Arcana Guide & Review

If you ask us for a reason to pull Arcana, we would probably give a very biased answer. Simply put by Gatrix: “I’m a fan”. If you finish her event story, who can even not love our little blue Nemo? For the Commander to shine bright, someone must cry in the dark. Not to mention she actually revives(?) one of the day-1 Pilgrims—Isabel—back into meta.

Can you give a brief summary about this unit?

Arcana is a solid buffer with an asterisk—she only works with one unit, Isabel. No, she does not work with other Electric B3 such as Maiden or other Full Burst shorteners such as Vesti. Her kit was, in fact, worded in such a way that might deceive people into thinking that she would work with them. In reality, Arcana's skills require the presence of her exclusive buff, Wheel of Destiny, to activate. It must be active when the event "Full Burst ends" is triggered. Unfortunately, unless you pair her with a Full Burst shortener, it would always expire before the end of a Full Burst. Why doesn't Vesti work then? Well, that's because the skills only apply to Electric B3….

Now, if we are only concerned about her performance with Isabel, she is actually a solid buffer. It elevates her from 'trash' to Scarlet-Trina level, which is definitely amazing and something everyone can work with. This allows her to participate in Electric-weak Solo Raids as a meta unit, and potentially Union Raids as well. She also has a hidden ability of "buffing the other B3" through allowing them to Burst more (9× instead of 6~7× due to rotations being shorter). Even then, when it comes to the team’s overall damage, Arcana (with Isabel) still does not surpass the level of Cindy-SAnis-XMaiden trio under Elemental conditions, so do not expect them to become relevant in one-team damage maxing content such as Anomaly Interception (and Shooting Range, technically), unless you do not have one of xMaiden or S.Anis. It is another story at that point, since Isabel x Cindy duo would be the best performing team for Electric-bossing content.

Since Isabel is a terrible mobber (due to her having to stack up for Burst Skill AoE damage), that would also make Arcana not viable for mobbing, although you can use them if you don't have another choice. Arcana's S2 CDR should allow Isabel to inflict some AoE damage. Arcana doesn't really buff Isabel's Burst Skill wipe, though, because most of her buffs only activate at the end of Full Burst. Arcana is also not a good PvP unit, either, for the same reasons. She has limited usage as a filler 40s B2 buffer/debuffer with decent burst generation thanks to her being RL. Her CDR may actually allow for some interesting strategies, but they're rather unreasonable.

In PvP, Arcana is just a filler 40s B2 buffer/debuffer with decent burst generation thanks to her being an RL wielder. She is not better than other B2 buffers such as Anchor: Innocent Maid or Trina. Most of her buffs only activate at the end of Full Burst and are only for Electric allies. Plus, her mini AoE is too small to matter as well. Fortunately, she does not need to be paired with Isabel in PvP, unless that is your objective (aka you want to end Full Burst fast, buff Isabel, then get to the next rotation faster, which can be a viable strategy in the future maybe, not now though). Note that you can use Vesti too in this case, but you will be missing the majority of Arcana's buffs. The Tier List Analysis discusses this in more detail.

Should I get this unit?

Arcana is a niche unit designed for spenders or people who love Isabel/have her built and care about Electric Raids a lot. She is pretty much her Treasure. If you want to use her, you'll have to build her AND Isabel as well, which can be expensive combined. Since these costs can pile up and entail long-term effects, we recommend skipping for most players.

If you already have Isabel built or are willing to invest in both Arcana and Isabel for the next Electric-weak Raid, then consider pulling. They can help nudge you higher in the leaderboard in Solo Raids, assuming we get an Electric-weak solo raid anytime soon. Do manage your resources wisely should this be the case. We would still say that, unless you’re looking to focus only on Electric solo raids, do not pre-invest in this niche duo.

Finally, Arcana does benefit from dupes. This is because the ATK buff she gives to Isabel scales off the caster's base ATK stat, which dupes affect. And 180% (+~55%) is NOT a small amount. In fact, her dupes can be more important than Isabel's.

On the other hand, if you do not care about electric-weak Solo Raids, or do not plan to build Isabel, just skip this unit and fish from wishlist and Tower molds. But, that is for collection purposes only.

