Pogranichnik Guide and Best Build

Kit Intro

Pogranichnik (Pog for short) is a 6-star, Physical, Sword support damage dealer who specializes in SP recovery and Breach, allowing him to support the team from two different angles while also being a capable sub DPS himself. And as the cherry on top, his Ultimate is also a wide area ‘gather’, capable of grouping enemies with the press of a button. As good as all that sounds, in order to activate Pog’s Combo Skill and actually access his Ultimate in a timely manner, you’ll need to consume Vulnerability stacks with either Crush or Breach, effectively locking Pog to teams that factor in some amount of building and consuming Vulnerability, meaning he isn’t universally useful in every team.

Pog’s Breach is accessed via his Battle Skill, and in Physical teams, keeping it applied to priority enemies is often very well worth your time, even if it costs you a Crush or two over the course of a fight, as keeping its Physical damage taken debuff affecting all your damage is usually worth losing the up-front damage it costs you.

Pog’s SP recovery is present on all three of his non-basic skills, with all of them revolving around the Physical archetype in some way or another. His Battle Skill grants increasing SP based on the amount of Vulnerability stacks it consumes when inflicting Breach, his Combo Skill grants more SP based on the count of Vulnerability stacks the Crush or Breach consumed before triggering it, and his Ultimate grants a large amount of SP but only after fulfilling yet more Physical-related conditions.

To sum it up, Pog is a fantastic support damage dealer for the Physical archetype, but definitely won't be at his maximum potential when playing outside of the Physical game plan.

Battle Skill

Pogranichnik’s Battle Skill is how he applies Breach, making it one of his most kit-defining abilities, which will often dictate how you play and build your team. Here’s how it works. On use, Pog performs 2 slashes that both deal Physical damage and Stagger. The last slash, however, also applies Breach, consuming all Vulnerability stacks on the enemy, or, if there are none, applies Vulnerability instead. Consuming Vulnerability with this ability to inflict Breach will also recover a set amount of SP based on how many were present.

The catch with Breach is that using it has a real opportunity cost; if you’re applying Breach, you’re giving up your opportunity to apply Crush trading short-term benefit for long-term power. The ideal scenario is that you’d be able to first apply Breach for its damage taken increase, then, with it active, be able to apply Crush, but due to the limited Nature of SP and the application of Vulnerability, in most teams, this isn’t realistic most of the time. Because of this, when team building and planning your attack plan, it usually pays to know if using Pog’s Battle Skill is on the table or not; it’ll also impact which sets and weapons are best on him as well. 

Combo

Pog’s combo is directly linked to both his Battle Skill and Ultimate, but fortunately is still universally usable in any team that routinely consumes Vulnerability stacks. It also works whether you’re playing Crush or Breach. To trigger it, an ally or Pog himself must consume Vulnerability stacks on an enemy in order to activate either Breach or Crush. It’s very easy to satisfy in Physical teams, quite challenging outside of them. Using it causes Pog to perform slashes based on the number of Vulnerability consumed to trigger it:

• 1 Vulnerability = 1 Slash

• 2 Vulnerability = 2 Slashes

• 3 Vulnerability = 3 Slashes

• 4 Vulnerability = 3 Slashes, and the final slash is empowered

Pog will also recover SP based on the amount of slashes performed, with more SP being offered for higher stack sizes, in total here is how much you’ll get for each stack:

• 1 Vulnerability = 5

• 2 Vulnerability = 12

• 3 Vulnerability = 25

• 4 Vulnerability = 35

As you can see, it pays to get to the higher stack sizes, but that’s not all. Each slash of course deals its own damage and Stagger, so higher Vulnerability stacks also equal more damage for Pog.

Note: Each individual slash of this ability counts as recovering SP separately, which can be relevant for some gear and weapons, especially Pog’s own signature.

