Archangels

Overview

Archangels is a term for a team consisting of (at least one) of the three Archangels Uriel, Gabriel and/or Raphael, with a total of three Herald or Divine demons in the party to unlock their passives.

Concept

• The three Archangels each have a passive that will trigger at the start of your turn if you have at least three Herald and/or Divine demons alive.
  • Uriel has God's Fire, which deals piercing fire damage to three random enemies and buffs your whole party's attack.
  • Raphael has God's Blessing, which heals your team and buffs their defense.
  • Gabriel has God's Word, which deals piercing light damage to all enemies while buffing your whole party's EV/AC.
• This lets your deal massive damage and buff up at the start of your turn, without using any press turn icons. Additionally, as it is a chain attack hitting into Anti-Pierce will not consume press turns.
• On top of this, all three Archangels have powerful piercing spells of their own:
  • Uriel's Sunrise deals piercing fire damage to all enemies.
  • Raphael's Tailwind deals piercing force damage to four random enemies.
  • Gabriel's Ascension deals piercing light damage to a single target.
• Combined with the initial damage and buffs offered by their passives, they can easily nuke an entire team down Turn 1, making them a very formidable Turn-1-Kill team comp.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

• Very powerful team, capable of ending battles in a single turn.
• As most fights end very quickly, it allows you to climb the PVP ladder faster if doing last minute pot rushes.
• Magic is very reliable as it doesn't miss, and the Archangels have Pierce on all of their spells. Even when faced with Anti-Pierce, their passives hitting into NDR will not lose them press turns, allowing them to keep the momentum going.
• Has a very high damage ceiling, depending on how much you are willing to invest in the team.
• Thematically pleasing.

Cons:

• Pretty high entry cost - all three Archangels are Banner exclusives.
• Very reliant on going first. Being outsped is a death sentence.
• Pass a certain point in PVP, a lot of defense teams are designed to hate on Archangels.

Team

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

Core Demons

Although there is no hard rule on which of the Archangels you must use for the strat, it is generally agreed that Uriel and Gabriel are the two core demons for this team:

• They both deal piercing AOE damage to every enemy (Uriel through Sunrise, Gabriel through God's Word).
• Uriel's attack buff is very much appreciated for a glass cannon team.
• Gabriel has the option of running Red for Mahamadyne, giving her an active AOE. Bear in mind that it will not pierce though.

Uriel

Uriel

• A very powerful Fire Mage
• Purple is his best color, as all your relevant skills are of the Fire element and will greatly benefit from Fire Enhancement.
• In terms of Team order, you will want him to go before your other Heralds, so that they can benefit from the attack buff granted by God's Fire. There are two ways of doing this, either through lead brands or Mitama.
  • Lead brands will bump you up 1 slot in turn order. They are farmed from Brands of Sin Vanity stages.
  • You can also use Mitama infusion to bump up his AGI. As all the Heralds are pretty close in AGI and you can infuse a max of +20 AGI, you can easily manipulate the turn order to your liking.
  • In the event two demons have the same AGI, turn order for the two is determined via their position on the team roster. As such, it is better to speed tie demons, so you can freely switch them up as you wish.
• Sunrise should be maxed with Kasane for T1 potential and additional damage.
• He has the best panels among all Archangels. P2 chains a Rakunda (defense down) debuff on your opponent after God's Fire procs. This greatly increases your team's damage, and should be a priority to panel if you get the choice.

Skills and Brands

• Fire Amp and Fire Boost are good choices to further boost his damage
• Speedster and [[Epitome of Swiftness] can be used to raise battle speed. Going first is vital for the team.
• Divine Brands are required to cast Sunrise on Turn 1. Speed brands are the recommended sub-set to raise battle speed.

Gabriel

Gabriel

• A light specialist.
• She can run either Red or Purple, depending on your preference:
  • Red grants her access to discounted Mahamadyne. This is useful to sweep teams without Light NDR, like certain Intimidating Stance teams. However, be careful as it does not pierce.
  • Purple gives her Elec Enhancement. As she wants to focus on Light damage, the increased Elec damage portion of the passive is largely wasted. It will however let her nuke slightly harder against demons with uncovered Light weakness, for example Hecate and Lilith.
• Ascension should be maxed with Kasane for T1 potential and additional damage.

