If Elarra has her Glint+, you can also give Tyro Ace Striker or Battleforged as his Record Materia (from Tidus or Ramza).
One of Tyro’s Legend Materia relics gives him 2 turns of instant-cast at the start of each fight. Ace Striker increases Tyro’s soul break meter build speed, and his Sentinel’s Grimoire costs half as much as some other soul breaks. With Ace Striker, Tyro can use the support ability Wrath on turn 1, and gain enough meter to use SG on turn 2, with both being instant cast.
And if you get Tyro’s Glint+, that’s even easier, as his Glint+ is Sentinel’s Grimoire, except it casts instantly, and costs nothing.
0
silence1186Character shields down!As a wingmanRegistered Userregular
So I've been trying Dragonking 7, and I got to phase 3, but I'm not seeing the numbers I see in most videos. Apparently Zack's AASB2 Crit buff falls off when his Awakening ends, compared to his Sync (which I don't have) where the buff persists 15s after its last application.
My Cloud is also barely breaking 10k in phase 3, compared to videos of 40k-60k hits, which is vexing. Might have to go back to the drawing board.
Is there anything I can substitute for Judgement Grimoire for a bit? I have the sapphires for it, it’s the 6-star spirit motes that are being a pain.
So basically a solid party for pretty much anything is Tyro and Elarra and three others? I can work with that. Though between magia points/crystal water/etc. I’m finally going to be burning through these piles of stuff I saved up.
I’m looking at something else, now: trying a build of my own with one of my old characters: Onion Knight. He’s got a crapload of versatility- I think I can get a few builds out of him (physical and magical).
Mostly I’m looking at taking advantage of something like his AASB2 combined with LM2 and LM4 and the fact he can use any black magic ability… but mostly stuff like Chain Waterga/Stonega/Firaga and Tornado… or maybe even stuff like Flare or Ultima (triple or quadcast black magic with a 922 MAG? Yes please). 12 to 16 hits (or 15 to 20 hits from Flare) could be goddamned dangerous…
I can has cheezburger, yes?
0
silence1186Character shields down!As a wingmanRegistered Userregular
Is there anything I can substitute for Judgement Grimoire for a bit? I have the sapphires for it, it’s the 6-star spirit motes that are being a pain.
So basically a solid party for pretty much anything is Tyro and Elarra and three others? I can work with that. Though between magia points/crystal water/etc. I’m finally going to be burning through these piles of stuff I saved up.
I’m looking at something else, now: trying a build of my own with one of my old characters: Onion Knight. He’s got a crapload of versatility- I think I can get a few builds out of him (physical and magical).
Mostly I’m looking at taking advantage of something like his AASB2 combined with LM2 and LM4 and the fact he can use any black magic ability… but mostly stuff like Chain Waterga/Stonega/Firaga and Tornado… or maybe even stuff like Flare or Ultima (triple or quadcast black magic with a 922 MAG? Yes please). 12 to 16 hits (or 15 to 20 hits from Flare) could be goddamned dangerous…
Just use Wrath/Entrust on Tyro for the time being.
+3
silence1186Character shields down!As a wingmanRegistered Userregular
For the record, I'm super bitter and resentful that there's a quest for two free relic draws if you can clear a Dragonking boss, which are bullshit bosses by design, ergo the quests are even more hateful bullshit by design.
That said, I'm obsessive and threw everything I could muster and spared no expense to get a kill, finally. Ended up Cloud-keepering the FF7 Dragonking to death, though perhaps not as spectacularly as all the videos I researched trying to kill this bastard.
I was able to ape this Zadism clear I found on Reddit. I had Zack AASB2 instead of Sync, which meant no party-wide 100% Crit, and also Zack's 100% Crit ended with his Woke mode. I had Cloud Dyad to make up the difference in phase 1, though phases 2 and 3 were nail biters. Finished in ~34s.
Artifacts, RBs + HAs, Magia, Waters, yadda yadda. Squeezed everything I could outta this team.
Turns:
Zack: HA > wait for RW, AASB2 > HA spam. P2: G+2, IC CSB > G+1 > AASB1 > HA spam
Aerith: G+ > HC after Rage > USB2 > MoP > Curada spam > USB2 as necessary > P3: healing is a blur, but she had room to MoP after Poison Breath
Shelke: Entrust Zack > RW > Wrath > Entrust Aerith as necessary > P2 time RW to land immediately after Zack CSB > HC after Wing Wall fades > W/E Aerith > P3 LBO > W/E Aerith
Seph: TbD spam > push phase 2 with USB1 > P2: AASB > USB2 > HA spam
Cloud: HA, Hailstorm, Dyad > HA spam > P2: USB1 > AASB > HA spam > P3: Dyad finisher when available
Shelke's LBO was clutch, since it knocked a layer of King's Rage off, and gave DRB 2, which gave Aerith some breathing room in phase 3 to clear Poison again, and also save SB meter to spam Guts when things got rough at the end.
In the winning run, because I'm a stupid human being terrible under pressure, I actually forgot to cast Zack Glint+1 for 2 stacks of Imperil, which mean Cloud still was stuck at 16k a hit under King's Rage/DKFB. I thought all was lost, but found out there's a small window between when DKFB wears off and the boss does Megaflare for Dead End. Sephiroth jumped from ~10k to 25k on crits, and shredded the remaining King's Rage layers. After that Cloud did Omnislash to knock the last layer off, and Zack's damage jumped from ~5k a hit to almost 19k, despite no crit-fixing. The chain fell off and I limped to a just past 30s kill, as is my style.
Based on the fight, I'm wondering if there's a standard formula and strategy you can modify for all the Dragonkings. Also they're horrible and I hate them.
