FINAL FANTASY: RECORD KEEPER

Posts

You ever consider honing Phantasm for a MAG-based Tyro? It'll hit harder than Waterja against U+ RES (even with Full Break) and has almost half the charge time. Because of the faster charge time, you'll also be generating soul meter more quickly, reducing the chance of a Sentinel's Guard gap.
Craze
why would i heal when i could equip a morningstar
15150
...I wasn't even aware that it dealt damage, I thought it was just a shit status ailment skill. I'll have to consider that, yeah.
Yes, it's a little less than twice as powerful as the elemental ninja scroll magic, except non-elemental. Let's assume Tyro has 350 MAG with a synergy rod (he can get above 400 with synergized armor and accessories and/or a red/blue weapon, but you won't do it consistently), and compare its damage against different RES tiers (typically 1500, 2000, 2500 respectively), including Full Break but not Mental Breakdown and without any damage boosting RM (you should unlock Shadow's ninja damage RM).


Ability +++ U U+ Time Soul
Flare 5930 5136 4595 1.80 65
Waterja 4449 3853 3447 1.50 50
Phantasm 4975 4975 4975 0.83 60

However, the more MAG Tyro has, the better Flare becomes. At 400 MAG with Faithga, Flare starts doing thousands of more damage than Phantasm because black magic doesn't get diminishing returns until like 750 MAG. Basically, you can start capping Flare with a Faithga and +BLK RM, but you will pretty much never break 7.5k with Phantasm even if you're stacking Faithgas. Waterja will slightly outdamage Phantasm per cast in the same conditions, but even then it's still doing less DPS due to cast time.

Rule of thumb:

  • 1. Waterja vs Weakness
  • 2. Flare w/Faithga
  • 3. Elemental Scroll vs Weakness
  • 4. Phantasm
  • 5. Flare
  • 6. Waterja
  • 7. Elemental Scroll

If you're curious, you can almost cap Elemental Scroll damage with 450 MAG vs weakness, Faithga, Shadow RM, and +Element gear. This is what I did against Cagnazzo a month ago.

Also, I just checked to confirm, but the soul-generating gap is even bigger than I initially thought, because Waterja only generates 50, which I've added to the chart.
Craze
why would i heal when i could equip a morningstar
15150
Hmm, my Flare is only R1 because of my NE orbs going to Flashing Blade and stockpiling for maybe doing Bahamut sometime down the line (not worth making until I can get it to R3 or so, though). I had no idea that it made a bigger chunk of SB, though. I wonder if I used up all my Black orbs on Dark Zone...

I haven't really touched the scrolls except for the Lightning one for Omega forever ago. I guess I'll start working on them, especially since I do have a Yuffie SB (she's my only relic'd non-Tyro Ninja, though).

Thanks for the write-up. Time to twiddle our thumbs and get Gysahl Greens until next week, I guess. Buying up elemental resist accessories. I'm gonna do a cult of 3 on FFXIII's banner 2, because I want to try to get Serah's SSB, but as you've teased me about before, my FF13 synergy is already disgusting... and BSB fest/interesting banners are coming up. Reddit seems to think that we WILL get the FF1 Mobius event -- I certainly hope so, because Garland looks epic. If BSB banenrs suck, I'll just save up for Gabranth and the future when we get the guaranteed 5*s on pulls.

ff13 synergy (not counting combined 4*, or the free 4.5*s):

7* Blazefire Saber
6* Wyrmfang
5* Paladin
5* Glaive
5* Binding Rod
5* Tigerclaw
5* Wild Bear
5* Feral Pride (lightning resist!)
5* Gold Bangle
5* Tungsten Bangle (medica!)
My plan is to farm greens today, farm XP tomorrow to bring up Cait Sith and Kuja, and then hopefully wrap up the dungeon update on Monday during lunch (I've already cleared FF3 and FF11 and one dungeon in FF12).

