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Unranked Games / Re: Persona 3: Reloaded

« on: November 14, 2024, 07:23:59 PM »

Saved for Averages

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Unranked Games / Re: Persona 3: Reloaded

« on: November 09, 2024, 06:25:38 AM »

First - Here is a COMPLETE List of all the Personas in-game, including the DLC ones if you are crazy: https://aqiu384.github.io/megaten-fusion-tool/p3r/personas
Next - If you are ever wondering about the length of Fusion chain (and thus by association, the cost needed to add a Skill): https://aqiu384.github.io/megaten-fusion-tool/p3r/recipes

The second link lets you specify exactly what skill you want and gives you the most efficient fusion path to generate your requested persona with said skill. For example, if I want a Daisoujou with Resist Phys, fill out the line, and the calculator shows that I can combine Lucifer (the only carrier) with Asparsus, and then using that created persona to fuse to Mokoi. This generates a Ganga that knows Resist Phys which can then be passed through Ganga x Jatayu, making it a 3-step fusion (and lots of money).  I should also note that I did not include DLC Personas into this stat topic. Pay2win for the lose.

If you see a +, it means a skill can be learnt via Inheritance, whereas a * indicates it can also be added via a Skill Card. A ! indicates this skill can be inherited from the base personas used to fuse it, meaning it is always available on fusing. This is relevant mostly for unique fusions who only have one specified method of creation.

Minato Arisato / Makoto Yuki / Yiu Negato / Teh Laggeh/ etc/ - "Done and Dusted"
Level
HP
SP

Affinities - Variable depending on Persona
Fixed Passives: Weakness Amp - Deals an additional 20% damage when striking weaknesses.

Theurgy 1: Cadenza - Requires Orpheus and Asparsus in Compendium. Heals the entire party 50% of their Max HP and casts Masukukaja
Theurgy 2: Jack Brothers - Requires Jack Frost and Pyro Jack in Compendium. Deals MT Almighty damage with an 80% chance to automatically Knock Down targets
Theurgy 3: King and I - Requires Black Frost and King Frost in Compendium. Deals MT Heavy Ice damage with an 50% chance to Freeze. Ignores any resistances.
Theurgy 4: Best Friends - Requires Forneus and Decabria in Compendium. Provides any one ally with Concentrate and Charge status.
Theurgy 5: Scarlet Havoc - Requires Seigfrid and Mithras in Compendium. Deals Massive MT Slashing damage. Attack has a 30% chance to Crit.
Theurgy 6: Trickster - Requires Loki and Susano-O in Compendium. Deals Massive MT Almighty damage. 80% chance to inflict a random status.
Theurgy 7: Armageddon - Requires Helel and Satan in Compendium. Deals guaranteed 9999 damage to all targets. Cannot be nullified or blocked in anyway. After use, Yiu's HP/SP are reduced to 1.
 
Average Starting Meter -
100 Units for Boss Days only
100 Units for Total availability

Charging increases under the following states -
In general, MC does not have an accelerated charging state despite what the game says. Just multiple areas where they gain slightly more gauge
1t. Using any Persona Skill (Physical, Magical, Support, Healing) - 50 Units
1t. Being at Low HP - 50 Units

Kind of a good thing too since if he gets his Theurgy, it's pretty much "You die now" thanks to Armageddon.

General overall "Good" Personas to use:

I would strongly consider taking most of these with Level 80-ish stats for the Persona if you can, for all that I don't have this available. Just note if you are considering them for use at the end of the game, you're probably equipping it most of the time (thus it gets all the XP), or you've slapped Growth 3 on.

Daisoujou
Base Lv. 59
Affinity - Null Light / Dark (thanks to Skill; otherwise Weak)
Preferred Role - Support

Str - 33
Mag - 49
End - 38
Agl - 31
Luk - 42

Skills:
Diarahan: 20 SP, Fully Restores target's HP
Hamaon: 14 SP. 50% Light based Instant death. Jumps to 75% with Hama Boost
Samsara: 40 SP. 70% Light Based Instant death to all targets. Jumps to 105% with Hama Boost
Invigorate 3: Recover 7 SP a Turn
Null Dark: Nulls Dark Damage. Overrides Weakness
Growth 3: Ensures Persona receives the same amount of SP as if it was the active one used for battle.
Hama Boost: Increases the success rate of Light-based instant death attacks by 50%. Already factored
+/* Enduring Soul: Passive - Fully restores character when they are defeated. OPB.

Notes -
Daisoujou is a lower leveled Persona but one that might be considered because of one thing: Samsara. It is a 100% accurate barring Light / ID Resistances. So if you're open to it, use fast Persona, swap to Daisoujou, then ID to win. Enduring Soul allows Yiu to absorb a fatal blow and gets 2 tries at the ID if need be, while also serving as a OPB ID guard itself. The chain for this one is actually fairly reasonable (2 steps off a level 52 fusion), so this is a good budget support option. Its main downside is that unless Yiu is opting for Light based ID, it's pretty useless.

Seigfried
Base Lv. 59
Affinity - Null Slash / Light. Resist Strike. Weak to Dark
Preferred Role - Physical Specialist

Str - 44
Mag - 29
End - 38
Agl - 36
Luk - 25

Skills:
Deathbound: 19% Max HP Cost, Multi-target Slashing damage, +17% (64% Crit Rate if Spec'd as noted), 85% Acc Mod
Brave Blade: 20% Max HP Cost, Single target Slashing damage, +20% (67% Crit Rate if Spec'd as noted), 90% Acc Mod
Charge: 30 SP. Next Physical attack deals 2.25x the damage
Crit Rate Amp: Passive - Increase Crit Rate by +15%
Slash Amp: Passive - Increases Slashing damage by 50%
Auto-Rebellion: Passive - Begins battle with Rebellion cast (+7% Crit). Expires after 3 turns.
Auto-Masukukaja: Passive - begins battle with Sukukaja cast on all party members.
+/* Crit Rate Boost: Passive - Adds +5% Crit Rate. Already factored - Delete Deathbound
+/* Apt Pupil: Passive - Doubles base skill Crit Rate - Delete Auto-Masukukaja
+/* Null Dark: Passive - Fully restores character when they are defeated. OPB - Delete Charge OR Auto-Rebellion

Notes -
Seigfried is a Persona you tend to fuse in the latter half of the game and he makes for a very solid Anchor or main Persona of choice for going Physical. His own base set of skills are all very good. In the DL, Yiu would want to spec him more for Crit due to Brave Blade and as such attach Apt Pupil, Crit Rate Boost and Null Dark to guard the weakness on the attacking Turn if need be. Otherwise, he'll be happy to keep Auto-Rebellion or Charge so he doesn't need to swap Personas during the set up turn. The end result is a Persona who is really good at Slashing things and basically has a Turn 1 Crit Rate for massive damage. Deathbound is kind meh, but could see use against foes who spawn support. There are better Persona for this type of role, but Seig doesn't require a max S.Link for it, which is nice.

Masakados
Base Lv. 79
Affinity - Resist Physicals (Slash/Strike/Pierce), Reflect Light, Resist Dark, Weak to Lightning
Preferred Role - Physical Specialist

Str - 67
Mag - 46
End - 55
Agl - 43
Luk - 48

Skills:
Tempest Slash: 14% HP Cost, inflicts 1-4 hits of Slashing damage to one enemy. 95% Acc mod, +8% Crit rate. Average of 50% chance for 4 hits, 20.71% chance of 3 hits, 15.89% chance of 2 hits and 13.4% chance of one hit.
Myriad Arrows: Inflicts 2-5 hits of Piercing damage to all enemies.
Magarudyne: 24 SP, Heavy Wind damage to all enemies
Debilitate: 36 SP, Applies all stat debuffs (Attack down, defense down, Acc/Eva down) to one target. Lasts 3 turns.
Crit Rate Amp: Passive - Increase Crit Rate by +15%
Arms Master: Passive - Halves HP Cost of Physical Skills
Unshaken Will: Passive - Blocks all Mental type Status
! Primal Force: 21% (10% with Arms Master) Max HP Cost, Single target Piercing damage, +10% (25% Crit Rate if Spec'd as noted), 92% Acc Mod,
! Pierce Boost: Passive - Increases Piercing damage by 25%. Already factored. Stacks with Pierce Amp. Delete Delete Tempest Slash
! Pierce Amp: Passive - Increases Piercing damage by 25%. Already factored. Stacks with Pierce Boost. Delete Myriad Arrows
! Enduring Soul: Passive - Fully restores character when they are defeated. OPB. Delete Magarudyne.
+/* Charge: 30 SP. Next Physical attack deals 2.25x the damage - Delete Unshaken Will
+/* Resist Elec: Passive - Halves damage taken from Electric Attacks. Overrides Weaknesses.

Notes -
Masakados is basically an upgrade over Seigfried (Tower Persona generally are all good). Resists all physicals and has a bunch of added elemental immunities but weak to a common element. Upon further inspection, Masakados is in a great place at specializing in Piercing damage due to his parts giving him all he needs in Primal Force, Pierce Boost and Pierce Amp. This allows him to hit pretty hard yet still have a respectable crit rate on it that has to be considered by opponents while not needing to burn a ton of skill card uses like the previous build. Resist Elec isn't going to be a shoe-in all the town but Masakados makes it easy to consider what skill needs to go in this case.


Norn
Base Lv. 65
Affinity - Absorb Wind, Repel Ice, Null Fire, Weak Lightning
Preferred Role - Element Specialist

Str - 37
Mag - 60
End - 40
Agl - 37
Luk - 40

Skills:
Mediarahan: 44 SP. Fully restores HP of the entire party
Salvation: 60 SP: Fully restore HP and status condition (except for KO) for entire party
Magarudyne: 24 SP. Deals Heavy Wind damage to all enemies
Panta Rhei: 40 SP. Deals Massive Wind damage to one enemy.
Magarudyne: 24 SP, Heavy Wind damage to all enemies
Soul Link: Passive - Restores 8 SP when receiving a Shift'd Turn
Wind Amp: Passive - Increase Wind damage by 50%. Already factored
Invigorate 3: Passive - Recover 7 SP at the start of your turn.
+/* Concentrate: 30 SP. Next Magical attack deals 2.25x the damage. If used in conjunction with a Theurgy the bonus is only 2x. - Delete Soul Link
+/* Wind Boost: Passive - Increases Wind damage dealt by 25%. Stacks with Wind Amp - Delete Magarudyne
+/* Spell Master: Passive - Decreases SP Cost of spells by 1/2 - Delete Mediarahan
+/* Resist Elec: Passive - Halves damage taken from Electric Attacks. Overrides Weaknesses.
! Wind Break: 12 SP - Resets target's Wind affinity to Neutral or weaker.
! Rakunda: 8 SP - Increases damage dealt to target by 40%

Notes -
No longer an ultimate fusion, Norn is now a readily available late game persona that combines the 3 lesser sisters of fate. Her skillset is pretty well rounded and like Seigfried, is pretty much ready to go out of the gate, learning a T4 Wind spell as well as Innate wind Amp and having a good number of Resistances. She just really wants Resist or Null Elec so her weakness can be guarded when you make the attack turn. If Yiu has a pure support Persona, then you don't even need her to learn Concentrate as you can pass the Concentrate Turn to her after. Might consider Wind Break to blow past Resistances or Rakunda to hit even harder, but as is the case with a lot of Yiu's Personas, you have lots of options to customize. 

Alice
Base Lv. 68
Affinity - Repel Dark, Weak Light
Preferred Role - Support

Str - 35
Mag - 62
End - 31
Agl - 51
Luk - 44

Skills:
Mudoon: 14 SP. 50% Dark based ID (75% with Mudo Boost)
Maeigaon: 25 SP - Deals heavy Dark element damage to all targets
Die for Me!: 40 SP. Deals 70% Dark based ID to all enemies (105% with Mudo Boost).
Mudo Boost: Passive - Increases Success rate of Dark based ID skills by 50% (Already factored)
Endure Light: Passive - Survives one Light based ID attack with 1 HP
Megidolaon: 50 SP - Heavy Almighty / Non-typed damage to all enemies.
! Pulinpa: 5 SP - 60% chance to inflict Confuse on a single target (72% with Ailment Boost).
! Marin Karin: 5 SP - 60% chance to inflict Charm on a single target (90% chance with Charm Boost. 108% with Charm Boost and Ailment Boost)
! Charm Boost: Passive - Increases chance of inflicting Charm by 50% of its base rate. Already factored. Delete Endure Light
+/* Ailment Boost: Passive. Increases chance of inflicting status by 20% of its base rate. Already factored. Delete Megidoloan
! Freeze Boost: 5 SP - Increases chance of inflicting Freeze by 50% of its base rate. Already factored. Delete Maeigaon.
+ Diamond Dust: 46 SP - 46 SP, deals massive Ice damage, Single target. Has a 60% chance to Freeze target (90% with Freeze Boost, 108% with Freeze and Ailment Boost). Delete Mudoon.

Notes -
Alice's base skillset is a bit all over the place. Thankfully, the base materials used to fuse her together strongly give her a unique niche for the DL - a fast status slinger. 51 Agl at Level 68 is pretty good, so if you scale Alice up, she should hit around 70ish Agility by Level 85 and that's probably being generous due to Shuffle Time bonuses. With her speed, she can often go first and then lob 3 100% accurate status types in ID, Freeze or Charm. Of course, the ID can be blocked (ID or Dark immunity) and the Freeze requires a 2-3 step chain fusion (basically need to get Diamond Dust on Cybele or Raphael, then down fuse for the simplest operation) but together like this, she makes for a very powerful tool if Yiu decides to carry her as part of his roster.

Satan
Base Lv. 82
Affinity - Resist Fire, Repel Ice, Wind (with Skill, Weak otherwise), Absorbs Dark
Preferred Role - (Non) Element Specialist / Anchor

Str - 55
Mag - 68
End - 52
Agl - 43
Luk - 53

Skills:
Diamond Dust: 46 SP, deals massive Ice damage, Single target. Has a 60% chance to Freeze target (108% with Freeze and Ailment Boost)
Maeigaon: 25 SP - Deals heavy Dark element damage to all targets
Resist Ailments: Passive - Reduces chance of being hit with any status effect by 25%
Megidolaon: 50 SP - Deals Heavy Almighty damage to all targets.
Concentrate: 30 SP - Increases the next magical attack made by 2.25x. If used in conjunction with a Theurgy the bonus is only 2x.
Debilitate: 36 SP. Applies all stat debuffs (Attack down, defense down, Acc/Eva down) to one target. Lasts 3 turns.
Black Viper: 70 SP - Deals Massive Almighty damage to one target
Repel Wind: Passive - Reflects Wind damage back to the attacker.
+/* Single Target Boost -  Increases the damage dealt to single targets by 15%. Already factored. Delete Resist Ailments
+/* Spell Master: Passive. Decreases the MP used for casting spells by 50%. Delete Megidolaon
! Almighty Boost: Passive - Increases the damage dealt from Almighty attacks by 25%. Already factored. Delete Maeigaon


Notes -
Satan is a very good universal Persona since it sports no weaknesses. It's main differentiator is Black Viper. It has the strongest base power in the game but because of the lack of boosts, amps and it's heavy SP cost, it is pretty impractical for it to base an entire game plan around - especially in-game where hitting weaknesses or crits are so much more important. In the DL though, this all goes out the window and what we have left is a Persona that packs a Non-Elemental magic attack that Yiu can hide behind since it also has decent END. Debilitate and Concentrate highlight more of the well-roundedness and he always does have Diamond Dust here as a fall back. It's not the Persona Yiu wants would want to make an entirely Ice based focused Persona, but just keep in mind that he can if he alters some passive skills. This option though, takes advantage of the non-element Black Viper which is much more relevant DL-wise versus in-game.


Shiva
Base Lv. 82
Affinity - Null Pierce, Light. Absorb Lightning, Weak Ice
Preferred Role -  Anchor

Str - 63
Mag - 57
End - 48
Agl - 57
Luk - 55

Skills:
Maziodyne: 24 SP, deals Heavy Lightning damage to all enemies. Has a 10% chance to Shock target
God's Hand: 25% Max HP Cost, Single target Strike damage, +13% Crit Rate, 88% Acc Mod
Pralaya: 23% Max HP Cost, deals Pierce damage to all targets, 20% Crit Rate, Inflicts Fear 50% of the time, 95% Acc Mod
Invigorate 3: Passive - Restores 7 SP at the beginning of your turn
Life Aid: Passive - Restores 8% HP/SP at the end of battle
Enduring Soul: Passive - Fully restores character when they are defeated. OPB.
Ali Dance: Passive - Reduces the accuracy of incoming attacks by 1/2
+/* Diarahan -  20 SP - Fully restores HP to one target
+/* Pierce Amp: Passive - Increases the damage dealt from Pierce attacks by 50%. Already factored. Delete Life Aid
+/* Charge: 30 SP - Increases the damage from the next physical attack by 2.25x - Delete Maziodyne
+/* Resist Ice: Passive - Halves damage taken from Ice Attacks. Overrides Weaknesses. Delete Invigorate 3
+/* Heat Riser - 36 SP -  Applies all stat buffs (Attack up, defense up, Acc/Eva up) to one ally. Lasts 3 turns.
! Matarunda: 24 SP - Decreases damage enemy damage dealt by 40%

Notes -
Shiva is a unique Persona that can only be formed when Rangda and Barong are paired together. They don't supply Shiva with a lot of useful passive skills...BUT Shiva himself is already pretty loaded. The combo of Enduring Soul + Ali Dance is an excellent basis for form an Anchor type Persona and he packs a couple of other useful attack skills. God Hand does a lot of ST physical damage but Pralaya deserves a mention here because of its higher base crit as well as 50% Fear chance. Both of those might make it the better attack of choice sometimes. Yiu would want to slap on some additional skills here - notably Diarahan and probably Resist Ice if the goal is indeed to have Shiva be the Anchor Persona. Not needing a specific key item means Shiva is always available too, which is cool beans in terms of roster selection.



Abaddon
Base Lv. 76
Affinity - Absorb Slash, Strike Dark. Null Fire. Weak Ice, Light
Preferred Role -  Blocker/Support

Str - 53
Mag - 61
End - 48
Agl - 33
Luk - 46

Skills:
Virus Breath: 25 SP - Deals moderate Almighty damage to all targets and inflicts Poison at 40% chance (50% with Ailment Boost)
Evil Smile: 10 SP - 45% chance to apply Fear to all targets
Deathbound: 19% Max HP Cost, deals Slash damage to all targets, 17% Crit Rate, 85% Acc Mod
Vile Assault: 15% Max HP Cost, deals Pierce damage to one enemy, 17% Crit Rate, 95% Acc Mod. Damage increases by 50% on a downed opponent
Maragidyne: 24 SP - Deals heavy Fire damage to all enemies.
Ailment Boost: Passive - Increases the success rate of inflicting Status ailments by 25% of the base rate.
Drain Ice: Passive - Absorbs Ice attacks. Overrides Weakness.
+/* Null Light: Passive - Blocks Light damage. Overrides Weakness.
+/* Diarahan -  20 SP - Fully restores HP to one target. Delete Vile Assault
+/* Provoke: 5 SP - 70% chance to inflict Rage on target. 87% with Ailment Boost. Delete Maragidyne.
+/* Repel Pierce: Passive - Reflects Pierce damage back to the attacker Delete Deathbound
+/* Debilitate - 36 SP -  Applies all stat debuffs (Attack down, defense down, Acc/Eva down) to one enemy. Lasts 3 turns.  Delete Evil Smile.
+/* Marin Karin: 5 SP - 60% chance to inflict Charm on target. 72% with Ailment Boost

Notes -
Abaddon has a 2 weaknesses and learns a skill to cover one of them. Pass it Null Light and now it blocks a lot of different things, making it good for a stall type Persona. Since it has Ailment Boost and Absorbs 2 Physical attributes, let's give it Provoke as well to turn it into a match ending status on hit. Never mind that inflicting Rage causes the target to take 2x the damage - hitting with Rage here means the opponent is forced to strike you with a physical which Abaddon will most likely heal from. And hey, you all know what happens if we get to Turn 19. Abaddon can round out the coverage with Repel Pierce and adding Debilitate is useful both additional skills are just "nice to have" instead of "must have" when Yiu has to save Skill cards.


Vishnu
Base Lv. 78
Affinity - Absorb Light. Null Ice, Lightning. Weak Dark
Preferred Role - Anchor / Hybrid

Str - 65
Mag - 55
End - 50
Agl - 53
Luk - 42

Skills:
Salvation: 60 SP: Fully restore HP and status condition (except for KO) for entire party
Bufudyne: 14 SP - Deals Heavy Ice damage to a Single target. 15% chance to inflict Freeze
Ziodyne: 14 SP. Deals Heavy Lightning damage to a Single target. 15% chance to inflict Shock
Panta Rhei: 40 SP. Deals Massive Wind damage to one enemy.
Akasha Arts: 22% HP Cost, inflicts 1-2 hits of Strike damage to all targets. 88% Acc Mod. +12% Crit rate.
Concentrate: 30 SP - Increases the damage of the next magical attack made by x2.25. If used in conjunction with a Theurgy the bonus is only 2x.
Ali Dance: Passive - Reduces the accuracy of incoming attacks by 1/2
+/* Null Dark: Passive - Blocks Dark damage. Overrides Weakness.
+/* Spell Master: Passive - Reduces SP cost of Spells by 1/2 - Delete Akasha Arts
+/* Elec Amp: Passive - Increases Lightning damage dealt by 50% - Delete Panta Rhei
+/* Diarahan: 20 SP - Fully restores HP to one target. Delete Salvation
+/* Heat Riser - 36 SP - Applies all stat buffs (Attack up, defense up, Acc/Eva up) to one ally. Lasts 3 turns. Delete Bufudyne

Notes -
Vishnu is similar to Shiva in that it is a well-balanced choice to make an anchor since it learns a healing move + Ali Dance. It is a bit weaker in the sense that its learned skills are a bit of a mix and the skills it favors are more magical while its stats suggest it should go physical instead. My suggestion is to morph it into kind of a hybrid Anchor/Support, keeping Healing, removing the weakness and focusing on Lightning damage instead. Why Lightning? Well, of all the T4 Elemental spells Lightning (Thunder Reign), is the hardest to transfer because there is only one source which is Odin. So if you don't allow max S.Links for whatever reason, it can't be transferred. In which case, leaning more into a slugging, electric persona as anchor definitely has its uses. Shiva can do this too for all that it is harder because Shiva can only fused in one way.


Backstory / Episode Locked Persona:
These are Personas who cannot be fused unless Yiu completes the Backstory / Episode with the said character. Note that for the purposes of the DL and this stat topic, only 3 of the 6 are relevant: Ken, Koromaru and Ryuji and that of the 3, only Ken and Ryuji give access to Personas that should be considered for DL usage. The others are either too low leveled and their role can be passed to another Persona (Surt) or don't have anything worthwhile to consider (Horus).

Michael
Base Lv. 70
Affinity - Resist Slash, Pierce. Repel Light. Absorb Dark. Weak Wind
Preferred Role - Physical Specialist
Fusion Note - Requires completion of Ken Backstory

Str - 56
Mag - 48
End - 46
Agl - 37
Luk - 42

Skills:
Heaven's Blade: 18% Max HP Cost, Single target Slashing damage, +30% Crit Rate (80% with suggested Loadout), 90% Acc Mod
Divine Judgment: 38 SP - Light based attack that deals 50%MHP to target.
Angelic Grace: Passive - Gives a flat 15% evade bonus to all elemental type attacks.
Makougaon: 25 SP. Deals Heavy Light damage to all enemies.
Maziodyne: 24 SP. Deals Heavy Lightning damage to all enemies. 15% chance to inflict Shock
Heat Riser: 36 SP - Applies all stat buffs (Attack up, defense up, Acc/Eva up) to one ally. Lasts 3 turns.
Drain Pierce: Passive - Absorbs Piercing type attacks (converts to HP healed)
+/* Resist Wind: Passive - Reduces the effectiveness of Wind based attacks to 50%. Overrides Weakness.
+/* Apt Pupil: Passive - Doubles base skill Crit Rate - Delete Divine Judgment
+/* Crit Rate Amp: Passive - Increase Crit Rate by +15% - Delete Makougaon
+/* Crit Rate Boost: Passive - Adds +5% Crit Rate. Already factored - Delete Maziodyne
+/* Slash Amp: Passive - Increases Slashing damage by 50% - Delete Drain Pierce

Notes -
And you thought Seigfried and Masakados had high crit rate builds. Michael comes in and says, "Hold my sword" as his unique skill, Heaven's Blade has a whopping 30% base crit. With Apt Pupil, that's 60% - probably a 1st turn crit for most. By stacking the two Crit Rate Boosts together, you get a flat 80% Crit rate. If you factor in 1-mores for the P3R cast, Michael is pretty much going to be a shoe-in for that physical spot for Heaven's Blade Crits alone. There are other ways to further enhance it such as slapping on Auto-Rebellion to raise it to 87% Crit for the first 3 turns, but at that point, we're getting into overkill territory and Yiu probably wants to make sure that the skill has some damage threat behind it. The combo of a Charged Heaven's Blade into a Concentrate T4 elemental skill is a ridiculous amount of damage since downing an opponent with a crit gives an extra 1.3x multiplier.

