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Should You Summon: July 2021 Gala Remix Hinomoto Summer Ft. Gala Leonidas

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Should You Summon: July 2021 Gala Remix Hinomoto Summer Ft. Gala Leonidas

Summer Wow

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 back to another Should You Summon article, an opinion piece to analyse and discuss whether the latest released or returning focus units are worth utilising your saved currency. This banner brings with it Hinomoto units with a summer aesthetic: the wyrmclan leaders Mitsuhide and Ieyasu, and the pactbound dragon Marishiten. Besides these three it would not be a gala remix banner without the rate up of a previous focus gala adventurer or dragon. For this banner Gala Leonidas takes up the slot, arguably the most versatile meta unit within the flame element.

Before we go any further, it is important to note that all units on focus rate on this banner are limited. This means that Summer Ieyasu, Mitsuhide and Marishiten will not be added to the permanent pool and will instead make their return whenever the develops choose to rerun them. As such, if you are interested in any of these new units now would be the best time to pick them up, as they will most likely not appear again for several months.

The Unrelenting Ocean

The first wyrmclan leader to be added to Dragalia Lost, Ieyasu returns in a casual summer attire and sporting a different weapon and element type to boot. As a water sword unit, Ieyasu boasts a offensive kit to compete with the likes of Xander, whose strong force strike passives and scaling skills based on the amount of buffs he possesses allows him to have a niche in the Legend Ayaha and Otaha fight. This is in stark contrast to the support-oriented adventurers Summer Celliera and Eugene, whose utility is superseded by the amazing critical damage utility of Mitsuba, or the added survivability provided by Gala Elisanne.

Starting with his skills, his first skill Unrelenting Waves initially deals two hits of 450% damage at a base SP cost of 2,714. However, this skill is unique in that, upon successful connection, it will activate skill shift and immediately ready the next variant of it for use. Phase 2 then deals the same damage, as well as having an 80% base chance to inflict bleed and immediately readying the next phase of this skill. Phase 3 is the final variant, dealing the same damage and afflictions of Phase 2 while also boasting the ability to dispel a buff and inflict an enemy with frostbite. The skill will then revert to its original form, and the player will need to build SP again to utilise it. In total, the skill can deal 2,700% damage over 6 hits if the player decides to utilise the three phases in succession. Considering that the animation for each skill is relatively short, the full version does not too long to come out and has the added flexibility of being paused if the player needs to reposition themselves due to the movements of a boss, or an incoming unavoidable attack.

His second skill Wyrmgrace Wave also has two phases but is a lot simpler to comprehend compared to Unrelenting Waves. Both phases deal 1 hit of 2,100% damage, or 2,520% damage if the enemy is afflicted by bleed, at a theoretically amazing SP cost of 3,372. I say theoretically as the timeframe for his full skill 1 animations to come out does extend the time between successive use of this skill. But ultimately, it is still a fantastic damage dealer, with the Phase 2 version having the added effect of granting himself a strength amp. Do note that Summer Ieyasu can also reach a team strength amp level of 3 like other Gala adventurers, as well as the recently released summer versions of Mym and Alex.

His passive abilities further compliment add synergy to his already well-rounded setup. His first passive Bleeding Devastator provides a 15% critical rate bonus whenever the enemy he is facing is suffering from the bleed debuff. Meanwhile, his second passive adds 20% to the critical damage modifier, allowing him to punish his enemies more with his excellent critical rate thanks to his previously aforementioned passive, as well as a combination of additional wyrmprints, co-abilities, and if available the agito weapon skill. The final thing to mention is his chain co-ability Frostbite = User strength, which provides a 13% strength buff for 15 seconds upon successful infliction of frostbite (10 second internal cooldown).

Overall, Summer Ieyasu possesses an excellent damage kit that will see him find a respectful place with water teams. The biggest hurdle he faces currently is a lack of relevant endgame content to make the most out his offensive utility. Due to the nature of the Legend Ayaha and Otoha fight, he does not possess the high hit count possibilities that allow him to deal with the clones that spawn during the fight in a short time frame. He also for the most part is outclassed by Xander in relevance for reasons stated before. Even with his dispel utility, he is still outclassed over the excellent dispel, damage and high hit count utilities already provided by Lapis and Gala Mascula.

Water also only possesses one endgame Rise of the Sinister Dominion fight in the form of Master Lilith, and here we already have some solid staple options for frostbite uptime, such as Pinon or Tiki, or dispelling, such as Lapis and Finni. The one advantage he does against this competition is the ability to activate the bleeding punisher effect found on wyrmprints thanks to his Unrelenting Waves skill. Due to the small bonus water teams have the possibility of now running dual punisher loadouts with a frostbite punisher, which while only being a 10% damage bonus, is enough of a significant contribution. As such, I can only recommend summoning for him as of now if you do not possess a solid damage unit in water who can provide excellent utility and additional punisher access in the Master Lilith fight, or for future water Rise of the Sinister Dominion fights.

