User blog:Linathan/Unit Spotlight: Indigo Soul Iris

[[Indigo Soul Iris}]
[Leader Skill] Heavenly God's Sanctuary ( High probable damage reduction when guarding, greatly boosts BB gauge when guarding & probable slight damage reduction )

[Brave Burst] Frozen Thorn's Edge (12 combo powerful Water attack on all foes, adds Fire, Water elements to attack for 3 turns & slightly reduces Fire, Earth elemental damage for 2 turns ; Cost: 24 BC, DC: 15 BC)

[Super Brave Burst] Kalt Grausamkeit (15 combo powerful Water attack on all foes, adds Fire, Water elements to attack, 1 turn Atk, Def reduction for 3 turns & slightly reduces Fire, Earth elemental damage for 2 turns ; Cost: 22 BC, DC: 17 BC)

[Ultimate Brave Burst] Frigid Dark Cross (20 combo massive Water attack on all foes, boosts fire, Water elemental damage for 3 turns & enormously reduces Fire, Earth damage for 2 turns ; Cost: 20 BC, DC: 20 BC)

[Extra Skill] Eternal Wish & Changing Mind (Raises normal hit count )

Note: Elemental mitigation will be discussed as stacking multiplicatively, not additively. Currently, in Brave Frontier Global, only UBB buffs stack multiplicatively.

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
So, we finally receive a unit with elemental mitigation on BB/SBB! Interesting!

Does that make Trial EX1 and Trial EX2 a joke? Ehhhh? Maybe? Somewhat? Well, the only way is to find out ourselves!

Leader Skill
Score: 7/10

Iris has some guarding mechanics built into her Leader Skill. However, these guarding effects prove to be too unreliable. Iris provides the squad with an innate 20% chance of reducing 20% of the damage taken. You can easily replicate this effect by using a Blessed Robe. Though, due to the unreliable chance that this effect has, it's not worth taking up a Leader Skill slot. It's also considering the fact that there are units with innate mitigation Leader Skills, such as Grahdens, Cardes, and Tridon. Some of them listed may have lower mitigation effects and limited elements to mitigate, but they are much more reliable due to the fact that it does not rely on RNG to activate the mitigation effect.

Secondly, comes guarding. This reduces overall damage by 65% when guarding (50% base + 15% from LS). This is very good in certain situations where guarding is necessary. However, units shouldn't rely on guarding as they will not be able to attack. Though, there is a use for guarding as it helps recover 5 BC when guarding. This is actually better than using Balgran as a lead as Iris reduces 15% more damage when guarding compared to Balgran who reduces 10% more damage when guarding.

Brave Burst
Score: 8/10

Iris's BB utilizes a 300% damage modifier, which is higher than the typical modifier that most 7* units use. Iris's damage output will be very high thanks to her high damage modifier and her high Atk stat.

Iris also provides Fire and Water elements to attacks. This is very great for type coverage. When possessing two or more elements, units cannot deal weak damage.

On the topic of elements, Iris mitigates 10% of the damage taken from Fire and Earth enemies. This might sound like a weak mitigation buff with limited elements to target, but it can actually stack with the 50% mitigation you see from units, like Darvanshel, Zeldeus, Aaron, Elimo, etc. Suppose you are facing against Lugina. With BB mitigation and Iris's elemental mitigation active, 55% of the damage taken from Lugina will be mitigated. Pretty neat, huh?

Super Brave Burst
Score: 8/10

Iris's SBB utilizes a 540% damage modifier, which is a much higher damage modifier than the typical 500% SBB damage modifier that most 7* units use. Damage output will be very high thanks to her high damage modifier and her high Atk stat.

Iris essentially takes her BB effects and adds more effects and make it a SBB. Like her SBB, Iris provides Fire and Water elements to attacks, which are very great for type coverage and for preventing your units from dealing weak damage. Units will have a bigger variety of enemies to deal strong damage against. Next comes the 10% elemental mitigation, which is very good for stacking with normal mitigation buffs used by units, like Narza, Shera, Edea, etc.

