Arknights CN: New Operator Announcement - Whislash: Talents, Skills, Art, GIFs.

Translation Credits: Jetroyz of the RIHQ Discord, Laulicon#6707, and pumpkin#5585

Name: Whislash

Seiyuu: Minami Takahashi

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"Ah, so this is Rhodes Island? Whislash Zofia, just call me that. As a former jousting knight of Kazimierz, I will properly train your employees."

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Zofia, a branch of the Kazimierz Nearl family, and is operator Nearl and Flawlight's aunt. Once a famous young jousting knight of Kazimierz, she completely faded away from the knights' competitive scene due to an accident.

When Maria first decided to join the competition, she was opposed of it at first, but in the end she was unwilling to let Maria fight alone. She decided to become her coach, and help Maria cut through her competition.

Although the Whislash knight didn't have any corporate collaborations back in the day, she still left a hefty amount of savings. Zofia herself never seemed to bother with finances, but despite her generous spending habits, her savings has yet to become depleted. Perhaps this is the scary part about Kazimierz's jousting knights?

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Whislash is a 5★ Support Guard that increases the ASPD and DEF of Operators with high block counts (3 or more).  Her Skills improve her Support effects, and her S2 gives her multi-attack capabilities.

Trait: Can attack enemies from range

Talent: When deployed, melee allies with 3 or more Block count gain ASPD and DEF

Skill 1: During skill activation, increase Talent effect and melee allies with Block count less than 3 gain half the effect

Skill 2: During skill activation, increase Talent effect. Increase Whislash's ATK, attack range and Block count, and attack multiple enemies equal to Block count.

Note: These are first impressions and based on conjecture since we don’t know the exact details. 

Support Guard is an Archetype that hasn't seen a lot of love in Arknights to date.  For the existing Support Guards, the "support" that they offer to their comrades is typically not sufficiently powerful or applicable enough to make up for the lower stats they get to compensate for their teammate buffs.  For past Support Guards, this is because of a combination buff strength, applicability, buff range, and/or Skill uptime.  So, most likely whether Whislash breaks this unfortunate trend will depend on the strength of her buffs, their range, and the uptime on her Skills.

Her buffs will primarily improve Defenders and AoE Guards, since they have 3-block at base.  The DEF would be helpful to both classes, and with the Support Guard range, she can be deployed safely behind the other Operator while still being able to attack.  Since Defenders aren't typically used for their DPS, the ASPD buff will primarily benefit AoE Guards, or DPS Operators when her S1 is active.  Nian will be a strong pairing for her, as Nian's S3 could make 2-block Operators qualify for her buffs.

The multi-target capabilities of her S2 could give her respectable DPS in multi-enemy situations, possibly countering the typical Support Guard drawback of relatively low DPS output.