Makara/Strategy

(This page is for Makara's strategy guide. For the standard Makara page, click here.)

Overview

Makara's a lifeguard as his title says, a pretty solid support unit with a Regeneration+400~800HP/turn for 4 turns (Buff) skill, a decent party Remove DebuffRemove one debuff (Buff) and a movement ability for 3x6 maps: Swimmer. These three are his key abilities.

Swimmer is a movement ability that is specially useful in 3x6 maps where vertical movement is crucial because it increases Makara's vertical movement limit. It's nice for repositioning when facing enemies who blow back your units.

Creator of Life is a healing skill of type Regeneration+400~800HP/turn for 4 turns (Buff). This skill has a pretty good chance rate (70%), it's a better version of Blessing+300~600HP/turn for 4 turns (Buff) (Because it heals 800 at max level instead of 600), it stacks with Blessing+300~600HP/turn for 4 turns (Buff) and lasts 4 turns which mean you don't have to move Makara that much unless you really need him to.

His skill Lifesaver allows him to cleanse all adjacent allied units with a 40% chance rate, the rate is pretty low but is a decent alternative to Shiro and Taurus Masks' Seal Opener and Jambavan's Destroyer of Evil which is only single target. Overall, Seal Opener has a better chance and its activate condition is After Attacking, while Lifesaver's is After Moving. Destroyer of Evil is single target but it's a 100% chance Remove DebuffRemove one debuff (Buff). Makara's one is probably the worst among these two, but there are some times you may prefer using Lifesaver over the others. For example: If you need of a Remove DebuffRemove one debuff (Buff), a Swimmer unit and heals, Makara does all these three things while others like Shiro and Taurus Mask doesn't; if you need to Remove DebuffRemove one debuff (Buff) and heal more than just one unit then Makara is your choice. Also, if you're facing enemies like Ashigara (Seaside) who applies BreakCannot move at will, DEF Down by 1.2x ~2.4x for 2 turns (Debuff) and also blows back your units, then you can reposition everyone with Swimmer and have a chance of cleansing the status aswell.

Storm Dancer works as a self defence skill which is not that reliable but can be useful if you get to trigger it before a WOOD unit one-shots Makara.

Highlights

Role: Support. Vertical Positioner.

Pros

+ Great positioning with Swimmer on 3x6 maps and against pushers.

+ Lifesaver is an AoE Remove DebuffRemove one debuff (Buff) good enough for most AoE debuffers.

+ Regeneration+400~800HP/turn for 4 turns (Buff) is a better version of Blessing+300~600HP/turn for 4 turns (Buff) and the best of it is that they stack too! (1400 HP per turn in total with both maxed)

+ Since Creator of Life lasts for 4 turns, you don't need to be moving Makara all that much unless it is necessary which gives room for more After Movement skills.

+ Can protect himself too with Storm Dancer which grants him evasion on sticky situation.

+ Charge skill gives Protection and it stacks with other sources of defense.

+ The only difference between ☆3 Makara and ☆4 Makara are the stats and the fact that he changes from Strike to Pierce. Makara is better, but the ☆3 version already does the job, which means he's a pretty cheap unit compared to others that require their expensive counterpart to be useful. This opens the possiblity for more ☆5 oriented teams.

Cons

- Low damage and range. Completely reliant of your other units. He's just to do his job as a support, nothing else.

- Lifesaver has a low chance rate compared to other skills. You may consider using an Insight unit to deal with this.

- Storm Dancer is not that good of a skill because it requires to get hit first and it only last for 1 turn. If he gets hit by a strong WOOD unit he is pretty much done unless you mitigate the damage in some way.

- Swimmer is basically useless in 3x4 maps.

- He can't apply Creator of Life or Lifesaver himself. Probably his biggest weakness.

- He's a situational unit since he's not that good compared to other units.

- Protection is pretty bad if not maxed (only 0.9x for 1 turn as base effect), so he does not sinergyze really well with CP Battery units.