We do not recommend spending Golden Mileage on this unit at all.

Skill 1 & 2 - Isabel's Slave

■ Activates when Full Burst ends. Affects all Burst 3 Electric Code allies who previously cast their Burst Skill if self is in Wheel of Fortune status.

The Magician: Cooldown of Skill 2 ▼ 75% for 15 sec.

Attack damage ▲ 180% for 15 sec.

■ Activates when Full Burst ends. Affects all Burst 3 Electric Code allies who previously cast their Burst Skill if self is in Wheel of Fortune status.

Strength: ATK ▲ 180% of caster's ATK for 15 sec.

Since Arcana's Skill 1 and 2 are similar, we decided to combine them together for clarity.

Arcana's regular skills house two of the biggest multipliers in the game. Their activation condition is connected to Arcana's Burst Skill, so we will explain that part for simplicity. For now, we will only talk about their impact.

In short, they are insane. They are the most powerful buffs in the game despite being limited to only one unit, Isabel. They manage to make a trash unit like her hit hard, even harder than most units in the game. They also have a long 15s duration, and even though they only trigger at the end of Arcana's rotation, Isabel + Arcana's shorter rotation allows the team to rotate faster, which indirectly increases the uptime of buffs, including this one, and even allows the other Burst 3 to trigger their Burst Skill more often, increasing their damage—a positive byproduct.

The buffs consolidated are as follows:

• 180% ATK▲ of caster's ATK for 15s, which you can already explain is a huge buff for someone without a lot of personal ATK buff like Isabel. Do note that it scales off caster's base ATK stat, and therefore dupes, gear level, dolls, bonds, and consoles have impact.
• 180% ATK DMG▲ for 15s, which complements Arcana's ATK buff very well as they each belong to a different buffing group. This value is constant and is not dependent on Arcana's base stat, making it more investment friendly.
• S2 Cooldown ▼75% for 15s, which allows Isabel to trigger her S2 every 3.75 seconds, allowing her to deal more single-target and multi-target damage. It may appear small, but it helps Isabel fit in more "attacks" during the 15s Arcana's buffs window. Impact is dependent on Isabel's S2 level.

Since ATK and ATK DMG belong to different categories, we can assume the effective buff value of Arcana for Isabel from these two skills alone is [(100% + 150% ATK in Attacker's Stat) * (1 + 1.8) of ATK DMG)] ≈ 7.

That is big, but you should also know we are reaching the point of dilution, so further ATK & ATK DMG buffs won't be as impactful. They are still important, but you should also explore other options: CRIT, Damage Taken, Uptime Increase (max ammo▲/reload speed), Core Damage, Elemental, and Attack Speed. With those in mind, we can conclude that additional supports like Tove can be a good third wheel if needed.

Skill 1 & 2 - The Buffs for Everybody

■ Activates when Full Burst ends. Affects all allies.

ATK ▲ 5% of caster's ATK for 10 sec.

■ Activates when Full Burst ends. Affects all allies if self is in Wheel of Fortune status.

■ Death: Cooldown of Burst Skill ▼ 6 sec.

ATK ▲ 50% of caster's ATK for 5 sec.

■ Activates when Full Burst ends. Affects all allies.

Attack damage ▲ 7.5% for 10 sec.

Arcana also grants buffs to all allies at the end of each Full Burst. Two depend on Wheel of Destiny, a buff that can only be obtained via Burst Skill, and the other two are non-conditional activations (which can also be triggered in the off-burst).

The two that can be triggered in the off-burst and without any conditions, affect all cycles:

• 5% ATK▲ of caster's ATK for 10s, which is a small buff, but it can amplify the damage of the next B1-B2-B3 Burst Skills because it is technically given before B1.
• 7.5% ATK DMG▲ for 10s, which is also small but a little bit better compared to the ATK one. Similarly, it also buffs B1-B2-B3 Burst Skills.

