Once upon a time, raid units were game changing. Nowadays, people barely even notice them outside of their trust masters and former fusion-hell. This is understandable, given that most reviews are in terms of resource management, which includes pulls, enhancement spendings, and the occasional rare "others". That, and raid unit typically kind of sucks in comparison to their current equivalent-star bases. These units, however, do benefit newer players with a limited unit pool, and as such, will be written with that in mind. That said, as it is a 7★ unit, there will be more veteran info and comparisons than my previous ones. So without further ado...

Marquis de Leon - Raiders of the Free Review

Limit Burst

Blizzard Blast (6★, 24 LB)

• 1000%-1240% AoE 10-Hit Ice Physical Attack 7-Fr62-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7

Blizzard Blast (7★, 30 LB)

• 1510%-1800% AoE 10-Hit Ice Physical Attack 7-Fr62-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7

Trust Reward

Golden Claws (Knuckle)

• 120 ATK
• 15% HP

Super Trust Reward

The King of Beasts (Materia)

• 50% Physical/Mag Damage to Beasts and Avians
• Unstackable

Killer is sweet in terms of damage, and beasts are fairly common of an enemy type. If you pulled 4 and was wondering whether to STMR or keep two 7★, consider the following: do you plan on using Leon as you main chaining damage source? If you do, keep the two as he requires a dupe to perfect chain. Otherwise, go for the STMR.

Notable Skills

Wild Animaul

• 180% ST 10 Hit Physical Attack 7-Fr42-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7
• ST 3 Turn -50% Def Break

Besides a dupe, there are no other perfect chaining partners for this skill. The 50% Def break is pretty decent though for his primary chaining move, or if you plan on using it to support/OTKO. A word of warning: If you are dual wielding, you have to spark chain this move, as anything else will break the chain.

Total War Cry

• 133% AoE Physical Attack (Ignores cover)
• AOE 30% Chance of 3-Turn Stop

With AoE stop, this is a good arena tool for new players. Stop, Hammer Fisting Time.

Freezing Blizzard

• 250% AoE 8 Hit Ice Magic Attack 7-Fr55-5-5-5-5-5-5-5
• AoE 3-Turn -60% Ice Resist

Strong ice imperil, which is needed to take advantage of his other skills. Unless you have a similar strength imperil, this will be part of both his damage and provoke rotation. It does crap damage though due to the skill using his weaker Mag stats.

Fiendish Fauna Fist (7★, Lvl 105)

• 650% ST 1-Hit Physical Attack
• ST 3-Turn -60% Full Break
• 4 Turn Cooldown (Not available on turn 1)

A very strong break by current standards that has an acceptable damage modifier. Between the duration, the cooldown, availability, and his tight counter rotation, MdL won't be replacing your breaker though.

Rough Cuts (7★, lvl 105)

• 2x 180% AoE Physical Attack (360% total)
• AoE 30% Paralyze

Another arena move. The double-hit allows MdL to bypass the 999-damage limit. The 30% paralysis is also pretty good to have. For comparison sake, Dark Verita's Dual Slash has a 2x160% modifier.

Fauna Fighting Spirit (7★, Lvl 105)

• Self 3-Turn 80% ATK/DEF
• Self 3-Turn 20% Damage Reduction
• 3-Turn 100% Chance to be Targeted
• 3-Turns 50% Chance Counter Physical Damage with 250% Regular Attack

His bread and butter for his tanking kit. The provoke with damage mitigation allows him to tank hits. The ability to counter back is also nice to have, between the damage and the LB cryst generation.

Blizzard Slash (7★, Lvl 110)

• 700% ST 1 Hit Ice Physical Attack
• 3-Turn Ice-Imbune

Part of his counter rotation, to allow him to take advantage of his ice imperil, especially when countering. A good 7x finishing hit is also nice.

