This Jump Start does not fuck around early on. The fight is basically won or lost in the first few rounds. Holier Than Though was managing to punch in some serious damage despite their obvious limitation. Did not master it because I forgot to bring fire damage. Oh well. It is a testament to how absurd a solid imperil team can be even when up against something that super resists. Didn't end up using Agrias OSB to finish it off because I honestly forgot she had it. I would be shocked if I couldn't cap it against almost any target. Next time maybe.
I did try again with a slightly reformed Team No Cast. Y'shtola was subbed out for Lenna. This proved to hilariously cause the boss to be striking me for a menacing 800 at most thanks to having 2 resist boosts on Lenna, and running Fujin for a dual break. Stacking 3 attack buffs on top of crashing the boss resist left Raines' just shitting out damage as well despite the resistance. Thrown in some Meltdown spam from OK for the medal condition if nothing else.
So, I've had Alphinaud with Deployment Tactics as my RW for like half a year.
Since then, I've got quite a few things.
Are there any sorts of Soul Breaks you guys would like me to put out there? I figure that Mog's burst might be a decent tool for various teams, and Strago's burst could enable some shenanigans. But I'm not sure what you'd want.
Enlong on
0
SpectrumArcher of InfernoChaldea Rec RoomRegistered Userregular
About three S/Ls for bad ATB (and being an asshole with the 4x attack), another three or four because between Thunder God Celes and short-cast Ark Blast commands, I kept screwing up the timing of things. Vaan was in charge of starting with Invincible Blade, Celes held her turn to Firaga after it. Goal with Celes was to get to Maria's Song so she could use her C1 to cover both. Until then, Vaan would reserve his turn if it had taken two actions and use Invincible Blade's C2 to de-goddessfy it. Wanted to use the second RW onto Celes to fuel more Dual Firestrikes since that was the biggest source of damage, but Y'sh got confused by an unlucky Jarring Blow, and I was nervous about her auto attacking it while it was in goddess form, so people had to kind of shuffle around a bit and Vaan ended up using it again.
I'll probably use some auto-hastes for the Jump Throttle but the same basic strategy since I didn't use three SBs with anybody except Y'sh, and that last Stoneskin was definitely unneeded.
ArcTangent on
+1
AegisFear My DanceOvershot Toronto, Landed in OttawaRegistered Userregular
Chaos didn't give me too much trouble with my A team, largely thanks to stop resist on Ramza. Celes (with just Indo blade) also did some great work despite his omni resist. Got a few spellblade dualcasts which went a long way to making up for his resistances.
Cleared Chadarnook Full Throttle with a team of Terra/Raines/Alphinaud/Mog/Y'shtola. The first two turns were pretty horseshit, so it required a few S/Ls. But once I survived the first couple of attacks, there weren't any problems.
Using Cid Raines against Chadarnook is hilarious, what with the instant-cast holy damage to force an immediate form-change every time Chadarnook switches back to goddess form.
It's the equivalent of slamming the door in Lakshmi's face every time she shows up.
I've got the holy part down, that was easy. It's that everything else afterwards is completely choreographed and I keep fucking things up since the timings are exact.
I'm not sure what to do with Chadarnook Jumpstart.
I did the thing where I equip Raw Power to a party member so she can hit Lakshmi with Alexander before any nasty stuff can happen.
But then Chadarnook hits my healer with Blizzaga for 9999 damage before I have time for anyone else to take action.
TGC or Auto-Haste on your Wall or Shellga caster.
0
AegisFear My DanceOvershot Toronto, Landed in OttawaRegistered Userregular
What I did:
Ramza gets Auto-Haste and Banishing Strike. Ramza does not immediately Banishing Strike when his turn comes. He instead, waits until everyone else hits around 80% yellow bar (which is incidentally almost immediately after she Auto-attacks someone first), and then presses the button. This then allows the following queues to happen:
Banishing Strike will land, causing her to shift forms and then everyone else will get their casts off (Y'Shtola has Thunder God Mode RM equipped) before he takes his first Demon turn.
