Sakuya

INFORMATION

FROM:

SWORD ART ONLINE

RACE:

SYLPH

WEAPONS:

KATANA
SPEAR
BOW

MAIN ELEMENT:

WIND

ROLE:

HEALER
ATTACKER

UNLOCK:

Unlocked in Dicey Cafe Side EP that appears during EP11.

~KATANA~

Show/Hide Katana Sword Skills

NAME

SKILL DESCRIPTION

(辻風)

Tsujikaze

Single Strike attack. An upwards strike from the hip.

COOLDOWN: 3

(緋扇)

Hiougi

Combo attack. Steps forward and delivers 3 swift consecutive slashes.

COOLDOWN: 3

(紅結)

Kureyu

Charging attack. Leaps forward and attacks with a rising slash. Looks like a reverse Tsujikaze. Covers a lot of distance.

COOLDOWN: 3

(禊椿)

Misogi Tsubaki

Power attack. Gathers strength into a single slash that generates a small shockwave damaging enemies. Long startup. Has super armor.

COOLDOWN: 10

(窮奇)

Kyuuki

Combo attack. 6 Swift spinning vertical slashes followed by a finishing rising slash.

COOLDOWN: 10

(残月)

Zangetsu

Projectile attack. Slashes the air to propel a crescent shaped horizontal shockwave that damages all caught in its path.

COOLDOWN: 10

(朧月夜)

Oborotsukiyo

Combo attack. Charges in to perform 4 heavy slashes that damage an area.

COOLDOWN: 15

(羅生門)

Rashoumon

Combo attack. Steps in to do a 14 hit combo. Takes really long @_@

COOLDOWN: 30

~SPEAR~

Show/Hide Spear Sword Skills

	NAME	SKILL DESCRIPTION
	Triple Thrust	Combo attack. Steps in and performs 3 consecutive pokes. COOLDOWN: 3
	Spin Slash	Area of Effect attack. Spins the spear overhead once and follows up with a finishing slash. COOLDOWN: 3
	Digger Glint	Power attack. Thrusts the spear at point creating a mini beam of light. Has shorter range than you would expect. COOLDOWN: 3
	Forward Spiral	Charging attack. Steps in and spins the spear with one hand. The spinning motion has some Guard Point. COOLDOWN: 10
	Blast Spear	Projectile attack. Throws the spear at the target. Range is deceptively short. COOLDOWN: 10
	Spiral Gate	Counter attack. Drops into a defensive stance and counters incoming attacks with a spinning thrust. Only activates upon receiving damage during start-up of attack (Projectiles & magic do not count). COOLDOWN:* 10
	Vulture Stinger	Power attack. Vaults in and stabs the ground with the spear generating an upward torrent that damages enemies. COOLDOWN: 10
	Wild Twister	Combo attack. First does a pretty butch pose. Then proceeds to spins the crap out of that spear finishing with a diagonal slash. (w) COOLDOWN: 15
	Fatal Thrust	Charging attack. Launches yourself at the target with the spearhead piercing through just about anything. Covers a ton of distance. COOLDOWN: 30

~BOW~

Show/Hide Bow Sword Skills

	NAME	SKILL DESCRIPTION
	Wide Shot	Area of Effect attack. Simultaneously shoots 5 arrows in horizontal array. COOLDOWN: 3
	Hail Bullet	Multi-projectile attack. Fires 3 homing arrows that track a target. COOLDOWN: 3
	Retrieve Arrow	Projectile attack. Shoots a very long range arrow. Low chance Bind. COOLDOWN: 10
	Vault Shot	Dodging attack. Performs a side-flip and fires 3 arrows while upside down. COOLDOWN: 10
	Stardust Exa	Area of Effect attack. Steps back and fires a rain of arrows above a target. COOLDOWN: 10
	Sparkle Shot	Targeting attack. Holding down the button lets you multi-lock targets. Release to fire arrows at all locked on targets in quick succession. COOLDOWN: 10
	Multiple Chaser	Multi-projectile attack. Fires a barrage of homing arrows at a target. COOLDOWN: 15
	Strike Nova	Projectile attack. Shoots a powerful beam of light at the target. COOLDOWN: 30

