Tatiana

Weapon: Pact Blooms+ (+Res)

Assist: Positional Assist 

Special: Sol / Iceberg / Noontime

Passive A: Mirror Stance 3 / Atk/Res Unity

Passive B: Null C-Disrupt / Special Spiral

Passive C: Pulse Smoke / Joint Drive Atk / Joint Drive Res

Sacred Seal: Quick Riposte / Mystic Boost / Atk/Def Solo

• Most Defense Keeps have a structural weakness or blind spot that allows Raiding Parties to place a dedicated ranged tank in range of only ranged enemies. Because of this, Tatiana can be a great Aether Raids Offense unit focused on surviving and KOing ranged enemies, particularly magical ones thanks to her high Resistance. This set capitalizes on the Devoted Saint’s notable Attack and Resistance to stop magical enemies in their tracks and potentially score OHKOs on high-damage, low-bulk Archers and Daggers that may pose problems for Tatiana’s survivability.
• Pact Blooms inflicts -5 Atk/Res on the enemy during combat and heals Tatiana for 4 HP every time she lands an attack if she is within 2 spaces of an ally. Granting increased damage, physical bulk, magical bulk, and sustainability all in one makes Pact Blooms the ideal inheritable Blue Tome for Aether Raids Offense. 
• Tatiana can choose between Sol, Iceberg, and Noontime for her Special. Unless she has a way to accelerate her Special charge to activate Noontime on every counterattack (for example, via New Year Velouria’s Renewed Fang), Sol and Iceberg are typically preferred, both of which are 3-cooldown Specials as opposed to Noontime’s 2 cooldown. Sol heals Tatiana for 50% of the damage she deals, while Iceberg increases Tatiana’s damage by 50% of her Resistance.
  • The 3 cooldown works well with Quick Riposte in Tatiana’s Sacred Seal. She will receive an attack on initiation, counterattack, receive another attack if the enemy can perform a follow-up attack, then activate her Special on her second counterattack assuming no Guard effect is active. It also synergizes with Special Spiral, which decreases the cooldown of Tatiana’s Special by 2 after every combat it is activated in. Assuming combat ends immediately after Tatiana activates her Special, it will be at 1 cooldown, allowing her to activate it after receiving another attack.
  • The synergy between Iceberg and Special Spiral can teeter Tatiana’s set towards an OHKO-centric set focused on maximizing damage output. For this set, she can replace Quick Riposte with Mystic Boost for more consistent healing or Atk/Def Solo for the +6 Attack if she is not adjacent to an ally.
• A slots that increase Tatiana’s Attack and Resistance are greatly appreciated; of these, Mirror Stance 3 and Atk/Res Unity are most preferred. Mirror Stance grants Tatiana +6 Atk/Res and inflicts a Guard effect on the enemy if they initiate combat, increasing her damage output and magical bulk while also slowing the enemy’s Special. Atk/Res Unity has the same condition as Pact Blooms, granting +5 Atk/Res and reversing visible Atk/Res debuffs and negative (panicked) Atk/Res visible buffs during combat, which is very helpful given the ubiquity of Panic effects and debuffs in Aether Raids.
• With the rise of weapons that prevent counterattacks, Null C-Disrupt has become increasingly valuable for ranged tanks, as it simply neutralizes counterattack prevention. This can be used over Special Spiral for more consistency. Similarly, Pulse Smoke helps to shut down Infantry Pulse teams by inflicting +1 Special cooldown on the target and enemies within 2 spaces after combat; however, given that it is becoming more difficult to initiate against Defense Keeps given turn 1 traps, Joint Drive Atk and Joint Drive Res can be used instead. If Tatiana is within 2 spaces of an ally, she gains +4 Attack (or Resistance) and grants it to allies within 2 spaces as well, serving as a middle ground between selfish and supportive.

