Ceui
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9 Min read Gepard is one of the seven Standard 5-star units in the game and is always available from all banners. Along with Bailu, Gepard is a solid solo sustainer option for new players via shielding and drawing aggro from the enemies.
The bulk of Gepard’s relevant effect is her Ultimate – Enduring Bulwark. Upon use, Gepard will grant all allies a shield equal to 45% of his Defense plus 600, lasting over 3 turns. This is his primary means of sustaining the team, and when built well, Gepard can maintain this Shield with very high uptime, except when paired with units that move very fast, such as Seele or Aglaea. Gepard can preemptively grant the team Shield with his Technique before entering battle, but the value is much lower than his Ultimate.
The remaining parts of Gepard’s skillset are quite uninspiring. His Skill is a single-target attack with a low 65% base chance to inflict Freeze on a target. Since most Elite units have a base 30% Effect Res and upward, this effect is very inconsistent and generally not worth using, as it consumes the team’s Skill Point. His Talent – Unyielding Will grants him a one-time revive for each battle, which can be handy as he naturally gets attacked quite often due to his high innate aggro. This pairs well with Gepard’s first major trace – Integrity, which increases his chance of being attacked, and acts as a pseudo energy battery for him. His second major trace – Commander will also restore his Energy to 100% when his revive is triggered, allowing him to quickly redeploy his Ultimate when hit with a massive attack. Grit is Gepard’s weakest trace, as it gives him an Attack boost based on his current Defense, since Gepard’s damage output is completely negligible.
Gepard’s game plan is exceptionally simple. He is a massive meatshield that takes hits for his ally and deploys Shield via his Ultimate whenever it is up. This is quite sufficient for early progression and weaker fights, but Gepard’s form of sustain has some major holes. First of all, relying on hit RNG to upkeep his Shield is a gamble, and other Shielders like Aventurine or Dan Heng – Permansor Terrae have much better consistency in upkeeping their shields. Furthermore, Gepard’s Shield is based on the allies’ turn, meaning units that act often will run out of Shield exceptionally quickly, which limits Gepard’s potential teammates. Last but not least, Gepard does not have any way to counter debuffs or crowd control, which is a major problem in endgame content.
Basic Attack – Fist of Conviction: Deals Ice DMG equal to 100% of Gepard’s ATK to one designated enemy.
Skill – Daunting Smite: Deals Ice DMG equal to 200% of Gepard’s ATK to one designated enemy, with a 65% base chance to Freeze the enemy for 1 turn(s). While Frozen, the enemy cannot take action and will take Ice Additional DMG equal to 60% of Gepard’s ATK at the beginning of each turn.
Ultimate – Enduring Bulwark: Applies a Shield to all allies, absorbing DMG equal to 45% of Gepard’s DEF plus 600 for 3 turn(s).
Talent – Unyielding Will: When struck with a killing blow, instead of becoming knocked down, Gepard’s HP immediately restores to 50% of his Max HP. This effect can only trigger once per battle.
Technique – Comradery: After Gepard uses his Technique, when the next battle begins, a Shield will be applied to all allies, absorbing DMG equal to 24% of Gepard’s DEF plus 150 for 2 turn(s).
Integrity: Gepard has a higher chance to be attacked by enemies.
Commander: When “Unyielding Will” is triggered, Gepard’s Energy will be restored to 100%.
Grit: Gepard’s ATK increases by 35% of his current DEF. This effect will refresh at the start of each turn.
Gepard has really poor Eidolon values; none of his Eidolon levels are a notable improvement. His E1 increases the base chance of his Skill by 35%, which does help him land the freeze more consistently, but most of the time, Gepard would rather be generating Skill Points for the team. His second Eidolon further daps into his Skill’s usage, reducing the Speed of the enemy who is frozen by it. His fourth Eidolon is probably his most useful one, increasing the entire team’s Effect Res by 20% which is a decent help against heavy debuffing enemies. His E6 gives him another revive and immediately allows him to act when he triggers it, on top of recovering his HP to 100% instead of 50% like normal.
All in all, like most Standard units, it is completely not worth trying for Gepard’s Eidolon in any circumstances.
Light Cones
Main Stats
Relics:
Planar Set
Moment of Victory: Increases the wearer’s DEF by 24% / 28% / 32% / 36% / 40% and Effect Hit Rate by 24% / 28% / 32% / 36% / 40%. Increases the chance for the wearer to be attacked by enemies. When the wearer is attacked, increase their DEF by an extra 24% / 28% / 32% / 36% / 40% until the end of the wearer’s turn.
