FFRKV: Now We Post Like Men! And Ladies! And Ladies Who Dress Like Men!

[DiscipleofBob]

Welcome to the FIFTH thread of Final Fantasy Record Keeper!

For those of you just joining us, Final Fantasy Record Keeper is a free-to-play freemium game for mobile devices. Like many similar games, the main point of the game is to collect 16-bit versions of characters from every major Final Fantasy game from Final Fantasy I to Final Fantasy XIV. You then train up your party, get equipment for them, form a party of five, and go through dungeons that retell the plot of various Final Fantasy games.

If you've only started recently, or are thinking about starting, it's a game that requires patience but rewards it. A lot of the characters are event-exclusive, but the game's really good at giving additional opportunities to recruit them. There are Daily Dungeons which let you farm resources, upgrade materials, and on Sundays, sweet, sweet valuable experience. Probably the most difficult aspect to acquire is the equipment, which is based off a lottery you can pay in-game currency that you either earn in game (Mythril) or spend real world money on (Gems). Fortunately, the game is very playable without spending a cent, and you can at least get all the characters without paying, though getting the equipment to really live up to their potential that can be difficult, even with disposable cash. Some of the character customization can be limited too, with only two abilities allowed per character (but that can be switched out as needed for different dungeons.)

The good news if you ARE a new player, that while you may have missed out on previous events, the rewards from those events repeat often. And you're actually at an advantage over long-time players as you have more opportunities to get better gear from later events.

Still, it's a game that's simple enough to pick up and enjoy, but with a lot of additional content and challenges to keep you playing, and there's Final Fantasy nostalgia packed into every bit, from the characters to the monsters to the music, all imported from games of Final Fantasy's history. And if you couldn't tell from the fact that this is on its fifth thread, it comes highly recommended by the forum too.

Happy hunting!

Final Fantasy Record Keeper I (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?415439-Final-Fantasy-Record-Keeper)
Final Fantasy Record Keeper II: Also FFRKIV in Japan (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?453065-Final-Fantasy-Record-Keeper-II-Also-FFRK-IV-in-Japan)
Final Fantasy Record Keeper III: Cloud of Darkness... or FF7 (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?473229-Final-Fantasy-Record-Keeper-III-Cloud-of-Darkness-or-FF7)
Final Fantasy Record Keeper IV: Tellah Friend to Play Today! (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?481418-Final-Fantasy-Record-Keeper-IV-Tellah-Friend-to-Play-Today!)
Upcoming Events (http://ffrk.kongbakpao.com/events/)
Reddit (https://www.reddit.com/r/FFRecordKeeper/)
Official Wiki (https://ffrkstrategy.gamematome.jp/game/951/wiki/Home)
Burst Soul Break Info (http://ffrk.kongbakpao.com/bsb-commands/)

* = Can be Level Broken up to 65
** = Can be Level Broken up to 80

Core Classes:
Tyro**
Warrior
Knight
Red Mage*
Black Mage*
White Mage*
Devout*
Summoner*
Samurai*
Dragoon*
Dark Knight*
Spellblade*
Viking*
Ranger*
Bard*
Ninja*
Gladiator*
Thief
Berserker
Monk
Final Fantasy I
Warrior of Light**

Final Fantasy II
Firion**
Maria*
Leon*
Gordon*
Ricard*
Josef*
Leila*
Minwu*

Final Fantasy III
Luneth*
Arc*
Refia*
Ingus*

Final Fantasy IV
Cecil (Dark Knight)*
Cecil (Paladin)**
Kain*
Rydia*
Edward*
Tellah*
FuSoYa*
Golbez*
Rosa*
Edge*

Final Fantasy V
Lenna**
Galuf**
Gilgamesh**
Bartz**
Krile*
Faris*
Exdeath*

Final Fantasy VI
Terra**
Locke**
Celes**
Mog*
Edgar*
Sabin*
Shadow**
Cyan*
Gau
Setzer*
Strago*
Relm*
Kefka*

Final Fantasy VII
Cloud**
Barret*
Tifa**
Aerith**
Red XIII**
Yuffie*
Zack**
Sephiroth**
Cid*
Reno**
Vincent**

Final Fantasy VIII
Squall**
Rinoa**
Quistis*
Selphie**
Irvine*
Zell**
Seifer*
Laguna*
Edea**

Final Fantasy IX
Zidane*
Garnet**
Vivi**
Steiner**
Eiko*
Amarant*
Quina*
Freya*
Beatrix*

Final Fantasy X
Tidus**
Yuna**
Wakka**
Lulu**
Kimahri*
Rikku*
Auron**
Jecht*

Final Fantasy XII
Vaan**
Balthier**
Fran**
Ashe*
Penelo**
Basch*

Final Fantasy XIII
Lightning**
Snow*
Vanille**
Sazh*
Hope**
Fang*

Final Fantasy XIV
Yshtola*
Thancred*

Final Fantasy Tactics
Ramza
Agrias


Upcoming Characters
Bold are new characters, others are unlockable in case you haven't gotten a chance to yet.
Porom, Palom, D-Cecil, Rydia, Rosa, Tellah
Desch, Luneth, Arc, Refia, Ingus
Kuja, Beatrix, Vivi, Zidane, Amarant, Garnet
Cait Sith, Aerith, Barret, Tifa, Yuffie
Lightning's Knight of the Goddess Dress, Serah, Snow, Sazh, Fang
Edgar, Sabin, Cyan, Gau
Young Auron Dress, Braska, Jecht
Yda, Papalymo, Yshtola, Thancred
Shirtless Sephiroth, Cloud, Aerith, Cait Sith, Cid
Adult Rydia, Yang, Kain, Rosa, Edge, Edward
Seifer, Squall, Rinoa, Laguna, Quistis, Irvine
Lenna, Faris, Bartz, Galuf
Shantotto, Bartz, Luneth, Firion, Yshtola (Dissidia Event)
Short-Haired Garnet, Zidane, Freya, Beatrix
Gabranth, Basch, Vaan, Ashe, Penelo
Garland (hopefully), Kefka, Golbez, Exdeath, Sephiroth (Dissidia Event)
Delita, Ovelia, Mustadio
Cid Raines, Lightning, Snow, Hope, Fang
Krile's SHEEP Dress, Gilgamesh, Bartz, Faris, Lenna
Celes's Opera Dress, Terra, Setzer, Strago, Relm
Rikku's Gullwing Dress. Yuna's Gullwing Dress (Again), Paine, Lulu, Kimahri
Selphie, Edea, Zell, Quistis, Rinoa
Aerith, Red XIII, Vincent, Zack, Reno


Upcoming MC2s

Porom, Palom, Rydia
Luneth, Arc, Refia, Ingus
Kuja, Zidane, Beatrix
Yuffie
Serah, Snow, Sazh, Fang
Edgar, Sabin, Cyan, Gau, Setzer
Braska, Jecht, Kimahri, Rikku
Yda, Papalymo. Yshtola, Thancred
Barret, Cait Sith, Cid
Kain, Rosa, Edge, Yang, Edward
Seifer, Irvine
Krile, Exdeath
Shantotto
Freya, Amarant, Quina
Gabranth, Basch, Ashe
Golbez, Kefka
Delita, Ovelia, Mustadio
Cid Raines
Faris, Bartz, Gilgamesh
Strago, Mog
Paine
Aerith, Cloud


Abyss Levels
Abyss levels are special dungeons where your synergy is not determined by the characters' realm of origin, but there ability to use abilities, encourage a "single class" party. The reward is the ability to craft 6-star abilities. These come once per month. Here's what's coming up soon so you can prepare your teams...

Abyss 1: Black Magic. Nightmare Boss: Ultima Buster. Reward: Ultima
Abyss 2: Combat. Nightmare Boss: Demon Wall. Reward: Crashdown
Abyss 3: White Magic. Nightmare Boss: Evrae Altana. Reward: Reraise
Abyss 4: Summoning. Nightmare Boss: Neo Bahamut. Reward: Neo Bahamut
Abyss 5: Support. Nightmare Boss: CPU. Reward: Triple Foul
Abyss 6: Celerity. Nightmare Boss: Tonberry King. Reward: Northern Cross
Abyss 7: Black Magic. Nightmare Boss: Kaiser Dragon. Reward: Meltdown
Abyss 8: White Magic. Nightmare Boss: Guardian. Reward: Curaja?





1) Cloud's Organics, teaches Blade Beam, +10 attack. 3 ranged physical AoE's, ? multiplier, non-elemental. Debuted in lost Memories. Reappeared in VoM phase 2. Will reappear in The Lone Wolf's Lament banner 2.
2) Squall's Cutting Trigger, teaches Blasting Zone, +10 attack. 4 ranged physical single-target attacks, ? multiplier, non-elemental. Debuted in Gunblade of the Sorceress. Reappeared in VoM phase 5. Will reappear in Orbfest 3 phase 3.
3) Sephiroth's Yoshiyuki, teaches Black Materia, +10 attack. 4 ranged physical single-target attacks, 7.8 multiplier, non-elemental, chance for Sap. Debuted in Blood Madness. Reappeared in Hidden Resolve. Will reappear in Orbfest 3 phase 5.
4) Rinoa's Cardinal, teaches Wishing Star, +10 magic. 5 random magic single-target attacks, 15 multiplier, non-elemental. Debuted in VoM phase 1. Will reappear in Orbfest 3 phase 2, and A Meeting Beyond Time banner 2.
5) Tidus's Force Sabre, teaches Jecht Shot, +10 attack. 3 (ranged?) physical single-target attacks, 7.89 multiplier, water. Debuted in VoM phase 3. Will reappear in Orbfest 3 phase 4.
6) Tyro's Last Judgment Grimoire, teaches Last Judgment Grimoire, +10 attack. 3 (ranged?) physical AoE's, 6 multiplier, earth. Debuted in VoM phase 4.
7) Pally Cecil's Lustrous Sword, teaches Saint's Fall, +300 hp. 3 (ranged?) physical single-target attacks, 7.89 multiplier, holy. Debuted in VoM phase 5. Will reappear in Orbfest 3 phase 5.
8) Lightning's Peacemaker, teaches Crushing Blow, +10 attack. 5 (ranged?) physical AoE's, 6.5 multiplier, lightning. Debuted in Fang's Oath. Will reappear in Orbfest 3 phase 1.
Then we have 2 events with no SSB's at all.
9) Terra's Maduin's Horn, teaches Magitek Missile, +10 magic. 10 (ranged?) magical single-target attacks, 18 multiplier, non-elemental. Will debut in Forgotten Bond. Will reappear in Orbfest 3 phase 3.
10) Bartz's Excalibur, teaches ???, +10 attack. 5 (ranged?) physical single-target attacks, 7.9 multiplier, non-elemental, all allies def + 50%. Will debut in Orbfest 3 phase 1.
11) Aerith's Wizard Rod, teaches ???, +10 mind. All allies heal & Reraise (40% hp). Will debut in Orbfest 3 phase 1.
12) Lulu's Run Mog (?), teaches ???, +10 magic. 8 (ranged?) random magic single-target attacks, 17.92 multiplier, ice. Will debut in Orbfest 3 phase 2.
13) Vivi's Mace of Zeus (?), teaches ???, +10 magic. 4 (ranged?) magic AoE's, 14.24 multiplier, dark. Will debut in Orbfest 3 phase 2. Will reappear in A Summoner Reborn banner 2.
14) Locke's Valiant Knife, teaches ???, +10 attack. 8 (ranged?) physical single-target attacks, 8 multiplier (up to 14.4 when low on health), non-elemental. Will debut in Orbfest 3 phase 3.
15) Vanille's Medic Staff, teaches ???, +10 mind. All allies heal & restore 1 ability use at random. Will debut in Orbfest 3 phase 4.
16) Hope's Hawkeye, teaches ???, +10 magic. 8 (ranged?) magic single-target attacks, 17.92 multiplier, holy. Will debut in Orbfest 3 phase 4.
17) The Mighty Gilgamesh's ???, teaches ???, +10 defense. 3 (ranged?) physical AoE's, 6 multiplier, non-elemental, all allies heavy Regen. Will debut in Orbfest 3 phase 5.
18) Red XIII's Magic Comb, teaches Stardust Ray, +10 attack. 10 (ranged?) random physical single-target attacks, 7.8 multiplier, non-elemental, Shellga. Will debut in The Lone Wolf's lament banner 1.
19) Tifa's Master Fist, teaches Dolphin Blow, +10 attack. 4 (ranged?) physical single-target attacks, 8 multiplier, self attack + 50%. Will debut in The Lone Wolf's Lament banner 2.
20) Laguna's Machine Gun, teaches Desperado, +10 attack. 6 ranged physical AoE's, 6 multiplier, non-elemental, Slow (100%). Will debut in A Meeting Beyond Time banner 1.
21) Selphie's Crescent Wish, teaches Dreamstage, +10 mind. All allies heal + magic blink. Will debut in A Meeting Beyond Time banner 1.
22) Quistis's Red Scorpion, teaches Mighty Guard, +10 magic. Hastega + Shellga + heavy Regenga (UNNNGHHHHHHAAAA). Will debut in A Meeting Beyond Time banner 2.
23) Zidane's Orichalcum, teaches Shift Break, +10 attack. 4 (ranged?) physical AoE's, 6 multiplier, non-elemental, -50% attack, +50% self attack. Will debut in A Summoner Reborn banner 1.
24) Eiko's Fairy Flute, teaches Flames of Rebirth, +10 mind. All allies, heal + Reraise (40% hp). Will debut in A Summoner Reborn banner 1.
25) Garnet's Wizard Rod, teaches Divine Guardian, +10 magic. Hastega + heavy Regenga + res + 50% (it's like a not as good Mighty Guard). Will debut in A Summoner Reborn banner 2.
26) Firion's Rod of Arms (?), teaches ???, attack + 10. 5 (ranged?) physical single-target attacks, 7.8 multiplier, non-elemental, Blind (100%). Will debut in The Prophet banner 1.
27) Minwu's ???, teaches ???, mind + 10. All allies heal, no cast time (wtf Minwu). Will debut in The Prophet banner 1.
28) Maria's Sander 16 (?), teaches ???, magic +10. 4 magic AoE's, 14.4 multiplier, lightning, all allies magic + 20%. Will debut in The Prophet banner 2. It's a bow, btw.
29) Leon's ???, teaches ???, defense + 10. 3 (ranged?) physical AoE's, 6 multiplier, dark, self-sentinel (whatever that means, maybe Protect + Shell). Will debut in The Prophet banner 2. It's not a bow, damnit, on like the only knight who can use bows.

1) Cloud's 1st Fusion Sword, teaches Fenrir Overdrive, +10 attack. 8 (ranged?) random physical single-target attacks, 8 multiplier, non-elemental, self-haste + burst mode. In burst mode, attack does 2x AoE's, defend does 4x single-target attacks. Debuts in The Lone Wolf's Lament banner 1(after 17 for SSB).

[DiscipleofBob]

A lot of the information in the OP is still under renovation since last thread. But we needed this up.

In the meantime, any other links, infodumps, corrections, or anything else you'd like to share for the OP, now's the time to share!

[Red Fel]

We should probably also link the previous thread (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?481418-Final-Fantasy-Record-Keeper-IV-Tellah-Friend-to-Play-Today!). And the Reddit (https://www.reddit.com/r/FFRecordKeeper/). And the Official Wiki (https://ffrkstrategy.gamematome.jp/game/951/wiki/Home).

And ooh... New thread smell.

[lord_khaine]

Well.. the thread title does kinda leave out the Men Who Dress like Ladies :P

[T.G. Oskar]

White Mage Comparison/Analysis (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=20413168&postcount=910)

Black Mage Comparison/Analysis (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=20462210&postcount=1101)

Monk extensive guide (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=20736177&postcount=1485)

You determine if they're worthwhile, no? The comparisons are due for an update, which should come once Palom and Porom choose to appear.

EDIT: Oh yeah, and update the upcoming info. We're already at Edea's first appearance event, and about to get Palom and Porom (and Desch), so might as well update everything. I mean, we already have three BSBs, though, and we're hearing about OVERFLOW Soul Breaks...

[danzibr]

Well.. the thread title does kinda leave out the Men Who Dress like Ladies :P
Don't need none of that here.

In other news, looking forward to the Gilgamesh boss event thing.

EDIT: Oh, DoB. 2 things. First, I updated the SSB list somewhere... I can probably find it. If I remember. Also, for the BSB stuff, this link (http://ffrk.kongbakpao.com/bsb-commands/) has it all.

[Friv]

Well, I'm caught up on the FF8 battles. Despite my crummy synergy, it went pretty well!

Now, to go and try to master those last few Elite dungeons I could never manage... (I've now managed to complete everything. Even the dumb Island Shrine still hate you Wendigo.)

The only question is, do I even bother mastering the Desert of Shifting Sands? I mean, it's 60 stamina for four greater orbs, and the boss is not actually difficult, but is a giant pain.

[Greg_S]

Well.. the thread title does kinda leave out the Men Who Dress like Ladies :P

Vivi stands outside the thread in his Minerva Bustier, carrying the Pearl Rouge, saddened.

Did an 11-pull and 3-pull on the Basch 1 banner because of all the good stuff, as well as my lack of 12 gear. I got... a single survival vest to go with the Viking coat I already had. Oh well. Can't complain, celebration was very good to me.

[danzibr]

Well, I'm caught up on the FF8 battles. Despite my crummy synergy, it went pretty well!

Now, to go and try to master those last few Elite dungeons I could never manage... (I've now managed to complete everything. Even the dumb Island Shrine still hate you Wendigo.)

The only question is, do I even bother mastering the Desert of Shifting Sands? I mean, it's 60 stamina for four greater orbs, and the boss is not actually difficult, but is a giant pain.
The completionist in me says yes.

Vivi stands outside the thread in his Minerva Bustier, carrying the Pearl Rouge, saddened.

Did an 11-pull and 3-pull on the Basch 1 banner because of all the good stuff, as well as my lack of 12 gear. I got... a single survival vest to go with the Viking coat I already had. Oh well. Can't complain, celebration was very good to me.
Shucky dern. Sorry m8.

EDIT: But good call with Vivi ;)

[Slayn82]

New thread, same flavor.:smallamused:

Today I'm went after XII event Ultimates. After 4 team setups, at last I beat Judge Bergan. By the second try, I had my team established, but balancing the abilites and equipaments among chars was more troublesome. It was a matter of adjusting who should use what. Also, some people suggested leaving the lesser judges alone and focus on Bergan. That didn't work for me.

In the end, the Shout Team went to action: Tyro brought the required Machinist Abilities - Blind and Confuse Shot, plus a shared Shellga bracer, Zidane got Tempo Flurry and Thief Raid, Ramza got Armor and Magic Breakdowns, Basch got LifeSiphon and Banishing Strike, and Minwu the Protectga and Curaja. Tyro confused the Lesser Judges while the others dealt with Bergan. Basch worked with LifeSiphon until he had 2 full bars, and Tyro had one, enough for them to kill all the Lesser Judges at once.

Now I only have to deal with Dr. Cid, who is arguably a more simple battle.

[Starwulf]

Mostly just marking the thread, don't have too terribly much to say atm. Considering not doing the FF8 event due to the fact I only have 3 items total for synergy(Some funky looking dagger, Ten-Gallon hat and some other crappy item). Struggling just to complete a boss rush isn't my idea of fun, and I remember that's how it was the last event.

[Antonok]

Mostly just marking the thread, don't have too terribly much to say atm. Considering not doing the FF8 event due to the fact I only have 3 items total for synergy(Some funky looking dagger, Ten-Gallon hat and some other crappy item). Struggling just to complete a boss rush isn't my idea of fun, and I remember that's how it was the last event.

Boss rush is easy since they have very exploitable weaknesses. I did it with only Edea having synergy, and that just brought her up to lvl 65ish.

In other news, 54 more classic dungeons left to clear. I need to stop pulling for Penelo's Holy Rod but I wants it( only drawing 3* crap after 15 pulls might also be a factor). 3 400% holy attacks with a large medica. Would let be bench Yuffie and help immensely in the WHM nightmare.

[DiscipleofBob]

OP Updated!

I've admittedly been slacking lately, mostly due to burnout. Some of those Ultimates are stressful. Still a few XII battles away from having all the MC2's collected. I've decided not to even try the Crashdown event until I get Ramza's last MC and maybe get a few more 80's. Priorities and all.

Ever since I got his admittedly stylish cloak, Sephiroth's been making his way onto a lot of my teams. Nibelheim Nightmare is surprisingly powerful. Like SSB levels of powerful. Granted, I have to be careful against enemies that aren't afraid of fire, but Nibelheim Nightmare + Ace Striker = a move that when used consecutively gets even MORE powerful. Having Shadow Flare as well doesn't hurt either. Anyone else have surprisingly good characters?

On another topic, some of the later upcoming events no longer give new characters, specific MC2's, or even Dress Records. One of those events, however, has Cloud's OVERSOUL weapon and a blank MC3. It's coming folks...

[danzibr]

Thanks for your efforts, DoB!

I'm quite glad the amount of new characters plummets. So freakin' many as it is. I'd rather have a decent team of 80's per realm then a whole mess of people at 65.

Oh, and minor nitpick, it appears to be Overflow SSB, not Oversoul.

EDIT: Oh yeah! I meant to mention I got *really* lucky with RM's recently. Like, running through the VIII event stuff I got a whole mess of them. I'm down to just needing 13 (3 of which, Edea's, Zell's, and Vanille's, I just got access to).

[Slayn82]

Ever since I got his admittedly stylish cloak, Sephiroth's been making his way onto a lot of my teams. Nibelheim Nightmare is surprisingly powerful. Like SSB levels of powerful. Granted, I have to be careful against enemies that aren't afraid of fire, but Nibelheim Nightmare + Ace Striker = a move that when used consecutively gets even MORE powerful. Having Shadow Flare as well doesn't hurt either. Anyone else have surprisingly good characters?


Surprisingly good?

I've already mentioned recently my experiences with Basch's Golden Axe. And talked a lot about the strength of Rikku. Yuffie is no slouch either. Knight's and thieves are awesome. But I want to mention the guy that stands between both: Zidane.


I think either his or Wakka's was the first character relic I pulled. But between having access to abilities like Draw Fire, Life Siphon, Thief Revenge, Steal Power, Tempo Flurry, Dismissal and his Machinist 4, plus throw Weapons for the odd occasion, he is quite the Jack of All Trades, able to mitigate damage, lay a beatdown or fill Mastery Requirements. I'm waiting eagerly for his MC2. Basch may have taken over his job as SB spamming Knight in AOE battles, but Zidane's first SB still brings more damage in single enemy battles.

[Friv]

Yeah, I picked up Zidane's Orichalcum during the SSB-fest, and he's high on my to-level list.

[T.G. Oskar]

Anyone else have surprisingly good characters?

Besides the A-Team (Terra, Balthier, Gilgamesh, Lenna and Ramza, of which 4 out of 5 are either God Tier or pretty darn close), I'd say Basch as well. I've been mentioning him a lot for a good reason - between Combat 5, Knight 5, Samurai 5, a base SB that's basically Rampart and a Unique SB that's basically Hand of the Emperor, he's pretty complete without ever touching magic at all. Haven't used him much (couldn't use him on the Combat Nightmare Dungeon), but he might be a staple on future FFXII events, particularly if he levels to a degree higher than Gilgamesh can.

[Starwulf]

If I could get over how much I hate him, Gilgamesh would be pretty amazing considering I have his SSB and his one SB that grants protect/shell/haste. Other then that....sadly not really.

[SuperPanda]

When my first event in XII came around Ashe and Vaan were released. Now I expected Ashe to basically be what Agrias is and Vaan to be a Kimahri. Instead Ashe became my best black mage for a good long time and Vaan became my go to support up until I crafted full break.

Now looking at stats and abilities in FFRK I shouldn't have been surprised at how useful Vaan was and is, but I didn't expect it with him being sort of a tag along in his own game and less than exceptional in dissidia012.

Edge was also a surprise but mostly because I got two of his first Katana and hi. Dealing 3 max damage hits plus stun to ultimate Rubicant made me smile.

Also did my 100 gem pull on Edea banner 1. Three star and not a good one. No pull on banner 2 for me.

[Antonok]

So I have exactly 63 minor wind orbs to my name, but I now have saint's cross. Edgar now has even more firepower in his arsenal.

[danzibr]

So I have exactly 63 minor wind orbs to my name, but I now have saint's cross. Edgar now has even more firepower in his arsenal.
Grats!

I need to hone Saint Cross. Only have like 13 MLO. Got one this morning though, that was nice.

I did discover I could make 30 if I converted all my 3* and 4*.

[Hunter Noventa]

Took my A-Team into the bonus battles. Abadon and Elnoyle were much easier than the boss rush. Not that the boss rush was hard when Quake was going off twice for Rinoa. And bringing Gilgamesh against Elnoyle so I had Wind Jump was genius, because when I went to Fabul to reroll my RW, he got his Captain's Protection RM, which gives me even more reason to want to hone Saint Cross, for which I need a few more MWOs.

For those of you who haven't done Elnoyle yet, i'd suggest not bothering with a Black Mage. My level 80 Rinoa was doing only about 1.5k with -aga spells, 2.3k after Full Break. Boss just has really high resistance. But with full mitigation up I was able to outpace his damage using only Pulse Kindness for healing.

I'm not even touching those Ultimates.

[Cozzer]

I have a brand-new tablet, and playing RK is enjoyable again! The temporary tablet I was using after the old one broke was so slow that I had to stop playing this because it felt a chore.

Now that I've completed at least once most of the new dailies, my target is Elite core dungeons completion again. If I bring my A-team with Sentinel Grimoire, Hymn of the Faith and a Shout Roaming Warrior, I think there's nothing I cannot defeat in the core content. WHen events come out, I decide which Ultimates and UltimatePluses are worth it on a case-by-case basis, depending on the realm.

I also just pulled Laguna's light armor, which seems to be very good with its attack bonus!

[Jurai]

Took my A-Team into the bonus battles. Abadon and Elnoyle were much easier than the boss rush. Not that the boss rush was hard when Quake was going off twice for Rinoa. And bringing Gilgamesh against Elnoyle so I had Wind Jump was genius, because when I went to Fabul to reroll my RW, he got his Captain's Protection RM, which gives me even more reason to want to hone Saint Cross, for which I need a few more MWOs.

For those of you who haven't done Elnoyle yet, i'd suggest not bothering with a Black Mage. My level 80 Rinoa was doing only about 1.5k with -aga spells, 2.3k after Full Break. Boss just has really high resistance. But with full mitigation up I was able to outpace his damage using only Pulse Kindness for healing.

I'm not even touching those Ultimates.

Quit holding out and make - jas, then.

[danzibr]

Took my A-Team into the bonus battles. Abadon and Elnoyle were much easier than the boss rush. Not that the boss rush was hard when Quake was going off twice for Rinoa. And bringing Gilgamesh against Elnoyle so I had Wind Jump was genius, because when I went to Fabul to reroll my RW, he got his Captain's Protection RM, which gives me even more reason to want to hone Saint Cross, for which I need a few more MWOs.

For those of you who haven't done Elnoyle yet, i'd suggest not bothering with a Black Mage. My level 80 Rinoa was doing only about 1.5k with -aga spells, 2.3k after Full Break. Boss just has really high resistance. But with full mitigation up I was able to outpace his damage using only Pulse Kindness for healing.

I'm not even touching those Ultimates.

Quit holding out and make - jas, then.
I partially agree with Jurai. The -jas are great to have. But Elnoyle did have really high res, at least it seemed to me. My Rinoa (level 80, 7* Cardinal) was only doing like 3k per hit against an Elnoyle which had both Full Break and Mental Break on him (it?).

I have a brand-new tablet, and playing RK is enjoyable again! The temporary tablet I was using after the old one broke was so slow that I had to stop playing this because it felt a chore.

Now that I've completed at least once most of the new dailies, my target is Elite core dungeons completion again. If I bring my A-team with Sentinel Grimoire, Hymn of the Faith and a Shout Roaming Warrior, I think there's nothing I cannot defeat in the core content. WHen events come out, I decide which Ultimates and UltimatePluses are worth it on a case-by-case basis, depending on the realm.

I also just pulled Laguna's light armor, which seems to be very good with its attack bonus!
I'm sure the core content will crush beneath the might of your A-team.

And grats on the new tablet :)

EDIT: Looking ahead at the next 2 nightmare bosses, it appears they'll live up to the name.

[SuperPanda]

I'm pretty sure my Rinoa was hitting for at least 5k on the VIII+++ fight with Firaja, I feel like it was closer to 7k. I know Squall was hitting ~ 6k with aeroa strike and Cloud was only hitting 3k with wind slash- but that's a 2* celerity skill.

Wishing star was only hitting for 3k a hit though.

On upcoming Nightmares, I've only looked at white Mage nightmare. It looks like it will be a real test of orbs and Hones. I'm especially hurting for holy orbs right now and I'm trying to save enough for Diaga and/or Holy itself.

I have Arieth's SSB for medica and so I can use Arise R1 (it was free) on the troublesome lenses and then medica my team back up. Ensuna and dispel are actually useful in phase 2, and I have Curaga r3, curaga r5, and Diara R4 for offense. Renewing cure for party heals. Still it looks like a hard fight. I'm hoping Lenna's arise sb (her first staff) can target enemies for the goons in phase 3.

White Mage lucky draw has a good number of things I'd very much like: *cough* thyrus...

I haven't seriously looked at the following fight yet. I'm eagerly awaiting the changes BSSBB banners (burst super soul break bonanza). We all know they're going to be changed a lot, but with Cecil BSB, Tyro BSB, Balthier SSB, Basch Shield, Thyrus, and more very much desired stuff likely to sprinkled across banners, I'm eager.

[Jurai]

FOR IT IS PLAYGROUND MORPHING TIME!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0Pm8tZS_zs

But in other news, I'm going to pull on the White Mage Lucky Draw. I'd like to be able to use Garnet for her INTENDED purpose (breaking face) instead of healing and buffing. But I'm also going to try for another three pull on the first Edea Banner.

[danzibr]

Doesn't Garnet just have WM4? So she won't have synergy for the upcoming nightmare, and her relic won't be in the pool? Or does she get a buff?

[Merlin the Tuna]

Well, operation FF12 Dweebs vs. Boss Rush was a bust. I burned some eggs to get Basch and Balthier up to 50 since their Record Materia were the most valuable of the bunch, but Tiamat and Wyrm Co. may just be too strong and too different from each other, especially with their odd elements forcing me into unhoned abilities. I'm loath to bet the farm on this since the rewards, while good, aren't making me foam at the mouth. Though that Vinuskar fight after this does look very retaliate friendly if I can get there... Hm. Here's what I was running:

Basch: Double Cut (R3) | Armor Break (R2)
Penelo: Curaga (R3) | Esuna (R2)
Balthier: Aerora Strike (R1) | Silence Buster (R2)
Ashe: Firaga (R3) | Quake (R1)
Fran: Tempo Flurry (R3) | Magic Breakdown (R1)
RW: Mighty Guard (shell haste regen-ga)

So basically a straight up throwdown composition, with Silence Buster there to prevent the Treants from ruining my day via Protect. Easy improvements are swapping Esuna for Protectga (+ praying that RNGesus saves me from Sporefall), and honing Aerora Strike to R2 thanks to today's daily. Those hardly feel like a gamechangers though, so if I wanted to go all-in on retaliate, how should I be going for it? Something like this?

