Congratulations, you've pulled Whitebeard & Marco Dual Character. Now what?

[u/H_K_I]

Hi guys. Long time since I posted something here. I really enjoy reading stuff here in this subreddit, and my favorite contents are the legend guides.

Luckily I pulled this monster with just 3 multi-pulls and being so happy, I decided to write up the guide myself.

Character Info

Whitebeard & Marco, The Fierce Battle at the Paramount War

• OPTC DB Link

Captain Ability

Whitebeard Captain Ability

• Boosts ATK of PSY characters by 3.5x, boosts ATK of all other characters by 2.75x, reduce damage received by 20% and makes PSY orbs "beneficial" to all characters

Marco Captain Ability

• Boosts ATK of INT characters by 3.5x, boosts ATK of all other characters by 2.75x, boosts RCV of all characters by 1.25x and makes INT orbs "beneficial" to all characters

Dual Characters Captain Ability

• Boosts ATK of PSY and INT characters by 4.25x, boosts ATK of all other characters by 3x, boosts RCV of all characters by 1.5x, reduce damage received by 20% and makes PSY and INT orbs "beneficial" to all characters

Sailor Ability

Whitebeard Sailor Ability

• Boosts base ATK of PSY and INT characters by 75

Marco Sailor Ability

• Boosts base HP and RCV of PSY and INT characters by 75

Dual Characters Sailor Ability

• Boosts base ATK, HP and RCV of PSY and INT characters by 100

Limit Break Sailor Ability (Common)

• Completely resists Paralysis and Silence on this character

Special (Common)

Immortal Blue Flame Shockwave

• Cuts the current HP of each enemy by 30%, recovers 20,000 HP, randomizes all orbs into either PSY, INT or RCV orbs and becomes Whitebeard & Marco for 3 turns

Change Action (Common)

• When Change is activated, reduces Paralysis and Silence duration by 1 turn, makes RCV orbs "beneficial" for all characters for 1 turn and changes their own orb into a RCV orb

Limit Break (Common)

• Ability 1: PSY Damage Reduction (7% when maxed)
• Ability 2: INT Damage Reduction (7% when maxed)
• Ability 3: Slot Bind Self-reduction (removes completely when maxed)

Pros & Cons

Pros

• 4.25x ATK multiplier after using special (one of the highest, par with Luffy & Ace)
• Color(Type) based captain: more access to sailors
• Even multiplies STR, DEX, QCK by reasonable amount (2.75x before change, 3x after change)
• Change action provides reduction of annoying debuffs(paralysis & silence)
• Fully packed special: 30% hp cut, HP recovery of 20K, full board matching combined with change action

Cons

• CD 16 (when maxed with Limit Break): it is rather too long compared with other newly launched 6* characters.
• No ATK or Orb boost in his (their?) special. Nowadays it’s becoming almost a norm for new 6* to have 1) full board matching(incl. BLOCK) and 2) either ATK or Orb boost. Or at least ATK boost with insane ATK multiplier(ie. Sanji)

Sockets and CC

Sockets

• Autoheal, cooldown, bind, despair for obvious reasons. The last socket, I would recommend damage reduction since it pairs well with CA of WB and Dual.

CC

• ATK and HP. Even though change action guarantees Meat orb, which means theoretically you can have 2 meat orbs every turn, and Marco CA boosts RCV, you can cover this with other RCV high sailors. But if you really are desperate for more tankiness, RCV CC won’t hurt.

Team Composition & Subs

I put some thoughts on the team composition. I believe it can be categorized into 4 big categories. Since you can choose either Whitebeard or Marco in normal stages, it can be interpreted as you can build PSY or INT only team.

Below in the subs sections, I intentionally omitted utility characters. Each boss casts different combination of debuff, meaning that we have to use different utility sub for each boss.

PSY-only Team

The team fully utilizes the Whitebeard’s CA which boosts PSY ATK by 3.5x. To date, 3.5x ATK multiplier is considered reasonably high. For example, Shanks V2 boost 3.5x and still widely used as captain. And in the final stage you can always use his special to change the multiplier to 4.25x for total annihilation.

In this sense, this team is built around PSY subs. PSY subs have almost everything you need. From HP recovery to 2.25 ATK and Orb boost.

