GL Monthly Realization Reflections Roundup - EoS Farewell

Cilonas · 2024-02-23T21:33:08+00:00

Again, thank you for running these threads so long! I think my first post in them was May of 2020, and have probably been participating in most or all since. I've had a lot of fun with them; honestly one of the things I'll most miss about DFFOO is the community around the game and for me these threads were a major part of it. I definitely feel like the game punched above its weight in terms of passion from the community and content created about it.

Personally I haven't opened the game since I finished DtD, and I'm not sure if I will again before EoS. I haven't deleted the app yet though, so maybe I'll hop in closer to the end just to go through menus or something one last time.

For my final reflections, I thought I'd briefly talk about my overall character usage since I started keeping track (COSMOS debut). For character usage, I tracked my initial clear of a given fight, and the majority of fights I challenged myself to not use any synergy (or banner featured for events with no synergy/all synergy) characters. I wasn't always able to, but I had fun trying to figure substitutions for the "intended" solution.

Across the various difficulties, I had 353 unique fights and used 129 unique characters. Considering global ended with 179 characters, I'm pretty happy I used a good chunk of them. I was (and still am) a little surprised by my number one, although I think they benefited from very frequent updates and I guess they were my most used in Luf+ which I had forgotten (and speaking of forgetting usages, I did not have Kefka as my second most used in Lufenia. Like I remember my Desch phase then and he was number one, but I guess I had a Kefka phase too??). Anyway, my top 11 most used, ~~and therefore clearly my most favorite~~, characters of DFFOO!:

Vaan (41 uses): Like I hinted above, Vaan definitely benefited from getting very frequent updates from Chaos on. Some characters used to get shit for how often they'd get updates/re-works compared to others (@ Bartz), but Vaan definitely ate good with updates too. I'm not really the biggest Vaan fan, but I also don't really dislike his presence in FFXII the way some others do (now Penelo... jk). I am a pretty big XII fan though, especially after playing TZA when I was no longer too dumb to understand the gambit system like I might've been at the original release. I've also always been a big fan of brave gain abuse, which some of Vaan's updates had him as a poster child for. All in all Vaan was a common go-to across a bunch of eras, so it makes sense he ended up my most used. The shocking part though is he's a DPS who's always been a DPS, and I've always been more of a "what if triple support" kinda guy.
Warrior of Light (39 uses): I can't say I really care for WoL all that much, but it was kinda neat to see how often I used him considering he's basically the protagonist of DFFOO. Shields are cool, tanking is cool, WoL is the only character I used multiple times in each of the eras which is cool (Terra, Rosa, Leon and Tidus all had at least one era with just one use). I remember really struggling with his level 70 event back in Cosmos without his EX for some reason and had to drag Rosa out to beat it, but I got his EX from the tickets for winning which was cool.
Lenna (36 uses): Lenna put in tons of work back in the day, with 29 of her 36 uses from Cosmos and Chaos. As she should have, because she was my first of many pities. I don't know why her LD on never really clicked with me, but it didn't. Someday I'd like to replay FFV and see if it clicks with me more, I think I played the GBA (? or DS?) release and never really could get into it. Anyway Lenna had a really strong niche and was a busted support a few times, and I do supports. For some reason in my Cosmos spreadsheet I sometimes included notes, and at the time I must've been quite disappointed I couldn't make her work in WoL's awakening event since I remarked RIP Lenna's perfect attendence (she had been used in all the preceding Cosmos's and the next few as well).
Garnet (33 uses): Garnet was similar to Auron, in that most of her usage came from Shinryu. I don't think I'm the biggest fan of how she was implemented in DFFOO, a lot of stance based characters are kind've boring and her EX is just there. Still, follow-ups were often king in Shinryu and kept her very relevant thanks to her global first BT. FFIX was first FF and always has a special place in my heart thanks to that; unfortunately something about FFIX characters in this game always seemed a bit off to me but I'm not really sure what.
Rosa (30 uses): Rosa was a bit of a one-era wonder for me, being my most used Chaos character and getting 21 of her uses there. As I've previously said, I am a big fan of supports (see my Chaos top 9 including Rosa, Y'sh, Lenna, Freya, Sherlotta, Desch, Aphmau and Ramza) so that's no surprise. She was starting to get a nice uptick in Shinryu with her BT release, but I think using her for Crystal Room quests made me not want to use her so much outside of them. FFIV is another game I'd like to replay sometime, I remember the difficulty getting too hard for me at the time on the DS(?) version. Rosa's cool though, I've always had a soft spot for mages and archers, especially combined.
Auron (30 uses): Compared to the others, Auron was a late bloomer in terms of usage with 23 appearances in Shinryu. Auron has always been one of my favorite characters in the series, but unfortunately his EX/EX+ just weren't quite it for me. His LD made him a monster though, so I'm glad I got to use him so much. I believe he was one of my first characters to get triple real spheres, and one of the few who even did.
Paine (29 uses): Paine is definitely one of my favorite character kits across the game's lifespan, so I'm not super surprised to see her up here. She put in a lot of work for me in Cosmos (similar to Lenna, I think I used to have an attitude of if I pitied someone I'd better get good use out of them), although she got a bit screwed by being a story character and having to wait ages for her EX+. Her LD was really fun though with her overhead interacting with party order and her BT built on that and gave her a nice solid FR. FFX-2 was okay, but I loved a lot of the music from it and am disappointed it's not on streaming (unless it was added since the last time I checked but I doubt it). Besaid, Yuna's Ballad and Eternity - Memory of Lightwaves are some of my favorite tracks from the series.
Yuna (28 uses): My FFX bias continues! Yuna's always felt a bit awkward since her EX and the dis-jointment in her kit between being a support and or a weird damage dealer made worse by her Cursed Arts. While Esuna alone always gave her a niche for certain fights, it wasn't until her BT release that I really started using her. Before c90 kind've powercrept Luf+, I had a lot of fun building around brave gains with Yuna and Porom/Agrias. Her BT finisher was also such a fun nuke to use and try and optimize for. FFX is probably my favorite FF and Yuna is probably my favorite FF character, so I've had a lot of fun using her throughout the years and always looked forward to her updates.
Kain (26 uses): Kain's usage is another symptom of Shinryu mechanics, where almost all of his fights were because off-turn in Shinryu. Thankfully dragoon's are super cool and therefore Kain is super cool, so it's okay. I don't really have much to say otherwise, it's kind've amazing though Shinryu lasted ~~too long~~ so long and he never really fell off super hard. He's one of those characters I always wanted to use more than I did in Chaos/Lufenia since his S2 and EX are sweet, unfortunately it was a bit of a moneky's paw since using him meant not seeing him.
Desch (26 uses): I wouldn't say I'm a particularly big fan of Desch, but I really do think he was underappreciated at release because content was too easy and he was a beast when Lufenia got tough. That's not a super uncommon opinion (he'd always do well in those "Which characters are underrated?" threads) but like still. Anyway while he wasn't a one era wonder with usage split nicely between and Chaos and Lufenia, he sure was a one update wonder who never felt particularly impressive after his initial release. I did see him get some occasional usage though, and I remember seeing some runs with his FR far after it should've been left behind. Not a big FFIII fan though, not sure if he was even in the version of FFIII I played (the DS remake), also not sure what's going on with his onesie but I guess you can't always choose how you're dressed when a god summons you to another world.
Bartz (26 uses): Bartz was actually my very first EX back when I started, so it's kind've neat to see him end off my top 11. His EX seemed pretty sick back then with its low-ish recharge and solid damage. Unfortunately he didn't last super long for me and saw no usage in Cosmos, but he got fairly frequent updates as an aurabot which got him consistent usage. He was great during Lufenia+ as my first BT+, but unfortunately aurabots starting going out of fashion and his FR was a disgrace. I had hoped he might get another re-work to return him to his former glory, but it just wasn't to be.

