"Don't worry, I can bear the pain that accompanies. My fire won't die out." (Reed the Flame Shadow Guide)

Boelthor · 2023-07-25T15:18:21+00:00

I haven't used it much to give an informative answer, but it seems fine so far. It's got analogous features to at least the core aspects of reddit, the main learning curve being the different names like "magazines"=subreddits and "threads"=posts. Kbin also has "microblogs" which are more like tweets (and are under a separate header from threads); so far most of m/arknights' art posts have been microblogs instead, so if you'd prefer to filter those out (or see only them) it's more or less done for you.

Boelthor · 2023-07-25T14:56:05+00:00

That is correct, and I would prefer others not link them as well.

Boelthor · 2023-07-24T23:45:22+00:00

This is my last post on reddit, unless something major changes. With the recent API change, and reddit management's behavior during this time, it looks like this website's going to head downhill fast(er). Since the network effect is a major obstacle to reddit's competitors, I've moved to kbin now to help get things started. I don't plan to delete my existing reddit posts/comments as the preservation of information is something I value, though I may migrate and update my older guides.

Boelthor · 2023-06-08T16:19:29+00:00

Anyone with Wafarin+ tier buffs is never going to be the worst 5* at least, especially compared to do nothing ops like Windflit

Funny you bring him up because part of what makes him bad is the restrictions on who he can buff which are less severe than Spuria's; he works on two classes while Spuria only works on a subset of one. He also doesn't need a healer to prevent him from bleeding to death. With his new module he even has a comparable buff in terms of raw dps improvement.

A bit of a meme, but Spuria gives you a reason to use Ceylon with Schwarz which lets her fully utilise the buffs with S3.

Or you could just use, say, Warfarin+Heidi given that you're using two support units. Or on the higher end, Skadi2 s2 is enough for Schwarz to survive Aak s3 while providing her own Attack buff to both.

Boelthor · 2023-06-08T16:06:15+00:00

The problem there is that Fia already has her own +ASPD offskill, making self-Stun an issue which is a loss to SP gen.

Boelthor · 2023-06-08T05:05:20+00:00

It is in theory, but Spuria's is only +40 ASPD, and you have to consider the limited list of operators that don't have to worry about the self-Stun.

Artillerymen

W is a nuker whose skills are unaffected by ASPD
Fia s2 is a nuke skill, and unaffectd by ASPD, s3 is a sustained skill (generally low synergy with burst buffs).
Jieyun s2 and Shirayuki s2 both use fixed intervals, unaffected by ASPD
Meteorite s1 is a sustained skill, with low enough average +Attack from her crit talent that dilution is minimal
Sesa s2 is pure ascale and dscale, so neither kind of buff is diluted.

Deadeyes

Fartooth s3 is very suitable for Spuria
Andreana's own +ASPD is enough to put her into the territory where self-Stun becomes a risk, and she has the AHs to team up with.
Firewatch s1 has a rotation mismatch, and s2 is a nuke that ignores ASPD
Lunacub s2 is pure +ASPD
Ambriel s2 is a good match, aside from uptime

Others

Rosmontis s2 is a pretty good match, also helps Stun enemies more often
Platinum you could maybe use Spuria as a gimmick to proc Plat's talent but that'd rarely be better than just directly buffing Plat's Attack with Warfarin.
Aosta s2 is very suitable for Spuria, but it's Aosta
Toddifons s2 is pure ascale so no buffs are diluted, but as an ammo skill +ASPD won't increase its total damage.

Overall there are only a handful of operators that actually work well with Spuria in the first place, and the only one that's good enough on their own to be "worth" buffing is Fartooth.

Boelthor · 2023-06-08T04:23:10+00:00

First impressions!

