Vesti: Tactical UpgradeInformation and Guide

Can you give a brief summary about this unit?

The best of the trio, TVesti is a capable True DPS, able to fight at higher deficits and incinerate mobs and Nikkes with high DEF. Her specialty is her large attack range that becomes twice as large when using Burst Skill, allowing her to hit most if not all enemies on the screen at once. Where multiple targets spawn is where she shines—Campaign & PvP, and with proper supports, whether those are her squadmates TEmma & TEunhwa or somebody else, she can overpower even the strongest Nikke(s) given the right situation.

A bossing TVesti, however, is quite a disappointment. We were expecting more from her, but so far she hasn’t been able to deliver anything. Her overall DPS as a regular bosser is bad, and even in the proper environments (Fire-weak & High DEF), it’s still not extraordinary. This is because her attack multipliers are low, and she’s very buff-based, making dilutions much more common. In order to compete, she has to be somewhere where the boss has too much DEF that suddenly True DMG becomes mandatory. For now, we don’t have any faith in her (and actually have more faith in the duo). Perhaps, ShiftUp can surprise us with a hypercarry True DMG DPS.

TVesti has very specific requirements when it comes to OL that, if not handled well, will lower her damage. We advise you to read our Investment guidelines before depositing any rocks. She also needs minimum Burst Skill Lv. 7 to benefit from OP range (in PvP).

Where can I expect her to be used?

TVesti is best for mobbing contents, which include Campaign (primarily High Deficit and/or in Fire-Weak, whether alone or with the duo); Elysion Tower; possibly Simulation Overclock; and most importantly PvP. This is because her large attack range allows her to possibly kill multiple enemies at once, including those that are hard to reach due to terrain. She, however, does not have the same single-target damage potential as Alice because she cannot exploit core hits. TVesti is better for AoE handling and is probably the best "continuous" wiper at High Deficit (think of it as a much, much better version of Modernia's Burst). Particularly in Elysion Tower, there is a high chance she will always be used for mobbing. In Bossing, elemental advantage matters more.

Meanwhile, her bossing has unfortunately been tested to be very weak, even on her own special boss—Ziz—as well as similar bosses like Indivilia. She still packs some power as a B3, but it’s not a lot compared to the top B3. Around 25-40% of Rapi: Red Hood and maybe 45% at the best case is not something to applaud. That said, she is still usable against Fire-weak bosses and bosses with High DEF, although she won’t replace any of the top contenders. That makes her a niche bosser, equal to other elemental DPS or even worse, unless you pair her with her support squad—even then, it’s still nothing majestic. We shall only see her being relevant in Fire-weak SR if any. Note that, if a hypercarry True DPS joins in, the fate of the trio may change as TVesti may become the secondary DPS instead.

In PvP, Vesti is a GOD. Her weapon Pure Monster perfectly describes her identity. She is basically a non-Biscuit-countered sustained Burst AoE DPS that can be treated as a better version of SBS with LaplaceTr's shticks (able to shut down Noah before Burst; kill unprotected SBS, Blanc, Siren, etc) and a preliminary nuke (compare to Scarlet, Rei Ayanami, ReiTN, etc). TVesti can be used either in-burst for extra nuke and basic attack range or off-burst (basically Fire LaplaceTr). However, her attacks have unconventional timings, which makes her burst gen harder to work with, unless you have Charge Speed. She also needs Max Ammo OL to be effective. Even with such big requirements, we expect to see her being used in Rookie Arena, Special Arena & Champion Arena. For more technical explanations, we suggest reading the PvP Performance Analysis below, where we address her additional strengths and shortcomings.

For your information, her first attack lands slightly after 2s, and her fourth attack lands slightly after 3s. This means her Burst Gen in the first 2 RL is almost nonexistent. At her 4th hit, she would have generated a total of 23.4 Burst Energy. We expect her to shoot a total of 16~20 times until the end of Full Burst, so make sure you have enough Ammo.

