Nyarlathotep's Dungeon: Week 38

[Nephrite]

How dull. I suppose you'll all have to try again, won't you? That's okay... we're reaching the end of things now. Soon, it shall all start anew...

Team Miasma vs. Floor 6, 4 to 6
Team Ashe vs. Floor 2, 4 to 6
Team Tai vs. Floor 1, 10 to 0

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Floor 2c: Tanks for all the Fish

So, I suppose it's time for something new... Let's see what you can manage when you can't do any damage!

Battle #6: Ox, Rand and Cray

Ox: Hah! You won't get past us!
Rand: Yeah!
Cray: I... er... right!

Battle #7: Ephraim and L'Arachel

Ephraim: Let's go, Rachel.
L'Arachel: Er... um... that's not...

Battle #8: Augustine and Domingo

Augustine: Ah, my friends... It is so good to see you again. Let us have a fair battle.
Domingo: Wooo~~~

Battle #9: Auron and Steiner

Auron: I will guard this place with my life.
Steiner: You will NOT pass!

Boss Battle #2: Boss Magus

Magus: Now, the chosen time has come... Die!


Team Commander and Piggyman's Matches

Floor 1: An Introduction (The Beginning)

Ah, a new challenger... Well, I've decided to change things a bit since the last time you were here. Let's see what you can accomplish this time.

Battle #1: Rufus and Reno

Rufus: Reno, dispose of them.
Reno: Uh... sure, I guess.

Battle #2: Shuckle, Fred and Cecil

Cecil: Let us have an honorable battle.
Fred: For the Maximillian Knights!!

Battle #3: Alice and FFT Priest

Alice: Ah, Yuri... where are you?
Priest: Cure... power!

Battle #4: Solt, Peppor, Alenia, Zahhak and Miluda

Solt: Let's shake things up!
Peppor: I'll grind you to dust!
Alenia: Wh... why are we here with them...?
Zahhak: ...
Miluda: ...BROTHER?!?

Boss Battle #1: Lundgren, Zalmo and Baigan

Lundgren: Hah hah hah! You will never stop me!
Zalmo: HERESY!!!
Baigan: I am proud to challenge you.



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Team Taishyr | Bartz, Rika, Crowley, Eiko
[Floor 2c]
[Bartz: Red Mage / HP+30% ]
Team Taishyr vs. Ox, Rand and Cray
Team Taishyr vs. Ephraim and L'Arachel
Team Taishyr vs. Augustine and Domingo
Team Taishyr vs. Auron and Steiner
Team Taishyr vs. Boss Magus

Team Commander | Cloud, Yuri2, Juan, Mime, Bowser
[Floor 1]
[Materia: Restore (U)]
Team Commander vs. Rufus and Reno
Team Commander vs. Shuckle, Fred (S3) and Cecil
Team Commander vs. Alice and FFT Priest
Team Commander vs. Solt, Peppor, Alenia, Zahhak and Miluda
Team Commander vs. Lundgren, Zalmo1 and Baigan

Team Piggyman | Benjamin, Magus, Tidus, Robo
[Floor 1]
Team Piggyman vs. Rufus and Reno
Team Piggyman vs. Shuckle, Fred (S3) and Cecil
Team Piggyman vs. Alice and FFT Priest
Team Piggyman vs. Solt, Peppor, Alenia, Zahhak and Miluda
Team Piggyman vs. Lundgren, Zalmo1 and Baigan

[Taishyr]

Team Taishyr | Bartz, Rika, Crowley, Eiko
[Floor 2c]
[Bartz: Red Mage / HP+30% ]
Team Taishyr vs. Ox, Rand and Cray - Bartz has Sleep and Confuse off fairly impressive rates here. Crowley nukes one, Rika and Eiko attack/defend as they please, Bartz sleeps the crowd. Battle's pretty much over.
Team Taishyr vs. Ephraim and L'Arachel - Unless you consider FE Speed/movement as their speed stat, only Bartz goes after the group. Rika can go first and shut down evasion/speed/defense or just Saner to block out the double. From there, the enemy gets worn down.
Team Taishyr vs. Augustine and Domingo - Can't shut down two people with revival. Crowley can use his lone L3 charge here to clear shop, as well.
Team Taishyr vs. Auron and Steiner - Crowley nukes Auron, Steiner equips to halve Wind. But Saner goes up and Eiko Protects herself, making Steiner lack the offense to take my team out.
Team Taishyr vs. Boss Magus - Two ways this falls out.

-If you don't let Magus choose barriers, Bartz has Fire/Ice/Bolt 2 and can weather him down.
-If you do, a Saner'd Shift'd group still beats him to death, but it's slower.


Most arguments against my team here would revolve around killing Eiko, but Red Mage has Life so that falls apart. Rand, Cray and Boss Magus are the only ones with MT, and Rand/Cray suck at it. Bartz, furthermore, is very durable for this point in the game thanks to HP +30%, so he's not falling easily, and no team can OHKO both or has the speed to double and kill both. That's... about the long and short of it.

