[The Malice Within] Quick Relic Analysis - Make like a tree and bark!

ETA: Feb 15

Yo, it’s another V event and Exdeath is here! With him and Kefka, we’re starting to introduce our villains in FFRK and some minor pcs or non-playable. There’s not much I can say about FFV so just gonna scoot along and say its morphing time.
As always, the best/good/selective/okay tiers.

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Relics:

Banner 1	Banner 2	Shared
Moore Branch (Exdeath)	Zantetsuken (Gilgamesh)	Poison Rod (Rod)
Power Staff (Lenna)	Sage’s Staff (Lenna)	Partisan (Spear)
Brave Blade (Bartz)	Yoichi Bow (Faris)	Gaia Gear (Robe)
Aevis Killer (Faris)	Magus Rod (Krile)	Icebrand (Sword)
	Ninja Suit (L. Armor)

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Best:

Lenna’s Sage Staff (Banner 2) is a staff with 55 ATK, 100 MAG, 116 MND and still holds up as a great relic to this day. This relic only holds competition with Yuna if you like her over Lenna better. The SB grants aoe heal (h50) and heavy regen. There’s not much to say to justify this as a great relic, especially on Lenna who has the highest mind stat.

Faris’s Yoichi Bow (Banner 2) is a bow with 106 ATK, 26 MAG/MND. Bows are nice (especially if you use Bartz as a ranged spellblade) and Faris has fantastic utility with her bows. This is her new one and allows her to use an aoe mitigation break (-40% ATK/MAG, thanks to u/Sandslice for the term) and having an aoe break is very nice. It’s a solid weapon placed on a solid support.

Exdeath’s Moore Branch (Banner 1) turns him into a tree is a rod with 50 ATK, 117 MAG, 61 MND. Exdeath is a sage who with this, will make use of being one. The SB allows Exdeath to bring forth Runic II while dealing 4 aoe hits. Having the extra utility of white magic from the enemy allows you to make good use of mitigating Holy and any status spells out there. The relic also has the second highest MAG out there, allowing any of your black mages to take advantage of the stats on it. Solid weapon for a solid mage and Runic II + multi-hit ne aoe SB is a fantastic SB for magical enemies.

Good:

Lenna’s Power Staff (Banner 1) is a her new staff with 55 ATK, 100 MAG, and 117 MND. It’s one of the best staves in the game and basically will let you experience what’s great about Shout (think of it as Beta Shout). The SB grants Party ATK +35% and Haste. This is great for the physical parties as we’ll slowly be creeping into a time where magic isn’t as effective as spellblades and physical teams. So Lenna being a WM that can play into physical parties well helps a lot. It’s a fantastic relic.

Faris’s Aevis Killer (Banner 1) is Faris’s old bow and it still holds up to this day. The stats are 105 ATK and 26 MAG/MND. The SB is a -40% aoe wall break (DEF/RES), which is useful. It’s a bow and useful on characters like Bartz who can use spellblades and there’s plenty of bow users who use support abilities (Gordon, Rosa, Wakka, etc) thus making this a great relic.

Gilgamesh’s Zantetsuken (Banner 2) is a katana with 119 ATK. The SB does 3 hits and grants protect, shell, and haste on self. It can be effective as a RW and on Gilgamesh if using advanaliate + Lifesiphon. Having the extra mitigation and haste to help someone is good in case if they’re in trouble or need the protection if they’re your healer/wall/etc. It’s a useful SB and solid weapon.

Krile’s Magus Rod (Banner 2) is a rod with 50 ATK, 116 MAG, 61 MND. The SB is an aoe ne summon atk with a 100% chance to stun. It’s a solid rod for black mages and the SB is great for any team. There’s not much else I can say besides this is a great relic.

The shared Gaia Gear ends up here as it’s a robe with 80 DEF and 125 RES. It has a aoe heal SB (h35) as it boost Earth Damage which is nice when it’s needed or using Quake in general.

Selective:

Bartz’s Brave Blade (Banner 1) is a sword with 118 ATK. It’s still a fantastic weapon but however, the SB that boosts his attack gets mangled with the fact it does not stack with Power Steal and thus this bonus can get lost if you’re using other boosts like Power Steal, Planet Protector, or other attack boosters that are better or worst then the SB’s boost. However, it’s still a solid relic and the SB does 5 single hits with an ATK boost of 35%. I just put it under selective as it’s the weakest of the unique relics, but it’s still solid and Bartz is solid with it if you don’t have any other boosts to ATK.

The shared Partisan has 108 ATK and the SB is an AoE attack with a sleep proc (20%). It’s a spear, but the SB has its uses, especially with sleep vulnerabilities.

The SB-less Icebrand is a sword with 112 ATK and boosts Ice dmg. It’s useful going up against enemies who are weak to it or boosting Ice Strikes.

Okay:

The shared Poison Rod is a rod with 50 ATK, 107 MAG, 61 MND. The SB is 1 AoE Bio magic attack. It’s okay, but V synergy is useful.

The SB-less Ninja Suit is light armor with 103 DEF/RES and is there for synergy.

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Overall: I wanted to throw most of them in the Best in all honesty. A lot of them are good but there’s definitely flaws to some of the relics. I do want to note too is if I put any relic in selective and okay, it doesn’t mean they’re useless. They just aren’t as good to the rest of the banner. I had a hard time piecing which relic goes where so trying to break apart them, I put only one of Lenna’s and Faris’s in best to keep it fair. However, most of this banner is fantastic and is solid.

Should I Pull: Yes. JP has not gotten another V event (since Logress but Global won’t be getting it) so this will be the last time you’ll get most of these events, possibility of 2-3 of these relics in the SSSSBfest banner, and BSBfest. Bartz does get featured with SSB and BSSB relics come those banners and Gilgamesh gets a SSB in the SSSBfest. So yeah. Pull for these banners, usual reasons apply and V has a good bit of story dungeons and the V cast is really solid with their characters.

Rating: 9/10

Thanks to Sandslice for his relic discussions and kaonohiokala for their spreadsheet of all relic data!

Upcoming Events:

• Destiny's Path (Jecht; Yuna MC2) (ETA: Feb 21)
• The Lone Wolf's Lament -Cloudy Wolf- (Tifa MC2; Cloud Dress/BSSB) (ETA: Feb 27)
• A Meeting Beyond Time (Laguna; Selphie MC2) (ETA: March 4)
• A Summoner Reborn (Freya; Garnet MC2) (ETA: March 10)
• The One Who Knows Fate (FF2 Cast!) (ETA: March 16?)
• Accessory of Light (WoL MC2) (ETA: March 26)
• Chamber of Rituals (8 new MC2s, pick 4 MC2s) (ETA: ???)

Do as a tree would, check the links out!
Guide by u/fattybomchacha
Relic Discussion by u/Sandslice
Big Banner List by u/dscotton
The Relic Spreadsheet by u/kaonohiokala