Persona Vabel

INFORMATION

FROM:

MILLENNIUM TWILIGHT

RACE:

=MEGA SPOILER=

WEAPONS:

RAPIER
KATANA
BOW

MAIN ELEMENT:

ICE
DARK

ROLE:

BUFFER
DEBUFFER
HEALER

UNLOCK:

Paid DLC in Version 2.00

~RAPIER~

Show/Hide Rapier Sword Skills

	NAME	SKILL DESCRIPTION
	Stinger	Rushing attack. Dash forward and thrusts the rapier at a point, damaging enemies in path. COOLDOWN: 3
	And Leap	Combo attack. 2 Quick thrusts followed by a large spinning leap to the left. COOLDOWN: 3
	Fake Step	Invul attack. Takes a halfstep back to dodge attacks and then steps forward with two swift horizontal swipes. The start-up has some invulnerability. COOLDOWN: 3
	Quadruple Pain	Combo attack. 4 short range cascading thrusts. COOLDOWN: 10
	Sonic Impulse	Projectile attack. Propels a diagonal shockwave at the target. COOLDOWN: 10
	Pierce Territory	Area of Effect attack. Thrusts the rapier upward generating a barrier around the user that damages enemies within its vicinity. COOLDOWN: 10
	Shooting Star	Power attack. Thrusts the rapier at a point, making a small explosion on impact. COOLDOWN: 15
	Star Splash	Combo attack. Swift 8-hit combo of cascading thrusts. COOLDOWN: 30

~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

~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
	Freeze Lance	Drops multiple frost shards upon an enemy. Power & number of consecutive shots increases with skill level.
	Absolute Zero	Fires a large Ice Beam at a target. Power increases with skill level.
	Void Distortion	Drops large dark clusters upon an enemy. Power & number of consecutive shots increases with skill level.
	Dimensional Abyss	Summon a black hole upon a target to attack surrounding areas. 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
	Irregular Object	Persona Vabel puts up a shield around herself that reflects damage. Effect 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.
	Cure	Recovers Party Status ailments. Range & types of ailments cured increases with skill level.
	Stamina Boost	Decreases amount of Stamina used. Amount recovered is increased with skill level
	Regenerate	Slowly regenerates player HP over a period of time. Amount recovered is increased with skill level.
	Mana Regenerate	Increases rate of player MP regeneration. Amount recovered is increased with skill level.
	Sharpness	Increases Party Attack by 20%. Duration is increased with skill level.
	Protection	Increases Party Defense by 17%. Duration is increased with skill level.
	Resist Fire	Increases Party Fire Resistance by 33%. Duration increases with skill level.
	Resist Aqua	Increases Party Ice Resistance by 33%. Duration increases with skill level.
	Resist Aero	Increases Party Wind Resistance by 33%. Duration increases with skill level.
	Resist Soil	Increases Party Earth Resistance by 33%. Duration increases with skill level.
	Resist Dark	Increases Party Dark Resistance by 33%. Duration increases with skill level.
	Resist Holy	Increases Party Holy Resistance by 33%. Duration increases with skill level.
	Enhance Fire	Increases Party Fire Based Damage by 30%. Duration increases with skill level.
	Enhance Aqua	Increases Party Ice Based Damage by 30%. Duration increases with skill level.
	Enhance Aero	Increases Party Wind Based Damage by 30%. Duration increases with skill level.
	Enhance Soil	Increases Party Earth Based Damage by 30%. Duration increases with skill level.
	Enhance Dark	Increases Party Dark Based Damage by 30%. Duration increases with skill level.
	Enhance Holy	Increases Party Holy Based Damage by 30%. Duration increases with skill level.
	Exhaust	Decreases Enemy Attack by 20%. Duration is increased with skill level.
	Weakness	Decreases Enemy Defense by 25%. Duration is increased with skill level.
	Searcher	Allows player to see all treasure & Sudden Quests on the map. Duration increases with skill level.

