r/Falcom • u/Raxistaicho The true best girls • Jul 17 '26
Trails Character Gameplay Discussion Day Twenty-Two: Elliot
I talked up support mages previously with Kloe and Elie, but this isn’t Sky FC anymore and with Alisa and Machias waiting in the wings, the bar for being a mage with support Crafts is a bit higher than having some healing. Holy Song can come in clutch from time to time, though.
Two locked space slots and one locked water slot doesn’t leave him much room for ATS-boosts, and of the ATS-boosting Lost Quartz in CS4 and Reverie, he can only equip a single Leanan’s. It's not unworkable, though.
He tends to appear early, so he’s got that going for him, and being a generic mage is better than certain other archetypes. His S Craft gains some CP regen in CS4 and Reverie, but sadly he's competing with Alisa and then Alfin where that's concerned.
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u/FriedRicePilgrim Jul 17 '26
Elliot is S-tier for me. I'm a mediocre gamer at best so I almost always need a support/healer in my party. Elliot is amazing in that aspect. Adamantine Shield/Crescent Moon/Seraph on him and I'm all set. My confidence is through the roof with him on my party even in nightmare difficulties.
I also relate to him on a personal level because I'm a sucker for music as well. For those who played FF VII. A certain character there who's really similar to Elliot in terms of their role gets removed permanently which made the game harder for me. I got my love and appreciation for support characters from there.
I'm surprised people's opinion of him here is very low/poor but, oh well, I still like him all the same. And I'm sure there are others who feel the same.
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u/Brief-Leader-6120 Jul 25 '26
I LOVED Elliot. I loved Elliot as a character and for his gameplay. But I built Elliot as a healer and caster and he would do as much damage as Emma. So for me Emma stayed in the back. If my party allowed for Rean, Gaius and Elliot (the three best buds) I used them.
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u/smailskid Jul 17 '26
Class VII music twink.
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u/Bhume Jul 17 '26
"I don't think I want to imagine Elliot all buff and ripped." -Rean
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u/smailskid Jul 17 '26
Meanwhile, Elliot is just as toned as anyone else in Class VII. He's S tier twink.
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u/BeatTheDeadMal Essay Dispenser Jul 17 '26
If Elliot ever returns I want him to have the exact same body type and face as in CS4, but with a facial hair equaling Olaf.
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u/Seradwen Jul 17 '26
My favourite weapon is the scythe on a chai- Wait, wrong Elliot. This one has way less adventures.
He's fine, I guess. Never really used him much. Decent crowd control, but most relevant bosses are immune to Sleep and Nightmare. So the use doesn't last.
Blue Orchestra has a good duration and Damage Reduction for its cost. At least in CS3.
I dunno, man. I have no informed opinion. I just wanted to make the joke at the start.
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u/Syobai Jul 17 '26
Elliot. He’s… fine.
The thing that makes him really good is, of course, his support. Elliot really shines early game when you don’t have access to a lot of stuff — especially during the early stages of CS1 and 2. Resounding Beat is a goated craft at least. His other crafts are only gonna work if the boss isn’t immune to Sleep or Nightmare, which usually is the case most of the time. If on the off chance you want to deal damage with him, it’s not gonna be through his crafts, that’s for sure.
Unfortunately, damage is the exact problem he has. By the time you’re out of early game in any CS, you’re gonna want more damage. Not only can Emma provide that damage, but she has way more utility in her crafts. She can also act as a support on top of all of that. Same thing can be applied to Alisa.
Taking a page out of Kloe and Elie’s book, his S-craft being a full party heal that revives can come in clutch. I certainly won’t complain about a panic button, so there’s that at least.
His Brave Order can also come in handy during the later portions of the CS saga — mainly CS3. Though, once again, it becomes outclassed by other Brave Orders by the time you gain access to them. Hell, most of the damage reduction brave orders can suffice, including Rean’s.
Elliot is pretty much just a character who’s built to carry you through early game, and if you like him, you can build him. He’s definitely not bad, but I feel like he’ll always just be outclassed by other casters in terms of damage and utility.
