Hi! Thanks for watching~ Viviana is pretty :) Also sorry for the low quality recordings in some of the footage, my recording software reverted back to its default settings for some reason, when I started to notice, I had already recorded about half the footage :/ Join our discord server here if you're interested: discord.gg/feghXsUpr6 We have milk and cookies :>
Thank you for a very informative video. I was wondering why you said that Surtr and Viviana have similar DPS during skill minus the Res shred. Surtr s3 reads +330% attack while Viviana reads +110%. Even with the talent 2 extra damage boost against elites and bosses, isn’t it the case that Viviana DPS during skill is lower? Or am I missing something? Thank you for your help.
@@eufrosniad994 After 2nd time activation Viviana's attacks become triple hits, getting similar dps to Surtr (Still lower though because of RES ignore and increased attack interval)
I think you nailed exactly why people are actually disappointed. Viviana's kit feels like someone just designed a generic arts guard kit and slapped it onto her. Nothing really screams Candleknight. Great video!
@@kyarumomochi5146 to add to this with her limited resistance stripping of none you effectively need haze to not get one shot or use reed alter to make her DPS be useable against most bosses Which when surtr exists doesn’t need to use her skill 3 twice and can typically be redeployed in the time it takes for her to be able to gain full value it really hurts her
i wanted to skip this banner but since i had some free pulls i pulled and got her. Compare to surtr she is fun to use. Surtr ruined a game, is boring shit and something to kill bosses for stupid and lazy people. Overpowered shit that dies after 9 seconds. This thrash unit from kazimierz event is fun unit, made to kill bosses, multiple fun skills, and talents.
same i wanna skip this banner but hey at least i have 60 pull. no Virtuosa but Viviana Pot 1. tho i have so many Guard already and have other arts guard that more cheeper. if only her Skill 2/3 can permanent active
@@mysteryofn2955 I can personally see her gaining res ignore either by modified class trait(at module level 1) or on one of her talents through module upgrade. Imo I would go for adding res ignore as a module effect, since the other Module able receivers besides Surtr(Astesia and Mousse mainly) also lack Res ignore, and then use the module upgrades to buff her first talent.
@@mysteryofn2955 when she gets her module surtr will also get a mod though... poor wax squire viviana should have stayed a boss :{ (im really disappointed she doesnt have her unique attack for her s3)
@@Vladumere It’s also kind of hard to fix with a module though, given the type of modifications we can hope to expect from past module releases. Lvl 1 of module might give some Res shred at best, but the rest of the levels will just modify the talents. Neither talent is exciting or good enough to get much of a boost from module unless we are looking at increases in the magnitude of 50%+. My guess is that somewhere down the line, they will release a Viviana Alter with a nuke skill.
@@eufrosniad994 50%+ is beyond ridiculous. Giving her 1st talent module even another 10 percent would be massive. Going from 9% to 19% inherently is huge. And 38% without literally any outside buffs just from a talent itself is monsterous. On top of any res shred she might get as well. Viviana's first talent is primed to be one of the best single modules to be released, assuming HG doesn't undercut her with
i think another important point to bring up is that viviana is a REAL arts fighter, unlike surtr. hg has historically been wary of making arts too strong. it's why casters typically attack slower than snipers and have higher dp costs, but there is only one form of melee arts damage (without being dependent on skills): the arts fighter archetype. because of this concern, arts fighters' kit feature a lot of defensive/survival oriented abilities. mousse lowers atk and increases her def, astesia increases her def, sideroca has self-healing, guardmiya has arts dodge and i-frames/res increase, and then... surtr has brief immortality. it's hardly a hot take to say that surtr broke the archetype-- we all know this. she was such an offensive nuker that i think we, as a playerbase, forgot what arts fighters are actually supposed to do. viviana, therefore, is a RETURN to what arts fighters are meant to be. however, this ended up being disappointing because her kit is relatively lackluster and dps is easier to conceptualize than survivability. that's just how it goes, for better or for worse. as i recall, there are story reasons for why she doesn't have her nuke from near light/cc8, but i will also say that that is not inherently acceptable. it's still going to be a disappointment, justified by lore or not. personally, i do not mind, but i know *many* players do, for which i do not fault them. even the lack of an homage bummed people out. edit: also, imo, it's really annoying that they decided to give viviana steal but not do anything meaningful with it. i would have loved to see res stealing expanded upon, which could make her much more competitive.
hi! what is this real arts fighter means btw? have you tried to use her? I tried her on IS1 and in the 1st floor, s3 against armored crab and she took forever.. I paired her correctly right? against high armored mobs 1on1?
Exactly. It wouldn't make sense for HG to release a unit that competes with Surtr, there's no reason to try to obsolete a unit that powerful. It's why Eyja is still Queen Caster. Look how fast everyone forgot about Phantom when Yato and Texalter showed up. And that's even considering that Phantom still has use cases that Yato and Texas can't compete with, but are so rare people consider Phantom dead now. Making Viviana a Duelist that actually duels instead of just nukes everything is better for the game. I see a lot of people complaining that she's not like her boss form with some huge AOE nuke. But the thing is...if you want a caster with a big AOE nuke, we have Eyja. And we have Leonhardt. I've seen people go as far as to say that Viviana should have a Modal Caster range aoe true damage nuke. It's like people don't want interesting units, they just want win buttons that fit within a characters theme. Imagine that actually made Vivi have an massive aoe true damage nuke. The reality is that it would need to be low sp cost, and be massive damage or people would still complain that she's not better than x, y, or z op. There's no winning unless you set a new standard for broken.
@BlahBlahFreeman I mean there is validity to what they say, could've been like an ash s3, limited use per deployment, it crazy but good enough but at the same time they gotta realise that bosses that become playable are heavily nerfed, examples like fighting general grievous but when you get him, he's hot garbage or shao khan in mk9 have hyper armor and high dps out the ass but being much weaker in mk11, these are inevitabilities that some just don't see. That being said, my bombshell german moose is fine as she is
@@TheWrathfulOni Yeah for sure. They could've went a few different ways with her kit. I feel like no matter though, people would've been upset unless she was as overpowered as the rest of the meta roster.
And then the elite/boss is ranged attack like Jesselton Phase 1, her shield only block melee damage and blocking also doesn't work she get screwed. Awkward lol
Good video. The vivi slander has been over the top. She has an S tier design and voice. And a B+ tier kit. She's easily incorporated. I do wish they had given her a flashier S3 aesthetically
I feel like it would’ve made more sense to have her role be crowd control and the that would’ve also made sense with her boss version, instead of trying to directly do what surtr does. I got 3 copies of her trying to get Virtuosa but hey, I’ll give Viviana her chance
with viviana I was honestly expecting an AOE version of ebenholz. because you could clearly see the design space for it with her holding charges by lighting up her candles and possibly having a trait where her normal attacks do aoe damage with the range going up depending on how many stacks of charge it has. Pretty easy to design an operator with those machanics, like one skill where she wont attack without full charge and it charges faster, or one that just lets her build up charge higher than her limit and she wont attack, and you activate it again to let her attack again to nuke something. Or, if they really wanted the shield bit, another phalanx caster. the fact they made her a guard with basically nothing of her actual boss appearance is just really weird. Especially for how they managed degenbreacher, the first W, and mudrock.
mudrock might not be the best example enemy mudrock could summon nigh-indestructible golems I too wished for a flashier AoE casting skill from Vivi. But realistically..... the AoE casters in this game are pretty low-tier rn.
@@wilder6408 I can understand why the didnt do that for mudrock at that point in the game. The thing is they DID give us something very reminicient in how she actually acts as a boss translated into something we could use. Her lightning hammer strike -> spin to win. A summoner version of mudrock in the future would be neat too. Mainly, it's just when you see mudrock and how she plays, you can feasibly think 'oh, this is definitely a version of the character that was a boss I fought.' Compared to viviana pretty much having nothing in common over her boss counterpart.
@@wilder6408I mean, no. Boss Mudrock could not summon Golem. In the lore, yes, but the boss version didn't have a game mechanic that could interact with Golems and even less summon them
@@videoanon I would argue her imposing shields are the most iconic feature of the Mudrock boss fight, and they translated that very well to operator Mudrock. Viviana, though, what a waste. They should at least have translated the huge diamond nuke into operator Viviana, it was such an iconic part of her fight that losing it sucks. It might as well not be Candle Knight they released and just put in any random character, her design and kit is so generic and boring
@@leonidesbabanto1585 yeah, hence why I thought mystic caster with an aoe extra trait on top would be a fun idea. 1 charge for normal attacks to also attack 4 tiles around a chosen enemy in the cardinal directions, 2 charges for the 8 surrounding tiles, and 3 for the maximum diamond shape attack. especially since they have high single shot damage ceilings and are already known to wait around charging their attacks. As another trait add burn damage on top too, why not. Big issue is they already had plenty of design space to make an interesting operator for us to use and instead gave us... current viviana. who is, as has been repeated a lot, EXTREMELY uninspired.
I just started the game coz my friend showed my virtuosa. I got her and Vivianna, and the more I look at her the more I fall in love with the candleknight. Thanks for this video!
I think one consistent thing I'm getting from your operator videos is that Manfred is a really well made boss. He actively discourages a lot of common unga bunga and gives a nice chance for operators with other niches to shine.
I disagree. The fact that manfred has a shield that only goes down for a few seconds after getting nuked encourages unga bunga strats. You basically want to nuke him in that dps window before he gets his annoying shield back up. Either that are stall him out
@@SunDry_Marchy the zombie lover twink psycho shota that gets a free originium shower in chapter 6 I think. You gotta stall that boss , it stacks a global poison dot everytime you do certain amount of damage. Typhon S3M3 shits on him in 5 seconds , but then you die.
What iddentity? 1 big boom every 30sec? if so this kit, no matter how bland, is still far more interesting... her S1 have more though put into it than her entire enemy "kit"
@@kevinseraphin5456 I mean HG can make her like that and it was easy Make her atk range like 3x3, damage increase to 200% with ignore res by 10 and hit 4 enemies. And this skill charge to 1 and only once use every charge. It's not that hard for HG I mean degen get this particular so what's the issue? HG want to make generic operator
@@abrahamwijaya6631They could have, but they didn't, they didn't had to, I too would have prefered a more interesting kit, but I'm fine with what we got, a less stupidly broken Surtr, wich I don't use because I feel my braincells falling on the ground doing so. Controversial opinion: generic operator also have a place in the game. Not every ops need to have a stupidly overbloated kit like Logos, it's also nice to keep it simple sometime.
Not realy, The candle knightclub specializes in 'long range arts' you can see that in her enemy version description, But i understand what you mean, And agree. WE WANT NUKES
Viviana is one of the few operators that I pulled not because of meta-or gameplay, but because I loved the character. And to be honest, I had fun using her for this event story. She's been performing better than expected. I will say though, if HG really wants to elevate this character to new heights, then they should give her a module that allows her a small (or fixed) chance of marking enemies and making them detonate several seconds after, dealing 3x3 AOE arts damage (just like Reed Alter, minus the chain-explosion). It fits in line with her lore abilities as well.