The two that require Wheel of Destiny or the use of Burst Skill, affect Arcana's cycle only:

• CDR ▼6 secs. Only triggers when Full Burst is shortened in the same rotation. It allows your team to still flow into the next rotation smoothly even with Full Burst shortened (either Isabel or Vesti).
• ATK▲ 50% of caster's ATK for 5s. Now, we are talking. This is huge, not as huge as the one specifically for Isabel, but it still is impactful. But, Sir, how can we benefit from a 5s buff that triggers at the end of Full Burst—wouldn't that be a waste? That's the point. This buff is specifically made to buff the next B1-B2-B3 Burst Skills damage (because charging takes ~2.5s, which leaves you with ~2.5s of utilization). If you have a unit with strong Burst Skill damage, either wipe or nuke, like Scarlet (with Trina) or Cinderella, they can benefit from this 50% ATK▲ of caster's ATK extremely well.

Burst Skill - You Will Need Another B2

Cooldown: 40s

■ Affects all Electric Code allies.

Wheel of Fortune: Attack damage ▲ 10% for 10 sec.

■ Affects all enemies.

Deals 300% of final ATK as Burst Skill damage.

Judgement: Damage taken ▲ 10% for 10 sec.

Arcana's Burst Skill is the weakest of her kit, but it is necessary to activate the major buffs in S1 and S2. It also has a cooldown of 40s, making it controversial. In one way, Arcana is useless without Isabel and even more useless without Burst Skill; you also need another B2 to pair with her. On the other hand, it also means you don't have to invest in her Burst Skill a lot, saving you materials.

In short, Arcana grants all Electric allies with the buff Wheel of Destiny, which increases their ATK DMG by 10% momentarily. It's a small amount, so it's rather useless but is there. That said, its presence (on Arcana) is required to activate a chain of buffs that will be triggered later at the end of Full Burst. If Wheel of Destiny is still active at the end of Full Burst, certain buffs will apply to the whole team and the Electric B3 unit that previously used Burst Skill in that rotation, if applicable:

• To the Electric B3: 180% ATK▲ of caster's ATK, 180% ATK DMG▲, and S2 Cooldown ▼75% for 15s.
• To all allies: 50% ATK▲ of caster's ATK for 5s.

However, since Wheel of Destiny is granted at the end of Burst 2 Stage and Full Burst begins after Burst 3 Stage, that means the duration of Full Burst must be less than 10 seconds to catch Wheel of Destiny before it ends. Unfortunately, only Full Burst shorteners can help you achieve that, which limits our options to Vesti and Isabel. Since Arcana's S1 and S2 buffs are only applicable to Electric B3, that means we only have one choice remaining: Isabel.

Aside from that, Arcana also deals 300% of final ATK as Burst Skill damage to all enemies and inflicts 10% damage taken increase for 10s. Thanks to Isabel's Full Burst lasting only 5 seconds, these buffs "linger" and can elevate the damage of the next rotation (mainly Burst Skills), if you rotate fast enough (hence burst gen is important).

Isabel's Damage Taken Also Lingers

Isabel's Damage Taken from Burst Skill is delayed by ~2.7s, so it also counts as a lingering debuff, which may affect the next rotation if you rotate fast enough.

Major Synergy

Isabel

Seriously, Arcana is made for Isabel. She is simply useless without her, so if you don't have Isabel, you shouldn't pull Arcana. Note that any synergies listed after Isabel below should only be considered when Isabel is already in the team.

Minor Synergy

Tove

Probably the most compatible third wheel after Arcana + Isabel due to her teamwide Attack Speed, ATK, and Max Ammo buffs. However, due to team restrictions, it's really hard to find a situation where you can use all of them at the same time since: 1. you cannot use BSoda, and 2. you also need B2 CDR (like Dolla/SHelm), which means the team may not have healers.

Scarlet + Trina

Scarlet is one of the top options to be considered for Electric Raids when Trina is also used, so we will assume so. Scarlet + Trina enjoy Arcana's lingering buffs and quicker rotations (w/ Isabel), and Trina helps with burst generation and survivability. However, Arcana + Isabel is also unideal for Trina + Scarlet because, if you sacrifice one of Trina's Burst for Arcana's, you will miss out on Trina's S2's broken effects for Scarlet in that rotation.