Recommended Builds

A standard damage co-ability setup of critical rate, strength and skill damage found on a majority of dagger, blade and wand adventurers will help further his ability to dish out the pain to any enemies in his path. For the dagger and wand slots, consider choosing Dragonyule Cleo and Yurius as your backline to extend the amount of time a combo can be kept between hits, and the amount of dragon gauge you get in a fight.

For wyrmprints, the following setup is a good starting point to get the most out of his adventurer kit, with a combination of prints which provide skill damage, strength, critical rate, and punisher bonuses. This setup is:

  • The Shining Overlord (+40% Skill Damage (Sword))
  • Memory of a Friend (+20% Flurry Strength)
  • Dragonyule Dreaming (+10% Bleeding Punisher)
  • The Queen of the Knife (+10% Flurry Devastation)
  • His Clever Brother (+20% Frostbite Punisher)

As per usual, the water element has some of the best capabilities of enabling doublebuff, and as such consider running at least one strength doublebuff print and one critical damage doublebuff print in these teams. These prints are:

  • Felyne Hospitality or Super Soaking Androids (+15% Critical Damage Doublebuff)
  • The 5-star Brothers in Arms (+13% Strength Doublebuff) or 4-star Sisters of the Anvil (+10% Strength Doublebuff)

Why Do These Mouse's Seek Revenge?

Summer Mitsuhide enters the game as the third flame dagger adventurer, joining the likes of Gala Laxi and Ezelith, who have for the most part continued to see meta utility in endgame content. Like those two, it seems that flame dagger adventurers will continue to possess unique kits, as Summer Mitsuhide has an intriguing hybrid burst kit that provides a bit more flexibility compared to the adventurer Chrom.

We will start with her second skill Dance of the Cornered Mouse, which grants her a ‘Sizzling Flower’ effect each time it is used (maximum of 3 can be hold at any one time), and a strength amp for each second use (team strength amp level of 3), for an SP cost of 4,110. This ‘Sizzling Flower’ effect is tied to her first skill Mouse’s Summer Revenge, which, at an SP cost of 2,720, normally deals 11 hits of 102% damage, and inflicts scorchrend. While Summer Mitsuhide possesses one of these ‘Sizzling Flower’ effects, this skill consumes one of these effects to enhance to Mouse’s Midsummer Revenge, which will instead deal 20 hits of 90% damage, and 1 hit of 349% damage, while also immediately readying the skill for use again. This skill also possesses a scorchrend punisher modifier, which scales based on the combo count of the unit up to a maximum bonus of 150% at 50 hits, meaning that it can deal approximately 3,223%.

Now you would be thinking that the potential implications of saving up three of these ‘Sizzling Flower’ effects and unleashing 3 of these skill in succession during a break phase could be rather broken. And the developers have thought ahead with her first passive ability Squeaky Scramble II. This passive ability reduces the damage dealt by hear first skill, as well as the skill that you can use in dragon form, by 15% while in break state. That said, the counteraction to balance this is that she is granted a permanent 5% attack rate increase, and further 10% while her first skill is available to use. Hence, the ideal play for her is to ensure that her first skill is always ready to use to get the most of her 15% attack rate increase, as it would allow her to utilise her second skill sooner, as well as additional skill shares, she may possess.

This ability also works while in dragon form, allowing her to utilise more standard attacks of a dragon compared to other adventurers within the flame element, which is a significant advantage when options such as Gala Mars and Gala Reborn Agni are available. Her second passive meanwhile Flurry Scorchrent Punisher increases her damage to scorchrent enemies by 35% when the combo count is 15 or higher.

Overall, Summer Mitsuhide’s versatile kit will make another excellent addition to the flame meta offensive lineup. While she may not be able to unleash her powerful first skill as often as she likes thanks to the limitations of her passive ability, as well as the cost of her second skill to attain the more potent version, her attack rate buff combined with her raw modifiers well make up for it. This is also on top of a strong dragon form, as well as outputting powerful skill shares more frequently, and an additional innate punisher passive ability. And ultimately, even with the break punisher negative modifier, being able to save multiple ‘Sizzling Flower’ effects for a first skill burst option during break, is still going to be significantly better than what other flame options can deal.

Her only deficit will be scorchrend uptime on an enemy to ensure the punisher modifier can be used. The though is completely negated due to the popularity Gala Leonidas and to an extent Summer Alex for scorchrend enablers. However, while she does possess excellent damage to rival other flame adventurers, there is a better option to summon for on this banner. As such, I only recommend her if you need to improve your flame team with better damage options that what you currently possess.

