Introduction
Well this game out of nowhere. I thought I had another week to put this one out. Yostar ruins any attempt at predicting schedule yet again. Ahh well, content is content, though I would have much rather had IS#3!
Apologies for any grammar mistakes this time. My editor is wrapped up with HSR stuff and we thought we had another week still on this one. Oops. Now you all have to suffer with my mistakes and run-on sentences.
This article specifically covers the new units from the Chapter 11 - Return to Mist event, You can find the full version of the guide here, or on the banner below which covers all of the other noteworthy Masteries in the game
FAQ and Banner Discussion
Q: Should I pull?
A: No. The decision here is essentially the same as Dorothy was, but a bit worse. Stainless is not a bad unit, but he is also not one that will appeal to a lot of players, and unlike Dorothy, he needs other units to really shine. He is a creative unit that opens up many possibilities, but suffers from the age-old problem many support units suffer from - why not just bring another DPS unit instead? To stand-out, a support unit has to be really special (like Skadi the Corrupting Heart) or be attached to a strong base body (like Warfarin or Ptilopsis). Stainless is notably poor on his own, so many players will find what he does to be very gimmicky and not worth the effort. With two of the worst possible supporting 5★s (Paprika, who is bad, and Cliffheart, who is free) and an ultra-meta limited in two(ish) short weeks (Texas the Omertosa), there isn’t a lot of reason to spend your rolls here unless you personally find Stainless or his gameplay to be appealing.
Q: What's this about a big grade update?
A: OK I admit no one really asked this question. I'm just using this as a platform to bring it up!
I've noted this in passing in a few places, but I've been working on a large-scale grade update. There's several reasons for this, and I tend to do one about once a year. Now is an opportune time to look over everything and update anything that looks out of alignment.
Most of this is a matter of consistency since the guide is done update by update. Naturally, not everything lines up perfectly. However some of the grades also require adjustments as the meta shifts over time. Additionally, IS#3 is right around the corner, and while I don't plan to do a full update like I did for IS#2, there are adjustments that need to be made.
I don't plan to do a full article for these changes. Most of them are simple things and uninteresting. It's just not worth the extra effort. Some of them are big though, so if you're curious to see a compilation of the specific updates you can check them out on this post over on Reddit. I just finished up a bulk of the work in the rush to get it done before this article!
Q: Any Module thoughts this time?
A: Global - Chapter 11 - There are no Modules with this patch, likely due to the short difference in time between IS#3 and Il Siracusano on CN.
Global - Mizuki and the Caerula Arbor - This isn’t out yet, but I wrote this early anticipating it would be out first. So much for that. It shouldn't be long though (:copium:), so I’ll leave it here for reference since there won’t be a new update for IS#3.
Dusk’s second Module is pretty good here. Not “must get” territory, but enough that she got a small grade touch up which I included as part of the larger grade rollout from last week. Kal’s Module is also decent, but won’t influence her grades since she’s already so meta.
CN - Leaves Chasing Fire - Not much to say for this patch. Ifrit’s Module is pretty good, but won’t affect her grades. The rest is pretty unimpressive, not counting Yato who is so good it doesn’t matter if her Module is anything special.
CN - Chapter 12 - The Modules this patch are generally extremely good.
The biggest winner is Lin, though since she isn’t out yet I can’t say she’ll get any grade adjustments. She will be graded better on her release than she might normally be. Her look-ahead down below has been updated to reflect this.
Carnelian’s Module is a decent one as well, but it isn’t as good as Lin’s and a lot of Carne’s flaws are unaddressed so she’s likely to remain unchanged.
Last, Dorothy’s Module is also extremely good. It won’t affect her S2 or S3 since that core role remains unchanged (just better) but it may result in her S1 picking up a grade. The higher attack multiplier on S1 means it benefits more from the crit mines. Mixed with the built in DEF reduction, it lets Dorothy take on some *really* tough targets, though a layer of RNG on top of an already advanced unit will be unpalatable for many.
Q: Were there updates for Highmore and Luo Xiaohei?
A: Yes, I put them out a couple of weeks ago but it wasn’t worth putting together a whole article for them. If you missed them, they are available in the main guide or on their Operator pages.
Q: Where’s IS#3?
A: Great question. To be completely honest, I have no idea. Yostar really threw me for a loop by overlapping banners here. Hopefully it won’t be long, but really at this point I don’t even have good speculation since none of the scenarios seem that plausible.
