Hello everyone, /u/DefiantHermit here once again for another installment of the ToC SYP series, this time featuring units from part 2 of the summer banner.

Foreword

Before we delve into the new units’ analysis, a bit of an explanation on why the series is late and plans going forward.

2 Saturdays ago (July 25th) I was randomly hit by the tutorial lockout bug. For those unaware, it’s a bug that happens seemingly randomly and prompts the account to re-do the tutorial. If you have a unit/memoria stone on slot 2 of party 1, the game bugs out and progress out of the tutorial is impossible, basically softlocking the account.

There are some workarounds and fixes, but all of them require emulator/root management on android. Unfortunately I’m on iOS, which makes it a bit tricky to apply the fixes. Issue wasn’t widely known at the time, so I sent a support ticket and decided to wait.

The non-answer came a few days later, just stating they’re looking into the matter. With a few people saying gems work on ToC like they work on FFBE (store-bound), I decided to transfer to emulator to attempt the fix.

To my delight, I found out that not only it doesn’t work for iOS for whatever reason but upon transferring back, my gem count was at 0. I waited for the weekly maintenance, hoping the issue would be fixed and the gem count was just visual, but nothing on either fronts. Contacting support again gave me the same non-answer and a definitive “we can’t recover gems when you transferred OSs”, which sucks, but is understandable.

Not being able to come back from a 25k f2p gem deficit even if the account was recovered, I just gave up on it. I do still love the game and really want to see how it’s going to evolve, though, as it has good core gameplay and a lovely community that’s still shaping its form. So I rerolled a bit more and recently (3 days ago) started a new account.

It’s gonna take a while to recover the progress and to catch up to most high end content, but I’ll be taking it slow and keep dedicating time to the game and series!

So without further ado, here’s the analysis for the Summer Banner Part 2 units!

Summer Yuri

Element: Dark
Type: Sword
Role: Debuffer

Overview:

Please blatantly ignore the dual guns in the unit art, as Yuri gets another Sword SSR version, now joining the Dark roster as a dedicated debuffer! As far as stats go, Yuri comes with the 5th highest HP amongst SSRs, with slightly below average ATK and DEF. Stat spread is as expected for a dedicated support unit and the boosted HP is definitely welcome.

His awakening skill is strictly defensive, providing 10% HP to all allies and a more restricted 10% DEF to Sword-type team mates. Unrestricted HP boost is always welcome for the added survivability, but the DEF buff is still questionable, especially with the weapon type restriction instead of an elemental one.

His skills are as follows:

So we have a 1 down-turn 100% upkeep -10% DEF buff on a short stick and an effectless skill with above average modifiers. To hold the kit together, his Mystic Arte is a 80% -> 120% 2-Hit AoE move that applies a -20% ATK debuff for 3 turns, costing 210 OL.

You may have noticed that hitcounts are definitely not on the high side of things, which alongside his average ATK makes Yuri work as a dedicated support only. His MA is rather costly and 100% upkeep without external assistance (through memoria stones or buffs) is virtually impossible, as you expect it to fill naturally every 4 to 5 turns. A fantastic design choice here was to maintain the buff numbers constant throughout Yuri’s awakenings, meaning he’s at his full debuff capabilities right out of the box!

That said, in a raid context, where turns are counted as seconds and where there are multiple teams at work at the same time, it is extremely common to have various active debuffs, all stacking multiplicatively. It is easy then to see how powerful Yuri can be, as he has access to the strongest ATK debuff currently released in the game.

Elemental Context:

Yuri’s premise is extremely similar to Ludger: both are Dark and have access to DEF and ATK debuffs. However, that’s where the similarities end, as both units have core differences that set them apart:

1. Ludger also works as a sub-hitgen. His standard artes both have medium amount of hits (6 and 7) while his MA has 15. While this isn’t dedicated-hitgen levels, he’s capable of ramping up to 22 hits on an MA turn, which is very valuable for your DPS

2. Ludger’s ATK is pretty high and even though his skill modifiers are on the low side (130% and 140%), his MA hits hard on 340% mods, on the same level as Kanonno’s!

3. The upkeep on the debuffs are swapped: Ludger’s ATK 1 downturn, while his DEF cannot be maintained without arte resets.

4. Yuri’s ATK debuff is significantly stronger than Ludger’s: 20% AoE vs 5% ST. Both DEF debuffs are on par.

With this in mind, I would wager that as far as raids go, Yuri is the better candidate with stronger ATK debuff and a almost 100% upkeep on the DEF debuff. The price you pay for this is the low hitcount/inability to work as a sub hitgen, so if that is priority over debuffs, Ludger has the edge.

Off-Element Context:

Currently, our only other sources of DEF debuff are with SR Senel and SSR Rutee (read below). Senel suffers from being an SR and having a worse upkeep on it, while Rutee does a much better job with higher numbers with almost 100% maintainability.

As far as ATK debuffs go, though, it’s only Ludger and Yuri. From what we are seeing in the current raids and what I think is going to happen going forward on ultra tough raids is debuff stacking being the prevalent strat, as it’s currently the only reliable mechanic to both mitigate and ramp up damage.

Memoria Stone:

To wrap things up, Yuri’s Memoria Stone is probably the most bland aspect of the package. Copying SSR Misella’s effect of 12% -> 24% unrestricted DEF buff, it also has no real competition in terms of SR stones, unlike the last banner units’ stones.

