Should You Pull (Jun 30, 2017)

Original Post / Discussion: [https://www.reddit.com/r/FFBraveExvius/comments/6jzqpy/defianthermits_should_you_pull_final_fantasy_x/ DefiantHermit's Should You Pull? Final Fantasy X Banner - Jun 30]

Hello everyone, /u/DefiantHermit here for this week's banner, featuring part of the FFX cast!

Since it's bundled up with WoL-nniversary, I'll be including WoL/Garland's analysis and the upcoming raid unit Moogle too, so I hope you guys enjoy these.

Tidus
The character with one of the most controversial name pronunciation in all FF history is here and he's one hell of a unit. Base 154 ATK (+30 from pots) is fantastic and there's a solid +50% ATK from passives to back it up, for a total of 276 ATK. It's not as high as some of the other big names, but Tidus certainly makes up for it.

Equipment selection is top-notch, being able to wield Daggers, Swords, Greatswords, Katanas and Throwing Weapons and wear Clothes, Light and Heavy Armour, Light Shields, Hats and Helms. So basically all of the current main weapon types and a great selection of armour.

His skillset is where it's at. Blitz Mind (AoE ~10 MP Heal w/ 0.3x Mod split over 3 Turns & AoE 3 Turn +100% Water Resist) offers a decent MP refresh for your party (~15 MP at 200 SPR) and a fantastic +100% Water Resist, which is perfect whenever Water damage is in play; Auto-Refresh (Recover 5% MP per Turn) for that sweet MP recovery and Get pumped! (140% ST 1 Hit Physical Attack & AoE 3 Turn +40% ATK/DEF/MAG/SPR) offering an all-inclusive party buff, albeit not a very exciting one, numberwise.

He also comes with a full LB set: Top Athlete (LB Fill Rate +200% & +100% Blind/Sleep/Paralyze Resist) provides fantastic LB rate boost and some key ailment resistances and Entrust (Give LB Gauge To Target) allows you to fill someone's gauge if you're not interesting in using Tidus'. The break itself is (290% -> 410% ST 16 Hit Physical Attack & ST 5 Turn -75% -> -100% Water Resist), which is chainable (although not on its entirety) with another copy and provides not only a great modifier, but a fantastic Water Resist debuff, which synergizes with his mastery and skillset.

Furthermore, Tidus comes with a great selection of Killers to further boost his damage, built-in on Sun Crest (+20% ATK & 50% Physical Damage vs Beast & 50% Physical Damage vs Bird & 50% Physical Damage vs Demon) and excellent innate dodge with Tackle Slip (30% Chance Dodge Physical Attack).

His offensive kit is great: Jecht Shot (200% ST 1 Hit Water Physical Attack + Ignore 50% DEF & 5 Turn Add Water to Attacks - normalized to 400%), which not only has an excellent modifier to work as a finisher, but provides innate water damage and makes all his other skills water for 5 turns so you can make the most out of his LB (if you don't have his mastery yet). There's also Energy Rain (180% AoE 4 Hit Physical Attack) if you want an AoE with a decent hitcount, but mediocre modifiers.

His heavy hitter is Quick Trick (400% ST 12 Hit Physical Attack), with an excellent modifier and a stupidly high hit count. While it shares a pretty common frame data (5 frames), the amount of hits is uncommon and the last hit is oddly spaced (22 frames after the second-to-last hit), so he can only properly (read: reach a 47-hit chain) with a second copy. I'm not entirely sure how he works with enhanced Gilgamesh, though, so if anyone wants to chime in, gimme a poke!

In any case, one of the advantages from a larger hit-count, aside from the extra room it provides for your finishers, is the upgraded overall chain modifier on the first cast. For the more common 7-hit skills (like Divine Ruination, Piledriver, Mystic Thrust, FFB, etc), the first cast gets a +182% boost, while Quick Trick's first cast gets a +234% boost instead (for those interested in the math, I'm already taking into account the different damage split for the last hit). On a perfect chain, this means an overall ~8% damage increase from the chain alone.

The tradeoff is that the Water Imperil is not attached to it, instead being locked behind his LB. However, this is further compensated by the increased Imperil debuff, which more than makes up for the delayed damage potential.

