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Rius
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Final Fantasy Record Keeper
(Inspirational Imagery courtesy of ArcTangent)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbAOQrH7MHMPast Thread Silence1186 wrote:How naive I was about this little game.Naive, past Silence1186 wrote:[Final Fantasy Record Keeper] Is actually a pretty fun mobile free-to-play game for iOS and Android. It's not perfect by any means, but it's a HUGE improvement over such duds as All The Bravest. It's a walk down memory lane with a simple ATB style combat system with a surprising amount of depth and strategy. There is a new event every week, featuring your favorite characters and stages from Final Fantasy history, so it never gets old, and it IS free to try, so give it a shot if you have some time to spare. Just don't give them any of your money.
This is the thread for talking about Square Enix's F2P Mobile game Final Fantasy Record Keeper (FFRK) for iOS and Android. Initially met with skepticism after some of SE's lackluster F2P entries in the past, it has grown in scope and popularity to the point where it gets as much discussion as any other mainline Final Fantasy game.
The game features a pretty basic Active Time Battle system. You can take up to 5 characters, made up of all your favorites from past games (and one original starter character) as you journey through the cliff notes version of all the Final Fantasy games. Each Final Fantasy game is a world, made up of dungeons with several stages. Each stage requires you to spend stamina to attempt them. Stamina recharges at a rate of 1 every 3 minutes. There are also limited time events that occur every week featuring additional stages, characters, and rewards.
There is a surprising depth of strategy to this game, as each character can equip different combinations of equipment and abilities, allowing for many different approaches to tackling some of the at times quite intense challenges. Characters and equipment also get bonuses if you match them to the world you're in (for example, Cloud gets a bonus in FF7 stages, as does anyone equipping his Buster Sword).
The F2P comes in the form of the in-game currency, Mythril, which allows you to pull powerful relics from reward banners. Mythril also allows you to recharge stamina, and to try again if you happen to be defeated in a stage. You can spend real money on Gems which have the same function as Mythril, though refreshingly for a F2P game it's possible to clear all content without spending a dime. This is thanks to several quality of life features implemented by DeNa, chief among them the Friend Summon system. Additionally, rather generous amounts of free Mythril are available between a combination of login bonuses, stage completions, event participation and quest completion.
Tips and information for new players starting out;
1) Quests.
From the home screen, the Missions button in the upper-right features Wayfarer, Normal and Special missions. The Wayfarer missions are meant for new players and will guide you to some of the game's basic features, as well as giving you some nice ability and item rewards. Move on to the Normal missions from there. Special missions are not in the game yet, but will involve high difficulty content when they arrive.
2) Stamina.
You can see the current / maximum stamina numerically in the upper right corner of your Home screen. Below that is an orange bar that shows the same thing, but below that bar is a set of 5 hexagons representing your current Stamina Shards. When you get 5 Stamina Shards, you refill your stamina to full and your maximum goes up by 1. The filled in hexagons show you how many stamina shards you have towards the next stamina refill and maximum +1. It is to your benefit to collect that fifth shard when you're running out or empty of Stamina. Efficiency is good!
3)Record Info.
When reading about the record in question, several tabs will be available with story, reward and boss info. Here you can read about the story background, rewards, and boss strategies as well as any medal requirements.
Upon completing any given stage in a record, your performance will be ranked. For any stage without a boss, you can earn up to 9 medals. You will lose medals if more than one party member dies, or if the party takes too much damage or uses too many actions to clear the stage. Earn enough medals and you will gain the Expert or Champion rating for the stage, which provides 150% and 200% experience, respectively.
Upon finishing the entire record, there are 3 reward levels; Completion, First Time Completion and Mastery. You can get the Completion bonus every time you complete that record. However, the other two can only be achieved once and typically include excellent rewards. To attain Mastery rewards, you must have earned 83.33% (5/6th) of all medals within the record. Remember those boss medal requirements? Each gives 3 medals if completed or 0 medals if not, so for records with few or only one stage, boss medal requirements can be crucial for obtaining Mastery rewards.
4) Realm Synergy.