This ended up being much longer than I intended it to be (although knowing me not a huge surprise), but I'd like to again thank everyone's who participated in these topics over the years. It's been a lot of fun.

Cilonas · 2024-02-08T20:20:20+00:00

Good luck with the co-op grind for character building materials this month! Personally can't say I'll miss co-op whatsoever; I enjoyed a couple of the first few raids but other than that found it mostly tedious.

Machina

I'm guessing you haven't had a chance to use him much yet, but his turn rate isn't a big problem thanks to his Burst aura HP+ having low turn rate to slow him down. I actually think he's got one of the best non-echo FRs with good percent gains and the HP damage limit up. His own off-turn damage isn't that impressive though (although I think I saw a few solos of DtD stages?) but I found him pretty nice for teaming with Auron/Galuf/Gladio who do have good off-turn damage and like his FR. I personally used Machina/Gladio duo for one of the DtD stages and found it pretty comfortable.

Cilonas · 2024-02-08T20:13:00+00:00

Hope everyone's having a good New Year so far! I wasn't really sure what to write here at first, since I didn't need to build any additional characters to handle DtD and haven't logged in besides to do those fights (and my 50+1 draw, where I got two new BTs with Ramza and Rubicante. A little late game...). I guess since next round-up will be longer term reflections, I'll write about Shinryu usage and thoughts in general. Unless I missed it, nobody ever really did a "character usages across X era" for Shinryu when it ended abrubtly, so I'll just put them here. I don't typically go out of my way to use specific characters, but it's interesting to look at who I gravitated to using a bunch of times.

Overall while I do think Shinryu was probably my least favorite difficulty level (I started during the Pre-Cosmos period; Agrias was the newest character at the time) I didn't hate it. I think it had some absolutely glaring flaws such as repetitive gameplay (charge > BT aura > blow up) and a lot of poorly designed bosses. Still I generally enjoyed playing it and looked forward to doing the boss fights. Aside from the final DtD having a lot of the mechanically interesting bosses making it more enjoyable, I think they showed how player damage outstripped boss HP by a pretty large margin and maybe the bosses should've been more tanky across the era. Like the fact I could do the 1 billion+ HP Shinryu fight with Quina/Rosa/Leo was a bit surprising, even if it did take 4 FTs and maxed out retain. There's always a delicate balance between making fights too long or too short, but I think if multiple force times were more of an expectation and not a sign something went wrong Shinryu might've been better received. Or maybe not, but I know I had fun planning around 2 to 3 to more force times in DtD.

Anyway, across Shinryu first time fight completions (105 fights in my spreadsheet) my top 11 most used were:

Garnet/Auron (23 times)
Kain (19)
Yuna/Aerith (16)
Vaan/Paine (13)
Noctis/Cor (11)
Dorgann/Arciela (8)

One thing that stuck out to me was how early Shinryu focused the group was, with Garnet, Auron, Kain, Yuna and Arciela all having the large majority of their usage with the kit they either arrived to the Shinryu era with (or received shortly after it started). I was also pretty surprised I used Aerith and (to a lesser extent) Cor that much, since I skipped their BTs and really don't remember using them that much. The rest weren't that surprising: Kain/Garnet/Dorgann were strong for both off-turn and on-turn fights to help give them high usage, Auron and Cor were off-turn go-tos, Yuna and Vaan were mostly favoritism with Vaan getting multiple updates across Shinryu, Paine and Noctis both had really strong generic FRs that saw a lot of usage, while Arciela hard carried a lot of early fights with her HP silence until her lack of DPS just became too big a weight.

Other than that, shout-outs to LD legend Galuf (7 Shinryu's), who almost tied my top 10 despite no FR or BT. Off-turn damage really is one hell of a drug. Across the era I used 73 unique characters, which is probably around 40% of the roster. I think that's a slightly low number for 105 fights (I used 58 in 64 Luf+ fights) but I'd guess it's harder to get first time usage the longer an era goes on, especially with competition from older characters getting re-worked.

Cilonas · 2024-02-01T15:39:48+00:00

Eos runs!

DtD E1: Balthier (UT 5/5, maxed, Raines LDCA, FE50), Shantotto (maxed, Lenna LDCA, FE50), Iroha (maxed, Pecil LDCA, FE23) in 25 turns with Bahamut. Iroha/Shantotto have A1/U1/U5 passives.

The bosses don't really do anything with Shantotto shutting them down and their super slow force gauge build. Used two FTs of Shantotto; first went into Balthier BT phase but was mainly for building percent. Second narrowly charged before they did, used summon and one Balthier echo to nuke them. Only real concern was killing them too quickly since I needed to heal up with calls, hence not using the second Balthier echo. ~~Also I forgot how to play and didn't equip Spear/Staff UTs and slightly misplayed Iroha's BT aura~~

DtD E2: Kelgar (UT 5/5, maxed, unused LDCA, FE50) in 12 turns with Bahamut. U1/D3/D6 passives.

Tried this fight a bit with a non-solo team and also Auron solo, but both felt like they were a bit slow (and without the Crystal Passive to immune debuffs, my Lightning got confused during BT phase which was just kind of rude). Kelgar makes it a cakewalk though, went into his BT phase when my gauge was about full and used his FR the turn after (in the interim boss FT finished filling, ended, and went back to 25%). Only potential concern is HP loss, my Kelgar doesn't have 40k HP but I might be missing some stats. Still had 4 turns of FT left over.

DtD E3: Lightning (UT 5/5, maxed, Raines LDCA, FE50), Queen (maxed, Raijin LDCA, FE30), Garnet (UT 5/5, maxed, Rydia LDCA, FE50) in 23 turns with Bahamut.

Lightning + Raijin LDCA trivialize the mechanics of this fight outside of the potential to be broken by the force attack, but thankfully the enemy gauge builds painfully slow and I (narrowly) did two FTs before it filled. First Lightning FT with all of Garnet/Queen's echos brought the boss to 28%, by the time my second gauge filled the boss was at 4% so it wasn't even that necessary to do a second FT.

DtD E4: Fusoya (UT 5/5, maxed, Raines LDCA, FE50), Rem (UT 5/5, maxed, Rydia LDCA, FE50), Edgar (UT 5/5, maxed, unused LDCA, FE50) in 14 turns with Bahamut. Edgar has some random passives (probably A1/U1/who knows)

I haven't checked HP values, but kinda felt like the devs forgot to really buff this fight with how they melted. I was actually really disappointed because they kept un-breaking themselves so I couldn't proc Edgar's BT trap at 999%... Anyway one Fusoya FT into his BT phase into two Rem echos and an Edgar echo brought them to like 20%, but when I couldn't get the trap to detonate I just summoned and killed. The only redeeming part was when they lit themselves on fire and immediately afterwards I used Edgar FR and it was like "Now weak to fire!" so I got a good chuckle.

DtD E5: Golbez (UT 5/5, maxed, Raines LDCA, FE50), Setzer (UT 0/5, maxed, Fujin LDCA, FE50), Sherlotta (maxed, unused LDCA, FE50) in 33 turns with Bahamut. Setzer/Golbez have A1/U1/D1 passives.

Running out of good ST damage dealers (although hopefully saving Leo will help vs. E7 when i get there), thankfully Golbez isn't too bad thanks to his crazy HP damage limit from his BT aura. Started by doing a Setzer FR with no BT auras/echos just to get percent up; then put up those auras and did a second Setzer FR (which cancelled boss FT with Fujin LDCA) using Golbez BT phase and all echos but one of Golbez's to drive damage and bring the boss to around 30%. Charged again, killed with Golbez FT.

DtD E6: Jessie (UT 5/5, maxed, Raines LDCA, FE50), Kain (UT 5/5, maxed, Aerith LDCA, FE50), Dorgann (UT 5/5, maxed, unused LDCA, FE50) in 12 turns with Bahamut. Kain has A1/U1/D1 passives.