Saturnus
Base Lv. 76
Affinity - Absorb Fire. Null Wind. Weak Ice
Preferred Role - Element Specialist
Fusion Note - Requires completion of Ryuji Backstory

Str - 43
Mag - 70
End - 45
Agl - 51
Luk - 41

Skills:
Inferno: 40 SP. Deals massive Fire damage to a single enemy.
Maragidyne: 24 SP - Deals Heavy Fire damage to all enemies
Concentrate: 30 SP - Increases the damage dealt by the next magic attack by x2.25. If used in conjunction with a Theurgy the bonus is only 2x.
Primal Force: 21% HP Cost, inflicts massive Piercing damage to one enemy. 92% Acc mod, +10% Crit rate.
Heat Riser: 36 SP - Applies all stat buffs (Attack up, defense up, Acc/Eva up) to one ally. Lasts 3 turns.
Fire Amp: Passive - Increases the damage dealt by Fire attacks by 50%. Stacks with Fire Boost.
Repel Ice: Passive - Reflects Ice typed damage to the attacker. Overrides Weakness.
+/* Fire Boost: Passive - Increases the damage dealt by Fire attacks by 25%. Stacks with Fire Amp.
+/* Single-Target Boost: Passive - Increases the damage dealt by single target attacks by 15%. Delete Primal Force
+/* Spell Master: Passive - Decreases the SP Cost of casting spells by 50%. Delete Maragidyne.

Notes -
If you're wondering how Surt went from ultimate Magician Persona to being obsoleted, blame this guy. Saturnus, like Norn, is everything you would want in an element specialist. Instead of Wind though, it's to a more common element in Fire. Still the different typing is good. There may be some consideration in swapping out Concentrate and Heat Riser since other Personas can provide those effects. In which case, Yiu might prefer a defensive passive such as Ali Dance or even Resist Phys to round things out.

Ultimate Arcana Personas
And here's all the max S.Link locked Personas. The order of presentation will be as it is displayed in the previous post. The first 3 will be the 3 Arcana that are guaranteed to be maxed (Fool, Death, Judgment), followed by the Persona of the Arcana in increasing number ending with Aeon. I will make a note regarding what it is locked behind and if it is a chained fusion. Again as noted in the previous post, chain fusions are trickier because any disruption to one part of the chain stops that Persona from being available.

Susano-O
Base Lv. 77
Affinity - Null Wind. Repel Pierce. Weak Lightning, Light
Preferred Role - Physical Specialist
Fusion Note - Requires completion of Fool S.Link

Str - 71
Mag - 35
End - 43
Agl - 49
Luk - 55

Skills:
Brave Blade - 20% Max HP Cost, Single target Slashing damage, +20% Crit Rate (55% with suggested build), 90% Acc Mod
Vorpal Bade - 22% Max HP Cost, deals massive Slashing damage to all enemies, +13% Crit Rate (48% with suggested build), 92% Acc Mod
Charge - 30 SP - Increases damage of next physical attack by 2.25x
Auto-Mataru - Passive - Applies Matarukaja to the party at the beginning of a battle.
High Counter - Passive - 20% chance to reflect incoming physical attack back to attacker
Slash Amp: Passive - Increases Slashing damage by 50%
Repel Light: Passive - Reflects Light based attacks back to attacker. Overrides Weakness.
+/* Apt Pupil - Passive - Doubles base skill Crit Rate (already factored)
+/* Crit Rate Amp: Passive - Increase Crit Rate by +15%. Delete High Counter
+/* Slash Boost: Passive - Increases Slashing damage by 25% - Delete Vorpal Blade
+/* Resist Elec: Passive - Decreases damage from Lightning type attacks by 50%. Overrides Weakness.

Notes -
We've seen this build several times by now. Susano-O isn't much different except for his affinity and high Luck score. Honestly, there's almost no reason to suggest using Susano-O because he doesn't stand out in any notable way other than stats. I guess if you're trying to save Skill Cards, then it's an option but Seigfred is also right there though.


Thanatos
Base Lv. 78
Affinity - Resist Fire, Ice, Lightning, Wind. Repel Dark. Weak Light
Preferred Role - Blocker / Hybrid
Fusion Note - Requires completion of Death S.Link

Str - 52
Mag - 66
End - 53
Agl - 45
Luk - 40

Skills:
Maeigaon - 25 SP. Deals Heavy Dark damage to all enemies.
Mamudoon - 26 SP. 50% chance of Dark based Instant Death to all enemies. Chance is reduced against Dark resistance and presumably ID Immunity
Ghastly Wail - 28 SP. 100% chance of Instant Death if target is afflicted with Fear. Does nothing otherwise.
Brave Blade - 20% Max HP Cost, Single target Slashing damage, +20% Crit Rate (55% with suggested build), 90% Acc Mod
Megidolaon - 50 SP. Deals Heavy Almighty damage to all enemies.
Dark Amp: Passive - Increases Dark damage by 50%
Enduring Soul: Passive - Fully restores character when they are defeated. OPB.
+/* Null Light: Passive - Blocks Light based damage. Overrides Weakness.
+/* Resist Phys: Passive - Decreases damage from Physical sources (Slash, Strike, Pierce) by 50%. Overrides Weakness. Delete Ghastly Wail
+/* Diarahan: 20 SP - Fully restores a target to full HP. Delete Megidoloan
+/* Ali Dance: Passive - Reduces the accuracy of incoming attacks by 1/2. Delete Mamudoon.


Notes -
Thanatos is probably the definitive choice for a Hybrid Persona. His skillset is all over the place (seriously Ghastly Wail without a way to inflict Fear) but he makes it up with his plethora of resistances. Being Weak to Light normally, it is easy to patch this up in-game with a Skill Card and then just use him as is. He won't be optimal at anything, but he's never a bad substitute choice either. In the DL, he can leverage this as a Persona that comes in with a bunch of resistances, Ali Dance, Enduring Soul and full healing and then slug it out with either Brave Blades, Maeigaon or Megidolaons. None of them are terribly efficient (in fact the latter two eat SP up like crazy), but the defenses are so good, Yiu might just default to using base physicals since the rest of the passives make him difficult to kill.

Messiah
Base Lv. 91
Affinity - Resist Fire, Ice, Lightning, Wind. Repel Light, Dark
Preferred Role - Blocker
Fusion Note - Requires completion of Judgment S.Link. Requires Min Level of 86 to fuse (/w Sun Arcana bonus)

Str - 65
Mag - 70
End - 62
Agl - 59
Luk - 59

Skills:
Megidolaon - 50 SP. Deals Heavy Almighty damage to all enemies.
God's Hand - 25% Max HP Cost, Single target Strike damage, +13% Crit Rate, 88% Acc Mod
Salvation - 60 SP: Fully restore HP and status condition (except for KO) for entire party
Enduring Soul - Passive - Fully restores character when they are defeated.
Regenerate 3 - Passive - Recover 6% MHP at the start of your turn
Invigorate 3: Passive - Recover 7 SP at the start of your turn
Null Phys: Passive - Blocks damage from all physicals
Magic Ability: Passive - Magic damage dealt is increased by 25%
+ Firm Stance: Passive - Halves all damage received. Character can no longer evade. Delete God's Hand
+ Insta-Heal: Recovers from any Status condition on your turn. Delete Magic Ability
+/* Diarahan: 20 SP. Fully heals target. Delete Salvation
+/* Spell Master: Passive - Decreases the MP used for casting spells by 50%. Delete Megidolaon

Notes -
Other than Tower Persona all being generally good, Judgment Persona are all generally good. Messiah is in many ways one of the best Personas available since it has resistance to basically everything, then learns Null Physical to top it off. Since its defenses are already so good, might as well learn into it. For the DL, it is in many ways, the ultimate stalling Persona. The only real issue here is that this configuration has no offensive skills, so it's going to take a long time to kill anything. But let's face it, Messiah wouldn't be used if Yiu isn't expected to do any heavy stalling. Firm Stance stacks on top of your affinity by the way, so yes, Messiah quarters Fire/Ice/Lightning/Wind damage. If what you're using IS elemental, you really want stuff like Earth or Water as otherwise your damage just gets nuked. Insta-Heal is the catch all to any Status effects not found in P3R. It allows Yiu to recover once it is his turn. Stuff like transformation status or sleep for example, would normally be pretty devastating. But with Insta-Heal, Yiu recovers before it lets the opponent do any real damage. He is still vulnerable to Petrify and Non-Typed ID though, so there are holes but they're pretty niche.

Futsunushi
Base Lv. 74
Affinity - Resist Strike, Lightning. Null Slash. Weak Dark
Preferred Role - Physical Specialist
Fusion Note - Requires completion of Magician S.Link

Str - 62
Mag - 49
End - 50
Agl - 42
Luk - 35

Skills:
Brave Blade - 20% Max HP Cost, Single target Slashing damage, +20% Crit Rate (55% with suggested build), 90% Acc Mod
Vorpal Bade - 22% Max HP Cost, deals massive Slashing damage to all enemies, +13% Crit Rate (48% with suggested build), 92% Acc Mod
Matarukaja - 24 SP - Increases damage dealt by 40% for the next 3 turns.
Bloody Charge - 40% HP Cost. Increases next physical attack by 2.25x and increases crit rate by 7%
Apt Pupil - Passive - Doubles base skill Crit Rate (already factored)
Sharp Student - Passive - Halves enemy crit rates
Unshaken Will - Passive - Blocks all Mental Status
+/* Crit Rate Amp: Passive - Increase Crit Rate by +15%
+/* Slash Boost: Passive - Increases Slashing damage by 25% - Delete Sharp Student
+/* Slash Amp: Passive - Increases Slashing damage by 50% - Delete Unshaken Will
+  Firm Stance: Passive - Halves all damage received. Character can no longer evade. Delete Vorpal Blade
+/* Enduring Soul: Passive - Fully restores character when they are defeated. OPB. Delete Matarukaja

Notes -
So Futsunushi is another physical build Persona...but with a twist. Instead of getting regular Charge, he has Bloody Charge instead. The main difference of the two is that Bloody Charge uses HP instead of SP. The problem of course being, that makes you pretty vulnerable when the physical skills being used also cost 20% of your max HP. For this reason, tacking on Firm Stance or Enduring Soul are solid ideas to make the HP hit less of an issue. Another option is Arms Master but Enduring Soul and Firm Stance have obvious defensive benefits that Arms Master doesn't. Still, not a very high priority Persona since physical personas are a dime a dozen. And in the DL, Bloody Charge is obviously super risky. You might as well just use regular Charge instead since you could even tack on Spell Master if need be to make it only cost 15 SP.


Scathach
Base Lv. 75
Affinity - Resist Wind, Light. Null Pierce, Ice. Weak Fire
Preferred Role - Starter / Lead
Fusion Note - Requires completion of Priestess S.Link

Str - 55
Mag - 58
End - 40
Agl - 49
Luk - 42

Skills:
Mabufudyne - 24 SP, deals heavy Ice damage to all enemies, 15% chance to Freeze
Magarudyne - 24 SP, deals heavy Wind damage to all enemies
Myriad Arrows - 19% Max HP Cost, deals 2-5 hits of Piercing damage to all enemies, +5% Crit Rate, 88% Acc Mod
Freeze Boost - Passive - Increases chance of inflicting Freeze by 50% of its base rate.
Invigorate 3 - Passive - Recover 7 SP at the start of your turn
Auto-Mataru - Passive - Begins battle with Tarukaja in effect for all party members
Auto-Masuku - Passive - Begins battle with Sukukaja in effect for all party members
+/* Auto-Maraku: Passive - Begins battle with Rakukaja in effect for all party members
+/* Null Fire: Passive - Resist all Fire damage by 50%. Overrides Weakness. Delete Myriad Arrows
+/* Enduring Soul: Passive - Fully restores character when they are defeated. OPB. Delete Magarudyne.
+ Diamond Dust: 46 SP, deals massive Ice damage, Single target. Has a 60% chance to Freeze target (90% with Freeze Boost). Delete Mabufudyne.

Notes -
We're about halfway through the list of available Persona for Yiu and we finally come to one where they definitively want to be the lead. Scathach is the only Persona thus far that has had the Auto-Kajas in its skill list. Not just one, but two of them. This makes it ideal to slap on the missing one so Yiu begins fights essentially with Heat Raiser casted on himself. To enhance the Lead role, we're going to tack on Enduring Soul in case of freak OHKOs where Yiu cannot outspeed and Null Fire to cover up the existing weakness. Since it has innate Freeze Boost, passing Diamond Dust as inheritance is something worth considering.


Alitat
Base Lv. 84
Affinity - Resist Wind. Null Ice. Repel Slash, Strike. Weak Fire, Dark
Preferred Role - Element Specialist / Blocker
Fusion Note - Requires completion of Empress S.Link

Str - 51
Mag - 70
End - 60
Agl - 51
Luk - 51

Skills:
Mabufudyne - 24 SP, deals heavy Ice damage to all enemies, 15% chance to inflict Freeze
Maziodyne - 24 SP, deals heavy Lightning damage to all enemies, 15% chance to inflict Shock
Makarakarn - 24 SP, guards against one magical attack and reflects it back to the attacker. Certain magic attacks can pierce this, notably Almighty ones.
Diamond Dust - 46 SP - Deals massive Ice damage a single target. Has a 60% chance to Freeze target.
Inferno - 40 SP - Deals massive Fire damage to a single target.
Repel Fire - Passive - Blocks damage from all Fire typed attacks
Repel Pierce - Passive - Blocks damage from all Piercing typed attacks
+/* Spell Master - Passive - Decreases the MP used for casting spells by 50%
+/* Ice Amp - Passive - Increases Ice damage dealt by 50%. Stacks with Ice Boost. Already factored. Delete Maziodyne
+/* Ice Boost - Passive - Increases Ice damage dealt by 25%. Stacks with Ice Amp. Already factored. Delete Mabufudyne
+/* Single-Target Boost - Passive - Increases the damage dealt by single target attacks by 15%. Delete Makarakarn.
+/* Null Dark - Passive - Blocks damage from all Dark typed attacks. Overrides Weakness. Delete Inferno


Notes -
There are kind of two ways to go about with Alitat. One is to lean into its base resistances which are very good and then build there with the addition of Null Dark. This gives it very good comprehensive coverage against many different elements and reflects all physical damage. In this case, Alitat doesn't need much customizing. The other direction is to turn it into Mitsuru-lite by stacking up Ice passives since it learns Diamond Dust naturally. With a meaty 70 Mag, it's gonna hit pretty hard if you don't guard against it. Either direction though, the one skill it really wants is Spell Master since all the spells it learns naturally are pretty costly. It can also lean in the Fire direction, but Saturnus already does that, so better to focus on a different element.


Odin
Base Lv. 74
Affinity - Absorb Lightning. Weak Wind.
Preferred Role - Element Specialist
Fusion Note - Requires completion of Emperor S.Link

Str - 44
Mag - 63
End - 42
Agl - 46
Luk - 49

Skills:
Maziodyne - 24 SP, deals heavy Lightning damage to all enemies, 15% chance to inflict Shock
Thunder Reign - 46 SP - Deals massive Lightning damage a single target. Has a 60% chance to Shock target.
Primal Force - 21% HP Cost, inflicts massive Piercing damage to one enemy. 92% Acc mod, +10% Crit rate.
Marakunda - 24 SP, increases damage to dealt to all enemies by 40%
Concentrate - 30 SP - Increases the damage dealt by the next magic attack by x2.25. If used in conjunction with a Theurgy the bonus is only 2x.
Elec Amp - Passive - Increases Lightning damage dealt by 50%. Stacks with Elec Boost. Already factored
Spell Master - Passive - Decreases the MP used for casting spells by 50%
+/* Elec Boost - Passive - Increases Lightning damage dealt by 25%. Stacks with Elec Amp. Already factored.
+/* Single-Target Boost - Passive - Increases the damage dealt by single target attacks by 15%. Delete Primal Force.
+/* Debilitate - 36 SP, Applies all stat debuffs (Attack down, defense down, Acc/Eva down) to one target. Delete Marakunda.
+/* Resist Wind - Passive - Reduces damage dealt by Wind attacks by 50%. Overrides Weakness. Delete Maziodyne

Notes -
Odin is the only source of T4 Lightning damage naturally, so there is always a place for him in Yiu's roster. And he's pretty well built for the DL too. Requiring a minimal number of skill cards or inheritance to really get nasty, it already packs the corresponding Amp, Concentrate and Spell Master. The main thing it wants are some extra multipliers or Debilitate to improve the efficiency at debuffing. Resist Wind helps for defensive coverage but Wind is pretty uncommon in the DL. Relevant when it matters but probably not something you'd slap on for default.

Kohryu
Base Lv. 71
Affinity - Repel Lightning. Null Light.
Preferred Role - Healer
Fusion Note - Chain Fusion. Requires completion of Koromaru Backstory as well as Heirophant S.Link

Str - 44
Mag - 53
End - 58
Agl - 31
Luk - 40

Skills:
Makougaon - 25 SP, deals heavy Light damage to all enemies
Mediarahan - 44 SP - Fully restores HP to the whole party.
Makarakarn - 24 SP. Guards against one magical attack and reflects it back to the attacker. Certain magic attacks can pierce this, notably Almighty ones.
Tetrakarn - 24 SP. Guards against one physical attack and reflects it back to the attacker.
Concentrate - 30 SP - Increases the damage dealt by the next magic attack by x2.25. If used in conjunction with a Theurgy the bonus is only 2x.
Invigorate 3 - Passive - Recover 7 SP at the start of your turn
Spell Master - Passive - Decreases the MP used for casting spells by 50%
! Dekunda - 10 SP - Removes stat debuffs from own party.
! Diarahan - 20 SP, Fully restores target's HP. Delete Mediarahan
! Amrita Drop 14 SP - Restores target's status condition to normal. Delete Makougaon.
! Resist Strike- Passive - Reduces damage dealt by Strike attacks by 50%. Delete Tetrakarn
! Resist Wind - Passive - Reduces damage dealt by Wind attacks by 50%. Overrides Weakness. Delete Makarakarn
! Matarunda - 24 SP - Decreases all enemies' damage dealt by 40%.
! Enduring Soul - Passive - Fully restores character when they are defeated. OPB.

Notes -
Kohryu is the first Persona that requires a chain fusion. Combining all 4 tempers, which are vastly different from each other, means that the end result is a Persona who has a bevy of interesting skills. However, unlike most other Personas we've so far, Kohryu definitely has roots as healer since it has no Weaknesses, innate Spell Master and can inherit Diarahan easily from one of its parts (Suzaku). Being able to full heal yourself for 10 SP is kind of good! It also picks up a couple of interesting support tools with Dekunda and Matarunda as well as two resists from its separate parts, so you can stack all of these together to make a good supporting healer. After all, offensive personas as you can see thus far, are a dime a dozen.


Cybele
Base Lv. 67
Affinity - Resist Fire, Light. Null Ice. Weak Lightning
Preferred Role - Healer
Fusion Note - Requires completion of Lovers S.Link

Str - 39
Mag - 54
End - 40
Agl - 42
Luk - 45

Skills:
Makougaon - 25 SP, deals heavy Light damage to all enemies
Garudyne - 12 SP, deals heavy Wind damage to an enemy
Diarahan - 20 SP. Fully restores target's HP
Mediarahan - 44 SP. Fully restores HP to the entire party
Light Amp - Passive - Increases Light based damage by 50%. Already factored
Auto-Maraku - Passive - Recover 7 SP at the start of your turn
Spell Master - Passive - Decreases the MP used for casting spells by 50%
+/* Resist Lightning - Passive - Reduces damage dealt by Lightning attacks by 50%. Overrides Weakness.
+/* Dekaja - 10 SP - Dispels enemies' stat buffs. Delete Garudyne.
+/* Heat Riser - 36 SP. Applies all stat buffs (Attack up, defense up, Acc/Eva up) to one ally. Lasts 3 turns. Delete Auto-Maraku
+/* Debilitate - 36 SP. Applies all stat debuffs (Attack down, defense down, Acc/Eva down) to one target. Lasts 3 turns. Delete Mediarahan.
+/* Amrita Drop - 14 SP - Restores target's status condition to normal.
+/* Concentrate - 30 SP - Increases the damage dealt by the next magic attack by x2.25. If used in conjunction with a Theurgy the bonus is only 2x.
+/* Charge - 30 SP - Increases the damage dealt by the next physical attack by x2.25. If used in conjunction with a Theurgy the bonus is only 2x.

Notes -
Two healer Personas in a row. Cybele has more base resists than Kohryu, does more damage due to Light Amp, but also less definitive skills because it can be formed from a variety of fusions. If you give it a pick and choose for its skills of choice, it's probably better because then you can slap on a wide variety of support skills to truly make it a supporting healer. If you are more restrictive, then it's the opposite since it has a lot of skills that are generally not very useful (Garudyne) or redundant (Mediarahan). "But it has Light Amp" - Trust me, there are better offensive Persona that specialize in Light damage. They are higher level and have more MAG than Cybele, which makes them better as a base if that's what Yiu is looking for.


Thor
Base Lv. 64
Affinity - Null Strike, Lightning. Weak Wind
Preferred Role - Hybrid
Fusion Note - Requires completion of Chariot S.Link

Str - 54
Mag - 50
End - 42
Agl - 30
Luk - 35

Skills:
Ziodyne - 14 SP, deals heavy Lightning damage to all enemies. 15% to inflict Shock
Maziodyne - 24 SP, deals heavy Lightning damage to all enemies. 15% to inflict Shock
Gigantic Fist - 14% HP Cost, inflicts Heavy Strike damage to one enemy. 85% Acc mod, +15% Crit rate.
God's Hand - 25% HP Cost, inflicts massive Strike damage to one enemy. 88% Acc mod, +13% Crit rate.
Elec Amp - Passive - Increases Lightning based damage by 50%. Already factored
High Counter - Passive - 20% chance to reflect a physical attack back to its attacker
+/* Resist Wind - Passive - Reduces damage dealt by Wind attacks by 50%. Overrides Weakness.
+/* Concentrate - 30 SP - Increases the damage dealt by the next magic attack by x2.25. If used in conjunction with a Theurgy the bonus is only 2x.
+/* Charge - 30 SP - Increases the damage dealt by the next physical attack by x2.25. If used in conjunction with a Theurgy the bonus is only 2x. Delete Gigantic Fist

Notes -
Surt wasn't the only one with a fall from grace. Without Thunder Reign now, Thor is pretty much completely obsoleted by Odin. It has a mix of Physicals and Magic but since you'll only be really using one attack at a time, leveraging your skill slots to be split half and half isn't exactly great. I guess it's a good DL option to save on Skill cards or maintaining your budget, but unless Yiu wants to be Akihiko-lite, there is zero reason to really run Thor.


Melchizedek
Base Lv. 66
Affinity - Repel Strike, Light. Weak Wind
Preferred Role - Hybrid
Fusion Note - Requires completion of Justice S.Link

Str - 54
Mag - 47
End - 47
Agl - 35
Luk - 31

Skills:
Hamaon - 14 SP, 50% chance of Light based Instant Death. Chance is reduced against Light resistance and presumably ID Immunity (75% with Hama Boost)
Mahamon - 26 SP, 50% chance of Light based Instant Death to all targets. Chance is reduced against Light resistance and presumably ID Immunity (75% with Hama Boost)
Gigantic Fist - 14% HP Cost, inflicts Heavy Strike damage to one enemy. 85% Acc mod, +15% Crit rate.
God's Hand - 25% HP Cost, inflicts massive Strike damage to one enemy. 88% Acc mod, +13% Crit rate.
Akasha Arts - 22% HP Cost, inflicts 1-2 hits of Strike damage to all targets. 88% Acc Mod. +12% Crit rate.
Revolution - 15 SP. Gives all enemies and allies +15% Crit
Hama Boost - Increases the success rate of Light-based instant death attacks by 50%. Already factored
+/* Resist Wind - Passive - Reduces damage dealt by Wind attacks by 50%. Overrides Weakness.