Because I have two summoner relics (Lullaby Rod and Aurora Rod), I do have some regret in choosing Flare over Bahamut, but I had R2 Flare before I had either weapon and decided that if I'd gotten that far, I might as well commit to it first. My next goal for NE orbs is Flashing Blade though, since my Sephiroth is pretty dope now.

I would hone Phantasm if I had a strong SB for Tyro. I don't know about Yuffie--I haven't looked at her very closely. She has good base MAG, but there aren't many MAG-based thrown weapons in general, whereas it's not that hard to equip a rod on Tyro. I'm surprised you don't use Yuffie more often though, because Clear Tranquil is dope and her kit is pretty solid, especially down the road when she gets the Ninja and Thief-6 abilities.

Given how it's hard to do a lot of damage with Tyro, Phantasm is a solid option if he isn't filling the WHM or Support role. With the Shadow RM, you're basically always going to do 6.5k damage, which isn't tremendous but is pretty respectable for somebody who exists just to Sentinel's Guard.

My FF13 synergy is entirely through lucky draws and gifts and has a lot of room for improvement, but I probably won't draw on this event.

5+ Vega42s (Sazh)
5 Evil Lantern
5 Goddess's Tribute
4++ Power Glove
4++ Healer's Staff

5 Witch's Hat
5 Wild Bear (Snow)
4++ Silver Bangle

The silver lining is that I can fill some of the gaps with +Element gear without feeling like I'm sub-optimal, like Dark Sword Drunk Cecil and Platinum Shield Basch.
Craze
why would i heal when i could equip a morningstar
15150
Yeah, I'm working on Shadow RM tomorrow and on the last few Wednesdays. I'd love his SSB but I went 1/22 on that banner, and it doesn't return in three weeks. :< (Lakshmi Brush or w/e returns but it's on a shit banner. Both Figabros banners are kinda shit tbh, unless the SSBs for the bros themselves don't suck. I already have a 6* and a 5* Edgar weapon though, so I'm good.)

I do use Yuffie a lot for +++ and below, but at 65 she just didn't have enough staying power for ultimates. I used her for FF7s, but I had to replace her with Balthier for Arena since Clear Tranquil had was almost useless with Yuna and Pulse Kindness. THANKFULLY, she's double broken now and I'll be using her a lot more (especially if I do rank up Phantasm).

Hopefully we fight Brynhildr next week so you can put that Wild Bear to use. You have a glove for Snow, too!

These banners aren't amazing though; I'm only doing the cult of 3 because Serah's SSB looks situationally useful with Auto-Slow (plus, I have only Lulu and Vanille for attack magic SBs, and both have far better SBs to use). The Cid Raines event in the future looks pretty good for FF13 equips though!

Well, with Yuffie in play my suggestion is to not pick your white mage based on a group cure. Tyro white mage brings Sentinel's Guard or your Minwu has the interrupting nuke. I also think you should get the Devout's double white RM. You should have enough Curaja charges to last an entire boss fight, and that second cast will sometimes be pretty clutch and also generates more soul meter. I don't think a double Holy is worth it without Full Break/Mental Breakdown, however, as the +Holy RM is too vital due to Faith effects being MAG-only... but you don't use Holy anyway.

Eh... Okay. Apparently I only had one dungeon left. These dungeon updates are so small. I decided to just upgrade my inventory to 500. I was close enough anyway, so it only cost ten mythril. I am worried that I'll hit that hard cap before the storage feature is added though, assuming that stored items don't count against the cap.

Looked it up and the warehouse has its own capacity, because obviously we need a new thing to spend mythril upgrading, I guess. Starts at 100 and is expandable to 500, just like the regular inventory. The update also includes new sorting options for gear, including by elemental resistance which should be pretty useful. We'll probably get this in five months at the latest, though we tend to get these kinds of updates earlier.
Craze
why would i heal when i could equip a morningstar
15150
Got Serah's Gloves! Now I have a decent black mage nuker with an SB I can use to nuke (instead of Lulu who has better things to do). Also, RIP Hope.

