Infographics

by Key Roles

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 If there is an error or outdated info, contact us through the #tonberry-chat in the MateriaBot Discord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.

Click to Jump

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 DMG

All 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 BOTH

Calls 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

CoverMitigate

Lock Mitigate & HP Sponge

2T Lock Evade

CoverMitigate

Lock AoE Shield

CoverEvade

Lock AoE HP Sponge

Lock Mitigate

LockReduce

Lock Evade

1T Lock Evade

Lock Mitigate

6T Lock AoE Evade

Aura Lock

Cover (no last stand)

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

EX blind1T 100%

EX HP buff1T 100%

EX debuff 1T 100%

3T debuffBRVFreeze

LD debuff100%

LD effect

buff70%

LD buff once 100%

AoE HP redirect

EX buffevasion

AoE HP redirect (BT)

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

absorb NE BRV

LD debuff1T 100%

Cover allies

shield & AA 20%

stops stolen

Cover allies

shield & -40% BRV

LD debuff1T 100%

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

Freeze BRV BT Effect

Steals 30%

Stops Gains

Freeze

3T BT effect

BRV gain -30%

stops gains

steals 50%

Freeze1/3 chance

Stops Gains

Shield

Absorb NE BRV

enemy stats don't exist

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

S2 70%

LD Debuff

Pasta Stance

LD Buff

BRV+ variations

S2+ or CA

3 everything evasions per LD use

during FR time

30%

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

EX only

1 at a time

S1 & LD

2 at a time, more with BT/FR

LD only for party

LD only

EX when HP>80%

LD only

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

1 time*(more with healing sphere)

Prevent KO w/ LD buff

party-wide

1 time w/ exoplates

HP > 20%

party-wide

party-widecannot die

party-wide

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!

LD & LDCABRV gain on crit

LDCABRV gain on crit to caller

LDCABRV gain on BRV hit

LD & LDCAExtra BRV gain after HP attack

BTExtra BRV gain after HP attack

LDBRV gain on BRV hit

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

water & thunder

windBT+ effect

dark

ice+30%

holy & thunder+30%

wind

thunder+60%

fire+30%

ice

holyAA only

iceAA needed

thunder+65%

earth+10%

earth

holy

forced water weak

thunder

fire(true enchant)

dark(BT+)

holy(LD)

ice(BT)

Ice (EX)Water (FR)

holy

fire(true enchant)

fire(LD)

water(BT)

thunder(LD)

thunder(FR)

thunder(BT)

dark & holy(BT)

dark (fr)

fire or ice(BT)

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

Melee, Ranged & Magic (LD)

Magic (FR)

Magic (FR, LD)LDCA ok!

Ranged (S2, EX LD BRV*)Calls ok!

RangedYes.
Calls ok!

Melee (S2, EX, LD)
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!

LD & LD debuff

relentless launches

Enables Allies

8* w/ pande

S1+

Everything & Enables

S2 & EX

HP (LD)
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!

LD (ally buff)

S2 & LD(Ally & Party)

LD (on dodge)

LD (HP)

LD (HP)25% chance

While she can't directly manipulate ally turns, Lunafreya's Quick Prayer buff can make allies take forced, instant turns as long as the buff is on the ally. This is great for setting up big damage windows for units who lack the tools or BT to take multiple turns in a row on their own!

LD (right)Quick Prayer

S2, EX, LD(Ally, Party, Self)

LD, EX(Self, Ally)

Off-Turn units

There are 2 kinds of off-turn when people use this term:

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!

BT ally BREAKs

S1/S2 Before ally or enemy attacks

S2 buffon Breaks

Triggered by Everyone

Similar to Linked Attackers however, they don't depend on attacks or partners to do their damage - just turns passing by.

S1With S1 stacks

LD BRV While in the sky

LD Every 4 passing turns

LD BRV While in the sky

LD Trap Ticks down any turn(not in BT)

LD BuffWhile buff is active

BTHP Poison

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

no DMG, instant break

LD, 100% gravity and can heal party

LD, removes 2 buffs and inflicts debuffs

S2,LD debuffBT

LD, can heal party

before enemy turns*

EX, readies for launch

triggers self warp

can trigger own traps

LD, can heal party

LD, can paralyze

LD, can heal party

after expiration

can heal party

BT, paralyze and warp ally turn up

before enemy turns*

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.

3x HP ignore DEF

HP on take HP dmg

HP, Battery

up to 2 counters from S2+ & LD

HP attack after hit (rng)

BRV on evade

debuffs

2 Counters HP Heal & BRV heal

2 Counters on evade

HP on evade

debuffs on take dmg

on evade

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

EX Debuff enables party

50% chance (Odin)

FR enables allies too

The Gravity Units

Chase BRV+

After enemy turn

Before enemy turn

break every other turn*

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

S2 AoE, AllEX Trap ST, 2

LD AoE, All

EX AoE, All

LD Follow Up ST, 1

S1 ST steal 2S2 AoE, AllLD AoE, 1

EX AoE, 2

S2+ AoE , All

LD Debuff Prevent Buffs

S1, EX, LD AoE, 3S2 ST, 3

S1 AoE, All

On Crit ST or AoE, 1*

Counter/Follow UpST, 1LD AoE, All

LD AoE, 4

S2 ST, 1

S1, ST, 3 EX+ AoE, 5

LD AoE, All

BT effectPrevent Buffs

S1 AoE, 2

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

Faded Moly (Confuse),Silence & Paralyze

HP Silence

25% chance Confuse

Paralyze

Terror

Sleep 5T

25% chance Paralyze

50% chance ConfuseBT makes it 100%

Paralysis and Confuse prevent the target from acting. Silence, HP Silence & Terror are conditional stuns. Silence stops enemies if they wanted to use Magic BRV Attakcs, HP Silence stops enemies if they wanted to do an HP attack and Terror stops enemies from attacking if they target the person who applied Terror on them. Sleep is a stun that ticks down on enemy turns as usual, but also when the target is hit.

33% chance Confuse

Paralyze (+warp)

HP Silence

Paralyze after Trap

Paralyze*(on + S1)

Ruin's Curse (Paralyze)

Paralyze*(needs 3T)

Low% Paralyze

Paralyze

BT, Stackable HP Silence

BT, Paralyze for 8 turns

BT, Paralyze for 4 turns

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

EX 1T

all skills delay

S2 1TS2+ 3TEX 1T

all skillsbypasses resistance 1T or 3T

+skills/EX 1T

S1+ 2T

S2 1T

S2+ 2T

all skills delay*

S2 1T

EX 1T

AA 1T

S1 2TFR +1T to her breaks

trap/HP+ 1T w/ EX debuff

EX 1 or 2T

LD 2T

EX 1T

LD 1T

S1 debuff 2T after PHY ATK

EX 1T

EX 1THP(LD) 2T**25% chance

LD 2T

S2 2T

LD 2T AoE

S1 2T STLD 2T AoEFR 2T AoE

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!

S2 ST
LD AoE

on BREAK target (with LD)

EX AoE

BT Effectattacking enemies

S1 STS1+ 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!

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