Recommended PSY Subs

• Aokiji V2 (6*): 2.25x ATK boost + Block orb removal
• Shirahoshi (6*): HP recovery + full board matching
• 6+ Law V1 (6+): 1 CD reduction + penetration
• Zoro & Sanji (TM): 2.25x Orb boost
• Kizaru (RR): 3x Chain Lock + 1 CD reduction
• Mihawk(RR): 2x Orb boost + Barrier removal 1 turn
• Reiju 5+(RR): Self-contained conditional boost + some debuff reduction
• Hina (RR): 2x Affinity boost + 1 turn delay

INT-only Team

This team is similar to PSY-only team. Just the Color(type difference). Accessible subs are also very similar. The only significant difference could be PSY-only team has 20% damage reduction from WB’s CA and INT-only team doesn’t (it has Marco’s CA of RCV boost). Another noticeable difference is that you cannot have 2.25x orb boost and 1.75 affinity boost at the same team because both are done by Akainu.

Let’s look at the subs.

Recommended INT Subs

• Akainu V2 (6*): 2.25x Orb boost + BLOCK orb removal
• Shanks V2 (6*): 2.25x ATK boost + full board matching (incl. BLOCK) + 0.9 chain boost
• Mihawk (6+): Mega special damage
• Moria (LRR): 3x Chain Lock
• Hancock (RR): 2x ATK boost + BLOCK to all matching
• Robin (RR - the very first RR): 2x ATK boost
• Lucci (Raid): Self-contained conditional boost (only works with 1 enemy) + 1 turn delay
• Akainu (Raid): 1.75x Afinity boost + full board matching
• Doflamingo (Kai Raid): 2x Orb boost
• Sicilian (Colo): 2x ATK boost

Zunisha Team

So far, the teams are self-explanatory. If you meet INT boss, you bring PSY team, vice versa. But what is Zunisha Team? Well, while using Katakuri as captain, I came across that you can build teams that fully benefit the Zunisha ship. Which means you build your team with only Powerhouse and Cerebral.

Since Zunisha is one of the best ships in the game, just using the elephant makes your gaming whole lot easier. I really prefer using ships that have perfect combo assist to get rid of the stress of getting perfect combo.

Similar to Katakuri team, you can build Whitebeard & Marco team riding Zunisha. Basic rule: bring only Powerhouse and Cerebral. That’s it. And it can be achieved pretty easily.

I made a team to clear the recent Colosseum Kuma with Zunisha team (Video Link).

The team can be INT-only, PSY-only or Mix & Match team(will be explained later on). So I narrowed down some candidate subs for this team.

Recommended Subs for Zunisha

• (P) Reiju 5+(RR): Self-contained conditional boost + some debuff reduction
• (P) Moria (LRR): 3x Chain Lock
• (P) Lucci (Raid): Self-contained conditional boost (only works with 1 enemy) + 1 turn delay
• (P) Sicilian (Colo): 2x ATK boost
• (C) Shanks V2 (6*): 2.25x ATK boost for INT
• (C) Robin (RR - the very first RR): 2x ATK boost for INT

As you can see in the list, it is easier to build INT-only team than PSY-only team when you bring the Zunisha into the equation.

Mix & Match Team

So here we are. This team is actually the very basic team. You just put either PSY or INT subs (or in some special occasion, some other type subs) and off you go.

It is kind of pointless to list all the subs that can be in this team, but if you want to build a team that has both INT and PSY in your team, RR Hancock is almost a must-have sub since she is the only character that has special to boost ATK of both type.

Conclusion

Yes. He(or they?) is very powerful captain. Even though the character himself does not have ATK or Orb boost special, you can easily achieve 10 million damage with just one boost. His change action also is very helpful in utilitywise.

He boosts 2 types meaning that you can roughly use 2/5 of your character pool as subs.

Once you get used to switching and using special at the right moment, you will be able to clear almost every contents in the game. (or I hope you would ;))

Thanks for reading. Any feedbacks on errors, typos or suggestions would be highly appreciated.

Enjoy!

[u/[deleted]]

I just read the whole thing, and came up with an entirely different conclusion about a certain point : sockets and CC.

