Tier List/Shark3143/Changelog

Version 2.X

Version 2.0

Version v2.0 has rebuilt the list from the ground up with new content in mind, as well as to reflect new balance changes. Only general changes to the list are detailed below, detailed updates for specific character changes have been omitted this version due to the huge number of changes and fresh landscape, but will resume with all further updates to Version 2.X.

• Adjusted content consideration to include void battles.

• Adjusted content consideration to include High Midgardsormr's Trial, due to it's increased level of accessibility. High Brunhilda's Trial will remain out of scope, due to the high level of entry and restrictive meta that would cause a large amount of skew when factored into a general content tier list.

• Adjusted placements to account for the balance patch that tweaked stun and sleep, which mostly buffed ailment duration. Also included in this patch were specific individual buffs to , , and . Details can be found in the Version Changelog.

• Added characters missing from v1.4: , , , and .

• Rewrote and edited descriptions for most of the adventurers.

• Removed 'Wyrmprints are not taken into consideration' from the list of criteria.

Version 1.X

Version 1.4

Adventurer	Tier Change	Description
	Unranked -> S+	Hildegard has a strong healing and support kit thanks to her potent regen heal, shields, and energy stacks. She starts strong out of the gate thanks to her 100% Skill Prep, and can immediately start the fight with 3 energy stacks by using both abilities, so it’s reasonable for Hildegard to energize the entire team during a quest with no further synergy or support from other energy characters. The total healing of her first skill is very high, but its charge time is below average at 7700 SP rather than the usual 5900SP for an S1 heal. Despite the slower charge time, it would take a very lengthy quest for other good healers to challenge Hildegarde’s healing output, because she starts with 100% Skill Prep and can eventually energize her own heals. The actual value of shield skills can vary, but it’s worth noting that the strength of shields are determined by the user’s HP rather than the recipient’s, so the value of shield skills is higher on healers since they often equip HP dragons to scale recovery potency.
	Unranked -> A	Ezelith has a decent kit with multiple attack skills and okay passive abilities, but her damage output is middling. She’s better than most archers since she doesn’t rely on finicky status-based gimmicks, her burn applications are a tiny percentage of her damage, and the defense down debuff from her S2 works consistently since it isn’t resisted by bosses. However, her damage contribution remains less than impressive, so it’s mostly her full ailment resistance and Broken Punisher that set her apart from those rated below her.
	Unranked -> B	Orion’s damage is decent despite his single damage skill since he has access to elemental weapons with attack skills, and his defense buff helps his damage slightly by triggering his own 8% Strength Doublebuff. However, his 75% Curse Res does him no favors in fire-advantaged content, and his damage isn’t so great as to be worth a higher ranking. As a side note, the percentage-based burn damage from his S1 was patched out of the game very quickly, and it now functions as a regular burn based off player damage.
	C -> B	Marty’s previous assessment was slightly too harsh. While he still has problems, his damage output is worthy of B tier since he has good frame data on his S1 attack skill and he also has access to good damage skills from elemental weapons.
	B -> C	It’s become increasingly obvious that daggers in general are a bit underpowered. Their regular attack chain has low damage output that struggles to keep up with even bows and spears, which have lower natural damage to compensate for the privilege of staying further at range and attacking continuously. Renelle appears usable despite her dubious 75% Curse Res since she has access to multiple attack skills with decent AoE potential, but the low base damage of these skills on top of the already low output from daggers does her no favors. She struggles to find a niche and lacks usable ailment resistance for fire-advantaged content.
	B -> C	Melsa suffers from many of the same problems as Renelle. Notably she’s stuck using daggers, her skills don’t have good base damage or frame data, and her passives are a bit of a mess. Despite access to an attack skill from 5* Fire Dagger, her overall damage output is low even assuming perfect Flurry Devastation uptime, and her half ailment resistance cuts into her usability.
	C -> B	Berserker is plagued with problems between poor weapon selection, a nearly meaningless S2 buff, and an awkward, low impact skill damage stacking mechanic that only affects his single attack skill. However, when it comes down to it, his damage could be worse, he has a good AoE skill to help compensate for the annoying knockdown problem of the sword moveset, and he also has a rare immunity to blind.

