Hi guys, welcome to the latest New Unit Analysis! Today we'll be having a look at the first member of our latest batch of units: Michele. Michele's batch is metagame defining, so I'm definitely excited to be talking about them even if their very early release took me completely by surprise.

We'll be having a look at how Michele fares against some of her fellow fire units as well as some other support units. Then we'll see how she fits into the current metagame (or how the metagame fits in around her) as well as her long term viability.

Let's get started, shall we?

Disclaimer: As always, I try to keep these as objective as possible, but they're ultimately my opinion and yours may differ. Please read them with an open mind and a view to make your own decisions. :>

Goddess Axe Michele vs. Vargas, Lava, Aisha, Lubradine

Michele's Stats:

Lord: HP 5532 ATK 1928 DEF 1505 REC 1794

Max Imp Bonuses: HP 750 ATK 200 DEF 400 REC 300

LS: 50% boost to ATK of all units if 5 or more elements are present and 10% boost to HP

Hit count: 15 (drop check count 2/hit)

BB: Greatly increase of all units for 3 turns and adds Fire element attribute to the attacks of all units for 3 turns (18BC to fill, ATK 110%)

SBB: 18 hit multiple target Fire elemental damage, greatly increase ATK of all units for 3 turns and adds Fire element attribute to the attacks of all units for 3 turns (33BC to fill, ATK 115%, damage modifier 350%)

• At first glance, Michele doesn't seem like much, to be honest. Her ATK is pretty good, and her REC is above average but her HP and DEF are pretty yuck. For a recently released (and even earlier than previously anticipated to boot) 6* unit her stats aren't as sky high as you might expect, in fact they're pretty mediocre overall. Her Leader skill is good, similar to the starters except for rainbow teams but it's nothing to write home about these days either. But then you see her hit count, sitting at a truly fantastic 15 hits and her BB which boasts a huge ATK boost and things start to make sense. Then you come to her SBB and realise that her ATK boost got even bigger and now has a fantastic 18 hit MT attack attached to it, making it great for BB-generation as well and you realise that, yeah, Michele is a game changer for sure.

• First up for comparison today is Vargas who as one of the starters was one of the first units to obtain their 6* form. Unfortunately, he has been quickly outclassed as more and more units have been released and his stats have started to fall behind but since he boasts a similar buff to Michele and is of the same element, he's worth the comparison. Compared to Lava's boyfriend, Michele has better HP ( 220), ATK ( 270), DEF ( 50) and REC ( 420). That's every stat, and it's clear that Vargas can no longer really keep up with the newer 6* evolutions in terms of raw statistical power. Michele isn't even a statistical powerhouse but she still trumps him thoroughly. She also blitzes him in hit count, more than doubling his 7 hits with her 15 hit combo and with the addition of her SBB, completely dominates him in this department as well, boasting a faster charge rate, more hits and a much stronger ATK buff on her SBB, not to mention the fire attribute buff which allows any non-fire unit to hit for at least neutral damage. Pound for pound, Michele beats Vargas in pretty much every respect except their leader skills which can't really be compared (they're basically the same but for different team archetypes)

• Next human to be released was Lava, who like her boyfriend enjoyed a brief period of time at the top of the fire tier list. Compared to the winged warrior, Michele has better ATK ( 230) and REC ( 285) but less HP (-155) and DEF (-75). Yeah, Michele's stats are pretty bad. As a third generation 6* unit, Lava's stats aren't really anything special in this day and age and you can see that Michele's actually probably about on par with her. She hits harder and has better sustainability but she's also a bit frailer and defence is very important for future content. Michele probably edges out Lava just because her stat total is a bit better so her offensive and sustainability probably out scales the defensive difference slightly but it's actually a really close comparison which doesn't reflect too well on Michele. Thankfully, we're not really interested in Michele for her stats, she again, destroys Lava in hit count (15 vs. 8) and comparing their SBBs, it's Michele's humongous ATK buff and fire attribute buff and superior hit count AND superior fill rate vs. Lava's... DEF ignore buff. It's pretty obvious who wins out here, Michele is by far the superior supporting unit and will contribute much more to any team she's on than Lava will. That's not to say they can't be used together since their buffs DO stack, but 115% ATK is MUCH better than DEF ignore which is probably the weakest offensive buff in the game.

