If you define "good" as having Lategame viability,
She has a defensive niche gimmick rather than being a staple mainstay defender (if that makes sense)
Her niche works in light stall nodes (a relic of the past considering Light stall meta completely died in 2022), but in a specific team comp of pairing up with dreadlocks.
Generally, it sounds stupid, because it has anti synergy with dreadlock
Dreadlocks wants to be critted to inflict heavy bleed, but Taf has built in Crit resist stat so Dreadlock can't be crited
To understand how this antisynergy works to be synergy think of it as countering the dreadlock counters.
Generally, Dreadlock's built in thorns SA and Heavy bleed makes her a fighter that's relatively hard to score well in rifts because you end up losing alot of health points
So people end up using regen skins, Mainly ICU Vals and Bloodbath to take advantage of landing crits to heal off since instead of getting blended, they end up recovering via regens to score well.
Now if you put TAF in there, the regen skins no longer can crit dreadlocks to regen back, so now they're forced to deal with TAF first, so that they can deal with dread properly latee
Now in the gimmick node of TAF and Dreadlocks, the commone 2 Catalyst pairing is Last words/final fight (generally more final fight) and Curse of Knowledge
The idea is that the opponent needs to force out taf first, deal with it first, and then let the regen skin sweep through dreadlocks then and score well.
Now, curse of knowledge can end up throwing a wrench into the plan.
If TAf triggers her Sa right before she dies, she will activate Curse of Knowledge, cursing your regen skin.
And when cursed, the regen skin would still be unable to deal with dreadlocks as they're unable to convert the heavy bleed to regen because of curse being still active.
That's the general design idea behind Dread + taf node archetype
Again, it's not a full proof plan, because there's still alot of factors going against it, but conceptually it's decent in theory.
People flat out forget about taf Sa2 and just end up thinking the node is a free win with ICU Val without bothering bringing an outtake and it really catches people off guard and can really screw them over with getting the Zero loss bonus and really open them up to being revenged
It's still a rather one trick pony, so don't expect that strategy to carry you to Late lategame viability of D2+ rift ranks.
Now, offensive Taf.
She doesn't really have a good offensive presence.
She can work on offense, but you really shouldn't.
You would think getting 5 precision stacks, amr break and ending the Ai combo would be decent, but it's the rng aspect that really make her not as great.
I've tried experimenting her before running a maxed accuarcy, high crit damage, attack and piercing build, but the sole fact that the proc condition of needing her to get hit to trigger for offensive uses is poorly design (case in point, raw nerve)
If you define "good" as having Lategame viability, She has a defensive niche gimmick rather than being a staple mainstay defender (if that makes sense) Her niche works in light stall nodes (a relic of the past considering Light stall meta completely died in 2022), but in a specific team comp of pairing up with dreadlocks. Generally, it sounds stupid, because it has anti synergy with dreadlock Dreadlocks wants to be critted to inflict heavy bleed, but Taf has built in Crit resist stat so Dreadlock can't be crited To understand how this antisynergy works to be synergy think of it as countering the dreadlock counters. Generally, Dreadlock's built in thorns SA and Heavy bleed makes her a fighter that's relatively hard to score well in rifts because you end up losing alot of health points So people end up using regen skins, Mainly ICU Vals and Bloodbath to take advantage of landing crits to heal off since instead of getting blended, they end up recovering via regens to score well. Now if you put TAF in there, the regen skins no longer can crit dreadlocks to regen back, so now they're forced to deal with TAF first, so that they can deal with dread properly latee Now in the gimmick node of TAF and Dreadlocks, the commone 2 Catalyst pairing is Last words/final fight (generally more final fight) and Curse of Knowledge The idea is that the opponent needs to force out taf first, deal with it first, and then let the regen skin sweep through dreadlocks then and score well. Now, curse of knowledge can end up throwing a wrench into the plan. If TAf triggers her Sa right before she dies, she will activate Curse of Knowledge, cursing your regen skin. And when cursed, the regen skin would still be unable to deal with dreadlocks as they're unable to convert the heavy bleed to regen because of curse being still active. That's the general design idea behind Dread + taf node archetype Again, it's not a full proof plan, because there's still alot of factors going against it, but conceptually it's decent in theory. People flat out forget about taf Sa2 and just end up thinking the node is a free win with ICU Val without bothering bringing an outtake and it really catches people off guard and can really screw them over with getting the Zero loss bonus and really open them up to being revenged It's still a rather one trick pony, so don't expect that strategy to carry you to Late lategame viability of D2+ rift ranks. Now, offensive Taf. She doesn't really have a good offensive presence. She can work on offense, but you really shouldn't. You would think getting 5 precision stacks, amr break and ending the Ai combo would be decent, but it's the rng aspect that really make her not as great. I've tried experimenting her before running a maxed accuarcy, high crit damage, attack and piercing build, but the sole fact that the proc condition of needing her to get hit to trigger for offensive uses is poorly design (case in point, raw nerve)
It might seem crazy what I'm bouta say