It’s nearly impossible to accurately predict anything these days. Yostar has violated most basic prediction tenants at this point. It’s anything goes these days.
Q: Anything else?
A: Oddly... no. This banner is a really lackluster one among a sea of super powerful banners, but I can only discuss that in so many ways before it feels like beating a dead horse. It feels unnecessary to harp on that fact. That, plus the fast turnaround from the previous event, means there really isn't much else of interest to discuss.
Episode 11 - Return to Mist
Stainless
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S3M3 | A- | A- | B |
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S1M3 | C+ | B | C |
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S2M3 | None | ||
Stainless is a tricky unit to give Mastery suggestions for as he is reliant on other units to be effective. All of his skills are support oriented, to include his S3. While he can, of course, use S3 on his own, the DPS without someone else is quite poor. S3 is the standout here, but the support nature and some odd Mastery gains makes him quite nuanced and he could reasonably range from "don't raise at all" to "full M9", depending on what you want out of him.
His DPS support role with S3 is the best starting point due it's extreme flexibility, and some flaws in his other skills. The first thing to note is that his S3 has significantly better Mastery gains than it appears. This can't be seen in his operator page directly so it is easy to overlook, but the turret's internal skill that deals the damage also improves over Mastery. From SL7 to S3M3, the direct damage increases from 260% to 300% and the splash damage increases from 120% to 150%. You can see these details over on the the CN wiki.
That out of the way, his turrets add a huge amount of flexibility to your DPS units. For some examples, he can safely extend the range of more fragile DPS units. He can convert low damage-per-hit (DPH) units like Exusiai into high DPH units to help them overcome armor. He can double dip on multi-unit units like Mlynar or La Pluma. He can charge Offensive Recovery units like Thorns or Cantabile. There are many more, but it would be a fool's errand to attempt to list them all.
However, that all can seem gimmicky if there isn't a good place to take advantage of these things. With the way AK is designed, these sorts of things are never a necessity, and it is not always easy to come up with these trickier solutions. While it is his best skill, ultimately his S3 is still a luxury relative to its potential.
Meanwhile, his S1 and S2 are more typical support skills. While not bad skills on their own, they do suffer from some fatal flaws that keep them out of meta consideration. Primarily, it is that Stainless is not a good unit on his own. Since deployment slots are limited, the best support units are those that justify the spot on the field. In Stainless' case he does nothing outside of turrets and has relatively poor stats. Compare that to Operators like Warfarin or Ptilopsis who are amazing Medics with strong general purpose Talents. This makes the Mastery gains on his S2 especially poor since a bulk of the "benefit" is focused on his own stats and the actual buff gets no benefit aside from a tiny cycle time improvement. His S1 meanwhile has better gains, but again since he is a fairly poor unit, it relegates that role to meme comps instead of being more general purpose like Skadi2 or Warfarin.
In summary, start with S3M3 (if you do any at all) and stop there. Use S2 regularly, but it will be fine at SL7. Only pursue Mastery as a matter of luxury. Finally, consider S1 as a secondary option if you want to open up a few more possibilities with him.
Paprika
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S2M3 | None | ||
Paprika's archetype is an odd one. While on occasion it can be useful to reach out further than the normal range, in a large majority of cases a Chain Healer will just be worse than an AoE healer. Add on the fact that Paprika has no utility to speak of beyond healing, she becomes really tough to recommend. Her one saving grace, at least, is a fairly high amount of healing-per-second (HPS), but that is almost never worth the investment and multiple other 5★ Medics have her beat along with better utility. If you are looking to raise her anyway, the best skill is sort of a toss up. The improved trigger at S2M3 makes her healing numbers more reliable and the extra bounce will allow her to reach out of her range further. However the improved speed at S1 will allow her to better cover more units within her own range if they aren't close together and generally has better total healing if it can reliably trigger her Talent. Pick your poison here, but I would ultimately suggest her S2 since being able to reach out of her range is at least a unique aspect compared to other Medics.
Totter
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S2M3 | B- | B- | B- |
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S1M3 | C+ | C+ | C+ |
Totter is a pretty nice unit. He isn't mandatory to raise, but he has a unique and rare niche combined with a powerful range. While it is not a full on invisible reveal, he is one of only two purely Ranged units (as of this writing) that can interact with invisible enemies (Tsukinogi is the other, Scene requires her Melee buggies to be deployed). Given the inexpensive costs to promote a 4★, he is a decent utility to have available. His skills split a fairly typical "consistent vs burst" divide which can make selection a matter of preference. You can potentially do both for Masteries, but if you only do one, I slightly favor the better burst and larger gains of S2.