Now to see if I can put a FF11 Dreambreaker mastery together in 2 days. The pressure's non-stop and quests never end. Haven't looked at PHY Dark-weak Wodin or Kalvinka Striker yet.
Wow, I'm impressed you were able to get there without countering the full break, I think I only tried that once and it wasn't remotely going to happen, so I aborted.
Just let XI Dragonking go. I have a fairly stacked team (Sync+AASB for Shantotto, Ayame, Aphmau; also Zeid AASB and Mog) and was just barely able to scratch out a win after dozens of attempts. Felt like pounding nails into my nether regions.
The only thing you lose for letting it go is rat tails. Who cares; just doing the non bullshit to date, you can probably already get all your HCs to like 99 or even 110.
Edit: oh, you said DB. Uh, depends how much stuff you have, but that's one of the more bullshit DBs. Definitely bring the DEF/Res dance to counter the stat buffs.
Fry on
0
silence1186Character shields down!As a wingmanRegistered Userregular
Wow, I'm impressed you were able to get there without countering the full break, I think I only tried that once and it wasn't remotely going to happen, so I aborted.
Just let XI Dragonking go. I have a fairly stacked team (Sync+AASB for Shantotto, Ayame, Aphmau; also Zeid AASB and Mog) and was just barely able to scratch out a win after dozens of attempts. Felt like pounding nails into my nether regions.
The only thing you lose for letting it go is rat tails. Who cares; just doing the non bullshit to date, you can probably already get all your HCs to like 99 or even 110.
Edit: oh, you said DB. Uh, depends how much stuff you have, but that's one of the more bullshit DBs. Definitely bring the DEF/Res dance to counter the stat buffs.
The damage was rough under FF7 DKFB. Still, Cloud + Seph did enough "chip" damage that once FB fell off, they shredded King's Rage (it was close). They both had multiple ATK buffs, stacking EnElement, Crit fix and Crit damage buff, and a few stacks of Imperil each.
Haven't tried it at all yet though. Lilisette overwriting multiple party FBs seems tricky, timing wise. Lack of crit-fix for physical chars might be a problem, though Zeid is a beast when fulling running.
Might be better to run Tyro USB4/OSB over Lilisette? Aphmau could possibly make timing phase transitions less terrible. Or maybe just Mogchamp? In-realm Full Buff is good though...
Kam'lanaut does silence+blind to slots 1+5, so that's one puzzle to figure out. I had Mog, so he buffed himself and Aphmau's MND enough to shrug it off. Could have Curilla Saint Cross to fix herself, and have Aphmau use Ultra Cure on someone else?
I don't have Lilisette AASB, so I don't know how hard it is to wrangle multiple quad buffs out of one cast. Phase 2 is only a small full break though, maybe you can just ignore that one?
Fry on
0
silence1186Character shields down!As a wingmanRegistered Userregular
Didn't want to think about it, so I ran over the FF2 Dreambreaker with Cait Sith powered mages instead. I thought WOdin deck would be more damage, but running HC for damage reduction was the ticket.
There's definitely something lacking in me though; I can ape sub-30s clears from Reddit all day, but never execute faster than 35s. Just my inadequacy, I guess.
silence1186Character shields down!As a wingmanRegistered Userregular
FF11 Dreambreaker down! Sub-30s! The secret was fishing for 10% Shantotto triple casts at THE EXACT RIGHT MOMENT mid-fight so she could do 4 x 7 x 20k hits with her HA.
Threw enough stuff at this that I'd be mad if I didn't get it.
RB for everyone, HA for Totto, full waters, magia in main stat since there was no time to grind anymore, realm artifacts for DPS.
Totto: HA x2, Memento, AASB, HA spam
Zeid TbD x3, Glint, AASB, Taboo Raid spam
Curilla Smite x3, Glint, AASB, Smite spam (was queueing AOSB at end, but Totto melted the boss instead)
Aphmau AASB, Diaja x2?, hold until ~8.8s, cast Odin to land just after Protectra, USB1, Diaja spam until phase 2, hold until Slowga, USB1, hold until P3T1 Protectra, instant Odin, Diaja spam
Lilisette Chain, PS, HC, Wrath, PS, Wrath, instant refresh Chain ~15s, HC ~17s, hold for phase 2, AASB, PS, hold for P3, instant Wrath to overwrite DBFB, spam PS to feed QC to team
Lilisette, as the support/flex character, was instrumental in enabling everyone else to just go brr and fire lasers. I had her USB but there wasn't enough meter in phase 1 to cast it, and always something more important to do later in the fight. Also, instead of Instant casting everyone's AASB, I hard casted them, and used the IC1 from Aphmau USB1 to power out more attacks during BDL mode.
Massively RNG dependent, but that's Totto for ya.
To do list:
Re-clear FF15 DB
FF15 Dragonking *high pitch* question mark???
PHY Dark-weak WOdin
Kalvinka Striker???
I really should try to finish up some hero artifact collections. I’ve got Nanaki and I think Emperor. But I want to finish up Rinoa (since she applies to Ice as well), at least.
0
silence1186Character shields down!As a wingmanRegistered Userregular
Haven't been posting results but this week got Fran AASB1 and Cinque LBG off the daily draw, which is kind of nice.
I really should try to finish up some hero artifact collections. I’ve got Nanaki and I think Emperor. But I want to finish up Rinoa (since she applies to Ice as well), at least.
Worst case spend Treasure maps to finish upgrades, no?
I really should try to finish up some hero artifact collections. I’ve got Nanaki and I think Emperor. But I want to finish up Rinoa (since she applies to Ice as well), at least.
Worst case spend Treasure maps to finish upgrades, no?
True.
I would like to try and take out the physical-weak version of the Striker for my own ego and some “free” artifacts, but the Kite shop is a simple place to go for extras.
