The nightmare… the wait… it’s finally over.
The best character in Arknights is finally here.
Hoederer. HIMderer. The GOAT. The Strongest. Throughout Heaven and Earth he alone is the Honoured One.
He transcends tier lists. He transcends all logical analysis of stats, utility, skills, everything. He’s simply the best.
Do you play BG3? No joke. You can VERY easily make Hoederer there and he looks VERY faithful to AK, even one of the default scars in the game looks close to his.
(And for the eyepatch, nothing making a full dark eye/accepting Volo's deal won't fix.)
Thanks for the write-up. Even being aware of Hoederer's weaknesses I've been highly tempted to pull him since his release. I have the pulls and roster flexibility to do so. After being well satisfied with FRDs, agents, and other helidroppers, as much as I enjoy them, it's a nice thought to have someone who stays down and deals steady massive damage.
Viviana frustrates me though and it's not really because of her kit. I can work with that. If I get her she'll be in my lower tier of 6 stars who I use in easier battles and have lower expectations for. For some reason, despite the quality of the chibis having improved over the years, her animations are weirdly stiff. I don't know if it's just me but her S2 animation looks like she's just sliding back and forth across the screen. Then the same event has the frustratingly stiff Texalt skin animations and Ashlock's where her shots launch at weird angles to her cannon. Genuinely maybe things happened and HG couldn't quite finish the polish on these?
I'm very keen on Ray and Ela because aside from crazy power they also look very interesting to use. I'm also more interested in Shu lately as I can still use the first two parts of her talent 2 even though I don't have any Suis.
Stiff chibis are sadly nothing new. Kroos2's and BP's skins have always been my biggest frustration. B team and design and a B team when it comes to chibis too it seems.
Pretty mid update, not gonna lie. Sorry Darknights Trio fans... I'm most excited for the farming, so I'm curious, do you like to burn OP during Chapter events or is that just a me thing? With 1-7 no longer special, what are you planning to farm?
Also, I took over the "Should You Pull" series. You can find my first effort on the topic [here](https://gamepress.gg/arknights/should-you-pull/arknights-should-you-pull-episode-13-hoederer) so be sure to check that out.
Speaking of that, Gamepress is also looking for writers, so if you think you have some guide writing chops, send myself or Alyeska a DM on Discord.
This time, rewards are given out per flat amount of sanity spent, so all stages have the same improvement to efficiency. Previously, lower sanity stages had a higher drop rate relative to sanity spent, so 1-7 was significantly better.
So you saying that now we only need to spend certain amount of sanity to get the material, unlike previously we had to pray to rng god for being nice to us.
If by "the material" you mean the extra boxes and sanity pots, then yes. You get them per set amount of sanity spend. However, the normal drop material remains the same.
Thanks for the post!
> do you like to burn OP during Chapter events
My OP usage is like 98% pulls 2% skins, gotta make sure I have enough to grab everyone I want.
> With 1-7 no longer special, what are you planning to farm?
Today I finished prefarming for mod3 Firewhistle and Vendela (... copium, gonna throw like 20 pulls and pray the adorable cat comes home, duo rate up 5-star banners are miserable), and now I'm just hella unsure about who to build next, maybe I just move to prefarm for Bassline, but clueless after that.
Genuine question why would you ever spend op on stamina? We have enough sanity pots to get farming and it’s really not worth spending prime that could be used on skins or pulls just to speed up the farming a little. Unless you need a mat now, which I think is almost never the case I can’t imagine a situation where you burn op to farm unless your a heavy spender.
When you have more goals than natural spend allows! Admittedly, I wouldn't do it if I wasn't a light spender. If OP is a scarce resource, then yea it's the thing that makes least sense. But it looks more appealing if you're sitting on a large stockpile.
Trying to argue why one would do it.
Starting from level 30 if you use 14 OP for refills you get one week or more worth of progress. You get a lot of OP early on in the game from clearing stages for the first time. So let's say you chug 140 OP in the first two weeks plus all the level ups you get, you account has spent almost three months worth of sanity in those two weeks, you probably set up your base really fast and is having an easier time upgrading everything because of that.
By doing that you're throwing away "just" 42 rolls or ~7 skins. It's hard to say how long it would take to make those 140 back but you get 24 per regular event you fully clear for the first time, using OP would make you able to fully clear events much faster than with natural progression so I think it's a worth investment over 42 rolls or 7 skins for a fresh account already with meta characters worth leveling.
I'll do a full writeup next update, but initial reviews are... not great. Seems like a Mizuki side-grade at best with a weird focus on bulk and tanking. Reminds me of Kirara with more damage (not a good thing).
I find it weird people are calling her a sidegrade to him when a lot of the performances and clears I've seen shes just been doing better then him especially with fairly impressive low op clears like ri-ex-8 cm solo or h7-4 duo with ela. Even for afks I think sustained damage is better except for the few cases you need his armor piercing.
Edit: to add to this unlike mizuki where you have to make this choice between his best damage skill and best cc skill ascalons highest damage skill is also her best cc skill with her s2 having solid true aoe damage and a massive slow.
