Trait Recommendations for Yaolings

[SpectreKP]

I got access to breeding and I don't really know what some good setups for certain Yaoling I kind of want to use. Right now I'm just trying to get good stats via breeding, since I can't think of which combination of traits would work at this moment.

Currently I'm running around on Union to get Alts/Stats for;
125: Arruda, 017: Lurkwulf, 129: Yaka, 269: Flenny. (I also want to get 189: Fawnduo, but I don't know where to get it as of posting this, and I don't know if there are any Healer Yaoling besides 025: Lume, or if I should try going for a Yaoling with a short cooldown, add fragrance and bump up Mana generation like crazy.)

If anyone has any recommendations for Yaolings to add to this group, or any demons, I'm happy to hear.

And random question: Would the Plural of Yaoling be "Yaoling" or "Yaolings"?

[Fracastador]

For Lurkwolf:
There are talents that are specific for yaoling(s?) that summon. Those are mostly ideal there.
Mine is on Inspiration, luckystar, cheerlead, and loud voice, though there are plenty of alternative options that can be similarly useful.

For arruda:
This is a very slow, very hard hitter. Take advantage of that with talents that don't care about attack speed, like rainstorm. I don't have an arruda, or anything with a similar build, so I don't have an example.

I use a yaka as a frontline irritator, since its ability gives it very fast attacks and resilience to combat. Mine has SE Mind over matter, Trance, Irritate, Persistent, and is the demon variant, but I think the non-demon is better if you aren't built for cleansing it of its self-inflicted stun. I just like the demon.

Flenny's weird, because the demon and non demon last stage are very different.
The demon is very ability-focused because its attack speed is awful, but its ability is awesome and still uses attack for damage calculation.
Mine is on tyrant, master of elements, deft hands, and rainstorm. I'm not sure that's actually optimal, but those are decent talent options. In general, though, whether you use the demon or non-demon makes a difference here, as the non-demon has good attack speed if I recall correctly.

There are other healers, but Lume is good.
I mostly rely on 172, Nyxsa, because I am on a lot of SE Investment talents, and Nyxsa's broad heal is very handy and not dying over time.

[Fracastador]

Side note: I'm skeptical of the rate of healing you can get from fragrance, since it only heals 50+2*level per activation, and I don't think it smart-targets, so it could try to heal arbitrary, healthy yaolings.
I do like transmutation and magic armor for keeping a yaoling with good capability to rapidly use abilities (some abilities or combinations of talents can get around high costs without reducing them, making magic armor particularly good), but fragrance feels like it drops off to near-nothing in the lategame, as at the current level cap, it's only 190 per activation, and yaoling(s?) typically have health in the 1200 to 4000 range there.
It might be that I've been at the level cap for too long, and it could do much better on earlier.

[Fracastador]

My recollection is that the fawnduo line is kind of lategame, but I've never used them so can't comment to much on the best things to do with them. They look good based on what their ability says, but seem like they may be better for team v. team, and may not be ideal v. boss demons unless their stats are amazing, since their ability seems focused on hitting different targets.
Their last stages seem to get on-strike talents to trigger when they use their abilities, so using talents that have things they do when you hit with attacks might be the way to go there, but I don't know what the fawnduo line's stats actually are like.

[SpectreKP]

Originally posted by Fracastador:

For Lurkwolf:
There are talents that are specific for yaoling(s?) that summon. Those are mostly ideal there.
Mine is on Inspiration, luckystar, cheerlead, and loud voice, though there are plenty of alternative options that can be similarly useful.

For arruda:
This is a very slow, very hard hitter. Take advantage of that with talents that don't care about attack speed, like rainstorm. I don't have an arruda, or anything with a similar build, so I don't have an example.

I use a yaka as a frontline irritator, since its ability gives it very fast attacks and resilience to combat. Mine has SE Mind over matter, Trance, Irritate, Persistent, and is the demon variant, but I think the non-demon is better if you aren't built for cleansing it of its self-inflicted stun. I just like the demon.

Flenny's weird, because the demon and non demon last stage are very different.
The demon is very ability-focused because its attack speed is awful, but its ability is awesome and still uses attack for damage calculation.
Mine is on tyrant, master of elements, deft hands, and rainstorm. I'm not sure that's actually optimal, but those are decent talent options. In general, though, whether you use the demon or non-demon makes a difference here, as the non-demon has good attack speed if I recall correctly.

