I'm grabbing the Samurai fire ability for sure, since I now have Gilgamesh CSB and Auron USB2. Dark Valefor would be nice for Alphinaud (CSB/USB2), but I have no other users. Lunar Ifrit would work on Terra and Krile, but I've already got Valigarmanda and Meltdown and Chain Firaja might be better. I don't need the Thief wind ability since Cloud/Zack/Celes/Bartz are permanently on the wind team, but the fire one might be nice for Locke (Glint/AOSB). Chain Thundaja would be good but my magical lightning team is pretty stacked as it is.
All of the 6* black magicks are good, if you can afford the crystals to hone them. Burnt Offering is pretty fantastic if you have any machinists, as will be the ice equivalent which should drop with the next batch of abilities. Earth Ironfist is the only non-awful option for Earth monks at the moment - Fire monks can get by with Fires Within for now, it's still another month-ish until we get the Earth version.
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silence1186Character shields down!As a wingmanRegistered Userregular
In folks' experience, what's the uptime on the 35% chance to get 3 charges of Quickcast after X action type Legend Materia, after the first proc?
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38thDoelets never be stupid againwait lets always be stupid foreverRegistered Userregular
So, I said earlier I might have a strategy for Syldra. Itβs one thatβs pretty well sustainable for about half of her life bar.
Turns out I forgot that about halfway through the fight, she puts a defensive buff on herself that stacks with Rage and uses an odd combination of stats (DEF/RES/MND) that canβt be stripped with any abilities. This makes it impossible for Manticore to do significant damage outside of Rage, never mind stripping Rage. And this is on top of ever-increasing Imperil Wind stacks making healing a losing prospect.
So, no. Turns out I do not have a working strategy for Syldra. And I doubt that anything I now have would be.
I'm grabbing the Samurai fire ability for sure, since I now have Gilgamesh CSB and Auron USB2. Dark Valefor would be nice for Alphinaud (CSB/USB2), but I have no other users. Lunar Ifrit would work on Terra and Krile, but I've already got Valigarmanda and Meltdown and Chain Firaja might be better. I don't need the Thief wind ability since Cloud/Zack/Celes/Bartz are permanently on the wind team, but the fire one might be nice for Locke (Glint/AOSB). Chain Thundaja would be good but my magical lightning team is pretty stacked as it is.
People like Beasteh aside, I think I've burnt the most rubies. Ones I've made:
Chain Firaja (probably not needed, but I've got lots of fire mages so it sees use)
Chain Thundaja (lacking chain I need firepower)
Chain Waterja (lacking chain I need firepower but it still didn't work)
Voltech
Chain Stoneja (used for sub-30 clear)
Lunar Leviathan (see Chain Waterja)
Stormspell Strike
Inferno Assault (5 hits, only Bartz burst I had was fire at the time and I didn't need an earth spellblade, this was made for him for torment)
Flash Disaster
Ironfist Earth
Fire Assault
Storm Assault
Healing Smite
Sapphire Bullet
I'd highly recommend the thief abilities for torments, pick the element you use more of - it helps offload healer requirements, and teams that have both that and Healing Smite can last a good bit longer.
Ironfist Earth gets some mileage, but I've got a ton of earth monks (and pretty much no fire monks).
Flash Disaster is fine, but I use it more for meter generation than anything else, honestly.
38thDoelets never be stupid againwait lets always be stupid foreverRegistered Userregular
edited January 2019
Evaluate how much other quickcast is in your team before you go for it. There is a lot of quick cast granting going on these days.
If there is none then its useful.
Brainfarted and forgot that I already had Ironfist Earth, Flash Disaster, and Chain Stoneja honed up.
Burnt Offering might work - I have Mustadio USB, and he has an extremely good dive. I just need to figure out how to fit him on a fire team. I wasn't a big fan of the Machinist imperils before, but King just demolishes with them.
So, I said earlier I might have a strategy for Syldra. Itβs one thatβs pretty well sustainable for about half of her life bar.
