InfographicsÂ
by Key Roles
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Updated for the entire November calendar! (11/08/2023)
Staple Role: Always good, always relevant. A core competency for any team which is applicable to nearly any fight! Due to the large list of these, and these essentially becoming more evergreen in Lufenia+, these now only show calls (which implies it is part of their kit)
Specialty Role: Excellent, but only when relevant. These roles can be the difference between a complete & a failure, but they won't always be needed, nor even effective in certain fights
Note that all images below are ordered by their last update. If there is an error or outdated info, contact us through the #tonberry-chat in the MateriaBot Discord
This is NOT A TIER LIST. Keep in mind that characters with more recent updates may (but not always) be more tuned for handling upcoming content vs older characters. Keep your roles updated & balanced, and for more information on team building, check out our Team Building Basics page!
IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT ROLES: Units have many tools available to them and roles can and will overlap. Just because 2 units share a tool/role does not mean it is easy to compare their entire kits nor does it mean they are only limited to 1 single role.
For example, Garnet is a buffing Support with Water & Thunder Enchant/Imperil who can also deal big AoE Magic Damage and has access to a burst weapon and burst healing. Comparing her to, for example, Ramza who is also a buffing support, but much weaker healing, melee damage focused with access to free turns, a burst weapon and higher HP DMG Limit boost from said BT weapon is ok if you look at their entire kits and what they excel/falter at.
DO NOT LISTEN TO ANYONE WHO SAYS X IS BASICALLY AN [ADJECTIVE] Y IN A SERIOUS CONTEXT
From the previous example, saying Garnet is basically enchanting Ramza does them both a disservice, doesn't convey their actual kits and can lead to misinformation through an unecessary game of telephone.
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Staple Roles
Dealing damage & supporting your party are always good, always relevant - these are the most important roles for all players as they can serve their function in nearly any fight. With the advent of BT+, these lists are getting excessively large & more common, so we're only going to link to other database/compendium like sources!
DFFOO Traits Translated!
With the addition of Shinryu Era, OO provides a list of "Traits" a character has which can be seen as roles they fill. However some of the wording may be weird so we'll translate some of them. Find them here and on the Glossary pages! (Disclaimer: not every trait listed in OO has a dedicated role section on this page).
**Click this section to see the DFFOO Traits Section**
Enchant All = Party Enchant
BRV Heal All = BRV Battery
BRV Save All = BRV gain based on BRV/HP Damage
BRV Reprieve = mBRV Floor
Preserve = Can't die/Zombie/HP cannot go below 0
Consecutive Attacks = Self follow-ups
Other Triggered = Party follow-ups (Cissnei, Yang, Noctis, CoD)
Break = Force BREAK
Break Cancel = unBREAK
Knock Back = Launcher
Knock Back Support = Launch Support
Enemy-Turn Manipulation = Delay
Cut in Turn = Warp/Sketch/Tactical Switch/Shelke
Proportional BRV Attack = Gravity BRV Shave
BRV Guard = BRV DMG taken down/BRV DMG Mitigation
HP Guard = HP DMG taken down/HP DMG Mitigation
HP Consumption = HP Drain (Galuf, Vivi, Llyud, Queen, Jack)
Cancel Debuff = Cleanse/Remove Ally Debuffs
Elude = Debuff Evasion
Cancel Buff = Dispel/Remove Enemy Buffs
BRV Gain Interference = Prevent BRV Gains (Kadaj, Arciela, Edgar, Yuffie, Freezes)
Ally Turn Manip = Move ally moves forward somehow (pull up directly or warpstrike)
Certain BRV DMG = BRV Poison
Certain HP DMG = HP Poison
DMG null = Set incoming HP DMG to 0/HP DMG -100%
Debuff Recovery = Esuna/Cleanse
Debuff Evasion = Prevent debuffs
Disable = Stuns (confuse/para/etc)
Extra turns = turn hogging/itr/granted turn from a condition
Level buff/debuff = stacking value usually effects the buff/debuff potency. Usually roman numerals but some units like Terra, Cor, Garland LDCA use numbers still
BRV Gain Up
As enemies continue to reduce BRV gains and lower the value of our battery effects and BRV gains between attacks, BRV gain up auras become extremely powerful to counteract this. BRV gain up allows characters to counteract this entire boss mechanicNote: There is also self BRV Gains Up which boosts the BRV battery the unit creates, this is slightly different from BRV Gains up which is an effect that boosts the BRV battery the unit recieves regardless of source.All effects & calls found on DissidiaDb
HP Damage Up
As BRV DMG reduction increases, it becomes more important to continue to deal high damage. HP Damage up buffs, debuffs, & effects ensure that your damage per turn is premium. It also helps to breathe life into older kits that have low hit counts, allowing their damage ceiling to increase!All effects & calls found on DissidiaDb
