Ok, so the data mining has happened and the hype is on about Esther and Sylvie. Especially with Esther's damage calculations, turn rotations, that crazy AoE chaining LB damage that is compatible with an assortment of existing characters, AT chaining and how that was already the future we were anticipating.

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But what about the fact that they added a new chaining family? It doesn't look like we have decided what to call it yet, I'm leaning toward calling it the "Storm Brand" family, because it rolls off the tongue the best, even though it's the one you'll probably use the least. And I for one hope we see more units get released in the "Storm Brand" family. Here's what's in it so far:

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Esther's built-in kit:

• Storm Brand - ST physical Lightning damage, imbues Lightning for 5 turns. Also grants 15 LB to caster. Has a 5.6x effective mod, or 8.6x if used within 2 turns after Combat Overdrive.
• Demagnetizing Strike - ST physical damage with 75% Lightning imperil. Also grants 15 LB to caster. Has a 7x effective mod, or 10x if used within 2 turns after Combat Overdrive.
• Bolting Strike (7* only) - AoE physical with a 60% def break. Also grants 20 LB to caster. 8x effective mod

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Then there's two more indirectly from Sylvie:

• Bunny Kick - ST physical damage, 4.933x effective mod.
• Mystical Egg - ST non-elemental magic damage, 5.6x effective mod.

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Sylvie can grant these abilities to two people in your party in a turn, as well as an ability that allows them to dual cast them. Or if you have Esther and you want to just give them to one partner chainer, she can give them these abilities and then imbue them with one of three elements.

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Relevant frame data from the data mines ( https://raw.githubusercontent.com/aEnigmatic/ffbe/master/skills.json if you're not familiar) - this is consistent with all 5 of the above abilities.

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Frames: [42, 48, 54, 60, 66, 72, 78, 84, 90] - 9 hits, 6 frames apart.

Damage balance: [7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 44] - Notable that 44% of the damage is on the last hit. This is generally considered to be a good thing, although plenty of chaining math experts will tell you it's not as big of a deal as some people make it.

First Effect Frame: 38 - This is the "recast delay" that people refer to when talking about abilities that almost-but-not-quite-chain with each other, like the recently fixed CW variant on Elly and Tornado variant on Ultima.

Movement type: 4 - No movement - Most people's favorite chaining families use this movement type, because they chain consistently regardless of where they are in the party and where the enemy is.

Motion type: 2 - Glowing Orb animation - The most common motion type for popular chaining families - My understanding is that this adds a flat 16 frames to the beginning of each cast in practice

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The less obvious part here is how does it chain when it's multi-cast (or dual-wielded) Is this another Absolute Mirror of Equity or is it another Quick Hit? The way to know that is to figure out when the second cast starts. That will be 38 (first effect frame) 16 (orb motion delay) 42 (the first frame time) = frame 96 - 6 frames after the first cast ends. This is a nice convenience, because it's already an ability that has hits that are 6 frames apart, and the second (and third) casts will continue to be 6 frames apart. If you flub with your fingers and don't quite start them both perfectly, or you're just chaining them on repeat, they will still mostly perfectly chain, with no breaks in the middle, because any part of the ability can chain the same way. Kind of convenient. Lara Croft's Automatic Pistols worked the same way. Obviously, not perfect chaining is still not as good, but the penalty is just in the hits that aren't in the chain (like potentially one of those weighted last hits of the ability). But 6 frames is plenty of time to get a perfect chain off anyways, in fact it's the same strictness as AT chains. Speaking of AT chains, here's what they look like:

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Frames: [70, 76, 82, 88, 94, 100, 106, 112] - Also 6 frames apart

First effect frame: 40 - This is a more standard recast delay

Movement/motion type: still 4/2

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Second cast start time: 40 16 70 = 126, so when you dual cast AT abilities, there's a 14 frame gap between the first cast and the second cast.

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But what if you combine them? Esther also has a couple AT chaining abilities, and Sylvie also can grant an AT chaining ability, and the ability to dual cast it with the SB chaining ability. Should you do that? If you do Storm Brand and then Storm Calling in the same turn, Storm Calling will still start around frame 126 after Storm Brand ended in frame 90 - that 36 frame gap probably means your chain breaks and starts over for the second ability. If you reverse that, and do Storm Calling and then Storm Brand, Storm Brand will start around frame 96, which will overlap with Storm Calling with a 2 frame leeway - Timing is possible but pretty strict. So the short answer is you probably shouldn't mix them together, but if you do, you'll have a better chance of getting a full perfect chain if you do the AT chaining ability first. There's a chance I'm overly simplifying the math (partly because I'm intentionally ignoring the cast delay for the first cast, because it usually doesn't matter, but maybe it does matter for some reason in this case?), so if you're an expert in chaining multiple families together and think I'm misrepresenting what will happen, feel free to say so. The only interesting situation I know of where I've cared about the recast delay of two different abilities is Tornado Aeroja, and using the same math, Aeroja hits 14 frames after Tornado ends, for reference.