I think she looks better in her skin but I also think she might not be happy to be reminded of her service in Bolivar due the contradictions between her service, and her hopes and dreams for the nation. Which is to say I bought the skin but I don't have her use it.
whaaaaat??? an actually well-made video discussing player progression and how three-stars are important disguised as a dobermann analysis video???? jokes aside, this is a great video! i love it when people take the time to look at low-rarity operators instead of hyperfixating on meta six-stars, it makes me feel guilty that i had the mindset of "the higher the rarity, the better" back then, and subsconsciously still do to this day haha, it's also great that you look into the pov of a new player, as many people seem to forget about them when deciding an operator's usefulness (e.g melantha is useful early-game because there's a lot of situations in earlier stages where 1 on 1 dueling is beneficial, unfortunately a lot of bosses nowadays aren't reccomended to be dueled, which makes operators like melantha seem useless), and yes, new players should definitely build their three-stars first! this video made me fall in love with dobermann (platonically!), she'll definitely be my next e2! :D i'd love to ramble more, but then this comment will probably turn into a whole essay lol, so i'll stop here for now, again, great video! keep up the good work! 😊
Also note that Dobermann's module also has another talent: she can be deployed on ranged tiles. This talent is the same as pusher/puller traits, and shares this talent with Pallas, a 6 star instructor guard. If you need consistent ranged and grounded dps support, Dobermann fills that role too.
During my newbie days, I E2'd Amiya as soon as possible because I need a carry unit to clear stages especially the resource stages. Also because as a newbie, I don't have yet the patience to farm resources and just want to progress in the game. If HG made Dobermann the second free unit after Amiya, the account progress would be smoother because Dobermann would need less resource to upgrade with more to spare for the other 2 stars and 3 stars.
Most gacha players: 'I want out of the tutorial to roll gacha and spend money!' *forgets about everything else after getting 6 stars because rarity is obviously better* It always hurt my brain when watching a new streamer getting excited over a branch talent because they have no idea that every character in the branch has the same talent. Like 'Whoa, I see why people say Ch'en alter is OP, she attacks everybody in range!'
I agree. Or at least 5*, I personally prefer to see more 4* to 5* alter cause I'm a bit bored of broken 6* alters lol. I just need her to be more universally functional with more developed character growth. She has so much potential character-wise.
@@fieldrequired283 I could see her as a 5 star Bard whos got a wide range and focus on buffing four and (other) five star units, like a non-Limited Corrupting Heart; It'd go nicely with the 5 star alters of Kroos and Fang and give her a bit more interesting use cases. Especially if she gets a talent withmodule and/or one of the elite promotions allowing for deployment on *melee* tiles, like her Instructor guard vers getting the ability to be placed on Ranged tiles
i started leveling them up during IS1 once I realized it really sucked on the poison mist stage when my only medics were Shining and Nightingale (so I always had to save tons of hope and only recruit Reserve Operators in other classes in preparation for a medic recruitment ticket) and Nearl the Defender.
“When putting your operators into squads, it’s essential to assign them positions where they can exercise their skills to the fullest. It’s true that Operators’ ability is important, but what’s really being tested here is your judgement, Doctor” I rewatch this vid several times just so that I can hear this quote again lol, never knew she had such amazing line
I fkin love these new videos. Getting into a specific class, subclass, or a single operator, then explaining not only what they're supposed to do but everything else around them, in game or otherwise. I wish I had these videos starting out because they not only give a better start but a higher appreciation to the little niche things a player can even notice, even years later into the game.
Makes me appreciate her a bit more now that I'm getting back into it, didn't ever really think about how she was a gacha operator the first time I got in because I got her on my first pull.
While I understand the message behind the video, it is really funny listening to the dialogue in contrast to the IS3 footage leaking on a bunch of stages
to be honest i did learn something from your video, something that i completly tossed away at the start of the game. Learning i never tried understanding the skills of my operators, maybe i'll just try to read a bit about the skill of each of my ope and their abilities.
