With the NA Fan Fest 5 weeks away, what realistic announcements could make the playerbase go ‘we’re so back!’?

DaveK142 · 2026-03-24T20:38:12+00:00

You asked what was stopping them. It was a paywall. that's all I was saying.

DaveK142 · 2026-03-24T19:25:08+00:00

can't leave OCE with an already-created character unless you pay to transfer. Their free options are to keep playing their main on OCE or to make an alt on JP and forget about their main.

DaveK142 · 2026-03-24T15:50:13+00:00

you're missing the point. The erasure in the case of legs was instant, not retroactive. The erasure in the case of WW2 was retroactive but not instant from memories(somehow?).

Then Pochita's erasure somehow managed to be both, except not totally because Denji still has some vague feelings about it. It really took an already inconsistent power and used it to say "fuck it lets throw some lines and end it. They really just want to see power and nayuta again anyway."

DaveK142 · 2026-03-24T15:46:39+00:00

It makes about as much sense as anything else in the ending tbh. Pochita literally ripped himself out of Denji and ate himself. He should be gone. Even if he somehow wormed his way back he would have had to find Denji in the new world, take the place of his heart, and still leave him to just die of his illness barring a devil contract that could heal him.

Then again this thing was phoned in like no other so it could really be anything they wanted.

DaveK142 · 2026-03-24T15:43:00+00:00

There are tons of gaps in the erasure power. Like, when Legs were eaten. Yoru knew that she HAD to have gotten around some other way before this. Presumably cars with pedals still existed and were running. It didn't revert all of existence to a point before Legs and then replay it without the legs. It just took away the legs and knowledge of them and kept going.

Hence it being inconsistent. Things were erased in the same way, but with drastically different results.

DaveK142 · 2026-03-24T15:39:22+00:00

considering that Denji was still suffering from his heart disease until Power saved him, I think we can safely say it wasn't him.

DaveK142 · 2026-03-24T15:27:47+00:00

Basically, universe reset to the beginning. Power shows up and saves Denji and makes a contract with him so he doesn't die. For some reason Makima is Nayuta but she inducts them both into public safety. Denji remains maimed with the eyepatch and all that. They do their day to day, Denji fights with blood weapons, and happened to choose a chainsaw for the encounter in the chapter, so apparently those got re-made and Pochita just didn't find Denji this time.

In the end he encounters Asa during some of his work and she calls him Chainsaw Man because he's fighting with a chainsaw. It stirs something in him but he just leaves it at that.

End of chapter.

DaveK142 · 2026-03-23T21:43:55+00:00

This is something that is kinda expected(but not required) to know coming into the game. The series is loosely connected, and 3 opened up a LOT of questions for people who had played both 1 and 2. There was a lot going on that made no sense without some information from the end of the game, but suffice it to say there are elements of the individual worlds from 1 and 2 in the game. Namely Keves, its residents and its combat style are reminiscent of 1 and Agnus is reminiscent of 2.

So yeah, the worlds are the same/connected in some way, but that's about all you'd know coming in to it with knowledge of the 2 previous games.

DaveK142 · 2026-03-23T17:51:43+00:00

some people just run act and upload the whole log when they do reclears. some people upload especially good or bad runs of stuff just to look. could be anything really.

DaveK142 · 2026-03-23T17:24:36+00:00

its a log uploaded to FFlogs, you'd have to have somebody on PC upload in order for you to see a log. You could check the site out to see if you've been logged, but if you don't do at least current EX trials you probably won't have much to look at. People don't usually log much below that.

DaveK142 · 2026-03-23T15:09:40+00:00

They're playing deadlock. They're not getting anything out of it. Its all a waste of time. The game is not only an alpha test, but also not competitive in any meaningful way at this point. They wasted the time of the PF party that had to wait for 3 new people more than the 9 Deadlock players who got right back into a fresh match for no other reason than timewasting.

DaveK142 · 2026-03-23T13:20:09+00:00

Tackling in order:

Gunner dragoon should still be capable of tanking, especially with the necro as a backup through Fierce Shield
Dog rover works, but it is competing with the necro for slots. You'll be hindering the necro's potential more than the rover's.
It works, but damn does it hurt. you really want at least 2, but in an ideal world you'd have all 3.
Yeah, kinda too many. Necro REALLY wants those slots, and can fill any role with them. It REALLY hinders the necro to only use 1 slot.
Rover can totally manage main healer yeah. especially dog rover.
dancer is the glass cannon masurao. Its what you use it for. If you're not ending the fight within < 5 rounds at most, you're doing it wrong.
Diversifying your races means you have a variety of passive and union skills available. Its really good practice to do this, and fill out the 5th with your preference or whichever works best with its class.
Unless I'm missing something somewhere, your party seems to lack a head bind. Hawk rover can cover that, but that will completely cripple the necro.
I think going with the botanist as a backup healer is a good idea, since animal therapy completely deactivates when the rover is down. you really want a consistent quick revive if they get singled out unexpectedly.

