Fritia - Sparkdrive
Fritia - Sparkdrive
6-shooter warp cannons, courtesy of Dr Strangelove.
6-shooter warp cannons, courtesy of Dr Strangelove.
Released in:
Version 3.6 - Winds of Warmth
Note that v3.6 also introduces Longyan - Divine Fox.
Each have their own article.
This article is about how Sparkdrive affects the games meta. If you only want details on Sparkdrive herself - how to play and build her, then view her article here.
Winds of Warmth released with Longyan - Divine Fox as its new operative, who dealt Thermal Ballistic damage, and who also buffed the damage of any Aptitude effects that she was affected by.
This meant that Longyan's best support was Tess - Phantasia, and whilst it was nice for an operative to not be best buddies with Vidya - Celestial Swan for once, the only other operative who gives an Aptitude effect is Fritia - Little Sunshine, who is a 4* operative and who doesn't really compare or compete with the 5* supports.
As such, it seemed obvious that Fritia - Sparkdrive would be an Aptitude-based support operative, and given the name, she would presumably be an Electric-damage-based operative, although presuming an operative would be Electric-damage based upon their name was an assumption that Haru - Raikou proved wrong before, so Fritia's new exosuit wasn't guaranteed to be Electric, although given that Little Sunshine was Thermal Aptitude and Phantasia was Frost Aptitude, Sparkdrive being Electric Aptitude would make a lot of sense, doubly so since it would als mean that Longyan being supported by Phantasia and Sparkdrive would mean she'd be dealing Thermal, Frost, and Electric damage, which just sounds correct.
Sparkdrive being an Electric Aptitude would have been good, as it would give Longyan two obviously BiS supports - Fritia - Sparksdrive and Tess - Phantasia, whilst still allowing Longyan to be supported by other strong ballistic or general supports should either of those not be present, such as Yao - Nightglow or Marian - Aquila.
Again, not having to be by Vidya's side all the time made Longyan pretty interesting as far as supports went, and whilst Longyan's proclivity for Aptitude effect did limit her support pool somewhat, she was still a breath of fresh air... well, at least normal air, as Tess has been an amazing support for basically all ballistic operatives since she was introduced, but again, Vidya not being the best support is always a refreshing change.
Fritia - Sparkdrive does... absolutely none of that though.
She is a main dps, not a support.
Much like every other Auctus Drive operative before her, Sparkdrive is a main dps, and like all main dps operatives, she is basically useless as a support.
Sparkdrive's support skill deals both Thermal and Electric damage for... some reason.
I am sure there is a reason. I don't know what it is, but I am sure there is a reason.
It's cool, and different, but it doesn't really make a difference what type of damage her Support Skill deals, so it's an odd change. I don't mind, but it is odd.
Whilst you don't really want to actually use Sparkdrive as a support, her Signature Singularity logistics set does give +10% DMG and healing for off-field operatives when it's at its max of 6 stacks.
Since Sparkdrive can't build stacks when off-field though this means she can't use this buff to buff the damage of the other support, which seems like a missed opportunity, as having Sparkdrive buff the damage of for example Tess - Phantasia would actually be an interesting mechanic and might give Sparkdrive some actual niche use.
Sparkdrive is a purely Skill damage dps - she deals no ballistic or Aux unit damage.
As a DPS she can tap her Standard or Ultimate skill to deal single-target or AoE damage, respectively.
After using her Standard or Ultimate skill twice in a row, she can click to use a more-powerful AoE/AoE skill, respectively, constantly dealing damage over its few second duration.
Yes, the single-target attack's more powerful version does deal AoE damge.
She can also use one of each, which does a beam attack that can hit two targets
Whilst she does need to click to use this more powerful version, it isn't a shot and won't proc ballistic or shot buffs/effects, and buffs that proc on shots won't work.
Doing this more powerful skill will also put a copy of that skill into the cylinder in the centre of the screen.
When the cylinder is full (of 6 shots) Sparkdrive can hold her ult to equip her giant cannon, and then hold down the trigger to fire off the powerful skills.
All of this counts as Standard Skill Damage - nothing Sparkdrive can do counts as Ultimate Skill Damage or Ultimate Skill Use.
That's it. Relatively simple to explain, and her rotation is pretty simple too:
Use her Standard/Ultimate Skill
Use her Standard/Ultimate Skill again
Click to use the more powerful version and add a copy to the Ultimate's cylinder
Once the Ultimate's cylinder is full (of 6 shots), hold her ult to equip her cannon and then hold down the trigger.
Repeat.
