Also mastered Ultima Weapon (1 medal lost for each of damage and KOs), but that was relatively straightforward. Onion Knight summoned Beatrix BSB RW for the imperil holy and used his SSB for wallbreak, Minfilia had her BSB, Agrias brought mitigation stacking (Cleansing Strike) and Saint Cross, Ramza Shouted, and Y'shtola was on Wall duty (no BSB after 4 pulls, still no healer BSB, I am a sad panda). OK and Agrias died at the end (no Medica, no Instant Heal and no OSB means Ultimate Doom HURTS), but Big Ugly went down and Minfilia command 1 was doing 20k+, so the test for impromptu Holy team was a success. Might actually have been easier if I'd brought a healer with SSB medica instead of Y'shtola, since the really painful attacks ignored DEF and RES.
Pretty great that an Imperil will let you chain-cast a BSB that uses the same element.
Still trying to make Y'shtola work for me. Whichever SB I use first (SSII or AP), I feel like my team doesn't have enough defense or enough healing as I use Curaga or Wrath (respectively) and wait for another bar to charge, even when my team is geared for defensive stats. Even with Penelo using Intercession, to make up for the medica I don't have for Y'shtola, it's a thin line to walk. I'd use Ace Striker, but 3 turns without any defense buffs feels like suicide, even if it gets me to the second bar faster. I feel like I'd get more effectiveness out of her by equipping her with Shellga (and Braska with Protectga) and using SSII alone, than I do by trying to use both SBs.
And yet, people swear by her, and her use of Wrath. I feel like I'm missing something obvious.
I feel like SSII + AP is her worst combination, because you're stacking too much mitigation demand on one character.
Still trying to make Y'shtola work for me. Whichever SB I use first (SSII or AP), I feel like my team doesn't have enough defense or enough healing as I use Curaga or Wrath (respectively) and wait for another bar to charge, even when my team is geared for defensive stats. Even with Penelo using Intercession, to make up for the medica I don't have for Y'shtola, it's a thin line to walk. I'd use Ace Striker, but 3 turns without any defense buffs feels like suicide, even if it gets me to the second bar faster. I feel like I'd get more effectiveness out of her by equipping her with Shellga (and Braska with Protectga) and using SSII alone, than I do by trying to use both SBs.
And yet, people swear by her, and her use of Wrath. I feel like I'm missing something obvious.
I haven't done any math, but I can't imagine that waiting to get SSII and AP up is anywhere near as solid as SSII and the more relevant of Pro/Shell hard casted, as far as getting defense buffs up fast enough.
Or maybe give the important Pro/Shell to someone else on the team, giving you the early edge into SSII+AP once the weak phase starts.
Brody on
"I will write your name in the ruin of them. I will paint you across history in the color of their blood."
Well, what I can do is have her use SSII, and Braska use Summoner's Dream, and equip the two of them with Protectga or Shellga. And I'll give her Wrath for quicker re-ups of SSII if I only really need Protectga or Shellga, not both.
Then I can have someone RW VOF, and leave the Medica work to Dancin' Penelo. I'll keep AP on her bar, so that fights with a lot of meter build can still use it.
I have always considered Proshellga SBs to be hugely overrated. Although I suppose I'm blessed with paladin BSBs that make carrying the second ability pretty painless.
I have Tyro's BSB and I almost never use it unless I'm just desperate for magic blink.
Okay, Ultima Weapon down. Now to take care of the V Ultimate fights.
I've gotten enough mythril to do another pull. 3 dupes on banner 5 makes me not interested in that (and the COPIOUS amount of dupes on summoner banner for that one, too). XVI could stand for another pull, but it's not my worst synergy-wise and I've already got two healing BSBs and Thyrus, so I'm not feeling that.
Anything interesting coming up? Glancing at the XIII banners, I don't think I have ANYTHING from either of them, only have Thunder Gloves from the first IX banner (I think), and Thunder Gloves/Hamelin from the second.
Or I could save up and try for Shout and get a second Iga Blade/Grand Armor. :P
ProShellga soul breaks are fine, and can be quite useful if you have a need for Esuna or something else on your White Mage. They aren't generally my first choice, though.
I think the people talking about Wrath on Y'shtola are talking about using SS2 and her BSB, because SS2 and Aetherial Pulse is just a bad combination. As others have said, it's too much mitigation depending on one character. Aetherial Pulse and Medica II is also a solid combination that likely doesn't even need Wrath, but you could certainly use it since you don't need Protectga or Shellga in that situation.
Paladin BSBs are definitely super convenient, though. Being able to easily fit Protectga or Shellga on somebody whose hones you don't have to worry about is wonderful. So Pecil, Beatrix, Agrias, WoL and probably a few others (Ingus maybe?) can fill this role quite well.
I've been working through the 4 Wards (or whatever) fights and been using my mage team to good effect, though I'll probably swap to a physical team for the one that is weak to wind. Not a huge assortment of wind options for mages; I think it's just one ninja spell, an old soul break for Eiko and Alphinaud's BSB, plus of course the new summon from the FFXIV event.
Hmm. I suppose I could use Y'shtola (AP) and Tyro (SG) on a team. I'd probably have to RW a Medica or Healer BSB, which means forfeiting the use of VOF. Probably would use DMT on Tyro, MM on Papalymo (Leylines) or Krile (Sheepsong), and AS on Y'shtola. I think a turn-3 AP can work if I have Wall and maybe regen up as it's charging.
