Record Keeping Final Fantasy Record Keeper

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Guys. GUYS. There'll be a weekend orbfest this Friday. Get ready for farming.

[Shale]

Party for the most successful (i.e. he got to his self-buffing phase) attempt:

Agrias: Saint's Cross R2, Banishing Blade R4
Lightning: Thundara Strike R4, Power Break R4
Gilgamesh: Drawtaliate R4
Mog: Protectga R2, Blizzaga R4
Lenna: Dispel, Curaga R4

I have no FF7 rods or staffs so Blizzaga does terrible damage (but it's still better than ditching Mog for a black mage who can't use boostaga) and Gil is mainly absorbing  counterattacks that can't be re-countered so he's contributing virtually no offense (but if I don't drawtaliate the counters overwhelm me). Agrias and Lightning deal decent damage but a two-person party isn't knocking down 300K health before running out of hones, even if I could somehow keep Wall up that long.

[Cotigo]

Do you not have Diaga? That would be waaay better than Blizzaga. Alternately, give Mog Curaga (ideally a sevond Curaja but you probably don't have that) for more survivability, and ditching Gilgy for a Black Mage with WM3 (Terra, etc,) with Faith and a decently honed (R4 at least) aja spell could help eek out a win. I remember getting the clear but not mastery way back when and it was a SL fest and a half but it is possibly doable.

[Shale]

I have R4 Diaga and it's part of Mog's usual loadout, but a medal condition for the fight is to hit Hojo with black magic.

(Also ditching Gilgy's drawtaliate setup means eating counterattack damage after every physical attack, and with no synergy weapons that boost MAG by even a single point relying on magic for offense would be a bad idea even if I had honed 4 star spells, which I don't. I tried bringing Vivi for one run, he did 3500 with R1 Waterja.)

[DjinnAndTonic]

Do you have any Hastegas? Doesn't have to be Shout, but if you're RWing Wall, then native Hastega could be a huge boon.



Also: Who's super-hype about 6* Relics coming to JP for Golden Week? Not -me-~
MC3s and Super-Combining weapons to +++ sounds cool though. As does farmable 6* orbs/crystals.
Ultimate++ though... I am a little worried about... >.>;; I can barely clear regular old Ultimates with my JP team...

[Shale]

Nope! Spent a combined 600+ mythril on SSBFest banner 5 and FFT, got zero hastegas. Saving for Kuja banner 2 now.

[DjinnAndTonic]

Hmm... Well then the idea of tossing Vivi's RM3 on Mog and then giving Mog another Curaga/ja/raise/Therapy cure might be your best bet. There's no problem that more healing can't solve! (Except low turn count scores)

[Scar]

Lost a lot of steam for this game.

Consider me burnt out.

The fact that I never get what I want hasn't helped.

I'm thinking of just logging on for daily items now.

[Captain K]

Good Guy DeNa, introduces Ultimate+ boss, vulnerable to Drawtaliate.



Lenna (Curaja, Esuna, Mako Might)
Cloud (Lifesiphion, Power Break, Pride of the Red Wings)
Selphie (Dispel, Protectga, whatever Vivi's RM3 is called)
Tifa (Punishing Palm, Explosive Fist, Fist of Dawn)
Gilgamesh (Retaliate, Draw Fire, Heroic Stance)
Shout RW

One reset due to exceptionally bad status effects in first phase.  Second run didn't get statused at all.

[Shale]

Hmm... Well then the idea of tossing Vivi's RM3 on Mog and then giving Mog another Curaga/ja/raise/Therapy cure might be your best bet. There's no problem that more healing can't solve! (Except low turn count scores)

That would require Curaja in the first place -- I haven't even made it, much less honed it, and don't have the orbs to do so now. Likewise I don't feel like grinding Baron Castle all day for Vivi's RM3 in the hopes that it might show up with enough time left for me to attempt Hojo.

Edit: I figured WTF, I'll try again, and actually made it to the second phase! (First time I tried, he cast Regen immediately after Lenna's turn and by the time I could Dispel he'd healed 30K HP. Reset.) He promptly confused Gilgamesh, causing Retaliate to lapse, and killed him with a single Combo through Protectga, Power Break, Cleansing Strike, and Draw Fire. Fuck this fight with a spiked baseball bat.

