Should You Pull (Jul 28, 2017)

Original Post / Discussion: [https://www.reddit.com/r/FFBraveExvius/comments/6pv49j/defianthermits_should_you_pull_final_fantasy/ DefiantHermit's Should You Pull? Final Fantasy Tactics Banner 3 - Jul 28]

Hello everyone, /u/DefiantHermit here with this week's Should You Pull, featuring the 3rd FFT banner.

Not much to add here this time around, so just a reminder that the ratings and analysis are subjective and my own opinion. They're extremely biased, even if I actively filter it, so please don't take those as facts or whole truths!

Without further ado, here's my analysis on the FFT Banner 3!

Mercenary Ramza
Ramza got tired of waiting for his time to sing, got a new suit and a new job as a… damage dealer and tank? Okay, let's take it slowly, as there are 3 important stats to go over: base 147 ATK (+30 with pots) is great and there's a very solid +70% ATK from passives due to his Warrior's Pride (+50% ATK when equipped with Hat) passive, leading to an excellent total of 300 ATK.

Defensively, Ramza boasts an excellent base 134 DEF (+30 with pots) and a ridiculous sum of +85% DEF due to his Youngest of the Beoulve's (+50% DEF when equipped with Helm) and True Justice (+15% DEF/SPR with Light Shield) passives, leading to an amazing total of 303 DEF. The SPR side of things is a bit worse, but still pretty good, at base 117 SPR (+30 with pots), but “only” +35% SPR from passives due to True Justice, leading to a total of 198 SPR.

Equipment selection is fantastic for his roles, being able to wield Daggers, Swords, Greatswords, Katanas, Axes, Hammers and Instruments and wear All types of armour. His weapon selection (and no passive mastery restrictions) allows for some great flexibility in how you build him as a damage dealer, while also giving away a slot for Gigantaxe for the tank builds. Armour selection is amazing, giving you total freedom (barring passives) to build him as you like.

On his skillset, we'll start with notable passives and support abilities: True Hero (+100% All Ailments Resist) is an exceptional passive that provides immunity to all ailments, Auto-Refresh (Recover 5% MP per Turn) provides some MP sustain and Counter Tackle (30% Chance Counter Physical Attacks) provides some counter chance for orb and LB crystal generation. Finally, there's Second Wind (ST 3 Turn +50% ATK/MAG), as a rather underwhelming ST buff, but an ability that plays a rather large role on his tanking skill after enhancements.

Like his bard counterpart, M.Ramza has access to Weapon Break (180% ST 1 Hit Physical Attack & ST 5 Turn -40% ATK Debuff) and Mind Break (180% ST 1 Hit Physical Attack & ST 5 Turn -40% MAG Debuff) as pretty good, albeit restricted, breaks. Due to lore reasons, Ramza can use Ultima (280% AoE 1 Hit Magic Attack + Ignore -25% SPR). However, there's no innate DC and even with his shiny new GL exclusive passive Branded Heretic (+50% MAG with Robe), it just isn't very viable to build him as a mage because of poor base MAG and equipment selection.

His tanking skillset is comprised of Ruler of the Bloodline (75% Chance to Defend an Ally from Phys Damage (Reduce +50% Phys./Mag. Damage)) as basically Cecil's Saintly Wall, with supporting Cura (AoE ~400 HP Heal w/ 3x Mod) for some poor off-healing, Raise (ST Revive with 30% HP) for revival support and Esunaga (AoE Cure Poison, Blind, Sleep, Silence, Paralyze, Confuse) for ailment cleansing.

His damaging ability is Sword of Justice (250% ST 8 Hit Physical Attack + Ignore 25% DEF - normalized to 333%), which has 8-frames between hits, allowing him to chain with Vaan, T.Terra, Aileen (+2 Piledriver) and future Nyx and Lorraine. Unfortunately, 333% is an underwhelming modifier compared to other chainers and no innate Imperils means you'd want to pair him with someone that has one. Chaining partners are scarce at the moment, but you can always bring a friend M.Ramza.

