Arknights: New Operator Spotlight - Blemishine

Blemishine is a new 6★ Healing Defender Operator who has just been released on the global Arknights server. As the glorious sister of esteemed former knight Margaret Nearl, Blemishine is renowned as one of the most popular knights in Kazimierz. But how does she fare when fighting in the ranks of Rhodes Island? Is Blemishine worth it?

As stated above, Blemishine is the newest 6★ Healing Defender. This means she has Block-2 at E0 and Block-3 at E1 or higher, and it also means she can heal allies with her Skills. You can see specifics about her Talents, stats, Skills, and more over on her Operator page.

Healing Defenders are known for their healing powers and their defensive nature—it’s in the name, after all. But what you may not be expecting from Blemishine is “high damage potential” and “hard crowd-control via Sleep.” All of her Skills increase her ATK, her S3 deals Arts damage, and her S2 puts all enemies on her tile to Sleep. Blemishine is the epitome of a jack-of-all-trades unit, able to fight, block, heal, and debuff enemies all at the same time.

Blemishine’s most unique ability is her Mercy Talent, which allows her to attack Sleeping enemies. At present, Blemishine is the only Operator who can do this (Sleeping enemies are normally invincible while the effect lasts). Is this a useful ability? It’s a bit limited right now, since the only other Globally-released Operator who can inflict Sleep is Sora, but the CN servers have other Sleep-capable Operators, and there may be more to come in the future as well.

• Like any Healing Defender, Blemishine can Block-3 at E1 or higher. Unlike most Healing Defenders, however, Blemishine does enough damage to kill some of the enemies she blocks, and she can also buff her own DEF with her S3, which is unusual for her archetype.
• Unlike most other Defenders, Blemishine has a 1x2 attack range, like a Duelist Guard or a Vanguard. One extra grid of range doesn’t sound like much, but it gives Blemishine a lot more flexibility in where she can be deployed and where she can attack enemies.
• Because of her Mercy Talent, Blemishine loves working with Operators who cause Sleep (i.e., Sora). The longer she can keep enemies asleep, the longer she gets to benefit from Mercy’s ATK buff.
• Blemishine is also a great partner for any Operator with [Getting Hit] SP Charge Skills. When deployed, her Sword and Shield Talent causes the [Getting Hit] SP charge type to also generate SP when the Operator attacks.
• Her S1 has the [Per Second] SP Charge type and combines a damage boost with a single-target heal. This is probably her most reliable self-healing Skill—useful if you need her to hold a lane solo.

• Her S2 is Blemishine’s most “defensive” Skill. It charges when [Getting Hit] (so it benefits from Sword and Shield) and it does three things: buffs her ATK, puts enemies to Sleep, and regenerates nearby allies. This is the only way for Blemishine to heal multiple allies simultaneously, and it’s also the only way she can put enemies to Sleep.
• On top of that, S2 can heal summons and Enmity Operators like Vulcan and Hellagur! The recovery from the Skill is counted as “regeneration,” not “direct healing,” so it bypasses the “Cannot be directly healed” Trait that these units possess.

• Her S3 is Blemishine’s most “offensive” Skill. It grants a large ATK and DEF boost, causes her attacks to deal bonus Arts damage, and heals one nearby ally every time she attacks. The damage and healing outputs of this Skill are incredible and truly must be seen to be believed. However, Blemishine CANNOT heal herself with this Skill... and yes, that can be a problem.

• Like most Healing Defenders, Blemishine’s DEF is lower than a comparable Normal Defender. And even for a Healing Defender, Blemishine’s DEF is worryingly low (lower than her sister Nearl’s, which is saying something!) She makes up for this somewhat with the DEF buff on her S3, but she can still be squashed by high-DPS enemies.
• If you’re not putting enemies to Sleep, Mercy will not trigger and Blemishine will miss out on a sizable ATK boost. However, Mercy only works for Blemishine, so causing Sleep haphazardly can mess up your strategies. For example, don’t trigger Eyjafjalla’s Volcano and then put the enemies in her range to Sleep!
• Sword and Shield does speed up the charge time of [Getting Hit] Skills, but it doesn’t address the main weakness of this SP charge type: that there have to be enemies around for SP to be generated.
• Blemishine has trouble healing her allies unless she has an enemy around to punch. S1/ S3 only heal when she attacks, while S2/ S3 have [Getting Hit] charge type and so can’t really be used to heal allies between waves.
• More than many other Operators, Blemishine has a lot of trouble picking between her Skills. S2 is the only way for Blemishine to heal multiple allies at once, but S3 is the only way she can do Arts damage. S2 is the only way Blemishine can cause Sleep, but S3 is the only way she can increase her own DEF.

