Biscuit

Biscuit is a Burst II Rocket Launcher wielder who can save her allies with pretty unique Cheat Death mechanics that finally makes some AOE Taunters viable in PVE.

Biscuit's S1 skill is a decent Critical Rate buff, but only for normal attacks - this means it won't affect skills or burst from her attacker allies. The healing part of the skill is honestly a bit underwhelming as a 15% max HP heal over 10 seconds is pretty terrible (but even a tiny bit of healing helps - for example, if you run Scarlet to keep her alive).

Also, what's interesting about the skill is that it activates after Full Burst ends. This is pretty unique as skills usually activate when entering the Full Burst to maximize its power.

As for her S2 skill - guess after trying to make AOE Tanks work under a high power deficit and failing miserably the devs are really going deep into the cheat death mechanics. First, it was Makima, who could cheat death once per battle, but now they added Biscuit, who can give the ability to ANY Defender and it also triggers twice per battle too (and if you pair Makima with Biscuit, you will get 3 cheat deaths).

Does Biscuit finally make AOE Tanks viable in PVE? Yes, but only some of them. Because Biscuit's Burst cooldown is set at 40 seconds, it means you need to run a second Burst II character with her. Thankfully, two AOE Taunters belonging to the Burst II category have 20s Bursts - Sin and Makima. Now, where you can use the combination to your advantage? Against some bosses where you can cheese with a Taunter and the Cheat Death (especially Train) and in some non-boss stages where enemies do a lot of damage to your team and it's hard to heal back from it.

As for other AOE tanks:

• Pairing Biscuit with Ludmilla will force you into dropping Liter or Pepper (so you will be left without a buffer or healer),

  • and you really want to use Biscuit with Liter as Biscuit can rebuild the fallen cover and Liter heal it back to full.

• Pairing Biscuit with Xmas Rupee forces you into a weird 2-2-1 formation that will be too defensive to kill anything,

• Pairing Biscuit with Noah is also a bit tricky because Noah's Taunt is tied to her Burst - so you will be able to trigger it only every 40s.

Also, keep in mind that you need to bring the Taunter above 50% HP to trigger the skill again. So you need a source of healing in the team or the Taunter to be able to heal herself - Sin can do that easily.

As for Biscuit's Burst skill, we already have two characters that can heal cover (Liter and Cocoa), but Biscuit is the first character that can rebuild a cover that already has been destroyed. And at the max skill level, the cover will be rebuilt with nearly full HP too (it's around 50% at level 1). This ability will become really useful on bosses as it will allow your allies to survive for longer - this further cements that Biscuit is made for Union Raid and Interception. The second part of the skill is a decent heal and ATK buff, but sadly it only affects Supporter allies - still, Biscuit herself can heal pretty nicely from it.

Overall, Biscuit is a niche character that shines in boss battles where a defensive approach is necessary, and in PVP (in stall teams and against Jackal). While you can use her in your campaign progression, she's a bit too restrictive team-wise and you will lose more than you gain - for example, Rupee as Attack buffer or Centi as Shielder and Burst generator will help your team more than Biscuit. Still, this only matters if you want to abuse the cheat death mechanic. If you don't care about it, you can still run Biscuit just for her ability to rebuild covers (but this feels like a waste in non-boss stages).