Table of Contents
Overview
Pros:
Cons:
Dalvi for PVE
Honestly, the devs are incredibly generous for giving players such a good wind unit, all the way to +5, for free.
Summer Vacation Dalvi is pretty much the wind magic version of Rodev's Star Liatris. Compared to Liatris at +5 full potential, Dalvi deals more damage upfront, but Dalvi's burn damage is lower and slower. Here are the two skills side by side (at +5 full potential):
Summer Vacation Dalvi | Rodev's Star Liatris | |
Base ATK | 352 | 352 |
Initial damage (inc chain dmg) | 345% | 270% |
Burn damage | 105% | 205% |
Burn turns | 6 | 3 |
Still, since the devs are giving out Dalvi to +5 for free, unless you already have a maxed out +5 RS.Liatris, the chances are that Dalvi will give you better performance out of the box.
In PVE battles (e.g. challenge battles, fiend hunts, Tower of Pride etc), Dalvi is great for clearing water mobs thanks to her big 3x3 AOE. The only other wind costume with 3x3 AOE is Vanguard Gray. Vanguard Gray is somewhat situational though, because he only deals burn damage to magic type enemies. What's more, Vanguard Gray is heavily reliant on his potential upgrades, because they increase his initial damage from 5x25% to 5x65% (a very big jump).
Here is a comparison of SV.Dalvi and V.Gray side by side:
Summer Vacation Dalvi | Vanguard Gray | |
Base ATK | 352 | 352 |
Initial damage (inc chain dmg) | 345% | 390% |
Burn damage | 105% (of own M.ATK) | 425% of target's M.ATK |
Burn turns | 6 | 4 |
As you can see, Dalvi more or less matches Vanguard Gray's initial damage, and is more consistent in terms of dealing burn damage to all kinds of enemies (though Gray has better damage potential against high M.ATK enemies).
Although there are other wind costumers who can deal higher attack damage +5 (E.g. DJ Venaka, Bright Moon Dalvi, etc), those costumes usually have a smaller AOE. As you would expect, big AOE skills usually have lower damage, whereas focused AOE skills usually have higher damage.
In summary, SV.Dalvi is one of the best wind costumes for wide AOE damage in PVE battles. For new players, starting with a monstrous +5 SV.Dalvi will allow you to breeze through a lot of story content. Even for veteran players, SV.Dalvi will be a staple for wind teams in fiend hunts and Tower of Pride.
Dalvi for PVP
SV.Dalvi is average for PVP. Like RS.Liatris, SV.Dalvi is unlikely to see much competitive PVP play mainly due to her high SP cost at 4 SP, which crowds out options for the rest of your team.
What's more, SV.Dalvi has poor synergy with Dalvi's other costume, Bright Moon. The main feature of Bright Moon is that you can activate it once, and then get 2 free turns of skill damage without spending any more SP. However, if you run SV.Dalvi, then it becomes difficult to make use of Bright Moon's free skill turns.
Conclusion
Seriously, big kudos to the devs for being so generous. Whereas other games would only hand out freebies that are weak or mostly useless, the Brown Dust 2 devs have given players an amazing anniversary gift with 6 copies of Summer Vacation Dalvi to have her at full power.
Everything's to love about Dalvi, from her art to her excellent AOE and damage. Happy Anniversary!