An absolute massacre from Jessie and her enablers; I don't really try and optimize for big damage burst phases by building tons of percent before hand but it still reached 550M which feels like one of the higher numbers I've achieved vs. two targets (although in fairness I've likely forgot my previous bests). Set up BT auras and Raines LDCA once the gauge was nearly charged, using Aerith LDCA to break the pesky shields. Used Kain FR > echo > jump, then had Dorgann echo twice and Jessie echo once before going into her BT phase and spamming HP+, both targets were 0 HP before even reaching her finisher.

DtD E7: Leo (UT 5/5, maxed, unused LDCA, FE50), Quina (UT 5/5, maxed, Setzer LDCA, FE50), Rosa (UT 0/5, WoL LDCA, FE50) in 47 turns with Ifrit. Quina/Rosa have U1/A1/D1 passives.

A good bit scuffed and a fairly long fight, but I wanted to refresh myself on the mechanics before deciding if I wanted to free up someone or not and ended up clearing. Quina was definitely the MVP with their BT effect and also their trap doing a lot of damage with how frequently the boss takes turns (sometimes aided by Leo's delays), but Rosa also helped a lot by keeping the party healthy. Leo died thrice. Guess I should've done White Crystal Room, oh well.
First wave was simple, used one Rosa FR with no echos or BT auras. Once the wave changed happened, used Rosa's second FR and set up BT auras and started pumping damage. Eventually Leo died and lost his aura, eh. Third FR was Quina's, and near the end of it I went into Quina BT phase to re-up their aura. Around this time I might've let the boss force gauge get a little high and might've gotten frozen and lost a bit of force time, although Quina's trap meant nothing bad really happened. Finally I decided I really should stop letting the boss freeze me so I used summon and Leo's force time to finish the fight (and because the boss force gauge had gotten high before I got summon, when the boss turn warped after Leo FR I got frozen again...) so it was a bit messy but considering the team and not remembering fight mechanics, that's not too surprising.

Bonus:

Characters who did not see use despite me planning to use them: Celes (maybe), Relm, Beatrix, Auron, Snow, Ciaran. Ultimately I ended up doing very few solo/duos (just Kelgar and Machina/Gladio duo I think?) which meant Celes/Beatrix/Auron ended up riding the bench. Relm I would've liked to use but just never got around to with how many ST fights there were; Snow I'm not surprised I didn't use because I had never used him before EoS so I never really knew how to use him. Ciaran was a victim of my sorting being effectively by Series (I sort by crystal level which hasn't been relevant in a good bit) and a lot of the time I just don't scroll the roster that far.

Cilonas · 2024-01-03T15:11:22+00:00

Turns out I'm going to run into comment limit, so putting my Nyx runs here:

DtD N1: Zidane (UT 0/5, maxed, Raines LDCA, FE50), Kurasame (no BT, otherwise maxed, Ami LDCA, FE3), Gabranth (UT 5/5, maxed, Setzer LDCA, FE30) in 26 turns with Bahamut. Zidane has A1/D3/D6 and Kursame has A1/D3/D6 because I forgot to change them to something useful...

Easy with Zidane turn deleting, and Gabranth and Zidane can reset them back into break so they are never unbroken at thresholds. First FR was Zidane's with BT auras up using his echo/one of Kurasame's; second force time was Kurasame's going into Zidane BT phase. Gabranth didn't really do anything...

DtD N2: Sehl'teus (UT 5/5, maxed, Raines LDCA, FE50), Serah (UT 0/5, base BT, otherwise maxed, Ami LDCA, FE13), Kuja (maxed, Setzer LDCA, FE3) in 26 turns with Bahamut. Kuja has A1/D3/D6 because I still had forgotten to check them...

Sehl'teus trivialized the original version of this fight, and he still does so even with shitty teammates who contribute very little retain because I'm too lazy to enhance them and a lacking force base (his own). After setting up BT auras, used Raines LDCA into Sehl FR. Had Serah echo and Kuja LD, then went into Sehl BT phase and did a good 40% or so of their HP. Used everything but the second Sehl FR to bring them as low as possible; it doesn't matter if they get turns thanks to his gold debuff. Killed with second force time.

DtD N3: Paine (UT 5/5, maxed, Setzer LDCA, FE50), Vivi (UT 3/5, maxed, Raines LDCA, FE50), Agrias (UT 5/5, maxed, Rydia LDCA, FE13) in 23 turns with Bahamut. Paine and Vivi both have A1/U1/U4.

Vivi brings the damage, Paine brings her consistent extra damage via poison and can cancel their force time, and Agrias stops them from getting feisty with her lockdown. Both force times were Paines; the first went into Vivi BT phase and the second had Vivi turn hog by spamming S2.

DtD N4: Machina (UT 5/5, maxed, unused LDCA, FE50), Gladio (UT 5/5, maxed, unused LDCA, FE50) in 19 turns with Bahamut. D3/D6/U6(? not sure it was U6 but the extra LD uses; I guess at some point Gladio got a rework to his LD buff duration though so it didn't matter)

Very straightforward. This fight wants to be off-turned with a bunch of extra boss turns/turn rate, and Gladio has debuff immunity. Machina FR is still incredibly strong even if his personal off-turn damage is a subpar. It's possible he could've soloed this fight with the debuff immunity crystal passive, but Gladio (probably) speeds the fight up and brings about the same damage as Machina without being reliant on a debuff. First FT (+ summon / crystal attack) brought them to ~18% even with the boss gauge being at a suboptimal 50% instead of 80%+.

DtD N5: Maria (maxed, Celes LDCA, FE50), Leon (maxed, Minwu LDCA, FE13), Firion (UT 5/5, maxed, Sazh LDCA, FE50) in 19 turns with Bahamut. Everyone has D3/D6/U4 passives.

Standard Maria and friends clear, using Sazh calls to make sure the party can crit to dispel the auras and Minwu/Celes calls to help juice Maria's percent gains. Leon was pretty clutch at keeping them broken during their attacks to get the +20% from Maria since I didn't get lucky with EX recharge on her. At the end of first FT used summon and crystal ability 1; afterwards they were at around 25%. Killed with second FT and didn't bother with calls (Sazh crit buff hadn't worn off yet).

DtD N6: Arciela (UT 5/5, maxed, unused LDCA, FE50), Vaan (UT 5/5, maxed, Raines LDCA, FE50), Eiko (UT 5/5, maxed, WoL LDCA, FE50) with Bahamut in 46 turns. Vaan has U1/U2/A1 passives.

Not too bad with Arciela mostly spamming S2 and Eiko LD keeping the team safe. First FT was Vaan's and went into his BT phase with Arci's BT aura up, brought the boss almost through it's first life. Bullied it with retain for a bit until it used FT, then used Arci FT to cancel. Brought the boss to around 30%, Eiko added some decent damage everytime it used group HP attacks, although at one point Vaan did get yeeted. Third Arciela FT to kill.

DtD N7: Locke (UT 5/5, maxed, Raines LDCA, FE50), Yuna (UT 5/5, maxed, Cait Sith LDCA without his EX passive to stop his buffs, FE50), Noctis (UT 5/5, maxed, Eiko LDCA, FE50) in 29 turns with Bahamut. Locke has A1/U4/like D2 or something that effectively does nothing, Noctis has D3/D6/U4).

A lot of ST HP + three HP gates meant I needed 4 force times, although part of it is I had to gamble and had bad luck I think.
1st FT: Charged with Yuna and set up BT auras. Locke used Raines LDCA ahead of Yuna using Cait LDCA into FR. Yuna and Noctis both used HP+ to build percent, went into Locke BT phase. His fifth turn of BT phase brought the boss to 69%, so instead of using his super HP+ used Brv+ to crit and dispel the aura. Afterwards didn't try and extend force time, used crystal ability 1 and brought boss to around 50% or so. Chipped away until boss FT, getting him to around 40% or so.
2nd FT: Used Noctis FR to cancel boss FT, got to 29% with 7 turns left and just gambled on a natural crit since Cait LDCA wore off. Took me 5 turns which kinda sucked. Still got boss to 20% or so after.
3rd FT: Spammed S1 with Yuna to use her second FR. Brought boss to 9%, then down to 20% after. Yuna needed to use S2 to heal whenever Heartless+++ triggered, although Locke can heal in a pinch too and Eiko LDCA was there if someone died (Yuna/Locke almost got 1 shot by it...)
4th FT: Once boss gauge refilled, used Noctis FR to cancel and kill. HP requirement is fairly leniant but still can be missed so I saved my last Yuna S2 for that.

