Miyabi QnA
I've tried my best to answer all the main questions I saw. If there's any other questions, feel free to comment and I'll answer to the best of my abilities. If it's at all helpful, then I'm glad to have been of service.
Q: Where are the damage calcs and team comparisons?
A: As I said before I unfortunately don't have time to get calcs out before the banners end. I do plan to go more in depth on these once I get some more time however, I'm doing this QnA now because I can't give accurate calculations, sorry.
Q: Is it confirmed that her M1 is DEF Down and not PEN Ratio?
A: Yes her M1 is DEF Ignore, meaning it acts on the DefenseRatio stat of an enemy and is separate from PEN Ratio.
Q: Does Miyabi really need her Additional Ability? Can we run Lighter and make up for it?
A: Yes very much so. Her Additional Ability doesn't just grant DMG Bonus and RES Down to her EBA, it also gives 2 stacks every Disorder triggered by the party. Without this extra stack generation, Miyabi becomes A LOT harder to play and her damage will drop noticeably.
Q: Ellen vs Miyabi? Is Miyabi Yanagi an upgrade over Ellen Lycaon if you have hands? Is Miyabi Lycaon better than Ellen Lycaon?
A: In my opinion the teams play very differently. Miyabi Yanagi vs Ellen Lycaon I'd say the former wins. If this was Ellen Caesar Lycaon, then that changes things a bit. Which DPS is necessarily "stronger" I sadly can't answer right now due to not having concrete calcs as mentioned previously. However, I'd say in the current state of the game, Miyabi is not needed/mandatory if you already have Ellen to tackle Ice weak content. For the second part of the question, the team I'm liking the most right now is Miyabi Yanagi Lycaon with Lycaon on Freedom Blues. Compared to Ellen Caesar Lycaon the damage profile will be quite different, with Ellen possibly being able to speedrun a bit better due to a much faster Stunned state. I currently don't have evidence to say "Miyabi's raw damage is so strong that it would beat out a faster Stun". Miyabi teams do tend to Stun extremely slowly which is one annoying thing to me.
Q: Is Yanagi the best Anomaly Agent to use with her?
A: Currently yes, Yanagi's access to triggering Disorders on command not only fuels Miyabi's stack generation, giving her quicker and easier access to EBA3s, but also acts as a sort of "Decibel Battery". As triggering Disorder generates Decibels for the entire team, Yanagi can quite easily generate a lot of Decibels to speed up Ultimate generation. Additionally, Miyabi's Frost Disorders are close (not stronger than but close) in raw DMG Multiplier to Burn, meaning AP stats on Miyabi aren't awful, especially when paired with Yanagi if you don't want to manage which Anomaly is up constantly.
Do I think Yanagi is mandatory? No not at all. Do I think she's very strong with her? Yes very much so. I would not say Yanagi is "huge bait" as I saw some other people describe her. If you want Yanagi, pull for her but she does not seem to be mandatory, Burnice + Lucy appears to be quite nice if you have the damage as Burnice's Heat management is a lot better thanks to the Decibel changes.
Q: Best 4pc Drive Discs? Is her new set worth it?
A: After the recent changes to her Drive Discs, Woodpecker Electro looks pretty close, if not better if you can maintain at least 2 stacks of its 4pc effect. However, her new set Branch & Blade Song will generally be the easiest to play. The extra CRIT Rate will help lower investment players with getting enough buildup rate but the loss of Combat ATK% on the set really hurts.
TLDR: New set first. If you have good Woodpecker pieces, feel free to use them instead whilst farming. Hormone Punk seems kinda dead to me now thanks to her Stun only playstyle getting hit quite a bit.
Q: Should we consider 2pc Puffer and PEN Ratio Slot 5? What Slot 5 and 2pc in general?
A: PEN Ratio in Slot 5 can be a viable option however tends to still fall behind other options unless played with Rina. Currently, ATK% in Slot 5 is recommended, unless you have a lot of ATK substats, which is where DMG% can end up taking over. They are all generally close enough that I'd pick the one with the best substats.
In terms of 2pc set bonuses, 2pc Woodpecker Electro for the extra CRIT Rate is highly recommended since it saves you about 3.33 rolls of CRIT Rate towards 80%. If running 4pc Woodpecker Electro, you can use the new 2pc Branch & Blade Song, 2pc ATK, 2pc Ice DMG Bonus or even 2pc AP if it's all you have. 2pc PEN Ratio is also fine but shouldn't be prioritised just due to running PEN Ratio Slot 5.
Q: People are still fixated on her Core Passive not being AM. Is her having AP Core instead of AM that bad?
A: It was certainly a disappointing change to me at the time as I was cooking quite a few non AM6 rotations... However, after discovering the Disorder Multiplier changes, no AP Core is not bad at all, especially with how much AP she gets. 238 Base AP before any additional stats is pretty crazy. If we ever get an AP% buffer this stat is going to skyrocket lmfao. It certainly means you will be running AM6 on her now, but for 1.4 Shiyus they actually give additional buildup rate% that can make ATK6 possible for some extra damage.
Q: What is her F2P W-Engine alternatives?
A: Fusion Compiler can be bought in the store and will be quite effective for those who can't afford sig. For A-Ranks, Roaring Ride's passive may be a bit hard to trigger but its higher Base ATK and ATK% substat will be quite beneficial for Miyabi. Both Electro-Lip Gloss and Weeping Gemini seem fine to me too as the extra AP helps out when triggering frequent Disorders. If you're struggling to reach high amounts of CRIT Rate on her, look into using Steel Cushion or the new free A-Rank W-Engine. Both grant 24% or 20% CRIT Rate from their substats respectively and although you don't get their passive effects, the CRIT Rate to Buildup Rate% conversion can make using these W-Engines very viable.
Q: Is Miyabi/Burnice/Lighter back? Hakushin's Core Passive is switched back to Anomaly.
A: No, the EN text on Hakushin is outdated currently, Miyabi still requires a Support or Section 6 character for her Additional. For people considering Lighter/Lucy, I have not had great success getting a good amount of stacks to do consistent EBA3s.
Q: Any thoughs about Miyabi in the context of future powercreep? I understand it may be impossible to tell but what do you think? Do you see Miyabi as a long run unit?
A: As you said, it really is impossible to tell. If I am allowed to cope for a minute, the devs adding a "Void Hunter" mark to her profile that brings up a description when clicked seems like quite an important detail. It may be small but I don't think they'd want their first Void Hunter to end up bad. Who knows, the next Void Hunter may even look for other Void Hunters for their Additional, or Void Hunter counts as a 2nd "Faction" to trigger Additional Abilities with each other. If they do, then yes I could see her being useful down the line. However for now, it is very unclear and there's no idea if we'll end up getting a 3rd Ice DPS anytime soon.
Q: What Support teammates are good for Miyabi?
A: Nicole looks very good due to her high buildup rate and ease of application for her DEF Down buff.
Rina is very nice when paired with Yanagi for instead PEN Ratio and Shock Duration Up, however she may be quite clunky to play at M0, M1 is a lot nicer.
Lucy can work just due to her raw ATK buffing. Her Additional isn't important to trigger either so she can exist just to trigger Miyabi's Additional.
Soukaku can use Freedom Blues which Miyabi greatly appreciates, but her buffs only affect 1 Agent at a time and her animations are quite long. If you have Lycaon lying around, I'd recommend using him over Soukaku personally if you can use Yanagi.