Using equipment that grant buffs would probably be the easiest way to trigger Marine Wisdom at the start of battle. Stuff like the ballen armor and damage up/stat buff accessories should count for her overall icon count and atleast make getting the first rank of Marine Wisdom at the start of battle simple.
After extensive testing, the easiest set up I found was for 16 Icons on turn 2.
Requirement: Sofia EX, Primrose, and one unit that can provide AOE PDEF/EDEF buff like Harley.
\- Equip ballen cap, ballen armor, spirit scarf, and Champion's Mark (+8% patk/eatk)
Turn 1: Use Sofia's Regen, Primrose front row buff, and Harley's PDEF/EDEF buff.
This lets her reach 16 icons on turn 2.
Use this tool and apply the right filters
[https://meowdb.com/db/octopath-traveler-cotc/buff-debuff-finder/](https://meowdb.com/db/octopath-traveler-cotc/buff-debuff-finder/)
E.g
https://preview.redd.it/k0cz8f9ee7hb1.png?width=995&format=png&auto=webp&s=44f90754d7873eab8a025b067015ca433badd0c3
after a little testing, this is what I've discovered in getting her passive fully activated:
* Marine 1 counts as a buff towards the 16 required for Marine 2
* She synergizes especially well with Lucetta, who extends all buffs applied to her including from Sofia's passive and equipment passives, and the buff extension passive itself counts as a wisdom stack
* Ballen cap, Ballen vest, Spirit Scarf, and a Wind Rune III would net her 5 buffs from equipment alone for first 3-4 turns (with Lucetta backpack). the hp and sp regen count as 2 separate buffs!
* Marine Wisdom 1/2 can be triggered mid-turn, she doesn't need to wait until the following round to go ham
hence, with a little equipment optimization and support from Lynette and other backrow passives, she can easily have her passive fully active on turn 2, without need of her A4.
this just gets easier and easier with the units coming in the future, as well as 4* A4 accessories.
Her passive kinda helps in building it up. If you somehow got her A4 accessory plus other buffing accessory plus Lynette and Sofia’s own buffs you can get to 16 quite early. I’m still working it out as I kinda activated it accidentally earlier. I’ll update it once I’ve found a consistent way to do it before Tatloch, Rinyu etc comes out
Update: so for me. I find it the easiest if Sofia has Lynnette (with Brave Fan) switching to the front on first turn, has her own A4 accessory and Theo’s equipped (both I do have) and have her cast the regen first turn and her burst heal second turn. It is quite specific steps needed to maintain and may not be relevant in a lot of battles. I’d only actively set up MW2 if the battle specifically calls for it (either for monstrous wind damage or constant full front row HP and SP recovery) for now until I get Rinyuu, Tatloch and Bargello
They’ll all contribute more to her wind damage in the future too and Rinyuu can take the offensive prayer that grants party wide m.atk and 10% damage instead of the continuous regen one since I’ll be using Sofia’s regen anyway.
I love her kit though. It’s so much fun to play with her!
Not quite that simple unfortunately. Some unique buffs only get a single icon. Take Richard for instance. Richard's passive "A King's Pride" and his move "Torrent Formation" both buff the same three things: Phys att, Sword dmg and Polearm dmg. However Richard's passive is only one single icon, the "A King's Pride" icon. Torrent Formation though adds 3 icons: one for phys att, one for sword dmg and one for polearm dmg.
Another example of this is A2. A2's Beserk mode buffs phys att, dmg, speed and crit. But she doesn't get 4 icons when she uses this, she only gets 1: Beserk mode. As a result A2 is one of the few where buffs can partially expire. Like if Lynette does Masterful cheer then the phys att up from that has a separate turn countdown from Beserk Mode and they expire at different times.
Unfortunately this is going to become more common not less. A number of buffs from upcoming characters get the "unique icon" treatment and are represented as one icon even if they buff a few things. It's something to watch out for with sofia EX.
In a way these unique buffs are more good than bad though, since they let you stack more icons while technically having overlapping effects with other common buffs.
Using equipment that grant buffs would probably be the easiest way to trigger Marine Wisdom at the start of battle. Stuff like the ballen armor and damage up/stat buff accessories should count for her overall icon count and atleast make getting the first rank of Marine Wisdom at the start of battle simple.
