Some time ago, the Final Fantasy Brave Exvius team gave fans the chance to create their own units with the best ones actually getting added to the game. This week, the contest winning unit designs got added to the summon pool! Here’s a closer look at Malphasie, a hybrid chainer who can chain with THREE different families of units! Here is an in-depth analysis of FFBE’s latest unit along with the answer to the infamous “should you pull” question.
Malphasie Review
Advertisement
Traits
Base stat-wise, Malphasie is rather squishy. She has low defensive stats across the board, though her frailness is somewhat mitigated by the fact that she has 20% physical and magical evasion thanks to Flight. She also gets access to four big ailment immunities with Resistant Plummage: blind, sleep, confuse, and petrify.
Where she really shines is her offensive traits. Crow Talons, which she gets immediately at 6-star, gives her innate dual wield and an increase to ATK/MAG by 30%. Again, as she’s a hybrid chainer, this passive is incredible as it gives her a solid boost to her offensive stats while also freeing up a materia/accessory slot for dual wield. She also has Talismanic Might, which provides her a big 50% ATK/MAG boost when equipped with a fist.
In addition to these passive stat boosts, Malphasie has access to killers against birds and demons. Unlike regular killer skills, Winged Fiend gives her 50% increased physical AND magical damage to these two unit types. At 7-star max level, Shrill Cry boosts these killers by an additional 50%, as well as increasing the modifiers on one of her main chaining abilities and limit burst.
Lastly, Malphasie has an innate counter called Vengeful Sky, which gives her a 30% chance to counter enemy attacks with an AoE 4-turn 60% ATK/MAG break as well as dealing an AoE 4x hybrid attack.
Active Abilities
Malphasie’s biggest strength is the fact that she can chain with three different chaining families: Divine Ruination (DR), Tornado, and Aureole Ray. This means that she can chain with a huge variety of units making her a great pick for 10-man trials.
Tenebrous Drive is a 7-hit ST dark hybrid attack with DR frames. It comes with a 50% dark imperil as well as adds the dark element to her attacks. Aerial Dive is the wind equivalent of this same attack. Both of these abilities have a solid 8x modifier.
Her Tornado chaining move, Thousand Wings, is a ST 8x hybrid ability that increases in strength if used twice in a row. If cast again, the name changes to Thousand Wings+ and deals an 11x hybrid AoE attack.
At 7-star, she gains the ability to chain with Aureole Ray. Fiendish Wings is a 30 hit AoE dark hybrid attack with an 11x coefficient. Turbulence is the wind equivalent of this.
Also at 7-star, Malphasie gets 2 powerful cooldown abilities: Intense Rancor and Birds of a Feather. Intense Rancor is a 5-turn cooldown ability available on turn one that further increases the damage she deals to birds and demons by 75% for 3-turns. This ability also deals a 1-hit 26x hybrid attack to an enemy giving her a decent finisher ability if the situation calls for it.
Birds of a Feather gives her an on-demand Veritas of the Light level AoE break of 74% to DEF/SPR for 3 turns and also boosts the LB gauge of all allies by 10. This move is available turn 1 and comes with an 8-turn cooldown.
Limit Burst
Malphasie’s limit burst, Murderous Intent, deals some big damage as well as gives her a little extra utility. At max level, Murderous Intent deals an AoE 27.2x hybrid attack and provides a 140% boost to ATK/MAG for three-turns to all allies. It also activates a special ability called Raucous Storm for one turn. Raucous Storm is a Tornado chaining ability that deals an AoE wind and dark hybrid attack with a 16x coefficient. It also has a 100% chance to apply blind and confuse.
TMR and STMR
Malphasie’s TMR, Wrapping Bandages, is a powerful fist weapon that really can only be taken advantage by her. It’s a 95+ ATK, 110+ MAG, one-hand fist that also provides 10%+ MP.
When Malphasie equips her own TMR, she unlocks Hungry Heart, which gives her True Dual Wield (TDR) boosting her equipment ATK and MAG by 30% when dual wielding. It also gives her a flat increase of +20% ATK/MAG as well as boosting her LB gauge fill rate by 50%.
Her STMR, Ravenheart, is really impressive. It’s an accessory that gives +40 ATK and MAG, +10 DEF and SPR, as well as boosting ATK and MAG by an extra 20%. If that wasn’t enough, Ravenheart also grants the user Dualcast and a 25% killer to birds and demons.
Summary
For a free-to-play player, Malphasie is definitely a solid unit worth getting. The fact that she can chain with three different families makes her incredibly flexible. Personally, I also really like hybrid damage dealers. Most bosses tend to have higher DEF than SPR making hybrid chainers a better pick to bring.
The biggest con F2P players will find in picking up Malphasie is gearing – generally speaking, hybrid gear isn’t easy to acquire. Still, she’s a solid investment as her ability to be slotted with so many different chaining families greatly offsets this.
If you still have resources left to spend post-Hyoh banner, Malphasie is a great unit to have. Ultimately, with Halloween coming up soon and thus, the return of the Halloween exclusive units, the question of whether or not you want to spend resources on her will vary depending on what units you currently have. I utilized a bit too much of my resources trying to chase after Hyoh, so I’ll be saving until Halloween. I missed Illusionist Nichol last year and am looking forward to add his unique ability to make anyone a cover tank to my repertoire.
Featured Image Source: Twitter (via @oolongnoon)
