Final Fantasy Record Keeper II: Also FFRK IV in Japan

[DiscipleofBob]

A thread about a freemium game got to a second thread! Who'd have guessed?



If you haven't heard, Final Fantasy Record Keeper is a (relatively) new freemium smartphone game which is like Pokemon only instead you collect Final Fantasy characters and classes from every game. Then you form a party of 5 and in classic 16-bit style go through dungeons from every game.

It's not the best-designed game. There aren't a huge number of available characters and a lot of big names are from temporary event dungeons. From what I've read the event dungeons tend to repeat so they're not gone forever. Getting decent equipment is based on a lottery, and there aren't a lot of character customization options. Each character has two slots you can assign up to two abilities that you have to craft from farmable items. And in true FF fashion, there are certain points where you have to farm EXP to progress.

That being said, the graphics and classic music are well worth the game's faults. You get synergy bonuses for taking party members and equipment from the same game as the dungeon you're facing, and the different bosses have the same weaknesses and strategies that they do from their original games, so there are reasons to try different parties.

As someone raised on Final Fantasy, the sheer amount of nostalgia packed into every part of this game is amazing.

Friend Codes:
Mr.Sandman: 95HA
Suichimo: 9Qce
Infernally Clay: 9uVh
DiscipleofBob: ef9h
Forbiddenwar: QFWA
tyckspoon: e3iN
Starwulf: GUtu
Deadline: esWa
Calemyr: Gmfa
Fleeing Coward: qxZD


Perhaps a link for the lovingly handcrafted character progress Excel (or Google Docs) sheet I made?

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7QWkjfiI8_dUUsxZXBfajg4UTA/view?usp=sharing

Also, for anybody looking for a Mighty Guard, add Bi1H.


Given that this is a new thread, if people want me to include any additional information in the opening post here (documents, links, etc.), let me know.

[DiscipleofBob]

So leveling progress:

Squall hit 65.
Irvine's getting close at 63.
Aerith's getting close to level break.

Next on my list is probably Barret, though I doubt I can get him to level 50 before he'll be useful in the bonus battles, but I'm determine to get the MC2 crystal.

[Jurai]

Perhaps a link for the lovingly handcrafted character progress Excel (or Google Docs) sheet I made?

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7QWkjfiI8_dUUsxZXBfajg4UTA/view?usp=sharing

Also, for anybody looking for a Mighty Guard, add Bi1H.

[danzibr]

I'll scrounge up my friend code tomorrow.

Any good reads for suggested RM to get? I'm about to cap Rydia and Vaan, need suggestions.

[SuperPanda]

I've decided I'm not running the boss rush for Terra's event - I want Drainga but I don't trust I'll get it without mythril spent and I can craft it later if I need it.

I've got the following team running orb dungeons after clearing Cloud's event:
Warrior of Light (37) ----> At 50 to be replaced with Squall to prep for the upcoming VIII event (No MC yet)
Maria (35) ----> At 50 to be replaced with Vivi because I should have him at 50 for when I get his MC, also free mythril from IX quest.
Ranger (37) ----> At 50 to be replaced Wakka - Solid support who should be leveled
Arc (39) ----> At 50 to be replaced Yuna or Eiko (last "White Mages" to level before I go to Mog, Gordon, and Tyro)
Lightning (35) ----> At 50 to be replaced character TBD.

General things I'm planning/hoping for:

Teams - Prepare a solid IV, VII, VIII, and X team for 'Rift of Recollections'
IV already has: Pld Cecil 50 (No MC), Tellah 60, Rydia 61, Kain 36 w/ MC, Edward 32 no MC
VII already has: Zack 50 w/ MC, Arieth 51, Tifa 59, Cloud 65, Red XIII 42 no MC, Barret 1 w/ MC)
VIII already has Rinnoa 51, Squall 32, Irvine 30 - Squall to 50 before the Seifer event will help alot.
X already has: Auron 50 w/ MC, Yuna 34 no MC, Wakka 37 no MC, Tidus 42 no MC, Kimarhi 30 w/ MC

Abilities: I don't plan to create / hone any abilities during orb-fest. I want to find out how lucky I was at the end and decide how best to use those orbs.
R 1 - No plans.
R2 - Kirin R2 or 3. Steal HP R2 > R4. Double Cut from R2 and R3 > 2xR4
R 3 - Elemental 3* summons at R2 (low priority).
-Ga magics from R3 > R4
Breaks from R2 (armor / Mental) and 3 (power, Magic) > R4
Tempo Flurry R2 > R4
R4 - Dismissal > R3. Craft Carbuncle. Craft Shellga. Craft Power and magic Breakdown and Hone to R2. (Store orbs to hone Ruinga to R2).
R5 - Not touching those orbs.

Mythril goals:

I have 45 now - between the next two lucky draws I will spend 50.
4/5 of the banners at Rift of Recollections get me excited (~200 mythril) there should be almost 100 mythril from events / daily log ins between the end of Orbfest and that. To have 4 11 pulls I'd need to harvest 100 myhtril from classic/elite dungeons between now and then. I don't think this can happen but that is no reason not to try. I haven't looked to closely at other banners just yet though.



I'm not sure from the description if "Bone Crusher" has a chance to do 25% of the enemies max hp as bonus damage or 25% of the user's max HP as bonus damage - or if thats always in the rider - or what. In short, I'm not sure if its worth honing.

[Mr.Sandman]

So, I began running Cloud, Tifa, Barret, Vivi, and Aerith through the Orb event, and Vivi equips the Minerva Bustier I managed to snag. I just had the image go through my head of Barret telling him that it's meant for the ladies. Vivi expresses confusion over all these rules humans have. And Cloud tells Barret not to give the kid too much trouble, sometimes you do what you need to.

[Chen]

I'll scrounge up my friend code tomorrow.

Any good reads for suggested RM to get? I'm about to cap Rydia and Vaan, need suggestions.


Some of the better ones IMHO:

- The three springs (White mage, Black mage, Summoner)
- +10% ATK/DEF, start Sapped and Double-hit (both Joseph)
- Auto-haste (Balthier and Luneth)
- +20% MAG, -10% DEF/RES (Vivi)
- +20% ATK, start Sapped (Ricard)
- +10% MAG, -10% ATK (Ashe)
- Auto-Shell (Arc)
- Auto-Protect (Refia and Gordon)

[Starwulf]

So, I know that fairly soonish we'll be able to upgrade or downgrade orbs which is a huge boost/bonus, but is there ever going to be a way to disassemble abilities that we have no use for in order to get some of the orbs back? I have(and I'm sure others do as well) tons of abilities from event rewards that I'm never going to use, and I haven't bothered to get rid of them for gil in the hopes that eventually we'll be able to disassemble them.

On another note: Where to get Greater Summon Orbs? I need TWO of the things to make me a carbuncle.

On a final note, HOW THE HELL DO YOU FIGURE OUT WHO WREXSOUL POSSESSED? This is ridiculous, he has not remained on the battlefield for more then 2-3 attacks before possessing someone, and I am honestly getting tired of it. I only have two damn people I can use to attack with safely, lest I do massive damage to myself. This battle is beyond retarded, I am seriously considering just bailing and not wasting my time with it.

[SuperPanda]

So, I know that fairly soonish we'll be able to upgrade or downgrade orbs which is a huge boost/bonus, but is there ever going to be a way to disassemble abilities that we have no use for in order to get some of the orbs back? I have(and I'm sure others do as well) tons of abilities from event rewards that I'm never going to use, and I haven't bothered to get rid of them for gil in the hopes that eventually we'll be able to disassemble them.

On another note: Where to get Greater Summon Orbs? I need TWO of the things to make me a carbuncle.

On a final note, HOW THE HELL DO YOU FIGURE OUT WHO WREXSOUL POSSESSED? This is ridiculous, he has not remained on the battlefield for more then 2-3 attacks before possessing someone, and I am honestly getting tired of it. I only have two damn people I can use to attack with safely, lest I do massive damage to myself. This battle is beyond retarded, I am seriously considering just bailing and not wasting my time with it.

Greater Summon Orbs: Future events or Orbfest phase 3.

Wrexsoul - Yeah... that was exactly my experience. I had a Runic blade RW and he'd just run out the clock like that. If protectga / SG is up you can safely let even 65 cloud smack himself without much damage.

[Starwulf]

Greater Summon Orbs: Future events or Orbfest phase 3.

Wrexsoul - Yeah... that was exactly my experience. I had a Runic blade RW and he'd just run out the clock like that. If protectga / SG is up you can safely let even 65 cloud smack himself without much damage.

Well, I went back in a second time and he only tried to posses me twice. DIdn't master the fight because he killed two of my guys in the closing moments of the fight, but yeah, I won, which is a surprise for me.

I was excited about going into the next battle, because I thought it was Kefka, but yeah, nope. It's boss rush, and I barely beat the last two set of bosses as it was.

Edit: Oh, and Huzzah! I Just got my first character to level 65: Tidus! Now subbing in Barret for the rest of the orb events so I can get him some levels since I got his 5* weapon ^^

[danzibr]

So, I began running Cloud, Tifa, Barret, Vivi, and Aerith through the Orb event, and Vivi equips the Minerva Bustier I managed to snag. I just had the image go through my head of Barret telling him that it's meant for the ladies. Vivi expresses confusion over all these rules humans have. And Cloud tells Barret not to give the kid too much trouble, sometimes you do what you need to.
This made me literally lol.

Some of the better ones IMHO:

- The three springs (White mage, Black mage, Summoner)
- +10% ATK/DEF, start Sapped and Double-hit (both Joseph)
- Auto-haste (Balthier and Luneth)
- +20% MAG, -10% DEF/RES (Vivi)
- +20% ATK, start Sapped (Ricard)
- +10% MAG, -10% ATK (Ashe)
- Auto-Shell (Arc)
- Auto-Protect (Refia and Gordon)
Thanks! Very helpful. I suppose I'll go for Vivi next.

Well, I went back in a second time and he only tried to posses me twice. DIdn't master the fight because he killed two of my guys in the closing moments of the fight, but yeah, I won, which is a surprise for me.

I was excited about going into the next battle, because I thought it was Kefka, but yeah, nope. It's boss rush, and I barely beat the last two set of bosses as it was.

Edit: Oh, and Huzzah! I Just got my first character to level 65: Tidus! Now subbing in Barret for the rest of the orb events so I can get him some levels since I got his 5* weapon ^^
Grats! I'm going to try the Dream Stooges tonight, surely the last one I do from that event. I've been stalling to level Terra. My party to attempt them should be Cloud 65, Tellah 65, Rydia 64, Vaan 63, Terra 45ish. Not sure I can do it, but I want to try. I have enough orbs to create but not hone a Shellga, might do that.

EDIT: Oh, I meant to comment on Barret. I'm leveling mine, 'cause he seems like a solid character and I love him and all, but I have *no* good weapon for him. Seriously nothing over 3*. Maybe the next Lucky Draw will be kind to me.

EDIT EDIT: Another thing I meant to mention. Barret looks freakin' ridiculous when he whips out a gun.

[Mr.Sandman]

Another thing I meant to mention. Barret looks freakin' ridiculous when he whips out a gun.

I reminds me of the fight from Princess Bride a bit. "I think you should know something. I'm not left handed." *Bang*

[Jurai]

As of Day 10 on the Orbfest Log-in Rewards, I will have 6 5 stars or better weapons from Relic Pulls (I had a second Assassin's Dagger but combined it for a 6 star), Lenna's already level 50 (and may replace Tellah as White Mage entirely. Now, to hope and pray we can get a melee combat capable Black Mage other than Terra, for the Abyss event against Ultima Buster. Ashe can sit in the back and load lead into it, Terra can smack it with a sword, but that leaves three others. Maria gets a bow, so she'll be running the Killer Bow (or better if I manage to pull one), Rydia'll be summoning Kirin to keep the team healed, and that leaves a third. Any recommendations? I need 5 star Black Magic users, specifically. Other than Tyro, before you mention it.

Current candidates include Hope, Golbez, and Reno.

[Knaight]

Any recommendations? I need 5 star Black Magic users, specifically. Other than Tyro, before you mention it.

Current candidates include Hope, Golbez, and Reno.

I've been using Rinoa, and she's been kicking butt. Then there's always Vivi. I don't know if you actually have either of these characters, but if you do it's worth a shot.

On other notes, Jenova LIFE is supposed to be weak to earth. Is it just me, or are they not actually weak to earth?

[DiscipleofBob]

I've been using Rinoa, and she's been kicking butt. Then there's always Vivi. I don't know if you actually have either of these characters, but if you do it's worth a shot.

On other notes, Jenova LIFE is supposed to be weak to earth. Is it just me, or are they not actually weak to earth?

Vivi is hands down the best pure Black Mage, but he's not good at much else. I personally prefer Rinoa, since she can get a ranged weapon and do more than wave her stick around uselessly when she's out of spells, and if I absolutely need a secondary healer I can give her a Curaga, even if she's not as good with it as any White Mages.

Maybe I just hadn't noticed, but Quake and Rinoa's SB seemed to work against JLIFE when I fought her.

[Knaight]

Vivi is hands down the best pure Black Mage, but he's not good at much else. I personally prefer Rinoa, since she can get a ranged weapon and do more than wave her stick around uselessly when she's out of spells, and if I absolutely need a secondary healer I can give her a Curaga, even if she's not as good with it as any White Mages.

Maybe I just hadn't noticed, but Quake and Rinoa's SB seemed to work against JLIFE when I fought her.

It did damage, I just never saw "Vulnerable" pop up and it didn't do all that much damage. JLIFE still dropped at the end, but this would be good to know for the upcoming boss rush.

On an unrelated note, is Cactuar any good at all for high level characters?

[Chen]

As of Day 10 on the Orbfest Log-in Rewards, I will have 6 5 stars or better weapons from Relic Pulls (I had a second Assassin's Dagger but combined it for a 6 star), Lenna's already level 50 (and may replace Tellah as White Mage entirely. Now, to hope and pray we can get a melee combat capable Black Mage other than Terra, for the Abyss event against Ultima Buster. Ashe can sit in the back and load lead into it, Terra can smack it with a sword, but that leaves three others. Maria gets a bow, so she'll be running the Killer Bow (or better if I manage to pull one), Rydia'll be summoning Kirin to keep the team healed, and that leaves a third. Any recommendations? I need 5 star Black Magic users, specifically. Other than Tyro, before you mention it.

Current candidates include Hope, Golbez, and Reno.

What event are you talking about and why do you need combat capable mages?

[Jurai]

What event are you talking about and why do you need combat capable mages?

http://ffrk.kongbakpao.com/abyss/

So I can do something other than cast spells and wave sticks around.

[Chen]

Oh I thought you meant something soon. Looking at the chars on that list I have to assume that's a good ways away.

[SuperPanda]

http://ffrk.kongbakpao.com/abyss/

So I can do something other than cast spells and wave sticks around.

From everything I've heard about the first Abyss (Ultima) - you aren't suppose to do anything but cast spells at it. This said, casters capable of using good armors would probably help alot.

[danzibr]

Reno's going to get 5* BM eh?

Looking at that list, I'm ecstatic. FuSoYa? Exdeath? Lulu?

EDIT: Oh man, I got so excited I completely forgot why I hopped on. So I was able to beat the Dream Stooges. Burnt down the top one (well, used ice, but anyway), then started Retaliate and Terra using magic on the second two, when my Shellga drops and they team up on Terra and down her. Grrrrrrr. I ended up not getting mastery. Still, the first difficulty 90 dungeon I ever beat, then went on to do the 95 after that. Quite pleased with that.

[SuperPanda]

Reno's going to get 5* BM eh?

Looking at that list, I'm ecstatic. FuSoYa? Exdeath? Lulu?

EDIT: Oh man, I got so excited I completely forgot why I hopped on. So I was able to beat the Dream Stooges. Burnt down the top one (well, used ice, but anyway), then started Retaliate and Terra using magic on the second two, when my Shellga drops and they team up on Terra and down her. Grrrrrrr. I ended up not getting mastery. Still, the first difficulty 90 dungeon I ever beat, then went on to do the 95 after that. Quite pleased with that.



FuSoYa is getting released in the high level dungeons in a dungeon update soon (I think at the end of Phase 3 of orb fest but I'm not sure). - This might mean having no MC.

Lulu gets her own event along with Wakka.

Exdeath is far away - shortly before Abyss comes out.

On a different note: Lucky draw has been reset. I have to wait to pull until later - promised a friend they can watch my dorky disappointment and/or excitement when I draw.

Here's wishing all of the playgrounders a very successful draw. Hoping you get that relic (or even those relics) you've been secretly (or not so secretly) chasing on this draw.

I think the real reward for me on Lucky Draw so far has been that 2 of my RWs (and 1 mutual follower) got Advance. That was fun against J-Life.

Edit 1: added quote.

Edit 2: responding to Edit in quote:

Awesome job. Those stooges were anoying. Congrats on downing a difficulty 90! Thats a good place to be.

[Jurai]

So, out of sheer curiosity, how many level 50+ characters do y'all have? I'll start with a full list.


Thancred
Ashe
Kimahri
Steiner
Cloud
Terra
Lenna
Tellah
Rydia

[SuperPanda]

Lets see:

50 w/o MC:
Pld. Cecil, Edgar, Josef, Lenna

50+
Cloud, Tellah, Ashe, Rinoa, Bard, White Mage, Black Mage, Tifa, Arieth, Y'sholta, Thancred, Auron, Zack, Terra, Rydia, Sazh, Vaan.

[Starwulf]

So what did everyone get from the Half-mythril 11 pull today? I got two 5* this time around: Golden Armor(for leon) and Storm Staff?(Garnet I think). Neither are two terribly useful once again(would it kill the game to give me Tidus/Vaan/Vivi/Yuna/Squall SB item?) but hey, they are at least 5* with decent stats so I'm happy.

I finally got to craft Carbuncle, super happy about that, then went ahead and crafted Kirin and honed it twice(so 3 uses). So I guess the next time I come across a boss battle that can be trivialized via reflect I'll have it covered for a change. I've given up on finding RW that have Runic, I have literally NEVER seen anyone using it, and I check every single time I enter a set of dungeons.

I posted last thread about what 50 characters I have, there was about 10 of them or so and that's it.

Edit: I know one thing, the next time the weapon and armor upgrade material dungeons roll around I'm going to have to spend all flipping day on them, I have so many 3 star items I need to ugprade(mostly because I've gotten a lot of dupes so I can make a lot of 4 and even 5 items out of them), plus the smattering of native 5* I've gained as well. The 1mil gil I've gained from this orb event is going to be gone in no time flat honestly.

[T.G. Oskar]

I have Steiner and Lenna at level 50 without LB, I have Terra, the Keeper, Balthier...and starting from today, Wakka at level 50+ and Level-Broken, and in a few days I'll have Josef, the Bard and probably the Ranger at 50 and level-broken.

Also - almost halfway to another Lucky Draw. All I need is to claim the Mythril from today's Daily Dungeons (done two of them already), and whatever Mythril I have left from the FFVII event, while waiting for...I dunno, Monday's Daily Dungeons? Perhaps not in this part of the Orbfest, but before I finish, I should have another run coming through. On the bright side - aren't Daily Dungeons supposed to switch soon enough? I hope for a FF1 Exp dungeon called the "Peninsula of Power", because let's face it - the name is already part of our vocabulary. Aaaand a trope, as well.

That reminds me: I need to check where are the RMs for the Bard, the Ranger and Josef. Hopefully they'll grant more Stamina Shards, which I desperately need?

[Jurai]

Josef is Coliseum- Elite, Ranger is Lhusu Mines- Elite, and Bard is Missile Base- Elite.

[danzibr]

Man, had to restore my phone, redownloading FFRK. Hopefully my data was saved somewhere.

[Jurai]

It is. One of the few benefits to such a heavy-handed server-side implementation.

And by heavy-handed, I mean that I've bumped into the 'broken image' icon after switching between FFRK, Messaging, and back. Several times.

[Chen]

So pulled on the lucky banner. Got Tifa's glove. Not great since I don't use her but still an ok pull.

Finished Cloud's bonus battles. If you use breakdowns + shellga + sentinel grimoire the damage dealt by both Jenova's is super low. They're really not that bad fights.

Also got ridiculously lucky and got Cloud's RM3 on the second fight I took him to after breaking him (first was the +++ fight, first round in the Orbfest after that got the materia). That materia is a game changer if you good SBs. Tyro will probably always be on my team now since I will no longer need to bring Sentinel Grimoire as RW since I can have him start with it for every boss.

For my chars at 50+ I have:
Black Mage, White Mage, Summoner, Bard, Ranger, Warrior of Light, Gordon, Ricard, Joseph, Luneth, Kain, Lenna, Tellah, P. Cecil, Celes, Edgar, Sabin, Cyan, Aerith, Barett, Garnet, Red XIII, Selphie, Irvine, Eiko, Kimahri, Auron, Balthier, Ashe, Vanille, Sazh, Yoshotla and Thancred

At 65 I have:
Tyro, Rydia, Terra, Cloud, Zack, Sephiroth, Squall, Rinoa, Quistis, Garnet, Vivi, Tidus, Yuna, Wakka, Fran and Lightning

[Fleeing Coward]

Games trying pretty hard to get me interested again. Another triple 5* from lucky draws event. This time I got Dark Cecil's Dark Sword, Kimahri's Dusk Lance and Y'shtola's Healer's Robe. Might not really be for characters I'm interested in playing but still 2 sets of triple 5*s in a row is more luck than I've ever had before playing this game :smalltongue:

[Mr.Sandman]

Managed to snag Oak staff, Guard staff, and Lenna's rod this lucky draw. Rather good as I am using Aerith and Vivi for the VII event.

[SuperPanda]

Got to do my lucky pull.
1 5*: Hard Edge (Cloud) VII
2 4*: neither of them repeats.
a bunch of 3 * which are going to be eaten for upgrades.

Its not a bad relic and its useful for the boss-rush and ++ fights I've yet to do. I comes when I already had 3 VII 5* swords leaving me wondering what I should do with them.
2* Crystal Sword VII (shared SB) - the shared SB has been amazing up till now. With Cloud no longer needing it I might be at the point where I could combine them into a 6* sword.
1 Butterfly Edge - slightly better attack than the crystal sword but no shared SB.
Hard Edge - still leveling up, unsure what its stats will be once maxed.

[Forbiddenwar]

Any tips to unlock cloud's crystal. I have some great max characters, most record material and some decent abilities and weapons, but can't separate the good from the bad.

Is zealot rm good? Or katana mastery? I can get Sephiroth attack to nearly 500.

[DiscipleofBob]

Any tips to unlock cloud's crystal. I have some great max characters, most record material and some decent abilities and weapons, but can't separate the good from the bad.

Is zealot rm good? Or katana mastery? I can get Sephiroth attack to nearly 500.

Bring whatever FF7 characters you can that are high enough level. I just beat the boss rush and am waiting on stamina to refill before going after J-LIFE. My team was Cloud (65), Sephiroth (65), Irvine (65), Rinoa (62), Aerith (52). Just make sure you have a Support, a Black Mage, a White Mage, and probably two people that can dish out consistent physical damage. Sentinel Grimoire is the best RW, and if possible you should have Power Breakdown, Magic Breakdown, and Protectga. You'll also need Shellga for J-LIFE. For the boss rush, Thundara Strike and Thundaga are important not just for mastery, but as the best source of damage. Concentration and Mana Spring RMs are important, and if you can get Barrett's RM in time it's pretty useful as well.

Personally I had the most trouble with Guard Scorpion and Air Buster. The former throw everything you've got at it as fast as possible, but avoid making any attacks if you think it's going to put it's tail up. The Tail Laser Counter's a pain. Sephiroth (or whoever your Retaliater is) can bypass Counter Attacks with the Retaliate strategy. Similarly, Air Buster will counter your attacks until it uses its Big Bomb four times. Until then, Retaliate strategy is the best way to go, with Protectga and other damage mitigation.

After that is the Sample and its Sample Minions. You'll need at least one Sentinel Grimoire here as they have strong physical and magical attacks. Don't bother with the Minions, and don't bother with anything that hits a random target, like a lot of SB's. They'll just regenerate if destroyed. Avoid Lightning and Poison here. Aerith's Seal Evil limit break and anything that can cause Stop will help. I had Sephiroth's SB weapon which helped as well. Throw all your big guns at the main Sample, but if you have AoEs abilities like Quake or Shadow Flare, go ahead and use them. You can damage the tiny samples without worry, it just won't matter in the long run.

Finally it's Rufus and his dog, who are both pretty easy, if annoying. Go after the dog first, but he'll likely still get off Protect and Shell on Rufus. Use your AoE spells and abilities in the beginning to hit both of them, but save any multi-hit abilities like Fast Ammo or the like until you just have Rufus. Once Dark Nation is dead, Rufus will eventually lose his buffs, but until then damage is still damage so throw everything you've got at him.

You may want to consider spending 1 or 2 Mythril just to keep your health and resources up for the boss rush.

[Starwulf]

Once I get to it, this will be my first attempt at a Boss Rush as well. I'll be bringing Yuna, Cloud, Barret, Vivi & Tidus I think. I'm also going to be more then willing to spend mythril to get past it, I really want Clouds MC2.

[SuperPanda]

3 battles into the boss rush and I'd like to upwardly revise my excitement on my lucky draw result. Cross slash is reliably hitting for 9500+ on the 99 bosses and the weapon is only level 6 (I'm pretty sure the hits were after Armor break had worn off).

I'm waiting on the stamina for the Rufus fight but so far I've mastered 3/4 of the fights, have close to full health and a good number of abilities left. Looks like I could have brought Ashe instead of Tellah for my black mage and been just fine. Seal Evil trivialized the sample fight and retaliate chopped the first two's counter-stances to pieces.

[Starwulf]

So wow, I just discovered that I had not completed either the Sunday exp dailies, nor Saturdays Ice orb dailies. That's....pretty crazy. And a lot of free mythril! I think I might make one last pull on clouds SSB banner sometime tomorrow since I've had fairly good luck on it(2 4*, 2 5*).

[danzibr]

It is. One of the few benefits to such a heavy-handed server-side implementation.

And by heavy-handed, I mean that I've bumped into the 'broken image' icon after switching between FFRK, Messaging, and back. Several times.
Whelp... I downloaded it, fired it up and it was a new game. I'm always logged into GameCenter, so I tried that option under loading an account, and it was still a fresh account. I never use facebook on my phone so that wouldn't work.

So... while my account info may be somewhere, I have no clue how to access it.

Hmm, reading this (https://www.reddit.com/r/FFRecordKeeper/comments/373rnl/save_data_upload_question_finally_answered/), it does appear I entirely shafted myself. While I do use GameCenter, I never clicked the button which syncs the app to GameCenter. I suppose I'll still try to contact them to get it back.

EDIT: Oh, thank the maker! (Not sure if I'm talking about Square Enix, Anakin Skywalker, or someone else). The GameCenter thing actually worked. It gave me an error message, but I tried to log in anyway and Barret, Vaan, Terra, Zack, and Rydia were waiting for me. Phew. Thought I'd lost my addiction. Lost about 100 stamina due to time, but that seems insignificant (though I did want to grind out as many summon orbs as possible).

[SuperPanda]

Very glad to hear you got everything working again Danzibr.

On my side, I had a very close call with Jenova Life ++. Tellah bought it near the end, I just couldn't bring to bear enough damage or healing. Cloud and Tifa's relics pushed me over the end of the damage bar though. Tifa's waterkick was the hail mary - one Aqualung at the wrong moment and everyone would have fallen.

Not sure I'll go back to try for Mastery. She did drop a Greater Summon Orb though.

[danzibr]

Very glad to hear you got everything working again Danzibr.

On my side, I had a very close call with Jenova Life ++. Tellah bought it near the end, I just couldn't bring to bear enough damage or healing. Cloud and Tifa's relics pushed me over the end of the damage bar though. Tifa's waterkick was the hail mary - one Aqualung at the wrong moment and everyone would have fallen.

Not sure I'll go back to try for Mastery. She did drop a Greater Summon Orb though.
Thanks! Yeah, I was really worried. I was lying in bed thinking man, I'm not going to want to restart... at least I had a few weeks of fun. Now, many more months of fun.

And grats with beating that squiddy thing! I'm going to walk in praying for beating her. Probably on the very last day, hope I can scrounge up some more levels and other RM between now and then.

And I got worked up over possibly losing my data, forgot to reply to other stuff.

Once I get to it, this will be my first attempt at a Boss Rush as well. I'll be bringing Yuna, Cloud, Barret, Vivi & Tidus I think. I'm also going to be more then willing to spend mythril to get past it, I really want Clouds MC2.
Me too! gl Starwulf

For me, I'm surely taking in Cloud, Rydia, Tellah, and Zack. Either Vaan or Barret depending on... stuff.