Should I pull her?

Yes, contrary to our advice for TEmma and TEunhwa. TVesti is an incredible PvP-er (anything lower than the title GOD would be an understatement), and in our opinion, despite her lack of performance in Bossing, it is enough to warrant pulling her. You don't even need the Tactical Duos because Vesti is actually usable on her own and packs good enough damage solo even with universal supports. While she does perform better with them, it is not a hard requirement. The gems/materials you would have invested in them could be invested elsewhere.

So, if you are a F2P, either you pull for TVesti solo or don't pull anyone at all and save for future banners & reruns (e.g. SAnis) or collabs (Resident Evil). If you are a heavy spender, however, really care about Fire-weak Raids, or believe in the future of a True DMG team, then go ahead and pull the whole trio. Only if you do that will your pulls be fully justified. You can also put TEmma & TEunhwa in Wishlist once they get added, which completes our Wishlist (20 good units; no more Elysion traps). There is usually also a step-up banner at New Year that grants Selector if you are missing only one. It should be noted that Vesti has notable performance in all 3 forms of content available to players right now: Fire-Weak Solo Raids for min-maxxing (i.e. Bossing), and especially Campaign and PvP.

Do you need dupes? If you use TVesti a lot in Campaign & PvP, the extra stat and CP might be helpful. More usage means more value out of a unit/dupe. If you only care about Raid, the extra stat alone is not enough to justify. This is because she doesn't have a lot of self-ATK buffs, unless injected via OL or supportive non-caster's ATK buffs. Her ATK is more dependent on the enemy's stat.

Should I mileage her? Probably not. While there is merit to getting her for many types of content, including PvP, it might not be enough for you to justify mileaging her. But, what's not worth it for you may be worth it for others, hence "probably". Our advice, though, is no. Save mileage for 1% Pilgrims/Overspecs only or maybe the next Resident Evil collab?

Kit Analysis

Skill 1 - 2x Ammo or Brick

When automatically basic-attacking, TVesti launches a series of up to 4 missiles in rapid succession. The first missile takes 2s to charge, and the following three missiles are instantly shot over the next 1s (regardless of skill level), totalling four in 3 seconds. This instantaneous effect is achieved through self Charge Speed▲.

• Missile Guide, the buff that increases Charge Speed▲ for the second to fourth shots disappear upon reloading. That means, even if you take 2s to charge a shot, if you reload afterward, you will need to charge again post-reload.

  • This results in loss of damage but should never happen if your Max Ammo Count is multiples of 4 (e.g. 8, 12, 16, 20, …).

  • Since TVesti’s Base Ammo is 8, Mad Ammo OLs of around 50%, 100%, 150%, and so on are safe. Note that same-value OLs are added first before they get multiplied by Base Ammo. Different-value OLs are then multiplied by Base Ammo and added independently.

  • Rule of thumb: 4x = safe, 4x + 1 = very bricked, 4x + 2 = very bricked, 4x + 3 = bricked. Some players calculate Bastion can reduce bricked-ness at certain ammo counts. However, manual-reloading is probably still the best workaround, especially if you fulfill her minimum ammo count.

  • Factoring in base ammo count and regular TTR (time-to-rotate) of 12.5~13s + delay, Vesti’s minimum and optimal Max Ammo count is 16 in PvE. In PvP, she needs ~20 Ammo (Bastion usable) to keep attacking till the end of 2~3RL Full Burst.

• The second to fourth missiles gain increased Charge Damage▲ but not the first one.

  • For a 200% base, 58.5% seems a lot, but Charge Damage only affects her basic attack damage. TVesti’s main source of damage is S2 True DMG.

• In one ten-second Full Burst, an average of 13.33 shots are fired, but most of the time it varies between 12 and 16 shots. This is because if you Burst her when she’s charging her next 4 shots rotation, she will begin Full Burst with 4 shots immediately.

  • This can be achieved easily in PVP if your team speed is 3 RL, although it may or may not be the most ideal.