Dagda
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S2M3 | None | ||
Dagda is not a unit you should be investing in. There just isn't any value in a one-block, low Physical attack, single-target unit. Her S2 DPS actually isn't terrible on paper, but enemies of any consequence that she'd be useful against are far and few between. If you plan to raise her anyway, S2 is the obvious choice. It does have decent DPS, a decent cycle, and hits a bit harder than most other Brawler skills. Meanwhile, her S1 being Defensive Recovery kills any potential value it might have (except for meme combos with Blemishine). However, even her S2 Mastery gains are fairly paltry, so invest here with extreme caution.
The Grading System
Story vs Advanced vs Roguelike
There are very few absolute answers when it comes to prioritizing upgrades. A major determining factor is what exactly your goals are. Now, there are actually many more types of players than these three, but the most obvious delineation as far as which Masteries to think about comes down to the type of content you're most interested in clearing. If you only find value in first time story clears and risk 18 CC, then your goals will be different for someone looking to reach high-risk (25+) in CC.
Story - A story player is a player who is only interest in rewarded content. This means all normal stages and challenge modes (without added personal challenges), risk 8 on CC daily stages, risk 18 on CC permanent stages, and the SSS game mode.
Advanced - An advanced player here is any player interested in non-reward topics such as higher risk CC and more min-maxed gameplay or specialty clears.
A note on the topic of the Advanced grades is that these grades should not be taken as specific advice for a specific CC. There may be an occasional specific note to provide some context or example, but the intention here is to be more general than a particular event and prioritize skills that will be broadly useful in multiple scenarios. A skill appearing once in a high-risk CC is not enough for inclusion here as CCs tend to lend themselves to niche scenarios that can't really be planned for. Further still, Advanced grades encompass all min/maxed gameplay and do not, strictly speaking, have to be about CCs.
Roguelike - These grades are specific to the Integrated Strategies game mode (aka, the Roguelike mode or IS#2 or IS#3). These grades are slightly different compared to the Story vs Advanced delineation since the same sort of pressures apply in the mode regardless of the type of player you are. These grades tend to be more "meta" focused than the others. For IS#3, only up to Ascension 7 (trimmed medal) is considered for grades, however write-ups may include suggestions for higher Ascensions.
The Grades
S - These Masteries are the cream of the crop. They are Masteries that everyone with the unit should do and give a high priority to. Units with S tier Masteries get an outsized value from them, either because the skill is incredibly powerful or because it changes how the unit is used. For the Roguelike mode, S-tier grades are reserved for the best skills on the most meta of units (whereas meta value is not necessarily a requirement in other mode grades).
A - These Masteries are powerful Skills that most players who have the unit should do. These are among the most powerful Masteries in the game, but less overtly overpowered than the S-tier Masteries.
B - These Masteries are reasonably powerful and worthy of consideration, but have a factor which hold them back. The impact may be relatively small for the cost, the unit may not be especially powerful already, the unit may not fit well into the meta, or there may be a better version available, among other examples.
C - These Masteries are strong enough to be noted, but should only be done by the most end game of players with nothing else to do. There's value in them, but most players will have something better to be doing.
Breakpoint - Not a true grade, but a designator given to an M1 that gives an unusually large benefit. In most cases, these should be prioritized immediately after the E2, thanks to their low cost and high value. Note that there are many M2 and M3 breakpoints but they are not considered breakpoints for this purpose as the cost is much more expensive. Also note that some breakpoints on valueless skills are excluded as well.
NG or None - Not a true grade, but these are sometimes used for Skills which are noteworthy but not worth Mastery. Either the skill or unit is not worth using, or the Mastery has very poor Mastery gains. NG stands for "No Grade".
Please remember all rankings here are considered independent of E2 priority, but do consider overall unit strength. And most importantly, these grades should be treated as guidelines rather than absolute requirements.
