Insane Difficulty: Top 5 Most Useless Items/Arms/Armor in 1.3 - Insane Difficulty

Hey y'all,

As part of my upcoming mod I will be adding some new weapons/items, etc.
& I'd like to know which ones y'all think are the least useful (i.e. best candidates for replacement)
Go ahead and list the top 5 equipable things or items that you think are least useful, perhaps with a (brief explanation).
Ideally these should not just be things that you never use as a player, but things that do not add much to the AI as well.
I'll start:

1 Eye drop - it should probably be combined with echo grass. I don't think I ever used one in my last playthrough.
2 Mage Masher - I think there's always a better way either to replenish your own MP or to remove the enemy's. Besides it's so weak, it's niche is small.
3 C bag - bags in general are pretty lackluster, except the FS bag.
4 One of the shields - there are a LOT of shields, and I mostly only care about the end game ones. I feel like the few % point increases in evade wouldn't be missed on one or two of them.
5th place is tied for one weapon from the elemental triads (i.e. Thunder, Flame or Ice Rod, Water, Fire or Lightning ball, Paladin, Blood, or Demon Sword) - These items all do identical damage, and while it's kind of nice to have elemental options, I think 2 is fine instead of 3. Besides, the rods especially become obsolete quickly.

Your thoughts?

1. Eye Drops are pretty useless to be honest as the enemy rarely (if ever) uses blind in 1.3. Blind is one of those things used when the enemy doesn't have enough offense to feel that it can kill you in 1-2 hits. Since that's not the case, you'll rarely ever see it. Ditto for silence. I don't ever recall being hit by silence or blind in 1.3 unless it was one of those "hits you with multiple status effect" sort of skills. Combining them would be nice I guess. But what would you replace the other item with?

2. No. Mythril Knife is by far worse than Mage Masher. MM at least has a niche. Mythril Knife has the uncanny ability of being useful for... 1 battle and is decidedly worse than the Blind Knife. A knife that IIRC has the same WP and a blind proc. MM can at least be used by a class to replenish MP on a class that normally cannot. IE, Ramza Squire, Ninja, Thief. It also has the subsequent effect of taking MP from the enemy as well, so even classes like Chemist can make usage of it to stop enemies from having MP. Zalmo comes to mind for something like this.

3. C Bag is pretty bad for the price. +1 Magic was pretty good in Vanilla on a weapon, but here, any sword user can use the mythril sword for +2 MA, and any caster that has access to staves can use a Wizard Staff (which is obtainable at Ch.2 and purchasable at 3). And any rod user can eventually use the Wizard Rod, all of which are cheaper than the C Bag. Random damage only further cements this thing as trash. At least Axes have a death proc and can be used with Timed Strike for massive damage-- Granted so can the purse but at least Axes now have good weapon evade. This is noticeable on a male Golem Axe user for instance. This thing stands as one of the more useless equips in the game based on changes 1.3 made. Actually, I'd argue the regen one is even worse, because you're not doing jack with it later on in the game without Salty Rage, and as cool as it is to have Regen/Protect/Shell on, it's not really going to be doing much.

4. Shields I actually find fine for the most part. Unless you plan on overhauling the game to where they don't get more evasion like they do and instead block various and random elements/statuses, they don't particularly bother me. More shields that block higher evasion over physical besides the Aegis shield would be nice I guess.

5. I see nothing wrong with the elemental weapons. Especially because you can use 108 Gems to buff elemental damage. Granted I never buy them, but that's more so because when these weapons appear on the scene magic reigns king so I see no reason to bother with them. Elemental Rods enhance your elemental power with them, so I'd say at least Thunder and Ice Rods are worth having. If you summon Salamander with it, this could be nice as well, as it's the most bang you'd be getting for awhile without having to resort to using Leviathan or Bahamut or Meteor. In order to make these weapons even remotely good, all the MA boosting gear would need to go away in Ch.2. There's also the fact that magic scaling would need to be better to make physical attacks more desirable at this point.


However, what I do see wrong are the useless Ch.4 hats aside from two. Flash Hat or Thief Hat are the only ones that really matter. I don't think I ever used any other hat.

It comes down to what your idea of balance is. Mythril knife is good for having an offensive Chemist early on. Blind Knife has one more point of WP.

I really can't comment here. My actusl response is: Take 1.3 as a very loose base and redo the armor bonuses from scratch. For example, imo Ribbons and the like are terrible balance-wise. Same with Javelin 2 having a high damage proc. Same with Sazuke Knives being poachable, and having +1 speed. The list goes on and on.

To be honest:1.3 equipment it's pretty lackluster in the utility department. I mean yeah, I'm using all the + PA/MA/Speed gear forever and ever, but what about the other things? besides, you can do crazy stuff like attach some light equipment with (innate: item throw), so when better weapons/armors becomes viable, it's still possible to just stick with the old one.

Of course, that means better balance between all equipment early/mid/late game: As the game goes on, they should become more focused on specific classes so every piece you can use has a purpose in the end

Agreed. Also, add to the list clever use of elements. 1.3 could use that more.

Agreed on that. Or even using certain initial status effects and procs and the like. Those are all good ideas that could be used.

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The reason I mention it though is because aside from Dagger-- which is a base weapon, it has this extra offense for a chemist all of 3 battles tops and you get a blind knife for free in 1.3 as a war trophy. It's weird.

Though I definitely agree with the strangeness of equips in 1.3. Armor still sucks. Carbani is like... The best armor in the game overall.

I feel like a lot of items are useless in this game either because they get majorly outclassed by other items or have small niche uses. I think dagger in general are rather useless except for the +1 speed. Daggers are weak and you usually don't want to get close to enemies. Positioning is so important in this game and if you get in close, you better be tanky or be able to kill your target in one hit. Having a dagger usually means neither of these things. I think weapons that steal mp are pretty worthless as well. Why would I want to take your mp when I could just kill you. This idea really comes in the later parts of the game when power source exists. They can just instantly gain all of their mp back. One of my favorite items in the game is chameleon robe. Absorbing holy makes it good to use against counter magic. I wish there were more items like that.

To actually answer the original question, here is a list (in no order) of items I think are horrible.
1. Mage Masher
2. Ivory Rod
3. Ribbon
4. katanas (all of them)
5. rubber shoes

Hack Fan, on 25 November 2016 - 12:29 PM, said:

From my point of view: Katanas are bad because they break when you use them along Draw Out (and Chirijiraden its a pain to use since it means gamble with a uncommon weapon)

The entire line of Dictionaries, Harps and Clothes don't seem like they have any real use outside of variety sake. Admittingly, the last two is because you generally don't want to be a Bard or Dancer. Same with Bags outside of FS Bag but that has already been noted.

The swords that are supposed to be used for attacking rather than stat sticks are kinda lackluster - some of them have pretty pointless procs like Ancient Sword's "Don't Move" or just can't compete with +2 Speed from dual-wielding daggers which are more accessible on jobs

The status resistance Acc feel ultra-niche on player side because it always feels like the enemy will just pull out something else equally debilitating to use where on the flip side, the player might not have expanded his move pool enough if an enemy is just wearing something that shuts his Oracle down.

B-But guys! There aren't any useless items in 1.3!

I maintain the problem is deeper than the items. Better multipliers and growths would lead to the dame items more and in more variety.

Ergo, Advent's joke might not be far from the truth, given a better balance in the game.

Advent, on 29 November 2016 - 06:59 AM, said:

Aside of the mythril knife, battle dictionary, Long sword, fairy harp, cupid bow, bow gun, healing staff, all the edges before the spell edge, all the bag sans Fs bag........... (and this is just the weapons..........)