Notes -
Holy redundancy, Batman! There is a long line of Personas starting from around Thor all the way until Beelzebub where they are just kind of unimpressive in the DL. In Melchi's case, he's also not great in-game because he kind of lacks any real niche and this is real obvious in the DL now when compared to all the other Persona we've introduced. Going for ID? Daisoujou is better at it. Strike physicals? Yiu's going to have both Chi You and Asura. It isn't even a case of Thor where you could equip it and save on something, it's just outright outclassed and doesn't have any interesting resistances like Alitat or Abaddon. To top it off, it doesn't even have any outstanding stats like Susano-O. So yeah, dumpster tier choice.

Arahabaki
Base Lv. 68
Affinity - Repel Slash, Pierce. Resist Light. Weak Strike, Ice, Dark
Preferred Role - Blocker
Fusion Note - Requires completion of Hanged S.Link

Str - 47
Mag - 52
End - 53
Agl - 32
Luk - 36

Skills:
Herculean Strike - 17% HP Cost, inflicts Heavy Strike damage to all enemies. 85% Acc mod, +10% Crit rate.
Makarakarn - 24 SP, Guards against any one magical attack and reflects it back to the attacker. Certain magic attacks can pierce this, notably Almighty ones.
Virus Breath - 25 SP, deals Moderate Almighty damage to all enemies and inflicts Poison with a 40% chance.
Auto-Maraku - Passive - Applies Rakukaja effect to whole party at the beginning of battle.
Null Charm - Passive - Blocks Charm Status
Repel Strike - Passive - Reflects Strike type damage back to the the attacker. Overrides Weakness
Repel Dark - Passive - Reflects Dark type damage back to the the attacker. Overrides Weakness
+/* Resist Ice - Passive - Reduces damage dealt by Wind attacks by 50%. Overrides Weakness.
+/* Diarahan - 20 SP, Fully restores target's HP. Delete Null Charm
+/* Provoke - 5 SP, 70% chance to inflict Rage on target. Delete Auto-Maraku
+/* Insta-Heal - Passive - Recovers from any Status condition on your turn. Delete Herculean Strike.

Notes -
Arahabki is also pretty bad BUT it does have one unique niche - it is the only Persona that Repels all physical attacks, with a little help from Repel Strike. Since it learns an extra passive to cover a second weakness, shaping it into a Blocker is probably the most you can really do with it. Once you slap Resist Ice on it though, this baby won't let much through. Flip side, it has extremely bad offense - so giving it Rage and coercing an opponent to kill themselves for you is unironically probably its best move. Kind of similar to Abaddon but man, for an ultimate arcana fusion, you'd expect better.


Lakshmi
Base Lv. 73
Affinity - Null Ice, Light. Weak Fire.
Preferred Role - Healer
Fusion Note - Requires completion of Fortune S.Link

Str - 39
Mag - 61
End - 38
Agl - 45
Luk - 52

Skills:
Diarahan - 20 SP, Fully restores target's HP. Delete Null Charm
Amrita Shower - 25 SP, Restores status condition to Normal for all allies.
Salvation - 60 SP, Fully restore HP and status condition (except for KO) for entire party
Bufudyne - 14 SP, deals Heavy Ice damage to one enemy. 15% chance to inflict Freeze.
Mabufudyne - 24 SP, deals Heavy Ice damage to all enemies. 15% chance to inflict Freeze.
Sexy Dance - 10 SP, 45% chance to inflict Charm on all enemies.
Soul Link - Passive - Recovers 8 SP when receiving a Shift'd turn
+/* Resist Fire - Passive - Reduces damage dealt by Fire attacks by 50%. Overrides Weakness.
+/* Spell Master - Passive - Decreases the MP used for casting spells by 50%.
+ Diamond Dust - 46 SP, deals massive Ice damage, Single target. Has a 60% chance to Freeze target
+/* Ice Amp - Passive - Increases Ice damage dealt by 50%. Stacks with Ice Boost. Already factored
+/* Ice Boost - Passive - Increases Ice damage dealt by 25%. Stacks with Ice Amp. Already factored

Notes -
Lakshmi is kind of similar to Cybele in that she's a healer but with a more common weakness (Fire) and more issues with damage since she doesn't have an Amp. A little skill set customization fixes her to be a decent healer type but nothing that impressive. She really wants to be able to inheret Diamond Dust if you're going that route since otherwise she doesn't have a T4 to play with. The T3 Light/Dark spells are slightly stronger than the T3 Fire/Wind/Ice/Lightning ones since Light/Dark doesn't have a T4. But if you're going that route, Cybele and Kohryu might still be better since they have wider support utility once skills and inheretence are considered. Granted, you can always slap Concentrate, Debilitate et al on Lakshmi too. But in her case, she'll just always have worse damage if it comes down to slugging and arguably worse resistances. So I guess it kind of depends on what Yiu really needs.


Atavaka
Base Lv. 72
Affinity - Null Pierce, Light. Weak Ice.
Preferred Role - Physical specialist
Fusion Note - Requires completion of Strength S.Link

Str - 63
Mag - 37
End - 64
Agl - 39
Luk - 35

Skills:
Mediarahan - 44 SP, Fully restores HP for entire party. 
Maragidyne - 24 SP, deals Heavy Fire damage to all enemies.
God's Hand - 25% Max HP Cost, Single target Strike damage, +13% Crit Rate, 88% Acc Mod
Brave Blade - 20% Max HP Cost, Single target Slashing damage, +20% Crit Rate, 90% Acc Mod
Null Dizzy - Passive - Blocks Dizzy status effect
Auto-Maraku - Passive - Begins battle with Rakukaja in effect for all party members
Firm Stance - Passive - Halves all damage received. Character can no longer evade.
+/* - Arms Master - Passive - Reduces HP Cost of Physical skills by 1/2
+/* - Diarahan - 20 SP - Fully restores HP to one target - Delete Mediarahan
+/* - Spell Master - Passive - Reduces SP Cost on Spells by 1/2 - Delete Null Dizzy
+/* - Resist Ice - Passive - Reduces Ice type damage by 50%. Overrides Weakness - Delete Brave Blade
+/* - Crit Rate Amp - Passive - Increases Crit Rate by 15% - Delete Auto-Maraku
+/* - Strike Amp - Passive - Increases Strike damage by 50%. Already factored - Delete Maragidyne

Notes -
Atakava brings with it a really stupid skill in Firm Stance. This ability basically doubles your effective durability (think VP2 Toughness) since it HALVES all damage taken at the cost of being unable to evade. Since there is no set up in the game that lets you break over 50% evade due to the evasion floor, Firm Stance ON PAPER looks to be about the same as Ali Dance. In practice, it is probably stronger because in an event where Yiu can be OHKO'd normally, Ali Dance means it is over if you fail to dodge once. Firm Stance puts Yiu in a heal lock...for 18 turns. Then turn 19 rolls around you, uh...DIE. So Atakava actually has 2 plans. Either stall you out by Healing repeatedly for 18 turns OR slam you with powerful God's Hand. Arms Master makes its first appearance here because 1/2 HP reduction on those costly physical skills is basically saving way more HP. Definitely a great budget choice if Firm Stance is the play in question, but Yiu has a couple of other choices that can do similar.


Attis
Base Lv. 73
Affinity - Resist Physicals. Null Fire. Repel Wind. Weak Light, Dark
Preferred Role - Blocker
Fusion Note - Requires completion of Hermit S.Link

Str - 45
Mag - 53
End - 51
Agl - 57
Luk - 32

Skills:
Recarmdra - 5 SP, Fully restore HP for entire party, user's HP goes to 1
Samarecarm - 35 SP, Fully Revives a KO'd character
Mahamaon - 26 SP, 50% chance of Light based Instant Death to all targets. Chance is reduced against Light resistance and presumably ID Immunity
Megidolaon - 50 SP, deals Heavy Almighty damage to all enemies
Survive Trick - Passive - When hit with an ID attack, survive the attack with 1 HP. OPB
Endure - Passive - Character survives with 1 HP the first time they are defeated. OPB
Enduring Soul - Passive - Fully restores character when they are defeated. OPB
+/* - Null Light - Passive - Blocks Light type attacks. Overrides Weakness
+/* - Null Dark - Passive - Blocks Dark type attacks. Overrides Weakness. Delete Recarmdra
+/* - Diarahan - 20 SP - Fully restores HP to one target - Delete Mediarahan. Delete Samarecarm
+/* - Spell Master - Passive - Reduces SP Cost on Spells by 1/2 - Delete Survival Trick.


Notes -
Attis is a Persona with an interesting set of affinities backed by an absolutely garbage skill set. This is especially true for the DL where he is nothing but MT attacks as well as revival spells. So we'll mod him to take advantage of his resistances and give him full healing, which makes it pretty tough to make damage stick. The main saving grace here is that it has not one, not two, but THREE different Endure effects. In-game, each of these skills are checked independently, meaning that yes, if you are trying to ID Yiu when he is using Attis, you have to succeed 3 times. Twice only if you are using straight damage, although one of those deaths will leave him with only 1HP. Still, this is extremely nasty on a timer PC! In effect, Attis allows Yiu to only have to buy 16 turns if you are relying on ID since he can then eat all three ID attacks to get to turn 19 where he will have his Theurgy charged. Still because Survive Trick only works on ID (possibly only Mudo/Hama type ID), it is more specific instead of universal like the Endures.


Yurlungur
Base Lv. 71
Affinity - Resist Fire, Lightning, Light. Weak Dark.
Preferred Role - Element Specialist
Fusion Note - Requires completion of Temperance S.Link

Str - 41
Mag - 45
End - 63
Agl - 42
Luk - 38

Skills:
Maziodyne - 24 SP, deals Heavy Lightning damage to all enemies. Has a 15% chance to Shock target
Kougaon - 15 SP. Deals Heavy Light damage to one enemy.
Makougaon - 25 SP. Deals Heavy Light damage to all enemies.
Revolution - 15 SP. Increases Crit Rate by 15% for all enemies and allies
Evade Elec - Passive - Multiplies evasion against Lightning attacks by 40%
Evade Fire - Passive - Multiplies evasion against Fire attacks by 40%
Evade Dark - Passive - Multiplies evasion against Dark attacks by 40%

Notes -
Yurlungur is pretty much garbo. Its skillset is so abhorent that for a "Light" specialist, it doesn't even carry the Amp or the Boost. Outdone by a literal healer, gj. It has 3 Evade skills for some reason - two of them against attacks it already resists and basically nothing else really to sell it. If you're going the route of evade, at least have Ali Dance. As is, this Persona is much like Melchi - just outdone in many ways and very much a bottom tier choice. I struggle to think when it would even be used.


Beelzebub
Base Lv. 82
Affinity - Null Strike, Lightning, Wind. Repel Dark. Weak Fire, Light
Preferred Role - Starter/ Element Specialist / Support
Fusion Note - Requires completion of Devil S.Link

Str - 50
Mag - 62
End - 50
Agl - 60
Luk - 52

Skills:
Mamudoon: 26 SP - 50% chance of Dark based Instant Death. Chance is reduced against Dark resistance and presumably ID Immunity
Maeigaon - 26 SP - deals Dark damage to all enemies
Demonic Decree - 38 SP - deals Dark damage equal 50% of the enemy's current HP
Megidolaon - 50 SP - deals Heavy Almighty damage to all targets.
Evil Smile: - 10 SP Cost, 45% chance to inflict Fear to all enemies (54% with Ailment Boost)
Concentrate - 30 SP. Increases next Magic attack by 2.25x. If used in conjunction with a Theurgy the bonus is only 2x.
Dark Amp - Passive - Increases Dark Damage by 50%. Already factored.
! Ailment Boost - Passive - Increases all Status success rate by 20%. Stacks with other status change boosters. See bracket for modified figures.
! Eigaon - 15 SP, deals Dark damage to a single target. Delete Maeigaon.
! Poison Arrow -  13% HP Cost, inflicts Piercing damage to one enemy. Has a 3% Crit chance and a 50% chance to inflict Poison (60% chance with Ailment Boost. Delete Evil Smile.
! Neuro Slash - 16% HP Cost, inflicts Slash damage to all enemies. Has a 3% Crit chance and a 50% chance to inflict Confuse (60% chance with Ailment Boost). Delete Demonic Decree
! Evil Touch - 5 SP Cost, 60% chance to inflict Fear to one enemy (72% with Ailment Boost). Delete Mamudoon
! Stagnant Air - 12 SP, Doubles the success rate of inflicting status ailments to both enemies and allies for 3 turns. Delete Megidolaon.
! Infuriate - 10 SP, 50% chance to inflict Rage to all enemies (54% with Ailment Boost)<

3

Unranked Games / Re: Persona 3: Reloaded

« on: November 09, 2024, 06:25:27 AM »

And now the moment most of you have been waiting for - time to break down the protagonist, MC / Makoto / Minato / Yiu whatever the heck you want to call him. So let's go over some basic stuff, then some assumptions before we really dive in. Buckle up, cause this will be a doozy.

Basics with MC/Yiu/Makoto/etc. -
Yiu is different from the other characters in a few ways. The most significant is that he can hold more than 1 Persona, up to a maximum of 12. This means that he has actually 108 Skill slots instead of 8, spread amongst 12 different Personas of his choice. Second, in battle, he is able to change his Persona once per Turn on his Turn. As such he is able to divest his skills in various ways and gain a significant advantage on his opponent. You acquire new Personas either through battle OR through fusing them together.

Persona Fusions and S.Links -
Yiu can combine 2 Personas to create a different Persona. The actual mechanics of this can be pretty complicated, but the long and short of it is that given enough time and money, you can fuse everything you need outside of the Ultimate Fusions and Quest locked ones. As noted in the preamble at the very start, depending on how you view the time cost associated, this means Yiu can be locked out from very power fusions he would love to use. There are certain good Personas that do not have any locks so these should be always available regardless of how your interpretation and what's fair. In general, since we've assumed other PCs have special equips, it's easier to assume Yiu has access to most, if not all of his Personas. The only ones again I would put a marker on are Metatron as it's a chain fusion requiring the Aeon Arcana to be maxed (and you only have 3 weeks to max it) and Ken's background story to be complete. So it is a 2 step chain fusion where failure of one means Yiu can't access it. If you do so, Orpheus Telos is also out as it is only available if ALL S.Links are mixed.

S.Links are the name of the game for Personas as they strengthen the Persona on fusing. When Maxed, the Persona fused becomes +5 on its stated level, allowing it to gain a bunch of additional skills and sometimes even getting it's fused item instantly. Around halfway through the game, Growth 3 becomes readily available. This skill is key as it distributes EXP to Personas that are in your battle inventory but currently not active. This allows you to quickly level up a group of Personas which is also why fusion items are easier to acquire. You can also dupe Growth 3 through Skill cards (more on this later) and it is one of the safest things to dupe if you aren't sure what to copy. As such we will also assume Personas have their entire skillset learnt.

The one limitation to fusing Personas is that you can only fuse Personas up to your current level. For the most part, this allows you to fuse like 97% of the compendium as it looks like end game level is going to be around 88. This means that Personas that are Level 88 on base and above (notably Messiah, Lucifer, and Orpheus Telos) cannot be used. However, there is a catch. The new Shuffle Time system allows Major Arcana cards to do different things and one of them (Sun in particular) gives you the ability to fuse Personas +5 of your current level. With that in mind, you can fuse Personas up to 93, which covers everything. If that seems like a high level to you, I will note that the online viewing feature in the game shows that the average level on Jan 30th (so the day before the final boss) is 91. So yeeeeeeah. Note that these Cards are randomly generated alongside loot and are added to the pool of major arcana cards available but they spawn relatively frequently. As with Metatron, I'll make a note when this is important.

Skill Cards and Inheritance -
This is where it gets messy. So starting in P4 and onwards, the Persona games have provided greater quality of life features by letting you freely select which skills you want to carry over from fusing Personas. Previously, this process used to be random, but weighted towards that Persona's affinity. So a Persona who is fire oriented (such as Surt) is more likely to adopt Fire related skills. Now though, you can pick and choose what you want. As I noted, given enough time and money, this means you can fuse anything you want and carry forward any skill you want. Want Repel Strike on a Persona weak to Strike that doesn't learn it normally? No problem. Just chain a fusion link that eventually passes the skill to it. The major barrier here is money. Any sort of chain fusion will typically require a significant investment because you may have to resummon previous personas or intermediary ingredients to get to your ending Persona. It also always requires at least 2 spaces and if the chain fusion requires more than you need to resummon your dismissed Persona for battles. As such, one way to limit the silliness of skill inheritance is to apply a maximum amount of Yen available. The average cost of an end game Persona being summoned by the compendium is roughly 60,000 Yen. The higher and better the Persona, the higher the cost of summoning. Lucifer for example costs closer to 80,000 Yen.

As for Skill Cards, this is somewhat easier surprisingly. In essence, Skill cards are earned as loot based on the block of Tartarus you are in. The most relevant and end game ones can only be earned at the last block. As such, there is a limited number of days that you can dupe the Skill card and its availability is more restricted. You are allowed to dupe any Skill Card once per day but if you don't have that Skill Card, you obviously cannot dupe it. January is when the last block of Tartarus opens and from there you can get up to Queen rank skill cards as well as Skill Cards sold by the antique shop. Assuming you are able to get the full list Day 1, that gives you about 30 days to dupe and still retain a copy of the original. To me, this number is pretty significant because say you get a skill card from the antique shop. If you want to apply that skill (say Spell Master) to multiple Personas, the safest way is to use the Shrine to dupe the card an X number of times as you want. You wouldn't go back and regrind for the trade materials from Tartarus, even if you could. "But Tide, you can just grind X hours from Tartarus to get like 99 copies of Repel Strike". Yes, I'm aware you can do that. But is it reasonable? I think most people would take 1 or 2 and then dupe the rest as they see fit. Besides, with my interp, you don't have to weigh the possibly weighted RNG rates for each skill card. Who knows if Repel Strike is more common than Repel Pierce?

The "No Fun" Zone -
One subtle issue with Skill cards is that it dilutes the uniqueness of each Person Yiu can summon. The problem of course is that there are some universal skills (such as Ali Dance) that is just good on every Persona. With that in mind, allowing Skill Cards can actually diminish what makes each Persona unique. If Yiu has 12 Personas and they all carry Ali Dance, that doesn't really reflect the fact that some Personas are better tools or have better skills which in-game absolutely matter for what makes a good Persona to form as your anchors. A simple way of looking at this is that base Orpheus can be forged and slapped with skills such as Brave Blade, Crit Amp and whatever you want for a physical Persona. It doesn't make it necessary good at it, but you sure as hell won't be able to differentiate it aside from the affinities versus another Persona that carries those skills like Siegfred. As such, you might consider disallowing Skill inheritance and Skill Cards on general principle. In set ups, I'll be marking extra preferable skills with an asterick so you know it is tacked on.

Interps of this topic:
Based on the above, these are the restrictions that I think make the most sense to be taking into the average:

1) Allow all Personas sans Orpheus Telos as this Persona requires a completed Max S.Link run. Simple enough. The level threshold technically isn't met for Messiah, Lucifer and a couple of others. However, one thing to keep in mind and this is in Yiu's favor is that in-game, he is likely to have a level lead (about +3 at minimum) if you are at least rotating your roster around reasonably. This is just because he can't be removed from the party and thus will absorb EXP from all sources. If you factor this in, his level would be 91. Along with the Sun arcana if you think that 88 is really high, it means Yiu can be as low as level 86 and still meet the requirements to summon everything. 

2) Allow all Ultimate arcana Personas. This is just in issue of fairness. If we are allowing some of the more powerful equips for the rest of the cast, then Yiu should have access to his more powerful Personas. It's a fair enough trade IMO given how to get some of those weapons, you need the heart items from some of those fusions (see: Yukari's preferred Bow). ALso, picking out 7 Personas or determining which Arcana is most likely going to be maxed sounds like ground for a lot of bias. Best to just nip that altogether.

3) Each Persona listed will have its compendium Summon Cost PLUS the amount of varied skills it wishes to attach to its skill list in astericks. Yiu would then be allowed to form his 12 Roster Persona within a certain budget and within 30 preferred Skill alterations. This would reflect some of the cost and day limitations that I noted above. It would provide some restrictions but fairly reasonable ones I feel that don't cross into the realms of Min-Max grinding.

As for the budget allowed, I think working with around 750,000 Yen would make sense. This would be equal to 60,000 Yen per Persona, which appears to be the average cost of a late game Persona x 12. The more Yiu wants the best Persona which he often will, the more he has to pay - reflecting a portion of the Inheritance chain cost. Giving Yiu 30 free Skill cards of his choice is an acceptable middle ground for me. It provides him with ample customization but has some reasonable restrictions that reflect the in-game time. If Yiu somehow needs more money or 30 cards to slap together his ideal Persona list, I think we've reached some sort of breaking point.

Ultimate and Quest Personas -
I'll be getting a more complete list, but for now, here's the list of Personas that are locked behind needing to get a S.Link to Rank 10 or requires the completion of a quest or back story before it becomes available to be fused. Be aware of these if you are ready to withhold them from Yiu based your interps:

Thanatos - Requires Max Death S. Link (guaranteed). The poster boy on the cover art of the official materials
Susano-O - Requires Max Fool S. Link (guaranteed)
Messiah - Requires Max Judgement S. Link (guaranteed. Last month only)

Futsunushi - Requires max Magician S.Link
Scathach - Required max Priestess S.Link
Odin - Requires max Emperor S.Link
Alitat - Requires max Empress S.Link
Kohryu - Requires max Heirophant S.Link
Cybele - Requires max Lovers S.Link
Thor - Requires max Chariot S. Link
Melchizedek - Requires max Justice S.Link
Arahabaki - Requires max Hermit S.Link
Lakshmi - Requires max Fortune S.Link
Atavaka - Requires max Strength S.Link
Attis - Requires max Hanged S.Link
Yurlungur - Requires max Temperance S.Link
Beezlebub - Requires max Devil S.Link
Chi Yu - Requires max Tower S.Link
Helel - Requires max Star S.Link
Sandalaphon - Requires max Moon S.Link
Sun - Requires max Sun S.Link
Metatron - Requires max Aeon S.Link

Hou-ou - Requires completion of a quest from Elizabeth (no time cost, fairly simple)
Masakados - Requires completion of a quest from Elizabeth
Lucifer - Requires completion of a quest from Elizabeth

Horus - Requires completion of Akihiko's Backstory (roughly 5 days)
Byakko - Requires completion of Koromaru's Backstory (roughly 5 days). This is required for the Kohryu fusion
Surt - Requires completion of Junpei's Backstory (roughly 5 days)
Hell Biker - Requires completion of Shinjiro's Backstory (roughly 3 days)
Michael - Requires completion of Ken's Backstory (roughly 5 days). This is required for both the Metatron fusion and Messiah fusion.
Saturnus - Requires completion of Ryuji's Backstory (roughly 2 days).


Persona Building Philosphy
The way the Personas are going to be set up for the purposes of the stat topic is to make them be specialized. In short, a physical attacking Persona is going to stack physical passives together and maybe only have 1-2 active skills. Given Yiu can swap Personas out mid-battle, the only disadvantage to this might be inopportune timing in some duels. Like if he needs a specific resistance but also wants to cast a specific spell, that might be tough if all your tools are designed to do only thing. Still, this is preferred because it allows Yiu to optimize his damage for various situations. There are a lot of powerful passives in-game and the main thing holding them back is that applying a defensive passive (for example Ali Dance again), means you cannot apply an offensive passive or skill in its place. If you're building a Persona that wants to hit things hard, that's one additional multiplier you cannot stack. There is a max multiplier stack of 5 according to the BMG so Yiu won't have to stack higher than that, but he will often want to come as close as possible which means he will want often be using many of the skill slots or ways to buff his attacks.

Another note here is that most games that differentiate the type of physicals. It's often just considered one type: Physical. Sure, this isn't always true (see: FF7) but those are the exceptions to the norm I feel. In these cases, consider if using some of Yiu's allowed Skill Card replacements make sense. Because if they do, swapping over to another typing is often going to save you the trouble of considering an entire new Persona altogether. There will probably be one or two "Generalist" Persona he wants to carry (ie: can do multiple things if need be), but he will often want to carry other Personas for specific circumstances vs. having all of them balanced. That's something that's a bit different than in-game, where you will be carrying more generalists than not (just so you won't be caught off guard by a particular enemy) but going into end-game, this is likely where you will be shifting your fusion focus to anyway, so I think its pretty reflective.