This is both relatively fast-paced but also pretty easy once you get used to it.
You might have noticed that nothing there seems like it is actually dependent on Sparkdrive actually landing hits against the enemy, and that's true - she can build up max charges even with no enemy to hit at all.
This means that she performs better against enemies with invuln phases, as she can continue to set up her AoEDoT fields and build charges whilst the boss is invulnerable.
She can also perform poorly against highly mobile or airborne enemies, as the projectiles from her Standard Skill are pretty slow, and thus relatively avoidable, although many operatives perform against such enemies, so Sparkdrive isn't alone in that regard. It's a shame she isn't better against mobile/airborne enemies, but that's something of a common weakness, but I think also a relatively minor one due to being somewhat niche.
Also yes, Fritia does ride the giant void cannon whilst she fires it, so evidently during the Adjutant's two-month long absence Fritia joined Vidya for a movie night and watched Dr Strangelove, although Fritia does side-ride the cannon, not straddle it.
There's probably something to be said about a game being taken down for months to censor itself and then returning with a girl who rides a giant "cannon" as it shakes all over the place, but I can't think of a good joke about it, so just pretend I am that witty and wrote something funny here.
Regardless, Fritia does ride the cannon as it fires, which is good because the cannon can move at a normal speed, meaning that Fritia has normal mobility whilst the cannon fires.
This is extremely useful, because much like most recent operatives before her, Fritia's in-combat mobility is dreadful.
Earlier this patch we saw Longyan - Divine Fox, who had the mobility of an inebriated sloth that's high on dental anaesthetic, and whilst Sparkdrive is much better than that, she's not that much better.
Whilst she can get on her cannon without any delay or having to stop, she does have to stop each time she uses her Standard Skill, as well as having to stop to get off the cannon, which means that she stops a lot.
In terms of mobility she feels similar to Bubu - The Geomancer (oh, you thought we'd be able to get a new operative without me referencing Bubu? You fool) or Mia - Starchaser, where you'll have what would otherwise be decent movement that is constantly interrupted by having to stop to deal damage.
Overall, this gives Sparkdrive enough mobility to be able to kite an ok amount of enemy attacks, but her mobility is still pretty weak overall, and she will likely need to dodge to avoid many AoE effects and projectile attacks.
Sparkdrive is an odd operative to write positives and negatives about, because she just feels so incredibly average.
Sparkdrive has the mediocre mobility we've come to expect from recent operatives, she's pretty intuitive to use, and has a pretty simple rotation that requires probably more clicking and button mashing than it could, which is also something I did somewhat expect.
Her damage is about what you'd expect for an Auctus Drive operative.
As a main dps she's useless as a support, just like every other main dps
She doesn't really have any unique gimmicks or teambuilding quirks.
Sparkdrive is just... a new operative.
That's not bad, but I am struggling to find much more to say about her.
I can mention that whilst Fritos is still a plank, she does now have actual jiggle physics, which is sure to be extremely divisive among the fanbase.
Also: Check out the alternative headpiece on her Premium Outfit.
To whichever devs created that: I don't know who you are, but I have infinite respect for you.
Sparkdrive's 5* weapon is Magnetic Flow, which does roughly what you'd expect a new 5* weapon to do.
It boosts damage (in this case Electrical Damage, by 18-20%)
It interacts with one of her unique mechanics (in this case, keeping the last Spark after using her ult, so she only needs another 5 to use her ult the next time around).
It provides a short-duration but functionally permanent buff (in this case to Standard Skill Damage)
It increases the damage the enemy takes to Sparkdrive's damage by 12-20%.
or at least... it should, but doesn't.
If you played the Outfit Trial for Sparkdrive's new outfit, you'd have seen that it is currently broken, with Sparkdrive not being usable in the trial, and appearing instead is the operative from whichever trial you most recently completed.
An interesting oversight on the part of the devs, and I am wondering about how you'd even program in such an error to begin with, since as far as I am aware the most recently completed Operative Trial is something that isn't used for anything, and I would assume it isn't actually explicitly stored anywhere.
Very interesting!
What's less understandable is that Magnetic Flow doesn't really get a T2 buff.
It starts at +80% Standard Skill Damage and 20% more Skill DMG taken, and upgrading it to T2 doesn't increase either of those stats.
Specifically, increasing it from T1 to T2 only increases the Electrical Damage boost from 18% to 30%. Nothing else.
This means that the actual difference between Magnetic Flow at T1 and T2 is extremely tiny, to the point that, to be honest, it's not really worth upgrading it.
