FINAL FANTASY: RECORD KEEPER

Oops. Killed Necrophobe but assembled my party without even thinking about medal requirements. I realized it after killing the barriers and realizing I had no ice or fire abilities. Going to modify my party a bit anyway... I was running Life Siphon on both Bartz and Drunk Cecil, which was connecting even though they were blinded. So I'll bring in a different spear user since Esuna isn't important (was using Mog). I was happy to see that Necro's Vacuum Wave is nullified by Aeris's Dragon Force, so I can probably go without Protectga as well. I also found myself healing nearly every turn with Y'shtola, so I'll swap Diaga for something else. A single healer is definitely all this one needs though, with my setup, so Aeris can continue to focus on summons, but I'll swap out Maduin for either Shiva or Ifrit to get those medals, though I am concerned that doing so will reduce my damage during the barrier phase. Too bad Drunk Cecil can't use axes or spears, because then I could give Air Knife to somebody else.

My non-mastery setup was:
Lunatic High RW
Drunk Cecil - Life Siphon / Blade Blitz / Ace Striker
Y'shtola - Diaga / Curaja / Dr. Mog's Teachings
Mog - Jump / Esuna / Mako Might with Emerald Bracer (Shellga)
Aeris - Quetzalcoatl / Maduin / Lionheart
Bartz - Drain Strike / Life Siphon / Dragoon's Determination

I was planning on making Lightning my spear user since she could Blindna and Spellblade, then I remembered I should bring Shellga and slotted Mog, then remembered I could Shellga with an armor piece and forgot to rotate Lightning back in. Then somehow just forgot about elemental medals altogether. Oh well. It was an easy fight at least, and I have ways to make it easier. I think I'll bring Steiner with Lure Magic/Drain Strike and put Reflect on him--I think that will work great, and he can use axes so I can rotate the weapons around so that my front liners still have 4++ minimum. Cover my elements with Bartz and Aeris.

Something like this:
Boon or Aura RW (Preferably the latter, actually, because I'll need something to help Steiner)
Drunk Cecil - Life Siphon / Blade Blitz / Ace Striker
Y'shtola - Curaja / Wrath / Mako Might
Steiner - Drain Strike / Lure Magic / Auto-Reflect
Aeris - Quetzalcoatl / Shiva / Lionheart
Bartz - Life Siphon / Firaga Strike / Dr. Mog's Teachings

Something similar to that. Bartz can drop an early Blade Wing, which, once again, I forgot was AoE and almost caused a problem on the +++ battle because I killed a dude earlier than I wanted to. Might swap Drunk Cecil and Y'shtola's RM, so that Cecil can powerup Bartz's Blade Wing and his own Blade Blitzes right away. I don't think I need Stoneskin up right at the start if I have Lure Magic, unless I get massively unlucky and the Barriers use a lot of consecutive group spells. Though, It will be a problem if Blind doesn't wear off before I can hit Necro with Firaga Strike, or before I can get in a few good Blade Blitzes against the Barriers... Might even equip some glasses to help mitigate that possibility.

Yeah, I pretty much went with the party above, with Aura RW.

I think I should've gone with Dragoon's Determination on Bartz though, because I ended up not even using Blade Wing on the barriers. I saved all of his meter until Necrophobe was at about 50% HP and then just blasted him for about 18k with each Wing Blade for the rest of the fight, thanks to him being air vulnerable. Reflect on Steiner worked out pretty well, though Drain Strike was completely unnecessary. I'm glad I went with Auto-Reflect instead of the Reflect spell because refreshing it against Necrophobe wouldn't have done much good. Necro kept spamming Flare which totally ignores Lure and Reflect, rather than his single target elemental spells like he did the first time I fought him. Dragon Force mitigated two Vacuum Waves, so that was helpful. With Ace Striker and Wrath, Y'shtola was ahead of the Stoneskin timer and was able to mix in heals between usages without any problems.

Oh, and the Barriers did spam a lot of group spells, but they are weak and easily healed through with just Shellga active, so save your SS/SG for Necro himself, who managed to pull off a 4000 Flare on Drunk Cecil before I finished casting Stoneskin... good thing he's got a bajillion max HP.

Once again, Craze, I recommend Vanille. Because you don't have Dragon Force, being able to Heal/Protectga should cover you there. Plus she can Ruinga the Barriers and toss an -aja spell for medals and 10k damage. Tyro can probably keep SG up with spellblade or spell, since you get bonus meter for hitting vulnerabilities, with maybe Lifesiphon during the Barrier phase to ensure its first usage will be ready before Necrophobe activates, or Carbuncle to ease the Barrier phase. Or build Tyro like my Y'shtola and make him the healer. Consider a mage party since they have higher resist and you should have a 3++ Flame Rod and Thunder Rod that will get -aja spells to 8-10k if you're using their respective element, assuming you didn't sell them. In fact, I think you might have two 3++ Flame Rods at this point (I sold my extras). I can't remember for sure, but I think I was hitting the damage cap with Quetzalcoatl and Thunder Rod, which is only slightly more potent than Thundaja. I think Shiva was hitting for about 6.5k, which is a fair amount stronger than Blizzaga and obviously achieved without an ice-boosting rod, so presumably Firaga or Ifrit on your second Flame Rod user should be pretty solid, especially if you bring s Faithga RW (Kefka=Lulu>Dagger) and Mental Breakdown. Also you can ignore Blind. If you want to employ Magic Lure, don't forget that Golbez can use Knight abilities alongside elemental nukes. And don't forget that unlike the spellblade, Drain msgic is dark element which Necro absorbs. I still go with physical because Cecil is the man and Bartz's Blade Wing is useful.

