User blog:Linathan/Unit Spotlight: Cardes the Malevolent

Cardes the Malevolent
[Leader Skill] Manipulator's Ambition (Reduces amount of BB gauge  needed to activate BB & 20% reduction in damage from Light & Dark Types)

[Brave Burst] Hidden Dimension (15 combo powerful Light attack on all enemies; Cost: 20 BC, DC: 30 BC)

[Super Brave Burst] Endless (33 combo massive Dark attack on all enemies & boost in Def  for 3 turns; Cost: 29 BC, DC: 33 BC)

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

Summary
Cardes, the second of the Fallen Gods and the mock unit obtainable from Trial 004, forged a great battle against the four warriors of Palmyna. Due to the warriors' immense power, Cardes was sealed and his power was vastly weakened. Like Maxwell, Cardes creates an Endless history of the wreckage he caused to Grand Gaia. Once defeated by the summoner in Palmyna's Spirit World and again in Trial 004, Cardes proves to be a rather useful and interesting candidate in your squad.

Leader Skill
Score: 9/10

Cardes's real use is his Leader Skill. He can give a 25-30% cashback to BB gauge. This is very useful if one were to use Tilith, especially with double Cardes leads. As we all know, Tilith requries a hefty 75 BC to fill her BB gauge. With double Cardes leads, Tilith will require only 30-37.5 BC to activate her BB gauge after use.

Another important thing to note is that Cardes has the highest mitigation Leader Skill against Light and Dark enemies. This is very useful against those enemies, especially in Trials where Light and Dark enemies are most common there. Using double Cardes leads will provide a 40% reduction in damage from Light and Dark enemies, which is fairly close to 50% mitigation. Speaking of which, if you apply 50% mitigation with double Cardes, you will be mitigating a total of 90% damage from Light and Dark enemies. This makes fixed damage a practical joke. Maxwell's Destiny? Zebra's Deadly End? Those ultimate attacks can easily be taken with double Cardes leads. However, you would have to get your own Cardes if you want to live those attacks as he is only available once you clear Trial 004 for the first time.

It is also worth noting that the BB cashback will only work once you use the units' BB. Cashback is completely different from BB cost reduction as cashback will partially fill your BB gauge upon usage but can still be drained and BB cost reduction will reduce the BC cost for both BB and SBB.

Brave Burst
Score: 8/10

Cardes's BB might not contain any additional effects, but it has a high score for a reason. The damage is still relatively high for a BB and the drop checks are amazing. With just his BB, Cardes can produce a potential maximum of 30 BC with this 15 hit combo. This Drop Check is just as good as Elza's SBB. Using Cardes's BB is a good alternative if his SBB is not ready yet and if you need BC to fill your BB gauges.

Super Brave Burst
Score: 8/10

Out of all of the Four Fallen Gods, Cardes's Endless would happen to be the worst out all of them, but let's start with the positives.

Cardes's SBB has a modifier of 660%, which is just as good as Maxwell's and the other two Fallen Gods. This allows Cardes to deal a ton of damage with this high of a modifier.

The Drop Check is pretty good too. 33 potential BC is always nice to have. This might not be as good as Maxwell's SBB and Afla Dilith's SBB, but 33 BC is still enough to effectively help contribute to BC generation.

The DEF, however, is disappointing. We'd expect a much bigger DEF from a Fallen God. 50%? Really? This is actually one of the worst DEF buffs in the game.

Ultimate Brave Burst
Score: N/A

This unit does not have Ultimate Brave Burst.

Extra Skill
Score: N/A

This unit does not have Extra Skill.

Arena
Score: 7/10

Unlike Maxwell, Cardes is more of a bulky unit than Maxwell, but less powerful. His normal count is 10 hits with a potential Drop Check of 20 BC, which is good enough in Arena. His BB damage is relatively high as well and the Drop Check is very good too.

Like Maxwell, Cardes also lacks as a leader. True, 20% damage reduction from Light and Dark enemies is very nice, but Arena is more of a kill-to-win type of win, not a Defense battle. Besides, there are tons of Arena squads out there that you may not even encounter a Light and Dark unit. Yes, 7* units are out and with the Six Heroes, mono-Type squads have returned, but there aren't as many mono-Type squads as you might think there are.

Another thing is that Cardes's BB reduction is useless in Arena because it only applies once BB/SBB is used. By the time units use BB/SBB, your oppponent would already be defeated.

Stats
Score: 7/10

Cardes's stats are very well-balanced. However, one disadvantage is that Cardes is only available as a Lord type so there is no way to bend his stats with the type of your liking. His HP is relatively low compared to other units in the metagame since Maxwell lacks the Anima typing. Because Cardes is a defensive unit, it is advised to apply status-boosting spheres, especially Legwand Gem, Malice Jewel, Xentar, etc.

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

This unit is only available as a Lord type.

Usefulness
Score: 7/10

Cardes definitely has a place in a squad. He serves as a good substitute for Shida if you lack him for Frontier Hunter. This is because Cardes does not provide any buff that would modify damage. This is useful as you can gauge how much damage you deal to perfect a 3-turn-kill for the maximum amount of points.

Part of Cardes's Leader Skill is useless if not facing a Light and/or Dark enemy. This leaves with only the BB reduction useful in any situation.

Where Cardes shines most is during Trials. This is due to the impending number of Light and Dark units that get featured in the Trials. All of the normal Trials feature either Light or Dark element, with the exception of Trial 001 featuring Karl, who is a Water element.

Conclusion
Total Score: 7.7/10

Oh well... not all Fallen Gods can destroy all of Grand Gaia to earn at least an 8. This, however, does not mean that Cardes is not good as a unit. This shows that there are better units to use other than Cardes.

Comment below on what you think of Cardes! Was he hard to defeat in Palmyna? Was Trial 004 a challenge for you? Leave them in the comments below!

Check out my list of analyses in Spotlights: Table of Contents!

Check out my Squad Spotlight featuring Cardes in one of the squads!

Check out my recent Unit Spotlights:
 * Earth Legend Lance
 * Thunder Legend Eze
 * Ice Legend Selena
 * Creator Maxwell