Two years. Wow.

It really didn't feel that long ago when I stumbled across this game on the toilet while procrastinating at work (just like how all good games are discovered). A big shoutout to the community here, I know a lot of players wouldn't have stuck around for as long as they did had they not found this subreddit.

Anyways, onto the the main topic. We're going to go through a list of meta defining units that came out within the past year and drown ourselves in nostalgia while questioning what the fuck we're doing with our lives.

I also did one of these for FFBE's 1st Anniversary, definitely check it out if you're not a day one player and had no idea what the meta was like back in the days.

IMO meta defining units are units that single handily changed the way the game is played via new mechanics/skills or insane powercreep.

Rikku

She was released during the 1st anniversary.... since I didn't mention her in last year's edition, she'll be included here!

Rikku was a gift from the gods, the perfect support unit. She had access to damage mititaion & elemental resistance via Mix, on demand AoE raise, and AoE Re-raise via her spammable LB. She was the epitome of cheese for those who farmed 4x Jack TMRs, and was a core support unit for just about everyone that pulled her.

She wasn't even that hard to pull being the only 4★ on her banner! Ahem, I'm looking you Tilith....

Warrior of Light

After 6 months of "WoL 6★ when?!?!?!?!" he was finally released alongside Tidus & Rikku. Gee Gumi, he would've been really useful 3 months earlier when we were getting buttraped by Titan.... better late than never I guess.

To put it in perspective, Cecil and Snow were the best tanks before WoL's 6★ upgrade.... Jesus I feel old just thinking about that.

WoL provided physical AoE cover, 45% breaks (which were top tier at the time) and a 1 turn 100% Provoke for emergencies. He was the preferred tank back then, and is still powerful enough to be your go to tank today.

WoL, Rikku, and Tilith were known as the holy trinity of support.

Ashe

Fuck Rasler

Ashe was our first non-Shantotto magic AoE chainer. She wasn't the most powerful, but very slot efficient since her chaining skill also healed the team. Chaining 2x Ashe healed as much as DC Curaga. She was meta defining especially in an era where rainbows are much harder to come by, and carried many through tough trials like Aigaion.

Oh, she's also a monster in Arena if you care about that.

A2

A2 had some chaining issues when she was first released, but she became the definition of powercreep once it was fixed. She could reach as high 1600 ATK in battle thanks to her LB with a DW build - that shit was unheard of. At the time of Malboro's release, she was one of the only reliable ways of beating the trials without resorting to cheesing.

A2 technically belongs to the chaining meta that was brought forth to the game by 6★ Chizuru and Orlandu, but she was such a powercreep at the time (thanks to her self buffing LB) that I had to include her in here.

2B was OP as hell too, but completely overshadowed by A2 until FD & TDH became popular (we'll get to that eventually).

Pod 153

Fuck Eve.

9S was a great unit, but his TMR Pod 153 was the real prize IMO. Mirage was one of the only physical AoE chaining skills in the game, and the utility Pod 153 brought to the table was just unmatched. You could breeze through Malboro and 10 man trials if you had two Pod 153's.

On a serious note, I had a friend named Eve and I never looked at her the same after this banner.

Enhanced Soleil

Ramza enhancements when?!?!?!?!?!1212

Oh hey Soleil's enhancements are actually pretty good! She was the main buffer in the game for the next 4 months until Roy.

Ayaka

The cura spell tree basically went from Cura (Heal (400 HP, 3x) to all allies) to Curaga (Heal (1000 HP, 3.4x) to all allies) to Curaja (Heal (2500 HP, 18x) to all allies).

Well shit.

Oh, that's not all. In additional to being able to DC Curaja, she can also DC her ST re-raise spell! Fact that she's still one of the two best healers in the game after 8 months since release should tell you something.

Enhanced Trance Terra

I guess GLS can also be included since they were released within a day of each other. But these guys were the first magic chainers that were able to challenge physical chainers in terms of offensive fire power.

