Should I Farm That - Brigands' Den (Octopath Traveler Raid), March of the Demons (elemental event week 2 trial), and Empress Supreme (Vengeful trial) Edition

Ugh... short on time and tons of gear to review...

...and after I took the time to draft reviews for Empress Supreme trial rewards and the upgraded units, Gumi didn't release the trial or upgraded unit info yet. No time to finalize the reviews for the upgraded units tomorrow so I'll just include those in next week's SIFT. The trial rewards are in the data mine so I'm including them. I'll provide an update in a future SIFT if there are any changes when the trial is finally released.

Raid loot

Octopath Dagger
[dagger]: 62 ATK, 20% light resist

Only reason to ever equip this is for the light resist. If you ever need a dagger for ATK, the Assassin Dagger (10-man trial, 116 ATK) is a far better option and pretty easy to obtain for anyone with a halfway reasonable roster.

Looking at daggers with light resist, this outright loses to Beryl's STMR (40% light/dark). It ties Nyx's STMR for light resist at 20% but Nyx's Dagger also gives 20% resist all all other elements (as well as 20% HP, 158 ATK, and 50 DEF). Ulric's Kukri gives 10% to all elements as well as 20% MP making it situationally better.

Expanding the comparison to all weapons with light resist we also have Joachim's TMR (4 star, 2H instrument, 30% light) and Angel Wand (limited, staff, 20% light resist), and Sora's TMR (limited rainbow, 10% all elements, Sora only). None of those are daggers so they aren't straight replacements.

You can craft more than one of these and I recommend doing so. The only other craftable weapon with light resist is Angel Wand but staves aren't as common of a weapon type as daggers. Of the 164 units capable of reaching 7 stars, 67 can use staves and 123 can use daggers.

Octopath Spear (max craft: 1)
[spear]: 98 ATK, 10% DEF

This is only slightly stronger than Gungnir (90 ATK) which basically only has meme value right now. If you need a non-elemental spear, Dragon's Whisker (10-man trial, 138 ATK, 50% jump damage, 50% phys dragon killer) or Longinus (FFBE) (trial, 190 ATK, 75% phys/mag spirit killers) are far better options if you can clear those fights.

The 10% DEF probably won't help very much with survival. Spear wielders tend to wear heavy armor and helms which already have good DEF on them and more importantly they tend to be jump attackers so they aren't even around to take damage. And when none of that applies and you do want the extra DEF, there are plenty of other options to balance ATK and bulk than this. Newbies only.

Jewel of Strength
[materia]: 10% ATK, 10% draw attacks

This is useful for players who want 100% passive provoke but didn't get all the limited provoke gear. However, we'll soon be getting Galuf who has 80% innate provoke and WoL with the same 80% passive is a few months out.

Useless trivia: You can get Basch to 100% passive provoke with this materia (Moogle Plushie, K Producer's Jacket, Judge Magister Cloak, Wrapped Gift).

Barring GLEX gear, it'll be a while before we see another new passive provoke item. Timorus (free limited 3 star unit from Elnath story event) has an accessory TMR with 30% draw but that's about 6-7 months away. A FFXV MK event gives an accessory with a crazy 50% draw. That's 5-6 months away.

If you missed out on some limited provoke gear consider getting this. Easy pass if you've gotten all the provoke gear already.

Jewel of Protection
[materia]: 10% DEF, 10% reduced targeting by enemies.

This is vastly inferior to the camouflage materia (50% reduced targeting) that you can get with friend points (that 10% DEF does absolutely nothing to make it more competitive). Yup, we've hit a new low for shitty event materias.

(S)TMRs

Olberic's STMR
Olberic's Surcoat
[light armor]: 1000 HP, 62 DEF, 55 SPR, Olberic's Surcoat => 10% HP, 20% ATK/DEF

The only other light armor STMRs are Raegen's, Fohlen's, and Felix's and they are all offense oriented so this is de facto the best defensive light armor STMR in the game.

Looking at non-STMR light armor, the Tectonic and Catastrophic Vests are potentially better for magic eHP but only when equipped with the matching accessory.

