In this article, we will be talking about Helena and her pairs.
Contents
1.Helena and Cleveland
There isn’t any major OTP that matters right now. Even the game recognizes this one as well, and nothing can be done that will make me change my mind.
2.USS Helena
Just like Cleveland, Helena is one of the few USS light cruisers that are highly regarded. However, she doesn’t have as many nicknames as Cleveland does.
She is also missing a few other things but regardless of those, let’s look into what makes Helena the character she is.
Being a light cruiser, Helena is known for her anti-air stat, and she honestly has a pretty good one. Her anti-air is at 279.
She isn’t the tanky character as her health pool is on the lower end of the spectrum. Her health is at 3204.
She also has light armor which means that she is extremely weak to high explosive ammo types.
Compared to several other elite light cruisers, her evasion is a little bit low, at 73, so it means that she is more likely to get hit and makes her survival game not that good.
Her firepower is a tad bit higher than most which are at 149. Unfortunately, the firepower difference isn’t nearly enough to be noticeable.
Her reload also seems average compared to other light cruisers of her rarity.
Given that her status is a gunboat, she has no torpedo attack but gains an additional main gun mount when the limit breaks.
Her main gun efficiency is the only one that changes, so if you haven’t limit broken her yet, her DD gun and her airgun efficiency are in-state.
- Her main gun goes up by 30% efficiency, which is a considerable job, which will squeeze out more damage if necessary.
- The level 100 stat is easier to do since the resources needed aren’t as difficult to obtain.
- Anti-air: 279
- Health: 3204
- Evasion: 73
- Armor: Light
- Firepower: 149
- Reload: 161
- Torpedo: None
- The level 120 grind requires resources that are not as easily obtained and can take some time before getting the necessary amount.
- Anti-air: 316
- Health: 3604
- Evasion: 90
- Armor: Light
- Firepower: 171
- Reload: 185
- Torpedo: None
As you can see in Level 120 grind, she gains a decent amount to all of her stats. The decent jumps in her health pool and evasion are two areas that she needs as survival feels like her weakest area at the moment.
Her overall stat line isn’t the worst, but I have had a little bit of a tough time trying to keep her alive in my fleets. It might be in one’s best interest to rely on evasion equips, or health-boosting equips to help her stay alive. Then again, I guess you could rely on a healer type.
Skills
One of the good reasons I want to use her is because she has one of the best skills. Helena’s skill is a radar scan with up to a 60% chance every 20 seconds to increase the damage enemies take by up to 40% for 10 seconds.
This is a crazy-powerful skill as it causes enemies to straight-up melt, and bosses can take some serious damage if it’s coordinated well enough with your backline.
The only drawback is that this debuff is a one-time buff, which only affects the currently on-screen enemies. If the enemy spawns after the skill procs, then the buff isn’t applied to them, so this will be best applied to enemies who you don’t expect to die quickly, such as elite event nodes or flagship fleets themselves.
Overall, she’s got a decent stat line with a few weaknesses, but her skill is probably one of the best to use when you want to dish out some serious damage.
Should Helena be used in a boss fleet or mob fleet vanguard?
She is best utilized in boss fleets.
Her skill’s main weaknesses only apply to active enemies at the time of the debuff; this is unlike Cleveland’s skill which acts as they pass a buff for the fleet and has usefulness outside of the enemies who are currently on screen.
With mob fleets, your damage output is probably high enough that there won’t be many enemies to be affected by the debuff when it activates. This can also have some really bad timing as you might have cleared out all the enemies already, and it procs right before the next group appears.
With the boss fleets, it’s not likely that the boss will die before the debuff can be effective, so the skill can be extremely useful here. Just remember that RNG is a thing, and it might not happen when you want it to. Thankfully, the 60% chance is still relatively nice. However, when it procs, you could expect the boss to take massive damage if you hold your backline to strike immediately after the scope procs, which is something I highly suggest you do. Due to the nature of her skill, she is best suited with characters known for their high damage output like Enterprise or even Ayanami, and of course, there is the duo, Helena and Cleveland. As I had mentioned, their skills do work together.
I want to make sure that all of you know that the chances of both of their skills’ procs at the same time are extremely low, but when it does happen, it will be an incredible combination. However, her skill allows flexibility with fleet composition, which is a huge plus as anyone could benefit from having her in play.
Overall, Helena is a light cruiser that has a decent stat line. Her main rise to fame is that her skill enables everyone to dish out more damage on whoever they are fighting. Unfortunately, I have few issues with her survivability against higher-level bosses, but that is a risk worth taking if her skill could enable my backline to wipe out the boss very quickly. She is definitely worth the leveling and worth giving her a chance to shine in your boss fleets.
