Table of Contents
 | Exclusive Weapon |
Overview
| PVE | PVP | Fiend Hunt/Guild Raid |
| B | B | A |
| Last Night | Tower of Pride | Tower of Salvation |
| B | B | B |
＋ Nebris (with all her costumes) is the best wind attacker and has one of the strongest attack combos in the game
＋ Long lasting attack buff when used at the start of the battle
＋ Good synergy with New Hire Nebris, who increases in power based on the number of buffs applied
＋ Banana
－ Lifeguard is the weakest of the 3 Nebris costumes
－ Low skill damage, and not very good on its own
－ Needs heavy investment in Nebris' other costumes to see her value in the combo setup
Nebris for PVE
When Laidback Lifeguard Nebris was first released a year ago (as the first ever Nebris costume), her charm was basically her only selling point, as her gameplay performance was sorely lacking. Subsequently, we got Labyrinth Gatekeeper Nebris and New Hire Nebris, which rocketed Nebris as a character to the top of the PVE tier list.
Today, Laidback Lifeguard Nebris is still on the weak side as a standalone costume, but is much more useful now because it forms an important part of Nebris' overall combo.
Base stats
Before looking at Nebris' skill damage, let's first look at Nebris' character stats.
Nebris is a classic glass cannon with low HP and no base DEF/M.RES, but huge attack. Nebris has a base ATK of 396, the third highest base ATK in the game after Alec and Blade. To compare with some other popular characters:
- 429: Blade
- 418: Alec
- 396: Nebris
- 374: Anastasia, Eris
- 363: Yuri
- 352: Justia, Liatris, Rubia, Sylvia.
What's more, Nebris has a base crit damage of 75%, whereas the "normal" amount of base crit damage is 50%. This is another reason that Nebris has top tier offensive stats.
Buff analysis
Nebris' skill comes with two buffs: a 50% ATK buff and a 50% property buff. The two cannot activate at the same time. If she has no stat buffs active, she gets +50% ATK 6 turns (10 turns from +3 onwards). However if she already has stat buff from another source, she gets +50% property damage instead for 2 turns. This is shown in the screenshots below.
Since you are almost always using buffers in PVE, the best strategy is to attack with LL.Nebris on Turn 1 before any buffers are activated. This will give you the long lasting 10 turn ATK buff, instead of the 2 turn property buff which immediately expires.
Although a 50% ATK buff or 50% property damage buff seems good, they are in fact pretty weak when used in PVE. It's always important to keep in mind that buffs of the same type will stack additively.
For example, AOTU.Diana's buff at +5 full potential will grant +220% property damage. Assuming Nebris has 80% base property damage (after potential upgrades), AOTU.Diana brings Nebris's total property damage to 300%, i.e. you deal 100+300=400% of normal damage. If you then add the 50% property damage buff from LL.Nebris, the total property damage becomes 350%, i.e. you deal 100+350=450% of normal damage. Since the LL.Nebris buff changes the total multiplier from 400% to 450%, the true increase in power from LL.Nebris' buff is only 12.5% (i.e. 450%/400%).
The same goes for the ATK buff. DS.Liberta gives a 115% ATK buff, i.e. you do 100+115 = 215% of normal damage. LL.Nebris adds another 50%, bringing the total to 265%. The true increase in power from LL.Nebris' buff is 23.3% (i.e. 265%/215%).
In PVE, you are almost always want to use property buffers and ATK buffers like Diana and Liberta. When this is taken into account, you can see that Nebris' skill buffs don't scale very well in PVE, and have a lower impact than what it looks like on the surface.
Since LL.Nebris has below average skill damage (2x210%) and a small buff effect, her damage output is relatively poor compared to other wind attackers.
The Nebris combo
The main reason that Nebris so powerful is that her 3 costumes combo together very well.
Arguably the most important Nebris costume is New Hire Nebris, whose damage increases based on the number of buffs applied to Nebris.
Laidback Lifeguard is therefore used as the first piece of the Nebris combo, because it grants a 10 turn ATK buff when used at the start of battle (before other buffs are applied). This adds to the final buff count for New Hire Nebris.
The second piece of the combo is Labyrinth Gatekeeper, who applies either an augmentation buff (i.e. damage amplification) or a crit damage buff for 6 turns.
Finally, the last piece of the combo is New Hire, who deals super high damage after being charged up by the buffs from Laidback Lifeguard and Labyrinth Gatekeeper.
Nebris is often used with supporter characters who have multiple buffing costumes like, Liberta and Refithea, easily allowing you to reach 11 or more buffs. For example, at +5 full potential, 11 buffs brings the damage multiplier of New Hire Nebris to 1,230% (before chain damage). As you can see, her self-buff powers and her super high skill damage make Nebris one of the best attackers in the game, as long as you have enough time to set up her combo.
Nebris for PVP
LL.Nebris unfortunately has no special qualities that allow her to shine in PVP. She has good AOE and good damage, but there are plenty of other 3 SP attackers who also have good AOE and good damage.
If you're looking to play Nebris in PVP, her best costume would be Labryinth Gatekeeper costume, because it has the unique advantage of being able to hit a full column and self-buff for strong damage. In that case, Lifeguard is not bad a secondary costume, because the damage improves dramatically after being boosted by Gatekeeper's 150% augmentation buff.
Nebris' exclusive gear
Nebris' exclusive weapon has an additional 45% ATK stat compared to normal UR IV weapons. Since Nebris is a top tier attacker, players aiming to get a ranking high score will want her exclusive gear to deal the maximum damage with her.
Like all exclusive gear though, pulling for the exclusive gear is considered a luxury. Costume levels are always more important.
Conclusion
Laidback Lifeguard Nebris is the last of the non-limited rerun banners, before the new summer costumes start rolling in. Nebris is certainly one of BD2's most popular characters, so I'm sure a lot of players will pull for her charm alone. In terms of gameplay though, Laidback Lifeguard Nebris is the weakest of the 3 Nebris costumes, and is only useful for players who are already invested in her other costumes (or are committed to investing in them in the future).
Keep in mind that all players will get Summer Dalvi (a wind AOE attacker) to +5 for free, so there's no need to pull for Nebris just to get a wind attacker.
