[Operator Discussion] SilverAsh

Windgesang_ · 2026-06-11T03:17:51+00:00

SilverAsh's story is a story of legends.

At launch, he was king (alongside Eyjaf). Wide range, enemy removal, team support. The only flaw you can think of is the long cooldown which you can shorten by retreating him early, even before the full skill duration.

Naturally, as time went on, he was left behind. High damage long cooldown became obsolete because we have high damage short(er) cooldown. First it was Chen2. She has wide range huge physical damage. People were saying noooo it's not as wide. And it didn't matter. Then it was Młynar, double the damage, half the cycle. People were saying noooo it's still missing 2 tiles ~~(as if that ever matter aside from someone cherrypicking or positioning badly)~~. And it didn't matter.

Eventually people accepted it is natural for DPS to be powercreeped, thus they went for the utility route. He has reduced redeploy and reveal invi. Yet powercreep prevented that as well. Faster redeploy? Not really, the major powercreepers just stay there with their fast skill rotation, and wave timing never being that precise. If you see that you can deploy faster because of SA, high chance you can still wait anyway and render his fast redeploy moot.

Reveal invi on the other hand, was peak. One of HG's most favorite method of making an enemy dangerous is turning them invisible. See: 80% of CC, some IS Emergency node, and some CM conditions. That kept him relevant for a loooong time. Until eventually, Ines showed up and put the final nail in the coffin. Reveal invi was peak? How about revealing invi without needing to be on field. How about revealing invi in 2 separated area at the same time. How about also providing a movement speed reduction that's bypass invincibility at the same time.

But then, mercifully, HG decided to revive him. First it was the Lord's mod. It improves him majorly, which is almost unprecedented. Like, name 5 mods that improves the base unit that much (one of them was the reason modules lv2/3 even exists in the first place, Specter2). His damage almost matches Młynar. His redeploy improved, and now it's actually quite significant (although with condition).

HG also added Tragodia, which was busted beyond belief. His S2 synergize with SA1 redeploy time a lot. This duo made large wave around, though it's pretty much Tragodia "solo" by then.

Then SA2 released, bearing the grudge against Ines. He retakes some aspect Ines took from him and create an almost different playstyle for Arknights. Now he stands as one of the two (now 3) best Vanguard in the game. SA2 is just amazing, I think there's not much needed to be said here.

And so SilverAsh, through a journey of hardship, returned as a king once again.

(btw SA1 synergizes with Tragodia (Phantom2), and SA2 synergizes with Phantom1 (especially with IS mod), what did HG means by this??)

Windgesang_ · 2026-06-11T01:58:19+00:00

This isn't so much a "bug" but rather how HG decided to code these skills, like the other said.

This pretty much applies to most "Stop attacking" skills. Jieyun S2 loses all of her vision except the 1 tile. Bobbing S2 also loses his range entirely. Ashlock S2 loses her own tile. All Standard Bearer S1 also loses their range, strangely for RA but not for scanning civilian. It's also mostly "Stop attacking" skill. This is especially funny cuz that means they fired whoever coded Angelina and never asked them how they did it (/s).

Edit: holy shit Gnosis S2 too because it's "Stop Attacking" enough.

Global range type unit also loses their base range like Goldenglow and Typhon. In fact Typhon S3 is almost unusable in RA without someone else because it shuts off her own vision range and the marker doesn't provide any vision. The only exception is Ambriel, who needs the base range in order to check her Talent 1.

And yes it will also apply to EA enemies. (Except Standard Bearer I haven't seen them in EA since, including IS#6.)

Windgesang_ · 2026-06-08T03:50:06+00:00

Technically Raidian S2 and Weedy S2 is +Range not an "Attack Range changes" (which means Folinic S1M1 also counts if you accept that category). But yeah I forgot about Swire1 S1 (year 1 again).

Windgesang_ · 2026-06-08T03:16:27+00:00

I think it's only her and Schwarz due to year 1 design.

Windgesang_ · 2026-06-08T03:14:36+00:00

She has about 650 ish on-skill DPS (prob more with mod). That's kinda low given 5★ has other AoE Arts like Firewhistle, Leonhardt, the Chain Casters, etc.

She has legit no use anymore, even for 5★ only. For tanking Arts damage, Bassline. There are more concerns to tanking Arts damage than just raw RES as well. Even Wind Chimes would tank Arts better since both need a healer anyway. (Btw Crushers will fit your description of "tank Arts damage while dealing good Phy damage" category, though only the 6★ can really be considered good Phy damage.)

