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Should You Summon: Yukata Festival Ft. Gala Notte and Gala Reborn Agni

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Should You Summon: Yukata Festival Ft. Gala Notte and Gala Reborn Agni

Yukata

Disclaimer: The opinions below are written by GamePress and do not actually reflect Nintendo or Cygames.... maybe. If they somehow do, it's merely coincidental!

Welcome to another edition of the Should You Summon articles, an opinion piece to help you decide whether you should summon for the latest units or not. Entering the middle of August, an Gala remix banner appears featuring two brand new adventurers, and two returning rate-up gala units: one an adventurer and one a dragon. Like with all gala banners, the 5-star focus rate is boosted from 4% to 6%, so you may notice an abundance of 5-star off focus summons compared to usual if you are planning to summon on this banner.

Why is there no Yukata Nylarthotep?

After a year of making an appearance as a guest character in the previous Yukata event, Lathna finally receives her adventurer alt while wielding a blade in the wind element. Blade units have had an interesting history within the wind element. We’ve seen the rise and fall of Victor as a premier damage during the Master difficulty High Mercury release window, and subsequently Tobias as an excellent support unit for the release of the Ciella agito fight before the potential of doublebuffs were fully realised. As such, if your someone who has favoured blade adventurers you haven’t had good meta selection for a while.

Yukata Lathna may be able to change this though thanks to a respectful offensive kit with some decent utility. Her first skill Summer Moon Howl will deal 3 hits of damage, dispel a buff, and grant her a defence amp (maximum team amp level of 2), at a reasonable SP cost of 2,640. The potency of her damage, as well as the bonus effects of the skill, will depend on the phase of the skill, which increases by 1 each time the attack connects (resets after Phase III). The phases are as follows:

  • Phase 1: Deals 3 hits of 550% damage.
  • Phase 2: Deals 3 hits of 575% damage and reduces the strength of effected foes by 10% for 10 seconds.
  • Phase 3: Deals 3 hits of 600% damage and reduces the strength and defence of effected foes by 10% and 5% for 10 seconds respectively (both of which do not stack).

To synergise with her ability to reduce the enemy’s strength in 2 phases of the skill, she comes with the passive ability Reduced Strength Punisher, which increases her damage afflicted with this debuff by 20%. Her second skill Haunter of the Festival meanwhile, at an SP cost of 6,000, will deal 1 hit of 1,753% damage to the target and nerby enemies, reduce their wind resistance by 3% for 20 seconds (does not stack), and deal bonus damage based on the combined number of team amps grants on the user. The bonus damage is as follows:

  • Team Amp Level = 1 will allow her to deal an additional 3 hits of 316% damage.
  • Team Amp Level = 2+ will allow her to deal an additional 6 hits of 316% damage.

For Yukata Lathna to fulfull her second condition, she either needs to have 1 team level 2 amp active or 2 level 1 team amps active at the time. However, at the very least with her ability to generate defence amps with her first skill she should be able to activate her first conditional damage without many difficulties. To finish her offensive kit off, she comes with the Skill Damage passive, which increases the damage of any attacking skills by 30%. Before continuing, she does come with an excellent chain co-ability of dragon haste, allowing users to increase the fill rate of the dragon gauge by 20%. For any units who are reliant on quick acquisition of dragon gauge to maximise their damage, this may be reason alone to summon for her.

Yukata Lathna’s kit overall has some devastating potential to inflict some excellent damage out to enemies within the wind element, while also giving some decent support utility with her small defence down and wind resistance down debuffs to her enemies. Her only downside is the conditions of her second skill to maximise damage output. The wind element does not currently boast an excellent pure amp unit like the likes of Isaac of the light element, and to a lesser extent Vania of the shadow element. Considering how popular of a unit Gala Ranzal currently is as a damage option in both relevant endgame content, as well as the rise of Akasha as a healer for Rise of the Sinister Dominion, and the eventuality of other amping units being released, this consistency will probably improve over time.

When talking about meta relevance, she doesn’t quite surpass the stiff competition within the element to be a must pick for certain fights. Within the Legend Ciella fight it’s difficult for her to displace the powerhouses of Gala Notte and Gala Ranzal. The first boasts respectful damage without relying on conditional team amps, better dispel utility, and the activation of Stormlash punisher effects with her first skill while in her unique dragon form. The second provides arguably the best damage in the wind element, can add to doublebuff centric teams with his second skill, and a strong force strike to strip the overdrive bar during berserk phase. While she certainly will have a place in the Jaldabaoth’s Piercing Gale fight because of her kit not being impacted by the Curse of Nihility debuff, there are also a plentiful of excellent alternatives within the wind element. At the very least, her debuff utility will allow her to have greater relevance above the rest of the competition, making her an above average all-rounder for the element. Due to this reason, I could only recommend summoning for her on the basis that you either do not possess solid damage options or an impactful solo team for the wind element. As we will later find out though, there is a much better wind adventurer to pull for in this banner.

