February 17, 2019 March 3, 2019

Pirate101 Companion Spotlight: Nausica

As the legends of Aquila say, there’s no noble gladiator without a centaur to fight by their side. Welcome pirates! Today’s article is about a very notorious centaur queen that has been standing strong in the PvP Meta now for almost 5 years. She’s a lady centaur that almost everyone in the PvP scene fears. It’s the mighty Nausica!

From the mountains of Achea comes this great companion. In order to recruit her you’ll have to buy the Empire Bundle, as she’s included as a companion from this bundle:

Empire Bundle

Currently there isn’t any other way to obtain her besides having that bundle, bought online for $39. It’s a great bundle overall and worth the buy for your pirate, as the companion is extremely useful and the gear is great for PvP. If you’re a fan of decorating, the house is incredibly amazing. The Imperial galleon is pretty handy too. But anyways, back to the main topic!

Tips Before Recruiting Nausica

Make sure to recruit her when your pirate has reached the max level cap (Level 70 right now) so you can recruit her 3 levels above your pirate’s level. This gives her a noticeable stat buff.
Ensure that you’ve recruited her in the right class. She is great for 4 classes (Swashbuckler, Musketeer, Privateer and Witchdoctor) out of all 5 right now, and particularly shines on Swashbucklers and Privateers. Choose wisely!

Nausica’s Talents

In any companion, talents are very important, as they tell you whether the companion is viable to use or not. As for Nausica’s talents, I assure you her bevy of talents is wonderful. Why’s that? Because you can run her with a variety of setups in PvE or PvP:

Recommended (Balanced anti-musketeer): Burst 2, Grit 2, Tap 1 and Adjust 1
Musketeer Shredder: Burst 2, Grit 3, Adjust 1
Chaining Centaur: Burst 2, Tap 3, Adjust 1
Not recommended: Burst 2, Tap 2, Grit 1, Adjust 1

Nausica’s first two setups are the most ideal for PvP. The first one allows her to have better chances to deal more chains with double tap 1. It’s also perfect for countering musketeers specifically, as they struggle to compete with the damage of true grit burst fire chains, due to their low dodge. It puts more stress on them, as her chains drain their health rapidly. However, this setup is not just for fighting Musketeers. She can cause some great annoyance to classes that have low base agility, such as Privateers. The class has 39 agility, which is pretty low. It gives Nausica a greater chance to land full chains and crits on them. Furthermore, a Nausica with this set that survives to the late game is a win-con on her own against Privateers.

The second setup is a dedicated anti-musket setup. Grit 3, like Vengeance 3, gives a chance to stun the opposing unit, which can shut off overwatch chains (if you place Nausica before your other units) or make it difficult to kill this centaur with musketeer chains.

As for her stat talents, I have to tell you it’s impressive to see that Nausica is one of the only PvP-viable companions in game that can unlock an additional stat talent at 72. (Dodgy, Agile, Accurate, Rough, Tough, Etc.) If you want the best stat setup, see the picture above that has the stat setup I gave her.

What makes Nausica so good in PvP, you ask?

First of all, she has very unique charging powers that almost make her a half buccaneer half musketeer. These powers allow her to move AND shoot simultaneously. Let’s see her charging powers:

Centaur’s Charge – Move up to x2 and attack

Centaur’s Charge is one of the most unique companion powers we’ve seen so far. We’ve heard of units that have Brutal or Vicious Charge. However, the fact that a charge like this is given to a Musketeer companion is very interesting. If the enemy is at the other side of the battleboard, she can reach them very easily using this power (since Nausica’s base movement is 7). There is indeed one negative: It’s a hit or miss power. If it doesn’t trigger her burst fire chains or critical, it may put your companion in a risky position and she may possibly die.

Point Blank Shots – Move and shoot, guaranteed critical strike

You get one of these shots once you recruit Nausica and one more after each of her two promotions. They all have a movement range of 7 and are epic, mega, and super critical strikes, respectively.

Optimal use for Nausica

2 classes at the moment get the greatest advantages from recruiting Nausica in PvP: Swashbucklers and Privateers. Let’s start first with Swashbucklers.

Swashbuckler

Swashbucklers have one of the strongest offensive powers in game: Black Fog. If you abuse it correctly by rushing your opponent (Assuming you’ll run Goro Fan Nausica) with Goronado’s Vicious charge and Nausica’s PBS +3 power both under black fog’s effect, you’ll ensure your control over the match, as this combo is greatly invincible if used right.

Nausica can deal over 1300 Damage with black fog and her PBS 3, which can make a great impact if rushed the opponent’s pirate himself. In addition, the above team combination has very high movement range on all 3 units, making it hard to outrun. Time warp gives Nausica a whopping 14!!! base movement. She will be able to unleash a hidden super from almost anywhere on the board.

Privateer

Second comes Privateer. The class of the buffs. Nausica becomes very handy with Privateer’s critical buffs and a power I’m sure we all hate. That’s right: Firstmate’s Boon with Nausica is unstoppable!

With this combination, Naustica can go on a rampage and take down 2 to 3 targets. It’s like Black Fog, but the buff lasts for only 3 rounds (and affects EVERY hit she gets, not just one). The double damage output is very difficult to contend with, especially if the Privateer forted or absorbed her to make sure she won’t go down easily.

Musketeers in particular struggle to fight a booned Nausica. The true grit burst fire chain war could cause the battle to become a bloodbath as you’re dealing normal damage to Nausica (or less than normal, if she is forted) while she responds with x2 Grit Burst chain damage.

The Centaur that made
a revolution in Pirate101 PvP

Nausica is arguably one of the best Musketeer companions in the game. She was the first charging Musketeer companion that could walk and hit simultaneously. She can also hit from a range like a normal Musketeer unit, as long as the opponent is within her range.

Back in early 2014, when the companion talents were super limited (most companions only had 3-4 epics), Nausica outshone the rest of the pack, as she possessed the 6 epics she has to this day. Musketeers could simply not defeat a unit that could hit them upwards of 7 times in a round (critical hit + 3 burst fires + 3 true grits). She single-handedly stops muskets from dominating the PvP meta. The release of the bundle was nearly 5 years ago, and she is still as good as she was back then, if not better.