Hey guys, welcome to the latest New Unit Analysis. Today we'll be having a look at the much anticipated Eric.

To do this analysis, I'm trying not to let any preconceptions about the unit influence me, so we'll see how it goes. We'll be look at how Eric does in his main niches against other units and then we'll see his role in the current meta-game 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. :>

Arcane Solo Eric vs. Rickel, Edea, Lilith, Melchio

Eric's stats:

Lord: HP 5992 ATK 1743 DEF 1786 REC 1733

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

LS: 50% increase to ATK when 5 or more elements are present, BB gauge fills after each turn (BB gauge fill 2BC/turn)

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

BB: 12 hit random target Dark elemental attack and adds Light element to attacks for 3 turns (20BC to fill, damage modifier 590%)

SBB: 15 hit random target Dark elemental attack, adds Light element to attack for 3 turns and gradually fills BB gauge for 3 turns (40BC to fill, BB gauge fill 2BC/turn, damage modifier 800%)

• Eric has okay stats, but they're erring on the side of disappointing more than solid. Say what you will about the rest of Eric's attributes, but he could have probably been a really nice unit if he had some better stats. In particular his ATK stat is a bit of a let down, falling short of 1.8k. His defences are actually okay, being at almost 6k HP with almost 1.8k DEF and his REC is fine, but that ATK makes it difficult to fulfil one of his main roles. Average imp bonuses throughout so no comment there. His Leader skill is adequate for rainbow teams, but 2BC/turn probably doesn't pack as much oomph as Lodin/Dia and is probably directly worse. In the arena, the difference is smaller though so Eric isn't bad as an Arena leader though it prevents you from using Lira. His normal attack is pretty average at 18 total drop checks, but it's not terrible either. Eric's BB and SBB are random target which is probably what he gets the most flak for for reasons we'll go into a bit later, but his damage modifiers are ridiculously high and he bestows the Light element buff which is pretty cool. He also gives a BB gauge fill buff but it's disappointingly weak.

• Rickel is the first unit up for comparison. Compared to the dual-pistoled Cowgirl, Eric has better HP ( 425) and DEF ( 460) but less ATK (-260) and REC (-505). The REC difference is large but probably doesn't matter since Eric's REC is definitely good enough. Eric is significantly bulkier than Rickel with a much larger HP and DEF pool but Rickel definitely hits harder. These two units are being compared for their single target boss slaying ability so damage is important. Even still, Rickel's probably a bit too frail in comparison to win this stat competition head to head. Comparing their BBs/SBBs, against a single target, Eric actually has much better damage modifiers ( 590%/ 800% vs. 450%/ 680%), however after you consider the difference in base ATK, they actually end up doing basically equivalent damage with no ATK buffs and Rickel pulls ahead as soon as you factor in any other ATK buffs. In addition, Rickel has faster fill rates (16/28BC vs. 20/40BC) as well as the ability to inflict Poison and Paralysis with 80% chance on SBB which are both fantastic status ailments. Eric has his Light attribute buff, which is as mentioned in previous analysis, quite an important buff, but he faces competition in this slot with Melchio and Grah, one of whom is free to obtain which tempers his viability. Eric also has his BB gauge fill buff, but it's one of the weakest in the game, so it's not going to be contributing all that much to your sustainability. In addition, as soon as you factor in crits, Rickel pulls ahead by miles since Eric just can not crit due to his BB/SBB being random target. If you lack Melchio/Grah, then Eric is worth a slot if you're up against a dark element boss, but otherwise Rickel has him beat in boss slaying ability soundly.