That's a lower DPS team, but that could work for high damage fights.
And I could always try foregoing the Medica RW and use VOF anyway, using Braska (SD) for Faithga. That much mitigation and regen could maybe remove the need for Medica. Thoughts?
Wow. Look at all those acronyms and slang terms. Imagine showing that to someone who knows nothing about the game.
FF13 banner 2 has Cid Raines' Holy/Dark BSB, as well as Hope's Holy OSB+BSB combo, if you're short on good caster BSBs.
FF9 banner 2 has Steiner's Imperil Fire SSB and En-Fire BSB, as well as Garnet's party MAG/DEF + 3k HP stock buff.
FF10 banner 1 has Yuna's "Summon Mode" BSB2, with entry Cura Medica + 30% MAG/MND, and her first command gives her a buff that makes her second command do a 4.8 AoE + party medica, and her first command do a 19.2/4 AoE and dismiss the buff.
Then it's Tactics time again, where the first banner has all of TG Cid's stuff.
FF4 banner 1 has Pecil's OSB, and Golbez' "Summon Mode" BSB which turns him into a heavy Draining mage tank.
That takes us out to mid-February or so? There's an FF8 event after that with Fujin aka "The Ninja Alphinaud" and Quistis "Yeah, I Summon DOOMTRAIN".
Still trying to make Y'shtola work for me. Whichever SB I use first (SSII or AP), I feel like my team doesn't have enough defense or enough healing as I use Curaga or Wrath (respectively) and wait for another bar to charge, even when my team is geared for defensive stats. Even with Penelo using Intercession, to make up for the medica I don't have for Y'shtola, it's a thin line to walk. I'd use Ace Striker, but 3 turns without any defense buffs feels like suicide, even if it gets me to the second bar faster. I feel like I'd get more effectiveness out of her by equipping her with Shellga (and Braska with Protectga) and using SSII alone, than I do by trying to use both SBs.
And yet, people swear by her, and her use of Wrath. I feel like I'm missing something obvious.
You mean Curaja, right? Because if you're still on Curaga, that's an easy upgrade that will help more than you might think.
I have always considered Proshellga SBs to be hugely overrated. Although I suppose I'm blessed with paladin BSBs that make carrying the second ability pretty painless.
I have Tyro's BSB and I almost never use it unless I'm just desperate for magic blink.
I used to think so, but then they introduced multiplayer, and man are ProShellga SBs good in MP.
I've been slowly pushing to harder stuff even though my team is in their 60-70s, and just waiting for a massive fail soon. How do the battles ramp up from + to ++ to whatever?
I've been slowly pushing to harder stuff even though my team is in their 60-70s, and just waiting for a massive fail soon. How do the battles ramp up from + to ++ to whatever?
I've managed to clear a number of U+ battles with a team in 60-70 range, with BSB/SSB support, but I have only tried U++ once, got my shit handed to me, and put it off.
"I will write your name in the ruin of them. I will paint you across history in the color of their blood."
38thDoelets never be stupid againwait lets always be stupid foreverRegistered Userregular
I remember when that site was good.
@Rius the only one I might pull on is VIII because I still have nothing for VIII. I might skip that too though and save for the anniversary. Healer BSB was my hole.
I've been slowly pushing to harder stuff even though my team is in their 60-70s, and just waiting for a massive fail soon. How do the battles ramp up from + to ++ to whatever?
If your team is built well (typically a healer with a medica and your best Cure spell, a support with breakdowns and Full Break if you have it, and protect/shell to match incoming damage) you should be able to clear through +++ with characters of that level. If the boss has an elemental weakness, you can often kill it or nearly kill it with a matching physical OSB as RW, otherwise I'd usually recommend picking up some sort of hastega with stacking buff as your RW (e.g. Shout, Vessel of Fate, Sheepsong). If all that goes well, go ahead and give the Ultimate a try; once you've cleared an Ultimate, it doesn't really hurt to try and fail on U+/U++ since those only cost 1 stamina.
Hey guys, I'm having a ton of fun with this game still but I just don't have time to optimize teams and number crunch to determine best combos and such. Basically, what I'm saying is, can you make me a team guys?
I'm sure there's some stuff I'm forgetting but these are the guys that get the most play. I figure I'm looking at a physical team here, though I love Terra, I don't have enough other good mages.
Vaan (BSB stuff and secondary support stuff)
Garnet (Dr Mog for hastega)
Celes (Mako for boostga and elemental coverage)
Tidus (Powerchain into BSBness)
Noel (Primary support + WhM4 for (pro/shell)ga as needed)
RW: Wall
That should tear apart most magic based fights. Tidus and Vaan are the flexest spots, especially Tidus, and especially if you have low hones on Powerchain. If something else has better a more relevant elemental, or equipment for the realm he can't use, he's the first to sub out. If it's a more physical fight, Auron would probably be a better pick than Vaan.
ArcTangent on
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BrodyThe WatchThe First ShoreRegistered Userregular
Vaan, Noel, Kain, Terra, Yshtola.
"I will write your name in the ruin of them. I will paint you across history in the color of their blood."
Hey guys, I'm having a ton of fun with this game still but I just don't have time to optimize teams and number crunch to determine best combos and such. Basically, what I'm saying is, can you make me a team guys?
I'm sure there's some stuff I'm forgetting but these are the guys that get the most play. I figure I'm looking at a physical team here, though I love Terra, I don't have enough other good mages.