Tbh it is should be her first or second talent, the most thing i dissapointed on her design is that HG didn't bring the boom thing on her, it could be interesting and fun if they put it on her, i don't feel module will give that thing even the special one, bcoz it would like she has like 3 talent instead 2.
haven't watched the video, but I wanna say thank you for this, I feel like the community collectively disregards any arts fighter that's not surtr, even tho I personally love all of them as characters, i have to admit they're not my first choice for any stage really, so this series of videos you do is really nice, cuz a lot of characters I like for whatever reason are also weak lol.
I still think Viviana should have had an infinite skill. She has a clear focus on dueling elites while staying on the field but then they didn't give s2 or s3 "upon second activation, duration becomes infinite". Edit: Yeah you have the same opinion as me. I like a lot of "bad" 6* (Ho'ol, Vigil, Lessing, etc) but I feel conflicted on whether or not I even want Vivi (I am waiting for the end of free pulls) bc her kit is like, really plain with no fun synergies or cool ideas behind it, but her design and effects are so nice
Her S1 should've been the infinite skill honestly. Should've been a double hit skill where she heal for a portion of the second hits damage. Also, I disagree with your statement of no fun synergies. I'd argue the synergies Viviana has are what makes her fun. She's kind of the perfect canvas for any buff your standard team uses. Any Flagbearer turns her into an AOE Arts Guard, that comes with a slow, heal, or fragility; which works well with both S2 and S3. Ines's slow and reveal is great if that's your opener as it helps Viviana not leak. All the dollkeepers are amazing frontal pair for Viviana, especially Iana. Skalters S2 buff is multiplied by the double and triple hits. Skyfires talent is amazing. Prams entire kit is perfect for Viviana. Saria, Gnosis, and Suzu are forever useful Leonhardt is on demand wave thinning and res shredding Ange's slow cycle perfectly covers Vivi CD, and atkspd offsets the debuff on S3. Ptilo and Quercus are amazing her for skill cycles. Aak S3 can be tanked on skill extremely easily. The most fun is Heidi S2 and a flagbearer that essentially means Viviana is a perma 2-block unit and 3-block on skill for the entire stage with S2. Regardless of if you use meta ops or off meta teams Viviana can benefit from so many synergies, half the fun of trying them all out and seeing which are better for each stage you bring her too.
@@BlahBlahFreeman You're right. I suppose I was thinking about units who become useful in interesting ways. Viviana can use basically every buffer and debuffer we currently have in the game but I don't expect to ever feel that "Wow! I got to try out a cool idea that specifically plays to some weird strength/trick this operator is capable of" bc she is just a fairly tanky guard who does decent arts damage. Nothing more and nothing less.
yeah, I agree-vivianna’s moveset really doesn’t scream candle knight-no fire, no light, just slashes that she’s not really known for I feel like they could’ve given her explosions as part of her moveset as either a defensive tool or to clear minions around bosses-if that’s too broken, then follow the ‘illumination’ part of being the candle knight and have her give bosses increased taunt along with a mark/invisibility ignore! also this is more of a me thing but I wish her shields aren’t melee-only-a lot of bosses nowadays and even back then use ranged attacks or even don’t use melee in the first place-making them also block ranged attacks from those bosses would be nice, too…
@@oklahoma8666 Always a possibility for her second talent to have a breaking modifier like Mudrock and Nian got. Every shield that breaks explodes and reduces enemy res by x%.
Did literally nobody read Near Light? People are all confused at the Elite enemy Viviana, that is the Candle Cult signature move, not Viviana's. Boss/elite enemies are not canon to the story. Ursula had no mentions in story of fighting by respawning at an altar, but you won't go around saying she respawns? If you want to see how Viviana fights, go read her duel with margaret in near light.
I''ll bet none of the criticism would be there if she just had her WTF BOOOOM!!! nuke implemented in some way, even if just the freakin visual effects... Arturia was already the Meta, Viviana was supposed to be the fun, gimmicky shit, like Irene or Bikini Swire!
Thank you for this and your other videos. I really appreciate the more casual perspective where not everything has to be meta. Viviana is the operator I really wanted from this banner, and I know I will enjoy using her, even if she isn’t the “optimal” choice.
I wanted her because she left a strong impression. I pulled for her even though her kit dissapointed me. Thanks for the analysis, I think I might enjoy her more now
currently pulling for Arturia and got Viv was sad at first but the way you explained her kit made me want to build her...i have been looking at this the wrong way Thank yous and now I sub to thee 💖💖💖
Ok so I've started playing 6 days ago, ad apparently the Virtuosa/Viviana banner has a 20% chance to drop a 6 star in my account, now I have both of them, and just with the daily free pulls. I've heard of how Viviana is considered weak and trash, but honestly I don't care so much since I'll consider my account completed once I'll get both Exusiai and Nian; anyway, thanks for the video and for explaining why she isn't trash, I have no idea yet of what her role in the story is, but I really like her design, she looks so seraphic and majestic, and will really like to use her.
What I love about her is that she fits so damn well with both versions of Nearl on a line, she's THE back up for a line with Nearl The Radiant Knight S3 and her own S3. Put a Shiningale combo with them and they're absolutely powerful.
@@lufasu9725 that's why I say you remind me of vifer The guy who surted minimalist UFO.... I mean that's the job of sniper so don't add anything irrelevant man. You just saying surtr is baby mode🥱
I got Vivy in 21 pulls and I thought that with my pulls I couldn't get another 6* anymore, so I leveled her to E2 and got some mastery on her S3. (Got Virtuosa in another 30 pulls) Used her in IS4 and she was really fun especially with some nice arts and range attack buffs she got 3k per hit and deleted everything in sight. I would still buff her 2nd Talent. In theory my idea for talent 2 is that she could generate "candle" shields against elite enemies and bosses that could act as damage reduction / heal back once broken. She could stack max 2 candles and 3 with pot 5. Idk about the strength of heal or dmg reduction, but I think it would feel more candle-ish and would be help of indicating when the shields are working. Over all she looks beautiful in E2 art and I am tempted to M6 her.
I honestly find it quite tragic that her shields neither stack nor work against ranged enemies, hopefully the module would at the very least make it stack and probably even increase the base chance for it to happen, or hell heal once it's broken like you said haha
@@FABKlNG Yea she is such a cool character in the Kazimier and Lethanien storys and she had so much potential to be unique with Talents and Skills. Maybe Arknights is just keeping her low profile, so when her alter releases it would blow up into a true Candle Knight.
I didn't get Viviana... got pot 2 Virtuosa instead. Still a great video my guy! Knowing I can't even have her but knowing that someone appreciate her, makes me feel a bit better of not having her Edit: Nvm I got pot 3 Vituosa now 💀
As a low budget player, I can't really afford to spend hundreds of rolls on someone who does what my current operators do, but not quite as well. Heck, even if she were free, I'm not sure I'd rush to max her out
I was going to build her regardless of thinking she was bad but you really changed my mind here about her being bad. And yeah I think she gets the hate because she's the same role as the easy button of Surtr, and performs absolutely nothing like the boss.
I LOVE that you were headpatting Viviana in the lobby at the end of the vid. And yes, I agree with what you said at the end. She's not bad, far from it. It's just she's not the candleknight we expected, which is a big bummer more than people think it is, considering that other bosses that become playable (i.e. W and Mudrock) had been designed to keep the playstyle of their boss counterparts. It's a shame that injustice was done to her, by how beautifully designed she is as a boss only to be so distant from it when playable.
Thanks for the review, I finally figured out how to use it. I was disappointed with her even though I was waiting for her as a playable character before the announcement in China. She's so sweet as a boss. I think the developers should have given her either massive damage as a surt or without 2 activation. so that she could immediately smash her face and not wait. it was also possible to give 1 skill with the torso so that it would give much less attacks, but it acted constantly. In short, such wonderful art against the background of a bunch of broken operators, you know the paternal feelings when your daughter was not appreciated and was given a bad skill.
I know this is a lot of copium but it would be very interesting if they gave her an elemental module (epsilon?) and she starts dealing burn damage. It would be very fitting for her both aesthetically and gameplay wise (burn damage deals arts damage explosion + lowers enemy res by 20)
You have enlightened me. Thank you. My stigma has fallen, if only partially. Really though, my main problem is "This isn't Viviana, this is a Astesia Alter in a makeover". This feels nothing like what the candleknight did. Meanwhile, Degen is literally next banner and uhhhh Lol, Lmao. I wish they could rework her, but afaik due to chinese gacha laws they cannot change chars so greatly.
There is no law for that character changes you mentioned as of 2024 (NPPA. Regulator incharge of game approvals in China). Their dev team is just lazy and mediocre. Hit or miss in kit design.
That's exactly why ops like Degen are bad for the game. Because people see HG release an actually well balanced op that embodies what her class is supposed to be; and everyone looks past them and say "Oh yeah, we have this new broken op coming, so no need for this balanced one when I'll get the busted one instead." And honestly, if you want to use Viviana's boss form as an op, just raise Leonhardt. His S2 is basically what people wanted out of Viviana. If they made Viviana to be her boss form, instead of being Astesia alter it would be Leonhardt alter. Same thing, different tile.
I like how people talk about some operators so negatively (sometimes inspired or enforced by some shallow content creators) and yet these "niche" ops happen to be a hidden gem. Eunectes for example I used to block Zarro on the S Stage of IlSiracusano, The Last Knight in IS3, the Avenger in CC12 (she could keep it stunned even with invincibility). Ho'olheyak helped against those sheep in So Long Adele (Though i can't say for sure if by levitating they lost their carmine steam bonuses). Wind Chimes survives slow hard hitters where many others wouldn't and with Quercus healing she's functional as a laneholder. People also don't seem to talk enough about Cliffheard who can deal almost 2k true damage + stun every 15 seconds to 3 enemies (aerial included) which bypasses damage reduction mechanics, like Touch of Sanguinarch in ch10. And being a helpful against Manfred as well. I even remember there was a point, a bit before module, that people talked bad about Ebenholz and yet, with one Warfarin buff he skipped boss HP% related mechanics, because with little management he did lots of damage. Just teaches me when community talk so negatively about an operator I should be skeptical. At least to try and check out more about them.
Happens all the time honestly. The AK community only cares about braindead unga ops. Anything less and it's not worth pulling for. That's why a lot of content creators used to point out which ops were used in the high risk CC clears, or the easiest IS clears or whatever as a reason to pull for them over others; with no regard for the fact 99% of the player base isn't playing the game in that capacity. Look at how everyone dunked on Swire when she came out. People were saying she's the worst 6* in the game. Worse than Passenger. Worse than Vigil. Then people started posting solo clears with Swire and all of a sudden people stopped bashing her. I'm sure when the Arts Guard modules come out, people will stop shitting on Viviana and we'll see a wave of videos being like "Viviana is actually amazing now"
Not really. You casually left out og Passenger, Vigil, Spura, Tsumigi(???), etc. And most of the ops you mentioned are for fun ops. Build them if you want but stop capping PLEASE
So as a fairly new player, the thing i understand is most players aren't disappointed cuz shes bad, they are disappointed because she isnt as good as they expected her to be. To me this had let some confusion on her kit and the disappointment confuses new (perhaps also older players) into thinking that shes bad. Thanks for clearing it up
i think i get it now, tysm, because ever since i got my vivi pot 1 what i initially thought was a total waste of my remaining materials to get her to e1 lvl 70 now is actually worth something. And after levelling up my virtuosa (which i luckily obtained later on with omertosa) i will definitely consider viviana e2
The problem I have with her is more or less the same as with Skadi and Ebenholz. They are Boss slayers but need to be completely invested in order to work, compared to blaze or thorns who work just fine at lvl 60 with no masteries or mods. In other words, high investment ops that may not see as much use as a lane holder or crowd controller, so I'd rather build cheaper and more versatile ops first. Still got her though.
