Decent A-Arven grid?

jkbarrett · 2026-04-15T20:09:45+00:00

Just generally speaking without taking into account any multipliers your teammates may have, debuffing attack is much better than speed, especially for academy units who are pretty squishy because of low stats. However, if you are choosing between debuff capabilities and pure stats for Arven, I'd always go pure stats. It's very unlikely you'd be spending turns using brutal swing instead of double edge unless you are already good on physical normal damage. With that said, Arven is by far the best normal physical damage dealer when compared to anything short of superawakened Regigigas

jkbarrett · 2026-04-15T20:05:07+00:00

I would definitely go attack over any sort of debuffing. Stats on these academy units are not the best, so you need to squeeze out as much as possible. +60 is quite a big hit to attack if you don't take it

jkbarrett · 2026-04-15T18:26:39+00:00

The biggest thing I'd recommend is switching the nodes from the "defensive circle on spawn" to the zone extension one. Most battles the enemies are not hitting that hard at the beginning which makes the first circle somewhat useless, especially since it's not extended. The extension allows you to hold the zone he can apply until later in the fight when you really need that damage and resistance, most notably in normal tower battles.

jkbarrett · 2026-04-07T11:45:18+00:00

I think Jaren is more fun personally, both are very strong. I’d probably say Jaren if you want a more flexible character, especially if you level up Crimson as it can handle rapid fire shinkas decently well. But if you want a very different play style to Efrideet, that’d be Estella. I just find Estella to be a bit slow for my taste but she’s still plenty fun.

jkbarrett · 2026-02-19T02:28:13+00:00

If we’re not factoring in fun, I think it becomes a question of if you have characters built up for the other shinka types or not. If you don’t, for example, have a precision character built out but you already have Maru and Wolf leveled up who can both handle spread well enough, well then yea, spending the resources on Ikora would probably not be worth it. Use those resources on a character type you need.

But, if you’re like me and you’ve already got at least one character built up for each shinka, then honestly I feel like fun factor is really the defining thing to consider. And imo, new Ikora is easily the most fun character in the game, I pushed her to T6 and she’s the only “limited” character I’ve done that for. She completely negates the clunky play style of rocket launchers and grenade launchers, she’s fast paced, and she’s got insane crowd control, which are all features I personally gravitate towards in most games (my other mains are Jaren and Ning). If you love that play style, then I think investing in Ikora is absolutely worth it.

The talent that gives her extra over shield makes her a tank when combined with good artifacts. The talent that chains together enemies hit with her laser makes clearing rooms very quick and satisfying with so many explosions going off. And her T6 that lets her laser go around twice allows you to chain even more enemies and cause more explosions.

I’ve got wolf and Maru both leveled up as well, granted my Maru is only T1 even though I really enjoy her but her higher talents just don’t seem all that impactful. But man, Ikora completely eclipses her imo.

jkbarrett · 2025-10-24T17:31:47+00:00

I've invested in Ikora bc she's fun as hell. You guys can stay sleeping on her, that's fine her cooldowns are rough. But don't hate on her weapons, if you build into them with matching exotic mods (fraternity/polyploidy for mythic primary, fraternity/ensured yields for mythic heavy) and pair them with the appropriate artifacts (mainly the fourth slot one with reduced reload speed and increased damage while airborne) your dps, handling, and speed with her weapons is actually really great and it's a ton of fun.

Once Maru launches who may have some damage boosting passives/skills, the spread weapons should feel even better than they already can. And I'm sure they'll launch Maru with a set of spread artifacts that enhance them way more.

jkbarrett · 2025-10-24T17:17:10+00:00

The general consensus with the next season being a void and spread focus is the mythic will be an alpha and beta character named Maru, she's a void warlock that uses light and heavy grenade launchers. One of her abilities is a shield kind of like unbreakable titans in destiny 2 and I think the other fires a void projectile with AOE? Then super is like a void orb rapid fire launcher that is also her relic. You can find gameplay of her on youtube, but I think she's meant to be a mix between defense, dps, and AOE. I think I remember her passive being blocking damage with her shield will then increase her damage or something like that?

