Exia (Treasure)
Who doesn't love gamer girls? As we watch Exia's passion for gaming lead us Noobs to a small gaming adventure alongside her, we also get to see our gloomy gamer girl gain some interesting skills from her favorite item. These skills have not only improved her support capabilities, but they have also significantly bettered her as a DPS unit, making her relevant against some bosses in the huge rosters we have in the current PvE meta. Hold on to your gaming consoles as we try to break down and analyze just how much better of a unit she is now!
Can you give a brief summary about this unit?
Exia can now be considered a strong support and a DPS for Electric-Weak bosses (i.e. Water Element Bosses). Her Phase 1 alters her Skill 2 in an amazing way, increasing the value of her self ATK buff significantly, while also making her an ATK buffer for her electric element allies. When paired with her Phase 2's increased damage taken debuff, all of this combines to allow Exia to deal significant damage, out-DPSing the likes of Scarlet! Not only is she doing that, but she is also helping her electric element allies deal at least 25-30% more damage, which we can add to Exia's total, making her an immense addition to our rosters. While she is auto-able, her true potential DPS can be unlocked by manualling her like one would manual Trony: with a mix of full charged and quick fire shots. There is another caveat regarding Exia's DPS. While she is stronger than Scarlet, Scarlet herself is not considered meta in the first place against solo bosses currently. So while Exia does have a spot in electric raids, it comes at the expense that she may not be used against other elements.
Should I get the Favorite Item for this unit?
If you have any sense of competitiveness in Co-op and Solo Raids, our answer is a resounding: YES! Exia is the Best-In-Slot Burst 1 unit for Electric Weak Co-op battles as of right now! In Solo Raids, in Electric Weak Raids she will again come into play as she not only manages to Out-DPS Scarlet herself, but can also support her Electric Element team-mates to deal more damage as well!
As of the release of this review, Anis: Sparkling Summer's banner is also active. For the best usage of Exia's treasure form, we recommend pulling at least a copy of S.Anis, without whom Exia will fail to reach her potential.
We recommend getting Exia to at least Phase 2 Favorite Item before using her, as it unlocks her Burst Skill's damage taken debuff, which helps each member of her team deal more damage, remarkably increasing Exia's value in the team. While her potential flexbility can be increased by reaching Phase 3, we think Phase 2 is definitely enough.
Kit Analysis
Phase 1 - Skill 2
■ Activates when landing an attack with Full Charge. Affects self.
Collect Hacking Code: ATK ▲ 28%, stacks up to 5 time(s) for 5 sec.
■ When the last round of ammunition hits, affects all Electric Code ally units if the caster is in Collect Hacking Code.
ATK ▲ 5.8% of caster's ATK, stacks up to 5 time(s) for 15 sec.
The key to unlocking Exia's potential is given to us right off the bat. Everything about this skill is impressive. Firstly, it enhances the value of the ATK buff given by Collect Hacking Code substantially, with Exia giving herself an astounding 140% ATK buff at lvl10 Skill 2! This can be considered a virtually permanent uptime buff as well since it stacks after every Full charged shot. Alongside this, a last bullet skills is introduced which stacks ATK buffs that buff all electric allies in her team. This allows Exia to not only act as a DPS, but also a support unit!
Since a last bullet skill is mixed with a skill requiring full charged shots, the ideal way to play with Exia is similar to how one would play with Trony: a mix of full charged shots and quick fire animation cancel shots. You can find a showcase on how to properly reach Exia's potential DPS in the following stream, (timestamp 6:06:50):
Timestamp Link - ?t=22010s
Phase 2 - Burst Skill
■ Affects 10 enemy unit(s) with the highest DEF.
Deals 122.32% of final ATK as damage.
DEF ▼ 2.71% for 5 sec.
■ Activates when Collect Hacking Code is fully stacked. Affects the same target(s).
Deals 122.32% of final ATK as additional damage.
Damage Taken ▲ 18.04% for 10 sec.
Phase 2 adds only one single ability, which is an all-important increased Damage Taken debuff which can inflict 10 enemies. This enhances Exia's ability to support her teammates damage. Since this is usually an undiluted buff, it is highly appreciated. It is also worthy to note that all of her allies can take advantage of this buff, and not just her Electric allies.
Phase 3 - Skill 1
■ Activates when the last bullet hits the target. Affects the target if the caster is in Collect Hacking Code.
ATK ▼ 13.77% for 5 sec.
DEF ▼ 13.77% for 5 sec.
■ Activates at the start of Full Burst Time. Affects self.
Fixed to increase Reloading Speed by 95% for 10 sec.
The simplest of all improvements, a simple and effective reload speed buff is added to Exia's Skill 1. It has both high value and high uptime since it lasts for the entirety of the usual 10s of Full Burst. This helps Exia keep her stacks up for Collect Hacking Code extremely easily and without pressure to be in high Reload Speed teams, increasing her flexibility. Even though currently she is going to be used alongside S.Anis, the future beholds many units that can possibly steal Exia away from her!
