Now with added Mountain Dew and DORITOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Now that we've all been past the last few challenging weeks, it's time to actually talk about the FMA units.
And Dorito's. Just don't lick your fingers after touching this one.
Pride
Yay for weird scaling moves~
Unit Review:
One of two FMA units to not be graced with a GLEX job enhancement, Pride is a mixed bag of "what do I recommend" and "what is he even good for". What do I recommend? Because honestly outside of meme'ing I do not see anyone really making use of him.....except his skillset is pretty good for entirely niche maps. What is he even good for? Well in my opinion, not much... except he can do some really funky things with MDEF buffs. See, his entire Prideful Homunculus skillset scales off of his MDEF (1.4x mostly), which means he can do some fun things with MDEF buffs, along with being able to go fully defensive without losing his damage potential. However, this puts him in another sticky situation. Mostly that, his LS is good for Pride and Pride alone. If you want to get the most out of Pride, you'll run 2x Pride's (and like 3 support units).
So what exactly does Pride do? Well, Pride has Hazel treatment weird combination of Machinist + Magic Sword, which means access to.....great passives? Woo. Due to the scaling on his unique job, you will probably never run Pride as anything else. Woo bonus stats.
His unique job, utilizes a lot of dark element attacks (with a piercing property) to debilitate and trap his enemies. His two main claims to fame, are his very cheap (20 jewels) area attack stop attack (which deals no damage, bypassing evasion checks) and his huge (6) range trapping attack, which moves a unit 6 spaces forward (as I understand it, you use this to pull enemies into Pride's melee range).
Pride's master ability, Prideful Eclipse, chomps up all enemies near him, dealing huge damage and healing him for a portion of the damage dealt. While the damage is very high, you'll have his scarf on anyway due to it's stats and I wouldn't be trying to use this turn one. More of a late game ability like FYomi's Blood Temple.
Which is his main issue, that he's a 3 mov 2 jump caster with 25% starting jewels. Even with the recommended build below, I advise pulling an enemy into range immediately to smack them for some jewels. Or clock stopping them and using them as a jewel slave for the fight.
- Main Job: Prideful Homunculus
- Sub Command: Prideful Homunculus
- Reaction: Shadow Sense
- Passive: Shadow Master
- Passive: Divine Shelter
Given his unique scaling, you cannot run his other jobs as sub classes in this situation. Shadow Sense can be a killer on high-magic stages, as Pride will shiskabob enemies while his MDEF deflects most incoming damage. Shadow Master gives him a lot of MDEF (hence, damage increase) and the addition of Divine Shelter helps offset his lowered light resistance, while also upping the rest of his resistances. Add a teddy for additional fun times.
Minimum Recommended Level: 70 is my recommended lowest level. This lets him run two items that make him considerably better (his unique and teddy), without having to stretch to 75 for additional stats. Unfortunately, he scales very poorly into the Enlightenment Era of the game and his ability to be niche will be eroded very quickly.
Job Enhancements: None yet planned. Sadly. He may get one of the superior Machinist Job Enhancements (though they will do little for him anyway) or a kind-of-eh Magic Sword Job Enhancement (see previous JE).
Envy
You all just want him for LS, to be honest.
Unit Review:
Alright so thanks to some GLEX magic, Envy gets a bit of a second coming in GL (though really, you'll all just use him for his Rainbow Overdrive LS). His upgrades do give him a good amount of longevity and enable him to be more than just a leader skill (thankfully). Dark Knight's Overlimit is nice regardless and Charge Up from Martial Artist complements Envy's skillset.
Envious Homunculus is a low movement (but high mobility) class which has several nice toys, including a large physical aoe (which can be buffed with Charge Up) and a short range targeted (instant) stop. He also has two ways to move around, which a teleport (similar to Noctis's healing teleport) and a charge with damage. He really can get around.
Envy's Master Ability, Envious Apocalypse, is a single target nuke (250% of nuke) to a nearby enemy that also inflicts death sentence. It also benefits from Charge Up. It does scale with HB's formula, meaning PATK is less important in the overall damage (but still will contribute). This ability, while strong also isn't superrrrrr good, outside of hurting one enemy real bad. You might look at cheaper, similar alternatives to this.
- Main Job: Envious Homunculus
- Sub Command: Basic Fist
- Reaction: Cross-Counter
- Passive: Overlimit
- Passive: Strike Mastery +2
For Envy, it's kind of a 50/50 split between his unique job and his Job Enhancement. His JE gives him +1 move/jump, more HP and access to SBT for single target obliteration, but Envious Homunculus gives Envy higher offensive stats and more initial Jewels. My personal preference at this time is for his Unique Job, but really you'll be fine running either and having the flexibility for both is huge.
