Should You Pull (October 13, 2017)

Original Post / Discussion: [https://reddit.com/r/FFBraveExvius/comments/75lhz0/defianthermits_should_you_pull_kingsglaive_banner/ DefiantHermit's Should You Pull? Kingsglaive Banner - Oct 13]

Hello everyone, /u/DefiantHermit here from a very early banner analysis, this time featuring the constantly delayed Kingsglaive banner! sorry for the weird time posting time too!

If you've missed my comment on the News Recap, I'm posting this early because I won't have internet access on Thursday and would probably only be able to post this on Sunday. There were no announced GL exclusive changes, but in case there are some, I'll try to patch everything up on Friday.

The most relevant one is Nyx's Fire Dagger. If that somehow appears as Nyx's TMR (I doubt it) or maybe updated trial reward next week (maybe? hopefully?), his value raises considerably.

Since I'm using the translated skill names available on aEgnigmatic's datadump, they will likely differ from the final ones, but that should be no big deal.

As always, if you have any feedback regarding the format or content, please do let me know and I'll get back to you as soon as possible!

So without further ado, here's my analysis for the FFXV Kingsglaive Banner!

Nyx
After a whole bunch of delays, Nyx is finally here! Base 157 ATK (+34 with pots) is stupidly high and he comes with a great +70% ATK due to his Dagger Mastery (+50% ATK when equipped with Dagger) passive.

Equipment selection is… meh, but somehow enough. He can only equip Daggers, Swords and Throwing Weapons and wear Clothes, Light and Heavy Armours, Hats, Helms and Small Shields. Due to his dual role, a Dagger + Sword build and a Finisher build are both viable ways to build him and are fully supported through his armour selection.

Supporting skillset consists of Loyal Oath (+100% Poison/Sleep/Virus Resist) for some decent ailment immunities, the fantastic innate Dual Wield (Wield two Weapons) to free up a materia/accessory slot, Shift Dodge (30% Chance Dodge Physical Attack) providing some innate evasion and the good old Auto-Refresh (Recover 5% MP per Turn).

Some of his new toys include Take a Life (Self 100% HP Damage & Recover 100% HP/MP to target), which can be used to fully recover an ally and two breaks-on-a-stick: Warp Charge (200% ST 1 Hit Physical Attack + Ignore 50% DEF & ST 3 Turn -45% MAG/SPR Debuff) and Warp Break (200% ST 1 Hit Physical Attack + Ignore 50% DEF & ST 3 Turn -45% ATK/DEF Debuff), offering Warrior of Light-level breaks with a decent 400% finisher attached.

Aptly named Firelandu, Nyx's chaining skill is Kingsglaive (200% ST 8 Hit Physical Attack + Ignore 50% DEF & ST 3 Turn -50% Fire Resist - normalized to 400%), offering standard modifiers, excellent Fire Imperil, a great amount of hits and a consistent 8-frames between hits for chaining (with a rather delayed start of 82 frames. When perfectly chaining with another Nyx, their final chain modifier is a solid x3.48. While there definitely are other chaining partners, namely Vaan, Zidane, Cor and Beatrix, they all have different starting frames and DW re-cast frames, so exercise caution.

His finishing option is Deathblow (Lose 20% HP + 750% AoE 1 Hit Physical Attack), providing a ridiculously high, unenhanced modifier for all your finishing needs. Due to his Hero's Pride (400% ST 1 Hit Physical Attack & 5 Turn Add Fire to Attacks) passive, you can imbue your finishing blow with an element, unlocking a scarily strong Fixed Dice build.

Global Trust Mastery Rating: - +20% ATK/DEF/MAG/SPR, Auto-Refresh and Auto-Regen - Materia - X/10

RIP Nyx, the guy that never could. This is Adventurer III + Auto-Refresh on a single materia. It's not bad at all, but it's nothing to write home about either. If you don't care for the auto-refresh, there's no reason you should be swapping this out.