Basch: Retaliate | Draw Fire
Penelo: Protectga | Shellga
Balthier: Double Cut | Aerora Strike
Ashe: Curaga | Quake
Fran: Tempo Flurry | Boost
RW: (some manner of +ATK buff)

That'd give me defense-gas for each fight and acceptable Curagas coming from Ashe, with both mages still able to contribute the odd bit of damage via Retaliate. Penelo is packing the FFT White Staff, so the Esuna-ga Soul Break could make up some of the healing difference. No breaks/breakdowns is a bummer, but I could swap one in for Boost at least. Does that ability layout look roughly competent? (Don't worry about getting too down in the weeds about available abilities, and no I don't have any other A-teamers to bring in. Just trying to get a general sanity check.)

[Greg_S]

On the topic of surprisingly competent characters, I've gotta second Zidane. Machinist shells + draw fire also let him back row tank with a heavy weapon, if you're into that.

Shadow, though, goes from a boring character without much to say for him to carnage incarnate with his SSB. Dropping 120K damage in about 4 seconds is tons of fun, and in dungeons where you've got lots of mooks to charge SB gauges on? Oh, the destruction. What I'm saying is that if Ichigeki shows up on one of the next fest banners, it's worth a pull just for it.

[danzibr]

On the topic of surprisingly competent characters, I've gotta second Zidane. Machinist shells + draw fire also let him back row tank with a heavy weapon, if you're into that.

Shadow, though, goes from a boring character without much to say for him to carnage incarnate with his SSB. Dropping 120K damage in about 4 seconds is tons of fun, and in dungeons where you've got lots of mooks to charge SB gauges on? Oh, the destruction. What I'm saying is that if Ichigeki shows up on one of the next fest banners, it's worth a pull just for it.
Ooooooh that's great to hear. I love Shadow but currently don't see myself using him.

EDIT: His SSB relic did appear in Japan's next Orfest, banner 1. Mmmmm......

EDIT EDIT: And also in their double BSB fest. Mmmmmmmm............

EDIT^3: I've been looking at upcoming RM. Got some good ones.
Next event: Palom's chance for double exp.
Event after: Nothing jumps out at me.
Event after: Zidane gets chance to double cast Thief abilities. Double Thief's Revenge? And Kuja gets moderate increase to Darkness abilities.
Event after: Yuffie gets Lightning's attack-has-no-charge RM.
Event after: Sazh gets Double Hit.
Event after: Gau gets Haste + Atk increase.
Event after: Rikku gets +damage for Thief abilities. Again, Thief's Revenge?
Event after: Yda gets attack hits all enemies (same as, what, Bard's?).
Event after: Nothing jumps out at me (Barret gets increase to gunarm damage, lulz).
Event after: Yang also gets attack-hits-all-enemies RM. And Edward gets +Def and Res but start with Sap.
Event after: Seifer also gets moderate increase to Darkness abilities.
Event after: Exdeath gets chance to doublecast Darkness.
Event after: Nothing jumps out at me.
Event after: More + Darkness.
Event after: More + Darkness (seriously). But... the past two said increase in potency. Is there a difference?
Event after: Delita gets +Atk -Def, and begin with Magic Lure (2 different ones).

Then after this, there are either no new RM, or they're not interesting.

EDIT^4: This guy's amazing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9P_GUbb4910

[Greg_S]

Made it through the +-+++ battles with an FF8 misfit team. Squall was at lv 72, everyone else 50-55. No unique SBs, no synergy gear outside of a 4+ Ten-gallon hat, a 4++ Mesmerize Blade, and a 2++ Galbadian Bracer. Various tips:

+: Stick Confuse Shell on Irvine or Laguna, and confuse one of the Archaeosaurs T-Rexaurs. I think that disables its counterattack, so you can blast it down with Blizzaga, while Blizzara striking the other one. At 55K HP each, it's not too hard to chew through, and shout as RW is quite useful. For the Iguions, having even R1 Saint Cross is great, as it should hit for 9999x2. Focus all your fire on one of them. They don't get their nasty attacks unlocked until a few rounds in, so you've got a breather. I didn't bring Shellga or a support for this, choosing to go full-offense instead.

++: If you beat the Iguions, this isn't tough. Firaja should hit for 9999 easily, as will boosted holy attacks from Seifer. Hit him with power breakdown, give Squall Fira strike, and you should cut him down without a lot of problems. I think Tauntaliate works, if you need it.

+++: This one's tricky. Elnoyle's got 1388 RES and zero weaknesses that a BLM can exploit. So physical is your best option here. His defense is pretty beefy too, so go nuts with that wind weakness.
Squall or another spellblade should have Aerora Strike. Both Zell and Laguna can use the 2* Celerity Wind Slash, and if you buff with shout, you should get 5000-6000 damage per hit with it. For comparison's sake, Zell was hitting for about 6000 with wind slash, and 4500 with dismissal. Wind Slash is only 2*, so it's really easy to create and hone 2 of them up to R3 or so. Beyond that, a source of regen will help mitigate the AoEs you face.

[Infernally Clay]

Took on Elnoyle and got mastery. Couldn't beat it without Planet Protector, though. My best advice is to simply stack up on as much raw attack as you can. Agrias was able to do 9999 damage with Aerora Strike after the Planet Protector buff and Zack, Gordon and Sephiroth just kept spamming as much damage as they could.

Still can't craft any 5* abilities though. D':

[Jurai]

Correct, and her MAG is higher than her MND. I wouldn't complain about either a bump WHM 5 or a buff to her MND, since I'm using her as a White Mage right now.

[danzibr]

+++: This one's tricky. Elnoyle's got 1388 RES and zero weaknesses that a BLM can exploit. So physical is your best option here. His defense is pretty beefy too, so go nuts with that wind weakness.
Squall or another spellblade should have Aerora Strike. Both Zell and Laguna can use the 2* Celerity Wind Slash, and if you buff with shout, you should get 5000-6000 damage per hit with it. For comparison's sake, Zell was hitting for about 6000 with wind slash, and 4500 with dismissal. Wind Slash is only 2*, so it's really easy to create and hone 2 of them up to R3 or so. Beyond that, a source of regen will help mitigate the AoEs you face.

Took on Elnoyle and got mastery. Couldn't beat it without Planet Protector, though. My best advice is to simply stack up on as much raw attack as you can. Agrias was able to do 9999 damage with Aerora Strike after the Planet Protector buff and Zack, Gordon and Sephiroth just kept spamming as much damage as they could.

Still can't craft any 5* abilities though. D':
When I beat him, I brought an 80 Rinoa, 80 Garnet, 80 Tyro, 80 Squall, 80 Gilgamesh. Rinoa had Firaja and Meteor, Garnet had Curaja and Shellga, Tyro had Full Break and Armor Breakdown, Squall had Aerora Strike and Magic Break, Gilgamesh had Saint Cross and Mental Break. Rinoa was hitting for maybe 7k-8k, and after shout my beaters were hitting for cap or near cap (even Tyro was pulling respectable numbers). Went down real quick with that setup.

EDIT: @Jurai: Yup, she's my primary WM too.

[Hunter Noventa]

Quit holding out and make - jas, then.

I'd never be able to hone them to a useful level. And yeah, jerk just had insane RES as people have pointed out.

[Jurai]

When I beat him, I brought an 80 Rinoa, 80 Garnet, 80 Tyro, 80 Squall, 80 Gilgamesh. Rinoa had Firaja and Meteor, Garnet had Curaja and Shellga, Tyro had Full Break and Armor Breakdown, Squall had Aerora Strike and Magic Break, Gilgamesh had Saint Cross and Mental Break. Rinoa was hitting for maybe 7k-8k, and after shout my beaters were hitting for cap or near cap (even Tyro was pulling respectable numbers). Went down real quick with that setup.

EDIT: @Jurai: Yup, she's my primary WM too.

It's annoying, too. Lenna could possibly crack 5K on heals with Wizard Rod and Summoner's Prayer.

[danzibr]

It's annoying, too. Lenna could possibly crack 5K on heals with Wizard Rod and Summoner's Prayer.
Yup yup. I was planning my next Nightmare team when I was looking at people with WM 5 and was like... damn.

In other news, today I was pretty lucky. Got Vincent's then Vanille's RM back to back. Also got a MLO and MWO. Down to needing 10 or so.

[tyckspoon]

I'd never be able to hone them to a useful level. And yeah, jerk just had insane RES as people have pointed out.

I used to think that. Now I have R3/4 on all the standard element -jas. It wasn't that hard between farming Orbrushes and Daily +/++ difficulties arriving. Sure, you probably won't have them honed where you would want them *now*, but you'll be wanting them nonetheless. May as well commit to it.

[Slayn82]

And Dr. Cid is down as of right now. Got only expert because Ramza and Basch got themselves killed in the end.

If I had a R3 Saint Cross, it would have been an easy mastery. Instead, I had to craft a second Banishing Strike to R3, meaning that at least Rooks spend most turns buffing Cid.

Went with Heroic Harmony for RW. Too bad leaving those MPOs and MBOs for Mastery behind, but I doubt I can improve my strategy enough for it until tomorrow.

[Forbiddenwar]

I was looking at the next nightmare battle and it might not be that bad. Looks like the gimmick is you should only use cure and holy spells anyway. But I might have misunderstood it.

[Friv]

The completionist in me says yes.

You win this round.

But you know who didn't win this round? The Sandworm (although it did take two tries, due to a mistimed button press). Stop really helps that fight.

Also not winning: Ultimate Weapon, Sin, and Evrai.

What I'm saying is, I'm now finished the Core dungeons and all of them have been mastered. I feel so... complete.

[SuperPanda]

Been working through the Elites over here. Pulsework Knight's are down and the assault on the fifth Ark continues.

Steiner finally dropped his Knight's Charge RM when the IX team took down Soul Cage elite. Vanille and Hope have yet to honor the XIII team with their drops.

I need to do another count on my remaining Elites but I think its around 40 left. I know we're getting a new DU soon, though its the one after I'm most excited for. I want to hear some of that XI music again. Speaking of which, even though we're getting Shantoto I'm not seeing any XI events in the future. I was hoping for Prishe (monk with high Mnd and White Mage) and some of the NPCs from the various nations. I never got too far in the story of XI when I played long ago but some of the fights could be pretty neat in FFRK. A XI event based around the early story "Rise of the Shadowlord" could be neat with 3 starting city NPCs + Shantoto.

[T.G. Oskar]

Event after: Yang also gets attack-hits-all-enemies RM Kick.

Fix'd. Yang gets the chance to use Kick. Yda, most likely so.


EDIT^4: This guy's amazing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9P_GUbb4910

You found Smooth McGroove now?

Anyways - after a delay caused by running a d20 Modern game, I have another gift for you guys - the Support comparison! While it's pretty obvious who's the best Supporter (*coughcoughRamzahackwheeze* Damn hay fever...), you might want to figure who might be the second best Supporter around, and maybe how things could change in the future. And also, who needs help the most.

As before, I devised an analysis, based on various points: stats, equipment selection (not relics; equipment selection only), ability access and Soul Breaks (default and exclusives). The end result shouldn't surprise everyone - that said, as with the WHM and BLM analysis, I did put some weight on odd choices, which may end up "coloring" the analysis, but as I present my methodology, it shouldn't be difficult to cut on the bias and go for objectivity.

I disqualified some people with Support 4 because they fit other things better - mostly, this means Terra (she's a Black Mage, natch), Vincent (ditto), Balthier (Machinist, yo!), Ingus (Knight), Rosa and Y'shtola (White Mages), Vaan (Thief) and Tyro (he's everything, of course). Edward is an exception, as being the sole true Bard aside from...the Bard, he gets free reign. Same for the Bard.

First of the analysis points: stats. I split that in three - Attack (Breakdowns benefit from it, and so do status attacks/busters), Mind (status duration, and supposedly break duration as well) and Top Others (that means the top character in the remaining abilities). For that, I used the PDF compilation at level 65 - being Ramza, Red XIII, Fran and Wakka the ONLY characters at level 80 that have Support 5 so far, that automatically marks them as superior, but since not everybody has access to the Memory Crystal II, such levels are still relevant. However, for purposes of completion, ATK and MND stats at level 80 are placed to determine which of them are the best at those levels.

Attack-wise, the winner is way beyond obviously clear - whoever did not saw Ramza (148 ATK; 168 ATK at level 80) as the winner should have its mind checked. He far exceeds the second-ranked in terms of Attack, which is actually Red XIII with 126 ATK (149 at level 80). The next two are closer to Red XIII in that regard: Faris with 125 ATK and Quina with 122 ATK. To note - pretty much all focused Supporters' Attack bonus range between 118 and 125, with Ramza being the top outlier and both Edward and the Bard being the bottom outliers. Mind-wise, however, things switch: Gordon has a respectable 121 Mind, with a smaller but still significant gulf between him and the next ones (Setzer, Quina and Sazh with 105 Mind). Curiously, neither Setzer nor Quina cast White Magic spells, making that amount of Mind pretty pointless. Just so you know - the average WHM Mind is around 140 - 145, meaning Gordon and Sazh have a really weak Mind in comparison. Regarding other stats: Red XIII inches over Ramza in terms of HP by ONE POINT, so both are considered in the long run; Gordon beats everyone else in terms of Magic and Resistance (he ties with Quina, though), Red XIII also edges out in Defense, and Faris has Thief-level Speed, which is superb.

We follow second with abilities. In that regard, I analyzed the weight of abilities with useful skills: Support is already a very useful supplementary skill, so this involves a skill set that further improves the character. To Supporters' fortunes, many of their supplementary skills are pretty good. Ramza, having such a high Attack, can take advantage of Combat 4* (which means Lifesiphon, which means MOAR SHOUT), and to the damage skills of Knight (specifically Saint Cross, but you get more benefit out of ; Fran and Faris have respectable ATK and SPD, making their access to Celerity a nice edge; Machinist further pads out the skill sets of Barret, Setzer and Sazh (when you need status effects, that is); Edward is a Bard, and that kind of Support is formidable (which is why he gets an extra + over Ramza and the Bard; Faris' Dancer skills means she can choose between single-target debuff and multi-target debuff (and her Thief skills means she has access to the steal-tastic Thief's Revenge, which with her Speed means she can use quite reliably), and Ninja 4 for Ramza with a respectable (though not incredible) Magic stat also favors him. This means Ramza also beats just about everyone in terms of skill selection (barring Faris). To note - Red XIII's access to Black Magic doesn't really help him a lot, as Reno and Vincent just surpassed his casting skills.

Then, we move towards equipment sets. For that, the character must have access to something other than Daggers, Hats and Light Armor, which is basic Support equipment. Again - Supporters have a pretty wide variety of equipment, with Bows (Faris, Fran, Gordon and Wakka), Swords (Faris, Gordon, Setzer and Ramza) and Spears (Fran, Gordon and Quina) being the most impressive in terms of weapon selection. Faris has access to two really good ones plus a bunch of...quirky ones (instruments, whips), making her the queen of weapons. Also, most Support users have access to exclusive weapons: Barret uses gunarms, Setzer uses gambling gear (mostly dice, darts and cards, which count as ranged weapons), Wakka uses blitzballs, and Red XIII uses hairpins. These are extremely useful to the character, if you have them, so it ends up granting them half a point each. Armor-wise, Faris once again is the queen, able to equip just about every kind of armor; guys like Sazh, Gordon and Wakka also have access to good equipment (heavy armor and shields, mostly), while Edward actually gets a point reduction because it can only equip Robes (I mean, the Bard can equip light armor). Here, Ramza is pretty ahead, but Faris just overwhelms him in equipment selection.

Then, a hit or miss: Default SBs. Support users have some nice ones - Edward's Balm is a decent single-target Cure effect, Faris and Wakka get decent elemental attacks (Faris gets a better one as she has an AoE), and both are Water element which tend to be rare (grumble grumble Spherimorph...); Setzer's Dice have a slight chance of dealing pathetic damage (1!!!), or respectable damage (6666) that ignores Defense, so it's a potentially solid choice; Sazh gets Bravery which boosts an ally's Attack (of course, actual SBs grant something higher, but when you lack any of those...), and Ramza gets a likewise high self-Boost. Gordon gets the same SB as Warrior of Light, boosting all stats, which is pretty cool when necessary. Surprisingly, much like with White Magic, the Bard gets a pretty useful default SB, Valor Minuet, which boosts everyone's Attack, though its bonus is no different from Rallying Etude.

However, those aren't the only SBs, and thus, Unique SBs also have to be analyzed. Most Supporters happen to have one kind of super-Break skill (effect similar to a Breakdown but with even higher damage), with Fran's unique SBs ALL having a Breakdown effect (and her SSB, Mist Overdrive, being a multi-hit Full Break!), or a buff (Red XIII has two [Lunatic High and Stardust Ray], Sazh has Boon, Edward has the very nice Fabled Song, Quina has Mighty Guard, and even the Bard has a boosted Valor Minuet, except it takes 2 gauges and is hopelessly outclassed by many others).

Thus, by putting points on everything worthwhile, how does it fare? To understand the table, I started with a rating of B for anyone with Black Magic 5*, and C for anyone with Black Magic 4*; Rinoa and Terra have A rating because they have their second MC. Then, I add one "+" for what I consider good, with additional + for what I consider exceptional; there may be a "-" if I consider that a failure. Nothing means nothing, of course. Then, after tallying up all the "+" (with one "-" removing one "+", I throw up a grade; the highest has an S grade, and the rest has grades based on the number of "+" they have. Distinctive ones include Red XIIIs Howling Moon (recover 1 ability use, which can be impressive with 5* skills), Ramza's Hail of Stones (6 hits + good chance of Interrupt) and Wakka's Auroch's Reels (AoE multihit + Blind and Poison!). Then there's Ramza's SHOUT! +50% Attack and Hastega is literally a game-changer, so it gets three points just for being awesome. BTW, did I mention Ramza also has a Medica? Ramza just has the best set of Soul Breaks, period.

Thus, by putting points on everything worthwhile, how does it fare? To understand the table, I started with a rating of B for anyone with Support 5*, and C for anyone with Support 4* (aka, the Bard); Ramza, Fran, Red XIII and Wakka have A rating because they have their second MC. Then, I add one "+" for what I consider good, with additional + for what I consider exceptional; there may be a "-" if I consider that a failure. Nothing means nothing, of course. Then, after tallying up all the "+" (with one "-" removing one "+", I throw up a grade; the highest has an S grade, and the rest has grades based on the number of "+" they have.



Name
Base Grade
Attack
Mind
Other Stats
Equip
Ability
Default SB
Unique
Total


Bard
C




+
+
.5+
2.5


Barret
B




++

++
4


Edward
B



-
++
+
++
4


Faris
B


+
4+
5+

1.5+
11.5


Fran
A



++
+

.5+
3.5


Gordon
B

++
++
5+

+

10


Irvine
B






+
1


Quina
B

+
+
++


+
5


Ramza
A
++(+)


3+
4+
+
5+
16!


Red XIII
A
+

+++
.5+


2.5+
7


Sazh
B

+

+
++
+
+
6


Setzer
B

+

3.5+
++
.5+

7


Wakka
A



3.5+

.5+
++
6



It's pretty much a given - Ramza, with a whopping 16 marks, just towers over the competition, bar none. He could have 1 mark removed because it's expected to have a high Attack at level 80, and he would still crush over the competition. He's THAT good. I mean - even without his SBs or Shout, and without that extra point, he gets 10 marks of his own, same as Gordon - which lacks his second Memory Crystal, which Ramza has. He's incredibly flexible. On the other hand, for first runner-up in terms of best Supporter, we have...Gordon, which has a decent flexibility as White Mage, enough to make him a good healer. Faris with her Dances, Red XIII with his...well, SBs and
Setzer out of sheer dumb luck (as fiting a Gambler) make up the rest. This may seem unfair to Sazh, which has proven to have a good set-up, and his skill with Machinist just adds up to it, but he needs a much more profound boost - maybe to Mind, to further aid his Machinist and White Magic to make him a more decent caster option, but I still recommend him. Irvine, though, needs help the most - just about everything of him is mostly atrocious (his skill set up is atrocious as his magic skill is virtually non-existent, his ability spread doesn't help him, and he can't equip anything else but Daggers and Guns, and his SBs simply seal the deal). He's a non-deal. I mean, even Kimahri has some stuff over him, mostly Dragoon being much better now and wielding Spears means he's rarely out of weapons, but they suffer quite similarly.

So, adjusting for the marks? Ramza has S rating because he's the best (of those with second Memory Crystals) and has a mark tally of 16, whereas Irvine (yes, Irvine) has only ONE mark, so to raise a third of a full grade, you'd need about 5 marks.

In summary, the best Cheerleaders Supporters would be:
1st - Ramza - S grade
2nd - Tie: Red XIII and Wakka - A grade
3rd - Fran - A- grade
4th - Faris - B+ grade
5th - Gordon - B+ grade
6th - Setzer - B grade
7th - Sazh - B grade
8th - Quina - B grade
9th - Tie: Barret & Edward - B- grade
10th - Irvine - B- grade
11th - Bard - C- grade

[Hunter Noventa]

I used to think that. Now I have R3/4 on all the standard element -jas. It wasn't that hard between farming Orbrushes and Daily +/++ difficulties arriving. Sure, you probably won't have them honed where you would want them *now*, but you'll be wanting them nonetheless. May as well commit to it.

Ah, but when you also want to hone things like Saint Cross or Thief's Revenge or Break Fever, there's a choice to be made.

[Starwulf]

I really, really hate to be "That guy" but could those of you posting huge pictures or videos please put them in spoilers please?


Ah, but when you also want to hone things like Saint Cross or Thief's Revenge or Break Fever, there's a choice to be made.

Not really, 4*'s should always be created and honed before 5*'s. 5* abilities are luxuries at this point, even Full break isn't a necessity(though it is by far the closest). You'll win more battles with honed 4*'s then 1 or 2 5* abilities not honed at all.

[danzibr]

I feel so... complete.
Grats!

Fix'd. Yang gets the chance to use Kick. Yda, most likely so.

[...]

In summary, the best Cheerleaders Supporters would be:
1st - Ramza - S grade
2nd - Tie: Red XIII and Wakka - A grade
3rd - Fran - A- grade
4th - Gordon - B+ grade
5th - Faris - B+ grade
6th - Setzer - B grade
7th - Sazh - B grade
8th - Quina - B grade
9th - Tie: Barret & Edward - B- grade
10th - Irvine - B- grade
11th - Bard - C- grade
Ahh, I didn't read it carefully enough. Thanks!

It says it in your big spoiler, but Red without his unique SSB is really quite stinky.

I really, really hate to be "That guy" but could those of you posting huge pictures or videos please put them in spoilers please?
Yeah, my bad. It looks not big at all on my screen, didn't think of it.

Oh, and is anyone picking up any of the 5* limited orbs? I have enough greens for 1, maybe 2, but I don't really need any of them. Kind of regret getting all 3 last time.

[Hunter Noventa]

I really, really hate to be "That guy" but could those of you posting huge pictures or videos please put them in spoilers please?



Not really, 4*'s should always be created and honed before 5*'s. 5* abilities are luxuries at this point, even Full break isn't a necessity(though it is by far the closest). You'll win more battles with honed 4*'s then 1 or 2 5* abilities not honed at all.

Yeah for some reason I thought that -aja spells took 5* orbs. I might have to actually look into it now.

[danzibr]

Yeah for some reason I thought that -aja spells took 5* orbs. I might have to actually look into it now.
I reckon you can get them quite high. Crafting and getting to r2, or even r3, isn't that costly.

Oh, and do Waterja first. The orb cost is split between fire and ice, and few enemies are resistant/immune to it.

I really need to hone up some 5*'s. The *only* 5*'s I have past r1 are Full Break, Meteor, and Thief's Revenge, all r2. I have the orbs, just can't decide.

EDIT: Actually, I think I'm going to save my 5*'s for Chain Starter (needs Power, White, Wind), Full Charge (needs Power, Earth, Wind), and Dark Zone (needs Black, Non, Dark). So... Fire, Ice, Summon, Lightning, and Holy are open, whereas Power and Wind are doubled.

[Jurai]

Yeah for some reason I thought that -aja spells took 5* orbs. I might have to actually look into it now.

The only -ja that I have below R5 is Blizzaja, due to lack of Greater Ice and Black Orbs.

[danzibr]

The only -ja that I have below R5 is Blizzaja, due to lack of Greater Ice and Black Orbs.
Hmm. I actually have all of them at r4. I have the orbs, but I've never run out of uses.

[Antonok]

Confession: I only have an R3 Waterja... My mage gear is absolutely horrendous so I never went above the ga spells :smalltongue:

[Jurai]

Hmm. I actually have all of them at r4. I have the orbs, but I've never run out of uses.

I'm a firm believer in having lots of ammunition for a few weapons than lots weapons with little ammunition.

Says the guy with, at R5, THREE Double Cuts, Haste, Firaja, Thundaja, Waterja, Retaliate, Draw Fire, Firaga, Blizzaga, Thundaga, Waterga, Biora, Bioga, Curaga, Curaja, Diara, Diaga, Dispel, Shiva, Ramuh, Ifrit, Kirin, Aerora Strike, Venom Buster, Wind Slash, Tempo Flurry, Lifesiphon, Wind Jump, Ice Jump, Lightning Jump, Leeching Leap, Banishing Strike, and Flame Blossom; R4 Blizzaja, Stop, Quake, Maduin, Watera Strike, Biora Strike, Bladeblitz, two Lifesiphons, Piercing Strike, and Lullaby; R3 Protectga, Shellga, Carbuncle, Alexander, Ultros, Firaga Strike, Blizzaga Strike, Thundaga Strike, Bio Strike, Magic Breakdown, Power Breakdown, Darkmoon, Swift Bolt, Exhausting Polka, Confuse Shell, Drainga, Silencega; R2 Arise, Pound, Dark Buster, Dismissal, Sky Grinder, Yukikaze, Enveloping Etude, and Blind Shell; and R1 Break, Meteor, Blindga, Mental Breakdown, Armor Breakdown, Full Break, Steal Power, Thief's Revenge, Saint Cross, Water Veil, Shadowsteel, Fire Veil, Phantasm, Box Step Sarabande, Stumble Step, Halting Rumba, Heathen Frolic Sarabande, Multi Break, Silence Shell, and Poison Shell.

[Chen]

I reckon you can get them quite high. Crafting and getting to r2, or even r3, isn't that costly.

Oh, and do Waterja first. The orb cost is split between fire and ice, and few enemies are resistant/immune to it.

I really need to hone up some 5*'s. The *only* 5*'s I have past r1 are Full Break, Meteor, and Thief's Revenge, all r2. I have the orbs, just can't decide.

EDIT: Actually, I think I'm going to save my 5*'s for Chain Starter (needs Power, White, Wind), Full Charge (needs Power, Earth, Wind), and Dark Zone (needs Black, Non, Dark). So... Fire, Ice, Summon, Lightning, and Holy are open, whereas Power and Wind are doubled.

Hone when you find you need something. I have Full Break, Meteor, Saint's Cross and Thief's Revenge at R2 and I rarely run out of uses. Full break is alternated with a breakdown usually so that's 8 rounds of actions not including SB usage, so that's generally sufficient for almost all fights. Saint's Cross is paired with Lifesiphon on Agrias for me so even if I do run out I have lifesiphon and SBs to finish out the fight with. Yuffie generally runs Thief's revenge and I do find I can run out there since her other ability is either utility or dismissal. Also her SB heal doesn't come up that often so thats more actual ability uses I need. Generally I just make her trigger my RWs and then maybe I need to use one or maybe 2 non-thief's revenge abilities to end out of the fight (or start the fight if there's a burst phase at the end).

Overall more than R2 is not really needed, especially if you're running an A team through things. R3 for most other things is more than sufficient. The only things I really use higher than R3 consistently are 2 R4 Lifesiphons (can use a lifesiphon on every trash wave of most dungeons that way and then just SB + other ability the bosses in dungeons), 1 R4 Curaja (it's what the white mage spams every round they're not buffing) and R4 Tempo flurry and some R4 ninja scrolls (these all cast faster so you use up more of them). I do have R5 retaliate and Double-cuts but honestly those are way overkill for the most part since I don't think I've ever run out of them. They're just cheap to hone so it didn't matter.

Now clearly if you're using non-leveled chars with poorer gear you'll need more hones. And perhaps with the upcoming Cid missions that require specific teams for specific tasks you may need higher hones if you're lacking SB relics for those people.

[Slayn82]

Nice Support review T.G. Oskar. I feel your overall ratings represent well the game meta now.

Ramza is a great package, and pretty much a Munchkin character, having so much utility, and also making me think about the standards if my Team and the strength of using any other Support, any other Knight, Tidus and Joseph (who have decent SBs), and if I someday get his armor, even the White Mage.

Who can stand to him? Individually few, but team compositions is what actually matters.

His most important and defining tool is Shout. But it pidgeon holes your team in Physical Meta. Not a bad place to be right now, because bosses are beginning to rise their RES to the stratosphere.

But on mixed parties, because sometimes your team strengths go in another direction, other Supporters fare better: Wall Breaker SBs do pretty well - Faris, Fran, Irvine and Wakka have them, and it isn't very behind the damage increase from the Shout.

Also Bosses are beginning to have Dispels and Defense ignoring Attacks, making a Wall somewhat less effective, so those who have Atk/Mag debuff are getting pretty good too - Faris, Fran and Gordon.

My point is that Faris and Fran get a little better in the immediate future than people are giving Credit. Faris specially could very well be the Ramza of mixed/mage teams, if you have her WallBreaker, and Kefka or Edea's Hastega Relics, or possibly Garnet/Quistis SSBs. Because she brings good equipment selection, and also Dancer, specially the AOE RES Breakdown for increased damage.

Irvine doesn't have anything good outside support. But that's has been acceptable with his Ulysses, because Breakdowns are useful and do reasonable damage, and his Canister Shot increases damage pretty well for a good amount of time. If I had his first SB, I wouldn't have much to say in Irvine's favor. Even Wakka Status Reels is good, despite being only 10 seconds.

That leaves Fran being a much better Irvine.

[danzibr]

I'm a firm believer in having lots of ammunition for a few weapons than lots weapons with little ammunition.

