07/03 Global Patch Notes
Maintenance schedule: 8th of March, 2023 14:00 ~ 8th of March, 2023 17:00 (UTC+9)
For the full patch notes, go to the official site: Patch Notes and Shop.
Summary of the update
New Event - Carnival
New Units - Carmen, Revenant and Mors.
New Awakened Unit - Maestra Nequitia
Banner Rerun - Shena
Awakened Units Rerun - Awakened Lee Sooyeon
New Rearm - Kaci Bins and Han Sorim
New Awakened Unit - Maestro Nequita
Maestro Nequitia is the first (and only, as of right now) awakened tower that lacks conventional basic attacks and actually moves instead of standing in place.
From a gameplay perspective, she slowly moves forward from your ship and applies increasingly severe debuffs the longer she stays on field. At max stacks enemies, lose 15% attack, 1% hp per second, take 15% more damage and heal 50% less.
Her ultimate (which she can use as soon as she reaches middle of the field) triples those already absurd debuffs and skill seals every affected enemy, making all currently deployed enemies irrelevant. Additionally she buffs your Philarmonic units (currently consists of Shena, Carmen and Luna) skill haste and (largely irrelevant) damage.
This inherently slow gameplay makes her hard to fit for most PvE teams, but notably she has the strongest damage taken debuff in the entire game (45% during ultimate), which makes her a good fit for raid teams to burst harder when everything is on field. She can also be used in Jungle Dimension Trimming stage 2 for her massive 150% heal reduction on her ult.
In PvP, with proper gear, she only takes around 30 seconds to reach the middle, where her ability to wipe the entire enemy team as soon as that happens makes her a menace in a properly built Philarmonic stall team.
But beware there are a lot of counters for her in PVP. Olivie, Evolved-One, Awakened Joo Shiyoon can render all of her debuffs useless with debuff immunity. Na Yubin severely weakens her chance of surviving to the middle. Also, Serina Crew can delete her immortality buff, effectively ending her ult stance causing her to CLEAR all stacks on the field after ult.
Ratings
PvE - A
PvP (SEA) - S
PVP (Global) - S
Should you pull?
Will have meta Elysium Philharmonic PVP team centered around her in future. Skippable for PVE.
New Counter Pass Unit - Mors
Mors is a niche addition to the defender roster, being a mech/C.O version of Serapel - trading ally damage taken absorbtion for innate mech knockback resistance.
Her max HP and DEF increase whenever an ally dies (except summons), turning her into a tanking monster. Also, while her max HP raises, her current HP isn't touched. While she can regen her health by herself, she can only do that from time to time.
Mors is usually preferred for Soldier teams, but she can also fit into mech teams very well due to how strong Coffin 6 is.
Worth noting that Mors gets stronger with Acolyte in the future, but still remains a niche frontliner.
Ratings
PvE - B
PvP (SEA) - A
PVP (Global) - A
New Unit - Carmen
Carmen is a pure healer and she's great! Compared to the previous best healer, Evelyn, Carmen's healing is slightly less viable - sometimes it may not hit frontlines or backlines, but introduces Debuff immunity to the table, capable of countering healing reflux / healing block.
In terms of survivability, Carmen has a massive attack range equivalent to a sniper, and very high base evasion - with tanky CDR gears, she has extremely high survivability.
As for the healing itself, Carmen's already high healing potential is increased on COs, and when paired with Maestra Nequitia, she gets both increased skill haste and double the healing amount on her special. Also, her ult has the highest healing power in the game, and the hitstun on the ult is not to be ignored.
In PVP, this makes her borderline overpowered and there she's competing with Evelyn for the best healer spot. Overall, she trades healing viability for much more utility.
Ratings
PvE - S
PvP (SEA) - SS
PVP (Global) - SSS
Should you pull?
Great unit overall be it PVP or PVE, Will be part of Meta Elysium Philharmonic PVP team.
New Unit - Revenant
Revenant is a Soldier support that they desperately needed, but her issue is that she's not buffing every Soldier, but only those that consist of multiple units in one
The buffs she provides are massive - a 30% barrier, Sure Fire, and hit-stun immunity. This enables low-hit soldiers to deal damage effectively without being interrupted. What's unique about Revenant is that her barrier doesn't have any duration and it needs to be destroyed to be removed. Her passive grenade scales with the amount of allied multi-unit soldiers, making them even harder to kill.
Revenant made PVE Soldier teams finally viable and with her, they can much easier clear Story, Dives, and Dimension Trimming.
As for PVP, she is irreplaceable in soldier comps as she gives them much needed staying power, especially with Wardens and acolyte.
Ratings
PvE - A
PvP (SEA) - SS
PVP (Global) - SS
Should you pull?
Great unit for PVP Mains. but little use in PVE.
New Rearm - Kaci Bins
Kaci Bins is a simultaneous launch in KR and Global Server so we will test her and get our review ready as soon as possible!
New Rearm - Han Sorim
Rearm Han Sorim significantly improves on her base version making her a competent anti-defender.
Her new and shiny Ultimate has is a 9-hit AoE damage nuke with range high enough to sometimes reach enemy ranger backline. She also has a lot of invincibility during it, making it very consistent.
Her biggest issue is that her survivability is still soldier level low when compared to other anti-defender units like Gaeun or Ifrit, so she often dies from random area damage that's getting more and more prevalent in the game.
In PVP, she doesn't quite bring enough damage to the table but does offer some utility. Her enhanced attacks can penetrate through striker frontlines, murdering enemy backlines, while also able to delay enemies' Defender skills. Her special blinding frontline isn't too relevant but can be useful for blinding backlines if you set her as leader.
In PVE, she is amazing vs Defender enemies as she gains massive Defender damage, and a burst ability.
Ratings
PvE - S
PvP (SEA) - A
PVP (Global) - S
Should you pull?
Good unit overall but nothing must have.
