Record Keeping Final Fantasy Record Keeper

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

=(

Since I'm out of data on my cellphone, I've been letting a lot of stamina waste off, but still working on mastering Maria's Song and Rage Meteor. I may start aiming for more monk weapons so I can use Gau more often, he has some fun potential on Reddit's Tier Challenge, which I started doing. I also kinda like Gau at base, to boot. Also finally got his RM2, along with Sazh. Tangentially, Celes continues to be really fun with her Burst. If she could use Lifesiphon, she'd be so ridiculous, but I'm fine with being able to hit ten billion weaknesses as is, and that's about to make a big renaissance on the game's meta. I'm pretty excited for the content in the next few weeks.

[Cotigo]

oh. orbfest.

yeah that's a good enough incentive for make me start playing all day every day again

[Shale]

It took over an hour of retrying, but U+ Bartz has been CM'd. What finally turned the tide for me was giving Draw Fire to Gilgamesh -  it was enough to neutralize Quadra Shot and the counterattacks even without retaliate, and still let him contribute on offense. RW was Lunatic High, and I had Lenna use her HotF clone on her first turn rather than try to mitigate the opening Kick. Eventually the timing worked out!

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Yeah, patching up the opening turn is the most important thing in that fight. I went absolutely nowhere on the tier challenge tries until I slapped two people with healing and handed Barret a shared Protectga to give people at least a chance to survive the second Kick.

[Cotigo]

FF8 event -

meniachllylaughinganimechick.gif

FF8 cids missions will continue to be the most fun missions for me for a very long time.

U++ Disciplinary Crew was also GGEZ. Of note, because I am a very rich man from previous agricultural endeavors, I went with the comedy option of honing Bio Grenade to R3 because it hit weakness and consistently dealt 14000+ damage to all three of them. Mustadio actually was kind of the star of the show, that full+mind breakdown MT SSB combined with Tyro's dances neutered their offence and overall this fight was just ridiculously silly.

Also took down the Multiplayer missions, actually did fairly well despite having to rely on pubbies.

Anyway with that I can focus on spending all of my stamina on Orbfest for now (the 8 event ends before the first round of Orbfest).  There's also a Dungeon Update out and during orbfest doing normal dungeons only costs half stamina. I have some mathing out to do to figure out when I want to use that to refresh stamina charges. Probably during Power/Non/Wind? Or maybe now during Black/Lightning/Dark. Don't need dark but Black and Lightning would be nice. That said I reaaaaaaaally need Power orbs. That probably trumps everything actually.

There's a lucky draw going on, half priced, got Rikku's Burst, Krile's Burst, and Cait Sith's damage/critical up instrument. The former two shore up my 5 and 10 synergy at least.

Fine, DeNA. Orbfest got me hooked again. *golfclap*

[Magic Fanatic]

U+ Ultros CM Mastered.

Celes L67 - Saint's Cross R3/Banishing Blade R4 - Battleforged - Spinning Edge
Mog L65 - Diaga R5/Shellga R2 - Desert Bloom - Mystic Prayer (Shared Cure Media)
Locke L65 - Steal Power R4/Lifesiphon R4 - Dragoon's Determination - Mirage Dive
Setzer L66 - Full Break R3/Armor Breakdown R3 - Mako Might - Dive Bomb
Relm L74 - Curaja R5/Protectga R2 - Knight's Charge - Portrait of Lakshmi
RW: Shout

...Gave up using Terra after a point, and just put together this Shout team.  Gimmicky, but it worked, so whatever.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

So, uh, this week I got promoted at work, which comes with a 50%~ raise to my salary. Cue confetti and blowhorns, whatever have you. I was already pretty stoked about getting Celes' Burst and I liked most of the relics on this banner and hey, FF6 is my second-favorite in the series, so what the hell, let's blow some celebratory gems. I mostly wanted Setzer's Super Soul Break for challenges and Terra's Stardust Rod for waifu reasons, though I'd be happy with mostly anything besides the Thief's Bracer. Four 11-pulls later, I have a second Excalibur, a FF4 off-banner bracer and Stardust Rod. So uh yeah. I know it's a waste of money, but I was just pretty happy this week. To celebrate that second Burst and mostly everything else, I took Terra and Celes for a stroll against U+ Ultros along with Krile, Relm and Faris. Hitting Ultros for 25k per Chaos Fira/Watera -without- weakness was pretty cathartic. Now, FF6 is my best offensive synergy realm by miles to boot.

