by Windgesang

So you want to use Skyfire. She may not be the best at her job, and her archetype is not doing well. However you still wanna do it because those damm legs arts, both E2 and her summer skin, are fucking lit. General consensus is pretty clear, AoE casters that aren’t Mostima or Ifrit is kinda meh. But we’ll see all she can offer anyway.

Overview

Skyfire. AoE casters. Both are looked down for not being good enough. Is this true? I don’t know (nor care tbh), I’m only here to present stats, skills, and ways to use if you do decided to use her. We’re not here for meta, and these posts aren’t born to analysed operators that is already widely used by people (except Warfarin, that’s just a lead up to the Warfarin vs Sora post). With that said, Skyfire is a caster that specialized in AoE “””crowd-control””” and causing enemies to take more damage in specific circumstances.

Stats

– Offensive stats:

With no talent, Skyfire actually have the 3rd best ATK stats of all AoE casters though there are only 8 so far. If we count all casters, then she’s still 3rd with no talent involved. The problem is, a few operators just below have talents that improves their ATK value (Leonhardt, Gitano for AoE; Ceobe, Eyja, Absinthe, Nightmare for Single target), which means in reality, her raw stats isn’t that notable. Then there’s the fact that she’s an AoE casters, and AoE comes in pairs with low attack speed (just ignore the assassin snipers like Firewatch and Ambriel cough). Normal AoE casters need 2.9s between their attack hits, and for Skyfire, you also have the “chance” to increase that even further, making her have the 2nd slowest attack rate in the game (or 2nd highest attack interval).

– Defensive stats:

Skyfire’s HP and DEF are in the middle of the casters pack, nothing notable, but nothing low (not like Haze anyway). The HP still higher than snipers or supporters, but the DEF is pretty typical of ranged unit (except Sora). The RES is also pretty typical for all casters, starting from 10, and gain 5 per promotion for a maximum of 20 (as of now).

– Cost:

Another thing AoE usually comes with, is the fucking high deployment costs. With the exception of Onager Catapult and 12F, every AoE casters/snipers have more than 27 costs, and all of them have more than 20. Skyfire has 30 cost initially and increases to 33 at E1. It’s one of the highest costs to deploy in the game, tie for the 3rd highest cost with Leonhardt.

From all of her stats so far, you can already see why she (and most AoE casters) doesn’t perform so well in combat, with ATK that is only slightly higher than most without talents/skills, an attack rate that is way too low, and a deployment cost that is quite high. All of that in conjunction, cause the reputation that AoE casters have right now.

But fuck all that, I’m not here to talk about an operator that is already known to be good (except again Warfarin cuz I need her for my last written post lol). If we’re committing into this relationship with Skyfire, we’re going in deep………………………………..

Range:

Her range is nothing special among her archetype. It’s just a 3×3 square with her on the middle of the edge at E1, as per the case with all AoE casters bar Ifrit. It’s pretty short tbh, which is one of the reasons why I slowly stop using her (especially after having Meteorite)

Basic range (left) and range after E1 (right)

Trait:

Deal AoE arts damage. The normal Area of Effect should be around 0.5 to 1 tile radius (I can’t really tell), which should be the same for all AoE casters, and probably AoE snipers as well.

Talent:

Arts sniper: Damage taken of all blocked enemies increases by 7% (15% at E2). This effect is global, but only if Skyfire is deployed. The effect is accounted after every other thing is calculated (RES, skill multipliers…). So it’s going to be something like Base Damage * %(Total ATK Boosts) * Skill Multipliers * (100-RES)% * 7 or 15%.

Because this talent works globally and works for art damage and not strictly come from any classes, she can support allies that aren’t even casters, like art guards, or anyone with skills that deal art damage in general, which we have a lot. However, the enemies do need to be blocked in order to receive this extra damage, which means you already need an extra help from outside sources already, and that won’t even happen most of the time. However however, this talent again synergizes with who Skyfire is, a caster that deal area damage. In order to utilize the AoE of her attacks, the enemies need to be clumped together. And when do you think multiple enemies clump together? When they’re blocked unless you’re doing the whole Yeeter Ethan Manticore ultra stall team. Now of course the area can be big enough to reach the enemies slightly further which haven’t reached your melee operators yet, especially when we talk about her S2 which is soon. But if you want to maximize her AoE-ness, then you would almost automatically be utilizing this talent, which is nice.

Hey wait a minute isn’t there a newly added operator that deal arts damage when attacked with one of her skills, and melee enemies only attacked when they are blocked? Too soon? There’s a free operator in the credit shop that can only attack when she blocks an enemy, and she also deals huge arts damage when her skill is activated. That’s a bit easier to achieve now, oh wait we still need Skyfire first.

Quick extra question to anyone knowing: does the explosion from Meeboos when an enemy is blocked get boosted or not? Since they are being blocked just before exploded, but idk if they get unblocked and then exploded or not. EDIT: Looks like it works, so that’s something to put in mind.

Skills:

– RIIC skills:

Always available – Caster Expert α: Increases mastery training speed of casters operator by 30%. At E2, this skill is upgraded to Caster Expert β, which is 50%.

This is basically the same as Warfarin’s base skill, except for casters instead of medics.

First skill: ATK Up γ

This skill is a simple one, yet important. When active, this skill simply increase Skyfire’s attack by a huge % for a duration. This % boost does not stack with other ATK buffs, like Warfarin, Sora, or even Aak, but as mentioned from the talent, that boost is affected by it, after RES is calculated.

At level 7, this skill increases 60% ATK, last for 30s, cooldown of 35s (26.9s with E2 Ptilopsis, 25s with E2 Mostima), with an initial SP of 10.

