Oi! Apparently people are quite divided about their opinion on Ibara, which is totally understandable as we go on and analyse why that's the case.

DISCLAIMER:

The maths posted on the review reflect her intentional numbers, not her "bugged" (?) damage. Currently her in-game damage is higher than what it should be due to a bug with the SPR ignore interactions in her kit. In case it does get fixed, my numbers are going to be correct.
If they don't fix her, her finisher calcs gain a big chunk of damage and her chainer calcs a decent amount, too.

Finally had the chance during the weekend to celebrate my belated birthday and now it's time to work on the review schedule. I'm sick and tired of it myself, I've skipped like 3 or 4 NVs so far.

Also as I'm writing this, a cold is trying to creep up on me. Damn the yearly cold wave in germany! Or rather blame the weather for being extremely cold for this time of the year and then swapping back to decent temperatures, just to fall back to freezing temperatures.

Time to review a time limited CG unit!

Ibara Review by Memel0rd

Trust Master Reward : Mystical Aura (Materia) - Increase MAG (60%)
Recover MP (5%) per turn

STMR : Demonic Scroll (Throwing Weapon) - 180 MAG, 50% MTDW

Vision Card : Demon Who Learned Humanity
Lvl 1~10: 35~110 MAG
Lvl 4: 10% MTDH
Lvl 7: 40% MTDH
Lvl 10: 50% MAG w/ Female Units

Overview:

Now, both forms are extremely similar to each other, so don't be surprised later on.

Ibara's base stats are pretty nasty. She has great base HP and SPR as well as a monstrous base MAG. Amplified even further through her 220% MAG with 150% MTDH. Now, to be fair, the MTDH part is pretty low but if you do bring her VC up to lvl 7, you'll gain another 50% total MTDH. Her bulk isn't the most impressive with 50% HP, 70% DEF/SPR as well as a rather normal DEF base stat, but gets compensated with currently super high damage.
She also has a 30% magic evasion in this form, though rather unimpressive as AoE magic tanks are being used way too much compared to phys AoEs. Ibara's also resistant against paralyze, confusion and petrification, which isn't the best status ailment coverage, so if you don't have anybody buffing you likely want to get that covered up.
50% killers are never a bad thing, 50% innate human killer is definitely not a bad thing and while fairies aren't super common, it makes gearing against these two types easier.

Ibara can T-/Quad-Cast her entire roster of abilities. Though two abilities are completely redundant. Well, unless you yourself find any meaning in them. Would you want to use a 40% ST charm ability over huge damage? Would you want to use a 2000% BS chain to chain with others when her CWA chains are the strongest magic chains we currently have? No.

Now, another arguably "bad" chain is Sinister Storm. She has that ability in both forms but you know me, I've never been a fan of Dual Elemental abilities and Dark Visions almost completely gutted that kind of ability unless you're really lucky and see both in the same stage. Either way, Sinister Storm is a 7000% ST on-demand chain. In terms of modifiers, it is stronger than her 6000% on-demand lightning chain, but it's much more niche.

Her AoE chains are much stronger though. Her on-demand stacks up the first part. After 6 uses, the first part of the chain has a 4500% modifier and the second a 5600%, thus a total 10100% per cast. Add Quad-Cast on top of that. Then it's gg.

A massive contribution to her damage comes from her first CD ability, Debilitating Allure. This CD exist in both forms with their respective element.
In this case, Ibara not only gains a 5 turn 300% MAG buff and Quad-Cast, but also applies an AoE 120% lightning imperil for an effective 5 turns. You can always maintain this CD ability due to its 4 turn cooldown and neatly enough, the 300% MAG buff can't be dispelled. Let's not mention the 50% human / fairy killer buff.

Her other 2 CD abilities are meant to increase her damage even further, but one of them is not like the other. You see a 16200% modifier, you see an AoE 80% SPR break, you see 8 turn cooldown... but then you notice it's non-elemental. Unless the boss is immune to ATK/MAG breaks or you don't bring a breaker in late 2020, I guess...
The other CD ability has a 6 turn cooldown and will just be used on our chain burst turn as it has a 11000% modifier, which is slightly higher than the on-demand one. Nothing too crazy.

Grandis abilities usually contribute a lot and while her's isn't bad, it doesn't feel super impactful unless you're fighting humans or fairies. You can use it once and gain a 300% MAG buff for 5 turns, which we already get via our CD. It also has a 13000% chain modifier, which is a good chunk stronger than our on-demand chain but again not super impressive. The human and fairy killer buff going up from 50% to 100% is definitely a big increase in damage and therefore I'd use it at the start and not at our burst turn.

As for her Limit Burst, it has a high base 10000% modifier in this one and you can use it on Turn 1 due to her passives filling it up fully at the start. Though I'd rather focus on her other chains in this form.