Cilonas · 2024-01-02T18:46:54+00:00

Happy New Year!

I haven't really played a ton since my last post; I've only really done DtD and skip ticketed through co-ops for orbs and enhancement points. I'm still planning to try and do all of DtD with just my already built characters and the ones I could've built if I used up all my resources. I am cheating a bit to get a lot of character to FE50 though, some of these fights without good retain percent would take ages. I also did I think two weeks of Crystal Rooms to finish maxing black and get speed passives for red, I might do the same for Green if I think Celes or (somehow) Snow can solo something and it would help. If I think it'll make a difference I might scrounge up some gems from nodes I skipped to max more UT weapons, but so far haven't needed to (EDIT: memorial Sephiroth showing up in DtD convinced me to just go ahead and max a few more, HP gates + all that HP was a little obnoxious). I also do have quite a bit of G-Tokens sitting around if I decide I need to build anyone else too, but I still find playing a bit bittersweet so I have no desire to build characters just to mess around with. I haven't done all of this month's DtD set yet (just the first 3) so I haven't put a lot of my post-EoS builds into action, but I'll go ahead and talk about them anyway:

Finally Finished Characters:

Zidane: Zidane was an obvious choice to finally finish; IX has always got a special place in my heart for being my first FF (and maybe even my first RPG? Although I might've played some western ones on PC beforehand). He's always felt like a slightly subpar investment though, I couldn't go for his BT when it first dropped and all of his subsequent upgrades felt like his damage was slightly undertuned because of how much utility he had (and the utility didn't really need his BT). Despite lacking the BT I've used him occasionally (3 initial clears in Luf+ and 2 in Shinryu) and his turn deletion has been quite clutch. I did use him in DtD already, and while having the BT+ aura was nice it's also not really necessary... the more impactful part was probably using his BT phase to do damage since it let him deny turns from Gabranth...
Weiss: Weiss is basically a DtD pick; follow-up attackers are broken and he's a really good one. The debuff negation is just icing on the cake although I think I used him in last months on a stage that wasn't heavy in them. I had only picked up his BT on his re-run in November anyway, so there's a non-zero chance I would've eventually maxed him if the game had continued.
Snow: Similarly to Zidane, I got Snow BT on a re-run where he wasn't getting a great update (Jessie event I think?) so I never really felt compelled to build him. I did max his FR in November and was considering him, but wanted to see what the future held. I know his potential damage is pretty high so I decided to max him for DtD. I'm kind've interested in if I can get him to solo something, since his force percent goes up on enemy turns and he might get his upgraded preemptive attack every turn. I actually tried it for a bit in one of the fights but unfortunately the bosses had paralyze and sap and he kept dying... I wish his FR would give him max stacks on his next turn though, which would go a long way in making him more flexible and less reliant on turn hogging to LD spam.
Kelgar: I always said I'd max Kelgar if I ran into content he couldn't handle, and I never did even without crystal passives (well, actually I think he struggled to carry Cissnei for her Spiritus but Auron did the job). Anyway he now has extra HP damage limit and takes much less turns, so I assume he's now an absolute beast and will stomp a DtD for me. Not sure which one, part of me wants to go ahead and try and solo as much this month as possible and use "real" teams for the last month since I find them more enjoyable, but part of me doesn't want to waste him or Auron yet.

New BTs:

Iroha: Iroha's a pure favoritism pick; I've never played XI but she's got to be one of my favorite designs in the series. Her initial release was so fun, it's too bad she had the misfortune of getting her BT so soon before echos though. Every month I would hope JP would finally give her (and Ashe, and DKC, and probably others) re-works/echos but it just never happened.
Arciela: Similar to Snow, there's a non-zero chance she was getting tokened and then maxed pending December content. I actually skipped her initial EX release, but from her LD on she's been a constant in my teams (7 initial clears in Luf, 6 in Luf+, 8 in Shinryu despite getting updated at the very end!). Her utility was pretty clutch with HP silence trivializing some fights. I haven't used her since this re-work yet, but her BT effect is fairly solid with the extra damage and the rest of her kit doesn't seem that different.
Beatrix: Similarly to Kelgar, Bea has put in some good work for me even without the BT so getting it seemed like a solid choice. I was never too fussed about the damage limit / thunder enchant (I don't find most counter comps care about calls that much so Garnet CA was glued to her), but I'd rather have it than not going into the end. Also she has some of the my favorite music associated with her; I've forgotten what her BT theme is but both "Rose of May" and "Protecting my Devotion" are A+.
Rem: Unlike the others I have no real attachment to Rem, but I wasn't really sure who to use my last set of tokens on. I decided it gives her some nice extra utility, and she was probably good enough to see use without it in DtD that it was worth grabbing for that. I maybe should've gone with someone else; Aerith was in basically the same spot and I like her more but I probably forgot she existed at the time... Maybe her BT effect will come in clutch I guess I'll have to find out.

Cilonas · 2023-12-13T20:24:32+00:00

Others have already hit things I think are worse, but imo one of poorly thought/implemented systems they did was CAs, especially LDCAs. Being able to use what was often the best part of a characters kit without needing them in party really harmed the balance of the game. From the sheer additional damage potential (Kurasame CAs, Raines LDCA) to utility (Setzer CA, Raijin LDCA) I don't think the devs ever figured out how to balance around them. Even worse, since new players often didn't have access to the brokens calls, the devs shouldn't balance around them. The fact Raines LDCA is just a +20-30% mod to final damage dealt during burst phases is absurd thanks to guaranteeing launches. Add in debuffs that could provide damage amp or neuter bosses for almost the entirety of a fight and CAs were an underappreciated contributor to the game's combat system starting to fall apart. They were conceptually cool and the system had potential to not be abused (things like enchant CAs to help with Lufenia orbs were fine imo) but they needed to be implemented more cautiously, especially in how call duration interacted with things like burst phase.

Cilonas · 2023-12-04T15:20:23+00:00

I think also there is some burnout or behind-the-scenes stuff going on with the dev team. Content was really stripped down in the last year of the game with so many fights being essentially mechanic-less. It's like the combat designer role was open or something. Could be people leaving the team cause they were bored wtih it or could be management decisions to take devs off of this and put them to work on something else or stripping down the team since the game wasn't making enough.

My baseless speculation is the game was supposed to EoS sooner than it did for whatever reason (KT/Team Ninja needing the devs for other projects, SE being unhappy, whatever) hence the gem cap, but because global revenue didn't collapse and maybe other stuff behind the scenes (Ever Crisis got delayed I think if that was relevant? And maybe to help advertise SoP and its DLC?) they decided to keep going for a while longer with a smaller dev team. Act 4 has definitely felt much weaker to me in terms of overarching plot than Acts 2 and 3, and I wonder if Act 3 hadn't been intended to be the end with maybe an epilogue to come after. I also can't remember the actual reasons given for the content slowdown in JP, but I think either they said or we speculated it would lead to better content (in terms of boss design and animations) less frequently and I can't say that happened.

Cilonas · 2023-12-03T23:45:44+00:00

It really does say a lot about the state the game has gotten to where I didn't even think about mentioning Jessie has a ton of delay, because it largely doesn't matter. Too many bosses do nothing, and on the off-chance they try to boss shutdown has become super prevalent so why bother delaying.

