#gladiia's third atk boost

[wistfulvulpine]

abyssal hunters remain the favorite child

#arknights #who gives a hoot #literally what was the point of the centurion mods if most were just [incremental stat increase] #gladiia's third atk boost

[cerastes]

What's that, the Stinkzone Clown gives you trouble? No problem, just let your Emotional Support Shark handle it!

Alright, so, Laurentina's S3, which I see puzzles a few people:

(M3; what I'm using in the video is M2) -> Attack interval increases, attacks all blocked enemies, ATK +260%, Max HP +200%; deal 70% ATK as extra Physical damage when attacking enemies with HP percentage equal to or higher than self, otherwise lose 3% of HP

The huge boost to stats is easy to understand, but there's a bit more nuance to this Skill than is immediately apparent to most people. First of all, let's address the bolded part. If Laurentina attacks an enemy with equal or more HP% than hers, her attack causes 70% extra TOTAL physical damage. It's a massive boost! Notice how her attacks are doing almost double damage when she's at lower HP% than the Clown, compared to her hits after the Clown falls under her HP%. Notice how I didn't activate the Skill until the Clown had taken around half of her HP, so I could actually capitalize on this very sizeable bonus. A wounded Laurentina is a dangerous Laurentina.

Now, the next important part of this skill is the "HP +200%" part: This functionally means she's taking a mere 33% damage from attacks throughout the duration of the Skill, regardless of damage type. This is a massively powerful boost to survivability. Meaning, if you have a good gauge on the boss damage output, you can decide on the best time to activate your "ok I take a third damage and hit you harder than the fist of a wrathful god" mode. Now, that is already very powerful already, but then you consider The Synergy: Gladiia.

Gladiia grants Laurentina 2.5% HP/sec regen. Laurentina's S3 triples her max HP. Since Gladiia's regen buff is percentage based, it functionally triples in strength for Laurentina while S3 is active. This helps make her even bulkier with a powerful regen during upkeep, making it easier to go for even lower percentages of HP before activating S3.

In other words, S3 is a high risk, high reward Skill: Can you go low enough to maximize damage without Laurentina dying? Activate too soon, and your damage will be lacking. Activate too late, you'll have the Nun Form on the map which is less than ideal. Activate at the right time, and you have a dead boss.

There is a visual cue to know when your hits are boosted, by the by.

That blue watery spark effect.

Finally, while very strong already, this skill will become even stronger in the future: Gladiia will eventually have a Module, and at Level 3, it upgrades her 2.5% regen to 3.5% HP regen per sec, and it gives all Abyssal Hunters an unconditional, passive 30% damage reduction against Phys and Arts damage. So not only will you triple your HP, basically receiving only a third of the damage functionally, you are also slashing THAT damage down almost another third, making for a VERY strong Laurentina that can go even lower, that can go even higher risk for higher reward.

Enjoy your Emotional Support Shark, Doctors. Cleave the world asunder. Dreams need not be dreams any longer.

#arknights #specter the unchained #gladiia