Initially I thought it was an amazing skill, a new skill for my buffbot Marth. And that meant that in the future we would see even a Close guard skill, and maybe even a seal of both of them, meaning more buffs.
But then I realized that if you ever used the two of them for covering all units (ranged and melee foes), then it would be just a +1/+1 upgrade to using drive res and def.
Well is still good and all, but I think it would shine only if stacked against one type (ranged or melee), and only for infantry units and mixed emblem since if you run armor, flier, or cavalry there are goads skills already.
What are your thoughts?
It does give you some nice coverage rolled into one unit, freeing your other units up for more offensive buffs or doubling down on one of the defensive stats, but sure, it isn't an Earth shattering skill by any stretch. Although if Lucina ran with one of the Link skills, I think that would have some crazy synergy, both for her (Atk/Def Link + Future Vision sounds bonkers) and the unit she swaps with.
It has a bit of a double whammy working against it:
1) Ranged units aren't common in Arena these days to begin with, and a good chunk of the ones that exist are typically units that overwhelm to the point where 4 Def/Res won't make a difference. It could help in lower tiers where Reinhardt still exists, but that 4 extra Res isn't going to help that many units survive fully Blade Tome buffed Flying Nino who couldn't before.
2) As you said, other buffs are more comprehensive. If your DC units need help against mages, Drive Res would ultimately be a safer skill to use since it covers manaketes as well.
IMO the missed opportunity here was for this skill to address how badly we need a buffed version of Guard. If this had been some kind of area of effect Guard skill, it would have been the shot in the arm the games needs to disrupt the special heavy meta. Instead, this feels like a skill that was needed circa Fall 2017.
A drive guard or even a better guard would be too strong, since Guard is already a very good skill.
For example, I always used on my A!Tiki the QR+close defence seal and she barely survived with buffs skills like Black luna, but after her perfect came I gave her Guard+QR skill and oh boy, it can really tank anything, sometimes even mages since moonbow is never used.
Also if a new buffed guard skill would come, it would be armor only. Why? Because guard is useful for every tank except tanks, and they should be the tanks. Like what happened with vengeful and bold fighter.
It would not be too strong at all. As is, Guard is still not sufficient to stop Bold Fighter special abuse because it only rolls back 1 special charge. It also has a threshold that is too high in comparison to most other skills. Your Guard/QR Tiki for instance will not stop a Steady Breath/Bold Fighter/Quickened Pulse Zelgius backed by a Hector with Ostia's Pulse from procing Black Luna on his second attack. A Slaying Edge variant of Zelgius can even start the match with Black Luna pre-charged now.
In comparison to archers who only have access to Guard, armor have access to Steady Breath, Wrath, Bold Fighter, and Vengeful Fighter for special manipulation. Guard doesn't even help against pre-charged specials and specials built via Wrath, another issue hurting any unit that can't secure ORKOs. This is one of the primary sources behind why archers are completely meta dead at the moment in Arena.
lol... a real Drive "Guard" would end up being a mandatory c slot for every serious arena team if it was real. If Guard was 240SP and was on Titania @ 4 stars it would be the most used B slot skill in Tier 20....
Also archers are dead in arena because they score low, L!Lucy however with close counter will score as much as Fjorm and Ike as long as they don't have DC in their A skill slot.
Distant guard is a variant of distant def that you put on a different unit. Any unit that wants distant def likes it when their teammate uses distant guard. Aren't you almost saying that distant def is not that good?
Maybe what you're getting at is that it's not broken.
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