Record Keeping Final Fantasy Record Keeper

[DjinnAndTonic]

Considering you said Saint Cross, I'm guessing that means you had a Knight casting the RW, who might just have low enough Speed that it mattered in aggregate?

[hinode]

Unhasted Gilgamesh takes about 3.75s to fill up an ATB bar, so 5.55s to use Saint Cross and 6.75 to use an SG RW.

As a rule of thumb 25s buffs like SG, Planet Protector, the attack buff part of Shout, etc. last somewhere between 4-5 turns unhasted and 6-7 turns hasted. Gilgamesh is a bit on the slow side and SC has a slightly longer charge time than usual, so Cap's experience sounds about right.

[Captain K]

Still not my original point though, that different RWs were lasting different amounts.  If I'm using the same actions every battle and getting different results...

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

You're not, that's likely perceptive bias and some lore inaccuracy in viewing what constitutes a turn (as well as those numbers being adjusted for differing battle speeds and lack of precise numbers for non-3 speed). For a turn to be five seconds, a character has to be 150 Speed and use an action with 1.5 CT, and that's -without- accounting for human input delay. An actual turn off 150 speed is closer to six seconds in practice, and Gilgamesh is actually well below that - he's likely to barely get four actions unhasted under SG/SSII at L80. In fact, -most- characters will get less than five turns unhasted under SSII/SG, since the majority of the cast has below 150 Speed and relevant casting times above 1.5 seconds.

[Meeplelard]

So we get free stuff from the Spring Log-in bonus, and a certain someone who loves to complain about EVERYTHING found a way to be negative about free stuff.

Free Rune staff?  Worthless Core Synergy for a Core character, no one should be fond about this!
-Ignores that this could be the best Mind weapon for a number of players (Not everyone is so lucky), and this will be useful in the upcoming White Mage Abyss.  Failing that, it's basically a free Rosetta Stone otherwise.

Free Tornado strike? ONLY # CHARACTERS CAN USE IT BESIDES TYRO USELESS!
-Ignores that worst case scenario, you can break the free skill into a few free Major Orbs, so you can view it as free Major Wind, Black and Power Orbs.  Branching from that, it's still good if you intend to use one of Bartz, Squall, and Celes (in my case, I have one for all three, and even Bartz's Air Knife AND Oath Veil, so I can give it quite a boost)


It really is amazing how he can hate on everything.  Like I get when he's angry about someone being buffed that doesn't need it or someone getting a perk when others need it, that's fair but then he also misses the forest in spite of the trees.  Case in point, Braska's Event.  What does he complain about?

Why did YUNA get spotlighted on this event instead of like Kimhari or Wakka!?  Oh I dunno, it's not like Yuna is the daughter of the new character or anything.

[Cotigo]

If nothing else this discussion has taught me things about the ATB system I never really cared to learn. I actually didn't realize that SC had a significantly longer cast time than other skills, though to be fair I didn't start using the skill until the Hastega age.

Blah I have to do Omega, the FF9 U+ AND U++ bosses today because I have a busy day at work tomorrow. Hopefully this doesn't take up a significant portion of my day.

EDIT: U+ Kraken down, pretty easy with my FF9 synergy. 
Steiner (SCross, ISpell)
Beatrix (Curaja, ISpell), Dr. Mog's Teachings. With her BSSB she used her skill slots exactly 0 times.
Bartz (Drain Strike, ISpell)
Tyro (Hi Weak Polka, Hi Unfaith), Mako Might
Relm (Esuna, Curaja)
Shout RW

Imperil Holy makes my knights sooooo much better and they were already amazing. One S/L because I misread the conditions that U+ Kraken unlocks U+Waterga; you want to keep both tentacles alive, not kill them. This also made Steiner's SSB unusable since keeping Beatrix in Burst mode was more important, and two Beatrix BSSBs + 1 Steiner Climhazzard killed the tentacles, so something to keep in mind there. Otherwise the fight was really easy, I brought Esuna in case of Ink and it only ever showed up on the last turn and didn't matter at all. I could make changes to the setup but honestly I got full medals anyway so whatever.

