Hey guys welcome to the latest Batch Analysis. Today we'll be having a look at the first half of the 12 Guardians!

Disclaimer: These will not be in depth, these are only here to give you a brief sense of whether these units are worth summoning for. Please refer to my New Unit Analyses when they're released in short course.

Red Swordsman Farlon

• Lord Stats: 6202|1800|1800|1800

• Max Imp Bonuses: HP 750 ATK 300 DEF 300 REC 300

• LS: 65% boost to ATK of all Fire units

• Hit Count: 8 (Drop check count 3/hit)

• BB: 9 hit MT Fire damage (15BC to fill, damage modifier 160%)

• SBB: 12 hit MT Fire damage, greatly increases own ATK but halves own DEF for 3 turns (30BC to fill, ATK 200%, DEF -50%, damage modifier 250%)

• Beautifully balanced stats. If only his HP was a flat 6200 to satisfy my OCD.

• Good leader skill for mono-fire, mono-fire lacks a BC fill rate auxillary effect leader skill so Farlon's is right up there with Vargas' in terms of function and Farlon is obviously a much better unit than Vargas in general.

• Farlon's ultimately an arena specialist though as you'll see by the following attributes

• 24 total drop checks for his regular attack is VERY good, particularly for the Arena where that first turn BC generation is very important.

• BB is multiple target and costs 15BC to fill, the quintessential Arena BB, fills quickly, deals pathetic damage for questing, but enough that it'll devestate any Arena team it goes off against.

• SBB is an inferior version of Logan's. Same effect, but a weaker damage modifier (seriously, 250% for an SBB?) coming off a weaker base ATK means Farlon's SBB is decidedly unimpressive.

• It will absolutely OHKO everyone in the Arena if it goes off though, which is a possibility given its impressive fill rate for an SBB.

• As you can see, Farlon's just not a good questing unit (taking one for his leader skill if you run Mono-fire isn't a terrible idea though), he's even more an arena specialist than Lira was since Lira can at least function as a boss killer while Farlon's SBB is... pretty bad for questing

• In the Arena though, Farlon's a monster, he generates BC very quickly and both his BB and SBB are very quick filling so he'll be using them a lot.

• You should place Farlon towards the top of your Arena order since his AI dictates that his greatest chance for using his BB is when there are enemies present with HP >50%

• His one 'downfall' in the arena is that he's a fire type unit so he runs into problems with water units (Serin - though she'll likely be waning in popularity soon if Deemo comes round), in addition his element clashes with Dia who is a great Arena leader for rainbow teams but he's very suited to Lodin lead teams.

• Competition wise, there's only really Lira at the moment as a 6* Arena specialist, in the future Ophelia and Uda are similar units from different elements and much later on there will be Olga, the light type representative. For F2P players, other options include Cayena, Cerise from the hopefully soon to be released thunder vortex, Serin and Deemo.

• Worth pulling if you want a top tier arena unit, don't pull him for questing purposes.

• Typing (Arena focused): Breaker > Anima > Lord > Oracle > Guardian

Snow Queen Signas

• Lord Stats: 6373|2201|1533|1432

• Max Imp Bonuses: HP 750 ATK 240 DEF 240 REC 240

• LS: 15% reduction in damage taken from Fire units, increases damage dealt to fire units by water units (Fire resist 15%, Elemental weakness damage (water units only) 25%)

• Hit Count: 7 (Drop check count 3/hit)

• BB: 9 hit MT Water damage, chance to inflict Injury (28BC to fill, Injury 45%, damage modifier 240%)

• SBB: 11 hit MT Water damage, chance to inflict Injury and increase ATK power of water units for 3 turns (52BC to fill, Injury 60%, Water unit ATK 40%, damage modifier 430%)

• LS tailor made for Vargas' dungeon. If you haven't completed that yet and can't/won't field a crit team, Signas is a fantastic leader for it.

