Record Keeping Final Fantasy Record Keeper

[Clear Tranquil]

Banner 2 :

First multi - Chicken Knife x2, Thief's Knife, Sleipnir's Tail (FFIV)

Second multi - Apocalypse (VI), Lightbringer (IV)

Third multi - Magical Brush (VI), Thief's Knife (dupe), Perseus Bow

Then I proceeded to try and get Bartz's Burst then I got everything on the banner but Bartz's Burst. Considering the main appeal of this banner was Relm's Burst for me yeeahh, well that and Terra. Finally obtained Relm Burst and Terra Ultra but ended up with an accidental Bartz along the way.

How to Bartz? I have a Bartz's Cloak, a Super, an OSB and now an Ultra for him, but no Burst. Should I pick one for him from the Selection thing, Grand Helm or Ragnarok? Do I have to make/hone a lot of things a lot? ~

[Shale]

From what I understand, the main use of Bartz's USB is with spellblade abilities rather than burst commands, just because of the difficulty involved in juggling two effects that each last for only 15 seconds. You should be able to do fine with -ga Strikes, though, rather than having to hone up the 5*s. And in Jump Starts, en-wind from the cloak is going to make him a monster.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

I find that, with an Entrust bot, juggling en-elements => USB yields -amazing- results. On earth-weak fights, I run Latent Power => Chosen Traveler => BSB commands, while on Wind-weak, I run Choco Romp => Chosen Traveler => Snowspell Strike. I -do- recommend honing the 5* spellblades, though, it's a minimum 52% boost (often higher due to multi-hit vs. single hit).

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

So, MO Omega actually isn't anywhere near as bad as they made him out to be. You only need to master it once in order to get everything from it, the two remaining clears can just let him suicide and Last Stand >>>>> Berserk End. Also finally cleared Apex Omega, but no mastery (I cleared it with only Terra standing, that was a sloppy battle)... and I frankly can't say I give a shit about 100 upmats.

On other news, I looked at my Mythril counter and figured a token pull for Cloud USB and maybe easing my choices on the pickable BSB or an upgrade to Dagger of Dagger wouldn't be too bad. Landed dupes for Axis Blade and Hamelin (hello, Rosetta Stone) and Edea's Valkyrie. Good enough for me.

[Shale]

I pushed my birthday luck with a pull on the PS1 banner and landed a single Edea BSB dupe. About time I busted on an anniversary pull, really.

[Shale]

Okay, I was going to be done with the anniversary banners barring free Fujin burst but Cloud USB kept taunting me and I realized I can still finish the anniversary with over 100 mythril banked.

No Force Stealer, but I did get Seph's BSB2/OSB combo.... and Squall's Axis Blade. Worth it.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

My big shots went to banner 4, meanwhile. Six pulls landed me Tiny Bee'd, two Auron BSB2 dupes, Reks BSB x2, Aphmau BSB, another Ashe BSB dupe (good thing it's a good stat stick), two Balthier BSB2 dupes, Vaan USB and Rikku USB. Got everything I actually wanted but Tidus USB, at least.

[Meeplelard]

Banner 1: Luneth USB, Firion BSB, Ingus BSB, Desch BSB
Gem Banner: Minwu BSB (probably picking Luneth's BSB to go with the above, but unsure, suggestions?)
Banner 3: Cid BSB
Banner 4: Rikku USB, Yuna BSB1 (...well, it wasn't 1/11 at least...)

[Scar]

I got rikku usb, and auron n Ayame's bursts. No dupes.

I guess this isn't bad.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Rikku USB is pretty godlike, saves -so many- ability slots and Rikku herself is a very flexible unit. Ayame BSB is high-grade physical ice tech, second only to Squall's BSB2. I ended up picking it for my gem banner selection, since I feel it'll make that sub-30 Fenrir run a reality.

EDIT: Anyhow, got Vaan to L99 and currently levelling Ayame. I'm back to being bottlenecked by Vitality motes, though, I need them to Record Dive Vaan after diving Ayame... and I'll also need Dexterity and Vitality 5* motes to legend dive both. Having seen what Vaan can do with his USB in JP videos (he's a viable MAGICITE unit with his ultrapowered instant Thief's Revenge spam, that's just completely out there), I feel I should give him the time of day there. But Ayame may have to come first if even her L99+normal Record Dive won't be enough to down Magicite Fenrir in less than 30 seconds.

