Once upon a time, raid free 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 free units typically kind of suck 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. Without further ado...

White Mage Rosa - Raiders of the Free Review

Limit Burst

True Miracle of Baron (7★, 30 LB)

• 4-hit Pysical-attack Magic-damage (18x ~ 21x) with SPR scaling to all enemies
• Heal (5840 HP, 30x ~ 8160 HP, 30x) split over 3 turns to all allies

For the damage component, it's affected by things that typically affect physical attacks (cover, evasion, killers, ...), but calculates damage against the enemies' SPR. The heal side is fairly weak (7k~8k HP/turn for 1k SPR). Mostly for topping off the party rather than a solo serioius heal.

Trust Reward

Elven Bow (Bow)

• ATK 36, MAG 98, SPR 140
• Two-handed (125% ~ 175%, 70% Accuracy)

Super Trust Master Reward

Rosa's Earrings (Accessory)

• DEF 26, SPR 38
• Increase LB gauge (2) per turn
• Increase LB gauge fill rate (100%)

Note: LB auto-fill effects are not effected by fill rate effects.

Notable Skills

Double Prayer

• Use to cast 2 of any of WM Rosa's abilities

Dual White Mage

• Use to cast 2 of any white magic spells

Glorious Rain of Arrows

• Physical damage (14x) with consecutive increase (5 times, 2x each, 24x max) to all enemies
• Multicastable
• Graviton Cannon Family80-10-10-10-10-10-10-10-10-10-10-10-10-10-10-10

Radiant Arrows (lvl 110)

• Physical damage combo (6-8 times, [5 5]x each, 35x avg) to one enemy
• Multicastable

These two above abilites are all ATK-scaling, which comes at conflicts with her traditional support kit. The do good damage, but will generally be ignored for the rest of the review. I will say that you will probably find a couple of ATK-build Rosa's (like mine) in the friend's list for the purpose of the Mog King farm event. Also, for Radiant Arrows, the additional 5 mod only applies if Rosa is at lvl 120.

Moonlight (lvl 105)

• Light physical-attack magic-damage (40x) with SPR scaling to one enemy
• Multicastable
• 4-turn CD, available on turn 4

Her other good~ish damage ability, but uses her SPR stat instead. Like the limit burst, it's affected by things that would normally affect physical attacks, but use magic damage calculations.

Pure Prayer

• Heal (1000 HP, 3.4x) to all allies
• Cure all status ailments to all allies
• Multicastable

Prayer of Extermination

• Light magic* damage ([4.2 10]x) with SPR scaling to all enemies
• Recover HP (4000) to all allies
• Multicastable

The heal is on the weaker side, even when casting it twice. It mostly for if you need to Rosa to also deal light damage for some boss mechanic, or if you were also using it in conjunction with her limit burst to get some actually strong heals (or you found a reliable way to mess with the dual-wield/multicast bug). Like RA, she gets the additional 10 damage modifier at lvl 120.

Sure Aim

• Heal (2600 HP, 10x) split over 3 turns to all allies
• Increase physical/magical damage against birds (50%) for 3 turns to all allies
• Multicastable

The HoT is negligible (especially given that they cannot stack). However, the additional source of avian killers is very nice, even if the enemy-type is fairly rare. It should be noted that Rosa has a counter that grants a 75% killer instead, so if you have a reliable way of constantly proccing her killer, this ability can be ignored.

Prayer of Rebirth

• Revive all KO'd allies (100% HP)
• Multicastable

Prayer of Restoration

• Restore HP/MP (50%) to all allies
• Auto-revive (80% HP) for 3 turns to all allies
• Increase light resistance (100%) for 3 turns to all allies
• Multicastable
• 5-turn CD, available on turn 1

As a note, given that it is available on the first turn of each fight, this can be used as a nice MP refill ability if going through multiple waves of battle.

Full-Life (W-Magic)

• Revive one KO'd ally (100% HP)

Curaja (W-Magic, lvl 105)

• Heal (2500 HP, 18x) to all allies

Reraise (W-Magic, lvl 105)

• Auto-revive (80% HP) for 3 turns to one ally

The most basic of kits for a white mage.