————
I decided to give up on the awakening select and just started doing discount draws. Ice dropped a cute result; Umaro’s Awakening.
This is one of those things where objectively, I’m better off with some other stuff I’ve got (Noel is the direct comparison, for Ice Sharpshooter). However, I would like to try playing as Umaro, since I like his game and he’s a unique sort of character.
I’m thinking I could try running Celes as my Ice chainer, so that I can run Umaro and Mog and get extra power out of Mog’s Awakening for having 3 FFVI characters. Might make up for the lack of Laguna. Plus, I could pick up Umaro’s USB and get the Mog In Team bonus for it.
I sat down and finished the descent with a fairly horrifically stacked earth magic team.
Cait Sith - AASB (honed), USB (the regenga one), Glint+, HA/Allegro, MM
Rydia - Sync1/AASB1, Chain Stonega/HA, +Earth
Red XIII - Sync/AASB, USB (the instant cast one), HA/Wrath, +Weakness
Tellah - Chain, Glint+, AASB, HA/Meltdown (might not actually have needed Meltdown), Double Black
Mog - Glint+, AASB1, AASB2 (honed), HA/Passion, DMT
RW: Tactician's Tome
A variant of this was able to solo most of the dungeons (had Elarra instead of Mog for a while to make the opener safer). Used this to manually clear the last 15 or so floors.
By 100 I was opening with Mog's Glint, Cait Sith calling the RM, Rydia, Red, and Tellah all building gauge. Mog would do both dances then use his AASB2. Cait would use both abilities, call Odin, then use his AASB. Red would get 4 bars and use his Sync then AASB and spam his HA. Rydia would get 4 bars (after 95 would also wait for the interrupt) then use her Sync then AASB and spam CMD 1. Tellah would call the chain around Cait Sith's AASB, just before Red starts. After the second chain usage he'd glint then AASB. It was pretty mindless once everything was up and running. Red popped out of Sync/AASB with maybe 15% left and would spread instant cast for a turn or two. Rydia has her AOSB and her LBO to really finish if desired, but generally can make it across the finish line without them. Mog uses his AASB1 around when Rydia gets started. This usually puts Fevered Rhapsody around the start of the second chain, but it's not really something that needs to be targeted.
Red and Tellah have hero gear, Rydia has a nice whip (not artifact) and Odin armor. Mog and Cait are just geared for mind. Magicite deck is nothing fancy: Odin (ward/ward), Titan (+earth), Ramuh (+health, fast act), Madeen (+mag/+mag), Madeen (+health/+healing).
silence1186Character shields down!As a wingmanRegistered Userregular
So I ultimately never got 5/5/8 Hero Artifacts for folks in Group A, so I didn't accumulate very many extra bookmarks for Group B. I spend the 3 I had saved on Group B this morning, and now they're all gone and I didn't get any new ones. It's going to be a long month I suppose.
I ended up with 5/4/7 or better for everyone I cared about with over 20 bookmarks in reserve, so I'm happy enough with that. I'm trying not to rush the next group.
What I'm more worried about right now is that I have a day and a half to kill my first Dragonking from scratch. It seems like I probably have enough stuff to do it in VI, but I have so many VI characters that it isn't straightforwardly obvious what my best path forward is.
Terra - Sync/AASB1/AASB2/AOSB1/OSB/etc
Mog - Everything except Sync and Glint+2
Relm - AASB/USB12/Glint+/Unique(crit)
Gogo - Sync/AASB1
Celes - AASB1/AASB2/AOSB/OSB/etc (no stacking aura)
Shadow - Sync/Glint+/AOSB/etc
Edgar - Sync/CSB/Glint+/USB/OSB
Locke - Everything except Sync, Dyad, and OSB
Strago - AASB2/LBO/OSB/Glint+1/USB
Kefka - AASB/LBO (totally forgot about him)
Cyan, Gao, and Umaro all have AASB and change.
Terra, Mog, and Relm are locked in, obviously.
Gogo theoretically has strong cap breaks but they would be hell to optimize in a mixed party, so I'm leaning against that.
Celes is straightforwardly good, but I worry a little bit about damage due to crit support being nonexistent outside of Relm's unique. Shadow has a piercing counter, which is excellent, but he runs out of juice easily. Edgar can do tons of imperil support, but he probably wouldn't put out that much damage and I can also just pivot Terra to wind in the later phases after dampens stack up.
Strago only has one AASB without any special mechanic to it, but he's well-equipped to vomit out a hundred overstrikes at the end of the fight, which apparently is a thing you need to do anyway.
I think I'm leaning towards Terra/Celes/Strago due to them being easy to pilot and mostly resembling other clears I've heard of, but maybe I'm leaving power in the table.
Switch: SW-2431-2728-9604 || 3DS: 0817-4948-1650
0
silence1186Character shields down!As a wingmanRegistered Userregular
I ended up with 5/4/7 or better for everyone I cared about with over 20 bookmarks in reserve, so I'm happy enough with that. I'm trying not to rush the next group.
What I'm more worried about right now is that I have a day and a half to kill my first Dragonking from scratch. It seems like I probably have enough stuff to do it in VI, but I have so many VI characters that it isn't straightforwardly obvious what my best path forward is.
Terra - Sync/AASB1/AASB2/AOSB1/OSB/etc
Mog - Everything except Sync and Glint+2
Relm - AASB/USB12/Glint+/Unique(crit)
Gogo - Sync/AASB1
Celes - AASB1/AASB2/AOSB/OSB/etc (no stacking aura)
Shadow - Sync/Glint+/AOSB/etc
Edgar - Sync/CSB/Glint+/USB/OSB
Locke - Everything except Sync, Dyad, and OSB
Strago - AASB2/LBO/OSB/Glint+1/USB
Kefka - AASB/LBO (totally forgot about him)
Cyan, Gao, and Umaro all have AASB and change.