Mastery Look Ahead
Episode 12 units are added below, plus Lin is updated due to her really good Module. The new CN limited isn't out yet so they are not included yet.
| Mizuki and the Caerula Arbor | ||
| Highmore | Welfare | Highmore is very similar to La Pluma to the point their S1 is literally identical. La Pluma is still the better unit in general since her ASPD talent is better for what the class does, but Highmore will still be a very viable alternative (or addition, double reaper go brrrr). This is especially true in IS#3 where she is the better pick with some big advantages thanks to her mode specific talent. There is a much bigger difference across their S2s however, with Highmore’s being far less valuable. The bulk that her S2 brings isn’t as useful and is much more niche in addition to some pretty poor gains. Stick with just her S1 for Mastery which makes her a very consistent and reliable option in IS#3. La Pluma will perform better elsewhere though. |
| Il Siracusano | ||
| Vigil | Welfare | Vigil looks to be the weakest 6★ of 2022. Even on paper, his kit isn’t very good. It has low DP gen, no ATK improvement, and no real utility. However, it's even worse than that. His wolves, which his skills are reliant on, are incredibly weak. They are statistically worse than Beanstalk's or Blacknight's pets, and the supposed benefits of them come nowhere close to making up the difference. If that weren't enough, there are many bizarre interactions in his kit, bordering on bugs, which remain unfixed as of this writing. There's too many to list here in this look ahead, but check this write-up by Boelthor over on Reddit for some more info. You'll get much better value raising Blacknight, or even Beanstalk. I hope this changes by his release on EN, but as it stands, he'll be among the lowest graded 6★s post-Module upgrades. |
| Lunacub | Gacha | Lunacub’s permanent stealth will certainly have some uses, but her DPS isn't high enough to justify the added investment. Her cycle time is perplexingly long for a year four unit, and the lack of attack multiplier on her S2 means she'll struggle more compared to her competition. She's a bit like Kirara in that regard: a nice idea hamstrung by poor damage and skill uptime. She'll be ungraded, but go with S2 if you particularly like her. |
| Penance | Gacha | If you relied only on the initial flurry of highlights, you could be forgiven for thinking that Penance is the hyper meta unit of this banner. She is a cautionary tale of not using only Youtube/Bilibili highlights to guide your opinion. Of course, she’s still a monster of a unit. She hits hard, has a mountain of bulk, and an absolutely incredible damage reflect. She is potentially the best solo lane holder in a lot of scenarios. However, for general purposes, Mudrock remains the go to choice, as Penance’s kit works poorly in a full team comp. Because she is reliant on having enemies to kill in order to maintain her bulk, she ends up rather inflexible compared to her competitors. S3 will be her main skill worth Mastery. Her other two skills are fine, and big Penance fans will find both of them useful, but her S3 is far and away the best option. They won't justify the investment cost for most. |
| Texas the Omertosa | Gacha Limited | Texas is the banner’s real winner and the latest to power creep an older unit (RIP in pieces Phantom). She is extremely powerful and is at the very tip-top of the meta. She has better ST Arts DPS than both Surtr and Eyja. Not only that, she also has a mountain of utility; her S2 has a strong RES debuff which makes her effective against nearly all enemies, her S3 has range, anti-air, and heavy crowd-control, and that's on top of the benefits of being a FRD. Both her S2 and S3 will receive top tier grades. She will be the highest graded M6 yet, so plan for both. |
| Quartz | Red Cert Shop | Quartz certainly has an eye-catching stat-line, but she isn't any better than other alternatives, even at her rarity. She mainly seems to be here to tease the ridiculous stats the eventual 6★ on the archetype will have. She'll be ungraded due to said alternatives. There just isn't much value in raising her beyond novelty. However, you'll want to prioritize S2 should that appeal to you. |
| Qanipalaat | Red Cert Shop | Qanipalaat is a fairly interesting unit with some unique aspects to his kit. He's pretty decent too, for his rarity, with good crowd control and reasonable damage. However the ever present problem with the 5★ Casters is present here. It's a crowded group and being just decent isn't enough to particularly standout. Ultimately he doesn't justify the investment, especially with the added red cert cost. The Mastery gains on his S2 are pretty good, so he may end up with a low grade, but he shouldn't be on most people's planners for any reason but personal desire. Pass on his S1 which is just a worse version of Amiya's S1. |
| What the Firelight Casts | ||
| Puzzle | Welfare | A lot of people, myself included, initially scoffed at Puzzle. He clearly isn't as good as Cantabile (who almost everyone has) and has fairly high SP costs for a Vanguard. However, he's proven himself to be a solid option, especially for a Welfare. To be clear, he is nowhere near as valuable as Cantabile. He is more DPS oriented, which is nice, but not really the purpose of the role. However, his DPS and utility are good enough that his S2 warrants moderate consideration. It charges surprisingly quickly and outputs a ton of damage on top of his flexible archetype. His S1 may be worth considering as well, but it only gains damage at M2 and M3 so odds are it will be ungraded aside from the M1 breakpoint. |