• I need to clarify her LS mechanics a bit more, datamine implies that only water units get the elemental weakness bonus, not sure if this only applies to attacking fire units or if they also get the weakness bonus when they have an elemental attribute buff. Doubt it has much application outside of Vargas' dungeon though.

• Again, a good total drop check count for her normal attack.

• Injury is a nice status and Signas has a pretty decent rate of infliction for a multiple target attack. The Water unit ATK buff makes her a really good unit on mono-water (though admittedly, it still isn't much of a damage boost when compared to say, a crit rate buff or a spark damage buff).

• A really solid offensive water unit. She like the rest of her batch is meant for use on mono-water teams, and she does well there. In other team archetypes, she'll be solid because of her stats, but never top tier.

• Pull her if you like mono-water or you need a good leader for Vargas, otherwise she's not essential.

• All types viable. Guardian > Anima = Breaker > Lord > Oracle

Havoc God Luly

• Lord Stats: 5905|1925|1502|2100

• Max Imp Bonuses: HP 750 ATK 300 DEF 300 REC 300

• LS: 15% reduction in damage taken from Thunder units, increases damage dealt to Thunder units by Earth units (Thunder resist 15%, Elemental weakness damage (Earth units only) 25%)

• Hit Count: 8 (Drop check count 2/hit)

• BB: 10 hit MT Earth damage, increase HC drop rate for 3 turns (28BC to fill, HC drop rate 22%, damage modifier 240%)

• SBB: 12 hit MT Earth damage, increase HC drop rate for 3 turns, increase ATK of Earth units for 3 turns (52BC to fill, HC drop rate 25%, Earth unit ATK 40%, damage modifier 430%)

• Good Leader skill for Eze's Legend Vortex, when that's released for the same reasons as Signas'.

• Actually a brilliant pseudohealer, her offensive stats are actually really good so she does considerable damage (more damage than Phee) while also restoring a lot of HP via HC generation.

• She actually has the same HC generation potency as Phee ( 25%), and does more damage with a higher damage modifier AND a higher base ATK so she's really very good. Not to mention that Earth ATK bonus for use on mono-earth teams (where she's probably a staple).

• What Phee has over her is much better defensive stats, a better fill rate and an SBB that has a really high innate HC generation chance a good leader skill.

• Other competition for Luly would be Ronel who has an equal power HC drop rate buff and a good BC drop rate buff on her SBB, but a stupidly high BB fill rate costs. Later on she has to compete with Zelnite who increases drop rates for everything but at a lower potency and Faris who sports way better stats and a powerful crit buff.

• If you need a pseudo-healer or a mono-earth team member, Luly is actually a fantastic unit to have on board. Much better than you'd think.

• All types viable. Anima > Guardian > Lord > Breaker > Oracle

Gold Queen Rina

• Lord Stats: 6000|2063|1731|1753

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

• LS: 65% boost to ATK of Thunder units

• Hit Count: 5 (Drop check count 3/hit, damage distribution 110%)

• BB: 9 hit MT Thunder damage, chance to inflict Paralysis (28BC to fill, Paralysis 45%, damage modifier 240%)

• SBB: 13 hit MT Thunder damage, chance to inflict Paralysis and Curse (52BC to fill, Curse 60%, Paralysis 60%, damage modifier 430%)

• Rina's in-game descriptions for her BB/SBB lie. They say 8 hits and 10 hits respectively but she does more.

• Good LS for mono-thunder. Particularly for the upcoming (...maybe) thunder vortex arena where she honestly probably outclasses Emilia unless you run a full team of Udas.

• Terrible hit count and sparking animation, but a good drop check count means she's not too bad at BC generation, thankfully.

• Good statuses on her BB/SBB and a relatively high chance to inflict them. Sefia and Kikuri boast higher chances with their SBBs, but only one status at a time.

• Doesn't really contribute to the team in any other way, no buffs or anything. Just great stats and status infliction.

• She's a good thunder unit simply because she's very solid stat-wise and she's a very good leader for mono-thunder (Loch would be her main competition) but otherwise, nothing particularly remarkable about her.