Arts guard are generally focused on Defense and Survival, except for Surtr. The red haired one is meant for aggresive play when necessary. You can use Both of them. IMHO I'm glad to get Vivi, I'll build her soon and know she is my assistant
With no sustain they usually need healer and with 1 block off skill they need defender/another laneholder, so it's generally easier to take proper laneholder and caster for arts dmg. Look at any random clear and you almost never see arts guard used because why if others do their job better. Surtr overwhelming usage comes not only from raw dps, but from the fact the she has all she needs to do alone: you drop her use s3 and with hp increase multitarget and immortality it's usually enough for the situation, no need to back up her 1 block with someone, no need to heal till she does the job. Vivi folds like wet paper off skill, and if those elite enemies spawn not lines up with her skills CD she needs a lot of outside help. If her s2 was infinite from second activation, maybe she'd be proper arts guard laneholder. Or if her shields healed her on break like Mudmud.
As a story reader I don't mind them not giving her an explosion skill. I am a bit disappointed they don't utilize the shadow manipulation aspect of her power for her gameplay.
Hi, thank you so much for this. I’ve been playing very casually since 2021, and when I pulled Vivi this banner, I decided I’d actually try to start picking some five and six stars to level instead of relying on my favored fours and threes, and it was hard, wading through all of the comments about how terrible Vivi is. I will say, I wish you had more, “So you want to use,” style videos. You have a very great, clean way of explaining things! I’d love to see your takes on other characters too.
Great video! So much to unpack on this one. 1) I love it when people don't go the route of echoing community rhetoric of XYZ character is bad but instead go, "what is this character good at and how can you use them" so kudos to you sir. 2) It's not uncommon to give 6* operators skills that mirror lower rarity operators and often each of their 3 skills mirrors a different lower rarity operator's niche in some way. Take Saileach for example, she has a pure dp skill, a heal (like myrtle) and an AOE slow (like elysium). Obviously mirrored doesn't mean exactly the same, they can have compelling changes to make them more interesting. 3) Having 2 "Surtr's" is not necessarily a bad thing. You can use BOTH of them in your team. 4) I never really say any character is bad but there was something about Viviana that irked me a bit and that was the approach they took to her design. Some of the stuff you alluded to already, she is clearly an aoe arts damage dealer as an enemy and none of that was brought over into her kit. Now in fairness to HG on this point they had just released Qiubai like 6 months earlier so that would've been a bit redundant. *cough* Yato-Alter *cough* However, before Viviana we had exactly one 6* arts guard, Surtr. Surtr's specialty is killing bosses primarily, she can be used for other things of course but most people use her to kill bosses or very strong enemies. So now when I look at Viviana's kit design and see all the benefits are triggered by bosses and elites I'm like "seriously, you gave her a niche focused on the same thing that the only other 6* arts guard in the game already does?!?!" In other words I am irked by the developers but I don't think that inherently makes her bad, it's just kind of a meta annoyance that hangs over her like a cloud. I guess they were going to make her redundant one way or the other whether they made her aoe arts or a boss duelist. I assume they thought that the latter had more wiggle room for originality but we're only left to wonder what she could've been if they had gone with a kit more in line with her enemy abilities. All that having been said, I'm not saying that she's a carbon copy of Surtr. I think that there can be instances where having to wait 90 seconds for Surtr's redeploy can be a big liability for example, so having the ability to stay deployed more consistently can have benefits and you gave a few great examples of that.
I’d say the “problem” with Vivi is that she plays like a 5 Star with inflated stats. (Or a 6 Star with two S2s) The player base is used to Guards who are either AFK perma-skills like Mountain & Thorns, or Heli-drop F*ck You buttons like Surtr Also, you’d expect Vivi to be a Mystic Caster. I honestly imagined Shining Alter to have a kit like this
Thanks for this. Viviana is my most anticipated NPC becoming playable and I was pretty devastated when CN players said she was bad. Having a better understanding of her strengths gives me hope that I can find ways to enjoy her anyway. I'd hope she gets a cracked module but... any mod she gets, Surtr would also get. So I feel like unless they do something similar to Gladiia, where her mod3 removes the restrictions on her full power talents, she may be merely 'fine' forever. Maybe she'll get a delta module that gives her burn elemental damage or something, that would be fun.
got vivi on the free pull and assumed it was going to be a bad run. Thanks to this guide i got a new backup to rotate when Surtr is on cooldown. Really missed that triple hit part when i first read on her S3. Thanks for the great guide!
lol in some of your examples, surtr will survive longer and deal more damage with just better medics behind her, but yeah I get your point. I will be building Viv anyway
To me, Viviana is a bit self-contradictory. With her S3, she prioritises attacking Elites, but wants to be deployed where that priority is not really needed. Add the extra range and there's suddenly the impression of deploying her behind another unit to focus the Elites among the common enemies. But that means voiding her Shield, which can only block melee damage. And a question I have regarding her is how blocking a common enemy affects her damage dealing. Is she still attacking the incoming Elite? I get that this is not really a concern in the use-cases you have shown, but it is relevant when thinking about making full use of every aspect. Because there's always something left on the table otherwise. Still, even a Module that gains benefits from the Shield would only do so much. A benefit when she loses it would incentivise dueling, but that either makes her priority rather niche or fail to make full use of her extra range again. A benefit to having it would make using Viviana's S3 comparatively lacklustre when actually dueling, since that benefit might not be active on her next attack. Best of both worlds would be a benefit to the Shield that sticks around long enough for Vivi to attack again and get it back. Given that there's a 16.6% of NOT getting the Shield in three hits at the moment (without Potentials), even a small increase of 5% would bring that down to 1 in 8. Still not completely reliable, but enough so that her damage in this offence orientated META would improve. Her S2 is more consistent in this, even if it turns her into "just" a direct upgrade to Astesia. Still, it would be the way I use her most at the moment. We don't have a lot of good options when it comes to melee Arts Damage Dealers that can also take a punch. But this too greatly diminishes the impact her Shield has. Because she isn't dueling as much anymore since she turns into more of a lane holder. In the end, Viviana really does not live up to the hype. The big nuke in her enemy version was just too much. Although I have to say that this playstyle was kind of foreshadowed. Vivi's match against Margret was marked by how well she endured the onslaught by ways of using her Arts to both mitigate and counter the Radiant Knight. Meaning that this version is much more lore accurate than the other. For now, I am hoping that discourse around her calms down soon and that we will get to see some high profile uses for her on EN servers.
i pulled Vivi on the 10 pull free thingy, but my problem with her is that she gives the 'i gonna 1v1 solo bosses' vibes wich made me not want to build her so much, cus i'm used to use the whole team to kill bosses, in fact i compared her with guard Amyia wich is the one who usualy tank the boss wile every other character gives suport due her true damage and pasive buff to every operator making her a solid pick for the job.
imo a lot of the issues come from Arts Guards as a whole being, kinda... outdated? Surtr is mostly used specifically for the helidrop and RES Ignore, we are at a point of the game where in hard content (operator power is kinda fully irrelevant on normal content) where theres not much space for this, Surtr was never the best DPS to begin with, she got a lot of her value in the role condensation she does, being a helidrop boss killer that has RES Ignore is massive for her value, Surtr escapes her own archtype just like Mountain does. It's so tragic that Vivi wasn't a Mystic Caster, a Mystic Caster AoE focused variant would have been so great
Hundred and 180 pulls: -3 viviana -1 mizuki Fuck it we ball builded her just for coming home trice my 1 year of savings? Back to zero Nian rerun is comming? Fuck it like bro she's dedicated to stop me from getting virtuosa she my main dps now.
Vivian is a good operator, I would even go as far as saying she’s great. But this exact situation with Vivian being compared to Surtr is exactly what happened when Chongyue was compared to Mountain. Not every new operator in the same sub-class has to be as strong if not stronger, which is why I am scared for the next sword master operator to come out because they’re gonna be compared to Degenbrecher, which will be an uphill battle
As a Viviana stan(I almost got bankrupt on resources rolling for her) I greatly approve of this video! She might not be perfect in terms of gameplay and meta, but if there's a will there's a way, and I will always try to find a way to make her shine
Am I happy she's here? Heck yes! Am I happy I pulled her? Yep! Am I gonna e2 L90 M3 her? Yep! Do I wish she actually DID something with her, you know, candlelight? ...also yes :/
In the process of leveling both Virt and Vivi, both are E2 already. I like the duelist fantasy S3 provides and think it’s a solid addition to the roster of duelist ops we have. She’s our best arts duelist by far, which isn’t saying a ton but it’s the thought that counts. She’s kinda like an arts dreadnaught in a sense. Also she cheeses arts damage with S3 alongside Nightingale, 100 res is funny.
Idk what it is, but i'm slightly obsessed with Arts Guards and Swordmasters. I'm loving Viviana so far and her E2 art is beautiful. I love flowy things. I'll probably end up M3'ing S2 as well.
Honestly, I feel like the only reason why Viviana is ok is because game is just let you get away with using her, by that I mean - general content in AK is pretty easy to the point even bad ops can do some fair job here and there, while I wouldn't say she's unusable, I could say her kit is flawed, but at least not killed by enourmous sp costs like for some other ops
Viviana is strong, but if she gained the ability to cause an Arts AOE explosion every time her shield was destroyed a.k.a Candlelight Blast, that would've been enough to give her a complete identity (plus RES shred, of course).
both my viviana and virtuosa are still at lvl 1 cuz the star of the show for me on this banner was skadi alter and my journey saving 300 pulls for her since god knows when lol i like to do some lvl gaming runs but even at that, viviana doesnt seem to do much ngl
Thank you for making this video. I ended up pulling a ton of this banner and got max potential Vivi. I was disappointed because everyone just says she’s meh. This makes me actually want to build her up and use her. I have a max Surtr as well, so it’s not like I’m missing out on arts damage. Though the self drain after is painful. Hopefully people start to use and appreciate her more. I know I am.
Do it. Use a flagbearer with a module and you'll have a potential 3-block AOE guard for lane holding and you'll see how capable she is. Playing with her range on S3 is fun as well. She's able to outrange Degen's lockdown from Break the Ice, so there's a lot of potential for lane hopping DPS like people did with Blaze back in the day. Lots of fun to be had with Viviana.
I still wish on how she couldve been THE FIRST elemental damage appliers along with virtuosa, except shes a burn applier..especially since theyre in the same debut banner! Calling her bad imo is just not right but totally underwhelming for how much hype she had as an enemy unit :') still love and got her nonetheless
People being mad for a character not being good enough is something i can never understand since my game plan is just: - "Is that character playable?" - "Yes" - "Use them." that goes for U-Official too xD
They had the history turning boss unit into operator. Mudrock kit's mostly follow her general boss theme, a damage sponge that utilize shield and high bonking damage. They could make Viviana be some kind of hybrid ranged unit. S1 and S2 is the same but it can hit aerial, S3 is the big aoe that works similarly like passenger but only a single damage instance, has 2 charges and will prioritize elites and bosses and also ignore some res if it targets elites and bosses.
