Table of Contents
Overview
- A buffer exclusive to Isabel; the majority of her incredibly strong buffs only work on Isabel, and she must burst at the same burst phase as Isabel is bursting in.
- Makes Isabel incredibly powerful, at the expense of the rest of the team, since Arcana’s general buffs are either not as strong or have a short duration compared to other B2 buffers.
- Base 40s CD mandates a second B2 on the team for the second B3 DPS unit.
- Rotations with Isabel are smooth thanks to cooldown that activates when the condition is met.
- Very beautiful…
Newbie/Incomplete Box Section
Arcana is a 40s CD B2 buffs that has incredibly strong buffs, with one catch: her buffs will only work on a burst 3 electric unit that reduces burst time duration. Isabel is the only Nikke currently available for the foreseeable future that can take advantage of Arcana’s huge buffs.
While Arcana does have generic buffs for the rest of the team as well, they pale in comparison to what she gives to Isabel. Isabel receiving both the generic buffs and Arcana’s exclusive buffs that last well into the next burst phase means that Isabel’s DPS can more than make up the loss in DPS from using a support that mainly supports one unit.
What’s the catch? Both Arcana and Isabel will have to be invested with a ton of skill books, since Arcana’s buffs scale so well, and Isabel’s skills have to be stronger to amplify the incredible power she’s receiving. Two slots dedicated to make one unit work very well means there will be team composition issues.
Unlike other duos, Arcana and Isabel must go together. While most other duos can be split up from each other and still work properly depending on team setup, Arcana’s not worthwhile to use without Isabel, and Isabel on her own is incredibly mediocre. This can make it prohibitively expensive, as both units have to be raised at once to see any sort of difference.
Basic Information
- Skill 1: Awakened Destiny
- Skill 2: Cycle of Destiny
- Burst: Shackles of Destiny
- Cooldown: 40s
- Rarity: SSR
- Burst: II
- Weapon: RL
- Class: Supporter
- Element: Electric
- Manufacturer: Elysion
- Squad: Best Seller
- Weapon Name: Fortune Teller
Skill 1: Awakened Destiny
■ Activates when Full Burst ends. Affects all Burst 3 Electric Code allies who previously cast their Burst Skill if self is in Wheel of Fortune status.
The Magician: Cooldown of Skill 2 ▼ 75% for 15 sec.
Attack damage ▲ 180% for 15 sec.
■ Activates when Full Burst ends. Affects all allies.
ATK ▲ 5% of caster’s ATK for 10 sec.
If Full Burst ends while Arcana still has her own Wheel of Fortune buff, it will trigger Awakened Destiny to give Isabel’s S2 a much shorter cooldown (from 15 seconds to 3.75 seconds) and a huge 180% attack damage for 15 seconds. Since it is attack damage, it multiplies with regular ATK buffs, meaning that a B1 ATK buffer like Liter will give Isabel big DPS. Isabel’s S2 with the buff will activate four times per buff cycle with Arcana.
Something to note is that because the buffs activate for Isabel when the Full Burst ends. Isabel won’t immediately take advantage of burst time buffs or Full Burst bonus damage, nor is she able to use most of her own Damage Taken debuff from her own burst with Arcana’s buff. However, since the exclusive buffs last 15 seconds, with enough burst generation, this is long enough to ‘double dip’ and grant Isabel the B1 supporter’s buffs, the second B2 supporter’s buffs and Full Burst bonus damage while it’s the second DPS unit’s time to burst.
It also grants everyone 5% of caster’s attack buff for 10 seconds. It’s not much on its own, but combined with all the other generic buffs that Arcana gives with all her skills, allies that have bursts with immediate damage can still take advantage of Arcana’s generic buffs, even if they aren’t as good as Isabel’s.
Skill 2: Cycle of Destiny
■ Activates when Full Burst ends. Affects all Burst 3 Electric Code allies who previously cast their Burst Skill if self is in Wheel of Fortune status.
Strength: ATK ▲ 180% of caster’s ATK for 15 sec.
■ Activates when Full Burst ends. Affects all allies if self is in Wheel of Fortune status.
Death: Cooldown of Burst Skill ▼ 6 sec.
ATK ▲ 50% of caster’s ATK for 5 sec.
■ Activates when Full Burst ends. Affects all allies.
Attack damage ▲ 7.5% for 10 sec.
