First I will talk about the unit as an overview and then rank them into the meta with a few comparisons, though everything not as in-depth as an actual review. You could see it like 5 “mini” reviews.
Table of Contents
Lucius
Trust Master Reward : Chaotic Ferocity (Materia)
- Increase ATK (30%) when equipped with a fist
- Increase ATK (30%) when equipped with clothes
STMR : Glorious Headpiece (Hat) – 52 ATK, 30% ATK with Fists, 3 Auto LB
Overview
Lucius is a strong DW unit.
He comes with high base ATK, innate Dualwield and 100% ATK passives once equipped with a fist. This goes up by a lot if you equip his own TMR onto him, which grants 60% and 30% ATK on top of it due to his Trust Ability. Though it also boosts his TDW by an additional 40%. Since Lucius can equip swords as well you can boost up his ATK by a lot.
He also has a 50% demon, human and undead killer, which are quite common.
Lucius, similar to Estark, has a 60% DEF break. If you don’t run any breakers or your breakers do not have a stronger DEF breaks this is a nice damage boost.
You don’t have to necessarily bring innate elemental weapons as Lucius can imbue both fire and dark for 5 turns.
Lucius most redeeming quality are his chaining moves. He can chain with three different families: Octaslash, Kingsglaive and Aureole Ray. While Kingsglaive isn’t as common, Nyx is a strong chainer and thus enjoys some more chaining partners.
Octaslash in GL is a very common chaining family and so is Aureole Ray. If you get Lucius up to 7* you will be able to chain him with MANY different units. With innate Dualwield and a lot of great trialgear he can equip such as Aigaion Fist he is an excellent pick for new players.
Through his CD ability with a strong 95% HP selfdamage or his LB he can also buff up his ATK by a lot, though the former you should use carefully.
Only ST counters. Though I recommend gearing him for DH / TDH then so he doesn’t miss.
How does he fare in the meta?
Lucius is a lot stronger than many think. In fact he currently has the highest damage output of any Dualwielder and that shouldn’t be underestimated.
Being able to chain with three different families with other strong units means he is flexible, easy to use and has a lot of 10 man trial potential. With dupes he can AoE chain or ST chain, though his 30 hit move has two innate elements, so keep that in mind.
A downside to using two copies of him is the fact that he lacks all sorts of imperils. If used with a chaining partner that isn’t a real problem. Many meta finishers like Veritas of the Flame also have Dark / Fire imperils. Especially fire is currently a commonly shared element and there are many ways of imperilling it. Maybe even through Lilith? Who knows.
Lucius is not in the top 5 damage dealers mostly due to being a dualwield unit but he does come decently close to the benchmark. He is looked upon as a weak unit but if you see his damage output he’s far from being there. His added 60% DEF break can also mean that he might come ahead of a few units due to individual team compositions.
I wouldn’t recommend going for him specifically but if you do get him he is far from being garbage. And his TMR / STMR are strong.
Character Design: 7.5/10
Sprite: 8.5/10
Chainer: 8/10
Trust Master Reward: 8.5/10
STMR: 9.5/10
Arena: 6/10
Limit Burst: 6.5/10
Future Proof: 5.5~6/10
Free 2 Play: 9/10
Pay 2 Play: 7.5/10
Personal Rating: 8/10
Optimal Rating: 7/10
Lilith
Trust Master Reward : Midnight Star (Mace) – 15 ATK, 95 SPR, 20% HP, 10% DEF/SPR
STMR : Malefic Heart (Materia)
- Increase HP (30%)
- Increase DEF/SPR (30%) when equipped with a mace
- Increase fire and dark resistance (50%)
Overview
Lilith is an interesting tank and personally I dig her kit a lot.
She comes with very high base stats especially in HP and SPR, but passive wise she isn’t up there with the other tanks. Lilith has innate 30% HP, 50% DEF and 60% SPR, though don’t let that fool you. Her own TMR is a 95 SPR mace with 20% HP and 10% DEF/SPR and also procs your TMR ability that grants 30% DEF/SPR and 1x ignore fatal attacks above 1% HP. Lilith also has great innate status ailment resistance and a charm immunity.
