Introduction
- Regular Attack
- Arts Damage
- Position
- Ranged
Carnelian is a Phalanx Caster with high survivability, damage output, and strong crowd control capabilities. She stands out in her ability to overcharge all of her skills, gaining additional effects once she completes a second charging cycle. She is one of the closest casters to competing against Eyjafjalla in AOE damage output, while also having a bind strong enough to outdo the likes of Magallan. Her main and inherent downside is having zero output while skills are inactive, but she makes up for it for increased survivability while charging and good cycling on her powerful skills.
Operator Stats
- Health
- 2106
- Attack Power
- 926
- Defense
- 258
- Attack Speed
- 2 sec
- Arts Resistance
- 15%
- Block
- 1
- Redeploy Time
- 70 sec
- DP Cost
- 24
- Range
Y1 Y2 Y3 Y4 Y5 X1 empty cell empty cell active cell empty cell empty cell X2 empty cell active cell active cell active cell empty cell X3 active cell active cell operator cell active cell active cell X4 empty cell active cell active cell active cell empty cell X5 empty cell empty cell active cell empty cell empty cell
Carnelian has a considerable edge in the ATK compared to the rest of the branch, with other aspects being rather standard. She places a much higher focus on dealing damage than her counterparts, while still maintaining high survivability from the trait.
Strengths
- High AOE damage output with skills with strong cycling
- Has strong crowd control capabilities
- Great survivability while skills are charging allows for more aggressive placement
- Heals a significant amount of HP with every skill activation
Weaknesses
- Does not attack while skills are inactive
- Defensive capabilities are lost while skills are active
- Poor initial SP and being built around overcharging makes her a poor candidate for helidropping
- When overcharging is not yet finished, using the skill wastes SP with no additional benefit
Talents
Meal of Life
Restores 40% Max HP when skill is activated;
Effect is doubled when Charged
While Carnelian is tanky, she is still subject to being chipped away without any sustain. This talent allows her to heal herself back up in the right circumstances. She will still go down easily while a skill of hers is active, making it important to manage ranged aggro using other units.
Poised for Action
Improves own SP recovery rate by +0.6/second when SP is above the limit
This talent plays a huge role in taking her kit a step up. While her skills remain functional without an overcharge, getting the most out of her requires charging to be finished when you really need it.. Increased SP generation reduces downtime significantly, making that aspect of her kit much more intuitive and coherent.
The talent can also stack together with other SP regen boosts if you wish to further reduce charging times.
Skills
Sandstorm Guardian
Per Second RecoveryManual Trigger- Initial SP
- 5
- SP Cost
- 18
- Duration
- 20 sec
ATK +60%, DEF +100%;
Charged effect: Trait effect remains active during skill
A mix of offense and defense if you want the ranged tank aspect of her kit to remain active. With a low SP cost, the skill is plenty spammable if AoE damage is required from a position where other ranged units would go down quickly. The skill’s main draw is keeping her defensive trait enabled while overcharged; making Carnelian a very capable damage sponge that deals decent damage with good uptime. Quick cycling allows her healing talent to come into play more, meaning she is less reliant on external healing.
The skill and trait’s DEF buffs are additive, not multiplicative, meaning that you will not reach ridiculous levels of DEF that you might expect with overcharge.
Skill Mastery
- Recommended Rank
- None
- Priority
- --
While the skill itself is fine, mastery doesn’t bring anything noteworthy to the table. The mastery’s only real notable return is the increased DEF buff, which is overkill given the existing nature of the skill, and a lack of a further RES increase does not help. Additionally, an increase of +30% DEF bonus from SL7 to M3 isn’t strong enough to warrant the resource investment.
Sand Fetters
Per Second RecoveryManual Trigger- Initial SP
- 10
- SP Cost
- 25
- Duration
- 25 sec
Attack Interval reduces significantly and every attack inflicts Slow for 0.3 seconds;
Charged effect: ATK +20% and instead of Slowing, Binds targets for 0.6 seconds
A great skill that provides strong crowd control capabilities and competent damage output simultaneously. The massive attack interval reduction serves to boost both of those aspects: increasing the uptime of her slow/bind, while more attacks naturally increases her total damage output. The slow from the base form of the skill isn’t very impactful, and thus falls flat in the crowd control department when not overcharged.