• Next up is Edea. Compared to the always helmeted lady, Eric has better HP ( 415) and REC ( 190) but less ATK (-65) and DEF (-20). It's kind of sad that Eric loses to Edea in ATK but the difference is quite low and Eric is significantly bulkier with his superior HP with a REC advantage to top it all off. Since the offensive difference is small, I can be fairly comfortable saying that Eric has the better stats overall. Comparing their BBs/SBBs, again Eric wins in damage modifiers (Edea's 450%/ 640% vs. his own 590%/ 800%), and unlike in the previous comparison, the base ATK difference isn't large, so Eric definitely does more damage in a vacuum. Even with the highest ATK boosts available, Edea probably never quite manages to overtake Eric's damage which is pretty impressive on Eric's part. However, if Eric's inability to crit comes into play, Edea starts to trounce him in damage overall on a crit. In addition, Edea again has a great status in Poison which she can inflict with 90% chance with her SBB and has a stupid status in Sick which she can inflict with who cares% chance. She also has a really cool 25% damage mitigation buff on her SBB which is a very nice little bonus that can ease the burden of your main damage mitigator in tough fights. Eric in turn has his light attribute buff and his weak BB fill buff, but Edea probably is the more useful unit overall. She's pretty underrated to be honest.

• Thirdly today is Lilith. Compared to the mopping cyborg, Eric has better REC ( 85) but loses in the other stats: HP (-15), ATK (-80), DEF (-5). Honestly the differences in stats here is so small that you can think of them as having basically identical stats and when you consider Eric is a 26 cost unit and Lilith is a 24 cost unit... that's pretty sad. In fact Lilith probably edges Eric out a little bit since her small wins are more frequent and in better stats than Eric's. In terms of leader skill, Lilith's gives Eric some serious competition there as well, the extra 15% damage from her leader skill is arguably better than Eric's 2BC/turn outside the arena and probably about equivalent in the arena since she secures some nice first turn KOs with that extra damage. Comparing their BBs/SBBs, Eric wins in damage modifiers again, which is unsurprising considering he has the highest in the game. This time it's Lilith's 540%/ 620% vs. Eric's 590%/ 800% and the ATK difference is small enough that in a vacuum, again, Eric does more damage than Lilith on a single target. However, Lilith can crit which will push her ahead of Eric damage wise, and even without that, Lilith's SBB ability is extraordinary enough that she eclipses him with that alone. Being able to maintain infinite SBB by yourself is pretty incredible and makes her one of the best boss killing unit sin existence. Eric may have his Light attribute and BB gauge filling buffs under his sleeve, but that alone isn't enough to make him more useful than Lilith. Lilith wins this comparison hands down.

• Lastly for today is Melchio, one of the other units capable of bestowing the Light attribute buff. Compared to the 10-winged destroyer, Eric has better HP ( 480) but loses in ATK (-30), DEF (-25) and REC (-80). Again, pretty sad that he loses to Melchio in 3 stats out of 4, but he probably wins the statistical comparison overall because his HP is much better than Melchio's and the differences in other stats is too small to really impact anything. Comparing their SBBs, there's pretty much no question that Eric is going to be doing more damage against a single target with his 800% damage modifier SBB compared to Melchio's 300% modifier. In fact Melchio needs to hit a weak element (and Eric needs to not be hitting one) AND crit in order to deal comparable damage to Eric against a single target which is both impressive on Eric's part and pretty sad on Melchio's. However, Melchio's SBB is multiple target, so he does more damage in those situations since Eric's hits become spread out amongst multiple targets, and if you factor in a crit damage augmenting leader, he leaves Eric behind in the dust. Both these units bestow the light attribute buff, but Eric wears it slightly better due to not being weak to the element he's buffing against (dark). However Melchio has a status immunity buff under his belt which is a very useful supplementary effect and certainly better than Eric's 2BC/turn BB gauge fill buff. Overall, Eric's actually better for boss killing than Melchio even after a crit and weakness damage, but has less utility outside of that role. In addition, if you're running with a Zebra, Mariudeth or Maxwell lead, Melchio starts to pull ahead in damage out put so I'll give this to Melchio overall.

• I tried to be fair with Eric, and I don't think he's as bad as people make him out to be, but he's certainly not a GOOD unit either. Sorry guys, I tried. I love his design though.

Eric: Indepth Look

• Pretty mediocre stats, particularly for his unit cost (which are generally quite a good indicator of statistical strength).

• His defences are actually fine, they're not outstanding with just under 6k HP and just under 1.8k DEF, but they're solid, and his REC is fine too, but that ATK stat.

