Board Thread:The Last Sovereign Discussion/@comment-2804:431:B700:C9A:B50A:FE8F:B64F:B932-20180705000151/@comment-35407656-20180706000142

I don't think that there is really such a thing as a valid-in-all-situations combat tier list. In different parts of the game, for example, Varia is either impossible to keep alive and questionable as to why you'd want to (the early game), an unstoppable tempest of whirling death (most of chapter 3) and hard to keep alive but also clearly the best way to deal with most bosses (chapter 4). (Sidenote: Varia gets *way* too little respect from the rest of the party for her fighting prowess; I mean in my game she pretty much soloed the Incubus Emperor which would, you think, count for something).

If S-rank means "there is never a reason you would not want this character in your active party if they are available" I don't think anyone gets there; Qum probably comes closest, but there's plenty of occasions when you're fighting enemies who inflict Sexbind where going in with her as your primary healer is suicide. Varia kills basically everything flat dead for large sections of the game, but she's not a great choice in the Tower since there you're usually facing multiple enemies with large damage potential and not that many HP, which (probably intentionally) is the worst combination for her. Reshaped- would be more plausible at that point if the regen off the Reforged Givini Blades was actually a relevant amount.

Practically I think my problem-solving toolkit involves Varia, Qum, Robin, Riala, Altina, Hilstara, Aka and Vhala. I rarely have a use for Uyae, Yarra, Carina (except out-of-combat healing) and Nalili. My usual strategy is to kill everything before it can hurt me very much, so I use Varia a lot until she starts dying repeatedly, and I rarely run with an actual healer in the party except against bosses, so people who play more defensively might find Varia less useful than I do.