BEFORE THAT, though, there was the CM for U+:

Ultimate+ Ultros

Setup:

L80 Celes (Saint Cross R3/Banishing Strike R4, Dr. Mog's Teachings)
L80 Relm (Curaja R5/Shellga R2, Battleforged)
L80 Mog (Multibreak R3, Protectga R2, Mako Might)
L80 Setzer (Magic Breakdown R4, Power Breakdown R4, Secrets of the Qu)
L80 Gau (Powerchain R3, Full Charge R3, Adventurer's Dagger)

Hey look, Gau's Powerchain + Full Charge combo pretty legit. Running Mog to stack both attack buffs was pretty entertaining too, Celes was hitting weakness on Ultros' first three forms for 18k minimum with her Burst commands. Seriously, Maria's Song is a really fun SB. The big thing about Ultros, though, is having to constantly refresh the breaks on top of working mixed mitigation: he may use his physical stuff most often, but his magic hurts like hell and he has physical ITD AoE to boot later on. The durability ain't so hot, but the offense is quite scary. Gau was responsible for the glut of the offense, and his SSB worked as his last gasp of offense once I was out of charges. The Rage command would've been useful if only the SB itself wasn't the killing blow, but still.

[Cmdr_King]

U+ CM:

Edgar (Drill, Saints Cross/Banishing Strike)
Mog (Heroic Harmony, Protectga/Curaja)
Setzer (Fullbreak/Magic BD)
Locke (Valiant Strike, Lifesiphon/ThiefTreasure Hunter's Raid)
Shadow (Shadow Fang, Powerchain/Dismissal)
RW: Shout

Let's play "fuck you blitz the U+".  PS we won in one try.  Not easily though: Mog went down to a 3k damage Firaga on his second life bar.  Lesson: you probably want Shellga.  More broadly either Ultros is amazing on damage even by ultimate standards or each HP bar resets his debuffs.  I'd believe either?  Setzer also went down late into his fifth life bar but uh... it turns out Shadow is kinda insane if you want damage right the fuck now.  Powerchain is good even without the Powercharge combo you guys.  I wish I had a better off-slot ability for him since dismissal is... fine and all, but that SSB is also instant so it feels so wasted to just spam Powerchains with SSBs at every opportunity.  But yeah the last time a U+ melted quite like this was the last FFIX event where I have both Zidane and Garnet's Bursts >.>

Although I wouldn't be surprised if the next FFX boss meets a similar fate.  Busting out that +20 Tidus on a CM?  That'll be fun.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Each HP bar indeed does reset his buffs and debuffs, for the good and for the bad. It's also part of why his offense is so impressive in the setup.

[Magic Fanatic]

Oh hey, congrats on the promotion Jo'ou.

Now let's hope we get awesome things when the Nightmare opens up later.

EDIT: NIGHTMARE DUNGEON NOW OPEN!

*Pulls handle on the slot machine*

...And out popped Tyro's BSB.  Not what I wanted, but whatever I guess.

[Shale]

Jupiter's Staff. Quick Charge sounds like fun, I'll take it.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

I have that SB and it is indeed pretty fun.

Got myself Lulu's Rune Mog and Tyro's Last Judgment Grimoire. If nothing else, I won't say no to the stat boosts and I'm fine with finally having a MAG-focused FFX relic.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Okay, Kaiser Dragon mastered after a straight clear because those medal conditions are fucking stupid. First run involved steamrolling him down and never seeing him hit the water weakness phase and me saying "fuck it" because I already had three S/Ls solely because he entered his low HP phase before getting to the weaknesses I need to score medal conditions. Winning setup:

L80 Terra (Firaja R4/Waterja R4, Devotion)
L80 Krile (Thundaja R4/Blizzaja R4, Dr. Mog's Teachings)
L80 Exdeath (Curaga R5/Darkra R4, Mako Might)
L80 Relm (Curaja R5/Shellga R2, Battleforged)
L80 Ashe (Fat Chocobo R5/Bioga R4, Familial Bond)