I reminds me of the fight from Princess Bride a bit. "I think you should know something. I'm not left handed." *Bang*
This made me lol :D

FuSoYa is getting released in the high level dungeons in a dungeon update soon (I think at the end of Phase 3 of orb fest but I'm not sure). - This might mean having no MC.

Lulu gets her own event along with Wakka.

Exdeath is far away - shortly before Abyss comes out.

On a different note: Lucky draw has been reset. I have to wait to pull until later - promised a friend they can watch my dorky disappointment and/or excitement when I draw.

Here's wishing all of the playgrounders a very successful draw. Hoping you get that relic (or even those relics) you've been secretly (or not so secretly) chasing on this draw.

I think the real reward for me on Lucky Draw so far has been that 2 of my RWs (and 1 mutual follower) got Advance. That was fun against J-Life.

Edit 1: added quote.

Edit 2: responding to Edit in quote:

Awesome job. Those stooges were anoying. Congrats on downing a difficulty 90! Thats a good place to be.
Thanks for the info and congratulations!

As for me, I got Auron's weapon. Pretty happy about it, it's a solid SB and I wanted to level Auron.

So, out of sheer curiosity, how many level 50+ characters do y'all have? I'll start with a full list.


Thancred
Ashe
Kimahri
Steiner
Cloud
Terra
Lenna
Tellah
Rydia

65: Cloud, Tellah, Rydia, Vaan (well he's 64, but in another couple hours he'll be 65).
50: Black Mage, White Mage, Summoner, Aerith, Josef, Kain, WoL, and very soon I can add Barret, Terra, Zack, and Vivi to the list.

[Calemyr]

Okay, if any of the experts wouldn't mind giving me some pointers on how to pull off the big jobs in the event, I really want Cloud's MC2.


Level 65: Cloud (with Hardedge), Squall, Vivi, Tidus, Balthier (With Ras Algethi), Lightning
Level 60: Sephiroth
Level 59: Golbez (with Rune Axe)
Level 58: Edgard (with Partisan), Sabin (with Kaiser Knuckle)
Level 57: Terra (with Minerva Bustier)
Level 56: Tyro, Zack
Level 55: Eiko
Level 53: Wakka, Barret, Tifa, Aerith
Level 52: Garnet, Yuna

Note, however, that I have crap for anything but swords, guns, fists, spears, and axes.

Notable RMs: Zealot, Double Hit, Holy Blade, Devotion, Attunement 2, Mana Spring 2, Concentration 2

I've got the orbs to make pretty much anything that isn't 5*, and I am at the unmodded cap (100) for abilities.

Mythril to spend: 3


It feels like I should be more than sufficient for the task, but it still seems a bit daunting. Any advice on how to tackle it with a good chance of success?

[Mr.Sandman]

Cloud is my only 65 at this point, but 50 and above are
BM
Josef
Cecil x2
Rydia
Edward
Tallah
Lenna
Terra
Locke
Celes
Cyan
Cloud
Tifa
Aerith
Squall
Renoa
Irvine
Vivi
Tidus
Yuna
Wakka
Auron
Balthier
Lightning
Sazh

[DiscipleofBob]

Okay, if any of the experts wouldn't mind giving me some pointers on how to pull off the big jobs in the event, I really want Cloud's MC2.


Level 65: Cloud (with Hardedge), Squall, Vivi, Tidus, Balthier (With Ras Algethi), Lightning
Level 60: Sephiroth
Level 59: Golbez (with Rune Axe)
Level 58: Edgard (with Partisan), Sabin (with Kaiser Knuckle)
Level 57: Terra (with Minerva Bustier)
Level 56: Tyro, Zack
Level 55: Eiko
Level 53: Wakka, Barret, Tifa, Aerith
Level 52: Garnet, Yuna

Note, however, that I have crap for anything but swords, guns, fists, spears, and axes.

Notable RMs: Zealot, Double Hit, Holy Blade, Devotion, Attunement 2, Mana Spring 2, Concentration 2

I've got the orbs to make pretty much anything that isn't 5*, and I am at the unmodded cap (100) for abilities.

Mythril to spend: 3


It feels like I should be more than sufficient for the task, but it still seems a bit daunting. Any advice on how to tackle it with a good chance of success?

Well, fortunately the Boss Rush doesn't include J-Life, but she alone can be more difficult. I ended up spending 1 Mythril on the Boss Rush, but even if you heal completely between each fight that's only 3 mythril, and J-Life is only one fight so you won't need any there. Mana Spring 2 and Concentration 2 are necessary for the boss rush, but useless against J-Life.

I don't really know how effective the character-specific SBs are for you, but whatever makes the best use of your SB gauge damage-wise is probably best. Lightning is important for the first two.

For the boss rush, bring Thundara Strike on Cloud and Thundaga on whoever your usual BM is. Bring a Retaliater (Cloud or Sephiroth will work) so you can continue to do damage to Guard Scorpion and Air Buster even when they counterattack. Sentinel Grimoire is your RW of choice, though I didn't need to use mine until the third boss. Protectga is just fine for the first two waves anyway. For the first wave just try to keep the boss's counter status in mind. For the second just use the Retaliate strategy until Air Buster's used the Big Bomb four times and then it can't counter anymore.

For the third boss, don't worry about attacking the minions as they'll just regenerate. AoE abilities work fine, just any damage to the minions won't matter. Just avoid poison and keep up the damage. Rufus is pretty easy as long as you keep Protectga or Sentinel Grimoire up. You'll have to deal with some annoying buffs from Dark Nation, but just focus fire on it before you go after Rufus.

J-Life may be only one boss, but she's still very hard. You'll need either Sentinel Grimoire or a Boon RW, Shellga, Power and Magic Breakdown, and as much damage as you can throw at her. Try to avoid Black Magic damage spells and focus on physical abilities if you can. If you do bring Black Magic, only use it on her when she's Stopped. Otherwise she'll counter by using Reflect on herself. Then she'll use Reflect on one of your party members. Both make the fight that much harder. I only had R1 Breakdowns and Shellga, an R2 Quake, and an R3 Stop. I quickly ran out of everything. Stop you'll need to cast every other turn from your BM, though if you can use Aerith's Seal Evil it lasts a bit longer. Retaliate helps your WM and BM help deal damage even when they don't have offensive spells to cast. I had Sephiroth with a One Winged Angel, Retaliate, and Armor Break, but if you have better damage output with Cloud then throw those on him instead. It took me several tries as you want to get your Roaming Warrior, a Stop, and a Magic Breakdown off as soon as possible or risk losing a character right away to Blue Light.

For some reason towards the end of the fight J-Life just kept missing with Blue Light against Sephiroth. I don't know if I just got lucky or if I had some better equipment on than I thought.

Either way, the fight's doable, just very difficult. Good luck!

[Chen]

Okay, if any of the experts wouldn't mind giving me some pointers on how to pull off the big jobs in the event, I really want Cloud's MC2.


Level 65: Cloud (with Hardedge), Squall, Vivi, Tidus, Balthier (With Ras Algethi), Lightning
Level 60: Sephiroth
Level 59: Golbez (with Rune Axe)
Level 58: Edgard (with Partisan), Sabin (with Kaiser Knuckle)
Level 57: Terra (with Minerva Bustier)
Level 56: Tyro, Zack
Level 55: Eiko
Level 53: Wakka, Barret, Tifa, Aerith
Level 52: Garnet, Yuna

Note, however, that I have crap for anything but swords, guns, fists, spears, and axes.

Notable RMs: Zealot, Double Hit, Holy Blade, Devotion, Attunement 2, Mana Spring 2, Concentration 2

I've got the orbs to make pretty much anything that isn't 5*, and I am at the unmodded cap (100) for abilities.

Mythril to spend: 3


It feels like I should be more than sufficient for the task, but it still seems a bit daunting. Any advice on how to tackle it with a good chance of success?

With that setup I'd do the following:

Boss rush:
Cloud: Retaliate/thundara strike
Aerith: Curaga/Protectga - Concentration II RM
Sephiroth: Double-cut/armor break
Wakka: Boost/Power breakdown - Double-hit RM
Vivi: Thundaga/Stop - Mana Spring II RM
RW: Sentinel Grimoire

Cloud with Hardedge boosted should be hitting for 4-6k with normal attacks. With him retaliating the rest of your team will tear the bosses apart.

For Jenova Life I'd go with:

Cloud: Retaliate/armor break
Aerith: Curaga/Shellga - Double-hit RM
Sephiroth: Double-cut/pound? (something hard hitting)
Wakka: Magic breakdown/Power breakdown
Terra: Boost/Stop
RW: Sentinel Grimoire

Setup defenses while Terra Stops the boss on the first turn. After the first stop you can boost Cloud and then just keep using Stop with Terra until you're out of uses. Alternate power and magic breakdown on Wakka and retaliate/armor break on Cloud. Sephiroth double-cut's Cloud and Aerith heals or attacks Cloud.

The key to both (and all bonus fights really) is to know when you hit a bad patch and S/L. If you want to master these fights without wasting tons of Mythril S/L starts becoming important. Any boss getting an AoE off before you have mitigation up is almost certainly worth an S/L. Jenova Life's blue light will almost certainly kill someone if it hits unmitigated so that's another S/L.

[Calemyr]

With that setup I'd do the following:

Boss rush:
Cloud: Retaliate/thundara strike
Aerith: Curaga/Protectga - Concentration II RM
Sephiroth: Double-cut/armor break
Wakka: Boost/Power breakdown - Double-hit RM
Vivi: Thundaga/Stop - Mana Spring II RM
RW: Sentinel Grimoire

Cloud with Hardedge boosted should be hitting for 4-6k with normal attacks. With him retaliating the rest of your team will tear the bosses apart.

For Jenova Life I'd go with:

Cloud: Retaliate/armor break
Aerith: Curaga/Shellga - Double-hit RM
Sephiroth: Double-cut/pound? (something hard hitting)
Wakka: Magic breakdown/Power breakdown
Terra: Boost/Stop
RW: Sentinel Grimoire

Setup defenses while Terra Stops the boss on the first turn. After the first stop you can boost Cloud and then just keep using Stop with Terra until you're out of uses. Alternate power and magic breakdown on Wakka and retaliate/armor break on Cloud. Sephiroth double-cut's Cloud and Aerith heals or attacks Cloud.

The key to both (and all bonus fights really) is to know when you hit a bad patch and S/L. If you want to master these fights without wasting tons of Mythril S/L starts becoming important. Any boss getting an AoE off before you have mitigation up is almost certainly worth an S/L. Jenova Life's blue light will almost certainly kill someone if it hits unmitigated so that's another S/L.

Is there any reason I'd want to take Wakka over Barret? My best throwing weapon or bow is 4*, and none of them from VII. Barret, on the other hand, can use Ras Algethi. Also, Golbez with the Rune Axe has higher magic than Vivi with any of my (4* and non-VII) rods or Terra while still being able to use Boost. I'm not arguing, mind you, just trying to see what I missed in the logic.

Also, why Double-hit RM on Aerith? Wouldn't Auto-Haste, Improved Healing, Concentration 2 make more sense? Again, I assume there's a reason for the suggestion, I just don't see it.

[DiscipleofBob]

Is there any reason I'd want to take Wakka over Barret? My best throwing weapon or bow is 4*, and none of them from VII. Barret, on the other hand, can use Ras Algethi. Also, Golbez with the Rune Axe has higher magic than Vivi with any of my (4* and non-VII) rods or Terra while still being able to use Boost. I'm not arguing, mind you, just trying to see what I missed in the logic.

Also, why Double-hit RM on Aerith? Wouldn't Auto-Haste, Improved Healing, Concentration 2 make more sense? Again, I assume there's a reason for the suggestion, I just don't see it.

No, you should definitely take Barrett. Still back row, still Support 5, and Synergy to boot. The only reason you might take Wakka is if you haven't leveled Barrett yet or if you had Wakka's SB weapon or something, but as you said, it's not the case for you.

As for Aerith's RM, Concentration II won't help you against J-Life. You could definitely make some arguments for Auto-Haste or Improved Healing, but Double Hit can help you with Retaliate. (Retaliater uses Retaliate. Aerith uses Double Hit on Retaliater. Retaliater attacks boss twice for full damage.) So it's arguably better. It also depends on how good you are at keeping J-Life under Stop and mitigating damage, since if you need her you'll want Aerith being able to heal as much as possible.

[danzibr]

Hmm, I wonder what FFRK is like end-game (I know new stuff keeps rolling out, but ya know what I mean). Have everyone at max level, rolling in the gold and mythril, absurd abilities. New characters comes out, get him/her, then MC, then to cap the next week. Solid team for every realm.

I still really wonder about the realm for FFI. I mean, we only have WoL. Maybe we'll get Garland at some point?

I was also going to make a comment on 5*'s. I think I've been *really* lucky with the number of 5*'s I've gotten. I have 5 5* swords, 3 4* staffs, 1 4* whip, and 7 5* armors. Then for 4* I have a dagger, a couple axes, a fist and a bow. I'm only missing a strong gun and throwing weapon.

[Mr.Sandman]

I am hopeing endgame eventually gets into the plot of what's happening in the land of records, but probably not.

[Forbiddenwar]

*Really good advice . . .

Support character needed.

Huh. I wonder if that's my problem with high difficulty dungeons.
I don't have any 5* or 4* support characters.

I mean I have them at level one but I never got a good weapon for them so I never used them. The besr i have is a 5* dagger++. The breakdowns are that important?

I don't know where to begin? Who is the best support? They all seem terrible. I'll start Leveling Barret now for synergy.

[SuperPanda]

Huh. I wonder if that's my problem with high difficulty dungeons.
I don't have any 5* or 4* support characters.

I mean I have them at level one but I never got a good weapon for them so I never used them. The besr i have is a 5* dagger++. The breakdowns are that important?

I don't know where to begin? Who is the best support? They all seem terrible. I'll start Leveling Barret now for synergy.

Each support has their own 'thing'

Wakka: Good general combat support. Uses thrown, balls, and bows. Supports tend to have low defenses and hp so being in the back row helps and their damage output is much less important than their ability selection.

Irvine: Basically Wakka but requires a good gun.

Sazh: Magic + support with a gun. His magic tends to be weak but is good for extra cures, target scores, and status healing or causing.

Vaan: Front row support with a great selection of gear and abilities. Puts out damage like a normal beat-stick.

Barret: Haven't looked into him yet. From what I've read he's got tanky (for a support) stats and can be in the back row. Also gun using.

Red XIII: Honestly can't figure out what he's for.

Tyro: Anything you can do I can do too... but worse.

Terra: Can front line, blast, and breakdown (with Enhancer or Runeblade).

Edward: No MC. Bard abilities can buff the whole party. Amazing with his relic, "meh" without - until he gets his MC. Can use Harps or Bows.


If you see someone on that list that looks like they'd fit your style, go for it. I think Wakka is generally considered one of the best supporters though Vaan is my go-to right now.

[DiscipleofBob]

Huh. I wonder if that's my problem with high difficulty dungeons.
I don't have any 5* or 4* support characters.

I mean I have them at level one but I never got a good weapon for them so I never used them. The besr i have is a 5* dagger++. The breakdowns are that important?

I don't know where to begin? Who is the best support? They all seem terrible. I'll start Leveling Barret now for synergy.

:smallconfused: You don't have Wakka? You get him pretty early in Classic mode, not even from an event.

Barrett works too though. As long as you can get a decent weapon either works. If you don't have a Gun or a Bow one of the Elite dungeons has a bow reward for mastery if you have nothing else.

The Breakdowns are godsends. Power and Magic Breakdown turn bosses that otherwise one-shot your entire party into manageable.

[danzibr]

I like Vaan. His Record Materia increases his attack. With Tempo Flurry he dishes out a good bit of damage, and his armor selection can give him good defense.

[Chen]

Is there any reason I'd want to take Wakka over Barret? My best throwing weapon or bow is 4*, and none of them from VII. Barret, on the other hand, can use Ras Algethi. Also, Golbez with the Rune Axe has higher magic than Vivi with any of my (4* and non-VII) rods or Terra while still being able to use Boost. I'm not arguing, mind you, just trying to see what I missed in the logic.

Yeah didn't really notice him. He works too if you have better guns than thrown/bows. I don't use Golbez so I didn't know he had support so yeah you can use him over Terra too.


Also, why Double-hit RM on Aerith? Wouldn't Auto-Haste, Improved Healing, Concentration 2 make more sense? Again, I assume there's a reason for the suggestion, I just don't see it.

She's the only one you may not need to use abilities for each round so her auto-attack should be double-hit so that it can proc retaliate twice. The support and black mage will be spamming their abilities. You also didn't mention having the auto-haste which I would then put on your retaliator (and some other attacker with double-cut if you have both).

[Forbiddenwar]

Vaan? Who is Vaan?

*looks up character*

Wow, how did I miss him? Not only does he have support 4 but he can also use the one of the two red 6* only one + weapons I have, golden spear.

Time to grind more levels and mithril. Thanks for pointing him out.

[DiscipleofBob]

Vaan? Who is Vaan?

*looks up character*

Wow, how did I miss him? Not only does he have support 4 but he can also use the one of the two red 6* only one + weapons I have, golden spear.

Time to grind more levels and mithril. Thanks for pointing him out.

That's what everyone else who played Final Fantasy XII asked themselves throughout the game, and he was supposedly the main character. :smalltongue:

[Knaight]

Vaan? Who is Vaan?

*looks up character*

Wow, how did I miss him? Not only does he have support 4 but he can also use the one of the two red 6* only one + weapons I have, golden spear.

Time to grind more levels and mithril. Thanks for pointing him out.

I replaced Edgar with him entirely on the basis of "he can use spears, has above Support 3, and has pretty decent stats", as my first 5* was a spear. There are absolutely no regrets. He's a solid character with a wide variety of skills, decent stats, and access to every melee weapon.

[SuperPanda]

That's what everyone else who played Final Fantasy XII asked themselves throughout the game, and he was supposedly the main character. :smalltongue:

Wait does this mean the "leading man" actually had a "supporting role?" That is hilariously meta since they actually make that joke in the game (and in the game its even more painful because of the pun...)

If for no other reason than that joke at the end, XII is one of my favorites.

[danzibr]

Vaan? Who is Vaan?

*looks up character*

Wow, how did I miss him? Not only does he have support 4 but he can also use the one of the two red 6* only one + weapons I have, golden spear.

Time to grind more levels and mithril. Thanks for pointing him out.
Hey, I actually feel useful!

It's a pity the VII event coincided with Orbfest. It would've been really nice to have a few days after Orbfest to blow stamina on it. I'm still leveling a good few people, and I should have the means to get several RM when the leveling fest is over. As it is I don't think I'll quiiiiiiiiiiiiite be able to get Cloud's MC.

I did however break Zack's level cap a minute ago. I'll be able to choose from the following people for tackling the VII stuff:
Cloud 65, Tellah 65, Vaan 65, Rydia 65, Zack low 50's, Aerith 50, Barret ~50.

My current plan is to devote all resources to Retaliate. We'll see.

[DiscipleofBob]

Cloud 65, Rydia 65, Vaan 65, Rydia 65, Zack low 50's, Aerith 50, Barret ~50.

For a second, I thought you somehow had Young and Adult Rydia characters and got really excited.

Depending on equipment and abilities, that team stands a fairly good chance of being able to get you Clouds MC2. It'll be tough, for sure, but I think it's doable.

[danzibr]

For a second, I thought you somehow had Young and Adult Rydia characters and got really excited.

Depending on equipment and abilities, that team stands a fairly good chance of being able to get you Clouds MC2. It'll be tough, for sure, but I think it's doable.
Deeerrrrrrrrrrrp. The first Rydia was supposed to be Tellah.

And thanks! I've spent a few hundred stamina per phase of Orbfest, so hopefully I can make the abilities I need. Everyone should have 5* armor, and almost everyone should have 5* weapons. It might happen!

[Red Fel]

Okay. I have internet back, let's see what I've accomplished.

Barret event: I got Cloud's MC2 and his RM3! Keeping J-Life stopped made things pretty straightforward. My team was Cloud, Zack, Barret, Aerith, and Red XIII dropping Stop (and Sleep Buster, why not) like it was going out of style. RM was Lunatic High. (Or maybe Sentinel Grimoire, I forget.) Aerith used Curaga and Shellga, Barret threw out Breakdowns (Attack/Magic), Cloud used Drain Strike and Tempo Flurry, Zack used Dismissal and Venom Buster. Venom Buster helped loads, for the record.

Lucky Draw: We're on the third phase, and I've only gotten two 5-stars. One is Sabin's Kaiser Knuckle, so that's a thing, I suppose. The other is Rinoa's Valkyrie, which is my only natural 5-star thrown weapon, so that's now pretty solid. (Otherwise thrown users were using a Shuriken ++.)

Orbfest: If one more MIO drops, I am blowing that sucker on Full Break. You don't even know, I don't even care, Full Break.

In response to Forbiddenwar: Support isn't mandatory at first. Combat skills (namely Breaks) can do the job early on. But later, Breakdowns (more powerful than Breaks) become extremely important. At that time, you need Support, specifically Support 4. The problem is that most characters who can use Support are weaksauce. So you simply have to choose the least weaksauce option for whatever you're doing.

Good to be back, folks!

[danzibr]

Okay. I have internet back, let's see what I've accomplished.

Barret event: I got Cloud's MC2 and his RM3! Keeping J-Life stopped made things pretty straightforward. My team was Cloud, Zack, Barret, Aerith, and Red XIII dropping Stop (and Sleep Buster, why not) like it was going out of style. RM was Lunatic High. (Or maybe Sentinel Grimoire, I forget.) Aerith used Curaga and Shellga, Barret threw out Breakdowns (Attack/Magic), Cloud used Drain Strike and Tempo Flurry, Zack used Dismissal and Venom Buster. Venom Buster helped loads, for the record.

Lucky Draw: We're on the third phase, and I've only gotten two 5-stars. One is Sabin's Kaiser Knuckle, so that's a thing, I suppose. The other is Rinoa's Valkyrie, which is my only natural 5-star thrown weapon, so that's now pretty solid. (Otherwise thrown users were using a Shuriken ++.)

Orbfest: If one more MIO drops, I am blowing that sucker on Full Break. You don't even know, I don't even care, Full Break.

In response to Forbiddenwar: Support isn't mandatory at first. Combat skills (namely Breaks) can do the job early on. But later, Breakdowns (more powerful than Breaks) become extremely important. At that time, you need Support, specifically Support 4. The problem is that most characters who can use Support are weaksauce. So you simply have to choose the least weaksauce option for whatever you're doing.

Good to be back, folks!
Welcome back!

Mmmm 'dat Full Break. I'd have to switch Vaan out for someone that has Support 5 though.

And thanks for the tips. I'll be attempting her... probably in 2 days. I'm on the one with Barret's MC, been delaying to level characters (Zack and Barret).

[SuperPanda]

Welcome back Fel.

My own small celebration: Just got Arc and Ranger to 50. Warrior of Light will hit 50 by the end of the next full run through Heroic Orbs. (followed by Maria and Lightning a few runs after).
(Current orb XP team is:
Warrior of Light 49 (to be replaced by Steiner)
Maria 48 (To be replaced by ViVi)
Wakka 37 (To be replaced by Irvine)
Yuna 35 (To be replaced by Eiko)
Lightning 48 (To be replaced by Kain)

I have the following unused MCs: Tyro (26), Golbez (27), Kain (36), Cyan (41), Barret (13). I never really find a good time or place to level Tyro.

I'm not hunting RM2s during orb-fest. I can do that sometime after (so far Josef, Bard, and Ranger will be forming a buddy cop movie while they hunt for their RM2s).

I've been happy wit Lucky Draw so far though there are still so many relics I really really want from this and every chance I'll pull nothing on the last banner.

Barely squeaked through J-Life on my last try, might go again for the Mastery orbs later but probably won't. I have no plans to attempt the +++ fight - I simply don't think I'm ready for it.

[Knaight]

It's a pity the VII event coincided with Orbfest. It would've been really nice to have a few days after Orbfest to blow stamina on it. I'm still leveling a good few people, and I should have the means to get several RM when the leveling fest is over. As it is I don't think I'll quiiiiiiiiiiiiite be able to get Cloud's MC.

On the bright side, it did give a nice mythril infusion, and those 25 mythril 11 draws are amazing.

[Red Fel]

Son of a crap.

When I started Orbfest, Arc was 50, I had just recently LBed him but had no luck with his RM2. I set him aside while I started leveling other characters. As the number of characters to get to 50 dwindled, I slotted him back in to be my default healer while I leveled some Core characters. I figured his RM2 would drop eventually.

It just did. He's almost 61.

Took you long enough, Arc.

[SuperPanda]

Welcome back!

Mmmm 'dat Full Break. I'd have to switch Vaan out for someone that has Support 5 though.

And thanks for the tips. I'll be attempting her... probably in 2 days. I'm on the one with Barret's MC, been delaying to level characters (Zack and Barret).

In 8-9 more events there will be another chance to get Cloud's MC2 (or Squall's if you miss his durring his event) along with Paladin Cecil, Tyro, Rinoa and Tidus). If you can snag both of those MC2's first you'd have the chance to get all 6. Missing Tyro probably isn't the end of the world (though his MC 3 is the same as Cloud's).

One of the reasons Yuna is on my leveling rota before Eiko even though the IX event is coming before the X event is that those four MC2s will require ++ level fights in IV, VII, VIII, and X realms. VII team is feeling buff right now and IV is not slacking. VIII and X are behind the curve with Squal capped at 30, Irvine in his 20s, and no one else even recruited. Meanwhile X is riding on a 50 Auron since Tidus, Wakka, Kimarhi and Yuna are trailing badly.

[Chen]

Orbfest: If one more MIO drops, I am blowing that sucker on Full Break. You don't even know, I don't even care, Full Break.

Looks like there are 4 major Ice orbs coming up in Vanille's event in case you don't get the drop here.

[danzibr]

In 8-9 more events there will be another chance to get Cloud's MC2 (or Squall's if you miss his durring his event) along with Paladin Cecil, Tyro, Rinoa and Tidus). If you can snag both of those MC2's first you'd have the chance to get all 6. Missing Tyro probably isn't the end of the world (though his MC 3 is the same as Cloud's).

One of the reasons Yuna is on my leveling rota before Eiko even though the IX event is coming before the X event is that those four MC2s will require ++ level fights in IV, VII, VIII, and X realms. VII team is feeling buff right now and IV is not slacking. VIII and X are behind the curve with Squal capped at 30, Irvine in his 20s, and no one else even recruited. Meanwhile X is riding on a 50 Auron since Tidus, Wakka, Kimarhi and Yuna are trailing badly.
Huh? Do you have to like pick and choose or something?

And Tyro's RM3 is the same as Cloud's? That's pretty nice.

Yeah, this game is getting more exciting. A few more weeks and I might have a respectable party for every realm (except I and XIV... poor lonely WoL).

[Red Fel]

Huh? Do you have to like pick and choose or something?

Yes (http://ffrk.kongbakpao.com/rift-of-recollection/). The event is Rift of Recollection. Prior to that, you will have had the chance to acquire Cloud's MC2 (current event) and Squall's (upcoming event). During the RoR event, you can acquire 4 Hero's Soul tokens, 4 Empty Memory Crystal tokens, and 4 Empty Memory Crystal II tokens. The HS tokens can be used to purchase heroes you've missed, the EMCs can be used to purchase MCs you've missed, and the EMCIIs can be used to purchase MC2s for Tyro, Pally!Cecil, Cloud, Squall, Rinoa, or Tidus. Alternatively, any token can be cashed in for growth eggs.

In other words, if you've gotten Cloud's and Squall's MC2s from the prior events, you can grab Tyro, Pally!Cecil, Rinoa, and Tidus, and have the whole set. If you missed Cloud and/or Squall, you get another crack at them from the event.


And Tyro's RM3 is the same as Cloud's? That's pretty nice.

Yup. Although having a double-LB'd Cloud is more valuable than doing the same for Tyro.


Yeah, this game is getting more exciting. A few more weeks and I might have a respectable party for every realm (except I and XIV... poor lonely WoL).

There's not much point in going for a complex I party. They've almost milked that game zone-wise. Just take the WoL and dump him into your most powerful party, go to town, and forget that zone exists. Same for XIV, but worse, because they don't even have a zone.

But yeah, the games that do get love - IV, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X - have pretty complete parties. V will too, soon, with the addition of Bartz and Gilgamesh, plus MCs for everybody. And III, once Ingus rolls out.