Envy is probably the "best" of the FMA collab units, due to his longevity (thanks LS) and the GLEX buffs he got giving him a more supportive class that can be used with his LS to deliver huge amounts of focused damage. And no, you don't need to buy his gear for him (buy it for your other units that things insane).
Minimum Recommended Level: 85. His LS is amazing and he's free to farm. Time to get him all the way up!
Job Enhancements: Envy's GLEX job enhancement is Martial Artist -> Holy Brawler: Miroku. Those fans of others works would recognize this as the "healer" HB, aka the "not so good one at the moment". However, it is a marked improvement over Martial Artist for two reasons. 1. +1 Mov/jump and 2. Supreme Battle Trance. These two factors give Envy a viable 2nd job to run (over Envious Homunculus) as well as giving him a supportive role in the future with the hp/jewel regen ability they have access to. Do recommend maxing this one out as well.
Fuhrer King Bradley
Damn right I'm adding the Fuhrer before his name.
Unit Review:
Fuhrer King Bradley (FKB to his friends) is a very strong anti-slash unit. It's a shame he wasn't dark element, as he could really put the hurt on with his double elemental advantage. /shrug, let's move on. Much like his FMA counterpart, FKB is characterized by two things. His unparalleled mobility for an old man (he has two moves which brings him to the target before slapping them silly) and his Ultimate Eye, giving him the ability to see the future. Here, it manifests as +25 Perfect Evade as a reaction, a potentially huge increase to his memeing. On top of this, his passive, Homunculus Vessel gives him +40 Slash Evasion (wut) and +25 to Hit. Basically, Slash don't hit him. Good luck in Slash up arena everyone o7
Wrathful Homunculus also gives him other fun toys, like Slash Attack Up, area damage with bonus damage to humans and CT down. The sub ability? Not so much, but as a main job it's incredibly good.
His other two classes build on his themes from FMA, mostly his two sword fighting (Twin Blade) and Dark Cavalier.....cause he's evil. TBS is mostly meh in this case, unless you want to run even more evasion memes. Dark Cavalier's addition of Overdrive is a welcome addition to FKB's kit, as he lacks damage amping capabilities otherwise.
FKB's Master Ability, Wrathful Requiem, is a short range (3 square) single target nuke that can also inflict stop. Think of it might like Yaurus's Weapon Ability and you're on the right track.
- Main Job: Wrathful Homunculus
- Sub Command: Basic Pitch Black Blade
- Reaction: Ultimate Eye
- Passive: Overdrive
- Passive: Homunculus Vessel
We had DAlmira who was for anti-missile memes, now we have FKB who is for anti-slash meme's. With Overdrive, FKB can pull some very respectable attack numbers (almost 800 with gear at 75) on his Unique class, as well as Guernica. I don't advise running Guernica, but it is viable. The reason I prefer WHom over it is because of the difference in mobility (+1 mov) and the difference in agility (about 30). WHom also has better elemental coverage and some pretty good niche moves on its main job. The same can't be said for its sub abilities, so basic PBB is recommended here for its jewel/hp drain and Retribution Blade.
Minimum Recommended Level:
75 is recommended for Overdrive, which contributes a lot of FKB's ability to put out large amounts of damage. This also nets him near 150 AGI and almost 800 PATK (with swords), which is a very strong position to be in offensively. Not to mention slash has a very hard time touching him...
Job Enhancements:
FKB's job enhancement is Guernica, the big-boom DPS JE for Dark Cavaliers. The additional nuke (Blade of World's End) does give FKB a pretty big way to kill something, but he's already got a lot of offensive high damage options, making this a tad overkill. However, if you need something really dead from the light element just use Glanz he's a great option.
Dorito
"Discount Zain" except ya'know, Kanon exists.
Unit Review:
Well hot of Pride's flanks is magic tank number 2! (or one, considering the collab's release order) of this collab. Unlike Pride who tanks magic damage simply by having more MDEF than they have MATK, Dorito's finger lickin' good tanking is bought to you by: Reactions and Passives. Specifically, a Bishop Reaction and a Templar Knight Passive. Her Templar Knight passive, Gospel of the Holy War, gives Templar Knights +20 Slash Attack and +20 Magic Res (think, -20% for all magic damage). Very nice stats, but given their multiplicative natures Templar Knight needs to be bringing some serious beef to the table.