BRV Damage Up
As enemies raise their resistance to general BRV DMG, you need a way to counteract that reduction directly. BRV DMG up directly counteracts these effects so that your team can continue to shave BRV efficiently. Critical damage boosts are similar but only affect critical hits, generally when an enemy is broken or an effect guarantees criticals.Magic = Magic BRV DMGAll effects & calls found on DissidiaDb
Regen Healer
Healing is a requirement of any party, unless you are employing an alternative strategy, such as heavy enemy delay.Regen healers are great in counteracting frequent attacks, but might fall behind if their regen effect isn't strong enough and the party is under pressure.All effects & calls found on DissidiaDb
Burst Healer
Healing is a requirement of any party, unless you are employing an alternative strategy, such as heavy enemy delay.Burst healers are great in counteracting large enemy attacks, but you need to ensure that they have enough uses of their healing & that it is timely enough to compensate for your healing needs.Calls found on DissidiaDb
Both Burst & Regen Healing
Healing is a requirement of any party, unless you are employing an alternative strategy, such as heavy enemy delay.Burst healers are great in counteracting large enemy attacksRegen healers are great in counteracting frequent attacksThese characters can do BOTHCalls found on DissidiaDb
How to find a Character's Traits
Specialty Roles
When relevant, these characters can be the best on your team, providing unparalleled protection or disruption. Their downside is, their role will not always be helpful or important in all fights. The #1 rule of tackling endgame content is to counter the boss mechanics. Sometimes there are cases of ignoring fight mechanics with enough damage and strict setups, however doing so requires having the perfect pieces.
These specialties are all nuanced and each character is different. Before you skip a character because you already have their specialty covered, consider what team compositions you can form that cover all of the potential ally's roles, not just the speciality. If you can't form a team, you likely need to augment your role coverage and further balance your roster by pulling.
Defensive Roles
Tank
Tanks take pressure off your team and can help trivialize boss mechanics. A tank's efficiency depends greatly per battle. See notes below- Many tanks may struggle against protecting vs AoE unless specified
- Lock indicates that they draw attention onto themselves, but these tanks are reliant on the debuff
- Cover indicates they don't rely on a debuff and will jump in front of your allies to protect them
Lock calls found on DissidiaDb
Nullify Party HP Damage
They protect your entire party by nullifying HP damage or massively reducing it, which is a constant theme of difficult content. They operate in a lot of content but note that their mitigation may not always be active, or may not be enough for the boss you are facing.HP Reduction Calls found on DissidiaDb
Nullify Party BRV DMG
Stopping stolen BRV is relevant at countering very specific bosses. They can turn a difficult fight into a cake walk, essentially preventing the boss from having any BRV to HP attack you with, but not all fights can be approached this way.BRV Reduction calls found on DissidiaDb
Reduce Enemy BRV gains
Reducing BRV gains is similar at at countering very specific bosses, and can mitigate a significant amount of threat from a boss, but it's heavily dependent on the boss doing BRV gains, which is not as common as bosses doing normal attacks to steal BRV.Calls found on DissidiaDb
Debuff Evasion
Most enemies inflict debuffs, and this is the easiest way to counter it, and prevent the debuffs from pushing your precious buffs off! Note that some enemies have guaranteed debuffs and this won't stop those!Calls found on DissidiaDb
Esuna / Debuff Cleansing
This role is only truly useful vs bosses with guaranteed debuffs, which is quite rare. Rare or not, sometimes you just need this effect, and very few characters have access to this! Some Lufenia orbs need this as well!Calls found on DissidiaDb
Has Last Stand to Prevent KO
Always relevant but rarely required. Last Stand affords you more flexibility in battle as you don't need to worry about them dying as long as Last Stand is active. All thresholds are HP > 50% unless specified otherwise
Support Roles
Battery
Originally "Battery" was used for units that just provides the party with BRV however as units gained more than 1 HP attack and BRV gains and retain along with BRV Gains at the end of turns, these became less impactful outside of filling the Force Gauge. Because of this, we'd like to rebrand the Battery role for units that provide extra BRV gains through special means that support multiple HP attacks!
