User blog:Linathan/Unit Spotlight: Eldritch Rocker Haido

Summary
Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Year as we enter in a new era with more salt and only salt! Okay, that was a bit overboard. We gotta admit Brave Frontier has had some of the most ridiculous salt fests during 2016. Maybe not as much as those times in November 2014 and July 2015, but every little bit of it adds up. Enough rambling on. We are talking about one of the best free units to ever come to the game to this date, Haido.

Leader Skill
Score: 9/10

As a free unit, Haido provides one of the greatest Leader Skills viable in even some of the hardest content out there in the entire game. Haido starts with a 50% HP and Def boost, which is very solid even if it’s losing out on Atk and Rec.

What’s incredible is that Haido gets access to a probable 20% damage mitigation buff. Yes, it’s a bit unreliable, but a 20% chance to reduce this damage is huge for a free unit. Lara carries this exact buff and she is still a prominent lead to use in today’s metagame. Only thing that Haido is lacking in comparison to Lara is the ignore-Def damage null. Besides, the squad is going to be pummeled with a bunch of enemy hits, which means that the 20% mitigation buff is bound to proc the more your units are being hit. Statistically, the more trials (in this case, your units being hit) are being performed, the more normal the distribution will be as close to the actual probability. Additionally, if you utilize two Haido leads, that’s a combined 24% chance of proccing the 20% mitigation buff, which isn’t nearly as high as desired, making Ark the preferred partnering lead to Haido.

Haido also provides a 50% BB fill rate buff, which is amazing in non-resisted content, making BC a lot more effective. Comboing this with some form of BC drop rate buff will make this a lot better. Haido also gets access to one of the best HoT buffs on Leader Skill. This base healing recovers roughly at least half of what Selena’s SBB HoT buff, which is one of the best in the game, heals for. This counters a great deal of DoT debuffs out there and best of all, this effect stacks with other HoT buffs, making it a lot easier to counter the most harsh DoT debuffs including Seria’s DoT debuff in Strategy Zone.

Brave Burst
Score: 8/10

Haido doesn’t carry any means of damage output with this BB due to the fact that he doesn’t attack with it. Instead, Haido heals the squad with a variety of HP utility.

Haido carries some of the most amazing heals in the game as a free unit. Simply put, it’s a free version of Rozalia’s BB with the omitting of BB utility. While he doesn’t carry as much utility as Rozalia, Haido still heals for a hefty amount as a free unit. This includes his burst heal, his HoT buff, and the status cleansing. Albeit the lack of a status immunity buff, Haido partners well with Holia if she has the status immunity buff unlocked as an enhancement.

The Atk Down debuff is a bit of an added bonus that won’t proc necessarily as much, but every little bit of it counts. There are other units that can help contribute to inflicting Atk Down, such as Alice, Rain, Ensa (only if you combo her random BB with Alice), Izuna, etc.

Super Brave Burst
Score: 8/10

Haido receives an attacking BB with this SBB. Damage is relatively standard but reasonable especially as a free unit. This SBB caters more to Dark units, as Haido boosts Atk and Def by 80%, which is very solid for a bonus buff that can stack with standard stat buffs. It’s not common to see mono-element squads, considering they ask for specific units to fit into the squad. It can be rather taxing to have to use specific units to fit into a mono-element squad, especially mitigators considering there are currently only two Omni Dark mitigators in the game, being Magress and Johan. Consider this a bonus whenever this applies to any Dark units your squad may have.

Haido becomes one of the few free units that has access to a barrier buff. Other free barrier buffers include Ark, Gazia, and Lance. This barrier is not too shabby considering 3000 HP is relatively standard compared to other barriers. It’s not necessarily an essential buff to carry, but it definitely helps wherever it comes into play.

Haido also has access to HoT. Normally, it isn’t that much of a big deal considering Rec is where you get the most out of your healing. Haido loses against Selena and Juno-Seto, who both have the option to enhance their HoT buffs with their SP enhancements. It’s still not a shabby buff to utilize, since the amount healed is relatively very similar with each other.

Haido also has a 30% chance of reducing enemy Atk by 50%, which is great considering this is one of the highest stat debuffs in the game currently on BB/SBB. It helps to reduce damage and can counter well against enemies with high Atk buffs.

Ultimate Brave Burst
Score: 7/10

Haido gets to pull off standard UBB damage with the 1500% damage modifier. However, the buffs seem rather a bit underwhelming for a UBB. Let’s explain in full detail.

Haido provides elemental damage null for three turns, which is great and all, but what’s the point in relying on this UBB to provide elemental null for your squad when you can provide it every turn or two? Gabriela has the option to enhance her negations to elemental damage, critical damage, Atk, Def, and Rec reductions for two turns. It’s rather unreasonable to rely on this UBB to have to get just elemental damage null up for three turns instead of two. This also includes the other buffs, which are better provided by other units that can serve the role much better.