Why would you want Nyx?: If Firelandu didn't sell it to you, Nyx can work as a great chainer and a scary finisher, with chaining move in-line with top tier rainbow chainers, decent frames to allow for extra partners and a finisher that outpaces even some dedicated enhanced finishers.

That said, with Gumi reverting the leaked TMR change, Nyx's downfall is his weapon selection. While his Fire Imperil is attached to his main chainer (which is great!), Fire weapons on his available selection are… limited. To be more precise, you only have access to two fire swords: and, both offering underwhelming amounts of ATK and one of them being event-limited.

If you failed to grab a or haven't been playing since the BF events, you're stuck with a +33 ATK weapon on his hand. Aaaand the other hand is not in a better shape at all, because, the strongest Dagger you'll find at the moment, has a whopping +85 ATK.

All of this means that while Nyx's built to be a great chainer, he's crippled by his terrible weapon selection in respect to Fire. Yes, you can still take a turn to set Hero's Pride up and still form great chains, but he could have been so much more.

What about the future? Nyx has just received his enhancements in JPN and they're pretty great. Extra ATK on his Dagger Mastery, updated number on his breaks and stronger fire imperil and modifiers on his chainer. No changes on his finishing move, though :/

Crowe
Despite being widely known for having one of the best defensive TMRs in the game, Crowe's value as a unit might not be as widespread. And that's somewhat justified, as she's a weird mix of support/healer/mage. Relevant stats are a great base 141 MAG (+34 with pots), backed up by a shameful +20% MAG passive and a pretty great crisis buff on Sister Spirit (+80% MAG after HP drops below 30%). The other relevant stat is her base 133 SPR (+26 with pots), which is rather underwhelming and backed up by the same lame +20% SPR passive.

Crowe's equipment selection is pretty good, as she's able to wield Daggers, Rods and Staves for weapons and wear Robes, Clothes, Light Armour, Hats and Small Shields for armour. Rod/Staff support for her roles is basically all she needs and the addition of Light Armour brings some extra survivability options if she needs them.

Her skillset is split between her 3 major roles, so we'll split the analysis the same way. Her mage side is the most underwhelming of them, with the great Dual Black Magic (Use Two Black Magic) being backed up by mediocre damaging spells, namely Firaga, Blizzaga, Aeroga and Thundaga (180% AoE 1 Hit Fire/Ice/Wind/Lightning Magic Attack, respectively). As you should know by now, -agas are just not up to par with today's meta, with a crappy 180% modifiers, despite a decent elemental coverage. Her mage side is still somewhat relevant, as you can still equip her with to make use of that innate DC, but she doesn't compete favourably against other mages.

Her healer kit is also limited, with only two real options: Curaga (AoE ~1000 HP Heal w/ 3.4x Mod) as her main healing spell and Emergency Relief (ST ~800 HP Heal w/ 4.5x Mod & ST Cure All Ailments), recovering ~1700 HP at 400 SPR and removing all ailments from a target. There are no real raises or other healing spells, so she can only be relegated as off-healer and a niche ailment cleanser.

Lastly, her best and most varied kit is the support one. Starting with For Hearth and Home (AoE 3 Turn 30% Damage Reduction), as a fantastic, on-demand, 9S levels of damage mitigation. Crowe also has access to Lone Woman (3 Turn AoE 50% LB Fill Rate), providing a significant boost in LB generation for your party members. You'll also want to use her LB, as it's a real support option, (AoE 3 Turn +40% -> +64% All Elements Resist & AoE 3 Turn 30% Damage Reduction), basically an upgraded from Rikku, costing only 20 crystals.

The other half of her support set is comprised of stat buffs. Physical Code (AoE 5 Turn +40% ATK/DEF) and Mental Code (AoE 5 Turn +40% MAG/SPR) are weaker versions of Embolden and Meditate, respectively. More precisely, they're extended versions of and, which while not bad, are nothing to write home about.

