A beauty who many men in Paladia hoped to one day make theirs. However, legend has it that Citra turned all of them away coldly. Although she was caught in a dilemma for some time when the man she loved didn’t requite her feelings, it seems she has finally moved on with her life.
Gotta be honest here, I’m not a huge fan of fanservice. So don’t expect many jokes regarding that.
Table of Contents
Equipment Selection
No innate weaknesses | No innate resistances
- Trust Master Reward: Hero’s Vow – Light (Materia) – Increase SPR (60%)
- Increase LB gauge fill rate (50%)
- Decrease dark resistance (30%)
STMR: Badrosa (Staff) – 12 ATK, 110 MAG, 150 SPR, 30% EVO MAG
7* Stats at Lvl. 120
| HP | MP | ATK | MAG | DEF | SPR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4605 | 250 | 142 | 198 | 142 | 198 |
| (+540) | (+90) | (+40) | (+40) | (+40) | (+65) |
7* Limit Burst
Gleam of Reverie (Base / 27 LB-Crysts): 1-Hit Evoke damage (13.1x) to all enemies
Decrease resistance to all elements (60%) for 3 turns to all enemies
Gleam of Reverie (Max / 27 LB-Crysts): 1-Hit Evoke damage (16x) to all enemies
Decrease resistance to all elements (60%) for 3 turns to all enemies
Pros
Just to get it out of the way: Citra’s best con is her sprite / chest for a large majority of players.
Citra’s base stats are great for a summoner. Decent HP, high MP/MAG/SPR, though without the trust ability her passives might seem a little lackluster at first. 30% HP/MP/MAG/SPR, 20% DEF and 20% Esper Stats as well as 10% MP refresh alongside 60% EVO MAG and later on in her 7* form even 20% MAG/SPR True Dualwield. She is resistant against paralyze and petrification, which makes gearing against status ailments easier.
Her Trust Ability boosts Citra’s stats by quite a lot. Her own TMR grants 60% SPR as well as LB fillrate in return of 30% darkness resistance. Once you equip it onto herself she gains an additional 10% Esper Stats, 30% MAG/SPR AND 50% EVO MAG. In total that’d be 30% HP/MP, 60% MAG, 120% SPR and 110% EVO MAG and 30% bonus esper stats. That looks a lot more appealing than Citra without her Trust Ability.
Similar to Veritas of the Light Citra has a 20% chance to counter any attack with a ST 100% light imperil, which is pretty neat even though Citra herself can’t utilise it as much as others. If you have holy damage dealing units though that might be a major boost in damage if you do get it.
A few supportive moves in your kit are always appreciated and that’s the same case with Citra. She doesn’t have too many, but the ones she has are still worth talking about.
Guardian Light is somewhat similar to what Veritas of the Light / Earth have. An AoE 3 turn 100% Light resistance buff, which is neat as light resistance buffs are one of the more rare ones. Not many units have them and there is no light resistance spell version such as Barwatera. It does come with a downside though of decreasing your party’s dark resistance by 50%. If you are fighting a boss that deals both holy and dark damage you might not want to use it or time it correctly.
Citra’s next ability already synergyses with her own summoner kit and it’s actually a great ability. Sorcercy Dampener is an AoE 2 turn 20% magic mitigation buff and fills your esper gauge by 2~4 randomly, on average 3. 20% magic mitigation might not sound like much but since physical and magic mitigation buffs are quite rare and unless you run seaside nichol not many supports feature them it’d still stack with your generic damage mitigation. 20% less damage even if it’s only for 2 turns can be useful from time to time.
Her last ability that’s not tied to the esper gauge is Holy Mind.
Holy Mind is an AoE 350% 14-hit modifier that scales off your SPR with innate holy element. So far not really impressive. Even though the gap is slightly shorter than a regular 2x Divine Ruination, it can still perfectly chain with them. But that’s not too interesting either.
What really makes this move outstanding is that it also increases your esper gauge by 2~4. On top of the chains you can generate a lot of esper orbs that way. It also has an attached Curaga on it, which might enable you to skip your healer, though I wouldn’t rely on it as it’s only a single Curaga heal.