Gepard’s Signature Light Cone is perfect for him. Apart from the massive base stats and Defense increase, it also increases Gepard’s aggro, which is an indirect buff to the team’s bulkiness.
Journey, Forever Peaceful: Increases the wearer’s provided Shield Effect by 12% / 15% / 18% / 21% / 24%. When an ally target has a Shield, the DMG dealt increases by 12% / 14% / 16% / 18% / 20%.
Gepard can make use of both the effects on this Light Cone. It lets him contribute offensively instead of just being a Shield bot, while still improving his protection capability.
Landau’s Choice: The wearer is more likely to be attacked, and DMG taken is reduced by 16% / 18% / 20% / 22% / 24%.
This Light Cone is essentially the 4-star version of Moment of Victory. It is worth noting that Landau’s Choice gives a much bigger Aggro increase than Moment of Victory and is more reliable at drawing enemies’ attention, perfect for fighting heavy Single-target bosses.
Day One of My New Life: Increases the wearer’s DEF by 16% / 18% / 20% / 22% / 24%. After entering battle, increases All-Type RES of all allies by 8% / 9% / 10% / 11% / 12%. Abilities of the same type cannot stack.
This Light Cone is the better choice compared to Landau’s Choice when fighting enemies with a lot of AoE attacks, as it reduces the enemies before the Shielding for the entire team, essentially making the Shield last much longer.
Trend of the Universal Market: Increases the wearer’s DEF by 16% / 20% / 24% / 28% / 32%. When the wearer is attacked, there is a 100% / 105% / 110% / 115% / 120% base chance to Burn the enemy. For each turn, the wearer deals DoT that is equal to 40% / 50% / 60% / 70% / 80% of the wearer’s DEF for 2 turn(s).
This Light Cone should only be used when supporting Acheron, as Gepard can generate stacks for her Ultimate with it when attacked. If the players already have Jiaoqiu, then this is unnecessary.
Gepard’s Shield scales off Defense, so Def% should be the priority for his Body piece and Ornament. For boot, he can run either Speed or Def%, but since Gepard has very low base speed, unless the players can get him to 134 Speed without a lot of sacrifices to his other stats, then Def% boots are recommended. For rope, Energy Regeneration Rate is crucial to help him maintain his Shield in lengthy battles.
Def should be the main chase stats for Gepard. He can opt for either some Speed subs if he can reach the 134 Speed baseline, which is useful for most characters, or Effect Res to keep him more resistant to Debuffs as he will be targeted quite often by the enemies.
Option A
Self-Enshrouded Recluse:
This set is the best set for all Shielders as it increases both their Shielding value and also improves allies’ damage output via the Crit Damage boost.
Self-Enshrouded Recluse:
This set is another fantastic choice for Gepard, improving his Shielding capacity via both the Defense boost and the direct Shield value increase.
Lushaka, the Sunken Seas:
The extra Energy Regeneration is very handy as Gepard wants to access his Ultimate as often as possible. The Attack boost is also quite nice for most damage dealers that he wants to protect.
Broken Keel:
Effect Res is very useful for sustain units, since they don’t want to get Crowd Controlled. The teamwide extra Crit Damage boost is another cherry on top to pick this set.
Belobog of the Architects:
This set gives a solid Defense boost, but to get the extra 15% Def, Gepard has to get some Effect Hit Rate subs, which can be somewhat challenging.
Gepard can function as a solo sustainer for most teams. He generally wants to be paired with units that do not move often, and also wants to avoid being paired with HP-scaling Damage Dealers as they prefer Healers over Shielders.
Yanqing: Yanqing’s bonus from Soulsteel Sync gets cancelled when attacked, which makes a Shielder the better choice of sustain for Yanqing over a Shielder.
Acheron: Since Gepard has very high Aggro, he can inflict debuff via his Skill and can wear the Light Cone Trend of the Universal Market to apply debuff to enemies attacking him, he can work as a F2P sustain option for Acheron.
Of the two sustain units from the Standard pool, Gepard is considerably more restricted than Bailu in terms of team options and even lacks some utilities that she brings. In general, both he and Bailu are solid stopgaps until players can afford premium sustain units.
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