RW: Lulu's Focus

Outside of his ITD spells (he uses one every three turns on phase 2 and runs entirely off those on phase 3), Kaiser Dragon's offense actually isn't very scary. You can forgo Sentinel's Grimoire here and stack as much magic buffing as you can (if you're considering running Edward here, I'd recommend going with Spellbend Etude/Wrath, since hitting Kaiser with physicals guarantees a medal condition loss and searing pain) because his MDEF is XBOX huge. Even with both Sheepsong and Focus, Krile wasn't ramming the damage cap, though I equipped her mainly for MND because of it. The big problem in this fight is that you're very likely sandbagging phase 2 until Kaiser Dragon deems it worthy to run Lightning -and- Water weakness, and his AI cycle means you'll see an ITD AoE 3HKO every three turns. This is a -pain in the ass-. Using the crystal to mitigate damage is a good idea, but you -have- to be careful since you can only use it three times unless you have a magic blink up when Kaiser Dragon dies, and you can very well run through four cycles before seeing even -one- of Lightning and Water. Defending and multiple healers are your friends, as is an AoE heal. Phase 3 is just a total damage race: the best idea is to save your damage SB gauges for this in order to get him killed ASAP, because you -will- eventually get grinded down by his ITD AoE spam. Fortunately, Kaiser Dragon is quite slow for the standards of an endgame-worthy boss, so his offense actually isn't as scary as it could be. It's not a terribly problematic fight to clear, but mastering it is downright asinine.

[Scar]

Got rydias dragon whisker-holy whip and Cid Raines cape.

Not blank, and my first ff13 armor, so....I'll take it!

[Meeplelard]

Lucky Banner got me Papalymo's Hat.  I'll take it; mostly just wanted to avoid a Pure Damage SB off a Vivi-style black mage that I really can't make use of; Papalymo has white 4, so that works.

Then did 2 pulls on Celes Banner 1 because Terra's Tiara, went 1/22 and got Locke's Valiant Knife.  I can't wait for the insured 5*s...

I avoided falling for what happened at the BSB fest, and decided to NOT pull like mad on one banner knowing it'll be heartbreak and FF6 is not a realm I need synergy in.   Terra's Tiara shows up again in the Leo event anyway, and I know her BSB is on Keeper's Selection #2 so...

[Meeplelard]

Nightmare Kaiser defeated.

So this took me multiple attempts.

My initial team was basically my usual Mage Meta team with Vivi swapping out for the Healer, because I have his SSB, I figured he makes a decent 5th.  So my team would be Terra (top tier Black mage + have her SSB), Vivi (just explained), Lulu (Focus), Edea (Inargural Parade), and Tyro (Sentinel Grimoire for the first 2 phases, also can use stuff like Eiko's Fairy Flute++ for synergy)

My RWs used were Mighty Guard VIII because it's basically perfect for this fight, and Arc's Renewing Rain because with Edea's inargural Parade, I don't need the Hastega that much, and I still get Shellga + Heavy Regen, and the Magic Blink is a nice bonus in this fight.  Anything else didn't seem worth it.

My first attempt involved not completely understanding the fight so that didn't work.  Learning what elements he has, I swap things around, try to cover everything twice, and I bank on Heavy Regen healing me.

Then Poison starts fucking with that, lots of bad RNG, etc.  I also learn you DON'T want to activate the crystal every shift...

...so after multiple failed attempts and tweaks, I forgo Magic Twinking and equip for elemental resistance prioritizing Fire over everything else because Meltdown.  In doing so, I can ignore the Crystal in the Fire phase entirely, and I plan on hitting the crystal in the Water and Lightning phases (because I need fight those anyway), and Poison because that's a pain to defend against.

My offense is shakier, and things don't go the way I want.  Then I realize the problem with my set up:

I'm not using healing beyond Vivi using Master Mend.  Realizing that, I give Tyro Curaja...and then recognize Vivi is basically accomplishing nothing in this fight since he's using his Soul Break on the Medica anyway.  So I swap him out for Papalymo.  Why Papalymo?  First Sage who came to mind and my team was ordered that way.  Also I learn summons CAN be used in this fight, so I take advantage of that with Terra somewhat, so my final set up looks like:

Terra: R5 Firaja, R3 Ixion, Devotion
Ixion can be used twice in phase 1, and she can hit both the crystal AND weakness condition in Phase 2 on the last casting and deal a crap ton of damage.  She has Devotion because she's my most durable character, she has the SSB that hits hard with both buffs (21k), and Ixion means she can occasionally ignore the damage cap

Lulu: R4 Blizzaja, R4 Thundaja, Vow of Vengeance
Just a cannon who can occasionally use Focus for the stackable Faithga and extra layer of mitigation in the first 2 phases.

