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Should You Summon: December 2021 Gala Remix Banner Ft. Ayaha & Otoha, Gala Leonidas and Reborn Agni

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Introduction

December 2021 Gala Remix Banner Picture

Disclaimer: The opinions below are written by GamePress and do not actually reflect Nintendo or Cygames.... maybe. If they somehow do, it's merely coincidental!

Welcome to another edition of Should You Summon, a secondary opinion piece to help you decide whether to summon for the latest characters or not in the game. The middle of the month makes the release of another Gala Remix Banner, which features a previously released Gala adventurer and dragon on focus rates, and the addition of an entirely new unit. This time around, the banner is themed around providing boosts to your flame elemental team, with all three units having the capabilities to greatly ease the challenges you face in wind-attuned endgame content. Let’s begin with the biggest surprise of the bunch.

Twin Wings of Freedom

The first in which will most likely be a series released to come, Ayaha and Otoha, who appeared as the flame-attuned boss in the Agito Uprising endgame quests, gets released into the game as a playable flame adventurer. As a unit with dual tactics and playstyles, the developers have positioned these two as a staff-wielding adventurer, when neither utilise this weapon archetype. While we will learn later as to why the developers have chosen this weapon archetype for them, these two enter a playing field that offers a solid range of viable adventurers, from the overdamage and amps of Yukata Cassandra, to the energy and dispel utility of Valentine’s Hildegarde. As such, these two will have to provide a unique offering to make them a viable option in an already solid class.

Adventurer Overview

To begin with, the developers have circumvented the dual nature of the adventurer by making it so that the player can only control either Ayaha or Otoha at any time. However, they have tried to stay as true to the move sets and abilities that they presented in their boss fight as possible. This is tied to their first passive ability Union, which makes it so that player’s start the quest as Ayaha but can switch to Otoha and vice versa by utilising her first skill Nabe Nabe Sokonuke, which we will get to later. Both adventurers share identical stats, but their standard attacks, force strike, dash attack and second skill will differ. For reference, Ayaha shares the typical animations and SP gain of a dagger adventurer but possesses a unique force strike that shoots two darts in the chosen direction, piercing enemies and reducing their overall strength by 5% for 20 seconds (does not stack). Otoha meanwhile shares the force strike, standard attacks, and SP gains of an axe adventurer.

Union also grants Ayaha and Otoha the ability to shift into their awakened Agito form, Beast Ayaha and Otoha, regardless of the dragon they have equipped. While shapeshifted into this unique form, they attain the following benefits:

  • Shapeshift time is extended by 25%
  • Standard attacks lower enemy burn or scorchrend resistance by 20% for 30 seconds (does not stack).
  • A dragon strike which will deal damage to surrounding enemies, dealing 4 hits of 343% damage, and inflict stun and scorchrend.

Her first skill will also transform into Hana Ichi Monme, which will deal 7 hits of 396% damage to the target and nearby enemies, draw them together, restore 10% of damage inflicted as HP to the team (maximum of 10% of targeted unit’s maximum HP), as well as inflicting stun, burn and scorchrend. Moreover, this skill will grant the entire team a team strength amp (maximum strength amp level of 1, the ‘Purple Hagoromo’ effect for the remainder of the quest and increase the entire team’s maximum HP by 15%. The Purple Hagoromo effect provides the follows benefits:

  • Heals the user for 2% of their maximum HP every 2.9 seconds
  • Increase damage to stunned enemies by 10%, enemies inflicted with burn by 5%, and enemies inflicted by scorchrend by 5% respectively.

As you can see, a lot of her utility and damage will come from utilising her dragon form as much as possible. Due to this, they comes with the first skill Nabe Nabe Sokonuke, which deals 14 hits of 81% damage, fills the dragon gauge by 4% if the attack connects, removes all affliction from the entire team, and swaps the user from Ayaha to Otoha or vice versa, at an SP cost of 8.364. If Ayaha and Otoha used their second skill before Nabe Nabe Sokonuke, then their second skill will be immediately ready for use again. This allows the player to use the unique second skill of Ayaha and Otoha in quick succession.

