Caesara - April 10, 2023

Name: Caesara

DOB: April 10, 1890 (story takes place in 1919)

Element: Fire

Weapon: Sword and Shield, Claw Hands

Playstyle: Stance Change/Damage-over-time

Maximum Stats (through Soul Triad only, no weapons)

Stances -- Full Plate and Claw Hands

Caesara has 2 different stances -- a defensive status ailment-oriented Full Plate stance, and an aggressive damage-oriented Claw Hands stance. Caesara can use her Prayer to Ferromant ability (5 seconds cooldown) to switch between stances and gain a 5 second aura associated with her new stance.

Caesara's Full Plate stance gives her nothing unique, but while the Full Plate aura is active, Caesara takes half damage from all attacks and regenerates 4 HP per second.

Caesara's Claw Hands stance allows her to deal double damage with all attacks and she gains Combat Movement + 100%, but she loses 10 HP/second. While her Claw Hands aura is active, the HP loss is removed.

Learnable Active Abilities:

Body

Pushback (initally unlocked) - Inflicts Stagger at close range. Caesara's Pushback can be improved through Soul Triad to inflict Stun during Full Plate and inflict Bleed during Claw Hands. Story/Endless Dungeon passives can allow Pushback to boost stance aura duration, HP Regen of Full Plate aura and damage output from Claw Hands.

Knockdown (initially unlocked) - Inflicts Knockdown at close range. Story/Endless Dungeon passives can allow Knockdown to boost stance aura duration and zero out Prayer to Ferromant cooldown.

Bladewheel - Deals Attack x 1 damage per 1/4 second around the user for 1 second, and is controllable similar to Jimmy's Twister. Inflicts Knockback during Full Plate stance, is invincible during Full Plate aura, deals 2x damage during Claw Hands stance and 3x total during Claw Hands aura. Through Soul Triad, can have its damage and cooldown improved, longer duration/better Knockback during Full Plate aura, and inflicts Bleed during Claw Hands aura.

Infantry Blitz - A dash attack that propels Caesara forward and deals Attack x 2 damage. Inflicts Stun during Full Plate stance, is invincible during Full Plate aura, deals 2x damage during Claw Hands stance and 3x total during Claw Hands aura. Through Soul Triad, can have its damage and cooldown improved, longer Stun duration during Full Plate aura, and cooldown reduction per enemy hit during Claw Hands aura.

Deliverance - A powerful attack that deals Attack x 3 damage. Inflicts Stagger during Full Plate stance, is invincible during Full Plate aura, deals 2x damage during Claw Hands stance and 3x total during Claw Hands aura. Through Soul Triad, can have its damage and cooldown improved (including a 4x damage boost during Body Field Effect), a partywide defense buff during Full Plate aura, and an additional double damage during Claw Hands aura.

Mind

Prayer to Ferromant (initially unlocked) - Toggles between Full Plate and Claw Hands stances, and provides the stance's respective aura for 5 seconds. Prayer to Ferromant has a 5 second cooldown to match base aura duration.

Cacophony (initially unlocked) - For 3 seconds, all enemies are forced to target Caesara (like Cook's Provoke, but less priority and duration). Full Plate stance pulls enemies closer to Caesara and Full Plate aura allows Caesara to take half damage during Cacophony's duration, while Claw Hands stance deals Attack x 1 damage to a small area on Cacophony trigger (Attack x 2 damage with Claw Hands aura). Through Soul Triad, can have its damage and cooldown improved, better HP Regen and invincibility during Full Plate aura, and 4x damage with enemies dragged fully to Caesara during Claw Hands aura. Story/Endless Dungeon passives allow Cacophony's cooldown to decrease with every hit inflicted on Caesara.

Intimidate - During Full Plate stance, Caesara inflicts Stun to a large area around herself, while Full Plate aura adds Attack x 1 damage to that area. Claw Hands stance is Stagger instead of Stun, but includes the damage by default (Attack x 2 damage during Claw Hands aura). Through Soul Triad, can have its damage and cooldown improved, reduce cooldown per enemy hit during Full Plate aura with Mind Field Effect, and deal 3x damage and Bleed during Claw Hands aura with Mind Field Effect. Story/Endless Dungeon passives can have Intimidate triple its area of effect.

Lightspeed - A warp attack that deals Attack x 2 damage. During Full Plate stance, Caesara inflicts Stagger and Full Plate aura applies this Stagger to an area. Claw Hands stance boosts damage by 50%, while Claw Hands aura boosts damage by 100% total. Through Soul Triad, can have its damage and cooldown improved, can inflict Knockback with boosted distance/5x collision damage during Full Plate aura when warping a long distance away, and can deal 8x damage and Bleed during Claw Hands aura when warping a long distance away.