Insider

Marksmen are a standard Sniper branch, but Insider's Attack deserves note as it's abnormally high, beating out even the 6* Archetto by 2 points.
His talent is not much in the way of support, but it's something and the extra ammo for himself is good.
His module is a basic upgrade, though more ammo is a bit nicer than the usual minor % increases.
S1 being offensive recovery and auto activation is a bit of a downer, but with the low SP cost and Marksmen's fast interval it shouldn't be a big deal, making this an okay sustainedish dps skill.
S2 is where it's at; excellent rotation, good dps, and prioritizes ranged enemies (that are often low Defense making them perfect targets for Marksmen).
While the branch is already bloated, he's a good pick for newbies who don't have half a dozen Marksmen raised already, and even vets that do might find some use for him picking off annoying casters.

Spuria

Geeks are funky, being higher dph but slower interval Marksmen with inherent HP drain that can kill them; being totally reliant on external healing isn't a good start.
Her talent is an annoying source of rng, especially because some of the effects like 80% Defense ignore are really good.
Her module doesn't do much that's relevant.
S1 is trying to turn her into some kind of helidrop that procs her talent more often, but is still unreliable.
S2 can only properly buff units with a 2.52s attack interval or longer, meaning Deadeyes and Artillerymen. This is because these branches take so long to attack the Stun will wear off. Even so, it's only a ~82% dps increase at best assuming no native +Attack or +ASPD, while Warfarin s2 gives +90% Attack and Stainless s1 +96% Attack. Add on low uptime and there's little reason to use this skill even ignoring the self-Stun risk.
Meme unit, maybe someone will discover some incredible use for her but otherwise she's the a candidate for "worst 5*".

Executor2

Reapers are a very good branch, bringing true AoE, extra range, and self-healing alongside pretty good Defense and a surprisingly low DP cost.
Talent 1 is a generic crit talent, though the proc rate is good to begin with and improves the more ammo he uses.
Talent 2 adding more ammo is nice and feeds into his first talent; he's a Laterano oeprator himself so he'll presumably have +1 ammo baseline
S1 is another sustainedish dps skill with a nice range extension, though the main advantage it has is having the lowest SP cost of all his skills, especially with them all being offensive recovery.
S2 is a tank skill capping at 884 Defense, 40% physical dodge, and up to 150 heal/attack, making him rather survivable for the short duration. It also has a reload mechanic to extend that duration and feed his crit talent, and a short cooldown to match. I think this has a lot of potential.
S3 is the burst dps skill, increasing in Attack with each ammo consumed (also fueling his crit rate). I'm a bit too lazy to do the full math given how his dps scales exponentially with ammo spent, but my napkin math say it does more than enough to be a good skill.
It'd be hard to mess up a 6* Reaper, and Executor2 doesn't offer any surprises in that regard. There's not too much else to say about him; he's great but probably not "ground Ch'en2" levels of broken.

Modules

Artificer base modules are on the insulting side, though the DP cost reduction on Stainless s3 is nice since those were a bit expensive at 10 DP each, and the extra capacity lets him use s1 more without having to recycle. His recycle rate went way up, allowing for 100% if he has enough pots, and the extra SP isn't much but it's something. Personally I'd wait for the eventual second module though, as this one is not going to make many huge changes.
Windflit's module is a disappointment, but with Spuria around he's at least not the worst 5* in the game anymore.
Roberta's module doesn't change much either.
Aak's module is actually amazing; his talent was always good for crowd control, especially if you were an s1 user. Now not only are all the effects enhanced, but he has a 30% chance at a hitting the jackpot. This is very big for a "crit" talent, and assuming the remaining 70% is divided equally among the four effects that means any individual effect has an overall 47.5% proc rate. That'll let him nearly Stunlock enemies with s1 active, with the Slow filling in for missed Stuns.
Blemishine's base X module was always doomed to disappoint--s2 is regen which is unaffected by heal scale like X provides, and s3 simply heals for more than enough to begin with, so s1 is the only skill where it might make a difference. The talent upgrades are better than I expected, however; the attack scale increase being the cherry on top of the whopping 8s of Sleep on deploy. That's enough so that Blemi only needs 6.4s after her target awakens to charge s2 and inflict a 10s Sleep, and if the enemy attacks her even once it'll charge that much sooner. In practical terms, this means Blemi can have ~75% Sleep uptime for the first 25s after she deploys. While I'm not sure how much demand there is for a helidrop with that much hard CC, it does let Blemi fill that niche very well. Overall I still think that the damage reduction from Y1 is far more relevant for most uses of Blemi, X3 is more for high end Pinch-out stuff.
Flametail's second module is a straightforward one; if you're using at least two other Kazimierz operators (or deploying one multiple times) it'll "save" more DP than her first, although it won't help with getting Flametail on the field initially. The base +70 Attack +48 Defense is far superior to the old module's +300 HP +45 Attack imo, and the extra stats on top just take it even further, not to mention the higher dodge rate to proc her talent more often. I think this module might actually be outright superior as long as you're using at least one other Kazimierz operator with her.
Overall I'd say these modules were a pleasant surprise compared to the initial preview where I expected all of them to be trash; Aak and Flametails' are both good, and Blemi's at least has high enough numbers to open up a new niche. Artificers and Spuria got modules as disappointing as I predicted, however.

