First, this is important:

Second, it’s really nice that the event item drop rate increases aren’t tied to skills this time around: it means that I don’t need to spend resources levelling units I’m otherwise not going to use ✓

Third, I’m still getting used to the new WordPress editor; apologies in advance for any formatting issues that crop up!

Let’s get into the review!

Opening the show we have Pollux and his bag of tricks.

On first glance, he seems a bit hampered by low skill activation chances, even when buffed with Insight from his LB3.

As soon as you mix Barrage in (from his default skill), that all changes.

Let’s revisit his default, LB1 and LB2 skills with Barrage active and max skill level (this doesn’t include Insight – we’ll get there in a sec):

Default Skill [When Attacking x2] Apply Fighting Spirit to self / 84% LB1 [After Missing x2] Apply Status Barrier to adjacent / 51%

[After Missing x2] Apply Evasion to adjacent / 36% LB2 [When Attacking x2] Apply Guts to self / 64%

[When Missing x2] Apply Guts to adjacent /51%

If he manages to give himself Insight (which he will reasonably often), the table changes again:

Default Skill [When Attacking x2] Apply Fighting Spirit to self / 90% LB1 [After Missing x2] Apply Status Barrier to adjacent / 64%

[After Missing x2] Apply Evasion to adjacent / 51% LB2 [When Attacking x2] Apply Guts to self / 75%

[When Missing x2] Apply Guts to adjacent /64%

Just as an aside about the When Missing activation: You have to miss entirely – hitting a dead enemy unit doesn’t count for either [When Attacking] or [When Missing] triggers!

As a blow user, giving himself Fighting Spirit will let him deal out significant damage on the frontline when he gets there (at least often enough to activate Barrage!)

He’s not without downsides: he needs to hit things to get Barrage up and running, and he doesn’t give himself Evasion (meaning he might need a bit of support to stay alive). The first of these is actually more of a drawback than you might expect, since hitting things means he’ll miss out on all his [When Missing] triggers, but it’s not the end of the world. For this reason, he actually combos well with Volos (despite the apparent redundancy), since it’ll let him focus on applying those amazing buffs.

His second drawback is much simpler to deal with: run a healer 🙂

His charge skill, compared to the rest of his skills, is a little bit unexciting, but it’s still going to be useful quite a lot. It also doesn’t need levelling, which is always a plus.

Since it’s so critical to his skillset, I wish his activation rate on his default skill were a little higher, but he’s still a great unit.

Melusine is a lot more straightforward than Pollux, but by no means is she bad!

Her default skill, though unexciting, is solid (and quite consistent).

Blessing is one of the better heals available; triggering it on Start of Turn is great. Since the buff lasts for 4 turns, having a 40% activation chance shouldn’t detract from it too much.

Her LB2 is one of only two ways of applying Weakness to an enemy that you can plan around (the other being Valentine’s Licht – hey, there’s some poetry there) – played right, this can be a good way to thin the enemy out before they can attack you.

Intimidating enemies at shot range plays into this too, and can effectively neutralise threats that have shorter ranges.

Her LB3 is amazing. Exhausted is a bit of a mediocre debuff, but Bewitched is one of the stronger ones in the game, and applying it to the entire enemy team is awesome, particularly on bigger boards with lots of enemies.

Her charge skill is again a bit unexciting, and really needs levels to be effective, but the rest of her kit is good enough to make up for it.

I quite like what Lifewonders has done with Claude’s seasonal variant: they’ve taken his base skillset and tweaked it in a way that is 1) new, 2) good 3) in line with his role as an offensive support.

There’s not a ton to write about him: he’s a strong offensive support that focuses almost entirely on the unit directly in front of him. Park him behind your favourite frontliner, and you’ll be set.

Alternatively, since most of his buffs have a decent duration, get him behind a different unit each turn for a more even distribution of buffs.

Though his skillset is overall very good, of particular note is his LB3: guaranteed Blessing on attack is amazing, even though it’s only to one other unit.

His charge skill ranges between really underwhelming and really good, depending on whether or not it’s been levelled. In most cases, unfortunately, it will be the former, but if you can find a friend with a levelled charge skill, then take advantage of it!

I really like Tanngrisnir: he’s got a really refreshing skillset, which is something I’m pleased to have in a 5★.

He’s also a bit hard to evaluate. Looking at him in a vacuum, he’s pretty simple:

Starts combat with charge skill up

Massive HP (his 5★ form has 10,449 HP at level 70!)

Abysmal damage (2935 at level 70!)

Moves both hither and yon

Though he’s not the first unit to be able to move all over the place (thanks, Ghosts), he’s the first one that you’d actually consider running.

His role on a team is pretty straightforward: he moves for your entire team, gives them Stubborn, and he charges your team’s charge skills. Since his 5★ form gives himself protection, he’ll do a fair bit better at this than his 3★ one (but his 3★ will do in a pinch!)

Occasionally, his 5★ form will also give your team Protection, which I’m a little bit confused by – it’s not strong enough to be on such a low activation chance (why not evasion?), and it’s only on his 5★. It’s very nice when it happens, but don’t count on it and don’t run him for it.

His charge skill is amazing on his 5★ and merely ok on his 3★ – guaranteeing evasion when his ult charges this quickly is nothing to be sniffed at, Acceleration plays well into what he’s already doing, and increased movement range is kind of necessary for him to work as a unit.

In terms of power, I’m honestly not really sure where he sits. Although he lacks the ability of the big three (Snow, Aizen, and Surtr) to slot into any almost team and make it better, I think he has the potential to be a stronger support in the instances where he does fit the team.

I plan on running him with Ophion, though I’d be interested to hear other unit pairing suggestions.

As an aside, he also reminds me of Tezuka from Prince of Tennis. Not entirely sure why; maybe it’s the glasses and the hair?

This is a pretty appealing gacha; all four of the units featured in it are useful to some degree. Good luck to those rolling!