Table of Contents
Overview
MB Celia's skill has one of the highest damage amplification potentials, but the kinds of battles in which you can use her effectively are relatively narrow. This guide will deep dive into some of her strengths and limitations.
Pros
- Unique mechanic that amplifies your team damage significantly.
- Improved damage and SP cost compared to her other costumes.
- Very good for the upcoming fiend boss.
Cons
- Lackluster on turn 1: the big damage amplification does not kick in until your second turn and (third turn if you have +4 or more)
- Heavy SP cost makes it almost mandatory to bring a team member than can charge SP (e.g. Nightmare Bunny Eclipse).
- Requires a lot of investment to unlock full potential.
- Requires her other costumes to use effectively.
Base stats
Let's start by looking at Celia's base stats generally.
First of all, Celia is not the strongest attacker. Celia has only 275 M.ATK, which is much lower than Eclipse (308), Dalvi (352) and Schera (385). Her damage multipliers on her skills are also lower than other magic attackers, and her unique gear bonus stat only boosts crit rate rather than M.ATK or crit damage. This means that Celia plays more like a supporter rather than a primary damage dealer.
Secondly, Celia is quite tanky against magic attackers. She comes with a base 20% magic resistance, which is very high (most other units have 0-10%). She also has base HP of 2562, which is higher than Eclipse (2499), Dalvi (2016) or Schera (1638). This makes her a favorable choice to tank against magic enemies. In particular, she is a good counter to Eclipse in the current PVP meta.
Deep dive on AOE team damage
MB Celia has a unique skill which doubles the chain stacks on her own hits for 2-3 turns. No other unit has this ability. Based on my initial testing, the chain bonus skill works only on her own attacks.
For each chain stack, damage on the same target is increased by 10% on the next hit. In other words, if MB Celia activates her skill first on an enemy, then she will stack 2x3 = 6 chains, and the next hit on that enemy after Celia will do 160% damage.
On your first turn, the 6 chain stacks earned from MB Celia's skill is nothing too special. There are many great attackers that have multi-hit AOE skills for stacking up chains, such as Empress Rubia (6 hits), Admiral Sylvia (5 hits), and Code Name A Rafina (5 hits), just to name a few.
On your second turn is where things really take off. If you hit with Curse Celia. Curse Celia's skill has 7 hits, but with MB Celia's skill this doubles to 14 chain stacks, i.e. the next hit does 240% damage. This is very high, and in fact ties with Zenith for the highest damage amplification in the game that is achievable from a single skill (more on Zenith later).
If you have MB Celia +4 or higher, the chain stacking skill will then last for one more turn (player turn 3). This allows you to play Descendant Celia, whose 5 hits double into 10 chain stacks, i.e. the next hit does 200% damage.
Here's how MB Celia's damage amplification stacks up to other popular supporters:
| MB Celia +5 | AOU Diana +5 (strong element only) | H. Lathel +5 (physical only) | B-Rank Helena +5 (magic only) | |
| Turn 1 | x1.6 (plus own damage) | x2.33 (plus 30% crit rate) | x2.3 | x1.75 (plus 50% crit rate) |
| Turn 2 | x2.4 (plus own damage) | x2.33 (plus 30% crit rate) | x1.8% | x1.75 (plus 50% crit rate) |
| Turn 3 | x2.0 (plus own damage) | x2.33 (plus 30% crit rate) | x1.8% | x1.75 (plus 50% crit rate) |
| Cumulative | x6 | x7 | x5.9 | x5.25 |
| Total SP cost | 11 to 13 | 2 to 3 | 1 to 2 | 4 to 6 |
As you can see, MB Celia's damage boost is very good, and enough to go head to head with top tier supporters in longer battles. When taking into account the bonus from her own damage from her attacks, she arguably has higher damage potential than any other supporter.
Of course, Celia's damage amplification is not so high that you would want to pull for her as a replacement for other supporters. Rather, she is designed to be used together with other supporters to achieve maximum damage on Turns 2 and 3.
Single target comparison: Celia v Zenith
Separately, when it comes to single target damage amplification, Robin Hood Zenith is a comparable damage amplifier to MB Celia, and in some cases potentially better.
Zenith's skill has no cooldown, hits 6 times, and amplifies damage. At +0, the damage amplification is 20%, and at +5 the damage amplification is 50%. When taking into account the effect of chain damage together with the damage amplification skill on the next attacker, this equates to 192% damage amplification +0, and 240% damage amplification at +5.
