Costume Guide – Queen of Signatures Michaela

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Base stats (Lv 100)	Max stats (after engraving and awakening)

As a seasoned Brown Dust player with countless hours spent on the battlefield, I must say that Michaela is a true game-changer. Her unique AOE pattern and phenomenal damage output have given me an edge in both PVE and PVP that I never thought possible.

Official Patch Notes

Overview

PVE	PVP	Fiend Hunt/Guild Raid
B	A	A * (see below)
Last Night	Tower of Pride	Tower of Salvation
S	A	A

＋ Very high damage multiplier

＋ Low SP cost

A distinct attack range could offer an advantage when facing particular enemy lineups in Player vs. Player (PvP) matches, as it’s challenging to foresee its application.

＋ SP penalty is not a big deal in some game modes like Last Night, Tower of Pride and PVP

－ SP penalty can hurt a lot in long battles like fiend hunts and guild raids

－ Poor synergy with Beachside Justice Michaela

－ Use cases in PVE are somewhat limited

Michaela for PVE

The majority of characters exhibit a consistent ‘thematic’ aspect in their combat abilities. Notably, character Michaela specializes in inflicting heavy damage, but often ends up compromising herself during the process. In the Beachside Justice scenario, Michaela can unleash massive damage at the expense of 80% of her Health Points. Additionally, QOS.Michaela now causes significant damage while depleting your team’s Spirit Points.

Damage analysis

In the present state of power creep, a damage multiplier between 600 and 700 percent, including additional effects, is typically seen as “strong” or “powerful” when it comes to an attacking character’s performance. To illustrate this, let me provide an example:

Dimension Witch Eclipse deals 3×200% (SP drain), Nightmare Bunny Eclipse deals 3×220% (SP drain, M.RES shred)
Piercing Magic Bow Eleaneer deals 3×195% (buff removal), B-Rank Idol Eleaneer deals 3×210% (silence)
DJ Venaka deals 1×700% (M.RES shred)

In terms without gaming jargon, for attackers that don’t have any additional utility or conditions, a strong one should deal more damage per attack (higher multiplier) and/or cover a wider area (better Area of Effect, or AOE). Some powerful vanilla (basic) attackers are:

Night of Jealousy Levia who deals 4×280% (1120%) to the main target
Esteemed Adventurer Eris who deals 1100% on targets with 7 chain stacks or less

Considering those comparisons, let’s examine QOS.Michaela. At her maximum potential (+5), she boasts an unwavering damage multiplier of 390% tripled, equating to a formidable 1170% (before chain damage). This places her among the most powerful attack costumes in the game and undeniably as the strongest light magic attacker.

Keep in mind that while Beachside Justice Michaela and QOS.Michaela have similar raw, unbuffed damage, QOS.Michaela performs significantly better once buffs are applied. For instance, when paired with B.Helena, the damage output of B.Helena with BJ.Michaela is 1,660%, but with QOS.Michaela it’s a much higher 2,515.5%. This difference is due to the scaling of buffs in QOS.Michaela.

Michaela’s basic damage might be slightly below average at 330, while the standard is 352. However, she excels in base critical damage, boasting a whopping 100% compared to the typical 50%. This significantly boosts her total damage output, transforming her into a formidable force in PVE scenarios.

SP penalty analysis

QoS.Michaela’s Skill Point (SP) loss becomes active following the start of your turn, but it only triggers when the skill is activated. Consequently, her ability doesn’t prohibit you from scheduling skills during the planning phase.

In essence, it’s best to list any abilities that reduce Spell Points (SP) following the Quality of Spells (QOS). For instance, Michaela, if feasible, should arrange her skills in this order: first use abilities that increase SP, then those that decrease SP. To illustrate, using 2 SP, G.Refi (+5 SP) followed by QOS.Michaela (-6 SP) results in 1 SP remaining, but performing QOS.Michaela (-6 SP) before G.Refi (+5 SP) leaves you with 5 SP.

Using Michaela in PVE

As a seasoned gamer, I can confidently say that Michaela shines brightest in Player versus Environment (PVE) scenarios where brute force is key. We’ve already covered this aspect earlier on.

