DoraBuild and Guide

Dora is a STR Warrior Human Soul last balance-patched on 23rd Jan 2025. Her kit primarily relies on nearby ally presence to serve as a bulky DEF ignoring Single Target DPS. 

• Passive - Bearly Alive: This Passive increases Dora’s Defense and Crit Rate by a whopping 100% and 50% respectively if any ally is within 3.5m of her. Furthermore Dora’s normal attacks deal 100% additional damage and apply an 8 second Speed Buff. 

• Ultimate - Bearfoot Stomp: Deals AOE damage to the nearest enemy in a 3m radius, stunning them and dealing additional Defense ignoring damage.

• Main - Bear Paw-ah Punch: A ST skill that targets the nearest enemy, ignoring 50% of its Defense and stunning them, dealing additional damage if it lands as a Critical Hit.

• Sub 1 - Bear Knuckles: Another ST skill aimed at the nearest enemy and ignores 50% of its Defense. Additionally, it inflicts Dizzy to the target, which when hit again by this Sub-skill inflicts Stun, decreases Physical Resistance, Guarantees a Critical Hit and deals additional damage.

• Sub 2 - Bear With Me: Grants Dora a “Bear With Me” buff, which decreases incoming damage by 30% and increases Crit Damage dealt by 100%, Gives all STR souls a 30% HP Shield and increases their Attack/Defense by 20%.

• Artifact – Bowl of Goldilocks: Increases her Physical/Magical Resistance by 10-40% and half that effect for all STR allies in her Passive area. If she gets a Speed buff from her Passive, increases damage dealt by 20-40%. At Origin Artifact, she becomes immune to CC when her Passive is active.

Dora has had a rough time from Launch, being very quickly left behind for other carry options that could more reliably punch above their weight. Dora received 2 previous balance patches over the years that attempted to improve her tankiness and general mechanics, but there was very little reason to main the bearish martial artist. 

Dora’s third and most recent balance patch update on 23rd January promises to bring her kit up to modern standards. Dora is now a horde focused wall breaking DPS with a small STR class focus, buffing any nearby STR allies while bringing explosive single target damage to the forefront. Dora now packs the modern DPS holy trinity of Empowered Normal attacks, strong self buffs, and resistance shred, putting her raw damage in competitive consideration against other modern Human-like DPS, outside of her otherwise middling Ultimate skill. 

Dora’s high single-target DPS makes her well suited to be a main/ sub raid DPS in the right circumstances, but her mechanics generally run into compatibility issues with the various raids - she lacks mana control for Gaia, any significant guaranteed critical hits for Rudra, her hit count is far too low for Pluto, and her single-target focused kit is an ill fit for the Dark Knight raid. We anticipate that she will finally shine at the Charite Guild Raid and Aira Evil Soul Subjugation raids, but only time will tell if the self-proclaimed bear will finally get her time in the sun. 

In Battlefront/ Depths, Dora fits well as a Human in Bear clothing in the existing Beast horde comp and Otoha comps, which primarily feature a good number of STR/ Melee allies that both activate her passive and benefit from her buffs. Her wall breaking capabilities make her more of an up front combatant like Edith, but her lack of utility makes her a  more inflexible pick. Dora has also gained a surprise uptick in pick rates for PvP as a 3rd DPS in the currently popular Linzy (Thanatos)-Otoha comp, being a 3rd difficult to answer body with game ending potential. Dora’s 5v5 presence is mainly a boon for veteran players, who have had time to slowly build her up.

Investment

Investment wise, she has a large appetite being primarily a DPS character. 

• New Players/F2P/Casual Players: A rather easy skip, other options bring more flexibility and utility to the table.

• Dolphins/Competitive Raid Players/Whales/Rankers:  Dora always has been a mediocre option but her recent buffs provide her a use-case, she is a menace in PvP, can handle her own in PvE for most part. In Raids, she can see some usage as DPS in Human weak content and as a support where STR souls are being used as main DPS. Origin Artifact provides her much value in PvP/PvE with its CC Immunity.

Team Composition and Synergies

Dora primarily wants at least 1 other STR ally to jump into the fray with - she plays a strong complementary role to tanks, giving them a much needed defensive boost with her buffs and shield while bringing her DPS capabilities to the fore. Dora has no particular synergies to note, but will benefit massively from any buffs offered by the usual suspects, assuming the circumstances are ripe for her to succeed.

Conclusion

Dora’s balance patch gives her a boost in usage across content, but not enough to completely propel her into the realm of Meta units unlike Edith. Outside of Human weak content and in BF/Depths, she  will primarily serve as STR Soul Buffer (similar to Dominique for INT Souls, but weaker). A lack of accessibility to a beginner pick up banner also means that Dora likely remains just a comfort pick for long-suffering bear aficionados for now, at least until her next Balance patch.