Looking for advice on which abilities to focus on

[Unregistered]

Hi all, I'm looking for advice on which 5* to focus on leveling up. I've read the post on Team Tactics, and as I'm trying to build my own teams, I'm not sure what makes one ability better than another. Like how I keep seeing that Edelweiss is a good, yet the speed boost seems kinda 'meh', as well as the bonus HP usually isn't a factor for me, as I'm usually able to just blast through. Is anyone able to provide me with some sort of a tier-list for abilities? Here's a list of my girls as well, if that would help:

6*
Dogwood

5*
Gentian
Gerbera
Lupine
Lantana
Waterlily
Holly
Oncidium
Cherry Sage

Calla
Edelweiss
Canna
Snapdragon
Cyrtanthus
Peach

Iris
Monotropastrum
Toad Lily
Robina
Dipladenia
Mountain Lily

Lavender
Queen of the Night
Convallaria
Apple of Sodom
Mirabilis
Tachibana
Moonvine

Any/all help would be appreciated, thanks!

[fate]

Hi all, I'm looking for advice on which 5* to focus on leveling up. I've read the post on Team Tactics, and as I'm trying to build my own teams, I'm not sure what makes one ability better than another. Like how I keep seeing that Edelweiss is a good, yet the speed boost seems kinda 'meh', as well as the bonus HP usually isn't a factor for me, as I'm usually able to just blast through. Is anyone able to provide me with some sort of a tier-list for abilities? Here's a list of my girls as well, if that would help:

6*
Dogwood

5*
Gentian
Gerbera
Lupine
Lantana
Waterlily
Holly
Oncidium
Cherry Sage

Calla
Edelweiss
Canna
Snapdragon
Cyrtanthus
Peach

Iris
Monotropastrum
Toad Lily
Robina
Dipladenia
Mountain Lily

Lavender
Queen of the Night
Convallaria
Apple of Sodom
Mirabilis
Tachibana
Moonvine

Any/all help would be appreciated, thanks!

To me, random target > multiple target > single target with lifesteal > single target. Though, you should only consider units that are used frequently in multiple squad. If I were you I would choose to upgrade Toad Lily first.

[Eab1990]

Based purely on abilities:

S:
Cyrtanthus

A:
Lavender, Holly, Queen of the Night
Edelweiss
Oncidium, Dipladenia

B:
Robinia
Toad Lily, Apple of Sodom
Snapdragon, Mirabilis, Cherry Sage, Lupine, Gentian

C:
Lantana
Waterlily, Monotropastrum

D:
the rest

F:
Iris

---

Dogwood has a meh ability, but you'd be silly for passing up the opportunity to level a rainbow.

Cyrtanthus has the important 1.2x skill up ability, so she should be near your top priority.

Peach is the strongest gold, having even more TP than some rainbows. Definitely level her as well.

Convallaria is also one of the strongest golds, but she's a solar blast unit, so she may not be useful for afk setups.

Lavender's, Holly's, and Queen of the Night's heal ability will be important for endgame maps. Lantana is arguably useful as well (but don't level her with Chocolate Cosmos if you get her later, as their abilities don't stack).

Edelweiss and other anti-puny pest abilities (Robinia for heals, Toad Lily and Apple of Sodom for -50% damage) are good for maps like 12-5. If you opt for fast teams (like Oncidium and Dipladenia) instead to clear the maps, they may not be as useful, but it'd still be good to have Edelweiss leveled, at least. There's no denying that she's one of the best event girls along with Lavender. On that note, Oncidium and Dipladenia are great to have as well to balance out your slower units.

Mountain Lily is strong, but is relatively lackluster outside of her high HP count, which gives her less utility than Lavender/Edelweiss, but is otherwise on par with those two.

Snapdragon, Mirabilis, Cherry Sage, Lupine, and Gentian (ordered by strongest to weakest) are good for defensive/counterattack squads. Waterlily and Monotropastrum are for dodging. If you want a defensive squad, use whichever combination of units you like or feel works best. Do note that Waterlily and Monotropastrum have lower stats to compensate for their dodge skills, with Waterlily being the weakest gold outright.