All of Citra’s abilities that use up her Esper Gauge she can W-Cast.
Firstly Citra has two different ways of recovering MP. Either a ST 150 MP recover for 4 Esper Orbs or an AOE 130 MP recover at 7* for 6 Esper Orbs. In general this is a great way of recovering MP as it doesn’t cost any actual MP by itself, which makes it especially useful against trials or bosses that like to drain your MP.
Other than that Citra has three different Evoke Finishers.
What’s an evoke finisher? Basically a finisher that uses evoke damage. Evoke damage takes your MAG and SPR as hybrid stat and hits the enemy’s SPR. However, evoke damage has its own damage type which means bosses that are immune to physical and / or magic attacks will still take damage off of them. In return, this means evoke damage can’t utilise killers as they do not apply to it. Weapon element will also not be taken into account. Also, all kind of EVO MAG affects it as well. If you have 100% EVO MAG for example you will get an effective 100% damage boost.
Similar to Yuna, Citra has a weaker AoE move and a strong ST move. Light of Supremacy is an AoE 900% evoke finisher that costs 3 esper orbs, which is fairly cheap. You can combine the AoE finisher with your AoE MP recover for a total of 9 esper orbs.
Light of Ruin is a ST finisher with a 2000% evoke modifier. It costs 5 esper orbs thus you can’t combine it with the AoE MP recover, however if you do have a full esper gauge you can cast it twice in the same turn for a total 4000% mod. With her innate passives that’s already a large modifier.
Her Cooldown ability at 7* costs 5 esper orbs as well and firstly available at Turn 6. It has a 2500% modifier and instead of being ST, it’s AoE. If you want to you can combine with with the weaker AoE finisher for a total 3400% AoE hit or with the ST finisher for a 4500% ST finisher. Pretty neat.
Citra’s Limit Burst, while not being as strong in terms of numbers, does have the ability to AoE imperil all elements by 60% even at base. You likely won’t max it because you don’t gain too much damage out of it, but setting up other units that way might be useful to you as a 60% all imperil can always be used in quite a few occasions.
Cons
Citra’s kit has a good amount of flaws.
First up Citra’s biggest problem is her entire kit itself.
Why? This doesn’t make a lot of sense. Let me explain though.
Summoners usually have multiple roles such as Eiko and Yuna being healers at the same time. Eiko is able to cure breaks and even all types of debuffs with her new CD ability, being a strong healer as long as you can spam her LB whereas Yuna was able to be used as an effective healer and even a buffer partially due to her high DEF/SPR buffs on her LB and strong regens.
What does Citra have? Damage. The damage she puts out as a finisher is currently high, but there are stronger options (spoiler) while Citra also can’t utilise killers / elements. In the future while other units can grow even stronger due to e.g. True Doublehand potential, Citra’s “growth” isn’t as high. Most of the summoner gear is already available with her own STMR as well as Eiko’s.
I’d call her the Cloud of Summoners, though Citra isn’t AS one-dimensional as Cloud, so it’s a slight overexaggeration.
“But Citra offers a way of healing.” Yes, she does. But it’s a single Curaga and if you use two Citras you have two Curagas coming from chains.
Sounds nice, but that leads me to the next issue. Holy Mind is weak. 350% modifier that can only be used ONCE even with its SPR scaling is not strong. Her imperils are locked behind counters or her LB, which means it’s not as reliable or makes her lose turns of chaining. With Lila we already had 1000% SPR chains that worked with Dualwield, just to give you an impression of how low a 350% modifier is. In most fights you will likely still need a healer because her heals not being great. Or you’d sacrifice a lot of damage output to run two Citras. It’s great for Story Events though.
Citra’s CD ability is somewhat unappealing due to having a 6 turn cooldown and not the availability at Turn 1. Generally this means you’d have to wait for your big AoE Nuke. For ST you don’t have to wait for it, though the difference to her innate AoE finisher is a lot bigger.
The lack of multiple other role aspects makes Citra feel very lackluster while her finisher potential isn’t as high as others while also suffering from the lack of usable killers / elemental weaknesses, which would put other finishers even higher. E.g. equipping Ifrit on your finisher against beasts would already give them a big boost in damage that Citra would not get.
