Intro:

Welcome to the issue… I kinda forgot tbh… been a long time, I will go ahead and guess this is issue #99.5 of the Lost Reviews. We are the Lost Cause and today, I am coming back and so are (some of) the CNY units :hype:

Gimme a break, this is a decimal review,
I haven’t posted since forever, no jokes today.
Ang is amazing again and this is gonna be a 
serious review for that reason alone.

Shoots down the sun… again

dammit, why does he have to be straight :(

Reviews

AngAng

NIllustration’s insight: :fdhero:

Lemon:

Overview

Ang became such a powerful finisher after his latents. The latents also removed his ele-lock, allowing him to deal damage of any element. He does have wind imbue ( 75% imperil) and fire imbue ( 100% imperil) which allow him to use those elements and support the rest of the units using them. That doesn’t; however, limit him from using any other element by any means, if there is an imbue/imperil unit for another element, he can use that element instead. This gives him much more versatility.

Notable Abilities After Changes:

Natural-born Archer II:

Increase modifier (4x): Ash Shot, Penetrating Shot

Increase modifier (6x): Armor Piercing Arrow, Azure Arrow, Beast Hunter Arrow, Bird Hunter Arrow, Dragon Hunter Arrow, Insect Hunter Arrow, Power Arrow

Increase modifier (10x): Blaze Arrows, Bold Shot, Petrifying Shot, Swift Shot, Tempest Arrows

Enable skill to caster: Ignition Arrow

Physical damage (15x) to one enemy

Decrease fire resistance (100%) for 5 turns to one enemy

Add fire element to physical attacks for 5 turns to caster

• This increases his damage on off-turns (non-LB turns) and allows him to get a fire imbue that lasts him a full rotation, which makes it a very important part of his kit

Hunter's Flair II:

Increase HP/DEF/SPR (30%)

Increase LB damage (50%)

Upgrade LB

Increase equipment ATK (50%) and accuracy (25%) when single wielding any weapon

• This will increase his damage from LB by a lot and allow him to be more flexible with his elements. This is at the core of his kit.

Precise Aim II:

[5 turns cooldown, available on turn 1]

Increase ATK (250%) for 3 turns to caster (can't be dispelled)

Increase LB damage (200%) for 2 turns to caster (can't be dispelled)

Increase LB gauge (30) to caster

• This skill fills his LB gauge and empowers his LB with a strong LB damage boost, this is the ability that allows Ang to really shine again

Other Notable Abilities:

Master Archer 2

• This gives him bulk and much more ATK which really helps his survivability and damage (giving him more space for LB Damage equipment as well)

Heart of the Hunter 2

• More status resists and a bit of ATK as well as killers. This allows him to deal more damage, but more importantly, he doesn’t need a ribbon equip unless the enemy inflicts sleep now, freeing up more equipment slots (I think Black Cowl is a quick fix for this in the cases where you need sleep resist)

Azure Arrow

• This allows him to use wind as well, but it is also 3 turns only, so you might have to adjust the rotation a bit for it.

Blank Hunter Arrow

• Killers for more damage, and can be used with fire or external imbue.

Steady Bow

• This allows for the secondary LB, gives an ATK buff to allow the buffers possible breathing space

Pros:

• deals nice damage with minimal gear, damage really high even without STMs

• Innate killers to 4 types of enemies

• high burst

• doesn’t need a lot of carrying (has own imperil and imbues as well as ATK buffs)

• status resists (all except sleep from the relevant ones)

• Nice bulk and guts (especially when using Storm Kickers, as they give LB damage and HP%)

Cons:

• Limited bow choices

YunYun

NIllustration’s insight: :aesleepingchocobo:

Lemon:

Overview

Yun is a good DD now, he got a new chaining family (BS) and has his old chaining family (AMoE) which is still relevant. However, his damage isn’t that high if you don’t have his STM, which he benefits a lot from. His BS chain deals more damage early on, but in the later turns, he deals more damage with the AMoE. Not the highest damage, but has some flexibility in chain family and element since he uses TDW and his abilities have no element, he also has a fire imbue (and imperil) as a bonus.