Notable Others

• Great Atk Stats and Modifiers when wielding a knuckle (90% / 140% at 6★/7★)
• Okay Tanking
  • Def (20% / 50% at 6★/7★)
  • Spr (20% / 40% at 6★/7★)
  • HP (20% / 65% at 6★/7★★ which I will use to denote with trust ability)
• Immune to Sleep/Confuse/Petrify (requires Trust Ability)
• 50% Chance to ignore up to 3 Fatal Attacks when HP is above 40%
• Innate 50% Draw Attack
• Counters with Physical attacks, AOE Atk/Mag Break (depends on what Marquis was hit with), and HP Regen

Notable Issues

• Cannot wield shields or helmets, hurting his tankiness
• Cannot cover party
• No innate provoke at 6★ (and Golem's provoke doesn't provide damage mitigation)
• No innate MP auto-refresh or sustainability
• Suspectible to Blind/Paralysis (which is an issue for a Physical attacker/counter tank)
• No innate High-tide or LB generation, in addition to somewhat expensive LB cost
• Weak chaining modifiers that has to perfect chain with a dupe if you run Leon as a straight damager

Interesting Tidbit

• Our first 7★ Raid unit (Besides drops, we get two guaranteed 6★, hence, the 7★)
• Very VERY low drop rate in raid, if JP is anything to go by ^{Like, sell your first born child, then the next 50 to see just one low}. (Be prepared ^♪)

Nude Expeditions

^{Subject to rounding errors
Success capped at 16%, anything above is solely for comparison purposes
Paranthesis denotes knuckle mastery bonus
No gear equipped, or 0-statted version for mastery, except for 7★★ which only has his TMR}
Expedition Charts

Nude Comparisons

• If any passive are conditional on equip, assume that the unit have a 0-statted variant of it equipped. For example, Maarquis de Leon is wielding an I-can't-believe-it's-not-Not-a-knuckle ^{or a 0-calories Diet Knuckle, but with all the great taste}.
• Also assume spark chaining, whenever chaining math is done
  • Assume exactly 2 chainers, with the result calculation being damage dealt by a single chainer
• Base stat's only, no pots of any sort.
• If Limit Burst is used, calculation is done using a Lvl 1 version (unless noted otherwise).
• All units will get a minimum of 40% stat boost while in battle (via Leadership - Rain)
• Using the below formula for calculations, unless noted otherwise:
  • ATK² * Skill Modifier * Counter Chance * Imperil^{if any}
  • HP * DEF / (1 - Dmg Mitigation)

Marquis de leon Marquis de Leon

HP: 4231.2 / 5499.6 / 7,561.95 (6★/7★/7★★)
Atk pre-buff:  285 / 468 (6★/7★)
Atk post-buff: 360 / 624 (6★/7★)
Def pre-buff:  175.2 / 298.5 (6★/7★)
Def post-buff: 233.6 / 425.5 (6★ with Leadership/7★ with Self-buff)
Spr pre-buff:  163.2 / 259 (6★/7★)
Spr post-buff: 217.6 / 296 (6★/7★, both with Leadership)
Dmg Mitigation: 20% (7★)

Phys e.HP
  6★ : 4231.2 * 233.6 = 988,408.32
  7★ : 5499.6 * 425.5 / (1 - 0.2) = 2,925,099.75
  7★★: 7,561.95 * 425.5 / (1 - 0.2) = 4,022,012.16

Mag e.HP
  6★ : 4231.2 * 217.6 = 920,709.12
  7★ : 5499.6 * 296 / (1 - 0.2) = 2,034,852.00
  7★★: 7,561.95 * 296 / (1 - 0.2) = 2,797,921.50

Counter Dmg
  6★ : Zero = 0
  7★ : 624^2 * 2.5 * 1 * 0.5 * 1.6 = 778,752 (using this stat in calculations)
  7★★: 744^2 * 2.5 * 1 * 0.5 * 1.6 = 1,107,072 (not nude due to TMR stats)

I'll only be looking at survivability and counter damage. With him needing to apply his provoke, imperil, and imbune, there is no room to do anything else in his kit (unless your willing to drop the latter two for other utilities). That, and his damage kit requires a dupe to fully utilize^{which may never happen}. That said, you can run him as budget finisher with his kit/7★ stats, or get lucky and run two budget 7★ chaining pairs ^{memo to future self, check to see if a chaining pair can LB-kill Malborro and fresh Adds}.