Edea: R4 Blizzaja, R4 Bioga, Mako's Might
I made Bioga specifically for this fight, probably wasn't necessary and could have used my already existing Darkra but Bioga did let me activate the Poison crystal.  That extra Blizzaja was made for Ifrit, so no, not a typo; mostly just another cannon with an extra Soul Break.  Not as good as Lulu because of her RM, but it gets me the immediate hastega.

Papalymo: R5 Curaja, R5 Waterja, Blood of the Espers
Shifts between damage, healing, and hitting that condition; on hindsight, he maybe should have covered a less integral element but overall didn't matter.

Tyro: R5 Curaga, R5 Waterga, Dr. Mog's Teachings
Sentinel Grimoire to power through the first two phases, Waterga just insurance to hit the condition in case something happens to Papalymo, as well as being a 2nd caster for the Crystal so I don't have to rely on Terra wasting a gauge on Trance Flood.

RW was Mighty Guard VIII, don't think it would have made a difference in this fight compared to Renewing Rain, but whatever.


Things went a lot more smoothly with elemental gear, and healing but the randomized conditions are still bullshit and you really are dicking around a lot waiting for the right two elements to drop.  I also learned you DON'T want to activate the Ice Crystal because you might kill him Phase 2 when you're weak to Ice.  Everyone resisted Fire so activating the Fire crystal was pointless, and the Earth crystal only matters vs. his nightmare more, so I can just have everyone defend during that phase; this is why I decided Lightning/Water/Poison.   

Lulu did die in the winning run because he used Nightmare Tsunami and she had the Gigas Armlet...whoops.  I say to myself that if I lose THIS time, I'm adjusting it that Terra gets the Gigas Armlet, and equips the Viking's Jacket, forgetting that is a thing I have.


Honestly, I think the fight isn't that bad at it's core, it's just they gave it dumb conditions.  They should NEVER have weakness conditions on a Barrier Change boss unless the boss has a legitimate cycle that you can predict.  This isn't the first time they've done it, no, but it's always annoying seeing it because you can fail a condition because you are "too good."  At least status weaknesses, there are (semi) reliable ways to apply it most of the time, and you aren't dicking around waiting for the right moment.  Barrier change conditions, especially on a Nightmare, is bullshit.

Oh well, that's done with, time to make Meltdown.

[Magic Fanatic]

Nightmare Kaiser mastered as well.  Took me several failures in set-up and two winning attempts, because the first time, I forgot to hit the dragon itself with Water in a water-weak phase.

Some of the failures that I switched out of:
Initially, I had Tyro with Curaja/Phantasm.  I had read Kongbakpao and saw that it only listed the counter to Ninja Magic in phase 1, so I thought I could cheese the fight in phase 2.  No, he still counters Ninja Magic with Nightmare Meteor.  Don't do that.  That led to me putting Waterja on Tyro.
Then there was having Krile with Firaga R5 and Tyro had my Waterja R4.  Note to self: don't put damage for a mastery condition on the healer - they won't have enough time to cast it on everything needed through all the healing that'll be required.
So...  That then led to putting Waterja on Ashe, moving the Thundaja that was on Ashe to Krile, and putting Watera Strike on Tyro so he could activate the crystal on that phase.  This is what won it for me eventually.

Exdeath L67 - Memento Mori R3/Dark Zone R3 - Dr. Mog's Teachings - Grand Cross
Exdeath had one job here: eat all the ST Black Magic spells.  He did that job admirably.  Granted, I eventually learned that activating Memento Mori too early was a death sentence to that plan, so phase 1 focused on him using unboosted Dark Zones.  Since he was eating all the ST magic (and some MT stuff too), he was constantly getting charges back to keep casting Dark Zone.

Krile L70 - Thundaja R4/Blizzaja R4 - Ace Striker - Sheepsong -> Unspoken Bond
Standard caster, but the way I use her meant that I couldn't open with Sheepsong.  I do get it near the start of phase 2 though, so it's not a complete wash.  I gave her Blizzaja as a filler spell, and Thundaja to match up with Ashe, in case something happened to her.

