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After a very long wait, Lin is finally becoming playable in Arknights, coming together with Chongyue in the “Where Vernal Winds Will Never Blow” event.
Lin Yühsia is a popular reoccurring character in the Arknights story and is the daughter of Lungmen’s criminal mastermind, the Rat King. Lin is also a childhood friend of Ch’en and Swire and has been working publicly as the President of the Lungmen Young Entrepreneurs’ Association.
Class and Archetype
Lin is a 6★ Phalanx Caster, sharing the same archetype with Carnelian and Beeswax. This unique caster subclass has a special gimmick whereby they are disarmed until their Skills are activated. To compensate for this drawback, Phalanx Casters’ attacks will hit all enemies surrounding them whenever their Skills are active. Whenever a Phalanx Caster’s Skills are not ready, they will instead gain increased Defense and Arts Resistance, making them extremely durable compared to the other Caster subclasses.
Due to this archetype’s unique gimmick, they are essentially useless when their Skills are inactive, serving more as an additional target to bait enemy attacks. In exchange, Phalanx Casters are capable of unleashing devastating AoE damage in a rather wide area once they activate their Skills but lose the defense boost in the process. As such, knowledge of enemy formations and routes is essential to unlock a Phalanx Caster’s potential.
As Phalanx Casters are unable to attack without Skill activation, any SP batteries are recommended to increase the rate at which they can cast their Skills. For the uninitiated, SP batteries are Operators with abilities to provide SP to nearby allies, which includes units like Liskarm and Ptilopsis.
Talents
Her first Talent, Foolproof Plan, generates a Crystal Barrier that absorbs all damages before shattering, dealing Arts damage to enemies within range and stunning them. After that, Lin will become vulnerable until the barrier takes several seconds to reform.
This talent sets Lin Yühsia apart from other Phalanx Casters, allowing her to have some way to provide offense even while her Skill is not active. Not only that, her natural high defense while not activating Skills in combination with Foolproof Plan made her almost impenetrable, something rarely seen in ranged Operators.
On the other hand, her second Talent, Shrouded Strength, grants her a chance to recover some SP as she attacks. This allows her to consistently activates her Skill and switch to offense mode.
Skills
Lin’s Skills generally bolster her offensive capabilities while providing some form of crowd control.
Her first Skill, Elegance, allows Lin to switch into an alternate stance in which she could attack with enhanced damage and speed while slowing enemies on hit, but her Phalanx Caster trait will be disabled. Because of this ability’s stance-switching nature, Lin can freely assume a mode depending on the situation and effectively stall enemies. However, keeping Elegance active will disable the defense increase of the trait, making Lin more vulnerable to attacks.
Lin’s second Skill, Shelter, grants her increased attack speed and caused enemies to be less likely to attack her. Additionally, friendly units within her range will be granted the Foolproof Plan Talent while the Skill remains active. This ability essentially switches enemies’ target priority to Lin’s allies while she enters her offense state to unleash chaos. Given how strong her Crystal Barrier can be, this Skill gives her allies great survivability with no drawbacks.
Lastly, her Skill 3, Riving Lighttails, works in conjunction with her Foolproof Plan Talent and provides the following effects:
- When activated, buffs Lin’s ATK and expands the range her attacks will hit
- Increases the amount of damage that her Foolproof Plan Talent’s Crystal Barrier can absorb before shattering
- In addition, Lin gains the ability to immediately shatter the Crystal barrier and reform a new one instantly whenever she defeats an enemy during the Skill duration
- Riving Lighttails can also be deactivated manually
Overall, the Skill improves both Lin’s offensive and defensive capability significantly but may still render her vulnerable if she could not defeat enemies at a quick pace to regenerate a new Crystal Barrier. As such, a Medic or a Guardian Defender is recommended to keep Lin well sustained
Final Thoughts
All in all, Lin is a great Phalanx Caster who did her archetype’s job well. Unlike other Operators of her archetype, she can retaliate by unleashing bursts of damage and stunning enemies through her use of Foolproof Plan Talent even when her Skill is not active. Unfortunately, her biggest weakness is that her archetype tends to be difficult to utilize well, and not much content justifies her usage.
Since Phalanx Casters can only attack when a Skill is activated, they tend to be helpless otherwise. Lin is no exception and heavily relies on allies to do most of the heavy lifting before she can unleash her offenses. While Foolproof Plan Talent made Lin highly durable while active, the long regeneration time after the Crystal Barrier shattered leaves her extremely vulnerable against ranged enemies.
That said, her Skill 3, Riving Lighttails is a versatile ability that depending on Lin’s adversaries, may offer her great survivability, consistent damage output, and repeated stuns. When against waves of weak enemies, Lin can constantly inflict stuns on enemies while her Crystal Barrier continues to reform.
Overall, Lin is stuck in a weird position that she may be appealing due to her popularity as a story character but her game role made her a skip for most players. Since no content requires durable units on a high ground position at the moment, Phalanx Casters are not really needed and any Defender could achieve better results in a tanking role. That being said, with great planning, Lin offers a package of high Arts damage output, consistent stuns on enemies, and great survivability. She is also not a Limited Operator so she will be part of the Standard Banner in the future.