Turns out I forgot that about halfway through the fight, she puts a defensive buff on herself that stacks with Rage and uses an odd combination of stats (DEF/RES/MND) that canβt be stripped with any abilities. This makes it impossible for Manticore to do significant damage outside of Rage, never mind stripping Rage. And this is on top of ever-increasing Imperil Wind stacks making healing a losing prospect.
So, no. Turns out I do not have a working strategy for Syldra. And I doubt that anything I now have would be.
Radiant shield! Or AASB.
No Arcanes for me on the physical side of things, but maybe I could do some insane strategy of Alphinaud and 4 white mages, if I feel like burning a couple hours on a clear. Or maybe Alphinaud, 2 white mages, Laguna, and Ayame? I dunno; anything short of Snow + Laguna + Squall or Ayame probably isnβt enough to break Rage, and every one of them reduces my ability to heal. Hrm.
If only Syldra didnβt do NulFrost, or if Manticore could Imperil Ice. I might be able to replace Laguna with Alphinaud or Shelke.
Mustadio USB + LD + Burnt Offering is the backbone of my Mateus clear. I haven't taken a serious run at Manticore yet, but I may try to shoehorn him into that team in the hopes that a fat stack of imperils will help Phoenix to repeatedly break the rage mode.
Replacing Laguna with Mateus is a bad idea. He canβt break Rage, and Syldra NulFrosts faster than the Magicite can be re-used. I wonder if Snowβs chain can be replaced by giving Laguna Lifesiphon to use his Ultra as often as possible. Except then I lose out on any real damage potential from Laguna himself.
I need 6 or 7 character slots.
I also need to stop flooding the thread with this topic.
Yeah. Sorry, I get weird when I think, for some reason, that Iβm making things too much about myself.
I think for Syldra I really am gonna have to wait for the next Machinist ability. It would really improve Lagunaβs ability to Imperil, both because he has a better chance on the command itself, and because it would be faster meter generation. If I can somehow keep her near 4 or 6 stacks, that might help stabilize my damage. The problem then becomes surviving. Imperil Wind is a real problem, and giving Ramza Affliction Break only does so much. Especially since it sharply limits how much he can Entrust to Relm without losing Burst Mode altogether.
Yeah. Sorry, I get weird when I think, for some reason, that Iβm making things too much about myself.
I think for Syldra I really am gonna have to wait for the next Machinist ability. It would really improve Lagunaβs ability to Imperil, both because he has a better chance on the command itself, and because it would be faster meter generation. If I can somehow keep her near 4 or 6 stacks, that might help stabilize my damage. The problem then becomes surviving. Imperil Wind is a real problem, and giving Ramza Affliction Break only does so much. Especially since it sharply limits how much he can Entrust to Relm without losing Burst Mode altogether.
What are you running on Ramza now? His BSB2 already has a Wrath C2, so he should be able to carry Entrust and Affliction Break.
Edit: Alternatively, if you have Larsa USB or BSB, what about having him Astra away an imperil, then Entrusting to Relm?
Edit 2: Nope, forgot that imperil isn't a debuff and doesn't get blocked by Astra.
Mateus is done, finally. A mess of failures, two perfect runs in-between, and bookended by barely hanging on finishes for the first and last.
An attempt at Manticore got me to about 95% before collapsing. I'm hoping I can cheap this one too and just power through it without having to use more hones/crystal waters.
Yeah. Sorry, I get weird when I think, for some reason, that Iβm making things too much about myself.
I think for Syldra I really am gonna have to wait for the next Machinist ability. It would really improve Lagunaβs ability to Imperil, both because he has a better chance on the command itself, and because it would be faster meter generation. If I can somehow keep her near 4 or 6 stacks, that might help stabilize my damage. The problem then becomes surviving. Imperil Wind is a real problem, and giving Ramza Affliction Break only does so much. Especially since it sharply limits how much he can Entrust to Relm without losing Burst Mode altogether.
What are you running on Ramza now? His BSB2 already has a Wrath C2, so he should be able to carry Entrust and Affliction Break.
Edit: Alternatively, if you have Larsa USB or BSB, what about having him Astra away an imperil, then Entrusting to Relm?
