Should you Pull? Sword Art Online: Alicization Rising Steel - Knight of the Abyss

Eydis finally makes her first highly anticipated appearance in SAO:ARS as a dark element sword proficiency character with an HAE skillset and a ST physical Incarnate Skill.  She joins Kirito and Yuuki on the dark side as the third dark element 4* in the game.

Skills

As her most unique Skill, Eydis [Knight of the Abyss] has an H skill that is a (weak) AOE heal combined with a (strong) AOE Magic attack.  It is the second AOE magic attack granted to a 4* (the other belonging to Alice [CM], and the 5th AOE Heal. This ability packs a lot of utility, but the drawback here is that Eydis has a below average MATK stat.  This means her AOE damage will be significantly lower (around 10%) than what you may have come to expect from the current AOE queen Alice[OK] and about 5% less than Eldrie[RGK], though she will outperform Alice[CM].

On the healing side, her MATK is significantly lower (again about 10%) than the best current AOE healers: Ronie[BJ] and Asuna[WUS], and about 5% below Leafa[MMS].  Whether the heal is strong enough to act as a main healing option probably depends on the content and party.

Her Assault Skill and Incarnate Skill are both Single Target physical attacks.  These are supported very well by her ATK stat, which is the third highest in the game behind Kirito[AED] and Alice[OK].  This makes her the second best ST attacker option behind only Kirito, whom she lags behind by a very small amount.

Her E skill increases Break for an ally by 2.25.  Although this type of ability (shared by the likes of Ronie) can find its uses to increase party building flexibility, it basically acts as a Break without damage.  As such, an actual break ability or break character is better.

Passives

Her passives are useful on-element, and useless off.  One grants her 30% reduced damage from light enemies, which will help make up for her horrible DEF and MDEF stats.  The other increases healing by 20% for dark allies, thus buffing her AOE heal, and making it less likely to need other healer support.

PvP

In PvP (Ordinal) is where Eydis will likely shine the most.  She has the fastest speed of any 4* character, which means she will always be one of the first to act.  She is also tied with Asuna[FF] for the highest current crit. A decent AOE attack can make a big difference in Ordinal, especially one that comes early and has a high chance to crit.  The additional heal will be icing on the cake. She also has a strong ST attack if more damage is needed. Expect to see a lot of Eydis in Ordinal, and get ready your Asuna[WoAS] and Ronie[BJ] to try to counter her.

Weaknesses

Outside of her jack-of-all trades drawback, Eydis’ biggest weakness is her defense.  She trades utility and high ATK potential for the lowest DEF and MDEF of any 4* gacha character in the game.  She is only higher than the welfare characters. This puts her at risk of dying quickly to strong attacks in difficult content.

Overall

Overall Eydis[KofA] is a solid character that offers a useful set of abilities.  Having an AOE damage and heal, along with AOE and ST damage options makes her an excellent utility type character.  She is very useful for people just starting that don’t already have a lot of other 4* character options. As far as min/maxing, though, or people that already have a large set of 4*s to choose from, she is not the best at any of the specific roles she could play.  There are better options for AOE damage, ST damage, and AOE healing. That being said, with the current limited cast of 4*s currently available, her utility, and her being dark element (thus eliminating elemental weakness) she will find a spot on many of your teams. If you are a fan of Ordinal, she is likely to become a core component of PvP for a long time to come.

Stat and skill descriptions can be seen here:

Assuming she is on solo rate up, odds of pulling Eydis are 1.5%, so if you pull a 4* (3% odds), there is a 50/50 chance it will be her.

• If you like her, she is worth pulling for.  The meta may change, but the love of a waifu is eternal.

• She will be one of the strongest, if not THE strongest, Ordinal characters.

• If you are a new player or don’t have a lot of other 4*s already, she is one of the best utility characters.

• If you don’t have some of the best-in-class characters already and could use someone to fill multiple roles.

• Her hybrid nature leaves her in a position where she is not best-in-class at any of her potential roles.

• Her heal may not be strong enough to act as a main healer.

• Her E skill is sub-par

• She has the lowest durability (DEF and MDEF) of any 4* gacha character.

Special thanks to King Ragnar and FelipeLink for feedback on this article.