GLS is also one of the first units with backloaded damage, which slightly boosts her damage beyond the initial modifier we see.

Mystea

First magical AoE cover tank.

I know she's been bested by Doggo and Basch, but she was the first of her kind and will continue to be useful with her stop resistance.

Cloud/Elfreeda/FD

Cloud and Elfreeda are pretty average units by themselves. It's their TDH TMRs that are truly meta defining.

Coupled with FD, TDH units can easily 1k ATK with a 3.65x variance on their attacks. This makes units like 2B, Tidus, Cupid Artemios, Ang, etc (insert all FD TDH units here) absolute power houses, and will eventually take over the DW meta when 7★ is released.

There's going to be a lot of people talking about Enhanced Tidus and Ang, I'm just going to throw them into this TDH/FD category here.

Enhanced Fryevia

Fryevia was our first hybrid unit (first usable hybrid unit anyways) that came out just before the 1st Anniversary. She was powerful upon release but was powercreeped overtime. Her enhancements a year later definitely does her justice as she's back on top of the food chain. She defined the meta a year ago with her hybrid chaining abilities that absolutely melted (froze?) Aigaion and continues to do so with her enhancements.

I expect great things from her 7★ form.

Enhanced Xon (Farming meta?)

Because how else are we going to enhance all these meta defining units?

Seriously though, he makes it so much easier to farm enhancement crystals and gil.

Ray Jack

Meta definingly shit.

His original design was so bad that they had to nerf his cover proc through enhancements.... facepalm

Lila

Insanely OP when equipped to maximize SPR since she has a dc-able skill with a 1000% mod magic atk that scales off of SPR. Not only is the modifier extremely high, she'll do more damage than physical chainers in general since FFBE bosses tend to have lower SPR compared to DEF.

Neidan also allows her to Triple Cast for one turn, which is great for cross specific thresholds or OTKO strategies.

CG Nichol

CG Nichol officially put an end to the bard/dancer meta. Just pulled my 2nd one today, hello 7★ Nichol!

Honorable Metnions:

Barbariccia

One of the first units that's able to finish her own chains. Unfortuantely she was released after enhanced Trance Terra and GL Sakura who pretty much stole the spot light for magic chainers.

Illusionist Nichol

I'm not too sure whether this is meta defining or just a really fun gimmick, I'll leave him here for you guys to decide.

iNichol brings a whole new mechanic that allows him to give physical AoE cover to anybody in your party. For example, he can give it to a 100% evade unit, or he can give it to Wilhelm who can provoke on the first turn as well. Oh, he can also DC the cover skill with his 45% ATK/MAG break skill.

Prompto

He's not very popular (at least I can barely find friends to chain with) for some reason, but he's very powerful. He one of the first TDH chainers with W-Skills - a mechanic becomes the meta later on.

He's capable to reaching 1.5k ATK with Sparky for lightning damage while being able to still dual cast his chaining skills.

Chow

Sure the magical AoE Cover meta has been covered (lol) by Mystea, Chow no doubt wins the design of the year award.

Basch

Basch is basically a combination of WoL and Mystea is the sense that he has access to WoL's physical AoE cover and breaks along with Mystea's magical AoE cover.

Problem is that physical cover and magical cover will never activate together, so he's fundamentally not that much different than WoL/Mystea. An upgrade for sure, but nothing new in terms of mechanics.

CG Lid

Her LB is a 70% Full Break which is insane as long as the enemy is not resistant to breaks. There will be a lot of non-break resistant enemies in the future that will allow CG Lid to shine.

Note: I didn't forget about Enhanced Tidus or Enhanced Reberta, they're just part of the DW chaining meta that was started by 6★ Chizuru & Orlandu.

Note 2: People are mentioning a lot of units that were released within the first year of the game. Those units were covered in last years edition - you can check it out here

I guess that's it for now. Let me know if there are any units that you think should be included that I missed!

Edit: Added Enhanced Fryevia & Enhanced Xon

Happy 2nd Anniversary everyone!