Crowe has access to other 4 “Codes”, one for each stat: Attack Code, Defensive Code, Magic Code and Spirit Code (ST 3 Turn +100% ATK, DEF, MAG or SPR, respectively), providing a large buff to a single stat for a single ally. They're all abilities, so no DC shenanigans, unfortunately.

Global Trust Mastery Rating: - +30% HP/SPR - Materia - S Rank

By far one of the strongest defensive materias in the game, this provides a unit a huge buff not only on their HP but also their SPR, greatly increasing their survivability.

Why would you want Crowe?: Mainly because of her TMR, as much as she may be a neat unit by herself.

While she can work covering 3 different roles, she doesn't perform them better than dedicated units, making her a jack-of-all-trades kind of unit. Which leads us to her major downside: nothing she currently does is unique, given that we received 9S waaay sooner than we should have. Her damaging options are laughable without ; her healing spells are not enough to make her a main healer and while her stat buffs are nice, we certainly have better/competitive options.

Heck, provides both ailment cleansing and LB generation boost, covering 2 of her support skills. Her LB is pretty much, but less “on-demand” than it. Her only real selling points are the on-demand 30% mitigation and 64% elemental resist buff on her max lvl LB. And that might simply not be enough to warrant a spot on your team, specially if you have 9S and Rikku.

What about the future? Crowe's also received her enhancements on this last batch and they're interesting. Lone Woman got a massive boost to +150% LB Fill Rate and her crisis buff, Sister Spirit got DEF/SPR added to it, alongside a neat permanent HP bonus and auto-refresh. Unfortunately, they still deemed a 30% mitigation buff too strong, so For Hearth and Home only got an MP discount and duration increase.

Glauca
Unlike what normally happens in this game, Glauca… is not a girl. His parents just sucked at name-giving. Anyways, base 148 ATK (+26 with pots) is great, but only a +50% ATK passive due to his Great Sword Mastery (+50% ATK when equipped with Greatsword). It's not bad, but could definitely be a bit higher with some innate passives.

Equipment selection is incredibly bare-bones, but does the job: Swords and Greatswords for weapons and Heavy Armour, Large Shields and Helms for armour. Fortunately, a Sword build is supported with Heavy Armour being open, so while there won't be much variety, his selection is just enough.

Supporting skillset consists of Unwavering Body (+50% All Ailments Resist) which is an infuriating ability that still leaves everything up to RNG and Unhesitating Counter (15% chance to counter physical attacks with 150% ST 3 Hit Physical Attack & ST 3 Turn -45% DEF Debuff), which provides a Warrior of Light-level DEF break on a weak stick upon triggering.

There are a few other sticks with effects: Flash of Despair (150% ST 1 Hit Physical Attack + Ignore 50% DEF & 50% Chance 3 Turn Stop - normalized to 300%) brings a ST Stop inducer to the table and Wall Smash (150% ST 1 Hit Physical Attack & ST Stat Buff Removal & Self 3 Turn +45% ATK) providing and a neat self ATK buff. They're both alright and provide some decent versatility, but are not very interesting.

Offensive-wise, Glauca has access to two innate killers to ramp his damage: Machine Killer (50% Physical Damage vs Machines) and Man-Eater (50% Physical Damage vs Humans). They back up his two damaging skills: a mediocre finisher in Great Chop (200% ST 1 Hit Physical Attack + Ignore 50% DEF) and an interesting chaining skill on Daybreak Darkness (200% ST 8 Hit Physical Attack + Ignore 25% DEF & ST 5 Turn -50% Light/Dark Resist - normalized to 267%).

Daybreak Darkness has a rather underwhelming modifier, but strong dual elemental Imperil and consistent 9-frames between hits. This means that, aside from a copy, Glauca can chain with Knight Delita, which opens up an interesting option for both units, giving Knight Delita the possibility of not relying on a subpar Lightning weapon (while Grom is still not here) and using, , and even. Not only that, but it gives Knight Delita owners a reliable 10-man trial chaining partner.