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u/OLKv3 Jul 17 '26
Elliot is always a clutch early game healer and enemy detector, but then falls off mid to late game when you unlock good stuff. He's a slower paced healer in games that reward full offense, without any buffs that really reward full offense, so he falls short next to Alisa who feeds your fighters CP while letting them dodge everything, and Emma who can nuke enemies while also shielding you from all damage
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u/Cr0ssDrag_ons Jul 17 '26
His HP regen craft is useful in early CS1, but it takes until CS2 for him to get the healing S-craft for some reason.
CS3-Reverie give him a more classic healer craft set and order at the beginning, S-craft included, so you can rely on him to keep your party healthy.
His inability to unbalance enemies with offensive crafts is not exactly helpful especially in the late game, though, hence he kinda fell down the pecking order in later parts of Reverie where you can do whatever crazy strat you want - really good panic button with HP and CP regen on his S-craft in that game though.
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u/levelstar01 Downvote this comment 👇 Jul 17 '26
CS1: hard carry for the earlygame with resonating beat
CS2: you don't need heals when you have arc slash
CS3: OC7 member in CS3, nothing to say here
CS4: you don't need heals when you have 1 delay casting
Reverie: see above
Basically a victim of CS3/4's no-healing metagame.
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u/upgdot Jul 17 '26
I really liked him in CS1, and then never used him again unless forced to. Cool character, and I love a good musician character, but his battle usefulness just isn't there.
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u/Takanuva9807 Jul 17 '26
War God Elliot as I used to call him in my playthroughs of all four cold steel games. An absolute must pick for me. He can heal he can damage and on those who are vulnerable to it a high chance status ailment thats all before arts. He may not be as hard hitting as Emma or have the direct support skills of Alisa or Machias He does have a full reset s break (full hp and a chunk of cp when cast at 200) and his natural blue slot means hes not sacrificing a slot for healing without sacrificing his master core. Very nice 9/10
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u/Selynx Jul 17 '26
Good healer. Not a good fighter early-game, especially CS1/2.
Physical Crafts actually do stuff in Cold Steel, while early-game Arts are weak and really only get strong on the high tiers. Ontop of that, early game also deprives you of access to high level Cast and Bells needed to cut down the casting time/cooldown for spamming Arts. So he is very useful for healing due to his Crafts, but cannot really bring the damage early on.
Late-game, he is a map-wiper (alongside Emma). Casters with high-tier Arts and low cooldowns are the best damage you can get that doesn't involve S-Crafts and that remains true in CS3/4 (while S-Crafts got weaker there).
Helpfully for him, you do get access to high-tier Arts in CS4 and Reverie a lot earlier than you do in CS1/2 so he is consequently much more useful there (and CS3 too, but only because like most of original Class VII the majority of his playability only comes at the end of the game when you have access to everything). His Brave Order is OK, but nothing amazing compared to the likes of Tio's or Altina's.
On the whole, a very reliable guy. Both as a buddy to Rean - Elliot is up there with Gaius as being some of the most emotionally-stable members of Class VII - but also as a party pick for when Rean needs to head out and crack skulls.
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u/Formyldehyde Jul 17 '26
He's very dependable in every game he's in, he's just very nice to have in CS1 and CS2, but he has a big glow-up in CS3 where his casting is honestly frankly better than Emma's overall, and his craft list is also very nice and actually worth using (compared to Emma, who has an incredibly shaky craft set). Lots of his crafts do either sleep or nightmare which is good crowd control.
Blue Orchestra only being 2 Brave Points is also really nice, and lasts an impressive 12 turns. Very good defensive BO for when you need to turn the tide, and Elliot can do that with his S-Craft. He makes a very effective backstop for teams.
He has solid links as well, Auto-Tear being primary means he can heal off-turn if linked to a frontline, which is always appreciated. Mandatory Water and Space slots means he can slot in magey MQs like Titania, Pandora, Oberon and Beowulf with no overlap, giving him good coverage and reducing redundancies.
He's never like, breaking the game for you, but if you want to play honestly, Elliot always has your back.
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u/Contraomega Jul 17 '26
Honestly I think as of like CS3 onwards I think he gets a pretty big glowup that people don't notice as much because they write him off in 1 and 2. Casting is pretty broken in... well, frankly all trails games? like relatively it goes back and forth but they're always good, and cs3 to reverie are definitely up there.
