Arknights: In-depth Review - Ashlock

Ashlock is the future 5★ Fortress Defender featured in the A Wanderer in the Wind banner, which will run alongside the Pinus Sylvestris event. Ashlock is the first Operator of her archetype, so this article will delve a little bit more into her core kit.

Additionally, with the recent announcement of Horn as the flagship 6★ of Episode 10 and second representative of this archetype, this review will try to shed some light on the usage cases for such an Operator.

Unlike most other Defender Operators (apart from Eunectes and Mudrock), Ashlock has a very clearly defined offensive presence. This is particularly obvious in regards to her range, which is more similar to that of a Besieger Sniper than of a Defender, or literally any melee Operator for that matter. It, in fact, is the single longest melee range in the game.

A particularity that this archetype’s range does not share with the aforementioned Snipers is that this one can actually hit targets on the same tile as the Operator, but these attacks will take on a different behavior.

When targeting enemies on the tiles that extend far from the Defender, they will fire powerful shells that deal Physical damage in an area equal to an Artilleryman Sniper (hence why Ashlock is often called a “Sniper Defender”). However, whenever they are blocking any enemy, they switch to the shield bash-type attack that most Defenders share which damages only a single enemy at a time. As a result of this quirk and in conjunction with their massive range, Fortress Defenders excel as backrow support DPS, which heavily contrasts with their high base Defense. Still, this range also lets Ashlock take advantage of obtuse map positioning to hit very faraway targets with impunity, as we’ll see later.

As strange as this may seem due to the visual nature of their attacks, Fortress Defenders CANNOT hit aerial targets, neither via regular strikes nor through their splash effects. In this regard they are somewhat similar to Rosmontis, the only other Operator with splash normal attacks who cannot hit air.

Finally, though they can block 3 targets at once and have high defensive stats, players should keep Fortress Defenders as far away from their targets as possible. Much like Operators such as Pallas, their damage relies very heavily on keeping their distance from the enemies,.in this case because blocked enemies will deprive them of their powerful, long-range AoE strikes.

For now, let’s continue by taking a look at Ashlock’s stats.

Ashlock’s stats are heavily lopsided in favor of her offensive presence, sacrificing part of her defensive stats for much higher attack than most other Defenders. When taking her Talent into account (which, as we will see later, is a passive boost), Ashlock is only beaten in the Attack department by the offensive powerhouse Eunectes. Defensively, however, Ashlock has worse Defense than all other 5★ Defenders excluding Vulcan and significantly lower HP than Protector Defenders. She also has no Arts Resistance, making her a poor choice against this type of damage due to her lower HP.

Unsurprisingly, Ashlock’s stat spread is almost completely focused on her offensive capabilities, with decent enough defensive stats that she can still be called a Defender. Funnily enough, this means Ashlock has one of the highest base Attack stats in the game when taking into account her Talent, with slightly more than a fully invested Ifrit.

At E2, this Talent acts as a passive 8% Attack boost for Ashlock (+2% at P5), going up to 16% (+2% at P5) if all 4 tiles surrounding her are ground tiles.

While the second part of this Talent is quite difficult to trigger, the first one comes as a passive boost that improves Ashlock’s most important stat permanently. As a result, this will be taken into consideration when talking about her DPS.

The second boost from this Talent is quite massive (twice the amount it usually gives!), and coming from an already monstrous base Attack stat it’s a great buff if you can take advantage of it. However, Ashlock’s special range means she will often be locked into lanes guarded by other allies if she wishes to be a DPS support, or in obtuse positions to abuse her range to snipe dangerous targets from multiple lanes away. Either way, try to take advantage of the additional boost if you see a clear position for Ashlock, but don’t focus too much on it: she already has enough Attack as-is.

While this Skill has somewhat better uptime than her S2, its generic nature makes it significantly worse in most situations. It loses against Ashlock’s other skill in both Average and Burst DPS until enemy Defense values of around 1300, and thus is not really worth using under most circumstances as it also doesn’t have any of the extra abilities the second one brings. Still, if for some reason you want to use Ashlock as a frontliner for melee DPS or a blocker, this is the Skill you should use.

When activated, this Skill immediately reduces Ashlock’s block count to 0, boosts her Attack by 55% and reduces her Attack Interval by 65% to about 1 second per attack.

This skill meshes really well with Ashlock’s archetype, removing the need to watch out for enemies coming her way if you wish to keep her using ranged attacks (though the play may be risky if she’s the only one holding her lane).

Thanks to her range and quick cycling, Ashlock can be used repeatedly during a single stage to take care of heavier threats and larger waves with very little risk involved, while also being capable of cutting entire lanes short with adequate positioning. With a decently good uptime of 35% and good cycling she’ll often be ready again before any more waves come her way.

Finally, be aware that she cannot hit her own tile while this skill is active, so be careful when triggering it so no enemies slip past her range into tiles she cannot reach.

So, should I pull for Ashlock? Is this new Defender archetype one worthy of pulling for? Does her uniqueness redeem her banner? The answer is MAYBE NOT. As interesting and powerful as Ashlock can be under the right circumstances, her niche is way too limited to actually be useful for the average player. While you will probably get some use out of her if you decide to go for it, the investment necessary to get her to perform at her best is too much for what she brings to most rosters from a meta perspective.