Every character and every item comes from a specific realm. When you go into a record for a realm, characters from that realm are treated as if they are 10 levels higher. Items from that realm are significantly boosted in stats, provided the item itself is leveled up. If you're going into an FFVII record, it's a good idea to bring Cloud. It's a great idea to bring someone carrying the Buster Sword. It's a fantastic idea to bring Cloud carrying his own Buster Sword!
The boost from synergized items is stronger than the boost from synergized characters, so it's good to collect and maintain a spread of items from all realms. You will accumulate this over time, so don't worry too much.
5) Events.
Typically, there's 1 or 2 events running at any given time. These events start at a very low difficulty that even first day players can participate in, and end at very high difficulties that even longtime veterans can have trouble with. Rewards for completing event stages can include new or returning characters and their Memory Crystals (used to break level caps), weapons, armor or accessories from the event's realm, orbs, upgrade materials and of course Mythril. Events typically run for about two weeks and overlap, and you should definitely try to complete as much of each event as possible.
6) Hall of Rites.
The Hall of Rites is a new feature where characters, their MC1s and their MC2s can be obtained. At times you will receive, typically as event stage rewards, Souls of a Hero (redeem for any characters, Memory Crystal Lode 1s (redeem for any MC1) and Memory Crystal Lode 2s (redeem for any MC2.)
7) Record Dive.
The Record Dive system allows you to power up certain characters who have reached level 65, adding small amounts of stat points, percentage boosts to certain types of abilities, adding or increasing ability ranks or adding additional equipment options. The available powerups are different for each eligible character. You unlock these power ups by expending Motes, which are a special type of currency obtained from a variety of sources including Event rewards.
8) Daily Dungeons.
Each day has a specific set of 1 or 2 dungeons. You can only get the First Time Completion and Mastery rewards once, same as the records, and those rewards don't refresh from week to week. So if you complete a stage of the Sunday dungeon, next Sunday it will still show them as all completed (though you could still farm the dungeon for normal drops or experience.)
Monday through Saturday, the daily dungeons have rewards for and can be used to farm orbs, upgrade materials or Gil. The Sunday dungeons feature battles with a tremendous amount of experience. To put it into some context, A + difficulty stage of a Monday-Saturday dungeon gives around 10,000 exp to be split to the party, while the experience dungeon gives up to 100,000!
The daily dungeons now reward Gysahl Greens upon completion, and enemies have a small chance to drop additional Greens. These Greens can be exchanged for orbs, eggs, gil or upgrade materials at any time, and once per week the Special Shop will restock a variety of Major Orbs (at half price, relative to buying 10x Greaters), MC lodes and Mythril. Additional purchases may become available from time to time (accessories, items, etc.)
9) Nightmare Dungeons
A new feature to the game, the Nightmare area will be open for two weeks every month, and each month adds a new dungeon. All previously added dungeons are accessible at any time that Nightmare is, so don't worry, you can catch up eventually. The Nightmare dungeons feature a series of challenging boss fights, culminating in a special fight where all characters of a certain 5* ability will get full synergy for themselves and all equipped items, regardless of what realm they or the items are from! These final fights are like puzzles that must be solved and typically require planning and tactics instead of super powerful gear.
Completing the final boss of a Nightmare dungeon gives you a Record for a powerful 6* ability, which require 6* crystals to make. These crystals are currently very slow to acquire, but eventually they will be farmable from high difficulty bosses.
10) Relics.
The Relics page, accessible via shortcut on the bottom right of most screens, is where one can "pull" from a variety of "banners" for items. Banner pulls are always at least 3* rarity, with a lesser chance at 4* rarity and a ~13% chance at 5* rarity. Doing so costs Mythril (in game currency) or Gems (purchased with real $$$).
Banners are typically linked to current Events, and every banner has featured 5* relics. If you're lucky enough to pull a 5* item, most of the time it will be one of the featured relics, but there's still a chance it won't be.
