Anchor: Innocent MaidInformation and Guide

Can you give a brief summary about this unit?

Since we have poured our heart into Mast's essay, we will keep Anchor's review short. In a nutshell, Anchor is MastM's destined pair, enabling her entire kit and neutralizing her downsides. Together, they are powerful for coreless environments, and the QoL boost they provide is unparalleled due to the healing they provide.

Similar to MastM, Anchor can also be used alone in the off-burst or even main burst B2 positions (although highly situationally) to provide the team with Distributed Damage buff, ATK buff, Reload Speed, and occasional healing (if you use Burst Skill or have another Aegis member in team). This can also activate Crown's S2 albeit less frequently compared to HelmTr or Naga. Anchor's main selling points, however, are her survivability-focused Burst Skill that grants the team Overheal. This allows the team to store excess HP recovery and use them to tank otherwise lethal attacks in PvE and PvP content. Along with this, her ability to cleanse off Mast’s Debuff is what makes her the perfect unit to pair alongside Mast.

Should I pull this unit?

Absolutely, especially if you have pulled or are planning to pull MastM. Their synergy is outstanding, and it is compulsory to pair them together in content that requires setting up multiple teams. However, if you are a casual player or lean towards the casual side, you may skip this banner to save up for EVA 2.0 if you lack funds for it since both Maids: Mast and Anchor, will enter the wishlist.

Is Anchor better than Mast when used as an independent off-burst B2? Not really. Although Anchor's buffs are not far behind and more stable, you are limited to utilizing her S1 and S2 buffs because her Burst Skill is weak on the offense (unless the extra survivability matters). The key difference is that a substantial portion of Anchor's ATK is consumed outside Full Burst. However, in exchange, her Reload Speed buff always stays at 40.4%▲, lasts for 15s, and does not fluctuate.

Additionally, Anchor is also an incredibly usable unit for PvP. The current meta in PvP revolves around bruising and wiping and anti-wiping, which sucks because there is barely any counter. Fortunately, Anchor's arrival saves the day, somewhat. Anchor's Burst Skill allows the team to tank a larger amount of instant damage and additionally provides the team with recovery on top of HP potency if paired with another Aegis member like HelmTr. This makes her a great alternative for Scarlet-XAnne comps and a core unit for stalling comps especially with HelmTr.

In conclusion, if you are a core Solo Raid or Union Raid player or care about your PvE well-being, pull her (and MastM). If you are an avid PvP player, pull her too. There is nothing better than having a unit for security. Besides, who knows the EVA 2 units will harmonize with them better?

Is she worth the mileage? If you already have Mast and somehow ran out of gems when attempting to pull for Anchor, then perhaps it's justifiable. Otherwise, if you do not have enough resources, it's definitely better to skip both Mast and Anchor and wishlist them instead.

Usage Analysis and Tier List

Campaign (LD) - SS | Campaign (HD) - SS

Anchor is the weaker of the bunch, since Mast can be paired with Crown for some off-burst power. However, Mast is supposed to be paired with Anchor, who can negate her downsides. Compared to Crown, the team is weaker in Survivability in Campaign due to having no shield (mobs there one-shot at higher deficits). You are also limited to 2 B3 and cannot use RH-B1 + B1/B2 CDR strat. It is a good alternative especially when it comes to buffing DPS that have weak core damage, such as SBS, or units with reload speed scaling like Rapipi and Alice. The problem? Well, they need to stack before their buffs even become impactful. And you also need high skill investments.

Just like Bunnies, using them in Campaign means you won’t be able to pull some extremely hairloss move where you beat the stage around 40% deficit. But let those bald guys mald! We casual gang just want something easy to operate, hence we run Bunnies 2.0 Aka El Macho. They have ATK buffs and healing, which are something we want in Campaign situationally. They are good for bossing, but Crown + HelmTr might still be better.

If a player does not have Crown, Maid Anchor and Maid Mast are probably the next best thing after the Tia-Naga duo. Blanc-Noir compete closely, but the fact that the Maid Duo provides buffs to allies and not debuffs to opponents makes them more usable in the overall meta! With Tia's taunt being hard to use for most players, Maid Duo can provide a very usable alternative in Campaign to players without Crown.

Bossing - SS

Anchor is Mast's comrade in arms. You can hardly separate them in content that rely on min-maxing. As the new powercreep to Blanc-Noir and situationally better than the Tia Naga duo, the Maids will have their place in Team 2-4 in Solo Raid (and likely be one of the mainstays in Union Raid too). Solo Raid bosses usually don't have a core, which gives them an edge. Not only that, we have 2 DPS that scale extremely well on Reload Speed: Alice and Rapipi. Both of them are more likely to be paired with the Maids, although element-related restrictions may interfere.

