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Note: order within tiers are alphabetical
A prelude about Accuracy:
With all that out of the way, let's get to the main event:
Offense:
SS:
Atk%
S:
Meter Gain
Piercing
A+:
Crit Damage
Crit Rate
Special Cooldown
A:
Defense
Element Bonus
HP%
B:
Block Proficiency
Crit Resist
Resistance
Tag Cooldown
C:
Atk#
Element Penalty
HP#
Defense:
SS:
HP%
S:
Defense
Meter Gain
Resistance
Special Cooldown
A:
Atk%
Crit Resist
Piercing
B:
Block Proficiency
Crit Damage
Crit Rate
Element Bonus
Tag Cooldown
C:
Atk#
Element Penalty
HP#
Hope this guide gives some help to people figure out what stats to invest in! Adjustments may be made if I learn new information or if adjustments to any stats are made.
A prelude about Accuracy:
This stat is so complicated and varied that it almost became its own topic. As it's not clearly defined, it's worth mentioning that it only increases the odds of fighter Signature Abilities to activate, not move abilities. With that being said, part of what makes this stat so complicated is how different fighters can be, while the increase in chance isn't even between fighters as some hit more often than others. A fighter like Bad Hair day can get decent combos thanks to Filia's wide array of multi-hit moves, taking advantage of an increase in proc chance from 10%>15%. Taking accuracy out of the picture does quite a bit to her consistency. A fighter that uses it well without needing it is Freeze frame; while bypassing resistance and increasing proc chance sounds good in theory, she already has a naturally high proc rate and has so many projectiles that can hit often that she'll probably prefer more attack or one of the S tier stats. Meanwhile, a fighter like Primed has no use for it. She has no chance in her SA, her bleed isn't something she relies on by any means (and gives smaller returns than critical mass overall), and isn't worried about resistance between immunity and precision taunts. No other stat has such a diverse array of returns from a single stat.
However, for the sake of complete information, here's some examples of fighters who like accuracy on their movesets:
* Bad Hair Day: As mentioned in the example, her bleed potential and low damage make her a strong candidate
* Purrfect Dark: While her SA is guaranteed, it only procs one time on match start or when a fighter tags in, meaning ensuring you get your debuffs off is incredibly important
* Resonant Evil: While it's easy to see Accuracy and Resistance as opposites, RE is able to use both to increase his odds of getting armor and inflicting stun while making cursing or armor breaking him more difficult
Here's some examples of fighters that can use Accuracy, but prefer other stats:
* Djinn Frizz: While converting her buffs more gives more enrage, she only needs to do it a maximum of twice per fight. Giving her more meter gain lets her use more BBs during those windows and benefits her more throughout the fight
* Wulfsbane: He has a 50% chance on two different debuffs, and he has lupine to ensure he gets something. He'd prefer more damage and meter gain
If they don't rely on debuffs or have a chance based SA, Accuracy is C tier for them.
However, for the sake of complete information, here's some examples of fighters who like accuracy on their movesets:
* Bad Hair Day: As mentioned in the example, her bleed potential and low damage make her a strong candidate
* Purrfect Dark: While her SA is guaranteed, it only procs one time on match start or when a fighter tags in, meaning ensuring you get your debuffs off is incredibly important
* Resonant Evil: While it's easy to see Accuracy and Resistance as opposites, RE is able to use both to increase his odds of getting armor and inflicting stun while making cursing or armor breaking him more difficult
Here's some examples of fighters that can use Accuracy, but prefer other stats:
* Djinn Frizz: While converting her buffs more gives more enrage, she only needs to do it a maximum of twice per fight. Giving her more meter gain lets her use more BBs during those windows and benefits her more throughout the fight
* Wulfsbane: He has a 50% chance on two different debuffs, and he has lupine to ensure he gets something. He'd prefer more damage and meter gain
If they don't rely on debuffs or have a chance based SA, Accuracy is C tier for them.