Let's see how this stacks up against MB Celia:
| MB Celia +5 | RH Zenith +0 (single target only) | RH Zenith +5 (single target only) | |
| Turn 1 | x1.6 (plus own damage) | x1.92 (plus own damage) | x2.4 (plus own damage) |
| Turn 2 | x2.4 (plus own damage) | x1.92 (plus own damage) | x2.4 (plus own damage) |
| Turn 3 | x2.0 (plus own damage) | x1.92 (plus own damage) | x2.4 (plus own damage) |
| Cumulative | x6 | x5.76 | x7.2 |
| Total SP cost | 11 to 13 | 6 | 3 |
On that basis, MB Celia +4's single target damage amplification works out slightly better than Zenith +0, but worse than Zenith +5. Taking into account the SP cost, you would almost always prefer Zenith for single targets.
SP cost
The biggest thing holding back MB Celia is her huge SP cost compared to traditional supporters. Depending on your Celia costume levels, Celia's combos cost a total of 7-9 SP over two turns, or 11-13 SP over 3 turns, and that's not counting any SP you spend on the rest of your team. Veteran players or big spenders may find that MB Celia's high SP cost is less of a problem if they have many high level costumes (i.e. reduced SP costs), but for beginner players the high SP cost can be prohibitive.
There are two strategies to make Celia's SP cost affordable.
One strategy is to conserve SP on turn 1, and then go all out on your turn 2. Units that are good at doing this include Pool Party Justia and Sword Queen Sylvia, both of which cost 1 SP on turn 1 and buff their own ATK for your turn 2. Even so, you may find that using this strategy leaves you with not enough SP for your turn 3.
Unfortunately, the strategy to "conserve SP on turn 1" does not really work in late game PVE levels (Very Hard Story and Tower of Desire): your enemies will hit you really hard if you don't clear most of them on turn 1. Therefore, in most PVE battles, your only choice is to go all out on turn 1 to clear as many enemies as you can. This highlights one of Celia's biggest drawbacks. It's not just her high SP cost: it's the fact that she is not great on turn 1, which for most PVE battles (other than fiend bosses) is the most important turn.
The alternative strategy is to use a unit who can charge your SP like NB Eclipse, Olstein, Seir, etc. If you plan to go all out on turn 1, then you must have an SP charging unit to afford a 4-5 SP Curse Celia and the SP cost of your main attackers on your second turn. The tricky part about this strategy is that you only have 5 valuable team slots, so bringing a unit just to be a dedicated SP battery is not ideal unless they can also fulfil another necessary role in your team: e.g. Eclipse can act as both your primary attacker and your SP battery.
As at the time of MB Celia's release, NB Eclipse is the only decent attacker that can charge SP. Keep in mind that if you use NB Eclipse on Turn 1 to charge SP, then the skill that will be boosted on your turn 2 is Eclipse's base costume (Dimension Witch). You'll need a high level Dimension Witch to make the best use of MB Celia's damage amplification.
In summary then, MB Celia is most effective for battles where:
- The battle will last for more than 1 turn (since her skill is not very effective on Turn 1), AND
- The battle requires AOE after turn 1 rather than single target damage (otherwise Zenith is generally more consistent for her SP cost), AND
- You are prepared to bring an SP battery costume OR you are against an enemy that won't punish you for conserving SP on turn 1.
You can see that, other than the fiend boss, there are not many kinds of battles that fit the above criteria. Most of the time, the aim is to do big AOE damage on your turn 1, not your turn 2. Other than fiend bosses, there are not many battles so far where you need to do sustained AOE damage on turns 2 and 3.
Conclusion
Make no mistake: MB Celia is a strong unit, which makes her all the more tempting to pull for as a limited unit. If you can afford her SP cost, she has very high AOE damage amplification potential. Her kit also fits perfectly for the upcoming fiend boss, and it will be necessary to have her to get a high ranking score on the light fiend boss. She may also be good for future fiend bosses where sustained AOE damage is required. Outside of fiend bosses though, she is only works effectively in niche team compositions/battles and is not a one-size-fits-all supporter. Her usefulness is also greatly limited if you don't own a good SP battery teammate (i.e. NB Eclipse).
For anyone who has already pulled for NB Eclipse and is planning to take on the higher levels of the upcoming fiend boss (and future fiend bosses), I would recommend pulling a copy of MB Celia just for the fiend boss. Of course, if you get a copy, you may be tempted into thinking why not one more, since +1 reduces her SP cost on a very SP hungry combo. By the time you've invested in +1 though, you're in deep enough to be tempted to keep going to +4 for that sweet 3rd turn of damage: she's limited, so if you don't go for it now, she's gone forever! You can see why she is designed to tempt big spenders to spend more.
Personally, I'd recommend going for 1 copy for the fiend boss and see how you like her, and +1 if you want to run the Diana+Helena+Celia+Eclipse combo for the fiend boss.
