Ability Awakening Rankings

NOTE: UNFINISHED Will be done in due time! {| class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align:center;" width="100%" ! colspan="7" | Ability Awakening Rankings ! width="160px" | Unit ! data-sort-type="number" width="100px" | Rank After Awakenings ! class="spacer" | Notes Aileen is a powerful chainer after enhancements, though take note of uncommon element and lack of chaining partners. Recommended awakenings: Analysis, Piledriver Fryevia becomes one of the best magic chainers after awakening. Recommended awakenings: Duelist Pose, Frost Flower Blitz A fantastic chainer capable of dealing large amounts of damage with many chaining partners. Recommended awakenings: Black Lion's Crest, Divine Ruination Awakenings make Tidus a top-tier chainer, however take note of uncommon element and lack of chaining partners. Recommened awakenings: Quick Hit, Sun Crest With enhancements Trance Terra becomes the most powerful non-element magic chainer. Recommened awakenings: Inherited Power, Magical Activation, Chaos Wave Fantastic "budget" (though expensive) chainer with HE frames, making for notable use in 10-mans. Recommended awakenings: Knighthood, Divine Ruination (Agrias) Awakenings make Demon Rain an incredible provoke tank. Recommended awakenings: Counter, Doublehand, Defend Recommended awakenings: Impregnable, Protector Soleil is one of the best stat buffers in the game. A big benefit to using her over bards like Ramza is her 10-man versatility, allowing the switching of units any turn, whereas using a bard would only allow switches every 2 or 3 turns. Recommended awakenings: One offensive and one defensive dance A solid bard with strong breaks, though other buffs have certain advantages (Roy has breaks while singing, Lunera has stronger hp and mp regen). Recommended awakenings: Hero's Rime Decent, albeit disappointing, enhancements make for a viable finisher that is outperformed by many other 5 star units. Recommended awakenings: Weapon Collector, Snowpetal Although Seabreeze Dark Fina can be a potent finisher in certain teams, she is outclassed by many other mages such as Blossom Sage Sakura. Recommended awakenings: Utopia A decent budget chainer with innate Dual Wield. Frames are common and thus she can semi-chain with the likes of Setzer and Bran. Recommended awakenings: Dual Guns A bulky budget finisher with strong self buffs, forever still suffers from a poor attack stat after enhancements. Recommended awakenings: Unlimited, Destroy Arm Helena is a mediocore unit before and after enhancements. Though can be used as a budget finisher there are many better options (eg Firion, Cor) Recommended awakenings: Ace Adventurer (Provided you have nothing better) Terrible dps, being a dragoon does not help. Recommended awakenings: (None are of use as they do not make Nine viable, however if you are insistent on using him enhance Spear Adept and provide him with Pod 153 so that he has a viable attack)
 * Aileen
 * S+
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 * Analysis (Rating:S+) Spear mastery gives Aileen a very strong attack increase, and synergises with her tm, Artisan. HP increase and added killers are a nice, albeit small, bonus.
 * Piledriver (Rating:S+) Decent modifier increase, with a very strong earth imperil. The change in frames gives Aileen an extra much needed chaining partner in Camille. (Note: Chaining moves with walking animations CAN be spark chained consistently by repeatedly swiping in and out of a menu while chaining)
 * Recovery Oil (Rating:B+) A decent hp regen with a great lb fill boost, however these can be overwritten by units such as Ayaka and Yan respectively.
 * Fryevia
 * S+
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 * Duelist Pose (Rating:S) 80% magic increase makes doublehand very viable, while still giving a 30% increase when dual wielding.
 * Cold and Confident (Rating:A) HP increase is handy as she is a frail unit.
 * Second Intention (Rating:A) Although this makes her a capable finisher, her strengths lie in her chaining move. This makes Second Intention inferior and will not see much use even if enhanced.
 * Frost Flower Blitz (Rating:S++) Good damage increase an with amazing ice imperil. The best thing about this enhancement is the frame change to HE frames, allowing perfect chains with Orlandeau, Veritas of the Dark, and enhanced Agrias.
 * Orlandeau
 * S+
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 * Black Lion's Crest (Rating:S+) This enhancement provides flexibility in weapon choice as well as a 40% attack increase when dual wielding. This also gives Orlandeau more light weapons to synergise with his imperil such as Lightbringer. The HP increase is a small added bonus.
 * Divine Ruination (Rating:S+) Although the modifier increase may seem low (only a 1.2x increase when comparing to other enhancements such as Tidus' Quick Hit), HE frames are so common amongst units that any damage increase is valuable for chaining. The MP reduction is a small bonus, however Orlandeau does not have any MP stat passives so it is helpful.
