Record Keeping Final Fantasy Record Keeper

[Scar]

Yay setzer.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Fittingly, the next JP event will release Relm, along with MC2s for Celes, Shadow and Relm herself. Oh, and banner 2 will give Terra's SSB again.

[Cotigo]

I've bitched about it before, but the timing gimmicks are easily the worst the game has to offer, and DeNA LOVES them for +++/Divine bosses. Ifrit/Shiva, Silver Dragon's flying, Weigraf moving away and closing in, blech. It almost always gets coupled with the second worst gimmick in the game, enemies moving away so melee attacks don't hit. Sigh.

---

Got Garnet's RM2 after clearing out Elite FF9 dungeons. It is terrible. Now just waiting on her RM3 to proc and then I'll have Dualcast summon. Yay. Finished Yuna's ++ event and a got fresh new blank MC2. Probably gonna do the +++ fight tonight, if it doesn't look like I need to do too much extra work to get Mastery, then go back to dungeoning.

Next event is an FF6 one, featuring Shadow, Strago, and Celes' MC2. Celes and Shadow are getting physical buffs, and Strago's being fixed so he can use 5* BM and 4* Summon. He still fills no niches I need, but hey, good for him.

Also, looking at Leblanc's Divine fight, fucking hell bosses are straight up nullifying breaks now? Siiiiigh. I guess I'll just need to keep using SG/Stonera Skin every fight ever.

EDIT: Where did you get info on the second banner? That's tempting enough for me to not spend Mythril trying for a sword for Agrias and just shoot for Terra's rod. Honestly that may be better for what I already have anyway... I already have a shitton of Black Magic crafted and the extra rod would let me do 4-mage support without one character having a gimp rod. That said the last thing I need is more FF6 synergy.

Also, probably gonna try to math out damage output against Velius later tonight to see if my 4 mage party is likely to kill before he runs out of charges. If not, I may tinker with finding something to buff physical damage and see if I can't squeeze out a mastery on that. I do still have R3 Flaming Weeaboo for damage output after all... If I got a Scream RW, shelved Terra for Sephiroth, put FWeeb and Reta on Seph... that just might work. Not having SG to mitigate early on sounds really freaking risky though. Mm.

EDIT2: Easiest. +++ Boss. Ever. No medals lost. It helped that Firaja/Blizzaja procced Dual Cast something absurd like 4 times, AND he never used his ITD attack but even if neither happened I had Reraise up before he was dangerous and had plenty of charges of everything left. Yeah. suck shit bro

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

The FFRK subreddit datamined both banners. The second one also has Celes' SSB, which is whoamgdamaeg + improved Runic, and Relm's Cat Hood, with which she paints Ultros to smack things with, seemingly. Oh, and another shot at Kefka's Mantle.

(There's also Locke's healing + damage SB there, but who cares about that in future!FFRK.)

EDIT: Speaking of FF6, just cap-broke Celes, will do the same to Setzer as soon as I get his Memory Crystal. It's kinda satisfying finally recovering all the early characters I happened to miss. No idea if I'll use Celes at any length, that Atk score's kinda uninspiring, but it's neat anyway.

[DjinnAndTonic]

Buffed Strago worries me to no end. Both he and Kimhari got very significant buffs that did not include the addition of Blue Magic to the system. Considering that aside from Quistis, they are the two most prominent Blue Mages in the series, this doesn't bode well for Blue Magic's inclusion into the system despite there being claims that it was being worked on.

I know Blue Magic is hit or miss in the series proper, but it is by far my favorite class in all of RPGdom and in a roundabout way, the reason I fell in love with RPGs in the first place. I would be really disappointed if they never implemented it in any way.

Come on, DeNA, you can even reasonably put it on CLOUD thanks to the E.Skill materia, make this happen!

[Cotigo]

Snow: Yeaaaaah OK. Sold on the FF6 banner. I'll probably drop 15 myth on the FFT one once more and keep farming mythril now to maybe do 2 11 pulls on the second 6 banner. All that FF6 gear sounds super fuckin' sexy and with synergy for a realm that has events really frequently too.