Otherwise, if you click the holy ability too fast, he will get a turn in Demon form before your mitigation is up and you will die. You need to wait a little bit before pressing the Holy Attack button.
I'm not sure what to do with Chadarnook Jumpstart.
I did the thing where I equip Raw Power to a party member so she can hit Lakshmi with Alexander before any nasty stuff can happen.
But then Chadarnook hits my healer with Blizzaga for 9999 damage before I have time for anyone else to take action.
Can you make a self sufficient team? If so put an auto haste RM on someone (I like Gilgamesh's but its largely irrelevant) and RW something like Vanille USB. That takes a little pressure off of immediately needing to hit with a holy attack and lets you smash the magic once while waiting for the holy to hit (assuming you are using a holy SB). Should also buy you time to get Wall and/or Shellga up but that is harder to say. It worked well for me, but I had Tyro with Wall and BSB using Gathering Storm.
Advice taken, understood, and applied, to devastating effect.
Destroyed him utterly with a team of:
Terra: Alexander, Valigarmanda, Zeal, Scorching Flames Yuna: Shellga, Protectga, Gathering Storm, Song For Spira/Mystic Veil Cid Raines: Magic Breakdown (unused), Chain Firaga, Raw Power, Metamorphose Mog: Exhausting Polka (Unused), Multibreak, Sky Pirate's Pride, Love Serendade Rapha: Protectga, Meltdown, Blood of Espers, Heaven's Wrath RW: Stoneskin II
I had Terra throw out Alexander after Raines called in Stoneskin II with hsi instant-start materia. Once I was able to get the timing right to avoid the initial salvo of damage, things fell into place. I got my buffs set up, Cid used his insta-cast to slam the door on Lakshmi when the demon reverted to goddess form, and Terra chewed right through Chadarnook's HP bar with 3 uses of her OSB, while Cid and Rapha assisted with their own fire spells.
Valigarmanda was actually the spell that first dropped Chadarnook's barrier, amusingly enough.
So I have tried running Lenna as a full time substitute for Y'Shtola. She has performed alright so far, though I do miss the massive levels of healing. I might limit her to running in Jump Starts, but I am impressed with how effective USB healing can be compared to BSBs.
well the great thing about Y'Shtola's BSB is the instant command heal, which you can use to spam into the next BSB
Its the same with Vaan's and I'm sure its the same with a lot of other instant commands
AegisFear My DanceOvershot Toronto, Landed in OttawaRegistered Userregular
After massively overthinking the Magic Dissertation D180 fight, I finally came to my senses and had Lightning Lifesiphon up 3 bars so she could USB > OSB > OSB until he died.
Celes with irresponsible blade helps a ton with silence and such. Spellblades for some weaknesses
Terra with other weakness and dispel.
Locke for physical damage and his burst which is useful in two phases
Shadow for burst because everything had a boom element component
Relm for healing and shellga
RW: MOG burst for haste, boost, and to allow for second healer as needed.
Very unorthodox, could be obviously fine tuned (banishing strike instead of dispel, swap someone for some breaks, etc) but it got shit done. If I hadn't brain farted that terras OSB is also non-elem, I think I could have mastered.
BeastehTHAT WOULD NOTKILL DRACULARegistered Userregular
chadarnook is an asshole
tip: you only need to hit demon form once with a holy/fire spell to remove the physical immunity for the rest of the fight
0
silence1186Character shields down!As a wingmanRegistered Userregular
So it definitely seems possible to do the CM for FF1 Chaos with no relic SBs. I can see RW Celes BSB2 or Onion Knight BSB getting folks over the hurdle.
