durability in and of itself is probably fine, she's similar to vanilla Tenshi in the long run there; if anything I'd consider tweaking her damage a bit (very carefully though, since she's really not overwhelmingly powerful most of the time). Given the way her skills work it's very hard to say where the sweet spot is.
They definitely do seem to be reversed though (that is,
).
I went ahead and did an analysis of every spell card in the vanilla game (since I don't have exact figures on some of the changes in Rebirth 1.1 I can't go over those yet) for both burst damage potential and SP efficiency based on endgame levels and, for the sake of even comparison, assuming everyone was built full offense with their levelup bonuses Skill points weren't included since they weren't necessary IMO to get a decent idea of how the attacks scaled; this may make some attacks with especially poor defense piercing (like Killing Doll) look worse. My general findings are as follows:
- Average SP efficiency by attack type: Single-target (excluding Shikigami "Yakumo Ran +", counting Master Spark at minimal SP usage of 160) 638.41; row 427.43; AoE 322.16
- Row attacks in general are almost all awful, and rarely worth using unless they have a status ailment or debuff attached to them. The diminishing damage isn't the problem either, they're just almost all badly overcosted; the only ones even remotely worth considering using for raw damage are Earth Light Ray, Phoenix Spread Wings, and maybe Soaring En no Ozuno.
- Later-game characters tend to be better at burst damage but less SP efficient.
- Postgame characters tend to be generally bad all around.
Individual thoughts by character follow. This includes characters that aren't actually in Rebirth anymore, but I've shuffled those to the bottom so as to be easily ignored. It does include comments specific to Rebirth balance.
Reimu: Her offense is good enough to not make her dead weight for random sweeping, and Fantasy Seal is good even in boss fights in a pinch. Evil-Sealing Circle is worthwhile enough for the paralysis. You weren't bringing her for the damage anyway, though, you were bringing her for the healing and buffs. In Rebirth, she's no longer worth bringing for the healing (Wakasagihime's is *far* superior), but she's still worth bringing for the buff (more so now that it's unique to her, rather than shared with Yukari).
Marisa: It's kind of hard to evaluate Marisa, in all seriousness. She's a fantastic random sweeper all throughout the game; however, the deeper in the game you go, the worse she gets at boss fights, which generally favor extreme burst damage over efficiency, and all Marisa brings to the table for extreme burst is Master Spark. Master Spark has pretty good burst, but Mystic element hurts it, and there are a non-negligible number of attacks that do at least competitive damage while costing significantly less (Croaking Frog Eaten by Snake, Silent Selene, Knockout in Three Steps, Starbow Break, Linear Gun if you're playing 2.06+, Slash of Eternity, Last Judgment, Throwing Atlas). I feel like she needs something, but I can't put my finger on exactly what. Buffing her damage is probably not the answer; maybe adjusting Master Spark's baseline cost? It's going to cost all her SP regardless anyway, so making it usable more often might be the trick. Maybe around 120; it can afford to pay for its burst potential by being less efficient than average still.
Remilia: She's pretty much fine. It would be nice if there were room to give her another spell card just for variety, but I doubt that.
Sakuya: Like Marisa, she gets worse and worse as the game goes on, with the only part of her kit that is consistently valuable being her speed buff. Killing Doll is good with a pocket buffer, but she's really badly dependent on having that pocket buffer. Outside of that, she starts falling off really badly past about the Eientei fight; by that point, Misdirection's extremely low cost is no longer an asset as SP pools have deepened, and her low damage begins to show more and more. Speed buffs do maintain her overall worth if you like speed buffs, though (playstyle thing). If you wanted to throw her a bone, you could consider adding some amount of +ATK to The World, but I wouldn't do it without increasing the SP cost a fair bit; this would allow her to be self-sufficiently competitive as a damage dealer in the late game. I'm not really convinced she actually needs anything, and in Rebirth, I think, this is somewhat less important still since you can field Seija as your tank and she can function as Sakuya's pocket buffer while tanking.
Patchouli: She's pretty much fine. Her primary weakness (speed) is character-appropriate and I wouldn't do anything to change it for that reason.
Chen: Pretty much fine as-is.
Meiling: The only thing I'd consider changing is giving Brilliant Light Gem some kind of niche; as-is, it's only worth using against enemies that are deathly weak to SPI (less than 50 affinity), which is very rare. I'm not sure what, though. Maybe make it hit MND instead of DEF with identical formula to Mountain Breaker?
Youmu: She's inefficient, but this is by design due to her gimmick. It makes her hard to use early on, though; if anything, I'd consider making Flashing Cherry Blossoms both cheaper and weaker to some degree to make her early game less awkward. Maybe something like 250%-300% ATK instead of 400%, and SP cost down to somewhere in the 50-60 range. She doesn't really need it per se, though.
Alice: Fine as-is.
Yuugi: Fine as-is.
