https://exvius.gamepedia.com/Revitalised_Role_Rankings_by_Suede

General changes

• Support role category changed to Recovery for more clarity

• Defensive buffing role changed to Survival support for more clarity

Short summaries

EstherEsther: Older units are typically listed first, but Esther is the elephant in the room that has to be addressed. With her damage being over double that of the next best chainers, she is stomping all competition and even invalidates finishers; why bring a Cid when an Esther can do the same damage with her LB that Cid provides after at least two turns of preparation? On top of that, she's very bulky, easy to gear, and has simple rotations not bogged down with extensive setup. Any flaws you'd find with her are nitpicks at best. It really is that bad, and no other damage dealers can touch her.

UltimaHigh Seraph Ultima: Powerful mage that doesn't really push the envelope, but can sit comfortably alongside Elly and Sophia. Most of her 6 star kit is fluff, leaving her with Arcane Magicks - Ultima, her LB, and her cooldowns as the meat of her kit. Non-elemental damage is something to be sceptical of due to how much the chaining system and imperils favour elements, but High Seraph Ultima works out fine in the end; you won't reach her full potential unless you can consistently spark chain, however.

BeowulfBeowulf: Another solid breaker, though he doesn't bring much new to the table. His poor AoE capabilities are made up for with strong imperils on demand. His damage isn't bad either, and AT frames help him synergise with others, much like Auron.

CrimsonCrimson: Would have been the hot new chainer if not for the pending arrival of Akstar and the rude awakening of Esther. Damage is a good chunk higher than Jecht and pals, and the demon killer niche is cute, but he's ultimately forgetable. Reliance on his LB with unique chain frames for optimal damage is also going to suck for non-dupe usage.

AraneaAranea: Surprisingly similar to Cid in burst damage, but capable of outputting more damage on average due to less obnoxious setup. Still suffers the same caveats of desperately wanting an external imbue, but hey, at least she's actually good now.

PromptoPrompto: Very close to top 5 damage, making him one of, like, two octaslash users to not totally suck. Additionally, powerful breaks available with W skill make him similarly slot efficient to the big boy breakers, even though 65% ATK/MAG is a bit below par.

YunaYuna: She didn't change much across the board, but it's not like she needed to. Valefor damage is still effectively irrelevant, and the non-100% uptime on Guardian Bonds' break resist is a little disappointing. More passives and a better esper fill move doesn't hurt though.

LuluLulu: Now a small step above existing magic finishers. There really isn't much to say about her except that she's another spin on the likes of Emperor, Mediena and Blossom Sage Sakura.

SylvieSylvie: She's what you get if you take Yuraisha and tone back raw defensive buffs in exchange for element resist buffs and straight up dumb amounts of miscellaneous utility. I'm hesitant to put too much value in her imbues and granted chain skills as they are a somewhat niche/peculiar setup, but Sylvie as a whole is just dandy. Bonus points for the extra dumb T1 70% ATK/MAG break.

CitanCitan: Like Crimson, a strong damage dealer whose place in the meta became warped due to Akstar and Esther. Global upgrades gave him another element to chain with and some minor mod boosts; nice, but nothing that fundamentally changes his position right now. Which is a shame, because Citan is strong, considerably above Crimson even. His main flaw is lack of any sort of imperil, which you'll have to compensate for.

MariaMaria: Fairly robust mage across the board. While she is more powerful as a finisher, Maria works fine as a fire AT chainer as well. The main issue with this aside from element lock is that she's restricted to dupe partners or physical ones, which can be a problem for some encounters. I also want to point out Missile Pod, which is a great bit of utility to have on a damage dealer who can use triple skill for low opportunity cost support in a pinch.

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Let me know what you think.