What is a Templar Knight? It's a Lord Commander without the elemental coverage. That's not entirely fair though, as Templar Knight does have several strong supportive abilities such as a shield for reducing Magic Damage taken, two different area heals and the ability to swap places with allies (within range). It also has access to Exceeding Blade, which could have been the coolest move in Templar Knight's kit. Long story short, it's a ranged attack that ignores enemy elemental resistances.
Bad news? Dorito is a Light Unit, so it has very little use to due most enemies...not having light resistance. Fire/Water/Thunder/Wind? Yeah excellent. Light/Dark? Ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
On top of these Dorito has access to Bishop (only good for a reactive really) and Martial Master, which has that fun little kit to play around with. Most notably, Slash/Strike Mastery can stack with her existing Templar Knight passive to give her a huge +35 Slash Attack.
- Main Job: Templar Knight
- Sub Command: Basic Solar Blade
- Reaction: Magic Barrier +2
- Passive: Gospel of the Holy War
- Passive: Regeneration
This build is supposed to specialize in tanking magic hits and healing back up through both Regeneration and Templar Knight's healing moves. Personally, not taking damage in the first place is better but gotta make do with what we can make do with. For a damage based Martial Master, you can swap her main job to MM and her 2nd Passive to Strike/Slash Mastery, but if you want a damaging MM then Olga is your best bet.
Minimum Recommended Level:
- I do not recommended taking Dorito past 65 at this current time, because she's kind of meeeeeeeeeeeeeh. When she gets access to her Martial Master Job Enhancement (discussed below), she makes a better case for her being a viable light unit. But for now, 65 will get you a decently solid magic tank who can support your team, without having to invest in Holy Cavalier: Magi. I did try playing around with her other equipment at level 70 for a two item build, but nothing made a super big impact unfortunately.
Job Enhancements: Toritoh's sole Job Enhancement in JP client currently is Martial Master: Human Mediator. This gives Dorito two buffed moves (Burial Gun and Cedar Flick Strike) and buffs them up with a little more potency and a bonus modifier for damage against hoo-mans. This itself doesn't make a huge impact on her playstyle, but it does give her a decent position as an anti-human MM who can shrug off magic attacks. Woo for niche's!
Alphonse
That man was all metal
Unit Review:
I mean you have to run him as a thief because the giant armoured suit wielding this itty-bitty knife is.....hilarious. At least to me.
Anyway, Alphonse is the current king of HP. What does that do for him? Not much, but it's a fun little build. /shrug
So Alphonse is kind of stuck as a unit. He has a loooooooooot of HP (and a % life based regen passive in Ogre Head).... but he doesn't do much with it (ala Vettel). Sure he has options, like a ranged slow and self-based area blind. These are not hard status effects which will hinder enemies, but minor annoyances most of the time. He can also throw allies and knock back enemies (one space from melee range), which gives him valuable map control and lets him assist allies by attracting enemies with his HUGEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE HP then moving them into ally range. His weapon ability, Stone Dragon, inflicts a lot of damage on up to 3 enemies in a line, then hits them with negative AGI and MOV buffs and moves them back 1 square. Alphonse truly is the master of map control. (It also looks pretty cool)
On top of this, Alphonse has Thief. Now, don't scoff at this. This gives him a valuable extra movement through the MOV+1 passive, which will help him out given his two "good" classes are both rolling with that speedy 3-MOV. Nothing to do with his lack of other good passives...Jump+1? Eh. He also has access to Holy Knight, which does give him the options of Holy Knight Stance+1 and Guard Up, both quite useful for helping him increase his tanking capabilities. However, the +1 MOV option is far superior in my opinion due to Alphonse's aforementioned movement abilities.
- Main Job: Armoured Alchemist
- Sub Command: Basic Alchemy
- Reaction: Withstanding Will
- Passive: Ogre Head
- Passive: Move+1
This is his widely recommended build and I do agree with it for two main reasons. Firstly, while his damage output will be poor due to his lack of PATK across the board, his ability to take hits (due to his massive HP) and control the positioning on the battlefield is quite solid. Secondly, the range of debuffs in the Alchemist skillsets is very good and while not as strong as say, a Chronomancer or a Shadow Assassin, it will suffice for those newer players. He will fall off though as you level, sadly.
Minimum Recommended Level:
As with all free units, 85 is the recommended minimum level (unless they're garbage). Alphonse has the "distinction" of simply having the most HP in the game at the moment, able to hit almost 4,000 HP with my recommended set up OR 7K IF YOU TRY A LEADER SKILL OR TWO. Is it worth it? Arguably, though all he does is have a lot of HP. But he also creates stone dragons so we cool fam.