Shattered Mind - A buff that is very dependent on original stance at time of trigger and current aura. If originally triggered during Full Plate stance and currently have Claw Hands aura active, Caesara inflicts Bleed and 5x Bleed Damage when inflicting any damage. If originally triggered during Claw Hands stance and currently have Full Plate aura active, Caesara's Stagger inflictions last 1 second more, Stun 2 seconds more, enemies knocked down by Caesara take 2x damage, and Caesara deals 10x more collision damage from Knockback. Through Soul Triad, cooldown can be improved, Bleed damage for Claw Hands can gain passive boosts, and the party can deal 2x damage to enemies suffering from Stagger/Stun/Knockdown/Knockback while Caesara has Full Plate aura and Shattered Mind active.

Fire Siphon

Scorchedarm (initially unlocked) - An aimable flamethrower attack that deals Attack x 0.1 damage every 1/5 second for 3 seconds (functions similarly to Alberto/Pound/Cook's beam attacks, but shorter range). Through Soul Triad, damage and cooldown can be improved, and can gain gradual damage boosts for the current Scorchedarm every hit during the Fire Field Effect. Story/Endless Dungeon passives allow triple range on trigger during the Fire Field Effect, and cooldown to reduce per enemy hit while the Fire Field Effect is active.

Regenerate (initially unlocked) - Caesara heals 4 HP/second for 10 seconds. Through Soul Triad, cooldown can be improved, and can allow excess HP Regen to heal allies. Story/Endless Dungeon passives allow Regenerate cooldown to tick down at double speed if Caesara's HP Regen is overflowing to allies.

Beam of Light - Caesara calls a narrow beam of light in front of her that deals Attack x 0.1 damage every 1/5 second for 2 seconds. Through Soul Triad, damage and cooldown can be improved, and can gain the ability to have the current Beam of Light deal exponentially more damage every hit (Attack x 0.1 -> 0.2 -> 0.4 -> 0.8 -> 1.6 -> 3.2, etc.).

Crater - Caesara calls a delayed lava geyser that deals Attack x 0.5 damage every 1/5 second for 5 seconds. Through Soul Triad, damage and cooldown can be improved, and can boost damage based on the number of active fires during the Fire Field Effect.

Heat Wave - Caesara calls a heat wave to an area that deals Attack x 0.3 damage every 1/5 second for 8 seconds. Through Soul Triad, damage and cooldown can be improved, and Heat Wave can inflict Knockdown.

Weapons (including her 9th Sharktooth Weapon)

Qusstan Sharktooth (default weapon) - Boosts Attack stat by 5% per weapon level (allowing Caesara's max Attack stat to reach 60). Like all default weapons, good for practically any style of play.

Paladin Sword - When Caesara changes stances to Full Plate, nearby allies are healed for 1 HP per level of this weapon. Useful if focusing more on Caesara's healing.

Maimed King - Caesara's Bleed Damage is boosted by 5% per level of this weapon. Useful if aiming to focus on more on Caesara's Claw Hands stance and her damage dealing.

Pantheon's Justice - Raises Caesara's max HP by 10 per level. Useful for both Caesara's Full Plate provoking role, as well as keeping alive during aggressive Claw Hands assaults.

Nimue Blade - Makes Caesara Water elemental as well as Fire elemental, and basic melee attacks add to the Water Siphon Field Effect. Primarily useful for supporting Knight and/or Claire in their own Water Siphon builds.

Radiation Sabre - Boosts the damage of Fire Siphon abilities by 10% per level. In this case, this applies to Scorchedarm, Beam of Light, Crater and Heat Wave, and is quite useful for Caesara's Fire Siphon builds.

Caladbolg - While Claw Hands aura is active, every basic melee attack that Caesara lands boosts damage of all of her attacks by 1% per hit per level of this weapon, and this effect lasts until Claw Hands aura wears off or Caesara changes stances to Full Plate. Is useful for doing big damage at the end of a Claw Hands aura with precise timing.

Carver Blade - Changing stances to Full Plate prevents the user for dying for 0.5 seconds per level of this weapon. Combining certain passives for a Full Plate-heavy constant invincibility, or a "shelter" from a rough Claw Hands stance, can make this a useful weapon.

Master-Forged Sharktooth - Caesara's Scorchedarm damage is boosted by 10% per level of this weapon per Scorchedarm used across the entire battle, but Caesara suffers 10% more damage per Scorchedarm used that battle. Can be useful for builds featuring heavy Scorchedarm use.

Extreme -- Radiation Rampage

Caesara unleashes a damage-over-time Heat Wave that follows her as she moves and deals damage every 1/5 second for 5 seconds. During Full Plate stance, the Heat Wave inflicts Stagger. During Claw Hands stance, the Heat Wave deals 3x damage.