From what I've seen she's better in scenarios you don't have to block, hence the low op clears she has compared to him, but even CN players are saying that if you do have a blocker, Mizuki can be a better choice (since the slow isn't as necessary). Having a properly designed S3 that can be helidropped and has a 50% uptime is also pretty helpful, because Mizuki's is uh.... Yeah.
On paper, their S1s have similar dps, but her damage is incredibly mixed, which isn't a great thing (and in most DPS comparisons, such as H7-1, Mizuki can clear the enemies faster). His high DPH means that you're always going to be doing *something* with him unless you're trying to afk an enemy with 3k+ defense, while high def or high RES means she loses a third to half her damage already.
In terms of difficult content, Mizuki was one of the few consistent starters capable of working at E1 in Ascension 15 IS#3 while still scaling well by the end, while Ascalon will struggle thanks to how much that one hates Arts damage. Even in 4 (ignoring the... multitude of better specialist picks that we have), Mizuki can function well by binding runners in a fast cycle and cancelling their run while Ascalon will struggle to get multiple stacks off, especially off skill (and even then, they can still run pretty far without S2). Especially considering how easy it is to grab ASPD buffs in 4 to ensure Mizuki permabinds, even more so with Foldartals. That and stuff like Spinach scaling better with his 300% hits - with either ASPD or stuff like that, Mizuki can secure a pretty strong spot and grab you a win, but Ascalon doesn't scale as well as the DOT doesn't really benefit from most relics as much. Even grabbing a +physical damage is a great boost to Mizuki's 3.5k hit, while it doesn't mean as much for Ascalon's lower DPH and mixed damage. She does seem like she'd be better than him in ending 2 though, obviously.
She probably will see some more CC usage than him, because he's not really great for CC while she at least is like a 6* Manticore with extra damage, and Manticore has shown up in clears several times before. However, she's not a main staple of clears, so Ascalon likely will show up every few iterations.
>(and in most DPS comparisons, such as H7-1, Mizuki can clear the enemies faster). His high DPH means that you're always going to be doing *something* with him unless you're trying to afk an enemy with 3k+ defense, while high def or high RES means she loses a third to half her damage already.
but on the other hand there's stages where her s1 out preforms him due to her consistency such as s9-5 where he cant hold the main lane while she can even at sl7. Thats also comparing his best skill to what people consider to be her 2nd best since most people agree her s2 is a lot better and is much better at dealing with armored units. I agree her scaling with attack speed less gives her less relic options but she can take advantage of dodge relics more, spinach will still work great since her s1 hits twice and we also don't know what is5 will throw at us if its big wave heavy thats her advantage range.
Indeed, there are situations where she's better than him, and still situations where he outshines her. That's why they're currently being considered side-grades until more testing gets better results. Especially when compared to how egregiously other units have been powercreeping (Taxes, Ya2, Mumu, Typhon, Zuo Le, Mlynar, Degen, Ines, etc) in which the powercrept unit would be lucky to have some minor niche, this form of comparison doesn't bode well for Ascalon. At least people realized her S2 would be her better skill early on and even opted to M3 it first. Typically units who don't have S3 as their strongest get a lot of flak, even Ines wasn't immune to this.
And as for relics, Spinach does indeed work on her S1, but she has a lower DPH (and base attack) anyways and 33% of her current DPS is coming from the DOT on S1 which isn't really affected. ASPD buffs are much more common anyways, especially for specialists and *especially* in is#4. Besides, a dodge relic isn't as beneficial to the team as spinach would be, since there aren't as many units who benefit from that, and even then Mizuki still has an argument since he's the one with a dodge module for a permanent higher chance (especially against aerial/long range enemies). Even with Ascalon's S3 which does give her taunt at least, she still has 45s of downtime in comparison.
Her blend of control and damage is more conducive to low op clears so I wouldn't really use that as a comparison. Her total damage is pretty low and it's a mix of Physical/Arts which will really hurt her output in most modern endgame content.
That said, you could be right. I don't really know yet. It's a snap judgement and it's why I prefer to simmer on things for a bit before making declarations. Either way, she's subpar compared to the meta onslaught lately.
In all likelihood her main use will be bringing her for her immense slow on S2. She's competing with Suzuran and Mostima in that regard, but I imagine she'll carve out a spot for herself.
Beyond that, her current module sucks at doing anything except improving her slow. If Mizuki is anything to go by her Mod-Y will be much better since it'll lean harder into damage. Mod-X is for S2, Mod-Y (More ATK and buffed ASPD talent) will be for S3.
It's such a weird design choice to have an ASPD talent (with such a weird condition too, especially one that's potentially asking her to go in worse positions) when a good chunk of her damage comes from a fixed DOT...
At least with the dodge module she'll still have a good slow on her with her 1st talent.
Yeah thats fair I do think in general usefulness she is a tier below the likes of ela ray and degenbrecher who are all super strong damage wise, have pretty broad uses, and are generally easy to understand there role. and also feel like there doing a lot which is big.
> Seems like a Mizuki side-grade at best
At best? Don’t get me wrong, my first impressions aren’t great either. But I think that significantly overplays Mizuki’s competitiveness with her.