On the clothes side, the only one that is more defense focused is Lila's STMR (1500 HP, 150 MP, 18 ATK, 48 DEF/SPR). On a 7 star tank, Olberic's STMR should win out for pure HP and wins big time for DEF. Esther's STMR potentially gives more HP but only for Esther so not a fair comparison. If you need to balance ATK and bulk, Fei's STMR (1200 HP, 30 ATK, 50% ATK with fists, 25 DEF/SPR) is a strong candidate. If balancing MAG and bulk lis what you need, SS Nichol's STMR ( 20% HP/MP, 70 MAG, 24 DEF/SPR) is a better STMR.

For heavy armor, once again there is only one defense oriented STMR. Wilhelm's weighs in at 20% HP and 110 DEF/SPR making it a bit worse for HP (about 500-600 HP less) and DEF (~10 DEF less). But Wilhelm's easily wins out when SPR matters too. The only non-STMR heavy armor that gives HP is Knight Delita's TMR ( 15% HP, 72 DEF, 28 SPR)

Overall, this is a very good defensive chest piece. Might even be STMR moogle worthy if you luck into a couple Olberics.

Olberic's TMR
Wandering Warrior
[materia]: 40% HP, 20% DEF/SPR, 100% paralyze resist

This is really hard to beat for pure bulk. Ignoring STMRs and the HP parameter mission reward, the only other materia with 40% HP is Beryl's TMR ( 40% HP, 30% MAG/SPR). Beryl's wins for magic eHP and Olberic's for physical/hybrid eHP. Neither can be stacked so you'll likely end up using both unless you are blessed with several 50% HP options. This is prism moogle worthy for those of you that value defensive gear above all else.

Primrose's STMR
Faith Shall Be My Shield
[materia]: 30% MAG, 60% SPR, 100% chance to survive lethal damage one time when above 20% HP.

The guts passive is the prize here. It's get-out-of-jail-for-free card for whatever unit needs the MAG and/or SPR.

I think this works best on a magic tank. The 30% MAG would be a nice bonus for Beryl or WK Noel if you're using them for damage too. But pretty much any unit that wants MAG or SPR can make great use of this in fights with nasty preemptive attacks.

Primrose's TMR
Primrose's Necklace
[accessory]: 16 DEF, 40 SPR, 100% petrify resist, Primrose's Necklace => 40% SPR

This is essentially half of REM's STMR (40 MAG/SPR, 40% MAG/SPR) with a dash of DEF and petrify resist tossed in (usefulness of which is very situational). Only Aerith's STMR (60 SPR, 60% SPR, 50% dark resist, 5% refresh) gives more SPR in the accessory slot. Other than a handful of SPR scaling attackers or trying to boost magic eHP for a support unit, you're probably not going to make use of this unless you use Primrose.

Therion
Therion's Scarf
[accessory]: 12 ATK, 26 DEF, Therion's Scarf => 25% physical evade, 50% reduced targeting.

This is an incredible TMR for a 4 star unit. The 25% evade ties Noctis' TMR and Rico Rodriguez's TMR for most physical evasion on any accessory. Only Kaito's STMR (materia, 30%) gives more and in the future we'll have Locke 2.0's STMR (dagger, 30%) barring and GL changes.

This is a raid so we'll be getting raid moogles. This is everyone's chance to get a 25% phys evade accessory. Even if you whiff on the banner pulling for him and don't have a prism moogle now, you might get a prism later so hold on to those moogles!

Unlike Ring of the Lucii there's no white magic counter to give you headaches with missions or fight mechanics so it's worth getting one of these even if you have a couple RotL. EDIT: apparently they updated the counter from a white magic spell to a magic ability. Don't need to worry about screwing up those no magic missions.

Also, evade camouflage makes this a good item to put on support units like healers. Depending on how you gear them and the rest of your team, you might be able to eliminate the need for a provoker.

While you can equip two of these, the Therion's Scarf effect (evade and camouflage) does NOT stack. Don't use more than one prism moogle on this

For those of you not aware, the reduced targeting does NOT interfere with provoke.

