Changelog

• I was pretty late last month, so I decided make this post early to compensate. :P

Barbariccia

Rarity: 5★ to 7★

Enhancements:

Tier 1 ups turn duration and the self buff modifiers. Tier 2 also gives a below average damage mitigation buff and the MP cost goes up from 30 to 40.

From a selfish buff to a decent general utility ability. 25% is a little below the average 30% but the 4 turn duration slightly makes up for that. The MP cost doesn't hurt her too heavily since she's a mage that's usually optimally built with some MP/turn or MP, not to mention, Cyclone Shield procs the boosted version of Refreshing Winds.

Tier 1 has massive modifier boosts and changes the requirements of the boosted version, it now needs her CD abilities to be used last turn to activate it. It also ups the MP cost from 60 to 80. Tier 2 is still more modifier boosts and more MP cost increases, from 80 to 100.

The modifier boosts makes Barb's finishing capabilities pretty potent, the most efficient way to use it is using Tempest Eye Wall for the imperil and then Sunder. However, it's a two-turn setup and since boosted Sunder is only active from using her CD abilities, she has 3 CD abilities only one of them does damage. All this for a boosted magic FINISHER.

Realistically, you're likely going to use the non-boosted version of Sunder if you want her to finish (for some reason), it's still a strong magic finisher, 1250% modifier is nothing to scoff at.

Tier 1 gives her some SPR and immunity from confusion (from all that spinning as a tornado obviously). Tier 2 boosts her LB damage and Tornado damage.

The confusion immunity leaves Sleep as the only status ailment that can cripple her (Berserk/Charm/Stop are NOT status ailments BTW, those function like debuffs). The Tornado boost is nice, but somewhat lackluster compared to other enhanced chaining abilities, and the LB boost is a little questionable. 7★ LB can make decent chains with a dupe, her imperil scales with level from -75% Wind/Thunder imperil to -104%. The problem is that Tempest Eye Wall is a thing, it has Tornado frames (stuck at single cast but element chains with almost every Tornado frame unit) and has a -120% Wind/Thunder imperil attached, even with the LB damage, Tempest Eye Wall still does more damage than it.

Overall, it's still a good enhancement since Tornado (with Aeroja) is still her bread and butter ability. And if you're Barb is still a 6★, it's her best source of innate Wind imperil (at max level, of course).

Summary:

Barb's enhancements overall kinda blows. On paper, they're pretty great, although none actually improve on her role as a chainer, Empress of the Winds gets half of the job done. For comparison, Lexa and Kid Rydia get their Tornado enhanced, it gains an increased modifier of 100% at tier 2, Empress of the Winds only does half of that. I guess they didn't do Tornado enhancements because of her 7★ passives improved Tornado anyway (it's at 400% modifier with enhancements and 7★) but I still think they should have done it for making her 6★ slightly more power compared to the rest of the Tornado chainers.

No straightforward improvements to her chaining or self-chain finishing ability (Aeroja) and no MAG percentage boosts either. Even as a 7★, Tornado Aeroja (probably Raging Winds now, if you can spark chain it reliably) is still her optimal rotation. Kinda shocking that a 5★ base doesn't have any offensive stat % enhancements, oh well.

Empress of the Winds is her priority. Cyclone Shield is useful if you think Barb needs some utility. Only get Sunder if you want to slot her as a finisher.

Grim Lord Sakura

Rarity: 5★ to 7★

Enhancements:

Excuse me while I pick up my jaw from the floor. You know passives try to cover up the issues of a unit's stats? This is one of them AND IT COVERS MOST OF THE ISSUES WITH GLS.

Tier 1 boosts the Fire HP and Dark Mag and grants 10% MP if a Fire or Dark weapon is equipped, it's 20% MP if she has a Fire/Dark weapon(s) equipped.

Tier 2 ups all of the stats even further, 50% HP, 50% MAG, 40% MP with Fire and Dark weapon(s) and Auto-Refresh.

HP is always going to be good, MAG is her optimal offensive stat, MP is great on W-Ability units like herself, and Auto-Refresh which is something she lacked innately and she's a W-Ability user. Sure, 5% isn't much but with the boosted MP, it's better now and not to mention it covers up the issue that she eats through MP really fast. Every stat boost you could have wanted on GLS is all here, enough said. It's not perfect but it seriously helps.

Tier 1 simply boosts the modifiers and lowers the MP cost from 45 to 40. Tier 2 has more modifier boosts, ups the imperil, and lowers the MP cost from 40 to 35.

