9/5 Hero Balance Preview
Overview
Hi, this is Kuri. I will be going over the balance patches today!
With the latest balance update coming soon and people are asking me constantly what is good or what got worse, as well as the ridiculous amount of times I’ve been asked about if a unit is worth recalling, I decided to post a full overview of the what the changes bring to each unit one by one.
For the most part unless you are talking about Silver Blade Aramintha then you 100% should not recall your units as they will continue to be top tiers regardless of their nerfs. Without further ado here are the changes:
Table of Contents
Lilibet
| Snip-Snip (Before) | Snip-Snip (After) |
| Brutally cuts the enemy, with a 50% chance each to inflict four bleeding effects for 2 turns. Deals additional damage when target isn’t buffed. | Brutally cuts the enemy, with a 50% chance each to inflict four bleeding effects for 2 turns, and the caster’s Combat Readiness increases 50%. Deals additional damage when target isn’t buffed. – Damage increased 50% compared to before. |
| Soul Cutter (Before) | Soul Cutter (After) |
| Slashes the enemy with Cho & Mal, inflicting extinction when the enemy is defeated. | Slashes the enemy with Cho & Mal, inflicting extinction when the enemy is defeated. Grants the caster Skill Nullifier, negating damage received from the next attack. – Damage increased 11% compared to before |
With Lilibet’s weak release after being one of the most anticipated units, her new buffs…unfortunately don’t help her that much.
Her S2 buff increases her scaling by 0.5 and adds a 50% self CR boost when used. These are both welcome buffs to her, and I likely doesn’t need to be said that these will not negatively impact her. Her
S3 buffs is another scaling increase adding 0.2 base scaling (soul burn included) netting her a healthy 2.8 soul burn scaling, on top of a skill nullifier to boot.
Overall all these changes are welcome and definitely help her out by increasing her uptime and damage in longer battles, but she still suffers the same issue she was released with, that being that she has no internal synergy in her kit which helps her perform her role.When we talk about kit synergy we refer to things like
Assassin Coli’s S2 which gives her a built in attack up buff to help her execute with her S3 murder’s one shot kill, ultimately helping her fulfil her role as an assassin who can quickly open fights by picking off a weak unit.
Another example is Dizzy which serves as a debuffer, Dizzy’s S3 brings the debuffs and her S2 allows her to prolong those, effectively allowing her to excel her in given role.
Lilibet on the other hand has no tools in her kit which help her bring about the one shot execution damage needed to pull off her extinction effect.Because of this she has to have teammates built around her in order to succeed at her job, meaning in the end these buffs do little to solve her core problems.
However with the CR push and the damage increases she will potentially shine as a strong guild war unit.
Lidica
| Thornbush (Before) | Thornbush (After) |
| Attacks all enemies, with a 100% chance to decrease Hit Chance for 1 turn. | Attacks all enemies, with a 100% chance to decrease Hit Chance for 1 turn and dispels one buff. |
| Public Execution (Before) | Public Execution (After) |
| Attacks the enemy with a whip sword and decreases Combat Readiness by 100% and decrease Speed for 2 turns. Grants the caster Skill Nullifier, negating damage received from the next skill attack. | Attacks the enemy with a whip sword and decreases Combat Readiness by 100% and decrease Speed and making them unhealable for 2 turns. Grants the caster Skill Nullifier, negating damage received from the next skill attack. |
Lidica’s S2 was buffed to now include an AoE dispell and her S3 now includes an unhealable debuff. With this change Lidica is now the fastest dispeller in the game unfortunately because it is on her S2 it leaves her vulnerable to attack without the skill nullifier from her S3.
Because of this she will continue to suffer use in the faster pace of arena but may be useful as a fast dispeller on cleave teams. She will likely perform better in Guild Wars where the slower pace will leave her more breathing room and time to lock down her targets safely.
Basar
| Sand Wind (Before) | Sand Wind (After) |
| Attacks with magic, with a 75% chance to transfer one debuff from the caster to the enemy. | Attacks with wind magic. When the caster is debuffed, has a 75% chance to transfer one debuff from the caster to the enemy before inflicting a random debuff for 2 turns. |
| Hurricane (Before) | Hurricane (After) |
| Attacks all enemies by releasing a hot sand hurricane, with a 75% chance to decrease Hit Chance for 2 turns.
