MDR

Overview

MDR is a 5* hybrid AR who performs well as an AR, but can sacrifice performance to shield allies in front of her.

MDR’s skill has two outcomes. Upon skill activation, she checks the single tile directly in front of her. If no allies are there, she increases her own damage and rate of fire. If there is an ally, she gives them an HP shield and evasion.

The damage and rate of fire boost version, which comes when no ally is in front of her, is your typical hybrid self buff. Even when equipped with a #2 Processing chip, MDR does not give herself enough rate of fire to severely go over the 120 cap, which is nice. Does mean she can’t really use the rate of fire tiles from SMGs though. In this mode, her overall performance is comparable and occasionally better than Gr G41’s.

With her special equipment she performs even better. Since it’s a better version of a VFL she would prefer teams with fairies that have high critical damage aura to offset the chip problem.

MDR’s shield and evasion version is… sometimes more of an annoyance than something usable. It activates if any ally is on the tile in front of her. If it detects any ally, it will shield all allies on that tile, so yes this allows shielding your whole frontline if their movement is properly controlled.

Because of MDR’s tile buff shape, it’s very likely to have some ally positioned in front of her to take advantage of those tile buffs. So if no units are moved in combat, MDR’s shield mode will be used instead of her self buff mode. This can have synergistic properties such as increasing the survivability of frontline tanks, but can drag on the fight since one of your DPS units is now just doing less DPS. And to prevent this her allies need to vacate the tile in front of her. If that’s the case it might be more worthwhile using units that don’t require that much micromanagement to be functional, like Gr G41.

There are other potential applications of MDR’s shield if commanders are extremely HP shield starved and absolutely need one for some reason, but that’s pretty unlikely considering how many options are available: Rex Zero, P22, HS2000, Sei Asagiri, S.A.T.8, DP-12, M500 Mod II, UMP9 Mod II, etc.

Basically she’s mostly used for her slightly better than average DPS self buff, if one can work around her tile check skill.

Strengths

Nice Tile Buffs

65% accuracy and 25% damage in a shape that covers both SMGs in position 7 is very nice for offensive purposes.

High Base Firepower

56 firepower is higher than average for an AR.

HP Shield Source

In case all of the 50 other far better sources of HP shield are taken or unavailable, MDR can provide some.

Weaknesses

Rate of Fire Issues

When equipped with a #2 Processing chip, MDR reaches the rate of fire cap during her skill. This isn’t excessive enough to be a problem on its own, but it means she cannot really use any SMG rate of fire tiles.

Forces Movement (or Bad Placement)

SMGs like to stand on good AR tiles. MDR has good AR tiles. MDR also has a skill that checks if you’re standing on her tiles and then stops doing the job ARs do if so. To avoid it, either move units in combat to avoid your own unit’s skill or actively not make full use of MDR’s tiles through possibly suboptimal placement.

Shield Mode Swaps Roles

When activating the shield, MDR is doing the job of the main tank. But as the DPS. Even if the units she is shielding do more DPS, then that’s just swapping roles. Now the DPS unit is defending, and the tank is now dealing the damage.

…Why?

Team Options

SR-3MP

Direct-Fire Offtank SMGs

This is less of a recommendation as an acknowledgement of an existing synergy. Yes MDR can shield a direct fire offtank SMG. Yes, her tiles work well for those types. But then you’re just pretending your AR is in the frontline and having the backline do the defending.

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