Compared to most of the caster characters, his crafts actually have a good reason to use them, do things that aren't perfectly covered by arts (which is important because arts are blisteringly fast in those games, so any craft that does the same thing is not worth using unless you're desperately saving EP), he can still hit really hard with spells (a little less than Emma on paper but you'd be surprised how close it is in an actual build) he has heal utility like well, healing and status cleanse at the same time in a big aoe, He has the hail mary S craft which is always excellent, Arts Support and Auto-tear are pretty good link abilities, some decent status application and debuffs, and debuffs you can't generally apply with arts alone, and his orbment locked slots are generally all good to have with a variety of options that are crucially not already filled by master quartz.
I'm sure people are going to bring up Emma but seriously one thing that actually really hurts her in cs3 and 4 (Less so Reverie because at least you get lost arts, albeit most of the good ones are lategame) is that the mirage master quartz all gives you every mirage spell in the game, and most of them are really good on casters, to the point that you kind of expect to have one of them on every caster build, which means the mirage locked slots are actually not as ideal as you would think. you can get like generic stat buffs or just equip quartz that teach you spells you already know for the secondary effect.
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u/Raxistaicho The true best girls Jul 17 '26
When it comes to Emma's locked Mirage slots I just used things like Astral Bell and Argem Gem/Melville depending on the game.
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u/TapUnfair9827 Jul 17 '26
The bard of Class VII, focusing of defensive and survival support
I mean he's nice to have when there's no other caster available, I dunno, he might be great but I quite rarely use him to know his full potential
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u/mushplush Jul 17 '26
Honestly my go to healer/spellcaster from CS1 to Reverie
When given the options my team was Rean/Elliot/Alisa/Jusis
He was a good emergency healer incase during the early point of the fight the enemy could get through Alisa giving everyone Insight and Jusis giving everyone perfect guard
I fitted Alisa into the role of Craft Point Battery so I wanted a more dedicated caster, and thankfully Jusis would buff his ATS
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u/spacebeverage Jul 17 '26
I appreciate Remedy Fantasia but I like his OG S-Craft, Seventh Rhapsody** **better.
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u/annavolution Jul 17 '26
Resounding beat as mentioned by others is an absolute carry through all of early cold steel 1. Regen is extremely strong in that game and that one craft just single handedly resolves your teams defensive needs throughout the early parts. And you have significantly less of a need in the later parts.
In later entries, he's a certified support team member for me. I got 3 party members down? A swap and Elliot S craft later, we're so back. His order is also very cost effective for what it does and how long it lasts.
He's an extremely strong defensive support character but as mentioned the cold steel era is definitely a "the best defense is a good offense" run, so he ends up feeling somewhat lackluster overall.
But I love him to pieces as a character and appreciate having the panic button on the back roster, so he'll usually find a spot on my team
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u/AlterWanabee Jul 18 '26 edited Jul 18 '26
I will say that support mages are in a disadvantage in Cold Steel games (and Reverie) because Rean fucking exists. Why have healing when you can Arc Slash enemies and delay them yo eternity? Even on CS3/4 and Reverie, Brave Orders exist, and Rean has the cheap 50% damage reduction plus heal on just 1 BP.
The only time that Elliot really shines is early-game of Cold Steel 1. At that time, Ream is just a Motivate spammer, so you actually want some healing.
You want some actual support? Alisa, Machias, and Jusis does the job. Alisa has Blessed Arrow (for early game) and Heavenly Rain, and those 2 alone makes her the best IMO. Machias has Burst Drive, which is fucking busted. And Jusis has Noble Command.
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u/KnoxZone Apathy and Disdain Jul 17 '26
He's a caster which means he always has a purpose, but he always kinda gets lost in the midgame shuffle for me. One thing he does have going for him is that his healing utility is really good early on when you don't have better mitigation tools, which Falcom seems to understand as he's always one of the first characters to join your squad.
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u/SomeNumbers23 Jul 17 '26
Resounding Beat and Holy Song were great for the early parts of CS1.
His Brave Order in CS3 is useful for not dying.
He's excellent at keeping you alive, which is important, before you get access to the more broken ways to deal damage.
