LFT Summoner SCC
Notes won't be great since I put off writing anything about the challenge too long, but here goes.
Used Ramza (Braska) + 4 females (Terra, Yuna, Garnet, Rydia). All my team is 70 faith except one 68. Very little attention was paid to Brave. Zodiac is Capricorn x2, Gemini, Leo, Aries, which is mostly internally neutral.
Sweegy Woods
Pretty easy once you know how to take Bombs seriously. I only have Moogle and Oak Staves, but who cares.
Dorter Slums (5 resets)
Don't take the reset count too seriously; I'm a prideful man and insisted on doing this with only Moogle. In the old days I'd probably just have gone and got the attack summons after a couple tries. Anyway, it's quite difficult to avoid losing PCs here since Summoner durability is bad and the range of the archers and wizards is good. Delita's Wish gives me a chance but not a great one, if I fall. Winning strategy involved abusing 5 move Knight Algus; he runs forward and distracts the Wizards and their small MP pools for quite a while.
Zeklaus Desert (2 resets)
I had one Summoner with an actual summon now, which I used to devastate the enemies near Algus' gate and hopefully kill the archer. Otherwise, a bit easier than Dorter overall - Monks hit very hard though. Lots of guest reliance, no shock there.
Miludas and Wiegraf
By this point I have the attack Summons I need, so there's nothing too scary to report here. Wiegraf being 7 speed means he actually gets a turn while I charge, but nobody else does, so this isn't especially scary.
Algus (5 resets)
Very rough. Ramza typically dies first round, Algus is hard to kill, and so on.
Eventually I put my Summoner with Leviathan in with Ramza's team, so she can kill the Wizard near Algus, damage two Knights, and get started on damaging Algus. The other two Summoners run around the back, one stopping to heal, the other (with Titan) waiting so she can instant cast that on the Knights and Algus before their second turn. Toss in Delita's axe being fairly painful and I'm able to outslug.
Dorter (1 reset)
Enemy offence here is extremely high, and an Archer turtling me on the roof costs me a reset. Second time I play smarter.
Araguay Woods through Bariaus Valley
These battles play to Summoners' strengths and exist in a part of the game they do very well in due to the +MA and +MP equips showing up. Most of them are quite easy, with Zaland being the hardest of the set due to a combination of high damage Wizards, status-whore Oracles, and an Item Knight, but no resets. I start picking up lots of skills by this point, diversifying my options. Everyone gets Half of MP in early Chapter 2, as well. Also Green Berets show up, yay for finally hitting the same speed everyone else starts with!
Golgorand (5 resets)
Hey, it's mostly unchanged, but it still kinda rapes. As is often the case for Summoners, surviving with everyone to get a turn is tough. Not only is it harder in this battle than most, but mopping up is now extra difficult due to tanky tanky Knights. Gafgarion is taken out turn 1 easily enough, at least.
Lionel Gate
Rubber Shoes still neutralises the Archers if not much else. Pretty easy otherwise, summon-bomb through the gate cheaps out Gaff.
Queklain (1 reset)
Oh god Counter Magic. I learn Ramuh with every PC (I only had it on one, before) and equip Rubber Shoes again (which also takes out the Knights) so I can maul him without fear of it. Lich only barely does more damage anyway, and is slower.
Goland
Fairly easy since I make sure Ramza is first to decharm people. Non-fail luck with Galaxy Stop handles the rest.
Zalmo (2 resets)
Okay, I... yeah. Geomancers elemental-blitz Ramza before I get a turn, continue to do so as the other PCs move through the gate.. ugly stuff. I forget exactly how I end up dealing with this, though if I had Fly by now things would be easy. Opting for more Move lets my other Summoners get out there more quickly, and Zalom is painfully easy to kill once I get a shot at him.
UBS2
Usual PBF so the Lancers can't attack, kill them. The changes to this battle seem like it could be hard for some physical SCCs, though, now.
Izlude (2 resets)
It's Izlude, enemy offence is crazy high and I need to spend turns killing the support while he gets in range, he's difficult to land my slower spells on. Some fine-tuning and things are fine.
Wiegraf (2 resets)
I create a sacrificial Summoner out of my bad zodiac PC and one other, so he'll aim for those two and avoid the other three, who are then durable enough to survive the enemy assault and take Wiegraf out.