She already became infamous for being a pain to deal with in the arena due to her counters. They are AoE chaining counters just like Lucius’ but she has more of them. She has a 60% chance to counter with one that chains and recovers 15% HP as well as the same but with MP and a 100% chance to counter with another chaining one that increases LB fillrate. All of her counters have an additional 5% chance to charm the enemy, so yeah she can be dangerous if she survives.
When it comes down to Lilith’s kit she is a different version of Basch as she has the exact same covers but different abilities. One unique aspect of hers is her W-Ability. While her damage output isn’t incredible it is enough for event content most of the times. She can dark or fire chain with the Kingsglaive family with SPR scaling AND 60% imperils to their respective element. She can also dark + fire chain with the Aureole family, which can work well with many different units. If you got a Viktor Marchenko you could run a double tank combo with cover + provoker that will also cover your chains. Not the strongest chains but that makes finishers a lot easier to slot in. Her Aureole Chain also heals her own HP AND MP.
Similar to Chow Lilith also has her own 80% self reraise. A lot of self sustain in her kit.
Her support aspects aren’t too bad either. Something only Shylt had so far as a tank is the AoE stat break resistance. This is an awesome trait to have on literally any unit and one of the reasons why Veritas of the Earth was used a lot back in the day. Mostly due to his earth absorb though.
One of her CD abilities increases Dark / Fire resistance by 70% to all allies, boosts her own stats and fills 2~4 lb crysts of your party, the other one grants her a decaying type damage mitigation (Turn 1: 65% Phys/MAG, Turn 2: 45% phys/mag).
How does she fare in the meta?
Lilith isn’t the tankiest, but compared to A.Rain her tank stats are very similar with only ~1k HP difference and 20 SPR lower. Her stats compared to other physical tanks are a lot lower so I’d advice you to build her for evasion. She can also run a good evasion build with decent HP and high SPR.
Obviously she is a tank and even if not the tankiest she can still tank everything as long as your gear holds up to it. Which means tanks usually are a flexible slot that should be adjusted to your team and not the highest e.HP. A tank with a lot of self sustain, a tank with AoE break resistance and a tank that offers chains OR even imperils is great. Paired up with Trance Terra you will have a 60% ST or 50% AoE fire / dark imperil available, which is huge because Trance Terra has no innate imperils.
At 6* she isn’t that great though. If you only got one copy I’d only grab the TMR and call it a day. She’d still be a better tank than Mystea / Shylt but worse than Basch.
Lilith offers a lot and I’d take a look at your team and ask yourself “How much value would she bring to my team?”. I’ll definitely use her.
- Character Design: 10/10
- Sprite: 9/10
- Tank: 9/10
- Chainer: 5.5/10
- Trust Master Reward: 9/10
- STMR: 8.5/10
- Arena: 9.5/10
- Limit Burst: 7/10
- Future Proof: 8.5/10
- Free 2 Play: 8/10
- Pay 2 Play: 8.5/10
- Personal Rating: 9/10
- Optimal Rating: 8.5/10
Demon Rain
Trust Master Reward : Infernal Armlet (Accessory) – 20% ATK/DEF/Earth + Fire resistance
STMR : Demon’s Gambit (Materia)
- Increase HP (30%)
- Increase equipment ATK (50%) when single wielding any weapon
- Increase accuracy (25%) when single wielding any weapon
- Increase equipment DEF (50%) when single wielding any weapon
Overview
Demon Rain…
Back when he got released he wasn’t too impressive. After his enhancements he became probably the most fun to use tank due to strong counters with a 100% chance to proc them and TDH capabilities.
Now at his 7* he gained a lot of defensive stats. His base stats aren’t abysmal anymore, he gained a whopping 70% HP and 160% DEF, 140% SPR, which is a huge upgrade from what he had before. Well, 40% HP isn’t hard to top to begin with. He also has some TDH for DEF/SPR, though that doesn’t add a whole lot of stats. Though you need his trust ability for that as it grants him 50% DEF/SPR. His TMR isn’t the best, but the boosts are more than worth it.
D.Rain has 50% draw attacks and finally got an AoE physical cover, making him one beastly AoE cover + provoke tank due to his 50% mitigation on the provoke.
He can imbue fire onto his attacks while AoE imperilling it. He can AoE buff 150% ATK/MAG with his CD ability while boosting human killers for everyone, which can be great for any 10 man trial. He also has entrust, which always proved to be really handy.
