Karel

• Preferred IV: +SPD or +ATK / -HP or -RES

• Weapon: Nameless Blade (+Eff)

• Assist: Reposition / Flexible

• Special: Luna / Moonbow

• Passive A: Life and Death / Fury

• Passive B: Wrath / Desperation

• Passive C: Infantry Pulse / Panic Ploy / Flexible

• Sacred Seal: Flashing Blade / Panic Ploy / Quick Riposte / Speed +3

This build revolves around maximizing Karel’s damage upon activating his Special. This makes a boon in Speed the most desirable nature that Karel can receive; not only does it improve his own ability to perform follow-up attacks, but it allows him to avoid getting doubled by all but those in the highest Speed tier. A boon in also Attack makes for an acceptable choice, as it increases Karel’s raw damage output making it a more effective choice against slower bulkier opponents. In particular, this can be the deciding factor in his matchup against Fallen Hardin.

Thanks to the cooldown acceleration provided by Nameless Blade, Karel can activate powerful Specials more frequently. For the Special itself, Luna makes for a great choice by being both powerful and consistent with Karel’s middling Attack. In addition to this, it also pairs exceptionally well with the Flashing Blade Sacred Seal by allowing him to activate his Special on every other hit when in Desperation range.This allows him to perform reliably in continuous combat.

Moving on to main skills, Life and Death is the choice A skill to maximize Karel’s offensive potential. While this may take away from his already low Defense and Resistance, his survivability is hardly affected. Karel will still have a Def/Res bulk of 70/65, making him difficult to kill in a single hit. Fury makes for another great option; not only does it improve his bulk at the cost of 2 Atk/Spd compared to Life and Death, the 6 damage recoil taken after combat synergizes well with skills such as Wrath and Desperation.

On the topic of Wrath and Desperation, they are both choice options for the B slot. Wrath increases the frequency as well as the potency of Karel’s Special activations. This makes Karel’s Specials even more destructive thanks to the combination of Nameless Blade and Wrath giving him a monstrous +20 damage on activation. In exchange for the sheer damage provided by Wrath, Desperation makes for another great choice by allowing Karel to safely perform follow-up attacks on initiation without the risk of getting killed by a counterattack.

Thanks to his extraordinarily high HP pool, Karel can utilize skills such as Infantry Pulse and Panic Ploy. These both provide fantastic team support, as Infantry Pulse accelerates the Special cooldown of all infantry allies with HP lower than him while Panic Ploy provides a massive advantage over teams that like to use Hone/Fortify buffs.

Karel can make very effective use of the Flashing Blade Sacred Seal thanks to his high Speed. This allows him to activate powerful Specials more frequently. If he isn’t already utilizing Panic Ploy in his C slot, it can also be run in the Sacred Seal slot. Quick Riposte is another choice that can be used to give Karel longevity against certain units that are too fast for him to double. In particular, this allows Karel to defeat opponents such as Ayra, Lucina, and Soleil in the Enemy Phase. Finally, Speed +3 is a great choice if you want to further improve Karel’s ability to perform follow-up attacks.

• Preferred IV: +SPD or +ATK / -HP

• Weapon: Nameless Blade (+Eff)

• Assist: Reposition / Flexible

• Special: Glimmer / Moonbow

• Passive A: Distant Counter

• Passive B: Wrath / Dull Ranged / Vantage

• Passive C: Infantry Pulse / Panic Ploy / Flexible

• Sacred Seal: Panic Ploy / Speed +3

Barring Dire Thunder and buffed Blade tomes, Karel’s magical bulk of 67 allows him to survive at least one hit from most mages. Coupled with his personal weapon and high Speed allowing him to avoid most follow-up attacks, Karel can serve as an effective ranged duelist by utilizing the skill Distant counter.

Thanks to the Special acceleration granted by Nameless Blade, Karel can bring the cooldown of Glimmer and Moonbow to only 1. This allows him to activate his Specials on his first counterattack every single time. Glimmer shines particularly in his matchups against mages due to them having lower physical bulk on average while Moonbow can be used to give Karel effectiveness against bulkier units.

Once again. Wrath is a great choice for his B skill. By gaining an additional +10 damage on Special activation, Karel will be able to swing even more matchups in his favor. Dull Ranged is another option that grants him immunity to Blade tomes by ignoring his opponent’s Hone/Fortify buffs. Finally, Vantage is another choice that can give him the potential to take out multiple opponents in the Enemy Phase assuming he has his Special ready.

Both Infantry Pulse and Panic Ploy remain great choices of C skill on Karel. Infantry Pulse provides team support by accelerating the Special cooldown of infantry allies while Panic Ploy increases Karel’s overall survivability, especially against opponents that utilize Hone/Fortify buffs. As for Sacred Seals, Panic Ploy will work just as well here. Distant Defense is a great choice for this Enemy Phase oriented playstyle, as it will reduce damage taken from all ranged opponents when initiated on. Outside of that, Speed +3 further improves Karel’s survivability by allowing him to avoid more follow-up attacks.