[Wild Hunt] Heathcliff

THE Identity of Season 4. Wild Hunt Heathcliff is an amazing damage dealer with many unique mechanics in his kit. Let's start with rolls on all his five skills. Five since Wild Hunt Heathcliff counter can clash and he has second Skill 3, which will be referred to in this review as S3-1 sometimes.

• Skill 1: Beheading, at its base, rolls a 11, but with conditions met, it can reach a roll of 15 (or 16 in a Clash).

• Skill 2: Memorial Procession, is a Three-Coin skill starts with a roll of 14, which may seem underwhelming. However, when its conditions are fulfilled, the roll escalates to 20, and it can strike up to four targets. This skill gains +1 Atk Weight per 2 Coffin and an additional 1 from Dullahan, but about those statuses later. While talking about Skill 2, we should mention the special status it inflicts, Impending Ruin. It works like Echoes of the Manor, but is better. Unlike Echoes that has a 50/50 chance of inflicting sinking count or potency on hit with skills inflicting those, it gives enemies sinking potency and count depending on their sanity status, decreases their clash power by up to 2, AND also gives enemies -a 10% chance to flip heads.

• Skill 3: Requiem, 2 coin skill, roll 18 with up to 26. Additionally, its damage is rather lackluster. The main use of this skill will be coffin gain or preserving it to be used for its better version...

• Skill S3-1: Lament, Mourn, and Despair, 2-coin negative coin skill with a base power of 31 and coins being -13 so at worst this skill rolls 5. At best, this skill will roll 35 when the Sinking potency on the enemy reaches at least 20. However, despite this skill being 2-coin and being negative on the mostly positive coin ID, the damage of this skill is just absurd, especially in the Sinking team. This skill at its best, will have its damage boosted by 256% which is simply insane and makes it so even at 2 heads rolled, S3-1 will do about 200+ damage. What makes this skill even more impressive, is its interaction with the unique counter Wild Hunt Heathcliff has.

• Counter Skill: O Dullahan…! , is a 2-coin counter that can roll at base 13 and up to 17. If at +15 SP and if Heathcliff has Dullahan, this counter changes to Lament, Mourn, and Despair, giving Heathcliff always access to his most hard-hitting skill.

Now for what makes him great are his two Unique Selling Points - Coffin and Dullahan. First lets take a look at Coffin.

Coffin is acquired by defeating enemies (1 Coffin per kill) or by using either version of Skill 3. Requiem grants 1 Coffin, while S3-1 grants 2. Coffin stacks up to 10 and significantly enhances Heathcliff’s damage and Clash capabilities. For every 3 Coffin, Heathcliff gains +2 Damage Up (up to +6), and for every 4 Coffin, his minimum Speed increases by 1 (up to +2). Additionally, for every 5 Coffin, he gains +1 Clash Power Up (max 2). Coffin also serves as a safety net, allowing Heathcliff to prevent allies from dying by consuming 2 Coffin per ally, enabling them to survive for an extra turn with the Wild Hunt status. The following turn, they recover 50% HP and reset their Sanity to 0, though they will still die at the end of the turn. (Maximum of 2 allies per turn)

Next up, Dullahan, is a status Heathcliff gains on the next turn after using his Counter. Even if the Counter doesn't activate, as long as the Counter is on the chain, Heathcliff will mount his steed and enter Dullahan mode. This status boosts his offense level by 3, lowers his defense level by 3, and increases both his minimum and maximum Speed by 1. At the end of the turn, Heathcliff loses a certain amount of SP (at least 10), with the reduction scaling inversely to the number of Coffin he has (more Coffin result in less SP lost). Dullahan can stack up to 3 times, although additional stacks only serve to enhance the damage of Lament, Mourn, and Despair.

"Dullahan mode" is similar to Dawn Office Sinclair EGO form, but better in terms of getting it and ease of maintaining it as Heathcliff does not need dedicated support passives or general support to take full advantage of it. When on Dullahan, Heathcliff's skills do not change much. Beheading stays the same, Memorial Procession gains +1 Atk Weight, and Skill 3 Requiem changes to Lament, Mourn, and Despair. Thankfully, unlike Dawn Office Sinclair, Dullahan is easier to gain and maintain, as using Lament, Mourn, and Despair gets rid of Dullahan status to counteract SP drain per turn but generally speaking, that SP drain is not an issue at all and due to nature of Lament, Mourn, and Despair, it is rather beneficial.

Now let us focus on the general gameplay of the Wild Hunt Heathcliff. It is rather simple. Use Counter, next turn use Lament, Mourn, and Despair that is on the dashboard, or use Counter to force it, rinse repeat. If Heathcliff has enough Coffin, using Skill 2 to facilitate on the Atk Weight is also a good choice. Despite Lament, Mourn, and Despair being a negative coin skill, using this skill even at 45 sanity is not a bad choice. On Use this skill drains 15 SP from Heathcliff, decreasing chances of the heads rolling, and as it was already written, due to the amount of damage boosts this skill can get, even rolling 2 Heads will yield great damage numbers. Oh, and do not worry much about Heathcliff going too insane. This skill, after the attack, can heal up to 50 SP (heals SP only when below 0 SP and heals more depending on how far Heathcliff is away from 0 SP) so even after losing Dullahan and returning to "normal form", Wild Hunt Heathcliff's clashes won't be affected. Generally, you will never use Skill 1, Beheading, unless you have only it on the dashboard and do not want to lose Dullahan, and Skill 2, Memorial Procession will see use only when additional Attack Weight is present.

Conclusion:

In conclusion, Wild Hunt Heathcliff is an amazingly designed generalist damage dealer who works amazingly alone or in any team and is trumping over other Identities when used in a sinking team. His game plan is easy, his powered-up form is not difficult to maintain, and his numbers are just absurd.

Notable E.G.O. Synergies:

No matter what E.G.O. you decide to use or equip Heathcliff with, Wild Hunt Heathcliff will benefit from it one way or another. Due to Lament, Mourn, and Despair being negative coin skills, simply using E.G.O. to drain SP before using that skill next turn is a valid strategy.