This video contains two matches I had with the Banshee Norn on Gundam Battle Operation 2. It is a 700 cost general with 3 ranged instant staggers, reasonable midrange DPS, ludicrous melee damage, nearly no NT-D HP drain, 90% HP NT-D activation, life steal in Awaken mode, good durability, 3 melee swings in NT-D and great mobility in NT-D. It has some crucial weaknesses though, its stagger accumulation is basically just at the bare minimum level, it still has to lose HP before it can use NT-D and its double beam saber downswing animation is a little awkward. Since the holidays are upon us, I decided to revisit this suit so that I could show the denizens of Arctic Base some Christmas spirit. I hope that you enjoy watching!
Its primary weapon is a beam magnum with 3300 power, 5 ammo, 6 seconds cooldown, 14 seconds reload, 0.77 seconds swap time, 400m range, 0.8 seconds focus and 20% stagger value. This needs to focus before firing but deals high damage and is easy to hit with.
Its primary melee weapon is a beam saber with 2900 power, 2.5 seconds cooldown, 0.77 seconds swap time and 130% (90%x3) downswing modifier. This is a pretty normal beam saber in normal mode, but in NT-D it changes into a pair of beam sabers with incredible reach and ridiculous downswing power. It is hard to hit all 3 parts of it but consistent to hit 2, either way it will do good damage.
Its first sub weapon is a vulcan gun with 150 power, 40 ammo, 600 RPM, 11 seconds reload, 0.5 seconds swap time, 200m range, 1500 DPS annd 6% stagger value. This has great DPS and can stagger enemies in just 1.7 seconds, making it useful for a variety of situations.
Its second sub weapon is an underbarrel launcher with 500x2x3 power, 6 ammo, 5.5 seconds cooldown, 12 seconds reload, 0.77 seconds swap time, 300m range and 20%x2x3 stagger value. This fires a 3 round burst shot of initially low damage projectiles that then explode to do twice the listed damage and stagger accumulation, each one also instant staggers. It also pierces through enemy shields and ignores 30% of their ballistic resistance.
Its third sub weapon is a beam cannon with 1500x2 power, 45%x2 heat, 5 seconds cooldown, 15 seconds overheat, 0.33 seconds swap time, 450m range, 0.8 seconds focus time and 35%x2 stagger value. This needs to focus but fires two instant staggering beams.
Its fourth sub weapon is a beam jutte with 1500 power, 2.5 seconds cooldown, 0.33 seconds swap time, 0.33 seconds focus time, 100% side swing modifier, 250% downswing modifier and 700% parry modifier. You can use this weapon in NT-D. It has weak regular swings, but the fast swap time combined with the long reaching downswing makes it a good combo starter, it is my preferred combo starter in fact. It can charge and release to enter a short parry state, where it can block enemy melee attacks and counterattack.
Its fifth sub weapon is a beam tonfa with 3500 power, 2 seconds cooldown, 0.5 seconds swap time, 70%/49% combo modifier, 100% side swing modifier and 150% downswing modifier. This has really high damage, fast swap time and a pretty fast downswing animation.
The Banshee Norn has 24000 HP, 20 ballistic resist, 30 beam resist and 28 melee resist. This is already durable, but this durability is further boosted by a 30% reduction shield buffer which furthermore blocks beam staggers in NT-D and a 15% (25%) buffer for the legs. It also has both LV1 Maneuver Armor and LV2 (LV3) Emergency Evasion. The values in brackets apply during NT-D.
In terms of mobility it has 130 (135) walk speed, 220 (230) boosting speed, 75 thrust and 78 (87) turning speed. It has mediocre mobility for a general before NT-D, but afterwards it becomes quite quick. It has LV2 (LV4) Forced Injector and LV2 (LV3) Flight Control for mobility related skills.
At 90% HP it can activate NT-D, this changes the suits stats and loadout at the cost of -25 HP per second. After 30 seconds it can activate Awaken, which stops the HP drain, causes your melee to heal you for 15% of the damage dealt, fully reloads all weapons and increases damage dealt to raids by 15%.
In conclusion, I believe that the Banshee Norn isn't OP anymore, it has effectively been balanced by the arrival of stronger 700 costers like Xi, alongside older 700 costers being buffed to its level. I basically consider this suit a scalpel, if a suit like Unicorn is a hammer. Norn has incredible damage potential, but you need to use it quite precisely to unlock this potential, as opposed to the Unicorn which can just gorilla all over everybody. I think that it is a great option for fighting most generals, but it has a tough match-up against Moon Gundam and Xi Gundam. Here is hoping that the Unicorn gets buffed to Norn's level in the next patch. Thanks for watching, and I hope that you have a merry Christmas!
Music used:
Donkey Kong Barrel Blast, "Mammoth Glacier" and "Alpine Peak"
Dynasty Warriors Gundam 2, A Good Thing is Possible
Avenger1_ GBO2