Mog Bonanza May 2016

Anyone else notice they have Nagi listed on the Geas Fete Kupons?

i believe a similar thing happened with last bonanza, and was confirmed to be a typo

My observations:
- they moved the skill up earrings down from rank 4 to rank 5. Crafting torques are now available (rank 4)
- abjuration gear is automatically hq
- Kupo shield is still there, along with other costume items. If you pick a different Kupo item over this, you're nuts
- they didn't bother making Gil prizes a quotient of the total; just strait up 1, 10, or 100 mil. Considering the monetary worth of those other prizes, I think you'd be nuts to choose this option
- new weapons only available with the Geas fete coupon? o.o;
- gotta love how they include RMEs as either the level 99 tier 2 version of the fully upgraded tier 3 version *both in the same prize rank*. Like gee, do I pick the fully upgraded version, or the semi-upgraded version? Come on SE, if you're going to offer both, at least make them seperate ranks. Upgrading to tier 3 is like 100 mil right there (at least for relics and mythics).
- gotta love how they go right out and admit the shield and instrument RMEs shouldn't bother with the higher tier coupon. The least they could do is offer up upgrade items too as consolation prize :p

When did they stop the 50%/30%/20% total gil for rank 1/2/3?

When everybody quit.

Funny thing is they say this... but really those are T4 Reisen HELM drops...

My guess is that they put the REM Kupons in the same category in order to allow people to pick the Aegis/Ochain/Gjallarhorn/Daurdabla options. That also explains their note regarding the selection of those items.

When compiling the wish list though, I'd want a +1 Adhemar piece instead.

What they mean is that some items are available on multiple Kupons, but the ones in red are only available from that Kupon.

Torques in rank 4 is nice, as are skillup earrings in 5; though skillup is phenomenally easier than it was before, that's still a nice option for newer players.

I'm mostly just happy that the crystal storage system now gives me enough room where 10 marbles per character is no longer an inventory drag.

nice to see Dense Cluster bumped to Rank 2 where it belongs instead of Rank 1. I don't think anyone is going to be dumb enough to take a level 90 R/E though, considering how easy getting to that stage is these days. even if you had an existing weapon you wanted to upgrade, since they do not throw in the 10k Pluton/Beitetsu/Boulders necessary to get i121, you would be better off taking a new copy of the weapon rather than eating the ~100 million gil to hit the final upgrade. skill up rings/earring are definitely a Rank 5 prize these days, because nothing is hard to skill these days with bonuses from RoV and Adoulin. torques are a nice addition, as are the multitude of Kupons that actually have worthwhile items on them. all in all, this is looking like a nice Bonanza selection.

Can you sell the 90>119 upgrade mats that you get with the level 90 kupon? If you can that could be a good option moneywise for people who, for whatever reason, aren't interested in getting another 119 RME.
Likewise if they can't be sold but can be muled (imagine winning rank1 on a mule)

Overall on this Bonanza -which looks really cool- I'm a bit puzzled by the lack of Warder torques, all Escha rewards grouped together into a rank2 kupon (wut?) and the Kupo stuff being available for rank 1 (one item of choice) or rank2 (4 separate items).
I think I'm missing something there because it sounds so pointless o.O

It's the only way to get a shield or instrument.

SE even said so on their page.

Rank 1 REM weapon prize is the afterglow version? Interesting...

I know, but I still don't see anyone taking an Ochain/Daurdabla as a Bonanza prize when you could literally accomplish the same thing in 1-3 days.

I don't think I've ever won anything on these. But hoping I can at least get 2 digits for Kupofried.

First place pipe dream is Yagrush the Kupo Shield, obviously. Crafting!

presumably, yes. similar upgrade items like Airlixirs in the past are just their standard, AH-able versions.

Where did you read that? Cool :O
I thought it was 119 version, not 119v3

Not sure. It just says it was reforged. Vague enough to inspire hope.

Btw, does anyone know if the Bayld crystal fulfills all HPB requirements for all stages or just the stage you're on?

I feel like anybody who doesn't take Kupo Shield as their prize (rank 1 or 2) is asleep at the wheel. I am excited over the prospect of getting a spriggan coat.

There is zero risk if you are given the option of taking a Kupo Shield. It's incredibly short sighted not to. People don't understand the potential.

I *** hate crafting and generally avoid it.

If I get rank 2, I am getting a Kupo Shield. You own the market at that point, unless there's another Kupo Shield crafter in the same discipline on your server. It's basically a license to print gil. The fact that it's still rank 2 is hilarious to me, because it's far and away the best item available right now.

