[DFFOO JP][A3C5Pt2]A wild Cater EX has appeared so here is non-synergy Cater vs Ranged Orb
5I actually have a hard time finding supporting teammates for her that would fit into a suitable stage. I can put her in Snow's IW for the ice orb, but then she dodges and do not fulfil the orb or mitigating damage and you need ice enchant for that and my OK's damage is kinda not there to finish the stage etc. Logistic problems.
This stage requires ranged weakness damage to maintain the orb. Daily reminder that Serah is NOT a range unit and neither is Cater. She does however, has new transformed range BRV and HP attacks. Using Cid Raines CA for, other than damage inside BT phase, her transformed BRV attack (which btw has a ton of hits (you can see 220K+ BRV)) in launch to uptick the orb, compensating for the loss during CA setups.
So far my feeling is she needs quite a bit of things to have really nice damage and it seems playing her in an counter-intuitive way is better in general, which is really odd. I must say though I haven't used her on GL before, so there may be something I am not realising. Take it with a grain of salt.
New things for Cater:
Cater's LD is actually really good, and I can see clutch uses of her LDCA as well. It bundles a 3 turn framed freeze with a 20% BRV dmg up debuff into one, perfect for stages that have really mapped out rotation bosses, such as this one and Jegran. Though it is split damage, it hits pretty hard.
It comes with charged shots as the new transformed BRV (4 HP dump ST) and HP (2 dump AoE w/100% splash) attack. They are pretty much the hardest hitting thing there is to Cater outside of her EX and LD, so the goal is to use them as frequently as possible. Like Trey's S1 and S2, they go up one charge to max when you are not using them (but both her BRV and HP share the same charge, so you can't use HP to charge BRV). So you need to use S1/S2/EX/C88/LD to charge them. This part involving utilizing her S1/S2/C88 is where I have some gripes with.
Her old skills:
Her S1 is still a 1 turn lock with high turn rate when her dodge buff is on. If you rely on her to lock down fast enemy (or those with turn rate) you will find yourself in a frenzy of trying to keep the lock on the enemies. This skill also has only one HP dump, so frequent use is a genuine DPS lost, compared to her 4 dump BRV attack (max charge). You may use tank CAs with AoE lock instead, but that may mean less damage boosting CA.
Her instant S2 is a 70% dodge buff (dissidia compendium). This DOES NOT guarantee her dodging. You can see her getting hit by the AoE HP spam at 05:24 while having all 3 framed buffs on. This means you either have to apply her LD freeze or her C88 which gives her even more evasion rate. If I was streaming this, you would have seen me praying her to not get hit and paralyzed by the ST attack at around 06:41. This leads to the problem with using her C88.
Her C88 is like Cid's, but with ice enchant and increased evasion rate. It also has a 30% BRV damage cap increase, and it is instant turn rate. That means to optimize her DPS, you would want to either pop her C88 before using the big attacks like her LD, or you would pop it for the instant turn rate and charge the BRV/HP attacks. However, her problem with evasion rate also means that you may need to use it for evasion purposes. Unlike Shadow who has free skill shenanigans, hers with limited 3 uses and 4 turn duration mean you must pick and choose whether you want to dodge, to use a high damage skill or boost your damage. This leads to my change of general approach for using her.
Approach:
Using her as a sole CC or damage control unit is challenging to say the least (esp if boss is fast). You have to dance around her buff duration, decide whether you want to sacrifice your DPS to CC the boss, refresh buffs or guarantee dodges. Her counter and EX mines don't do much in this day and age, so in general letting bosses moving too much means CA debuffs falling off and you not doing enough damage.
Instead I have adopted a more bombastic approach in using her as a DPS that only CC when it is inevitable rather than using her as a carefree MAIN CC unit. Have Y'shtola help out with delaying the boss and buy time for Cater to setup, make full use of her buffs DPSing. Pair her up with other high turn rate units to minimize the time of the boss moving instead of letting the mines and counters do the work.
She also needs a variety of support. 90% BRV gain reduction kills her BRV attack. General BRV dmg up and HP dmg up support, since her hard hitting EX and LD are split dumps. Also she comes with 3 debuffs and her ice resist down is not framed, which may get rinsed off easily so beware.
Great teammates:
Y'shtola (BRV gain, additional CC, BRV/HP dmg Up)
OK (free C88, turn manip, ice enchant)
Ursula (the usual reasons)
Potentially Good teammates:
Aphmau (?) (More EXs, more turns, more charged shots)
Selphie (More EX, BRV Gain, potentially OP BRV charging in launch(?))
May try her without BRV gain and avoid her BRV attack later lol.