Diesel: Winter SweetsInformation and Guide

Can you give a brief summary about this unit?

Win Diesel is a force to be reckoned with. Nothing of her screams mediocrity. This Elysion bossing menace is a capable unit with incredible firepower and demolition capabilities. Alone, she packs one of the highest damage in the game against non-cored enemies and rivals Rapi: Red Hood, Mihara, & Raven - the big 3 of the modern DPS meta (single target). She also has an assistive debuff that makes the enemy take more damage, which pairs well with other B3s who deal notable damage outside Burst, like Rapi: Red Hood. She wields a Rocket Launcher, which helps with burst gen despite it not being a Clip.

There is a downside to her strength, though - enough to make her lose her deserved SSS tier. Her inflexibility. This unit is a monster on her own, but there are some important things to know about her. First of all, she lacks off-burst DPS capability and special features. Unlike Mihara, Diesel cannot be played in the off-burst position. She must Burst (and Burst second) to avoid losing damage. She, therefore, is not as easy to be tucked into established teams. Unlike Mihara, she also cannot benefit from MirandaTr’s guaranteed Crit Rate buff, and is instead very inflexible in terms of teambuilding since Diesel already has too much ATK DMG. You can get up to 850~1000%, which is superabundant and will dilute external ATK DMG buffs. Unlike Mihara, whose damage can still scale with ATK DMG, Diesel is allergic to it — albeit not in a way that compromises her. She can still scale with Crown, for example, because Crown gives ATK, which both Mihara and Diesel love.

Should I pull for this unit?

YES, but read on! Win Diesel is a valuable option to have in bossing content. She enters the meta as one of the best Fire DPS, and is mandatory for high scores in Fire-weak Solo Raid leaderboards (as well as UR). She is also usable in Neutral, but due to the advent of Elemental DPS, she is likely not going to be used by top players unless Neutral DPS is sought after (when a team has an open in-burst slot that Diesel can take, since she can also buff that team’s damage). If you are new, you can use her in any element, giving you multifold returns. Her ability to make enemies take more damage can help in Campaign-type stages as well, especially in Elysion Tower.

Therefore:

• For competitive Solo Raid players (and endgame players in general), Diesel is a super-high-value pull. It is not mandatory, but if you don't build her, you will be bricked in Fire-weak Solo Raid until you do.

• For newer players with plenty of gems, pulling is advised because she is seasonal (will only return next year). However, if you are low on gems, skip and stock up for New Year's Over-spec/Pilgrim, who is likely going to be more broken. If you decide to pull, ensure you have enough gems/mileage for the New Year!

If you have <200 Gold Mileage and can reach 200 Gold Mileage by pulling on Winter banners, consider pulling Diesel and Brid if they help you reach that 200 Gold Mileage bar for New Year (better to avoid pulling on Over-spec/Pilgrim banners due to 1% rate).

Note that Diesel is a unit with high scalability. She scales with OL investments, especially ELE & ATK, but also Crit (as her team will revolve around Crit supports most likely). This means she is investment-hungry despite being usable without good OL. She doesn’t need a perfect OL, but each line will visibly improve her damage. Decide whether investing in her before the New Year is a good idea. You can also pull her, but not invest temporarily.

Do I need dupes or should I mileage this unit?

For non-spenders and non-competitive spenders: Despite Diesel being better than the average new non-Over-spec/Pilgrim unit, she still doesn't warrant dupes or mileage. However, she is seasonal, so unless you get her now, you must get her next year. If you like to compete in Fire-weak Solo Raid, that’s not a good thing. So, if that sounds like you, feel free to mileage Diesel, but under no circumstances do we recommend you getting dupes if you're low on gems. Her team buffs do not scale with dupes anyway.

Kit Analysis

Winter Diesel, or Wiesel, has a very straightforward skillset, which can be summarized as follows: Wiesel is a sustained damage DPS who gives herself an insanely high amount of buffs so that her not-so-impressive DoT% turns into godlike DPS. Oh, she also buffs the team’s damage as a side bonus.

Skill 1 - Burst Order States & Sustained Damage: Beginning

You may get confused the first time you read this skill, so we tried to simplify it for you guys!

When your team reaches the very first Full Burst:

• If Wiesel Bursts, she's locked onto Intro state for the rest of the fight.

• If Wiesel doesn't Burst, she's locked onto Highlight state instead.