Soul Burn Effect (10 Souls): Skill cooldown is decreased by 2 turns. |
Attacks all enemies by releasing a hot sand hurricane, with a 75% chance to decrease Hit Chance and Attack for 2 turns.
Soul Burn Effect: Removed. |
| Sandstorm (Before) | Sandstorm (After) |
| Attacks all enemies with a sand magic, dispelling all buffs, and making them unable to be buffed for 2 turns. | Attacks all enemies with a sand magic, dispelling all buffs, and making them unable to be buffed for 2 turns, before decreasing Combat Readiness by 30%. Soul Burn Effect (20 Souls): Ignores Effect Resistance. |
Basar’s buffs leave him in a rather interesting spot, especially with the base speed buffs leaving him close to speeds similar to Luna and Tamarinne. With the includsion of the 30% CR reduction he can serve as a great PvP opener combining both the dispell and CR reduction into one kit.
While the S3 is particularly reminiscent of Hurado, the S2 is where it gets even more interesting. Bringing both the hit chance debuff and and attack down debuff, Hurricane is now similar to Dizzy’s S3. On top of that Basar’s S1 now inflict random debuffs on hit as well.
While he is earth element, we currently have a mostly ice/earth dominant meta, which helps him greatly.
Because of all these changes I potentially predict that Basar will end up being a top tier PvP unit when built into high speeds, the CR reduction will ensure after Basar the rest of the team is guaranteed to be able to follow up and land their debuffs and contine to harrass and control the enemy. After that if Basar gets another turn he will effectively be another dizzy.
Due to the increased utility and the fact that he combines many strengths into a single kit, meaning he is team efficient serving multiple roles at once, it would be a good idea to keep and eye out on his performance after his changes.
Yufine
| Dragon’s Roar (Before) | Dragon’s Roar (After) |
| Attacks with a dragon howl, dispelling one buff from all enemies, with a 50% chance to silence for 1 turn, before granting increased Attack and Speed to the caster for 2 turns.
[Cooldown: 4 turns] |
Attacks with a dragon howl, dispelling one buff from all enemies, with a 85% chance to silence for 1 turn, before granting increased Attack and Speed to the caster for 2 turns.
[Cooldown: 3 turns] -Damage increased 50% compared to before. |
| Dragon’s Charge (Before) | Dragon’s Charge (After) |
| Hits the enemy with a finishing blow, stunning for 1 turn and dispelling all buffs. Damage dealt is increased by 50% if the enemy is buffed. | Hits the enemy with a finishing blow, dispelling all buffs and stunning for 1 turn. Damage dealt is increased by 50% if the enemy is buffed. |
Yufine’s buffs are massive for her especially in the current PvP metagame. The long awaited changes to her S3 effect orders are here, she now dispells and then inflicts damage and debuffs afterwards meaning she can now stun through immunity.
On top of this her S2 will now get a whooping 1.5 total scaling and an increased 85% chance to silence which makes her as deadly as a cleave unit with just her S2.
Because of these insane buffs she can potentially serve as a PvP cleaver and pick character all in one. Her soul burn S3 gives her an extra turn potentially allowing her to lock down one unit with a stun or one shotting them before dispelling a buff and hitting the enemy with a massive AoE attack.
Yufine is guaranteed to be a top tier DPS unit in the next balance update.
Yuna
| Homing Laser (Before) | Homing Laser (After) |
| Attacks all enemies with a drone, increasing the caster’s Combat Readiness by 6% per target. When there are less than 3 enemies, damage dealt increases with fewer enemies. | Attacks all enemies with a drone, increasing the caster’s Combat Readiness by 6% per target, and increasing Combat Readiness of all allies except for the caster by 2%. When there are less than 3 enemies, damage dealt increases with fewer enemies. |
| Upgrade (Before) | Upgrade (After) |
| Buffs all allies with a drone and increases Attack and Speed for 2 turns. [Acquired Focus: 1] [Cooldown: 4 turns] |
Buffs all allies with a drone and increases Attack and Speed for 2 turns. [Acquired Focus: 2] [Cooldown: 3 turns] |
| Meteor Cannon (Before) | Meteor Cannon (After) |
| Attacks all enemies with an enormous and powerful cannon, inflicting huge damage. When there are less than 3 enemies, damage dealt increases with fewer enemies. | Attacks all enemies with an enormous and powerful cannon, inflicting huge damage. When hit, it always results in a critical hit, and when there are less than 3 enemies, damage dealt increases with fewer enemies. |
Yuna’s buffs are oriented around helping her better fulfill her role as a support DPS unit. Previously her S1 allowed her to CR boost herself to help her cycle through her cooldowns faster, but now her changes allow her to bring her team with her.
