Hey guys welcome to the latest New Unit Analysis. Today we'll be going over the last of the 12 guardians, Zephyr.

We'll be looking to see how Zephyr compares to his fellow dark units, and then we'll briefly see how he stacks up against Dilma, a fellow unit with the DEF ignore buff. We'll of course then look at how he fares in the current metagame and his future prospects.

Let's get started!

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. :>

Dark Warlord Zephyr vs. Kikuri, Logan, Lunaris, Dilma

Zephyr's Stats:

Lord: HP 6304 ATK 1850 DEF 1850 REC 1605

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

LS: 15% reduction in damage dealt by light units and dark units deal extra damage to enemy light units (Light resist 15%, Elemental weakness 25% (dark units only))

Hit count: 9 (damage distribution 116%, drop check count 2/hit)

BB: 13 hit multiple target dark damage and all allies ignore DEF for 2 turns (28BC to fill, damage modifier 240%)

SBB: 15 hit multiple target dark damage, all allies ignore DEF for 2 turns and increase Dark units' ATK for 3 turns (52BC to fill, Dark ATK 40%, damage modifier 430%)

• Zephyr's got some pretty nice stats. Of particular note is his HP which is sky high at 6.3k. He currently has the fourth highest HP total in the game which is very impressive indeed. In addition he has solid DEF to back it up meaning Zephyr is a tremendously bulky unit. His ATK sits at 1.85k which isn't particularly outstanding as far as that stat goes, but it's definitely solid and while his REC is his weakest stat on paper, it's probably going to do the job just fine. His LS is pretty useless, almost entirely trumped by Grah, who is a free unit, there's very little reason you'd want to use Zephyr as a leader. His normal attack doesn't have very good BC generation with only 18 total drop checks but it has a damage distribution of 116% like Serin meaning he has a nice damage bonus there. His BB and SBB bestow ignore DEF which is probably the weakest of the offensive buffs outside of specific situations but still definitely better than nothing and his SBB has the Dark ATK buff which is currently unique to Zephyr.

• First up for comparison today is Kikuri. Compared to the gothic geisha, Zephyr has better HP ( 250) and DEF ( 200) but less ATK (-85) and REC (-115). Zephyr's the bulkier of the two units and the difference in offensive power is pretty small here (and keep in mind Zephyr actually ends up doing more damage with at least his regular attack due to his damage distribution) and the REC difference probably isn't significant enough to matter either so Zephyr wins the statistical match up. Comparing their BBs/SBBs, Kikuri has slightly better damage modifiers ( 250%/460% vs. 240%/430%) which in conjunction with her higher base ATK means she deal a bit more damage than Zephyr, but she doesn't offer any real team support other than her ability to inflict Curse, which is an okay status, but hardly reliable and only marginally useful. Zephyr on the other hand provides the DEF ignore buff which is fairly weak in general but better than nothing and very useful in some situations (metal units in parade or FH for example) as well as his currently unique Dark ATK buff which is also not the strongest buff in terms of potency but has the advantage of stacking nicely with other ATK modifiers. All in all Leader skill aside, Zephyr probably has more utility, particularly on a mono-dark squad than Kikuri.

• Next up for comparison is Logan. Compared to the Shida's modified warrior, Zephyr has better HP ( 460), DEF ( 75) and REC ( 135) but loses in ATK (-250). The ATK difference is significant, but so is the HP difference, which is rather large. The DEF and REC is less important so we're weighing up Zephyr's superior HP and therefore bulk to Logan's offensive power. Pretty hard to call this one definitively but based on stat total, it probably goes to Zephyr overall. Logan's main advantage is the ability to switch between two powerful modes of ATK (fast charging, sustainable, self-healing ST damage and moderately powerful MT damage) with his BB and SBB but he doesn't offer any team support himself. Zephyr like mentioned above has his buffs under his belt which make him a pretty nice member for a mono-dark team overall. As a standalone, damage dealing unit, Logan is definitely the one with the advantage with his superior damage modifiers and his better base ATK, but if you're building a mono-dark team, at least for now Zephyr's probably more of a staple choice.