Both states give her a mediocre Crit Damage buff, but the neat part happens whenever Full Burst happens:

• If Wiesel is in Intro state, she gains 60.19% Sustained Damage▲.

• If Wiesel is in Highlight state, she gains an insane 235.03% Sustained Damage▲ instead.

💡  Never, Ever

Because of this, you never want to Burst with Wiesel first AT ALL unless it’s a mob stage or PvP and Bursting with her allows for a better rotation.

Skill 2 - Fiery Raven & Sustained Damage: Ascension

Half of this skill requires you to break a part to gain a buff. Wiesel will gain an extra 68.04% Sustained Damage▲ (it’s starting to get very diluted, isn’t it?) and gives the other 4 allies one stack of a buff called ‘Mute’, up to 3 stacks. This buff counters the debuff from Wiesel’s burst skill, which is not that impactful for most players, but for tryhards, this might be very crucial to perfect their gameplay. This skill is reminiscent of how Raven (or her team) may destroy parts to gain impactful self buffs.

Wiesel’s Skill 2, however, also does the following:

• Whenever she hits a Full-Charged shot, she gains 318.14% Sustained Damage▲ for 3 secs, up to 2 stacks.

• Whenever you reach Full Burst, Wiesel will deal extra Sustained Damage to the stage target (boss or the boss of a mob stage), 63.33% DoT over 9s.

When we combine everything, Wiesel will have 871.31% Sustained Damage, as well as an additional 68.04% more when parts exist. This means Wiesel gains almost nothing more from other sources of Attack Damage. This actually hurts her so much in terms of team building since some of the meta B2 right now provide mostly Attack Damage. There are a few units, such as Maid Mast and Maid Anchor, as well as Crown, that provide ATK buffs that are impactful for Diesel. There are Liter, Ada Wong, MirandaTr, Summer Rosanna, Bunny Ade, and soon XBrid. Experiment to see which one works best for the current Raid (and element and your account).

💡  Don’t Manual Unless Necessary

You may fear she can't maintain her 636% Sustained Damage▲ since it only lasts 3 seconds. Fret not. As long as she equips Resilience Cube Lv. 7+, and the boss is not off screen, she will maintain it forever. However, the timing is tight, and human error exists. DO NOT MANUAL HER UNLESS YOU NEED TO (NEAR RELOADS).

❗Important

When manualing Diesel for burst gen, be careful not to let her stacks expire. Start by pre-charging before Full Burst ends and releasing it after it ends. Then, spam-tap for about 3 times, then shoot another Full Charge to maintain her 2 stacks. DO NOT RELOAD WHEN DOING THIS. Make sure you pre-reload before committing to this sequence.

Burst Skill - Debuffs & Sustained Damage: Impact

Wiesel’s Burst is strong. It is, in fact, very strong for a B3 DPS whose damage is already competing with the likes of Raven, Mihara, and Rapi. 

The damage of Burst depends on whether Wiesel is in the Intro or Highlight state:

• Intro: 

  • Wiesel will debuff all enemies with a moderate amount of Damage Taken Debuff and will apply an extremely weak DoT on every mob except the stage target.

  • On the stage target, Wiesel applies 10× the value of her weak DoT. Note that this DoT is combined with her Skill 2 too, making her deal 260+% ATK per sec on the boss.

• Highlight:

  • All effects of Intro are triggered as well.

  • Wiesel will debuff 4 allies (yeah, allies) with -100% Hit Rate for 1s. This is very hilarious and lore-accurate. It also makes Wiesel hold back teammates a bit on bosses with no parts, but the setback won't be felt unless you are a perfectionist. 

  • If allies have stack(s) of Mute (buff from S2 when you break parts), she will consume one Mute and spare her 4 allies from the Hit Rate reduction debuff.

In retrospect, this skill is insanely good, not only because of Diesel’s self damage but also her enhancing the damage of the other 2 DPS, especially Rapipi, who wants Damage Taken more than anything. In Raid, Diesel will try to be paired with units who want Damage Taken more or used in a 3-DPS team composition (e.g. Diesel Raven Mihara comp in Neutral). If it’s not possible, Diesel can still be used as a filler DPS (since her personal DPS is good) in weaker teams, especially against Fire-weak to destroy its Elemental QTE.