While I'm at it, I might show you his current BiS for tanking and straight damage, ignoring STMR, limited, premiums, and IW stats. I won't use these gears for comparison purposes in my main discussion, but they will be mentioned for veteran comparison sake.

^{1-Mostly for the IW stats}

P.eHP build
  HP:  16,660
  Atk: 1,002
  Def: 921
  Spr: 437

  Phys eHP: 15,343,860 (before provoke)
            19,179,825 (after provoke)
  Counter:  1,851,500 (before imperil)
            2,962,400 (after imperil)

TDH build
  HP   6,869
  Atk: 1,970
  Def: 617
  Spr: 486

  Finisher:  27,166,300.00 (before imperil and chain-capping)
             43,466,080.00 (after imperil, before chain-capping)
  Chaining:  24,065,460.90 (before imperil)
             38,504,737.44 (after imperil)
  Max LB:   240,654,609.00 (before imperil, max LB)
            385,047,374.40 (after imperil, max LB)

DW build
  HP:  6869
  Atk: 1,334 | 1,363
  Def: 746
  Spr: 486

Chaining:  24,410,963.56 (before imperil)
           39,057,541.69 (after imperil)
Max LB:   115,200,255.69 (before imperil, max LB)
          184,320,409.10 (after imperil, max LB)

*No battle buffs applied here, not even his innate automatic ones
*Ignoring level correction in math

Wandering Rain Vagrant Knight Rain

HP: 4657.2
Atk pre-buff:  214.4
Atk post-buff: 294.8 (via Escort Leader)
Def pre-buff:  238
Def post-buff: 322 (via Escort Leader)
Spr pre-buff:  137.5
Spr post-buff: 212.5 (via Escort Leader)
Dmg Mitigation: 30% 

Phys e.HP
  4657.2 * 322 * (1 - 0.3) = 1,862,880.00    2,142,312
     116% more than 6★ Marquis
      26% less than 7★ Marquis
      47% less than 7★★ Marquis

Mag e.HP
  4657.2 * 212.5 * (1 - 0.3) = 1,330,628.57   1,413,792.86
      53% more than 6★ Marquis
      23% less than 7★ Marquis
      45% less than 7★★ Marquis

Counter Dmg
  294.8^2 * 1 * 0.6 = 52,144.22
      95% less than 7★ Marquis

• VK.Rain has 60% AoE full buff
• VK.Rain has 40% full breaks on-demand (either ST full break, or AoE weird split breaks)
• VK.Rain has innate auto-refresh
• VK.Rain can heal and raise on the side
• VK.Rain has Entrust, and innate High Tide
• VK.Rain has 30%-40% Dark/Lightning/Ice/Wind/Water imperils
• VK.Rain has full elemental damage coverage (for those deal X elemental damage missions)
• 6★ Marquis has -60% ice imperil
• 7★ Marquis is tankier
• 7★ Marquis counters significantly harder
• 7★ Marquis has stronger breaks (on CD)

Part of being a 7★ means Marquis comes with much higher stats. This, along with his imperil bonus, allows him to tank a higher amount of damage while returning a good amount back. However, VK. Rain, has alot of utility in his kit which would be great for beginners. However, having a 2-turn provoke means that VK.Rain has alot less time off to utilize said side-kit. Then again, besides his very niche imperil and his CD break, MdL has almost no utility.

If you don't need any of the utilities provided by VK.Rain, 7★ Marquis wins here. As a side note, VK.Rain's current BiS's P.eHP ^16.6M is still lower than BiS Marquis, even after the stronger provoke mitigation.