• Aisha is our last fire unit to be compared and the most recently released one before Michele. Compared to the dragon riding swordswoman, Michele has better ATK ( 105) and REC ( 105) but less HP (-540) and DEF (-95). As you can see, this is similar to the previous comparison except Aisha just has stronger numbers all round. Aisha's is significantly more bulky and the difference in REC and ATK is much less noticeable than in the previous comparison so Aisha definitely wins statistically. Like before though, Michele wins in hit count with 15 hits compared to Aisha's 6. Comparing their SBBs, Aisha's is actually very powerful boasting the second highest crit buff in the game (gives around a 60% chance to crit) and actually a comparable hit count while Michele has her 115% ATK buff, fire attribute buff and slightly superior hit count and a fill rate advantage. Realistically, these two units pair together excellently (like Duel-GX and Michele do on other teams) on mono-fire squads since together, they increase the damage output of those squads by a huge margin but if we're directly comparing their support attributes, Michele's probably the more important unit out of the two if you had to choose one. She's that powerful.

• Finally we have Lubradine who Michele has stolen the 6* limelight from. Compared to 5* Aslan, Michele wins in HP ( 240), ATK ( 310), DEF ( 35) and REC ( 30). Not surprisingly, being an evolution tier higher, Michele trumps Lubradine in every department statwise, though not by huge margins (well, the ATK margin is large, but everything else isn't too significant) and you can tell that as soon as Lubradine evolves he's going to dominate her statistically. Again, Michele's hit count just can't be beat, so she wins here, more than doubling and in fact, tripling Lubradine's 5 hit combo. These two are both support units which is why I've chosen the lion for comparison, and Lubradine truly is a fantastic support unit boosting ATK/DEF/REC by 50%, his ATK buff isn't as strong as Michele's obviously and he currently lacks any form of direct damage but his DEF/REC buffs aren't to be underestimate as we'll go through once he (eventually) gets his evolution. Michele has him beat for sure at the moment though, since not only does Lubradine currently have inferior stats, but his buffs are still pretty weak compared to Michele's huge ATK buff and he isn't able to contribute to BC generation when he buffs. When he evolves it'll be a much closer comparison (though still not necessarily in his favour) but we'll get to that once Leorone is released in Global.

• Michele's fantastic. Her stats may not be anything to write home about, but as you can see, stats aren't the only thing nor are they even the most important thing that makes a unit good. Michele is one of the top tier offensive support units in the game, in fact she's the VERY top of the pyramid in that respect, a spot she shares with Duel-SGX from her batch. She's just a fantastic unit in general.

Michele: Indepth Look

• Like I've already said, statwise, Michele's pretty mediocre. Her ATK is very solid, but she's not like, an outlier even in this stat, and her REC is pretty good too, but good REC can only get you so far.

• In contrast, her HP is below average for a 6* unit and her DEF is as well, which in combination, makes her one of the frailer 6* units. She's not quite Alice level, but she's definitely not fond of taking hits too many hits.

• Her Leader skill is actually pretty good for Rainbow squads, 10% HP is definitely one of the nicer add ons to a 50% leader skill, but it pales in comparison to BB fill rate augmenting ones like Lodin who is unfortunately in the same batch as Michele and therefore overshadows her Leader capabilities immediately. Still definitely a solid choice for Rainbow teams though

• Her hit count is phenomenal, she has more hits than Serin, heck she has more hits than Douglas. That's... impressive.

• She was always a fantastic support unit even before her evolution, but not only did her already massive (and by massive I mean, largest in the game) ATK buff get 20% stronger, she gained an 18 hit MT attack to go along with it.

