I did a few pulls along with the free, got an Ignis 15, 2 35s, and 8 power stones basically.
I got the full Zack set, which would've been great but he was already MLBed. Almost all the other unneeded stuff was off-banner, which is really just adding insult to injury.
Got Zack EX in 168 tickets, but was way below expected value on gold orbs, didn't even get enough to cover the power stone cost of maxing it out.
I don't think Ignis grabs me enough to continue on the banner. I have Lenna for those times when I really, really want debuff evasion (and Tuna to remove them). And the cooking animation is sooooo loooong.
I'll probably try for Aphmau EX when that gets here, to get myself a second debuff evasion support.
Some good plot development in this chapter (Act 2 Ch 7). I'm curious to find out who was talking at the end of the "Crystal Core of Darkness" cutscene.
Also, who's Sephiroth talking to in the "Travelers of the Stars" cutscene? I thought Sephiroth might be talking to himself, or to a clone of himself, but the jacket doesn't look quite right.
So far Aranea looks strong. We'll see how she shakes out with EX Realization and AA in the kit too.
The pieces are certainly there, that's for sure. That's a lot of pushback in her kit, which is quite tasty, and her hit counts and overflow are all good. HP+ should be great for clearing trash. Just need to see what kind of potency all of her attacks have. And whether her EX and/or AA can set Overclock for her.
Fry on
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BeastehTHAT WOULD NOTKILL DRACULARegistered Userregular
Calling it now: Aranea is going to be absurdly broken
We've only seen half her kit and it feels like she is tuned for the JP meta
I'm going to call a shot: Edgar EX+ as the banner mate for Aranea. I don't have any special knowledge, but something about that feels correct.
Edit: second video is out. Gets free turns on break if she has EX. EX sets overclock, or extends it if it's already on. AA is Set Overclock. Very high solo potential, she's basically Lightning but non elemental
Edit 2: actually NVM, she doesn't counter attack and she has a finite number of abilities, probably tough to solo
Aranea looks cool, but also kind of complicated in a not very fun way. I don't love the weird hockey helmet she has going on either. Are we getting a free 10+1 summon on her banner? If so I guess I'll see where that takes me, but I'm feeling hesitant about breaking the bank for her stuff.
Oh yeah got Aranea EX after 30k gems. Pretty happy after having to pity Ignis. Hopefully between Ignis, Squall and Aranea I can just cruise through all the content I haven't cleared yet (Normal and Hard Modes on Story Chp 8 onwards, lots of LC, lots of Summon Boards, etc etc)
Wasn't really into this banner, and since I'm still building up my gems, wasn't gonna do much with it. So, with my free pull, the first 10 weapons were eight 3*s, and two 4*s. So yup, just going great, and then I got...
Noctis' EX?!?
Well, um... I guess I got to figure out how to Noctis now?
The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it. ~ Terry Pratchett
What are our thoughts on early Noctis EX+? I've got his gear from before, but ingots are still pretty tight.
Reddit folks seem to be saying it's not that good. Idunno, having an actually usable EX attack helps him a ton, and he gets to start with some Armiger stacks, and the enemy starts with the debuff, and the EX reapplies the debuff, and the EX gives him a free ability use. I think he'll probably be pretty good for a while.
Decided to pick this back up after a bit of a break. Purpled Garland and Ultimecia then kinda burned out doing summon boards. The worst. Came back briefly to pull Lyse because I had to.
Ended to with full Eight, Ignis and Aranea kits off just ticket pulls from the 200 odd tickets I'd gotten from boards.
Another 40 tickets, and I now have a 3/3 Noctis EX, still no Aranea EX, but I swear to god if I get one more of her 15s... I am severely torn between pitying Rinoa (because favorites) and pitying Aranea (because jesus christ big numbers).
Somehow Aranea worked out perfectly, drew 4 15s, then her 35, maxed it with orbs, then drew her EX and maxed it with all the orbs I had left, with the 1 from Dissidia points resetting today to make it to 12. And yes, she wrecks things.
Also it's making me want to finally play FFXV. So of course the PSN doesn't have it on sale this month.