That makes sense re: medicas/yuffie. We'll see, for some fights I definitely wouldn't mind multiple medicas. Devout is still like L15 or so so... we'll see.

I can't wait for the storehouse so I can dump these acessories that are useless but I kept one of because they look cool/are early-game achievements (I sold my chocobo feather already, though).
Serah's Gloves have a weak nuke, weaker than Flare, but at least they can breach 10k if she's buffed up because it's two hits. What makes them attractive is the spell haste, so that your Flares come out twice as fast.
Craze
why would i heal when i could equip a morningstar
15150
Yeah, I didn't word it well but that's what I meant =P all of my 3-4* spells are R4-5 so I have the hones to make her do some work. Gonna work on Dark Zone over Flare, though, because I have Golbez ready to go.
You don't need to hone a 5* ability beyond R2 to start using it as long as your second slot also has an offensive ability, and even that's not completely true if we're talking about physical characters. Four uses is a lot and you should start thinking in terms of damage and not actions. By that, I mean it doesn't matter if you can use Launch ten times, it matters if using Saint Cross four times and a normal attack six times will deal more damage. Saint Cross(4)/Attack(6) is only slightly weaker than Launch(10), and if you kill the boss in less than 10 actions per character then Saint Cross starts quickly pulling ahead. Saint Cross will also be stronger if you're buffed up enough to cap Launch. If you're using any offensive ability in your second slot, that too is stronger than Launch. Also, consider this your weekly suggestion to stop using Lifesiphon on single hit SBs.

Also, one of the whales on reddit has Tyro hitting for 9k with Phantasm. It only requires blue-caliber gear in every slot and two stackable Faithgas--good luck with that. I can't imagine the game is even fun when you can field an entire party with synergized 5++ gear in every slot and SSB/BSBs.
Geez. No bonus battles until Friday evening.
Craze
why would i heal when i could equip a morningstar
15150
>jude makes a post about not needing super-hones
>craze hones saint cross to R3 this morning

I'll consider only using Lifesiphon on Pecil... I wasn't really thinking in terms of damage, just "avoiding attack;" your argument makes a lot more sense to me now.

No bonus battles is obnoxious. I'll have to give up some Holy/Dark time tonight to get them done.

For the heck of it, my current 5* hones (if unlisted, I don't have it):
R3: Full Break, Saint Cross
R2: Meteor, Thief's Revenge, Flashing Blade, Multi Break, Dark Zone
R1: Flare, Arise, Tornado Strike (:< need moar wind), Sky Grinder, Doppelblade, Sanguine Cross

With Fang's new RM and having Gilga/Fang relics, I'd like to hone Sky Grinder soon, but Wind Orbs are sooo in demand. I don't think I can justify not getting TR to R3 first? SkyG and Tornado are NICE but they're not as amazing as TR is.
Paladin Cecil should still use Saint Cross over Lifesiphon because it'll do more damage. At a glance, using Saint Cross four times yields a multiplier of 13.6. Using Lifesiphon three times and then Saint's Fall SSB yields 13.29, except that pattern takes longer due to SSB cast times. The hard-hitting 5* abilities outpace SSBs for straight damage if that's all you're going for. In fact, one of the reasons Pretty Cecil's BSB is popular is just so that you can use Saint Cross while under the Enholy effect.

It's your Balthier that should use Lifesiphon. Save your full meter for a boss's weak phase and two of those SSB uses will get an extra 20% damage. Pretty Cecil is your steady DPS while Balthier is your burst; kind of like how I can use Drunk Cecil and Sephiroth.

