Record Keeping Final Fantasy Record Keeper

[Cotigo]

Well, you'll have to pack Vanish Raid specifically for target scores anyway (it's one of the mastery reqs). Sounds like you'll end up bringing both abilities.

Meh. They could have at least tossed some GNeOs my way if they were gonna do that. Looks like that fight gets put off til after Saturday anyway.

[Cotigo]

Beat up through the EX+++ battle. Hey look at that, a battle where SG/SRS ISN'T the RW of choice! Two of Lightning's SSBs almost wipe out the adds, then it's just whittling Mateus down and surviving the dualcast he uses at half HP. Standard A-Team party, and pretty easy once you get past the first phase of resetting (everyone ganging up on one party member can easily kill them without SG/SRS) you're basically home free. I mostly liked the battle because the answer was not SG/SRS.

Next battle is looking pretty tough for mastery. I have to use Confuse Shot AND Blind Shot, and my highest levelled Engineer is... Edgar. Honestly I may just pump Balthier full of eggs for the synergy bonus. For the record, Snow, this was actually the battle I was talking about--3 adds with 45k HP each, R2 Meteo would be an excellent asset here.

Gonna have to play around with this, I think. Really hate those reqs, Ramza + 4 mages seems ideal and I don't have a good weapon for Balthier, but the mastery reward is 4 Major Black Orbs so it's not like I'm not gonna try. In any case, I think I'm done with the game for today, so I'll blow the rest of my stamina farming and come back when I feel like it.

EDIT: Stopped being done. I tried a 15 mythril gacha to get Balthier's gun and got a Shellga common SB armor instead.  OK, I think I can work with that.

Setup:

Gilgamesh (R3 Banish Raid, Flaming Weeaboo), Start: Sap Damage Up
Ramza (R4Magic BD, R4Indoor Spell), Actions->Boosted SB gauge
Valfreya (R2Blind Gun, R1Confusey Pew-pew), Shellga SB
Mog (GOTTA FEVAH, Curaja), Mako Wish Foundation
Aeris (R3 Valefor, Curaga) Dualcast Summon
SG RW

Zack's taking the bench because skill MT>SB MT in this fight, and I don't have the resources to get the one MT skill he has access to. I'm assuming about 5000-6000 damage per Flaming Weeaboo post Sun-bath, which is 30000-36000 damage to the adds, running just shy of their 45k HP mark, so Aeris running dualcast Valefor is there to pick up the slack. Banish raid is there to cancel out Shell/Protect if the judges decided to be dicks about it. Running a bit risky not having Shellga up at the start, but with SG, Magic BD, and Break Fever all up during the first phase I should be fine. Then, I suspect it should be a matter of keeping up mitigation and praying I slam through his doublecasting phase before I run out of SG. I'll probably run the risk of resetting during Beruga's weak phase so I make sure to have it during the very weak phase. By the time he's in Weak, Ramza should have built up a good number of Throw Stones so that shouldn't be too long, and the stun should keep Beruga from getting too many turns during that time anyway. Ideally, anyway.

I could only get him to 60 off of my egg supply, so Balthier is there solely to get Reqs. Fortunately his equipment selection ain't bad so he'll do OK damage, but the last half of the fight will probably see him just defending so he doesn't die.

RIP my Greater NE Orb supply. Saturday farming may see some mythrils being spent on stamina recovery.

EDIT2: Beaten, Mastered. Allllll right. Only one use of stamina. Had three S/Ls, one because I popped my second SG too early (his speed gets ridiculous in his weak state, so even though the skill is in fact doublecast Aeraga/Wateraga, in practice it's more like Quadcast... and so I lost with a sliver of health left on the boss. Bluh, bluh, huge judge), then two because the first phase of the fight is kinda RNG-y. Getting at least one Dualcast Valefor off helped immensely. Phase 2 was kinda easy even without SG, actually, he favored his weaker MT over his dualcasts. Phase 3, as I already indicated, is absolutely insane, and even with SG is kinda scary.

