Final Fantasy Dimensions - Of frogs and water scorpions
With the Dragoon chapter sidequests finally out of the way, it's back to Rusalka to advance the main plot. At this point I can go to three different locations: the Glacial Cave (Shiva), the Feywood, or Mt. Rusalka, with the last being where the plot wants me to go. I'm bad at following directions.
Glacial Cave: I could talk about enemies here, though it's mostly "use fire a lot". Dragoon's fire breath is a decent option, more on dragoon later. However, there's one (quite common) enemy here which makes this dungeon extremely painful: the Ice Lizard, which often uses Binding Attack, i.e. paralyse. Remember what paralyse does? It means I lose as it gets refreshed until I die. I do occasionally get lucky and recover but it requires about 3-4 solid rounds of not being hit by it again and yeah that's just a crapshoot. Looking ahead, I get paralysis immunity next chapter, so I'll wait for that and come back. Shiva isn't going to be doing anything Ramuh can't in this chapter, anyway, as the key element for the big plot dungeon is lightning.
Forest of the Fey: Not much to do here, so I just raid it for treasure. Since I actually run low on MP here unlike Pirate Island, I switch to my new fighter job of choice, Dragoon. Dragoon is great on a solo since while you're in the air, enemy attacks can't redirect to your buddies; they just fail. Obviously healing or buffing enemies will be a problem but there are none in this chapter. Jump even ignores Row, so I can hang out in the back row and do rather solid damage, typically slightly more than a ST -ara. Jump has a charge time (in addition to the time in the air) and there's no MT option, and of course it means my Sylph is weaker, but still a good place to be. The breaths are neat options too; they're the same power as an -ara hitting two targets (so outdamage -aras against more than two) with no charge time, for the same MP cost. Pretty nice! Dragoon Int isn't so hot but this can be ported to mage jobs as a solid secondary.
Anyway, the enemies here aren't too impressive. The Plant Spider sometimes uses paralyse with Constrict, though relatively rarely fortunately (and its accuracy is so-so); they die first with prejudice (Fira and Jump both OHKO). Bloodfangs are wolves and have stun, like their predecessors; fortunately they don't appear in numbers as large and doesn't use it as often, so they aren't as bad. The Gilbird is a rare enemy who often just runs and when it doesn't will sometimes use confuse or sleep. I try to kill 'em and once get lucky enough to land two Bios (they absorb all elements and have high evade of both types) which kills it. 1000 gil is more trouble than it's worth, probably, but oh well.
Mt. Rusalka: Plant Spiders make a return unfortunately; they're joined by Mandrakes who also have a fire weakness and Constrict. Both die first; Jump OHKOs, as does mage Fire Breath for the MT. Diorits scare me with their petrify attack; fortunately it is slow-petrify so it's not a big deal. There are a few new bulky enemies here too; repeated Jumps or -ara spam see them off. I probably should have used Break on some of them (IIRC it works on most things at this point, and certainly costs less than mulitple -ara spells), but I forgot.
Weresolider - The Weresoldier is a lot like Bikke, in that he hits hard and doesn't do much else (some of it is MT; good thing I don't care). He is the first boss in the game who immunes Slow! Unfortunate. Between his slow immunity and the fact that I now have Auto-Protect, my tide-turning utility spells no longer have use, so the plan is simple: hit him with -ara spells and cast Sylph when HP falls below 900 or so. He's quite a bit easier than Bikke because he doesn't do that thing where he summons support, although the fact that he can doubleturn me means I do have to stay awake during the fight for sure.
I have Teleport, which means I don't have to walk out of this dungeon! Yay.
Rusalka Sewers - You do this dungeon as frogs, who always do 1 damage. Bees have 2 HP and pathetic offence, Mice have 5 HP and somewhat better offence. Don't fuck with mice. Anyway this is easy obviously. If it were actually hard I would switch to Jobless and equip Eduardo's harp on the way out, but it isn't so I don't.
Back to the Forest of the Fey for a boss fight. Randoms get roflstomped.
