Record Keeping Final Fantasy Record Keeper

[Shale]

Hmmm. Along those lines, then, my setup off the top of my head would be:

Lightning: R5 Tempo Flurry/R4 Spellblade of choice, ATK up RM (eventually Ace Striker or Ramza's equivalent) (Crushing Blow SB)
Gilgamesh: ????/R5 Armor Break, Dr. Mog's Teachings for first-turn High Regen (Faithful Companion SB)
Agrias: R3 Banishing Strike/R3 Lifesiphon, Mako Might (Cleansing Strike SB)
Ramza: R2 Power Breakdown/R3 Magic Breakdown, ???? RM (Hail of Stones SB)
Lenna: [Protectga or Shellga as needed]/Curaga, Knight's Charge (Princess' Favor SB)

RM Shout

[Cotigo]

On many battles, you'll get more out of Agrias' WM4 (Shellga/Protectga, whichever Lenna's not using)/Spellblade skillset (Drain Blade is great and worth making multiple copies of to take the heat off of Lenna) and giving Banishing Strike to Ramza, assuming you don't need Ramza to do both Power and Magic BDs. You're also frankly going to need SG/SS2 more often than you'll need Shout, so Ramza's Bard ability to use the ATK-boosting song will also come in handy, though Water of Strength (if Global ever gets that) will be a better option on Lenna (in that case, you would put the more important of Protectga/Shellga on Agrias).

I wouldn't worry too much about a set setup because the strength of your current build is in just how goddamn flexible you are. You should also consider getting another Lifesiphon for Gilgy and Lightning to be able to run all 3 of them on SB duty if you so need. Wednesdaily and Tuesdaily will be your friend for the forseeable future.

EDIT: You also have Mog, which... OK, with those SSBs I'm not sure how often it will come up, but he was my workhorse for a really long time, and offhand I'd say without a hastega, running two white mages is going to be more important than running both Gilgamesh and Agrias at the same time, offhand, even if you're utilizing Agrias's WM4 abilities.

Point is, try not to plan for a "this is my set build" so much, and keep in mind all the available options you have, because what your best team for a given situation is, is going to depend on the boss. I only stopped changing from my A-team after I had such a limited range of overpowered BSB/SSBs that choosing anything else I had was outright worse. You're not quite at that point yet, so be willing to sub others out and **especially without a hastega be willing to use two white mages**. Not all the time, obviously, but keep the option available.

[Shale]

Wait, there's a boostga song?

....so there is. Huh. What's the percentage on that?

[Cotigo]

15%. It's not great, definitely worse than Mog's Sunbath, and IIRC on par with the Holiday Mittens. But regardless, it's usable in a pinch.  I'd say his support skills are gonna do you more good in the long run though. Also read my edits.

[Shale]

Noted. That was the reason for the Shout SB; without some kind of AOE attack up it's difficult to justify ditching Mog for Ramza on the strength of his breaks when I could use Sunbath and then RW one of the Hastega/Res up SSBs for combined haste and mitigation. Point taken about flexibility, though.

[Cotigo]

Yeah, fair. Ramza's really your weak link now that you mention it, especially with Agrias' Breakdown SB. Actually, considering you have that, yeah I'd probably swap Ramza out for Mog most of the time, unless you need to hit a target score your other characters can't, or you need more survivability than a Wall RW alone isn't providing, or you need his 100% stun. That or maybe Gilgamesh. I honestly don't know how much damage his SSB deals compared to Throw Stone (I would assume more), though one should note that its secondary benefit overlaps with Sun Bath, and 100% stun is quite useful when you're not hastega'd.

[Shale]

The lesson here is that I should keep pulling for Platinum Sword/Grand Armor, clearly.

Edit: Yeah, Faithful Companion is Blade Beam with party regen (down to the number of hits), so it's mainly good for ensuring that my high regen has 100% uptime. Well, that and the part of the animation where Gilgamesh and Enkidu high-five.