Some new 5* abilities come out soon that your Lightning can exploit. Celerity-5 gets Faultsiphon which makes the next ability instant-cast. Combat-5 gets Full Charge which has a whopping 4.68 multiplier spread across four attacks, except it has a 3.3s cast time. Together, these will probably be the strongest single-target DPS you can get for awhile. Both of those require Major Wind Orbs, of course. My Drunk Cecil gets similar DPS via Sanguine Cross, but that costs HP and requires Dark Sword to achieve. If I had Ebon Armor it'd be even better, but it scrapes the damage cap so easily that it'd get trimmed, unfortunately. If only Sanguine Cross were three hits instead...
Ultimate Bahamut Mastery:



This one took me two attempts because I had trouble getting the ball rolling. Very good chance Bahamut will straight up kill a front-liner by hitting them for 6-7k at the start. I considered bringing Rosa or some other form of Raise to deal with it, but decided on putting almost everybody in the back row instead. Fortunately most of my good FF13 weapons are ranged anyway, but it meant I was really light on offense since Basch was my only Boostga.

So there is no Doom timer on this fight, I assume because it's not a proper esper fight like in FF13. I don't even remember fighting Bahamut at all in FF13-2, but I am pretty fuzzy on the story in that game. Maybe if I read the dungeon summary it'd help me out.

Tyro was doing okay on counterattacks. Bahamut still uses his double claws a lot, like his FF13 counterpart.

Bahamut's magic hits really hard. With only Shellga, his Inferno was hitting some folks for 4k, so you definitely need to layer your mitigation in a hurry. I opted to use a group cure at the start while Y'shtola accumulated meter for her Stoneskin. I was hoping for a Penelo or Selphie RW for either Magic Blink or Boostga, but I settled for the only cure that showed up in my queue. Unfortunately it was only healing for like 1.2k, so I had to use it twice in a row during the opening rounds.
Ultimate+ Caius Full Medals:



This fight was way easier for me, though I have no disillusion about why. I got very lucky to get full medals. I was hoping for a Magic Blink or Heavy Regen group cure, but again took what was in my queue. Now that I have a Porom I should get rid of my Relm RW, so I'll do that while I still have it fresh on my mind.

I opened with my group cure pretty early to cover Caius's early damage, because he'll probably get a total of four hits in before you can get mitigation up. Once mitigation is up Caius doesn't hit very hard, but I held on to my second RW charge for as long as I could manage since I knew he had some pretty heavy AoE later on.

Where I got lucky in this fight is with Dismissal and Caius's spell that randomly hits like three or four times. Dismissal activated like six out of eight times, so he wasn't getting a whole lot of actions in during the last half of the fight. His random spell hit Basch and Drunk Cecil many times, so it charged up their meters and let me kick on the afterburners a lot earlier than I expected, so I was able to blast him down for full speed medals as well.

Anyway... Figaro brothers are featured on Monday. I should save my mythril but there's a good chance I'll try for a Chainsaw. Edgar is probably my favorite character in the franchise because he does machines (that's a fact, jack).
Two hours and I've resisted pulling. I think I'll be good. I expect to be able to do three 11-pulls on the BSB festival, and then I'll target an 11-pull on one of the FF14 banners and then another on Rydia 1.

In fact, you should all pull on Rydia 1.

  • Cecil BSB, lots of holy damage and Enholy
  • Rosa SSB, this is identical to Selphie, except on a Support-4 user, making Rosa the best white mage in the game
  • Kain SSB, makes next three Jump abilities have no air time, high burst
  • Edward SB, stronger version of Edea/Kefka's Hastega/Faithga
LockeZ
I'd really like to get rid of LockeZ. His play style is way too unpredictable. He's always like this too. If he ran a country, he'd just kill and imprison people at random until crime stopped.
5958
Bahamut just kinda died. Caius was harder. Mostly his speed.

I kept not realizing my shell had dropped because I thought Giga Graviton was a gravity attack. So it would do 2000+ damage to my party and he'd use it twice in a row and I'd just be like, "Welp, nothing I could've done."

Aside from that, the most helpful thing was to realize that on Caius's first couple turns he only hits people with full HP (except for Launch, which he does before the ATB bars even start moving). So you can ignore healing until all your mitigation is up.