I think it's absolutely correct that the loss of her identity is what really makes people mad and/or disappointed. But I also have to say that while she's good at her niche, the real issue is that Arts Guards as a whole are incredibly unnecessary if you aren't a very new player because there are so many casters that both do more damage and have RES shred on top. Eyja, Ifrit, GG and Ceobe to name some, not to mention the specific niche of clowning on bosses can include dropping a RES-shredding Texas with S2 to assists the casters as the laneholder. Hell, Kay's new module makes her super effective against precisely the bosses Vivi is, to the point that she could step all over the massive stat-sticks in DoS (doing 50-75% of their DEF as bonus arts damage per hit at that speed is ridiculous, even Eyja can't keep up if the HP bar is large enough). I also think people really wanted her shield to be good to break her out of that very small niche. Once you need backup dancers in the form of healers, she also drops into the pile of any other laneholder that can clown on a boss, such as Chungus whose bonus damage ignores everything because it stacks so high. In other words, she'll function but someone else is probably better when healers enter the scene. It shouldn't dissuade you from pulling a cool character, it's just the old "someone much better is right around the corner" routine (Degenbrecher) so non-waifu pulls for a regular unit can't be recommended if you don't have a large roster. She ended up spooking me on my daily free pull today, so I won't complain because her character design is fantastic.
She's my favorite character in the game, and my first e2 level 90 operator. But she is really hard to get good value from. I don't think Surtr is the correct thing to compare her to; it's better to contrast her with defenders who do arts damage, and several of those put up better defense and block with comparable damage numbers. Her kit is also almost flavorless. No light or shadow, just hit people with sword. No explosions. Even her S3 feels like a very good 5* S2. Good numbers, but no flavor or mechanics really.
I don't think she's hard to get good value from at all. She benefits from pairing with every Flagbearer in the game as it gives you +1block and a free heal/slow/fragility. That alone gives her AOE guard potential for spam waves. She works great with Ines's slow and reveal on S3 too. When Iana comes to global she's the ideal frontal unit for her. Skyfire's Talent is amazing with both Vivi S2 and S3. Pram's Fragility, Weakness, and Res Reduction are everything she needs. Saria, Suzu, and Gnosis all synergize amazingly. Skalter is always amazing, but even more so with the double and triple hits. Aak barely damages her on skill with S3. Quercus and Ptilosis helps her skill cycles immensely. Leonhardt can work as an on damage wave thinner and Res shredder Even operators like Ange and Ayer work well to offset the S3 atkspd debuff. I suppose if you don't use any of those operators, then maybe she might feel tough to get decent value. I always bring Sail and Skalter with me, so my Viviana has been cutting through everything. Playing around all of the additional synergies has been incredibly fun.
@@BlahBlahFreemanokay, now re-read your own comment You suggested _14_ operators that synergise with her to make viviana *decent* . Also, why use a flagbearer to increase her block count? She's meant to be a duelist, and trash mobs eat up her talent 2 shields which could be used to negate some of the damage that the boss deals. Flagbearer is a shitty synergy for candleknight. Also, why should I use viviana if there's better operators for soloing elite and boss enemies, such as hellagur with his s2 75% dodge (viviana has only an ~50% chance to resist an attack even with s3 active). Or someone like nearl alter with her true damage, or skadi with her massive stats? They require almost no support (except for a healer, which is also kinda optional if you have someone to provide passive regen), they work well with buffs (which candleknight requires in hard fights, while the mentioned operators don't) and they are fun to play with, because they have various cool talents instead of a basic "oh +10% shelter and +10% damage"
@@theguywhichismessingaround Synergies exist to make operators better, regardless of if they're great without them already. Viviana doesn't need synergies to make her "decent". She's already decent. They just make her better. You sound like someone who hasn't actually raised Viviana. If you have, and you've actually tried her use-cases you'd understand why Flagbearers, especially Sail is a powerful synergy. Among all the others as well. You don't have to use any of the operators I listed, but if you do they all benefit Viviana in impactful ways. I never said you had to play around her synergies. The argument isn't that you should use Viviana. It's that if you choose to, you'll find that she's more capable than people make her out to be, yourself included. It's like asking why people do AH clears, or any nicheknight comps. If you want to play meta, no one is stopping you. There's always going to be an most efficient clear; and if that's all you care about then Viviana isn't for you and that's fine. But doomposting about a capable kit just because the kit isn't meta is kind of silly imo.
@@BlahBlahFreeman she's a lot less capable than any of the previously released duelists. She sucks. Sure, you _can_ use her, but that doesn't change the fact that she is easily replaceable by any other 6* duelist-type of unit, and hell, even some 5* are better than her at dealing damage to tough enemies. She is usable, but certainly not worth the investment considering that her niche of "dueling tough enemies" is an overcrowded one and she isin't the best at that niche either
@@theguywhichismessingaround We can agree to disagree then. I would still recommend you actually raise and use her, or the next operator to decide to doompost on so at least your opinions aren't coming by proxy.
If there's one thing I would like them to give Viviana, it would be a mechanic where her unique arts are actually used. Twin Towers Spoilers ahead for Viviana's arts prowess: Viviana's arts in story is a sort of shadow manipulation to what I understand, while Viviana's in game mechanic is to just generate shields by hitting. Enemy Viviana also does explosions n' stuff right? What happened to this? It would be cool if in the end of Viviana's 3rd skill, she just busts everywhere according to the amount of times she attacked enemies. Either way, I pulled for her even though it took like 280+ pulls because... She's the damn Candle Knight, her VAs are outstanding, and just like you, I'm not much of a meta player. Meta has lost meaning at this point in my AK journey and I just pick who I like as long as it's possible.. Though my favorites are the Siracusans and Abyssals Edit: Right, and her illustrator is Chuzenji. I love my Chuzenji works
It's eerily thematic that Viviana, the subject of much speculation and rumor from the in-lore press, would herself be scrutinized and judged by the playerbase.
So does her shield block melee only or what's going on in the Manfred clip Also Surtr's 8 sec immortality can be better depending on the threat. A high HP pool combined with it can wall out a high atk fast aspd enemy that'd shred Vivi, but Vivi definitely wins out on slow, hard hitting enemies.
Ppl just dissapointed that she doesnt nuke enemies with s3 but cmn, we were told during all the event she was a great swordfighter rather than caster, am dissapointed enemies dont explode but sure i love having an arts guard with more than 2 default block and that can just stay in map
The only and only things that I'm upset about viviana is that she doesn't have that candle knight explosion from the boss version.. Other than than I'm quite happy with her
Haven't played in two years and too much shit is going on. I loved how we just had to smash them all away using silver daddy and ice cream queen back then
To make her better, they should make her S3 infinite duration, or at the very least have a unique longer duration. To make her Viviana, she should’ve been an AoE Caster.
I think she's supposed to be a lane holder with a mix of elite and boss killer. So at least she's a bit different with surtr in terms of role (helidrop). Although i would have preferred if she can cast her nuke like in cc#8. Something like a huge arts aoe with long casting time
I did not expect another nuker, because those like Surts are a design mistakes and makes them forever meta. Now they design enemies, like Manfred, around more balanced units like Viviana. She also has lane holding ability against medium or even strong enemies. She’s overall BALANCED and that’s a healthy thing for a game. We need options, not another meta-breaker, that’s gonna be a problem if you miss it (looking at you Mwynar…). I am SO happy with Viviana, instantly S3M2 and now trying to push chapters to 13 so that I can finally M3 her skill, and I will probably push her S2M3 as well. I waited for her to be released and I will not tolerate anyone who says “but she was stronger as a boss and now she’s meh” - you are disrespectful to our Candle Knight.
I find that Vivianas greatest strength is her range extension. Arts fighters typically have 1 tile attack range and are squishy and never want enemies to touch them. Surtr gets over this by literal godmode, the others get over it by hefty attack reduction or big def/healing. Viviana has the advantage of working equally well behind a defender or a wall. "She is designed as a duelist, albeit one with many conditions applied" nah bro, she is basically Lappland behind a wall who trades silence for a lot more arts damage. All the benefits with none of that pesky downside like "why doesn't she work without a medic?" or "skill ran out, couldn't generate shields and was one shot".
When I saw Vivi, I just know that I need to roll for her. She is just so pretty. I don't care if she's meta or whatnot. Thanks for this video tho, I can use her right 👍.
0:56 does that role very well 8:55 she has a clear role and she does it well no, Astesia powercreep in 2024 at "best" and a Surtr competitor aka bosskilling at worst Shes trying to be both but failing at both, yeah astesia powercreep but what do you expect for a 6*?
Hi! Thanks for watching~ Viviana is pretty :)
Also sorry for the low quality recordings in some of the footage, my recording software reverted back to its default settings for some reason, when I started to notice, I had already recorded about half the footage :/
Join our discord server here if you're interested:
discord.gg/feghXsUpr6
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My main problem with Viviana is her wearing freaking high heels, I can't take any fighter serious that wears high heels. :d
Thank you for a very informative video. I was wondering why you said that Surtr and Viviana have similar DPS during skill minus the Res shred. Surtr s3 reads +330% attack while Viviana reads +110%. Even with the talent 2 extra damage boost against elites and bosses, isn’t it the case that Viviana DPS during skill is lower? Or am I missing something? Thank you for your help.
@@eufrosniad994 After 2nd time activation Viviana's attacks become triple hits, getting similar dps to Surtr (Still lower though because of RES ignore and increased attack interval)
@@aizeroth8858 Ohh, completely forgot about the 3 times on 2nd activation. Thank you! That clarifies things.
I think you nailed exactly why people are actually disappointed. Viviana's kit feels like someone just designed a generic arts guard kit and slapped it onto her. Nothing really screams Candleknight. Great video!
@@kyarumomochi5146 to add to this with her limited resistance stripping of none you effectively need haze to not get one shot or use reed alter to make her DPS be useable against most bosses
Which when surtr exists doesn’t need to use her skill 3 twice and can typically be redeployed in the time it takes for her to be able to gain full value it really hurts her
i wanted to skip this banner but since i had some free pulls i pulled and got her. Compare to surtr she is fun to use. Surtr ruined a game, is boring shit and something to kill bosses for stupid and lazy people. Overpowered shit that dies after 9 seconds. This thrash unit from kazimierz event is fun unit, made to kill bosses, multiple fun skills, and talents.
same i wanna skip this banner but hey at least i have 60 pull. no Virtuosa but Viviana Pot 1. tho i have so many Guard already and have other arts guard that more cheeper. if only her Skill 2/3 can permanent active
@@alexandersebela370damn, did surtr users kill ur family or something 😂
@@alexandersebela370 damn what did Surtr do to you 💀
She's basically the epitome of that meme:
> Boss when you fight against him
> Boss when you unlock him as a playable character
And then there's Degenbrecher who may be even stronger than her Boss version. Unlucky Viviana. May she receive a great module.
