Arknights: In-depth Review - Ling

Ling is the future Limited 6★ Summoner Supporter featured in the Unstrained Liquor, Pellucid Heart banner, which will run alongside the Invitation to Wine event. Ling is one of the most anticipated Operators in the game, both because of her status as a Limited Operator and her apparent high power. Usually the Summoner Supporters branch has very clearly defined ups and downsides, so how does Ling fare in comparison with the other Operators of her role? Let’s find out!

Ling is vastly different to every other Summoner in the game: where all others have to rely on support abilities to work at their full potential (such as Magallan), or come with gimmicky sets that might make them harder to utilize (like Scene, Mayer and Deepcolor), Ling streamlines the Summoner playstyle to the point where it’s as straightforward as deploying Blaze.

Ling marks a sharp contrast to all other Summoners in that her kit is purely designed for simple and direct offense with no downsides, making up for the deployment slots she will be taking for herself by deploying Summons that are as strong (if not even stronger) than regular Operators. As we will see later on in the review, Ling’s skillset and gimmicks give her absolute control over the battlefield, so much so that it is very difficult for things to get out of hand as soon as she gets going. 

As a result of all this, Ling obviously takes the spot as the best trust-farmer in the game, replacing Scene and soloing most of the entire story (including bosses!) by herself.

Ling enters the meta as the quickest solution to essentially any low-op problem, and owing to her versatility she can crack any stages wide open, needing at most one or two more Operators to help her clear any and all kinds of content, from regular story mode stages, to H stages, to entire events. Let’s take a look at her stats!

Ling’s stats do not matter. No matter what Skill she equips, she’s largely going to take a step back as an enabler to her Summons, whose stats DO matter. Ling’s summons, however, completely change behaviour depending on the skill she has equipped (similarly to Magallan), so these will also be explored separately with each Skill.

As all other Summoner Supporters, she has a really low DP cost and low-ish stats all around. Her Attack, which will really only matter with her Second skill, is around 500, which is lower than Amiya’s. Let’s move on to her Talents now!

At E2, Ling will be able to summon 5 Dragons, only 3 of which can be in the battlefield at a time. These Dragons will take on different behaviors depending on the Skill Ling has equipped.

This is almost the exact same first Talent that Magallan has, and it enables the basic functionality of their branch. There’s really not much of interest to be said about the base Talent that wouldn’t fit more on their separate Skills, so we should be able to move on to the next Talent quickly, right? Not quite!

Perhaps you are already aware of how strong Ling’s Module and Module Upgrades are, but in case you’re out of the loop, let me recap it for you a little bit:

• Ling’s basic Module lets her carry 3 additional summons with reduced redeployment cost, which is pretty huge for her third (and arguably strongest) skill. Still, she can only deploy 3 of these Dragons at a time, so keep that in mind.
• Ling’s Module Level 2 is by far the most powerful Module Upgrade in the entire game. This upgrade allows her to deploy an additional Dragon, which may not seem like much, but translates into a massive power boost for her second Skill, and an even bigger one for her third.

These upgrades are fairly expensive, but if you do plan on using Ling to her full extent, you probably should prepare for them. Ling’s Module Upgrades give her a massively disproportionate advantage when compared to any other Operator’s, even the ones that did also get quite a big improvement (such as Mostima or Passenger). This article will discuss how each skill fares both with and without Level 2 Module.

At E2, whenever any of Ling’s summons is defeated, retrieved or absorbed (more on this on her Skill 3), she immediately receives 3 SP (+1 at Potential 5) and her Attack increases by 3%, up to +15%.

This Talent is not incredibly powerful, but it works well enough with her kit. Ling benefits the most out of Attack increases when her second Skill is equipped, which gives her a more proactive role in combat instead of just enabling her Dragons to wreak havoc. It is also the Skill that benefits the most from this kind of SP support, and the one that has the easiest time triggering its conditions.

While it also functions okay with her third Skill, it doesn’t really benefit that well from small bursts of SP recovery, and her summons are so powerful they’ll rarely be defeated in combat. Ling will essentially only be able to trigger this support via the absorption mechanic, which has a limited amount of triggers if this Skill is used correctly.

When equipped, Ling’s Dragons become their Tranquility variant, which can only be deployed on Melee positions. These Dragons have relatively high stats and a low DP cost of 12, though by themselves they essentially act as a strange mix of multiple Guard archetypes, while never reaching the stats those have in any regard. They can also only block 1 enemy at a time.

When this Skill is activated, Ling immediately obtains an additional Dragon (much like Scene’s Panoramic Overload), and for 25 seconds both her and her Dragon’s Attack is increased by 50%, and their Attack Speed by 50. Additionally, all Summons will deal Arts damage for the duration of the Skill.

In general this Skill is pretty decent, with good buffs and a clean 50% uptime, but where it falls apart is in the Summons’ stats. Granted, it’s still stronger than Scene’s second Skill, but with all Ling can do with her other Skills it’s generally not recommended to use this one very often. Even taking into account the massive overall DP cost of her third Skill, its massive combat overperformance outweighs any benefit this one would have in regards to Melee positioning.