Probably would've been a way easier fight with two healers, or at least Doublecast White Magic materia on my one healer. Dude is too fast. One time I started casting an AOE heal, and in the time it took to cast, Caius used Giga Graviton, attacked me, and then used Giga Graviton a second time. Absurd. I certainly had no trouble keeping my soul break gauges full, at least.
I always refresh Shellga/Protectga at the halfway mark because I'm not exactly sure when it'll expire, but it rarely lasts an entire U+. It usually lasts about 45 seconds, though, if I were to keep track of it.

My experience with Dismissal against Caius has made me consider using it more often, though my Celerity-4 users are often tied up with other abilities, so I'm not sure. In his weak phase he was basically missing half of his actions because I got lucky and it worked so often.

At the very least I'll be able to use Luneth for the bonus battles this week because I'll need a spellblade, and I have his interrupt SB (though not guaranteed, it has a high chance spread across four hits). I have a Yuffie SSB RW and I was hoping to use that against Vargas. Instant-cast Physical Blink along with some damage (and hopefully the user will equip her with FF6 gear).

On the subject of offensive RWs and synergy: Illy, your Squall still has FF9 gear equipped even though we're several events removed from Kuja now. Equip him with FF13 or FF6 gear.

Won't be able to use a Holy nuker this week because I don't have any good MND weapons for FF6 still. I -do- have one for FF10, so I'll be able to drop some fat Holy bombs against the U+ next week, and I have some for several of the Big Bridge bosses, and the upcoming FF14, FF4, FF7, and FF5 events, so my offensive white mages will get to put in some work while bringing a healing SB.

Anyway, one of the nice things about having most of the basics covered is that I can bring healing-oriented RWs pretty often, which anybody can cast when it's needed. It's almost like having a second healer.

Abyss gate opens up this weekend with a new summoner dungeon. I think my summon abilities are good, though I might hone something--not sure yet. At the very least I'll need to craft Leviathan, I think, though I'll have to crack some Major Summon Orbs to do so.

  • Maduin R5
  • Quetzalcoatl R5
  • Valefor R4
  • Fat Chocobo R3 (I don't know why I honed this?)
  • Alexander R2
  • Shiva R5
  • Ramuh R5
  • Ifrit R5
https://www.reddit.com/r/FFRecordKeeper/comments/34meur/battle_mechanics_formulas_damage_accuracy_speed/

Let me know when you guys spot the flaws in this user's calculation. Hint: Time.

But lets ignore time for a second, even though the Faultsiphon + Lifesiphon setup takes 5 full seconds longer to perform. Even if they both took the same amount of time, his setup is inefficient.

He is calculating these configurations with Ace Striker. With Ace Striker, Faultsiphon + Full Charge + SSB is only 3% stronger, as this user's graph represents. However, that setup doesn't want Ace Striker because the character only needs to be damaged twice, which is pretty much guaranteed, in order to get their second SSB use. With a +Damage RM instead, Faultsiphon + Full Charge + SSB is almost 24% stronger.

The Lifesiphon build has higher DPS with a +Damage RM as well, in spite of losing at least one SSB use and potentially two (remember, my Sephiroth rarely gets to cast his SSB thrice when Drunk Cecil is in the party because I kill U+ bosses more quickly than this user guesstimates, and the only time I've used it four times was against a 350k HP U+). However, when both builds have a +Damage RM, the Full Charge one is still doing 15% more damage... and it's doing it in 45 seconds versus 50 seconds.

This gap increases slightly in favor of Full Charge when Faultsiphon gets buffed to a 1.2 second cast time. And, importantly, the Lifesiphon build is pretty muched capped already. As soon as you upgrade Faultsiphon to R4, the Full Charge build pulls ahead decisively. If you have a strong Tidus, Lightning, or Gau then you should make Full Charge and Faultsiphon, especially if they only have an SB and not an SSB.

Not to mention that Locke is the only Celerity-5 user with an 8.0 SSB, or Lightning's BSB, so his Lifesiphon build is skewed favorably. Most have ~6.0 AoE SSBs and no BSB option, even in Japan, and Shadow's SSB is already instant.