Job Enhancements:
Alphonse's Job Enhancement raises his Holy Knight to Holy Cavalier: Ark. This gives him some weird anti-aoe abilities (hey guys, let's group up together to reduce aoe damage to ourselves), but mostly gives him a mountain of extra stats to play with. Score!
Roy
Rip SomeLit didn't pull Roy.......again. Here's looking at you PAD and /u/namelva
Unit Review:
Alright so you thought Uzuma was a pain with her +50% MATK/AGI for 3 turns? What if a psychic had +45% MATK........all the time? Ladies, Gentlemen and other dignified readers, that's Roy. His passive, Fire Starter adds a huge amount of MATK in exchange for an increased weakness to water.
In fact, I feel this prudent.
DO NOT USE ROY AGAINST WATER ENEMIES
/shrug
Someone's going to do it.
Flame Alchemist, Roy's unique job is basically......fire for the fire god. It will reign hellfire on his enemies like Kagura in her happy place. And his does this through a new toy of his, Hawkeye Burst. AKA Magic Charge Up. Really says it all, it gives a 150% MATK buff for two turns. Now, before you all go nuts thinking about this, the downside is that his big damage spells on Flame Alchemist have charge times, reducing their ability to melt faces like a Holy Brawler with Supreme Battle Trance. Yeouch. Though, this being said if he does nail someone with Smog (his 250% potency MATK nuke) after a Hawkeye Burst... yeah. Should be making SBT numbers look weak in comparison. (Thanks Telekinetic Speed). Explosion, his ranged box nuke deals similar numbers, but in an area while Pyre lets him deliver instant cast 3x3 cross fire nukes as he pleases.
And Fire Starter. Fire Starter gives Roy a huge +45% MATK buff, in return for lowering his water resistance further. It's a sacrifice I'm willing to take. The only issue with Flame Alchemist, is that it starts with 40% Initial jewels. For someone who wants to be spamming their abilities... this is a huge kick in the teeth. Especially when we add on that A) His big nukes are jewel intensive, B) he only has 3 MOV and C) He is melee. Yeeeeeeeeep.
Ninja, his job two doesn't do......anything for Roy. J3 is Telekinetic Artist, with all the goodies that come with it. That is to say, Telekinetic Speed, Basic Telekinesis (lol suck it fire units Roy gonna turn the water on you), Telekinetic Artist as a main job and Sixth Sense. Beautiful! The only downside is that Telekinetic Artist generally has slightly worse than stats than Flame Alchemist, leading to a toss up between better stats or better jewel gain.
Roy's Master Ability, Rage Inferno, is a single target instance cast nuke with a chance to inflict Death Sentence. Don't forget your charge up! (if you have the gems). It does have lower damage than his Smog, but is also instant cast, so YMMV
- Main Job: Flame Alchemist/Psychic
- Sub Command: Basic Alchemy/Basic Telekinesis
- Reaction: Sixth Sense
- Passive: Fire Starter
- Passive: Telekinetic Speed
Minimum Recommended Level: 65. 60 is still comfortable, but the extra HP and the Ninja Step passive are a useful bridge to help out with Flame Alchemist's melee attack range. 60 minimum does not sacrifice much at all, but the lack of HP does hurt. A problem with gauging Roy (IMO) is that every level 5 increment from 60 till 75 gives him...more. 65 gives him HP + movement, 70 gives him Hat + Glove and 75 gives him Telekinetic Artist, which really opens him up. So 60, because he's still quite good then.
Job Enhancements:
Ninja JE's aren't really known for their......flash or game-changing natures. Vermilion Bird, the jump based JE for Roy suits thematically, but adds practically 0 to his current play-style. Woo for stat-sticks though.
Riza Hawkeye
Hot damn
Unit Review:
Call the po-lice or the fireman~
Geddit? Cause Roy is a fire-man........
Ha.
/shows self out
Hawkeye's Decisive Bullet, is a straight line nuke which a chance of criting and that lowers the targets AGI by 50% 3 turns. While not as potent as Othima's AGI debuff, it does still hit fairly hard and can be used to help shut down one enemy hard. And that kind of sets up Hawkeye's entire kit. Hawkeye's 3 jobs are essentially, Sniper BUT better, Sniper BUT worse and Sniper. Her j1, Amestrian 1st Lieutenant (A1L) is like a sniper on drugs. With the status effects of Gunner, the def-ignoring of sniper and some fancy support moves like buffing allies around Hawkeye's Missile Attack by +50 or a ranged enemy buff removal aoe....yeah. Why Hawkeye, Why. Several of her moves even have 100% to Hit chances, just because they weren't stacked enough. Her DEF-ignoring move also has 3 charges and scales the same as the rest of her damage.....for funsies. Honestly I stopped thinking at +50 Missile Attack and went "Roxanne has a new BFF".
