Ailment Team

Written by Reika

Overview

Ailment Teams specialize in crippling their foes through the use of Status Ailments. These teams aim to disable the enemy team long enough for them to be killed by secondary mechanics such as Pale Rider's Pestilence.

Although these teams can be directly countered by clerics such as Kinmamon, Daisoujou and most importantly Maria who is everywhere in PVP and extremely hard to remove. Although there are ways to play around them on offense, not being able to kill them on the first turn likely means your death.

Concept

• Bind and Charm are two ailments that will completely prevent a demon from taking action.
• Mute will prevent a demon from casting skills, and has a lower cure rate compared to Bind and Charm.
• Pale Rider's Pestilence removes 50% of a poisoned demon's Max Health at the end of their turn (capped at 2000 damage).
• If you can keep them poisoned for two turns (or three, if a demon has above 4000 HP) in a row, Pestilence will automatically kill all demons.
• While it is possible to build an Ailment Team without Pale Rider and rely on some other alternate wincon (Poison damage, Defense Support etc), they are generally less reliable compared to Pestilence. As such, this article will focus mainly on the Pale Rider strat, feel free to adapt these for generic ailment teams though!

Pros and Cons

Pros:

• Very powerful team for Revenging, as most defense teams don't run Clerics and clear speeds are very high.
• Unique playstyle.
• Only team with a guaranteed wincon.

Cons:

• High entry cost - Pale Rider is a Banner exclusive and is mandatory for the team.
• Most demons require Max Panel investment.
• Frail, will easily roll over if outsped.
• Prone to RNG.
• Requires very high damaging and low MP cost demons to kill cleansers on the first turn.

Team

Now lets go in-depth as to how to build this Team.

Core Demons

The only core demon is Pale Rider, your main win condition.

Pale Rider

Pale Rider

• The best Poison caster in the game.
• His signature Pestilence deals 50% of Max HP as damage (capped at 2k) to every poisoned enemy at the end of their turn.
• Plague automatically poisons all enemies at the end of your turn, in additional to dealing minor chip damage.
  • This chip damage actually helps push Pestilence kill threshold up to 4700 HP, as it will damage them first before Pestilence kicks in.

Skills and Brands

• As Plague will automatically poison all enemies at the end of turn, most players opt to give him a skill like Mahamakajam to further support the team with Ailments.
• Speedster and Epitome of Swiftness can be used to raise battle speed. Going first is vital for the team.
• Insanity raises Ailment infliction rate.
• Evade is useful for dodging Muted enemies, wasting their press turns.
• Divine Brands are required to cast Mahamakajam Turn 1. Speed brands are the recommended sub-set for Battle Speed.

Anti-Cleric

The biggest counter to Ailment Teams are Clerics like Kinmamon and Daisoujou, who are immune to ailments and can cure them. Certain demons like Yellow Asherah with Null Charm and Null Bind transferred can also act as pseudo-clerics, being immune to the two most common Ailments.

While not strictly required, having a demon capable of outright killing the opposing Cleric will make your life a lot easier, especially when running random PVP offense.

Alice

Alice

• The most reliable demon with removal.
• Alice's unique Die for Me! kills her target instantly regardless of HP, ignoring Endures.
• While panels are nice, she does not necessarily need them, as one use of Die for Me! is usually enough.
• The only Clerics she cannot kill are Hecate when paired with Alilat or Atavaka, as Hecate's innate Repel Dark resistance cannot be pierced while Repel Pierce is active; and Maria, who innately nulls mortal.
  • Panel 3 Alice gets around this by having three casts of Die for Me!. The first can be used to kill off Alilat / Atavaka and the second reserved for Hecate herself.

Skills and Brands

• Dark Pierce (weak) is mandatory for her to kill targets indiscriminately.
• Speedster and Epitome of Swiftness can be used to raise battle speed.
• Endure and Enduring Soul gives her more chances to live survive Hecate's turn, and kill her the next.
• Life Brands provide her additional bulk. Speed brands are the recommended sub-set for Battle Speed.

Barrier Breaking Demons

Ward Brands are the first obstacles to Ailment Teams. Demons equipped with Ward Brands will automatically be granted Barrier at the start of battle, making them immune to Ailments. As such, it is mandatory to have a demon that can remove Barriers.