• The last dark unit up for comparison today is Lunaris. We compared these two in Lunaris' Analysis already, so you can have a read of that to gather my thoughts on the matter, but essentially I think that Lunaris probably ends up adding more utility and is more versatile a unit than Zephyr (who's really only suitable for mono-dark teams) overall.

• Dilma is our final unit for the day. Compared to the cyborg loving monk, Zephyr has better HP ( 250) and DEF ( 370) but less ATK (-355) and REC (-430). As you can see, Zephyr's definitely got the bulkier disposition but doesn't hit as hard compared to Dilma's glass-cannon like distribution. Overall, Zephyr probably has the more balanced stat distribution (that HP stat goes a long way) but Dilma's strong, offensively focused stat spread is very well suited for his role as a damage dealer. The reason these two are being compared is mostly because they both carry the DEF ignore buff, but other than that, they're pretty much entirely different units. Dilma is currently still the most damaging unit in the game, with a host of hidden buffs on his SBB that make him a fantastic unit on BB-spam teams with high BC generation, easy sparking capabilities and sky high damage. Meanwhile, Zephyr functions mainly as a mono-dark support unit, able to bestow one of mono-dark's only offensive buffs (the other being Duel-SGX's crit buff - I don't think Xenon's ATK buff counts) until Erza and Kuda come onto the scene. DEF ignore probably means more for Zephyr than it does to Dilma who probably wouldn't even notice it was gone if it was taken from him but that's a reflection of how good a unit Dilma is. Dilma's almost definitely the more universally useful unit, but Zephyr still has a place in mono-dark for sure.

• Zephyr's great for mono-dark. Perhaps not so great elsewhere, but definitely has a spot in an all-purple team for sure.

Zephyr: Indepth Look

• Pretty nice stats on the whole. That HP stat is massive and goes a long way towards making Zephyr a pretty damn bulky unit. 1850 DEF certainly helps as well, of course and he has adequate, if not spectacular REC to top it all off.

• 1850 for ATK is about average, I would say. It's not particularly amazing, and as future batches are released, it'll seem progressively worse, but it's enough to get the job done certainly for a while to come.

• I don't really foresee there being much use in his Leader Skill. Taking less damage from light units is nice, and would have been perhaps useful for Atro's Legend Vortex at least if it wasn't for the fact that Zephyr is a dark unit and functions best on a mono-dark squad, all of whom have a weakness to Light.

• That and Grah, who is technically free, basically just wins the LS battle outright.

• Surprise, Zephyr's normal attack is top tier. Like Serin's it actually has a non-100% damage distribution, but in a good way. Zephyr does a free 16% extra damage every time he does his normal attack which is very nice, particularly for the Arena.

• Unfortunately this doesn't carry on into his BB or SBB where it'd probably be more useful, but it's a nice bonus all the same.

• For those of you who aren't aware about what damage distribution means, or missed my earlier explanations, I'll explain it to you here again.

• Each attack, whether it be normal attack, BB or SBB, does a certain amount of total damage after all buffs etc. are factored in. This damage then needs to be distributed over the number of hits the particular move has.

• Each move has a fairly unique way of distributing this damage, it's not just evenly distributed across all the hits which is why for a lot of units, you'll see certain hits being stronger than others, however for most units, once you've dealt every hit, you've 'distributed' 100% of the damage you were calculated to do.

• However for a few units, they distribute either more or less than 100% of the damage. Gravion is an example of the latter, unfortunately for him, after you add all the percentages, he only actually outputs 80% of the damage he's supposed to with his SBB meaning he has an innate 20% damage penalty AFTER all buffs are applied, which sucks.

• Some units like Zephyr and Serin have damage distributions higher than 100% meaning after you add all the percentages, they deal more damage than you would expect with certain moves.