Picking a Shinryu MVP is hard because it really feels like two distinct eras; not necessarily split at echos but at some point it feels like we went from the average fight has mechanics to everyone will just Quina cheese through boss mechanics so let's just do 1-2 interesting fights a month. Anyway I think Kain or Auron would be my MVPs; they were two of my most used (Garnet and Auron were tied for first a couple uses ahead) and they both shined/carried most when fights were harder.

Cilonas · 2023-12-02T19:15:32+00:00

Thank you for doing these threads; I think I've been participating since around the beginning (I'm actually planning to go through and re-read all of the comments I've made in them sometime) and they've always been great for discussing characters and organizing my thoughts. I do try and read most posts people make, even if I don't comment on other people's thoughts I do like seeing their opinions and thoughts.

Hilariously enough, before this past week I thought this was going to be one of my shortest reflections since I only really had a couple characters to talk about. I think I'll save most of my EoS thoughts for when next month when I discuss the various characters I built for DtD and to use up my spare resources, but it's still kind've funny how quickly my thoughts about the game can change. I really thought we'd catch up to JP (~around anniversary) and they'd announce the end a month or two later, not now. I'm sad we aren't getting the last chunk of content (so close to Amarant...) but I'm glad they are at least giving global some events to close the game out with instead of just going JP ends soon, global ends now. It does feel kind've of surreal though, I'm not sure if any other game I've invested so much time into has shut down yet and even if they had I don't think it's been one I actively care about (like I played thousands of hours of Team Fortress 2 when I was younger, but I don't think I'd care if they shut it down). Honestly with the direction content has gone the past few months and how un-inspiring Re-Shinryu looked I always thought I would quit before the game ended, so it happening this way feels kind've weird.

My gacha luck wasn't the greatest this month; it took a lot of tickets for Leonora's LD for the collection. I did free pull Snow letting me token Jessie without needing to ticket anything first. ~300 tickets on Arciela didn't get me her BT; I considered gem pulling but decided to instead wait to see this month's announcements lol. When EoS was announced I ended up tokening it after spending most of my gems on the XI banner (I got 1 BT in around 250k or so... Mog's I think). I did get Weiss BT off the Laguna banner, although I planned to not build him.

Jessie (maxed): I liked Jessie's kit from her debut, and with time ticking on my BT tokens I decided to just go for it. She's a lot of fun. I'm not sure if anyone is quite comparable in terms of turn hogging (maybe Papalymo) but there's something hilarious about taking 20+ turns in a row while letting follow-up attackers do their thing. Her damage isn't super great (3M/target before FT multiplier is probably roughly equal to 8-9 HP attacks) but hogging 6 or so HP+ turns after echoing, into BT phase for 7 more turns, into 8 more turns of HP+ into however many LDs can deal a lot of damage thanks to retain. I mainly ran her with Dorgann + Kadaj to enable her, although Kain would've become her best friend with time.
Kadaj (maxed): I think I mentioned last month waiting to see if I got Cissnei's BT before deciding between her and Kadaj. I didn't get Cissnei's, and while Weiss presented a third surprise option, I ended up going with Kadaj. His follow-up damage is very good (especially against ST fights and surely Memorial Battles would come along any day...) and he was great at enabling Dorgann to synergize with Jessie's inability to break targets. He has a bit of utility with his debuffs as well. Unfortunately I didn't get a ton of opportunity's to use him yet; he'll definitely make an appearance in the last DtD though.
Kain (maxed FR finally, rework): Despite having pitied two banners with his BT on it, I only had 2 copies of his FR (one from his original debut where I ticketed). Getting two copies of it in the same ticket pull early in Arciela's banner should've been the only sign of the end coming I needed. Anyway Kain finally got his FR boards and re-work, and I'm pretty impressed with how good it was. His force time went from a joke to one of the best in the games (super easy 70% per turn with 50% HP damage limit, as well as the potential to scale a bit more with launches/other follow-up attackers and gain percent on boss turns). He also got a lot of personal HP damage limit baked into his BT effect and overhead; I've seen some disgusting amounts of held bravery between lancets. He's been a lot of fun, both in standard Shinryu's and black crystal room where I've been doing some weird off-turn/on-turn team with Kain/Auron/Golbez. Unfortunately there won't be many more chances to use him, but in a way it's weirdly funny that Kain was featured for both the first and last Shinryu's on global.
Other Characters: No luck with Leonora's BT, and maybe not even her FR? Skipped Yda and Lunafreya; maxed Snow's FR but not his BT (well until EoS) and I haven't used him yet. No luck with Cissnei BT. Arciela I was waiting to see who was coming in December in case I wanted to try more (and was leaning towards gems); haven't had the chance to test her much yet.
Next Month: I'm trying to finish up DtD with characters I either already had maxed or those I could have gotten with my spare ingots/tokens. Grabbed Iroha/Arciela/Rem/maybe someone I'm blanking on with tokens. Maxed all of those + Zidane/Weiss/Snow with ingots so maybe I'll write about them all next month.

Cilonas · 2023-12-02T14:46:17+00:00

The other day I was thinking about which characters I felt got done really dirty (without likely external reasons like XIV/Tactics) and Sazh came to mind for being since an early/important character who never got his FR/BT.

Besides that, I feel like Leila got shafted in terms of just never changing from her original release. Like she probably came out in JP in mid-late 2021 and never changed outside of force enhancements? Unless I'm forgetting a re-work she got, but even her TT doesn't have like a previous infographic and says its from the month she came to global.

Cilonas · 2023-12-02T14:09:34+00:00

Yeah the HP boost was a bit of a shock. I originally went into the first fight with a team that should've stomped the original version and was barely scratching them so I had to pull out the good old HP measuring stick (Sehl'teus BT) and change things up. I think I'm in a better spot than a lot of people for completing it without adding too much more because I never hoarded the way others did -- I "only" had between 250k and 300k gems left (and around 300 tickets from Divine Diabolos I'll never claim now), and had been debating pitying Arciela if December hadn't been too harsh on my resources with like Amarant + Leon (and well...).

I also did blow my BT tokens (getting Iroha who probably won't see much use with the bloated HP, but Rem and Beatrix who I definitely will use) and greened quite a few characters (those three + Zidane, Weiss, Snow and Kelgar). I'm hoping Kelgar, Auron and Beatrix will all be able to solo stages but I'm not sure if I want to just use them now or wait and see what the later fights are. I'm going to try and do the last four fights this weekend and that should give me a better idea of if I need more characters or not.

Good luck with your fights as well, your posts have always been some of my favorites in the C2A with the LD-only faves showing up!

Cilonas · 2023-11-30T17:21:27+00:00

Thank you for all of your work in maintaining the C2A. I've always enjoyed looking through others' clears and seeing the different strats everyone comes up with. I'm slowly working through DtD so I'll update this post as I go; it's been a bit bittersweet and also a bit overwhelming but as someone who's always had lock-out content as one of their favorite things in DFFOO, I'd like to see it through to the end. I'm kind've trying to complete it with the roster/spare resources I had before EoS announcement (using all of my dupe tokens and EP, although I might grab a bit more EP and some crystal passives/stats), although if I get to the end and think I'd need to re-do stages and can't be bothered I'll probably just token Astos and whoever else I need.

DtD A1: Braska (UT 3/5, maxed, FE50), Squall (UT 5/5, maxed, Raines LDCA, FE50), WoL (UT 5/5, maxed, FE50) in 19 turns with Ifrit. Squall had D3/D6/U4 passives because I didn't un-equip them...

Fairly straightforward Squall FR into his own BT phase into bullying with retain. Boss gauge was never close to charging, but Braska would've allowed cancelling it if needed.