Japanese Altema Rating: 99/100 (After Enhancements)

Global Trust Mastery Rating: Brotherhood - +135 ATK, Water Element - Sword - 9.5/10

Fantastic Sword with the highest ATK value in JPN to this day. Just like Aileen, it's also BiS on Tidus himself.

Japanese TM Rating (altema.jp): S Rank

Why would you want Tidus?: Because he's a really strong unit that has the flexibility to be used as a great finisher or a fantastic chainer and is still able to provide value aside from damage with his AoE Party Buff, AoE Water Immunity and Entrust.

His downside is the lack of an Imperil on his chaining skill, with it being locked behind his LB instead, but it's more than made up for with the increased chain modifier and sheer Imperil value (100% at max LB level!). Water is also an uncommon element to come by, but you'd be greatly rewarded if you can make use of it with your finishers.

What about the future? Tidus has already received his enhancements in JPN and they were excellent. Quick Trick gets upgraded to a whopping 720% modifier, his party buff gets a boost to +60%, Tackle Slip gets some Magic Dodge and Counter Chance and he gets more ATK and a Sword Mastery on Sun Crest. This further consolidates him as one of the strongest damage dealers in the game.

Rikku
The most anticipated character after Oldman, Rikku's finally here! If you have no idea why all the hype around her, tag along and I'll show you. Rikku's most relevant stat is actually LB Crystals per Turn, aside from the standard HP/MP for sustainability and SPR for taking hits, so we'll skip the stats.

Equipment selection is okay for a support, being able to wield Daggers, Knuckles and Throwing Weapons and wear Clothes, Light Armour, Hats and Shields. Knuckles are specially relevant for Override's amazing +100% LB Fill Rate.

Skillset is pretty varied: Lucky Girl (20% Chance Dodge Physical Attack & Decrease Target Chance by 30%) provides some innate dodge chance and reduced target, Al Bhed Potion (AoE 1000 HP Recovery & AoE Cure Poison, Silence, Petrify) is a mini Curaga+”Esunaga” on an ability and Mega Phoenix (AoE Revive with 100% HP) is a crazy expensive (70 MP), but still very good, on-demand AoE Full-Raise.

Rikku also has access to Mix (Grant Sunburst, Hazardous Shell and Hyper NulAll for 3 Turns). Sunburst (AoE 19998 Damage Attack) is a fixed damage finisher à la Setzer, Hazardous Shell (180% AoE 1 Hit Physical Attack & 2 Random Status Effects (30% All Ailments, 100% Petrify)) is your ailment inducer and Hyper NulAll (AoE 3 Turn +40% All Elements Resist & AoE 3 Turn 30% Damage Reduction) is Elemental Resists bundled with an excellent damage mitigator.

Even though it might be niche, you can also use Rikku as a chainer, as she has access to Winter Storm, Tidal Wave, Burning Soul and Lightning Rod (230% ST 9 Hit Ice/Water/Fire/Thunder Physical Attack, Respectively). Even though she provides 4 different elemental chains, they all have different frame data and don't really chain well with anyone besides herself.

Finally, her LB kit is comprised of Drive Boost (LB Fill Rate +100%) and the LB itself as a fantastic (AoE 3 Turn +50% -> 74% DEF/SPR & AoE 3 Turn Auto-Revive with 80% HP). So not only does it have Cecil levels of defensive stat buffing, but it provides the unprecedented AoE Auto-Revive. This little guy makes so many freaking fights that much easier it's not even fair, so stack as many +LB things you can on Rikku and you're pretty much set.

Japanese Altema Rating: 98/100 (After Enhancements)

Global Trust Mastery Rating: Rikku's Pouch - +3 DEF, Grant Chaos Grenade, Pancea and Eccentric - Accessory - 9.4/10

This fantastic mastery provides the following skills: Chaos Grenade (180% AoE 1 Hit Physical Attack & Inflict 1 Random Status Effects, (30% All/100% Petrify) & 3 Turn -30% ATK/DEF/MAG/SPR Debuff) as an AoE Full-Break and Ailment inducer, Cure All (AoE Cure All Ailments) as literally Esunaga and Eccentric (5 Turn AoE 200% LB Fill Rate) as an excellent LB booster.

