Should I Farm That - Chocobo Fina, FFV Raid Trial, Holiday Road (Event Trial Reruns), and Scorn of the Legendary Stag Edition

Work isn't as bad as I thought it'd be but still keeping this post short so I can focus on clearing SBB Emperor half cost trials for my Going in Blind series. So far I've figured out the rotation before and after the first threshold. This battle is one hell of a gear/unit check. Speaking of my GiB series, one of the rerun event trials this week is The Great Count which was the first trial I did for GiB. It feels like I just started doing them but it's already been a year (and 13 trials).

Chocobo Fina

No event - just a banner for a SPR-scaling physical attacker. I must own all chocobo units but need to save my lapis so I only did the first step. First Sol and 4th Prishe. TMR that's worse than my existing robes and a STMR that's outright worse than a trial reward... I probably should have saved my lapis instead of pulling on this cat diarrhea banner.

STMR: Chocobo Feather Accessory
[accessory]: 45 ATK/DEF/MAG/SPR, Chocobo Protection => 100% chance to ignore fatal damage when HP is above 1%, 5% MP/turn, 3 LB per turn

Any time you don't need your accessory slot for something else, this will be a great accessory to equip. The flat 45 for ATK/DEF/MAG/SPR is pretty solid, the guts passive is extremely good, and the refresh and LB per turn are great extras. For comparison, Queen's STMR (55 ATK, same guts passive) is slightly better for ATK units (assuming you don't care about the refresh of LB) and strictly worse for units that care about all other stats. This is very good for pretty much any unit.

TMR: I Love Chocobos!
[materia]: 20% HP/MP, 100% resist to poison/blind/sleep/silence/paralysis/confusion/stone

This is a straight upgrade over Discernment which only provides the ribbon effect. With most tanks and support units having some immunity to the worst of the status ailments there are a lot of options to plugging those holes (covering all ailments isn't necessary very often). On the flip side, almost every major fight has some sort of status ailments (often with resist debuffs) so this is less niche and more universal. Thus, it gets the very good rating.

If you use Discernment a lot, dropping a few tickets or testing your luck on the first step of the step-up banner isn't a bad idea (assuming you aren't saving for something else). If you do, I hope your luck give you better results mine.

FFV Week two Raid Trial

Poison Rod
[rod]: 6 ATK, 104 MAG, enables Bio

Bio is worthless.

104 MAG is higher than any rods from 3/4 star units and all but one event reward (Sacrosanct Staff from the recent DQ XI event with 59 ATK, 128 MAG, 98 SPR).

However, we also have a couple easy to obtain rods from trials: Wizard Rod (125 MAG) and Glory of Evil (120 MAG) so this barely qualifies as newbie gear. If the MAG was any lower it'd get a trash rating.

Stag 2.0 trial

Rising Sun (FFBE)
[throwing weapon]: 186 ATK, 75% damage from physical or hybrid attacks against machines, 50% damage from physical or hybrid attacks against birds

The only weapons with higher ATK are Kloud's STMR and Longinus (FFBE) from the Lich trial. But that doesn't really matter because this is a freaking throwing weapon. Not many units can make use of it. The most notable units that can make good use of this are Bartz, Firion, and AI Katy. However, they can also equip Longinus so you'd only ever use it on them when the killers apply (or you're bringing two of your own TDW units to a fight). Fortunately these trial rewards tend to be weapons that are good for the next trial so you'll get to make use of it at least once against Aigaion.

This gets a niche rating due to being a throwing weapon.

Holiday Road

Giant Gingerbread Men: Snow Gown
[robe]: 5 DEF, 30 MAG, 35 SPR, 30% ice resist, Let it Go Snow => AE 50% ice resist for 3 turns

Ice resist buff isn't that great by today's standards. Plenty of better sources of active elemental resist buffs.

Stats are decent but veterans will probably only care about the ice resist. Rainbow Robe (rainbow TMR, 45 DEF/MAG/SPR, 30% resist all elements except dark), MS Nichol's TMR (rainbow TMR, 20% MP, 40 DEF, 52 MAG, 38 SPR, 50% water/ice resist), and K Fina's STMR (45 DEF, 64 MAG, 45 SPR, 70% ice/light resist) are outright better.

Overall, this is niche gear for when you need the ice resist if you don't have better options. Newer players should pick it up for the ice resist but for MAG/SPR, they are better off getting Siren's Robe from the Beasts of the Dark trial.

