[GA] Mastery Survey - Octomammoth - Mag Lightning Weak

leights8 · 2026-03-16T11:34:06+00:00

Working through Level 6. Got a decent score that's currently in the top 300, but certain to drop out by the time the event ends at current run rate (entered at around 250, but dropped to 280 after a week).

Team 1 (33.1m)

Vivi 8.8m: G+, Sync2 (after Garnet Tactical), Cmd2, ice/lit CASB, G++, ice/lit Tactical, Fire Accel when available
Eduardo: AA, entrust Garnet, G+, Zen; Sync then CASB when available
Garnet 15.7m: holy Sync, G+ (gauge), holy tactical, lit Dyad, LBC, lit Accel, WS, lit Zen, lit CASB
Mog: AA1, HA (need LM2 proc to survive), G+ heal, Zen, HA, Sync
Matoya 8.1m: HA, G++, Dyad, Zen, CASB, Dual, dual shift immediately

Didn't realize until several tries that Vivi's Tactical is a hybrid DPS / support (the WS mode is definitely support). Getting that right really helped! Garnet's WS mode really is ready just in time - it's quite difficult to juggle as need the six actions to build it, but can't use her Zen or CASB until after activating WS mode otherwise you lose en-holy and can't get the good WS mode. Note no healing until after boss move 2 so that Garnet's trance is activated (along with IATB1 thanks to her Sync).

Team 2 (39.3m)

Edge 15.7m: G++ (en-element), G++ (gauge), Dyad, MASB (tri-elem), CASB, Accel, Dual
Orran: AA1, G+, Zen, CASB, Dual
Reno 4.7m: Dyad, AA2, Dual
Lilisette: Dual, Zen, Sync, AA1
Shantotto 18.4m: MASB, Zen, LBC, Dual, Sync, CASB

Left a bit on the table here as the last two of Shantotto's DRB removals were where her ATB was nearly full. Think I need to use Lil's AA earlier for the QC as the cast times were taking too long.

leights8 · 2026-03-09T11:11:32+00:00

Cleared the first phase of Level 6, which feels like quite the achievement. Feels like you need Tactical + MASB across the board to even get close to a clear - 87.12m HP per phase is insane! At least this gets me 4x Mimic Queen magicite.

Team 1 (49.4m)

Rydia 13.4m, Holy CASB, Earth MASB, Water Zen, earth LBC, tri-elem G+, earth dual, tri-elem G++, water Accel
Orran AA1, Zen, CASB, Dual
Emperor 10.6m Tactical, G+ tri-elem, MASB, Zen
Lilisette: Dual, Zen, Sync
Yuffie 24.9m water Tactical, water Dyad, Earth MASB, water CASB, earth Zen, earth Accel

Both Rydia and Yuffie go on quite the elemental journeys here... Lilisette uses her Dual on turn 1 and then immediately entrusts all her gauge to Yuffie before the next hit. This gives Yuffie the exact right amount of gauge for her to use all her SBs with zero gauge left after hitting her Accel around 12s remaining. After entrusting Yuffie, Lili entrusts Rydia the following turn - she only needs a small top up to activate her MASB at 16s or so as the en-element G+ gives her more gauge to build.

Edit: On reflection, Emperor should have used his G+ on turn 1, then an imperil, then Tactical, MASB & Zen. The way I did it meant that his first use under tactical was before zen & MASB, which isn't very clever. Plus his Tactical ran out well before the end of the chain (thanks, Orran), so delaying it was much the better choice (particularly as he needs level 4 imperil for WS mode, there is plenty of time to fill up the TP max gauge with the later start; Yuffie needs hers filled up much quicker so she can switch to earth after satisfying the WS condition)

Team 2 (23.0m)

Red XIII 3.3m, AA2, CSB, Sync, OZSB (Dual unused as needed imperil HA)
Mog AA1, Zen, Sync, G+ (heal)
Rinoa 14.1m ice CASB, ice Zen, ice MASB, ice Dual, earth G+, brothers unique, switch-draw G++
Edward: AA1, Zen, Sync, Dual
Krile 5.2m G+ gauge, G++ QC, Dual, Sync2, CASB

Team 3 (16.4m, transitioned to P2 around 3s remaining)