~PASSIVE SKILLS~

Show/Hide Passive Skills

NAME	DESCRIPTION
The Art of Rapier	Allows the user to equip Rapier and use its respective Sword Skills.
The Art of Katana	Allows the user to equip Katana and use its respective Sword Skills.
The Art of Bow	Allows the user to equip Bow and use its respective Sword Skills.
Switch Extend	Increases the duration of the switch stun.
Increased Guard Efficiency	Reduces the amount of stamina used when guarding attacks.
Increase HP	Increases Max HP by 10%.
Increase Step Invul Duration	Increases the amount of invulnerability time during a step.
Increase Magical Defense	Decrease amount of damage received by magical attacks by 10%.
Increase Status Ailment Recovery	Increases the rate of recovery from bad statuses by 20%.
Increase Physical Defense	Decrease amount of damage received by physical attacks by 10%.
Increase Dark Attack	Increases damage of Dark based attacks by 10%.
Increase Down Resistance	Increases resistance to DOWN and Stagger status ailments.
Increase MP	Increases Max MP by 10%.
Increased Guard Efficiency+	Even further reduces the amount of stamina used when guarding attacks.
Boss Blocker	Decreases the damage received from Boss type monsters. (Should be 20%. Possible it could be 30%)
Increase Ice Attack+	Increases damage of Ice based attacks by 20%.
Increase Magical Defense+	Decrease amount of damage received by magical attacks by 20%.
Increase Status Ailment Recovery+	Increases the rate of recovery from bad statuses by 40%.
Increase Physical Defense+	Decrease amount of damage received by physical attacks by 20%.
Increase Down Resistance+	Even further increases resistance to DOWN and Stagger status ailments.
[Lv1000] Increase HP+	Increases Max HP by 30%.
[Lv1050] Switch Extend+	Even further increases the duration of the switch stun.
[Lv1100] Increase MP+	Increases Max MP by 30%.
[Lv1200] Increase Attack	Increases physical damage dealt by weapons by 10%.
Increase Rapier Damage	Increases damage of Rapier by 10%.
Increase Katana Damage	Increases damage of Katana by 10%.
Increase Bow Damage	Increases damage of Bow by 10%.
Rapier Master	A title given to those who have mastered the art of Rapier. Increases damage of Rapier by 50%.
Katana Master	A title given to those who have mastered the art of Katana. Increases damage of Katana 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 PERSONA VABEL~

This section is written as an more in-depth extension to the AW & SAO Character Overviewpost 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-

Irregular Object
All Healing & All Buffs & Debuffs

-Weapon Selection-

Vabel-chan’s weapon selection is… odd. In my opinion she’s got some of the 3 most dull-but-hard-to-play weapons in the game being OSS-less versions of Rapier, Katana, Bow. But given her mind boggling list of Buff/Healing Skills, she is extremely versatile in her playstyle. You could play her as a Healer with a Bow buffing and supporting from long range. Or you could play her how I would recommend – with a Katana on the front lines tripping Bosses up with Irregular Object.

Vabel-chan’s main elements are Ice & Dark, so if you are able to give her a Max Attack; Half Element Weapon with ~10% Ice/Dark or a Half Attack; Max Element Weapon with ~20% Ice/Dark, she will become 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-

Vabel-chan has all of the Elemental buffs which make her difficult to play effectively. It is the Buffer’s job to make sure that the Elemental Weakness of the boss is buffed at all times.

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.

Using Elemental Buffs:

Always Buff the Weakness of the Boss.
- If party members present are able to cast the Elemental Buff that the boss is weak to, leave it to them so that you have less stuff to cast.
- If a boss has two or more Elemental Weaknesses, use the Element the correlates to the general strength of the party. Example: Satet is weak to Wind & Ice. If a Sumeragi is in your party, use Ice. If an Leafa is in your party, use Wind.
Buffing the Elemental Resist is optional but desired. Typically, Dark, Holy, Fire & Earth are the most useful Resists in that order.

Do not become a One-Trick Pony and just pick an element and stick to it. Not everything in the damn game is weak to Holy, okay LS Rain players? But in the event that you are presented with a Boss and have absolutely no idea what its Elemental Weakness is, use Ice or Dark. Those are the two Elements with the most Weaknesses and Least Resistances.

Since you are a buffer, you have full authority to cast over other peoples Elemental Buffs if they are using them wrong. But be careful because AW characters have stronger buffs and overwriting them will actually be bad for them. But these buffs only affect themselves so you don’t have to pay them any mind.

If you do not know which bosses are weak to what elements, you should definitely keep the Elemental Weakness Spreadsheets on hand while you play. These can be found on the Boss Guides page.

-Using Vabel-chan-

Vabel-chan can be played in a number of ways. But the most effective way would be to play her as Buffer + Healer. There’s no other character in the game that can both perform Elemental Buffs and heal teammates so it would make sense to fill that void and build her into a character that can handle both.

But be careful. Tons of variety can bring apprehension and sometimes inefficiency in your playstyle. Always look at your team composition and try to be the teammate that would be the best for that specific team.

In particular, look at the kinds of buff skills your team can use. Since Vabel-chan has so many buffs, it would be a waste of time to have a casting formula for when a quest starts. In this case, it would make sense to cast the buffs that your other teammates don’t have access to. Obviously, you need broad knowledge of all the characters in the game to be able to do this. But that’s the price to pay when playing a character that’s practically bursting with versatility.