Demon Rain Enh. Demon Rain

HP: 5157.6
Atk pre-buff:  156 (ignoring 150% TDH)
Atk post-buff: 280.8 / 343.2 (via Ignite 2 / 50% HP crisis buff, ignoring 150% TDH)
  w/ Crimson Saber (DH): 505.8 / 568.2
Def pre-buff:  116
Def post-buff: 162.4 / 255.2 (via Leadership / 50% HP Crisis)
Spr pre-buff:  110
Spr post-buff: 198 (via Inner Fire)
Dmg Mitigation: 50%

Phys e.HP
  Normal: 5157.6 * 162.4 * (1 - 0.5) = 1,675,188.48
       69% more than 6★ Marquis
       43% less than 7★ Marquis
       58% less than 7★★ Marquis
  Crisis: 5157.6 * 255.2 * (1 - 0.5) = 2,632,439.04
       166% more than 6★ Marquis
       10%  less than 7★ Marquis
       35%  less than 7★★ Marquis

Mag e.HP
  5157.6 * 198 * (1 - 0.5) = 1,588,540.8
       73% more than 6★ Marquis
       22% less than 7★ Marquis
       43% less than 7★★ Marquis

Counter Dmg
  Normal: 280.8^2 * 3 * 1.0 * 1.15 (crit, normalized) = 272,027.81
     w/ Crimson Saber: 880,626.06
          20% less than 7★ Marquis w/ his TMR
  Crisis: 343.2^2 * 3 * 1.0 * 1.15 (crit, normalized) = 406,362.53
     w/ Crimson Saber: 1,113,836.78
          >1% more 7★ Marquis w/ his TMR

• e.DRain can buff acceptable, if below par, Atk/Mag
• e.Drain can self-sustain MP-wise (Inner Fire)
• e.Drain has innate 150% TDH
• e.Drain has a higher average counter damage
• 6★ Marquis has more Spr eHP
• 6★ Marquis has an -60% AoE ice imperil
• 7★ Marquis has more Def eHP (and Spr eHP)
• 7★ Marquis has a 60% full break (CD)

Without any crisis triggers, 7★ MdL is much tankier. However, once it triggers, e.Drain's Def difference drops down to 10%, which depending on your judgement, is good enough to go either way depending on his other skills. That said, DRain has no safety net to survive fatal damage, and will not be using shields if you want to maximize his damage output, meaning dropping below the threshold and staying alive is harder to do and less reliable.

As for the counter damage output, I had to break my nude rule due to DRain's damage coming primarily from his TDH nature. Using his free story weapon, he falls short of MdL's counter damage until his crisis triggers. However, if you happened to buy Revolver during the MK SeeD event, then you would significantly increase DRain's damage, putting it 101% better over MdL. Or, you could imperil the enemy even a little to put DRain's damage over MdL. As for MdL, if you don't have his TMR, you could always run Aigaion Arm, trading suvivability for more damage.

In terms of sheer tankiness, 7★ Marquis wins. However, in terms of damage output, e.DRain wins. As a sidenote, DRain's Defensive TDH BiS has both less P.eHP ^14.3M and less normalized counter damage^1.6M. At least, til Halloween with his potential 7★^{who knows}.

Liquid Metal Slime Enh. Liquid Metal Slime

HP: 600 / 1200 (Carbon Bangle for latter)
Def pre-buff:  1298.7
Def post-buff: 1698.3 (via Leadership)
Spr pre-buff:  650
Spr post-buff: 850 (via Leadership)
Dmg Mitigation: 80% (Physical and Magic only)
Phys Evasion: 30%

Phys e.HP
  600 * 1698.3 / (1 - 0.8) = 5,094,900
     w/ Carbon Bangle = 10,219,800
         934% more than 6★ Marquis
         249% more than 7★ Marquis
         154% more than 7★★ Marquis
     w/ Evasion & Carbs = 14,599,714
        1377% more than 6★ Marquis
         399% more than 7★ Marquis
         263% more than 7★★ Marquis