I'll probably using some loose terms as descriptors for the different Personas Yiu might be using. Some explanations:

• Starter/Lead: Persona used to start off fights. Main characteristics are being fast, Persona has no weaknesses, Enduring Soul and all the Auto-buff skills.
• Physical Specialist - Primarily focuses on one physical type - most likely either Brave Blade for Crit or God's Hand for raw damage.
• Element Specialist - Primarily focuses on one or two element types - best elements are Ice and Lightning for their added effects.
• Healer - Defensive focused Persona with Spellmaster, Diarahan and Amrita Drop. Possibly includes Insta-Heal, Invigorate or Regenerate
• Support - Includes buffs - mainly Heat Riser, Concentrate and Charge. Might also include debuffs like Debilitate and status effects
• Anchor - A general good "go to" Persona to use for fights, no weaknesses, can do damage, maybe has healing, etc.
• Blocker - Persona that primary focuses on blocking all damage types and maybe on SP Healing if need be.
• Generalist - A hybrid Persona that focuses on using any combo of the above. No specialties and spreads itself to different roles as needed.

A good mix of Personas would be to combine 1 Lead, 1 Blocker, 1 Anchor, 1 Healer and then a mixture of Physical/Element Specialists. And with that, I think it's time to start. 

4

Unranked Games / Re: Persona 3: Reloaded

« on: November 09, 2024, 06:25:06 AM »

Alright, so let's go into the PCs and changes. The way this will be laid out is I will list the PCs stats, theurgy information, skill set options and equip options. Then we will go over their set ups and where I think they stand. Note that PCs can always revisit their skillset at Blue V and relearn new skills. As noted, this costs a night time slot but seeing as night is readily available, I wouldn't hold it against the PCs that much if they need to make adjustments. For equips, I already noted at the top, but everything but the last tier is fair game. Dead Moon Husks are just miles rarer then the penultimate tier in Nihil White/Black items. You can theoretically farm these, but the method I've read up on to do this basically requires separate Tartarus visits and is pretty much limited to one at a time. So it's pretty tedious! YMMV of course - I'll note when a PC really wants a Dead Moon Husk (DMH) Equip.  For Theurgy, I'll be listing the states where the PC more Theurgy compared to the baseline of 30 as well as the average starting meter the PC has for every day where they are available to for use. As a general tldr for comments - Pretty much every PC has gotten a glow up. The degrees vary but expect to see some shenanigans in action.

Okay! Let's get started.

Yukari Takeba - "And there you have it"
Level 88
HP: 423
SP: 426

Str: 44 (41 Base)
Mag: 88 (85 Base)
End: 57 (54 Base)
Agl: 61 (58 Base)
Luk: 58 (55 Base)

Affinities - Weak Lightning, Null Wind.
Fixed Passives: Healing Apex - Yukari's healing spells cost only 1/4 of their normal values.

Theurgy 1: Cyclone Arrow - De Gives all party members (including Yukari) Concentrate (Mind Charge) status. Lasts until a magic attack is used by the target.als massive ITE Magical Wind damage to a single target, spread over 5 hits. Ignores target's Resistances.
Theurgy 2: Tranquility - Gives all party members (including Yukari) Concentrate (Mind Charge) status. Lasts until a magic attack is used by the target.
 
Average Starting Meter -
230 Units for Boss Days only
204 Units for Total availability

Charging increases under the following states -
1. Using a Healing Skill - 250 Units
2t. Being at Low HP - 50 Units
2t. Being at Low SP - 50 Units
2t. Using a Magical Skill - 50 units
2t. Using a Support Skill - 50 units

Default Skills:
Diarahan- 5 SP, Fully heals target
Amrita Drop - 14 SP, recovers from all status conditions except KO
Garudyne - 12 SP, Wind damage, single target
Sukunda - 8 SP, Decreases target's Accuracy / Evade by 30%
Pulinpa -  5 SP - 60% chance to inflict Confusion on a target
Poison Mist - 10 SP - 50% chance to inflicts Poison to all targets
Wind Break - 12 SP - Resets target's Wind affinity to Neutral or weaker.
Wind Amp - Passive. Increases Wind damage dealt by Yukari by 50%. Stacks with Wind Boost Already factored.

Other Skills:
Amrita Shower, Magarudyne, Masukunda, Mediarahan - The MT versions of the above, with SP costs 25, 22, 24 and 11 respectively. SP reduction on Mediarahan already applied.
Samrecarm - Fully revives an unconscious PC - 9 SP. SP Reduction already factored.
Weaker skills from the same family (such as Garu, Me Petra, etc.) are available but have been discounted due to being obsolete.

Equipment
Weapon - Quitessence Bow - 400 Attack Power, 98% Acc Mod. Begins fights with Concentrate in effect.
Armor - Fallen Noble Armor - 345 Defense, Blocks Mental Status effects
Footwear - Mysterious Geta - 99 Evade, All Stats +3. Already factored
Accessory - Wind Bracer - Increases Wind damage by 25%. Stacks with Wind Amp. Already factored.

Equip Options:
Weapon
Sargna - 370 Weapon Power, 98% Acc Mod. Turns Yukari's Weapon attribute to Light. Inflicts a random status 30% of the time.
Whirlwind Bow - 225 Weapon Power, 99% Acc Mod. Auto-Sukukaja Effect
Bow of Affection - 170 Weapon Power, 88% Acc Mod. Inflicts Charm at 30%

Armor
Flaring Flaire - 120 Defense. Nulls Fire type damage. Yukari only
Golden Dress - 280 Defense. Reduces Electric damage by 30%
Eternal Plate - 375 Defense. Reduces Physical damage by 30%

Footwear
Insulated Tights - 65 Evade. Reduces hit rate of incoming Electric attacks by 15%.

Comments:
As far as pure healer types go, P3R Yukari is scary. The Lightning Weakness sucks but Yukari has a handful of ways to mitigate that from becoming an immediate issue. An Auto-Suku Bow + Sukunda + Insulated Tights mean that actually to strike her weakness could be quite a challenge. And that's when the weakness is relevant. With her oodles of cheap full healing (seriously - 5 SP a cast), she can build meter very quickly, then unleash that on a Cyclone Arrow already backed up with Concentrate for huge damage. Even when she's in fear of being 2HKO'd, if you can be OHKO'd yourself, the synergy between her Theurgys (and the rate they build up) are real issues opponents have to deal with. Better have like an actual crit rate or something or she'll be more than happy to just heal until she rolls you over with her limit. 

In other cases when 2HKOs aren't being threatened, Yukari has actual damage now (thanks to acquiring an Amp) as well as Status that she can fish for. Confuse / Charm are a deadly pair and with her ability to just stall with healing, she has all the time in the world to land them. Once they hit, both status types are devastating and are pretty much instant GG if they hit. Losing between 3-4 turns in a duel is just a recipe for disaster. Poison too can also be a real issue for those that can't heal, since it does deal considerable damage per tick even if it isn't lethal. A much stronger improvement than Vanilla and even P3P incarnations. Heavy.


Junpei Iori - "That's Game!"
Level 88
HP: 593
SP: 288

Str: 84 (81 Base)
Mag: 46 (43 Base)
End: 69 (66 Base)
Agl: 63 (53 Base)
Luk: 61 (50 Base)

Affinities - Weak Wind, Null Fire.
Fixed Passives: Critical Amp- Junpei has a +10% Crit rate on any attack that can Crit. When he crits, the crits do an extra 40% damage, for a total multiplier of x2.1

Theurgy 1: Hack & Blast - Deals massive ITE Slashing damage to a single target, spread over 6 hits. Ignores target's Resistances. +20% Crit rate.
Theurgy 2: Blaze of Life - Deals massive ITE magical Fire damage to a single target, spread over 4 hits. Ignores target's Resistances. Junpei fully restores his HP to its max value
 
Average Starting Meter -
240 Units for Boss Days only
195 Units for Total availability

Charging increases under the following states -
1. Critical Hit with a Skill - 200 Units
2. Critical Hit with equipped weapon - 100 Units
3. Hitting Weakness - 80 Units
4. Being at Low HP - 50 units

Default Skills:
Agidyne- 12 HP, Fire damage
Brave Blade - 20% Max HP Cost, Single target Slashing damage, +20% Crit Rate, 90% Acc Mod
Torrent Shot - 11% Max HP Cost, hits between 2-4 times of Piercing damage, +10% Crit Rate, 85% Acc Mod
Vile Assault - 15% Max HP Cost, Piercing damage. Does 50% more damage on Downed targets, +3% Crit Rate, 95% Acc Mod
Rakukaja - 8 SP - Reduces incoming damage by 40%
Fire Break - 12 SP - Resets target's Fire affinity to Neutral or weaker.
High Counter - Passive- 20% chance to reflect incoming physical damage back to attacker
Regenerate 3 - Passive - Junpei recovers 6% of his MHP at the start of his turn.

Other Skills:
Marakukaja, Maragi and Vorpal Blade are MT versions of similar skills Junpei already has. Marakukaja costs 24 SP to buff an entire team. Maragi hits all targets with low fire damage for 8 SP. Vorpal Blade hits all targets, but costs 22% MHP and has only a crit rate of +13%. These skills are all situationally useful. Junpei also has Gigantic Fist that deals Strike damage if the separation of physical types becomes an issue.
Weaker skills from the same family (such as Agi, Bash, etc.) are available but have been discounted due to being obsolete.

Equipment
Weapon - Balmung - 395 Attack Power, 92% Acc Mod, gives +7 to AGL (already factored). Weapon ignores Slashing Resistance.
Armor - Fallen Noble Armor - 345 Defense, Blocks Mental Status effects
Footwear - Mysterious Geta - 99 Evade, All Stats +3. Already factored
Accessory - Slash Amp - Increases Slash damage by 50%. Already factored.

Equip Options:
Weapon
Masakado's Katana - 440 Weapon Power, 92% Acc Mod. Gives +5 to all stats. Doubles base skill crit rates. Requires a Dead Moon Husk
Mikazuki Munechika - 235 Weapon Power, 92% Acc Mod. Auto-Rakukaja Effect
Laevateinn - 300 Weapon Power, 90% Acc Mod. Turns Junpei's weapon attack to Fire attribute. Has Innate Fire Boost
Qindi Blade - 270 Weapon Boost, 92% Acc Mod. Has innate +15% Weapon Crit
Dojigiri Yasutsuna - 300 Weapon Power, 92% Acc Mod. Has innate Slash Boost.

Armor
Slugger's Jacket - 130 Defense. +40 HP. Junpei only

Comments:
Junpei is the cast loser. What can you expect when your entire skill set is so one dimensional and dependent on crits and there isn't a way for you to boost it? The reason why he is so good in game is because a) fights with multiple enemies allow Junpei multiple chances to crit fish. And he only needs to score 1 to 1 more off it b) he isn't restricted to the DL uniqueness rules. No reason not to just dump the Omega Drive on him to give him an early Apt Pupil for free and c) in a team, there are multiple ways and cast mates who can boost his Crit. From Mitsuru's status effects to Koro casting Revolution. The end result is that while in-game Junpei can walk into fights with a 70-80% Crit rolling, in the DL by his lonesome, he's stuck with a measly 30%. That plus his best damage eats into his HP constantly greatly diminishes his effectiveness.

He still benefits off generic P3R translation such as not getting weakness turn locked and having Mental status protection. But on the whole, a turn 3 killer damage turn is sometimes just too slow. He does have a variety of good weapon equips, but he's stuck to choosing just one. His limit is also sadly a non-factor most of the time because the advanced charging states are just too infrequent to matter (unlike Yukari). Middle, but probably a solid one.



Akihiko Sanada - "On to the next bout..."
Level 88
HP: 563
SP: 327

Str: 74 (71 Base)
Mag: 67 (64 Base)
End: 59 (56 Base)
Agl: 64 (61 Base)
Luk: 44 (41 Base)

Affinities - Weak Ice, Null Electricity
Fixed Passives: Buff Amp - Buffs used on Akihiko are 30% more effective. This effectively causes Tarukaja to increase damage dealt by 1.82x, Rakukaja to decrease damage taken by 52% and Sukukaja to increase Accuracy by 69% and Evade by 39%

Theurgy 1: Lightning Spike - Deals strong ITE magical Lightning damage to all enemies in 1 hit. Ignores target's Resistances. 20% chance to inflict Shock (Jumps to 30% with Shock Boost).
Theurgy 2: Electric Onslaught - Deals massive ITE magical Lightning damage to a single target, spread over 5 hits. Ignores target's Resistances. Has an 80% chance to inflict Shock (Jumps to 120% with Shock Boost)
 
Average Starting Meter -
230 Units for Boss Days only
263 Units for Total availability

Charging increases under the following states -
1. Begin Turn with a Buff - 150 Units
2. Begin Turn with a Charge status - 100 Units
3. Begin Turn with low HP - 70 Units

Default Skills:
Diarahan - 20 SP, Fully restores target's HP
Ziodyne- 14 SP,  Lightning damage, single target. Has a 15% chance to inflict Shock (22% with Shock Boost)
God's Hand - 25% Max HP Cost, Single target Strike damage, +13% Crit Rate, 88% Acc Mod
Tarunda - 8 SP Cost, decreases target's damage dealt by 40%
Sukukaja - 8 SP Cost, increases Akihiko's Accuracy by 69% and Evade by 39
Elec Amp - Passive - Increases Lightning damage dealt by 50%. Stacks with Elec Boost. Already factored
Elec Boost - Passive - Increases Lightning damage dealt by 25%. Stacks with Elec Amp. Already factored
Evade Ice - Passive - Multiplies the accuracy of Ice type attacks against Akihiko by 40%.

Other Skills:
Unlike Junpei and Yukari, Akihiko does have other skills he might want to consider:

Sonic Punch - 9% HP Cost, inflicts Strike damage to one target. Has a 10% Crit chance and a 35% chance to inflict Distress.
Elec Break - 12 SP, resets target's Lightning resistance to neutral or worse
Shock Boost - Passive - Improves success rate of inflicting Shock by 50% of the base rate (see bracket for modified numbers).

Martarunda, Masukukaja and Maziodyne are MT versions of skills Akihiko has already set. These may be relevant for team matches.
Weaker skills from the same family (such as Zio, Dia, etc.) are available but have been discounted due to being obsolete.

Equipment
Weapon - Evil Gloves - 410 Attack Power, 97% Acc Mod, Begin battles with Hear Riser (All stats up).
Armor - Fallen Noble Armor - 345 Defense, Blocks Mental Status effects
Footwear - Mysterious Geta - 99 Evade, All Stats +3. Already factored
Accessory - Ekasha Gada Bracers - Increases Strike damage by 50%. Already factored.

Equip Options:
Weapon
Sabazios - 350 Weapon Power, 97% Acc Mod. Turns Akihiko's weapon attack to Ice element. Gives +7 to Luck and has a 30% chance to inflict Freeze
Double Ziggurat - 300 Weapon Power, 97% Acc Mod. Innate Strike Amp
Kaiser Knuckles - 200 Weapon Power, 97% Acc Mod. Doubles base skill crit rate
Championship Gloves - 172 Weapon Power, 97% Acc Mod. Has innate Endure (Survives against fatal damage once at 1 HP)
Jack's Gloves - 145 Weapon Power, 85% Acc Mod. 30% Chance to inflict Charm.

Armor
Fiery Vest - 185 Defense. Reduces hit rate of incoming Ice damage by a flat 15%. Akihiko only

Footwear
Boxing Shoes - 45 Evade. Reduces hit rate of incoming Ice damage by a flat 10%. Akihiko only

Comments:
If Junpei gets screwed by the DL system, then Akihiko gets screwed by the mechanics of P3R where minimum hit rate is capped at 50%. With his plethora of equipment and skills, Akihiko can pretty much make his weakness a non-factor IF hit rates were allowed to drop below 50% since both his unique Footwear and Armor stack on top of each other. But alas, there is no real reason to use them unless you don't think he should have Evade Ice in his default set up. Barring that though, Akihiko is incredibly solid. He's a mixture of a dodge / bruiser type tank, mixing a combination of evasion along with high damage through either Magic or Physicals. That and he also has an Auto Heat Riser weapon makes him incredibly deadly in the short term while still being a potent threat for the long game. The combo of Tarunda + Full Healing + Sukukaja is incredibly strong, making damage tough to stick on Akihiko.

Another point in his favor is his Theurgy. While his doesn't have the synergy of Yukari's, the Shock chance on Akihiko's Electric Onslaught can easily make them lose their next turn, leaving them in a very vulnerable state of getting KO'd. With Shock Boost, the Shock pretty much becomes guaranteed. The BMG even notes that the Shock goes through immunities, which if true, makes it super nasty. Like Yukari, Aki's Theurgy always has to be considered because his advanced charging states are easy to hit. Like Yukari, a Heavy - likely a High Heavy of some sort held back primarily by the minimum accuracy cap and his weakness to a common element.


Mitsuru Kirijo - "Kneel Before Me"
Level 88
HP: 480
SP: 441

Str: 59 (56 Base)
Mag: 84 (81 Base)
End: 51 (48 Base)
Agl: 62 (59 Base)
Luk: 52 (49 Base)

Affinities - Weak Fire, Null Ice
Fixed Passives: Ailment Surge - When an opponent is inflicted with a negative status condition, Mitsuru and all her allies receive a flat +15% Crit Bonus

Theurgy 1: Blizzard Edge - Deals massive ITE magical Ice damage to a single target, spread over 5 hits. Ignores target's Resistances. 80% chance to inflict Freeze (Jumps to 144% with Freeze and Ailment Boost).
Theurgy 2: Blade of Execution - Deals massive ITE magical Almight damage to a single target, spread over 5 hits. Inflicts Debilitate (all stats down) on target.
 
Average Starting Meter -
213 Units for Boss Days only
237 Units for Total availability

Charging increases under the following states -
1. Success inflicting a negative status condition - 150 Units
2. Begin Turn with a Debuffed enemy - 100 Units
3. Hitting a Weakness - 80 Units
4. Begin Turn with a Status'd enemy - 60 Units
5. Begin Turn with Low HP - 50 Units

Default Skills:
Diamond Dust - 46 SP, deals massive Ice damage, Single target. Has a 60% chance to Freeze target (108% with Freeze and Ailment Boost)
Neuro Slash - 16% HP Cost, inflicts Slash damage to all targets. Has a 3% Crit chance and a 50% chance to inflict Confuse (60% with Ailment Boost, 90% with Ailment Boost and Amulet of Perplexity)
Rakunda - 8 SP,  Increases damage dealt to target by 40%
Concentrate - 30 SP. Increases next Magic attack from Mitsuru by 2.25x. If used in conjunction with a Theurgy the bonus is only 2x.
Marin Karin - 5 SP Cost, 60% chance to inflict Charm to one target (72% with Ailment Boost)
Ailment Boost - Passive - Increases all Status success rate by 20%. Stacks with other status change boosters. See bracket for modified figures.
Freeze Boost - Passive - Increases the base rate at inflicting Freeze by 50% of the attack. See bracket for modified figures.
Ice Boost - Passive - Increases Ice damage dealt by 25%. Stacks with Ice Amp. Already factored

Other Skills:
Mitsuru like Akihiko, has some other skills that might be warranted:

Tentarafoo - 10 SP, 40% chance to inflict Confuse on all targets (54% with Ailment Boost, 81% with both Ailment Boost and Amulet of Perplexity)
Eerie Sound - 10 SP, 50% chance to inflict Distress on all targets (60% chance with Ailment Boost, 90% with both Ailment boost and Amulet of Dismay)
Ice Break - 12 SP, resets target's Ice resistance to neutral or worse
Spirit Drain - 3 SP, Drains 20 SP from target and adds it to Mitsuru's SP Pool (Net 17 SP Gain).


Bufudyne is a weaker but more cost effect Ice damage single target attack (14 SP) if Mitsuru doesn't care about Freezing opponents. Most of the time she will though because that in and of itself can be a win-con.
Mabufudyne and Marakunda are MT versions of skills Mitsuru has already set. These may be relevant for team matches.
Weaker skills from the same family (such as Bufu, Fatal End, etc.) are available but have been discounted due to being obsolete.

Equipment
Weapon - Snow Queen's Whip - 377 Attack Power, 95% Acc Mod, Turns Mitsuru's weapon attack to Ice Element. +5 Magic and Innate Ice Amp
Armor - Fallen Noble Armor - 345 Defense, Blocks Mental Status effects
Footwear - Mysterious Geta - 99 Evade, All Stats +3. Already factored
Accessory - Amulet of Perplexity - Increases base success rate of inflicting Confuse by 50%. Already factored.

Equip Options:
Weapon
Kokuseki Senjin - 425 Weapon Power, 95% Acc Mod. +5 to All Stats, improves all Magic damage dealt by Mitsuru by 25%. Requires a DMH
Longinus - 290 Weapon Power, 95% Acc Mod. Begins fights with Tarukaja in effect
Brionac - 270 Weapon Power, 95% Acc Mod. +5 AGL, Innate Ice Boost
Espada Ropera - 266 Weapon Power, 95% Acc Mod. +20% chance to Inflict Distress (24% with Ailment Boost, 36% with Ailment Boost and Amulet of Dismay)
Ice Sabre - 140 Weapon Power, 95% Acc Mod. Innate Freeze Boost
Malice Mary - 120 Weapon Power, 95% Acc. Mod, +20% Chance to Inflict Poison (24% with Ailment Boost)

Armor
Elegant Scarf - 200 Defense. Nullifies Wind element attacks. Mitsuru only
Golden Dress - 280 Defense. Reduces Electric damage by 30%
Eternal Plate - 375 Defense. Reduces Physical damage by 30%

Footwear
Fallen Angel Heels - 108 Evade. Reduces hit rate of incoming Fire damage by a flat 20%.

Comments:
Mitsuru is interesting in that her whole dynamic kind of changes compared to vanilla P3. Ignoring the turn locking weakness bit for a second, old Mitsuru had Diarahan, which gave her more sustainability and she had cast best damage outside of Yiu. In P3R, her damage is more iffy as she no longer learns Ice Amp on her own but she can supplement those with the right equipment. Her skillset has instead changed to be one that is focused more on inflicting negative status and pinning an enemy down that way. Thanks to Freeze Boost, Mitsuru's Diamond Dust has an over 100% success rate to enemies who are susceptible, meaning against vulnerable opponents, she just Freeze locks them the moment she gets a turn. It's even nastier because being Frozen means the next follow up hit is a guaranteed Crit. In-game, this makes Mitsuru and Junpei pretty much best friends. She sets them up, he blows them over. In the DL, Mitsuru gets all the benefits and none of the drawbacks.

If the opponent blocks Freeze, Mitsuru has with her up to 3 other status types including Distress, Charm and Confuse. All of them with the right set up are Turn 1 to boot and all of them can put on serious issues for enemies. Even with the best breadth of status guards like in the Trails series, this is very tough to deal with. And that's just the status end. Her DL set up manages to keep both Boost and Amp too, so she's not only crippling you with status effects, but she's dishing it out too. She does wish she still had Diarahan, but giving that up in a trade for a masterful status game, no weakness turn locks and the other P3R translation benefits? That's a trade she'll probably make 9 times out of 10. Heavy.


Aigis - "Threat Eliminated"
Level 88
HP: 551
SP: 306

Str: 69
Mag: 48
End: 83
Agl: 48
Luk: 45

Affinities - Weak Lightning, Resist Slash and Strike, Null Pierce
Fixed Passives: Phys Amp - Aigis has a bonus 20% multiplier on all Physical based attacks

Theurgy 1: Orgia Mode - Deals strong ITE Piercing damage to all targets, spread over 5 hits. Ignores target's Resistances. User enters Orgia Mode.
Orgia Mode - Doubles offense and decreases damage taken by 1/2 for the next 3 turns. Under Orgia Mode, Aigis is immune to all status effects, cannot be knocked down and the usage of any skills and abilities do not consume any HP or SP. After 3 turns are over, user enters Cooldown state for 2 turns where no action can be taken.

Theurgy 2: Maximum Firepower - Deals massive ITE Piercing damage to a single target, spread over 5 hits. +15% Crit Rate.
 