Terra, Mog, and Relm are locked in, obviously.
Gogo theoretically has strong cap breaks but they would be hell to optimize in a mixed party, so I'm leaning against that.
Celes is straightforwardly good, but I worry a little bit about damage due to crit support being nonexistent outside of Relm's unique. Shadow has a piercing counter, which is excellent, but he runs out of juice easily. Edgar can do tons of imperil support, but he probably wouldn't put out that much damage and I can also just pivot Terra to wind in the later phases after dampens stack up.
Strago only has one AASB without any special mechanic to it, but he's well-equipped to vomit out a hundred overstrikes at the end of the fight, which apparently is a thing you need to do anyway.
I think I'm leaning towards Terra/Celes/Strago due to them being easy to pilot and mostly resembling other clears I've heard of, but maybe I'm leaving power in the table.
Gogo 6 can mage, right?
Terra
Mog
Relm
Gogo
Kefka or Strago? Leverage all those Mog buffs.
E: I hated this quest and had to do Dragonking for the first time.
In general the flow seems to be use 1-2 BDL SBs in phase 1, Mog AASB2 after Full Break, at the beginning of phase 2 the boss nulls damage for 5s and requires you to cast 8 - 12 - 14 so everyone re-Chains and reloads BDL modes and USBs, then phase 3 Mog AASB2 after Full Break, then either deal some amount of 20k+ hits, or race the Dead End.
He also eats SB meter on certain turns, so beware.
Most of them have one status effect in phase 1. It usually hits slots 3 and 5. Depending on what it is, you may be able to ignore it, you may want to Ultra Cure one of them, you may need to have someone bonk a teammate. If you have Mog AASB2 honed, you can use one cast to clear the phase 1 full break, and use the dance chase to clear the status garbage (just be mindful of your timing)
Slot 1 takes fewer massive hits; if you have someone off realm, put them there to save yourself some headaches.
In phase 2, slot 3 will be interrupted, guaranteed. Probably put your healer there. If you didn't manage the Souls mechanic correctly, you may also have slots 2+4 interrupted by the same attack, or even the whole team. If that happens, it's probably a reset (but you've put in the time already, may as well play it out to see what happens)
My general plan is to build four bars on each of my DPS during phase 1, so they can deploy a two SB combo at the start of phase 2. If you have multiple BDL for that, great, but often I'm slumming with just one BDL and hopefully a good Ultra for a chase or some kind of self buff, something.
I tend to linger in phase 1 as long as I can, to gather that meter for phase 2. Use whatever DPS SBs you need to get out of phase 1 in time, hopefully that's just like a single USB or BDL and then saving on everyone else.
I use one HC in phase 1. Second cast is either to finish phase 1 if I'm cutting it close, or have healer/support deploy it in phase 2.
Phase 3: hold on to your butt. I think I have done more where I raced, rather than breaking King's Rage. If you have Cloud cheats or someone with an overstrike hero ability, sure, smash that rage. I've found it generally very hard to assemble two BDL on one person and also get them buffed enough to break through. YMMV.
Mog specific: I like quick start 3 and chance medica for LMs. Usual opener is dance x2, RW chain, AASB (which one depends on team). Dance out the rest of the phase, open phase 2 with the other AASB, possibly use second RW chain or second HC, keep dancing. Save two bars to open phase 3 with second AASB2. Depending on what's going on, sometimes you may be able to or be forced to throw in another SB during phase 2, that's a good time to drop in Sunbath or the USB tri buff.
I ended up with 5/4/7 or better for everyone I cared about with over 20 bookmarks in reserve, so I'm happy enough with that. I'm trying not to rush the next group.
What I'm more worried about right now is that I have a day and a half to kill my first Dragonking from scratch. It seems like I probably have enough stuff to do it in VI, but I have so many VI characters that it isn't straightforwardly obvious what my best path forward is.
Terra - Sync/AASB1/AASB2/AOSB1/OSB/etc
Mog - Everything except Sync and Glint+2
Relm - AASB/USB12/Glint+/Unique(crit)
Gogo - Sync/AASB1
Celes - AASB1/AASB2/AOSB/OSB/etc (no stacking aura)
Shadow - Sync/Glint+/AOSB/etc
Edgar - Sync/CSB/Glint+/USB/OSB
Locke - Everything except Sync, Dyad, and OSB
Strago - AASB2/LBO/OSB/Glint+1/USB
Kefka - AASB/LBO (totally forgot about him)
Cyan, Gao, and Umaro all have AASB and change.
Terra, Mog, and Relm are locked in, obviously.
Gogo theoretically has strong cap breaks but they would be hell to optimize in a mixed party, so I'm leaning against that.
Celes is straightforwardly good, but I worry a little bit about damage due to crit support being nonexistent outside of Relm's unique. Shadow has a piercing counter, which is excellent, but he runs out of juice easily. Edgar can do tons of imperil support, but he probably wouldn't put out that much damage and I can also just pivot Terra to wind in the later phases after dampens stack up.
Strago only has one AASB without any special mechanic to it, but he's well-equipped to vomit out a hundred overstrikes at the end of the fight, which apparently is a thing you need to do anyway.
I think I'm leaning towards Terra/Celes/Strago due to them being easy to pilot and mostly resembling other clears I've heard of, but maybe I'm leaving power in the table.
Gogo 6 can mage, right?
Terra
Mog
Relm
Gogo
Kefka or Strago? Leverage all those Mog buffs.
E: I hated this quest and had to do Dragonking for the first time.