@@mysteryofn2955 I can personally see her gaining res ignore either by modified class trait(at module level 1) or on one of her talents through module upgrade. Imo I would go for adding res ignore as a module effect, since the other Module able receivers besides Surtr(Astesia and Mousse mainly) also lack Res ignore, and then use the module upgrades to buff her first talent.
@@mysteryofn2955 when she gets her module surtr will also get a mod though... poor wax squire viviana should have stayed a boss :{ (im really disappointed she doesnt have her unique attack for her s3)
@@Vladumere It’s also kind of hard to fix with a module though, given the type of modifications we can hope to expect from past module releases. Lvl 1 of module might give some Res shred at best, but the rest of the levels will just modify the talents. Neither talent is exciting or good enough to get much of a boost from module unless we are looking at increases in the magnitude of 50%+. My guess is that somewhere down the line, they will release a Viviana Alter with a nuke skill.
@@eufrosniad994 50%+ is beyond ridiculous. Giving her 1st talent module even another 10 percent would be massive. Going from 9% to 19% inherently is huge. And 38% without literally any outside buffs just from a talent itself is monsterous. On top of any res shred she might get as well.
Viviana's first talent is primed to be one of the best single modules to be released, assuming HG doesn't undercut her with
i like how astesia looks
i like how astesia plays
i like how viviana looks
i like how viviana plays
i need no more i am at peace
i think another important point to bring up is that viviana is a REAL arts fighter, unlike surtr.
hg has historically been wary of making arts too strong. it's why casters typically attack slower than snipers and have higher dp costs, but there is only one form of melee arts damage (without being dependent on skills): the arts fighter archetype. because of this concern, arts fighters' kit feature a lot of defensive/survival oriented abilities. mousse lowers atk and increases her def, astesia increases her def, sideroca has self-healing, guardmiya has arts dodge and i-frames/res increase, and then... surtr has brief immortality.
it's hardly a hot take to say that surtr broke the archetype-- we all know this. she was such an offensive nuker that i think we, as a playerbase, forgot what arts fighters are actually supposed to do. viviana, therefore, is a RETURN to what arts fighters are meant to be. however, this ended up being disappointing because her kit is relatively lackluster and dps is easier to conceptualize than survivability. that's just how it goes, for better or for worse.
as i recall, there are story reasons for why she doesn't have her nuke from near light/cc8, but i will also say that that is not inherently acceptable. it's still going to be a disappointment, justified by lore or not. personally, i do not mind, but i know *many* players do, for which i do not fault them. even the lack of an homage bummed people out.
edit: also, imo, it's really annoying that they decided to give viviana steal but not do anything meaningful with it. i would have loved to see res stealing expanded upon, which could make her much more competitive.
hi! what is this real arts fighter means btw? have you tried to use her? I tried her on IS1 and in the 1st floor, s3 against armored crab and she took forever.. I paired her correctly right? against high armored mobs 1on1?
@@ironwiredglasses metal crabs have 70-85 res.
@@threehoo ah that's why huh.. I wonder why artsmiya do it better tho..
@@ironwiredglasses perhaps because she strikes twice and/or can do true damage
@@threehoo hmm.. I guess viviana s2 are more practical in this case then. thanks!
viviana is THE duelist, she sees an elite or boss and goes "you wut, you wanna go, well have at thee"
Exactly.
It wouldn't make sense for HG to release a unit that competes with Surtr, there's no reason to try to obsolete a unit that powerful. It's why Eyja is still Queen Caster. Look how fast everyone forgot about Phantom when Yato and Texalter showed up. And that's even considering that Phantom still has use cases that Yato and Texas can't compete with, but are so rare people consider Phantom dead now.
Making Viviana a Duelist that actually duels instead of just nukes everything is better for the game. I see a lot of people complaining that she's not like her boss form with some huge AOE nuke. But the thing is...if you want a caster with a big AOE nuke, we have Eyja. And we have Leonhardt. I've seen people go as far as to say that Viviana should have a Modal Caster range aoe true damage nuke. It's like people don't want interesting units, they just want win buttons that fit within a characters theme. Imagine that actually made Vivi have an massive aoe true damage nuke. The reality is that it would need to be low sp cost, and be massive damage or people would still complain that she's not better than x, y, or z op.
There's no winning unless you set a new standard for broken.
@BlahBlahFreeman I mean there is validity to what they say, could've been like an ash s3, limited use per deployment, it crazy but good enough but at the same time they gotta realise that bosses that become playable are heavily nerfed, examples like fighting general grievous but when you get him, he's hot garbage or shao khan in mk9 have hyper armor and high dps out the ass but being much weaker in mk11, these are inevitabilities that some just don't see. That being said, my bombshell german moose is fine as she is
@@TheWrathfulOni Yeah for sure. They could've went a few different ways with her kit. I feel like no matter though, people would've been upset unless she was as overpowered as the rest of the meta roster.
But then they did her dirty by giving away Lessing in the same event
And then the elite/boss is ranged attack like Jesselton Phase 1, her shield only block melee damage and blocking also doesn't work she get screwed. Awkward lol
Good video. The vivi slander has been over the top. She has an S tier design and voice. And a B+ tier kit. She's easily incorporated. I do wish they had given her a flashier S3 aesthetically
I feel like it would’ve made more sense to have her role be crowd control and the that would’ve also made sense with her boss version, instead of trying to directly do what surtr does.
I got 3 copies of her trying to get Virtuosa but hey, I’ll give Viviana her chance
with viviana I was honestly expecting an AOE version of ebenholz. because you could clearly see the design space for it with her holding charges by lighting up her candles and possibly having a trait where her normal attacks do aoe damage with the range going up depending on how many stacks of charge it has. Pretty easy to design an operator with those machanics, like one skill where she wont attack without full charge and it charges faster, or one that just lets her build up charge higher than her limit and she wont attack, and you activate it again to let her attack again to nuke something. Or, if they really wanted the shield bit, another phalanx caster.
the fact they made her a guard with basically nothing of her actual boss appearance is just really weird. Especially for how they managed degenbreacher, the first W, and mudrock.
mudrock might not be the best example
enemy mudrock could summon nigh-indestructible golems
I too wished for a flashier AoE casting skill from Vivi. But realistically..... the AoE casters in this game are pretty low-tier rn.
@@wilder6408 I can understand why the didnt do that for mudrock at that point in the game. The thing is they DID give us something very reminicient in how she actually acts as a boss translated into something we could use. Her lightning hammer strike -> spin to win. A summoner version of mudrock in the future would be neat too. Mainly, it's just when you see mudrock and how she plays, you can feasibly think 'oh, this is definitely a version of the character that was a boss I fought.' Compared to viviana pretty much having nothing in common over her boss counterpart.
@@wilder6408I mean, no. Boss Mudrock could not summon Golem. In the lore, yes, but the boss version didn't have a game mechanic that could interact with Golems and even less summon them
@@videoanon I would argue her imposing shields are the most iconic feature of the Mudrock boss fight, and they translated that very well to operator Mudrock. Viviana, though, what a waste. They should at least have translated the huge diamond nuke into operator Viviana, it was such an iconic part of her fight that losing it sucks. It might as well not be Candle Knight they released and just put in any random character, her design and kit is so generic and boring
@@leonidesbabanto1585 yeah, hence why I thought mystic caster with an aoe extra trait on top would be a fun idea. 1 charge for normal attacks to also attack 4 tiles around a chosen enemy in the cardinal directions, 2 charges for the 8 surrounding tiles, and 3 for the maximum diamond shape attack. especially since they have high single shot damage ceilings and are already known to wait around charging their attacks. As another trait add burn damage on top too, why not.
Big issue is they already had plenty of design space to make an interesting operator for us to use and instead gave us... current viviana. who is, as has been repeated a lot, EXTREMELY uninspired.
I just started the game coz my friend showed my virtuosa.
I got her and Vivianna, and the more I look at her the more I fall in love with the candleknight.
Thanks for this video!
I think one consistent thing I'm getting from your operator videos is that Manfred is a really well made boss. He actively discourages a lot of common unga bunga and gives a nice chance for operators with other niches to shine.
I disagree. The fact that manfred has a shield that only goes down for a few seconds after getting nuked encourages unga bunga strats. You basically want to nuke him in that dps window before he gets his annoying shield back up. Either that are stall him out
For me it was the poison dragon boss in the main story.
From laughing as I bursted him with Typhon to eating shit to 3 stacks of aoe poison.
@@twisted2151 its not that hes a bad designed boss, its just that the mortar is a terrible mechanic
Wait, what dragon @@Laru-
@@SunDry_Marchy the zombie lover twink psycho shota that gets a free originium shower in chapter 6 I think. You gotta stall that boss , it stacks a global poison dot everytime you do certain amount of damage.
Typhon S3M3 shits on him in 5 seconds , but then you die.
In my opinion the main reason why people are disappointed is that she completely lost her identity :(
People forgot she's not candle knight outside kaziermz....
What iddentity? 1 big boom every 30sec? if so this kit, no matter how bland, is still far more interesting... her S1 have more though put into it than her entire enemy "kit"
@@kevinseraphin5456 I mean HG can make her like that and it was easy
Make her atk range like 3x3, damage increase to 200% with ignore res by 10 and hit 4 enemies. And this skill charge to 1 and only once use every charge.
It's not that hard for HG I mean degen get this particular so what's the issue? HG want to make generic operator
@@abrahamwijaya6631They could have, but they didn't, they didn't had to, I too would have prefered a more interesting kit, but I'm fine with what we got, a less stupidly broken Surtr, wich I don't use because I feel my braincells falling on the ground doing so.
Controversial opinion: generic operator also have a place in the game.
Not every ops need to have a stupidly overbloated kit like Logos, it's also nice to keep it simple sometime.
Not realy, The candle knightclub specializes in 'long range arts' you can see that in her enemy version description, But i understand what you mean, And agree.
WE WANT NUKES
Viviana is one of the few operators that I pulled not because of meta-or gameplay, but because I loved the character. And to be honest, I had fun using her for this event story. She's been performing better than expected.
I will say though, if HG really wants to elevate this character to new heights, then they should give her a module that allows her a small (or fixed) chance of marking enemies and making them detonate several seconds after, dealing 3x3 AOE arts damage (just like Reed Alter, minus the chain-explosion). It fits in line with her lore abilities as well.
Tbh it is should be her first or second talent, the most thing i dissapointed on her design is that HG didn't bring the boom thing on her, it could be interesting and fun if they put it on her, i don't feel module will give that thing even the special one, bcoz it would like she has like 3 talent instead 2.
haven't watched the video, but I wanna say thank you for this, I feel like the community collectively disregards any arts fighter that's not surtr, even tho I personally love all of them as characters, i have to admit they're not my first choice for any stage really, so this series of videos you do is really nice, cuz a lot of characters I like for whatever reason are also weak lol.
I still think Viviana should have had an infinite skill. She has a clear focus on dueling elites while staying on the field but then they didn't give s2 or s3 "upon second activation, duration becomes infinite".
Edit: Yeah you have the same opinion as me. I like a lot of "bad" 6* (Ho'ol, Vigil, Lessing, etc) but I feel conflicted on whether or not I even want Vivi (I am waiting for the end of free pulls) bc her kit is like, really plain with no fun synergies or cool ideas behind it, but her design and effects are so nice
Her S1 should've been the infinite skill honestly. Should've been a double hit skill where she heal for a portion of the second hits damage.
