Record Keeping Final Fantasy Record Keeper

[Veryslightlymad]

Second consecutive event where I'll use a character from. I mean, I might change my mind based on draws or whatever, but right now, I see no reason to not use Ashe over Maria, when I can break Ashe's level limit, and I can't Maria's. So as of now, party is:

Golbez/Josef/Ashe/Cloud/Auron

With Golbez as Supportbitch, Josef as a self-sustaining powerhouse, Ashe as all-purpose mage, Cloud as cloud, and Auron generally being my JRPG protagonist who is better by virtue of the game giving him better stuff.

I'm leveling up some scrubs for the event, too, since that seems much more efficient than wasting perfectly good EXP on characters that can't level from it.

[Cotigo]

Snow - Yeah, sounds like Theif will be a wash. Grinding up Fran now it seems.

Loooots of stuff changing today and tomorrow. First, likely in response to daily grinding feeling like a waste of time after the orb fest, a new class of dailies became available 30 stamina per fight, drops 4 star orbs frequently. I feel like this unlocked after wind thunder day just to spite me, but I feel that way about most things in this game.

New "Industrial Arts"/ "Engineer" class of abilities unlocking with the FF8 event tomorrow. That's neat. Some balance changes to Seifer, Quistis, and Zell and I couldn't care less.

Found the gimmick I hate most in this game-Sandworm and its whackamole bullshit. Timing your attacks is just stupid and not very fun. Blah. Oh well, at least it was just on a normal force dungeon and not for an event

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Currently plowing through Vaan event's elite dungeons. Predictably, Danjuro and that 4++* Empyrean Rod make short work of everything (Vaan at L17 with Danjuro and Viking Coat is contributing about as much as L55 Auron, which admittedly says little on a team with two MT-centric mages and a priest). Cap-broke Ashe and I'm about halfway through the Elites.

Also, I'd like to ask you people to switch your RW to Seal Evil Aerith when the bonus battles land, since it'll spoil the hell out of the Ba'Gamnam ++ fight. All of them are vulnerable to Stop and inflicting the status on the head honcho's even a target score. I'll likely do the same.

EDIT: Holy shit, DeNa just added all the character balance changes up to the JP Fang/Lightning event. Huge buffs to Paladin Cecil (Bows, Support 3, WHITE MAGIC 4), Rydia (Mag up, BLACK MAGIC 5), Lightning (Celerity 4, spears, shields, helms), Snow (Def/Res up, helms, armor, shields, KNIGHT 5. About time, DeNa), some buffs to Kain (Celerity 3, swords, atk up) and DKC (Atk up). God, so glad I have the Blazefire Sabre now.

[Veryslightlymad]

New "Industrial Arts"/ "Engineer" class of abilities unlocking with the FF8 event tomorrow. That's neat.

Called it. Edgar/Cid4 uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh........................................................... (Every other character I can think of... isn't in the core series. Granted, that hasn't stopped them from releasing Zack, so... speculation?)

Well, still. Called it.

EDIT
Sandworm counters with Gravity, Zenny. You can trivialize the "penalty" for missing him if you take a Yuna/Edward/someone else with fullparty Regen as a roaming warrior. (Also highly recommended against Diablos)

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

New "Industrial Arts"/ "Engineer" class of abilities unlocking with the FF8 event tomorrow. That's neat.

Called it. Edgar/Cid4 uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh........................................................... (Every other character I can think of... isn't in the core series. Granted, that hasn't stopped them from releasing Zack, so... speculation?)

Well, still. Called it.

Datamining sez Edgar, Setzer, Cid, Rikku, Balthier and Sazh get Engineer 5. Barret and ZIDANE (wtf DeNa) get Engineer 4.

[Scar]

Ashe seems useful.

My friend just pulled kimahri's spear.

His pain is my pleasure.

[Veryslightlymad]

Setzer makes complete sense. What about Cid7? Or was that who you meant by Cid? I assume Cid4 isn't even released yet. I forgot Rikku existed, despite her being my favorite character in one of my favorite FF games. o_O

Maybe the Zidane thing is... uh.... .....Maybe they're making a 7s based ability to give to Setzer and sticking it in Engineering? And making it four stars? Though, honestly, you could probably stick that into its own category or, better yet, just make it "Thief".
EDIT
Selphie should get the Engineering power. This is doubly true if there IS some kind of 7s thing, but even disregarding that as pure speculation, she's a techie. She pilots all of your vehicles, is on the intelligence/radio control team. She reprograms the missile base computer, reprograms and pilots the boss from the same part of the game. ....god damn it. What is it about Record Keeper that makes me defend Final Fantasy fucking EIGHT? AURRRRRGHGGHGHH.....