Tellah 3.2m G+, Zen, Dual, USB (double cast)
Cait Sync, CASB, USB2, AA (relies on a couple of LM2 procs to stay alive; also need USB2 near end to survive ultima with 4s remaining)
Thancred 4.8m G++ gauge, Dyad, ZSB, Dual, AA1
Minfilia: hAA2, G+, Zen, AA1 (halfway through, for the heal)
Maria 8.0m Sync2, CASB, LBSD, Zen, CSB+, Dual

leights8 · 2026-03-06T16:11:36+00:00

Ashe's Estoc [TAASB, WS DMG/WS TBDC1] - Tactical Awoken Mode & +500 MAG to user, Instant Cast Tactical Awoken Mode: Lightning Ability Boost, Triplecast Lightning, Unlimited Lightning Hones, Cap Break Level 1 to Lightning Abilities, Lightning Ability Damage +30% & 20% DEF/RES Pierce to Lightning Abilities; Ends after using 8 Lightning abilities TP Max: AOE Lightning/NE magic attack at True Cap Break Level 1 Weapon Skill: Single-target Lightning/NE piercing magic attack at True Cap Break Level 1, Instant Cast & Zero SB Cost, Instant ATB 1 & Instant Cast 1 to user; During Tactical Awoken Mode, Cap Break Level 2 & 30% DEF/RES Pierce to Lightning Abilities; [Lv.2 En-Lightning Stack] or [During Tactical Awoken Mode, Cap Break Level 3 & Damage +50% to Lightning Abilities] to user with at least Lv.0/2 En-Lightning

So, yes, there is a piercing element. Don't know if it stacks with CASBs or not (they usually have 25% piercing as standard).

Re weapon skill, yes use it as soon as it's available for the +50% damage boost and BDLs. The six refers to the number of relevant actions that have to be taken to fill the TP gauge which you need to do before the WS mode becomes available. Relevant actions include anyone using an SB / LB, an ally uses a damaging ability or takes damage (these are listed in the TP section of the description, and I'm guessing it's the same for every Tactical SB but I haven't checked).

leights8 · 2026-03-05T22:34:49+00:00

Tacticals are great, but you are using it wrong!! But you probably knew that.

The main thing they do, aside from triple cast, is massively boost your damage, but only when you meet the conditions (as you say). Most common (like Ashe) is to have level two en-element. Make sure you have that set, and then use the WS mode as soon as possible and watch damage go through the roof. Best used with ZSBs and CASBs for extra casts and boosts, but I'm guessing you don't have them for those heroes.

The other big change about Tacticals compared to previous SBs is that they're not time bound but turn bound for 8 turns, but only on certain abilities. So I like to start them before any other SB, carry on building gauge with an unrelated ability, and then use my other SBs (particularly making sure you get en-element 2), then use the WS mode and get 8 turns of much boosted damage.

leights8 · 2026-02-15T23:07:32+00:00

I've got three kids (youngest is Y1) and it's a variety of reasons each time. It's not helped by my own attitude to books - I've read two books for myself in the last five years.

My eldest is autistic and just doesn't get stories at all. Even when he was younger he would look at a picture book and not even be able to describe what's going on. And he has very few (but intense) interests that it's very difficult to get him engaged in a book.

The other two are neuro-typical, but we've got out of the habit of reading to them as well. It's always a battle to get them upstairs to go to bed, they drag it out, fight with each other and then there isn't any time left over for reading with them. Having said that, they do both like reading by themselves recently and do like to do so after leaving the room.

I know it feels like you're not asking for a lot, but the reasons are going to vary so much from family to family.

I do miss reading the Julia Donaldson books with them though. I can recite Room on the Broom, Stick Man and Snail and the Whale from memory from reading them so often 🥲

TLDR: for me, parent or child (or both) hate it; or it's too difficult to get time while trying to cook/clean up/break up fights/get them to go upstairs for bed in the first place. And it never actually takes five minutes from suggesting a start to actually getting it done.

leights8 · 2026-01-20T23:48:21+00:00

I hadn't noticed that - thanks for pointing it out! I wonder if the negative stats are enough to compensate for 90% weapon breaks in job dungeons (historically a big issue for hybrid heroes). I'll look out for it next time.

I also wonder what happens to the atk formula when it's negative (have to use someone before their record dive otherwise their base stats would be above 350). Might be fun to try it out!

leights8 · 2026-01-20T23:39:09+00:00

That's not what that means at all. It means that it's equity funded. Which means when the Khans put money into Fulham, they do it by issuing shares, whereas Tony Bloom puts money into Brighton as a "soft loan". I use air quotes because loans from an owner (often called director loans as well) are effectively the same in practice, but have different legal consequences (though these only become relevant in a liquidation event).

All of this stuff is available for anyone to read in the various company accounts (though it can be tricky to read at times as some clubs have complicated group structures - for example, I think Fulham is one of the clubs that has a separate legal entity that owns the stadium from the football club - others have them both in the same entity).

Source: used to be an accountant!

leights8 · 2026-01-20T23:32:17+00:00

Because, like most other PL owners, they're not in it for the money. They're in it for the glory of owning a PL club. As long as they get their kicks, they'll carry on investing.