What I'm considering:
Garland Death Throes/Full Charge (Gathering Storm) Calls Celes BSB2
Wol Magic and Mind Breakdowns
Warrior of Light Banishing Strike/Shellga
Echo Cure/Multibreak
Sarah Cure/Haste
RW: Celes BSB2
Sarah: Shellga/Curaja, Thunder God RM, no SB
Echo: Multi-Break/Dispel, Mako Might, Hastening Gift (Shellga/Hastega/Resistance)
Garland: Dark Bargain (should have been Death Throes)/Omega Drive, Truthseeker, no SB
Blank: Magic Breakdown/Armor Breakdown, One-Eyed General, no SB
WoL: Lifesiphon/Gaia's Cross (didn't use), Dr. Mog, Radiant Sword (phys blink)
RW: Celes BSB2
I was struggling a lot until I just did hit and run to get Echo and WoL up to 2 bars, which was enough to see me through the battle. Initial setup was getting mitigation up (including blink), and pushing into his first stop with Garland continuing to plink away. After that I set up mitigation again, got everyone to defend, and had Garland push him into the second stop. From there it was just finishing the battle. My only issue was Garland doing too much damage and pushing the second stop too early. Once I got that down it was smooth sailing.
+1
silence1186Character shields down!As a wingmanRegistered Userregular
Celes BSB2 Command 2 is the same buff ID (6001) as Dark Bargain, right?
So I'm starting to get more comfortable with the higher difficultly fights, the stuff over 100. Like 120 and 140. I've been able to do those on the last couple of Event dungeons. I've cheesed them a little bit with OSB RWs, but that's OK .
A big thanks to whoever mentioned that the Keeper gets a "start with one bar of SB" Record Materia as part of his 2nd Level Cap breaking. I went ahead and broke that over the weekend, so I'm fighting with the Keeper in the party until that Materia unlocks. Once I get that, that'll help a whole bunch in various fights.
Does the Keeper need to have that Attunement Materia equipped in order to unlock the Mog's Teachings one?
I also started messing around with making some 4* abilities. I made some of the Breakdown abilities, and the noticed that almost none of my characters could actually use them. Doh. But Ramza can, so now he gets to go to all the higher difficulty fights. History's Truth is awesome anyway.
I then started looking at what everyone can actually use. I noticed a whole tab of abilities that I hadn't really looked at before. All the Knight, Ninja, Samurai, Machinist and whatever Abilities. I've made exactly zero of those so far, and I wasn't sure what I should be making. Since we're in the middle of orbfest, I should be able to pick up orbs to make a bunch of stuff.
The tabs need to be ordered better, instead of just being "Other, Group 1" and "Other, Group 2".
I think I also need to sacrifice a goat or something to get some more SB armors. I have very few 5* armors, as nearly everything I've been drawing has been a SB weapon.
And even though I don't have a whole ton of relics, I'm starting to lose track of what I do have. I've been using Seymour a whole bunch, but I think one of the mage BSBs I picked up in the recent lucky draws might be better than Anima's Pain. Shantotto's Chain Break Lighting for example or the other two I picked up (Marach and Leo?). I may need to start putting together a spreadsheet to keep myself straight. I had completely forgotten that I'd gotten a Zack BSB early on.
Had a hard time with the jump start, I just couldn't figure how a good comp that gave me both a hastega and a wall.
I finally persevered after awhile, in no small part to Celes, But it required a few S/Ls to survive the opening salvo.
I beat it with mastery, despite several people being dead at the end, but was confused why I wasn't getting my Cid Mission reward despite using an all FFVI party.
...because there isn't one, and made things way more difficult for myself for no reason whatsoever
For record materia drops, the character doesn't have to have the previous one equipped. For Tyro in particular he just needs to have gotten all the previous ones (the one for breaking the level 50 cap, the one that drops randomly after 50, and then you can get the one that drops randomly after 65). Also note that Cloud has that same RM available (different name, same effect) for breaking 65, though the one he has between the 50 and 65 one requires using him to beat a specific dungeon (and survive the fight).
Which abilities you want to make is going to depend a lot on what soul breaks you have. Ramza is one of the best options for using Support abilities, as you've noticed. If you have good soul breaks for characters with combat 4+ access (you mention Zack's BSB which fits this description) then Lifesiphon is very useful to get those running sooner. The same applies for characters with support 4+ access and Wrath, particularly for mages since Wrath gives a tiny ATK buff that would overwrite buffs that only give ATK like Shout. Other than that nothing is going to be too critical for success other than Protectga and Shellga and the strongest heal you can afford to hone (Curaga is fine for everything up through difficulty 140 at least, past that you might find it doesn't keep up with the incoming damage very well and look at Curaja; Ultra Cure is a luxury hone and super expensive).