Given that you are fighting 4 enemies typically she will be giving your team speed buffs and (2%*4)=8% CR pushes on the regular (assuming it functions similar to her own CR mechanics), which helps speed up your team a ton.
The reduced cooldown on her S2 as well as the guaranteed critical hit allows her to opt more into utility while still achieving similar damage totals.
Overall the buffs help her cycle through cooldowns faster and assist her team but she likely will remain a niche support pick for PvP. Her wyvern clears however should improve once people adjust to the timings.
Aramintha
| Catalyst (After) | |
| – Damage increased 14% compared to before. | |
| Fire Pillar (Before) | Fire Pillar (After) |
| Attacks all enemies with massive fire pillar, with a 100% chance to burn for 2 turns, and increase the caster’s Combat Readiness by 50%. | Attacks all enemies with massive fire pillar, with a 100% chance to burn for 2 turns, and 50% chance to stun for 1 turn, before increasing the caster’s Combat Readiness by 50%. |
Aramintha is now getting buffs to help her contest with her Moonlight counterpart. With the increased scaling of her S2 (1.0 scaling) and the 50% stun chance on her S3, she now will be much more in line with Silver Blade Aramintha in all content…is what I would say if ML Ara wasn’t harshly nerfed this patch.
As of now you can consider Aramintha a better support DPS and ML Ara a better raw dps since she still retains more burn chances than the original. But Aramintha still brings burn debuffs, a team wide attack up buff, and an unhealable debuff, as well as a self 50% CR push to speed up her rotations meaning that overall, Aramintha should be a the better Aramintha for the time being.
Yet despite all the changes she will remain a niche unit for PvP and PvE due to her low health stat, mediocre speed stat, and inconsistent stun chances. At best she will be effective with Abyssal crown as a quick S3 into S2 debuffer using her CR push.
Assassin Coli
| Ambush (Before) | Ambush (After) |
| Ambushes the enemy, dealing additional damage when stealthed. Damage dealt increases proportional to the caster’s Speed. | Ambushes the enemy, dealing additional damage if stealthed, and grants the caster increased Speed for 1 turn. Damage dealt also increases proportional to the caster’s Speed. – Damage increased 12% compared to before. – Damage at stealth state is increased 9% compared to before. |
| Murder (After) | |
| – Cooldown is decreased 1 turn. Before: 5 turns / After: 4 turns |
|
Not much to say about AColi’s changes. She becomes much more usable after her soul burn S3 burst and can now get more damage off throughout longer fights. Although the S1 buffs sound amazing her low base attack stat prevents her from causing any seriously high damage increases.
Purrgis
| Falling Strike (Before) | Falling Strike (After) |
| Mows down enemies with a great sword, with a 50% chance each to decrease Speed for 2 turns, and decrease Combat Readiness by 20%. | Mows down enemies with a great sword, with a 50% chance each to decrease Speed for 2 turns, and decrease Combat Readiness by 20%. Damage dealt is proportional to the caster’s max Health. |
| Get Lost! (Before) | Get Lost! (After) |
| Hits all enemies when counterattacking, with a 30% chance to counterattack when attacked. | Hits all enemies when counterattacking, with a 15% chance to stun for 1 turn. Has a 30% chance to counterattack when attacked. |
| Final Blow (Awakened) (Before) | Final Blow (Awakened) (After) |
| Attacks all enemies with a powerful ground pound, stunning for 1 turn when they have less than 30% Health. | Attacks all enemies with a powerful ground pound, with a 50% chance to stun for 1 turn. Increases effect chance by 100% when they have less than 30% Health. Damage dealt is proportional to the caster’s max Health. |
Purrgis’s buffs now orient him to be an even tankier counter unit, yet regrettably these buffs are negligible as his whole kit revolves around getting large amounts of AoE damage off through counter attacks. He is essentially weaker less consistent Martial Artist Ken.