Says the guy with, at R5, THREE Double Cuts, Haste, Firaja, Thundaja, Waterja, Retaliate, Draw Fire, Firaga, Blizzaga, Thundaga, Waterga, Biora, Bioga, Curaga, Curaja, Diara, Diaga, Dispel, Shiva, Ramuh, Ifrit, Kirin, Aerora Strike, Venom Buster, Wind Slash, Tempo Flurry, Lifesiphon, Wind Jump, Ice Jump, Lightning Jump, Leeching Leap, Banishing Strike, and Flame Blossom; R4 Blizzaja, Stop, Quake, Maduin, Watera Strike, Biora Strike, Bladeblitz, two Lifesiphons, Piercing Strike, and Lullaby; R3 Protectga, Shellga, Carbuncle, Alexander, Ultros, Firaga Strike, Blizzaga Strike, Thundaga Strike, Bio Strike, Magic Breakdown, Power Breakdown, Darkmoon, Swift Bolt, Exhausting Polka, Confuse Shell, Drainga, Silencega; R2 Arise, Pound, Dark Buster, Dismissal, Sky Grinder, Yukikaze, Enveloping Etude, and Blind Shell; and R1 Break, Meteor, Blindga, Mental Breakdown, Armor Breakdown, Full Break, Steal Power, Thief's Revenge, Saint Cross, Water Veil, Shadowsteel, Fire Veil, Phantasm, Box Step Sarabande, Stumble Step, Halting Rumba, Heathen Frolic Sarabande, Multi Break, Silence Shell, and Poison Shell.
dakka dakka dakka dakka dakka

Holy smokes, I'm pre-loving Memento Mori + Dark Zone. The -ja's are x9, Memento Mori is x8 plus self-buff, and Dark Zone is a whopping x13.5/2. Darkness though, might come across some immune peeps. Hopefully I'll have Edea to 80 by the time that event rolls around. Edea with r3 Memento Mori, r2 Dark Zone. Should last long enough to blast most bosses into oblivion.

EDIT: I see U and U+ drop tonight, with a dungeon update this Saturday. Nice, nice. Currently sitting at 161 0/5.

[Red Fel]

Yeah, I spent last night and this morning clearing out more elites I'd forgotten that I'd forgotten. I have only two Vs left, and two IVs. And with a DU coming out soon, that's probably going to have to wait.

Speaking of coming soon, Ultimates drop tonight! Here's your synopsis.

Ultimate: The Seifer Trio. Medals for exploiting Seifer's weakness to Ice, Fuujin's weakness to Lightning, and Raijin's weakness to Wind. Got that? Good, because Fuujin also absorbs Wind and Raijin absorbs Lightning, so don't mix them up. All three are also weak to Poison (the damage, not the status), so that's an option too. In terms of debuffs, Seifer isn't susceptible to anything; Fuujin and Raijin can both be Blinded, to marvelous effect. Raijin can be Silenced, but that doesn't help.

All three deal physical damage, so Blind is really helpful; Seifer and Fuujin also have sources of magical damage. Raijin doesn't do magic, but he does throw out heals and Esunas when weak. Fortunately, if you focus fire, that's not an issue. Your priority list should probably be Fuujin, then Raijin, then Seifer. Fuujin first, because she has an attack (Sai) that deals proportionate damage; Raijin next, because of the heals/Esunas. Lastly Seifer; keep in mind that when he gets weak, his attacks get vicious, so you really want to save him for when you have no distractions. Victory gets you orbs, a crystal, and the 5-star Squall's Necklace accessory.

U+: Ultima Weapon. Medals for reducing his Mag, reducing his Def, and killing him before he uses Light Pillar. He uses Light Pillar after 25 turns, for the record, so consider that your time limit. He starts with mostly physical attacks, then slowly accumulates magic attacks, so you'll want both forms of mitigation ready. At about 75%, he uses Gravija, so brace yourself for that. He has no exploitable weaknesses, so really this is just a straight-up soak-and-croak. Keep in mind that when his health is very low, he uses Regen, which ticks for 9999, so you'll probably want a way to dispel that. Victory gets you orbs and a crystal.

Keep in mind also that the XII event ends tonight, which means it's your last chance to take care of those Ultimates. So consider doing that first, if you haven't yet.

Looking forward, we expect that DU I mentioned, possibly this weekend. We also expect the IV event on Monday, so that should be fun.

Happy hunting.

[Hunter Noventa]

Went ahead and created/honed Firaja and Blizzaja to R3, then i ran out of black orbs. Put together my FF4 party for the next event, and went to do some elites with them.

I got to the Dwarven Castle Elite and actually had trouble with the mastery (hit Golbez while weak to Fire/Lightning/Ice) because I was doing TOO MUCH damage. What a place to be in.

[Red Fel]

I got to the Dwarven Castle Elite and actually had trouble with the mastery (hit Golbez while weak to Fire/Lightning/Ice) because I was doing TOO MUCH damage. What a place to be in.

Fortunately, we don't seem to run into many bosses like that anymore. Or, at least, the difficulty is high enough that they can withstand more than two hits. Used to be I'd keep multiple 2-star BLM abilities around expressly for that purpose. I remember there were a few events where you had to hit one of the early bosses - like, first or second stage, non-elite - with multiple weaknesses. (I think it was Ifrit, and we had to use Ice and Water?) I basically had to bring a non-primary BLM (like a Spellblade with BLM 2) and equip them with 2-star spells just to get the damage to work without instantly winning.

I am so glad I don't have to do that anymore.

[danzibr]

Seriously considering honing Multi Break for the U. Man, 3 bosses...

Also, looking ahead, Neo Bahamut packs some serious punch. I mean the ability, not the boss (though I'm sure the boss does, too).

EDIT: Oh wait. I don't need to level my Edea to 80 for Darkness stuff. My Vincent is already in the 70's. Yesssss.

[Hunter Noventa]

Fortunately, we don't seem to run into many bosses like that anymore. Or, at least, the difficulty is high enough that they can withstand more than two hits. Used to be I'd keep multiple 2-star BLM abilities around expressly for that purpose. I remember there were a few events where you had to hit one of the early bosses - like, first or second stage, non-elite - with multiple weaknesses. (I think it was Ifrit, and we had to use Ice and Water?) I basically had to bring a non-primary BLM (like a Spellblade with BLM 2) and equip them with 2-star spells just to get the damage to work without instantly winning.

I am so glad I don't have to do that anymore.

Yeah, I was able to get two of the three in at least, and still got the Mastery. It just amused me.

[Jurai]

Long, well-written, well-researched analysis.

At level 80, Ramza has 168 attack, not 148, before SSB Mastery. But that's well thought out. Thank you.

[Merlin the Tuna]

Today I learned: a proper tauntaliate setup is pretty dang good, even if you don't have buff stacking figured out. (TIL part 2: how buff stacking works in this game.) Between working out those kinks, a touch of honing, and a level or two along the way, the FF12 + and ++ boss rushes went down without a hitch. Thanks for the advice/encouragement, Greg & Red. The +++ unsurprisingly smeared me all over the floor, so it looks it's off to the FF8 material for me. So long Basch, we had some good times, but it's time to stop leveling characters I've never heard of and start leveling ones I dislike :P

Soon, I'll have a veritable army of characters sitting in the mid 30s to low 40s, all unable to clear endgame content! Finally, my master plan is beginning to come together.

Really that shouldn't bother me - I appear to be at about Dungeon Update 5 on both Classic and Elite so it's not like I'm running out of material - but heck if timed events don't instill a fear of missing out in me.

[T.G. Oskar]

Ahh, I didn't read it carefully enough. Thanks!

It says it in your big spoiler, but Red without his unique SSB is really quite stinky.

Don't seem to get it. Do you mean that I didn't mention it, or are you referring to someone else?

Red still has some virtues, in particular that he has the highest defense amongst the Supporters, and has an amount of HP one step higher than Ramza. His Lunatic High SB still has some worth because of Protectga + Hastega, and Howling Moon is good for when you need that extra ability, which can be a lifesaver when you have 5* (or eventually, 6*; one extra use of Meltdown, or Neo Bahamut, or Northern Cross, or Lifebane, can mean a world of difference as it can increase your damage furthermore; alternatively, a much-needed Curaga or Protectga/Shellga). His skill set-up is stinky, but not at Irvine levels - however, this might be because he's most likely the FFVII's Blue Mage representative, and all such representatives tend out to get weird skill setups (see: Quina).

Certainly, his reign might be challenged if Gordon gets his MCII, because Gordon is pretty well-balanced (for a FFII character, which tends to be weak), but Red isn't that bad. Irvine, on the other hand...


Nice Support review T.G. Oskar. I feel your overall ratings represent well the game meta now.

Ramza is a great package, and pretty much a Munchkin character, having so much utility, and also making me think about the standards if my Team and the strength of using any other Support, any other Knight, Tidus and Joseph (who have decent SBs), and if I someday get his armor, even the White Mage.

Who can stand to him? Individually few, but team compositions is what actually matters.

His most important and defining tool is Shout. But it pidgeon holes your team in Physical Meta. Not a bad place to be right now, because bosses are beginning to rise their RES to the stratosphere.

But on mixed parties, because sometimes your team strengths go in another direction, other Supporters fare better: Wall Breaker SBs do pretty well - Faris, Fran, Irvine and Wakka have them, and it isn't very behind the damage increase from the Shout.

Also Bosses are beginning to have Dispels and Defense ignoring Attacks, making a Wall somewhat less effective, so those who have Atk/Mag debuff are getting pretty good too - Faris, Fran and Gordon.

My point is that Faris and Fran get a little better in the immediate future than people are giving Credit. Faris specially could very well be the Ramza of mixed/mage teams, if you have her WallBreaker, and Kefka or Edea's Hastega Relics, or possibly Garnet/Quistis SSBs. Because she brings good equipment selection, and also Dancer, specially the AOE RES Breakdown for increased damage.

Irvine doesn't have anything good outside support. But that's has been acceptable with his Ulysses, because Breakdowns are useful and do reasonable damage, and his Canister Shot increases damage pretty well for a good amount of time. If I had his first SB, I wouldn't have much to say in Irvine's favor. Even Wakka Status Reels is good, despite being only 10 seconds.

That leaves Fran being a much better Irvine.

I placed Ramza's worth without Shout, any of his other SBs (Hail of Stones, despite being his less showy one, still happens to cause Dismissal, which is a lifesaver; it's just that most of the time, you're there to recharge Shout, so if you use Hail of Stones, it's at the very end when everybody is still holding SB charges and you need that extra turn to survive) or his high ATK at level 80, and it's still at the level of Gordon, if only because of his skill and equipment accessibility. He has access to the AoE Ninja abilities with a decent amount of Magic, he has access to everything save for a good ranged weapon (which is why he gets nicked in terms of Equipment in that regard; he gets a minus for wielding Instruments, when other Supporters get Bow access), he has access to some of the Bard skills (but not Bard 4*, which is when he could have had access to Enveloping Etude and Spellbreaker Etude to provide Protect and/or Shell), and he has access to the more offensive Knight skills. That kind of flexibility in terms of Supporters isn't seen except with Faris, which happens to have a very nice set-up as well. What kills Faris is that her SBs aren't as good (sure, Master of the Sea is a decent AoE Water default SB, but the damage of most default SBs isn't something to praise about, which is why she gets the half mark; Kindred Spirit suffers because of competition, and Sea Lord's Broadside edges out because of being a multihit AoE).

Speaking about Wallbreakers - the problem with Supporters with Wallbreakers resides in competition and wandering between extremes. Faris fares better in that regard (pun intended) as she has an extremely focused skillset - she has Dancer (AoE Break/downs) and Thief (self-buffs + Breakdowns) as part of her arsenal, alongside Celerity and Support. Her SBs are Breakdown-level debuffs that also deal damage. Here's where competition kicks in - with her Kindred Spirit SB, she makes Armor Breakdown, Mental Breakdown, Stumble Step and Box Step Sarabande pretty pointless on her own, and with Sea Lord's Broadside, she makes the rest somewhat irrelevant (as Power Breakdown, Exhausting Polka and Steal Power still offer a -50% reduction). She fares better because access to her two SBs means she has access to the skills from all the other sets that don't rely on breakdown: Tempo Flurry, Dismissal, Paralyzing Strike, Steal Time, Steal HP, Thief's Revenge and Halting Rumba. In that regard, she plays the "Time Warrior" card well beyond Tidus can, even if she lacks ranks in Combat altogether.

Fran, on the other hand, isn't as lucky. All of her SBs are single-target, cover all the necessary spots, her DEF/RES buster is just weak as it stands, and while Mist Overload redeems her in a way, Faris will get a better version soon enough. Once she gets all her SBs, she's left with only her access to Celerity, which means she gets crushed by her own competition between skills, and by her competition with a fellow Supporter (Faris). Gordon's Goddess Bell is mostly a consolation prize for having absolutely no SB, but at least he gets other skills to compensate (they're just not as amazing, though he can at least do a pretty mean Curaga if you prep him for it), and Irvine... Irvine's Canister Shot just doesn't really cut it. You get a good Gun for him, sure, but it just has no competition. Wakka works decently because his Reels attacks just because Aurochs' Reels aids him greatly providing him with something other than a Wallbreaker (and with his unique weapon choice, of course).

However: once you have those Wallbreakers, you depend on giving them SB charges, in order to keep the cycle running. If you don't have that, it would have been better to keep the Break/downs, which nullifies the benefit of having those other than redundancy. Ramza's benefit is that he doesn't have to worry about that whatsoever - all he needs to do is Shout, use Lifesiphon, and if he can, cover up with Hail of Stones or a Knight skill, or if the need arises, just pummel with Ninja magic, which has proven to be a boon in nearly ALL Nightmare dungeons. Again - utility.

Finally - note Barret, Sazh and Setzer. I placed Machinist very favorably for some reasons, particularly because they're the equivalent of Breakdowns to the Buster skills, as they have a very high chance of success, they work from range innately, and if you get to hit with the status, that means every other such hit gets a boost to damage. That makes Status attacks and Busters from Support somewhat pointless (somewhat as they still deal some damage, and they can set up the Machinist for dealing hefty damage from the get-go, hence synergy). Barret also plays the Wallbreaker game (an AoE Armor Breakdown, or a Box Step Sarabande with extra fire damage; a single target Def/Res breakdown with a chance of instant kill), but he's not as praised.

In the end, the thing with the other Supporters with SB-based Breakdowns is that they face heavy competition. They need to stand out a bit in order to shine, and other from Faris whose skillset just screams "DEBUFF!!!!", the others just pale. Sazh played the right card by focusing on buffs, and with a boost to his buffing skills, he could make one mean Supporter (having both skills accessible at once, so he could heal, provide Protect/Shell to everybody, then debuff as needed; and note that Boon is still worthwhile, whereas Caltrop Bomb offers less damage than Shout but adds damage to it, which if built correctly can compensate for the loss of damage from having Shout).

You might see the worth of multiple Supporters on the upcoming Nightmare Support dungeon - most likely everyone will field Ramza, but will doubt as to who else to take. It's fortunate that I have Faris at high levels, because despite lacking her innate SBs, she can Dance, and she can offer AoE debuffs I could use; same for Gordon, who could work as the party healer, and Fran, whose unusual access to her Mist Overdrive SSB means I have a solid hitter nonetheless. Just with those four I have a solid party to play with, and I could field Edward just for the Bard songs if I wanted to.


At level 80, Ramza has 168 attack, not 148, before SSB Mastery. But that's well thought out. Thank you.

Um...may I point something out in a spoiler, just in case?
148 is Ramza's ATK at level 65, which is the main point of comparison I use, as not everybody has a second Memory Crystal. At level 65, he's already the best attacker there is, with a wide gulf between him and Red XIII, the second best.

Perhaps it was not very clear - while I only mentioned Ramza's (and Red XIII's) ATK at level 65, I did mention I would mention the lv. 80 stats. It's that, internally, I used the lv. 80 stats to award an extra (conditional) point to Ramza. And, of course, I added his SSB Mastery extra Attack, so it's constantly reading as 178 ATK to me.

By the by - you could have also mentioned that Red XIII has 149!!! ATK at level 80. Just for purposes of completion. Trust me - the Notepad I have with all points of consultation does have Ramza's ATK at level 80.

Will do some adjustments out, guys.

[Starwulf]

Fortunately, we don't seem to run into many bosses like that anymore. Or, at least, the difficulty is high enough that they can withstand more than two hits. Used to be I'd keep multiple 2-star BLM abilities around expressly for that purpose. I remember there were a few events where you had to hit one of the early bosses - like, first or second stage, non-elite - with multiple weaknesses. (I think it was Ifrit, and we had to use Ice and Water?) I basically had to bring a non-primary BLM (like a Spellblade with BLM 2) and equip them with 2-star spells just to get the damage to work without instantly winning.

I am so glad I don't have to do that anymore.

I actually remember that, I suggested you bring along Squall as he could use low level BLM spells and he hit for crap damage with them. Ahh, memories :)

[Greg_S]

Today I learned: a proper tauntaliate setup is pretty dang good, even if you don't have buff stacking figured out. (TIL part 2: how buff stacking works in this game.) Between working out those kinks, a touch of honing, and a level or two along the way, the FF12 + and ++ boss rushes went down without a hitch. Thanks for the advice/encouragement, Greg & Red. The +++ unsurprisingly smeared me all over the floor, so it looks it's off to the FF8 material for me. So long Basch, we had some good times, but it's time to stop leveling characters I've never heard of and start leveling ones I dislike :P


Congrats! It's a nice step to get those bonus battles completed, as that's when the award quality really ramps up to the stuff from high-level dungeon elites.

[spectralphoenix]

Today I learned: a proper tauntaliate setup is pretty dang good, even if you don't have buff stacking figured out. (TIL part 2: how buff stacking works in this game.) Between working out those kinks, a touch of honing, and a level or two along the way, the FF12 + and ++ boss rushes went down without a hitch. Thanks for the advice/encouragement, Greg & Red. The +++ unsurprisingly smeared me all over the floor, so it looks it's off to the FF8 material for me. So long Basch, we had some good times, but it's time to stop leveling characters I've never heard of and start leveling ones I dislike :P

Soon, I'll have a veritable army of characters sitting in the mid 30s to low 40s, all unable to clear endgame content! Finally, my master plan is beginning to come together.

Really that shouldn't bother me - I appear to be at about Dungeon Update 5 on both Classic and Elite so it's not like I'm running out of material - but heck if timed events don't instill a fear of missing out in me.

If it makes you feel any better, I managed to swing the VII +++ but it looks like the FF12 one is off the table for me. I just can't bring those snowflakes down fast enough, and at 40 stam/attempt, you have to cut your losses sooner or later.

I've been taking the tactic of choosing one or two favorites out of each event and focusing on leveling those guys. If I can get one guy to 50 or close, he can be pretty handy with synergy in most fights.

[Greg_S]

Attempt 1 at the ultimate did not go so well. I had the most success blasting Raijin down first, because when you weaken him, he's not dropping AoEs on you. Things calm down a little once you're down to 2, but both Fujin and Seifer hit like a jacked-up truck, and a little bad luck turns things against you really quickly. This is a difficult fight.




Name
Gear
Skills
SB
RM


Shadow 80
5+ Shimmering Blade, Nu-Khai Armband, Aries
R3 Lifesiphon, R4 Wind Slash for Raijin-killing
Shadow Fang, probably to take down Fujin
Heroic Stance


Tyro 80
5+ Dusk Lance, Power Sash, Vossler's Gauntlet
R3 Blizzaga Strike, because Tyro needs more dakka, R2 Multi Break- left this out on the first attempt, and regretted it
SG
Dr. Mog


Zidane 65, in for Gilgamesh
Blitz Sword, 2++ Galbadian Bracers, Hyper Wrist VIII
R3 Lifesiphon, R4 Blind Shell for much-needed mitigation
Shift Break- expecting to need the AoE power breakdown
Battleforged


Yuna 80
5+ Lullaby Rod, Wutai Headband, New Beginnings Sphere
R4 Curaga, R2 Shellga
HoTF, Dragon's Roar
Knight's Charge


Ramza 72
4++ Mesmerize Blade, Grand Armor, Godo's Mask
Lifesiphon, Swift Bolt for medals
Tailwind, Hail, Shout
Mako Might


Tried bringing HoTE, which brought my damage output fairly high, but I'm going to try Sea Lord's broadside for the AoE breakdown this time. I think it's going to be bearable as soon as it's just Seifer, or even Raijin and Seifer, but getting to that point is quite hard.

[Red Fel]

Attempt 1 at the ultimate did not go so well. I had the most success blasting Raijin down first, because when you weaken him, he's not dropping AoEs on you. Things calm down a little once you're down to 2, but both Fujin and Seifer hit like a jacked-up truck, and a little bad luck turns things against you really quickly. This is a difficult fight.

Mine isn't going well, either. I hate multi-boss encounters, but I particularly hate ones where the mastery condition requires specific ability uses, because hones really count. I'm concerned that I might actually not have abilities that are high enough rank to handle it. We'll see. I'm making some progress, I've just hit a few unlucky spots. So it's keep on, for now, and we'll see where things go.

[Antonok]

So with the departure of the XIII banners, that ends my mithril spending til the WHM Nightmare (though the Desch event is going to be hard to resist).

<shameless RW plus> Also with the Ultimate, you might consider bring an Aurochs Reels RW. Raijin and Fuijin are able to be blinded, and all 3 are vulnerable to poison. Plus 4 hit AoE is never a bad thing. I just so happen to have a 318 Att Aurochs Reels - r5Lu

[Forbiddenwar]

.

EDIT: I see U and U+ drop tonight, with a dungeon update this Saturday. Nice, nice. Currently sitting at 161 0/5.

How did you manage that? Did I miss a dungeon or three.

[Greg_S]

Mine isn't going well, either. I hate multi-boss encounters, but I particularly hate ones where the mastery condition requires specific ability uses, because hones really count. I'm concerned that I might actually not have abilities that are high enough rank to handle it. We'll see. I'm making some progress, I've just hit a few unlucky spots. So it's keep on, for now, and we'll see where things go.

I won on try #2, but seconding the hones part. I think Shadow finished the fight with 1 charge of wind slash left, which comes out to 6 lifesiphons + 7 wind slashes + 3 shadow fangs.

I never did the Beatrix fight, but I heard someone describe it like a slo-mo car crash. This fight feels similar, where there's just a ton of damage coming at you all at once, and you need to get it under control quickly, because you just can't outheal it.

[danzibr]

So with the departure of the XIII banners, that ends my mithril spending til the WHM Nightmare (though the Desch event is going to be hard to resist).

<shameless RW plus> Also with the Ultimate, you might consider bring an Aurochs Reels RW. Raijin and Fuijin are able to be blinded, and all 3 are vulnerable to poison. Plus 4 hit AoE is never a bad thing. I just so happen to have a 318 Att Aurochs Reels - r5Lu
Thu can't be poisoned and the damage is pretty bad. Still, Blind is good.

How did you manage that? Did I miss a dungeon or three.
Gysahl greens.

Mastered the U. Took one S/L. I'll post my party in the morning. Flopped against the U+ twice.

[Forbiddenwar]

Thu can't be poisoned and the damage is pretty bad. Still, Blind is good.



Blind is a trap, at least in my experience. Both Fuu and Raiden instantly and freely use remedy to erase it.

Though if you already have a wall, hastega, boostga, and a cure all+ regen naturally, you might as well take it. Just don't expect it to have any effect.

Ditto with breakdown and dances, they are so resistant to them that it was a waste of time. They were actually hitting harder after full break than before.

[Antonok]

Took a shot at the ultimate. Switched out Edgar for Edea and while she was having no problems hitting cap with weaknesses, the rest of my damage could of used some work. Cloud was only hitting for roughly 7k total damage a quad cut on Fuijin with her under fullbreak and armor breakdown. No way in hell I'm outracing the aoe damage they do.

Also yeah, the blind/silence/poison was a no go. They just instantly remedy it off.

[Forbiddenwar]

Well, 7 hours of constant play
300 stamina and
17 mithril spent




And I still can't finish this Ultimate.
I can't even kill one of them, let alone all three.

I tried physical teams, mage teams, teams with 8 layers of mitigation, and teams with 2 and everything in between.

All my teams are level 80 with 200+ synergy gear, and are nearly 500 in attack, or magic. Every one of my attacks were over 9000.

None of it works.

I can't figure out how to survive constant tornados, fire storms and specials, all before I can even make my first move.

[Antonok]

Well, 7 hours of constant play
300 stamina and
17 mithril spent




And I still can't finish this Ultimate.
I can't even kill one of them, let alone all three.

I tried physical teams, mage teams, teams with 8 layers of mitigation, and teams with 2 and everything in between.

All my teams are level 80 with 200+ synergy gear, and are nearly 500 in attack, or magic. Every one of my attacks were over 9000.

None of it works.

I can't figure out how to survive constant tornados, fire storms and specials, all before I can even make my first move.

What's your party and abilities? Also focus Fuijin first to get rid of a lot of the magic damage.

Edit: I watched someone last night use Yukikaze, which if the blind stuck, they'd use thier turn to remedy it.

[SuperPanda]

I'm going to need to come back at this ultimate a different way. I'm not killing them fast enough - wall is out of uses before Seifer hits weak and once he starts spamming reverse zentosuken I'm pretty much toast. I've got him down to a quarter with the other two dead but he isn't staying down.

[Cozzer]

Operation : Elite Extermination is proceeding smoothly. FF4 and FF7 are done and only about a couple Elites from each of the other realms are left. The only problems I foresee are from the FF3 dungeons, since I lack decent synergy.

When I have a bit of time, I'm going to try the FF8 Ultimate. It's not my best realm, but I have pretty decent synergy gear. We'll see what happens.

[danzibr]

Here's the party I mastered the U with:

80 Rinoa, Blizzaja, Meteor, Devotion
80 Garnet, Curaja, Protectga, Mako Might
80 Tyro, Full Break, Armor Breakdown, Dr. Mog's Teaching
80 Squall, Blizzaga Strike, Aerora Strike, Attunement II
80 Cloud, Lifesiphon, Thundaga Strike, Dragoon's Determination
RW Auroch Reels

Round 1, Rinoa did Meteor, Garnet and Tyro did their SB's, Squall did Auroch Reels, Cloud did Thundaga Strike. Blinding Fuujin and Raijin actually was useful, since Raijin "wasted" turns using Remedy.
Round 2, Rinoa did Meteor, Garnet does Protectga, Tyro does Full Break on Fuujin, Squall does Aerora Strike on Raijin, Cloud does Thundaga Strike on Fuujin.
And uhh, it goes on from there. I had Squall do another Auroch Reels. My goal was to kill Fuujin fast, which worked just fine. Then Raijin went down just after. After Fuujin was down, Cloud switched to Lifesiphon (I have his SSB but not BSB).
I saved Rinoa's SSB until Sephy was alone.

If I had to make changes, I'd say swap out Tyro's Full Break for Multi Break and Armor Breakdown for Shellga. Reverse Zantetsuken wasn't doing much damage (like ~800... it still hurt, but not as bad as Fira).

U+ on the other hand, got my donkey handed to me. Went puuuuuure Reta. It went really well both times until he started spamming Ultima and Ultima Weapon. That killed me real fast. I'm thinking of trying minor changes, namely bringing more mitigation, or making major changes and going no Reta (well, probably Tauntaliate to negate some nasty physical attacks, but otherwise usual offense).

EDIT: Alright, I think I got it. My U+ party, that is. I don't think Reta's going to work.

80 Rinoa, 2 blasty spells, Devotion.
80 Garnet, Curaja and Shellga, Mako Might.
80 Tyro, Full Break and Armor Breakdown, Dr. Mog's Teaching.
80 Locke, Thief's Revenge and Steal Power, Dragoon's Determination.
80 Gilgamesh, Draw Fire and Retaliate, Fist of Dawn (or whatever it is).
RW Fenrir Overdrive.

Hmm, now that I look at it, I don't think I have enough offense. I'll be relying on Rinoa and Locke, and to a lesser extent Tyro and Gilgamesh, to deal damage. Then, when he's low on hp, have Locke and Gilgamesh go Fenrir Overdrive and hope I can burn him down fast enough. But... I have no source of Dispel. I might want to ditch Draw Fire and Retaliate, and go for Banish Strike and Saint Cross.

[Chen]

My regular A team wasn't putting up mitigation fast enough so I had to revert to the secondary A team for the Ultimate:

Red XIII: Magic breakdown R3, Power breakdown R3 RM: Mako Might SB: Lunatic High
Zack: Blizzara Strike R3, Lifesiphon R4 RM: Battleforged SB: Apocalypse
Agrias: Aerora Strike R3, Lifesiphon R4 RM: Ace Striker SB: Cleansing Strike
Tyro: Curaja R4, Shellga R2 RM: Dr. Mog's teachings SB: Sentinel Grimoire
Yuffie: Thief's Revenge R2, Swift bolt R2 RM: Damage increase with thrown weapons SB: Clear Tranquil
RW: Shout

Swift bolt worked quite well here since I wasn't damaging Raijin until after Fujin was dead anyways and it did a minor bit of extra damage on Seifer. Burned Fujin fast with Zack and Agrias using Lifesiphon and SBs as they came up. On Raijin Agrias moved to aerora strike while Zack continued to lifesiphon. Zack used his SB as they came up but Agrias saved the bars. Yuffie would use her AoE heal when needed and man that insta cast heal is awesome. She also was used to refresh RWs since I was saving her Thief's Revenge for Seifer and ran her out of swift bolt uses quick. Red would use Magic break on Fujin, power breakdown on Raijin and on the alternate rounds throw a magic or power breakdown at Seifer. Due to the AoE by the time I got to Seifer he was almost at half health already and he just melted under Agrias' SBs, Zack's blizzara strike + SBs and Yuffie using Thief's Revenge (I had saved it for then).

[Red Fel]

On the U, I've been using a non-SB team, since I don't really have any good VIII SBs to my name. Squall with Aerora Strike and Biora Strike, Rinoa with Blizzaga and Ultros, Edea with Thundaja and Bioga, Irvine with Full Break and Power Breakdown, and Y'shtola with Curaja and Protectga. (Okay, so there's one useful SB there.) RW was Quistis' Mighty Guard, which shored up my defenses nicely.

Ultros to blind Raijin and make him waste his time. Thundaja and Biora Strike to take down Fuujin, then Aerora Strike and Bioga to take down Raijin, then Blizzaja, Biora Strike and Bioga to take down Seifer. And on my latest try, I almost won. I was down to just Seifer, nobody had died, he was down to 1/3 and he got a lucky crit off on Edea. One down, still fighting. I start carving him up, get him down to the tiniest sliver, and he proceeds to spam Zantetsuken and crush my party. Crappit.

So I'm still 0/2. Wondering whether I should try one of your strategies. I could replace Irvine with Wakka for Aurochs Reels, that's a really nice option, actually. I'm a bit reluctant to bring AoEs, though, since getting everyone to critical at the same time could go very badly, very quickly. And I suppose I could swap one of my casters out for Sephiroth with Armor Break and Lifesiphon, but that really narrows my window of damage output.

[danzibr]

I'm a bit reluctant to bring AoEs, though, since getting everyone to critical at the same time could go very badly, very quickly.
I brought AoE's and this was a nonissue. Rinoa began the battle spamming Meteor, and my RW was an AoE, but I also had people doing single-target attacks, so none of them were critical at the same time.

[Greg_S]

So, Ultima Weapon:

Don't do what I did, and decide to give Tyro Diaga/Shellga. The extra 2500 damage from it will not help. Dr. Mog will tell you that the battle is about the light pillar time limit. He is wrong. If you can survive 25 of Ultima Weapon's attacks (Light Pillar unlocks after 25 actions), you're probably turtling.

Your timer here is when it uses Meteor. Before that, the damage you'll be taking is nothing if you've survived the U fight to get here. As soon as meteor happens, the gloves are off, and he starts hitting you with Mako Cannon-level spam. Burst damage (Thief's Revenge, Saint Cross, Bahamut, SSB nuke) is practically required, and dismissal + stunning SBs will buy you some time here too. According to the AI, its cast time for its big attacks is 3 seconds, so about 2x normal. Stunning it when weak buys you essentially two free turns.