Edit 2: Yeah, even when Drawtaliate stays up it's hopeless. 2500 damage Bio Gas spam! What part of that is trivialized by nulling ST physicals, exactly?

[Meeplelard]

Drawtaliate helps the fight a lot, but it doesn't trivialize it, since he has plenty of ways around it.  Honestly, I find these "Use this strategy it works best!" is not always the greatest but rather adjust to your team.  It's possible you may not have the resources to handle U+ Hojo?  There have been fights in the past (Soul Cage ++ for example) that I just threw my arms up and said **** it to, for example, since it didn't seem particularly reasonable.  On the bright side, Hojo attempts are only 1 Stamina each so it's not like you're blowing 3 hours worth of stamina for a failed attempt.


That said, finished the FF12 Event stuff up, prepping for the bonus fights, and did the current Nightmare.  Team used for the Nightmare fight was (I'll spare you the relics since they were inconsequential):

Seifer: Launch/Boost, Pride of Red Wings RM
Edgar: Saint's Cross, Banishing Blade, Dr. Mog's Teachings RM (he has Drill, so it was an ideal opener)
Auron: Lifesiphon, Flashing Blade, Ace Striker RM (I have his SSB)
Zack: Tempo Flurry, Dismissal, Rebel Army Might RM
Tyro: Pound, Curaja, Mako's Might RM
RW: Shout

Tyro was using Locke's Wing Edge+ because of it'd rare Attack + Mind combo, so he can still do damage while having competent healing.  Seifer has Boost because I  misread the mechanics not realizing I could attack the arms at first.  This run was a success...but not a mastery since Zack and Seifer died near the end, costing me a medal.
Upon reflection, I could use Protectga, so at first I tried to work in my Keepsake Knife into the mix...until I realized that Seifer was only needing one offensive action as is, so I had a free spell slot, so I kicked Seifer out in favor of P. Cecil, gave him Protectga, and even had the added bonus of Cecil being able to use Faris' Aevis Killer+, so I just used that.  Why did I use Seifer?  Because he had Synergy, a Soul Break I could use, and Support 3 for Boost, which when I started using Shout made it pointless.
Anyway, Cecil w/ Protectga made the fight trivial so I mastered it on the 2nd attempt.

[Captain K]

@Shale, biggest problem I see is that you mostly have three star abilities.  I'd say forget trying to go for the Mastery and just concentrate on beating the fight.  Ditch the black magic and Dispel (you have Banishing Strike to get rid of his buff), get some more healing *or* another full time attacker.  But keep your best gear on Gilgamesh.  Once you get to his weaker phases he starts quadruple attacking frequently.  Boss was hitting itself for 16000 every time it attacked.

[Shale]

My damage is pretty good after buffs - Thundara Strike hits for around 7500 thanks to the Kaiser Shield. The bigger problem is that I could be hitting for 9999x5 and it wouldn't matter once he starts using Bio Gas every turn.

(Also, what I need from the fight is holy orbs.)

[Meeplelard]

Oh look, a new FF12 Banner.  Time to drop 100 Gems and get a piece of crap 3*! 
*drops the 100 Gems, gets Kageniu*

see what I mean?  Nothing use-...wait, that's Vaan's SSB weapon? HOLY CRAP!

Alternatively: That's my 2nd SSB weapon I got from a 100 Gem pull, and it was a Katana.

Needless to say, I am not upset.

Ultimates beaten for that matter.

Set Ups being posted, not bothering with listing gear unless it served a specific purpose because that's pointless:

Bergan:
Vaan: R4 Magic Breakdown, R4 Lifesiphon, Ace Striker RM
-Has his SSB, thus MT damage + Steal Power (I'm guessing it's a weaker variant akin to Zidane?)
Edgar: R4 Banishing Strike, R1 Confuse Shot, Rebel Army's Might RM
-Has Drill Soul Break
Terra: R4 Firaja, R2 Bahamut, Devotion RM
-Has Magitek Missile SSB and Trance Flood SBs.  Also was using Fire Armlet for +20% damage to Fireja
Yuna: R4 Curaja, R2 Shellga, Mako's Might RM
-Has Hymn of the Fayth SB
Tyro: R2 Multibreak, R3 Blind Shot, Dr. Mog's Teachings
-Has Sentinel Grimoire SB
RW: Holy Guardian (or whatever Garnet's SSB is)

Basically built entirely around Magic Mitigation.  Garnet's SSB RW is perfect for this fight since it's a res Up that stacks with my other Buffs and Hastega (w/ Heavy Regen as a bonus.)  Edgar chosen specifically because of his unique Machinist + Knight combo, allowing for both getting the Confuse Shot req *AND* covering the Dispel issues with Banishing Strike.  Tyro covers the other shot, and uses Multibreak because it's awesome, and fulfills a condition in case Vaan forgets to use Magic Breakdown.  Lost one Medal to damage.