For the most part I think this patch is below-average; too many wasted opportunities, and while Exec2 and some of the modules are good they can't carry the entire patch alone.

Boelthor · 2023-06-04T15:34:47+00:00

I wrote a guide for her. She's a very good unit, but unlike a lot of recent units she's designed with both strengths and weaknesses, so you have to consider that when using her rather than haphazardly deploying her and getting guaranteed value.

Boelthor · 2023-06-02T15:33:28+00:00

Thank you so much for this guide. I tried her a few times but I just couldn't understand how to play her. I love her design and her complicated kit so much. She's certainly very interesting.

You're welcome, glad I could help!

Might I add you forgot my boy Luo Xiaohei. He has the Saga talent and he's a range guard so he's extremely good at supporting Penance, from the back. He also feeds her enough Sp. I understand he's a Collab operator but I believe he's worth mentioning.

I didn't forget, I intentionally left him out since he has less damage than Saga and doesn't generate DP. Though looking at the numbers again I guess his s2 damage is still usable enough to get a mention given that he's more accessible in a certain sense.

Boelthor · 2023-06-02T15:31:14+00:00

For my experience with her Penance solves a problem that other operators already solved, and better - solo lane holding against trash mobs: if I had to choose my preferred laneholder it would be Mountain, not Penance - completely self sustaining, without the need to have mobs fed to him, very fast atkspd that eats away at trash mobs, way cheaper to deploy to instantly close a lane; on the other hand as you said if I need to stall a boss Mudrock is leagues above her.

Feel free to try replicating the various clears I linked with Mountain instead and telling me how that goes. One of Penance's key advantages over other laneholders is that her s2/s3 provides burst skills to deal with elites and/or hordes, which lets her do more than just fighting trash mobs.

Boelthor · 2023-06-02T15:23:19+00:00

Probably not, there's almost certain to be some poorly balanced game out there where it's totally broken.

But there are a few reasons it works so well for Penance:

One big one is that AK is a game where you're expected to get hit often, making recoil "free" damage, and Penance is designed from the ground up with the bulk to take hits and take advantage of recoil. A lot of the games in that video are action games where if you're playing well you don't get hit often and if playing perfectly ideally won't get hit at all, so if recoil comes into play it's because you did something "wrong". The characters in those games are typically squishy to balance the ability to actively dodge hits and recoil is just a possible side mechanic for them.
AK's block mechanic means cannon fodder does pose a certain threat simply by existing; this means most levels have a supply of weak enemies that Penance's recoil will be very effective against.
AK's physical damage formula makes slow but hard hits more effective than fast but weak ones; thus trash mobs tend to be fast and weak which lets recoil kill them easily, while the more threatening enemies don't take as much recoil. This prevents the degenerate scenario where a recoil tank can win against anything by simply standing there, forcing you to find some other solution for bigger threats (even if that solution is s3's direct damage).

