After 4 months of Ling dominating every single strategy guide for trials. You think people would learn.
Yep.
GL is delaying some units (WOL 6* and Ramza enhancements) and fast-tracking others (Queen, Nine, Fohlen, etc come pre-enhanced), and adding abilities to others (Ace/Rem/Wilhelm) and buffing TMs (Emperor, Marie, etc). You would think that people would look beyond JP meta.
While it may still be a useful balefire on the horizon, it's increasingly becoming irrelevant.
Fry is a beast and I've been building a kit for her, sadly it's hard to get much use of her on Raids since most of my list is Orlandeaus so I just build raid-killing teams around him. At least with big trials she's easier to use since you don't need to farm them over and over.
Orlandeau friend units are pretty much ubiquitous, its kinda how Lighting was back in the day. The difficulty with Fry is that she needs such vastly different TMs from other chainers. Much of the basic TMs I use for Orlandeau I also use for Aileen, Yun, Reberta, Tidus, etc (Quick assault, Power of Creation, Blade Mastery, Large Sword Mastery, etc). Fry requires a unique set of TMs centered around MAG.
Orlandeau's strength lays in the community's mentality, but I've been seeing a slow shift to Fry amongst the rank 150 players with this recent raid, even though two good Frys have made most of these recent events and trails a breeze.
I just pulled a Fry (and Dupelandu and Tidus), but isn't she admittedly not viable without a second Fry, both of whom need to be equipped with her TM and 4 L&A materia?
I'm leveling her to 100, of course, but she seems like an inefficient "investment" when my team going forward is probably some variation of Orlandu, Tilith, Rikku, WoL, and something like Marie, Ramza, Ling, Olive, or Dupelandu depending on the situation.
I absolutely concur that the proliferation of Orlandeaux makes him an easy choice. It makes him hard not to use.
The "flex" spot could be those listed, or possibly Randi or Firion. I suppose that I could call up Greg, Luneth, Yun, Firion, or Noctis from the bench, but that's seeming less likely over time.
(I realize these are #firstworldbeproblems.)
Yes, you really need a second Fry to chain her, and that Fry should have the right TMs to take advantage of her.
And you're exactly right in that Orlandeau is a hell of a lot easier because so many people have him as a friend unit. You'll later have other units, like Agrias, that can easily chain in with him. That's his real strength; his ease and convenience due to his pervasiveness.
But where GL has branched off with JP is that there are better, more powerful, units like Fry that can chain so long as you have the right setup.
Is it advisable to get a second Kelsus?
Personally, I'm getting a second Kelsus only because I want two of his hat.