Quote Originally Posted by Red Fel View Post
Hmm. Because I budgeted very poorly, I'm going to have to be selective with the banners. So let's break some things down.
  • Banner 1: Sync for Cloud, Awakenings for Vanille, Dr. Mog, Barbariccia, OK, and Fang. Banner is extremely Wind-oriented. Cloud's Sync is basically just an every-other-turn OSB, which is nice but Awakenings can already get you there. Vanille's is deceptively good, because it lets you medica the party while using SUP. But I have at least one dupe on this banner - OK's Awakening - and zero interest in Barbariccia. So this is probably a pass for me.
  • Banner 2: Sync for Ashe, Awakenings for Aranea, Reks, Ashe, Yuffie, and Strago. Banner is Lightning- and Water-oriented. Ashe's Sync is incredibly solid, offering fast-casting, stacking Lightning boost, and a chaser. Yuffie's Awakening is also solid, basically combining some of her best SB features. Best of all, no dupes for me on this banner. I'll probably want to pull on this.
  • Banner 3: Sync for Lightning, Awakenings for Bartz, Prompto, Shelke, Rikku, and Alphinaud, Shelke's Lightning Chain and Rikku's Water Chain. This banner is an elemental mix of Lightning, Wind, and Water. Lightning's Sync allows some powerful rapid-fire attacks, which is pretty great for Chains. Bartz' Awakening, though, feels more like a poor man's version of the previous one - Wind abilities get faster casting, but it's mono-elemental. The Chains make it more desirable as a banner, but I'm not totally sold on it.
  • Banner 4: Sync for Rinoa, Awakenings for Rinoa, Barret, Cinque, and Enna Kros, Red XIII's Earth Chain. This banner is mostly Earth-oriented. Rinoa's Sync basically lets her boost Earth abilities, then boost them a bit more - nice, but not overwhelming. I'll be honest, though, I have Awakenings for Bartz and Noctis, so I'm not exactly starved for Earth PHY, which is a significant part of this banner. Again, it's not terrible, but I'm not sold.
  • Banner 5: Sync for Ultimecia, Awakenings for Rosa, Cloud of Darkness, Ultimecia, Seifer, and Vivi. The banner is a mix of a bunch of elements. Ultimecia's Sync is, appropriately, a Wind version of Rinoa's. Rosa's Awakening is kind of insane, offering - in addition to the usual 0CT medica with Raise - Guts, Haste, and two mBlinks. Also, the Awaken Love effect lets her fast-cast WHT and chase it with a rank-based medica. It's really good. Ultimecia and Seifer both get dual-element Awaken abilities, which is nice, and Vivi basically gets Terra's Awakening, for those who missed out. It's a solid banner, and probably my second choice after Banner 2, if I can spare the mythril.

So those are my thoughts. Anyone else?
I’ve reduced to pulling when there aren’t too many dupes, given I have the blues. For me...

Banner 1: 0 dupes
Banner 2: 0 dupes
Banner 3: 1 dupe (Rikku CSB)
Banner 4: 3 dupes
Banner 5: 2 dupes

Definite skip on 4, prob skip on 5. I’d really like Lightning’s Sync, but there’s a dupe and tbh the rest of the banner isn’t really appealing. Plus Sync drop rate is trash.

Plus I need to consider my relics are really lopsided, way more Phy AASBs. By a happy coincidence, the first 3 banners have some good Mag AASB.

Yeah, looks like pull pull skip skip skip.