Mag e.HP
  600 * 850 / (1 - 0.8) = 2,550,000.00
     w/ Carbon Bangle = 5,130,000.00
        459% more than 6★ Marquis
        153% more than 7★ Marquis
        83%  more than 7★★ Marquis

• LMS is tankier (especially his Phys)
• LMS has innate 50% full elemental resistance
• LMS has full status ailment protection via LB
• LMS benefits greatly from buffs (and gets hurt badly by breaks)
• LMS's damage mitigation can stack with general damage mitigation
• LMS is very easy to gear (nudist extraordinaire)
• Marquis can live through fixed damage much better than LMS
• 6★/7★ Marquis can do stuff besides provoke
• 7★ Marquis can counter

In all honesty, e.LMS could do fairly well even without Carbon Bangle. He still needs Moogle Plushie and Golem to provoke reliably on turn one, unless you plan to Protagonist Halo or something similar. Annoying that he's on a triple gold banner though.

LMS wins in tankiness, unless fixed damage comes into play^{at which point you have a puddle of mercury}. However, if you can gear up Marquis, then the standard carbon plushies LMS build is no longer tankier as his P.eHP is lower^13.6M, ignoring good battle buffs ^{which then puts LMS back ontop}.

Earth Veritas Enh. Veritas of the Earth

HP: 5558.3
Atk pre-buff:  135
Atk post-buff: 189 (via Leadership)
Def pre-buff:  223.2
Def post-buff: 295.2 / 367.2 (via Steel Body / 50% HP crisis)
Spr pre-buff:  153.6
Spr post-buff: 217.6 / 281.6 (via Steel Body / 50% HP crisis)
Provoke Mitigation: 30%

Phys e.HP
  Normal: 5558.3 * 295.2 / (1 - 0.3) = 2,344,014.51
      137% more than 6★ Marquis
      20%  less than 7★ Marquis
      42%  less than 7★★ Marquis

  Crisis: 5558.3 * 367.2 / (1 - 0.3) = 2,915,725.37
      195% more than 6★ Marquis
      <1%  less than 7★ Marquis
      28%  less than 7★★ Marquis

Mag e.HP
  Normal: 5558.3 * 217.6 / (1 - 0.3) = 1,727,837.26
      88% more than 6★ Marquis
      15% less than 7★ Marquis
      38% less than 7★★ Marquis
  Crisis: 5558.3 * 281.6 / (1 - 0.3) = 2,236,024.69
      43% more than 6★ Marquis
      10% more than 7★ Marquis
      20% less than 7★★ Marquis

Counter Dmg
  189^2 * 1 * 0.6 = 21,432.6
      97% less than 7★ Marquis

• e.VoE can cover
• e.VoE has full AoE break resistance
• e.VoE can mitigate party damage by 20%
• e.VoE has 100% AoE earth resistance
• e.VoE absorbs earth damage
• 6★ Marquis can imperil ice
• 7★ Marquis counters harder
• 7★ Marquis can full break (on CD)
• 7★★ Marquis is tankier

Before crisis, 7★ MdL is tankier. However, unlike DRain, VotE is significantly tankier, to the point he is not substantially far from 7★ Marquis's tankiness. This means that the crisis trigger is more likely on VotE. With it enabled, he becomes about as tanky as MdL without his TMR ability. As damage is more relagated to actual damagers, this puts the utility kit higher in my opinion. That, and VotE can cover if needed. Do note that if you can get a strong defensive buff, VotE crisis loses its punch.

For sheer provoke tankiness, MdL take the prize ^{7★★ stats are huge}. However, because of his utility and cover, I'd give a small win to enhanced Veritas of the Earth. For future sake, with good gearing, VotE BiS is still less tanky as a provoker^16.1M.