Aya: Random sweeping is not great, but she's perfectly fine against bosses. Diving Grandson's Advent could possibly use a minor boost, but I wouldn't go too crazy - something like 325% ATK instead of 287.5% would be plenty I think. I'm not confident she actually needs it though.
Suwako: Fine as-is.
Nitori: With the change you made in Rebirth 1.1, fine as-is. I do think she needed that, though (and looking at the numbers, 800% ATK was a very good call).
Ran: Fine as-is.
Reisen: Gas-Woven Orb is miserably bad. Considering the poison is worse than Wriggle's (or Medicine's, now), the damage should be better than them, and yet, it isn't. I'd personally probably bump it up to 350% MAG or so (from 200%), which would make the damage competitive with her two other spells. Mind Starmine isn't very good either, but I'm less sure what to do with it; even with Grand Patriot's Elixir in the equation, there's no good reason to use it over Lunatic Red Eyes. I don't think more power is the answer though, maybe lower SP cost or a different added debuff from LRE.
Eirin: You already covered Astronomical Entombing, and it's decent at the new cost. Could probably stand to have Mercury Sea and Omoikane's Device brought down a tad too (to 50, maybe?) but less critical. I commented on Hourai Elixir already, dunno how feasible it is. Giving it some kind of buffs on the side like Shou's heal might be another option.
Flandre: Fine as-is.
Orin: Fine as-is.
Kaguya: Ah, the elephant in the room. I'm going to analyze from the perspective of leaving her defense ignoring as-is. Dragon's Necklace should probably have its SP cost dropped a bit (48ish?) Fire Rat's Robe is fine. Swallow's Cowrie Shell needs to either be weaker or more expensive; as is, it does more damage than Fire Rat's Robe *and* cures Kaguya's status on top. Hourai Barrage is fine in a vacuum at that cost... but more on this later.
Suika: Fine as-is, I think. I've never actually used her since Yuugi is more in line with my playstyle, but Suika is fine on paper. Perhaps I'll try her in Rebirth.
Now for the characters that got dropped from Rebirth, in case someone ever wants to do a balance mod of the vanilla game:
Cirno: In the context of the main game, she's fine as-is, really. Her damage is awful late-game but that's not what she's there for, she's there for speed debuffs and paralysis. (Incidentally, Speed debuffing is a lot harder to come by in Rebirth, since you removed two of the sources of it; only Reisen and Suika have it now.) In NG+ she has problems because Mystia is a better version of her across the board. I'll comment more on this in Mystia's own section.
Minoriko: Fine as-is.
Rumia: Demarcation could maybe stand to be a little better at healing in main-game (not too much; it should remain weaker than Reimu's given Rumia's better damage and the debuff removal utility. Probably around 40-50% MAG at most). Parallaxal proved it's a pretty good heal in the postgame, but it takes a very long time to get to even mediocre. Her offense is fine.
Wriggle: I'd probably buff Butterfly Storm a little to give her something to fall back on in the postgame, where Poison stops being relevant. (This is a problem Medicine has also by extension, in Rebirth; it's simply impossible to make Poison a worthwhile status in the postgame due to speed scaling.) Any buff to its power should be coupled with a proportional SP cost increase though; it already has a fine enough SP-to-damage ratio and Wriggle is more of a secondary tank than a true damage-dealer. However, she's worse at defense than, say, Remilia, so it feels appropriate that her offense is a little better.
Iku: Fine as-is. Too good, if anything. She's not even that bad as an offensive character, surprisingly, although she has poor burst.
Komachi: Fine as-is. Ferriage in the Deep Fog is worthwhile for the death effect even though the damage sucks.
Sanae: She'd be fine except for the fact that Meiling is ubiquitous as a tank and has Healer and rarely has better things to spend turns on than it or switching. In that light, Yasaka's Divine Wind compares very unfavorably to Minoriko's cheaper, stronger and faster heal. Raising the power isn't the answer though (assuming Sanae has a full MAG build - which she should, IMO - as her MND is poor - both heals will full-heal most of the cast); rather, I'd make Yasaka's Divine Wind the same speed as Minoriko's heal (50% post use delay). Naturally, I'd give Night of Bright Guest Stars a different stat debuff than EVA, but it's otherwise fine. Nine Syllable Stabs is a little overcosted for what it is, but only a little; it *is* her best burst damage on a single target.
Tenshi: Fine as-is. You're not using her for offense, so the fact that her offense stinks is immaterial.
Mokou: Has many of the same problems as Eirin. Fire Bird -Flying Phoenix- is pretty badly overcosted; it has a similar damage formula to Galaxy in a Pot, so I'd probably give it the same cost (40, instead of 60). Tsuki no Iwakasa's Curse is okay considering it has a debuff attached, even if it's a pretty weak one. Wu is awful, and I'm not sure how I'd change that, or if it really needs changing since Mokou doesn't really have much use for a row attack. Fujiyama Volcano is overcosted, but not as badly as Astronomical Entombing was. It's a little more powerful than Astronomical Entombing, so I'd make it cost a little more accordingly. 90-95 SP sounds about right to me.