Dr. Cid took a few attempts, but hey I don't care since 1 Stamina fights, so I'm actually willing to experiment.  First attempt involved me learning that not only does he Resist Thunder, but he loves to have Shell up so Terra isn't very useful.   Also he seems to like physicals.  Drop Terra, place in Auron instead with Drawtaliate, and he has *2* Soul Breaks (Dragon Fang and Banishing Blade) that can lower physical damage, that should solve that problem!  Nope, that failed miserably, let's just give Auron a bunch of AoE so I can gun down his support faster and...that actually worked!  Full Medal'd even!

Winning Team was (not going to remind you of various points:

Vaan: R4 Lifesiphon, R2 Thief's Raid, Ace Striker RM
Edgar: R4 Banishing Strike, R2 Saint's Cross, Rebel Army's Might RM
Auron: R3 Fire Blossom, R1 Flashing Blade, Dragoon's Determination RM
Yuna: R2 Proctega, R4 Curaja, Mako's Might RM
Tyro: R2 Multibreak, R5 Tempo Flurry, Dr. Mog's teachings RM
RW: Shout

Shout obviously played a huge role, but whoever recommended to NOT bother with the rooks needs to be punched.  Taking them down just makes the fight easier since you're not worried about buffs.  Edgar used mostly because Drill is a nice soul break here, and you need Banishing Strike anyway; Saint's Cross is ideal.  I could have used Ramza for a natural Shouter, but then I couldn't Saint's Cross, which was doing 20k so yeah.  Auron ran out of ammo near the end, but wasn't a big deal since Banishing Blade w/ Shout was like 20k damage and the finishing blow.  Vaan's SSB covered the basic attack lowernig Mitigation and given his build, I was able to keep it activated consistently.

So...onto plot content until Orbfest drops tomorrow then!

[DjinnAndTonic]

Dr. Cid: AKA All Banish Raid all the time. My first run ran me out of charges much faster than I anticipated, so I finally dropped some of the Orbs I'd been hoarding since Orbfest and got Banishing Blade up to R4. Basically, just spam Holy elemental stuff directly at Cid and ignore his adds and he won't suddenly switch into "instantly MT wipe your party" mode. Saints Cross, Banishing Blade, Diaga, Dispel did all the heavy lifting, with some Ramza support.

R4 Banishing Blade was barely enough for this fight, damn... Squeaked by thanks to SB spam at the end.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Over here, I ended Cidolfus with a few BS charges left, though I also kept a few charges of Saint Cross at the ready. This set of bonus battles I did pretty sloppily (forgot to bring Dispel to undo Bergan's Auto Protect and Shell, forgot that Cid and the Rooks resist Lightning) and all I lost was a medal on Bergan. I didn't even bother running Y'shtola due to Shout being so danged overpowering, just RW that shit. At this pace, I may just start running Ultimates without Wall period.

[Captain K]

Wow Mateus was the hardest +++ fight we've had in a long time.  Not used to having to prepare for those.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

The sum of Mateus' conditions and the AoE emphasis with four individually dangerous targets usually spells trouble. A Crushing Blow RW works well for dispatching the Azers, but having to sleep one of them can be a pain in the ass.

Tangentially, I love farming Fridays. Tends to concentrate my best RNG, folds to my best synergy and I'm always looking for more Dark and Holy orbs. I'm saving all my remaining stamina for the day for the sake of the incoming orb rush, though.

[Magic Fanatic]

Is it just me, or did U+Cid's most dangerous stuff just flat-out ignore defense?

That said, Mastered U+ with 17/18 medals, losing only one for actions taken.