Vaan BSB should be auto-include for you (stacking MAG/DEF break, commands are Magic Breakdown and Armor Breakdown). I don't see any Support 5 characters listed, so you probably want Noel BSB for its Full Breakdown effect, and its commands will cover Magic Breakdown and Power Breakdown.
Healer options, pick one:
Porom - RW either a Wall or a buff (e.g. Alphinaud's Deployment Tactics, Laguna's Visions of the Past, Minfilia's Blessing of Light)
Penelo - RW a hastega+buff. Vessel of Fate would be the choice, since it stacks with the +ATK from War Dance.
Yshtola - RW hastega+buff, probably Shout since it seems like the rest of what you have runs physical
Season with DPS characters to taste. Kain's great, especially if you have the 5* Lightning Dive honed to R2 or better. Tidus is also a great choice, with Sapphire Shot if you've honed it, otherwise just keep Lifesiphoning and cast the BSB again. Leon doesn't have a great ability to take advantage of his dark aura (Sanguine Cross and Reaping Scythe are both eh for various reasons) but Lifesiphon spam along with using his second command for another stacking ATK boost should still make him pretty effective. If you like Terra, stick her into one of the setups that has a magic boost (Vessel of Fate or Deployment Tactics) and she should function reasonably well. If you're RWing Vessel of Fate, have her call it (burst mode provides a significant bump to MAG) and use the second command (Swiftspell is pretty sick DPS all on its own).
Record Materia: give Dr. Mog's Teachings and Mako Might to Noel and your healer. Weapon damage +20% or +30% are good choices for your damage dealers, as would be Ace Striker/Battleforged for your hitters with elemental aura SBs. Put Devotion on Terra if you're using her.
Abilities: Protectga/Shellga as appropriate to the encounter, on your healer and Noel. Curaja in the other slot on your healer. After that, it's pretty much Lifesiphons for everybody, plus maybe a 5* skill to take advantage of elemental auras.
Hey guys, I'm having a ton of fun with this game still but I just don't have time to optimize teams and number crunch to determine best combos and such. Basically, what I'm saying is, can you make me a team guys?
I'm sure there's some stuff I'm forgetting but these are the guys that get the most play. I figure I'm looking at a physical team here, though I love Terra, I don't have enough other good mages.
The best way to approach these questions is this:
You have Dr. Mog's Teachings, Mako Might, and an RW. Between those three, primarily, you MUST have a Hastega and Boostga of some sort. Secondarily, you WANT to have Wall if possible (usually). Also, independently, a Medica on the team is a plus (although with Wall you can often do without to an extent, especially if you have Regen).
Your most straightfoward build is Y'shtola (Wall) plus RW Shout plus a pile of physical attackers. Very simple.
If you want a magic-heavy team, you could do a hybrid team with Celes + Y'shtola, RW Sheepsong/Ley Lines, and include Exdeath and Terra.
If a fight is loaded with def-piercing and Wall isn't working so well, you can go Celes + Garnet and RW a good Medica BSB.
After that, you fill the team with whoever will get you medal conditions, complement the fight's mechanics, or just do a lot of damage.
Vaan is probably your best "filler" character (i.e. not foundational to your boostga/hastega/wall pillars). Kain is probably your highest DPS if you have Lightning Dive. Gilgamesh can bring regen to the table to mitigate the fact that you might struggle to fit a proper Medica. Celes can carry Protectga or Shellga if you dive her (worth it). Exdeath can self-buff and slots into physical or hybrid parties easily if needed. Gilgamesh and Auron can tauntaliate. Tidus can Powerchain/Full Charge if you have the hones.
It's tough to go wrong with anything you have as long as the buff foundation is solid; it's just fine-tuning at that point.
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38thDoelets never be stupid againwait lets always be stupid foreverRegistered Userregular
I really like tyro OSB for rw. Sure it does negligible damage but it buffs every stack and stacks with everything I think.
Still trying to make Y'shtola work for me. Whichever SB I use first (SSII or AP), I feel like my team doesn't have enough defense or enough healing as I use Curaga or Wrath (respectively) and wait for another bar to charge, even when my team is geared for defensive stats. Even with Penelo using Intercession, to make up for the medica I don't have for Y'shtola, it's a thin line to walk. I'd use Ace Striker, but 3 turns without any defense buffs feels like suicide, even if it gets me to the second bar faster. I feel like I'd get more effectiveness out of her by equipping her with Shellga (and Braska with Protectga) and using SSII alone, than I do by trying to use both SBs.
And yet, people swear by her, and her use of Wrath. I feel like I'm missing something obvious.
You mean Curaja, right? Because if you're still on Curaga, that's an easy upgrade that will help more than you might think.
Still trying to make Y'shtola work for me. Whichever SB I use first (SSII or AP), I feel like my team doesn't have enough defense or enough healing as I use Curaga or Wrath (respectively) and wait for another bar to charge, even when my team is geared for defensive stats. Even with Penelo using Intercession, to make up for the medica I don't have for Y'shtola, it's a thin line to walk. I'd use Ace Striker, but 3 turns without any defense buffs feels like suicide, even if it gets me to the second bar faster. I feel like I'd get more effectiveness out of her by equipping her with Shellga (and Braska with Protectga) and using SSII alone, than I do by trying to use both SBs.
And yet, people swear by her, and her use of Wrath. I feel like I'm missing something obvious.