This is how targeting is determined:

• Any units with active provoke are evaluated. Of these units, the one with the highest provoke (active passive) is targeted. Yes, this means 70% active provoke is checked before 100% passive provoke. If more than one has the same amount of provoke, it uses party order as the tie breaker. If total provoke is less than 100%, it'll check the next possible unit in the active provoke pool.

• If no units have active provoke, units with passive provoke are checked. Highest amount and party order are used as tie breakers. If total provoke is less than 100%, it'll check the next possible unit in passive provoke pool.

• Units with no provoke and no camouflage are checked. (I'm not entirely sure if they are checked separately or at the same time).

Tressa
Dreams of a Wider World
[materia]: 20% ATK/MAG, 25% XP from battles

The ATK/MAG is crap. The 25% XP bonus is only bested by Nine's TMR (4 star, 50% XP), EXP 50% (recent login freebie), and Divine Blessing (limited, 30% XP).

Of course, this is only useful if you level your units by fighting rather than using cactaurs. All 2 of you that regularly do that but haven't gotten around to farming enough Actions can rejoice.

March of the Demons

Shrine Offering
[accessory]: 30 MAG, 10 DEF/SPR, 15% fire, water, wind, and earth resist

Decent flexible elemental resist gear is always welcome. "Elemental tetris" might be over but the need for good resist gear isn't going away.

The only accessories with a decent amount of MAG and multiple elemental resists are Kunshira's (50 ATK/MAG, 15% fire/lightning/water/wind/light) and A Rain's (30 ATK/DEF/MAG/SPR, 30% all elements) STMRs, Portal Charm (3 star TMR, 15% MAG, 30% fire/light/dark resist), and Eureka Key (trial, 20 MAG/SPR, 20% fire/water/wind/earth).

Water Dragon
[katana]: 120 ATK, water elemental, 2H weapon (1.05-1.55x dmg var, 50% acc), Rising Tide => physical water attack (2x, ATK scaling) to one enemy with BS frames

As far as the chaining ability is concerned, I like this less than the replica version. The replica is a 1H weapon so you can use DW to automatically cast Rising Tide twice. If you ever need a water BS frames attack for support chaining, you'll likely opt for the replica over this.

As an elemental 2H weapon, it falls short of Kaito's TMR by 20 ATK but has higher ATK than Cataract (2H bow, 101 ATK). Due to the better average variance on bows, that is potentially better on units that can equip either weapon type without sacrificing any passives.

Thanks to a lot of sources of water imbue (Bart, CK Ariana, MS/SS Nichol, Summer Fina & Lid, Summer Lid, and Vesvia) being a 2H elemental weapon isn't a huge game changer but it certainly is welcome for anyone with TDH katana users but no Kaito.

Empress Supreme

Of course there's a matched set of gear on a week I'm short on time...

Fortunately, despite the delay to the trial, the gear is in the data mine files so at least the details should be accurate. As I wrote earlier, any changes when this trial goes live will be documented in a future SIFT.

Imperial Heels
[accessory]: 10 DEF, 15 MAG/SPR, 15% dark resist, Set of Virtue => 20% MAG/SPR when equipped with Imperial Crown

If you need dark resist, Angel Earrings is a far better option (3 star TMR, 50% dark resist). Or if you don't want to sacrifice too much MAG you can go with Portal Charm (3 star TMR, 15% MAG, 30% fire/light/dark). You'd only ever consider using Imperial Heels as part of a full set or if you are sorely lacking dark resist gear.

Imperial Crown
[hat]: 20 DEF, 24 MAG/SPR, 15% HP, 30% dark resist, 50% blind resist, Set of Virtue => 20% MAG/SPR when equipped with Imperial Robe

This ties Genji Helm (FFV) as head piece with the highest dark resist and handily wins the crown when we compare only hats.

This is easily the best mage hat for dark resist and HP but that's due to a lack of other options rather than this being amazing.

Also, blind resist on mage/tank gear? HA! They could have at least made it silence resist so it'd have the potential of ever being useful.