Another Shadow promo: Ultima Weapon uses regen at 30% HP, so he's still got 105K HP. Thanks to Shadow Fang, he got one turn after that. Use your mythril on any Ichigeki banners you find, it is truly that good.

[SuperPanda]

Seifer: Squall... now that we've been through so much I wanted to bury the hatchet.
Squall: um.. (Is he for real?)
Seifer: Before we do though, I want to settle finally who the best sorceress's knight really is.
Squall: ... (...)
Zell: Whaaaaa?
Seifer: Stay out of this chicken wuss. Its for Matron, she wants to settle who the better sorceress is.

Rinoa: I've got angel wings... that's clearly better!
Edea: Do you know how long it takes to get my makeup looking like this? And being old enough to be your mother while still getting the hot young boys to run after me.
Rinoa: This is about spell casting!
Edea: Oh, I can cast all kinds of spells.

Squall: ...
Zell: I... I think I need therapy.
Seifer: We all do. ... We all do.
Squall: ... whatever.
Seifer: Excellent. You and Rinoa pick whatever team you want. Matron will empower myself and my lackies with her spells and we'll see who really is the best.

(Later)
Rinoa: You agreed to what.
Squall: ... (I didn't agree to anything, why is this my problem?)
Garnet: Don't worry Rinoa, I've got your back.
Ramza: I'd be happy to lend my aid as well.
Rinoa: We still need one more in this team. Any ideas?
Squall: ...
Ramza: I don't think Ser Valentine will be of much aid.
Squall: ...
Garnet: Naw, Amarant won't be of any help either.
Squall: ...
Rinoa: Oh right, I'll go ask Cloud. Funny how you alway know the right thing to say.
Squall: ... (whatever).
Ramza: Do you have negative levels in Mediator or something?
Garnet: Just let it go.

(Later still)
Seifer: Squall! I'm coming for you.
Rinoa: Eat lightning Fuujin! (Thundaga blood of Espers Thundaga)
(RW) Tyro: I'll shield you like Squall shield's his feelings! (Sentinel Grimoire)
Seifer: No! If their defenses are that strong nothing will get through!
Raijin: Relax boss, I'll use my special (that being my rocking abs) to get through to the soft one.
Garnet: Soft... only one monkey gets to call me soft! Alexander! (Divine Guardian)
Ramza: Come on team, get the lead out (Tailwind)
Cloud: Yo, Fuujin. Deal with it. (Thundara slash)
Squall: (motions for Raijin) (Aeroa Slash)
Cloud: You take him and we'll finish her off. Save the knight for last.
Squall: ...
Rinoa: We know that's what you said, Cloud was just translating for those that don't speak pregnant-pause-anese
Squall: ...
Cloud: Language. (Thundara slash)
Ramza: What did I miss? (Magic Breakdown on Seifer)
Seifer: Ow. You don't want to know kid.
Garnet: So, we're just going to overlook Cloud saying "Language?" like that? (Thundaga blood of Espers Thundaga)
Fuujin: I. Defeated.
Ramza: Technically that clause requires a to be verb since its a passive construction with the single person pronoun being the object of the verb it follows.
Raijin: Don't worry bro, I'll beat on the grammar teacher.
Seifer: heh, Burn. (Fira)
Rinoa: Chill with the bad puns! (Blizzaga Blood of Espers Blizzaga)
Cloud: Heh. (Blizzara Strike)
Squall: ... (sick) (Bio Strike)
Raijin: I, uh... boss... you got this! (runs away)
Seifer: Think I'm defeated? Zentosuken Reverse!
Rinoa: ow ow ow.... (Blizzaga blood of Espers Blizzaga)
Squall: ... (Blasting Zone)
Cloud: ... (Blade Beam)
Ramza: come on, we can get back in this! (Tailwind)
Garnet: I'm not falling to another of these bosses! (Divine Guardian)
Tyro: I'm contributing... but you guys went a whole of four rounds without my protection - FYI.
Seifer: I'll have you know - I'm still the best Knight! (Reverse Zentosuken)!
Squall: ... (Blasting Zone)
Seifer: This proves nothing!

Edea: I... I lost?
Seifer: Matron, I'm sure we'll get them next time.
Edea: I'm so proud of all of you! You've all grown so strong.
Seifer: But... I failed you.
Edea: You and two friends took on Squall with four of his friends. You did wonderful, all of you.
Seifer: I'm so confused.
Cloud: And I thought... my world was screwed up.
Squall: ...
Cloud: You can say that again.
Squall: ....
Cloud: Heh. Good one.
Ramza: Okay, now I'm sure they're just messing with me.
Garnet: Come on Ramza. This is the way.

VIII Ultimate Mastered.
RW: Wall
Squall: Cutting Trigger, Bio Strike R3, Aeroa Strike R3 (Ace Striker)
Rinoa: Cardinal++, Thundaga R4, Blizzaga R4 (Blood of Espers) (got 5 double casts through the fight, always hitting the same target and hitting weakness!)
Cloud: Murasama IV+, Thundera Strike R3, Blizzara Strike R3 (Battle Forged) (Has Blade Beam)
Ramza: Golden Axe XII, Magic Breakdown R3, Full Break R2 (Mako Might) (Has Tailwind)
Garnet: Wizard Staff IX, Diara R4, Curaga R5 (Dr. Mogs Teaching) Has Divine Guardian.

Garnet and Ramza nearly fell several times but Tailwind was a real life-saver. Diara was only doing around 1000 damage, and usually wasn't worth the cast but I had Shell/Protect covered between Divine Guardian and Tailwind and her Magic was lower priority than her healing.
Rinoa got 2 Thundaga double casts against Fuujin and 3 Blizzaga double casts against Seifer. Thundaga was hitting for almost 8k while Blizzaga was hitting closer to 5.5k
Cloud was only a little better than Balthier who in my first attempt brought Blind Shell - but his damage was low enough it didn't matter. Cloud's Blade beam did a solid 6k+ when it was used compared to Blade beams ~12k. Still better than the 2-3k Tides of war was tealing for Balthier in attempt 1.

[Red Fel]

I brought AoE's and this was a nonissue. Rinoa began the battle spamming Meteor, and my RW was an AoE, but I also had people doing single-target attacks, so none of them were critical at the same time.

Yeah, as it happens, the AoE helped a bit. I changed things up a touch, and mastered the U with only one medal lost to actions taken. My team:
Squall: Aerora Strike, Biora Strike, Spellblade Master.
Rinoa: Quetzalcoatl, Blizzaja, Blood of the Summoner.
Edea: Thundaja, Bioga, Blood of Espers.
Wakka: Power Breakdown, Full Break, Dr. Mog's Teachings.
Y'shtola: Curaja, Protectga, Mako Might.
RW: Quistis (Mighty Guard (VIII)).
This made things a lot easier. Aurochs Reels meant that Raijin would waste two turns on Remedy, rather than annoying me. And he actually forgot to remedy himself until after Fuujin was down. Fuu was the primary focus, ignoring the fact that Quetzal healed Rai. And then, after Fuu was dead, inspiration struck, and I tried something.

I went after Seifer second, rather than Rai. And it worked. I burned him down fast, between Blizzaja, Biora Strike, and Bioga. That left only one threat, and he was one that could easily be healed through - he only had single-target physical abilities, and I had SSII, Protectga, Power Breakdown/Full Break, and Regen. Admittedly, by the time Seifer was down, I was low on abilities - by the end, Squall was down to Blade Flurry uses, and Wakka and Rinoa were using the attack command. But I finished him, he dropped, I got mastery.

Next stop, U+. Soak damage, reciprocate. We'll see how it goes.

[Simkin]

Ult is down. Took me quite a few tries last night and this morning, but when I finally found the right mix for me I dominated it. Here's the party:

Tyro (80), Protectga (R3), Shellga (R3), Dr. Mog's Teachings (Native SG)
Rinoa (80), Thundaja (R4), Blizzaja (R4), Witch of Succession
Cloud (80), Thundaga Strike (R3), Aerora Strike (R3), Self-Sacrifice (Fenrir, Braver)
Vanille (80), Curaja (R5), Curaise (R3), Mako Might (Miracle Prayer)
Squall (80), Thundara Strike (R3), Blizzaga Strike (R3), Attunement II (Blasting Zone)
RW: Divine Guardian

Took a slightly different route this time.

Started off with Vanille hitting Divine Guardian, Tyro SG, Rinoa/Cloud/Squall all going for Fujin with their lightning skills (for the next 4 rounds until he dropped). In the meantime Vanille hit Curaja once, and Tyro started applying Protectga/Shellga. About turn 3 (or 4), Vanille hit Miracle Prayer and topped everyone off (probably could have lived without it, but really didn't want to chance an early death).

Once Fujin dropped on R4 I immediately switched to Seifer. I tried this mainly since I had 2 devoted ice skills instead where I only had Aerora strike for Raijin. At this point Cloud wasn't shining as much so I hit Fenrir and with Quad Cut was at least able to avg 5K+ per round, which thrown in with the 2 ice skills dropped him in 4 or 5 rounds. Also either at the start of Seifer or within a round or two I had Vanille hit Divine Guardian again and Tyro refreshed SG. Diving Guardian seemed to help a lot over SSII that I had in previously, and around the end of Seifer I used Miracle Prayer a second time to top myself off again. Tyro kept regular application of Protectga/Shellga up. Also through a Blasting Zone on Seifer for good measure.

Raijin went a bit slower because I only had 1 air skill, and nothing hugely useful on Rinoa or Squall. That said it also didn't take all that long. 6 Aerora Strikes alone took him down significantly, (also I was lucky with Miracle Prayer and got another 2-3 uses over time). I easily built up enough for another Blasting Zone use, and has plenty of mitigation and healing left.

Lessons Learned:
- Diving Guardian seemed way more effective than SSII in this battle, and a much better alternative than Shout.
- I didn't touch curaise once, but don't know what else I might have brought.
- A full heal like Miracle Prayer really carried me through the couple low spots between mitigation strongly.
- Loading up on damage skills to take out 1 or 2 of the three fast was game changing, especially having 3 slots to focus on Fujin.

Good luck to everyone.

[Jurai]

I'm so close to U+. I'll try a three-pull on Banner 1 Saturday for Squall's BSB sword for some more synergy.

[danzibr]

Another Shadow promo: Ultima Weapon uses regen at 30% HP, so he's still got 105K HP. Thanks to Shadow Fang, he got one turn after that. Use your mythril on any Ichigeki banners you find, it is truly that good.
Mmmmmm gotta get me some Ichigeki.

Also, thanks for the pointers. Think I'll be bringing some Dismissal to the fight after all.

Now that I think about it, I'll probably go Shout instead of Fenrir Overdrive. Higher damage overall. Then give Locke Thief's Revenge and Dismissal rather than Thief's Revenge and Steal Power.

Mmmm, fun. I like that it's 1 stam per go, allows for experimentation.

EDIT: Wait, why would Shadow's SSB be so good? Comparing it to others, it doesn't have like a crazy high multiplier or anything. Am I missing something?

[Slayn82]

Shadow SSB is instant cast, giving it a great DPS. You deal your damage and start charging your next action, instead of waiting for the Red Bar to fill.

I'm doing some core elite dungeons. I usually do some core dungeons, then go back and do the elites. Today I fought elite Bartholomew in XIII. I had only vague memories of him in the previous event. The description made it look to be all about elemental damage. Fine, I went with Celes and Lightning.

Dr. Mog, you liar. The Balls were irrelevant, and I ended facing the Tankiest tank who ever tanked. Without Armor Breakdown. It was hilarious and annoying at the same time. Celes killed him at 00 in the Doom counter. Vivi had to save the fight with Drainga and Ruinga, and the occasional Meteors to the face. Got only Expert. At least I got the Mythril and Stamina Refill I wanted.

[Greg_S]

EDIT: Wait, why would Shadow's SSB be so good? Comparing it to others, it doesn't have like a crazy high multiplier or anything. Am I missing something?
Instant casting time. :smallbiggrin:

[danzibr]

Instant casting time. :smallbiggrin:
Ahh... so you can save 'em up and spam 'em. I see.

Edit: Mastered the U+ with the party I posted earlier. It went really smoothly. Only thing that would've made it better would be r2 Saint Cross and r4 Dismissal (ran out of uses).

[Forbiddenwar]

think it's time to wipe my game and start over.

What team am i using? Yours. And yours and yours. Everyone here who posted a winning team I can't win with. When all I get in 24 hours of attempts is constant fire aoes and thunder aoes, every one dies before their first turn.

Nevermind. I've mastered it now with 2 mages, 2 walls, 3 stoneskin 2s, cloud and 2 healers with rank 5 curajas(all 24 casts were used before the end) this was easily the most difficult Ultimate I ever faced. Now to Ulti+

[Simkin]

Ult+ mastered. I cheated a bit, used 2 mythril to allow enough damage absorption to max everyone's gauges. Party was:

Agrias (80), Banishing Strike (R3), Saint Cross (R2), Holy Knight's Pride
Irvine (65), Armor Breakdown (R2), Full Break (R1), Battleforged, Fast Ammo
Cloud (80), Lifesiphon (R2), Pound (R3), Self-Sacrifice, Fenrir
Tyro (80), Curaja (R5), Shellga (R3), Dr. Mog's Teachings, SG
Squall (80), Lifesiphon (R3), Barraga (R2), Mako Might, Blasting Zone
RW: Shout
Mythril: +20% Defense

Overwhelming DPS for the win here.
R1: Tyro SG, Cloud hit RW for Shout, Irvine Full Break, Agrias Saint's Cross, Squall Blasting Zone
R2: Tyro Shellga, Cloud Fenrir, Irvine Armor Break, Agrias Saint's Cross, Squall Blasting Zone
R3: Tyro Cellebration Grimoire, Cloud Fenrir, Irvine Fast Ammo, Agrias Saint's Cross, Squall Blasting Zone
R4: Tyro Cure, Cloud Fenrir, Irvine Fast Ammo, Agrias Saint's Cross, Squall Lifesiphon
R5: I don't remember, he was dead though.

I got him close once or twice without the mythril, 15% or so, but he just kept smoking my folks with AOEs faster than I could heal. Got frustrated and gave in =)

[danzibr]

think it's time to wipe my game and start over.

What team am i using? Yours. And yours and yours. Everyone here who posted a winning team I can't win with. When all I get in 24 hours of attempts is constant fire aoes and thunder aoes, every one dies before their first turn.

Nevermind. I've mastered it now with 2 mages, 2 walls, 3 stoneskin 2s, cloud and 2 healers with rank 5 curajas(all 24 casts were used before the end) this was easily the most difficult Ultimate I ever faced. Now to Ulti+


Ult+ mastered. I cheated a bit, used 2 mythril to allow enough damage absorption to max everyone's gauges. Party was:

Agrias (80), Banishing Strike (R3), Saint Cross (R2), Holy Knight's Pride
Irvine (65), Armor Breakdown (R2), Full Break (R1), Battleforged, Fast Ammo
Cloud (80), Lifesiphon (R2), Pound (R3), Self-Sacrifice, Fenrir
Tyro (80), Curaja (R5), Shellga (R3), Dr. Mog's Teachings, SG
Squall (80), Lifesiphon (R3), Barraga (R2), Mako Might, Blasting Zone
RW: Shout
Mythril: +20% Defense

Overwhelming DPS for the win here.
R1: Tyro SG, Cloud hit RW for Shout, Irvine Full Break, Agrias Saint's Cross, Squall Blasting Zone
R2: Tyro Shellga, Cloud Fenrir, Irvine Armor Break, Agrias Saint's Cross, Squall Blasting Zone
R3: Tyro Cellebration Grimoire, Cloud Fenrir, Irvine Fast Ammo, Agrias Saint's Cross, Squall Blasting Zone
R4: Tyro Cure, Cloud Fenrir, Irvine Fast Ammo, Agrias Saint's Cross, Squall Lifesiphon
R5: I don't remember, he was dead though.

I got him close once or twice without the mythril, 15% or so, but he just kept smoking my folks with AOEs faster than I could heal. Got frustrated and gave in =)
Grats and grats!

I forget using a mythril is an option. In many cases it might be worth building SB gauges. I mean, 1 mythril can be the difference between mastery and defeat.

[Forbiddenwar]

Woot and Ult+ is mastered. Much easier than the Ult, for me at least. I did the 2 mithril route and wasted him with Gilgamesh's, Rinoa's and Cloud ssb in the second half.

Now I'm ready for the new dungeon update.

[SuperPanda]

I need to take a new stab at the Ultimate + fight.

Squall with cutting trigger does okay damage and good damage under Shout - but not enough.
Rinoa with Cardinal++ is doing ~ 7k per -ja spell and ~15k per Wishing Star, but thats not enough on its own.
I don't have any other RS weapons for fighters and I don't have enough spells honed for mages.

Ramza with Tailwind is a good medica, but I can't use it enough without SB charge RM - and its also my source of Protectga which I need form the start.
Cecil as my dispeller does respectable damage for off synergy and has a strong SB, but without Shout he isn't too impressive.
Garnet is fine as a healer and has my best Hastega - and I need hastega.

Wall as RM - can't damage fast enough - can keep trying.
Shout as RM - not enough mitigation.
Hand of Emperor as RM - doing really well until he was at 1/3 health and spammed Meteor and Ultimate Weapon.

needs more work.

[Antonok]

I'm going to wait til probably Sunday night/Monday to take on Seifer and goons again. Get Penelo 65+ that way I can have Clear Tranquil AND War Dance for AoE healing power (Bonus that was dance has a boostga attached :smalltongue:) That way, I can bring a Fivine Guardian RW since I find the regen MUCH more helpful than SG/SSII with my party set up (Edgar Drill plus a crapload of AoE healing). Will probably fail just because of severe lack of synergy, but eh. Need to save up for WHM Nightmare and BSBfest. (will most likely take a pull or 2 on the FFIX event before BSBFest). Though thinking about it, darkness skills drop monday and I have a 65 Jecht and a high 50s Edea that are primed up for them...

In JP news, after many many many many MANY* resets, I managed to pull Cloud's OSSB. Few thoughts on it:

1) Holy crap the damage. First run with a lvl 15 Cloud on a difficulty 17 boss was 38k damage, no buffs/debuffs. This thing is definitely worth saving for.
2a) I fully expect every OSSB to be single target. Can you imagine taking on Seifer or Judge Bergen with the ability to hit 80k+ damage? ~OR~
2b) This is less likely, but DeNA might just decide to go overboard on the DEF/RES of future ultimates, pretty much alienating anyone unlucky enough not to have drawn one.
3) I have a feeling Cloud is going to reign supreme on the OSSB front for a good while. Atleast 3 months before another one even gets hinted at so DeNA can gather data and think about it. And yes, this thing is that good. I've been stomping 90+ event bosses with it with a party of sub 50 people.

*Total reset count at 4 pulls each reset: 38 before I got it. You've no idea how tempted I was to keep the double pull of Aerith's BSB and Nanaki's Comb

[T.G. Oskar]

Ugh, I just can't seem to handle the Seifer trio Ultimate. Maybe it's because Squall is just so low-leveled? I really doubt it.

I went with Terra using Blizzaja and Thundaja with Attunement II, Gilgamesh using Ice Jump and Wind Jump, and Squall using Thundara Strike and Aerora Strike, to always have 2 people working up the damage. Went with the Keeper for Curaga and Multi Break + Balthier with Steal Defense and Biora Strike, for even more offense, and Divine Guardian RM for spell mitigation.

Result: I need a Shellga, because that damage is criminal.

Round 2, I ditch Balthier, and go for 2 buffers: Selphie with Morning Star, Curaga and Protectga, and Keeper with Multi Break and Shellga. I think I went for a Grand Cross RW in order to lure the single-target spells some of them use.

Result - Shellga alone doesn't protect against AoEs, so I was eating 2k AoEs easily. Usually Squall or Selphie were murderized (murdered + tenderized) after one or two blows, not even close to using a SB.

I would love to use Ramza here (as usual), but here's the deal - I need at least 2 people handling weakness hits. Terra won't benefit, since she's a caster, and she's dealing about top 7k using her spells, so it revolves around the other two people to handle the remaining weakness...and since they're attackers, they might handle it. Squall can muster near 4k damage using weaknesses, but that's not enough. That means I have only ONE healer, plus Ramza, or two healers and Shout RW, but no other kind of mitigation (Divine Guardian looks tasty here). If I get two healers and Shout RW, that means I have to sacrifice mitigation; if I work with Divine Guardian and Ramza physically available, I still lose on mitigation as I'd lack either Protectga or Shellga. And if I were to use the Keeper for both buffs...well, I have a dead end eventually, as I still lack enough mitigation for spells: Shellga + Divine Guardian still had me at an impasse.

Somehow suspecting that their spell damage is calculated as the Ninja, in order to eat through Resistance. Then again, might just be frustration?

Then again, while I have some decent weapon synergy for the realm, I lack proper armor synergy away from the Minotaur Plate (which, coincidentally, grants Shellga...except I need to build an SB bar for it, and that means sacrificing Dr. Mog's Teachings to fuel it, which could be used for Shout if I were to use Ramza...or sacrifice the armor user's potential offensive instead).

On the positive side, since I finished the event up to that point so quickly, I can do Core dungeons - in fact, that allowed me to get White Mage's RM2, so I have both Concentration AND Mana Spring. Also...if Chaos Shrine of Yore pt. 2 is the last FF1 dungeon, that means I have most likely finished my first realm on Classic (not yet on Elite, tho). I also got the Ninja, which seems to be a pretty decent guy, what with its default SB being Physical Blink. Plus Ninja magic ignoring resistance. Of course, Core still sucks... Running at 112 Stamina now (used Chaos Shrine of Yore pt. 2 Classic to get the last shard, and then the refill to do the 2 attempts at Seifer & co.)

[danzibr]

What's this about resetting on pulls?

[Antonok]

What's this about resetting on pulls?

Reset your game data for a fresh start so you can get a good relic or 2.

[Forbiddenwar]

Ugh, I just can't seem to handle the Seifer trio Ultimate. Maybe it's because Squall is just so low-leveled? I really doubt it.



Yes, it's pretty brutal as my public rage over the level showed. It might be worth burning a mithril or two to get your soul breaks to max. But it is still the most random challenge I've ever faced, it's like 3 ultimates wrapped up in one.

I did ignore all offensive mitigation with two healers. They resist breaks so well, I didn't see the point. And I went mostly mage team and dug out the Halloween hat that boosted everyone's magic. But now I wonder if the nearly pure AOE approach is better.

[Jurai]

I remember, back when I first got Irvine, and was using things like Fire and Thunder. I thought he was awesome. Now? I just pulled his Ulysses and I'm looking at it and I'm wanting to use it for a Stone. Sure, it's better than Balthier's Ras Algethi, but seriously? Combat 3? Black Magic 1? White Magic 2? I'd rather eat a rock marinated in Stonefish venom. Sigh. Going to give this Ult+ another shot, trading Ramza for Irvine. Once I get Irvine to 65. Uuuuuuugh... What have I gotten myself into?

[danzibr]

Reset your game data for a fresh start so you can get a good relic or 2.
Oh...

Do you start the game with enough mythril for some pulls?

Speaking of mythril, just broke 150 today. Saving all for BSBfest (except lucky draws). Not sure I'll be able to do 1 pull per banner.

[Antonok]

Oh...

Do you start the game with enough mythril for some pulls?

Speaking of mythril, just broke 150 today. Saving all for BSBfest (except lucky draws). Not sure I'll be able to do 1 pull per banner.

Depends. With goldfest going on you currently get enough for 3 or 4 pulls with the 5 from Cid. Best time to do it would be during something like the anniverasy when we got 75 free mithril.

[Red Fel]

And I think I'm just going to pass on the U+.

When the best advice on Reddit consists of either (1) use lots of Dismissal and hope it sticks, and (2) use powerful single-target SSBs, I know I'm facing a tough fight. And U/U+ fights are supposed to be tough. But many of them have some kind of gimmick, a strategy or methodology that you can try to pursue. Cid had his Holy vulnerability; Chadarnook had the cycles between Goddess and Demon; the Leblanc Syndicate was a prioritization challenge; and so forth.

And every now and then, we face an U/U+ where there is no real strategy; it's simply a straight-up test of having high-level characters, high-rank hones, and high-power SBs. Two of those things are within player control; one is not. This is one of those cases, and I simply don't think that I have the tools for it. If I rely on more mitigation, I sacrifice DPS. If I rely on my strongest SBs, I give up synergy (they're a mix of caster and melee, which means I can't use pure physical or mage meta). If I rely on powerful DPS, I lack adequate mitigation. I simply don't have the right blend of native abilities to win it, so I'm saving my energy for the upcoming DU.

Which drops tonight. So that's gonna be a thing.

[danzibr]

Man, I dunno, Red Fel. The only synergy person I had was Rinoa, and other than her Cardinal, the weapons were mediocre, and I had just her SSB for offense. I bet you can do it.

[Slayn82]

Mastered the Seifer trio. Decided to take the advice posted here earlier and not bother with offensive mitigation. Party was

Tyro 80 using Irvine's Gun, Bio Strike R4,Wind Jump R3, Gun damage increase RM. Has SB Last Judgement Grimoire

Celes 68, Biora Strike R2, Ice Strike R4, Invincible Spellblade RM, and that FF VIII sword with horns. SSB Indomitable Blade

Rikku 65, Enveloping Etude R2, Thief Revenge R2,Makko Might RM. SB Hyper NulAll

Rinoa 67, Biora R5, Bioga R3, Tyro's second Damage Increase RM. SB Valkyrie

Minwu 65, Shellga R2, Curaja R4, Dr. Mog RM. SB Will of the White Mage.

RW Wall.

Rikku and Celes tag team of Indomitable Blade and Hyper NulAll turned Fuujin into an asset for our team, with her weak magic damage either serving to fill the party SBs or replenish Celes Biora Strikes, or Zan dealing a pitiful damage.

Killed Raijin first in 4 and half turns, Celes using the 4* Poison Spellblades upfront, then went straight for Seifer, using her SSB ASAP to get extra Spellblades. Rikku role was strictly giving support and not dying.

Once Seifer was dispatched, I needed her NulAll to help mitigating Fuujin damage. Fuujin AOE Tornado damage with SG, Shellga and +RES was pretty weak, but once I ran out of RW, it could hurt quite a bit. But at this point, she already had taken 2 Tyro's SSBs, Rinoa had almost 3 Valkyrie's, Minwu had almost 2 Medicas, and Celes still got to use a Indomitable Blade.

This still took the better part of one hour to pull, between a bunch of S/Ls. So, still easier than LeBlanc Syndicate. If someone has native Garnet SSB, it and SG should carry the fight pretty well, along with a Boostga and the right hones.

On the other hand, if you have a +DEF, like Edgar's Drill, I think it should be feasible to go Fuujin, Seifer, then Raijin.

[Red Fel]

Man, I dunno, Red Fel. The only synergy person I had was Rinoa, and other than her Cardinal, the weapons were mediocre, and I had just her SSB for offense. I bet you can do it.

Don't you have Divine Guardian? I mean, that's why you used Garnet, right?

[danzibr]

Don't you have Divine Guardian? I mean, that's why you used Garnet, right?
I do indeed. But the Res boost isn't that substantial, and the Hastega is redundant with Shout. You're just missing the heavy Regenga. Granted that is quite nice, but doesn't do much in terms of offense. Plus with Y'Shtola rather than Tyro, you can have an extra respectable beater.

[Slayn82]

Ultimate + Mastered. One Mythril used, got Offensive Bonus.

This time, Ramza and Irvine crushed the enemy with Shout and Canister Shot, Celes provided Magic Resistance with her Default SB, and Rinoa nuked Ultima with -Jas. Minwu was the Medic. No one had even lvl 70. Celes, the higher leveled, is 69. Irvine was 60, and the others lvl 65-6. I used Celes SSB, but Ultima was already on fumes and my party was at full health and mitigation.

Details:


Celes had Drain Strike R4, Thundaga Strike R3 and her greatly increase in spellblades damage RM. She used a 5* Blitz Blade VIII

Ramza had Lifesiphon R3 and Banishing Strike R4, with Mako Might RM. He used a Mesmerize Blade 4*++ VIII

Irvine had Power and Magic Breakdown, and Gun damage greatly increase RM. He used 5* Ulysses VIII, and a Balamb Garden Uniform.

Rinoa had Firaja R4 and Blizzaja R3, Devotion RM. She barely took damage using the 4*++ 10 gallon hat, and was hitting for about 8K. Too bad I didn't Craft Drainga. She also had her 5* Valkyrie

Minwu had Shellga R2 and Curaja R4, Dr. Mog Teachings RM. Had no relevant Synergy.

No Protectga, straight damage race. All those Life Steal skills can really help here, once you get Shout and a Wall Breaker. Power Breakdown + SG, and the occasional medica, was enough for mitigating physical damage. I could see Garnet or Quistis SSBs Regen being enough healing if you have a native Wall and Boostga.

First turn, Ramza used Shout, Celes called Wall, Minwu cast Shellga, Irvine used Cannister shot, and Rinoa cast Firaja. Then Ramza kept using LifeSiphon, going for Banishing near the point Ultimate started using Regen, Celes used Drain Strike when took damage, or Thundaga Strike if at full HP, Irvine kept using Power Breakdown - Magic Breakdown - Cannister when possible, and Minwu healed as needed, and refreshed Buffs. Pretty straightforward, had a few S/Ls after the first mythril, until I got the right tempo of the fight.


And to top it off, did a Single Pull of the Victory on Banner 2, and got Edea's Crow - Mage party for their own Faithga + Hastega Now.

[Antonok]

Well that was easy. First run of Sundaily, Penelo started at 59 with the intent of getting her to 65. Ace Pilot triggered on all 3 stages accomplishing it in one run.

Still to level: I honestly have no idea. Probably hunt down who has the WHM doublecast RM and level them.

[danzibr]

Grats Slayn!

Well that was easy. First run of Sundaily, Penelo started at 59 with the intent of getting her to 65. Ace Pilot triggered on all 3 stages accomplishing it in one run.

Still to level: I honestly have no idea. Probably hunt down who has the WHM doublecast RM and level them.
Nice!

Me, I have Vincent, then Zack and Zidane have Ace Pilot/Gifted Artist. I need to get Zidane to 65 for his upcoming MC2... my III cast are also all 60+, should probably top them off.

[Red Fel]

Still plinking away at Sundaily. Working on Locke, to get him up to 5 hits on Thief's Revenge; Aerith, because the Reraise Nightmare is coming; and Edea, because every Sundaily needs a Black Mage.

Last night I also cleared a bunch of the new DU. I did all of the XIV material, and have (I think) one normal VII left. I still have to do the elite VII and XIII stuff, but I'm not too concerned about that at present. Bit of advice for those who haven't yet - save the XIV Bowl of Embers for when you need a stamina refresh; it's one stage and not too hard. (Elite is understandably harder, but still manageable.)


I do indeed. But the Res boost isn't that substantial, and the Hastega is redundant with Shout. You're just missing the heavy Regenga. Granted that is quite nice, but doesn't do much in terms of offense. Plus with Y'Shtola rather than Tyro, you can have an extra respectable beater.