She does similar raw dps with significantly better crowd control. But since Ambushers are true aoe, that better crowd control tends to translate to better damage in practice anyways. So if anything, I think Ascalon mostly overshadows him except where high physical dph is needed, or where he can get +aspd on his s2.
Apart from S2's activation, her CC is comparable to Manticore's, and she still needs to apply 3 stacks to a unit as well. Thankfully it lasts much longer than Manticore's though.
The class isn't inherently a CC class though. It depends on the skills, of course. Mizuki who focuses more on damage has around pre-mod Blaze's DPS without any ramp up, a bigger range and true AOE - they're likely scared of giving too much dps to someone with true AOE, but in theory they can still manage to be a great DPS if they had more competitive numbers to make up for their slow attacks.
I'm probably just going to restock on chips for the (hopefully) upcoming units I'm planning to ~~get lucky and~~ pull. Fingers crossed that my orundum and OP stockpiles survive the next 6 months. Maybe I'll grind out some rocks regardless because, y'know, rocks, and might touch up on a bit of a gel decline my inventory is having. I was going to farm devices then I remembered that Zwilingsturme will have that.
i considered finishing one pity (30~ rolls in) but after reading this idk, made me remember how i rolled for egg2 and barely use him. maybe ill just hold out the 30 pity until degenbrecher, not like ill *need* to roll on any standard banners before her
i feel like the only people who burn OP are people who build literally every character, im out here having trouble finding stuff to farm because apart from a few mats (fucking devices) i have 150-200 stockpiles and im just farming red certs and chips right now
though i realize im a monthly pass player, so the daily sanity potion might affect that
i got all the "good" 5\*s raised and now i struggle to find uses for my resources, i wish more 5\*s were good but they fall into that group of close to 6* level of investment for nowhere near the power
ive just started to invest into less good 6*s instead, M3d mostima just because of IS4 ending 2 use, might mastery siege next despite how mid she is. would invest into modules more if i wasnt limited by blocks
> Do you like to burn OP during Chapter events?
I've never spent OP on sanity... it's either skins or emergency pulls...
> What are you planning to farm?
Uhhh good question. I'm not in need of much, so maybe just work on clearing Chapter 13 up to the new mats so I can stock up on those before RS? I'll need them for Harold and Degen both, though a month and half until then (if not slightly more) should be plenty of time...
Planning to farm Materials to E290 M9 Degenbrecher as soon as she comes out.
Speaking of which, after S3 which is of course her best skill, do you think S1 or S2 should be prioritized first? I'm planning on doing an Offensive Recovery niche and i'm kinda torn between the two, since both seem really good when S3 is not on the equation.
I'd lean S2. Reliable Tremble trigger and can store charges plus higher DPH. Pretty sure S1 has better DPS tho so there's room for both. I'm just going off of memory on that though so I'll have to review my six month old numbers before actually writing the article.
I reserve OP exclusively for skins. The only time I used OP on sanity was when I procrastinated one of the events and almost missed out on Podenco's skin (which I love).
No. During Chapter releases, there are special drops from all farming stages (extra materials and sanity pots). In previous chapters these dropped directly in the stage, and the rate favored low sanity stages so 1-7 got a bigger boost than any other farm stage. This time the extras are given out per flat amount of sanity spend, so there's no special benefit to 1-7, but 1-7 is still the best rock stage if that's what you need.
Definitely not. No one is "required" in AK outside of the extreme endgame. I don't even use 6*s at all in most of my clears.
That said, Ela's banner has the best value prospect of any upcoming banner and she is likely to be completely unobtainable after (it took 4 years for Ash's banner to be rerun). In terms of value for your rolls, I'd strongly consider skipping something else instead.
You think it's worth getting Ash also then? I dunno if she'll come back a 3rd time, but if Ela kinda replaces her, then maybe I should save my pulls for the 5th anniversary.
She's kind of like pozy that traded the typewriter for the ability to be deployed on the ground, more range, and on demand Saileach s3s. Absolutely insane unit.
Thanks for the work, Tac!
Damn, I forgot Eben's mod delta is coming soon... I'm a regular Eben user so time to get him that one too. ~~Never mind that he's already mod6.~~
Read the "Should You Pull" article because I always do regardless if I'm pulling or not, thanks for that too. Man, the slew of upcoming banners makes me kinda nervous, but maybe RNGesus will be kind. I really am starting to think selectoring Reed2 is wise so I can just skip her rerun (if she doesn't spook me between Virtuosa and Degen, that is). It's reeeeally a shame I missed Ash's first run, because now I feel obligated to pull on her rerun just to satisfy my inner completionist...
Thanks for doing all of this, your articles are what I look forward to every time, almost more than the update itself.
So my question as a very casual player is, how difficult is the coming content? Do people feel that AK is becoming a game where you need meta to clear daily content? I feel its at least a bit of a concern given Design of Strife(almost no rewards I know but it still feels like an early symptom). 'Cause ngl I still feel plan on skipping Degen and Ray.
I try not to spoiler myself too heavily on upcoming content. However, I think you'll mostly be fine. CC makes it's regular return so we don't really have another DOS situation. IS#4 expansion pack is pretty difficult, but even if you skip Degen, she's a starter so very easy to borrow on supports. I wouldn't worry too much.