Version 1.3

Adventurer	Tier Change	Description
	Unranked -> S+	Lin You’s damage is fantastic since her S1 is very powerful, even more than Julietta’s, and she has access to the 5* wind axe with its great attack skill and unusually high strength. While her self buff suffers from a below average charge rate, the attack speed buff helps her charge SP faster to compensate, making it possible to get off two boosted S1 hits during the duration of a single S2 if you don’t have to stop to roll. Her damage alone is worthy of praise, and she’s also capable of inflicting sleep in some content, giving her some utility value on top of her damage. As a side note, Lin You’s capable of equipping Long Long over Zephyr, but even with an ideal wyrmprint you’d need further increases to critical rate through other sources like co-abilities for the damage to exceed Zephyr’s.
	Unranked -> B	Ku Hai is too clunky to work effectively, since he lacks a high critical rate to get good value from his two critical damage passives, and the alternate force strike granted by his S2 is sluggish, doesn’t consistently apply all three hits, and disables rolling during its animation. It’s difficult to credit the alternate force strike for its apparent increase in mobility since it can miss hits at close range by passing through targets, it’s inefficient to spend time positioning yourself to ensure all three hits connect, and it also knocks down small enemies which negates potential follow up attacks. Ku Hai’s damage output is actually higher if he ignores his S2, despite its crit buff, and focuses on using the default force strike from the sword moveset by chaining three attacks into force strike repeatedly, since the default force strike is quicker and can easily chain back into regular attacks afterwards. To add insult to injury, Ku Hai has poor choice of weaponry, as both the 4* and 5* wind swords have low-impact defensive skills that don’t help him output damage. To end on a positive note, despite the failings of Ku Hai’s alternate force strike in most content, it shines in raids, since he’ll always connect all three times and can reposition with it.
	Unranked -> B	Su Fang’s ability to stun isn’t as useful as it looks, since stun has a short duration compared to sleep and freeze and many bosses are stun immune, such as Mercury and raid bosses. His 20% Skill Damage and attack skill from the 5* wind dagger appear to be great boosts to his damage output, but his S1 is extremely weak and daggers in general are currently underpowered. His kit is okay, but the shaky usefulness of stun, his half ailment res, and the weak damage from both his S1 and the regular dagger attack chain are all holding him back.
	Unranked -> A+	Xiao Lei has a solid 20% Skill Damage passive, and access to an excellent AoE attack skill from the 5* wand. In addition to this, her skills have fast animations, but her team critical rate/damage buff from her S2 lacks the needed synergy to truly shine, since there are no crit-centric light characters. She’s also missing a full ailment resistance on account of being a 3* adventurer.