Notable Abilities After Changes:

Wings of Flame II:

Enable skill: Double Feathered Friend

Dual Cast (doesn’t include Chakra, Crimson Rage and Inferno Rage, which are all useless mostly)

Increase modifier (8x): Angry Peck, Blazing Combo, Blazing Heart, Multi-Barrage, Multi-Barrage , Perfect Strikes, Raging Bird

Enable skill to caster: Fiery Feathers

Decrease fire resistance (100%) for 5 turns to one enemy

Add fire element to physical attacks for 5 turns to caster

Increase equipment ATK (75%) when dual wielding

Increase chain modifier cap (6x) when dual wielding

• This is a core piece of his kit, giving him his 6x mod, imbue and W to cast his setup in 1 turn

Desire to Protect II:

[5 turns cooldown, available on turn 1]

Increase ATK (250%) for 5 turns to caster (can't be dispelled)

Increase modifier (4x) for 5 turns to caster (can't be dispelled): Blazing Combo, Multi-Barrage, Multi-Barrage

Increase modifier (12x) for 5 turns to caster (can't be dispelled): Frenzied Strikes, Frenzied Strikes I, Frenzied Strikes II

Increase modifier (18x) for 5 turns to caster (can't be dispelled): Perfect Strikes

• This will increase his damage by a lot from both the mod boosts and the ATK buff, which makes him more self-reliant

Frenzied Strikes II:

Physical damage (20x) to all enemies

Bolting Strike

• This skill is a new chain that allows him more versatility, even though it isn't really needed, he can now chain with more units if need be

Other Notable Abilities:

Two-Hit Combo 2

• gives him DW, core on TDW unit, obv.

Perfect Strikes

• AMoE chain, ramp damage, 14x ( 8x from Wing of Flame, 18x when Desire to Protect is active), this gives him more diversity in his chains and deals more damage than the BS chain in longer fights.

Surging Flames & Unleashed Fury

• Those might be useful in some cases, but since his new rotation is 5 turns and those are only 3 turns, that might clash with his rotations a bit.

Pros:

• 2 chaining families that are relevant

• Self-sustained ATK buffs

• Nice imperil on his imbue (100%)

• Has resistance to all relevant standard status ailments (missing poison and silence)

• Innate killers to beasts and plants

Cons:

• Damage not too high compared to other DDs in the game (where AKRain has high potential damage and Karten has high possible T1 damage, etc. Yun is just a chainer who can deal nice damage, nothing special about him in that sense)

• He needs his STM to really start to reach his full potential since his TMR is bad

• Weapon selection is pretty unusual, this is an issue because there aren't many equipment to compliment those weapons (fists are ok, and daggers are starting to catch on recently, this will usually be your combination)

QinQin

NIllustration’s insight: :aeEdgar:

Lemon:

Overview

Qin is an amazing support now. He can buff pretty well, he has really high GMiti (40% on-demand and 50% on CD). He has all kinds of utility, including a full break, an imperil, resistance increase, MP Battery and chaining.

Notable Abilities After Changes:

Undercover Musician II:

Increase HP (40%) and MP/DEF/SPR (20%)

Decrease chance of being targeted (25%)

Increase equipment MAG (75%) when single wielding any weapon

• This ability allows him to have more bulk and a bit more damage, not extremely crutial for his kit

Recital - Rousing Medley II:

Cast this turn and again for the next 2 turns:

Recover MP (60) to all allies

Increase LB gauge fill rate (200%) for 3 turns to all allies (duration decreases every turn)

• This ability isn’t core either, but it is very useful. LB fill rate is also very useful, 60MP per turn is also a lot

Enhanced Abilities:

He has a lot of enhanced abilities, so here is a summary,

• 70% ele resist and imperil

• 65% full break

• 180% buffs split between offensive and defensive

• 160% buffs with 60% breaks split between offensive and defensive

• Those all become instant single casts and all the stat buffs are undispellable. Each buff gives some chain, but they have to actually be cast twice to give enough time for easy capping (each chain has an element).

And there are the 2 big enhancements

Moonlight Sonata 2:

[6 turns cooldown, available on turn 4]

Remove all debuffs from all allies

Increase resistance to ATK/DEF/MAG/SPR break, stop, and charm (100%) for 4 turns to all allies

Increase ATK/DEF/MAG/SPR (200%) for 4 turns to all allies (can't be dispelled)

Mitigate damage taken (50%) for 4 turns to all allies

Enable skill for 4 turns to all allies: Moonlight Waltz 2

Light magic damage (30x) to all enemies

Aureole Ray

• This is a very powerful buff, and it unlocks an AR chain, which is long enough to be single cast, allowing your whole party to actually use a decent chain as long as the enemy isn’t 170% resistant to light (since he has a 70% all imperil), using 2 Qin will allow this buff to have a 100% uptime, and by induction, the chain to have a 100% uptime (also deals decent damage)

Sforzando 2:

[Requirement: TMR or STMR equipped]

Decrease MP used for songs (50%)

Increase HP/MAG (50%) and MP/DEF/SPR (30%)

Decrease chance of being targeted (25%)

