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Sharla
Sharla (Japanese: カルナ, Karuna, Carna; English dub: /ˈʃɑːrlə/) is one of the seven playable characters in Xenoblade Chronicles, and a medic of the Colony 6 Defense Force and former fiancée to the soldier Gadolt. As a field medic she assisted in Colony 6's battle against the mechon by providing...
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Ana (Overwatch)
Ana Amari, one of Overwatch's founding members, uses her skills and expertise to defend her home and the people she cares about. Egypt's depleted and undermanned security forces relied on elite snipers for support during the Omnic Crisis. Among them was Ana, who was widely regarded as the best...
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I know, I know... I said that I would be making Melia my next rep for Xenoblade VS. However, none but one actually got back to me on my situation, and when digging around in my back catalogue, Sharla vs Ana made me realise how fascinating some matchups can be - not for the usual 'power, bulk and speed' arguments, but for more interpretive and supportive reasons. Hence, the reason I have decided to post this thread today.
Obviously I've established communications with those familiar with Xenoblade's verse (as proven by the recently closed Shulk vs Kirito thread), but if there are any familiar with Overwatch as a verse, feel free to join. I haven't been as familiar with the verse ever since Blizzard kowtowed to China.
With that...
Firstly, I'd like to start with a query to the Overwatch verse crowd: is there any particular reason that Ana only has one power tier (9A) despite clear evidence that she can self-administer Nano Boost? Or is the amp that she gets so minimal, that it doesn't actually lift her out of that tier? Asking for clarification.
Secondly, I would also like to say that while Cool Off is registered as a weakness for Sharla, I don't think it's going to be that much of a problem for her, at least in the context of scenes we pull feats from. Why? Because she has a bit of a... reverse-Fiora thing going on. Whereas Fiora's Mechon dysfunctions that are seen quite blatantly in cutscenes (hell, it was basically a part of her arc), despite not coming back to bite her in gameplay, Sharla is the total opposite, where Cool Off is worked into Gameplay as a balance decision, despite over-exertion of the rifle never negatively affecting her in cutscenes (with arguably one exception open to interpretation). The game also assumes Gadolt's rifle as her default past the Ether mine, and we're given no evidence to believe that Gadolt (or even Otharon, for that matter) had to do the same as far as Cool Off is concerned.
As far as power tiers (yes, I said I wouldn't be focusing on this as much, so I'll try to be brief), I don't think Sharla's 5-A peak holds a lot of water. While I understand where the scans are coming from when putting Disciple Dickson at planet level, saying that the rest of the cast scales because they could take one or two hits from him is... sketchy logic for a couple of reasons. Firstly, the scene in question shows that Reyn took the hit for Sharla with Shield turned up, meaning that besides the brief shots with everyone on their knees being an implication, it's not actually shown that Sharla took any major damage from DD that wasn't already inflicted to other party members. With that, the other reason I find this 5-A scaling to be kinda sus is that in every scene leading up to the 2nd phase of the fight, Dickson was shown to be straight up not trying - mocking Fiora for her decision to inherent Mayneth's memories as opposed to her power, and making it abundantly clear how bored he is.
If you want to interpret the above paragraph as 'power equalised at 9A', feel free, but I don't personally like applying those kinds of rules, because it shuts down debate on a particular aspect of any VS MU. I'm for free speech, dammit.
Now, as far as this matchup in particular, I think the million dollar question is going to be whether Cure Round is enough to circumvent Biotic Grenade's heal-annulling abilities or not. If I had to give an opinion, I would say that she more than likely could for several reasons. While regen-annul is not something that the denizens of Bionis or Mechonis have necessarily had to contest before (outside of buff removal etc.), not only is the definition of what constitutes a debuff extremely broad in Xenoblade (everything from minor stat abnormalities to bleeding, implying that Cure Round's debuff immunity could be rid of heal negation), but there's a chance that a pre-applied Debuff Immunity could protect against it by accident.
I also like to envision the hypothetical matchup of Sharla vs Widowmaker, specifically focusing on the Venom Mine (poison being a common debuff in the Xenoblade universe). While it could be argued that Widowmaker's Venom Mine has the effect that it does on it's victims due to being an injestable substance, the laws of Ether in Xenoblade (and by extension, Ether Catalysts and Rifle Shells following a similar principle) have shown to circumvent the physical body to get inside what the poison would effect - as shown by the first meeting with Melia in Makna Forest with a 'pure crystal' Heal Round allowing her to come round. The rest of Sharla's support abilities based around maintaining health and status must follow a similar principle, and I have no reason to believe that this would drastically change due to the purity of the crystals in context.
However, I won't leave Ana fans too in the dark here, as the Overwatch staff have been eager to put out canonical details on the in-universe effects of stuff like the Bio-Grenade.
Ana also has a noteable speed tier advantage, allegedly being able to keep up with Tracer as far as reaction speed is concerned. Although Sharla being speed scaled to the ins-and-outs of various Mechon I do agree with in tandem (smaller scout units, and the M71 Tentacle Unit on the Bionis Leg / Gaur Plain being a couple of such examples, although the latter required Shulk's Speed Monado Art to be made possible). I'm not entirely sure how much I agree with her speed being scaled to Faces, however, what with her run-ins with Jade Face (Gadolt) only happening because of her denial at his face-turn (pun intended), and his final bout in Agniritha deliberately missing her due to the remnants of memories explained by Mayneth.
