User blog:Linathan/Unit Spotlight: Infinity Starsage Zeruiah

Summary
Ah, Christmas has passed and I’m sure there has been salt going around after a long good period of Zeruiah returning to the Divine Summon gate. I explained how much of a pain it was for me (I’m sure for you too!) to summon my own Zeruiah. Now, the forsaken deer that started the limited gacha gates finally got an Omni Evolution.

So… should I start off by saying merry Christmas and happy holidays?

Leader Skill
Score: 8/10

Zeruiah does all of what she did in her 7* form. She gets an insane upgrade from a 24% BC/HC drop rate boost to a 30%, which is amazing in unresisted content. Not to mention, Zeruiah also has a 60% BB fill rate boost. Comboing the two together, this is the most efficient BB filling Leader Skill we’ve ever seen on any unit released this far.

The problem with using Zeruiah as a lead back when she only had her 7* form was the lack of stat boosts to keep up the survivability of units. She didn’t carry any parameter boosts of any kind. Now in her Omni form, Zeruiah provides a whopping 60% boost to HP, Def, and Rec. This might as well be called an all stat boost if you can manage Atk boosts using spheres and the like. 60% is currently the highest stat boost on Leader Skill until Afla Dilith’s Omni Evolution comes to Global.

The following effects do not seem to serve much of an importance in terms of clearing certain content, but they do have some hefty use in farming. 12% EXP boost is still very sweet, and this can be enhanced to a whopping 20% when enhanced. This outclasses Zelnite’s role (I really hate saying this) of an EXP farming grinding machine. Even better, Zeruiah’s EXP boost only costs 80 SP as opposed to 100 SP. This makes room for other enhancements on Zeruiah’s end, preferably the parameter boosts. Zeruiah also gets an amazing upgrade with her Zel and Karma drop rates, but the difference isn’t all too significant considering enemies have a cap to the amount of Zel and Karma they can drop. This might be better used when using squads that revolve around quick clears with Mifune.

Brave Burst
Score: 10/10

Zeruiah’s BB carries a multi-element attack, which means that she will never be dealing weak elemental damage to enemies whatsoever. Given her decent Atk stat, the damage is relatively high with her BB.

This BB can be perceived as a direct upgrade from her 7* form. Her burst heal improved and she has a 15% HP buff. Unfortunately, Zeruiah’s SBB doesn’t contain the burst heal, which means that you will need to do some BB/SBB juggling, especially if you lack another healer and/or a status cleanser. Adding the BB gauge fill to max effect on BB will increase Zeruiah’s BB gauge momentum to its maximum, as she can freely alternate between BB/SBB at free will as long as she isn’t pummeled by BB gauge drains.

The 15% HP buff is great, particularly because there is no way for inferior HP buffs to overwrite it. The 15% HP buff stays on units until the quest finishes. If there are other superior HP buffs, they will overwrite the 15% HP buff. Beefing up the survivability of units is key and having amazing superior HP buffs won’t serve any problems considering they can be activated at any time when available.

The 35% BC/HC drop rate buffs is still very solid, especially considering this buff is everywhere in Zeruiah’s kit. Despite this buff clashing with Zeruiah’s SBB, the difference in the amount of BC and HC produced is very little. In fact, if you’re crazy enough to run double Zeruiah leads in hard content, you’re already guaranteed a 100% drop rate in both BC and HC, which is more than enough. Of course, extra BC/HC drop rate will help in terms of overcoming the harsh drop rate resistances inflicted by enemies. Nonetheless, however, it’s not really necessary to aim for a 100% BC/HC drop rate, considering there are other means of BB utility that you can rely on. The Item drop rate serves very little importance if you’re using Zeruiah as the lead, as each hit from each unit rolls RNG on whether the item will drop or not. Additionally, like Zel and Karma, there is a limit to the amount of items that enemies can drop. The extra Item drop rate buff isn’t all too necessary.

