Tiki (Young)

• Preferred IV: +SPD or +DEF or +ATK / -HP
• Weapon: Breath of Fog (+Eff/Spd)
• Assist: Reposition
• Special: Moonbow / Bonfire
• Passive A: Steady Breath / Warding Breath / Distant Counter / Fury
• Passive B: Guard / Wrath
• Passive C: Even Spd Wave / Flexible
• Sacred Seal: Quick Riposte / Quickened Pulse

Tiki’s new weapon, Breath of Fog, grants her a significant boost in combat effectiveness at the cost of a bit of versatility. While her older version gets more direct benefit from the boosts that it grants, Young Tiki can still leverage her strengths to maximize the benefits she can garner from it.

One of the main benefits that Young Tiki has over her older self is her Speed; typically this means that she gets her Speed high enough to avoid a lot of doubles. However, Breath of Fog allows her to consider some limited mixed phase capabilities, as its lack of Special cooldown penalty allows her to regularly activate her Specials without having to rely on Steady Breath or Warding Breath. This does require some investment, however, so the choice of refine for Breath of Fog is between +Eff for maximizing Enemy Phase capabilities, or +Spd for some limited Player Phase options.

The choice of Tiki’s A skill depends primarily on the type of threats she needs to be able to handle. Steady Breath or Warding Breath are ideal to repeatedly throw out Moonbow activations, but Distant Counter may be necessary if Tiki needs to be able to handle ranged threats. Steady Breath is preferable to Warding Breath due to physical threats being significantly more common than magical threats amongst melee enemies. Fury is acceptable as a budget option. Bonfire is an option if running Distant Counter or Fury, particularly if not stacking Speed.

Guard is recommended in order to secure Tiki’s matchups against enemies with overpowering Specials such as Zelgius and Ayra. Even with a +Eff Breath of Fog, Tiki typically does not have enough Attack to consistently KO them in one hit outside of significant team support. If running heavy support (such as a dragon team), then Wrath is a good option to maximize Tiki’s damage output with her Specials. Wrath is also a good pick if stacking Speed for a mixed phase setup.

Even Spd Wave allows Tiki to gain access to a massive Speed buff without being reliant on her team, but can easily be swapped out as needed (particularly if running a dragon team).

The Quick Riposte Seal is important to ensure that Tiki can double against even the fastest enemies, as her Speed is not high enough to be able to keep up with them. Quickened Pulse is a good alternative if running a mixed phase setup, or if Tiki is not running Steady/Warding Breath but still wants an instant Special activation.

• Preferred IV: +SPD or +DEF or +ATK / -HP
• Weapon: Lightning Breath+ (+Spd/Def)
• Assist: Reposition
• Special: Aether / Ignis / Bonfire
• Passive A: Steady Breath / Warding Breath / Fury
• Passive B: Guard / Quick Riposte
• Passive C: Atk Ploy / Spd Ploy / Flexible
• Sacred Seal: Quick Riposte / Distant Def / Close Def

Thanks to her excellent mixed bulk, Tiki is a fantastic candidate for this standard dragon tank setup. The combination of Lightning Breath and Steady/Warding Breath allows Tiki to take on both melee and ranged threats while mitigating the Special cooldown penalty of Lightning Breath. Stacking Speed allows Tiki to mitigate a lot of doubles; however, due to the abundance of skills that allow enemies to double regardless (such as Bold Fighter) and enemies with absurdly high Speed, it may be a good idea to stack Defense instead to mitigate the damage taken.

Aether is a fantastic choice of Special due to its synergy with Lightning Breath, Steady Breath, and Quick Riposte: if Tiki gets doubled, then she will activate it on her second attack. If not, then she will have it ready after that combat. The latter case is generally preferable, as activating Aether on a second opponent with full HP will result in more healing. Ignis can replace Aether for more damage, while Bonfire can be chosen to guarantee a Special activation every combat that Quick Riposte is active.

Steady Breath is generally better than Warding Breath due to physical attackers being more prevalent than magical attackers, but either will work; the choice is mostly up to preference and availability. As always, Fury is a decent option for budget purposes. It’s best to run a lower cooldown Special like Bonfire if running Fury.

Guard is an important skill to have for many tanks, as they need to worry about dealing with enemies with powerful Specials like Zelgius and Ayra. Running Guard along with the Quick Riposte Seal allows Tiki to minimize the damage taken from these threats, as their damage output without their Specials is easily survivable. If preferred, Quick Riposte can be taken as a B skill to free up the Seal slot for something else.

Tiki has a pretty good Resistance stat that can be utilized via Ploys; both Atk Ploy and Spd Ploy will increase her combat capabilities. Otherwise, her C skill can be replaced as needed to suit any team.

Aside from the Quick Riposte Seal, Tiki can run either Distant Def or Close Def along with Quick Riposte as a B skill for more specialized bulk if enemy Special activations are not a concern. She can also run any of the myriad of Ploys available as Seals if preferred.