Vital Astra overkill on Lumera?

[OverpoweredSoap]

I’m planning on merging Lumera to +10 this year and have plenty of fodder for her but with Vital Astra I only have one extra copy so I wanted to see other peoples opinion on Vital Astra on her.

My Lumera already has a ton of DR from like 3 things so I don’t know if its worth putting Vital Astra on her, though the scaling off of speed damage is really nice on her, especially considering her weapon does that too. But she also lacks slaying so she can’t proc it as often as others.

For reference this is my current Lumera build:

I already plan on giving her a/s finish as well, though I’m holding on that too rn

[LadyLuna]

I wouldn’t say it’s overkill. Because this Lumera has no way to keep Vital Astra charged outside of combat, chances are it’s only going to be useful for its damage and Arena scoring, with her only getting the extra DR as a bonus if she just happens to charge it up but not proc it

[Dragginz]

Depends on how you look at VA.

For a unit with slaying in their weapon, it’s a DR source. For units that don’t, like Lumera, it’s a damage source. Lumera is hitting 65 Spd without a seal right here, so vital adds 20 damage.

As you mentioned, she already gets 70% max DR from her weapon and CC4. Vital would only add another potential 9% on top of that, even less when Spd smoke 4 is active.

If you’re concerned with keeping it active, I’d switch her build to use SS4 and a pulsing source like groom raf with IP or Velouria.

It also depends on who else you have in your barracks and what you plan on using them for. VA plus TP4 is the best special combo imo for units with slaying weapons like the arcane’s. I’d probably look at them first before giving VA to Lumera.

[TheEternalShade]

For your current Lumera, I’d say no. You’ve already invested past the point of making Vital Astra worth it.

Now, if you swap CC4 for SS3/4, you could use VA for the DR instead and stack it on that, with SS providing a reliable means to charging VA (and DR-piercing, if you have SS4)

That's what I'm doing, alongside A/S Finish for the Healing.

But since you already gave Lumera the CC4 fodder, I’d say not to at this point and to go in with what you have.

[Yamino]

Vital Astra is only for Damage here, you’ll mostly never have it’s DR up without Slaying. If you have other unit with Slaying wanting VA, i’d prioritize them.

I also wouldn’t recomend Special Spiral to have VItal Astra DR up. You’re trading a better DR (40% from level 3 and 50% + Phantom Speed 1.5 form level 4) for a weaker one (30%).

[TheEternalShade]

@Yamino

I also wouldn’t recomend Special Spiral to have VItal Astra DR up. You’re trading a better DR (40% from level 3 and 50% + Phantom Speed 1.5 form level 4) for a weaker one (30%).

You’re not quite looking at the whole picture of using SS for keeping VA up. It’s not that it’s keeping VA’s DR up, it’s a package deal. It’s
A.) Keeping VA’s DR up.
B.) Keeping VA’s SPD-based damage up to stack with the Monach Blade’s SPD-based damage
C.) Granting near-permanent DR-Piercing for use against high-end speedsters that leave F2P Lumera behind (SS4).

That’s why I’d recommend using SS for VA. It’s not just about the DR, that’s just one aspect of it.

[Yamino]

A) that’s the worst part obviously. 30% vs. 50%.
B) This can be either grant from seal (Darting Breath) or through a support which can also grant her NFU freeing her seal slot for more stat (potencially Bonus Doubler for omni +6). This is also better if you need to 2KO in a single combat, SS4 only helps with the first special proc while Breath will help her charge a second time.
C) Lumera is both on the speedier side and is easily mergeble going forward, she has a clear lead over a bunch of melee units losing to very few. She can already deny others Dodge by outspeeding them, and T4 helps a lot with it giving a 11 Spd bonus when comparing stats. Not having it while an enemy has is really detrimental, basically giving them the chance to deny her own DR. The only case i can see this being useful is against dragons/dimitri and their Res and Def based DR respectively, but she has a worst matchup against those with her lower Res, color disadvantage and lower DR with this build (58% from weapon + VA vs. 70% from weapon + Dodge T4).

And sorry, Special Spiral 4 ain’t F2P. Rearmed Ophelia is a limited unit with 1 banner so far, Alear is a permanent unit that can spook everyone going forward and was one of the easiest to spark with a higher ticket count (while also providing Spd Smoke 4).

[TheEternalShade]

A.) You’re also ignoring that he gave his Lumera SPD Smoke 4, meaning that the Dodge returns are gping to be deminished regardless of whether he uses VA or CC4. All things considered, we’re talking a total reduction of - roughly - 78.4% (CC4) versus 74.8% (VA). That difference is negligible at best, and coupled with the extra utility of bonus damage and possible piercing? I stand by my assessment of running VA with SS for perprtual procs.
B.) Why waste a seal slot to do what she can just do with the right skills? It’s less optimized to do it that way. With a VA/SS build, she can reserve her Seal Slot for something like Null-F, Blade Session…Hell, even Bonus Dpubler or something. Besodes, under the assumption of VA, Darting Breath wpuld be a waste of a slot because it wouldn’t fully be utilizing the Special.
C.) Lumera is speedy, but there are those who outspeed her, and with powercreep the way that it is, they will get sleedier still. Giving Lumera the option to run DR-Piercing helps to solidify a place down the road when there are others who leave her in the dust by letting her break through their mitigations with her doubled-up SPD-based damage.
And I know that SS4 is Premium, that’s why I’ve qualified it conditionally every time I’ve referenced it so far, but haven’t done so with SS3.

As I said initially, though; he’s already invested in his Lumera past the point of making it worth it; to invest in a VA/SS build now would be a waster of the Premium CC4 fodder that he already gave her.

[Yamino]

A) I was compating the consistency of VA with SS against Dodge 4. On my og post i already said VA in his case is just for damage and not for DR. And if someone is ignoring something here is you, the 11 Spd advantage Dodge 4 gives that makes all the DR effects (weapons, vital astra, b and spd smoke) more consistent. The DR% can be similar, but without CC4 she has a MUCH harder job getting high value of those. You can ignore foes DR, but will probably fail to activate yours too.

B) SS4 isn’t optimized either. On a single combat Lumera will only proc Vital Astra once with it, with a breath effect she can use it twice, and it doesn’t need to be VA, moonbow/RS too. Trully optimizing her is having those kind of effects (breath and NFU) given to her by a support freen her seal for Bonus Doubler i said before and you ignored. And we didn’t even talked about the need of especific support to precharge 2CD VA before SS4.

C) Lumera’s base 43 Spd + Monarch Blade’s +3 Spd puts her on the highest visible speed with Alear, ahead of melee units like H!Corrin, Flame Lyn, A!Tiki, while also having the same omni +5, she is the higher end of the speedcreep, only losing to Alear which outspeed the whole game. Without Dodge 4 you’re giving the opportunity for those spd points behind to put her on a vulnerable spot too, potencially making all those DR effects useless too.

And for the millionth time, we already said that VA for him is just for damage. Lumera is a terrible user of VA/GLR for it’s DR% and he should prioritize it on units which use it better, but damage-wise it’s still her strongest special as a speedy unit.