th, 2019, Version 5.2.1 was released! There’s some other stuff that was here in this update, but the main focus is the new Nat5 monster, the Beast Riders! (Yeah, that’s right, first we have Beast Hunters, and now we have Beast Riders) Apparently, Com2uS is into transformations and duo-attackers, because these Beast Riders are both. But let’s get on with this! Disclaimer: As of this writing, I do not own any of the Beast Riders, nor am I factoring in multipliers, skill cooldowns or skills when fully skilled up.

Masha (Fire Beast Rider) [Attack]

Basically, the gimmick of the Beast Riders is that she starts off riding a panther, but when she’s about to die, she’ll dismount from her panther and have an entire skillset on her own. Spear of Protector: Attacks the enemy to decrease the Attack Speed for 2 turns with a 30% chance. The faster your Attack Speed compared to the enemy’s, the greater damage you can inflict. So, basically, the Beast Riders’ gimmicks is that they attack with their panther, can attack by themselves, and are also based off their speed. Well, Masha gets +15 speed upon awakening. She’s faster than Kabilla now. Which is… wow. Yeah. Fast Link: The faster your Attack Speed, the greater the damage becomes. Attacks the enemy with the beast 2 times. The beast’s attack weaken the enemy’s Defense for 1 turn, and the rider’s attack absorbs the enemy’s Attack Bar by 25% for each harmful effect granted on the target, up to 100%. Okay, wow, Masha looks like she’s going to be one of the best Beast Riders. Her skills do scale off of her insane speed, and it’s going to be insane to see how much damage people can make her have. Wild Steps (Passive): The Attack Bar increasing skill effect granted on yourself increases by 50%, and the Attack Bar decreasing skill effect granted on yourself decreases by 50%. Also, your Attack Speed increases by 15% whenever your Attack Bar increases due to skills, up to 5 times. [Automatic Effect] Oooooh! Yeah, this is super cool! I can see people speed-tuning their teams so that their Masha goes second after their Attack Bar booster – so Frigate goes first, Masha gets 100% attack bar and not 50%, meaning she can focus on one monster for the rest of her team to clean up. Rider (Passive): Dismounts the beast to battle when you’re inflicted with damage that may cause you to die. [Automatic Effect] All the Beast Riders share this passive. Rider makes the Beast Hunters like Garo – Garo’s passive will have him offset all the damage that may cause him to die, only happening once per turn. Yeah, multihitters are really useful against Garo, but not so much against the Beast Riders. But wait, she’s still got a whole skillset of her own after dismounting the beast. Granted, her first skill is completely the same, but she gets a slightly different second skill and a new passive! Fast Spear Throw: The faster your Attack Speed, the greater the damage becomes. Attacks the enemy to absorb the enemy’s Attack Bar by 25% for each harmful effected granted on the target, up to 100%. Basically, the second hit and everything the beast does on their second skill is gone when Masha dismounts the beast, and this is the same for all her sisters. Revengeful Thought (Passive): MAX HP will be decreased by 50% and Attack Speed by 15% when you dismount the beast. The inflicted damage on the enemy will be increased by 100%. [Automatic Effect] Okay, so I looked ahead, and all the dismounted Beast Riders have this same passive. It feels more like a two-edged sword; on one hand, it’s easier for them to die and the damage she deals is gonna be reduced slightly, if it weren’t for the 100% boost in attack.

Barbara (Water Beast Rider) [Attack]

Okay, so this one is super funny to me, because in Markiplier’s Uno series, Wade has a super hatred towards an NPC named Barbara. I half-listen to his Uno videos while writing, too, and I got the screenshot for Barbara just as Wade started screaming at the top of his lungs “BARBARA!!!” and I’m in tears laughing. It was literally perfect timing. Spear of Protector: Attacks the enemy to decrease the Attack Speed for 2 turns with a 30% chance. The faster your Attack Speed compared to the enemy’s, the greater damage you can inflict. Fast Link: The faster your Attack Speed, the greater the damage becomes. Attacks the enemy with the beast 2 times. The beast’s attack weaken the enemy’s Defense for 1 turn, and the rider’s attack absorbs the enemy’s Attack Bar by 25% for each harmful effect granted on the target, up to 100%. Start of Attacking: Attacks with the beast 2 times. The beast’s attack removes all beneficial effects granted on the enemy, and the rider’s attack ignores the enemy’s Defense by 35% for each beneficial effect the beast removed. Afterwards, the Attack Bar of other allies will be increased, up to 50%, in proportion to the enemy’s lost HP from this attack. Hmm, so it looks like Com2uS also really likes the partial ignore defense now. It started with Odin, the wind Lightning Emperor, and now I’m pretty sure at least two Demons have a partial ignore defense, and now there’s Barbara. I do like the Attack Bar increase on this third skill, though I can’t help but wonder what proportion of HP lost translates to how much Attack Bar boost. Rider (Passive): Dismounts the beast to battle when you’re inflicted with damage that may cause you to die. [Automatic Effect] Fast Spear Throw: The faster your Attack Speed, the greater the damage becomes. Attacks the enemy to absorb the enemy’s Attack Bar by 25% for each harmful effected granted on the target, up to 100%. Revengeful Thought (Passive): MAX HP will be decreased by 50% and Attack Speed by 15% when you dismount the beast. The inflicted damage on the enemy will be increased by 100%. [Automatic Effect]

