Infantry Pulse 3

Coming as the first infantry-focused skill in the game, Infantry Pulse is a tool designed to help the units on your side charge and use specials before the enemy can. The ability to quickly charge specials is not something to be sneezed at, as powerful specials such as Ignis and Aether allow units to handily beat foes they otherwise couldn’t. The slightly cryptic description can be interpreted as follows: At the start of the game, infantry units with lower HP than the skill user have their special cooldowns reduced by one. Like other buffing skills, Infantry Pulse does not benefit the wielder of the skill. It is also akin other class-specific skills, only affecting infantry and being most effective when a team is built around the user.

As Infantry Pulse only affects infantry, and can only be inherited by infantry, it is most effective in a full team of four infantry. It also requires the user’s HP to be higher than allies for them to receive the buff. The best users of Infantry Pulse are high-HP tanks that can reliably buff squishier allies such as Mages or Archers. An infantry ally holding a Quickened Pulse seal and a Brave or Slaying/Killer weapon can activate 3-turn specials on the first attack, giving them the potential to immediately defeat an enemy at the start of the match.

Infantry Pulse is a skill with many requirements: Both the user and allies must be infantry type, and additionally must have a lower HP than the skill user. This makes it hard to activate without a team specifically designed to utilize the ability. Another weakness is opportunity cost: there are many other stronger C slot skills. Speed buffs can grant allies follow-up attacks, which will help them charge their special anyway. The Quickened Pulse seal can help any unit charge their special faster, and only requires a seal slot.