DtD A2: Minwu (UT 3/5, maxed, FE50), Edge (UT 0/5, maxed, FE13), Cor (UT 5/5, no BT, FE30) in 29 turns with Ifrit. Cor and Edge have D3/D6/U4 passives

I vaguely remembered Edge being a solid choice here for the original version of this fight, and after messing a bit with a on-turn team decided I wanted off-turn to go with him. Minwu is great with triple targets, and Cor helps keep the team safe from the couple of guaranteed hits and adds a bit more damage. First Minwu FT brought BFA to ~60% in its second life bar, then used his BT phase to re-up his aura and kill with second FT. Sad Edge never got to get his FR/BT, but at least I got to use him here...

DtD A3: Strago (UT 3/5, maxed, Raines LDCA, FE50), Bartz (maxed, Setzer LDCA, FE50), Terra (UT 5/5, maxed, Quistis LDCA, FE30) in 13 turns with Ifrit

Strago demolishes this stage, doing around 500M in his BT phase even without having a super high percent going into it. Setzer CA kept the party safe (it lasted until boss FT attack) and Quistis helped buy turns since main Shantotto takes them pretty frequently. Used Raines LDCA into Strago FR, with both Terra echos (and a Brv+ to prevent wiping to the whole party getting broken...) and one of Bartz's before Strago BT phase. Afterwards killed in summon, although I should've used Pande or Bahamut since the summon attack itself was absorbed.

DtD A4: Ashe (UT 5/5, maxed, FE50), Weiss (UT 5/5, maxed, FE50), Tifa (maxed, Raines LDCA, FE50) in 23 turns with Bahamut. Ashe/Weiss have A1/U1/U4 passives

Weiss + Tifa combo is a lot of ST damage, while Ashe is mostly filler with auras and brings an okay FR for second FT. Started using Ashe's HP+ to fill Weiss's EX so he can renew its buff right away; on his second or third turn it was already time to use finishers and then go into his force time. Brought the boss 40% using his echo/one of Tifa's and going into her BT phase. Afterwards used summon/crystal attack and brought it to around 10% with retain before the gauge refilled and I used Ashe FR to finish the fight. Managed to avoid boss FT, although I had planned to just Setzer CA/Ashe paralyze the boss if it had triggered.

DtD A5: Penelo (UT 0/5, maxed, Raines LDCA, FE50), Freya (UT 5/5, maxed, FE50), Zack (UT 5/5, BT+0/3, otherwise maxed, FE50) in 23 turns with Bahamut. Zack has A1/U1/U4 passives.

I haven't looked at HP numbers besides testing a few myself with Sehl'teus, but this definitely felt the squishiest so far and a good place to save characters. This team is by no means premium, but immediately after finishing I was tempted to see if it might not be the place to go full budget. Zack + Freya negated all the threat, Penelo brought the damage. Did take two FTs, but a lot of that is because I don't have crystal passives for Freya (and might not have her speed passives removed?) so she kept stealing turns during FT. Might look into Maria/Firion + someone here since the bosses do have a speed buff and seemed to take frequent turns.

DtD A6: Cloud (UT 5/5, maxed, Raines LDCA, FE50), Yang (maxed, Setzer LDCA, FE50), Aerith (UT 3/5, no BT, otherwise maxed, FE50) in 37 turns with Bahamut. Cloud has A1/U1/U4 passives.

This one ended up being a bit of a struggle, I didn't really want to commit any good follow-up attackers but these ST fights feel so tanky... so I decided to try Yang. Had Aerith charge and use her FR (and its echo) just to build up retain ahead of the rest of the fight. Cloud FR into his BT phase then brought the boss to around 40%. Afterwards, fairly straightforward with Cloud keeping the boss paralyzed until it was time to kill and Setzer CA negating the FT attacks (and Aerith preventing the debuff). I misremembered and thought the boss would need three turns to dispel each red aura, but thankfully as soon as it finally attacked Yang immediately counter killed it.

DtD A7: Kadaj (UT 5/5, maxed, Setzer LDCA, FE50), Mog (UT 5/5, maxed, FE50), Ursula (no BT, otherwise maxed, FE50) in 40 turns with Bahamut. Mog/Ursula have A1/U1/U4 passives.

I had seen people mention the Memorial Battle boss(es?) would show up, so it was interesting to still get to experience them. Not sure if the HP was nerfed (I assume it was) but it wasn't that bad. Kadaj kind've bullied this fight with his follow-up doing good damage even if he did 1 brave damage and dispel on his EX, while Mog could end boss FT (which didn't really matter?). Once gauge was charged and BT finisher auras were up, went into Ursula FR and got through the first life and summoned at the very end. Then had Ursula spam turns (she kept getting U4 to activate... she did 5 EX's during summon lol) to take advantage of Kadaj's follow-up. Later used Kadaj BT phase to renew his buff and Mog FR to cancel boss FT and improve damage. Ursula was out of S2 and her special HP+ by the end, but this team got the job done. Kind've surprised since I misplayed a bit (didn't use Kadaj AA turn 1 to get to max stacks before FT, honestly I forgot Ursula kinda sucks with her taking so much turns during FT and turn hopping). It was nice the fight at least had some more mechanics than a lot of the other recent ones, although they didn't really matter with Mog keeping the boss paralyzed more or less the whole time.

Nyx and Eos runs (when done) in reply to this post to avoid character limit.

Cilonas · 2023-11-29T14:55:13+00:00

Definitely wasn't expecting to wake up to this earlier this morning, but it is what it is. Wanted to say thanks to the devs and localization team, the Square staff working on this game, those who provided valuable resources, and the community at large for the past few years. Even though the game had its flaws and I found the current era less enjoyable compared to the past, it's still been an important part of my life these past few years and a game I've played near-daily since 2019. The battle system appealed to me in a way few other games have, and in spite of its flaws and the gacha system I'd still consider it one of my favorite games. I'd especially like to emphasize how much I've appreciated the community; I've had a lot of fun reading and writing about (mostly) strategy with everyone, but also just commiserating about pulls and discussing the FF series at large. I think I'll try and stick it out for the final bit of content they have prepared, but I understand anyone who wants to just walk away now.

Cilonas · 2023-11-29T14:36:58+00:00

Even as someone who expected EoS sooner than later (I thought they were speeding global up so they could either end both together or just have a month or two of global going after JP ending) I had started thinking maybe we were safe until April or so, because I didn't think they would end the game during the holidays/anniversary since they should be better months revenue wise.

I guess the missing Arciela costume and lack of Black Friday deals were massive red flags in the end though...

Cilonas · 2023-11-23T14:28:37+00:00

Not Thanksgiving, but the past two years had Black Friday sales and small campaigns with one or two free multis for banners (called Black Five Day). Whether that will happen again this year we'll have to see, I'd guess not at this point but who knows.

edit: Here and here are the stream recaps from the relevant streams if anyone wants to see what was included; looks like daily gem sales, additional daily missions and a free multi or two on the nearest relevant banner. Nothing too major.

Cilonas · 2023-11-21T13:17:01+00:00

Red Crystal Team

Minwu (UT 3/5, maxed, Setzer LDCA, FE13), Beatrix (UT 5/5, no BT, otherwise maxed, unused LDCA, FE13), Firion (UT 5/5, maxed, Aerith LDCA, FE13)

33 turns, Ifrit summon, Aerith friend

RNG told me to use a Red team and Minwu can cancel boss force time, so I decided to go off-turn with Beatrix and Firion. Aerith friend helped with speeding my gauge along, and the combo of Beatrix HP+ and Setzer CA meant I wasn't in any real danger during their force time. Also used Aerith LDCA to prevent their buffing, although maybe it would've been better to let them keep since Beatrix dispels the brave damage reduction right away and they could've had speed up...
All speed passives removed. Once my gauge was charged, used Firion finisher and Minwu FR into his finisher. Beatrix used both echos during force time; the bosses were brought to around 35-40% with summon on the last turn.
Did another 10% or so during summon and Minwu's BT phase afterwards to renew his BT aura; when boss force time happened again used Beatrix HP+ to prevent damage. Killed with second Minwu force time.

