Hello, I am a returning player, after a long time away I am dabbling in the game in a new server and I cant help but feel that earth main is genuinely useless these days.

The mains have all been changed since I played and it feels like there is a clear line in how powerful theya re now

Top tier:

Lightning: root used to be applied at the start of round 1, was easily removed and once it was gone, it was gone. Now it applies at the beginning of rounds 1-3, removes debuffs, makes 3 sword users immune to debuffs and buffs resistance by 100%, A once blitz oriented character now has one of the most powerful support skills in the game

Wind: Flower guard now makes herself and another female immune to debuffs for 2 rounds, which cant be cancelled and makes them unable to be killed by standard attacks for 2 rounds. Team her with rin, who was given away very easily when my particular server first opened and you have a team where 2 of the characters are for all intents and purposes immortal for 2 rounds,

Mid to top tier:

Fire: He was always a common choice but unfortunately used in a very boring manner since it is guaranteed that every single person running him uses him solely for the reflect passive, Now he has the ability to recreate his clone in rounds 4 and 7 which is nothing game breaking or op but it is a decent update to *ready versatile character.

Mid tier:

Water: For a brief moment in the games history she was used as a pos 1 to spam shark bomb mystery but other than that she is a healer and nothing else. We of course arent up to date with china, so the update she got is the ability to recreate her clone in round 5, which to be honest sounds completely useless. She is a pure support character, a pos 4 character being alive in round 5 and her clone making any difference in the match whatsoever, the chances of that skill ever being useful are astronomically low, but at least unlike earth her main strength has not been overwritten.

Garbage tier:

Now we get to earth main and I dont even know what you are supposed to do with him anymore. He has always been the weakest main with the only viable use for him is his ability to buff characters with a shield, giving him one of the most versatile buffs, but since edo release madara is given free to new servers and after catching up with some old faces in the second oldest cluster in our region, he also appears common in old servers he nullifies earths existence. Earth, who has only ever been used as a pure support character now needs a support of his own, in the form of someone who can cancel madara's barrier. So you are limited to using kisame same sb/kimi halloween/ jiraiya toad chant because if you dont then using earth is playing with a handicap.

As for the skill change itself, that is also garbage, gives super armour to himself and a random male that cant be cancelled, wow. A game with thousands of servers and fewer than 10 players who use teams that need chases, that update is impotent and since it also requires only using 1 other male in your team for it to be consistent it further limits the lineup options for him

So if his skill change is dog water and the only use he ever had is now moot in 80% of matches in old servers and 99% of matches in new servers, what are we supposed to do with him? Yes I am aware that madara wont be this common forever. But thisis a genuine question, the other mains have clearly powerful tools at their disposal and throwing them into teams is easy but with earths entire skillset essentially being cancelled these days I dont know how to use him