W’ludai (5★ Merchant)

Table of Contents
The merchant class has long been missing a strong spear DPS. 
 
We started with Gilderoy and Tressa, who do a fine job as tanks.
 
Cardona and later Dorothea, who play a more supportive role for the team.
 
But now we have W’ludai, and oh meow god is her kit interesting.
 

Tier List Overview of W’ludai #

In my tier list of all units by roles, W’ludai scores S in 3 categories: as a spear damage dealer, for her tankiness, and as a breaker. 

Her best damaging skill also heals herself. Combine that with a Regen skill from an ally and she becomes unkillable. 

She is the first unit with 4-hit Spear to single target, and the first unit that can hit 5 – 8 times (6 – 9 times) in one turn. 

She can prioritize herself to go first, or use an AoE Spear attack for free at the beginning of each turn. 

Stats #

W’ludai has the highest base PATK and SPD amongst Merchants.
 
Amongst all units, W’ludai ranks 6th in PATK and 2nd in HP when equipped with Origin IV weapons. 
 
Having a high base PATK stat is strong because of how the damage formula works:
  • Enemies with higher PDEF will take relatively more damage from units with higher base PATK
  • Units with lower base PATK will do considerably less damage against enemies with higher PDEF

Unit Kit #

Passives

  1. Full HP: Raise Spear damage of Self by 30%.
    • This caps passive spear damage buff
    • Easy to keep up with a combination of Regen accessories, Regen buffs, or her 1-hit Spear nuke that self heals
  2. When near death: Grant Self HP Regen (potency: 90).
    • Near death is achieved when the unit’s HP bar turns red, around 25% HP
    • This regen is somewhat weak but it will stack additively with any existing Regen accessories

Best Skills

  • 5* skill: 4-hit Spear to single enemy.
    • Her best skill for breaking and does the 2nd most amount of damage.
  • 5* skill: 1-hit Spear to all enemies at the beginning of each turn, for 2-5 turns based on Boost Lv, moderate chance to inflict Blindness.
    • This is her most interesting skill. In a normally optimized Break, 1 unit breaks the enemy while the other 3 units deal full break damage. With this skill, all 4 units can deal full break damage.
  • 2* skill: 1-hit Spear to single enemy and recover HP.
    • Her strongest damaging skill that also heals herself by quite a bit
  • 1* skill: 1-hit Spear to single enemy and act first the next turn.
    • Very versatile skill for Breaking, allowing you to shave 4 (or 5) shields off the enemy immediately on the next turn. With her Ultimate, that’s 5 – 8 (or 6 – 9) shields shaved potentially.

She has various skills that inflict Blindness.

How useful is Blindness? #

Blindness: A chance for an enemy’s physical attack to miss. Their elemental attacks will still hit.

If we look at the toughest enemies (LV 100 NPC) in the game, we see that some of them can be blinded.

The fact that W’ludai can inflict Blindness without going out of her way (1-hit AoE at start of turn) is nice, but you’re better off using the recruitable ally Hardworking Miner from Sulfraltaljah that has a “very high chance to inflict Blindness”.

Unfortunately, ALL Arena cup champions are immune to blind.

Ultimate Skill

  • 5-8 hit Spear to random targets
    • This is the only skill in the game that can hit 5 – 8 times
    • Synergize with her 1-hit Spear AoE at the beginning of each turn to do 6 – 9 hits!
    • You can leave her ultimate at Lv 9 while you prioritize A1/A2/A3/A4.
Awakening 4 Accessory
  • 80 PATK, 60 SP
  • Inflict 15% Spear Res Down to all foes for 3 turns
  • Grant automatic HP recovery (amount: 500)
This A4 accessory gives W’ludai HP regen to help with unlock her damage passive, and some much needed SP.
 
80 PATK is chunky and is equivalent to a ~11% DMG increase for her.
 
Finally, her accessory is the only source of passive Spear Res Down for now.
 

Skill Damage Rankings #

I assume all units A4, Lv 100, with Origin IV weapons.

Unit passives are generally active unless otherwise specified.

Click here to view the full skill firepower table and an explanation of how it’s made.

Top 20 damaging skills
W’ludai skills can do some of the most in the game, with the condition that she must spend 1 turn to use her priority 1-hit AoE Spear buff.

Without her 1-hit AoE spear buff, her damage per turn falls off considerably.

You’ll definitely want to check the full Firepower table to see where her skills rank without the 1-hit AoE buff.

Top 20 Spear skills
She currently dominate the Spear firepower table, although mainly because I duplicated her Spear skills to include her AoE buff.
 
Top 20 Dark skills
Fairly mediocre Dark damage. Fortunately she has 3-hit dark skill for breaking.
 

Team Synergy #

  • It has to be noted that Dorothea with her 15% Polearm damage passive to Front Row does absolutely nothing to W’ludai if she’s at full HP. W’ludai’s passive spear damage is already capped at 30%.
  • 4* Pia can reduce all enemies Spear Res by 15%
  • Any unit that can reduce PDEF (Viola 25%/Falco and Fiore at 20%/Glossom 15% AoE)
  • Your usual PATK buffers: Lynette, Primrose, Glossom
  • God tier support Alfyn for regen and BP restore; other regen units work too (Ophilia/Molrusso/Soleil/Theo/Agnes)
  • Find other companions via the Buff/Debuff finder tool
  • Another useful resource is the recruitable allies table for multi-hit shield shaving

End Game Content Usage #

  • Tikilen Cup (Two adds weak to Spear)
  • Glossom Cup (Spear and Dark weakness)
  • Varkyn Cup (Two adds weak to Spear)
  • Yan Long Cup (Weak to Spear)
  • Lv 100 NPC: Doddering Mercenary (Dark), Bladed Wings Master (Spear, Dark), 
  • Two cups after Yan Long (Spoiler, spear weakness)
  • Merchant Job Tower (spoiler)

Should You Pull? #

This is a tough question.

So many people are saving for Cecily because they assume she’ll appear soon. 

Cecily, while proficient in 3 types of damage, deals less Spear damage than W’ludai. 

In fact, I treat Cecily as a glorified Tome damage dealer, because that’s what she does best in.

If you wanted to pull either Cecily or W’ludai, I would aim for W’ludai.

You can optionally save for stronger spear DPS Krauser or Leon down the road. Who knows when they’ll arrive.

Only 2.4k free gems to pity her at 4.5*. You have a ~70% to pull at least one copy of her before reaching pity.