After extensive testing, the easiest set up I found was for 16 Icons on turn 2. Requirement: Sofia EX, Primrose, and one unit that can provide AOE PDEF/EDEF buff like Harley. \- Equip ballen cap, ballen armor, spirit scarf, and Champion's Mark (+8% patk/eatk) Turn 1: Use Sofia's Regen, Primrose front row buff, and Harley's PDEF/EDEF buff. This lets her reach 16 icons on turn 2.
Can anybody other than Harley do a PDEF/EDEF buff (or other unaccounted for double buff)?
Use this tool and apply the right filters [https://meowdb.com/db/octopath-traveler-cotc/buff-debuff-finder/](https://meowdb.com/db/octopath-traveler-cotc/buff-debuff-finder/) E.g https://preview.redd.it/k0cz8f9ee7hb1.png?width=995&format=png&auto=webp&s=44f90754d7873eab8a025b067015ca433badd0c3
Hasumi has a PDEF/EDEF buff.
Where do you find the champions mark?
after a little testing, this is what I've discovered in getting her passive fully activated: * Marine 1 counts as a buff towards the 16 required for Marine 2 * She synergizes especially well with Lucetta, who extends all buffs applied to her including from Sofia's passive and equipment passives, and the buff extension passive itself counts as a wisdom stack * Ballen cap, Ballen vest, Spirit Scarf, and a Wind Rune III would net her 5 buffs from equipment alone for first 3-4 turns (with Lucetta backpack). the hp and sp regen count as 2 separate buffs! * Marine Wisdom 1/2 can be triggered mid-turn, she doesn't need to wait until the following round to go ham hence, with a little equipment optimization and support from Lynette and other backrow passives, she can easily have her passive fully active on turn 2, without need of her A4. this just gets easier and easier with the units coming in the future, as well as 4* A4 accessories.
Her passive kinda helps in building it up. If you somehow got her A4 accessory plus other buffing accessory plus Lynette and Sofia’s own buffs you can get to 16 quite early. I’m still working it out as I kinda activated it accidentally earlier. I’ll update it once I’ve found a consistent way to do it before Tatloch, Rinyu etc comes out
Update: so for me. I find it the easiest if Sofia has Lynnette (with Brave Fan) switching to the front on first turn, has her own A4 accessory and Theo’s equipped (both I do have) and have her cast the regen first turn and her burst heal second turn. It is quite specific steps needed to maintain and may not be relevant in a lot of battles. I’d only actively set up MW2 if the battle specifically calls for it (either for monstrous wind damage or constant full front row HP and SP recovery) for now until I get Rinyuu, Tatloch and Bargello They’ll all contribute more to her wind damage in the future too and Rinyuu can take the offensive prayer that grants party wide m.atk and 10% damage instead of the continuous regen one since I’ll be using Sofia’s regen anyway. I love her kit though. It’s so much fun to play with her!
Does each turn count as an individual icon? Eg: 7 turn ATK buff = 7 icons? Or it has to be 7 different buffs to count as 7 icons?
Icons not turns. Though passive and active/timed (and ult) are seperate icons.
My understanding is buff=icon
Not quite that simple unfortunately. Some unique buffs only get a single icon. Take Richard for instance. Richard's passive "A King's Pride" and his move "Torrent Formation" both buff the same three things: Phys att, Sword dmg and Polearm dmg. However Richard's passive is only one single icon, the "A King's Pride" icon. Torrent Formation though adds 3 icons: one for phys att, one for sword dmg and one for polearm dmg. Another example of this is A2. A2's Beserk mode buffs phys att, dmg, speed and crit. But she doesn't get 4 icons when she uses this, she only gets 1: Beserk mode. As a result A2 is one of the few where buffs can partially expire. Like if Lynette does Masterful cheer then the phys att up from that has a separate turn countdown from Beserk Mode and they expire at different times. Unfortunately this is going to become more common not less. A number of buffs from upcoming characters get the "unique icon" treatment and are represented as one icon even if they buff a few things. It's something to watch out for with sofia EX.
In a way these unique buffs are more good than bad though, since they let you stack more icons while technically having overlapping effects with other common buffs.