Character Guides - Cherry - Abilities, Mind - May 30, 2020

Stand Ground

Pros

Cherry starts with Stand Ground by default in Story Mode and Endless Dungeon, and her cooldown passives for Stand Ground also require no Augmentors, meaning Cherry can have a maxed out Stand Ground regardless of build. Blocking with Stand Ground active nullifies ALL damage done to Cherry over its 5 second duration, and with Cover, she can extend this invincibility to her allies.

Cons

Since Stand Ground requires Cherry to block, that means Cherry won't be doing anything except blocking while active -- no contributing to damage, no healing, no anything else (well, other things can be done, but it mainly defeats the point of activating Stand Ground if it is not going to be used).

Fortify

Pros

Cherry starts with Fortify by default in Story Mode and Endless Dungeon, and it creates a medium-sized invisible field around Cherry that halts all enemies and prevents their dodging. While this may sound rather weak, enemies that cannot move or dodge ensure that your characters' attacks will hit (enemies that can block will still block, though). Her cooldown passives do not require Augmentors, and her Hold the Line passive (obtainable and stackable from her Soul Triad and Excalibur weapon) debuffs enemy Attack if they are caught in Fortify's field, making Fortify very useful offensively and defensively.

Cons

Fortify actually has very few negatives to it -- its Attack debuff, its move/dodge prevention and general ease of use make it a solid ability, though any team builds (including Cherry's own Wind Siphon build) that rely on Knockback/collision damage would best not use Fortify, since it stops enemies suffering from Knockback from flying away.

Line Overdrive

Pros

Line Overdrive does an invincible forward-moving slash with solid damage at Attack x 4 with its damage passives, and its cooldown during the Mind Field Effect can drop as low as 2 seconds -- though with the Mind Field Effect's double cooldown recovery, it is effectively 1 second, making it a great Mind Field Effect maintainer. Cherry's Lyra Buster weapon can triple Line Overdrive's damage.

Cons

Line Overdrive is a solid ability in its own right, but without the Lyra Buster weapon or the Mind Field Effect to keep its cooldown low, Line Overdrive's effectiveness is lessened.

Bladecopter

Pros

Bladecopter, with its Attack Chopper passive/buff active and all appropriate passives, is a projectile deals an impressive Attack x 15 damage, a very massive 6 seconds of Stun and has ZERO cooldown, all the while keeping Cherry invincible during her sword's flight -- only Attack Chopper's activation is needed to achieve values this high, and these values make Bladecopter one of her most powerful and easiest to set up abilities. With a maxed out Lyra Buster weapon, Bladecopter, with all passives and Attack Chopper active, deals an incredible Attack x 45 damage.

Cons

Without Attack Chopper active, Bladecopter's flaws stand out. Damage is reduced to Attack x 3 and Stun to 4 seconds, which is all still good (particular the double Stun time), but Bladecopter's cooldown is a very unfortunate 30 seconds. Attack Chopper's activation requires 2 conditions -- either Attack Chopper was not active when the last Bladecopter hit landed, or the last Bladecopter killed an enemy. This means that in order to keep Attack Chopper running, it must kill enemies and it must not miss -- precision is the cost of this powerful ability.

Cover

Pros

For 8 seconds, Cherry covers allies within a large area and takes less damage during the Mind Field Effect. Works very well with Stand Ground, and even without it active, Cover can be used to cover allies while dodging around to avoid all damage (except between invincibility frames of the dodge).

Cons

Cover does not have any real weaknesses, since it is essentially playing to Cherry's damage mitigation playstyle and high defensive stats, but it does mean that in intense fights, Cherry will either have to block or dodge around to reduce damage from taking everyone's hits, meaning she will not be contributing to damage or other roles.