[Cotigo]

the part of the animation where Gilgamesh and Enkidu high-five.

wait what

more things im sad i dont have

and you're not really wrong about the Plat Sword. That would lock your build in and you wouldn't have to think about the Ultimate battles for months with the other SBs you have. I maaaaaaay be biased/bitter/drunk, though. In fact, I am definitely two of those.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Well, that and the part of the animation where Gilgamesh and Enkidu high-five.

More precisely: Gilgamesh as his boss sprite and Enkidu.

Regardless, yeah, Ramza with Plat Sword is obscenely overcentralizing. I can't even think of -anyone else- I'd use as my Support in -any- situation at this point (I even have a 7* Golem Flute if for some godforsaken reason I want to run him ranged...). Hastega's way too important and Attack +50% is way too good - that's 107~% more damage for the current sources of the highest burst damage available in the game.

[Shale]

Regular boss sprite, though, not post-Morphing Time.

They should totally change the sprite if you use Faithful Companion with his default SB active.

[Captain K]

http://i.imgur.com/8xeZcBp.jpg

Overdramatic much hinode?

Was going to post a rant on Reddit but it will just get downvoted.

Global is not treated badly at all in comparison to Japan.  We don't have rolling gacha, but it's been mathcrafted that it really doesn't improve overall drops that much.  We've had one banner with worse drop rates.  We've missed some minor events that weren't really important in the grand scheme of things.  We got late MCs for Edward, Firion, and Ingus.  Two of those are useless anyway due to bad realm synergy, and the other one is Edward.  Really the most significant thing we've missed in the history of RK is a rank 1 Blizzaja.

Now let's look at what we've gotten in return.  Early FF14 event with post-power creep characters.  Early quality of life changes that Japan didn't get until much later (orb exchange, etc.).  *Multiple* extra orbfests, with much higher xp rates than anything Japan has ever gotten.  An arguably better Beginner's Banner.

DeNa has always stated that Japan and global are to be treated as separate games.  They haven't failed to live up to any promises, because they never promised anything in the first place.  People just assume things, and then are shocked when their assumptions don't pan out.

DeNa is so far down on the company greed scale they don't even register.  You can play this game completely for free and still be competitive.  If you haven't already, go read my writeup of the Star Wars Galaxy of Heroes fiasco in WGAYP topic.  That was pure, unadulterated greed by EA/Capital Games, and I responded to them by uninstalling their app.

[Cmdr_King]

I think removing transparency between versions on the basis of "we aren't legally required to report rates here" is pretty scummy.  But the base game is so player-friendly it's pretty irrelevant, and DeNA global has otherwise been fair about offering additional content and perks to compensate the version differences in banners from where I'm standing.

Honestly every app review page I've seen has been at least that bad so I dunno that it stands out that much.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

There are also 90.000 other reviews on the app, the vast majority of them rather overwhelmingly positive. DeNa's behavior on the FFT banner indeed was scumlike, but the subreddit blew it out of proportion in ways only salt-based dehydration could ever explain.

[Meeplelard]

The FFT Banner thing was bullshit, though yeah, blown out of proportion.  I should note that I do actually commend them for writing their distaste for it rather than just whine on a message board; making your voice heard that we really aren't fond of this and people CAN see through such bullshit is notable. 

Saying "I won't spend money on this game again!" or "this is stupid I quit!" sends the wrong message.  The whining on message boards, calling DeNA awful, etc. accomplishes nothing, not spending money basically tells them to change their strats in a way that may not be beneficial, etc.  It's like how boycotting a company because they did crap to your game accomplishes nothing since it means you're not buying the games that weren't screwed over, and instead telling that company 'we don't want this game, period.'  Sending angry letters at least gets your voice heard and getting enough of them will let the developers know exactly what you think and why.

Though I do agree it is blown out of proportion, and the fact that Reddit had to make a whole "Controversy" flair dedicated to this says everything.  I mostly agree with Captain K that this is just one instance of them pulling a stunt and hopefully being called out on it will make them think twice about attempting it again.  It's not a consistent trend, and DeNA isn't THE DEVIL!!! as a result, they just did something bad and do need to be called out on it in hopes they won't do it again.  If they don't do it again?  Then ok, fine, that implies they know they can't get away with this.  If they keep pulling this crap?  THEN you start complaining because it's clear they don't respect people.  A single instance =/= indicative of the big picture.