The position of 6★ Healing Defender has long been held by Saria, Queen of Contingency Contracts and mistress of team support. Now Blemishine enters the ring to compete against her. How do these two Operators compare?

• Healing: Blemishine has a lot of limitations on her healing—attack-based activation, [Getting Hit], etc.—while Saria is consistent, reliable, and effective. However, Blemishine’s burst healing is terrific due to her multiple ATK boosts, and Saria can’t heal Enmity Operators. We’ll give this one to Saria for reliability, but Blemishine does excel in some niche situations where Saria wouldn’t, and that’s worth noting.
• Damage Soaking: Saria has a higher base DEF and her Talent ramps up her DEF over time, but Blemishine’s S3 massively buffs her DEF. On the other hand, Blemishine can’t heal herself with her S3, while Saria is always capable of self-sustain. Since Blemishine can’t both heal herself and buff her own DEF, Saria gets the win for reliability once more.
• SP Generation: Blemishine gives extra SP to all [Getting Hit] Skill-using allies, while Saria restores 1 SP to any ally she heals. Blemishine’s Talent applies anywhere on the field, but Saria can restore SP to any ally in her range, making it much more versatile. Another win for Saria.
• DPS: There’s no question that Blemishine has higher DPS. She has higher base ATK and she has ATK-boosting Skills, while Saria does not. However, Saria’s S3 increases the amount of Arts damage enemies take. Combined with an Arts nuker like Eyjafjalla or Ceobe, Saria enables a truly ridiculous amount of burst damage to hit the field. We’ll give this win to Blemishine based purely on direct DPS, but Saria’s S3 makes this a lot closer than you might think.
• Crowd Control: Blemishine can put all enemies that are on her grid to Sleep. Saria can Slow all enemies in a 7x7 diamond centered on her. Outright stopping an enemy’s advance is better than just Slowing them, but Sleep also makes the target invulnerable (to anything except Blemishine) while Saria’s S3 also increases the Arts damage the Slowed targets take. A 7x7 diamond is also a lot easier to use and catches a lot more enemies than Blemishine’s Sleep. This win is Saria’s once again.

Short answer: No. Saria is better overall than Blemishine.

Saria is a much more reliable healer, SP battery, and crowd controller than Blemishine, and her healing can even make her a better damage soak in some situations despite Blemishine’s DEF buff. Blemishine’s kit is spread slightly too thin to compete with Saria’s strengths, and her unique ability to attack Sleeping units doesn’t make much of a difference unless you were planning on using Sleep already.

That being said, there is one aspect where Blemishine manages to surpass Saria: her astounding synergy with a few small subsets of Operators. Blemishine dramatically increases the viability of any [Getting Hit] Skill due to Sword and Shield, and her S2 makes her far and away the best healer for any unit that cannot be directly healed. In particular, an upcoming Operator (who is already quite strong enough on their own) jumps to ludicrous levels of broken with Blemishine’s help, and there may be other such Operators in the future.

Blemishine is very versatile, but she is generally outclassed by Saria, who fills many of the same roles but does so more reliably. There are some situations where Blemishine’s strange spread of strengths snaps into place and she suddenly excels, but at other times she can struggle to stand out from the crowd.

Even at her worst, though, being a “less reliable Saria” still makes Blemishine better than many other units. Whether you’re interested in her synergy with other Operators or just head over heels for her divine design, then we at GamePress chivalrously wish you luck in pulling her!