Checks and Counters

Sealing Debuffs

His biggest threats are these type of debuffers because he can't Remove DebuffRemove one debuff (Buff) himself. Abilities with debuffs like BindCannot activate skills, ATK Down by 0.9x ~ 0.45x for 4 turns. CS effects still apply. (Debuff) and [[|No name provided .]]No description provided. (Unknown) disable his ability to activate skills and FearCannot move at will, -10CP/turn for 5 turns (Debuff), ParalysisATK Down by 0.9x ~ 0.45x, cannot move at will for 5 turns (Debuff), OppressionCannot move at will for 2 turns (Debuff) and BreakCannot move at will, DEF Down by 1.2x ~2.4x for 2 turns (Debuff) prevents him from moving which is an action required to activate most of his skills. You need to be extra careful to not let your Makara get hit by those units or he'll be basically useless for the duration of the debuff and will let your other units be vulnerable to those aswell.

WOOD and Seafarer units

As a WATER unit, he's going to receive a lot of damage from WOOD units due to the elemental adavantage, Strike and Range are the ones to be taken care of the most for him. Storm Dancer can be a lifesaver but it is a pretty unreliable ability because it first requires Makara to get hit which already exposes him to some damage and then the EvasionDEF Up by 0.01x ~ 0.005x for 1 turn (Buff) gained will only last for that turn. If you aren't lucky enough, WOOD units will kill the poor lifeguard. To a certain degree, units with Seafarer like Eita, Ganglie, Benten and Ahab can be troublesome too as you will get extra damage for having Swimmer but the damage multiplier isn't as dangerous as WOOD's elemental advantage.

Evasion Pierce Units

Abilities like Cleaver of Wind and Deadeye pierce EvasionDEF Up by 0.01x ~ 0.005x for 1 turn (Buff). Units like Eita, Kyuma and Temujin are able to pierce Makara's Storm Dancer evasion through these abilities. Be careful against Eita since he already has Seafarer which counters Swimmer and extra careful with Temujin since he already is a WOOD unit and has the elemental advantage. Kyuma is a FIRE unit so you don't need to worry that much about him unless he gets buffed a lot by his allies.

Direct Makara Counters

Makara's biggest threats are Temujin (WOOD damage, Range weapon and pierces evasion with Deadeye), Hogen (WOOD damage and BindCannot activate skills, ATK Down by 0.9x ~ 0.45x for 4 turns. CS effects still apply. (Debuff) with Follower of Yin and Yang), any (WOOD striker in range because of their high single target damage, Eita (pierces evasion with Cleaver of Wind and deals extra damage with Seafarer) and Benten (extra damage with Seafarer and has a powerful BindCannot activate skills, ATK Down by 0.9x ~ 0.45x for 4 turns. CS effects still apply. (Debuff) with Restrainer).

Teambuilding Options

This section consists of user-submitted builds that may not necessarily be viable for high level quests.

Blessing + Regeneration + Ibaraki's Charge Skill and Guts (56~ cost)

Team Details
Makara 【マカラ】	Harlot 【ハーロット】	Ibaraki 【イバラキ】	Gouryou 【ゴウリョウ】	Kotarou 【コタロウ】	Protagonist 【主人公】

With this team we take advantage of the low cost of Makara to add a ☆5 unit: Babalon. You could use her ☆3 version, but the ☆5 is better overall because of Tailed Demon.

Babalon is a well rounded unit. She does not excel in anything but she has a little bit of everything. She deals decent damage with Snickering Girl and Law Breaker; she has a Blessing+300~600HP/turn for 4 turns (Buff) which stacks with Makara's Regeneration+400~800HP/turn for 4 turns (Buff); she has a CurseATK Down by 0.8x ~ 0.4x for 5 turns (Debuff) that helps us mitigate enemies damage and her charge skill applies ParalysisATK Down by 0.9x ~ 0.45x, cannot move at will for 5 turns (Debuff) and deals AoE damage that works with Snickering Girl. Overall Babalon sinergyzes really good with Makara and with units that have moving abilities in general because she doesn't need to be moved at all to activate her skills. Thanks to all of her skills being move independent you can freely decide whether to move Ibaraki or Makara.