Recommended Builds

Co-abilties

Like with the rest of the wind roster, the two best options to boost Yukata Lathna’s damage is to equip the wind boost co-ability found on the adventurer Mona, and the combination of skill damage co-ability and dragon claws chain co-ability found on the adventurer Dragonyule Xainfried. The third option may either be a selection of a critical rate co-ability found on dagger adventurers, or the combo = critical rate chain co-ability found on the adventurer Nino if you are able to maintain an adventurer’s combo count with relative ease. If not in the possession some of these boosts, great alternatives include the above 10 hits = strength chain co-ability found on the adventurer Lin You (note that this only works in content without the Curse of Nihility debuff), or a skill haste co-ability found on bow adventurers. Humanoid Midgardsormr would be the preferred option as he also possesses the dragon haste chain co-ability, allowing Lathna to gain access to her equipped dragon even sooner.

Wyrmprints

Because a blade skill damage print still doesn’t exist nearly 34 months after the game has released (or just any exclusive print for blade units for that matter), we are hamstringed for builds due to being forced to run 2 skill damage prints in the 4-star wyrmprint slots to maximise her skill damage. As such, the following build will select additional wyrmprints that you are probably already familiar with:

  • A Man Unchanging (+30% Poison Punisher)
  • Memory of a Friend (+20% Flurry Strength)
  • Sweet Surprise (+25% Stormlash Punisher)
  • A Small Courage (+20% Skill Damage)
  • Liber Grimortis (+20% Skill Damage)

In the situation that one of these afflictions is unable to be applied to the foe, excellent alternatives would be Advent of the War God, which grants wind adventurers +12% flurry devastation, or Worthy Rivals, which provides a +30% broken punisher effect if you wish to take advantage of the burst options that Yukata Lathna provides with her second skill.

Within a doublebuff team that has risen to be the preferred method of dealing with the Legend Ciella fight, I would recommend switching out the flurry strength print and poison punisher print for the following doublebuff prints to maximise the benefits provided by Templar Hope and Dragonyule Xainfried:

  • Super Soaking Androids (+15% Critical Damage Doublebuff)
  • Brothers in Arms (+13% Strength Doubelbuff)

Yes, Another Cleo

First appearing in the Indelible Summer wyrmprint, Cleo receives a Yukata alt and enters the game as another flame wand user. This now marks the sixth adventurer appearance for Cleo alongside her original, Dragonyule, Gala, Summer, and Forager versions. However, while some of these versions have been meta relevant at one time in the past, particularly in the case of her Gala variant, she has been for the most part sidelined for other units which do the jobs of one of her versions in a better way.

Yukata Cleo may have the opportunity though to steel some limelight in the flame meta thanks to her kit which gains damage bonuses from her supportive abilities. Her first skill Festival Mirage deals 1 hit of 1600% damage to enemies and creates a debuff zone for 10 seconds that afflicts foes with the adaptive suppression effect, at a respectful SP cost of 2,648. This debuff reduces the outgoing damage of enemies within the debuff zone by 5%, improving the survivability odds of surrounding adventurers. Her seconds skill Carnival of Confusion, at an SP cost of 4,400, will deal 4 hits of 400% damage, create a debuff zone for 10 seconds which reduces the strength and defence of enemies within it by 10%, and grant her a defence amp (maximum team amp level of 2).

Her ability to apply multiple debuff zones to enemies synergises well with her first passive ability, Festival Fever, which increases her outgoing damage based on the number of debuff zones an enemy standing within. The benefits are as follows:

  • One: Increase damage by 10%.
  • Two or more: Increase damage by 15%.

This is an excellent ability to have as players do typically take advantage of using multiple debuff zones due to the popular Sha Wujing SS. His skill share option, Obstruction Armament, generates a debuff zone for 10 seconds which reduces the defence of enemies within at 15%, at an SP cost of 13478. So, there is a good chance that, within an cooperative environment, that her uptime on meeting the second conditional effect will be improved. Her second unique passive ability Dynamic Defence meanwhile will fill her skill gauges by 10% each time she is granted a defence amp. This condition will be enabled often due to her ability to generate defence amps with her second skill, making her more prone to using her skills, and particularly skill share choice, more often.

Overall, Yukata Cleo possesses a well-rounded kit that allows her to have a good unique pseudo damage-support niche within the flame element that hasn’t been dominated by too many other adventurers. However, a big question does remain as to how useful her ability to increase the survivability of adventurers will be in time. If more bosses inflict heavier amounts of damage that are unavoidable within the flame element, that her ability to grant defence amps and reduce the damage of enemies will come in very handy. If not though, as of now she only provides a small amount of offensive support with her second’s skill defence down debuff zone, which is lacklustre compared to other support adventurers within the flame element. Her damage reduction capabilities meanwhile don’t feel particularly needed in the Legend Volk and Jaldabaoth’s Piercing Gale fights either, further reducing her usefulness.