One can do a single pull for 5 Mythril, a triple pull for 15 Mythril or an 11 pull for 50 Mythril. Single pulls allow you to stop if you're lucky and hit something you wanted, but 11 pulls give you the most bang for your metaphorical buck. Your odds of drawing a 5* item are the same no matter how many items you pull at once and no matter which currency you use to pay for them.
From the home screen, the Missions button in the upper-right features Wayfarer, Normal and Special missions. The Wayfarer missions are meant for new players and will guide you to some of the game's basic features, as well as giving you some nice ability and item rewards. Move on to the Normal missions from there. Special missions are not in the game yet, but will involve high difficulty content when they arrive.
2) Stamina.
You can see the current / maximum stamina numerically in the upper right corner of your Home screen. Below that is an orange bar that shows the same thing, but below that bar is a set of 5 hexagons representing your current Stamina Shards. When you get 5 Stamina Shards, you refill your stamina to full and your maximum goes up by 1. The filled in hexagons show you how many stamina shards you have towards the next stamina refill and maximum +1. It is to your benefit to collect that fifth shard when you're running out or empty of Stamina. Efficiency is good!
3)Record Info.
When reading about the record in question, several tabs will be available with story, reward and boss info. Here you can read about the story background, rewards, and boss strategies as well as any medal requirements.
Upon completing any given stage in a record, your performance will be ranked. For any stage without a boss, you can earn up to 9 medals. You will lose medals if more than one party member dies, or if the party takes too much damage or uses too many actions to clear the stage. Earn enough medals and you will gain the Expert or Champion rating for the stage, which provides 150% and 200% experience, respectively.
Upon finishing the entire record, there are 3 reward levels; Completion, First Time Completion and Mastery. You can get the Completion bonus every time you complete that record. However, the other two can only be achieved once and typically include excellent rewards. To attain Mastery rewards, you must have earned 83.33% (5/6th) of all medals within the record. Remember those boss medal requirements? Each gives 3 medals if completed or 0 medals if not, so for records with few or only one stage, boss medal requirements can be crucial for obtaining Mastery rewards.
4) Realm Synergy.
Every character and every item comes from a specific realm. When you go into a record for a realm, characters from that realm are treated as if they are 10 levels higher. Items from that realm are significantly boosted in stats, provided the item itself is leveled up. If you're going into an FFVII record, it's a good idea to bring Cloud. It's a great idea to bring someone carrying the Buster Sword. It's a fantastic idea to bring Cloud carrying his own Buster Sword!
The boost from synergized items is stronger than the boost from synergized characters, so it's good to collect and maintain a spread of items from all realms. You will accumulate this over time, so don't worry too much.
5) Events.
Typically, there's 1 or 2 events running at any given time. These events start at a very low difficulty that even first day players can participate in, and end at very high difficulties that even longtime veterans can have trouble with. Rewards for completing event stages can include new or returning characters and their Memory Crystals (used to break level caps), weapons, armor or accessories from the event's realm, orbs, upgrade materials and of course Mythril. Events typically run for about two weeks and overlap, and you should definitely try to complete as much of each event as possible.
6) Hall of Rites.
The Hall of Rites is a new feature where characters, their MC1s and their MC2s can be obtained. At times you will receive, typically as event stage rewards, Souls of a Hero (redeem for any characters, Memory Crystal Lode 1s (redeem for any MC1) and Memory Crystal Lode 2s (redeem for any MC2.)
7) Record Dive.
The Record Dive system allows you to power up certain characters who have reached level 65, adding small amounts of stat points, percentage boosts to certain types of abilities, adding or increasing ability ranks or adding additional equipment options. The available powerups are different for each eligible character. You unlock these power ups by expending Motes, which are a special type of currency obtained from a variety of sources including Event rewards.
8) Daily Dungeons.
Each day has a specific set of 1 or 2 dungeons. You can only get the First Time Completion and Mastery rewards once, same as the records, and those rewards don't refresh from week to week. So if you complete a stage of the Sunday dungeon, next Sunday it will still show them as all completed (though you could still farm the dungeon for normal drops or experience.)