~OFFENSIVE MAGIC SKILLS~

Show/Hide Offensive Magic Skills

	NAME	DESCRIPTION
	Fireball	Fires a small fireball at an enemy. Power & number of consecutive shots increases with skill level.
	Flame Blast	Drops a large fireball upon an enemy. Power & number of consecutive shots increases with skill level.
	Ice Bullet	Fires a small icicle at an enemy. Power & number of consecutive shots increases with skill level.
	Freeze Lance	Drops multiple frost shards upon an enemy. Power & number of consecutive shots increases with skill level.
	Wind Cutter	Fires a small gust of wind at an enemy. Power & number of consecutive shots increases with skill level.
	Tornado Cannon	Summons multiple whirlwinds upon an enemy. Power & number of consecutive shots increases with skill level.
	Tyrant Hurricane	Summon massive Hurricane to attack area surrounding target. Power increases with skill level.
	Dark Sphere	Fires a small ball of darkness at an enemy. Power & number of consecutive shots increases with skill level.
	Void Distortion	Drops large dark clusters upon an enemy. Power & number of consecutive shots increases with skill level.
	Lightning Arrow	Fires multiple spears of light at an enemy. Power & number of consecutive shots increases with skill level.
	Holy Lance	Fires a beam of light to pierce an enemy. Power increases with skill level.
	Divine Ray	Calls down a ray of light from the heavens to damage an area surrounding a target. Power increases with skill level.
	Bifrest Resonance	Summons 6 balls of each element and sends them at the target. Lock-on possible. Power increases with skill level. *This skill was added in version 2.00

~HEALING & BUFFS~

Show/Hide Healing & Buffs

	NAME	DESCRIPTION
	First Aid	Recover own HP. Amount recovered is increased with skill level.
	Heal	Recover Party HP. Amount recovered is increased with skill level.
	Refresh	Greatly Recover Party HP. Amount recovered is increased with skill level.
	Resurrection	Brings allies back from dead (Within Range) Amount recovered is increased with skill level.
	Revive	Allows the user to come back from the dead. One use per cast. Amount recovered is increased with skill level.
	Quick	Increases Party Movement Speed by 50%. Duration is increased with skill level.
	Resist Aero	Increases Party Wind Resistance by 33%. Duration increases with skill level.
	Resist Holy	Increases Party Holy Resistance by 33%. Duration increases with skill level.
	Enhance Aero	Increases Party Wind Based Damage by 30%. Duration increases with skill level.
	Hiding	Become semi-invisible. Aggro rate is decreased by 50%. Duration increases with skill level. *Has no effect in online play.
	Hollow Body	Become fully invisible. Unable to be seen on the mini-map or locked onto. Any action other than movement cancels the invisibility. Duration increases with skill level.

~PASSIVE SKILLS~

Show/Hide Passive Skills

NAME	DESCRIPTION
The Art of Katana	Allows the user to equip Katana and use its respective Sword Skills.
The Art of Spear	Allows the user to equip Spears and use its respective Sword Skills.
The Art of Bow	Allows the user to equip Bow and use its respective Sword Skills.
Increase Wind Attack	Increases damage of Wind based attacks by 10%.
Increase Wind Resistance	Reduces damage received from Wind based attacks by 20%.
Increased Magical Attack	Increases power of magic attacks by 10%.
Increase MP	Increases Max MP by 10%.
Increase Status Ailment Recovery	Increases the rate of recovery from bad statuses by 20%.
Increase Magical Defense	Decrease amount of damage received by magical attacks by 10%.
Fast Cast	Decreases the casting time of Magic skills by 10%.
Cooldown Time Decrease	Decreases the cooldown time of Sword Skills & Special Moves by 10%.
Switch Boost	Increases the power of Switch by 10%.
Skill Connect Boost	Increases power of Skill Connect by 10%.
Increase Critical Rate	Increases the probability of landing a critical strike by 20%.
Increase Wind Attack+	Increases damage of Wind based attacks by 20%.
Increase Attack	Increases physical damage dealt by weapons by 10%.
Fast Cast+	Decreases the casting time of Magic skills by 20%.
Increase Wind Resistance+	Reduces damage received from Wind based attacks by 36%.
Increase MP+	Increases Max MP by 30%.
Increased Magical Attack+	Increases power of magic attacks by 20%.
[Lv1000] Increase Magical Defense+	Decrease amount of damage received by magical attacks by 20%.
[Lv1050] Increase Down Resistance	Increases resistance to DOWN and Stagger status ailments.
[Lv1100] Boss Blocker	Decreases the damage received from Boss type monsters. (Should be 20%. Possible it could be 30%)
[Lv1200] Boss Attacker	Increases the amount of damage dealt to Boss type monsters. (Likely between 20% & 30%)
Increase Katana Damage	Increases damage of Katana by 10%.
Increase Spear Damage	Increases damage of Spear by 10%.
Increase Bow Damage	Increases damage of Bow by 10%.
Katana Master	A title given to those who have mastered the art of Katana. Increases damage of Katana by 50%.
Spear Master	A title given to those who have mastered the art of Spear. Increases damage of Spear by 50%.
Bow Master	A title given to those who have mastered the art of Bow. Increases damage of Bow by 50%.

