So, thinking about honing Lifesiphon for Lightning now that I have Crushing Blow. Is R3 enough, or should I dig into my small stockpile for R4? Is that worth using Ace Striker over Dragoon's Determination? As it's only a 6.5x it seems like it might be not unless I'm hitting weakness.
I have two copies of lifesiphon at R4 and I super regret it. I would much rather three copies at R3. Most fight s don't last long enough, unless you're not using your second ability at all.
I'm not really having misconceptions about the SSBs. I'm merely commenting on the numbers I see from their base hits. Obviously you can stretch the numbers with buffs and debuffs. My post was merely about the raw numbers I'm seeing.
Edit: because honestly the raw numbers are what matter. It's easier to compare baselines than maximum potential, because max potential requires a whole lot of other factors outside of just what the character brings to the table by themselves.
I assume you mean RM2s. Which are you hunting for? Half need to be in certain realms and a few need to be in specific story dungeons.
They are pretty rare, but at least it's one and done.
Currently fishing for Rinoa aaannnd... I just looked up the others and they don't have 'em yet. (Josef can get bent for now, and I haven't unlocked Cargo Ship for Cloud.)
So, thinking about honing Lifesiphon for Lightning now that I have Crushing Blow. Is R3 enough, or should I dig into my small stockpile for R4? Is that worth using Ace Striker over Dragoon's Determination? As it's only a 6.5x it seems like it might be not unless I'm hitting weakness.
I've been using CB a long time. R3 is good enough 95% of the time assuming your 2nd ability doesn't blow. Since she can use spellstrikes, pound, tempo flurry, etc I'm sure you can manage that. Ace Striker isn't worth it. You want DD or +20% damage if you have plenty of ATK.
This. Yes and no. Once you factor in things like 50% attack from PP/Shout, it actually becomes very easy to hit soft cap. Most weapons now at 5* are in the rough range of 115-125 base attack. If you cap Rosetta Stone augments on your weapon, that's another +20. Wear an item that increases attack (typically bracers) for another 18-21 attack. By now, you should have an accessory that gives 30 ATK as well. And all this barring realm synergy. The number to hit is 393 attack pre-50% buff. With Locke at 177 attack (SSB +10 bonus), you're only 30ish points shy of hitting the soft cap. If you're going with realm synergy, you've already hit it. Even without realm synergy, I would say Ace Striker becomes more important to use than DD or 20% damage. You'll be able to build SBs faster and putting them out more often in a fight than the missing 30 or so attack would add from other skills as you build an SB the normal way. 32k damage per SSB over what, 4-5K?
Like... he's my best DPS guy now. And I don't even have a Boostga. At full health he's doing about 4k damage per hit. 8 hits at 4k damage is about 32000 damage on one turn. I just cleared a FFVI elite dungeon and he was hitting 7k per hit with his record synergy. That's 56k damage in a single turn in a RS realm. That's just nuts. And again, that's without Boostga. And at full health. I always try to keep my party topped off, so I doubt I'll ever see the scaling aspect of his SSB come into play. At least not intentionally. But man.
Just... with Boostga, there's going to be a very high chance of him hitting all 9's for 8 attacks.
Welcome to SSB land.
Well this isn't my first SSB. Or even my 2nd. But the power creep / differential is pretty absurd.
My first ever SSB was Cardinal. It does 5 hits of non-elemental magic damage. I'd say on average, Rinoa will do about 2500 per hit. That's 12.5k total. I'm talking about every-day numbers here, not record synergy. So Rinoa is doing 12.5k with Wishing Star. And that's also to random targets.
My 2nd ever SSB was PCecil's Lustrous Blade. And Saint's Fall is 3 hits for about 4k apiece. So he also does roughly 12k. Typically I'm only bringing PCecil for fights in which the boss has a holy weakness, and against a holy weakness, he pretty much caps all 9's. So that's 30k against a holy weakness enemy. Best case scenario.
I've got Red's Stardust Ray, and this isn't a pure damage ability since it also buffs. But it does 10 hits for roughtly 1200 each. Against random targets. That puts red at around 12k damage.
And then I've got my Valiant Knife. At full health in any realm I'm doing 32k to a single target.
The power differential is just crazy.
Eh it's a bit misleading. Valiant knife for instance has a 1.0 ATK modifer on each attack and further scales by HP loss. Rinoa's Wishing star is 5 attacks of 3.6 modifier. But we're comparing ATK vs MAG here so a lot is going to depend on your stats. Red XIII's stardust ray by comparison is a .78 modifier on each attack.