Speaking of this second skill, the effect that it grants depends on whether the player is controlling Ayaha or Otoha. At an SP cost of 4,132, if Ayaha is in control, the skill used is Onigokko, which deals 1 hit of 1,395% damage to the target and nearby enemies, inflicts stun, restores HP to all teammates with 60% recovery potency, and grants the team a ‘Blue Hagoromo’ effect. This buff lasts for 30 seconds and stacks up to 3 times, each increasing the user’s wind resistance by 4% and gradually recovers the user’s HP with 18% recovery potency every 2.9 seconds. If the skill is used while Otoha is on the field though, Kagome Kagome will activate instead, dealing 1 hit of 1,048% damage to multiple targets and enemies, inflicts burn and scorchrend, restores HP to all teammates with 60% recovery potency, and grants them overdamage based off 40% of the user’s strength. This skill also grants the ‘Red Hagoromo’ effect, which lasts for 30 seconds and stacks up to 3 times, each increasing the user’s affliction success rate by 50%.

Going over the rest of their kit, Ayaha and Otoha gains additional benefits whenever they use their first and second skill, which is tied to their second passive ability Warabe Asobo. This passive ability provides the following benefits:

  • Using Nabe Nabe Sokonuke reduces susceptibility to affliction by 20% for the remainder of the quests (stacks up to 5 times)
  • Using the first skill or second skill will grant the user a strength amp (maximum team strength amp level of 1). This amp will not grant another amp for 8 seconds.

Her final passive ability Tosenbo and Toryanse will reduce the damage taken by 10% when not inflicted with any afflictions and grant the user a stack of ‘Playtime’ for every 9 seconds that pass in which the user is not inflicted by an affliction. Playtime, which stacks up to 3 times and is only lost upon being inflicted with an affliction, increases the user’s strength by 5% and the potency of their recovery skills by 10% per stack. To round her whole adventurer kit, Ayaha and Otoha come with the unique co-ability Dragon Damage, which increases the damage dealt while in dragon form by 20%.

Performance Summary

Overall, Ayaha and Otoha offers so much utility and damage to the player that it makes all other healers in the flame element look lacklustre. Her incredible damage output from her dragon form can certainly make up for her per modifiers while in adventurer form, if she can generate the dragon gauge needed. If she can though, she provides a significant number of benefits to the team in and out of beast form, including punisher effects, HP increases, permanent regen effect, affliction resistance down to the main afflictions within the flame element, a boost to inflict afflictions for adventurer within the team, and finally overdamage. The cherry on top for her adventurer kit would have been the ability to dispel buffs from the enemy, but that may have been too much power for one adventurer to possess. Even when not taking into consideration these benefits though, her potent dragon form has excellent enemy clearing potential due to the area of effect of her dragon strike and skill makes her a great choice for the Legend Jaldabaoth fight.

Ultimately, her one clear weakness is a lack of potent healing that an adventurer like Halloween Lowen has. However, currently there isn’t any significant content within the flame endgame that requires a significant amount of healing, besides the later levels of Mercurial Gauntlet. But the benefits that Ayaha and Otoha get from trading off potent healing allows them to act as an excellent fourth damage adventurer within a team, instead of wasting a slot on a unit who provides survivability. As such, if you do have the summoning currency to spend, I highly recommend summoning for these two, as they provide excellent damage, support, and respectable healing utility to ease your endgame challenges for the flame element.

Recommended Co-abilities

I would recommend at least taking a strength backline option to begin with, as a 10% boost to strength accounts for an increase in damage to skills, attacks, and dragon damage that they output. Outside of this, a critical rate boost would directly tie to helping her boost her incredible standard attack modifiers within dragon form. The two options that could be selected here are Yuya, who provides a 10% critical rate boost and an 18% dragon haste boost, or Kimono Elisanne, who can ramp up an adventurer’s critical rate by 20% (1% per 10-hit combo) if they can maintain their combo counter for the duration of the fight. If you were to run this, you may wish to run the adventurer Nobunaga as the strength co-ability backline, as she can increase the time it takes for the combo counter to reset between hits. For the final co-ability option, you could consider running a standard attack co-ability boost to improve her dragon form combo string or run a dragon haste co-ability to increase their dragon gauge fill rate.