~HOW TO PLAY SAKUYA~

This section is written as an more in-depth extension to the AW & SAO Character Overview post and is meant to be used hand in hand with the General Leveling Guide. The purpose of this How-To-Play is to offer players of all levels a skeleton plan which enables them to build their characters up to their full potential. With that being said, it is indeed recommended that you do follow the steps described here.

-Important Skills-

Quick
Enhance Aero
Heal
Refresh
Revive
Resurrection
Resist Aero
Resist Holy
Hollow Body or Hiding (Offline Only)

-Weapon Selection-

Sakuya-san gets 3 good weapons. Bow allows her to excel at healing since she can survey battles from afar. Katana offers upper-mid range damage and Spear grants her a solid all-round weapon. If you want to make Sakuya-san as strong as possible, it is recommended that you play her on Spear.

Sakuya-san’s element is Wind, so if you are able to give her a Max Attack; Half Element Weapon with ~10% Wind or a Half Attack; Max Element Weapon with ~20% Wind, she will become considerably strong. In most cases, higher base attack is better than elemental attack unless you are willing to switch weapons for each boss weakness.

**For more information on the overall Weapon Building process, consult the Weapon Building Guide.

**For some tips on how to select the appropriate Accessories for your character, consult the Selecting Equipment guide.

-Element Etiquette-

Sakuya-san gets Enhance Wind. Wind is a mid-tier element as a handful of bosses are weak to it. Keep in mind that only one Element can be active at a time and buffing Wind will in fact overwrite whatever element is currently active.

Elemental Buffs are important because they increase damage by +30%. If a monster is weak to the element, this damage gets multiplied by 2 making you do +60% damage if you use the correct Element.

On the other hand, if a monster resists an element, the bonus damage can drop to +3%. This is indeed better than nothing but this fact means that buffing the Elemental Weakness of the boss is the most important – even more important than buffing the elemental strengths of the party members.

When to use Enhance Wind:

When the Boss is weak to Wind
When no other Element is active and the team isn’t able to buff any other Element.

If someone has used an element that is not Wind, but the boss is weak to it, Do not, by any means buff over it with Wind. Your character will do more damage with a foreign element as opposed to an Element that the boss resists.

If you do not know which bosses are weak to what elements, you can have a look at the Elemental Weakness Spreadsheets I have made on the Boss Guides page.

-Using Sakuya-

The Sylph class is built to be a Attack x Healer class. They have a good balance of Healing skills and attacking magic. This character is a good look if you like a character that is able to offer a lot of variety. Playing Sakuya-san on Spear allows you to enjoy a character that has both Strength and Healing capabilities.

When a quest or boss fight starts:

Cast Quick.
- If monster is weak to Wind, cast Enhance Wind. (Refer to Elemental Etiquette section)
- If monster’s strength is Wind, case Resist Wind.
- If monster’s strength is Holy, cast Resist Holy.
Cast Revive
Move in for Combat, but keep an eye on your teammates (Refer to Healing section below)

On the SAO Sword Skills & Weapon Breakdowns page I have written some basic combat guidelines for all the respective weapons in the game. If you feel like you are using a weapon incorrectly or just want some pointers, I would advise you to have a look at that page.

