Ran Review – Another Generic Cleaver or Something More Interesting?

It’s been about a couple weeks since Ran was teased and then released. I pitied for Ran myself (big mistake with the collab coming, I know), and I’ve had a little while to test him out since then. After a couple months of a drought when it comes to non-limited RGB 5-stars, Ran breaks that dry spell. Is he any good? Is he bad? Does he fall into the classic pit of “there’s nothing fundamentally wrong with his kit, he’s just not in a good meta which either doesn’t let him capitalize on his skillset or downright punishes him for taking a turn”?

Let’s find out!

Introduction

“A swordsman that owns the Winter Sword, one of the Four Seasons Swords. Originally from the Eastern Continent, he wandered on another continent for a long time in hopes of accomplishing his goal. However, his efforts were in vain and fate has brought him back to the Eastern Continent.”

Class: Thief

Element: Ice

In a nutshell, Ran’s skillset is:

• S1: Attacks an enemy, proportionate to his Speed, and penetrates 20% of their Defense.
• S2: Plants 2-turn AoE immunity on all his allies, before increasing his own ATK for 2 turns, and then grants himself an extra turn. (4-turn cooldown when skilled up)
• S3: Attacks all enemies, dispels two buffs, decreases Defense with an 85% chance for 2 turns once skilled up, and then has a 100% chance when skilled up to inflict Stigma for 2 turns. After that, he gives himself Skill Nullifier once. Damage is based off of his Speed. (4-turn cooldown when skilled up) Soul Burn: Ignores Effect Resistance.

Analysis

Ran

Right off the bat, we can see that Ran’s meant to be a Speed-based cleave unit, and boy does he do his job well. Take note of his insane base speed of 129 (faster than other Speed-cleave units like A.Cidd and Pavel), the Immunity to help out his allies + Attack buff to set himself up for his s3, and the semi-unique debuff on his s3 along with the buff removal and Defense Break. As of this writing, the only two units that have Stigma are Melany and Ran. Essentially, what Stigma does is that it decreases the amount that units are healed by 50%, along with decreasing their Combat Readiness gain by 50% (similarly to Politis’s passive).

Ran isn’t going to be another one of those units that counterattacks you to death if you so much as blink, such as Rem, Violet, etc., however he does have a pretty good kit for cleaving. It’s been figured out that Ran synergizes pretty well with Summertime Iseria – Ran uses his s2, buffs himself and his allies up (which, in turn, triggers S.Iseria’s passive to land more bombs), and then cleaves with his s3 to remove buffs and break defense.

However, as of this meta with Rem, Violet and Angel of Light Angelica, Ran’s kit also works a little against him. His non-attacking S2 causes units like Celine and Angel of Light Angelica to proc their passives (in Celine’s case, that would be attacking a random unit/the unit with the highest ATK, depending on her EE; in AoL Angelica’s case, that would be cleansing a debuff off of all her allies and then giving them Skill Nullifier once). His s3 is AoE, which is punished heavily as well by Rem, Inferno Khawazu, Violet, etc.

Overall, though Ran has a high base Speed that really helps his skillset out, right now he’s in a meta that sort of punishes him for taking a turn. However, against the right team, he’ll really pop off, with some surprisingly high damage.

Where to Use Ran?

Personally, I’m seeing multiple places to use Ran in. Before we get into it, Ran doesn’t have any real use in PvE. The most I can think of is being a damage dealer for Wyvern 13. However, there are way better tried-and-true W13 damage dealers that could fill his spot in (e.g. Seaside Bellona, Clarissa, Sigret, Luluca, even Alexa) far better than he does.

As such, he’s at his best in PVP. As mentioned in Analysis, he does best in cleave teams – basically, teams such as Flan, Sinful Angelica, Ran, and Blood Blade Karin; teams that are meant to burst down the enemy in as few turns as possible. He does best in Arena and Guild Wars.

One surprising use that people have found for Ran is for setting up Summertime Iseria! His kit meshes surprisingly well with her – his s2 will trigger her passive, thus landing her bombs. Ran’s s3 is also a much more reliable buff dispel than Summertime Iseria’s s1 is; not only is it AoE, but it’s also got a 100% chance once skilled up (not to mention that his soulburn ignores Effect Resistance).

Once you pair him up with the Silver Rain artifact, he’ll even buff S.Iseria’s ATK as well! (More on that later.)

Builds

First of all, there’s only one main set that’s good for Ran – Speed. His Speed is extremely high (remember, 129!), the Speed set increases a unit’s base Speed by 25%, which means that Ran’ll be at 161 speed. That’s not even counting any Speed substats he may gain, having Speed boots on the main stat, etc.

Speed/Crit Rate – CRIT DMG%/ATK%/SPD. This is pretty much the only build to use for Ran; as it’ll maximize his Speed, ATK%, CRIT DMG%, and Crit Rate%. It’s not very difficult to achieve high numbers on his Speed, thanks to the base stat being so high.

A really good Ran build looks to be about:

• 3000+ ATK
• 300+ Speed
• 100% Crit Rate
• 260%+ Crit Damage

Do remember that this is meant to be more of a late-game Ran build. It’s not immediately possible for newer players to achieve these stats, however it can work as a goal for players to work towards.

Artifacts

There are a few choices of artifacts for Ran, so we’ll go through about three of them here.

Silver Rain – Silver Rain meshes super well with Ran + Summertime Iseria teams! When he uses his s2, Silver Rain will buff up the unit (minus himself) with the highest ATK, incerasing their ATK for 2 turns. Seeing as how Summer Iseria can easily clock into 4,000+ ATK territory, and any Attack buff will greatly help her damage, it’s easy to see why Silver Rain is a great choice for Ran. Must be +30’d, though!

A Symbol of Unity – [Acquired via Guild Shop] A Symbol of Unity is just a super good artifact in general. There are only a few damage-dealing units that wouldn’t benefit off of them, and Ran’s not one of them. He’ll always benefit from having more Hit Chance, on top of extra damage.

Alexa’s Basket – Nearly every Thief unit can benefit from Alexa’s Basket. It can give Ran Greater Attack Buff and Critical Rate increase before he attacks, thus increasing his damage even more than his s2 would. However, there is only a 40.0% chance when maxed out to get either buff, which means you’ll never proc it, but the enemy sure will.

What About Sword of Winter Shadow?

Sword of Winter Shadow is Ran’s artifact; it runs with him whenever his banners go up, features him on the cover art, etc. But is it any good for him? That’s the real question.

“Increases Attack by 15%. When using a non-attack skill, has a 100.0% chance to remove 15 Souls from the enemy.” It’s a good artifact, by all means – the main problem is that there are not only a bunch of better artifacts for Ran, but it’s situational at best as well. The only place where your enemy uses Souls is in RTA; the AI in Arena Defense never uses Soulburns.

Sword of Winter Shadow isn’t a bad artifact. It’s just not the premium choice for Ran. Again, you’d do far better with Silver Rain.

Should You Build Him?

I’d say yes! Ran’s not a bad unit by any means; as of this writing, he’s managed to fit himself in a comfortable spot in this meta. He’s not groundbreaking, like Rem is, but it’s not like he’s unusable. When he’s in the right team, Ran can really destroy some teams. Like Inferno Khawazu, he’s not a unit you can just slot into any team for an instant win against any kind of team, but as long as you know what you’re doing he can be really fun.

Of course, though, if he’s your husbando, then that’s a guaranteed reason to build him! I’m Sara Ann, and I’ll see you in the next article!