Record Keeping Final Fantasy Record Keeper

[Veryslightlymad]

I said it was a star higher.

GUYS. GUYS.

I rage threw 5 mythril at the banner and got Auron's sword. I have a unique weapon, guys. I have a POWERFUL weapon, guys. I have a very specific type of enemy I am no longer remotely afraid of. :tooooooooooooot:

That is all.

[DjinnAndTonic]

Congrats, VSM! You got a unique SB weapon about 2 months faster than I got a Mage Weapon. Now go destroy some FFX dungeons! (And just about anything else you want because Auron is a Retaliater...)

I recommend -any- Seymour fight.

Seriously, so fucking sick of Seymour...

[Veryslightlymad]

I'm just glad I got the weapon for a character I actually like. And don't have to forever lug around someone I've never heard of.

For VSM times or Attack all enemies and their Attack is lowered:
bFmo is my key.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Oh, yeah, progress.

Only the Seifer and Edea dungeon left to clear on Elite, which I should do tomorrow. Today is black power day, which is, as always, non-negotiable. I honed Firaja to R3, which brings me to four -ja level spells at acceptable hone levels (R4 Waterja, R3 Diaga, R3 Thundaja and R3 Firaja). Also honed Alexander to R2, crafted and honed Waterga to R5 (will be useful for Earth Dragon on Shadow's event and Belias on Vaan's event this week), R5'd Silence Buster. I'm also amassing Greater Holy, Dark and Non-Elemental Orbs so I'll be ready for Darkra and Ruinga. Hopefully the Orb festival will give me enough Greater Blacks to last me a while, but given how I'm aiming for R4 on at least four -ja spells before the year ends, I honestly doubt it.

[Captain K]

I ripped off paid homage to Snow's strategy on Sanctuary Keeper.  Got the mastery after a full day of save/loading.

Selphie (Curaga/Protectga)
Balthier (Tempo Flurry/Dismissal)
Vivi (Waterja/Firaja)
Garnet (Reflect/Shellga)
Auron (Boost/Venom Buster)

Was worried that having two people not attacking would hurt my number of actions but the poison damage does indeed add up nicely.  And boosted Balthier puts out decent damage.  Just make sure to reflect yourself first and bounce reflect to Sanctuary Keeper because Reflect is one of the things he can counterattack.

Well this event definitely provided more challenge than Zack's event.  But it made me waste eggs on two characters I will never use again, therefore it is worst event ever.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

If it's any consolation, you don't have to spend eggs on Vaan and Ashe this week! On the other hand, Ashe can use your Enhancer to good effect. And on the OTHER other hand, Terra's getting reissued next week.

[Cotigo]

DJ has a mage weapon.

VSM has a 5* physical weapon on a character who can use Retaliate.

Fuck this game, I'm done.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Cleared all elites for this update. Don't feel like doing more farming today, so I guess I'll just wait until tomorrow. Orb festival being so close really kills any incentive to run through the normal dailies. Seifer/Edea was a funny fight in that it was the first time I've used Reta-meta in a couple months.

[Captain K]

And then the motorcycle started doing ninja flips.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZoxWGMbRQc

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Fenrir Drive is gloriously stupid, yes.

[Cotigo]

Say what you will about the game, they're good at making things stupidly stylish.

[Cotigo]

Reading back up, I think the reason Leg aim and Dual Delay are on the same star tier is because DD's chance of inflicting slow is supposedly way lower. (The Japanese says, 低確率, very low chance, vs. 　一転確率, "a chance"). THAT SAID with S/L abuse Dual Delay can still inflict Slow for fights you need slow to proc for medals, making it way better unless you actually need Slow to proc regularly in order to beat the fight (like I did when trying to get Terra's MC2 with my much, much weaker party than I have now).

Incidentally, beat the FF7AC 3-sephiroth fight (whatever their names are, I didn't watch AC), by a combination of mage meta and retameta. In hindsight, I should have had Terra use Cheer instead of R3Thundaja in addition to R4Waterja since it turns out mixing metas just leads to two diluted metas, but regardless... BAM MOTHERFUCKER, first EX mastery. Didn't even have to S/L for the slow to proc.  Honestly, more than anything though, what made that fight possible was Aerith's MT reraise + Heal SB.  Best thing that happened to me in this game by far.