Anyway, yet another fight that reinforces how mandatory SG is and how they basically have to design every boss around it as an RW. I think I'm just gonna hoard mythril from now on until the next time Sentinel's Grimiore comes up for lottery, perhaps around New Year's. There's a White Mage lucky draw that I'm tempted by but even at half mythril price it just doesn't even compare.  I wouldn't be terribly surprised if they didn't put it up for grabs again, though. It's so stupidly overpowered even being forced to use Shitforbrats isn't enough to balance it.

EDIT3: Dr. Cid Notes

Gilgy (Banish Raid, Saint's Cross)
Ramza (Power, Armor BD)
Aeris (Protectga, Diaga), Weakness 1.2x
Mog (Break FEVAH, Curaga), Mako Wish foundation
Yuna (Alexander, Curaja), Dualcast Summon
SG. Obvi.

Banish Raid  deal 9999 per hit, B.R. after Mog buff. 7600 with protect up. 7000 with no buff and no protect.

Diaga deals 8400 without buffs up. 6000 with shell up. Would that I had dualcast White. Actually I should look into getting that for this fight.

Saint's Cross deals 9999x2 if no buffs are up on Cid and Mog's buff is up.
Saint's Cross deals 6800x2 if no buffs are up on Cid and Mog's buff is down.

Alexander deals 5k if Shell is down.

Post Armor BD and buff, Ramza deals 4400 with either skill assuming no buffs are up.
Throw stone deals 1333x6=7998

With Regen up, Cid regenerates 9800 HP a tick. Curaga from the adds heals 3400.

---

Clearly, I need both Dispel and Banish raid. I got him to half health with no charges of Banish raid left and then he got regened and it was GG. Saint's Cross is good but at only two charges isn't a great option. I didn't put Zack in initially because I didn't want to mess with the adds, but their HP is high enough that having his SB is going to be better than not having his SB.

Gilgy (Come At Me Bro), Protectga SB
Ramza (Power BD, Banish Raid)
Zack (Indoor spell, Drain Strike)
Mog (Dispel, Curaja)
Aeris (Diaga, Curaga)

seems to be the next best step. Most attacks are physical, so this may get me over the hump.

[Magic Fanatic]

Decided Dungeon Brazing was more important that Tuesdaily grinding for now.

Things I did:
Beat Elite Lunar Subterranean Part 3.  I don't really get why everyone else seemed to be having such a problem with this fight.
Beat Elite Phoenix Cave.  Runic kinda...  Just completely neutered the boss.  Thanks Scar.
Beat Classic Ultima Weapon.  That's just a record of dungeon progress.  Now I'm into DU14 dungeons!

...Don't really remember much else of what I did.  It's been a pretty hazy day.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Anyway, yet another fight that reinforces how mandatory SG is and how they basically have to design every boss around it as an RW. I think I'm just gonna hoard mythril from now on until the next time Sentinel's Grimiore comes up for lottery, perhaps around New Year's. There's a White Mage lucky draw that I'm tempted by but even at half mythril price it just doesn't even compare.  I wouldn't be terribly surprised if they didn't put it up for grabs again, though. It's so stupidly overpowered even being forced to use Shitforbrats isn't enough to balance it.

That draw also includes Thyrus, Y'shtola's Stoneskin II staff. The odds are clearly worse, but hey, Wall SB and Y'shtola has better non-HP/Defense stats than Loserface even stuck at L65. Also, there hasn't been a single Soul Break Fest where there wasn't a Sentinel's Grimoire banner to date. They -know- that relic rakes in the monies and it always comes back.

Tangentially, Gamasutra published a DeNa press release officially stating the Lucky Draw banner for Black Friday, which will also come with... free 25 Mythril. WELP.

[Cotigo]

Mmph. I see.

Well, I suppose tomorrow will be dungeon farming for mythril then. Even though Y'shtola fulfills a niche I already have crammed up my butthole, Stonera Skin is just that good so I'll spin the wheel on the chance of it. Though really, even with worse stats, Shitbrat would be a better option just because he can fulfill those stupid Doom and Doom+ medal requirements for skills used without having to sacrifice my useful characters' skillsets/swap out to do so.

