Shalem

General overview

Shalem is a great hybrid utility unit. His has one of the most powerful nuke skills in the game, but he's also a general-purpose blocker that offers both damage and survivability. Like the other Arts defenders, he lacks the pure defensive bulk of a regular defender. On top of that, he's a lot more offensively-tuned, with no damage mitigation outside of a max HP buff. As a result, he requires a bit of team support to withstand hard-hitting enemies, but if you can give him that support, he's practically unstoppable.

E2? A good idea if you like to use him. He gains a lot from masteries, and talent 2 offers a rare RES debuff.

Game modes

Arts defenders in general are very good early game IS carries because they strike a balance between blocking and actually killing things, a property that can't be found in any other defender archetype. Shalem stands out because skill 2 is powerful enough to be taken into late game, and he gets a sizeable offensive buff in IS2. Keep an eye out for relics that grant passive SP recovery for offensive/defensive recovery skills, as they make charging his skill 2 a lot more forgiving.

Talents

Talent 1 - Land of Memories

E1 In [Phantom & Crimson Solitaire], ATK +5% and ASPD +20

E2 In [Phantom & Crimson Solitaire], ATK +15% and ASPD +30

Shalem gets a noticeable power bump in IS2, which gives you a nice reason to use him there.

Talent 2 - Proclamation of Doom

E2 Attacks have 20% (+5%) chance to reduce the target's RES by 25% for 3 seconds

RES debuffs are rare, and this one is a pretty strong one. Both of his skills synergize with this talent because they let him attack faster, giving him a better shot at triggering the debuff. It doesn't stack with itself, but it will stack with RES debuffs from other operators like Ifrit, Pramanix, or Gnosis.

Skills

Skill 1 - Rapid Onslaught

Skill effect: Attack Interval reduces (moderately), Max HP +30%/50%, attacks all blocked enemies

Note: Attack interval reduces by 0.35 seconds at level 7 and 0.45 seconds at M3

Overview: This skill turns Shalem into a rapid fire Arts AOE guard. He doesn't get an attack buff, but his base attack is high on its own, so the combination of Arts damage, multitarget attacks, and the attack interval reduction give him a sizeable chunk of DPS. It's also worth noting that he has no damage mitigation outside of the HP boost, so the increase in survivability won't go as far on hard-hitting enemies. However, it's more than enough for him to survive long enough tear through hordes of moderately tough enemies that other melee operators may have difficulty with.

M3? While this skill does fine at level 7, M3 offers very noticeable gains in every aspect. If you like to use Shalem as your main tank, it's well worth the investment.

Skill 2 - Self-Immolation Carnival

Skill effect: Lose 5% HP every second, Attack Range expands and attacks change to firing 6 times with 60%/80% ATK at random enemies within Attack Range

Skill range:

Overview: This skill has some drawbacks. It's defensive recovery with no initial SP, so it can't be used as an easy helidrop, Shalem kills himself after the skill is over if he doesn't have any healing on him, and it attacks random targets. However, players who can look past these drawbacks will find a ridiculously powerful skill that rivals or even outdamages Surtr in the right conditions.

Sometimes, getting this skill charged can be challenging: if enemies are too weak, Shalem will kill them before they can get too many hits in, and if they're too strong, Shalem might find himself tanking more damage than he can handle. Fortunately, several operators can help him get his skill up faster. Aak's 15 shots count as SP, meaning he only needs to take 5 more hits to finish charging at M3, and the buffs treat him very well. Blemishine lets him charge his skill as he attacks, which can help if he's attacking enemies more often than they attack him. Warfarin's talent can give him a bonus SP as he kills enemies, and her skill 2 is a massive DPS enhancer. The HP loss also isn't much of an issue, considering it's difficult for Shalem to function without healing support anyway (or you just need him to do his job once before being retreated, in which case it doesn't matter).

Once his skill is on, it's a remarkably efficient wave clearer, but if there's only one enemy in range, he can do thousands in raw damage (even if you don't account for the RES debuff from his talent, which has a very good proc chance with this skill). It's especially good against enemies with dodge since his damage is getting cut up into chunks, and it's very receptive to buffs. While this skill isn't as plug-and-play as Silverash or Surtr's respective burst skills are, it pays you extremely well for your efforts.

M3? Basically mandatory. He gets a huge damage spike, and 6 SP is a lot of SP for a defensive recovery skill.