Vortex x3 (2 resets) - "Vortex is a boss, but it's only a little stronger than monsters around here." ~FF wiki, spouting pure bullshit
There are three of them, they have 2000 HP and resist the big elements. They're reasonably quick and barrage with Water spells which do around 350; if all three of them use it that's half my HP as a Red Mage. Sylph gets used a lot. They also have confuse (I equip to block that after the first reset; confuse applied by mages is nasty) and silence which sucks because I have to waste a turn curing it; fortunately silence isn't too common and does miss sometimes. Non-magic healing just isn't nearly good enough here, so Dragoon doesn't cut it (not to mention they can't block confuse). Element resistance means Bio gets used for offence; I use it MT at first then realise that's a bad plan since getting one down is more important. Once one is down the fight becomes mostly safe. Sylph's damage really adds up in a meaningful way for this fight; possibly for the last time? My level is in the high 40's by now; I forget to note it.
Underwater Temple: As you'd expect, a lot of lightning weakness in this dungeon. Unfortunately Lightning Breath is the L4 from Dragoon so I don't have it at first, though I do get it by the dungeon's end. Dragoon works great here because they have a lightning spear, and then get the Coral Sword early on which is great at this point.
Anemones inflict sleep, which gives more dangeroue enemies time to be scary, but are pure physical otherwise so can't exploit it themselves. Several enemies in this dngeon can inflict poison: Sea Snakes, Conus (theirs the deadly "Toxify" version), and Water Scorpions (more on those assholes later); this makes the Star Pendant a decent consideration over Auto-Protect.
Scattered through the dungeon are four Nereid mini-bosses. They use Sleep and Temptation (MT confuse, shaky accuracy), and Blizzara for around 350 as their main offence. Sleep + magic is dangerous! They do have a physical, but it's none too common. I never actually die to one; I go Dragoon with HP+20% (which gives me a ridiculous 3500+ HP total) and just Jump and hope for the best and it always works, but I do get a good scare once or twice.
No, it's a random, the Water Scorpion, which is the main problem. They're not weak to lightning but are still fragile enough to die to one Jump or Ramuh or ST -ara. (Usually.) They can use damage that adds poison or... Death Needle. It's not a counter, they can use it any time they want, even turn 1. If that hits and I'm hit with anything else, I die. They don't fight alone ever, always in formations with at least 3, sometimes there is more than one Water Scorpion at once. Obviously they are the absolute highest priority but every fight with them is still a diceroll. They only appear in the floors after the first Nereid fight, but once they start appearing I eventually figure out Summoner gives me the best chance, since one Ramuh takes multiple out at once, meaning I just need to survive one round without them using it (or Sylph/a Hi-Potion if they do, both dicy in their own way since Hi-Potion doesn't heal much and Sylph has a charge time; I use an X-Potion once in a pinch far from a save point). Sadly I can't yet port Ramuh to a faster job; L2 Summon is weirdly far into the Summoner job.
Styx (2 resets) - The last General revealed is the token female. She is also the first one to immune Slow, joining Weresolider in what is largely a trend from now on. Oh well.
Styx can use Mini, Frog, physicals, and Water, preferring Water by far. The statuses make her physicals hit harder though are still weaker than Water to the back row; Frog is also annoying as you might expect. Water does somewhere over 500 to my Red Mage's 2400 HP, a 5HKO. Styx is quite fast so using Sylph whenever my HP drops below 1100 is essential. Sylph is again by far the most practical way to do this, as other healing options (except my highly limited X-Potions) aren't nearly good enough. Once below half HP or so Styx starts using Undine Cry, which is notable for being MT, but here is slightly weaker than Water. It sets Sap, though, so it's not really a downgrade even on a solo.
One reset needed to equip a White Cape (blocks frog and mini for good measure), one is just execution. I use a single Ether; Styx has 15000 HP (roughly double any previous boss) but a lightning weakness to exploit keeps it from feeling too terrible. She does counter lightning with MT stun (turn reset) but that is conveniently useless against a solo!
There's a plot fight with her afterwards but there's not much to say about it. Pirates to the rescue; Bard chapter complete!
Current progress:
Dusk Level 50
Red Mage L7
Black Mage L5
Dragoon L4
Warrior L3
Summoner L2
Monk L1