You mean Curaja, right? Because if you're still on Curaga, that's an easy upgrade that will help more than you might think.
I tried that Tyro and Y'shtola setup I mentioned before. It worked quite well, but it now occurs to me that, because I'm using Summoner's Dream (major Regen included), I could get the exact same effect of my turn 3 AP, in half the time, by giving Y'shtola and Braska Protectga and Shellga, casting the first on Yshtola's first then, and the second on Braska's second. I already had Protectga on Braska, and a slot of Y'shtola's was on Wrath. In which case I might as well use Arc instead of Y'shtola; he has a Medica, and she does not.
As far as I can see, there's only a few situations in which I can use Aetherial Pulse: if the situation absolutely calls for Braska to carry Dispel or some other WHM spell that isn't Shellga, and also calls for Proshell with similar necessity, or if survival in a fight requires an RW'd healer BSB, making me forgo Vessel of Fate and swap in Papalymo in Braska's place. Both are very specific edge cases.
I do like Y'shtola and would like to use her in the team more often, but that's about where things stand.
Kind of makes me want to scrape together another pull on the XIV banner, but that feels like a trap. I now have Thyrus, the doublet, the shield, the gloves, and the Omnirod. Leaving only the BSB items and Y'shtola's Medica II robe. The ratio of dupes to possible new items is too big, and that of undesirables to desirables is slightly worse than that.
Still trying to make Y'shtola work for me. Whichever SB I use first (SSII or AP), I feel like my team doesn't have enough defense or enough healing as I use Curaga or Wrath (respectively) and wait for another bar to charge, even when my team is geared for defensive stats. Even with Penelo using Intercession, to make up for the medica I don't have for Y'shtola, it's a thin line to walk. I'd use Ace Striker, but 3 turns without any defense buffs feels like suicide, even if it gets me to the second bar faster. I feel like I'd get more effectiveness out of her by equipping her with Shellga (and Braska with Protectga) and using SSII alone, than I do by trying to use both SBs.
And yet, people swear by her, and her use of Wrath. I feel like I'm missing something obvious.
You mean Curaja, right? Because if you're still on Curaga, that's an easy upgrade that will help more than you might think.
Yeah, I have Curaga. Typo.
Umm...
Either my phone's aurocorrect is extremely zealous, or I had the same brain lapse twice in a row. Both make sense.
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silence1186Character shields down!As a wingmanRegistered Userregular
@fry I really like your write ups. Going through your post I feel like I have a glimpse into the way you think, and it's super organized and clear.
In other happy news, mastered U+ Bartz CM with no character SBs, so I'm feeling a bit pleased with myself over that.
My only two SBs for FFV are Greg's Repentence, which does less damage than Saint's Cross, and Exdeath's SSB2, which is +30 MAG/RES, which is fine for a mage team, but I ended up going physical like I did last time.
Gilgamesh 80: 4+++ Giant's axe/Platinum Shield/Moderate KO Resist
Bartz 80: 4++ Hayate Bow/Thornlet++/Moderate KO Resist
Faris 80: 5* off-realm Bow/Crystal armor++/Major KO Resist
Exdeath 80: Enuo's Scourge/Genji Armor/Major KO Resist
Lenna 80: FFT shared SB staff/3++ Light Armor/Major KO Resist
I was super close to Exdeath mastering his SSB, so he ran his own staff for EXP instead of a shared SB medica rod. Probably a mistake, but it ended up not mattering. Everyone but Greg was in the back row, stacking DEF as high as possible, and KO resist for the Blue Mage Missiles. If you don't have the Regenerate shared SB staff, running Exdeath and Lenna both with shared Medicas is definitely viable.
With Exdeath's SSB2, maybe going mage meta with Maria BSB RW might've been better? It's still tricky because you can't DPS Bartz too fast, or else he chains Trueblade of Legend into Light of the Four, which is tons and tons of burst damage all at once to deal with.
Setup:
Gilgamesh: R3 Saint Cross/R3 Banishing Strike (+40% Knight damage)
Bartz: R3 Full Charge/R5 Armor Break (+10% ATK/DEF)
Faris: R2 Full Break/R4 Power Breakdown (+20% ATK and Sap)
Exdeath: R3 Curaga/R4 Drainga (dual cast White)
Lenna: R5 Curaja/R2 Protectga (Mako Might for turn 2 Regenerate shared SB)
RW: Shout (refreshed around 50%)
If I did it again, I'd probably give Exdeath Regenerate and Mako Might, and give Lenna a shared Medica and dual cast White, since she had the better Cure spell.
Still, Exdeath was doing ~4400 with Drainga (+Dark on his staff) and healing himself for ~1400, so it wasn't all bad. Lack of Medica made late in the fight scary at times. Definitely necessary having two healers.
Bartz and Faris were there to do damage and debuff after Bartz (the boss) buffed himself. I should probably have bit the bullet and R3'd Gaia Cross instead of bringing Saint Cross, since Quad Ranger Shots were often a S/L if they hit Lenna, but I'm cheap.
The other thing that helped was keeping track of damage until ~90k damage done and then ~210k damage done, since those are about the thresholds for Bartz to phase transition. When I knew I was close I could queue up a big damage attack on Greg or Bartz, and have everyone else pre-casting the abilities they needed to use right after Bartz wrecked the world.
Since I did this, I should be fine for the Torment CM, right? Right? *crickets*
Hey guys, I'm having a ton of fun with this game still but I just don't have time to optimize teams and number crunch to determine best combos and such. Basically, what I'm saying is, can you make me a team guys?
