Table of Contents
Overview
Pros:
- Outstanding AOE fire damage, with up to 1100% damage (!)
- Doesn't need a lot of investment to be useful: Pretty good damage even at +0 (but crazy damage at +5 full potential)
- Other costume is great, making Eris a strong package overall (especially against tough wind bosses in PVE)
- Short 3 turn cooldown time
Cons:
- As a fire attacker, she faces a lot of competition from other great fire options
- Her skill limits the kind of team formations you can play (e.g. Zenith, Celia etc are difficult to use well with her)
- Hard to make full use of her AOE in PVE
- Since she's an offensive-type limited costume, you need to commit to a big investment in a short period of time if you want her at full offensive power.
- Since she's a limited character, it's unlikely that we'll get more costumes in the future to make her better overall (whereas other non-limited characters will get better over time as new costumes are released).
Eris for PVE
Let's start with the obvious: Eris's damage output is insane. Her 1100% damage multiplier goes way above that of any other costume, making her a powerhouse for clearing hard PVE content. She has a pretty good base ATK stat at 372, and she also reloads quickly with a 3 turn cooldown. If you need top tier fire damage, then you want Eris.
Aside from her obvious firepower, let's look at the other aspects of this costume.
Conditional bonus damage
The first thing to note is the condition on her bonus damage. Her increased damage only activates if she hits on chain no. 7 or less. For most PVE battles, this is not a big issue, as long as you don't use chain stacking costumes like Celia or PWB.Refi. If your team setup is 4 buffers + Eris, or 3 buffers + 1 attacker + Eris, usually you should be safely within 7 chain stacks. For example, Diana + H.Lathel + GC.Rafina + LL.Elise + EA.Eris would be an acceptable combo, because EA.Eris strikes on chain stack 7.
However, note that some fiend bosses give chain stacking buffs, which would benefit others but actually makes things harder for EA.Eris. Also, it's not possible to use EA.Eris's full power as a finisher in Last Night, since Last Night is all about stacking as many chains as possible.
Yet another fire type
The second thing to note is that she's fire type. Now there's nothing wrong with fire, but fire is clearly the dev's favorite element, because we have SO MANY good fire attackers to choose from. Unlike wind for example (which basically has only Gray and Dalvi), fire has Alec, Anastasia, Elise, Lathel, Liatris, Loen, and Rubia.
EA.Eris therefore faces some pretty tough competition from other fire attackers. In particular, Loen and Liatris both have less damage, but better AOE range for clearing mobs. Even though EA.Eris is stronger in raw damage, her AOE is kind of weird, and difficult to use to clear large mobs. You can really feel the drawbacks to her AOE in the upcoming wind fiend hunt, Berserker. Unlike Lia and Loen, EA.Eris can't reach the weak spots without help from Zenith or Rignette.
Bear in mind that BD2 is a game where weak-element damage is very important, so having an elementally diverse roster is really important. Overinvesting on a single element is not recommended, so that's one thing to consider for players who already have a strong fire roster.
Synergy with Cat Eris
So what does EA.Eris bring to the table that's different from other fire attackers, other than her damage? One important thing is the fact that EA.Eris comes as a package with Cat Eris, which is a very good costume. Cat Eris currently has the best single-target damage amplification skill in the game (150% amplification on a single target), beating out GC.Rafina (100% amplification in a 3x3 AOE).
If you're going to invest in Cat Eris for the damage amplification, then you'd also want to have EA.Eris so that you can deal high damage and alternate between the two costumes each turn. Together, they make a very powerful combo.
Eris's weapon
There's one more really important thing to consider before investing in Eris: HER UNIQUE GEAR IS LIMITED.
Like with Roxy, if you want to truly max out Eris's attack power, not only do you have to get her to +5 before the limited banner runs out, you also need to get a copy of her unique gear, which increases her ATK by 45% on the bonus stat. Given that Eris's role is an attacker, you want Eris to do the highest damage possible, but if you miss getting it on the limited weapon banner, you lose your shot at that extra 45% ATK forever.
That's a very big investment cost to go for both the costume and the weapon, so choose wisely before committing.
Eris for PVP
EA.Eris is packs a punch for PVP. Her damage output is very high, her SP cost is reasonable (3 SP), and her chain stack limitation is pretty much a non-issue in PVP. Overall, EA.Eris is a better-than-average costume in PVP, and particularly strong during season of fire.
Zenith in position 1 is a surprisingly effective combo with EA.Eris in position 2, as Zenith's skip targeting helps EA.Eris make the most of her backwards AOE range, Zenith's damage amplification coupled with EA.Eris's high damage increases the chances of a lethal hit.
Unfortunately, in the current state of PVP, it's unlikely that big damage alone would be enough to disrupt the meta in high-ranking PVP or replace any of the current S-tier juggernauts of the PVP meta. The prime example to compare with is Comeback Idol Yuri: for 3 SP she has sky high damage and is objectively a good costume, yet she sees relatively little play in the upper ranks. This just goes to show how refined the current state of the meta is.
It's also worth noting that Eris has two important drawbacks for PVP. Firstly, her base HP is very low, making her an easy-to-kill target. Secondly, fire has an inherent disadvantage in the current PVP meta due to the popularity of Glacia (a water tank) who frequently appears with 90% DEF / 90% M.RES gearing.
Conclusion
After the relatively recent releases of Maid Lia and Last Hope Loen, we are really spoiled for choice when it comes to big fire nukes. EA.Eris has now come along as the biggest nuke of them all, but also has some important drawbacks when it comes to her AOE and her chain stack limitation. If you already have a strong fire team, consider whether you want to need EA.Eris to further improve your fire team, or whether you'd be better off investing in characters from other elements.
One of the biggest reasons to pull for EA.Eris is the fact that she has a complementary skillset with Cat Eris. Together these costumes make an extremely powerful fire unit with Cat Eris setting up the damage amplification and EA.Eris then following through with the big finish.