50 BC regen is great for Haido, but there are other units that provide more useful buffs than the other buffs that Haido provides. Lauda can provide the same BB regen buff in addition to providing a massive load of damage utility for the squad. Sirius can do the same thing as well, but with 75% mitigation and a massive tri-buff for the squad. Having a 20000 HP barrier does not equate to mitigation, as it will not matter much when taking ultimate attacks that deal a ton of damage or massive fixed damage, be it percentage or valued. Same goes for the 80% Atk reduction effect. While stat reductions are great for lowering the enemy damage output, there are some immunities that may exist in harder content.

This UBB can be great for survival, but not so much in harder content where mitigation and Def buffs are key to winning. It’s a bit cost-heavy, considering it costs a whopping 35 BC, which is more than the average UBB and can be troublesome in BC-resistance-heavy content. Haido’s Extra Skill sphere does help with reducing that amount to 30 BC, but it’s still a lot of BC required to use.

Extra Skill
Score: 9/10

Haido’s Extra Skill is one of the prime reasons why Haido has so many opportunities to have some of the highest parameters in the game. The Golden Heart allows Haido to gain a respectable amount of BB gauge momentum to make up for his expensive BC costs. It also provides a total 45% to all parameters, which doesn’t even count for the 20% extra parameters that Haido can take with enhancements.

Haido also adds in an extra bit of BB utility by recovering 4 BC per turn, which works well with the BC cost reduction effect that appears on Golden Heart.

Arena
Score: 7/10

Haido doesn’t seem too fit in the Arena metagame, especially considering his BB doesn’t attack, leaving highly unreliable remarks. Having a non-attacking BB may risk the squad in losing when the battle might have otherwise been won if it was an attacking BB. Not the ideal unit to be carrying around with unless you can effectively fill the SBB gauge to pull off an attack. Even if you wanted to utilize heals using Haido, other units like Gabriela, Holia, Selena, and Juno are able to recover while pulling off an attack.

Haido does have potential as a lead role, considering Haido carries the 50% HP and Def boost and the probable 20% mitigation. There’s also the 50% BB fill rate, which will help with filling the SBB gauge. However, despite having all of these effects, Lara can effectively provide all of these effects and still do a much better job with performing as a sub-unit, especially given the fact that she can attack with both her BB and SBB. Lara loses out on the 50% BB fill rate buff, but utilizing more of other BB utility effects such as BB-on-hit will benefit the squad even more, especially during the 2nd round.

Stats
Score: 8/10

Very high Rec and decently high Def. HP and Atk are roughly around average.

In terms of typing, my type preference for Haido is…

This unit is only available as a Lord type.

Usefulness
Score: 8/10.

Haido definitely has his uses, especially being an OD filler. He carries HoT buffs, which make it perfect for countering most DoT debuffs in the game. Haido doesn’t as much utility can’t compare much to prominent OD fillers in the metagame, such as Zalts, Zeruiah, etc. Units like Zalts, Zeruiah, Galtier, and much more provide more utility that fills in more roles than what Haido can fill in. On the other hand, what makes Haido unique is that he is the only HoT buffer that has access to OD fill. He is rather more of the healer variant to Rengaku, another one of the units that can OD fill. Rengaku has access to multiple means of BB utility while providing OD fills.

In terms of hard content, Haido can definitely handle well in hard content. If the squad carries enough buffs to fit him in, Haido can definitely serve as a potential OD filler for the squad. What’s really holding Haido back is the lack of more essential buffs to make him a good team player.

SP Enhancements
Score: 8/10

See SP Enhancement Options: Eldritch Rocker Haido

Haido gains access to a variety of buffs in the game to expand his kit. Unfortunately, most of them are either overshadowed by other units or unnecessary. The BC drop rate buff is a prime example of both an overshadowed and an unnecessary buff. Units like Zalts, Zelnite, and Rengaku outclass this buff mainly because they can provide both BC and HC, even at a higher potency for the BC drop rate buff. Quite frankly, Haido isn’t going to cut it let alone just providing a BC drop rate buff without its counterpart being the HC drop rate buff.

Haido also has access to a Def buff, which is practically unnecessary because tri-buffs are already essential to a squad lineup for hard content. Units like Sirius, Azurai, Daze, and a bunch of other units provide three stat boosts at once, being Atk, Def, and Rec. Even if the Def buff beats the tri-buffs by 10% or 20%, depending on how other units are enhanced, the difference means very little. Because this is a meta where buffs have high potency, little differences in buff values, especially for stat buffs, will barely matter.

Haido gains access to an OD fill, which will help him immensely in terms of usability. This effect is what makes UBB so relevant in the game. It’s an expensive SP option to take, but it’s much better to take this over other SP options that deem to be very inefficient.

Sphere Recommendations

 * Golden Heart & Courage Aegis
 * Golden Heart & Growth Device
 * Golden Heart & Curative Device
 * Golden Heart & Dragon Eye
 * Golden Heart & Growth Device

Conclusion
Total Score: 8.0/10

Definitely one of the viable units in hard content, especially considering he’s free! Husbando much? I think so! Nah.

Comment below on what you think of Haido! How was your new year? Did you enjoy 2016? How do you feel about the upcoming year? 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:
 * Silent Sentinel Silvie
 * Infinity Starsage Zeruiah
 * Doombringer Azurai
 * Dancing Flames Rengaku