Without access to Elbris sword or provoke debuff and being an Earth type unit in a Ice dominated meta means that unless he is getting hit by AoE attacks it is very easy to avoid him entirely.
Potentially he my be able to pull off clutch 1v4s if he has sigards scythe and manages to crit several times and get his stuns off, but otherwise he still suffers the same problem as before.
Armin
| Flash of Light (Before) | Flash of Light (Awakened) (After) |
| Releases a bright light to attack all enemies, with a 50% chance each to decrease Hit Chance for 2 turns, and inflict poison for 3 turns. Increases Defense of the caster for 1 turn. | Releases a bright light to attack all enemies, with a 100% chance each to decrease Hit Chance for 2 turns, and inflict poison for 3 turns. Increases Defense of the caster for 2 turns. |
| Shield Wall (Before) | Shield Wall (After) |
| Covers all allies with the Shield of Light and grants a barrier for 3 turns, recovering Health. Barrier strength is proportional to the caster’s Defense, and amount recovered is proportional to the target’s max Health. | Covers all allies with the Shield of Light and grants a barrier for 3 turns, recovering Health. Barrier strength is proportional to the caster’s Defense, and amount recovered is proportional to the target’s max Health. Decreases damage suffered by all allies by 10% when this skill is under cooldown. |
Say hello to your new worst enemy. Armin’s new buffs allow her to effectively stack mitigation effects much like her Moonlight counterpart, as well as being able to debuff much more consistently.
My worst fear is the stall meta getting worse with the combination of Crimson Armin’s and Armin’s mitigation effects being stacked across the team. Since the S3 reduces the damage suffered it stacks with aurius and Crimson Armin’s S2 as well, meaning your team will be able to shrug off almost any cleave team.
On top of this the damage reduction is active as long as the S3 is on cooldown meaning she can be built slow and her effectiveness will still be the same once she uses it. Expect Armin to start cropping up in Arena and Guild Wars and be ready to start to hate her presence a lot more.
Crozet
| Mark of Protection (Awakened) (Before) | Mark of Protection (Awakened) (After) |
| Grants increased Defense and a barrier to an ally for 2 turns when an attack causes their Health to fall below 50%. Barrier strength increases proportional to the target’s max Health. Can be activated once every 2 turns. | Grants increased Defense and a barrier to an ally for 2 turns when an attack causes their Health to fall below 50%. Barrier strength increases proportional to the target’s max Health. Can be activated once every turn. |
| Breakthrough (Before) | Breakthrough (After) |
| Attacks all enemies with a swordstorm, decreasing their Combat Readiness by 50%. Damage dealt increases proportional to the caster’s Defense. [Cooldown: 5 Turns] |
Attacks all enemies with a swordstorm, with a 75% chance to provoke for 1 turn after decreasing their Combat Readiness by 50%. Damage dealt increases proportional to the caster’s Defense. [Cooldown: 4 Turns] |
Crozet’s give him much more consistency in being able to defend his teammate from lethal attacks as well as earning himself a percent chance to provoke on his S3. You can now essentially consider him mini Fallen Cecilia, which does the same thing only for the whole team.
Kitty Clarissa
| I’m So Cute, Meow~♥ (Before) | I’m So Cute, Meow~♥ (After) |
| Wiggles tail cutely, decreasing debuff duration on all allies by 2 turns, and granting the caster immunity and loveliness for 3 turns. | Wiggles tail cutely, decreasing debuff duration on all allies by 2 turns, and granting the caster immunity and loveliness for 3 turns before Granting an extra turn. |
Kitty Clarissa is a largely under-rated unit which will now be one of the best units in PvP with her buffs. Although the buffs seem small it makes a massive difference in how quickly she can rotate through her abilities.
In a single turn Kitty Clarissa can now dispell all debuffs from her team and reduce enemy buffs early in the fight, allowing her to cancel out most PvP teams’ gameplans in one go.
The reason Kitty Clarissa is often forgotten is because Tamarine simply does her job better and heals and buffs on top of it. Even so Kitty Clarissa will continue to be a solid unit for PvP and PvE if you are looking for dual attackers or debuff/buff control.
Definitely be more weary of Kitty Clarissa after her changes.