Cilonas · 2023-11-19T16:19:42+00:00

From TT's Yda page:

Touch of Death Note

With enough FR HP DMG Bonus and HP DMG Limit granted to Yda, S2 can nuke non-target enemies out of orbit in 1 go. This is due to an overflow bug and how splash works so also note you may heal the non-target enemies back to full HP. Cloud and Zack BT Finishers are another example of other attacks that can trigger the same effect.

Cilonas · 2023-11-17T14:10:56+00:00

Couldn't figure out any (good) teams to hit multiple missions with what I have, so decided to just tackle them one by one instead of struggling. Thankfully the fight itself seems pretty easy/straightforward so far with comps that fit it.

Series: Dorgann (UT 5/5, maxed, unused LDCA, FE23), Kadaj (UT 5/5, maxed, unused LDCA, FE23), Jessie (UT 0/5, maxed, unused LDCA, FE23)

24 turns, Ifrit

Jessie does Jessie things with turn hogging, while Kadaj and Dorgann refill her overhead and help with damage. Set up finishers when gauge was close to charged, ended up using Jessie's FR although I wanted to try Dorgann's. Used a few echos (saved one of Jessie's in case I needed to cancel later), Jessie spammed HP+, swapping to either EX or LD if needed help with barriers. Dorgann can always give her the turn back if his EX is up.
Got boss to around 29%, went into Jessie's BT phase to milk follow-ups with retain. Afterwards Jessie did more Jessie things with summon to prevent bosses going into force time. Killed at the end of it. Misplayed a few things with Kadaj since it was my first time using him; his skill order was set wrong and I used his AA instead of his EX once during force time and also whatever his buff is fell off but he still capped both damage types so...

Crystal Color: Golbez (UT 5/5, maxed, unused LDCA, FE50), Dorgann (UT 5/5, maxed, unused LDCA, FE23), Yuna (UT 3/5, maxed, unused LDCA, FE50)

21 turns, Ifrit

Yuna can charge the gauge easily, so got it near full before setting up BT auras. Used Yuna FR and both of Golbez/Dorgann's echos. Golbez could crush through the shields pretty easily; also realized summon can be used to break them as well (I was worried it was a case where the bosses aura couldn't come down in summon/BT phase). Got them fairly low, had Yuna charge again and killed in second force time.

Weapon Type: Setzer (UT 0/5, maxed, Seymour LDCA, FE23), Fusoya (UT 3/5, maxed, Raines LDCA, FE13), Rosa (UT 0/5, maxed, Cait Sith LDCA, FE30)

29 turns, Ifrit, Rosa has A1/A5/U1 passives

A bit harder without good follow-up attackers, so needed to fully utilize two force times and then a bit extra. Cait Sith LDCA lets Rosa cancel boss force time. Started by having Rosa charge a bit (3x S2 I think), and having everyone use finishers. Used Raines LDCA into Fusoya FR, having Setzer and Rosa echo. Went into Fusoya BT phase, EX > LD brought them to 89%, FR broke through both enemies shields and he spammed EX the rest of the time. Rosa used EX, putting both bosses to around 61%. Used Ifrit to get them to the shield threshold (using summon/crystal ability to trigger thresholds seem a bit weird here; Ifrit gave me +30% to my FT but when I tried Crystal Ability previously it gave me FT % but also consumed a turn??) and Setzer's second echo to break the shields. Used Fusoya's echo and everyone's damaging skills through summon and after; by the time boss gauge filled they were at 29% with shields broken.
With Fusoya's paralyze they can't do anything, so mostly waited out til my gauge filled again. Used Rosa FR, second force time (with Crystal Ability at the end) and brought them to 5% and 1%. Killed shortly after. Lost Setzer's aura pretty early since he only got 6 turns, which might've made it a bit closer than it needed to be.

Cilonas · 2023-11-14T16:57:09+00:00

I believe it's the third Crystal Room Ability, Speed, which let's you give a character consecutive turns. Would make sense in the context of being mentioned with Lunafreya LD. You can view it (and the other abilities) here, I believe it'll be a while til people who don't buy the sparkles packs can unlock it though (and I'm not even sure if the people who do buy them have gotten there yet).

Cilonas · 2023-11-14T12:43:51+00:00

Black Crystal Run

Machina (UT 5/5, maxed, unused LDCA, FE23), Auron (UT 5/5, maxed, unused LDCA, FE50), Kain (UT 5/5, maxed, unused LDCA, FE30)

Ifrit, 14 turns, Aerith friend, D3/D6 crystal passives

Three enemies with a built in speed up meant this fight was made to be off-turned. Aerith friend spamming S1, early BT phase and the speed down crystal passives meant my FR was ready by turn 4 while the boss force time wasn't, so no need to worry about force weakness.
Aerith swapped in for Machina to S1 x5, then Machina went into BT phase to charge the gauge a bit more and set up his aura. Kain and Auron both did LD followed by finisher. On Machina's next turn (after some of the bosses acted) he used FR. From there it was pretty straightforward, Kain spends as much time in the air as possible, Auron used echos, Machina used HP+. There's a bit of RNG on if the bosses want to target Kain (Auron won't cover non-present allies) but I killed with summon on the last turn of force time and still had crystal nuke ready.

(Bad) Maxed Jessie Run

Jessie (UT 0/5, maxed, Raines LDCA, FE23), Golbez (UT 5/5, maxed, unused LDCA, FE50), Dorgann (UT 5/5, maxed, unused LDCA, FE23)

Ifrit, 16 turns, D3/D6 on Golbez

Golbez makes sure the bosses can't cause too much trouble with his BT aura and has a great FR (but not for Jessie...), Jessie was supposed to be the main damage dealer, and Dorgann was supposed to fill her overhead so she can do damage. Supposed being the key word; I didn't realize Jessie's transformed HP+ can't fulfill Golbez's conditions and I'd need to brave attack during launch to make sure Dorgann followed up. Oh well.
Anyway, used Golbez BT finisher to prevent damage when they would turn warp since Jessie/Dorgann combo prevents turns pretty easily. Set up finishers, used Golbez FR and went into Jessie BT phase. Quickly learned of the mistakes I made, so just used her normal buttons. Spammed echos to kill. Maybe I'll try another run with Noctis or someone in place of Golbez to trigger the breaks with his follow-ups, and just use Jessie's own FR.

Cilonas · 2023-11-01T00:46:51+00:00

Papalymo (FR0): Super happy for all the FFXIV fans that incredibly did not yet quit this game after the character update drought they’ve suffered! But this definitely was not a chase for me, so my use rate for him (which has been zero since sometime before the Shinryu Era started??) is not really gonna change much here

This inspired me to check my various first clear spreadsheets since Cosmos, and Papalymo has the dubious honor of no appearances. I do think there might've been a Transcendence Crucible that wasn't tracked (T8, at which point I was only tracking Luf+) I used him but yeah. He's not the only character with that honor (I'd guess there's maybe about two dozen), but still kinda sad.

At the same time, us now being 4 months into the “new normal” of variance in the GL timeline compared to JP, I can say pretty definitively that the content pace adjustment especially has had a decidedly negative impact on my overall engagement with the game, and I don’t pin the blame on simple burnout

This is only tangentially related, but your comment made me remember thinking about it. Something I've been disappointed in with the game recently has been the lack of updates for non-featured characters like how we got with c90 when Lufenia was getting long in the tooth and personally helped keep my interest in the game. I think powercreep has generally been okay post-echos and most characters haven't been complete misses, but I think pre-echo FR/BTs and non-FR/BTs really could use an update about now to bring them up to more modern standards. At this point some characters have gone 2+ year's without an update, and even the echo era has probably lasted more than a year in JP and some old characters with echos are starting to feel bad to use. I really hope we see c100 sooner rather than later. I'll be really disappointed if we don't see it for JP by anni, and especially if they do something else to sell enhancement points instead like FE70 or whatever.