Edit 2: Nope, forgot that imperil isn't a debuff and doesn't get blocked by Astra.
He can carry both. The problem is that Iβve no safety net if his Burst drops after an Entrust. It requires tighter planning than just carrying Wrath and Entrust, and heβll need to re-up the bust sooner than I usually would.
I'm realizing how I probably should have pulled harder on the banner with all that Alphinaud stuff, because I'd have a very workable magic-wind team with his chain and Ultra
Mustadio USB + LD + Burnt Offering is the backbone of my Mateus clear. I haven't taken a serious run at Manticore yet, but I may try to shoehorn him into that team in the hopes that a fat stack of imperils will help Phoenix to repeatedly break the rage mode.
Doing some mathcrafting with the spreadsheet linked from this reddit post. Obviously, if you want your magicite followup attacks to break rage mode, you definitely need a chain, and you probably want imperils.
The more interesting thing I'm getting from playing around, is that raw stats for your magicite actually make a pretty big difference, too. A theoretical team of five Phoenixes with maximum stats inheritance can get the job done vs Manticore at much lower chain counts than a team of Phoenix/Firemane/King Bomb/Maliris/Evrae with only 75% stats inheritance. With a gen-1 chain (and ignoring the RES buff/debuff war that will inevitably be going on in that fight), at the baseline of 20% elemental weakness, it's a question of needing a chain count of ~30 vs a chain count of ~60.
Wild idea - since a bunch of Support skills are useless in top end content (or all content, in the case of Quadruple Foul), imagine a 6* attack that gives a high chance of a 10% elemental field bonus, like the flip side of Machinist imperils.
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38thDoelets never be stupid againwait lets always be stupid foreverRegistered Userregular
We are too close to chain debut to get an ability that replaces them. We just got Hastega and havenβt gotten medica yet.
Okay, I've thrown myself at Phoenix and Belias in various ways and I'm getting nowhere. Crowdsourcing both if anyone can be of any assistance. TRYING to keep this on-element
Physical water SBs/other offensive things of note:
Terra: Unique
Arc: BSB, USB
Gogo (V): BSB
Strago: BSB, LMR
Gogo (VI): BSB, Bubsy
Alphinaud: USB, Legend Dive, I guess, Also has SSB, noted in Support
Palom: USB, I guess?
Rydia: LMR
Rinoa: Glint, Legend Dive, I guess?
Arc: SSB (only included because of above)
Hilda: USB (I guess, haven't like...ever used this)
Lenna: USB, BSB1, BSB2
Aerith: USB1, USB2, BSB1, BSB2, Legend Dive
Selphie: USB...not sure? Instant reraise and astra. SSB1 and both bursts, too. Legend Dive
Eiko: USB, Legend Dive
Larsa: USB, SSB, BSB, Legend Dive
Penelo: USB, BSB2? (last stand), half dive, LMR
Deuce: USB, BSB
I've got so many pieces that can fit in so many configurations, but nothing that seems to properly nail either. Nothing stands out as something I can vomit motes at, and any "hone it up" stratgies would be desperation and liable to fail still. Hurm.
Man Multiplayer 220 Gilgamesh is annoying as fuck.
Yeah, that one was annoying as hell. I actually made it through with someone where we only had two real DPS, but too much healing. He killed both DPS, but I have Deuce's USB which has raise, so we timed it to do that, get them fully healed and behind wall, and just plink our way to eventual victory.
Man Multiplayer 220 Gilgamesh is annoying as fuck.
Yeah, that one was annoying as hell. I actually made it through with someone where we only had two real DPS, but too much healing. He killed both DPS, but I have Deuce's USB which has raise, so we timed it to do that, get them fully healed and behind wall, and just plink our way to eventual victory.
I did the 220 solo, and that fight is aggravating just because nothing actually happens 90% of the time. I went through an entire chain without the breaksight ever appearing. He didn't even hit me during that time!
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38thDoelets never be stupid againwait lets always be stupid foreverRegistered Userregular
@Jragghen I think you are looking at partial radiant shield plus Bartz and tidus and healer bsb to grind Phoenix down. Itβs unpleasent at best.
