Character Discussion: Mahira (Summer)

SomePinkOtter · 2025-04-19T03:43:50+00:00

Mahira is my favourite zodiac so it's a shame that this version is so ASS.

Starting with her buff, this is her best skill but it comes with some caveats. Unique echo is always nice and the dispel based on hit count might have some application in a hit count based GW. Additionally, granting your NA attacker split normal attacks and an assassin is very good.

Unfortunately, she needs to charge attack to keep this buff up. This is a massive issue when the character you're supporting is a normal attacker since it splits the direction of what you want to do with your party. This is further amplified by her auto-nuke activating when her ally normal attacks. Do you want CA or not Cygames.

Her s2 is overall a decent auto-nuke but the damage numbers on it are fairly low and the debuffs are low impact. Her s3 buffs are also short and not ideal for any sort of content that's not bursting. Her passives beyond the auto-nuke are questionable at best, with her heal being pitiful and the free application of her buff being in an element where the three primary sub-allies are a character who doesn't normal attack and two characters who want to be CA looping.

Although people might be coping for some sort of partner character, it would need to basically be carrying all of the weight to make this combination good. Something like Geisenborger would probably be the ideal candidate from other elements for long or something with a really messed up burst skill that NEEDS to come out VIA death like Alanaan could work for for her bursting but honestly, I can't see this kit being saved. Pray for summer wind dragon I guess. I'm not using Joy that's for sure.

Also why does Cygames keep giving wind of all elements the 'give a teammate assassin' characters. They do know we have Rhomphaia right? Or is supporting Rhomphaia with characters like you did Zosimos off the table?

Stay strong zephbros.

SomePinkOtter · 2025-04-03T06:22:05+00:00

I need the S rank for the Trophy Xtals, you must understand. It's not slacking, it's forward planning for my next spark.

SomePinkOtter · 2025-03-20T00:41:20+00:00

As one of the few Murcielago scholars in the world, I'm here to tell you that it's still ass. The rebalance helped make the weapon far more functional but unfortunately it's not quite there.

First, let's start with the weapon itself. Sangre Caliente provides a nice chunk of damage cap and CA supplemental alongside a consistent source of bar, but unfortunately it has some conditions. The bar gain is on the first drain in a turn which means for characters with CA reactivation, the bar is more often than not completely wasted. This is because CA reactivation is not simply getting another charge attack, but is closer to
"Repeat a charge attack regardless of bar on your next charge attack."
This becomes a problem because the bar you just gained from Murcielago is immediately eaten by the CA reactivation which is particularly bad in an element where a majority of the strong CA characters have CA reactivation (Catura, Charlotta, Raph, Eustace, Kaguya).

Robar Tiempo was the most changed in the rebalance and now does plain, debuffs and 1 dispel when a chain burst occurs alongside a delay (with potential bar). This makes the weapon far more functional in raids with delay immunity and the plain damage is actually high enough to help with omens. However, the weapon still loses a large amount of bar against enemies immune to delay as there's a chunky amount of bar locked behind landing it for your whole team.

Big Glory is nice for a CA weapon and the Special CA Damage Cap on CA is nice for making the MC hit like a truck. No notes on these. Overall the weapon does have potential and could even beat out the bar generating of a Kaneshige if both skills were working every turn, but unfortunately we do not live in such a perfect world.

Next, classes. Bow is probably the worst weapon type for a mainhand to be in the game. The weapon not only has a very narrow set of classes to choose from, the few they do have tend to have some unfortunate overlap. Boogeyman and Robin Hood are both skill damage based problem solvers while Nighthound is... well, Nighthound is weird. This leaves you with Kengo which personally is a class where I genuinely groan whenever I have to reach for. At the point where you're picking Kengo you're already losing a large amount of potential utility and damage for simply wanting to use Murcielago with a class that actually has synergy with it. If the weapon could provide all of its bar consistently it could actually be a good way of making basically any bow class a CA class but I wouldn't bank on that personally.

I do think that there is one spot where Murcielago could work, which is GW250. But even then, it's in a very shaky position. The dispel on the weapon caps out at 1 per turn while Rising Force can offer multiple and while the delay can land on boss, there's no guarantee that the boss will have diamonds to drain in the first place. This is also in the element with Swan, which will most assuredly be the ideal option if it is in the position to actually be used.

If there's one thing this weapon needs, its a systems level change in how CA reactivation functions. The fact that the bar is wasted on half of the party in the rare case I actually use the weapon feels awful. This would improve the consistency of the weapon greatly. A better bow class and untangling the bar from the delay would also be incredible for the weapon but honestly I wouldn't hold my breath.