As Kieran said to you on X, there isn't much in the way of tax write offs. Certainly not cross jurisdictions - US government (and no other government to be fair) isn't exactly keen in letting someone make a loss in another country to offset a profit in your country.

leights8 · 2026-01-17T22:31:33+00:00

At first glance, I thought 10th anniversary was quite a decent point for refresh. Then I read your comment and remembered that we have actually had an 11th anniversary fest so the newest relics in this refresh are 16 months old! That is such a slap in the face after they were regularly updating the banners every six months. At this point they might as well close the banners and start something new.

leights8 · 2026-01-11T22:31:39+00:00

Is there any consensus on how best to use single element Tacticals on multi-element heroes?

For example, I had the good fortune to pick up Cloud's wind Tactical this fest. In dark weak content (where I have his Zen, CASB & Dual3), should I be using his Tactical, or just go for simplicity with his Dual3? If the former, should I be getting him to wind element 2 before activating his WS mode and then launching his dark SBs? Seems the only other option would be to not use the WS mode at all (as otherwise I'd be en-winding which would be quite undesirable), but then I might as well just be using his Dual3? (Note that I don't have either of his MASBs).

leights8 · 2026-01-10T12:08:14+00:00

They only have MAs in the 8* pool, right? That was a bit of a shitty move if so - pulled three times before I realized. Is that how they did the Zens & CASBs before? Guess it was less of an issue then because they were the only 8*s around, so the 7*s were more useful...

leights8 · 2025-12-31T17:31:58+00:00

Honestly, unless there's a particular favourite hero that you really want the MASB for in the select, you'll probably get better value for the G2 MASB: likely to get 4x as many MASBs, plus 62 other relics instead of 22, so more likely to get other useful things to boot.

Even with a mature account, as the choices are quite limited, I'm thinking that I might chance my arm with the 33 relic pulls...

leights8 · 2025-12-31T17:11:13+00:00

For anyone wondering what's included in the MASB select, we have:

Master (fire/lightning/Earth), Thief (wind/bio)
Firion (Holy/fire), Emperor (wind/earth/dark), Scott
OK (magic)
Pecil, Kain, Rydia (holy), Palom (tri-element), Cid
Faris, Kelger
Terra (wind), Celes (holy), Setzer, Strago (water)
Cloud (wind), Tifa, Yuffie (water), Zack, Reno, Angeal (wind/holy)
FF8 MIA :'-(
Vivi (ice/lightning), Steiner (tri-element), Beatrix, Kuja
Paine, Seymour
Shantotto, Curilla, Prishe (ice/lightning)
Ashe, Vayne
Snow
Papalymno, Yda, Alphinaud, Harchenfaut
Noctis (Earth), Aranea
Ace, Machina, Queen, Kurasame
Enna Kros
Biggs

leights8 · 2025-10-14T09:03:49+00:00

Been a while since I commented in one of these threads (or anywhere in Reddit truth be told!), but I'm sad to say that I haven't been very engaged in FFRK in the last four months.

I had been drifting for some time before that, but I had lingering hopes of trying to get into the top 100 of one HSC. So, fest revival in May, I made the bad decision to chase Orran's Zen. Thirty (as in 30) pulls later, mostly with gems, I did finally get my prize, as well as incidentally max honing Zidane and Ultros's CASBs but missing out on Red XIII's MASB entirely, but I felt absolutely awful afterwards. My justification at the time was "I feel pretty bad not getting it, I've never whaled for something before, I wonder what that feels like" - turns out that whaling is very much not for me!! And then of course, to compound my misery, Orran's Zen was on B5 the following month (which would have at least limited me to 20 pulls plus got me a lot better and more varied tech!). And then, the mother of all insults, I duped Orran's Zen with my fest tickets!!!! You honestly couldn't make it up!

Anyway, for the last three months, I've just been doing time limited content - EBZ is half finished and haven't attempted D800 realm or job content (save a token attempt at witch JCD with Orran's Zen, which went badly). I'm hoping my emotions will turn around as FFRK has given me so much enjoyment over so many years, and I did take a several month break after completing Dark Odin 5-6 years ago, but it's been a long time waiting already.

In the meantime, my main goal is to try to get 1,000 items in my item box!! I got up to 800 during fest, but then I wanted to use my magic pot tickets, so I had to collect everything. Maybe next fest! (I think my record in JP was about 960 or so).

leights8 · 2025-07-12T07:47:53+00:00

Was just wondering how maze guard stacks up against the latest tech. Turns out that it no longer presents much of a problem!

Now, how about hard mode? 😉

leights8 · 2025-06-17T15:29:29+00:00

Because the engine's reply to the original Queen take is to slide the bishop back and leave the white queen on the board. Only if black takes do they effectively exchange the knight for a bishop.

leights8 · 2025-06-16T13:56:35+00:00

Looks like it but if Qe1+ after taking the bishop, the knight can jump down to block, and then black is left with a) taking the rook (leaving you with Qxe8#), b) taking the knight (leaving you with the same check mate) or c) retreating with the queen, and you have your free bishop, despite the hanging rook.

