GFVerse.info

Tiles and aura

Affects SG

Increases damage by 15%
Increases armor by 15%

Thinker's Key

ICD: CD:

[Passive]: While in Charging Mode, this unit cannot perform normal attacks. For every 2 seconds after a battle has begun, obtains +1 Charge up to a max of 5 Charges. For each held Charge, increases self damage by ($dam_value)%. [Active]: Enters attack mode. After ending attack mode and reloading, removes all damage increase from Charging mode and re-enters Charging Mode. <br/> [EQ Passive 1]: When equipped with "Optical Glasses", Charging mode grants +8 HP shields to frontal allied units for 5 seconds, up to 3 layers maximum.<br/> [EQ Passive 2]: When equipped with "Celestial Meteor", Charging mode increases all allies' damage by 5% for 5 seconds, up to 3 layers maximum.<br/> [EQ Passive 3]: When equipped with "Wristwatch", Charging mode grants self +1 additional ammo into current clip.

Skill level: 1

Doll review

Overview

Don't think Claes is just another MG! She's wildly different in just about every aspect and her role is essentially determined by your choice of special equipment.

Claes cannot attack while she's in Charging Mode, and while you can technically activate her skill instantly to make her work like a regular MG, she won't gain any stacks (so her skill is essentially useless), and her base stats equivalent to M249 SAW results in disappointing damage output.

How long should Claes stay in Charging Mode?

Letting Claes charge to 5 stacks is almost always preferable to using her with no stacks (barring situations where you need an initial volley like tarantulas). Charging Mode only works if:

Claes is not moving, firing, or reloading
2 seconds elapse (so no stack at 0s when battle starts, and after reload the first stack also takes 2 seconds of charging)

We'll cover her main variations below:

Meteorite

Claes provides a stacking +Damage buff to all allies every 2 seconds while charging.

The buff % is small (+5% per stack, +15% maximum) and it takes time to ramp up, making it weaker than a strict HG buff. Furthermore, Claes lacks the +DMG tiles that HGs would have - so this makes her even worse as a buffer.

Even with Claes's self DPS factored into the equation, she ultimately will contribute less to overall team DPS than a dedicated HG buffer.

Spectacles

In this mode, Claes constantly shields allies in front of her* every 2 seconds. The shield itself is not very strong, but it stacks up to 40 HP and is reapplied frequently - meaning Claes can potentially substitute for a shield HG if only the frontline needs to be shielded.

Claes loses in shield/second compared to HGs like P22/HS2000 or even Sei and doesn't provide a damage buff, so in general there's no situation in which you'd use Claes over a shield HG.

To add insult to injury, there is currently a bug wherein Claes stops adding more shield to allies after she's provided a total of 40 HP in shielding - so Claes underperforms even worse than her fairly unremarkable on-paper numbers.

Wristwatch

This is the pure DPS mode for Claes, giving her up to 5 extra ammo before she starts shooting.

Unfortunately, even though Claes deals incredible per-hit DPS in this mode, she still underperforms relative to other MG - the lack of a first volley means Claes ends up dealing roughly 30% less DPS than 2nd volley competitors like Lewis or M1918 Mod. (In other words, similar DPS output as MG4...)

Why is delayed DPS bad?

Because damage taken depends on the number of enemies remaining, compare Claes with MG4, whose over-time DPS is comparable.

It should be self-evident why Claes causes your team to take more damage than MG4 despite similar over time DPS:

Pros

Low Skill Level Requirement

Claes's Skill only scales her self +Damage% per stack - the supportive effects are unaffected by Skill Level. This means you don't have to invest a lot of Training Data to use Claes for her supportive niches.

15% Armor Tile Buff

While +15% Armor in Girls' Frontline is not as rare as it was previously, players low on high-rarity MGs that need to armor stack could use Claes in a pinch and pair her with Spectacles to help reduce incoming damage.

Free Event Reward

Players can earn Claes simply by purchasing her from the Gunslinger Girl: Il Teatrino Collaboration event shop, using event currency that can be earned for free - there's no need to roll the production gacha for her.

Cons

Poor Base Stats

Claes inherits M249 SAW's statline, making her DPS fairly lackluster among MGs.

Poor Skill Scaling

While Claes can theoretically do a lot of different things, she always underperforms relative to units dedicated to those niches - possibly as an intentional "jack of all trades master of none" design.

Shield Skill Bugged

Claes stops adding more shield to allies after she's provided a total of 40 HP in shielding (and maxed out her own stacks). To make her add shields again, Claes must be forced into Attack Mode so she reloads and goes back to reading again.

As a result of this quirk, Claes underperforms even worse than her fairly unremarkable on-paper numbers.

Extremely Low DPS

Claes spends most of her time in Charging Mode and doesn't shoot. Even with the +125% Damage (yes, the stacks are additive) self-buff at max stacks, this is not enough to offset her massive downtime, bringing Claes performance similar to that of one of the lowest DPS MGs in the game, MG4.

If Claes is simply left on auto skill to shoot without charging, her DPS is even worse.

Doll Info :: Claes