Wrath 3

This skill is one of many to help charge one’s special for use during combat. However, unlike its many brethren, Wrath is fairly easy to activate, and only has one straight-forward requirement: The user must be on less than 75% HP in order to take effect. Both the damage bonus and the special charge come under the HP requirement but unlike most skills that check HP, the time of checking is at the point where the special is activated. This means it is possible to gain the damage bonus during a round of combat you started above the threshold. Wrath is only applicable to specials triggered by combat, and cannot be used with defensive specials such as Pavise.

Wrath is notable for being a B slot skill that affects special charge, with most other options coming at the cost of the valuable A slot. This means it is possible to combine Wrath with skills such as Steady Breath and Heavy Blade for extremely quick special charges. Weapons that grant cooldown-1 such as Slaying/Killer Weapons are a great partner for Wrath. Choice of special is also important: As Wrath has direct benefits when both charging and unleashing a special, shorter specials are preferred. Moonbow is the premiere pick, potentially beginning each round charged if it’s only used once per turn. The sacred seal Quickened Pulse can be used to effectively gain the special cooldown charge for the first round of combat. Wrath can be used effectively on both offensive or defensive builds. Brave weapon users can use Wrath to activate their specials every turn, and significantly power them up. Defensive builds receive an attack first, which puts the user within the threshold, then fire back with a highly damaging special.

The way Wrath’s HP threshold is checked makes it harder to avoid than most other skills in the game. Guard is a mediocre way to prevent Wrath users from obtaining their specials, but has harder to meet requirements and only sets their special back a single turn. The best way to avoid getting hit by a powerful Wrath Special is to prevent the unit from counter-attacking. Vantage and Desperation are two ways to circumvent their attacks. A powerful Brave Weapon or Firesweep weapon user is another good way to handle them, as letting them charge and use their special will spell certain doom for one of your units.