User blog:Linathan/Unit Spotlight: Cyclonic Blades Dion

Cyclonic Blades Dion
[Leader Skill] Flashing Divine Radiance ( Greatly boosts critical hit damage & hugely boosts damage dealt to weaker elements by Earth and Thunder types )

[Brave Burst] Gryps Tempest (15 combo powerful Earth attack on all enemies & boosts critical hit rate for 3 turns ; Cost: 22 BC, DC: 15 BC)

[Super Brave Burst] Pulsating Green Heaven (17 combo powerful Earth attack on all enemies & boosts BB Atk for 3 turns ; Cost: 20 BC, DC: 17 BC)

[Ultimate Brave Burst] Green Hurricane Blossom (20 combo massive Earth attack on all enemies & boosts Spark damage for 3 turns ; Cost: 25 BC, DC: 20 BC)

[Extra Skill] Galloping Tempest ( Boosts critical hit damage )

About Scoring System
For my analyses, I enforce a scoring system. Each category is out of 10 points. The final score will be the average of all of the category scores. Note that my analyses are based on my opinion. You are free to agree or disagree with the points that I have here. The categories are listed below: Typing will be under stats.
 * Leader Skill
 * Brave Burst
 * Super Brave Burst (only for 6* units and above)
 * Ultimate Brave Burst (only for 7* units)
 * Extra Skill (only for 7* units)
 * Arena
 * Stats
 * Usefulness

Note: Scoring will be different for 7* units compared to 6* units due to the fact that 7* units have two more categories than 6* units. For example, a 6* unit with an 8.5 rating cannot be compared with a 7* unit with a 7.5 rating.

Summary
A wild Kira appeared!

But this is Dion we're talking about. He's a variant of Kira where Dion is focused on Earth and Thunder units. Wonder if we're going to get a variant that focuses on Fire and Water. That'd be nice.

Leader Skill
Score: 8/10

Dion's Leader Skill boosts critical damage by 150% and elemental weakness damage by 125%. Both of these damage boosts exceed Maxwell's damage boosts by 25% each. The critical damage boost is really nice as this applies to everyone. Here comes the disappointing part of this Leader Skill. The elemental weakness damage boost only applies to Earth and Thunder units. This limits your team to Earth and Thunder units if you plan on utilizing the full effect of this Leader Skill.

Since Earth and Thunder units are the only units benefiting from the elemental weakness damage boost, the only enemies that will be receiving more damage from the elemental weakness damage boost are Water and Thunder enemies. Elemental changers, you say? These do not work. Elemental weakness damage boosts will only apply to the unit's original element. For example, you cannot use Shida's elemental buff to allow your Light and Dark units to deal more damage to other types.

Without a doubt, Dion's Leader Skill is very good, but very limited.

Brave Burst
Score: 8/10

This BB mostly resembles Kira's BB. This BB increases critical rate by 60%. The crit rate buff is currently the best in the game, hitting the critical rate cap (70%). This means you do not have to equip critical spheres like Amanohabaken, Havoc Axe, and Death Axe to your units.

The damage output is pretty good too. With Dion's high Atk and his 280% BB damage modifier, Dion will be dealing tons of damage. Neat, huh?

However, unlike Kira and Colt, Dion only provides the 60% critical rate buff with no other effects. On the other hand, Kira also provides ignore-Def and Colt also provides a 3 BC regen. Dion is the only one of the 7* crit buffers who lacks effects in addition to his 60% critical rate buff.

Super Brave Burst
Score: 8/10

Dion's SBB utilizes a 500% damage modifier, which is the average damage modifier for 7* units. He boosts the damage modifiers of BB, SBB, and UBB by 200%. Comparing damage calculations between with and without the buff, the difference in damage is quite big.

Keep in mind that this buff is additive to all damage modifiers. For Dion's case, his SBB damage modifier becomes 700% (500% SBB damage modifier + 200% from buff).

But is that really all Dion has to offer with his SBB? It's rather troublesome to alternate between BB and SBB in order to get the 60% critical rate buff and the 200% damage modifier buff.

Ultimate Brave Burst
Score: 9/10

Dion's UBB utilizes a 1000% damage modifier, which is a typical modifier that most 7* Rare Summon units use. Additionally, Dion provides a 150% Spark buff. This is currently the best Spark buff in the game on UBB. With a Spark buff this high, the damage output of the squad will drastically increase if units are able to Spark well.

As amazing as this may sound, you cannot Spark every hit you deal. This makes it hard for this UBB to be worth the trouble filling the Overdrive Gauge for.

Extra Skill
Score: 8/10

Dion's critical damage gets a nice 100% boost. This allows Dion to deal more damage while landing a critical hit. Unfortunately, this relies on RNG as crits don't always happen, regardless of how high the critical rate is. It's also important to note that the critical rate cap is 70%, which does not guarantee a critical hit landing from Dion.

It's also important to note that Dion can only provide his 60% critical rate buff on his BB and not his SBB.

This Extra Skill is very good, but hard to utilize when Dion is the only present critical buffer of the squad.

Arena
Score: 8/10

Dion has a nice normal attack Drop Check of 24 BC. This is very good as it can contribute to filling everyone's BB gauges ready for the second turn. It might not be the best Drop Check, but it's good enough to use in Arena. At least it's higher than average, right?

Dion's Leader Skill is very limited in Arena and since Arena teams are generally diverse, using only Earth and Thunder units to take on opponents isn't advised. There is the critical damage boost, but that is only if you deal critical hits. If you're really unlucky, your team might not deal any critical hits at all.

Stats
Score: 9/10

Overall, Dion's stats remain high and balanced, all of which overly exceed the average points for every stat. Dion's Atk is the most noticeable stat in his stat pool, being slightly superior over his Def. With high stats, Dion has a much better time surviving, dealing damage, and recovering HP.

In terms of typing, my type preference for Dion is...

Anima > Guardian > Lord > Breaker > Oracle

Usefulness
Score: 7/10

We've seen quite a number of crit leads throughout the game and it's interesting to see each one of them serve different purposes. Kira centralizes in dealing with Light and Dark enemies, but Dion, on the other hand, centralizes in dealing with Water and Thunder enemies.

As a sub, Dion can provide a variety of buffs. He provides the 60% critical rate buff with his BB. This allows the player to deal tons of damage by relying on the 70% critical rate. However, as high as 70% may seem, there's still a 30% chance of not landing a critical. He also provides the 200% damage modifier buff with his SBB, which also significantly increases damage dealt.

However, unlike other 7* units, Dion seems to only apply one type of effect on his BB, SBB, and UBB. This doesn't help Dion with providing utility for the squad as he has to constantly alternate between his BB and SBB to receive his benefits.

Conclusion
Total Score: 8.1/10

Dion and Kira... wouldn't that be a great battle?

Battle of the Criticals! Who would win? Kira Dion

Comment below on what you think of Dion! How do you use him in your squads? Leave them in the comments down below!

Check out my list of analyses in [http://bravefrontierglobal.wikia.com/wiki/User_blog:Linathan/Spotlights:_Table_of_Contents! Spotlights: Table of Contents!]

Check out my other Unit Spotlights:
 * Frolic Emperor Kira
 * Cyclone Emperor Tazer
 * Creator Maxwell
 * Glacier Twin-Blade Colt