Cinderella

She is the strongest B3, and has a damage spike at the start of her Burst Skill. Enjoys Arcana's lingering buff and quicker rotations (w/ Isabel), leading to more personal damage overall. Also, if you burst fast enough, your Cinderella’s burst can be amplified by Isabel’s burst too (goes in full burst under 2.7s).

Blanc

Blanc provides healing and Damage Taken, which scales with Arcana + Isabel's buff/debuff distribution pretty well. You will need Rouge or Noir to cut her CD, though, before she can be used as an alternate B2. You will likely encounter Rouge + Blanc more often. Rouge and Noir both provide decent burst generation (the latter only if all pellets hit); Rouge needs ~2× Max Ammo + Pre reload/Precharging Tech if she is the only battery. Rouge does require heavy manual gameplay to make sure her CDR triggers within the very short window of Isabel's 5s Full Burst. If this is not your fancy, avoid using this team.

Campaign (LD) - B | Campaign (HD) - C

While Isabel is not that viable for mobbing, and Arcana doesn't make that much better (she does speed up Isabel's S2, which allows her to have better mobbing performance), Arcana can still be used without Isabel. You are missing out on a lot of her buffs. However, if you can utilize the Damage Taken and ATK DMG provided by her Burst Skill and are not troubled by its long CD, make use of the small caster's ATK and ATK DMG that trigger every Full Burst even when Arcana is in the off-burst, and benefit from her mini wipe that will most of the time do nothing, then there is no problem. Even then, no, she is still not better than most meta B2. In fact, it's very, very cope.

One good thing, however, is the fact that Arcana gives a lot of ATK (to Isabel), so at least Isabel can deal damage to enemies even at extremely high deficits. For your information, CP deficit increases stat penalty, which reduces your ATK. Once your ATK falls below enemy DEF, your units will only be dealing 1 damage each time.

A main idea, possibly, is to utilize Isabel’s short burst duration and allow the other B3 to burst more often, essentially funneling the damage into that Burst 3 unit! This can be effective in Low Deficit Campaign, but is probably not so effective in High Deficit Campaign or Tribe Tower. Perhaps, it is usable against High Deficit Campaign/Tower bosses that are weak to Electric, such as Crystal Chamber. This duo can come into play thanks to Arcana’s insane 180% ATK buff.

Bossing - S

Trina-level because Arcana enables Isabel like Trina enables Scarlet and both are as niche as each other (though one may see more usage). Isabel is now a top 3 Electric DPS (by pure numbers), but that is only if you can work with Arcana's long 40s cooldown, which is interestingly not an issue for many, yet people inflate this issue too much. Look at Mast Maid + Anchor Maid. Now, they are a staple, aren't they?

The only thing that you should keep in mind is that Arcana forces the team to be a 1-2-2 and have a CDR. The CDR can be in any Burst Stage. Additionally, Arcana + Isabel don't have that great of a burst gen, so you also want another battery. Rouge or Trina or DrakeTr or Siren with 1-2 MGs is probably enough. Depending on the team, one will be more suitable, of course. Last but not least, Arcana + Isabel team is heavily dependent on manual play as quicker rotations and faster burst charging are central to utilizing Arcana's short lingering ~5s buffs.

Let's get to Arcana's performance with Isabel. As we explained before, they shine in Electric-weak Raids and especially if the boss is in a reachable range (not as far and thin as Stormbringer). They may lack presence outside Electric-weak because there may be better choices in other elements, or in contents when only 1 team is needed—like in Anomaly Interception—where Summer Anis + Maiden: Ice Rose combo, who provide elemental damage and constant teamwide ATK buffs, can beat out Arcana + Isabel teams when it comes to overall team damage. They may still put up a good fight if both are well invested, especially if bosses are in Isabel's effective range and Elemental is not active. If the boss has no core, it is possible that Arcana + Isabel with Cinderella can beat out the Cinderalla + S.Anis + xMaiden wombo combo.

To summarize, we will see more Arcana + Isabel in action when the next Electric-weak Raid comes, either in Solo Raid (or Union Raid). You can still use them outside Raid if you want, but whether that's efficient or effective depends on whether you lack those limited seasonal units, whom most players already have built.