Triggered Will, Hawkeye's unique passive adds a huge +20% HP and +20 Missile attack, making it an invaluable option (especially for those who decide not to run Hawkeye all the way to 75). Marksmanship gives Hawkeye a pre-emptive counter, another fun little toy. Gunner and Sniper both add very little (range passives everyone), though the ability to stack up to +90 Missile Attack (40 from passives, 50 from her abilities) is fairly awesome. I'd prefer to give her some range however, as discussed below.
- Main Job: A1L
- Sub Command: Basic A1L
- Reaction: Markmanship
- Passive: Triggered Will
- Passive: Long Shot / Long Shot +2
While an amazing set of skills, Hawkeye's falling down is going to be in her lack of stat increases across her classes. The Missile Attack does help compensate for this and will keep Hawkeye fairly relevant for a while (as well as being the water ranged damage dealer (I feel she edges out DRin)). Her utility is top notch for a damage focused character and her synergy with Roxanne (who has a rainbow leader skill) is absolutely amazing. She will fall though, pending a Sniper or Gunner JE in the future when Gumi remember her ;(
Minimum Recommended Level:
70 is where Hawkeye hits a considerable sweet spot. 70 is the spot where Hawkeye can both equip her gun + 1 accessory and hit 60 jewels for her weapon skill thanks to a Hat. So, Hat + Gun = Fun fun fun!
Job Enhancements:
f
Pipsqueak
A bit like Edward, I'm going to keep this short. (though will add some content once I'm on the train)
Unit Review:
Last but not least (at least not in height), Edward is the lead cross over character who only shows up for one chapter in this collab. His job, Fullmetal Alchemist has a lot of interesting moves such as Transmuted Cannon, a ranged nuke or Transmuted Sword, his combo-attack with a chance of crit. Just reading through his kit, he has penetrating attacks, bind, daze, move up, pdef up and paralyze, well on par with the wide ranging kit on several other characters in this collab. His damage potential is fairly high (hampered by his unique running with Holy Brawler scaling), as his potencies are pretty good. He does lack the stand out nuke that Holy Brawlers have in SBT, but he makes up for it by having more 'offensive' options than...SBT or SBT.
Fullmetal Rush, his Weapon Ability is a ranged tactical nuke which gives him a tiny bit of Jewel Regen (+15%) and one less enemy to worry about. This scales off of pure PATK, so getting as much as you can onto Edward is a must. Shame about that, there's only so much a little man like him can carry.
- Main Job: Fullmetal Alchemist
- Sub Command: Basic Martial Arts
- Reaction: Fullmetal Counter
- Passive: Shorty!!?
- Passive: Fullmetal Armor
Minimum Recommended Level: As is common, 70 is a minimum level for a lot of characters due to the Hat+1 experience. Here, I feel it applies just as well in order to get Edward to a point where he can get some jewel regen firing turn 1 (or Charge Up for a bigger hit next turn). I was strongly debating recommending 70, because it gives him: Fudo (better stats and Sharpening Focus) and Blademaster (viable job + Regal Garuda Blade for some huge PATK) so if you really are interested in making Edward work, 75 really is the requirement. To get nearly everything out of him (though he will drop off faster thanks to Enlightenment), 70.
Job Enhancements:
Martial Artist upgrades to Holy Brawler: Fudo. This Holy Brawler JE focuses on upgrading their damage potential (VIA scaling PATK buff) as they get lower and lower on HP. And this, frankly, fairly inferior to straight up most PATK buffs which function from the start. None-the-less, Fudo does give Ed a third viable job along his unique and Blademaster, and the upgrade from Charge Up to Sharpening Focus (as well as Sub Fist) is well appreciated for the variety of options it provides. He won't go unusable without it.
[Conclusion]
Forgive me as I cram this in at the bottom. FMA is a hit and miss collab, mostly because we have both JE's and Enlightenment/Nensou's coming, all of which effectively re-balance the characters and up the power level all over. Sadly, for collab characters such as FMA who have not gotten a rerun in Japan (YET), this means they do drop off... Except for Envy
See, Envy's rainbow 50% PATK/MATK boost is fairly huge even in JP and for mixed teams is still hands down the best leader skill there is. So I hope you all farmed him o7
Submitted November 28, 2018 at 10:48PM by SometimesLiterate https://ift.tt/2AyUqgg
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