Also, might as well comment on this statement:

Assuming you have nothing else (this is basically Beginner's Banner v2 after all), Peacemaker is still probably fine due to being 5 hits, MT, and elemental. Elemental SBs never go completely out of style vs. weakness. Maduin's Horn is kiiinda usable because of how many hits it has if you have decent magic buffing and synergy, but otherwise yeah it's pretty outdated now. Organics is garbage and has been for a while; it's basically outdated already in Global. An SSB that only deals physical, non-elemental damage? With only 3 hits at that? Get the fuck out of here

Oh, I understand that absolutely.  Beginner's Banners are intended to, after all, just get you started by giving you some easy 5* that aren't broken.  Obviously the older one isn't going to hold up since that stuff is really outdated, especially since the relics on there were for Wakka, Kain and Rydia, 3 characters who are "use them until you get better characters" as opposed to the characters on this banner where it's 6 characters from 6 different realms, on top of being stronger relics (and 3 SSBs so permanent stat boosts to that character.  Organics may be incredibly outdated, but it's still a potential +10 Strength for Cloud he wouldn't get otherwise, so it'd be helpful for that at least.)    It's more just general musing that "man, we've come far" that those are outdated...

Well, ok, Organics is especially bad, but then, no different than how Buster Sword was on the Global Beginner's Banner's free items and it was bad even by THOSE standards, FF7 Synergy being it's only saving grace

[hinode]

http://i.imgur.com/8xeZcBp.jpg

Overdramatic much hinode?

That was something I wrote up at 6 am to vent, shortly after reading both the rates survey post on reddit and an image of RK's surge to the top grossing charts of iTunes. At that point I knew that literally nothing I could do would make a difference because DeNA clearly got what they wanted to from the rates nerf, so I blew some steam off with the review while spending about as much effort on it as I use on farming orb dailies. A few days later I wrote up a more level headed analysis about what bothers me about the Tactics rate change in a heavily downvoted, mostly dead thread on reddit. I did it there instead of someplace more visible because again I don't expect anything to do to even have a chance at making a difference on DeNA's behavior, but I thought I could have a good conversation with Zurai about it based on his post history there, and I was correct on that account.

I will say here, though, that while agree that global RK players haven't really been treated that badly in comparison to Japan, global RK customers are being treated as second class citizens here at best and are risk of being turbo-screwed in the future if DeNA doesn't change their practices. The gacha has a moderate sized impact on someone's ability to clear out dungeons in this game, but makes at least 95% of its business model and is the one part of the game that is a risk of seriously messing up someone's life, so I do think it deserves outsized scrutiny compared to something like event orb rewards. JPRK has pretty good transparancy by mobile gacha standards from what I've seen, while global RK has almost no transparancy, which thanks to CS we know is explicitly due to company policy and gacha games being a much smaller business so there isn't the same regulatory pressure. If DeNA Japan suddenly cut the gacha rates in half, be it intentionally or even by accident, they're risking a lawsuit if people find out, which puts huge pressure on them not to do that and to immediately make amends to players if it somehow happens. If DeNA global cut the gacha rates in half somehow, they can (and, by all evidence will) put their heads in the sand and hide behind the technicality that they didn't actually promise anything so, strictly speaking, they've commited no fraud or false advertisement.

This has always been true of global RK, but in the past we've at least had the indirect transparancy provided by jp rates, knowing that global RK has always followed them in the past (besides rolling gacha, and I've seen literally no data on how meaningful that actually is). Now we know that jp rates will not necessarily be followed, we know that DeNA continues to refuse to publish anything resembling info on the gacha rates, and can do nothing but hope they won't slash the rates again or at even worse levels in the future.

[hinode]

Also, my understanding is that Organics, Peacemaker, etc. are the gacha items for Beginner Banner 2.0, not the subsequent list of freebies you can pick one from. Think of them as the equivalent of SG and Kain/Rydia/Wakka items on the old JP beginner banner, not Healer Robe/Blazefire Saber/etc.