1) Silence 2) Books must be returned by the last date shown 3) Do not interfere with the nature of causality
God I got a new phone and transfered all my stuff over. I have no idea what any of this garbage is. I haven't played since like...episode 2 of chapter 2? I think?
Sure it's only like 30 minutes a board with a triple book but that's still like 3 hours of straight grind for any new character.
Worst part is how necessary it is. Ran a full team of unraised people in the Eight chaos fight (Aranea, Zack, Ignis) and it took like 130 turns after gem reviving because I ran out of moves.
Full boards and nothing else? 87. Don't even have artifacts yet. Admittedly some of this is just being a bit more used to Aranea and Ignis but still.
Whining aside I still really like this game even if I have to take breaks sometimes. Think I need to go back and clear all the lost chapter chaos fights now.
I dunno, we've gone from triple book 11 rounds for board mastery down to 7, maybe less depending on your Wild Points accumulation/usage. Put a strong enough DPS in the team and you can probably get the easier summons done in 15 minutes. They made Ifrit and Shiva much less obnoxious as well.
It's still a grind but significantly better than it was a few months ago.
Sure it's only like 30 minutes a board with a triple book but that's still like 3 hours of straight grind for any new character.
Worst part is how necessary it is. Ran a full team of unraised people in the Eight chaos fight (Aranea, Zack, Ignis) and it took like 130 turns after gem reviving because I ran out of moves.
Full boards and nothing else? 87. Don't even have artifacts yet. Admittedly some of this is just being a bit more used to Aranea and Ignis but still.
Whining aside I still really like this game even if I have to take breaks sometimes. Think I need to go back and clear all the lost chapter chaos fights now.
Those of us who still have teensy amounts of stamina are worse off.
After spending a few days playing with Aranea and discussing it with others, the general consensus I have come to is: yes, Aranea is indeed hilariously strong. Most of her power comes from the fact she is an AoE damage monster with high splash damage on HP++, Highwind+, and Air Superiority+ coupled with free turns upon Breaking a target. When you also consider Aranea has turn delay and can unbreak an opponent to activate her free turns, it makes sense how she fits together.
All of that said she is not without her limitations. Aranea NEEDS to deal critical strikes to keep her damage up because her base attack potencies are actually not that high but get a damage multiplier when dealing critical hits. Not a huge issue since Aranea can guarantee crits from her unique debuff, but it only has a 2-turn duration. Second, her BRV++ and HP++ are tied to the unique buff she gets either through using her AA or Breaking an enemy, so you have to plan around that to maintain it. Third, she has no free ability uses or ability refreshes. Aranea needs to be careful about burning through her abilities too quickly.
These downsides are not really an issue at the moment. I and others have experimented with her in a variety of Chaos fights and she destroys most of them. This means that Aranea will definitely continue to be a monster for at least the next two months. After that point Chaos fights will receive a difficulty spike in the form of bosses getting more HP and that increased fight duration might hurt her. We'll have to wait and see.
I would say that if you have been struggling with Chaos content and need some more damage to get through battles, Aranea is the best choice available right now. She really does trivialize a lot of the difficulty for now. (Do not take this as a sign that Aranea will make Chaos faceroll content; these fights are still hard and require proper planning and team building to work around mechanics. Aranea just makes it easier to kill them before they kill you. Also, this assumes a fully geared Aranea, so all weapon passives, summon boards complete, and fully Realized weapon.)
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I got the full Zack set, which would've been great but he was already MLBed. Almost all the other unneeded stuff was off-banner, which is really just adding insult to injury.
I like Ignis a lot, so I'm pretty cool with that!
I don't think Ignis grabs me enough to continue on the banner. I have Lenna for those times when I really, really want debuff evasion (and Tuna to remove them). And the cooking animation is sooooo loooong.
I'll probably try for Aphmau EX when that gets here, to get myself a second debuff evasion support.
Also, who's Sephiroth talking to in the "Travelers of the Stars" cutscene? I thought Sephiroth might be talking to himself, or to a clone of himself, but the jacket doesn't look quite right.
