Character Guide — Lathel

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Strengths and Weaknesses

Costumes

Lathel currently has a whopping 6 costumes. Medicinal Herb Gatherer, Lonely Survivor, Promise of Vengeance, and Pool Party are all DPS costumes that also grant him short self-buffs. Dark Knight is a tank skill, while Homunculus is an ATK buffing support skill.

Medicinal Herb Gatherer

+1	+2	+3	+4	+5
Physical DMG	Physical DMG	SP Cost	Physical DMG	Physical DMG
150% ▸ 200%	200% ▸ 245%	3 ▸ 2	245% ▸ 285%	285% ▸ 320%

This costume is freely obtained from Story Pack 1 — Knight of Blood. You can also get a copy of this costume from Infinite.

This costume isn't very impressive due to the awkward pattern (even after upgrading the range). However, it is his second-best damaging costume in Last Night. It is worth using in that mode once you get a dupe or two.

Key Upgrades: DMG Upgrades add up.

Lonely Survivor

+1	+2	+3	+4	+5
Physical DMG	Physical DMG	SP Cost	Physical DMG	Physical DMG
65% ▸ 90%	90% ▸ 115%	4 ▸ 3	115% ▸ 135%	135% ▸ 155%

Decent damage on a decent pattern, which serves Lathel well as a second or third PvP costume. However, there are plenty of other good fire DPS units to use for PvE content, so this costume also pales compared to other units.

Key Upgrades: DMG Upgrades add up.

Dark Knight

+1	+2	+3	+4	+5
Energy Guard	Energy Guard	SP Cost	Energy Guard	Duration
125% ▸ 175%	175% ▸ 225%	3 ▸ 2	225% ▸ 275%	4 ▸ 6

This costume allows Lathel to also take on a tank role, creating an energy guard and decreasing physical damage taken. This allows Lathel to survive content that other supports would typically fall to. It's a niche scenario, but when it does matter, this costume is the difference between Lathel surviving or not.

Key Upgrades: Energy Guard upgrades add up.

Promise of Vengeance

+1	+2	+3	+4	+5
Physical DMG	Physical DMG	SP Cost	Physical DMG	Physical DMG
450% ▸ 600%	600% ▸ 750%	3 ▸ 2	750% ▸ 875%	875% ▸ 1000%

This costume is freely obtained three times, once per completion of Pack 7 — Fury Angel (Normal, Hard, and Very Hard).

Currently the highest damaging skill in the game (in terms of single-target damage for the purpose of Last Night)—and his +2 is completely free! This costume is also pretty decent as a second or third costume in PvP.

Outside of these two modes, however, this costume isn't very useful due to it being single target.

Key Upgrades: Upgrades add up.

Pool Party

+1	+2	+3	+4	+5
Physical DMG	Physical DMG	SP Cost	Physical DMG	Physical DMG
75% ▸ 93%	93% ▸ 111%	4 ▸ 3	111% ▸ 128%	128% ▸ 145%

This costume does not mesh well with Lathel's other costumes in PvP, because you want to build 100 crit rate on him for his other costumes. This means that the crit rate buff on this costume is completely wasted. On top of that, this is his only DPS costume that does not have an ATK buff (replaced with the crit buff), making the damage on this costume much lower than his other ones.

This is definitely not a good costume.

Homunculus

+1	+2	+3	+4	+5
ATK Buff 2	ATK Buff 1	SP Cost	ATK Buff 1 Duration	ATK Buff 2
25% ▸ 50%	60% ▸ 70%	2 ▸ 1	70% ▸ 80%	4 ▸ 6

Homunculus Lathel is the premiere ATK buffer, being capable of buffing up to 160% ATK. Of course, this comes with a couple caveats, namely:

• Lathel comes with no crit buffs. This means that you may have trouble crit fishing if you're using him. This is definitely not an issue in Fiend Hunt where you have guaranteed crits however, and it's not an issue in PvP since you can build 100 crit rate on your crit DPS, and your fixed DPS don't care about crit rate.
• Lathel's buff is fading. He applies two ATK buffs, one with a 2 turn duration and one with a 4/6 turn duration. This means that you get the full value of his ATK buff for 2 turns, but only get partial value for the next 2/4 turns. If you don't have +5, this even means that his buff has downtime.

In Fiend Hunt, neither caveat are that detrimental to Lathel, since you can guarantee crits in that mode, and you typically want to set up for a single nuke turn. In PvP, these aren't big issues either, since fixed DPS don't need crit rate, and you can build 100% crit rate on your crit DPS units, and the fact that the first turn is the most important in PvP means that you typically get full value out of his buff. In other modes, however, you may notice the impact of these caveats.

Caveats aside, this costume goes down to 1 SP at +3, making it an insanely potent ability in the attack opener.

Key Upgrades: +3, Buff upgrades add up (+1 is especially important), +5 is nice QoL but not necessary.

Building Lathel

Lathel can either be built for damage (typically for Last Night), or for bulk in PvP.

Bond Potential

♦ Several bond nodes are locked behind a skill potential.

Optimal Build [PvE]

Bond Potentials — Promise of Vengeance Lathel
Optimal Substat Spread — 7 ATK% substats + 8 CDMG substats

Build DEF or MRES based on the enemies you're facing.

Bruiser Build [PvP]

Bond Potentials — Dark Knight Lathel
Optimal Substat Spread — 8 CR substats + 7 CDMG substats

This build gives Lathel some extra bulk to tank physical damage, while also giving him guaranteed crits for when he uses Promise of Vengeance on a succeeding turn.