Speaking of abilities that need to exist/have powerups: My pocket theory about Dragoons and generally being useless is that eventually they'll release Freya and a bunch of actual Dragoon abilities which aren't ass. And it'll be to make everyone in the series stop and actually appreciate that, you know what? Freya actually was the only decent Dragoon that ever existed. Good on you, Rat Girl.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Cid7 is an airship pilot, so are Sazh and Balthier. The only completely nonsensical-seeming inclusion there is Zidane, which I feel is just bone-tossing due to him being outshone at his Thief niche by almost every other Thief 5 PC. They also already have some Elemental Jump abilities in JP, I think it started with Fang and Edge events.

(Worth noting Freya's sprite has been in the database for a while, but who knows when they'll release her. AC Cloud and Adult Rydia sprites have been in the database for aeons as well and they only released the AC costume -last week-.)

Frogs, bells, big cherries, Peter Pan, magic cheese, frogs, bells, big cherries, Peter Pan, magic cheese, SELPHIEROTH

I'd approve of anything that makes Selphie better, for all that she's already getting her MC2 and SSB weapon tomorrow.

Engineering, in practical terms, at least from the skills being released, will be pretty much improved Busters that also deal added damage to statused PCs. So, no slot reels mechanic. Setzer gets it due to being an airship pilot (and for getting a relevant distinction from Wakka).

[Veryslightlymad]

WHOA, that Cecil buff. I have to give serious consideration to stuffing HIM in my party now.

Hey! Hey guys! Lightning got buffed because she wasn't good enough!

I'm pretty sure that buff turns Snow instantly into the Best Monk.

And I know it's a little thing, but making Jump SBs hit Valvalis comforts that annoying itch in the same part of my brain that makes me defend FFVIII characters.

EDIT
The day just rolled over for me. Holy shit, I got 5,600 gil from my roaming warrior. Is this how you rich people feel? That's trivial gil, sure, but it's about 20 times better than anything I'd made before.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Hey! Hey guys! Lightning got buffed because she wasn't good enough!

She... actually really wasn't, given current meta pre-buff. Not being able to equip helms and having both lower attack and defense than Squall (who is kinda squishy himself) kinda sucked for her, her overkill speed is nigh-irrelevant due to how FFRK ATB works, Black Magic and White Magic do pretty much nothing for her worth. She had worse equips and skillsets than both Squall and Cloud, so the buff does help levelling the field in her favor.

[Scar]

Oh, so I actually pulled a 4 * item from the daily pulls today.

So.

Thats.

Something.

[Veryslightlymad]

Bitch, I would do a little dance if I pulled a 4 star for free right now.

[DjinnAndTonic]

Why did it take so long for me to get the character buff announcement notice? Weird.

But seriously hyped anyway. My Pal Cecil is going to be getting back into the party rotation a lot more now. Access to Shellga and Protectga on a tank (and Curaja might even give him what would be Curaga-level healing on a proper MND-based character) is godly. Support 3 means he can also be a Boost carrier if need be. Pretty much obsoletes Tidus now unless I need Tidus' MT damage SB or if the speed -really- matters...

Snow turning into a Knight/Monk combo is pretty interesting. Serious tanking ability, Taunt + Chakra could make for a self-sustaining two-man party for challenge runs or grinding up lower-level PCs. The option to give him heavy armor on top of his cool defensive RMs is nice. Still overall obsoleted by Pal Cecil since there's not a lot that Monk brings to the table apart from ID? But Black and Samurai (and Summon eventually) provide that too. I guess it's nice to have a solid Knight for FF13 synergy?

Lightning randomly can use Spears and heavy equipment now? ...uh.. Okay? Maybe that's a nod to Valkyrie Lightning from FF13-2? I'd be okay with that as an Alt Costume for her. Celerity 4 Dismissal spam is also a nice touch for her. Kind of turns her into a Balthier clone for me due to my equipment draw and current hone levels.

Rydia/Kain/DKC are somewhat less interesting to me, but it's amusing to see that they keep buffing Kain. Not sure why he warrants Celerity 3, but giving him Swords puts him back above Ricard, and as much as I disdain Kain, it was weird that given his popularity he was somehow a worse PC than the worst Dragoon in the series.

With all these updates, maybe they'll eventually give Irvine a Celerity 1 upgrade and VSM can finally sleep at night.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Beat the Judges on Vaan's event. Only one Greater Lightning Orb away from R3 Dismissal right now! Oh, lookie, Vaan's Memory Crystal fight will hand me five of them.

So yeah, this event will be pretty great for my Celerity needs.