This one is sad. It does a poor job at chaining, so you'd think that the imperil is going to support her other abilities, wrong again. At 7★ her chaining ability is her Grim - Eldritch Wave but it already inflicts a -50% imperil, sure it's weaker, but I'd rather have longer chains than staggered chains.

Both tiers improve modifiers, tier 2 lowers the MP cost from 50 to 40.

Less sad than Eldritch Flames but still sad regardless. It only chains with Ashe's Heaven's Fury but even then GLS is forced to cast this once since Ashe can only do it once, it chains fine with a copy though. Sadly, elementless chaining isn't favored as much anymore and GLS' partners for this are pretty bad in a 7★ meta. Also, it's needlessly expensive, just like Heaven's Fury enhancements.

Summary:

I guess because it's Halloween they had to make something terrifying, so they made GLS' active abilities terrifyingly bad. Eldritch Flames and Soul Barrage don't do much for her in the long run and chaining partners for Eldritch Wave are pretty restrictive as well, since it's only a copy and Trance Terra (partially). With how restricted her chaining potential is, she won't age well unless more units than can chain with GLS show up.

Anyway, her Vicious is her priority. You can leave the rest of her enhancements alone.

Pirate Jake

Rarity: 4★ to 6★

Enhancements:

Tier 1 grants him mini DEF gun mastery and mini sword mastery. Tier 2 improves the ATK on both masteries.

The pirate ends up with 130% innate ATK if you proc both passives. Nothing much to add other than it's good, he is a damage dealer after all.

Tier 1 adds a self ATK/DEF buff, Tier 2 slightly increases the breaks and increases the self buff potency.

While the break improvements are strong at -50%, Pirate Jake can only cover physical stat breaks, he has nothing to cover against magic attacks. Regardless, it's still good for utility. The buffs are decent but it's easily overwritten by most meta buffers in the game.

Both tiers improves the modifier and tier 2 ups the hit count to 12.

We welcome a pirate into the Quick Hit chaining family. Compared to Camille, he simply has the better offensive stats, though Camille has slightly better utility due to her innate element resist buffs. However, the price to make a pirate into a QH chainer is kinda steep, so I'd say go for it if you like the guy.

Summary:

As far as 4★ base enhancements go, Pirate Jake got pretty solid ones. I am the captain now! grants solid ATK boosts and Feed the Fishes can now make him chain with one of the largest chaining families in the game. Walk the Plank is decent but it's nothing that your breaker unit can't handle for him.

I am the captain now! and Feed the Fishes are his priorities.

Illusionist Nichol

Rarity: 4★ to 6★

Enhancements:

This covers most of what a W-Ability support needs, some HP, MP, and Auto-Refresh. The HP and the Auto-Refresh were things that iNichol lacked innately (unless you give him his TMR to cover the Auto-Refresh).

While most of his abilities don't consume much MP, Trial materia like Cradle of Horns were some of the things given to iNichol to give him some more utility, those consume a lot of MP so the Auto-Refresh really helps in this one.

Tier 1 increases the turn duration, while Tier 2 improves the potency of the breaks.

Overall, it's really good. The turn extension gives iNichol more flexibility on what to do while the breaks are still there because, unlike Pirate Jake's breaks, it breaks both offensive stats so it lowers the enemies overall damage if they're vulnerable to it.

Tier 1 adds a DEF/SPR buff onto the target, Tier 2 improves the buff potency and increases the buff duration.

iNichol's highlight ability, the power to make anybody in the party into a physical cover tank. The real gem out of this enhancement is the turn duration, simply because he has more flexibility on what he can do until the cover buff expires.

With no boosts to the mitigation, it'll be difficult for the unit to soak up physical damage just like any other physical cover tank. So it's still recommended that you run iNichol with a 100% dodge unit.

Summary:

iNichol got some nice enhancements as well. Illusionist Guise aids in his self sustain, Terrifying Visions is now a strong defensive break, and Redirect lasts longer.

Illusionist Guise, Illusion - Redirect, and Illusion - Terrifying Visions are his priorities in that order.

Rubicante

Rarity: 4★ to 6★

Enhancements:

Tier 1 gives him MP and MAG passives with a rod, Tier 2 improves the rod passives and also gives him Auto-Refresh.

70% total MAG and 60% MP innately from the enhancement. Which is good since Rubicante was lacking in the MAG and MP stats, Auto-Refresh is also something he lacked innately.

All tiers are modifier boosts to his Fire magic.