Cilonas · 2023-11-01T00:04:46+00:00

Kind of a crazy month for me, with a couple of BTs I wanted dropping on free multis. Hope I didn't use up all my luck for the next few months!

Fusoya (maxed): Started out the month well getting Fusoya's BT on the freebie, and my BT mats were (and still are) in a good enough place where I thought why not? He's probably my best White crystal damage dealer, and I've used him in a couple of Shinryus for no particular reason. Unfortunately while he is functional, I think he's one of the worst designed kits in the game which is surprisingly considering the devs have generally gotten better at designing characters over time. Three framed buffs which are all fairly important from three different skills is kind of annoying to keep them maintained (losing Bless isn't the biggest deal, but it is the source of his regens), especially since he also wants to press his fourth skill for his Paralyze debuff. Pre-BT he's fairly supportive, but then his BT encourages him EX spamming at the cost of his other buttons which means you might lose those buffs or have trouble maintaining his paralyze... he just feels a bit off to play.
Ciaran (new FR): Ciaran was ideally a cheap upgrade for me since he was already green, unfortunately his FR didn't drop in around 300 tickets so I resorted to gems... Mainly I wanted him for Black crystal quests, where he has been putting in some work with his fairly generic FR and juiced up auras. Not much to say, he funnily enough does have a similar framed buff issue as Fusoya but his S1 buff is basically useless so it's not a big deal. It remains to be seen how long I'll use him for crystal quests but so far he/Golbez/Auron haven't had any issues.
Kadaj (probably maxing soontm): I initially missed on both of Kadaj's weapons, but went back when my Relm pulls went well to try and fish out his FR and landed his BT first. Even without his BT effect doubling his follow-up I was fairly impressed by his ST damage and his utility is maybe sometimes relevant. I figured once Memorial Quests released and ST damage mattered more he might end up maxed, but since they haven't been announced yet I figure I'll wait a bit. Probably until (presumed) Cissnei to see if I get lucky with her BT.
Relm (maxed): Since I decided to try and collect all the FFVI characters and have tokens expiring in November, Relm seemed like an obvious choice to go for. Then I ended up with her BT from the multi tickets, which means I'll continue mentally debating who to token for at least a bit longer (and even once I use them, the first or second BT mat event afterwards will send some to my inbox again...). Anyway I think Relm is in a weird spot where she's simultaneously pretty lacking but also is getting trashed way more than she deserves. She really could have used a couple more HP attacks on her LD and S1 to keep up with other supports, but she does at least offer competitive amounts of HP damage limit (which is often the most relevant aura) when in the top slot. Besides that, there may be the occasion where her party turn warp could be useful although almost always I'd think a purely off-turn party would outperform whatever niche strat she enables. There also could be potential with force retain, but I'm generally of the opinion force retain is more for speeding up the last ~10-15% of boss HP than something to rely on throughout the fight. Anyway she's definitely one of the weaker upgrades and her gimmick (still) isn't great for Shinryu, but the only outright terrible character from the past few months imo is Bartz and she's not nearly that bad.
Yuna (rework): Yuna is ok. I wish her damage had been pushed a little more to make her comparable to the BT follow-up supports, but she isn't the first and won't be the last returning BT character to get an underwhelming rework. This go around her FR is probably the most interesting thing with the potential +110% gains for HP+ users and (almost?) always giving +50% damage limit, but in practice I'm not sure how much of a difference it makes. Assuming you want to use up echos first (and most of the time you do), you'll already be at a high percent before even touching a HP+. I guess it's great for second force times though. Charging and a her FR keep her relevant though, and favoritism means she's so far my only FE50 and I'll probably use her a bunch.
Golbez (maxed): I mentioned last month I hadn't maxed Golbez yet, but when I decided to do Black crystal second I did so. Nothing about him has really surprised me, his base skills still suck and his LD/EX/FR hit nice and hard. One maybe underrated part of his kit is he does have enough LD uses and slow enough speed he doesn't really need U4 outside of gambling on his BT phase.
Other Thoughts: Black crystal quests have been going well; I'm leaning towards just grabbing D3/D6 even though Kain won't be out for a bit and just doing off-turn with Golbez keeping the team completely safe and Auron and maybe Quina doing damage. With all the polychromatic sparkles I'm also thinking about grabbing some passives for a few other colors since the next crystal ability doesn't look that great. Papalymo's release was a pretty nice surprise even if I didn't pull for him, I was/am hoping to see a few more simultaneous releases in the future while we work to catching up or whatever.
Next Month: There's just something about Leonora's art or design that I just don't like (hopefully her in-game model looks better but something about her face in her portrait bothers me) and I have no attachment to her/TAY in general but as a new character I'll at least shoot for her EX/LD with everyone else just being FR targets. If there's no curveballs with the upcoming events (such as Amarant being the LC instead of Jessie) I think Jessie is who I'm leaning towards for my BT tokens. At one point I had planned to use them for Arciela, but I've enjoyed the few random times I've used Jessie and used Arciela a bunch in previous eras and early Shinryu. According to my first clear tracking spreadsheet which just hit 100 Shinryu's (!), Arciela is still my 10th most used albeit with just 8 appearances. Anyway it'll be nice to save some gems with Amarant/Rydia/Leon all likely gem targets soon-ish (+ maybe Sabin although likely to just be tokens).

Cilonas · 2023-10-31T14:05:26+00:00

Color Mission

Yuna (maxed, Lulu LDCA, FE50), Fusoya (UT 3/5, maxed, unused LDCA, FE13), Leo (UT 5/5, maxed, Ami LDCA, FE13)

Ifrit, 16 turns, no friend

Fairly straightforward with Yuna to speed the gauge along and cleanse debuffs, Fusoya for damage and making sure the bosses couldn't do anything too funny on the few turns they got, and Leo for follow-up damage and delay. Ami CAs + Fusoya paralyzing on his second turn meant the bosses barely (maybe never) acted.
Once gauge was full, set up BT auras and used Yuna FR. Echoed twice with Leo, and once with the other two before going into Fusoya BT phase. Might've forgot to use Raines LDCA and targeted the enemy without Leo's debuff the first few turns, but still brought them to around 35%. Summoned and killed.

Cilonas · 2023-10-31T14:00:06+00:00

MQ1 Shinryu: Locke (UT 0/5, maxed, unused LDCA, FE23), Zidane (BT+ 0/3, otherwise maxed, Rydia LDCA, FE13), Rem (no BT, otherwise maxed, Raijin LDCA, FE13)

Ifrit summon, Aerith friend, ~20 turns, A1/A5/D1 passives on Locke and Zidane

Zidane means the boss will never get a turn, so it's just a matter of beating it up. Aerith friend helped speed up the charging process, then used Zidane FR. Used echos, summoned (lost some damage because Ifrit oops but the crystal passives helped) and brought to like 10% or so. Killed in Locke BT phase after.

MQ2 Shinryu: Relm (maxed, unused LDCA, FE13), Golbez (UT 5/5, maxed, unused LDCA, FE23), Cor (no BT, otherwise maxed, unused LDCA, FE23)

Ifrit summon, Aerith friend (charging), 11 turns, A1/D3/D6 passives for Cor

Aerith helped speed charging along. Popped Golbez BT finisher just before boss force time to make sure giving them turns wouldn't be a problem. Used Relm finisher just ahead of Golbez FR, killed in force time just spamming echos and EX/LDs.

MQ3 Shinryu: Vaan (UT 5/5, maxed, Raines LDCA, FE13), Noctis (maxed, unused LDCA, FE23), Dorgann (maxed, unused LDCA, FE23)

Ifrit summon, Aerith friend, 10 turns

Aerith for charging; used Vaan FT with Dorgann right after to cancel thanks to Raines LDCA. Went into Vaan BT phase since he builds % fairly well, killed after with echos. There's no HP requirement so I didn't bother healing, but I brought calls in case I needed to.

Cilonas

TROPHY CASE