While her damage is relatively speaking somewhat competitive within the flame element, there are many other viable options who have more relevant utility options such as dispels or afflictions. At the very least though, her kit’s ability to not be affected by the Curse of Nihility debuff makes her a respectful damage choice in content with this effect. Debuff zones are also always appreciated in raid fights due to their effectiveness being applied to all 16 adventurers on the battlefield, so she’ll always have a solid place there whenever a difficult challenge appears within this content bracket. Because of these reasons, I can only recommend summoning for her if you require a unit within your flame team that has respectful damage and support capabilities.

Recommended Builds

Co-abilities

For a damage setup, I can recommend the use of a strength co-ability found on blade adventurers, as well as the combination of a critical damage co-ability found on Halloween Mym, and the combo = critical rate chain co-ability found on the adventurer Kimono Elisanne to maximise critical damage output. If you are not in the possession of one of these co-abilities, then an excellent alternative would be to run a standard skill haste co-ability found on bow adventurer to increase her skill gauge fill rate, and a typical critical rate co-ability found on dagger adventurers. For the bow adventurer backline choice, I can recommend Gala Sarisse due to her chain co-ability combo = energy level up, which grants her one level of energy per 20 hit combo.

Wyrmprints

Her recommended damage wyrmprint build is standard of the flame element, maximising affliction punisher effects, skill damage, strength, and critical rate effects:

  • Me and My Bestie! (+30% Burning Punisher)
  • Memory of a Friend (+20% Flurry Strength)
  • In the Limelight (+25% Scorchrend Punisher)
  • A Small Courage (+20% Skill Damage)
  • To the Extreme! (+12% Flurry Devastation (flame))
  • Crown of Light (or equivalent +20% Skill Damage)
  • Savage Hawk (Lance’s Boon) (or equivalent Sword Psalm III)

In the presence of only one affliction punisher being active, it would be recommended then to run a critical damage boosting wyrmprint such The Moonlight Party instead. In the Legend’s Volk fight, you may also wish to run an additional off-element punisher if you are utilising a skill share with excellent uptime on the affliction.

This second build is a more supportive setup focused on maximising her ability to output her debuff zones, while still having some damage capabilities. The main difference between the two builds is a heavier focus on increasing skill haste via prints which boost the output, as well as maximising the associated affinity. It is also important to run the dragon Horus, as he provides a 20% attack rate boost that will allow Yukata Cleo to increase her skill output. It as follows:

  • Memory of a Friend (+20% Flurry Strength)
  • In the Limelight (+25% Scorchrend Punisher)
  • Jewels of the Sun (+8% Skill Haste)
  • Seaside Memory (+6% Skill Haste)
  • A Small Courage (+20% Skill Damage)
  • Promised Piety (Bow’s Psalm III)
  • Crown of Light (or any 20% Skill Damage)

Faerie Power

I’ve said a lot already about how good Gala Notte is a unit within the wind element during the Yukata Lathna breakdown. What Gala Notte brings to the table is:

  • Excellent dispel utility, particularly for managing the multiple stacks of defence buffs which are summoned during the Legend Ciella fight.
  • Excellent burst damage potential by combining her normal skills with her shapeshifted form skills.
  • Respectable uptime on the Stormlash affliction to enable associated punisher effects.
  • Excellent area of effect skills to wipe out waves of additional enemies that may spawn in fights.
  • A high hit count dispel skill share option to use on other content.
  • Good sustainable damage.

If any of these benefits sounds appealing to you to improve either your solo wind team for endgame content, or to have alternative viable options to choose from when playing endgame content cooperatively, I highly recommend summoning for her.

The Reborn Firelord

The final returning Gala unit is none other than Gala Reborn Agni, who continues to remain as an excellent alternative option to the likes of Gala Mars and Gozu Tenno depending on the unit. Gala Reborn Agni has probably seen more use as time goes by thanks to the combination of Gala Mars neutered dragon form in content with the Curse of Nihility debuff, as well as a competitive passive ability for units who are not reliable on shapeshifting often. While he does provide a damage advantage for most of the flame element in Curse of Nihility content, and some outside of this, the difference between his damage and Gala Mars is relatively small. As such, I only recommend summoning a copy if you do not possess excellent flame dragons for your solo or cooperative teams, or you which to have the very best damage capabilities for specific units you like to run.

Conclusions

On Summoning Rate and Wyrmsigils

  • Gala banners have a boosted 5-star rate of 6%, up from 4%
  • All focus adventurers have an individual summoning rate of 0.5%, while the focus dragon has an individual summoning rate of 0.8%.
  • Besides the 4 featured units, the dragons Horus and Ariel are the only other units that are sparkable.

Final Verdict: Yes, if you need to improve your wind and flame element rosters.

Besides the two gala units being the stars of the banner, the two new permanent additions can also hold their own and be relatively competitive in their respective metas. If you are someone who does not have a great flame or wind roster, this is the best time to flesh out your options with great units.

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