Table of Contents
Overview
Known as the Lord of Flames, Percival is a powerful fire knight armed with sword and magic that is able to empower his own team, or debuff his foes and wreak havoc with his wide AOE attacks. He comes with a unique debuff Petrified that slows enemies and lowers their defense. Due to the fact that it is a unique debuff, this stacks with other defense down debuffs, making it incredibly powerful for dealing more damage to foes.
Gameplay
Percival is extremely beginner friendly in that his kit is not complicated in the slightest, in fact, he only has one combo, which is 4 basic attacks. After landing 4 basic attacks, his charge move is considerably faster, but landing the combo finisher is not the only way to increase his charge time, as several skills, and link attacks also achieve the same effect. Him being able to move while holding his charge makes him very versatile, as foes tend to move around a lot! Below is a simple demonstration of his gameplay loop with only one of his active skills that increases charge time.
However, if you equip his unique ascension sigil, which you should, then you want to aim to parry attacks with his charged attack as it gives him an attack buff and a nice heal for more self-sustain. This will obviously take a lot of practice and memorization of attack patterns.
Outside of fighting stationary targets, you should treat Percival like Hammer in Monster Hunter, in the fact that you can move while charging, instead of worrying about pulling off a combo finisher, keep triangle held and wait for the opportune time to release it in order to strike.
Skills
Feuerangriff
- Unleashes a series of slashes. Schlacht charges faster when charged right after the attack.
- A powerful multi hit attack that's great for attacking foes who are stationary, but not so much when they are on the move as it takes quite a bit of time to pull off.
Royal Authority
- Expels fire from the ground around Percival. Schlacht charges faster when charged right after the attack.
- An excellent AOE attack to damage a large group of enemies at the same time. While this is great for mobs, it's not the best for bosses if they are not currently stunned, as they will often get out of the way of the attack radius.
Zerreissen
- A lunging thrust attack that inflicts Burn. Schlacht charges faster when charged right after the attack.
- While the Burn DoT is nice, there is a much better lunge attack option with Macht, and there are other offensive skills that will net you more DPS overall than burn would.
Macht
- A lunging slash that deals a high amount of stun. Grants Stout Heart to Percival while lunging. Schlacht charges faster when charged right after.
- One of Percival's best offensive move as not only is it a great gap closer, but also deals considerable stun damage and gives Percival a buff to ignore hit stun.
Flammenmarsch
- Grants ATK⬆️(20%) and DEF⬆️(20%) the entire party.
- This is a fantastic buff, mainly due to the DEF increase this provides, but also the ATK increase is useful for those who have not reached their damage caps. This combines well with X-Seele
X-Seele
- Inflicts Petrified on foes within a conical zone in front of Percival.
- This is a unique debuff, meaning that this can stack with other defense down buffs, making your foes super weak and easy for your team to deal maximum damage.
Träumerei
- Grants Strength and Supplementary DMG to Percival.
- An incredible selfish buff for Percival as Strength boosts his own attack based on how high is HP is up to 70%. To add, Supplementary Damage ensures that even if he is at damage cap, he will be able to deal damage above that, making him one of the best damage characters.
Roter Wirbel
- Spawns fire coils in front of Percival that deal constant damage. Schlacht charges faster when charged right after the attack.
- This is a great way to increase Percival's DPS when attacking when a boss is stunned or during link time, but apart from that, it is not consistent as bosses will easily and quickly move out of range of the attack.
Skill Recommendations
This first skill build option is if you want to provide the most support to your team, while also being able to dish out really high damage yourself. You forgo one offensive option, but is easily made up by the team utility.
This second build is for if you want to be able to dish out a little extra damage yourself and sacrifice the ATK / DEF buff for the team. Both of these builds include X-Seele and Träumerei as they are incredibly important and powerful buffs, with X-Seele having a stackable defense down with other defense down buffs!
Best Weapon(s)
For all damage dealing characters, which in reality is everyone at a certain point, the best choice for weapon until you unlock their Ascension and Terminus weapon, are weapons that boost critical hit rate. For Percival, that weapon is Joyeuse, which increases critical hit rate, and at max level, gives a total 50% boost to critical hit damage.
Best Sigils
For Percival, you want both of his character unique sigil Lords Procession and or Lord's Ambition. Outside of those, you will want Quick Charge, Charged Attack, War Elemental, Damage Cap, Lucky Charge or Critical Rate, and survivability sigils such as Autorevive, Aegis, Guts, and Potion Hoarder.
Quick Charge V
- Charged attacks charge faster. Boosts attack power.
- Max Sigil Effect: T.Lvl 15, Charge time -21%
- ATK +14%
Charged Attack V
- Boosts the power of charged attacks.
- Max Sigil Effect: T.Lvl 15, DMG dealth +35%
Lucky Charge V
- Boosts the critical hit of charged attacks.
- Max Sigil Effect: T.Lvl 15, Critical hit rate +54%
Damage Cap V
- Raises the damage limit of attacks.
- Max Sigil Effect: T.Lvl 15, ▢/△ attack DMG cap +45%
- Skill DMG cap +45%
- SBA DMG cap +45%
Potion Hoarder V
- Increases the stock of recovery items.
- Max Sigil Effect: T.Lvl 15, Green potion +3, blue potion +5, mega potion +5, revival potion +2
Guts V
- Survive a lethal hit with 1 HP. Reactivation time is shortened based on trait level.
- Max Sigil Effect: T.Lvl 15, Ready for activation after 170 seconds.
Over Mastery
Upon reaching Level 80, 90, and 100, you will unlock the ability to spend extra MSP on Over Mastery stats. For Percival, since he is mainly a damage dealer first, you want to prioritize Damage Cap on normal attacks, chain attacks, skill attacks, and SBA attacks for his Over Mastery
Conclusion
Percival is a powerhouse of a unit. With his unique Petrification debuff that applies a unique slow and defense down to foes, to his team utility of buffing defense and attack, to his self buffs to increase his powerful charge attack and skill damage by a lot, he is a very versatile character that once you get his playstyle down, you will constantly see "MVP" show up on the result screen.