Hey everyone.

Another GLEX unit, another disaster? Are we going to nope out or be all over our legendary moogle heroine Noppy? Let’s find out!

Noppy Overview

In her base form Noppy finds herself with another GLEX bloated kit. The most notable things are Kupo Barrage, her main dps skill (which stacks up to 85, 90, 195 for a total of 370x mod) as well as her Copy spells which make her a discount MM Xon just without the spreading. Too bad! She can also tank and has a few neat abilities. 75% general mit (Behemy sad) on demand for a 1 turn duration, 65-70% cover mit for 2 turns and cooldowns for physical mit, which is … the greatest weakness in my opinion. The phys mitigation isn’t even that strong to begin with at 40% for her 5 turn cooldown but 4 turn duration or her 2 grandis uses at 40% phys mit, too. Another issue is that Noppy has literally ONE Def passive that increases her Def by 30%. Oof. Have fun gearing her for actual tanking. Also: Note that her Def base stats are lower than Gabranth, Snow, and Behemy. I wouldn’t really advice using her as your main tank for the harder fights such as Genies. With proper support she should be still able to handle that fight, though. In short: She is not a super bad thank but it feels half-baked. Dps main role and phys tank as an after-thought IMO.

Noppy’s brave shift is used to hit hard with her Kupo Barrage that you stack via her cooldowns and Brave Shifted LB, which increases the mod of all 3 parts by 70x (this is already factored in above btw). That’s all there is to say though as she doesn’t do anything special for the party or herself in brave shift. Unless you want to use her 50% earth amp from LB but since her main skill is no element, you’re better off using a wind team in Dark Visions anyway. On the other hand, Noppy might have a hard time fitting into DV teams because she lacks a T-SR partner unless you’re using Xon.

TMR & STMR Evaluation

Noppy’s TMR is bad. We got Master of Fate, Azure Radiance for the big boosts to TDH (I know Noppy has TSW). We got Advanced Weaponry with a better effect and resistances, we got Buster Style, Dark Sword Arts, Guardian of Light Riku, and so on and so forth. Yeah, the TMR being a TSW item makes this a little bit more special, but I don’t think it’s good at all.

Noppy’s STMR is the highest ATK 2H Greatsword in the game. But it’s also a Greatsword. Nonetheless, the Killers (50% towards Beasts and Dragon, P/M) are good and the variance is your standard variance at 1-1.6. Damage calculations show that both NV Firion’s STMR and 5 Star Firion’s TMR (Red Sword) are better options. Funnily enough, the 135 ATK Red Sword is the best option if you are using a Sword Imperil. Truly a blast from the past. As long as we don’t have a GS imperil, her STMR will be the worst option to go for, unfortunately.

Vision Card Evaluation

It’s Cloud’s Vision Card but with a different Level 10 Passive. The wearer, if FFBE, gains 50% ATK TSW. It’s okay for Noppy herself but again, you are probably using Azure Radiance or Master of Fate anyway. And if you are going for a Sword, you will use one of the 110 ATK cards with Sword-passives regardless. My verdict: It’s good but certainly not the best, esp at 100 ATK.

Potential Builds & Damage Calculations

Noppy Build (275% Demon Killer, 5.5x chain mod cap, 6801 ATK buffed at EX 3):

Weapon: Red Sword (FFII)

Head: Asura’s Mask

Chest: Darksteel Heavy Armor

Acc 1: Gothic Amulet (or Tifa’s Gloves but that’s 5 less ATK)

Acc 2: Upgrade Package

Materia 1: Battle Intelligence

Materia 2: Indestructible Light

Materia 3: Guardian of Light (Riku)

Materia 4: Chain Comprehension

Vision Card: Cure for Insomnia

Esper: Diabolos

Here is the gearing for the competition.

Assumptions:

• 90% DEF Break
• 300% ATK buff
• 300% LB buff for everyone (yeah, it’s broken currently … let’s just hypothetically assume it’s not)
• 22.5k DEF DV boss with 60% passive DEF, 60% Ele Resistance
• Best possible amount of Killers (varying amounts) & we’re buffing 150% Killer to adjust towards the Evokers (not used here but I just copy-pasted)
• 130% Wind/120% Light imperil for Noctis
• 25% Sword Imperil, 10% Dagger Imperil
• 104% wind amp for Noppy, Ardyn, Zidane, Elrics, and Lassgen.
• 74% amp for Noctis because of dual element

Here are the results at EX 3 shown in millions:

If you’d like to see a screenshot with a few more details, here it is: Picture of it.