P3 Samael

Samael

• With Panel 3 unlocked, Samael will automatically cast Barrier Break at the start of your turn.
• Being able to Barrier Break without consuming a Press Turn is very strong. This gives you one extra action to land a second ailment, remove their cleric etc.
• His unique skill God's Malice instantly sticks every single ailment on a demon. This can be useful to control dangerous targets like Guan Yu and Masakado, and pairs well with P3 Lilith.
• Purple is his recommended color. Infinite Chakra increases his natural MP regeneration, giving him more flexibility when choosing brands.
• P3 Samael is the second best Barrier Breaker, though he requires a lot of grinding to unlock. There is no reason to not use him if you have him.

Skills and Brands:

• Speedster and Epitome of Swiftness can be used to raise battle speed.
• Insanity raises Ailment Infliction rate.
• Sick-Speed and double Speed are both acceptable brand combinations. Either combination will still allow you to cast maxed God's Malice twice in a row thanks to Infinite Chakra. While Sick brands increase your Ailment Infliction rate, double Speed gives your team more battle speed.

Nergal

Nergal

• Nergal's unique Plague of Babylon removes Barries inflicts Weak.
  • This allows your other Ailments to land 100%, letting you ignore Ailment Infliction rates on those demons.
• His other passive Meslamtaea automatically gives him Might (auto-Crit on next hit) whenever a demon is Poisoned. Coupled with his decent stats, this lets him function as a secondary Phys sweeper.
• Compared to P3 Samael, Nergal gives your other demons more freedom in choosing Brands, while bringing some Physical damage to the table. However, this comes at the cost of consuming a full Turn for Plague of Babylon, which may backfire when going against Intimidating Stance Teams. This can be countered though by using Masakado A allowing you to get a full 3 turns in to complete Plague of Babylon and two separate other moves. Add a crit from demon 3 and you could get 4 moves even on double Intimidating Stance Teams.
• Nergal is especially strong if you do Targetted battles. Or use him on your Defense Team. Doing Random Battles with him may be too risky.

Skills and Brands:

• Speedster and Epitome of Swiftness can be used to raise battle speed.
• Phys Amp and Epitome of Carnage increase his damage, allowing him to sweep better.
• Epitome of Madness can be used to gain both Infliction rate and a dodge bonus.
• Sick-Speed and double Speed are both acceptable brand combinations. While Sick brands increase your Ailment Infliction rate, double Speed gives your team more battle speed.
  • War-Speed can also be used if going for a more Physical focus.

Nekomata A

Nekomata A

• While she does not possess innate Barrier Break, it can be transferred to her relatively easily to let her act as a Barrier Breaker.
• While P3 Samael and Nergal do the job better, their middling AGI unfortunately means you will not be able to outspeed dedicated T1 teams with over 50k Battle Speed.
• Nekomata A helps to alleviate that problem by acting as a speedy Barrier Breaker. Not only is she one of the fastest demons in the game, she also comes with innate Speedster, giving you more flexibility over transfer slots.
• As a bonus, Pussyfoot increases your team's evasion, which synergizes well if you choose to run Mute on Pale Rider.
• Yellow is her preferred color as it gives her access to discounted Mahamarin Karin, which she can spam on subsequent turns or against teams without Ward brands.
• Nekomata A with transferred Barrier Break is useful if you need a fast breaker for random PVP. If your current PVP tier is filled with fast T1 teams, consider running her for battle speed.

Skills and Brands:

• Barrier Break is necessary for her to act as a Barrier Breaker.
• Epitome of Swiftness can be used to raise battle speed. It is a very rare transfer skill though.
• Insanity raises Ailment infliction rate.
• Double speed Brands are recommended to raise Battle Speed.

P2 Trumpeter

Trumpeter

• Trumpeter's Panel 2 auto-casts Barrier Break after casting Concentrate.
• His unique skill Apocalypse deals Almighty damage while having a high chance of Mute.
  • With his recent buffs, this can be cast T1 with Divine Brands.
• Decent MAG combined with innate Concentrate let him function as an Almighty sweeper, especially after enemies have been softened up by Pestilence.
• Trumpeter is an offensive Barrier Breaker who can also function as an almighty sweeper if needed.

Skills and Brands:

• Speedster and Epitome of Swiftness can be used to raise battle speed.
• Insanity can be used to increase Ailment Infliction rate.
• Butcher increases Apocalypse damage.
• Divine Brands are required to cast Concentrate or Apocalypse T1. Speed is the recommended sub-set for Battle Speed.

