Ascended Ishtar

Weapon: Thunder's Mjölnir

Assist: Positional Assist / Flexible

Special: Luna / Moonbow / Flexible

IVs: +Spd or +Atk / -Def

Passive A: Life and Death 4 / Atk/Spd Boosting A Slot

Passive B: Lull Spd/Res / Windsweep / Null Follow-Up

Passive C: Time’s Pulse / Flexible

Sacred Seal: Blade Session / Flexible

• Ishtar’s base kit gives her many of the best skills she needs to succeed. She can charge Luna by 1 with Time’s Pulse, leaving it at 1 cooldown before she initiates combat and allowing her to activate it on the second attack. Alternatively, she can use Moonbow or another 2-cooldown Special to allow her to fully charge it using Time’s Pulse and activate it immediately. This deals more damage against foes using Deflect Magic and foes that are fast enough so that she doesn’t strike twice when initiating, but less against most others, so the choice is left up to the player. 
• +Spd is generally the best boon, since Ishtar needs to beat her foe’s Spd by at least 10 points in order to strike twice. +Atk is also quite good to improve her damage. Since she is an Ascended Hero, she can freely take both of these boons without using an Ascended Floret. -Def is generally the best bane since her Def is generally too low to be useful, especially if using Life and Death. 
• The A slot is flexible. Life and Death 4 provides a large and consistent boost of 7 to Ishtar’s Atk and Spd, at the cost of reducing her Def and Res by 5, which is generally not a problem. Other skills like Atk/Spd Ideal 4 may provide a larger potential boost but under more restrictive conditions; Atk/Spd Ideal in particular boosts Atk and Spd by up to 9, but only if Ishtar is at 100% HP and has some kind of visible buff like March or an Atk buff. 
• Lull Spd/Res is a great choice of B skill, since lowering her foe’s Spd makes it easier for Ishtar to strike twice, and lowering their Res improves her damage. Windsweep can be used to deny counterattacks from slower physical foes, particularly those using skills like Deflect Magic that may be able to survive two hits. Null Follow-Up is another solid choice that disables any effects that prevent Ishtar’s follow-up attack or guarantee her foe a follow-up attack, but this is generally not as useful as the other two options since Ishtar will often be KO’d if she gets counterattacked and thus have no chance to follow-up. 
• The seal is flexible. Blade Session provides a large potential boost of up to 9 Atk and Spd when initiating combat if two of Ishtar’s allies are present on the field and have ended their turn before she acts. Other seals like Atk/Spd Solo and Life and Death provide smaller but more consistent boosts to the same stats. 

Weapon: Thunder's Mjölnir

Assist: Positional Assist / Flexible

Special: Blazing Wind / Flexible

IVs: +Atk / -HP or -Def or -Res

Passive A: Life and Death 4

Passive B: Special Spiral

Passive C: Time’s Pulse / Flexible

Sacred Seal: Life and Death / Atk +3

• Ishtar can also take advantage of Special Spiral and her high Atk to repeatedly unleash powerful Blazing Winds or other similar Specials. This build is similar to those commonly used on heroes like Ophelia, but Ishtar has the advantage of a higher base Atk stat, as well as multiple effects in Thunder’s Mjolnir that set her apart: as long as she is above 25% HP, the immunity to effects like Guard means she can always gain 1 charge from attacking in combat even if her foe is using a skill like Mirror Stance 3, and she also strikes twice in combat if she initiates against a foe 10 or more Spd slower than her. 
• Ishtar does need some help to charge Blazing Wind initially. Its cooldown is reduced to 3 by Thunder’s Mjolnir, and Time’s Pulse charges it by 1 at the start of turn 1. Quickened Pulse seal can be used instead of Life and Death, but this reduces Ishtar’s damage significantly so it is generally not recommended unless necessary. Teammates with Infantry Pulse are very helpful, as well as others such as Legendary Hector or Velouria. Failing that, she can also charge it the old-fashioned way by attacking enemies.  
• If Ishtar activates Blazing Wind before combat, Special Spiral will activate after combat, reducing its charge by 2. As long as she gains 1 special charge by attacking in combat, this means it is fully charged every time. 
• Blazing specials use out-of-combat stats for damage calculation, so Life and Death is the best choice of A slot and seal.