Achae

## Skill Cards

**Stalwart**
 Reduce damage from attacks by 15% (20%).

**Guard**
 Adjacent (Nearby) enemies have -1 move.

**Defend**
 +1 armor (armor) per ability played this turn by caster.

Achae is a Fighter Class and known for being the most tanky hero in the game. She can be unlocked for 100 gems in the general shop. Her high life and armor value as well as her Skill Cards make her very effective in Raid and Gauntlet.

## Stats

Achae has 48 life and 6 armor, is the most resilient hero in the game.

She has an average attack value of 8-10, as well as low mobility of 2+1 which is traded in order to bolster her incredible bulk.

**Stalward** is an ability that reduces damage taken by 15% / 20%(upgraded), being the first ability to mitigate damage.

**Guard** allows her to hinder nearby enemies to have -1 move.

**Defend** allows +1 armor per class ability card played this turn by the caster.

## Strategies

Achae is an unlockable hero which means she isn't as required for when it comes to completing story mode and the challenges but as you progress into late game and attempt Gauntlet or climb the Raid leaderboards Achae becomes more and more valuable.

The main reason she can tank damage so well are her skill cards **Stalwart** and **Defend**. Armor is the universal number toward mitigating any incoming damage whether it's ranged or melee. Some gears have targeted protection against different sources of damage whether it's ranged or melee which gets added into the equation. An example for damage reduction, if Achae had 10 armor and got attacked by 30 damage, she would only take 16 damage instead of 20 (10 reduction from armor, and 4 from maxed Stalward). Click here for how damage calculation is done.
Achae isn't as good in PvE settings early game play as you don't have access to as many movement Abilities or gears, meaning you aren't dealing as much damage as you should be able to compared to Reynar. But as you progress into the game and take on harder challenges such as Clan Quests or Legion Quests, Achae becomes one of the many tools which you could use in order to beat them more easier.

Although being one of the strongest tank in terms of damage reduction, it comes at a cost of having only 2+1 movement, which greatly increases the time needed in order for her to reach the enemy. Combine it with movement hindering debuffs or against very sprint heavy heroes, Achae might not reach the enemies at all due to the low movement value. It's a trade-off between surviving and dealing damage earlier on. The difference between 2+1 and 2+2 is huge, so having mobility buffs or armor that increases movement, such as Elven Plate or Steel of Enkidu, is key to utilize her full potential.

### Gauntlet

Main Article: Gauntlet Strategies

When it comes to Achae she is the best at tanking to the the multiple spawning enemies that get progressively harder. Achae tanks damage so well that - with the right buffs - she can easily reach wave 25 in gauntlet on her own. Her damage of 8-10 is low, but that can be ignored in most scenarios, as her main purpose is to tank damage.

In Gauntlet, Achae is very powerful because of the many buffs that fighters can use. An example of what that can look like is demonstrated here.

### Raids

In Raid, she can tank a lot of damage before she is taken out and she also reduces movement of nearby enemies, which decreases the risk of fragile allies to be targeted. A common way to use her is in combination with River and Laarn. In that case, Achae is the support of the team and casts damage buffs, mainly Commander and Assault. Regroup is fantastic to draw more cards and Battle Scarred is one of the best fighter buffs in the game. It makes it much harder for attackers to damage Achae (and fighters in general). The reason for that is due the most common strategies revolve around using Guided Vision to have a guaranteed critical hit on attack.

To demonstrate the difference that Battle Scarred makes, imagine the example from before was a critical hit.

```
[(30 - 10) + (30 * 0.3)] * 0.8 = (20 + 10) * 0.8 = 24

```

In this case, a critical hit deals 24 damage, which is 8 additional damage compared to a non-critical hit, which means 50% more damage is dealt. Critical hits work in that they deal 30% of the attack's damage value directly to the enemy, ignoring armor. However, Stalwart also reduces critical damage, demonstrating how powerful the ability is in combination with Battle Scarred. Without Stalwart, the previous example would have dealt 30 damage.

Having Achae combined with anti-critical hit gears/abilities allows her to survive and out resource the enemy.