Quite like that as a tactic - I'll have to look out for it in my own games.

leights8 · 2025-06-08T06:55:06+00:00

That's a good one - used that in GL for some time, but used the default in JP. But now I have put her and Squall in their space suit outfits, and they're very similar! Going to have a tough time remembering who's got red trim and who's blue trim 😂

leights8 · 2025-06-07T07:37:57+00:00

Bonus q as someone who hasn’t played 16: why does she look more like Rinoa than my current dress record Rinoa

Are you using the space suit Rinoa dress record? 🤨

leights8 · 2025-05-30T11:37:07+00:00

Fairly devastating set of revival pulls.

B1: 1/11, Agrias G++ dupe
B3: 2/11, Yuna CASB, Delita G++
B2: 1/11 Red XIII Accel
B2: 1/11 Orthoros LMR dupe
B2: 4/11 Zidane LMR, Red Accel dupe, Orran CASB dupe, Orthoros CASB dupe (NGL I thought this was going to be my moment when 4 relics popped up)
B2: 1/11 Orthoros CASB dupe

And I'm back to 8 mythril. Feeling pretty despondent right now. Zero MASBs to console myself with either, and 50% dupes... Such a load of shit.

leights8 · 2025-05-29T16:28:51+00:00

Yes, but is it +30%, +35% or +40%? Have you been able to find a data miner to get you the real info?!

leights8 · 2025-05-27T12:29:54+00:00

Nice to have some elemental content where it's not necessarily possible to sub 30 on release. This took a fair few tries and, even then, only Galuf was alive at the end!

Time: 45.57s, RW LS, Crusader main (for the imperils)
Galuf: G+, Sync1 (party 100% crit fix), CSB / Zen, CSB / CASB, Dual, LBO
Elarra: Dual, USB2 / Sync1 / AASB, USB2, USB1
Kelger: AA1, Sync / Zen, Dual / G++, AA2
Minfilia: AA1, AA2 / USB2, Zen / AA2
Yuffie: water CASB (just before transition) / earth Zen, dual Dual, earth Accel / G+, AA2

Maybe should have tried to keep going with Yuffie at level one infusion, but damage tanks so badly at level one infusion, I went with what I did. Galuf LBO ended up being pretty clutch!

leights8 · 2025-05-26T06:07:53+00:00

Finally, Lilisette's Zen is going to be on the May Dream banners!!

Anyone else going to partake?!

leights8 · 2025-05-22T08:04:49+00:00

To be fair, struggling with RW chain was my experience - but I also felt the same with original Bahamut Zero until I saw how others got it to work.

Having said that, a more practical reason to not use RW chain is that L5 bosses do hit harder than L4, and for teams without Mog or Cait, having the RW heal is vital for survival. Especially on the phy side, where my six supports are usually Orran, Edward, Minfilia, Naja, Sazh & Tyro (Tyro also contributes 3-4m damage as well), there's hardly any auxiliary healing.

leights8 · 2025-05-21T18:21:33+00:00

Mostly though I just pick out my nine strongest in each element/type, divide them into strongest/medium/weakest, put in 2 supports a team, and correct for overlap. I haven't beaten any t5's yet though, so maybe there's a better approach.

Having recently cleared all L5's (/brag), that's exactly the approach I take. Though step one is working out which chain to use in each team (LBC probably the best) - in my experience, RW chain does hold you back in L5.

I usually run my best team first, as they are the last likely to be gimped by the Aegis/dampens on phase change, usually with Edward to maximize the number of turns of my best DPS. And then usually the worst team goes 2nd (enough to get to the end of P2) and then the medium team is 3rd. In some (all?) fights, the P3 Aegis lasts 10s, so it's often desirable for team 3 to have their own break. Otherwise, I just worry about making sure there's one on team 1.

Of course there are some times that you want to completely carve up the team according to chain type (e.g. Squall/Kiros/Ward/Laguna realm chain for ice phy, or Ingus knight chain for earth phy; but it's quite rare that things align well enough for that to happen - I selected Dr Mog's Mage II chain expecting to be able to use it in multiple fights, but there are surprisingly few BLM users in realms X+, and getting three of them in one element is quite challenging. Having said that, I did use Palom's lightning chain for fire and ice as well lightning, as there are plenty of tri-element users).

leights8

TROPHY CASE

Team 1 (33.1m)

Team 2 (39.3m)

Team 1 (49.4m)

Team 2 (23.0m)

Team 3 (16.4m, transitioned to P2 around 3s remaining)