User blog:Linathan/Guide: Ihsir's Wiles and who to give it to

Hi all. Been a while since I did a blog post. Today, I am going to go over one of the most unique spheres we've gotten recently, and that is Ihsir's Wiles, obtainable from reaching Hunter Rank 130 in Frontier Hunter.

What is Ihsir's Wiles?
Sphere Description: 45% boost to all parameters, reduces BB gauge required for BB (25% reduction), damage taken considerably boosts BB gauge (3-5 BC) & adds powerful attack on single foe to BB/SBB (600% damage modifier)

The first three effects are pretty generic for the most part, but the one effect that sticks out the most is the additional powerful attack on single foe added to BB/SBB. This isn't one ordinary attack on the enemy, but more rather an additional set of frame data added onto whoever is equipped with the sphere.

What is Frame Data?
Frame Data is everything that defines when things happen. This includes when combo hits land, when buffs apply, when heals take effect, etc. In this case, the important part of Frame Data in what is going to be discussed here is damage distribution.

How Ihsir's Wiles works
I've mentioned before that this isn't an ordinary attack added to the frame data of whoever is equipped with Ihsir's Wiles, so let's break down what this sphere really does.

This additional attack has a set of rules that are listed below:
 * The additional attack has a BB damage modifier of 600% with a flat Atk value of 200, which is pretty standard for "third attacks" added via ES from units like Vortex Arena units.
 * The additional attack has an effect delay of 0 frames but occurs after all non-SP proc effects. This means any buff that isn't part of the unit's SP enhancements should be able to buff the additional attack as long as the buffs carry an effect delay of 0, which is generally common among Global units as opposed to JP originals.
 * The additional attack formulates its own frame data depending on the following:
 * If the unit has no attack on the corresponding BB/SBB, then the additional attack will attack on frame 0 with a total damage distribution of 100%.
 * Units like Elimo (BB/SBB), Limilnate (BB only), etc.
 * Copies the exact frame data from the first Attack/Burst Heal effect, including damage distribution.
 * Copies the frame data from the second Attack/Burst Heal effect onward, including damage distribution barring the first hit.
 * Ignores attacks and burst heals added via Extra Skills and SP Enhancements.
 * This means effects like Gabriela's burst heal will not count towards the additional attack.
 * Random Target Attacks are treated as a single combo hit.
 * Element-Targeted Attacks still count towards the additional attack's frame data.

Examples
Let's take Immortal Firewing Blaze as an example for testing Ihsir's Wiles.

What's important to note about Blaze?
 * Blaze has two separate attacks on his base kit.
 * First attack has 19 hits.
 * Second attack has 5 hits.
 * Blaze has a third attack that activates only if his Extra Skill is active.
 * Third attack has 23 hits.

First Attack Frame Data: Frames: 13, 16, 19, 22, 43, 46, 49, 55, 58, 64, 67, 73, 76, 82, 85, 91, 94, 100, 106 Distribution: 10, 6, 6, 4, 8, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3 Total Distribution 100

Second Attack Frame Data: Frames: 61, 70, 79, 88, 97 Distribution: 20, 20, 20, 20, 20 Total Distribution: 100

Third Attack Frame Data (added via ES): Frames: 13, 16, 19, 22, 43, 46, 49, 55, 58, 64, 67, 70, 73, 76, 79, 82, 85, 88, 91, 94, 97, 100, 106 Distribution: 10, 6, 6, 4, 8, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 20, 6, 6, 20, 3, 3, 20, 3, 3, 20, 3, 3 Total Distribution: 180

First to note, we can ignore the third attack completely since it's added via Extra Skill.

Second, from the second attack onward, we ignore the first hit completely. This means we ignore the attack on frame 61 and its distribution.

Finally, combine the distributions in the first and the modified second attack together, and you get the following frame data for Ihsir's Wiles' added attack on Blaze: Frames: 13, 16, 19, 22, 43, 46, 49, 55, 58, 64, 67, 70, 73, 76, 79, 82, 85, 88, 91, 94, 97, 100, 106 Distribution: 10, 6, 6, 4, 8, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 20, 6, 6, 20, 3, 3, 20, 3, 3, 20, 3, 3 Total Distribution: 180

Looks familiar right? This added attack has the exact frame data as Blaze's third attack! This concludes that the additional attack added by Ihsir's Wiles will perfectly self-spark with Blaze's third attack.