Also, I disagree with your statement of no fun synergies. I'd argue the synergies Viviana has are what makes her fun. She's kind of the perfect canvas for any buff your standard team uses.
Any Flagbearer turns her into an AOE Arts Guard, that comes with a slow, heal, or fragility; which works well with both S2 and S3.
Ines's slow and reveal is great if that's your opener as it helps Viviana not leak.
All the dollkeepers are amazing frontal pair for Viviana, especially Iana.
Skalters S2 buff is multiplied by the double and triple hits.
Skyfires talent is amazing.
Prams entire kit is perfect for Viviana.
Saria, Gnosis, and Suzu are forever useful
Leonhardt is on demand wave thinning and res shredding
Ange's slow cycle perfectly covers Vivi CD, and atkspd offsets the debuff on S3.
Ptilo and Quercus are amazing her for skill cycles.
Aak S3 can be tanked on skill extremely easily.
The most fun is Heidi S2 and a flagbearer that essentially means Viviana is a perma 2-block unit and 3-block on skill for the entire stage with S2.
Regardless of if you use meta ops or off meta teams Viviana can benefit from so many synergies, half the fun of trying them all out and seeing which are better for each stage you bring her too.
@@BlahBlahFreeman You're right. I suppose I was thinking about units who become useful in interesting ways. Viviana can use basically every buffer and debuffer we currently have in the game but I don't expect to ever feel that "Wow! I got to try out a cool idea that specifically plays to some weird strength/trick this operator is capable of" bc she is just a fairly tanky guard who does decent arts damage. Nothing more and nothing less.
i E2'd viviana and never looked back!!Shes no surtr, but i love her especially since i dont have a lot of meta 6*(my luck sucks)
yeah, I agree-vivianna’s moveset really doesn’t scream candle knight-no fire, no light, just slashes that she’s not really known for
I feel like they could’ve given her explosions as part of her moveset as either a defensive tool or to clear minions around bosses-if that’s too broken, then follow the ‘illumination’ part of being the candle knight and have her give bosses increased taunt along with a mark/invisibility ignore!
also this is more of a me thing but I wish her shields aren’t melee-only-a lot of bosses nowadays and even back then use ranged attacks or even don’t use melee in the first place-making them also block ranged attacks from those bosses would be nice, too…
instead of multi hits, chance to attacks to explode(ignoring a % of enemy res) would have been so cool
@@oklahoma8666 Always a possibility for her second talent to have a breaking modifier like Mudrock and Nian got. Every shield that breaks explodes and reduces enemy res by x%.
@@BlahBlahFreeman that's genius
Did literally nobody read Near Light? People are all confused at the Elite enemy Viviana, that is the Candle Cult signature move, not Viviana's. Boss/elite enemies are not canon to the story. Ursula had no mentions in story of fighting by respawning at an altar, but you won't go around saying she respawns?
If you want to see how Viviana fights, go read her duel with margaret in near light.
yeah i wanna use Viviana but unfortunately i haven't successfully pulled her yet
I''ll bet none of the criticism would be there if she just had her WTF BOOOOM!!! nuke implemented in some way, even if just the freakin visual effects...
Arturia was already the Meta, Viviana was supposed to be the fun, gimmicky shit, like Irene or Bikini Swire!
Thank you for this and your other videos. I really appreciate the more casual perspective where not everything has to be meta. Viviana is the operator I really wanted from this banner, and I know I will enjoy using her, even if she isn’t the “optimal” choice.
I wanted her because she left a strong impression. I pulled for her even though her kit dissapointed me.
Thanks for the analysis, I think I might enjoy her more now
I'm glad that there's content out there showing off the operators that don't get enough spotlight. Keep up the good work man!
currently pulling for Arturia and got Viv
was sad at first but the way you explained her kit made me want to build her...i have been looking at this the wrong way
Thank yous and now I sub to thee 💖💖💖
Ok so I've started playing 6 days ago, ad apparently the Virtuosa/Viviana banner has a 20% chance to drop a 6 star in my account, now I have both of them, and just with the daily free pulls.
I've heard of how Viviana is considered weak and trash, but honestly I don't care so much since I'll consider my account completed once I'll get both Exusiai and Nian; anyway, thanks for the video and for explaining why she isn't trash, I have no idea yet of what her role in the story is, but I really like her design, she looks so seraphic and majestic, and will really like to use her.
This channel deserve more attention like this video, thank you for being a good doctor.
What I love about her is that she fits so damn well with both versions of Nearl on a line, she's THE back up for a line with Nearl The Radiant Knight S3 and her own S3. Put a Shiningale combo with them and they're absolutely powerful.
Thank you for the guide video!
I have P3 Viviana against my will.
P5 Vivi here. She stole all of my 122k red rocks in my journey to get virtosa to the point I sparked
I love Viviana she only need a module to ignores art res to be same as surtr hope HG give her that
Even if surtr has same module. It actually more benefits for Viviana due to facts she lack ignore...
If they gave surtr a module probably atk speed or hit aerial enemy and just reduce the life drain
@@lufasu9725 dude wtf hit aerial? You remind me of vifer now🤣
I mean she's already perfect she can do all boss killer just give her another job to do
@@lufasu9725 that's why I say you remind me of vifer
The guy who surted minimalist UFO....
I mean that's the job of sniper so don't add anything irrelevant man. You just saying surtr is baby mode🥱
I got Vivy in 21 pulls and I thought that with my pulls I couldn't get another 6* anymore, so I leveled her to E2 and got some mastery on her S3. (Got Virtuosa in another 30 pulls)
Used her in IS4 and she was really fun especially with some nice arts and range attack buffs she got 3k per hit and deleted everything in sight.
I would still buff her 2nd Talent.
In theory my idea for talent 2 is that she could generate "candle" shields against elite enemies and bosses that could act as damage reduction / heal back once broken. She could stack max 2 candles and 3 with pot 5. Idk about the strength of heal or dmg reduction, but I think it would feel more candle-ish and would be help of indicating when the shields are working. Over all she looks beautiful in E2 art and I am tempted to M6 her.
Bro you're so lucky 😭😭😭
I spent 100 pulls and got Viviana TWICE
No Virtuosa...
@@The_Vulcan I'm sorry for your loss T_T. Hopefully you can get her from daily free pulls or get lucky
I honestly find it quite tragic that her shields neither stack nor work against ranged enemies, hopefully the module would at the very least make it stack and probably even increase the base chance for it to happen, or hell heal once it's broken like you said haha
@@FABKlNG Yea she is such a cool character in the Kazimier and Lethanien storys and she had so much potential to be unique with Talents and Skills.
Maybe Arknights is just keeping her low profile, so when her alter releases it would blow up into a true Candle Knight.
Thank you, now I’m motivated to build her
I didn't get Viviana... got pot 2 Virtuosa instead. Still a great video my guy! Knowing I can't even have her but knowing that someone appreciate her, makes me feel a bit better of not having her
Edit: Nvm I got pot 3 Vituosa now 💀
As a low budget player, I can't really afford to spend hundreds of rolls on someone who does what my current operators do, but not quite as well. Heck, even if she were free, I'm not sure I'd rush to max her out
That's completely understandable~ my guides are just made for the people that actively do want to use the operator featured~
I was going to build her regardless of thinking she was bad but you really changed my mind here about her being bad. And yeah I think she gets the hate because she's the same role as the easy button of Surtr, and performs absolutely nothing like the boss.
I like how both you and I pet our operators heads on the main menu, I went to do it as you went to do it in the video lol
I LOVE that you were headpatting Viviana in the lobby at the end of the vid. And yes, I agree with what you said at the end. She's not bad, far from it. It's just she's not the candleknight we expected, which is a big bummer more than people think it is, considering that other bosses that become playable (i.e. W and Mudrock) had been designed to keep the playstyle of their boss counterparts. It's a shame that injustice was done to her, by how beautifully designed she is as a boss only to be so distant from it when playable.
You earned a sub my fellow doktah. As time and time again, there's no bad operators, just bad doctors.
Thanks for the review, I finally figured out how to use it. I was disappointed with her even though I was waiting for her as a playable character before the announcement in China. She's so sweet as a boss. I think the developers should have given her either massive damage as a surt or without 2 activation. so that she could immediately smash her face and not wait. it was also possible to give 1 skill with the torso so that it would give much less attacks, but it acted constantly. In short, such wonderful art against the background of a bunch of broken operators, you know the paternal feelings when your daughter was not appreciated and was given a bad skill.
I know this is a lot of copium but it would be very interesting if they gave her an elemental module (epsilon?) and she starts dealing burn damage. It would be very fitting for her both aesthetically and gameplay wise (burn damage deals arts damage explosion + lowers enemy res by 20)
Goated video
You have enlightened me. Thank you. My stigma has fallen, if only partially.
Really though, my main problem is "This isn't Viviana, this is a Astesia Alter in a makeover". This feels nothing like what the candleknight did. Meanwhile, Degen is literally next banner and uhhhh Lol, Lmao.
I wish they could rework her, but afaik due to chinese gacha laws they cannot change chars so greatly.
There is no law for that character changes you mentioned as of 2024 (NPPA. Regulator incharge of game approvals in China).
Their dev team is just lazy and mediocre. Hit or miss in kit design.
That's exactly why ops like Degen are bad for the game. Because people see HG release an actually well balanced op that embodies what her class is supposed to be; and everyone looks past them and say "Oh yeah, we have this new broken op coming, so no need for this balanced one when I'll get the busted one instead."
And honestly, if you want to use Viviana's boss form as an op, just raise Leonhardt. His S2 is basically what people wanted out of Viviana. If they made Viviana to be her boss form, instead of being Astesia alter it would be Leonhardt alter. Same thing, different tile.
@@BlahBlahFreemantbh no going back now since most people are used to op units that actual balanced characters are going to be ignored
I like how people talk about some operators so negatively (sometimes inspired or enforced by some shallow content creators) and yet these "niche" ops happen to be a hidden gem.
Eunectes for example I used to block Zarro on the S Stage of IlSiracusano, The Last Knight in IS3, the Avenger in CC12 (she could keep it stunned even with invincibility).
Ho'olheyak helped against those sheep in So Long Adele (Though i can't say for sure if by levitating they lost their carmine steam bonuses).
Wind Chimes survives slow hard hitters where many others wouldn't and with Quercus healing she's functional as a laneholder.
People also don't seem to talk enough about Cliffheard who can deal almost 2k true damage + stun every 15 seconds to 3 enemies (aerial included) which bypasses damage reduction mechanics, like Touch of Sanguinarch in ch10. And being a helpful against Manfred as well.
I even remember there was a point, a bit before module, that people talked bad about Ebenholz and yet, with one Warfarin buff he skipped boss HP% related mechanics, because with little management he did lots of damage.
Just teaches me when community talk so negatively about an operator I should be skeptical. At least to try and check out more about them.
Happens all the time honestly. The AK community only cares about braindead unga ops. Anything less and it's not worth pulling for. That's why a lot of content creators used to point out which ops were used in the high risk CC clears, or the easiest IS clears or whatever as a reason to pull for them over others; with no regard for the fact 99% of the player base isn't playing the game in that capacity.