Team Commander | Cloud, Yuri2, Juan, Mime, Bowser
[Floor 1]
[Materia: Restore (U)]
Team Commander vs. Rufus and Reno
Team Commander vs. Shuckle, Fred (S3) and Cecil
Team Commander vs. Alice and FFT Priest
Team Commander vs. Solt, Peppor, Alenia, Zahhak and Miluda
Team Commander vs. Lundgren, Zalmo1 and Baigan - There isn't an opponent here that can stop Juan, pretty much, and none of them can kill him before he wakes up and gets going. Cloud, Yuri2 and Bowser do not help the opponent's case one bit. Yuri goes for Wind first (Earth'd be wiser in-game, but with this team he wants the speed buffer is my impulse) and amplifies the issue by acting as offensive mage/buffer for the team here. Pass.

Team Piggyman | Benjamin, Magus, Tidus, Robo
[Floor 1]
Team Piggyman vs. Rufus and Reno - This team has nothing to threaten Piggyman with. Wipe Reno, move on.
Team Piggyman vs. Shuckle, Fred (S3) and Cecil - Nail Fred to a wall, move on.
Team Piggyman vs. Alice and FFT Priest - Think FFT Priest gets blown to bits before anything bad happens. Earlygame Magus would be goddamn nuts, and FFT Priest against his level of magic is snickers.
Team Piggyman vs. Solt, Peppor, Alenia, Zahhak and Miluda - Magus waggles little finger.
Team Piggyman vs. Lundgren, Zalmo1 and Baigan - Inclination is that Robo/Benjamin healing at this point is enough. This team'll have fun later, though.

[Bardiche]

Team Taishyr | Bartz, Rika, Crowley, Eiko
[Floor 2c]
[Bartz: Red Mage / HP+30% ]
Team Taishyr vs. Ox, Rand and Cray - Can't recall any of these eating magic quite well. Team takes down slow-poke Rand, then mops up the rest?
Team Taishyr vs. Ephraim and L'Arachel - Magic. Ephraim doesn't like that much.
Team Taishyr vs. Augustine and Domingo - Sure.
Team Taishyr vs. Auron and Steiner - Think Eiko can keep the heals up enough here, aided by Rika's buffs to stay alive.
Team Taishyr vs. Boss Magus - Yep. The way I see it, Eiko is a superior Marle, Bartz is a superior Crono, Crowley's a superior Lucca and Rika's just the icing on the cake.

Have to abstain on Commander. Not sure what his team can do. Will read up and everything! //Edit: Commander passes as well.

I was worried over Benjamin resources for Piggy, but then I recall Robo had pretty cheap healing, too. Does he have access to Healing spells from the get-go, though? If he does, they get my pass, otherwise I need to hear arguments on the last fight, as I can see Benjamin and Magus being quite low on resources then, and Lundgren is a beast if you can't spell-lol him.

[Taishyr]

Yeah, he does get healing pretty much right off the bat. Not great, but cheap and it'll be pretty good healing at this point.

[Bardiche]

Okay. I don't think it matters whether it's the MT variety or not. Robo's pretty good against physicals to me, and Benjamin's offense is still pretty good enough that they can save some of Magus's spells for the final fight. Lundgren hates spells like hell hath no, so the team gets a pass on floor 1.
... I actually have good Lundgren respect. >_> I have bad memories of him OHKOing Kent.

[Taishyr]

I'm afraid I don't, really. The one person I've got some respect for there is Baigan. But FE boss durability is always a headache to me so.

[superaielman]

Team Commander | Cloud, Yuri2, Juan, Mime, Bowser
[Floor 1]
[Materia: Restore (U)]
Team Commander vs. Rufus and Reno
Team Commander vs. Shuckle, Fred (S3) and Cecil- Fear/Juan.
Team Commander vs. Alice and FFT Priest
Team Commander vs. Solt, Peppor, Alenia, Zahhak and Miluda- Alenia's the only one with MT damage and she's easily OHKOed.
Team Commander vs. Lundgren, Zalmo1 and Baigan- Cloud's healing and limits should carry the day offhand.

[DjinnAndTonic]

Cursory glance tells me that all pass. But I'll probably end up breaking it down for my own views later. Posting this now in case I don't get the time.

-Djinn

[dude789]

All three make it.

[Cmdr_King]

Team Tai vs Dungeon
Team Piggy vs Dungeon

Tai's break downs all make sense to me.

[Excal]

I'd just like to laugh at the idea of Juan being useful against ST enemies.  If the enemies never target him, he'll never act, and that's just a wasted slot.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

That's why Mime thwacks him instead.

[Excal]

But Suikoden 3 PCs cannot be targetted by their allies except by certain hit everyone skills.  Self thwacking Juan therefore cannot be done.

[Cmdr_King]

Which is why it's good that Mime isn't a Suikoden III PC...
That said, I don't think Juan's relative damage at this time is notable?  He needs some raw levels for the swings to kick in.  Fortunately I don't think he's vital to the team at this time, Cloud's got the healing and Bowser, if I'm not mistaken, is at his relative best (and fairly beastly) in the early going, and Floor 1 seems fairly tame today.