Motoko

Motoko Kusanagi

• Motoko Kusanagi's first unique Ghost Hack will automatically remove enemy barriers and has a very high chance to also inflict Bind and Mute.
  • A very low cost of 5 MP means she will be always able to cast it on the first turn if equipped with Divine Brands or partnered with Maria.
  • Panel 2 will also cast a 1-turn Tarukaja + Sukukaja, helping you clean up cleansers with your dedicated damage demon(s).
• Her second unique Optical Camouflage will deal some damage to any enemy with an ailment.
• Motoko is an entire ailment team in a single demon, making her a huge boon to any team that hopes to win with this archetype. However, she's a banner exclusive to her collaboration event, so she will only be available to be obtained very rarely.

Skills and Brands

• Speedster and Epitome of Swiftness can be used to raise battle speed.
• Insanity and Epitome of Madness can be used to raise ailment infliction rate, and the latter to raise her evasion even further
• Phys Amp and Epitome of Carnage will greatly raise her damage, making her solid offensively.
• Divine Brands will be necessary to guarantee casting Ghost Hack against Alice A with double Intimidating Stance on turn 1. War and Speed are alternatives for raising offensive capabilities and team speed respectively.

Ailment Demons

The namesake of this Archetype, good Ailment demons are typically fast, have a party-wide strong Ailment skill and preferably have increased Ailment Infliction rates. Charm and Bind are the two ailments that completely disable a demon, and are hence the most popular. Mute, although less debilitating, is rarely covered and can be an enticing option for some.

Lilith

Lilith

• Lilith's unique skill Allure deals Dark damage while inflicting Charm.
• With Panel 3 unlocked, Lilith will automatically cast a party-wide Bind upon any enemy being charmed.
• When combined with Allure or other forms of charm such as God's Malice from Samael or Mahamarin Karin from Nekomata A, this allows her to chain disable enemies without consuming Press Turns.
• Clear is her best color as it gives her access to Insanity.
• On the flip side, she is not very fast and has two weaknesses.
• P3 Lilith is a very Press Turn efficient Bind engine. Bear in mind her low speed though.

Skills and Brands:

• As Allure is a Dark-type attack, Dark Pierce (weak) lets her spam it versus NDR.
• Speedster and Epitome of Swiftness can be used to raise battle speed.
• Madness can be used to increase Ailment Infliction rate.
• Sick-Speed and double Speed both allow you to cast Allure T1 if maxed. While Sick brands increase your Ailment Infliction rate, double Speed gives your team more battle speed.

Dionysus

Dionysus

• Dionysus's unique passive Euphoric Frenzy inflicts Charm whenever receiving physical attacks.
• This is the only way to inflict Charm on the enemy turn, and when paired with P3 Lilith turns into a party-wide Bind.
  • This is especially powerful versus AOE sweepers who are guaranteed to hit into him, triggering his Charm and Lilith's AOE Bind.
• High LUK means he will have little problems landing ailments.

Skills and Brands:

• Speedster and Epitome of Swiftness can be used to raise battle speed.
• Insanity can be used to increase Ailment Infliction rate.
• Endure and Enduring Soul let him stay alive longer to inflict Charm.
• Life brands increase his durability. Speed brands are the recommended sub-set for battle speed.

Lakshmi

Lakshmi

• Lakshmi's unique Lotus Dance has the highest charm rate in the game (80% if maxed).
• She also gains Insanity in Purple and additional Ailment Infliction with Panel 1, allowing her to hit over 100% charm rate.
• Panel 3 restores 1 MP to the whole party after cast.
  • Due to this, she is usually run in Hybrid Ailment Teams who splash in high MP attackers like Shiva A to take advantage of the MP regen.
• The most reliable charmer in the game. However she provides little outside of charm, as such she is better suited for Hybrid Ailment Teams.

Skills and Brands:

• Speedster and Epitome of Swiftness can be used to raise battle speed.
• Madness can be used to increase Ailment Infliction rate.
• Auto-Skills allow her to further support her party. This is less important for Pure Ailment Teams, but much appreciated by Hybrid Ailments.
• Sick-Speed and double Speed are both acceptable brand combinations. While Sick brands increase your Ailment Infliction rate, double Speed gives your team more battle speed. Both combinations allow for T1 Lotus Dance if maxed.

Kabuso

Kabuso

• Kabuso's unique passive Master Prankster inflicts Charm on random enemies when they are poisoned.
  • When paired with P3 Lilith, this further extends into a second round of Bind.
• He also possesses innate Madness, and Toxic Sting helps him trigger his own Passive.
• On the other hand, his low AGI hurts battle speed.

