Nyarlathotep's Dungeon: Week 125

[Pyro]

Point of clarification for Neph: Is the Buff Enough floor special the first two turns of every team member, or just the first two turns period? (so MT status/damage can be used on the 3rd fastest PC, say). I'd think that it would be 'first two turns of every single combatant" since otherwise it's kind of silly with regards to speed spreads.

[SnowFire]

Pretty sure it's been interpted as the former before.  Which makes speed buffing insanely important to get that crucial 3rd turn for someone.

[Nephrite]

It is the former.

[Dhyerwolf]

Ok, yeah, was interpreting it differently. Uh...man, I thought that third fight was nasty before. While at least the evade buff cast on someone else is only 20% (30% under the floor effect), that's a lot of guaranteed turns to cast. Does make the Delta Shield+other magical buff better. Also means that more time for Adachi to get buffed up (So he Heat Risers and then Power Charges!!). And of course, the speed buffer that matters in the last fight is....Alexia. Definitely lots of dynamic changes.

[Dhyerwolf]

So looking at this as 2 rounds (I'm assuming that people can at least pass turns if they have no buffs)

Team dude | Mei-Ling, Feena, Aika, White Rose, FFT Monk  (Vantage)
[Feena: All Eggs]
[Floor 4b: Buff Enough]
*On this floor, all buffs have their effects increased by 50%, debuffs by 25% and the first two rounds of both the enemy and player must be on buffs or debuffs, which does not include status.
Team dude vs. Cray, Nina4, Scias and Ershin- Buffs will be Nina 4 cutting magic on 2 by 75% and Cray Attack buffing Scias twice. Dude gets 4 castings of Lightsword (which...well, actually, I don't know whether these get Shiningblade though. I don't believe Shiningblade is gotten by evasion, and I know that Deflect has moves that ignore it).

So this may change absolutely nothing from before if Shiningblade ignores Deflect.
Team dude vs. FFT Samurai, Time Mage and Squire Ramza- This team gets a lot better since now Time Mage will end up hasting the team, which will all be Shell+Protect. Ramza gets more Speed for lolz. But time to buff means that Ramza's ST physicals are eaten. The fight is slower, but better now.

Team dude vs. Aeonless Yuna, White Wizard and Priest (FFT)- This team gets scary. Priest is already very hard to kill coming into the third turn (Cuts physicals 75%, cuts magic 75%, Cuts elements 75%, And 60%? Evade). And it will just get worse as time goes on.

Team dude vs. Arnaud, Yulie, Lilka and Emma (AC:F)- Time to Lightsword is great and such and takes the danger out of the fight.

Team dude vs. Adachi, Alexia (XF) and Alma- Oh god, this fight gets to much worse. So now before his move, Adachi will be MBarriered (halve damage, hasted), Heat Riser (cuts damage another 40%) and with multiple attack buffs. This one is a loss now since the team gets a turn to get Adachi out. This normally isn't too bad, but MBarrier puts Adachi at about 2 PC HP durability and Heat Riser bumps this up yet again. And the fact that the enemies have two distinctly stackable haste buffs helps (you could see Heat Riser and M-Barriers defensive buffs as not stacking, but in XF Royal Cheer and Haste should stack, so that's good to go).

[Magic Fanatic]

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but why are you saying 4 castings of Lightsword in the first fight?  Isn't that spell self-target only and not stackable with itself?

[Dhyerwolf]

Blah, didn't know it was self-target only (I know that it can block attacks for nearby allies; I don't know what nearby means in Saga though. They were arranged in a ring (?), so maybe the ones on either side).

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

LightSword's stat boosts are self-only, but its parry effect applies party-wide. Shining Blade is also fully evadable, it just doesn't have a base missing chance (most BoF3/4 attacks differentiate that in a Pokémon-like manner).

[Dark Holy Elf]

Shining Blade is just a normal physical attack which criticals on a successful hit, yeah. Most weapon skills (Shadowwalk, Double/Triple Blow, Supercombo, Aura Smash, etc.) just use the same hit/evade mechanics as normal physical attacks. Anyway, a reasonably normal ST physical should absolutely be nailed by Deflect.

Deflect's coverage varies by the formation you're in (which is determined by the fight); it can cover the whole party in some circumstances, but more often doesn't. You can at minimum control which allies will be the ones protected by it, though, if you know the fight formation in advance. Saying it protects two targets of the caster's choice seems reasonable to me?