Also, now that you mention it, of course they designed Sentinel's Grimiore like that. FTP games, man. Poor design decisions in order to generate funds and this is a good business model. I guess I can't fault them because the game is still playable (and, for the most part, very winnable) without it, and really this is one of the LEAST predatory things DeNA does with the game to get money, but I don't have to like it.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Mmph. I see.

Well, I suppose tomorrow will be dungeon farming for mythril then. Even though Y'shtola fulfills a niche I already have crammed up my butthole, Stonera Skin is just that good so I'll spin the wheel on the chance of it. Though really, even with worse stats, Shitbrat would be a better option just because he can fulfill those stupid Doom and Doom+ medal requirements for skills used without having to sacrifice my useful characters' skillsets/swap out to do so.

Also, now that you mention it, of course they designed Sentinel's Grimiore like that. FTP games, man. Poor design decisions in order to generate funds and this is a good business model. I guess I can't fault them because the game is still playable (and, for the most part, very winnable) without it, and really this is one of the LEAST predatory things DeNA does with the game to get money, but I don't have to like it.

I don't disagree. Power creep, man. Tangentially, -one- other thing that would help you immensely (though not replacing SG) would be grabbing a Hastega+buff SB, of which there are quite a few in the WM discount banner. There's a whole SB trinity going for being able to keep on top of the highest end battles: Wall relic, Hastega buff relic and AoE healing relic (of which you have the last). One of them at least is pretty much mandatory -in your party- if you want to reliably, sanely clear Calamity/Doom fights. I kept looking at your accounts on the Judge Bergan fight and thinking "yeah, that sounds utterly nuts without something like Boon".

[Cotigo]

Mmph. I see.

Well, I suppose tomorrow will be dungeon farming for mythril then. Even though Y'shtola fulfills a niche I already have crammed up my butthole, Stonera Skin is just that good so I'll spin the wheel on the chance of it. Though really, even with worse stats, Shitbrat would be a better option just because he can fulfill those stupid Doom and Doom+ medal requirements for skills used without having to sacrifice my useful characters' skillsets/swap out to do so.

Also, now that you mention it, of course they designed Sentinel's Grimiore like that. FTP games, man. Poor design decisions in order to generate funds and this is a good business model. I guess I can't fault them because the game is still playable (and, for the most part, very winnable) without it, and really this is one of the LEAST predatory things DeNA does with the game to get money, but I don't have to like it.

I don't disagree. Power creep, man. Tangentially, -one- other thing that would help you immensely (though not replacing SG) would be grabbing a Hastega+buff SB, of which there are quite a few in the WM discount banner. There's a whole SB trinity going for being able to keep on top of the highest end battles: Wall relic, Hastega buff relic and AoE healing relic (of which you have the last). One of them at least is pretty much mandatory -in your party- if you want to reliably, sanely clear Calamity/Doom fights. I kept looking at your accounts on the Judge Bergan fight and thinking "yeah, that sounds utterly nuts without something like Boon".

Yeah, that's a pretty good summary of the necessary SBs, though I would add in damage boosting to that Triangle to make a Quadrangle (also known as a... SQUARE. dun dun dunnnnn!). You basically need two of the four natively to have a chance, then need one of the last as your RW. Damage boosting, however, can be covered by skills, while the other three really can't. Heck, Protect/Shellga is basically useless comparative to SGSRS.

That said, I would bet that you can do with 3 of the 4 to consistently do 凶/凶+ battles even if you didn't have the last as a RW. Like, I imagine that with damage boosting, Hastega, AND MT Healing I would be less fixated on how badly I need SGSRS. Likewise, if you have SGSRS, damage boosting, and Hastega, you probably don't need MT healing all that badly. So it's not a perfect square, more like a big fuckoff trapezoid where the SGSRS and MT Heal angles are hella obtuse and the damage/hastega angles are pretty dang acute.

Or something. I think I just said I thought Ramza Screaming on my dick is a cute thing and that isn't quite wrong but neither is is correct. Or proper. 