Skills and Brands:

• Speedster and Epitome of Swiftness can be used to raise battle speed.
• Insanity can be used to increase Ailment Infliction rate.
• As Master Prankster will passively charm, an Ailment skill like Mahamakajam lets him land additional Ailments.
• Sick-Speed and double Speed are both acceptable brand combinations. While Sick brands increase your Ailment Infliction rate, double Speed gives your team more battle speed. Divine is required if running Mahamakajam.

Speed control Demon

As Ailment Teams want to go first, Battle Speed is of utmost importance. Considering running one (or more!) of these demons if you are constantly getting outsped in your Tier.

Masakado A

Masakado A

• Arguably one of the most meta-defining demons. Guardian of the East provides your team an additional Press Turn going first, giving you even more turns to throw down Ailments.
  • Speedster and Epitome of Swiftness are recommended to raise battle speed.
  • Double speed brands are recommended to further bump up battle speed. Focus on speed Primary for the Legs, and Speed Tertiaries for everything else.
• Pick Masakado A if you have him. The only exception is if you are manually choosing targets and need a faster demon to outspeed.

Kartikeya

Kartikeya

• The fastest demon in the game.
• His unique skill Skanda raises his Crit rate. Combine this with innate Mortal Jihad (a high base crit rate skill) and high base LUK, he can reliably crit for Press Turns.
• Comes with innate Speedster in Clear. Some potential transfer skills include:
  • Phys Pierce (weak) is highly recommended to avoid being walled by Tetra Shift
  • Epitome of Swiftness can be used to raise battle speed. It's a very rare transfer skill though.
  • Savage Glee brings his already impressive Crit rate to near-guaranteed levels.
  • Double speed brands are recommended to further bump up battle speed. Focus on speed Primary for the Legs, Crit rate for the Arms and Speed Tertiaries for everything else.
    • With P1, you can run double speed and still T1 Mortal Jihad. Unfortunately, Kartikeya is notoriously difficult to fuse, costing upwards of 8 million Mag from scratch.
• Kartikeya is the luxury option. While he brings a lot to the table, he also requires a lot of investment in terms of Magnetite and rare transfer skills.

Hresvelgr

Hresvelgr

• Second fastest demon in the game after Kartikeya.
• North Wind triggers an Ice AOE whenever an opposing demon dies. This lets you clean up any demons above 4700 HP who barely survived the second tick of Pestilence.
  • Speedster and Epitome of Swiftness are recommended to raise battle speed.
  • Ice Amp increases damage from both his skills.
• Double speed brands are recommended to further bump up battle speed. Focus on speed Primary for the Legs, and Speed Tertiaries for everything else.
• Panel 3 increases his Battle Speed and is worth aiming for.
• Hresvelgr is an upgrade over Garuda in every way, and a great investment for long-term PVP.

Garuda

Garuda

• Third fastest demon in the game.
  • Speedster and Epitome of Swiftness are recommended to raise battle speed.
• Panel 3 increases his Battle Speed and is worth aiming for.
• He is used purely for Battle Speed in this team. Use him if you don't have any other options.

Finalized Team

To recap, your finalized team should typically look something like this:

Pale Rider Offense

Kartikeya Skills Phys Pierce (weak) Savage Glee Brands Speed, Speed Requirements 40% speed, +20 AGI

Alice Skills Dark Pierce (weak) Speedster Brands Life, Speed Requirements 10% speed, +20 AGI

Samael Skills Insanity Speedster Brands Speed, Lead Requirements P3 unlocked, 10% speed, +20 AGI

Pale Rider Skills Mahamakajam Speedster Brands Divine, Speed Requirements 10% speed, +20 AGI

2 AGI Mitama on Pale Rider allows max-AGI Alice to speed tie him, with Samael on Lead brands for better rotations versus Hecate. The team above hits ~42k Battle Speed, while still being able to Die for Me! and Mahamakajam against most cleric Teams.

• Against Daisoujou + Double Intimidating Stance: Pass --> DFM Daisoujou --> Pass --> Mahamakajam
• Against Daisoujou + Single Intimidating Stance: Pass --> DFM Daisoujou --> God's Malice most threatening target --> Mahamakajam
• Against Hecate + Atavaka single Intimidating Stance: Pass --> DFM Alilat / Atavaka --> Pass --> Mahamakajam --> Pass --> DFM Hecate

However, this team is prone to getting outsped by Hero Masakado T1 Teams, who can go even faster. Against such teams, swap Samael for a Nekomata A with Barrier Break.

