Hey guys, welcome to the latest New Unit Analysis! Today we'll be having a look at Mariudeth, the latest heavy hitter to be released in 6* form.

We'll see how Mariudeth performs against other heavy hitters and crit team members and then we'll take a look at his current role in the metagame and his future prospects.

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. :>

Axe God Mariudeth vs. Dilma, Kajah, Duel-SGX Maxwell

Mariudeth's stats:

Lord: HP 6071 ATK 2354 DEF 1804 REC 1543

Max imp bonuses: HP 750 ATK 240 DEF 240 REC 420

LS: Chance to ignore DEF when attacking, increase critical hit damage (Ignore DEF chance 15%, critical hit damage 100%)

Hit count: 4 (drop check count 5/hit)

BB: 3 hit single target Water damage and boost critical hit rate of all allies for 3 turns (22BC to fill, crit rate 40%, drop check count 6/hit, damage modifier 450%)

SBB: 3 hit multiple target Water damage and boost critical hit rate of all allies for 3 turns (47BC to fill, crit rate 45%, drop check count 5/hit, damage modifier 580%)

• Honestly pretty amazing stats on the whole, phenomenal base ATK (highest in the game to this date) with great DEF and very acceptable HP to back it up. His REC suffers a little but is still at a high enough level that it's sufficient. Unfortunately his Imp bonus caps have a weird distribution that favours REC which patches up his 'weakness' but means that the likes of Kajah and Hogar catch up and overtake him slightly in ATK power after max imps. LS is pretty good, despite lacking the sheer power of Maxwell or Zebra, it's still one of the best offensive leader skills in the game, that's how good crit damage is. His normal attack has 20 drop checks in total which is above average so he's no slouch in BC generation. His BB and SBB are all about doing massive amounts of damage with very high damage modifiers and a pretty powerful crit buff as well.

• First up for comparison today is the wonderful Dilma. Compared to the monk with many hidden abilities, Mariudeth has better HP ( 15), ATK ( 150) and DEF ( 325) but less REC (-495). Mariudeth's definitely bulkier than Dilma with superior DEF but basically equivalent HP and the REC advantage Dilma has isn't really significant in practice particularly once you factor in Mariudeth's rather high imp cap. At a glance, Mariudeth also has significantly higher ATK but Dilma's Imp cap is higher and after max imps, they're roughly equivalent in offensive power (only about 10 points between them). Prior to that, Mariudeth wins in power though. Overall Mariudeth probably still takes it due to his superior bulk but it's not by a huge margin. Their normal attacks are identical pretty much, which is pretty cool. Comparing their BBs/SBBs, they do identical damage, same damage modifier, same base ATK, same spark potential. Dilma has a whole string of hidden buffs to go with his SBB though including an innate crit bonus, innate BC drop rate bonus and a total drop check count of 24 (compared to Mariudeth's 15). Dilma also has his DEF ignore buff which is generally pretty useless but has some niche circumstances where it becomes very important (e.g. the recent Trial of the Gods event) as well as his 3 turn self-full restore which is great on paper but probably not too useful on a OHKO team like these two are likely to be on. In addition Dilma has his 40BC fill rate which is faster than Mariudeth's 47BC and hits an important threshold because Dilma can be filled from 0 by Tilith while Mariudeth can not. Mariudeth in contrast really only has his crit buff going for him, but it's powerful enough that it makes him a serious contender for the damage dealing spot. Overall, Dilma probably wins in terms of usefulness as a damage dealer with his various fantastic attributes (seriously, he's SUCH a good unit), but Mariudeth should be considered for use if you want to make use of his crit buff which frees up that buffing spot for another unit.