Anyway, to your last point, post Orbfest 2 dailies, and actively playing through 90% of the Orbfest 2 help a lot. I keep reading y'alls takes on the Global +++ fights and going "yeah I could probably take that EZ PZ" and then I realize that if I started playing Global at the time I started playing JP before quitting the first time I'd probably just now be beating my first couple of +++ fights just due to how much progression has accelerated even discounting how much B/S/SBs have powercrept somethin fierce 

[Scar]

Ff9 event coming.

Ff8 event beat.

So....

I needed steiners crystal, so I tried ultima.

134 difficulty is the highest story dungeon I've challenged yet.

Beat it 1st try.

So now I'm just clearing the 3 other ff7 stages since I have my insanely strong ff7 team assembled.

Good times.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Anyway, to your last point, post Orbfest 2 dailies, and actively playing through 90% of the Orbfest 2 help a lot. I keep reading y'alls takes on the Global +++ fights and going "yeah I could probably take that EZ PZ" and then I realize that if I started playing Global at the time I started playing JP before quitting the first time I'd probably just now be beating my first couple of +++ fights just due to how much progression has accelerated even discounting how much B/S/SBs have powercrept somethin fierce 

It kiiiiiiiiiinda depends on how you take the whole thing. For starters, the vast foreknowledge lore available eases up one hell of a lot on planning and directives when trudging through the game. I've been no-Mythril mastering full events since Yuna's release (with the exception of the Figabros. boss rush, which ate a Mythril refresh, and the physical-side of Tifa's reissue event, which I just didn't have enough physical damage to master with only two medals to lose on the fight) and I started roughly at the same time you did. We've had +++ fights since early September, ++s since July. I dunno how lucky I was, since I only had Lunatic High for the longest time (and used it rather sparingly due to Red XIII being stuck at L50 for nearly four months) and I still only have Boon in addition to the mitigation relics. The difficulty curve honestly hasn't had a considerable spike for a long time, considering +++s aren't a very large jump from ++s in practice. Calamity sounds like the big breakthrough for that.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Speaking of which, I almost forgot I still hadn't finished the elites on this update, picked up a couple Greater Lightning and Wind Orbs from Wednesdaily in the early morning and only then went for the elites. Only two FF8 dungeons left.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

JP will get a FF5 collab event with some mobile SRPG that includes Faris' MC2. Well, crap, more stuff we'll have no idea Global will ever get in any way.

Tangentially, nearly done with Zidane event. Only two more dungeons to go. Cap-broke Zidane because yes another Auto-Haste RM. Amarant will wait until a Sundaily.

[Magic Fanatic]

I just recently realized something amazing: I have over 200 Mithril.

Now I'm wondering if I should save it for the next festival, or spend some of it on one/both of the current FF9 banners.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

As always, depends on what you need. I have 100 out of my current 198 Mythril slotted for Zidane/Amarant banner 2 on Saturday, since it's mage heaven and I'd really like AoE healing, but there's the (essentially) free Black Friday Lucky Draw tomorrow, which could give me something I want. I'll see how it goes. Saving up for RoR is an idea, but we don't know how the banners will effectively pan out yet, since DeNa always shuffles the SB fest banners around.

EDIT: Done with Zidane event. Drawtaliate >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Amarant. Also currently sitting on 200 Mythril. No idea what will I do for the rest of the day, maybe I'll just farm Greater Blacks on Ultima Weapon or Greater Ices on Elite Besaid.

[DjinnAndTonic]

Got Zidane's sword and Amarant's Claws (and also the Power Sash and Cat Claws, 4x 5-stars!) on an 11-pull. Neat. Not the MT healing I was hoping for, but I'll take it. Planning one more 11-pull for the second half of this banner for some more Mage weapon chances. I'm glad to hear that there's 25 mythril coming with the lucky draw, cause I don't feel like rushing the rest of the Dungeon updates yet.

Cap-broke Zidane and working on Amarant, because hey, got their relics. And I actually like Zidane, unlike literally everyone else.