In general the flow seems to be use 1-2 BDL SBs in phase 1, Mog AASB2 after Full Break, at the beginning of phase 2 the boss nulls damage for 5s and requires you to cast 8 - 12 - 14 so everyone re-Chains and reloads BDL modes and USBs, then phase 3 Mog AASB2 after Full Break, then either deal some amount of 20k+ hits, or race the Dead End.
He also eats SB meter on certain turns, so beware.
The challenge with Gogo is that all their SBs have Mimic-based mechanics, which are probably going to be wasted unless they hit specifically Terra HA, which she can't even cast under Sync. Also Celes has an OSB, insane meter gain, and lots of miscellaneous bullshit she can throw out in Phase 2 as needed.
Maybe it's still worth it for the buff efficiency; I'm just nervous about how fiddly it would be in a fight I have very little time to learn.
If your team is Gogo/Terra/ (Strago or Kefka), it's just a magic team, so Gogo will only be mimicking mage spells. If you combo Gogo AASB into Gogo Sync, the only mimicks are going to be the chases that show up after using the Defend command, which specifically select for attacks, so it'll work out fine.
Also: if you happen to combo Terra AASB and Sync at the same time, you'll still have access to her hero ability (and I'd guess that you probably want to do that, her Sync commands are not the most amazing and the piercing final hit from her hero ability is fantastic)
I had a heck of a time getting value out of Celes with a Dyad + Sync + AASB combo, but who knows, maybe you can make her work
If it were me, I'd probably try Gogo, Terra, Kefka; see if you can get out of phase 1 with just Kefka USB, or failing that, just Gogo AASB. Phase 2, do Terra AASB -> Sync, Gogo Sync, Kefka AASB, that would have a decent chance of burning through all the rest of Bahamut's HP before you see either Megaflare.
My expectation is that I'll be using Terra Sync and one of Celes/Gogo's cap breaks on phase 1, the rest in phase 2 (with Terra going AASB1>AASB2 for instant piercing 29999 wind spells).
What I need to figure out now is managing the phase 2 souls, since I botched it the worst possible last time. Maybe the goal is to face-tank a maxed Challenging Roar with Last Stand, then line up 4x SBs after Memory Bite and four more after Recall. Trying to mitigate all three big hits seems impossible with how rapidly they reload.
I don't think it's likely you'd be able to get six bars on Terra in time to do all that, especially if you are rolling through multiple BDL in phase 1.
The default plan is to have Challenging Roar and especially Sphere Ray hit you at minimal souls, then clear the phase before Megaflare 8 wipes you.
It's actually a bit of a challenge to see a Megaflare other than 8, because he gains 8 souls right before doing it. With timing and help from instant casts (Relm USB 1!) it's possible to mitigate it, but DK memory bite also hits there and eats two bars each from slots 4 and 5, so that's an uphill battle.
I did manage to get one win after taking a Megaflare 6 in a realm with exceptional last stand healing, but it's damn hard to live through all the Pain from Megaflare when the overflow attacks start landing.
BTW, status garbage here is Silence on 234. Probably want to have Mog dance that off for you.
Yeah, I honed Mog AASB2 to deal with the status. I'm sure I was going to need to do it sooner or later so I just got it over with.
EDIT: Dead-ended at 94.6%. There's clearly a path here.
EDIT 2: God damn it, Terra had the staff RM. No wonder her phase 2 damage was trash on that attempt. Wish I had noticed that before spending lenses on Strago's HA...
Noctis’s Earth Sync is triple Earth infuse, and another infuse every third Sync action. And he still manages to run out of eneaerh by the end of the Striker fight.
I’d use the Sync later, but that whole fight is a DPS race, and the Sync is Noctis’s only Enearth source, so I’m not sure if I’d make it out of phase 1.
silence1186Character shields down!As a wingmanRegistered Userregular
Whelp, last minute, time to select an AASB.
Mog AASB2 is mine!
I fundamentally did not understand why this was such a sought after item when it first premiered, and I feel like I missed a year+ of this game for not having it.
+4
38thDoelets never be stupid againwait lets always be stupid foreverRegistered Userregular
Oh. I should remember to hang on to at least 1 record marker at all times.
Instead of ignoring the Labyrinth for days at a time, I could be using a record marker to clear one lab dungeons, and get a record marker back for a daily Labyrinth clear. That would let me get rewards without needing to actually go into the Labyrinth if I don’t want to.
Posts
One of Tyro’s Legend Materia relics gives him 2 turns of instant-cast at the start of each fight. Ace Striker increases Tyro’s soul break meter build speed, and his Sentinel’s Grimoire costs half as much as some other soul breaks. With Ace Striker, Tyro can use the support ability Wrath on turn 1, and gain enough meter to use SG on turn 2, with both being instant cast.
And if you get Tyro’s Glint+, that’s even easier, as his Glint+ is Sentinel’s Grimoire, except it casts instantly, and costs nothing.
My Cloud is also barely breaking 10k in phase 3, compared to videos of 40k-60k hits, which is vexing. Might have to go back to the drawing board.
So basically a solid party for pretty much anything is Tyro and Elarra and three others? I can work with that. Though between magia points/crystal water/etc. I’m finally going to be burning through these piles of stuff I saved up.
I’m looking at something else, now: trying a build of my own with one of my old characters: Onion Knight. He’s got a crapload of versatility- I think I can get a few builds out of him (physical and magical).
Mostly I’m looking at taking advantage of something like his AASB2 combined with LM2 and LM4 and the fact he can use any black magic ability… but mostly stuff like Chain Waterga/Stonega/Firaga and Tornado… or maybe even stuff like Flare or Ultima (triple or quadcast black magic with a 922 MAG? Yes please). 12 to 16 hits (or 15 to 20 hits from Flare) could be goddamned dangerous…
I can has cheezburger, yes?
