Talk:Gift from Santa Revisited/@comment-24724799-20141224111725/@comment-1465604-20141224124141

Let me quasi-quote myself:

People stare themselves blind at spirit ranks instead of looking at their stats, skills and Hidden Powers instead. Every single one of the Santa versions of the guild leaders have sub-par skills and/or stats. 
 * Duga has a 5 combo requirement for a 1.8x multiplier on his split attacks (usually, you get a 1.8x multiplier on your split attacks off a combo of 3)
 * Rusche gets lesser multipliers on answering dual- and tri-colour questions (1.8x / 2.6x instead of 2x / 3x, IIRC)
 * Loretta heals only 9% (which is ridiculously low for an SS-rank spirit) and her nuke is a 55% x 5 (instead of the usual 60% x 5) multi-attack nuke (once they fix it, that is).
 * Alec is the only spirit with good skills and Hidden Powers; a 7 TCC pan-emblem (a first for us, though Japan just got 3 more) with an iTCC of 5 and a 2.3x multiplier on a combo of 3, which is the proper multiplier on a combo of 3. In return, his ATK stat is ridiculously low.
 * Baron has a 20% thunder ATK boost and a 150% nuke.

The fact that they're SS rank instead of S rank is a bad thing, because that means they'll need 90,000 more EXP to max out. Ranks are literally meaningless in this game. All that matters are skills, stats and Hidden Powers. The Santa versions of the guild masters are pretty great for beginners, but pretty sub-par for  those who've been around for a while. In total, you need more exp to max out an SS spirit than to bring a spirit from A to S (A -> A -> A+ -> S). The only good thing about the guild masters is that you don't have to evolve them, but you wouldn't have had to had they come at S, either.