Realistically, you only want this for the Firaja improvement, it only improves the base so it caps at 750%. It's decent considering that Rubicante here in GL was popular for being a Firaja finisher, same case with Victoria.

Tier 1 adds SPR to the self buff, Tier 2 adds self LB battery.

The reason why it's focused on his LB is because his LB is his only innate source of Fire imperil. It's at -79 at max level, but other than that it's pretty awful.

Summary:

Honestly, don't bother with Rubicante. Why? The next 10-man trial reward is a magic whip that grants Firaja, meaning if your 7★ magic damage unit can equip it, then they already do a better job than Rubicante.

But if you really like Rubicante for his assets (Victoria has it better tho). Autarch of Flame and Firelord are his priorities.

Cagnazzo

Rarity: 4★ to 6★

Enhancements:

Tier 1 adds Water resistance, Tier 2 adds HP/DEF

Obviously, you want this for the HP/DEF boost, Cagnazzo is a provoke tank after all, the more bulk the better.

Tier 1 adds Water resistance buff, Tier 2 improves buff potency.

This one is underwhelming, the defensive buffs are easily replaceable by any meta buffer or Cradle of Horns. The water resist is niche but there are a lot of units that can cover 70% Water resist like CG Nichol, Seaside Nichol, Marie, Yuna, etc.

Tier 1 boosts the base HP recovery, Tier 2 grants self Stop/Charm resist buff.

Cagnazzo is pretty unique as a provoke tank considering that he can't take action while he's provoking, the buffs attached to it are strong enough to warrant using him a provoke tank. The boosted HP recovery helps him soak up more damage without needing a healer and the charm and stop resist is great considering how recent trials have been using it often as a mechanic you needed to work around.

Summary:

The demon turtle thing gets great improvements to his bulk and self sustain while provoking. If you're still using him in recent trial content then his immunites are great for it as well.

Defensive Stance and Archfiend of Water are his priorities.

William

Rarity: 4★ to 6★

Enhancements:

I'm taking his heart so I can open it. Gimme a sec.

Both abilities finally remove the team breaks to offensive stats, leaving both abilities as defensive buffs and they're awful. William can't cast the two at the same turn, so it's a bad idea to rely on William as your defensive buffer, if you really want to you can always slap Cradle of Horns on him for a slightly better effect.

Both tiers improve the modifier, Tier 2 also improves the earth imperil and lowers the MP cost from 48 to 40.

Behold, the strongest version of Quake in GL right now (why the hell didn't Barb get something like this on her Tornado?). Nothing much to add here other than it'll age well as more units are added since GL only has Dark Fina, Kid Rydia, Rem, and Circe for partners. Yuraisha, Doga, Yuri, and Wadow will also be part of Quake chainers in GL soon.

Summary:

William's enhancements are pretty underwhelming because like Barb, he doesn't get any MAG stat improvements. All enhancements except for his Quake aren't changing the fact that they'll never be used. As good as the Quake improvements are, his enhancements are still lacking.

Quake is his only priority.

Chloe

Rarity: 4★ to 6★

Enhancements:

Tier 1 adds ATK break, Tier 2 adds MAG break.

It's basically Full Break Libra. It's decent utility considering that Chloe doesn't have any other innate break abilities.

Tier 1 adds Auto-Regen and MP. Tier 2 adds Auto-Refresh and HP.

You already know how I feel about Auto-Regen, it barely does anything that you can easily pretend that it doesn't exist. The HP and MP are always going to be good, especially now that Chloe also gets Auto-Refresh to sustain herself as a elemental resist buffer.

HOLD IT! ohwaitwronggame.

Both tiers improve the counter proc, Tier 1 also improves Objection's damage, Tier 2 counter will also grant Research Book for two turns.

Meh. Research Book is W-Ability to her ST Magic killers, so it's really niche. If it had been W-Method than she'd be pretty strong even if it was locked behind a counter. The counter damage is negligible considering that Chloe is not built to be a damage dealer.

Summary:

The jury finds these enhancements:

NOT CRAPPY.

Strong Memory's Full Break is a decent break option and adds to her overall utility. Medical Knowledge grants her a lot of bulk and some self-sustain, which is never a bad thing. Objection is pretty worthless.

Medical Knowledge and Strong Memory are her priorities.

Props to Gumi for still buffing non 7★ capable unit enhancements. William's Quake imperil boost and Chloe's Medical Knowledge HP/MP didn't exist for the JP version. It seriously helps newer players who struggle filling all possible unit roles.