Average Starting Meter -
216 Units for Boss Days only
177 Units for Total availability

Charging increases under the following states -
1. Persona uses a Physical Attack Skill - 120 Units
2. Persona skill scores a crit - 80 Units
3. Begin Turn with a Buff - 60 Units
4t. Begin Turn with Low HP - 50 Units
4t. Critical Hit with equipped weapon - 50 Units
4t. Striking a Weakness - 50 units
4t. Begin Turn with "Charge" type status - 50 units

Default Skills:
Diarahan - 20 SP, Fully restores target's HP
Akasha Arts - 22% HP Cost, inflicts 1-2 hits of Strike damage to all targets. 88% Acc Mod. +12% Crit rate. For more information regarding Multi-hit moves, see Koromaru's analysis.
Primal Force - 21% HP Cost, inflicts massive Piercing damage to one enemy. 92% Acc mod, +10% Crit rate.
Tarukaja - 8 SP. Increases damage dealt by Aigis by 40%.
Rakukaja - 8 SP. Reduces incoming damage against Aigis by 40%
Dekunda - 10 SP - Removes stat debuffs on all allies (Aigis included).
Resist Phys - Passive - Increases Resistances to Physical type damage by one level (already factored)
Enduring Soul - Passive - Fully restores character when they are defeated. OPB.

Other Skills:
Aigis doesn't have much in terms of alternative skills except for Myriad Arrows as an alternative skill. This is a MT Piercing attack that deals damage between 2-5 hits. It is weaker in everyway compared to Akasha Arts and only worth considering if she really needs a MT Piercing Attack or a Multi-hit attack for some reason.

Matarukaja and Marakukaja are MT versions of skills Aigis has already set. These may be relevant for team matches.
Weaker skills from the same family (such as Diarama, Cruel Attack, Heat Wave etc.) are available but have been discounted due to being obsolete.

Equipment
Weapon - Anti-Matter Cannon - 345 Attack Power, 93% Acc Mod, Innate Pierce Boost
Armor - Soul of Athena - 400 Defense, Blocks all Status Effects except Instant Death
Footwear - Swan Legs - 125 Evade, Grants Aigis a flat 20% Evade to all Magic attacks.
Accessory - Vijaya Bracers - Boosts Piercing damage by 50%. Already factored.

Equip Options:
Weapon
Metatronious - 450 Weapon Power, 93% Acc Mod. +5 to All Stats, Halves HP Cost of Physical Skills. Requires a DMH
Pandemonium - 400 Weapon Power, 93% Acc Mod. +7 to AGL. Ignores Piercing Resistance.
Kyriotes - 270 Weapon Power, 93% Acc Mod. Begins fights with Sukukaja in effect for whole party
Frigid Grenade - 274 Weapon Power, 90% Acc Mod. +20% chance to Inflict Freeze
Rocket Punch - 200 Weapon Power, 88% Acc Mod. 30% chance to Inflict Confuse
Flash Grenade - 177 Weapon Power, 90% Acc Mod. +20% chance to Inflict Distress

Armor
Papillion Method - 360 Defense. Increases Orgia Mode duration by 1
Ergo Compound - 300 Defense. Reduces Electric damage by 20%
Fifth Number - 259 Defense. Reduces Physical damage by 20%

Footwear
Kugelbein - 100 Evade. Overheat recovery reduced by 1 (so 1 turn recovery).
Ergotite Legs - 64 Evade. Restores 2% MHP at the start of every turn
Proto Butterfly - 30 Evade. Nulls Light

Comments:
Aigis defines what it means to be a tank. Full healing, Defense buffing, immunity to status, resists all physical types (which she can then further stack with armor change), some flat magic evasion...yeah. Oh also, ENDURING SOUL cause this upgrade wasn't silly enough to begin with. Rides somewhere around the High Heavy/Low Godlike border. There isn't much else to say in terms of battle strategy. Just go ham with Primal Force, heal when low on HP and outlast, which she probably will unless you have really good magic type offense. As with some other members of this cast, her weakness can be troublesome but Aigis has some defenses versus it. There's the obvious magic evade, but also secondary is Orgia Mode. She can't access it immediately, but once she does, look out. Halving damage even more while being immune to being knocked down lets her just keep the momentum going.

Speaking of Orgia Mode, because it's a theurgy now, it's also more specialized. It's definitely more of an "All In" option due to the recovery attached, but she can make it less of an issue, again by swapping equipment. 3 turns of boosted offense/defense with only 1 turn on recovery can certainly be worthwhile. Similar to Yukari and Akihiko, Aigis' Theurgy condition is easy to meet. The downside is that her meter gains are relatively low although the frequency where she gains slightly more meter is higher. The end result is that she doesn't build bar that fast, but she does get it somewhat consistently so it maintains an actual option.


Koromaru - "Woof Woof Woof!"
Level
HP: 607
SP: 361

Str: 63
Mag: 67 (60 base)
End: 55
Agl: 74
Luk: 46

Affinities - Weak Light, Null Fire and Dark
Fixed Passives: Auto-Masukunda - Applies Masukunda effect to opponents if Koromaru is in the active party

Theurgy 1: Hound of Darkness - Deals massive ITE magical Dark damage to a target, spread over 5 hits. Ignores target's Resistances.
Theurgy 2: Power Howling - Gives all party members (including Koromaru) Charge (Power Charge) status. Lasts until a physical attack is used by the target.
 
Average Starting Meter -
245 Units for Boss Days only
163 Units for Total availability

Charging increases under the following states -
1t. Critical Hit with a Skill - 100 Units
1t. Critical Hit with equipped weapon - 100 Units
1t. Hitting Weakness - 100 Units
4. Being at Low HP - 50 units

Default Skills:
Maragidyne - 24 SP, deals Fire damage to multiple enemies. 
Mudoon - 14 SP, 50% chance of Dark based Instant Death. Chance is reduced against Dark resistance and presumably ID Immunity
Eigaon - 15 SP, deals Dark damage to a single target 
Tempest Slash - 14% HP Cost, inflicts 1-4 hits of Slashing damage to one enemy. 95% Acc mod, +8% Crit rate. Average of 50% chance for 4 hits, 20.71% chance of 3 hits, 15.89% chance of 2 hits and 13.4% chance of one hit.
Masukukaja - 24 SP. Increases Koromaru's accuracy and evade by 30%.
Debilitate - 30 SP. Applies all stat debuffs (Attack down, defense down, Acc/Eva down) to one target. Lasts 3 turns.
Revolution - 15 SP. Gives all enemies and allies +15% Crit
Dark Amp - Passive - Increases Dark Damage by 50%. Already factored.

Other Skills:
Koromaru, unlike most of the cast, lacks the ST version of certain spells (such as Sukukaja), which forces him to use the more expensive version. He does have some other choices but they are a bit limited:

Fire Amp - Passive -Increases Fire damage by 50%. I went with the element that is less common
Getsu-ei - 13% HP Cost, deals more damage the closer it is to a full moon. 90% Acc mod, +15% Crit rate.
Virus Breath - 25 SP, deals Almighty damage and has a 50% chance to Poison

Mamudoon and Maeigaon are the MT versions of their respective spells. So useful in team fights - less so alone.
Weaker skills from the same family (such as Maragion, Eiha, etc.) are available but have been discounted due to being obsolete.

NOTE REGARDING KOROMARU'S PHYSICAL SKILLS:
Both of Koromaru's physical skills are pretty complicated. First, let's run over Tempest Slash, since I think this move has less debate regarding it's interp. Long story short, P3R has a formula that determines the number of hits a multi-hit moves is going to strike. As per the BMG, the formula is 1 / (max hits - min hits +1). However, if the attacker has Sukunda applied to it, it changes to (√(t - min hits +1)-√(t - min hits))/(√(max hits - min hits+1)) and it the attacker has Sukukaja, it changes to (√(max hits - t +1)-√(max hits-t))/(√(max hits - min hits+1)). To make nonsense out of all of the above, being hit with Sukunda decreases the chances of inflicting a high number of hits, while Sukukaja increases it.

For Getsu-ei, the skill has an additional modifier based on the state of the Moon when you fight battles. At it's strongest, there is an additional 1.75x multiplier attached to it. There are certainly arguments in-game that between the two "Moon Slash" type attacks, Getsu-ei is the better of the two. The main reason being that it is a move you can utilize on those all important boss days for boost. The game also ends on a Full Moon day, so any testing done at end game will basically always have this move at its maxed power.

Although it is quite possible for Getsu-ei to out perform Tempest Slash, Tempest Slash is the more consistent of the two interp wise as it does not force you to ask the question regarding "what moon cycle is it most likely" and figuring out Getsu-ei's true power.

Equipment
Weapon - Tyrant's Knife - 285 Attack Power, 96% Acc Mod, +7 Magic and Innate Dark Boost (already factored)
Armor - Gaia Dog Suit - 345 Defense. Restores MHP by 6% and 7 SP at the start of a turn.
Footwear - Bare Paws - 125 Evade. Locked - Koromaru cannot equip Footwear
Accessory - Agni Bracers - Boosts Fire damage by 50%. Already factored.

Equip Options:
Weapon
Vajra - 410 Weapon power, 96% Acc Mod. +9 to All stats. Innate Ali Dance (Halves accuracy of all incoming attacks against Koromaru). Requires a DMH
Underworld Kunai - 330 Weapon Power, 96% Acc Mod. Turns Koromaru's Weapon element to Dark.  Has innate Dark Amp
Full Moon Kunai - 288 Weapon Power, 96% Acc Mod. Innate Slash Boost
Pairing Knife - 185 Weapon Power, 90% Acc Mod. +20% chance to Inflict a random status
Carnage Knife - 155 Weapon Power, 90% Acc Mod. Begins fights with Tarukaja
Hazakura - 130 Weapon Power, 85% Acc Mod. Turns Koromaru's Weapon element to Wind.

Armor
Aura Dog Suit - 380 Defense, +5 Endurance, Nullifies Light based attacks
Sun Dog Suit - 256 Defense. Resists Fear by 50%
Powered Dog Suit - 222 Defense. Begins fights with Tarukaja and Rebellion (+7% Crit) in effect
Rock Dog Suit - 150 Defense. Innate Endure


Comments:
Koromaru has a pretty nasty evade game going. Having Sukunda automatically placed on an opponent while he himself can boost his evade with Sukukaja means he's pretty reguarly hitting the Min Accuracy gap. Like Akihiko, he wishes the cap wasn't there because he does rely on it to keep himself healthy. He lost Mudo Boost so his ID is even chancier it he has to rely on it. Luckily, he does pack pretty solid damage with a Boost and Amp, has 2 elements to play with so he's harder to wall and of course, he has armor to make it such that he has NO WEAKNESSES. In fact, his 3 immunities are all pretty DL common, so that's a big gain - even though he already nullified Fire and Dark to start.

Koro does gain a small physical game in P3R. He's not a pure ID mage or pure mage like in the original. He sort of has this hybrid niche going where he can sort of go physical (due to have a Slash Boost weapon, the mechanics of multi-hit attacks along with Crit Boosts), albeit he's worse at it than Junpei, Aigis and Akihiko. If he could access his theurgy more reliably, then he would be a menace as he can easily store his Charge. Unfortunately, his advanced charging conditions are all very situational in the DL. He's in the same camp as Junpei in that regard.

The icing on the cake here is Debilitate which renders enemy offense to be a fraction of their usual strength by cutting their power and accuracy. This gives him more time regardless of which strategy or offensive angle is going for. The main thing that sticks out are his very high SP costs. Because he lacks the ST versions of certain attacks, Koro chews through his SP very quickly - especially if he's recasting Sukukaja. Still, very solid, but doesn't have as much of a complete package as you'd want. Some flavor of Heavy likely.


Ken Amada - "Don't look down on me"
Level 88
HP: 459
SP: 320

Str: 51 (48 Base)
Mag: 73 (70 Base)
End: 61 (58 Base)
Agl: 66 (63 Base)
Luk: 62 (59 Base)

Affinities - Weak Dark, Null Light
Fixed Passives: SP Restore - Ken recovers 10 SP at the start of his turn.

Theurgy 1: Divine Retribution - Deals massive ITE magical Light damage to a target, spread over 8 hits. Ignores target's Resistances.
Theurgy 2: Divine Intervention - Fully restores all party member's HP, recovers from KO and adds Physical and Magic Repel

Average Starting Meter -
183 Units for Boss Days only
208 Units for Total availability

Charging increases under the following states -
1. Start a Turn with SP below 50% - 200 Units
2. Persona using a Healing Skill - 80 Units
3t. Persona using an Offensive Magic Skill - 60 Units
3t. Hitting a Weakness - 60 Units
5t. Being at Low HP - 50 units
5t. Persona using a Support Skill - 50 Units

Default Skills:
Mediarahan - 44 SP, Fully restores HP for entire party. 
Ziodyne - 14 SP, deals Lightning damage, 15% chance to inflict Shock
Hamaon - 14 SP, 50% chance of Light based Instant Death. Chance is reduced against Light resistance and presumably ID Immunity
Kougaon - 15 SP, deals Light damage to a single target   
Tetrakarn - 24 SP. Guards Ken or any other one ally from one physical attack and reflects it back to the attacker.
Makarakarn - 24 SP. Guards Ken or any other one ally from one magical attack and reflects it back to the attacker. Certain magic attacks can pierce this, notably Almighty ones.
Heat Raiser - 36 SP. Applies all stat buffs (Attack up, defense up, Acc/Eva up) to one ally. Lasts 3 turns.
Light Amp - Passive - Increases Light Damage by 50%. Already factored.

Other Skills:
Similar to Koromaru, Ken doesn't have Diarahan so he has to use the MT version, which is significantly more expensive. However, his passive ability plus his Theurgy advanced charging both put a silver lining to this disadvantage. Some other skills Ken might consider:

Mediarama - 16 SP. Restores 150 HP + Bonus from MAG to the whole party. The Bonus appears to be about 85 HP, making it heal 235 HP total.
Dekaja - 10 SP. Removes all stat boosts from enemies.
Vile Assault - 15% HP Cost, deals 1.5x more damage if target is knocked down. 95% Acc mod, +3% Crit rate.

Mahamaon and Makougaon are the MT versions of their respective spells. So useful in team fights - less so alone.
Weaker skills from the same family (such as Kouga, Zionga, etc.) are available but have been discounted due to being obsolete.

Equipment
Weapon - Gungnir - 400 Attack Power, 99% Acc Mod, +5 Magic, turns Ken's Weapon affinity to Lightning. Innate Elec Amp (already factored)
Armor - Fallen Noble Armor - 345 Defense, Blocks Mental Status effects
Footwear - Mysterious Geta - 99 Evade, All Stats +3. Already factored
Accessory - Light Bracers - Boosts Light damage by 25%. Already factored.

Equip Options:
Weapon
Pinaka - 440 Weapon power, 94% Acc Mod. +100 to HP and SP.
Gae Bolg - 200 Weapon Power, 90% Acc Mod. Turns Ken's Weapon element to Light.  Has innate Light Boost
Tonbo-Kiri - 330 Weapon Power, 96% Acc Mod. Blocks all Mental Status
Omega Spear - 270 Weapon Power, 94% Acc Mod. Has Auto-Tarukaja effect
Poison Glaive - 244 Weapon Power, 94% Acc Mod. +20% chance to Inflict Poison
Sexy Lance - 154 Weapon Power, 94% Acc Mod. +20% chance to Inflict Charm
Lance of Death - 176 Weapon Power, 94% Acc Mod. +20% chance to Inflict Fear

Armor
Hero's Cape - 224 Defense. Blocks Confusion. Ken only

Footwear
Night Demon Sandals - 80 Evade. Provides Ken a flat bonus 20% Evasion against Dark attacks. Ken only.

Comments:
Everyone has gotten better or sidegrades, but no one has as ridiculous of a glow up as Ken. I mean, just look at his skillset. SP Restoration on a Healer is pretty silly and about Ken's only real issue is his high SP cost on his spells. The silver lining as noted however, is that his Theurgy gauge charges at its max advanced rate once his SP drops below 50%. As such, he doesn't have any real problems tossing Mediarahans to put himself into that spot. Then, he waits a couple of more turns and proceeds to either nuke you with a Heat Riser Divine Retribution. His second Theurgy is a bail out option and lets him stall even more because you know, he didn't have enough silliness to start.

Ken has access to 2 Amps like Koro, meaning he's also tougher to wall as you need to block both Thunder and Holy to immune his attacks. But even then, that doesn't really stop him because he just wall you with the Karns unless you double turn him, then proceed to nuke you anyway because Theurgies ignore resistances. He even has Yukari's silly low status game too if it comes to it because his healing gives him the longivity for those 20% chances to hit. Like Koro, he doesn't have Hama boost anymore, but unlike the doggo, the healing let's him gamble more on the low hit chances if need be, which obviously helps. The Fear lance is the only one that isn't a wincon, but the Charm one probably is if it hits. Like Aigis, he's a champ powered Heavy - likely a High Heavy / Low Godlike borderliner.

5

Unranked Games / Persona 3: Reloaded

« on: November 09, 2024, 05:02:09 AM »

Because I like talking about games and because OK has vanished into the ether. I am here to carry on his work. Persona 3: Reloaded (P3R for short) is the remake of the original Persona 3 game for the PS2 from over 10 years ago. The overarching story is still the same and most of the gameplay is the same. I'd wager to say like 85-90% of it plays roughly how the original does. It does come with some bells and whistles of course and depending on which version of P3 you played, some or all of this may be completely new. Seeing as I am also insane like OK, I have played basically every version (Vanilla, FES, Portable and now Reloaded), below are a list of new OR adjusted features compared to vanilla:

General Universal Changes
- All characters can now choose their own skillsets, with a way to revisit and relearn old skills if need be (although this consumes an evening - more on time costs later). This gives them more flexibility with what they want to carry for DL purposes. Of course, PCs are also now all manually controllable, making it such that you can't really choose an ineffective skillset unless you really tried (like keeping Elec Boost but not electric attacks)

- All characters have now gained a new meter called Theurgy. In a nutshell, these are limit gauges. P3R being P3R though makes them a bit more complicated (okay, needless complicated for the nitty gritty details) as the charge rates for each character vary. The same action on one PC may not charge the same amount of meter as another character. More on this when it comes to the PCs.

- All characters can no longer be turn locked when their weakness is struck. This is very key. If you were voting on vanilla only, Mitsuru loses to Alaina (from Suiko3) or anyone with a lighter really because all they have to do is hit weakness, then do literally anything else but attack and the P3 PC loses their turn from recovering. Now, if you hit a character's weakness, they will auto recover after 1 turn.

- All characters also now have some unique equipment specific to them. Equipment in general has a huge overhaul. You still get your vanilla gear from Officer Kurosawa, but the special gear is a bit different. There are unique equips in Tartarus, but you can also forge new rare and stronger equips with heart items. Like in vanilla P3, some Personas will carry an item and upon reaching a certain level, drop the item into your inventory. This is the same deal in P3R but the Heart Items are much more accessible. Largely because of lower level thresholds, but also because of some changes to the XP mechanics and Shuffle Time. In General - Everything BUT the final tier of equipment is pretty accessible. I'll make a note if a PC wants something that belongs within this tier.

- Characters can now "Shift" or pass their turn upon getting a 1 more just as in P5. This is largely DL irrelevant unless they get teamed up together, but noting it for documentation.

Changes to the Makoto/Minato/Ren (whatever the heck you want to call him. I'd just refer to him as Yiu cause pun):
- For Fusion purposes, skills can now be manually selected. This makes skill inheritance much easier. As in later Persona entries, there are also skill cards available as drops and you can automatically slot these skills into a Persona's skillset as you see fit. All Personas (not just those of Yiu) are limited to 8 skills, so keep this in mind.

- Fusion spells can no longer be summoned at will. These are now tied specifically to the Yiu's Theurgy Gauge

- Some Fusions are now tied directly to interacting with PCs and getting their backstories. These events have time costs associated with them. If you are a stickler about this, Yiu can be shut out from getting access to certain ultimate Personas (read Max S.Link). The one off the top of my head is Kohryu, which requires Byakko, which can only be attained through a completed Koromaru backstory.

- Yiu also has a lot of access to free stat boosters. These come from a mixture of shuffle time changes as well as various social activities in the game that can alter his bases. I have factored in the ones to HP/SP since these are two stats that do not change when shifting to another Persona. The rest, you can deduct 1 or 2 points from their totals if you see fit.

Fuuka
- Fuuka has also undergone some major changes, although these effect dungeon exploration in Tartarus and not really the flow of the game.

- For the purposes of this topic, just be aware that Fuuka also has a Theurgy gauge. This matters largely for any bosses that may be documented (such as Jesus with a Gun) because it allows the player to tap in for extra assistance that isn't available in vanilla. Notably, it probably makes them worse.

- Certain accessories can be equipped on Fuuka but will have party wide benefits. Any SP+ items for example is a huge boon since it lets her scan an extra time and thus a faster Theurgy charge
- Fuuka also has some additional skills that are available within Tartarus such as Sylphid Aura that grant the team Auto-Maraku and Auto-Masuku, which drastically decreases enemy offense for the first several turns. These all cost SP.

Those are the major changes I can think of that effect battles at the moment. Will list more relevant ones if they come to mind. Now then, onto the next topic - Gameflow.

Gameflow
It's important to discuss Game Flow because it gets into one of the biggest issues on dealing with interps and unfortunately player averages. If you haven't played a Persona game since 2007, the way these game work is as follows. You are given control of your avatar (Yiu) and you have an entire year to do whatever you want within the game's list of activities. You are a high school student, so you have to attend school, but after classes? You can hang out with friends, go to the arcade, go do charity work, eat a burger - you name it. For the first several months in the game, you are required to take on a main mission every Full Moon (roughly 30 days) after which the cycle repeats. Of course, you also have certain obligations as a student such as writing your midterms and there are scripted plot events so there will be times when you are required to do something else which will take up your day.. After the first several months, missions are no longer scripted outside of the very final one that takes place at the end of the game.

Why this matters
Every activity or event in the game consumes time. Time in P3R is broken into either Daytime and Nighttime. In general Daytime availability is extremely valuable. This is how you improve character relationships (your Social Links) or view character events (backstories /linked episodes noted above). These directly tie into how strong of a persona you can fuse. When your relationship improves, it improves the strength of the Persona you fuse and if you max out a relationship, then the game grants you access to fuse the ultimate form of that particular Arcana. In contrast - Nighttime availability is much less valuable for the main reason that most people are not available during the night. Outside of hanging out with your team members, there are only 2 Night S.Links, so for the purposes of this topic, it assumes most - if not all - Night time activity is completed. This means the all PCs have their maxed characteristic and more importantly, a certain healthy grind mindset towards Tartarus.

Tartarus is the game's main universal dungeon. You are free to explore this place at your own pace, but it is only available during the Night. There are some days when you are barred from exploring due to scripted events. But in general, exploring Tartarus is how you get stronger physically (levels and such) versus improving your abilities (Personas). You can theoretically never touch Tartarus until the last day if you could beat the main missions severely under leveled. This is obviously not intended and with the amount of Nights that are available, the topic assumes a decent number of visits. Since fighting in Tartarus is also how you get crafting materials, you can see why I allow most of these equip options.

The Time Cost and how it hits the Averages
In previous Persona topics, it is assumed that your MC equivalent has maxed out all his Social Links because in those games, you can often end up with way more time available even after all your relationships are capped. As such, even if not played perfectly, there is a decent amount of leeway to presume that an experienced player can get most of the S.Links to the cap. In P3R, this is not the case. I've read two max S.Link guides and in both guides they note the amount of free Daytime availability is limited to roughly a week. 7 Days sounds like a lot, but due to the limitations of most S.Links requiring a Daytime slot, you can get locked out of a maxed S.Link run pretty easily. The caveat to this is that both of these guides assume you will complete the Linked episodes / backstories for Junpei, Ken, Akihiko, Shinjiro, Koromaru and Ryuji. If you decide for whatever reason to free up these days, then it gives Yiu more time to finish the S.Links. Just keep in mind doing this means you can also lock yourself out of some of the Max S.Link fusions.

How you want to take Yiu is pretty nebulous as a result. With max S.Links, he'll have the entire Persona compendium at his disposal in terms of what he uses for duels and obviously gives him the largest advantage. Whether or not that is reasonable given what I noted above though is another story. If you assume that a max S.Link 1st run isn't reasonable, there are some other ways to take Yiu as part of the average:

Method 1 - There are 3 fixed Social Links that you are guaranteed to max out regardless of what you do. These are Fool, Death and Judgment. So what methodology is to assume the bare minimum and give Yiu access to only the final Personas of these 3 Arcana. He'll still have like 80% of the list available but it strips out some more powerful options from the table.