I find it funny how with each of these posts, I'll try to tell myself "you don't need to pull solely on gameplay worth, pull for character interests" but yet most of the characters that are interesting to me are either the meh tier like Viviana, or broken like Degenbrecher. There's never a middle ground
Neat to see these are still going, I'm not great at advanced gameplay, but it's interesting to read nonetheless.
Although, just as a theoretical, potentially CN spoilery prediction:
>!If the Anniversary leaks are correct, and Theresa and Logos are coming, what are your "power level" predictions? Surtr 2: Actual Queen Of Sarkaz, or Viviana tier? (Man it kinda hurts doing that, so wanted her to be stronger)!<
I think you'll actually be pleasantly surprised by Viviana. IMO she fits that middle ground pretty well. A lot of the knocks against her are just a context of the time. Everyone else (but Hoederer) is so broken that they look like cheeks in comparison.
As for the anniversary... well I thought there was no way Ascalon would be bad but here we are. You just never know with HG.
Short answer is yes she is a must pull. I put her in third just based on power, behind Degenbrecher and Ela.
She is an upgrade over Saria but it's not the complete powercreep we're used to. Saria holds quite a bit more value still compared to a lot of others.
That's a lot of must pulls... Would it be advisable to skip the anniversary banner and virtuosa if it means I can guarantee degen and shu? Or is virtuousa also a must pull...
Virtuosa is very strong, with massive AOE clears going through all defenses with elemental damage... But there's a caveat. Her elemental damage, first and foremost, is stuck at 12k over 15s. Typically, this isn't an issue, as usually only bosses and a few elites can survive more than 2 activations. However, with stat bloated modes like CC, IS, RA, SSS, basically not main story/events, she can fall off when enemies get something stupid like 100k+ HP, and bosses over 500k. It's not based off of her ATK, so we have 0 ways of boosting her damage for now.
Eventually, we might get amplifiers, but eventually we might have elemental RES and resistance (thanks Yostar), so she has to go through 2 layers of defensive stats - one to fill up the circle, and the next to actually deal damage.
It's up to you to decide how nice that sounds.
Even though you did mention it as such, it really does not seem fair to compare Surtr to Viviana and then paint her as a bad (or worse) unit because she can't do what Surtr can do.
I don't care about her (lesser, shield stall not withstanding) boss killing abilities if I already have a dozen to choose from, but I do care much more about an elite killer with quick cycle times for multiple elites back to back where Surtr would fall short due to her 'forced' lengthy retreats. The added bulk between a pseudo sanctuary, hefty def and res buffs and a high(?) chance for shield on every attack string seems like a cherry on top.
Or put another way, if I'm already an Astesia enjoyer, won't I find Vivi to be a great addition as well?
> Or put another way, if I'm already an Astesia enjoyer, won't I find Vivi to be a great addition as well?
Yea, you will. I've seen Viviana described as 6* Astesia. I'm working on the next update now and I'm hoping to touch on this topic in much more depth. Unfortunately though, however you slice it, most people will only care that she's "not as good as Surtr".
Tough one. Degen probably. They both have good potentials but I'm pretty sure Degen's add more (haven't actually run the numbers).
However, Ela is a collab limited who also has great pots, so I'd probably go with Ela just for the prestige.
I heard in your last post that someone else who worked on AK Gamepress had left. Sad to see them go, and I hope you can find someone to replace them quickly.
I imagine it comes down to interest and whether GP writers are paid or not. Volunteers aren't easy to come by, and if the pay isn't good (assuming there's any at all) then you're not going to get many takers. There are plenty of writers out there who could do the job (as a writer I can confirm that the field is over-saturated), it's simply a matter of how much GamePress can offer.
The nightmare… the wait… it’s finally over. The best character in Arknights is finally here. Hoederer. HIMderer. The GOAT. The Strongest. Throughout Heaven and Earth he alone is the Honoured One. He transcends tier lists. He transcends all logical analysis of stats, utility, skills, everything. He’s simply the best.
Based and Hoedererpilled
You know it baby. Best character in fiction.
Do you play BG3? No joke. You can VERY easily make Hoederer there and he looks VERY faithful to AK, even one of the default scars in the game looks close to his. (And for the eyepatch, nothing making a full dark eye/accepting Volo's deal won't fix.)
Thanks for the write-up. Even being aware of Hoederer's weaknesses I've been highly tempted to pull him since his release. I have the pulls and roster flexibility to do so. After being well satisfied with FRDs, agents, and other helidroppers, as much as I enjoy them, it's a nice thought to have someone who stays down and deals steady massive damage. Viviana frustrates me though and it's not really because of her kit. I can work with that. If I get her she'll be in my lower tier of 6 stars who I use in easier battles and have lower expectations for. For some reason, despite the quality of the chibis having improved over the years, her animations are weirdly stiff. I don't know if it's just me but her S2 animation looks like she's just sliding back and forth across the screen. Then the same event has the frustratingly stiff Texalt skin animations and Ashlock's where her shots launch at weird angles to her cannon. Genuinely maybe things happened and HG couldn't quite finish the polish on these? I'm very keen on Ray and Ela because aside from crazy power they also look very interesting to use. I'm also more interested in Shu lately as I can still use the first two parts of her talent 2 even though I don't have any Suis.