Bayld crystal fulfills the entire requirement, so the 13099 HPB. This means if you've already started on a weapon, its probably best to finish the one you're on and use the crystal for another.

Hell, I would get it if I got a rank 1.

If you've never crafted a wooden stool before, would it make sense to pick this shield and do crafting? Starting from 0, how long and expensive would it be to see a worthwhile return on the shield?

I'm pretty sure there's already an Alchemy Kupo Shield owner on my sevrer. Not sure what I'd skill up... Clothcraft? Goldsmithing?

Probably cheaper than starting from 0 without the shield.

Depending on who else has a shield on your server, consider the following:

All Crafts: It is going to take you time to not only level the craft, but also get Guild Points and a torque. Leveling could take as little as a few days if you're focused on it (more so if the campaign is in effect). You'll need 205k GP to max out (required for some synths' profitability), which would probably take about a month and a half to two months. Torque is random, enjoy box hunting. Also, the improved skill from shield won't really help with Hexed synths due to how high level they are. While normally crafters can only HQ the feet from -1 at a 1/4 rate, with a shield you can do the same with head, hands, and legs of any set. HQ rate for any and all body synths are not improved with the shield.
Alchemy: Costs very little to level, with nearly all skill up recipe materials being bought from either NPCs or spark vendors. Doesn't really need most subcrafts. You can level this craft fairly painlessly without much funding. With Mog Garden KIs, you'd never have to pay more than about 600k + the cost of 4 Eschite Ores to create Carmine (crimson) hands/legs/feet HQ. If you have no competition (as in, other shield owners), you can effectively set the price to be very profitable for only yourself. You would need a bonecrafter friend of mule (90ish) to make the Dragon armor in bulk, however. Jinxed set (Amalric) is in extremely high demand still. Note that this is the most popular choice for shield owners, so you're most likely to have competition here.
Goldsmithing: A pain to level due to limited materials and it's also rather popular. A shield here would only really improve your HQ rate on Souveran (koenig), but I've noticed there's already a lot of that stuff floating around due to the fact that the materials used can be largely bought from NPCs, so people have already spammed the ***out of it. Also, Apogee (zenith) head, which is gold instead of cloth like the rest of the set. Jinxed set (Emicho) seems uncommon enough that you'd sell it for a good price.
Smithing: I understand it's a little easier than Goldsmithing to level, but not by much. With this, you can crank out the Argosy (adaman) in bulk, but I'm not certain there's much of a demand for this stuff, since it's very limited by jobs. The materials (except for the body) are not too crazy to get in bulk but I don't think you can get adaman from NPCs. I don't know much about the Jinxed set's (Ryuo) value, so I can't comment on that.
Bonecrafting: I'd say it's sort of easy-middlish in terms of leveling difficulty. You could crank out Lustratio (hecatomb) subligar in bulk, though you're limited by the availability of Angel Skins. Could also make the hands but they're far less useful. Just short on being able to spam the feet. Jinxed set (Adhemar) is very much sought after, but you only improve your rate on the hands (awesome) and feet (ok).
Clothcraft: On par with Bone in terms of leveling difficulty, I'd say. Sadly, the Zenith synths (body, hands, legs) are too high for the shield to make a difference, so you'd only be helping your rate of making Voodoo/Jinxed gear from HQ bases. Jinxed gear includes not only the Kaykaus set (which is of limited demand, from what I've seen), but also the Adhemar head and legs, both of which are in demand.
Leathercraft: Middlish difficulty to level. For some reason, instead of getting their own set, they kinda just steal a few synths the other sets. Like with cloth, with a shield you only get a boost to Voodoo/Jinxed gear when using HQ bases.
Woodworking: Unsure of the difficulty to level. Only synths that get a boost by shield are Shura legs and feet bases, which I understand has some demand for PUPs? No hexed/vexed set in Woodworking, sadly.

tldr; Arguably, Alchemy, Gold, and Bone are the crafts most profitable for shields right now. Alchemy is the easiest to level and Carmine is probably the easiest to both craft and sell in bulk, but it's also the craft with the highest rate of shield owners.

If all you want is to fund a RME and you win rank 1 on your main, grab your weapon and be done with it.

But if you want to gear yourself well, I mean Tizona/Almace Blu with 5/5 Amalric +1 and 3+/5 Adhemar +1 OR you win rank 1 or 2 on a mule, then get the shield and level a craft. If you get lucky or have 9 mules, you can even save yourself the hassle and get your crafting torque from rank 4.