You can't really just read off the damage numbers you did and get any sort of idea of how the abilities actually stack up. For instance Red XIII's attack scales off his attack, which given that he can't use Sword, katanas, or spears will likely be on the lower side (Unless you have some good synergy gloves which is typically how I roll him)
In any event, if we are talking about scaling, the "best" damaging SBs out there are still Magitek Missile and Wishing Star. If you want to include BSBs then you can add Yuna's new Trigger happy to the mix. They all have a total multiplier of 18. However Trigger Happy and Magitek Missiles have a higher damage ceiling given that they are 10 attacks vs the 5 of Wishing star. Wishing star however is much easier to hit the 9999 cap with on each hit given the higher multiplier on each attack.
If you want a more real world comparison, Valiant Strike is tied with Fenrir Overdrive at an 8 multiplier which it also shares with Stormlance Grimoire and Blasting zone. It's important to note though that Valiant Strike and Fenrir Overdrive can do more overall damage than the other two given that they have 8 hits to the 4 of the latter two. But it's easier to hit the cap with the latter two as they have higher individual hit modifiers. (good luck hitting the cap with Tyro though, his stats are atrocious....)
Basically there hasn't been that much creep with the SSBs themselves, and the BSBs are on par as well if not for the augmented attack/defend commands + haste that really make them more powerful. It all comes down to what stats you can build on them and how you can maximize their potential on your team. Magitek Missiles seems a bit lackluster until you use Full Break+Mental Breakdown+Magic Boost for your team, then you can see it hit for 6-7k a hit (70k total damage) on some fights.
For @silence1186 and anyone else looking for Aurochs Reels for the Ultimate Leblanc fight, my non-PA friend threw his Wakka up as his RW for a couple of days. Sadly, his Wakka is only 57, but I imagine the guaranteed chance to blind and poison is the real value here, rather than the damage.
Has anyone figured out a good way to use Lightning's Stormborn? If I ever have 3 bars I can use it then two CBs. In practice that seems extremely rare. I'm running Dragoon's determination or some other damage RM and I have two bars during a weak phase tops it seems.
If you have Crushing Blow then it becomes extremely niche (like many SBs that get replaced with better ones). I can think of a couple scenarios. These assume you're up against a single enemy since CB's AoE means it's almost always better to use it instead in any other situation.
1: The enemy does not resist or absorb lightning attacks, and the enemy uses powerful lightning attacks. In this case you'll benefit from both the damage boost and the elemental resistance. Probably the enemy isn't weak to lightning in this case either, which means you're probably not hitting the damage cap with Thundaga Strike yet.
2: You ran out of ability uses for Lightning against a lightning-vulnerable enemy, you're hasted, and the battle still has a ways to go. This assumes Thunder Strike would do at or close to the damage cap, while CB would also be doing the damage cap with each hit. You'll probably be slightly better off with Stormborn in this case, but the difference is probably negligible honestly.
Triptycho: A card-and-dice tabletop indie RPG currently in development and playtesting
I think I saw a mathcraft for an element-neutral scenario that put Stormborn->Crushing Blow as slightly better than Crushing Blow x2 if you are going to throw in some Thundara strikes to take advantage of the element enhance. But yeah, in general it's pretty niche.
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silence1186Character shields down!As a wingmanRegistered Userregular
Decided to beat the Nightmare fights since I was tired of farming and wanted to use my shiny new SSB for Lightning. Oh my god having a physical SSB is so nice even if it's not that good of one. Was fun hitting for 9999 x5 vs Spherimorph too. Garnet's Hastega is also A+ would Haste again. Still thinking about one more foolish pull on Banner 5 for SG (4th Cardinal inc), but even if I don't get it, I'm pretty happy with SSBfest.
As an aside, Liquid Flame might be the easiest 100+ difficulty fight in the entire game.
+1
BeastehTHAT WOULD NOTKILL DRACULARegistered Userregular
Decided to beat the Nightmare fights since I was tired of farming and wanted to use my shiny new SSB for Lightning. Oh my god having a physical SSB is so nice even if it's not that good of one. Was fun hitting for 9999 x5 vs Spherimorph too. Garnet's Hastega is also A+ would Haste again. Still thinking about one more foolish pull on Banner 5 for SG (4th Cardinal inc), but even if I don't get it, I'm pretty happy with SSBfest.
As an aside, Liquid Flame might be the easiest 100+ difficulty fight in the entire game.
Crushing Blow is very good. If by chance you draw Agrias Shield, the bonus to lightning damage will turn it into an AoE SSB that will hit as hard as a single target SSB.