Offense:
SS:
Atk%
This stat is the cornerstone of offense. It's better than any other stat you can ask for. Even if it never gets upgraded, having five atk% moves will increase your base damage by 30%! It applies to every hit against every opponent. While not all SAs interact with it the same way, it still gives a significant boost to damage and will almost always be taken. There's a few specific cases where you don't need it for a perfect set however:
* As mentioned before, Bad Hair Day is an incredible bleed inflicter, but lacks damage, so she prefers Accuracy until it hits 50%.
* Purrminator's SA doesn't scale her Atk% modifiers. Considering how many hits she deals, Atk% will very quickly have diminishing returns compared to Crit Rate and Crit Damage.
* Double more than has the attack to run it, but you can also fully rely on chaos and use Crit Rate to spam debuffs.
* While it's still strictly the best damage booster for them, Miasma focused Fukuas and Bio can technically get away without it thanks to their % based damage.
* As mentioned before, Bad Hair Day is an incredible bleed inflicter, but lacks damage, so she prefers Accuracy until it hits 50%.
* Purrminator's SA doesn't scale her Atk% modifiers. Considering how many hits she deals, Atk% will very quickly have diminishing returns compared to Crit Rate and Crit Damage.
* Double more than has the attack to run it, but you can also fully rely on chaos and use Crit Rate to spam debuffs.
* While it's still strictly the best damage booster for them, Miasma focused Fukuas and Bio can technically get away without it thanks to their % based damage.
S:
Meter Gain
Piercing
Both of these stats are fantastic to have. Piercing allows you to deal with armor (but be careful of Frost Armor in rifts) while Meter Gain can help both your neutral and combo potential. Piercing isn't capable of going below 0 defense, so until you get to later stages of the game you can get away without going crazy on it. Also keep in mind piercing caps at 50%, but it doesn't have any built in, so you probably won't overload unless you have it on all your moves.
A+:
Crit Damage
Crit Rate
Special Cooldown
All of these stats are in a weird place, where they're nice to have but can be sidestepped without much issue. Crit stats are technically a DPS boost, but leave a few matchups where they either hurt you or are dead stats (it's mostly painwheels with Marquee you want to be aware of) and are a lower boost than both Atk% and Piercing. Crit Rate and Crit Damage give the same DPS boost, but rate adds some more consistency, making it a little better overall. I won't be going in depth on precision and death mark here, but just know if you're using precision often on a fighter you'll care less about Crit Rate and if you get Death Mark both stats are a bit more useful. On a fighter that uses lots of grabs, you can probably ignore these stats altogether, since grabs can't crit. For Crit Rate, you can also run a Sheltered support if you're either rifting or not don't need the extra carry slot for PF.
Special Cooldown I find generally extremely useful on SMs up to level 9. They can help your neutral as well as how consistently you can have moves up in combos. However, as you level Special Moves they get a naturally higher cooldown, so if you take moves to 12 you won't notice the difference as much. You can also run a Harlequin support if you're either rifting or don't need the extra carry slot for PF.
Special Cooldown I find generally extremely useful on SMs up to level 9. They can help your neutral as well as how consistently you can have moves up in combos. However, as you level Special Moves they get a naturally higher cooldown, so if you take moves to 12 you won't notice the difference as much. You can also run a Harlequin support if you're either rifting or don't need the extra carry slot for PF.
A:
Defense
Element Bonus
HP%
These stats are either situationally very useful, or always somewhat nice to have but less so than the stats above. Defense and HP% may not increase damage, but it allows you to make more mistakes. These could do up or down in priority depending on how confident you are in your own skills and how naturally safe the fighter you're investing in is.
Element Bonus is fighter specific, but multiplies ALL damage dealt. This means in the right conditions it can be a bigger damage boost than Atk%. However, it will only work against one opponent element and caps at 50%, so it's not a stat you want universally (although Double can appreciate it well).
Element Bonus is fighter specific, but multiplies ALL damage dealt. This means in the right conditions it can be a bigger damage boost than Atk%. However, it will only work against one opponent element and caps at 50%, so it's not a stat you want universally (although Double can appreciate it well).