Super Brave Burst
Score: 10/10

We saw how overpowered Zeruiah’s stupid SBB was in her 7* form. As for all but maybe one Omni Evolution go, Zeruiah gets an upgrade. The damage output is relatively standard compared to a great deal of Omni units given the damage modifier and the Atk stat, but there are some things that make this SBB super enticing.

Zeruiah keeps her infinite SBB role and this ties in extremely well with the buffs that she provides. This not only includes the rainbow elemental buffs that she provides, but also for the other buffs that she got in addition. Rainbow elemental buffs are definitely amazing as this makes Zeruiah one of the more viable rainbow buffers to use aside from Allanon, especially considering Zeruiah now gets a 50% elemental damage buff (100% if enhanced) to apply some extra damage output. Unfortunately, elemental buffs don’t contribute to the elemental damage buffs, which limits the usage of the elemental damage buff entirely.

If you thought elemental buffs weren’t enough, Zeruiah also provides elemental mitigation. This is a 10% mitigation buff that is multiplicatively stacked with normal mitigation. Zeruiah only provides elemental mitigation against Fire, Water, Earth, and Thunder enemy attacks, but with enhancements, Zeruiah can add in Light and Dark elements into the mix. If you were fortunate enough to get Fina, you can pair the two together to provide all elements without having to use up 30 SP to obtain the Light and Dark elemental mitigation enhancement.

Zeruiah also has the ability to fill the OD gauge by 8% if the enhancement is taken. This makes Zeruiah one of the most prominent users in terms of providing OD momentum in some of the best ways possible.

Ultimate Brave Burst
Score: 9/10

Zeruiah offers a variety of buffs that seem a bit too overboard to make it worth sacrificing a potential attack to make this UBB. You lose out on a potential 1000% damage modifier UBB that Zeruiah could have had. We haven’t look at this UBB entirely if we just look at it on paper, however.

75% mitigation for three turns is very solid as that’s the standard norm for UBB mitigation in general. This can definitely come in handy for any ultimate attacks that your units would otherwise not live.

On the topic of survivability, Zeruiah gets to overwrite her BB HP buff with her UBB HP buff. This whopping 35% (40% if enhanced) HP buff can be perceived as a third Leader Skill that contains some form of HP stat boost, which is amazing. Furthermore, you’re getting stat conversions that are insane across the charts. True, conversion buffs don’t take other conversion buffs into consideration, but the conversion rate becomes so high that units will eventually hit the stat cap of 99999 if buffed enough. It’s also considering these UBB conversion buffs can stack with other conversion buffs to convert stats to higher parameters.

Then comes the 100% boost to BC/HC. Now you ask me, is a buff that high really that necessary? I can guarantee you, you do not need a drop rate buff that high. The base BC and HC drop rates are 35% and 10% respectively. You can’t achieve drop rates higher than 100%, which means that having that extra bit of BC/HC drop rate won’t mean anything. That is not to say that a 100% capped-out BC/HC drop rate is useless by any means. It’s still amazing to utilize it, even in resisted content (excluding Noel’s trial). Even then, you’re still producing quite a bit of BC and HC.

Extra Skill
Score: 10/10

Zeruiah becomes a tanking monster with this Extra Skill. She gets HP-on-hit and a 25% probable 30% mitigation buff. Anything that helps Zeruiah survive longer makes her amazing in so many ways. Combining spheres that carry probable mitigation will definitely help to increase the odds of reducing damage.

The barrier buff is also really nice if you don’t have a barrier buffer, such as Juno-Seto and Ark being some of the most prominent users. Zeruiah also serves as a great sub to use along with Rain leads/friends.

Arena
Score: 8/10

Zeruiah is rather more of a damage dealer in Arena than anything. Surprisingly, her utility isn’t going to cut it much in the Arena side of things. Type 2 AI is still very good, which will allow for more reliable BB activations.

The BB fill rate from Zeruiah’s Leader Skill looks very enticing, but even with parameter boosts as high as 60%, that won’t help save you from potential one shots from the most prominent units used in Colosseum, such as Mifune and Azurai. That’s not to say that it’s completely useless, as it does help units that utilize Angel Idol buffs to activate their 20% HP thresholds first.

