Not Ares, that's for sure. Svarog is damage per turn, Uriel let's you skip entire boss battles. Take your pick. Personally, I'd go with Uriel.With that many SSRs, you really shouldn't be having any issues. Thunder, at least for now, is a pure "kill it before it kills you" element, and does well at it.
I assume that your Thunder Grid isn't particularly good. Or you're not playing Thunder well - you need either Herc with MLB Axe and Sniper Shot or Dartagnan with her HP Gun and Ambush. Just like all the other elements, if you don't have Def Down debuffs, you're not doing any damage. Only Mammon and SSR Baal help you with those in Thunder.Phantom Elemental Lord Thor is THE best Hime in the entire game. For her niche, at least. I mean, she's the ONLY Hime in her niche, but hey!
Anyway, her Awakening turns from meh to quite decent. I certainly wouldn't skip her Awakening if Dragon Eyes aren't a problem for you.Thunder with Thunder Aphro is entirely different than without, true.Thunder is getting the best healer ever, at least as far as healing output goes. I guess the devs got tired of people complaining about the lack of heals and just went "Fucking FINE, have ALL the fucking heals!!!"
Of course, that won't make it in time for the Tower.Yes you can. You get 2 keys per day (that you login and visit the event screen), and you can use those keys as you want. Well, you need to complete floor 1 to get access to floor 2 and so on. I'd keep climbing as high as possible, and only once you wipe go back to earlier missions that you skipped.