit favored strategies. Additional healing command codes, like Maiden of Orleans and Good Wife Wise Fox will help with her survivability, especially if you want to use her in a solo setting. Da Vinci-chan will give her NP damage, which is a buff she doesn't typically have access to, and Magus of Flowers will help to get her NP out sooner, which is important for using her effectively.

Craft Essences: CEs for Buster Servants can be really pretty hard, but any 50% CE with a positive benefit is usually a pretty good start. With her 3rd skill active, she's guaranteed her NP on turn with a double Merlin set-up (or Merlin + Shakespeare if that's more accessible for you). The Black Grail can be used to dramatically raise the ceiling on her NP damage, but the lack of starting NP charge might make it a bit harder for her to access her NP than you'd like.

Competition: The one big thing that's not going for Fairy Gawain is that while her damage is good, it's mostly good given her low ATK stat. Other AoE Buster Servants like Artoria or Gawain are still going to give a lot more damage than she will, and then there's Arjuna Alter who is the eternal bane of pretty much any AoE Buster unit wanting to make an impact on the meta. Even her ability to charge her own NP by a large degree isn't exactly unique, thanks to Ibuki Douji.

However, there isn't an AoE Buster servant who can boast a 45% NP charge to the entire party, or one that can boast consistent buff removal access over multiple turns, or who can lower their own skill cooldowns, and because of that, she'll still perform well comparatively.

Pros:

-Her kit will give her a pretty solid bonus to her Buster cards overall damage. With her S1 and S2 active on a Sunlight field, her Buster cards will do about double damage compared to normal (1.18 * 1.69 = 1.994), and the Def drops she can inflict will further increase her damage.

-The ability to remove buffs over multiple turns can't be understated, especially in a solo situation where she can often fade entire turns of buffs.

-Her S3 is incredibly powerful for a Buster Servant. 15% party NP charge for 3 turns is no joke.

-Her base NP generation is pretty good for her kit.

-Her survivability is also pretty good, with both damage cut, HP Max buffs, and heals.

-She's fucking TALLLLLLLLLLL

Cons:

-Her low ATK will always be a limiter on her damage, and if you need someone who can hit certain benchmarks, she might not cut it.

-She has no hard survival options, so she'll need support in that regard, especially for solos.

-Her kit is overall good but has situational elements that need to be fulfilled to maximize its value, which can be difficult to fulfill.

-Your mom might question you if she sees her 2nd ascension.

Overall Conclusions

I got to test out Fairy Gawain for a little while and was really surprised by how potent she could be, and her good kit helps to make her standout from other AoE Saber Servants, which is really important because there is a lot of them. Despite her low attack, her good synergy with other popular supports, her strong steroids, and her unique advantages make her a not only serviceable, but a good AoE Saber. It does, I think, remain to be seen who makes for the best supports for Fairy Gawain, but she does allow for a lot of experimentation. I for one am very excited to continue using her.

I am not excited to farm the 180 bells needed for her skills however.