Then again this is all datamined and not official yet, so take it with a grain of salt.

[Cotigo]

Possible! If that's true then me pulling on it isn't nearly as guaranteed.

Also, I'm confused. I can't find it now and frankly have better things to do with my day today than scour the subreddit for it, but there was a post yesterday that did a statistical analysis of reported pulls and it seemed like everything was actually working as intended?  What is the big fuss? It just sounds like y'all are being saltier than fuckin' I am about not getting Scream. Also, if offbanner stuff was given a higher drop rate, so long as the drop rates of Scream/Hallowed Bolt weren't affected (they weren't, from what I read), given how rarely you want FFT synergy that's actually a good thing, isn't it?

Last I looked SSBs/top billing banner items were 1% and the consolation prize ones were 2%, and that seems to be what happened here.

also if your complaint is "i'm not getting my money's worth" maybe don't fucking spend money gambling.

[Shale]

Searching the sub...is this the one you mean? It has all the character relics at 1% and shared SB/stat stick gear at 1.5, leaving way more room than usual for off-banner. So people who were aiming for the SSBs got exactly the odds they'd expect, but the chance at down-banner items was in fact reduced. Yeah, FFT synergy isn't exactly a jackpot, but neither is the random-realm no-SB gear you're likely to get with an off-banner item.

[Meeplelard]

From what I understand, the situation is like this:

Normally, Character Relics have a 1% chance of being dropped, and the Generic 5*'s (Shared Soul Breaks or not) have a 2% chance each, leading to about a 13% chance of drawing an item on a banner like FFT where there's 5 character relics and 4 generic ones, or something along those lines.  There's a flat out % chance of getting a 5* in general and whatever is left goes to random off banner stuff, which is generally lower than Banner items.

The FFT Banner, it was 1% chance for character relics, and some value lower for non-character relics, I think 1.5% like Shale said.  This means only an 11% chance of getting an actual banner Relic, and thus a significantly higher chance of getting an Off-Banner relic since the 5* Rate is not changed, thereby you're bound to get more 5* Off Banner items than previous banners.

Now, the complaints are both justified and overblown.  They're justified since yes, people obviously pulled on the banner since they wanted items on the banner; if you get the consolation prizes (the generic relics)...well you're getting what you expected at least, and part of why people pull on banners is to get synergy for that realm (albeit, FFT is not really a meaningful realm, but one could argue if they do that to FFT, what's stopping them from doing it on a realm like FF9 or FF13, which actually has meaningful content?)  At the same time though, you're absolutely right that people are mostly upset because it's on the FFT Banner of all things, the one with Shout, and the kicker is the Platinum Sword, Kaiser Shield, etc. were unaffected by this change at all.  Those who didn't get the Platinum Sword still wouldn't have gotten the Platinum Sword.  They were really cheated out of something like a Chameleon Robe or Ice Rod.  If the FFT Banner wasn't quite as "OMG AMAZING!" (read: It didn't have Platinum sword), I bet the reaction wouldn't have been so violent, nor would have been so obvious.
That doesn't justify the complaints keep in mind, as this is more an illustration of pretty much what you said: People didn't get what they wanted, found something that was changed that they're using to project their own anger.

[hinode]

In the JP banner Kaiser Shield/Grand Armor/Nu Kai Armband each had a 2% rate, while the SSBs and generics had a 1% rate. For global the former three are down to 1%, the shared SB items are up to 1.5% each, and off-banner is up from 1%->3%.

Kaiser Shield and Grand Armor are really good items (better than Defender IMO) and Nu Kai would've been really nice for someone like me who has only has old 5* bracers and almost no multi-hit SBs. The odds of getting something I wanted out of this banner went from 8% down to 5%, which is a huge drop in value.

[Shale]

The daily dungeon reset is happening on Wednesday! I picked the right week to finally clear those things out.

Also, I did the math on how many core dungeons I have left, and it comes to almost 350. So I'm definitely chasing that platinum sword. There's more than enough to let me save up for the next big thing.