Japanese Altema Rating: 92/100 (94/100 After Enhancements)

Global Trust Mastery Rating: Japa Mala - +20% HP/MP/ATK/MAG - Accessory - 9/10

Pretty dang good accessory, functioning as 2 Domination's Rings in a single slot. It's usually a superior Bracer, as 20% ATK represents >30 ATK for most damage dealers (just be careful with +% caps and units with DH synergy), there's extra +5% HP and the rest is just bonus.

Why would you want Mercenary Ramza?: Right now? I don't see many reasons, even with the gazillion +x% Stats he has. Unenhanced, M.Ramza is a pretty mediocre chainer, with underwhelming modifiers, no innate Imperils and very poor selection of chaining partners. As a tank, he's equivalent of Cecil, just working as a cover tank, whilst still needing Golem's Provoke to give him a hand. There's also no way to deactivate his cover, so expect some shenanigans during important fights.

That's not to say he's a bad unit; much on the contrary. His equipment selection is amazing, he's innately immune to all ailments, has decent supporting skills, can chain extremely reliably and will provide great damage while doing so. He's just not top of the pack and, for pretty much all content, that's quite alright.

What about the future? His enhancements are great, giving him more +% Stat passives, boosting Sword of Justice's modifiers to 400% (and enhancing his breaks to a whopping -60% after SoJ is cast). His tanking job becomes significantly better with Second Wind's enhancements, as it now provides 100% ATK/MAG and 3 Turn Guaranteed Cover for the unit it's used on.

Knight Delita
Determined to prove himself as not a troll rainbow, Delita got some shiny new armour and some excellent damaging skills. Base 155 ATK (+34 with pots) is a single point behind Olive for the highest base ATK on Global, and he brings amazing +80% ATK from passives, for a ridiculous total of 340 ATK.

Equipment selection is also top-notch, being able to wield Daggers, Swords, Greatswords, Katanas, Hammers, Axes, Spears and Maces and wear All types of armour, except Robes. Due to his Black Sheep's Knight (+30% ATK when equipped with Sword & +20% ATK when equipped with Heavy Armour) passive, he'll definitely be wielding a Sword and wearing Heavy Armour, but the other slots are open.

Supporting skillset is comprised of Blades of Revenge (30% Chance Counter with 200% ST 2 Hit Physical Attack) as a counter for esper orb and LB crystal generation, Judgment Blade (210% ST 1 Hit Physical Attack & 30% Chance 3 Turn Stop) for some Stop chance if needed and Hero of the Lion War (+100% Blind/Sleep/Paralyze Resist), providing some key ailment immunity.

There's the expected Auto-Refresh bundled with an Auto-Regen on Late Sister's Protection (Cast ST ~60 HP Heal w/ 1.2x Mod per Turn & Recover 5% MP per Turn) RIP Tietra and for some reason, Delita also has a Curaga for everyone but himself: Good Luck Charm (Self 100 Damage Attack & AoE except Self ~1000 HP Heal w/ 3.4x Mod) if you ever need it.

Delita's breaks are a bit different from his previous version, as he now has access to Hellcry Punch (190% ST 1 Hit Physical Attack & ST 3 Turn -40% ATK/MAG Debuff) for defensive break and only Shield Break (180% ST 1 Hit Physical Attack & ST 5 Turn -40% DEF Debuff) as the offensive break. If you don't need to break MAG and want a longer debuff window, there's also Weapon Break (180% ST 1 Hit Physical Attack & ST 5 Turn -40% ATK Debuff).

His offensive skillset revolves around the Thunder element and has 3 cornerstone skills: Sword of Strategy (250% ST 1 Hit Physical Attack + Ignore 50% DEF & ST 3 Turn -50% Thunder Resist - normalized to 500%) providing not only a way to build him as a finisher with excellent modifiers, but containing his innate Imperil. Sword of Spirit (200% ST 8 Hit Physical Attack + Ignore 50% DEF & 5 Turn Add Thunder to Attacks - normalized to 400%) as your main chainer, unfortunately with weird 9-frames between hits and no direct/obvious chaining partner aside from a copy.

