Should I Farm That - Kingdom Hearts Union X and Katy Perry x2

And here I thought we'd be getting a nice boring FFV raid and I could just do a mini SIFT and use the extra time to finally fight Asura. But no, Gumi has to give us another really interesting STMR that I need to spend a ton of time analyzing just to recommend most of you should NOT spend the lapis on it.

On the bright side, last week I was saying Artemis Bow was too niche to really matter due to the lack of units that could make good use of it (more than a tiny boost). The item itself is awesome but Alim lacks the ability to design units that are cookie cutter copies of each other. So I was really hoping Gumi would design a GLEX hybrid bow user. Well, my prayers have been answered! AI Katy Perry is a hybrid unit that can use bows! I hereby raise my rating from very niche to somewhat niche. While it's only really good on one unit, it's a unit that will probably be very popular for a while.

Well buckle in, folks. We've got some good loot this week!

KH Raid

Sephiroth's Boots (Max craft: 1)
[accessory]: 250 HP, 100 MP, 40 ATK, 20 DEF/MAG/SPR

The 100 MP alone is making my consider putting this on A Lasswell when I don't need evade on him. Trading 30-45 ATK (compared to 50-55 ATK accessory) and gaining a bit of extra MP can be very helpful when your MP healers are often too busy to constantly top the team off. (I ran into this with my recent Neo Exdeath clear.) That's a very niche use, but a nice to have option.

While 40 ATK isn't anything special in a slot that is often used for TDH/TDW or LB damage gear, the other stats does make this an okay compromise between offense and defense when you just need a little bit more eHP. Obviously STMRs like Sabin's (55 ATK, 30% HP, 60% ATK with fist) or TMRs like Esther's (45 ATK, 20% HP, 10 DEF, 15% LB damage) are going to be better, so let's just focus on non-rainbow gear that gives similar ATK and HP.

Millie's Charm (3 star, limited, 10% HP/MP, 30% ATK, 8 DEF/SPR, 10% fire/water/wind/earth/light/dark resist) falls short on the offense side but eHP would be similar and those elemental resists would make it situationally better). EDIT: 30% ATK doesn't apply to all units.

Hard Gauntlet (4 star TMR, 40 ATK, 10% HP, 100% blind resist) is about on par.

Omega Medal (trial, 10% HP/MP, 35 ATK/MAG) will probably be similar or better on hybrid units most of the time.

This should be a pretty solid accessory for new players but that MP does have niche use for veterans so this gets the niche rating. This is definitely at the upper end of newbie gear and could see a couple months of use depending on luck pull units with better TMRs.

Dodge Roll (max craft: 1)
[materia]: 30% HP/MP, 20% evade

First of all, don't worry about the "not stackable" notice in the news. That means the materia isn't stackable (only one copy anyway). The evade effect will stack will all other sources of evade.

This is the big freebie prize for the week. Obviously 20% evade is amazing (only better materia is Kaito's STMR, next best is the enhanced TMR of a limited unit). But what really makes this good for your tank is the HP on it. The biggest problem with 100% evade builds is that the tank may not have the stats to soak up damage they can't avoid. The 30% HP greatly addresses that issue.

From an evade build perspective, you'll be able to free up at least one slot compared to previous builds. Whether it is equipment, materia, or esper, freeing that up allows you to build for even more bulk.

30% HP or MP is still pretty good for materias so this is useful even when you aren't going for 100% evade.

Due to the combo of evade and HP, this gets the top rating: potential BiS

MP Haste
[materia]: 15% MP, recover 5% MP per turn

Only two other materias give both MP and MP refresh. Folka's TMR (rainbow, 30% MP/SPR, 5% MP refresh, 50% LB fill rate) is not surprisingly much better. Great Mage's Chant (trial, 15% HP/MP/SPR, 5% refresh) is outright better.

This gets a niche rating but Hasiko exists so there's a decent chance you'll use it.

EXP Bracelet (KH)
[accessory]: 30% EXP gained from battle

Same 30% we get from the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Anniversary rings (those include some stats so their technically better but it won't make a difference).

Last KH event gave us a 20% EXP accessory so you can toss those out now if you were holding on to them just in case.

