New Nyarlathotep's Dungeon Topic, Updated 10/1/14 with new rules

[Dhyerwolf]

Let's make this official
Status Symbol Law
Ness (3)
Cielo (3)
Nina 1 (3)
Raja (1)
Seifer (1)

[Clear Tranquil]

Just a note, Peppita's moving to 2.0

>.> <.< >.>

Does she get CCS with that? <.<

Sounds like I missed some discussion! Ohohoho so people finally caught on to my evil plan ^_~

(yeah Pep was too cheap before but I didn't want to beat people unconsious with the hype to the point of overkill annoyance >.>)

[Random Consonant]

Y'know what?  Let's try something different.

Kratos (2.5)
Red XIII (2.5)
Claude (2.0)
Kyra (2.0)
Lilka (2.0)
Status Symbol Law

Will this team explode?  Hell yes.  But the idea amuses me too much and I want to see how far it can get.

[Magic Fanatic]

After some thinking, I decided to move the Life Sealstone over to Lucia for F1.

Reasons:
Lucia...  Doesn't really have much else to spend her MP on, besides a few basic non-expensive buffs.
Ricardo basically starts with MP Regen for everyone else, so that's a more important thing to spend his MP on.  Besides, means I'm not gimping his Arc Cure for now.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Okay, team redesign because Neph is a meanie and won't let me abuse underpriced PCs anymore =( some point shuffling was rightfully made:

Speed? Sealstone, stuck primarily on Raja.

Geno (3.0)
Ryu3 (3.0)
Deis 1 (3.5)
Raja (1.0)
FFT Priest (0.5)

I'm so going to regret this. Scratch my former team.

[Miata]

Hello everyone. I've been lurking on this board for a while now, and I always liked this game, so I've finally decided to register to try and give it a shot.

I hope you don't mind newcomers joining your dungeon. <<

So if it's alright, without further ado, I present to you my team:

Lenneth (3.5)
Aika (2.5)
Alicia (2.0)
Kevin (1.5) (Firefly)
Strago (1.5)

Since it's my first try, and I lack experience, I might fail pretty hard, but I'll still give this team a shot. After all, it has the awesomeness of Strago in it.

I'll give you a detailed breakdown on how this team is supposed to work and what I plan to do with it later, when I'm less tired.

[Taishyr]

Yeah, I'm curious. I like Lenneth as a tankish healer, and Alicia helps to support that, too. Huh. That's actually pretty cool - the lack of MT is offset by damn, the team should have pretty competent resource pools.

[Bardiche]

Alicia and Lenneth can probably rack up a PWS between the two of them, too.

Lenneth doesn't get Glance Reviver until floor 7, so damage is... supplied mostly by Kevin. But Lenneth and Alicia have VP2 Might Reinforce. So that should be alright.

I guess the lack of good MT is the only thing, but there are floors to bypass that.

Huh. Part of me likes that team. The other is scratching its head thinking there is something missing.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

I also like that you picked up Strago. Speed may be an issue, since the only person who isn't average or below for speed there is Aika, but there were non-speedy teams that made waves in the Dungeon.

[superaielman]

Knight (FF1) works better than Kevin offhand. He lacks Kevin's raw physical smash and healing late , but he does make an effective user of the firefly rune.

[Miata]

The other is scratching its head thinking there is something missing.

The thing is, I have that feeling too, but I can't put my finger on what exactly it is.

You are both right of course, he lack of MT is quite a bother, but I think it should be doable. Strago provides it from the start, even if it's not amazing, it's ok. I was considering going down the light path with Kevin. That would give him a devastating MT physical starting on floor 3, and once he gets that, he becomes a serious threat if he gets the chance to pull it off. If I do that, I'd most likely go for the God Hand, which is just as strong as the Dervish anyway, and has Aura Wave, which can help him pull of the even stronger MT physical he gets then if given a round of ramp up time.

So yeah, I think I see now what might become an issue here. The team lacks speed and relies mainly on survivability to get through the floors. Early on  damage might be a bit lacking because of the limited MT, and later on it might struggle because it needs a little ramp up time in some fights. Damage is also heavy on the physical side, which might be an issue against teams that deal well with that kinda thing.

Then again, the idea behind this team was to beat the dungeon with superior survivability and resources rather than pure damage potential, and I think it will do a fine job of just that. Another thing to keep in mind is that it also has some nice status options to balance the lack of MT in some situations. Aika's confuse is not bad, and Strago, once he gets his better stuff, will most likely really start to shine. After all, later on, he does have a nasty status option for almost any situation.

Edit:

Wow, while I was posting, there were two new replies. It's great that there's so much feedback on this team, thanks alot guys.

About the Knight: Actually, I was considering him, since his tank potential is just sick. My main concern with him, and the reason why I ultimately picked Kevin, was the fact that this team would seriously lack damage potential if Kevin was left out. Just like you said, while he is great with firefly, he just can't deal as much damage. With the amount of healing present in this team, I'm just hoping Kevin will be tanky enough to pull i through.

As for Strago, part of the reason I'm using him is because I really like him. He's an awesome character, and he deserves some time in the dungeon. Apart from that, I can see tons of potential within him if he's got the team to support that.

[superaielman]

What role does Alicia fill, then? I just noticed she's in the team- are you trying to spam PWSes with Lenneth and Alicia? Mmm, that does make sense.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

The other is scratching its head thinking there is something missing.

The thing is, I have that feeling too, but I can't put my finger on what exactly it is.