[Jurai]

IV gets way too much love. But know this, I have more 50s! WHOO! But no MCs for them. I'm going to have to go in with full 65s or a good Support user for Burmecia Elite. to get Rydia's. Beatrux hits like, well, a truck.

[Hunter Noventa]

Oof, I hope I can manage at least one of those bosses in RoR for an MC2. But I can't beat J-LIFE right now either. Not with her one-shotting everyone through Shellga and Magic Break with Blue Light.

[DiscipleofBob]

My current leveling party is Cloud (66), Barrett (41), and Aerith (56). I'm trying to keep them without a full party so they level faster. Since Rinoa just hit 65, I need someone else to take her place since I've been relying on Quake to sweep through heroics. Not that the above three couldn't handle it on their own, but it takes longer than I like since it still takes a hit from both Cloud and Barrett to kill one mook, and some of these guys can be pretty annoying with confuse status.

As for the rest of my party of potential replacements...

65 - Sephiroth
65 - Squall
65 - Rinoa
65 - Irvine
65 - Vivi
65 - Tidus
65 - Wakka
65 - Yuna
61 - Garnet
55 - Edgar
55 - Sabin
54 - Cyan
52 - Kimahri
51 - Cecil DK
51 - Cecil Pal
51 - Terra
51 - Tifa
50 - Tyro
50 - BM
50 - WM
50 - WoL
50 - Josef
50 - Kain
50 - Rydia
50 - Lenna
50 - Locke
50 - RedXIII
50 - Quistis
50 - Selphie
50 - Steiner
50 - Auron
50 - Vanille
42 - Snow
31 - Eiko
30 - Luneth
30 - Balthier
29 - Lightning
25 - Fran
25 - Sazh
22 - Tellah
22 - Golbez
21 - Edward
15 - Ashe
10 - Gordon
7 - Mog
6 - Red Mage
1 - Warrior
1 - Summoner
1 - Ranger
1 - Bard
1 - Ninja
1 - Gladiator
1 - Firion
1 - Maria
1 - Leon
1 - Ricard
1 - Arc
1 - Refia
1 - Zack
1 - Vaan
1 - Thancred
1 - Yshtilldontcarehowtospellorpronouncethischaracter

[Jurai]

As of Latest Update, FuSoYa is available in Lunar Subterrane Part 3- Classic, and Viking is in Xezat's Fleet- Classic. Viking is a janky Combat 4 and FuSoYa is White Magic 5, Black Magic 5, with a mass Regen default Soul Break.

[Mr.Sandman]

Why?! Why did I ignore every bit of advice ever here and not try to LB WM until now? I want her RM2 for that boss rush, but she keeps getting killed while running her through the orb fest. If it wasn't for that major GO this morning she would still be mid 30's. I feel like a major moron.

[danzibr]

Yes (http://ffrk.kongbakpao.com/rift-of-recollection/). The event is Rift of Recollection. Prior to that, you will have had the chance to acquire Cloud's MC2 (current event) and Squall's (upcoming event). During the RoR event, you can acquire 4 Hero's Soul tokens, 4 Empty Memory Crystal tokens, and 4 Empty Memory Crystal II tokens. The HS tokens can be used to purchase heroes you've missed, the EMCs can be used to purchase MCs you've missed, and the EMCIIs can be used to purchase MC2s for Tyro, Pally!Cecil, Cloud, Squall, Rinoa, or Tidus. Alternatively, any token can be cashed in for growth eggs.

In other words, if you've gotten Cloud's and Squall's MC2s from the prior events, you can grab Tyro, Pally!Cecil, Rinoa, and Tidus, and have the whole set. If you missed Cloud and/or Squall, you get another crack at them from the event.

Yup. Although having a double-LB'd Cloud is more valuable than doing the same for Tyro.

There's not much point in going for a complex I party. They've almost milked that game zone-wise. Just take the WoL and dump him into your most powerful party, go to town, and forget that zone exists. Same for XIV, but worse, because they don't even have a zone.

But yeah, the games that do get love - IV, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X - have pretty complete parties. V will too, soon, with the addition of Bartz and Gilgamesh, plus MCs for everybody. And III, once Ingus rolls out.
Oooh, more stuff to be excited about. Nice.

Oof, I hope I can manage at least one of those bosses in RoR for an MC2. But I can't beat J-LIFE right now either. Not with her one-shotting everyone through Shellga and Magic Break with Blue Light.
Oh my. That's no good. I had high hopes of getting Cloud's MC2 until I read this.

How does the fight go? Is it just a single battle, or is she at the end of a wave of 3? Or what?

I guess I can stack on the poison and stop (do those work together if ya know what I mean?) and pray they connect.

[Red Fel]

As of Latest Update, FuSoYa is available in Lunar Subterrane Part 3- Classic, and Viking is in Xezat's Fleet- Classic. Viking is a janky Combat 4 and FuSoYa is White Magic 5, Black Magic 5, with a mass Regen default Soul Break.

Ooh, crappit, I forgot to cover this!

Okay, quick recap. The latest update gave us the following goodies:
Red XIII's MC! Yes, you can now LB one of the more useless characters. His RM1 grants Reflect at the start of battle - potentially useful in a Carbuncle-worthy boss fight - and his RM2 grants Regen at low HP. So, you know, standard fare.
Ninja's MC! The Core character Ninja has an MC now. His RM1 grants the typical weapon-specific 1.1x damage when a weapon is equipped - in this case, a thrown weapon. Good for some Support users. His RM2 allows you to auto-evade one physical attack at low HP.
Viking! Jurai mentioned the Core Viking, which somehow manages to be even less impressive than the Dark Knight. Like the DK, it has only one ability category, Combat 4. Unlike the DK, whose gear selection includes daggers, swords, katanas, and shields, hats, helms, light armor, heavy armor, and bracers, the Viking can only use daggers, axes, hammers, helms, heavy armor, and bracers. Stat-wise, the Viking has negligibly higher Attack than the DK, and identical Defense. So, yeah. It's basically a failure.
FuSoYa! Jurai covered this twink too. As mentioned, he gets BM5 and WM5. He gets the typical caster gear of dagger, rod, and staff, and hat, robe, and bracer. His SB grants the party Regen, which makes Lenna cry. But let's talk stats. His Magic is top 10, beating out Tellah and Golbez, and coming in just behind Ashe. His Mind is similarly excellent, tying with Garnet and coming in just behind Tellah. So, yeah, he's pretty much as broken as he was in game, and but for the fact that he lacks an MC, he'd be a natural for healing or blasting in any IV party.
And that's what's going on.


Oh my. That's no good. I had high hopes of getting Cloud's MC2 until I read this.

How does the fight go? Is it just a single battle, or is she at the end of a wave of 3? Or what?

I guess I can stack on the poison and stop (do those work together if ya know what I mean?) and pray they connect.

The J-Life ++ fight? It's a single battle. Don't bother with the skill-reuse MCs, stick to your damage-boosters.

The boss is susceptible to Sleep, Poison and Stop, and Stop is one of the medal requirements. And yes, Poison works while the enemy is Stopped.

Be aware that she triggers Counter: Reflect against offensive magic use, so a Sleep and Spray strategy is tricky. I used heavy melee, both Breakdowns, Shellga and Lunatic High, and liberal amounts of Stop and Venom Buster to put her down. In fact, it was the poison damage that ultimately did it.

If you can keep her Stopped as much as possible, it just becomes a question of having the abilities to burn her life down before you run out of Stop. Bring your most uses with you, because she has a ton of health. I was running pretty low on abilities by the time she went down. But if you can keep her locked down, it is possible.

[Chen]

Got Red's crystal so am leveling him now. Since I have his Diamond Pin he will almost certainly replace Wakka as my support user. He does have notably better stats than Wakka and since Wakka was primarilly using a gold bangle or RS helmet as armor it doesnt really change much to give it to Red instead. Only downside is he's front row instead of back. Hopefully the 36 more defense and ~700 more HP will compensate for that.

[Hunter Noventa]

Ooh, crappit, I forgot to cover this!
The J-Life ++ fight? It's a single battle. Don't bother with the skill-reuse MCs, stick to your damage-boosters.

The boss is susceptible to Sleep, Poison and Stop, and Stop is one of the medal requirements. And yes, Poison works while the enemy is Stopped.

Be aware that she triggers Counter: Reflect against offensive magic use, so a Sleep and Spray strategy is tricky. I used heavy melee, both Breakdowns, Shellga and Lunatic High, and liberal amounts of Stop and Venom Buster to put her down. In fact, it was the poison damage that ultimately did it.

If you can keep her Stopped as much as possible, it just becomes a question of having the abilities to burn her life down before you run out of Stop. Bring your most uses with you, because she has a ton of health. I was running pretty low on abilities by the time she went down. But if you can keep her locked down, it is possible.

That's not the one I'm having issues with sadly, I can't even get past the one before that, the difficulty 90 one or whatever.

Good thign this is just an idle silly thing on my phone and not something more serious, or I might care more.

[Red Fel]

That's not the one I'm having issues with sadly, I can't even get past the one before that, the difficulty 90 one or whatever.

Good thign this is just an idle silly thing on my phone and not something more serious, or I might care more.

The boss rush? The trick there is physical mitigation and lightning damage.

First boss, set up the physical mitigation and lightning damage, then plink away at him until his tail goes up. Then wait it out or use Retaliate.

Second boss, set up physical mitigation and then wait until he has used his Bomber four times. Then lightning damage and plink away. Retaliate may also get around his counter.

Third boss, avoid lightning, focus on the main body and knock it down. If you want to use mitigation, some magic mitigation on the mini mites may matter.

Fourth boss, physical mitigation, kill the dog, kill the dudebro.

If you're concerned, try to work up three extra mythril, set them aside, and heal between bosses. Remember that you don't have to master the boss rush or J-Life, you just have to complete them.

[Knaight]

The boss rush? The trick there is physical mitigation and lightning damage.

First boss, set up the physical mitigation and lightning damage, then plink away at him until his tail goes up. Then wait it out or use Retaliate.

Second boss, set up physical mitigation and then wait until he has used his Bomber four times. Then lightning damage and plink away. Retaliate may also get around his counter.

Third boss, avoid lightning, focus on the main body and knock it down. If you want to use mitigation, some magic mitigation on the mini mites may matter.

Fourth boss, physical mitigation, kill the dog, kill the dudebro.

If you're concerned, try to work up three extra mythril, set them aside, and heal between bosses. Remember that you don't have to master the boss rush or J-Life, you just have to complete them.
Aerith's soul break is also a lifesaver for this, and for the fourth boss there's also other means of silence.

[danzibr]

Just steamrolled Gi Nattak, the 90 difficulty before stuff gets real. I wonder how much harder the 99 difficulty stuff really is. I do have a solid lineup atm.

So I have a 99 Jenova LIFE, the 99 boss x4, and the 120 (?) Jenova LIFE.

So... I had an idea. Since Sleep/Stop and Poison are low level, it'd be easy to craft and hone a couple of them up moderately high. Is it a good idea to bring in several black mages and just try to keep her out of commission and taking poison damage without focusing too much on other damage? Or would the poison take too long? Or am I just looking to get my donkey whupped with such a cheap strategy?

[Forbiddenwar]

Just steamrolled Gi Nattak, the 90 difficulty before stuff gets real. I wonder how much harder the 99 difficulty stuff really is. I do have a solid lineup atm.

So I have a 99 Jenova LIFE, the 99 boss x4, and the 120 (?) Jenova LIFE.

So... I had an idea. Since Sleep/Stop and Poison are low level, it'd be easy to craft and hone a couple of them up moderately high. Is it a good idea to bring in several black mages and just try to keep her out of commission and taking poison damage without focusing too much on other damage? Or would the poison take too long? Or am I just looking to get my donkey whupped with such a cheap strategy?

Offense magic may trigger a counter reflect. I suppose you could bring your own honed reflect to bounce the spells, but its tricky.

[Knaight]

Offense magic may trigger a counter reflect. I suppose you could bring your own honed reflect to bounce the spells, but its tricky.

Jenova LIFE is vulnerable to Stop, and can't counter anything while that's up.

[Forbiddenwar]

Jenova LIFE is vulnerable to Stop, and can't counter anything while that's up.

Counter reflect happens when the stop misses (about half the time for me) I had to S/L when it happened. Perhaps I was really unlucky.

[Knaight]

Counter reflect happens when the stop misses (about half the time for me) I had to S/L when it happened. Perhaps I was really unlucky.

That seems like bad luck to me, but even then it's worth noting that Aerith's SB doesn't trigger Counter Reflect.

[Starwulf]

Just steamrolled Gi Nattak, the 90 difficulty before stuff gets real. I wonder how much harder the 99 difficulty stuff really is. I do have a solid lineup atm.

So I have a 99 Jenova LIFE, the 99 boss x4, and the 120 (?) Jenova LIFE.

So... I had an idea. Since Sleep/Stop and Poison are low level, it'd be easy to craft and hone a couple of them up moderately high. Is it a good idea to bring in several black mages and just try to keep her out of commission and taking poison damage without focusing too much on other damage? Or would the poison take too long? Or am I just looking to get my donkey whupped with such a cheap strategy?

Nothing to add to your strategy/questions, just wanted to wish you luck, and also add that I as well absolutely Steamrolled Gi Nattak, that may have very well been the easiest 90 difficulty fight I've ever encountered. It was over in like 3-4 rounds flat. I lead with Barrets Grenade Bomb which lowered his defense, then just unloaded all my offensive abilities on him. Clouds Hard Edge SB did 9999 dmg twice to the poor guy.

[Chen]

Sleep can also work. Less chance of hitting (30% vs 70%) but it lasts much longer if you just bombard them with spells. Will still take a bunch of S/Ls to get it to work, but most non-brute force approaches will.

[Starwulf]

Sleep can also work. Less chance of hitting (30% vs 70%) but it lasts much longer if you just bombard them with spells. Will still take a bunch of S/Ls to get it to work, but most non-brute force approaches will.

I'm already wondering how this fight is going to be even remotely possible. On my fourth reload because right off the bat Jenova "Blue Flame"s me and insta-kills whoever it hits ><

[SuperPanda]

I'm already wondering how this fight is going to be even remotely possible. On my fourth reload because right off the bat Jenova "Blue Flame"s me and insta-kills whoever it hits ><

Sounds like I was actually lucky that she Aqua Breath'd me at the start of each attempt - only 'almost' killing everyone instead of actually killing someone. With luck and SG as my RW I was able to get people back in fighting shape before deaths - but there was alot of luck on those following attacks.

[Starwulf]

And n/m. That fourth reload I got off the RW Haste+shellga I brought, Stopped her once, then burned her to half health, didn't realize that stop wore off so fast, she counter-reflected after a firaga, but then I burned her down from there. Ended up getting mastery over-all, but not for her stage individually(lost two medals to damage taken, and one for actions taken). That fight was...remarkably easy once I didn't get one-shotted right off the bat. Her health went down nearly as fast as the boss from the stage before.

So how much use does Bonecrusher have as a 4* physical ability? I get a fair amount of mileage out of pound(they gave that away during the last festival of gold).

So uhhh, I guess wish me luck for the Boss Rush. This will be, as I mentioned before, my first ever attempt at a boss rush. I wouldn't even be bothering if I didn't want Clouds MC2 so bad.

[Knaight]

I'm already wondering how this fight is going to be even remotely possible. On my fourth reload because right off the bat Jenova "Blue Flame"s me and insta-kills whoever it hits ><

I dropped a bunch of defenses right away. Shell/Haste via RW, Protect, Magic Break, Power Break. It got Jenova into the manageable range, at which point I then slowly beat them down, using the occasional Stop to buy time and opportunity to spray them with spells. It worked beautifully in the long run, though I blew through a lot of healing and a fair few ability uses getting that far. On the other hand, I did just have Breaks, and I've heard the Breakdowns are much more powerful.

Speaking of which, what is the deal with those? Do they last longer? Is 40% stat reduction really that much better than 30% stat reduction? Are those previous numbers nonsense I picked up somewhere that's totally wrong? They've been getting a lot of praise, but the numbers just don't seem to add up with the very partial information easily available.

[Starwulf]

I dropped a bunch of defenses right away. Shell/Haste via RW, Protect, Magic Break, Power Break. It got Jenova into the manageable range, at which point I then slowly beat them down, using the occasional Stop to buy time and opportunity to spray them with spells. It worked beautifully in the long run, though I blew through a lot of healing and a fair few ability uses getting that far. On the other hand, I did just have Breaks, and I've heard the Breakdowns are much more powerful.

Speaking of which, what is the deal with those? Do they last longer? Is 40% stat reduction really that much better than 30% stat reduction? Are those previous numbers nonsense I picked up somewhere that's totally wrong? They've been getting a lot of praise, but the numbers just don't seem to add up with the very partial information easily available.

They are better because not only do they decrease defense/attack/etc by 40% instead of 30%, they also dish out more damage while doing it. No idea if they last longer, but even if they don't, dishing out 10% more dmg is quite nice. I noticed that the difference between a power-breakdown Scorpion vs a regular was about 200 points of dmg via eyeballing it(ie: the least respectable form of confirmation, lol).

Yeah the moment I didn't get one-shotted right off the bat, I won. It wasn't even a contest honestly, I only had to stop her once, by the time that wore off(which was after 2 rounds of attacks) she was already halfway dead. She got off maybe 4 more attacks, 2 blue flames and 2 aqua jets, neither of which killed anyone(she missed with one of the blue flames), and then she was dead. I'm starting to think that Barrets Grenade Shot SB lowers defense as much as an armor-breakdown or more, because I was nailing her pretty flipping hard with my physical abilities.

I'm already looking towards having to fight her in the ++ fight, that one is going to be a lot more tougher, she has 220k life in that one, worried I might run out of abilities before she's dead. I specifically created and honed sleep buster to go along with stop so I can just wail away on her without fear. I'm considering swapping Vaan out for Rydia so I can bring more magic.

[Knaight]

I'm already looking towards having to fight her in the ++ fight, that one is going to be a lot more tougher, she has 220k life in that one, worried I might run out of abilities before she's dead. I specifically created and honed sleep buster to go along with stop so I can just wail away on her without fear. I'm considering swapping Vaan out for Rydia so I can bring more magic.

The strategy I described was for the ++ fight, and it worked beautifully. I brought Josef, Cloud, Vaan, Rinoa, and Aerith. Josef was the primary beat stick (5* gloves with record synergy plus stupidly good attack means a lot) with Magic Break and Armor Break. Cloud was the periphreal beat stick, with Thundara Strike and Power Break. Vaan was support, with Silence Buster (I meant to click Sleep Buster and accidentally selected the wrong one) and Venom Buster (which got stuff done). Rinoa was debuffer and nuke, with Stop and Thundaga. Aerith was healer and support, with Protectga and Curaga, along with her amazing default SB. Sazh RW.

[Starwulf]

The strategy I described was for the ++ fight, and it worked beautifully. I brought Josef, Cloud, Vaan, Rinoa, and Aerith. Josef was the primary beat stick (5* gloves with record synergy plus stupidly good attack means a lot) with Magic Break and Armor Break. Cloud was the periphreal beat stick, with Thundara Strike and Power Break. Vaan was support, with Silence Buster (I meant to click Sleep Buster and accidentally selected the wrong one) and Venom Buster (which got stuff done). Rinoa was debuffer and nuke, with Stop and Thundaga. Aerith was healer and support, with Protectga and Curaga, along with her amazing default SB. Sazh RW.

Oooh, so you beat the ++ already? Damn congrats man :) I'm waiting on stamina at this point to continue on in the boss rush. Really hope I can manage this, would be a huge step for me, beating my first + and ++(well, outside of that event we had a while back that gave us those stones to "bet" on whether or not we'd beat a given stage, and get X rewards if we did so, but those + and ++ were significantly easier then regular events)

Edit: So I just beat the boss rush. It was remarkably easy to be honest, I did spend a mythril after the 3rd boss, I was quite low on abilities and I had mastered every other stage so I really wanted to get full mastery for it. Soooo, onwards to Jenova Life ++ fight. Wish me luck all, all I have to do is actually just win it, nothing else!

[SuperPanda]

Oooh, so you beat the ++ already? Damn congrats man :) I'm waiting on stamina at this point to continue on in the boss rush. Really hope I can manage this, would be a huge step for me, beating my first + and ++(well, outside of that event we had a while back that gave us those stones to "bet" on whether or not we'd beat a given stage, and get X rewards if we did so, but those + and ++ were significantly easier then regular events)

Edit: So I just beat the boss rush. It was remarkably easy to be honest, I did spend a mythril after the 3rd boss, I was quite low on abilities and I had mastered every other stage so I really wanted to get full mastery for it. Soooo, onwards to Jenova Life ++ fight. Wish me luck all, all I have to do is actually just win it, nothing else!

Gratz on the boss rush and best of luck on the ++!

I'm burning through stamina on Orb dungeons since summoning orbs are almost out of season. After that we get one last chance at lucky draw...

I left Lightning at 49 and 2/3 of the way to 50 because there is a XIII event around the corner but I don't have her MC.
I've now got Steiner, ViVi, Wakka, Yuna, and Kain chasing cactaurs. I think I might get most of them to 50 by the end of Orbfest.

There are plenty of relics I still want on the next draw but I'm not expecting to get any this next pull. Still...
Thyrus! - This relic would make me sooo incredibly happy.
Diamond Pin
Vega 42
Edward's Harp
Sentinel Grimore
Lullaby Rod
Golden Armor
Ice Whip
Lustrous Shield
Ras Algheis (hey RNG - I don't even have the character yet... this is the best "bitter sweet" Relic to give me)
Mythgraven Blade
Loxely Bow (Just because its a bow)
Oak Staff

I'll be really jazzed next pull if any of those come through.

[Starwulf]

WOOOOT! I not only beat it, I mastered it. I had to restart twice due to Blue Flame first one-shotting Vivi, and then one-shotting Yuna, but after that I kicked her arse!

I don't think I'm going to even touch the +++ battle, with no real vulnerabilities, and only weakness being poison, I imagine I'd get my butt whupped, Jenova Life was really only doable because of stop(I found a perfect pattern for that. Stop, Firaga, Stop, Firaga, so on and so forth. By the time I got to my 2nd to last cast of Firaga she died on a poison tick.

[SuperPanda]

That's awesome! Great work. Sounds like I really should have used Poison. Also I should really have a source of stop that is not A - ShadowbindR1 or B -Arieth's SB.

[DiscipleofBob]

That's awesome! Great work. Sounds like I really should have used Poison. Also I should really have a source of stop that is not A - ShadowbindR1 or B -Arieth's SB.

You could be crazy and just get 'Stop' the spell. With all the orbs in the current event it should be easy to craft and hone.

[danzibr]

WOOOOT! I not only beat it, I mastered it. I had to restart twice due to Blue Flame first one-shotting Vivi, and then one-shotting Yuna, but after that I kicked her arse!

I don't think I'm going to even touch the +++ battle, with no real vulnerabilities, and only weakness being poison, I imagine I'd get my butt whupped, Jenova Life was really only doable because of stop(I found a perfect pattern for that. Stop, Firaga, Stop, Firaga, so on and so forth. By the time I got to my 2nd to last cast of Firaga she died on a poison tick.
Grats!

I said a long time ago I'd post my friend code. Whelp, I finally remembered! It's b5bU. I have kind of a janky RW (65 Cloud with Darkest Cut SB). I can change it to a high Trance Fira Terra soon. Or... well, I'm open to suggestions, but my stuff is kind of limited.

[Starwulf]

Hey guys, Biora is the spell that will actually inflict poison on a target, right? I decided(I'm nuts, I know) to give the +++ battle a shot(just had to restart it, had it halfway dead and lost Yuna just as my protectga went off), and I brought Blizzaga and Biora(3 star) to the fight because the reddit page says that it's weak to poison. I casted all 6 casts of it and it didn't inflict poison even once. Pretty sure that it's Biora that can inflict it, but am going to be irritated if I was wrong >< Seems like that extra poison tic would be huge in this battle, as it really doesn't take a lot of damage it seems, even with armor/magic/mental/power break on.

[danzibr]

Hey guys, Biora is the spell that will actually inflict poison on a target, right? I decided(I'm nuts, I know) to give the +++ battle a shot(just had to restart it, had it halfway dead and lost Yuna just as my protectga went off), and I brought Blizzaga and Biora(3 star) to the fight because the reddit page says that it's weak to poison. I casted all 6 casts of it and it didn't inflict poison even once. Pretty sure that it's Biora that can inflict it, but am going to be irritated if I was wrong >< Seems like that extra poison tic would be huge in this battle, as it really doesn't take a lot of damage it seems, even with armor/magic/mental/power break on.
I was under the impression the Bio line dealt poison damage but could not poison. So you need things like Venom Buster and Poison (I think that's what they're called).

As far as RW's go, I read there's no difference between Sentinel Grimoire and Stoneskin II. Are these top priority to have in any boss fight? Should one ``cast'' suffice to get through a boss fight? I usually fight at speed 1 (how long will it last then?).

[Hunter Noventa]

Yeah no it's not even the Boss Rush stopping me, it's the regular fight with J-Life before that. My FF7 characters just aren't strong enough even with Record Synergy.

[Knaight]

Yeah no it's not even the Boss Rush stopping me, it's the regular fight with J-Life before that. My FF7 characters just aren't strong enough even with Record Synergy.

Bring non-FF7 characters if you need to. My group was only 40% FF7, and they did fine, despite a couple of sloppy equipping decisions.

[Chen]

Speaking of which, what is the deal with those? Do they last longer? Is 40% stat reduction really that much better than 30% stat reduction? Are those previous numbers nonsense I picked up somewhere that's totally wrong? They've been getting a lot of praise, but the numbers just don't seem to add up with the very partial information easily available.

Magic and Mental breakdown are 50% reduction actually. Further, they are 50% reduction in the stat not the end damage output. Magic damage is determined by:

Magic damage taken is determined by: MAG^1.85 / RES^0.84

So with a 50% reduction in MAG you're getting somewhere near 70% reduction in magic damage. Whereas the 30% break only results in around a 50% reduction. It's significant.


I was under the impression the Bio line dealt poison damage but could not poison. So you need things like Venom Buster and Poison (I think that's what they're called).

As far as RW's go, I read there's no difference between Sentinel Grimoire and Stoneskin II. Are these top priority to have in any boss fight? Should one ``cast'' suffice to get through a boss fight? I usually fight at speed 1 (how long will it last then?).

The Bio SBs can poison (like Bio-blaster and Vivi's double-cast venom). Regular bio, biora and bioga don't poison (though I recall reading something about a glitched 1% chance to poison, not confirmed though). You normally use venom buster to poison bosses IMO.


Yeah no it's not even the Boss Rush stopping me, it's the regular fight with J-Life before that. My FF7 characters just aren't strong enough even with Record Synergy.

Synergy on equipment is FAR more important than synergy on Chars. If you have stronger Chars from different realms give them a shot instead.

[SuperPanda]

Yeah no it's not even the Boss Rush stopping me, it's the regular fight with J-Life before that. My FF7 characters just aren't strong enough even with Record Synergy.

I wouldn't worry too much. Use Orbfest for xp and abilities hones and cross your fingers on that last lucky draw. We then have several events to go during which you can train up and after which you'll get another chance:

XIII Hope and Vanille
VI Setzer, Strago and Celes
V Gilgamesh, Galuf, Bartz, and Lenna (Gilgamesh and Bartz look pretty darn powerful too).
VIII Zell, Seifer, Squall (Squall's MC II) - again don't worry. You'll get another chance.
IX Zidane, Amarant, Eiko, Steiner, Vivi
X Lulu, Wakka
VI again - Shadow and Locke
(Chance!) Rift of Recollections. There will be 4 chances for items that you can turn in for any 4 heroes you missed, any 4 MCs your Missed, and your choice of the following MC IIs Cloud, Squall, Tyro, Pld. Cecil, Rinoa, Tidus.

Focus down the road a little and you'll have that Cloud up and powerful again.

[Red Fel]

So how much use does Bonecrusher have as a 4* physical ability? I get a fair amount of mileage out of pound(they gave that away during the last festival of gold).

Well, here's the comparison. Pound has a 2.3x modifier and can't miss. Bonecrusher has a 2.8x modifier and deals damage to the user. I'd frankly take Pound, but I have to check whether Bonecrusher uses easier orbs to hone.


Speaking of which, what is the deal with those? Do they last longer? Is 40% stat reduction really that much better than 30% stat reduction? Are those previous numbers nonsense I picked up somewhere that's totally wrong? They've been getting a lot of praise, but the numbers just don't seem to add up with the very partial information easily available.