Grog Hill through Riovanes Gate
Easy stuff for the most part. Yuguo Woods is the hardest of the set by far, and THAT is not something I'd normally have expected in LFT. Razor finish on the last possible clocktick. My PCs reach the needed level for 6 base speed during this arc.
Wiegraf duel (3 resets)
I take him out in two actions, but he 2HKOs me back due to good zodiac, and I have to hope he doesn't inflict undead. Set up with 8 speed (Green Beret, Sprint Shoes), wait a lot to gain CT on him. First turn, drop a summon to kill his MP, wait, Moogle on the double. Keep healing/waiting until I can hit him with another spell. First turn undead kicks in twice (wtf), a third time I just totally screw up my own strategy.
Velius (1 reset)
Ramza kills/criticals the demons, then dies. Other summoners scatter to reduce effects of Loss, then prepare to kill when Innocent wears off. First reset I barely have him crystallise before winning, and he was actually made undead in the last turn of the first form so I had a 50% chance to win anyway! Ah well. Second attempt I realise that my Summoners will actually be able to cast on him turn 2 as Innocent wears off clocktick 35 (7 speed Summoners get turn 2 around clocktick 28 or so), barrage Velius with power summons. He kills someone with his third turn, but that's not really good enough.
Roof
I get pretty lucky here and win one of the longer roof fights I have.
Jokerun
Is still the jokerun, although the fights are all better! Finath is still worthless at Level 16 or whatever, though, Zalmo isn't much better, Meliadoul is easily one-rounded. Doguola Pass is the hardest of this set.
Balk (2 resets)[/b]
It's Balk. Plays out much like vanilla, although the Geomancers make things notably harder. Angel Rings are the bestest, I switch to them and things get much easier. I use them in most battles for the rest of the SCC.
Bethla North
What should be an easy battle becomes scary as I opt for a fairly low-MP power setup and I get my MP raped by Witch Hunt such that I can barely do anything after turn 2. Fortunately on turn 1 I take out everyone but one Monk and one Lancer (who is criticalled). I abuse Fly to stall for time until I can snag a crystal and finish off the last two.
Sluice
Not too bad, due to Golem, turtling the enemies, and Angel Rings + White Robes making the Wizards manageable.
Germinas Peak (1 reset)
Oh god the revival and the Nameless Song and argh. This one is quite painful, although I don't really remember the specifics of victory too well. Barrage the Ninjas, abuse Salamander to kill the Chemists despite their different heights.
Poeskas Lake (5 resets)
Despairingly hard for a while, I often get slowed first round, the archer does crazy damage, the Summoner does too if she becomes relevant. The worst by far though are the Oracles who mess me up completely. Eventually I realise CARBUNKLE will mostly own them and this fight becomes moderately easy!
Limberry Gate (1 reset)
Very rare reset here, terrible luck to have it happen. Second attempt I drop Ramza's HP so he can't distract Lede (Celia one-shots him) and the other Summoners can kill her easily.
Elmdor
Isn't much better against Summoners than he used to be.
Zalera (4 resets)
Lich Lich Lich, but he always gets a turn while it charges and it only 4HKOs. The first fight Lich really gets to shine. I eventually opt for a White Robe to be less raped by Skeletons. Initial PBF involves having one PC by herself in the back who is set up to be one-shotted by Flare 2, so he'll do that instead of something horrible. She has an Angel Ring to get up, everyone else has Sprint Shoes and barrages him with Liches. Sacrificial Summoner then Salamanders the undead, so Zalera can choose between stopping a Lich and killing her to stop the Salamander, either is acceptable to me though the winning run does involve the Salamander going off. I scatter and try to just keep locking on Liches until he dies, avoiding the Knights via Fly abuse. Oh yeah, one reset because LICH FAILS TO 4HKO which couldn't happen with gravity in vanilla but due to rounding down of halving darkness, it happens 50% of the time now. This is frustrating because I got off 6, so I had an 81% chance of winning (would have been 92 if Lich 4HKOed like I thought).
Adramelk (19 resets)
Argh. This is a nastier fight for SCCs than anything in vanilla by a notable margin, I think. I'm not certain how some of them will do it.