Do you even have an FF5 weapon for Snow? Gilgamesh can use axes. Also "small boost" is 20%, which is what Flame Rod has. Don't overthink it too much, though. The fight is pretty easy, though not as easy as Maduin.

The EXP seems to be about 20-25% higher than the EXP daily dungeons that we have every Sunday. The enemies are definitely a lot easier though, so if you can't beat the hardest difficulty of daily dungeons then it's a much bigger bonus for you.

author=Jeroen_Sol
That's the second time in a row I've pulled 7 3* and 4 4* now. Getting a bit annoyed at the waste of mythril.

My worst streak is still 33x during the Golbez event. 44x if you count Golden Shield (FF6) as being a shitty item. But I tend to make up for it with a lot of 3-4/11 pulls and I've been fortunate enough to get critically useful relics like Boon, Stoneskin, and Hymn of the Fayth... not to mention that I've gotten two 5-star items from daily draws, one of which was Aeris's Dragon Force rod that's proven to be extremely useful recently. So I don't really have much room to complain about my relic draws, but I do anyway.

Just got Steiner's and Terra's most recent RM. Terra's is Double Cast which seems kind of lame, but probably really attention-grabbing when it triggers. Steiner's is like halfway between Ace Striker and Lionheart, so it'll be a decent filler RM if I am trying to go heavy on soul meter. For named characters, all that remain are Red XIII's support spring, Cid's XP bonus (which requires FF7 content), and Lightning's instant-attack. Still a bunch of core classes I haven't unlocked yet, though I've gotten all of the core RM that I would consider important.

While the orbs are nice, the mythril rewards are also nice for these orb weekends. I've already got 62 mythril again, which I'll be holding on to because mythril will be getting tight with a lot of upcoming stuff, like a SSB festival, FFT/FF2 events, and rumors of a lucky draw for the anniversary.

Also, it looks like I'll finally get a limit break for Tyro since we're all getting a free grimoire in the morning. He'll still just be a special case character for me, though, until I get something really magnificent for him like Sentinel's Grimoire. I might be using him again on Seymour this week, though, because Blitz Balls are their own dumb weapon type for some reason. Official Ball would be perfect for Bartz who can AoE and Sap with his limit break, freeing up a sword that could be used well by so many dudes.

Nope, Dualcast is worse than Witch of Successsion, if all you're using is damage spells. If you're using status ailment spells though it would be uniquely useful (assuming they're black magic). And if you're fighting things that would die in one hit anyway, Dualcast gives you a chance to hit two enemies.

I'm really glad the ultimate bosses have stopped including "Win without any character being KOed" as a medal requirement. Phoenix is now a useful ability!

I think I've saved up 300 mythril now. I know RNGesus is gonna screw me over on the banners in March but hopefully I can get something worthwhile.

I didn't really notice that there was an FF8 event coming up. I forget what my synergy looks like but I might pull on the second banner (if I recall, I have three strong weapons and two armor, which ain't too shabby), which has a pretty amazing whip for Quistis and Rinoa's SSB. The problem there is I'd probably start having to use Quistis, and I've never been hot for teacher. Even the first banner has a Magic Blink, which I'm lacking, so filling that niche would be cool as well. I'll probably skip it, though.

Upcoming Seymour fight doesn't seem bad, but I'm indecisive about how to setup my party. Basically, I'm not sure if I should go Carbuncle, Lure Magic/Reflect, or Runic. All three routes change my party quite a bit. Carbuncle means I need to bring two group heals. Lure Magic/Reflect is my favorite option but it uses up a lot of ability slots. Runic is probably the least offensive option, but it does mean I could bring a R1 Flashing Blade or whatever that new samurai ability was called, which might make up some of the difference, plus it locks me into an RW. I'm unsure if I'll bring Drunk Cecil or not, since I'll likely only have three physical members instead of the usual four.

My main gear options are:
5* Lullaby Rod
5* Official Ball
5* Variable Steel
4++ Warrior's Sword
4* Nodachi
3++ Event Sword that I forget the name of

5* Emerald Bracer
5* Some Shield I forget the name of

The presence of Official Ball is actually a bit problematic. It would be simple if Jecht could Lure Magic, but I was disappointed to discover it was a 4* ability and not 3* like its physical comrade. Tidus is an option with Tempo Flurry and Venom Buster for medals, but I was really interested in Bartz for that role since he can Sap, which is more powerful than Poison, and because his Sap is AoE which helps trigger Seymour's parasite. I'm not really interested in bringing a support for this one since I have two targets to worry about, and also because I want Seymour's magic to remain intact so that Reflect is more powerful. Rikku sucks. Tyro might end up using it because I don't like my other options.