[DjinnAndTonic]

Japanese Lucky Draw: Aerith's Reraise stick!
Global Lucky Draw: Bartz's Wind Knife!

Well now I'm set for FF5 synergy! Gilgy's katana and a generic 5-star stick really helped out. Also set for FF9 synergy now. My FF4 synergy is good for mages but weak physically. FF6 is set thanks to all the four star equips I kept getting there. FF12 is similar plus I have Balthier's gun. FF8 I have a bunch of generic five stars plus Irvine's gun. FFX and FF7 I have a good mix of upgraded four stars plus nat-5 character relics. Probably my weakest synergy realm is 13 where I've got tons of armor but only the Keepsake knife for weapons. Also FF1-3 but I'm not sure there's ever been an opportunity (or much need) for drawing for synergy there. It would be nice to have a FF4 melee weapon for Black Power day and an FF3 synergy weapon for Thursday grindanz. Saving up for the RoR at this point I suppose.

Hope you all get good Lucky Draws like a Tyrfing or something!

[Magic Fanatic]

Black Friday Lucky Draw.

Hoping for something good!...

...Got nothing.  Well, I guess they can't all be winners.

[DjinnAndTonic]

Oh cool, JP just got an update. Rinoa now has higher magic and 5-star Summons. Fuckin' finally. Of all the casts to not have a Summoner, FF8 seems like an odd choice. I mean, I guess FF9 and 10 had PCs that were iconic as Summoners, but FF8, 6, and 13 were pretty big on the whole Summon thing for every character. I was kinda hoping at least -one- of those casts would all get at least 1* (or higher) summons just for flavor.

And I'm still mildly annoyed that Hope has Summoning but not a high enough level to use Alexander...

Oh, and Squall finally got Spellblade 5*. And Edea's getting in as a PC, using magic chakrams too. That's kinda neat. I wonder if she'll have some sort of Ultimecia-based SB, just so we can get the whole Dissidia cast in here. (Come on FF3 Onion Knight and Cloud of Darkness, I don't know WHY I want you both in RK so badly, but I do.)

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Lucky Draw: nada. I just hope this isn't a foreshadowing of my planned draws on Zidane's second banner and Lulu's first.

[Captain K]

Lucky Draw:  Snow's Paladin Fist, DKCecil's armor, four 4-stars.  Not characters I care about, but these are the two realms I had weakest synergy in so this was actually helpful.  Game still taunting me by giving me fists that aren't Galuf's.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

On less depressing news, I honed Drainga to R3. Now I have five magical R4s at usable levels (physical, I also have five, but three of them are breakdowns. Come oooooon, Shadow event, I want R2 Full Break).

[Magetastica]

Black Friday Lucky Draw: I got all of your luck. I went in expecting nothing, and came out with Barret's Gun-Arm, Kain's Blood Lance, and Tifa's Crystal Glove.

Not exactly the best gear possible, but good enough for me. And it certainly makes them all usable now, at least.

[hinode]

4 4*s and 7 3*s from Lucky Draw, sigh. At least the 4*s were all useful items.

In sillier RK news, the lucky few will soon be able to make Cloud (or almost every other male in the game save some mages, for that matter) don Rinoa's party dress:

[Scar]

Hot balls of fury. I got sentinels grimore and squalls revolver.

Score.

[DjinnAndTonic]

That is a pretty awesome score!

So which ones are you gonna use for your RW?

Also, super-jealous of Cap for that Paladin Fist... I want a reason to use Snow, game...

[Meeplelard]

Lucky Draw got me another 3* FF7 Rune Armlet (this is actually handy since I could make a + variant, good for synergy), another 4* FF7 Crystal Bangle, an FF12 Platinum Dagger, Squall's Shear Trigger, Rinoa's Rising Sun, and Yuna's Lullaby Rod.  Go figure, I get *2* 5* FF8 weapons right after the FF8 event, and the game wants me to use Rinoa more as my mage, hate!

At least I finally now have a 5* Rod for all the Mages who can't use Staves as well (I had Garnet's Storm Staff for a while, so Vivi is happy)