Which give her a pretty constant and strong attacks for the duration. This even get better at M3, where the effect is +100%, basically double, last for the same duration, but cooldown of 30s (23.07s / 21.43s), and 15 initial SP.

This skill is important because as mentioned by a lot of people, and spoiler alert, this increases her overall DPS much better out of the two skills Skyfire has.

Second skill: Fire of Heaven

FF VII remasta on PC when?

This is the signature skill for Skyfire, even if it’s not the “better” skill. This skill gives Skyfire various effects. First it increases her attack interval and as a result, her attack rate is reduced. The new interval is calculated by multiply the old one by 1.7, so it’s 2.9 * 1.7 = 4.93 seconds per attack. Then the next 2 effects are related to her new attack animation. It converts her attack from a small burst of fire, to calling goddamm meteor from the sky like goddamm Sephiroth or some shit. The meteor also takes a bit longer to fall, i.e. the time when her attack animation began to the time the attack actually hit is longer than normal. If you remember Ambriel, then those two effects are similar to her second skill as well, increasing the attack interval and increasing the time for attack animation to hit. Except Skyfire’s effect is far far worse. The ratio increase of the interval is much higher (1.7 vs 1.333…) and the time until impact is actually 2 whole seconds for Skyfire. That is to say, from the time Skyfire decided to attack someone, to the time the meteor actually hit, takes 2 seconds, which is almost half of the attack interval already. Something I once suspected back in Ambriel’s guide: attack speed buff should multiply each differently and then added together (multiply of sum/sum of multiply). However, in chap 6 with the attack slow debuff, Skyfire still “only” need 2 seconds to drop the meteor with the debuff, so it probably multiplies as a whole and then subtract to the downtime after the attack animation instead. Next, these meteors of course aren’t only for show and delaying her attacks, the meteor also has a huge impact area, basically a hidden effect of expanding the AoE of her normal attacks, like Meteorite’s S1. In fact, they’re nearly similar in area, with Skyfire having slightly smaller radius.

2 things to get out of this comparison: a Meteorite is bigger than a Meteor (kappa), and the indicator of Skyfire’s skill effect and the explosion fx doesn’t quite match

The meteor also deals massive damage (like, it’s a goddamm meteor strike bro), increasing the damage from 170% up to 240% of her ATK, which signifies that it works with all ATK buffs like Sora, Warfarin, or the drug dealer. And that’s not all, the meteor impact also stuns survivors for a short duration. At level 7, this skill deals 210% ATK per meteor, and stuns for 0.2 seconds, lasts for 31 seconds, and has a cooldown of 29s (22.3s / 20.7s).

First off, the stun duration sounds really sad, but it’s still a stun, which is enough to cancel attack animation, like Def Crush’s stunning attack, and enough to cancel the binding of Sarkaz Caster. The skill also reset attack animation upon usage, which means you can somewhat time the first hit to do exactly just that. Obviously for the rest of the duration the skill won’t be helpful in that role unless you’re lucky. The good news is, that’s only at level 7, at M3 the stun duration gets increased to a whopping 1 second, and that’s per meteor! It also increases the damage to 240% per attack, skill duration to 40s, and reduce cooldown to 25s (19.23s / 17.86s). This means if you planned on living up to the Crowd Control tag that Skyfire have, you better have the mats to E2 Skyfire AND THEN proceed to spend mats and from 32 up to 48 hours to M3 this skill. That’s a role tag that is hidden behind a paywall!!!! The system is rigged, we must riot!

Second off, the meteor damage sounds really cool and all, but it’s already mentioned by multiple people that her actual DPS is actually lower than her first skill. This is due to the huge attack interval the second skill has, and the damage increases isn’t enough to compensate. This is not so bad due to 2 reasons, the first being the huge AoE the meteor has, it gives her a chance to reach more enemies than she could with her normal attack, which can help her catch up again. The second reason being the second effect of the skill that causes the stun. The utility of crowd-control, despite being short, can still contribute to the argument for this skill, especially since it can cancel potentially dangerous stuffs.

A few small details you need (not really) to remember with her S2. Once the meteor location is determined, and it is quite easy to tell, Skyfire wouldn’t change the impact area until her next meteor. That is to say, if the enemies snuck past it, which is possible given the 2s delay, the meteor is going to miss, even with the huge AoE. The solution is to simply block the enemies, and if Skyfire is using her S2, that means she is currently deployed, and when she is deployed, guess what happened to blocked enemies? ^{yes I know we can also just slow them down but shhhh}

The huge AoE can also function as a mini range expansion for Skyfire (I mean, better than normal AoE casters/snipers), able to match that of Gitano’s S2. Of course Skyfire need a target in her normal range in order to reach further from her range, but the enemies should be coming in steady anyway if you really want to get value out of the meteors. If not, you’re better off using her first skill, or don’t use any at all.

Her short range, high cost, and slightly low survival stats in combination means that she’s potentially going to be exposed to danger more often. Short range so she has to move a little closer to the front, high cost means that she’s one of the last few to be deployed, which affected by the enemies targeting priority, and lower survival means that once she does get targeted she goin get rekted. But with Myrtle or just enough DP generation, you can plan around this, or just get better melee operators.

The sick full stocking on those thighs on her art though, I think that alone is enough of a reason to use her kreygasm

Anyway that’s about all I can think of for Skyfire. She used to be one of my favorite cuz she filled the slow but hard-hitting theme (if you remember that one post of mine), until Meteorite show up and fill the third one of long-range attack as well. Skyfire is still decent for what she does though, except needing a bit of investment to get better crowd control. What do you think about this post, and Skyfire herself? Please do comment if you think I missed something important. I know there’s someone out there with a maxed Skyfire for sure, isn’t that right Mr. Car….Im bad with name sorry uwu.