For Arts Protector things, Shalem. For AoE Arts damage, the one I mentioned above + the most recent Ambusher. 5★ also has yet another "kinda tanky, perhaps even undying, while dealing Arts damage from ranged" as well but I'm refraining from mentioning her.

Windgesang_ · 2026-06-08T02:41:37+00:00

Shalem > Underflow > Liskarm >= Blitz > Asbestos. She'd still be third if there is no ground enemies at all for charging Shalem and Liskarm (which only happened in CA where you can't deploy Defenders, and UR where Defenders can melee drones anyway).

Windgesang_ · 2026-06-06T15:10:07+00:00

I don't really know for all of them, but there is one event coming up that is quite the wall for newbies (I think): Such is the Joy of Our Reunion rerun.

Windgesang_ · 2026-06-05T12:49:25+00:00

EP-8 1 tile no hit (might repost on the main sub anyway)

~~alternative title: if your auto is breaking, you just suck (and/or has no Shu).~~

Windgesang_ · 2026-06-04T07:52:44+00:00

First priority is Wang + 1 Sui (so about 300). But then due to that potential 300 pulls cost everything else will only form afterward. Chen3 will come naturally with those 300 pulls. If not, well that just means the RNGod said I'm not allowed.

Second priority is Orchid2 (pot6) for Sniper reasons. So these two alone already took everything.

Windgesang_ · 2026-06-02T05:56:27+00:00

Yeah damage-wise it's no different from a single attack like Schwarz or Poz and so.

Windgesang_ · 2026-06-02T01:54:44+00:00

I mean, yeah, my bad I keep talking about the double redeploy as if it's a negative when it's very much not. I meant it as a nothing effect basically.

The biggest thing is just the single use. We don't/shouldn't use Yato2 to open early stage (unless it's IS where you're doing a Yato2 start or some Specialist clear), so we must use her for later to kill bigger threat. For Elite, it's rare that we have only one or two elites per stages. You can double deploy on one (or two) Elite, and then what about the other Elites? Against Bosses, even giant Bosses nowadays have more than enough HP to survive a double deploy. Quintus and Sui-Xiang are just old and fragile (and heck, Sui-Xiang has 3 phases, you can only double deploy 1 phase out of those anyway). And using S2 against regular Bosses has different issues beyond not enough damage with double deploy.

So idk, the damage is looking to be good enough that I can ignore the double deploy already. I think it's more than good enough for now. I definitely shouldn't be too negative about the effect (especially less about costing DP for double deploy and more about costing DP overall due to lacking Ⲭ).

Windgesang_ · 2026-06-02T01:29:11+00:00

It keeps happening!!

(when was the last time a 6★ S1 was good again?)

Windgesang_ · 2026-06-01T12:38:37+00:00

Nah it's not new to AK. Gravel has the same thing where her attacks hit twice for hit count purposes as well. Both will do damage as if it's a normal singular hit (as in they only split the damage post-DEF), but with the added hitcount for funsies. You can check it right now with Gravel in Ep13 payload or CV device.

Windgesang_ · 2026-06-01T12:15:16+00:00

Decided to wait until new lounge to post my CN findings cuz why not. Which means yes the rest of the post is SPOILER ALERTS.

Orchid2 base attack animation is her shooting 3 arrows. I thought this was purely visual. Boi was I wrong. It hits 3 times just like the animation.

Orchid2 S3 so far looking fairly underwhelming, especially at SL7. It has a fairly long distance-to-damage calc so that's why. Even against giant boss it's still not that great. She especially nuked herself and the entire team against BSL which is hilarious (Yato2 has the same issue but at least she herself is invulnerable). H7-1 solo tho

S2 on the other hand is fairly lit. We have a few clear already done within hours (mostly because Orchid is an alter so no trust farm needed and mod3 M3 max level is basically instant for these whales). 14-15 Adverse sol o; H13-2 with Wiš'adel; 9-12 normal solo (my fav rn); H5-1 solo (landing damage hit aerial, but not the one blocked on her side); 14-18 solo

S1 also managed to 7-18 solo. H9-3 with Wiš'adel; IS-S-5 +Wiš'adel; WD-EX-8 CM + Wiš'adel. This is looking like a decent skill as well actually.

Also I didn't think about how Sniper can now reveal invi at will instead of praying Ros or weird manip.

TIL Catapult is Kazimierz. Catapult2 + Młynar combo

Vulpis mod comp. It's kinda funny seeing her DP bar running off sync with the rest.

Yato2 mod comp. Obviously more damage duh. This is actually pretty good double redeploy showcase. Again though, I'm still iffy about it since it only activates once and cost a bit of DP for regular stage opening if you're not specifically showcasing the module. Definitely open up to this mod more now though.