[Captain K]

Beat FFT event but didn't master Weigraf or Belius.  Fuck battles where you can only lose 2 medals.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Ooooh, I bet the ++ dailies will also come up with this update. 66 more Mythril for the FF12 stash.

[Meeplelard]

Forget if I mentioned I beat Velius or not...but I did, and honestly, he's not worth going into my usual LOOK AT THE TEAM I USED, since he clearly was easier than prior Ultimates save Garland, who really doesn't count.  I perfected Medal'd him even.

And yeah, 66 mithril over the course of a week = yay!!!  Also lots of extra insured 4*/5* Orbs from the daily rewards, etc.

Debating if I should throw a bit more mithril at the FFT banner.  I only have Nu-Kai Armlets.

On a different note, finished off FF3's and FF6's Elites.  FF6s weren't so bad, large part because of my synergy, but overall outside of maybe Dreamscape thanks to enemies with annoying AoEs, it was overall pretty tame.  FF3, on the otherhand?  Everything that had 3 Digit Difficulty can go to hell.  Enemies with physicals that hit hard as hell, Krakens love to blind you, bosses that are durable and stupid and ODIN JUST MURDERED MY TEAM BEFORE I WENT THE FUCK!?  etc.  FF1 and FF2 were bad realms, but their difficulty was so much lower that you just go "meh, whatever, glad I'm done with them."  Lake Dohr was the worst; I actually retreated, went in with an A-team I'd use on an Ultimate of Tyro/Terra/Auron/Ramza/Yuna, and STILL had to work for my victory.


So on a happier note, given FFT's Banner is going on, and most people did the draws they're likely going to do, the celebration past, I think this is a good opportunity to go over our character relics again to show off what we have, lament at what we don't have, and then mock someone else for lacking something and then get spun around as they mock us!

Going in order of Realm because easier to keep track (x2 means I had 2 at one point, whether they were fused or not):

Tyro's Sentinel Grimoire: Impulse 900 Gem Draw on a Celebration Banner...I was not allowed to complain about the results.
Tyro's Celebration Grimoire: It was free, I don't really have much else to say!

Faris' Aevis Killer(x2): First gotten in the initial event it was advertised, second in one of the celebration banners.  Anyway, it's a 5* Bow, something I lacked, and Faris is a good character so hey!

Terra's Minerva Bustier: After failing to get this in BOTH of the FF6 banners between throwing mithril and money at them, I threw 50 mithril at the SSB celebration banner it was on in December...and actually got it! 
Terra's Maduin's Horn: This one I threw money at as well, but it actually paid off!  Not only is this my first Super Soul Break, but it's my first 5* Rod that was an actual Black Stickl (I had Yuna's Lullaby Rod, and the FF6 Chain Flail, but both are White Sticks; my only Black Stick was Garnet's Storm Staff, which is a Staff), so it solved that issue too!
Locke's Rising Sun: My first Character relic...go figure, I didn't have Locke then.  Got it in Festival of Gold.
Edgar's Drill: Got this on the 50 Mithril Pull I did trying to get Maduin's Horn, didn't complain about it!  5* FF6 Lance with Defense Push tied to a decent character...and it's a FREAKING DRILL!
Setzer's Darts (x2): I have bitched about this plenty.  The first one? Ok, fine, Setzer gets an actual Soul Break, he's FF6's Support PC, I can make use of that!  A 2nd one?  That's just mean!  A 2nd of a weapon I don't mind but it's a weapon only Setzer (and Tyro) can use, so it's ONLY useful in FF6 Realms.  The two I got were on separate FF6's Banners.

Zack's Buster Sword: This was an impulse pull on one of the SSB Banners in December, and it was a pleasant surprise!
Aerith's Wizard Staff: WHY IS THIS A ROD!?  Ahem, anyway, it's an FF7 Mage Weapon which I lacked, and it is an SSB...unfortunately it's identical to an SSB I already had, on a character who was basically the same thing...so it was hard to get excited
Yuffie's Headband: Got this on the 5th Banner, it was hard to get excited despite being a good Soul Break because Yuffie doesn't really fit in well especially when I have that many Medicas running around.
Tifa's Grand Glove: Got this in an October Lucky Draw...and I've yet to use Tifa since she mastered it.  The most use it's gotten is being a weapon for Red XIII to run with during FF7 Realms go figure, because Somersault is a crappy Soul Break.