Tachibana and Moonvine have the odd "skill up on third turn" ability. Moonvine is also quite weak, so people typically use Moonvine for her speed instead. Tachibana has okay stats to back up her odd skill.

Iris has a crappy ability, put her on low priority. Canna and Calla are infamously weak for event golds, so they are also low priority.

[VortexMagus]

Lavendar? Dipladenia? Edelweiss?

I always thought these girls were fairly subpar due to lack of passive damage increase on their abilities. Their stats are pretty good but why do you value speed and solar flare boosts and pest control nodes over, say, +10% damage and all that jazz?

[maotd]

Because they all are event girls aka skill lvl5/ 4 equipement slot with good stats. Above all, Dipladenia ignore whirlwind/web node with her ability and she is easy to get. The only other ones who have this are two 6* (Nerine and Christmas rose(?)) and Lilac, a 4*.
Furthermore, there is also really good girls with +10% damage and skill rate x1.2 (Justicia and Apple and soon Ornamental Kale according to wikia) and it's far better than Iris's useless canon node target boost.
Iris's +10% damage is usefull in fact (before getting better replacement) but there is still better girls to level before and anyway, there is Toad Lily with her +12% damage for 4 squad members and she is far better than Iris.

Anyway, even if a girl don't have damage boost herself, she can be really good paired with a girl who have it (like Toad Lily or Oncidium).

[IvanLedah21]

Lavendar? Dipladenia? Edelweiss?

I always thought these girls were fairly subpar due to lack of passive damage increase on their abilities. Their stats are pretty good but why do you value speed and solar flare boosts and pest control nodes over, say, +10% damage and all that jazz?

Ignore Whirlwind and Spider Web nodes, as well as Speed buffs, are good for controlling squad arrival, which on many maps means 2* or 3*. Also, high speed affects auto-run time significantly if you like to be tabbed out doing something else for a few minutes (look at a 400 speed squad's movement rate and a 700 and you'll understand)

Heal on Pest node: Just look at 12-5 in particular, but many maps have lots of pest nodes and the damage from fights and small pests add up. This should be self-explanatory.

Lavender isn't for the Solar Blast, it's the Spring of Recovery (granted, it's benefit lacks consistency based on where the springs end up, but accumulated damage, particularly with the increasingly strong enemies, adds up).

Also, Lavender and Edelweiss (along with Mountain Lily) are the only event girls whose stats and abilities aren't slightly nerfed compared to their gacha counterparts. Event girls are also reliably able to come with max skill and equip slots, something their gacha counterparts can't claim.

Attack buffs are nice, but they're also super-common. These 3 come with fairly rare abilities and decent stats. Also, extra healing means your girls live longer to make use of other girls' Attack buffs :p

Props to EAB for his rather nice explanation of most of the girls on that list. ;)

[Eab1990]

To add, for later maps, you're not going to be taking out bosses in one turn, so it's more important to minimize/heal damage instead (by my understanding, anyway).

Of course, skill boost is still the most important ability, which is why Cymbidium is regarded as the best gold in the game, and other golds like Justicia, Geranium, Cyrtanthus, Apple, and later certain bloomed girls like Sakura/Mei/Daisy/Nerine are highly valued.

And speed girls, like I mentioned earlier, in addition to helping minimize puny pest damage (by getting to their nests and/or reaching the end faster), are good for counteracting the sub-400 speed girls, especially Lavender's terribly low 235 speed. Edelweiss in particular is nice due to her hybrid speed+anti-pest abilities, but I personally prefer Dipladenia over Oncidium if we're talking pure speed (and waifuism). So it's good to have at least one of those three leveled.

[kringley]

To add, for later maps, you're not going to be taking out bosses in one turn, so it's more important to minimize/heal damage instead (by my understanding, anyway).

Of course, skill boost is still the most important ability, which is why Cymbidium is regarded as the best gold in the game, and other golds like Justicia, Geranium, Cyrtanthus, Apple, and later certain bloomed girls like Sakura/Mei/Daisy/Nerine are highly valued.