Skills and Brands

• Light Amp, Light Enhancement and Fire Boost are good choices to further boost her damage
• Speedster and [[Epitome of Swiftness] can be used to raise battle speed.
• Maxed Ascension has a MP cost of 5. As such, she can run Spell brands for more damage and still be able to cast it T1. Speed brands are the recommended sub-set to raise battle speed.
  • If you picked Red, you will need to run Divines in order to cast Mahamadyne turn 1. This can impact her damage.

Third Herald

In order to unlock their passives, a minimum of three Herald / Divine demons are required. As such, one of the following demons is used to fulfill the requirements.

Raphael

Raphael

• Third of the Archangel trio. As his passive does not deal damage, he is not treated as a core demon.
• He does however complement the team very well, being a powerful Force mage. Tailwind is useful for cleaning up any demons that survive your initial onslaught and it also breaks Endures. It should also be maxed with Kasane for reduced MP cost and more damage.
• Purple is the recommended color, as Force Enhancement lets him nuke even harder.
• Force Amp and Force Boost are good choices to further boost his damage.
• Speedster and [[Epitome of Swiftness] can be used to raise battle speed.
• Maxed Tailwind has a MP cost of 5. As such, he can run Spell brands for more damage and still be able to cast it T1. Speed brands are the recommended sub-set to raise battle speed.
• Compared to the other options, Raphael is a lot faster, letting the team hit higher battle speeds. On the flip side, Tailwind's random targeting nature might backfire at times due to bad RNG, and it can be stopped by certain Anti-Pierce combinations such as Rama + Susano-o A.

Mastema

Mastema

• Mastema's signature skill Trial of Hate is a powerful AOE light attack that also applies a random debuff.
  • This attack does not pierce by default though. Light Pierce (weak) is mandatory as NDR Light is common.
  • With Panel 3, he will apply two random debuffs instead.
• He gains access to Light Amp in purple, and P1 further increases his light damage.
• As he is one of the easier 4x4 fusions in the game, he is one of the more achievable P3 demons.
• He needs to run Divine Brands in order to cast Trial of Hate T1. Speed brands are the recommended sub-set to raise battle speed.
• Pick Mastema if you want another AOE sweeper to go with your other AOEs.

Metatron

Metatron

• Metatron's Fire of Sinai is similar to Raphael's Tailwind, a random-targeting skill. However, it does 5 hits instead of 4, and is almighty element instead of Force.
  • This makes it a lot safer for him to spam, as Almighty can only be stopped by Five Elements (which you should not be seeing if you are going first!)
  • As with Tailwind, this is a very useful spell for cleaning up and breaking Endures.
• Red gains access to discounted Mahamadyne, giving you the option of casting either an AOE or Fire of Sinai for clean-up.
  • Mahamadyne will not pierce though, so bear that in mind.
• Metatron has the highest Base Magic among the options, and has access to Infinite Chakra by default, allowing him to run Spell Brands and still be able to spam either Mahamadyne or Fire of Sinai turn 1.
  • While not easy to achieve, Panel 3 increases all damage dealt by a significant margin.
• Pick Metatron if you are okay with sacrificing a bit of battle speed for more reliable firepower.

The other Herald / Divine demons don't provide enough advantages to be considered. Please keep your Seraphs on Democalypse duty.

Fourth demon

While you could run 4 Heralds, aesthetics aside there is little reason to do so. Your last team slot is better suited for another demon that compliments the team better, namely for improving battle speed.

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 delete them Turn 1.
• Kuyo Flash swings offensive buffs entirely to your favor, countering any defensive Autos.
• As his kit is fully self-sufficient, he has great flexibility over transfer skills and brands:
  • Speedster and [[Epitome of Swiftness] are recommended to raise battle speed.
  • Auto-Rakunda can be used to increase your combo's damage right off the bat.
  • 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.