Similar to her S1, Cycle of Destiny will only activate if Arcana has her own burst’s buff when Full Burst ends. If the condition is met, it grants Isabel a huge 180% caster’s attack buff for 15 seconds. Just like S1, since it activates after full burst ends, Isabel will make the most use of the big buff into the second DPS’s burst cycle.
Since the buff is based on caster’s attack, and the multiplier is so big, this does make Arcana one of the best scaling units in the game, even if it is mainly for one unit currently, as every point of attack Arcana gets is almost doubled when given to Isabel.
On top of this huge buff, it also grants all allies a 50% caster’s attack buff for 5 seconds, and 7.5% attack damage for 10 seconds. Due to the duration of the former being short, allies with bursts that deal all of its damage upon cast are the best at making the most of the limited buffs Arcana gives to them.
The cooldown the skill gives is mainly to ensure that Isabel’s shortened burst time duration doesn’t throw off regular burst cycles. Normally, using any burst time reduction unit necessitates two cooldown units to maintain smooth burst cycles, which was arguably one of their biggest problems, as cooldown units are too valuable for team comps in raids to relegate more than one in a team. Arcana exclusively fixes this problem for Isabel.
Burst: Shackles of Destiny
■ Affects all Electric Code allies.
Wheel of Fortune: Attack damage ▲ 10% for 10 sec.
■ Affects all enemies.
Deals 300% of final ATK as Burst Skill damage.
Judgement: Damage taken ▲ 10% for 10 sec.
Unlike her S1 and S2 buffs, Arcana’s burst buffs are incredibly weak by comparison. Despite this, it is the cornerstone of her entire kit. Both her S1 and S2’s huge buffs will only activate if Arcana has the Wheel of Fortune buff active when Full Burst ends.
Due to the buff being 10 seconds in duration upon cast, and standard full burst time is 10 seconds, it is not possible to activate S1 and S2 with standard full burst duration, unless it is shortened with a unit’s burst time reduction debuff like Isabel’s or Vesti’s. Since Arcana’s S1 and S2 buffs only activate for electric B3 allies that also cast their burst in the same burst cycle, only Isabel fits the bill.
Since the buffs are both 10 seconds, and Isabel reduces the duration of full burst for 5 seconds, that leaves 5 seconds for the buffs from burst to be used with all the available generic buffs for allies from Arcana that activate when Full Burst Ends.
If burst is generated fast enough, allies with an instant damage burst, like Scarlet, can make use of the combined damage taken +10%, attack damage +17.5% and caster’s attack +55% on top of the buffs their dedicated B2 supporter will give them.
Campaign
Unless you wish to use Isabel in campaign, it is not recommended you use Arcana for the regular campaign. As a 40s cd B2 unit, Arcana can’t be the only B2 on the team, and without Isabel, the big buffs are unable to go to any unit, resulting in a lot of lost potential. Even with Isabel, Arcana herself has very low utility other than huge buffs for her, meaning other units will have to make up for possible healing or shielding.
It should be mentioned that thanks to the powerful buffs Isabel receives, on top of the reduced cooldown from s2, Isabel’s wave clear is really good with Arcana, although it is about as good as it gets for other, more independent DPS units like Ein, Scarlet or Rapi: Red Hood.
Pointed Feather
Cooldown: 15s (3.75s)
■ Affects 5 enemy unit(s) with the highest final DEF.
Deals 170.58% of final ATK as damage.
While Isabel is incredibly powerful with Arcana, it is still two units that you have to invest in to make one of them work exceptionally. This can be more expensive over building more generalized units that have more team flexibility. While it can work, I personally don’t recommend it unless you really want it.
Arena
Arcana’s Rocket Launcher isn’t anything special, has a long reload, and Isabel is mediocre in PvP. Even if she weren’t, the huge buffs for Isabel only kick in after full burst ends, and that’s too slow for PvP. I don’t recommend Arcana for PvP.
To be noted is, that Arcana has the highest burst generation out of the currently available Rocket Launchers (non-clip, non-special)
Special Interception | Union Raid | Solo Raid
Due to the incredible power Arcana gives Isabel, the duo definitely has a spot in electric weak raids, if you’re willing to invest in both units. However, electric DPS is quite saturated at the moment, with powerhouses like Cinderella, Ein, Scarlet (with Trina especially), xMaiden and sAnis, as well as Maid Privaty with a dedicated shotgun squad.
If you happen to lack the seasonal electric units, it can be worth investing in the Arcana Isabel duo to make up for the loss. As the cornerstones of whatever team comp they’ll join by default, it’s ideal to make a team that Isabel can make the most of, as she will be the biggest benefactor of buffs.
