DFFOO [JP][Rem IW] Thancred out of synergy with Rem and Y'shtola
22Thancred may not be stellar when you count his HP dumps one by one, but when he starts chaining attacks, things become interesting.
Since the stage demands turn manipulation and I want to see how non-instant EX boosters affect Thancred, I put Rem in just to observe. It actually feels quite good.
In case anyone is wondering, My thancred has 1 ATK art and UW 0 at normal HA atm.
Depending on where you are at with his stacks and Ninki, you can chain Thancred's free turns in different order. It is up to you and the orb whether you want the extra turns and you can stop whenever you want to. It is also up to you whether you want to consume the free skill to use an extra C88 or skill. The idea is the more free turn you somehow dig up, the more free turn you get with his HP+ Trick Attack with stack 5. The system feeds itself but your input can affect the pace.
In this fight, at around 03:26 after a chain of 7 HP dumps (BRV++, C88, Trick Attack, S2) I went for S2 instead of LD, letting the LD buff fall off for just one turn because I wanted to have 3 Ninki to time the use of EX (+version) and the subsequent LD use with the Ifrit blessing buff. As long as he is capable of capping (which he seems to have no problem at all) it is okay to let the LD buff fall off for one turn. The subsequent LD use will grant instant 5 stacks for another round of Trick Attack immediately. Getting the +version of his EX attack, imo, takes much higher priority.
Rem significantly speeds up Thancred's downtime in between his non-instant turn attacks. I don't think she messes up his EX recharge too much or skewered any "rotation" that he has in general.
Thancred actually does quite a bit of splash dmg. Oddly enough every hit has splash dmg on his EX. The +version is 50% splash while the normal one is one HP dump less with only 20% splash.
His BRV++ also does not consume any BRV so fire away and fuel up your skill attacks.
While I would not give a definitive judgement, I tested Thancred alongside Laguna with Locke BT+2 to eliminate the factor of DEF, it would seem that he does similar or slightly more BRV dmg to poisoned targets than Laguna against multiple debuffed targets (tested in Guy's Lufenia). It is just a preliminary test, but I think his BRV dmg is pretty good.
In the context of this battle, this is a 80/80 reduction fight. I doubt they have insane defences but my setup does not have anything other than Laguna's CA. Most BRV dmg up comes from Y'shtola and Rem and I am quite sure that is around 90% only, and given Thancred is chaining attacks Rem's buff (50%) definitely does not have 100% uptime. So I guess it is fair to say Thancred can hold out on his own just fine.
I think he is really good with turn manipulation units. In terms of parameters, I think characters with armor or BT effects that increases HP dmg cap is the way to make him killing targets even master and shorten his downtime. Orbs may be an issue for him but it rings true for consecutive turn characters anyways. The good thing about him is you as a player have good control over his actions as opposed to someone like Lightning and Alisaie, whose turn rate can be jumpy and unpredictable at times.
Again he is definitely not a meta character and he lacks a little bit of flair I would say, but he works just fine in modern Lufenia+ setting.
Apologies for procrastinating sometimes, playing Thancred requires internal planning with respect to Ninki and stacks and I am still trying things lol.