Side-Notes
Citra does have enhancements in JP.
She has now access to Triple Cast and she is also able to triple cast her holy chaining move. It becomes decently strong and that’d mean a triple curaga or rather 6x Curagas with a dupe. Her finishers become stronger and her magic mitigation goes up. While others looked upon her enhancements with partially impressed faces, I have not seen any real play of Citra yet (mainly due to the lack of content to use her on), though I still don’t see a spot on most teams where she’d be a better option than anyone else. Her main selling point would be the triple cast holy chain, but she still lacks all imperils before her LB or counter proc. As a magic damage dealer she’s still inferior to the likes of Elly and Golbez and as a finisher evoke damage, as I explained earlier, doesn’t “scale as well” as other units. The current roster of finishers in JP are all way stronger than her if you take a look at units like enhanced Ignacio or enhanced Cid. Even if Citra is able to triple cast her ST finisher for a total 9000% modifier, that still doesn’t even nearly scratch Cid’s damage output. Or Squall’s / Ignacio’s / Regina’s.
Citra’s enhancements are great and they do fix quite a lot of issues, but the meta also moved on. The meta is not stationary and especially in JP where powercreep lately has been moving in a very fast pace I don’t see her high up there, though I might be wrong and Citra turns out to be ridiculously good in the next trial. Sadly, as I mentioned, there is no real content to try her on currently.
Best In Slot
Simple as always: one build with and without STMRs. Though we are trying to max her summon damage, thus highest possible MAG/SPR/EVODMG.
No STMRs
2x Nirvana (136 MAG, 232 SPR)
Evoker's Horn (3 DEF/SPR, 15% MAG/SPR, 10% EVO DMG)
Lotti's Robe (25 DEF/SPR, 30 MAG, 20% MAG, 10% HP)
2x Magistral Crest (60% MAG/SPR)
Hero's Vow - Light (60% SPR)
2x Pure Bred Summoner (80% MAG, 40% SPR, 20% EVO DMG)
ADV 5 (40% DEF/MAG/SPR)
Stats with Shiva 3*:
7316 HP
569 MP
394 DEF
1214 MAG
1417 SPR
140% EVO MAG
— Full STMRs
2x Badrosa (220 MAG, 300 SPR, 60% EVO DMG)
Evoker's Horn (3 DEF/SPR, 15% MAG/SPR, 10% EVO DMG)
Amiculum Nigra (30 DEF, 72 MAG/SPR, 30% MP, 5% MP Refresh)
2x Betrothal Ring (80 MAG/SPR, 80% MAG/SPR)
Hero's Vow - Light (60% SPR)
2x Pure Bred Summoner (80% MAG, 40% SPR, 20% EVO DMG)
Essence of Summoning (15% HP/MP/SPR, 30% EVO DMG)
Stats with Shiva 3*:
7574 HP
722 MP
326 DEF
1366 MAG
1638 SPR
230% EVO MAG
How is the unit at 6*?
Citra as a 6 does the job that she’s supposed to do fairly nice*.
She will have significantly worse stats and way less EVO MAG, but she can still be used for her holy chaining move for story events quite effectively. She has still access to W-Cast on her evoke damage and the only abilities she does not have are her AoE MP recover and her CD ability, thus she’s still a decent evoke finisher even though she loses a lot of stats and the 20% damage boost from levels.
A fine 6 star even if not the best. I’d still use her for SEs honestly.
Arena
Right now Citra isn’t good in the Arena. Her only AoE chaining move is locked to one cast and locked to holy. There are many patriotic recalls on units equipped which means high holy resistance as well as many Awakened Rains that soak up tons of magic damage. Ashe is the better version of Citra in the arena currently and even she is slowly disappearing after such a long time due to all the Ayakas and Awakened Rains just not dying from magic damage.
Imo I’d not use her.
