Arknights: In-depth Review - Dorothy

Dorothy is the future 6★ Trapmaster Specialist featured in the Pathfinder of Sands banner, which will run alongside the Dorothy’s Vision event. Dorothy is the first 6★ representative of this unusual archetype, focusing on versatile landmines that change effect depending on which Skill is equipped. Are her abilities enough to propel her into the spotlight? Let’s find out!

Dorothy’s main appeal is her very high versatility as an Operator owing both to her archetype and her set of Skills. A great degree of map control gives her a wide array of options to utilize her debuff and stalling abilities, taking full advantage of her archetype in the same way Robin does. Dorothy’s kit also comes with some decent damage options and better crowd control abilities, at least when compared with other Operators of her archetype.

As with all other Trapmaster Specialists, all her Skills do on activation is to constantly replenish her supply of 5 DP cost Traps, adding one to her inventory every 12 seconds at M3. Passively, these Skills instead change the behavior of her traps once they are triggered.

Very importantly, these traps do not consume any Deployment Slot, but must be placed in tiles with no enemies on them, limiting their position and versatility a fair amount right off the bat.

Dorothy has significantly higher Attack than both other Trapmasters, partly due to her higher rarity and partly due to her Talent boosts focusing entirely on this particular stat. Because of this, however, her HP is significantly lower than Robin’s. As a reference point, this archetype tends to have very similar stat spreads to Marksman Snipers, with slightly faster Attack Intervals. This gives her relatively high passive DPS.

Dorothy can deploy up to 8 (10 at P3) Resonators at a time, and hold up to 10 at once. The Resonators can be deployed on empty tiles with no melee enemies on them, and will trigger once an enemy walks over. When deployed, Dorothy will summon two Resonators on random viable tiles within range.

The first part of this Talent is the generic text that all Trapmaster Specialists have for their archetype, while the second part actually gives Dorothy some sort of unique benefit. Deploying two Resonators within range is quite powerful and lets her hold some lines very early on, but in general her archetype’s DP cost is so low that this wouldn’t usually be a problem if they are the first ones to be deployed. Useful due to the Resonator’s deployment cooldown to hold early lanes, but not incredibly impactful in most situations.

When a Resonator is activated, Dorothy gains +2% Attack stacking up to 10 (12 at P5) times.

This Talent gives Dorothy a significant offensive buff as soon as she gathers enough stacks, which should be rather quickly due to her notable map control. With all 12 stacks, Dorothy will have around 850 Attack, which paired with the high multipliers on her Resonators is enough to put a dent on many enemies and easily dispatch weaker ones.

When a Resonator is activated, it deals 450% Physical damage to the enemy who activated it and reduces their Defense by 35% for 5 seconds.

This Skill is pretty nifty and has the highest single-target damage per Resonator out of all of Dorothy’s Skills, but it’s a bit lacking in how its specific effects combine with her archetype. The duration of this effect is significantly shorter than similar ones with either higher debuff percentages (such as Pramanix or Shamare) or additional effects (such as Elysium), which makes it difficult to get the most out of this Skill as Dorothy will have to constantly reapply the debuff, which can be both draining on the DP cost of constantly deploying Resonators and straight up impossible if the enemy has stopped moving for any reason, such as being blocked.

It’s overall a pretty decent Skill that finds a good compromise between damage and utility, but it’s both difficult to get the most out of it and not incredibly rewarding when you do.

When a Resonator is activated, it deals 300% Physical damage to a small (1.2 radius) area centered on the enemy that activated it, and inflicts Bind for 3.5 seconds. If this attack only hits one target, the Bind duration is extended to 6 seconds instead.

This Skill has a really good Bind infliction ability, even rivaling Ethan in terms of sheer Crowd Control, replacing his much better range for better consistency but the previously-mentioned difficulties that her first Skill also has to face. Still, both the multi-target and the single target effect make this quite a powerful Skill paired with Dorothy’s map control, allowing for Binds with 50% uptime on single enemies if their specific movement pattern does not impede constant Resonator placement

This stalling effect can be quite powerful as a counter to gimmicky threats in different events and stages, specially those with self-HP drain or that are worth keeping as far away from your Operators as possible. Examples of this include Possessed enemies, or Reapers from the Aegir-related events.

Additionally, this is the Skill used for the gimmicky stall combination with Irene’s Gust, who can throw enemies into the air to allow Dorothy to deploy more Resonators right underneath their feet, resulting in stall durations of over 90 seconds if executed correctly. Not the best strategy, but perhaps a possibility worth considering.

When a Resonator is activated, it deals 350% Arts damage to all enemies within two tiles in all four directions, inflicting an 80% Movement Speed debuff for 5 seconds. After 2 seconds from this activation, all other Resonators within range will activate for the same effect.

This is generally considered Dorothy’s main Skill as it allows for long chain reactions that can hit a large amount of enemies for good Arts damage and a relatively long-lasting Slow effect to boot. The chain effect rewards appropriate planning but also punishes less careful plays by potentially detonating Resonators with no nearby enemies, resulting in a net loss of damage, crowd control, and an entire Skill activation.

Paired with the slowing effect, the delay in the consecutive explosions can potentially extend the crowd control effect significantly, as enemies still alive after one activation are likely to get hit by at least the next wave of the chain reaction. This, of course, also means they will be receiving a great deal of Arts damage for as long as Dorothy has Resonators and DP to keep the chain reaction going. This is a decently powerful Skill held back by the constraints of the archetype, but still quite strong with careful planning and consideration.

So, should I pull for Dorothy? Does her versatile kit make her powerful enough to put this archetype in a regular party? Are the stall opportunities she brings really that powerful? The answer is PROBABLY NOT. Dorothy can be excellent in specific circumstances, but she will always have to cope with the fact that her archetype is notably high-effort in terms of planning but likely won’t provide results you can’t find elsewhere in easier to use Operators. The reliance on viable melee tiles in front of her that she needs to deny to other allies makes her difficult to fit in most team compositions that aren’t ready to welcome her, and being unable to set Resonators under enemies is a severe drawback that balances Dorothy into more of a “for fun” than “for meta” Operator. Still, her Skills do not disappoint and she will shine in stages that allow her to perform to the best of her abilities if you decide to use her. Just be aware of the extremely powerful banner coming in our near future.