Squall L80 - Drain Strike R3/Armor Break R4 - Blasting Zone - Dragoon's Determination
Bartz L77 - Lifesiphon R4/Power Break R4 - Trueblade of Legend - Ace Striker
Ramza L65 - Full Break R2/Banishing Strike R4 - Shout - Dr. Mog's Teachings
Sephiroth R78 - Yukikaze R4/Darkmoon R3 - Black Materia - Battleforged
Y'shtola L65 - Curaja R4/Dispel R3 - Stoneskin 2 - Mako Might
RW: Fenrir Overdrive

First things first.  Weak link of this party: Sephiroth.  He's good normally, but MT damage is a bad, bad thing in this fight, and I'd forgotten to switch him to ST skills, so his only attacks were basic physicals, Quad Cut off the RW, and Black Materia.

Wall felt like it did very little, since even through Trueblade of Legends' Defense Buff and Stoneskin II, everyone was still taking high amounts of damage.  I actually ran out of shots of Curaja at the end there.

Outside of that...  What the hell did I do so wrong in that fight?

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Is it just me, or did U+Cid's most dangerous stuff just flat-out ignore defense?

Both his ST special and his AoE Takomak ignore defense. You should've brought Power Breakdown instead of Power Break.

[Meeplelard]

Looks like they reset the weekend orbfests, which ultimately means 20 more mithril (this weekend and whenever they redo the Wind/Lightning/White one), so hey, can't really complain.  Also I actually made R3 Meteor finally, which now means I'm low on MNE Orbs.

[Cotigo]

Golden Week orbfest too good to not farm while on vacation. Fortunately me being not human in the morning and the hostels having wifi give me a decent excuse.

Lotta content with this OF, most of it looking like it persists after golden week, so I will deal with the coliseum bosses amd whatever this music dungeon is when I get back to Japan.

Worst part is that OF dungeons max out at 20 stamina per, so using up a full bar takes 8.5 dungeon runs instead of 5.66. Blah.

Also, is it just me or is Clouds new soul break really underwhelming? Like yes it breaks the damage limit but so does Bartz's. Maybe it's a bigger boon for someone without Burst Soul Breaks tho.

[Meeplelard]

Cloud's new Soul Break from my understanding has a 12x multiplier,  Single target physical SSBs like Blasting Zone are only 8x~, as are entry level damage BSBs like Fenrir Overdrive.  So it's got raw power going for it.  That'll probably be the standard for OSBs on ST Physicals.  Granted, it's pretty normal for Cloud to get the new Soul Break first and for it to be fairly boring.  It's also possible with the multiplier being that much higher than SSBs, they can be more flexible with it and make the ones with side effects actually stronger (like say, be 10x w/ Attack/Def Down or some such.  Still better than an SSB, but not power creep'd compared to Cloud's.)  Heck, Cloud's got *2* standard Soul Breaks that are just single target physicals with a high mult and only one has a special effect and it's a pretty meh one (paralysis doesn't come up often enough to be useful.) 

That said, unlike previous Soul Break Tiers, it's not all bad for Cloud in this case as this one has a few things going for it that won't make it obsolete as soon as others get the same tier Soul Break.  For starters they gave the OSB an Element so it CAN hit weakness, get buffed by equipment, etc (and it's Wind/Non too, so being elemental is only a positive).  Heck, Cloud even has an En-Wind Soul Break, so he can even compliment it  Climhazzard -> Finishing Touch is like a net multiplier of 26.7 over two turns, Finishing Touch x2 is 24x.  Add in subsequent Spell Blade turns, and I believe he gets 5* Spell Blade from his Record Dive, so he can use boosted Tornado Strikes (and eventually, Snowstorm Dual Strikes) down the line, so that combo seems really potent, and he has Lifesiphon, so getting the gauges necessary for the set up shouldn't be too hard.  That said, it does require 2 separate Soul Break relics to pull off the combo and that in-itself is a flaw, but at least the potential is there.

It's not like, say, Blade Beam which as soon as another physical MT Super Soul Break popped up, it started looking like crap.


EDIT: Also just learned that Vaan's SSB's side effect is +50% attack like Steal Power, and not +35% attack like Zidane's SSB...well then, that just makes me happier I drew it!

[Captain K]

Good orbfest, got 5 majors.  Now I have to find something that uses major earth orbs.

[Cmdr_King]

Weekend Orbs gave me the last few Major Earth I needed to R3 Saint's Cross, so well timed.