Breaks reduce stats by 30%, Breakdowns by 40%. Breaks have a modifier of 1.7x, Breakdowns 2.1x. Yes, the extra damage and extra 10% reduction are valuable.


WOOOOT! I not only beat it, I mastered it. I had to restart twice due to Blue Flame first one-shotting Vivi, and then one-shotting Yuna, but after that I kicked her arse!

Grats!


Hey guys, Biora is the spell that will actually inflict poison on a target, right? I decided(I'm nuts, I know) to give the +++ battle a shot(just had to restart it, had it halfway dead and lost Yuna just as my protectga went off), and I brought Blizzaga and Biora(3 star) to the fight because the reddit page says that it's weak to poison. I casted all 6 casts of it and it didn't inflict poison even once. Pretty sure that it's Biora that can inflict it, but am going to be irritated if I was wrong >< Seems like that extra poison tic would be huge in this battle, as it really doesn't take a lot of damage it seems, even with armor/magic/mental/power break on.

No. The Bio line deals Poison damage, not the Poison debuff. You want Venom Buster, which has the added benefit of not being a spell, and therefore not triggering (or being subject to) Reflect.

[danzibr]

It's interesting how this game seems to switch from all-out offense at the beginning to defense and support at the end.

[Hunter Noventa]

Synergy on equipment is FAR more important than synergy on Chars. If you have stronger Chars from different realms give them a shot instead.

I brought my best with the best ff7 gear i had. Still got one-shotted. I'll live with it.

[danzibr]

Almost time for another lucky draw!

I'm looking forward this phase a lot. Those power orbs are going to help me craft/hone all sorts of crap I'm weak on.

Also, I was able to beat Jenova LIFE. The 99 difficulty version. Next is boss rush (going to attempt that in just a couple minutes), and I'm going to save attempting to get Cloud's MC2 for another couple days to get orbs and level up Zack some more. As it is, I went at the 99 difficulty Jenova LIFE with Venom Buster only at rank 1.

[Starwulf]

Well, here's the comparison. Pound has a 2.3x modifier and can't miss. Bonecrusher has a 2.8x modifier and deals damage to the user. I'd frankly take Pound, but I have to check whether Bonecrusher uses easier orbs to hone.

No. The Bio line deals Poison damage, not the Poison debuff. You want Venom Buster, which has the added benefit of not being a spell, and therefore not triggering (or being subject to) Reflect.

Thanks for the info on the modifier for Bonecrusher. I'll probably just leave it in the "Maybe someday" pile of abilities to be used.

Sucks about Bio not inflicting poison. So annoying having to remember what does what for that. I mean poison inflicts poison, but doesn't deal poison damage. Bio deals poison damage, but doesn't inflict. Bleh! Why not just make one damn spell, would make so much more sense. Or separate the spells into their actual spells from the game, poison dealing poison, bio dealing bio.

[danzibr]

Thanks for the info on the modifier for Bonecrusher. I'll probably just leave it in the "Maybe someday" pile of abilities to be used.

Sucks about Bio not inflicting poison. So annoying having to remember what does what for that. I mean poison inflicts poison, but doesn't deal poison damage. Bio deals poison damage, but doesn't inflict. Bleh! Why not just make one damn spell, would make so much more sense. Or separate the spells into their actual spells from the game, poison dealing poison, bio dealing bio.
Agreed.

I just watched a video of Cloud soloing the boss rush for the current event (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbN3K3gMR9Q). That was awesome (except for the background music).

Question: I have a 4* sword that I upgraded twice, now level 24 or something. It has lower attack than my Mythgraven Blade but it's a VII weapon. Should I slap that on Cloud? Just how good is realm synergy?

[SuperPanda]

I'm jazzed for the last lucky draw and more orbs too.

Got Wakka and ViVi at 46 and looking to swap in new players in their roles (likely Summoner and Irvine).

I'm waiting until I have "all da orbz" before I start honing/crafting abilities. Shellga and breakdowns are on the top of my list followed by Kirin. I might Hone Shiva to R2 or 3 before that when Summoner gets his turn to level up if only so that he has something to do.


Edit Final Lucky draw:


3*s:7
Notable items
4*s:2
Notable items: Silver Bangle XIII (will now have a + form)
5*s:2
Notable items: Ice Whip! Rydia gonna be happy. And Blood Lance too making a very solid IV team so far.

[danzibr]

So... question before I begin round 3 of the boss rush. Does mythril refresh RW uses?

[SuperPanda]

I've never used the "Heal' between battles option.

The "pheonix bonus" when continuing from defeat does recharge your RW, all your abilities, revives everyone to full HP, and gives you a bonus to HP, +2 uses of each abilities, Defense, or Offense.

[Fleeing Coward]

So... question before I begin round 3 of the boss rush. Does mythril refresh RW uses?

It does.

Looks like my luck finally ran out. Only a single 5* in the last Lucky Draw - Yoshimitsu for Thancred.

[danzibr]

It does.

Looks like my luck finally ran out. Only a single 5* in the last Lucky Draw - Yoshimitsu for Thancred.
Thanks!

For my Lucky Draw I got a whopping 3 5*'s, one of which will be a great boon. Firion's axe, Balthier's gun, and Aerith's armor. I was seriously lacking a good gun (my best was 3*). Aerith's armor is a welcome addition, but I'm quite set on armor. Now I'll probably take Barret in my attempt to get Cloud's MC2.

[tyckspoon]

Agreed.

Question: I have a 4* sword that I upgraded twice, now level 24 or something. It has lower attack than my Mythgraven Blade but it's a VII weapon. Should I slap that on Cloud? Just how good is realm synergy?

On equipment, it's pretty important; every 5 levels the equipment has is worth about 10 more virtual levels (at least, this is what I've read. I'm not sure if it's actually calculated that way.) So if you finish leveling that sword and take it into a VII realm it'll work like a level 75 weapon. Characters just get an extra 10 effective levels, so a level 65 character without synergy will probably still be better than a level 50 with. Which is why Cloud, as my only level 65 (and double broken! Wasn't expecting to master Jenova +, but I squeaked it out) is a permanent fixture on my team if I really need to bring my A game to something..

You can check on the synergy value directly, anyway. Just enter into a VII realm - you don't need to actually enter a dungeon or spend stamina, but I think you do need to go to a dungeon select screen. If you can see the blue synergy glow on your characters, you're far enough in. Go into Inventory and all the appropriate realm items will also have the synergy highlight. If you check their stats then you can see the synergy-adjusted numbers.

[danzibr]

On equipment, it's pretty important; every 5 levels the equipment has is worth about 10 more virtual levels (at least, this is what I've read. I'm not sure if it's actually calculated that way.) So if you finish leveling that sword and take it into a VII realm it'll work like a level 75 weapon. Characters just get an extra 10 effective levels, so a level 65 character without synergy will probably still be better than a level 50 with. Which is why Cloud, as my only level 65 (and double broken! Wasn't expecting to master Jenova +, but I squeaked it out) is a permanent fixture on my team if I really need to bring my A game to something..

You can check on the synergy value directly, anyway. Just enter into a VII realm - you don't need to actually enter a dungeon or spend stamina, but I think you do need to go to a dungeon select screen. If you can see the blue synergy glow on your characters, you're far enough in. Go into Inventory and all the appropriate realm items will also have the synergy highlight. If you check their stats then you can see the synergy-adjusted numbers.
Grats!

And thanks! I had no idea about the whole stat-checking-after-you-enter-a-dungeon thing.

Also, I mastered my first boss rush! Well, I *completed* my first boss rush. Cloud's MC2 is within grasp!

[Starwulf]

Holy flipping hell guys! I not only beat the +++ fight, I MASTERED IT!!!!!! I lost 3 medals, 1 for actions taken, 2 for damage taken, but because no-one died during the fight, I got all 9 of those extra medals which kept me just in the green zone for mastery! WOOOOT! I had to leave my attempt from earlier and I stuck Venom Buster on Barret, it stuck the first time and I am quite positive that is what made the difference. Super stoked! Oh, special props to 5* Relic Rod Yuna is using, it's SB is a healing thing that allowed me to cure my guys three extra times.

This is officially the first event that I have entirely beaten and entirely mastered. Woot!

Edit: As to the 11 lucky draw, I got Aeriths Aurora Rod 5* and that was it. Rest was junk :-(.

[SuperPanda]

Best of luck on that MC II!

Character Relic wise after all lucky draws I came out ahead of the 4-5 probable pulls with 7 relics in total plus the 3 I'd gotten in pulls before that.

My character specific 5*s are: Ice Whip IV (Rydia), Blood lance IV (Kain), Polymorph Rod IV (Tellah)* Healing Rod V (Lenna), Partisan VI (Edgar), Enhancer VI (Terra), Hardedge VII (Cloud), Crystal Glove VII (Tifa), Runeblade XII (Ashe), Ninja Chainmail XIV (Thancred)

Bolded because it was one of my "just because" relics that I'd been hoping for on every pull.
*The first character 5 * I ever pulled and the only time I've ever gotten a 5* on a single relic pull.

Other 5*s I've accumulated: Crystal Sword VII x2 (Shared SB double thunder strike), Genji Armor V, Ruby Curias II (Shared SB Blaster), Balamb Garden Uniform VIII, Butterfly Edge VII. (and I'll include Gold Sword VII from the log-in campaign).

I'm thinking it might be time to combine the Crystal Swords. The shared SB is actually rather nice against enemies that don't resist (and very nice against weak enemies) though so I'm unsure. Butterfly Edge at 20 will have 2 more points of attack (not sure about Hardedge though).

[Chen]

Got pretty lucky on this last lucky draw. Four 5* item, four 4* items and three 3* items.

5*s are Tidus' sword (Lightning Steel) , Edward's harp (doh), P. Cecil's shield (ok I guess) and Eiko's crown (interesting item). Overall I'm pretty happy.

Last phase of farming for the orbfest. Good phase with power orbs and such. Here's hoping for a few major ones so I can hone Full break sooner.

[Starwulf]

Got pretty lucky on this last lucky draw. Four 5* item, four 4* items and three 3* items.

5*s are Tidus' sword (Lightning Steel) , Edward's harp (doh), P. Cecil's shield (ok I guess) and Eiko's crown (interesting item). Overall I'm pretty happy.

Last phase of farming for the orbfest. Good phase with power orbs and such. Here's hoping for a few major ones so I can hone Full break sooner.

Is lightning steel the one that gives Tidus the Spiral Cut SB? If so, you suck. I would almost(almost, but not quite) trade my mastery of the +++ fight for that.

[SuperPanda]

Is lightning steel the one that gives Tidus the Spiral Cut SB? If so, you suck. I would almost(almost, but not quite) trade my mastery of the +++ fight for that.

You'll have a shot at Tidus's SSB on banner 3 of the "Rift of Recollections" event. That's when I'll be trying for Cecil's SSB (on banner 4) since I got neither the shield or his older sword.

That said, I understand the feeling.

[Starwulf]

You'll have a shot at Tidus's SSB on banner 3 of the "Rift of Recollections" event. That's when I'll be trying for Cecil's SSB (on banner 4) since I got neither the shield or his older sword.

That said, I understand the feeling.

When is that? I've burned out all of my mythril on this lucky draw event(not that it wasn't worth it, I did get a few 5*, and managed to make quite a few 5* out of 3* equip), I am down to just 1 Mythril now, which will be five once I've done the current Orb stages.

[SuperPanda]

When is that? I've burned out all of my mythril on this lucky draw event(not that it wasn't worth it, I did get a few 5*, and managed to make quite a few 5* out of 3* equip), I am down to just 1 Mythril now, which will be five once I've done the current Orb stages.

8 Events away (including the XIII event coming up).

There will be 5 banners including SSBs for Rinnoa, Cloud (same weapon), Squall (repeat of VIII event), Cecil, Tyro, and Tidus. Info here: http://ffrk.kongbakpao.com/rift-of-recollection/

I'm expecting to be able to save 100 Mythril for that if I can resist banners until then while 4 of those banners excite me in one way or another.

[Starwulf]

8 Events away (including the XIII event coming up).

There will be 5 banners including SSBs for Rinnoa, Cloud (same weapon), Squall (repeat of VIII event), Cecil, Tyro, and Tidus. Info here: http://ffrk.kongbakpao.com/rift-of-recollection/

I'm expecting to be able to save 100 Mythril for that if I can resist banners until then while 4 of those banners excite me in one way or another.

Nice. 8 events is definitely plenty of time to save Mythril, and since I'm planning on trying to make progress in the regular dungeons again, I'll likely have well over 100 mythril by then.

I'm just still patiently waiting on some news of an FFXI event. I mean, they did a FFXIV event, they should absolutely do a FFXI one considering it was(and based on over-all QUALITY content, still is) superior to FFXIV in pretty much every way possible. I want my Prishe and Lion damnit!

[Mr.Sandman]

Any word yet on who will be holding Squall's MC2 in his event? I'm hopeing its not TDD again, but it probably will be.

[danzibr]

Holy flipping hell guys! I not only beat the +++ fight, I MASTERED IT!!!!!! I lost 3 medals, 1 for actions taken, 2 for damage taken, but because no-one died during the fight, I got all 9 of those extra medals which kept me just in the green zone for mastery! WOOOOT! I had to leave my attempt from earlier and I stuck Venom Buster on Barret, it stuck the first time and I am quite positive that is what made the difference. Super stoked! Oh, special props to 5* Relic Rod Yuna is using, it's SB is a healing thing that allowed me to cure my guys three extra times.

This is officially the first event that I have entirely beaten and entirely mastered. Woot!

Edit: As to the 11 lucky draw, I got Aeriths Aurora Rod 5* and that was it. Rest was junk :-(.
Grats!

Any pointers?

I'm about to (well, probably tomorrow night) attempt the ++ fight. The boss rush didn't give me much trouble. I have high hopes.

EDIT: To stop Jenova LIFE should I use the 4* physical ability? I can make it but not hone it...

[Starwulf]

Grats!

Any pointers?

I'm about to (well, probably tomorrow night) attempt the ++ fight. The boss rush didn't give me much trouble. I have high hopes.

EDIT: To stop Jenova LIFE should I use the 4* physical ability? I can make it but not hone it...

I just used the Black Mage spell Stop and I hit it every time. The fight wasn't that hard, just remember: Stop, other damaging spell, Stop, other damaging spell, etc. That's how I did it, the stop would wear off just as it was Vivi's turn again. Oh, and Venom Buster on one of your guys will be your friend, the ticks off poison were about 3500-4k each time and that definitely did a substantial amount of damage throughout the fight. Sleep buster is a decent back-up if you run out of stops and she's still alive, you can sleep her and then just nuke her with your remaining damage spell uses(I had 6 uses of stop, and 8 uses of Firaga, by the time she died I had 2 uses left, so if need be I could have slept her and used those before resuming physical beatdown).

[Mr.Sandman]

Is it worth putting the RM that gives instant Soul Break on Vivi if I have his Oak Staff for the chance to poison and high damage early? Or should I stick with Rod Mastery for more consistent damage?

Edit: I am a moron. Got ATB and soul break mixed up.

[SuperPanda]

Any word yet on who will be holding Squall's MC2 in his event? I'm hopeing its not TDD again, but it probably will be.

Defeat Seifer to claim his MC 1
Mobile 8 ++ to claim MC 2

[Forbiddenwar]

I'm thinking of retiring my Roaming Warrior tidus with spiral cut for Rinoa with Angel Wing Quake because it hits twice and slows everyone. But I don't know what equipment to give her. Should I max out her magic stat or attack stat? What are non fighter soul breaks based on?

[Red Fel]

Holy flipping hell guys! I not only beat the +++ fight, I MASTERED IT!!!!!! I lost 3 medals, 1 for actions taken, 2 for damage taken, but because no-one died during the fight, I got all 9 of those extra medals which kept me just in the green zone for mastery! WOOOOT! I had to leave my attempt from earlier and I stuck Venom Buster on Barret, it stuck the first time and I am quite positive that is what made the difference. Super stoked! Oh, special props to 5* Relic Rod Yuna is using, it's SB is a healing thing that allowed me to cure my guys three extra times.

This is officially the first event that I have entirely beaten and entirely mastered. Woot!

Grats! I didn't even try the +++ fight, so you're ahead of me on that one. Bask in the victory!

Well, final phase of Orbfest, did my pull, and got Firion's Demon Axe, Auron's Shimmering Blade, and Steiner's Defender. Those get added to my previous pulls of Sabin's Kaiser Knuckle and Rinoa's Valkyrie.

Of those, I am most pleased with Shimmering Blade (because 5-star katana) and Valkyrie (because 5-star thrown, and because Rinoa will get an MC2 in RoR).

So, just before the last phase started, I got the final ingredient for Full Break. And I'm staring at it... and I can't quite bring myself to craft it. I mean, if I do, I get two uses of it. That's actually pretty useless. And it will sit in my ability inventory until I've honed it up, taking up space. A sobering, sad realization.


I'm thinking of retiring my Roaming Warrior tidus with spiral cut for Rinoa with Angel Wing Quake because it hits twice and slows everyone. But I don't know what equipment to give her. Should I max out her magic stat or attack stat? What are non fighter soul breaks based on?

Pretty sure it keys off of Magic. Physical attack SBs typically key off of Attack, magical attacks off of Magic, buffs and healing off of Mind.

[Chen]

Is lightning steel the one that gives Tidus the Spiral Cut SB? If so, you suck. I would almost(almost, but not quite) trade my mastery of the +++ fight for that.

No it's the other one that does 6 random non-elemental damage hits. Better against a single target (by a little) worse obviously against multi-targets.


Any word yet on who will be holding Squall's MC2 in his event? I'm hopeing its not TDD again, but it probably will be.

I believe most of the MC2s will be held by the ++ boss from what I've read about the Japanese servers. Not sure about the ones obtained in the Rift of Recollection though.

[danzibr]

Quick question: who do you follow?

When I first started I followed anyone high level. Then I realized some abilities weren't as useful and kept following them but didn't use them. Then just recently I realized that defensive SB's are actually really good (holy cow Rufus hits like a truck in the boss rush) so I started following them, *and* I went back and culled my follow list.

Now I'm thinking I should unfollow almost all of the direct damage SB's (just keep a few of the best, like the dude with the 80 Cloud with Blade Beam) and follow mostly Sentinel Grimoires and Lunatic Highs and Boons.

[SuperPanda]

I tend to try to keep 3 or more copies of defensive / utility SBs on my list so that they are almost always available and easy to find.

I like to keep a collection of good damage SBs because I'm optimistic that i'll get to a point where I no longer "need' Sentinel Grimorie every fight to stand a chance.

Because Rift was kind to one of my mutual followers and someone else i follow, I now also am following two "Advance" users. :)

[Deadline]

Well, my final pull in the lucky draw has happened, and my "grand" haul for the whole thing is:

Edward's Harp - *sigh*
Selphie's Morningstar - Yay! My first decent mage/healer weapon aside from the Light Staff/Light Rod!
Irvine's Gun - Well, at least it's a good gun.

That brings my total list of character specific weapons to 4 (I've also got Rinoa's Ice Whip). Yeah, that's about right with my luck. I really hate gatcha systems. At least with my luck, I know better than to spend money to try and pull, as it would demonstrably be a tremendous waste. *grumble*

At any rate, Orbfest is going well. I've leveled tons of characters and collected a tremendous amount of orbs. Just need several Major Non-Elemental Orbs so I can make some good 5* abilities. :smalltongue:

[Red Fel]

Quick question: who do you follow?

When I first started I followed anyone high level. Then I realized some abilities weren't as useful and kept following them but didn't use them. Then just recently I realized that defensive SB's are actually really good (holy cow Rufus hits like a truck in the boss rush) so I started following them, *and* I went back and culled my follow list.

Now I'm thinking I should unfollow almost all of the direct damage SB's (just keep a few of the best, like the dude with the 80 Cloud with Blade Beam) and follow mostly Sentinel Grimoires and Lunatic Highs and Boons.


I tend to try to keep 3 or more copies of defensive / utility SBs on my list so that they are almost always available and easy to find.

I like to keep a collection of good damage SBs because I'm optimistic that i'll get to a point where I no longer "need' Sentinel Grimorie every fight to stand a chance.

Because Rift was kind to one of my mutual followers and someone else i follow, I now also am following two "Advance" users. :)

Yeah. There are a few priority options. Boon, Lunatic High, Sentinel Grimoire and Stoneskin II are all high priority choices. Advance is great if you use the Reta Meta. From there, it varies. You want your AoEs to carry riders - so Shadow Flare (which deals solid melee damage and Blinds) is good, but Oblivion (which is straight AoE damage) is meh. You might want some strong single-target multi-hit abilities, but keep in mind that there is a difference between multi-hit with crap damage (e.g. Sonic Break) and multi-hit with powerful damage (e.g. Doublecast Venom). Also keep in mind that while having strong multi-hits is a good way to deal damage to a boss, you probably want something like Lunatic High to mitigate damage instead.

Bottom line, you want defensive RWs, and RWs with multiple effects.

[danzibr]

Bottom line, you want defensive RWs, and RWs with multiple effects.
Hmm, thanks! I'll have to look up what Advance does when I'm at home. I use Retaliate (what's the meta for?) quite often.

EDIT: As for my total loot from the Lucky Draws...
Quistis's whip
Terra's sword
Pally Cecil's sword
Balthier's gun
Aerith's armor
Lightning's sword
Firion's axe

And I think that's it. I mean, I'm really pleased with it... might be missing something though.

[tyckspoon]

Hmm, thanks! I'll have to look up what Advance does when I'm at home. I use Retaliate (what's the meta for?) quite often.
something though.

Advance is like super-Boost and, I think, stacks with Boost. Advance-Boost-Armor Break(down) means your retaliator can be doing near black mage levels of damage with normal stacks. Reta meta I think is mostly used because it rhymes, since metagame doesn't make much sense to me in this game, but that would refer to a team setup maximized for Retaliate output - Boost, as many copies of Double Cut/Tempo flurry as you can fit, maybe skipping a black mage because they don't contribute much to retaliating unless you need to hit an elemental weakness.

[DiscipleofBob]

Just 3 more mythril and I can get one more 11-pull from orbfest. After that, I'll just save up mythril until the next big event. Sure I'd rather be farming XP and orbs, but not going to get another opportunity like this for awhile.

Currently my leveling focused are on getting Aerith, Terra, and Auron to 65 as well as getting Barrett level broken, and Cloud to 80. Any suggestions on who I should be leveling instead/after these characters?

[Red Fel]

Hmm, thanks! I'll have to look up what Advance does when I'm at home. I use Retaliate (what's the meta for?) quite often.


Advance is like super-Boost and, I think, stacks with Boost. Advance-Boost-Armor Break(down) means your retaliator can be doing near black mage levels of damage with normal stacks. Reta meta I think is mostly used because it rhymes, since metagame doesn't make much sense to me in this game, but that would refer to a team setup maximized for Retaliate output - Boost, as many copies of Double Cut/Tempo flurry as you can fit, maybe skipping a black mage because they don't contribute much to retaliating unless you need to hit an elemental weakness.

Tyck has it. Advance jacks up your Attack and drops your Defense. Advance + Boost + Armor Break(down) causes explosive damage, as Tyck says. Put that on your Retaliatemans and give your party Double Hit and the like, and your Retaliatemans can pretty much mow down almost any boss. Best of all, Retaliate bypasses counter abilities. That's why it's called the Reta Meta (Retaliate metagame) - because by stacking buffs and debuffs, you can basically overcome any challenge using a single character.

That and because it rhymes.

As for which abilities stack, check page 15 of this PDF (http://happypluto.com/~misterp/r/ffrk.pdf). There is a chart noting that buffs/debuffs with the same ID # do not stack, but that buffs/debuffs with different numbers do. For example, the Bard's Valor Minuet I/II SBs both have ID #603, meaning that they do not stack with Boost or Chakra. However, Luneth's Advance SB has #513 (as opposed to his Mark of the Warrior, another #603). #513 seems to be a number unique to Advance, so it stacks with anything.

Now, to be clear what "non-stacking" means. If you use a buff or debuff with the same ID # as another buff or debuff already on that target, it will replace that buff/debuff. This is true even if the new buff/debuff is worse. For example, if you use Power Breakdown (ID #603) on a target, and then Power Break (also #603), only Power Break will be applied, meaning that you will have reduced the debuff. Keep in mind also that when a debuff and buff have the same ID #, one may be used to negate the other.


Currently my leveling focused are on getting Aerith, Terra, and Auron to 65 as well as getting Barrett level broken, and Cloud to 80. Any suggestions on who I should be leveling instead/after these characters?

Personally, I've been making sure all of my characters are 49-50, to LB them if they have an MC, or to make it easy for when they do. As for characters who are already LB'd, I'd focus on the ones who will be getting MC2s. Cloud has one now, and Squall will be getting one in a few events. Come RoR, we'll also have Rinoa, Pally!Cecil, Tidus, and Tyro. Getting them to 65 now would make using an MC2 even easier.

[DiscipleofBob]

Personally, I've been making sure all of my characters are 49-50, to LB them if they have an MC, or to make it easy for when they do. As for characters who are already LB'd, I'd focus on the ones who will be getting MC2s. Cloud has one now, and Squall will be getting one in a few events. Come RoR, we'll also have Rinoa, Pally!Cecil, Tidus, and Tyro. Getting them to 65 now would make using an MC2 even easier.

My only problem is a party of <50s doesn't last on its own, so I usually need at least someone to spam Quake or whatever else is necessary. My 65s include Squall, Rinoa, Wakka, Tidus, Yuna, Vivi, and Sephiroth, so the only ones I need to get ready for MCII would be Cecil and (ugh) Tyro. I may just throw eggs at the latter's face until it stops working, but eggs are also great for getting new characters up to survivable.

EDIT: Forgot Irvine as far as 65s go.

[danzibr]

My only problem is a party of <50s doesn't last on its own, so I usually need at least someone to spam Quake or whatever else is necessary. My 65s include Squall, Rinoa, Wakka, Tidus, Yuna, Vivi, and Sephiroth, so the only ones I need to get ready for MCII would be Cecil and (ugh) Tyro. I may just throw eggs at the latter's face until it stops working, but eggs are also great for getting new characters up to survivable.

EDIT: Forgot Irvine as far as 65s go.
Hrm, I had little problems bringing people 40+ into the Orbfest heroic dailies. Slap on the best gear and abilities, make liberal use of offensive RW's, quit after the first wave if necessary :P

[Red Fel]

Hrm, I had little problems bringing people 40+ into the Orbfest heroic dailies. Slap on the best gear and abilities, make liberal use of offensive RW's, quit after the first wave if necessary :P

Frankly, I'm able to bring 20-somethings in, if I have somebody with Quake to sweep mobs, and I'm lucky enough that my 20-somethings don't get hit until they're 30-somethings.

[DiscipleofBob]

In my experience, and maybe it's just out of personal failure I don't know, I need at least a >50 Mage who can cast Quake and someone else who can reliably cast Diara to one-shot the cactuars.

Last phase, the soldiers could occasionally use Shell or confuse characters, and if that happened my squishy characters were at risk RWs take a long time to activate too. I'd rather not risk the stamina when every point counts. Haven't really done a lot of waves in phase 4 yet.

[danzibr]

In my experience, and maybe it's just out of personal failure I don't know, I need at least a >50 Mage who can cast Quake and someone else who can reliably cast Diara to one-shot the cactuars.

Last phase, the soldiers could occasionally use Shell or confuse characters, and if that happened my squishy characters were at risk RWs take a long time to activate too. I'd rather not risk the stamina when every point counts. Haven't really done a lot of waves in phase 4 yet.
I failed to mention I did a fair bit of S/Ling when I brought in low level characters. Like, I brought in people at level 1, would just S/L if they got 1-shotted.

[DiscipleofBob]

I failed to mention I did a fair bit of S/Ling when I brought in low level characters. Like, I brought in people at level 1, would just S/L if they got 1-shotted.

Cheater.

Seriously, doesn't that waste stamina though?

[T.G. Oskar]

On the Orbfest Heroics, I mostly took two heavy hitters and three characters I want to level up. Before, it was Terra, Wakka, Josef, the Bard and Steiner (with Terra holding Quake and Revive, while Steiner has Bladeblitz and Draw Fire; no healer whatsoever). Since Wakka level-capped, I switched him out, placed the Ranger (level 34) and switched Steiner for Cecil (which can hold either Curaga or Bladeblitz).

In both occasions, they've been capable of surviving, unless facing Cactuars/Gigantuars, in which case it depends on whether they don't get hit by the Spines attack. If that were to happen, I can just have Terra use Revive, then have Cecil use Curaga or have the Bard and Josef use Salve and Chakra, respectively.

