Should I Farm That - The Tower of Zot (FFIV MK quasi-rerun) and The Crimson Gear (Xenogears Raid #2 trial) AKA I Regret Using Up My Lapis Edition

Yay! FFIV banner with a new unit! FFIV is easily my favorite FF game. Much of that is probably related to it being the first one I played (I couldn't convince my parents to get me the first FF game for the NES) and other than FFXI, it's easily the FF game that I spent the most time playing.

I long since told myself that all my UoC tickets are reserved for FFIV and FFVI (my second favorite FF game) units. I said the same about tickets and lapis after the CNY banner but I have no self control with those. So wish me luck using my 5k lapis chasing a single copy of Golbez (I don't even care if I get a dupe, I just want a copy of all FFIV units). If I succeed I can save my UoC tickets as insurance chasing the LB-should-suplex-a-train Sabin, My-name-is-Gerad Edgar, I'm-not-a-bottle-blonde Terra, Don't-call-me-a-thief Locke, Interceptor-would-have-been-better Shadow, and Best-FF-villain-ever Kefka. I still need Flowing-Hair Kain to complete my FFIV collection but I'm waiting to get those FFVI units first (and Bartz for his TMR) before I UoC him. You know you're a fanboy when you secretly wish that every rainbow crystal breaks into your first Kain...

One little bit of business. It looks like I made a small mistake while assessing a full set of tectonic gear. I assumed that one bracer fills out the set but the passive will stack so equipping two is worthwhile if you need the earth resist and want to keep ATK or SPR high. Obviously not a good deal on Esther as she wants her TMR anyway. So if you farmed one of each, it might be worth your time getting a second bracer if you have the time and enregy pots to spare.

Let's SIFT through this kind of a rerun (while I pray that Gumi does a reserve Esther maneuver on Golbez later on tonight and resets the MK store while they are at it).

MK Loot

This is a rerun, but there are new rewards to be had: UoC ticket, 5 star ticket, a materia, and Trick Hat so dust off your FFIV units and thank Gumi for making all of them bonus units.

Trick Hat
[hat]: 35 MAG/SPR, 15% MP

If you're up-to-date on trials then this isn't that exciting. You can get Shiva's Tiara (51 MAG, 5 DEF, 50% ice resist) or Royal Crown (50 MAG, 32 SPR, 16 DEF, 100% confuse resist, 25% LB fill rate) which are much better unless it's the SPR you're after. If you do care about SPR, there's a trial reward for that: Frozen Crown (500 HP, 16 DEF, 50 SPR).

For newer players that haven't lucked into a better TMR or can't cleare the trials yet, this is a solid pick up.

For those of you disappointed with this, just be glad we didn't get a TMR from a certain FFIV unit that uses spears.

Lunarian Comprehension
[materia]: 25% MAG, 15% MP

Finally an MK reward that's better than a TMR. Oh, it's most similar to Popoi's TMR ( 25% MAG, 5% MP)? Yeah, I got excited for nothing. If you are tempted by this, just do a few pulls on the Xenogears banner to get Emeralda instead (if you don't already have one from the previous raid). Use those free raid moogles to get a far superior 40% MAG and 5% MP refresh. If you're new and can't pull an Emeralda, I guess this isn't the worst thing you could farm.

Food for thought: This is what JP got instead of the MAG 20% and SPR 20% materias we got. It's better but not by much. I feel worse for the JP players than us.

Glass Mask
[hat]: 35 DEF

This was an awesome item in FFIV. Of course, if you could farm the glass masks to get them you didn't actually need it... I got 10 of them just in case.

In FFBE it's pretty boring. Despite being the hat with the second highest DEF in the game (Freya (VP)'s is 40 DEF) it'll be pretty rare that you'll ever want to equip it. Units the really need the DEF can wear helms which provide much higher DEF. Squishy units that are forced to wear hats can be protected with DEF buffs, cover, mirage, general mitigation, physical mitigation, and HP barriers instead. Good "just in case" hoarding item though.

Diamond Shield
[heavy shield]: 30 DEF, 25 SPR, 10% lightning resist

Normally, anything with above average for type elemental resists is generally worth getting but I'm hesitent to recommend this one. You won't have many units in your party that can even want to (or even can) equip a heavy shield so having a couple stronger options is good enough.

We get two heavy shields from trials that give 20% resist to all elements and there's a craftable shield with 50% lightning resist (but -50% water imperil). If pulled Basch you should already have his TMR which gives not only 50% lightning resist but also 10% physical evade. The only other heavy shield with lightning resist is the Force Shield (star quartz purchase) that has 10% resists for fire/ice/lightning. This is easily the worst heavy shield with lightning resist.

If we include light shields we have Dragon Shield (30% fire/ice/lightning) that you can get two copies of from quests. It's not even worth mentioning all the other light shields with lightning resist that are better than Diamond Shield (it's all of them).

Hell Claws
[fist]: 79 ATK, 30% chance to inflict poison

Poison? Sweet, now I can kill the white dragon to get Murasame with that sweet 61 ATK! Yeah, that was the last time anyone really cared about poison outside of arena (and nobody has cared about that in arena since AE attacks became common). Non-elemental 1H weapon with 79 ATK is useless for everyone except new players. Easy skip.