Ashe L74 - Blizzaja R4/Waterja R4 - Devotion - Maelstrom's Bolt
The other standard caster, but with more elemental coverage than Krile.  Maelstrom's Bolt let her play emergency Medica as well, on top of activating the Crystal for the Lightning phase.  Waterja meant she could hit weakness in the Water-weak phase, and my second Blizzaja (made when I was going up against Fragment Ifrit for the CM and didn't need it) made for the other good filler spell on her.

Hope L77 - Bioga R4/Shellga R2 - Battleforged - Divine Judgment
Let's see, he has a 7* Rising Sun and a BSB.  He had two jobs: cast Shellga to reduce the incoming damage on the first two phases, and cast Bioga until he got enough meter to use Divine Judgment, and then just focus on the new commands for that.  He also did his job admirably.

Tyro L80 - Curaja R5/Watera Strike R3 - Knight's Charge - Sentinel's Grimoire -> Keeper's Tome
So, Tyro here had a bunch of jobs.  Healing was the most basic one, Watera Strike for activating the crystal in the Water-Weak phase, activating SG as soon as it was available on the first two phases, and using Keeper's Tome instead for the Magic Blink on Phase 3.  While it was a lot for him to handle, everything fell into place and he did each job he was given.

RW: Divine Guardian
Funny how two of my SBs would involve Alexander.  Anyway, this one's mostly here for the RES Up that stacks with Shellga, the opening Hastega, and Heavy Regen, assuming it didn't get removed by being Poisoned.  Activated the second shot near the start of Phase 2, but it lasted for as long as I needed it to.

All in all, this was a decent fight, though I have to agree that the Mastery conditions are dumb, since it's a roulette on what elements he goes to.  Still, it almost felt like he was weighted to go to the Thunder and Water forms more often, because for all of my tries, I always saw Lightning, Water, and one other element.

Now that I have Meltdown, I'm...  Gonna wait to craft it, because 2 uses is still too low to make use of without a corresponding En-Element SB.

[Shale]

Jesus Christ, DeNa really wants Global to spend everything they've got before guaranteed 5* pulls show up. The W-Burst fest banners? Yeah, not so much. TRIPLE BURST FEST. Three bursts and six SSBs on each. DAMN.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Also, they said fuck the themes because they forced the banners to suck. I'm likely dropping 50 mythril on banner 1 and another 50 on banner 3 or 4, but not much else. At least, they didn't put all the Excaliburs on the same banner.

[Scar]

Might try banner 5, but who knows.

You know, because kain is there.

Anyways...

I saw on some spreadsheet tg cids last record sphere says something like, "starts battle in thunder god mode."

Anyone know what that is?

[Shale]

Thunder God Mode cuts his charge times by 2/3 for 25 seconds. It's awesome in general, but especially important if you have his OSB or burst, because they're super-powerful attacks with Full Charge level charge times. (You can also get TGM by using his OSB)

I'm looking at banner 3 for a 50-pull or two -- three solid bursts, and not a single dupe for me on the banner (although I wouldn't use Yuffie or Basch's SSBs much).

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Banner 1 is the no-dupe offering for me and I'd find cool uses for all of the relics there. Tifa BSB and Galuf and Shadow SSBs would be pretty damn useful for tier challenges and even Tifa BSB is an en-element SB, so lots of offense. Jecht falls into the En-element BSB clause too. Omnirod and Sphairai have pretty cool SSBs and I could run Wrath Y'shtola pretty well with it. Cait Sith is waifu, Bartz would be nice for the stat boosts, and I'm also pretty well-geared for elemental exploitation. Gabranth... well, I still could use FF12 swords and it's a nice compliment to Enrage. Banner 3 is also cool as long as I don't dupe again on Krile's Fire Lash.

[Nitori]

http://i.imgur.com/RUjfFjT.jpg

took my medicine

[Cotigo]

yeah I'm skipping Lucky Draw 1 and am going to pull on both others plus one more on one of them.  Not expecting much but OK's BSSB would make it so I could easily sell the account for money someday and that is mildly appealing to me.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Chain Blizzaga get and honed to R3. About time.

EDIT: And as it were to happen, I felt like dropping mythril onto a FFX banner, since I had 155 handy and I felt like trying for a FFX Hastega. First 50-pull nets me an off-banner 5* armor for FF9, the FFX Ice Brand that immediately got fed into my 7* Stoneblade and Jecht's SSB. Second pull nets me... Rikku's Burst. WELL THEN.