Corvin/Gameplay (XC2)

Corvin is a Rare Blade in Xenoblade Chronicles 2.

Overview
Corvin is a very strong evasion tank/attacker hybrid, who serves as a general jack-of-all-trades that can fit into many team compositions. Although he is listed as a tank blade, he is part of the highest critical rate tier, has some of the strongest Special damage ratios in the game, and comes with a skill that provides a 90-150% additive increase to damage at Max Affinity. This makes him one of the strongest damage dealers. Moreover, he provides a art to every driver, providing critical driver combo access to drivers that may lack a versatile smash art. His circle AoE/Evasion/Smash art on Zeke, Galactic Strike, along with his AoE Lv.1 and Lv.2 Specials, give him some of the best crowd control in the game as well.

Corvin can also function as likely the best evasion tank because of his skill, which recharges arts upon evasion. Combined with his class providing evasion arts to every driver, 100% evasion uptime is viable. His Lv3 special also provides evasion of the 4-6 next attacks. This, combined with his natural Agility mod and passive 15-25% evasion increase at Max Affinity, allow him to function as an evasion tank who can actually hold and maintain aggro.

Corvin also provides support abilities that can enrich many different playstyles. His skill Alae Custodiae provides large amounts of party gauge on critical hits, which when combined with Corvin's high critical rate, means that he can fill the party gauge incredibly quickly. On Easy and Normal difficulties, this combined with his powerful specials makes him a natural asset towards Chain Attack focused teams. This party gauge gain also provides a remedy to the nerfed party gauge gain on the Bringer of Chaos difficulty, and this combined with his defensive capabilities makes him one of the strongest blades on this difficulty. Moreover, his Lv.2 Special, Lacerna Noctis, is the only way to purge the Rage status from enemies, which can be invaluable for avoiding Rage Strikes and the buffs enemies get when enraged. He can even heal via his Lv.1 Special, although as healing options go this is not the most efficient.

Corvin's weapon type, Uchigatana, is a clone of the Chroma Katana weapon type, although all drivers gain a Smash art from this weapon. All drivers also get one Evasion art from this weapon type as well.

Strategy
On Easy and Normal Difficulty, Corvin provides utility on Chain Attack focused builds, due to his party gauge gaining skill Alae Custodiae, high critical rate, and strong, defense-piercing Specials. Corvin on any driver (optionally combined with an Omega Drive accessory) can gain party gauge so fast that Chain Attacks can essentially be used defensively, providing invincibility frames from any attack. However, in multi-round chain attacks his Lv.2 and 3 Specials, having many hits and high damage ratios, can do massive damage.

Corvin can be used to evade tank as well: his Ictus skill, which recharges arts upon evasion, combined with his evasion art, can provide essentially 100% evasion to any attacks. Time use of evasion arts to when enemies attack, so that the resulting evasions recharge the evasion art. This combined with Art Recharge pouch items should allow for evasion of essentially all attacks. In particular, this can be used for very effective crowd control using Zeke's AoE Evasion art Galactic Strike. In crowd fights, Galactic Strike is essentially spammable since the hits evaded from the mob of enemies will recharge the art very fast. This combined with the art's AoE and high damage ratio, especially when combined with Dagas's Kaiser Zone, can very effectively manage most mobs of enemies. Likely the most infamous use case of this is in the challenge mode battle Elma: Redux, where the continuous barrage of enemy attacks functions to recharge Galactic Strike instantly, and Galactic Strike can be spammed for the whole battle, allowing Zeke to vanquish all enemies in relative safety.

Since Corvin provides Smash arts to all drivers, and has a very short (12.5s) blade cooldown stat, he naturally fits into any driver combo loop focused team. In fact, Zeke with the correct blade setup (Adenine or Kora, Pandoria, and Corvin, all with Fast Blade Switch Aux Cores), can reliably perform three of the four driver combo stages without an Overclocking Bangle. He pairs naturally with Mythra on Rex or Shulk on Morag as well, allowing Rex or Morag to topple and smash enemies which another driver can break and launch. Even Nia can smash with Corvin, which she cannot do with any other Blade/Weapon type.

Corvin's powerful specials and high crit rate can also provide a reliable source of Damage over Time (DoT), which is a useful source of damage especially on the Bringer of Chaos difficulty. Corvin's relatively fast, strong, and defense-piercing Lv.2 special can be performed on a launched enemy to provide a powerful damage over time effect which can then be extended and strengthened through driver combo loops. Blades which can increase damage in this situation, such as Dagas or Crossette (who provide extra damage via their Kaiser Zone and Fireworks skills respectively), naturally pair with Corvin to provide large Damage over Time effects. This, combined with his crowd control, evasiveness, party gauge gain, and combo access, make Corvin invaluable on many teams in the Bringer of Chaos difficulty mode.