Athena, Borderland Swords

[Stroud]

Athena Borderland Swords

Athena is a character with quite a few possibilities to use. Playing Athena means to be dedicated to Athena, because of one reason. From stats it can be said that Mia is an upgrade to Athena, because she has almost the same stat spread with improvement. A +3 Athena is comparable to +0 Mia one could say. So people who don't merge and like Mia more will not bother with Athena. Also builds could be almost equal to each other.

Still she can be a very useful unit. And for non-whales she is a good option for a merge project, which can be counted on and who does not like her tongue?

Pros:
- her Speed value is good
- base kit compensates her lacking atk
- her Defense Value is still useful

Cons:
- she lacks a bit attack, compared to other swordusers
- bane hurts her in almost any case for some builds

Base stats:

HP: 33/36/40
ATK: 28/31/34 
SPD: 35/38/41
DEF: 24/27/31
RES: 21/24/28

Default skills:

Weapon: Wo Dao+
Assist: [none]
Special: Moonbow
A: Sturdy Blow 2
B: [none]
C: Sword exp 3

Builds:

More enemy phased:
vun voman army:
 

Spoiler

Nature: [HP-, DEF+/HP-, RES+]

Wo Dao+ (Res+/Def+)
Assist: [flexible]
Skill: Aether/Luna

A: Steady Breath/Warding Breath
B: Wrath 3 / Guard 3 
C: Atk Smoke / Flexible
Seal: Close Def

At first this looks like your average Steady Breath build. But behind this hides her true potential. Her speed stat is crucial in this one, only getting attacked 1 time most of the time also means that enemy units take longer to activate their specials, which give her the possibility to hold out quite long.
Her Defensive values may be looking average at first, she can block almost any unit which is on close combat. You may want to think about giving her res a little more, so she can hold out some dragons.

Wo Dao+ : Clearly important, on this build she lacks attack most of the time, you often find yourself in situations there she does no damage. So you depend on her special for dealing damage.

Skill: Aether is a thing if you want to hold out longer, it is mandatory for her on longer battles, Luna is more for short battles.

Steady Breath: This speaks for itself, more frequency of specials she can use and she wants more bulk.

Wrath 3: hardest skill to get, but this should be on her list because she needs the additional damage on her special for some foes.

Guard 3: This is a second option to Wrath 3, you may want to block the enemy from getting his special started. If you meet bold fighter generals this could become more important than Wrath 3.

Atk Smoke: Only necessary if you want to do Solo runs on GHB with her, otherwise it is flexible and Threaten atk is also a solid option.

Close Def Seal: you only attack with her special is charged or on green units who are not a thread. More bulk on enemy phase is recommend. 

Player phased

Mage run in [Earlier Gales of Borderland] / edit: 22.11.2018

Spoiler

Nature: [Atk+,SPD+ / HP-,Res-]

Weapon: Slaying Sword+/Firesweep Sword
Assist: [flexible]
Special: Galeforce
A:  Life and Death/ Switf Sparrow/ Darting Blow
B:  Flexible
C:  Def Smoke 
Seal: Flashing Blade

I changed this one, the new Definition of this build makes use of her lacking attack and high Speed. If you want to double a Mage you sometimes have too much Attack, well Athena can make use of it. Invest in Atk, but not too much that she can double hit and beat most of the mages and Escape after that, other Units may have the Problem that they 1 hit some mages and can't make use of Galeforce. 

 

Mixed

Broken Borderland Sword

Spoiler

Nature: Atk+,SPD+ / HP-,Res-

Weapon: Wo Dao+
Assist: Reposition/ [Flexible]
Special: Moonbow/Luna
A: Death Blow, Sturdy blow 2, Fury 3
B: Desperation 3, [Flexible]  
C:  Flexible
Seal: atk +3/spd+3, [Flexible]

Budget builds should just improve what she has, Fury 3 gives her overall balanced stats a boost and is in sync with Desperation, in this case HP- is not such a bad decision.
Sturdy blow also works, but for such a build I think Fury 3 gives her the option to be useful on enemy phase.

