Table of Contents
Overview
Pros:
- One of the best 3x3 AOE physical attacks
- 5x hits is great for stacking chains
- Strong synergy with Maid Liatris
- Decent damage even at +0, but at +5 with full potential, the damage can add up to a lot
Cons:
- Relatively low damage on initial impact
- High SP cost, even with potential upgrades
- Bonding stat boosts on Rodev's Star are not quite as good as on Lia's other costumes
Lia for PVE
Rodev's Star Lia is a great choice for clearing large mobs in PVE. Her 3x3 AOE and natural skip targeting allows you to easily position for a full board attack, even against tricky enemy formations. She also helps stack chains which can boost the damage of your next attacker in the same turn.
Upon skill activation, Rodev's Star at all levels deals immediate impact damage (including chain damage) of 180% of ATK, or 270% of ATK with her potential upgrade. This damage is on the low side, however she makes up for it with burn damage which deals 185% per turn over 3 turns (205% per turn with potential upgrade).
An "average" damage range for AOE skills at +5 is around 450% to 550%, so Rodev's Star is about average for battles that last only 1 turn, but better than average for battles that last 2 or more player turns.
Rodev's Star becomes a lot better if combined with Maid Name R Lia. Maid Lia deals bonus damage whilst the opponent has burn applied. The two costumes together are one of the strongest AOE combos, especially against wind opponents. On top of this, Lia is one of the few characters that currently has access to the potential system, which gives her access to better stats for better damage.
Lia is therefore good to have for all PVE game modes, including story mode, Evil Castle towers (Wind floors), Wind fiend hunts and Last Night.
Lia for PVP
In the very early days of the game, Lia was a popular choice in PVP. Unfortunately, she is no longer a strong choice in the current meta, though she is still viable if invested to her max power.
First of all, since her damage is on the low side and she has no inherent DEF reduction, she struggles to deal lethal damage to tanks and enemy units geared for high DEF. In the current meta, simply having decent physical damage is not enough: an attacker needs to have a utility effect to justify a slot on a competitive PVP team (e.g. DEF/M.RES reduction, fixed damage, buff removal, evasion etc).
Secondly, Lia's base HP is very low, so she fulfils the role of a "glass cannon" in your PVP formation. As a glass cannon with low survivability, she needs to be high impact. However, due to her relatively low damage, her impact is hit and miss: she can board wipe against an opponent with units mostly geared for M.RES, but she can also have almost no impact against a lone Glacia or a group of high DEF units.
Thirdly, her SP cost is quite high. At 6 SP, she's near unplayable. Even with her +3 cost reduction and potential upgrade (which brings the SP cost down to 4), it is not guaranteed that you will get good value for SP cost. 4 SP cost units are much more difficult to build around than 3 SP cost units, as you only gain 6 SP per turn.
Conclusion
Despite being a "day one" unit available at launch, Rodev's Star Lia holds her ground as a good costume that can take you far in story mode and PVE generally. Beginners should seriously consider using a 5* rainbow scroll to get a free copy of her from the pub in Ch 8, as she makes farming and mob clearing a lot easier, and also gives you easy clears in Evil Castle Tower of Desire and Tower of Pride (wind floors).
Although she is good, heavy investment into Rodev's Star is not strongly recommended. As powercreep evolves (which is always the case in gacha games), we are likely to see units with more utility and damage come out over time. Rodev's Star is also the last banner unit before the next batch of new water costumes is released, so it's a good time to be saving!