We expect that the Maids will be paired with SBS and Alice for most raids, except on Electric-weak Raids, where adjustments need to be made due to lack of decent Electric B1 CDR outside Rouge. In water weak raids, we may even see Quency: Escape Queen being paired with the Maids.

In content that relies solely on maxxing (outside Raids), her impact on the meta will depend on Crown's effectiveness. If Crown is the "absolute best" and is indispensable, then Anchor will probably see less usage than Mast as the other might be the better off-burst support. However, that doesn't prohibit you from using her in that fashion. Who knows she might be better? More stable reload speed, longer but weaker ATK buffs, etc. Additionally, if she is paired with another Aegis member—which doesn't have to be Mast—she can also trigger Crown's S2.

There is also a very decent QoL on Kraken, which we will detail in the team building section.

Lastly, we also want to reiterate that the Maids are one of the best supports for coreless content, below Crown + HelmTr. Despite numbers showcasing them potentially being weaker than Naga variants in cored contents, they are still a valuable asset to invest in (unless SU powercreeps them like Rem [poor her]).

PVP - S

Anchor in PvP is a survivability-focused B2 unit that has some offensive power, comparable to XAnne. Both provide the team damage and boost their survivability in different ways. One gives revive + healing to Attackers, and the other relies on teamwide healing and padding. While XAnne might be better in most comps due to her tremendous impact with revive and obviously stronger ATK buff, Anchor is a great alternative for PvE players who don't want to invest in PvP. Since you will be building her for PvE, you can also just slap her there and call it a day.

A main use for Anchor might be alongside other healers. This way, Anchor can be a crucial unit for blocking AoE attacks. Her HP padding + potential synergy with HelmTr or other B1 Healers allows for some unique stalling properties. However, as a B2, she cannot be triggered alongside other B2 units, so no Nero + Anchor combo (except in 2 FB comps). :/

We also have an announcement to make here! We hope to deliver updated PvP information by next month with the advent of Champions Arena to you all! The tier list rework for 5 teams is already in works!

Kit Analysis

Anchor is a survivability-focused 40s B2 that naturally grants the team ATK, Distributed Damage, and Reload Speed, along with recovery if certain conditions are met or her Burst Skill is used. Anchor wields a non-clip RL, which makes her better than other weapons when it comes to generating burst gen.

Skill 1

Anchor grants the team a mixture of buffs depending on how many times the team has entered Full Burst. Previous effects will retrigger.

• The first trigger grants HP potency, which is often useless for PvE but good for PvP. However, it pairs well with the second component of this skill. It does

  not

  affect her Burst Skill healing, though.

• The second trigger grants Distributed Damage▲, an offensive buff that boosts distributed damage. Currently, it is a bit niche because the only good in-burst distributed damage dealer is SBS. QEQ does not count because her Distributed Damage is not affected by S1.

• And the last one grants a debuff stack count reduction that prevents Mast from stunning herself. This action, however, does

  not

  dispel non-stackable debuffs.

Additionally, if there is another Aegis member in the team, which can be the new Mast or old Mast, her R self, or either Helm variant, she will continuously regenerate the team's HP over 8 seconds. As long as the condition is met, you can treat this as an off-burst healing, and the effect is comparable to Blanc's Full Burst healing.

Anchor's Burst Skill grants the team a maximum of 60.19% of caster's Max HP (base, not final) as overheal. However, her Burst Skill only heals up to 40.18% of it. With another Aegis member in the team, you can ensure that the overheal will always be filled to the brim.

Skill 2

Depending on how many times the team has exited Full Burst, Anchor grants the team a mixture of tactical buffs. Previous effects retrigger.

• The first trigger grants the team increased Hit Rate▲, which helps offset Mast's self-debuff and boosts the team's core hit rate, but it is nowhere impactful. This allows Mast to achieve perfect accuracy with only 3× Hit Rate OL lines, hence our passable recommendation.

• The second trigger enhances the team ATK for 10s. Pretty self-explanatory, but we do want to mention, depending on how fast you cycle Burst, its overlap duration with Full Burst will lengthen or shorten.

• The last one is the most valuable aspect of this skill: Reload Speed. Lasting for 15s, it grants the team a lot of uptime increase and QoL boost for charging burst gen. When paired with MastM's Reload Speed, you can achieve perfect reload or “infinite ammo”, a phenomenon where SRs/RLs will not drop a single ammo when shooting. This ensures that at the end of Full Burst, they will have full magazines, allowing for seamless burst gen without reloading.