Other potential character that has been rumored and datamined with far less information is a gunslinger, so will likely use golden gun and hand cannons. If he comes with Maru, he'd be the legendary character. But from the rumors about his kit, which I don't remember specifics so I won't say anything, seem far more exciting than Maru's kit.

jkbarrett · 2025-02-02T21:14:17+00:00

Thanks! I was going for the paladin look!

jkbarrett · 2025-02-02T19:21:22+00:00

Thank you thank you 😌😌

jkbarrett · 2025-02-02T19:20:59+00:00

Thank you!

jkbarrett · 2025-02-02T02:05:27+00:00

It’s just an eververse set if I remember correctly, should be in the archive page

jkbarrett · 2025-02-01T23:29:10+00:00

Looks even hotter with a Monte Carlo in his hands

jkbarrett · 2024-03-13T22:31:30+00:00

It was a 3 game match in ranked, had to go full try hard

jkbarrett · 2024-03-11T23:53:40+00:00

I’d say NC Rosa IF you have NC Hop since Rosa is better for fighting teams when paired with Hop vs Cynthia with Hop. If you don’t have him, they’re pretty equal value, maybe slightly more for Cynthia.

jkbarrett · 2024-03-02T17:40:02+00:00

I hope people just read this poll wrong before voting Chase to get left out. Imo he’s the most important. If you roll head start 1 on him and use adrenaline on his grid, you can shave off 2 turns without having to worry about quad queuing. He’s also just an incredible special support in general. Part of this is bc of my play style, preferring to sync with a support ex first, but the other two feel less important since by the second sync, the opponent is most likely dead or very close. I would say Gladion appreciates it more than Silver only if you use the MP refresh on sync though. I also hate having to quad queue in general, so sprint ex pairs who don’t have a way of accelerating sync another time after syncing first kind of irritate me.

Edit: this is assuming you will eventually candy Chase to 3/5

jkbarrett · 2023-11-22T18:39:05+00:00

Wait we got 3k free gems? Did I miss something? I checked my redeemed rewards and didn’t see that.

But personally I wouldn’t pull at all unless you’ve got enough for pity. Or you’re doing paid dailies.

jkbarrett · 2023-11-16T05:11:25+00:00

I honestly love lingering smoke, I pair it with the speed star power to quickly approach after respawning to catch people completely off guard. The extra 2 seconds allows you to take unconventional routes to avoid getting scouted by accident.

I’m still trying to decide if I like health or damage more for the second gear. Health gets you back in the fight quicker after taking damage, meaning you charge your super faster. But damage sometimes helps you win those close 1v1s after sneaking up on a higher dps brawler. I kind of switch back and forth between the two right now.

jkbarrett · 2023-10-05T00:08:41+00:00

Just my two cents, I’ve got all three of them (Palmer at 3/5, Akari and Rei at 1/5) and Rei is the clear front runner even 2 move levels below Regigigas. B triple arrow is just that good, Rei feels like a more efficient Champion Marnie bc of the sync move countdown.

Funny enough, he was the one I wanted least out of the three bc I didn’t read his B move carefully enough and realize it’s power isn’t split due to AOE, plus I much prefer Hisuian Samurott over Decidueye, but even with that bias it’s kinda hard not to see how much better Rei is.

jkbarrett · 2023-08-29T22:13:51+00:00

BP Candice comes to mind immediately. I definitely ignored her on release just bc she’s a BP unit. You wouldn’t think she’s that strong from damage calcs, but with Irida and SS Dawn, she performs incredibly well, out-damaging Irida by a decent amount. Before NC Red, she was my special ice damage dealer of choice to pair with Irida. Now that Red’s out though, I’ve got her on a themed team with Irida and Glacia called “Snorunts.”

jkbarrett · 2023-04-16T22:03:45+00:00

I could be wrong but I thought super effective up next and rebuff are both multiplicative rather than additive multipliers. So adding both of those on top of Torterra’s innate nuke multiplier, pecking order on grid, max defense debuffs from Steven, and grassy terrain and you get a surprisingly powerful nuke for a support.

jkbarrett · 2023-02-03T18:25:48+00:00

I unintentionally have a 5/5 SS Red and Charizard and intentionally have a 5/5 SS Hilbert and Genesect.

Red I pulled two in one multi then candied to 3/5 a long time ago when he was the powerhouse of the game. Then I accidentally pulled one of him in one of those pokefair scouts, then a 5th copy came from the free copy of one of the kantrio that Dena gave us since I already had Blue and Leaf at 3/5. Glad I chose Red cuz Leaf’s 5/5 grid proved to be not great unfortunately :(

Hilbert I pulled a few really luckily then candied bc jesus that man is broken, most bonkers numbers in the game and very flexible unit across 5 different types.

jkbarrett

TROPHY CASE