When equipped, Ling’s Dragons become their Peripateticism variant, which can only be deployed on Ranged positions. These Dragons act as relatively weak Casters with low stats and low DP cost, with the same Attack Interval as Core Casters but with the Attack of Mech-Accord Casters and none of the buffs they have to compensate. At 9 DP cost they are quite cheap to deploy, though. 

This Skill relies entirely on its activation effect to work properly. When activated, Ling and all her Summons immediately shoot a projectile to up to 2 targets within range, dealing 450% damage and inflicting Bind for 3 seconds. After this, all Peripateticism with less than 50% of their Max HP return to Ling, and can be placed again if desired. This skill takes 13 SP to charge up, and can hold 2 charges at a time.

This skill has significantly lower overall DPS than the similar-looking Ignition, Eyjafjalla’s second Skill, but with careful planning and usage it can absolutely decimate and control entire battlefields while keeping Ling very safe and even optimizing DPS. When activated, all 3 (4 with an upgraded Module) Peripateticism and Ling will attack two enemies within range, which can result in really good bursts of DPS if their ranges are overlapping, great control on the entire battlefield if they are spread around, or any combination of these. While the standalone damage is not that incredible, the versatility and ease of usage this Skill has makes it a great choice for essentially any map with Ranged tiles. Such is this power, in fact, that Ling is able to beat 7-18, the infamous Patriot stage, all by herself.

The part of the Skill that retrieves Ling’s Dragons after a skill cast if their HP is low enough is also perfectly designed, as it both allows Ling to redeploy these pseudo-Casters on more advantageous tiles and at full HP, and also can repeatedly trigger her second Talent for a boost in damage and SP, turning Ranged enemies who would otherwise be able to harm Ling into boons that can be abused for even more damage.

Overall, this is a great Skill and definitely worth looking into if you want to use Ling to her full extent, but still nowhere near as much as Ling can actually do, as this is, believe it or not, significantly less powerful than her last skill.

When equipped, Ling’s Dragons become their Thunderer variant, which can only be deployed on Melee positions. These Dragons are significantly more expensive than anything else Ling can summon (at a whopping base 18 DP), but also boast much, much higher stats that rival, if not outright beat some of the most powerful Guards, block 2 enemies and attack enemies equal to block count. Not content with this, however, Thunderer summons can also absorb each other if they are within Attack Range generating absolute monstrosities with stats much higher than almost any other Operator in the game in every regard: 1.3 times more HP than Kal’tsit’s Mon3tr, Attack that rivals Iris’ with a much shorter Attack Interval, Defense just 35 points shy of Nian’s and a natural 4 Block Count that no other Operator shares, while still attacking enemies equal to their block count (though they do consume 2 Deployment slots).

Remember that this is all before activating Ling’s Skill. These mechanics and stats are what Higher Form Thunderers have before actually being buffed. Base ling is only able to deploy 2 Higher Form Thunderers and a regular one due to her Talent restrictions, while with her Level 2 Module she is able to summon 3 of these beasts and a regular one.

When activated, Ling and all Thunderers receive a 100% buff to their Attack and Defense, and each summon deals damage equal to 20% of Ling’s Attack every 0.5 seconds to all enemies in the 4 adjacent tiles, which can stack with each other. This Skill has 30 seconds of uptime per 40 of charge, which all things considered is pretty amazing for a Skill of this caliber. After those 30 seconds are over, Ling will obtain an additional summon (not like she’ll need it, considering how incredibly powerful the Higher Form Thunderers are already).

The numbers of this Skill speak for themselves. Higher Form Thunderers already have very little issue mowing down any enemy that comes their way, and can easily penetrate high Defenses even before the Skill is activated, much like Mon3tr. Activating this skill results in an incredible burst of damage that can be centered and stacked to obliterate enemies really quickly, or spread around the map to take care of multiple lanes with ease. The only real downside this skill has is the massive DP cost these Thunderers have, costing a base 36 for a Higher Form one. Nothing a Myrtle cannot fix, though, and even if you plan on going solo for fully efficient trust farms she really doesn’t seem to have any issue taking care of the early game by herself most of the time.

Despite her second Skill still being incredibly strong, this is the one that you are going to be pulling Ling for.

So, should I pull for Ling? Is she the absolute meta revolution that people seem to think she is? Can she really solo as much content as it seems? The answer is PROBABLY YES. Ling is an absolute powerhouse with incredibly straightforward gameplay that can nevertheless decimate most regular content with a modicum of planning and knowledge. Still, keep in mind that, strong as Ling is, she excels in very specific contexts but doesn’t shine as brightly in others. Think if simple and efficient Trust farms are worth the pulls spent on a Limited Operator, or if you’re better off waiting for someone with better usage in other content, such as Contingency Contract.