Anabel of the International Police has arrived in Pasio and together with Snorlax, she is ready to enact justice in Pokemon Masters EX.
Sporting as a Support Sync Pair, Anabel leans towards a more defensive playstyle with the effects from the various fields she brings.
Anabel Kit
Their one and only attacking move is Headbutt. It’s a 2 Gauge Normal Type Physical Move and also comes with the chance to flinch enemies if it hits.
The 2 Status Moves she has are Reflect and Protect. Reflect applies a Field effect that reduces the damage taken from physical attacks while Protect allows Her and Snorlax to block 1 attack.
Her Trainer Move, Requesting a Backup! applies the Field effect that denies Critical Hit and Status Condition while also reducing the damage taken from Special attacks.
Her G-Max Moves are, G-Max Replenish that allows moves with limited use another charge and MAX Guard that works just like Protect.
Anabel Passive
Her first passive is Team Limited Addition (Sp. Def) 9, which increases the Sp. Def stat for the entire team by 1 rank every time she uses a move with limited use. Meaning all her moves aside from Headbutt will increase the team’s Sp. Def stats each time it is used.
Her second passive is Allied Field Effect Multiplier 2 which increase her Attack, Defense, Sp. Atk, Sp. Def, and Speed whenever there is a Field Effect on your team.
Her last passive is MAX Healer 5 which restores 50% of her HP after she uses a Max move.
Strength
Anabel is the master of the Field gimmick. Everything about her is setting up Fields and fully making use of it. For as long as it remains that is.
Physical Damage, Special Damage, Status Condition, you name it. She can set up a field to adapt with the situation and unlike Melony, it’s not locked behind a Max Move. G-Max Replenish also extends the number of times she can set up those field and is a FREE gauge move to reduce the Sync timer.
Snorlax is also pretty bulky himself and thanks to Anabel’s passive, it can heal half of it HP back through the use of Max Move.
Weakness
One downside to her defensive playstyle is her limited number uses of it. Field effects in general don’t really last long and while activating the same field does extend it, the effects however do not stack. That brings the issue of timing the usage of the skill to fully maximize its effects.
Another problem is she cannot buff your team’s stats normally. Her Sp. Def buff is locked behind her using moves aside from Headbutt while her Attack buff comes from her Trainer Move which can only be used once.
You’ll need another Support to buff your team up so that restricts your team building a bit. Moreover, any stages with a Defog, albeit rare, just invalidates her since her Field can be blown away by it.
Should You Pull
Anabel in Pokemon Masters makes a great addition to your team, if you’d like to spice up your gameplay a bit that is. Field effects outside of Move Gauge Acceleration aren’t really that valuable per say, especially defensive ones since you generally do not want anyone but your tanker to take damage.
Of course, when it comes to AoE stages, Anabel is sure to shine. Somewhat. The lack of any proper buffs application is still her main problem so you’ll need to slot in another support to buff up your team.
Her fields being limited also means she is just outright not useable in Legendary Gauntlets. If you throw in Anabel for Endurance battles, once she runs out of fields, she’ll just stand there menacingly. As a meat shield to take in hits for your team.
Nevertheless, the rule of thumb in a gacha game is to always go for the waifu over the meta. If you REALLY like her, then there’s no harm in pulling for her. In fact, for those loyal fans, she will very much reward you for it with how amazing her performance improves with more copies.
Should You Get More Copies
Anabel performs VASTLY better with higher Sync Levels. So yes, the more copies, the better. Although, having her at Sync Level 2 should be more than enough since that unlocks Refresh for her Field effects, allowing for more field and buff spamming.
Ideally though, you would want her at Sync Level 3 since it allows her to start the battle with one field already up. Aggravation is also unlocked here so you can have her as a Flincher to mitigate her lack of proper buffs.
Sync Level 4 and 5 are simply for Flex due to how high the costs are to even reach those nodes. However, if you are going for it, those new nodes will basically turn her to a Premium Physical Attack Supporter with amazing Gauge management. Waifu is Meta when expensive, yes.
Then again, you could just use the Pokemon Masters candies on Anabel to raise her sync level but only if you really want Anabel to shine.