DJ: Yeah, Blue Magic is an neat idea, but purely from a gameplay perspective I don't know what niche it would fill that isn't already filled by another skillset or three, or wouldn't be pretty freakin broken if it wasn't an SSB (or be completely useless). Wind Damage skills? Black/Spellblade. Mighty Guard/White wind? OP as fuck. Status? Support/Engineer...

Though, you know...

Actually, you know what might be neat? Implementing Blue as a status skillset of purely L? Status that procs 100% if not immune, but the level check is based on YOUR OWN level instead of the enemy's level. Then, fill the cast up with a decent number of characters able to use Blue Magic. You'd basically have to have 3-4 active Blue Mages at different levels to get the full use of the skillset. Maybe even add in more powerful LPrime skills so you don't just have every character sitting at L75, L78, and L80. Or, just make sure only one or two Blue mages have MC2s. That would be really fuckin interesting, if difficult to balance. You'd have to make it weaker than Engineer/3* Support to make it worth using, but not so weak that it's just taking up skill slots better used for something else on the +++/Divine fights.

Wow I really like that idea. Someone send DeNA a twitter post with my brilliance.

EDIT: Spent 15 mythril, no luck. Oh well. In brighter news, Garnet's RM3 procced so I have dualcast Summon now. Yay. After Yuna's +++ battle, I also have enough materials to craft R2 Alexander, and in a few weeks would have enough to get R3. Seriously considering this as an option for Velius. Due to weakness that's a guaranteed 19998 damage on the Arch demons (vs. 17500 or so with 3 Valefors), and 29997 (vs. 23000) if one Dualcast procs. That having been said, that deducts 5800 from damage dealt to Velius, though I think that's still a winning trade off for killing the Arch demons in 4 turns vs. 5 (+3  turns of ST damage if unbuffed) and not having to spend an extra turn to get the Use Weak vs. Archdemon medal req. It's also almost certainly a better pick for my other use of Major Holy Orbs, which would be... R1 Holy. I want Holy eventually but R1 Holy may as well be useless compared to R3 Diaga.

That said is it enough to net me mastery with no other changes? Maybe! Blitzing down the Arch Demons quicker also helps me out in reducing medals lost to damage, though I am pretty sure I'm losing 2 medals on that either way. Also, putting both Alexander and Valefor on Yuna is a potentially valid option for the Leblanc fight. I'd have 7 charges of (I'm assuming) 6k or so MT damage unbuffed with no dualcasts proccing, more if buffed, helping me get past that draw fire nonsense. Mmm... yeah, I think I'm sold.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

One question about the Leblanc fight: are you seriously vying for mastery there? Considering one of the mastery conditions is killing Ormi last... all of the videos running Leblanc Syndicate mastery I've seen went for focus fire strats, since Leblanc is both the frailest and most dangerous teammate (dispel, Not So Mighty Guard being the main concerns) and blinding one of Ormi and Logos (Ormi's Draw Fire also being shut down by Blind) is yet another target score. That fight seemed potentially very frustrating.

EDIT: Honestly, going for Alexander R2 in general isn't a bad idea. I have it crafted at R2 and it has served me well enough. Once I'm done with R4 Diaga and R4 Ruinga, R3 Alexander's where my Greater Holy Orbs will go. Curaja honing can wait until orb conversion sweeps in.

[DjinnAndTonic]

I'd like to see the Blue Magic staples Mighty Guard (but with the Protect and Shell duration being notably shorter, easy balancing measure at a 4* ability) and White Wind (MT healing is currently only the domain of SBs, so low-charge version would work here, maybe the same charges at Summons? Probably a weaker-end heal too for balance).

Also, something like the Enfire/element skills would probably work nicely here. Minor fire damage skill, grants a buff such that all subsequent skills now have attached fire damage for X turns, or subsequent fire skills have greatly buffed damage. Kind of reminiscent of Gau's Rage effects too, which would be nice for him.

It'd be kind of cool if they introduced all the unadded status effects too, like Float, Toad, and Mini.