@Jragghen I think you are looking at partial radiant shield plus Bartz and tidus and healer bsb to grind Phoenix down. Itβs unpleasent at best.
Yeah, that's kinda where I've landed but haven't made work yet.
Oh, I forgot to include Ingis BSB as support. I've been doing him buffing Bartz up with an entrust bot on the healer and Curilla as the radiant source (with a MAG and MND breakdown, which DOES reduce phoenix's heals, but only by like 10%) and trying to solo heal it, but it's....not going great. I think the best run was about 1/3rd of the health left, and I'd already hit 1 minute.
Any chance of squeezing an imperil in there, or would that come at too great a cost?
Any imperil would have to come by way of replacing Ignis (healing definitely can't keep up without the entrust bot and/or a second healer), so it'd preferably be an imperil with a boost which would be
*checks*
None of them.
Wakka's USB is a break, but that's it. Or I could try to eschew radiant shield altogether, but that doesn't seem like it'd be productive.
e: tl;dr - my water team leaned HEAVILY on ninjas, so having a boss designed to screw with them kinda screws me :V
Yeah I think I'm gonna retry it later but man is it annoying. I mean it's 1 mythril but UUUUUUUUUGGHHH.
Solo it if you can, and bring a dark or holy chain if possible. Even though you'll hit for almost nothing, you'll still run up the chain count. I blew through 60% of his HP once the first breaksight appeared.
I have over 200 mythril and nothing that looks good to spend it on. So I'm just wiling away the final hours of the discounted hard realm dungeons just plugging away at as many as I can for practically free mythril. I mean, some of the early ones even give away double stamina shards, so it's been a fun way to pass time.
Soak damage with the crystal shield to build up the Crystal add or you die!
The Crystal Shield lasts 1 second!
About the same as my interest in trying to do it.
Reminds me of the same thing I experienced trying to do the optional battle against Anima in the FFXIII portion of the Record Dungeons- it doesn't matter what you do, if you don't pop Protect right off, it doubletaps one of your characters and that's all, folks. It's just a pain because I like to finish all of the dungeons I can, and this one's just sitting there, unfinished.
Soak damage with the crystal shield to build up the Crystal add or you die!
The Crystal Shield lasts 1 second!
About the same as my interest in trying to do it.
Reminds me of the same thing I experienced trying to do the optional battle against Anima in the FFXIII portion of the Record Dungeons- it doesn't matter what you do, if you don't pop Protect right off, it doubletaps one of your characters and that's all, folks. It's just a pain because I like to finish all of the dungeons I can, and this one's just sitting there, unfinished.
Remind me to dig up the strategy I used for it when I have the time.
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38thDoelets never be stupid againwait lets always be stupid foreverRegistered Userregular
The record dungeon optional areas are pretty much puzzles and you need to use the right abilities at the right time or die. GoldR was somehow worse than anima with timing the jumps.
βI used Abilities on the front arm, making sure to have Snow use Bonecrusher on turn 1 so that the arms wouldn't hit Elarra (meanwhile, Elarra held action and healed Snow after the arms hit him). Once [the first arm] was dead, I had Sazh MBD the other arm and launch everything at the main body. The Choco-Chick was ready after my second MBD was used, so I was able to blink the third Resonant Magic. I think Snow died at some point, but I got it done.β
An important bit of info is that the arms target whoever has the lowest HP percentage. Having Snow open with Bonecrusher damages him and sends the attacks his way, and he can take it, especially if Elarra is ready with a heal for him.
Enlong on
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38thDoelets never be stupid againwait lets always be stupid foreverRegistered Userregular
Posts
All of the 6* black magicks are good, if you can afford the crystals to hone them. Burnt Offering is pretty fantastic if you have any machinists, as will be the ice equivalent which should drop with the next batch of abilities. Earth Ironfist is the only non-awful option for Earth monks at the moment - Fire monks can get by with Fires Within for now, it's still another month-ish until we get the Earth version.
Radiant shield! Or AASB.
