I actually was also under the impression that Kirara was low tier trash...then I got her in IS3 by accident. I placed her in a weird place on a stage with a bunch of exploding ritual stones and I was like "fuck, I guess she's gonna die." Then she didn't since she recovers 4.5% hp per second as a e2 max pot operator. So she literally ended up trashing every enemy that every tried to approach her and trivialized the stage for me. And I ended up e2ing her as soon as I could for what I saw. She is an amazing sustain tank that can shrug off damage, as long its not too overbearing of course. And she does a lot more damage than one would think. If she or any of the other ambushers can hit air, they would be broken as fuck.
Specter and Perfumer have taught me that even the smallest amount of passive healing on an operator can save them when another hit would have killed them even with a healer
Yup, I can behind the message here. One thing that I've always loved about AK is that, if you play long enough (and you try to do your own thing instead of following what's meta) you can look at your barracks and notice patterns which are a consequence of which playstyle you gravitate the most towards. For example, I gravitate a lot towards more defensive, stall strategies with a lot of healing on top. So, if you look at my barracks, you'll notice some "weird" stuff: I have Zima, Poncirus and Courier all built up while Myrtle and Elysium are there collecting dust (I just don't know how to start a stage without someone who can take a few hits), I have a lot of Guardian Defenders, a lot of healers (I've been getting a lot of mileage out of Silence and Purestream lately) and two characters I use lot, even for those really hard maps that make me bring out the broken 6-stars, are Ethan (he's just so good at stalling) and Astegnne (chain casters are the best for when there's a lot enemies huddled up in one spot). What I mean is, AK allows for such a variety of strategies that your barracks end up being a "fingerprint" of sorts. And I kinda like that.
Heya man, just finished to read your comment. I usually do the contrary than you with vanguards (I just love my Myrtle and Saileach) cuz of their high dp gen, but I usually have the problem of taking the first enemies head-on. That's why I exploit smth similar as in 4:20 as much as I can. Good for defending against the first wave, and you can shift the aggro to the op beneath or behind the flag bearer thx to their trait. If you need an extra dp in some stage I hope the idea helps you!
Ive also been getting a lot of Silence usage recently, she's honestly amazing. I went all the way with her module and her ASPD buff to medics does wonders for 5* Hibiscus, Reed, and Folinic. I love when a game gives you tool to make the game fun for yourself and even after all that time arknights hasnt lost that aspect.
Zima and Ponci are such a crazy good combo. I recently got a Cantabile spook and found that dropping Canta s1 combined with Zima S2 makes for a fuck ton of DPS and enough DP generation that i dont have to slot in Myrtle and find a safe spot for her; i need simply wait a few seconds and then drop Canta where she can hit stuff. I have a maxed out La Pluma, Thorns, and a bunch of defenders, and most of my E2s are ranged 5* ops like April. I like to hit the ground running and get a strong team as quickly as possible, but often find that i lack enough ground units to hold enemies in place. In fact, even long before having Canta, since the beginning of my Arknights career, ive viewed Myrtle differently from most - I use her for the healing talent. She keeps Zima alive, thats all I care about.
I really like using Verdant. He was especially useful during the Harold event for my maleknights clears, since he can hold the furnaces without any additional support. He gets some really neat uses as well when you need a self-sufficient damage sponge, so it makes it really enjoyable to figure out where to use him. It's always welcome to have a useful operator to play around with, even if his role is a bit niche. Great video!
I find Kazemaru S2 to tank a lot of boss mechanics, for example Talulah de-buff hits the last two operators deployed, if you put down Kazemaru and use s2, she and the doll are the last two deployed. I remember doing an IS run where I did not have good tank or healer but used Kazemaru S2 to Tank Faust boss special shots and because the skill cycles so fast almost like fast redeploy operators.
I tend to use Lin as my default lightning rod since her kit is also very much designed for it (especially with the module), but her DP cost and her being a ranged unit are inconvenient at times... Maybe I'll invest in Verdant one of these days since I do actually like lighting rods on my teams🤔
i think the issue with verdants math is that you usually just dont need more than a normal doll keeper provides to tank ranged stuff, often meaning they do the same thing but with less damage especially as somebody whos usual operators consist of phalanx dollkeepers and fighters, (which are all really good sponges (except chongyue and dagda)) i struggle to fit them into stages also you should totally try chiave, i feel like youd like them (they just keep getting more utility with time, its kinda insane)
I believe if Verdant had been around a few years ago, people would view him differently. I could definitely see myself using him had he been around while I was playing through the Lungmen arc to bait and stall drones. Granted, other operators can emulate his role as a lightning rod (in my case, helidrop Matoimaru and her S1). It's still nice to have a 4-star specialist who isn't a hookmaster or push stroker for IS.
I never really understood why AK didn't start showing new classes as 4-stars tbh. Like they'd start with 5-stars, sometimes 6-stars even. By the time the 4-star version comes out, they would end up unused since everyone else likely upgraded the higher-rarity version already, unless they broken af like Myrtle.
@@dalgona4819...myrtle was the first ever Flagbearer we got. She demonstrates your point already, instead of being an outlier (as putting here there at the end would imply) Like, I would believe it if you told me that we wouldn't be playing Myrtle as often if we got Elysium or Saileach as the first flagbearers, since Myrtle is incredibly unassuming at first glance, but if you get Bagpipe or just can allow yourself to start a map with her """wimpy""" body (she hits and tanks a surprising amount for a 4* if mildly upgraded, but of course a rush right at the start fucks her over) you realize how she's busted to hell.
@@dalgona4819 Quartz was our first ever Crusher in game and she was like fairly mid and on the surfacce required two healers as if she was a surtr but with non of her benefits in Practice she's fairly reliable and is a good soaker for lots of damage types that aren't fast hitting heavy attacks as health bulk basically makes her tank big arts hits better than most guards
I've been building Verdant as someone who likes his design, with a bit of trouble actually utilizing his skills. This video is very helpful, thank you for making it.