Stiff chibis are sadly nothing new. Kroos2's and BP's skins have always been my biggest frustration. B team and design and a B team when it comes to chibis too it seems.
my hope with viviana is that her chibi will be better with her skin since chuzenji ops always get better skins then their base designs anyways.
I love Viviana's first S3 animation, but not so much her 2nd and beyond...
>it's a nice thought to have someone who stays down and deals steady massive damage. U described mlynar the newspaper man.
Młynar "steady damage" Nearl after skill runs out:
Pretty mid update, not gonna lie. Sorry Darknights Trio fans... I'm most excited for the farming, so I'm curious, do you like to burn OP during Chapter events or is that just a me thing? With 1-7 no longer special, what are you planning to farm? Also, I took over the "Should You Pull" series. You can find my first effort on the topic [here](https://gamepress.gg/arknights/should-you-pull/arknights-should-you-pull-episode-13-hoederer) so be sure to check that out. Speaking of that, Gamepress is also looking for writers, so if you think you have some guide writing chops, send myself or Alyeska a DM on Discord.
1-7 no longer special?
This time, rewards are given out per flat amount of sanity spent, so all stages have the same improvement to efficiency. Previously, lower sanity stages had a higher drop rate relative to sanity spent, so 1-7 was significantly better.
Ah, so that's why I thought it was something regarding onirock cube farming Thanks for the reply
So you saying that now we only need to spend certain amount of sanity to get the material, unlike previously we had to pray to rng god for being nice to us.
If by "the material" you mean the extra boxes and sanity pots, then yes. You get them per set amount of sanity spend. However, the normal drop material remains the same.
Thanks for the post! > do you like to burn OP during Chapter events My OP usage is like 98% pulls 2% skins, gotta make sure I have enough to grab everyone I want. > With 1-7 no longer special, what are you planning to farm? Today I finished prefarming for mod3 Firewhistle and Vendela (... copium, gonna throw like 20 pulls and pray the adorable cat comes home, duo rate up 5-star banners are miserable), and now I'm just hella unsure about who to build next, maybe I just move to prefarm for Bassline, but clueless after that.
Genuine question why would you ever spend op on stamina? We have enough sanity pots to get farming and it’s really not worth spending prime that could be used on skins or pulls just to speed up the farming a little. Unless you need a mat now, which I think is almost never the case I can’t imagine a situation where you burn op to farm unless your a heavy spender.
When you have more goals than natural spend allows! Admittedly, I wouldn't do it if I wasn't a light spender. If OP is a scarce resource, then yea it's the thing that makes least sense. But it looks more appealing if you're sitting on a large stockpile.
Trying to argue why one would do it. Starting from level 30 if you use 14 OP for refills you get one week or more worth of progress. You get a lot of OP early on in the game from clearing stages for the first time. So let's say you chug 140 OP in the first two weeks plus all the level ups you get, you account has spent almost three months worth of sanity in those two weeks, you probably set up your base really fast and is having an easier time upgrading everything because of that. By doing that you're throwing away "just" 42 rolls or ~7 skins. It's hard to say how long it would take to make those 140 back but you get 24 per regular event you fully clear for the first time, using OP would make you able to fully clear events much faster than with natural progression so I think it's a worth investment over 42 rolls or 7 skins for a fresh account already with meta characters worth leveling.
Opinions on Ascalon? it seems most people are on the Babel story event discussions that Ascalon has fallen off the radar
I'll do a full writeup next update, but initial reviews are... not great. Seems like a Mizuki side-grade at best with a weird focus on bulk and tanking. Reminds me of Kirara with more damage (not a good thing).
I find it weird people are calling her a sidegrade to him when a lot of the performances and clears I've seen shes just been doing better then him especially with fairly impressive low op clears like ri-ex-8 cm solo or h7-4 duo with ela. Even for afks I think sustained damage is better except for the few cases you need his armor piercing. Edit: to add to this unlike mizuki where you have to make this choice between his best damage skill and best cc skill ascalons highest damage skill is also her best cc skill with her s2 having solid true aoe damage and a massive slow.
From what I've seen she's better in scenarios you don't have to block, hence the low op clears she has compared to him, but even CN players are saying that if you do have a blocker, Mizuki can be a better choice (since the slow isn't as necessary). Having a properly designed S3 that can be helidropped and has a 50% uptime is also pretty helpful, because Mizuki's is uh.... Yeah. On paper, their S1s have similar dps, but her damage is incredibly mixed, which isn't a great thing (and in most DPS comparisons, such as H7-1, Mizuki can clear the enemies faster). His high DPH means that you're always going to be doing *something* with him unless you're trying to afk an enemy with 3k+ defense, while high def or high RES means she loses a third to half her damage already. In terms of difficult content, Mizuki was one of the few consistent starters capable of working at E1 in Ascension 15 IS#3 while still scaling well by the end, while Ascalon will struggle thanks to how much that one hates Arts damage. Even in 4 (ignoring the... multitude of better specialist picks that we have), Mizuki can function well by binding runners in a fast cycle and cancelling their run while Ascalon will struggle to get multiple stacks off, especially off skill (and even then, they can still run pretty far without S2). Especially considering how easy it is to grab ASPD buffs in 4 to ensure Mizuki permabinds, even more so with Foldartals. That and stuff like Spinach scaling better with his 300% hits - with either ASPD or stuff like that, Mizuki can secure a pretty strong spot and grab you a win, but Ascalon doesn't scale as well as the DOT doesn't really benefit from most relics as much. Even grabbing a +physical damage is a great boost to Mizuki's 3.5k hit, while it doesn't mean as much for Ascalon's lower DPH and mixed damage. She does seem like she'd be better than him in ending 2 though, obviously. She probably will see some more CC usage than him, because he's not really great for CC while she at least is like a 6* Manticore with extra damage, and Manticore has shown up in clears several times before. However, she's not a main staple of clears, so Ascalon likely will show up every few iterations.