Recommended Builds

A standard flame co-ability setup of Kimono Elisanne, a strength boost and a skill damage boost to capitalise on her high damage modifiers will serve her well to unleash her mouse army on her foes. Alternatives though to these co-abilities include a critical damage boost (found on Halloween Mym), followed by skill haste (found on bow adventurers). If you are playing in content without the Curse of Nihility debuff, the Above 10 hits = strength (found on Marth) and Above 10 hits = critical rate (found on Serena) chain co-abilities are also good alternatives.

For wyrmprints, a standard flame damage setup will do her well to make the most out of punishing afflictions, and boosting skill damage, strength, critical and critical damage. This setup is as follows:

  • Me and My Bestie! (+30% Burning Punisher)
  • The Cutie Competition (+25% Scorchrent Punisher)
  • Memory of a Friend (+20% Flurry Strength)
  • A Small Courage (+20% Skill Damage)
  • A Passion for Produce (+12% Critical Rate (Daggers))
  • Savage Hawk (Lance’s Boon) or Mask of Determination (Bow’s Boon) (Both have Sword Psalm III)
  • Any of the 20% skill damage Rise of the Sinister Dominion wyrmprints

In the event you can only run one of these punishers, consider running a critical damage boosting wyrmprints such as Moonlight Party instead. Alternatively, if you have access to running poison in a fight such as Legend Volk via a skill share you can run a poison punisher print such as A Man Unchanging.

Beach-Ready Dragon

Our first new dragon to appear on a Gala Dragon remix banner since Horus, Summer Marishiten brings passive abilities and gala might to attempt to rival the current king of water dragons, Gala Reborn Poseidon. And she may be just worthy of that starting with her abilities, which provide a blanket 70% strength increase to water attuned adventurers, as well as the Wyrm of War effect. This effect fills the skill gauge of adventurers at the beginning of a quest and grants a sizeable 40% skill damage bonus when the user has a team strength amp running. On adventurers who are reliant on their skills to inflict the most amount of pain on their foes this has the potential to be best in slot or at the very least extremely competitive to that of Gala Reborn Poseidon. The biggest downside is the team strength amp condition. Without a dedicated water amp unit released in the game, the timeframe to get a team strength amp running means that her passives will significantly full behind Gala Reborn Poseidon in an amp team. No dedicated water amp unit also means that maintaining consistent team strength amp time could prove to be a challenge without running 3 units who can attain a team strength amp level of 3 to stretch out for the longest possible period.

However, one area where she will most likely shine for now while we wait for this dedicated amp unit is Master Lilith. This is thanks to her dragon skill Barelling Boars, which deals 1 hit of 1800% damage, inflicts bleed, and grants the entire team a team strength amp (maximum level of 2). In the Master Lilith scenario, you can simply save enough dragon gauge entering the water phase of the fight to shapeshift into Summer Marishiten and activate this skill, immediately reaping her benefits. Other players can then shapeshift later in the fight to extend the team strength amp duration or level it up while untransformed players with amp access build their own personal team strength amp. And considering water has a wide variety of amp availability currently, this should not pose too much of a trouble to possibly and keep for the duration of that side. Based on this future potential, I would recommend attaining a copy of her, as a pure water amper will make her a possible best in slot over Gala Reborn Poseidon for skill damage-oriented adventurers, and at the very least a great alternative to add additional damage to your solo teams.

Return of the First Scion

The final focus unit on this banner is Gala Leonidas, and there is not much to say if you have been keeping track with the flame meta, particularly when it comes to Rise of the Sinister Dominion fights. Gala Leonidas is an excellent well-rounded damage unit thanks in no small part to:

  • Synergistic passives with his excellent scorchrend uptime
  • Great skill damage which covers a wide area to clear additional enemies on a battlefield
  • Excellent force strike damage due to the nature of rapid fire manacasters
  • A strong dragon form that can be quickly obtained due to his chain co-ability
  • Dispel utility
  • A personal strength and damage reduction buff that does not get nullified
  • The ability to shred the overdrive gauge in Legend Agito

If you have been struggling in any flame endgame content, whether that is getting cooperative rooms or clearing solo content, I strongly recommend you make this a priority summon as he defines the flame meta at the time of writing.

Conclusions

On Summoning Rates and Wyrmsigils

  • As is tradition, Gala banners will always possess a boosted 5-star rate chance of 6%
  • The three focus adventurers have an individual summoning rate of 0.5%, while the dragon boasts an 0.8% chance.
  • Besides these 4 units, the dragon Horus is the only other sparkable unit from the banner

Final Verdict: Yes

All 4 characters are excellent limited units that will bolster your endgame teams immensely, particularly in the case of Gala Leonidas presently and Summer Marishiten in the future. The two wyrmclan leaders meanwhile possess excellent damage and make good secondary prizes to the main stars of the banner. This is the best banner in recent memory to summon on if you want to bolster two elemental teams for the price of one.

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