Ultimate

Pog’s ultimate is his most complicated and flashy move, but once you understand it, it’s fairly simple. Using it costs 90 energy, and upon activation, Pog summons 4 Shieldguard a distance away from his target. After a short delay, each guard will charge, pushing all enemies in their path toward the target grouping up all affected enemies on the original enemy Pog is focusing on. You can think of this as the first stage of Pog’s Ultimate; in addition to its gather, it also deals damage and Stagger.

The second part of Pog’s Ultimate comes next and is in the form of a buff called Steel Oath. After the initial activation, Pog gains 5 stacks of this buff, with all of them lasting 30 seconds. While the buff is active, any time an operator in the team applies a Physical status (Breach, Crush, Lift, or Knock Down), a stack is consumed in order to summon a Shieldguard to “harass” the enemy the status was applied to. 

Each time this harassment attack is triggered, the guard will deal damage and also recover SP. This can happen up to 4 times, after which your stack size will be at 1. Once a single stack remains, the next Physical status inflicted will summon all 4 Shieldguards back to the shield, where they’ll perform a large AoE slam, dealing more damage, Stagger, and recovering a much larger burst of SP. 

Last but not least, if churning through 5 stacks of this buff sounds daunting, don’t worry, whenever Pog uses his Combo Skill, each individual hit also consumes a stack, triggering a harassment attack, allowing you to quickly dump stacks to reach the final slam and recover SP in a timely manner.

Note: Just like Pog’s combo, each individual harassment attack, or slam, counts as an individual hit and recovery of SP.

There are optimizations with this ability that allow detail-oriented players to push it further, but first, you’ll need to understand Pog’s talents.

Talents

Pogranichnik’s talents are both focused on applying buffs to himself and his team. 

His first talent, Living Banner, grants him a stackable buff called Fervent Morale for 20 seconds every time he recovers 80 SP with his own skills (excluding Final Strikes and finishers). Fervent Morale is stackable up to 3 times, and each stack grants 8% ATK and 8 Arts Intensity (up to 24% ATK and 24 Arts Intensity total), but each stack is counted separately, so maintaining all 3 stacks at once is an incredibly tall order. Maintaining around 1 stack is usually realistic, though.

Pogranichnik’s other talent is Tactical Instruction, which is an alternative and easier way for him to gain Fervent Morale, which can also grant stacks to his teammates as well! Whenever an operator triggers either Pogranichnik’s Ultimate Harass of Assault attacks, they’ll gain a stack of Fervant Morale lasting 10 seconds. 

All up, Pog has 5 total triggers as a part of his Ultimate, meaning he has 5 stacks up for grabs for either his team or himself. These temporary stacks aren’t a game-changer by any means, but they are a nice bonus that can be optimized around in order to get the most stacks possible on your chosen damage dealers.

Note: Despite not mentioning it, Fervant Morale is capable of stacking up to 3 times on allies that aren’t Pogranichnik.

Gameplay

Depending on who you plan to consume the team's Vulnerability stacks with, Pog’s play style can slightly change. With that said, the basics are generally consistent. Here’s what to look out for:

• Use Combo Skill when available to recover SP and trigger Pog’s talents, set, and weapon effects. If possible, aim for a higher stack size Physical status finishers to maximize his damage and SP generation.

• Activate Pog’s Ultimate when available to recover SP, ideally at a point of combat where he and allies can take advantage of the damage boost gained through the Fervent Morale buffs it provides. Alternatively, his Ultimate can be temporarily saved for later points in fights to take advantage of its grouping capabilities in order to boost AoE damage; just be careful not to waste too much energy doing so.

Tip: Timing Pog’s ultimate to be used a short time before his Combo Skill will allow your team to quickly fully deploy its soldiers, thanks to each hit of the combo consuming a stack. This is ideal for quick deployment, but may interfere with applying Fervant Morale to your operator of choice.

• In teams and encounters where Pog’s Breach is being used over Crush, use his Battle Skill to consume Vulnerability stacks in order to apply it. Higher stack sizes yield a stronger debuff and higher duration, so factor that into your rotations.