Growth Egg (3 star TMR) gives 50% as does Lucky Charm (quest reward) and Produce Moogle Charm (Fan Festa 2018 loot). As long as you have two of those, you have no need for this (it's always better to level one unit at a time to maximize EXP per energy).

Leveling without simply fusing cactaurs is usually just for newer players and whales but whales would never use this so this gets a newbie rating.

(S)TMRs

Riku's STMR
Heart's Darkness
[materia]: 70% ATK, 50% light resist, 50% eqATK TDW

TDW, big ATK boost, and big light resist. 70% ATK is good enough that you might use it on TDH units also. 50% light makes it good for all units when you need the light resist. Another strong source of TDW is very welcome in the current state of the game.

While the 70% ATK is a huge boost, it's hardly that big of a deal by itself. For veterans it's likely to be replacing a 50%-60% materia. What makes this materia great is the combination of the ATK boost and TDW boost. That slot efficiency opens up a slot to boost damage or increase survival. Potential BiS for that reason.

Riku's TMR
Soul Eater
[sword]: Riku only, 160 ATK, Eater of Souls => 25% light resist, 5% MP per turn, 30% eqATK TDW.

It's limited to just Riku so this is automatically nche no matter how good the stats are. You'd need his STMR and some really strong 1H weapons to not use this on him.

JP has 7% refresh and 50% TDW but no light resist. I assume in the very least the TDW will be boosted to 50% eventually.

**Sephiroth (KH)'s STMR:
Masamune (KH)
[katana]: 172 ATK, 2H (1.05-1.55x dmg var, 50% acc), Master Swordsman => 30% ATK, 50% damage from physical or hybrid attacks against humans

This is the fifth 2H katana in the game. Akstar's STMR is the only one with higher flat ATK (180) but this has an additional 30% ATK and killers. The 8 ATK difference is 32 after TDH which is just a tad over 10% ATK. So if you're at least 15% under that ATK stat cap (reasonable assumption for TDH units), this is the highest ATK you can get from a 2H katana.

Onimaru has 25% demon killer and 140 ATK. Assuming killers only from esper (125%), that 25% killer translates to an increase of 11.1%. The 32 ATK difference (128 after TDH) isn't going to bridge that gap unless your total ATK is abysmally low so Onimaru will be better against demons. If you have 200% in killers, the 25% increase represents 8.3% more damage. If your ATK is in the 3200 range, it should be about equal.

Unless you absolutely need the water element, this easily beats Suiryuken (140 ATK) and Water Dragon (120 ATK).

That makes this potential BiS for TDH katana users.

Sephiroth (KH)'s TMR
Sephiroth's Longcoat (KH)
[clothes]: 30 ATK, 18 DEF/SPR, Clad in Darkness => Seph only, 50% damage from physical and hybrid attacks against humans, Heroic Arts => 20% HP/ATK when equipped with a katana

Note: JP version has 28 ATK/DEF/MAG/SPR so no telling what it'll be if/when they boost it.

This is an upgrade from Suzume's Kimono (4 star TMR, 21 ATK, 20% ATK with katana, 36 DEF) with only the DEF in Seph's TMR being lower (but has 18 SPR to make it up).

For units not wielding katanas, this is the highest flat ATK on any non-STMR clothes. Hyoh's Clothes comes in second with 28 ATK and Aileen's Dress which we got a couple months ago is third with 24 ATK.

Hyoh's Clothes (28 ATK, 30% ATK with greatsword) will likely be better for any unit that can equip either katanas or greatswords. However, that's only a 10% ATK difference (~30 ATK) which is pretty minor compared to the extra 20% HP from this TMR. You'll likely need that HP more often than the extra ATK so I'm giving this the potential BiS rating.

Sora's STMR
Heart's Light
[materia]: 70% 50% eqATK TDW

Boost eqATK TDW from 20% to 50% to match JP.

Essentially Riku's STMR minus the light resist so it is conditionally worse. Close enough to give the same potential BiS rating.

Sora's TMR
Kingdom Key (KH)
[sword]: Sora only, 160 ATK, 5% MP per turn, 10% all element resist, 50% eqATK TDW

Boosted eqATK TDW from 10% to 50% (JP is 30%). That makes this a lot less awkward to use. Also, if you equip Sora with two copies, he'll hit the 200% TDW cap.

A very good weapon but restricted to Sora so automatically niche.