I also like very much that this event, instead of saddling you with an MC2 you may or may not use, just gave me a blank one and let me choose which MC2 I wanted. Thanks game.

I'll try my hand at Reunion Sephiroth a tad later. Not sure if I can get mastery just by virtue of my cloud being L50 and therefore kinda a weak link, but I should be able to clear it at the very least.

Faris is doing well for a MC1 support/celerity character (let's just start mixing the english and japanese terms willy nilly to make it super confusing. I feel like I understand why Niu sounded the way he did when we talked shop way back when a lot more now), but her MC2 isn't out yet. Looking at the roster of characters with MC2s who I can easily access, looks like I can use Terra for Support (well, hey, looks like she's a lock even in Reta-Meta. I am perfectly fine with this), but for Celerity... well, I think I'll hold off. It's not super important yet. Fran is looking like a good option since she can equip my 5*spear and has Support5 AND Celerity5, filling that niche, but meh characters from games I haven't played. Locke may work, but he's only 3* Support and I don't know how useful access to Thief skills will be over having access to Breakdowns. Ah well, it's not like I have to decide now or anything anyway.

EDIT: A dirty liar is me, because efficiency of spending Timebux said hey why don't we just fight R. Sephy now?

Mastered. Had to S/L once because I let my RW Stoneskin / Protectga / Shellga wear off when he got to his Hellgate phase. A couple more to ensure the slow on Dual Delay hit and then yeah. Setup was

Terra (R2Cheer/R2Dispel)
Cloud (R3Double Hit/R3Dual Delay)
Seph (R5Reta, R1Indoor Spell (whatever it's called))
Yuna (R2Protectga, R5Curaga)
Aeris (R2Shellga, R4Curaga)

Since I have an FF7 synergy Masamune but only one synergy rods Reta-meta was the clear winner here. Wasn't even that hard. Guys i have a big boy party now yaaaaay

The 140-difficulty fight looks pretty ridiculous and I think I'll actually do that one later.

EDIT2: This also marks the second time that a villain party member was instrumental in taking down his own EX fight.  I can't say I'm not tickled.

[DjinnAndTonic]

That was a cool read. It's always interesting hearing how new players adjust without the tools older players had access to. It seems like 'catching up' is always possible, and it's only my collector mentality that makes me feel relieved I joined the game so early on. I might start a second account on the PC just to try out the earlygame experience with the new tools. And since I won't need to collect anything on a secondary account, I can try out some weird strats.

Especially fun to read about new players in the Japanese version because the current state of the game is so vastly different than the game I'm playing now.

I also can't for the life of me figure out what Indoor Spell is supposed to be and why you'd give it to Sephiroth...

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Endo Aspiru = Lifesiphon. The 4* Combat ability released on Fang's event that gives about 1/3 of a SB bar when used. It's a pretty ubiquitous ability on JP's current melee meta for people with SSB weapons.

[Cotigo]

DJ, honestly more than the new tools available (although yes Orb conversion is a godsend), what makes my party viable now is having been around for the orb fest (EDIT: and just as importantly, having been around prior to the orb fest juuuuuust enough that I could continually farm out the top-tier orb fest for the entire two weeks). I feel like I got several months worth of farming done in two weeks. Like, farming dailies now feels like such a gyp comparatively.

Life Syphon? That name sucks. I'm gonna keep using Indoor Spell.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Welp, farming more Greater Black Orbs on Babil Tower because I like wasting my time. I'll probably only do that until mid-afternoon, since I want to move through as much of Vaan's event as I can early (I still need to farm more Dark and Non-elemental Orbs this week, but once again I can spare a Thursday). I also need to L50 Ricard by Sunday, since the next dungeon update with his Memory Crystal should be up next week and his Record Materia is an improved Self-Sacrifice (+20% to Attack instead of +10% Attack and Defense). Currently sitting at 69 Mythril, which might elicit some crude comments from Zenny.