Method 2 - An average 1st run through if you aren't really following a guide and doing everything blind will probably finish 16-17 S.Links (including the 3 fixed) of the 23 available. You can pick and choose which ones to skip, but I'd probably recommend ones like Aeon because of its extremely tight time line or those that require fusion chains like Kohryu (needs Byakko which requires completing Koromaru's backstories). You can also just selectively dump out the 7 worst final fusions from the average.

Note that with the introduction and advantage of skill cards, outside of truly unique skills like Alice's Die For Me! the base form of the Persona probably matters more than any other skill as you *could* just slap the skill on with the corresponding card. This topic will list out the most practical set up for a Persona. I'd also only include Personas within 10 levels or so of the final average unless it is a Max S.Link one as fusing Personas with that much of a deficit means Yiu starts taking big stat penalties. Also, Elizabeth warns you in-game whenever you do that, which is a good indication that it is probably too underpowered to be considered.

PCs and Theurgy -
All PCs in the game have a separate gauge that is charged during battle, which when it hits the max level, allows you to use a very powerful skill specific to that character. The game notes that every character has certain conditions, which when fulfilled, increases the rate of which their gauge charges. The truth is a little more complicated than because as it turns out, Theurgy is charged *every* turn in battle. More specifically, there are 16 separate states / checks (17 including one specifically for Fuuka) that are made and every time a check is satisfied, it increases the Theurgy meter for that character. Every character has one advanced charging condition where they get significantly more meter and then a lot of other states where they may gain a bit more than their fellow cost members. The mode for charge rates across every state is about 30 units unless otherwise noted. Note that every PC when recovering from getting knocked down will gain 100 Theurgy units. This is universal and applies to every PC except Fuuka. A maxed gauge is roughly 1000 units of charge. The separate states are as follows:

1. Recovering from being Knocked Down - 100 units for all PCs except Fuuka
2. Under "Charge" Status
3. Under a Stat Buff
4. Start turn with Low HP
5. Start turn with Low SP
6. Receiving a Shift Turn
7. Begin a turn with at least one enemy under a negative status effect.
8. Begin a turn with at least one enemy suffering a debuff
9. Scoring a Crit
10. Hitting a Weakness
11. Using a Physical Skill
12. Using a Magical Skill
13. Using a Healing Skill
14. Using a Support Skill
15. Using a Status Skill
16. Knocked an Enemy Down
17. Scanning Complete - Fuuka only (50 units)

I should note that once the event takes place, the gauge charges instantly. For example, if you heal someone, the charge would apply after the healing has taken place, so the presumption is that the charge only kicks in at the end of turn. However, starting off your turn with a buff also raises your theurgy, and that is a start of turn trigger instead.  You still need an active turn to trigger your Theurgy skill, but meter building occurs at the time of the event. This shouldn't matter too much except in niche cases but it is worth noting.

Each PC has 2 Theurgy skills, except for Yiu who has 7 (Fusion spells). They do not need to be selective and choose one before the fight like FF7. Instead, they'll have access to all their Theurgy skills learnt. Meter can be carried over from one fight to another so for those of you that allow half gauges or what not, keep this in mind for damage averages.

One other interesting thing of note is that each PC's starting Theurgy is apparently different every day in the game. There are kind of 3 ways to take this for starting meter:
- Option 1: Take starting meter to be all at 100. So no one has an advantage over another (the Jan 31 approach)
- Option 2: Consider dates of major boss fights (all full moon shadows, Strega, etc.), then average the starting rates out.
- Option 3: Consider the starting Theurgy of every available day that PC can be used. Then average it out.

While Option 3 would normally be absolutely tedious and insane to document, thanks to CTOBN, this information has already been mined in his database (see below). All we needed to do is to have someone take the data and calculate it. Shout outs to Nama for sending me the completed data, which will be included in each PC's load out.

Most of this information comes from a virtually completed datamine of the entire game, courtesy of CTOBN. You can find the link to it here:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1f4Bhkg0gBqUSm4YR1Bba1JsQn6w6fPDrqBTaWlHla8A/edit?gid=0#gid=0

Much thanks to him, otherwise this topic probably wouldn't exist for all the subsequent information that follows. We're going to be using it for lots of other things below. For those interested, I suggest checking it out as it might contain things I skipped over.

Equipment Expanded
I already noted the equipment from forging / exchange that can be done and the degree of ease with which most of it can be attained. In general, the base of a piece of equipment sans Dead Moon Husks (DMH) are all readily available and there are enough Tartarus days for the grind to get them. The only real question left is "Are the gemstones and Persona material easy to acquire". For the most part, the answer is yes. The most rare component here is actually the Gold Quartz. These are hard to come by but you can also exchange for 1 at a price of 200,000 Yen. This isn't exactly cheap but since there's very little to buy at end-game and you can also get some during Tartarus grinds, the end result is that there is often enough to come by. Each PC has four equipment slots - A weapon (unique), Armor (classed), Footwear (mostly classed) and Accessory (mostly universal). Unique obviously means it can only be used by one person. Classed in this case means it is separated between Male/Female/Aigis/Koromaru. In general, Aigis and Koro use their own armor class, so everything they can use is always unique. For the humans, it is a different story. There are significantly more males than there are females (4-5 to 2 depending on if you count Shinji), so while Female armor has a spectre of uniqueness to it (2/8 or 2/9 with Shinji), Male armor does not (4/8 or 5/9 with Shinji) unless it is specified. Footwear is similar except for the fact that dogs don't equip shoes.

As a result of the above classification and notes, the default armor for human PCs is going to be the Fallen Noble Armor. This costs 2 Soul Sea Droplets, 3 Gold Quartz and an AS Refined Material. You only need 4 for an active party, so this translates to 8 Droplets and 12 Quartz, which is manageable. This armor has 345 Defense and provides immunity to Mental status, which is kind of a big deal. Women have the added benefit other forged / exchange equipment, which gives them a bit more utility, but it's tough to argue with a great status blocker on a high defense item. Men on the other hand, just have to deal.

For Footwear, the default Footwear is the Mysterious Geta, which gives all humans +3 Stats across the board and has 99 Evade. Similarly, women have the choice of some unique footwear. Men on the other hand, again, have to suck it up. This mostly craters Junpei because he would love for you to give him the Dragon Boots (Auto TaruRebellion) as well as DMH weapon, but dem's the breaks. If you are very lenient, I'll note Junpei's weapon when it comes up. Otherwise, the Dragon Boots have 108 Evade and Auto-Taru + Auto Rebellion.

Accessories is up to interpretation. The default suggestion is to assume this slot is null (outside of status blocking) because every accessory can be outfitted on to every other PC. In practice of course, this isn't true. Some accessories like Wind Bracers for example is basically useless for every PC except for Yukari and the MC. Sure, there's an extreme fringe case where it *could* be useful for Koromaru, but that's highly unlikely. For this reason, there are a lot of accessories where in practice, they only impact 1 PC. You might consider this to be their "default" as a result - especially for those of you that adopt NEB/Dhyer's view where an accessory to block status should have an opportunity cost. In this case though, the human PCs are already going to be immune to mental status effects so whether or not you want to further extend an olive branch is up to you. If you do, most PCs want a +Boost element that matches their skillset in general. There is some flexibility and exceptions. For example - Mitsuru has a choice between boosting Confusion's success rate OR boosting Ice damage to free up a skill slot space. The one PC who has an advantage here is Akihiko because he debatably has no need for an accessory. He won't pass up on a free bonus passive if everyone else has one, but he gains significantly less so you might also want to tax him less (or none at all) if you're trying to slap on some penalty:

Yukari - Wind Bracers - to further boost Wind damage by 25%
Junpei - Slash Amp - to further boost Slashing attacks by 50%
Akihiko - Strike Amp - to further boost Strike attacks by 50%
Mitsuru - Amulet of Perplexity - to further boost Confuse success rate
Aigis - Pierce Amp - to further boost Piercing attacks by 50%
Ken - Light Boost - to further boost Light damage by 25%
Koromaru - Fire Bracers/Dark Bracers - to further boost Dark damage by 25%

Stats and Definitions
HP - Lose these and become a door
SP - Soul Points or MP equivalent. Needed to cast spells and most skill.
Str - Influences Physicals. Higher strength means more damage. Physicals always have a minimal Crit of 3%
Mag - Influences Spells. Higher magic means more damage. Note that for P3R, any elemental attack is by definition a spell.
End - Reduces damage taken. Higher endurance means less damage received. Defense on armors provides a modified Endurance value.
Agl - Governs who gets the first turn as well as evade and accuracy.
Luk - Effects Status success and Crit Rates


Status Conditions and What not
Most of these shouldn't be news but it is good to go over again to clarify. There are 3 types of conditions in the game: Physical, Mental and Instant Death. Let's go over them:

Physical Conditions:
Poison - Take 20% MHP damage at the end of your turn. Lasts indefinitely.

Frozen - Lose your next turn. Evade drops to zero. Any physical attack made against a Frozen target is an automatic Critical Hit

Shocked - Lose your next turn. Evade drops to zero. Physical attacks have a guaranteed 35% chance to Crit + Crit Rate of the attack in question.

Dizzy - Lose your next turn. While Dizzy, your evade drops to zero, you take 30% more damage and Physicals have a +15% chance to Crit

Down - Lose your balance and fall down. Evade drops to zero and you take 30% more damage from incoming attacks. When a target is knocked down, the attacker receives a bonus turn (a 1 More) and they can receive some new team actions (Shifting/All Out Attack) or just use the turn as they deem fit. Once a target is knocked down, you cannot be knocked down again. Hitting a knocked down target does not re-stand them (as in vanilla P3). Attacking a knocked down target has a 30-50% chance of causing them to become Dizzy. I'll get the exact rates later. Automatically recover once it is your turn again.

Hitting a Weakness or a Crit results in a knock down roughly 99% of the time in the game. When doing so doesn't give a 1 more, it is because visually, your target doesn't get thrown off balance (such as Nyx). For this reason, some of you may consider the Knockdown to be what causes the 1 more and not the action of hitting weaknesses or crits.

Mental Conditions
Distress - Your offense and defense are halved and physicals attacks have a +60% chance to Crit. Wears off after 3-4 turns.

Fear - 50% chance of losing your next turn. Wears off after 3-4 turns. Physicals have 20% increased Crit

Confusion - Will act randomly. Most of the time though, you'll just waste your turn. Lasts about 4 turns. Physicals have 20% increased Crit

Charm - You will perform actions that are beneficial to you opponent such as healing them, buffing them, attacking your own team, etc.

Rage - Will only use physical attacks. Take twice the damage as normal.

Instant Death (ID)
Mudo/Hama - Dark and Light based ID. These run through the status check formula.

Ghastly Wail - Guaranteed instant death if you are afflicted by Fear.

Relevant Damage Formulas -
Massive special thanks again to CTOBN and his dissected formula and numbers guide here: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3230774091

Cribbing out all the useful stuff for our purposes:

Damage - √(Skill Power x 15 x (Str OR MAG/END)) x2 x Affinity x Level Mod x Other Modifiers
Skill Power is the name of the ability. If it is an equipped weapon, the Skill Power is half of the weapon's strength.
Strength is used for physicals (Slash/Blunt/Pierce attacks) and Magic is used for everything
Affinity is the modifier based on the target's vulnerabilities. For the purposes of the DL, this is always 1
Level Mod is the modifier based on the level difference between the attacker and the defender. Again, for the DL purposes, this is always 1, barring some really good reason to assume a level difference exists.
Other Modifiers refer to other multipliers that are applicable. These include Boosts, Amps, the Charges, hitting weakness, buffs, being under status conditions, etc.

Damage Received - (√(Skill Power x 6 x STR or MAG / (8 x END + Armor)) x 9 x Level Mod - 10) x Affinity
Unlike the player formula, basic attacks from enemy versions do not have their Skill Power halved and when one is being used, the "-10" at the end is removed.
Rest of it is pretty self explanatory. Use Strength for physicals and Magic for spells. Level Mod for DL purposes is always assumed to be 1.

Theurgy Damage - √(Skill Power x 10 x (Level + 20) x (St + Ma) / En) x 0.7 x Level Difference x Affinity x Other Modifiers
I did mention Theurgy was more complicated than it looks. In fact, it has its own formula for damage.
Skill Power is the name of the ability. The rest are all pretty self-explanatory.

Accuracy - ((Attacker's AGI +200)/(Defender's AGI+200)) x Skill's Base Hit Rate
Every attack in the game has a varying hit rate although most are 90%+. Note that Evasion is calculated separately because P3R runs a separate formula for enemy accuracy.

Evade - {[((Attacker's AGI +200)/(Defender's AGI+200)) x Skill's Base Hit Rate] x Skill Modifier  x (Attacker's AGI +200)/((Footwear Evade/2) +200)} - Equipment Evade
Despite how stupid it looks, in summary, take your accuracy, then multiply it against the PC's Footwear Evade less any other Equipment Evade.
Skill Modifier refers to Passive abilities as well as the Sukus which all multiply accuracy by differing factors
Equipment Evade refers to any Armor or Accessory with an "Evade *Attribute type*" as its passive. This is subtracted from the calculated total at the end as a flat penalty for the attacker.
From the BMG, it looks like the Minimum Hit Rate is 50% while maximum is 99%

Crit Rate - (Attacker's Luck + 50)/(Defender's Luck + 50) x Skill Base Crit x Crit Rate Multiplier + Crit Rate Boosts
Every physical skill has an innate crit rate attached to it. For Weapon strikes, they all have a Skill Crit Rate of 3.
Crit Rate Multiplier is strictly looking at Apt Pupil (which Doubles Crit) and Sharp Student (Halves Crit for defender), otherwise it is 1
Crit Rate Boosts refers to everything else that buffs Crit Rates - Rebellion, Revolution, Crit Boost, Crit Amp, etc.
A weapon with a Crit Rate Up (X) where X is Low, Medium and High have an added 5/10/15% increased chance to Crit.
Certain status conditions will also add Boosts. As noted above, Dizzy adds 15% for example.

Status Accuracy -  ((Attacker's Luck + 100)/(Defender's Luck + 100) x Skill Success Chance x Affinity x Skill Multiplier x Physical Equipment Modifier x Mental Equipment Modifier)
The formula is pretty self explanatory...until you get to Affinity. Basically each status is classed as its own affinity with the exceptions of Down, Freeze, Shock, Hama and Mudo. If a target is weak to the affinity, then the Ailment success chance is increased by 25%
Skill Modifier refers to any success rate boosts coming off associated sets. For example, Freeze Boost, Shock Boost, etc.
Then we get to the last bits. To summarize, these only matter on defensive checks on PCs because enemies with Resist <Status Skill> just reduce the status by a 50% rate. Essentially, Freeze and Shock are treated differently by the game and their Resist Skills do not alter the affinity to the status condition but are instead just multipliers. Because of this, Resist Freeze the skill and Resist Freeze the equipment will not stack. However, Resist Charm the skill and Resist Charm the equipment will as one alters the base affinity and the other alters the success rate.
In a majority of cases, both of these modifiers will simply be 1.

6

Tournaments / Re: Spooky hat season: a themed team tourney - nominations

« on: November 01, 2024, 03:27:00 PM »

Chef Hat - Orcha (CC)

Bandana - Locke (FF6), Serge (CC)

Baseball Cap - Junpei Iori (P3 series), Ness (EB)

Fedora - Irvine (FF8), Greg (WA5), Yuber (Suiko3)

Sombrero - Ricardo (SH FTNW), Ludicolo (Pkmn)

7

Tournaments / Re: RPGVO 2024 Grand Finals: It always seems to end in rematches.

« on: October 07, 2024, 03:33:23 PM »

Godlike:
Mewtwo (PKMN) vs. Shania (SH:FtNW): Rematch

Heavy:
Nel Zelpher (SO3) vs. Lady Elmina Harken (WA:ACF): Rematch.

Middle:
MOMO Mizrahi (XSs) vs. Stocke (RH): About the only fight that requires some thinking since it's not a repeat of previous weeks. And I'm pretty sure Snow is accurate in his assessment. MOMO3 for once has a harder fight because she can't apply Confuse which MOMO1 can and has to do a bit more legwork, but the fight is still in her court.

Light:
Marianne von Edmund (FE3H) vs. Zhuzhen Liu (SH1): Rematch.

Everyone else has got pools and since I'm late to the party, I'll analyze the tentative team match (cause those are always interesting to me):

Mewtwo, Harken, Stocke, Zhuzhen vs. Shania, Nel, MOMO, Marianne -
So for once in a century, the team match this season is NOT so much dependent on the Godlikes, but more the Heavies. The question is: Are Mewtwo + Harken T1 offenses good enough to take out Nel? Because if not, Nel applies an Ice Dagger combo to Freeze Mewtwo, which then one of her teammates comes in and applies the killshot. The fight goes very downhill from that point. Shania vs. Harken is a match Shania wins pretty cleanly and neither Stocke or Zhuzhen do anything significant. On the other hand, if they do kill off Nel, Team Shania lacks the tools to really put down Mewtwo and he solos. It's also possible that Stocke is faster than Nel but that's much trickier to dissect since ARPG and Move + Attack Speed issues, but that's partially offset by MOMO having the argument of being faster as MOMO1. Then she can sneak a Heal in and restore some much needed HP to a battered Nel to ensure she sees her turn. I'm of the opinion Nel survives but probably by like the skin of her teeth since Full HP Harken offense just isn't that scary.

8

Tournaments / Re: RPGVO 2024 Round 9: Losers' Finals: No real comment to make here.

« on: September 24, 2024, 03:04:34 PM »

Heavy:
Lady Elmina Harken (WA:ACF) vs. Geno (SMRPG) - Rematch part 3. Long story short - Geno losing turn 1 is just too critical. He starts off essentially at a HP deficit and doesn't hit nearly as hard to avoid Harken's fatal Maximum Risk range.

Middle:
Jude Maverick (WA4) vs. Stocke (RH) - 1.47 PDur is indeed too much for Jude to bust past. Even in the best scenario where he does Attack - Attack - Assault Buster, his damage just caps out at a hair over average PCHP. His opponent needs to be bad at one of Assault Buster's listed traits for him to do more and Stocke is non-surprisingly average at the core 3 stats (maybe weaker evade, but that's compensated by good defenses). On the other hand, Stocke has no issue 2HKOing back with G-Fire because Jude M.Def plot.

9

Tournaments / Re: RPGVO 2024 Round 8: Winners Final/Losers Semi. Zhuzhen Stands Alone.

« on: September 16, 2024, 02:54:49 PM »

Godlike:

Losers:
Terra Branford (FF6) vs. Shania (SH:FtNW) - Without looking up any numbers, I think Shania has the advantage...barring letting Terra get her over-leveled spells. Dream porter letting her double act here is huge and the recovery lag can be softened due to Stanlittobell. Terra's best bet might be to try outstalling Shania's SP but that's pretty rough - even without consideration of the Flare Brooch.

Heavy

Winners:
Lady Elmina Harken (WA:ACF) vs. Nel Zelpher (SO3) - Uh...Nel might OHKO here. Ice Falchion let's her hit weakness and cancelled Freezing Daggers into Mirror Dance is a lot of damage even on base. To add insult to injury here, techs are parry-proof in ACF so Harken's 100% relying on evade and those attacks are multi-hit.


Middle:

Winners:
Jude Maverick (WA4) vs. MOMO Mizrahi (XSs) - Form choice mattering for god knows however many fights now, but Jude is dead if MOMO3 gets a turn. Abyss Walker basically eats his entire skillset and then MOMO can just pump out Magic Damage. MOMO1 I think loses. Jude probably heal locks after a physical is my kneejerk due to MOMO's bad P.Dur but will need some number crunching to be more accurate.

Losers:
Machias Regnitz (ToCS2) vs. Stocke (RH) - Rematch. I'm pretty sure at this point, Mr. VSM matches are all either complete Match of Doom style slogs are end within 5 seconds. Here - it is case 1, part 2. Imagine fighting something like this in a real game though.


Light
Winners:
Marianne von Edmund (FE3H) vs. Zhuzhen Liu (SH1) - Once again, I kneejerk Renewal + Nos is a bit too much. Zhuzhen would actually need to be able to blitz and I don't think he can.

Losers:
Annette Fantine Dominic (FE3H) vs. Hubert von Vestra (FE3H) - Pretty sure, unless I'm missing something?

10

Tournaments / Re: RPGVO 2024 Round 7, Losers Quarter: Tifa Hits a Guy with Glasses.

« on: September 10, 2024, 02:53:59 AM »

Godlike:
Terra Branford (FF6) vs. Melfice (G2) - General kneejerk that Terra's durability can withstand Melfice's speed thanks to a combo of evade and defenses. Drain lets her put on the pressure and he's not immune to fire when she needs to swing big.
Velius (FFT) vs. Shania (SH:FtNW) - Lose Voice, Seal and Loss are all bad and Shania has no way of stopping all three at the same time with the way I treat blockers.

Heavy:
Geno (SMRPG) vs. Clarissa Arwin (WA:XF) - Good news for Clarissa - Soul Survivor stops Geno Whirl. Bad news for Clarissa, Geno goes first and can still do enough damage (like Harken) on Turn 1 to make her offense suck.

Middle:
Machias Regnitz (ToCS2) vs. Tifa Lockhart (FF7) - Christ...this match is kind of painful. So Tifa can equip the Gem Ring, which stops Petrify, rendering Machias any easy way to win the fight...but her issue as noted earlier in the tournament is that once she gets her Limit, she is locked into using it. If she was like Red or Cloud and had some back up spell magic, I think this goes differently. But as is, she has no choice but to slam the Limit out and there's a good chance Mr. VSM can just tank it because Max Def Up Boost + Iron's 50% damage cut means he'll take very little raw damage. And Tifa has no way to bust out status or something to just cheese him out either. So Mr. VSM wins a very slow fight - one where he might actually consider POISON since it doesn't build Limit and adds more damage - through a combo of Saintly Force, poking and Earth Pulse Regen.

Light:
Ricardo Banderas (XG) vs. Hubert von Vestra (FE3H) - Goes first and 2HKOs and isn't OHKO'd in return.

11

Tournaments / Re: RPGVO 2024 Round 6, Winners Semi/Losers 3: Three Houses Remain Standing.

« on: September 03, 2024, 05:50:00 AM »

I missed last week due to being away on a family trip. Don't think it matters too much in the grand scheme of things. Anyways, this week...

Godlike:

Winners:
Shania (SH:FtNW) vs. Mewtwo (PKMN) - You do NOT want to get into a pure slugfest with RBY Mewtwo and that's kind of what happens here since Shania lacks any real means of dropping Mewtwo quick. After Amnesia, any chances of a one rounding is just too far out of reach and her physical doesn't OHKO with the one turn she gets.

Losers:
Worker 8 (FFT) vs. Terra Branford (FF6) - Wins a very slow fight but one where she dictates the pacing due to being faster and having a modicum of evade. Cure 2 + Physical strikes slowly do their work here and there is a chance Terra dies to a random crit proc, but nah.
Nailah (FE10) vs. Velius (FFT) - Trusting Elf-math on this one. Velius wins if he gets a turn (way too much 100% guaranteed status) and it looks like he should do to tiebreak rules in FFT.


Heavy:

Winners:
Clarissa Arwin (WA:XF) vs. Lady Elmina Harken (WA:ACF) - You remember how last year Clarissa basically struggled real bad against Auron because Auron went first? Same story. No Magic Break, but Harken hits hard enough to make Clarissa's offense wretched.
Hildegarde Valentine (SH:FtNW) vs. Nel Zelpher (SO3) - One blocks the status that the other has while the other does not. Guess who!


Middle:
Winners:
Tifa Lockhart (FF7) vs. MOMO Mizrahi (XSs) - I think both MOMO1 and MOMO3 win this. MOMO1 can chip and buff off before the limit goes off. MOMO3...well Blood Dancer probably blasts past the limit range - let alone Abyss Walker nulling physicals.

Losers:
Karsh (CC) vs. Machias Regnitz (ToCS2) - We are finding out that a shockingly high number of individuals lack Petrify immunity. Wow.
Stocke (RH) vs. Anastasia Romanov (SH2) - See Random. G-Fire hitting that slight weakness is just insult to injury.


Light:
Winners:
Marianne (FE3H) vs. Hubert (FE3H) - Marianne spoils Hubert pretty badly
Zhuzhen Liu (SH1) vs. Annette Fantine Dominic (FE3H) - Rare footage of Zhuzhen being somewhat competent in Light.