Finally, there's Lightning Stab (230% ST 6 Hit Thunder Physical Attack & 30% Silence) which is a carbon-copy of Orlandu's own skill, allowing him to chain nicely with the old man, at the price of a significantly reduced modifier.

Japanese Altema Rating: 95/100 (96/100 After Enhancements)

Global Trust Mastery Rating: Grand Armor - +72 DEF, +28 SPR, +15% HP - Heavy Armour - 9/10

Excellent defensive heavy armour, providing not only the highest DEF on this type of armour to this date (including JPN), but giving a decent amount of SPR as a bonus and a hefty +15% HP passive

Why would you want Knight Delita?: Because he's a very good physical damage dealer, being able to work as both a finisher and a chainer. His finishing role is performed by a heavy hitting skill (500% modifiers) with innate -50% Imperil, while his chaining job can be performed by either a 400% 8-hit skill with poor partner selection or a 230% 6-hit skill with a spark partner in the all-common Orlandu.

It's a bummer that Sword of Spirits has such an odd frame data and that his Imperil is detached from the main chaining skill. Regardless, Delita's stats and equipment selection are excellent and bringing a friend Delita to chain with shouldn't be an issue.

What about the future? Enhancements have rolled out for Delita and they're okay. Sword of Spirits gets a boost in modifier (of only +50%, though) and Imperil (to -60%); his counter chance is ramped and a -50% DEF break is attached to it and like Ramza, he gets a ton more +ATK% from passives (+60%) allowing him to easily reach the cap.

Orran
The son of the Thunder God is here! Unfortunately, bloodline seems to matter, so no crazy chaining for you, just some nice poetry. Orran has an acceptable base 138 MAG (+26 with pots), but only a disappointing +20% MAG passive, for an underwhelming total of 196 MAG.

Equipment selection is what you expect from a mage, as he's able to wield Daggers, Rods, Staves and Instruments and wear Robes, Clothes, Light Armour and Hats. The armour selection is a bit broader, which allows for some different setups.

Due to his Global Exclusive Dualcast Manipulator of Fate (Use Magic twice in one turn), Orran can spam the lovely dual Meteors (250% AoE 1 Hit Magic Attack + Ignore -25% SPR - normalized to 333%) for some damage or, more importantly, can dual buff Protectga (AoE 3 Turn +40% DEF) and Shellga (AoE 3 Turn +40% SPR). There might also be some shenanigans with Reflect (ST 3 Turn Reflect 100% Damage of 1 Attacks), but I'm not sure.

While his spells provide defensive buffs, his abilities provide offensive buffs: Battle Poetry (AoE 5 Turn +50% ATK) and Magical Poetry (AoE 5 Turn +50% MAG) offering some great buffing numbers for a decently long duration. Finishing the buffing kit, there's Durai Papers (AoE 3 Turn +40% All Elements Resist & AoE 3 Turn +50% MAG/SPR), offering some excellent elemental protection, alongside a bundled Magic buff.

Orran can take a role as a mana battery with Angelsong (AoE except Self 30 MP Recovery), and even as an off-healer with a non-DC Curaga Poetry of Life (AoE ~1000 HP Heal w/ 3.4x Mod). For some reason, Orran has access to Entrust (Give LB Gauge To Target), even though he has no innate High-Tide and his LB is not that bad when you can make proper use of it: (270% -> 390% AoE 10 Hit Magic Attack & 60% -> 84% Chance 5 Turn Stop).

Finally, there's a pretty neat skill which is unfortunately RNG based on Unnamed Poetry. It has 4 possible effects (all at 25% chance each): AoE 3 Turn +40% SPR, which is Shellga; AoE 3 Turn +40% DEF, which is Protectga; AoE ~200 HP Heal w/ 4x Mod split over 3 Turns, which is a very crappy heal at ~300HP per turn (at 300 SPR) and AoE 3 Turn Auto-Revive with 50% HP which is the broken part of Rikku's LB.