There are other healers, but Lume is good.
I mostly rely on 172, Nyxsa, because I am on a lot of SE Investment talents, and Nyxsa's broad heal is very handy and not dying over time.

Persistent Requires you to take 20% of your Yaoling's Max HP, which at level 39; Yakuro has around 2700hp. For the effect to actually take place, they'd need to take 540 damage in a single hit which doesn't seem feasible. Especially when Blocking 23 flat damage from attacks while in a frenzy. Unyielding Presence, 1HP Sturdy abilities, Elite Heritage/Royal Bloodline (I think?) or Rewind seem like they may potentially be more helpful, specifically for the Non-demon version due to the apparently higher HP & Bulk (Same level with same Potential points; Yakuro has 2708hp while Fiendstead has 2506.)

Furniere's Attack Interval is 1.78, which is on the faster side (I've literally only seen one Yaoling so far with an Attack interval below 1.0), but it's the same as Flenny's. I've noticed that the Skill tends to overshoot a little bit, but it's definitely pretty good when it lands. Herald of Flame & Arsonist seem like decent picks, Tyrant probably also works.. Honestly, as long as they survive and aren't actively being attacked, going all in on damage could work?

[Fracastador]

Originally posted by SpectreKP:

Persistent Requires you to take 20% of your Yaoling's Max HP, which at level 39; Yakuro has around 2700hp. For the effect to actually take place, they'd need to take 540 damage in a single hit which doesn't seem feasible. Especially when Blocking 23 flat damage from attacks while in a frenzy. Unyielding Presence, 1HP Sturdy abilities, Elite Heritage/Royal Bloodline (I think?) or Rewind seem like they may potentially be more helpful, specifically for the Non-demon version due to the apparently higher HP & Bulk (Same level with same Potential points; Yakuro has 2708hp while Fiendstead has 2506.)

Furniere's Attack Interval is 1.78, which is on the faster side (I've literally only seen one Yaoling so far with an Attack interval below 1.0), but it's the same as Flenny's. I've noticed that the Skill tends to overshoot a little bit, but it's definitely pretty good when it lands. Herald of Flame & Arsonist seem like decent picks, Tyrant probably also works.. Honestly, as long as they survive and aren't actively being attacked, going all in on damage could work?

Yeah, if you've got the non-demon version of Flenny, it does attacks fine, but the demon version has an attack interval of ~3.3ish, I think. Balances this with its ability firing 3 arrows in a spread as opposed to the rest of the Flenny line's 1. Lower damage per arrow, but I think in total more damage if they overlap. I wouldn't want heralds or arsonist on the demon variant, but the non-demon ones probably work fine with them.

And it may not matter until the endgame on union difficulty (I didn't test most of this during my normal playthrough, just at the endgame), but stuff will eventually one-shot your more fragile yaolings, and two-to-three shot your more durable ones. I get a lot of mileage out of persistence, but if you don't turn the difficulty up it's possible it's wasteful unless you need them to tank ability hits. My yaka-line yaoling (fiendstead, I think), WITH persistence, gets two shot by normal attacks of some of the endgame union difficulty demons, though mine doesn't block damage, it heals on hit since it's the demon version. It would still be getting 2-to-3-shot. In practice this means I can't really rely on it to tank hits, so if I'm playing around with teams, I usually expect it to play a different role. Your build sounds fine to me if your stuff isn't getting one-shot, and you can always swap out one talent later if you change your mind, as it's easier to get new jades in the endgame anyway.

I only know of one yaoling line offhand that is faster at attacking than 1.0 by default, that being the one I use as a healer, Nyxsa, and it's like that for a reason: it spends a lot of time using its ability and not attacking. Does give it interesting utility, though. I think it's 0.95ish. There might be others, but I'm forgetting them if there are.