In Last Night, Michaela stands out as an exceptional choice due to her unmatched damage capability and the absence of Special Point (SP) penalties applied to her. Whales aiming for top rankings in this mode would greatly benefit from using Michaela, while she also provides a significant boost for anyone striving to achieve the 110 million damage mark.

In PVE fights for general purposes, Michaela is currently the only character classified as ‘light’ who possesses the ability to bypass targets (skip targeting). This characteristic makes her particularly beneficial when facing challenging dark enemies, especially in formations where her area of effect aligns with them. Additionally, there’s a strong possibility that future guild raids or fiend hunts will capitalize on her unique skip-X area of effect ability.

In most Player vs Environment (PVE) scenarios, it’s advisable to team up Michaela with Helena. This is because Helena’s abilities effectively offset Michaela’s vulnerabilities. B-Rank Idol Helena brings a significant boost to her M.ATK and healing capabilities, which counteracts the HP reduction that BJ.Michaela suffers from. On the other hand, Top Idol Helena offers damage reduction and SP recharge, addressing the SP deficit of QOS.Michaela.

Sadly, one drawback of QOS.Michaela is that it has poor synergy with BJ.Michaela.

In summary, the Area of Effect (AOE) abilities of QOS.Michaela and BJ.Michaela don’t align well with each other. If we encounter a fight with X-shaped weak points, QOS.Michaela will excel but BJ.Michaela may struggle. Conversely, if the battle features a boss with straight line weak points, it will be advantageous for BJ.Michaela, but not ideal for QOS.Michaela. It’s challenging to employ both characters effectively in the same fight due to their differing AOE patterns.

In addition, the character BJ.Michaela performs effectively independently in PVE without needing another Michaela costume. This is because BJ.Michaela doesn’t have a cooldown, meaning if you’re using BJ.Michaela, an additional Michaela outfit isn’t necessarily beneficial. Furthermore, given that BJ.Michaela requires 4 SP (Skill Points), it can be challenging to utilize it as a successor to QOS.Michaela after QOS has depleted your SP.

Michaela for PVP

Michaela is surprisingly good for PVP.

In player versus player games (PVP), Spirit Points (SP) are typically depleted by the end of each turn, as they aren’t abundant. However, if you employ skills that replenish SP like PP.Justia does, you may find that QOS.Michaela’s SP penalty isn’t a significant issue in PVP scenarios.

In the game at present, Michaela’s costume is the sole one that employs a wide, extended area-of-effect attack (AOE) diagonally. This feature makes her unexpectedly powerful, as it’s challenging for players to construct a formation that defends against both straight-line AOE attackers and diagonal AOE attackers simultaneously. Since many players are focusing on building their formations to counter straight-line AOEs (such as NB.Eclipse and DJ.Venaka), Michaela often manages to ensnare multiple enemies within her AOE.

It’s important to mention that QOS.Michaela’s enormous damage capability significantly boosts her likelihood of inflicting fatal blows. For instance, consider a Michaela with moderate gear (1500 M.ATK, 500% C.DMG, and 50% crit rate), which is far from optimal. With the assistance of B.Helena for a cost of 3 SP, on a critical hit, Michaela would deal a staggering 226,395 damage. Even against an enemy with a high M.RES (90%) and top-tier defensive gear, this equates to 22,640 damage – enough to easily defeat most powerful tanks. Including a zero-cost Zenith in the equation, Michaela can essentially eliminate anything in her path.

After your initial move, during your subsequent move, character BJ.Michaela will be utilized. She is exceptionally strong but loses 80% of her own health points. Character Helena’s buff might alleviate the SP disadvantage, however, you should aim to wrap up the game swiftly before Michaela burns herself out due to excessive power usage.

Conclusion

Michaela demonstrates that possessing power often requires making certain sacrifices. She inflicts substantial damage, yet her area of effect is narrow and her high SP consumption restricts her usefulness in some battles. As a result, her applications in PVE scenarios are somewhat constrained.

In competitive player-versus-player (PVP) gameplay, Michaela is a strong candidate to claim a strategic position within an entrenched PVP scene. Her distinctive area-of-effect (AOE) ability provides her with an unexpected edge that disrupts many current top-tier formations. While it requires significant resources to fully optimize her potential, this investment is often necessary for acquiring superior power…

2024-11-21 07:37