Momiji has base defense stats of 119/68/48 (HP/Def/Mind), while Meiling is 130/53/48. Thing is, I can prolly agree that Momiji can take physical hits better than Meiling, however, Momiji's abilities are purely offensive. Whilst Meiling's abilities are for the most part defensive. Meiling can sustain herself unlike Momiji, gives defense auras every time she gets a turn, a low ATB attack skill, a moderate damage physical skill, single target ally/self heal, and a powerful self heal. Not to mention that one of her abilities makes her more tanky if she's not in the 1st attack slot, so in a way, Meiling is meant to be a 2nd slot tank. Another thing is that her heals scale very well with her damage, so she can be able to do moderate damage while also being able to sustain damage very easily. Cause of this, this in a way makes Meiling a better tank than Momiji. Momiji is prolly better off going an attacking role. Or a bulky attacker role at least. One problem with Meiling is her sub 100 physical resistance (which is prolly why you notice her not taking hits as well as her). Which I find pretty stupid. She also has a lack of shock and debuff resistance. If you're gonna use Meiling, you're gonna have to go to the Magic library and invest in her Physical resistance, or give her a Tome of Enlightenment - Resistance and boost her resistances. (I did both actually) After that she should be just fine. If you give Meiling subclass warrior, it can really help out her sustaining and damage. She gets attack buffs from normal attacking the enemy (which is something you'll prolly do most of the time during bosses), making her next attacks stronger and increasing her heal strength.
I never played LoT1, so I dunno how great Marisa is in comparison to the last game.
From what I hear, Kanako is real good in this game. Yuyuko seems fine too. She did real good when I was using her against randoms on the 16-18th floors. Yuyuko has 2 spirit, and 2 dark attacks now. So uh, yeah.