  • In PvE, don’t stress over it. Having 16 Max Ammo + well-timed reload is enough to trigger this multiple times.

• Vulnerable to Charge Speed▼, exponentially increasing TVesti’s required time to finish her sequence. A 50% Charge Speed▼ increases it from 3s to ~6.6s.

  • Do not run her against bosses that inflict Charge Speed▼. Usually shows up in UR.

  • If you do, pair her with Cleansers.

Skill 2 - True DMG

TVesti’s Full Charge(s) deal additional True DMG upon landing. This is her main source of damage as it is a large part of her whole basic attack damage. This damage cannot destroy parts, cannot core-hit, but can crit. If an attack hits multiple parts of the same enemy, only one instance is triggered on the enemy’s body. That means TVesti’s S2 isn’t suitable for breaking parts, contrary to what most people think.

• Amazing for mobbing and PvP because this skill affects all target(s) hit by basic attacks, which have a large base range (750) that also doubles on Burst (1500). One of the skills with the highest AoE potential.

• Helps generate burst gen because her Full Charge(s) generate 1 extra proc of Burst Gen for each unique enemy and terrain/cover hit. 

• Triggers even when off-burst and outside Full Burst; this allows her to deal damage in between rotations if you need to stall or immediately from the start of the battle (like in PvP).

• True DMG bypasses DEF, making it more effective against enemies with relatively higher DEF, such as in High Deficit Campaign. Note that it doesn't bypass Damage Taken Reduction.

When possessing Battle Formation (applied by TEmma’s Burst), TVesti’s Full Charge(s) additionally grants 20% ATK▲ for 3 seconds. The low duration doesn't matter, except that after you reload, you have to trigger it again. Other than that, it can be considered a permanent buff as long as the condition remains satisfied.

• The ATK buff, while small, offers a nice damage improvement. It’s nowhere near “indispensable”, however.

• Diluted on content with higher enemy DEF because True DMG can be said as giving extra ATK based on enemy DEF.

When attacking target(s) affected by the Explosive Round status (applied by TEunhwa’s Burst), attacks gain increased Projectile Explosion DMG▲.

• Quite useless because TVesti’s main source of damage is S2 True DMG. The True DMG is a Skill DMG, not an Explosive DMG.

• Nowhere near “mandatory”.

In conclusion, pairing TVesti with TEmma & TEunhwa is not as mandatory as you think. The biggest benefit you get from them both is True DMG▲ that triggers instantly from the zeroth second, which helps in PvP. Other than that, these extra gimmicks (that trigger on Battle Formation/Explosive Round) don’t really matter.

Burst Skill - Now I Hit Everyone

TVesti’s Burst Skill starts with buffing her True DMG then attacking all enemies on screen with a considerable True DMG nuke. Her attack range is doubled for the next 10s.

• The nuke is affected by the said True DMG▲, but it isn't a delayed Burst, so it doesn't benefit from the 1.5× Full Burst multiplier.

• Increases her attack range from 750 up to 1500 (scales with level). You need Skill Lv. 7 to hit all enemies in PvP simultaneously.

  • Combined with S2, this makes her an unstoppable monster in PvP because she becomes Emilia on steroids for 10s or an uber-buffed A2 with no deactivation risk. Since it’s a regular AoE attack, she is not directly counterable by Biscuit like SBS is, or by taunts/attracts like SAnis is.

• The nuke is super-powerful for mobbing and PvP, especially against enemies with higher DEF because it’s True DMG, and can help with clearing projectiles.

Mathematically speaking, over 10s, Vesti can deal roughly 1 maxed Helm Treasure’s Burst per target. This is extremely underwhelming in single target (bossing for example), but it’s insanely high in mobbing contents or PvP. This damage alone, without any other buff, is around 3x HP of any tank, so even with Noise/Moran buff, you will still die against her without other protections. In fact, the only record of tanking against no buff Vesti so far is the Moran-Nero comp, and zero record if we throw another buffer like Blanc for example.