• Next up for comparison is Kajah. Compared to the least evil of all evil Gods, Mariudeth has better stats in every category: HP ( 10), ATK ( 130), DEF ( 55), REC ( 190). So really quite impressive on Mariudeth's part even though none of the differences are particularly large. Once imps come into play though, Kajah catches up quite a bit, overtaking Mariudeth in ATK but still losing slightly in bulk and falling further behind in REC. Overall, the difference between the two is slight to start with and might swing just slightly in Kajah's favour because of his slightly better ATK (most important stat for these 2 units) after imps, but only just. Comparing their SBBs, Kajah's damage modifier is higher than Mariudeth's at 720% vs. Mariudeth's 580% and that combined with his higher ATK after imps means that he has significantly better damage potential than Mariudeth. However, Kajah's SBB is 15 hits, and sparking all 15 of those hits is easier said than done so it'll be quite rare for Kajah to reach his full damage potential, while Mariudeth's 3 hits will almost always result in full spark damage being factored in which often times will probably elevate him to equal or greater damage than Kajah. In terms of auxiliary effects, it's Kajah's Injury effect vs. Mariudeth's crit buff and with some clever sphere work, Mariudeth's crit buff probably has more utility overall and importantly, Mariudeth's SBB does not have an obnoxious fill rate. I'm going to give this comparison to the Axe God by a small margin.

• Thirdly is Duel-SGX. Compared to our crab turned scorpion, Mariudeth has better HP ( 395), ATK ( 760) and REC ( 25) only losing in DEF (-30). That tiny DEF advantage of SGX has no effect whatsoever and I don't even need to consider imps to tell you that Mariudeth is the better unit statistically. Comparing their SBBs, these two units are up for comparison because they both provide a crit buff. SGX has been the premiere crit buffing unit for quite a while now with few units that can challenge him. Mariudeth gives it a pretty damn good shot though. Like Aisha, Mariudeth has a 45% crit rate buff which SGX beats with his 60% crit buff. On paper Maridueth outright loses, but with the Amanohabaken available for crafting, Mariudeth (and actually probably Aisha as well) becomes serious competition for Duel-SGX's slot since crit rate caps at 70%, so non-crit resistant foes will face the same crit rate from Mariudeth's crit buff after Amanohabaken is factored in. Meanwhile Mariudeth is just a better unit than SGX outside of the crit buff, dealing much larger amounts of damage and still maintaining reasonable BC generation at 15 drop checks vs. SGX's 20. SGX is not without his merits though since he also provides the important dark attribute buff and is overall easier to maintain with 33BC required for his SBB. If you're not in need of the dark attribute buff and want to free up slots for more damaging units, Mariudeth would be the crit buffer of choice. Otherwise, SGX is definitely still relevant. Plus Amanohabakens are a pain to craft and without them, Mariudeth becomes a lot less optimal.

• Finally today we have the infamous Maxwell. Compared to the Creator, Mariudeth has better ATK ( 355) but loses in every other stat: HP (-130), DEF (-195) and REC (-455). Overpowered? Not really actually, Maxwell's base stats are stupidly good, but his imp caps are terrible, all of them being below average. After factoring in imps, Mariudeth actually ends up having better HP ( 120), widens the gap in ATK ( 395) and narrows the gap in DEF (-155) and REC (-235) so as you can see, it becomes much more even and actually probably in Mariudeth's favour overall since that ATK difference is significant. Maxwell however, is renowned for not only having great stats, but for having a REALLY good leader skill. Even with the nerf to elemental buff mechanics, in terms of damage augmenting leader skills, there is no one better than Maxwell, affecting two really strong modifiers (crit damage and elemental weakness damage) significantly. Mariudeth's LS is quite good, but is outright inferior to Maxwell's so she definitely wins here. Comparing their SBBs, Mariudeth will do more damage despite the lower damage modifier ( 580% vs. 660%) since he has higher base ATK and he'll be able to spark all his hits while Maxwell won't. He also wins in crit buff potency ( 45% vs. 30%). Maxwell's 33 hits has its own advantages though, being a fantastic unit to spark WITH and she also wins in terms of BC generation, particularly if the JPBF Maxwell buff (66 drop checks!) ever hits global shores. Overall that leader skill is too good to pass up for damage and on OHKO teams, Maxwell is basically essential while Mariudeth is 'merely' excellent so this comparison goes to Maxwell.

• A very powerful unit that you should be proud to own and definitely someone you should consider having a spot on your crit/weakness team.