| Harmonie | Gacha | Within the realm of 5★ Casters, Harmonie is pretty decent. How many times have I said that before? It's a crowded group. Harmonie is still far from a must-raise, but she stands out as having a well designed kit. It has decent damage, good utility, and it all works well together. Niche players especially will find her quite nice. S2 will be the obvious choice for Masteries and will likely end up with a modest grade. Although she exists in a crowded space, her utility along with solid gains will make it something to consider on the lower end of priority. |
| Reed the Flame Shadow | Gacha | How do you improve the often subpar Caster class? By making them a Medic, of course. Makes total sense. Duh. Reed's alter form is just the most recent big meta unit. There's a lot of those lately and I only have so many adjectives to describe how busted these units tend to be. Reed is a tremendous unit. She features the highest Arts ST DPS in the game, alongside some of the highest HPS and extremely flashy mass crowd-clearing to boot. However there is some reason for caution. Certainly she will be an upper crust unit, but a few small usability quirks may keep her off the very top. Unlike units like Surtr or Ch’alter she has to choose between ST or AoE damage, she needs other units to deal full ST damage, and Arts Weakening isn’t as good as RES shred. She is extremely strong but we’ll need some time to judge just exactly *how* strong. Regardless, Reed will be a top graded M6. Plan for both S2 and S3. |
| Where Vernal Winds Will Never Blow | ||
| Jie Yun | Welfare | Jie Yun is one of those units that's quite good... for her rarity. While she lacks the utility that elevates the more meta 5★ options, she has solid damage and a surprisingly good cycle time. Beyond that, there isn't much else to say since her kit is pretty straightforward. Most players tight on resources won't want to invest, but she is good enough and has enough appeal outside of the meta that she'll garner a modest grade. Stick with S2 for Mastery. It is the better skill and has *extremely* strong gains. S1 has significantly worse DPS and its only real benefit is being auto recovery. |
| Firewhistle | Gacha | Fire Whistle is a good unit because her archetype is inherently strong. However, she has a slightly different niche than Ashlock. While Ashlock is useless if forced to block, Fire Whistle’s skills work mostly as normal (like Horn’s S2), making her an effective blocker as well as a long range nuker. In my opinion, this isn’t as valuable since effective blocking isn’t why you bring the archetype to begin with and Ashlock does the nuking part better. Still, Fire Whistle is quite good and much more forgiving. Both of her skills are usable and likely to be graded. While S2 has the greater total damage and is better for blocking, it has a notable lack of burst and a high SP cost. S1 meanwhile will be more consistent, reliable, and better against armor. |
| Lin | Gacha | Lin gets a unique achievement in this guide by getting a full overhaul in the look-ahead because of her Module. Previously she was a disappointing side grade to the already mediocre Carnelian, but her Module goes a long way to improving Lin and now she is a pretty good mid-tier consideration. With her Module she can tank most ranged attacks in the game even with skill up, but it also improves her previously bad cycle time. She can now be placed very aggressively while doing good total damage, making her (finally) a good evolution of the Phalanx archetype. |
| Chong Yue | Gacha | Yet another hilariously busted unit. Chong Yue hits hard and fast over a long range. He also gets a lot out of buffs, meaning that he should scale nicely into difficult content. His kit can be deceptive since unlike other dual strike units, his hits count independently. This means he gains SP twice as fast and can even trigger his S3 off of the second attack. |
| A Death in Chunfen | ||
| Wind Chimes | Gacha | When Quartz was released, many were curious as to what the higher rarities of the Crusher archetype would bring. Turns out the first 5★ attempt is... really bad. Her primary gimmick is just too weak and her cycle time is just too long. Even if her S2’s SP cost was halved, she wouldn’t be good – but it isn’t, and she has a perplexing 30 second cycle for a paltry amount of damage. Wind Chimes is a unit to avoid, but if you were intent on raising her anyway I'd actually consider S1 instead despite the fact that it’s a generic Attack Up skill. The power on S2 is just so anemic that only two hits from S1 will out damage it (in less time than the 5 second wind-up), but even then she's quite a bit worse than the commonly available Centurions. |