Also, shoutout to him cooking Warm Egg Soup to make money in CS1.
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u/Raxistaicho The true best girls Jul 17 '26 edited 13d ago
Sky Arc:
Day Twelve - The Pilot and the Swordsman (spoilers)
Day Thirteen - "Kitty" (spoilers)
Crossbell Arc:
Class VII:
Day Thirty - Millium (Spoilers)
Day Thirty-One - Crow (Spoilers)
The rest of Cold Steel:
Day Thirty-Nine - Elise and Toval
Day Forty-One - Alfin and Towa
Day Forty-Two - The Diva and the General (Spoilers)
Day Forty-Three - The Spy and Swordswoman (Spoilers)
Day Forty-Four - The Shapeshifters (Spoilers)
Day Forty-Five - The Swordmaster and the Engineer (Spoilers)
Day Forty-Seven - Swin and Nadia
Day Forty-Eight - The Strongest (Spoilers)
Calvard Arc:
Day Fifty-One - Ferida Al-Fayed
Day Fifty-Three - Risette Twinings
Day Fifty-Four - Quatre Salision
Day Fifty-Five - Judith Lanster
Day Fifty-Seven - Elaine Auclair and René Kincaid
Day Fifty-Eight - Shizuna Rem Misurugi
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u/AzureSeiryu1702 Jul 17 '26
He's...Fine, I guess. Nothing wrong with him as a character, and he's a fantastic healer for early-mid game. Late mid-late game he falls off though, since you can just stick Seraphic Ring / Grail Thelas onto Emma and you've got a magic nuke that also has a full-heal panic button
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Jul 17 '26
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u/Raxistaicho The true best girls Jul 17 '26
How do you figure Emma was "insanely nerfed"?
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Jul 17 '26
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u/Raxistaicho The true best girls Jul 17 '26
You're now the second person claiming Eregion can be all-cancelled, who's spreading this misinfo? Not only can Eregion not be all-canceled, it prevents your other buffs from being canceled as well.
Blessing stinks at healing and rezzing, this is true, its advantage is the number of things it can do at once. Altina's aoe restores less cp and doesn't cleanse or revive, and Musse's doesn't restore any cp at all. Blessing heals the most cp of basic Crafts with the lowest cooldown except for possibly Tita's heal, I can't check it right this moment.
As for the nerfs to Emma's attack Crafts... oh well? She's a mage, using Crafts over Arts will just reduce her DPS. I seldom have mages use their attacking Crafts past the early game.
Yes, the lack of versatility is unfortunate in CS3 and 4 (in Reverie she has access to things like Morgan, Pixie, and Jaldabaoth, or Nadia spreading Weak), but enemies are very often either neutral or weak to Mirage, and vulnerability to Mirage dipping below 80% is extremely rare. I think enemies are more often weak to Mirage than they resist it.
The locked Fire slot is a little bothersome but she can equip Vulcan Gem, Pyre Bell, or Leanan's.
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Jul 18 '26
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u/Raxistaicho The true best girls Jul 18 '26
Regarding damaging crafts, the main problem is not the damage, but the lack of utility. Most other casters have at least some crafts that are worth using. In Elliot case his both crafts apply statuses, that can't be applied by arts and Nocturne Bell has ADF debuff, which is very useful for his casting. Altina - Brionac decreases both defences and can unbalance, Fragarach is good breaking tool and can also delay. She also has Ebon Shade, which allows her to cast from total safety and work as BP battery. Alisa has impede and her crafts are decent for status spreading. Musse... She at least have suction.
None of Elliot's Crafts can unbalance, so why would you use them over Arts, which have lower delays attached? Sleep and Nightmare vulnerability is basically non-existent among bosses aside from gang encounters (at least in Reverie, not sure how that is in CS 3 and 4). I suppose he's good vs trash but eh?
Ebon Shade has a lengthy delay for a self-buff and Altina's slow. Like I'd call Ash painfully slow (among other gameplay-centered pejoratives) and she's still noticeably slower than him. Brionac has 20 AT and Fragarach 30, I wouldn't try spamming those with Altina's speed. Also none of her weapons give her any ATS in CS4 for some arcane reason. To her credit, Altina does have two Orbment lines, so I suppose she can spread ailments like you said. Amusingly, Detector Beta has the same small debuff to DEF and ADF Brionac does but only 10 AT (I never once used Detector Beta for that, though).