I play both Male Knights and Specialst Knight, Verdant and Kirara are so underated its kinda nuts, both do their jobs almost to well sometimes they really, like you said, break stages. Kirara was the last specialist I needed for the full collection and shes actually so game changing for specialist knights, even more so for specialist 5star.❤
The thing is though, it's the exact same skill as Bena's S2, with the only difference being a slight different duration and initial charge. Where Bena has +90% ATK, Verdant gets Arts damage. So on paper, the skills are balanced. But in practice, Bena ends up dealing more damage unless the enemy's DEF is so high that even with 90% more ATK, she can't overcome the DEF. Verdant's S2 does scale better for the early game though, as Bena's S2 requires a high ATK modifier to function against certain enemies, for Verdant, he just simply deals arts damage, which is good enough on its own. I think people just don't like that his doll doesn't deal damage, which is what I said in my video. People are mad his S2 LITERALLY KILLS HIM, even though noone cared about Bena's S2 doing the same thing, because he gets no offensive bonus when he does die. Ultimately, most people are just biased towards having more damage, which is fine. I just so happen to enjoy ops who are designed who have specific roles that more play into the strategy element of Arknights, rather than the DPS game of Arknights.
@@BloopsArknights the damage is nice and him being a defensive doll is cool, i just dont see how him swapping to his doll form contributea to anything positive. He just regenerates as he would if he got killed - ergo hes just surviving as he always does. Bena at least swaps to her ranged arts form so theres some reason for her to die. I simply cant envision when i would want verdant to die w s2 specifically, not overall
@@BloopsArknightsTo be fair, most people don't like or care about Bena either, so the comparison doesn't help him much there either. Also, like the other guy said, at least Bena provides a pretty interesting use upon death that makes her stand out more for those who give her a chance.
I can completrly relate to the sentiment of only using and appreciating units in scenarios that compliment their very specific kits. While i don't really subscribe to that mindset in AK necessarily, i've been doing so in other games like FGO, where it's a lot more fun to bring units to a situation where they can shine rather than using characters that have 30 roles compressed into one that are less applicable in most circumstances, and that i think is the key word here, "role compression".
I kinda like his design but I don't use him that often, I play since launch and i've been at the pont for a long time now where the operator I use for a stage is solely based on "I feel like using you today", and unfortunaly his not on my mind most of the time, that and the fact that Czerny is my go-to arts lightning rod because i realy like him. I still use Verdant more than I ever used Bena tho, personaly she is the one I just don't resonate with, despise realy loving the specialist class as a whole, wich is strange now that I think about it because I realy loved the dollkeeper archetype from the start despise not liking her all that much x) But my go-to dollkeeper is still Kazemaru, because her S2 have just that little extra bit of nuance that makes it more engaging for me to use than a lots of skill in the game. My favorite use of it was in the guiding ahead annihilation, using it as a range extention to capure all 4 gelato stops (IIRC that's what they are called), it's nothing crazy obviousely, but as someone that don't nessessary like to tryhard and optimize shit out that much, it just a skill that feel good to use. She's easily in my top10 favorite operator to use. My top1 is Firewatch S2, no contest, she probably have been in 90+% of the squads I used since I got her, and and I just now realized wrtting this comment the similarities between the 2 x)
wall of text warning it does feel like the majority of players parrot the general community opinion (some from silvergun, others from less experienced sources) that verdant kinda sucks. obviously, verdant is a poor generalist. his survivability doesn't scale well to lategame statcreep unlike roberta modellers or gravel s2, who's supposedly not even a bad pick for the IS4 BN4 fight. don't bring him to lategame IS. even for less oppressive stages or in cases where he works, nobody uses him as generic attack baiting unless he adds something new to the table, since gravel is easier to use and more flexible, same with beanstalk, and it's usually possible to bait enough attacks with deepcolor tentacles to clear. this isn't the only standard though, people don't hate on earthspirit because she's at least got some decent use cases. verdant has 7 records for 4* e2 max, which is probably far more than any of us expected. the problem is, EN hasn't seen any of them except silvergun's H10-1 clear, which was as far as you can be from a verdant highlight reel. the other 6 records aren't trivial stages either, one is a 3-op of the normal witch king fight, where verdant outperforms gravel, beanstalk, deepcolor, etc as witch king bait (ok fine, with a bit of RNG simulation, but that's because the fight sucks and it's not his fault). another is the theoretical harold EX CM 7-op, where harold's reduced ATK on ranged ops is useful. and another is 13-21 CM, where he counters the respawning slugs using his 2 block and revive, alongside the best spreadshooter in the game. the set of use cases for verdant is small -- even as a no repeat 4* player who tries to use him regularly, i never found any of them myself. but they exist, and no matter how niche they are, i think we'd be more positive about him if we saw them.
They could try to design enemies that are so dangerous you are forced to have someone become a lightning rod to draw agro. Maybe make them so that you can't kill them and you simply have to stall them enough so that they kind of wither away. Would also probably bring back slow operators as well. For a long time Mudrock was used against slow hitting bosses or monster units, because of her talent with her shield.
One of the new IS4 stages has a bunch of missile launchers that absolutely destroy my ops. Having something to tank them so I can get some sort of early game set up would be immensely helpful.
Genuinely don't care much about him BUT, as a proud owner of Utage s1 m3 i can feel you. The amount of def, healing and sanctuary is crazy, let alone laughably fast uptime.
To me verdant is just a body, the same as spelter, but spelter is better because the spelter doll SINGS. But still i like kazemaru more than any dollkeeper because her s2 can summon the doll, it is a fun mechanic.
The only reason I build specter (alt and 5 star) is to passively tank since I don't have mountain. In my newer account I started building 4 stars and I'm enjoying ak more than before and discover ops that are more useful than I thought
I'm an endgame player, by the time Verdant qas released I had dozens of build op so I never built him, but since I first got him in IS I fell in love with his gameplay, he's so useful in many situations and carried runs in more than one occasion.