Then comes the Atk and Def reduction debuffs. Iris only has a 10% chance of inflicting these debuffs. That is ridiculously low. Even worse, it only reduces by 20%. Another thing to add is that Def Down is useless when there ignore-Def BB/SBB buffs that have a guaranteed chance of inflicting.

Ultimate Brave Burst
Score: 9/10

Iris's UBB utilizes a 1200% damage modifier, which is higher than average. Considering Iris has high Atk, the damage output will be high.

This UBB is rather selective. It boosts Fire and Water elemental damage by 400%. Now, this is a very great and significant boost in damage. This means that the damage will become multiplied by 5.5 (50% base + 400% from Iris’s UBB = 450%). Though this UBB has a ton of damage utility, it’s only limited to damage dealt by Fire and Water units, greatly limiting the usage of this UBB. Because of this, there’s not much usage coming from this UBB unless the quest is suited for players that can easily take advantage of this UBB. Perhaps, this is most useful in GGC: Lance, GGC: Vargas, Trial EX1, etc.

Next, comes the 100% mitigation from Fire and Earth enemies. While this is great, it is only limited to Fire and Earth damage. When looking at Magress’s UBB, his UBB mitigates 100% of the damage taken from any enemy. Granted that Magress’s UBB doesn’t provide any damage utility for the squad, he has a much wider selection (in fact, every enemy) of enemies to tank hits.

Of course, this all does not mean that Iris’s UBB is absolutely useless because of other units overshadowing her limited utility. Iris still proves to be a very formidable unit. However, it’s because her selection is limited which further hinders the overall usage of this UBB.

Extra Skill
Score: 8/10

More units with double hit count Extra Skills? Sure!

Simply said, Iris receives an additional normal hit count. In theory, this is equivalent to a doubled normal hit count. With this, her damage and Drop Checks become doubled, significantly boosting damage dealt and BC production.

Now how about we take her normal hit count to a much higher level?

Arena
Score: 9/10

Iris has a 32 BC normal attack Drop Check, which is very good to use in Arena. With the Extra Skill active, Iris’s hit count becomes doubled, which doubles her normal attack damage and Drop Checks. With a 64 BC Drop Check, Iris is bound to produce more than enough BC to support the squad. With doubled normal attack damage, Iris becomes destructive, which contributes to why she plays a significant role on the first turn of the battle, much like Raaga, Bestie, etc.

However, Iris’s Leader Skill is next to useless in Arena. Her Leader Skill focuses on buffs that rely on guarding. In Arena, there is no way to guard, which already downfalls this Leader Skill. There’s the probable damage reduction, but it’s not reliable as it relies on RNG for it to work.

Stats
Score: 10/10

Iris has pretty balanced stats. Her high HP helps her to survive well. Her Atk is higher by a few tens of points and her Def is shy of a few tens of points. Her Rec is also very good, allowing her to recover a great amount of HP.

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

Anima > Guardian > Lord > Breaker > Oracle

Usefulness
Score: 7/10

Iris is too selective. There’s only so many Fire, Water, and Earth enemies out there and for Iris to only focus on, limiting her overall usage. A fortunate thing is that her elemental mitigation is stackable with the normal 50% mitigation. However, because mitigation buffs are multiplicative to each other, this buff becomes less potent. Thus, it’s not an essential buff to have in a squad. Indeed, more mitigation never hurts to have, but due to the fact her utility focuses on certain elements, it’s rather hard to utilize the extra mitigation provided.

However, for those stuck in the first three EX trials, Iris can come to use as her utility perfectly matches up against the enemies encountered there.

Sphere Recommendations

 * Occult Treasure & Heresy Orb
 * Occult Treasure & Impiety Orb
 * Occult Treasure & Sacred Crystal

Conclusion
Total Score: 8.3/10

With Iris being the first unit to utilize elemental mitigation, how will you use her? Will you be using elemental mitigation? Yes! No!

Comment below on what you think of Iris! How will you use her? Do you think elemental mitigation is useful? Leave a comment 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:
 * Grave Carver Aaron
 * Indomitable Flare Griff
 * Dark Legend Magress
 * Turbo Wings Nemethgear