Minerva

Overview

Minerva is a Magical DPS and a mid-air combat specialist. She excels at quickly resetting her damaging skills and handling bosses of any size. While her power level is excellent, there is a bit of a learning curve to playing her properly.

Pros

• Speedy rotation and strong cooldown management.

• Can deal explosive damage, often outdoing most classes.

• Exceptional against large bosses.

• Excellent dungeon clearing utility packed with splash damage on [Mod] Neil Sniping.

• Relatively fast startup.

• Flight via the Nitro Motor.

Cons

• Has to keep herself in the air for optimal damage output.

• Main skills require specific positioning.

• Performs best with at least one healer due to tremendous MP consumption. In solo play, potions can’t keep up.

• Nitro Motor movement can be confusing at first.

• Some skills must be cast in a fixed order.

Skill Setup

You will use mostly the same skills, and the majority of them are non-negotiable. Between clearing and bossing, only the Transcendence slots differ.

Bossing

[Mod] Neil Sniping can be replaced with Relationship Skill in solo play, or [Mod] Phantom Shot to decrease resistance in Raid.

Clearing

Penetrating Bullet might not be that good in certain dungeons (ex. Magma Breath) - in that case, swap it with [Mod] EMP Storm for its pulling effect.

Weapon Lock

Minerva’s main weapon is Muskets, but it’s recommended to lock them, since they’re pretty clunky. Switch to Automatic Pistols instead - they provide no delay when you have to use certain commands and don’t have a recoil when shooting in the Einherjar mode.

Key Passives

Key of Proof

Increases damage dealt and decreases MP consumed by skills cast in the air. This is Minerva’s main passive that decides her identity.

Awakened Will: Freyja

Fully unloading all grenades of one type grants an attack boost. This passive is triggered automatically when using the skill rotation listed below. Keep track of the buff during phase changes, pattern phases, etc.

When unloading all grenades, ECP will be fully depleted to enter Over Strike, increasing your damage dealt. This feature is problematic due to immediately disabling your other buff (Servo Nitro) after it happens. At the same time, it helps you get your DPS online as fast as possible.

Note that casting [Mod] G-96 Pressure Grenade also counts as unloading all grenades.

Enhanced Grenades

Fully unloading grenades significantly reduces the cooldown of all Special Actives. Also, hitting an enemy with two different types of grenades inflicts a strong debuff on them. This passive is the bread and butter of Minerva - the skill rotation below is basically built around it.

Skill Rotation

Opener Rotation

1. Einherjar (optional)

2. G-35L Flash Grenade (once, must hit the enemy)

3. Servo Nitro

4. [Mod] G-96 Pressure Grenade (must hit the enemy)

5. Jump and keep yourself in the air until buffs run out

6. [Mod] EMP Storm

7. [Mod] M-3 Flamethrower: Rampaging Flames

8. G-35L Flash Grenade (unload)

9. [Mod] G-96 Pressure Grenade

10. Proceed with the loop rotation

Loop Rotation

1. [Mod] EMP Storm

2. [Mod] M-3 Flamethrower: Rampaging Flames

3. Penetrating Bullet (optional)

4. [Mod] G-96 Pressure Grenade (priority) or G-18C Freezing Grenade (immediately unload all)

5. G-18C Freezing Grenade (immediately unload all) or [Mod] G-96 Pressure Grenade

6. Repeat

The general idea is to cast your main damage skills, then fully unload two types of grenades to constantly reset them. Here are some worthwhile skill rotation insights:

• There are two ways to go about Green Exascale’s Complete effect. Casting [Mod] EMP Storm is optimal, but it pushes you back. This can be remedied by either holding the directional key mid-air, or casting it under a platform. The pushback will make you return to your original position every time. If this is too much of a hassle, just cast [Mod] M-3 Flamethrower: Rampaging Flames or alternate between the two.

• Penetrating Bullet is a filler skill at this point, but it still deals decent damage. You can use it in the rotation to wait out Pressure Grenade’s cooldown or keep yourself in the air for longer.

• Falling down while cycling skills is normal - just don’t panic and return to the air immediately.

• Freezing Grenade is slower than Flash Grenade, but it cannot be used at all times due to being an ECP-using skill that’s constantly getting depleted by the other grenades. To optimize DPS, store Flash Grenade when you’re temporarily out of combat and prioritize using it over Freezing Grenade whenever available. This also helps managing MP.

• This rotation is not the definitive optimal course of action - you may have to adjust your moves depending on content or circumstances. For example, if a Radiant Soul resets your cooldown or the Transcendence slot effect procs, cast EMP Storm and Rampaging Flames immediately while skipping grenades, provided you have already buffed yourself and debuffed the enemy.

• Servo Nitro’s buff duration is long, but it can’t be used in the air and consumes ECP that gets constantly depleted in your rotation. When you notice it’s about to expire, use non-grenade skills until your ECP gauge gets filled in half, come down to the ground to rebuff, then resume your rotation. Always cast it before unloading grenades.

• Einherjar’s buff reduces Grenade skills’ cooldown when they’re cast in the air. It’s nice to have, but chances are, you won’t even need it. The animation is lengthy, and its own Special Active Skill Cooldown Decrease effect upon casting can’t keep up with Grenades in most scenarios.

Skill Positioning

When facing giant targets that cover most of [Mod] EMP Storm’s and [Mod] M-3 Flamethrower: Rampaging Flames’s range, just stick to them directly.

Smaller enemies require you to step back slightly like so:

Both skills should be used roughly at this distance.

Keep in mind that [Mod] EMP Storm’s recoil will keep pushing you backward, so you’ll need to reposition every now and then. This recoil can be partially mitigated by following up with another skill immediately (requires pretty fast fingers).

Gear Choice

Red Exascale (Compute) is an easy pick for a class with excellent cooldown management. However, Skill Reset Chance, either via Blue Exascale (Cycle) or Reset Circuits with Compute, can achieve comparable performance, but it’s RNG-dependent. Reset helps because it lets her skip Freezing Grenade’s long animation in the skill cycle. If it procs on [Mod] G-96 Pressure Grenade instead of Transcendence slots, that’s still fine - it deals solid damage, and a second cast resets all other skills anyway.

Regarding Atma accessory set, Grove should be used due to providing the highest damage increase for Minerva while being the most comfortable to use - it requires no attention from the wearer whatsoever. Flow is harder to manage, but can be rewarding whenever burst damage is important if you can consistently time the cooldown reset.

EMP Storm will deal the highest damage in most dungeons, so it’s recommended to activate both of its traits (Heavy & Critical).