Should You Summon: Gala Gatov Ft. Dragonyule Nevin

Welcome to another edition of Should You Summon, a secondary opinion piece to help you decide whether to summon for the latest characters or not in the game. We’ve yet again arrived at the end of another month, marking the release of a new Gala unit to be introduced into the game. In this circumstance, Gatov finally enters the game as a playable adventurer, after appearing alongside the main cast for the past year in the ongoing events of the story. Alongside Gatov, the second seasonal event of this holiday period begins with the arrival of Dragonyule Nevin. Before we begin, do note that Dragonyule adventurers are limited to certain banners, so now is your best chance to pick up this newly released Dragonyule unit while they are on focus rates.

After helping the Prince and his friends explore North Grastaea and the Fairy Kigndom, Gatov takes to the field wielding his dual blades to watch over Aurelius’s children into the foreseeable future. Entering the game as a flame attuned axe adventurer, Gala Gatov doesn’t possess much competition within this weapon archetype that could make picking him a consideration. However, the flame element possesses a wide range of outstanding damage options that have enabled them to easily pick off wind-attuned bosses. The best of them is arguably Gala Leonidas, who provides excellent sustained damage, utility options and an ease of use with his rapid-fire manacaster playstyle.

After helping the Prince and his friends explore North Grastea and the Fairy Kigndom, Gatov takes to the field wielding his dual blades to watch over Aurelius’s children into the foreseeable future. Entering the game as a flame attuned axe adventurer, Gala Gatov doesn’t possess much competition within this weapon archetype that could make picking him a consideration. However, the flame element possesses a wide range of outstanding damage options that have enabled them to easily pick off wind-attuned bosses. The best of them is arguably Gala Leonidas, who provides excellent sustained damage, utility options and an ease of use with his rapid-fire manacaster playstyle.

But Gala Gatov may have what it takes to stand up to the manacaster lord who has dominated this element for a year now. We’ll start with the main mechanic of his playstyle; his Dual-Sword Master passive ability. This grants Gatov a swordmaster gauge and immediately readies his second skill, Counter Fang at the beginning of quests. The second benefit mentioned is of great importance to Gatov, as the skill, at an SP cost of 3,120, will make him assume a counter stance for 1.5 seconds, during which Gatov is immune to knockback. If Gatov is hit by an attack while in this stance, he will deal 6 hits of 418% damage to surrounding enemies, dispel one buff from each target, restore half of the damage taken as HP, and immediately ready his Charge Blade skill. Immediately readying Charge Blade, at an SP cost of 10,450, allows Gatov to completely fill his swordmaster gauge, and get to his main damage capabilities in a quicker timeframe.

When the swordmaster gauge is filled, Gatov will swap to dual swords, and his first and second skills will be immediately ready for use. Both his first and second skills activate variants while wielding his dual swords. His first skill Charge Blade becomes Crimson Rush, which deals 4 hits of 405% damage to enemies, and inflicts scorchrend, at an SP cost of 2,240. His second skill Counter Fang is transformed into Azure Raid, which will deal 7 hits of 254% damage to surrounding enemies, and dispel one buff from each target, at an SP cost of 2,240 as well. There is a good reason as to why both skills cost the same amount of SP to use, as each skill has an additional variant if used in consecutive fashion.

If Gatov directly uses his first skill after using his second skill (Azure Raid), he will use a further enhanced version of this skill called Double Flame. This skill will now deal 4 hits of 584% damage to enemies in a line, inflict scorchrend and reduce their defence by 5% for 10 seconds. In the scenario ins which Crimson Rush is used first, his second skill will be enhanced into Dual Demolition if used directly after, dealing 8 hits of 421% damage to surrounding enemies, and dispelling one buff from each target.

Besides his skills being powered, Gatov receives further benefits while his swordmaster gauge is active:

• Knockback immunity is granted.
• He is granted a unique force strike that deals damage to surrounding enemies.
• His standard attack pattern is changed.

While the swordmaster gauge is active, it will deplete gradually over time for an approximate time of 35 seconds. However, whenever Gatov shapeshifts into a dragon or utilises a skill, the gauge depletion will be paused, meaning he gets significantly more time to abuse this mode than what is advertised.

To further enhance his damage capabilities, Gatov comes with the second passive ability Royal Protector. On top of granting Gatov a defence amp (maximum team amp level of three) whenever he uses his initial skill (20 second cooldown), the seventh attack of Gatov’s standard attack combo while in dual sword mode will increase the damage dealt by the next use of Double Flame or Dual Demolition by 15% (does not stack). To round his kit off, Gatov is the second flame adventurer to come with the HP & Defence co-ability, which increases the user’s HP and defence by 10%, as well as the Dodge = Strength chain co-ability, which grants a 10% strength buff for 15 seconds whenever the user dodges an attack (15 second cooldown).

