Overview
Noel Vermillion’s tile buffs make her a decent fit for 5HG Echelons in later chapters when they can make use of the increased Evasion, but this alone is not enough to justify using her, especially since P7 — who has a team-wide 60% Evasion buff — exists. While her tile coverage is awkward and makes it difficult to find a proper position within a formation for Noel, P7 has the same exact tile coverage, meaning that it becomes a non-factor in the comparison. In further comparison to P7, though, Noel’s Skill is damage-oriented, but it fails spectacularly to make an impact because it is only performed by a single dummy, rather than all of them like in CZ75 and Thunder’s case. All these factors mean Noel is overall not much more than a trophy unit, as she fails to be a good enough fit in any Echelon to warrant investment. But she is cute, that is for sure.
Cons
Mediocre Tile Buffs
Noel’s tile buffs consist of a boost toRoF and Evasion. While this is a combination which can be useful in 5HG Echelons, in this niche she is outdone by P7.
Awkward Tile Coverage
Noel’s tiles make her unable to find an optimal placement within most Echelons, only allowing for moderate use at best.
Weak Skill
Noel’s Skill, on top of having a pathetically weak modifier that results in 1.6 extra attacks at level 10, is only performed by a single dummy. This means that her Skill might as well not exist when compared to similar HGs with Damage based Skills such as CZ75’s Axe and Thunder’s snipe.
Full analysis
Noel Vermillion’s kit is truly a sight to behold, but not in a good way. Her tiles are a rather mediocre mix of Evasion and RoF that can only be really applied to 5HG Echelons as there is no other class in the game that would want such a combination. When an HG that provides a mix of defensive and offensive tile buffs is used conventionally, they usually can make up for it with a very strong Skill — like in Grizzly’s case — but Noel can’t claim to have such a benefit.
While an HG with both Evasion and RoF tile buffs — P7 — can be used for 5HG teams to consistently take less damage when farming, P7’s Skill further increases the effectiveness of her tiles by providing a team-wide Evasion buff. In Noel’s case, her Skill provides 1.6 extra attacks spread over 8 instances of damage that is only performed by a single dummy that detaches from the main group’s position. This leads to Noel’s Skill not being useful in any particular way as damage-wise she is outdone by the likes of CZ75 and Thunder, while as a support P7 is considerably more useful and an overall better investment.
These points make it hard to justify using Noel as she does not specialize in anything and because of this she fails to be a strong contender for inclusion in the formation of any Echelon. Overall, if Noel does not hold a dear spot in your heart, it is not recommended to invest in her in the foreseeable future.