• Worth pulling for the Thunder Arena Vortex if you want a good leader, or for mono-thunder in general, otherwise probably not essential.

• All types viable. Anima > Breaker > Lord = Guardian > Oracle

Guardian Chief Sodis

• Lord Stats: 6302|1903|1903|1551

• Max Imp Bonuses: HP 750 ATK 300 DEF 300 REC 300

• LS: 15% reduction in damage taken from Dark units, increases damage dealt to Dark units by Light units (Dark resist 15%, Elemental weakness damage (Light units only) 25%)

• Hit Count: 8 (Drop check count 3/hit)

• BB: 10 hit MT Light damage, increase spark damage for 3 turns (28BC to fill, Spark damage 60%, damage modifier 240%)

• SBB: 12 hit MT Light damage, increase spark damage for 3 turns, increase ATK of Light units for 3 turns (52BC to fill, Spark damage 70%, Light unit ATK 40%, damage modifier 430%)

• Useless Leader skill. Wouldn't use it even in the Magress dungeon since Light units will probably not have a good time there anyway.

• Actually a really good drop check count on normal attacks, that's only marginally useful outside the Arena though.

• Boasts the equal highest spark damage buff in the game ( 70%). This is very significant since spark damage is one of the most potent offensive buffs available. Plus he's the only light unit to have this buff.

• This in conjunction with his Light unit ATK buff means he's really, a VERY good member of mono-light teams. I'd go as far as to say staple if you have him. Using him with a Sefia leader, some Zellhas and a Maxwell and you have a very good light BB-spam team.

• He also works as a very good spark buff provider for any other team archetype, so definitely worth using for that buff alone. Obviously he works well with spark damage increasing leaders like Leorone, Luther, Behemoth etc.

• Competition wise, as a spark buffer he needs to compete with Douglas for now, and in the future Raydn who will also provide the mediocre DEF ignore buff. In the future Luther gives him some problems by providing a slightly weaker version of the buff but just being a spectacular unit on his own and Erza beats him entirely in basically every way.

• As a Light unit, he's pretty much staple since there aren't a lot of spark buffing light units around. Great unit.

• All types viable. Lord > Anima = Breaker > Guardian > Oracle

Black Lotus Lunaris

• Lord Stats: 5905|2163|1949|1475

• Max Imp Bonuses: HP 750 ATK 240 DEF 240 REC 420

• LS: 65% boost to ATK of Dark units

• Hit Count: 10 (Drop check count 2/hit)

• BB: 11 hit MT Dark damage, chance to inflict Weakness (28BC to fill, Weakness 45%, damage modifier 240%)

• SBB: 15 hit MT Dark damage, heals all status ailments and prevents status ailments for 3 turns (52BC to fill, damage modifier 430%)

• Like Rina, SBB description lies, she has a 15 hit attack, not a 13 hit attack.

• Good dark team leader skill, probably loses to Kikuri overall in this regard though.

• Stupid good stats though, wow.

• Regular BB is kind of terrible, it's nothing special and weakness is just a horrifically bad status.

• SBB is a huge improvement though. Lunaris is the first offensive unit to prevent status for 3 turns AND remove statuses already inflicted on a unit. Plus she actually generates the same amount of BC as Melchio with her SBB and does more damage with her way higher base ATK and damage modifier.

• What she loses is having a higher fill cost, not dealing 5 elements worth of damage and not bestowing the light attribute buff.

• Personally as long as you don't need Melchio's Light attribute buff, I think Lunaris is actually the better unit overall.

• Probably the best pull from this batch if I'm being honest.

• All types viable. Lord > Anima > Breaker = Guardian > Oracle

Summary

• Important pulls: Lunaris

• Great pulls: Farlon (for Arena), Sodis, Luly

• Relatively unimportant (but still solid) pulls: Signas, Rina

That's it guys, hope you guys found this helpful! Until next time. <3