Makarov is an Accuracy debuffing HG, reducing enemies’ Accuracy with her Skill.

A HG’s effectiveness is based on their Skill effect combined with their tilebuffs. Killing enemies faster is almost always the best way to reduce damage taken, and reducing Accuracy is not an effective way of reducing enemy damage when plenty of later enemies have Surehit or simply too much Accuracy for this to function. Even though Makarov’s tiles are good, she is not recommended to use before Modding.

Check the mod priority guide: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ty239kyJbBs1sLhTo1JvSWuN0mIJsK1nwVdI6OLLtXo/view?rm=minimal

Makarov MOD appears to be a bit more confusing than the average upgrade at first, mainly just due to the wording of the Skill 2. In reality though, there’s only a couple of key simple points you need to understand about Makarov that makes her worthwhile.

Her Skill 2, Mark of the Astral Guardian, looks at the dolls on her tiles and selects the one with the lowest Evasion and the one with the lowest Accuracy. Then, those dolls are buffed by half of the difference between Makarov’s respective stats and their own stats. For example, let’s say Makarov has 150 Evasion and the doll in question has 10 Evasion. The difference is 140, which is halved to 70, so the 10 Evasion doll gets an additive 70 Evasion buff. The same formula applies to the lowest Accuracy doll.

So what’s the use for this you may ask? The main benefit is the Evasion buff when using SGs or a Taunt Fairy. Imagine one of the really strong SGs, like LTLX-7000, having all their normal raw defensive capabilities but now also having an effective Evasion stat. This even works with the Taunt Fairy, just make sure to move Makarov up before Skill 2 activates, and you’ve now got a Taunt Fairy that can somehow dodge.

The Accuracy buff, while less important overall, still proves effective with dolls like RFs and MGs at night. Since the buffs are additive, these units that can normally never equip PEQs can now get workable Accuracy at night.

In her use cases highlighted above, Makarov MOD proves to be an exceptional addition to the team. Her general usage, though, remains as bad as it was before, as she lacks any notable raw offensive boosts outside of her tiles. MOD2 is the recommended stopping point. Her MOD SPEQ is just a combination of Flare Ammo and Hollow Point Ammo, a nice bonus when completing the SPEQ-Set.

Speaking of, her SPEQ-Set is quite a nice boost to her overall capabilities. Her Skill 1 lasts an additional 2 seconds for increased defensive capabilities and also gives her 100% Night Vision, and Skill 2 now buffs the affected dolls with a nice 15% Damage. Her SPEQ-Set is quite strong, and you should aim to complete it if you choose MOD Makarov.

Skill 2 formula example: Makarov Mod’s EVA: 150. Other unit’s EVA: 10. Added EVA: 0.5 * (150 - 10) = 70. Other unit’s final EVA: 10 + 70 = 80.