Woot, mastered Noctis's J2 and it made him fast enough and durable enough that I can actually beat EX2! Got me a 4* Sword of the Father, and 90 more shards to go. Just gotta get the completion milestone rewards and I'm set!
Step 1 of the Noctis/Aranea banner gave me Balt, who is apparently pretty decent? Not gonna complain about a 5* unit, though!
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MaddocI'm Bobbin Threadbare, are you my mother?Registered Userregular
Balt is good eventually
He's somewhat mediocre until his J3 and Job+, and he's not farmable
His shards do show up in the soul coin shop however, so eventually you'll be able to start buying them there once you have farmable characters at lb25
I played this for a few weeks at launch, and just go back to it. I've been doing the dailies but is there anything I should know?
The biggest change is probably that mastering jobs now gives a much larger health bonus
Currently, some units can have upward of 2000 HP with all their jobs mastered
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MaddocI'm Bobbin Threadbare, are you my mother?Registered Userregular
My Noctis is now 75 and preeeetty much done at this point
Nice solid 740 MATK and 130 AGI
Gotta wait until the end of the event before I spend any Dark shards finishing off Aranea, but I've at least mastered her first two jobs in preparation so she'll be finally filling my currently empty Dark spot on my friend roster
Also decided to drop a few Light shards to finish getting Zain to 75, and forgot how terrible mastering Holy Cavalier is because of Brilliant Wings Armors; but he's got Holy Knight Stance +2 now at least which makes him a great deal tankier
I played this for a few weeks at launch, and just go back to it. I've been doing the dailies but is there anything I should know?
Having a few key units leveled up and having their jobs mastered will get you much further along than having a wide roster. Despite the claims in some quarters of the internet that the game is whale-heavy, that's simply not true. It's true if you want to collect all units and unlock all jobs, but that's far from necessary to play and do well in the game.
Obviously we're in the middle of the FFXV collab, which has 4 unique units. The only important thing for them is their unique job equipment (not gear).
MaddocI'm Bobbin Threadbare, are you my mother?Registered Userregular
Things will get better as we get more Hard quests, and hopefully Gumi will eventually pick up the pace a little bit because it's really the one part of how they're handling the game that frustrates me
There are a huge number of units that are either farmable now or in the future that are considered top tier even currently in JP, and even a good number of them that are totally 100% free like Kanon who remains one of the best overall Light units in the game as she continues to get upgrades throughout SSM.
But for reference, someone on the reddit posted a video of them clearing one of the new challenge quests with all farmable units (Lucian, Yomi, Rahu, and Polin)
Got a dupe Noctis from the free FFXV ticket, and the 4*+ ticket got me Shayna, which is great. It brings up a question, though - who do I pick with my 5* unit selector from the challenges?
That's a generic set of shards, so you'll get around 6 of each. May as well just pull them all one morning.
Is it? I tried but it told me to pick a unit, so I quickly backed out before I did something dumb. This is for the any 5* generic unit selector, by the way, not the XV one.
I went ahead and went to step 3 on the Noctis/Aranea banner, because I would've been happy with any result. Step 2 got me dupes for Vivi and Fung Liu so I immediately LB'd them, then step 3 got me my third Noctis dupe so that he's now at level 70.
Darklyre on
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MaddocI'm Bobbin Threadbare, are you my mother?Registered Userregular
edited July 2018
Dang, that's nice
75 Water shards and you'll have one of the best Water units in the game for a long, long time
My freebie FFXV ticket got me Gladio, and then I bought the 2500 penny ticket hoping for more Aranea shards and got... Gladio again
Gladdy is pretty fly, honestly. The complaint against him is that he's similar to Vettel. But he's different enough, too. He can warp, so he can, you know, actually tank (unlike most tanks in the game who are stuck at the back lines), and once he's in there, he can really dish out damage. Dawnhammer is a really huge nuke for a tank, and he doesn't need to Charge Up (he *can* if you want, but doesn't need it).
