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Tank Overview
The O remains one of the most versatile tanks available out of the gate for a new player, and is a good option to invest in as the Transcendence Skill grants you boosts to the features The O has innately. An evasion based tank with self-sustain and the ability to inflict unavoidable through an EX Skill that gets bonus charge based on hits evaded, The O can provide damage, utility, and act as a tank. As a bonus, The O further remains one of the best PvP tanks that can solo against certain teams as well.
FA-ZZ is a tank that takes greatly reduced damage from EX Skills and is a Guard Tank that can act as a damage buffer for your Blue MS by its EX Skill. FA-ZZ further can accelerate its EX Gauge charging as it gains EX Gauge each time it takes damage. Also currently one of the best tanks currently for PvP due to not taking EX Damage.
Penelope is one of your best bets if what you are looking for in a Tank is durability through Guard, at the cost of essentially having no utility. A highly invested Penelope is able to defeat PvP teams that do not have EZ8, but this is becoming more and more rare.
GP02 is a tank that has durability by having an Armored Class MS' base HP values but functions more as an AoE damage dealer through its EX Skill. This means it is more reliant on duplicates to be useful, but it comes up occasionally as the best in slot tank for certain PvE content. GP02 may see a resurgence in PvP as well if global releases Methuss (UR), who has the ability to revive downed friendly Blue MS.
DPS Overview
Zeong is one of the best DPS MS by nature of its weapons, which have high hit counts yet have high base power, which make it one of the highest DPS MS even though it does not have Damage Cap Up. Even though it has an AoE EX Skill, Zeong is still one of the highest single target DPS MS.
Zeong's EX Skill further does bonus damage against "Protagonist Unit" category enemies, which encompass a lot of relatively powerful MS in Arena, making it a huge threat to a lot of other strong MS.
Sazabi (Yellow) is a high DPS bruiser type MS that has innate lifesteal and has Bullseye for 18s at the start of combat. This makes it a solid DPS for PvE content where merely having a tank is insufficient to protect your other MS, as it can keep itself alive. Transcendence will give you another 25% MAX HP increase and increases its Damage Cap, allowing its DPS to keep up as your investment level increases.
Sisquiede's specialty is the ability to deal Beam Damage and cycle its AoE Damage EX Skill, making it a solid choice for PvE content where you are fighting 6 MS rather than one boss. Because Sisquiede is a unit that never has a rate-up, and is only rollable on SUPER Limited Banners, if you are interested in Sisquiede, I highly recommend that your reroll already has a copy.
Awakened Magna Mater is a MS that can do as much damage as a mid-tier DPS while providing one of, if not the strongest single target debuff currently available, making its target take an increased 62% damage from all sources. Awakened Magna Mater, with the associated Raid Battle Module and Pilot can also currently output the highest DPS out of any MS in the game, if it takes enough damage to put it below 50% at any time during a fight, even if it is healed back up, alongside with gaining Absolute Evasion and +99% Accuracy until the end of combat.
RX-78F00 HMT Gundam High Mobility Type is a strong Bombardment Class MS that can hit 100% CRIT Rate by itself alongside its associated Pilot as long as it is full HP, making it a good option if you do not own EZ8. With EZ8, being below full HP is not very significant, making it much more flexible to use. In terms of usability without duplicates and Transcendence, it is probably one of the best, making it very strong outside of the box for new players.
Full Armor Unicorn Gundam (NT-D) is a Bombardment Class MS that has an AoE EX Skill that has bonus damage against Psycho-Frame and Newtype Category MS, and also begins with +55% Accuracy against those MS as well. It further begins with an additional 99% damage against Green enemies, and takes 99% Reduced Damage from all but Blue Type MS, and takes another 99% Reduced Damage from Green MS. The main downside is that it is unable to score CRITs, but for a new player that may not necessarily have EZ8, this can be interpreted as being able to hit close to its full potential without being reliant on having a specific Support MS.
ZZ Gundam is a relatively old Bombardment Class MS that retains its power due to its ability to utilize EZ8 effectively with its extremely high hit count missile weapon. As a bonus, because you are primarily using ZZ Gundam for its standard attack features, and its EX Skill has no effect other than dealing damage, you do not need duplicates at all for ZZ Gundam.