In spite of how much power Isabel gains from Arcana, Isabel is a poor DPS to fight the Mirror Container Interception due to how its glass slippers mechanic work. In order to destroy a glass slipper and lower mirror container’s defenses, the basic attack’s damage has to be one strong hit to maximize its slipper breaking potential.
However, since Isabel is a shotgun unit, her basic attack’s damage is split equally into 10 pellets. Since only one damage instance will be counted, Isabel will generally struggle to break glass slippers unlike the more established Ein or Red Hood. If you are already strong enough where any unit can destroy the glass slippers, you may not necessarily need the duo as well.
Teams
This team minimizes the downsides of using both Arcana and Trina simultaneously. Both units generally superbuff one unit, while having smaller buffs for the rest of the team. With both superbuffers and their respective units on the same team, neither DPS will struggle with lack of buffs.
Trina provides both burst gen and healing that Arcana and Isabel lack. Scarlet is also a unit that can take advantage of Arcana’s lingering buffs with her Trina boosted, instant hitting burst. Recommended if you already have enough electric DPS built for an electric raid.
In electric raids where Maid Privaty will be the main DPS for the shotgun squad, Drake’s best position will be to buff Isabel, as it’s incredibly difficult to fit Maid Privaty, Bunny Soda and Drake on the same team. Drake’s S1 buff boosted by favorite item provides a big attack buff, ammo and hit rate on Full Burst that Isabel really appreciates.
Since the attack buff from Drake’s S1 multiplies with the attack damage buff Arcana provides, all four units can combine to give Isabel the most buff potential in a single unit at the moment. Drake is also a unit capable of using Arcana’s generic buffs to power up her burst’s damage, so Arcana isn’t necessarily useless for Drake.
Special Note: Tove
One might think Tove is a good idea to use to buff Isabel with attack speed she would love. In theory, it seems great, but in reality, because Tove isn’t a B1 cooldown unit, and Arcana necessitates a second B2 unit thanks to her 40s CD, this means the second B2 has to be Dolla.
Dolla’s buffs are incredibly weak in the current meta and her cooldown isn’t as good as a B1 cooldown unit’s. Bunny Soda’s burst time extension also prevents Isabel from receiving Arcana’s super buffs.
For the time being, Tove doesn’t work so great with Isabel, and by extension, Arcana.
Strengths
- The most powerful buffs in the game, even if they are exclusive to one unit.
- The best scaling buffs in the game, even if they are exclusive to one unit.
- Due to the fact that Isabel is a burst time reduction unit, team comps with Isabel and Arcana will burst more often, so Isabel can maximize time spent with huge buffs.
- Her lingering generic buffs that activate after full burst ends can still be used by allies with strong, instant damage bursts with enough burst gen.
- Smoothens burst rotations when bursting with Isabel, making it easier to use 1 cooldown reduction unit.
Weaknesses
- Buffs are exclusive to Isabel for the foreseeable future, this reduces team potential.
- Both Arcana and Isabel must be invested in to make the use of how polarizing the duo are, making it expensive to build both at once.
- Outside of buffing Isabel, Arcana provides very little to the team. No heals, shields, and cooldown only when bursting alongside Isabel.
- 40s CD burst cooldown mandates a second B2 unit.
- Electric DPS is saturated.
Rating
IMPORTANT: Her tier is based on the pairing with Isabel. On her own she is basically unusable.
| Category | Rating |
|---|---|
| Overall | 7.52 (B) |
| Story | 6.5 (C) |
| Bosses | 8.2 (A) |
| Arena | 6.5 (C) |
Recommended Cubes
As a supporter unit with little utility outside of providing huge buffs for Isabel, the highest leveled cube in your inventory is recommended to maximize the caster attack buff Arcana gives to Isabel, regardless of which one it is.
Expected Skill Priority
| Nikke | Budget Skill Investments | Recommended Skill Investments | Skill Priority | Notes | Investment Priority |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arcana | Skill 1: 4 Skill 2: 4(7) Burst: 4 | Skill 1: 7 Skill 2: 7 Burst: 4 | S2 > S1 | Skill 1 has similar massive buffs to Skill 2 provides buffs, with slight less priority. Skill 2 provied stronger buffs than Skill 1 and increases the provided cooldown reduction. Higher Priority. Burst is the weakest part of her kit and can be kept low, as the way it works is the same regardless of its level. | Mid |