Anchor's 10s ATK buff and 15s Reload Speed buff are her greatest assets. You want to make the most of them by making them overlap with FB time as much as possible, which requires cycling Burst fast. Learn how to prepare Full Charge toward the end of Full Burst with SR/RL weapons and release them as soon as the Full Burst ends, then follow up with spamming. You might need to swap between units.

Burst Skill

Anchor grants Storage to all allies, heal them a large amount, and boost their ATK for 10s.

### What is Storage?

Storage, a buff introduced first by Marciana, is the capability of storing excess recovery. The overheal is stored as extra HP on top of the current HP, but it is not treated as Max HP▲ (so no buffs to Max HP-scaling skills), nor does it deactivate "Triggers at max HP" skills if not fully filled. In other words, they are just a weaker Max HP▲ that offer the same survivability bonuses.

Anchor's Storage lasts for 25 seconds, which means it can potentially last permanently if the team rotates very fast, but in most cases it will just drop right before her Burst, but that's fine as it doesn't impact the effect. The long duration is beneficial for allowing the team to tank damage that would have otherwise killed them.

Storage synergizes well with her S1 and also outside recovery from Noise, Helm, etc. This is because they can also fill the Storage, not just Anchor. However, this is not needed for most content.

After applying Storage, Anchor subsequently heals the team based on her final Max HP. Since this chronologically happens after Storage, it can fill the Storage, which means her heal will not be wasted. The Storage + Heal combo is powerful in PvP where the padded HP is important for tanking critical AoE attacks.

Lastly, Anchor also grants the team ATK buff. It's small but nothing to scoff at. It adds an offensive spark to her defensive kit. Good for PvP, although don't expect her to make your wiper a terminator. Remember that it scales off base ATK, so make sure to OL her helmet, vest, and gloves for stat.

Investments

Gear Investments

Just like Mast, as a supporter, Anchor doesn’t need specific OL lines. You still want to OL her gear for higher base stats (because her kit scales on caster’s ATK). Prioritize Helmet, Vest/Body, and Gloves. Boots are optional because they don’t give ATK stat, but the extra CP padding may be useful for Campaign or Tower.

1-2× Max Ammo is a good QoL for Burst Generation in cases where Alice is not used alongside the Maid Duo. We advise you keep whatever you get initially (T11s are good for CP padding) and don’t attempt to reroll.

• Essential:

• Ideal: 4× ELE, 4× ATK, 1-2× Max Ammo

• Passable:

• Priority: Low

Skill Investments

Anchor, like Mast, is an investment heavy unit. Her budget skill recommendations mostly rely on what Mast’s skills are.

• Skill 1: 4/7/10

  • Can leave at 4 or 7 for budget. This skill mostly has to do with healing, and the cleanse works at lvl1 as well. Ultimately, due to the Distributed Damage buff in this skill, you want to max out this skill once your budget allows you to.

• Skill 2: 7/8/9/10

  • Prioritize this skill because it not only gives ATK Buff, but also gives Reload Speed. For other weapons, you can settle at Lv 7. However, for units like Alice, you want this skill to be minimum Lv 7 (with Lv 10 Mast’s S2), or Lvl 8~9 (with Lvl 9 Mast’s S2) to obtain “infinite ammo” through having >109% reload speed. Alice will literally never drop a single bullet in 4th+ Full Burst (disclaimer: only with Resilience 7+). Eventually, due to the ATK buff in this skill, you have to get it up to 10 as well, unfortunately. Damage is damage after all, and the scaling is the normal ×1.69 (from lvl 1->lvl 10)for the ATK buff.

• Burst Skill:4/7/10

  • A lot of Healing and ATK buffs to go alongside it. This skill is similar to Skill 1 in priority since it is mostly healing focused with an ATK buff attached to it. As usual, offensive buffs mean that in the end you want to max out this skill as well.

Cube Investments

For true “infinite ammo”, you will need Resilience 7+ and Mast:RM or Crown.

PvP cubes to improve Anchor’s survivability.

Doll Investments

Same as Mast, she is not worth too much doll investment because her own DPS is meh. However, she scales off base ATK stat, and for all we know, dolls’ stats are undiscriminating. It gives the same base ATK stat boost to a Defender as it does to an Attacker. Hence, putting a leveled Doll on Anchor can prove worthy due to the ubiquitous caster’s ATK buffs.

Depending on your competitiveness in Solo Raid, either SR 0 or SR 5 should be your end goal. SR 15 feels excessive even though you can justify it.