Overall, Gala Gatov possesses a well-rounded adventurer kit, having the means to deal significant amounts of damage while possessing good team utility. For the most part, players should be utilising his first skill into second skill combo while in dual swords mode, as the damage mods of Dual Demolition provide a more significant benefit compared to the lacklustre defence down of Double Flame. Dual Demolition also possesses an incredible area of effect, which is the perfect tool to cleave multiple enemies in fights that may spawn them, such as the Jaldabaoth’s Piercing Gale fight. Speaking of this fight, his frequent dispel access also plants him as a slightly better pick over Gala Leonidas currently, whose main dispel capabilities isn’t as frequently available. Gatov’s ability to apply scorchrend, as well as a playstyle which is hard for enemies to disrupt, makes him incredibly user friendly and easy to build a team around. The final point he has going for him is that he is an incredibly fun unit. All his animations lead to a playstyle that is simple to use, and yet feels quite impactful to pull off. Considering that he has all the means to be as good as, if not better than Gala Leonidas, I highly recommend summoning him and adding the Blazewolf to your flame attuned team line up.

For co-abilities, a basic setup of strength, critical rate and skill damage boosts provided by blade, dagger and wand adventurers will serve Gatov well in boosting his damage capabilities. If you can maintain his combo up throughout a fight, or rapidly generate a high combo count, I could suggest running Kimono Elisanne instead of a dagger adventurer as a backline option. Kimono Elisanne provides the combo = critical rate chain co-ability, which passively boosts the adventurer’s critical rate by 1% per 10-hit combo (maximum of 20%). Outside of Kimono Elisanne, I would recommend running backline adventurers who provide the combo time chain co-ability, as this makes it easier for Gatov to maintain flurry effects that he may be running.

The following wyrmprint setup is a good starting point to build Gatov from, in which the only affliction assumed to be available in scorchrend:

• Emmisaries of the Heavens (or equivalent +20% flurry strength print)
• Moonlight Party (+22% critical rate when HP = 70% or above)
• The Cutie Competition (or equivalent +25% scorchrend punisher)
• To the Extreme (+12% flurry devastation (flame))
• A Small Courage (+20% skill damage)
• Savage Hawk (Lance’s Boon) (or equivalent sword psalm III)
• Any +20% skill damage wyrmprint from Rise of the Sinister Dominion

Gala Reborn Agni continues to be the recommended dragon choice for most flame attuned adventurers, because of possessing an excellent damage passive and strong dragon form for players to control. Gala Mars remains a solid staple even with his slightly worst damage passive due to possessing a strong dragon form and his skill prep granted whenever an adventurer finishes a shapeshift. For non-Gala options, I would recommend rocking the recently fifth unbound Agni or Cerberus, as they grant Gatov a base 65% strength passive and an additional 30% strength buff for the first three minutes of an encounter (immune to nihility). For free to play players you cannot go wrong with High Brunhilda, who provides a base 40% increase to the HP and strength of an adventurers, and a further 40% strength buff for the first 3 minutes of a fight (immune to nihility).

The first of two upcoming Dragonyule units to be released into the game this year, Nevin gets his first alternative playstyle and is hoping to finally make an impact into the meta compared to his disappointing base version. As a wind-attuned dagger adventurer, he has incredibly still competition in the form of Gala Notte, who continues to be an excellent source of dispel for the element even with the recent additions and spiral into the game, and strong damage capabilities with her Metamorphosis playstyle. Even not considering Gala Notte though, wind has still possessed some respectable dagger options over the years with units such as Su Fang and Summer Norwin, so let’s see if Dragonyule can carve a niche.

Like most summer units this year, Dragonyule Nevin’s main mechanic is to enable the stormlash affliction on enemies which have high base resistance to it. This all ties to his first passive ability Ramiel’s Yuletide Party, which will inflict the ‘Locked Sigil’ debuff for the first 300 seconds of a fight, but can be removed when Nevin utilises his first skill Stellar Knives. Stellar Knives, at an advertised SP cost of 4,800, will not remove the Locked Sigil status but also summon Divine Daggers around the user, which will begin automatically attacking on Nevin’s behalf. Nevin will summon 4 of these Divine Daggers, each dealing 200% damage every 2 seconds, and generating 30 SP respectively. However, while I did states that the SP cost of this skill is 4,800, the Ramiel’s Yuletide Peity reduces the fill rate of it by 80%. This reduction also applies to skill prep effects, which means that it would take an equivalent 24,000 SP to fill. When Nevin has released his sigil, this skill will allow him to call his Divine Dagger back to him, and the fill rate reduction is removed.

Moving onto the rest of this passive ability, the ‘Sigil Released’ mode grants Nevin a unique force strike, that can be charged up to a variety number of levels depending on how many Divine Daggers are around him. When he utilises this forcestrike, he will throw his Divine Daggers to the enemy, equal to the charge level of his forcestrike, with each having a 40% chance of inflicting stormlash. When they are embedded into an enemy, they apply the ‘Divine Sting’ debuff, which will lower the target’s stormlash resistance by 15% per stack and deal 150% damage every 2.9 seconds. Do note that while the Divine Daggers are embedded into an enemy, they will no longer attack automatically around the user, meaning he loses the 200% damage and 30 SP per 2 seconds and per Divine Dagger.

