Table of Contents
Note: This guide has been updated as dev notes have increased costume skill cost from 3 SP to 5 SP. At 3 SP, Ventana is slightly expensive but viable for PVP play. At 5 SP, Ventana is way too expensive.
Pros
- Very high damage even against non-taunters. Against taunters, pure damage can crit.
- ATK buff lasts to your next turn, allowing combo with Snow White Ventana.
- Fast 3 turn cooldown: When paired with Snow White, you have no downtime on costume skills.
- Consistent theme as a tank breaker, and a good counter against popular taunters like Granhildr.
- Great damage for Last Night high scoring.
Cons
- No AOE, single target damage limits her utility.
- Costs 5 SP, very high for a single target attack.
- Needs big investment to be able to reliably kill Granhildr.
- Single target strike is weak against White Cat Rou, and also cannot get past Glacia's revive.
Ventana for PvE
To begin with, it's worth noting that Ventana has the second highest base ATK in the game at 385, second only to Alec who has a ridiculous base ATK of 418. In comparison, Justia has 352 base ATK, Gray has 330 base ATK, and Lathel has 275 base ATK.
Needless to say, especially with such a high base ATK, she does a lot of damage with her costume skill (+100% ATK plus 700% damage multiplier) against single targets.
As a single target attacker, Ventana is perfect for:
- dealing high damage on Last Night,
- deleting strong story mode bosses (especially taunters), and
- hitting fiend boss weak points (especially if paired with Zenith). Note the upcoming fiend boss is weak to light types.
Ventana is especially good for long battles where high sustained damage is required, because her two costumes both have 3 turn cooldown, which means you can cycle through them continually without any downtime.
Ventana for PVP
Ventana is unique in that she is the first unit to deal "pure damage". According to dev notes, pure damage is different to fixed damage (Justia, Alec) because pure damage can crit and passes through Energy Guards.
Ventana costs 5 SP for a single target hit. She is far too expensive for competitive PVP play.
Thanks to her pure damage skill, a well geared CI.Ventana +5 is pretty much guaranteed to kill any taunting unit in PVP, other than Andrew (who may evade) and Glacia (who can revive). The simple math is that CI.Ventana at +5 costume level with a moderately geared 1800 ATK would do 1800 x 2 x 700% = 25,200 damage without crit. Against a taunter, there would be no way for the enemy to guard against or reduce her damage.
Against non-taunters though, Ventana remains vulnerable to 90% DEF builds. For example, 25,200 damage against a 90% DEF unit results in only 2,520 damage. With better gearing, crit and/or H.Lathel buff, Ventana can get to lethal thresholds against low HP units, but not non-taunting tanks like Android Queen Lecliss or a DEF-geared Teresse. Ventana is also vulnerable to White Cat Rou who remains ever popular since launch.
Is Ventana the best counter for Granhildr?
No.
The obvious reason to play Ventana is as a counter to Granhildr, who has a massive energy guard on her pre-emptive taunt. There's no doubt that Ventana is an excellent counter, because her pure damage pretty much results in guaranteed lethal.
However, the biggest drawback to Ventana as a Granhildr counter is her SP cost. At 3 SP, it really is a very high cost for a single target attack. Compare this to POV.Lathel, who can deal comparable damage against non-taunters for only 2 SP (e.g. a 1600 ATK POV.Lathel +5 deals 24,000 damage before crit).
In an attacking team, the reason that you want to get rid of Granhildr on Turn 1 is to clear the way for the rest of your team to deal damage. However, Ventana's 3 SP cost leaves only 2 SP for the rest of your team, which is a pretty small launchpad for an attack. If you don't have CI.Ventana+5, you may even need to first boost with H.Lathel (1 SP) to reach the lethal threshold against Granhildr, which would leave only 1 SP remaining for the rest of your team to attack. E.g: an 1800 ATK Ventana at +3 costume level deals 18,000 damage: not necessarily enough to kill Ventana without crit or H.Lathel buff.
When compared to Magic Bow Eleaneer or Pool Party Schera (who only cost 2 SP each, and are guaranteed to clear Granhildr's taunt), many players may choose to stick with these 2 SP cost options. Using Eleaneer/Schera means having 3 SP left for your team to attack, which is a big difference compared to using Ventana and being left with only 2 (or even 1) SP.
What's more, Snow White Ventana is also very expensive, at 4 SP for a plus shape "+" AOE. Although it hits hard after being boosted by Comeback Idol's buff, working with a 4 SP skill can be cumbersome when you only recover 6 SP per turn (outside of SP recovery from normal attacks and SP charging skills).
Conclusion
This new Comeback Idol costume elevates Ventana from a one-trick pony to a powerful utility unit. As a very high damage dealer, she will certainly be sought after by the big spenders who want to get high scores in PVE modes like Last Night and dark fiend bosses. She also has a special niche of annihilating taunting bosses with high DEF, high damage reduction and/or big energy guards.
Other than being a hard hitting boss killer in PVE modes, don't expect Comeback Idol to elevate Ventana's presence in PVP.
For PVP play, Ventana's biggest drawback is her high SP cost as a single target attacker. Although she is very effective at +5 costume level as a Granhildr counter, she is not necessarily much better than MB.Eleaneer or PP.Schera who come with a lower SP cost and guaranteed taunt removal. Further, unless you buff with H.Lathel, CI.Ventana really needs to be at a high costume level with strong gearing to reliably delete Granhildr on Turn 1.
Given the large investment you need on CI.Ventana to make her an effective Granhildr counter, she is not the best choice for F2P and low spending players. It's also generally not wise to invest big just for the main purpose of countering the "flavor of the month" meta unit.
Comeback Idol Ventana is a worthwhile spend for those already invested in Snow White Ventana, otherwise it's a costly investment for a relatively niche unit.