His J3 is optional, really just boosting up his PDEF, which is already high. But yeah, I used him on the EX3 stage at 65 and he was MVP, taking care of the high-DEF robots with his ignore def ability, and warping to the archer to draw attacks from the cactuar.
@Darklyre my bad, yes that is actually a unit selector. I was thinking of the FFXV milestone reward, which was just shards. Who is the list, again? Generally you want to pick a unit that is strong but also not one you already have when you're new, since getting shards for a J2 doesn't make THAT much of a difference for a lot of the early game content.
@EggyToast the recommendations I saw were Neica, Mei Fang, Dorothea, and Setsuna. Reddit was saying Neica as the first choice, but my best three units are Noctis/Vivi/Fung Liu, who are all mages. Not that she'd be a bad choice, but I'm thinking that Mei Fang may be a better choice for me since my only other thunder unit is lolPrompto, while I at least have Chloe and Logi for light.
Definitely still a noob, though, so external input would really be helpful since my instincts are likely wrong!
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MaddocI'm Bobbin Threadbare, are you my mother?Registered Userregular
So, I'll maybe caution against Mei Fang for a couple reasons
First off is that she doesn't really get going without J3 for Overdrive, second is that she really wants the Roaring Slash gear for it's AoE weapon ability
Neica is strong right out of the gate because Battle Mage is such a potent job
Similarly, Setsuna's Blademaster is a job that is strong immediately, and becomes even better when she gets Martial Arts the at J2
I'll also bring attention to Ramses as a dark horse candidate, Dragon Cavalier is a strong job and he gets Dark Cav at J2 which gives him access to relatively early Overdrive. His J3 doesn't really give him much, job mastery health boost aside.
Neica is likely the best of the bunch, because she is great right out the gate. J2 gives her Divine Shelter, making her tankier, and J3 gives her better elemental coverage and longer range, at the cost of losing the high-quality Battle Mage sub. Basically any unit with Battle Mage gives a lot of good configuration options.
Went ahead and grabbed Neica since the consensus on her is pretty much unanimous. Three mages with Shayna (just mastered her J1!) in front to punch things sounds fun.
Still got so many things to do - gotta master Vivi's J2, get enough pots to enhance Shayna's equipment, do Yuto's missions, level up Neica's everything...
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MaddocI'm Bobbin Threadbare, are you my mother?Registered Userregular
Man, the Gladio sword EX stage is real annoying to auto
The bug train at the end creates a very RNG heavy situation, since I'm not running a Professor and I don't really feel like job leveling Elizabeth right this second
Last day for x2 drops, though! Gotta say, I love my lizzy! She haunted my early pulls but now her professor/bishop self is tanky and pretty speedy, too. whee!
Woo, banners were good to me today. Got Aranea, Ignis, and Mielikki from Step 1 of the new XV banner, and Vettel from Step 1 of the new unit banner.
I thought I was done farming the XV event, but it looks like I now have to farm up Ignis's and Aranea's job pieces, plus figure out how to do EX1 and EX4 for their gear. Sorry Yuto, I'll get you next time.
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MaddocI'm Bobbin Threadbare, are you my mother?Registered Userregular
Haha
Did the 500 step on the new banner, just for soul coin fodder if nothing else
Do you mean limit break, or evolve? I've been using shards as I get them, but unit evolution materials are scarce since I spend my AP farming events.
Evolve, their shards aren't available for trade in until they're max evolved and limit broken
It's not something you have to do right away, but it's worth doing over time
Ah, okay, that makes sense since you have to be 5* to unlock the last set of limit breaks anyways. Speaking of which, I should trade in all these extra Prompto shards...
Jesus, EX1 is annoying. I had everyone but the Queen dead, but she just stayed on the top level while the Mandragoras blocked the stairs. It would've been faster to just teleport Noctis up there to punch her to death.
Edit: Huzzah, just had a no-continue run, with Noctis running double-duty as Gilgamesh's pocket healer and Mandragora-puncher. That shaves fifteen runs off what I need for Ignis!