Gameplay Optimization

1. When playing in Campaign and when Burst Gen is critically needed, consider landing her volley of shots on areas with high terrain and mob density.

2. If her Max Ammo is not multiples of 4, consider force-reloading her by sitting on her after the final volley is fired. This prevents you from switching to other units and quick-shotting for burst gen, however.

3. On mobbing stages, activate Burst Skill when you know there are a lot of mobs coming. Treat it as an upgraded Modernia’s Burst and abuse the increased range to kill as many enemies as possible.

Tier List

Campaign (Low Deficit): SS | Campaign (High Deficit): SS

TVesti in Campaign is a decent mobber, although her attacks come in waves. She has good off-burst damage, but her damage rises dramatically during her Burst, gaining extra range that would allow her to hit most enemies on screen alongside improved basic attack damage. Her Burst Skill also has a quite formidable nuke that is especially useful in High Deficit due to its True DMG nature. She is like a combination of Ein and Alice but with damage spread more around AoE, making her a better mobber than a bosser. The more enemies there are, the more effective TVesti is.

In Elysion Tower, she can contest the tower’s best mobber spot. There are only so many crowd-control units, Rapipi (Rapi: Red Hood) and TVesti being two of the best. Privaty lacks output, and PrivM is limited by kit/weapon type. Rapipi and TVesti both have good AoE damage, but there is a slight difference between them—Rapipi has a weaker AoE but a better single-target while TVesti is the exact opposite. However, this doesn't necessarily mean TVesti is the better mobber. She is quite reliant on Burst Skill, and she cannot quickly take down durable targets. If there are 100 mobs + 1 elite mob, she would have a hard time killing that 1 mob without outside help. She also kills everyone—which sounds good but can sometimes be bad. Sometimes, we want to stall by leaving one or a few non-key Raptures alive, like ATK-UP Raptures, but with TVesti, you can unintentionally kill them, whether you want it or not.

Does she need the Tactical Duo? Not really. While her damage is best with them, it’s probably better to pair her with more universal supporters unless the other B3 also benefits better from them.

Bossing: B

Vesti is not an ideal pick against Bosses for one sole reason: her damage is not impressive at all when against only one target. Her kit is just not built for dealing high single-target DPS. Since the major source of her damage is True DMG per target, it also means that bosses with parts don’t really benefit her enough to make her hyper-meta either. Her kit is just designed for mobbing in mind, where multiple enemies are hit by one shot, resulting in impressive damage. 

But, this does not mean that she’s utterly useless. She is still usable against Fire-weak and High DEF bosses if you force her to. While TEmma and TEunhwa are impressive enough in their bossing performances (against the current fire weak raid boss, Ziz), Ziz having 4 parts helps Vesti become the ideal pick for a Team 5 this raid, but only if she is properly built (i.e. maxed-out skills along with ideal OL gear lines).

Other than the current raid boss, however, it is hard to believe TVesti will find use in the future. If there is a hypercarry True DMG DPS, TVesti might join her and the Duo as a secondary DPS, but what are the chances? Or, she might just get dumped…

PVP: SSS

TVesti is insane in PvP. Someone who’s a combination of LaplaceTr (but Fire) + SBS (good continuous AoE Burst damage) + ReiTN/ReiA (preliminary nuke) + Emilia/A2 (5-unit splash) is nothing to sneer at. TVesti can absolutely, if invested, and if you nicely ask her to, obliterate anyone with ease even before Full Burst. As we described in Summary, she can be used as a hard-to-counter AoE DPS, an off-burst pressurer, or even a pre-burst sniper with/without other RLs and TEmma + TEunhwa, who can buff them since the zeroth second. Yes, the trio can be used in PvP!

It’s just super hard to create a team to fight against Vesti, especially a well-built Vesti. For your reference:

• High % ATK OL Vesti + Emilia can kill 3 of your Nikkes before they can even Burst.

