Ayerscarpe

General overview

The ranged-guard-that-can-do-arts-damage niche is a bit crowded, but he still brings some fun tricks to the table. Notably, both of his skills do arts damage and attack multiple enemies, which gives you more options when you use him, and his multitarget DPS is potentially very high with skill 2. He is more of a wacky fun option - Arene or Midnight will often suffice if you just need a cheap source of melee arts damage, and he falls off a bit if you don’t plan on bunching enemies up in your frontline. Still, he’s really good at what he does when you need him.

E2? E1 is enough for him if you're not a diehard fan, but if you need him to carry more weight, the extra stats are nice, and his talent buff is doubled.

Talents

Talent - Seek Aid

E1 This unit and allies in the surrounding 8 tiles gain +4 (+2) ASPD

E2 This unit and allies in the surrounding 8 tiles gain +8 (+2) ASPD

A nice ASPD buff that shouldn't be too hard to capitalize on if he's going in your frontline. It synergizes well with his skill 2 because the placement requirements are the same.

Skills

Skill 1 - Shrapnel Burst

Skill effect: The next attack does 140%/160% ATK Arts damage to up to 3 enemies within range and slow them for 1 second

Overview: A pretty good source of light crowd-control and arts damage. This skill may serve you better if you plan on having him handle a lane on his own.

Skill 2 - Activate Phase Blades

Skill effect: Range expands and damage type changes to arts damage; each attack deals an additional 130%/170% Arts damage to all enemies blocked by friendly operators in the 8 surrounding grids.

Overview: The effectiveness of this skill is largely contingent on how many enemies you’ve got bunched up around him. You’re better off using someone else if you don’t have a lot of enemies to deal with. He is also not ideal if you’re fighting something you’d prefer to take out from a distance, since his extra damage only gets applied to blocked enemies. Another caveat is that he can't passively attack enemies that aren't in his range; this usually isn't a problem, but it's something that must be considered if you want him to attack enemies that are behind him.

All that being said, in scenarios where you can plop him down behind a row of defenders and are dealing with large waves that can quickly overwhelm your frontline (not as uncommon of a situation as some seem to think it is), his damage will be absolutely nuts and he’ll tear through enemies very quickly. Mob? What mob?

M3 commentary: M3 adds a few seconds to the duration and gives him a pretty decent damage bump. It's absolutely worth the investment if you’re a diehard Ayerscarpe user, but it will do its job fine at level 7 for most players.