Squall's Shear Trigger: Black Friday Lucky Draw, at least it's not Revolver!
Rinoa's Rising Sun: Also gotten in the Black Friday Lucky Draw, made me hate life in that Rinoa was now easily my best Black Mage for a while.
Seifer's Coat: ...I'm not listing Seifer's name twice in that item.  Got this in one of the 1st Anniversary Lucky Draws.  It's a Light Armor that boosts Attack, and the Soul Break has a Res Boost on a character with a half-decent skillset so...

Garnet's Storm Staff: One of the Orbtober Fest Lucky Draws I got, hasn't seen much use because Garnet tends to compete with other White Mage/Summoners, and Summon Ramuh is kind of meh.
Eiko's Fairy Flute (x2): My 2nd Super Soul Break...gotten twice at the same time!  Gotten in the celebration naturally.  I'd have been more excited except that Yuna's Hymn of the Fayth is just better.  If this was Curaga-level healing, it MIGHT see more use.  THAT SAID, it is my first 5* Instrument, so that's something and if I do ever get Ramza's Platinum Sword, it'd work for a Mind weapon for him.
Steiner's Ultima Sword: Oh hey, an FF9 Sword, I actually need that!  Got this in Banner 5.

Tidus' Brotherhood: Got this in one of the October Lucky Draws, so when I got it, it wasn't TOO outdated, and it's an MT Soul Break.  Was useful as an FF10 Synergy Sword during several events.
Tidus' Lightning Steel: Boosts Lightning damage for Spellblades and a better sword than Brotherhood with a decent ST Soul Break for Tidus (as in, "not capped to 9999"), got it during the recent Lucky Draws.
Yuna's Lullaby Rod: Also gotten in the Black Friday Lucky Draw, one of my most important draws too!  This softened the blow of the Rinoa thing too because hey, relic for a character I DO like!
Auron's Shimmering Blade: Another October Lucky Draw weapon, this was my first 5* Katana, and unlike Brotherhood, Dragonfang sees more consistent use because not only is Auron a better character, but it has an actual special effect worth using just adding utility.
Auron's Riot Blade: Got this in the 100 Gem Draw from the FF10-2 Event, it was quite a happy moment.  It's also my ONLY physical SSB; Auron was already constantly seeing use in a lot of high level content for me due to Dragonfang, so this really just highlighted the whole "USE AURON DAMN IT!" thing more.
Rikku's Buster Claw: GOt in the 100 Gem Draw from the banner prior Auron's Riot Blade, it was the character relic I got from a 100 Gem Draw, so a pleasant surprise since I wasn't intending on pulling much from that banner.
Lulu's Hairpin: ...see Seifer's Coat about the name. I pulled on Banner 4 hoping to get this and I got...exactly this!  It means I can actually build up Mage meta once I get an actual conventional Faithga Relic...or I could just use a Roaming Warrior.

Balthier's Ras Alghetti: Grabbed it from the Beginner's Banner because I could use a 5* Gun

Lightning's Blazefire Sabre: Another October Lucky Draw Weapon, was my strongest Sword for a while, and makes Lightning my best Spellblader, or at least she was but now that I got Steiner's Ultima Sword, that may have changed.  Still, it was a good draw for what it was.

Thancred's Ninja Chainmail(x2): My first Character relic I could actually make use of!  Thancred was a staple in my team for a while the sole reason of "he had an actual Soul Break!"

Ramza's N-Kai Armlet (x2): Hey look, Ramza has an actual Soul Break now, and he throws meteors in it!  Do I really have to say anything else?  Yeah, it's the worst of his 3 Soul Breaks, but that's only because his other two are stupid good.

[Scar]

Fft event mastered. Had more issues with weigraf then with belius.

Man its been ages since I did a sundaily.

Ingus gets an jnvite to the squad for the 1st time.