His other CD ability is an AOE 75% fire / earth resistance buff and the common 80% physical damage reduction. His LB isn’t the strongest but it gained an AoE 104% fire imperil. Depending on your team this is a great deal.
How does he fare in the meta?
Demon Rain, just like any other tank, needs to be adjusted to your team for maximum efficiency.
However, Demon Rain can become more tankier than Wilhelm due to his huge 50% mitigation on the provoke. He got a huge upgrade in tank stats, making him a top tier physical cover tank. He is still different though, Wilhelm is a lot more supportive with his LB, AoE LB fillrate buffs, recover on guard and his breaks while M.Ramza has so many status immunities, ele resistance and can swap to magic cover if desperately needed.
His counters aren’t as strong anymore as they used to be. They didn’t receive any upgrades other than benefitting from higher stats and they still do damage. Though it is more important for D.Rain to have his 100% counter chance which will generate a lot of LB crysts.
Demon Rain is a hefty physical tank with huge tankyness, offence oriented support and a great sprite. If you can upgrade him I can only recommend using him. Generally Wilhelm’s support will be more useful to most players, but as always it depends on your team composition.
- Character Design: 9/10
- Sprite: 9.5/10
- Tank: 9/10
- Trust Master Reward: 4/10
- STMR: 9/10
- Arena: 3/10
- Limit Burst: 9.5/10
- Future Proof: 8.5/10
- Free 2 Play: 8/10
- Pay 2 Play: 9/10
- Personal Rating: 9.5/10
- Optimal Rating: 8/10
Dracu Lasswell
Trust Master Reward : Vampire Cloak (Clothes) – 20 DEF, 30 MAG/SPR, 10% Evasion
STMR : Gothic Amulet (Accessory) – 50 ATK, 50% TDH, 15% phys evasion, 10% MAG evasion
Overview
Dracu Lasswell’s 7* changed him for the better.
You can check out his old rev…. I never reviewed his enhancements because they were awful.
Dracu Lasswell, just like Demon Rain, got great base stats compared to what he used to have as well has a lot of passive upgrades. With his own TMR he gains a total of 110% ATK nad 100% TDH. He got some decent bulk to his kit especially with his 30% physical evasion.
Most importantly though D.Lasswell is able to dualcast all of his abilities and his Limit Burst even grants him T-Cast for two turns, making him one hell of a powerhouse combined with his high ATK and innate 100% TDH.
He can imbue and imperil ice on turn 1 while buffing himself up and granting him his LB instantly on Turn 1. Afterwards you unlock his T-Cast and procceed to chain on Turn 3 though I’d recommend self-finishing his 75% ice imperil for increased average damage.
His chaining moves are either a pretty weak 400% Divine Ruination move OR a 690% AT frame move, which is a new family that hasn’t been introduced yet. There will be A LOT of AT chainers in the future such as the regular PG Lasswell or the most well known Akstar, though that’s far in the future.
How does he fare in the meta?
Dracu Lasswell’s damage output with his AT move is very high. His average damage depending on your turns can be higher than Hyoh, though Hyoh has a lot of potential that can be increased depending on your team.
Currently it hurts him to not have any chaining partners on his AT move. In the future the first ones who will share his frames won’t be the strongest due to being mostly DW focused, but at least he will have some. He can work well as a Hyoh chaining partner due to having permant W-Cast as well as easy to get T-Cast from his LB. If timed properly he can match Hyoh’s turns really well, though you can’t utilise Hyoh’s strong LB that way. Though he’s definitely better than Aloha Lasswell as a Hyoh chaining partner and that alone might be interesting enough to upgrade him if you can.
Damage wise he is below Nyx and situationally higher than Hyoh, though due to the lack of strong chaining partners for his AT frames and due to Hyoh’s potential with teams built around him D.Lasswell will be at #3 on the chainer list. Or at #2 if you dislike Fixed Dice. Thus he is a strong chainer!