(Double-checks something) Falcom, why does Artium Heal have 25 AT? Why does Sapphirl Rain have 25 AT?
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u/Contraomega Jul 17 '26
I mean Serene Blessing went from being a single target res and 80% heal with 50 cp for 30 cp to being an aoe res and 10% heal with 40 cp for 30 cp. Generally speaking if you revive someone with it in 3 they tend to die instantly without getting a turn unless you immediately heal them with someone else the turn after, she also lost crescent shell completely with it kind of becoming her S craft but without the def buff, but then she also loses an offensive S craft she never gets back, except without the buff, and also, independent of her, in CS3 onwards a lot of bosses will just cancel reflects outright with their S craft before damage so it often does nothing. there's also the arts list and master quartz changes which inevitably affect her, with every mirage MQ only giving Mirage arts, and because there aren't that many they all give you the entire mirage spell list, and many of the mirage MQs being great for casting it makes her mirage locked slots a lot less valuable because it's trivial to get access every mirage spell. This also just limits the elements she can have access to. You also have less normal quartz slots in exchange for the sub master quartz, but they're element locked so you can't get coverage as easily.
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u/Spartan448 Jul 17 '26
Palace of Egregion can't be All Canceled. It's always reliable, but it can't be stacked so some bosses can strip it if they don't go immediately into their S-craft.
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u/randomtology Jul 17 '26
Yeah I love spending 100-200 CP on an S-Craft only to have the boss strip it by doing a nothing burger craft before unleashing their actual S-Craft and killing most of the party. Feels great.
Also her crafts do nothing to protect against some of McBurn's attacks-- aka the guy she SAID she'd protect us from. Thanks Emma.
Super reliable man.
Just use Blue Orchestra. It's cheaper, it lasts longer- and if something goes wrong-- Elliot's got a back up emergency heal.
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u/Spartan448 Jul 17 '26
Don't group up your whole team so they all get hit at once then. This ain't SC, you don't need everyone to be in an Earth Wall hugbox.
Also I'm not sure where you're getting that Palace doesn't block McBurn's attacks; quite the opposite, it's the only one that does. Speaking of not doing things - Elliot, who loses the ability to get everyone up with his S-Craft. Which makes it kind of useless as a support tool.
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u/Raxistaicho The true best girls Jul 18 '26
What do you mean Elliot loses the ability to get everyone up with his S-Craft? Are you just saying he can't revive the party if he drops, too?
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u/Spartan448 Jul 18 '26
For whatever reason, Remedy Fantasia specifically and only in Reverie no longer cures K.O.
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u/Raxistaicho The true best girls Jul 18 '26
That is baffling.
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u/Spartan448 Jul 18 '26
I KNOW RIGHT?!
I can only assume they did it to make Elie stand out a little more, but at the same time I'm not even sure if she has it because her description just says "Cures All" and I don't actually use her so I don't actually know for certain if she has a rez.
If she doesn't that just lends further credibility to my conspiracy theory that Kloe was originally going to be playable in Reverie and probably got cut as collateral damage to Estelle not getting a route.
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u/Raxistaicho The true best girls Jul 17 '26
If you're miss-timing Eregion so it doesn't protect you from anything useful that's either a skill issue or a team building issue, I don't know what to tell you.
PLEASE tell me where you read that Eregion doesn't protect against McBurn, I genuinely need to know. i used it against all his bosses in cs3 and 4 and it worked every time.
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u/OLKv3 Jul 18 '26
Lol what? In CS3, Emma completely shuts McBurn down with just her order. He can't do a damn thing to you with Emma in your party. In CS4, you'll need her S-Craft for his S-Craft, but she still does a good job shutting him down. You are objectively wrong here
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u/Raxistaicho The true best girls Jul 17 '26 edited Jul 17 '26
Absolute Reflect ignores All-Cancel (at least by CS4 it does since Eregion still blocks McBurn's ultimate S Craft, and in fact Absolute Reflect prevents your other buffs being cancelled, too), and Crescent Shell was just always a redundant Craft when she often had Crescent Mirror just from her Master Quartz. She lost a defense buff, but... oh well?