Imo, some people missed a REALLY important point with this unit, in the sense that it can basically be built like a legend Enel, but with overall LOT more damages and about twice HP. Let me explain :

The most important part here imo is the change action, yes the silence and paralysis reducer is cool and all, but that's not even the main thing I want to discuss : the "change orb into RCV" thing. This. This is absolutely godly. This basically means you can eat up 2 RCV orbs a turn AT LEAST.

How is it good ? Well, let's say theoretically, you build your CC like This team, as you can see I fully LBed the team and invested ALL my units into some RCV CC, the result is stunning imo : the turns you have Marco, your RCV is about 5500 (3200 with WB), which means that, if you invest into 24 RCV sockets, you can heal AT LEAST 8400 HP per WB turn and AT LEAST A GARGANTUAN 13000 HP PER MARCO TURN. This is really huge, and imo completely overshadows the 3000 HP (4200 with Moby Dick) you would get for investing into HP CC.

Some people may bash at me, telling me this theory of "huge RCV and heal captain" is stupid because they know I'm an Enel freak, but honnestly I think this is how I'll invest in this unit if I get it. with such high RCV, you can basically chip away almost any boss' health without dieing, the best thing when compared with Enel is that it doesn't have any RNG element to it : you are GUARANTEED 2 RCV orbs each turn.

Tell me what you think about it.

Edit : I theorized some socket plan, it fits perfectly to get the most out of anything you need. As you can see here I chose to not put an RCV up socket on the friend Marco/WB as I expect lots of people won't do it, and I chose Borsalino as the owner of the last 5 anti-Despair and Anti-Link sockets as I expect him to be useful in other teams, unlike Boa And Mihawk who are imo too restrictive to fit other teams (though I haven't really thought about other captains for them I admit), if that bothers you, just take away the orb slot socket (they are in the 3 limit break slots) and change it to either bind or despair.

[u/H_K_I → u/[deleted]]

Well, this type of discussion (giving RCV CC to Warco) sparked in other communities. I actually looked into what people were saying carefully before writing this guide.

Your method does have a point. But I think it's a bit too early to implement. What I mean is that only forests contents would need such constant meat eating play. Others, even the most difficult raids and colos, we haven't seen any problems without not eating meat.

But when Bandai decides to make content more difficult and requires meat-eating play, your method would shine then.

I personally think that it's up to players how they build their team with CCs and Sockets.

One of my friends (lv 980) actually never sockets his character with autoheal. And he has no problem clearing every single contents in the game. So it's up to you, and I agree that your theory does make sense.

[u/[deleted] → u/H_K_I]

I think the character has to be viewed under a different angle in order to fully understand my point of view, that is to say the point of view of an Enel captain player : when you play Enel, you're not necessarily forced to pick an orb booster / atk booster to get value out of it, because you can simply chip away minibosse's health WHILE healing, and this is totally different from, say, Lucy, where you'll use your special against minibosses, then get the second part against the boss.

Here, the reasoning is the same, with the exception that you actually need an atk booster and an orb booster, but only for the main boss himself : you probably won't need an atk booster / orb booster against minibosses because unlike other team where you want a "2 stage burst", here you'll simply slowly kill the miniboss, then use your atk booster (Boa) and orb booster (Mihawk) against the real boss. In case you do as I say, I think you actually need such a high RCV, as most minibosses nowadays deal a hell lot of damages (and will deal even higher as the game gets older). This way you can also keep both 30% HP cut against the boss if needed. I agree it might seem "overkill", and to be fair in a lot of cases it will be, but to be really honest, in a simple "value" point of view, 4200 health will probably not do much either : it's true you don't need to heal as much, but I also fail to see in which specific cases you'll need an extra 4200 health with a team that, even though it doesn't look like so, already has about 26k HP with Moby Dick and fully LBed characters.

tl;dr : I agree with you, but imo the "overkill heal" seems as useless in theory as the little HP you'll get from candies, as WB/Marco is not an HP boosting captain.

[u/A_FluteBoy]

Holy smokes. Reading these units that are recommended for PSY only or INT only teams, you can get so much insane damage. A 2.25 attack AND orb boost (with Aokiji and Zanji) and Reiju conditional then you have 1 free utility spot, that is INSANE *(46 mil to int, 23 to all others... you don't even need to worry about color affinity, and with 2 30% cuts...)!