Decided to beat the Nightmare fights since I was tired of farming and wanted to use my shiny new SSB for Lightning. Oh my god having a physical SSB is so nice even if it's not that good of one. Was fun hitting for 9999 x5 vs Spherimorph too. Garnet's Hastega is also A+ would Haste again. Still thinking about one more foolish pull on Banner 5 for SG (4th Cardinal inc), but even if I don't get it, I'm pretty happy with SSBfest.
As an aside, Liquid Flame might be the easiest 100+ difficulty fight in the entire game.
Crushing Blow is very good. If by chance you draw Agrias Shield, the bonus to lightning damage will turn it into an AoE SSB that will hit as hard as a single target SSB.
Oh I know. I want it so bad. I just meant it's not as good for most fights as stuff like Valiant Knife or Excalibur since those get the 8x and additional bonuses. Lightning's is just 6.5x and that's it. It's obviously still great and I'm thrilled to have pulled Peacemaker (though less so for the 2nd one!).
I want Agrias's shield probably more than I want Ramza's sword or armor, and certainly more than her SSB. I know both are fantastic, but like SG, they're workhorses, not sexy shininess. Agrias's shield is a nice break SB for her AND provides that tasty lightning boost to go with my first and only offensive SSB.
ArcTangent on
+1
IlpalaJust this guy, y'knowTexasRegistered Userregular
Yea I didn't know that about the shield and it is probably my most desired item on this banner now.
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Fuck Joe Manchin
I've got 250 mithril ready to go for FFT in 2.5 hours. But I'm not going to blow all of that tonight.
I don't know how this game seeds its RNG, but my general drawing strategy is that I'll probably drop 100 tonight, and depending on how things go, if I need to make more draws, I'll wait and draw again on Tuesday for probably another 100. And if at that point I still need to draw again I will spend my last 50 on Wednesday.
I figure if I spread it out like that, even if my RNG seed is bad tonight, I'll maybe hit a good seed on a different day. I dunno. A lot of RNG uses the date/time to seed because it's simple to do it that way.
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silence1186Character shields down!As a wingmanRegistered Userregular
I've got 250 mithril ready to go for FFT in 2.5 hours. But I'm not going to blow all of that tonight.
I don't know how this game seeds its RNG, but my general drawing strategy is that I'll probably drop 100 tonight, and depending on how things go, if I need to make more draws, I'll wait and draw again on Tuesday for probably another 100. And if at that point I still need to draw again I will spend my last 50 on Wednesday.
I figure if I spread it out like that, even if my RNG seed is bad tonight, I'll maybe hit a good seed on a different day. I dunno. A lot of RNG uses the date/time to seed because it's simple to do it that way.
They're only making 1000 of each Soul Break Relic! Draw as much as possible, as fast as possible, before they're all gone forever!
I'm pretty sure the seed is determined by the the time.
Beat the Nightmare by accident. Figured I'd give it a shot with a team I lobbed together just to give it a look. And then he died. Was real busted and Tyro basically did nothing except cast RW twice and Firaja twice because it's only rank 1.
I'll be separated from technology from shortly before to about an hour after the banner starts, so good luck everyone and I'll see you on the other side!
I've got 250 mithril ready to go for FFT in 2.5 hours. But I'm not going to blow all of that tonight.
I don't know how this game seeds its RNG, but my general drawing strategy is that I'll probably drop 100 tonight, and depending on how things go, if I need to make more draws, I'll wait and draw again on Tuesday for probably another 100. And if at that point I still need to draw again I will spend my last 50 on Wednesday.
I figure if I spread it out like that, even if my RNG seed is bad tonight, I'll maybe hit a good seed on a different day. I dunno. A lot of RNG uses the date/time to seed because it's simple to do it that way.
Time based seeds work at the second level at an absolute minimum, possibly millisecond or microsecond. There is no way to game the system via seed time. The scale of difference between the seeds won't be relevant.
IOW don't fall victim to computer superstition!
Triptycho: A card-and-dice tabletop indie RPG currently in development and playtesting
Also, the draws are preformed by the server, not your client, and it's a constantly running process that probably only changes its seed after a maintenance reboot anyway. Not that that matters because every time it needs to RNG anything whatsoever, the position in the random table updates.
Triptycho: A card-and-dice tabletop indie RPG currently in development and playtesting
Well, flipped a coin if I should pull one more time or not. Coin said yes, and I ended up with Steiner's sword. I am more than ok with this, my existing best physical weapon in 9 is a 4* dagger.
