Poison Strike 3

This skill has a lot of interesting details which make it a niche, but useful ability to have. Poison Strike deals ten flat damage to an enemy when you initiate an attack on them. The damage itself has some unique properties: It is neither physical nor magical, and completely ignores all defenses. However, it is also non-lethal. Similar to Fury’s damage, it will never reduce a foe’s HP below one. These properties make it a great skill to wear down high-defense or resistance foes.

Poison Strike’s flat damage is ideal for wearing down enemies with high defenses. It can be a handy way for units with low attack to deal some extra damage. The damage is not applied twice if the user has high speed, meaning low speed units can take advantage of it. It’s best suited for ranged units with low attack, such as dagger-users, who can cause significant stat debuffs along with their attacks. Consider pairing them up with a Sing/Dance user to get a KO within one turn. A unit with Poison Strike can also help training low-leveled units in the training tower, by weakening foes for them to finish off.

Requiring the user Poison Strike to initiate attacks is the first weakness of this skill, immediately making them prone to counter-attacks. Enemies with Distant Counter, Quick Riposte or both are especially deadly to users of Poison Strike, as they will often trade back heavy damage when attacked. Users must also beware of skills such as Vantage which may KO low-defense users of Poison Strike. Its non-lethal damage also means that the support of a team-mate is often required to secure the KO. The best defense vs. a Poison Strike user is the Distant Counter + Quick Riposte skill combo.