• Not so high % ATK OL Vesti can be paired with Blanc and kill any of your team besides another Blanc team.

• 80%+ ELE OL Vesti with any Cube Lv. 9+ (>10% ELE) will pressure Blanc/Noah in P1, P2 and P3 before they can even Burst.

• She doesn’t have any pre-battle buffs, so Rosanna can’t counter her like with 2B. Rosanna can’t even kill her when she has an SR 15 Doll.

• Very flexible in team building due to her beastly firepower.

Scarlet and Emilia are weak against AoE block units (Noah/Bay), Sanis won’t get through taunters, SBS is countered by Biscuit-wall.

And Vesti? She can really only be countered by another Vesti or Blanc.

That doesn’t mean she has zero counters, however. A well-thought-out team can win against a defending TVesti team. For example, a Noah TVesti can be countered by Emilia + protected Noah. In this comp, TVesti’s first two volleys will be blocked by Noah, whereas Emilia’s nuke will hit right after TVesti’s Noah’s immune drops, killing them instantly, especially with Emilia’s ELE bonus.

Investments

Gear Investments

In PvE, TVesti needs 2× Max Ammo (16 Ammo) ideally, followed by 4× ELE & 4× ATK. The last 2 can be CRT or Charge Speed (which overlaps with PvP).

If you want to make peace with her in PvP, based on your goals, you can do the following:

• Around 20% ATK will allow Vesti and Emilia to kill any Attacker except Trina-protected Scarlet in P1, P2, or P3.

• Around 30% ATK will kill any Supporter.

• Around 40% ATK will kill everything.

• Around 15%+ CS will allow Vesti to land 4 shots near 5 SG shots, which opens more team building flexibility.

• Around 80% ELE + Cube Lv. 9+, she may kill any Wind Nikkes in P1, P2, and P3.

• Around 120% Ammo, she can have 18 ammo, which can be increased to 24 with Bastion.

Our recommended investment is below. Be careful and avoid ammo counts that are not multiples of 4. This will brick her in PvE, but in PvP, it doesn't matter because you want TVesti to shoot as much as possible before the first reload (and hence Bastion is even fine). Unlike in PvE where 16 Ammo is optimal, in PvP, the more the merrier. ‘Reset Attributes’ is always handy.

• Essential: 2x Ammo 

• Ideal: 4x ELE, 4x Charge Speed, 4x ATK. 

• Passable: Crit DMG, Max Ammo, Crit Rate

• Priority: Meta (PvP)

Skill Investments

The main source of Ves-god’s damage is her S2, so put as many into it as you can. S1 is whatever since her basic attack damage is trivial. And her Burst has a breakpoint at Lv. 7 to hit all 5 Nikkes in PvP.

• Skill 1: 4~7

  • Her basic RL damage is terrible, making anything buffing it terrible too.

• Skill 2: 10

  • Her main source of damage.

  • The modifier is insane. It equals Laplace Treasure RL attack + S2 Attacks. This damage bypasses DEF meaning: if it kills, it kills.

• Burst Skill: 7~10

  • Small AoE nuke.

  • Gives very nice True Damage buff and Explosion Range increase, which buff S2.

  • Useless if TVesti is used off-burst for some reason.

Cube Investments

Resilience is best for PvE if you can get a Max Ammo of multiples of 4. Otherwise, Bastion and Wingman can help minimize brick.

In PvP, with a decent ammo value, you can put a defensive cube on Vesti to prolong her life during Full Burst. Adjutant gives some CS, which may help Vesti break into another breakpoint. If more ammo is needed, and she has 2× Max Ammo+, use Bastion. 

Doll Investments

SR 15 Doll is highly recommended if you want to make the most out of Ves-god in PVP. The Doll’s Unique Skill Charge Damage is whatever, but it gives nice stats, a lot of CP and the most important factor—Damage Taken Reduction to stop pesky pre-snipes.