Monday through Saturday, the daily dungeons have rewards for and can be used to farm orbs, upgrade materials or Gil. The Sunday dungeons feature battles with a tremendous amount of experience. To put it into some context, A + difficulty stage of a Monday-Saturday dungeon gives around 10,000 exp to be split to the party, while the experience dungeon gives up to 100,000!
The daily dungeons now reward Gysahl Greens upon completion, and enemies have a small chance to drop additional Greens. These Greens can be exchanged for orbs, eggs, gil or upgrade materials at any time, and once per week the Special Shop will restock a variety of Major Orbs (at half price, relative to buying 10x Greaters), MC lodes and Mythril. Additional purchases may become available from time to time (accessories, items, etc.)
9) Nightmare Dungeons
A new feature to the game, the Nightmare area will be open for two weeks every month, and each month adds a new dungeon. All previously added dungeons are accessible at any time that Nightmare is, so don't worry, you can catch up eventually. The Nightmare dungeons feature a series of challenging boss fights, culminating in a special fight where all characters of a certain 5* ability will get full synergy for themselves and all equipped items, regardless of what realm they or the items are from! These final fights are like puzzles that must be solved and typically require planning and tactics instead of super powerful gear.
Completing the final boss of a Nightmare dungeon gives you a Record for a powerful 6* ability, which require 6* crystals to make. These crystals are currently very slow to acquire, but eventually they will be farmable from high difficulty bosses.
10) Relics.
The Relics page, accessible via shortcut on the bottom right of most screens, is where one can "pull" from a variety of "banners" for items. Banner pulls are always at least 3* rarity, with a lesser chance at 4* rarity and a ~13% chance at 5* rarity. Doing so costs Mythril (in game currency) or Gems (purchased with real $$$).
Banners are typically linked to current Events, and every banner has featured 5* relics. If you're lucky enough to pull a 5* item, most of the time it will be one of the featured relics, but there's still a chance it won't be.
One can do a single pull for 5 Mythril, a triple pull for 15 Mythril or an 11 pull for 50 Mythril. Single pulls allow you to stop if you're lucky and hit something you wanted, but 11 pulls give you the most bang for your metaphorical buck. Your odds of drawing a 5* item are the same no matter how many items you pull at once and no matter which currency you use to pay for them.
FFRK Acronyms 101
MC - Memory Crystal [Item to break a characters level 50 limit. MC2 is used to break their level 65 limit.]
RM - Record Materia [New equipment type once MC is used. RM slot unlocked by breaking characters levels. RMs are acquired from level broken characters in a variety of ways]
SB - Soul Break [Think Limit Break from FF7, new ones can be learned by character specific 5* relics]
SG/SSII - Sentinel Grimoire/Stone Skin 2 [Also refereed to as Walls, either is a massive defensive SB]
SSB - Super Soul Break [Like an SB except they will also bestow a permanent stat up to the specific character when learned]
BSSB -Burst Super Soul Break [Like an SSB except it changes Attack and Defense commands to something else for a limited time]
M_O/G_O - Major Orbs/Greater Orbs [the middle _ represents which type of orb between Fire, Ice, Lightning, Earth, Non-Elemental, Dark, Holy, White, Black, Power, Summon]
_*++ - Blank is a number 1-5 which represents an items base rank (not combined). Every plus after the * represents how much its been combined. [A 3*++ will show up as a 5* in game but will be only about as powerful as a 4*. Rule of thumb is every item combination adds about half a rarity level of power.]
RS - Realm Synergy [Character or Item matches dungeons realm ie Cloud in FF7 dungeon or Blitzballs in FFX dungeon. This adds about 10 levels of stats to a character or about a rarity level in power to an item]
How can I learn more?
Mister P's PDF is a compilation of super useful information about FFRK. Ability damage multipliers, character skillsets, super break details, upcoming event information, etc etc.
Kongbakpao has a ton of useful information about a ton of things. Tons!
A while ago, FFRK added a friend summon system. We have a spreadsheet here you can plug your friend code into, and find the friend code of other PAers. In this spoiler is the old list of codes for reference purposes.