So I'm starting to get more comfortable with the higher difficultly fights, the stuff over 100. Like 120 and 140. I've been able to do those on the last couple of Event dungeons. I've cheesed them a little bit with OSB RWs, but that's OK .
A big thanks to whoever mentioned that the Keeper gets a "start with one bar of SB" Record Materia as part of his 2nd Level Cap breaking. I went ahead and broke that over the weekend, so I'm fighting with the Keeper in the party until that Materia unlocks. Once I get that, that'll help a whole bunch in various fights.
Does the Keeper need to have that Attunement Materia equipped in order to unlock the Mog's Teachings one?
I also started messing around with making some 4* abilities. I made some of the Breakdown abilities, and the noticed that almost none of my characters could actually use them. Doh. But Ramza can, so now he gets to go to all the higher difficulty fights. History's Truth is awesome anyway.
I then started looking at what everyone can actually use. I noticed a whole tab of abilities that I hadn't really looked at before. All the Knight, Ninja, Samurai, Machinist and whatever Abilities. I've made exactly zero of those so far, and I wasn't sure what I should be making. Since we're in the middle of orbfest, I should be able to pick up orbs to make a bunch of stuff.
The tabs need to be ordered better, instead of just being "Other, Group 1" and "Other, Group 2".
I think I also need to sacrifice a goat or something to get some more SB armors. I have very few 5* armors, as nearly everything I've been drawing has been a SB weapon.
And even though I don't have a whole ton of relics, I'm starting to lose track of what I do have. I've been using Seymour a whole bunch, but I think one of the mage BSBs I picked up in the recent lucky draws might be better than Anima's Pain. Shantotto's Chain Break Lighting for example or the other two I picked up (Marach and Leo?). I may need to start putting together a spreadsheet to keep myself straight. I had completely forgotten that I'd gotten a Zack BSB early on.
Of the items I think I remember you pulling, Fran can also equip Breakdowns.
Ability recommendations: there are some suggestions in the second post of the thread. The general rule is "don't hone/craft it until you need it." For example, the 4* Machinist abilities are fantastic at inflicting status conditions, but status vulnerabilities are rare and there aren't all that many Machinist characters, so wait until you get to a fight that has "inflict Poison status" as a medal condition before crafting Poison Shell.
If you have a relic for someone with access to 4* Dancer abilities, those are the equivalent of Breakdowns, trading away the damage for AOE (side bonus: they don't trigger counterattacks, for fights where that's a problem). They're great in the right situation. In the worst case, if you don't have a relic for a dancer, you can give them to Tyro since you've got him levelled up anyway.
The #1 most important ability to work on after you get either Breakdowns or Dances sorted out is Full Break (5* Support). If you can get that to R2, it will make your life much, much easier (but even R1 is a big deal). 5* Multi Break is the equivalent for dances.
Oh right. Ogopogo is also AOE water summon. Yeah, that would probably be the better AOE option for Strago, provided he can hit the right MAG stat for 3 hits or more.
I Currwntly have R3 Leviathan, so that should be enough until then.
Cleaned up cheap dungeons in Orbfest for mithril (up to 27 now) and also the Elite dungeons in the FFVI event that grant the first Memory Crystals. Got a Record Materia drop too in the middle of it all: Attunement II, which I guess is an upgrade from the one I got for breaking Tyro's first cap? Neat. Might hop in Discord at some point to request a bit of help with the remainder of the FFVI Elite dungeons. Would be very nice to nab Terra's MC2 and the blank MC3 if that's possible, otherwise I'll get them when I reach that point of progression. That's probably why they're put in later dungeons, to gauge whether you're ready for the next step up in power.
Celes BSB2 Command 2 is the same buff ID (6001) as Dark Bargain, right?
Yyyyup. It didn't matter much, though, because Garland was still doing in the low 9000s per hit after command 2 and debuffs with a non-synergy 6* and a relatively decent +attack armor. I was pretty impressed.