**Also take note that some players don’t use their buffs. A Random Strea in your team doesn’t equal Sharpness. Always assume that your given teammates are incompetent until you have been proven otherwise.

When a quest or boss fight starts:

Cast Sharpness & Protection.
Cast Weakness & Exhaust.
Cast the Elemental Weakness of the Boss (refer to Elemental Etiquette section above)
Cast the Elemental Resist that the Boss majors in (refer to Elemental Etiquette section above)
Move in for combat, but watch your teammates (refer to Vabel-chan’s Healing Guide 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.

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 (>.<)

“Irregular Object” is a skill where Vabel-chan puts herself in a damage reflect shield. She is unable to do any action while she is in the shield but if a boss attacks her when she is inside the shield the damage is multiplied and reflected. But aside from this, something amazing happens. Most Bosses attacking her Irregular Object with a physical attack are almost always DOWNed (When the Skill is at Lv1000). A DOWN is the state where a boss is rendered incapacitated for 10 – 15 seconds and the team moves in with complete focus on offense. In this game, Mace, Spear, Aqua Current, Black Lotus and Black Vise are proficient at DOWNing monsters but… nothing like Vabel-chan with Irregular Object.

Even the most stiffest bosses like Abaddon and Skoell just fall over when they attack Irregular Object. But because DOWNS on most bosses have Diminishing Returns, Irregular Object isn’t as much of Stun Locker as it at seem at first. On most bosses, its good for about 2 or 3 DOWNs, then after that they start getting up too fast to warrant the use of this skill.

Vabel-chan is a character that can fill any role in a team aside from being a main damage dealer. She has to make sure that Sharpness/Protection are on teammates as well as the correct Elemental Enhance for the boss’ weakness. She also has to make sure that the enemies have been debuffed with Exhaust and Weakness. On top of all this, she has to keep her teammates alive with her healing. Also, she has to do all of this, without getting killed herself (since she doesn’t have Revive).

All of these responsibilities make me lean toward calling Vabel-chan a Professional’s character. I say this because you need the knowledge of at least 3 other characters to play her properly. Also her weapon selections are made up of some of the hardest weapons to play efficiently.

Another reason why I call her a Professional’s character is because she has absolutely no Cooldown Time Reduction passive skills. This makes he incredubly slow at dealing damage and kind of needs to be equipped with the Trinity Luna if you want to continuously use Sword Skills.

But don’t let that deter you. If you are a beginner, learn how to play Kirito(Debuffer), Asuna(Healer) and Liz(Buffer). Then when you have a broad level of knowledge on the game, give Vabel-chan a try.

-Healing Guide for Persona Vabel-

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, Vabel-chan’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.

Vabel-chan doesn’t have Revive. This makes her a risky pick as a team’s single Healer. She definitely has the tools to handle it alone but you need to have an extremely keen eye on your teammates in order to be proficient at healing.

One of the biggest traps that can happen to Vabel-chan is if she activates her Irregular Object but the Boss doesn’t attack her and instead kills her teammates. When you are in that Irregular Object sphere, you cannot move or perform any other action. This basically means that an activation of that skill means that the team will be without a healer for the next 10 to 15 seconds.

But, the above scenario will only happen if you fail to have the boss attack you while you are inside the Irregular Object. If a boss does in fact attack you, it will almost always be immediately DOWNed so the team won’t have to worry about taking damage and they can focus on offense. As a healer, that’s pretty neat right?

In short. Use Irregular Object carefully and understand the risks of making a mistake when using it.

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
- 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.
When a player has a Bad Status Ailment
- If you have the time, move close to them and use “Cure”. This has a low priority on the list of things to do, but it is still an important part of Healing.

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.
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 Vabel-chan-

To be frank, I wet my pants when I saw her list of healing/buffs.

After changing underwear my next thought was “Well then. This character is an entire team on her own.” Then I started thinking about what a character like this means in the game. I mean, we have never had a single character that can both do elemental buffs and be proficient at healing.

In a game full of AW characters that rely on SAO teammates for both buffs and healing, this character is basically God’s Gift.

Now, give her a skill that almost 100% DOWNs monsters? Hmm.

This character is pretty good to say the least.

Almost all buffs and all healing rolled up into one moe SPOILER (*drool). She’s not strong at all and just lacks Revive and Magia to make her a God Tier Healer. But that’s alright. What Vabel-chan offers is already 100x more than enough.

Package her in a team with a Yuna or Sachi and you already have a Dream Team. Now just add in attackers and the credits should roll because you have an unbeatable team.

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