@3Tekilla3 very worth doing! after a while, it can get boring using the same "meta" ops again and again. plus, having more options for low-hope operators in Integrated Strategies is always good.
what a great video. really nice work man! PS: after hearing how much Dobermanm care for everyone, the theory that she killed Beagle and went rouge hurts a little extra more. 😥
Tbh i had a "random operator GO!" mindset when i started Arknights so i used three star operators with equally leveled up 4 and 5 stars (if melantha is at E0 LVL 20, then nearl would also be at E0 LVL 20). It wasn't until i stopped playing arknights two times and a Genshin later in which i started to understand class gimicks but i wouldn't fully understand until Texas Alter. Also my favorite 3 star is midnight, he introduced me to the Lord class which is my favorite class
This was such an interesting analysis on the early-game progression and design of AK! It really made me more appreciative of how intentional the design really is, in ways that feel intuitive in retrospect but are hard to see when you're just starting out. I think, as you said, Doberman being a welfare operator would help a lot in helping to emphasize her importance to early-game players as a sort of tutorial operator in and of herself. I also really enjoyed the breakdown of how more niche / complex classes don't have lowstar variants, and makes me better understand why some subclasses get 4★s retroactively (think Totter, Hummus & Pinecone), while classes like agents and trapmasters are probably less likely to receive these since they're more mechanically complex (I also think a 4★ agent might be beyond busted) This is a great thesis on how to encourage / approach the game for newer players; I personally got into AK while neglecting all my lowstars, and was heavily encouraged by everyone else to "just E2 Myrtle first", which in retrospect lead me for a long time into playing the game in a very generic drop Myrtle > print DP > deploy high-rarity operators playstyle. (Not that I think it was malicious advice, mind, but I do think it subconsciously encouraged a way of playing that essentially gave the impression that the entire class of vanguards was unnecessary / less efficient). All that is to say: I think encouraging people to spend more time with their 3★s in lieu of chasing higher rarities &/or resorting to flagbearers for DP is ultimately a better way of teaching people to play the game, and I really enjoyed your analysis of how Doberman in particular helps to indicate this to the player. (I can't E2 her for you since she's already there, but I'll M3 her S1 ASAP)
Dobermann was so good for me at the early game, that when my team was already mostly composed of 4★ and higher, i kept looking for a substitute to her whole and then realized how Niche are Instructors. Still, because of IS and the Blessed Collectable that reduces 4★'s Hope Cost to Zero, i still get to use her quite often.
This is a fantastic video! I wish I had seen this when I had just started playing a couple years ago, I feel like new players could definitely benefit from understanding their three stars better. I think all this time I lowkey thought Dobermann was actually a welfare because I had gotten her in my newbie pulls LOL, she definitely deserves to be one and I feel like she has a really important niche in the game
Yes, her being just available for your squad unconditionally makes sense. Though I'd say it's not enough. First of all, Arknights is rather overwhelming game for a new player. It took me weeks to even get used to the UI, figuring out all the quirks of the base, and resource system as well. Some features I discovered or took a notice to only months later. So having Doberman in a newbie pool is nice, but ain't actually guarantees her usage, this video you make explains her value well, but it is not obvious to a noob from the game. From the very beggining I already had(do not remember why, some free pulls?) Specter and Angelina, and got a bunch of 4 stars, and the necessity to have a wide cast of 3 stars pretty much was not there. And I mean FTP here, no money thrown. The only 3 star operator I used and levelled to the max was Beagle, and the only 2 that I used at least for a bit(lv 20) were Fang and Hibiscus. I never felt the need to invest into 3 stars and moreover, knowing they are heavily capped it seemed just as a waste of resources. In fact I got some 3 star characters levelled way later in the game when I reached rogule-like mode, cause of the costs to buy chars it makes sense to have some... So I think that in order for Doberman to genuinely shine we would need some context in the begginner's campaign where a player is sorta required to have her. Make her an actual character in the story that is used. Maybe she does not even need to be in your pool, but just be given to you as a participating char in some early campaign...
Your analysis on Dobermann and player progression is really interesting ! When I started AK 2 years ago I focused building my 5* and my starter Exu because "they have more stars so they must be better than the others", even though 3* are easier to level up, when you're a new player you don't know yet what is expensive and what's not, so the only 3* I used were Melantha, Kroos and Ansel. 1 year later I built my other 3* for IS and this is when I noticed they only need 10k LMD to promote, I was really surprised about that lol
I love your video! And especially the point about Arknights being a game first and Gacha second... And right after that an Arknights Ad plays telling you to get "her her and her!"- Man- Those Arknights Ads suck-
Just made an alternate account because I got bored using OP operators to brute force stages, instead I will be focusing on themed teams like reserve op team a4/a1 and their alters and penguin logistics early mid game but will probably branch out into the sui siblings for difficult event stages.