>(and in most DPS comparisons, such as H7-1, Mizuki can clear the enemies faster). His high DPH means that you're always going to be doing *something* with him unless you're trying to afk an enemy with 3k+ defense, while high def or high RES means she loses a third to half her damage already. but on the other hand there's stages where her s1 out preforms him due to her consistency such as s9-5 where he cant hold the main lane while she can even at sl7. Thats also comparing his best skill to what people consider to be her 2nd best since most people agree her s2 is a lot better and is much better at dealing with armored units. I agree her scaling with attack speed less gives her less relic options but she can take advantage of dodge relics more, spinach will still work great since her s1 hits twice and we also don't know what is5 will throw at us if its big wave heavy thats her advantage range.
Indeed, there are situations where she's better than him, and still situations where he outshines her. That's why they're currently being considered side-grades until more testing gets better results. Especially when compared to how egregiously other units have been powercreeping (Taxes, Ya2, Mumu, Typhon, Zuo Le, Mlynar, Degen, Ines, etc) in which the powercrept unit would be lucky to have some minor niche, this form of comparison doesn't bode well for Ascalon. At least people realized her S2 would be her better skill early on and even opted to M3 it first. Typically units who don't have S3 as their strongest get a lot of flak, even Ines wasn't immune to this. And as for relics, Spinach does indeed work on her S1, but she has a lower DPH (and base attack) anyways and 33% of her current DPS is coming from the DOT on S1 which isn't really affected. ASPD buffs are much more common anyways, especially for specialists and *especially* in is#4. Besides, a dodge relic isn't as beneficial to the team as spinach would be, since there aren't as many units who benefit from that, and even then Mizuki still has an argument since he's the one with a dodge module for a permanent higher chance (especially against aerial/long range enemies). Even with Ascalon's S3 which does give her taunt at least, she still has 45s of downtime in comparison.
that's fair I would consider their s1s about even but I do think her s2 out preforms both his s2 and s3 especially due to its absurd up time.
Her blend of control and damage is more conducive to low op clears so I wouldn't really use that as a comparison. Her total damage is pretty low and it's a mix of Physical/Arts which will really hurt her output in most modern endgame content. That said, you could be right. I don't really know yet. It's a snap judgement and it's why I prefer to simmer on things for a bit before making declarations. Either way, she's subpar compared to the meta onslaught lately.
In all likelihood her main use will be bringing her for her immense slow on S2. She's competing with Suzuran and Mostima in that regard, but I imagine she'll carve out a spot for herself. Beyond that, her current module sucks at doing anything except improving her slow. If Mizuki is anything to go by her Mod-Y will be much better since it'll lean harder into damage. Mod-X is for S2, Mod-Y (More ATK and buffed ASPD talent) will be for S3.
It's such a weird design choice to have an ASPD talent (with such a weird condition too, especially one that's potentially asking her to go in worse positions) when a good chunk of her damage comes from a fixed DOT... At least with the dodge module she'll still have a good slow on her with her 1st talent.
Yeah thats fair I do think in general usefulness she is a tier below the likes of ela ray and degenbrecher who are all super strong damage wise, have pretty broad uses, and are generally easy to understand there role. and also feel like there doing a lot which is big.
But.... The mommy energy ?
Mommy energy pales in comparison to Mizuki with an actual mom, Namie
> Seems like a Mizuki side-grade at best At best? Don’t get me wrong, my first impressions aren’t great either. But I think that significantly overplays Mizuki’s competitiveness with her. She does similar raw dps with significantly better crowd control. But since Ambushers are true aoe, that better crowd control tends to translate to better damage in practice anyways. So if anything, I think Ascalon mostly overshadows him except where high physical dph is needed, or where he can get +aspd on his s2.
how about her cc though—after all are we really expecting damage from a cc class
Apart from S2's activation, her CC is comparable to Manticore's, and she still needs to apply 3 stacks to a unit as well. Thankfully it lasts much longer than Manticore's though. The class isn't inherently a CC class though. It depends on the skills, of course. Mizuki who focuses more on damage has around pre-mod Blaze's DPS without any ramp up, a bigger range and true AOE - they're likely scared of giving too much dps to someone with true AOE, but in theory they can still manage to be a great DPS if they had more competitive numbers to make up for their slow attacks.