• This addresses her biggest weakness of her previous evolution which was that she couldn't generate BC while she buffed your party. The damage doesn't even matter (her damage multiplier isn't very impressive), it's the fact that she's hitting for 18 hits of BC generation that really clinches top tier status for her. Plus 115% ATK definitely makes up for a mediocre damage multiplier.

• Just to reiterate, 115% ATK is insane, it's by far the largest ATK buff in the game. The next closest is Leorone's 70% ATK buff which is, as you can see, still WAY inferior to her (though Leorone has other things to offer to be fair). In terms of offensive support, you really can't get much better than Michele.

• Often overlooked is her Fire attribute buff, it's obviously useless on mono-fire, but elsewhere, it's quite nice as it means non-fire units never have to worry about dealing resisted damage. If you pair her with Duel-SGX or Melchio, that means nothing since those two ensure everything deals neutral damage anyway, but Michele's buff also obviously lets you hit earth units hard which is pretty nice.

• Because Michele's ATK buff is such a universally coveted buff, she fits into basically any squad archetype you can imagine. Crit teams, BB-spam and Crit/BB-spam hybrid teams especially really appreciate her presence (and if you haven't realised already, those 3 are probably the strongest team archetypes in the game at present which should really drill into your mind that Michele is a top tier unit if those teams what her on them) since not only does she augment damage by a huge amount, she is also quite a good BC generating unit to boot, which is also very important.

• But even outside those top tier teams, Michele is very useful, mono-fire loves her even though her fire attribute buff is useless, Rainbow teams love her, heck even if you're running a mono-element squad of another colour, she's probably not a bad unit to throw in there either, she's just that good.

• She really likes being paired with her good friend 'Crab', also known as Duel-SGX, which is really cute because they're besties in canon too. In game though, they're a fantastic duo since their buffs stack and augment eachother and they both have fantastic hit counts. If you have these two units, you already have a really solid core. You can build around it with just about any combination of units with a semi-decent Leader skill and you'll have a pretty decent squad. A Zebra leader will skyrocket their damage exponentially though because of the way the damage formula works so that's optimal.

• Obviously Douglas is appreciated here too if you have him since he gives yet another offensive buff and fantastic hit count. If you have those 3 units, you're really sitting on the top end of the metagame and Melchio is also a great option because his hit count's great and status is annoying.

• In terms of future prospects, Michele has literally no competition. No one comes close to touching her ATK buff so she's going to be useful... for pretty much ever as far as anyone knows so far. She's just a really valuable unit to own at this point in time.

• In short, Michele's super good. Not only does she have an untouched niche, it's a niche that isn't specific. She's a great unit to have on pretty much any squad and continues to be that good into the foreseeable future. Definitely worth trying for and if you own her, you should be very glad.

Typing Discussion

• As always, the most important thing to note here is that if typing is the only thing holding you back from using a unit, you should definitely just go ahead and use them. Please don't discard units because their typing isn't 'optimal'.

• Michele >>>> No Michele

• Now that that's out of the way, Anima's probably her most optimal typing. She appreciates the survivability boost since she's quite frail and being able to preserve her ATK so that you can take advantage of her 18 hit SBB is very nice. Plus she's got the REC to spare for it.

• Guardian's up next, again, survivability is fairly important for Michele and while preserving her ATK is nice, she's primarily a support unit so the drop in ATK Guardian gives her is pretty insignificant compared to keeping her alive. Any damage she contributes is a bonus, not a necessity.

• Lord is next since it doesn't compromise her defences

• Breaker's probably a bit better than Oracle since she can actually make use of her ATK stat (and Breaker tips her over 2.1k which is pretty damn solid) but the penalty is a 1.3k DEF stat which is pretty... unsolid.

• Finally there's Oracle. Still MUCH, MUCH better than no Michele, but probably her least optimal typing since she doesn't have enough HP to really appreciate the REC boost, particularly after it's been lowered to 5.2k.

That's it for today, guys. Hope you found that useful/enjoyed the read. :>

As always, I welcome your comments/criticims/encouragements. Please drop an upvote if you found it helpful, I'd really appreciate the support. <3

Until next time!

Links to previous Analyses