[Blue Archive] Specials PVE Tier List & Analysis

This is my personal opinion for [Blue Archive]’s Specials list for characters IN PVE ONLY with a more in-depth explanation of why that character is good. There will also be a small guide on which skills to prioritize levelling over others for said character.

Tier 1
	Hibiki	Saya	Karin	Serina	Hanae
Tier 2
	Kotama	Ayane	Fuuka	Hare	Utaha
Tier 3
	Chinatsu	Mashiro	Yoshimi	Shizuko
Tier 4
	Juri	Airi	Shimiko

Hibiki

EX Skills: Deal damage equal to 311% damage to enemies standing within 5 circles. Enemies standing within multiple circles take extra damage (4 cost)

Normal Skill: Every 20 seconds fire a shot that deals 144% damage in an area at the enemy with the lowest HP %

Passive Skill: Increases her critical rate by 14%

Sub Skill: Increases her allies critical damage by 9.1%

Analysis: Hibiki is a very strong damage support. Her EX skill is relatively low cost and yet can easily clear entire enemy waves, and she also provides what is effectively a teamwide damage buff for a sub skill (albeit one that predicates on you critting first). Her normal skill has a decently sized AoE so it will often hit multiple enemies, and is also good for breaking enemy cover.

Skill level priority: Sub skill -> Normal skill -> Passive skill

Saya

EX Skill: Generates a DoT cloud in an area that does 126% attack damage per tick. Lasts 8 seconds (6 cost)

Normal Skill: Every 20 seconds inflicts a debuff on an enemy that reduces their critical rate by 12.6% and deals damage equal to 36.5% of her attack power every tick over 20 seconds.

Passive Skill: Increases her attack by 14%

Sub Skill: Increases her allies critical rate by 9.1%

Analysis: Saya is a very undervalued character in pve. Although her EX skill normally isn’t used due to its high cost, her sub skill alone is enough of a reason to bring her. Critical rate increase is a huge DPS increase for most characters, especially once you have access to T4 watch/hat.

Skill level priority: Sub skill -> Normal skill -> Passive skill

Karin

EX Skill: Target a target and after a few seconds, deals damage equal to 687% attack power to a single target. Deals an additional 481% attack power if the target is very large (raid bosses). (4 cost)

Normal Skill: Every 40 seconds fires a shot that deals 223% attack damage to an enemy with a 50% chance of inflicting stun for 3.1 seconds.

Passive Skill: Increases her attack power by 14%.

Sub Skill: Increases her allies attack power by 9.1%.

Analysis: Karin is the strongest attacking special in terms of single target damage. Her EX skill is a very powerful single target nuke that does massive damage at a relatively low cost. Her normal skill contributes extra damage every now and then with an rng stun, and her sub skill is a free attack buff which is always useful for increasing DPS.

Skill level priority: Sub skill -> Normal skill -> Passive skill

Serina

EX Skill: Drop a healing pack that causes the closest ally to move towards and heals them for 120% of her healing power upon pickup (2 cost)

Normal Skill: Every 30 seconds restore health to the ally with the lowest % HP by 94% of her healing power

Passive Skill: Increases her healing power by 14%

Sub Skill: Increases her allies debuff resistance by 9.1%

Analysis: Serina is probably the best healer in the game currently. She is the only healer in the game to offer a passive heal to your units for 0 cost. Even if her EX skill was awful, that alone would make her a staple unit, but not only is she able to keep your units constantly topped up via her normal skill, her EX skill offers a huge amount of utility. It is cheap so that it is efficient for skill cycling, it has a decent multiplier and can also be used to reposition your units. Her only real downside is that she’s not a farmable unit.

Skill level priority: Passive skill -> Normal skill -> Sub skill

Hanae

EX Skill: Grants an ally HP regeneration that restores 54.1% of her healing power per tick. Lasts 20 seconds (4 cost)

Normal Skill: Every 25 seconds increases the defense of the ally with lowest current % hp by 17.7% for 20 seconds

Passive Skill: Increases her healing power by 14%

Sub Skill: Increases her allies critical damage by 9.1%

Analysis: Hanae’s EX skill offers the highest healing for a single target in the game over its duration. This makes her incredibly efficient as it means she wastes less healing and when paired with her normal skill, your tanks effectively become immortal. She is also the only healer in the game to have a damage increasing sub skill, which makes her an auto-include for things like raid boss where you need healing but also as much dps as possible.

Skill level priority: Sub Skill -> Passive Skill -> Main Skill

Kotama

EX Skill: Increases allies attack power within an AoE by 24.9% for 30 seconds (3 cost)

Normal Skill: Every 30 seconds deal 237% attack damage to an enemy and reduce its attack by 18.9% for 20 seconds

Passive Skill: Increases her accuracy by 14%

Sub Skill: Increases her allies attack by 9.1%

Analysis: Kotama is the only buffer in the game currently, and also happens to come with a potent attack down. This makes her invaluable in content such as raid, and the fact that her EX also only costs 3 makes it very easy to add it into your DPS cycle. As the cherry on top, her sub skill is attack up for your entire team, although she will require the use of whale tears to 3* uncap for that effect.