I'm sure there's some stuff I'm forgetting but these are the guys that get the most play. I figure I'm looking at a physical team here, though I love Terra, I don't have enough other good mages.
Ok I want to preface this with the fact the team I suggest is basically built to shoe horn Terra in there and have an awesome team.
I would run Celes, Vaan, Terra, Porom, and Noel. RW Wall or shout as needed. Give starting SBs to both Celes and Porom for haste + boost.
Terra Wrath up to use whichever combination of her SBs you like. Keep in mind the BSB while not the greatest does still offer +20% magic and +20% speed which is super nice. Give her Ace Striker or Battle Forged. She will be slow to start, but her damage will even out over medium length fights and became insane over long term ones.
Celes probably should stay away from Runic most times since it's the boost and faith for the team with a BSB. Since your entire team seems to have one an extra feel a less necessary with the natural bumps. A BSB + a 30% buff puts shout to shame honestly, but also stacks sooooo if you feel you can manage go for it. Saint's Cross will do huge damage for you here as well. If you record dive her you can turn her into a true Paladin and off load either protectga or shellga
Vaan I am not very familiar with but the general idea is build meter then dump damage and mitigation like a beast. Ninja cast speed means keeping it going won't be even a small problem. Armor breakdown will give you a great boost to physical damage as well.
Noel and Porom treat as standard role. Give Porom MM/DMT to start with haste and recast as needed. It is a curaga level heal so it should get you through all modern content save for Torment dungeons.
You can probably throw together something more mage-y too using Exdeath as a darkness mage and using Grandcross to help defensively. You could switch Porom for Garnet as well, but that would be harder to manage. Still with all the mitigation you could be running it might not matter.
Had a moment of weakness and I may have spent 100 mythril on OSOL5 in the hopes of getting OK's BSB (because it's kind of one of the best). Sadly, I turned up with 1x Bomb Core (dupe), 1x Soulrender, 1x Gabranth's Hauberk and 2x Physician's Staff. Basically no BSBs on the banner at all.
So now that I've learned a lesson, I'm going to aim for specific relics/banners. The Summoner lucky draw is still a big yes, but only one pull's worth because it's a little too loaded with items to chase when I want specifically, but what's present is all going to be useful in some way, shape or form.
FFXIII-Banner 2 was going to be a good candidate, but I have a good pair of Mage buffs and as good as Cid Raines' BSB is, because he becomes so self-sufficient, but only is capable of damage (which he does so well!) when for me, the real prize will be on FFXIII-Banner 1, chasing Vanille's healer burst. It's really looking like to clear any of these Torments, you need a dedicated wall, and a dedicated healer. Both of those being stacked on Y'shtola is a little too demanding and chaotic. If I had Tyro's SG (only available on Tyro's Choice 2 now) then I could deal with it, but I'd rather have Vanille's burst, and the first banner's not too bad besides.
Had a moment of weakness and I may have spent 100 mythril on OSOL5 in the hopes of getting OK's BSB (because it's kind of one of the best). Sadly, I turned up with 1x Bomb Core (dupe), 1x Soulrender, 1x Gabranth's Hauberk and 2x Physician's Staff. Basically no BSBs on the banner at all.
So now that I've learned a lesson, I'm going to aim for specific relics/banners. The Summoner lucky draw is still a big yes, but only one pull's worth because it's a little too loaded with items to chase when I want specifically, but what's present is all going to be useful in some way, shape or form.
FFXIII-Banner 2 was going to be a good candidate, but I have a good pair of Mage buffs and as good as Cid Raines' BSB is, because he becomes so self-sufficient, but only is capable of damage (which he does so well!) when for me, the real prize will be on FFXIII-Banner 1, chasing Vanille's healer burst. It's really looking like to clear any of these Torments, you need a dedicated wall, and a dedicated healer. Both of those being stacked on Y'shtola is a little too demanding and chaotic. If I had Tyro's SG (only available on Tyro's Choice 2 now) then I could deal with it, but I'd rather have Vanille's burst, and the first banner's not too bad besides.
With specific regard to Torment 250, I honestly don't think this is the case. And especially with regard to the combo of SSII and Asylum. You've got six waves of trash to do a handful of Wrath casts with an Ace Striker RM, and you can preload Wall before finishing off the sixth wave. Start the fight with an Asylum and the Stoneskin will give you breathing room to Wrath again a couple more times, and now you've got three bars plus whatever is generated through the rest of the fight.
Damn it, I keep hyping myself up for another pull on FF14 banner 1. I'm going to be weak-willed and do it before the banner goes away, I can almost guarantee it.
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Pretty great that an Imperil will let you chain-cast a BSB that uses the same element.
I feel like SSII + AP is her worst combination, because you're stacking too much mitigation demand on one character.
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I haven't done any math, but I can't imagine that waiting to get SSII and AP up is anywhere near as solid as SSII and the more relevant of Pro/Shell hard casted, as far as getting defense buffs up fast enough.
Or maybe give the important Pro/Shell to someone else on the team, giving you the early edge into SSII+AP once the weak phase starts.
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Well, what I can do is have her use SSII, and Braska use Summoner's Dream, and equip the two of them with Protectga or Shellga. And I'll give her Wrath for quicker re-ups of SSII if I only really need Protectga or Shellga, not both.