Look at how everyone dunked on Swire when she came out. People were saying she's the worst 6* in the game. Worse than Passenger. Worse than Vigil. Then people started posting solo clears with Swire and all of a sudden people stopped bashing her.
I'm sure when the Arts Guard modules come out, people will stop shitting on Viviana and we'll see a wave of videos being like "Viviana is actually amazing now"
Not really. You casually left out og Passenger, Vigil, Spura, Tsumigi(???), etc. And most of the ops you mentioned are for fun ops. Build them if you want but stop capping PLEASE
@@danielbarnes1241 "for fun". 🤡
So as a fairly new player, the thing i understand is most players aren't disappointed cuz shes bad, they are disappointed because she isnt as good as they expected her to be.
To me this had let some confusion on her kit and the disappointment confuses new (perhaps also older players) into thinking that shes bad.
Thanks for clearing it up
i think i get it now, tysm, because ever since i got my vivi pot 1 what i initially thought was a total waste of my remaining materials to get her to e1 lvl 70 now is actually worth something. And after levelling up my virtuosa (which i luckily obtained later on with omertosa) i will definitely consider viviana e2
The problem I have with her is more or less the same as with Skadi and Ebenholz. They are Boss slayers but need to be completely invested in order to work, compared to blaze or thorns who work just fine at lvl 60 with no masteries or mods. In other words, high investment ops that may not see as much use as a lane holder or crowd controller, so I'd rather build cheaper and more versatile ops first. Still got her though.
He wanted to "squeeze" this into his upload schedule and it ended up being his most viral vid 😂😅 great video dude
Arts guard are generally focused on Defense and Survival, except for Surtr. The red haired one is meant for aggresive play when necessary. You can use Both of them. IMHO I'm glad to get Vivi, I'll build her soon and know she is my assistant
With no sustain they usually need healer and with 1 block off skill they need defender/another laneholder, so it's generally easier to take proper laneholder and caster for arts dmg. Look at any random clear and you almost never see arts guard used because why if others do their job better. Surtr overwhelming usage comes not only from raw dps, but from the fact the she has all she needs to do alone: you drop her use s3 and with hp increase multitarget and immortality it's usually enough for the situation, no need to back up her 1 block with someone, no need to heal till she does the job. Vivi folds like wet paper off skill, and if those elite enemies spawn not lines up with her skills CD she needs a lot of outside help. If her s2 was infinite from second activation, maybe she'd be proper arts guard laneholder. Or if her shields healed her on break like Mudmud.
As a story reader I don't mind them not giving her an explosion skill. I am a bit disappointed they don't utilize the shadow manipulation aspect of her power for her gameplay.
Hi, thank you so much for this. I’ve been playing very casually since 2021, and when I pulled Vivi this banner, I decided I’d actually try to start picking some five and six stars to level instead of relying on my favored fours and threes, and it was hard, wading through all of the comments about how terrible Vivi is.
I will say, I wish you had more, “So you want to use,” style videos. You have a very great, clean way of explaining things! I’d love to see your takes on other characters too.
Great video! So much to unpack on this one.
1) I love it when people don't go the route of echoing community rhetoric of XYZ character is bad but instead go, "what is this character good at and how can you use them" so kudos to you sir.
2) It's not uncommon to give 6* operators skills that mirror lower rarity operators and often each of their 3 skills mirrors a different lower rarity operator's niche in some way. Take Saileach for example, she has a pure dp skill, a heal (like myrtle) and an AOE slow (like elysium). Obviously mirrored doesn't mean exactly the same, they can have compelling changes to make them more interesting.
3) Having 2 "Surtr's" is not necessarily a bad thing. You can use BOTH of them in your team.
4) I never really say any character is bad but there was something about Viviana that irked me a bit and that was the approach they took to her design.
Some of the stuff you alluded to already, she is clearly an aoe arts damage dealer as an enemy and none of that was brought over into her kit. Now in fairness to HG on this point they had just released Qiubai like 6 months earlier so that would've been a bit redundant. *cough* Yato-Alter *cough*
However, before Viviana we had exactly one 6* arts guard, Surtr. Surtr's specialty is killing bosses primarily, she can be used for other things of course but most people use her to kill bosses or very strong enemies. So now when I look at Viviana's kit design and see all the benefits are triggered by bosses and elites I'm like "seriously, you gave her a niche focused on the same thing that the only other 6* arts guard in the game already does?!?!"
In other words I am irked by the developers but I don't think that inherently makes her bad, it's just kind of a meta annoyance that hangs over her like a cloud. I guess they were going to make her redundant one way or the other whether they made her aoe arts or a boss duelist. I assume they thought that the latter had more wiggle room for originality but we're only left to wonder what she could've been if they had gone with a kit more in line with her enemy abilities.
All that having been said, I'm not saying that she's a carbon copy of Surtr. I think that there can be instances where having to wait 90 seconds for Surtr's redeploy can be a big liability for example, so having the ability to stay deployed more consistently can have benefits and you gave a few great examples of that.
I was looking for this, thank you ^^
I’d say the “problem” with Vivi is that she plays like a 5 Star with inflated stats. (Or a 6 Star with two S2s)
The player base is used to Guards who are either AFK perma-skills like Mountain & Thorns, or Heli-drop F*ck You buttons like Surtr
Also, you’d expect Vivi to be a Mystic Caster. I honestly imagined Shining Alter to have a kit like this
Thanks for this. Viviana is my most anticipated NPC becoming playable and I was pretty devastated when CN players said she was bad. Having a better understanding of her strengths gives me hope that I can find ways to enjoy her anyway.
I'd hope she gets a cracked module but... any mod she gets, Surtr would also get. So I feel like unless they do something similar to Gladiia, where her mod3 removes the restrictions on her full power talents, she may be merely 'fine' forever. Maybe she'll get a delta module that gives her burn elemental damage or something, that would be fun.
got vivi on the free pull and assumed it was going to be a bad run. Thanks to this guide i got a new backup to rotate when Surtr is on cooldown. Really missed that triple hit part when i first read on her S3. Thanks for the great guide!
lol in some of your examples, surtr will survive longer and deal more damage with just better medics behind her, but yeah I get your point. I will be building Viv anyway
To me, Viviana is a bit self-contradictory.
With her S3, she prioritises attacking Elites, but wants to be deployed where that priority is not really needed. Add the extra range and there's suddenly the impression of deploying her behind another unit to focus the Elites among the common enemies. But that means voiding her Shield, which can only block melee damage.
And a question I have regarding her is how blocking a common enemy affects her damage dealing. Is she still attacking the incoming Elite? I get that this is not really a concern in the use-cases you have shown, but it is relevant when thinking about making full use of every aspect. Because there's always something left on the table otherwise.
Still, even a Module that gains benefits from the Shield would only do so much. A benefit when she loses it would incentivise dueling, but that either makes her priority rather niche or fail to make full use of her extra range again. A benefit to having it would make using Viviana's S3 comparatively lacklustre when actually dueling, since that benefit might not be active on her next attack. Best of both worlds would be a benefit to the Shield that sticks around long enough for Vivi to attack again and get it back. Given that there's a 16.6% of NOT getting the Shield in three hits at the moment (without Potentials), even a small increase of 5% would bring that down to 1 in 8. Still not completely reliable, but enough so that her damage in this offence orientated META would improve.
Her S2 is more consistent in this, even if it turns her into "just" a direct upgrade to Astesia. Still, it would be the way I use her most at the moment. We don't have a lot of good options when it comes to melee Arts Damage Dealers that can also take a punch. But this too greatly diminishes the impact her Shield has. Because she isn't dueling as much anymore since she turns into more of a lane holder.
In the end, Viviana really does not live up to the hype. The big nuke in her enemy version was just too much. Although I have to say that this playstyle was kind of foreshadowed. Vivi's match against Margret was marked by how well she endured the onslaught by ways of using her Arts to both mitigate and counter the Radiant Knight. Meaning that this version is much more lore accurate than the other. For now, I am hoping that discourse around her calms down soon and that we will get to see some high profile uses for her on EN servers.
Using Surtr vs Viviana feels like the difference between using Silverash and Mlynar.
i pulled Vivi on the 10 pull free thingy, but my problem with her is that she gives the 'i gonna 1v1 solo bosses' vibes wich made me not want to build her so much, cus i'm used to use the whole team to kill bosses, in fact i compared her with guard Amyia wich is the one who usualy tank the boss wile every other character gives suport due her true damage and pasive buff to every operator making her a solid pick for the job.
imo a lot of the issues come from Arts Guards as a whole being, kinda... outdated? Surtr is mostly used specifically for the helidrop and RES Ignore, we are at a point of the game where in hard content (operator power is kinda fully irrelevant on normal content) where theres not much space for this, Surtr was never the best DPS to begin with, she got a lot of her value in the role condensation she does, being a helidrop boss killer that has RES Ignore is massive for her value, Surtr escapes her own archtype just like Mountain does.
It's so tragic that Vivi wasn't a Mystic Caster, a Mystic Caster AoE focused variant would have been so great
Hundred and 180 pulls:
-3 viviana
-1 mizuki
Fuck it we ball builded her just for coming home trice my 1 year of savings? Back to zero Nian rerun is comming? Fuck it like bro she's dedicated to stop me from getting virtuosa she my main dps now.
Vivian is a good operator, I would even go as far as saying she’s great. But this exact situation with Vivian being compared to Surtr is exactly what happened when Chongyue was compared to Mountain. Not every new operator in the same sub-class has to be as strong if not stronger, which is why I am scared for the next sword master operator to come out because they’re gonna be compared to Degenbrecher, which will be an uphill battle
Wanted Vivana, pulled for Viviana, didnt get her instead got Virtuosa.
Suffering from success
Now i await the dragonlady!
As a Viviana stan(I almost got bankrupt on resources rolling for her) I greatly approve of this video! She might not be perfect in terms of gameplay and meta, but if there's a will there's a way, and I will always try to find a way to make her shine
Am I happy she's here? Heck yes! Am I happy I pulled her? Yep! Am I gonna e2 L90 M3 her? Yep! Do I wish she actually DID something with her, you know, candlelight? ...also yes :/
In the process of leveling both Virt and Vivi, both are E2 already. I like the duelist fantasy S3 provides and think it’s a solid addition to the roster of duelist ops we have. She’s our best arts duelist by far, which isn’t saying a ton but it’s the thought that counts. She’s kinda like an arts dreadnaught in a sense. Also she cheeses arts damage with S3 alongside Nightingale, 100 res is funny.
Imagine her module gives her 3 shield stacks and get 3 sp when a shield breaks. She would be invincible.
Idk what it is, but i'm slightly obsessed with Arts Guards and Swordmasters. I'm loving Viviana so far and her E2 art is beautiful. I love flowy things. I'll probably end up M3'ing S2 as well.