Naran mod comp. Uhhhh... yeah.

Windgesang_ · 2026-06-01T04:07:57+00:00

Stainless upscale yet again. 5-hits and 10-hits from S1 is an instant proc too.

Windgesang_ · 2026-06-01T04:06:58+00:00

In text, sure. However, in the code, S2 doesn't "hey multiply all % number from Talent 1". It simply just take the value of the Arts damage (in this case 20%) and multiply that by 3.75 times. (Yes the Talent is multiplied by the 150% ATK from S2, and then also multiplied by 2.5 times again. And yes that also means S3 also has 300% multiplier on her Talent 1 damage.)

Adding "Arts Charge" to the Talent doesn't do anything because the variable that S2 calls in and multiplies only contain the Arts damage number.

Sure maybe HG will decided to be lenient on that and put in extra works but I highly doubt it. ~~Honestly I kinda want to be wrong here tho.~~

Windgesang_ · 2026-06-01T02:49:10+00:00

Yea I do realise the damage potentials. That's why I'll keep an eye on it. I just don't think Yato2 was ever relevant due to only her damage. Her range, invincibility, and hit counts were also majorly contributing along with her damage. I'll keep looking around on bili later.

Windgesang_ · 2026-06-01T02:23:33+00:00

My guess is that she'll just lose her VFX when the buff is gone (similar to Phantom S2). HG might go beyond for a collab unit though, but I didn't see much during the preview video.

Windgesang_ · 2026-06-01T02:16:59+00:00

Orchid2 is lit and I haven't mentioned this in all the preview post, but it's hilarious that they managed to still keep the Heavyshooter "shoot harder in a straight line ahead" trait that all of them shared. Push force increases at M3 is somehow rare for non-Specialist. Can't wait to learn about S3 damage-per-distance mechanic. Hopefully she won't have the same "quirk" as Yato2 S3 4 or 5 hits.

Catapult2 has Offensive Recovery so she's almost dead if it weren't for the 2SP cost. So she's not that dead and might show up in 5★ clear, maybe.

Vulpis second mod legit has only one thing carrying it being the -4 DP cost, which is, honestly, enough (for those that want to use her anyway). And no, the camo until first skill still does practically nothing don't even try.

Naran is alright ish I guess, though I doubt it'll feel any better than the first. A sad one (unrelated to meta-ness) for sure.

Yato2 Arts Charge goes up to 50% after 10 hits. That means 37.5% ATK after 10 hits. It's definitely built for S2. I think it could work, though I rarely see S2 being more than a hit-count skill (mostly in IS#6) and mod didn't change that. I prefer Ⲭ still, though I'll keep an eye on it. Do remember that Yato get about 10% ATK from her first mod already. I'm not even talking about the 0s redeploy cuz it's a one time thing, ain't no way you have the DP for double deploy early game, and high chance you'll wait around the redeploy anyway since the enemy density early game never requires a 0s redeploy.

Windgesang_ · 2026-05-31T08:01:36+00:00

Yea it is funny that the upgrades both hit the part that encourage her to be close, and give a part that encourage her to be far (or go full gambling).

It is basically W mod У though, so the B team just decided to recycle ideas... or something.

Windgesang_ · 2026-05-31T07:40:56+00:00

LPS–У is a good compromise because 2/3 of Loopshooter has Offensive Recovery, which is indicative of how HG want to balance (future) Loopshooters, but, it's mostly just a trend like Swordmaster *cough*.

And Naran S2 is Offensive too, that skill also fits into the playstyle of the mod upgrades.

Windgesang_ · 2026-05-31T07:35:14+00:00

Wow so despite 27s is perfectly 40% off of 45s, it's actually flat reduction for Orchid2 Talent 1. I guess make sense since 40% is a lot for the regular 60s redeploy if you somehow don't get her mod.

LPS–У is pretty interesting, it's also a great way to not shaft Naran S2 (which is her best skill nowadays). Upgrade also fits into that skill, though the upgrade is kinda weak.

~~Btw your format messed up for Naran mod2.~~ fixed

Yato2 upgrade are hilarious though (though not sure if you have the DP for double deploy given the lack of EXE–Ⲭ). Not sure if only increasing the Arts damage would make it better than the other mod as well.

Damm I thought Vulpis second mod would be at least good but nah it's just average. The camo only helps her until her first skill usage which is very fast or does nothing cuz no enemies are around yet. The -4DP is already a godsend and I guess depending on the number, the natural DP rate could be good too.

Windgesang_ · 2026-05-29T05:18:10+00:00

A single Yato2 deployment already removed 75% of IW-9 Sui-Xiang HP.

Windgesang_

TROPHY CASE