[Meeplelard]

Yeah, not really upset by the pull.  It's more of a "oh go figure" fact that I got Tiny Bee of all things on it, but the fact that I got Rikku's USB, which is actually pretty great, means I can't really complain.

Heck, I've already made use of the weapon in beating the Fire Magicite more consistently, since it's 6* +Water weapon for Edge (I have his BSB), so that alone justifies it.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Speaking of pulls, one last pull on the fest because banner 5's top is insanely good. 1/11, Lightning USB. That's a good way to end a fest.

[Meeplelard]

1/11 on Banner 5, Noctis BSB.

Not what I was aiming for, but it's not bad by any means, I'll take it.

Tangentially, because I went 1/11, and it wasn't a 6*, I decided it was a bad pull that I should rage/drunk pull in Dokkan Battle and actually got one of the cards I wanted on that banner.   Given literally no one cares about that, I'll just leave it there.

[Scar]

Noctis usb and gladdys burst.

Eh?

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Yesterday, I managed two big things: my first sub-30 Fenrir run with Ayame/Squall tag-teaming the dog and getting -every single unit in my party to its maximum level-, including Cores. Yes, this includes L99 Bard and Ranger. So, I suppose it's back to farming Magicites, I still need to improve my Earth, Fire and Water equips a fair deal.

[Cmdr_King]

Welp, got enough chip drops to polish that off htis morning, so we can let the last little bit of orbfest slide and clear out other things.  FFVI Jump Start was fun, died before Shout wore off despite three PCs falling asleep (albeit one was a healer and another was Ramza, although considering he's fully dived Ramza's damage isn't nothing).  After that... hmm, 70 stamina you say?  Let's try out that shiny new Lightning USB.

Bismark actually took a few fine tuning runs (and praises be that those things only eat stamina if you win).  Keeping up on healing wasn't quite working, so Eiko took the bench and all those silly mage-oriented motes I had laying around fully dove Y'shtola.  Double medicas were vital, it turned out.  Otherwise, Ramza of course did his thing (I know breaks don't mean much there buuut eh, his damage adds up, my other boostgas are on supports anyways, he's got the buff extension, and saves digging up another Haste), offense was Light (USB)/Orlandu (OSB)/Kain (BSB).  Although I discovered I hadn't even done basic 3 star Record dives on Kain, which was weird!  I though I did that automatically for BSB havers.  Could probably shave a little time off with more investment in Kain and using/proccing some double-spellblade on Lightning, but 45 seconds was the finish so eh, just ideas to remember for later when I have some Lightning-oriented magicite I suspect.

[Shale]

I fell just short of clearing out the roulette, but the only things I missed were a greater dark orb and a single 3* mote, so it wasn't worth refreshing for.

The crystal tower draw does in fact have free Fujin BSB, so pulling was a no-brainer. 2/11, both dupes - Yuffie and Sazh SSBs. Oh well, got what I was after. Golem, prepare to be farmed.

[Scar]

I'm thinking I need that yshtola burst. It will compliment Noctis' usb, ya?

I have fuujins burst.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Welp, did the Crystal Tower pull, Raijin's Pauldron and Crystal Glove dupes, I go to check the selection to pick up my Larsa BSB and FUCK YOU DENA THAT'S YUNA BSB2 I'VE BEEN CHASING THAT RELIC RELENTLESSLY SINCE IT WAS RELEASED. This is the hardest decision I've ever had to do in this fucking game, I'm torn between in-game efficiency and waifuness.

[Shale]

If I weren't already planning to throw 100 mythril at the next FFX banner that would've been really tempting.

And yeah, Scar, Y'shtola really helps those invincibility-keyed effects. Plus it's super good in general.

Now that I'm done pulling, time to review my spoils and plan next steps...