Interesting note, at max everything, Dobermann S1 outdps'es Bryophyta s1 up to a certain amount of enemy defense. With raw math Bryophyta should technically always come out ahead, but his attack animation is slightly slower which seems to be why Dobermann can outdps him, or so i heard. This includes Dobermanns added 15 aspd
My general assumption with 4* is awhile they act as introductory ops like 3*, they expand towards subclasses and generally holds better towards later content where I would say mostly self reliant. Dobermann feels like an inbetween where she needs 3*s for her full potential, making her great for 3* but really odd for a 4*. I never considered her might have decent DPS on her own since I only see her as a buffer and Blocker. Makes me wonder if there much people using Instructors for Damage or buffing, which I barely see them used respectively.
This video has officially pushed me to build my three stars along with Doberman, I've already reset the game.once out of frustration of being unable to progress from my lack of understanding which and what units do effectively setting me to farm rocks and grind tediously, praying for a better unit. It's not any better that I've actually been struggling with chips and now that I know three star ops doesn't need that at all, well... it's extremely tempting and shall be rewards for my new account that got Doberman really early on.
Hope doberman alter has some sort of sinergy with the other alters like fang alter kroos alter etc etc (kinda like how abyssal hunters support each other)
I feel like I stopped really playing with 3* and 4* quite early, I even had so many 3*s not leveled (it got better after I started playing IS...), and my 4*s aren't looking better. I kinda always tried using and building up higher rarity units like what 5*s I got and 6*s as soon as I got some (Blaze was among my first:) because well I thought that investment would turn out better in the long run, for they had a higher ceiling for promotion...... and some other weird idea I had about (for farming) important autodeploys being a pain to redo if they don't work anymore because of higher DP cost, so I often hesitated promoting some of the units I used most Well, now I'm thinking it might be worth it to go back and use the low rarities for some time, kinda catching up on what I missed and also hoping to learn more about the game honestly. I thought about maybe going back to early story chapters or events to do that, do you have any specific recommendations?
Honestly, going through the first 6 or so chapters with just 4 stars or lower would be a great way of experimenting and figuring things out. Its ok if you struggle and need a 5 star or 6 star here and then, but dont be afraid to fail.
I rolled a new account to make a new player guide, and part of that was because I hear (and see) a lot of what I think is unintentionally bad advice for new players because old players kind of forgot what it was like to be a new player. For me this was distinct because when I was a new player, so much of hte advice I was given wasn't good, and rolling a new account was the perfect opportunity for an endgame player like myself really test their core beliefs, and one of the things I always hated was seeing people say "build ALL your 3* operators" and I always found this to be HORRIBLE advice, in the same way telling someone "don't build any 3* operators" is equally as bad, but I would see players who would religiously build their three star ops to E1-55 SL7 before even TOUCHING any other ops and ask "what do I do now?" and that dogmatic approach that comes from being paralyzed by the notion of potentially wasting resources I think is not good to instill in new players. New players SHOULD build their starter 6*, along with whatever the best early options they get while understanding that there is likely going to be a replacement function as they progress, such as build shaw, but maybe don't over invest. Build amiya, you need her later. Build myrtle (if you have her). Build Gummy unless you have nearl or saria, literally mandatory to have a healing defender eventually. Build 3 stars that fill roles you can't fill with a better option, and the best options have late game value like kroos, spot, and ansel. But here is something a LOT of endgame players forget. I DON'T HAVE every 3* op. I couldn't build them if I even wanted to, and is adnachiel, or cardigan, or beagle EVER worth it if you have any other option? I got a cuora, I would have preferred a gummy (who I don't have), I don't have spot or cardigan, and its possible that if I didn't get cuora or use a 5* selector to get liskarm and lappland that I would be forced to use beagle which is fine, but I will see new players often times make objectively poor investments because they are told to do something dogmatically, and not told what the logic is behind it so they can make an informed decision. Its why I tell people to build Vigna over melantha if they can. Vigna has better stats in every single category than melantha, and on top of that an amazing E1 RIIC skill which pays for her additional sanity cost investment, and I don't have her in my current new account, and being forced to rely on fang and plume while barly even having trust, or resrouces to level skills has given me an appreciation for how spoiled I was on my first account when I had Vigna and Texas right off the bat, and my starter 6* was hoshi who back then people would have re-rolled on for a silverash or exuaiai, both who are AWEFUL starter ops, because all of their power is centered on their E2 promotion, whereas hoshi carried me at E0, at E1, and i didn't even have to promote her to E2 for a long time because of how tanky she was at E1 allowing me to focus on other things like my Texas, and the Silverash I was lucky to get as my 2nd 6* by that point. All of this is to say, I think what is important for new players isn't to focus on 3 stars, I think it is to not be hyper concerned with if an operator they invested in will still be useful in the endgame or not, and to just ty nad build what they need at the time, and if they REALLY want to min max, then the priority is base efficiency not combat power, so promoting operators that have good RIIC skills and can fill the role is preferable even to a META operator. Vermeil, Vigna, Shamare, Texas, Lappland, Conviction, Gravel, Purestream, Archetto, and others like them help to serve both effectively in a squad as well as for raising future operators thanks to their permanent benefits as base operators, so whatever you spend building them is made up for over time with passive income making them effectively no brainer ops, and having them on the back burner because someone thought they would need an E1-55 adnachiel hurts my soul almost as much as new players who reroll accounts 50 times to get whatever they are told is the best starter 6* op.