| Qiu Bai | Gacha | Qiu Bai is a difficult unit to rank, and she has caused quite a bit of discussion. I suppose that means she's actually well balanced compared to the hyper-meta state of many recent units. Qiu Bai has some significant drawbacks such as an RNG factor, a lack of RES shred, and an unusually long downtime. However, her range, control, and strong multi-target DPS still give her a ton of potential. S3 is likely to be her "meta" skill when she appears in high end gameplay due to its extremely high DPS, but S2 will often be the better "every-day" skill due to its much shorter cycle. S1 may be appealing, too, since it is her most consistent control skill, though I am unsure if it will garner a grade. Regardless of how you intend to use her, S3 should be your highest priority target. It has some of the most extreme gains over Mastery of any skill in the game; Mastery will be essential to using it at all. |
| Leaves Chasing Fire | ||
| Rathalos S Noir Corne | Collab Gacha | Noir Corne is an interesting iteration on the Musha archetype. While the shortcomings are still there, his kit comes together better in total, and he brings enough burst and utility to make him something to consider, though far from mandatory or meta. His Mastery selection will be similar to his counterpart, Akafuyu, but will be graded higher. Both skills are strong, but have differing uses, so you will likely want to pursue both. If you only did one it's really a matter of preference, but I would start with S1. It handles both trash due to its reset and elites thanks to its block, plus the Offensive Recovery plays better to the archetype. |
| Kirin X Yato | Collab Gacha | Yet another super strong Limited Fast-Redeploy. Thanks HG, very cool. Yato isn’t quite as busted as Texas the Omertosa, but that’s hardly an insult. There is certainly room for both. For Masteries, Yato will range anywhere from a simple M3 all the way to M9 depending on your preferences. For many players, just Mastering S2 will suffice. It is the easiest skill to use and does so much damage that it covers the majority of use cases. S3 is also quite powerful, but it requires more planning and map knowledge to effectively use. While a strong skill and Mastery, not everyone will get as much use out of it. Finally, her S1 is a fringe consideration. It has extremely long uptime for an FRD and is buff receptive (think of Exusiai’s S3); however, it is much harder to use effectively and her other skills will be more than enough most of the time. |
| Episode 12 - All Quiet Under the Thunder | ||
| Morgan | Welfare | Morgan is the best non-Siege member of the Siege gang (maybe better than Siege too, depending who you ask), but that wasn't a terribly high bar. Dreadnoughts without the raw power of the 6★ options have pretty limited value, but Morgan does make fairly good use of the archetype thanks to a very strong attack scale that works well with her large HP pool. While she will need healer support, Morgan’s S1 can pack a big punch on a good cycle which should let her pick up a grade (albeit a low one). Unfortunately, her S2 isn't worth much. The Barrier decays too fast to be useful, especially for how short of wind-up S1 has. S2 ultimately makes her much more fragile on a much longer effective cycle time for similar damage. |
| Humus | Gacha | The bones of the Reaper archetype are good, which natively makes Humus decent. However, since Highmore is freely available to everyone and so valuable in IS#3, it puts Humus in a bad spot regardless of how good he is. His kit does come together pretty nicely, however he has no niche above Highmore or La Pluma, and he will potentially be ungraded due to poor Mastery gains. Both skills will be usable, but S1 does not get the SP reduction that the 5*s do. Start with S2 instead, but even then the gains are well below average in even ideal circumstances. |
| Cement | Gacha | Cement was memed to death even before we knew her kit (and to be fair they are good memes, CONK CREET BAY BEE). Unfortunately though, her kit is pretty poor and she will be ungraded. She can have an insane amount of bulk with S2, but it's very specific to one-target, slow-attacking, and Physical enemies. Since most mechanics don't favor blocking in the first place and she has the Duelist's restrictive one-block, that just isn't valuable, and the bulk rapidly decays with a tough cycle time. If you were to promote her anyway, I would go with S1 for Masteries which at least has some decent damage output in a true AoE. However, the archetype's Trait restriction will make the relatively high SP cost (compared to similar skills) very limiting. |
| Ines | Gacha | Ines is a curious unit to discuss. She is a good unit, but not one that has lived up to impossible expectations which has muddied the discussion around her. Her damage is lower than people were expecting (given that Yato2 and Texas2 both came out recently and do more damage on faster redeploys). The situation is reminiscent of Saileach on her release; a powerful unit but an open question on if she is worth the cost compared to the more common and lower rarity options. Given that she is sandwiched between a collab and the anniversary limited, it should make the pull discussions when she comes to global very… spirited, let’s say. For the record, I am a big fan of her kit, but we’ll need some time to see how her kit fits into whatever new meta arises from the revamped CC and IS#4. Both S2 and S3 will have good grades, but right now I lean towards S2 first. Don’t bother with S1. It should be a nice AFK option, but the gains aren’t worth the investment. |
