Long time lurker, first time poster. Looking through the reddit threads, I noticed that very rarely is anything posted about the raid units for comparisons. This makes sense given that most reviews are in terms of resource management, which includes lapis pulls, enhancement spendings (eg: Garuda Enhancements), and the occassional rare "others" (eg: Lara Croft GL/JP analysis). Also, raid unit typically kind of sucks in comparison to current 5 star bases. That said, I was looking at Ukiyo's skill set, and could no longer stand this injustice any longer. Do note that my review will be drier than, say, Post Pull Depressions. Its main purpose is more for newer players, and as such, will be written with that in mind. So without further ado:

Ukiyo - Raiders of the Lost Review

6 Star Limit Burst Light and dark magic damage (9x - 13.8x) to all enemies. Inflict stop (30%) for 3 turns to all enemies.

Notable Pros

• Has 90% unconditional MAG boost (naked MAG of 247)

• Has 20% unconditional HP boost (naked HP of 4137.6)

• Has light/wind/neutral chaining moves (Tengu Charm's final frame is slightly off and can break if "perfect chaining")

• Limit break has decent modifiers, is dual element (one of which she can imperil), and all but one frame are chainable, resulting in a high damage modification when chained

• Has -60% Wind imperil and -50% light Imperil (Currently highest on-demand wind imperil)

• Has -50% DEF/SPR break

• Can unlock a 10.66x ST chainable magic attack which is nice fall back when she cannot use her patented light spell (Tsukumo's Transformation > Demon Tsukumo)

• Has 80% light/dark resistance party buff (Currently highest on-demand resistance buff)

• Has AOE on-demand 20% damage mitigation (Protective Talisman)

• Has 6 of 8 elemental damage coverage, good for "Deal [element] damage" missions (dark is tied to her limit burst)

• Has innate 30% light/dark resistance

• Has Silence/Disease Resistance

Notable Issues

• Really low base MAG stats (balances high MAG boost above)

• No W-Cast to take advantage of her moveset

• No innate resistance to debilitating status ailments

• No Auto-Refresh, with only Absorbing Talisman for MP restoration

• Requires Mud Wrestler Siren Esper for full 8 out of 8 elemental damage coverage

Interesting Tidbit

• Ukiyo's Light Charms is slightly backloaded, which is nice for a chaining move (about 8% more damage on the latter half of her chain)

• Auto-generates 1 limit burst cryst each turn, which is nice, but 27 is a long ways away...

Nude Comparisons

Ashe

• Both can neutral chain

• Ashe can heal and cure status aliments while doing damage

• Ashe has innate Auto-Refresh

• Ukiyo has the strongest on-demand light/dark resistance coverage

• Ukiyo has 2 elemental chain coverage to rely on

• Ukiyo has DEF/SPR breaks and imperils for amplifying damage

• Ukiyo has damage mitigation

Early game, I would give this to Ashe as her healing suite helps with story Fina weak heals, partial status cures, and lack of sustainability when your party is not fully geared up. Once the healing portion is taken care of, I would give it to Ukiyo due to having elemental chaining, imperils, and breaks and the fact that it is much easier to find a good MAG rod versus a good MAG sword. After you get some good gear, Ukiyo still gets the prize for her niche support abilities, when those damage/healing abilities fall off and replaced with other units. Unless your doing arena...

As a side note, both of these free units can mostly-perfect chain with each other, though adjusting the start timing may be required (Sword of Kings / Heaven's Fury vs Ukiyo's Light Spell).

Lightning

• Lightning has innate dual-wield

• Lightning has innate Auto-Refresh

• Lightning has 30% physical evasion (and 20% magic evasion if enhanced)

• Lightning can (crappily) heal on the side

• Lightning can (crappily) imperil lightning, forcing the enemy to take more damage from lightning/Lightning (signifcantly less crappy if enhanced)

• Ukiyo has multiple chaining moves

• Ukiyo has non-crappy utility moves

• Lightning becomes less crappy at 7 star

Because of chaining and her (not crappy) utility moves, Ukiyo wins.

Shantotto

• Shantotto has Dual Black Magic Cast

• Shantotto can both chain and finish her chain (thanks to dual cast)

• Shantotto can deal 7 of 8 elemental damage, all on demand.

• Ukiyo has significantly more naked MAG (247 vs 120)

• Ukiyo has utiliy moves

• Ukiyo is free, and not RNG-gatcha dependent.

From a pure, unchained damage perspective, a nude Ukiyo does more damage than a nude Shantotto. However, if you factor in Shantotto's Tornado chaining and max-stack Aeroja finishing, the math gets a little harder (if anyone knows a good chaining calculator, I would appreciate it because doing it by hand sucks and prone to error, even after simplying the formula...).