nice :3 I feel my few 6 stars make the game more interesting, and easier because I don't want to HAVE to be a good player personally. Though I tend to have to play better anyways, because hard game, but that's also fun sometimes
Wow! she attacks 15% faster, thus giving her a ~15% damage increase? Who woulda thunk it. Cool concept though! I've never thought about recommending building Doberman first. It's an interesting concept for sure.
Personally I really struggle to side with E2 rushing Dobbie over Myrtle who I *think* you get one copy for free? I swear you got Dobermann for free, its just her potentials locked behind Gacha. If Im mistaken then I suppose its possible an account just doesnt have Myrtle in the first place, as she can be actually quite tough to pull with 4* bloat and melee/healing recruitment tags pulling Spot so damn consistently. But I 100% agree with the "Why is Dobermann not a welfare op handed to you through each chapter completion so that you have a max pot6 Dobermann upon clearing Ch. 6 ? It makes sense, but I figure the gacha pool was too shallow at first, so units like her were paywalled to give you something to work with and encourage spending on the game
Never got Dobermann until very late so never got around to try her and building way to many ops at the moment to invest into her, I have tried her a few times in IS where she is still pretty great early on in a run with multiple 3 stars. It is a shame though that the instructor class overall is kinda meh for the most part. Pallas looks great until you realize there are barely any minos operators and the one's there are, are mostly not that great. She does work wonders in IS if you get the right collectables on her own though. She would probably be the number 1 pick for most if not all teams if she added +15/25/30% atk to everyone while above 50/80% hp by just being deployed instead of granting it to a few 4-5 stars. Whislash is probably in my book the best instructor overall being able to grant all melee units with 3 or more block +ASPD and + % DEF, but you usually want to kill your enemies faster not make your tanks tankier so she doesn't see a lot of play most of the time. But being a wellfare unit that you can get fairly easy she can help a lot especially if your lacking in better tanks to make low rarity tanks close to the tankyness of higher rarity or even make some guards live longer. Also being able to give the buff to everyone and an even better buff to the 3 block ops for 20 seconds is also very good add in the fact that she grants shields on deployment to melee 3 block ops and 2 shields to kazi ops makes her a great addition when fighting against physical dmg dealing enemies. As an example with Whislash on your team Beagle E1 lvl 55 will have her def become fairly close to Cuora or Hoshi E2 lvl 10-15 but when her skill is active Beagle's base def will be similar to Cuora or Hoshi at E2 lvl 50ish which is a big improvement for a 3 star.
yeah 3* are mucho importo *hides Beagle, Hibiscus, Steward, Popukar, Vanilla and Melantha for being still e1 lvl1, aswell as Ansel, Cardigan and Spot for being just lvl 10-20) At least I got Cardigan DoS skin to my defense why I have specially these ops low: I got Hoshi as my first 6* and Warfarin was my first 5* followed after with Ptilopsis later on I got specter at the time where you get Cliffheart/Shaw (funny enought I got Dobermann to that time aswell) I didn't play so active in the story/game and later as I come back I got Blemishine, Skadi, Shining, Eyja and Rosa skadi and Blemishine immedially fall into my heart so did I use the Eyja? yes, but funny enough I used Lava as my main aoe caster until I got forced to use a better aoe caster in the siracussano event, where I switched to skyfire and about Lord, I mostly used Frostleaf - yeah not the best choice I made, but she did a good job now like 2-3 years after start it sure got a bit different. (note: I'M already bit experienced with strategy games and didn't had a big problem per se with certain skills or the like, my problem was just the amount you get, and like reading who would be a better op) since almost start of the year I start to go for niche, specially Liberiknight and I have to say: I love it, I never played so active as right now and completly pulled into the game and specially the lore of the operator Good I was lucky aswell, as I got a good timing to get Astgenne and already have some good Liberi Operator, like La Pluma or Astesia or Silence alter So yeah, my start was bit different as you probally should, but I still used 3* a lot, as I was too shy to invest into better solution or like didn't feel other ops were better (May good example, very underpreciated 4*. the Glaucus version of an AA sniper) and I got lucky with the better version of the low ops, who were still simple (the ops I got early didn't really had any complicated stuff in their kit). I could see me using the low version, if I didn't get the better ops and about upgrading: yeah I think e1 is manageable, maybe I was just too inactive to really notice it
oh what I wanted to add: your description of low ops explaining the whole class is very well made I never thought like how the 2 and 3* have like a gameplay tree going further into various ways, well made and never really thought about it
This is a great video!! Ive always enjoyed doing low rarity clears and just using lower rarity units in general, and a lot of the people I play with just don't seem to Get it... One thing I'm curious about though, is what's meant by 10:25 - 10:30 concerning Nearl's talent, could you elaborate if possible?