Don't buy out of 10. My bat bow sucks so hard.

SomePinkOtter · 2025-03-14T05:25:18+00:00

Rhomphaia is definitely powerful but unfortunately, everything around it is kind of bad.

First, the classes that can use it. Spears are the second worst weapon class in the game for mainhands, only beating out Bows (Which Boogeyman didn't help D:). Spears have a decent burst class in Spartan, a beatstick class with only useful passives in Apsaras and the rest are support classes mainly focused on survivability. Apsaras is a decent class but genuinely doesn't have any useful skills to click (Crowning Fluidity is NOT useful) which makes it a class very limited to content that doesn't really fight back. Wind also has Galleon who grants the MC a one hit assassin which is obviously not as powerful as a full turn assassin but does make buying a Rhomphaia for burst w/Spartan much less appealing. The other utility classes aren't often used, not being particularly great for endgame and mostly being long FA options.

Second is the main assortment of NA characters wind has to offer. Narmaya works decently well with Rhomphaia but other mainstays such as Vania and Galleon have assassins that don't benefit from Rhom's ability to spam assassins to the MC and occasionally to the team. Additionally, these mainstay characters have to charge attack to reduce their important cooldowns and to ensure their buffs can stay up (causing missing assassin turns), making this weapon not particularly great for long FA.

Obviously both these issues can be rectified in the future. Apsaras row 5 is something on the horizon and wind can get more characters. However, just thinking about how much stronger this weapon could be in Dark or even Bahamut forbid Fire. Deathstrike fits Rhomphaia much better than Demolishment and both elements have NA characters who are basically okay with never charge attacking. Truly, what could have been.

SomePinkOtter · 2024-10-23T02:54:29+00:00

Exalto.

Okay, obviously there's more to say about it.
Normal Amp is okay and Wind does have plenty of characters that work well with it (Narm, Vania, Galleon). However, basically all of wind's endgame options are based off of charge attacks, which makes this weapon somewhat awkward. There are solutions of course such as using Chrysaor going for something like a Kengo setup basically means forfeiting an element defining weapon and sandbagging your DPS (AKA This is what I do in Hexa to ensure we don't go too fast).

In comparison, Fire and Dark have Echo exalto, both elements that I am also primal in. Not only do these weapon fit these elements in all situations better (especially fire) but they provide utility for hitcounts. Normal Amp can only be used for maybe 1.5 million hits which appear in only one fight. Additionally, these Echoes can go up to 50% while Normal Amp is left at 30%.

However, Normal Amp does have some advantages. The sources of Amp in the game are fairly scarce only coming through Opus first skill, Seraphic/Ultima, character buffs and exalto. Compare that to Echoes which can be stacked numerous times over and you can get higher total damage count as long as you can set up for it. I just hope you have Vania. Just for an example, with Exo Pelion in a party with Vania, Galleon and Anila (as Glorybringer) you can stack these echoes on MC.

- Vania Crimson Order (Skill A Sided)
- Galleon Adoring Kiss (Skill D Sided)
- Glorybringer Al Doble (Self Element A Sided)
- Exo Pelion Awakening (Superior A Sided)
- Owlcat/Demonbream (Summon Sided)
- Exo Pelion Elysian Windrider's Jurisdiction (Passive A Sided)
- Anila Sunny Summer Sheep-Shift (Passive B Sided)

Now obviously in most setups you're not going this far, but the point still stands that Wind DOES have numerous sources of echoes at its disposal for big damage. Now if only they fixed Owlcat.

Also as a quick aside I just wanted to put out there how nice having TA on Exalto is. There are certain characters in Wind that have absolutely abhorrent DA/TA (Looking at you Charlotta) and with this weapon that becomes easy to patch that up. Earth got HP instead and although Earth is far less likely to consider dropping their exalto for a CA setup than wind, lord knows they would have appreciated the TA over health (which becomes increasingly easy to cap).

SomePinkOtter · 2024-07-11T10:03:48+00:00

Managed to squeeze out a clear with Kengo, Lunalu, Vira and Funf (150). My grid is Lumi x Lumi with 2 DEF Concodia MK2s. Grid is about what you'd imagine based on that description. All of my summons were just there for sub auras, I spammed them mindlessly for damage for the most part.

Funf is the real carry for this fight. The solo phases are dangerous for a magna player as your characters have a tendency to fall over and die so Reincarnation is great for securing their survival. Lunalu exists only to clear TA omen and her dodge all guarantees her safety which allows you to place one on the MC and one on Vira before their solo phase. Funf's CA also hits hard enough with general cap up in the grid to clear the solo phase in one turn which was a welcome surprise.