This is great not only on Rikku, but on pretty much any support character. Giving your party a 5 turn +200% LB Fill Rate is no joke and having a backup Esunaga is always a good idea. The Full-Break is pretty outdated, but it's still an option if need be.

Japanese TM Rating (altema.jp): S Rank

Why would you want Rikku?: Really? She has:


 * Aoe 100% Revive
 * “Curaga” + “Esunaga”
 * Fixed Damage Finisher
 * AoE Ailment Inducer
 * AoE Elemental Resistance Buff
 * AoE 30% Damage Mitigation
 * 9 Hit Chainers for 4 different elements
 * 50~75% Defensive Stat Buff on her LB
 * 3 Turn AoE Auto-Revive on her LB

I'm just gonna leave it at that. Rikku puts so many support units on the ground it's not even fair.

What about the future? You probably already know of the many fights Rikku makes bearable or even doable, so I'll just give you a few reasons why you would bring another support unit instead. The first and major reason is that, even though she has a great 30% Damage Mitigation skill, it's behind a 1 turn setup, so it's not on-demand like Crowe or 9S. Other reasons are minor and tied to specific fights, but Rikku has no access to good breaks or heals or any sort of mana-battery, so you might need that more than what she can offer.

She also received her enhancements in JPN and while they weren't game breaking (I mean, could you even break her further?), they offer some nice additions. The main one is an upgrade to Mix, adding a ST 100% Heal and extending the availability of the granted skills to 4 turns. The other enhancements are minor: she gets some ATK bonus when wielding a Knuckle and excellent +30% MP when wielding a shield. Finally, her Tidal Wave gets upgraded to 280% modifiers and 12 Hits (and 12 frames instead of 9) for some reason.

Wakka
Contender for one of the silliest names in the franchise, Wakka comes to GL on his restricted form. He has decent base 111 ATK (+16 with pots), but only a +10% ATK passive, for an okay total of 139 ATK.

Equipment selection is really bad, being able to wield only Daggers, Bows and Throwing Weapons and wear Clothes, Light Armour, Hats and Helms. One of the worst possible weapon selection, leaving barely any room for optimization at higher levels.

skillset is also pretty bad, with noteworthy skills being Triple Foul (210% AoE 1 Hit Physical Attack & 100% Blind/Sleep/Silence), which offers a bad modifier, but guaranteed ailments and Flight Ball (210% ST 3 Hit Physical Attack (+50% Damage to Birds)), which offers the same bad modifier, but extra damage against birds.

Speaking of birds, Wakka really dislikes them, as he also has an innate Bird Killer (50% Physical Damage vs Bird). He can also provide some decent water resistance through Auroch's Spirit (AoE 3 Turn +50% Water Resist), but that's matched (and surpassed) by other elemental resistance skills.

Japanese Altema Rating: 84/100 (After Awakening)

Global Trust Mastery Rating: Over the Top - +117 ATK - Throwing Weapon - 8.5/10

While this is the strongest Throwing Weapon ATK-wise, it's an incredibly underwhelming weapon type that has no mastery even in JPN. So few units are restricted to Throwing weapons and can't equip anything better that I don't really see this being a priority at the moment.

Japanese TM Rating (altema.jp): S Rank

Why would you want Wakka?: Right now? Not even for his TMR, in the future, though...

What about the future? Wakka got a version in JPN and it's ‘meh', I guess? His hatred for birds increases, he got a 400% finisher with random element and a 600% finisher that takes a turn to setup and gives him a +150% ATK boost. Extremely underwhelming, but can have some niche uses.

Bonus: Warrior of Light
One of the most anticipated upgrades is finally here and if you don't already know, you'll see just why everyone wants WoL. He comes with base 124 DEF (+30 with pots) and a good +30% DEF passive, for a total of 200 DEF. His SPR side is a bit worse, coming with base 125 SPR (+30 with pots), but with no passives, for an underwhelming total of 155 SPR.