Zeta Gundam (Hyper Mega Launcher) is a Bombardment Class MS that excels in dealing damage by cycling through its EX Skill repeatedly while doing decent damage on its standard attacks since it has Damage Cap increase to compensate for its low hit count. However, for the EX cycling to be at its full potential, full duplicates are almost mandatory, but for PvE even without duplicates it still performs well.
Unicorn Gundam (NT-D) is a DPS unit that enters a Super Awakening State for 10 seconds on casting its EX Skill, granting it increased damage, the ability to use a 4th standard weapon, and Bullseye. This allows it to deal with high evasion targets, plus deal a respectable amount of damage. The perk that pushes this unit up high on the recommendations is that its EX Skill also acts as a damage boost for all Blue allies for 20 seconds, which notably includes Zeong. This allows you to access the Damage Up multipliers without sacrificing personal damage in one of your six slots.
Nu Gundam (Green) is a teamwide healer that also does decent damage and provides a damage boost to all Green allies on EX, and has a ramping Beam Damage buff that takes 60 seconds to fully charge for 110% Beam Damage Increase. Nu Gundam is currently usually the best in slot healer for PvE content, and has the most longevity of the healers since it has Damage Cap Up of 200k.
Unicorn Perfectibility (PF) is a CRIT reliant MS that will take extra time to charge its first EX Skill since it gains extra charge on CRIT, but innately does not have CRIT other than the 60% granted after you cast your EX Skill. However, with EZ8, Unicorn PF should be able to set up quickly and easily loop its EX Skill after the first one, with each Weapon 1 and 3 cycle granting an additional 27% Gauge alongside its normal generation. With CRIT now also having a separate damage cap for CRIT DMG, PF will no longer be stuck at its 60k DPS ceiling.
Zeta Gundam (Yellow) is one of the oldest MS which was formerly one of the strongest DPS, but now is roughly the baseline of what would be considered playable. Zeta's damage split is roughly about 1/3rd from EX Skill, and 2/3rds from Weapon Damage, and is a decent baseline still. It is not strong enough that you want to specifically seek it out unless its your favorite MS, but you are happy to see it alongside other S Tier units in your reroll.
Support Overview
EZ8 can contribute significant damage by increasing all allied MS CRIT by 50% (36% for 30s), and 78% (36% for 30s) for Bombardment Class MS. CRITs are currently extremely powerful as once you start hitting Damage Cap, EZ8 allows you to effectively bypass it as CRIT DMG has its own separate cap. In PvP, CRIT is currently meta as it allows you to defeat Guard Tanks easily, making EZ8 core in almost every PvP team as well as PvE team.
Until the CRIT update, Gyan was the strongest support and one of the strongest MS in the game. Gyan still completely warps the PvP meta around its existence, as it has an effect that forces enemies to prioritize targeting your Armored Class MS for 18 seconds. However, how the effect works is that after 18s, enemies will not redirect unless the Armored MS dies first, which means if the Armored MS continues to be alive, all enemies will continue targeting it.
Z'Gok is a support that allows your team to prioritize targeting Gundam Type enemies and has a 100% uptime debuff against Gundam Type enemies, making them take more damage, and a 100% uptime debuff to all enemies, reducing their evasion rate. The main benefit for PvE is that unlike MS that rely on casting their EX Skill repeatedly to inflict debuffs, 28% of Z'Gok's damage debuffs have no downtime.
Phenex (NT Version) has the strongest single target Beam and Projectile Damage Debuff on EX alongside increased EX Charge Speed, making it usually the strongest support of this type (with the others being Alex and Cima's Gelgoog Marine). If you are fighting against Psycho-Type enemies, Phenex has further debuffs it inflicts against them.
Alex is functionally identical to Phenex but does not have EX Charge Speed, but has much more personal damage.
Sazabi is a difficult to use (at least compared to other supports) support, but can triple up in roles, acting as a tank, DPS, buffer, and debuffer all in one in cases where it can slot in properly. Sazabi's EX Skill increases Beam Damage Taken by the target by 60% and boosts all Blue allies' damage by 26% for 20s. Sazabi also gains EX Gauge on evasion, and its associated pilot gives Ranged Sense on Evasion. This means when Sazabi is able to act as the tank consistently and evade consistently, it can output a huge amount of damage while constantly stacking the EX debuffs and buffs for you, greatly increasing your entire team's output.