People like Beasteh aside, I think I've burnt the most rubies. Ones I've made:
Chain Firaja (probably not needed, but I've got lots of fire mages so it sees use)
Chain Thundaja (lacking chain I need firepower)
Chain Waterja (lacking chain I need firepower but it still didn't work)
Voltech
Chain Stoneja (used for sub-30 clear)
Lunar Leviathan (see Chain Waterja)
Stormspell Strike
Inferno Assault (5 hits, only Bartz burst I had was fire at the time and I didn't need an earth spellblade, this was made for him for torment)
Flash Disaster
Ironfist Earth
Fire Assault
Storm Assault
Healing Smite
Sapphire Bullet
I'd highly recommend the thief abilities for torments, pick the element you use more of - it helps offload healer requirements, and teams that have both that and Healing Smite can last a good bit longer.
Ironfist Earth gets some mileage, but I've got a ton of earth monks (and pretty much no fire monks).
Flash Disaster is fine, but I use it more for meter generation than anything else, honestly.
For the most part, once it's processed once, it tends to stay up.
They're useful but not amazing.
If there is none then its useful.
Burnt Offering might work - I have Mustadio USB, and he has an extremely good dive. I just need to figure out how to fit him on a fire team. I wasn't a big fan of the Machinist imperils before, but King just demolishes with them.
No Arcanes for me on the physical side of things, but maybe I could do some insane strategy of Alphinaud and 4 white mages, if I feel like burning a couple hours on a clear. Or maybe Alphinaud, 2 white mages, Laguna, and Ayame? I dunno; anything short of Snow + Laguna + Squall or Ayame probably isnβt enough to break Rage, and every one of them reduces my ability to heal. Hrm.
If only Syldra didnβt do NulFrost, or if Manticore could Imperil Ice. I might be able to replace Laguna with Alphinaud or Shelke.
I need 6 or 7 character slots.
I also need to stop flooding the thread with this topic.
I think for Syldra I really am gonna have to wait for the next Machinist ability. It would really improve Lagunaβs ability to Imperil, both because he has a better chance on the command itself, and because it would be faster meter generation. If I can somehow keep her near 4 or 6 stacks, that might help stabilize my damage. The problem then becomes surviving. Imperil Wind is a real problem, and giving Ramza Affliction Break only does so much. Especially since it sharply limits how much he can Entrust to Relm without losing Burst Mode altogether.
What are you running on Ramza now? His BSB2 already has a Wrath C2, so he should be able to carry Entrust and Affliction Break.
Edit: Alternatively, if you have Larsa USB or BSB, what about having him Astra away an imperil, then Entrusting to Relm?
Edit 2: Nope, forgot that imperil isn't a debuff and doesn't get blocked by Astra.
An attempt at Manticore got me to about 95% before collapsing. I'm hoping I can cheap this one too and just power through it without having to use more hones/crystal waters.
Doing some mathcrafting with the spreadsheet linked from this reddit post. Obviously, if you want your magicite followup attacks to break rage mode, you definitely need a chain, and you probably want imperils.
The more interesting thing I'm getting from playing around, is that raw stats for your magicite actually make a pretty big difference, too. A theoretical team of five Phoenixes with maximum stats inheritance can get the job done vs Manticore at much lower chain counts than a team of Phoenix/Firemane/King Bomb/Maliris/Evrae with only 75% stats inheritance. With a gen-1 chain (and ignoring the RES buff/debuff war that will inevitably be going on in that fight), at the baseline of 20% elemental weakness, it's a question of needing a chain count of ~30 vs a chain count of ~60.
Wastes an ability slot for an actual useful break, but opens Support back up to being useful on top content if you commit to it.
Maybe as a relic, I canβt imagine an ability doing that.
Physical water SBs/other offensive things of note:
Jecht SSB
Yuffie: BSB2 (I think it's 2 - instant AoE imperil), USB2, Legend Dive, LMR
Kimahri: BSB
Paine: BSB, USB, Legend Dive
Rikku: BSB1, BSB2, USB
Tidus: BSB2 (I think? The self powerchain one), OSB
Wakka: BSB, USB, Legend Dive
Bartz: wBSB, OSB, Legend Dive, LMR
Magical water SBs/other offensive things of note:
Arc: BSB, USB
Gogo (V): BSB
Strago: BSB, LMR
Gogo (VI): BSB, Bubsy
Alphinaud: USB, Legend Dive, I guess, Also has SSB, noted in Support
Palom: USB, I guess?
