Luluca

Unique Teamwide Shield/DEF Buff

Luluca has the strongest defensive-style buffing in the game, with a combination of an ATK-scaling Shield and the vaunted DEF Up buff. This makes her a valuable asset in tough Abyss stages and challenge-type content. With some medium investment, she also gets the cooldown reduced to just 3 turns, on a buff that lasts 2 turns! With some CR pushing, you can have almost constant Shield and DEF Up.

AoE DEF Break on Ramping S3

Luluca can also deal a nice amount of damage as the fight progresses, with her combination of AoE DEF Break and damage ramp on her S3, Wave of Vengeance. Each time she uses her S3, its damage goes up by 20% for a max of 60%. The chance of DEF Break maxes out at 75%, which is quite standard for an AoE DEF Breaker.

Strong Base ATK and DEF Values

In addition to the advantages above, Luluca has some of the highest base ATK/DEF values in the game, beating all other Ice heroes in raw ATK power and ranking near the top in DEF as well. Given her Shield scaling, which is a portion of her raw ATK value, this is quite advantageous for her.

Vulnerable to Mass Dispel

As with all other buffers, Luluca suffers immensely when enemies can dispel her buffs. Some fights will require you to hold her S2 until the right time.

Takes a While to Ramp/Only Average Speed

Luluca also suffers from a slow rampup. While her S3 at max stacks does a considerable amount of damage,  it takes at least 15 turns to hit with a maximum stack. For reference, Corvus on Abyss 85 has a 20-turn enrage.

This is exacerbated by Luluca's middling Speed value, as she only has 103 base Speed (which would be considered amazing on a Soul Weaver, but alas, she is decidedly average for a Mage).

As such, encounters often end before her full firepower can be brought to bear.

Demanding Stat Spread

Luluca is stat-hungry. To perform her role best, she needs a mixture of practically every stat - EFF, ATK%, and SPD being key. As such, she can be difficult to optimize correctly, as pushing one stat invariably means that one of her other roles is hurt - without Effectiveness, her DEF Break will not land; without ATK, her Shield value is low and her damage suffers, and without Spd, her turns come too slowly.

This is somewhat mitigated when you have decently rolled substats on gear.

Unreliable DEF Break

Lastly, Luluca’s DEF Break coverage is subpar. Combined with the baseline 75% chance for DEF Break that most AoE’s carry, her S3 is only a 4-turn CD. Without another DEF breaker, Luluca will never do as much damage as she could, since she cannot exploit her own S3. It is therefore recommended to use her with another DEF breaker.