Aak

General overview

He’s most famous for his buffs (that require his target to survive being shot 15 times... but that's not important right now). However, he can also do pretty good DPS and crowd control, especially because his buffs also affect himself. Putting up with him is no small undertaking: a medic is required if you want him to stay on the field, and, if used for his buffs, sometimes his targeting priority requires ridiculous positioning to get him to shoot the person you actually need him to shoot. I can’t say he’s worth the investment for casual players, but he’s a valuable addition to high-risk CC strategies and, more importantly, meme clears.

E2? He requires maximum investment to do his job well, so keep that in mind before building him. If you just want to futz with him on occasion, but don't plan on using him a lot, you're better off finding him in supports unless you have resources burning a hole in your pocket.

Talents

Talent 1 - Drug Cocktail Administration

E1 Each attack will randomly trigger one of the following effects: Restores own HP by 14%, that attack deals 140% damage, slow the enemy for 1.2 seconds, or stun the enemy for 0.8 seconds

E2 Each attack will randomly trigger one of the following effects: Restores own HP by 15%, that attack deals 150% damage, slow the enemy for 1.4 seconds, or stun the enemy for 1 second

The RNG here means that, on average, half of his hits will be crowd control, and with pretty good duration to boot. If you use one of his skills that buffs ASPD, the crowd control machine really kicks into overdrive. The RNG is not as favorable towards the self-heal, though, so even if he's attacking constantly, there's still a chance he'll die without external healing.

Talent 2 - Pharmaceutical Diffusion

E2 Increases healing effects on this unit by 20% (+5%)

A useful perk, considering he's constantly dying by default. This also applies to his healing hits from talent 1.

Skills

Skill 1 - Rapid Fire

Skill effect: ASPD +70/100

Overview: Aak's talent, along with his surprisingly good attack, make this skill more potent than it might look on paper. If you're wanting to be a genius and use Aak for DPS, note that his skill 3 buffs his ASPD less than this skill does, but it also buffs his attack. Skill 3 generally has better performance for raw damage, but if you need his crowd control to proc more often, this is the skill to use. Go ahead, use the cat as a sniper. You deserve it.

Skill 2 - Type γ Stimpack

Skill effect: Attacks an ally within range (prioritizes allies directly in front of this unit) 15 times with 500 ATK, then increases max HP and DEF of self and that unit by +50%/80% for the remaining duration of the skill

Note: Total damage is 7500 physical damage and can be mitigated by standard techniques (e.g. defense, dodge, shields)

Overview: The buff is most likely going to be wasted on him unless you're using him to tank damage for whatever reason (in which case I definitely can't tell you what to do). However, using it on a defender or guard will give them a very, very hefty boost in survivability; defenders in particular will turn into unkillable brick walls. If you're looking for an easy-to-use defense buff, this is not it, and you should go build Shining instead. However, if you're interested in becoming a chaos god, you can raise both and make Cuora virtually invincible.

M3 commentary: Overkill unless you have extremely specific evil plans for using this.

Skill 3 - Durian-Flavored Stimpack

Skill effect: Attacks an ally within range (prioritizes allies directly in front of this unit) 15 times with 500 ATK, then increases ATK by +35%/50% and ASPD by +35/50 of self and that unit for the remaining duration of the skill

Note: As with skill 2, total damage is 7500 physical damage and can be mitigated by standard techniques (e.g. defense, dodge, shields). The ASPD buff corresponds to a 50% increase in ASPD.

Overview: Aak's flagship skill, with good reason: the buff it provides is one of the most powerful in the game. If you thought Surtr's skill 3 was ridiculous, try combining it with this. Similar to most buffs, casual players likely won't have any strong need for this skill, but high-risk CC players will probably find it worth their while. As mentioned earlier, this skill also buffs Aak's attack and ASPD, so he'll also get a nice DPS increase.

M3 commentary: M3 gives very handsome gains, and it reduces the initial windup time so you don't have to leave him out and killing himself for as long. I definitely recommend it if you're doing high-risk CC; fully-built buffers and debuffers can often do more to improve your DPS than another DPS unit can. That being said, this doesn't need to be a priority, and you should do your core DPS and support (Suzuran, Saria, etc) masteries first.