Rydia: LMR
Rinoa: Glint, Legend Dive, I guess?
Support of note:
Shelke: Legend Dive, LMR, BSB (not that it matters)
Curilla: USB
Alphinaud: SSB
Tyro: USB1, USB2, USB3, LMR, Legend Dive
Ramza: BSB2, SSB1/2, Legend Dive, LMR
Mog: USB1, USB2
Red XIII: BSB, USB, Legend Dive
Healers of note:
Hilda: USB (I guess, haven't like...ever used this)
Lenna: USB, BSB1, BSB2
Aerith: USB1, USB2, BSB1, BSB2, Legend Dive
Selphie: USB...not sure? Instant reraise and astra. SSB1 and both bursts, too. Legend Dive
Eiko: USB, Legend Dive
Larsa: USB, SSB, BSB, Legend Dive
Penelo: USB, BSB2? (last stand), half dive, LMR
Deuce: USB, BSB
I've got so many pieces that can fit in so many configurations, but nothing that seems to properly nail either. Nothing stands out as something I can vomit motes at, and any "hone it up" stratgies would be desperation and liable to fail still. Hurm.
Yeah, that one was annoying as hell. I actually made it through with someone where we only had two real DPS, but too much healing. He killed both DPS, but I have Deuce's USB which has raise, so we timed it to do that, get them fully healed and behind wall, and just plink our way to eventual victory.
I did the 220 solo, and that fight is aggravating just because nothing actually happens 90% of the time. I went through an entire chain without the breaksight ever appearing. He didn't even hit me during that time!
Yeah, that's kinda where I've landed but haven't made work yet.
Oh, I forgot to include Ingis BSB as support. I've been doing him buffing Bartz up with an entrust bot on the healer and Curilla as the radiant source (with a MAG and MND breakdown, which DOES reduce phoenix's heals, but only by like 10%) and trying to solo heal it, but it's....not going great. I think the best run was about 1/3rd of the health left, and I'd already hit 1 minute.
Any imperil would have to come by way of replacing Ignis (healing definitely can't keep up without the entrust bot and/or a second healer), so it'd preferably be an imperil with a boost which would be
*checks*
None of them.
Wakka's USB is a break, but that's it. Or I could try to eschew radiant shield altogether, but that doesn't seem like it'd be productive.
e: tl;dr - my water team leaned HEAVILY on ninjas, so having a boss designed to screw with them kinda screws me :V
Solo it if you can, and bring a dark or holy chain if possible. Even though you'll hit for almost nothing, you'll still run up the chain count. I blew through 60% of his HP once the first breaksight appeared.
I can has cheezburger, yes?
Soak damage with the crystal shield to build up the Crystal add or you die!
The Crystal Shield lasts 1 second!
About the same as my interest in trying to do it.
Reminds me of the same thing I experienced trying to do the optional battle against Anima in the FFXIII portion of the Record Dungeons- it doesn't matter what you do, if you don't pop Protect right off, it doubletaps one of your characters and that's all, folks. It's just a pain because I like to finish all of the dungeons I can, and this one's just sitting there, unfinished.
I can has cheezburger, yes?
Remind me to dig up the strategy I used for it when I have the time.
To quote myself:
βI used Abilities on the front arm, making sure to have Snow use Bonecrusher on turn 1 so that the arms wouldn't hit Elarra (meanwhile, Elarra held action and healed Snow after the arms hit him). Once [the first arm] was dead, I had Sazh MBD the other arm and launch everything at the main body. The Choco-Chick was ready after my second MBD was used, so I was able to blink the third Resonant Magic. I think Snow died at some point, but I got it done.β
An important bit of info is that the arms target whoever has the lowest HP percentage. Having Snow open with Bonecrusher damages him and sends the attacks his way, and he can take it, especially if Elarra is ready with a heal for him.