Achates
| Rapid Cure (Awakened) (Before) | Rapid Cure (Awakened) (After) |
| Recovers ally’s Health and grants invincibility for 1 turn. Amount recovered is proportional to the caster’s max Health. | Recovers ally’s Health and grants invincibility for 1 turn. When used on an ally except for the caster, decreases the target’s skill cooldown by 1 turn. Amount recovered is proportional to the caster’s max Health. |
Achates’s buff allows her to keep her team’s aggressive pacing up with the additional cooldown reduction. Although she is mostly PvE focused and a top tier healer in that regards so this only helps her do her job better. She can be used in PvP but is often outshined by many other healers and her similar soul weaver Destinia, which excells much more at PvP.
Otillie
| Area Defense (Before) | Area Defense (After) |
| All allies receive 20% less damage from attacks that target all allies. When this effect is granted more than once, only the strongest effect is applied. | All allies receive 30% less damage from attacks that target all allies. When this effect is granted more than once, only the strongest effect is applied. |
| Mana Release (Awakened) (Before) | Mana Release (Awakened) (After) |
| Exhales powerful darkness, decreasing Combat Readiness by 40%, and making the enemy unable to be buffed for 2 turns. | Exhales powerful darkness, decreasing Combat Readiness by 40%, and making the enemy unable to be buffed and inflicts Silence for 2 turns. |
Otillie has long since been regarded as an incredibly niche unit meant for Golem hunts. Now with the new buffs to her passive damage reduction and the addition of a silence on her S3 she has the potential of being a solid PvP unit.
The silence and anti-buff debuff makes her S3 great at locking down single units much like Wanderer Silk, while her S2 allows her to heavily reduce damage outputs from AoE units which are becoming increasingly common.
Although the buffs look promising it will likely some time to see where she settles in the current state of PvP.
Gunther
| Veteran (Before) | Veteran (After) |
| The caster does not deal a critical hit, but Attack increases by 75%. | The caster does not deal a critical hit, but Attack increases by 75% and Increases Critical Hit Resistance by 70%. |
| Tenacious Strike (Awakened) (Before) | Tenacious Strike (Awakened) (After) |
| Attacks with an axe, stunning for 1 turn. Damage dealt is increased against bleeding enemies. | Attacks with an axe, stunning for 1 turn and decreasing Defense for 2 turns. – Damage increased 29% compared to before. |
Gunther is now another Assassin Cartuja only he doesn’t help his team at all and instead gains a 70% crit hit resistance buff to his S2. Not much else to say about this unit other than him being budget Assassin Cartuja.
Artifacts
Justice for All
| Before | After |
| 100% chance to grant the caster a random buff for 1 turn at the end of the turn. | 100% chance to grant the caster a random buff for 2 turns at the end of the turn. |
The buffs to Justice for All allow for double buff uptimes when maxed simply by the artifact alone.
Though because the inconsistency of the buffs drawn from the pool and requiring the art to be max limit broken for it to be effective, as well as the fact that it is a knight exclusive artifact means that it is unlikely that it will get any more use than it already sees.
Violet Talisman
| Before | After |
| Increases Attack by 3% at the beginning of each turn. Each effect can stack up to 10 times and resets at the beginning of battle. | Increase Attack by 10% at the beginning of each turn. Each effect can stack up to 3 times and resets at the beginning of battle. |
Violet Talisman’s identity is getting reworked a bit to allow Violet Thieves to stack up their attack faster. Because it is not listed I will assume that there is a translation error and that the previous evasion chance will increase at the same rate, meaning that while this artifact was intended for longer battles and moonlight dreamblade is better for fast fights, talisman will still be better in longer fights only it will just do its job faster.
Noble Oath
| Before | After |
| As Health decreases, Defense and Effect Resistance increase by up to 50%. | As Health decreases, Defense and Effect Resistance increase by up to 100% |
Alexa’s Basket
| Before | After |
| 40% chance each to grant increased Attack and Critical Hit Chance to the caster for 1 turn at the end of the turn. | 40% chance each to grant increased Attack (Great) and Critical Hit Chance to the caster for 1 turn at the start of the turn. |
Alexa’s Basket change is imporant to note as it now applies at the beginning of the turn and grants users the rare attack up greater buff. With this change many more units will be given access to even higher damage potentials and be able to cleave on their own.