Party Enchant & Imperil
These characters enable your entire team to hit weakness damage on all of their non-elemental hits. This boosts BRV DMG by 50%, and we note additional boosts under the element (weakness damage up). The biggest advantage of Enchant/Imperil is that you can ignore melee/magic/ranged resistances that bosses have!Calls found on DissidiaDb
Note that some calls listed only enchant or imperil. Check call for details
Weapon Type Imperil
Similar to Elemental Imperil, hitting for weapon type weakness boosts BRV DMG dealt. If you hit both Element and Weapon weakness, they stack! Weapon Type weakness isn't asked for often but when it's needed here are some units that can help lower enemy weapon resistances!Calls found on DissidiaDb
Note that some calls listed only enchant or imperil. Check call for details
Calls ok!
Calls ok!
Launcher
Launching can provide huge damage amplification and is one of the most common ways to "cheese" a fight, by ignoring boss mechanics.How does it work? When a launch occurs, 10% HP DMG will be added to the attack. For every ally that participates in the launch, 5% more HP DMG will be added, for a total of 20% boost. Pairing this with Pandemonium summon is another 25% HP DMG, which stacks to +45% HP DMG!
25% chance
Turn Manipulation
Some characters can move where their ally's turns will end up. This can be useful when facing an undelayable/undeletable boss and you haven't dealt with it's mechanic and need a little more wiggle room but don't want to use Summon/BT phase. It can also be useful for enabling slower, heavy-hitting allies to hit harder, more often!
Off-Turn units
There are 2 kinds of off-turn when people use this term:Â
Triggered by Party
Sometimes your damage dealers want a buddy to attack with/after them and Teamwork makes the dream work so go nuts! They can sometimes cause a BREAK right before the enemy's next turn to make even more space for the party to act!
Triggered by Everyone
Similar to Linked Attackers however, they don't depend on attacks or partners to do their damage - just turns passing by. 
Traps: Triggered by enemy turns
Traps that trigger after an enemy turn are most notable for helping with "off-turn damage". This means dealing damage outside of their turn. This is especially effective in Boss Rush content, but is also helpful at controlling bosses.Calls found on DissidiaDb
Counters: Enemy Actions
Counter attacks are similar to traps above, but generally only trigger in specific conditions, where as traps trigger always after the enemy turn is taken. Counter attacks also a slightly more common Lufenia orb condition. "HP" indicates that they deal HP damage on their counter attack.
Boss Disruption
Instant Break & 100% Gravity
Lufenia difficulty will more frequently have huge BRV DMG taken down effects, sometimes even as high as 999% reduction. More enemies will have auras that require them to be broken to dispel the aura. This makes 100% gravity specifically and instant break characters extremely valuable!Calls found on DissidiaDb
The Gravity Units
Dispeller
Dispelling can be useful in niche fights, removing boss buffs, which sometimes can be the difference between ease & impossibility. This is less frequent in Lufenia, only being critical in a couple of fights, as bosses tend to have invisible auras that cannot be dispelled with an ability.Calls found on DissidiaDb
Stun Effects
Paralysis, Silence, & Confuse are always relevant, giving you time to delay a big enemy attack, and giving you more turns than the enemy overall. Many Lufenia fights have conditions that require Paralysis/Silence/Confuse, and can often temporarily negate boss mechanics like counter attacks or other triggered abilities.Calls found on DissidiaDb
Turn Delay
Turn delay is the most used tactic to countering all forms of bosses, and giving them less turns to take. Stacking up on turn delay can trivialize bosses and afford more varied team compositions. Be warned enemies in Lufenia will sometimes punish you severely for delaying or be immune to it entirely.Calls found on DissidiaDb
Turn Deletion
These characters can remove an enemy's turn as long as it doesn't have a spiky frame. Not as effective as delay on faster bosses, but still great utility when you want to deny boss turns!
LD AoE
Poison / Sap
One of the more common Lufenia orb triggers, inflicting poison or sap can be very useful for tackling boss fights. Additionally, this can act as a pre-turn trap of sort, helping to shave enemy BRV, which can affect boss AI (avoiding an HP attack by lowering their BRV to 0), etc.Calls found on DissidiaDb
Too many to upkeep & list, use the DissidiaDb link to find allies which poison/sap!
If you just need it for an orb, Thancred and Faris spheres are easy answers!
Yda & Exdeath are the only characters with HP Poison!
Specific Values
Want the values of effects broken down?
Use these nifty tools thanks to DissidiaDB and Dissidia Compendium for a more in-depth and detailed search!