Then I can have someone RW VOF, and leave the Medica work to Dancin' Penelo. I'll keep AP on her bar, so that fights with a lot of meter build can still use it.
I have Tyro's BSB and I almost never use it unless I'm just desperate for magic blink.
I've gotten enough mythril to do another pull. 3 dupes on banner 5 makes me not interested in that (and the COPIOUS amount of dupes on summoner banner for that one, too). XVI could stand for another pull, but it's not my worst synergy-wise and I've already got two healing BSBs and Thyrus, so I'm not feeling that.
Anything interesting coming up? Glancing at the XIII banners, I don't think I have ANYTHING from either of them, only have Thunder Gloves from the first IX banner (I think), and Thunder Gloves/Hamelin from the second.
Or I could save up and try for Shout and get a second Iga Blade/Grand Armor. :P
I think the people talking about Wrath on Y'shtola are talking about using SS2 and her BSB, because SS2 and Aetherial Pulse is just a bad combination. As others have said, it's too much mitigation depending on one character. Aetherial Pulse and Medica II is also a solid combination that likely doesn't even need Wrath, but you could certainly use it since you don't need Protectga or Shellga in that situation.
Paladin BSBs are definitely super convenient, though. Being able to easily fit Protectga or Shellga on somebody whose hones you don't have to worry about is wonderful. So Pecil, Beatrix, Agrias, WoL and probably a few others (Ingus maybe?) can fill this role quite well.
I've been working through the 4 Wards (or whatever) fights and been using my mage team to good effect, though I'll probably swap to a physical team for the one that is weak to wind. Not a huge assortment of wind options for mages; I think it's just one ninja spell, an old soul break for Eiko and Alphinaud's BSB, plus of course the new summon from the FFXIV event.
That's a lower DPS team, but that could work for high damage fights.
And I could always try foregoing the Medica RW and use VOF anyway, using Braska (SD) for Faithga. That much mitigation and regen could maybe remove the need for Medica. Thoughts?
Wow. Look at all those acronyms and slang terms. Imagine showing that to someone who knows nothing about the game.
FF9 banner 2 has Steiner's Imperil Fire SSB and En-Fire BSB, as well as Garnet's party MAG/DEF + 3k HP stock buff.
FF10 banner 1 has Yuna's "Summon Mode" BSB2, with entry Cura Medica + 30% MAG/MND, and her first command gives her a buff that makes her second command do a 4.8 AoE + party medica, and her first command do a 19.2/4 AoE and dismiss the buff.
Then it's Tactics time again, where the first banner has all of TG Cid's stuff.
FF4 banner 1 has Pecil's OSB, and Golbez' "Summon Mode" BSB which turns him into a heavy Draining mage tank.
That takes us out to mid-February or so? There's an FF8 event after that with Fujin aka "The Ninja Alphinaud" and Quistis "Yeah, I Summon DOOMTRAIN".
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.
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.
You mean Curaja, right? Because if you're still on Curaga, that's an easy upgrade that will help more than you might think.
I used to think so, but then they introduced multiplayer, and man are ProShellga SBs good in MP.
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.
Its even more amusing when you have 8 Mako Mights, and the three healers all cast Protectga turn 1.
The Monster Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson
Steam: Korvalain
And fight is magic damage heavy.
I've managed to clear a number of U+ battles with a team in 60-70 range, with BSB/SSB support, but I have only tried U++ once, got my shit handed to me, and put it off.
The Monster Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson
Steam: Korvalain
A week ago most of these posts would have been pure gibberish to me.
Yes. Dungeon update is the 17th. XIV goes away on the 10th.
http://ffrk.kongbakpao.com/calendar-of-events/
@Rius the only one I might pull on is VIII because I still have nothing for VIII. I might skip that too though and save for the anniversary. Healer BSB was my hole.
38thDoE on steam
If your team is built well (typically a healer with a medica and your best Cure spell, a support with breakdowns and Full Break if you have it, and protect/shell to match incoming damage) you should be able to clear through +++ with characters of that level. If the boss has an elemental weakness, you can often kill it or nearly kill it with a matching physical OSB as RW, otherwise I'd usually recommend picking up some sort of hastega with stacking buff as your RW (e.g. Shout, Vessel of Fate, Sheepsong). If all that goes well, go ahead and give the Ultimate a try; once you've cleared an Ultimate, it doesn't really hurt to try and fail on U+/U++ since those only cost 1 stamina.
Here's what I'm working with:
BSBs:
Leon
Kain
Celes
Auron
Tidus
Vaan
Noel
SSBs / SBs of note:
Porom (Sync)
Exdeath (Grand Cross)
Gilgamesh (Faithful Companion)
Celes (Runic blade)
Tidus (Swiftform)
Penelo (War Dance)
Yshtola (Stoneskin II)
Terra (all)
Garnet (Divine Guardian)
Thancred (Jin-Chi-Ten)
I'm sure there's some stuff I'm forgetting but these are the guys that get the most play. I figure I'm looking at a physical team here, though I love Terra, I don't have enough other good mages.
Vaan (BSB stuff and secondary support stuff)
Garnet (Dr Mog for hastega)
Celes (Mako for boostga and elemental coverage)
Tidus (Powerchain into BSBness)
Noel (Primary support + WhM4 for (pro/shell)ga as needed)
RW: Wall
That should tear apart most magic based fights. Tidus and Vaan are the flexest spots, especially Tidus, and especially if you have low hones on Powerchain. If something else has better a more relevant elemental, or equipment for the realm he can't use, he's the first to sub out. If it's a more physical fight, Auron would probably be a better pick than Vaan.