Elfried Elfreeda^{Now and unenhanced future}

HP: 4296 / 5584.8 / 7446.4 (6★/7★/7★★)
Atk pre-buff:  162  50%-TDH / 338.2  50%-TDH / 338.2  100%-TDH (6★/7★/7★★ ignoring TMR-stats)
Atk post-buff: 270 / 480.6 (6★/7★, via Vigorous Cry)
Def pre-buff:  184.5 / 320.4 / 391.6 (6★/7★/7★★)
Def post-buff: 282.9 / 462.8 / 605.2 (6★/7★/7★★, Vigorous Cry)
Spr pre-buff:  189 / 325.8 / 398.2 (6★/7★/7★★)
Spr post-buff: 239.4 / 398.2 / 470.6 (via Leadership)
Provoke Mitigation: 0%

Phys e.HP
  6★ : 4296 * 282.9   = 1,215,338.4
      70% less than 7★★ Marquis
  7★ : 5584.8 * 462.8 = 2,584,645.44
      36% less than 7★★ Marquis
  7★★: 7446.4 * 605.2 = 4,506,561.28
      12% more than 7★★ Marquis

Mag e.HP
  6★ : 4296 * 239.4   = 1,028,462.4
      63% less than 7★★ Marquis
  7★ : 5584.8 * 398.2 = 2,223,867.36
      21% less than 7★★ Marquis
  7★★: 7446.4 * 470.6 = 3,504,275.84
      25% more than 7★★ Marquis

Counter Dmg
  6★ : 270^2 * (0.8 * 0.4   9.75 * 0.1) * 1.6 = 151,048.8 (ignoring TDH)
      81% less than 7★ Marquis (requires 228.7 Atk in gear to match; 66 with 2-H GS)
  7★ : 480.6^2 * (3.5 * 0.4   15 * 0.1) * 1.6 = 1,071,730.3 (ignoring TDH)
      3% less than 7★ Marquis (requires a buttering knife to match)

• Elfreeda has -45% on-demand breaks (some of them are weird though)
• Elfreeda can dispel
• Elfreeda LB ignores cover and is significantly cheaper
• Elfreeda has innate TDH support
• Elfreeda may not need to take a turn off to refresh imperil due to counters (on average, may vary due to RNG)
• 7★ Elfreeda can counter harder (6★ requires some gearing)
• Marquis has stronger on-demand ice imperil

Currently, 7★★ Marquis is overall tankier, losing out in counter damage. However, with time, Elfreeda will be able to surpass MdL in almost every way.

As for BiS, looking at her 7★ general tanking and counter-tanking with current gearing, she might not be as tanky, but she will hit far harder than MdL. Elf also has enhancements in JP, so keep that in mind.

Wilhelm Enh. Wilhelm^7★★

HP: 9041.4 / 10,548.3 (7★/7★★)
Atk pre-buff:  175
Atk post-buff: 245 (via Leadership)
Def pre-buff:  501.4 / 566.8 (7★/7★★)
Def post-buff: 658.36 / 723.76 (7★/7★★, via LB)
Spr pre-buff:  321.2
Spr post-buff: 423.4 (via General's Command 2)
Provoke Mitigation: 40% (can be higher with certain skills)

Phys e.HP
  7★ : 9041.4 * 658.36 / (1 - 0.4) = 9,920,826.84
      147% more than 7★★ Marquis

  7★★: 10,548.3 * 723.76 / (1 - 0.4) = 12,724,062.68
      216% more than 7★★ Marquis

Mag e.HP
  7★ : 9041.4 * 423.4 / (1 - 0.4) = 6,380,214.60
      128% more than 7★★ Marquis

  7★★: 10,548.3 * 423.4 / (1 - 0.4) = 7,443,583.7
      166% more than 7★★ Marquis

Counter Dmg
  245^2 * 1 * 0.6 = 36,015
      96% less than 7★ Marquis

• e.Willy is significantly tankier
• e.Willy can cover (7★)
• e.Willy can increase LB cyst gain
• e.Willy has 60% on-demand Atk/Mag breaks (7★, one at a time)
• e.Willy has strong AoE damage mitigation on LB
• Marquis has stronger counter
• Marquis has ice imperil

He's innately tankier. His BiS makes him an insane provoker^50.7M. He can cover. Heck, BiS 7★ Marquis cannot even compete against Willy's 6★ form.