Losers:
Ricardo Banderas (XG) vs. Squire (FFT) - Squire will get his revenge when Laggy mods RPGVO and gives him his LFT form. Rico-premacy continues.

12

Tournaments / Re: RPGVO 2024 Round 4, Winners Quarter: Monk fight in Middle! Shootout in Heavy! :)

« on: August 20, 2024, 03:53:55 PM »

Godlike:
Shania (SH:FtNW) vs. Citan Uzuki (XG) - NEB math'd this out in chat. Long story short - Sanlittobell is really bad for Citan because it lets Shania punch through Doc's haste heal game by OHKOing him. So he needs to drop her before she gets her second turn. Citan gets around 4 turns factoring in Senki's Haste before Shania gets her 2nd but can only do about 90% to her (Tirwana both has higher defense and Sanlittobell then increases that by an additional 44%). So he's close, but no cigar.
Edelgard von Hresvelg (FE3H) vs. Mewtwo (PKMN) - I have a hard time seeing Edie 2HKOing through Barrier and she kind of needs to. Mewtwo opens with that, Recovers and maintains a Speed advantage / doubling thereafter.
Melfice (G2) vs. Barbariccia (FF4) - Think Melfice dodges most of Barby's tricks, although how much you respect techs being ITE in G2 certainly matters. He's also probably faster at a glance.

Heavy:
Clarissa Arwin (WA:XF) vs. Rufus (VP2) - Just Clarissa doing Clarissa things. Rufus does have Dampen Magic IIRC but he needs to get a turn to actually cast it.
Geno (SMRPG) vs. Lady Elmina Harken (WA:ACF) - I think this pans out similar to Lyon vs. Harken from a couple of years back. Geno avoids a 3-2, boosts and chips a bit first, then uses a finisher (Max powered Flash probably). EDIT: After reading NEB's post and thinking about it, he's probably right. The kicker for me is that Geno is likely going 2nd (Harken's raw speed in ACF is +1.8 SDs or something ridiculous. There are basically close to zero enemies that match her speed relatively at that level), which means he has even less health to work with. Harken at 50% does OHKO damage with Maximum Risk, so the fact that Geno doesn't do as much damage as Lyon and starting off with less HP really sucks for him. I think that alone does it without having to answer the "Does Maximum Risk get impacted by Boost" question. Off hand, IIRC Laggy changed Sledge in SLRPG to ITD and Boost DOES catch it for what its worth.
Hildegarde Valentine (SH:FtNW) vs. Summoner (FF5) - Quick draw and Curvy Hilda manages to be faster here.

Middle:
Jude Maverick (WA4) vs. Anastasia Romanov (SH2) - Ana gets one turn. Basically comes down to how much you respect Euthanasia and when it comes to a respect check, I generally rule in favor against Ana since all her skills in-game are so superfluous. So yeah, Jude 3-2s, Assault Buster kills.
Tifa Lockhart (FF7) vs. Amarant Coral (FF9) - EDIT: Oh storebought Safety Bits. I think that seals it shut. Amarant doesn't really have any noticeable burst damage (thanks FF9 Damage curve) and he really wants that here to punch through a limit.
MOMO Mizrahi (XSs) vs. Kesaran Pasaran (WA4) - XS3 wins this with Abyss Walker. With it, can't even damage MOMO and she just kills him with Magic. XS1 gets overwhelmed probably.

Light:
Marianne (FE3H) vs. Squire (FFT) - Not sure how Squire really deals with Nos counters unless he doubles, and I'm not sure he does.
Labyrinthia Wordsworth (WA:XF) vs. Zhuzhen Liu (SH1) - This is...actually not terrible! I think Zhuzhen takes this on kneejerk, but yeah, open to arguments.

13

Tournaments / Re: RPGVO 2024 Round 3, Losers'1: Light and Dark, Past and Future, Meeting Again

« on: August 13, 2024, 08:11:07 PM »

Godlike:
Worker 8 (FFT) vs. Magus (CT) - Very strong kneejerk without any further analysis


Heavy:
KOS-MOS (XS) vs. Lyndis (FE7) - EDIT: This fight comes down to form you are voting under (so recent discussions regarding specifying form matter here for sure)! XS3 form wins with either ultimate skill. Both Platinum Singer (90% damage cut) and Blood Dancer are bad for Lyn. On the other hand, XS1 KOS probably loses. S-Chain helps but it's locked to just one range. Which means Lyn can open with Bow + Bow counter. Even being generous and assume it hits (as NEB does), she then still has to make the next 2 attacks connect while hoping the other effects from S-Chain lands (they are not guaranteed other than the accuracy busting). Speaking of, S-chain only busts accuracy - not evade. So all together, KOS needs to connect like 3 times at subpar hit rates and can't miss once. While Lyn likely doubles too. So that's 4 hits off the bat before this RNG-fest. That's rough.
Maya Schrodinger (WA3) vs. Ernst (S5) - Bad news for Maya: Ernst can chip between physical hits and using the Beast Rune. Worst news: Ernst's L4 full heals him, so she needs to OHKO to win this and I kinda doubt that. Like, if this was Georg5's MDef, then yeah. 
Ryuji Sakamoto (P5) vs. Tidus (FFX) - Yellow Shield blocks Zio skills and Skull's big damage is ST focused. This isn't getting to how he has no resistances to Tidus' speed game, so yeah, this is ugly.


Middle:
Mitsuru Kirijo (P3) vs. Karsh (CC) - EDIT: Mind Charge'd Bufudyne deals 546 damage to a 510 kill point (because P3 vanilla/FES Mind Charge is only 2x). Karsh has 113% HP and pretty much average MDef, so Mitsuru has no chance to OHKO with it. And while Chrono Cross physicals are never 100% accurate, Karsh would need to miss like an entire chain of L1s (which have like 90% accuracy) to give Mitsuru an opening. Karsh high 2HKOs, so all he's going to be doing is pressuring with a L1 physical chain. No.
Machias Regnitz (ToCS2) vs. Clive Winslett (WA3) - Petrifying Shell actually works here!
Leehalt Alceste (WA3) vs. Bowser (SMRPG) - To Bowser's credit, he does have cast best HP, but I'm not sure that helps much. EDIT: One turn of Bowser fear damage is not really enough, so yeah, Bowser has no way to make this work.
Albel Nox (SO3) vs. Shulk (XBC) -Don't see how Albel gets around Monado Speed or Shield. It's not like he has a Dispel and all his big damage comes off of named techs so Shulk will almost certainly have meter for it.


Light:
Marcus (FE6) vs. Mustadio Bunanza (FFT) - Agreed with user Snowfire - Guns are more akin to Siege weapons, so Marcus6 can't even counter them with Javelin. Without those, he has no hope.

14

Tournaments / Re: RPGVO 2024 Round 2: Are Realians worms? And two demon swordsmen square off. :)

« on: August 06, 2024, 03:36:33 PM »

Godlike:
Barbariccia (FF4) vs. Nailah (FE10) - I'll try spinning! That's a good trick.

Heavy:
Ryuji Sakamoto (P5) vs. Hildegarde Valentine (SH:FtNW) - Physical resistance isn't immunity. So Skull is still vulnerable to Grand Slam and doesn't OHKO even if you have some disrespect for the ID rate. Pretty open and shut.
Summoner (FF5) vs. Tidus (FFX) - EDIT: NEB math to the rescue. Tidus does get 4 swings at minimum (Sonic Steel + his natural guarantees it with QH) and that's just enough for the kill it seems.


Middle:
Tifa Lockhart (FF7) vs. Leehalt Alceste (WA3) - Not Leehalt's fight. Tifa can even use one of those Crisis damage boosting weapons to really punch through Leehalt's durability. Having only 1 damaging attack means Leehalt is pretty impotent at damage manipulation it so Tifa will always Limit and that's obviously bad.
Amarant Coral (FF9) vs. Bowser (SMRPG) - Return Magic is cute, but Bowser can run a Fear blocker. However DOOM/COUNTDOWN exists (thanks Snow) and Amarant can turtle using CHAKRA of all things while that's going. Have a hard time seeing Bowser bust through that noise.
Albel Nox (SO3) vs. MOMO (XSs) - XS3 forms wins this for free because Abyss Walker makes MOMO untouchable. XS1 form...I'll trust Snow for this one. The main thing is that Albel drains MP too, but XS1 form has the double damage transformation and will opt for that instead to overpower.
Shulk (XBC) vs. Kesaran Pasaran (WA4) - Shulk's best argument is Speed, which gives him evade to tank through multiple attacks from . Problem: He eventually has to attack (auto-attack even guarantees this) and his healing is too poor once the clones start piling up, so eventually he likely dies from the explosion damage. Also, while I normally don't want to argue much on positioning, here it matters because of Shulk's battle skills. And because spawns more and more :)s every turn, Shulk is going to have a tough time actually getting into the right position for damage bonuses, rendering arguments of a possible OHKO kinda moot.


Light:
Ricardo Banderas (XG) vs. Labyrinthia Wordsworth (WA:XF) - Labby manages to go first because Rico speed plot and 2HKOs with Lightning. Lols.
Boco (FFT) vs. Annette (FE3H) - I'll check the math on this one later, but general rule of thumb is that Boco is bad and should feel bad. Unless he can force a way to run Annette out of charges, my kneejerk is she has this.

15

Tournaments / Re: RPGVO 2024 Round 1: Axes to the Face, and Hubert on Kitchen Duty

« on: July 29, 2024, 07:09:10 PM »

Godlike:
Shania(SH:FtNW) vs. Worker 8 (FFT) - Going first kind of seals the deal here for Shania. Buff in Tirwana, then win the ensuing slugfest when faster, more damaging and more durable.
Magus (CT) vs. Citan Uzuki (XG) - I think we've seen this in the main DL proper like years ago. Citan's shields mitigate Magus' counters and his Haste-Healing keeps him afloat
Terra Branford (FF6) vs. Mewtwo (PKMN) - Pretty sure RBY Mewtwo just dies to Break. Gen3+ Mewtwo I think wins this since that form has Safeguard but yeah. EDIT: Oh, Break is learned at level 68. That's...uh...pretty overleveled! Granted, it's not Ultima, but still bad, so yeah, vote changed. I could even squint if it was like 55 or something, but given endgame levels in FF6 are like 40-45ish, being nearly 30+ is a bit of a tough ask.


Heavy:
KOS-MOS (XS) vs. Clarissa Arwin (WA:XF) - Don't see why Rob Turn just doesn't do its thing here.
Lyndis (FE7) vs. Rufus (VP2) - Blue Gale is both ITE (important) and ITD (less important), and there's a good chance Rufus one rounds with either Stone Decree or Might Reinforce into damage. Lyn does go first but doesn't ORKO reliably on the one turn she gets. So think this is his.
Maya Schrodinger (WA3) vs. Geno (SMRPG) - This would be more interesting if Maya had something that was more solid for damage at high HP. Without that, Geno can actually take it slower by delaying when he boosts - probably the turn before a double. Then he uses that double turn to burst out damage so Maya can't retaliate with Calamity Jane.
Lady Elmina Harken (WA:ACF) vs. Ernst (S5) - Think NEB's analysis is right on the money (but I think the highlight is wrong?). Ernst deals roughly 700 to a 1400 average or something so he high 3HKOs Harken. The other bits of good news here are that a) he doesn't get insta-doubled and b) tech ignore parrying/blocker so Ernst doesn't have to deal with her evasive bullshit. The bad news is that he has no way to chip (both L3 and L4 do the same damage) and going raw physical isn't a real option here due to the before mentioned threats of having a strike evaded. So he hits Harken right into limit range and then dies. Welp.


Middle:
Mitsuru Kirijo (P3) vs. Jude Maverick (WA4) - Pretty sure. Attacking puts Jude into a perma 3-2 against Mitsuru and with Jude blocking Confuse, Mitsuru can't even opt for a hail mary status. She's heal-locked pretty much starting from Turn 1 because Attack x2 into Assault Buster would basically KO her.
Anastasia Romanov (SH2) vs. Karsh (CC) - Karsh 2HKOs so Ana has to win within 2 turns of her own, which I think she does. Granted your respect on Euthenasia varies, but Karsh' lack of blocker is likely enough.
Machias Regnitz (ToCS2) vs. Stocke (RH) - I tried so hard to think of a way for Mr. VSM to win this, but I think this match really highlights the problem for him when Petrify is blocked because what exactly does he even threaten Stocke with? POIZN? Stocke can heal about 33 times and while it isn't full, it also means Mr. VSM has no way to win this outside of the random status on his S-craft rolling the right status type (read: Instant Death), which is even *slower* than  Dead Fencer once you consider all the lag attached to it and needing to fish multiple times on average.  And yeah, I don't think Dead Fencer itself will kill but this is a case where Mr. VSM's resource pool along with being 2 Earth 1 Silver really bites. He would kill for 2 Silver / 1 Earth because then he can do EP Plus AND a stat down effect or something to further stall Stocke. As is, he's likely stuck running EP Plus here and STILL gets outresourced because his damage is just *that* bad.


Light:
Marianne (FE3H) vs. Marcus (FE6) - Nosferatu...probably wins this? I'm not sure Marcus has a way to beat it - even with a Single killer crit, I don't think that's enough
Squire (FFT) vs. Mustadio (FFT) - Nevermind Thief Hats basically crap all over Musty's skill set, but Squire also has better damage, durability AND can Accumulate just for shits and giggles.

16

Tournaments / Re: RPGVO 2024 Nomination Thread

« on: July 16, 2024, 04:01:48 PM »

Godlike:
Reicher (MK2) 
Mewtwo (Pkmn)
Citan (XG) 
Terra (FF6)
X (MMXCM)

Heavy:
Tidus (FFX)
Elliot Craig (ToCS2)
Geno (SMRPG)
Lady Harken (WA:ACF)
Celica (FE: SoV)

Middle:
Mitsuru Kirijo (Pers 3)
Clive Winslett (WA3)
Machias Regnitz (ToCS2)
MOMO (XSs)
Shulk (XBC)

Light:
Rico (XG) - Rico is to Tide as FFT Thieves is to Super.
Mao (SH:FTNW)
Tear Grants (ToA)
Sezter (FF6)
Zhuzhen Liu (SH)

17

Discussion / Re: Marvel Snap - Cards, Analysis, etc.

« on: March 14, 2024, 03:50:53 PM »

Maybe we just have different definitions then. Your deck doesn't look like any Tribunal decks I've seen - it looks more like a Shuri mold but adding in Tribunal over Tasky so it goes wide versus tall. Not running Armor with Shuri? You're a much braver man than me. I've seen enough Negasonics that I'm always weary about making such a telegraphed play - let alone Shang. Do you like not see Shang at all?

1) I think with your deck, you're giving up the ability explode in power (we're talking like 50-100+) but adding in Shuri as an alt. No Onslaught and a bunch of big bodies - so yeah, no worries about Pigs or old Leech.
2) Your deck isn't a typical Tribunal deck that needs to cheat energy out. Not sure why you would discount this as an actual issue in Tribunal though. His power is pretty limited if you're not playing him out with force multipliers.
3) Again, are we playing in different pocket metas? I've definitely seen my share of Enchantresses. She's like a staple in Sera Miracle and yeah that deck isn't meta, but it's pretty frequent since it is easy to put together. Echo you can delay drop on Turn 5-6 if need be to basically kill the big stack. You don't have to slam her out on Turn 1.
4) I've seen Shuri decks cut out Cosmo after her nerf. It still comes in on occasion just not that often obviously since Tasky can't copy a card if you Cosmo the lane.
5) Traditional Tribunal definitely needs Magik. Try playing it without her. You just simply don't have time to play what you need. One Shuri deck that I came across in conquest had Shang/Abs Man as subs and which gave it a Turn 7 contingency play and was pretty amazing. I've since added that into my own deck. It lets you have a massive Turn 7 play on your own. But it's not really Tribunal.
6) Really? You never play against anything with Surfer? They carry Spiderman and Juggs pretty regularly considering Storm is also a staple in those. Stregon I'll give you. Just noting he is also bad for traditional Tribunal. Also if you're using Super Skrull, Rogue or Mystique, Magneto can totally spoil you as well and he's pretty common thanks to all the Thanos running around recently.
7) Traditional Tribunal doesn't really have time. The curve is extremely tight. Assuming no Magik, you're looking to play Wave on 3, Onslaught on 4, IM on 5 and Tribunal on 6. If you have Zabu and Ravonna, they help immensely by making the curve more flexible but playing them after 3 is pretty much a no-go. Also in general, I am not a fan of not playing anything in 3. Having your first card to be played on 4 makes for an extremely fragile win in my experience.
8) When are you playing Cage in traditional Tribunal? In Shuri...maybe. But I feel like you're better served playing Armor and Sauron over Cage personally. Certainly easier to fit on curve (Armor into Sauron into Shuri is obvious) where as Luke is more clunky (in your case, you just play Luke cause you're not running Sauron).

I rather try playing a deck to see how it works personally. I'm always a bit weary on stats. Between a combination of bots and bad players (yours incluced) and varying opponents on Collection Level and MLM Rank, that tends to skew the percentages.

18

Discussion / Re: Marvel Snap - Cards, Analysis, etc.

« on: March 13, 2024, 03:19:34 PM »

Well we haven't see any new patches to Jubilee and Magik yet, so I don't consider myself some kind of Doomsayer. Are we playing in completely different pocket metas? Tribunal in my experience is so incredibly fragile. The main issue with that deck is needing to play 17 Energy worth of cards and since you can't energy store, you have to cheat the cards out in some way. It dies to any of the following:

1) Anything that takes away Tribunal, Onslaught or Iron Man because your power just isn't competitive without one of these 3 (Spiderham, Moon Knight, etc.)
2) Anything that stops you from cheating cards out early. Even a disabled Ravonna can be bad because it means you can't play Iron Man on 4 or Iron Man/Mystique on 6
3) Ongoing hate tech - all of them are bad for you. This is also a case where Echo can be even played late because you almost always have to stack those core 3 cards together. Super Skrull let's you counter an opponent's Rogue and wins mirrors, but you just lose so badly to Enchantress. The deck can run Cosmo but that can cause you to lose in other ways if you need Jubilee or Iron Lad to pull cards from the bottom of the deck. PLus that's giving up a slot for added consistency with another energy cheating card.
4) On that note, Cosmo is also very mixed. As noted above, he stops Enchantress and Rogue but you still lose to Echo and you block your own Mystique, Jubilee and Iron Lad.
5) Location tech - Magik is almost a requirement. It is very bad for you if Limbo is disabled in some way
6) Any sort of Move/relocation tech - Since you need to stack the 3 big bois together. Juggernaut is bad. Spiderman is bad. Stregon is also bad.
7) A natural bad draw line really messes up your power output due to how fragile your curve is. Certain cards have to be played on certain windows or you just lose.
8) Related to the above, any sort of debuff is also bad because Iron Man doubles the loss and Onslaught quadruples it. So even a single -1 is bad for your overall power output.

You can't pack any protection of your own other than like Cosmo because the deck simply doesn't have the time to play a tech card other than on like Turn 3. But Turn 3 is also the best time to play out one of your cheats (Wave/Magik) since you're going to be busy every other turn trying to land the 3 big cards all together.

I'd be interested in hearing what version of the deck you are playing. Unless it's some sort of hybrid like Hela Tribunal, Tribunal has always been about going super tall. In this current meta with Discard and Destroy reigning, Tribunal does well because neither deck really packs any tech and the only tech they do pack is mostly Shang..which Tribunal normally is immune to since all their cards are under Shang's updated threshold.

19

Discussion / Re: Marvel Snap - Cards, Analysis, etc.

« on: March 11, 2024, 02:50:33 PM »

Yeah, Mill can be powerful because denying card draw is strong. The issue is that the cards that do mill in SNAP right now are all too slow. You have to be actually taking away enough cards from the deck so that your opponent starts losing draw for the analogy I posted above to not be true. Yondu and Cable on Wong is interesting, but probably falters in our current day game where Discard and Destroy are currently reigning. I mean, you'll get Tribunal players, but Tribunal is a bit of a meme anyway. That deck loses to like any form of disruption that it's honestly kind of amazing it exists.

20

Discussion / Re: Marvel Snap - Cards, Analysis, etc.

« on: March 06, 2024, 08:03:43 PM »

Another one following the same trend - Yondu



Cost: 1
Power: 2 (Par)
Ability: On Reveal – Destroy the top card of your opponent’s deck
Ideal Turn to Play: Turn 1. Yondu is a pretty weak card overall (more on the analysis). However, one of the real values he will always provide is scouting. For that reason, a Turn 1 Yondu is better than a Turn 6 Yondu.
Archetype: Destroy

Uses:
So we’ve recently looked at 2 cards that are powerful but often mis-conceptualized. Yondu is continuing that trend but he’s in the opposite direction. Yondu is probably the biggest noob trap in the game in that he looks really good on the surface but in practice, he’s pretty weak and only really works in one type of deck.

Why is Yondu weak? Well, let’s look at it like this. If instead of “Destroy”, we just reword Yondu’s ability to “Put the top card of an opponent’s deck to the bottom”, does your opinion of him change? It shouldn’t because fundamentally, he’s basically doing the same thing, but for a lot of players, they see “Destroy” and think they are getting rid of an opponent’s actual play. Like sure, there are times when Yondu hits a win condition of the opponent’s – like blowing up a Galactus or Hela – and it results in an instant Turn 1 retreat. But you could also hit something else – maybe a tech card that doesn’t work against you. If that’s the case, all you’ve done is help your opponent’s skip a bad draw.   

Once you understand that last bit, Yondu’s appeal quickly diminishes. He can easily help your opponent and you have no way of really knowing. In fact, I’m pretty sure you can mathematically prove that playing Yondu actually does nothing. As long as your opponent has cards in their deck, you don’t really deny them any deck draw. All he’s actually doing practically is showing both you and your opponent what he/she won’t be playing with this round.

This kind of leaves Yondu as a card with 3 fringe uses. The first is that because he counts as a Destroy, he helps out with Death’s cost reduction and Knull’s overall power. Both of these cards are common power plays for Destroy and Yondu being able to start the deck’s engine on Turn 1 has some merit, especially since he isn’t blow up your own cards. The second is that he works as an early scout. In continuing matches such as Conquest, this benefit is reduced. But on ladder, being able to take a peek at what your opponent might be playing (especially if they skip Turn 1) can give you a good idea of whether or not you are favored. And that in turn helps with more aggressive Snapping. Finally, Yondu works just as warm body in decks like Zoo or Flood where the goal is get a lot of bodies on the field, and then buffing them via Kazar/Blue Marvel and the ilk.

These aren’t particularly strong uses, but it is something – and keeps Yondu from complete irrelevancy. Like if you compare Yondu to Angel, both are kind of bad, but Yondu is notably less bad than Angel. You are at least doing something when Yondu hits the field – even if not much. Worth a deck slot though? Probably not unless you are early in your SNAP journey.

Common Combos:
Yondu -> whatever -> Knull: Yondu basically starts off the Destroy train. There are no Destroy enablers on Turn 1, so Yondu actually does provide a unique niche here. The destroyed power coming from your opponent’s deck helps and adds to your Knull’s power at end game.

Yondu -> Killmonger -> whatever -> Death: If you’re going the Death route, Yondu provides a 2 for 1 letting you blow up an opponent’s card, and then being blown up himself by Killmonger. However, if this is what you’re going for, Squirrel Girl provides an extra body for Killmonger so is still better value. Poor Yondu.


Rank/Tier: D tier. Practically speaking, Yondu isn’t doing much unless you are playing Destroy. And even in Destroy, he’s best thought of as an early scout rather than a serious play. He’s likely the first to be replaced.

Most Used Decks:
Generic Destroy
Cerebro 2

21

Discussion / Re: Marvel Snap - Cards, Analysis, etc.

« on: March 04, 2024, 04:16:36 PM »

On the trend of cards people tend to misplay or have the wrong conceptions about: Jubilee



Cost: 4
Power: 1 (5 Below Par)
Ability: On Reveal - Play the next card from your deck to this location.
Ideal Turn to Play: Varies. Jubilee's ability gives her a wide window depending on what you're trying to do. If you're looking to fish a card that just needs to be played, then the later play the better since it'll more guarantee you get the right pull. On the other hand, if you need a card *right now* and you don't have it, Jubilee can be played as a last ditch hail mary.
Archetype: Support

Uses:
There are no real draw engine cards in SNAP because decks are so small (only 12 cards). Sure, you have Adam Warlock but he's very finnicky to work with and his recent "upgrade" turns him into a Turn 5 play that *may* have a chance at an extra draw. In short, "Draw cards from deck" abilities are in short supply in SNAP since they become pretty busted pretty easily. Everyone knows how powerful stuff like Ancestral Recall (that was the draw 3 from Magic right?) and Pot of Greed (from Yugioh) are, so it makes sense why you don't see this ability much - if at all - in SNAP. Jubilee is kind of the exception to the rule. She doesn't provide you with an extra card, but she's about as close to it as you can get.