 * Crush Weapon (Rating:A) 45% breaks are standard and makes Orlandeau a viable defensive breaker if needed, however the biggest benefit of this enhancement is the duration increase to 5 turns, which is massive.
 * Tidus
 * S+
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 * Quick Hit (Rating:S++) Ridiculous modifier increase makes damage output shoot through the roof.
 * Get pumped! (Rating:B) Buffs are mediocore, with the only benefit being that it lasts 4 turns.
 * Tackle Slip (Rating:A-) Providing magic evasion and counter chance, this is a decent enhancement, though not needed for Tidus' role of dps.
 * Sun Crest (Rating:S+) 70% attack increase is amazing, giving a much needed boost as Tidus' innate attack passives are mediocore. Sword mastery synergises well with his tm, Brotherhood.
 * Trance Terra
 * S+
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 * Inherited Power (Rating:S) High magic increase with some hp and elemental resistance passive to increase her survivability overall.
 * Ultima (Rating:C+) Whilst the enhancement increases spirit ignored, it splits Ultima into a 7 hit "chaining" move. These hits are few and final chain modifier is low (non-elemental 13 chain when dualcasting only reaches 1.3x max modifier). Moreover, Ultima cannot be sparked chained, vastly decreasing its damage potential. Finally, Trance Terra's main move is a chaining one, thus making Ultima completely inferior.
 * Magical Activation (Rating:S+) This ability allows "dualcasting" of Chaos Wave, massively increasing Trance Terra's damage potential. Her rotation only requires Magical Activation to be used once every 6 turns. The Dual White Magic and 120% magic and spirit are small improvements, though have their situational uses.
 * Chaos Wave (Rating:S+) Chaos Wave gains a strong modifier increase, and allowing use to Chaos Wave Awakened means that the increased modifier can be kept without having to use Magical Activation every other turn.
 * Agrias
 * S
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 * Full Break (Rating:C) Enhancement provides no improvement to the base breaks, and imperils are too low to be viable (Agrias already has a 50% light imperil in her kit).
 * Knighthood (Rating:S) An extremely useful attack increase, synergising well with Excalibur and Excalibur II.
 * Divine Ruination (Agrias) '''(Rating:S+) Changing to HE frames, this allows for chaining with the likes of Fryevia and Orlandeau. The modifier is also not bad, so Agrias can actually deal damage instead of just being a chaining partner. (Note: Enhancement can be left at +1 to chain with other 10-frame chainers, like Reberta and Ashe)
 * Demon Rain
 * S
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 * Counter (Rating:A+) 100% counter rate makes for decent in-between turn damage.
 * Doublehand (Rating:S+) Very high attack increase with True Doublehand, synergises well with Counter+2.
 * Defend (Rating:S+) 100% provoke with amazing mitigation, solidifying Demon Rain as a top tier tank.
 * Demonic Fury (Rating:A) HP buff is good, however crisis buff is relatively low and some buffers like Soleil make it useless.
 * Ignite (Rating:A-) Offensive buff is decent outside of dedicated buffers, provides decent physical attack and self mp recovery.
 * Wilhelm
 * S
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 * Impregnable (Rating:S) 10% extra damage reduction is great, though the MP decrease is not too useful as the skill does not cost much as is.
 * Imperial Lance (Rating:B) HP and MP drain isn't really needed for Wilhelm, and he has other skills in his kit he can be using.
 * General's Command (Rating:B+) The buffs are good outside of dedicated buffers, though most teams will have one and so this skill will not get much use.
 * Protector (Rating:S+) Fantastic increases to Wilhelm's HP, defense and spirit. Simple enhancement but makes him perform his job so much better.
 * General's Battlecry (Rating:A-) The added LB fill rate is useful for LB-heavy teams, and the increased turn duration is also nice.
 * General's Battlecry (Rating:A-) The added LB fill rate is useful for LB-heavy teams, and the increased turn duration is also nice.
 * Soleil
 * S-
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 * Endless Turn (Rating:B+) Nice added dodge chance, although her mp consumption is not too high, thus the mp refresh is not as useful as it would be on other units.
 * Schwert Dance (Rating:S) By following a simple offense/defense rotation, Soleil can keep a 120% all stats buff every turn, which is ridiculous. The breaks are admittedly small, however will work in a pinch.
 * Cannon Dance (Rating:S) See Schwert Dance''' above.
 * Panzer Dance (Rating:S) See Schwert Dance''' above.
 * Shooting Dance (Rating:S) See Schwert Dance''' above.