Cloud (KH)'s STMR
Buster Sword (KH)
[greatsword]: 190 ATK, 2H (1.0-1.6x dmg var, 50% acc)

Boosted ATK from 180 to 190 ATK (matches JP now).

This remains tied for the highest ATK weapon in JP so it's got a lot of life in it. Other than Bahamut Tear on LB spamming units that favor lightning or are element agnostic, this will almost always be BiS on TDH greatsword users.

*Cloud (KH)'s TMR
Cloud's Cloak (KH)
[accessory]: 40 ATK, 10 DEF/SPR, 50% eqATK TDH, 25% acc

No changes from original release (matches JP).

Akstar's and Elfreeda's TMRs also give LB per turn or boosted fill rate which is going to be a lot more useful than a meager 10 DEF/SPR. That pushes this down to very good category.

Katy Perry stuff

The quests will reward you with up to 4 copies of Lovely Katy. So free STMR for everyone.

Lovely Katy's TMR
Boundless Love
[materia]: 30% SPR, 30% eqSPR TDH, increase potency (100%) of healing items used in battle

Don't necessarily get all 4 copies of her TMR but you should at least make sure you don't lose the potential to get all of them. SPR is still a niche stat but this type of gear is too rare to squander. (recommendation: make two 7 star LK, moogle/farm one of them. Sacrifice the 100% TMR unit into the other for the STMR. You'll end up with one copy of the TMR, a farmable unit, and 2 moogle prisms. Her 7 star awakening is relatively cheap so you shouldn't run into a gil issue doing this).

SPR focused builds are still niche thus so is this TMR.

Lovely Katy's STMR
Golden Earrings
[accessory]: Golden Earrings => 20% HP/SPR, 120% SPR with HP falls below 50%, 30% eqSPR TDH

This is essentially IF Katy's STMR but with a crisis buff and eqSPR TDH instead of the useless random skills. This has a very good chance to be BiS for magic eHP builds assuming your unit has strong SPR gear equipped.

EDIT: Worth noting that if your goal is max SPR, LK's TMR might be a bit better due to no flat SPR in this accessory slot. I think the HP makes it worthwhile though.

A.I. Katy's TMR
Anti-Virus Software
[accessory]: 20 DEF/SPR, 10% DEP/SPR, 100% resist to all ailments, Installation Program => 100% resist to ATK/DEF/MAG/SPR breaks to user for 3 turns.

Decent defensive stats on a ribbon with break resists on top of it.

Only other item in the game (GLor JP) that gives any break resist is Peace Ring (FFVII) with mere 25% SPR break resist.

You'd have this on your tank and your tank is also the unit that most needs break resists - especially if they die. Fortunately the 3 turn break resist will get applied every time you raise your unit so this is exceptionally good.

You can do better for eHP with full ailment resist and break resists aren't always needed so I'm giving this a very good rating (but at the top end of that rating).

A.I. Katy's STMR
Upgrade Package
[accessory]: 40 ATK/MAG

Separating out the skills for readability:

• Life extension => restore 10% HP/MP every turn
  
• Drive Version Upgrade => 40% ATK, 50% eqATK TDH, 50% eqATK TDW
  
• CPU Version Upgrade => equip rods or whips, 50% MAG with rod, 50% MAG with whip
  
• Security Version Upgrade -> equip light/heavy shields, 40% SPR and 20% HP/DEF with light shield, 40% DEF and 20% SPR/HP with heavy shield
  

Value discussion - STMR only

This is just a huge trap. I'm betting that the Katy Perry deal ended up not gaining the number of new players they wanted so they are doing a last ditch effort to get people to spend money. Create the most tempting STMR (at first glance at least) in the history of the game and put it on a banner where you have a 100% chance of getting it... as long as you have 40k lapis. Just a reminder that 40k lapis will cost you $200-225 if you buy the lapis. Stop and digest that for a moment if you are a spender. For F2P players, this is about 1.5 - 2 months worth of free lapis. This is not a small investment.

Let's talk value. In all cases I assume you have a solid roster (all areas covered by at least two good units), you're not saving for a specific future unit that will be out in the next 2-3 months, and either your gear is terrible or you just don't have any decent STMRs. For now, let's ignore the unit itself and the TMR. This is a value discussion of only the STMR.

