Diesel (Treasure)
Diesel - one of the most wholesome personalities in the game - has been given an upgrade thanks to this new collectibles system. Back in the old days, she used to be one of the better tanks, and had niche usage against bosses for players with incomplete rosters. Slowly, she was powercreeped out of everywhere she was used in, even from Tribe Tower. But now, she has been given another chance. An upgrade to decide whether or not she is part of this revival series by Shift Up, or does she still lack that special something which other Meta Nikkes possess. Let's take a look together.
Can you give a brief summary about this unit?
If Laplace deals more damage with her Favorite Item version, then Diesel is the same... except instead of improving her own DPS, she improves not only the DPS of her allies, and has also become a better tank!, she has become a better tank and buffer! Since Nikke is a mostly DPS race, tankers like Diesel will have hard time fitting in the Meta Teams sadly. But to be fair, if we consider Crown as the god Defender right now, then Diesel should be the Fake Crown, for some units at least. Diesel's new major buff abilities comes from two things: Firstly, the ability to buff Pierce Damage, which she does so substantially! Secondly, her ability to reload magazines of all allies, from which MGs can greatly benefit from. Hence, piercers like Snow White, Maxwell, Red Hood and Alice are the major benefitters, along with MG units, especially Guillotine, for whom Diesel can tank the world for to allow her to survive at even 1 HP!
Should I get the Favorite Item for this unit?
Diesel is a good choice to go for when it comes to upgrading Favorite Items. However, we feel like her use is too niche. Her main meta use may be in either Snow White teams as an upgrade of Helm, or as a tanker for units like Guillotine who have special prowess in niche conditions (electric-weak bosses with a core in Guillotine's case). She can also be effectively used to help Guillotine survive in Elysion Tribe Tower against Bosses (only Bosses since in campaign-like stages, Diesel is likely to get one-shot due to her constant taunt without a shield). If any of the following screams useful enough to you, you should definitely aim for Diesel's treasure. Otherwise, it is better to focus Doll upgrade materials on more meta DPS units like Red Hood or Alice, or better favorite items (which is only Laplace for now, or Exia if you aim to strengthen your Electric element roster). If you decide to get her treasure, we recommend stopping at Phase 2.
Kit Analysis
Sweeter Strawberries [Phase 1]
This phase changes Diesel's Skill 2. It is unlocked once you have Diesel's bond at lv 30, SR Doll MG version lv 15 equipped on her and you finish some very heartwarming missions to unlock Diesel Treasure version. Let's summarize the upgrade:
- Gain 1 stack of S2 every 100 shots --> now happens in 70 Shots
- S2 now gives pierce damage boost whenever she refunds ammo.
If Crown gives her team a long reload buff which basically reduces reloading time as much as she can, then Diesel does kinda the same, except she "reloads" your magazine whenever she finishes her S2 (700 shots in total).
A max S2 will refund 86.62% ammo of all allies. This is not really much if you are using other weapons, but for MG DPS, this is actually a pretty decent number. If we assume Diesel having at least 808 ammo, she will never reload, and if your DPS MG have that much ammo, neither do Modernia, Guillotine, xLudmilla as long as they are paired with Diesel. Since she never reloads, she will trigger her S2 every 11.67s, which is
- 17 shot of SGs (25 with Tove)
- 8 fully-charged shots of 1s charge time RLs or SRs, which means
- If your SG has 20 ammo (29 with Tove), you will never reload.
- SR = RL = 10 ammo.
- For AR and SMG, they require quite high ammo and their base uptime is good enough, you don't even need to worry about reloading from the very start. (except Scarlet, but Scarlet won't be able to make the most out of Diesel buff anyways).
We all know Pierce damage boost belongs to Attack Damage group (Crown burst buff), except it only works on the damage having pierce effect (golden text right below number). Since her value is triple bigger than D:KW's S1, and doesn't require specific weapon, Diesel can support the following important DPS units:
- Red Hood and Alice
- Laplace (her burst does constant Pierce damage)
- Snow White and Maxwell (their bursts are Pierce damage nukes)
The uptime of this buff is not 100% at this phase, because it only lasts 10s, but the "cool-down", at lowest, is 11.67s.
So with her Phase 1 Favorite, we have a fake Crown who
- Mostly buffs MG to never reload
- Mostly buffs Piercers as Attack Damage buff.
Upgrade Burst [Phase 2]
The change in Phase 2 applies to her Burst. This change is so-so, because you gain something but you lose something.
- Taunt changes from a debuff on enemies to Attract buff on self (they behave the same, but Taunt has higher priority than Attract if enemy is under 2 types of taunting, and Taunt doesn't "reapply" when the wave is cleared).
- Attract duration changes to fix 10s (This is very good for her tanking ability synergy).
- Increases her max HP (without healing her).
Old Diesel needed burst lv 10 to taunt enemies for 5s. Treasure Diesel just casually provokes everything for 10s even at lv 1. Moreover, during taunt, Diesel can heal herself a lot due to her S1.
The HP buff seems random, until you look at her S1. Because her S1 will heal herself based on her own max HP, increasing her max HP will also increase that value by a huge margin. It's so huge that Diesel can even shoot Scarlet to trigger Scarlet's reflect and refill Diesel's HP bar to 100% through the entire Full Burst (this action will kill all other MG, avoid Scarlet if you are running a MG in PVP)
Another fake version of Crown kit, where she is technically immune while taunting. Problem is, Diesel won't be able to protect your team from AoE skills, and cannot protect you or herself from one-shot attacks.
Upgrade S1 [Phase 3]
The most expensive phase, but with a very weak change. Mostly you would want to move on other Treasure units until you finish them, then go back and finish Diesel.