The Monster Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson
Steam: Korvalain
Only if you're soloing it. Too much AoE past the first phase.
Vaan BSB should be auto-include for you (stacking MAG/DEF break, commands are Magic Breakdown and Armor Breakdown). I don't see any Support 5 characters listed, so you probably want Noel BSB for its Full Breakdown effect, and its commands will cover Magic Breakdown and Power Breakdown.
Healer options, pick one:
Porom - RW either a Wall or a buff (e.g. Alphinaud's Deployment Tactics, Laguna's Visions of the Past, Minfilia's Blessing of Light)
Penelo - RW a hastega+buff. Vessel of Fate would be the choice, since it stacks with the +ATK from War Dance.
Yshtola - RW hastega+buff, probably Shout since it seems like the rest of what you have runs physical
Season with DPS characters to taste. Kain's great, especially if you have the 5* Lightning Dive honed to R2 or better. Tidus is also a great choice, with Sapphire Shot if you've honed it, otherwise just keep Lifesiphoning and cast the BSB again. Leon doesn't have a great ability to take advantage of his dark aura (Sanguine Cross and Reaping Scythe are both eh for various reasons) but Lifesiphon spam along with using his second command for another stacking ATK boost should still make him pretty effective. If you like Terra, stick her into one of the setups that has a magic boost (Vessel of Fate or Deployment Tactics) and she should function reasonably well. If you're RWing Vessel of Fate, have her call it (burst mode provides a significant bump to MAG) and use the second command (Swiftspell is pretty sick DPS all on its own).
Record Materia: give Dr. Mog's Teachings and Mako Might to Noel and your healer. Weapon damage +20% or +30% are good choices for your damage dealers, as would be Ace Striker/Battleforged for your hitters with elemental aura SBs. Put Devotion on Terra if you're using her.
Abilities: Protectga/Shellga as appropriate to the encounter, on your healer and Noel. Curaja in the other slot on your healer. After that, it's pretty much Lifesiphons for everybody, plus maybe a 5* skill to take advantage of elemental auras.
Good luck!
You have Dr. Mog's Teachings, Mako Might, and an RW. Between those three, primarily, you MUST have a Hastega and Boostga of some sort. Secondarily, you WANT to have Wall if possible (usually). Also, independently, a Medica on the team is a plus (although with Wall you can often do without to an extent, especially if you have Regen).
Your most straightfoward build is Y'shtola (Wall) plus RW Shout plus a pile of physical attackers. Very simple.
If you want a magic-heavy team, you could do a hybrid team with Celes + Y'shtola, RW Sheepsong/Ley Lines, and include Exdeath and Terra.
If a fight is loaded with def-piercing and Wall isn't working so well, you can go Celes + Garnet and RW a good Medica BSB.
After that, you fill the team with whoever will get you medal conditions, complement the fight's mechanics, or just do a lot of damage.
Vaan is probably your best "filler" character (i.e. not foundational to your boostga/hastega/wall pillars). Kain is probably your highest DPS if you have Lightning Dive. Gilgamesh can bring regen to the table to mitigate the fact that you might struggle to fit a proper Medica. Celes can carry Protectga or Shellga if you dive her (worth it). Exdeath can self-buff and slots into physical or hybrid parties easily if needed. Gilgamesh and Auron can tauntaliate. Tidus can Powerchain/Full Charge if you have the hones.
It's tough to go wrong with anything you have as long as the buff foundation is solid; it's just fine-tuning at that point.
38thDoE on steam
Yeah, I have Curaja. Typo.
Umm...
I tried that Tyro and Y'shtola setup I mentioned before. It worked quite well, but it now occurs to me that, because I'm using Summoner's Dream (major Regen included), I could get the exact same effect of my turn 3 AP, in half the time, by giving Y'shtola and Braska Protectga and Shellga, casting the first on Yshtola's first then, and the second on Braska's second. I already had Protectga on Braska, and a slot of Y'shtola's was on Wrath. In which case I might as well use Arc instead of Y'shtola; he has a Medica, and she does not.
As far as I can see, there's only a few situations in which I can use Aetherial Pulse: if the situation absolutely calls for Braska to carry Dispel or some other WHM spell that isn't Shellga, and also calls for Proshell with similar necessity, or if survival in a fight requires an RW'd healer BSB, making me forgo Vessel of Fate and swap in Papalymo in Braska's place. Both are very specific edge cases.
I do like Y'shtola and would like to use her in the team more often, but that's about where things stand.
Kind of makes me want to scrape together another pull on the XIV banner, but that feels like a trap. I now have Thyrus, the doublet, the shield, the gloves, and the Omnirod. Leaving only the BSB items and Y'shtola's Medica II robe. The ratio of dupes to possible new items is too big, and that of undesirables to desirables is slightly worse than that.
Either my phone's aurocorrect is extremely zealous, or I had the same brain lapse twice in a row. Both make sense.
In other happy news, mastered U+ Bartz CM with no character SBs, so I'm feeling a bit pleased with myself over that.
My only two SBs for FFV are Greg's Repentence, which does less damage than Saint's Cross, and Exdeath's SSB2, which is +30 MAG/RES, which is fine for a mage team, but I ended up going physical like I did last time.