Just use Wrath/Entrust on Tyro for the time being.
That said, I'm obsessive and threw everything I could muster and spared no expense to get a kill, finally. Ended up Cloud-keepering the FF7 Dragonking to death, though perhaps not as spectacularly as all the videos I researched trying to kill this bastard.
I was able to ape this Zadism clear I found on Reddit. I had Zack AASB2 instead of Sync, which meant no party-wide 100% Crit, and also Zack's 100% Crit ended with his Woke mode. I had Cloud Dyad to make up the difference in phase 1, though phases 2 and 3 were nail biters. Finished in ~34s.
The Team:
Aerith Curada/Memento of Prayer (G+, USB2) DMT (LM2, LMR w-cast)
Shelke Wrath/Entrust (LBO) MM (LM1, 2)
Sephiroth HA/Touched by Darkness (USB1, AASB1, USB2) +Darkness (LM2, LMR w-cast)
Cloud HA/Hailstorm (Dyad1, USB1, AASB1, Dyad2) +Spellblade (LMR w-cast, +Sword dmg)
RW Chain/HC 120
Artifacts, RBs + HAs, Magia, Waters, yadda yadda. Squeezed everything I could outta this team.
Turns:
Zack: HA > wait for RW, AASB2 > HA spam. P2: G+2, IC CSB > G+1 > AASB1 > HA spam
Aerith: G+ > HC after Rage > USB2 > MoP > Curada spam > USB2 as necessary > P3: healing is a blur, but she had room to MoP after Poison Breath
Shelke: Entrust Zack > RW > Wrath > Entrust Aerith as necessary > P2 time RW to land immediately after Zack CSB > HC after Wing Wall fades > W/E Aerith > P3 LBO > W/E Aerith
Seph: TbD spam > push phase 2 with USB1 > P2: AASB > USB2 > HA spam
Cloud: HA, Hailstorm, Dyad > HA spam > P2: USB1 > AASB > HA spam > P3: Dyad finisher when available
Shelke's LBO was clutch, since it knocked a layer of King's Rage off, and gave DRB 2, which gave Aerith some breathing room in phase 3 to clear Poison again, and also save SB meter to spam Guts when things got rough at the end.
In the winning run, because I'm a stupid human being terrible under pressure, I actually forgot to cast Zack Glint+1 for 2 stacks of Imperil, which mean Cloud still was stuck at 16k a hit under King's Rage/DKFB. I thought all was lost, but found out there's a small window between when DKFB wears off and the boss does Megaflare for Dead End. Sephiroth jumped from ~10k to 25k on crits, and shredded the remaining King's Rage layers. After that Cloud did Omnislash to knock the last layer off, and Zack's damage jumped from ~5k a hit to almost 19k, despite no crit-fixing. The chain fell off and I limped to a just past 30s kill, as is my style.
Based on the fight, I'm wondering if there's a standard formula and strategy you can modify for all the Dragonkings. Also they're horrible and I hate them.
Now to see if I can put a FF11 Dreambreaker mastery together in 2 days. The pressure's non-stop and quests never end. Haven't looked at PHY Dark-weak Wodin or Kalvinka Striker yet.
Just let XI Dragonking go. I have a fairly stacked team (Sync+AASB for Shantotto, Ayame, Aphmau; also Zeid AASB and Mog) and was just barely able to scratch out a win after dozens of attempts. Felt like pounding nails into my nether regions.
The only thing you lose for letting it go is rat tails. Who cares; just doing the non bullshit to date, you can probably already get all your HCs to like 99 or even 110.
Edit: oh, you said DB. Uh, depends how much stuff you have, but that's one of the more bullshit DBs. Definitely bring the DEF/Res dance to counter the stat buffs.
The damage was rough under FF7 DKFB. Still, Cloud + Seph did enough "chip" damage that once FB fell off, they shredded King's Rage (it was close). They both had multiple ATK buffs, stacking EnElement, Crit fix and Crit damage buff, and a few stacks of Imperil each.
Yeah, Dreambreaker Kam'alaut or whatever.
Currently eyeing:
Totto AASB
Zeid G+, AASB, USB, AOSB
Curilla G+, AASB, AOSB
Aphmau De'diaja/Odin (AASB, USB1)
Lilisette PS/Entrust (USB, AASB)
Haven't tried it at all yet though. Lilisette overwriting multiple party FBs seems tricky, timing wise. Lack of crit-fix for physical chars might be a problem, though Zeid is a beast when fulling running.
Might be better to run Tyro USB4/OSB over Lilisette? Aphmau could possibly make timing phase transitions less terrible. Or maybe just Mogchamp? In-realm Full Buff is good though...
I don't have Lilisette AASB, so I don't know how hard it is to wrangle multiple quad buffs out of one cast. Phase 2 is only a small full break though, maybe you can just ignore that one?
Team:
Maria G+, AASB, AOSB, OSB
Emperor G+, Sync, AASB1
Cait Sith hAASB, USB2, (forgot to cast G+)
Hilda G+, USB1
RW Chain/HC
There's definitely something lacking in me though; I can ape sub-30s clears from Reddit all day, but never execute faster than 35s. Just my inadequacy, I guess.
Anywho, spend my final fest ticket:
Seph G+ (IC3)
I suppose.
38thDoE on steam
The current set of characters will be back in four months.
38thDoE on steam
Ugh.
Threw enough stuff at this that I'd be mad if I didn't get it.
Team:
Zeid Taboo Raid/Touched by Darkness (G+, AASB) +Darkness (LMR w-cast)
Curilla Healing Smite (G+, AASB) +Knight (LMR QC3)
Aphmau De'Diaja/Odin (AASB, USB1) DMT (LMR 1k heal chase)
Lilisette Passion Salsa/Wrath (AASB) TGM
RW: Chain/HC 99
RB for everyone, HA for Totto, full waters, magia in main stat since there was no time to grind anymore, realm artifacts for DPS.