Brave Shift:

Now.... her Brave Shift form is almost exactly the same kit wise. Aside from numbers being tweaked, the only two big major changes are in her 8 turn cooldown CD ability, which was prior an 80% SPR break but now boosts her on-demand chains by 500%, and her Limit Burst, but we'll get to that soon.

Once shifted, Ibara will swap from MTDH to MTDW, which in our case also comes with a MAG increase as Ibara can't easily cap her MTDH without STMRs or limited time gear. But for once, she doesn't only get MTDW but also the 6x chain cap, making her BS form already much more oppressive unless the modifiers suck.

Which... they really don't.
Her on-demand chain after fully stacking and being buffed goes from a 10100% modifier to a 9400% modifier. So you lose 700% worth of modifiers for a much higher chain cap. Seems totally reasonable to me.

Debilitating Allure turns into Weakening Appeal, which is the exact same ability but instead of imperilling lightning, it now imperils her second element: dark. And in exchange for losing damage on her Grandis ability, the 6 turn cooldown ability goes from 11000% to 13000%.

Again, it's just tweaking the numbers slightly. Her Grandis ability is the same. The MAG buff only lasts 3 turns now but in exchange, her killer buffs go from 100% to 150%, which, once again, is another quite major increase in damage.

Here comes the nasty part.
Remember how her LB was available at Turn 1?
Well... in Ibara's BS form, her LB is split into two parts that you can both reliably cap. The first part has a 6000% modifier, the second a 12000%, so we have a dark elemental LB with a massive 18000% base modifier.
(Currently due to being bugged it's effectively 24000%)
The best part is, you can either set her up on Turn 1 with her CD ability oooor let the LB do the job. You can use it on Turn 1 and gain a 250% MAG buff while imperilling dark with a 100% imperil BEFORE the damage comes in. Obviously that'll reduce the burst but can save a turn.

How does she fare in the meta?

I haven't talked about a crucial fact in terms of using her Brave Shift.
She can only stay in it for a maximum of 5 turns and then has a 5 turn cooldown in switching between forms.
Once you switch, you can't go back to her normal form until it runs out. Once the Brave Shift runs out, you can't go back to it after another 5 turns.
This means if you want to avoid using double elements, you'll either have to stay in her normal form or kill monsters quickly enough in her dark form. Which... should be super easy.

Ibira.... wait, it's Ibara. Time to correct some typos.
Ibara's damage is insanely high and here's the trick how to use her. In her BS form, she has 0.0000% LB damage. Neither in passives nor in active buffs. Normally that'd kinda kill the unit but since her Limit Burst has such a monstrous base modifier of 18000% (currently bugged at 24000%), actually investing into LB damage gear and bringing even a 100% external LB damage buff will make her outdamage Tifa in a TMR build setting pre-killers.

Disregarding killers like that is definitely a poor comparison but it goes to show that it's definitely worth investing into it. And the damage potential with other units such as Yoshikiri, who has a 150% LB damage buff, might be... sexy.

As for chaining, even her normal form that lacks the 6x chain cap currently outdamages Aerith and thus also Kuja. Both forms are the strongest mage we currently have and both forms are strong.

Again, I have not taken into account that Ibara's damage is currently bugged and if you were to compare on-paper damage including all different variables with her in-game damage, it would be higher.

In Dark Visions, Ibara can see a bunch of potential usage as we see dual element weaknesses much more often in DV and e.g. Dark Bahamut even has four different ones. As long as we can assume Areas are going to have double weaknesses, you can assume that Ibara has a 1/4 chance of being useful in a magic area. Even then, in generic comparison, I'd still stick to Elena if you have her. She will not deal even closely the same amount of damage but can be imbued for different elements.
In the current Dark Visions she can hit lightning in Area 1 and Dark in Area 4, making capping DV scores much easier if you do have her.

If you don't mind saving, especially due to her being time limited, Terra's NV unit will be incredibly nasty. Just so you know.

Her TMR feels painfully generic again and pretty boring. It's an unconditional 60% MAG materia and for what it is, it's fine, but from a time limited CG NV unit I would've expected a bit more. The added 5% MP refresh can make MP management easier. Her STMR is a 180 MAG throwing weapon with 50% MTDW and since Ibara has 150% innate MTDW, it'll make you cap on it immediately and make more space for strong LB damage materias or killers. Which she definitely both wants. Keep in mind though that not every mage will be able to equip Throwing Weapons and if you have low MAG passives, the loss of the IW rare ability might affect your build. Still 50% MTDW tho.

Her Vision Card is amazing and reaches a total of 110 MAG at level 10 with another potential 50% MAG for female units and 50% MTDH. However, it will not be the best generic MAG VC. Once we get Sol's NV unit, we can get a VC with 100 MAG and 100% MAG with Rods. If you're not using MTDH, there's a high chance Sol's is going to be the better one. Also not every MTDH user will be female.