Also, they datamined dates for the next few events! 14th for Terra reissue, 18th for Orbfest (YEEEEEEEEEEEESSSS), 21st for Cloud's MC2, 29th for Hope (YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS) and November 4th for Celes reissue. Possible dungeon updates on the 10th and 25th, give and take a couple days.

EDIT:

Lightning randomly can use Spears and heavy equipment now? ...uh.. Okay? Maybe that's a nod to Valkyrie Lightning from FF13-2?

She can use spears on FF13-3.

[DjinnAndTonic]

Hmm... theorizing strategies. A better use for Snow's Monk/Knight combo is Taunt + Chakra plus someone with Carbuncle. Effectively ST physical- and magic-proof but Snow can heal/buff himself due to Chakra ignoring Reflect. Falls apart to MT or NAT-typed abilities, but that's a pretty low ability slot requirement for shutting down like 80% of attacks in the game...

[Magic Fanatic]

Got up to the FFX + fight, myself.  Thinking I can't do it.

[DjinnAndTonic]

What's holding you back? Not enough Luneth RWs?

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Just spend a Mythril for ability refreshes in the worst case, Magic. That rush isn't anywhere near as bad as it looks.

Anyhow, Ghis down, R3 Dismissal get. This event's great.

[Magic Fanatic]

Mostly the fact that the fights are a Seymour boss rush, and the only reason I was able to get this far is Auron Retaliate strategies.

I still have nightmares about the Elite Macalania Temple fight in the story dungeons.

Been trying to run the following set-up:
Red - Magic Breakdown R1/Double Cut R3 with Lunatic High almost specifically for MT Haste
Yuna - Curaga R4/Shellga R1 while having the Evoker's Horn for a non-sucky SB and lugging around Y'shtola's Thyrus for the stats.  Concentrate 2 for RM.
Auron - Retaliate R3/Venom Buster R1 - Equipped with a 4*+ FF10 sword and the Self-Sacrifice RM.
Rinoa - Firaga R4/Dispel R1 - The Dispel being there specifically for the last fight.  Might even switch out the Firaga for a Diara/ga depending on how much I need the non-Retaliate offense.  Mana Spring 2 for RM, but that'll get changed if I decide I need the Holy Damage.
Kimahri - Boost R2/Silence Buster R1 with the Double Hit RM.  Can't actually think of what to replace him with that won't wind up just eventually doing the same thing (not to mention needing to egg them up to have non-fail durability).

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

You -seriously- need to work on those hones, especially on the Busters. Magic Breakdown at R1 won't cut it either, just replace it with higher-hone Breaks instead, since only Flux is break-resistance and does mostly physicals. I'd replace Kimahri with Sazh and slap Faith on him to buff Rinoa's damage, but Firaga just isn't that good. So I dunno. I'll take a peek at some lower-end setups, too.

THAT SAID: you should totally be able to master the event with two Mythrils. I'd recommend that, in fact. With Advantaliate, I have roughly no doubt you'd pull it off.

[Captain K]

Also, I'd like to ask you people to switch your RW to Seal Evil Aerith when the bonus battles land, since it'll spoil the hell out of the Ba'Gamnam ++ fight. All of them are vulnerable to Stop and inflicting the status on the head honcho's even a target score. I'll likely do the same.

Or just summon my Balthier RW for that fight.  Should be two shots of 9999x4.  That alone is half the hp gone from 3 of the 4 enemies.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

The only problem there is the offense in the interim. I can shave off that damage pretty well with my setups just fine, but it's a fight with four enemies at 100+ difficulty, in which at least half of them have non-trivial MT. Regardless, yeah, Tides of Fate is a good choice if you don't have as much MT, since that x2 alone shaves almost half of the ENTIRE FIGHT's HP.

[Magic Fanatic]

FFRK.

FF10 ++ Battle.  I can't finish it, even with Adventaliate.  Got one dead and the other to 5% before my party got wiped out in my furthest run.

[Cotigo]

VSM: Yes, I am perfectly aware of what happens when you hit the holes and how to mitigate it. However, I was using a kinda gimp party, and not hitting the holes was one of the medal reqs. I maybe SL'd three times after almost beating him because of mistiming attacks. Obnoxious.

Also, man you guys are getting the orb fest quick. I thought JP was several months ahead of GB for some reason.

[Captain K]

@Zenny, you're still months ahead in 90% of stuff, we just get a few random quality of life things.  We get a lot more orbs from events than Japan does notably.

@Magic, How much damage mitigation are you using?  Sentinel Grimoire/Stoneskin RW helps immensely with their aoes.  Slowing Yenke and Berserking Biran cuts down their damage output dramatically also.