Totto: HA x2, Memento, AASB, HA spam
Zeid TbD x3, Glint, AASB, Taboo Raid spam
Curilla Smite x3, Glint, AASB, Smite spam (was queueing AOSB at end, but Totto melted the boss instead)
Aphmau AASB, Diaja x2?, hold until ~8.8s, cast Odin to land just after Protectra, USB1, Diaja spam until phase 2, hold until Slowga, USB1, hold until P3T1 Protectra, instant Odin, Diaja spam
Lilisette Chain, PS, HC, Wrath, PS, Wrath, instant refresh Chain ~15s, HC ~17s, hold for phase 2, AASB, PS, hold for P3, instant Wrath to overwrite DBFB, spam PS to feed QC to team
Lilisette, as the support/flex character, was instrumental in enabling everyone else to just go brr and fire lasers. I had her USB but there wasn't enough meter in phase 1 to cast it, and always something more important to do later in the fight. Also, instead of Instant casting everyone's AASB, I hard casted them, and used the IC1 from Aphmau USB1 to power out more attacks during BDL mode.
Massively RNG dependent, but that's Totto for ya.
To do list:
Re-clear FF15 DB
FF15 Dragonking *high pitch* question mark???
PHY Dark-weak WOdin
Kalvinka Striker???
Worst case spend Treasure maps to finish upgrades, no?
True.
I would like to try and take out the physical-weak version of the Striker for my own ego and some “free” artifacts, but the Kite shop is a simple place to go for extras.
————
I decided to give up on the awakening select and just started doing discount draws. Ice dropped a cute result; Umaro’s Awakening.
This is one of those things where objectively, I’m better off with some other stuff I’ve got (Noel is the direct comparison, for Ice Sharpshooter). However, I would like to try playing as Umaro, since I like his game and he’s a unique sort of character.
I’m thinking I could try running Celes as my Ice chainer, so that I can run Umaro and Mog and get extra power out of Mog’s Awakening for having 3 FFVI characters. Might make up for the lack of Laguna. Plus, I could pick up Umaro’s USB and get the Mog In Team bonus for it.
Cait Sith - AASB (honed), USB (the regenga one), Glint+, HA/Allegro, MM
Rydia - Sync1/AASB1, Chain Stonega/HA, +Earth
Red XIII - Sync/AASB, USB (the instant cast one), HA/Wrath, +Weakness
Tellah - Chain, Glint+, AASB, HA/Meltdown (might not actually have needed Meltdown), Double Black
Mog - Glint+, AASB1, AASB2 (honed), HA/Passion, DMT
RW: Tactician's Tome
A variant of this was able to solo most of the dungeons (had Elarra instead of Mog for a while to make the opener safer). Used this to manually clear the last 15 or so floors.
By 100 I was opening with Mog's Glint, Cait Sith calling the RM, Rydia, Red, and Tellah all building gauge. Mog would do both dances then use his AASB2. Cait would use both abilities, call Odin, then use his AASB. Red would get 4 bars and use his Sync then AASB and spam his HA. Rydia would get 4 bars (after 95 would also wait for the interrupt) then use her Sync then AASB and spam CMD 1. Tellah would call the chain around Cait Sith's AASB, just before Red starts. After the second chain usage he'd glint then AASB. It was pretty mindless once everything was up and running. Red popped out of Sync/AASB with maybe 15% left and would spread instant cast for a turn or two. Rydia has her AOSB and her LBO to really finish if desired, but generally can make it across the finish line without them. Mog uses his AASB1 around when Rydia gets started. This usually puts Fevered Rhapsody around the start of the second chain, but it's not really something that needs to be targeted.
Red and Tellah have hero gear, Rydia has a nice whip (not artifact) and Odin armor. Mog and Cait are just geared for mind. Magicite deck is nothing fancy: Odin (ward/ward), Titan (+earth), Ramuh (+health, fast act), Madeen (+mag/+mag), Madeen (+health/+healing).
What I'm more worried about right now is that I have a day and a half to kill my first Dragonking from scratch. It seems like I probably have enough stuff to do it in VI, but I have so many VI characters that it isn't straightforwardly obvious what my best path forward is.
Terra - Sync/AASB1/AASB2/AOSB1/OSB/etc
Mog - Everything except Sync and Glint+2
Relm - AASB/USB12/Glint+/Unique(crit)
Gogo - Sync/AASB1
Celes - AASB1/AASB2/AOSB/OSB/etc (no stacking aura)
Shadow - Sync/Glint+/AOSB/etc
Edgar - Sync/CSB/Glint+/USB/OSB
Locke - Everything except Sync, Dyad, and OSB
Strago - AASB2/LBO/OSB/Glint+1/USB
Kefka - AASB/LBO (totally forgot about him)
Cyan, Gao, and Umaro all have AASB and change.
Terra, Mog, and Relm are locked in, obviously.
Gogo theoretically has strong cap breaks but they would be hell to optimize in a mixed party, so I'm leaning against that.
Celes is straightforwardly good, but I worry a little bit about damage due to crit support being nonexistent outside of Relm's unique. Shadow has a piercing counter, which is excellent, but he runs out of juice easily. Edgar can do tons of imperil support, but he probably wouldn't put out that much damage and I can also just pivot Terra to wind in the later phases after dampens stack up.
Strago only has one AASB without any special mechanic to it, but he's well-equipped to vomit out a hundred overstrikes at the end of the fight, which apparently is a thing you need to do anyway.
I think I'm leaning towards Terra/Celes/Strago due to them being easy to pilot and mostly resembling other clears I've heard of, but maybe I'm leaving power in the table.