The best you’re gonna get in terms of unrestricted DEF for cheap is 12% at max ascension, which is equal to the base effect of Yuri’s stone. There are a few DEF stones with better buffs, but they come with a restriction of some sort: Aegis requires Spears, while 2 other SRs only apply the buff for 2 turns.

As far as stats go, Yuri’s offers a pitiful amount of ATK, which is expected of a defensive stone, but also a mediocre amount of DEF, which is very weird, considering the effect it gives. The HP granted at 21k (max ascension), though, is only outmatched by Estelle, which should make for a good all around defensive stone.

Rutee

Element: Water
Type: Sword
Role: Debuffer / Sub-DPS

Overview:

Rutee is getting her first SSR version, joining the Water team (as the first actual water unit on a summer banner ;o). Her stats are well aligned with her role as a sub-dps/debuffer: slightly below average HP, slightly above average ATK and above average DEF.

Her awakening skill provides an unrestricted 6% ATK buff to your allies alongside a 12% HP heal when the boss breaks. The ATK buff being unrestricted is nice, but numbers are below what you usually see on dedicated DPSs while the Heal seems like a pretty good survivability boost on raids and hard content alike.

Now onto her skillset:

The first Arte is something unique on the current unit roster: a dedicated debuff skill without a stick. As you’ve probably read on Yuri’s analysis, it’s the current highest DEF debuff in the game, it’s on demand and it’s AoE. It would only be better if it had 100% upkeep, but it’s unfortunately missing 2 turns.

Second arte is a straightforward, average modifier, ST skill with okay cooldown just as a filler. Hitcount is low, so it’s not really generating meaningful amount of hits and it’s solely there to be a damaging move.

Meanwhile, her Mystic Arte is a 289% -> 420% 5-hit ST skill with 240 OL cost. Cost is definitely an issue here, since, unlike heals, the lack of a stick on the debuff seems to not allow her to generate OL with it, so you’re looking at a down turn on every rotation. So, while this is one of the hardest hitting MAs in the game, only losing to Velvet and Rita, it’s also one that’s going to take a long time to set up, as you’re looking at 6 to 7 turns to get it up, on average.

In any case, Rutee deserves the same comments as Yuri. On a raid heavy game, being able to stack multiple strong debuffs on the boss not only speeds things up, but makes content bearable and survivable for a lot more teams and players. While the context might be a bit different here, as she doesn’t have access to an ATK debuff, bringing Rutee instead of another dedicated DPS or hitgen might be the right choice, as debuff stacking is proving to be essential for raid progression and her slot might be more relevant that just strictly more damage.

Elemental Context:

There are no other debuffers on the current Water roster, so Rutee’s role is unique here. She’s definitely a good addition to mono-water teams, as she’s able to ramp Kanonno’s or Rita’s damage, despite not helping much with hitgen as Asbel/Aegis.

Off-Element Context:

As you may have read on Yuri’s part, there are very few debuffers in the game as of this banner. Strictly DEF-debuff speaking, you have 4 options: S.Yuri, S.Rutee, Ludger and SR Senel. Rutee has by far the strongest and likely your go-to choice if you strictly want to ramp damage.

The Rutee Yuri core, while definitely lacking on the hitgen and damage department, is certainly more than capable of tackling the debuff job for most raid and content.

Memoria Stone:

Rutee’s Memoria Stone shares the effect with several other: it’s a flat % Crit Chance boost, with a Water-type restriction. Numbers are… not bad at Max ( 18%, second highest available), but a bit disappointing at base ( 9%).

That said, all that’s currently available regarding crit chance comes with a restriction for bigger numbers, as unrestricted stones lay flat at 9% at Max, which is Rutee’s base, with the exception of Farrah’s stone from the current Fruit event ( 14%).

All in all, the numbers seem fine if you get this Maxed by chance, but %Crit is a tricky stat in this game, since the Break mechanic exists. As you may know, when in the Break state, bosses take guaranteed crits, which might make a %CritDamage stone a much more interesting choice, since you can plan out break turns and better capitalize in damage on those turns. But in any case, I think it’s still too early in the calculation side of the game to say one is better than the other.

Finally, in terms of stats Rute’s stone offers a mediocre amount of HP and ATK, but the 2nd highest DEF amongst SSRs. The stones we are getting are following a very weird pattern where they rarely get matching stats effect and this is no exception. Having barely any ATK on a %Crit stone makes this almost look like a support stone, where you’re praying for crits to generate more OL per turn? But at that point, wouldn’t a flat OL stone be strictly better? Meh.

Should You Pull?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but think we still don't know whether the summer units are limited or not? Regardless, this banner definitely seems more tempting than the previous one, as both units come with strong, somewhat new roles as debuffers. Even though I completely missed out on the limited Fire ultra-tough raid (:/) based on what I've read and on what I'm seeing in the current raids, debuff stacking is really strong and it's probably here to stay for a while.

Both units excel at their roles, Rutee being a dedicated DEF debuffer and Yuri dipping his foot on both DEF and ATK, making them fine additions to anyone's roster and team. I'd personally say it's worth going for these units, but not breaking bank if you're unable to get them in a few multies, as we don't know what's up in store!

If you're pulling, make sure to save at least 2.5k for Wednesday's guaranteed SSR multi and if you pulled either Yuri or Rutee, yaaay!