You must be thinking of somebody else on the durability front. Zola has gold mage tier health and defense but without the benefit of 15 mr. The gold mages can all face tank a tengu rod post Awakening while Garania and Estelle can both do it after class evolution. Odette's obviously geared towards lightning rod duties as well but she gets held back a tiny bit by getting defense instead of health from her affection bonus.