2x Ukiyo (Mag 247) - Light Rotation
  T1 - Dragon Charm/Absorbing Talisman (assume Dragon Charm cast first, and no chaining)
      61,009 *  2.5   61,009 * 0.8 * 2 (SPR break) = 250,136.9
  T2 - Ukiyo's Light Spell (spark chained, ignore slight backen damaged modifier)
      61,009 * 4.5 * 3.30625 (chain average) * 1.5 (imperil) * 2 (SPR break) * 2 (from 2 chainers) = 5,446,197.2
  T3 - Ukiyo's Light Spell (spark chained)
      ... = 5,446,197.2
  Average Damage = 3,714,177.1

2x Ukiyo (Mag 247) - Wind Rotation
  T1 - Dragon Charm/Tengu Charm (assume Dragon Charm cast first, and no chaining)
      61,009 * 2.5   61,009 * 1.4 * 2 (SPR break) = 323,347.7
  T2 - Tengu Charm (math for spark chain and "full" chaining comes out the same)
      61,009 * 1.4 * 3.08333 (chain average) * 1.6 (imperil) * 2 (SPR break) * 2 (from 2 chainers) = 1,685,473.5
  T3 - Tengu Charm (chained)
      ... = 1,685,473.5
  Average Damage = 1,231,431.6

2x Ukiyo (Mag 247) - ST Neutral Rotation
  T1 - Dragon Charm (spark chained)
      61,009 * 2.5 * 2.2 (chain average) * 1.5 (SPR break for one, averaged out) * 2 (from 2 chainers) = 1,006,648.5
  T2 - Tsukumo's Transformation (un-sparked)
      61,009 * 3 * 2 (SPR break) * 2 (from 2 Ukiyo) = 732,108
  T3 - Demon Tsukumo (spark chained, haven't played with it yet, so assuming damage is evenly spread)
      61,009 * 10.66 * 2.2 (chain average) * 2 (SPR break) * 2 (from 2 chainers) = 5,735,159.5
  Average Damage = 2,491,305.3

2x Ukiyo (Mag 247) - AOE Neutral
  T1  - Dragon Charm (spark chained)
      ... = 1,006,648.5
  T2  - Dragon Charm (spark chained)
      61,009 * 2.5 * 2.2 (chain average) * 2 (SPR break) * 2 (from 2 chainers) = 1,342,198

2x Shantotto (Mag 120)
  Tornado
      14400 * 2.5 * 3.5375 (chain average) * 1 (no imperil) * 2 (from 2 chainers) * 0.9 (lvl 80 max) = 229,230.6
      14400 * 2.5 * 3.5375 (chain average) * 1.5  (imperil) * 2 (from 2 chainers) * 0.9 (lvl 80 max) = 343,846.0
  Aeroja
      14400 * X (Aeroja modifier) * 4 (chain bonus) * 1.5 (imperil) * 2 (from 2 Shant) * 0.9 (lvl 80 max) = 155,520*X
  T1 - 229230.6   155520 * 2 = 540,270.6
  T5 - 343846.0   155520 * 6 = 1,276,966.0

* Using simplified damage formula for relative comparison purposes
    MAG * MAG * Element Bonus Modifier * Break Modifier * ((1   Max Level / 100) / 2) * Ability Modifier * Chain Modifier

In pure damage fights where only wind damage is reliable, 2 naked Shantotto barely wins when at max air-freshener, but loses in every other way. However, the damage boost is only a measely 3.7% with a lot of lost damage getting to max stack, so this is only applicable if you planning on fighting a boss for over 36 turns (less actually, if you consider any modifiers that make the wind usage more reliable in this scenario). This is also ignoring any stack-resets due to the innate squishiness of a 5 star max unit. That said, as you get better gear, the relative difference in their MAG begins to shrink, where the Shantotto's start to approach and overtake Ukiyo in their respetive Best-in-Slot equipments. Otherwise, this isn't exactly a fair nude comparison...

Cloud

• Cloud is the only male in the nude comparison

Crossdressing Girly Cloud wins, hands down. Also, CG Cloud when?

Conclusion - Newbie Version

Ukiyo has both elemental chaining moves, in addition to a neutral chain move. In addition, she has decent offensive breaks, with imperils for her revelant skills. It also helps that her raid comes with a free light-element Excalibur, which can equipped on someone else to take advantage of the light imperil. She also has decent defensive support abilities when you need it. And she's free (and in fairly infinite supply, assuming infinite raid runs).

In essence, Ukiyo is a taste of the current chaining damage meta.

Conclusion - "Get off my Lawn" Veteran Version

You want the whole cake; a small taste of damage just doesn't cut it. Even with BiS equipment, she cannot compete with other magic chainers, especially if they can both chain and finish simultaneously. You're here for her niche support abilities, if at all.

Her light/dark resistance is currently the highest in the global game, so if there is a hard enough boss that focuses around that element, expects to get some milage from the abilities (Carbuncle cough Diablos cough). A 20% on-demand damage mitigation is nice, even nicer when its paired with 50% dual light/dark resistance. Tengu Charm is particularly interesting, as it offers a high wind imperil, AND a decent DEF break. If you have any wind-based physical users, here you go (Kaiser Knuckles Eldin, your time has come). Any damage you get off of her skill set is just icing on the cake muffin.