Hi guys, welcome to the latest New Unit Analysis! Today we'll be talking about Lodin, the thunder type rainbow leader from Michele's batch.

Lodin was a difficult one to choose comparisons for since he's quite unique. We'll be looking at how he compares to BB fill rate increasing leaders, and thunder units that also influence how quickly a unit can charge their BB. We'll then of course be looking at how Lodin sits in the current scheme of things and how he'll fare in the future.

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. :>

Empyreal Drake Lodin vs. Elsel, Duelmex, Felneus,

Lodin's Stats:

Lord: HP 5173 ATK 2125 DEF 1532 REC 1824

Max Imp Bonuses: HP 1000 ATK 200 DEF 200 REC 200

LS: 50% boost to ATK of all units when 5 or more elements are present and boost to BB gauge fill rate of all units (BB fill rate 30%)

Hit count: 9 (drop check count 2/hit)

BB: Instantly fills the BB gauge of all allies by a large amount and adds the Thunder element attribute to the attacks of all allies for 3 turns (20BC to fill, BB gauge fill 8BC)

SBB: 14 hit multiple target Thunder elemental damage, gradually fill the BB gauge of all allies over 3 turns and addes the Thunder element attribute to the attacks of all allies for 3 turns (40BC to fill, BB gauge fill 5BC/turn, damage modifier 350%)

• Lodin was one of the more disappointing units of his batch when he was in his 5* form, but boy has he gotten an upgrade. His stats, like the rest of his batch aren't super amazing, not boasting a particularly high stat total and being rather skewed towards one particular stat. In Lodin's case, he's a total glass cannon with a phenomenal ATK stat (great for Arena which he's well suited to as you'll see in the next section) and great REC but terrible HP for a 6* unit and average to below average DEF. His Leader Skill was probably his biggest upgrade with his evolution. He undoubtedly got the best deal with his 1.3x fill rate add on making him probably the strongest rainbow leader currently available. His hit count is pretty solid at 9 and while his SBB gains a MT attack with a pretty decent hit count and a BB gauge refilling buff which while not being as powerful as BC drop rate, is a different entity and thus stacks with the former buff. Plus being able to assign an elemental attribute is as always, a great advantage to have.

• First up today, we have Elsel who also has the distinction of being our only 5* unit up for comparison. Compared to the rebellious angel of lightning, Lodin has better ATK ( 605), DEF ( 15) and REC ( 255) but less HP (-220). As you can see, Elsel is actually bulkier than Lodin is even while being an evolution tier down since 220 HP definitely outscales the negligible DEF advantage Lodin has. Lodin does have a remarkably higher ATK stat though and a REC advantage. 600 ATK is a lot while the difference in bulk is pretty small so Lodin wins the statistical comparison overall. Lodin also wins in hit count with his solid 9 hits trumping Elsel's 7. Comparing their BB/SBBs, they both affect the BB gauge in different ways. Elsel affects the amount of BC dropped by enemies while Lodin fills the BB gauge slowly over 3 turns. If you want pure BB gauge fill, Lodin's buff is probably less powerful than Elsel's overall, provided the hit count of your party is decent, but the good news is that these two buffs stack so you can use them on the same team without much trouble. This is great for mono-thunder since that archetype has trouble generating BC and these two together will help tremendously. At the moment, I think Lodin's superior stats, unique-ish BB gauge buff and thunder attribute buff make him the more universally useful unit at the moment, particularly since he's also a very competent leader of a very strong team archetype.

