Persona Vabel

Persona VabelINFORMATION

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

 Rushing1 Stinger Rushing attack. Dash forward and thrusts the rapier at a point, damaging enemies in path.

  • COOLDOWN: 3
 Combo1 And Leap Combo attack. 2 Quick thrusts followed by a large spinning leap to the left.

  • COOLDOWN: 3
 Invul1 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
 Combo2 Quadruple Pain Combo attack. 4 short range cascading thrusts.

  • COOLDOWN: 10
 Projectile2  Sonic Impulse Projectile attack. Propels a diagonal shockwave at the target.

  • COOLDOWN: 10
 AoE2  Pierce Territory Area of Effect attack. Thrusts the rapier upward generating a barrier around the user that damages enemies within its vicinity.

  • COOLDOWN: 10
 Power3  Shooting Star  Power attack. Thrusts the rapier at a point, making a small explosion on impact.

  • COOLDOWN: 15
 Combo4  Star Splash  Combo attack. Swift 8-hit combo of cascading thrusts.

  • COOLDOWN: 30

 

~KATANA~

 

Show/Hide Katana Sword Skills

 NAME

 SKILL DESCRIPTION

 Power1  (辻風)Tsujikaze  Single Strike attack. An upwards strike from the hip.

  • COOLDOWN: 3
 Combo1 (緋扇)Hiougi  Combo attack. Steps forward and delivers 3 swift consecutive slashes.

  • COOLDOWN: 3
 Rushing1  (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
 Power2 (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
 Combo2 (窮奇)Kyuuki Combo attack. 6 Swift spinning vertical slashes followed by a finishing rising slash.

  • COOLDOWN: 10
 Projectile2 (残月)Zangetsu Projectile attack. Slashes the air to propel a crescent shaped horizontal shockwave that damages all caught in its path.

  • COOLDOWN: 10
 Combo3 (朧月夜)Oborotsukiyo Combo attack. Charges in to perform 4 heavy slashes that damage an area.

  • COOLDOWN: 15
 Combo4 (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

 AoE1 Wide Shot Area of Effect attack. Simultaneously shoots 5 arrows in horizontal array.

  • COOLDOWN: 3
 Multiprojectile1 Hail Bullet Multi-projectile attack. Fires 3 homing arrows that track a target.

  • COOLDOWN: 3
 Projectile2 Retrieve Arrow Projectile attack. Shoots a very long range arrow.  Low chance Bind.

  • COOLDOWN: 10
 Invul2 Vault Shot Dodging attack. Performs a side-flip and fires 3 arrows while upside down.

  • COOLDOWN: 10
 AoE2 Stardust Exa Area of Effect attack. Steps back and fires a rain of arrows above a target.

  • COOLDOWN: 10
 Target2  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
 Multiprojectile3  Multiple Chaser Multi-projectile attack. Fires a barrage of homing arrows at a target.

  • COOLDOWN: 15
 Projectile4  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

 Ice2  Freeze Lance  Drops multiple frost shards upon an enemy. Power & number of consecutive shots increases with skill level.
 Ice3  Absolute Zero  Fires a large Ice Beam at a target. Power increases with skill level.
 Dark2 Void Distortion Drops large dark clusters upon an enemy. Power & number of consecutive shots increases with skill level.
 Dark3 Dimensional Abyss  Summon a black hole upon a target to attack surrounding areas. Power increases with skill level.
 bifrest 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  Irregular Object  Persona Vabel puts up a shield around herself that reflects damage. Effect is increased with skill level.
 Heal   Heal  Recover Party HP. Amount recovered is increased with skill level.
 Refresh   Refresh  Greatly Recover Party HP. Amount recovered is increased with skill level.
 Ressurection  Resurrection  Brings allies back from dead (Within Range) Amount recovered is increased with skill level.
 Cure   Cure  Recovers Party Status ailments. Range & types of ailments cured increases with skill level.
 StaminaBoost   Stamina Boost  Decreases amount of Stamina used. Amount recovered is increased with skill level
 Regenerate   Regenerate  Slowly regenerates player HP over a period of time. Amount recovered is increased with skill level.
 MPregen  Mana Regenerate  Increases rate of player MP regeneration. Amount recovered is increased with skill level.
  Sharpness   Sharpness  Increases Party Attack by 20%. Duration is increased with skill level.
  Protection  Protection  Increases Party Defense by 17%. Duration is increased with skill level.
  FireResist   Resist Fire  Increases Party Fire Resistance by 33%. Duration increases with skill level.
 IceResist  Resist Aqua  Increases Party Ice Resistance by 33%. Duration increases with skill level.
  WindResist  Resist Aero  Increases Party Wind Resistance by 33%. Duration increases with skill level.
  EarthResist  Resist Soil  Increases Party Earth Resistance by 33%. Duration increases with skill level.
  DarkResist  Resist Dark  Increases Party Dark Resistance by 33%. Duration increases with skill level.
  HolyResist  Resist Holy  Increases Party Holy Resistance by 33%. Duration increases with skill level.
  FireEnhance  Enhance Fire  Increases Party Fire Based Damage by 30%. Duration increases with skill level.
  IceEnhance   Enhance Aqua  Increases Party Ice Based Damage by 30%. Duration increases with skill level.
  WindEnhance  Enhance Aero  Increases Party Wind Based Damage by 30%. Duration increases with skill level.
  EarthEnhance   Enhance Soil  Increases Party Earth Based Damage by 30%. Duration increases with skill level.
  DarkEnhance  Enhance Dark  Increases Party Dark Based Damage by 30%. Duration increases with skill level.
  HolyEnhance   Enhance Holy  Increases Party Holy Based Damage by 30%. Duration increases with skill level.
  Exhaust   Exhaust  Decreases Enemy Attack by 20%. Duration is increased with skill level.
  Weakness  Weakness  Decreases Enemy Defense by 25%. Duration is increased with skill level.
  Searcher  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:

  1. 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.
  2. 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:

  1. Cast Sharpness & Protection.
  2. Cast Weakness & Exhaust.
  3. Cast the Elemental Weakness of the Boss (refer to Elemental Etiquette section above)
  4. Cast the Elemental Resist that the Boss majors in (refer to Elemental Etiquette section above)
  5. 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.

  1. When player’s HP drops to 75%
    • Do nothing.
  2. When player’s HP drops around 60%
    • Use “Heal” skill.
  3. When Player’s HP drops below 40%
    • Use “Refresh” skill.
  4. 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.
  5. 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.
  6. 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.
  7. 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.

—————————————————–

NOTE

For more information on skills, you can visit the respective SAO SWORD SKILLS & SAO MAGIC/BUFF SKILLS pages.