Should I Farm That - The Cyclone (FFII MK), DQ XI S week 2 trials

I've been really sick with the flu since Friday night (yes, my birthday) so I don't really have much energy. I spent what little extra energy I had finishing up my Season 2 finale summary. So shorter SIFT this week.

I'm very annoyed by the back-to-back MK events. As many have pointed out, 60k EP in 3 weeks is very doable (virtually the same requirements as 40k in 2 weeks). I did some napkin math to check what the energy pot need would be:

3 weeks of energy = 6,048 NRG. That's 48 more than needed but there's also the 100 NRG per week for the red SQ. So the deficit is 252. Another ~40 NRG per week for the event trials brings the deficit to 372. Let's call it 400 to account for random things I forgot. Assuming one rank up worth only 150 NRG and averaging about 10 free NRG per day (from dailies), we'd only be short a measly 40 NRG. Just one extra MK run using pots.

My problem is that Gumi is making this unnecessarily annoying for people that want to do something during those 3 weeks other than get the EP rewards. I'm in the middle of my Scorn of Gilgamesh run for my Going in Blind series and would prefer not to have to burn through all my pots. At this point I'm hoping the last decent EP reward is at 15k so I can bail out early.

MK Loot

Diamond Armor (FFII)
[heavy armor]: 10 ATK, 43 DEF, 5 SPR, 20% lightning resistance

Easily the worst heavy armor with 20% or better lightning resist. Dragon Mail (key quest reward) has 30% fire/ice/lightning resists and better stats across the board. Force Armor (trial) has 20% fire/ice/lightning/wind/earth resist also with better stats. King's Armor (limited event) has 20% resist to all elements and 50% resist to all ailments.

First two are reasonably obtainable so it's unlikely that you'll ever equip this. Trash tier.

Ice Bow (FFII)
[bow]: 99 ATK, ice element, 2H (1.25-1.75x dmg var, 70% acc), 50% damage from physical or hybrid attacks against birbs.

We have a few stronger elemental bows already: Killer Bow (118 ATK, dark), Fierce Bow (110 ATK, wind), and Cataract (101 ATK, water).

Those were somewhat useful in the past (Sora when he first came out) but thanks to the new damage formula, lower ATK gear suffers a bit. So let's do the math if the higher variance on this offsets the low ATK. (not going to show the math... takes too long to type and I'm too exhausted from being sick). Basically, you'd lose about 11% damage compared to a 180 ATK weapon. The boost from 1.3 to 1.5x average damage variance is 15.4%. Adjusting for the difference in total ATK, you're looking at about the same damage (assuming getting the ice element doesn't affect your damage rotation).

This is squarely in the niche category.

Wild Rose Warrior
[materia]: 5% MP/ATK, 25% damage from physical and hybrid attacks against humans

This is outclassed by man-eater (75% killer) , man-eater (50% killer), and Brave Soul (10-man trial reward, 25% killer, 30% ATK).

So you'd only use this if you happen to have 4 materia slots open for killers (not bloody likely) or if you are taking along two physical attackers. But that assumes you don't have one of the 21 other items or 24 7 star units in the game with man killers already.

There's a tiiiiiiny chance you might ever use this so I'll be generous and call this very niche. I'm not bothering to get it.

Wild Rose Mage
[materia]: 5% MP/MAG, 25% damage from magic attacks against humans

This fares slightly better because Alim is run by a bunch of scrotum scabs that said "fuck you" to mages the moment killers were introduced into the game.

Despite there being 20 units with some sort of human killer, only 3 of them are actually pure magic attackers. Most are hybrids that would use physical killers anyway or physical killers that have the man-eater passive so they just happen to have a useless magic killer too...

Of the 10 items with magic killer, 3 are really just physical gear that just happens to have magic killers on them.

With man-eater and M Human/Machine Killer (parameter reward) both giving 75% killer, you'll never use this on your primary mage. Thanks to the lack of magic killers, there's a small chance (but far more likely than the physical version) of using this on a second mage in your party if you go that route so this gets a niche rating. Unless you're a die hard mage user, you can probably just skip this.

(S)TMRs

Wild Rose Firion's STMR
Weapons Specialist
[materia]: 60% ATK, 75% damage from physical and hybrid attacks against humans/birds/stone enemies.

This sets the new standard for unconditional 60% ATK with killers STMR materia. Previously we've seen variations with only 2 killers then 3. Flammie was the first with 75% killers but he's a limited unit. Firion is the first non-limited unit with 3 killers at 75% thus sets a new minimum standard. Of the races for the killers, only humans are a common enemy type although stone will come in handy in the wall trial (I'm assuming it's stone type being a wall and all, but I'm not double checking for GiB reasons).

