Hey guys, welcome to the latest New Unit Analysis! Today we'll be having a look at Melchio, the main antagonist from this series of units and he's as powerful as his lore suggests!

We'll be having a look at how he compares against a few of his fellow light units as well as how he fits into the current metagame and how he'll fare further along the track 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. :>

Legatus Melchio vs. Sodis, Alyut, Aem, Sefia

Melchio's Stats:

Lord: HP 5511 ATK 1771 DEF 1811 REC 1811

Max Imp bonuses: HP 750 ATK 300 DEF 300 REC 300

LS: 25% boost to ATK of all units and chance of ignoring DEF when attacking (DEF ignore chance 15%)

Hit count: 13 (drop check count 3/hit)

BB: Gives immunity to all status ailments for all allies for 3 turns and adds Light element attribute to the attacks of all allies for 3 turns (10BC to fill)

SBB: 15 hit multiple target Fire, Water, Earth, Thunder and Light elemental damage, gives immunity to all status ailments for all allies for 3 turns and adds Light element attribute to the attacks of all allies for 3 turns (30BC to fill, damage modifier 300%)

• Melchio definitely has the best stat distribution in this batch which fits his lore nicely. His HP is still pretty mediocre but the rest of his stats are nice. His ATK isn't turning any heads, but it's still definitely solid, his DEF is fantastic (3rd highest in the game right now) and his REC is great too. His Leader skill is... pretty bad unless you're running metal parade, I wouldn't recommend him in this role at all. His hit count however is fantastic at 13 with a very slick attack animation, making him a stellar BC generator. His SBB is his biggest gain this evolution, giving him a fantastic MT attack that does damage of not 1, not 2, not even 3 elements, but 5 whole elements, a massive 15 hits (again, fantastic for BB-spam), immunity to status for 3 turns and the light attribute buff which ensures at least neutral damage to all enemies and all that only costing 30BC to fill, damn. Melchio definitely takes the title of 'Most Improved' for this batch. Wowza.

• First up for comparison today is the 5* version of Sodis. Compared to the man and his horse, Melchio has better ATK ( 170), DEF ( 210) and REC ( 500) but less HP (-90). Despite not having an amazing stat total for a 6* unit, Melchio's still an evolution tier higher than Sodis and it shows in this comparison. The HP difference here is negligible and outscaled by the DEF advantage after taking more than a single attack and Melchio wins in every other stat by significant margins, particularly REC. Melchio also more than doubles Sodis' hit count (13 vs. 6) and has a much better attack animation as well. Finally comparing their BB/SBBs. Melchio's SBB actually takes only 2 more BC to fill than Sodis' regular BB. It carries many more hits (15 vs 8) and it's Sodis' spark buff vs. Melchio's status immunity, 5 elemental attack and light attribute buff. I think it's pretty clear that Melchio probably wins in overall quality of BB at the moment. On mono-light, both these units have unique buffs, but in other squads, Melchio's status immunity is pretty much unique to him, with Altri being the only other user and he's a healer, not an offensive unit. Melchio's definitely just all round much better at this point in time.

• Next up is Alyut, who we'll also be looking at in his 5* form since that's what's available in Global at this point in time. Compared to Sodis' little bro, Melchio has better HP ( 30), ATK ( 270), DEF ( 155) and REC ( 235). Melchio wins in every stat this time round since although Alyut's stat total is probably similar to Sodis, he has a more well-rounded distribution and so compares worse to the equally well rounded but higher evolution tier Melchio. Again, Melchio wins in hit count with his truly fantastic 13 hit combo (vs. Alyut's 7) and comparing their BBs, Alyut at the moment offers little team support, only able to inflict Injury, which is a great status but really can not compete with all of Melchio's supporting options. Melchio's SBB again is only 2BC slower to fill, boasts almost guaranteed weakness damage (100% guaranteed with Duel-SGX as a teammate), offers status immunity and 15 hits and Alyut can not compete with that in his current form. Melchio's definitely the stronger unit at this point in time.

