Grizzly

Overview

Grizzly is a launch 5★ HG that’s here to keep your streets safe! Like a lot of launch dolls, Grizzly is extremely simple, but nevertheless a great option.

Grizzly is primarily about boosting Firepower. Her tiles carry a hefty FP buff and her skill boosts the FP of the team even further. If you have her Special Equipment from login, her skill will also give a slight Rate of Fire boost. That’s pretty much all there is to her. Her simplicity leads to great versatility, with her very rarely being a bad choice in most echelons. After all, who doesn’t love more Firepower? She even brings an Evasion buff too, helpful for if she’s buffing a main tank as well.

Grizzly still has a notable downside. Being so basic does mean she’s also nothing special. In general, the meta likes specialization, and as such other specialized options will be favored over Grizzly in different opportunities. With that being said though, this is much less prevalent for HGs than it is for other classes. 

Simple and reliable is what you can expect from Grizzly. A choice that will never let you down, but won’t be always topping the charts for HG picks. If you’re new and you happen to roll her after 5 consecutive IDWs, then she’s definitely worth investing into. If you’re a veteran and somehow don’t have her yet because IDW loves you way too much, then she is still a great investment. You can’t ever have enough HGs after all.

Strengths

Firepower Boosting

Grizzly’s tiles carry a substantial 30% Firepower boost to anyone on them. On top of this, her skill Fire Command will buff the team’s Firepower by 25%. If you have her Special Equipment, she will also give a 8% Rate of Fire buff.

Versatile

Grizzly is one of the most universal HGs available. Her simplicity leads to her being usable in practically any echelon you can think of. More Firepower with a bit of Rate of Fire thrown on is never a detriment. She can also be easily switched between Position 4 and 5, something only a few other HGs can do, such as K5.

Weaknesses

Nothing Special

How much this is considered a weakness will vary from person to person, but it’s nevertheless something worth taking note of.

Grizzly’s simplicity also means she lacks specialization. With nothing unique to her besides a lot of Firepower boosting, and a bit of Rate of Fire with her SPEQ, she can lag behind more specialized options when the need is there. She is also competing against other Firepower boosters as well, such as SAA Mod and Stechkin Mod.

Full Analysis

Grizzly -- with her potent Damage-buffing ability derived from both her skill and her buff tiles -- serves as a semi-versatile support for many teams.

Grizzly provides the second strongest Damage buff overall ingame, with a 30% Damage buff from her tiles along with a 25% Damage buff from her skill. Due to HGs requiring less Resources to use, Grizzly can be slotted into a team to make the Resource cost of running the Echelon cheaper while often matching or even raising the overall damage output of the formation compared to other compositions. Grizzly also provides a 20% Evasion buff to the tank directly in front of her, helping the tank sustain their HP.

There are many factors, however, that should be considered while using Grizzly; first and foremost, a thing to consider is her spot in the Echelon. Although Grizzly has an HP stat befitting a tank -- with one of the highest HP stat out of all HGs -- unfortunately, as she has low Evasion, she is not fit for the position of a main tank. In addition, due to the way Grizzly’s  buff tiles are arranged, her tiles end up buffing one or no damage dealers if she is placed as a sub tank. Therefore, the only effective position for her is in between two damage dealers, replacing a damage dealer in the case of an AR+SMG team.

The second factor to consider when using Grizzly is unique to AR+SMG Echelons. Due to her most effective position being in the back column along with the damage dealers, it raises the following question: can Grizzly can buff the Echelon enough to replace the deficiency left from removing a damage dealer? Additionally, as HGs in general give stronger buffs based on the number of Dummy Links they have, it is generally not recommended to use Grizzly in an AR+SMG Echelon until she has at least four Dummy Links along with a moderate skill level. This requires a notable time investment that may not be worth the benefits to some players.

A third factor to note is the strength of Grizzly’s Damage buff. HGs are most commonly used in HG+ RF echelons -- and because RFs already deal high damage, they often end up overkilling foes without the help of buffs. Grizzly’s damage buff, then, usually ends up wasted in this type of team composition. This, however, doesn’t mean Grizzly is completely useless in HG+RF echelons. Most starting players don’t have to worry about RF overkill, and Grizzly can provide the necessary buffs to jumpstart the damage output of an early HG+RF echelon. In addition, in many RoF HG+RF echelons, Grizzly can be utilized for the simple reason that there aren’t many other HGs that can fill that slot better than she can. Also of note is the fact that Grizzly also plays a vital role in Bamboo (OHKO) Echelons, where the goal is to buff the RFs with as much Damage as possible for one extremely powerful shot.

In conclusion, Grizzly is a solid Damage buffer that has versatile uses --  assuming the one using her possesses an understanding of her flaws. Although she doesn’t have maximum efficiency in any formation position and in any Echelon, she still provides adequate support for her class.

Team Options

WA2000

Lee Enfield

416

Gr G11

PKP

AN-94

AK-12

Lewis

R93

Kord

General Liu

RPK-203

Recommending team options for Grizzly is practically impossible. There isn’t a single DPS option that wouldn’t benefit from her. The listed dolls are simply random examples of strong DPS dolls.

Recommended Formations