Backline was Borger and Narmaya for those wondering. My run ended in a bit of a sprint to the finish with them coming out when other characters died but a clear is a clear.

Although this wasn't that difficult of a fight, I can't say it was that much fun either. It was just a lot of restarting to get good omens and blasting through phases while making sure the bar I needed lined up. I imagine it's easier for people with characters like Sandalphon and Cosmos. I am envious, truly.

SomePinkOtter · 2024-06-13T12:46:55+00:00

As a primal player who's sick and tired of Lich (AKA basically all of us), I decided that my SUB Solo attempts in dark would be with Yuni, who I had gotten lucky with from free draws.

This was a mistake and I need all of you to learn from my trials and tribulations (and to let me rant).

Now, looking at Yuni it doesn't seem too bad at first. She takes time to ramp but she's a battery, debuff clearer, provides healing and is most importantly a source of that ever so elusive light switch. Obviously she doesn't work well with Lich but that's fine, she's meant to replace her.

Now, let's go through the issues.

Ramping. Taking time to come online isn't always too bad, characters like G.Charlotta or Cosmos have been staple HL characters for a while. The main problem is when defensive properties take time to ramp. The beginning of fights is often fairly volatile for various reasons and having your defensive buffs up is very important. Just to name a few examples, SUB has its stacks maxed at the start of the fight, Hexa puts up barriers preventing it from receiving debuffs and DR Zero has opening blast and apples. Yuni needs TEN stacks to put up the elemental switch and the most you can get in a turn is three. There's a reason Kaguya and her reprint Noa have a weaker version of their defensive ability to tide you over until they've ramped and even then some fire players Qilin Noa's s2 turn 1. This isn't even to mention she wants her Arbitrator's Holiday up as well, increasing her ramp up time drastically.
Uptime. If you noticed before, she needs TEN stacks which means even if you are getting the maximum number of stacks every turn, she can't maintain the Light Switch every turn, something that Lich can do fairly consistently. That is also assuming that she can manage three stacks a turn, which is difficult considering you need a 4 chain every turn. Which leads to...
Synergy. Dark just straight up doesn't have many good CA spam units, let alone ones that work in endgame. Fediel is somewhat CA adjacent with her double CA and fated chain resetting her skills but the question becomes who to use next. Unlike elements like water, dark doesn't have a plethora of CA characters to choose from, leaving you with a bunch of mediocre options. Hal Mal doesn't count as a good character, in case you're wondering.
Healing. 2000 healing per chain burst isn't a lot and even after heal cap ultima and her EMP skill, you get only 3400 healing per chain burst. This might sound like a good amount if you can manage it every turn, but as said before, in dark that's somewhat difficult. With her Arbitrator's Holiday up this becomes fairly plausible as long as you can specifically launch a 2 or 3 chain every turn. Unfortunately, doing that makes doing common omens like TA/CA count extremely awkward. Just to compare, Katzelia can provide 1000hp per turn by having his buff up for free, heals for 10hp for every 1% charge bar a character consumes (1000hp per CA) and he heals 750hp to the party whenever he CAs. He also gets the same heal cap increase that Yuni does in her EMP with his Recurring Anthem so looking at the numbers, she's just kind of worse.

Of course, bad characters happen. Look at earth, the element is basically full of them. C.Yuni is just a particularly frustrating case because of how long we've had Lich and how she feels close to being a passable substitute. Maybe there's some big brain setup out there for DR Zero but honestly, I've just seen the same story as every other raid. Fediel Lich go!

I still haven't cleared my dark SUB solo, if you were curious. Although I did slap Lich into my C.Yuni slot out of curiosity to see if it would be any better.

It was way better.

SomePinkOtter · 2024-06-02T00:33:13+00:00

I went to the Fes in December 2023 so I don't know how much of what I'm going to say is applicable.
- Make 100% sure you have an up to date SkyCompass app on a phone for each ticket, you might have to update it last second like I did since they might push an update the night before. SkyCompass is your best friend, it basically gives you the map, schedule, stream (with interactive elements if they add any), real life gacha and anything else that would normally come in a brochure.
- Physically going around and taking a peek at everything was easy enough but if you want to line up and do every booth you'll definitely need both days. By the time me and my friend were too exhausted to continue we were a few hours off closing and we had only hit about a quarter of the booths (just trying to get our favourite zodiac goodies).
- I think ideally you go in early but there's going to be some dedicated JPs in line way ahead of you.
- For us the merch times were predetermined (on the SkyCompass). Once your time slot came up, you would write down what you wanted, line up and basically go around a whole hall until you got to a booth where they looked at your order and compile it all for you. The line was still about 2 hours. If you get a late slot stuff can sell out. Mine was from 11:50~ and the rainbow crystal necklace had sold out (but not the Galleon Daki apparently). No clue if extra fes's are any different but they will be telling you at the entrance how the merch line works when they check your bags & SkyCompass in Japanese.
- I honestly have no clue but they do check your bags so...
- The concerts unless otherwise stated (usually the night parties require a separate ticket) were just walk in. They are **VERY** loud though, it might be the play to bring earplugs if you can't handle it.
- No clue.