EDIT: Zenny, Thief 4 gives access to Power Steal, which is a non-damaging Power Breakdown + 50% Attack to the user for 20s (i.e. longer than normal Break/Breakdown duration, which is 15s). If your thief's under the soft cap, that's an over 100% damage buff. There's also Armor Steal, which isn't anywhere near as potent a defense buff and ST durability buffing is meh, but there's at least partial Breakdown coverage from the skillset as is. Make of this what you may.

[Cotigo]

Currently sitting at 69 Mythril, which might elicit some crude comments from Zenny.

You don't know me at all, do you.

What battle speed are those seconds based off of? 3? Additionally, if an enemy is resistant to breaks, does the power/armor steal still go through at full power or is it reduced the same as a break? It still seems like going for a Support4/Celerity4  character may be more worthwhile than Celerity4/Theif4 since I'm mostly looking at lowering enemy defenses than I am lowering enemy offense, but it is something to consider for sure.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Break resistance still applies, but only for the debuffing part - i.e. Steal Power, even if reducing attack by half of the original 45%, still gives you the full 50% Attack buff. And yeah, those numbers are based on 3 speed and get scaled accordingly on lower/higher speeds.

Regardless, it's mostly a matter of what fits your setups better (Bartz likely makes the best use out of Steal Power, due to also having high Combat levels and strong relic SBs, for instance). Magic and Mental Breakdown are the highest-priority 4* breaks, since they can't be replicated with universal skills otherwise, magic damage is more dangerous than physical and ultimately mage setups take actually less work than physical setups. Physicals are just so reliant on buffing in general due to their formula and low multipliers.

[Cotigo]

On most thief characters, that doesn't sound like that great of a buff, though, really. At least not with the equipment I have now. Like, that won't get me any more damage unless I'm for some reason not using retaliate on Sephiroth, which atm doesn't sound like a thing I would do. Even if I'm focusing on mage damage with my physical characters there mostly for mitigation, Gilgamesh with reta/draw attacks still sounds like he'd generate more damage from reta counters than a Steal Powered thief type, unless I'm missing something.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

You have Gilgamesh's SSB weapon, right? Then, your assessment is correct. As I mentioned, it really depends on your effective loadout. I mostly see Steal Power setups on Bartz, who likely has the best stat, skillset and weapon arsenal for that kind of setup.

[Cotigo]

I don't, just a generic 5* spear. As far as character specific SBs go, it's Mog, Aeris, and Seph, none of which are SSBs (though Aerith's might as well be one if it isn't)

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Aerith's Wizard Rod SB -is- a SSB! Regardless, Seph can't do Thief, neither can Gilgy, so yeah, Steal Power won't do that much to you. And the only PC who could run Steal Power + Retaliate shenanigans is um Loserface. You don't hand Loserface offensive setups and expect results.

[Captain K]

So my Balthier has 373 attack in the FF12 event.  Is that good?

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

You're gonna trample the event in a hurry. Also, Ashe can use your Enhancer for mage purposes.

[DjinnAndTonic]

Did five pulls on the FF12 banner. 4 intentionally (got crappy armors, whoo.), and 1 because after I finally cleared Sanctuary Keeper, the game handed 20 giant weapon upgrade mats and I had no weapons to upgrade, so I did another pull and luckily got a (still pretty useless) 4* spear to waste some of those scarletites on.

I really wanted literally -any- of the 5-stars on this banner (especially Runeblade), so it seemed worth pulling. Oh well. Saving the rest for Terra or Cloud's banners.

Got Ashe and Vaan fairly quickly. I inexplicably like FF12 a lot, so I'm glad I have a chance to use these guys. It's odd that Vaan and Balthier are near-clones of eachother. It doesn't feel like that synergizes well. Only slightly different equipment sets functionally differentiate them. It makes sense from a Lore perspective, Vaan's goal in life is literally to become Balthier (he succeeds three games later!), but I would have appreciated a slightly more differentiated skillset. Thief skills look fun eventually, but the starting pair aren't anything to write home about, it seems.

Ashe has a clone of Vivi's default SB?! Damn, that could easily make her my second-best mage if I could get her Runeblade. I want my swordgirl mage dammit.