Pale Rider Defense

Kartikeya Skills Phys Pierce (weak) Savage Glee Brands Speed, Speed Requirements 40% speed

Pale Rider Skills Mahamakajam Speedster Brands Divine, Speed Requirements 10% speed

Samael Skills Insanity Speedster Brands Speed, Speed Requirements P3 unlocked, 10% speed

Lilith Skills Dark Pierce (weak) Speedster Brands Sick, Speed Requirements P3 unlocked, 10% speed

The team above hits 43k Battle Speed. Even against double Intimidating Stance, Kartikeya's high crit allows him to critpass into Mahamakajam, with God's Malice chaining into P3 Lilith's AOE Bind on the second Press Turn. This team is effective in catching players that random without Daisoujou, and the Mute from Mahamakajam acts as a soft counter against Yellow Null Bind + Null Charm Asherah.

This team, while not fast, can easily take on anything slower than it. There is very little which can stop this or the variant that follows when built well and its a super quick match that never lasts longer than 2 rounds.

Alenael's Expensive Pale Rider Offense #1 (for targetted battles)

Nergal Skills Epitome of Madness Auto-Sukunda Brands Speed/War, Lead

Masakado A Skills Mahashibaboo Recarmdra Brands Divine, Speed

Asura Lord Skills Savage Glee Auto-Rakunda Brands Divine, Speed, Lead

Pale Rider Skills Evade Mahamarin Karin Brands Divine, Speed

• Used against any team slower than it unless they contain a prayer bot. If they are using Hecate this team can be used but could be risky if he has Epitome of Fortitude.
• Pale Rider does all the work here just ailment up and let him win for you.
• Phys Pierce (weak) can be used on Nergal
• Epitome of Madness could be used on Pale Rider
• Even when double Intimidating Stance this team can Plague of Babylon and follow it up with two additional moves. Using Asura Lord you can almost always get three extra turns though. This setup allows to easily get two separate ailments off and usually take out one of the demons that may be most threatening.

Alenael's Expensive Pale Rider Offense #2 (for targetted battles)

Nergal Skills Epitome of Madness Auto-Sukunda Brands Speed/War, Lead

Masakado A Skills Mahashibaboo Recarmdra Brands Divine, Speed

Alice Skills Dark Pierce (weak) Dark Amp Brands Divine, Lead

Pale Rider Skills Evade Mahamarin Karin Brands Divine, Speed

• Used against any team with a prayer bot like Daisoujou but do not use it against Hecate + Atavaka.

Checks and Counters

Outspeed

Uriel Nekomata A Garuda A Koga Saburo Astaroth Sraosha

• Ailment Teams must go first in order to disable the enemy. Being outsped is an automatic loss.
• Speedy teams like Archangels and Hero Masakado T1 can outspeed and decimate them T1.

Clerics

Daisoujou Kinmamon Hecate Beelzebub☆ Maria

• Clerics are effective versus Ailment defense, as the AI is not smart enough to use Anti-Cleric demons properly.
• Hecate + Atavaka makes her immune to Die for Me!, making her a very powerful counter.
• Beelzebub☆ and Maria are usually extremely bulky and null mortal, making them near impossible to kill turn 1 without any very hard hitters.

Pseudo-Clerics

Asherah Jeanne d'Arc Nekomata A Persephone Pales

• A combination of Prayer or Silent Prayer + Null Bind + Null Charm allows a demon to act as a Pseudo-Cleric, as they are immune to the two most common elements.
• These demons have one of the above in their kit, with the last two transfer slots used to round up the combo.
• These demons are soft-counters at best, as they are still vulnerable to Mute, which Pale Rider teams often run.

Intimidating Stance

Masakado Atavaka Surt Mada Ladon Arioch Surt A Beelzebub (Human) Beelzebub☆ Pales

• Ailment Teams need to be build with Intimidating Stance in mind.
  • This is the reason Samael is so useful in ailment teams despite his low speed.
• Less turns = less ailments, which can be fatal considering the luck-based element of the team (hoping the opponents don't recover from ailments).

Ailment Resistance

Infernal Mask Passive -60% chance of receiving status ailments.
Epitome of Aggression Passive +15% to Phys hit rate, -45% chance of receiving status ailments.
Epic Recovery Passive +30% to status ailment auto cure rate.
Rallying Survivor Passive +25% to status ailment auto cure rate and HP stops at 1 HP upon receiving the first killing blow.

• These skills increase your Ailment Resistance / Recovery rate.
• They are incredibly inconsistent, use at your own peril.

See also

• Tier List
• Skill List
• Brands
• PVP Team Guide for more Team guides