by zaviire
If you’re thinking about pulling for Sez expecting a Vildred or an Arby or a Kayron or Riolet-type character, Sez is very definitely not any of those things.
If he’s husbando then don’t let me tell you how to live your life, but he’s in covenant, so like, you’ll get him eventually. If you like his kit and know you are definitely going to build him, then sure, pull for him!
As far as uses go, I use him as my primary farmer and my main PVP offense comp has him as a centerpiece wherein he’ll nuke a high-priority target into the ground, his splash will go off, and then I’ll send in another character with AoE to clean up. Even though my gear isn’t completely where I want it to be, he can one-shot some units from almost full health without soulburn.
The main drawback Sez has is that he does need decent gear. How well he performs is entirely contingent on how much love you’re willing to give him and what units you’re going to run him with. Part of that is because his s3 splash damage does not ignore defense.
While his s3 itself can take out some relatively beefy bruisers if you play your cards right (attack buff and/or defense break and/or soul burn), don’t count on his splash damage killing and try to have someone on clean-up duty for when it doesn’t. I use Bingo. Works great. (If his splash damage does kill it’s definitely nice, but you know, have back-up plans.)
The good news is that the gear itself doesn’t have to be godtier, but better gear is obviously going to take you further. My Sez hits 3.8k attack, 97% crit chance, and 310% crit damage almost entirely with free Destruction/Crit gear from Nixied zone 5 that happened to roll acceptably. Attack sets can also work! My Sez was on Attack set throughout my run through the story, all the way up until 2 10-10 and still managed to farm against everything but earth enemies just fine.
I recommend Destruction/Crit with Cdmg, Attack%, and Attack% main stats on the right side.
As far as artifacts go, I actually run mine on Alexa’s Basket because the Greater Attack buff is extremely juicy when it procs (with Greater Attack, my Sez can kill some knights who trend on the squishier side or SSB through her damage split). But I know that Alexa’s Basket is a luxury that I imagine most people reserve for more meta units like Arby or Kayron. Which leads me to my second recommendation, based on the fact that…
The second main drawback of Sez is that he’s kinda squishy. I somehow got 14k HP on mine, but he has like 750 defense. He’ll fall over if you breathe on him too hard, but god bless his soul should he survive he’s 99% certain to kill someone. I imagine that there are probably bulkier Sezes than mine out there, though.
So my second artifact recommendation is Moonlight Dreamblade. As long as you don’t mind playing with a little RNG, the evasion can help him survive to actually get his S3 off, and when someone misses on him then he’ll get an attack buff.
Of course, there’s also the tried and true Portrait of the Saviors / Exorcist’s Tonfa, but I don’t use those because I find Basket to be more fun. (And my Portrait is… Sad, so I can’t really use it on anyone.)
I do not recommend Wind Rider because Wind Rider will not help you secure the kill and does not affect the s3 splash damage (since its attack boost kicks in at the start of the turn after you kill).
For Mola, I obviously think he’s at his best when he’s +15, but bearing limited resources in mind, at minimum I would max his s3. After that, I would do his S1 and S2, though I’d be surprised if he survives much longer after he gets his S3 off anyway.
If you’re going to use him primarily for farming, then I’m not really sure it matters, but I would get s2 to +3 or +4 for sure as a priority since his cleave is going to be handy.
Until just a few days ago, mine was only +14 (s1 +5, s2 +4, s3 +5). Worked fine. You can probably get away with just doing +3 on his skills across the board for farming.
For team synergy, I don’t think I’m the best person to ask since I’m only Master V in Arena (I do not have a lot of variety when it comes to units, and I completely lack most powerhouses), but I personally use him with a cr pusher and an attack buffer.
I specifically use H.Yufine to push because she’s my fastest pusher and makes it so I don’t have to really worry about any pushback they might have on their side (Basar, Lilias). I use Bingo as my attack buffer because he also packs Invincibility and makes it so if the rest of their team is standing between Bingo and Sez, Sez will definitely survive to use his s3 unless he’s stripped or locked down somehow (silence, stun, sleep).
My fourth is Schuri for his speed imprint because without it I can’t actually outspeed anyone, lol. But if I could, I would bring Immunity or a Def Breaker instead because (for Immunity) even though Bingo packs invincibility he can still be shut down with debuffs with my preferred team or (for Def Break) his s3 splash doesn’t ignore defense, so def break actually does help make it hurt.
That got really long-winded, but I figured that as someone who uses Sez seriously in nearly every aspect of the game I had a solemn duty to be as comprehensive as possible, although I wouldn’t consider myself an authority since my play style boils down to “Do I like this unit? Then I’m going to use them, hell or high water.”
It just makes me sad to see people sleep on Sez when he’s not really that bad in a post-Wind Rider world, he just isn’t Arby/Vildred/Kayron/Riolet! He’s well worth the investment if you like him and what he does, but if you want those heroes then Sez is not a replacement.
I can’t speak on Manica of Control because I’m not pulling for it. Nice art. But I wouldn’t recommend it for Sez because I don’t feel like increased hit chance or crit chance helps him do his job. It makes me sad because I’d love to use his artifact on him because I’m a sucker for thematic stuff, so I have a few effects that I wish they had given it, but oh well. There’s always the day he gets an EE… :”)tl;dr
- Sez isn’t Arby/Vildred/Kayron/Riolet, if you are expecting him to be those characters then you will be disappointed.
- He’s best thought of as a nuker rather than a cleaver, but he is pretty great for farming and will carry you through most of the story if you’re willing to invest a little.
- His s3 splash damage does not ignore defense, (it doesn’t act like Drink) so don’t plan for it to kill and don’t expect it to do a lot to tanky units.
- I personally recommend Destruction/Crit (or Attack/Crit, but Destruction/Crit is Awesome)
- I personally recommend Alexa’s Basket/MLDB/Portrait/Tonfa as artifacts depending on what your options are and what you feel suits your needs best. I don’t think Manica of Control is good for him, despite being “his” artifact.
- I personally recommend CDmg%, Atk&, Atk%
- He’s squishy.
- He’s moe as hell despite looking like an edgelord who listens to a lot of Evanescence and MCR. Stan Sez Gaien.