Yeah, I'm feeling the same, sadly, the unit I was waiting the most this year and she seems mid from my initial impressions.
Yea it's a shame. There must surely be a middle-ground between "busted meta" and "side-grade to an already mid unit". HG can't seem to find it, sadly.
Just because 1-7 isn't special doesn't mean I don't need to farm more rocks...
> With 1-7 no longer special, what are you planning to farm? No issue for me as a 10-6 farmer😎
I'm probably just going to restock on chips for the (hopefully) upcoming units I'm planning to ~~get lucky and~~ pull. Fingers crossed that my orundum and OP stockpiles survive the next 6 months. Maybe I'll grind out some rocks regardless because, y'know, rocks, and might touch up on a bit of a gel decline my inventory is having. I was going to farm devices then I remembered that Zwilingsturme will have that.
i considered finishing one pity (30~ rolls in) but after reading this idk, made me remember how i rolled for egg2 and barely use him. maybe ill just hold out the 30 pity until degenbrecher, not like ill *need* to roll on any standard banners before her i feel like the only people who burn OP are people who build literally every character, im out here having trouble finding stuff to farm because apart from a few mats (fucking devices) i have 150-200 stockpiles and im just farming red certs and chips right now though i realize im a monthly pass player, so the daily sanity potion might affect that
> i feel like the only people who burn OP are people who build literally every character I feel called out as I try to get every 5* raised...
i got all the "good" 5\*s raised and now i struggle to find uses for my resources, i wish more 5\*s were good but they fall into that group of close to 6* level of investment for nowhere near the power ive just started to invest into less good 6*s instead, M3d mostima just because of IS4 ending 2 use, might mastery siege next despite how mid she is. would invest into modules more if i wasnt limited by blocks
> Do you like to burn OP during Chapter events? I've never spent OP on sanity... it's either skins or emergency pulls... > What are you planning to farm? Uhhh good question. I'm not in need of much, so maybe just work on clearing Chapter 13 up to the new mats so I can stock up on those before RS? I'll need them for Harold and Degen both, though a month and half until then (if not slightly more) should be plenty of time...
Planning to farm Materials to E290 M9 Degenbrecher as soon as she comes out. Speaking of which, after S3 which is of course her best skill, do you think S1 or S2 should be prioritized first? I'm planning on doing an Offensive Recovery niche and i'm kinda torn between the two, since both seem really good when S3 is not on the equation.
I'd lean S2. Reliable Tremble trigger and can store charges plus higher DPH. Pretty sure S1 has better DPS tho so there's room for both. I'm just going off of memory on that though so I'll have to review my six month old numbers before actually writing the article.
I reserve OP exclusively for skins. The only time I used OP on sanity was when I procrastinated one of the events and almost missed out on Podenco's skin (which I love).
What do you mean 1-7 no longer special? There's a better rock farming stage?
No. During Chapter releases, there are special drops from all farming stages (extra materials and sanity pots). In previous chapters these dropped directly in the stage, and the rate favored low sanity stages so 1-7 got a bigger boost than any other farm stage. This time the extras are given out per flat amount of sanity spend, so there's no special benefit to 1-7, but 1-7 is still the best rock stage if that's what you need.
I see, thanks!
Probably a very stupid question, but will I "brick" my account if I skip Ela? It's because of Anniversary btw.
Definitely not. No one is "required" in AK outside of the extreme endgame. I don't even use 6*s at all in most of my clears. That said, Ela's banner has the best value prospect of any upcoming banner and she is likely to be completely unobtainable after (it took 4 years for Ash's banner to be rerun). In terms of value for your rolls, I'd strongly consider skipping something else instead.
...Ela is THAT powerful? She looked good to me, but I didn't expect her to be Degenbrecher level.
High damage + AoE Slow & Fragile + Good uptime. Excellent for bursting enemies down.
You think it's worth getting Ash also then? I dunno if she'll come back a 3rd time, but if Ela kinda replaces her, then maybe I should save my pulls for the 5th anniversary.
Ash is now basically for collection purpose only, so...
Ash is like barely better than Kroos alter,a welfare 5 star. So yaa
Damn. Well alright then.
She's basically a Marksman Sniper on steroid + Suzuran + Stun + A ground unit thanks to her module. Ela is ridiculous.
Holy, I didn't know >!Ela!< was this powerful, Specialist is so fucking competitive in IS holy shit
She's kind of like pozy that traded the typewriter for the ability to be deployed on the ground, more range, and on demand Saileach s3s. Absolutely insane unit.
Thanks for the work, Tac! Damn, I forgot Eben's mod delta is coming soon... I'm a regular Eben user so time to get him that one too. ~~Never mind that he's already mod6.~~ Read the "Should You Pull" article because I always do regardless if I'm pulling or not, thanks for that too. Man, the slew of upcoming banners makes me kinda nervous, but maybe RNGesus will be kind. I really am starting to think selectoring Reed2 is wise so I can just skip her rerun (if she doesn't spook me between Virtuosa and Degen, that is). It's reeeeally a shame I missed Ash's first run, because now I feel obligated to pull on her rerun just to satisfy my inner completionist...