Skill level priority: Sub skill -> Normal skill -> Passive skill

Ayane

EX Skill: Restore HP equal to 118% of her healing power to enemies within a circular range (4 cost)

Normal Skill: Every 30 seconds increase the critical resistance of allies within a circular range by 15.5%

Passive Skill: Increases her healing power by 14%

Sub Skill: Increases her allies max hp by 9.1%

Analysis: Ayane is a very simple character. She’s a 4 cost healer that heals characters in an AoE with a decent multiplier. Her normal skill isn’t very effective in PvE due to mobs seemingly not being able to crit, whilst her passive and sub skill buff her healing and your teams survivability respectively.

Skill level priority: Passive skill -> Sub skill -> Normal skill

Fuuka

EX Skill: Places a plate of food down, causing all allies that come within range to run to it and restores HP equal to 109% of her healing power when consumed (5 cost)

Normal Skill: Every 20 seconds increases the defense of the ally with the highest maximum HP by 18.1% for 16 seconds

Passive Skill: Increases her healing power by 14%

Sub Skill: Increases her allies critical resistance by 9.1%

Analysis: Fuuka. One of the most overtiered units in the game. Although she is decent, she is hampered by the extremely high cost of her EX skill. Being 5 cost means that it’s very difficult to cycle with, and although it can be used to reposition your units to dodge AoEs and other nasty things, it also has the bad habit of causing all your units to abandon cover/stop shooting. Her normal skill is very good as it will always target your tank and make them even tankier, while her sub skill is mediocre due to enemies in PvE seemingly not being able to crit. All in all, a good character hampered by a clunky EX skill.

Skill level priority: Passive skill -> Normal skill -> Sub skill

Hare

EX Skill: Deals damage equal to 271% attack power to enemies with an area and stuns them for 2.7 seconds (4 cost)

Normal Skill: Every 30 seconds reduce the healing effectiveness of an enemy by 26.7% for 15 seconds

Passive Skill: Increases her critical rate by 14%

Sub Skill: Increases the evasion of all her allies by 9.1%

Analysis: Hare does one job and she does it well: She stuns enemies in a decently sized AoE. This may not sound like much but in later stages where bosses use powerful special attacks (not to mention higher tier sushiman stages), her EX can be the difference between life and death. Its fast animation also means that even if your reactions were slow it often still comes out in time. Her sub skill gives teamwide evasion that is more of a “nice to have” thing than is essential, while her normal skill doesn’t see much use currently due to most enemies being unable to heal in PvE.

Skill level priority: Sub skill -> Normal skill -> Passive skill

Utaha

EX Skill: Summon a turret with attack power equal to 84% of her attack power that lasts for 30 seconds (4 cost)

Normal Skill: Every 30 seconds summon a turret with attack power equal to 38.2% of her attack power that lasts for 20 seconds

Passive Skill: Increases her attack power by 14%

Sub Skill: Increases her allies max HP by 9.1%

Analysis: Utaha is a very unique character. She summons turrets that both provide your team with extra DPS as well as being able to tank enemy damage, increasing your team’s overall survivability. Her main drawback is that the turrets don’t move with you while you’re transitioning, and that they’re fairly squishy, but even then the amount of utility she provides is outstanding.

Skill level priority: Passive skill -> Normal skill -> Sub skill

Chinatsu

EX Skill: Restores HP to an ally equal to 195% of her healing power (4 cost, also removes a debuff at EX3)

Normal Skill: Every 40 seconds increases the evasion of the ally with the lowest % HP by 50.9% for 30 seconds

Passive Skill: Increases her healing power by 14%

Sub Skill: Increases her allies defense by 9.1%

Analysis: Chinatsu is the welfare healer you’re given at the start of the game. However, unlike the other welfare units, she’s given no farmable stages. This gimps her very hard in terms of her low base stats, as it’s not really worth investing whale tears into her due to more important students needing them (Tsubaki, Serina). She is fairly vanilla, with her normal skill being the most noticeable thing providing a massive boost to evasion to the ally with the lowest % HP. However, the problem with that is that most units have very low evasion rates (the exceptions being Yuuka and Tsubaki), which severely limits its effectiveness.

Skill level priority: Passive skill -> Normal skill -> Sub skill

Mashiro

EX Skill: Fires a shot that deals 415% attack damage to an enemy with a 50% chance of dealing a bonus 623% attack damage (3 cost, 75% chance of bonus damage at EX5)

Normal Skill: Every 20 seconds fire a bullet that deals damage equal to 150% attack power in a small area

Passive Skill: Increases her critical rate by 14%

Sub Skill: Increases her allies accuracy by 9.1%

Analysis: Mashiro’s kit just isn’t very well suited for pve content in general. The RNG on her EX skill makes her very unreliable, as well as the fact that it’s useless against any enemies behind cover. Her accuracy bonus afforded from her sub skill is also near-useless in pve as mobs seem to have low to no evasion rate for the most part. There are just better options usually than using Mashiro.

Skill level priority: Normal skill -> Sub skill -> Passive skill