Rem Review – Another Counter Bruiser (but with a Twist!)

Before we go on, I’d like to take a moment to mention that this is not going to be an article where I talk about the overall quality of the Re:Zero collab. Say whatever you want about it – the collab was bad, the collab was good, it was generic, so on and so forth. I’m simply going to be reviewing the limited collab unit Rem and her usability.

With that said, I’d like to talk about Rem as a whole, and where she stands as we know. It’s been about a little while since she, Emilia and Ram were released, and we’ve had some time to test her out and see what she’s good in.

Introduction

“A maid of the Roswaal Mansion, Rem came to Ritania through a Chaos Gate. She is calm-hearted, devoted, and treats everyone politely. She possesses a great talent for household chores.”

Class: Warrior

Element: Ice

In a nutshell, Rem’s skillset is:

• S1: Attacks an enemy, with a 35% chance (50% when maxed out) to decrease Defense for 2 turns. When she has the Demon Mode buff on her, she grants herself an extra attack with her s1.
• Passive: Whenever an ally or an enemy dies, she dispels all debuffs from herself and grants herself Demon Mode for 2 turns (this, however, can only be activated once every 5 turns). Whenever an ally except for the caster is attacked, has a 15% chance to counterattack with an AoE attack that decreases buff durations on the enemy by a turn and plants 1 turn unhealable on them. When she counterattacks, this AoE attack takes priority over a basic skill.
• S3: Grants herself Attack buff for 3 turns, before attacking all enemies, decreasing their Hit Chance for 2 turns, and increasing her Combat Readiness by 50%. (Reusable in 4 turns when skilled up)

Demon Mode: [unique buff for Rem] Lets her ignore Effect Resistance and become immune to all debuffs whenever she has this buff up.

Analysis

Rem

Rem looks like a souped-up Clarissa in almost every way. She’s an Ice Warrior just like Clarissa, does good things when she kills someone, also has a 50% chance to break defense on her s1 (however, unlike Clarissa, she can also get an extra attack on her s1), and so on and so forth.

Her stats are pretty decent, sporting a max Attack of 1208. Her HP and Defense is above average too – especially for a Warrior unit – however her Speed is a bit lacking, at only 102. I’d also like to point out that her counterattack happens at any point; it’s not just triggered in Demon Mode as I’d thought initially. Because of the part of her passive that makes the AoE attack take priority over a basic attack when she counterattacks, this makes her literally the perfect candidate for a Counter set.

All in all, I’d say that Rem’s skillset is basically a way to make a Clarissa-type unit viable in the meta of 2021, instead of… you know, actually buffing Clarissa.

Fun Fact: Demon Mode, like Vigor, cannot be stripped from Rem.

Where to Use Rem?

People have been using Clarissa in Wyvern 13, and thus Rem is also usable in W13 too.  She sports quite a few reliable debuffs in her skillset, with Unhealable and Miss debuff only having to rely on the Effectiveness/Resistance check – even then, she doesn’t need to worry about it whenever she has Demon Mode. Even though her defense break chance is only 50% when skilled up (minus soulburns), it’s still on her s1.

Rem’s not only good in PVE, though; she’s seen some use in PVP (both Arena and Guild Wars), too, mostly due to Demon Mode being an insanely strong buff on her. Her buff decrease on her counterattack also helps against the buff-heavy meta; built-in Immunity on Demon Mode also completely destroys Researcher Carrot, who is currently seen in almost every team. As such, she currently fits into the meta we’re in right now – and very much so – and doesn’t have to wait a new meta in order to be useful.

Most of her use comes from Wyvern 13 and in PVP as a counter bruiser (unlike her sister Ram, who’s used for Hunt oneshots). Essentially, she’s made to punish units that use AoE attacks; similar to Inferno Khawazu’s passive or Angel of Light Angelica’s passive.

Edit: As of 8/28/21, Rem has become very oppressive in this meta; basically forcing people not to use AoE attacks, in fear of her passive triggering.

Builds

There’s two ways to build Rem: the General Speed Build or the Counterattacking Build.

