Catcher Guide and Best Build

Kit Intro

Catcher is a 4-star, Physical, Great Sword Survivalist who can shield the team, apply Protection, and counter enemy attacks with his Battle Skill, but can also apply Vulnerability at the same time. What makes Catcher unique is his combo-based shielding, which grants himself and the controlled operator a shield based on his Defense for a short duration. This shield is a nice survival tool, but the cooldown of the combo is much longer (a very long 35 seconds) than its duration, meaning you’ll either have to save and time its use or settle for situational uptime. 

Catcher’s Vulnerability application is linked to his Ultimate and Battle Skill, the latter of which is a parry/retaliation style attack, which allows him to strike a stance immediately to protect allies for a short period while counterattacking enemies that hit him, applying Vulnerability to them in the process. This is a situationally powerful Battle Skill, but usually not one you’ll want to rely on for your Physical team combos, as waiting for Catcher to be hit can ruin your team's flow. Catcher’s Ultimate, on the other hand, is far simpler: it applies Vulnerability and Weaken to enemies, stacking two beneficial effects on the one ability, making it a solid inclusion for most Physical teams.

As good as all that might sound, Catcher has a few fatal weaknesses. The first is that, despite being a Defender, he has no way to heal the team, which would be fine if his shields stuck around, but their uptime is severely limited. The second is that, despite having a solid Vulnerability application, other, still free characters simply do it better. 

Combo

Catcher’s combo skill is his signature ability and one of the main reasons you might consider bringing him over other Vulnerability-applying alternatives. 

One of two of its main draw cards is its activation requirement, which in many cases forcibly causes you to use it at the perfect moment to interrupt enemies. To trigger it, either the controlled operator must be attacked at 40% or lower HP, or the enemy needs to begin charging up a skill; that second one is what you want, as using it on that trigger condition can allow you to immediately interrupt said charged skill. 

The second reason to bring Catcher is the combo's actual effect: on use, it will shield Catcher and the controlled operator by an amount equal to his DEF for 10 seconds. This isn’t a bad defensive effect, but as the shield only lasts 10 seconds and the cooldown of the ability is over 30, its uptime isn’t great. All up a great interrupt ability with some defensive benefits, but it is hindered by a steep cooldown.

Potentials:

• Potential 3: Catcher’s P3 extends the duration of his Combo Skills shield by a whole 5 seconds, improving its uptime. Sadly, the overall uptime, even after the increase, isn’t enough for Catch to comfortably claim to fully sustain the team when compared to other defenders like Snowshine or Ember.

Ultimate

Catcher’s Ultimate costs 80 energy (72 at P4) and is his most universally useful ability, thanks to it applying both Vulnerability and Weaken on use, allowing it to act as a stack toward Crush or Breach in your physical teams and as a trigger of some supportive effects like the Xiranite set. 

Using the ability also deals a bit of damage and some solid Stagger, with even more being added on from talents. Not a complicated ability, but arguably Catcher’s easiest to work around, given it can be consistently relied upon to work in combos.

Battle Skill

Catcher’s Battle Skill is an SP-discounted method for applying Vulnerability in teams, which sounds incredibly desirable but comes with a… catch. 

Using it causes Catcher to immediately refund a portion of SP spent and then enter an immobile parry state, which applies Protection to him and all nearby operators while it lasts. While in this state, when Catcher is hit, he’ll immediately counterattack, applying a stack of Vulnerability while also dealing some Physical damage, and a bit of Stagger. 

This battle skill sounds fantastic in theory, but what holds it back is the fact that Catcher needs to be hit in order to apply the Vulnerability - something which interrupts the flow of the snappy rotation most physical teams have. In addition to this, while using this ability can net you some very SP-efficient Vulnerability, a lot of other free characters can do the same or apply Vulnerability while bringing other benefits, which often leaves this ability without a niche it feels good to use within.

Potentials:

• Potential 1: Adds some extra damage to Catcher’s battle skill counterattack. Not enough to cause him to deal meaningful damage in teams, but a nice bonus.

• Potential 5: Boost the SP refunding capabilities of Catcher’s battle skill while he possesses a shield. A nice addition, but not enough to grant Catcher an edge over other Physical options.

Talents

Catcher’s talents are both useful, but neither of them is transformative enough to shift his playstyle or elevate his performance in a meaningful way. 

His first talent, Resilient Defense, grants him a new way to gain his signature stat DEF. For every 10 Will that Catcher has, he gains another 1.2 DEF, which improves his shielding capabilities and offers a slight damage increase thanks to his potential 1 damage scaling. Usually not impactful enough to fully dedicate Catcher’s build to stacking only Will, but a nice bonus nonetheless.

Catcher’s other talent, Comprehensive Mindset, adds a new effect to his Ultimate, causing it to release 3 shockwaves after the final hit. These shockwaves each deal a small bit of extra Physical DMG based on Catcher’s ATK, boosting the damage of the ability slightly but not to a point where it has a major impact or upgrades Catcher’s total damage to the next level. 

Gameplay

When playing Catcher, here are a few things to look out for to make the most of his kit:

• Use Combo Skill when available to interrupt enemy telegraphed actions and to apply shield to the team. Alternatively, you can hold onto it as a survival tool due to its long cooldown, but this will come at the cost of energy generation and overall shield uptime.

• Catcher’s Battle Skill can also optionally be used to protect the team and counter enemy abilities. In Physical teams, so long as it doesn’t interrupt your usual rotation, this can be used as an SP-efficient form of Vulnerability application.

• Weave Catcher’s Ultimate into your usual rotations to ensure you make use of the Vulnerability stack it provides when it’s available.