Should You Pull (Sept 8, 2017)

Original Post / Discussion: [https://www.reddit.com/r/FFBraveExvius/comments/6zfaa7/defianthermits_should_you_pull_developers_choice/ DefiantHermit's Should You Pull? Developer's Choice Banner - Sep 8]

Hello everyone, /u/DefiantHermit here with an extremely belated and very likely useless banner analysis, featuring a random selection of filler units because we just couldn't get FFXI raid that soon.

I'm only putting this SYP up for completion's sake, as everyone here should already know the analysis and verdict for this banner. The Should You Enhance was fantastically covered by dear [/u/profpeculiar] and you can check the thread [here]! As such, even though I have pretty much everything but the GE changes written up, I'll leave his thread as the sole SYE, as there's really not much else to add to his analysis!

Once again, my apologies for the absence and late notice, so, without further ado, here's my analysis on the Developer's Choice Banner!

Gilgamesh
This is Greg's third time on the spotlight and unfortunately with none of the much desired GL exclusive upgrades to his enhancements and a ton of powercreep, Gilgamesh is left at a very poor state. He comes with a great base 149 ATK (+26 with pots) and a +20% ATK passive, alongside the skill Weapon Collector (+40% ATK when equipped with Katana & +30% ATK when equipped with Sword & +20% ATK when equipped with Greatsword), allowing him to reach a fantastic +90% ATK (sword+katana) or the more likely +80% ATK (katana+greatsword) from passives. This ability can also be further enhanced to give +50% to a bunch of different weapon types, further solidifying his final passives to a whopping +120% ATK.

His equipment selection is amazing, being able to wield every single weapon type and all types of armour and shields with the exception of Robes, Clothes and Hats. Due to his Weapon Collector passive, the only weapons that really matter are Katanas, Swords and Greatswords (Spears get into the mix after enhancements, but Daggers are still minor due to a lack of mastery), but being able to wield everything is still extremely relevant to provide elemental coverage.

His skillset is a bit less spectacular, as it revolves around only two skills. Tri-Attack (100% ST 3 Hit Physical Attack (x3 Damage) - normalized to 300%) is a rather poor chainer if coupled with another Gilgamesh, being able to generate an 11-hit chain with an underwhelming final chain modifier of x2.62 (compared to the standard x3.41+ of top tier chainers). Tri-Attack can be enhanced, but only ramping the hit-count to 12, which allows him to chain with Tidus or other enhanced Gregs and ramps his final chain modifier to a fantastic x3.82. Being stuck to a mediocre 300% modifier and with no direct Imperil access still really, really hurts.

His finisher is Snowpetal (180% AoE 1 Hit Physical Attack + Ignore 50% DEF - normalized to 360%) allowing Gilgamesh to benefit from chains with a decently high modifier of his own instead of creating chains. It can also be enhanced to a final modifier of 571%, which is excellent, but still rather lacking compared to other dedicated finishers.

Of muuch less importance, there's Wind Slash (200% AoE 1 Hit Wind Physical Attack) which provides a less MP-intensive AoE and some innate elemental attack and good ol' Auto-Refresh (Recover 5% MP per Turn) to give Greg that MP boost.

Global Trust Mastery Rating: Genji Glove - +10% ATK, +10% MAG, Allows the user to wield Two Weapons - Accessory - SS Rank

One of the strongest TMRs in the game up to this date in JPN, Genji Gloves is almost always a direct upgrade to Dual Wield, freeing up an invaluable materia slot for your unit.

Why would you want Gilgamesh?: Right now? Because of his TMR, sadly. No GE upgrades to his enhancements means he's just not close to a top tier chainer or finisher and just floats on a weird middle ground. His amazing weapon selection and huge ATK stat is ultimately overshadowed by a poor modifier chainer, lack of any sort of innate Imperil and bland finisher.

Don't get me wrong, though, he can still provide more than enough damage to clear everything you'd like, specially after enhancements. He's just not comparable to other chainers or even Agrias, specially if you lack an external source of Imperil.

What about the future? Man, I'm just sad. Greg was my first rainbow and I've been waiting soooo long for his enhancements to be completely botched like this. At this point in the game, with Agrias getting her enhancements in the same batch, there's no real reason to stick and enhance Greg, unless you have a Tidus to chain during 10-man trials. Sigh :/

Chizuru
Chizuru walks into the spotlight once again, with nothing much to add this time around. Base 154 ATK (+32 with pots) is spectacular for a unit, but there's only a +45% ATK from passives to boost that to a total of 269 ATK, which is decent enough.

Chizuru's equipment selection has always been one of her major flaws, only being able to wield Daggers and Katanas really hurts her full damage potential, as she can't make use of any masteries aside from her own. Her armour selection is great, though, being able to wear Cloth, Light and Heavy Armour; Hats and Helms.