I know it's not the point of the video, but I'm happy to see someone using the Skill 2 of Myrtle. Always happy to see someone using a character in a way that nobody does. I'm also someone who like to stall and defensive characters, but the problem is that they don't destroy the enemies fast enough, so they can be overwhelmed easily. Good video too, I'll try the doll keeper, but it's not a class that vibe with me. Have to build them though
Also a Myrtle S2 player here; I mentioned in another comment, but the main appeal of Myrtle to me is her E2 talent to passively heal all Vanguards. Texas is too damn squishy, I rely on Zima and Ponci to hold lanes, though they lack much DPS. With the right comp around them though they can tank as well as any defender. Which is why im more than a little bothered by Fang alter being a Charger. I never use Chargers, and kinda hate the subclass. They dont do anything I want to use Vanguards for. The one saving grace for me is that Fang altar s2 is helidrop, so I can use her like a FRD as I do with Cantabile and April
Much thanks to you for this video. I usually hear on how Verdant isn't even as tanky and stuff but this video has shown me a lot on what Verdant is meant to do or can do. Might consider giving him some growth now.
Verdant came in handy for me in Ordium Dust map 8! Even against the boss who explodes at random that doesn’t keep him down. I never did try doll keepers before even if I had him at E1 Level 60. I am glad I leveled him and look forward to using him in more maps.
Finally, someone who actually gets defensive Dollkeepers. Once I get him built, I gotta post him up in RA. I wanna see if he can tank the mages on Uninvited Guest in particular so that my siege team can be unbothered, saving me an operator slot for more flexibility instead of hard locking a medic to a lightning rod. And rest assured, there are Kirara enjoyers out there, I'm living proof. I absolutely love running all four Ambushers in RA.
I used Beeswax a lot when I started, exactly for the lighting rod reason so I understand the argument for Verdant ! She is 5* but there are no 4* in the subclass and she's the closest of doing exactly what the archetype was designed for. It was so satisfying when she carried me in CC6
I really like this type of video of yours. It really does give a different perspective on the operators I didn't ever give more than a simple: "people that I watch on the internet says this operator is bad". I honestly never though about using him like that. Cheers, and thanks for the video.
My personal lightning rod operator is Czerny since arts damage is usually annoying and he’s good against that too. I feel like Silvergun didn’t like verdant therefore most players didn’t give him a chance unless they were a nicheknights that overlapped with him
My respect for this dude skyrocketed when I used him to stall EX-CM Harold. 4*nights is all about stalling, and Verdant can be a quite decent staller, and he excels when the boss walks at snail pace.
Agree. I love Verdant and I also like Bena. I can effectively use all dollkeepers and they’re very handy in specialist knights. They can hold their own sometimes lol, and that’s why I love them.
I would say all 3 of Specialist Specter's skills have defensive utility, her 1st one being able to trade health can be a near full heal for either herself or an ally, but it boosts her damage a lot and near no one uses it so it's offensive and forgotten. 2nd is also remembered for its tons of damage due to both boosting attack and speed, but the immortality it gives is a laneholding tool and there are many times like her guard variant where she might do a bit of chip damage but her 2nd skill is used to hold a target in place that otherwise few if not no others would be able to. Then her 3rd one just gives her such immense HP values, that even with her trading some HP on hit against less healthy enemies, she still does live through loads of punishment. So yeah, all of Specter's skills are mixed to some degree, not purely defensive, but I'd still say she has very significant defensive utility, not only in her doll trait, but in her HP boost passive and defensive utility in every single one of her skills. :D I don't dislike Verdant, but I think he does a bad job of showing what a Dollkeeper should do. Then again, Dollkeepers are so vastly different each that there's barely anything similar between them. Even their dolls! This one does physical damage, this one is arts, next one doesn't attack but has a slow and dot zone around her - they're all so inconsistent and that's the only consistent trait between them. :D
the sl6 mlynar haha XD the disrespect on him...and it's definitely valid lol we don't *just* like operators because they're "good", there's a reason why meta units are often disliked for players who aren't metagamers. we like operators because they *appeal* to us specifically. how degenbrecher appeals to spikes due to her big numbers, leto appeals to johnny due to her more technical gameplay, and the two collectively can appeal to timmy due to being entertaining and fun. certain operators appeal to certain people and not others. personally as a majorly timmy player, i don't like how verdant plays, since as you said, ranged tanking isn't usually very needed, and when it is, other operators can fill that role just fine. however, just because i dislike verdant doesn't warrant him to be a "bad" operator per se. i think seeing units you dislike using being used well is awesome and an eye-opening experience! it's just that verdant doesn't appeal to my playstyle and that's okay! i'm really happy you enjoy verdant as an operator :) sometimes, we don't need the most rationalized reason for liking an operator, it can be as simple as "i like the way they're designed, even if they're not the best" and that's perfectly acceptable! again, as a majorly timmy player, my number one rule in an appealing operator to me is: "do i have fun using this operator? if i don't, i won't use them." it's a bit more complex then that, but that's basically the gist of it. i'm sure if i tried using verdant, i'll find *some* use for him, but from what i've been seeing, he's just not my type of operator, and i hope everyone can accept that. let us all enjoy our favorite operators in peace! :D (sorry for basically writing an essay...i just really loved this video haha 😅 i'm glad you're taking your time with these! stay safe and awesome! ❤)
I think I can somewhat sympathize with you here. I use Grani in every stage I can despite the fact that she doesn't conform to the typical kit of a charger vanguard. Even though her S2 gives her a significant atk boost, the long downtime is more than enough to keep most from using her. But throughout my experience with Grani I have legitimately found her to be extremely useful and even borderline strong on a fair bit of stages. I do think Verdant fulfills a role that simply isn't needed especially since the other Dollkeepers all have a greater focus of damage, but in a way he's similar to Grani in that she too is a defensive op in a typically offensive branch. This is all to say, I hope you continue to enjoy Verdant as I do with Grani. And yes, I do have her M6 with max mod. (Also, very based of you to dislike Ulpi as well. I don't like him either.)