That said - enemies in Orbfest are a whole lot easier than on the XP Heroic daily. Very rarely I lose 2 medals for Expert rank; almost always it's 1 medal because of the amount of time taken. I keep AoEs for the last few rounds, just to finish things fast. Also - Josef is with a 4-star claw (Venom Claws), the Bard is with a Silver Harp moved to 5-stars (still does about 200-300 HP worth of damage), and the Ranger is with a 3-star, so heavy equipment is not that necessary. Terra can one-shot, or nearly one-shot, just about everyone, but she has a Blitz Sword equipped (not to mention a Hero's Ring), while Cecil has a Defender (he's more for the Defense and Draw Fire to avoid most of the hefty damage). Aside from Terra (and Steiner, where available), none of them are level 50, so there's that.

I'm also advancing on the Core dungeons (I might still have time for one or two more battles on the FFVII event to get Barret's MC, but I'm not entirely interested in the event anyways - fat load of good does to aim for Cloud's MC when he's still at level 1 and with no intentions to level him up ever anyways), and I feel it'd be a good idea to plot out what's the most efficient path to get Stamina Shards; it's been long since I passed the range where you get 2 Stamina Shards per dungeon, but there's some Elite quests that still offer 2 Stamina Shards. Being at 75 Stamina (recently; I've been at 74 Stamina for a while) is no fun.

[tyckspoon]

Cheater.

Seriously, doesn't that waste stamina though?

No. The basic save/load, where you tell it to restart the level, just reloads the floor you were on. You only spend stamina if you cancel the fight so you go back to the dungeon select screen and have to click into the dungeon level again. That's the one you use if you're trying to force a boss drop.

[danzibr]

Cheater.

Seriously, doesn't that waste stamina though?
Heh, cheated indeed :P

I have no qualms doing the retaliate cheese and S/Ling.

*AND* I too thought it took stamina to S/L until a few days ago. Nope, it doesn't.

EDIT: Derp, didn't see Tyckspoon's response.

[DiscipleofBob]

I'll have to test that myself. I swear I remember doing the reload option instead of canceling and it kept all he damage / KOs / ability uses as the instant I force quit.

[Jurai]

No, it doesn't. I've used it several times against Cagnasty and Baigels, the Worst Mother in the Universe BIRTH, and Orbfest fights to try and keep my team alive.

[Chen]

I'll have to test that myself. I swear I remember doing the reload option instead of canceling and it kept all he damage / KOs / ability uses as the instant I force quit.

It resets to the start of the wave you were on when you quit. So if someone died and you finished the wave and THEN reset it on the next wave, yes you're screwed. But if you do it in the middle of the wave you get put back to the same state you were in when you started the wave.

It doesn't save any bonuses you got using mythril to continue nor does it carry over the extra retaliate strike that can happen between waves.

[DiscipleofBob]

So I managed to get just enough Mythril for one last draw from the Orbfest and got...

WoL's sword and Yshtola's robe. Yay?
Honestly got more excited about the 4*s I got in the same draw as it gave me some copies that I can upgrade to 5*.

[Starwulf]

So, from all the pulls I've gotten lately, I got two 4* mage hats, and one 5* mage hat(Shinra headgear?). So now I'm wondering, should I upgrade my Hypnocrown to 6* finally? I asked this a while back because I have one hypnocrown that's 5* and one that's 4*, and the advice was that I should keep them separated due to the fact that they are often used on both mages, but now that I have several other 4* mage hats AND a 5* one, I'm wondering if it would make more sense to combine it into my first 6* piece of gear?

Oh, I feel I should mention that I also have quite a few 4 and 5* mage hats now that I got via combining 3*. I have like 6 or 7 of those, plus the aforementioned 2 4*'s and 1 5*.


Grats! I didn't even try the +++ fight, so you're ahead of me on that one. Bask in the victory!


Wow, I'm surprised. I'm positive that it's just because you haven't gotten around to it, your account is far superior to mine, honestly it's your strategies and ideas that I usually use to shape my battle plans around.

[Forbiddenwar]

Stoneskin 2 is a good RM? Okay I'll put that in as my RM instead

[danzibr]

Whelp, Jenova LIFE Blue Light'd Tellah in the face after Shellga dropped, one-shotted him. Managed to beat but not master it. I wonder if I can do some last-minute beefing up to try to snap those orbs.

[Starwulf]

Whelp, Jenova LIFE Blue Light'd Tellah in the face after Shellga dropped, one-shotted him. Managed to beat but not master it. I wonder if I can do some last-minute beefing up to try to snap those orbs.

What set-up did you roll with? Like what RW and skills? I took Sazh as my RW so I had shellga+haste in that, Jenova was dead by the time the 2nd shellga/haste combo wore out iirc(I really don't remember casting it with Yuna, though I did bring it as back-up).

[danzibr]

What set-up did you roll with? Like what RW and skills? I took Sazh as my RW so I had shellga+haste in that, Jenova was dead by the time the 2nd shellga/haste combo wore out iirc(I really don't remember casting it with Yuna, though I did bring it as back-up).
65 Cloud with Retaliate and Armor Break
54 Zack with Tempo Flurry and Venom Buster
50 Barret with Double Strike and Boost
65 Tellah with Shellga and Curaga
65 Rydia with Blizzaga and Stop
RW was an 80 Cloud with Blade Beam

I actually wanted a defensive RW, but it worked out. Rydia missed with Stop a whopping 3 times iirc. And really... if I was paying attention I could've had Tellah drop the second Shellga and not be one-shotted by that Blue Light.

[Starwulf]

65 Cloud with Retaliate and Armor Break
54 Zack with Tempo Flurry and Venom Buster
50 Barret with Double Strike and Boost
65 Tellah with Shellga and Curaga
65 Rydia with Blizzaga and Stop
RW was an 80 Cloud with Blade Beam

I actually wanted a defensive RW, but it worked out. Rydia missed with Stop a whopping 3 times iirc. And really... if I was paying attention I could've had Tellah drop the second Shellga and not be one-shotted by that Blue Light.

Ouch. Basically you got trolled by missing stop 3 times. All 6 of mine landed, Jenova only got a handful of attacks off the entire fight, and I just kept everyone's health topped off regardless of how little damage they took so they had a better chance of absorbing a full damage attack should one land. Yeah I'd definitely go back in and try it again when you have the time/stamina, those orbs are nice, and as long as you don't get trolled via stop it should be a very easy win.

[danzibr]

Ouch. Basically you got trolled by missing stop 3 times. All 6 of mine landed, Jenova only got a handful of attacks off the entire fight, and I just kept everyone's health topped off regardless of how little damage they took so they had a better chance of absorbing a full damage attack should one land. Yeah I'd definitely go back in and try it again when you have the time/stamina, those orbs are nice, and as long as you don't get trolled via stop it should be a very easy win.
Success!

I missed 3 medals (1 for actions taken and 2 for damage taken). I actually *still* didn't have the best of luck with Stop, but I did get on GameFAQs and found some people with Boon. 'Dat Hastega + Shellga was so nice, freed up Tellah doing other stuff.

[Chen]

Stop has a 70% hit rate so missing 3 would be pretty normal if you had 10 uses. Really though, one layer of mitigation (shellga) is just asking for trouble on any of the Jenova fights. Even just adding magic break would significantly reduce damage taken.

[Starwulf]

Success!

I missed 3 medals (1 for actions taken and 2 for damage taken). I actually *still* didn't have the best of luck with Stop, but I did get on GameFAQs and found some people with Boon. 'Dat Hastega + Shellga was so nice, freed up Tellah doing other stuff.

Awesome and congrats man! Glad my idea for Sazh with Boon SB was helpful :) Now move forward and try the +++ ^^ Venom buster is still important there, and you definitely either need Lunatic High or Boon RW, then bring the 'ga it doesn't give you since Jenova Death is physical AND magical. Other then that, I brought Armor/Power/Magic break(well, power breakdown) and re-applied every 3 rounds to keep it doing minimal damage. Since you don't need Stop you can concentrate on just nuking the hell out of it with your Black Mage. I was a little blessed in the fact that I recently pulled the circlet 5* mage hat that gives a healing SB and used that to keep all my guys alive, thus allowing for mastery.


Stop has a 70% hit rate so missing 3 would be pretty normal if you had 10 uses. Really though, one layer of mitigation (shellga) is just asking for trouble on any of the Jenova fights. Even just adding magic break would significantly reduce damage taken.

Yeah I absolutely brought magic break on the ++ fight. Was very useful in keeping damage taken down so I didn't lose anyone. Even more important in the +++ fight where the only vulnerability for the boss is poison.

[danzibr]

Stop has a 70% hit rate so missing 3 would be pretty normal if you had 10 uses. Really though, one layer of mitigation (shellga) is just asking for trouble on any of the Jenova fights. Even just adding magic break would significantly reduce damage taken.
I think it might be due to my armor (I have 4 5* VII items), but I had little problem with taking damage. Just Shellga was enough. Plus everyone has acceptable hp. But you're right, I totally should've brought along Magic Break in retrospect.

On the other end of the spectrum, I think I'll take a stab at the +++ fight. Any suggestions? I know Stop doesn't work.

EDIT:

Awesome and congrats man! Glad my idea for Sazh with Boon SB was helpful :) Now move forward and try the +++ ^^ Venom buster is still important there, and you definitely either need Lunatic High or Boon RW, then bring the 'ga it doesn't give you since Jenova Death is physical AND magical. Other then that, I brought Armor/Power/Magic break(well, power breakdown) and re-applied every 3 rounds to keep it doing minimal damage. Since you don't need Stop you can concentrate on just nuking the hell out of it with your Black Mage. I was a little blessed in the fact that I recently pulled the circlet 5* mage hat that gives a healing SB and used that to keep all my guys alive, thus allowing for mastery.
Thanks!

And hey, there are the suggestions :P Yeah, I'll try tomorrow. Hmm, I could go Armor Break and Retaliate on Cloud, Power Break and Tempo Flurry on Zack, Magic Break and Boost on Barret, Protectga and Curaga on Tellah, offensive magic and my all-party heal on Rydia. Yeah, that sounds pretty solid. Yeah, yeah... feeling good.

[Starwulf]

I think it might be due to my armor (I have 4 5* VII items), but I had little problem with taking damage. Just Shellga was enough. Plus everyone has acceptable hp. But you're right, I totally should've brought along Magic Break in retrospect.

On the other end of the spectrum, I think I'll take a stab at the +++ fight. Any suggestions? I know Stop doesn't work.

EDIT:

Thanks!

And hey, there are the suggestions :P Yeah, I'll try tomorrow. Hmm, I could go Armor Break and Retaliate on Cloud, Power Break and Tempo Flurry on Zack, Magic Break and Boost on Barret, Protectga and Curaga on Tellah, offensive magic and my all-party heal on Rydia. Yeah, that sounds pretty solid. Yeah, yeah... feeling good.

Sounds solid. Just pray for few tropic winds or whatever the hell it's AoE attack is, that thing hits hard even through magic/power break + shell/protect. Barret was the closest to dying in that fight and he literally had <100 HP left because it used that attack twice near the end. Oh, I don't see Venom Buster in your list. Venom Buster is again a key component, it dishes out 3500 dmg a tick once it sticks, and I can guarantee you I wouldn't have mastered it if it wasn't for those ticks. Barret absolutely would have bit the dust and likely 1 or 2 others would have as well.

[SuperPanda]

I've attempted 2 +++ fights so far and got so soundly defeated that I just bailed on them.

XIV +++ and XII +++ kicked my bum so hard that it wasn't even funny.

I still need to craft Venom Buster and hone to R2, then I'll be trying the ++ and the +++ fight again.

I don't yet have "Stop" the spell, I had to Non-Elemental Orbs during the XII event and crafted Shadowbind R1 but my luck with its procs is very low.

I plan to go back with a Sentinel Grimorie / Boon / Stone Skin II RW
Cloud 65 Retaliate, Armor Break (w/ Hard Edge)
Arieth 52 Curaga Protectga
Tifa 60 Magic Break, Tempo Flurry (w/ Crystal Glove)
Tellah 62 Stop, *nuke spell here* (w/ Polymorph Rod)
Zack 51 Venom Buster, Sleep Buster (Considering Thancred at the same level instead since I have his Ninja Chainmail) (W/ Crystal Sword VII)

I can swap out Stop for Shellga and Sleep Buster for Powerbreak on the +++

[danzibr]

Sounds solid. Just pray for few tropic winds or whatever the hell it's AoE attack is, that thing hits hard even through magic/power break + shell/protect. Barret was the closest to dying in that fight and he literally had <100 HP left because it used that attack twice near the end. Oh, I don't see Venom Buster in your list. Venom Buster is again a key component, it dishes out 3500 dmg a tick once it sticks, and I can guarantee you I wouldn't have mastered it if it wasn't for those ticks. Barret absolutely would have bit the dust and likely 1 or 2 others would have as well.
Yeah, I was counting it up and realized the lack of Venom Buster after I went to bed. Then I realized I could make a change, might really work, might not. Current plan is to first do today and tomorrow running the heroic Orbfest, in part due to levels and in part due to 3* non-elemental orbs. Then I'm going to go at Jenova DEATH with the following team:

66 Cloud with Venom Buster and Retaliate
57ish Zack with Armor Break and Tempo Flurry
54ish Barret with Magic Break and Boost
65 Vaan with Power Break and Double Strike
65 Tellah with Shellga and Curaga (and the all-party heal SB from Healing Rod)

No black mage. Going all in on Retaliate.

Also, I have a problem. I got Cloud's MC2 and used it, and I thought that gave me his RM3, but I don't see it in my RM inventory. I was going to put in on Tellah for the extra heals.

[DiscipleofBob]

Also, I have a problem. I got Cloud's MC2 and used it, and I thought that gave me his RM3, but I don't see it in my RM inventory. I was going to put in on Tellah for the extra heals.

It generates randomly the same way other RMs with the "Use this character in battle to unlock." I don't know if you need to equip his RM2 for it to generate or not, though I suppose it couldn't hurt. Like all the RM2s generated this way, it could take 2 battles or it could take 200.

[danzibr]

It generates randomly the same way other RMs with the "Use this character in battle to unlock." I don't know if you need to equip his RM2 for it to generate or not, though I suppose it couldn't hurt. Like all the RM2s generated this way, it could take 2 battles or it could take 200.
Aww crap. I don't have his RM2. Maybe that's it.

[Hunter Noventa]

One battle away from level breaking Rydia, and I suppose I should work on some 13 people for the next event.

And thanks to Orbfest I have enough orbs for a Breakdown, but which do I start with? magic, given how nasty that tends to be?

[DiscipleofBob]

One battle away from level breaking Rydia, and I suppose I should work on some 13 people for the next event.

And thanks to Orbfest I have enough orbs for a Breakdown, but which do I start with? magic, given how nasty that tends to be?

Generally speaking Magic tends to be more useful, given that magic hits harder and doesn't care what row you're in. Even if physical attacks are more common.

[Chen]

Aww crap. I don't have his RM2. Maybe that's it.

You don't need his RM2 equipped but you need to have it before the RM3 can drop.

Also for those doing Jenova Life/Death, the "light" attacks (blue and red light) are actually physical attacks, not magic ones. I just checked the enemy AI thread on the reddit and saw that. Might be why blue light tends to hit so hard even through shellga and such.

[danzibr]

One battle away from level breaking Rydia, and I suppose I should work on some 13 people for the next event.

And thanks to Orbfest I have enough orbs for a Breakdown, but which do I start with? magic, given how nasty that tends to be?
I can't speak from experience on the breakdowns, but for a comment on the 13 people, I currently only have Snow, and he's low level. Yeah, I don't think I'll do so well on that event >.>

You don't need his RM2 equipped but you need to have it before the RM3 can drop.

Also for those doing Jenova Life/Death, the "light" attacks (blue and red light) are actually physical attacks, not magic ones. I just checked the enemy AI thread on the reddit and saw that. Might be why blue light tends to hit so hard even through shellga and such.
Well shucks about the RM2. Thanks for the info.

And good other info too.

In other news, I'm thinking of trimming the people I follow down to 10. 2 SG, 2 LH, 2 Boon, and 4 damage. Thoughts?

EDIT: Hopefully 6 uses of all my abilities is enough to down Jenova DEATH. The more I think about it, the more I think I don't *deserve* to win. Like, I'm going at the +++ boss with 2 people not from the realm, half my gear from the realm, no Breakdowns... probably get my donkey handed to me.

[Hunter Noventa]

I can't speak from experience on the breakdowns, but for a comment on the 13 people, I currently only have Snow, and he's low level. Yeah, I don't think I'll do so well on that event >.>

Luckily I've got a few more than that, but I may not even bother with snow or Sazh. They're so...meh. Lightning is already level broken and while I don't have Vanille's crystal, she'll be useful at least.

And Magic Breakdown it is.

[Jurai]

Kongbakpao updated the events page, and there's going to be a Tactics event. Ramza is Support, through and through, able to use Support 5; Combat, Knight, and Ninja 4; and Bard 3. Agrias is a PALADIN, using White Magic 4, Spellblade 4, Combat 5, and Knight 5. The event itself is a mini-event, like XIV, with five fights, three Bonus Battles, and a stage after that, apparently translated as Misfortune. THIS IS GOING TO BE ALMOST AS AWESOME AS GILGAMESH!

Also, Yuna gets a new dress, may get updated to use Guns, and the II event will give us Minwu and Leila.

[Hunter Noventa]

kongbakpao updated the events page, and there's going to be a tactics event. ramza is support, through and through, able to use support 5; combat, knight, and ninja 4; and bard 3. Agrias is a paladin, using white magic 4, spellblade 4, combat 5, and knight 5. The event itself is a mini-event, like xiv, with five fights, three bonus battles, and a stage after that, apparently translated as misfortune. This is going to be almost as awesome as gilgamesh!

Prepare the Buttpants!

[DiscipleofBob]

Thats crazy! Everyone knows Ramza spends the entire game as a monk with equip armor.

[Red Fel]

Speaking of upcoming events, guess what? Hope and Vanille's event starts tonight!

This event gives us Hope and Vanille, if you don't have Vanille yet, as well as their MCs. It also gives us Hope's Scarf, an accessory with +Mag and Death resist, and the long-awaited 4-star ability Ruinga, the non-elemental AoE that will completely replace Quake. There are two banners in this event, as seems to be the trend. I won't go into the specifics, because you kind of ought to know the drill by now, but be aware that Sazh's Vega 42s, his Boon SB relic, is in the second banner.

Also, pick up the quests for Lightning and Sazh. If you already have them, free eggs, and if you don't, they'll be a good help in this event.

So, Hope. Hope is basically Rinoa. Both are casters with BM, WM, and thrown weapon proficiency. Hope has more equipment options, adding staves and shields on top of Rinoa's daggers, rods, and thrown, and hats, light armors, robes, and bracers. Also, where Rinoa gets BM 5, WM 3, Support 3 and Celerity 2, Hope gets BM 5, WM 4 and Summoning 3. Statwise, Hope has lower HP, higher Attack, same Defense, lower Magic, higher Resistance, much higher Mind, and same Accuracy, Evasion and Speed.

In short... Well, in a month or two Rinoa is going to be getting an MC2, and Hope will still be Hope. Rinoa will be usable in or out of VIII events, and Hope will still be limited to XIII. See where I'm going with this?

[SuperPanda]

In short... Well, in a month or two Rinoa is going to be getting an MC2, and Hope will still be Hope. Rinoa will be usable in or out of VIII events, and Hope will still be limited to XIII. See where I'm going with this?

When in XIII fight to keep Hope alive.

When not in XIII be without Hope. :smallcool:

[danzibr]

Out of all the above replies, I can say I'm most excited about seeing Minwu. Man, 'dat Minwu. Ahhh.......

Like srsly, I might be more excited about Minwu than Gilgamesh, and you can look back and see how excited I am about Gilgamesh.

EDIT: I was also going to say I was unable to spend about 100 stamina today. Darn parent-teacher conferences. That's down like... 7 waves, a bit over 10k experience per wave, 70k experience per person. Ouch. And those orbs...

[T.G. Oskar]

Kongbakpao updated the events page, and there's going to be a Tactics event. Ramza is Support, through and through, able to use Support 5; Combat, Knight, and Ninja 4; and Bard 3.

...Not what I expected, but still nice. Ramza should have proficiency with good weapons and armor, meaning he'll be the most likely replacement for Tyro. That he's basically a better Thancred (Knight skills and Support!?) seals the deal.


Agrias is a PALADIN, using White Magic 4, Spellblade 4, Combat 5, and Knight 5.

Darnit in tarnation. I have the slight impression Steiner just got replaced. I bet later on good ol' Orland(ea)u will follow suit, being that awesome Thunder God we expect. Honestly - what are the stats on them? Because it feels the game has just realized FFT makes for god-like characters or something. Seriously - SPELLBLADE!? On Agrias?


Also, Yuna gets a new dress, may get updated to use Guns, and the II event will give us Minwu and Leila.

Oh look; another White Mage that gets to use ranged weapons! Really - is there a reason why to choose Aerith when you get Lenna as best WM + Dancer abilities, Rosa with bows + heal/revive SB and now Yuna with Guns + WM and Summoning? Feel kinda sad for Minwu, but then again, he wields Shields so he has some solid defense.

[Jurai]

...Not what I expected, but still nice. Ramza should have proficiency with good weapons and armor, meaning he'll be the most likely replacement for Tyro. That he's basically a better Thancred (Knight skills and Support!?) seals the deal.

Dagger, Sword, Katana, Axe, and Instrument for weapons, and Shield, Hat, Helmet, Light Armor, Armor, Robe, and Bracer for armor. At 65, Ramza has 4573 HP, 138 Atk, 100 Def, 115 Mag, 95 Res and Mind, 23 Accuracy and Evasion, and 133 Spd.


Darnit in tarnation. I have the slight impression Steiner just got replaced. I bet later on good ol' Orland(ea)u will follow suit, being that awesome Thunder God we expect. Honestly - what are the stats on them? Because it feels the game has just realized FFT makes for god-like characters or something. Seriously - SPELLBLADE!? On Agrias?

Dagger and Sword for Weapons, and Shield, Hat, Helmet, Light Armor, Armor, and Bracer for armor. At 65, Agrias has 4745 HP, 142 Atk, 128 Def, 76 Mag, 92 Res, 105 Mind, 23 Accuracy and Evasion, and 106 Spd. By this point, Steiner's MC2 will hit, twelve events before this, unless Kongbakpao missed something (and they've been darn accurate so far), so if you're looking for versatility, yes, if you're looking for numbers, no.

[SuperPanda]

Because it feels the game has just realized FFT makes for god-like characters or something. Seriously - SPELLBLADE!? On Agrias?



1. I can't think of much better ways to represent "holy sword" skills in the current FFRK system than spellblade. It makes more sense than giving her White Magic actually。

2. The way I see things with FFRK is that sooner or later the designers need to make a choice: Do we try to give every character their own Niche or do we accept that with so many "healers" "supports" "brusiers" "tanks" and "blasters" between all of the games we should try to make them as even as possible and just let players choose who they like more? So far they seem to be trying to balance both.

3. They want people invested in a "gotta catch-em-all" mentality for characters and therefore relics. They continue to balance update past characters while releasing new characters that are better on paper than what you have. Then you need to level someone new to 65 all over again and might spend money on stamina refreshes, relic pulls, and more.

I have a feeling that when Agrias is released she'll 'replace' Steiner (especially since it looks like they'll be releasing a FFT realm for synergy on those items) but X months after there will be a balance update to replace her with Steiner, then Ingus, Then back to Cecil, Then Snow, Then Agrias again, Then ...

[Jurai]

Once again, Bulbasaur's being a jerk.

[T.G. Oskar]

Dagger and Sword for Weapons, and Shield, Hat, Helmet, Light Armor, Armor, and Bracer for armor. At 65, Agrias has 4745 HP, 142 Atk, 128 Def, 76 Mag, 92 Res, 105 Mind, 23 Accuracy and Evasion, and 106 Spd. By this point, Steiner's MC2 will hit, twelve events before this, unless Kongbakpao missed something (and they've been darn accurate so far), so if you're looking for versatility, yes, if you're looking for numbers, no.

Well, the difference between numbers and versatility is somewhat minor. It requires like 10-15 points on a skill to see the difference, but as it stands, the loss of numbers doesn't really compare to her flexibility as a WM buff-user (Protectga and Shellga being the key ones; Curaga on a pinch is also good, though nowhere near as strong as a true WM). Steiner has better numbers, but Agrias has pretty much identical skillset and most likely better SBs, so she stands superior overall.


1. I can't think of much better ways to represent "holy sword" skills in the current FFRK system than spellblade. It makes more sense than giving her White Magic actually.

Giving her White Magic fits, actually. When you get her as a Guest character, she has six levels in the White Mage class, as well as a wide setup of White Magic spells already learned. Extraofficially, between Knight and White Mage, you can figure the "entry prerequisites" to become Holy Knight. Same with Gaffgarion and his Dark Knight class, where he has 6 levels in Black Mage.

Spellblade, on the other hand, doesn't. Holy Sword/Dark Sword/Unyielding Blade maneuvers strike from a distance and are generally more physical than magical, plus almost always carry a rider effect (Holy Sword skills have status effect riders, Dark Sword skills have draining effects, Unyielding Blade maneuvers always have a "rend" effect that would work as a "X Break/down" rider). Spellblade is the realm of Beowulf, which actually has it as a command. Agrias...doesn't, and the only element she'd have access other than Holy would be...Thunder. So she'd have at best access to Thundara Strike and...Holy Strike? I say that Spellblade doesn't fit; she's closer to Beatrix in terms of skillset than Steiner anyways, which should have had a higher Spellblade level (he could use Flare Strike and Doomsday Strike, as he had the same access to spells as Vivi had after all).


2. The way I see things with FFRK is that sooner or later the designers need to make a choice: Do we try to give every character their own Niche or do we accept that with so many "healers" "supports" "brusiers" "tanks" and "blasters" between all of the games we should try to make them as even as possible and just let players choose who they like more? So far they seem to be trying to balance both.

3. They want people invested in a "gotta catch-em-all" mentality for characters and therefore relics. They continue to balance update past characters while releasing new characters that are better on paper than what you have. Then you need to level someone new to 65 all over again and might spend money on stamina refreshes, relic pulls, and more.

I have a feeling that when Agrias is released she'll 'replace' Steiner (especially since it looks like they'll be releasing a FFT realm for synergy on those items) but X months after there will be a balance update to replace her with Steiner, then Ingus, Then back to Cecil, Then Snow, Then Agrias again, Then ...

2) Indeed, they're trying to strike a balance, but that still hinders some. The problem here lies in that some of the skills of specific characters simply don't exist - there's no Blue Magic command for people like Strago, Kimahri or Quina; no Geomancy command for Aerith (she was meant to be some sort of White Mage/Geomancer hybrid after all) or Mog, no Gambler command for people like Selphie or Setzer. I think the newest skill category is Machinist, which mostly covers...Edgar? Probably Cid Pollendina (FFIV) and Cid Highwind (FFVII) as they're both Machinists as well. So yeah - some characters don't have a niche, and they are hammered in, but they end up weak, so they get boosted, which ends up trying to balance them oddly. I doubt characters like Red XIII or Kimahri (or, as it seems to be, Hope from FFXIII) are still getting used post-balance updates. But yeah, I agree that they're trying to balance characters while still making them feel true to their origins...just that they are still limited on that regard.

3) On that one...well, they're definitely aiming for a "gotta catch 'em all" mentality, but you underestimate the attachment towards certain characters. For once - I don't plan to level up Cloud or Sephiroth, even if I have stuff to make them useful, because I don't like them. On the other hand, Terra is permanently fixed on my 1st slot and you could have Ashe dwarf Terra in stats, skills, SBs AND RM, and I'd still keep Terra around. New events exist to keep people entertained in the game, and power creep exists to keep the game difficult and thus promoting sales of Gems, but even the devs know the game has an expiration date when they've touched every single Final Fantasy game...including FFXV. As with Airship Brigade (you do remember it, right?) There's so much they can do to promote people to raise characters beyond their levels until people get bored with the game and drop it; so far, the game has been successful enough to keep people entertained (mostly because their F2P model is actually generous, and not as punishing as ATBs aberration). Balance patches help somewhat, but you can only do so much to a character before you're balancing them with a-pulls out of Necron nowhere.

[Starwulf]

Question time! Dismissal and Tempo Flurry! I have both, honed once each for 4 uses. I have enough orbs to make a 2nd copy of both, and maybe hone them once each, or I could hone the originals to 6 uses(i think I have enough now anyways). Which would serve me better? I'm pretty sure for Dismissal it would be better to have 2 copies at 4 uses each then just one copy at 6 uses.