With regards to all-in on damage or not for Furniere, I think yes, but it depends a bit on how you handle combat. Usually, for back-line yaoling, I kind of prefer having ones meant for damage be all in on it, and having yaoling that are not be all in on utility. The damage ones can, ideally, pick off anything that gets past the frontline before its able to do to much harm to your backline, in the event that it comes up. How often that happens depends on your full team and how it works.
Note: Didi, if you do end up using one, messes up a lot of things with regards to enemy positioning. Still good, but chaotic.

[SpectreKP]

I think Inconspicuous might be required on some Yaoling as it literally causes them to die last in a lot of cases, Problem is that it takes up a talent slot, so it's less ideal on backline attackers. Support/Healer/Summoners on the other hand might benefit from it since it gives them more time to do their thing.

[SpectreKP]

I guess I should ask; But Does the "Avenger" trait work off Summons, or only Allies who're in the team? Because if it scales off Summoned creatures, it could be really good if paired with Summon Charms or Creatures with a Summon Ability. 50% attack is nothing to sneeze at after all.

[SpectreKP]

Thought of a silly meme setup involving a Slow attacker (4 seconds inbetween attacks), using Focused + "Something that Slows down attack speed" and then given something like Chuck, Double Strike, Shotgun, Firework.

I don't know how effective Slowing down an attack would actually be in terms of extra damage, compared to just having Turret/Tyrant there instead and going all in on the heavy splash shot (Doublestrike, Shotgun, Firework), Honestly, Focused without any attack speed buffs is better than Tyrant if you get the full 40% from it.. but you're pretty likely to end up with some other yaoling buffing it accidentally.

Also pretty curious how Shotgun + Firework would work together. Would it be the 8 Spread with a directional 3 at the target, or the 8 spread getting the properties of Shotgun, becoming a 24 spread AOE. With doubleshot, That'd become a 24 x 2 wave, which would be pretty hilarious, despite how impractical it'd likely be.

[Fracastador]

Originally posted by SpectreKP:

Thought of a silly meme setup involving a Slow attacker (4 seconds inbetween attacks), using Focused + "Something that Slows down attack speed" and then given something like Chuck, Double Strike, Shotgun, Firework.

I don't know how effective Slowing down an attack would actually be in terms of extra damage, compared to just having Turret/Tyrant there instead and going all in on the heavy splash shot (Doublestrike, Shotgun, Firework), Honestly, Focused without any attack speed buffs is better than Tyrant if you get the full 40% from it.. but you're pretty likely to end up with some other yaoling buffing it accidentally.

Also pretty curious how Shotgun + Firework would work together. Would it be the 8 Spread with a directional 3 at the target, or the 8 spread getting the properties of Shotgun, becoming a 24 spread AOE. With doubleshot, That'd become a 24 x 2 wave, which would be pretty hilarious, despite how impractical it'd likely be.

Shotgun and firework are independent of one another, and apparently shotgun's spread can't hit the same target with both the main shot and the side shots, no matter how close you get to the target, which I was bummed about when I discovered there's a ranged attacker (byssbloom, from the jellyfish yaoling line) that you can reduce to 0 range with the extrovert talent, so it gets right up in the enemy's face before firing.

Double strike is normally a melee-only talent, while shotgun, chuck and firework are ranged only, but there is one yaoling I found who counts as melee as a demon, but ranged before you evolve it, but it's not a slow attacker. (This is the crossbow-yaoling line, the demon being a machine gun creature and, despite firing shots, counting as a melee for learning talents)
You're on the right track with this, in general, though. I use the snowball yaoling as a slow melee attacker for some of this.

I honestly don't know how avenger works. I've been reluctant to play around as much with summoner yaoling, as the best one and also my pick for the strongest yaoling in the game, the non-demon spider-summoner, lags my entire computer when I use it. I always wondered, so I'm hoping someone else has an answer for you.

[Fracastador]

Originally posted by SpectreKP:

I think Inconspicuous might be required on some Yaoling as it literally causes them to die last in a lot of cases, Problem is that it takes up a talent slot, so it's less ideal on backline attackers. Support/Healer/Summoners on the other hand might benefit from it since it gives them more time to do their thing.

I ended up playing around with taunt more than inconspicuous to avoid this. I use two of the hedgehog yaoling line to taunt enemies off of my more delicate ones. Inconspicuous makes that less necessary but having the hedgehogs around means you can fully commit talents on your more fragile options.