I think I can put my finger on it: the speed spread and the low amount of crowd control. The dungeon heavily emphasizes blitzing in many situations, and you need both speed and offense to do it - there's a reason Deis1 is a 3.5 in spite of being very one-dimensional. You did have the mind to actually try to mitigate that with Firefly, at least, which helps a lot. The lack of strong MT healing (besides Aika, I guess?) is probably also going to prove problematic in a few cases. Your team is mostly reliant on evadable physicals for offense too, which is a problem - evadable physicals are the most easily walled damage type in the DL and in the dungeon. In spite of all those drawbacks, it's still a decent team, particularly for a first attempt. It's noticeable where you tried to create synergy and compensate for flaws, and that's a good skill to have when engaging in teambuilding.

[superaielman]

Aika's MT healing sucks and puts a huge strain on her SP resources. It almost never comes up in the dungeon.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Right. Then, I guess I'll just punt Djinn into a hole dipped in acid for hyping it at some point~

[DjinnAndTonic]

I never hyped Aika's MT Healing, I always considered her Green magic to be backup ST healing. Tear (MT) and Aeris (doesn't do anything else unless I needed her limits) were my main healers.

Also, Miata's team's speed spread isn't so bad if you see Kevin as better than average speed due to varying ARPG interps. That alone might swing enough votes to let his team pass more floors than using Knight, despite the better tanking.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Oh, I didn't mean your team, I meant something like a year ago on an earlier team. I honestly didn't pay much attention to your team in the dungeon. >_>

[Miata]

What role does Alicia fill, then? I just noticed she's in the team- are you trying to spam PWSes with Lenneth and Alicia? Mmm, that does make sense.

Yeah that's part of the reason why she's in there. It just adds a little bit of extra synergy to her. When I built the team, I was a bit struggling with who to put into that spot. I wanted someone else besides Lenneth who could revive and maybe act as a healer too, so the others can focus more on offense, and Alicia just seemed like the best pick here, since she also complements Lenneth quite well when it comes to pulling off a PWS.

The MT healing is an issue, but truth be told, I didn't find a way around that particular problem. I was hoping that with it's strong defenses and the exceptionally good ST healing, the team would pull through.

Also, thanks to Jo'ou for analyzing the team and giving feedback on where the teams weaknesses lie. Once again, thank you all for giving me so much constructive feedback and helping a newcomer out with getting started.

After all this analysis, I don't actually know how far the team will get in the dungeon, but I'm more eager than ever to give it a try and see how it goes.

[superaielman]

Only decent MT healer I see at 1.5 is Yukiko.


Strago does have White Wind! That just is late. Come to that, while Aqua Rake should be good early, he does have a long gap in between skills. I should hammer out a list with Meeple about Strago's lores.

Edit:

Lores:

Floor 1: Aqua Rake, Stone, Revenge, Step Mine
Floor 2: Condemned, Dischord
Floor 3: Pep up, Level 4 Flare, level 5 doom, level 3 muddle
Floor 4: Pearl Wind, Blow Fish, Big Guard, Rippler
Floor 5: Sour mouth, Reflect???, Aero, Clean sweep
Floor 6: Level ? Pearl, Grand Train
Floor 7: Forcefield, Quasar

Strago's got serious MP concerns early on and he's frail, but he is a neat pick.

[dude789]

Only decent MT healer I see at 1.5 is Yukiko.

Yukiko has a few issues that really hurt her in the dungeon early. Ronfar and Eiko seem like the best choices if you want a healer who can heal from the start and don't have a lagging period.

[Random Consonant]

Eh.  Scrapping my old idea and gonna go with something else.

Bartz (4.0)
Jerin (3.0)
Crono (2.0)
Ronfar (1.5)
Meru (0.5)

Not sure what to go with for a sealstone, if I opt for one at all.

[dude789]

Eh.  Scrapping my old idea and gonna go with something else.

Bartz (4.0)
Jerin (3.0)
Crono (2.0)
Ronfar (1.5)
Meru (0.5)

Not sure what to go with for a sealstone, if I opt for one at all.

What's your plan for Bartz? Your team probably needs him to focus on doing damage since the teams overall damage is pretty bad early. When I first saw it I didn't think that Ronfar and Jerin would work that well together because they fill such similar niches, but after thinking on it, I think it could work pretty well. Jerin gets really good healing but takes a while to get some of it whereas Ronfar gets his almost immediately but has resource issues early. So early on you can use Jerin for light healing and Ronfar for emergencies and eventually you end up with two very good healers with different speeds. 

[Random Consonant]

Yeah, that was kinda the idea there with Ronfar/Jerin.  Bartz I'll probably either hit people up for ideas or something, haven't really decided on much other than I want to do something other than Chemist cheese with him.  Team's kinda backended on stuff, I know.  Worst case I'll probably end up swapping Bartz/Crono for other people.

[dude789]

If you decide to drop Crono you'll probably want to replace him with someone who is decent early and can do something to help Bartz's speed because Bartz can do some pretty brutal things, but he needs to get turns to do them. If you decide to drop Bartz you'll probably want to focus on fast MT blitzing. Jerin and Crono have it and you'll want to build on that strength. There aren't really any 4.0s who fit that category but there are a ton of 3.5s and 3.0s who do (Deis, Jessica and Rune come to mind). Additionally you'll have an extra .5-1 point depending on who you choose so you can go for a 1.0 or 1.5 instead of Meru if you want. Most of the other CT characters are in the 1.5-1.0 range and with the Speed? sealstone it's easier to get them to Crono's speed so that is an option.

[Magic Fanatic]

Is...  Is there any reason that we're keeping this stickied?  This stuff looks like it's been well and dead for months now - heck, the last post was March 14th of 2010.