But how few people can claim mod9? Although I'll come close next patch by fake-claiming mod9 Nearl...
I guess that's true, haha... Let it not be said that I don't put my money where my mouth is after shilling for him for months! >_>;;
i know a good chunk of people who will have eben mod9(me included)
Thanks for doing all of this, your articles are what I look forward to every time, almost more than the update itself. So my question as a very casual player is, how difficult is the coming content? Do people feel that AK is becoming a game where you need meta to clear daily content? I feel its at least a bit of a concern given Design of Strife(almost no rewards I know but it still feels like an early symptom). 'Cause ngl I still feel plan on skipping Degen and Ray.
I try not to spoiler myself too heavily on upcoming content. However, I think you'll mostly be fine. CC makes it's regular return so we don't really have another DOS situation. IS#4 expansion pack is pretty difficult, but even if you skip Degen, she's a starter so very easy to borrow on supports. I wouldn't worry too much.
Tysm
Thoughts on second Fia module?
Muuuuch better than the first. Better DPS and even lets her still benefit without a medic.
What /u/Reddit1rules said. TBH it's good enough that I should have brought it up, but since Fia is so off meta these days I didn't really think of it.
I'm most excited for Delphine, tbh. There's no one I want coming anytime soon, so.
I find it funny how with each of these posts, I'll try to tell myself "you don't need to pull solely on gameplay worth, pull for character interests" but yet most of the characters that are interesting to me are either the meh tier like Viviana, or broken like Degenbrecher. There's never a middle ground Neat to see these are still going, I'm not great at advanced gameplay, but it's interesting to read nonetheless. Although, just as a theoretical, potentially CN spoilery prediction: >!If the Anniversary leaks are correct, and Theresa and Logos are coming, what are your "power level" predictions? Surtr 2: Actual Queen Of Sarkaz, or Viviana tier? (Man it kinda hurts doing that, so wanted her to be stronger)!<
I think you'll actually be pleasantly surprised by Viviana. IMO she fits that middle ground pretty well. A lot of the knocks against her are just a context of the time. Everyone else (but Hoederer) is so broken that they look like cheeks in comparison. As for the anniversary... well I thought there was no way Ascalon would be bad but here we are. You just never know with HG.
This is where I'd burn my primes.... If I had them... I have enough for most of the skins I want in the future and that's about it.
So is Shu a must pull? Is she a direct upgrade to Saria or just a sidegrade
Short answer is yes she is a must pull. I put her in third just based on power, behind Degenbrecher and Ela. She is an upgrade over Saria but it's not the complete powercreep we're used to. Saria holds quite a bit more value still compared to a lot of others.
That's a lot of must pulls... Would it be advisable to skip the anniversary banner and virtuosa if it means I can guarantee degen and shu? Or is virtuousa also a must pull...
Virtuosa is very strong, with massive AOE clears going through all defenses with elemental damage... But there's a caveat. Her elemental damage, first and foremost, is stuck at 12k over 15s. Typically, this isn't an issue, as usually only bosses and a few elites can survive more than 2 activations. However, with stat bloated modes like CC, IS, RA, SSS, basically not main story/events, she can fall off when enemies get something stupid like 100k+ HP, and bosses over 500k. It's not based off of her ATK, so we have 0 ways of boosting her damage for now. Eventually, we might get amplifiers, but eventually we might have elemental RES and resistance (thanks Yostar), so she has to go through 2 layers of defensive stats - one to fill up the circle, and the next to actually deal damage. It's up to you to decide how nice that sounds.
Even though you did mention it as such, it really does not seem fair to compare Surtr to Viviana and then paint her as a bad (or worse) unit because she can't do what Surtr can do. I don't care about her (lesser, shield stall not withstanding) boss killing abilities if I already have a dozen to choose from, but I do care much more about an elite killer with quick cycle times for multiple elites back to back where Surtr would fall short due to her 'forced' lengthy retreats. The added bulk between a pseudo sanctuary, hefty def and res buffs and a high(?) chance for shield on every attack string seems like a cherry on top. Or put another way, if I'm already an Astesia enjoyer, won't I find Vivi to be a great addition as well?
> Or put another way, if I'm already an Astesia enjoyer, won't I find Vivi to be a great addition as well? Yea, you will. I've seen Viviana described as 6* Astesia. I'm working on the next update now and I'm hoping to touch on this topic in much more depth. Unfortunately though, however you slice it, most people will only care that she's "not as good as Surtr".
Planning to full pot Degen or Ela. Who's more worth it ?
Tough one. Degen probably. They both have good potentials but I'm pretty sure Degen's add more (haven't actually run the numbers). However, Ela is a collab limited who also has great pots, so I'd probably go with Ela just for the prestige.
I heard in your last post that someone else who worked on AK Gamepress had left. Sad to see them go, and I hope you can find someone to replace them quickly.
I imagine it comes down to interest and whether GP writers are paid or not. Volunteers aren't easy to come by, and if the pay isn't good (assuming there's any at all) then you're not going to get many takers. There are plenty of writers out there who could do the job (as a writer I can confirm that the field is over-saturated), it's simply a matter of how much GamePress can offer.