This post is up to date with Version 2.1.
Lin is the Simulacrum tied to Shadoweave, a SSR Altered DPS Weapon. She is Tower of Fantasy‘s first and currently only Limited character, available only in the “Mirror’s Shadow” event banner. Primarily, her weapon serves as a support weapon though it can be used for DPS.
Base Kit
Shadoweave is the first and currently only weapon of the Altered element (which is more or less Tower of Fantasy‘s equivalent of wind or air). None of the enemies in the game are resistant or immune to the element so while stronger options exist out there, Shadoweave is often a safe bet or all purpose option to bank in any given fight. Altered ATK is also equivalent to the highest elemental ATK you have for the base four elements, making Shadoweave pretty lenient when it comes to Equipment.
In line with the applicability of the Altered element, Shadoweave also has both its Shatter and Charge set to 11.50. This makes the weapon and all-rounded choice for charging your weapons or breaking enemy shields. If using the weapon for its Shatter, the best most ideal input that makes use of the stat is Scattered Soil, a charged attack that can be executed after performing two Normal Attacks.
In lieu of an Elemental Resonance, Shadoweave has a passive called Weapons Master. This causes Epiphyllums to randomly appear and explode around an enemy within 1-3 seconds. The requirement to utilize this ability is to equip Shadoweave with other weapons. In other words, you basically have this active at all times. Note that this is not the only way to generate Epiphyllums; other methods exist to increase the uptime of this effect. The only downside to the Epiphyllums is that they can’t shatter so you’ll still need to use Shadoweave on hand like any other weapon to break enemy shields.
When you cast Shadoweave’s Skill, Moonlight Realm, you dash towards your target, dealing damage along the way and temporarily immobilizing anything within your path, and spawn the titular AoE for 15 seconds. The Skill cools down in 30 seconds. While active, this AoE will generate 1 Epiphyllum near an enemy every 0.8 seconds. By default, Moonlight Realm grants you a couple of buffs so long as you are within its radius. Your ATK is increased 9%, your jump is increased by 20%, and your Endurance consumption is reduced by 50%. The first buff is universally useful while the latter two effects are largely only useful when Shadoweave is on hand (more on that in a bit). The Endurance consumption can be more applicable however when using certain attacks that drain Endurance such as Samir’s/Dual EM Stars’ aerial attack or Meryl’s/Rosy Edge’s charged attack.
Despite Shadoweave’s supportive utilities, the weapon’s Skill gives a surprising amount of incentives to use it on hand. If you have Shadoweave on hand, you enter the Airbloom state while you’re in the radius of Moonlight Realm. In this state, your fall speed is greatly reduced and you gain the ability to double jump. This effectively allows you to float in the air. Once you’re mid-air, you can perform a Roam as opposed to the typical walk or sprint and shoot out an attack that generates 1-3 Epiphyllums. To land back down to the ground, you simply need to perform a plunge attack or use a different weapon’s Discharge. Some additional effects are granted when using Shadoweave in Moonlight Realm. The weapon deals 50% more damage against enemies with less than 20% HP. If you’re about to get hit, you’ll automatically teleport to the edge of Moonlight Realm and avoid taking damage.
If you are going to use Shadoweave on hand, these perks are worth utilizing. Being in the Airbloom state is extremely cool and it is useful for exploration and reaching targets at higher elevation. The attack that you perform when roaming is, oddly enough, the most consistent form of DPS that you can perform with Shadoweave. Groundward enemies generally have a harder time trying to hit you while you’re in mid-air. Uptime isn’t an issue due to Moonlight Realm’s decrease to Endurance consumption. The only perk that I’m mixed on is the teleport. It can help with survivability but the fact that you’re sent to the edge of Moonlight Realm puts you at risk of losing the AoE’s effects. Fortunately, it is an infrequent nuisance as it is on a 10 second cooldown.
Mileage will vary here but in addition to its base effects and depending on your loadout, Moonlight Realm changes form and offers some additional effects in similar fashion to Weapon and Elemental Resonances. These are:
- Balance – Increases your Wanderer’s ATK by 15% and counts Shadoweave towards any Elemental Resonances your weapons possesses, albeit without the actual effects of said Resonance. Having standard ATK makes sense if you’re using three different Elements. As for the Resonance part, it is weird to not have the actual effects though this can be useful for abilities that require a Resonance to be active such as Saki Fuwa’s/Heartstream’s A1.