It's not just the regenga; it's the hastega. Of the trinity, I have wall native. The closest I have to a medica is Yuffie's, and while she's powerful, she's niche. That means I need a hastega or alternative regenga on an RW.

But I've been giving it some thought, and I might have an alternative. I haven't considered it for some time, but Advantaliate is still a thing. Here's what I'm considering:
Sephiroth: Retaliate, Lifesiphon; Heroic Stance.
Yuffie: Dismissal, Tempo Flurry; Winds of Rabanastre.
Pencil: Banishing Strike, Protectga; Double Hit.
(Probably) Wakka: Magic Breakdown, Full Break; something.
Y'shtola: Curaja, Shellga; Dr. Mog's Teachings.
RW: Luneth (Advance).
This gives me wall, Shellga, Protectga, PBdown and FB; plenty of mitigation. It also gives me Banishing Strike for when Regen triggers, and Dismissal to try to stun. Lastly, it gives me two people wailing on my Retaliatemans, and he will use Lifesiphon to build charges of Black Materia to trigger when the fight gets into final phase; it also gives me Yuffie's medica as an OSB.

It's not pretty, it's not perfect. But it hits all the notes. I'll probably try it either tonight after I've spend almost all of my stam, or tomorrow.

Moving onto more optimistic material, tomorrow is Monday, which means we can expect a new event! This one is a long-awaited refresher to your VI cast, Twin Stars of Mysidia! It debuts the twins, Palom and Porom, as well as DK!Cecil, Rosa, Rydia, and Tellah. (It's a caster-heavy event.) It also features MCs for all six, and MC2s for the twins and Rydia, and it's about time. There's also a hero's soul and an empty MC. This event also debuts the Darkness ability set - meaning that DK!Cecil may actually be somewhat useful now - in the forms of the 4-star Dark Bargain and 5-star Bloody Cross abilities. There's also the familiar 4-star Rune Armlet accessory, and the Ultimate drops the 5-star Black Mage Twin Stars accessory (+30 Mag).

So who are the twins? They're fairly bog-standard single-class casters. Palom, the brother, is a BLM 5 daggers, rods, staves, hats, robes, and bracers. His RM2 is the third "chance for bonus exp" RM. Porom, the sister, is a WHM 5 with the same gear selection plus bows; her RM1 is a chance to doublecast WHM. In Palom's case, his single-class casting means he has a chart-topping 188 Mag at level 80, tied with Edea, Vivi, and Lulu; in Porom's case, her 183 Mnd beats the previous leader (Lenna, 179). Palom is also surprisingly tanky for a caster (93 Def), but both have low HP even at 80 (4117, lowest on the scale, tied with Vivi).

So, banners! The first banner features:
Triton Dagger: Palom's SSB dagger. Attack and Magic. 8-hit single-target 2.2x Lightning/Non-Elemental BLM damage.
Seraphim Mace: Porom's SSB staff. Attack, Magic, and Mind. AoE Curaga + Hastega.
White Dress: Rosa's SB robe. Mind, Defense, and Resistance. Protectga + Shellga. Item resists Silence.
Stardust Rod: Tellah's SB rod. Attack, Magic, and Mind. 4-hit AoE 3.4x Non-Elemental BLM damage; self-damage 50% of max HP.
Kotetsu: Edge's SB katana. Pure Attack. 8-hit single-target 0.65x Lightning PHY damage; auto-Paralysis and auto-Slow.
The second banner features:
Mystic Whip: Rydia's SSB whip. Attack and Magic. 6-hit AoE 2.37x Non-Elemental SMN damage; auto-Death; boosts party Def. Item may cause Paralysis.
Deathbringer: DK!Cecil's SSB sword. Pure Attack. 6-hit single-target 1.53x PHY damage; self-damage 30% of max HP. Item may instant-KO.
Faerie Rod: Fusoya's SB rod. Attack, Magic, and Mind. 4-hit AoE 2.35x Non-Elemental BLM damage, Faithga. Item may cause Confuse.
Elven Bow: Rosa's SB bow. Attack, Magic, and Mind. AoE Cura + Raise with 30% HP.
Ebon Armor: Golbez' SB heavy armor. Magic, Defense, and Resistance. 2-hit AoE 3.75x Dark BLM damage, chance to cause Sap. Item boosts Dark damage dealt.
Both banners also feature Dragon Glove (shared-SB bracer that deals AoE 3.3x Fire BLM damage) and Assassin's Dagger (stat-stick dagger with chance for instant-KO).

So, should you pull? Ouch, this is a toughy. On the one hand, you're probably saving up for the Reraise Lucky Draw (expected to drop on the 21st) and the BSB-fest (expected sometime in June). But on the other, this is some great stuff. There's some fantastic mage gear on these banners, even if you don't use the specific characters - I mean, the Mag on Palom's dagger is better than on some rods. (Ninjas can use daggers, hint hint.) The SSBs are all excellent (although DK!Cecil's has the downside of being on DK!Cecil). The SBs are generally solid as well. Also, several of these items have no anticipated recurrence - we don't anticipate Triton Dagger, Faerie Rod, Elven Bow, or Ebon Armor again. So if these are your goals, you might want to pull.

Honestly, I admit to being tempted. I'm going to try to hold off, but I can't guarantee that I'll be strong enough.

I'll come back tomorrow at some point with a review of the bonus battles. But this is IV; you shouldn't have too many problems. (That said: Baigan. Just... Baigan.)

[Slayn82]

Well, I'm happy to at last have the chance to put to good use the couple 3*++ Ice Rods I created. So many Ice vulnerable enemies. Lulu SSB is going to hit fairly hard with Ice Beauty RM. Celes will do good work too, mages will have an easier time filling SB with all those Weakness to explore.

In the end, I got modestly decent mage gear, specially for a White Mage, but no Atk weapons. Hopefully the 11 pull on Banner 2 will solve this. Even that Stat Stick Assassin's Dagger is looking good.

Edit: Also, I must make an observation: Lighting is a good element to have on a SB. Both Palom and Edge offer it on Banner 1. I'm just annoyed that Edge's Katana doesn't give him some MAG.

[Forbiddenwar]

I wonder how well a full retaliate team would work on the ff8 ultimate. Even if the counter attack doesn't proc, it would still negate all physical attacks, right? So only the aero, fire all and tornado attacks could do damage, add a wall, magic break, shelga. Then all tou need is a a wind strike, ice strike and a thunder strike (for mastery) and you're good. Focus fuj then Steiner then raij. Still very rng.
rnroblem is outside of cloud, Gilgamesh and tyro, I don't know who could elemental strike and retaliates. But thats just for mastery maube?
Take Dagger or Quistis as RW for resistance haste and regen?

I don't know, I haven't heard of anyone trying this route.

As additional note: I've started ff4 several times the last decade. I usually play until well spoiler I guess? Just in case

The twins sacrifice themselves to save the party.

After that I always felt like needing a break from the game. ( no pun intended) and then the break turns to days, weeks then months until i feel i should just restart the game when I want to play again.

So I restart it again.

[Greg_S]

But I've been giving it some thought, and I might have an alternative. I haven't considered it for some time, but Advantaliate is still a thing. Here's what I'm considering:
Sephiroth: Retaliate, Lifesiphon; Heroic Stance.
Yuffie: Dismissal, Tempo Flurry; Winds of Rabanastre.
Pencil: Banishing Strike, Protectga; Double Hit.
(Probably) Wakka: Magic Breakdown, Full Break; something.
Y'shtola: Curaja, Shellga; Dr. Mog's Teachings.
RW: Luneth (Advance).
This gives me wall, Shellga, Protectga, PBdown and FB; plenty of mitigation. It also gives me Banishing Strike for when Regen triggers, and Dismissal to try to stun. Lastly, it gives me two people wailing on my Retaliatemans, and he will use Lifesiphon to build charges of Black Materia to trigger when the fight gets into final phase; it also gives me Yuffie's medica as an OSB.

It's not pretty, it's not perfect. But it hits all the notes. I'll probably try it either tonight after I've spend almost all of my stam, or tomorrow.

Another possibility with that team: Do you have a thrown weapon? If so, you could try swapping Protectga on Pencil for Shellga, and then giving Y'shtola haste to make up for the lack of Hastega. Then, move Yuffie to the back row with Pencil (who's double-cutting anyway). His physical attacks will miss Sephiroth as long as reta is up. Ultima Sword's the big thing to worry about then, but hopefully wall + FB will make it bearable, Yuffie's got the panic button, and hasting might give you the burst you need.

[SuperPanda]

Oh boy! Palom and Porom coming tomorrow!

When I first played IV (I thought it was II because N/A) Cecil, Edge, and Rydia were my favorites. Whenever I replay it Palom and Porom are my favorites though Cecil still sticks with me because I'm a sucker for Arthurian characters. I really need to play through After Years and see Palom and Porom's story there.

Will I pull? a 100 gem pull on each banner. I've got almost 200 mithril again but I'm saving everything I can for BSBfest. I already have great FFIV synergy and I already have a strong line up. The only area I'm weak on in FFIV is a strong healer. Tellah has Polymorph rod but is capped at 65 for the foreseeable future. Rosa can now use Polymorph rod but is at her low 50s. Porom is on her way to the roster. FuSoYa has the best default SB for a IV healer, is at level 50. I'll almost certainly still be using Garnet for Divine Guardian or Arieth for Pulse of Life (both at their low 70s).

Pre DU: I'm pretty sure I have ~35 Elites left. so thats ~35 Elites, +9 new classics + 9 new Elites for ~53 dungeons to work my way through for mythril and stamina.

SunDaily: Y'sholta is nearly to 60 because I'm unreasonably optimistic about Reraise lucky draw (I have no wall, please give me wall). Sephiroth is up to 64 because I want his Katana+ RM and Zell is a level behind (might be worth bringing to U+ when I try again).

I've been unable to handle the U+ fight. When it gets weak enough to use Meteor it follows with AoE spam that I can't heal through and can't tank. If I've got Wall up, I can't do enough damage. If I've got Shout up I can't survive the hits. Hand of the Emperor wasn't better than Shout (with Garnet's +Res) but not enough mitigation for AoE spam. Maybe 3 strong hitters, 2 healers, RW wall, Native Divine Guardian, Planet Protector - will be enough.
Squall has my only melee synergy weapon. Yuffie with Cardinal ++ isn't likely to do enough damage. Rinoa was laying down the hurt well but wastes PP.
Cecil brings Banishing strike and does okay damage.
Need someone with retaliate so the Whitemages can contribute when not healing - this means Cloud.

Next try: Squall, Arieth, Cloud, Garnet, Cecil.
I do not expect this to work.

[danzibr]

On the topic of a full Retaliate team, he also does Ultima later. It hurts. A lot.

Only got Vincent to 80 today. Zack's almost there. Have 5 WM's at 80, need to examine my Summoners. Might raise Hope.

[Forbiddenwar]

On the topic of a full Retaliate team, he also does Ultima later. It hurts. A lot.

Regarding the ultimate or the ultimate+? I don't think anyone was talking about a full reta team in the ultimate+. Who does ultima? I didn't see it in my ultimate battle, but maybe my luck was good, or I just killed the person quickly enough.

[SuperPanda]

Detailed report to come later but the short version is, it worked! Masters the VIII U+!

Squall, cloud, and Cecil on the front lines handing out the pain.
Tyro as RW bringing the shield.
Garnet and Arieth keeping people topped off and occasionally using Cloud's Retaliate for bonus damage - though I thing damag would have been higher with watera strike (only have one VIII synergy sword and Squall had that, my best off synergy weapons are a Xii axe in Cecil's hand a IV katana with bonus water damage.

Planet protector had blade beam and saints fall landing for 5k+ with cutting trigger at 6.5-7.5k
Divine guardian's haste + heavy regen was awesome.

I'd planned to give up on the U+ and this was my fifth attempt with the same team. Glad I stuck it out.

[danzibr]

Regarding the ultimate or the ultimate+? I don't think anyone was talking about a full reta team in the ultimate+. Who does ultima? I didn't see it in my ultimate battle, but maybe my luck was good, or I just killed the person quickly enough.
Haha, ha... whoops.

Well, I actually have a relevant opinion there. Seifer's Fira was hurting *a lot*. And Fuujin's Tornado thingy was also hurting. Might be possible, if you bring Full Break/Multi break and Magic Break(down) and Shell. Well, can't bring all those I guess, since you'd need Tyro. Still, might be worth a go.

EDIT: And grats SuperPanda!

[Hunter Noventa]

I really need to play through After Years and see Palom and Porom's story there.

No you don't. Nobody needs that. Trust me on this one.

In other news, I went back and used my whole bar on the old bane of Mt Kolts Elite. Went perfectly fine until Vargas, who did something to get an 8k crit on Cloud before i could even move. Still mastered it, but I remember what kind of BS that place used to be.

[danzibr]

No you don't. Nobody needs that. Trust me on this one.

In other news, I went back and used my whole bar on the old bane of Mt Kolts Elite. Went perfectly fine until Vargas, who did something to get an 8k crit on Cloud before i could even move. Still mastered it, but I remember what kind of BS that place used to be.
Oh man... I'm kind of tempted to go back and give it a whirl. Bad memories there.

[Red Fel]

No you don't. Nobody needs that. Trust me on this one.

I'm kind of inclined to agree here. Not that I've played AY, but the reviews I've heard are... Mixed. And if you loved IV a lot, the last thing you need is for something to sully those memories.

In other news, I took another shot at the U+ last night, using this team.



Sephiroth: Retaliate, Lifesiphon; Heroic Stance.
Yuffie: Dismissal, Tempo Flurry; Winds of Rabanastre.
Pencil: Banishing Strike, Protectga; Double Hit.
(Probably) Wakka: Magic Breakdown, Full Break; something.
Y'shtola: Curaja, Shellga; Dr. Mog's Teachings.
RW: Luneth (Advance).

Wakka got that Rebel's Might RM, the one with the +Atk/+Def/Regen. I did really well. Got him down very low, and then he killed Sephiroth with a lucky shot. Said the heck with it, and started cutting away anyway. Got him to the point that his health bar was actually invisible - he couldn't have had more than 1,000 HP left - before he killed everyone.

Stepped out and rethought my strategy. Replaced Yuffie's Winds of Rabanastre RM with Mako Might. Couldn't find an Advance RW, so I grabbed Shout instead. Worked surprisingly well. This time, got the guy down to about 1/8 HP before he dropped Yuffie, then Sephiroth, then everyone else. So I thought, bugger it, we're doing it live; hammered away with my surviving party members until they all dropped, blew a mythril for the retry (and to keep my SB charges). Got the least useful one, +10% HP. Then, with extremely full SB bars, proceeded to burn him down. Clear Tranquils were carefully timed to coincide with major AoEs, SSII, Shell, and Protectga were kept up at all times, and Black Materia was more or less spammed towards the end. Killed him with high health and no casualties, lost one medal for actions and one for damage, got mastery.

Hoo-wah.

Finishing off the last of the new classics; going to save the elites for later. After taking care of Hojo, I'll save my stamina for tonight's event.

Speaking of tonight's event, bonus battles!
+: Boss Rush. Welcome to FFIV presents Faces of Death. Two bosses, you'll need Fire and Holy. Between Pencil, Palom, Porom, and Rydia, that shouldn't be a problem. Victory gets you orbs, the Dark Raid ability, and Palom's MC2.
Scarmiglione: Battle the first. Medals for using Fire on Scarmiglione, using Holy on Scarmiglione, and not getting KO'd. He brings some zombie minions; they're easily nuked. All are vulnerable to Slow and Stop; Scar is also vulnerable to Silence. He only uses single-target physical attacks or Thunder spells, so mitigation is super easy. I think he's Undead, so heals will hurt him.
Scarmiglione: Battle the second. Medals for using Holy on Scarmiglione, and not getting KO'd. Notice how Fire is no longer a medal requirement? That's because, while he's still weak to it, he counters Fire with his Gas attack (AoE debuffs). He absorbs Ice and Earth, but can still be nuked by other elements. Other than his debuffs, he uses only single-target physical attacks, and is still vulnerable to Slow and Stop, so mitigation is easy. And I'm almost certain this form counts as Undead, so heal spells will hurt him.
++: Baigan. This **** again. Medals for exploiting Baigan's Ice weakness, not letting his Arms use Self-Destruct, and not getting KO'd. All are vulnerable to Poison, Blind, Slow, Stop, Silence, and Sap, which is great; the Arms can also be Petrified, but they regenerate quickly. Most importantly, if the arms are Stopped, they can't use Self-Destruct; if you use an AoE Stop (Stop Rumba) they won't explode, but to get the medals for them not exploding, you have to kill the arms first anyway. So prepare an Ice AoE (i.e. Shiva), weaken the arms, and then unleash hell right toward the end. Victory gets you orbs and Porom's MC2.
+++: Odin. Medals for reducing his Atk, hitting him with Lightning while he is vulnerable to it, and not getting KO'd. He uses only physical attacks, so mitigation is super easy. That said, he is only vulnerable to Lightning when his sword is raised and he's preparing Zantetsuken. He's also susceptible to Slow, which makes mitigation even easier. Victory gets you orbs, a Rosetta Stone, the Bloody Cross ability, and Rydia's overdue MC2.
The U will infuriate you. The U+ will be awesome. I'm looking forward to this one.

[Jurai]

i'm kind of inclined to agree here. Not that i've played ay, but the reviews i've heard are... Mixed. And if you loved iv a lot, the last thing you need is for something to sully those memories.

In other news, i took another shot at the u+ last night, using this team.



Wakka got that rebel's might rm, the one with the +atk/+def/regen. I did really well. Got him down very low, and then he killed sephiroth with a lucky shot. Said the heck with it, and started cutting away anyway. Got him to the point that his health bar was actually invisible - he couldn't have had more than 1,000 hp left - before he killed everyone.

Stepped out and rethought my strategy. Replaced yuffie's winds of rabanastre rm with mako might. Couldn't find an advance rw, so i grabbed shout instead. Worked surprisingly well. This time, got the guy down to about 1/8 hp before he dropped yuffie, then sephiroth, then everyone else. So i thought, bugger it, we're doing it live; hammered away with my surviving party members until they all dropped, blew a mythril for the retry (and to keep my sb charges). Got the least useful one, +10% hp. Then, with extremely full sb bars, proceeded to burn him down. Clear tranquils were carefully timed to coincide with major aoes, ssii, shell, and protectga were kept up at all times, and black materia was more or less spammed towards the end. Killed him with high health and no casualties, lost one medal for actions and one for damage, got mastery.

Hoo-wah.

Finishing off the last of the new classics; going to save the elites for later. After taking care of hojo, i'll save my stamina for tonight's event.

Speaking of tonight's event, bonus battles!
+: Boss rush. Welcome to ffiv presents faces of death. Two bosses, you'll need fire and holy. Between pencil, palom, porom, and rydia, that shouldn't be a problem. Victory gets you orbs, the dark raid ability, and palom's mc2.
scarmiglione: battle the first. medals for using fire on scarmiglione, using holy on scarmiglione, and not getting ko'd. He brings some zombie minions; they're easily nuked. All are vulnerable to slow and stop; scar is also vulnerable to silence. He only uses single-target physical attacks or thunder spells, so mitigation is super easy. I think he's undead, so heals will hurt him.
scarmiglione: battle the second. medals for using holy on scarmiglione, and not getting ko'd. Notice how fire is no longer a medal requirement? That's because, while he's still weak to it, he counters fire with his gas attack (aoe debuffs). He absorbs ice and earth, but can still be nuked by other elements. Other than his debuffs, he uses only single-target physical attacks, and is still vulnerable to slow and stop, so mitigation is easy. And i'm almost certain this form counts as undead, so heal spells will hurt him.
++: Baigan. this **** again. medals for exploiting baigan's ice weakness, not letting his arms use self-destruct, and not getting ko'd. All are vulnerable to poison, blind, slow, stop, silence, and sap, which is great; the arms can also be petrified, but they regenerate quickly. Most importantly, if the arms are stopped, they can't use self-destruct; if you use an aoe stop (stop rumba) they won't explode, but to get the medals for them not exploding, you have to kill the arms first anyway. So prepare an ice aoe (i.e. Shiva), weaken the arms, and then unleash hell right toward the end. Victory gets you orbs and porom's mc2.
+++: Odin. Medals for reducing his atk, hitting him with lightning while he is vulnerable to it, and not getting ko'd. He uses only physical attacks, so mitigation is super easy. That said, he is only vulnerable to lightning when his sword is raised and he's preparing zantetsuken. He's also susceptible to slow, which makes mitigation even easier. Victory gets you orbs, a rosetta stone, the bloody cross ability, and rydia's overdue mc2.
the u will infuriate you. The u+ will be awesome. I'm looking forward to this one.

odin (iv)? Again!? This is not spartafabul! This! Is! Madness!

[danzibr]

Grats, Red Fel!

Looking forward to this event. Rydia was my first BM to 50, then 65. Finally she rejoins the group.

Also I'm looking to get a full party of Summoners.

[Red Fel]

Also I'm looking to get a full party of Summoners.

A good idea. Particularly because, after Nightmare Reraise, the next Nightmare is Neo Bahamut. Yes, a Summon Nightmare. Of note is the fact that you must not use PHY or BLK attacks against that boss. So, yeah, Summons, and plenty of them. (Also NIN works. NIN always works. Nobody expects NIN.)

[Jurai]

A good idea. Particularly because, after Nightmare Reraise, the next Nightmare is Neo Bahamut. Yes, a Summon Nightmare. Of note is the fact that you must not use PHY or BLK attacks against that boss. So, yeah, Summons, and plenty of them. (Also NIN works. NIN always works. Nobody expects NIN.)

Also not looking forward to that and also skipping this U+. Ultima Weapon's a jerk, and Irvine is trash. Even after Canister Shot.

[Red Fel]

Also not looking forward to that and also skipping this U+. Ultima Weapon's a jerk, and Irvine is trash. Even after Canister Shot.

Irvine is indeed trash. That's why I used Wakka.

But as much as you might dislike the VIII U+, I think you'll enjoy the IV U+. There are gimmick mechanics again. The short version: It's Cagnozzo. He has three states - one is weak to Ice, one to Lightning, one to neither. He prepares Tsunami, and you have to hit him three separate times with Lightning to stop it. He also has a bunch of single-target Water spells. These are mechanics, and you can exploit them.

This is what a U+ needs to be, people. Challenging but with interesting mechanical quirks.

[Hunter Noventa]

Irvine is indeed trash. That's why I used Wakka.

But as much as you might dislike the VIII U+, I think you'll enjoy the IV U+. There are gimmick mechanics again. The short version: It's Cagnozzo. He has three states - one is weak to Ice, one to Lightning, one to neither. He prepares Tsunami, and you have to hit him three separate times with Lightning to stop it. He also has a bunch of single-target Water spells. These are mechanics, and you can exploit them.

This is what a U+ needs to be, people. Challenging but with interesting mechanical quirks.

So in other words, bring Ramuh, Thundaga Strike and Lightning Jump? Sounds fun. Or would Ramuh still only count as one attack?

Doing a bit of leveling of some IV people, mainly by clearing some old IV elites. I fed DRK!Cecil a bunch of eggs to break his second level cap, and I've picked up Gore-Stained Blade 2, so I just need Pride of the Red Wings to drop. Also picked up Rydia's Summon-boosting RM, which is also nice.

[Red Fel]

So in other words, bring Ramuh, Thundaga Strike and Lightning Jump? Sounds fun. Or would Ramuh still only count as one attack?

Multi-hit abilities only count as one attack. Same goes for multi-hit SSBs. But yeah, don't forget your Ice damage too, because he's not always weak to Lightning.


Doing a bit of leveling of some IV people, mainly by clearing some old IV elites. I fed DRK!Cecil a bunch of eggs to break his second level cap, and I've picked up Gore-Stained Blade 2, so I just need Pride of the Red Wings to drop. Also picked up Rydia's Summon-boosting RM, which is also nice.

Admittedly, even with Darkness abilities, DK!Cecil is still a case of, "Oh, that's nice, I suppose." They make him more useful, but it's like, say, giving Irvine Celerity 3. Now he can use Tempo Flurry; he's still weak sauce. DK!Cecil is a physical powerhouse with a tragically limited ability set, and frankly even Lifesiphon doesn't help him much. Consider his SBs:
Default: Blood Weapon. You like Drain Strike? It's Drain Strike.
Darkness. AoE, damages user. Meh.
Dark Cannon. Single-target heavy damage, damages user. Meh.
Soul Eater. 2-hit single-target, Boostga. Not bad, but not amazing.
SSB: Deathbringer. Upcoming. 6-hit single-target, damages user. Solid, but not awe-inspiring.So Lifesiphon, the cornerstone of Combat, doesn't do much.

But wait, you may interject, he has Darkness now! Well, yes. But half of the Darkness abilities are magic, and therefore useless to him. The ones that drop in this event, Dark Raid and Bloody Cross, are certainly useful, to be sure. Dark Raid deals 2.2x PHY damage, reduces the user's Def, and raises Atk. Bloody Cross deals 2 hits, 3.8x Dark PHY damage, and reduces the user's HP by 30%. Point is, they're strong attacks, but I'm not sure these two abilities - alone - are enough to safe DK!Cecil from the bench.

[danzibr]

Yeah, the U+ looks fun. Loading up on the lightning, bringing Shout, probably. Yeah, I can see it now.

[Greg_S]

The ones that drop in this event, Dark Raid and Bloody Cross, are certainly useful, to be sure. Dark Raid deals 2.2x PHY damage, reduces the user's Def, and raises Atk. Bloody Cross deals 2 hits, 3.8x Dark PHY damage, and reduces the user's HP by 30%. Point is, they're strong attacks, but I'm not sure these two abilities - alone - are enough to safe DK!Cecil from the bench.
Or, put another way, there's not much Dark Cecil can do that couldn't be done by Jecht, Leon, or Sephiroth with darkness, and those other 3 have skillsets that let them do much better things overall. If you've already got barrage, then sure, Dark Cecil's a good choice for it. If you end up pulling Deathbringer, then you've got Dark Cecil in a nutshell- tons of damage, and nothing else, so fights like Cagnozzo and Seifer will force him out for someone with medal requirements.

Hilariously, Golbez also has 5*Knight, so with a synergy weapon, a team boostga, and Dark Bargain, even he'd be more useful than Dark Cecil thanks to Banishing strike or Saint Cross.

[Hunter Noventa]

Eh, the main reason I pumped eggs into DRK!Cecil was because I was getting tired of hauling around for xp when all I want is Pride of the Red Wings. Sure I've got Dark Cannon, but it's so solidly meh it's not even funny.

But I agree he needs something more. They could easily give him Spellblade since no one else in IV has it if I recall.

[Red Fel]

Or, put another way, there's not much Dark Cecil can do that couldn't be done by Jecht, Leon, or Sephiroth with darkness, and those other 3 have skillsets that let them do much better things overall. If you've already got barrage, then sure, Dark Cecil's a good choice for it. If you end up pulling Deathbringer, then you've got Dark Cecil in a nutshell- tons of damage, and nothing else, so fights like Cagnozzo and Seifer will force him out for someone with medal requirements.

Take it a step further. Deathbringer's SSB is basically just an upgraded Bloody Cross. Six hits instead of two, same element, same HP penalty. If you can hone Bloody Cross to R2 (4 uses), it's already more useful than the SSB, since you'll likely be able to use it more frequently in combat. And as you say, it can be used by anybody with the Darkness ability set.

Heck, Seifer with Darkness abilities is disgusting, because he can couple the HP loss from Bloody Cross with the low-HP power of Minus Strike.


Hilariously, Golbez also has 5*Knight, so with a synergy weapon, a team boostga, and Dark Bargain, even he'd be more useful than Dark Cecil thanks to Banishing strike or Saint Cross.

Or Minus Strike, as mentioned.

Admittedly, at 65, Golbez' 110 Atk isn't as impressive as DK!Cecil's 140, and the former lacks an MC2; that said, where Golbez will really shine is his ability to use Darkness magic abilities over physical. Even so, Golbez has more options than DK!Cecil, as do any number of characters with access to Darkness.

DK!Cecil is in many ways the opposite of Tyro - extremely solid physical stats, extremely limited ability and gear options. But even a similarly powerful and similarly limited character, Sephiroth, does better - Seph also has access to Samurai 5 for AoEs, BLM 3 for medal requirements, and powerful SBs that put DK!Cecil to shame.

Really, there's just no need to use DK!Cecil if you bring Golbez and/or Pencil to the party.

... And suddenly I see my IV caster party. Golbez, Tellah, Fusoya, Palom, and Rydia. All offensive casters, all the time. Everybody dies. Maybe swap one of them out for a healer. Maybe.

[T.G. Oskar]

Admittedly, even with Darkness abilities, DK!Cecil is still a case of, "Oh, that's nice, I suppose." They make him more useful, but it's like, say, giving Irvine Celerity 3. Now he can use Tempo Flurry; he's still weak sauce. DK!Cecil is a physical powerhouse with a tragically limited ability set, and frankly even Lifesiphon doesn't help him much. Consider his SBs:
Default: Blood Weapon. You like Drain Strike? It's Drain Strike.
Darkness. AoE, damages user. Meh.
Dark Cannon. Single-target heavy damage, damages user. Meh.
Soul Eater. 2-hit single-target, Boostga. Not bad, but not amazing.
SSB: Deathbringer. Upcoming. 6-hit single-target, damages user. Solid, but not awe-inspiring.So Lifesiphon, the cornerstone of Combat, doesn't do much.

But wait, you may interject, he has Darkness now! Well, yes. But half of the Darkness abilities are magic, and therefore useless to him. The ones that drop in this event, Dark Raid and Bloody Cross, are certainly useful, to be sure. Dark Raid deals 2.2x PHY damage, reduces the user's Def, and raises Atk. Bloody Cross deals 2 hits, 3.8x Dark PHY damage, and reduces the user's HP by 30%. Point is, they're strong attacks, but I'm not sure these two abilities - alone - are enough to safe DK!Cecil from the bench.

Do give him some credit - unlike Irvine, he doesn't suck in ALL of the points, and he's getting boosted in the one he failed the most (skill set).

Irvine fails pretty much all around. He can only equip Daggers (plenty, but not an inherent advantage) and Guns (super-rare, so you either got his, another 5* which won't grant him a decent damage boost, or nothing). His skill set is downright atrocious (and he doesn't have the "excuse" of "being a Blue Mage" - he isn't, and that's that). His stats just don't compare to other fellow Supporters, like Faris (not Ramza; Faris, which just overwhelms him in Speed, which would be the stat he'd favor). His SBs are too few and too weak: Canister Shot is his best, and that's because of the Wallbreaker (and even then, it's not so hot).

DK!Cecil is built to be a physical attacker, so his ATK is relatively high, his HP is at the top (so things like Bloody Cross won't make so much of a dent), and has decent Defense. His equipment includes the ever-plentiful Sword, and he can equip all the way to Heavy Armor, so he can cover offense and defense reliably. His default SB is good, since it combines damage with HP restoration, and Soul Eater is pretty good too. Combat isn't that bad - he can also use the lower Breaks, Bladeblitz and even Barrage; with Darkness, he gets a much better multihit than Double Cut (and to an extent, Barrage) and a boost to Attack, which is obviously a spot he could improve. So, DK!Cecil is at least focused on one thing - do as much damage as possible, or die in the attempt. Certainly, he could get a boost to be more attractive, but it'd be difficult (maybe Support 3 to at least use the Busters?)