Despite the 40% rng chance of it proc’ing the value in the buffs applying at the beginning of the turn and the value of the buffs themselves are noteworthy and potentially usable in competitive settings, just don’t always rely on it procing.
Silver Blade Aramintha
| Flame Release (Before) | Flame Release (After) |
| Activates Flame Release when the enemy is burned after using Flame Friction. Flame Release: Attacks all enemies with mystic fire energy, increasing the caster’s Combat Readiness by 30%. |
Activates Flame Release when the enemy is burned after using Flame Friction. Flame Release: Attacks all enemies with mystic fire energy, increasing the caster’s Combat Readiness by 20%. |
| Meteor Fall (Before) | Meteor Fall (After) |
| Drops a giant meteor to stun all enemies for 1 turn, with a 40% (Max 50%) chance each to inflict three burn effects for 2 turns. Cooldown: 4 |
Drops a giant meteor to stun all enemies for 1 turn, with a 40% (Max 50%) chance each to inflict two burn effects for 2 turns. Cooldown: 5 |
Despite seeing very low use in PvP with the heavy emergence of immunity due to dizzy and ML ara’s close release times she is getting heavily nerfed. Her PvP effectiveness will remain about the same but her use in Guild Wars and PvE after these changes will be abysmal for sure.
Previously being able to thrive in long fights due to her CR pushes, she will now have extremely long downtimes where she contributes very little to the team. Although I have previously thought that recalls are silly and most recalled units still excell and have great viability, I would agree that ML ara especially with the regular Aramintha buffs, is well and truly weak and is potentially one of the worst Moonlight nat 5 units.
Sage Baal & Sezan
| Cloud of Ruin (Before) | Cloud of Ruin (After) |
| Attacks all enemies by summoning storm clouds, with an 85% (Max 100%) chance to dispel two buffs and a 65% (Max 80%) chance to put them to sleep. When this skill is available, increases the caster’s Combat Readiness by 15% (Max 25%) at the end of the enemy’s turn. Cooldown: 3Turns |
Attacks all enemies by summoning storm clouds, with an 85% (Max 100%) chance to dispel one buff and a 65% (Max 80%) chance to put them to sleep. When this skill is available, increases the caster’s Combat Readiness by 10% (Max 20%) at the end of the enemy’s turn. Cooldown: 4 Turns |
Sage Baal & Sezan’s nerf will allow people to have more breathing room to play around his disruptive playstyle with his slight CR boosts. He will still continue to be the best disruptive unit in the game and a top tier PvP unit regardless of nerfs. (Do Not Recall)
Arbiter Vildred
| Dark Contract (Before) | Dark Contract (After) |
| After receiving lethal damage, caster regenerates to 70% (Max 100%) % Health, 100% Combat Readiness, increased Attack for 2 turns, full Focus, and reset cooldown for Dark Blade. | After receiving lethal damage, caster regenerates to 70% (Max 100%) % Health, 100% Combat Readiness, full Focus, and reset cooldown for Dark Blade. |
With the loss of his self attack buff Arbiter Vildred will no longer be the ultimate all in one cleave unit… He will now just be the ultimate cleave unit, with great AoE damage and safety with his S2 revive. While he wont be able to one shot the enemy off of his revive alone he will still be able to devastate enemies and be ready for a follow up cleave right after with his resets. (Do not recall)
Crimson Armin
| Security State (Before) | Security State (After) |
| Decreases damage received by allies from a critical hit by 20% (Max 30%). When more than one damage reduction effect is granted, only the strongest effect is applied. | Decreases damage received by allies from a critical hit by 10% (Max 15%). When more than one damage reduction effect is granted, only the strongest effect is applied. |
| Shield of Holy Spirit (Before) | Shield of Holy Spirit (After) |
| Covers all allies with an aura of holy spirit, granting immunity for 3 turns and invincibility for 1 turn. |
Despite all the craze about how Crimson Armin was nerfed, it was definitely a well warranted nerf but also not a terrible nerf. With the crit reduction effect being cut in half she will no longer be the quintessential PvP defense unit.
BUT that doesn’t mean she is useless by any means, she continues to be one of the best units if not STILL the best unit for defense teams simply by how her kit works. Combined with buffed regular Armin I predict that stall teams will continue to thrive and annoy opponents. (DO NOT RECALL)