Garuda

Garuda

• Second fastest demon in the game.
• Innate Auto-Rakunda helps to increase your team's firepower.
• Colors don't really matter for him. Most go with Purple for Berserker for a minor boost in damage.
  • Speedster and [[Epitome of Swiftness] are recommended to raise battle speed.
  • Bufula L is a nice, cheap spell to exploit Ice weakness (which is usually uncovered) for Press Turns.
  • Double speed brands are recommended to further bump up battle speed. Focus on speed Primary for the Legs, and Speed Tertiaries for everything else.
    • P1 is required for him to cast Zandyne T1 on defense, otherwise he will not have enough MP and end up auto-attacking, running the risk of missing or hitting into Tetra Shift.
• Panel 3 increases his Battle Speed and is worth aiming for.
• Garuda is the "tried-and-true, can't-go-wrong" option.

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.
  • Auto-Rakunda can be used to increase your combo's damage right off the bat.
  • 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.

Finalized Team

To recap, your finalized team should contain both Uriel and Gabriel, another Herald and one Speedster demon. It should look something like this:

Sample Archangel Team.

Garuda Skills Bufula L Speedster Brands Speed, Speed Requirements 40% speed, +20 AGI from Mitama

Uriel Skills Fire Amp Speedster Brands Divine, Speed Requirements 10% speed, +20 AGI from Mitama

Raphael Skills Force Amp Speedster Brands Spell, Speed Requirements 10% speed, +8 AGI from Mitama

Gabriel Skills Light Amp Speedster Brands Spell, Speed Requirements 10% speed, +20 AGI from Mitama

The above team hits 41k battle speed, enough to outspeed every PVE challenge and the vast majority of PVP defenses.

Checks and Counters

While they are a powerful combination, the Archangels are by no means invincible. There are several ways to counter angels both on offense and defense.

Outspeed

Kartikeya Nekomata A Garuda A

• While Archangel teams are fast, they are not the fastest. This is especially evident if you chose to run Metatron or Mastema as your third Herald.
• Being outsped is almost an automatic loss. Even if they do not teamwipe you on their turn, losing just one Herald means your chain effects will not trigger the next turn, severely reducing your damage output.

Repel Pierce

Asura Lord Vairocana Atavaka Alilat

• Asura Lord and Vairocana innately repel both Fire and Light, the main two elements in an Archangel team.
• Alilat's Repel Pierce and Atavaka's War Aid both prevent Repel resistances from being pierced.
• This team composition is extremely hard to attack into, as the repelled attacks will carry over their piercing properties, dealing full damage to you. Casting AOEs like Sunrise will also result in Press Turns being burned as a penalty for attacking into NDR.
• It is almost impossible to wipe this team T1, and they will no doubt hit back hard on their counterswing.

Asherah and Daisoujou

Asherah Daisoujou

• Asherah and Daisoujou are both bulky support demons that are often run together as a support duo.
• Asherah's Panel 2 halves the damage she takes from Fire attacks, while Daisoujou's Panel 1 halves the damage he takes from Light attacks. These resistances cannot be pierced as they are not your typical NDR.
• Combined with their natural bulk, they are almost impossible to burst down T1.
• Asherah carries Mother's Creation, the strongest revival spell in the game. It resurrects a teammate while refunding a full press turn, giving the revived teammate a chance to act immediately.
• Daisoujou typically carries Recarmdra, a party-wide resurrection.
• They can usually tank your entire combo, revive their fallen DPS demons and wipe you on the counterswing.

Quetzalcoatl A

Quetzalcoatl A

• Quetzalcoatl A is a deadly Fire mage that is capable of dealing high amounts of damage, thanks to having innate Fire Amp and Butcher.
• His unique passive Ce Acatl automatically revives him if he is dead at the start of your turn, and refunds a Press Turn icon.
• When paired with a bulky demon like Orcus or Asherah, he becomes a soft counter for Archangel teams used on defense.
  • As long as the tank survives, Quetzalcoatl A will come back to life the next turn and respond with two Aztec Pulses (pass on the tank).