Posts
Edit: YueA
The Monster Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson
Steam: Korvalain
Currently DMing: None
Characters
[5e] Dural Melairkyn - AC 18 | HP 40 | Melee +5/1d8+3 | Spell +4/DC 12
This time, I lost mastery because I killed him too fast to get to his Fire phase a second time, and I wasted the first fire phase setting up!
I don't want to do this fight no more.
I did try again with a slightly reformed Team No Cast. Y'shtola was subbed out for Lenna. This proved to hilariously cause the boss to be striking me for a menacing 800 at most thanks to having 2 resist boosts on Lenna, and running Fujin for a dual break. Stacking 3 attack buffs on top of crashing the boss resist left Raines' just shitting out damage as well despite the resistance. Thrown in some Meltdown spam from OK for the medal condition if nothing else.
Since then, I've got quite a few things.
Are there any sorts of Soul Breaks you guys would like me to put out there? I figure that Mog's burst might be a decent tool for various teams, and Strago's burst could enable some shenanigans. But I'm not sure what you'd want.
About three S/Ls for bad ATB (and being an asshole with the 4x attack), another three or four because between Thunder God Celes and short-cast Ark Blast commands, I kept screwing up the timing of things. Vaan was in charge of starting with Invincible Blade, Celes held her turn to Firaga after it. Goal with Celes was to get to Maria's Song so she could use her C1 to cover both. Until then, Vaan would reserve his turn if it had taken two actions and use Invincible Blade's C2 to de-goddessfy it. Wanted to use the second RW onto Celes to fuel more Dual Firestrikes since that was the biggest source of damage, but Y'sh got confused by an unlucky Jarring Blow, and I was nervous about her auto attacking it while it was in goddess form, so people had to kind of shuffle around a bit and Vaan ended up using it again.
Stats/Setup
RW: Invincible Blade
I'll probably use some auto-hastes for the Jump Throttle but the same basic strategy since I didn't use three SBs with anybody except Y'sh, and that last Stoneskin was definitely unneeded.
Currently DMing: None
Characters
[5e] Dural Melairkyn - AC 18 | HP 40 | Melee +5/1d8+3 | Spell +4/DC 12
Put Raw Power on whoever has your holy ability.
Cleared Chadarnook Full Throttle with a team of Terra/Raines/Alphinaud/Mog/Y'shtola. The first two turns were pretty horseshit, so it required a few S/Ls. But once I survived the first couple of attacks, there weren't any problems.
It's the equivalent of slamming the door in Lakshmi's face every time she shows up.
I've got the holy part down, that was easy. It's that everything else afterwards is completely choreographed and I keep fucking things up since the timings are exact.
Currently DMing: None
Characters
[5e] Dural Melairkyn - AC 18 | HP 40 | Melee +5/1d8+3 | Spell +4/DC 12
Currently DMing: None
Characters
[5e] Dural Melairkyn - AC 18 | HP 40 | Melee +5/1d8+3 | Spell +4/DC 12
I'm not sure what to do with Chadarnook Jumpstart.
I did the thing where I equip Raw Power to a party member so she can hit Lakshmi with Alexander before any nasty stuff can happen.
But then Chadarnook hits my healer with Blizzaga for 9999 damage before I have time for anyone else to take action.
TGC or Auto-Haste on your Wall or Shellga caster.
Ramza gets Auto-Haste and Banishing Strike. Ramza does not immediately Banishing Strike when his turn comes. He instead, waits until everyone else hits around 80% yellow bar (which is incidentally almost immediately after she Auto-attacks someone first), and then presses the button. This then allows the following queues to happen:
Faris > Beryl Serpent
Cid > Firaja
Y'Shtola > RW Wall
Garnet > Shellga
Banishing Strike will land, causing her to shift forms and then everyone else will get their casts off (Y'Shtola has Thunder God Mode RM equipped) before he takes his first Demon turn.
Otherwise, if you click the holy ability too fast, he will get a turn in Demon form before your mitigation is up and you will die. You need to wait a little bit before pressing the Holy Attack button.
