User:Elaeagnifolia/Sandbox2

Last updated: Elaeagnifolia (talk) 20:14, 5 May 2017 (UTC)

This Skill Inheritance guide is meant to be used as a brief overview of notable skills, which units are valuable to keep for Skill Inheritance, and other details.

This guide assumes the basics of Skill Inheritance are known. For the basic details of Skill Inheritance, refer to the Skill Inheritance page.

For a quick visual of notable skills and heroes described in this guide, refer to <>.

There are brief mentions and skims of who these skills might be best on but is not the main intention of this guide. That's best left for the builds (Please help contribute!) or a more detailed guide which may or may not be written in the future...

This guide is NOT meant to be a definitive ranking of X skill is better than Y skill or anything like that.

As a general guideline, the vision I had when writing this was to answer "Is this skill good for inheritance?", "Is it worth the skill worth the hero sacrifice and SP cost of inheritance?", or if you're looking to send home units "Is this unit good as skill inherit fodder / should I send the unit home?" (Although if not in dire need of feathers / not at max barrack capacity, I recommend holding onto all units). The article is most definitely not exempt from writer's bias, but I tried to keep as much of an open mind as possible when considering skills.

Thus for the most part you can forget about "skill ranking" here. Just check if a skill is mentioned in the Notable Skills section and regardless if the skill is or isn't notable, read up on the descriptions to see if a skill is worth keeping for you and your team.

Weapons
A new weapon on a hero can completely change a hero's kit and rocket their performance several levels. For example, putting a Brave weapon on the high Atk Effie or Cherche turn them into extremely deadly nukes.

However, weapon skill inheritance is often very costly not only due to the need for 750 SP, but also because the last stage of a weapon always requires a hero to be sacrificed. This is not always feasible for players who do not own several heroes or the feathers to upgrade the necessary heroes to, thus making weapon skill inheritance an expensive venture.

Weapons have been separated into the following categories:
 * Swords, Lances, Axes, Bows
 * Tomes
 * Breaths
 * Daggers
 * Staves

Staves
Since healers will most of the time be healing, typically inheriting a weapon on a healer is lower priority compared to other healer-exclusive skills (eg. The assists like Rehabilitate). Additionally, most healer weapons end up being dependent on not only a player's team composition, but a player's preference on how he wants to build a healer as well. Nevertheless, this section takes a brief look into healer weapons.


 * Note. Assault has not been included in this list since all healers learn Assault.

Assists
Assists are one of the more flexible skill slots to inherit as this depends on a player's playstyle and team composition. For example, a player who employs a hit-and-run team will want positioning skills such as Reposition or Draw Back to allow ally heroes to attack enemies and then safely get out of range. Alternatively, a player might prefer having additional buffs such as Rally Attack or Rally Speed.

Thus, this section will split the Assists and address them in the following sections:
 * Positioning Skills
 * Non-Staff Healing (Ardent Sacrifice, Reciprocal Aid)
 * Buffs (Rally and Harsh Command)
 * Healer-only Assists

Assists (Positioning)
Positioning is an important factor in battle. Positioning is the difference between a player's mage just being out of range to strike the killing blow and losing a team ally, or winning the map with no deaths. Not only can positioning be defensive like pulling an ally out of enemy range, but it also has the flexibility to be used offensively as well by moving an ally closer to defeat an enemy.

Assists (Buffs)
These assists buff a target ally's stats either directly (Rally) or by reversing debuffs (Harsh Command).

Assists (Non-Staff Healing)
These skills are "healing" skills which can be learned by non-healers. Unlike healers, there is usually a trade off to "healing" with these assists such as a unit losing HP to heal another ally or merely swapping HP with an ally.

Assists (Healers)
These skills are basically the bread and butter of what healers do...heal.

Specials
The most common usage of specials with Skill Inheritance is to either increase an ally hero's damage output or reduce incoming enemy damage. There are also other specials with unique mechanics such as Galeforce and Miracle. From there, it comes down to the cooldown of the skill.