However, there are times that you should consider embedding his Divine Daggers into the enemy, as this ties into his second skill Vertex Apocalypse. At an SP cost of 7,500, this skill will deal 1 hit of 1,620% damage to the target, inflict stormlash, and generate a strength amp (maximum team amp level of 3). During sigil released however, this skill instead deals 1 hit of 1,800% damage, and deals a bonus 500% damage for each Divine Sting stack that is applied to the enemy. As such, with 4 Divine Sting effect stacks applied to the enemy, this skill can deal up to 3,800% damage to the enemy. Do note that the user will recall their Divine Daggers to themselves after use of this skill. To round his kit off Nevin comes with the Stormlash Edge passive ability, which increases his chances of inflicting stormlash by 40%.

Overall, Dragonyule Nevin provides a well-rounded kit that allows him to maintain the stormlash affliction without many troubles, while also boasting some impressive damage during his sigil released state. His ability to generate SP and deal damage freely while his Divine daggers are out means that his effective cost of casting skills is greatly reduced, allowing him to possess a more useful version of the typical bleed effect. His team strength amp capability also grants the wind element another option to generate the level 3 version if Gala Beast Volk ever gets powercrept into the future. Ultimately though, Nevin will shine the brightest in content where the boss’s resistance to stormlash is quite high, as enabling stormlash punisher effects provides a significant boost to the damage capabilities of a team. This is highlighted in the Iblis’s Surging Cascade fight, in which there are times where the boss is fully immune to the stormlash affliction. Surprisingly enough as well, his unique force strike has excellent overdrive gauge shredding capabilities, making him a solid choice to use in the Legend Ciella’s Wrath fight during Berserk phase. Considering how useful these affliction resistances down units have been going further into the game’s lifespan, and considering Nevin’s great damage, I would recommend summoning for him if you wish to be future proofed for bosses which provide significant resistance to the stormlash affliction.

For co-abilities. I would at the very least run a skill haste co-ability to allow Nevin to ramp up to his Divine Dagger usage as soon as possible. Besides that, considering most of his damage comes from his Divine Dagger’s, anything that boosts the raw strength of Nevin, such as a strength co-ability provided by blade adventurers, or the wind element boost provided by the adventurer Mona will further help solidify Nevin’s damage output. If you missed out on the adventurer Mona though, a wand adventurer with the skill damage co-ability will probably be the next best option here. For the skill haste and strength backline choices, I would recommend selecting Humanoid Midgardsormr and Yukata Lathna if you can, as they provide the dragon haste chain co-ability, allowing Nevin to access his shapeshifted form much sooner in a fight.

The following setup will help Nevin take advantage of the readily available poison and stormlash afflictions within the wind element:

• A Man Unchanging (+30% poison punisher)
• Memory of a Friend (+20% flurry strength)
• Sweet Surprise (+25% stormlash punish)
• A Passion for Produce (+12% critical rate (dagger))
• A Small Courage (+20% skill damage)
• Savage Hawk (Lance’s Boon) (sword psalm III)
• Any +20% skill damage print from Rise of the Sinister Dominion)

Gala Beast Volk remains the premier wind-attuned dragon in the game thanks to his excellent damage passives and potent amping ability whenever users shapeshift into him. Even with the drawbacks of having no afflictions, in the skilled hands of an endgame player you should have no troubles dodging the necessary attacks to avoid this drawback. However, if you were to take on the Legend Ciella’s Wrath fight, you may still wish to take Gala Reborn Zephyr, who provides a stronger dragon form at a slightly reduced damage passive, but without the drawback of have no resistance to afflictions. Outside of the Gala dragon options, the recently fifth unbind for Zephyr grants damage units a base 65% strength passive boost, and a further 30% strength buff for the first 3 minutes of a fight (immune to nihility). Midgardsormr Zero skill damage and strength passives remain a solid choice for wind-attuned adventurers, especially in combination with his potent dragon form that can permanently reduce the wind-element resistance of a boss by 10% for the remainder of the fight when he uses his dragon’s skill. For free to play players High Midgardsormr provides a solid 40% HP and strength passive increase, and a further 40% strength buff for the first 3 minutes of a fight (immune to nihiltiy).

On Summoning Rates and Wyrmsigils

• Gala banners feature a boosted 6% rate to summon any 5-star adventurer or dragon available in this banner’s pool.
• Dragonyule Nevin will appear on the subsequent banner following this Gala, but he will not be on focus rate.
• Both Gala Gatov and Dragonyule Nevin have an individual summoning rate of 0.5% respectively.
• Besides the two focus units, Gala Reborn Agni, Gala Mars, Gala Zephyr, and Gala Beast Volk can also be sparked.

Final Verdict: Summon

Both of these units are excellent additions to their respective elements and will serve you well for content going into the future. Gala Gatov provides even better damage and dispel capabilities to Gala Leonidas, while Dragonyule Nevin will surely remain relevant as the stormlash affliction resistance down unit of the wind element.