Honestly, I feel like the only reason why Viviana is ok is because game is just let you get away with using her, by that I mean - general content in AK is pretty easy to the point even bad ops can do some fair job here and there, while I wouldn't say she's unusable, I could say her kit is flawed, but at least not killed by enourmous sp costs like for some other ops
Holy shit this is such a good video, you're a life saver
Viviana is strong, but if she gained the ability to cause an Arts AOE explosion every time her shield was destroyed a.k.a Candlelight Blast, that would've been enough to give her a complete identity (plus RES shred, of course).
both my viviana and virtuosa are still at lvl 1 cuz the star of the show for me on this banner was skadi alter and my journey saving 300 pulls for her since god knows when lol
i like to do some lvl gaming runs but even at that, viviana doesnt seem to do much ngl
Thank you for making this video. I ended up pulling a ton of this banner and got max potential Vivi. I was disappointed because everyone just says she’s meh. This makes me actually want to build her up and use her. I have a max Surtr as well, so it’s not like I’m missing out on arts damage. Though the self drain after is painful. Hopefully people start to use and appreciate her more. I know I am.
Do it. Use a flagbearer with a module and you'll have a potential 3-block AOE guard for lane holding and you'll see how capable she is.
Playing with her range on S3 is fun as well. She's able to outrange Degen's lockdown from Break the Ice, so there's a lot of potential for lane hopping DPS like people did with Blaze back in the day.
Lots of fun to be had with Viviana.
I just want a good operator in a good game.
Viviana, initially, I didn't expect much from her, now she's my dub assistant x)
Pov: You have lost the 50/50 in the virtuosa banner
I got her and I’m happy! I just love her design!
I still wish on how she couldve been THE FIRST elemental damage appliers along with virtuosa, except shes a burn applier..especially since theyre in the same debut banner! Calling her bad imo is just not right but totally underwhelming for how much hype she had as an enemy unit :') still love and got her nonetheless
The fact that she is the only one can solo boss of 2nd daily map max risk of CCB#1 speak volume
People being mad for a character not being good enough is something i can never understand since my game plan is just:
- "Is that character playable?"
- "Yes"
- "Use them."
that goes for U-Official too xD
They had the history turning boss unit into operator. Mudrock kit's mostly follow her general boss theme, a damage sponge that utilize shield and high bonking damage. They could make Viviana be some kind of hybrid ranged unit. S1 and S2 is the same but it can hit aerial, S3 is the big aoe that works similarly like passenger but only a single damage instance, has 2 charges and will prioritize elites and bosses and also ignore some res if it targets elites and bosses.
So much Red Wine subscribers I say with all the misinfo and slander theyre pulling out of their asses.
I think it's absolutely correct that the loss of her identity is what really makes people mad and/or disappointed. But I also have to say that while she's good at her niche, the real issue is that Arts Guards as a whole are incredibly unnecessary if you aren't a very new player because there are so many casters that both do more damage and have RES shred on top. Eyja, Ifrit, GG and Ceobe to name some, not to mention the specific niche of clowning on bosses can include dropping a RES-shredding Texas with S2 to assists the casters as the laneholder. Hell, Kay's new module makes her super effective against precisely the bosses Vivi is, to the point that she could step all over the massive stat-sticks in DoS (doing 50-75% of their DEF as bonus arts damage per hit at that speed is ridiculous, even Eyja can't keep up if the HP bar is large enough).
I also think people really wanted her shield to be good to break her out of that very small niche. Once you need backup dancers in the form of healers, she also drops into the pile of any other laneholder that can clown on a boss, such as Chungus whose bonus damage ignores everything because it stacks so high. In other words, she'll function but someone else is probably better when healers enter the scene. It shouldn't dissuade you from pulling a cool character, it's just the old "someone much better is right around the corner" routine (Degenbrecher) so non-waifu pulls for a regular unit can't be recommended if you don't have a large roster. She ended up spooking me on my daily free pull today, so I won't complain because her character design is fantastic.
Thank you for making me feel better, I was trying to get Texas, 300 pulls in got 7 viviana :))
She's my favorite character in the game, and my first e2 level 90 operator. But she is really hard to get good value from. I don't think Surtr is the correct thing to compare her to; it's better to contrast her with defenders who do arts damage, and several of those put up better defense and block with comparable damage numbers.
Her kit is also almost flavorless. No light or shadow, just hit people with sword. No explosions. Even her S3 feels like a very good 5* S2. Good numbers, but no flavor or mechanics really.
I don't think she's hard to get good value from at all.
She benefits from pairing with every Flagbearer in the game as it gives you +1block and a free heal/slow/fragility. That alone gives her AOE guard potential for spam waves. She works great with Ines's slow and reveal on S3 too.
When Iana comes to global she's the ideal frontal unit for her.
Skyfire's Talent is amazing with both Vivi S2 and S3.
Pram's Fragility, Weakness, and Res Reduction are everything she needs.
Saria, Suzu, and Gnosis all synergize amazingly.
Skalter is always amazing, but even more so with the double and triple hits.
Aak barely damages her on skill with S3.
Quercus and Ptilosis helps her skill cycles immensely.
Leonhardt can work as an on damage wave thinner and Res shredder
Even operators like Ange and Ayer work well to offset the S3 atkspd debuff.
I suppose if you don't use any of those operators, then maybe she might feel tough to get decent value. I always bring Sail and Skalter with me, so my Viviana has been cutting through everything. Playing around all of the additional synergies has been incredibly fun.
@@BlahBlahFreemanokay, now re-read your own comment
You suggested _14_ operators that synergise with her to make viviana *decent* .
Also, why use a flagbearer to increase her block count? She's meant to be a duelist, and trash mobs eat up her talent 2 shields which could be used to negate some of the damage that the boss deals. Flagbearer is a shitty synergy for candleknight.
Also, why should I use viviana if there's better operators for soloing elite and boss enemies, such as hellagur with his s2 75% dodge (viviana has only an ~50% chance to resist an attack even with s3 active). Or someone like nearl alter with her true damage, or skadi with her massive stats? They require almost no support (except for a healer, which is also kinda optional if you have someone to provide passive regen), they work well with buffs (which candleknight requires in hard fights, while the mentioned operators don't) and they are fun to play with, because they have various cool talents instead of a basic "oh +10% shelter and +10% damage"
@@theguywhichismessingaround Synergies exist to make operators better, regardless of if they're great without them already. Viviana doesn't need synergies to make her "decent". She's already decent. They just make her better. You sound like someone who hasn't actually raised Viviana.
If you have, and you've actually tried her use-cases you'd understand why Flagbearers, especially Sail is a powerful synergy. Among all the others as well. You don't have to use any of the operators I listed, but if you do they all benefit Viviana in impactful ways. I never said you had to play around her synergies.
The argument isn't that you should use Viviana. It's that if you choose to, you'll find that she's more capable than people make her out to be, yourself included. It's like asking why people do AH clears, or any nicheknight comps. If you want to play meta, no one is stopping you. There's always going to be an most efficient clear; and if that's all you care about then Viviana isn't for you and that's fine. But doomposting about a capable kit just because the kit isn't meta is kind of silly imo.
@@BlahBlahFreeman she's a lot less capable than any of the previously released duelists.
She sucks. Sure, you _can_ use her, but that doesn't change the fact that she is easily replaceable by any other 6* duelist-type of unit, and hell, even some 5* are better than her at dealing damage to tough enemies.
She is usable, but certainly not worth the investment considering that her niche of "dueling tough enemies" is an overcrowded one and she isin't the best at that niche either
@@theguywhichismessingaround We can agree to disagree then.
I would still recommend you actually raise and use her, or the next operator to decide to doompost on so at least your opinions aren't coming by proxy.
If there's one thing I would like them to give Viviana, it would be a mechanic where her unique arts are actually used. Twin Towers Spoilers ahead for Viviana's arts prowess:
Viviana's arts in story is a sort of shadow manipulation to what I understand, while Viviana's in game mechanic is to just generate shields by hitting. Enemy Viviana also does explosions n' stuff right? What happened to this? It would be cool if in the end of Viviana's 3rd skill, she just busts everywhere according to the amount of times she attacked enemies. Either way, I pulled for her even though it took like 280+ pulls because... She's the damn Candle Knight, her VAs are outstanding, and just like you, I'm not much of a meta player. Meta has lost meaning at this point in my AK journey and I just pick who I like as long as it's possible.. Though my favorites are the Siracusans and Abyssals
Edit: Right, and her illustrator is Chuzenji. I love my Chuzenji works
It's eerily thematic that Viviana, the subject of much speculation and rumor from the in-lore press, would herself be scrutinized and judged by the playerbase.
So does her shield block melee only or what's going on in the Manfred clip
Also Surtr's 8 sec immortality can be better depending on the threat. A high HP pool combined with it can wall out a high atk fast aspd enemy that'd shred Vivi, but Vivi definitely wins out on slow, hard hitting enemies.
I've literally never heard of Virtuosa before this event whereas I knew of and loved Vivi since the Near ones.
You use Viviana for her status. I use Viviana because waifu. We are not the same. 🗿
Ppl just dissapointed that she doesnt nuke enemies with s3 but cmn, we were told during all the event she was a great swordfighter rather than caster, am dissapointed enemies dont explode but sure i love having an arts guard with more than 2 default block and that can just stay in map
The only and only things that I'm upset about viviana is that she doesn't have that candle knight explosion from the boss version.. Other than than I'm quite happy with her
Haven't played in two years and too much shit is going on.
I loved how we just had to smash them all away using silver daddy and ice cream queen back then
To make her better, they should make her S3 infinite duration, or at the very least have a unique longer duration.
To make her Viviana, she should’ve been an AoE Caster.
Oh, neat. I just finished her M9. She's quite fun to use so far.
I think she's supposed to be a lane holder with a mix of elite and boss killer. So at least she's a bit different with surtr in terms of role (helidrop).
Although i would have preferred if she can cast her nuke like in cc#8. Something like a huge arts aoe with long casting time
I did not expect another nuker, because those like Surts are a design mistakes and makes them forever meta. Now they design enemies, like Manfred, around more balanced units like Viviana. She also has lane holding ability against medium or even strong enemies. She’s overall BALANCED and that’s a healthy thing for a game. We need options, not another meta-breaker, that’s gonna be a problem if you miss it (looking at you Mwynar…).
I am SO happy with Viviana, instantly S3M2 and now trying to push chapters to 13 so that I can finally M3 her skill, and I will probably push her S2M3 as well. I waited for her to be released and I will not tolerate anyone who says “but she was stronger as a boss and now she’s meh” - you are disrespectful to our Candle Knight.
I find that Vivianas greatest strength is her range extension. Arts fighters typically have 1 tile attack range and are squishy and never want enemies to touch them. Surtr gets over this by literal godmode, the others get over it by hefty attack reduction or big def/healing. Viviana has the advantage of working equally well behind a defender or a wall.
"She is designed as a duelist, albeit one with many conditions applied" nah bro, she is basically Lappland behind a wall who trades silence for a lot more arts damage. All the benefits with none of that pesky downside like "why doesn't she work without a medic?" or "skill ran out, couldn't generate shields and was one shot".
If i want to use an OP unit, i'll use Mlynar.
If i want to use a unit I like, i'll use Viviana.
What if her 3rd skill 2nd activation was permanent? Would that make her more desirable?
When I saw Vivi, I just know that I need to roll for her. She is just so pretty. I don't care if she's meta or whatnot. Thanks for this video tho, I can use her right 👍.
0:56 does that role very well
8:55 she has a clear role and she does it well
no, Astesia powercreep in 2024 at "best"
and a Surtr competitor aka bosskilling at worst
Shes trying to be both but failing at both, yeah astesia powercreep but what do you expect for a 6*?