• Basically, just think of the damage distribution as a final multiplier that applies in the damage formula after all other factors are considered. If I don't mention 'damage distribution' in my analyses, you can assume that it is simply 100%, meaning no bonuses or penalties. However if you find that I've missed one, please let me know so I can correct it. :>

• Hope that's clear enough! Back to Zephyr.

• Zephyr's BB and SBB carry the DEF ignore buff which is... marginally useful. I've had a few people disagree with me, but I think they're in the minority and I think the general accepted consensus is that DEF ignore for the most part, is probably the weakest offensive buff in the game.

• That said, if the enemy is a heavy user of DEF augmenting buffs themselves, or you're up against metal units (e.g. FH Chaos Gods), then DEF ignore can prove to be a nice tool to have under your belt, and it's certainly better than no buff at all.

• Zephyr's SBB gains the Dark ATK buff as is typical of his batch. This buff is unique to Zephyr, and looks to stay that way for... a long time considering the pace at which the Global vortex arenas are being released. This buff isn't particularly strong, only reaching 40% and being limited to a specific element, but it's worth talking about since for Dark, that's about the best ATK buff they have access to.

• Currently, Dark has one excellent Crit buffer (Duel-SGX)... and that's about it for offensive buffs (if I missed something obvious, let me know), Xenon gives an almost negligible 15% ATK (/vomit) and Logan only buffs himself, so your next best option is well, Zephyr so he definitely has a spot secured on a mono-dark team at the moment.

• In the future, there will be Erza, thankfully and Kuda who are MOST DEFINITELY welcome in Dark's arsenal of units who provide a powerful spark buff and a really nice ATK/Crit rate combo respectively. Until then, mono-dark isn't exactly the strongest of team archetypes, which is a far cry from its former glory.

• Even when they're introduced, Zephyr's pretty nice to have on mono-dark still because his buffs are unique and therefore stack with the new additions nicely. Duel-SGX in contrast will need to duke it out with Kuda but thankfully won't have to worry about that for quite a while.

• Currently, your best team mate options are basically the ones I've listed in the Analysis, Kikuri, Lunaris and Logan are all pretty good units that can take advantage of Zephyr's Dark ATK buff, but in addition, you can add Kajah to the list for being Dark's resident heavy hitter. Obviously Erza and Kuda will also make fantastic dark teammates.

• Zephyr's future prospects don't really differ from his current ones, he's still going to be pretty mediocre outside of mono-dark and probably worth a slot if you DO plan on running mono-dark. No other unit released has the Dark ATK buff so his days aren't yet numbered.

• Keep in mind that Zephyr's only really suited to mono-dark though, outside of that team archetype, the only real thing he has to offer is his DEF ignore buff, which is of questionable utility for most content. Chances are you can probably find a better squad member to take his place. Let him stick to what he's good at.

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'.

• Batch overview was a while ago, some of my views may have changed, I'm doing this blind so I can't even remember what I wrote last time.

• Anima's pretty nice on Zephyr. He breaks 7k HP naturally with this typing and while his REC becomes a bit below average, REC is probably the easiest stat to fix with imps so under optimal conditions, this is probably his best typing.

• I like Breaker second. Zephyr's naturally bulky enough to take the hit to DEF and for most content, anything that's one-shotting Breaker Zephyr is likely going to be one-shotting Guardian (and maybe even Anima Zephyr) without a damage mitigator anyway. Patching up that 'middling' ATK to over 2k is nice too.

• Lord and Guardian are about on par. Zephyr has really nice natural stat distribution so Lord is certainly a good typing and Guardian makes him pretty bulky but hurts his ATK which isn't ideal.

• Finally Oracle. Still a good typing since he has the HP to take the hit, but the REC boost is a bit minimal in terms of gain from the typing. Oracle Zephyr is certainly far from a bad unit, but this typing probably has the worst trade off.

That's it guys, hope that was worth reading! And we're done with all 12 of the guardians! Next up, Dia's batch. <3

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

Until next time!

Links to previous Analyses