Tier List
Campaign (LD) - A | Campaign (HD) - A
Exia's damage taken debuff can hit 10 enemies, which automatically makes her a decent choice. Her ability to give huge ATK buffs to herself as well as her electric element allies (prominently Scarlet, S.Anis or Ein) boosts her viability even more. However, some things that reduce the viability of using Exia in Campaign are the lack of CDR, lack of heals, and a lack of undiluted buffs such as Attack Damage buff, Pierce Damage buff, etc. that would have made her remarkably better in Campaign. While her Damage taken debuff is undiluted, it is of notably lower value than the likes of Blanc, or even S. Rosanna. She also lacks ATK buffs for some of the best B3 units for campaign, namely Red Hood, Modernia and Alice, making her more niche than other supporters. Overall, while Exia is a decent option, better options definitely exist in the current meta, especially in Liter and D: Killer Wife.
Boss (Solo) - S | Boss (Adds) -S
A niche for Water Element Bosses in raids and co-op, but definitely finds a permanent spot in the current roster against them. Electric Weak Bosses is Exia's actual forte. While she has a slot against Electric Weak bosses, her performance against other elements is still good. If you lack key DPS units, or are unlucky enough to not have some of the limited units, Exia can definitely help you make a team 5 for raids alongside S.Anis and Ein/Scarlet. Her self DPS is not to be underestimated. Due to the fact that Exia can Burst every cycle, she can receive double the buffs from Crown's S1 compared to any B3! This allows her to deal significant damage, outdpsing the likes of even Scarlet! This is just a bonus for her, as this comes alongside her damage taken debuffs on enemies and ATK buffs for the team!
Source: X (formerly Twitter) user: @waro_nikke
Against Bosses with adds, her performance can falter since stages with small mobs demand more from B1s than what Exia can provide. However, she is still a decent choice for it, and can excel in them especially when the stage is electric weak. Since the major focus is on the boss, and her Damage Taken targets Highest DEF units, she lands her debuffs on the boss every time, making sure that any damage that targets the boss is buffed to the max.
PVP - C
Exia shows similar performance to her non-treasured form in PvP, with the key difference being that she gains ATK buffs every shot she hits. This makes her ever so slightly more usable, but still not enough to break into the usable tiers.
Investments
Gear Investments
Essential
MUST NOT HAVE MAX AMMO
Ideal
4x Elemental Damage
4x Attack
Passable
4x Charge Speed
Priority
Medium (PvE)
Notes
Elemental Damage and ATK better her DPS performance. Niche DPS+Support for Electric Weak Raids. Last bullet effect means she does not want Max Ammo effect on OL gear! If she has Max Ammo on her gear, you cannot Full Auto her. Charge Speed is a passable effect that helps her if you want to auto her.
Skill Investments
- Skill 1: 1
- First part of this skill is basically useless, however the reload speed in Phase 3 is extremely helpful if she is being used without any Reload Buffers. Fortunately, it is fixed at 95% Reload Speed at each level. Hence, we do not need to invest in this skill.
- Skill 2: 7/10
- This is where Exia receives her DPS from. This is where not just her, but her electric allies as well increase their DPS from. We recommend eventually maxxing out this skill to 10.
- Burst Skill: 4/7/10
- Her burst provides a decent damage taken debuff which helps all of her allies to deal more damage. We also recommend eventually maxxing out this skill.
Suggested Progression Path
Cube Investments
Resilience Cube should be the best option for Exia. Adjutant cube can be a viable replacement if one does not have enough slots for Resilience cube.
PvE Team Compositions
Team #1: Co-op Craziness
The best Electric team that one can make for Bosses. Do not be scared seeing S.Anis two times. She is there twice due to the possibility of using her in Co-op in 2 slots. Multiple Electric Weak co-ops have gone by where this team has been used to achieve the top scores!
Team #2: Crown was Taken
Again for bossing. If Crown is needed in another team, we can make use of Biscuit for heals and Dolla/S.Helm for CDR. Biscuit also provides offensive buffs for both Exia and S.Anis, and is benefitted from both Exia's and S.Anis' buffs that they give to electric allies! Biscuit's cover heal is used to keep Ein and Dolla/S.Helm alive
Team #3: I do not like using Snow White - Yulha teams
Alternative team:
Another option for team 5 in Solo Raids, with the Scarlet Helm team making its debut just a couple weeks ago in the Golden Kraken Solo Raid. If Snow White-Yulha teams are harder to execute, or against bosses where pierce is less prominent, this team gives a viable replacement for the notorious yet undeniably good SW-Yulha combo.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Possesses innate ATK buffs.
- Acts as a DPS + support hybrid, providing ATK buffs to allies while dealing decent damage herself.
- All of her buffs are of high value and have permanent uptime.
- Inflicts Damage-taken debuff, one of the best debuffs, on enemies, which allows herself and her team to do more damage,
- 20s B1 DPS, allowing her to recieve twice the ATK buffs from Crown compared to other B3 DPS.
Cons
- Manual-intensive if one wants to reach her DPS potential.
- Supporting ATK buffs only buff Electric units.
- On non electric-weak bosses, she will have a hard time fitting into the top meta teams.