Gaius

• Preferred IV: +SPD or +ATK / -DEF or -RES
• Weapon: Lethal Carrot+ (+Spd) / Barb Shuriken+ (+Spd)
• Assist: Reposition / Flexible
• Special: Moonbow / Luna
• Passive A: Atk/Spd Solo / Life and Death / Swift Sparrow / Fury 
• Passive B: Desperation 
• Passive C: Odd Atk Wave / Flexible 
• Sacred Seal: Flashing Blade / Quickened Pulse / Speed +3 / Attack +3

An offensively oriented build that is greatly reliant upon Gaius’ ability to consistently activate his Special for his damage output. A Speed Asset is thus his best choice of IVs to enhance his ability to perform follow-up attacks and charge up his Special faster, though one can opt to take an Attack Asset to increase his raw damage outside of Special activations. 

Lethal Carrot is the star of this build, allowing Gaius to patch up his otherwise unimpressive offensive presence by granting him a flat +10 damage whenever his Special activates. To make the most use of this effect, it is recommended to run Lethal Carrot alongside Specials with low cooldowns such as Moonbow and Glimmer. However, Gaius’s low damage output makes him an extremely poor user of Glimmer, leaving Moonbow as his best option for a Special. Barb Shuriken is a more available option for his weapon but requires him to run Luna instead to circumvent the loss of +10 damage from Lethal Carrot. 

Atk/Spd Solo is Gaius’ A slot of choice and provides him with a considerable +6/+6 increase to his Attack and Speed stats respectively without costing him his defenses, provided that he has no adjacent allies. Should it be unavailable, Gaius also has other, more readily available options such as Swift Sparrow, Life and Death, and Fury. Similar to Atk/Spd Solo, Swift Sparrow offers his offensive presence a strong enhancement at no cost to his defenses. In exchange for a sharp cut to both of his defensive stats, Life and Death grants Gaius a slightly stronger boost than Swift Sparrow but is incredibly risky should he not be provided with the proper support. Fury is also a fantastic and safe alternative for his A slot, trading some of Swift Sparrow’s and Life and Death’s offensive power in favor of a solid improvement to his overall bulk. 

As for his B slot, Desperation is ideal to let him freely attack and perform follow-up attacks on his opponent without having to worry about being killed in retaliation once his health reaches its HP threshold. Odd Atk Wave can be taken as his C slot skill to give him a considerable boost to his damage output as well as allow him to provide team support on odd-numbered turns. However, it is not entirely a necessity for him to function and can be substituted for any C slot that best supports his team composition. 

Thanks to Gaius’s good Speed stat, he can utilize the Flashing Blade seal to great effect and use it to consistently activate his Special, even while under Desperation’s HP threshold. Alternatively, Gaius can run the Quickened Pulse seal with Barb Shuriken and Moonbow to potentially have his Special activate twice in his first round of combat. Otherwise, the Speed +3 and Attack +3 seals are both good choices to augment his offensive prowess. 

• Preferred IV: +SPD / -DEF or -RES or -HP
• Weapon: Smoke Dagger+ (+Spd) 
• Assist: Reposition / Flexible
• Special: Moonbow / Luna
• Passive A: Atk/Spd Solo / Life and Death 
• Passive B: Windsweep / Watersweep
• Passive C: Even Spd Wave / Savage Blow / Flexible
• Sacred Seal: Savage Blow / Phantom Spd 

In exchange for sacrificing his offensive potential, this build allows Gaius to act as a formidable supportive unit capable of crippling entire teams with a single strike. The Smoke Dagger is a fantastic choice of weapon for the purposes of this build and lets Gaius inflict a significant -6 Atk/Spd/Def/Res debuff on his target and on opponents within two spaces of said target. When paired with skills that cancel out counterattacks such as Windsweep and Watersweep, Gaius will be able to freely apply debuffs on the opposing team while remaining completely healthy, making him a great fit for a variety of different team compositions. 

A Speed Asset is his ideal choice of IVs for this build in order to have Windsweep/Watersweep activate as reliably as possible. When combined with a Speed refine on his weapon and Atk/Spd Solo, Gaius can reach a blistering 47 Speed (46 Speed if utilizing Life and Death as his A slot skill) without buffs, practically ensuring its activation on all but the fastest units in the game; this can be heightened even further through the use of the Phantom Speed seal but depending on the types of opponents one fights, it may prove to be overkill. The choice between Windsweep and Watersweep, however, is largely up to personal preference as the two skills have the same effect of canceling out counterattacks but differ in the type of opponents they affect. 

Even Spd Wave is an excellent C slot to further add on to Gaius’ overall utility, improving his ability to activate Windsweep/Watersweep as well as enabling him to provide even more team support. Should it be unavailable, one also has the option to run Savage Blow in his C slot and potentially his seal slot to stack chip damage on top of his debuffs. Although this chip damage can be debilitating to any opposing team, this can be an extremely effective strategy to slowly chip away at tanks who would otherwise be difficult to take out in a single round of combat.