Examining Final Fantasy Brave Exvius

[Magic Fanatic]

So, Valentine's Day is coming up, and that means...  A new banner.

Marie is the only one not global exclusive, and as a 5☆, she seems...  Good, but not Whale-worthy?

[Captain K]

Not whale-worthy no, but I wouldn't complain if I pulled her.  She'll trivialize some bosses.

The two Cupids are respectable, but you'll need trust mastery weapons to really make the most of them.  Luna looks like the better of the two out-of-the-box.

EDIT:  Artemios reaches over 550 attack with Killer Bow and no TMs.  That's damn good.

[Niu]

Mary just came out on the western version?
She is worth the pull if you have the patience to wait for her upgrade.
After upgrade, she can compete with Ayaka and Tilis for game best healer/buffer.

[Magic Fanatic]

Trial of Love - ELT was kinda rude.

Highlights:
Failing one run at Cagn because I took Tilith instead of Refia, and an Elza friend instead of a Noctis friend.  Also Confuse is a bastard.
Actually using Carbuncle defensively on the penultimate boss, and having it contribute to damage.
About 20 straight turns on the final where I was constantly picking myself up from death and could not inflict any damage at all.  At least I had three people with Full Revival - Refia (who never had time to use it), Noctis and Noctis.  Eventually broke the pattern and managed to start doing damage again, though.
Realized that bringing Tilith over Lightning probably would've been a better idea at the final, but too late to change things THERE.
Blew through about 3 Phoenix Downs, 3 Elixirs, and 3 Turbo Ethers.

[Captain K]

Didn't have any trouble with Trial of Love Elite, although I did have to run it twice*.  Bartz, Luneth, Cecil, Ling, Refia, friend Noctis.  Ling was fairly useless until the last boss when she became super important for aoe status cure and revival.

*Skipped the left side bosses the first time, thinking I could run it again, kill those, and early exit.  But there's no early exit on Elite.  So I had to kill Abraxas twice.  Still worth it for 5 Sacred Crystals.

[Captain K]

Dreadnought Elite you will need a good tank and multiple magic DDs.  Physical DDs are completely worthless, even Noctis.

[DjinnAndTonic]

What is a DD?

[Grefter]

My cup size.


Damage Dealer probably (based on context)

[Captain K]

Sorry I forget not everyone plays MMOs.

[Captain K]

Nothing good from the free 11-pull.  Olive is absolutely nuts.  Orlando hasn't even been released and he's already obsolete.

[Magic Fanatic]

RE: Olive - Is it just because her mults are insane for combo enders?  Also, that said, I always thought that Orlando's main use was getting lots of chain hits.

[Captain K]

Insane mults combined with colossal attack stat.

New expansion is so nice with the quality of life features.  I used the past slow week to finish farming Dualcast TM for Refia.

[Magic Fanatic]

So, I dropped all 36 of my tickets trying to get Olive.

Well, I got Shine and 15 Sheras.

[Niu]

Olive?
Is that Irene?
If so, she doesn't truly out damage Orlandu until you unlock her upgrade.

But On the other hand, Orlandu hasn't got his upgrade yet.

[Captain K]

Olive is a global exclusive character.  Think Randi post-enhancements but released before enhancements even existed.

[Niu]

Huh???
Global version only?
And start off with post upgrade level skills???

Power inflation is actually worse on your side!?!?!?

[Captain K]

Yeah global is a different game than Japan.  We've gotten Japan events much slower.  I think we're 8 months behind now instead of 6 like we should be.  But our content is slightly harder and we get lots of neat exclusive characters to play with.

[Captain K]

Went back and did all the old story missions I skipped for lapis so I could do another 11-pull.  No 5-stars, but I did get Leon.  That will be the next TM I work on, since both Luneth and Bartz can make good use of it.

[Magic Fanatic]

Did the daily draw today, wondering what crap the game would give me.

I got a Rainbow Crystal.  "No way..."

It was Olive.

[Captain K]

I hate you Congratulations!

[Magic Fanatic]

And this is after I got MASSIVELY jealous after my nephew got Olive just yesterday, too.

EDIT: Finally decided to dump most of my FP to get Paul's Escape TMR.

Went down from 100K to 6K.  Upside: fusing and selling units got me an extra 120K Gil, at least.

EDIT2: Well, that was a waste of time.  I'm way too weak magically to handle doing the Dreadnaught - ELT fight, and my preferred Tank being WoL and Healer being Tilith does not help matters.

[Captain K]

Olive banner hates me.  Between an 11 pull and every ticket available in the past few weeks I didn't even pull a Shine, much less Olive.  Ah well.

At least the Type-0 event is super easy compared to the last one.  Other than Nimbus, who you're not supposed to be able to beat.

[Magic Fanatic]

At this point, I'm still wondering what my team should look like.

Normally, it looks like this:
Tank: WoL
Healer: Tilith or Refia
DPS: Elza, Lightning, Noctis

Ready Back Burner: Rain, Bartz, Ariana
Level Back Burner: Olive, Chizuru, Ling, Cloud of Darkness, Luka, Cecil, Exdeath
Other Back burner: Gilgamesh, Delita, Maxwell, BC Lid, Vaan

I'm thinking that Elza and Lightning are the weak links of my team right now, so once I get Olive leveled up, I have to decide who to replace.  Lightning is nice for Crushing Blow/Thunderfall, but Elza's Ravaging Blow basically doubles damage when it's not resisted.  That said, I should probably also put my Genji Glove on Noctis instead of Elza.

Elza is still a real winning character for my party for Arenas thanks to Lance, if nothing else.

[Captain K]

Beat Gilgamesh Trial.  Easier than I was anticipating.

Bartz (Dualwield Trident+Golem Staff):  He did nothing but Gale Barrage every turn
Luneth (Diabolos, Man Eater ability, Chirajiden, Vernaard, 600 attack):  He did nothing but Cut Through every turn
Refia (Dualcast):  Curajaed, Full Lifed
Ling (evasion build):  Mostly Invigorating Danced, occasional revival or aoe status cure
Cecil (7000 hp):  Provoked, Earthen Walled, used LB, Curaja
Friend Noctis (900 attack, Excalibur, did not have any Man Eater equips):  He Warp Breaked every turn, until he ran out of MP.

Got the kill with limit burst mission, almost got the no items mission.  I had to burn a Phoenix Down when Gilgamesh spent an entire turn attacking Refia and nobody else - killed her from full HP.  Ling's MP healing was enough to keep everyone going except Noctis, who badly wishes he had auto-refresh.

I don't see myself beating 5-man mission anytime soon.  I need the extra person for elemental coverage and Ling is too valuable to exclude.

[Magic Fanatic]

Dropped 13 more tickets on the Olive banner to see if I could get a few more Shines while they're still rate up last night.  I got...  Another Shera, two Chizurus, and one Shine.  Victory?

03/13/2017 EDIT: "Let's do my daily draw to see what I get."
Rainbow.
"Oh hey cool, probably Ramza so I can start TM Farming a Brave Suit."
Nope!  Enjoy having Olive!

And that's the story about how I now have two Olives.  Not entirely sure whether this makes me lucky or unlucky, since I have nowhere near the characters needed to properly TM farm for two Olives.  Heck, I barely have enough to TM Farm for one, and I'm still missing Ramzas for his Brave Suit, and I only have three units that can give me ATK+30% Materias.