PVP - C

Most of her buffs will not be active until the end of Full Burst or without the presence of Isabel or another Full Burst shortener. This makes her useless and no more than Mari/Grave, for example, at least in the buffing department. However, she wields an RL, which means she provides decent burst generation without feeding. If Burst Skill is used, she also inflicts a meager Damage Taken increase and gives a small amount of ATK DMG to Electric allies, which is better than nothing—coincidentally, most relevant DPS PvP units are Electric. She also has a mini AoE, which may help clean up 1-HP enemies. Don't rely on it, though; it's smarter to pretend it doesn't exist.

With Isabel (or alternatively Vesti [but she won't get the buffs]), Arcana can allow a more PvE-like development where the first Full Burst is shortened to accelerate the commencement of the second rotation, which can prove useful to counter certain defense units like Noah. However, this team lacks survivability (because Arcana's and Isabel's Burst Skills must be used) and is rather unreasonable.

Gear Investments

You want high-level gear for Arcana to increase her base ATK stat, which will influence the strength of the ATK buff she gives to Isabel and the team. Focus on Helmet, Body Armor, and Gloves; feel free to abandon the Shoes/Boots as they do not give ATK.

OL lines are not important. But, if you want, you can look for the following (we still don't recommend rerolling her lines unless there is a clear purpose):

• Max Ammo to help with burst generation
• ELE to boost her damage to Electric-weak monsters (minimal as she does not have damage),
• ATK to improve her overall damage, which may be game-changing in PvP for killing P1/P2 early,
• Charge Speed to accelerate burst gen slightly, which may prove useful in PvP for triggering Burst Chain early.

On the other hand, Isabel cares about both gear level and OL lines (again, except Boots' level; but, you still need to OL them this time). In essence, you want 4× ELE, 4× ATK, and a bunch of Max Ammo. CRIT and Hit Rate lines are passable.

• Essential:
• Ideal: 1-2× Max Ammo
• Passable: 4× ELE, 4× ATK, 2-4× Charge Speed
• Priority: Low

Skill Investments

• Skill 1: 10
• High priority is as it contains one of the biggest multipliers for Isabel, and making her strong is Arcana's only purpose.
• Impact is dependent on Arcana's base stat because ATK buff is based on caster's ATK.
• Skill 2: 10
• Similarly, it houses one of the biggest multipliers for Isabel.
• More important than S1 because it also has a medium buff that buffs all allies and upgrades affect the CDR amount.
• Less dependent on Arcana's stat investments than S1 because ATK DMG is static.
• Minimum level 7 (for -4.98s CDR).
• Burst Skill:4~10
• Not as important as S1/S2 because the values are small and it is only used to trigger the buffs of S1/S2.
• It is also used only every other rotation.
• You can cheap out on it if you want and leave it at 4/5/7, but 10 is still the theoretical end goal. That goal is not economical for most people, though.

As a side note, Isabel also wants skills. They are less important than Arcana's S1 and S2 though. Start with 4/4/4 → 7/7/7 and work your way up to 10/10/10.

Suggested Progression Path

 

PVE Investment

PVP Investment

Priority

Arcana

PVE investment

4/4/4 → 7/7/4 → 10/10/4 (→ 10/10/10)

PVP investment

4/4/4

Priority

Medium

Cube Investments

As always, Resilience or Bastion in PvE for more rockets shot, which help with burst generation. Tempering may situationally be useful in healerless runs. Quantum may be useful for extra burst gen (we have noticed that this extra squeeze can be extremely helpful).

Similarly, Isabel can use Bastion/Resilience depending on the team and whether ELE is important (in which case, choose the higher level cube).

In PvP, you can use Tempering for damage reduction, Vigor for HP increase, or Quantum/Adjutant if necessary. This is also the case for Isabel (except Adjutant).

Doll Investments

Theoretically, Arcana benefits a lot from SR 15 Doll because Dolls affect Base ATK stat, and Arcana literally gives 180% (+~55%) of her caster's ATK as buff. However, if that is too expensive for you, the very least you can do is R 15 → SR 5.

On the other hand, Isabel also wants SR 15 because Shotgun Dolls' Weapon-Specific Skill is impactful. More ATK also never harms. The very least you can do is R 15 → SR 5.

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