Consider the turnaround - until Kuja's event, a good deal of the villains won't make good use of the Darkness skills. Exdeath, Edea and Kefka are casters, so they'll make 0.0% use of Dark Raid/Dark Bargain and Bloody Cross; DK!Cecil, Leon, Jecht, Seifer and Mama's Boy, however, can (I'm sure of the first three, somewhat of Seifer, and not sure about MMB). Once Kuja appears, he won't make good use of it either, but the others will get skills of their own to use. Blame it on Darkness having only 4 skills on the near future. So - is Darkness a bad skillset for being too split on Physical vs. Magical?

Dig in a bit deeper. Of those who can use Dark Raid, Mama's Boy also has access to Mirror of Equity, which deals damage and increases Attack, so Dark Raid becomes somewhat redundant (on the other hand, he also has access to Retaliate, so he won't care about the DEF loss); Jecht has several ways to boost his Attack because of his Monk skillset, so Dark Raid is completely worthless to him; Punishing Palm does mostly what Dark Raid does, except less damage for a crushing blow to Defense, which Jecht shouldn't muster. The rest do need an Attack boost, though. Seifer gets the edge here because he gets a pretty solid Defense, plus he can use Dark Raid with either Bloody Cross or Saint Cross if he wants to.

So, in the big view of things, the caster villains won't get a proper boost from Darkness until one event or two beyond, the physical villains (+DK!Cecil and Dark Knight) will be slightly more useful now, but at least one of them will get mostly an extra attack to use, so of the people who do get a nice boost from the Darkness skill ATM, DK!Cecil gets most likely the best out of them, as one of them already had a decent skillset, the other has better SBs that happen to also make Dark Raid somewhat redundant, and the last one...is a Core character. Which can't even use Bloody Cross IIRC.

So yeah - the allegory isn't affected (like giving [X character] a [useful skill]; it's still gonna suck), but the example for the allegory is just...mostly flawed - I mean, you're using a character that's superior to Kimahri and Gau just because of skill set, mostly? I'd place it on the lines of "giving Galuf Support 4", which is a somewhat closer allegory - Galuf isn't spectacular, but he's not made out of suck as Irvine, Kimahri or Gau, and giving him a very useful skill set won't set him apart, particularly as somebody else will just do it better (upcoming XIV Monk Yda). Though, that's as best as I can imagine - the problem with the allegory is that at least DK!Cecil has a specialty that could be exploited, while Irvine lacks even that (even being "FFVIII's Supporter" doesn't help, because he even fails in his own niche).

--

Regarding Sundaily, I gave a few levels to Squall (to see if I could use him for the Ultimate - turns out, he's still not ready enough), Fran (still not level 50, but she mastered Mist Overdrive) and Yuna (for the upcoming WHM Nightmare, as she has a Holy damage AoE SB I can use), as well as a handful of levels for the Keeper, and on the first try, take Bartz to 50 and break his level cap. Squall had Ace Pilot while at it, so he at least nudged one more level than he would have gained, but lv. 55 is not enough for the Ultimate.

Which...I've tried again. And got beaten...again. I definitely need mitigation - went without Multi Break, and damage was even more vicious, as I can't really rely on shared Protectga/Shellga SBs to activate on time - particularly if that means I need to weather their attacks without mitigation. Even with Minotaur Plate giving him enough Defense, Ramza was eating 3k damage per blow, so it's not enough to help him survive. At least this time damage is more respectable, with Balthier dealing a very respectable 8k damage and Terra almost capping, but it doesn't help if I can't survive.

[Greg_S]

Take it a step further. Deathbringer's SSB is basically just an upgraded Bloody Cross. Six hits instead of two, same element, same HP penalty. If you can hone Bloody Cross to R2 (4 uses), it's already more useful than the SSB, since you'll likely be able to use it more frequently in combat. And as you say, it can be used by anybody with the Darkness ability set.

Heck, Seifer with Darkness abilities is disgusting, because he can couple the HP loss from Bloody Cross with the low-HP power of Minus Strike.

I always forget Seifer exists.
Bloody Cross is nice, though I can't see anyone other than Dark Cecil using it. Seifer and Leon can use Saint Cross instead, and get a better element with very little power loss and don't have to worry about losing all their HP via spamming. Jecht could use Exploding Fist, and the mages can all play around with Memento Mori/Dark Zone.



... And suddenly I see my IV caster party. Golbez, Tellah, Fusoya, Palom, and Rydia. All offensive casters, all the time. Everybody dies. Maybe swap one of them out for a healer. Maybe.
Better hone up lots of draingas!



So - is Darkness a bad skillset for being too split on Physical vs. Magical?

Dig in a bit deeper. Of those who can use Dark Raid, Mama's Boy also has access to Mirror of Equity, which deals damage and increases Attack, so Dark Raid becomes somewhat redundant (on the other hand, he also has access to Retaliate, so he won't care about the DEF loss); Jecht has several ways to boost his Attack because of his Monk skillset, so Dark Raid is completely worthless to him; Punishing Palm does mostly what Dark Raid does, except less damage for a crushing blow to Defense, which Jecht shouldn't muster. The rest do need an Attack boost, though. Seifer gets the edge here because he gets a pretty solid Defense, plus he can use Dark Raid with either Bloody Cross or Saint Cross if he wants to.


As I understand it, the knocks against Darkness aren't that it's split. The magic attacks are more well-regarded than the physical side because magic's been neglected for some time now, and the boost is welcomed. Meanwhile, Bloody Cross/Sanguine Cross is competing with a lot of good physical attacks, like Saint Cross, Thief's Revenge, and Chainstarter/Full Charge combos eventually. Physical characters are well-supported already, while mages can get in a rut of needing to hit weaknesses, stack Lulu's boost with another one, or use lots of Bahamut to deal serious damage.

The reason Dark Bargain's getting love is that it's a unique boost that can stack with other boosts. So, want to run Sephiroth with Mirror + Dark Bargain? Ok, +69% to his attack. Same thing with Jecht and Punishing Palm. If you're already running with shout or another native boostga from Sazh or a monk, then Dark Bargain stacks with them for easy attack capping.

[danzibr]

his HP is at the top (so things like Bloody Cross won't make so much of a dent)
It's %, right? So it'll actually hurt him *more* than others. I see what you mean though.

EDIT: Having a lot of fun clearing core content. Got XIV out of the way, did all the XIII stuff, on my first VII. I'm doing classic then elite rather than all classics then all elites. Works nicely, use the same team twice.

Oh, and also, I didn't know until about a week ago that tyro meant novice (as a noun). Was reading some H.P. Lovecraft, came across the word.

[Slayn82]

Event is up. 100 gem got me a whopping 5* - an off realm Golden Shield VI. Underwhelming but may be useful.

[Antonok]

Bleh. Did 100 gem and a single pull and both were 3* junk.

This game just refuses to give me any form of hastega.

Edit: And this is on any banner with a hastega. I have very bad luck getting anything with banners that has a hastega on it.

[danzibr]

I think this is the first time I got something useful from a 100 gemmer. Rosa's White Dress. Which optimize put on Balthier :P

[Slayn82]

I think this is the first time I got something useful from a 100 gemmer. Rosa's White Dress. Which optimize put on Balthier :P


Don't need none of that here.
I knew these words would bring some kind of payback.

[Antonok]

Baigan is an ass. I've had to s/l 3 times because he keeps regenerating his arms right before he dies. And this is on the 99 difficulty. At full health they can deal cap damage -_-

The ++ version should be fun.

[danzibr]

I knew these words would bring some kind of payback.
Haha. That's ironic.

I stand by what I said though. I'm not opposed to men dressing like ladies, but we don't *need* it. The quote is great as it is. Throwing in a line about men who dress like ladies, while perhaps PC or something, is not what Gilgamesh said.

[Antonok]

Turns out Baigan and his arms can be blinded and poisoned. Wakka once again proved he's more than earned his spot in the party. Forgot to bring an ice attack and still managed to master the ++ thanks to his Aurochs Reels. Kill 1 arm at the start, weaken both, launch a crapload of AoE. With blind, Penelo didn't even have anything to than to smack something with a rod. Even Protecga was pretty useless.

Now just waiting on the stamina to take on the +++ though it's another pure physical boss so not worried in the slightest. Really wish I had this party set up going when Rufus was still around. 2 AoE heals + boostga, Drill, Protectga, RW a wall and physical damage bosses are pretty much a joke.

Edit: Also I'm finding with the influx of holy weak bosses that Saint's Cross is just massively out performing Thief's Revenge. It might change once Yuffie and Rikku get MCIIs to get the guaranteed 5th hit without synergy but until then...

[Hunter Noventa]

Turns out Baigan and his arms can be blinded and poisoned. Wakka once again proved he's more than earned his spot in the party. Forgot to bring an ice attack and still managed to master the ++ thanks to his Aurochs Reels. Kill 1 arm at the start, weaken both, launch a crapload of AoE. With blind, Penelo didn't even have anything to than to smack something with a rod. Even Protecga was pretty useless.

Now just waiting on the stamina to take on the +++ though it's another pure physical boss so not worried in the slightest. Really wish I had this party set up going when Rufus was still around. 2 AoE heals + boostga, Drill, Protectga, RW a wall and physical damage bosses are pretty much a joke.

Edit: Also I'm finding with the influx of holy weak bosses that Saint's Cross is just massively out performing Thief's Revenge. It might change once Yuffie and Rikku get MCIIs to get the guaranteed 5th hit without synergy but until then...

Well that sounds...unnerving. I guess I'll be poking Fabul until Auroch Reels comes up on RW for both of those.

[SuperPanda]

++ is down here.
Palom 65, Rydia 65, P. Cecil 80, porom 50, Edge 62
Relics for Cecil, Rydia and edge.
Palom was also packing a stat stick rod.
All around strong synergy is what I'm saying

Banishing strike to clear reflect for palom's blizzaga.

When he got weak switched to Ruinga to finish the arms followed by Shiva, dismissal and saint's fall. The SSB never landed because blood of the summoner hit instead.

Porom was throwing out renewing cures to counter damage and poison. Edge even brought a fire based ninja skill by mistake meaning he was doing far less damage that he should have been for the first few rounds.

Dead before anyone could fill and use a sb charge (Cecil did fill one).

Odin will fall soon.
Baigan has not yet been too much of a challenge, I'm sure that will change with his U upgrade.

[Slayn82]

My experience with Baigan was terrible. He was paralyzing and blinding the front lines pretty often. Beatrix was his favorite target, and she had the Banishing Strike - so Vivi couldn't use Blizzaga on him. Kain and Steiner also got a fair share of blind.

His AI was trolling me hard:
"You wanted to do physical damage? Blind and paralyze. You wanted to do magic damage? Reflect - shame about the character with Banishing Strike being Blind. Having trouble healing attacks without your only Medica? Hastega. Killed my arms with that AOE that didn't finish the main body? They are back again at full health in the next turn, and explode in your face when I die".

And that was the non + battle. Ouch. At least Cagnazzo went pretty straightforward.

[Antonok]

Unholy ouch Odin hurts. And has stupidly high defense. Through Power Breakdown, Protectga, and Full Break he was still doing 2k+ with Zantetsuken. Slow will be your best friend. Lost 2 medals for damage taken and if it hadn't been for both War Dance and Clear Tranquil I most likely would of lost.

For Science! (http://i.imgur.com/sYT02U8.gif) I went ahead and crafted Exploding Fist (amazed I had the orbs honestly), and tested out a 65 Jecht with Dark Bargain and Exploding Fist combo with a Shout RW.

So: 65 Jecht with 281 Attack with SOLDIER Strike (+10% Damage), with Shout active (+50%) and Dark Bargain (+30%), with Armor Breakdown on Odin was just just barely above 2k a hit. Now while it seems low, keep in mind my 80 Cloud with 350 Attack with Shout AND Burst Mode was only doing 3k-3500 a hit with Fenrir Overdrive. So it's not too bad of a combo. In hindsight, Odin was probably not the best test for this tbh. Thankfully I had Soldier Breastplate on Jecht so he had good defense to counter the Dark Bargain (which was hitting quite well in itself, about 4k).

Pretty sure I'm going to shatter Bloody Cross. I just do not like the idea of a -25% hp move when there's so much better not as costly moves out there.

[Merlin the Tuna]

1 pull on the new banner netted me Palom's dagger, the stat stick dagger, and the dragon bracer; I already like this better than the FF8 event.

Admittedly I didn't pull on either FF8 banner, but even just the event party was wildly newbie un-friendly. Irvine's crappiness has been well documented, Zell and Laguna's main draws are niche ability sets I don't have the orbs for while I'm still building out my core baseline, Edea is powerful but an inflexible blunt object, Squall is powerful but bringing spellblade just means he's filling the same niche as Edea, and Rinoa has mediocre white magic and can't equip staffs. It's a far cry from the FF12 folks, who brought utility up the wazoo and could flex anywhere they needed to. Looking forward to having a decent spread for FF4, especially since Rydia and Kain are already decently leveled from core dungeons.

[Red Fel]

And +++ is down. Let's review our lessons from this event.

1. Scarmiglione is a joke in any form. For those of you who haven't tried the boss rush yet, keep in mind that in his first form, he is flanked by four zombies that don't die when he does. If you kill him first, you still have to deal with them. Also, Runic completely trivializes the first fight - it pulls his Thunders, his Counter Thunders, and his minions' Drains. Note that if he dies first, they stop using Drain and switch to physical attacks - and if you've prepared for the second Scar fight, you've got plenty of physical mitigation to use. In the second fight, as long as you don't use Fire, all he'll do is attack and slow you; if you brought two or more WHMs armed with Cure-line or Dia-line spells, he's toast.

2. Baigan is concentrated evil. In every realm, there is that one boss. In VI, it was Mt. Koltz. In IV, it's Baigan. Piece of advice - have Pencil bring Saint Cross, because it has a built-in Esuna that can get rid of Blind (unless he's also paralyzed). Also, don't bring Blood of Espers. Blood of Summoners is fine, but Blood of Espers is a huge risk, because he immediately puts up Counter Reflect. That said, there is one way it's useful - if the body has lower HP than the arms, and Reflect is down, use a spell on one of the arms to bring them lower (but not kill them). If you proc again, it will target the body. Then just bring out Banishing Strike again and repeat the process.

3. Odin is manageable if you prepare. Power Breakdown + Full Breakdown + Protectga is a good start. Throw in a source of Slow and a wall and you're golden; he'll attack infrequently, and then for maybe 200-400 damage. That said, he is a tank. Annoyingly, he only raised his sword two or three times in my fight, which meant that most of the battle I was without a weakness to exploit. While that wasn't too bad, it was a nuisance.

Looking forward, the Ultimate and U+ are going to be interesting. The Ultimate has three phases, with changing vulnerabilities, which is annoying. But the U+ is a very tactical fight, so that's going to be fun. Hopefully.

Or I might just pull my hair out. Either or.

[danzibr]

Grats to people on the victories!

I actually forgot about the event and was doing core content (did I already mention this? Hmm...), so I finished the second elite, but that's it.

Oh, but I'm up to 162 4/5 stam. Ahhhh yeah.

[DiscipleofBob]

Oh yay another event and classic updates. That's even MORE stuff I have to catch up on at some point.

Regarding After Years, I played it when it first came out on the Wii. FFIV was the first video game I ever played and there's a lot of nostalgia for me, and honestly?

After Years might be better than the original. It captures everything that made the first game great, lets you explore the whole setting all over again, and actually has a lot of bonus endgame content. Just ignore anything the final boss actually says and assume he's a raving lunatic.

[Hunter Noventa]

Yesss, picked up Pride of the Red Wings during the Underground Waterway, now DRK!Cecil can die in obscurity. Now to put together a party for Baron Castle.

Hilariously, Ramza ends up with more attack than anyone because I have a Fabled Harp and he has a better Chassis than Edward.

[Simkin]

So I've had some ups and downs the last day or so. Did several 11 pulls on the IV banner (I have terrible self control). The first two I got no 5*s, the second even had no 4*s! The third balanced it some with 4 5*s, which made me feel a bit better. Those were:

- Stardust Rod (Tellah) - Sounds mildly interesting but I hate this damage the user business.
- Kotetsu (Edge) - Very happy with this. I'm lacking in "normal" IV equipment (I have Kain's spear, Rydia's whip, etc., but no swords.)
- Another Assassin's Dagger (IV) - I got a couple of these long ago, this is now a 7*, which is quite solid.
- A second Dragon Gloves (IV) - So this is now a 6*, also nice.

Cleared all through +++, battles were a joke. Even Odin dropped as fast as I could dish out damage. I forgot to even take a way to reduce his attack and still got champion.

And then unfortunately, really pissed myself off by accidentally hitting create when I was looking at Sanguine Cross, thus wasting the orbs to create it because I got it from the +++ and certainly don't need a second copy. Don't know that I like it much with how much damage it does to the user.

On the flip side I honed Dark Bargain to R3 and I like that an awful lot. Very solid damage.

And lastly, hurray for Rydia MCII. One of my favorite characters.

[Slayn82]

Today had a lot of work, only managed to have a break to play right before going back home. Lost even dailies.

Finished the event up to Odin, but didn't get Mastery at Baigan. Rydia with her Mom's whip hits so hard using summons - a single Alexander cleared the zombie mooks on the + battle. Unfortunately, those arms of Baigan can have a trace if HP left when you finish the body and yet still have enough to explode any party members. And judging if you will kill all 3 or not is an art I'm yet to master.

Odin was a good opportunity to use Irvine, and again he delivered for the mixed team. Canister Shot and Armor Breakdown made the damage to Odin progress pretty well. SG + Protectga + Power Breakdown means the team was taking 400 - 600 damage per hit. Not bad.

[Simkin]

Finished the event up to Odin, but didn't get Mastery at Baigan. Rydia with her Mom's whip hits so hard using summons - a single Alexander cleared the zombie mooks on the + battle. Unfortunately, those arms of Baigan can have a trace if HP left when you finish the body and yet still have enough to explode any party members. And judging if you will kill all 3 or not is an art I'm yet to master.


You have a couple rounds before they come back. Take the body to 20-30%, take the arms both near death, kill them both, then burst the body down the rest of the way.

[Greg_S]

Trying with a full synergy, no one at their level cap team for these battles. Scarmiglione can be silenced, reflected, and both ninja skills and summons bypass counters. Nice and pleasant there.

I wasn't around for the nightmare stories of Baigan in the dungeons, before HP bars, before RWs, but I'm with you folks: this is not a fun battle. Those medal conditions are quite the annoyance. I was expecting to have a little bit of time after destroying the arms to work on the body, like with Triton, Nereid, and Phobos, who gave you 20 seconds. Nope! Baigan revived them the next turn, as he's got a 50% chance to revive them if both are dead. I had thought I'd try to power through and just lose the self-destruct medals, but losing the self-destruct medals has a really good chance of KOing a character because it's tough to judge those tiny HP gauges, so that's a second reset. Eventually took him down and experted when his next-to-last attack dropped Palom before Curaja. Got revenge with the A team, though.

I think my FF4 team has hit its limit at Odin, though. I don't have any synergy rods past a 3++ Ice Rod, and Golbez was barely breaking 8K on a thundaja to his sword. Would like to try with the full synergy team before switching things up. A Google Opinion Rewards 100 gem pull netted me Edea's helmet, so I've been experimenting with a mage team in some of the recent elites. It's holding up a lot better than I expected in the 130+ dungeons!

[TeChameleon]

... huh.

My very first piece of character-specific gear (before even Tyro's Stormlance Grimoire, I think, since I didn't actually realize that I needed to do anything further on the newbie pull after I did the relic draw >.>) was Shadow's Ichigeki. Nice to know that it stays useful/awesome. And seeing Interceptor in FFRK makes me oddly happy.

And apparently the RNG has decided that I don't have enough Black Mages, since the two 11x pulls I did on the FFIV banner netted me the Stardust Rod and Triton's Dagger. I got the Dragon Gloves as a final 5*, so all in all, not too bad. I'm even managing to do some slightly-harder stuff than I thought I would be able to; got Mastery on Mt. Ordeals- Grave, which as far as I can recall, is the most difficult dungeon I've even attempted, much less beaten (and yes, I know, I know. I'm new to this, give me a break :smalltongue:)

[T.G. Oskar]

Still haven't handled the Seifer trio Ultimate, which I'm finding mind-numbingly difficult, but done some progress on Classics, Elites and the Event. I'm at one dungeon from getting the Wonder Twins Palom and Porom, and got to 113 Stamina.

Dreading the upcoming White Magic Nightmare, I decided that getting Flower of Trabia was enough motive to force-feed Selphie a power-omelet to level 65. Turns out that, after running her through the FFXIV dungeons, she dropped the RM2 on the second battle. So...that means I got a pretty reliable RM, one that should work on the Nightmare boss as it's not physical, therefore it shouldn't activate the counter-breath and should deal decent damage. Between FoT, Yuna's SB (The Sending) and Tyro using Ninja skills, I think I got a good chance of beating it. Of course, that means I have to remake and hone Esuna, which for some reason I shattered. Must have been because the Salve RM just pretty much nulls the need for it.

Oh, and speaking of getting new RMs...I got Ramza's Battleforged as well. Mwahahahaha!!

EDIT: Oh, guess I finally have a working FFVII team for future events. Reno or Vincent as Black Mages, Barret as supporter (even if the only FFVII gun I got isn't really that awe-inspiring), Aerith as WHM, and Zack and Cid as main hitters. Pretty unorthodox team, but it covers most of the big deals (BLM, WHM, Support; then, I add Dragoon, Spellblade and Machinist to the mix, alongside some Celerity and Summoning), and with a good deal of relics for it (Dragon Armlet, Holiday Mittens, and a veritable choice of weapons for Zack which include his SSB weapon), I guess future events shouldn't look so bleak.

Of course, they're still so behind. Poor AVA-Lasties, paling in comparison with the Ultra-Returners, or Yuna's Angels, or even the Omega Sky Pirates. I mean, even Baron's Finest is pretty well set-up, and even the SeeDie Groupies. Poor, poor AVA-Lasties; soon enough, even the Elemental Warriors (of Light) will curb-stomp them.

[Chen]

Hilariously, Ramza ends up with more attack than anyone because I have a Fabled Harp and he has a better Chassis than Edward.

I'm in the same situation. The only other good weapon I have for FF IV is a 6* Blood Lance. And no one in my A team can actually use it (though I can toss it on Gil if I need a retaliator at least).

[danzibr]

Grats to people on victories/progress/pulls!

Mastered the new DU this morning. The very last elite wasn't hard, but man oh man you need a lotta dakka. Jurai will have no problem. I ran out of ability uses on 2 people (I brought a mage party btw, didn't want to be bothered by Blind). It's like 3 bosses in one dungeon. Funky green Hojo, Heretic Hojo, Lifeform-N Hojo.

I guess a mythril use would make it a lot easier.

[Hunter Noventa]

I'm in the same situation. The only other good weapon I have for FF IV is a 6* Blood Lance. And no one in my A team can actually use it (though I can toss it on Gil if I need a retaliator at least).

I'm actually considering using Gil for that against Baigan+, all his attacks are physical after all. I can't really think of a good combination of people to counter everything though. I only have two uses of Halting Rumba to try and Stop the arms, and I know I'm likely to lose medals for actions and damage. I'm bringing Terra with Shiva and Ruinga to bypass Reflect, Cloud for Spellblade and being one of my strongest characters, Ramza for Shout and Power Breakdown, and Selphie for healing and Protectga.

Do I bring Gil for Tauntaliate? Or Agrias for Banishing Strike? (Though Gil can do that too and he might have higher attack than Agrias, but I actually have an SB for Agrias). The only decently leveled Dancer I have that can even use Halting Rumba is Yuffie and I feel like she'd fold like paper against this jerk.

[danzibr]

I'm actually considering using Gil for that against Baigan+, all his attacks are physical after all. I can't really think of a good combination of people to counter everything though. I only have two uses of Halting Rumba to try and Stop the arms, and I know I'm likely to lose medals for actions and damage. I'm bringing Terra with Shiva and Ruinga to bypass Reflect, Cloud for Spellblade and being one of my strongest characters, Ramza for Shout and Power Breakdown, and Selphie for healing and Protectga.

Do I bring Gil for Tauntaliate? Or Agrias for Banishing Strike? (Though Gil can do that too and he might have higher attack than Agrias, but I actually have an SB for Agrias). The only decently leveled Dancer I have that can even use Halting Rumba is Yuffie and I feel like she'd fold like paper against this jerk.
Gil for Tauntaliate is a good idea. Lots of physical attacks.

And uhh, getting Edea's SSB as a RW is a *great* idea for that fight. She murdilated them.

[Hunter Noventa]

Gil for Tauntaliate is a good idea. Lots of physical attacks.

And uhh, getting Edea's SSB as a RW is a *great* idea for that fight. She murdilated them.

Gil actually worked amazingly well. Between that and the AoE I had going on I mastered it almost perfectly. Somehow I killed one arm, but he didn't revive it, and Blade Beam finished off the other arm and Baigan at the same time. Shiva + Ruinga + Water Veil (since there's no Ive Veil) took care of the rest. I was pretty shocked at how smoothly it went, but I'll admit I got lucky.

Odin should be interesting, to say the least, but after Baigan I'm feeling confident.

[Greg_S]

Gil actually worked amazingly well. Between that and the AoE I had going on I mastered it almost perfectly. Somehow I killed one arm, but he didn't revive it, and Blade Beam finished off the other arm and Baigan at the same time. Shiva + Ruinga + Water Veil (since there's no Ive Veil) took care of the rest. I was pretty shocked at how smoothly it went, but I'll admit I got lucky.
Congrats! He'll only revive the arms if both are dead. The original fight in IV was like that, where you'd want to kill the left arm first and then rush the right arm after the body died.

Fat Chocobo's offering Major Wind, Power, and Non-elemental orbs this week, so bye bye greens. Would it help anyone if I did an orb priority guide? I've been mulling over what's out and what's coming up for budgeting purposes.

EDIT: Never mind: The great PDF (http://happypluto.com/~misterp/r/ffrk.pdf), page 16, has the best competition diagram around.

[danzibr]

Congrats! He'll only revive the arms if both are dead. The original fight in IV was like that, where you'd want to kill the left arm first and then rush the right arm after the body died.

Fat Chocobo's offering Major Wind, Power, and Non-elemental orbs this week, so bye bye greens. Would it help anyone if I did an orb priority guide? I've been mulling over what's out and what's coming up for budgeting purposes.
I've decided to not buy 5* orbs, I think. Unless I *really* need them. I want to save my green(s) for the stam shards and 5* accessories (assuming we get them).

[Hunter Noventa]

Congrats! He'll only revive the arms if both are dead. The original fight in IV was like that, where you'd want to kill the left arm first and then rush the right arm after the body died.

Fat Chocobo's offering Major Wind, Power, and Non-elemental orbs this week, so bye bye greens. Would it help anyone if I did an orb priority guide? I've been mulling over what's out and what's coming up for budgeting purposes.

Ugh I could really use that Major Wind, if only to break it down for all the things I need Greater Wind for...

[Red Fel]

Fat Chocobo's offering Major Wind, Power, and Non-elemental orbs this week, so bye bye greens. Would it help anyone if I did an orb priority guide? I've been mulling over what's out and what's coming up for budgeting purposes.


I've decided to not buy 5* orbs, I think. Unless I *really* need them. I want to save my green(s) for the stam shards and 5* accessories (assuming we get them).

As a rule, I don't buy the stam shards unless I need a quick refresh. And the accessories... I'm still on the fence about those.

But here's what I can tell you about 5-star ability uses. More specifically, what each orb is used for. You can draw your own conclusions from the list.
Fire: Exploding Fist, Flare Strike, Flare, Meteor, Dragoon Jump, Bio Grenade
Non-Elemental: Flare Strike, Flare, Meteor, Flashing Blade, Bahamut, Dragoon Jump, Dark Zone
Ice: Flashing Blade, Doppelblade, Holy, Sky Grinder, Full Break
Dark: Bahamut, Doppelblade, Multi Break, Bloody Cross, Thief's Revenge, Odin, Dark Zone
Holy: Holy, Multi Break, Saint Cross, Arise
Earth: Meteor, Bloody Cross, Saint Cross, Barrage, Full Charge, Bio Grenade
Wind: Saint Cross, Arise, Barrage, Sky Grinder, Quick Hit, Mug Time, Thief's Revenge, Chain Starter, Full Charge, Tornado Strike, Valefor
Lightning: Sky Grinder, Mug Time, Thief's Revenge, Full Break, Odin, Exploding Fist, Dragoon Jump, Ixion, Quetzalcoatl
Power: Entrust, Exploding Fist, Flare Strike, Flashing Blade, Doppelblade, Bloody Cross, Barrage, Full Break, Quick Hit, Mug Time, Bio Grenade, Chain Starter, Tornado Strike, Full Charge
White: Entrust, Holy, Multi Break, Arise
Black: Entrust, Flare, Meteor, Dark Zone, Tornado Strike(Italics indicate abilities not yet released. Underscore indicates 4-star abilities.)

In other words, your biggest priorities are... Well, whichever ones you like. Obviously, Wind and Power see some of the most use. Holy and White see very little use. On the other hand, some of the orbs that see little use are also used in powerful abilities - Holy is used in Saint Cross, Ice in Full Break.

And as Hunter Noventa mentions, orbs are also useful for breakdowns. No, I won't list the competition for 4-star orbs.

[Hunter Noventa]

And Odin is down without a problem. Lost a little on Damage and Actions, but I still mastered it.

Put my party together for the first Ultimate, but that'll wait obviously, and I have orbs to farm tonight.

Finally spent a bunch of my growth eggs getting Cloud, Ramza and Selphie to 80.

[Jurai]

Grats to people on victories/progress/pulls!

Mastered the new DU this morning. The very last elite wasn't hard, but man oh man you need a lotta dakka. Jurai will have no problem. I ran out of ability uses on 2 people (I brought a mage party btw, didn't want to be bothered by Blind). It's like 3 bosses in one dungeon. Funky green Hojo, Heretic Hojo, Lifeform-N Hojo.

I guess a mythril use would make it a lot easier.

Great, looks like a 3-pack of Hohos. I much prefer Twinkies.

[danzibr]

What are people's thoughts on ability uses and bosses? To the last U+ I brought Locke with r2 Thief's Revenge and r3 Dismissal. He had a crappy limit break and I don't think he used a RW. Ran out of uses at the end.

So for a beater with no plan to use RW or limit break, at least 12 ability uses is good, I think. So uhh... for my plan with Chain Starter -> Full Charge, I don't think r2 of each is enough.

[Red Fel]

What are people's thoughts on ability uses and bosses? To the last U+ I brought Locke with r2 Thief's Revenge and r3 Dismissal. He had a crappy limit break and I don't think he used a RW. Ran out of uses at the end.

So for a beater with no plan to use RW or limit break, at least 12 ability uses is good, I think. So uhh... for my plan with Chain Starter -> Full Charge, I don't think r2 of each is enough.

As a general rule, if I have 8-10 uses of a 3-star, 6-8 uses of a 4-star, and/or 4 uses of a 5-star, I'm generally in a good place for an Ultimate. If I err on the low side (for instance, R3 Power Breakdown and R2 Full Break) I'm likely to run out at the very end.

