Masteries for Crossing#
Full Articles#
Bellone#
Bellone, is a good DPS Guard, however he has come out at a time where simply being “good” is not good enough. The meta competition is fierce, especially among the Guards, who typically flounder in the top-meta situations anyway. His kit is also a bit deceptive since his “signature” skill is often his worse one. However, he has extremely strong DPS and some very solid utility. That may not measure up to the high-bar set by his contemporaries, but it’s better than many people often think¹ (read the footnote if you skipped the main article!). When you add in some bizarrely strong Mastery gains, the result is a relatively odd mix of pressures when it comes to Masteries, and less straightforward considerations than many recent units!
While he is a relatively decent M6 consideration, his better skill will far and away be his S2. His S3 has higher DPS and is very flashy, as we’ll get into next, but his S2 simply functions better in a majority of situations. It has range, multiple-targets, control, a super fast cycle time, and better application of his primary utility. The range especially is one that’s easy to undervalue since his S3 zooms him around, but it allows for more flexible placement. He can remain safer while doing what he does best (DPS and debuffing) and is far more predictable. The Mastery gains are unusually strong as well. The ATK scale increases by a pretty typical amount, but he also gains a large ASPD improvement, which combined results in over 30% more DPS and total damage from SL7 to S2M3. The SP cost improvement is notable as well. Although it’s only 4 SP, the low base cost makes that proportionally higher, and the rapid cycle is a big feature of the skill.
However, while one might come away from that description assuming that Bellone must be high priority, remember that this guide doesn’t consider large gains as strongly in the high-tiers. While Bellone is certainly a much higher priority than a majority of the old roster, the recent power ceiling is so high that you should still look towards the main meta units first, which keeps his grades at a more reasonable level.
His S3 is a consideration as well, despite its flaws. The DPS behind it is much higher and the movement results in a larger effective range (kinda), but like Ch’en the Dawnstreak before him, the movement ends up being an unreliable gimmick in a lot of cases. Brawlers are very fragile melee units, and while his dodge chance is high, it will still fail a frustrating amount of the time, and many elites or bosses will simply one-shot him when it fails. Additionally, his damage is now limited to a single target, and the lower DEF-shred means it can sometimes actually do less DPS than his S2, depending on the target. While his DPS using the skill is amazing, and the movement can be valuable at times, it’s just much more situational than his S2.
But the skill also has even stronger Mastery gains than his S2, so it may be worth considering even for only occasional use. Like his S2, both the ATK and ASPD improve, but there are some additional large gains to both his crit chance and crit damage. So there’s a four aspect improvement to his DPS, which results in a 42% DPS increase! Unlike his S2 which loses some “value” at the top end of priority, his S3 does gain quite a bit of consideration here compared to other mid-level considerations.
Last, pass on his S1 which is one of those annoying and useless filler skills. It’s just a standard Power Strike type skill, but slightly dressed up. But it’s especially bad on Bellone because it doesn’t synergize at all with his kit. There’s no range, he remains very vulnerable, and the DPS isn’t even impressive considering how fast his S2 cycles. The only reason to consider it is for completion’s sake. It’s only for if you really like him and want to show off that full Mastery icon on your friends list.
¹ If you skipped the main article, you still shouldn’t pull for Bellone even though I’m talking him up here. Although I really like his kit, he’s not as strong as the upcoming gauntlet of limited banners.
Ripresa#
Ripresa is yet another (of many, recently) examples of the 5★ value problem. She isn’t bad exactly, but the minor power improvement over the 4★s doesn’t justify considering her at all. Why would you pay double the resources for a minor bump in power, especially when so much broken-tier DPS exists in the modern game? Add onto that a subtle drawback to her main skill, and how she’s barely a lateral difference from a 6-year old 5★ (Leonhardt) who has only ever had niche value, there’s very little reason to consider raising Ripresa. Although, as said, she isn’t necessarily bad either if she appeals to you.
If she does, both skills are worth considering, but S2 will be the more unique option while S1 is only a waifu-stretch target. Although S1 technically has the shorter cycle, they’re close enough that S2’s increased damage puts it far ahead. Additionally, S2 is actually controllable with Manual Activation, which will generally lead to better results. Its very short cycle and solid DPS (in ideal circumstances) make it a passable consideration. However, she can only reach her DPS potential when there are three distinct targets in range. The additional fireballs are completely lost otherwise, and given the small default Splash Caster range, that’s a tall order. For most players, this limitation means you should use someone else if it can’t be achieved, but if you really like Ripresa, it gives her S1 some room to flex to instead. It is a much more run of the mill option. Lots of skills like this exist and Ripresa’s version of it does nothing special, so it’s only for players who absolutely want to use her though.
However, even accepting that, before investing, there’s another big flaw to consider. Her S2 Masteries are insultingly bad, not even measuring close to average for her rarity. The ATK gain is below average, and the DoT’s improvement is only 300 total damage since it scales off of her base ATK rather than the fireball’s damage, and doesn’t benefit from her Talent. The net result is an under 15% damage improvement between SL7 and S2M3. Even the SP cost improvement is bad. It’s only a single SP difference, and while this guide usually values even smaller SP improvements on low cooldown skills like this, 1 SP is about as negligible as it gets. If there’s a silver lining to this, it’s that if you don’t like her at E1 SL7, E2 S2M3 probably won’t change your mind. S1 does have the much better gains, but the difference in skill values means you should still start with her S2, if you bother to raise her at all.