This only shows its true potential when killers kick but 60% unconditional ATK is still very good. Thus this gets a very good rating (although it's more niche for vets with a lot of good ATK materia).

Wild Rose Firion's TMR
Red Sword (FFII)
[sword]: 135 ATK, 2h (1.3-1.7x dmg var, 50% acc), Blood Weapon (25% HP drain from physical attacks)

The Blood Weapon passive is a new type of passive ability. This acts like a more traditional drain sword from the older FF games where the damage you do is automatically turned into HP. No specific active skill is needed to activate it. This works whenever you do a physical attack so any attacks that attack more than once (think: Hyoh's Servant of the Blade which self-caps his chain with a separate attack) will drain more than once. To be clear, this is per attack, not per hit although the math comes out to the same.

A few things I didn't have time to 100% confirm: This does not make use of the chain multiplier. It is capped to 249 HP in arena (25% is based on arena damage cap). I'm not sure if this only works with physical attacks that scale damage to ATK or if it applies to the physical portion of hybrid attacks and physical attacks that scale to MAG, DEF, or SPR.

This drain passive makes it a great weapon for tanks that counter a lot and do enough damage for the heals to be meaningful (even if the damage to the enemy isn't). For any dark knights, this is an amazing weapon to help control all those HP sacrifices.

But the defensive capabilities of this weapon are just a nice bonus. Thanks to the crazy 1.5x average damage variance this is the strongest 2H sword for units that only care about ATK. Depending on your other gear and the specific fight, this is potentially optimal for hybrid units as well.

While this is potentially BiS for a few units, not many TDH units prefer swords (and most of them are hybrid in GL) so I'm downgrading this to very good.

This and Soul Sabre (limited, 109 ATK) are the only 2H swords with 1.5x avg dmg var in either GL or JP so this will likely be a very good weapon for a very long time (albeit niche). If you don't pull on this banner, consider getting his trust moogle in case you decide you want this sword later. For those of you still rocking a Randi and managed to snag this STMR, this is BiS for him now (and my nostalgia driven brain is jealous of u/WAMIV anyone with it).

Dark Knight Leon's STMR
Dark Knight's Authority
[materia]: 50% ATK when equipped with a sword, 50% ATK when equipped with heavy armor.

A conditional 100% ATK boost is very good. Even in JP this is the materia that provides the most ATK. The sword requirement isn't bad at all, but the heavy armor requirement is a tad more cumbersome to deal with. The real value of this is that it can free up a materia slot compared to more common ATK boost materias. That'll allow for killers or more defensive builds. Genji Armor (10-man trial reward, 45 ATK 20 ATK, 30% ATK with katana or bow) is relatively easy to get and gives the highest flat ATK of any heavy armor so no worries about relying on STMRs for that slot. decent flat ATK and a possible 30% ATK if you can dual wield a katana. You'll need an STMR (VotL/D/F) to get higher flat ATK on heavy armor.

If you're in a position to try for DK Leon's STMR, check your current units and the future JP units to see which ones would benefit from this. Of current meta units:

• R Lightning and Bartz should almost always benefit from this (free up a materia slot)
• AI Katy and Elena for ATK focused builds.
  
• Zeno if you have a strong enough sword option.
  
• Reberta probably can make use of this but that will depend on your gear (based on limited test builds, she probably doesn't want this if you have her STMR. She prefers a mix of jump boost and ATK over higher ATK).
  
• TDW Cid can make good use of this but it depends on what gear you have.
  
• Other strong units that can make good use of this but don't seem to be shared very much: Eleven (fuck you, key system), Riku, and Sora.
  

For some of the more notable future units, only CG OK (and possibly King Rain) will want this:

• Chair Rain would lose a 50% ATK passive with a sword instead of greatsword. This is potentially a worthwhile trade off if you have WR Firion's TMR. The increase in weapon variance might be better depending on the rest of your gear.
  
• Chair Lassie loses 50% ATK passive without a katana (100% if you include the katana passive on his TMR).
  
• CG OK will love having this (70% ATK and 30% fire/water/wind/earth resists all tied to sword passives).
  
• Madam Edel would lose 40% ATK for either fists or guns.
  

This is good on Bartz who's damage output is good enough for at least another 9 months so I'm not penalizing this for the relative lack of future meta units what could use it (also I didn't check all the units. Who has time for that?). It gets the potential BiS rating.

Dark Knight Leon's TMR
Defender (FFII)
[sword]: 135 ATK, Shielding Blade => 20% DEF and 10% physical evade

Yes, this is a 10% physical evade weapon that isn't a katana or a 2H weapon but how useful this will be for your evade tanks will depend on which physical tanks you want to use. Both Warrior of Dawn Galuf and CG Warrior of Light have weapons as their TMRs so unless you get their STMRs. Even if you do have their STMRs, CG WoL can equip katanas so you can stick with Kiyomori.

