Re: Aegis Thousand Year War - DMM Online Game
For example, I raised Claudia because I don't have other princess and her normal skill is pretty op. She is a very good unit, but her special/aw ability was useful like.. 2 times in several months. I would exchange a buff that works 3 times a year for a constant 10 magic resistance anytime :S
Narrator: "Upon finishing his latest magnum opus, the idiot TieSKey turned his head and saw a bubble dragon, a fire dragon, a dragonewt mage, and the desert dragonewt chieftain crowded around him with pensive looks in their eyes. Each of the dragons deftly lift their tails and point towards TieSKey's clock. It's a minute past Sodomy O'clock."
Narrator: "While Tieskey is on the verge of losing his anal virginity, Princess Claudia is sitting patiently in the next room waiting eagerly for TieSKey to call for her help. Will TieSKey cry out for Claudia to come save him? Tune in to to find out next week!"
Soma: "This programme has been brought to you by the Soma-chan Foundation. Whenever you look at Extend Range I, remember that it isn't worthless; cuteness is justice!"
Claudia and Nagi's abilities are balanced around their skills and stats. Claudia's skill gives her True Damage, Attack 1.5x, and +10% Magic Resistance up to 50 seconds. All of this is to widen her versatility when it comes to choosing her over someone like Sherry for the following situations:
1) Temporary 20% MR Versus 10% MR
2) Enemy x% MR Versus Enemy y% MR
3) Dragon-type Enemy Versus Non-Dragon-type Enemy
They didn't just decide on yx damage against race arbitrarily. They had to pick things for Claudia to make her different from Sherry, Lilia, Sybilla, Kaguya, and Olivia so players have various reasons to choose her over them. Giving Claudia 10% Magic Resistance would make her too similar to Sybilla and Olivia, and encroach on Lilia's territory (Lilia's purpose is that she always has 15% MR, High HP, High Defence with her Skill, and HP Regen, making her the strongest tank unit in the game that can fight a stone golem without the Prince buffing her).
The same goes for players who have the witches Figneria and Despia when it came to Eliza, Eliza's main difference is that she has a stronger slow effect than the other two with her skill, and her ability makes it so she deals more damage than Figneria while also keeping her full range during a snowstorm.
This decision-making process is the same for practically every other character or class in the game. Generally, Daniella is more useful than Soma, but Soma's skill makes her essential for certain important situations (i.e. it used to be that you needed Soma to get 3 stars on Undead Monsters because the archer targeting priorities during the red and regular gargoyle waves would let one past Daniella).
If you want a worthless ability by definition, I would suggest you examine Chloris, Bella, and Elva's abilities. It used to be that they were a hard 2%, so they had the highest chance out of everyone to instantly kill a boss-type enemy (Minerva and Xiao would both have a 1% chance with their skills), but they changed it so they're also affected by each enemy's multiplier (i.e. 4% against goblins, 3% against merfolk deep ones, 0.2% against bosses, e.g. liches, 0.002% against Fuujin, Ushioni, Nurarihyon, Mummy Priests, etc.). I can't think of any situations where that kind of ability is ever useful, though you're free to do some math to determine whether it's practical for something like Beatrica and Marie's god-tier map with all of those deep ones that came out in a huge swarm (personally, I'm looking forward to destroying that map with a True Dragon Warrior Anya).