Gogo 6 can mage, right?
Terra
Mog
Relm
Gogo
Kefka or Strago? Leverage all those Mog buffs.
E: I hated this quest and had to do Dragonking for the first time.
In general the flow seems to be use 1-2 BDL SBs in phase 1, Mog AASB2 after Full Break, at the beginning of phase 2 the boss nulls damage for 5s and requires you to cast 8 - 12 - 14 so everyone re-Chains and reloads BDL modes and USBs, then phase 3 Mog AASB2 after Full Break, then either deal some amount of 20k+ hits, or race the Dead End.
He also eats SB meter on certain turns, so beware.
Most of them have one status effect in phase 1. It usually hits slots 3 and 5. Depending on what it is, you may be able to ignore it, you may want to Ultra Cure one of them, you may need to have someone bonk a teammate. If you have Mog AASB2 honed, you can use one cast to clear the phase 1 full break, and use the dance chase to clear the status garbage (just be mindful of your timing)
Slot 1 takes fewer massive hits; if you have someone off realm, put them there to save yourself some headaches.
In phase 2, slot 3 will be interrupted, guaranteed. Probably put your healer there. If you didn't manage the Souls mechanic correctly, you may also have slots 2+4 interrupted by the same attack, or even the whole team. If that happens, it's probably a reset (but you've put in the time already, may as well play it out to see what happens)
My general plan is to build four bars on each of my DPS during phase 1, so they can deploy a two SB combo at the start of phase 2. If you have multiple BDL for that, great, but often I'm slumming with just one BDL and hopefully a good Ultra for a chase or some kind of self buff, something.
I tend to linger in phase 1 as long as I can, to gather that meter for phase 2. Use whatever DPS SBs you need to get out of phase 1 in time, hopefully that's just like a single USB or BDL and then saving on everyone else.
I use one HC in phase 1. Second cast is either to finish phase 1 if I'm cutting it close, or have healer/support deploy it in phase 2.
Phase 3: hold on to your butt. I think I have done more where I raced, rather than breaking King's Rage. If you have Cloud cheats or someone with an overstrike hero ability, sure, smash that rage. I've found it generally very hard to assemble two BDL on one person and also get them buffed enough to break through. YMMV.
Mog specific: I like quick start 3 and chance medica for LMs. Usual opener is dance x2, RW chain, AASB (which one depends on team). Dance out the rest of the phase, open phase 2 with the other AASB, possibly use second RW chain or second HC, keep dancing. Save two bars to open phase 3 with second AASB2. Depending on what's going on, sometimes you may be able to or be forced to throw in another SB during phase 2, that's a good time to drop in Sunbath or the USB tri buff.
Maybe it's still worth it for the buff efficiency; I'm just nervous about how fiddly it would be in a fight I have very little time to learn.
Also: if you happen to combo Terra AASB and Sync at the same time, you'll still have access to her hero ability (and I'd guess that you probably want to do that, her Sync commands are not the most amazing and the piercing final hit from her hero ability is fantastic)
I had a heck of a time getting value out of Celes with a Dyad + Sync + AASB combo, but who knows, maybe you can make her work
If it were me, I'd probably try Gogo, Terra, Kefka; see if you can get out of phase 1 with just Kefka USB, or failing that, just Gogo AASB. Phase 2, do Terra AASB -> Sync, Gogo Sync, Kefka AASB, that would have a decent chance of burning through all the rest of Bahamut's HP before you see either Megaflare.
What I need to figure out now is managing the phase 2 souls, since I botched it the worst possible last time. Maybe the goal is to face-tank a maxed Challenging Roar with Last Stand, then line up 4x SBs after Memory Bite and four more after Recall. Trying to mitigate all three big hits seems impossible with how rapidly they reload.
The default plan is to have Challenging Roar and especially Sphere Ray hit you at minimal souls, then clear the phase before Megaflare 8 wipes you.
It's actually a bit of a challenge to see a Megaflare other than 8, because he gains 8 souls right before doing it. With timing and help from instant casts (Relm USB 1!) it's possible to mitigate it, but DK memory bite also hits there and eats two bars each from slots 4 and 5, so that's an uphill battle.
I did manage to get one win after taking a Megaflare 6 in a realm with exceptional last stand healing, but it's damn hard to live through all the Pain from Megaflare when the overflow attacks start landing.
BTW, status garbage here is Silence on 234. Probably want to have Mog dance that off for you.
EDIT: Dead-ended at 94.6%. There's clearly a path here.
EDIT 2: God damn it, Terra had the staff RM. No wonder her phase 2 damage was trash on that attempt. Wish I had noticed that before spending lenses on Strago's HA...
Noctis’s Earth Sync is triple Earth infuse, and another infuse every third Sync action. And he still manages to run out of eneaerh by the end of the Striker fight.
I’d use the Sync later, but that whole fight is a DPS race, and the Sync is Noctis’s only Enearth source, so I’m not sure if I’d make it out of phase 1.
Whoooo
Final element ticket: two dupe discoes and a limit glint
Yeah, that sounds about right :v
Mog AASB2 is mine!
I fundamentally did not understand why this was such a sought after item when it first premiered, and I feel like I missed a year+ of this game for not having it.
38thDoE on steam
I find it much more straightforward and fun than dreambreakers to be honest. Once you've done one, you know what to expect and how the fight flows.
Uh, what? That goes completely counter to my experience with the fight. What is your alternative?
Instead of ignoring the Labyrinth for days at a time, I could be using a record marker to clear one lab dungeons, and get a record marker back for a daily Labyrinth clear. That would let me get rewards without needing to actually go into the Labyrinth if I don’t want to.
No like.,CAST it during that, don't have it running during that