I had to reset my run on Nightmare Ultima Buster a bunch, to re roll my RW, so I appreciate the fight only costing 1 stamina.
Protip: When you need a certain RW, save your battle team as a favorite. Then, create a team where every member needs a random drop RM. Play the 1 stamina level in FFIV, quitting after each battle, until you get the RW you were after.
I want Agrias's shield probably more than I want Ramza's sword or armor, and certainly more than her SSB. I know both are fantastic, but like SG, they're workhorses, not sexy shininess. Agrias's shield is a nice break SB for her AND provides that tasty lightning boost to go with my first and only offensive SSB.
Welcome to the club! It may not be the most mathematically sound decision but it's what we want damnit! I've got my fully aug'ed 6* lightning steel. I need the shield to complete the set! Then I dump my remaining mythril on Celes' excalibur because she's my absolute favorite. Then it's back to saving for Lightning's BSSB whenever that is.
FFRK:jWwH RW:Onion Knight's Sage USB
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IlpalaJust this guy, y'knowTexasRegistered Userregular
It won't be long now.
Friends, it has been a privilege hoarding with you.
FF XIV - Qih'to Furishu (on Siren), Battle.Net - Ilpala#1975
Switch - SW-7373-3669-3011
Fuck Joe Manchin
I'm going to squeeze the last drop out of materialfest at a couple minutes til the hour, then after that I think my next goal is to go get Cloud's stupid RM2 so I can start the arduous process of trying to farm his RM3 (probably by clearing the trash stages of Tactics)
Ok 20 minutes to go. Maybe someone can tell me how I can salvage my FFXIII playthrough. Which I started after pulling Peacemaker. I made it Gran Pulse, saved Hope's stupid butt, and now the game is no longer linear and is stupid hard. I feel like I finally have to dink the upgrade system which to me is the least appealing and most unfun thing in the game. The only way I can make it through battles is by customizing my paradigm deck before each one. And these are like random encounters we're talking. Way too tedious. What am I doing wrong?
Posts
I have two copies of lifesiphon at R4 and I super regret it. I would much rather three copies at R3. Most fight s don't last long enough, unless you're not using your second ability at all.
Firion's not as good as P. Cecil, as a character, but in the upcoming Shout meta more hits = more better.
Edit: Read the PDF and stop having misconceptions about relative power levels of SSBs http://happypluto.com/~misterp/r/ffrk.pdf
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Edit: because honestly the raw numbers are what matter. It's easier to compare baselines than maximum potential, because max potential requires a whole lot of other factors outside of just what the character brings to the table by themselves.
Currently fishing for Rinoa aaannnd... I just looked up the others and they don't have 'em yet. (Josef can get bent for now, and I haven't unlocked Cargo Ship for Cloud.)
I am smart. SMRT that spells smart.
This. Yes and no. Once you factor in things like 50% attack from PP/Shout, it actually becomes very easy to hit soft cap. Most weapons now at 5* are in the rough range of 115-125 base attack. If you cap Rosetta Stone augments on your weapon, that's another +20. Wear an item that increases attack (typically bracers) for another 18-21 attack. By now, you should have an accessory that gives 30 ATK as well. And all this barring realm synergy. The number to hit is 393 attack pre-50% buff. With Locke at 177 attack (SSB +10 bonus), you're only 30ish points shy of hitting the soft cap. If you're going with realm synergy, you've already hit it. Even without realm synergy, I would say Ace Striker becomes more important to use than DD or 20% damage. You'll be able to build SBs faster and putting them out more often in a fight than the missing 30 or so attack would add from other skills as you build an SB the normal way. 32k damage per SSB over what, 4-5K?
Steam: TheArcadeBear
Eh it's a bit misleading. Valiant knife for instance has a 1.0 ATK modifer on each attack and further scales by HP loss. Rinoa's Wishing star is 5 attacks of 3.6 modifier. But we're comparing ATK vs MAG here so a lot is going to depend on your stats. Red XIII's stardust ray by comparison is a .78 modifier on each attack.
You can't really just read off the damage numbers you did and get any sort of idea of how the abilities actually stack up. For instance Red XIII's attack scales off his attack, which given that he can't use Sword, katanas, or spears will likely be on the lower side (Unless you have some good synergy gloves which is typically how I roll him)
In any event, if we are talking about scaling, the "best" damaging SBs out there are still Magitek Missile and Wishing Star. If you want to include BSBs then you can add Yuna's new Trigger happy to the mix. They all have a total multiplier of 18. However Trigger Happy and Magitek Missiles have a higher damage ceiling given that they are 10 attacks vs the 5 of Wishing star. Wishing star however is much easier to hit the 9999 cap with on each hit given the higher multiplier on each attack.