• Next is Duelmex chosen because he possess the coveted Ares' Leader skill which Lodin attempts to imitate. Compared to the dragon of light, Lodin has better ATK ( 425), DEF ( 130) and REC ( 575) but less HP (-825). The HP difference here is rather large and Lodin's DEF advantage definitely doesn't outscale it so Duelmex wins in bulk, but Lodin's definitely much stronger on the offensive side of things and importantly has great REC which the dragon is pretty deficient in. While I think the HP difference definitely makes this close, it's tempered by the low REC that Duelmex has and this combined with Lodin's great ATK stat probably makes him the better statistical unit overall by a small margin. Comparing their BC generation and BB gauge filling capabilities which is what makes this comparison relevant. Duelmex has the bigger effect on his leader skill (but lacks Lodin's significant damage increase component) but otherwise has inferior BB generation potential, with a lower hit count on his SBB and no buffs other than his LS, meanwhile Lodin's 14 hit SBB is fantastic for BC generation, and his BB gauge filling buff is great too. Even Duelmex's great damage multiplier doesn't save him if you can field a decent rainbow squad with Lodin since his LS increases the damage of the party by 50% which probably trumps whatever Duelmex can dish out. Lodin does require some specific units to be truly good though, a condition that Duelmex doesn't have and Duelmex's 1.5x BB fill rate may be enough such that you can use a Zebra friend in the other slot (Lodin can't sustain a Zebra friend and maintain infinite BB spam). Not sure on this one though, Felneus' BC drop rate buff may be necessary with less than 3 targets.

• Next up is probably the reigning king of BB-spam leaders, Felneus. Compared to the great sea beast, Lodin has better ATK ( 545) and REC ( 240) but less HP (-205) and DEF (-70). Again, Felneus is bulkier than the rather frail Lodin but Lodin has significantly better ATK. The REC advantage Lodin has isn't as significant here since Felneus is very comfortable with his almost 1.6k REC stat. Overall again, pretty comparable. Lodin's offensive advantage is probably bigger than Felneus' defensive one overall but defense is probably the more important spectrum to be strong in in later content making this stat comparison fairly even overall. Could swing either way depending on your preference. Again comparing their BB generation capabilities, pretty similar to the previous comparison, Felneus wins in Leader Skill (but without any damage component) but Lodin wins in hit count and has his BB fill rate buff. Unlike the previous scenario however, Felneus also has a BC drop rate buff on his SBB which is really fantastic and one of the key components of true BB-spam teams. If you want pure BC generation, Felneus is still the unit of choice at this point in time. In addition Felneus poses less strict team restrictions than Lodin, and while for pure BB-spam teams, Lodin can produce optimal damage with his 50% rainbow damage boost while still maintaining adequate BB fill for most situations, using Felneus provides you with the luxury to take a Zebra friend. And if you have a Duel-SGX, Zebra's bonus crit damage will outscale anything Lodin can provide while still giving you consistent BB-spam capabilities. Basically, I think Felneus is probably the better BB-spam leader at the moment since he's more universally useful (more viable units are able to be used with him) AND he can make what is probably a more optimal team with top end units.

• Was going to compare a rainbow leader (Michele) here, but ultimately decided against it. I'll discuss this in the next section.

• Lodin's a fantastic unit and is the pioneer unit of rainbow BB-spam teams, a very powerful team option. He's also great in the Arena where his glass cannon stat distribution and Leader skill shine. If you managed to land one, you're a lucky person since he's just really good all round.

Lodin: Indepth Look

• Glass cannon stats aren't usually my cup of tea and Lodin's not really an exception. His ATK is REALLY good and his REC is pretty great too but his HP is atrocious and his DEF is mediocre making him pretty frail in the grand scheme of things. Like, he's approaching Alice level frailty.

• That said, his stat distribution does lend itself well to his role as an Arena leader, making sure he hits really hard right off the bat and the questing squads he's likely to be a part of are so strong that it's pretty rare that he'll be taking a lot of damage in current content.

• Lodin's main boon is his Leader Skill so I'll spend a little bit of team talking about that.

• He's pretty much straight up better than the other rainbow leaders of his batch in the leader position, offensively speaking. 10% HP and 10% DEF/REC are decent but you can't really compete with BB fill rate, which allows Lodin to achieve some pretty incredible things with the right teammates.

