Viability of res smoke on Leif?

I’m confused. Leif doesn’t deal magic damage, so res smoke isn’t going to do him a lot of good, the only use I can see for it would be if he were partnered with a mage who needs the boost?

Edit: nvm, I forgot what his weapon effect was. Still seems pretty niche to me, but I guess I’d be a little curious whether running that or def smoke would be likely to help him out more, statistically speaking. I guess there’s at least the fact that res smoke will never hurt his damage, while def smoke might. (Actually, nvm on that last part too, the worst that could happen is he’d break even.). Either way I think you’re right that such a build is probably best run with dancer support.

Sounds about right to me. I was going to suggest Def Smoke, but then it's a lot less common and you don't even have the fodder to begin with (not to mention, virtually the same effect). His bonus damage deals damage no matter what.

I play a ton with Atk Smoke, and it's not always a problem if your character has the durability for it:

That's a clever idea. I'd prefer to have someone res ploy for him, but it's an interesting try. If you didn't have -def I would have suggested windsweep, actually, and pair it with spd smoke so he doubles everyone easily on enemy phase and extracts tons of bonus damage.

If I'm not mistaken, def smoke is just as good, so use whichever one helps his teammates more.

Could work, but like you said, it has its downsides. Threaten Res might be better if you want him to function better on his own, or even Even Res Wave could work as well (although I'm not sure killing Brave Hector is worth it). Nonetheless, its a pretty neat idea for him that can work pretty well!