So if you want to take your chances at getting Rikku's LB on demand and completely breaking some fights, be my guest! Would not doubt there's a way to trick the RNG on this thing, but hey ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Japanese Altema Rating: 87/100 (91/100 After Enhancements)

Global Trust Mastery Rating: Heaven's Guidance - ST 2 Turns 40% Damage Reduction - Materia - 6/10

We all understand how important damage reduction is and how even a seemingly small difference of 10% mitigation can represent a larger decrease in damage. However, this being ST and 2 turns only really sucks.

You need a character dedicated to cast this on, at most, 2 units. I guess when the game progresses and our tanks start being more reliable at redirecting incoming damage, this might have some niche uses.

God damnit, who am I kidding? 9S is coming and completely and utterly blows this piece of crap out of the water.

Why would you want Orran?: While his support kit seems solid enough at first glance, there's… really not much there to stand out. His buffs are okay, but we have enough units that can buff and perform other important roles like healing and tanking. His MP battery costs a metric ton of MP and I'm sure you can find better sources of it. His only saving grace is Durai Papers for the great SPR buff coupled with elemental resist, but even then, he's stuck at buffing.

His MAG stat and equipment selection is just not significant enough for his role as a finisher to be performed properly. I guess you can try and pray for RNG that Unnamed Poetry lands on broken-Rikkuness often, but I wouldn't bet my NRG on that.

What about the future? Orran has his enhancements in JPN, but they're all mediocre aside from Unnamed Poetry, which got its buffs increased to 60% and replaced the awful healing with a split chance of either AoE Auto-Revive + Curaga or AoE +60% DEF/SPR + Curaga. In the end, there's a 39% chance of getting an AoE Auto-Revive when casting it, which is definitely an improvement and might allow for some neat fights.at fights.

Meliadoul
When designing Meliadoul, Alim decided to bundle all the breaks in the game in a character and, without the GL exclusive skills, that's really all she is as a unit. None of her base stats really matter, as she won't be outputting enough damage and when she's not breaking, she'll be buffing and auto-reviving units, so we'll go straight into equipments.

Which are surprisingly vast, as she's able to wield Swords, Greatswords, Katanas, Bows, Spears and Knuckles and wear All types of armour. Excellent freedom to build her as a support unit, but the lack of staves for some extra SPR is a bummer.

Her breaker skillset is comprised of Helm, Shield, Mind and Weapon Breaks (180% ST 1 Hit Physical Attack & ST 5 Turn -40% SPR/DEF/MAG/ATK Debuff, respectively) and the duo Crush Armour (190% ST 1 Hit Physical Attack & ST 3 Turn -40% DEF/SPR Debuff) and Hellcry Punch (190% ST 1 Hit Physical Attack & ST 3 Turn -40% ATK/MAG Debuff). Aside from having a larger debuff duration, the individual breaks are notably useful when bosses have retribution skills upon receiving a specific break, which you'll want to avoid.

Her buffing skillset is comprised of Protectga (AoE 3 Turn +40% DEF) and Shellga (AoE 3 Turn +40% SPR) as your standard defensive buffs, Preaching (ST 3 Turn +100% MAG) as a really powerful ST mage buff, Faithful Belief (AoE 1 Turn +60% MAG) as a strong AoE mage buff and Heaven's Blessing (ST 5 Turn +45% DEF/SPR) as an underwhelming ST defensive buff.

Global exclusive passive Righteousness (+10% ATK & Double Counter Chance) allows her Counter Tackle (30% Chance Counter Physical Attacks) to proc more often and generate orbs/crystals more reliably. Her main selling point, though, is Chantage (ST 3 Turn 80% HP Auto-Revive), which brought some much needed new life to this otherwise unimpressive unit, allowing her to perform a crucial role on many battles.

Japanese Altema Rating: 84/100 (93/100 After Enhancements)

Global Trust Mastery Rating: Chain Robe - +55 DEF, +30 SPR, +15% MP - Robe - 7/10

Interesting Robe, providing the largest DEF bonus on this type of equipment, at the cost of reduced SPR. The MP boost is definitely an upside, but all in all, this is just bland.