B:
Block Proficiency
Crit Resist
Resistance
Tag Cooldown
These stats are generally undesirable, but are better than the stats below it. Block Proficiency is specific in use; while it's almost always worse than defense and HP%, you can get it to 100% to completely avoid taking damage while blocking. This can be used with bronze/silver BHD (and really any TFC filias) to achieve insane longshots to get great EXP and flex on your opponents. However, it doesn't stop BB3s or other unblockable and requires significant investment before getting real returns. Death Mark will also completely kill the strategy.
Resistance isn't great, but can reduce accuracy stacking REs (as well as possibly dodging their stun) and lets any other debuff inflicter become RNG. This stat doesn't ignore catalysts or modifiers though, so you'll usually just want an immunity taunter over relying on this.
Tag Cooldown only made it here over other stats because tagging out lets you remove debuffs, and being able to do that quickly might help if you get too much bleed or something.
Crit resist is forgettable, but may prevent a stray scope or other high damage move from going from taking a chunk to killing you. Probably worse than the rest of this tier, but better than all of C tier.
Resistance isn't great, but can reduce accuracy stacking REs (as well as possibly dodging their stun) and lets any other debuff inflicter become RNG. This stat doesn't ignore catalysts or modifiers though, so you'll usually just want an immunity taunter over relying on this.
Tag Cooldown only made it here over other stats because tagging out lets you remove debuffs, and being able to do that quickly might help if you get too much bleed or something.
Crit resist is forgettable, but may prevent a stray scope or other high damage move from going from taking a chunk to killing you. Probably worse than the rest of this tier, but better than all of C tier.
C:
Atk#
Element Penalty
HP#
Both flat Atk and HP have nearly no benefit (I used them early game as they were a bigger boost, but once I leveled their trees or evolved them past bronze they had poor returns, and in gold/diamond they have practically no returns. They're basically dead stats.
Element Penalty has a higher benefit, but caps at 20% increase (to 0%). This can technically be achieved with a single level 7 move. If you're fighting at an elemental disadvantage, either you're so early on that move stats don't matter or there's a good chance you already hard counter whatever you're facing anyways (Ex. Mean One vs. Frost Armor), so you aren't going to be looking for this stat anyways.
Element Penalty has a higher benefit, but caps at 20% increase (to 0%). This can technically be achieved with a single level 7 move. If you're fighting at an elemental disadvantage, either you're so early on that move stats don't matter or there's a good chance you already hard counter whatever you're facing anyways (Ex. Mean One vs. Frost Armor), so you aren't going to be looking for this stat anyways.
Defense:
SS:
HP%
Basically the Atk% equivalent of defense fighters, With even fewer situations where it's not ideal (and even in those situations, it's extremely useful). Don't Poke the Buer painwheels can get away without it to proc the catalyst more and Criminal Mind can do the same, but both of them still get higher returns if they invest in it and it procs.
S:
Defense
Meter Gain
Resistance
Special Cooldown
Defense actually gives higher returns than HP% and stacks with armor, but it caps at 50%, and you get 15% from your SA tree. HP% is only limited by how lucky you are, making it the more important stat to have on every move. Resistance is very good for annoying debuff users and lowering accuracy. Meter gain and Special Cooldown lets the AI spam their moves more on defense, giving more opportunities to harass or annoy the opponent and in the case of projectile SMs, allow them to freely get a BB3.
A:
Atk%
Crit Resist
Piercing
Atk% gives more damage to BB3s and whenever the AI gets a stray hit off. Crit Resist can be great at combating crit SAs, but isn't optimal for damage reduction in general. It also has a niche use of letting Dread Locks check ICU and Bloodbath, but for the most part it's forgettable. Piercing isn't very desirable either, but since the skill tree gives 15% defense, it's a guaranteed damage boost to that point.
B:
Block Proficiency
Crit Damage
Crit Rate
Element Bonus
Tag Cooldown
All these stats only miss C tier because they at least have potential to do something, however minimal it may be. You should still avoid them pretty much any time you can, but if you don't have the option to, pick these over C tier stats
C:
Atk#
Element Penalty
HP#
The reasoning for these stats being low are the same as in offense.
Hope this guide gives some help to people figure out what stats to invest in! Adjustments may be made if I learn new information or if adjustments to any stats are made.
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