Version 1.2

Adventurer	Tier Change	Description
	Unranked -> S+	Sarisse is capable of outputting high damage from range by stacking boosts on her S1. Each individual stack of Sylvan’s Strength counts for 2 individual buffs, allowing Sarisse to easily reach a x6 or x7 boost on her S1 completely unaided if she’s allowed to attack continuously. She’s also the first character to feature dual ailment immunities, allowing her to excel in all types of content. Her damage contribution is a bit lower than Mikoto’s because of her poor co-ability and slow charge rate on her buff skill, however, she’s still a very powerful and flexible unit.
	A -> A+	Xania’s DPS is higher than initially thought because both of her attack skills have fast animation speeds, which lets her get right back to attacking and building up more skill charge.
	A+ -> A	Naveed is too much of a slow starter, and his S1’s gimmick of building stacks isn’t powerful enough to justify monopolizing both of his skill slots. He eventually achieves good DPS if the quest drags on long enough, but he underperforms until then, and his ceiling potential from his S1 stacks and Slayer’s Strength is unrealistic to achieve in current content.
	Unranked -> C	Marty has poor natural strength, flimsy shields, and a nearly useless Skill Haste passive that’s unlikely to create additional skill procs over the course of a fight. Thankfully, he has a decent S1 with a large sweeping AoE and access to attack skills from weapons to help salvage his DPS.
	S+ -> S	Lily’s damage potential has been overstated. As useful as the freeze is on her S1, the duration of the skill animation is so unusually lengthy (a whopping 4 seconds) that she’s losing out on a lot of time that could have been spent attacking and charging up skills. On top of that, her damage in practice is a bit worse than in theory, since it’s not realistic to assume good uptime on Full HP = Strength.
	A+ -> S	Access to the 5* water axe is a huge perk, as it’s likely the best weapon currently in the game since it ties for the 2nd place highest natural strength, as well as having good animation speed on it’s damage skill. She still lacks synergy within her element with which to activate her Healing Doublebuff, but her damage output is high because of the excellent base damage on her skills on top of her access to an incredible weapon, allowing her pure DPS potential to carry her to S tier even if she lacks utility.
	S -> A+	Orsem’s damage isn’t as good as it seems at first. His skill animations are a bit below average, but more importantly he’s stuck using the dagger moveset, and the dagger’s attack chain underperforms in damage compared to other close range weapons. Water dagger characters in general also lack a strong 5* weapon, since the self strength buff lacks the duration to contribute comparable damage to what an attack skill would.
	S -> A+	Dragon’s Claws is the king of raid content, but is too slow to realistically contribute outside of raids, and Xainfried’s damage isn’t worthy of S tier without it since the animation speed on his only attack skill is slow, the 5* water lance has a mediocre heal, and his excellent strength buff suffers slightly from it’s slow charge time.
	A -> A+	Rex’s kit is unassuming, his strength lies in access to the very powerful 5* water axe in addition to the high base damage of his skills and fast animation speed on his S2.
	A+ -> A	Luther is also dropping a tier for the same reasons as Orsem. He’s still a great pick for Fire IO, but he’s lacking utility such as freeze and his damage isn’t making up for it. It’s worth mentioning that DY Cleo has not dropped a tier like Orsem and Luther, since despite her solo DPS being lower than initially thought due to dagger moveset and animation speed, she still has huge value in throwing out constant team damage buffs and freezing more often than Orsem.
	C -> A	Zardin’s natural strength is hilariously low, and it’s unrealistic to maintain Full HP = Strength, but Zardin’s kit is hiding subtle advantages. His skill animations are blisteringly fast, notably his S2 ties for the fastest skill in the game at 0.9 seconds, which is even faster than buff skills, and over twice as fast as the average attack skill. Thanks to his amazing frame data, he gets to spend a lot of extra time attacking normally to deal damage and build up more skill activations. He also has access to a 3rd attack skill through the 5* water sword, so despite his stats his DPS potential is much higher than initially thought.
	B -> A	The value of bog has been underrated, any bogged enemy takes 50% more damage from all sources. Waike still struggles with consistency due the finicky nature of his Full HP = Bog passive, but his damage contribution is huge if he manages to inflict it.
	C -> B	Pietro’s kit still has many failings, from the off-element resistance to blind as well as his awkward Critical Damage passive that only Dragonyule Jeanne can salvage, in the end his damage is worthy of B tier simply because his ceiling potential is raised thanks to the incredible 5* water axe, which ties for the 2nd highest natural strength among weapons and has a strong attack skill with good animation speed.
	S -> S+	Addis simply boasts unmatched solo damage output among wind adventurers, and his ability to stack bleeds and benefit from Bleed Punisher only goes up in co-op rooms which allow for multiple Addis on a team. He additionally has access to a strong weapon in the 5* wind katana with an AoE attack skill.
	S+ -> S	Maribelle’s Full HP = Skill damage isn’t too unrealistic to maintain since she has access to a 100% Skill Prepped self heal from the 5* wind wand. However, even at 100% health, she can’t match the damage output of Addis, and does notably worse when below full HP. She still has great AoE coverage and is a great character overall, but her below average animation speeds and reliance on Full HP are enough to unseat her from the throne of ‘Strongest Wind Character’.
	A+ -> S	Although it isn’t very potent, Melody can maintain flawless uptime on her team wide strength buff due to its fast charge time. As a dedicated support, it’s difficult to compare her to other characters within wind, but the value of her team buff is enough to make her contribute more total damage than anyone placed below her. She also has better solo DPS than other dedicated supports since she has access to a powerful 5* elemental weapon with a great attack skill, and the blade moveset allows her a combination of natural AoE coverage and mobility through regular attack chains. Her Full HP = Crit passive can contribute, but it’s not very realistic to assume it’ll be active often, so this wasn’t strongly taken into account.