Its early in the morning so my answer may not be that amazing. But i am just personally not a fan of skills or talents that dont try to push subclass identity, but rather just push an operator's ovsrpoweredness.
@@BloopsArknights That makes sense, its something that Nearlalter doesn't necessarily Need for her viability... How do you feel about the DEF ignore from the swordmaster module trait, or having it on a character like Irene where it's more core to her identity due to the conditionals in how its applied, and something that the subclass is more known for / benefits from? I personally like it on Irene but really dislike it on Degenbrecher due to how ubiquitous it is in her skill design with how well she applies Frighten and how good of an effect it already is, while Levitate has the weight condition and narrows the amount of targets can hit the unit.
It feels like it's important to Irene while it's a tag on for Degen essentially, especially since Irene actually competed with Ch'en in some aspects for their role as 6 star swordmaster even if she did more damage. Ch'en has her support capability and invincibility, while Irene has a niche status effect and more damage. Degen kind of bowls both of them over to where she's so strong that it doesn't matter if Ch'en can support her (not that she benefits from it with S3 :T)
Well I agree Hibiscus is in a weird situation as the "core" healer to Ansel's "expanded healer", I do also think Lava and Stewart do expand the class. Steward targets high def enemies, early tutorials focus on the arts/phys. dichotomy, and Stewart is their to say, hey use this guy for the def guys, flip side all(?) AOE casters have an attack speed skill that let's them be used for general DPS, Lava's SP up talent makes her a kind of early "boss killer" without attack bounding like Steward.
I want to say though I really liked this video, as a new player [1+ year] I never really built Doverman jumping to 6* like Weedy, Hoshi, Blem, and utility ops like Beanstalk or Gummy, though I also realized, their is no 3* enmity units because they break core interactions. Similarly the Specialist archetype seemed so alien as many units push/have summons/etc. until you realize they all break interactions. While liberators and phalanx casters have off modes, they still do the normal thing while on, Ambushes are ground that never block, Trap masters use /disposable/ summons... The core of this is Push/pullers who act as high/low ground ops, push masters being high ground centurions [like Popukar only ever gets 2 block], and pullers being high ground lords that can strike Arial enemies.
I agree that Steward and Lava expand on the subclass, Steward especially. I said they were the exception since theyre the ONLY 3-stars for the subclass.
Tbh I kind of get why they don't get Dober for free, though. If they did then it might encourage players to ONLY use their three stars, which is something the devs obviously don't want. Though, I do agree they should at least make her easier to get. Trying to pull her through recruitment is a giant pain.
Do you have detail video on how to use annihilation ticket? I just unlocked the stage, but have no idea how that works. I did try the stage and failed after 70/400 kill. And no tickets can be used
This video is incredible. And damn, they really should have given Doberman to players for free, I'd maybe even suggest slightly earlier on than 3-4, but regardless, it's a shame she's gacha.
You mentioned first E2 Operator, which made me curious. What's yours? Anyone who reads this comment can answer, I wanna hear yours. Mine was Jessica, because she felt like the right option in the early game since I was lacking damage against drones. Then I just ended up bonding wither her and Kroos. I actually have their Alters at max level with module and masteried skills since they carried my ass to greatness lol
I like how this video started with how to use Dobermann, transitioned to the purpose of 3* operators, and finally learned more about Dobermann as a character. Either way, I feel like she deserves to have an Alter (preferably a 6*) especially after all of the operators that she trained became 5* and one of which became a 6*. However, the only problem is that we know almost nothing about her.