That's just her 15/35, they're waiting for tomorrow for the EX details.
edit: Twitter link to gameplay video
3DS FC: 2234-7230-2712
Battle.net: Kriese#1709
The pieces are certainly there, that's for sure. That's a lot of pushback in her kit, which is quite tasty, and her hit counts and overflow are all good. HP+ should be great for clearing trash. Just need to see what kind of potency all of her attacks have. And whether her EX and/or AA can set Overclock for her.
We've only seen half her kit and it feels like she is tuned for the JP meta
Edit: second video is out. Gets free turns on break if she has EX. EX sets overclock, or extends it if it's already on. AA is Set Overclock. Very high solo potential, she's basically Lightning but non elemental
Edit 2: actually NVM, she doesn't counter attack and she has a finite number of abilities, probably tough to solo
I also got everything for Noctis and SO FUCKING MANY ENGINE BLADES.
Noctis' EX?!?
Well, um... I guess I got to figure out how to Noctis now?
What are our thoughts on early Noctis EX+? I've got his gear from before, but ingots are still pretty tight.
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Reddit folks seem to be saying it's not that good. Idunno, having an actually usable EX attack helps him a ton, and he gets to start with some Armiger stacks, and the enemy starts with the debuff, and the EX reapplies the debuff, and the EX gives him a free ability use. I think he'll probably be pretty good for a while.
Bah. Hurry up so I can blow my gems and find out how much I can keep pulling, here.
Ended to with full Eight, Ignis and Aranea kits off just ticket pulls from the 200 odd tickets I'd gotten from boards.
So... Man I'm somehow out of weapon books.
Yeah, I kind of went "... Well I guess I need that" after one I was with hit both robots for 80k. Twice. And here I was underwhelmed.
I don't even want to think about the Noctis "gonna take like 3 turns in a row here with some weird 50k ability chase thing every time I cast".
The sign is that your luck is just around the corner!
Should have taken my own warning. Dropped another 300 tickets (400 total), no Aranea EX. RIP my stash
Ride that sunk cost fallacy straight into the core of the earth!
She is SICK
Also it's making me want to finally play FFXV. So of course the PSN doesn't have it on sale this month.
Sure it's only like 30 minutes a board with a triple book but that's still like 3 hours of straight grind for any new character.
Worst part is how necessary it is. Ran a full team of unraised people in the Eight chaos fight (Aranea, Zack, Ignis) and it took like 130 turns after gem reviving because I ran out of moves.
Full boards and nothing else? 87. Don't even have artifacts yet. Admittedly some of this is just being a bit more used to Aranea and Ignis but still.
Whining aside I still really like this game even if I have to take breaks sometimes. Think I need to go back and clear all the lost chapter chaos fights now.
It's still a grind but significantly better than it was a few months ago.
Those of us who still have teensy amounts of stamina are worse off.
All of that said she is not without her limitations. Aranea NEEDS to deal critical strikes to keep her damage up because her base attack potencies are actually not that high but get a damage multiplier when dealing critical hits. Not a huge issue since Aranea can guarantee crits from her unique debuff, but it only has a 2-turn duration. Second, her BRV++ and HP++ are tied to the unique buff she gets either through using her AA or Breaking an enemy, so you have to plan around that to maintain it. Third, she has no free ability uses or ability refreshes. Aranea needs to be careful about burning through her abilities too quickly.
These downsides are not really an issue at the moment. I and others have experimented with her in a variety of Chaos fights and she destroys most of them. This means that Aranea will definitely continue to be a monster for at least the next two months. After that point Chaos fights will receive a difficulty spike in the form of bosses getting more HP and that increased fight duration might hurt her. We'll have to wait and see.
I would say that if you have been struggling with Chaos content and need some more damage to get through battles, Aranea is the best choice available right now. She really does trivialize a lot of the difficulty for now. (Do not take this as a sign that Aranea will make Chaos faceroll content; these fights are still hard and require proper planning and team building to work around mechanics. Aranea just makes it easier to kill them before they kill you. Also, this assumes a fully geared Aranea, so all weapon passives, summon boards complete, and fully Realized weapon.)
3DS FC: 2234-7230-2712
Battle.net: Kriese#1709