92th - El Fantastico 9BSW - jdarksun 9X5G - grove 9rRG - mackenzier 9EBA - Zerozaki Ishiki 913F - shamus e7U2 - silence1186 9wC6 - Bluecyan er3u - ResIpsaLoquitur eSvR - Ilpala 99ZD - DrCongo ecfN - Delphinidaes ehpD - SutibunRi e4XB - Maytag QNeN - Enlong 9w7W - Billmaan QdTv - SwashbucklerXX GNqD - shoeboxjeddy q7h5 - lionheart_m 9QDP - urahonky Qjtu - BaywatchDave GckH - Shadowfire 3sWN - A steak! 2EZ6 - Cirira q4X6 - romantic undead 7gNG - peetsnack zcsi - initiatefailure Q4Dd - korodullin GbSH - Geddoe f7MM - maguano 3EnU - manetherenwolf Fofd - savant u6BN - Rius
Inquisitor77: Rius, you are Sisyphus and melee Wizard is your boulder
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Bookish Stickers - Mrs. Rius' Etsy shop with bumper stickers and vinyl decals.
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Dr. Mog's Beginner's Choice - This banner can only be pulled on once, and only with an 11-pull. It has the standard odds for getting a 5* relic, and the featured relics have either;
- Character Soul Breaks for characters unlocked very early
- Shared Soul Breaks that are useful for any party (AoE Heal, Protectga, Shellga)
- Shared Soul Breaks that provide AoE attacks
Additionally, after pulling on the banner you can choose one 5* relic from a predetermined list. The list includes one relic from each realm and has some duds and some great picks. Most notable among them is Stormlance Grimoire, which is an SSB strength relic for Tyro that's exclusive to this banner.Keeper's Choice Volume 1 - This banner can be pulled on up to 5 times, each for an 11-pull. It has the standard odds for getting a 5* relic, and the featured relics are all SSB strength. Additionally, after pulling on the banner you can choose one 5* relic from a predetermined list. These are generally a much better selection than Dr. Mog's Beginner's Choice, with Ramza's Armor likely at the top in terms of usefulness.
Celerity Nightmare - A one-time half-price 11 pull is available on this banner, with standard 5* rates. Any 5* relics drawn are guaranteed to be for characters with 5* Celerity in their skillset.
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New Player Hone Recommendations:
Mitigation is king in the game and never stops being useful, so Shellga, Protectga, Power Breakdown, and Magic Breakdown should be at the top of the priority list. The regular breaks are useful too, just because a different set of characters can use them. AoE Mitigation (without damage) is offered by the Dancer line; 3* dances match up with 3* breaks, 4* with 4* breakdowns, etc. Good Dancers include Faris, Lenna, Penelo, Cait Sith, Mog, Rikku and Yuffie. Bards have their own 4* abilities which are identical to Protectga and Shellga.
Abusing Retaliate's mechanics can cheese you through a LOT of content and it's a 2* ability, so is incredibly cheap to hone up. You can pair it with Draw Fire (also cheap) for extra cheese with cheese on top. Give the rest of your team copies of Double Cut or Tempo Flurry and use them against your Retaliator.
Self Boosts are useful to increase a character's damage before you pull relics with Party Boosts. Many jobs have access to them; Monks have Punishing Palm which deals damage and increases ATK, Samurai have Mirror of Equity which does the same. Thieves have Steal Power which doesn't do damage but does debuff the target's ATK at the same strength as Power Breakdown. Casters with at least 4* Darkness can use Memento Mori which increases MAG but also Dooms the caster.
If you want to get into Black Magic, start with the Water line in each tier as opposed to fire/lightning/ice; Water is infrequently resisted and easier to hone than the primary elements are. Plus it casts faster, so it does more damage over time not counting resistance/weakness.
If you want to get into Summoning, the 3* primary element ones are good. As for 4*, Carbuncle is occasionally useful at R1, Maduin is always useful where AoE is needed and Orthros is good if you're heavily stacking MAG and have synergy. With regard to elemental 4* summons, the good ones are Alexander, Leviathan and Fat Chocobo.