I agree with this video but i want to nitpick your best lightning rod character. If you just want a tanky dude than yeah probably the newspaper man is it but penance has the increased agro talent if i remeber right and she also grants thorns and it complements her s3 since it is a defensive recovery skill
The biggest issue that I've come to find when using blockers as lightning rods is the fact that melee damage is very very very dangerous. Dollkeepers, ambushers, liberators and phalanx casters have the added benefit of having no block (for dollkeepers its the doll), meaning they can focus their entire HP pool on ranged damage, rather than worrying about having some big strong dude murder them in a few melee blows. I'm not saying you're wrong, think how you wish. This is just the reason why I didn't really talk about defenders much as I feel they function very differently when it comes to lightning rod-ing.
@@BloopsArknights that's a valid argument and I didn't think of it like that. I guess it really just depends on the situation you need to use them in and prefrence
Task failed successfully, building Kazemaru because I've wanted to for a while but kinda forgot. My default lightning rod has always been Hoshi or Andreana because 1 has a nasty thorns effect and a 30% resist rate and the other is an Abyssal Hunter who can be placed on range tiles and has enough range to counter snipe. Verdant and Kirara do have a really cool niche though.
One thing you don't consider to be a GIANT "boon" to his reputation is his banner placement And I'm way too tired to cite the rant I overhead about it, but people are dismissive of Verdie boy partially because of him "poisoning" their pulls And doing jack shit at base (fun fact, some slavic AK gamers have grown to call him a Bucket, Verdant is close to Vedro)
I'm a massive verdant enjoyer. I'm a big fan of ops I can just set down somewhere and forget about, plus the choice between him and bena was EZ since 4stars are so much cheaper to promote.
Personally, I got a lot of use out of Verdant while doing 4* only during this current TfN - arts tanking + not counted as being retreated when switching to the doll works really well against many of the boss mechanics. Even among 4* only he's not always the most useful or flexible but I've been finding way more use cases for him than expected.
the best lighting rod imo is Penance, sometimes with s2 and sometimes with s3, the same way you struggle to say why you like verdant's playstyle I feel with her, its just way too funny to have an unit doing literally nothing but countering enemies and they dying from across the map. just did the reed sis annihilation and Penance shined hard lol
Nah, I still think that Verdant deserve the hate. Matterhorn (high RES), Bubble (atk down debuff), Cuora (%hp regen) and Gummy (10 RES and heal) paired with healers will do much more and better for the team. I understand that there're another 11 squad slots to carry his sorry ass, but come on, if you don't play nicheNights or you don't love Verdant, it's like second to last option that you will think about. Last option will be Frostleaf, lol.
The worst Verdant sin aside from dps meta is that he's boring. Lin gets funny +sp when hit, Thorns s2 and Bubble do funny spikes, Nightingale throws pocket Gravels to lightning rod. Guardian defenders heal themselves if you use them as lightning rods(thats also boring tho). Verdant basically just stands there, not even menacingly.
I've seen a couple videos where you bring up Bena being very easy to get and I'm sorry if this is a dumb question but... How? The event she was from doesn't seem to be available in Record Restoration
I have a decently stacked acc, so picking meta like chalter or mlynar to obliterate a stage is always an option, but it is really satisfying to do some dumb stuff like super buffing jaye to kill a boss, i think arknight is a "if it works it works" kinda game so no matter how shit the unit is, or how stupid your strategy may sound, as long as it works then why not ?
Pretty sure this "Verdant bad" mindset started from that one 4* nicheknight youtuber. AK players likes to regurgitate the same thing popular AK content creators said lol
I mean, you aren't wrong, but neither is Silvergun. The man only plays with 4*, there's not really a better source of information about a 4* than someone who uses nothing but them.
I don't think that this is a fair assessment, more like failed SilverGun's character's assassination attempt Hate started before he uploaded, a lot of comments were people adding their preexisting bias against Verdant and fair critique to SG
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I actually was also under the impression that Kirara was low tier trash...then I got her in IS3 by accident. I placed her in a weird place on a stage with a bunch of exploding ritual stones and I was like "fuck, I guess she's gonna die."
Then she didn't since she recovers 4.5% hp per second as a e2 max pot operator. So she literally ended up trashing every enemy that every tried to approach her and trivialized the stage for me. And I ended up e2ing her as soon as I could for what I saw. She is an amazing sustain tank that can shrug off damage, as long its not too overbearing of course. And she does a lot more damage than one would think.
If she or any of the other ambushers can hit air, they would be broken as fuck.
IS did an amazing job changing my views on a lot of lesser used operators.
I learned to love Kirara when I decided to try out doing pinknights clears sometimes lol...
Specter and Perfumer have taught me that even the smallest amount of passive healing on an operator can save them when another hit would have killed them even with a healer
Yup, I can behind the message here. One thing that I've always loved about AK is that, if you play long enough (and you try to do your own thing instead of following what's meta) you can look at your barracks and notice patterns which are a consequence of which playstyle you gravitate the most towards.
For example, I gravitate a lot towards more defensive, stall strategies with a lot of healing on top. So, if you look at my barracks, you'll notice some "weird" stuff: I have Zima, Poncirus and Courier all built up while Myrtle and Elysium are there collecting dust (I just don't know how to start a stage without someone who can take a few hits), I have a lot of Guardian Defenders, a lot of healers (I've been getting a lot of mileage out of Silence and Purestream lately) and two characters I use lot, even for those really hard maps that make me bring out the broken 6-stars, are Ethan (he's just so good at stalling) and Astegnne (chain casters are the best for when there's a lot enemies huddled up in one spot).
What I mean is, AK allows for such a variety of strategies that your barracks end up being a "fingerprint" of sorts. And I kinda like that.
