Character Spotlight: Wanda
This month’s spotlight is all about Wanda. Wanda has scored decently on the character popularity poll, but she is also @Epholo8 favorite character, and I want to do this one as a thank you for his LP content.
Background:
Wanda is the only daughter of Lord Talford, and she grew up in an overprotective household stemmed by her birth defect, which caused total blindness in one of her eyes. She fell in love with horseback riding at a young age, but her father forbade it out of fear that she would not be fit to ride due to her condition.
Through the years, Wanda acted the part of perfect daughter for her father. She became knowledgeable of Burga’s commerce and trade accounts with the other nations, and she was even handling trades at a young age. However, horseback riding was not something Wanda could stay away from, and for a while would ride in secret. Wanda’s headstrong passion made her into an expert rider, and she even became proficient in jousting after entering tournaments using an alias.
Eventually, Lord Talford discovered his daughter’s secret. While he became more understanding after learning of Wanda’s talent for riding, he never fully gave his blessing out of fear for his daughter. As a compromise, Lord Talford would allow Wanda to ride on easy roads while she monitored trade routes.
Years later, with Astoria’s coronation in sight, Wanda discovers that the famed White Lions have forced their way into Burga’s border. She reports the invasion to the council but finds it strange that none of Burga’s military suffered any casualties. The turn of events gives her and her father reservation about pursuing with the coronation ceremony and believes it to at least worth listening to the White Lions words of warning. This ultimately results in a delay in the coronation ceremony.
The Talford region is soon invaded by the Proclaimers under Astoria’s order, and Lord Talford is captured in order to release the seal protecting Jubir’s Drum. Wanda fights back and is determined to save her father. If Boone decides to come to Talford’s aid, Wanda is saved by the White Lions and her childhood friend, Wise, and they team up to rescue Lord Talford and stop the coronation ceremony. Wanda assures her new allies that she is someone they can count on in battle, and she will prove that her noble status and partial blindness will not be a burden.
Wanda joins the White Lions in a battle at Jubir’s Terrace against Astoria, the soon to be queen, to save her father. She is ultimately successful and reconciles with her father. To Wanda’s surprise, Lord Talford allows Wanda to ride with the White Lions, because he knows that is what she wants to do in her heart.
Appearance:
Wanda has long red hair that goes down to the middle of her chest. She is blind in her right eye, which is not noticeable in her in-game portrait but can be artistically represented in Wanda’s artwork. Wanda wears white armor over a pink undershirt. Her white armor has a light gold trim on the shoulder pads and chest plate.
Growth Rates:
| HP | Pow | Skl | Spe | Lck | Def | Res |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 70% | 30% | 35% | 55% | 45% | 50% | 35% |
Unit Analysis:
Wanda has a very high total growth rate that focuses in Speed, Luck, and Defense as well as having great HP and Res. This gives her the most potential to be the bulkiest of all the cavalier options in the game; however, Wanda has very weak growths in both Power and Skill, which will start to show later in the game as enemies begin to show more bulk.
Wanda’s promotion options are Silver Paladin and Templar. The Silver Paladin class overs Wanda access to bows, which gives her more offensive options later in the game to help deal with fliers or indirectly attacks. Templar gives Wanda the ability to play the role of a backup healer and is overall the superior choice for Wanda, because Wanda will likely not be a reliable unit to one-round enemies later on in the game.
Wanda’s bases and growths will likely see her have a strange trajectory during the course of the game. In her earlier maps, Wanda will fill the role of an offensive lance cavalier that is capable of dispatching enemies and holding choke points reliably. Later in the game, Wanda will do well against enemies with weaker defense, like mages, and can also serve as a bulky support unit or rescuer.
Overall, Wanda is a good candidate for teams looking for a mounted units with prospect of transitioning toward a support role later in the game. Additionally, Wanda can be used to play the same role as an armored unit but with superior mobility, avoid, and resistance, while giving up a little defense and power. This makes Wanda a great unit for baiting enemies on the enemy phase and allowing her stronger allies to clean up on the player phase. Wanda also joins at the time in the game where deployment slots begin to become very competitive. To Wanda’s benefit, the maps followed her recruitment can benefit from units with high mobility – especially Chapter 19, and this can secure her deployment and spot on a team. Wanda’s value in battle will likely hit a wall when it comes to her damage output later on in the game, and she unfortunately has limited options for patching it up aside from a support partner and the coveted energy rings. Then again, any unit can become the best unit after dumping every stat booster obtained.
Support Options:
Wanda’s affinity is Dark, which unfortunately does not provide her with any additional power or defensive boost. The boosts to hit rate, critical hit rate, avoid, and critical avoid are always appreciated and enjoyed by Wanda and some of her support partners.
- Wise - Fire
- Vergil - Wind
- Ariel - Light
- Saoirse - Wind
- Shane - Wind
Ariel is a relatively new support option for Wanda, but it happens to be her best and also mutually beneficial for Ariel. Light provides boosts to both Power and Defense, which will further improve Wanda’s ability to tank on enemy phase, while also contributing some to her offense. Ariel’s Light affinity is Wanda’s only support option for boosting her Defense too. In addition, Light will also provide max bonus to Wanda’s hit rate, which is greatly appreciated given her low Skill.
Fire affinity is a great option for Wanda as it provides additional Power, and max bonuses to hit rate, avoid, and critical hit. Wise unfortunately prefers supports that will boost his Power, but he does still enjoy the other bonuses that the Dark affinity provides.
Wanda’s last support option is Wind, and while the worst for Wanda, it is not at all bad as Wind provides bonuses to Power, and grants max hit rate and critical hit rate, which are very appreciated. Vergil can be a great pairing for Wanda if using both mounted units, and Vergil does appreciate the bonuses from the Dark affinity. Saoirse too can be a great support pairing with Wanda; however, Saoirse has many more options than Vergil to consider; still, Dark affinity bonuses will work well for her. Lastly, Because of Shane’s late join time, he will appreciate any support option made available to him, and Wanda happens to be one of his better options.
Popularity Poll:
I intend to continue doing character spotlights each month at least for the remainder of 2021. I will also factor characters that are discussed in posts often in addition to the poll. Vote for your favorite characters and tell me why you like them, or feel free to request any too.