Re: Aegis Thousand Year War - DMM Online Game
Completely unrelated to Erica, this statement I feel compelled to respond to...
I like the class, but I think it's undeniable that they've simply been left behind at this point. With heavies getting a recent cost drop and AW defense boost (and numerous individual units like Dina receiving personal buffs) and samurai getting an astounding amount of boosts over time, mage armors have received very little in comparison and they're just not up to snuff anymore.
Mmm... what type of content are we talking here? Because honestly, a cc60 Bernice will tank 95% of things in any normal event content with sufficient levels of healing. Okay, there's like, the fire ants from the past subjugation, Shutendoji(if you actually try to tank him) and golems, but those are exceptions and not the rule and resolving these strange situations with a f2p/low money team often doesn't involve tanking.
Replace 'cc60 bernice' with 'any random 3+ block unit with over 500 defense' and you'll get a similar result.
If we are talking about high level majin, only the following units of the three classes mentioned are relevant: Hibari, Grace, Palfy, Deine, Dina, Gellius. Of these, Dina is not usable as a tank and is only ever used for her Blasting Ball and Gellius is only usable for one niche situation for his 'do no damage' SAW. The other four are viable to various degrees, but only Hibari is comparable in usage to Mireille and Cornelia, who shit all over other tanks without being a Samurai, Heavy or Mage Armor.
So I'm really not sure where you get this 'mage armors are left behind' thing.
Notes:
* Samurai are mostly unused outside of Hibari and have had a shitty reputation pretty much since their inception, and still kind of do, even if they are better than they used to be. Hibari is a huge exception to the rule for samurai and is the best event unit ever made, so your statement regarding this class is a bit... kind, to say the least.
* The reason HA got buffed was because of Hibari and HA's awful performance in majin content. Their performance in majin is still far from good even after the buffs, except Deine(who is still far from the best). This is due to their high block and low duration skills being poorly suited to the content.
* Mage armors have other factors that make them compelling outside of having high defense stats(DPS, the ability to clear enemies they are blocking far faster than a heavy that isn't a black, reducing incoming damage taken). They should absolutely not have the same defense stats. This is why I(and others) often call them blockers instead of tanks. Despite this, Palfy and Grace will frequently outperform an HA as a tank due to having AoE damage with a defense multiplier.
Hierarchy of black tanks(current meta):
T1: Cornelia
T2: AW Prince, Miri, Sophie
T3: Hibari, Danchou, Cynthia
T4: Grace, Alice, Deine, Sarah