Noppy’s damage is quite outstanding for a chainer. She easily surpasses our latest collab unit and the older Lassgens when they LB finish. Still falling behind the dragoons but the dragoons are closer to Noppy than they look. At max variance (which Noppy has 1.7x), she’s 72% damage of Ardyn instead of the 69% (nice) damage of Ardyn on average. Zidane still does Zidane things, so we shouldn’t compare anyone to him… for now!

How does she fare in the meta?

Alright, this is where things get a little bit more complicated. Let me say first: You (sadly because sprite is omega cute) don’t need Noppy. She does have a few neat niches in that she can be used as a chaining partner in Dark Visions should you ever use Vinera. Vinera’s time may or may not come in DV once the bosses start having only 10% passive DEF. Vinera and Noppy do chain SR, so Noppy’s damage is going to be quite relevant in this specific scenario. As for trials: Yeah, trials are dead. But should Gumi/Alim ever revive trials and give us a couple more, like say … 1 trial per month, Noppy could actually see some use although Chorale’s braindead rotation sees him above Noppy in sustained damage.

Another thing to note is that future relevant LB chainers don’t use SR frames. Noppy also can’t innately wear clothes limiting her gearing choices immensely. Not having at least 5x cap is also one huge downside of hers. The place she’s at as a dps is in conclusion rather weird. She deals a lot of damage but the damage requires a chaining partner, and we don’t have that one at the moment unless you are using MMXon because you are facing a beast where Noppy could shine but Raina buffs beast for the party so MM Xon gets to look at the bench. As you can see: Noppy is cool and all but sadly has no place in the meta. Maybe, just maybe, she’ll be good for buffing Dragoons via her 10x mod increase for the party? That might be her saving grace in isolated cases for Dark Visions, such as beasts or dragons because she is innately strong against them.

Another thing to note is. We are getting ever so close to the release of Sephiroth. Everyone and their mother know about this by now. What I find super irritating is that Gumi knows that we know and Noppy was the contest winner for DPS yet she’s a tank and a buffer. I feel like we are not going to close the gap in terms of powerlevels at all and just go through the same spike the JP server did. Gumi could and should have made Noppy a tad better than Zidane IMO to flatten the curve. They didn’t and I feel like any criticism they receive for allowing this immense powerspike to happen within the next weeks is on them. They had the chance with Noppy, they blew it. I think it’s stupid. Rant end.

How are her tanking speccs then? The mitigation she can put up isn’t that bad with the exception of the physical damage reduction. Come on, 40%. Really? The other kicker is: Noppy has 224 Base HP and 56 Base DEF less than Gabranth. Now this doesn’t seem like much but for those of you who care about eHP, it’ll put a huge blow in her tankiness. Furthermore, her physical mitigation is locked behind a cooldown which takes 1 turn longer to come off than it lasts. The other possibility is to use her Grandis which has 2 uses per battle. Thus, she will start suffering in fights that last more than 24 turns. We don’t have these fights anymore, so it won’t be an issue. Defending is never an option for Noppy as she absolutely has to use Adorable Decoy every single turn due to it’s 1 turn duration. If you’re in dire need of a physical tank, Noppy should be decent. I haven’t done the math against Behemy but bulky boi should come out on top – in eHP that is. I'm sure someone who cares about eHP will do the math.

Should you pull

Noppy is cute and the animation work is absolutely marvelous. That made me use a few tickets and I was super lucky to get her. Will I use her? Probably no unless it is for a few fun videos. Like I mentioned above, her usage in DV is limited to some very specific corner cases I just don’t see happening in the near future. Thus: If you are focused on DV: Skip. If you want a strong, super strong chain burster to help you breeze through most of the physical trials, go for it. She’s also a decent tank that will get you through the fights that require a physical tank.

Feedback is always appreciated! Huge thank you to /u/rozebeef once again for providing me a sheet to calculate ATK values without having to rely on the builder to get updated.

Cheers

Livedili