• I mean 1743 isn't BAD in the current metagame, but for someone who's only real niche comes from his huge damage modifiers, it's a huge drawback when there are many units with 2k ATK running about. His ATK is comparable to the pseudo-healer PHEE for God's sake. Stats don't make a unit, but Eric honestly deserves a boost.

• His imps don't do much to patch up that ATK stat either since he has average imp bonus caps in every area. Poor guy.

• His Leader skill is pretty mediocre too. It's identical to Tiara's. It's auxillary effect is to restore 2BC/turn to the BB gauge, and it's nowhere near as potent for sustainability as Lodin's or Dia's LS. In the Arena it's more comparable, but Eric himself is a less than ideal unit for the arena (bad ATK stat sets him apart from Dia with only a random target BB). It's not terrible though, and if you want to run a rainbow team but lack another leader, Eric will do fine in this position.

• His normal attack has 18 total drop checks, which is fine, but not great. Nothing special to note here.

• His BB and SBB are probably where he cops the most flak.

• He has insane damage modifiers for both. They are in fact, the highest in the game at 590% for his BB and 800% for his SBB. Let's give Eric credit here, that's impressive. Even Gravion doesn't reach that high, and he has an 80% damage distribution penalty on his.

• That's great and all, but there's a couple of problems. First, to concentrate his 800% damage modifier, Eric needs a single target, otherwise he does mediocre damage. So essentially, he's a single target boss slayer. Which would be fine, except...

• Second, he has really low base ATK for a boss slayer. With a damage modifier like Eric's, a small increase in ATK results in a large increase in actual damage output so he would have benefited greatly from even like, a 100-200 incrase in ATK, but alas, his ATK stat is mediocre.

• Thirdly. Eric. Can't. Crit. Like, at all. It's a 'mechanic' of all random target BBs that they can not produce a critical hit. And it's terrible. Try it yourself if you don't believe me. There is not a single random target BB in the game that can crit. It's a really terrible drawback that holds Eric back quite a bit, unfortunately.

• It's not all bad though, his damage modifier is good enough that against a single target, he actually still outdamages a lot of multiple target SBBs even after a crit which is impressive. Single target BB users all start beating him though, and as soon as you throw in Zebra, Mariudeth or Maxwell as a leader, Eric's damage output falls behind significantly.

• One other advantage of random target BBs is that I believe each hit has a chance to proc status, so Eric can take advantage of those status inflicting spheres quite well.

• In addition, DEF ignore Leader skills can proc on every hit as well (you don't get any bonus damage from it proccing multiple times though since the amount of extra damage you recieve is scaled appropriately to your attack), which is nice for metal parade with Melchio/SGX leaders.

• In addition to this Eric has his Light attribute buff, but this buff has 2 main competitors in Grah and Melchio who are both very good units in their own right. Melchio's more solid than Eric overall but Eric has the advantage of being a dark type over Melchio (so he's not weak to the dark units he buffs against), Grah's another story though. He's both free, available to everyone AND a dark unit with a very good leader skill so Eric probably finds it quite difficult to compete with the old man.

• Finally Eric has a 2BC/turn BB gauge fill buff... which is pretty unimpressive really. I mean, 2BC, really? Just use a Lodin.

• Overall, no matter how I try to spin it, Eric is just a mediocre unit, he has too many flaws to be considered on any optimal team and while he's useable as a damage dealer on single targets if you don't run a crit leader, even still he's not best in slot.

• If you decide to use him though, it's either because you desperately need his Light buff, or you love his design which are perfectly good reasons.

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'.

• I think Breaker for Eric is best, he gets a lot of mileage from the extra ATK with his damage modifiers.

• Anima second. REC is strong enough to handle the drop.

• Lord in the middle

• Oracle doesn't drop his ATK which would really hurt Eric so this is fourth.

• Finally Guardian since that attack penalty hurts Eric quite a lot and his defences are already fine.

That's it guys, only one more ( Maxwell) to go now!

As always, I welcome your comments/criticims/encouragements. If you enjoyed the read, please drop an upvote on your way out, I'd really appreciate the support.

Until next time!

Links to previous Analyses