As far as minimizing damage goes, on the current ultimate event maps where Pest damage seems to be quite high, the most effective ability that I've seen (only from helper squads, I don't have any of these girls myself) is the enemy attack reduction - Bride Oncidium and Cherry in particular.

The usefulness of skill boost is why I'm still dithering over plunking down some money for Apple, even though I have Lycoris and several other magic golds (Setaria, Evening Primrose, German Iris, Moonvine and Tachibana) and I don't find Apple's art all that appealing.

[Eab1990]

I ended up caving in and bought Apple because fuck Aigis RNG.

If nothing else, her quotes are hilarious. Reminds me of a certain Riru-Riru.

https://i.imgur.com/jNcaMx0.jpg

[maotd]

If you don't already have her, there will be Geranium reissue event in arround 1 month (after Star Lily's and Lechenaultia). Despite she is just and event girl, she has the x1.2 skill activation (and not a nerfed version of it). She is a good alternative if you lack of this kind of ability.

But... it's just me or in her bloomded form Geranium no longer has this ability? According to the wikia:

Blooming Ability:
During combat, increase her own attack power by 10%, and defensive power of three party members, including herself, by 10%. Decrease damage received by 1.5% ( stackable up to 20% when combine with other similar abilities)
nothig is said about skill activation...

[Drip]

As far as minimizing damage goes, on the current ultimate event maps where Pest damage seems to be quite high, the most effective ability that I've seen (only from helper squads, I don't have any of these girls myself) is the enemy attack reduction - Bride Oncidium and Cherry in particular.

The usefulness of skill boost is why I'm still dithering over plunking down some money for Apple, even though I have Lycoris and several other magic golds (Setaria, Evening Primrose, German Iris, Moonvine and Tachibana) and I don't find Apple's art all that appealing.
Apple is good enough that I just replaced lvl 60 Evolved Tachibana in my trigger squad with a lvl 36 Evolved Apple. Tachibana has all equipment and skill levels unlocked, while Apple is still at lvl 1 and 1 piece of equipment. Mind you, that is a squad revolving completely around triggering, with Fritillaria receiving a 2% ATK bonus each time a skill triggers. Outside such a dedicated squad, the two are pretty close to eachother. So is it worth it to buy Apple? That really depends on how you plan to use her, whether you like her, or whether you rather save your money for some other girl. (Better hurry if you do want her, that sale is probably over tomorrow) Lots of girls are still coming, and especialy the rainbow girls are hard to get, but often have some guaranteed sale.

[IvanLedah21]

To add, for later maps, you're not going to be taking out bosses in one turn, so it's more important to minimize/heal damage instead (by my understanding, anyway).

Of course, skill boost is still the most important ability, which is why Cymbidium is regarded as the best gold in the game, and other golds like Justicia, Geranium, Cyrtanthus, Apple, and later certain bloomed girls like Sakura/Mei/Daisy/Nerine are highly valued.

And speed girls, like I mentioned earlier, in addition to helping minimize puny pest damage (by getting to their nests and/or reaching the end faster), are good for counteracting the sub-400 speed girls, especially Lavender's terribly low 235 speed. Edelweiss in particular is nice due to her hybrid speed+anti-pest abilities, but I personally prefer Dipladenia over Oncidium if we're talking pure speed (and waifuism). So it's good to have at least one of those three leveled.

All true and to that bolded part:
My full level 70 Rainbow team doesn't one-round the 14-5 boss despite having Anemone skill + ampy-maxed and Bride Orchid around 20% of ampy-maxing (others are Ionocidium, Dianthus and Alpinia). So yeah, you aren't one-rounding bosses in later maps ;)

[fate]

All true and to that bolded part:
My full level 70 Rainbow team doesn't one-round the 14-5 boss despite having Anemone skill + ampy-maxed and Bride Orchid around 20% of ampy-maxing (others are Ionocidium, Dianthus and Alpinia). So yeah, you aren't one-rounding bosses in later maps ;)

Try Cymbidium + 4 rainbow. My squad of Cymbidium, Daisy, Black Rebecca, Anemone and Red Ranger 1 round the 12-5 boss every time

[Unregistered]

so from what I gather, the key abilities to look for are battle skill activation rate increases, enemy attack % down, any way to reduce damage from pests, and anything that increases health, either from the springs or from walking over a pest node. beyond that, anything that increases attack of my team. Any other key abilities that i missed? and what's the opinion on dodge and on counterattack, are they worth it or not? thanks all

[Eab1990]

Dodge is fine if you don't mind RNG. I think it's like a 25% dodge rate. Obviously, Ionocidium/Pumpkin/Lycoris are the most ideal units to use, and Waterlily is incredibly fragile otherwise.