Comparisons
Citra VS Eiko
- Citra has higher base MAG
- Citra gets bonus esper stats
- Citra has evoke finishers
- Citra has an AoE 20% magic mitigation buff
- Both are summoners
- Both have 10% MP refresh
- Eiko has higher base SPR
- Eiko has way higher SPR/HP passives
- Eiko has higher EVO DMG (10%)
- Eiko can AoE cure for a lot of HP and breaks with LB
- Eiko has 100% innate hightide
- Eiko can often fully fill your esper gauge with LB
- Eiko can cure all debuffs with her CD ability
- Eiko can apply AoE / ST HP barriers
- Eiko can recover MP while filling esper gauge
We are looking at a comparison where we sacrifice some of Citra’s evoke damage for the capabilities Citra was previously lacking.
While Eiko won’t be at the top of the healer list, she is more than usable as one. I often used Eiko 6* in the latest trials due to Esper Missions and her constant break cures. As long as you can keep up her LB often enough she will be an effective healer. The lack of reraise does hurt, but in return you are able to summon espers such as Fenrir for the AoE mirage or even AoE buffs. Or Golem for the AoE physical 70% mitigation. Eiko can keep up your Esper Gauge at all times: her HP or MP recover grants a good chunk of your esper gauge, her LB instantly fills it up most of the times, her CD move grants HP barriers and fills it up. And when evoking espers, which often are used as a finisher either because of “Finish with Esper” missions or due to slot efficiency Eiko is better than Citra even if it’s only by a small amount.
Eiko has so much more to offer in return of some damage. In actual esper evocations Eiko would deal more damage, only Citra’s evoke finishers pull ahead but most of the time it either doesn’t matter or isn’t worth it to slot her in over Eiko, which leads me to the following conclusion:
Eiko wins.
Trust Master Reward
Citra’s TMR is surprisingly strong with 60% flat SPR, 50% LB fillrate and -30% dark resistance. As long as you aren’t facing dark damage her TMR is BiS for everyone who likes SPR and the added LB fillrate can be incredibly handy on units such as Zargabaath whose LB is just incredible.
Obviously if you are running Citra you will also grab her TMR. I can only recommend farming it.
Super Trust Master Reward
Her STMR is really good for any summoner as long as you care about the EVO DMG. Even if you don’t use it for that, it has 110 MAG and 150 SPR, which means it’ll be great for pretty much any healer or even tank who are using staves. I can only recommend getting it if you have it available, however I wouldn’t pull for a fourth Citra if you are close to getting it.
Conclusion
Citra isn’t as great as her chest.
Many already knew that she isn’t as good as they’d like her to be, but I’ve seen a bunch of users discussing her and not knowing if she is actually that great or not.
Her damage output currently is quite high as a finisher. She is delayed due to using your esper gauge and her CD ability especially has quite a long delay before you can actually use it. Damage wise her future is more mediocre than anything.
What distinguishes Citra as a more lackluster unit is more or less the Cloud Syndrom if you can even call it like that. Her kit is lacking many different tools. The only things she really provides are weak chaining frames with DR chainers while healing and filling esper gauge. Chaining is great, but the DR family is huge and you can’t really utilise the chaining frames if you want to use her as a finisher as you’d need a third chainer anyway by then. Her heals on the chain aren’t strong enough to sustain your team in many trials and using two Citras over two actual chainers wouldn’t be worth it over just bringing a huge solo DPS + actual healer or just two chainers and a regular healer.
Citra is an interesting “off-meta” pick that can definitely function as a finisher. By no means is she a horrible unit or anything, but keep in mind that my reviews are heavily focused on the meta as it often determines how well a unit fares against others.
If you want to go for her I’d like to mention that her CG Animation shouldn’t be worth 11k Lapis. Yes, even though I disagree with it, the waifu factor is a thing for many players, but if you didn’t specifically like Citra for her character or what not, I would not pull. Not even for a large chest, it’s only an animation.
- Character Design: 7/10
- Sprite: I don’t even want to rate it /10
- Summoner: 7.5~8/10
- Finisher: 8.5/10
Trust Master Reward: 9/10 - STMR: 9/10
- Arena: 4/10
- Limit Burst: 6.5/10
- Future Proof: 5/10
- Free 2 Play: 8/10
- Pay 2 Play: 8.5/10
- Personal Rating: 7.5/10
- Optimal Rating: 8/10
Special credit: Memel0rdFFBE