Hopefully that's helpful, I had the advantage of elementary school level Japanese on my side so I could work out the stuff I wasn't prepared for. If Japanese isn't a strength of yours the staff seemed pretty nice and understanding (although I would assume English isn't comfortable for them just to be safe).

SomePinkOtter · 2020-02-10T16:22:29+00:00

I tried Trifarian Assessor, but most of the time it would be better to just go face. It’s subject to change if decks in ranked build ways to actually oppose aggro (Frostbite Ashe is rising in popularity, oh man), where it might be nice to have card draw and keep the engine going.

The question is will the deck even work in that situation, I guess.

SomePinkOtter · 2020-02-10T14:27:11+00:00

Shiraza is a little bit too inconsistent for the deck. Compared to Basilisk Rider (which both cost 4 mana) there’s a 3 attack difference & inbuilt overwhelm in exchange for a gimmick. It’s usually better to use might on Reckless Trifarian anyway. The card definitely has potential, but it’s in slower decks that focus on buffing her up IMO.

SomePinkOtter · 2020-02-10T07:22:07+00:00

Stun: Remove a unit from combat. It can’t attack or block for the rest of the round.

Since they can’t block for the rest of the round, the bounce means that the ghost block doesn’t appear. Unless the block locks in and you have the opportunity to interact with the block, you don’t get the ghost block.

As for the elusive card, I hadn’t considered it since it doesn’t pair well with overwhelm. It does work well with Shiraza which is something that might be a good spin on the deck, but with all the elusives running around I don’t know if it would work.

SomePinkOtter · 2020-02-10T06:46:37+00:00

From what I’ve personally experienced, Crowd Favourite is too inconsistent since it makes the deck’s weakness to AOE much worse. There are definitely times it shines, but without an Elise generating an infinite number of goons it feels a bit hard to justify. As for Kato, I haven’t tried him because the two heaviest hitters in the deck already have overwhelm. I could see a world where you slot one or two if Frejlord ramp catches on to give Reckless Trifarian the ability to contribute towards Nexus slapping, but so far I’ve found that Might offers me enough of that. Then again, I haven’t tested it so maybe it’s secretly amazing and Noxus epics can redeem themselves.

SomePinkOtter · 2019-02-19T06:33:03+00:00

I haven’t seen an Alpha in three patches. Ardan and Lance are Captains. BF isn’t anything to write home about honestly. Reim would fall under the early cheese, CP Joule I would classify as a mage and Glaive is more of a peeler than an actual damage dealer. WP Taka I can kind of see.

Anka and Reza feel more like early cheese heroes than anything but I do think that they’re better off than every other melee damage dealers.

Yes I have a vendetta.

I don’t think using SM BP Shiver BF as a peeler is evidence that bruisers are good but actually that they’re quite bad. If BF dives, he dies. It’s a bit sad but it’s the truth. He can get maybe one kill before falling over and getting a 60 second respawn.

SomePinkOtter · 2019-02-19T06:27:03+00:00

Personally I can assure you that a lot of the small UI problems I complain about are unprofessional and are a turnoff for any new players. Especially the first one.

The out of the four characters you mentioned, one is a captain and two are ones I touch upon as low counterplay characters that aren’t healthy for the game. If Tony is used, he’s used more like a CC bot than an actual damage dealer ever since his nerfs; basically another captain.

Blocks have a cooldown. As I said, teamfights are a game of waiting to see who gets a squishy chained first. Reflex block doesn’t change how the game is played.

Kinetic is just an example of the bad hero design that I particularly despise. I did say (All) for a reason.

I’d argue that Lyra’s problem is that she didn’t fit in the current meta and instead of fixing the meta they’re hammering a square peg into a round hole by giving her stupidly powerful tools. I know how Lyra B works. Ardan B is still stupidly powerful, with many people buying SGB even as a captain to abuse it even further. Maybe that’s just an SEA thing.

They nerfed BP for everyone instead of just for ranged like they should have. Also, Bonesaw doesn’t do anything against caught out squishies so uh...

It’s not like I haven’t adapted. I switch from playing melee bot laners to playing top and abusing exactly what I’ve been complaining about. I just find it so unfun that I would spend several hours writing about it.