This section first splits the specials by the following types:
 * Area of Effect Damage
 * Damage Boosting
 * Damage Reduction + Combat Healing (eg. Sol, Noontime, etc.)
 * Unique Mechanics (Galeforce, Miracle)
 * Staff User Specials

Area of Effect Damage
These specials cause a hero to deal damage in an area around the target enemy and are named like Rising/Growing/Blazing Wind/Thunder/Flame/Light, etc. Upgraded levels of the skill either deal more damage or increase the area around the target enemy that deals damage. Since all of these specials do relatively the same thing, I will only do a brief write up rather than a table of all the skills.

A few benefits to these skills are:
 * Damage surrounding enemies.
 * Damage is not affected by in-combat buffs (eg. Spurs, Weapon Triangle)
 * A hero's normal attack occurs immediately after the special happens, meaning if a hero OHKOs an enemy with the special and normal attack, then the enemy doesn't get a chance to counterattack whereas a normal double attack would've caused the hero to take counterattack damage.

The downsides to these skills are:
 * 5 Charge Cooldown making all these skills one of the longest skills to charge up in the game.
 * Area of Effect damage on surrounding enemies does not kill.
 * Most of the AoE specials have quirky hit areas that make it difficult to actually hit enemies surrounding the target. The only special with a decently usable hit area is Growing Wind (See below). And even then, it's still heavily reliant on enemy positioning which is not always predictable.

Overall, these skills typically aren't worth taking mainly due to their high cooldown and also their reliance on enemies to actually be inside the hit area to maximize effectiveness. Other specials provide solid damage as well while activating more often and being more consistent.

Damage Boosting
The most popular group of Skill Inheritance specials. Who doesn't love when they do an extra +15 damage or some other nice number when they attack? Many match ups that would've otherwise been ties or losses suddenly turn into wins with these specials due to that extra damage boost. The skills have been further broken down in this section based on cooldown count since skills with similar cooldown counts are best compared with each other rather than their other cooldown siblings.

Lower tier, higher cooldown specials with the same effect as higher tier specials are not included in this listing. (eg. Dragon Gaze 30% Atk bonus with 4 CD vs. Draconic Aura 30% Atk bonus with 3 CD, Chilling Wind, Glowing Ember).

2 CD Damage Boosting Specials
Mainly for heroes who want their special to proc often for that sufficient boost in damage. Often seen on combat supports (eg. Dancers, Singers, Buff Supporters) as well since the lesser amount of combat they face mean higher CD specials may not even proc.

3 CD Damage Boosting Specials
Stronger options than the 2 CD specials which match better with certain builds. For example, Brave weapon users usually want to utilize 3 CD specials. This is because when a unit uses a Brave weapon, it will leave a 3-charge special one charge off from being fully charged. The possible scenarios after this are:
 * On enemy phase, an enemy attacks the unit. This will fully charge and let the ally hero counterattack with the 3-charge special. A 2-charge special skill would be wasting the charge from getting hit.
 * The player attacks again with Brave weapon user (either with a Dancer/Songstress or next player phase). The first hit of the Brave weapon will fully charge the 3-charge special and then the second hit of the Brave weapon will proc the 3-charge special. Since this second hit is guaranteed with a Brave weapon, having a 2-charge special proc on the first hit is a waste.

Another example would be in Killer weapon builds which bring the CD of these down to 2. In a Quick Riposte Subaki build, this means the 3 CD special is always activating on the second Quick Riposte hit (Enemy engage = 1 hit, Subaki first counter = 2nd hit, Subaki QR follow-up = 3rd hit + procs the 3 CD special).

Therefore, even with the extra CD, these stronger specials still have several uses in a variety of builds.

