This week’s new banner for Final Fantasy Brave Exvius is literally the best chance players will ever get to acquire one of the 6 units with a special CG (computer graphics) animated limit burst: Lasswell, Fina, Jake, Sakura, Nichol, and Lid. Spread across the week in three banners with a pair in each one, the best banner to pull on is the last one featuring Nichol and Lid. Why? Because both units are the absolute best at what they do for a very long time. In the Japanese version of the game, which is nearly a year ahead of the global version, 7 star Nichol and Lid remain among the top buffers and debuffers available in the summon pool. Here’s an in-depth look at each of these two units to help you understand why they’re so powerful.
CG Nichol
Nichol is the latest CG unit to be released and he is the most versatile buffer in the game. One of the biggest reasons to use Nichol over all of the other buffers is the fact that unlike bards, he doesn’t get locked into singing. This is particularly advantageous in 10 man fights where a bard locked into their singing ability would actually prevent you from swapping units.
Active Skills
Part of his versatility also comes from his ability to dualcast any of his buffs, allowing him to mix and match the best buffs for any situation. His offensive buffs include Furious and Demonic Stance which provide a 5 turn 110% ATK and MAG buff respectively to your team. In addition, these stances also increase the fill-rate of the LB gauge by 150%. Nichol also has a defensive version of these in Iron Stance and Safeguard Stance. One difference between these two stances is that instead of providing an LB fill-rate buff, they provide a flat 1-4 LB cryst boost to the team.
One of the somewhat unique aspects about Nichol is that he also has a set of stances that end up debuffing your team. Courageous Stance is a 2-turn AoE 130% ATK/MAG buff that also debuffs DEF/SPR by 65%. It also comes with a 120 MP refresh that is split over 2 turns. The defensive version of this, Fortune Stance, provides a 2-turn AoE 130% DEF/SPR buff while also decreasing ATK/MAG by 65%. Fortune Stance also provides a HP regen healing buff of 4000 HP with a 10x mod. While these debuffs are serious issues, they can be mitigated by units with break resist such as Veritas of the Earth and Mystea.
CG Nichol can also provide a single unit with a 5-turn 130% buff to all stats with Lone Stance. Additionally, he has a flat MP restore move, Magic Restorative Stance, that provides 40 MP to the whole team. He can provide 3-turn 70% elemental resists to ice and water with Iceberg Stance, as well as light and dark with Duality Stance. Lastly, his Impregnable Stance is a 3-turn AoE 30% damage reduction.
Limit Burst
If you don’t have a unit who can deal with his debuffs, you can also consider building him to have his LB up as often as possible. His LB, Ancient Formula, is a game-changer. It’s a 3-turn 130% all stat buff and recovers 20% HP/MP while also removing any breaks on your team.
CG Lid
Lid is a lot more straightforward than Nichol. She basically only really does one thing, but does it better than anyone else in the entire game – breaking.
Active Skills
CG Lid has two AoE breaks: Barrier Dissolver and Arms Dissolver. These are 3-turn 50% AoE DEF/SPR and ATK/MAG breaks respectively. Against one target, she has four different 60% single stat breaks that also provide her 120% buffs to the same stat. Magic Absorb is a 5-turn 60% MAG break that also provides Lid with a 120% MAG buff. Mind Absorb, Guard Absorb, and Attack Absorb are the same but are the SPR/DEF/ATK variants.
Limit Burst
Her Limit Burst is the strongest break currently in FFBE. Mechabo Custom Hammer is a whopping 2-turn AoE 70% break to all stats.
While it may seem like Lid doesn’t do much, don’t underestimate the power of her breaks. To give you an idea of just how impactful strong breaks are, here’s an example. Remember, Nichol’s 30% damage reduction ability? Lid’s 70% break to ATK/MAG would result in a damage reduction of around 90%! Take a look at this handy graph for a better visualization of how much damage reduction different breaks equate to.
Similarly, her 70% break to DEF/SPR means your team is doing significantly more damage. A 60% break translates to your team doing roughly 250% more damage to the enemy. If you’re interested in learning more about the relationship between buffs and breaks, take a look at this helpful Reddit thread by u/Obikin89.
Summary
The CG Nichol/Lid banner is definitely the best out of the three. Not only are the two units incredibly strong right now, but they will continue to be meta-level units for the foreseeable future. If you manage to pull 2, you’re set for their 7-star version which again, are among the most powerful buffer/debuffers even a year later in the Japanese version. Best of luck to all of you pulling!
Featured Image Source: Final Fantasy Wiki