Winter Dorothea

Weapon: Weaponless / Sevenfold Gifts

Assist: Sing 

Special: Moonbow 

Passive A: Fort. Def/Res 3 / Atk/Spd Boosting A Slot / Fortress Def / Fortress Res

Passive B: Wings of Mercy / Lull Spd/Res / Chill Skills

Passive C: Cross Spur Atk / Inf. Spd Tactic / Flexible 

Sacred Seal: Supportive Skills / Atk/Spd Form / Phantom Res

• Cavalry refreshers are incredibly valuable for Aether Raids Defense, as their superior movement allows them to refresh allies from far distances. With that being said, refresher sets for Aether Raids Defense are heavily nuanced and season-dependent.
• Ranged Cavalry refreshers are particularly strong at enabling “Rally traps”:
  • Certain Aether Raids Defense Mythics enable Defense Keeps to use a 7th slot. The unit in this slot will immediately end their turn if the entire Defense Keep is still alive, but they can receive refreshes like any other unit.
  • If the Defense Keep is laid out in a way such that Dorothea can only refresh the 7th slot unit from the front (facing the bottom / enemy Raiding Party), then her threat range will be very large after moving to refresh. If an enemy is within her threat range, then an ally with a Rally Assist can move to Rally her, extending their threat range in the process. If an enemy is within their threat range, then another refresher can come in to refresh them, allowing them to attack said enemy.
• Sevenfold Gifts provides Dorothea with some offensive potency, in addition to granting the ally she refreshes a guaranteed follow-up on initiation. However, it should be noted that the AI prefers attacking over refreshing if Dorothea can deal at least 5 damage, which may result in her attacking when it would be much more beneficial to instead refresh an ally with stronger combative capabilities. As such, it is perfectly viable to simply unequip Sevenfold Gifts if not using it for the aforementioned Rally trap, especially considering the ubiquity of Null Follow-Up effects that neutralize the guaranteed follow-up it provides anyway.
  • With that being said, there is an argument for maximizing Dorothea’s offensive capabilities specifically for Dark Season. Mila, a Light Mythic, inflicts Isolation on enemies within cardinal directions that have less Def than her; this prevents them from using Assists or being the target of Assists. No Christmas miracle is capable of allowing Dorothea to overcome this Def check; once she is isolated, the only thing she can really do is attack.
  • To maximize damage: +Atk and/or +Spd IV, Atk/Spd Boosting A slot, Lull Spd/Res (-3 Spd/Res on enemy, neutralizes their visible Spd/Res buffs during combat), Atk/Spd Boosting Sacred Seal
• For Anima Season, it is worth considering stacking Res on Dorothea if she is positioned in a way such that she is susceptible to Future-Focused, the personal C slot of Seidr, an Astra Mythic.
  • Future-Focused ends the turn of the closest enemies within cardinal directions if their Res is lower than Seidr’s. While Dorothea’s chances of overcoming this check seem just as impossible as her chances of dodging Mila’s Isolation, there’s a catch: for every space away from Seidr, the check adds +3 Res to Dorothea. As such, beating this check is actually somewhat practical for Dorothea.
  • To maximize Dorothea’s chances of beating Future-Focused: +Res IV, Fort. Def/Res (+6 visible Res), and Phantom Res (+10 Res when calculating for check)
• If weaponless, Dorothea’s A slot is irrelevant. If using Sevenfold Gifts and wanting to minimize the chance that Dorothea attacks instead of refreshing, then Fortress Def or Fortress Res are ideal for lowering Dorothea’s Atk.
• For supportive builds, Wings of Mercy and Chill skills are excellent B slots. The former allows Dorothea to warp adjacent to an ally with ≤ 50% HP, while the latter skills inflict -7 on the corresponding stat on the enemy that has the highest value in that stat (for example, Chill Atk inflicts -7 Atk on the enemy with the highest Atk).
• Dorothea’s C slot is flexible and can be changed to fit her team’s needs. Notable C slots include Cross Spur Atk, which grants +5 Atk to allies in cardinal directions during combat, and Inf. Spd Tactic, which grants Null Follow-Up to Infantry allies if there are less than three Infantry units on the team.
• For supportive, non-Res-stacking sets, any supportive Sacred Seal works fine; which seals are most valuable depend heavily on the Defense Keep’s setup.

Weapon: Sevenfold Gifts 

Assist: Sing 

Special: Moonbow 

Passive A: Atk/Spd Boosting A Slot 

Passive B: Wings of Mercy / S/R Far Trace 

Passive C: Inf. Spd Tactic / Flexible 

Sacred Seal: Life and Death / Distant Guard / Flexible

• Contrasting with the previous Aether Raids Defense set, Dorothea’s set for general usage and Aether Raids Offense is much simpler, focusing simply on balancing her supportive and offensive capabilities. Dorothea’s base kit on its own does wonders for accomplishing this:
  • Sevenfold Gifts grants her +6 Atk/Spd during combat while also granting the ally she refreshes with her Sing Assist a guaranteed follow-up when they initiate combat.
  • S/R Far Trace inflicts -3 Spd/Res on the enemy during combat in addition to allowing Dorothea to use her remaining movement (if any) after her first action every Player Phase.
  • Inf. Spd Tactic grants +6 Spd to allies within two spaces and Null Follow-Up to Infantry allies within two spaces; however, these effects are only granted only if the number of that ally's movement type on the team is ≤ 2. For example, if the team is Dorothea, two Cavalry allies, and one Infantry ally, then the Cavalry allies will not receive the Spd buff, but the Infantry ally will receive the +6 and Null Follow-Up effect.
• As Dorothea lacks Special cooldown acceleration or additional Special charge, low-cooldown Specials such as Moonbow are ideal to boost damage as frequently as possible.
• Atk/Spd Boosting A Slots increase Dorothea’s damage, making them strong choices for when Dorothea needs to attack. Life and Death and Fury are worth noting, as they increase her visible Atk/Spd, allowing her to soak Atk/Spd debuffs that target the unit on Dorothea’s team that has the highest value in these stats.
• S/R Far Trace can be replaced with Wings of Mercy, which allows Dorothea to warp adjacent to allies with ≤ 50% HP.
• Dorothea’s C slot is flexible and can be changed to be more combative or universally supportive.
• Finally, Dorothea can choose between an offensive or supportive Sacred Seal depending on whether she wants to be more combative or supportive. Life and Death and Fury are particularly strong options for the aforementioned reason.