Obviously existing physical or provoke tanks can make good use of this. Of all the rainbow units with an AE physical cover ability, all of them can equip swords except Lilith. Of all the rainbow units with any passive provoke, only Marquis de Leon and White Knight Noel cannot equip swords. No rainbow unit with passive provoke can equip katanas (CG WoL will be the first).

But GL has A Lassie and Rivera, so evade tanks that dish out solid damage are a legit strategy. At 135 ATK, this is a solid compromise between evade and ATK. Only A Lassie's STMR has higher ATK (170) but that's a STMR. So this is an excellent weapon if you like those strategies.

Alternatively, you can just use this for a defensive build on any physical attacker that needs a bit of extra tankiness from the 20% DEF.

As purely an attacking weapon, a 1H sword with 135 ATK is decent but Ragnorak (sword, 145 ATK) is pretty easy to get. You'd only want to use this if you are running DK Leon or for the DEF/evade.

Overall, this gets the very good rating.

DQ week 2 loot

Sacrosanct Staff
[rod]: 59 ATK, 128 MAG, 98 SPR, Sacrosanct Staff => 25% damage from physical/hybrid/magic attacks against demons.

While the Stardust Rod is a direct upgrade from an offense perspective (167 MAG, 50% magic demon killer, 75% magic undead killer), the high SPR on this rod makes it valuable for more defensive builds. The rod with the next closest SPR is MS Nichol's STMR with only 54 but that also includes 15% HP so it'd likely be better for defensive builds overall. I would focus on HP and SPR enhancements if you run this through IW.

This is possibly an optimal weapon for older summoners whose attacks scale to MAG and SPR but very unlikely if you have a lot of eqMAG TDH or TDW gear.

This gets a niche rating for the high SPR build options is provides. EDIT: due to the difficulty of getting the Stardust Rod (octopus 2.0 trial) I'm not going to use that comparison as part of the rating. As this is about on par with all the other non-STMR rods, it gets the very good rating (but niche for vets with stronger rods). Definitely a keeper anyway to look at it.

Über Falcon Blade
[sword]: 130 ATK, normal attacks hit twice, 100% LB fill rate

Do people still say uber without referring to the car service, speaking ironically, or speaking German? (Serious question.) That was common slang 20 years ago and considering I still say it once in a while I figured it'd be super outdated and I sound like the old fart that I am.

Normal attacks hitting twice can be really annoying at times - especially on units with slow attack animations. But 130 ATK for a non-elemental 1H sword isn't too shabby (Ragnorak is 145 ATK from 10-man trial) and the 100% LB fill rate can come in handy. This gets a niche rating for the LB fill.

TL;DR:

Potential BiS:

• Dark Knight Leon's STMR ( 50% ATK with sword or heavy armor, somewhat limited set of units that can make good use of it, but there are meta ones in that list)
  

Very Good:

• Wild Rose Firion's STMR (materia, 60% ATK, human/bird/stone killer)
  
• Wild Rose Firion's TMR (sword, 135 ATK, 2H with 1.5x avg dmg var, 25% HP drain for any physical attack, BiS for the few units that can take advantage of it, drain passive is possibly good on counter tanks, consider getting the trust moogle for this as insurance for GLEX surprises)
  
• Dark Knight Leon's TMR (sword, 135 ATK, 20% DEF, 10% physical evade)
• Sacrosanct Staff (rod, 128 MAG, 98 SPR, great for high SPR defensive builds, MAG is roughly equal to the best non-STMR/non-limited rods and Stardust)
  

Niche:

• Ice Bow(FFII) (bow, 2H ice weapon with 1.5x avg damage)
• Wild Rose Mage (materia 25% magic human killer, likely will only be used on a second attacker in your party)
• Über Falcon Blade (sword, 130 ATK, 100% LB fill rate)
  

Very Niche:

• Wild Rose Warrior (materia, 25% physical human killer, likely will only be used on a second attacker in your party but you are likely to have better gear options)

Trash:

• Diamond Armor (heavy armor, outclassed by two much better heavy armors that anyone can obtain)
  

Mini bonus shit post

I had a lot of fun with the colorful insults I wrote last week. Here's a few that didn't make the cut:

• I want to shove skunk glands under the eyelids of the wombat-pouch-mucus for brains idiot that came up with this.
  
• Let's consider other "not that bad" changes like replacing your bicycle seat with an angry badger.
  
• These tasteless assholes eat aborted fetus stew with white wine.
  
• He takes oral hygiene lessons from a meth head.
  
• His idea of sexy underwear is shitting his pants.
  
• From the design team that brought you the maximum splash-back urinal and diarrhea scented urinal cakes.
  
• That sounds as pleasant as itchy scrotum scabs.
  

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