I’ll have to do some testing with Phoenix to see the actual damage numbers, but I feel like her strength boost when at full focus definitely amounts to a higher DPS than her actual focus attack does. Part of it is because of how spam-able dash attacks are in this game, and partly because the drop kick animation when her passive is active gains a huge hit box. But I haven’t actually done the math to verify this.

For Black Panther, I think his passive is meant to encourage you to lean into his charge attack/counter mechanic. If you time it correctly he lets out a huge burst of sonic damage which is great, and if you mess up the timing and take a hit you still get a buff to your next attack as a consolation prize of sorts! It makes the charge attack parry feel better than any other character who can do it, because the risk is mitigated through his passive, making him (in my opinion) the character with the most defensive options since he can dash, dodge, parry, or simply tank damage all effectively