Marciana guide & review

Claiming to be an exemplary teacher at M.M.R. Vocational School, Marciana is the only reliable B2 Healer aside from Blanc. While we may not be so sure what kind of example she is giving to her students, she teaches them that healing is important in most battles. Alongside a brief lifesteal and HP potency for two units on last bullet, as well as a teamwide heal when using Burst Skill, she offers a unique buff called Storage, which stores excess HP recovery by expanding the maximum HP limit (like a padding). This technically increases the maximum durability of every unit, allowing them to survive critical attacks that would otherwise erase their existence.

There is a noticeable difference between how Marciana's healing works versus other healers. She does not heal units on last bullet based on her HP, but instead provides lifesteal to everyone. This can be good or bad. On one hand, most attackers with consistent damage will definitely enjoy more healing from lifesteal as they can dish out a lot of damage, not to account the accompanying HP potency. Burst attackers like Maxwell and 2B may require precise timing to fully benefit from it, but with some manual gameplay, it may be manageable. On the other hand, supports and defenders unit whose ATK aren't buffed will have trouble benefitting from it. The amount of the lifesteal is quite low, so you need to pay extra attention to your units' HP all the time.

Thankfully, she does heal the team every rotation when using Burst Skill (tied to Skill 2). This is similar to Pepper's Burst heal, which has been proven to be extremely useful. Her Burst Skill also provides a buff called Storage, which stores excess HP recovery by expanding the HP limit (like a container placed on top of MAX HP). This also synergizes with her Skill 2, allowing her team to expand their HP limit when they are at maximum HP. The synergy between Skill 2 and Burst Skill is similar to SMary's Burst skill alone!

Last but not least, her Burst Skill also offers a slight DEF boost based on the caster's DEF. So far, this seems to be underwhelming in most contexts, so I will assume that the final line simply doesn't exist. Poof. Still, it reduces the overall amount of damage your team takes, which may be the turning point in some awfully specific cases.

How Storage Works

Storage functions similarly to MAX HP, but there are several differences. MAX HP is indicated with the condensing of white bar in battles, while Storage is indicated with a green bar instead (placed at the end). Dark Green shows that the Storage is empty, while Light Green shows that the Storage is filled by that amount. Light Green is consumed first before White, and White must be fully filled first before Light Green appears. In other words, it is just a container that expands HP limit but is not part of HP itself. Likewise, excess HP stored by MAX HP and Storage buffs (indicated as Light Green) disappears at the end of their duration.

We can see that Storage is filled here. Scarlet and A2 damage themselves all the time. See how Storage is being consumed.

After Gravedigger attacks, Storage is now depleted.

Thanks to MizoreRainy for providing these screenshots!

Max HP vs Storage

Here are some core differences between MAX HP and Storage:

• MAX HP buffs increase the effects of skills that rely on caster's MAX HP, such as 2B's Skill 2 and most healing skills. Meanwhile, Storage does NOT.
• Storage acts as an extra container placed on top of MAX HP, so it is NOT considered part of HP itself. Even if Soline with Storage gets hit, as long as the damage does not chew into her HP (and drain Storage entirely), she will still have full HP. This is one strength it has over MAX HP.

Here is a picture of Soline buffed with Storage. The Storage here is already consumed a little (check next picture).

As you can see, her full HP skills are still present. Pay close attention to her HP values!

• That also means that Storage does NOT expand MAX HP. Therefore, self-harm skills like A2, Scarlet, and Guillotine will drain the same HP per second, even if Storage is full and their current HP is maxed. It will also NOT raise their skill activation threshold.
• For instance, if your Scarlet has 1,000,000 current & MAX HP, and Storage MAX value is 200,000, Scarlet will have an effective HP of 1,200,000. However, she will only drain 40,000 (4%) HP per second until storage is depleted instead of 48,000 because Storage HP is not considered.
• Unlike MAX HP, triggering Storage does NOT naturally heal affected Nikkes. Marciana utilizes the heal from Skill 2 to fill her Storage.
• Marciana's Storage max amount depends on her MAX HP, but most MAX HP buffs are dependent on the target unit's MAX HP instead (except for Mast and SMary).

For beginner players without an extensive roster, Marciana is worth deploying in stages where healing is often demanded, allowing you to clear contents with ease as you unlock more units. Boss stages, for example, almost always requires some sustain, whether in the form of heals or shields. Unless you possess stronger healers such as Pepper or SMary, or an overpowered character like Blanc, Marciana will remain valuable. You can keep using her until you obtain more powerful B2 to replace her, especially in Raids where you need to make 3 to 5 teams.

For endgame players with an almost complete roster, Marciana will instead be seeing more usage in contents where damage-boosting B2 aren't applicable, or where a third B3 is preferred but a B2 healer is needed. This problem mainly occurs in Raids and potentially Elysion Tower, which would be her primary battlefield. Unfortunately, the current B2 that we usually use are simply too influential to replace, so in the worst case, she may not be seeing any usage at all. Nevertheless, she can still be used in other contents and still be flexible, especially if you do not have other healers.