Sakuya-san has a responsibility to heal teammates but she is also able to be on the front lines and be attacking alongside other more offense orientated races. She works well in any team but at the same time doesn’t particularly stand out in any way. Which is a shame (;_;)

Remember that when players die in battle, they are revived without any buffs. Recasting buffs when teammates die is a good idea and makes you a wonderful teammate. Of course, in some cases when a player dies non-stop its a waste of time to recast buffs (>.<)

-Healing Guide for Sylph-

If you don’t have the correct mindset for healing, it can become a chore and potentially put you into a place where you become a player who either completely focuses on healing or a player that completely neglects healing. Because of this I put together a mini-guide to allow you to heal efficiently with only a small amount of rules.

Note: This Healing Guide assumes that you don’t have Magia. If a teammate does in fact cast Magia, the Sylph’s healing abilities become on par with an Undine. Should that happen, it would be beneficial to refer to the Healing Guide Section of an Undine like Asuna or Sumeragi.

The Golden rule: Keep Revive on at all times

Revive is the healer’s lifeline and if the healer dies, all is lot. That means that you should prioritize casting Revive over everything else – including healing others or dealing damage.

During the course of a typical battle, all players who are attacking a boss are doing so using Skill Connect Combos. This means that you should assume that everyone will get hit by every single attack that the boss will do. If you think of it like that, it becomes easy to see into the future of the battle in terms of which teammates will need healing and exactly how much. Because of this, it helps if you know your teammates as well as the attack strength of the boss. But all of that comes from playing the game so don’t worry about it so much.

How to go about Healing:

Use the player with the lowest HP at any given time as your reference. Note that this can change in the blink of an eye so you constantly have to be watching everyone’s HP bar.

When player’s HP drops to 75%
- Do nothing.
When player’s HP drops around 60%
- Use “Heal” skill.
When Player’s HP drops below 40%
- Use “Refresh” skill.
When player’s HP drops below 20%
- Try to use “Refresh” but be ready to cancel the skill at any time because they may die.
When player is dead
- If possible, never revive dead players with “Resurrection”. This skill has a long cast time and can only be used when you are within close range of their corpse. This means that you have to put yourself in a dangerous place to heal them. Healing Items have infinite range so just calmly use one from safety and then use “Heal”.
- In Sudden Quests and in the Mugen Dungeon, healing items don’t work on teammates. The only way to revive dead players is with Resurrection. That skill has a long cast time and a limited range so make sure you are careful when you use it.
When entire party is dead
- Use Hollow Body because it allows you to become completely invisible to all enemies. Then calm down. First makes sure that you have Revive on. If not, cast it while flying. After this, fly to the altitude limit or drop to the ground and use a Healing Item to revive your teammates. After this you can use “Refresh” and say “Leave it to me!” to let your teammates know that you are reliable.
- In Sudden Quests and in the Mugen Dungeon, healing items don’t work on teammates. If your party gets wiped out with you as the sole survivor tread carefully and priorities your own survival over resurrecting teammates. If you die now, its all over. Carefully make you way to your dead teammates and use the Resurrection skill on them. Since you are the only one left alive, understand that every monster in the vicinity will be looking straight at you so you need to look for openings to cast Resurrection. If you are playing with a diverse party, prioritize Resurrecting the other Healers in the party as they can help you the most in a situation like this.

Things to look out for:

Always keep an eye on your MP.
Magic Down & Curse drastically reduce healing
Always cast healing spells in a safe place.
Don’t run out of healing items
If a player in the team is too weak for the mission that you are doing and they die constantly, ignore them.
Revive doesn’t give a warning when it wears off. Just have a look at your status to make sure you have that Blue Feather on.
If you safely dodge one of a bosses hard-to-dodge attacks, start casting a Healing spell. Chances are high that your teammates didn’t dodge it.
When working with another competent healer on healing duty, don’t use Refresh at all. If both of you are using Heal, it will be more than sufficient.

-BK’s Opinion on Sakuya-

The Sylph race offers a strong blend of attacking and healing and that makes them a thoroughly enjoyable class. Since Sakuya-san has access to Spear, she is without a doubt the strongest Sylph. The only downside of this race is that they don’t really stand out in a team and going Solo with them is somewhat awkward.

I’ll have you know that I have had the longest crush on Sakuya-san (*_*). Back in Lost Song, she was the first character I played online with and got to 1000.

Something about her ankle long hair and her Student Council President no-nonsense vibe kindles a young fire in all the little BK’s around the world.

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