Ibaraki will be our main damage dealer along with Kotaro as a backup in case she dies. She needs to be moved most of the time to activate Striker and you need to max her skill level for that 100% chance Herculean Strength on Phase Start. Kotaro will be our alternative in case she dies, he's pretty solid aswell. You can use him instead of Ibaraki but the downside is that EvasionDEF Up by 0.01x ~ 0.005x for 1 turn (Buff) is less reliable than Guts+1HP when HP is at 0 at the end of the turn for 5 turns. Removed once activated. (Buff). If you decide to use Kotaro instead, change Ganglie for a more movement dependant unit with buffs like Arsalan or Snow.

Makara will heal, cleanse and reposition whenever necessary. He's key for keeping his team in place at 3x6 maps. Try to end the phase with Ganglie close to most of your units for his DEF UpDEF Up by 0.9x ~ 0.45x for 4 turns (Buff). Cleanse Babalon and Ibaraki as soon as possible if they get a dangerous debuff. Try to abuse the DEF UpDEF Up by 0.9x ~ 0.45x for 4 turns (Buff), Regeneration+400~800HP/turn for 4 turns (Buff) and Blessing+300~600HP/turn for 4 turns (Buff) combo for survivability, and time it with Ibaraki's Guts+1HP when HP is at 0 at the end of the turn for 5 turns. Removed once activated. (Buff) with Mountain Dweller and charge skill's recovery as last resource. This combo will allow her to try to apply [[|No name provided .]]No description provided. (Unknown) most of the turns because all the other status mentioned before lasts for 4 turns. If Makara dies, we'll have Protagonist as a last resource Remove DebuffRemove one debuff (Buff).

Note: You need to max their skill level as soon as possible for this build to work (Or at least close to level 90).

Alternative Cheaper Version (40~ cost)

Team Details
Makara 【マカラ】	Ibaraki 【イバラキ】	Gouryou 【ゴウリョウ】	Harlot 【ハーロット】	Kotarou 【コタロウ】	Protagonist 【主人公】

This time around we'll have Babalon as a friend's support unit. This composition is much more cost friendly. You can put Makara or Ganglie as ☆4, but their ☆3 counterpart is enough. It depends whether you need one of them to have better stats or if you need Makara's pierce weapon for FIRE enemies. This team composition is easier to set up aswell for the fact that you don't need to get a Babalon ☆5 (which is quite rare to get). You can just go and add someone with her as their lead. It is recommended to use the housamo.club friend list or browsing directly in-game for this.

As an alternative, if you can't get Ibaraki, you can use Kotaro as your main damager as mentioned before and swap Ganglie with another buffer with movement skills. You can also change the Protagonist with whatever you feel like putting there.

Arslan's Invincible Formation (48~ cost)

Team Details
Makara 【マカラ】	Arslan 【アルスラーン】	Kotarou 【コタロウ】	Harlot 【ハーロット】	Jambavan 【ジャンバヴァン】	Protagonist 【主人公】

This one is pretty solid aswell. You use Arsalan instead of Ganglie and Kotaro instead of Ibaraki. The point here is to move Arsalan most of the time. We use Kotaro because his skills are movement independent. You also get more healing for your party with this team composition because Holy Oil applies a lesser heal for 2 turns aswell (300 HP per turn in max level). You have to time your Makara's Creator of Life after applying Holy Oil and then continue applying the latter until Regeneration+400~800HP/turn for 4 turns (Buff) runs out, and continue. Remember to position your Babalon so she can attack at least 1 enemy to try activate Lover and always buff Kotaro with Arsalan's Kingly and Holy Oil. You can get to heal 1700 HP pero turn with this team composition if you successfully activate Creator of Life, Lover and Holy Oil.

Jambavan will be our last resource if Makara dies. Your survibability will be pretty high with this team but if a unit dies fast is because you're facing a strong debuffer with a skill sealing ability that is annoying your team, or because of bad phase start positioning. With Jambavan we solve this by using the 100% Remove DebuffRemove one debuff (Buff) on Arsalan and problem solved. The last spot is optional and you can decide whether you want to use a friend's Babalon or an Arsalan.

You can also consider changing Babalon with her ☆3 counterpart because we already have Holy Oil and lots of healing to mitigate damage, or you could also just change her with a different unit if you feel like the healing is innecessary.