• Got 40k lapis with nothing to spend it on? Not bad choice to chase this (also not a great choice either).
  
• Have only 30k lapis or less and you're not willing to spend real money? Don't do it unless you'd be happy with just getting 1 copy for her TMR which is decent but not groundbreaking. How you should pull: If you have 30k lapis, stop if you don't have 2 copies after the first lap. At that point, you'd be happy with the TMR and not risking blowing all your lapis and not getting the STMR.
  
• Have an STMR moogle to burn? Oh boy, time for some math...
  

Basically using an STMR moogle would save you as much as 20k lapis (less if you're lucky). So we need to see if 100% STMR is worth 20k lapis. Let's pretend the free 100 STMR tickets didn't exist for the initial calculations.

I recommend only using STMR moogles on gear that is either a huge increase over what you currently have or allows you to use completely different builds or strategies. (Does not apply if you buy STMR moogles)

If you are F2P or low spender, this is a terrible deal unless it is a huge improvement over your current gear. STMR moogles are too hard to get. Don't confuse flexible use with improvement over existing gear.

If you are a medium spender, it might be worth your while. If you bought one of the $48 USD STMR moogle bundles a while back, you potentially will come out ahead (I think that bundle had some lapis or tickets). At 200 lapis per dollar (approximate rate of the halfway decent bundles), that 100% STMR would cost you the equivalent of about 10k lapis. Not a bad choice if you're a spender and already bought the STMR bundle waiting for an STMR like this one.

But that bundle is probably not going to be the main paid source of STMR moogles. We currently have a bundle for also $48 that gives 9k lapis and 20 STMR tickets. Those tickets are essentially "free" with the purchase of that lapis. BUT you'd need to buy the equivalent bundle (assuming they even offer it) 5 times to go this route. That's a lot of money (~$250) and only should be considered if you were planning on buying that much lapis anyway. (yes, depending on your luck with the anniversary tickets you might need a lot less STMR tickets to go this route).

And obviously, if you're a whale, I thank you from the bottom of my pitch black lump of coal I call a heart for spending the money to support the game that I play. (I'm F2P BTW, except when I spend money)

Value discussion - Factoring in the unit and TMR

A lot of you will want AIKP because she is an incredibly flexible unit. We're talking Gumby-after-5-years-of-yoga-classes levels of flexibility. If you're pulling her because you think she's the most OP unit ever, you need to look more carefully at her kit. She's an awesome unit that can fill pretty much any role but she is missing a key skill or two for each of those roles (no provoke, no reraise, no mitigation, no AE breaks, etc.). Dedicated units will handle those roles better but that only matters for the hardest content we have. Like any other 7 star unit, she'll steamroll 99% of content with minimal gear.

Assuming you have a firm understanding of the unit, you're looking at a different cost for the STMR. You're already dedicating up to 20k to the unit so the effective cost of the STMR is 20k lapis unless you get lucky. That's around the cost of cheaper step up which is still a steep price to pay for an item. Personally, I'd only go after it if I got lucky and got at least one non-guaranteed copy of AIKP to bring the maximum cost down to 10k (30k for all 4 copies). The odds of getting at least one non-guaranteed AIKP (assuming 1% rate) in the first 3 laps is a bit over 50% so don't get your hopes up too high.

Now some of you will be tempted to pull just for her TMR and don't really care about the unit. Unless you get incredibly lucky with your pulls (2 non-guaranteed copies with first lap) chasing the STMR would probably be just too expensive for a single item.

Item Analysis

For fuck's sake, could they possibly create a bigger pain in the ass item to review? I thought spending all that time to show Excalipoor was not a good weapon was annoying. This really takes the cake. A cake made of dog diarrhea and rat carcasses and decorated by baboons obsessed with flinging crap.

Normally, I'd try to do calculations for all the likely possibilities but there's just way too much going on here. I'll be doing a lot of comparisons using my own gear which I think is very good for non-whale veterans. If you're gear isn't as good then Upgrade Package might be better for you, but you need to be realistic by how much better it would be. Once again, FFBEEquip is your best friend.

As a reminder, when you are checking your own gear against this, it's not enough to see that this STMR is better. It should be significantly better before considering it. You don't want to spend 40k lapis for a small gain.