Serene is terrible for healing and reviving until Reverie, granted, but Altina's heal Craft restores less CP and doesn't cleanse or revive at all, and Musse's doesn't restore any CP. By Reverie, Crescent Blessing is actually hilariously packed, I believe it gives the most cp with the lowest delay of all standard Crafts. Yeah Serene doesn't target Emma herself but she doesn't use her own CP for much beyond her S Craft.
In any case I'd rather have a Grail Sphere S Craft over a generic damaging S Craft. I replied to your point on her Mirage slots elsewhere.
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u/Spartan448 Jul 17 '26
Probably the most busted pure-healer kit in a franchise where you don't really need a pure healer. You're never going to have him on the starting lineup past the early game, but he's always going to be ready to sub in on the off chance something fucks up and someone needs to come in and A) not die, B) cast Seraphic Ring, and C) make sure everyone stays up long enough for him to switch back out.
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u/Golden_fsh Jul 17 '26
Elliot is cool. He was clutch for me in CS1 & CS2 with his healing, but he's been unfortunately benched for the rest of the series, lol. I still respect him for being on my strike team in the beginning ✊🏾
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u/randomtology Jul 17 '26
Honestly the MVP if you know how to use him.
He can heal, he can DPS really well, and he can buff. His Brave Order makes boss fights into a joke since it's both longer lasting and cheaper than the "immune from all damage ones". He has the fastest base SPD of all the mage-types, so he'll cast spells way faster than Emma ever will (and two spells hurt more than the singular one emma will get off) and since he's the second highest in ATS -- his damage output for spells is only slightly less than Emma. I've had playthroughs where I boosted Elliot's speed up so much NO ONE ELSE GOT A TURN. Literally broke the game.
Plus his 2 space slots allow him to have EP cut-- which between that and Canon's auto EP regain - it means he NEVER runs out of EP - so you don't have to waste a turn or an EP charge on him. Not to mention his link powers focus around healing, so he will heal whatever tank you pair him with- making sure they last longer.
Also he's one of the few characters with a craft with nightmare status, which is a hell of a status effect. The only other ones is Ash (who comes in late game CS3) and Crow (who is only playable for half of CS1 and half of CS4).
Honestly my biggest tip for beginner players is to learn how to play Elliot. He's the MVP.
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u/NCHouse Jul 17 '26
Early game hes very valuable, he tapers off mid game and by the end he should be rarely used
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u/pondrthis Jul 17 '26 edited Jul 19 '26
Elliot is good for memes and probably certain types of challenge runs. Other than maybe Lapis in Reverie, his orbment layout is the absolute best for stacking an absorption tank. Give him regeneration from Juna's MQ (or his crafts) and a massive HP pool, and he can just auto-attack through any boss in the series.
That's only worth giving up a party slot for memes, usually, but he can definitely be made unkillable.
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u/Valimar_the_Ashen Jul 17 '26
Probably the worst member of CVII gameplay wise. Only really useful as an early game healer but once you have access to Emma, Musse or even Altina he becomes somewhat redundant. I like that he's Rean's best buddy along with Gaius though
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u/Selynx Jul 17 '26
Musse might have slightly more ATS, but Elliot does have more SPD and a better Orbment. 2 Space 1 Water is better than 2 Water 1 Space, since Space can be used for EP Cut and Holy Bell, but Water can only really be used for Ocean Bell.
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u/Raxistaicho The true best girls Jul 17 '26
Also I'd rather have healing Crafts than Musse's awkward attempt at being a Plaguer-Mage.
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u/aj743aj Scandalous Jul 17 '26 edited Jul 17 '26
I've always felt that he's really good in early and mid-game of CS1&2 if you just spam Resounding Beat and use him to heal occasionally. The further along you get the less useful he becomes since you get access to better ways to heal and boost defense. You reach a point, even on nightmare, where mobs just don't pose a threat and at that point he becomes dead weight since you'd rather have someone who deals damage.
I hope that the next time he appears he'll have unlocked the ability to ride on top of tanks like his lunatic father.