[Cotigo]

Not as seriously as I'm vying for mastery against Velius, at least. The Major white orbs are way less enticing than major Earths. I'm going to try, anyway, but if it is blatantly obvious that it ain't happening then I'll just build for getting the fight beat. Those 3 Major blacks are like 2 weeks of farming.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

The problem with Blue Magic I -actually- see is that, for it to be a remotely accurate representation of the skillset, it'd have to seriously get in the way of the niches currently covered by SB relics - i.e. how the game makes money. I can't see it being implemented in less than two generations of power creep due to that.

[DjinnAndTonic]

Eh, they don't have to introduce the entire Blue Magic skillset at once. They certainly didn't with any of the other skillsets.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Translated banners from Zidane to Sephiroth MC2 were just datamined, along with ETAs for them up to Shadow. Since they didn't find Rift of Recollection's banner, redditors are currently speculating that Seph's MC2's getting moved forward a bit so RoR covers Christmas. Speculated ETA for November's DUs are 11/8 and 22. Bartz/Gilgy go live on 11/11, Seifer/Squall MC2 on the 18th, Zidane on the 25th. Lulu goes live on December 2nd and Shadow on the 9th.

[Veryslightlymad]

Setzer's new ability will do 1287 damage on average, and it cannot be lowered.

Unfortuntately "average" isn't really painting the whole picture, since that's over twice as much damage as the second highest possible figure. The spread is 1, 22, 33, 444, 555, 6666.

Sooooo....

You have a 1 in 6 chance of doing really good damage, especially because it will always be 6666. However, 5 times out of 6, you're going to softly stroke the monster's face and tell it everything is going to be OK.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Damaging default Soul Breaks suck and should never be used as soon as you have steady access to 2* abilities unless you're completely out of resources, episode 952.

This said, Setzer's functional but uninspiring. He's Wakka with slightly lower physical stats, slightly higher magical stats and a bit more outfitting-friendliness, since swords are, unlike thrown weapons and bows, easy to come by.

[Meeplelard]

With regards to Blue Magic, i think the issue is the actual implementation of it with the whole "learn spells from enemy" angle.  This is not easy to implement in a game like Record Keeper, and making it just a whole new magic class of abilities you can create just kind of defeats the purpose of making it Blue Magic.

That's something people tend to forget I think.  Disappointing, maybe, but given how long the game has been out and we've had many opportunities for Blue Magic implementation yet they haven't done it, I think at this point it's just easier to assume it's not happening and they'll simply buff the Blue Mages to be capable without it.  The way they have been handling has been crap anyway, balancing characters around a theoretical moveset that doesn't exist yet leads to a bunch of weaker characters that have to be shoved on backburner until that thing drops.

It's bad enough characters have to wait for Memory Crystals to be worth anything after a point, adding in "Wait for a whole skillset to drop!" is even worse.  In the case of, say, Machinist, that feels like a clear idea they came up with after the fact.  Those who got it didn't necessarily seem balanced around this concept existing, but more something of "hey, what if we did this?  This would help all these characters out and it's a cool unique idea!" and hence why it's implemented.  Blue Mages felt balanced around the idea first and the idea never presented itself and doesn't seem like it's happening, so either you buff the characters in more general ways, or you hold out for something that seems hard to implement.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Welp, cap-broke Setzer. Dullahan is such a chump.

In other news, Celes is perfectly functional as a mage and becomes perfectly functional as a fighter as she grows closer to L65. The main problem I see with her is how much Spellblade and Black Magic crowd each other out. Combat 3 is -something- to use the attack stat with for non-weakness purposes, but it feels frankly insufficient. She's a very weird character, though honestly not very hard to use decently.

[Nephrite]

I'd say the easiest way to implement Blue Magic is to have quests for it that require you to do something specific for certain bosses or areas. Then you can hone the Blue Magic like you normally would.

As for what they could introduce, well, they could do a lot. It doesn't necessarily matter if the spells are similar to other ones, but they could easily make them niche by having one be, say, Aqua Breath which can be a n MT Water attack or something.