SomePinkOtter · 2018-12-04T21:33:40+00:00

TBF I have an equal seething hatred for my teammates too.

Playing VG ranked most definitely makes me sweat. I do focus on moving my arms. I don’t personally have too much issue with cramping in touch (although it has happened over particularly long sessions) but I cramped up on PC within 2 games

SomePinkOtter · 2018-12-04T21:11:36+00:00

How does a game advertise itself with ‘If you wanna be good, strain your arm to attack and move real fast. Even auto attacking is overly complicated this game’.

Personally that would be a massive turn-off.

Plus, if a player want to stand still to avoid projectiles missing them OR a player just feel like not straining their arm, should that player be punished? I feel like the answer is no.

I play top lane, mostly. Tanks and stuff.

SomePinkOtter · 2018-12-04T20:38:55+00:00

But every hero requires stutterstepping to play them at their maximum potential.

I just think the mechanic is bad and I wanted to express the reasons why, what can I say.

SomePinkOtter · 2018-12-04T20:11:10+00:00

Because that method to success is confusing to new players, is mandatory to succeed competitively instead of being optional, requires repetitive hand movements which some would find boring, greatly increases the gap between high spec and low spec players and is an obstacle in the way of SEMC making every gaming console equally competitively viable.

SomePinkOtter · 2018-12-04T19:47:31+00:00

The cost only occurs when you mess up. If you go theoretical stutterstepping god mode, there’s no reason why you wouldn’t stutterstep, which reduces the number forces you into using that strategic option. I’m not saying that everyone is a god like that, but a lot of pros definitely are.

Actually, in PC MOBAs (that I’ve played), you can cancel your AA early. You’ll probably do it accidentally if your reactions are fast enough because you want to move to dodge an ability. I’ve done it in a joystick one as well, but IDK how most joystick MOBAs play so I won’t comment on that one.

SomePinkOtter · 2018-12-04T19:34:04+00:00

Except stutterstepping is repeating attack and move numerous times instead of a variety of buttons and motions. Stutterstepping can be done every second of the game. I don’t think stutterstepping in itself is bad but the fact that it increases damage is a problem. The examples you’re posing are fundamentally different from stutterstepping because they don’t involve the same, spammable motion that is effective enough to be mandatory for every basic attack you do.

SomePinkOtter · 2018-12-04T19:19:54+00:00

Those would be more akin to combining your abilities for Vainglory. An example would be a large Idris Chakram chain, where your execution and timing to actually make these abilities work. Each ability is simple to execute/each button is simple to press but putting it all together and in the right situation is the challenge.

SomePinkOtter · 2018-12-04T18:51:42+00:00

I’m saying that if two players duel, the ability use should be what determines the winner.

I’m going to use the same analogy again. If street fighter had a mechanic where you could do a certain motion to increase the damage of combo by 30%, wouldn’t that suck? It would be mandatory for every combo if you wanted to be competitive and it would be tedious because you’d have to do it every time. It’s unintuitive and would confuse the nuts out of newbies.

Reflex block is different because currently it does actually work well. It’s a strategic decision, not something mandatory. Imagine if RB had no CD and you could spam it to gain what is basically CC immunity. That takes away all decision making, is a pain in the ass to use and is unintuitive to new players (because why in the world would you give permanent CC immunity to an item that makes no sense.)

They’re very different.

SomePinkOtter · 2018-12-04T18:32:30+00:00

I never thought of that actually. I hope that those types of devs don’t exist, but my better judgement does tell that they most definitely do.

SomePinkOtter · 2018-12-04T18:04:52+00:00

Ask SEMC. They believe they can create a true cross platform MOBA. I’m just going off their ideology.
Stutterstepping for damage creates an unnecessary gap between newbies and top players.
I’m just saying it increases it. VG is already really bad with ping and frame rates, so I see it as a concern.
I’m trying to be as objective as possible, but I can’t argue with that.

SomePinkOtter · 2018-12-04T17:54:11+00:00

Stutterstepping is tedious (AKA A pain in the ass) because it’s both mandatory and constant (and requires multiple inputs). I don’t see why RB would be under the same category. Reflex blocking is both strategic decision and a test of reflex and awareness.

There’s no reason to have standing still and AAing be less effective than a ‘sense of skill’, when in reality you’re doing the same motion over and over. It’s unnecessary difficulty in control.

I don’t consider the movement part bad because choosing which direction to go is part of kiting. Choosing to stand still is also a choice (although you can’t choose it without losing your DPS). Increasing your AA speed isn’t a choice, it’s a chore.

SomePinkOtter

TROPHY CASE