Solitaria of the Snow Review – No More Focus!

For a while, Solitaria was my go-to unit to point towards when it came to “units that were played up to be very strong when she was teased, but was underwhelming in release.” After all, she had all the workings to be strong, such as a passive that completely blocks all Focus gain, inflicts random debuffs, and was able to shut down enemies on her s3!

…At least, that’s what we thought. As it turned out, Solitaria had a lot of things holding her back (such as her s1 being a default AoE skill proc’ing some nasty passives like Inferno Khawazu’s, her stun being unreliable, and so on and so forth). But, with some buffs a month ago, she’s become an actually decent unit!

Let’s take a look at her and see how good she is.

Introduction

“The owner of an ice castle in the Lone Tundra. Her daydreaming first began as a way to relieve her loneliness and boredom, but over time, it took on a life of its own, and now she lives entirely in a fantasy world of her own design.”

Class: Mage
Element: Light

In a nutshell, Solitaria’s skillset is:

• S1: Attacks an enemy, with a 75% max chance to dispel a buff. When she has the Daydream buff on her, she’ll activate an extra attack (an AoE attack with a 25% chance to stun).
• Passive: Keeps every enemy unit from gaining Focus as long as she’s alive. At the start of the turn, she has a 100% chance (max) to grant herself the unique buff Daydream for a turn, while also having a 100% max chance to give herself Stealth at the end of the turn.
• S3: Decreases the buff durations of an enemy by a turn, before attacking them to stun for a turn and decrease their combat readiness by 30%. She’ll grant herself a barrier proportional to her max Health for 2 turns after that.

Daydream: When she attacks, she inflicts a random debuff (from a pool of ATK break, Hit Chance break, decreasing speed, and unbuffable) for a turn. Daydream can’t be dispelled.

Analysis

Right off the bat, we can see that Solitaria already has a gimmick that sets her apart from most units – like Belian, she completely removes a certain function from battles as long as she’s alive. Although Focus isn’t nearly as oppressive as Souls are, there are a bunch of characters that have Focus heavily integrated into their skillset. The first two that come into mind are the Violets and Seaside Bellona. (Even though SSB is heavily countered these days, she is still controlled by her.)

With her new buffs, Solitaria does have another way to set up for her s3, with the decreasing of the enemy’s buff durations along with her s1 dispelling buffs. Her s1’s AoE is an extra attack, which means that even though units like Roana will pop off now, she can’t trigger any counterattacks against her with it. Her extra attack works similarly to Belian’s.

Overall, these buffs were the change that Solitaria very much needed, especially in the meta where Violet reigns supreme.

Where to Use Solitaria?

Well, Solitaria can’t be used in anywhere PvE related. PvE enemies just don’t have Focus, and her kit relies a lot on debuffs that enemies are immune to (such as stun). In PvP, Solitaria is still a bit more of a niche unit – she’s good for countering specific units, but she’s not one of those characters that you can throw into a team for an instant win, like Angel of Light Angelica is.

That doesn’t mean she’s bad, though! Quite the opposite, actually; with her new buffs, Solitaria can actually see use in places outside of the Waiting Room. She’s at her best in PvP (more specifically RTA and GW, though I’ve seen people use her in regular Arena).

As mentioned, Solitaria is meant to be used as a counter-pick against certain units, such as Violet.

Builds

I haven’t seen a lot of variety in builds for her, but I know there is a one-size-fits-all build for her to use.

Speed/Immunity: This is considered to be the definitive build to use on your Solitaria. She needs to go fast, while also be able to resist anyone that can outspeed her on the first try. Right side gear is SPD/HP%/HP%. Effectiveness is still necessary on her, and it’s okay to use something with Effectiveness% as its main stat until you can get better gear.

You want to focus on her defensive stats than her offensive; she’s made to be a support unit, and her multipliers show that. Generally, I’ve noticed that a good Solitaria build to aim for would be something along the lines of:

• 16,500~ HP
• 1,400 DEF
• 250+ Speed
• 100%+ Effectiveness (More is always better)

I’ve seen a few builds with Resistance% as well, but that won’t be too necessary if you go for an Immunity build.

Artifacts

There are a few artifacts that are good choices on Solitaria, and there isn’t really a one-size-fits-all choice here.

Iela Violin – A very good choice to use on Solitaria. Due to her s1’s extra attack being AoE, she can have a great chance to strip buffs on it.

Abyssal Crown – A great choice in general for her, for the same reason as Iela Violin. Abyssal Crown basically just trades in the buff stripping for Stun (which works great with her s1’s extra attack).

Fairytale for a Nightmare – This one’s a bit rarer than the rest, but it does have potential on Solitaria. This is because of the extra attack on her s1, which should give her more chances to remove buffs, while also dealing fixed damage.

Should You Build Her?

I’d definitely say so! A lot of people underestimate Solitaria these days, due to starting off on a mediocre foot. However, with her new buffs, she’s easily become a good pick in the right situation. Of course, if you just like her for her design, or she’s your waifu, that’s a perfectly valid reason to build her too!

I hope this helped you decide whether or not to build Solitaria, and if it did, I also hoped it helped you start off on the right foot on building your Solitaria. I’m Sara Ann, and I’ll see you in the next article!