Yuyuko: Deadly Swallowtail Lance sucks badly. Other than that, she's fine. I wouldn't make Saigyouji Flawless Nirvana cheaper so long as it keeps DTH (100).
Yukari: Shikigami "Yakumo Ran +" is pretty bad; given Chen's fragility, the gimmick's really hard to set up, and the payoff isn't worth it. Hyperactive Flying Object is another bad row attack. Mesh of Light and Darkness is fine for what it is. That said, none of this really matters because defense buff and Yukari's Spiriting Away is insane. In short her offense sucks but I wouldn't fix it because she's such good support.
Rinnosuke: Start of Heavenly Demise is really, really bad - it's actually his weakest attack! Shining Stars of Traumerei is weaker than The Word for World is Forest and is a row attack to boot, for the same cost; it should definitely be cheaper. Start of Heavenly Demise needs a lot of help; it's one of the worst attacks in the entire game. Its composite nature works against it since Rinnosuke's MAG is rather poor. There are plenty of approaches one could take with it; myself, I'd respect how fearsome the move is when it's used against you, and make it significantly more powerful while leaving its high SP cost intact. I'm okay with it being inefficient given his overall high stats; I'd probably go from 300% ATK/MAG and 100% DEF/MND to something more like 400%/75% respectively. I would probably make World-Shaking Military Rule only 50%, lower its SP cost some (120ish?) but remove its drawback of setting Rinnosuke's TP to 0, making it a weaker but drawback-less alternative to Renko's Charge.
And now for the postgame characters:
Renko: Fine as-is for what she is. She's a gimmick character. She sucks when her gimmick doesn't work, and she's amazing when it does. That's fine, IMO.
Maribel: Liberated Abilities has the same problem as Start of Heavenly Demise. However, I'd probably fix it the opposite way to help her NG+ utility, that is, keeping the power where it is and making it cheaper. Around 50-ish SP would be fine. Hyperdimension Flying Object is hideously overcosted and really shouldn't cost more than about 72 SP (half of current cost).
Utsuho: Okay, so now it's time for the other half of the elephant in the room. If Kaguya's going to keep her buggy defense ignoring trait, Okuu needs to be a LOT better than she is right now. I'd probably buff the damage on Uncontained Nuclear Reaction some, even considering the buff attached to it (particularly since the attached debuff can't be resisted) - perhaps 300% MAG instead of 225%. Hell's Tokamak, I'd leave the damage alone but slash the cost to make it Okuu's random-sweeping move, something like 66 SP sounds good; or possibly even weaken it a little and make it cheaper still - the idea is to make it her go-to NG+ attack. Finally, I'd make Giga Flare's base power at least equal to Hourai Barrage's, if not better (I lean better, since MYS is a worse element than SPI and it costs a bit more SP).
The alternative, of course, is making Kaguya's attacks not ignore defense, in which case they're all overcosted and Giga Flare probably still needs a buff or SP cost reduction even still.
Kanako: Mad Dance on Medoteko probably shouldn't be more than around 32 SP for the relatively low damage it does. Misayama Hunting Ritual is similarly badly overcosted, and probably shouldn't be more than around 50-60 SP. Beautiful Spring Like Suiga is the best CLD attack in the vanilla game, but is still generally worse than the other "big nukes"; I'd probably drop its cost to the 60-70 range, she doesn't need more power given her bulk. Virtue of Wind God is an Astronomical Entombing clone and should cost the same amount.
Yuuka: Flower Shot's fine. Gensokyo's Reflowering is lousy offensively, but the gimmick can be somewhat meaningful in late postgame so I'd probably leave it alone. Beauty of Nature should be cheaper; more than Kanako's Misayama Hunting Ritual, probably like 60-70 SP. Everything I said about Marisa's Master Spark applies to Yuuka's too, but I'd be much more cautious about messing with hers given its AoE nature.
Mystia: She partly obsoletes Cirno, and I'm not sure what to do about it. My gut instinct would be to remove the paralysis from Poisonous Moth's Dark Dance (leaving the poison alone), cutting it to no more than 50 SP, and cutting its damage a bit accordingly - maybe down to 300% or 325% ATK at 50 SP.
Keine: As far as vanilla is concerned, it's a pity making her available earlier in the game isn't an option, because that's really all she needs. Rebirth makes her look far, far worse though; she's now competing with Kyouko's Amplify Echo, Sukuna's Wall of Issun, and Mima's Thirst for Vengeance, all of which are better. I'd probably give each of her buffs a second effect of some sort - perhaps status removal on Sword, healing on Orb, and making Mirror boost both DEF/MND?
Eiki: Last Judgment is fine given defense ignoring. Wandering Sin and Trial of the Ten Kings are both absolutely awful. I'd probably drop Trial of the Ten Kings to 100 SP (from 240) and Wandering Sin to 50 (possibly with a very slight power reduction) so she can function in NG+. Even at those costs, they're not particularly great, but her AoE isn't really her prime focus.