With regard to White Magic, Curaga will suffice until it doesn't (party level ~55-60+). Renewing Cure is an alternative that heals for less than Curaga but applies Low Regen. Memento of Prayer applies Low Regen to the entire party. The Dia line is really only viable if the target is weak to Holy or if you pick up some MND gear/RMs and +Holy% gear.
With regard to Status Effects, the Machinist line is a series of 4* abilities that have a high chance to apply a status effect, and deal additional damage if the target already has that effect. White Magic has access to high proc chance Slow and Silence, while Black Magic has access to high proc chance Blind.
With regard to Spellblades, the 3* abilities are fine. It's not really necessary to push into the 4* ones.
After that, it all depends on your relic pulls. We're at a point in the game where pretty much every smaller population job is fleshed out with 3*, 4* and 5* abilities, so there's plenty to choose from.
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.
So yeah, Rydia event, kind of?
If I had any spears other than a Trident (XII) ++ (so a 4 combined to a 6) I would consider using Dragoons, but as it stands I have nothing to make them even remotely appealing over such options as Pecil (BSB), Ramza (Shout), Tyro (SG), Relm (Portrait of Lakshmi), Zack (ChainCharge + Apocalypse), Agrias (both SB and SSB), Balthier (Strahl Strafe) or Yuffie (Clear Tranquil). I'd love to, I have always been a huge fan of Dragoons, from Kain in FFIV to the Lancer class in Tactics to FFXIV, but it's super hard to justify when I have the options I do. Fang's upcoming SSB is really appealing to me, but the rest of the banner it shows up on is full of things I don't want so I can't even justify trying for it.
Poor Dragoons, I want to use them, I really do. I just can't justify it right now.
Though, with those SB options, I can see your dilemma.
For a knight.
Who has 0* in Dragoon.
Maybe Mog could be my dragoon. Someday.
I ran out against Leviathan/Asura with good RS and Paladin Force providing major damage, but I also wasn't using BotW. Well, and I have no SBs for Kain. It'd be a good candidate for an RWed BSB like Tyro's to stretch things out a bit.
Well in my case, Dragoon Jump would be the majority of damage for any Dragoon I would bring to a fight. I literally have zero relics for Dragoons, and only a single generic spear (a decent number of swords). There is not a single Dragoon stock soul break that is going to contribute meaningful damage in a fight, and I have a lot of other really good options (primary choices being Cecil with Paladin Force, Zack with ChainCharge and Apocalypse, Balthier with lifesiphon into Strahl Strafe, or Agrias with Cleansing Strike for maximum mitigation). It is going to take something significant to displace any of those, and while BotW + Dragoon Jump is quite likely on par with Balthier at least, it requires an investment I cannot make at this time, and might not want to make because I can use those orbs and that gil for other things.
Kain r3 botm, r3 dd, lancet, power pulse
P cecil, r3 banishing strike, r3 saints cross, radiant wings, pride of the red wings
Porom, r2 shellga, r5 curaja, shared medica, white mage prodigy
Edward, r2 full break, r3 magic breakdown, shared protectga, rebels might
Golbez, r5 draw fire, r4 armor break, shared medica, lionheart
RW shout
The idea was, hit asura with fb and armor break once, then keep mitigation on levi. Kill asura asap. Once down, redo all mitigation and shout, only use banishing strike and botw until levi is 60% ish, then do as much damage as possible. I ran out of all skills for edward and kain, pcecil had one banishing strike left.
Golbez: draw fire, armor break asura, defend. Use shared medica when needed.
Kain: shout, then botw, dd, dd repeat.
Pcecil: banishing strike. SC unless banishing is needed on asura.
Edward: mb levi, fb asura, fb asura, keep mitigation on levi.
Porom: shellga, heal as needed, reapply shellga after two dispelled, so they don't die to levi.
When asura dies, redo all mitigation, cast protectga when available, then hope for good rng.
What a huge pain in the butt. Hardly worth the gray hair, bloodshot eyes and major fire orbs.
