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PVP Advanced: Basic Lineup Knowledge

May 21, 2019

Basic Lineup Knowledge


To create a complete lineup, you have to consider the following:

Party setup

    Battles in Saint Seiya: Knights of the Zodiac (Tencent) are 6v6 battles. All party members share an energy pool, so you can't fill your lineup with only the strongest Saints as there won't be enough energy for them to use. Normally a lineup consists of 2 support + 2 damage dealers + 2 others (healing, crowd control, support; normally three damage dealers aren’t recommended). This makes for a very balanced and good lineup.

Energy

    Energy gained in PvP and PvE battles differ. So I'll start with PvP. Energy generation accumulates with rounds in battle. Unless you don't use your supports at all, 4-cost energy skills aren’t used during the first three rounds of battle. Which is why, when you're creating your lineup, you have to take energy consumption into consideration. You also need to have a plan for the first rounds of battle when energy is scarce, and you shouldn’t neglect planning for the later stages when you have more energy available. These are all important aspects in PvP. Which is why most lineups should contain low-cost Saints (1-2 energy) as well as high-cost ones (4 energy).

SPD Lineup

    The SPD of Saints decide in which order they act. In order for certain Saints to work well together, their SPD requirements are very high. An example of this is Luna, who has to be close in SPD to the Saint she is going to buff, otherwise the enemy team might intervene. If the target she buffs is debuffed, the effect is completely negated. Crowd control and support Saints need to have high SPD. They have to be quicker than the unit they’re going to buff/debuff. As your goal is to buff your main damage dealers, they should act after your support.

Cosmo

    Cosmo is one of the main ways for how to increase the strength of your Saints. They make it possible to bestow Saints with high attribute bonuses, and can even increase their SPD. When socketing Cosmo, you’d do best in choosing ones that pair well with the Saint’s role in the lineup and its skills. For example, crowd control and support Saints which require high SPD, should be socketed with SPD Cosmo. If they are lacking survivability, then choosing Cosmo which grant them defense and/or HP is probably better. Damage Saints should usually be socketed with attack and crit Cosmo. Cosmic-type attackers also require C.Pierce. Special Cosmo grants your Saints with special effects.


Analysis of highly cost-effective lineups for PvP:

Firstly, you need SPD. The Star Cosmo of your entire lineup should be New Moon, and the first four Saints in your lineup should have over 400. For damage, I recommend Firebird Ikki as he isn’t very energy dependent. Energy recovery in PvP is rather slow, which is why I recommend Sextants Luna with Marsh Fairy, rather than using Kiki. This'll give you one more slot in which to add a support Saint. For Cepheus Daidalos I recommend the Hyacinth Cosmo, making him lower the enemy’s even further. Couple him with Luna and you can greatly cripple the enemy team’s main damage dealer. Ikki and Centaurus Babel apply burn effects on the first round, enabling Ikki to deal high burst damage starting on round two.

 

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    This lineup follows the recommended lineup type I spoke of before with 2 support + 2 damage dealers + 2 others (crowd control/healing). The only slight difference is that you can pick one extra support. Daidalos here also act as a debuffer. As for energy, this lineup has ignored using Saints with high energy consumption, and opted for using Ikki instead. Babel greatly increases Ikki’s damage output. During the early stages of the game when many teams you face aren’t trained very high, you can overwhelm them with Ikki's damage. However, when you begin meeting more difficult teams, you won't deal enough damage. This lineup doesn’t have any real requirements when it comes to SPD. But if I should point out one thing, then Babel should generally be quicker than Ikki, and Ikki should be quicker than all damage dealers and most supports. As for Cosmo, when you're going for SPD, the stronger the Cosmo, the better.

    Conclusion: During the early stages of the game, players don't have very high HP. If you use this lineup and have more SPD than them, then you’ll have the upper hand. You do, however, need quite a bit of knowledge regarding lineups; you need to know which target to kill first, in order to break the enemy apart. This lineup falls somewhat behind in the late game when your opponents have higher leveled Saints and better Cosmo.


    Furthermore, I chose to use all SPD Cosmo, but they aren’t of any high level. When it comes to Star Cosmo, I also recommend Staunch, which has a bit higher Physical damage. For survivability, we have June with her high base SPD; she makes your entire team share damage, and then Marin heals you up.

 

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    This makes for a stable lineup during the first rounds. Use Daidalos to weaken the enemy’s damage dealer, and Seiya to weaken the enemy. Their attacks also have a chance to trigger Yuzuriha’s battle assist. This makes it quick to take down dangerous target, and Aphrodite is capable of turning the tables around as the battle goes on. This lineup also conforms to the strategy I mentioned with 2 support (June + Daidalos) + 2 damage dealers (Yuzuriha + Aphrodite) + 2 others (Marin + Seiya). This lineup doesn’t really have any real crowd control, and it relies on Daidalos to lower the enemy’s damage. As for energy, this lineup uses a low-cost Saint during the start rounds to trigger Yuzuriha’s free battle assists, and remaining energy is left for Aphrodite to spend, and she fares well both in mid and late game. As for Cosmo June should be equipped with Marsh Fairy, Aphrodite with Daffodil, and all others should use Roc to recover energy. This will give you 3 energy at the start of the battle. And with 4 Roc, you'll start with 5 energy in theory and that should be more than enough.

    Conclusion: June + Marin makes for great defense, and then Daidalos and Seiya triggers Yuzuriha's battle assists. As for energy we skip Kiki and go with Roc on all Saints instead. As we have Aphrodite in the lineup, we don't have to worry about having too much energy. The downside of this lineup is that both Yuzuriha and Aphrodite are quite based on luck. If you’re really unlucky, Yuzuriha won’t trigger a single battle assist.


How do we create lineups:

    What should we consider when deciding which Saints to use? First and foremost, it of course depends on what you have. You can’t go completely wrong if you use 2 supports + 2 damage dealers + 2 others.

    The others are for yourself to decide. Just use what you think you’re lacking. For example, someone might choose the high-cost Gemini paired with the low-cost Milo for their damage dealers. Then their support Saints should be rather obvious. Kiki to help Gemini generate energy + Luna to help Milo deal more damage. If the first four slots have been filled, then you can choose the other two depending on your Saint pool and setup. Some builds rely heavily on damage, then Nachi, as a buff support, makes for a great choice. You can also choose Black Cultist which is a low-cost crowd control (as Gemini is a high-cost Saint). If you need more survivability you can choose June + Marin. Most of the time, the two other Saints should complement your main 2 supports and 2 damage dealers. Many of your other Saints are often decided depending on which damage dealer you choose to use. I hope this helped you understand how to set up a better lineup.


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