If you want a more real world comparison, Valiant Strike is tied with Fenrir Overdrive at an 8 multiplier which it also shares with Stormlance Grimoire and Blasting zone. It's important to note though that Valiant Strike and Fenrir Overdrive can do more overall damage than the other two given that they have 8 hits to the 4 of the latter two. But it's easier to hit the cap with the latter two as they have higher individual hit modifiers. (good luck hitting the cap with Tyro though, his stats are atrocious....)
Basically there hasn't been that much creep with the SSBs themselves, and the BSBs are on par as well if not for the augmented attack/defend commands + haste that really make them more powerful. It all comes down to what stats you can build on them and how you can maximize their potential on your team. Magitek Missiles seems a bit lackluster until you use Full Break+Mental Breakdown+Magic Boost for your team, then you can see it hit for 6-7k a hit (70k total damage) on some fights.
In short, don't try and compare them by the numbers you are seeing, it's not going to give you an actual idea, instead use actual resources like this: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/16K1Zryyxrh7vdKVF1f7eRrUAOC5wuzvC3q2gFLch6LQ/edit?usp=sharing from people who have gone out of their way to record exactly this information.
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I'll have enough mythril to do 3 pulls by the end of it, I think.
Thank goodness, I wasn't sure how I was gonna pull if they split it into two.
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7pLs
Steam: TheArcadeBear
1: The enemy does not resist or absorb lightning attacks, and the enemy uses powerful lightning attacks. In this case you'll benefit from both the damage boost and the elemental resistance. Probably the enemy isn't weak to lightning in this case either, which means you're probably not hitting the damage cap with Thundaga Strike yet.
2: You ran out of ability uses for Lightning against a lightning-vulnerable enemy, you're hasted, and the battle still has a ways to go. This assumes Thunder Strike would do at or close to the damage cap, while CB would also be doing the damage cap with each hit. You'll probably be slightly better off with Stormborn in this case, but the difference is probably negligible honestly.
As an aside, Liquid Flame might be the easiest 100+ difficulty fight in the entire game.
Crushing Blow is very good. If by chance you draw Agrias Shield, the bonus to lightning damage will turn it into an AoE SSB that will hit as hard as a single target SSB.
Oh I know. I want it so bad. I just meant it's not as good for most fights as stuff like Valiant Knife or Excalibur since those get the 8x and additional bonuses. Lightning's is just 6.5x and that's it. It's obviously still great and I'm thrilled to have pulled Peacemaker (though less so for the 2nd one!).
I so shouldn't.
Switch - SW-7373-3669-3011
Fuck Joe Manchin
I don't know how this game seeds its RNG, but my general drawing strategy is that I'll probably drop 100 tonight, and depending on how things go, if I need to make more draws, I'll wait and draw again on Tuesday for probably another 100. And if at that point I still need to draw again I will spend my last 50 on Wednesday.
I figure if I spread it out like that, even if my RNG seed is bad tonight, I'll maybe hit a good seed on a different day. I dunno. A lot of RNG uses the date/time to seed because it's simple to do it that way.
They're only making 1000 of each Soul Break Relic! Draw as much as possible, as fast as possible, before they're all gone forever!
I do have a lot of mage synergy though.
Inquisitor77: Rius, you are Sisyphus and melee Wizard is your boulder
Tube: This must be what it felt like to be an Iraqi when Saddam was killed
Bookish Stickers - Mrs. Rius' Etsy shop with bumper stickers and vinyl decals.
IOW don't fall victim to computer superstition!
Or spread it out over a few days and let the despair slowly build up?
Those are basically your options.
Hornless will lead us to victory!
Protip: When you need a certain RW, save your battle team as a favorite. Then, create a team where every member needs a random drop RM. Play the 1 stamina level in FFIV, quitting after each battle, until you get the RW you were after.
I'm going to blow my mythril so quickly they'll name compulsive gambling conditions after me.
Welcome to the club! It may not be the most mathematically sound decision but it's what we want damnit! I've got my fully aug'ed 6* lightning steel. I need the shield to complete the set! Then I dump my remaining mythril on Celes' excalibur because she's my absolute favorite. Then it's back to saving for Lightning's BSSB whenever that is.
Friends, it has been a privilege hoarding with you.
Switch - SW-7373-3669-3011
Fuck Joe Manchin