Stolby

## Overview

Stolby's ability to negate debuffs on its team stands unparalleled due to its combination of Anti-Curse, Restore + Mass Restore, and its innate Debuff Resistance. Its Multi-Poison + Plague is unique to it as well, and thanks to a combined Mana Syphon, Transfusion, and Warlock healing, Stolby is excellent at passively spreading debuffs on the enemy party, earning it a viable role as a support on many Poison or Stall teams.

Death Blow and Double Strike help solidify Stolby as an option for a potent DPS monster as well. Thanks to its anti-debuff passives and Mana Overload, Stolby can easily top 700 Magic without fearing burns, and has more than enough mana to operate using a continuous stream of max-level skills even with plentiful chill stacks. Rather than the debuffs themselves, Stolby's passive debuff application helps out its DPS set by increasing its damage without any manual action, and can potentially allow Stolby to accumulate Supremacy charges from some of its teammates.

When deciding what shift it prefers, Stolby tends to consult its teammates and their abilities. Teams with powerful healing, either passive or active, adore having Dark Stolby's Overheal, whereas teams that simply need Stolby to stay alive as long as possible much prefer it having Light Instinct. Since its shift varies primarily with its team and not its own function, either of Stolby's shifts are effective for enabling it in any team role.

As a revive user, Stolby much prefers staying on the backline to almost guarantee it can form a successful revive chain with one or more of its allies. Having Bolster + Mentor enables the newly-revived teammate to accrue a worthy selection of buffs to help it either survive an extra hit on the following turn or knock out an opposing monster immediately. With its importance to the revive chain, Stolby should typically only be lead with if the party can be confident that it can survive until the end game or if they have enough other revive users to build a revive chain without it.

With all its passive debuffing, Stolby can end up accidentally decreasing its own team's damage output by limiting its allies proliferate chains via its passive existence. A lack of passives to aid in such chaining also further works against the DPS set, greatly solidifying its desire to stay on the backline and only enter the field against a team of mostly-weakened foes.

Due to its gaping physical weakness and lack of resistances for direct damage, Stolby ends up being quite frail in the face of many powerful offensive threats. Fortunately, Stolby has 2x Dodging, giving it a considerable chance to evade such hits, though a chance it is nonetheless. Stolby also suffers from a noticeable lack of stack removal, which can easily ruin its functionality. Tether is a pain for all variants, as it removes Stolby's evasion and leaves it even more vulnereable to physical hitter, and Wounds can not only give opposing debuffs an extra advantage over it via Severe Upkeep, but prevent Dark Stolby from capitalizing on its shift passive, rendering it mostly useless for a turn.

Unmatched debuff control and passive debuff spreading make Stolby a perfect pick for many bulkier builds looking to outlast the opposition, and its split sets give it a level of unpredictability difficult to reproduce. When building defensively, Stolby should always be given a chance.

## Healer

#### Equipment

* Hexing Rod / Purifying Mace
* Crown
* Hide
* Slime Skin / Cauldron

### Build Details

Stolby's support set doubles down in its fourth skill tree in order to maximize debuff removal for its team, and is more than willing to drop the offensive passives from its two leftmost trees to do so. Arcane Shield is the go-to move for when the party is at good health and devoid of any dangerous debuffs, as it lets Stolby protect one of its allies from extra damage while boosting them with Mentor, though it won't often find opportunities to use it over one of its restores. Light Shift's extra bulk is the default for support Stolby, but Dark Shift is typically preferred when used with high-recovery allies or alongside Primal Hex. Full Restore is the Ultimate of choice, as it increases Stolby's already-high debuff removal even further, but Channeling Heal can be used should you need a stronger AoE heal.

Most of Stolby's equips are intended to simply increase its bulk further, though it'll gladly spare its weapon slot for a useful passive. Hexing Rod allows it to spread even more debuffs by virtue of existing, while Purifying Mace gives Stolby the ability to remove stacks; a trait which it is sorely lacking. Crown and Hide are standard bulk-increasing equipment on supports, and the former becomes extra effective thanks to Mana Stability, and the third accessory depends on which extra debuff-based passive you'd prefer. Slime Skin provides a significant boost in Stolby's effective durability, while the Cauldron helps boost other debuffs significantly, and thanks to Stolby's multiple mana-based stat boosts, is a natural fit for it. Arcane Shield Level 5, Potion Mastery, and Death Blow could all be run in exchange for Mana Nodes depending on your team, but their usefulness is limited for Support Stolby.