4 CD Damage Boosting Specials
Includes Astra, Ignis, Glacies, and Dragon Fang. The main drawback to these specials is the long cooldown time of these skills. Typically this can be remedied in Killer weapon builds or less common Heavy Blade builds, but even then, depending on the hero, these skills may just be overkill compared to their younger 3 CD special siblings. These specials may still find their use in niche builds or with specific heroes, but not as common as 2 or 3 CD specials.

5 CD Damage Boosting Specials
Includes Aether. Has the same effect as Luna, but with healing attached. The additional heal is generally not worth the additional 2 charges that Aether takes. The only scenario that comes to mind where a player would take Aether over another special is in much, much higher levels of Arena because of its high SP cost. Since it's been noted that higher SP costing skills score more points in Arena, taking Aether will give a marginal boost in a player's score. But please seriously consider whether the extra few points (exact calculations not done, but my guess would be 2-5 points) is worth the extra 750 SP and potential performance decrease.

Damage Reduction and Combat Healing
Per the section name, these specials are ones that reduce damage or do some sort of self-healing based on damage done in combat. Although these skills should mostly be used with defensive characters to highlight their defenses even more, sometimes a hero just does so much damage that an extra damage-boosting special isn't necessary. The extra damage reduction might save a glass cannon hero from death and let them continue their rampage across the map. So although not as visibly impacting as damage boosting specials (Seeing your hero nuke an enemy out of a match is more enjoyable for most than going "YES MY HERO LIVED ANOTHER TURN YES. THANK NAGA."), these specials still have common usage in builds that want to take a hit and survive.

Calculations should be done on a hero-by-hero basis to see which match ups are gained / lost using a damage boosting vs. damage reduction special. If a hero is losing a common key match up by taking a damage reduction special over a damage boosting special, then stick with the damage boosting special. The same applies in the reverse scenario. It's not enough to say, "Oh, my hero only loses 3 wins but survives 10 more match ups!" If those 10 match ups are uncommon heroes that no one uses, but the 3 wins are very common heroes running around, then the 3 wins may be worth more than the 10 survivals.

Similarly to the damage boosting specials section, this section will separate the skills based on cooldown.

2 CD Damage Reduction Specials
Includes Escutcheon and Sacred Cowl. For heroes who need to charge up a defensive special fast. Has synergy with Brave users since the first two hits will automatically charge up these specials for the enemy counterattack, or if the enemy engaged on has already died, to potentially tank a hit from another incoming enemy. Which of the two skills you take varies hero-to-hero.

For example, some heroes may be weaker in their Res-stat compared to Def, which may warrant Sacred Cowl over Escutcheon. Other heroes may be weak in both Def and Res, so then the decision falls on "What type of enemies is my hero most likely to encounter?" Melee heroes for example, are most likely to do combat with other melee heroes, most of who are physical damage-based. In this case, choosing Escutcheon would be a solid choice.

<>

3 CD Damage Reduction Specials
Stronger options than the 2 CD specials which match better with certain builds. {| class="wikitable default mw-uncollapsed mw-collapsible" style="text-align:center; width:80%;" ! colspan=4 | 2 CD Damage Reduction Specials Skill Inheritance Explanations (Click to Close/Expand) ! Special(s) ! Description ! style="width:60%;" | Skill Inheritance Worth
 * colspan=4 |
 * colspan=4 |
 * Pavise
 * style="padding:1em;" |
 * Holy Vestments
 * style="padding:1em;" |
 * Noontime
 * style="padding:1em;" |
 * }
 * style="padding:1em;" |
 * Noontime
 * style="padding:1em;" |
 * }
 * style="padding:1em;" |
 * }

4 CD Damage Reduction Specials
Sol

5 CD Damage Reduction Specials
Includes Aether. See 5 CD Damage Boosting Specials in Damage Boosting Specials.

Unique Mechanics
Includes Galeforce and Miracle. With high 5 charge cooldowns and slightly gimmicky effects attached, these two skills are generally not worth inheriting.