[DjinnAndTonic]

The thing is that they already have all the coding groundwork for Blue Magic in the game, according to dataminers. There's tags for Blue spells on monster abilities already. Things like Reflect and Runic are already set up to work with said Blue spells.

There's roughly 5000 ways you could implement the learning system. From something as basic as "The ability is a random drop from monsters who use the ability a la RM2s" to something as authentic and complex as "Must get the Learning RM from Blue Mage first and equip it on a PC, then get hit with spell for it to drop in your inventory after battle". You could even have the spell be unlocked in the ability crafting area by completing a certain stage with mastery or under a certain condition like "have a Blue Mage in the party". Honestly, that's the least troublesome part of the implementation.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

On Viking: "A seafaring warrior who shields his allies from enemy attacks. What the Viking lacks in speed, he makes up for in defense, making him the perfect companion to take the blows for the party."

* Jo'ou Ranbu looks at Viking's 69 base DEF at L50.

Yeah, Wakka-level DEF works -great- on a tank. Who doesn't even get Knight levels. Oh, cores, why so silly.

[Magic Fanatic]

Soon, we'll get a flood of SSB weapons for cores that are like "+60 DEF/RES when mastered, and Taunt status for the rest of the battle!" or something silly like that.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Done with Celes event! Stacking a Breakdown with Full Break is hilariously satisfying. Can't wait until I can hone it to R2.

[Cotigo]

THE HORROR.

I woke up later than usual this morning and then had class all day. I probably wasted about 80 stamina before I could remedy the situation.

On a serious note, I got Cloud's MC2 with one of my blank ones, broke his level cap to 80, and got his RM2. Farming his RM3 and more mythril now. Not in the mood to obsess compulsively over Velius' and the Leblanc Cadre's fights tonight (esp. since whether or not I get Cloud's RM3 in a timely fashion could drastically change my setup for each), so I'll probably just keep farming mythril and clear out the first bit of the Relm event that dropped tonight.

Also, speaking of bullshit Story dungeons, WTF is with the Lunar Subterrain Part 1? Holy shit what an obnoxious fight IN THE BASIC MODE. Thanks for warning me that they counter attacks with self reflect but NOT warning me that they have MT Bad Breath attacks that can completely disable my party in two rounds if the RNG is being a dick. What a stupid fucking fight. Was not helped by the fact that I run a semi-gimped team for basic story dungeons so I can level up organ banks. >_<

unimportant edit: I meant Lunar Subterrain Part 3. It was the first in that particular batch of FF4 dungeons that I unlocked.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Also, speaking of bullshit Story dungeons, WTF is with the Lunar Subterrain Part 1? Holy shit what an obnoxious fight IN THE BASIC MODE. Thanks for warning me that they counter attacks with self reflect but NOT warning me that they have MT Bad Breath attacks that can completely disable my party in two rounds if the RNG is being a dick. What a stupid fucking fight. Was not helped by the fact that I run a semi-gimped team for basic story dungeons so I can level up organ banks. >_<

Yeah, ALL of the Lunar Subterrane dungeons are obnoxious bullshit and you should only bring load-bearing setups for complete obliteration against them. FF4 never stops giving in terms of awful design. I have some notes on the last few a couple pages back which can be summed up as "fuck you FF4".

EDIT: Speaking of story dungeons, cleared Balamb Garden I once again, got a Greater Growth Egg and now I have no bonus quests to waste stamina with until Squall's MC2. Probably gonna spend this Friday farming the Dark Holy + daily, I could use a Greater Holy surplus.

[Cotigo]

Scrolling through the introduction to Relm's event. Relm's dialogue in the Japanese version of FF6 is actually pretty hilarious. There's something about her referring to Stragos as ジジイ that translating it to "Gramps" doesn't exactly capture. I do recall her being fairly entertaining when I replayed FF6 recently, but yeah.

Also, Fairy Ring. The fuck? It raises magic damage and protects against... Blind.

that... what. OK. Whatever.

[Captain K]

Also just encountered the Lunasaurs.  Got one down to a pixel of health and then it spammed Bad Breath every. single. turn.  Never got another action.

S/L got me through the fight but S/L should never be a strategy.