Gaia Hammer
[hammer]: 90 ATK, 50% damage from physical and hybrid attacks against machines

Another oddball reward. Fire hammers are rare (Beast Hammer is the only other one with 54 ATK), but hammers aren't a common preferred weapon type. The machine killer is nice and the only weapons with machine killer and higher ATK are Lid's STMR (hammer, 154 ATK, 20% HP), Bart's TMR (whip, limited, 135 ATK), and Killing Machine's TMR (sword, limited, 114 ATK). None of them are elemental weapons so this would shine in the very unlikely case that you are fighting a machine weakest to fire and your best attacker uses hammers but has no self-imbue for fire... This is squarely in the "just in case" category.

EDIT: Several people pointed out that this is good on Zargabaath if you want to get his passives for hammers and fire weapons.

MAG 20%
SPR 20%

(S)TMRs

Golbez's STMR
Golbez's Armor [heavy armor]: 45 DEF, 100 MAG, 50% dark resist

It's heavy armor with high MAG. Unless your tank needs it for the dark resist, the only units I can think of that will want to use this are this Golbez and the future rainbow Exdeath. For the love of all the is good, don't chase this unless you're a bigger FFIV fan than me and are also a large aquatic mammal.

EDIT: u/P-Note suggested using equp H Armor to put this on some mages. Some napkin math says you'll need at least 150% TDH boost and replace a robe that isn't better than Dark Robe to reliably come out ahead. Biggest problem is all the passives (innate or gear) that require equipping a robe.

Golbez's TMR
Heart Bound by Hatred [materia]: 40% MAG, 20% stats from esper

This is seriously disappointing. This is at most a 15 or so MAG gain from the esper. This is essentially a 45% MAG materia where you can go 5% over the stat cap and a <5% boost to the other stats. If this was esper damage instead it'd be interesting but it's not.

Look at the other rainbow TMRs with 40% MAG: Kunshira ( 40% ATK with sword), Kydia ( 20% SPR, 10% summon damage), BS Sakura ( 20% MP, 2 LB/turn), and VotL ( 20% HP, -50% targeting). Except for Kunshira's TMR, most of these are generally better than that tiny boost to MAG.

Okay, so it's bad for a rainbow TMR but how does that compare to 4 star ones? Belgemine ( 10% summon damage), Reis ( 30% fire/ice/lightning resist), Deuce (50% fire resist), William ( 20% DEF), Lexa ( 20% SPR), VotW ( 40% SPR with staff). Yup, I'd rather have all of those over this one.

I'm quite upset by this to the point where my heart is bound by hatred for Alim/Gumi... Oh that's why they chose that name! Fuckers.

Xenogears Raid #2 Week #2

War Blade
[katana]: 106 ATK

Go one-shot the original Gilgamesh trial for Genji Blade (107 ATK) instead. If it weren't for the other rewards (tickets, moogles) I would consider just skipping this fight...

TL;DR:

Awesome but extremely niche:

• Golbez STMR (heavy armor for mages...)
  

Decent if you don't have something better yet:

• Trick Hat
  
• Golbez TMR (travesty that this is a new rainbow's TMR)
  

Good but extremely niche ("just in case" gear):

• Glass Mask (good DEF but you'll almost never want it over other stats)
  
• Gaia Hammer (rare fire/hammer combo, machine killer, good on Zargabaath)
  

Newbie/collectors only:

• Lunarian Comprehension (pull for Emeralda instead)
  
• Diamond shield (somewhat uncommon lightning resist on a shield but it's the worst option of all lightning resist shields)
  
• Hell Claws
  
• MAG 20%
  
• SPR 20%
  
• Warblade
  

Bonus Shit Post

I'm short on time this week, so I'm just using what remains of my emergency supply of SIFT shit post material.

Some word play:

• I encountered another FF player yesterday. Now he hits me whenever I try to interact with him.
  
• Jake's jokes justify juvenile justice.
  
• Even if Rain ends up as emperor, Fina and Lasswell will be around to keep him in check. They'll be Rain's reign rein.
  

Some non-JRPG collaboration ideas (I will flesh out units for whichever collab idea you like the most):

• Evil Dead The Musical
  
• ProStars (Michael Jordan, Bo Jackson, and Wayne Gretzky fighting crime)
  
• Tetris (the square is the raid boss. All units are 4 stars squares .) Maybe as a tie in to the Tetris movie
  
• The Producers (a collaboration based on the movie based on the musical based on the movie about a musical about Hitler)
  
• Mission: Impossible (the original TV series. Fuck the TC movies. M:I is about teams and mindfucks, not one dude blowing shit up)
  
• Peppa Pig
  

Some game spoilers:

• The game is really about Jake. The original title was Final Fantasy: How I Boinked Your Mother. Spoiler: The mother is Behemoth but he justs wants to get it on with Lid
  
• One of the main characters is his own grandpa (or maybe it was this)
  

And with that I'm officially out of jokes. Everyone I know wished for this day to come. I hope they're happy.

Some minor changes to SIFT schedule

I tend to post SIFT anywhere from Tuesday to Friday depending on how much info is available. To make my life a bit easier, I'm going to make Thursday (day after maint technically) the standard release date (it's usually on Thursday anyway so most people won't even notice). But for those of you that want to get a sneak peek before then, I'll be keeping a public draft available here. I'll be using the same link every week to make things easier.