This patch did have a lot of cool new features and QoL improvements to the game, as I mentioned in my article on Longyan earlier this patch, so it is interesting that Fritia has two pretty glaringly obvious issues.
Since every player gets Sparkdrive for free just from logging in, can get a T2 weapon fore free, and you can still preview Sparkdrive's premium outfit, in practice they're not really that much of an issue, although I am very surprised that such an issue happened to the newest operatives premium outfit, as it's pretty well known that most of the money that gacha games make in the West comes from premium outfit sales, so they're usually one of the most rigorously bug-tested things.
Sparkdrive deals Electric Skill damage.
This means that she competes directly with Chenxing - Jade Arc, who is the games main Electric Skill damage user.
Chenxing has had the metagame in a chokehold since she was introduced, dealing incredibly high damage, but also having the ability to stack arrows into enemies and then ult for extreme damage that allows Chenxing to bypass the invuln phases of many bosses, giving her the undisputed spot as the games top endgame dps.
Sparkdrive does not compare, but to quote what I said about the last Auctus Drive operative (which was Mauxir - Lotus):
"To be fair to Mauxir, Rhapsody is one of the games strongest operatives for dps, and as an Auctus Drive operative Mauxir was never going to be at the top, and that was by-design."
and the same is true when comparing Sparkdrive and Jade Arc; Jade Arc is generally the games best dps, and as an Auctus Drive operative Sparkdrive was never going to compete, and that was by-design.
Sparkdrive is an ok dps.
She's not amazing, but she's ok.
Will I ever use her in endgame content? Probably not, no.
Is she fun? I think so, yes.
For experienced players like me, Sparkdrive is a new toy to play with - what matters the most is whether she is fun, and I think that she is.
For new players, Sparkdrive is a perfectly competent dps that you can use to clear literally all of the games content without exception.
Again, the primary consideration for an Auctus Drive operative is that they are fun, and I do think that Sparkdrive is pretty fun to play, and her ult does play differently to all other operatives, so I think she's a good operative - She's fun, balanced, good looking, and not overpowered.
Good job, Fritos!
It's true that I really was expecting Sparkdrive to be the first Auctus Drive support operative, and whilst I know many people thought that was unlikely as all previous Auctus Drive operatives have been dps'ers, Seasun have been shown to be willing to change things up in the past, so it wouldn't have surprised me.
Sparkdrive not being Longyan's ideal second support means that Fritia does somewhat fall flat as far as the meta is concerned, not really being useful for endgame content.
All previous Auctus Drive operatives have had some form of healing:
Pulse has insane healing, and could give herself strong shielding as well, although that shielding was there to counter her insane self-damage, which was also unique, and Pulse was the first dps operative who could actually heal herself to a strong degree.
Raikou did slowly recover HP by forming closed loops, and had very unusual mobility.
Lotus could heal her Nodes by a huge amount.
Fritia not being able to heal does make her stand out, but what also makes her stand out is that she doesn't really have anything special going on.
In Lotus' article, I said that I really enjoyed playing Lotus and found her really fun, and that's true - I have liked using her and have used her quite a lot since she was released, and Lotus is utterly unique in how she plays.
Pulse' self-damage and self-healing did also make her very unique, as she was (and still is) one of the only operatives that has significant self-healing, with Clarina - Crimson Moon being the only other dps with any notable self-healing.
My article on Raikou was basically an autopsy of failure, as I really disliked her design, but she was still somewhat unique in how she played - the movement, the weird way her ult worked, even that she could heal herself [to a small degree].
I had come to expect that Auctus Drive operatives wouldn't be strong, but would be unusual in their designs, which would make them unique and pretty interesting.
Sparkdrive doesn't really have anything that makes her stand out, which means that, again; I feel she does somewhat fall flat.
Sparkdrive is a perfectly fine operative.
If you're a new player and she's all you have, then she's a perfectly good choice and will see you through the game just fine.
If you're an experienced player, then she is a fun new toy that is pretty enjoyable to use.
As an Auctus Drive operative, Sparkdrive isn't that strong, and dealing Electric Skill damage means she competes with Jade Arc, who is generally the games strongest dps, so for endgame content there's no reason to ever use Sparkdrive.
Sparkdrive is fun, but mediocre, which is fine.
As I've said about many previous operatives - it's good that new operatives aren't overpowered, and don't break things, and I think completely ok for an operative to be merely fine.
Sparkdrive isn't exciting, but she's fun, respectable, and isn't overpowered, which is about all we want from an Auctus Drive operative.