Counter/Immunity: Counter is an obvious choice, for the AoE counterattacking. Surprisingly, Immunity isn’t as necessary for Rem’s Counter build as it is with almost everybody else that uses Counter. This is because her passive cleanses all debuffs before activating Demon Mode, and the buff itself makes her immune to all debuffs; essentially working as a 2-turn Immunity. CRIT DMG%/ATK%/SPD, with a focus on HP% and DEF% for the substats.

Speed/Immunity: If it’s too difficult to achieve the stats you want with Counter, there’s no harm in going Speed/Immunity. A good 90% of the units in this game can always benefit from having a Speed set, and Rem is no different. It works as a good build to have on Rem until you can get good Counter gear. CRIT DMG%/ATK%/SPD, also with a focus on HP% + DEF% in substats.

The stats to aim for on your Rem can look to be about:

• 3,500+ ATK
• 1,200~ Defense
• 15,000-17,000 HP
• 100% Crit Rate
• 250%-300%+ Crit Damage
• 150+ Speed

As you can see, Rem, like other counter bruisers, is pretty stat-hungry, so it won’t be the easiest thing in the world to build her. If you’re putting her on the Speed build, you can expect to see about 170-180 Speed on her; 150 Speed is mainly because Counter doesn’t offer any extra stats.

Artifacts

There’s a multitude of artifacts that Rem uses, but Sigurd Scythe seems to be the most popular of them. Nevertheless, we’ll go through a few more artifacts that are usable on her; not just Sigurd Scythe.

Sigurd Scythe: As mentioned, Sigurd Scythe is the #1 artifact to use on Rem, and it’s not hard to see why. Seeing as her attack power benefits greatly once she reaches below 50% HP (and adds lifesteal by then too), Sigurd Scythe is all-around a very good artifact for any Warrior to use.  Seeing as she can also counterattack with her s2, it’s pretty easy for her to heal herself back up. Rem has no self-sustain built into her kit, so any amount of sustainability can help.

Azure Comet: [LIMITED ARTIFACT] Azure Comet is Rem’s own artifact, and does mesh pretty well with her passive. However, not many people have used Azure Comet with Rem, due to having a variety of better artifacts at their disposal.

Draco Plate: [LIMITED ARTIFACT] Like Sigurd Scythe, Draco Plate is just another one-size-fits-all artifact for Warriors. It’ll help her crit damage, and reduce the amount of damage that she takes from her enemies. It doesn’t unlock a super-hidden-OP part of Rem, just works fine.

What About Azure Comet?

Though I did touch on this a little bit in the Artifacts section of this review, I’d just like to take a little moment to talk about Azure Comet as a whole. It’s a very interesting artifact.

“Increases Critical Hit Chance by 15%. When somebody dies, increases Combat Readiness of the caster by 24.0%. Can be activated once per turn.” (Fully maxed out)

It does work with Rem’s passive, though many people have found out that Sigurd Scythe and Draco Plate work way better on her. I’m sure there are a few other non-Rem units who can use Azure Comet, but I haven’t been made aware of them. It’s not a bad artifact by any means; I’m not calling for a “buff Azure Comet” petition or anything. It’s just not the best artifact for Rem is all.

Should You Build Her?

Ab-so-lute-ly! When I first started writing this article, the consensus about Rem was that she was “a pretty decent bruiser, nothing special but has a nice place in the meta.” Now, she’s become a very important unit in a bunch of Arena teams, to the point she keeps getting pre-banned in RTA due to her insane passive and Demon Mode.

Rem’s stat-hungry, yes, but she’s really worth it to pop off when RNG favors her and her counterattacks. Though she doesn’t have any self-sustainability built into her kit, thus making her requiring Sigurd Scythe, she can still end up shutting down the enemy; especially when she’s in Demon Mode and can therefore ignore Effect Resistance.

I hope this article helped you to gain a little bit of insight on Rem. As of this writing, she’s seen quite a bit of use in Champion and above Arena. I can’t future-proof this article, but for now she still has a unique kit that makes her a good unit in this meta. I’m Sara Ann, and I’ll see you in the next article!