Imperial Robe
[clothes]: 50 DEF, 30 MAG/SPR, 15% HP, 30% dark resist, 50% blind resist, Set of Virtue => 40% MAG/SPR when equipped with Imperial Heels

At 30% dark resist, this matches Dark Robe (4 star TMR, 35 DEF, 55 MAG, 20 SPR) and Rivera's STMR (28 DEF, 35 MAG, 74 SPR, 30% dark/light resist). If you need to worry about your MAG, Dark Robe is the better option. If you need the defense more, then the HP puts Imperial Robe on top.

Full Set of Imperial Gear

Here's the combined stats from all three items:

• 80 DEF
  
• 69 MAG/SPR
  
• 30% HP
  
• 75% dark resist
  
• 100% blind resist
  
• 80% MAG/SPR
  

That 80% MAG/SPR is a bit tricky to factor in because it is very easy to hit the stat cap. Assuming that isn't a factor, that equals about 240 MAG (or 240 SPR on a healer) for a 7 star mage fully potted with doors (I need a more succinct way to type that).

Other than the flat MAG, all of that is pretty solid. Even ignoring the dark resist, the boost to HP and SPR (and pretty good flat DEF for mage gear) makes it pretty solid survival gear for mages in general.

Scepter of Justice
[materia]: 60% MAG when equipped with a rod

Yes, please!

The only other non-STMR source of 60% MAG is HS Ultima's TMR (requires hat and robe). No complaints here.

Engulfing Light [materia]: 80% MAG when equipped with light weapon.

There are very few light weapons that give MAG. All but two of them come from limited events. And those two are limited to one copy so you likely got rid of them a long time ago... This is too depressing to type out. Just look for yourself.

Let's run some numbers. This materia would presumably be replacing a 40% MAG materia so on a 7 star mage with maxed doors and pots (~300 MAG) that's a difference of 120 MAG. With an easily obtained rod (Glory of Evil, 120 MAG, trial easily cleared with friend carry), that's a difference of 52 MAG. We'd only need ~130% eqMAG TDH/TDW to break even. If we were to use Stardust Rod instead (167 MAG) we'd need a mere ~20% eqMAG TDH/TDW to break even. Every halfway decent mage has at least 50% TDH or 25% TDW so this is never better.

Newer players might not have any 40% MAG materias yet but they also will probably have a far worse light weapon to work with.

Unless we see a GLEX light rod (or sword) with 100 MAG appear, don't expect to see this get much use.

Things are a bit better for hybrid units. A high ATK light weapon still benefits on the ATK side of the damage calcs so it doesn't suffer as much as it does for mages. Whether or not you'll ever want to equip this is very dependent on the specific unit, monster, and your other gear. That's very situational so it gets a solid niche rating.

TL;DR:

Very good

• Olberic's STMR (light armor, most physical eHP from chest slot in most scenarios)
  
• Olberic's TMR (materia, 40% HP, 20% DEF/SPR)
  
• Primrose's STMR (materia, 30% MAG, 60% SPR, guts passive)
  
• Scepter of Justice (materia, 60% MAG with rod)
  

Good but niche

• Octopath Dagger (dagger, 20% light resist)
  
• Primrose's TMR (accessory, 40 SPR, 40% SPR)
  
• Therion's TMR (accessory, 25% phys evade, 50% camouflage)
  
• Shrine Offering (accessory, 15% fire, water, wind, and earth resist)
  
• Imperial Crown (hat, MAG, 30% dark resist)
  
• Imperial Robe (robe, MAG, 30% dark resist)
  
• Full set of Imperial gear (okay total MAG, very good dark resist, HP, SPR, and DEF)
  

Very niche

• Jewel of Strength (materia, 10% draw attacks, only if you are missing limited provoke gear)
  
• Tressa's TMR (materia, 25% EXP)
  
• Engulfing Light (materia, 80% MAG with light weapon, rating assumes use on hybrid unit, not a mage. Rating improves to very good if we get a better light weapon with high MAG in the future)
  

Newbies only

• Octopath Spear (spear, lowish ATK, 10% DEF)
  
• Imperial Heels (accessory, 15% dark resist, good when part of the full set, downgrades to trash tier once you obtain better dark resist accessories)
  

Trash

• Jewel of Protection (materia, 10% camouflage)
  

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