New Year Peony

Weapon: Bond of the Álfar / Weaponless

Assist: Gentle Dream

Special: Moonbow

Passive A: Fury (3 or 4) / Life and Death (3 or 4)

Passive B: Aerobatics / Wings of Mercy

Passive C: Ground Orders / Distant Guard / Guidance

Sacred Seal: Guidance / Aerobatics

• Peony and Triandra excel in a supportive role thanks to their personal skills, Flier status, and Duo skill.
  • Bond of the Álfar helps allies within cardinal directions secure KOs through its +6 Attack buff during combat. However, for Aether Raids Defense, it may be best for the Álfar duo to be weaponless; the AI will attack with refreshers if they deal at least 5 damage, and with Peony and Triandra’s 34 Attack and Bond of the Álfar’s 14 Might, this is a very realistic situation. A large part of what makes the duo stellar is Gentle Dream, so sacrificing Bond of the Álfar in exchange for guaranteeing that they refresh is a viable choice.
  • Gentle Dream’ grants +3 to all stats and the “unit can move adjacent to an ally within 2 spaces” status to the refreshed ally and allies within cardinal directions of the Álfar duo or the refreshed ally, allowing for immense flexibility/mobility and helping to secure KOs and survivability.
  • Peony and Triandra have a myriad of mobility options to choose from thanks to their status as a Flier.
  • Finally, their Duo skill allows them to refresh 2 allies in 1 turn and grant Gentle Dream’s buffs to more allies, further increasing the team’s flexibility.
• For a purely supportive set, the Álfar duo’s Special and A slot are not as important. Moonbow is chosen for their Special because of its high availability and low cooldown, while Fury is chosen for their A slot to grant them extra offenses and defenses in a pinch. Alternatively, they can go all in on their offenses via Life and Death to soak Chill Atk, Chill Spd, and the Bright Shrine for their allies.
• Aerobatics allows the duo to warp adjacent to a non-Flier ally within 2 spaces, making it an excellent choice for their own mobility and for having a deceptively large range. Guidance fulfills a similar role, but for their allies rather than for themselves, allowing non-Flier allies within 2 spaces to warp a space adjacent to the Álfar duo.
• While Gentle Dream already grants a Ground Orders-esque buff, Ground Orders in the Álfar duo’s C slot allows them to grant this movement buff before they refresh, which is very helpful for range extension in Aether Raids Defense. Due to sniping with ranged units being a common Aether Raids Offense strategy, Distant Guard can be used to help ensure that will not occur, granting +4 Def/Res to allies within 2 spaces during combat if they are initiated against by a ranged unit.

Weapon: Bond of the Álfar / Gronnblade+ 

Assist: Gentle Dream / Positional Assist

Special: Glimmer

Passive A: Atk/Spd Push 4 / Swift Sparrow (2 or 3) / Fury (3 or 4) 

Passive B: Wings of Mercy / Desperation / Aerobatics

Passive C: Spd/Res Rein / Joint Drive Atk

Sacred Seal: Heavy Blade / Swift Sparrow / Atk/Spd Solo

• Although the Álfar duo already performs incredibly well as a pure support unit, they can also fulfill a hybrid or even general offense set. 
• Hybrid:
  • Bond of the Álfar, Gentle Dream, and their Duo skill help Peony and Triandra fulfill the supportive part of a hybrid set. Bond of the Álfar’s +6 Attack to allies in cardinal directions during combat helps significantly with ensuring KOs, Gentle Dream’s movement and stat buffs allow for flexible and creative positioning/retreating, and their Duo skill provides an extra security blanket through practically being a second Gentle Dream, just exclusive to the adjacent ally with the highest HP. Wings of Mercy is a strong B slot option, allowing the duo to warp to allies with ≤ 50% HP and refresh them to escape potentially troublesome situations.
  • For the offensive part of a hybrid set, Atk/Spd Push 4 and Spd/Res Rein are great options, effectively granting the duo +11 Atk/Spd if their HP is ≥ 25%. Swift Sparrow is a strong alternative, with its Atk/Spd increases only being dependent on the duo initiating, which should occur often since Enemy Phasing with them is very undesirable due to their low defenses. If using Desperation instead of Wings of Mercy to allow the duo to perform their follow-up attack before the enemy can counterattack if their HP is ≤ 75%, Atk/Spd Push 4 and Fury work especially well because of their recoil damage. The combination of Desperation and Heavy Blade allows the duo to activate a 2-cooldown Special such as Glimmer before the enemy can counterattack if their HP is ≤ 75% and no Guard effect is active.
• Offensive:
  • As with the hybrid set, Atk/Spd Push 4 and Spd/Res Rein are excellent starting points since they effectively grant +11 Atk/Spd.
  • Gronnblade grants the duo an Attack bonus equal to the sum of their visible buffs, making it their best weapon as long as they can receive visible buffs. Glimmer is an especially strong Special since its 50% bonus damage scales based on Gronnblade’s Attack bonus. Since offensive sets commonly focus on sweeping through the enemy team on Player Phase, replacing Gentle Dream with a Positional Assist so they can receive refreshes is a viable choice.
  • Because of Gronnblade’s +1 Special cooldown, the duo can no longer activate their Special on their follow-up attack using the bread and butter combination of Glimmer + Desperation + Heavy Blade, so Heavy Blade can be replaced with Swift Sparrow or Atk/Spd Solo to further boost their offenses.