Unit Analysis by Team BethelFrankel
Class
Versatile but skill-intensive Detonator who turns into a Sniper based on her Active's summoning gimmick. Two alternating playstyles.
Overall
S-
(S+ at BT3)
Advantages
+At BT3: Great scaling on active regardless of enemy size
+2 Cluster chain range and conditional diagonals alongside her already high active damage values
+High trash clear potential with low cooldown AoE active and a conditional Sniper chain
+Notable synergy with Bethel's Frankels, especially on 1x1 tile enemies (Frankels and the parasol overwrite each other though. Parasol CD would be unchanged and Frankel won't roar)
+Less reliant on low cooldowns/preemptives than Bethel is in order to deal damage
Disadvantages
-Most of her Active damage is locked behind breakthroughs (specifically BT3)
-Parasol placement requires planning and understanding of how her active damage works in order to reach optimal damage results
-Confusing kit until you put in the time and practice to learn it
-Mistakes are punishing. You'll have either an increased cooldown when enemies walk over her Parasol, or be stuck with her sniper chain until you retrieve it
Explanation
Nina is the first Water DPS that has demanded dupes since… well, Sharona? Thankfully, TourDog was kind enough to give her a strong chain combo and conditional diagonals, which certainly take the sting away from the active damage you'll be missing at BT0. She’s a little bit worse than Sharona at this point, but that’s still more than enough for most of the game’s hardest content.
On the other hand, snagging a dupe for BT3 more or less puts her on par with Bethel. The main difference between the two is Bethel's superior 1x1 enemy performance versus Nina's 3x3 enemy performance, and arguably better trash clear potential. In short, she does hold up well against the current Water meta, but comes at a bit of a cost.
Nina also occasionally punishes mistakes with her parasol, which comes as an additional cost to her breakthrough dependency. Maximizing her active damage takes a lot of practice; it often feels pretty smooth, but you’ll still frequently make mistakes (sort of like with Frankel minions). Not everyone wants that extra layer of thinking about how to deal damage, and that’s okay!
It is, however, a very fun play-pattern if you enjoy using interactive units that reward proper forethought and map knowledge.