That's pretty much my plan, only with Gilgamesh - keep orbs ready to hone BotW/DJ, and keep motes ready to get 5* Dragoon. If I ever get a good SB (or any SB, really) for a native 5* Dragoon that might change.
Now that we know the mote dungeons come back monthly, it's not such a big deal. Put it off until the power creep makes it much more managable like people have been doing for stuff like the white mage Nightmare.
Yeah the upcoming FF8 event banners are full of things with ice element, and the Mote Dungeon with Ifrit should open up while those banners are active.
Obviously, the W-BSB fest is a great goal to save for, and depending on how much they space things out between now and then, that event will either be a Fall event within as little as 3 months, probably landing somewhere in October, or else they might push it all the way to Christmas/New Years and use it as the holiday celebration. Last year we got a SSB fest during that same period, plus an Orb Fest at the same time.
So looking at the W-BSB fest, I have noticed that each banner is themed this time. I hadn't noticed that before.
Banner 1 - Monks
Banner 2 - Samurai and Spellblades
Banner 3 - Thieves and Ninjas
Banner 4 - Knights
Banner 5 - Dragoons and Supports
And they also have a healer banner listed on that event, but that healer banner does not have any BSB's and I'm not entirely sure what it's true place is. It doesn't appear to have actually been a part of the W-BSB event.
Reviewing the list above, Mages and Summoners are curiously missing. Everything in the W-BSB fest is physical.
So back on topic to the things I want and how I should plan my future mithril expenditures.
I really want Jecht's BSB. I'm probably going to try to dump as much as 200 mithril on that.
But honestly, for me personally, the rest of those banners aren't that appealing. I'm already set for physical. I've got 4 BSB's now - Cecil, Squall, Lightning, and Cloud. I've also got native Shout and both native Walls. And all of Zack's relics, plus Valiant Knife for Locke and Wyvern Lance for Kain. I'm in a very good place physical.
What I need, really, is to start kitting out a mage team. But do I want to do that through BSB's in the next few events? Rinoa's BSB drops in the very next event, and while I haven't looked it up yet, I'm sure it's bound to be good because Rinoa's stuff is almost always really good. As a side note - when I got Cloud's BSB I was actually pulling for Terra's BSB because I wanted a mage weapon. But obviously I didn't get hers. I'm happy to have Cloud's though.
Other than that, it looks like the next mage BSB will be Hope's. And then after that the PDF seems to be blank for stats and characters.
So should I just blow a bit on Rinoa's BSB in a few days and then save up for Jecht, and then save again for the OSB fest? Oh, and I'm probably gonna want to drop 100-150 on Noel when he comes out. One other consideration, when the next FFT event dropped in Japan a few months ago, I remember y'all talking about how nice Ramza's BSB looks. I like Ramza and FFT in general, but I mean, is there ever going to be an opportunity to use a BSB on him? Start every fight with Mako might and a turn 1 Shout. Then build meter back up, which usually completes just in time to refresh Shout. Unless they give us a way to begin with 2 bars of meter, I just don't see myself using Ramza's BSB like ever.
Are there any other breakout BSB's that you guys would recommend for those who have studied more than I have? Or are OSB's the way of the future and I should just start saving to pull for those?
Honestly, for a few extra 4* motes (unless they change the rewards), I don't think it's worth the cost of however much mythril you think you need to dump into it to make it worthwhile. Unless you've just been pulling every good relic for FF8 before now, if there was one Cid Mission to not sweat over, this would be the one.
Steam: TheArcadeBear
Mage parties I think are only just now starting to regain a place in the game in Japan, even with the chain spells they release. It makes them a bit more viable in the meantime, but the meta is still heavily in favor of physical parties, and the only time to bring mages are for vulnerability exploitations, or Cid Missions, and if you're going to Cid Mission, that means having your mages for all realms leveled up, and possibly with a realm synergy weapon since the RES on bosses is still stratospherically high and every little bit helps, particularly because mages still have a hard time hitting the soft cap. In other words, building a mage team is going to take a fair bit of mythril pulling and a lot of luck.
