Gandharva/Strategy
Overview
Gandharva, being a gambler, is a very luck based unit. His signature skill Gambler has a minimum Proc rate of a mere 8%, making it the lowest proc in the game for a skill which only activates one buff/debuff. As a result Gandharva is a very gimmicky unit and suffers from being able to be countered by units which can easily shut him down with status effects such as Bind or Fear. Gandharva also suffers from low base stats even in comparison to other Magic units like Gabriel, Ryouta and Ashigara, unfortunately leaving him as a commonly benched and overlooked unit.
Overall, Gandharva is for players who wish to push themselves on the line, shooting out weak damage in hopes of landing the big sweeps. Gandharva is by no means a non-viable unit, but players must exercise caution when using him.
Highlights
Role: Backline Attacker
Pros
+ Able to dish out huge damage especially for Magic units.
+ Winged One helps him activate After Moving skills while maintaining good mobility and formation
Cons
- Often too RNG-based to be useful
- Parser Apsara mostly hinders teammates rather than help them
- Low base stats in comparison to similar units
Checks and Counters
Unfortunately for Gandharva, he is almost entirely trumped by Hougen. Not only does Hougen have the elemental advantage, but he is also able to catch up easily to Gandharva on the map due to both characters sharing Winged One, as well as Hougen's charge skill Kurama Hachiryu having a larger-than-normal Slash spread which can potentially catch Gandharva out if both characters are on adjacent lines. Even if it doesn't kill, it will apply Evasion to nearby allies of Hougen, making the situation trickier for the poor bird.
Additionally, Hougen is able to crit more consistently than Gandharva and can Bind him, shutting him out of his heavy damage completely, and even if Gandharva manages to land his Crit++, Hougen is more than likely to have activated Guts, giving him another chance to pump out extreme elemental damage.
Teambuilding Suggestions
This section consists of user-submitted builds that may not necessarily be viable for high level quests.
Dishonest Gambler Build
| Team Details | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Note that despite Gabriel and Duo being picked, both are somewhat flexible picks. The idea of the composition is to build a team that allows Gandharva to freely proc his Gambler skill. Although there are many units in the game with Insight, Gabriel and Duo were specifically picked due to their secondary effects. Gabriel, despite having a secondary effect, has the highest default Proc for her Insight skill of any unit although only by 1% ahead of Taurus Mask and Shinya who are both good alternatives for this build. Although Insight doesn't stack (due to being the exact same buff), the programmed random occurrence should activate separately for both units, giving the player an extra roll for the high damage to activate. Even with this build, 26% is about as high as Gambler can currently get to in terms of proc, but this build is still good to optimize your chances as much as possible.
Benten will be able to activate Purge (max 40% chance) with Flow Changer, which should hopefully remove any defense buffs that the enemy could have to get in the way of optimizing Gambler's standard damage output. Units with damage buffs such as Nobuharu could also help Gandharva put out more damage.