Borderland Moon

Spoiler

Nature: [ SPD+ /Res-]

Weapon: Slaying Edge+ (SPD refine)
Assist: Ardent Sacrifice / Flexible 
Special: Moonbow
A: Swift Sparrow/ Fury
B: Desperation 3
C: Threaten SPD/DEF 
Seal: SPD+3

Edited November 22, 2018 by Stroud

[BANRYU]

Regarding the slaying edge set, I sort of question whether she has the attack power to land kills without her Special contributing to that :0 Also, I think it's safe to separate the builds by weapon, since the two Gale builds are pretty different... However, I do think the Slaying Edge set would probably rather just have a different special, probably? Possibly? I don't have time to do calcs for it ATM but based on Theorymon alone...

[XRay]

On 5/6/2018 at 3:41 AM, Stroud said:

Player phased

Gales of Borderland

  Hide contents

Version 1:

Nature: [ SPD+ / HP-,Res-]

Weapon: Slaying Edge+ (SPD refine)/ Firesweep sword
Assist: [flexible]
Special: Galeforce
A: Flashing Blade 
B: Desperation (of course only with slaying edge+) / Flexible
C: Threaten SPD/def
Seal: [Flexible]

 

Version 2:

Nature: [Atk+ / HP-,Res-]

Weapon: Firesweep sword+
Assist: [flexible]
Special: Galeforce
A:  Life and Death
B:  Flexible
C:  Threaten atk 
Seal: Heavy blade

Athena wants also take have fun with Galeforce, the second Version is a bit difficult, because this will only work against opponents who have less atk, threaten attack should help out a bit. You want to pair her up with units who increase attack. If Flashing blade seal should come up this build will be obsolete. 

 

 

7 hours ago, BANRYU said:

Regarding the slaying edge set, I sort of question whether she has the attack power to land kills without her Special contributing to that :0 Also, I think it's safe to separate the builds by weapon, since the two Gale builds are pretty different... However, I do think the Slaying Edge set would probably rather just have a different special, probably? Possibly? I don't have time to do calcs for it ATM but based on Theorymon alone...

I agree with @BANRYU. Other Specials give Player Phase units equal if not superior performance, as well as not being terrible against Vantage enemies, which Arena has a lot of.

Athena +Spd -Res
Wo Dao [Spd], Moonbow
Swift Sparrow, Desperation
Speed +3
Enemies +5, +Spd, Moonbow, Fury
Player Phase 115:15:115
Player Phase [4/4/0/0] 177:15:53

Athena +Spd -Res
Slaying Edge [Spd], Galeforce
Swift Sparrow, Desperation
Speed +3
Enemies +5, +Spd, Moonbow, Fury
Player Phase 23:18:204
Player Phase [Galeforce activation] 63:45:137
Player Phase [4/4/0/0] 84:18:143
Player Phase [4/4/0/0, Galeforce activation] 180:47:18

Heavy Blade and Flashing Blade are also amongst the worst A skills in existence. Fury is cheaper and better than both.

Athena +Spd, -Res
Wo Dao [Spd], Moonbow
Desperation
Speed +3
Enemies +5, +Spd, Moonbow, Fury
Player Phase [Fury] 123:11:111
Player Phase [Flashing Blade] 97:16:132
Player Phase [Heavy Blade] 77:16:152

 

[Stroud]

Fair point. I should do some calculation before I submit an idea at least.
And as long as LoD, Swift Sparrow or Fury are not available as seals it is a bad decision.
I will fix that, thanks for the evaluation. 

[BANRYU]

8 hours ago, Stroud said:

Fair point. I should do some calculation before I submit an idea at least.
And as long as LoD, Swift Sparrow or Fury are not available as seals it is a bad decision.
I will fix that, thanks for the evaluation. 

For me personally yeah I generally try to run calcs before doing the full writeup =v= Like I'll brainstorm things they can do and put those in the claim/template post, but like when I wrote Merric I found his Raven and CC builds were pretty abysmal so I was like 'eh screw it' and took them out (just as an example)

And hey no worries, s'what the QC checks are for no one's perfect lol