Is it worth doing XV EX3 for Hardedge, even though I don't have Gladiolus? I haven't tried it yet, and it seems wasteful to pass up on the opportunity for essentially free 5* gear.
Probably not. There are better greatswords that you can get from the gacha or eventually.
That said, you only have to run EX3 10 times. If you can do that, and the multiplayer 1 time, you can get the weapon up to 5-stars. If you can't, then don't worry about it -- there will be better or equivalent weapons in the future, and FFXV might come back, too.
Eh, I finished farming 375 shards for Yuto, so I gave the EX3 a shot. Noctis blew everything up, so I've already got the missions and have more than enough AP for 8-9 more runs to finish off the weapon. Might as well get it!
I do regret not doing the hard quest more in the past few days, though. I didn't know that it handed out shard tickets. I'm only one Aranea shard away from her LB5 without having to dip into dark shards.
I blew through EX3 relatively easily, to the point where I had multiple no-death runs with ungeared level 60s on my team. It was still pretty time-intensive though, since I couldn't auto through it due to the 1,000 Needles counter on the Metal Cactuars and the DEF-piercing Hounds that would attack from atop the wall, which only Aranea and Shayna could get to. It was definitely easier once I figured out that the quickest method was to rush the entrance with Noctis to funnel the units for easy Tricast Blizzagas.
I was sitting at 24 Aranea shards and 20 Ignis shards, so I threw a few colored shards in and LB5'd both of them. Aranea in particular is fun to use, since she practically ignores terrain and utterly shreds enemies with her dives.
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MaddocI'm Bobbin Threadbare, are you my mother?Registered Userregular
Just got Lucian's job+ done, and then bankrupted myself again skill leveling five skills back to 20
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MaddocI'm Bobbin Threadbare, are you my mother?Registered Userregular
500 gems today got me dupe Albea, dupe Ramses (woot Dark Cav), and Eros
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Step 1 of the Noctis/Aranea banner gave me Balt, who is apparently pretty decent? Not gonna complain about a 5* unit, though!
He's somewhat mediocre until his J3 and Job+, and he's not farmable
His shards do show up in the soul coin shop however, so eventually you'll be able to start buying them there once you have farmable characters at lb25
I need 2 shards for Noctis 75, and todays 3 tickets gave me 3 Gladio shards
The biggest change is probably that mastering jobs now gives a much larger health bonus
Currently, some units can have upward of 2000 HP with all their jobs mastered
Nice solid 740 MATK and 130 AGI
Gotta wait until the end of the event before I spend any Dark shards finishing off Aranea, but I've at least mastered her first two jobs in preparation so she'll be finally filling my currently empty Dark spot on my friend roster
Also decided to drop a few Light shards to finish getting Zain to 75, and forgot how terrible mastering Holy Cavalier is because of Brilliant Wings Armors; but he's got Holy Knight Stance +2 now at least which makes him a great deal tankier
Having a few key units leveled up and having their jobs mastered will get you much further along than having a wide roster. Despite the claims in some quarters of the internet that the game is whale-heavy, that's simply not true. It's true if you want to collect all units and unlock all jobs, but that's far from necessary to play and do well in the game.
Obviously we're in the middle of the FFXV collab, which has 4 unique units. The only important thing for them is their unique job equipment (not gear).
There are a huge number of units that are either farmable now or in the future that are considered top tier even currently in JP, and even a good number of them that are totally 100% free like Kanon who remains one of the best overall Light units in the game as she continues to get upgrades throughout SSM.
But for reference, someone on the reddit posted a video of them clearing one of the new challenge quests with all farmable units (Lucian, Yomi, Rahu, and Polin)
Is it? I tried but it told me to pick a unit, so I quickly backed out before I did something dumb. This is for the any 5* generic unit selector, by the way, not the XV one.
I went ahead and went to step 3 on the Noctis/Aranea banner, because I would've been happy with any result. Step 2 got me dupes for Vivi and Fung Liu so I immediately LB'd them, then step 3 got me my third Noctis dupe so that he's now at level 70.
