Tier List Change Logs
December Updates
Welcome to our December Tier List Update! After the full revamp from the last update, we are now going to have a smaller update placing new Sync Pairs from December and reviewing some old positions, be it from trying to get a more accurate view of them on the current metagame or re-evaluating them due to how they interact with the newly ranked units.
Update by Ropalme1914#4339 with contributions from Spark#8888, Raven8#5530, Runner#7562, Mr.Smee#6764, Darkshark#0128, Droid#2145, Zoopy3000#0001, joek#1069 and Thegkhst (Help)#1395.
Tier Ultra
With the advent of the Master Pair Sygna Suit Lusamine & Necrozma, we were faced with a dilemma: SS Red and Lear, our current Tier 0 Damage Dealers, are still a clear step above the Tier 1 Sync Pairs on Damage Dealers so dropping them is not an ideal path to take. On the other hand, SS Lusamine also has a big difference in her power to those two, so putting all three together wouldn’t do her justice. We finally settled for the creation of the Tier Ultra, a Tier above Tier 0 exclusive to her. Unlike Tier 0, this is not a permanent addition to the Tier List – the only time we saw a bigger powercreep than this was back when SS Red took over Olivia’s throne – and will be removed once we have more units that can match SS Lusamine’s power, but while this doesn’t happen, SS Lusamine will enjoy her place at the top of the list alone.
Other changes
- The newcomer Holiday Leon has been added to the top sub-group of Tier 2, courtesy of his high damage potential, multiple self-buffs that allow him to choose what supports he’ll take, and high chance of freezing all opponents at the same time, but held back by his low Speed, bulk, inconsistent Sync multiplier, and being locked to a AoE move as an attack option.
- Anniversary Lillie rises to the bottom of Tier 1 with the addition of SS Lusamine, being extremely synergistic with her and getting a power boost to her DPS almost equivalent to a weather boost with the combined Master Passives.
- Hala has moved up to the bottom of Tier 2 with its Hail build finally getting a chance to shine with the new setters in Holiday Nessa and Candice receiving an expanded Sync Grid.
- Alder, Cyrus, SS Erika, Bea, Marnie, Giovanni, SC Hilda, SS Leon, SC Guzma, Hilda, SS Grimsley, Elesa, and Pryce all have had their placements slightly changed to better reflect their performance compared to others, and Plumeria has moved from the Hybrid List to mid Tier 7 here.
- Finally, Tier 5 got a new sub-group division for a better view of the units.
- Kimono Grimsley has been added to the middle of Tier 3 due to his excellent Trainer Move providing an instant setup, utility with Screech, and high burst damage with Metal Burst and a strong Tech Sync Nuke, with the drawbacks of having low bulk, an inherent risk with the taunt effect of his passive, and somewhat low DPS once its burst has been unleashed.
- Holiday Nessa and Classic Elesa have both been added to the top of Tier 4, with Nessa providing Hail and potentially having the capacity of tanking multiple physical hits with Ice Face and a high flinch chance with Aggravation on Icicle Crash, but low DPS and Sync Move damage (especially for a Tech unit) and having the problem of not enough energy on her grid to fully take advantage of what she has available. Elesa offers an incredibly strong debuffing kit for Legendary Arena that combines well with her capacity of paralyzing and flinching the opponent with a 1 gauge move for a potential stun lock, good burst damage with her Sync Move and Max Move, decent defensive utility with Light Screen and buffs to both defenses on top of the Attack drops, and capacity of summoning Electric Terrain. She is still held back by the lack of DPS option on her kit, only being able to summon Electric Terrain once per match, difficult in making use of the full power of her Max Move without a semi-reduntant Electric Terrain support, and still requiring crit support to make use of her burst damage.
- Candice and Sophocles have both been moved to the Hybrid category. Candice has been added to the bottom of Tier 5 considering her utility in summoning Hail and being the strongest single target Sync Nuke for such teams, but not bringing much outside of that. Sophocles has been added to mid Tier 6, with a strong Sync Nuke and the ability to flinch and paralyze the opponent, but being often outclassed on his roles by the own supports he wishes to have, low DPS, and lack of self-sufficiency.
- Finally, Archie and Maxie switch places, Serena drops to the bottom of Tier 2, Tier 3 sees a general re-order, Darach changes sub-groups on Tier 4, and BP Zinnia, Holiday Skyla and Dawn move to the top of Tier 5 while keeping their general positions due to the strong power of Tier 4 with the new units. Misty has also been moved from Utility to Hybrid Tier 5 to take into account the possible use of offensive builds for her.
- The list with the smallest changes, newcomer Sonia has been added to the top of Tier 0 with one of the strongest gauge support in the game, a very strong Trainer Move capable of maxing Attack, Defense, and critical hit rate for the entire team in three turns, absurdly high bulk, and strong Potions to keep the team healthy, without having any real weakness and bringing another solid EX Support option to any team.
- Hilbert and Spring Burgh have dropped to the top of Tier 1, on their own sub-group, due to not keeping up overall with the Tier 0 Supports and the "no sub-groups" restriction for this Tier.
- Ingo is put ahead of Sygna Suit Blue on Tier 0, while keeping all 3 units there on the same sub-group (meaning their placements are mostly interchangeable).
- Palentine Dawn raises a bit on her own Tier and moves up one sub-group above to join Phoebe and Cobalion.
Those are all the main changes for the GamePress’ Tier List for December! Updates will often come shortly after each datamine and, if necessary, additional ones will be made mid-month too, such as a unit far surpassing our expectations or performing worse than expected. The Change Logs will also always keep track of the latest updates done so that you can follow all changes easily too, so we hope you stay tuned!