Also, if I were to post a list of all of my gear, could/would someone be willing to help me sort out what to keep and what to get rid of? I'm up to 160 inventory slots and I'm constantly running out of room even now, it's getting irritating.

[Jurai]

Machinist seems to be 'Spellblade but with guns' or 'Status Buster but with guns', and Laguna from the VIII event after the Advent Children event gets it, specifically, Machinist 5. You are right about the lack of Blue Magic and Gambler and Geomancy abilities, though.

[SuperPanda]

Yeah, I get the character attachment thing: Its one of the reasons I've been chafing and not having Pld. Cecil's MC1 for so long. He'd be my permanent party leader if I had it but I feel like I'm wasting resources if I leave him in.

Its why i know that Gilgamesh and Bartz are going to be amazing characters (with Bartz being Vaan +) and yet I'll still use Vaan because I played and loved XII while I never got far into V despite there being nothing wrong with the game.

I guess I came down on the side of Agrias above for this reason (I personally liked her better than Steiner - but I still liked both games alot). I'll probably use Cecil over both of them for 1 having his MC2 and 2 liking the character better. Agrias looks like she'll be (Cecil + Steiner) + -doing everything both of them can do and being only slightly worse than the originals at it and therefore better overall.

I don't use Golbez much at all because he doesn't feel like he should be a protagonist (though I used him alot in Dissidia because he was a good villain). For the same reason I doubt I'll use Kefka or Ex-Death and I haven't bothered to even unlock Sephiroth.

I'll use a character I have no connection to from time to time (like the current event. I couldn't care less about XIII though I'll be running a full XIII party once I recruit the new peeps) but I'll default back to people I know and like whenever the diffuculty ramps up enough to make me have to focus.

[Jurai]

I know. I'm actually saving the eggs from this event for the Capital G himself. Gonna run Snow through Orb Dungeons to ramp his XP up to 50, then Level Break him before trying against Rain Cow and Lightning Cow.

[SuperPanda]

I dropped Summoner out of my orb dungeon set for Hope and kicked Eiko out for Vanille.

Summoner and Eiko will have to take spots on the Sunday xp runs after the event closes.

Current team is Squall (mid 40s) trying to hit 50 before his event. Vanille (egged up to 20 and now xping). Snow (mid 30s). Hope (see Vanille). Irvine (high 30s, don't have his MC, Will probably use Vaan instead of him anyway in the VIII event).

I've cleared Classic of the XIII event, I'm leaving the Elite fights until after orbfest closes. The biggest challenges I have set for myself will be "how much mythril can I raise by the time Rift rolls around." and "Do I have the willpower not to roll on anything till Rift."

[danzibr]

(with Bartz being Vaan +)
Ooooh really? Man, I think Vaan is amazing as-is. Fast, beaty, somewhat tough support.

I've cleared Classic of the XIII event, I'm leaving the Elite fights until after orbfest closes. The biggest challenges I have set for myself will be "how much mythril can I raise by the time Rift rolls around." and "Do I have the willpower not to roll on anything till Rift."
Why save mythril for Rift?

In other news, in about 1.5 hours I'll have enough stamina to attempt the +++ boss. I suspect I'm going to get owned, but we'll see!

[DiscipleofBob]

My leveling party for Orbfest is currently Cloud 73, Terra 62, Lightning 40.

I have Snow at 50 (no MC yet), and Sazh at 25.

My question is whether I should ignore the Hope event and focus my stamina on leveling as many people as possible (probably just Lightning and Sazh right now) in orbfest, or do I take a break from orbfest to unlock Hope so I can level him in orbfest as well?

[danzibr]

My leveling party for Orbfest is currently Cloud 73, Terra 62, Lightning 40.

I have Snow at 50 (no MC yet), and Sazh at 25.

My question is whether I should ignore the Hope event and focus my stamina on leveling as many people as possible (probably just Lightning and Sazh right now) in orbfest, or do I take a break from orbfest to unlock Hope so I can level him in orbfest as well?
Whelp... I can't speak for others, but I have no intention of leveling the XIII crew. Or maybe just Lightning. But I also have no intention of getting very far in the current event, just enough to unlock the MC's.

[SuperPanda]

Ooooh really? Man, I think Vaan is amazing as-is. Fast, beaty, somewhat tough support.

Why save mythril for Rift?

In other news, in about 1.5 hours I'll have enough stamina to attempt the +++ boss. I suspect I'm going to get owned, but we'll see!

http://ffrk.kongbakpao.com/bartz-gilgamesh/

Well lets see: Spellblades (5) / Combat (5) / Celerity (4) / Thief (4)

So he does loose support - but the new Thief line "Steal armor" and "Steal Power"(Comming durring Zidane event) are basically breakdowns with the damage dealt replaced by a self buff instead. So he trades Support for Spellblade making him a very powerful bruiser who can also breakdown/self buff.

As for Mythril for Rift:

There will be 5 banners containing SSB weapons for everyone getting an MC II including repeats of Cloud and Squall's SSB weapons.


Rinnoa's SSB
Squall's Revolver
Zell's SB weapon repeat (didn't look it up)
Sazh's Boon (Vega 42)
Hope's Skycutter
Leon's Gold Armor
3 shard SB items. A XII dagger, a IV bracer, and IV helmet.


Cloud's Organix.
One of Seph's Katana's - but not the good one
Red XIII's Trine SB
Zidane's SB from repeat
Ashe's Runeblade
Tyro's Cyclone Grimorie
3 shared SB's - A VII fist, a VIII bracer, a IX light armor


Tidus SSB
One of Yuna's SBs (not sure which)
Lulu's SB repeat
Sentinel Grimorie
Snow's Glove SB
Firion's Axe
3 shared SBs: A VI sword, a IV bracer, a XIII robe



P.Cecil's SSB
Golbez's Axe
Vanille's SB staff (not sure which)
Wakka's first ball
Amarant's SB
Cecles' Second sword
A X dagger, a X bracer, a XII light armor.


Squall SSB repeat
Tyro SSB
Seifer SB
Rinoa (Angel Wing Quake - I think)
Arieth's Rainbow rod
Eiko's Flute
a IX dagger, a XIII hat, a VII bracer

I'm considering trying to save up to roll on 2-4 of those banners.

[Red Fel]

Question time! Dismissal and Tempo Flurry! I have both, honed once each for 4 uses. I have enough orbs to make a 2nd copy of both, and maybe hone them once each, or I could hone the originals to 6 uses(i think I have enough now anyways). Which would serve me better? I'm pretty sure for Dismissal it would be better to have 2 copies at 4 uses each then just one copy at 6 uses.

Also, if I were to post a list of all of my gear, could/would someone be willing to help me sort out what to keep and what to get rid of? I'm up to 160 inventory slots and I'm constantly running out of room even now, it's getting irritating.

I would bring the originals up to at least R3 before I consider crafting new ones. First off, it's uncommon to have two high-Celerity users in the same party (but see my VII party), and second, having two people who can use those abilities, but only twice each, isn't that great, especially when you realize that a two-use ability blocks a slot that could have more uses.

As to what to get rid of? Go by my usual metric. Keep your 5-stars, keep your 4-stars. Ditch your 1- and 2-stars. Keep your 3-stars only if they have a special ability, such as chance to Blind/Poison/Silence/Instant KO, or if an upcoming event will guarantee you more of them. You can eventually phase out your 3-stars for 4- and 5-star gear that has the same type (e.g. axe, shield) from the same game, with the exception of particularly common types, such as daggers and swords, of which you might want multiple copies.


My question is whether I should ignore the Hope event and focus my stamina on leveling as many people as possible (probably just Lightning and Sazh right now) in orbfest, or do I take a break from orbfest to unlock Hope so I can level him in orbfest as well?

If you have the stamina, do both! I did that last night - went just far enough to grab Hope, now I'm leveling him in Orbfest. That said, Orbfest is a rare opportunity, so if you don't think you can do both, prioritize Orbfest. Hope can wait, and Sunday is only a few days away.

Side note: Halloween Treats today! In your mailbox you'll get a 5-star shared SB hat and a 5-star thrown weapon with Blind chance. The hat is excellent for your mage-heavy parties, since its SB is basically mass-Faith. Pick them up now! Also, on the main screen (the one with all the game doors), you can enjoy a Halloween-themed Mysidian tune!

[Calemyr]

Yay! Cloud is broke and I am not! Seriously, Orbfest is absurdly profitable. Last Golden Festival I got some 3 million gold and I only went down past 1 million last month. Now I'm almost to 7 again. Pity gold isn't worth much.

Anyway, thanks to Halloween I now have a 5* throwing weapon! Nice.

[danzibr]

Beat the +++ battle! Not mastered since Barret took a dirt nap, but I'm still happy.

Now to grab Lightning Hope and Vanille before the end of Orbfest.

[T.G. Oskar]

Well, let's face it - Ramza's a cheater and should feel ashamed of it.

Looked at the items for the FFT event, and the Soul Breaks.

????: Ramza's Super Soul Break weapon. It's a sword, but right now doesn't seem to be familiar (looks like the Rune Blade, though). Super Soul Break is Scream, which apparently works like a Rallying Etude + Hastega (and judging by the original game, like Faith as well), which is just plain sick.
Grand Armor: Ramza's first normal Soul Break armor. Judging from the original game, it's probably high Defense armor and not much. Soul Break is Heal, though it actually works like Cheer/Wish, as it heals all allies after a...well, cheerleading session.
Nu-Khai Armlet: Ramza's second normal Soul Break armor. If it works anything like the original game, it adds minor or moderate Petrify resistance, plus a hefty set of bonuses for all stats. Soul Break is...apparently, Throw Stone, though it went into badass mode - it's a multiple attack followed by Throw Stone.
Knight Sword Defender: Agrias' Super Soul Break weapon. High damage, probably add some Defense to it (like IV's Defender weapon). Super Soul Break is Heavenly Thunder, which is about 4 hits worth of Lightning damage to all enemies, plus Silence.
Kaiser Shield: Agrias' Soul Break shield. Most likely a hefty boost to Defense and Resistance. Soul Break is Cleansing Strike, which deals 3 Holy damage hits from what it seems. Since it was a fight against Gaffgarion, most likely the rider effect didn't land, but it has some sort of rider effect tacked in (and if judging by the original game, it's most likely Doom)

So yeah - Ramza gets a Heal-All, a Support-All and a multi-hit attack through three relics, which is mostly what Tyro aims (and somewhat fails) to pull. Agrias, on the other hand, uses her Holy Sword techniques willy-nilly, but they're mostly attacks with rider effects and other characters have better options (that they're fixed element might also hinder their utility, though Cleansing Strike seems like pretty nifty).

Judging by stats, though...Agrias is nowhere near the top 3 on Defense, and judging by, not even on top 10 (she's higher than Ricard, tho), but her attack is superior to pretty much all of the lv. 65 tanks, and pretty close to the top 3 if not top 3 (not close to Mama's Boy, but apparently higher than Sabin). Her Mind is comparable to most tanks, but higher (Steiner has 100 Mind, she has 105), and her Resistance is right at the middle of the tanks; her HP is laughably low, though. For being a Paladin, Agrias is built like a bruiser with some Magic and Spellblade, rather than a tank. As a final comparison, Beatrix is stat-wise similar to Agrias just about everywhere: almost the same HP, same-ish Attack (adv. Agrias), same-ish Defense (adv. Beatrix), but Beatrix is superior in Mind by a bit (10 points), while having lower Resistance. Of course, Steiner is a beast at level 80 with 160+ Attack and Defense coupled with almost 6.5k HP. In the case of Ramza, he's...a better Tyro, basically, or a slower Thancred with superior skill set and SBs, so that's his true weakness - other than Attack (and barely) and having good HP, he doesn't excel at anything like other characters, so his strength is his skill set and his SBs.

So...you have Ramza, which is basically a slower but Support-geared Thancred (better armor, better weapons, better skill selection, superior Soul Breaks, lousy Speed), and Agrias, which is similar to Beatrix in pretty much EVERY aspect. What else? Well...apparently, their Record Materias stink, and not of aged cheese - Ramza's one is a chance of casting Esuna on yourself when attacking, Agrias' is a chance of dealing Holy damage when attacking (compared to Warrior of Light's one which is always Holy damage, IIRC). Well...not exactly stinky as others (*coughcoughRedXIIIcoughcough*) but not exciting to behold.

Note that Ramza and Agrias will get their second MCs soon enough, so all of this might change.

P.S.: Oh yeah, almost forgot. Got 25 Mythril yesterday for the last Lucky Draw pool (who would have thought of that?). Exactly what are the chances to get a 5-star SB twice? Just in case - I got Selphie's Morning Star twice, so it's probably the only natve 5-star item I can upgrade to 6 stars. *sigh*. At least it's another heal-all item...

[Chen]

I would bring the originals up to at least R3 before I consider crafting new ones. First off, it's uncommon to have two high-Celerity users in the same party (but see my VII party), and second, having two people who can use those abilities, but only twice each, isn't that great, especially when you realize that a two-use ability blocks a slot that could have more uses.

Full Dismissal teams are a thing, but they take an absurd amount of orbs to get up and running. If you're not aiming for that, I agree that just getting dismissal up to R3 is better. I have mine at R3 and am happy with it. Tempo flurry I have at R4 and haven't considered making another one. My main team has Zack who uses those two abilities, but otherwise I don't have a good celerity user that I'd need duplicates for (Cloud has retaliate and armor break usually).

[Red Fel]

Yay! Cloud is broke and I am not! Seriously, Orbfest is absurdly profitable. Last Golden Festival I got some 3 million gold and I only went down past 1 million last month. Now I'm almost to 7 again. Pity gold isn't worth much.

Anyway, thanks to Halloween I now have a 5* throwing weapon! Nice.

Gold is actually worth a lot when it comes to honing high-rank high-star abilities. By way of comparison, it costs 600,000 gold to upgrade Full Break from R3 to R4, and another 1,000,000 from R4 to R5. That stuff gets pricey.

As for the weapon, keep in mind that it's more designed for combat/support throwers (e.g. Locke, Wakka, Refia) than for caster throwers (e.g. Rinoa, Hope) because it lacks caster stats. The Evil Lantern boosts Attack, Accuracy and Evasion, not Mind or Magic. Funny how it's a XIII weapon and, of the XIII cast, the only one who can use it is someone who needs caster stats.

Side note, I just took a look at Snow's new weapon. It's a fist called the Paladin, and the SB is called Sovereign Fist. Know what it does? Two AoE physical attacks and chance to Dismissal. Yeah. Two AoE Dismissals. That's... Kind of pretty awesome. Because of that, I've decided to devote some attention to the banners. Here we go.

First banner:
Skycutter: Hope's thrown. Attack, Magic, and Mind. 3 hits, 3.5x magic Non-Elemental damage per hit, chance to Stop. Pretty good.
Wyrmfang: Vanille's rod. Attack, Magic, and Mind. AoE Protect + Cure. Not bad, although you probably prefer her Deshell/Deprotega SBs.
Wild Bear: Snow's light armor. Defense and Resistance. Single-target 4.8x physical Ice damage. Meh.
Hunter's Rod: Shared SB rod. Attack, Magic and Mind. Single-target 2.8x magic Lightning damage, chance to Paralyze. Decent.
Second banner:
Paladin: Snow's fist. Pure Attack. 2 AoE hits, 1.75x physical damage per hit, chance to Dismissal. Wow.
Vega 42s: Sazh's gun. Pure Attack. AoE Shell + Haste. Wow.
Binding Rod: Vanille's rod. Attack, Magic, and Mind. AoE 7x magic Non-Elemental damage + Armor Breakdown. Wow.
Keepsake Knife: Shared SB dagger. Attack, Defense, and Resistance. AoE Protect. Meh.
Both banners:
Blazefire Saber: Lightning's sword. Pure Attack. 3 hits, 1.7x physical ranged damage per hit. Meh.
Axis Blade: Shared SB sword. Pure Attack. AoE 1.5x physical damage, chance to Slow. Meh.
Purge Robe: Shared SB robe. Defense and Resistance, also resists Silence. Single-target Dispel.
Feral Pride: Stat-stick light armor. Defense and Resistance, also Lightning resistance.
Gold Bangle: Stat-stick bracelet. Attack, Magic, Mind, Defense, and Resistance.
Short version: The first banner is middling, the second has some awesome items, and in all probability you won't get the one you want. If you see yourself using XIII characters often, this banner is worth a pull; if you want a chance at Boon, it's worth a pull; if you're saving up for Squall's SSB, it's not worth a pull.

Sources: Relic thread here (https://www.reddit.com/r/FFRecordKeeper/comments/3q8crb/relic_discussion_chasing_hope_and_finding/), Should I Pull? thread here (https://www.reddit.com/r/FFRecordKeeper/comments/3q7yic/should_i_pull_chasing_hope/).

[Calemyr]

I don't use Golbez much at all because he doesn't feel like he should be a protagonist (though I used him alot in Dissidia because he was a good villain). For the same reason I doubt I'll use Kefka or Ex-Death and I haven't bothered to even unlock Sephiroth.

Golbez deserves credit as, as far as I can remember, being the first and maybe only Core Final Fantasy villain to be redeemed. (Don't know Edea counts.) He was just a bitter sorcerer who got possessed by the real big bad. Once freed from possession he works hard to redeem himself (albeit not as a party member). Dissidia and After Years are what Golbez is like when freed: a powerful, remorseful, well intentioned extremist.

Kefka is just a brilliant sort of evil (Cult of Kefka for life, bro!) and Sephiroth is just an achingly gothic badass, but Golbez is something special. All the badassery of a FF big boss, coupled with a ethics and a burning need for atonement.

I would LOVE to get Ramza and Agrias. Do we have any idea if they're coming any time soon?

[Red Fel]

I don't use Golbez much at all because he doesn't feel like he should be a protagonist (though I used him alot in Dissidia because he was a good villain). For the same reason I doubt I'll use Kefka or Ex-Death and I haven't bothered to even unlock Sephiroth.


Golbez deserves credit as, as far as I can remember, being the first and maybe only Core Final Fantasy villain to be redeemed. (Don't know Edea counts.) He was just a bitter sorcerer who got possessed by the real big bad. Once freed from possession he works hard to redeem himself (albeit not as a party member). Dissidia and After Years are what Golbez is like when freed: a powerful, remorseful, well intentioned extremist.

Fact is, if you're building a IV team, you don't need Golbez. Rydia has better Magic. Tellah has better Magic. FuSoYa has weaker Magic, but the diversity to use both BM and WM. Pally!Cecil uses Knight better. DK!Cecil uses Combat better. And Support 3 isn't justification for the character's use.

Really, he's just in there for nostalgia purposes, because you can get a remarkably potent and balanced team without him. Particularly once elemental Jumps and Edge come out.

That said, as much as Zemus was the boss of the game, Golbez was the antagonist. I absolutely agree that he was one of the more awesome, tragic figures in FF lore.


Kefka is just a brilliant sort of evil (Cult of Kefka for life, bro!) and Sephiroth is just an achingly gothic badass, but Golbez is something special. All the badassery of a FF big boss, coupled with a ethics and a burning need for atonement.

I will never use Kefka for two reasons. First, Terra is a better Black Mage, and Mog is a more delightful Dancer. Much like Golbez, he doesn't stack up or fill as necessary a role. Second, dude is a creepy whackadoodle. Seriously, I may be Evil, and I can certainly respect him for being one of the few FF villains who won, but damn, man, that just ain't right.

[Calemyr]

Fact is, if you're building a IV team, you don't need Golbez. Rydia has better Magic. Tellah has better Magic. FuSoYa has weaker Magic, but the diversity to use both BM and WM. Pally!Cecil uses Knight better. DK!Cecil uses Combat better. And Support 3 isn't justification for the character's use.

Really, he's just in there for nostalgia purposes, because you can get a remarkably potent and balanced team without him. Particularly once elemental Jumps and Edge come out.

That said, as much as Zemus was the boss of the game, Golbez was the antagonist. I absolutely agree that he was one of the more awesome, tragic figures in FF lore.



I will never use Kefka for two reasons. First, Terra is a better Black Mage, and Mog is a more delightful Dancer. Much like Golbez, he doesn't stack up or fill as necessary a role. Second, dude is a creepy whackadoodle. Seriously, I may be Evil, and I can certainly respect him for being one of the few FF villains who won, but damn, man, that just ain't right.

For raw stats, you're not wrong. But gear is a major factor, is it not? The only 5* mage weapons I have are the Gaia Blade (+20) and Rune Axe (+111). I have a gravity rod+ (+73) too. In other words, Golbez is hands down the best mage I have, because Golbez+Rune Axe > Vivi + Gravity Rod+. The fact that he can also hit things reasonably hard means he's useful for more than just bosses, to boot. So I do reject the assertion that he's simply not that good. If I ever got the Enhancer or a friggin 5* rod, of course, Golbie would be sitting in the back benches with Tyro.

Also, while both of them manage to be murderous psychos that ooze style, Kefka has always struck me as well written (thanks to Woolsey) while Sephiroth was... well... "Corporate cool" is the phrase I picked up a long time ago to describe his ilk. He was built to be cool and focus tested until he had the right mix of traits to be the world's #1 Bishi. Kefka says "screw that" and does things his way. And wins. And only dies after he gets bored of being a god. I seriously doubt he'll be in my "Serious business" party, but I will be happy to see Kefka in my stable.

[Red Fel]

Also, while both of them manage to be murderous psychos that ooze style, Kefka has always struck me as well written (thanks to Woolsey) while Sephiroth was... well... "Corporate cool" is the phrase I picked up a long time ago to describe his ilk. He was built to be cool and focus tested until he had the right mix of traits to be the world's #1 Bishi. Kefka says "screw that" and does things his way. And wins. And only dies after he gets bored of being a god. I seriously doubt he'll be in my "Serious business" party, but I will be happy to see Kefka in my stable.

Well, let's go through our list of FF villains, up through VII, for comparison, shall we?
I: Garland/Chaos. There's a temporal paradox, and a one-off Bowser wannabe becomes a primordial force of entropy that still manages to lack any complexity or development. I'll give him credit for one thing, and that's that even though the heroes defeat him, because their actions broke a paradox loop, they never actually happened and so the heroes were never actually heroes. But as villains go, he's one-note.
II: The Emperor. On the one hand, dude's got style. On the other, he's cartoonishly evil. Takes over the world, consorts with demons, takes over the afterlife, blah blah. For someone with so much power, he doesn't have much complexity at all. I will give him credit for being a recurring theme, though - his name, whether "Emperor," "Mateus," or "Palamecia" has seen use in some form in almost every FF game since.
III: Xande and the Cloud of Darkness. This is basically the precursor to Golbez and Zemus, except that Golbez had more complexity than Xande did. Xande was basically Vargas from FFVI - he felt snubbed by his master and sought murderous revenge. That's basically his whole shtick, coupled with a Voldemort-esque fear of death. More characterization than Garland or the Emperor, but not much.
IV: Golbez and Zemus. Zemus had absolutely no characterization whatsoever. Much like the Cloud of Darkness before him, he was a suddenly-introduced character revealed to have been controlling the villain you just beat and thought was the big bad all along. Between the CoD and Zemus, we've established what will be an annoyingly recurring pattern. Golbez, on the other hand, had the most characterization to that point, coupled with a very early introduction (which Xande lacked). We meet Golbez early on, we see clips of him throughout the game, we see him struggling with something, and we even see his attempt at redemption. Most complex character so far.
V: Ex-Death. He's a tree. A freaking evil tree. He is basically your stereotypical evil overlord, from his boasting to his hiring of comically inept minions. That said, he does get vicious once he gains the power of the Void. Still, it's hard to take an evil splinter seriously.
VI: Kefka. I have to give Kefka credit. More than anyone else on the list to this point - and indeed, more than most FF villains since - Kefka won. He got what he wanted. He became a god and destroyed the world. He ruled for what must have been at least weeks, possibly months. He terrorized and broke everyone. That said, evil clown.
VII: Sephiroth and JENOVA. This dichotomy was set up as almost an inversion of the Xande/CoD or Golbez/Zemus dichotomy. On the one hand, JENOVA is clearly the cosmic horror that is influencing Sephiroth. She is the cancerous entity that threatens to annihilate all reality. On the other hand, Sephiroth's disturbing obsession with Cloud makes him a more personal villain. Which is odd, when you consider the pattern of FF games - it would make more sense to defeat the Herald of JENOVA, and then take on the diseased being eating the planet, rather than to purge the cancer and then fight Sephiroth. That said, in terms of characterization, there's barely any. JENOVA isn't even a person, it's a thing, a presence, a living pestilence. Sephiroth is so confusing that it actually required additional games for us to figure out just what the heck was up with that dude anyway.
Between I and VII, I would give Kefka the most cred for success, and Golbez the most cred for characterization.

[T.G. Oskar]

Well, let's go through our list of FF villains, up through VII, for comparison, shall we?
I: Garland/Chaos. There's a temporal paradox, and a one-off Bowser wannabe becomes a primordial force of entropy that still manages to lack any complexity or development. I'll give him credit for one thing, and that's that even though the heroes defeat him, because their actions broke a paradox loop, they never actually happened and so the heroes were never actually heroes. But as villains go, he's one-note.
II: The Emperor. On the one hand, dude's got style. On the other, he's cartoonishly evil. Takes over the world, consorts with demons, takes over the afterlife, blah blah. For someone with so much power, he doesn't have much complexity at all. I will give him credit for being a recurring theme, though - his name, whether "Emperor," "Mateus," or "Palamecia" has seen use in some form in almost every FF game since.
III: Xande and the Cloud of Darkness. This is basically the precursor to Golbez and Zemus, except that Golbez had more complexity than Xande did. Xande was basically Vargas from FFVI - he felt snubbed by his master and sought murderous revenge. That's basically his whole shtick, coupled with a Voldemort-esque fear of death. More characterization than Garland or the Emperor, but not much.
IV: Golbez and Zemus. Zemus had absolutely no characterization whatsoever. Much like the Cloud of Darkness before him, he was a suddenly-introduced character revealed to have been controlling the villain you just beat and thought was the big bad all along. Between the CoD and Zemus, we've established what will be an annoyingly recurring pattern. Golbez, on the other hand, had the most characterization to that point, coupled with a very early introduction (which Xande lacked). We meet Golbez early on, we see clips of him throughout the game, we see him struggling with something, and we even see his attempt at redemption. Most complex character so far.
V: Ex-Death. He's a tree. A freaking evil tree. He is basically your stereotypical evil overlord, from his boasting to his hiring of comically inept minions. That said, he does get vicious once he gains the power of the Void. Still, it's hard to take an evil splinter seriously.
VI: Kefka. I have to give Kefka credit. More than anyone else on the list to this point - and indeed, more than most FF villains since - Kefka won. He got what he wanted. He became a god and destroyed the world. He ruled for what must have been at least weeks, possibly months. He terrorized and broke everyone. That said, evil clown.
VII: Sephiroth and JENOVA. This dichotomy was set up as almost an inversion of the Xande/CoD or Golbez/Zemus dichotomy. On the one hand, JENOVA is clearly the cosmic horror that is influencing Sephiroth. She is the cancerous entity that threatens to annihilate all reality. On the other hand, Sephiroth's disturbing obsession with Cloud makes him a more personal villain. Which is odd, when you consider the pattern of FF games - it would make more sense to defeat the Herald of JENOVA, and then take on the diseased being eating the planet, rather than to purge the cancer and then fight Sephiroth. That said, in terms of characterization, there's barely any. JENOVA isn't even a person, it's a thing, a presence, a living pestilence. Sephiroth is so confusing that it actually required additional games for us to figure out just what the heck was up with that dude anyway.
Between I and VII, I would give Kefka the most cred for success, and Golbez the most cred for characterization.

First and foremost - IMO, everything I bolded is what supports a personal pet hypothesis of mine. Up until FFVII, Ultimecia is the culmination of every FF villain. She pulls Garland's temporal paradox and actually makes it an aspect of her world's history, she has a lot of style, seemingly appears out of nowhere but still has more development than Cloud of Darkness (almost as much as Zemus), and pulls off her goal - in fact, it requires a bit of Deus Ellone Ex Machina to give Squall and co. a chance of success, so for a given time, she was the absolute ruler of all time. Also - as with Exdeath and...let's say Cloud of Darkness, she controls a fundamental force of existence (well: Exdeath and CoD seek to control oblivion, but it's still pretty close). And, if her summoning of Griever and her obsession with exterminating all SeeD means something, she takes things quite personally. I say that she's a very underestimated villain.