Why would you want Meliadoul?: Simply put, because of her Auto-Revive. Without it, her role as a breaker is better performed by WoL (aside from very fringe situations) and her role as a buffer is not impressive. Her GL exclusive skill turns her into the first with an on-demand auto-revive that's not a  base, and that's pretty impressive.

What about the future? Meliadoul's enhancements were pretty significant in terms of her breaking skill. Both Hellcry Punch and Crush Armour were upgraded to -50% breaks, thus providing +10% extra damage over -45% offensive breaks and +18% extra damage reduction over -45% defensive breaks. Let's also hope she gets some neat enhancement on Chantage when her batch comes!

Agrias
Agrias is back for her third banner, finally with a awakening! Base 140 ATK (+30 with pots) is pretty good, but there's only a disappointing +20% ATK from passives to back it up, leading to a very, very bad total of 204 ATK.

Equipment selection is fantastic, being able to wield Daggers, Swords, Greatswords, Katanas, Axes, Hammers and Spears and wear All types of Armour except Robes. Her enhancements provide a substantial ATK increase when wielding a Greatsword, but while that doesn't happen, her weapon selection allows for great versatility of elements for chaining with Reberta and Fohlen.

Her skillset is completely passable, as Fullbreak (160% ST 1 Hit Physical Attack & ST 3 Turn -30% ATK/DEF/MAG/SPR Debuff) is now unfit as a breaker. Her only brings 3 skills to the table, but you couldn't really care about 2 of them: Curaga (AoE ~1000 HP Heal w/ 3.4x Mod) because she's not a healer and Konoe Knight (30% Chance to Defend a Female Ally (Reduce +50% Phys./Mag. Damage)) because she's not a tank. Definitely expect some frustration with her Cover proccing at undesirable times.

The last added skill, and what singlehandedly makes Agrias usable is Divine Ruination (160% ST 5 Hit Physical Attack + Ignore 50% DEF & ST 3 Turn -50% Light Resist - normalized to 320%) as not a carbon copy of Orlandu's skill. Unenhanced, it has reduced modifiers, but provides 10-frames between hits, allowing Agrias to successfully chain with Reberta and Fohlen.

Japanese Altema Rating: 91/100 (96/100 After Enhancements)

Global Trust Mastery Rating: Save the Queen (FFT) - +112 ATK, Auto-Protect - Greatsword - 8.5/10

Ignore the Auto-Protect, this is the strongest elementless Greatsword available at the moment, since we didn't get the DQ collab. Great for units that would like to wield a Greatsword to benefit from GS Mastery, but have an innate Imperil that's not Light (ie. Tidus, Aileen).

Why would you want Agrias?: Her role kinda describes it well, as she performs as a poor-man's version of top tier chainers, allowing for most players to bring a friend-berta (or friend-landu after enhancements) and chain with ease. She's not too exceptional before enhancements, though, as her modifiers are underwhelming and her ATK stat is awful.

What about the future? JPN got Agrias' enhancements extremely quickly after her release, so we can just hope Goomi does the same. She gets an innate “Greatsword Mastery” which greatly increases her ATK potential. Divine Ruination at +1 gets a boost in modifiers to the expected 400%, while retaining berta-frames and the +2 turns it into a carbon-copy of Orlandu's, making her a perfect chainer with him.

Gaffgarion
Gaffgarion is the second Dank Knight to ascend to Duane  when? and it's… eh… disappointing? Base 146 ATK (+34 with pots) is great and there's a decent +50% ATK due to his Knight of the Back God (50% Physical Damage vs Human & +30% ATK) passive, for a very good total of 270 ATK.

Equipment selection is quite restricted, as he's only able to wield Daggers, Swords, Hammers and Spears and wear Light and Heavy Armour and Helms. There's currently no spear mastery (and it's a bit away from us at the moment), but there's the Bowie Knife + Sword combo with DKS.