Equipment selection is so huge that many damage dealers would kill to have a fraction of it. WoL can basically equip every single weapon type, with the exception of Instruments, Whips, Throwing Weapons and Guns. And he can wear every single type of armour available that's not gender-locked.

His skillset consists of Sentinel (30% Chance to Defend an Ally (Reduce +50% Phys./Mag. Damage)) as a rather mediocre innate cover chance and The Light is With Us (3 Turn 50% Chance to Defend Allies (Reduce +50% Phys./Mag. Damage)) for some excellent AoE Physical Cover. When you need to guarantee a ST cover, WoL can serve as a provoke tank, using Brave Presence (1 Turn +100% Chance to be Targeted) for that sweet guaranteed target chance, even though it's for a turn only (unenhanced).

While his tanking set is very good, what helps set him apart from everyone else is his supporting set: Embolden (AoE 5 Turn +45% ATK/DEF) allows you to freely swap your healer around and still have a fantastic physical buff and Pride of Warrior (30% Chance Counter Magic w/ Self Recover 25% HP/MP) is a fantastic counter, providing some amazing HP and MP recovery for when WoL needs to take magic damage and osmose abilities.

There's even Raise (ST Revive with 30% HP) as a backup revive if you need your healers to be focused on healing and Hope (+100% DEF after HP drops below 30%) as a last stand damage reduction.

He also comes with the Erasers: Armor Eraser (AoE 3 Turn -45% DEF/SPR Debuff) and Arms Eraser (AoE 3 Turn -45% ATK/MAG Debuff), which are phenomenal AoE breaks that allow your tank to perform an additional crucial role on your team, very likely freeing up a slot coughLingcough and allowing for more diverse party setups.

Japanese Altema Rating: 96/100 (After Enhancements)

Global Trust Mastery Rating: Blessed Light - Brave/Faith/Regen Auto-Buff (20% ATK/MAG) - Materia - 3/10

That's not very exciting. Brave and Faith gets automatically overwritten by any semi-decent buff you might run and regen is just a passive HP recovery, so you might as well as get some +X% HP materias instead.

Japanese TM Rating (altema.jp): B Rank

Why would you want Warrior of Light?: Because he's a fantastic tank and currently top of the pack in JPN. He's not only a fantastic cover and provoke tank, but his supporting set is phenomenal and he just gets much better with enhancements.

What about the future? They were not playing around when they designed WoL's enhancements, for they very much solidify him as one of the best tanks available. The Light is with Us gets a boost to 75% cover chance and 70% magic damage reduction; Brave Presence gets a +2 turn upgrade (so WoL can do other things while guaranteeing target) and Hope gets an upgrade in the DEF boost and even some SPR boost when WoL's in peril.

Once you have WoL, there will be very little reason to swap to other physical tanks. He's that good and just gets better in the future.

Bonus: Garland
Garland is another one of those s that get to, but his toolbox is a bit outdated for our current content. He comes with a great base 147 ATK (+26 with pots) and there's an excellent +70% ATK from passives, giving him a spectacular total of 294 ATK, seriously high for a base.

Equipment selection ain't too shabby either, as he's able to wield Swords, Katanas, Greatswords, Axes and Maces and wear Light and Heavy Armour, Helms, Light and Heavy Shields. Weapon selection includes all of the major weapon types (except for knuckles), but armour selection is a bit lacking, but decent enough.

His skillset is what's not so great about him. There's the great Man-Eater (50% Physical Damage vs Human) for some serious damage boost against humans, and Doublehand (Equip ATK Bonus +50% when only using one hand) so you can build him to have a respectable ATK stat if you lack DW. Unfortunately, DH is plagued on GL by not being able to stack with itself as a materia, so currently the best you can do is give him 1 DH materia for a total of +100% equip ATK bonus, which is very likely not worth it over DW.

His kit bought 4 mediocre-modifier AoE elemental hits: Chaos of Fire/Water/Wind/Earth (200% AoE 1 Hit Fire/Water/Wind/Earth Physical Attack, respectively). 200% modifier just doesn't cut it, even if it provides some elemental coverage. Fortunately, there's also Dark Spiral (140% AoE 1 Hit Physical Attack + Ignore 50% DEF & AoE 3 Turn -50% Dark Resist - normalized to 280%), which has a better modifier and a strong AoE Dark Imperil attached.