New SSBs: None! Every single one I pulled was a dupe.
New BSBs: Auron 1, Mog, Ayame, Cloud 1, Celes 2, Locke, Gogo5, Sephiroth 2, Fujin, Squall 2, Snow 1, Golbez. Goddamn.
New OSBs: Agrias, Locke, Sephiroth, Vivi
New USBs: Vanille, Y'shtola, Faris, Bartz
New chain: Warrior of Light

So I'm ridiculously set for ice, holy and dark damage now, and in a way better spot for fire, water, wind and earth. Lightning could use a bump, but it's not like I was hurting there before. Next step is to finally use some legend motes. I've already dived Bartz and Squall; currently my plan is to go for Raines, Agrias, Faris and Y'shtola for sure, save enough for Mog and Shelke when they get access, and consider Celes and (when he comes around) Sephiroth. I'll have to see how they pan out in practice, of course.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

New toys

Yeah, might as well tally up my spoils from fest:

New SSBs: Irvine SSB2. Actually not bad as far as SSBs go, everything else (and there actually weren't many!) was a dupe.
New BSBs: Deuce, Arc, Leila, Ingus, Leon, Desch, Edea, Fang 2, TINY BEE, Aphmau, Reks, Ayame. Looking at it, it's a pretty solid selection. Deuce BSB is really cool on a versatile unit, Ingus, Leila and Leon have CM value and Desch's is openly good, besides being a notable piece for my Bismarck sub-30 runs. Fang's is theoretically quite strong and makes her about as good as Cloud on most content, which has its value. Ayame's BSB was the missing piece for a viable sub-30 Fenrir run and Aphmau's BSB makes her a top contender for my healer options alongside Overdrive. I've been actually using both for great effect on Magicite farming. Reks BSB covers a MUCH needed hastega/boostga slot for FFXII. Arc... well, now I have a complete Arc! Until November, at least.
New OSBs: none! Sorta dodged a bullet there, truth be told.
New Chains: none. Sorta to be expected.
New USBs: Squall, Vaan, Rikku, Selphie, Lightning. Not much in terms of quantity, but the quality is overall high. Squall's the only actual dud.

Still need to pad out my Earth, Water and magical Wind game some, but feels like I'm much more solid now than I was. I went from one sub-30 Magicite run to three, which is a marked improvement.

EDIT:

If I weren't already planning to throw 100 mythril at the next FFX banner that would've been really tempting.

Yeah, what's bringing me to consider Yuna's BSB2 further is mainly the fact I actually want to dive into the next FFXII banner some, since the new Ashe and Balthier tech would seriously improve their performance considering they're both legend-dived. It also has Larsa BSB. Then, I may drop a pull on the next FFXV banner too, and Iris BSB would cover the healing Astra nicely. I already have a Wrathable Astra source in Red USB, at least, so it's not as pressing. OF COURSE, Yuna BSB2 is redundant with Aphmau BSB, but Yuna has a better Legend Dive (it's tailor-made to go with her BSB2, while Aphmau's LD is just plain terrible) and I really could use a Light Armor that boosts Mind.

EDIT 2: Waifu wins out, just picked Summoner's Garb. Nevermind the bollocks.

[Shale]

I just took down Goddess and it is my solemn duty to report that Squall BSB2 is straight-up nonsense.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

I just took down Goddess and it is my solemn duty to report that Squall BSB2 is straight-up nonsense.

Yes, yes it is. That thing ALONE nearly led me to a sub-30 win on Fenrir a month before Ayame BSB closed the deal and was the sole offensive reason I managed a solo mastery on MO Adamanchellid bullshit. It gets even more nuts when you apply Cloud USB RW shenanigans on it, for all that the timing can be quite tight there (glorious when it's viable, though: see the 500k damage Löwen Roar I dropped on some poor Ice-weak JS Apoc+ fight).

Anyhow.

Pulling on Crystal Tower Banner: 50 mythril
Combine-upgrading the two dupes I got from the pull: 150k gil
Picking up Yuna BSB2 and adding her to half my magicite farming parties: priceless.

[Shale]

I used Ultra Cross Slash on the Jump Start fight and two-charge Lowen Roar was hitting for 6x19,000 under Chant, with no imperils to balance out Goddess' natural ice resistance. Crazypants.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

One thing I like to do is giving Spellblade Master to Squall so I can gamble multiple command procs. On average, it lets me spam maxed Löwen Roars by his third turn. With some instacast shenanigans, it gets even dumber: I managed to drop four maxed Roars on Fenrir on my first sub-30 run, and that thing was doing 9.5k damage PER HIT. At those levels, it's basically a spammable OSB.