Jubilee's ability lets you pull the next card from your deck on to the field. What this means is that, in essence, Jubilee replaces herself as a draw in exchange for another card that you would have gotten. So, instead of seeing 9 cards in a game of SNAP, Jubs lets you see 10. When you are playing combo decks that need or want to have certain pieces, Jubilee becomes uniquely powerful in that she's another way to dig deeper down into the deck if your natural draw doesn't give you what you want. If you recall back to my post regarding old Chavez and consistency, Jubilee adds that to these decks and makes them way more playable. Even discounting that, if you build a deck with a lot of high costs, Jubilee's ability to summon them for 4 (possibly 3 energy) can be a complete steal. Summoning an Infinaut for 4 is pretty good versus the practical 11 you would need to play him otherwise. Yeah, you may just have created a Shang magnet, but the point is that you can play that big boi significantly earlier. Now an opponent either has to dedicate their Shang to that lane or abandon it completely, letting you reinforce the others.

SNAP does complicate some things because so many things are about timing. Since she summons a card on to the field, there are drawbacks specific to SNAP that make it such that she isn't an Auto-include into every deck. Most notable is the consideration of play space. You are only allowed 4 cards at any particular lane, and Jubilee with her 1 power occupies basically 2 spaces for the chance to see an extra card. In short, your deck best be built on having a "less is more" mentality because Jubs can quickly flood a location and restrict the number of plays you can make. Tech cards also become tricky to include because they are so timing specific. Playing Jubilee in hopes of reaching your Infinaut but pulling out a Shang or Rogue sucks. Not only do you lose the tech card, but you basically spent 4 energy to do nothing. You basically either have to play Jubilee with the tech card in hand (so it will never be summoned) or just eliminate them from the deck completely.

The key to making Jubilee work in your deck is to structure it such that any pull she makes should be a good one. I've already mentioned using a bunch of high-cost cards with her, but also combo decks that don't mind their pieces coming in at different turns also hugely appreciate Jubilee. The most notable of these is Tribunal. Tribunal is an extremely finnicky and fragile deck that basically requires you to play a 17 Energy play to reach its wincon. A standard game of SNAP only has 21 Energy, so this is actually *much* harder than it sounds. Jubilee gives those decks another life-line since she can pull one of the necessary cards for 2 Energy less OR pull the required combo card by being played on the last turn. For this reason, she's commonly paired with Iron Lad as a way to basically play the entire deck. What better way of ensuring your combo goes off but to be able to play every card you have?

At the end of the day, Jubilee's a great card because her function is so unique. She's not buffing cards or disrupting an opponent. In fact, in an ideal game, you probably actually *don't* want to see Jubilee because that means you'd have picked up another card you slotted into your deck - basically an important synergistic piece. But the ability to also cheat a card into play widens that and gives her new dimensions. Her play window is as wide as whatever you're trying to do. If you need to pull a Magik for whatever reason, Jubilee's window is then 3-5. On the other hand, if you're trying to pull Tribunal, her play window expands all the way to the end of the game because Tribunal just needs to be on the field. She's basically giving you a way to see more of your deck when you play her and there's a lot of merit to that.

Common Combos:
Jubilee -> Ironlad: Part of the two card combo I was referring to that let's you dig down into your deck. Jubilee let's you pull the next one, then Iron Lad scans then one after that. When combined with the below, let's you see your entire deck. But Jubilee/Lad is just a generally decent combo line if you know your deck has good targets and because your hand sucks at the moment.

Magik -> Jubilee: See above. Magik bringing the game to turn 7 means you get to see 10 instead of 9 cards. Combined with the above, now you get to see the entire hand. But even without, Jubs and Magik let's you see the 11th card, which is still pretty damn good.

Jubilee -> Mr. Negative: Other than a last ditch hail mary attempt to play Negative, Jubilee can be really good here because she can call forth an inverted card and let you draw an extra one as a result. There are some situations of course where this isn't favourable (such as pulling Negative Mystique), but also cases where it can be highly destructive. Notably, it's possible to pull an Inverted Jane Foster for 1 or 4 Energy instead of playing for 6, and then drawing everything else in the deck that is 0 cost.

Rank/Tier: A tier. Jubilee is about as close as you can get to a "Draw one card" ability. It should be pretty obvious why this is powerful.

Most Used Decks:
Negative
Tribunal
Hela Discard
Lockjaw Lotto

22

Discussion / Re: Marvel Snap - Cards, Analysis, etc.

« on: March 01, 2024, 03:57:06 PM »

Let's talk about the sassy queen herself. And no, I'm not referring to Emma Frost, but instead: Magik



Cost: 3
Power: 2 (2 Below Par)
Ability: On Reveal - Change the location of this lane to Limbo (Extends the current game from 6 turns to 7 turns). This card loses its effect if played after Turn 5.
Ideal Turn to Play: 3-5. Obviously a dead card on 6. Magik's best time to be played will really come down to the deck and what you're planning. In combo heavy decks that have steep energy requirements and tough curves, Magik wants to be played as early as possible. For decks that appreciate her but it's not a death sentence if she doesn't come on to the board late, then it is better for her to be played late so an opponent has a reduced amount of time to play a follow up real estate agent and pull the rug from under you.
Archetype: Real Estate Agent / Combo Support

Uses:
Magik is one of those cards that I feel a lot of people misuse. Players think "Add an additional Turn" and immediately think that let's them do all sort of crazy stuff or adding consistency...but completely forgetting the fact that this also applies to an opponent since SNAP requires 2 players. Having a potential for a Turn 7 game can be all kinds of wacky so it is often best to decide if your deck wants a Turn 7 to begin with BEFORE slotting Magik into your deck.

Let's get down to the basics. Magik doesn't "Add 1 turn to the game". Rather, she flips a lane's location to "Limbo" which reads, "There are now 7 turns this game". This wording is very important because it means if Limbo is changed to another location, the Turn 7 goes away. This proverbial "rug pull" is what keeps Magik from flying much higher in terms usability. She can be outright countered by real estate agents so the promise of a Turn 7 is only as strong as whatever safeguards you are using in place to keep it there. If she did the former of adding 1 turn for certain, she'll probably be a S rank or A rank card as once the turn is added, it would theoretically never go away. Although that does create some unending games if an opponent then plays Magik on Wong, so let's be thankful that the description is the latter.

Because Limbo can be flipped at any time, if your deck wants a Turn 7, you're best off running one of Magik's allies in the deck. The most common and easily accessible of these is Cosmo. For 3 Energy, you'll stop other On Reveals - which all Real Estate agents are and force an opponent to play a much higher cost if they are trying to catch you with your pants down. Luckily, Cosmo and Magik work in several decks together - most notably Shenaut - where Turn 7 is basically a wincon. So guarding Magik isn't terribly difficult, but you do need to pay an Energy cost to do it. The higher the cost you pay, the better the protection and sometimes this can be very worthwhile. If your plan on Turn 6 is basically to wait as in Shenaut decks, dropping Leech down on 5 makes perfect sense. Not only do you pretty much 100% guard Limbo, but you nuke your opponent's hand of all their abilities, which can be game ending on its own.

Determining whether Magik makes sense for the deck really comes down to how badly you need that extra turn. Like Wave, Armor and Cosmo, since her effect hits both players, you have to make sure your deck can play a potential Turn 7 better than an opponent. Some decks are rely on a Turn 7 to function. Shenaut has already been mentioned, but stuff such as Tribunal also pretty much rely on it. On the other hand, despite being 3 cost, Magik does less well in Surfer because Surfer decks tend to rely on options and teching to secure wins. Their point totals are often more middle of the road (high teens to low 20s) so adding a Turn 7 can be real problematic when your output is limited. Then there are decks where they don't need Turn 7 but having a turn 7 basically makes them explode. Generic Destroy and Mr. Negative both like having Magik but the lack of a Turn 7 doesn't kill them. They just scale up really well with an extra turn, so playing Magik against these decks is generally bad unless you have tech cards ready in the wings.

Ultimately, Magik is another support option which are better in combo heavy decks versus those that do not. Adding an extra turn isn't always beneficial but players should be aware of her increased frequency. At the time when I first started playing, Magik was actually 5 cost, giving her only a 1 turn window. This made her much more limited in most cases since she had to compete with other 5 drops. But at 3? She's much more flexible and being able to extend the game by 1 also means extending draws by 1. For that alone, a lot of players end up saving a slot for her, when the decision should really be more about overall deck objectives and cohesion.

Common Combos:
Magik -> Cosmo: The first of the few combos that aims to guard your Limbo. Playing Cosmo prevents any other real estate agent from coming in and removing Limbo from under you. They can still do it, but it requires a lot more footwork or energy cost to do so.

Magik -> Legion: A more extreme version of the above. Playing Legion on your Magik turns all locations to Limbo. That stops the singular real estate agent from coming in to do damage. Like with Cosmo, an opponent can still theoretically get around it, but it isn't easy and much more complicated. Unlike Cosmo, Legion also relies on having priority. Cosmo being Ongoing means once you plop him down, you're good to go. With Legion, you need to ensure you are flipping first - otherwise an opponent can pre-empt you.

Magik -> Leech: The above two methods not satisfying enough for you at guaranteeing a Turn 7? Try Leech. Nuking your opponent's hand of their abilities will in 99% of cases, pretty much rip their ability to remove Limbo away from them. That 1% chance is obviously higher since you could theoretically top deck a real estate agent, but Leech is about as good as you can get.

Magik ->Storm/Rhino/SWitch: While this doesn't generate much power, it is definitely one of the few ways Magik can be used offensively. Fool your opponent into thinking a Turn 7 is coming, then pull the plug yourself. Best done with a bunch of high powered cards so you can get a lead going into Turn 6 when you snipe your own Limbo. For this reason, Surfer is great here as Magik, Rhino and Storm are all 3 costs.

Magik + Mr. Negative -> One of the major benefactors to Magik and the additional upside here is that Magik doesn't wreck Mr. Negative's curve. You could Turn 3 Magik into Turn 4 Mr. Negative or vice versa and both plays are still legit. Both get you an additional draw too, which as noted in Mr. Negative's write up, amps up how stupidly OP your endgame will be.

Rank/Tier: B tier. Magik certainly had a glow up from when she was first introduced. Adding an extra turn and 7 energy allows for more powerful combos and opens the doorway to new decks that otherwise wouldn't be possible. However, the ability to strip Limbo out from under you means you're sometimes playing a game of chicken more than a game of SNAP. She's not for every deck and decks and since the added turn also benefits the opponent, one has to be certain they will get more out of it then an opponent before putting her on to the field.

Most Used Decks:
Shenaut
Generic Destroy
Hela Discard
Tribunal

23

General Chat / Re: What games are you playing 2024? Battle strength determined by frilly outfits

« on: February 28, 2024, 03:36:32 PM »

Against the Storm –
I’m not normally into Rogue-likes. Against the Storm was advertised to me as a City Builder first and I like City Builders…especially when I can just chill and take it at my own pace. This game is interesting though in that it kind of combines multiple different genres of game into the end product. What you get is a sort of City Buidler Roguelike with a touch of RTS (not quite there, but close). And surprisingly, it’s real fun – even though I was just looking for something to chill with.

So the premise is simple. You’re basically building settlements in a storm riddled world. Your goal for every settlement is to reach the required Reputation score (usually 14) before the Queen runs of patience. You gain reputation by increasing your settlers’ resolve through fulfilling their needs such as preferred food, housing and services. You can never lose reputation but your settlers can get afraid and lose resolve from different events, during the harsh storm season and from hostility. The queen also gives you a set of orders, which when fulfilled gives you Reputation, lowers impatience and opens a new building you can build for that map from a pool of unlocked buildings.

You lose if a) all your settlers leave or die b) The queen runs out of patience. Since impatience can only go down when reputation is gained, you’re on a strict timer on every settlement. Essentially, the goal is to get in, maximize your settlers’ happiness as quickly as you can, then get out. There are lots of different ways to go about doing this The complexity is trying to find the quickest way out while managing an effective city layout for logistical and production reasons. You’re often juggling between multiple different resources and despite having about 30 hours in the game now, the supply chains are still tough for me to remember.

It is surprisingly real fun and even on these easier difficulties right now, I’m feeling the tension despite not being a serious danger. I think this is because ATS kind of turns the City Builder design on its head a little bit. For one, you never really know which set of Blueprints you will get. Some buildings are really powerful. Any farm for example is amazing because it will instantly solve food problems by giving you an ever renewable resource. However, you may never get these and if that is the case, you have to try to find ways to get food elsewhere. Second, the game forces you to expand because your starting resources are very limited. To meet your settlers’ demands, you are forced to open new forest glades which then generates new loot, resources and events. That’s the roguelike aspect of this game coming in.

You can still keep playing once a settlement reaches its max reputation, but you don’t get anything out of it. But hey, if you enjoy slow rolling to a win you can. On the other hand, getting a bunch of tools and then going a mass exploration, crate delivering adventure ala Eph can let you speed through a settlement since shipping crates back to the Queen improves Reputation by a notable margin.

I highly recommend this game if you can spare 30-40 dollars. It’s lots of fun and every settlement feels different. Will be moving to Veteran once I win through Pioneer a few more times.

24

General Chat / Re: What games are you playing 2024? Battle strength determined by frilly outfits

« on: February 07, 2024, 04:15:45 PM »

Wasteland 3 - I'm almost done. Just presumably the final battle, about 100 hours total.

So this is my second CRPG that I've played and we're batting 2 for 2 in terms of how much I like these games. WL3 is weaker than DoS2 though. There are some general polish issues and weak character writing which kind of sink it from being in the same tier as DoS2. On the whole however, it's good. Looks like earlier versions of the game had a lot more bugs and freezes which they patched out because my 7 year laptop was able to run this baby pretty smoothly.

In general, the overall strengths of this game come from the setting and decent enough gameplay to carry it through despite some unfortunate polish issues. The setting really does a lot of the work because not only are the environments cool to explore, but they mark a pretty important aspect regarding the characters, their motivations as well as the underlying plot of the game. It takes place post nuclear fallout where as the name of the game suggests, is a wasteland. To my understanding, this game also takes place after WL2 which had the organization your characters represent be in dire straits. In short, law and order are in short supply, violence is rampant and supplies are scarce. The game then asks you to make a lot of decisions with these factors in mind. For example, do you keep the crazy Ronald Reagan worshipping cult alive, knowing that if you gank them, you'll lose access to your only power source in the short term? Do you save those refugees knowing that doing so makes everyone else in the city's lives harder?

The game also likes to put a lot of excellent gameplay rewards BEHIND dubious moral decisions. For example, around 1/3 into the game, you'll encounter this slave trader who offers you a deal: Find one of her slaves and she will give you access to the bunker area in your base, which contains end game armors and weapons. The obvious decision is to tell her to take a hike. However, the power spike at that point in the game is so ridiculous that not only is it extremely tempting but telling her off doesn't even give you any consolation prize or punishment. You are basically strictly rewarded for making an awful choice. And as I noted, the game does this A LOT. Side with the Reagan worshippers and you lose access to the Robot Communities wares, which has one of the best vehicle parts in the game.

Where the game I think starts to lose steam is around the last 1/3 of the game. The game can be roughly summarized into 5 chunks: Setting up your base, Relations with the Bazaar, Denver, Aspen and Yuma County. Pretty much around Aspen, the game is either extremely difficult...or extremely cheesy. Enemies get a spike in HP and a lot of the fights late game are basically all rocket tag: whoever goes first wins. Lucky for you, you can pretty much enter all fights with initiative if you choose to attack first. However, this comes with a drawback where it is often better to shoot first and ask questions later - which ruins the immersion and makes dialogue options weaker. If you accidentally trigger a fight through talking, the game has an initiative stat that determines how many characters will be able to act immediately...but why bother with that if you can just shoot everything dead ASAP with no risk? Part of this rocket tag aspect comes from your weaponry but also because you get better skills and abilities. But if you've made a bad build or mistake, resetting your character sheet isn't free. And since this is post apocalyptic, money isn't exactly freely available. Sure, I had leftover cash at this point in the game but it's not like it grows on trees and you can just respec whenever you want. This is what I meant earlier by the game having some polish issues. Another one of these little problems has to do with crafting. Crafting Weapon and Armor parts is one of the strongest things you can do in the game. However, what the game doesn't tell you is that a lot of these parts and mod are limited and attaching one to a weapon is permanent. If you then sell the weapon or scrap it, you don't get your invested parts back. This means it is very incentivized to not use any of your good mods until you get those end-game weapons and encourages an unreasonable amount of hoarding. Sure, you might pick up on this in the whole "resources is scarce" theme. But really, you're telling me I can't detach a scope from my rifle? What?

It goes the other way too. If you've invested in the good stuff, all of a sudden, the combat becomes less strategic and more about "how much stuff can I blow up in one turn". Mainly because it is the most effective and efficient way to handle encounters, but also because tanking isn't very feasible late game. My dedicated tank healer has like 400 HP, 40% evade and like 50% elemental resistances across the board but he will still go down if like the 7 enemies all attack him. As a result, a lot of characters have kind of same-y roles - just different weapons so you're ammo stock doesn't go down like candy. For example, right now one of my companions, Kwon, is a mid-range attacker with an extremely busted SMG. On his turn he's often killing 3+ enemies due to a combination of his specs, weapon and abilities. My other companion, Lucia, is a shorter range pistoleer/shotgunner. This role is great at tackling close range threats with a little distance, but their role should be more support oriented from getting more access to unique Strike attacks and destroying enemy cover. Instead, I have found her to be more effective if I just make her a more efficient attacker. This is true of basically every role because defense is just not a thing that really works in this game. So yeah, the game actually loses strategic value the farther along you are into it.

Early on, you don't notice these issues because the strengths and weaknesses are more pronounced and enemies are still relatively balanced compared to your gear. But once you leave reach the halfway point, around a little ways into Denver, the game is very open in terms of letting you explore. So if you go into end-game areas, you can quickly loot them for the insane gear. The morally dubious choices with great rewards as I mentioned earlier also exist. The result is that you don't snowball but rather just end up dumping a bag of bricks all over the enemies at that point...or vice versa.

As for the plot, I'll go into it more when I have time (I want to see the ending first). But long story short, my current feelings are that I think Angela is written pretty poorly and despite the game having lots of moral conundrums it wants you to look at, the ultimate choice it wants you to make really falls flat to me. Maybe because I'm not an idealistic teen or my outlooks have changed since I've been married but the choice the game wants to give you is not really a choice. And while I agree with Cid's sentiments that tyranny isn't a thing that is ever okay, Angela's "solution" is so poorly thought out, it's borderline insulting. BUT maybe the ending changes things, so we'll see.

25

Discussion / Re: Marvel Snap - Cards, Analysis, etc.

« on: January 26, 2024, 03:41:47 PM »

So we're going to do something different today - let's look at one of the most prominent and popular decks in SNAP. It's not necessarily the most successful, but it is a deck that pops up pretty frequently due to its accessability. I've also mentioned it a few times plus we've gone over a lot of it's most essential component, so it will be easier to digest.

Without further ado, let's look at a typical Sera Miracle deck



General Gameplan
Sera Miracle is equivalent to a Blue MtG deck that is loaded with counter spells. It's primarily a reaction based deck that is focused on playing tech cards to shut down an opponent's game plan. The deck is flexible with numerous different subs (based on the flavor of the month, your own preference as well as the availability of what cards you have) so it tends to be a deck that most players can assemble the moment they get out of Pool 2 with a little investment. The major card you will be likely missing then is Sera but the deck is functional without her and you can grab Zabu as an alternative. This deck focuses on last minute turnarounds for the biggest cube gains possible. There are of course fringe cases where you will be playing on curve but those tend to be cases where if you don't stop your opponent right there, you're probably going to lose - Hi Wong.

The deck focuses on having low tempo for most of the game until around maybe Turn 5. The main reasons for this is to keep priority low because you have a lot of tech cards that only work if you go second. Thus, understanding and being able to control priority is key. Sunspot is a great addition here because he covers two of the decks main weakness: 1) it's low power output and b) the tendency to have a lot of float. You're not often running Armor though, so you have to be careful that you don't accidentally Killmonger your own Sunspot. There are ways around this of course - one of the new cards recently released specifically guards 1 and 6 cost cards from destruction. You can easily slot her in to guard your Sunspot in favor of another tech spot. The rest then comes down to Turn 6. By Turn 3 or 4, you need to have a good idea of what the opponent is doing because then you can properly weigh your chances of winning. If you still don't have the tech card in hand drawn, or the opponent isn't playing something you can tech against, you're probably in trouble.

Despite being the namesake of the deck, this deck does function without Sera. It's not as explosive though because despite being available for only 1 turn, that 1 turn lets you dump a huge combination of cards. Sera + Zabu is -2 on Cost for your 4 cost and those 2 costs become 1 Cost. So you can quite literally dump your hand on 6 when the pieces line up. Some variants of this deck also play Magik (this one does) to increase the chances of a Sera draw making for even crazier Turn 7 Turnarounds.

Outside of the deck being low power, it also suffers though from being largely prediction related. Some decks such as Kitty Shuri for example, can both afford to have a couple of tech cards but also can just do their standard solitaire game plan if your opponent isn't interfering and end up with a sizable point count at the end of the game. Not Sera Miracle though. So many of your cards are below par that if you aren't countering something, you're probably just going to lose on straight tempo loss. This deck has a very high learning curve for that reason. You need to be able to predict what the opponent is holding and then be able to play the appropriate counter. You also need to be able to math quickly because that will determine whether or not your paltry output is enough, which sometimes despite countering an opponent's plan, isn't.

Key Cards:
The most important cards on this list despite the name of the deck are probably your 4 Costs. Shang and Enchantress can hard counter really greedy play styles and Absorbing Man let's you double up on it. However, the fact that they are all 4s is a FeelsBadMan moment on Turn 6 because you can only play 1. That's why having Zabu OR Sera on field is important. Past that, the rest of the deck is very flexible. Zabu/Sera are obvious additions here to support your 4s going down by 1, but the rest is kind of up to you. This variant I run adds Maximus and Aero for power, but you can also go with something like Ms. Marvel and Gladiator. You can also run stuff like Cosmo, despite being contrary to the deck because Cosmo wants priority instead of not.

General Play Lines:

Turn 1: Play Echo/Sunspot in a desired lane. If you don't have the variant that covers your own Sunspot, be very careful because you might blow up your own Sunspot by accident.

Turn 2: Almost always Zabu if you have it. Your 2s are otherwise holds to tech against other cards. SWitch kills bad locations or extremely favourable one for an opponent. Shadow King's power reset is best done at the end of the game. Otherwise, you pass.

Turn 3: Turn 3 is interesting here because like Turn 2, you're probably not playing Killmonger on 3. Some exceptions exist - like blowing up an opponent's Sunspot before you play yours - but you're likely covering a Turn 1/2 play versus actually playing anything on Curve. Magik comes down on this turn if you are running her. You don't have anything to guard Limbo though, so be wary of an opponent cutting off your Limbo.

Turn 4: See above. Turn 3 in that you're most likely covering for a Turn 1-2 play. If you're running Ms. Marvel as an establisher, she'll probably come down here.

Turn 5: This is a critical turn for this deck because unlike decks that don't have Turn 5 as being as important, here, Sera Miracle relies on Turn 5 to set up a Turn 6 play. If you've already played Zabu and want to cover it, the Cosmo variants can place it down to stop an opponent from shutting it down. Otherwise, Sera can be played here as can Aero to redirect an opponent's play and set up a single tech card counter.

Turn 6: Play the tech cards you need to swing the game. Highly suggest you math out what your power totals are and see if it's adequate. If not, you Retreat. If Limbo is on field, then you should play Aero for the redirect or Sera for the end of the game (see Turn 5)

Turn 7: Repeat of Turn 6 more or less. Use Enchantress to stop Ongoing stacks, Shang to kill big bodies, Shadow King to get rid of pump cards, Killmonger for 1 cost hate, etc.

Sample Game to Come!