https://exvius.gamepedia.com/Chainer_Rankings_by_Suede

Slightly late this month, don't worry about it.

If icons or unit names aren't displaying properly for you in this thread: https://i.imgur.com/BtpLk86.png

Short summaries

NV Sol Straightforward, potent mage. Sol has access to two elements and two big killer buffs across two forms which, unlike Ibara, have infinite duration and small cooldown times for switching. He isn't quite as powerful as her however, especially with the ship having sailed on the SPR ignore bug.

Majin Fina Mediocre. Dark Fina barely gets a pass for now due to the sheer lack of mages available for dark visions, though earth and wind aren't exactly popular elements either. Good elemental resistance buffs and a SPR break are helpful bits of utility, though she falls well behind Grim Lord Sakura, another NVA unit, in both utility and damage.

CG Sakura Somehow both mediocre and unusable as a chainer. Blossom Sage Sakura's damage is a bit better than Dark Fina's, but she is locked into using 5x graviton cannon frames for chaining, meaning she has zero chain partners. The alternative is going for 3x bolting strike with damage mods outdone by 7* mages. Really, just use her as a lightning finisher in stages where you must.

NV Onion Knight Big spike in damage. Onion Knight is also capable of being a strong ST breaker, though this does cut into his damage a lot. Ideally, he's shifting and stacking permanent mod boosts up, then switching back and perpetually chaining. Unfortunately, this design does mean that he's particularly hurt by being at EX 0, though the daily fragment challenge basically resolves this. In regards to his complete lack of imbues and imperils: there are a good deal of strong units that can cover both (Rena, Yoshikiri, Awakened Dragon Akstar, Dark Knight Leon, all three summer NVs etc), and it is worth noting that there are some elemental weapons to choose from in his limited equipment selection, namely Bartz's Blade, Shamshir of Light, and Nyx's Dagger. Ultimately, I don't think his flaws outweigh his great strengths.

Dark Knight Luneth Another okay physical NVA unit. Dark Knight Luneth's unique strength is his ability to remove stat buffs specifically every turn while chaining, which is situational at best, though nice to have. His finishing damage is much more powerful, though the HP loss does require babysitting. His 70% breaks are nothing to write home about. Really, his best attribute is having tasty 200% aquatic, demon and undead killers to steal in dark visions while still dealing relevant damage.

Onion Knight Refia Yet another okay physical NVA unit, but hear me out. Onion Knight's Refia access to T AT and T SR in addition to boosting elemental damage (something chainers can rarely do to themselves) means she can be run alongside more damaging NV base units effectively. Her damage is pretty respectable for an NVA unit, especially given the big phys/mag mit magnus and other miscellaneous support stuff she has.

NV Sora Riding in on Onion Knight's coattails is Sora. While using anything other than light element neuters him, his burst damage is something to behold. There's really not much more to say about him given his support is mainly selfish and he just spams T AT, matching the frames of his big burst LB.

NV Riku A foil to Sora. Riku boasts similarly high dark-locked average damage and enormous burst, but can also accomplish this while keeping up strong ST breaks. Additionally, his non-elemental damage, while still very suboptimal, isn't quite as extreme a drop as Sora's. These are all favourable tradeoffs in my eyes.

NV Kairi Kairi, you lazy bum. While Onion Knight, Sora and Riku reach new heights in damage, Kairi's looks more in line with last month. She functions as a pseudo healer/support alongside chaining, which is mostly limited to AoE LB fill, ailment resist, healing/revival that cuts into her damage, and a frustrating 6 turn CD for 5 turns of break/stop/charm resist. Her most obvious niche is supporting Sora with LB fill and a better light boost than his own, though the latter is technically something that Shoreline Fina & Daisy can provide. Worth noting that Kairi isn't hard light locked, so she can still provide some support with other parties given her non-elemental damaging LB is respectable.

NV Physalis Closer to Ibara than Sol in damage, Physalis is a powerful mage with two elements easily accessible, and another only available for 2 turns at a time via brave shift. Like Sol, she has big killer buffs for two types. On the topic of Sol, she works quite well with him since she can AoE buff ice damage with her finisher LB, and Sol can combo that with his own (albeit weaker due to lacking LB damage in his kit) LB rather than twiddling his thumbs or attempting to get quad CWA to work with supporting chains. Like earlier incarnations of herself, Physalis is limited to wielding knives, spears, throwing weapons and guns, and can't wear robes or heavy armour; this isn't a huge issue for general use with the variety of options available now, though worth mentioning that she'll be inclined to waste a slot for Honorable Rod Arts for a killer rod when facing many enemy types.

ヽ(￣～￣ )ノ

As usual, let me know what you think.