Savannah (Wind Beast Rider) [Attack]

Spear of Protector: Attacks the enemy to decrease the Attack Speed for 2 turns with a 30% chance. The faster your Attack Speed compared to the enemy’s, the greater damage you can inflict. Critical Link: The faster your Attack Speed, the greater the damage becomes. Attacks the enemy with the Beast 2 times. The beast’s attack changes all beneficial effects granted on the target to Continuous Damage for 1 turn, and the rider’s attack inflicts damage that increases by 15% for each harmful effect granted on the target. Alright, we finally got the new second skill! I really like this second skill; it may be the better of the skills. That Katarina’s got Immunity, Invincibility, Attack Buff, and Critical Rate Buff on her? Well, with Critical Link she’s just going to melt. Gigantic Roar: The rider increases the Attack Speed of all allies for 2 turns, and the beast attacks all enemies. Weakens the enemy’s Defense for 2 turns if the enemy’s Defense is lower than your Attack Power, and sets the enemy’s Attack Bar to 0 if the enemy’s Attack Speed is slower than yours. Ooooooh! This is basically incentive for you to build Savannah as hard-hitting and fast as you can. Her attack power has to be higher than the enemy’s defense to break defenses, and to completely deplete Attack Bars if she’s faster! Remember this is an AoE skill! Rider (Passive): Dismounts the beast to battle when you’re inflicted with damage that may cause you to die. [Automatic Effect] Critical Spear Throw: The faster your Attack Speed, the greater the damage becomes. Attacks the enemy to inflict damage that increases by 15% for each harmful effect granted on the target. Aaaaaand now this is mediocre, now that she’s dismounted from the beast. That should give you incentive to keep her alive for a while. Revengeful Thought (Passive): MAX HP will be decreased by 50% and Attack Speed by 15% when you dismount the beast. The inflicted damage on the enemy will be increased by 100%. [Automatic Effect]

Narsha (Light Beast Rider) [Attack]

Spear of Protector: Attacks the enemy to decrease the Attack Speed for 2 turns with a 30% chance. The faster your Attack Speed compared to the enemy’s, the greater damage you can inflict. Critical Link: The faster your Attack Speed, the greater the damage becomes. Attacks the enemy with the Beast 2 times. The beast’s attack changes all beneficial effects granted on the target to Continuous Damage for 1 turn, and the rider’s attack inflicts damage that increases by 15% for each harmful effect granted on the target. Wild Chase (Passive): The Attack Speed increases by 35% each time an enemy gains a turn, up to 5 times. The increased Attack Speed resets when your turn ends. In addition, decreases the enemy’s Attack Bar by 30% with each attack. [Automatic Effect] Okay, so it looks like Narsha’s meant to be as a deterrent against Violent runes, because with each turn the enemy gets, she gets faster and faster. Too bad she’s an LnD nat5. Practically no one’s gonna end up with one of her. Rider (Passive): Dismounts the beast to battle when you’re inflicted with damage that may cause you to die. [Automatic Effect] Critical Spear Throw: The faster your Attack Speed, the greater the damage becomes. Attacks the enemy to inflict damage that increases by 15% for each harmful effect granted on the target. Revengeful Thought (Passive): MAX HP will be decreased by 50% and Attack Speed by 15% when you dismount the beast. The inflicted damage on the enemy will be increased by 100%. [Automatic Effect]

Xiana (Dark Beast Rider) [Attack]

And now, we end the article with Xiana! Spear of Protector: Attacks the enemy to decrease the Attack Speed for 2 turns with a 30% chance. The faster your Attack Speed compared to the enemy’s, the greater damage you can inflict. Fast Link: The faster your Attack Speed, the greater the damage becomes. Attacks the enemy with the beast 2 times. The beast’s attack weaken the enemy’s Defense for 1 turn, and the rider’s attack absorbs the enemy’s Attack Bar by 25% for each harmful effect granted on the target, up to 100%. Late Night Ambush: Attacks all enemies with the beast 2 times. The beast’s attack sets the enemies’ Attack Bar to 0, and the rider’s attack inflicts damage that increases up to 100% in proportion to the Attack Bar that the beast decreased. Ooooh! Not only is she like Verad with her attack bar decrease, but her damage also increases with the attack bar decrease! Rider (Passive): Dismounts the beast to battle when you’re inflicted with damage that may cause you to die. [Automatic Effect] Fast Spear Throw: The faster your Attack Speed, the greater the damage becomes. Attacks the enemy to absorb the enemy’s Attack Bar by 25% for each harmful effected granted on the target, up to 100%. Revengeful Thought (Passive): MAX HP will be decreased by 50% and Attack Speed by 15% when you dismount the beast. The inflicted damage on the enemy will be increased by 100%. [Automatic Effect] Well, that’s the first look on the Beast Riders! I’m actually super curious to try out Marsha and Savannah myself, but please remember that I don’t even have a Druid or a Demon yet. Anyway, enough about my sad saltiness! I’m Sara Ann, and I’ll see you in the next article!]]>