Addy heals for 999 HP every round, one-shotting someone, off 15 speed. This is not healing that most SCCs can overcome really. Summoners, if I drop four Liches all at once, AND they all hit (~82% odds) AND Adramelk has HP such that Lich 4HKOs instead of 5 (50% of the time), I win, but just setting up for that is tricky and the odds are poor if I do. Instead, I bait him into using Undeath so that he can't heal and I can kill him in 2-3 rounds, but I still need to worry about him getting 1-2 turns during Liches and interrupting summons. Fortunately Moogle can heal charm on undead (realising this was crucial), but if I moogle twice he'll often use Raise 3 which varies from bad (if it kills) to horrible (if it doesn't) and despite my efforts to scatter using Fly he can still usually hit two people with it. I need definite luck with Lich on this one, and need to abuse his AI fairly perfectly - eventually I hit into luring him to hit my two lowest-CT summoners with Enthral, Moogle to cure them, drop four Liches, and hope I make it through. Need to PROPOSITION GRIND to afford Thief Hats for this one, but that's fine.
Murond (1 reset on Zalbag)
Fairly easy overall. Only tough fight is Zalbag, since I need four Liches. But, dropping my speed to 8 again makes him manageable, as I go after the demons. Zalbag + demons kill most of my party, but Angel Rings lets everyone get up, and only Zalbag acts mid-Lich-charge, and Golem stops that from working (I can even get off Golem while Dark Holy charges, awesome). So fairly easy despite a brutal slaughter on the 1 reset.
UBS4
Good Summoner battle, Odin carves through everyone.
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Currently at Rofel, who is tricky but should be quite doable. Very worried about Kletian. The rest, we'll see.
Notable equipment so far:
Elemental rods: Obviously the first important weapons. 2 Fire, 2 Ice, 2 Thunder. Not really worth using once Wizard Staves exist.
Wizard Staff, Wizard Rod: Boost MA, obvious.
Gold Staff: Move+1. Weapon of choice when I'm using Lich, and I use it in a few other battles where move just seems particularly good (Germinas).
Green Beret: Usually takes priority over MA boosters during C2-3, though not always.
Golden Hairpin: Blocking silence is important for Velius, otherwise it sees use when I feel I need a lot of HP/MP. Obsoleted mostly by...
Flash Hat: Speed AND HP? Plus some MA/MP? Amazing for summoners.
Thief Hat: Speed AND HP, part 2. See above. Mostly my hat of choice since getting it.
Wizard Robe: The power of this robe keeps it the main choice through much of C2-C3, but eventually the HP becomes quite low.
Earth Clothes: An excellent replacement for the above since they offer more HP/MP by quite a ways, and the power boost is just as large (sometimes larger) for Titan, the fastest spell in the set.
Brigandine: I mainly opt for this over Earth Clothes for my Summoners without Titan, but rarely make direct use of its move later, since Gold Staff becomes preferable to an armour with so-so HP and no MP/power.
White Robe: Useful against Balk and the Sluice. Nice MP, too, as a bonus.
Light Robe: Great HP/MP, the armour of choice when spamming Lich and often the armour of choice later anyway just for the durability.
Black Robe: Somewhat notable that I haven't used this. It doesn't feel too competitive, which is nothing like original FFT. I blame the nerfs to the basic summons, they're both weak and slow later. And it's hard to justify the cut to other stats just to strengthen Salamander (Earth Clothes at least have +20 HP and show up earlier).
Battle Boots: Generally felt like the C1 accessory of choice.
Magic Ring: Had a brief shining window when I hit 7 base MA, since I could use this to hit 8, which is a key benchmark for strengthened spells. Then Triangle Hats made this moot, and +1 MA alone doesn't beat out +1 move. On the other hand...
Wizard Mantle: Awesome. The above, with a handy evade boost, great for the Execution Site and such. Used this for most of C2-C3 after getting it.
Rubber Shoes: Spoil Lionel.
Sprint Shoes: Summoners often really need speed. One of the two most-used accessories after getting it.
Angel Ring: Summoners often really need durability. This is amazing, letting them all get turns even in battles where enemies have half-of-party-wiping offence.
Elf Mantle: Blocks slow, which is great for Poeskas Lake (revenants) and borderline essential for Adramelk (Undeath).
