Purgatory

Translation Credits: Jetroyz of the RIHQ Discord, Lauli

Specialties: Originium Arts (Purgatory), Disaster expert

Race: Sarkaz

Birthplace: Victoria

Quote: "Sinned souls that have been stained by evil do not deserve forgiveness."

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"Hey, wait, who let you come in without kncking—ah, it's the Doctor. Why am I wearing this? Oh... I'm going to the training grounds to test my Arts' limits. Want to watch, Doctor?"

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"Let me set this straight, I'm not the kid you know anymore. You're not allowed to bother me with easy missions."

Since joining Rhodes Island and after years of training, Operator Lava has developed a strength that can be relied upon. In her days training with Rhodes Island's Arts masters, the Sarkaz caster Lava gradually sharpened her technique, and can soon develop her own kind of ultimate Arts.

Truth be told, this combat outfit that belongs only to Miss Lava came from a costume from a "movie plan" that she favoured. What? You have a deep impression of that movie? That's excellent, Miss Lava must be looking forward to your reaction. Next, please continue to watch over Miss Lava's growth, give her plenty of encouragements, and help Miss Lava achieve her dream!

[Special notice: compliments to Miss Lava does not include "you've gotten along well with your sister", please keep that in mind.]

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Purgatory (Lava Alter) is a 5★ AoE Caster and the first of our Operator Alters!  She has increased SP on her first deployment, and increases the Initial SP of allied Casters.  She can increase her attack range and hit multiple targets, or create a massive area firewall effect around herself and an ally!

Talents and Skills

Archetype: AoE Caster

Trait: Deals AOE Arts Damage

Talent: Gain a certain amount of SP after the first deployment. When deployed, all other allied Casters gain initial SP

Skill 1: During skill activation, increase Attack Range and ATK. Attacks target 2 enemies simultaneously.

Skill 2: During skill activation, stop attacking enemies. Immediately target the Operator with the highest HP within attack range, granting them and herself a flame shroud which deals a certain amount of Arts Damage to all nearby enemies every second.

First Impressions

Note: These are first impressions and based on conjecture since we don’t know the exact details. 

AoE Casters (not including Ifrit the Burninator) are one of the most maligned Archetypes in Arknights, and for good reason:  their small attack range and slow ASPD leads to low DPS despite their slightly higher ATK stats. Their attacks do "splash" damage around a single target rather than "true AoE", and their high DP Costs can make it difficult to deploy them, and creates huge opportunity cost when they are deployed.  So the major questions is: Can Purgatory overcome these Archetypal drawbacks?

Both skills effectively increase her range (one drawback), and increase her coverage and potential DPS (another drawback) with S1 offering multi-attacks and S2 providing a "True AoE"  Her effective damage will, of course, depend on her stats and will still likely require a large number of enemies being hit to justify her use.

Her Talent does provide some small utility by increasing her SP on first deploy and increasing Caster Initial SP when she is deployed.  The biggest issue with this is, the high DP costs of AoE Casters often make them difficult to deploy early on maps, especially the most difficult ones, limiting its potential usefulness.

Whether Purgatory can overcome the AoE Caster stigma seems like it will ultimately depend on whether her Skills can push her DPS high enough to justify the DP Cost, but it looks like many of the typical drawbacks will remain to hold her back, without strong utility to justify her in other situations.

GIFs and Art

Can be found here.