	A -> A+	Johanna has a very fast animation speed on her S1, and access to the 5* wind axe really helps push her damage, since the wind axe is perhaps only matched by the equivalent 5* water axe in terms of damage output thanks to its natural strength and excellent damage skill. Her resistances are still a complete mess and Slayer’s Strength isn’t always relevant, but her damage output from 3 powerful attack skills, even without Slayer’s Strength, is high enough to be worthy of A+.
	A+ -> A	While Louise has multiple ways to increase her damage output, she can’t quite keep up with those rated above her, and she’s highly reliant on team support to trigger her Strength Doublebuff and to consistently get poison value out of her S2. The animation speed of her S2 is a bit slow, so it’s underwhelming if the enemy isn’t poisoned, and Overdrive Punisher in general has been overrated as a source of increased DPS since such a large percentage of damage output is done on the break. She still does well in content where attacking at range is a large advantage, such as the Mercury fight, but isn’t as strong a pick elsewhere.
	A -> B	While Hawk’s S1 hits like a truck on stunned enemies, its charge time is so lengthy for an S1 that most other adventurers would have already used their S1 twice by the time Hawk has finally prepared his combo. Hawk’s S1 doesn’t make up for the lack of other attack skills, his damage output isn’t high even in idealistic circumstances, and he’s the single weakest non-healer wind adventurer in content where you can’t apply stun. Hawk is at least well geared for Water IO because his freeze immunity is important and the boss isn’t very resistant to stun.
	A -> B	Eleonora’s kit doubles down on the ability to apply poison continuously, which is seriously underwhelming considering that poison doesn’t stack, causing her to miss out on a huge amount of potential damage. Because of this, her damage output is underwhelming even considering the advantage for attacking from range, and her skills don’t have any notable AoE or other utility to make up for this.
	Unranked -> S+	Annelie has a huge boost to her skill damage, as well as access to 3 damage skills when you factor in the 5* light lance, on top of constantly stacking up enough energy to easily trigger her Energized: Strength unaided. The only thing that holds her back is the downright glacial charge time on her 2nd skill and its lengthy animation. When compared directly to H. Elly, Annelie easily outputs more solo damage, but Elly’s strength buffs have more team DPS value than Annelie’s occasional 2 energy stacks when she finally charges her S2.
	C -> A	Raemond appears underwhelming at first since he has bad passives and below average damage on his skills. However, he has access to a 3rd attack skill from the 5* light sword, and the animation speed on both of his attack skills are excellent and make up for the lower base damage, so his DPS is surprisingly good.
	B -> A	Malka performs better than previously thought because of the fast animation speed on his S1 as well as access to the 5* light lance, which has an excellent attack skill. While his team buff lacks potency, it’s still a worthwhile skill that boosts his damage contribution above B tier. In the end, Malka has the highest raw damage of the 3* light adventurers, but his bad passive skills hold him back.
	A -> B	Edward is better at maintaining his Full HP = Strength than some, since the light element has strong healers and he has a self heal available on the 5* light katana, but when it’s not active his damage output is surprisingly low because of the slow animation speed on his S1. He’s still valuable for AoE coverage, but his damage contribution is worse than those rated above him.
	Unranked -> B	Fritz is currently primarily useful for Poison Res, since his damage is low and he lacks multiple damage skills with which to make use of his Striker’s Skill. He has some utility value because he can occasionally stun, but stuns wear off far faster than freeze and even sleep, and he has no passives that would help him take greater advantage of inflicting stun. He also can’t activate his own Strength Doublebuff, and there’s a lack of good light adventurers that could activate it for him.
	A+ -> S	Sazanka’s easily capable of outdamaging those placed below her because her S1 is just that powerful thanks to bleed. Her sleep based kit does have utility and damage value in most content, and has been previously underrated, and she’s not so reliant on the ailment gimmick that it would make her a bad pick elsewhere. She won’t contribute as much raw damage as Botan since Sazanka is stuck with the extremely underwhelming 5* shadow axe for a weapon, but her advantages in a full ailment resistance and sleep utility let her stand in the same tier.
	A -> A+	Rodrigo appears simply decent at first, but he sneakily has the best attack frame data in the game. His S1 ties for the fastest animation speed in the game at 0.9 seconds, even faster than buffs, and his S2 is above average. Because of this, his damage output over time is high despite the slightly low base damage on his skills, he’s using them very quickly and immediately returning to regular attacks to deal damage and charge up new ones. Despite his high damage on paper, he won’t compare to those capable of inflicting bleed, he still lacks access to a full ailment resistance, and he also doesn’t have other subtle advantages such as range, strong AoE coverage, and ailments.
	A+ -> A	Daggers as a whole have been underperforming since the regular attack chain is notably weaker than other close range weapons, and those rated highly simply due to having a good kit have dropped, Orion included. It’s worth mentioning that this is perhaps a bug, since the final chain of daggers is using the previous hit’s damage and SP charge rather than datamined values for the final hit.
	B -> A	Althemia was rated lower because it’s unrealistic to maintain Full HP = Skill Damage, and without Skill Prep it takes a long time to charge up a potential self heal off a weapon skill. However, despite this, her damage is higher than originally thought since she has rather fast animation speeds on both of her damage skills, similar to Xania.
	A -> B	Nefaria’s damage is underwhelming since the extra damage from her S1 doesn’t make up for the lacking output of her S2, and there’s very little utility value in a blind that’s immediately removed. Her damage is just enough to be functional when she can apply blind, since attacking from range can serve as an advantage, but it’s worrisome in content when the boss is immune to it. Overall, Nefaria lacks flexibility since her entire kit triples down on the blind gimmick, which can be completely invalidated.