This would be so much simpler if Official Ball were Thrown rather than Blitz Ball. Speaking of which, gun arms should just be Guns. Darts/Cards should be Thrown. I get that they don't want to merge them since their respective games have both (Vincent/Barret, Setzer/Locke), but it's dumb that there are weapon types that are so completely locked into a few characters.

Some character ideas I like:
Gilgamesh with a sword, Banishing Strike, Flashing Blade, with a Runic RW (I have limited hones), and Emerald Bracer (Shellga).

Bartz with a sword, Tempo Flurry, Life Siphon, Ace Striker, with his Blade Wing limit break.

Tyro with Official Ball, Reflect, Lure Magic, maybe the Charge Attack RM, and with his new limit break I'm 4000 points away from mastering.

Yuna with Lullaby Rod, dropping sick bombs with Quetzalcoatl and Maduin, and healing with Hymn of Fayth.

Y'shtola, Curaja, Protectga, Stoneskin

I have a Protectga light armor from FF5 that's an option, which would mean I can give Tyro an offensive ability like Blade Blitz and give Y'shtola Reflect. I'm not even convinced Protectga is necessary for this fight, though.

author=Lawr
Also Jude, how good is Drunk Cecil? What kind of abilities do you usually have on him? Or do you use him because you have a nice SSB for him?

I use him because I have his Shadowblade which doesn't have a potent SSB but does have a very useful +35% Attack to the entire party, plus two hits that usually approach 20k total if already under the effects of Shadowblade. It's the only +Attack group buff I have, and it does a swell job of it. Without that sword's limit break, I don't really use Drunk Cecil very much. There are lots of better +Attack options, including the coveted Scream sword that Ramza gets in like a month, but I don't have any of those yet.

He is pretty much the best Combat 5 character in the game, but that's the only thing he does. Combat is a good skill set but it doesn't stand on its own very well. Its raw damage is pretty excellent, with abilities like Pound and the expensive Barrage, but it's very rare that I want two Combat abilities on a single character so it's important to have another useful ability group to pair it with. With the addition of Life Siphon, this doesn't matter very much if you have a great soul break for that character, which I do.

Usually when I bring Drunk Cecil he'll have Life Siphon plus Barrage or Armor Break, and probably Ace Striker. Ace Striker increases how much soul meter you get when performing an action. Life Siphon actually gets enough meter to keep full uptime on Soul Eater (Shadowblade's limit break), but Ace Striker gives me more breathing room to mix in Armor Break or Barrage, and allows me to use my -first- Soul Eater like a whole turn earlier which is important because Mako Might and Dr. Mog's Teachings are usually in use already for defensive limit breaks. Also, Soul Eater does respectable damage, so being able to use it more often just for the extra damage is nice too. I usually save my Barrage, which I only have R1 of, for the last stretch, and in FF4 bonus battles can hit for about 20k. I don't really plan on honing Barrage because the Major Power Orb competition is so steep, but when you're going to be using Life Siphon or a limit break every turn it doesn't matter if your second ability only has two uses.

I have way more eggs than I need so I used all but four of my normal Growth Eggs to shoot Yuna from Lv64 to Lv80 to get the quest mythril. I think the only quest left is an armor combining one, which is inevitable. Only Seymour remains but I'm out of stamina. I'll have enough before bedtime if I remember to spend it.

Seymour is a wiener. Smashed him with this party:



Since I didn't go with a Runic RW, I dropped the Gilgamesh idea altogether. Yuna's SSB doesn't actually hit that hard, and was only doing 2k per hit, but the +50% RES was appreciated. I only needed Hymn of Fayth once after a Gravija. Yuna was hitting the damage cap with her summons, so there was much self-leeching from Seymour's parasite. The fight was really brief, so Bartz only got to use Wing Blade a single time, and I was very fortunate that it nailed Sap. Bartz was my Emerald Bracer (Shellga) user, which was an error on my part so he had to use his meter on that at the 50% HP mark when Seymour uses his second Dispel, and he had to use Tempo Flurry like four times before it would Slow the parasite which stunted my meter rate.

Really not a whole lot to say about the fight except that a group Cure is probably important, but if you've got that covered it's not a bad fight at all. I used Protectga st the start but never refreshed it after the Dispels, so I'd say it might be unecessary, but I only got cleaved once so that might be high risk. Though, Draw Fire/Retaliate Auron/Gilgamesh might still be a good idea anyway because the parasite does a lot of normal sttacks that could help you kill Seymour faster. From what I could tell, Ultimate Dispel does not work on Lure Magic, so I assume the same is true for other physical effects like Draw Fire, Retaliate, and Sentinel.

Heh... Got Shinra hat in daily draw.