- Character Design: 8/10
- Sprite: 6/10
- Chainer: 9/10
- Trust Master Reward: 8.5/10
- STMR: 9.5/10
- Arena: 4/10
- Limit Burst: 9/10
- Future Proof: 7.5/10
- Free 2 Play: 7.5/10
- Pay 2 Play: 9/10
- Personal Rating: 8.5/10
- Optimal Rating: 9/10
Grim Lord Sakura
Trust Master Reward : Reaver (Spear) – HP+666, MP+66, ATK+33, MAG+100, SPR+36, 3 Auto LB (GLS only), Two-Handed
STMR : Grim Balance (Materia)
- Increase HP/MP (20%)
- Increase equipment MAG (50%) when single wielding any weapon
- Increase equipment SPR (50%) when single wielding any weapon
Overview
GL Sakura will receive enhancements fairly soon which will mostly increase her MAG slightly and improve her Soul Barrage by a lot.
GL Sakura at 7* didn’t gain as many stats as D.Rain / D.lasswell, though that’s perfectly fine. The most important addition was her 50% MAG/SPR TDH for a total of 150% as well as a modifier upgrade to her Soul Barrage and 50% MAG.
At 7* GL Sakura can triple cast her Grim abilities as long as you equipped her own TMR onto her. This means you could Triple Cast Soul Barrage….
Or you could triple cast her new move Eldritch Wave, which is a 5-hit Fire / Dark chaining move with a stacking mod starting from 300% up to 700%. It also has a 50% fire / dark imperil attached to it. Being able to triple cast it every turns means a lot of potential damage and unless the enemy is resistant to it, it’s her main source of damage.
What makes her even more interesting is the introduction of even more support capabilities in her kit. Candy Treat while not being too impressive by itself due to being a single cast ability with 5000 HP + 150 MP recover , 2~8 lb gauge fill and 150% LB fillrate to any unit except for herself, if used after her CD ability it becomes a lot better.
Her CD ability Candy Master needs a full LB gauge, so you likely can’t cast it on Turn 1. Once you can cast it though it has an AoE 35% damage mitigation buff for 4 turns and enables you to W-Cast her support abilities. This includes her ST Reraise, her AoE 100% DEF/SPR buff and her new Candy Treat. This can enable your team to skip supporters for quite a few fights or synergyse with them well.
How does she fare in the meta?
Her damage compared to Trance Terra is obviously better the longer the fight goes on. However there can be a misunderstanding in that.
Trance Terra so far always is one of the most interesting comparisons because of the way she is designed. She is an early fight burst mage, but that doesn’t mean she just sucks afterwards. In fact so many units nowadays focus on fire damage that it makes it easy for Trance Terra to find strong imperils she could utilise. When you have any it boosts her average damage by a lot and as most know, burst damage is better than average in most cases due to skipping threshholds or phases of certain bosses.
I can’t see how Grim Lord Sakura only as a damage dealer would outperform Trance Terra due to the many things she does better than her and the potential she gains out of a team built around her. But she is a lot more “independent” if you can say it like that. In fact she can even help out your team by a lot due to her support, which imo makes her an incredibly interesting pick as well as a versatile pick.
It’s also important to keep in mind that being locked to dark / fire is not as bad as it first seems. The type combination isn’t resisted as often in future content either and worst case you’ll have to use Soul Barrage, which is a strong alternative post enhancements.
- Character Design: 9/10
- Sprite: 7.5/10
- Chainer: 9/10
- Trust Master Reward: 5/10
- STMR: 9/10
- Arena: 9.5/10
- Limit Burst: 8/10
- Future Proof: 8/10
- Free 2 Play: 9/10
- Pay 2 Play: 8.5/10
- Personal Rating: 8/10
- Optimal Rating: 9/10
Conclusion
The halloween units are all good to actually meta and they seem all very unique. Even the likes of Lucius while being underrated are still strong units with a lot of uses. There is not a bad unit in this “batch” as long as they are 7*.
At 6 star most of these units aren’t really worth using other than Lucius for his frames.
The stepup for Lucius / Lilith is pretty good and you are guaranteed to get something out of it. If you want to go for them, feel free to pull. Lilith is such an interesting unit and especially if you like Nyx (like me) you will have a use for Lucius either way.
About the old halloween banner… it fits the theme perfectly.
Spooky rates for a spooky banner.
Also it’s worth pointing out that the new units’ TMRs are really good as well as ALL STMRs being amazing. Lilith’s is the least exciting one and even that is a strong STMR due to GL’s unstackability of most TMRs. Though it’s probably way too expensive to go for the old units’ STMRs because of their … bad banner.
Happy halloween in advance to everyone! I hope you had great pulls.
Special credit: Memel0rdFFBE