Magic boosts

CPU Version Upgrade => equip rods or whips, 50% MAG with rod, 50% MAG with whip

Rods and whips are generally the best sources of MAG in the game so the ability to equip this is always handy. Let's start by looking at TDH builds.

This is essentially just a flat 40 MAG and 50% MAG accessory. That's only 10% better than Nutkin Hairpin (4 star TMR) which comes out to about 30 MAG.

You might get a bit more benefit if you have Summer Whip (STMR) as your strongest MAG weapon but you'd lose out on a possible innate rod passive. Also whips have 40% MP as their IW rare so you can't make up the difference there. At best, using Summer Whip over a weaker rod would be a minor additional bump.

Now let's look at TDW builds. Well, thanks to the sheer lack of non-STMR eqMAG TDW gear, all of the mages I checked with my gear outright prefer TDH builds (I can hit easily 300% TDH). I had to have less than 100% eqMAG TDH gear before FFBEEquip would switch to a TDW build on Christine. Even with Christine's STMR on her, the builder would only switch if I had less than 200% TDH available. (I have both Circe's STMR and Summer Whip so the favoring of TDH builds wasn't due to a lack of a strong whip or rod). If you have magic TDW gear or lack TDH gear, you'll likely benefit quite a bit from this STMR.

Despite TDH builds being more likely to give higher MAG, AIKP's STMR does allow for a lot of slot efficiency and you can free up quite a few materia slots. You can sacrifice a little damage to equip a survival materia. Or you can stack multiple killers. Big caveat for that though - multiple magic killer materias are rare so a TDH build might still be better. For example, if I try to max damage against humans, the builder prefers TDW with a two killer materias equipped. If I max damage against beasts, it switches back to a TDH build instead because I only have one magic beast killer materia. .

Overall, this is a minor boost under normal circumstances (most people won't have magic TDW gear and can easily get some magic TDH gear) and a decent boost under extremely specific conditions (right mix of gear and units). However, the 10% MP refresh is extremely useful to MP guzzling mages so despite the bump in MAG being small, it might have a significant impact in damage per turn (not having to pause a turn to restore MP). Overall, it's very good but nothing too amazing for mages in the general case.

Equip Whip "usefulness"

I will point out that there are a few interesting uses thanks to the equip whip passive. If you have 2 Summer Whips then you can use this plus the Equip whip materia from the 3rd floor of Madam's Manor. That'll let you have any two units chain the Rainbow Whip ability. Stick that on support units and you can very quickly hit the chain cap and give a wider window for you finishers. Yeah, that's incredibly niche...

With this, you can use Yego's STMR on any unit... that wants TDH... and you don't have any other decent 2H weapons of more common weapon types... and that unit can't already equip whips... and has no strong passives for other weapon types... and your IW luck is so bad that the whip rare being 40% MP isn't a factor. And I thought the double Summer Whip idea was niche... To put this in simple terms, this is a shitty version of Equip Bows or Equip Axes which is pretty damn uncommon to begin with.

If you have Summer Whip, a hybrid TDW (just Malphasie really) might get a decent bump in stats depending on your other gear. That's just one unit and very gear dependent so this is also very niche.

Physical TDH

Drive Version Upgrade => 40% ATK, 50% eqATK TDH, 50% eqATK TDW

Okay, now we're getting somewhere. Flat 40 ATK , 40% ATK, and 50% TDH. That's a straight 40% ATK over Marshal Glove, Cloud's Cloak, and Rush glove. That comes out to about 120 ATK if you aren't hitting the stat cap (reasonable assumption with TDH units). For reference, the difference between 3120 ATK and 3000 ATK is 8.2% damage. The difference between 2630 and 2500 is 9.8%.

But that assumes you want to get your TDH boost from your accessory slot. Units like Esther greatly favor her TMR for the LB damage boost. I haven't run the numbers but CG Rain will might want her TMR too since he is a LB spammer. So while this is the best e-peen ATK numbers accessory for physical TDH, it's not necessarily always optimal gear.

Odds are you'll never equip it if you have Sabin's STMR (55 ATK, 30% HP, 60% ATK with fist) and a non-accessory source of TDH. Even Ravenheart which is meant to be a TDW accessory is potentially better when the killers apply. And we can't ever underestimate the usefulness of the guts passive on Lucid Lenses (55 ATK).