Currently DMing: None
Characters
[5e] Dural Melairkyn - AC 18 | HP 40 | Melee +5/1d8+3 | Spell +4/DC 12
Can you make a self sufficient team? If so put an auto haste RM on someone (I like Gilgamesh's but its largely irrelevant) and RW something like Vanille USB. That takes a little pressure off of immediately needing to hit with a holy attack and lets you smash the magic once while waiting for the holy to hit (assuming you are using a holy SB). Should also buy you time to get Wall and/or Shellga up but that is harder to say. It worked well for me, but I had Tyro with Wall and BSB using Gathering Storm.
Destroyed him utterly with a team of:
Terra: Alexander, Valigarmanda, Zeal, Scorching Flames
Yuna: Shellga, Protectga, Gathering Storm, Song For Spira/Mystic Veil
Cid Raines: Magic Breakdown (unused), Chain Firaga, Raw Power, Metamorphose
Mog: Exhausting Polka (Unused), Multibreak, Sky Pirate's Pride, Love Serendade
Rapha: Protectga, Meltdown, Blood of Espers, Heaven's Wrath
RW: Stoneskin II
I had Terra throw out Alexander after Raines called in Stoneskin II with hsi instant-start materia. Once I was able to get the timing right to avoid the initial salvo of damage, things fell into place. I got my buffs set up, Cid used his insta-cast to slam the door on Lakshmi when the demon reverted to goddess form, and Terra chewed right through Chadarnook's HP bar with 3 uses of her OSB, while Cid and Rapha assisted with their own fire spells.
Valigarmanda was actually the spell that first dropped Chadarnook's barrier, amusingly enough.
Its the same with Vaan's and I'm sure its the same with a lot of other instant commands
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Currently DMing: None
Characters
[5e] Dural Melairkyn - AC 18 | HP 40 | Melee +5/1d8+3 | Spell +4/DC 12
Celes with irresponsible blade helps a ton with silence and such. Spellblades for some weaknesses
Terra with other weakness and dispel.
Locke for physical damage and his burst which is useful in two phases
Shadow for burst because everything had a boom element component
Relm for healing and shellga
RW: MOG burst for haste, boost, and to allow for second healer as needed.
Very unorthodox, could be obviously fine tuned (banishing strike instead of dispel, swap someone for some breaks, etc) but it got shit done. If I hadn't brain farted that terras OSB is also non-elem, I think I could have mastered.
tip: you only need to hit demon form once with a holy/fire spell to remove the physical immunity for the rest of the fight
What I'm considering:
Garland Death Throes/Full Charge (Gathering Storm) Calls Celes BSB2
Wol Magic and Mind Breakdowns
Warrior of Light Banishing Strike/Shellga
Echo Cure/Multibreak
Sarah Cure/Haste
RW: Celes BSB2
Sarah: Shellga/Curaja, Thunder God RM, no SB
Echo: Multi-Break/Dispel, Mako Might, Hastening Gift (Shellga/Hastega/Resistance)
Garland: Dark Bargain (should have been Death Throes)/Omega Drive, Truthseeker, no SB
Blank: Magic Breakdown/Armor Breakdown, One-Eyed General, no SB
WoL: Lifesiphon/Gaia's Cross (didn't use), Dr. Mog, Radiant Sword (phys blink)
RW: Celes BSB2
I was struggling a lot until I just did hit and run to get Echo and WoL up to 2 bars, which was enough to see me through the battle. Initial setup was getting mitigation up (including blink), and pushing into his first stop with Garland continuing to plink away. After that I set up mitigation again, got everyone to defend, and had Garland push him into the second stop. From there it was just finishing the battle. My only issue was Garland doing too much damage and pushing the second stop too early. Once I got that down it was smooth sailing.
A big thanks to whoever mentioned that the Keeper gets a "start with one bar of SB" Record Materia as part of his 2nd Level Cap breaking. I went ahead and broke that over the weekend, so I'm fighting with the Keeper in the party until that Materia unlocks. Once I get that, that'll help a whole bunch in various fights.
