Welrod MKII

Overview

Welrod is a defensive handgun that massively debuffs the enemy’s accuracy, and is probably one of the closest things to a handgun tank. This is not a go-ahead to start replacing SMGs with Welrod, as “tank” is relative to other handguns, she is still far squishier and ill-suited for quite a bit of content.

Her tiles and tile coverage are excellent, letting Welrod provide strong utility for both offensive and defensive options. Despite her inherent squishiness due to being an HG, Welrod’s skill can also support her teammates’ survivability. Because of this, Welrod is a decent support for heavily survival-focused teams.

Welrod and pretty much evasion tanking on the whole still has its flaws, and the resources spent raising a 5 star for a specialized role that can quickly lose its effectiveness likely would be better spent raising better generalist options like Grizzly.

Strengths

Amazing Tiles

Welrod’s tile layout can cover the entire backline as well as to her sides, letting her be positioned in many spots on a team. Her tiles provide an excellent amount of firepower and rate of fire, which DPSs definitely appreciate.

High Base HP

400 is relatively high for a handgun, complementing Welrod’s role.

High Base Evasion

90 Evasion is also higher than average for a handgun to support Welrod’s survivability.

Strong Debuff

Welrod’s skill is a strong debuff that plummets enemies' accuracy, which can grant survivability to frontlining damage sponges as well as Welrod herself.

Weaknesses

Defensive Skill

Welrod’s defensive benefits fall off quickly in the face of longer-term fights, high accuracy enemies, and attacks that just ignore evasion altogether. Also, the fact that she totes a defensive skill instead of an offensive one can mean that Welrod is resigned to more niche applications, as no matter how powerful her tiles she cannot match up to a dedicated buffer.

Full Analysis

If reading this full analysis, please read until the end, as while Welrod’s kit is certainly strong, outdated guides and unfamiliarity with GFL’s gameplay often give people the wrong impression of how to use her.

First, what are Welrod’s strengths? Welrod’s tiles are definitely her strong suit. Her spread of 20% Dmg and 16% RoF is both quite strong due to her rarity, but also low enough to not overcap a usual ARs’ RoF. Her tile coverage is really good, letting her cover the entire backline and any allies on the same column from the front or both DPS when in the back column. This makes Welrod able to flexibly be inserted into teams without too much concern for overcap.

Welrod’s skill is a 45% debuff to all enemies’ accuracy. Once activated it can relieve a lot of incoming damage onto whatever doll is tanking. Welrod can support tanks when a team composition is highly reliant on evasive tanking, like pairing her with a SMG maintank. Additionally, it can benefit T-dolls reliant on debuffs such as KSVK Mod.

Welrod also has a base critical hit rate of 40% as opposed to the standard 20% for HGs. This does not make a significant impact on her performance but it means she does ever so slightly more DPS.

For those reasons, Welrod was considered one of the most versatile HGs. Her ability to “tank” as an HG yet provide RFHGs with considerably strong tile buffs was great. However, that is mostly in the past. Despite her kit specializing in boosting survivability, Welrod still suffers from the fact that she is an HG. Older RFHGs that used Welrod as a “main tank” could get away with her tiny healthpool because enemies were not as dangerous. Now, high-end enemies in all factions have attacks that either have far too much accuracy or straight up ignore evasion, thus rendering her skill useless. For examples from each major faction: Hydras, SWAP Jaegers, Smashers, and Doppelsoldners.

For alternatives to make up for Welrod’s flaws, it is usually a better plan to have another dedicated DPS buffing HG, since you want to kill them before they even get to shoot. Dolls like HP-35 and MP-446 Mod outdo Welrod’s synergy with KSVK Mod. P22 and HS2000 are both HGs that provide powerful tilebuffs, buff DPS on their skill, and increase team survivability. That’s more than Welrod can offer. Even for tanking high-pressure attacks, there are SMGs with tiles that buff RFs and more survivability than Welrod, such as MP5 Mod, Dorothy Haze, and Lusa.

The alternative application for Welrod is in a team purely focused on survival. A team that runs a SMG maintank in the frontline against a long duration bossfight can benefit from Welrod in the back. She provides decent buffs to the backline, and her weakness of being squishy is not a problem if she is not the one tanking. Her skill massively spikes the already tanky frontline to new heights in order to survive longer. This kind of team is questionable in comparison to just beating the fight faster with more DPS, but it is a possible application

Team Options

Gr MP7

Gr G41

FF FNC

C-MS

Non-Rate of Fire ARs

Any AR that does not take their own rate of fire close to the cap can use Welrod’s tiles comfortably.

Tank SMGs

Welrod can boost the survivability of frontlining tanks to increase the team’s longevity.

Recommended Formations