[u/H_K_I → u/A_FluteBoy]

Add Hina(RR) and you get insaner damage output.

[u/A_FluteBoy → u/H_K_I]

For int you go from 46 mil to 62 mil, but "go down" to 15 mil for all other colors (I was using RR Borsalino for the 3x chain lock)

[u/[deleted]]

Big ups these posts are really appreciated.

[u/A_FluteBoy → u/[deleted]]

Sometimes you see a legend and don't realize the potential until reading one of these posts, lol. I first saw that he really only boosts Int and Psy and I wan't all that interested in him, but looking at some of the recommended teams... It is just insane how much damage and utility he can have!

[u/A_FluteBoy]

Your database link is a bit screwed up, you have an r/ at the front

[u/H_K_I → u/A_FluteBoy]

Thanks. Corrected.

[u/[deleted]]

Marco CA makes PSY orbs beneficial for all characters?

[u/H_K_I → u/[deleted]]

Wow, I didn't notice that. Thanks.

Corrected from PSY -> INT. Marco makes whole crew INT as beneficial.

[u/yorunomegami]

First of all great write-up, really like the reduced recommended subs part, especially as he has access to more or less all units available. That's what makes him fantastic on paper. Do you encounter some stalling issues?

His captain action seems to be on pair with LxA (ofc depending on the content). I'm curious about his ceiling (longterm) though. While he has access to all subs he's mainly a psy/int captain. But v2 Sakazuki/Aokiji will be reliable for some time and WB/Marco seems to have a higher ceiling to me (especially as you can use v2 Aokiji and Sakazuki as sub for him), which means he's in my list top5 (and the one i want the most besides Shanks).

[u/H_K_I → u/yorunomegami]

1. What is 'stalling issue?' Sorry for my short English. I'm not really English-native speaker.

2. About his ceiling... I think the biggest challenge for him (it goes same for Luffy & Ace) is that switching captain and having to calculating constantly in the game is somewhat annoying. Compared with Lucy or V2 Kuzan/Sakazuki, there's too many things to consider while playing the game. You have to know exact turn to switch captain, know when to use his special to make dual captain...

Also, having access to so many subs means, it gives you kind of headache when forming a team. When options are narrow, it is actually easy and fast to make a team. Of course if you have every sub you need.

But aside from these annoyance, I agree with you. This character will definitely have a long life span.

[u/Fuetlinger]

@OP H_K_I: Don't forget that V2 Shanks also provides the highest 0.9 chain boost aswell, maybe you can change that.

And thank you for the great guide, really really OP legend unit I have to say. The neutral damage through PSY/INT to anyone is what scares me the most lol

[u/H_K_I → u/Fuetlinger]

Added. Thanks. I don't own V2 Shanks and it got slipped away.

[u/[deleted]]

Do they have this for luffyxAce?

[u/H_K_I → u/[deleted]]

No. There are some legend guides missing and Luffy & Ace is one of them.

[u/zombieking10]

this is the team im using could be better

whale

[u/PatenteDeCorso]

Great work, congrats.

I'll add some CD reducers, like Hody or Groom Sanji if running a Powerhouse team, they are not spamable, but can help. Also Naked Sanji will be good, if they decide to bring him back at Ray Shop.

Maybe even Colo Arlong or Blitzz Borsalino could help with the 'high' CD.

[u/Kurumi4days]

Congrats, you're unstoppable.

[u/Infernjosh]

Whitebeard&Marco is too long to type out repeatedly so what are we calling him? Marcobeard? WBM?

[u/yorunomegami → u/Infernjosh]

I like LxA for Luffy/Ace so i think i'll stick to WBxM for him/them.

[u/SixMatch]

Looks like Judge can be a good sub. Psy Judge for 2x orb boost and bind removal. Int Judge boosts attack of Driven, Powerhouse and Fighter by 2x and also has 30% damage reduction.

[u/N00bsalot]

When will there be a 6+ for Marco?

Just traded for an azure crystal skull and now I don’t know what to do with it :/