Her skillset is broad but, for the most part, irrelevant as you'll be using only a few of those skills. The major ones are: Mortal Being (20% Chance Dodge Physical Attack), providing her some survivability, Fingersnap (110% ST 1 Hit Physical Attack & ST Stat Buff Removal) for buff removal if you need it and Dismissal (210% ST 1 Hit Physical Attack & 30% Chance 3 Turn Stop) if you really need to try your hand at stopping a foe.

The skill you'll be spamming the most, though, is Phantom Shadow (140% AoE 5 Hit Physical Attack + Ignore 50% DEF - normalized to 280%) which, even though it has a mediocre modifier, providing a great 19-hit chain when coupled with another Chizuru and most of the budget chainers (Setzer, Amelia, Bran, etc). Her own damage through the chain is underwhelming due to low total ATK, poor modifiers and lack of innate Imperil, even though her final chain modifier is a solid x3.17.

Global Trust Mastery Rating: Katana Mastery - +50% ATK when equipped with Katana - Materia - S Rank

Good Old Katana Mastery is still a fantastic choice for physical damage dealers, as most of them are able to wield Katanas and there's a strong free Katana on the Gilgamesh Trial and a recent one with Nier Raid.

Why would you want Chizuru?: Oh power creep! Right now, Chizuru is really just a TMR fodder as you very, very likely have better options for a chainer. Poor equipment selection, poor modifiers and no Imperils just sucks for our little girl.

What about the future? Chizuru's enhancements have already rolled out and while they're decent on their own, they don't make her that much better. The most relevant one going forward is actually going to be her evasion, which will allow her to act as an easy-to-build 100% dodge provoke tank for future fights.

Abel
Abel is a max with very few interesting moves, but with an amazing mastery, so this part of the analysis will be short, like it was last time. Base 113 ATK (+20 with pots) is pretty nice and it's complemented by an okay +20% ATK passive for a mediocre total of 159 ATK.

Equipment selection is also okay, as he's able to wield Daggers, Swords, Guns, Knuckles and Throwing Weapons and wear Cloth, Light Armour, Hats and Light Shields.

Abel has a rather vast skillset for a max, but most of them are just uninteresting or have very low modifiers to be worth talking about. The ones worth going over are: Infiltrate (Encounter Rate -25%) as an okay passive if you just want to rush some exploration for any reason, good ol' completely outdated Barrage (4x 80% RT Physical Attack) and a random Man-Eater (50% Physical Damage vs Humans) for some sweet damage boost.

The more relevant abilities are Break Style (160% ST 1 Hit Physical Attack & ST 3 Turn -45% ATK Debuff) offering a WoL-level ATK break and Disturb Knife (3x 60% ST 1 Hit Physical Attack & 1 Random Status Effects (30% Poison/Sleep/Paralyze/Confuse/Virus)), offering status ailments.

Global Trust Mastery Rating: Bowie Knife - +82 ATK, Dual Wield - Dagger - A Rank

Bowie Knife is almost always a worse form of DW, specially on GL with masteries not stacking. It has low ATK compared to most TMR weapons and there's simply no Dagger Mastery materia to make use, meaning the materia slot you're gaining by swapping DW is at most going to be a +30% ATK.

This basically means that, unless your unit can only wield exactly one major weapon type (Sword, Katana, Greatsword, Spears and Knuckles currently) and Daggers, you're better off with a DW.

Why would you want Abel?: For this TMR. If you have no Zidanes (or not enough for your team), Abel provides another source of DW, albeit a more restricted one. In any case, if you're lacking DWs, this should be pretty nice.

What about the future? There's no upgrade and no enhancements, since Abel isn't on the main FF series, he's likely going to just be a TMR slave ‘til the end of times. And that's actually not bad.

Should You Pull?
This is that same type of banner that veteran users should have no trouble deciding whether to spend or not, but one that is pretty decent for new players, so we're sticking to the awesome depends here!

Abel is a crappy unit that offers an alternative source of Dual Wield for anyone that doesn't have enough Zidanes for his main team. It's severely limited and unlikely to be BiS for many characters (if any), but as any DW source, it's extremely powerful on its own, specially for newer players.

Chizuru has had her days and it's delegated to TMR farming these days. Her chaining potential just doesn't match up with the huge amount of chainers currently available that completely powercreeped her. Her mastery is still top notch and crucial for many of those physical chainers that put her on the bench, though. If you don't have at least 1~2 Chizurus, consider this opportunity!

Finally, Greg. RIP 2017-2017. In all seriousness, even though he won't achieve the same damage plateau of chainers/finishers, he is not a bad unit at all, specially if fully enhanced. He's versatile, proficient enough at chaining and has a huge ATK stat and equipment selection to back it up. His TMR is still one of the best in the game and BiS for multiple units.

With Lorraine coming soonTM, though, it might not be worth it for whales and small time spenders to chase Greg, as her TMR is just as good, if not better, for a multitude of units, so spend with caution!