• Now we come to our 6* units. First up is Aem. Compared to our overcompensating swordsman, Melchio has better DEF ( 375) and REC ( 340) but less HP (-425) and ATK (-35). The ATK difference is obviously pretty negligible here so we won't consider that in the comparison. Bulkwise, they're pretty comparable Melchio's mediocre HP lets his otherwise fantastic DEF down, but 375 DEF translates to about 112.5 extra damage mitigation per hit which outscales Aem's HP advantage after 4 hits. I think for any fight where defences actually matter, taking 4 hits is pretty likely so Melchio probably has better overall bulk in practice. Plus he has a great REC stat for sustainability purposes as well so he's got better stats overall for the longer, harder battles. Again, Melchio absolutely destroys Aem from a hit count perspective with 13 hits to Aem's 6. Comparing their BBs/SBBs. Melchio's SBB takes 30BC to fill which isn't too far off Aem's regular BB (24BC) and quite a bit faster than Aem's SBB (48BC). Aem's BC drop rate buff is unique for a light unit which gives him a fairly solid role to play in Light BB-spam once that becomes available, but otherwise, Melchio's status immunity (also unique amongst light units) has a lot of utility on any squad he's a member of and his guaranteed weakness damage patches up his low damage multiplier, not to mention his fantastic hit count and his light attribute buff. Aem doesn't have as much utility outside of mono-light since his BC drop rate buff is replicated by units like Felneus and Elsel right now and Dia, Uda and Zelnite in the future who are probably all stronger units overall than Aem for various reasons. Meanwhile Melchio's got Altri (who isn't an offensive unit) Lunaris in the nearish future and Exvel after that as his only competition so he's definitely got a more stable niche.

• Lastly we have Sefia, queen of mono-light. Compared to our 8 bladed woman, Melchio has better DEF ( 30) and REC ( 370) but less HP (-490) and ATK (-310). Sadly in this comparison, Melchio's excellent distribution can't quite overcome the difference in stat total. Melchio's less bulky overall since 490 HP definitely outscales 30 DEF and he loses on the offensive spectrum as well. His REC is his one saving grace, being significantly better than Sefia's but it's not enough to overcome his deficiencies elsewhere. Sefia's the only 6* light unit who can actually give Melchio some competition in hit count but she still loses 10 to 13. Comparing their BBs, hilariously, Melchio's SBB actually fills faster than Sefia's regular BB, forget her SBB. To make up for this, Sefia has a huge damage multiplier and probably outscales Melchio damage wise even after factoring in Melchio's almost guaranteed weakness damage with her SBB and perhaps with her regular BB as well, though admittedly I haven't tested this. She also has the paralysis effect which is nice but not gamechanging and an SBB hit count that matches Melchio's. Melchio on the other hand brings status immunity and the light attribute buff to the table both of which are pretty valuable to most team archetypes (the light attribute buff obviously holds no meaning for mono-light and status immunity is obviously useless if you're running a status immunity leader). I think these two are probably both shoe-ins for mono-light at the moment, Sefia for the leader position while Melchio's there for his fantastic buffs. Outside of mono-light, Melchio probably has more utility in the long run due to his support capabilities though.

• Melchio's a fantastic unit. He's a light unit with really great utility that can find purchase in just about any squad type. We'll discuss his more effective options in the next section. There's very little to lose with including Melchio in your squads at the moment, he's truly excellent.

Melchio: Indepth Look

• As I've mentioned already, Melchio definitely has the best stat distribution out of his batch of units. While his stat total is just as mediocre as the others, his distribution means that he's still very competitive stat-wise.

• His HP is his only really limiting factor, being pretty mediocre at 5.5k, but at least it's not as bad as Lodin's! The rest of his stats are really very good even for his evolution tier.

• His Leader skill is pretty bad. I think most players, even F2P players could probably field someone a bit better for most content. It's very good in Metal Parade but that's the only place where I would recommend using Melchio as a leader.

• His hit count is actually amazing at 13. Not quite at Michele or Duel-SGX level, but he equals Serin and we all know how strong Serin is hit count wise. Plus his attack animation is very nice and condensed as well, making for good sparking and BC generation capabilities

• His main gain from his evolution was his SBB which is truly fantastic. The reason he wasn't very good last generation wasn't because his BB was BAD exactly, the buff was good (though status probably wasn't as relevant as it is going to be come soon) but he sacrificed too much for it. He had no offensive presence and was probably more a liability than a help because of it.