U++ Zorn/Thorn abomination up next.

Spent a little more time on setup with this one, and calculations. Zack's back in because I need wall. Basically built Beatrix up to where she surpasses the softcap with Dragoon's Determination alone (493 base) and wouldn't need boosting, Built Bartz a bit more for MDEF since he surpasses the Softcap (406 base) after Steal Power, and Zack hits it after one Water of Strength (460 base). This should free up Relm to heal most of the time and won't really need to keep boosting up. Tyro's still got the dances on but this time he's using Break Fever instead of High Weak Polka. And awaaaaaaaay we gooooooo~

... one reset because I misclicked Relm's Ultros SB instead of Lakshmi's Blessing and let SG lapse. >_< Other than that, not so bad. Zack and Bartz ate it to counters at the end and that cost me mastery, but honestly the mastery rewards are 30 of each upgrade mat and uuuuuugh I don't care. Done. Not an obnoxiously hard fight, but I don't wanna S/L again for Scarletite and Adamantite.

I suppose Omega's up next after I take a break.

[Meeplelard]

Misclicking Soul Breaks is the worst.  It's what taught me to only have soul breaks you know are going to be useful there.  In my case, I once used Yuna's Grand Summon I instead of Hymn of the Fayth.  I think it was on Bahamut Sin to boot.

[Cotigo]

Yeah, I wish hitting optimize didn't refill your SBs with junk, I always forget to clear them out afterwards and it's really annoying and adds to my input delay in the best case.

Anyway, Omega was a joke. It took me several tries just planning out the exact right loadout, but once I got that figured out the actual battle itself was a matter of rolling dice and hoping that 1) Bartz, Zack, and Tyro evaded blind, 2) Relm went before Reflect, and 3) Stop never missed twice in a row. I did craft Ixion to R5 as a precaution because I am sitting on literally THOUSANDS of orbs at this point due to diligent farming, but that ended up being probably unnecessary. In any case, I had like 2+1 Waifus in the battle, and that's always a plus. Anyway, the loadout:

Tina (R5 Thundaja, R5 Ixion), Devotion, MAG 518
Zacks (R1 Full Charge, R5 Thundara Strike), Sword Damage 1.2x, Silver Spectacles, ATK 532
Butts (R5 Indoor Spell, R5 Thundaga Strike), Dagger Damage 1.2x, Cloud's Goggles, ATK 539
Shitbrat (R3 Dispel, R3 Full Break), Dr. Mog's, Goddess Pendant, ATK 413
Rirumu (R3 Face, R5 Stop), Mag down Mind Up RM, Mind 512
Ramza Shout RW

Dispel was to help mitigate dice rolling in case Relm went after Omega put reflect up. Everyone has synergy here, so equips only matter in that you have good 5* equips and something to block blind for your spellblades. Terra was dealing 9500 x2 with Ixion after Faith, and 9999x flat with Thundaja regardless. Bartz and Zack hit around 9000 or so each after shout, and a little bit more after Fullbreak and Tyro's BSSB Defense Debuff.

Relm was MVP by far, and this battle marks the first time I've used stop on a high MND character instead of on some BM schmuck to hit mastery requirements. Turns out with 512 x 1.2 = 614 Mind Stop lasts at least two turns hasted (never had to find out if it was more), which gave me a free turn to Faith up Terra to boost her Ixion damage after the initial stop. Having stop proc before Reflect is ideal mostly because that reflect is scripted, and if you do miss two stops in a row (or the stop right after faith), then all I had to do was dispel with Tyro and move on.

Ixion at R3 or R4 would probably have sufficed, honestly. I had 2-3 charges of my Thundara/ga strikes left and almost a full charge on both Zack and Bartz's SBs which would have made up for the loss of 10-20k damage for not having those hones. Oh well, its not like I was saving those orbs for anything. Chain Thundaga when it comes? Frankly thanks to Ix that's not as much of a priority as Chain Blizzaga or Chain Firaga, and I already decided I don't really need FB past R3.