There is some merit to Galeforce when combined with Heavy Blade to lower the cooldown charge, which can become a fun build to play around with. For the most part, other skill combinations are more reliable if looking to put together a more consistent and reliable team.

Staff User Specials
These specials are dedicated to healers. Fairly flexible depending on a player's needs on a team.

Passive A
<>

Stat Buffs

 * Fury
 * Life and Death
 * Stat Plus skills - Budget Furies / LnDs. - Defensive stat ups may be beneficial to healers.
 * Fortress Defense

Blows

 * Death Blow
 * Darting Blow
 * Swift Sparrow
 * Armored Blow, Warding Blow

Other

 * Triangle Adept - Increases / reduces damage dealt.
 * Heavy Blade

Counters

 * Close Counter
 * Distant Counter

Effect Neutralizers

 * Grani's Shield, Svalinn Shield - Nullifies effective against
 * Iote's Shield - Nullifies effective against

Defiant Buffs
Defiants

Passive B
<<TODO - B Passive Description and Skills

Counterattack / Follow-up Modifiers

 * Vantage
 * Desperation
 * Brash Assault
 * Quick Riposte
 * Wary Fighter
 * Windsweep
 * Watersweep

Mobility and Positioning

 * Wings of Mercy, Escape Route
 * Drag Back, Hit and Run
 * Knock Back
 * Lunge
 * Obstruct, Pass

Healing

 * Live to Serve
 * Renewal

Miscellaneous

 * Poison Strike
 * Guard
 * Live for Bounty, Live for Honor

Passive C
C-passives are essentially team buff passives and are typically left open to the player based on what buffs other teammates need. This essentially makes pretty much all the C passives potentially worth keeping, and the decision on which C passive fodder to keep or use is dependent on the player.

The only two skills that are definitely NOT worth inheriting are Axe Experience and Bow Experience. The amount of SP wasted on these skills will be much more painful to grind back up than grinding a hero to max Level 40.

More offensive teams which rely on raw damage to nuke the enemy team may opt for either Hone Attack, Hone Speed, Threaten Defense, or Threaten Resistance. Spur Attack and Spur Speed are also viable choices depending on player positioning habits. For example, the team I use is usually bunched together at the beginning of the turn, meaning Hones will be applied easily. However, when I begin attacking, my units do not stay next to each other, making Spurs less of a boon for my team.

More defensive teams that bait the enemy can of course opt for the Defense / Resistance versions of the aforementioned Hone/Spur skills while considering the Attack / Speed versions of the Threaten skills.

Unit type-specific buffs such as the Armored unit (eg. Goad Armor, etc.), Cavalry unit, and Flier unit buffs depends on if a player plans to create a team focused on these unit types.

Savage Blow and Breath of Life may also find niche use on certain teams. For example, a healer may equip Pain and Savage Blow to increase their offensive presence by spreading true damage amongst the enemy.

Basically to recap, if looking at C-passives and wondering, "Is this skill worth inheriting?", take a look at what your team needs. If a hero's Atk just barely misses the kill on a key match up, then a Hone Attack, Threaten Def / Threaten Res may be needed to either boost the ally hero's attack or lower the enemy's defenses. If a team tank is barely dying to mages, a Spur Resistance or Fortify Resistance may give that tank just enough Res to survive.

Closing Remarks
If you've made it through the entire guide, I applaud you since I know this is by no means a short read.

To summarize though, I am of the mindset that there are actually very few "bad" skills to inherit. Almost everything has its viability in certain scenarios, but what is better, performance-to-cost ratio, and other factors are always constantly shifting with the meta as well as variable team to team. This guide was pretty basic in its analysis of most skills, but hopefully it can become a catalyst for more personal in-depth analysis.

If you would like a visual over-simplification of this guide, as a reminder, there is also this table I made to go along with this page. This table can be accessed <> here.

Any comments and feedback are welcome either on the Talk page for this post or on my User talk page.