Low Investment Overview
Low investment MS are ones that generally require less investment to perform that are not already otherwise listed on the tier list. This means that generally, a majority of their power is contained in their standard attacks and within the Skill 1 and 2 Passives. While having Transcendence and/or high Potential will definitely boost their performance, these MS are ones that can do a decent job without it, and if on a budget, you can prioritize your Rainbow Haro Coins on other, tiered MS while keeping these in your lineup. Not all of these MS will be generally recommended without Transcendence, but most if not all listed here can be functional at Transcendence 5 Potential 0.
Messala is not exactly a good MS, but when you are just starting out, it can punch above its weight against other low investment teams by being a MS that can immediately EX even without Transcendence, and it has access to Absolute Evasion, albeit limited to seven dodges.
Gaplant is similar as Messala with the instant EX Skill activation, but arguably better because it prioritizes the lowest HP enemy, but won't have any real innate survivability without investment. However, it also gains 81% Beam Damage for 20s, which is usually more than long enough for PvP, just off of Skill 2. I would probably place Gaplant higher than Messala if I had to pick.
Johnny's Gelgoog is a pretty decent out of the box Bombardment MS that actually is one of the strongest Bombardment MS for Arena as of writing this (with investments and EZ8), but is not normally recommended because outside of this particular current meta, Johnny's Gelgoog is not very good for PvE and other content generally, and its relevance in Arena will likely immediately be replaced if a different Bombardment MS is released. However, like Gaplant, it starts with 81% Beam Damage for 20s, making it decent against other low investment MS in Arena.
GP04 is a straightforward MS that gets 81% Beam Damage for 20s and 14% Accuracy up front, and can be used with relatively low investment in Arena (though Transcendence is very useful) assuming you have Cima to hit high evasion targets. It also is able to engage relatively quickly as it is one of the few MS that have "Long" range weapons.
Messer is one of two Armored MS that can "Taunt" enemies at the beginning of battle. This means that for the first 8 seconds, they are forced to target Messer, and this Taunt has the highest priority in terms of any targeting changes, overriding units like BD1 and Z'Gok. It likely won't be the most durable tank, but you have access to the Taunt without any Potential upgrades nor Transcendence required.
Banshee Norn out of the box has PvP centric skills, having 81% Beam Damage and 42% Accuracy for 25s right out of the box in Skill 1 and 2, making it probably the lowest investment unit to challenge high evasion MS. Transcendence will further boost your Accuracy and Damage, and get you the standard 50% EX Gauge at start of combat, and all its EX Skill does is do damage, so you aren't missing out too much without potential upgrades since most of its damage should be coming from standard attacks.
Fafnir is basically an upgrade/sidegrade to Gaplant, having the same instant, targeting lowest HP enemy EX Skill, while innately having a much larger HP pool, evasion, and damage taken down, at the cost of being unable to land Critical Hits. It also has Damage Cap Up to mitigate the inability to land Criticals slightly. Especially in lower rank arena and lower difficulty PvE content, Fafnir is much easier to use than Gaplant, with its main falling being that since it cannot land Critical Hits, it will struggle to kill Guard based Tanks.
Engage Incom is a Support that can boost your Armored MS Beam Damage Resistance by 50% as long as it is alive with no other investment required. Transcendence applies a 50% Projectile Damage Resistance Boost as well. Critical Hit meta has made this MS fall out of favor in Arena, but can still see use in certain PvE content.
Dag Doll is basically a worse Sazabi (Yellow), but Sazabi (Yellow) is an extremely powerful unit rather than Dag Doll being unplayable. It also can inflict Unavoidable on its EX Skill, and can apply Jamming on its standard attacks, which may have certain synergies with other MS. Jamming itself is not that useful as all it does is have a chance (~25%?) to reduce the damage dealt by a single standard hit to 1.
Gedlav is a unit that is literally designed to be unable to EX as it is a unit that gains steroids while being above 90% MAX HP, including having 99% Damage Resist, but at the cost of not having EX Gain when above 90%. If the situation goes as intended if you are using Gedlav, you ideally are never going to cast EX, so all Potential Upgrades do is increase your base stats.
Black Lion is a MS that gains Absolute Evasion and 50% Damage Resist for 10s on EX, and gains EX Gauge on evasion, making it able to maintain permanent Absolute Evasion in certain scenarios. While usable in PvP, it is also relatively easy to counter as even with 50% Damage Resist, it is susceptible to EX Skills since its base HP is so low. In PvE, it will be able to solo certain content for you as long as it can get into the first EX Skill activation.