Does the Keeper need to have that Attunement Materia equipped in order to unlock the Mog's Teachings one?
I also started messing around with making some 4* abilities. I made some of the Breakdown abilities, and the noticed that almost none of my characters could actually use them. Doh. But Ramza can, so now he gets to go to all the higher difficulty fights. History's Truth is awesome anyway.
I then started looking at what everyone can actually use. I noticed a whole tab of abilities that I hadn't really looked at before. All the Knight, Ninja, Samurai, Machinist and whatever Abilities. I've made exactly zero of those so far, and I wasn't sure what I should be making. Since we're in the middle of orbfest, I should be able to pick up orbs to make a bunch of stuff.
The tabs need to be ordered better, instead of just being "Other, Group 1" and "Other, Group 2".
I think I also need to sacrifice a goat or something to get some more SB armors. I have very few 5* armors, as nearly everything I've been drawing has been a SB weapon.
And even though I don't have a whole ton of relics, I'm starting to lose track of what I do have. I've been using Seymour a whole bunch, but I think one of the mage BSBs I picked up in the recent lucky draws might be better than Anima's Pain. Shantotto's Chain Break Lighting for example or the other two I picked up (Marach and Leo?). I may need to start putting together a spreadsheet to keep myself straight. I had completely forgotten that I'd gotten a Zack BSB early on.
Had a hard time with the jump start, I just couldn't figure how a good comp that gave me both a hastega and a wall.
I finally persevered after awhile, in no small part to Celes, But it required a few S/Ls to survive the opening salvo.
I beat it with mastery, despite several people being dead at the end, but was confused why I wasn't getting my Cid Mission reward despite using an all FFVI party.
...because there isn't one, and made things way more difficult for myself for no reason whatsoever
Which abilities you want to make is going to depend a lot on what soul breaks you have. Ramza is one of the best options for using Support abilities, as you've noticed. If you have good soul breaks for characters with combat 4+ access (you mention Zack's BSB which fits this description) then Lifesiphon is very useful to get those running sooner. The same applies for characters with support 4+ access and Wrath, particularly for mages since Wrath gives a tiny ATK buff that would overwrite buffs that only give ATK like Shout. Other than that nothing is going to be too critical for success other than Protectga and Shellga and the strongest heal you can afford to hone (Curaga is fine for everything up through difficulty 140 at least, past that you might find it doesn't keep up with the incoming damage very well and look at Curaja; Ultra Cure is a luxury hone and super expensive).
Of the items I think I remember you pulling, Fran can also equip Breakdowns.
Ability recommendations: there are some suggestions in the second post of the thread. The general rule is "don't hone/craft it until you need it." For example, the 4* Machinist abilities are fantastic at inflicting status conditions, but status vulnerabilities are rare and there aren't all that many Machinist characters, so wait until you get to a fight that has "inflict Poison status" as a medal condition before crafting Poison Shell.
If you have a relic for someone with access to 4* Dancer abilities, those are the equivalent of Breakdowns, trading away the damage for AOE (side bonus: they don't trigger counterattacks, for fights where that's a problem). They're great in the right situation. In the worst case, if you don't have a relic for a dancer, you can give them to Tyro since you've got him levelled up anyway.
The #1 most important ability to work on after you get either Breakdowns or Dances sorted out is Full Break (5* Support). If you can get that to R2, it will make your life much, much easier (but even R1 is a big deal). 5* Multi Break is the equivalent for dances.
And then live in it?
Nothing 4* is super expensive anymore, I have so many of the 4* summons at R5.
Inquisitor77: Rius, you are Sisyphus and melee Wizard is your boulder
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If you already did the Valigarmanda nightmare, consider waiting ~5 months and putting those orbs towards Derpy Leviathan (Ogopogo) instead.
I Currwntly have R3 Leviathan, so that should be enough until then.
I'm actually considering shattering it now that we've got chain waterga/water spellblade
Yyyyup. It didn't matter much, though, because Garland was still doing in the low 9000s per hit after command 2 and debuffs with a non-synergy 6* and a relatively decent +attack armor. I was pretty impressed.