Did I really need to compare against this mustached monstrosity?

Conclusion - New Player Variant

7★ Marquis de Leon is a decent provoke tank. At his core, he is able to take hits and dish them back. As part of utility kit, he can imperil ice, and apply a strong full break when available. That said, try to avoid tanking until 7★ Lvl 105 unless you have another source of damage mitigation.

If you feel like a renegade, you can run MdL as a straight attacker, either as a chainer or a finisher. He has good base attack and stat modifiers that puts him fairly high in the auto-attack damage charts. His chaining ability comes with a strong Def break, essentially doubling his damage output. With his LB, he is capable of doing up to an 18x chainable AoE that can take advantage of his imperil. In arena, he can both AoE stop, paralyze, and dual-slash, on two great skills to have for new players.

In short: Be Prepared for sensational news / A shining new 7★ / Is tanking nearer / And where do we attack?

Conclusion - Veteran Variant

Beyond arena, a majority of his skillkit is too weak to use normally, or puts him in the provoke-counter lifestyle. He has the tanking ability of what you might expect of an average 5★-base, 6★-max,... at his 7★ form. His gearing is limited, and without shields, his survivability drops even further. Even if he comes with raid Cactuars, 44 Mil exp is a hefty investment when it could be placed elsewhere for better gains ^{like Hyoh}.

Damage-wise, his tanking damage kit primarily focuses around his ice-counters or LB ^{which is also icey}. If the enemy is ice-resistant, his damage output drops tremendously. Without a secondary imperiler, his counter-kit has no free turns to do something else. Given his current kit, this might not be a problem, but is you want to give him some extra utility like Rikku's Pouch, don't expect to use Eccentrick without another imperiler, lest you drop in damage.

If you ignore the provoke-tanking component and run him as a straight attacker, beyond his decent Atk stats, he otherwise sucks. For his on-demand chaining capabilities, he either has that low modifier move that doesn't chain without a dupe, or that other low modifier move that doesn't chain without a dupe and uses his low Mag stat. His best 1-hit finisher, which while okay modifier wise ^{or subpar for 7★ skill} and imbunes, suffers from general finishing issues. All that leaves is his LB.

But Uncle Scar, you said that his LB was great for damage. Now, now Simba, the issues with it is that it takes a while to build up thanks to the lack of LB support, and it only chains with a dupe, and I have rarely seen raid friends popup before beyond that one Ukiyo weirdo^{no offense}. If you somehow find another one, either from friends ^{which is possible as he is a DQ bonus unit} or luck with raid pulls, I'm not sure you would want to run a second one. A second counter-provoker won't increase your damage much unless the enemy spams AoE, at which point, you might be better off running a cover tank instead for survivability. His usable non-counter damage skills are either the chains with bad modifiers (and no chainers besides a dupe), or the one finisher with a barely okay modifier^{and who runs two finishers}. Your options will end up being to either (A) spam the multi-hit skill for LB generation and suffer lowish damage most of the time, or (B) use the finisher and never get a LB in your lifetime.

In short: No mustache. No life.

^{What's that coming over the hill
Is it a monster? Is it a monster?
Nants ingonyama bagithi baba} There comes a lion
^{Sithi uhhm ingonyama} Oh yes, it's a lion

^{Math Fix Status: Satisfied}

^{Edit #1: Added Elf
Edit #2: Missed something in VK.Rain's kit, Def/Spr numbers revised upward. Thanks Muspel}