Gilgamesh 80: 4+++ Giant's axe/Platinum Shield/Moderate KO Resist
Bartz 80: 4++ Hayate Bow/Thornlet++/Moderate KO Resist
Faris 80: 5* off-realm Bow/Crystal armor++/Major KO Resist
Exdeath 80: Enuo's Scourge/Genji Armor/Major KO Resist
Lenna 80: FFT shared SB staff/3++ Light Armor/Major KO Resist
I was super close to Exdeath mastering his SSB, so he ran his own staff for EXP instead of a shared SB medica rod. Probably a mistake, but it ended up not mattering. Everyone but Greg was in the back row, stacking DEF as high as possible, and KO resist for the Blue Mage Missiles. If you don't have the Regenerate shared SB staff, running Exdeath and Lenna both with shared Medicas is definitely viable.
With Exdeath's SSB2, maybe going mage meta with Maria BSB RW might've been better? It's still tricky because you can't DPS Bartz too fast, or else he chains Trueblade of Legend into Light of the Four, which is tons and tons of burst damage all at once to deal with.
Setup:
Gilgamesh: R3 Saint Cross/R3 Banishing Strike (+40% Knight damage)
Bartz: R3 Full Charge/R5 Armor Break (+10% ATK/DEF)
Faris: R2 Full Break/R4 Power Breakdown (+20% ATK and Sap)
Exdeath: R3 Curaga/R4 Drainga (dual cast White)
Lenna: R5 Curaja/R2 Protectga (Mako Might for turn 2 Regenerate shared SB)
RW: Shout (refreshed around 50%)
If I did it again, I'd probably give Exdeath Regenerate and Mako Might, and give Lenna a shared Medica and dual cast White, since she had the better Cure spell.
Still, Exdeath was doing ~4400 with Drainga (+Dark on his staff) and healing himself for ~1400, so it wasn't all bad. Lack of Medica made late in the fight scary at times. Definitely necessary having two healers.
Bartz and Faris were there to do damage and debuff after Bartz (the boss) buffed himself. I should probably have bit the bullet and R3'd Gaia Cross instead of bringing Saint Cross, since Quad Ranger Shots were often a S/L if they hit Lenna, but I'm cheap.
The other thing that helped was keeping track of damage until ~90k damage done and then ~210k damage done, since those are about the thresholds for Bartz to phase transition. When I knew I was close I could queue up a big damage attack on Greg or Bartz, and have everyone else pre-casting the abilities they needed to use right after Bartz wrecked the world.
Since I did this, I should be fine for the Torment CM, right? Right? *crickets*
Ok I want to preface this with the fact the team I suggest is basically built to shoe horn Terra in there and have an awesome team.
I would run Celes, Vaan, Terra, Porom, and Noel. RW Wall or shout as needed. Give starting SBs to both Celes and Porom for haste + boost.
Terra Wrath up to use whichever combination of her SBs you like. Keep in mind the BSB while not the greatest does still offer +20% magic and +20% speed which is super nice. Give her Ace Striker or Battle Forged. She will be slow to start, but her damage will even out over medium length fights and became insane over long term ones.
Celes probably should stay away from Runic most times since it's the boost and faith for the team with a BSB. Since your entire team seems to have one an extra feel a less necessary with the natural bumps. A BSB + a 30% buff puts shout to shame honestly, but also stacks sooooo if you feel you can manage go for it. Saint's Cross will do huge damage for you here as well. If you record dive her you can turn her into a true Paladin and off load either protectga or shellga
Vaan I am not very familiar with but the general idea is build meter then dump damage and mitigation like a beast. Ninja cast speed means keeping it going won't be even a small problem. Armor breakdown will give you a great boost to physical damage as well.
Noel and Porom treat as standard role. Give Porom MM/DMT to start with haste and recast as needed. It is a curaga level heal so it should get you through all modern content save for Torment dungeons.
You can probably throw together something more mage-y too using Exdeath as a darkness mage and using Grandcross to help defensively. You could switch Porom for Garnet as well, but that would be harder to manage. Still with all the mitigation you could be running it might not matter.
So now that I've learned a lesson, I'm going to aim for specific relics/banners. The Summoner lucky draw is still a big yes, but only one pull's worth because it's a little too loaded with items to chase when I want specifically, but what's present is all going to be useful in some way, shape or form.
FFXIII-Banner 2 was going to be a good candidate, but I have a good pair of Mage buffs and as good as Cid Raines' BSB is, because he becomes so self-sufficient, but only is capable of damage (which he does so well!) when for me, the real prize will be on FFXIII-Banner 1, chasing Vanille's healer burst. It's really looking like to clear any of these Torments, you need a dedicated wall, and a dedicated healer. Both of those being stacked on Y'shtola is a little too demanding and chaotic. If I had Tyro's SG (only available on Tyro's Choice 2 now) then I could deal with it, but I'd rather have Vanille's burst, and the first banner's not too bad besides.
Steam: TheArcadeBear
With specific regard to Torment 250, I honestly don't think this is the case. And especially with regard to the combo of SSII and Asylum. You've got six waves of trash to do a handful of Wrath casts with an Ace Striker RM, and you can preload Wall before finishing off the sixth wave. Start the fight with an Asylum and the Stoneskin will give you breathing room to Wrath again a couple more times, and now you've got three bars plus whatever is generated through the rest of the fight.
Damn it, I keep hyping myself up for another pull on FF14 banner 1. I'm going to be weak-willed and do it before the banner goes away, I can almost guarantee it.
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.