Sanaki

• Preferred IV: +ATK or +SPD / -DEF or -HP
• Weapon: Cymbeline (+Eff)
• Assist: Reposition
• Special: Glimmer / Iceberg / Glacies
• Passive A: Atk/Res Bond / Fury
• Passive B: Axebreaker / Varies
• Passive C: Res Ploy / Drive Spd / Varies
• Sacred Seal: Attack +3 / Atk Ploy / Heavy Blade

With the option to refine her legendary Cymbeline tome, Sanaki is now stronger than ever. Not only does she provide an excellent Drive Atk 2 buff to her allies, she also gains a massive +5 ATK/RES while within 2 spaces of a flier. While this does lock one of the slots in a team in order to maximize Sanaki’s potential, the raw synergy available as a result makes this build very potent.

For her Special, Sanaki generally prefers Glimmer to complement her massive Attack stat. Alternatively, Iceberg can be chosen for more consistent damage output, at the cost of 1 additional cooldown. Glacies is an option if combined with Heavy Blade to all but guarantee that whatever Sanaki hits will be destroyed.

Atk/Res Bond 3 has very good synergy with her refined tome’s effect, as she generally wants to stay near a flier ally at all times. It is recommended that Guidance is run on the flier as that will allow Sanaki to warp directly adjacent, activating Atk/Res Bond 3 and enabling Sanaki’s massive firepower. For a foolproof option, Fury 3 will always work regardless of nearby allies, though it gives less of a boost to Sanaki’s best stats (Attack and Resistance). Fury also has the added benefit of adding extra Resistance to allow Sanaki to land Ploys on more enemies.

Due to the nature of Sanaki’s reliance on OHKOs due to her massive Attack and low Speed, her B slot is mostly up to preference. She doesn’t need much assistance against green units as every single green tome will fall to her raw damage output, but a small handful of axe units can survive (mainly incredibly bulky armors like Winter Chrom and Winter Lissa); Axebreaker 3 will ensure all green units get obliterated. Keep in mind that Sanaki has 57 physical bulk versus green units, so it is still possible for an extremely high damage axe unit with Distant Counter (such as Winter Chrom) to KO her. Some other options include Wings of Mercy, Vantage, and R Tomebreaker.

Res Ploy 3 makes excellent use of Sanaki’s Resistance to debuff enemies and increase her favorable matchups. Res Ploy increases her raw damage and KO range from 64 (with her tome and Atk/Res Bond active) to 69, or from 76 to 81 versus green units. Sanaki can also run a buff skill such as Drive Atk 2 to increase the amount of buff support she can grant her allies. Any other C skill can be used to fit the team’s needs.

For seals, Attack+3 increases her KO range even further. Atk Ploy is mainly useful for team support, since Sanaki is likely going to either KO her target in one hit or simply not engage, though it can be helpful in some cases (such as reducing Distant Counter axe damage). Heavy Blade is an interesting option that makes Glacies a viable Special for Sanaki to run. If Sanaki manages to activate Glacies while her tome and Atk/Res Bond are active, she will be outputting a whopping 99 damage; that is a veritable Spirit Bomb that only blue units with extremely high magical bulk or Triangle Adept can possibly survive.

• Preferred IV: +ATK or +SPD / -DEF or -HP
• Weapon: Cymbeline (+Eff)
• Assist: Reposition
• Special: Glimmer / Iceberg
• Passive A: Fury
• Passive B: Windsweep
• Passive C: Spd Ploy / Drive Spd / Varies
• Sacred Seal: Phantom Spd

This build is very similar to the first build, with the addition of Windsweep. This build aims to mitigate Sanaki’s primary weakness in her role, which are exceptionally bulky physical damage-dealing Distant Counter units.

Ideally, this build would run +ATK IV and Spd Ploy to cover the extra Speed that would otherwise be gained with a +SPD boon. If Spd Ploy is unavailable, or if one possesses a +SPD Sanaki, then her C slot can be replaced with a support skill such as Drive Spd.

When running Windsweep, it is essential to also run the Phantom Spd Sacred Seal. With it, Sanaki can activate Windsweep against enemies with 38 or lower Speed, or 42 if she has +SPD IV. Spd Ploy allows her to activate Windsweep against enemies with 43 or lower speed if they get hit by the debuff. This can be increased even further with team support.

This build makes a significant sacrifice in Sanaki’s raw damage output in order to ensure her safety versus physical Distant Counter units. Her raw damage when near a flier is now 59, or 62 with a +ATK boon. This lowers her KO potential significantly, so she will require team support in the form of Attack buffs in order to secure those KOs. Spur Atk/Spd 2 is an exceptionally efficient skill to put on a Guidance flier for this purpose.

• Preferred IV: +ATK or +SPD / -DEF or -HP
• Weapon: Rauðrblade+ / Rauðrblade
• Assist: Reposition
• Special: Glimmer / Draconic Aura
• Passive A: Fury / Death Blow
• Passive B: Vantage / Desperation / Varies
• Passive C: Res Ploy / Hone Atk / Varies
• Sacred Seal: Attack +3 / Brash Assault / Heavy Blade

An alternative to her Cymbeline set, Sanaki’s Blade tome set allows her to function in basically the same fashion, except now she wants a buffer ally instead of a flier ally. The main difference between this build and the first build is that this Blade tome set has much higher potential damage output, while the Cymbeline set provides superior team support in the form of Drive Atk 2 built into the weapon.

The choice between Glimmer and Draconic Aura boils down to two main decisions: cooldown versus damage output, and whether or not Heavy Blade seal is being run. Glimmer has a lower cooldown, but Draconic Aura has superior damage output. If opting to run the Heavy Blade seal, Draconic Aura is the superior Special as it will now charge at the same rate as Glimmer, due to the Blade tome’s effect of increasing Special cooldown by one.

Both Death Blow and Fury are strong options for Sanaki’s A slot. Death Blow goes all in on her one shot potential on Player Phase, while Fury allows Sanaki to benefit from the stat boost on both phases. Fury also has the benefit of granting Sanaki 3 additional Resistance, allowing her to activate Ploy skills such as Res Ploy more often.

If running a Desperation/Brash Assault seal build, Fury’s recoil will allow Sanaki to enter the required HP range more easily. Death Blow would do more damage as opposed t Fury, but it would be very difficult for Sanaki to safely enter the requisite 50% HP threshold without Fury’s recoil damage.

For B slot, Vantage 3 allows Sanaki to run Fury without risking being KO'd due to her HP being lowered by its recoil damage -- by enabling her to counter before ranged enemies get the chance to KO her, she is able to strike back hard. Desperation is only an acceptable option if paired with the Brash Assault 3 seal, as Sanaki’s Speed is too low to effectively utilize it otherwise. Neither of these choices are vitally important, so any B slot can be chosen based on preference. Some examples of other options include Wings of Mercy, Escape Route, and Renewal.

Res Ploy allows Sanaki to provide a little bit of team support while also increasing her own damage output. It is not vital for this build, however, as her damage dealing potential is already sky high due to her high base Attack and her blade tome. Any other C slot can be chosen to fit the team, such as her base Hone Atk 3.