- Flame – Allows for Moonlight Realm to last an extra 4 seconds if you manage to burn a target. Additionally, shielded enemies take 15% more Flame damage. Unfortunately, this is the worst Moonlight Realm variant. Having better uptime for Moonlight Realm is nice but it’s not worth contending over an extremely situational buff. The Flame damage buff is lost once enemies lose their shield and it’s useless against enemies who don’t generate one to begin with.
- Frost – Increases Frost ATK by 10%. While this is the one of most barebones variants, it is also one of the least conditional.
- Physical – Deals Physical damage equal to 50% of ATK + 3 to targets every second. Unlike the other variants, this doesn’t technically augment the DPS of its respective element but it does provide additional damage so it’s still pretty useful.
- Volt – Increases Volt damage by 10%, 5% more if you use a dodge attack. Additionally, you have 65% to retain a dodge attempt when dodging. This is currently an odd passive as there isn’t a Volt weapon in the Global version that can make full use of this passive. At the very least, one aspect of it, the damage increase, is unconditional.
For its Discharge, Gravity Weave, Shadoweave removes all debuffs from your Wanderer and unleashes the titular effect onto the field. This will damage anything within range for 5 seconds before then exploding for additional damage. There’s not much to say about this ability other than that it can make for an effective (and stylish) nuke. It’s especially effective in group encounters.
Advancements
- A1 – Turns Shadoweave’s Normal Attacks from single target to AoE; also increases the damage of Epiphyllums spawned after the first one by 10% and up to 50% as well as decrease their cooldown to 0.5 seconds. This is a very important Advancement to try and get if you intend to use Shadoweave for DPS.
- A2 – Increases Shadoweave’s base ATK growth by 16%.
- A3 – Reduces Epiphyllum cooldown to 0.3 seconds and gives the effect the ability to attach to enemies; also increases the duration of Moonlight Realm to 20 seconds. This is a solid and popular stopping point as it’s useful for both DPS and support and it’s where Shadoweave begins to really shine in the meta.
- A4 – Increases Shadoweave’s base ATK growth by 32%.
- A5 – Provided that you have Moonlight Realm active, all weapons gain 30 weapon charge every second and Discharges deal 15% more damage; very powerful when you’re able to spam Discharges left and right.
- A6 – Increases the ATK bonus provided by Moonlight Realm by 15%. Additionally, Moonlight Realm can gain 1 additional charge when you use 3 Discharges, on field or off. Before factoring in the different Moonlight Realm variants, you get 24% more ATK in total, making Shadoweave an even better support weapon. I would have preferred if the additional charge was unconditional though I suppose this is where A5 comes in handy.
As is always the case for SSR characters/weapons, you should only consider going after their Advancements if you have the money to burn. That said, Lin is exclusive to the limited banner so there can be a stronger incentive to pull for her weapon compared to other SSR drops. As mentioned earlier, A3 is a solid stopping point to consider besides A0 and A6.
Awakening
Lin’s Simulacrum Trait increases Epiphyllum explosion damage by 15%. When upgraded, the damage is increased to 20% and enemies hit by an Epiphyllum takes a 7% resistance debuff for all attributes. This is a very useful passive, especially for support, but it obviously becomes useless if you do not have Shadoweave equipped.
Matrices
- Lin (4) – Shadoweave’s tailored set. 2-Piece increases your Wanderer’s ATK for 18 seconds when you land a hit. This effect can stack up to 5 times. 4-Piece grants you 1 stack of Moonlight for every 5 meters traveled within Moonlight Realm. Moonlight increases your final damage for 15 seconds and up to 3 times, even when Shadoweave is off hand. 2-Piece alone is worth getting as it is essentially a better version of Samir (2). It stacks faster than the latter set and it’s active off field. 4-Piece is more situational and it frankly works better if you have Shadoweave at A6. That said, it is a nice buff if you can maintain it.
- Lin (2)/Shiro (2) – Again, Lin (2) is worth having at least. Shiro (2) gives increased damage and Shatter to targets with more than 50% HP so it can make for a good filler set if you’re using Shadoweave for shield breaking.
- Robarg (3) – Poisons your target for 10 seconds after their shield is shattered; a decent SR set to use for your shield breaker.
- Sobek (3) – Increases your own damage for every enemy nearby, up to 3 times. This is a go-to SR set for DPS, especially for group encounters.
Closing Words
Lin is one of the best characters to pull for the game. The value of her weapon does vary depending on your loadout but Shadoweave more or less fits in every loadout due to its utilities, its even Shatter and Charge ratio, and its element being usable in every fight in the game. You can certainly make do without Lin but you also can’t go wrong with having her on your account.
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