Happy to see someone liking Pioneer vanguard as much as I do lol
Heya man, just finished to read your comment. I usually do the contrary than you with vanguards (I just love my Myrtle and Saileach) cuz of their high dp gen, but I usually have the problem of taking the first enemies head-on. That's why I exploit smth similar as in 4:20 as much as I can. Good for defending against the first wave, and you can shift the aggro to the op beneath or behind the flag bearer thx to their trait. If you need an extra dp in some stage I hope the idea helps you!
Ive also been getting a lot of Silence usage recently, she's honestly amazing. I went all the way with her module and her ASPD buff to medics does wonders for 5* Hibiscus, Reed, and Folinic.
I love when a game gives you tool to make the game fun for yourself and even after all that time arknights hasnt lost that aspect.
Zima and Ponci are such a crazy good combo.
I recently got a Cantabile spook and found that dropping Canta s1 combined with Zima S2 makes for a fuck ton of DPS and enough DP generation that i dont have to slot in Myrtle and find a safe spot for her; i need simply wait a few seconds and then drop Canta where she can hit stuff.
I have a maxed out La Pluma, Thorns, and a bunch of defenders, and most of my E2s are ranged 5* ops like April.
I like to hit the ground running and get a strong team as quickly as possible, but often find that i lack enough ground units to hold enemies in place. In fact, even long before having Canta, since the beginning of my Arknights career, ive viewed Myrtle differently from most -
I use her for the healing talent. She keeps Zima alive, thats all I care about.
I really like using Verdant. He was especially useful during the Harold event for my maleknights clears, since he can hold the furnaces without any additional support. He gets some really neat uses as well when you need a self-sufficient damage sponge, so it makes it really enjoyable to figure out where to use him. It's always welcome to have a useful operator to play around with, even if his role is a bit niche. Great video!
glad you managed to get this video out despite the setbacks.
Looking forward to the Kirara video, whenever inspiration strikes for that
I find Kazemaru S2 to tank a lot of boss mechanics, for example Talulah de-buff hits the last two operators deployed, if you put down Kazemaru and use s2, she and the doll are the last two deployed. I remember doing an IS run where I did not have good tank or healer but used Kazemaru S2 to Tank Faust boss special shots and because the skill cycles so fast almost like fast redeploy operators.
I tend to use Lin as my default lightning rod since her kit is also very much designed for it (especially with the module), but her DP cost and her being a ranged unit are inconvenient at times... Maybe I'll invest in Verdant one of these days since I do actually like lighting rods on my teams🤔
I like Verdant's accent when set to EN voice. Good enough reason for me to use him.
His dub is sooooooooo good. Which makes the fact that he's so often compared to Bena especially funny given her shrieking gremlin voice.
i think the issue with verdants math is that you usually just dont need more than a normal doll keeper provides to tank ranged stuff, often meaning they do the same thing but with less damage
especially as somebody whos usual operators consist of phalanx dollkeepers and fighters, (which are all really good sponges (except chongyue and dagda)) i struggle to fit them into stages
also you should totally try chiave, i feel like youd like them (they just keep getting more utility with time, its kinda insane)
I love Chiave he goes boom and all the robots are his friends
@@SantokiYamachiave skin pls hg
I have Mlynar levelled up but my most favorite lightning rod was my first ever 6-star, Hoshiguma.
I believe if Verdant had been around a few years ago, people would view him differently. I could definitely see myself using him had he been around while I was playing through the Lungmen arc to bait and stall drones. Granted, other operators can emulate his role as a lightning rod (in my case, helidrop Matoimaru and her S1). It's still nice to have a 4-star specialist who isn't a hookmaster or push stroker for IS.
I never really understood why AK didn't start showing new classes as 4-stars tbh. Like they'd start with 5-stars, sometimes 6-stars even. By the time the 4-star version comes out, they would end up unused since everyone else likely upgraded the higher-rarity version already, unless they broken af like Myrtle.
@@dalgona4819...myrtle was the first ever Flagbearer we got. She demonstrates your point already, instead of being an outlier (as putting here there at the end would imply)
Like, I would believe it if you told me that we wouldn't be playing Myrtle as often if we got Elysium or Saileach as the first flagbearers, since Myrtle is incredibly unassuming at first glance, but if you get Bagpipe or just can allow yourself to start a map with her """wimpy""" body (she hits and tanks a surprising amount for a 4* if mildly upgraded, but of course a rush right at the start fucks her over) you realize how she's busted to hell.
@@dalgona4819 Quartz was our first ever Crusher in game and she was like fairly mid and on the surfacce required two healers as if she was a surtr but with non of her benefits
in Practice she's fairly reliable and is a good soaker for lots of damage types that aren't fast hitting heavy attacks as health bulk basically makes her tank big arts hits better than most guards
Verdant provides a niche role and that should be okay
I've been building Verdant as someone who likes his design, with a bit of trouble actually utilizing his skills. This video is very helpful, thank you for making it.
I play both Male Knights and Specialst Knight, Verdant and Kirara are so underated its kinda nuts, both do their jobs almost to well sometimes they really, like you said, break stages. Kirara was the last specialist I needed for the full collection and shes actually so game changing for specialist knights, even more so for specialist 5star.❤
i think the biggest part of why he got le hate is his odd S2 which kills him for little reason
The thing is though, it's the exact same skill as Bena's S2, with the only difference being a slight different duration and initial charge. Where Bena has +90% ATK, Verdant gets Arts damage. So on paper, the skills are balanced. But in practice, Bena ends up dealing more damage unless the enemy's DEF is so high that even with 90% more ATK, she can't overcome the DEF.
Verdant's S2 does scale better for the early game though, as Bena's S2 requires a high ATK modifier to function against certain enemies, for Verdant, he just simply deals arts damage, which is good enough on its own.
I think people just don't like that his doll doesn't deal damage, which is what I said in my video. People are mad his S2 LITERALLY KILLS HIM, even though noone cared about Bena's S2 doing the same thing, because he gets no offensive bonus when he does die.