That said - I would like to retort some things.
In particular, I like manipulative villains, because they add to the evil. Zemus, Kefka and Ultimecia are all one step more evil because they manipulate the wills of others - even if I'd consider myself LG, I support free will, and anyone who toys with it earns righteous wrath (one of the reasons I loathe Kefka, but still consider him one of my favorite villains, right there with Ulty, SRW's Vindel Mauser, Vagrant Story's Romeo Guildenstern and Lost Odyssey's Gongaga, not to mention X-Men's Magneto). Golbez (and Edea) get more characterization, but you never know what part of their characterization was theirs, and which one was a reflection of the puppeteer - to what extent Golbez's and Edea's actions were their own, and when they were only meat puppets for their controllers? Learning a bit of their secret (particularly with Edea) makes some of their comments take on a new light.

Also, I admire Exdeath. Really. He might be a card-carrying villain, but he had the guts of actually fighting the party and almost pulling a TPK. Very few villains go so hands-down on their nemesis as Exdeath did, and his survival plan was hilariously smart, if you think about it.

That said, there's one villain I abhor more than Mama's Boy, and that is Necron. Heck: even Yu Yevon is better than Necron. Yu Yevon is a remnant of a bygone era, but you know his intentions. Cloud of Darkness appears out of nowhere, but you know her reasons. However - you take Kuja, a very good villain, a villain that actually pulls off a TPK and destroys the Crystal, and then...you get a literal cosmic buttock-pull. No matter how many things you can say about it, Necron simply put makes no sense. The battle should have ended with Trance Kuja, period.

...Which I notice is a big problem with some FF villains. Cod, Necron and Yu Yevon aren't final bosses. They're pointless. Cloud's one-on-one vs. Mama's Boy makes sense: he's fighting inside his mind, and facing the looming threat of his mind control, and he wins. These guys...I put Zemus and Ulty way over them, because at least the latter duo, while appearing later, get some of their characterization from how they manipulated everyone. These three...they make the games' respective villains (Xande, Kuja, Seymour...yes, Seymour, because Jecht is looking at suicide by cop) weaker.

[SuperPanda]

I felt VIII took VII's plunge into the "needlessly complicated" and ran with it.

Between the main character's soap opera plot-line and the line of villainous sorceresses with similar tailors - it felt like they were reaching for something amazing but couldn't figure out what that was. I still loved the game and I liked the final battle music (mostly how it starts off slow and then ramps up partway in).

IX - Kuja worked for me as taking the Cecil / Golbez and Cloud / Sephiroth angle and running with it. Our villain is a dark mirror of our hero. He seemed to want to have elements of Golbez, Sephiroth, and Kefka in him and in his game it worked well. (In Dissidia it really didn't - but then they have Kefka there pointing that out which was hilarious).

X - Seymour is clearly the antagonist and he's actually pretty good in that regard. He's vile, powerful, and nearly gets what he wants. That he's more or less irrelevant to the "real" story isn't a mark against him because his story was "better" than the 'real' one anyway.
Jecht never struck me as intentionally a villain so much as a tragic mirror to Tidus's situation. He existed as contrast to Tidus and to make it more clear why only Tidus could be the hero Spira needed.

Yu Yevoon was that spider thing at the end... I really wanted a special command to have someone just step on it and squish it.

XI - had more than a few interesting villains from the Shadowlord who sounds like a blatant Voledmort/Sauron cliche and actually has a well developed backstory to the God of bad juju to the dragon that destroys time to the evil god trapping people in their nightmares... I never got that far though.

XII - Gabranth, Vayne, Syd, and the rogue "god" figure. Gabranth was the Golbez villain of the game. Deeply personal connection for the protagonists, directly thwarts them more than once, attempts to redeem themself - and most interesting to me - Not so much "Evil" as LN with poor judgment. Gabranth and Basch were an interesting dynamic in the game (and even more interesting in the epilogue)

Syd had clearly gone a bit crazy in the end but he also clearly thought he was doing good. Its rare for the series to have villains who really believe they are heroes and don't 'snap out of it.'

Vayne - Depsite his name feeling very appropriate with his character design - was another very curious villain. Clearly devious, ambitious, and ruthless ... the game actually leaves it in question as to whether or not his ultimate goals were evil or wrong. Freeing the people of his world from the control of the gods seems to be portrayed as a good thing over all and Vayne manages to get the heroes to do it for him. His ambition didn't end there and ultimately brought him down - but he was interesting.

(Haven't touched XIII).

FFT has so may antagonists - some of them really well developed. I liked Wiegraf best because there was a clear implication that he could have been Ramza and vice-versa. The Lucavi were a fun way to do the "cosmic horror" required villain for the series and the final dungeon being "Travel to the underworld to rescue a loved one form death" was nicely mythic.

[Jurai]

Unlike my predecessor, I have played XIII.

Everybody complains about XIII, how it has no exploration and sidequests until the end. THAT'S THE POINT! There is no other option for them, they think, until they say 'SCREW THAT, WE'RE HEROES, DADGUMIT, AND WE'RE GONNA BE HEROES!' That, when they start fighting fate and raging against the machines manipulating them, intending to bring about the end of Man, that's when exploration opens, when a way to look for other avenues to gain power to fight the Final Boss opens up, when they've gone beyond giving up, gotten their acts together, and are starting to actually be heroic, is when the game gets good.

Barthandelus is the primary antagonist of XIII, though he doesn't make himself known as such until the end of the second disk (XBox 360 only, that was the version I played). But when he does, hoo boyee, does he do it. One of his underlings goes to attack the party, only for him to one-shot her, Palpatinize at the heroes, transform into his freaky mechanical face look, and attack. The party wins, but he's not set back, and even then, he gives Xanatos a run for his money at winning even when losing. His plan is to crash Cocoon into Gran Pulse, end Man, and bring back the God that created the Fal'Cie. If the Pulse l'Cie go after him in Cocoon, the humans of Cocoon will freak out in terror and demand action. If they don't, Cocoon will still crash into Gran Pulse. The only way the heroes win is that they sacrifice two of their number to stop Cocoon from crashing. And in that whole time, he never loses his composure, and even screws with the group along the way.

[T.G. Oskar]

(Haven't touched XIII).

"Blessed be those who haven't played the thirteenth iteration of the no longer Final Fantasies, for they still hold faith in the series creator that things will not be screwed much further."

...Anyways, to talk a bit more seriously. FFXIII and the entire line are the only games from Final Fantasy I refuse to play by any means. I could get several million dollars to finish it, and I'd still prefer being poor. I like my dignity, you know...

And, by the looks of it, FFXV will go the same way. I simply can't withstand the character design. Go play Bravely Default - that's money well spent.


FFT has so may antagonists - some of them really well developed. I liked Wiegraf best because there was a clear implication that he could have been Ramza and vice-versa. The Lucavi were a fun way to do the "cosmic horror" required villain for the series and the final dungeon being "Travel to the underworld to rescue a loved one form death" was nicely mythic.

It also has difficult, challenging battles to mix that. The entire chapter you spend fighting Gaffgarion makes him quite an interesting villain. Your boss at first, then turns into your enemy, and then sets pretty nasty ambushes, and the conversations between turns help explain his reasoning for opposing you at every step. It starts to fall down somewhat at the end, but it still gets solid with the Church's knights, particularly Folmarv/Vormav. He ends up a bit of a letdown after Wiegraf and Gaffgarion, though.

[SuperPanda]

FFT Chapter 1 does an amazing job of setting the scene for Ramza's growth. The Death Corps in general were very fun antagonists because they really did have a genuine grievance and were actually sympathetic throughout the chapter.

Wiegraf as the leader with lines he simply will not cross is a great contrast to young Ramza at that time - a young noble desperate to prove himself to the established world and crossing lines (disobeying orders) to win his own glory. Both are seeking what they think is right, both seem to be good people. One is from the nobility and gets rewarded for breaking rules, the other is a peasant and gets punished for breaking them. The whole thing is obviously unfair and that unfairness bugs the player and the protagonist throughout the chapter.

Delita and Algus echo and embody that conflict with Algus being a disgusting excuse for a person for most of the chapter and Delita being a pretty good friend up until the end.

I'd say Algus is the true antagonist of Chapter 1 - not because you fight him at the end but because he represents everything wrong with the status quo and everything that Ramza will reject between Chapter 1 and 2.

Gafgarion epitomizes the opposite end of things. He's not a privileged bigot who is happy letting people die for his purposes. He's a sellsword more than happy to work for people like Algus. He sees how bad the world is and is happy to help make it worse provided he gets to rise up. Agrias contrasts him in this chapter by epitomizing everything the Knights (and nobility) is suppose to be. Here we have Ramza rejecting his rejection of himself (he can't completely abandon his identity as a noble and be like Gafgarion nor can he embrace it and be like Algus).

With that established we have Chapter 3 where Ramza has to confront Wiegraf again. By now Ramza has undergone his Heroes Journey and is meeting Wiegraf as an equal - someone who has found the strength of conviction to stand for ideals with honor. Wiegraf continues to be Ramza's mirror however having fallen to temptation as Ramza rises - he's all but abandoned his convictions and principles to his wrath and vengeance. By the time he surrenders to the Lucavi, Wiegraf has lost everything that defined him. Velias/Belias uses the vestiges of that anger to strip his very soul from him and use his skin as a suit - introducing the next line of big bads.

I didn't count individual baddies from there on out because to me that marked end of human antagonists and the start of the "The Lucavi" as antagonists. It got for me less engaging on a story level and it felt less personal because it was no longer about Ramza's growth but about saving the world. Hashamal was the actual antagonist for most of the section with his human host being more or less irrelevant (seeing as how Wiegraf stopped being Wiegraf when Belias took over, I saw no reason to believe the other Lucavi allowed their human hosts any real control - I saw it more of a Vampire-Durkon situation.) It was still good and fun but I agree that it wasn't as tightly written at that point.

[Mr.Sandman]

Well, after nearly an hour of resetting, I managed to deliver the 'worst mother in the multiverse' award mere minutes before I had to head back to work from my lunch break. Now to focus in 8 while the orb fest remains so I have a shot at Squall's MC2 when it rolls around.

[Jurai]

Well, I got Curaga at Rank 5, Thundaga and Waterga at Rank 3, Water Strike at Rank 5, Thundara Strike at Rank 3, Launch at Rank 2, Draw Fire at Rank 3, and Firaja, Prote(ct)ga, and Power Breakdown at Rank 1. With a Level Broken Snow, Terra, and Ashe (50, 50, and 55, respectively), and Level 50 Lightning and Lenna, versus Sunleth Waterscape- Elite. Any bets?

[Starwulf]

So, what was everyone's final tally for Orbs? I know the fest isn't quite over yet, but it is for me as I'm going to bed and by the time I get up it'll be gone. I have no idea of my #'s beforehand, and I made some abilities and honed some abilities as well(even finally got curaga to 12 casts!), but here are all my #'s now:

Minor Power: 188, Lesser Power: 74, Power: 112, Greater Power: 33, Major Power: 7
Minor White: 137, Lesser White: 47, White: 1, Greater White: 15, Major White: 1
Minor Black: 161, Lesser Black: 67, Black: 23, Greater Black: 18, Major Black: 2
Minor Summon: 137, Lesser Summon: 44, Summon: 108, Greater Summon: 2, Major Summon: 1
Minor Non-Ele: 98, Lesser Non-Ele: 70, Non-ele: 187, Greater Non-Ele: 11, Major Non-Ele: 2
Minor Fire: 127, Lesser Fire: 122, Fire: 111, Greater Fire: 20, Major Fire: 4
Minor Ice: 96, Lesser Ice: 108, Ice: 39, Greater Ice: 25, Major Ice: 5
Minor Light: 110, Lesser Light: 70, Lightning: 128, Greater Light: 6, Major Light: 2
Minor Earth: 157, Lesser Earth: 140, Earth: 150, Greater Earth: 8, Major Earth: 2
Minor Wind: 159, Lesser Wind: 108, Wind: 89, Greater Wind: 10, Major Wind: 1
Minor Holy: 144, Lesser Holy: 56, Holy: 74, Greater Holy: 3, Major Holy: 3
Minor Dark: 210, Lesser Dark: 164, Dark: 138, Greater Dark: 28, Major Dark: 1

[danzibr]

So, what was everyone's final tally for Orbs? I know the fest isn't quite over yet, but it is for me as I'm going to bed and by the time I get up it'll be gone. I have no idea of my #'s beforehand, and I made some abilities and honed some abilities as well(even finally got curaga to 12 casts!), but here are all my #'s now:
I'm still passionately collecting wind, power, and non-elemental. I'll see if I remember to post my numbers in about 13 hours.

For me, I'm actually glad Orbfest is almost over. Can't wait to get back to clearing content, getting characters, increasing max stamina, etc.

And when does Ruinga come out?

EDIT: Oh yeah. I forgot to say I, for one, enjoyed the XIII trilogy.

[SuperPanda]

Still collecting orbs and xp here too.

Ruinga is a reward for the boss rush in the XIII event (I think).

I already spent a couple summon and Ice orbs on Shiva R2 since I had 200+ of each. I'll put my full orb count (and count of who hit 50 or got within a stone's throw of it) once orbfest is officially done.

[Jurai]

I haven't counted. Let's just say lots of 'em. If anyone placed any bets against me last night, you just lost. I am now in official possession of Milli Vanille's Memory Crystal. I'm now working on getting Edgar, Mog, and Cyan fighting fit for the next event, since I have no intention of touching anything above difficulty 70 without two or more characters at level 65.

[SuperPanda]

Oh what the heck, I'm waiting on stamina to charge back up as it is. So for those who would like to know:


Power:
Minor: 142, Lesser: 61, Normal: 346, Greater: 54, Major: 5

White:
Minor: 118, Lesser: 89 , Normal: 150, Greater: 67, Major: 2

Black:
Minor: 78, Lesser: 52, Normal: 164, Greater: 53, Major: 1

[Summon:
Minor: 108, Lesser: 105, Normal: 182, Greater: 20, Major: 2

Non-Elemental:
Minor: 79, Lesser: 102, Normal: 187, Greater: 28, Major: 2

Fire:
Minor: 42, Lesser: 88, Normal: 218, Greater: 37, Major: 2

Ice:
Minor: 79, Lesser: 100, Normal: 200, Greater: 18, Major: 3

Lightning:
Minor: 77, Lesser: 160, Normal: 159, Greater: 37, Major: 7

Earth:
Minor: 54, Lesser: 200, Normal: 206, Greater: 9, Major: 1

Wind:
Minor: 115, Lesser: 78, Normal: 228, Greater: 36, Major: 5

Holy:
Minor: 112, Lesser: 33 , Normal: 133, Greater: 14, Major: 4

Dark:
Minor: 132, Lesser: 179, Normal: 224, Greater: 29, Major: 2

[DiscipleofBob]

Well, let's go through our list of FF villains, up through VII, for comparison, shall we?
I: Garland/Chaos. There's a temporal paradox, and a one-off Bowser wannabe becomes a primordial force of entropy that still manages to lack any complexity or development. I'll give him credit for one thing, and that's that even though the heroes defeat him, because their actions broke a paradox loop, they never actually happened and so the heroes were never actually heroes. But as villains go, he's one-note.
II: The Emperor. On the one hand, dude's got style. On the other, he's cartoonishly evil. Takes over the world, consorts with demons, takes over the afterlife, blah blah. For someone with so much power, he doesn't have much complexity at all. I will give him credit for being a recurring theme, though - his name, whether "Emperor," "Mateus," or "Palamecia" has seen use in some form in almost every FF game since.
III: Xande and the Cloud of Darkness. This is basically the precursor to Golbez and Zemus, except that Golbez had more complexity than Xande did. Xande was basically Vargas from FFVI - he felt snubbed by his master and sought murderous revenge. That's basically his whole shtick, coupled with a Voldemort-esque fear of death. More characterization than Garland or the Emperor, but not much.
IV: Golbez and Zemus. Zemus had absolutely no characterization whatsoever. Much like the Cloud of Darkness before him, he was a suddenly-introduced character revealed to have been controlling the villain you just beat and thought was the big bad all along. Between the CoD and Zemus, we've established what will be an annoyingly recurring pattern. Golbez, on the other hand, had the most characterization to that point, coupled with a very early introduction (which Xande lacked). We meet Golbez early on, we see clips of him throughout the game, we see him struggling with something, and we even see his attempt at redemption. Most complex character so far.
V: Ex-Death. He's a tree. A freaking evil tree. He is basically your stereotypical evil overlord, from his boasting to his hiring of comically inept minions. That said, he does get vicious once he gains the power of the Void. Still, it's hard to take an evil splinter seriously.
VI: Kefka. I have to give Kefka credit. More than anyone else on the list to this point - and indeed, more than most FF villains since - Kefka won. He got what he wanted. He became a god and destroyed the world. He ruled for what must have been at least weeks, possibly months. He terrorized and broke everyone. That said, evil clown.
VII: Sephiroth and JENOVA. This dichotomy was set up as almost an inversion of the Xande/CoD or Golbez/Zemus dichotomy. On the one hand, JENOVA is clearly the cosmic horror that is influencing Sephiroth. She is the cancerous entity that threatens to annihilate all reality. On the other hand, Sephiroth's disturbing obsession with Cloud makes him a more personal villain. Which is odd, when you consider the pattern of FF games - it would make more sense to defeat the Herald of JENOVA, and then take on the diseased being eating the planet, rather than to purge the cancer and then fight Sephiroth. That said, in terms of characterization, there's barely any. JENOVA isn't even a person, it's a thing, a presence, a living pestilence. Sephiroth is so confusing that it actually required additional games for us to figure out just what the heck was up with that dude anyway.
Between I and VII, I would give Kefka the most cred for success, and Golbez the most cred for characterization.

I once posed a fan-theory that all the Final Fantasies (the main ten anyway) are actually in the same world, just with eons between each game to account for the shifting political structure and geologies. I need to actually go back and finish writing the whole thing some day.

I do have a few things to refute here.

I - He is a bit one-note, but the whole of the first Final Fantasy was lacking in the characterization department. We forgive it though because it's the first one. The interesting point is that, depending on your interpretation of the ending, Garland/Chaos actually needed the heroes to come back in time and kill him, and in breaking the time loop for their world, they're actually creating a stable time loop for Garland/Chaos that lasts thousands of years to give Garland/Chaos functional immortality. Did the whole "actually won in his evil plan" thing years five games before Kefka.

II - The Emperor is obsessed with holding absolute dominion over all things. In the process of this, he takes over not only the majority of the world, but also thanks to the protagonists, he briefly rules hell AND heaven before he can be stopped.

III - When Xande's master was divying up his legacy between Doga, Unne, and Xande, Doga got the majority of magical power, Unne got control over the realm of dreams, and Xande got... mortality. He took it a little personally. As for the Cloud of Darkness, she/it is literally an avatar of darkness because the balance between light and dark has shifted so long towards the light (like when your heroes saved the world the first two times for example) that the CoD is going to wreak havok to set everything straight. Interesting note about Xande and why "mortality" would be considered a gift, there's a character mentioned in one of the other games (I think V) that had to sacrifice their immortality to gain control over the power of the Void, so it could be interpreted that Xande just didn't know how awesome what his master left him actually was.

IV - Most of Golbez's character development we see over the course of the sequel The After Years, both through Golbez's actual story and through flashbacks where we see Golbez actually did care for his little brother, but knew he was about to be possessed by ultimate evil so left Cecil as a kid. I do think it's unfair to give eldritch abominations and avatars of evil and hate flack for not having a fleshed out backstory or character development. The whole point of such beings is that they're beyond our understanding and they exist just to promote the concepts they represent.

V - Exdeath was a tree. A tree that housed countless evils and demons that were imprisoned in it throughout the centuries. Exdeath is the combined evil of everything ever imprisoned in it given form.

VI - Kefka really is the Joker of the FF world. All we know about him is that he was the first magitek soldier and they hadn't quite perfected the process so he went a bit screw loose. He's supposed to be the ultimate nihlist, but everything he does throughout the game is pretty random, and even when he takes over the world and becomes a god he doesn't really do much. Burns a few cities, starts a few cults, gets bored and waits for the heroes to come kill him. Of course the whole point is that the heroes counter the nihlism by proving that they have perfectly good reasons to live thank you very much and Kefka can take his infinite cosmic power and go stick it in his itty bitty space.

VII - I hate Sephiroth. I really do. The guy reads a few books about the Jenova project, flips out and kills everyone. That's it. He doesn't even get the whole story. He thinks he's some kind of alien-spawn when really he just has Jenova cells injected in him, same as a bunch of other people Hojo experimented on. Better characters in this and other games go through similar reveals about their characters and come out stronger. Sephiroth just goes crazy. The only potentially interesting thing about Sephiroth that's never been explored (to my knowledge at least. I haven't played all the spinoffs) is that before he goes crazy, Sephiroth is some kind of badass hero. I kind of want to see what Sephiroth was like before he committed Nibelcide. After VII though, any time he comes back or makes an appearance he's just a generic bad guy obsessed with Cloud, and Cloud basically just tells him to shoo. With his giant sword. I think the reason it's eventually called Omnislash Version 5 is because that's how many times Cloud has to kill Sephiroth in one form or another.

VIII - I think we're all still trying to figure out what was going on in VIII. Something about Ultimecia wanting to compress all time and space into a single point because she had a crappy childhood? I liked the fan theory that Ultimecia was actually a mature, crazy Rinoa and that Griever was a dead Squall turned into a GF, but that got jossed.

IX - The really interesting thing about Kuja: you never really beat him. Kuja has another Sephiroth thing going, but a little more understandable. He finds out that his body was artificially created to be a shell for Garland's race that is now extinct and exists only in spiritual form. Basically that he was created only for his consciousness to be erased. He goes crazy, but Kuja's plan is actually pretty interesting. He sees the heroes do Trance (IX's version of limit break) and basically forces himself to undergo similar conditions to unlock his own Trance. Kuja's Trance is powerful enough that he actually went to the first crystal which supposedly forms all of creation to destroy it and all of creation in the process. Both times you fight Trance Kuja, he ends the fight by using Ultima and one-shotting the party, so it's implied he does get to attack or at least damage the crystal. That's what Necron is: Kuja's damaging of the crystal creates a being designed to destroy everything. The final battle in IX isn't against Kuja, it's against the consequences of Kuja's actions, like if the final battle in VII wasn't against Sephiroth but against the actual Meteor itself. (or at least if you ignore the bs WoG explanation about Necron)

X - As disappointing as the Yu Yevon fight actually was, I'd like to point out that, as many people praise Kefka for succeeding in becoming a god and taking over the world for a year, Yu Yevon became a god and took over the world for a thousand. And he didn't do it because nihlistic random sort-of-almost reasons like Kefka, he did it to stop a war that nearly destroyed the world. He set up the system of Sin and summoners and sacrifice to keep people from advancing too much and starting another world war with machina.

[Jurai]

VII - I hate Sephiroth. I really do. The guy reads a few books about the Jenova project, flips out and kills everyone. That's it. He doesn't even get the whole story. He thinks he's some kind of alien-spawn when really he just has Jenova cells injected in him, same as a bunch of other people Hojo experimented on. Better characters in this and other games go through similar reveals about their characters and come out stronger. Sephiroth just goes crazy. The only potentially interesting thing about Sephiroth that's never been explored (to my knowledge at least. I haven't played all the spinoffs) is that before he goes crazy, Sephiroth is some kind of badass hero. I kind of want to see what Sephiroth was like before he committed Nibelcide. After VII though, any time he comes back or makes an appearance he's just a generic bad guy obsessed with Cloud, and Cloud basically just tells him to shoo. With his giant sword. I think the reason it's eventually called Omnislash Version 5 is because that's how many times Cloud has to kill Sephiroth in one form or another.

Having played Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII (It plays like Kingdom Hearts minus the Disney, the jumping, and the world travel), Sephiroth is indeed a bad enough dude to save the president. He has enough power to slice the Junon Cannon (or at least, a holographic representation of it) into bologna. Through sword beams alone. Between him and Genesis Rhapsodos (like Sephiroth, but redhead, shorter weapon, and apparently the closest thing VII has to the Wrath of Gaia), it took Angel Hewley (THE ORIGINAL OWNER OF THE BUSTER SWORD!) getting between them to stop the fight. He didn't even draw his sword to do it, either. Sephiroth goes crazy, Hojo experiments on Cloud AND Zack, and Zack passes on the Buster Sword to Cloud (and Cloud takes his identity and forges it into his own). Worst part of Crisis Core: Fighting Sephiroth in the Nibelheim Reactor. It's literally a 'don't let him knock you off the bridge' fight, and if you keep your attacking spree up, he won't even get a chance. Though he'll spam Octaslash.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Csskrwy9w9M
A video of what I mean by Angeal and Genesis.

[T.G. Oskar]

VIII - I think we're all still trying to figure out what was going on in VIII. Something about Ultimecia wanting to compress all time and space into a single point because she had a crappy childhood? I liked the fan theory that Ultimecia was actually a mature, crazy Rinoa and that Griever was a dead Squall turned into a GF, but that got jossed.

Ultimecia is the Time Sorceress (as each Sorceress has a theme; Edea, for example, is Ice, Adel is Mind Control, whereas Rinoa is Angel Wing). She realizes that, no matter what she does, SeeD will exterminate her in the end. She absorbed the power of all Sorceresses through time (including Rinoa, or most likely her successor), and finds this preposterous. How can someone who's essentially a goddess (she has half of the power of the god Hyne, if FFVIII's creation myth is true) be defeated by a bunch of soldiers trained since youth? Of course, SeeD was trained for that explicit same purpose, and Esthar has the technology to stop Sorceress magic, so it's actually a viable proposition, but for someone who achieved near-godhood and knows her time is running out, that is still preposterous. Thus, Ulty makes a bid to stop it once and for all; to compress all of time and space into a single, finite point, allowing her to exterminate all SeeD at all points in time, therefore ending the threat to her own existence once and for all.

She almost succeeds, by using the Junction Machine Ellone to send her consciousness to the past, in order to junction with the real Ellone in order to cast the Time Compression spell. It just happens that Squall and co. were also brought in because Ellone deliberately allowed herself to be junctioned, only to let that pocket of resistance cross through.

Ultimately (yay, redundancy!), Ultimecia's predicament was her lack of foresight to realize she created her own destruction. Once Squall defeats her, she travels to a point in time to give her power - that point being the time where Edea is on the orphanage. However, Squall follows her, and in that, she creates her own enemy, as this allows Edea to get the idea of creating SeeD; by seeing an actual SeeD stop her. Edea explains it quite well when she accepts Ultimecia's power; she knows Ultimecia's plan is inevitable, so she sets the plans in motion that will end up in her inevitable destruction.

Ultimecia's story, as-is, isn't really that bad, if a bit cliche. She proves to be quite smart, but as I mentioned on my earlier post where she acts pretty much as the culmination of all previous FF villains, she suffers from the same fear as Xande; fear of mortality. Why Xande covers the world in darkness, other than the floating continent? Because darkness effectively stops time, therefore stopping his own mortality; once the Warriors of Light reawaken the world, he confronts his own mortality again, and forces the Warriors of Light to shift the balance of power more and more towards Light, which is the other side of the conflict. In that regard, CoD is a derriere-pull, but at least there's a hint that she's coming.


IX - The really interesting thing about Kuja: you never really beat him. Kuja has another Sephiroth thing going, but a little more understandable. He finds out that his body was artificially created to be a shell for Garland's race that is now extinct and exists only in spiritual form. Basically that he was created only for his consciousness to be erased. He goes crazy, but Kuja's plan is actually pretty interesting. He sees the heroes do Trance (IX's version of limit break) and basically forces himself to undergo similar conditions to unlock his own Trance. Kuja's Trance is powerful enough that he actually went to the first crystal which supposedly forms all of creation to destroy it and all of creation in the process. Both times you fight Trance Kuja, he ends the fight by using Ultima and one-shotting the party, so it's implied he does get to attack or at least damage the crystal. That's what Necron is: Kuja's damaging of the crystal creates a being designed to destroy everything. The final battle in IX isn't against Kuja, it's against the consequences of Kuja's actions, like if the final battle in VII wasn't against Sephiroth but against the actual Meteor itself. (or at least if you ignore the bs WoG explanation about Necron)

That is actually true; Kefka is one of the few who won, but Kuja is the only one you never defeat. He forces a TPK on your group, and actually achieves his purpose - to destroy the world. However, Kuja's predicament is different. He's not mad because of Garland's plan - he KNOWS that, and he actually agrees. What he cannot withstand is that he's imperfect; on the world of Terra, Zidane not only learns that he's a Genome with a soul, but rather that he's the Angel of Death for Gaia, and that he's supposed to carry on Kuja's work if he fails, because he's imperfect. He sees himself reflected in the predicament of the Black Mages (very powerful, but with little time to "live"), and decides that fulfilling his task and destroying everything is the only thing that makes sense. That deep dive into madness awakens his Trance, and when he sees the power it beholds, he more than takes up the task. That's also a reason why he manages to convince the Black Mages eventually; he promises them to extend their life, but that's merely a reflection of his own doubts.

