Banner Guide – Acting Archbishop Michaela

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Exclusive Gear

Official Patch notes

Overview

PVE PVP Fiend Hunt/Guild Raid
A A S
Last Night Tower of Pride Tower of Salvation
C S B

Michaela excels as the most potent wielder of light magic attacks. Her ability to self-enhance for six consecutive turns significantly boosts the power of her overall kit in PVE scenarios.

＋ Big 3×3 AOE for only 2 SP

＋ Powerful in PVP attack when paired with B Helena or RH Rou

＋ Easy Tower of Pride high score clears on Floors 2, 4, and 6

－ The -90% resistance really hurts, especially in high level fiend hunts and guild raids

－ Needs other Michaela costumes to be good

－ Not reliable for PVP defense

Damage analysis

In a more conversational style: Michaela’s concept revolves around “paying for power” – her outfits unleash potent area-of-effect (AOE) damage, yet each one bears significant penalties.

1. The Queen of Signatures outfit multiplies damage dealt by 390%, equivalent to 1,170% before chain effects, making it one of the highest in the game. However, using this costume will drain 6 points from your SP meter.

2. Meanwhile, her Beachside Justice outfit increases her M.ATK by double (200%) and deals quadruple damage (400%). But keep in mind that this comes at a hefty cost of reducing her HP by 80%.

Currently, we possess Acting Archbishop‘s primary outfit, which at its maximum power (+5) provides a massive 500% critical damage boost for six consecutive turns and inflicts double damage. As the buff endures for six turns, it significantly enhances Michaela’s damage output on subsequent rounds with her other costumes.

Critical damage bonuses are intriguing as the impact they create relies on your existing critical damage rate prior to receiving the boost. To put it simply, a higher initial critical damage rate means a more significant enhancement from these bonuses.

  • If you have already geared Michaela to have 400% crit damage (i.e. she hits for 5x normal damage on crit), then a +500% crit damage buff effectively doubles her damage (because she goes from 5x to 10x damage on crit).
  • On the other hand, if you have Michaela geared to 600% crit damage (i.e. she hits for 7x normal damage on crit), then a +500% crit damage buff makes her go from 7x to 12x damage on crit, which equates to an improvement in damage of only around 70%.

Essentially, having lower critical damage from your gear for Michaela means you’ll get more power from her attack attribute bonus. So, it’s advisable to equip Michaela with a weapon that boosts M.ATK or M.ATK percentage and prioritize M.ATK or M.ATK% secondary stats over Critical Damage ones.

Michaela for PVE

Michaela demonstrates remarkable strength when tackling tough dark bosses during the late game. Operating her effectively in such situations demands not only proficiency but also a well-developed collection of costumes due to the consistent need to navigate her unfavorable ability traits.

To fully unleash Michaela’s capabilities, you require both her costumes, BJ and QOS, as AA.Michaela functions best when used in conjunction with them. While it can work independently, it has a prolonged cooldown and its primary function is to amplify the damage output of Michaela’s other costumes.

In the late stages of the game, it’s often beneficial to team up Michaela with Diana. Once Michaela uses her Acting Archbishop skill to lower her own Defense and Magic Resistance, Diana’s Energy Guard ability is one of the few skills that can shield Michaela from powerful boss attacks in later stages. Refi’s damage reduction and energy guard skills won’t suffice for this purpose.

Thirdly, it is often beneficial to team up Michaela with Helena. This is because Helena increases Michaela’s attack power, Helena’s healing abilities help mitigate the 80% health loss that BJ.Michaela suffers, and TI.Helena can help counteract QOS.Michaela’s SP drain (ensure you use TI.Helena after QOS.Michaela).

As a gamer, I shine in dark fiend hunts and guild raids. I’m particularly effective on the Tower of Pride, especially Floor 2, where my skills prove useful against those dark enemies with high defense. However, in other PVE modes, while I can manage as a 3×3 AOE attacker, I’m not exactly extraordinary compared to the many other characters now who boast strong 3×3 AOE attacks.

Michaela for PVP

Thanks to her Quality of Service (QOS) outfit, Michaela has quickly become one of the top characters for Player vs Player (PVP) attack teams. Essentially, QOS.Michaela is an incredibly powerful team opener, boasting a long range, affordable 2 SP cost, and impressive damage output. When supported by B.Helena and Zenith, QOS.Michaela can deal enough damage to eliminate a fully equipped Granhildr.

As a passionate fan, I can’t help but marvel at Michaela’s second costume! It amplifies my PVP prowess like no other. This is the rare outfit in the game to unleash a 2 SP 3×3 AOE attack, making me the second character with this extraordinary ability, following the path of Blood Glutton Justia.

You can use AA.Michaela either after using QOS.Michaela in Turn 1 and then again in Turn 3, or immediately after deploying Schera on Turn 1, for a powerful area-of-effect attack that requires 1, 2, and 2 spell points (SP).

As a gamer, I find that AA.Michaela isn’t the best for defense teams as she heavily relies on B.Helena (or RH.Rou) to land critical hits. On an attack team, you can count on starting with B.Helena. However, in defense, there’s no assurance that B.Helena will make it through the initial round. Without a critical hit, AA.Michaela’s damage output is severely limited.

AA.Michaela’s significant reduction in defense and resistance will undoubtedly have an impact, but it won’t dramatically alter her performance in PVP. Due to Michaela being quite fragile, she often meets her demise from even routine attacks, regardless of the resistance penalty. The most effective strategy is to keep her out of harm’s way for as long as possible. Enhancing her gear towards Health Points (HP) and HP% could slightly boost her survivability.

Exclusive Gear

Michaela has a unique advantage with a weapon that boosts her Physical Attack by 67 points. While this enhancement can significantly increase her damage output, it’s not essential for utilizing her effectively.

If you’re not focused on achieving top scores, using her unique weapon isn’t essential. You’ll get another chance to obtain her exclusive weapon when her other costumes are re-released in future banners.

Conclusion

With Michaela’s additional outfits and a strong team backing her up to counteract her penalties, you can potentially inflict astronomical harm. Michaela specializes in applying a massive 500% critical hit boost that lasts for six turns, significantly enhancing her damage potential over the next two attacks.

If Michaela lacks additional costumes, she may not perform well individually because of her high cooldown, average damage output, and a significant penalty effect that reduces her Defense and Magic Resistance by 90%.

She is not recommended for new players.

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2025-03-26 16:09