This skill comes into its own when overcharged, turning the slow into a bind of significantly larger duration along with an additional ATK boost. Carnelian has some of the best bind uptime in the game when this skill is overcharged, while also possessing good damage output within her attack range. The skill’s range leaves something to be desired, meaning that getting the most out of the skill requires some consideration in timing so enemies stay within her range. Her talent helps greatly with cycling this skill’s overcharged state, making it much more accessible for the majority of stages and situations.
Skill Mastery
- Recommended Rank
- Mastery 3
- Priority
- Medium
Masteries on this skill have a substantial impact on her performance. Both reducing attack interval further and increasing bind duration allows Carnelian’s crowd control capabilities to shine. The increase to the ATK boost and initial SP are unfortunately mostly negligible, partially due to this skill’s need to be overcharged. One important note is that once at M3, Carnelian buffed by Aak S3M3 can reach 100% bind uptime so long as said buff persists. Masteries improve just about everything that’s good about this skill, providing good value for the cost.
Mark of Gluttony
Per Second RecoveryManual Trigger- Initial SP
- 5
- SP Cost
- 28
- Duration
- 21 sec
Attack Range expands and ATK gradually increases up to +280%
Charged effect: Every attack increases the damage taken by the target from Carnelian by 20% (stacks up to 5 times), lasting until the end of the skill
| Y1 | Y2 | Y3 | Y4 | Y5 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| X1 | empty cell | active cell | active cell | active cell | empty cell |
| X2 | active cell | active cell | active cell | active cell | active cell |
| X3 | active cell | active cell | operator cell | active cell | active cell |
| X4 | active cell | active cell | active cell | active cell | active cell |
| X5 | empty cell | active cell | active cell | active cell | empty cell |
Carnelian specs into raw damage with this skill, competing with units such as Eyjafjalla in sheer AoE damage. Without being charged, the total damage output of the skill is similar to her S2, trading the crowd control for expanded range and damage that ramps up. Similar to S2, the skill begins to really pull its weight when overcharge comes into the picture.
As mentioned previously, the total damage of the skill approaches Eyjafjalla’s S3 when overcharged. Expanded range helps alleviate the issues that her other skills have, opening up more viable positions for her. Damage amplification marks that she applies also stays on enemies until the skill ends, providing some room for error.
The skill is flawed in its damage requiring scaling, both from its amplification marks and Carnelian’s ramping ATK. While it can compete against skills such as Eyjafjalla S3, it is important to keep in mind that this skill’s peak performance relies on enemies staying within Carnelian’s range for an extended period. Furthermore, Carnelian trades the helidrop capability of Eyjafjalla for better rotation of her damage skill. These factors are important to keep in mind when considering Carnelian S3 as an option for AOE arts damage.
Skill Mastery
- Recommended Rank
- Mastery 3
- Priority
- Medium
Mastery is very straightforward - more damage. The increase to initial SP is again, irrelevant, due to this skill’s serious need for overcharge. However, the damage boost aspect is rather sizable, and can somewhat mitigate her lack of presence before the skill ramps up. If one simply wants this skill to be better at its intended purpose, the investment is very worthwhile.
Synergy
Aak
Incredibly straightforward so far as synergies go. Carnelian’s trait makes tanking Aak a non-issue, and Aak’s ASPD buff fits Carnelian’s kit to a T. Using the two together can make Aak oddly practical.
In the case of her S2, Carnelian attacks fast enough to maintain a bind uptime of 100% so long as the Aak buff is active. Aak’s ATK buff is also far more pronounced here due to Carnelian S2’s own smaller ATK increase.
With S3, Carnelian’s already impressive ATK increase seems to invalidate Aak’s buff a bit, but the ASPD buff does wonders in helping this skill reach peak performance. Damage amplification marks accumulate much quicker, reducing the time needed for ramp-up. Additionally, more attacks will be landed on already marked enemies, giving her a substantial increase to total damage dealt.