 * Ramza
 * A+
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 * Hero's Rime (Rating:A+) Ramza's bread and butter, strong 100% all stat buffs with decent hp and mp regen. His mp regen in particular, however, is not as strong as Lunera's and in extended fights there might still be pressure on mp. Regardless, this makes him a all-round solid bard.
 * Mind Break (Rating:A) Very powerful magic break, resulting in a 86% damage reduction. Moreover, it lasts 5 turns, which is incredible. However, Ramza's main role is to sing, and thus he will be hard fought to find time to use his breaks.
 * Weapon Break (Rating:A) See Mind Break above.
 * Gilgamesh
 * A
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 * Weapon Collector (Rating:A+) Although the maximum amount of passives only increase by 30%, this gives Gilgamesh a lot more freedom in terms of weapon choice, particularly with greatswords, swords, and spears.
 * Tri-Attack (Rating:B) The increase in hits allows for a 23 hit chain, however only when chaining with himself, as frames are unique. Moreover, the modifier stays the same, therefore is vastly outdamaged by the likes of Orlandeau and Loren.
 * Snowpetal (Rating:A-) 5.71x modifier is decent, however is still much lower than other 5 star finishers such as Luneth and Olive.
 * Seabreeze Dark Fina
 * A
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 * Physical Fall (Rating:A) Decent full break, but as Seabreeze Dark Fina's main skill is a stacking move this may not get much use.
 * Ultima (Rating:C+) Whilst the enhancement increases spirit ignored, it splits Ultima into a 7 hit "chaining" move. These hits are few and final chain modifier is low (non-elemental 13 chain when dualcasting only reaches 1.3x max modifier). Moreover, Ultima cannot be sparked chained, vastly decreasing its damage potential.
 * Retaliate (Rating:C) Retaliate is only strong in arena, and the enhancements do not improve it very much at all. The increase in counter rate is abysmal, and the magic buff will be overwritten by the majority of other stat buffers.
 * Utopia (Rating:A) With a final modifier of 9.1x, Utopia becomes a strong finishing move. However, it cannot be dualcasted and is innately water element, only effectively finishing water chains from units like Tidus and Lulu.
 * Amelia
 * A-
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 * Dual Guns '''(Rating:A+) The added ability to dual wield fists allows for use of Martial Arts Mastery for extra attack while using her innate Dual Wield. The added mini-masteries for guns and fists also give extra attack.
 * Disorder (Rating:A-) A much needed modifier increase for Amelia's main chaining move, forever still far too low when compared to over chainers (eg Zidane's 4.5x, or Agrias' 4x). The added confuse chance is irrelevant the majority of the time.
 * Killer Bullet '''(Rating:B-) 4.2x is too low to be viable. If Leg Shot or Arm Shot is used beforehand to gain the increased modifier, the modifier per turn is 3x. Amelia's role is as a budget chainer, thus Killer Bullet should not be used anyway.
 * Grace
 * B+
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 * Battle Cyborg (Rating:A-) A much needed attack buff, although the defense and elemental resist increase can be nice if you use Grace as a niche tank (with Moogle Plushie or Illusionist Nichol).
 * Unlimited (Rating:S) Amazing self buffs of 200% makes Grace better at dealing damage or tanking.
 * Whole Fist (Rating:B) Though it provides an AoE option, the modifier is too weak to be viable.
 * Destroy Arm (Rating:B+) Decent modifier for a finishing move, synergises with Unlimited+2.
 * Helena
 * B
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 * Ace Adventurer (Rating:B+) 40% Gun passive is mediocore, as there is no materia gun mastery. It is much more worthwhile to use Dual Wield materia using greatswords, swords, or fists for their respective masteries. LB fill boost is deceptive, as while Helena has a lot of lb support in her kit, the lb itself is very mediocore. The only decent aspect of this enhancement is the drop rate increase, which can be stacked with the likes of Xon and Locke.
 * Best Shot (Rating:B+) 5.55x modifier is decent for a budget finisher, however Helena has little attack passives and thus damage output will not be as high as other units such as Black Cat Lid.
 * Endless Dream (Rating:C) Enhancement does not improve the skill. Attack buff is still low, and lb fill is not useful as her limit burst is weak.
 * Nine
 * C
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 * Hyper Dive (Rating:C) Though the modifier increase may seem decent at first, the jump still lasts 3 turns which not only massively decreases your damage per turn, but also means that most buffs will expire by the time your jump lands.
 * Spear Adept (Rating:B+) A decent (and much needed) increase in attack.
 * Double Recover (Rating:A-) MP refresh is also handy to have, however the auto-regen is pretty much useless.
 * Clean Sweep (Rating:B) A decent modifier increase for Nine's best AoE attack, however awkward amount of hits results in an inability to chain or finish, thus decreasing damage.