Global Trust Mastery Rating: - +125 ATK, Dark Element - Greatsword - S Rank

A high ATK, Dark imbued Greatsword that is not locked to a unit. What's not to like? It gives Veritas of the Dark and Orlandeau owners a real option for chaining without relying on pulling Dark Knight Cecil/Delita and many other units that could use Dark and can equip greatswords!

Why would you want Glauca?: Primarily for his TMR. It's a version of  for the many units that would like a dark imbued greatsword.

Aside from that, if you're terribly lacking chainers or own Knight Delita, Glauca is a viable option due to his great innate Imperils and chaining frames. His modifiers are obviously not stellar at 267%, but his chaining should be smooth and he provides a valuable partner for Knight Delita owners.

What about the future? As I said, this month's enhancement batch in JPN featured the Kingsglaive units, so Glauca also got some upgrades. They're not that great, though, with the only relevant ones being an increase in his GS Mastery (to +100% ATK) and sliiight bump on his finisher (to 460% modifiers).

Libertus
Libertus is the unfortunate max of this banner with a rather solid tank build, but without the stats to back it up.

Equipment selection is similar to Nyx's, being able to wield Daggers, Swords and Throwing Weapons and wear Clothes, Light and Heavy Armours, Small Shields, Hats and Helms. Kinda restricted weapon selection but robust armour options.

His tanking skillset is comprised of Sentinel (30% Chance to Defend an Ally (Reduce +50% Phys./Mag. Damage)) as passive ST cover with decent proc chance and a surprising Absolute Guard (3 Turn 50% Chance to Defend Allies (Reduce +20% Phys./+50% Mag. Damage)), as a copy with great proc chance, but reduced physical mitigation.

His accompanying support set is also not that bad, with Use This! (Give LB Gauge To Target) as an option, No Counting Favours (ST 30 MP Recovery & Self 2 Turn -30% SPR Debuff) as a cute little ST MP recovery and Dammit! (30% Chance Counter Magical Attacks) as a neat magic counter for LB and Esper orb generation.

Global Trust Mastery Rating: - ATK +10, DEF +30, MAG +20, HP +10% - Clothes - B Rank

That's… cute? Don't get me wrong, there's nothing really bad about this piece of equipment.. It's just that it could perfectly fit as a story/event reward and no one would bat an eye. You're not putting Libertus in your TMR farming team for this. It's just not a significant upgrade over standard equipment to really care.

Why would you want Libertus?: You… don't. While he's definitely got the shell for a neat tank, being stuck at makes him unusable and his TMR looks completely bland. Meh.

What about the future? Of course they didn't even bother giving Libertus enhancements on the Kingsglaive batch.

Should You Pull?
Do you farm TMRs constantly? Then yes, do consider pulling on this banner. Otherwise, it's a safe pass.

The this time around lacks both in the unit and TMR department, as much as he could have been a neat tank.

The double s both have awesome masteries, Glauca with a strong Dark Greatsword that can be used on a variety of units and Crowe with one of the best defensive materias in the game. As units, though, Glauca has a niche use as Knight Delita chaining partner and a budget chainer by himself, with a solid -50% Light/Dark Imperil attached to his chaining skill. Crowe is a pretty good support unit, but she works as a jack-of-all-trades unit, having a bit of everything in her kit, but not specializing or standing out in much of anything. If you don't have 9S and somehow still lacks a Rikku, she might be worth chasing.

The is… eh. Nyx is a great chainer with a copy and a strong finisher on his own. It's just that without a solid Fire dagger option, he's simply not bringing anything over other rainbow chainers, specially for players that already have a few of them. Having to take a turn to setup if you don't have or just straight up losing 60+ ATK compared to other units because of poor equipment options really sucks. He's not bad at all as a finisher, though, so eh.

If you're not a whale and pulled Nyx… yay?