Conclusion: From this explanation, you now probably understand why she should ALWAYS Burst (second ideally). The reason is that most of Diesel’s damage is during Burst, so you cannot run her off-burst. This actually hinders her team from building a lot because she cannot be used as a filler off-burst DPS like Mihara or Raven, who have often been used for this reason.

Tier List & Usage Analysis

Surface: Currently Not Applicable

Tier List will be finalized after Beta ends, after release changes are announced.

Win Diesel’s skill on the Surface is a Strike type. It “increases the attack range during exploration/non-combat battles”, which was meta in the beta version. It allows you to hit Radial Raptures earlier and take less damage. She is also the first Fire to have this skill. We believe she will be crucial to building mono-Fire Strike teams post-Beta, especially if you lack the current options Belorta, Brid, and OG Diesel.

Low Deficit Campaign: A | High Deficit Campaign: A

Mobbing or not mobbing — take one. Win Diesel has nothing in her kit that indicates mobbing potential. Oh, there is one? The AoE sustained damage during Burst? Oh, that... that just tickles. If your definition of mobbing is having any AoE regardless of strength, then true, she does have one. However, it is incapable of killing anything durable. If any, it will only kill after a long time, but not before you manually shoot the enemy or die to them, because it's just too long! 

Against stage bosses, Diesel levels up, but that's because she deals extra sustained damage against stage targets. With enough preparation (and ATK buffs), Diesel can actually snipe stage targets over 9s. That being said, her lack of self ATK buff makes this difficult to pull off in Higher Deficit unless you have Crown, MastM, Nayuta, or Ada Wong.

You might wonder how she fares against Mihara: Diesel is better because she doesn't require stacking debuff on enemies. She relies on stacking herself with buffs. That doesn't mean she is a good mobbing unit because most of her kit is designed to crush stage targets (bosses of a mob stage or any bosses). She can still deal continuous full-screen damage via Burst and "snipe" stage targets if you time her Burst correctly. Just be careful of that 1-second Hit Rate▼.

There is also Elysion Tower, where she will shine due to the lack of bossing DPS there. For mobbing, VestiTU and RRH are obviously better if you have them built. Otherwise, try if she works. If she doesn’t, keep Diesel to Elysion Bossing only. Who knows, she will improve your team?

We are placing her in A due to her similarity to Snow White.

Bossing: SS

Together with Win Diesel’s placement in SS tier, we are also demoting Cinderella to SS because, while she is still a capable Neutral DPS and doesn’t hog conventional supports, she is no longer as dominating anymore. She is slowly getting edged out of Neutral as fitted Elemental DPS are created. Multiple newer Neutral options are also available. 

Diesel can be seen as a Cinderella because she does something similar. Like Cindy, Diesel is a capable solo DPS, although you will want to build around her due to her craving for non-ATK-DMG buffs. Diesel can be slotted in any team as long as she Bursts second (note: some units want to Burst first as well for maximum damage, and there are other units who ideally Burst second too). One common team is the tried-and-tested Sustained DMG comp — Liter/B2/Raven/Diesel/Mihara, which shines in Neutral even if they’re not one of the best teams. As a Fire DPS, she can also be used in Weaker Teams to destroy Wind QTEs, avoiding the use of an ineffective filler.

Diesel can also be said to be similar to Raven, so much so that she may be called the Fire Raven, but there are some differences. In most cases, Diesel actually powercreeps a bursting Raven unless in Iron-weak. That's because with proper support, she deals more damage and buffs the team (and she is less reliant on boss having parts). However, unlike Diesel, Raven can somewhat be used as an off-burst DPS, so you can run something like Cindy Rouge BMilk BAde Raven but not Diesel. Mind the elements too — Raven can be slotted in to break Iron QTEs, whereas Diesel Fire QTEs.

There is another advantage — her Damage Taken. While her Damage Taken activates only during her Burst, which is usually not the damage window of most units in-game, units with good off-burst damage can benefit from her. For instance, Rapipi, Raven, and Mihara are notable examples. This makes her a DPS and a semi-support at the same time, which is great to have for Raids, especially if you don’t have all the core Elementals built!

Overall, Diesel is a valuable unit. Missing her spells impediment in Fire-weak Raid. If you have the gems necessary to pull her (and Brid and New Year unit(s)), then getting her is advisable. She is actually more valuable to newer players than older because she can be used in Neutral, but newer players have better units to prioritize, like SBS & Liberalio being an amazing generalist pair for bossing and mobbing. Moreover, Diesel’s high sensitivity to investments makes it hard for newer players to utilize her too.