So you'll probably see a sizable improvement for physical TDH builds with this (~9%), but it'll depend on your gear and specific fights. This is the most likely area where you'll see big gains over your existing gear.

Again, the 10% MP refresh may make this worthwhile on high MP usage units even if there's no increase in ATK.

Physical TDW

Drive Version Upgrade => 40% ATK, 50% eqATK TDH, 50% eqATK TDW

This fares pretty well because TDW gear is still pretty rare. The only other accessories are Ravenheart, Colorful Lei, and Hermes Sandals. We'll see CG OK's TMR too in the future but it's essentially the same as Hermes Sandals for the scope of this discussion.

It's outright better than Hermes Sandals unless you need the LB/turn. Again that 40% ATK turns into about 120 ATK. BUT unlike TDH builds, hitting the stat cap (or at least coming close to it) is somewhat easy for TDW builds thanks to IW boosts on that second weapon. I did a few test builds with my own gear and this STMR was:

• Equal for my Bartz build
  
• 5% ATK more for my A Lassie build (but loses 25% evade).
  
• Freed up a materia slot for my R Lightning build (assuming adding a 50% killer on top of the 200% I'd get from esper and first materia slot that's 16.7% increase in damage). This was only possible because I have a 62% ATK on my Prompto STMR. Lower IW enhancements didn't always free up a materia slot.
  

So don't expect this to help your physical TDW units by a significant amount unless it's a pretty niche situation or you are seriously lacking decent gear. If this would be your only TDW accessory, it's worthy of consideration (especially if you decided to go the prism moogle route for his TMR and only have one prism moogle).

EDIT: If you have ravenheart, Lightning's STMR, and this STMR, you can free up as many as 3 materia slots. That's a lot of STMRs so I'm not going to change the rating but it is worth noting for folks with that gear.

Hybrid TDH/TDW

Drive Version Upgrade => 40% ATK, 50% eqATK TDH, 50% eqATK TDW
CPU Version Upgrade => equip rods or whips, 50% MAG with rod, 50% MAG with whip

I tested this with Elena builds and this outright beats Fry's STMR for TDH (25 ATK/MAG, 50% eqATK/eqMAG TDH). But is the difference worthwhile? I have Fry's STMR and with my existing gear I would get about a 10% improvement using this STMR. BUT that's only because the gain in ATK outweighs the loss in MAG. This would be worse against bosses with significantly higher DEF and SPR.

It outright loses to Ravenheart for TDW because there's no eqMGA TDW on AIKP's STMR. I didn't find any builds with my gear that favored Upgrade Package over Ravenheart (checked with Fry and Malphaise)

Tanky usage

Life extension => restore 10% HP/MP every turn
Security Version Upgrade -> equip light/heavy shields, 40% SPR and 20% HP/DEF with light shield, 40% DEF and 20% SPR/HP with heavy shield

Lets' start by comparing this to Genbu Ring (7 DEF/SPR, 20% HP/DEF/SPR) which is my baseline accessory for survival:

Upgrade Package wins here when but only with a shield equipped (it's worthless without a shield equipped). On a tank that is a decently safe assumption. On a support unit you might be better off without the shield if your unit can equip knives(IW rare gives LB fill rate boost) and that unit has an LB that you want to spam. If LB doesn't matter, this is pretty good for them.

But what about other accessories?

Obviously, the ring of never ending grinding is better for giving tanky stats ( 30% HP, 50% DEF/SPR/ATK/MAG).

Emperor's Ring (STMR, 30 DEF/SPR, 40% HP, 30% DEF with large shield, 30% SPR with light shield, 50% fire resist). That 30 DEF/SPR is about 10% of those stats (even more if you have eqDEF/SPR boosts) so you're losing out on about 10% SPR or DEF but gaining 20% HP and 50% fire resist. Emperor's Ring is outright better in my opinion (HP is king).

We also have Ring of the Lucii, Colorful Lei, Therion's Scarf, Protec Grappler G3, and Twenty sided die that will always be better on an evade tank.

Safety bit is often needed on tanks (many need their shield slot for TMR bonus or Moogle Plushie for 100% passive provoke so Genji Shield is often not an option for death resist).

