Originally Posted by 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?

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

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

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.

Originally Posted by 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.

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.

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

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...

Originally Posted by kringley

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.

Originally Posted by 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.

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

Originally Posted by IvanLedah21

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

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 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.