Necron, though, still ends up as a big derriere-pull. Unlike CoD, nothing explains that, if you destroy the Crystal with the intent of destroying everything, Necron will appear. At least Zemus and Ulty get some foreshadowing, and the last dungeon gives them a bit of characterization.


X - As disappointing as the Yu Yevon fight actually was, I'd like to point out that, as many people praise Kefka for succeeding in becoming a god and taking over the world for a year, Yu Yevon became a god and took over the world for a thousand. And he didn't do it because nihlistic random sort-of-almost reasons like Kefka, he did it to stop a war that nearly destroyed the world. He set up the system of Sin and summoners and sacrifice to keep people from advancing too much and starting another world war with machina.

Yu Yevon really didn't became a god as Kefka did, in terms of getting a lot of power. Yu Yevon's fight, to be honest, is against a zombie, and it shows (he gets killed by Cure spells; only FF Mystic Quest's Dark King is that vulnerable to the quintessential White Magic spell). If Yu Yevon endeavored to become a god, he doesn't know - he's too far gone to realize it. What he did, though, was his true goal - to keep Zanarkand "alive". Yu Yevon is the core of the Fayth that creates Dream Zanarkand - with him gone, Dream Zanarkand is gone as well. He has devolved into something feral, which is what controls the Final Aeon of every High Summoner, thus perpetuating the cycle of Sin and Calm. That, in exchange, ends up creating a religion based on a lot of stuff, but that eventually ends up controlling the lives of people. When the Maesters begin becoming Unsent, that's when you realize that not even the high clergy of the religion has any faith in its teachings; most likely, they don't believe Yevon is a god either, and only know that, eventually, the Summoners will fail and Sin will destroy everything. When Yuna and co. take the third option (destroy Sin without a Final Aeon), they basically confirmed their true beliefs; they simply didn't expect them to actually succeed, as they skipped over the necessary ingredient to recreate Sin. That is why, at the end, Yuna has to face all of her Aeons; Yevon is hijacking them in hopes of creating another Sin, and the party is so powerful and determinate that he's failing. Eventually, his corpse ends up defenseless, which is why the whole "fight" against Yu Yevon is so disappointing.

[DiscipleofBob]

Ultimecia is the Time Sorceress (as each Sorceress has a theme; Edea, for example, is Ice, Adel is Mind Control, whereas Rinoa is Angel Wing).

Out of curiosity, how is Adel mind control? I was under the impression (and granted it's been a while) that the Sorceress doing all the mind control was Ultimecia, possessing Edea at first, then Rinoa, and eventually Adel.


Necron, though, still ends up as a big derriere-pull. Unlike CoD, nothing explains that, if you destroy the Crystal with the intent of destroying everything, Necron will appear. At least Zemus and Ulty get some foreshadowing, and the last dungeon gives them a bit of characterization.

Admittedly my bit about Necron isn't something I can say is officially canon and really just my personal interpretation, but I would argue that there really isn't anyway to foreshadow Necron's appearance because, unlike CoD, there isn't a precedence in FFIX. No one really knows what would happen if Kuja destroyed the crystal, but it could also be argued that the dungeon leading up to the final battle does, albeit very slightly, foreshadow it.

Throughout the dungeon, you face the four elemental guardians: Lich, Marilith, Kraken, and Tiamat (who should be ringing a few bells). They could be trying to protect the crystal from intruders and are stuck on autopilot fighting you, or they could have been corrupted by Kuja into slowing you down. By the time you get to the end of the final dungeon, the whole place has gone from a semi-coherent structure to just pure crystal, and the only thing you fight are slightly weaker crystal versions of the four guardians. It can be argued that this shows the crystal's inherent power to create beings and guardians to protect it and do its will, and that damaging the crystal could create corrupted beasts.




Yu Yevon really didn't became a god as Kefka did, in terms of getting a lot of power. Yu Yevon's fight, to be honest, is against a zombie, and it shows (he gets killed by Cure spells; only FF Mystic Quest's Dark King is that vulnerable to the quintessential White Magic spell). If Yu Yevon endeavored to become a god, he doesn't know - he's too far gone to realize it. What he did, though, was his true goal - to keep Zanarkand "alive". Yu Yevon is the core of the Fayth that creates Dream Zanarkand - with him gone, Dream Zanarkand is gone as well. He has devolved into something feral, which is what controls the Final Aeon of every High Summoner, thus perpetuating the cycle of Sin and Calm. That, in exchange, ends up creating a religion based on a lot of stuff, but that eventually ends up controlling the lives of people. When the Maesters begin becoming Unsent, that's when you realize that not even the high clergy of the religion has any faith in its teachings; most likely, they don't believe Yevon is a god either, and only know that, eventually, the Summoners will fail and Sin will destroy everything. When Yuna and co. take the third option (destroy Sin without a Final Aeon), they basically confirmed their true beliefs; they simply didn't expect them to actually succeed, as they skipped over the necessary ingredient to recreate Sin. That is why, at the end, Yuna has to face all of her Aeons; Yevon is hijacking them in hopes of creating another Sin, and the party is so powerful and determinate that he's failing. Eventually, his corpse ends up defenseless, which is why the whole "fight" against Yu Yevon is so disappointing.

Well he becomes a god in terms of starting a religion revolving around worshiping him and following his commandments. I do agree that his final boss fight was disappointing. The "real" final boss fight was Braska's Final Aeon and the rest is kind of a glorified, overextended cinematic.

[Jurai]

Out of curiosity, how is Adel mind control? I was under the impression (and granted it's been a while) that the Sorceress doing all the mind control was Ultimecia, possessing Edea at first, then Rinoa, and eventually Adel.

Adel's theme is not mind control but exploitation. She exploited the nation of Esthar for her own gain. She exploited Rinoa to keep herself alive. Rinoa's theme is not Angel Wing, but success. That moment when, given a choice between fly or die, she flew: She nearly died facing down the Sorceress in disc 1, and survived. She handled herself during the raid on Garden (at least until the soil gave way), she was possessed at the end of disc two, but still managed to fly in helping Squall clear out the Ragnarok (AIRSHIPAIRSHIPAIRSHIPAIRSHIPAIRSHIP!!!!!!!).

[T.G. Oskar]

Out of curiosity, how is Adel mind control? I was under the impression (and granted it's been a while) that the Sorceress doing all the mind control was Ultimecia, possessing Edea at first, then Rinoa, and eventually Adel.

Her power theme isn't actually mentioned. Then again, Adel's true form looks like a bodybuilder (eww!), so it might just be raw power instead? Ulti doing mind control is...something outside her power theme, and IIRC a function of the Junction Machine Ellone.


Admittedly my bit about Necron isn't something I can say is officially canon and really just my personal interpretation, but I would argue that there really isn't anyway to foreshadow Necron's appearance because, unlike CoD, there isn't a precedence in FFIX. No one really knows what would happen if Kuja destroyed the crystal, but it could also be argued that the dungeon leading up to the final battle does, albeit very slightly, foreshadow it.

Throughout the dungeon, you face the four elemental guardians: Lich, Marilith, Kraken, and Tiamat (who should be ringing a few bells). They could be trying to protect the crystal from intruders and are stuck on autopilot fighting you, or they could have been corrupted by Kuja into slowing you down. By the time you get to the end of the final dungeon, the whole place has gone from a semi-coherent structure to just pure crystal, and the only thing you fight are slightly weaker crystal versions of the four guardians. It can be argued that this shows the crystal's inherent power to create beings and guardians to protect it and do its will, and that damaging the crystal could create corrupted beasts.

That's the thing. Necron appears out of nowhere, as a result of Trance Kuja destroying the crystal. He is sort of the representation of death in Gaia, but there's NOTHING about him. Nothing. Not even Hades, which appears in Memoria, says anything about him.

The Four "Elemental Guardians" are really part of the game's homage to the series, so don't dwell too much on them. They simply appear, you defeat them, that's it. Same thing with Deathguise (FFVI's Doom Gaze/Death Gaze), which also appears at that point. Memoria itself is what matters, as it not only houses Gaia's crystal, but also the memories of the entire world (sort of its afterlife; in that case, fighting the equivalent of Death makes sense).


Well he becomes a god in terms of starting a religion revolving around worshiping him and following his commandments. I do agree that his final boss fight was disappointing. The "real" final boss fight was Braska's Final Aeon and the rest is kind of a glorified, overextended cinematic.


Creating a religion and being its charismatic leader =/= becoming a god. Perhaps it's because of earlier games or D&D influencing it, but becoming a god requires power. By the time a thousand years have passed, Yevon isn't even a rational being; he has been reduced to a zombie, only body-surfing to keep itself "alive" and thus able to keep Sin in existence. Indeed; the Maesters preach that Yevon exists and that he's a deity and whatnot, but the entire religion screams a lot more of philosophical faith than a theistic one. Yevon could have easily been a sort of "messiah" or Buddha, a master showing the way people should live in order to feel safe from the threat, rather than a god itself (then again, Yunalesca sorta fits that bill better, while Zaon and the other High Summoners are the faith's saints).

Compare to the religion in Final Fantasy Tactics, which is thinly veiled in Western faiths, and which has a defined "chosen" prophet that preaches about the faith's god. The faith of Yevon and the faith of Glabados (which in itself was different on its beginnings and eventually evolves into a different faith, judging by FFXII and Vagrant Story) are very different in terms of dogma, but are still religions. To stress the point: the same could be said of Ajora, if it weren't that Ajora is more of a "chosen one" than a god itself, even if it was just the faith glorifying the Lucavi.

On topic, though: nearly the end of Orbfest, and I unlocked Zealot from the Bard! Now I don't have to use him ever more! Also - took Paladin Cecil to level 50 and level-broke him, took Josef to level 50, and still had some Stamina to raise a few levels for the Ranger (lv. 43), White Mage (level 29) and Cyan (around level 40). Now, orb-wise...

Minor Power: 137, Lesser Power: 60, Power: 42, Greater Power: 20, Major Power: 2
Minor White: 150, Lesser White: 109, White: 152, Greater White: 35, Major White: 1
Minor Black: 144, Lesser Black: 191, Black: 36, Greater Black: 32, Major Black: 1
Minor Summon: 135, Lesser Summon: 87, Summon: 97, Greater Summon: 9, Major Summon: 1
Minor Non-Elemental: 144, Lesser Non-Elemental: 127, Non-elemental: 121, Greater Non-Elemental: 3, Major Non-Ele: 1
Minor Fire: 30, Lesser Fire: 82, Fire: 133, Greater Fire: 7, Major Fire: 1
Minor Ice: 117, Lesser Ice: 196, Ice: 173, Greater Ice: 10, Major Ice: 1
Minor Lightning: 129, Lesser Lightning: 152, Lightning: 76, Greater Lightning: 28, Major Lightning: 1
Minor Earth: 26, Lesser Earth: 97, Earth: 166, Greater Earth: 3, Major Earth: 2
Minor Wind: 91, Lesser Wind: 86, Wind: 102, Greater Wind: 8, Major Wind: 1
Minor Holy: 96, Lesser Holy: 46, Holy: 188, Greater Holy: 1, Major Holy: 1
Minor Dark: 110, Lesser Dark: 199, Dark: 242, Greater Dark: 17, Major Dark: 1

...and 1,649,777 Gil on my purse. No less, no more. See if I can nudge a few more Wind/Power/Non-Elemental orbs around.

[danzibr]

...and 1,649,777 Gil on my purse. No less, no more. See if I can nudge a few more Wind/Power/Non-Elemental orbs around.
Dayum. I can only claim a slight surplus of 900k.

And I still had 30 stamina right when Orbfest ended. Shucky dern.

Orbs
Power: 97, 35, 112, 47, 6
White: 73, 93, 156, 62, 3
Black: 96, 80, 145, 57, 3
Summon: 70, 76, 113, 4, 1
Non-elemental: 54, 114, 126, 19, 1
Fire: 60, 162, 183, 23, 1
Ice: 69, 153, 153, 16, 5
Earth: 93, 122, 210, 25, 2

Eh, I don't feel bad about that at all. Also, was there ever an Orbfest before? Any indication that there will be one again?

EDIT: Oh yeah, forgot to say... went ahead and got all the 13 crew. Egg'd them to 30, used the end of Orbfest to get them up to 42 (except I leveled Cloud rather than Snow, the latter still at 34).

[SuperPanda]

Characters leveled to 49+ with orb experience:

Bard, Ranger, Warrior of Light, Josef, Maria, Arc, Kain, Lenna, Edgar, Terra, Zack, Squall, Irvine, Vivi, Steiner, Yuna, Wakka, Lightning, Sazh.

(Got Snow, Hope, Vanille, Eiko, Tidus into their 40s. Got Summoner up to his 30s.)

Orbs counted earlier and while I had a few more runs I don't feel like recounting.

Gil: 7,293,279
By the time upgrade dungeons come around again and I actually start crafting/honing stuff I expect that money to be gone and to be broke again.

[Chen]

Well orbfest is done and I can finally start doing regular dungeons again. I'll definitely need to hit up the materials one next time it's up since I've actually run out.

Gil count after the orbfest: 16.244 million

Orb count:
Power: 229, 189, 331, 97, 7
White: 156, 434, 409, 149, 17
Black: 173, 143, 448, 31, 14
Summon: 185, 166, 279, 50, 19
Non-elemental: 152, 195, 312, 46, 10
Fire: 197, 306, 414, 53, 14
Ice: 106, 278, 359, 17, 13
Lightning: 135, 181, 512, 32, 6
Earth: 127, 396, 555, 78, 6
Wind: 191, 86, 473, 52, 15
Holy:76, 115, 323, 47, 9
Dark: 287, 200, 416, 60, 17

[SuperPanda]

Quick question: Does the MAG stat increase spellblade damage?

I have 2 Crystal Sword VII currently. If I combine them and fully upgrade them they would have attack 113 +Augment and Mag 39. The attack would equal my Hardedge (currently my strongest weapon) but would have added MAG on it. I already have Runeblade and Enhancer so for sword-mages (Golbez, Celes, Ashe, Terra) there isn't any need to bring Crystal sword.

I currently have 5 VII swords: Hardedge (Cloud SB), Butterfly Sword (Stat-stick sword), Crystal Sword x2, and Gold Sword (the free 5*). I'm planning to feed Gold sword to one of the others and my choices are really Hardedge or Crystal Sword. If I combine Crystals and then augment combine with Goldsword it would me my strongest weapon once again.

On the other hand - having both Crystal swords has come in handy so often than I'm not sure I should combine them. The SB is not ground breaking but it is very useful when useful. My other physical 5*s are a VI and IV spear (Vaan could use those instead of the swords) and Tifa's fist. Loosing the ability to field 2 people with double thundercut is less noticeable when I realize that my A team has 4/5 SB weapons already - but I've been transitioning into having realm specific teams when I can which takes the dual swords back to more useful...

TL/DR - The panda is unable to decide if whether or not a 6* shared SB sword which barely eclipses his current best sword is better to have than 2 very nice 5* shared SB swords which are already redundant with his plethora of VII 5*s (while he lacks Realm Syngery with swords pretty much everywhere else).

[Jurai]

No, because they're Physical attacks with elemental properties. My team for the next event is already set, taking them through Mt. Kolts Elite to try for Sabin. Again. They hit like bricks made of bricks made of trucks made of trucks made of brick-truck-bricks there, but I WILL COME OUT ON TOP WITH BEARSKIN RUGS, VARGAS!

[danzibr]

Well orbfest is done and I can finally start doing regular dungeons again. I'll definitely need to hit up the materials one next time it's up since I've actually run out.

Gil count after the orbfest: 16.244 million

Orb count:
Power: 229, 189, 331, 97, 7
White: 156, 434, 409, 149, 17
Black: 173, 143, 448, 31, 14
Summon: 185, 166, 279, 50, 19
Non-elemental: 152, 195, 312, 46, 10
Fire: 197, 306, 414, 53, 14
Ice: 106, 278, 359, 17, 13
Lightning: 135, 181, 512, 32, 6
Earth: 127, 396, 555, 78, 6
Wind: 191, 86, 473, 52, 15
Holy:76, 115, 323, 47, 9
Dark: 287, 200, 416, 60, 17
Damn Chen. That's a lot of 5*'s. And $.

Going through the current event. Beat Bulbusaur a few minutes ago, was a cake walk. I was using Cloud + 4 XIII people, then switched to my A team. Can't wait until the boss rush comes out, beat that and get Ruinga, then back to my old plan involving acquiring key RM and such.

[Jurai]

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH! WHAT IN SWEET BAATOR IS THIS MADNESS? HOW CAN I WALK ALL OVER A CLASSIC DIFFICULTY 50 DUNGEON, EVEN WITHOUT RECORD SYNERGY, BUT A COUPLE O' OVERGROWN CHILDREN'S BOOK CHARACTERS AND EVIL HERCULE SATAN CAN KICK ME INTO A WALL? WHAT IN THE NAME OF COSMOS KIND OF SENSE DOES THAT MAKE! THAT IS SUCH SEKHMET-AND-MINOTAUR-SOCCER!

No. That's a load of hooey. EVERY MEMBER OF MY TEAM WAS 50+. TWO OF THEM HAD RECORD SYNERGY. EVERYBODY BUT LENNA HAD RECORD SYNERGY WEAPONS. WHAT IN...

http://i433.photobucket.com/albums/qq60/Jurai_Madman/Humorous%20Atomic%20F%20Bomb.jpg

[Chen]

I remember a lot of complaints about Mt. Kolt's elite being WAY harder than level 51 suggests. You need to burn the stupid bears down FAST (fire AoE RW helps) and then blind Vargas ASAP. Otherwise he's going to wreck your face.

[Jurai]

Man, if I didn't already have a team ready for the next two events, I'd uninstall and never play again. Those bears are crap, Vargas is crap, that battle is crap, the preceding battles are crap, that dungeon is crap, IT'S ALL CRAP ALL THE WAY DOWN! How did people even complete that dungeon back in the early days of this game, when there were no dailies or roaming warriors or Super Soul Breaks?

[T.G. Oskar]

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH! WHAT IN SWEET BAATOR IS THIS MADNESS? HOW CAN I WALK ALL OVER A CLASSIC DIFFICULTY 50 DUNGEON, EVEN WITHOUT RECORD SYNERGY, BUT A COUPLE O' OVERGROWN CHILDREN'S BOOK CHARACTERS AND EVIL HERCULE SATAN CAN KICK ME INTO A WALL? WHAT IN THE NAME OF COSMOS KIND OF SENSE DOES THAT MAKE! THAT IS SUCH SEKHMET-AND-MINOTAUR-SOCCER!

No. That's a load of hooey. EVERY MEMBER OF MY TEAM WAS 50+. TWO OF THEM HAD RECORD SYNERGY. EVERYBODY BUT LENNA HAD RECORD SYNERGY WEAPONS. WHAT IN...

http://i433.photobucket.com/albums/qq60/Jurai_Madman/Humorous%20Atomic%20F%20Bomb.jpg

Have you tried toasting the Pooh bears first? IIRC, they're vulnerable to Fire. Very vulnerable.

You mentioned you have Lenna, so that's a good start; she can equip Dancer abilities, so make sure you have Box Step and/or Stutter Step around, for mass debuffing (use the skill that applies to most of your party). I can understand why Vargas is so annoying - Gale Cut was annoying the first time I played it as well. There's very few things that grant resistance to Wind damage, as well, and the bears hit hard and fast. It could help if you had some sort of buffer against Gale Cut; the fact you can't aim at him at all until the Pooh-bears are dead makes the battle harder.

BTW: have you tried taking Sabin? It'd be funny if you beat him with Raging Fist...

[Jurai]

That's why I'm doing Mt. Kolts- Elite. To get Mash (because his Japanese name is far more apropos than his English one, given his characterization). So I can Raging Fist (what was wrong with Pummel?) people in the face. So I can say I have the Super Figaro Bros. BECAUSE HE DID THE SAME THING WHEN THEY FIRST RELEASED SABIN, AND I WILL HAVE MY WELL-EARNED, BEAR-BLOOD-STAINED REVENGE! YOUR CONTINUED EXISTENCE IS A SCAB UPON MY HONOR, VARGAS, SON OF DUNCAN! I WILL MAKE YOU SUFFER AS YOU AND YOUR SILLY PINWHEEL HAS MADE ME!

[Red Fel]

Okay. Post Orbfest stats:
Gold: 10,385,810
Power: 65/ 57/ 231/ 32/ 10
White: 282/ 140/ 198/ 105/ 8
Black: 128/ 259/ 250/ 48/ 5
Summon: 168/ 72/ 170/ 30/ 5
Non: 94/ 157/ 241/ 22/ 9
Fire: 58/ 396/ 338/ 42/ 6
Ice: 58/ 243/ 370/ 27/ 10
Lightning: 78/ 203/ 274/ 27/ 10
Earth: 196/ 423/ 408/ 25/ 7
Wind: 217/ 52/ 337/ 38/ 5
Holy: 59/ 131/ 302/ 27/ 6
Dark: 258/ 295/ 458/ 46/ 5
Good times. Now to finish off Elite Bart and grab the scarf, then it's off to clear the newest batch of zones and then knock off the bonus quests for Lightning et al, because eggs. Ruinga, coming for you next.

A genius' work is never done.

[danzibr]

Catching up on some stuff now that Orbfest is over. Got Josef's MC, about to get Black Mage's RM2. Next, Summoner's MC. Then Cloud's RM2, then all the characters I didn't unlock (Sephiroth, Tifa, Sabin, Edgar). Then... I dunno, clear more content I guess.

[Jurai]

Edgar's good with sufficient Lightning damage. Vargas is giving me trouble (How is a Difficulty 51 dungeon, Elite or otherwise, harder than a difficulty 70 dungeon?), as you may have surmised.

[danzibr]

Mana Spring II is mine!

Edgar's good with sufficient Lightning damage. Vargas is giving me trouble (How is a Difficulty 51 dungeon, Elite or otherwise, harder than a difficulty 70 dungeon?), as you may have surmised.
Yeah, I tried it before Orbfest. Couldn't beat it.

[SuperPanda]

I noted a similar spike (and then sudden drop) in VI realm elites back before orbfest and was informed that those dungeons used to represent "End Game" back before memory crystals were released.

The difficulty curve got re-adjusted but the dungeons never got tweaked.

[Jurai]

It still grinds my gears. I shouldn't have to Reta Meta to get through a dungeon 19 difficulty lower than the last rough elite I did. That makes no kind of sense at all.

[Deadline]

It still grinds my gears. I shouldn't have to Reta Meta to get through a dungeon 19 difficulty lower than the last rough elite I did. That makes no kind of sense at all.

I haven't used the Reta Meta yet for any elite dungeon, and I know I've finished that one. I think I brought a Lunatic High RW along with a few uses of Shellga to that fight. Then nuked everything with fire. I still think I lost a party member in that fight though. If you champion your way through the trash though, you should still be able to master it.

[DiscipleofBob]

Her power theme isn't actually mentioned. Then again, Adel's true form looks like a bodybuilder (eww!), so it might just be raw power instead? Ulti doing mind control is...something outside her power theme, and IIRC a function of the Junction Machine Ellone.

Even if the sorceresses have a "theme", I don't think any of them are limited to said theme. Edea just in cinematic feats and not even including stuff she uses in battle include mind control (putting Rinoa in a daze for the "sacrifice") and animating statues. I think the whole point of being a sorceress implies a wide range of powers.


That's the thing. Necron appears out of nowhere, as a result of Trance Kuja destroying the crystal. He is sort of the representation of death in Gaia, but there's NOTHING about him. Nothing. Not even Hades, which appears in Memoria, says anything about him.

Hades wouldn't. No one would. Necron is a completely new entity when you fight it. There is absolutely no precedence in the universe for the events that create Necron.


The Four "Elemental Guardians" are really part of the game's homage to the series, so don't dwell too much on them. They simply appear, you defeat them, that's it. Same thing with Deathguise (FFVI's Doom Gaze/Death Gaze), which also appears at that point. Memoria itself is what matters, as it not only houses Gaia's crystal, but also the memories of the entire world (sort of its afterlife; in that case, fighting the equivalent of Death makes sense).

But they're more than just random bosses you fight in the last dungeons. The four elemental shrines were a big part of getting to Gaia. I don't immediately remember much, but I do know all the bosses have dialogue, even if at that point the only one you fight is Lich.


Creating a religion and being its charismatic leader =/= becoming a god. Perhaps it's because of earlier games or D&D influencing it, but becoming a god requires power. By the time a thousand years have passed, Yevon isn't even a rational being; he has been reduced to a zombie, only body-surfing to keep itself "alive" and thus able to keep Sin in existence. Indeed; the Maesters preach that Yevon exists and that he's a deity and whatnot, but the entire religion screams a lot more of philosophical faith than a theistic one. Yevon could have easily been a sort of "messiah" or Buddha, a master showing the way people should live in order to feel safe from the threat, rather than a god itself (then again, Yunalesca sorta fits that bill better, while Zaon and the other High Summoners are the faith's saints).

The world of FFX shows that the Yevon religion is far more than just a philosophy, given that deviating from the teachings are considered socially unacceptable at best and serious crimes at best, and many of the rituals of the religion from Sending to the Fayth to Sin and the Summoners Pilgrimage are tangible, real forces that exist the world. Even if Yu Yevon itself is reduced to something pitiful by the end of the game, Yu Yevon was as much a divine force as Chaos, Mateus, CoD, Zemus, Kefka, etc.



With a few more fights in today's EXP event, I'll be able to max out Cloud at 80 and LB Sazh. Then I can finally go all-in on the XIII event. Can't really use Snow or Vanille until I get their MC's. I'm not sure if I'll really care enough to clear the boss rush or anything past Hope's MC though. I need to inventory my orbs at some point and prioritize what to hone / craft.

[danzibr]

@Vargas: I plan on Pressure Pointing those scrubs.

@Boss Rush: Free Ruinga, nice, but with next to no RS I'm not sure I can do it.

[Starwulf]

Anyone else here planning on grinding the hell out of Today's daily dungeon for upgrade materials? After the lucky draws and free stuff given out, I have a TON of stuff to upgrade. I almost feel confident in saying that I"ll likely end up with half or less of the 2mil gil I had managed to gather throughout the orbfest. But, at least I'll definitely be a good deal stronger!

[danzibr]

Anyone else here planning on grinding the hell out of Today's daily dungeon for upgrade materials? After the lucky draws and free stuff given out, I have a TON of stuff to upgrade. I almost feel confident in saying that I"ll likely end up with half or less of the 2mil gil I had managed to gather throughout the orbfest. But, at least I'll definitely be a good deal stronger!
I actually do not plan to do this. I really want to clear old content to get more stamina, and unlock characters. I only have Rinoa, Sabin, and Edgar left. And then I want to work on MC's and RM.

[DiscipleofBob]

Cloud's nearly level 80, and the only characters I have with upcoming MC2's that aren't 65 are PalCecil and Tyro. The only XIII character I have that isn't LBed yet is Hope.

I'm wondering where I should throw my eggs. On Tyro so I don't have to use him for 15 levels by still get the benefit of his MC2? On some of my core classes I'll probably never use so I can LB them and get their RMs? Or one of the other characters I haven't LBed yet? Or should I focus on characters from a particular game in preparation?

[SuperPanda]

I ran two heroic runs for mats and then went back to clearing out the Hope Elite event. I'll get back to clearing out Elites / Classics and farming RMs (multi-tasking even) once I've got Ruinga in my collection.

I'll need to do lots of upgrade item farming, but happily the events give some as well and my IV items have a long time before they need to be maxed.

I'm stocking up eggs again for the time being - no specific goal on the horizon for them but I know I'll want to have some handy when I need that final push on a character's level break.

Currently my XIII event team is
Tidus (48 - can use thrown, I don't have his MC1 but he's getting MC2 in the near-ish future).
Hope (45, thank you sunday xp)
Snow (49, thank you sunday xp)
Vanille (48, thank you sunday xp)
Sazh (50, Thank you orbfest xp)

[Hunter Noventa]

Had a pretty good run during Orbfest, though I didn't really keep track of what I was getting. i need to fetch the MCs for Josef and Summoner now so I can get those sweet sweet RMs.

[Forbiddenwar]

Was there a recent change to the daily dungeons? Its been a while since I bothered since heroic only gave 3* drops and a piddling amount of gold on completion. Now I'm getting occasional 4* drops and 4* completion rewards. Huge difference.