Notable Others

• 60%/80%/190% innate unconditional boost to HP/DEF/SPR, respectively (260% SPR w/ bow mastery)
• Innate resistance to confuse, sleep, and paralyze
• 12% innate auto-refresh
• Innate dual-wield
• Innate light shield/helm usage (fairly rare for mages)
• 30% innate resistance to light damage
• 50% innate human-killer
• Okay innate auto-lb (2/turn) and fillrate boost (100%)
• Counters with 75% physical/magical avian killers (30%-chance, lasts 1-turn only)

Notable Issues

• Suspectible to some other status ailments (notable silence and petrify)
• Relatively low physical eHP
• Very limited number of 1-H bows, so dual wielding and getting the bow mastery will be a challenge for some
• No potent non-CD heals, making healing and applying support abilities hard due to seperate multicast lists

Nude Expeditions

^{Subject to rounding errors
Success capped at 16%, anything above is solely for comparison purposes
No gear equipped or using a 0-statted variant for mastery
Parentasis denote with all masteries
7★★ denotes with S/TM ability activated, but without S/TMR equipment stats calculated}
Expedition Charts

Builds and Comparisons

• All units will only have access to one of their own TMR, unless noted otherwise (mostly to equalize TM ability access). If the unit has easy access to their STMR, it can also be used for themselves, and possibly other units.
• If any passive are conditional on equip, assume that the unit have a 0-statted variant of it equipped (unless its his/her S/TMR)
• [WIP] All units will be limited to story-shop-buyables. Fallen gear up to and including Torturous Trio, and Scorn gear up to and including Marching Beast are also included. Espers aren't included and Materia's may be included depending on their revelance to the build, but will generally be included if part of S/TMR.
• 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) Ignoring this for purpose of this calculations only (for sanity sake)

White Mage Rosa White Mage Rosa

**Budget Build**

Right hand: Elven Bow (FFIV) MP 20%, ATK 36, MAG 98, SPR 140  
Head: Frozen Crown HP 500, DEF 16, SPR 50  
Body: Siren's Robe DEF 30, MAG 40, SPR 40  
Accessory 1: Rosa's Earrings DEF 26, SPR 38  
Materia 1: Hat Arts MAG 30%, SPR 30%  
Total: HP:7660, MP:432, ATK:457, DEF:356, MAG:395, SPR:1094

PeHP: 2,726,960
MeHP: 8,380,040

Curaja
  2500   (1094/2   432/10)*18 = 13,123
Limit Burst (HoT only; lvl 1 and lvl 30)
  [5840   (1094/2   432/10)*18] / 3 = 5,487 per turn
  [8160   (1094/2   432/10)*30] / 3 = 8,622 per turn

*Really wished I could have used Holy Wand under my criteria to allow for a shield to help her PeHP

Above Build

For the comparison, I'll be mostly looking at each units ability to heal and support/utility kit, in addition to survivability. I've included a seperate build below for additional support abilities and fix her physical squishiness, with the understanding that this is only a sample as support units are fairly flexible when it comes to build design. This ignore STMR, limited, premiums, and IW stats, but does include her own STMR.

Build

HP : 13,095
MAG: 440
DEF: 671
SPR: 1,411

Phys eHP:  8,786,745
Mag  eHP: 18,477,045

Curaja
  2500   (1411/2   440/10)*18 = 15,991
Limit Burst (HoT only; lvl 1 and lvl 30)
  [5840   (1411/2   440/10)*18] / 3 = 6443 per turn
  [8160   (1411/2   440/10)*30] / 3 = 10,215 per turn

*Notes:
  * Use mace for secondary if it has good IW stats
  * Might use 1H bow, especially with good IW stats
  * Dualcast is equipped to allow use of Carbuncle's bar-X-ga spells

Ashe Enhanced Ashe

Right hand: Platinum Staff ATK 20, MAG 9, SPR 54  
Head: Frozen Crown HP 500, DEF 16, SPR 50  
Body: Siren's Robe DEF 30, MAG 40, SPR 40  
Accessory 1: Rosa's Earrings DEF 26, SPR 38  
Materia 1: Hat Arts MAG 30%, SPR 30%  
Materia 2: Staff Mastery SPR 50%  
Total: HP:4486, MP:216, ATK:150, DEF:196, MAG:281, SPR:416

PeHP:   879,256
MeHP: 1,866,176

Heaven's Fury  2 (Heals only)
  2400   (416/2   281/10)*3.4 = 3,202

Above build

• Ashe can AoE buff Mag/Spr and grants AoE refresh
• WMRosa is generally just better

Not much to say here really.