R2 for two 5-stars would be woefully insufficient, in my mind. I want to know that I have ability uses good for at least 12 rounds, ideally 14-16. By way of example, when I have someone packing R5 Tempo Flurry and R4 Dismissal, I have never had that person run out of uses. Frequently, when I have someone packing two R3 Spellblade abilities, that character won't run out either. My default Sephiroth uses R4 Armor Break and R3 Lifesiphon, a total of 14 uses, and he never runs out.

[Antonok]

I tend to do what Red Fel does. If I bring an r1 or r2 I always put something with atleast 8 uses in the other slot. R4 Banishing Strike with R1 Saints Cross, or R4 breakdown with r1 fullbreak, or even R5 Tempo Flurry with R2 (whatever that armor breakdown dance is). Working on honing Dark Bargain to r4 or 5 to go with R1 Exploding Fist. But yeah, I try to bring at least 10 ability uses on a char for anything 100+ difficulty.

On another note, had to run a mage team for one of the dungeons last night. It made me realize I really need to work on magic hones. Managed to kill the boss with my very last ability use. Would really help if I could get some decent mage gear.

[Chen]

What are people's thoughts on ability uses and bosses? To the last U+ I brought Locke with r2 Thief's Revenge and r3 Dismissal. He had a crappy limit break and I don't think he used a RW. Ran out of uses at the end.

So for a beater with no plan to use RW or limit break, at least 12 ability uses is good, I think. So uhh... for my plan with Chain Starter -> Full Charge, I don't think r2 of each is enough.

Chain Starter/Full charge is even worse because Chain starter speeds things up so much. It's like Quick Hit. Fantastic skill in terms of damage and effect. But it's a 5* and you burn through its uses extra fast due to what it does so it's effectively useless (barring ridiculous honing). R2 Chainstarter + R2 full charge MIGHT work if you have a good SB and you use the SB increasing RMs. Each attack should give 60 SB poins which is increased to 90 with the RM. That means you have 720 SB points for all your abilities, not including any hits you take. With AoEs and maybe one or two regular attacks you probably have 2 SBs worth of uses there. If you're using A team level people that's 10 attacks over the combat. Use that person to trigger your RWs and it'll probably last.

If I look at my support characters they usually run Full Break R2 and a breakdown at R3. That and they usually get one or two SBs off and no RW activating. That puts you at pretty close to 12-13 normal actions. Also consider if you are low on hones use some regular attacks for the first few rounds while you're buffing getting defenses up. Not only does it let you save bigger hitters for the more dangerous later phases, it also ensures the big hitters are going to be buffed properly.

[Simkin]

In other words, your biggest priorities are... Well, whichever ones you like. Obviously, Wind and Power see some of the most use. Holy and White see very little use. On the other hand, some of the orbs that see little use are also used in powerful abilities - Holy is used in Saint Cross, Ice in Full Break.


Yeah, i.e. I need/want all of them =)

[Jurai]

I spend precisely 24000 Gysahl Greens a month. Two MC2 lodes (though that'll change once I finish my MC2 collection) and four Mythril. Once I'm up to date, I'll be hoping and praying for the accessories to come over. I could do with a third +30 ATK and maybe a fourth or fifth +0 MAG. Heck, I'd enjoy Godo's Mask, and voted for a rematch against him in the REVENGE FIGHT poll.

[Friv]

I've taken a break from MC2s; I still need three, but there are plenty of upcoming Nightmare dungeons, and I have twelve people at Lv 65-75, so having Tifa, Squall, or Auron level broken doesn't actually change a lot for me at the moment.

I am buying mythril and Major orbs, unless they're white, but saving whatever else I get.

[SuperPanda]

Looking at 5* abilities, I usually won't craft them unless I can take them to R2 right away but I also don't break them down.

My potential A listers include: P.Cecil, Cloud, Squall, Garnet, Arieth, Rinoa, Rydia, Steiner, Ramza, Lightning, Basch (not yet leveled), Yuffie, Edge, Wakka (Weak SB), Kefka (once Kuja's event), Lulu.

From those I can see a strong argument for Meteor (not yet crafted, but I think I can take it straight to R2), Saint's Cross (R2), Bahamut (not enough summon orbs to take to R2, and even then that's only 2 casts... so Maudin or Valefor to R4 instead?), and maybe Holy (for the upcoming nightmare).

Sword Flash looks nice but I don't have an A list samurai with gear (I do have Cyan with a Katana but even with that he usually looses his spot to someone without a SB like Locke, Celes, or Setzer who can fill niches he just can't - also I can bring Cloud and use his Katana if I need a retaman who can't draw fire (Need to see if Basch can use Katanas - because if so Fulmimating Darkness > Retaliate > Saint's cross = >:) ).

Thief's Revenge looks awesome but I haven't been able to get much milage out of it due to most of my thieves being lower level currently or Vaan - who needs to be near 80 and in XII to get the fifth hit. Also without something like Shout it doesn't hit as hard as I'd like meaning that the only thief who really gets milage out of it for me right now is Yuffie.

Exploding Fist sounds amazing but I'd have a similar problem - made worse because my only monk with good gear is Tifa and Yuffie is borrowing her weapons in VII for the forseeable future. A hand full of my monks can use good synergy daggars, but I usually have better weapons (or better characters to use that weapon with).
Bahamut looks very powerful, but I dislike leaning on it without heaving a Tellah like ability charge and Tellah is no longer a A lister (capped and can't gain Xp and I've got much better healers/mages now). Vanille's SSB would be amazing for that.

All this said, I'm sneaking through Ultimate and U+ content now so I'm not in a big need of these skills yet - but I think Meteor R2 would be good with my many powerful mages.

[Jurai]

I'm a completionist. I can't help it.

[danzibr]

Man. I don't have near the greens to be buying MC2's and orbs. Only have like 30 some k now.

Good news, got a MWiO from a drop.

[Antonok]

I am looking forward to the next FFIX event. Not for any relics or anything, but the RMs. Zidane gets his double cast thief RM2. Oh and a MCII for Beatrix would be nice to have as well.

[danzibr]

I am looking forward to the next FFIX event. Not for any relics or anything, but the RMs. Zidane gets his double cast thief RM2. Oh and a MCII for Beatrix would be nice to have as well.
I'm looking forward to these as well.

Right now I most want Yuffie's MC2, Laguna's MC2, and the Darkness magic abilities.

[Slayn82]

I'm happy with the Buffs to the FF II cast that Japan is getting in their new event, since they tend to be implemented way earlier in the Global version. Now I'm optimist they will catch up with teams from other Realms. Details from Reddit thread (https://www.reddit.com/r/FFRecordKeeper/comments/4iztza/ff_ii_event_images/ ):

Joseph is getting more HP and Support 4, Gordon gets White Magic 4, Minwu gets more Mind (so he gets closer to the top) and can equip shields (throw Agrias Shield on him). Maria gets +Mag and Shields, Leila gets +Atk and Spd, Leon and Ricard get +Atk.

And Firion gets Katana, Hammer, Fist, Rod, Samurai 5, +Atk, Def, and Spd.

On B/S/SBs, my favorite is that Joseph is getting a HP % Medica, that also does Ice/Non elemental damage. I guess Ramza is taking Joseph to the Support group to overcome his Suicidal tendencies. Shout therapy is a thing. That also explains the avalanche SB.

[Antonok]

I'm looking forward to these as well.

Right now I most want Yuffie's MC2, Laguna's MC2, and the Darkness magic abilities.

Darkness magic releases with the Kuja event (May 23rd), Yuffie's MCII (May 30th) is the event right after, and looks like you have a ways to wait on the Laguna MCII, mid July if basic math isn't failing me.

I'm wanting the Yuffie MCII too. Hers and Rikku's.

Speaking of upcoming events, Desch's event is going to be hard to resist pulling on. Some decent relics and Desch himself is a sword using BMG. Looking at the bonus battles, I find it odd Odin is making a return appearance as the +++ battle, except this time no lightning weakness to exploit. Hmmmm

[danzibr]

I'm happy with the Buffs to the FF II cast that Japan is getting in their new event, since they tend to be implemented way earlier in the Global version. Now I'm optimist they will catch up with teams from other Realms. Details from Reddit thread (https://www.reddit.com/r/FFRecordKeeper/comments/4iztza/ff_ii_event_images/ ):

Joseph is getting more HP and Support 4, Gordon gets White Magic 4, Minwu gets more Mind (so he gets closer to the top) and can equip shields (throw Agrias Shield on him). Maria gets +Mag and Shields, Leila gets +Atk and Spd, Leon and Ricard get +Atk.

And Firion gets Katana, Hammer, Fist, Rod, Samurai 5, +Atk, Def, and Spd.

On B/S/SBs, my favorite is that Joseph is getting a HP % Medica, that also does Ice/Non elemental damage. I guess Ramza is taking Joseph to the Support group to overcome his Suicidal tendencies. Shout therapy is a thing. That also explains the avalanche SB.
This sounds delightful! I've always had a soft spot for II, and now they're getting some serious love.

Darkness magic releases with the Kuja event (May 23rd), Yuffie's MCII (May 30th) is the event right after, and looks like you have a ways to wait on the Laguna MCII, mid July if basic math isn't failing me.

I'm wanting the Yuffie MCII too. Hers and Rikku's.

Speaking of upcoming events, Desch's event is going to be hard to resist pulling on. Some decent relics and Desch himself is a sword using BMG. Looking at the bonus battles, I find it odd Odin is making a return appearance as the +++ battle, except this time no lightning weakness to exploit. Hmmmm
Yup, Darkness magic right around the corner. We're both looking forward to IX, but for different reasons ;)

And yeah, III. My current plan is to spend $1 on each banner, and if I don't get a good offensive weapon (which is the most likely case), I'm going to do the Beginner's Banner and get Tyrfing. Then I'll have a decent 5* weapon in every realm except I and XIV.

[Red Fel]

I am looking forward to the next FFIX event. Not for any relics or anything, but the RMs. Zidane gets his double cast thief RM2. Oh and a MCII for Beatrix would be nice to have as well.

I agree with the MCII for Beatrix. Not because of RMs, but because a level 80 Queen Bea simply owns. Beatrix doesn't win fights; she simply permits her enemies to lose.

That said, a doublecast Thief RM really doesn't mean much in my mind. Most of the Thief skills are "debuff enemy, buff self." And since you can't stack the buff or the debuff, it's mostly redundant unless the doublecast hits a second enemy (in which case, it's just two debuffs and one buff). The only skills for which it really counts are Steal Life, which is weaksauce, Mug Time, which is meh, and Thief's Revenge, which is great but not necessarily worth the RM.


I'm happy with the Buffs to the FF II cast that Japan is getting in their new event, since they tend to be implemented way earlier in the Global version. Now I'm optimist they will catch up with teams from other Realms. Details from Reddit thread (https://www.reddit.com/r/FFRecordKeeper/comments/4iztza/ff_ii_event_images/ ):

Joseph is getting more HP and Support 4, Gordon gets White Magic 4, Minwu gets more Mind (so he gets closer to the top) and can equip shields (throw Agrias Shield on him). Maria gets +Mag and Shields, Leila gets +Atk and Spd, Leon and Ricard get +Atk.

And Firion gets Katana, Hammer, Fist, Rod, Samurai 5, +Atk, Def, and Spd.

Oh, these are a delight. And overdue. Long, long overdue.

On the banner front, I'd like to draw everyone's attention to this post (https://www.reddit.com/r/FFRecordKeeper/comments/4gkpt7/mythril_counter_mayjune_edition_counter_mithril/). This poster does a lovely job of calculating the mythril you're expected to have at any given time, based on event releases. Note that this also takes into account mythril from DUs (but only once they have a set date, as indicated in the third table).

Right now, there is a rough estimate that the Reraise Nightmare will start on 21 May, five days after the Desch event starts. If we assume that you've cleared the Desch event before then, that means you should have an additional 40 mythril beyond where you are now. That means, if you were in a spendy mood, you could blow 25 mythril on the Nightmare Lucky Draw, and 15 mythril on a total of three one-pulls on the IV and III banners, and break even.

The BSB bonanza is currently estimated - again, a rough estimate - to fall after the Kuja and Cait Sith events, possibly after the Big Bridge event as well. If Big Bridge doesn't happen before then, we're still expecting a total of 90 mythril between now and then; this increases to 120 if we count Big Bridge. So keep that in mind.

Point is, there's a lot of mythril coming down the pipeline. If you plan to whale on banners, you might consider using gems, but otherwise, you might be able to get your fill on the free stuff.

[danzibr]

Ooooh that's great to hear. For mythril. I'm just over 150, going to spend 25 on Lucky Draw and 50 on Beginner Banner, brings me down to 75ish, another 120 (hopefully) will let me do hopefully 4 pulls on the various banners.

[Greg_S]

I am looking forward to the next FFIX event. Not for any relics or anything, but the RMs. Zidane gets his double cast thief RM2. Oh and a MCII for Beatrix would be nice to have as well.

Zidane goes up to natural 5-hit Thief's Revenge too with the MC, which is exciting. Now I'm imagining doublecasts of that and getting giddy.

EDIT: Saw that FFII Guy's getting released in JP. I want a Beaver attack SB!

[danzibr]

Zidane goes up to natural 5-hit Thief's Revenge too with the MC, which is exciting. Now I'm imagining doublecasts of that and getting giddy.

EDIT: Saw that FFII Guy's getting released in JP. I want a Beaver attack SB!
Finally, Guy! It's so weird we have secondary characters like Leila and Ricard and Josef but no Guy.

And lulz, beaver attack, that'd be great. That guy...

[Merlin the Tuna]

I spend precisely 24000 Gysahl Greens a month.Dat grass. I think I've earned like half of that all-time. Someday... *sniff*

For now, I'm just happy to have cleared the + and ++ boss rushes for FF8, meaning that I'm at least not falling any further behind on MC2s that I'm nowhere near being able to use. :P Couple of RNG-fests, those ones were. My mitigation for the Archaoesaurs was one part Power Breakdown and one part Confuse Shell (thanks, Sky Pirates event!), which meant resets when they refused to teamkill each other, and the Iguons were uncanny at landing petrifies on my first dozen goes. The ++ only took 2 or 3 tries since a good Lion's Roar RW provided the lion's share (har har) of the damage, but I could see reloads had I been less fortunate on standing-Abaddon's status roulette. In theory my ability base should be getting stronger each event even if I insist on running full-synergy teams every time, but the FF4 bosses being less swingy is enough to make me smile on its own.

Speaking of abilities, should I just completely write off summons for the foreseeable future? It looks like I could R1 two out of Ifrit/Shiva/Ramuh, and that's it. Right stingy on those orbs, they are.

[Hunter Noventa]

Speaking of abilities, should I just completely write off summons for the foreseeable future? It looks like I could R1 two out of Ifrit/Shiva/Ramuh, and that's it. Right stingy on those orbs, they are.

Summons did get buffed recently to hit twice for most of them so they are more useful. But they aren't totally reliable until you get the Summoner's RM 2 that regenerates a use every fight, and I think it's Rydia's RM that increases their damage overall.

They're certainly more Niche than your -aga spells though, focus on those first.

[Red Fel]

Speaking of abilities, should I just completely write off summons for the foreseeable future? It looks like I could R1 two out of Ifrit/Shiva/Ramuh, and that's it. Right stingy on those orbs, they are.


Summons did get buffed recently to hit twice for most of them so they are more useful. But they aren't totally reliable until you get the Summoner's RM 2 that regenerates a use every fight, and I think it's Rydia's RM that increases their damage overall.

They're certainly more Niche than your -aga spells though, focus on those first.

This. Summons are definitely more niche. But when they are good, they're really, really good.

The problem, as you've noticed, is the stinginess with SOs. There is no Summon daily. There are no reliable ways to get SOs, other than guaranteed reward drops, and that's a one-time thing. As a result, generally, optimal summon use is limited to those who have played long enough to accumulate a surplus of SOs.

Summon Spring is indeed priceless for Summon use, as between the difficulty in getting orbs for hones and just how few uses you get, you really need that regen. Another valuable RM is Blood of Summoners, for those single-battle encounters where Summon Spring is useless - the chance to doublecast really maximizes the power of your limited uses.

But yeah. Honestly, I probably wouldn't worry about summons until you've got a lot more, orbwise.

In other news, because I forgot to cover it earlier, the IV ultimates drop tonight! Here's what you can expect.

Ultimate: Geryon. Medals for exploiting his Lightning weakness while he has it, exploiting his Ice weakness while he has it, and reducing his Mag. Geryon is a boss in three phases, and he switches every 1/3 health. In each phase, he has access to AoE debuffs. In his first phase, he is weak to Lightning, and resists all other elements. He uses attacks, an AoE water spell, and self-heals, on top of his general array of abilities. In his second phase, at 2/3 health, he is weak to Ice, and resists all other elements; in this phase, he uses Fire spells on top of his general array. In his third phase, at 1/3 health, he resists all elements, and uses Fire and Lightning abilities, plus AoE proportional damage, on top of his general array. Further, at each phase shift, he uses Maelstrom, which deals AoE proportional damage.

Having a medica is a must. Fortunately, since his damage is almost exclusively magic, you can focus your mitigation (Magic Breakdown, Full Break, Shellga, and wall or DG are great options). The debuffs are an absolute bear - in addition to his AoE Slow counter, his Gas can Poison, Silence, Blind, and/or Sleep your entire party. This means that you really need to pack some Esuna, since the Silence/Blind combo can disable mage or physical strategies.

This guy is an absolute beast. Victory gets you orbs, a crystal, and the Black Mage Twin Stars.

U+: Cagnazzo. This guy, on the other hand, is fun. Medals for using Ice while he's weak to it, using Lightning while he's preparing Tsunami, and reducing his Mag. He has three states - he's either in his normal state, his "preparing Tsunami" state, or his defending state. In his normal state, he's weak to Ice but nulls Lightning; in his Tsunami state, he's weak to Lightning but nulls Ice. In both states, he absorbs Water and resists Fire; in his defending state, he absorbs Water and resists everything else.

Note that in previous versions of this boss, hitting him with Lightning disrupts Tsunami. While that's still true, you now have to hit him with three separate abilities. One multi-hit ability, even an SB, counts as one time. I think that a doublecast ability counts as two, but don't hold me to that. Tsunami deals massive damage that ignores Res, so preventing it is a priority. You have only one turn from when he starts preparing Tsunami to disrupt it.

In his normal and Tsunami states, he uses Slow, Sleep, and Haste abilities, various Water spells, and a Stop as a counter to physical attacks. (Strongly consider bringing mage meta.) In his defending state, he still has his Slow and Sleep abilities, and his Stop counter, but trades his offensive capacity (other than a simple attack) for a self-heal. Fortunately, when he heals, he leaves his defending state.

Carbuncle and Runic spoil this fight. His single-target Waters and his Stop counter are both absorbed by Runic (or reflected by Carbuncle). Further, Cagnazzo is susceptible to Blind, which is not much help against a magic-heavy boss, and Poison (status), which is disgustingly useful. Poison, unlike Sap, has an indefinite duration - it lasts until removed, and Cagnazzo has no way to remove it. Meaning that, if you're willing to spend an ability slot on it, and if it sticks, you have a guaranteed source of damage that will last throughout the battle.

Victory gets you orbs, a crystal, and bragging rights.

[Slayn82]

Anyone already has a party for dealing with Geryon? He resists every element on the second phase and has a chance to counter any damage with AOE Slow.

I'm planning to use Celes (Blizzara Strike, Drain Strike, Unbreakable Spellblade RM + SSB), Kain (Lighting Jump, Drain Jump, Dragoon damage RM), Minwu (Curaja, Shellga, Dr. Mog RM+ Medica).

Then for the final slots, either Irvine (Magic and Armor Breakdowns, Mako RM + Cannister Shot) and Zell (LifeSiphonx2, SSB, Thunderstroke RM);
OR
Red XIII (Magic and Armor Breakdowns, Ace Striker RM + SSB) and Rikku (Thief's Revenge, ???, Hyper NulAll SB, Thunderstroke or Mako RM).

I'm currently favoring the second strategy. It gives me plenty of Mitigation, and I may be able to use Advance to boost Red XIII SSB.

Rikku's Shield gives Slow Resistance, for whatever that is worth. Maybe Kain is the best guy to use it, since he already has a chance to avoid some Counters while Jumping.

[danzibr]

Anyone already has a party for dealing with Geryon? He resists every element on the second phase and has a chance to counter any damage with AOE Slow.

I'm planning to use Celes (Blizzara Strike, Drain Strike, Unbreakable Spellblade RM + SSB), Kain (Lighting Jump, Drain Jump, Dragoon damage RM), Minwu (Curaja, Shellga, Dr. Mog RM+ Medica).

Then for the final slots, either Irvine (Magic and Armor Breakdowns, Mako RM + Cannister Shot) and Zell (LifeSiphonx2, SSB, Thunderstroke RM);
OR
Red XIII (Magic and Armor Breakdowns, Ace Striker RM + SSB) and Rikku (Thief's Revenge, ???, Hyper NulAll SB, Thunderstroke or Mako RM).

I'm currently favoring the second strategy. It gives me plenty of Mitigation, and I may be able to use Advance to boost Red XIII SSB.

Rikku's Shield gives Slow Resistance, for whatever that is worth. Maybe Kain is the best guy to use it, since he already has a chance to avoid some Counters while Jumping.
I'm going to either go pure Reta or Reflect, and bring like Dance stuff. Don't want to be countered.

[Merlin the Tuna]

Further, Cagnazzo is susceptible to Blind, which is not much help against a magic-heavy boss, and Poison (status), which is disgustingly useful. Poison, unlike Sap, has an indefinite duration - it lasts until removed, and Cagnazzo has no way to remove it.It looks like he's immune to Poison/Blind while in defense mode, unless they changed that from the level 99 elite fight to the U+. Does that clear the status if he's already got it, or just prevent new applications?

[danzibr]

It looks like he's immune to Poison/Blind while in defense mode, unless they changed that from the level 99 elite fight to the U+. Does that clear the status if he's already got it, or just prevent new applications?
Judging by KBP, looks like it stays.

[Greg_S]

Anyone already has a party for dealing with Geryon? He resists every element on the second phase and has a chance to counter any damage with AOE Slow.

I'm planning to use Celes (Blizzara Strike, Drain Strike, Unbreakable Spellblade RM + SSB), Kain (Lighting Jump, Drain Jump, Dragoon damage RM), Minwu (Curaja, Shellga, Dr. Mog RM+ Medica).

Then for the final slots, either Irvine (Magic and Armor Breakdowns, Mako RM + Cannister Shot) and Zell (LifeSiphonx2, SSB, Thunderstroke RM);
OR
Red XIII (Magic and Armor Breakdowns, Ace Striker RM + SSB) and Rikku (Thief's Revenge, ???, Hyper NulAll SB, Thunderstroke or Mako RM).

I'm currently favoring the second strategy. It gives me plenty of Mitigation, and I may be able to use Advance to boost Red XIII SSB.

What's frustrating is that he resists elemental damage outside of those various phases, so there's only so far you can exploit those elemental weaknesses.
If you go with the second option, I'd say give Red Mako Might, so he can get shellga up turn 1, and then you could give Minwu something besides Shellga, like the AoE regen spell which escapes me now. By the time you need to refresh Shellga, you should have a full bar.
Instead of Advance, I'd suggest Shout, but save it for phase 2 and especially 3, where Kain and Celes's elemental attacks are less helpful and you need to have all the extra offense you can muster.

This one sounds like it's going to be a huge slog, frankly. I might bring Kimahri (!) and see if I can't mighty guard away some maelstroms.

[Simkin]

After not attacking them steadily for awhile, I have at long last finished all Classic and Elite dungeons! Nothing left to do for awhile but farm.

[Antonok]

After thinking about it, I'm debating wether I want to actually pull on the WHM nightmare banner or not.

I've got Planet Protector for Aeris, War Dance for Penelo, and Yuffie's Clear Tranquil giving me 2 medicas and 2 boostegas. I'm not entirely sure any of the relics would be helpful outside SG, and there'll be many more tries for that.

Edit: A hastega relic would be nice, but theres few on the banner and would rather have it on a non healer char for more variety.

[Slayn82]

If you go with the second option, I'd say give Red Mako Might, so he can get shellga up turn 1, and then you could give Minwu something besides Shellga, like the AoE regen spell which escapes me now. By the time you need to refresh Shellga, you should have a full bar.
Instead of Advance, I'd suggest Shout, but save it for phase 2 and especially 3, where Kain and Celes's elemental attacks are less helpful and you need to have all the extra offense you can muster.


Rikku is boosting ATK and RES, and those AOE slows counter the hastega pretty hard. I actually have Ramza with Shout, and considered using him, but since Rikku already offers a decent damage boost and good mitigation, I gave up on him.

Now that suggestion of using Memento, that may be a great idea. I wonder if Knight's charge will have filled Minwu's SB enough by the time the Maelstrom hits. Minwu is using the IV versions of Gold Hairpin and Healing Staff, so he can resist magic damage and cure people well - wonder if I can use Renewing Cure and Curaise instead?



After thinking about it, I'm debating wether I want to actually pull on the WHM nightmare banner or not.

I've got Planet Protector for Aeris, War Dance for Penelo, and Yuffie's Clear Tranquil giving me 2 medicas and 2 boostegas. I'm not entirely sure any of the relics would be helpful outside SG, and there'll be many more tries for that.

Edit: A hastega relic would be nice, but theres few on the banner and would rather have it on a non healer char for more variety.

Ironically, I know what you mean. I like Minwu's instant Medica. But I would not mind getting a couple other Medicas. Specially one with Heavy Regen. And the WHM banner also has Yshtola version of Wall. I would even settle on Yuna's non Medica Relics.

On the other hand, I already got 3 Hastegas: Tidus, Ramza and Edea's. They are all great, but I won't get my full bang if I use more than one Hastega the same party. So, whatever I pull there, I hope it isn't another hastega.

[Jurai]

Ultimate Dream is Physician's Staff/Seraphim's Mace/Healing Staff (II)/Chocobo Brush/Crescent Wish/Holy Rod (XII).
Penultimate Dream is Thyrus/Sentinel Grimoire.
Antepenultimate Dream is any medica with a potency of 50 or higher other than the ones mentioned under Ultimate Dream.
Exciting Dream is Magistral Rod/Full Metal Rod/Tiny Bee/Hypnocrown (IX)/Keepsake Ribbon/Aurora Rod/Cat-Ear Hood/Moore Branch/White Dress/Faerie Rod/Elder Wand/White Robe/Last Judgement Grimoire/Cyclone Grimoire.
Uuuuuuugh... Dream is Save the Queen, Thunder Gloves, Binding Rod, and Healing Grimoire.



What I need are Medicas and Walls. Considering that all but Thyrus (XIV), Binding Rod (XIII), Tiny Bee (X), Magistral Rod (X), Full Metal Rod (X), Save the Queen (IX), Thunder Gloves (IX), Hypnocrown (IX), Aurora Rod (VII), Keepsake Ribbon (VII), Cat-Ear Hood (VI), Moore Branch (V), Healing Staff (V) (which I already have), Power Staff (V), White Dress (IV), Elder Wand (III), White Robe (II), Sentinel Grimoire, Cyclone Grimoire, and Last Judgement Grimoire are not Medicas, that's 19 Medicas, 2 Walls, 3 Hastes (two of which are also Medicas), 2 Reraises (which are also Medicas), that makes the rest ALL DAMAGE. I DON'T NEED DAMAGE. I NEED MEDICA. OR WALL. OR A WALL THAT IS ALSO A MEDICA.

[Greg_S]

Rikku is boosting ATK and RES, and those AOE slows counter the hastega pretty hard. I actually have Ramza with Shout, and considered using him, but since Rikku already offers a decent damage boost and good mitigation, I gave up on him.
Oh, right, Rikku! Never mind on the Ramza then. I'd lean HoTE more than advance myself, as a party-wide attack boost when you're at 4 physicals is very noticeable. Dreamstage could also take the pressure off of Minwu, since you're not walling up or double-breaking magic. It could nullify a maelstrom if you time it correctly, or just save you an AoE attack somewhere.

EDIT: Geryon is down, took a few S/L. Biggest thing I took away from it: the counter Cursed Elegy only seems to happen in phase 1. If you're using someone with Ninja skills, swift bolt is good for building SB charge and not provoking counters there.

Double Edit: According to the AI rules, Geryon can counter throughout all 3 phases. Huh. Phase 3 was mostly SB on my end, so I suspect that's why I missed it.

[Forbiddenwar]

Hmm. I think I should wait until a certain green haired summoner is level 80. But if I try now, what about this team:

Gil full reta meta with Faithful Companion
Rinoa with quazecoatl and octopus guy
Garnet with Shiva and valeforn
A dancer/ healer
Y'shtola with shellga and curaja and SS2.

A magic or attack boostga as a RW. Problem with this plan us while it has a lot of healing, mitigation and is immune to counters, I don't know if it will actually kill him before running out of summons and resorting to wacking gil in the face as fast as possible.

I could drop the second healer, but then I would need to get reflect on a guy to bounce spells. And I'd need another way to reduce magic. Ugh.

Edit. Oh, someone else has beaten him? Care to share how?

[Antonok]

That slow is killing me on this ultimate... I might not be able to do this ultimate just because my teams are mostly physical. Can barely get him to phase 3 but thats when all hope gets lost.

That and I seem to have misplaced all my synergy gear for this realm :smallsigh:

[Forbiddenwar]

After looking at some parties elsewhere., I decided to try with Garnet, yuffie, cloud, Rinoa and gil. As soon as my stamina recovers. Everyone has a specific soul break they will spam when the time is right. Thats two sources of major regen, one emergency medica, Fenrir Overdrive and starfall. Wish me luck.

[Slayn82]

ForbbidenWar et all: I wish you all luck, but I'm running low myself. My plan went badly, but I can adjust it to drawtaliate without much trouble, switching out Rikku for Gilgamesh. And 11 pull got me a single 4* Platinum Dagger XII. Carp.

[Forbiddenwar]

Recap from my first attempt: complete waste of 60 stamina. Next time I want to try carbuncle. See how he likes being nuked 4 times a row every turn.

[Simkin]

Finished the Ult, but the Ult+ initially seems ridiculous. Went in with plenty of magic and strikes and even through SG he was one shotting people. Will have to investigate more tomorrow.

[Forbiddenwar]

Yes! Championed the Ulti on my first try with carbuncle. I owe the fuzzy gemstudded rabbit thing a carrot or something. Made me immune to half of his attacks.

My build:
Y'shtola reflect (see last character) and shelga with Dr mog teaching for stoneskin.
Rinoa Thundaja blizzaja and double hit
Cloud with Reta life siphon and ace striker (Fenrir Overdrive also helped a lot)
Yuffie heathen frolic tempo strike and Knight's Charge
Garnet carbuncle curaja and mako might

The RW was interesting. I might not have needed it at all. I took SG, because I was very worried of mitigation gaps. But it turned out I didn't need it on my run. The natural wall was far superior.

Edit: for data collection sake, I did get slammed hard with slow counters during his last stage. Pretty sure he does it throughout combat.luckily I was able to get hasted by Divine Guardian soon after. I once did a full round of attacks on cloud before realizing that retaliate had fallen off.