"I can take the smaller ones, but the rest would be like fighting Xord over and over."
In closing - Sharla has a notably better chance of winning due to Cure Round, a slight power advantage, and a more flexible movepool. However, I do have to caution around how I have taken liberties for the way that Sharla can protect against abilities like Bio-Grenade that can nab her regenerative arts. If there is some kind of interpretation of this fight where Ana can work around Heal and Cure Rounds, Ana is actually able to exploit that, and even potentially blitz Sharla speed-wise through olden-day scaling to Tracer. Quite a lot to think about on both sides.
Secondly, I would also like to say that while Cool Off is registered as a weakness for Sharla, I don't think it's going to be that much of a problem for her, at least in the context of scenes we pull feats from. Why? Because she has a bit of a... reverse-Fiora thing going on. Whereas Fiora's Mechon dysfunctions that are seen quite blatantly in cutscenes (hell, it was basically a part of her arc), despite not coming back to bite her in gameplay, Sharla is the total opposite, where Cool Off is worked into Gameplay as a balance decision, despite over-exertion of the rifle never negatively affecting her in cutscenes (with arguably one exception open to interpretation). The game also assumes Gadolt's rifle as her default past the Ether mine, and we're given no evidence to believe that Gadolt (or even Otharon, for that matter) had to do the same as far as Cool Off is concerned.
As far as power tiers (yes, I said I wouldn't be focusing on this as much, so I'll try to be brief), I don't think Sharla's 5-A peak holds a lot of water. While I understand where the scans are coming from when putting Disciple Dickson at planet level, saying that the rest of the cast scales because they could take one or two hits from him is... sketchy logic for a couple of reasons. Firstly, the scene in question shows that Reyn took the hit for Sharla with Shield turned up, meaning that besides the brief shots with everyone on their knees being an implication, it's not actually shown that Sharla took any major damage from DD that wasn't already inflicted to other party members. With that, the other reason I find this 5-A scaling to be kinda sus is that in every scene leading up to the 2nd phase of the fight, Dickson was shown to be straight up not trying - mocking Fiora for her decision to inherent Mayneth's memories as opposed to her power, and making it abundantly clear how bored he is.
If you want to interpret the above paragraph as 'power equalised at 9A', feel free, but I don't personally like applying those kinds of rules, because it shuts down debate on a particular aspect of any VS MU. I'm for free speech, dammit.
Now, as far as this matchup in particular, I think the million dollar question is going to be whether Cure Round is enough to circumvent Biotic Grenade's heal-annulling abilities or not. If I had to give an opinion, I would say that she more than likely could for several reasons. While regen-annul is not something that the denizens of Bionis or Mechonis have necessarily had to contest before (outside of buff removal etc.), not only is the definition of what constitutes a debuff extremely broad in Xenoblade (everything from minor stat abnormalities to bleeding, implying that Cure Round's debuff immunity could be rid of heal negation), but there's a chance that a pre-applied Debuff Immunity could protect against it by accident.
I also like to envision the hypothetical matchup of Sharla vs Widowmaker, specifically focusing on the Venom Mine (poison being a common debuff in the Xenoblade universe). While it could be argued that Widowmaker's Venom Mine has the effect that it does on it's victims due to being an injestable substance, the laws of Ether in Xenoblade (and by extension, Ether Catalysts and Rifle Shells following a similar principle) have shown to circumvent the physical body to get inside what the poison would effect - as shown by the first meeting with Melia in Makna Forest with a 'pure crystal' Heal Round allowing her to come round. The rest of Sharla's support abilities based around maintaining health and status must follow a similar principle, and I have no reason to believe that this would drastically change due to the purity of the crystals in context.
However, I won't leave Ana fans too in the dark here, as the Overwatch staff have been eager to put out canonical details on the in-universe effects of stuff like the Bio-Grenade.
Ana also has a noteable speed tier advantage, allegedly being able to keep up with Tracer as far as reaction speed is concerned. Although Sharla being speed scaled to the ins-and-outs of various Mechon I do agree with in tandem (smaller scout units, and the M71 Tentacle Unit on the Bionis Leg / Gaur Plain being a couple of such examples, although the latter required Shulk's Speed Monado Art to be made possible). I'm not entirely sure how much I agree with her speed being scaled to Faces, however, what with her run-ins with Jade Face (Gadolt) only happening because of her denial at his face-turn (pun intended), and his final bout in Agniritha deliberately missing her due to the remnants of memories explained by Mayneth.
"I can take the smaller ones, but the rest would be like fighting Xord over and over."
In closing - Sharla has a notably better chance of winning due to Cure Round, a slight power advantage, and a more flexible movepool. However, I do have to caution around how I have taken liberties for the way that Sharla can protect against abilities like Bio-Grenade that can nab her regenerative arts. If there is some kind of interpretation of this fight where Ana can work around Heal and Cure Rounds, Ana is actually able to exploit that, and even potentially blitz Sharla speed-wise through olden-day scaling to Tracer. Quite a lot to think about on both sides.
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