75 Water shards and you'll have one of the best Water units in the game for a long, long time
My freebie FFXV ticket got me Gladio, and then I bought the 2500 penny ticket hoping for more Aranea shards and got... Gladio again
His J3 is optional, really just boosting up his PDEF, which is already high. But yeah, I used him on the EX3 stage at 65 and he was MVP, taking care of the high-DEF robots with his ignore def ability, and warping to the archer to draw attacks from the cactuar.
@Darklyre my bad, yes that is actually a unit selector. I was thinking of the FFXV milestone reward, which was just shards. Who is the list, again? Generally you want to pick a unit that is strong but also not one you already have when you're new, since getting shards for a J2 doesn't make THAT much of a difference for a lot of the early game content.
Definitely still a noob, though, so external input would really be helpful since my instincts are likely wrong!
First off is that she doesn't really get going without J3 for Overdrive, second is that she really wants the Roaring Slash gear for it's AoE weapon ability
Neica is strong right out of the gate because Battle Mage is such a potent job
Similarly, Setsuna's Blademaster is a job that is strong immediately, and becomes even better when she gets Martial Arts the at J2
I'll also bring attention to Ramses as a dark horse candidate, Dragon Cavalier is a strong job and he gets Dark Cav at J2 which gives him access to relatively early Overdrive. His J3 doesn't really give him much, job mastery health boost aside.
Still got so many things to do - gotta master Vivi's J2, get enough pots to enhance Shayna's equipment, do Yuto's missions, level up Neica's everything...
The bug train at the end creates a very RNG heavy situation, since I'm not running a Professor and I don't really feel like job leveling Elizabeth right this second
Mikoto, Water element Priestess/Ninja/Valkyrie
Nasairo, Wind element Summoner/Magic Swordsman/Enchanter
Priestess is a new job, very weird MAtk/Luck based job, main claim to fame is map-wide Charm
Pretty good units but nothing amazing, good week to take it easy
I thought I was done farming the XV event, but it looks like I now have to farm up Ignis's and Aranea's job pieces, plus figure out how to do EX1 and EX4 for their gear. Sorry Yuto, I'll get you next time.
Did the 500 step on the new banner, just for soul coin fodder if nothing else
Got both Mikoto and Nasario
As you naturally draw them over and over again you'll get them to 85, and then every time you draw them after that it's worth 150 soul coins
Evolve, their shards aren't available for trade in until they're max evolved and limit broken
It's not something you have to do right away, but it's worth doing over time
Ah, okay, that makes sense since you have to be 5* to unlock the last set of limit breaks anyways. Speaking of which, I should trade in all these extra Prompto shards...
Edit: Huzzah, just had a no-continue run, with Noctis running double-duty as Gilgamesh's pocket healer and Mandragora-puncher. That shaves fifteen runs off what I need for Ignis!
That said, you only have to run EX3 10 times. If you can do that, and the multiplayer 1 time, you can get the weapon up to 5-stars. If you can't, then don't worry about it -- there will be better or equivalent weapons in the future, and FFXV might come back, too.
I do regret not doing the hard quest more in the past few days, though. I didn't know that it handed out shard tickets. I'm only one Aranea shard away from her LB5 without having to dip into dark shards.
I blew through EX3 relatively easily, to the point where I had multiple no-death runs with ungeared level 60s on my team. It was still pretty time-intensive though, since I couldn't auto through it due to the 1,000 Needles counter on the Metal Cactuars and the DEF-piercing Hounds that would attack from atop the wall, which only Aranea and Shayna could get to. It was definitely easier once I figured out that the quickest method was to rush the entrance with Noctis to funnel the units for easy Tricast Blizzagas.
I was sitting at 24 Aranea shards and 20 Ignis shards, so I threw a few colored shards in and LB5'd both of them. Aranea in particular is fun to use, since she practically ignores terrain and utterly shreds enemies with her dives.