### Team Options

* Seen on Stall Teams, Occult Debuffs, Poison Teams, and some Mage teams, Stolby finds its place alongside numerous varied monsters in every possible role, with the sole purpose of ensuring the opponent gets debuffed and stays debuffed.
* Arachlich is probably Stolby's most common ally. It benefits greatly from Stolby's Multi Poison, can fuel Overheal with Blood Drive + Feast, and can help keep Stolby alive with Occult Power. On the other side, Stolby loves the extra damage from Blood Drive, has its revival boosted by Necromancy, and can boost Lich into Shield Burst range with Arcane Shield. Both are also perfectly willing to carry a cauldron for their team.
* Tar Blob also quickly established itself as one of Stolby's best friends, as it shares a similar debuffing setup to Stolby, but with Tri-Mage Healing instead of Warlock Healing. It adores Stolby's Mana Syphon, and helps keep the debuff train rolling with both Multi Poison and Multi Burn alongside more Blood Drive, which Stolby benefits from greatly with Plague. The varied debuffs the two apply also easily fuel Tar Blob's Debuff Variety, although it typically prefers Dark Shift, which can cause some overlapping passives between the two.
* Vasuki brings extra Poisons and Burns to the table, and can spread them quickly and effectively thanks to Curse Chain. It enjoys Stolby's Multi Poison for the sake of spreading extra debuffs, and its Fatal + Severe Upkeep alongside Stolby's Corrosion can easily melt foes with DoTs. Alternatively, Light Vasuki enjoys Stolby's ability to keep pesky Chill stacks from ruining its Death Blow assault, boosted by Stolby's incredible debuff spreading.
* Troll is a staple of Poison and Occult teams, and uses Stolby's toolkit to its fullest. Extra Multi Poison and Stolby's Plague help it get extra value from Poison Eater, and Overheal lets it Devour foes to max out its shields in an instant. Stolby in return appreciates the passive Occult heal from Troll and the extra Plague procs, and benefits greatly from Multi Armor Break and Broken Immunity for its Corrosion.
* Fumagus may seem an odd pick for Stolby, but Overheal + Primal Hex can lead to rapid mass debuff application from both Stolby and Fumagus. Both being mages with Death Blow, either can be used as a DPS alongside one another as well.
* Thornish is great at spreading debuffs with Curse Chain, and the two benefit from each other's Multi Poison. More notably is Thornish's ability to protect Stolby to help make up for its vulnerability to physical attackers.

## Death Blow DPS

#### Equipment

* Summoned Sword / Scepter
* Bracer
* Crown
* Ancestral Medal
* Lightning Sphere
* Charging Sphere

### Build Details

Stolby's high Magic and access to Death Blow makes it quite the dangerous DPS. Poison Cloud is run over Poison Bomb to provide Stolby with a reliable AoE attack, and since Gemstone Rain is a guaranteed active, it maximizes Stolby's coverage options. Should you decide to run Poison Bomb instead, it would be worth considering Spectral Wave over Spectral Flame to ensure at least one non-Ult AoE, though be warned this limits Stolby's access to neutral offenses. Additionally, some of Stolby's Defensive Nodes can be invested into extra Mana Nodes to further boost its power at the cost of durability.

Summoned Sword boosts Stolby's magic considerably and comes with an extra passive 15% damage boost for most of its hits, and Scepter can increase its mana sustain while providing similar amounts of magic thanks to Mana Overload. Crown is the main defensive equip DPS Stolby is willing to run, as it benefits its offenses as well as its bulk. Bracer and Charging Sphere can both boost Stolby's damage output as well as its HP, making it tougher to kill while ensuring greater longevity. Ancestral Medal and Lightning Sphere both offer high offensive bonuses with little to no bulk, with Ancestral Medal being stronger on Stolby's first turn and Lightning Sphere helping it score extra hits with Proliferate as well as its magic boost.

Worth noting that while one could try and use Stolby as a Combo Builder using Proliferate and Breaking Spells/Toxin, a severe lack of helpful shift passives for such a role and singular Multi debuff leaves it rather outclassed in such a role. If you were to try it, the standard Proliferate equips of Bow/Poisoned Dart/Lightning Sphere/Thermal Reactor still applies.

### Team Options

* Found in the same teams as its Support set, DPS Stolby works excellently alongside most of its old teammates, such as Arachlich, Vasuki, Thornish, and Fumagus.
* Goblin Warlock is DPS Stolby's most helpful ally, as it brings Multi Poison, Occult Power, and Supremacy to allow Stolby to accumulate Charge Stack between turns using its powerful passive debuffing. It also has Mage Penetration, furthering Stolby's damage significantly. Warlock also enjoys having debuffs weakened across the team, making its job of spamming Mass Restore much easier, and Stolby in return benefits from Warlock's Purify.
* Fungi is an excellent support for Stolby with either Shift. Dark Fungi can generate incredible combo and lets Stolby easily remove the weakened threats, and Light Fungi, while generating less combo, gives Stolby some extra offensive power with Supremacy stacks off its passive debuffs. Having Sensitivity and 2x Dominance never hurts, either.
* Shockhopper offer Multi-Debuffs otherwise absent alongside Stolby, allowing it to help get further Death Blow bonuses. Both Dominance and Sub-Zero boost Stolby's debuff-based damage output, and it offers another instance of Mage Penetration to send Stolby's damage even further.
* Mad Eye is excellent at building combo for Stolby, boosts its Poison with Fatal Upkeep, can improve Corrosion thanks to Armor Crush, and helps keep both alive with Occult Control.
* G'rulu can also build combo for Stolby, benefits from Overheal with its Regen Sharing, and offers Multi Armor Break for Corrosion, although it brings its own Corrosion as well.
* Grummy, while lacking in Multi Armor Break, can still easily spread Armor Break, brings Broken Immunity to help spread Poison, and offers Regeneration Shield in addition to its Regen sharing, allowing for massive shield generation alongside Overheal.

## Checks and Counters

* Stolby's high physical vulnerability and reliance on evasion to circumvent it leaves it extra weak to physical monsters with Sure Strike, as they can circumvent its evasion and KO it.
* A lack of stack removal leaves Stolby easily handled by most stack-based teams, with Tether most notably limiting its evasion.
* Due to its specialized skillset, Earth-resistant monsters can usually wall it quite easily.