Upgrade LB

Inflict death (50%) or deal magic damage (30x) to all enemies

Increase ATK/DEF/MAG/SPR (200%) for 4 turns to all allies (can't be dispelled)

30 hits

Enable skill: Moonlight Echo 2

Cast 2 times: Any of Qin's skills, except Recital - Bosom Friend, Recital - Nomad's Revenge, Recital - Vengeance Maelstrom

• This is extremely important for his kit because it allows him to use his songs twice (or a song and a chain) and makes his LB a 200% buff, giving him the ability to keep a 200% buff, even solo (the LB is also a fairly long chain, really useful to allow capping)

Pros:

• 5 chaining families and 5 elements

• Can actually deal decent-ish damage as a support

• Imperil and resist buffs are great and allow his chains through even 100% resistant enemies

• Nice status resists

• High buffs

• Stat buffs are undispellable

• High GMiti

• Decent bulk (especially considering that the TM gives HP%)

• Very flexible

• Just great all around

Cons:

• Doesn't have TMiti

• his chain families are of different elements(?) not sure if that is bad, but it does kind of limit what you can do sometimes since DR, OcS and CW are 3 of the chains he has (which are outdated and can't find partners easily if you want the partner to deal damage), technically, AR is also outdated, but there would be no better replacement, since the length of AR allows so much flexibility.

Rotations:

Legend

>: next turn

>>: start repetition here

>>>: repeat

 : using multicast, use skill A and B (etc.) in the same turn

xN: using multicast, use skill A, N times

Ang

Standard Reliable Rot: Steady Bow Imbue(/killer if using external imbue) > LB > Precision Killer(/imbue for wind) > LB > Bold Shot >>>

Ideal: Precision Ignition > LB > LB > LB > LB >>>

(replacing any turn without LB with Bold Shot, this is assuming chainer chains during those 4 turns and there is a buffer with 150% ATK buff on Ang and that enough LB generation is happening per turn, using Killer Bow might be more ideal if they apply)

I feel like Ang works really well with Yun or chaining supports or breakers who can chain a lot (such as Machina or double Qin - I suggest double Qin to keep his buffs up while chaining so many turns)

Yun

Desire to Protect Fiery Feathers > Chain > Chain > Chain > Chain >>>

Longer Fights (or with AMoE chainer): Chain = Perfect Strikes

Shorter Fights (or with BS chainer): Chain = Frenzied Strikes II

Qin

Varies a lot depending on what is needed, but generally, try keeping 40% or 50% GMiti up at all times between him and the healer and/or the tank.

TL;DR Conclusions:

Ang

Ang is an amazing finisher, his only competitors are Cid and CG Noct. Even though Cid does have higher burst, he doesn’t have the ability to deal high damage in any of the other turns in his rotation, and the damage is 0 if you want the burst every 3rd turn, Cid also needs a lot of supporting to actually deal damage. CG Noct lacks a high burst even though he deals consistent damage. Ang on the other hand, combines those 2 things in a nice way, he deals a lot of damage and only has 1 turn of setup, he has high burst (not as high as Cid) but also deals damage 3 or 4 turns from 5 (not as consistent as CG Noct), but this also allows him to be more flexible than either. In a more advanced team that uses Hope’s Brutal Sanction or a tank who counters a lot like Lucas or Charlotte and an LB filler in normal rotations such as Cecil with his counter LB fill or Hope’s LB fill on 150% ST ATK/MAG buff (which sets Ang up for his turns without buffs and fills his LB) or Lenna, who fills LB with her heals and MP regens almost seamlessly, and possibly using Entrust in her free turns; Ang can really shine with his ideal rotation and deal high damage every turn while still having a huge burst. (units given are just examples, they aren’t the only choices, nor are they necessarily the best choices)

Yun

Yun is a good chainer who has a lot of potential. He can chain with 2 relevant families now, which means that he will probably be good in cases where you can’t use dupes. Even though he would prefer to use fire damage, he can also use any element that he can equip with his weapons as long as there is another unit who can imperil that element, he can also be imbued by another unit. (ex. Machina chaining with Yun and being imbued with lightning by Hope)

Qin

Qin can do many things really well, he is definitely a top tier buffer, especially that his buffs are undispellable and he allows for really interesting team comps. He is a little bit mana hungry, but as long as at least one of his MP refreshes is casting (or he is given some MP refresh or MP cost decrease), he should be fine. Rotations can go extremely wild with chains and buffs or just as a DD with Moonlight Sonata when using a dupe, he is a really fun and powerful unit. His breaks (although not great) can allow more room in the team if you don’t need a 75% or a 79% break, or whatever the cool kids use these days.

The other 2 units will be added soon, after the banner is gone, I do not think they are amazing but they do have niches and uses