Adlay

Delays Enemy Skill Usage

Adlay's most prominent use is delaying the use of enemy skills. Units like Luna, Basar, and Fallen Cecilia aren't so intimidating when they can't pull out their super moves on the first turn. A skill delay can also mess with units like Angelica or Lots, who have low-cooldown skills they want to cycle through quickly for maximum effect.

Spammable Stun

Adlay's S1 causes Stun, making it one of the more powerful Mage S1s (although the chance of success is lower to compensate). Because Adlay can get a lot of turns very quickly if the enemies keep proccing his passive, he gets a lot of chances to Stun enemy targets.

Passive Counters Cleave Teams

PvP cleave teams rely on spamming AOE damage to quickly burn down their opponents. Because Adlay's S2 passive gives him Combat Readiness every time an ally takes damage, he can quickly get a turn in between enemy cleaves and stop their barrage cold with his S3. Adlay also gets the cooldown on his S3 reset if one of his allies dies, giving him another last-ditch chance to save the day with a final S3 salvo.

High Atk and Spd

High Atk means Adlay does decent damage with his AOE S3, and high Spd is critical for helping him to go first and delay the enemy's skills before they get a chance to use them.

3★ Hero

Adlay really wants Skill Enhancement to increase his chances of landing his debuffs. He also really wants an SSS-rank Devotion Aura and an Ego Fragment to flip it into an Effectiveness boost for himself. Fortunately, as a 3★ hero, these are not difficult resource requirements: you can Skill Enhance him with Stigma instead of Molagora, and he's a relatively common pull from the Covenant Summon.

Countered by Immunity

The Immunity buff disables Adlay's best tricks, preventing him from Stunning or increasing cooldowns for his enemies. Because Immunity sets and characters like Vivian and Angelica are so prevalent in PvP, you need a way to handle Immunity (i.e., Basar or Hurado) to guarantee Adlay can get his moment to shine.

Passive Only Triggers On Damage

Getting CR every time an ally is attacked is great, but it means your allies have to be attacked before it can take effect. If Adlay gets the first action and locks your opponents out of using their S3s, that might be okay. However, if your opponents move first or if his cooldown delay doesn't proc, then Adlay's passive might be too little too late.

Very Fragile

Adlay's Def is slightly substandard and he has rock-bottom HP. This is a problem because his passive encourages allowing the enemy to attack him and his allies, yet he is at risk of dying every time somebody sneezes in his direction. His fragility makes using Adlay a high-risk high-reward character: he counters cleave teams, but is also susceptible to dying quickly in their storm of high AOE damage.

Outclassed by Judge Kise

If you have Judge Kise, you have no reason to use Adlay. Judge Kise is stronger, tankier, faster, better at delaying skill usage, and better at PvE. The only advantage Adlay has is his passive, but Adlay also can't dispel buffs from the enemy team, while Judge Kise can.