Ultimately, most people are just biased towards having more damage, which is fine. I just so happen to enjoy ops who are designed who have specific roles that more play into the strategy element of Arknights, rather than the DPS game of Arknights.
All Doll Keepers have skills that kill them. Even Specter.
@@BloopsArknights the damage is nice and him being a defensive doll is cool, i just dont see how him swapping to his doll form contributea to anything positive. He just regenerates as he would if he got killed - ergo hes just surviving as he always does. Bena at least swaps to her ranged arts form so theres some reason for her to die. I simply cant envision when i would want verdant to die w s2 specifically, not overall
@@BloopsArknightsTo be fair, most people don't like or care about Bena either, so the comparison doesn't help him much there either.
Also, like the other guy said, at least Bena provides a pretty interesting use upon death that makes her stand out more for those who give her a chance.
I like his S2 - I use it more often than his S1. I guess it depends on HOW or WHEN you use the skill that could be problematic.
I can completrly relate to the sentiment of only using and appreciating units in scenarios that compliment their very specific kits.
While i don't really subscribe to that mindset in AK necessarily, i've been doing so in other games like FGO, where it's a lot more fun to bring units to a situation where they can shine rather than using characters that have 30 roles compressed into one that are less applicable in most circumstances, and that i think is the key word here, "role compression".
I kinda like his design but I don't use him that often, I play since launch and i've been at the pont for a long time now where the operator I use for a stage is solely based on "I feel like using you today", and unfortunaly his not on my mind most of the time, that and the fact that Czerny is my go-to arts lightning rod because i realy like him. I still use Verdant more than I ever used Bena tho, personaly she is the one I just don't resonate with, despise realy loving the specialist class as a whole, wich is strange now that I think about it because I realy loved the dollkeeper archetype from the start despise not liking her all that much x)
But my go-to dollkeeper is still Kazemaru, because her S2 have just that little extra bit of nuance that makes it more engaging for me to use than a lots of skill in the game.
My favorite use of it was in the guiding ahead annihilation, using it as a range extention to capure all 4 gelato stops (IIRC that's what they are called), it's nothing crazy obviousely, but as someone that don't nessessary like to tryhard and optimize shit out that much, it just a skill that feel good to use. She's easily in my top10 favorite operator to use.
My top1 is Firewatch S2, no contest, she probably have been in 90+% of the squads I used since I got her, and and I just now realized wrtting this comment the similarities between the 2 x)
wall of text warning
it does feel like the majority of players parrot the general community opinion (some from silvergun, others from less experienced sources) that verdant kinda sucks.
obviously, verdant is a poor generalist. his survivability doesn't scale well to lategame statcreep unlike roberta modellers or gravel s2, who's supposedly not even a bad pick for the IS4 BN4 fight. don't bring him to lategame IS. even for less oppressive stages or in cases where he works, nobody uses him as generic attack baiting unless he adds something new to the table, since gravel is easier to use and more flexible, same with beanstalk, and it's usually possible to bait enough attacks with deepcolor tentacles to clear. this isn't the only standard though, people don't hate on earthspirit because she's at least got some decent use cases.
verdant has 7 records for 4* e2 max, which is probably far more than any of us expected. the problem is, EN hasn't seen any of them except silvergun's H10-1 clear, which was as far as you can be from a verdant highlight reel. the other 6 records aren't trivial stages either, one is a 3-op of the normal witch king fight, where verdant outperforms gravel, beanstalk, deepcolor, etc as witch king bait (ok fine, with a bit of RNG simulation, but that's because the fight sucks and it's not his fault). another is the theoretical harold EX CM 7-op, where harold's reduced ATK on ranged ops is useful. and another is 13-21 CM, where he counters the respawning slugs using his 2 block and revive, alongside the best spreadshooter in the game.
the set of use cases for verdant is small -- even as a no repeat 4* player who tries to use him regularly, i never found any of them myself. but they exist, and no matter how niche they are, i think we'd be more positive about him if we saw them.
“You probably won’t be using dollkeepers at all unless they’re Spectre the Unchaines” Guilty
Verdant sold me Fent.
raised him bc i like his design ... some operators are just not meant for war and that's okay 🙏💚
They could try to design enemies that are so dangerous you are forced to have someone become a lightning rod to draw agro. Maybe make them so that you can't kill them and you simply have to stall them enough so that they kind of wither away. Would also probably bring back slow operators as well.
For a long time Mudrock was used against slow hitting bosses or monster units, because of her talent with her shield.
One of the new IS4 stages has a bunch of missile launchers that absolutely destroy my ops. Having something to tank them so I can get some sort of early game set up would be immensely helpful.
CC4🙏🏼 good times
Man this reminded me that I don’t have verdant and the suffering that was getting my first jaye after like a year of his release
I never actually thought of using Verdant to stamp out fires in Firelight stages until I saw you doing it. Neat tech.
Genuinely don't care much about him BUT, as a proud owner of Utage s1 m3 i can feel you.
The amount of def, healing and sanctuary is crazy, let alone laughably fast uptime.
I do enjoy me a good utage s1 every once in a while, makes her a fun duelist with micro potential
I love these videos, keep telling me HOW to use the operators that everyone tells me not to use.
To me verdant is just a body, the same as spelter, but spelter is better because the spelter doll SINGS. But still i like kazemaru more than any dollkeeper because her s2 can summon the doll, it is a fun mechanic.
I like that he is voiced by one of my all time favourite voice actors, Harry McEntire.
The only reason I build specter (alt and 5 star) is to passively tank since I don't have mountain. In my newer account I started building 4 stars and I'm enjoying ak more than before and discover ops that are more useful than I thought
I'm an endgame player, by the time Verdant qas released I had dozens of build op so I never built him, but since I first got him in IS I fell in love with his gameplay, he's so useful in many situations and carried runs in more than one occasion.