There's also Shortcake which is essentially ribbon with 54 SPR, 10% SPR, 5% refresh, and 2 LB/turn. The ailment resist and LB combined will often make it more than worthwhile to sacrifice a bit of eHP.

So this is a bit better than Genbu Ring and that's only if you can afford to equip a shield. The tanky aspect of this accessory is most definitely NOT worth chasing an STMR. Consider it a very nice bonus.

Note: a lot of people are considering this for Liquid Metal Slime. Granting the ability to equip a shield and rod/whip adds an incredible amount of bulk to LMS. But that is extremely niche (limited unit that shared a banner with a few other 4 star units...) so I'm not factoring it into my ratings.

Overall

Good for:

• Physical TDH units. Up to 120 ATK gains but there are many cases where you still wouldn't want it. (LB spammers will want Esther's TMR, Sabin's STMR is generally better, etc).
  
• Hybrid TDH units with ATK favoring builds
• Units that need bulk and will be equipping a shield
  
• Gas guzzlers (even if the other boosts end up small, 10% MP refresh is very good)
• Mages if you have magic TDW gear or lack TDH gear (rare scenario).
  

Small/no gains/very niche for:

• Physical TDW units see small gains due to easily hitting stat cap. Most value is from the possibility that you can free up a materia slot (extremely gear and unit dependent).
  
• All mages unless you have eqMAG TDW gear (all STMRs) on a unit that favors TDW or you have minimal eqMAG TDH gear.
  

Bad for:

• Hybrid TDH units with MAG favoring builds (compared to Fry's STMR; it might be good if you don't have that)
  
• Hybrid TDW units (compared to Ravenheart; it's probably be good if you don't have that)
• (tanky builds) Any unit that won't use a shield (LB spammers) or wants evade

Final Thoughts

Overall I do not think this is worth 40k Lapis if all you care about is the STMR. Sure it covers a lot of situations but it doesn't matter how flexible the item is if you can only equip it on one unit at a time. From that perspective, it's no more valuable than any other STMR you'd always have equipped. You'd need to see significant gains to justify that amount of spending.

Here are the times when I recommend going after the STMR:

• You have a deep roster, you aren't saving for any specific units, and you have 40k lapis burning a hole in your pocket.
  
• You have a deep roster, you aren't saving for any specific units, and you have a STMR moogle burning a hole in your pocket.
  
• You were pulling for AIKP and got a non-guaranteed one in the first two laps.
  

I'm giving this 2 separate ratings:

• Potential BiS for pure ATK TDH builds.
  
• Very good for all use cases considered together (although man use cases are niche there are enough to make this worth putting on a unit all the time).
  

TL;DR:

As you can see, this is a really good week for gear. Dodge roll is probably the most important item to pick up.

Potential BiS:

• Dodge Roll (materia, 20% phys evade, 30% HP/MP)
  
• Riku's STMR (materia, 70% ATK, 50% eqATK TDW)
  
• Sephiroth (KH)'s STMR (katana, 172 ATK, 2H, 30% ATK, human killer)
  
• Sephiroth (KH)'s TMR (clothes, 30 ATK, 20% ATK with katana)
  
• Sora's STMR (materia, 70% ATK, 50% eqATK TDW)
  
• Cloud's STMR (greatsword, 190 ATK)
  
• Lovely Katy's STMR (accessory, 20% HP/SPR, 30% eqSPR TDH)
• A.I. Katy's STMR (accessory, rating only for pure ATK TDH builds)
  

Very Good:

• Cloud's TMR (accessory, 50% eqATK TDH, marginally worse than other TDH accessories)
  
• A.I. Katy's TMR (accessory, ribbon effect, 3 turn break resist, defensive stats)
  
• A.I. Katy's STMR (accessory, overall rating)

Niche:

• Sephiroth's Boots (accessory, 100 MP, 40 ATK, also gives some HP/MAG/DEF/SPR)
  
• Riku's TMR (sword, only usable by Riku)
  
• Sora's TMR (sword, only usable by Sora)
  
• Lovely Katy's TMR (materia, 30% SPR, 30% eqSPR TDH)
  
• MP haste (materia, 15% MP, 5% refresh)

Newbie Gear:

• EXP bracelet (KH) ( 30% EXP from battle)
  

No bonus shitpost this week. I think some of the comments made in my original post more than suffice.

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