Sofia (5★ Scholar)

Table of Contents
  • Since Global decided to release Therese soon, I had to get a review out for Sofia to compare the two scholars later.

Sofia, our favorite Ice QUEEN. If Fiore is the physical DPS machine, then Sofia is the magical DPS overlord.

Tier List Overview of Sofia #


In my role-based tier list of all units, Sofia scored high for elemental damage. She’s a very versatile magic debuffer and ok breaker. 

Weighted Average Stats #

Sofia has slightly above average stats for a 5* unit. 

Her SPD is one of the lowest for a 5* unit. 

Tome weapons have the highest EATK stat out of all weapons, so Sofia can easily have one of the highest EATK on the team.

Best Skills #

Via the skill lookup table, Sofia’s skill kit is all about doing maximum Ice damage. She has an assortment of buffs/debuffs and high damaging skills that allow her to reach mind-blowing damage figures.

Her 3★ passive is the strongest damage passive any unit can have. It’s permanent, has no prerequisites, and by itself reaches the 30% buff cap rule.

  • Important: She will not receive any additional Ice Damage from unit passives like Aslyte, because 30% is already the max. She will still benefit from up to 30% Ice Damage from unit skills.
The 1★ passive is a cherry on top, as Sofia already has an absolutely massive SP pool. Maintaining 100% HP might be difficult, and not worth the effort if you find yourself using a dedicated healer just for her. 

This SP passive lets her become the best long-term general farmer. She can continue to unleash AOE ice damage to clear mobs for speed farming.
 
Sofia’s 3★ Skill is the single strongest damaging attack in the game that you can unlock at ~Lv 25. 
 
  • At a Power/Potency of 230 and combined with her high EATK stats, she can help you cheese difficult content at an early level, even if she doesn’t have any of the enemy’s weaknesses.
2★ Skill and 4★ Skill make her a versatile debuffer. If she isn’t able to break enemy shields, at least she can support her team.

What’s overlooked with Sofia is that every one of her skills deal damage, even if they debuff. 

She’s never wasting a turn trying to buff or debuff (like some skills from Lynette, Fiore, Viola, Primrose) without doing damage.
 
15% Ice Res Debuff is not the highest debuff (Asylte has 20% Ice Res Debuff), but again Sofia’s does damage.
 
Finally, her end game 5★ Skill 1 makes farming extra fast, while her 5★ Skill 2 is without a doubt, the single hardest hitting skill in the game at a potency of 255. 
 
She is currently the strongest Tome damage dealer, and strongest Ice damage dealer.
 

Job Points Priority #

You’ll want to prioritize unlocking her 1★ passive and 3★ skill ASAP, taking the shortest route to get there.

Avoid spending points on raw stats until you’ve unlocked those.

Reach Lv 50 to unlock her 3★ Passive.

Spend points into unlocking any of her battle skills, or into key stats like Elemental Attack, SP, and Speed.

How Good Is She At Cait Farming? #

Very bad. The 10k, 50k, 100k, and 300k EXP Meows do not have Ice nor Tome weakness.
 
The 450k EXP Cait does have Tome weakness, but Sofia only has 1-hit Tome skills.
 

Team Comps #

As your main magic damage dealer, she’ll want support from other units so she can focus on DPS.

Lynette and Primrose: Very obvious choices here, with their 20% EATK buffs and 15% EDEF debuffs. Lynette is the stronger option here DPS wise against bosses because of her switching passive. Primrose is better against multiple enemies.

Viola for the absolute best in EDEF debuff (20%), and she increases all debuff duration by 1 turn.

Laura’s insane passive inflicts 15% EDEF down to all foes for 3 turns. Because this is a passive, it uses a separate 30% cap from skills. This is very powerful.

Aslyte skill can reduce the Ice Res of all foes by 20%. Foes broken by her will also get their Ice Res further lowered by 15% thanks to her passive. Just remember her  Ice DMG passive for paired ally doesn’t work on Sofia.

Camilla, Merritt, Ramona’s passive can grant regen, helping Sofia maintain Full HP status.

Units that can provoke to prevent Sofia from losing Full HP status: Gilderoy, Tressa, Devin, Helga, Miles, Pia, and even Conny.

Theory Crafting Damage Potential #

Let’s see what kind of team is needed to give her the ultimate DPS nuke during a boss break.
 
  • 30% Ice DMG Buff from Passive (Sofia)
  • 0% Ice DMG Buff from Skill (Nobody has this)
  • 30% Ice Res Debuff from Passive (Aslyte, Sofia’s Awaken 4 Accessory)
  • 30% Ice Res Debuff from Skill (Sofia and Asylte)
  • 30% EATK Buff from Skill (Lynette or Primrose)
  • 20% EATK Buff from Passive (Lynette, Eunice/Pearl/Manuel)
  • 30% EDEF Debuff from skill (Viola, Lynette, Primrose, or Sofia)
  • 15% EDEF Debuff from Passive (Laura)

From a total of 8 brackets, we can reach 185% worth of caps.

+ Break 200%

+ Weakness 250%

I wouldn’t be surprised if you can surpass 50,000+ damage during a Break.

Last Bit of Advice – Dupes

Her future Ultimate skill is a 1-hit All Foe Ice Nuke. It’s nothing special so if you pull her dupes, feel free to awaken for some juicy stats.