Recommended Wyrmprints

Assuming excellent uptime on the scorchrend and burn affliction, I would recommend the following wyrmprint setup as a baseline to build the adventurer from:

  • Emissaries of the Heavens (+20% Flurry Strength)
  • Me and My Bestie! (or equivalent +30% Burning Punisher)
  • The Cutie Competition (or equivalent +25% Scorchrend Punisher)
  • Dueling Dancers (+10% Flurry Devastation)
  • Entwined Flames (+14% Dragon Damage)
  • Any 2 +20% Skill Damage Rise of the Sinister Dominion wyrmprints
Recommended Dragon

For the most part, Gala Reborn Agni and Gala Mars are interchangeable for dragon choice. Gala Reborn Agni ultimately provides the better damage passive ability with his 70% base strength increase and a 30% damage modifier for flame-attuned damage against wind-attuned enemies. Gala Mars only significant advantage over Agni is the skill prep provided at the end of a shapeshift, which may allow Ayaha and Otoha to enter their beast form faster if they are running dual skills which generate dragon gauge. Being able to utilise their supportive skills sooner could also provide more of a supportive boon to Gala Reborn Agni. Outside of the two Gala dragons, the next best permanent option would be either Cerberus or Agni, whose recent fifth unbind provides a base 65% strength passive and a further 30% strength buff for the first 3 minutes of the quest (immune to curse of nihility). For free to play players, your best bet is High Brunhilda, who provides a mixture of 40% strength and HP passive boosts, and a further 40% strength buff for the first three minutes of a quest (immune to curse of nihility).

The First Scion Returns

The featured Gala adventurer of the banner is Gala Leonidas, whose continues to maintain a firm hold of the flame-attuned meta. Gala Leonidas provides an excellent damage package that other adventurers could only hope to dream of. His first skill Sovereign Barrage provides scorchrend and damage that covers a respectable area of effect to eliminate all targets in front of him. His second skill Absolute Dominion meanwhile provides a more significant area of effect to clear enemies around him, dispel utility, and a unique buff that can reduce incoming damage and increase strength, depending on how many times it has stacked. To add further utility. Gala Leonidas’s chain co-ability provides additional shapeshift prep per 50-hit combo, as well as the Gala Mars unique dragon form that ever remains potent to this day. To cap his adventurer kit, his last passive ability provides a 30% scorchrend punisher effect, as well as an overdrive punisher effect to provide an easier time to bring an enemy to the break state. If you do not have Gala Leonidas, I would recommend summoning for him, as he continues to remain as a premier flame damage dealer.

The Reborn Firelord

The final unit to feature on the banner is that of Gala Reborn Agni, who is one of two premier dragons for the flame attuned element. He provides an excellent base 70% strength passive boost, and a 30% damage element boost whenever the adventurer attains 10% dragon gauge. Gala Reborn Agni also continues to impress with a strong dragon form, with excellent dragon skill modifiers and a standard attack combo string that continues to put the pressure on the player’s enemies. This also doesn’t account for the fact that his skill can be used twice, once again when their shapeshift concludes, allowing him to further provide more damage. If there was one reason as to why pulling for him may not be the best idea or could be the potential of another flame gala dragon being released over the next few months. Especially with the possible of Gala Beast Ayaha and Otoha being a possibility at the end of this month. As such, I would only recommend pulling for him if you truly lack good flame-attuned dragon options.

Conclusion

On summoning rates and wyrmsigils

  • A Gala summon showcase provides a boosted 6% adventurer summon rate over the 4% summoning rate of standard summoning banners.
  • Gala Leonidas and Ayaha & Otoha are summonable at 0.5% focus rates respectively, while Gala Reborn Agni is at a boosted 0.8% summoning rate.
  • Gala Leonidas and Gala Reborn Agni are the only limited units of this banner.
  • Outside of these three focus units, all other previous release Dragonyule units (besides Dragonyule Ilia and Dragonyule Nevin) are sparkable from this banner.

Final Verdict: Unless you are saving for the upcoming limited banners, summon

All units on offer here provide a substantial boost to your flame-attuned teams that it is hard to deny to not summon on the banner, besides the exception of saving for future banners. Whether it is the excellent damage, healing and support balance struck by Ayaha and Otoha, or the ease of use of Gala Leonidas, or the strong dragon form of Gala Reborn Agni, this is a great banner for any new or returning players to power up their flame-attuned teams.

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