[Guide] Arknights – Should You Pull For Reed The Flame Shadow

Playing the role of the protagonist in the next Arknights major Side Story event ‘What The Firelight Casts’ is Reed the Flame Shadow, a new recruitable limited operator.

Loughshinny Dublinn, better known as Reed is a direct descendant of the fabled Gaelic Kings of Tara and in the ‘What The Firelight Casts’ event story, she will be on her journey back to become a new leader for the forcefully displaced Tarans. 

Class and Archetype

Reed the Flame Shadow is the 6★ alternate variation of Reed who takes on the role of an Incantation Medic.

Incantation Medics are a unique Medic subclass because unlike regular healers, they are the only Medic subclass that don’t focus on restoring allies’ health but rather attack enemies to trigger their Trait.

The core Trait of an Incantation Medic is that they attack enemies with Arts damage and recover health to nearby friendly units for half of the damage dealt. This specific Trait made Incantation Medics an in-between of a healer and an Arts damage dealer, but don’t quite match in strength of a pure Medic or a Core Caster. 

Talents

Reed the Flame Shadow’s first talent is Cinder, a passive that grants her 30% chance to inflict enemies with the namesake debuff for 6 seconds when she is attacking. The debuff reduces the victim’s ATK and inflicts a percentage of Arts Fragility, causing them to take increased Arts damage. Note that additional Cinder debuffs do not stack. 

This talent pairs her well with other Arts damage dealing allies, amplifying their Arts damage while also weakening enemies.

Reflected Shine, her second talent, passively restores her heath by a percentage amount of what she healed her allies for. An easy to understand passive ability that provides a reliable self-sustain and helps keeping her health in check.

Skills

Reed the Flame Shadow’s Skill 1 is Swift Strike γ, a buff that bolsters her ATK and ASPD, which in turns enhances her DPS and healing capabilities. A simple ability suitable for her role as an Incantation Medic.

Her Skill 2 is called Wither and Thrive, a buff in which she conjures three fireballs that circle around up to 2 allies, prioritizing ground operators or most recently deployed units. The rotating fireballs themselves has various functions: 

• Dealing enemies within close proximity of the buffed allies with Arts damage based on Reed the Flame Shadow’s ATK every 1.5 seconds and inflicts the Cinder talent
• Friendlies under the buff will benefit from her trait, recovering health by half the damage dealt by the fireballs

This ability allows Reed the Flame Shadow to effectively support melee operators, providing them with great sustain while unleashing tremendous DPS.

Lastly, her Skill 3 – Ember of Life grants Reed the Flame Shadow a buff with the following effects:

• An ATK boost and the capability to attack up to 2 enemies simultaneously
• Her first talent’s activation rate is increased to be always inflicting enemies with Cinder 
• Victims under the Cinder debuff will take continuous Arts damage
• Upon defeated, the victims will explode and deal Arts damage in a large area while spreading Cinder to other nearby enemies. 

Against a cluster of enemies, this ability allows Reed the Flame Shadow to be a fountain of heals and damage, regularly triggering chains of explosions and triggering her talent.

Final Thoughts

As seen in her kit, Reed the Flame Shadow is an flexible unit that is able to fit into many Arknights squad compositions whether as the healer or to be a secondary Arts damage dealer. Despite being a Medic, the Flame Shadow boasts incredible Arts damage output and still possesses some of the highest healing potential. 

Her Skill 2, Wither and Thrive can unleash a large burst of continuous damage, especially due to how each hit from the fireballs has the capability to inflict the Cinder debuff thus providing a reliable stream of healing to the protected allies while reducing nearby enemies’ Arts defense. A recommended synergy with this ability is to have Reed the Flame Shadow buffing powerful Arts Fighter Guard like Surtr and Astesia to burst down tougher enemies.

Given the right scenario, Doctors may be able to set up operators that take positions that sandwich enemies between them, allowing the fireballs to continuously burn enemies and provide a massive amount of healing to the buffed friendlies at the same time. An easy setup would be to use Executor Specialists like Texas the Omertosa or Gavial to backstab a blocked enemy before activating Wither and Thrive skill. 

On the other hand, her Skill 3, Ember of Life is an extremely powerful ability that pushes Reed the Flame Shadow to be an Arts damage dealing powerhouse, rivaling even some Core Caster in terms of damage output potential. This ability works best against a large horde of enemies, especially ones with weaker health pools to allow Cinder debuff to easily be spread like wildfire, however it has such a high DPS output that it’s flexible to be used to other scenarios comfortably. 

All in all, Reed the Flame Shadow is a great operator with amazing flexibility, offering a balance of healing, support and damage. However, it is still important to keep in mind that she is an Incantation Medic and will not heal damaged allies especially when enemies spawn periodically, rendering no enemies for her to attack and trigger her Trait. Therefore, it is advisable to bring a secondary Medic. 

Download

Arknights Global

Publisher: Yostar Inc

Developer: Hypergryph

Release Date: 2020-01-16

Android, iOS

Take on the role of a key member of Rhodes Island, a pharmaceutical company that fights both a deadly infection and the unrest it leaves in its wake. Together with your leader Amiya, you’ll recruit Operators, train them, then assign them to various operations to protect the innocent and resist those who would thrust the world into turmoil. Your tactics will determine the future of Rhodes Island. Fight for the Dawn!

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