Noteworthy skill is basically Counter (30% Chance Counter Physical Attacks) for Esper and LB crystal generation. awakening gave him more toys than Agrias, but they're nothing out of the ordinary. There's the duo of Blood Weapon (140% ST 1 Hit Physical Attack & ST 80% Attack w/ 30% HP Drain & 5 Turn Add Dark to Attacks) and Dark Weapon (140% ST 1 Hit Physical Attack & ST 30% Attack w/ 30% MP Drain & ST 3 Turn -50% Dark Resist), providing an HP and MP drain, alongside an excellent Dark Imperil and adding Dark to his attacks to benefit from it.

Dark Weapon will be your most used skill from the duo, as his main finisher is already imbued with Dark: Abyssal Blade (Lose 40% HP + 350% AoE 1 Hit Dark Physical Attack) has very usable modifier for a finisher and doesn't kill Gaffgarion upon using with DW. The Imperiled modifier is quite good too and it becomes amazing with enhancements.

Japanese Altema Rating: 83/100 (86/100 After Enhancements)

Global Trust Mastery Rating: Bracer - +30 ATK, +15% HP - Accessory - 9/10

Excellent accessory for physical damage dealers, providing raw ATK equivalent of ~20% ATK, but that doesn't count towards the +% cap and having special synergy with DH units. The +15% HP is great for survivability too.

Why would you want Gaffgarion?: Mainly for his TMR. Unenhanced, Gaffgarion is a rather decent finisher with an available Imperil to further boost his damage, but requires constant attention due to self-damaging abilities. His ATK is decently high, but the poor equipment selection is limiting on ways to build him

What about the future? Gaffgarion has received his enhancements in JPN and, like Agrias, they came a short time after his awakening. His damaging capabilities become significantly stronger, as Abyssal Blade's modifier is ramped to 750% (and -45% HP per cast), he gains +20% ATK on Knight of the Back God's enhancement and extra 25% man-eater.

Finally, one of his otherwise unnoteworthy skills, Abandonment (Self 3 Turn +60% ATK & Self 3 Turn -30% DEF Debuff) gets a small boost in the self-buff (to 80%) and enables a “combo” with Blood and Dark Weapon, turning their effects (Drains + Imperil) into AoE.

Alma
Alma is such a joke as a character that I'd like to just not bother with her analysis, but hey, no half-assed jobs here. Base 118 SPR (+16 with pots) is actually quite decent for a max and there's a solid +20% SPR, leading to a good total of 163 SPR.

Her equipment selection is worse than Tilith's, as she's only able to wear Robes and Clothes. Alma can't even put on a hat to save her life.

Skillset as a healer is barebones, but acceptable: Curaga (AoE ~1000 HP Heal w/ 3.4x Mod) as the main healing spell, Esuna (ST Cure Poison, Blind, Sleep, Silence, Paralyze, Confuse) for status cleansing and Dispel (ST Stat Buff Removal) for buff/debuff removal.

Strictly for lore reasons, she has access to Stone Throw (ST 400 Damage Attack) and freaking Ultima (280% AoE 1 Hit Magic Attack + Ignore -25% SPR - normalized to 373%) but there's no MAG or weapons to back it up.

Japanese Altema Rating: 60/100

Global Trust Mastery Rating: Lordly Robe - +45 DEF, +35 SPR/MAG, Auto-Protect/Shell - Robes - 6/10

Very serviceable robes, with great DEF stat and decent SPR with some MAG sprinkled in. It suffers from the same fate as Meliadoul's robes, as this is a rather uninteresting item and unlikely to be worthy of farming.

Why would you want Alma?: If she somehow was released in the very early stages of the game, I can see her being a niche Ultima nuker and healer, even without equipments. Right now? Just fuse your copies away.

What about the future? No signs of a awakening or enhancements, we just gotta hope for something during FFT part 4.

Should You Pull?
Please no. This banner has freaking FOUR units that are "just decent"/niche and one of the worst  units in the game. The odds of pulling one of the specific s is ridiculous so don't even bother, as you'll pull them as off-banner units eventually.

For whales, two units is always a terrible time and this duo is a mixed bag. They're far from troll rainbows, but Ramza is a weird mix of chainer and cover tank with nothing standing out and Delita is a good finisher and chainer without decent partners. If you're not a whale and somehow pulled either units, yay!