Anyway, glad to have these fights done so I can move on. In levelling news, Bartz broke 90 and Cloud is at 85, I may just use eggs on him to harvest his organ. U+ Kraken also netted me another MC3, so I'm thinking I may use that on Terra or Ramza soon. The FF2 event will probably provide me with another one anyway so I may as well do both.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

So, after level-capping Seifer and Edea yesterday, today is shoring up Elite DU21. Only two FF7 dungeons left, really. The nice thing about having native Shout and a bunch of SSBs is that I can just slap Ramza and Lifesiphon Lightning/Bartz onto whatever composition I have and ez modo it up. FF3 event's also landing tonight, but my interest in it besides the 10 Mythril it provides is frankly limited.

[Meeplelard]

Yeah, the only thing that interests me in the FF3 Event is typical "new event!" scenario, meaning 10 more Mithril, bunch more 4/5* Orbs, and 2 banners to throw 100 Gems at in hopes of getting pleasantly surprised (hey, I got a fair amount of 5*, including 2 SSB weapons, from doing 100 Gem draws, so yes, that is meaningful for me!)

It just doesn't offer much in the way of anything else though.  Synergy that only really matters on rare dungeon updates with FF3 (I think FF3 has more dungeon content coming anyway), Thursdailies which are a joke outside of Petrify (something synergy doesn't help much with anyway), and...well, that's it.  And the new PC, Desch, is unique but not in a way that makes him actually noteworthy. 

Now watch, after all this whining, I'll pull a Desch relic and finally get the a Mage Sword I always wanted and I'll be forced to eat my words >_>

[Cmdr_King]

I've pulled 5 stars from like the last 3 100 gem draws I've done (Seifer's Coat, FFIV knife, Rydia's Mystic Whip neat new tool (mage SSB/MT SSB) for the kit) so I mean... I have to assume that's going to balance out soon.  Still need to finish out the FFIV event too, but I put that off in part because whee new SSB for in-realm character let's learn that first so not super worried.

[Cotigo]

Cap broke Terra, Tyro's next with the crystal from the FF2 event, then Ramza next week. It's weird having characters I like in my farming parties again.

Also, Devotion is Mag+20% right? If so, Terra's RM4 is a flat upgrade and I am fine with that.

[Meeplelard]

Devotion is +20% for -10% Def/Res, yeah.

Started the FF3 Event.  100 Gem pull got me crap, etc.  It's amazing just how much I don't care about this event beyond just getting it done. 

[DjinnAndTonic]

I quite like FF3, so I am doing an 11-pull. The fact that there's not much for FF3 synergy helps in its niche cases and for Thursdaily at least.

And... Four shiny 5-stars! Arc's SSB, Desch's Enthunder sword, Ingus' LH clone shield, and a shared Medica FF3 hat! All actually useful! At least situationally. Having another Shared Medica will help with Cid's missions for sure. Ingus gives me a 5* Knight with Hastega should I be running a mixed or Shoutless team. Enthunder spellblader and another healer SSB are just cool no matter what.

[Cotigo]

Arc's SSB is also basically Lakshmi's Blessing isn't it? If so you basically have yourself a locked in Healer right there.

[DjinnAndTonic]

I haven't looked at it too closely but the description seems to say that it adds Shell and major Regen (yay!) and Magic Blink (uh okay), but doesn't actually do any direct healing (boo...). Kinda meh for a healer SSB. Vanille's is certainly stronger. Hell, Yuna's regular SB might be more useful? Luckily I also pulled that Shared Medica hat so I can still have him fling Medicas off his newly boosted Mind stat from the SSB mastery!