7:00
> you cant make tanks flashy without DPS skills?
what about Shu
her flashiness is kinda unrelated to her tankiness, but you do have a point lol
Nothing wrong with a little stalling, keep him away from decent ranged enemies though lmao
I know it's not the point of the video, but I'm happy to see someone using the Skill 2 of Myrtle. Always happy to see someone using a character in a way that nobody does.
I'm also someone who like to stall and defensive characters, but the problem is that they don't destroy the enemies fast enough, so they can be overwhelmed easily.
Good video too, I'll try the doll keeper, but it's not a class that vibe with me. Have to build them though
Also a Myrtle S2 player here; I mentioned in another comment, but the main appeal of Myrtle to me is her E2 talent to passively heal all Vanguards. Texas is too damn squishy, I rely on Zima and Ponci to hold lanes, though they lack much DPS. With the right comp around them though they can tank as well as any defender.
Which is why im more than a little bothered by Fang alter being a Charger. I never use Chargers, and kinda hate the subclass. They dont do anything I want to use Vanguards for. The one saving grace for me is that Fang altar s2 is helidrop, so I can use her like a FRD as I do with Cantabile and April
Much thanks to you for this video. I usually hear on how Verdant isn't even as tanky and stuff but this video has shown me a lot on what Verdant is meant to do or can do. Might consider giving him some growth now.
Verdant came in handy for me in Ordium Dust map 8!
Even against the boss who explodes at random that doesn’t keep him down.
I never did try doll keepers before even if I had him at E1 Level 60.
I am glad I leveled him and look forward to using him in more maps.
Finally, someone who actually gets defensive Dollkeepers. Once I get him built, I gotta post him up in RA. I wanna see if he can tank the mages on Uninvited Guest in particular so that my siege team can be unbothered, saving me an operator slot for more flexibility instead of hard locking a medic to a lightning rod.
And rest assured, there are Kirara enjoyers out there, I'm living proof. I absolutely love running all four Ambushers in RA.
unrelated to your comment but your username is awesome
Thank you! The Doctor part wasn't always there - that got added after I got into Arknights AND when I finished my PharmD.
I'm that guy who just upgraded Specter alt. and kinda forgot about the dollkeeper subclass altogether.
Im that Doctor that has no Abyssal hunters at all. Just Andreana
I used Beeswax a lot when I started, exactly for the lighting rod reason so I understand the argument for Verdant ! She is 5* but there are no 4* in the subclass and she's the closest of doing exactly what the archetype was designed for. It was so satisfying when she carried me in CC6
he really doesn't, great video as always
I really like this type of video of yours. It really does give a different perspective on the operators I didn't ever give more than a simple: "people that I watch on the internet says this operator is bad". I honestly never though about using him like that.
Cheers, and thanks for the video.
My personal lightning rod operator is Czerny since arts damage is usually annoying and he’s good against that too. I feel like Silvergun didn’t like verdant therefore most players didn’t give him a chance unless they were a nicheknights that overlapped with him
yeah unfortunately in AK, the moment a pretty influential CC says something about an operator that pretty much cements their fate in the meta.
My respect for this dude skyrocketed when I used him to stall EX-CM Harold. 4*nights is all about stalling, and Verdant can be a quite decent staller, and he excels when the boss walks at snail pace.
Good to see a fellow Kirara enjoyer. She actually is unexpectedly good, looking forward to your analysis!
timmy and spike jumpscare in my arknights video? more likely than youd think
Agree. I love Verdant and I also like Bena. I can effectively use all dollkeepers and they’re very handy in specialist knights. They can hold their own sometimes lol, and that’s why I love them.
I would say all 3 of Specialist Specter's skills have defensive utility, her 1st one being able to trade health can be a near full heal for either herself or an ally, but it boosts her damage a lot and near no one uses it so it's offensive and forgotten. 2nd is also remembered for its tons of damage due to both boosting attack and speed, but the immortality it gives is a laneholding tool and there are many times like her guard variant where she might do a bit of chip damage but her 2nd skill is used to hold a target in place that otherwise few if not no others would be able to. Then her 3rd one just gives her such immense HP values, that even with her trading some HP on hit against less healthy enemies, she still does live through loads of punishment.
So yeah, all of Specter's skills are mixed to some degree, not purely defensive, but I'd still say she has very significant defensive utility, not only in her doll trait, but in her HP boost passive and defensive utility in every single one of her skills. :D
I don't dislike Verdant, but I think he does a bad job of showing what a Dollkeeper should do. Then again, Dollkeepers are so vastly different each that there's barely anything similar between them. Even their dolls! This one does physical damage, this one is arts, next one doesn't attack but has a slow and dot zone around her - they're all so inconsistent and that's the only consistent trait between them. :D
the sl6 mlynar haha XD the disrespect on him...and it's definitely valid lol
we don't *just* like operators because they're "good", there's a reason why meta units are often disliked for players who aren't metagamers. we like operators because they *appeal* to us specifically. how degenbrecher appeals to spikes due to her big numbers, leto appeals to johnny due to her more technical gameplay, and the two collectively can appeal to timmy due to being entertaining and fun. certain operators appeal to certain people and not others.
personally as a majorly timmy player, i don't like how verdant plays, since as you said, ranged tanking isn't usually very needed, and when it is, other operators can fill that role just fine. however, just because i dislike verdant doesn't warrant him to be a "bad" operator per se. i think seeing units you dislike using being used well is awesome and an eye-opening experience! it's just that verdant doesn't appeal to my playstyle and that's okay!
i'm really happy you enjoy verdant as an operator :) sometimes, we don't need the most rationalized reason for liking an operator, it can be as simple as "i like the way they're designed, even if they're not the best" and that's perfectly acceptable! again, as a majorly timmy player, my number one rule in an appealing operator to me is: "do i have fun using this operator? if i don't, i won't use them." it's a bit more complex then that, but that's basically the gist of it. i'm sure if i tried using verdant, i'll find *some* use for him, but from what i've been seeing, he's just not my type of operator, and i hope everyone can accept that. let us all enjoy our favorite operators in peace! :D
(sorry for basically writing an essay...i just really loved this video haha 😅 i'm glad you're taking your time with these! stay safe and awesome! ❤)
I think I can somewhat sympathize with you here. I use Grani in every stage I can despite the fact that she doesn't conform to the typical kit of a charger vanguard. Even though her S2 gives her a significant atk boost, the long downtime is more than enough to keep most from using her. But throughout my experience with Grani I have legitimately found her to be extremely useful and even borderline strong on a fair bit of stages.