[superaielman]

Team Piggy passes. Magus smashes floor 1 like nothing else. Still thinking on Team Tai.

Team Taishyr | Bartz, Rika, Crowley, Eiko
[Floor 2c]
[Bartz: Red Mage / HP+30% ]
Team Taishyr vs. Ox, Rand and Cray- Rand/Ox are status bait.
Team Taishyr vs. Ephraim and L'Arachel- ID Eph, L'arachel isn't much of a threat.
Team Taishyr vs. Augustine and Domingo- ID Domingo, cruise.
Team Taishyr vs. Auron and Steiner- Magical blitz handles both well enough.
Team Taishyr vs. Boss Magus- Should have enough resources left.

[Taishyr]

See, I didn't even bother mentioning Rika has ID. Mainly since she doesn't even really need it from what I can tell. But yeah.

[ThePiggyman]

Umm... not sure on Team Tai. Gonna read some arguments first.

Team Commander passes, virtue of Juan destruction alone. Yuri2 makes things even more laughable.

My team passes easy enough. Magus has enough MP to bring my team to the boss, and still have a bit left over for Lundgren. Level 2 CT spells only cost 8 MP. Benjamin/Robo heal anything that needs healing.

[DjinnAndTonic]

Team Taishyr | Bartz, Rika, Crowley, Eiko
[Floor 2c]
[Bartz: Red Mage / HP+30% ]
Team Taishyr vs. Ox, Rand and Cray
Team Taishyr vs. Ephraim and L'Arachel
Team Taishyr vs. Augustine and Domingo
Team Taishyr vs. Auron and Steiner
Team Taishyr vs. Boss Magus - Taishyr is using a Rika team. Rika is awesome for 3 things: 100% ID, Multi-target 100% ID, and the world's best speed game. She can do other things, too, but generally this is all she needs. For everything else, there's Crowley Smash.

Team Commander | Cloud, Yuri2, Juan, Mime, Bowser
[Floor 1]
[Materia: Restore (U)]
Team Commander vs. Rufus and Reno
Team Commander vs. Shuckle, Fred (S3) and Cecil
Team Commander vs. Alice and FFT Priest
Team Commander vs. Solt, Peppor, Alenia, Zahhak and Miluda
Team Commander vs. Lundgren, Zalmo1 and Baigan - This team is the only iffy one to me this week because it doesn't start particularly strong. However, I agree with the assessment that even though S3 characters can't be targeted by their allies, FFT characters can -certainly- target them. I'm of the opinion that targeting is more of a property of the attacker than the target... Also, I'm generally of the opinion that even characters from games where they -can't- target their allies, they are given the ability in the Dungeon (and other Team matches in the DL). So yeah, worst comes to worst, Mime hits Juan and all hell breaks loose against FLOOR ONE. It's Floor 2 that this team might have problems on, build your Cloud and Yuri2 carefully!


Team Piggyman | Benjamin, Magus, Tidus, Robo
[Floor 1]
Team Piggyman vs. Rufus and Reno
Team Piggyman vs. Shuckle, Fred (S3) and Cecil
Team Piggyman vs. Alice and FFT Priest
Team Piggyman vs. Solt, Peppor, Alenia, Zahhak and Miluda
Team Piggyman vs. Lundgren, Zalmo1 and Baigan - Just kind of an 'earlygame Magus smash' kneejerk here. Tidus can chip in with any extra needed damage, and Robo/Ben handle healing duty, since this team's somewhat slow. Another one that might have trouble on Floor 2.

-Djinn

[Dhyerwolf]

Rika is awesome for 3 things: 100% ID, Multi-target 100% ID, and the world's best speed game.

Rika ID is 80%, and I don't think it's MT (Except on the MT floor of course!).

[DjinnAndTonic]

Wha- really? *checks stat topic*

Huh, so it is! I thought somebody in PSIV had MT 100% ID?

I've been under this assumption for a long time now, I wonder where I got the idea in the first place? I'm really quite confused, it doesn't seem like something I would just assume if someone hadn't said it somewhere? Maybe there's a gameFAQs message board post somewhere that's responsible?

Yeah, still good ID, but not nearly as much respect needed as I was giving it before.

-Djinn

[Excal]

Rune has MT ID, but I don't think it's 100% either.  Just, so close as to not really make any difference.

[Clear Tranquil]

Team Tai vs Dungeon : Looks like a strong case of magic it burnsss usss here.

Team CK vs Dungeon :

Team Piggy vs Dungeon:

[Taishyr]

Of note is that, depending on where you see boss Magus counters as being at here, the entire team has healing. Admittedly, two of them are still ST (Crowley, Rika's is likely so?), but that plus Eiko's MT should be enough. And once barriers drop, Crowley can just start dropping the rest of his L1 charges on Magus like nothing else. A cute match, but one my team handles adequately.

[superaielman]

Rika's MT healing is expensive, probably not gained till floor 3, and not all that great till Nasar.

[Taishyr]

So it'd be irrelevant anyway. Got it! >_>