Build Maths:

Normal Build:
https://ffbeEquip.com/builder.html?server=GL#f25d2ca0-188d-11eb-8198-ed599324a7c5

Brave Shift Build:
https://ffbeEquip.com/builder.html?server=GL#fb602690-188d-11eb-8198-ed599324a7c5

Ibara Damage

Lightning Rotation:
[NM] MAG post 300% buff: 5246
Assuming spark chains


[NM] Turn 1: Debilitating Allure   Arashi x2
[NM] Turn 2: Arashi x4
[NM] Turn 3: Arashi x2   Unforgiving Bolt   Inazuma
[NM] Turn 4: Arashi x4
[NM] Turn 5: Arashi x4


[NM] Turn 1: [ 5246^2 x ( 27 x 3.223   56 x 4 )   5246^2 x 86 x 4 ] x 2.2 = 39658335003
[NM] Turn 2: [ 5246^2 x ( 33 x 3.223   56 x 4 )   5246^2 x ( 92   95   98 ) x 4 ] x 2.2 = 89023084447
[NM] Turn 3: [ 5246^2 x ( 45 x 3.223   56 x 4 )   5246^2 x ( 101   110   130 ) x 4 ] x 2.2 = 104926838381
[NM] Turn 4: [ 5246^2 x ( 45 x 3.223   56 x 4 )   5246^2 x 101 x 3 x 4 ] x 2.2 = 95723977830
[NM] Turn 5: [ 5246^2 x ( 45 x 3.223   56 x 4 )   5246^2 x 101 x 3 x 4 ] x 2.2 = 95723977830


Average Turn 1-5: 85,011,242,698
-> 197% of Angel of Death Kuja's damage ( 43,259,860,253 )
-> 133% of Aerith FFVII REMAKE's damage ( 63,716,514,043 )
-> 70% of Dark Rotation ( 121,250,584,177 )

_____________________________________________________________________

Dark Rotation:
[BS] MAG post 300% buff: 5490
Assuming spark chains

[BS] Turn 1: Weakening Appeal   Supernatural Frenzy   Ankoku
[BS] Turn 2: Ankoku x4
[BS] Turn 3: Ankoku x4
[BS] Turn 4: Ankoku x3   Corrupt Force
[BS] Turn 5: Ankoku x4


[BS] Turn 1: 5490^2 x 80 x 2.95   5490^2 x 70 x 6 x 2.2 = 34962516000
[BS] Turn 2: [ 5490^2 x ( 18 x 3.935   56 x 6 )   5490^2 x ( 78   82   86 ) x 6 ] x 2.2 = 124847105862
[BS] Turn 3: [ 5490^2 x ( 34 x 3.935   56 x 6 )   5490^2 x 94 x 3 x 6 ] x 2.2 = 143344446913
[BS] Turn 4: [ 5490^2 x ( 38 x 3.935   56 x 6 )   5490^2 x ( 94 x 2   130 ) x 6 ] x 2.2 = 158710713816
[BS] Turn 5: [ 5490^2 x ( 38 x 3.935   56 x 6 )   5490^2 x 94 x 3 x 6 ] x 2.2 = 144388138296


Average Turn 1-5: 121,250,584,177
-> 280% of Angel of Death Kuja's damage ( 43,259,860,253 )
-> 190% of Aerith FFVII REMAKE's damage ( 63,716,514,043 )
-> 143% of Lightning Rotation ( 85,011,242,698 )

_____________________________________________________________________

Limit Burst finisher w/ 150% ext LB damage buff:

MAG post 300% buff: 5613
Assuming chain capped


Turn 1: Weakening Appeal   Izayoi   Corrupt Force
Turn 2: Limit Burst


Turn 1: [ 5613^2 x 60   5613^2 x 130 ] x 6 x 2.2 = 79016468652
Turn 2: 5613^2 x ( 180 x 3.75 ) x 6 x 2.2 = 280716401790


Highest Burst Turn (Turn 2): 280,716,401,790    

Character Design: 6/10
Sprite: Stop being horny, guys/10
Chainer: 9.5/10
Finisher: 9.5/10
Trust Master Reward: 8/10
STMR: 9/10
Vision Card: 9/10
Arena: 5/10
Limit Burst: 10/10
Future Proof: 8.5/10
Dark Visions: 7.5/10
Free 2 Play: 9/10
Pay 2 Play: 9.5/10
Personal Rating: 8.5/10
Optimal Rating: 9/10

Conclusion

Ibara is an exceptionally strong unit for anything where lightning and especially dark works. Including 200% dark resistant mobs. I've seen some wild Ibara LB kills with a monster that has effectively 80% dark resistance (after imperils)... which is rather hilarious.
Outside of that, if you pulled Ibara and for some reason you're not aware of that yet, please build her for LB damage. Her LB is absolutely monstrous, especially in her bugged state. Go in there and rip bosses a new one.
Aside from that, she's the first NV banner, despite being limited, that has a built in safety net. Hopefully we'll see these kind of banners more often, though I doubt it.

GWS to myself, tea time!

Memel0rd out​