5 Units We’d Love to See Buffed

The end of an RTA season is always spicy. Patch notes drop, metas shift, and suddenly your dusty favourites are back on stage. With Etheria: Restart heading into a likely rebalancing window, it’s the perfect time to talk about the units that should get some love. Below we break down our top 5 buff candidates, why they’re struggling right now, how small tweaks could unlock them, and what that would mean for both PvP and PvE. We’ve also thrown in a cheeky honorable mention at the end because, well… imagine.

We’re at the tail end of the RTA season, which historically precedes balancing. That means underpicked units have a rare chance to be reimagined or nudged into playability. The goal? Preserve identity, fix friction points, and make more team comps viable without power-creeping the entire roster. If you’ve ever loved a character that “almost works,” this is your moment.

What he does well: Khloros has a cool niche with revive denial via his unique kit, plus Chain Lock synergy, his personal mark that amps damage and cuts the target’s return pressure. He can also shave a turn off his Animus and Shell skill cooldowns on Skill 1, which should make him feel snappy.

Where he stumbles: In practice, he rarely gets the time to ramp. Meta drafts don’t often justify picking him unless you’re hard-targeting revive lines, and even then he can feel like a passenger if the game doesn’t bend to his timing.

Buff ideas that keep his identity intact:

• Add a small team utility payoff when he secures a kill: for example a self-tempo buff so he can keep pressure without overhauling damage coefficients.
• Slightly faster access to his big button via a conditional cooldown refund—e.g., hitting the Chain Locked target refunds 1 turn on a specific skill.
• Mild durability bump versus his marked target (he already reduces damage taken; make it scale a touch with marks so he can actually duel).

Result: He remains the anti-revive pick—but one you can actually justify into non-revive drafts when you need a tempo duelist.

What he does well: The Shroud Barrier concept is awesome, protection with some bite. On paper, he echoes the value of “buff-plus-guard” supports.

Where he stumbles: In high-Dispel metas, a single consolidated buff is a liability. Compare to supports that provide multiple discrete buffs like Immunity + Shield for example, which force extra dispel cycles. Helkid’s protection gets popped too easily, and his scaling doesn’t feel rewarding enough once it’s gone.

Buff ideas that respect the fantasy:

• Split Shroud Barrier into two visible buffs (e.g., “Shroud” and “Ward”) so one strip doesn’t end the party.
• Add a conditional refresh or a small self-fortify on turn start if he’s unbuffed, just enough to survive initial volleys.
• Lightly increase the base scaling of the barrier or tie it to a team state (e.g., gains value per ally debuff’d) to fight back against heavy-strip squads.

Result: He stays a proactive protector, but you’re not punished as hard by single-tap dispels.

What he does well: Victor lives the knife’s edge play style, self-HP trade for burst windows. That fantasy rules when it pays off.

Where he stumbles: He gets deleted before he gets going, and current shells don’t consistently cover the “living on 1 HP” problem. In late PvE, any self-bleed archetype that lacks a circuit breaker turns into a liability.

Buff ideas that preserve identity:

• Give him a limited safety valve: a one-time Soul Ward style effect with a long internal cooldown (think every 3–4 turns) when he dips under a threshold. It doesn’t need to be huge, just enough to enable plays.
• Slightly tighten damage coefficients on his core nuke when he’s below a certain HP threshold, so “clutch low-HP Victor” actually hits like it should.
• Consider a minor self-cleanse on ult activation so he isn’t trivially countered by chip debuffs.

Result: He’s still high risk, but finally high reward without becoming brainless.

What she does well: Dorothy’s a free early LD with attack-scaling support value, converting excess output into protection.

Where she stumbles: Attack-scaling supports are glassy and prone to popping in both PvP and mid-late PvE. Without built-in sturdiness boons, she’s hard to slot over more reliable sustain picks.

Buff ideas that fit her theme:

• Add conditional bulk baked into her conversion. For example, when she over-heals and creates a Shield, she also gains small, stacking damage reduction for 1–2 turns.
• Let her convert a fraction of self-attack into personal defense while a team shield exists (capped, modest), a self-protection loop that rewards good timing.
• A mini-team perk on trigger (like a turn push on first shield applied per round) to give her tactical identity beyond “heals but squishy.”

Result: She retains the attack-scaling flavour, but stops collapsing to the first sneeze.

What she does well: Oboro stacks Bleed fast, and when it ticks, it hurts. In modes like Rumble Cage, you can feel the value.

Where she stumbles: The debuff slot economy. Once Bleed floods the target, you can’t land critical secondary debuffs like Speed Down or Defense Down reliably. Ironically, she can even block her own proc conditions in longer fights.

Buff ideas that unjam the system:

• Make her Bleeds “lightweight” for slotting—e.g., allow Oboro to overwrite her oldest Bleed with another key debuff from her kit when a threshold is reached (or treat her Bleeds as compressible stacks that occupy fewer slots).
• Add a conditional purge: when she attempts to apply a non-Bleed debuff and the target is Bleed-saturated, auto-convert a portion of Bleed stacks into a burst hit (mini pop) to free space.
• Slightly increase the payoff for multi-stack pops so the management minigame feels rewarding.

Result: Bleed remains her identity, but she stops being her own worst enemy in drawn-out fights.

Yes, this is selfish. But imagine if RC77’s Skill 3 upgraded to a teamwide Stun (with balanced conditions like reduced duration or lower base chance per target). He already feels close to being a real control anchor. An AOE variant would skyrocket his value in Ethernet Rally waves and give draft rooms a fresh control option that isn’t the usual suspects. It doesn’t need to be oppressive, just enough to justify the pick.

• More draft diversity: Anti-revive tech, protective supports that don’t fold to one strip, and a viable self-risk carry add real pick/ban puzzles.
• Healthier debuff ecosystems: Fixing Bleed slot pressure opens room for tactical layers like Speed Down and Weaken to matter again.
• Early-game love that scales: Buffing Dorothy gives new players a starter they can grow with, instead of benching her at the first sign of difficulty.

Balance passes are best when they elevate identities rather than flatten them. Khloros should terrorize revivers. Helkid should feel safe to build around. Victor must finally cash the checks his HP bar writes. Dorothy deserves sturdiness befitting a starter LD. And Oboro? Let her paint the battlefield in Bleed without bricking her team’s debuff plans.