Looking at the double-BSB fest myself, all I want out of it is Cecil's BSB. If I don't get it, I know 3 months later, I can get the equally game-breaking Kain BSB from the next FFIV event, which is probably one of the better physical BSBs to watch out for, right in the midst of the dawn of OSBs.
Steam: TheArcadeBear
Steam: TheArcadeBear
I gather that every VIII banner that's happened to date in JP has been significantly powercreeped from the last, and they all have tons of stuff that works well for that dungeon - seems like almost everybody in VIII is eventually getting a "lots of hits of ice damage" soul break. So just don't ever pull :P
Re: Ramza BSB
Seems fine if you don't have other Ramza relics, but I don't know that I'd use it over Shout. 5.85/5 AOE holy damage, party +100% DEF, commands are 2.5/2 banishing strike and "grant 80 soul break points to a target." Spending a turn to give someone 1/5 of a meter doesn't seem all that exciting to me. Not sure if he can use it on himself; if he can, 80 points + 50 points from using the command is still less than the 150 that Lifesiphon would generate (and the command doesn't deal damage). The main benefit seems like the party +100% DEF, which will certainly be nice when it's relevant.
But I'm pulling on Banner 1 and praying for Laguna's relic.
Still attempting the Ultimate+ CM, but for whatever reason I can't access my friend list when it goes to RW select. It's just a full list of random players. I'm waiting to here back from customer support. On pause until then.
Did you happen to already exhaust your entire list of friends for the day? Because that's a thing (I've had it happen when grinding cheap dungeons for RM drops, or during Orbfest refreshes).
PSA: Kain's default SB will eat a charge of Blood of the Wyvern for no effect. Usually you don't want to use that SB, but I was about out of actions and in the back row, so SB charge time for 1.4 damage seemed better than regular charge time for 0.5 damage.
Second time with my A-team, and 6 layers of magic mitigation meant that deluge was doing 3-400 damage per cast. The roughest part was dealing with Asura's dispels. Hated those quite a bit.
If I don't want to waste BOTW charges on Double Jump (then again, I have 4 more BOTW than I need to use all my drag jumps), should I be using Fang? She has a self-boost SB, but I'm guessing that makes her weaker if she's under the effect of Shout at the time?
If you're doing a marathon fight where you'll actually need Kain's default SB for damage output, just plan ahead and don't spam down to the minimum number of Blood for your remaining Dragoon Jumps. Or do, but remember to cast the SB after two consecutive DJs, so you don't have an active Blood effect to waste.
This one might be a toughie.
Inquisitor77: Rius, you are Sisyphus and melee Wizard is your boulder
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Blind too, so you can focus on magic mitigation.
Finally time for native MG8 to shine!
My RS is pretty poor though. Generic sword, meh dog thrower, a whip, and some random 4*++ things. But at least I can use a double boosted Saint Cross. That should be good for at least something.
His only physical ability is the normal "attack". He's almost entirely magic, which is a bit helpful because it's easier to stack mitigation.
Steam: TheArcadeBear
So I wouldn't necessarily try to build a mage team with the current BSBs, though they are of course solid items. I think that the ones that give an elemental aura are just flat out better, though, and those start with Hope. The most interesting ones to me are Ashe, Maria and Hope, though Vivi's is also quite good and gives you an excellent AOE option. Rinoa and Terra have very similar BSBs that have reliable damage on any enemy with two elements plus the non-elemental option, so their minimum effectiveness is higher but their ceiling is lower.
Platinum Sword does show up again on the second banner of the next Tactics event, which is about 5 weeks away.
I view the Cid missions like this:
Do I have the characters needed already leveled up?
Do I have the abilities i'll likely need?
Do I have decent relics/SBs to bring?
If yes to all of the above i'll give it a shot. If I can egg a character or two to fulfill the conditions, i'll give it a shot. If the ability I need just need an extra rank of hones, maaaaybe i'll do it.
Other than that it's not worth the couple major orbs and I don't feel bad about skipping them, unless it's orbs I REALLY need and am willing to sacrifice a bunch for.
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