Counterattack works great with any attack-down and/or defense-stacking units, since the counterattack is based on the girl's defense.

You should also keep an eye out for any characters with enemy skill down abilities, like Gentian and Southern Cross.

[Drip]

so from what I gather, the key abilities to look for are battle skill activation rate increases, enemy attack % down, any way to reduce damage from pests, and anything that increases health, either from the springs or from walking over a pest node. beyond that, anything that increases attack of my team. Any other key abilities that i missed? and what's the opinion on dodge and on counterattack, are they worth it or not? thanks all
Dodge and Counter are both abilities which you can focus on, but which should also be paired with one other abilities.

Dodge: You can dodge a lot of attacks, but still want to deal some damage to, so would want something like +ATK in the team as well. Dodge units may have low health/defense, so if you can squeeze a unit adding with +DEF or a healing passive into the squad, they'll live longer. It's not an ability to completely rely on.
Counter: Counter squads work by being attacked, so they take damage. Including a unit in the squad which has a +DEF bonus helps them both defensively and offensively. However, it's near impossible to get high enough defense to reduce damage to only 1 point, especially on the higher level maps, so ideally, it's also combined with units that give a -ATK debuff to the target. (-Special rate, like Southern Cross has, also helps reducing damage, but is less ideal because it also reduces the amount of AOEs a boss may do, which means your counter units won't counter together)

For the "solar effect" there are two strategies:
1) Strategic use of Solar Blast on bosses or for weak squads at important pest nodes. Basically, this is when you use Solar Blast especially on the fights where it really matters. Units who increase Solar damage are good here. Units who increase the Shine Crystal drops and/or spawn extra solar nodes (they're worth half a bar) may help, but are not always necessary.
2) Quantitive use of Solar Blast. Or in other words, use Solar Blast as often as possible! Units with the +ATK on Solar Blast like Dogwood and Leucocoryne benefit a LOT from this strategy. Their +ATK bonus lasts throughout the map, and works even when you use the Solar Blast from another squad. But, to reach that maximum +30% (Leucocoryne) or +42% (Dogwood) ATK bonus, you need to pull 3 solar blasts. At 2 solar blasts, Dogwood and Leucocoryne are comparable to other units of their rarity, but at 3 solar blasts, they pull slightly ahead of most others. So you'll really want to have several units which increase Shine Crystal droprate and/or add Solar nodes to get the most out of them.

There's just one little problem with the units that add Solar Nodes: they interfere with girls who add healing Chocolate nodes, like Chocolate Cosmos. The two types of nodes seem to overwrite eachother, especially on maps with few empty nodes, so it's best to decide which one is more important to your overall strategy, and simply don't use the girl spawning the type of node that is less important.

Also note that raid bosses don't drop Shine Crystals when hit, so any passive effect relating to Solar Blasts, Solar Nodes or Shine Crystals is useless against them! They're still pretty powerful on regular maps though.

[IvanLedah21]

Try Cymbidium + 4 rainbow. My squad of Cymbidium, Daisy, Black Rebecca, Anemone and Red Ranger 1 round the 12-5 boss every time

I 1-round the 12-5 boss every time. I was talking about the 14-5 boss (who is MUCH stronger than the 12-5). Even with all 5 skill proc's, 14-5 doesn't get one-rounded.

[fate]

I 1-round the 12-5 boss every time. I was talking about the 14-5 boss (who is MUCH stronger than the 12-5). Even with all 5 skill proc's, 14-5 doesn't get one-rounded.

oic. Indeed 14-5 boss is op. I wonder how strong 2x bosses will be