Weapon: Flora Guide+ (+Spd) / Blárrabbit+ (+Res) 

Assist: No Assist / Rally Assist

Special: Glacies / Iceberg

Passive A: Swift Impact / Mirror Impact 

Passive B: Lull Spd/Res / Null Follow-Up 

Passive C: Time’s Pulse / Fatal Smoke / Panic Smoke

Sacred Seal: Swift Sparrow / Hardy Bearing / Mirror Strike

• Tatiana’s combination of relatively low HP, high Attack, high Resistance, and workable Speed can make her an excellent Aether Raids Defense nuke focused on dealing as much damage as possible with her Special. Given her high Resistance, Glacies and Iceberg are her best choices; which is chosen depends on if she can receive 4 Special charges or 3. Glacies is 4-cooldown and grants bonus damage equal to 80% of Tatiana’s Resistance when activated, while Iceberg is 3-cooldown but grants bonus damage equal to only 50% of Tatiana’s Resistance. Time’s Pulse for Tatiana’s C slot helps ready her Special on turn 1; however, if this is not necessary, Fatal or Panic Smoke can be used instead, with the former inflicting a status that prevents healing and the latter inflicting the Panic status if Tatiana survives combat.
• If necessary, Tatiana can use a Rally Assist to increase her range via moving to Rally an ally whose danger zone the enemy is in, then receiving a refresh. Otherwise, she can be Assistless, as units without Assists typically move before units with Assists, allowing Tatiana to potentially receive a refresh from allies.
• IVs and the remaining Skills of this set are dependent on if the player wishes to invest in Tatiana’s Speed or not. This may be desirable because of Speed-based damage reduction and Null Follow-Up, but other units on the Defense Keep can be dedicated to handling faster units as well.
  • Speed-based:
    • A +Speed IV bolsters Tatiana’s base Speed from 34 to 37, making it desirable for this set.
    • Flora Guide inflicts -5 Spd/Res on enemies within 2 spaces during combat. In combination with a +Speed refine, Tatiana effectively receives +7 Speed, increasing it to 44.
    • Swift Impact is vital for this set; not only does it increase Tatiana’s Speed by 7 and Resistance by 10 on initiation, but it also prevents the enemy from performing a follow-up attack. Lull Spd/Res and Swift Sparrow further contribute to Tatiana’s damage output, with the former inflicting -3 Spd/Res and neutralizing the enemy’s visible Spd/Res buffs during combat and the latter increasing Tatiana’s Atk/Spd by 4 when she initiates. However, Hardy Bearing can be used instead of Swift Sparrow to bypass Vantage, which allows the enemy to counterattack before Tatiana can attack if their HP is ≤ 75% at the start of combat. Vantage is commonly used to defeat several foes at once in Aether Raids Offense, so having a way to bypass that entirely is valuable.
    • An enemy will need 63 Speed (59 if using Hardy Bearing) and Null Follow-Up or a guaranteed follow-up attack (to bypass Swift Impact) to perform a follow-up attack against this unmerged, +Speed Tatiana without any Dragonflowers.
  • Not Speed-based:
    • Since Speed is not a focus for this set, a +Attack or +Resistance IV is best to increase her damage output and/or magical bulk.
    • Blárrabbit works perfectly for this set, as it grants Tatiana +5 Atk/Res during her first combat of each phase. +Res refine increases her Glacies/Iceberg damage and magical bulk, further bolstering her reliability.
    • Because of the lack of Speed investment, Mirror Impact is vital for both Tatiana’s damage output and her survivability. On initiation, Tatiana gains +6 Attack and +10 Resistance, in addition to the enemy being unable to perform a follow-up attack. In tandem with Null Follow-Up, the enemy will need to have both Null Follow-Up and 5 more Speed than Tatiana to perform a follow-up attack against her when she initiates.
    • Mirror Strike boosts Tatiana’s Attack and Resistance by an extra 4 when she initiates, making it a strong Sacred Seal option. As with the Speed-based set, however, she can use Hardy Bearing to bypass Vantage and ensure that she can unleash a powerful attack when she initiates.