I bounced ja spells off of cloud onto him while bouncing cure spells off of him and onto my team. I was pretty sloppy and tired about the whole thing, thinking I was just testing the proof of concept and try to master it tomorrow.

I didn't expect to beat him on the first try.

If I had to do it again, I'd probably leave yuffie home and take another blaster and a RW medica. Maybe.

On to the "fun" round. The Ulti +.
Honestly, the Ulti + battles could be pure hell and still be more fun than the Ulti battles. It's the one stamina entry fee. It practically costs nothing to play, go crazy and try everything. Me, I have 5 different 4* level thunder abilities. Time to try everything.

[Cozzer]

Aaand my second real Ultimate ever is down! And I had even made a few mistakes while making the party! Now I'm confident enough in my FF4 A-team to go after the Ultimate+.

EDIT: Aaaand CagnazzoU+ is down too! I took two Tsunamis to the face, but Yuna's Hymn of the Faith took care of that. Then it was just about getting the timing right and hoping his Stop counters didn't stick (they did once, to Yuna, but luckily I had all mitigations up and heavy regen already active).

[TeChameleon]

Hmm... so, I've got two hero souls and attendant blank MCs, (just the first level ones, don't have the juice to go after the second tier memory crystals at all, much less blanks)... and I'm not sure who to pick up.

Currently in my arsenal:

Celes at 60 (Blitz Sword, Oath Veil ++, Orrachea Armlet, SOLDIER Strike)
Shadow at 57 (Ichigeki, Chanter's Djellaba, Hyper Wrist, Attunement I)
Tyro at 56 (Stormlance Grimoire, Black Robe +, Power Vest, Attunement II)
Cloud at 56 (Valiant Knife, Turks Suit, Power Armlet, Hand of the Victor)
Tellah at 50 (Stardust Rod, Thief's Bracer +, Dog Tags, Sage's Sigil)
Vaan at 52 (Benched, nothing equipped except Freedom's Wish)
Auron at 50 (Benched, no MC for him)
Golbez at 50 (Benched, no MC for him)
All event characters from the FFT event onwards
For otherwise-unlisted 5* equipment, I've got the Gold Sword, Dragon Gloves, Celebration Blade, and Triton's Dagger. Well, and a Flame Rod ++, Ice Rod ++, Mage Masher ++, Red Cap ++, and Ten-Gallon Hat ++ because... reasons >.>


Locke is the obvious choice for one of the Hero Souls, although I'm hesitant to jump on obvious choices, but otherwise... yeah. Not sure what character(s) to go after; I'm idly considering Kefka because I find him amusing, but otherwise... eh. *shrug*

[Cozzer]

@TeChameleon : Since now events unlock about four/five characters each, in a few weeks you'll have quite a big roster which will probably include a few of your favorites. I suggest keeping your Hero Souls for when you get a personal 5* relic for a character you don't have, unless you have a personal favorite that won't come up for a lot of events.

[Antonok]

x2 Gyshal weekend is on. And if reports are right, we have another one sometime around the end of the month.

[Hunter Noventa]

Ugh, Geryon just plain creamed me. Cursed Elegy sucks, and then four Firagas in a row in phase 2? BS.

My party was-
68 Gilgamesh: Ice Jump, Lightning Jump, Burmecian Dragon Knight
80 Cloud: Thundaga Strike, Blizzaga Strike, Pride of the Red Wings, Blade Beam
80 Ramza: Magic breakdown, Full Break, Battleforged, Shout
80 Selphie: Curaga, Shellga, Pulse Kindness, Dreamstage
80 Terra: Thundaga, Blizzaja, Blood of Espers

Maybe some part of my mitigation fell off and I missed it, but when I hit phase 2 he just took out half my party in two actions, between Maelstrom and party-wide Inferno and Multi-Firaga.

Pulse Kindness might not be worth the bother, he does enough that I need the Curagas, and I could put Ace Strike there for faster Dreamstages, but I think I'll get more mileage out of doing the double greens dailies.

[danzibr]

Yay double greens.

Btw, how do you pronounce gysahl? I say GUY-sahl. I could see gih-SAHL.

Anyway. Got lucky with major orbs this morning. Did 5 battles and got 1 MWhO and 1 MDO.

And I realized... 1 lucky drop is worth 10000 greens. Crazy.

[SuperPanda]

Had Greyon down to where I couldn't see his health bar anymore and mitigation fails me then, had three actions almost fully charged any one of which would have killed him and he AoEs my team for 4000 each killing everyone.

Grrrr

Edit: spent a mythril and took him down at last, only I'd forgotten to bring a way to reduce his magic so I only got expert... ... I'm thinking that's enough, that was not a pleasant fight.

[Slayn82]

Still stuck with Geryon too. He is tough. Switching out Rikku for Gilgamesh with Advantaliate this time didn't work. Gilgamesh was doing 4K per hit, but the party damage average went down, and Celes SB was giving +RES instead of Runic, so when phase 2 came, without Wall, those spell sequences nuked two party members outright.

Kain and Red XIII are performing well, Red SSB with advance can easily deal 30 K - I tested it once Gil let me down. But if I switch from Advance, his SSB damage becomes a trickle. Maybe its time to Switch Back to Rikku with RW SG and bring Irvine for Canister Shot, but Irvine isn't as durable as Red.

[Antonok]

Yay double greens.

Btw, how do you pronounce gysahl? I say GUY-sahl. I could see gih-SAHL.

Anyway. Got lucky with major orbs this morning. Did 5 battles and got 1 MWhO and 1 MDO.

And I realized... 1 lucky drop is worth 10000 greens. Crazy.

well if you go by how they pronounce it in Lightning Returns (https://youtu.be/hHGIfbGW-nY?t=54) it's 'geh-zall'.

[danzibr]

well if you go by how they pronounce it in Lightning Returns (https://youtu.be/hHGIfbGW-nY?t=54) it's 'geh-zall'.
Ahh... I actually played that game (quite a lot, actually) and completely forgot about that. Thanks.

Not looking forward to the U, given how much trouble people have had.

[Antonok]

Just remembered to do my 100 gem draw on banner 2. Got the 5* Dragon Gloves! Shared SB of fire damage to all targets. Will definitely take it. My only good peice of synergy gear for IV now

Edit: And Yuffie can make use of the SB since her Mag is decent.

[Red Fel]

Not looking forward to the U, given how much trouble people have had.

Yeah... U is not going great for me.

First try was with a mage meta team.
Terra: Ramuh, Shiva, Blood of Summoners.
Hope: Thundaja, Thundaga, Blood of Espers.
Lulu: Blizzaja, Blizzaga, Mako Might. (Focus SB.)
Yuffie: Swift Bolt, Heathen Sarabande, auto-Reflect RM.
Y'shtola: Curaja, Shell, Dr. Mog's Teachings. (SSII SB.)
RW: Quistis (Mighty Guard).I picked the Quistis RW because I couldn't get ahold of my Garnet RW.

Pro, this build burned through the first two stages effortlessly. Con, by the third stage I was doing bubkes damage. Hope's SSB has an element, which meant that it was resisted. (Terra's is NE, which is great, but without the boost from Focus its damage was still finite.) Yuffie's Ninja skills, which ignore Res, did a very satisfying amount of damage even in the late game. And auto-Reflect meant that for the first solid chunk of the battle, I was getting next to no counters. (And yes, he counters with Cursed Elegy throughout the fight.) Ultimately, however, I could never get him below 1/6 health.

So, second team. Following after Forbiddenwar, I used a reta striker.
Sephiroth: Retaliate, Lifesiphon, Knight's Charge.
Terra: Thundaja, Thundaga, Blood of Espers.
Hope: Thundaja, Thundaga, Blood of Espers.
Lulu: Blizzaja, Blizzaga, Mako Might. (Focus SB.)
Yuffie: Swift Bolt, Heathen Sarabande, auto-Reflect RM.
Y'shtola: Curaja, Shell, Dr. Mog's Teachings. (SSII SB.)
RW: Quistis (Mighty Guard).Again, Quistis. Where is my Divine Guardian?

This time I actually did really well. Got him down to a sliver - maybe 5% life left. At that point, however, my ability uses were expiring and so were my mitigations. Lulu dropped first, then Sephiroth, Terra, and Y'shtola at once.

I'm going to try this build again. If it doesn't work, I'll either (1) search for a Divine Guardian RW, or (2) take Advance, because honestly, between Shell, SSII, Focus, and Heathen Sarabande, I'm mitigating a lot of damage, and all the RW adds are Hastega and a Regen.

[Greg_S]

Ok, in reading everyone's experiences with Geryon, I must have gotten RNG lucky with the counters, because I saw two in a row in phase 1, and then 0 in the rest of the fight. Phase 3 involved Shadow SSB burndowns, which aren't counterable.

Cagnazzo rudely greeted my first mage team with haste, group watera, and then tsunami. The biggest problem my physical teams have is cutting through his HP and defenses. Looking at Red's summary, I'm thinking poison shell is going to be important. What I'm thinking of running:

Gilgamesh: Lightning Jump, Ice Jump
Cloud: Blizzara Strike, Thundara Strike
Tyro: Thundaga Strike (maybe Blizzaga Strike), Poison Shell
Yuna: Curaja, Shellga
Ramza: Magic Breakdown, Banishing Strike (could also throw swift bolt on him, but then I need to fit a magic break elsewhere. Hmmm.)

Another option, if I need more dakka, is swapping in Dark Cecil. In a test last night, I got Sanguine Cross doing about 8K per hit, and I could have him use Runic to keep its uses up, but doing that means that I've gotta drop utility elsewhere. Hmmmm... thoughts?

[SuperPanda]

If you need a new divine guardian RW my code is 3Lkv.

Best of luck

[Cozzer]

I'm not sure Lightning Jump is a good choice for CagnazzoU+, considering you have very little time to stop him before he uses Tsunamis. Personally, I used Thundaja + Thundara Strike + Thunder Strike as my three lightning attacks, since I don't have decently honed -Ga Strikes. Had I used Thunder Jump, I would have probably taken at least one more Tsunami, maybe two.

[Chen]

I'd consider Swift bolt for one of your lightning abilities. It's extremely fast to cast. Not sure how much time you have before Tsunami is cast but it may even be possible to use that person hit TWO of the necessary hits, if you have haste up and you have them waiting to be ready for the tsunami.

[Simkin]

Trying the Ult+ more on and off and getting my tail handed to me left and right. Carrying magic and dispel/etc. I don't feel like I have enough slots for tons of mitigation. Even with a mitigation RW I'll have gaps. And the damage I'm doing following the gimmick doesn't seem near enough to get through the whole fight. What am I missing here?

[danzibr]

Mastered the U. Went pure Advandrawtaliate. Only ability he could possibly could have countered was an opening Thundaja from Terra. Took me one S/L due to SG dropping near the end. Second go I held off until after phase 1 to use SG.

[Infernally Clay]

Decided to go for an 11-pull. Ended up getting Dark Cecil's Deathbringer and Fusoya's Faerie Rod. I don't really care about Fusoya since he'll never compete with a level 80 Terra, but that Deathbringer means Dark Cecil will equal Zack for physical attack and actually surpass him in damage thanks to Dark Bargain.

My party now looks like...

Zack [lv80] w/ Apocalypse (Super)
Agrias [lv80] w/ Dark Helm (Shared)
D.Cecil [lv80] w/ Deathbringer (Super)
Gordon [lv65] w/ Flame Shield (Unique)
Minwu [lv65] w/ Healing Staff (Super)

I don't use a magic attacker any more. Agrias can handle elemental weaknesses if she needs to and she's far too versatile to not include. You really can't argue with someone that can use Spellblade, Knight, White Mage and Combat abilities. If I really need a Mage I can swap Agrias out for Terra. Fusoya's Faerie Rod at least gives her 335 magic, which is way better than anything I had before.

[Forbiddenwar]

So, second team. Following after Forbiddenwar, I used a reta striker.
Sephiroth: Retaliate, Lifesiphon, Knight's Charge.
Terra: Thundaja, Thundaga, Blood of Espers.
Hope: Thundaja, Thundaga, Blood of Espers.
Lulu: Blizzaja, Blizzaga, Mako Might. (Focus SB.)
Yuffie: Swift Bolt, Heathen Sarabande, auto-Reflect RM.
Y'shtola: Curaja, Shell, Dr. Mog's Teachings. (SSII SB.)
RW: Quistis (Mighty Guard).Again, Quistis. Where is my Divine Guardian?

.

Carbuncle was necessary for my build. In the end, about 3/4 of his life was done to himself.
Yep, he nuked himself to oblivion and it was glorious.

I'm stumped at the Ulti+, but I haven't had much time yet to poke at it. I fear my biggest problem is simply not enough lightning orbs

[Slayn82]

Congratz Danzibr on mastering the U. I finally managed to beat him, but all the different strategies took almost my entire day worth of Stamina. No Mythril this time.

In the end, I had to bring Ramza for the job after all, along with Celes and Kain for elemental damage, and Minwu.

Zell was the wrecking hammer to bust his last phase with his SSB, Lifesiphon and Piercing Strike, and using Rikku's shield to resist slow, used his 3 bars and 2 piecing Strikes.

For those who are still struggling, I wish you luck.

[danzibr]

Decided to go for an 11-pull. Ended up getting Dark Cecil's Deathbringer and Fusoya's Faerie Rod. I don't really care about Fusoya since he'll never compete with a level 80 Terra, but that Deathbringer means Dark Cecil will equal Zack for physical attack and actually surpass him in damage thanks to Dark Bargain.

My party now looks like...

Zack [lv80] w/ Apocalypse (Super)
Agrias [lv80] w/ Dark Helm (Shared)
D.Cecil [lv80] w/ Deathbringer (Super)
Gordon [lv65] w/ Flame Shield (Unique)
Minwu [lv65] w/ Healing Staff (Super)

I don't use a magic attacker any more. Agrias can handle elemental weaknesses if she needs to and she's far too versatile to not include. You really can't argue with someone that can use Spellblade, Knight, White Mage and Combat abilities. If I really need a Mage I can swap Agrias out for Terra. Fusoya's Faerie Rod at least gives her 335 magic, which is way better than anything I had before.
Nice pull, and nice party!

Congratz Danzibr on mastering the U. I finally managed to beat him, but all the different strategies took almost my entire day worth of Stamina. No Mythril this time.

In the end, I had to bring Ramza for the job after all, along with Celes and Kain for elemental damage, and Minwu.

Zell was the wrecking hammer to bust his last phase with his SSB, Lifesiphon and Piercing Strike, and using Rikku's shield to resist slow, used his 3 bars and 2 piecing Strikes.

For those who are still struggling, I wish you luck.
Thanks, and grats to you!

About to assemble a party for the U+. Prob try in the morning.

EDIT: Mastered the U+ with the following party

80 Terra, Thundaja r4, Blizzaga r5, Devotion (I have her SSB)
80 Rinoa, Thundaga r5, Blizzaja r4, Attunement II (I have her SSB too)
80 Garnet, Shellga r2, Carbuncle r2, Mako Might (I have her SSB too)
80 Tyro, Thundaga Strike r4, Full Break r2, Dr. Mog's Teaching (SG)
80 Pally Cecil, Banishing Strike r4, Venom Buster r3, Pride of the Red Wings (I have one of his unique SB's, Radiant Wings or something)
RW Shout

It went as you'd expect. I learned a couple things. Reflect is a mixed blessing because it heals him, but I think it's definitely worth it. Multiple sources of Hastega was a definite plus. You do *not* have much time to break the barrier. He only got Tsunami off on me once, when Terra was slowed. Took one S/L. Fun battle.

[Red Fel]

Well, at some point in the evening I realized I had wasted my day plugging fruitlessly at the U instead of farming orbs. So I decided to play some catch-up with that and back off on the U for awhile. I may try it again later; I have plenty of time before the event ends next Thursday night.

Perhaps next time I'll skip the mage meta altogether and go straight for Advantaliate. Cursed Elegy hoses me either way; I have no native Hastega, so the RNG of this battle is alternately completely meaningless or totally devastating. So I may as well just go completely nuts and bring the Advantaliate, with a spellblade or two for medal requirements, and see what happens.

[Greg_S]

I'd consider Swift bolt for one of your lightning abilities. It's extremely fast to cast. Not sure how much time you have before Tsunami is cast but it may even be possible to use that person hit TWO of the necessary hits, if you have haste up and you have them waiting to be ready for the tsunami.
Ninja Skills save the day again!

U+ is down and mastered in the toughest battle since Vossler, I think. I had been using Swift Bolt on Shadow for the cast time, but the key was moving it to the keeper, giving him my best magic synergy rod (Ice Rod 3++), Shadow's RM3, and letting him blast the barrier for 6000 at a time. My party:

Gilgamesh 69, Banishing Strike R3, Ice Jump R3, Faithful Companion SSB
Cloud 80, Blizzaga Strike R3, Thundaga Strike R3, Blade Beam SSB
Keeper 80, Swift Bolt R4, Poison Shell R2, SG
Yuna 80, Curaja R4, Shellga R2, HoTF & Dragon's Roar (the +50 RES boost came in handy at one point)
Ramza 72, Full Break R2, Magic Breakdown R3, Shout
RW: Divine Guardian. The RES boost helped keep his AoE water spam manageable before I got wall up, extra hastega nulled one of his slows, and a third source of heavy regen made sure he couldn't pressure damage someone into dying.

What I found was that the hardest part of the fight was endurance. By the end, Cloud had eaten an unlucky stop from shell form. Gil and Ramza were out of abilities, I had 1 swift bolt left, and Tsunami was charging, and that last swift bolt was what did it.
How I played it:

Poison! It really makes shell form less of an RNG middle finger to you, since it mostly negates the healing.
Combining Magic Breakdown and Full Break means Tsunami hits for about 1800 or so damage. The real benefit of him charging the tsunami is that you can drop 20-30K of damage on him then.
More than anything else, focus on countering him. Wait until he moves, then act. Summoning your RW and launching all your buffs in round 1 can get you killed. (Tsunami Form-Haste-Tsunami-Watera happened to me once for a turn 2 wipe)
His mind goes sky-high in shell form. If you get hit with stop there, you're down for 20+ seconds, so just leave him alone in shell form and let poison chew away.


It's a really fun fight, and good luck to everyone trying to slog past Geryon to get to it!

[Forbiddenwar]

Mastered Ulti+ as well. Don't think I can add much to the advice above. I required runic blade as a RW, though to get through. I really REALLY need more lightning orbs.

And while it was okay to have 2 different hastegas, i really need a natural medica.

Good luck to everyone else. I'm switching my RW to Divine Guardian if it helps. (QFWA)

[T.G. Oskar]

I've also had problems with Geryon, but I believe it's because of a lack of proper Medica. Damage is not really the issue, and mitigation works to an extent, but I can't really heal AoEs as I should.

Party goes as follows:
Pally!Cecil, level 66; Defender, Ice Armor, Power Armlet (IV); Saint Cross, Shellga; Holy Blade (or Salve?).
Terra, level 80; Maduin's Horn, Dark Gloves, Rune Armlet; Blizzaja, Thundaja, Vow of Vengeance.
Kain, level 53; Blood Lance, Black Garb, Power Armlet (IV); Lightning Jump, Ice Jump; Dragoon's Determination
Rosa, level 53; Healing Staff, White Robe (IV), Sand Pearl; Curaga, Protectga; Loving Soul
Ramza, level 65; Dancing Dagger (IV), Crystal Mail (VI), Aries; Full Break, Lifesiphon; Dr. Mog's Teachings
RW: Divine Guardian

Getting through each phase isn't the difficult part, as Terra and Kain can deal quite a bit of damage between the two; Thundaja/Lightning Jump for the first phase and Blizzaja/Ice Jump for the second work wonders. Mitigation takes Tsunami to under 2k, and the quadruple Firaga to around the same damage, particularly if Full Break kicks in. However, by phase 3, I'm usually out of RW uses, Cecil's Rampart doesn't bring enough mitigation, and Rosa just can't heal the AoEs even if she's giving out 3k Curagas on her own. Lenna would be effectively 7 levels above a synergized Rosa, and would be able to dish out heals just as fine, while having a Raise and a Regenga on hand, which means I could replace Divine Guardian for a Runic/Grand Cross/Indomitable Blade set-up (having Ramza take advantage of it), and have Pally!Cecil replace Saint Cross for...something else. I could set him up for Draw Fire (to absorb some of the 1st phase hits), or Curaise (to revive people, though reviving them isn't really as effective as it should as it sets them up for an easy additional kill; however, it does also allow some extra healing). Kain has learned Lancet, so I could manually set up Rosa and Cecil to heal other people and just have Kain heal up with his attack (useful by 3rd phase, what with Lancet actually having a high damage modifier). If I take up Grand Cross, I can use it by the 2nd phase on Ramza, to recharge Full Break and possibly Magic Breakdown. Tsunami and Inferno will still hurt, though, unless I maybe switch Ramza's (or Rosa's) accessory to a Flame Ring. I could also replace Cecil's accessory with a Bolt Armlet to reduce Lightning damage.

That said: I can take Geryon to phase 2 reliably, and only once I took him to phase 3. I definitely need to see if that set-up helps me, or if Divine Guardian + Magic Breakdown help me more.

[Antonok]

Theres just something so thrilling about red ng your 400 attack boosted Cloud doing 1500 damage a hit with Fenrir overdrive :smallsigh:

Anyhow, after many attempts I'm giving up on this ult. I have exactly 2 pieces of synergy gear(1 armor, 1 acc), and its just not worth the trouble of hoping RNG plays nice due to low damage output.

[Red Fel]

Oh my Me, have you seen the Spring Login Bonus? The KBP Calendar said there was a "surprise" today, but this is just glorious.

In addition to the usual login bonuses, over the next ten days (starting today) we will get:
Mythril
The 4-star Waterga Strike ability
The 5-star staff Rune Staff, with a unique SB for (ugh) the White Mage
Giant Scarletite x10
Greater Growth Egg x3
Mythril
Greater Growth Egg x5
Giant Adamantite x10
Mythril x5
The 5-star Tornado Strike ability
And that last one? Homina-homina. That's the sweet spot. That's the ability that completely justifies Spellblades. Two-hit AoE wind PHY damage. Drink it up.

[Antonok]

Oh my Me, have you seen the Spring Login Bonus? The KBP Calendar said there was a "surprise" today, but this is just glorious.

In addition to the usual login bonuses, over the next ten days (starting today) we will get:
Mythril
The 4-star Waterga Strike ability
The 5-star staff Rune Staff, with a unique SB for (ugh) the White Mage
Giant Scarletite x10
Greater Growth Egg x3
Mythril
Greater Growth Egg x5
Giant Adamantite x10
Mythril x5
The 5-star Tornado Strike ability
And that last one? Homina-homina. That's the sweet spot. That's the ability that completely justifies Spellblades. Two-hit AoE wind PHY damage. Drink it up.

So basically a good portion of what we've missed from the colab events JP had (this was the best guess anyone could make). I'll take it.

[Forbiddenwar]

Looking at Monday's event. I think I'm done with my almost pointless goal of "if they have a mc2 I will get them to 80". It looks like they are releasing 5 MC2 for ff3 characters on Monday. Characters that are all still level 1.

It was fun while it lasted.

[Jurai]

Oh my Me, have you seen the Spring Login Bonus? The KBP Calendar said there was a "surprise" today, but this is just glorious.

In addition to the usual login bonuses, over the next ten days (starting today) we will get:
Mythril
The 4-star Waterga Strike ability
The 5-star staff Rune Staff, with a unique SB for (ugh) the White Mage
Giant Scarletite x10
Greater Growth Egg x3
Mythril
Greater Growth Egg x5
Giant Adamantite x10
Mythril x5
The 5-star Tornado Strike ability
And that last one? Homina-homina. That's the sweet spot. That's the ability that completely justifies Spellblades. Two-hit AoE wind PHY damage. Drink it up.

I'm more interested in why the announcement said we're getting two instances of 5 Mythril.

Also, how far is everybody from getting all the Record Materia?

I still need to use MC1s for the following

Gordon
Rosa
Edward
Palom
Porom
Setzer
Red XIII
Quistis
Selphie
Edea
Basch
Dark Knight
Dragoon
Gladiator
Samurai
Viking



And I still need to use the MC2 for the following:

Firion
Dark Knight Cecil
Paladin Cecil
Palom
Porom
Shadow
Relm
Red XIII
Tifa
Zack
Squall
Selphie
Auron
Penelo



I still need the following RMs:

Power of Darkness
Beloved Soul
Devout Soul
Moon's Grace II
Adventurer's Dagger
Unbreakable Spellblade
Heart of the Dancer II
Blue Mage Defiance
Cetra's Destiny
Unerring Shot
Healer
Blood of the Summoner
Winds of Rabanastre
Machinist's Touch
Holy Knight's Pride
Healer's Prayer II
Spellblade Mastery II
Blue Moon Barrage
Zealot
Vanish

[danzibr]

Looking at Monday's event. I think I'm done with my almost pointless goal of "if they have a mc2 I will get them to 80". It looks like they are releasing 5 MC2 for ff3 characters on Monday. Characters that are all still level 1.

It was fun while it lasted.
I thought Desch didn't get one.

Can level people during Orbfest.

And woot Tornado Strike.

Edit: Oh and I need 8 RM.

[Slayn82]

Good thing they are giving extra Mythril right Now, before the White Nightmare Banner. Maybe to stimulate people to draw for FF III?

And that Staff with Core Synergy will help Garnet, Mog and other honorary White Mages go to Abyss battle.

FF IV been pretty hardcore with the reasonably decent Mage Synergy I have. FF III will probably beat me and take my lunch money. And give me scrappy 3* for it.

[Greg_S]

Oh my Me, have you seen the Spring Login Bonus? The KBP Calendar said there was a "surprise" today, but this is just glorious.

In addition to the usual login bonuses, over the next ten days (starting today) we will get:
Mythril
The 4-star Waterga Strike ability
The 5-star staff Rune Staff, with a unique SB for (ugh) the White Mage
Giant Scarletite x10
Greater Growth Egg x3
Mythril
Greater Growth Egg x5
Giant Adamantite x10
Mythril x5
The 5-star Tornado Strike ability
And that last one? Homina-homina. That's the sweet spot. That's the ability that completely justifies Spellblades. Two-hit AoE wind PHY damage. Drink it up.

I was hoping they'd do something like this to make up for the missed event. As the owner of an Air Knife (V), I am looking forward to 20% boosted Tornado Strikes!

EDIT: U++ Bahamut is weak to wind, so we'll have Tornado Strike available for him. That's good.

[Antonok]

Well all classic dungeons are finally cleared. I'm at 128 4/5 stamina with 182 elite dungeons to clear. And definitely not looking foward to a couple of those. Stupid can't be reached by melee bosses...

[Simkin]

Ugh. Ult+ is down, expert only :smallconfused::smallyuk::smallfurious: Fought him on and off all day. Tons of S/L. Probably would have championed but I forgot a way to reduce his magic. Wasn't fun enough that I'm going to go back and try again. I'd like those MPOs and MEOs, but to hell with it. I don't want them that bad. At least I cleared it though. Wasn't pleased with the idea that I might have to pass on it altogether.

[Simkin]

Well all classic dungeons are finally cleared. I'm at 128 4/5 stamina with 182 elite dungeons to clear. And definitely not looking foward to a couple of those. Stupid can't be reached by melee bosses...

Congratz on the milestone. And you're right, some of the elites are...fun =)

[Red Fel]

And Ult is officially down! My team:
Sephiroth: Retaliate, Lifesiphon, Heroic Stance.
Pencil: Double Cut, Magic Break, auto-Reflect.
DK!Cecil: Double Cut, Armor Break, Zeal.
Terra: Thundaja, Blizzaja, Blood of Espers.
Y'shtola: Curaja, Shellga, Dr. Mog's Teachings.
RW: Ramza (Shout).
That's right. No medica. I went with Reta meta, using Shout for Hastega instead of Advance.

I got punished. First time through, I got down to the final phase before getting utterly dominated. Got slaughtered before I could S/L, but I was feeling confident, so I spent one mythril to restart and got... HP. "Crappit," I thought. Worse, upon the battle resuming, I realized that Y'shtola's SB gauge was not full - which meant starting with Rampart instead of SSII. But I tried anyway, and managed to kill him... After both Cecils and Terra died. Naturally, I figured that mastery was beyond my reach.

Nope. No medals lost to actions taken - I killed him before Pencil's auto-Reflect expired - two lost to damage taken, one lost to characters KO'd. Total of three medals lost, champion rank. Mastery get! Oh, and he dropped a GDO, for kicks.

I can look forward to the U+ now, but honestly, I'm tired. So I'll probably set up an exp-farming party for tomorrow, and crash; I have plenty of time to poke away at the Turtle Hermit before the event ends.

EDIT: As to missing RMs, I'm missing:
Summoner of Mist: I've given Rydia her MC2, but haven't farmed it
Black Mage Prodigy: I have Palom's MC2, but haven't leveled him
White Mage Prodigy: I have Porom's MC2, but haven't leveled her
The Zangan Way: I haven't purchased Tifa's MC2
Balamb Firebrand: I've given Zell his MC2, but haven't farmed it
Black Mage's Awakening: I haven't purchased Vivi's MC2
And that's it. Only MC2s I haven't used are Palom and Porom (because levels) and Tifa and Vivi (because un-purchased). I'm still sitting on one MC2 lode, and expect more from upcoming events. Specifically, we get one from the Reraise Nightmare (expected next week), one from the Cait Sith event (after the upcoming III event and following IX event), and one from the Big Bridge event (expected to follow sometime around the Cait Sith event). We also expect one from the XIII event following BSBfest, another from the next Nightmare (Neo Bahamut), and one from the X event that's two events after XIII. So we have a lot of those coming up within the next month or so; I see no reason to spend my hard-earned greens on them.

Tomorrow will be spent leveling Palom, Porom, and whatever other WHM I decide needs it.

[danzibr]

Grats to people on victories!

Today I'm leveling Porom (or is it Palom? I can never keep them straight) and someone else. Started as Zack, got him to 80, now Penelo (and she's almost 80). Goal is to get the third exp RM.

Also, Reraise team is looking good (80 Lenna, Relm, Aerith, Selphie, Yuna, Penelo, Vanille, Tyro, might get Beatrix up by then), Neo Bahamut team is looking decent (80 Terra, Aerith, Rinoa, Garnet, Yuna, Tyro, will have Rydia and maybe Hope up by then), Quadruple Foul is looking craptastic (80 Wakka, Fran, Tyro, and 70 Red XIII... blegh).

EDIT: Oh man oh man oh man. I just looked at the II event in the distant future. Super exciting. Banners have truck loads of BSB's and SSB's (though that's the standard for new events in JP, it looks like). So many MC's and MC2's (Firion's old one + Maria's, Leon's, Guy's, Minwu's), and the U++ is the Black Knights from the start of the game! Awesome. Fight 4 of them. That's going to be a hard donkey fight. Multibreak ftw. To make things better, concurrent with that (or maybe it starts partway through it?) we get one of the fragment dungeon thingies that goes along with it.

Also, I saw at *some point* (I haven't checked thoroughly enough) we get 3 rewards for completion and mastery. At least sometimes.