If you lack a dark weapon, Garland has that covered: Awakening of the Darkness (Self 5 Turn Add Dark to Attacks) provides the Dark element you need to achieve maximum damage. From the second hit forward, Dark Spiral starts hitting with a 420% modifier, which isn't thaat bad for a budget finisher.

Japanese Altema Rating: 91/100 (After Enhancements and with DH stacking)

Global Trust Mastery Rating: Equip L Sword - Can Equip Greatsword - Materia - 8/10

This is one of the few good “Equip X” materia simply because Greatswords have fantastic ATK and are crucial for your damage dealers to join on the recent (and future) Imperil chains.

Japanese TM Rating (altema.jp): S Rank

Why would you want Garland?: If you lack good damage dealers, Garland can certainly fill that role for you, with the benefit of being very easy to optimize (the most you'll need is a Doublehand materia) for new players. He also becomes more relevant on the upcoming dark chains.

What about the future? Garland has already received enhancements and while they're pretty good, he is still left several steps behind his JPN counterpart due to DH not stacking. Unfortunately, his upgrade is coming so late to us that the vast majority of his kit has extremely outdated modifiers and there's no clear GL upgrades from his announcement. We can just hope Gumi realizes this and gives him a boost later.

Bonus: Moogle
Moogle is the free character from the upcoming anniversary raid and as unfortunate as it may sound, he's just gonna be a TMR fodder. He comes with great base 145 ATK (+30 with pots), but only a +10% ATK passive to back it up, for a very disappointing total of 192 ATK.

His equipment selection is 100% lore friendly, but one of the worst ever released: he can only wield Spears and wear Hats. That's… it.

Skillset is based around Doublehand (Equip ATK Bonus +50% when only using one hand) and elemental attacks, but DH doesn't stack on GL, so you can't really build him to have a respectable ATK stat. His supporting skills include Esuna (ST Cure Poison, Blind, Sleep, Silence, Paralyze, Confuse) for ailment cleansing, Curaga (AoE ~1000 HP Heal w/ 3.4x Mod) for some off-healing potential and All Mog, Advance (3 AoE Turn +100% Stop Debuff Resist) as a rather unique stop resist buff.

His offensive skills include Mog Flame/Freeze/Shock/Wind/Dark/Earth/Holy (100% ST 1 Hit ELEMENT Physical Attack & 5 Turn Add ELEMENT to Attacks), which have auto-attack modifiers, but imbue his weapon with a specific element. There's also Mog Tumbling Thrust (94% ST 6 Hit Physical Attack + Ignore 50% DEF - normalized to 188%), which has a crappy modifier, but decent amount of hits for chaining.

His LB is an (AoE 3 Turn +40% -> 64% ATK/DEF/MAG/SPR), which is pretty dang good, and he gets a small innate boost in the form of Mog Limit (Gain 2 LS per Turn) to get it going

Japanese Altema Rating: 80/100 (DH stacks)

Global Trust Mastery Rating: Mog Knowledge - LB Fill Rate +50% - Materia - 8/10

Pretty decent materia that unfortunately doesn't stack on GL. Provides a nice boost for characters that rely on their LB at the cost of a materia slot.

Japanese TM Rating (altema.jp): A Rank

Why would you want Moogle?: Aside from his cuteness, because he's free and has a pretty serviceable TMR. As a character, he's gimped by very, very bad modifiers, a shitty equipment selection and DH not stacking.

What about the future? No enhancements for Moogle and I'd highly doubt we'd get some. There might be some GL exclusive changes when the raid goes up and I'll promptly update the thread if that's the case, but don't get your hopes up.

Should You Pull?
Absolutely. Pull for at least 1 Rikku, as she's a superb support unit that will make your life incredibly easier with her re-raise. Wakka is a serviceable finisher when his arrives, but meh.

For whales, Tidus is an excellent chainer and party player, but it's extremely reliant on macros to perfect chain with himself. He compliments Fryevia very nicely if you give her Water Spirit Sword, too. If you're not a whale and pulled Tidus, yay!