Weapon: Flora Guide+ (+Spd) / Spooky Censer+ (+Atk) 

Assist: Positional Assist 

Special: Glimmer / Blazing Special 

Passive A: Atk/Spd Boosting A Slot / Life and Death (3 or 4)

Passive B: Desperation / Special Spiral

Passive C: Atk/Spd Menace / Res Smoke / Joint Drive Spd / Spd Smoke 

Sacred Seal: Heavy Blade

• With a strong 37 Attack and respectable 34 Speed, Tatiana can utilize two general Player Phase sets: one that focuses on Speed-stacking and another that focuses on spamming AoE Specials.
• Speed-stacking:
  • A +Speed IV is naturally preferred for this set, as it focuses on maximizing Tatiana’s Speed so she can perform follow-up attacks as consistently and frequently as possible.
  • Flora Guide is the Devoted Saint’s best weapon for this set, as it inflicts -5 Spd/Res on enemies within 2 spaces during combat. A +Speed refine grants Tatiana an additional 2 Speed to further boost her offensive capabilities.
  • The combination of Desperation, Heavy Blade, and a 2-cooldown Special such as Glimmer allows Tatiana to activate her Special on her follow-up attack before the enemy can counterattack assuming no Guard effect is active. While A slots that boost Tatiana’s Atk/Spd are generally ideal, Fury and Atk/Spd Push 4 synergize particularly well with Desperation, as they inflict recoil damage to help Tatiana’s HP fall to ≤ 75% so she can perform her follow-up attack before the enemy can counterattack.
  • The newly-introduced Atk/Spd Menace works wonders for this set; if Tatiana is within 4 spaces of an enemy at the start of the turn, she inflicts -6 Atk/Spd on the enemy/enemies closest to her and grants +6 Atk/Spd to herself. This makes Tatiana self-sufficient in that she does not rely on allies to receive visible Atk/Spd buffs. Alternatively, Joint Drive Spd and Spd Smoke work well for Speed control, with the former granting Tatiana and allies within 2 spaces +4 Speed if she is within 2 spaces of an ally and the latter inflicting -7 Speed on enemies within 2 spaces of the target after combat.
• AoE Special Spam:
  • 4-cooldown Blazing Specials, Special Spiral, and Heavy Blade synergize incredibly well and make Tatiana a fantastic Player Phase nuke focused on dealing as much damage as possible with her AoE Special, then KOing with 1 in-combat attack. 
  • When Tatiana activates her Special, its cooldown will return to 4. After she attacks during combat, its cooldown will be reduced to 2 assuming Heavy Blade activated and no Guard effect was active. Special Spiral reduces the cooldown of Tatiana’s Special by 2 after combat every time it is activated; 2 - 2 = 0, so Tatiana will have her Special ready again.
  • Because Blazing Specials multiply the gap between Tatiana’s visible Attack and the enemy’s visible Resistance by 1.5 to calculate AoE damage, Tatiana’s A, C, and S slots should be dedicated to maximizing this gap. This makes Life and Death the Devoted Saint’s optimal A and S slots. 
  • For her C slot, Res Smoke is best if Tatiana has refreshers by her side; inflicting -7 Resistance on enemies within 2 spaces of the target after combat effectively increases her damage by 17 after a refresh (10.5 more damage from the AoE is rounded down to 10 + 7 more damage from Tatiana’s in-combat attack). If Tatiana does not receive refreshes, however, Atk/Res Menace becomes her best C slot; it shares the same effect as the aforementioned Atk/Spd Menace, but it involves Resistance instead of Speed. This makes Tatiana self-sustainable and improves her first combat of every Player Phase; Res Smoke is not beneficial until its -7 Resistance debuff is applied, which is impossible to do before Tatiana’s first combat.