- S1 heals Diesel during Full Burst --> During Diesel's burst
- Increase S2's stack by 1 every 150 shots.
The first change might hurt or won't hurt, since old Diesel just heals herself whenever it's Full Burst, doesn't matter if she bursts or not. Treasure version requires Diesel to burst, and because her burst is not particularly strong, bursting Diesel just to heal seems kinda wasted. (To be fair, this is quite a stretch because without bursting, Diesel normally can't taunt enemy to attack her --> no heal at all. In some niche cases, she can)
The second upgrade is interesting, because whenever she bursts, she will increase her S2 stacks faster. Which means,
- The requirement to trigger S2 is lowered from 700 to 490 shots. (which is 8.17s)
- After the S2 is cleared, she should still be able to generate 1 more stack before burst end assuming you never stop shooting. Due to this upgrade, the requirement for Diesel and other MG is lowered to 566 ammo, which equals 88% ammo increased. It's roughly 2 OL gear ammo lines. And it also helps increasing the consistency of S2's Pierce damage boost (10s duration vs 8.17s cooldown)
Tier List
Campaign (LD) - S | Campaign (HD) - A
Diesel can buff the best campaign units (Red Hood, Alice, Maxwell, and even Snow White in niche stages) substantially. While she is not as good as Crown, she can compete with most of the B2 roster. There are some problems that are associated with her. When you haven't unlocked OL gear, having Diesel to reduce reload time sounds like a fun concept, but when you have more ammo, she doesn't look that great anymore, and is only used for her Pierce Damage buff. Taunting with Treasure Diesel in campaign is okay on some niche situations, but on most High Deficit stages, it's impossible since all mobs instantly one-shot you. Sacrificing is a valid strategy, but tanking damage and surviving? Only Crown can do that effectively.
Boss (Solo) - S | Boss (Adds) -S
Most boss stages won't one-shot you, so taunting is actually a legit skill here. Problem is, her other values don't seem too appealing unless you are running other MGs, or using piercers like Alice, Red Hood, Laplace or Snow White.
PVP - B
Her changes mostly affect PVE gameplay. For PVP, she sounds super legit on paper. I mean, sure Scarlet can't kill Diesel, but she can nuke other 4 due to the lack of an AoE block, and then kill Diesel later because she doesn't have any protection when she's not in Full Burst.
Investments
Gear Investments
Notes
Diesel only requires Max Ammo, the value of which depends on your Treasure's Phase. The amount of ammo will vary from 700 to 490, which is 133% ~ 88% ammo up. If we consider mid-value Ammo lines, with the help of a lvl7 Bastion cube, Diesel's ideal OL gear will need 2-3 Ammo.
Skill Investments
- Skill 1: 1~4
- Low impact, skill effects are fixed or too strong even at base level.
- Skill 2: 7~10
- The higher S2's value, the more ammo she refunds and Pierce Damage Boost. Upgrade this for better team buff.
- Burst Skill: 4~7
- Low impact, skill effects are fixed or too strong even at low level.
Suggested Progression Path
Cube Investments
MGs love the bastion cube! If you haven't reached 700+ Ammo, slap Bastion on her. But, depending on your Favorite Item Progression and Ammo lines (700+ Ammo in Phase 1/2), she will never reload so you can slap Vigor cube on her (Max HP up) to make her survive better during taunting.
PvE Team Compositions
Team #1: The Pierce Damage Team
This team is built around the Pierce Damage Boost of Diesel for Piercers. Not much to say, you pick 2 DPS, and have 1 slot for either heal against AoE damage, or more buffing. Can be even CDR if your B1 is another buffer/healer.
Team #2: The Snow White Team!
This team is a variation of the traditional Snow White team, with Helm is replaced by Diesel. It should buff Snow White better than Helm, in exchange for lower survivability against AoE. Bosses like Grave Digger (Solo Raid season 14) are a good example of where Diesel would've been better. But Storm Bringer (Solo Raid season 11) is not a good example of putting Diesel in this team.
Team #3: Ingrid's Team
Yes, it's also called Elysion's tower team. Your Guillotine 1 HP is now even safer due to Diesel's protection (Until Bronchus blows her apart). The only problem is: Where's the burst gen? Where's the pierce DPS? (Ask Ingrid for them). With 2x ammo lines on both Diesel and Guillotine, they won't reload so you don't have to rely on Privaty anymore for reload buff, and can safely put Vesti/Helm in for some copium burst gen. This team is especially good for Bosses in Elysion Tower.
PvP Team Compositions
3 RL Hidden Damage Team
This team has a few ways to distribute its threat. We have Red burst to kill P1, forcing enemy to put Defender P1 + Biscuit to answer. But we also have B.Soda + either Pepper or Sugar to threaten P5. And not to mention Emilia can damage both P1, P2 and even P3 with her Auto Attack + Red buff. If you use Pepper, this is the case when you want a protection in case Red Hood is sniped (by Rosanna for example). Sugar is more straight forward, more damage to P5.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- High buff and taunt uptime.
- Good against stages (mostly Boss stages) where chip damage is prevalent.
- Gives ▲Pierce Damage, which is usually an undiluted buff.
- Can reduce reloading time overall for teammates by refilling magazines.
- Almost immortal during burst (she can only die to one-shots).
Cons
- Must burst to be near immortal.
- Won't survive in High Deficit against high damage Raptures.
- Buffs are strong but very niche, and B2 competition is kinda fierce right now.
- Can't protect team well against AoE Wiping like Scarlet's burst.
- MGs are slow in generating burst gen, and feed burst gen in return to opponent Jackal or Scarlet.