Mariudeth: Indepth Look

• Powerful stats. Highest base ATK in the game is impressive, rest of the stats aren't shabby either.

• Terrible Imp distribution though, REC heavy with below average ATK/DEF and average HP. Still ends up with pretty top tier stats overall though. Wish his ATK cap was higher though.

• Leader skill is really nice. Oversight on my part to dismiss it in the batch analysis, apologies. Even though it's directly inferior to Maxwell's, other than Zebra's LS, it's one of the best damage augmenting leader skills in the game because stacking crit damage is amazing. Certainly better than ATK leader skills and even better than spark leader skills because the highest spark boosting LS is 75%.

• With the nerf to Global Zebra, Mariudeth is now definitely an option to consider over the former king of crit. While Zebra still has a stronger LS at 150%, Mariudeth comes much closer now with his 100% crit damage effect and is much better all round otherwise. Still loses to Maxwell though.

• Normal attack is above average. 20 drop checks is pretty good, but not spectacular. Good enough that he's pretty formidable in the Arena though, particularly with ATK of his calibur. Single target BB is a slight hindrance though.

• We'll talk about Mariudeth's SBB mostly since his BB is basically an inferior, single target version of his SBB with a lower fill cost.

• Mariudeth's SBB is pretty amazing, a damage modifier of 580% automatically puts him in the upper echelon of damage dealers and his sky high base ATK cements him there. Just unfortunate that his imp cap means he can't take the title of highest damage dealer, but the difference is pretty small between the top damage dealers so he does just fine.

• His competition as a damage dealer are the following units: Dilma, Hogar, Kajah, Azael. Loch and Gravion are outright inferior and Maxwell's actually almost there but held back by her 'low' base ATK and high hit count (which reduces the effectiveness of spark for herself - great for the rest of the team though).

• Of these, Dilma and Hogar are fierce competitors who win in a lot of situations if you don't have a use for his crit buff since they have tonnes of innate bonuses, great BC generation and 40BC fill rate (which is perfect for Tilith based strategies)

• Kajah technically has the highest damage potential in the game, but that'll be limited by your skill at sparking him and his fill rate is terrible so Mariudeth might have an edge over this guy.

• No matter what though, Mariudeth is top 5 for damage, easily. That's no mean feat.

• Obviously makes him well-suited for Maxwell/Zebra/Mare led crit/weakness teams but he's fine on any team since his BC generation isn't bad and his fill rate isn't atrocious

• The other component of Mariudeth's SBB is his crit buff. At 45% it's very strong, the second strongest after Duel-SGX (until Olna squeezes in above him when she's released at 50%).

• With the Amanohabaken ( 75% ATK for 2 turns, 20% crit rate) in play, Mariudeth hits the crit cap (70%) easily for every unit after factoring in base crit so he performs basically just as well as Duel-SGX as a crit buffer unless the opponent has crit resistance somewhere between 5-90% (and most enemies either have 0 or 100% so this is rarer than it looks).

• This means Mariudeth is a very viable replacement for SGX, providing a good crit buff AND actually dealing good damage to boot if you have the means to craft that sphere. But remember that SGX frees up sphere slots for other options and provides some other useful things as well so he's far from obsolete just yet.

• In terms of future prospects, damage wise, I've listed his competition, so he'll have to worry about Hogar in the future, otherwise not many units come close to touching him.

• As a crit buffer, the main future concern is Olna who provides 2 elemental buffs, a more powerful crit buff and actually has really great stats and a good damage modifier to boot.

• Overall, a really strong unit who is probably underrated by a lot of summoners. Definitely worth giving him a shot.

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'.

• Mariudeth is all about the damage, Breaker's definitely his best typing.

• Barring that, Anima's nice even with his low-ish REC since that's easily saved by his above average Imp cap and extra HP is always welcome.

• Lord preserves his ATK and doesn't sacrifice anything to do so

• Oracle preserves his ATK but has to sacrifice some HP to do so

• Finally Guardian isn't really a type that fits Mariudeth well but he'll still hit like a truck anyway so as always, typing doesn't really matter.

That's it guys! Hope that was useful. :>

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

Until next time!

Links to previous Analyses