The status cleansing can come to play, but it’s not necessarily something that should be heavily relied on. If you can apply status immunity for all units, which is possible using Refined Gem, Impiety Orb, or high-tiered spheres like Health Codex, Virtuous Cape, etc, you won’t necessarily need the status cleansing. Though, it is nice to see Zeruiah’s BB only require 11 BC (22 BC if empty BB rule or if you lost the formation war), which will help out if the squad struggled with obtaining BB in the first place.

Stats
Score: 10/10

High-tiered stats all around. Atk, Def, and Rec are close to 3000, assuming Lord stats.

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

Anima = Breaker = Guardian > Oracle > Lord

Usefulness
Score: 10/10.

Definitely a must-grab if you’re planning on dishing out your entire wallet (apologies for not posting this before her gate closed!). Zeruiah practically fits in almost any squad given the amazing buffs she offers.

Zeruiah is an alternative to Allanon and Ciara for rainbow buffers. Unlike Allanon, Zeruiah provides more of a spark blanket to allow other units to spark more effectively, unless units are already doing well with perfect sparking with each other. Unlike Ciara, Zeruiah’s rainbow buffs take effect upon activation since Zeruiah’s attack animation isn’t a teleporting type.

Zeruiah also works extremely well in hard content, as she has the OD insta-fill effect in her enhancement lineup and even an infinite SBB effect upon using BB. Zeruiah’s BB momentum can be manipulated in so many ways that make Zeruiah one of the best units in the entire game.

Zeruiah is also the best EXP grinding machine in the game, as she has carries the highest EXP boost in the game at 20% when enhanced, surpassing Zelnite with his 15% EXP boost when enhanced.

SP Enhancements
Score: 9/10

See SP Enhancement Options: Infinity Starsage Zeruiah

Zeruiah gets some very neat options, especially the added buffs she can get upon taking these enhancements. This includes the SBB fill upon BB usage and the 8% OD fill. The SBB fill effect is huge, as this allows Zeruiah to freely use her BB and SBB at free will as long as she doesn’t get pummeled by BB drains.

There are some redundant enhancements, such as the HP buff enhancement, the Item drop rate enhancement, and the UBB enhancements. These enhancements are extremely inefficient for their SP costs. A 5% extra boost to the HP buff isn’t necessarily worth spending 40 SP for, especially considering you can easily manipulate HP stats with the use of spheres and Elgifs. The Item drop rate is absolutely redundant because item drops are determined for each hit an enemy takes, which by binomial cumulative distribution is proven to have a very high probability even without the Item drop rate buff. The UBB enhancement is unnecessary considering there never really is a moment when you need four turns to survive an ultimate attack.

The 20% EXP boost is definitely worth it if you haven’t yet reached Lv999 or if you have a second Zeruiah. Though, with more Super Karma Dungeon events to come, I don’t think this buff will be all too necessary if you’re planning on seriously using Zeruiah for hard content.

Sphere Recommendations

 * Reeze's Armor & War Demon's Blade
 * Reeze's Armor & Magical Device
 * Reeze's Armor & Skylord's Blade
 * Godly Flower & War Demon's Blade
 * Godly Flower & Magical Device
 * Godly Flower & Skylord's Blade
 * Blighted Seal & Skylord's Blade
 * Beiorg's Armor & Skylord's Blade
 * Beiorg's Armor & Resistive Device
 * Beiorg's Armor & Courage Aegis
 * Beiorg's Armor & Impiety Orb

Conclusion
Total Score: 9.4/10

Shoutout to my guildie Darkhero123. I know you've been waiting very patiently for this Unit Spotlight to come. Here it finally is! How was your Christmas? Great! 7.8/10 - Too much snow Salt deer killed it for me Terrible...

Comment below on what you think of Zenia! How do you feel about the changes made to Zenia? Favorable or unfavorable? 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:
 * Knight of Holy Light Ark
 * Chivalrous Thief Zelnite
 * Abyssal Witch Ciara
 * Heavenless Bushi Mifune