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Arc's SSB frankly works better if you're running him as a Summoner, making use of his newly-mint 5*. You don't need that much MND on those buffs due to Regen and Shellga having gross base duration. Nice way to save slots, though, and Magic Blink will only increase in usefulness from here.

[Cotigo]

Magic Blink can actually be really clutch sometimes, too. Especially if you luck out on another one at some point.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Magic Blink is a top-tier side effect for SBs in general. It's just that it's not worth it at this point when all the SB does is Magic Blink (i.e. Kimahri's Mighty Guard).

[Meeplelard]

Beat garuda and Odin.  Odin is a joke since Physical Mitigation = lol.  Garuda is STUPID because it basically took all the design decisions they've been implementing for a while to get around the "boss goes first, murders you before mitigation lol" like forcing bosses to use specific actions on turn 1, or holding off their scary stuff to an HP Threshold, etc.  It's stuff that only really kicked in for multi-part boss fights ala Disciplinary Comittee or Bahamut Sin where it's hard to avoid working around that barring just having 3 enemies waste their first turn due to their nature (so I'm a little more forgiving in those instances.)

Garuda?  If he focuses 2 basic physicals...in a fight the game goes "USE MAGICAL MITIGATION!!!" no less, on one character from the outset, good chance that's an instant reset.

It honestly only helps solidify my thoughts that FF3 and FF4 are the worst designed realms in the game.  I'm glad that we won't have to worry about FF3 like every again until more dungeon content drops, and FF4 has only one more event down the line in the near future (ok, there Tuesdailies and Thursdailies, but those aren't exactly hard content so...)

[Cotigo]

Ultimate Emperor down, was garbage. Ultimates have been for a while though.

U+ Lamia was more interesting. She's the first in what I assume will be a line of U+ bosses designed to force you to use mages. She has really high evasion to begin with, and starts the battle by casting Blink 16 on herself, making it impossible to hit her with physicals.

Uuuuuuunfortunately, Full Break and Lifesiphon can't miss. So that didn't really work out. I brought the usual suspects, the only thing I did differently was put Zell's RM1 on Relm so she could cast Reflect on Lamia before she got Blink 16 out, so things like Saint's Cross and Beatrix's BSSB replacement skills could hit. Had a shout RW, so in hindsight I should have brought Basch instead of Zack for his physical blink SSB, but oh well.

Her statuses were super obnoxious though, and I had more than a few SLs due to getting status locked right at the end of the fight. Confusion was bad enough, but an MT Sleep physical on top of that was just mean. Eventually I got lucky with not getting slept/confused right as my BSSBs were aboug to go off, so that's nice.

U++ Dark Knights look like they're begging for me to hone Alexander to R5 and rock their socks off with summons and dances. Of course, I would be remiss if I didn't bring Beatrix in to use her BSSB against a group of Holy weak enemies, soooo‥

Bartz may actually sit this one out? For like the first time since I got his BSSB. Dude needs a break, I guess.

[Meeplelard]

The Lamia Queen thing I don't think has anything to do with the "force you to use Mage" thing and is more an extension of how she fought in FF2 proper, and honestly it's why she was notable in FF2, enough that she was the first boss to get the 2nd Boss theme in remakes, pretending she was important (well, I guess she's technically the game's equivalent to Cagnazzo, making her basically the 3rd most important boss in the game...talk about damning praise...)

She'd use Blink XVI as her opening move usually, which kills your physical damage as you'd expect, and physicals in FF2 are your primary damage on ST, and unlike most anti-physical bosses before her, she has no elemental weakness, so you can't hit her with 4x damage spells to blast past it.  What follows is a boss fight that actually feels like a boss fight, not a "do you have this elemental spell? If yes, you win!"  I think she even had a few status spells to boot so she could muck you up.


Ultimate Bosses do take liberties but they try to capture the original boss fight to some degree at least, if there's something there.  Refer to Cagnazzo as an obvious example of a boss who follows the same basic gimmick as the original, just expanded upon.  Or Beatrix who actually has a chance to use her HP -> 1 as a real attack and not a plot finisher, and it's built around "how do you handle this?" 