Don't expect much from her in Arena. She can be situationally useful, but she is not by any means a component of the current meta. She serves the same purpose as Noise and SMary, expanding each unit's HP pool and allowing them to withstand more damage. However, Noise's skills have more attractive values, and since cooldown isn't an issue in PvP, Noise is always superior. Moreover, the 10% lifesteal (that's at level 10 by the way) only sets in after 6 seconds, and the value is too small to justify using her. Still, Marciana is a B2 healer, so she can be paired with a damage-boosting B1 or another B1 healer for more sustain. In summary, indeed, she is better than the average B2 for Arena, but she won't be replacing the existing meta units.

Gear Investments

Gear investments aren't necessary, but if you urgently need more heal, upgrade and OL her Armor for more healing. You can also upgrade her Head, then Shoes. As for the OL lines, you do not need to reroll them at all since her damage isn't that brilliant anyways. However, avoid Max Ammo lines as much as possible as they clash with her last bullet mechanics.

Skill Investments

As usual, skill investments aren't that needed for healers (except in the case of Arena, but she is just average there).

Focus on upgrading her Skill 2 first as that will be her main source of heal alongside Skill 1. It's also more consistent than lifesteal because some Nikkes will have trouble benefitting from it. At the same time, units with high damage may benefit from Skill 1 more. Hence, at the end, it is recommended to upgrade both equally.

Burst Skill is optional since it is only about increasing DEF, which is useless in most cases, and the maximum amount of Storage. Remember, Storage does NOT naturally heal the affected Nikkes, so if your team constantly takes damage and hovers around half HP, then Storage is completely useless.

Cube Investments

Resilience. Period. This will allow her to abuse her Skill 1 way more often. Bastion and Wingman are the opposite and should be avoided. Assault can be used for more hitrate, but why?

Marciana is a versatile B2 healer that can fit in many teams, especially the ones with one powerful B1 and three crucial B3. However, as a B2 healer with no CDR, you should always pair her with a B1 CDR unit, unless CDR isn't necessary. You can also pair her with a B2 CDR, but unless it is SHelm (whose Burst Skill is quite useless), it's better for you to use off-burst healers instead like SMary or Rapunzel. However, again, to maximize her potential, you are instead encouraged to build a 1-2-3-3-3 setup.

Since her main focus would be in Raids, below are some example teams that we foresee. This section is targeted to endgame players who want to maximize their units' potential. Be informed that these may not be the best teams, but if you lack better units, you are always welcome to adopt these. Also, these teams use Privaty, but you do NOT need to use Privaty for Marciana to perform.

Team #1

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The regular variant of this team uses Novel instead of Marciana, which lacks an AoE healer and tries to take advantage of Alice's self-heal as much as possible. If the boss does too much AoE damage, or if you wish to trade DPS with more sustain, this can be a good alternative. Marciana's skills synergize well with Priv's last bullet, allowing you to dish out as much damage as possible without worrying about dying. You can also bring three B3 with you as you no longer need to sacrifice one for a B1 healer.

Team #2

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This team recycles the idea that underpins the first team by using different core DPS. In this example, SAnis and Privaty have a strong synergy, which not only boosts her own DPS but also Scarlet's thanks to "infinite ammo". At the same time, Marciana also enjoys Privaty's buffs and can keep the team alive longer. Non-Marciana variants of this team involve the use of Diesel, Sin, and possibly Quency. There is also a non-Privaty variant that exchanges Privaty for XRupee.

Team #3

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?

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?

Slot 5

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Pushing story boss stages without Blanc? Marciana comes to the rescue. There is an alternative, Helm, but if you want to use all of your 3 DPS at the same time or need all three B3 to perform, there is no healer better than Marciana. With Marciana, you can also use Liter, which is a vital story unit.

Currently, we do not have a lot of B2 healer choices. We do have Folkwang, but she has a 40s CD and only heals certain units. We have Yuni, but her healing is just too small to make an impact. The last one is Blanc, but Blanc is always paired with Noir, so she is not as versatile. Marciana happily resolves all these problems. As a standalone B2 healer, she can fit in many teams. However, since we already have Pepper, SMary, and many other healers, she may be easily outclassed or not as useful as you initially thought. Furthermore, B2 has tough competition. With Novel, Mast, Blanc, and CDR units (Dolla & SHelm) joining the fray, she may not even be used in Raids at all.

Two new units are also headed our way, Tia and Naga, and their kits seem to be overpowered. You should definitely try to acquire them instead of Marciana. They may be the second Blanc & Noir, which require you to obtain both of them to fully utilize their potential, but they seem too good to miss. They also provide healing, cover recovery, and tons of DPS boost!

Do be warned that, if they release a powerful unit that relies on full HP (like Brid & Soline) in the future, Marciana may start seeing more usage.