I do think Verdant fulfills a role that simply isn't needed especially since the other Dollkeepers all have a greater focus of damage, but in a way he's similar to Grani in that she too is a defensive op in a typically offensive branch.
This is all to say, I hope you continue to enjoy Verdant as I do with Grani.
And yes, I do have her M6 with max mod.
(Also, very based of you to dislike Ulpi as well. I don't like him either.)
I agree with this video but i want to nitpick your best lightning rod character. If you just want a tanky dude than yeah probably the newspaper man is it but penance has the increased agro talent if i remeber right and she also grants thorns and it complements her s3 since it is a defensive recovery skill
The biggest issue that I've come to find when using blockers as lightning rods is the fact that melee damage is very very very dangerous. Dollkeepers, ambushers, liberators and phalanx casters have the added benefit of having no block (for dollkeepers its the doll), meaning they can focus their entire HP pool on ranged damage, rather than worrying about having some big strong dude murder them in a few melee blows.
I'm not saying you're wrong, think how you wish. This is just the reason why I didn't really talk about defenders much as I feel they function very differently when it comes to lightning rod-ing.
@@BloopsArknights that's a valid argument and I didn't think of it like that. I guess it really just depends on the situation you need to use them in and prefrence
Task failed successfully, building Kazemaru because I've wanted to for a while but kinda forgot.
My default lightning rod has always been Hoshi or Andreana because 1 has a nasty thorns effect and a 30% resist rate and the other is an Abyssal Hunter who can be placed on range tiles and has enough range to counter snipe. Verdant and Kirara do have a really cool niche though.
One thing you don't consider to be a GIANT "boon" to his reputation is his banner placement
And I'm way too tired to cite the rant I overhead about it, but people are dismissive of Verdie boy partially because of him "poisoning" their pulls
And doing jack shit at base
(fun fact, some slavic AK gamers have grown to call him a Bucket, Verdant is close to Vedro)
Either Bucket or Hydrant, as I was reminded off just now
This video is a bit quiet, you might wanna crank your audio
Yes yes i am very aware, sorry lol
I'm a massive verdant enjoyer. I'm a big fan of ops I can just set down somewhere and forget about, plus the choice between him and bena was EZ since 4stars are so much cheaper to promote.
Personally, I got a lot of use out of Verdant while doing 4* only during this current TfN - arts tanking + not counted as being retreated when switching to the doll works really well against many of the boss mechanics. Even among 4* only he's not always the most useful or flexible but I've been finding way more use cases for him than expected.
the best lighting rod imo is Penance, sometimes with s2 and sometimes with s3, the same way you struggle to say why you like verdant's playstyle I feel with her, its just way too funny to have an unit doing literally nothing but countering enemies and they dying from across the map.
just did the reed sis annihilation and Penance shined hard lol
lightningrodknights seems like a funny niche
As soon as i saw Ulpian's kit i knew you would dislike it lmao
the first time i saw it i went on a heated rant about his talent
bro deserves a video i swear. first video where i just hate on an operator
I love verdant tbh
Nah, I still think that Verdant deserve the hate. Matterhorn (high RES), Bubble (atk down debuff), Cuora (%hp regen) and Gummy (10 RES and heal) paired with healers will do much more and better for the team. I understand that there're another 11 squad slots to carry his sorry ass, but come on, if you don't play nicheNights or you don't love Verdant, it's like second to last option that you will think about. Last option will be Frostleaf, lol.
The worst Verdant sin aside from dps meta is that he's boring. Lin gets funny +sp when hit, Thorns s2 and Bubble do funny spikes, Nightingale throws pocket Gravels to lightning rod. Guardian defenders heal themselves if you use them as lightning rods(thats also boring tho). Verdant basically just stands there, not even menacingly.
I've seen a couple videos where you bring up Bena being very easy to get and I'm sorry if this is a dumb question but... How? The event she was from doesn't seem to be available in Record Restoration
Now it make wonder how Verdant doing in male-knights niche?
I have a decently stacked acc, so picking meta like chalter or mlynar to obliterate a stage is always an option, but it is really satisfying to do some dumb stuff like super buffing jaye to kill a boss, i think arknight is a "if it works it works" kinda game so no matter how shit the unit is, or how stupid your strategy may sound, as long as it works then why not ?
bro did the vid based!!!!!!1!1!1!
I love Aosta
Dollkeepers just rule dawg
Verdant is hated because he is a guy
💯
Mountain:
@@hollyleaf3941 Mountain is a 6-star are you regarded?
@@John_Robertson_3rd Did you say anywhere in your comment that you are only referring to 4 stars?
And then there's Jaye, a well-loved male 4-star operator
Pretty sure this "Verdant bad" mindset started from that one 4* nicheknight youtuber. AK players likes to regurgitate the same thing popular AK content creators said lol
lol is Dr Silvergun the one who shall not be named now?
I mean, you aren't wrong, but neither is Silvergun. The man only plays with 4*, there's not really a better source of information about a 4* than someone who uses nothing but them.
I don't think that this is a fair assessment, more like failed SilverGun's character's assassination attempt
Hate started before he uploaded, a lot of comments were people adding their preexisting bias against Verdant and fair critique to SG
@@ArkeusWolfthis
@@higorgabriel2598 i just dont remember his name lol