Also, Full Break ignores evade?  Didn't know that.  I knew Lifesiphon did, but didn't know about Full Break.  Good to know nonetheless!

[Cotigo]

If Full Break doesn't ignore evade I just got really lucky.

Considering how they're actively beefing up mages with the swath of Faithga SBs, the Chain Aga skills being released (each time with at least enough major orbs of the corresponding element to get it to R2 right away), and whatnot, I would bet that I am gonna see more bosses that encourage me to bench my physical characters and go more mage heavy. If this does start to be the case I am going to be obstinate about it and not use mages if I can help it.

EDIT: Lucky Draw that guarantees a stat-up relic dropped.

I got Beatrix's Rose of May. Well, it's a FF9 Bracer at least. May as well have her master it too, no reason not to. It may even see use when I'm not using a wall RW!

EDIT2:

U++ Dark Knights down. My intuition was right, sort of.

Party:

Terra (Valefor, Alexander, both R5), Dualcast Summon
Beatrix (R4 Banish Raid, R4 Indoor Spell), Actions->+SB Gauge
Shitbrat (R2 Break Fever, R4 Hi-Weak Polka), Dr. Mog's
Basch (R3 Saint's Cross, R5 Indoorspell), Dragoon's Determination
Penelo (R3 Faith, R5 Curaja), Actions->+SB Gauge.
Shout RW.

Brought Penelo instead of Relm because I figured the extra holy damage would help. It didn't matter, in fact I should have brought Relm for the regen. Other changes, Terra should have had Devotion (or her RM4 but I'm pretty far from getting that) instead of Dualcast; Dualcast never went off, and the knights' MDef was high enough that the MAG boost would have helped.

That said, the fight is as thus: Three waves (ala Galbadia Soldiers in FF8 events), each time 3x Regular DKs and 1 Stronger DK. Wave 1 went down to a couple Alexanders, with Beatrix and Basch charging SBs on the strong one. Wave 2's normal knights got OHKO'd by Beatrix's SSB, and I took the opportunity to heal up and refresh Shout before offing the Strong DK with Basch's SSB to give me Physical Blink (the knights are pure physical). Wave 3 obviously was the hardest, with the knights having the most HP. Here, I actually targetted down the normal knights (easy after Beatrix got off her second BSSB). Saved Break Fever for the last wave, wasn't really necessary for the two before it. Hi Weak Polka was really clutch, though, and after Beatrix's self defense buff was up I wasn't really ever in any danger of dying (well, I was, but then Basch got off his second SSB. Physical Blink, man, it's sexy). Cleared with only one medal loss for damage.

This fight would have been a lot more obnoxious, and I would daresay even impossible without Beatrix's SSB. Or rather, I would have had to do a lot more thinking. Probably would have re-rolled RWs until I got Celes' BSSB, had Zack/Terra/Basch/Mog/Relm, and had Zack mostly use the attacks granted by Celes' BSSB (they're holy+ice/fire 4x strikes) while relying on Terra for crowd control and saving turns until Basch could use his SSB to take me through to the next wave. It's... certainly possible, but it would have been a lot uglier, and I almost certainly wouldn't have bothered with mastery (as stated before, the rewards suck, which I am fine with).

That said, fairly well designed fight that you can think and plan your way through given the nature of it. The one strong knight isn't actually any stronger damage-wise than his comrades, just has more HP, almost as if he exists purely to give you breathing room to prepare for the next wave. I just happened to have a "skip all fights with holy weakness" button handy.

[DjinnAndTonic]

Stat bust lucky banner: Sazh's Caltrop Bomb and Leon's HotE. My first SBs for either PC and they are outdated but usable. Especially HotE since it stacks with Shout!

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Full Break doesn't ignore evade if the Lamia Queen vids I saw were any indication. Her evade gimmick is also a smart and underused way to spoil Banishing Blade by proxy.