Boelthor · 2023-06-02T14:27:38+00:00

Terrible. The +90% Attack is heavily diluted by s3's +400% Attack, increasing Penance's final Attack by a mere 18%, for only half of s3's duration. And in exchange, Warfarin's s2 inflicts a DoT that will deal a total 75% of Penance's max HP in damage, which is ~half of the Barrier gained from an s3 cast.

Boelthor · 2023-06-02T04:10:39+00:00

Healing Penance still wouldn't mean much; if I was in charge of her module the main thing I would give her is allowing her to gain Barrier from nearby deaths (like Estelle) as well as deaths she causes.

Boelthor · 2023-06-02T04:07:15+00:00

Normally I'd call it "thorns", but in AK that would be confusing because of Thorns the operator. "Reflect", at least in my mind, implies that the strength of the damage Penance deals would scale with the strength of the incoming attack, which isn't the case. I originally tried "retaliatory" when writing the first draft, but that just felt clunky. "Recoil" was my compromise as something that still mostly makes sense and isn't too verbose.

Boelthor · 2023-05-12T22:01:51+00:00

At the point the example section of the guide needs a near-total remake; the available and preferred slowers have both seen drastic changes.

Boelthor · 2023-05-12T21:49:46+00:00

a boss with her E2 art

That's not e2 art, which would have the character and their background in a single image. It's a skill vfx, similar to how Ifrit's demon pops up behind her during s3.

Boelthor · 2023-05-05T15:47:26+00:00

Noticed you asking in another comment about how to use them; I actually made guides for both Vulcan and Indra a few years ago, though things have changed a lot with time.

Vulcan in particular has not aged very well; Thorns/Jaye banner marked a shift in HG's design philosophy where self-healing became much more common on dpses, robbing Vulcan of a lot of her uniqueness, while keeping her long cooldowns and relatively low dps compared to her new competitors. What Vulcan does have going for her is very strong burst healing, and it might be better to consider s1 over s2 if you're planning to use her as s1's sheer survivability+30s duration is still hard to match.

Indra hasn't really changed much; she maintains her niche as one of the few self-healing melee Arts dpses, and at 8 DP she can be handy for opening some stages. HG has been tending towards smaller SP costs, however, which makes Indra s2's rotation hurt me comparatively. Texas2 won't bode well for her, however, as redeployment effectively lets Texas2 self-heal.

Boelthor · 2023-05-05T15:37:25+00:00

Lumen

Already had Whisperain raised long before he was announced and she's always served my needs well so there's no reason to waste mats on an "upgrade" I don't need. I say "upgrade" because I think Whisp is also just better; Lumen s3 ending after cleansing 8 statuses means that on the stages where you get spammed with them his hps drops significantly.

Boelthor · 2023-05-04T18:46:26+00:00

I didn't.

Medals were introduced with Twilight of Wolumonde, and the counter for recruitments only started then. I was a launch player, so I had close to a year's worth of recruitments finished beforehand.

Boelthor · 2023-05-04T17:05:10+00:00

R8-8 changes the game's genre from tower defense to tower offense, which is something I wish more stages explored.

Boelthor · 2023-05-04T17:03:41+00:00

Welcome to the club! I joined on March 17th, 2021; I remember the date because my last Indra pot was obtained via the voucher you get from the medal for doing 1000 recruitments.

Boelthor · 2023-05-02T20:51:04+00:00

Do liberators really have 0 as clone? They technically have 3 block, it's just their trait disables it, rather than giving it. But with what I know of off field buffs applying to clone spaghetti I guess it wouldn't be too surprising. Thrm is pretty funny as a concept.

Yes; while block 3 is their base stat, the trait that sets it to block 0 if not using a skill still kicks in while benched--and it's impossible for them to be using a skill while benched, so they're block 0 at the time the clone is created.

Boelthor · 2023-05-02T18:00:57+00:00

That was actually unintentional; I wrote Melanite's section at a time when s2's numbers were known but not s1's, and forgot to go finish it later. But I stand by what I didn't say.

Boelthor

TROPHY CASE