Note: Diesel’s damage is from debuffs. Using her against bosses that cleanse debuffs like Indivilia, who is coincidentally Fire-weak in Anomaly Interception, is not impossible but will limit her effectiveness. She does not suffer as much as Mihara does because her debuff doesn’t require stacking.

Why is she (or Cinderella) not SSS like Rapipi and Mihara? As explained before, Win Diesel doesn't have special features like Rapipi and Mihara do. Rapipi has two elements, and Mihara can go off-burst DPS without losing much damage. Diesel is pretty much restricted to always Bursting, and she is also less scalable than Mihara (ATK DMG dilution). Still, unlike those who are mostly about personal damage, Diesel can amplify the whole team through Damage Taken. Unfortunately, it is not enough to be considered a "special feature". To summarize, don’t worry — SS is not a bad tier. It is still a collection of very strong units, irreplaceable on their own elements, just outperformed by SSS tier units due to their special traits.

PvP: B

Win Diesel in PvP is used for two purposes: filler burst gen (she wields RL, so even if she is useless, she is going to contribute) and continuous AoE damage dealing during Burst. The former is not a strong purpose, though, and the latter is problematic:

• Generally, non-instant AoE is weaker than instant nukes because they can be healed through or are not fast enough to kill the enemy before they kill you.

• Some non-instant AoE work, however, but that's thanks to their high multipliers and team designed for long-term stalling to benefit from the continuous damage.

• With that said, Diesel's AoE damage is low against Nikkes because it specifically requires Stage Target to be strong. She can still deal decent damage, but in no way is she meta.

We therefore conclude Diesel as not deserving anything higher than B.

Investments

Gear Investments

Quite the unit who wants 12/12, but is she worth it? Most likely not. Win Diesel is a unit that scales well with OL lines, so as you can probably understand, she is one of the best to 12/12, but she may not have the same versatility (= lower returns) as Rapi: Red Hood, for example. Not only that, but she is also limited to Bossing (no Mobbing or PvP), so that's a cut return. When building, focus on ELE and ATK first. Since Diesel doesn’t have personal ATK buffs, she scales well with both ELE and ATK. Getting both is crucial to maintaining pressure (similar to MiharaBC), but ELE is more significant in Fire-weak (ATK is less impactful in Fire-weak but works in Neutral). But will you use her in Neutral?. Then, you can optionally get 1-2× Max Ammo for burst gen (unless your team already has one) and/or Crit Rate or Damage to further boost her damage slightly.

You don’t need Charge Speed/Damage. Throw them away unless they’re CP padders for Campaign/Tower.

Skill Investments

Win Diesel is quite skill-investment-heavy, but that’s expected from recent units.

• Skill 1: 7~10

  • Arguably the weakest of her skills because the buffs from S2 are stronger and leveling her Burst increases her base skill damage multiplier(s), but it is not something to sleep on.

  • Gives lesser Sustained Damage▲ but also Critical Damage▲ in substitution.

  • Value increases with each Crit Rate OL line and Crit Rate buffer in team.

• Skill 2: 10

  • Gives up to 636.28% Sustained Damage▲, which is not a joke.

  • Also increases base skill damage multiplier against bosses.

  • Prioritize this (and Burst).

• Burst Skill: 10

  • More Damage Taken, more damage from the team.

  • Also, more Sustained Damage from her.

  • Prioritize this (and S2).

Cube Investments

Only Resilience Lv. 7+, please. If you don’t use Resilience 7+ (and you don’t pair her with any Reload Speed buffers), a single reload during Burst will remove all her Sustained Damage▲ stacks from Skill 2, costing you a lot of damage.

In PvP, if you have enough Ammo to keep shooting until at least 3 seconds to the Full Burst ending, you can use Tempering or the worse alternative, Vigor, to increase survivability.

Doll Investments

SR5 is fine if you don’t want to over-invest, but SR15 is recommended if she proves to be your highest damage dealer in Fire-weak (or Neutral). She doesn’t have personal ATK buffs, and her damage comes from skill damage, not basic attacks. This means she scales less on Doll than most other units. However, if you are an endgame player, you may deem the extra stat SR15 gives very beneficial, especially if Damage Reduction is needed. Not only that, the ATK stat may be needed to offset high enemy DEF (like Indivilia). The extra CP from Doll can be a boon for Campaign/Tower bossing too.