• First of all, he's a great Arena leader by virtue of his Leader skill and the fact that he's a thunder unit instead of a Fire/Dark/Earth one. This means that serendipitously, you can use Lira, Farlon and Ophelia on the same team as him (given you were lucky or determined enough to pull all three) for one of the strongest arena teams available. Currently the best option for the last member would be Serin but Karl's an alternative if you don't have her. Lodin's 50% damage boost shores up the weak damage multipliers of the fast BB filling units and his 1.3x fill rate makes a second round BB fest highly likely.

• In addition, outside of the Arena, with a different set of units, Lodin can field a Rainbow BB-spam team which is a very powerful squad archetype. With Melchio, Duel-SGX and Michele from the same batch all being different elements with powerful buffs and high MT SBB hit counts, combined with the almost staple Douglas, Lodin led BB-spam teams are extremely good. His fill rate buff is definitely enough to ensure BB-spam is sustainable for 2 targets and over. Unfortunately, sustainability DOES become an issue if you want to take a Zebra friend, which is why Felneus is still a very meta unit.

• As you can see though, those top tier teams require pretty specific high end units to be truly effective and Lodin's effectiveness does drop off if you don't have those units and let's face it most people don't. That said, even if you can't make a perfect BB-spam team, he's still probably the best Rainbow Leader in the game so he benefits anyone wanting to run a Rainbow squad. He does better the higher the average hit count of your squad though.

• Lodin's also solid in mono-thunder even considering his redundant thunder attribute buff. His BB gauge filling SBB definitely helps with Thunders BB gauge sustainability issues and he's a great pair with Elsel since their buffs stack.

• /u/Talukita was kind enough to remind me that Lodin's BB fill buff scales better compared to BC drop rate the less enemies there are on the screen since it provides a constant fill amount. This makes Lodin pretty valuable against single target bosses in maintaining BB sustainability.

• In the future, his main competition comes from Dia who in her 6* form, probably just beats him in every way. She has better stats, the same leader skill, the same thunder attribute buff and a very powerful (moreso than Felneus according to some brief testing) BC drop rate buff which is probably better than Lodin's BB fill buff. Luckily they're not the same buff so they stack which means Lodin's great as the second leader, or even as a regular squad member in Dia/Lodin BB-spam teams.

• Lodin's other advantage over Dia is that he's not a fire unit. Might seem a bit strange, but as a rainbow leader, what element you are is pretty important and fire has a LOT of great units with more to come in the future (Michele, Ruza, Dalvanshel), meaning the competition for a fire slot on a rainbow squad is fierce. Plus Farlon being a fire unit means Lodin's still the better choice in Arena until Uda arrives.

• Basically Lodin's going to be a great unit for a long time. His main problem is that he's very restrictive. You need specific units to get the most out of him but he is still very solid even if you're unable to grab all the specific units he likes best.

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'.

• Anima. Lodin really likes Anima. His HP stat is terrible, and Anima boosts it up to 5.9k which is actually pretty reasonable while he honestly doesn't care that his REC drops to 1.6k. Definitely his most solid typing since it doesn't damage his beautiful ATK stat plus HP scales better than DEF in most situations.

• Guardian's probably next outside the Arena (Breaker here otherwise) since his DEF could use some topping up if you can't modify his HP and his ATK is still solid at 1.9k.

• Lord in the middle inside the Arena and out. Always useable.

• Breaker's phenomenal for Arena but makes him very frail otherwise with 1.3k DEF. 2.3k ATK is wowza though.

• Oracle's last because his HP really can't take the hit and the REC increase doesn't derive any benefit for him.

• Even Oracle Lodin is useable though, guys. Nothing annoys me more than the 'I have an Oracle [unit], can I use him or should I fuse him away' questions. <3

That's it guys, hope you enjoyed the read and hope it was worth the wait!

As always, I welcome your comments/criticims/encouragements. If you found this useful/enjoyable please drop an upvote on your way out. I'd really appreciate the sentiment and support. <3

Until next time!

Links to previous Analyses