Blue Mage Fina Blue Mage Fina (6★)

Right hand: Elven Bow (FFIV) MP 20%, ATK 36, MAG 98, SPR 140  
Head: Frozen Crown HP 500, DEF 16, SPR 50  
Body: Siren's Robe DEF 30, MAG 40, SPR 40  
Accessory 1: Rosa's Earrings DEF 26, SPR 38  
Materia 1: Hat Arts MAG 30%, SPR 30%  
Total: HP:5541, MP:339, ATK:148, DEF:245, MAG:426, SPR:612

Phys eHP: 1,357,545
Mag  eHP: 3,391,092

Curaja
  2500   (612/2   426/10)*18 = 8,774
White Wind
  Inst: 2500   (612/2   426/10)*18 = 8,774 
  HoT : [6300   (612/2   426/10)*36] / 3 = 6,283 per turn

Above build

• UMFina can dispel
• UMFina can full buff the party's stats ( 130% full-buff)
• UMFina can increase the party's elemental resistance ( 60% all elements)
• UMFina can increase LB gauge better
• WMRosa has a better healer kit (includes AoE auto-revive)
• WMRosa is tankier
• WMRosa can grant Avian killers to party

Before anyone asks, 6* UMFina is locked behind a story chapter which is expected to be released in a month. Also, she'll get a proper review then (with only the one new UMagic she gets at that time, Link to said version) and/or when she gets her 7* (possibly with Might Guard included due to its potency). Still up in the air.

Between the two, beyond the survivability, it really depends on what you are going for. Do you need a mostly pure healer that can burst recover large amounts of MP? Or do you need a healer that can buff the party? Note this will constantly be changing in UMFina's favor as the stories progress, especially with a better 7* LB.

Also, if your confused with why I'm using UMFina instead of BMFina, google "WUBRG".

CG FinaCG FolkaMyraLight Warrior LennaDoctor Aiden Many 7★ Healers

See the conclusions below. It's not particularly pretty for WMRosa.

Conclusion - New Player Variant

It's been a while since our last free 7* healer (Lovely Katy). Rosa has a kit that is designed both for healing and damage dealing.

In regards to the damage dealing ability, the damage mod is decent for her abilities, with one of them being in a chaining family. While most of her damage requires an ATK-build (clashing with her healing role), all her damage are considered physical attack. This allows her to use physical killers instead, which tends to be more abundant.

In regards to the heals, she has a fairly decent healer kit. Curaja, AoE re-/raise, and status cures to deal with most situations. In addition, her CD also burst restores 50% of MP every 5 turn. As it is available on the first turn, it's not infeasible to full heal for multi-wave missions. Also with the limit burst heals, she could free up her actions to actually contribute to the damage side. Lastly, she can grant the party avian killer, either manually through casting or automatically through counters, to help contribute to damage

All in all, a really good healer for new players, especially if they don't have Curaja-strength healers yet.

Conclusion - Veteran Variant

I wish she was better at doing either her damage or healing/support jobs.

In regards to her damage, she not very stellar. She lacks good damage modifiers on all her abilities, even if you account for the better weapon variances on bows. In addition, she lacks any form of TDH/W or 6x chaining cap, resulting in alot of equipments devoted solely to adjust for that. Also, her only chaining move, Glorious Rain of Arrows, lacks decent partners. Though at the very least, GC frames are fairly long, making it a potential usage for Dark Vision.

In regards to the heals and support, she has issues, though not as egregious as her damage kit. One of her issues is that she has no non-CD healing ability, and the magic kit is very basic for white mages. As a result, if the enemy is capable of dealing high damage, then Rosa will struggle to both heal and apply any of her support abilities in a single turn. This can be allieviated by bringing in another support healer, or using her LB's regen to suppliment the weaker ability heals. However, the former costs an additional party slot which might not be possible (or be better used elsewhere), and the latter won't heal as much on the turn the limit burst is used unless Rosa is seriously stacked on SPR (around 2k to nearly match a 1k Curaja). Also, her support kit is incredibly limited, mostly revolving on either refilling MP every once in a while, or boosting damage against birds. Compare that to most meta healers, with their abilities to do significantly more impactful abilities.

In terms of future, if you already have one of the meta mates, the only real future I see for Rosa would either be Venge Trials, or Dark Visions: Big-Bird edition.

Side Rant

Was just a few minutes too late

^{Math Fix Status: Satisfied}

Edit: ^{Typo for PoE}