Conclusions with Ihsir's Wiles
What can we conclude on Ihsir's Wiles?
 * The attacks added via Extra Skill and SP Enhancements will always have the same frame data as the added attack from Ihsir's Wiles.
 * Any attack with an effect delay of 0 frames will always self-spark with the frames that Ihsir's Wiles' added attack copies.
 * The attack may deal far more than the listed 600% BB modifier the added attack has depending on the unit that's equipped with Ihsir's Wiles.

Best Candidates for Ihsir's Wiles
From what was mentioned before, because Ihsir's Wiles copies all attacks in the base kit including damage distributions, it's most ideal to equip this sphere onto a unit with multiple attacks with high damage passives. Here is a list of some of the best candidates Ihsir's Wiles works best on:


 * Any OE Vortex Arena unit (preferably those in Season 1)
 * Season 1: Blaze, Sae, Dranoel, Cerise, Fionna, Ciardha
 * Season 2: Yan & Yuan, Vail & Vidron, Honoka & Hisa, Tate & Tama, Quentin & Quinn
 * Why? Because the added attack from Ihsir's Wiles will always spark with the attack added via Extra Skill as long as the Extra Skill is active. However, this may not be ideal in Guild Raid considering Extra Skill locks tend to be very common.
 * Any unit capable of self-sparking
 * Little Sister Nyami and Demon Ulfhednar Zelion are just some of the greatest examples of this.
 * Nyami's added attack from Ihsir's Wiles has a 185% total damage distribution, along with all hits on her second attack self-sparking with the first attack. This makes her extremely consistent in damage especially with the damage passives given.
 * We all know how stupidly insane Zelion is with how his SBB self-sparks 197% of his base kit's damage distribution (out of 200%) singlehandedly. The added attack from Ihsir's Wiles isn't any different, barring the first hit from the second attack. The added attack from Ihsir's Wiles equipped onto Zelion has a 195% total distribution, which self-sparks 192% of it. That's pretty insane.
 * Potentially any unit with a staggered burst heal.
 * Lovely Princess Alice is a perfect example of this, but this is on her BB.
 * Alice's BB has 15 hits, and her heals have 15 frames total, since each hit she deals will heal the squad by a small amount.
 * With Ihsir's Wiles, she has 44 hits total, self-sparking 28 hits. Because the burst heals occur on the same frame as her hits, Ihsir's Wiles naturally self-sparks every single hit that was copied from Alice's base kit.

Worst Candidates for Ihsir's Wiles
Now for the worst candidates. Because I said this sphere works best on units with multiple attacks, I'm pretty much going to say this sphere is the worst for units with single attacks, along with dual attackers that have only 1 hit on their second attack onward.

This means Randolph and Ravenna is indeed one of the worst candidates to equip Ihsir's Wiles on. Let's take a look at why.
 * R&R have an SBB that has three attacks with 21 hits on the first, 1 hit on the second, and 1 hit on the third.
 * Ihsir's Wiles ignores the first hit from the second attack onward when copying frame data, which means that Ihsir's Wiles will only fully copy the first attack's frame data.
 * Ihsir's Wiles' added attack will only have a total distribution of 100% if equipped onto R&R.

The main goal with using Ihsir's Wiles is to potentially deal as much damage as you can while utilizing the extra attack that's on Ihsir's Wiles. Ideally, you wouldn't want to equip this onto a unit that can only copy 100% of its total damage distribution when you could equip this onto a unit that can copy much more than 100%.

Final Thoughts
And that pretty much wraps up my analysis on Ihsir's Wiles and units that work best with the sphere. Is this sphere broken? Indeed it is, and if you're using this in any game mode that encourages nuking, this sphere definitely will not disappoint.

Huge special thanks go out to /u/Xerte on Reddit for fact-checking. His tests can be found on this Reddit Thread.

Related Wiki Links

 * Ihsir's Wiles
 * List of Units with ES & SP Added Attacks