Kanshou and Bakuya: Flax Shield
[light shield]: 10 DEF, 32 SPR, 50% water resist, -50% fire resist, Phantom Guard => Ang/Chow/Wan/Yuri only, 10% magic evade

Magic evade doesn't stack at all so that doesn't really factor into the rating for this shield.

Slime Shield (limited 4 star TMR, 48 DEF/SPR, 50% water resist) is outright better with the better stats and no fire imperil to go with the water resist. If you have a couple slime shields, there's no need to hold on to this.

Looking at heavy shields, we also have Cerulean Shield (chest, 36 DEF, 8 SPR, 50% water resist, -50% lightning resist) which is a sidegrade due to the lighting imperil instead of fire imperil and Malboro Shield (trial, 59 DEF, 31 SPR, 50% water resist, -50% fire resist, 100% resist to all status ailments) which is an upgrade thanks to the ribbon effect but not an outright replacement as they are different shield types.

Like most elemental resist gear, this gets a niche rating.

Kanshou and Bakuya: Jade Moon Pendant
[accessory]: 8 DEF/SPR, females only, Exorcise jade => AE 100% resist to all status ailments for 2 turns

When this first came out, a lot of people were quite angry that I said this wasn't that great due to the 2 turn duration (results in a very awkward rotation). Well, now we're at a point where meta healers have status ailment resists in their kit with longer duration and generally can multicast it. This is now strictly newbie gear that haven't farmed ailment resist gear yet (or for unlucky vets that still haven't pulled a good healer).

Challenge the Great Count: Succubus's Satchel
[light shield]: 25 DEF, 20 SPR, Succubus's Satchel => Lilith only, 10% physical/magic evade

Only worth getting this if you use Lilith. Other than the evade, the other stats are pretty bad. This is only useful on one unit who is limited so this gets the very niche rating

Challenge the Great Count: Seductress Armor
[light armor]: 32 DEF, females only, Evade => 10% physical evade

This is strictly worse than Assassin's Vest (light armor, 40 DEF, 20 SPR, 100% resist to poison and paralyze, 10% phys evade) from the Echidna Trial. You'd only want this if you ever plan on running multiple units with 100% evade.

Very niche rating.

Season of Mayhem: Wrapped Gift
[accessory]: 20 DEF/SPR, Distracting bright => 20% draw attacks, Unwrapped Gift => weak RNG buff

This (or K Producer's Jacket which also has 20% draw attacks) is an essential piece towards 100% passive provoke builds. While you don't always want or need passive provoke, having the option to do so is always a good thing. Congrats to those of you that pulled Galuf but weren't around for this event when it first came around.

Despite it being possible BiS for passive provoke builds, that's still a niche use so it gets the niche rating.

Season of Mayhem: Fireplace Poker
[mace]: 60 ATK, fire element

This is the only elemental mace in the game. But due to the very low ATK, you'll never use this on an attacker even if we get a GLEX TDW unit that favors fire and maces.

One super niche use: Go for as much HP as possible with IW enhancements (rare is 40% HP). Perfect on a TDW unit that can equip maces for some theoretical fight where you need a fire elemental weapon and tons of HP to survive.

Lord of the Beasts: Transcendent Soul
[materia]: 10% physical evade, 25% SPR

Of the 10% evade materias, this is the only one that gives a defensive stat boost. If you're going for 100% evade on a unit that isn't a physical attacker, this will be the best 10% evade materia option.

100% evade is niche so this gets the niche rating.

TL;DR:

Very Good:

• Chocobo Fina's STMR (accessory, 45 ATK/DEF/MAG/SPR, guts passive, refresh, LB/turn)
  
• Chocobo Fina's TMR (materia, 20% HP/MP, ribbon effect)
  

Very Good but Somewhat Niche:

• Wrapped Gift (accessory, 20% draw attacks)
  
• Transcendent Soul (materia, 10% evade, 25% SPR)
  

Niche:

• Rising Sun (FFBE) (throwing weapon, 186 ATK, machine and bird killers)
  
• Snow Gown (robe, 30% ice resist)
  
• Flax Shield (light shield, 50% water resist, -50% fire resist)
  

Very Niche:

• Succubus's Satchel (light shield, 10% evade for Lilith only)
  
• Seductress Armor (light armor, 10% evade, strictly worse than Assassin's Vest)
  
• Fireplace Poker (mace, fire element, mace allows for high IW HP boosts. Combined with fire element this could be a decent compromise weapon for high HP builds)

Newbie Gear:

• Poison Rod (rod, 104 MAG, weaker than easily obtained trial rods so you won't be using it much if at all)
  
• Jade Moon Pendant (accessory, skill to give 100% status ailment resists for 2 turns)

SIFT index