Version 1.1

Adventurer	Tier Change	Description
	S -> A	The incredible potency and uptime of Sinoa’s buffs don’t make up for her inconsistency, and the defensively-oriented buffs are less valuable when Verica or Phoenix alone are sufficient to maintain a healthy party outside of High Midgardsormr, which isn’t covered by this tier list.
	A -> A+	The ability to stack multiple defense debuffs allows Ezelith to contribute much more damage than initially thought, despite her S2’s poor charge time and her S1 having lower DPS than her normal attacks.
	S -> A+	Musashi’s damage output was rated too highly, since he’s held back by the very short buff time on his S2 and inconsistent passives, and as such he can’t compete with Addis as a DPS.
	A+ -> S	Lucretia’s ability to charge energy was underrated. She contributes more damage herself and for the team than Amane, who she originally shared a tier with, since Amane’s strengths over Lucretia are cancelled out by the very long charge rate of her S2.
	S -> S+	Hildegarde's shields have more value than initially thought, due to their ability to block status ailments, and her healing output is excellent to boot. The short quest duration of the average content favors Hildegarde and her 100% Skill Prep over other healers such as Vixel and Verica who would otherwise eventually eclipse her healing output due to superior charge times on potent regen skills.
	B -> C	Ryozen’s damage output is seriously lacking, vying for the lowest among non-healers, and his defense buffs and self healing pale in value to using a healer instead. He’s nearly unkillable, but struggles to pull his weight as a DPS and offers too little to the team to make up for it.
	A+ -> S	Botan still has serious problems with her passive skills, but her damage output through bleed and team strength buffs greatly exceed those placed below her. Among shadow adventurers, only Ieyasu outdamages her.
	A -> A+	Sazanka’s bleed was undervalued. Even if her sleep kit is unreliable or useless in some content, she has high enough damage contribution to be a valuable pick.
	A -> A+	Zace has a higher damage output than any of those still remaining in A among shadow characters, and only benefits further from the attack skill on the 5* shadow lance.
	B -> A	Rodrigo’s High HP = Strength and multiple attack skills give him good damage contribution, and while his AoE might be less impressive than many swords, content hasn’t demanded AoE utility for shadow adventurers since the adds are so spread out in Light IO.
	B -> C	Berserker’s damage output isn’t good, and his survival capability, which isn’t weighted highly on this tier list, is also weaker than characters with similar tankiness such as Julietta and Ryozen. He’s still usable for Light IO, but shouldn’t be chosen for any other content.