Pros

Caesara winds up as a jack-of-all-trades thanks to her two stances, and she has the stats to pull off both her offensive and defensive roles (the 2nd highest stats overall, under Cook). Between defensive measures (Deliverance's passive providing big party defense during Full Plate, provoking with Cacophony), big damage attacks (Claw Hands stance with Body attacks), unparalleled regen healing through excess HP Regen, effective damage-over-time through multiple battlefield effects and Bleed (essentially a second Poison ailment), status ailments (especially Shattered Mind with passives and Full Plate aura doubling damage for the party against any enemies suffering Stagger/Stun/Knockdown/Knockback), and even some area control with Heat Wave and its Knockdown passive, Caesara can bring a lot to a party.

Caesara's Body abilities typically provide status ailments and invincibility during Full Plate stance and aura (along with a notable party defense buff from Deliverance for Body Field Effect teams), while her Claw Hands stance and aura provides large damage, allowing for good role versatility based on the current party. With Story/Endless Dungeon passives, Caesara can use her Pushback and Knockdown to put more focus on a particular stance.

Caesara's Mind abilities consist of a strong variety of abilities -- provoking, wide-area damage/status ailments, a warp attack to close the distance, and her somewhat complex Shattered Mind buff, which can amplify Full Plate's status ailments (for both Caesara and the party to benefit heavily from) and Claw Hands' Bleed.

Caesara's Fire Siphon abilities consist heavily of damage-over-time abilities, with all but Scorchedarm being persistent effects that Caesara can place on the battlefield and continue fighting without worrying about them. Scorchedarm can be deadly with certain weapons, Beam of Light's damage can reach incredible levels without the Fire Field Effect if used precisely, Crater brings a good mix of damage and duration, while Heat Wave (with its Knockdown passive) can make for strong area control (especially good with Beam of Light's short duration and potentially high power). Regenerate can gain a passive to overflow ANY excess HP Regen (including block healing and Full Plate aura) to allies, which can turn Caesara into a powerful healer so long as she does not take damage (which Full Plate's HP Regen, defense and constant invincibility from abilities can help with).

Cons

While Caesara does many things very well, she is at the mercy of her stances and auras in terms of the roles she can play at a specific point in time on the battlefield. Many of her allies can specialize better and in a more consistent fashion than she can overall -- Cherry can more easily protect the party (Stand Ground/Cover), Knight can deal heavier damage more frequently (Power Drive with Rebound Rampage), Alberto has more reliable healing (not conditional on full HP), Cook has higher stats and a stronger Provoke, Claire can more consistently apply her damage-over-time status ailment, and so on.

Caesara's cooldowns are on average very lengthy -- similarly to her stats compared to Cook, her average cooldowns are the 2nd highest under Cook's, which makes her versatility require some foresight and precision based on her stances and auras. Caesara also has no projectiles, no Combat Movement boosts during Full Plate, and a single warp attack with Lightspeed, which can be a problem if Caesara needs to reach her allies or enemies on the far side of battle. Caesara is very short range, even compared to melee-heavy Tara, who at least has full-battlefield abilities with Mindcloud and Earthquake.

Onslaught/Conquest/Heist moveset

Caesara's moveset for Onslaught/Conquest/Heist consists of Bladewheel, Prayer to Ferromant and Heat Wave. Prayer to Ferromant was obviously required for stance changes (since they are a big part of Caesara), while Bladewheel allows for damage, invincibility or Knockback (depending on stance and aura), and Heat Wave gives Caesara some damage-over-time to an area regardless of stance.

Boulderball move

Caesara's moveset for Boulderball consists of Prayer to Ferromant, letting her focus on keeping alive and using wider-area sword swings with Full Plate and covering more ground while dealing more damage with Claw Hands.

Heist passives

Ground Team -- Valiant Violence - The Ground Team's damage received is reduced by 25% while Caesara is in Full Plate stance, and the Ground Team's damage output is boosted by 25% while Caesara is in Claw Hands stance. Can lead to very high overall stats when on a Ground Team consisting of Cherry, Tara and/or Cook.

Recon Team -- Barracks Knowledge - Enemy reinforcements from enemy doors are slowed by 1 turn after all other reinforcement calculations. This does not affect triggers for instant forced reinforcements, such as grabbing the Artifact or Demolition Crew. In particular, this can help a Team escape the building in a more aggressive fashion (as opposed to stealth) after grabbing the Artifact.

Getaway Team -- Humidity Forecast - All enemy movement outside of the building is halved (rounded up). Always active when Caesara is on Getaway Team. Affects Thormia and Hellhounds. Can be useful for trying to brute force a Team through heavy guards behind the building when trying to reach the roads.

Trivia

-Caesara's birthday is the same day as the release of Tenebris Desolation (and by massive coincidence, the same day as her reveal alongside the Tenebris expansion).

-Though she still has some fire-themed attacks, the intent was to have Caesara's elemental theme be focused on Heat as opposed to Cook's Fire and Jimmy's Explosion (the other Fire elemental characters) -- this is further reflected in her Radiation Rampage Extreme and Humidity Forecast passive on the Getaway Team in Heist Mode.