"Sharkitect" Architect - NVW Model (Protocol Assimilation)

Level 100 5★ -> Level 100 5★ Maximum Potential

Unlike G&K Dolls, Ringleaders provide their Buffs to any unit in the Echelon that is tagged appropriately, making positioning less important. Instead, they operate via a series of 'Tags'. 

Team Building Notes

Sharkitect's explosion buff heavily favours Manticores and Jaguars, so pairing her with those units is highly recommended.

Levelling up her Skill 3 to reduce the cooldown between knockback is also highly recommended, even if it's just a 2-second cooldown. Coupled with the Manticores' knockback, a team with Sharki and them can keep the enemy from shooting the Manticores for a good portion of the fight.

Architect-NVW, Summer Architect, Beach Architect, SharkiTect, or Sharki, depending on the writer, audience and location slightly makes up for her base form being late to the Protocol Assimilation Party by being the first 'Alt' we've gotten from the system. Armed with a new and improved SharkRocket and ditching the HOC abilities, this new and improved Architect is here to make a splash.

Putting aside my miserable idea of humor, Architect has several major changes to her kit which prove to be great boons on the battlefield.

While not a change from her original form, a nice flat boost to explosion damage for both her, and her Echelon is a welcome boon for Architect and her Echelon. This affects Architect herself, as well as any Jaguars or Manticores she’s fielded with. Note, that not all Manticore attacks are typed as explosive, only the Skill 1 volley.

The first and most obvious change is that this Architect no longer has a strange 4 hit-per-cycle with an extra grenade every so often mechanic or the ability to function as a HOC, instead switching to a straight forwards mode switch, wherein she either attacks enemies directly, while stacking a RoF and Crit Rate Buff, or employs an AoE attack, firing shark rockets in return for a RoF debuff (50-25%). This creates a fairly simple trade off; if enemies are spread out, Architect will perform best staying in her standard attack mode, leveraging her Rate of Fire buff and strong base Damage stat, as well as a passable 100 Armor Pen. However against groups of mobs, she will want to switch to the Rocket, as a repeatable AoE works wonders when clearing out enemies. Thus, adapting which firing mode is used to the situation is recommended to maximize her performance.

Architect's active Skill is, again, a change and a mostly straight forwards one. For those familiar with KSVK's mod Skill, this behaves in a similar way. Architect fires a shot at the nearest enemy, inflicting linksplash explosive damage to the target and enemies in a sizable cone behind them. This can be very good for blowing away groups of weaker enemies or clearing up remaining trash behind a single big target, but it can be finicky to use as there is a long windup animation and you are thus locked out of auto attacks for a long time. Against single big targets with no enemies behind them, holding off on this skill is therefore advised.

Finally, the major selling point for Architect is that she is yet another source of Knockback and slow for Coalition Echelons. And she has the Cool Talent from the Beach Fairy baked in, if you care about that. While Manticores have kept the Coalition Echelons Knockback game strong this entire time, adding an additional source, for an Echelon that doesn't have a Manticore, or simply as another source of Knockback can hardly go wrong. This has all the same stipulations as normal, failing to move enemies who are attacking and so on, but is nonetheless a powerful tool.

All in all, Architect discards a lot of the flash and broad utility of her previous form, in favor of a more streamlined kit that focuses on exactly what it needs. Firing explosive sharks at her enemies and then drowning the remains.