• Now things are different since his SBB fills quickly (30BC is very fast for an SBB, it's faster than some BBs), does a whopping 15 hits and hits 5 elements in addition to what his BB did. So he now can contribute significantly to BB generation and damage while bestowing his buff.

• And status immunity is a really important buff. Status immunity leaders exist of course, but leader skills are often too important to sacrifice a slot just for status and Melchio allows you to use a fantastic unit AND not have to worry about status which is really valuable. This frees up valuable item slots for healing pots/fujin potions/damage augmenting seals/ores/elixirs. Status becomes increasingly a problem as more content is added in so having a unit that can make that less of an issue is really important.

• Importantly Melchio can not remove status that is already inflicted on a unit. Take care.

• The price Melchio pays for this is a relatively low damage multiplier, but even that's mostly shored up by the fact that he deals almost guaranteed weakness damage due to his 5 element attack.

• Paired with Duel-SGX, this becomes guaranteed weakness damage due to Duel-SGX providing the missing element. And in general, Duel-SGX is a fantastic partner to Melchio because he provides excellent hit counts as well (these two Michele and Douglas are probably the most solid BB-spam core in existence) and a crit buff to augment Melchio's mediocre damage output.

• Other party members Melchio likes are high hit count, MT BB/SBB units like Douglas, Michele, Lodin and Serin. Anyone that can augment damage with spark buffs or ATK buffs are good too. Melchio doesn't like Tree since their buffs overlap but is just fine with any other healer.

• Basically any team benefits from Melchio which is part of the reason why I speak so highly of him (status immunity and light attribute and 15 hits is universally useful to ALL team archetypes, honestly) but Melchio really finds purchase in BB-spam teams or hybrid BB-spam/Crit teams since he can really put his massive hit count and great sparking attack animation to use. Plus those teams really appreciate him adding another element to inflict weakness damage with and most importantly, he makes them immune to status which could otherwise really cripple them.

• Importantly, Melchio is a terrible Arena unit. While his SBB does charge quickly, his BB has a low fill requirement (10BC) and so you only start with 5BC filled from the beginning, meaning Melchio requires 25BC to fill his SBB gauge. This puts him on even ground with a unit that requires 50BC to fill their regular BB outside of the Arena. In other words, it's just not going to happen in one turn. Meanwhile, his regular BB will DEFINITELY fill in one turn and you'll be left with poor Melchio activating his useless buff instead of contributing offensively. Basically, keep him out of the arena.

• In terms of future prospects, Melchio faces relatively little competition for a good while. Currently, Altri can cure/prevent status but has a completely different role. Lunaris is the next unit with a similar effect. She hits harder and can actually purge statuses which is the main reason she'd be used over Melchio, but she doesn't really outclass him since Melchio's high hit count and light attribute buff still make him an arguably better choice for a lot of team compositions.

• After that, it's really only Exvel, the latest JP thunder unit who's ages away but admittedly probably beats Melchio overall by a considerable margin. I guess that's the nature of power creep.

• Melchio's definitely a very strong unit with a lot of longevity though. Congratulations if you own him!

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'.

• Melchio really likes Anima to shore up his main weakness which is his mediocre HP without touching his good but not great ATK and he's got the REC to spare so this is definitely his strongest typing.

• Lord would be my second choice. Guardian drops his ATK a bit too low for my taste and Melchio's DEF is already solid. In fact his natural stat distribution is great.

• Guardian after that though since defences are important, more so than ATK in most situations.

• Melchio's ATK is pretty good already but it's not head turning so he definitely can put Breaker's ATK gain to use and his DEF is definitely solid enough to take the hit (1.6k DEF is still pretty good) so this is actually still a really good typing for Melchio.

• Finally Oracle. Lowering his HP isn't ideal since it's already mediocre while having over 2k REC is totally unnecessary.

That's it guys! Hope you enjoyed the read!

As always, I welcome your comments/criticims/encouragements. Please drop an upvote if you enjoyed this, I'd really appreciate the support.

Until next time!

Links to previous Analyses