This guide aims to teach the basics of handling the Valkyrie. The ability to tackle higher difficulties depend on your personal loadouts and acquired advantages at present.
Core Playstyle
Carole is surprisingly versatile thanks to her simple moveset that balances its utility with power. She will feel underwhelming from the start but will soon build into an explosive attacker. No shield stands in her way as she punches through defenses and exerts her control over enemies.
While largely built to handle ground-based combat, Carole also has a route dedicated to air-based combat which takes getting used to.
Usage Difficulty
Handling: Moderate
- It has to be said, but overwriting your muscle memory from APHO is definitely the first thing all players must do. Carole truly takes getting used to as her moveset is completely adjusted to fit the general 2D plane of combat, with the addition of modified airborne maneuvers.
Power Ramping
- Carole's punches are made for power and speed, but you can only pick one at the start. Or you can just go full power all the way.
Power Drought Situation(s)
- None. Carole hardly runs out of SP, given that her Ultimate is cheap to cast at 50SP.
Equipment
Special Adjustments
Exclusive Signets
[I have no solid solution for this. Personally, I choose Brake to start with]
Starting with Brake, this signet may not be suitable for freshly started Caroles due to its focus on hastening charge speed than providing a strong boost to particular moves, Players with signature equipment however, will be able to utilise this boost in speed better as they have improved attacking strength. Nevertheless, this signet can be considered a later staple to your exclusive set.
Impulse is a great signet to have as it empowers your charged attacks to the extremes. Not only do you have double the potential, you also get double the stacks, which means this signet does not change your fighting style but doubles up your strength at virtually no cost. This, when combined with the ease of stacking Armor Shredder in ER, means this signet becomes far more utilised than you would outside in regular combat. Also, thanks to the quicker rise in power for Charged attacks, players can take chances with shorter charged blows to deliver the right amount of damage and save on time spent overcharging against low HP enemies.
Carole's low cost for her Ultimate means that any effort that goes towards hastening her cooldown is valuable, as long as you have the SP regen to also keep up. Revolution allows for charged moves, both ground and air, to do this by reducing CD per charge instance.
Skyfall changes your tactics to rely on mainly aerial blows, adding a new aerial attack buff, Momentum, so that it empowers your ultimate with greater damage. However, this can be difficult to justify at the start since you lack the avenues for cooldown hastening.
Rupture is the outlier, that is best used only when Brake is present. It is poor as a starter because the signet asks that you stay on the ground longer just to reach maximum strength. This can be difficult in the early game when your targets could be moving all over the place and every second invested in punching dispersed enemies is simply inefficient.
- In term of crowd control, you now have far more options in gathers and from her weapon active that can slowly round them in. It's a good extra piece of support, if nth else.
Using Thorn Crown
Carole is incredibly flexible based on the style you want to focus on (Speed / Power / Aerial), so here are a few examples.
1) Brake + Impulse / Rupture / Skyfall
- Brake is the support signet that gives a speed boost to any of the chosen 3. Effectively hastening the delivery of all her power or armor shredding punches.
2) Impulse + Rupture
- For delivery of extremely powerful, armor shredding Lv3 Charged punches.
3) Rupture + Skyfall
- For balance between ground and air supremacy
4) Revolution + Skyfall
- Combo for aerial based smashes, and also benefits the Ultimate.
Signets
Priorities
Key Signets - Decimation, Deliverance, Setsuna
Sub Signets - Discipline, Reverie
Using Carole is tricky because you're dealing damage in large chunks. So it is an exercise of judgement when inflicting the right amounts of damage (reducing excess time charging punches). Secondary attacks can help whittle down enemy HP to observable levels where you can gauge how much power charge you need. Speed is a luxury.
Core Contributions
Deliverance (I)
- With the Revolution signet, Carole can use her Ultimate more often and benefit from this set.
Setsuna (I) / (II) - (Bonus: Time Mastery)
- For ease of use, Core (II) is best for powering up a strike or Ultimate. Also great for controlling the flow of combat.
- Core (I) is only used for tactical players. This is best applied with either a beefed up Ultimate blow, or players who acquire Brake + Rupture + Ume (Setsuna signet) - a combination of signets that allow a quick-charged Lv4 punch. Exceptionally powerful when delivered with other forms of secondary damage like Blood Boil and Blood Rose's support.
- Carole's healing ability is tied to a follow-up attack after an Ultimate Evasion. It's not much, but it will save her when needed.
Decimation (I)
- Great secondary attack that can accompany her Charged punches. Carole has a lot of defensive power so she will be able to support low-HP combat and also heal herself when things get dicey.
- As described in Setsuna, Carole's healing is an ability of opportunity, and it can mess up the power level of Decimation signets if no means of reduction is carried. You could use the HP-consumption signet, but thenafter, caution has to be exercised.
- If you decide on Core (II), bear in mind that her healing is still too weak to empower the Enhanced signets.
Discipline (II)
- Boosts her Ultimate damage with low reduction since the weapon active is very infrequent for use. Also good for Dmg Reduction and another source of Breach.
Any Questions? Go ahead and write in the comments below too. Thanks for reading!