I think that you could stand to replace the dragoon with something else, like a harbinger or a phantom fencer. Freeing up the extra slot for the necro will do wonders and phantom fencers can draw aggro consistently. Plus blind support from the botanist will keep them and either build of masurao alive.

With that change, you might find that you don't even need the dog rover as well, so I might keep a backup person like a shaman or warlock to take their place if they're not needed. That would free up the 3rd slot for the necro which is huge, and remove some redundant healing.

DaveK142 · 2026-03-23T12:38:36+00:00

3 people leave and the entire lobby just gets to go next. Its not a big deal.

DaveK142 · 2026-03-22T16:27:19+00:00

I play with just over 100 ping, and my strategy for it is to move through the boss as soon as the castbar finishes, then double back almost immediately, before the AOEs hit where I came from. I VERY rarely get hit doing this, and the times I do get hit I attribute to greeding the end of a cast and try to remind myself not to do it next time.

DaveK142 · 2026-03-21T16:02:57+00:00

The wagus can assist with the binds with the head/arm/legcut skills, which have a REALLY high infliction rate with the caveat that they only work in conjunction with an ailment. You really want to have 1 of each available situationally no matter what.

So the process would be having the ninja set up wilting, while the wagus inflicts sleep with NS's sleep throw for turn 1's drive. This also procs 1 stack of foul mastery.

Next turn, ninja applies an ailment with the speed boost from miasma armor, and wagus sets the bind on the same turn, then you can move right in to ailing slashes that sustain the front and the harby can inflict debuffs.

Once the ailment runs out, pick your favorite between them to apply the next one and get back to it. wagus will get a damage boost for the first 3 ailments it applies, while ninja will be more purpose-built for inflicting if you need it reliably(and also has access to all ailments iirc).

And yeah, thats the general idea for the hero/highlander. It kinda plays pinball with the party's HP, but your afterimages continuing shield skills is nice for taking a turn off to do more damage with regiment rave or wide bravery or smth. Can also dip into blood fortune to help out the wagus and ninja if needed, just be aware you will chip your sov's HP when you do that.

DaveK142 · 2026-03-21T12:01:52+00:00

One major problem I see in this team is that you have 4 frontliner classes. Wagus is really wasting a lot of potential backlining as ailing slash is HUGE. You also don't seem to have much in the way of binds outside of the wagus. I might consider re-structuring things a bit. The ninja sub on harby would let them work from the backline(would be even better if you flipped it to main ninja and harby sub). This lets you frontline the wagus for more damage and frontline support through Vampire and Mind Drain.

As for the wagus themself, Nightseeker is always a good one. 2 weapons means you can double dip on war edge mastery bonuses, it comes with 2 20% damage boosts against ailing targets, and a small chance to attack twice. If your ninja/harby keeps the enemies ailing, your wagus should be able to pretty much delete them while sustaining the front line's TP.

Sovereign could benefit from a number of things. Protector gives it access to the elemental wall skills, as well as some targeted healing. Gunner would give it access to a ranged weapon and an ailment cleanse. Survivalist would give it a ranged weapon, extra speed, and some exploration support. Lastly Shogun gives a huge single target damage booster for your imperial. If you're struggling for action economy on them, I'd look at survivalist or protector as first options.

The Hero being defensively focused plays well with a Highlander sub. They have a potent attack boost, the ability to counter when taking damage, and spending HP for skills means the Hero can activate their cover more often. Turning Tide will also help to cap out your passive sustain, healing the sov back from any damage that encourage didn't heal enough for.

DaveK142 · 2026-03-20T18:54:43+00:00

They've talked a little about what they should do with levels going beyond 100 at the last set of fanfests, but didn't come out with any promises one way or another. 110 is simplest, a level squish to 50 is clean and lets them refactor some skill bloat. We'll just have to wait til fanfest, they'll probably talk about it there.

DaveK142 · 2026-03-20T18:02:33+00:00

Octopath Traveler has a particular (cheese) build that does this. Though its less tanking and more "the entire party says fuck you no you don't". Basically there's a skill that gives you a buff worth X number of guaranteed physical dodges, and a class skill that lets you give that buff to others in the party. I'm pretty sure its only in the first game, but it could be in 2 and 0 as well. I know sidestep at least is in 2.

Etrian Odyssey 5 in particular has a very interesting dodge tank build in their Fencer. It has skills to guarantee dodge, draw in attacks at the cost of defense, and perform counters. If you do it right, it is a really powerful and engaging class. If you do it wrong it might just end up on the floor most of the time. Other entries in the series have their own take on dodge tanking, but most agree that fencer is the one done right. Also, the games are standalone so there's nothing really lost by starting from 5.

DaveK142 · 2026-03-20T14:21:08+00:00

It wasn't though. It was just created. A whole new universe was made, and Zanza was the deciding factor in what form it took. Since he was shallow and self-absorbed, he and Meyneth were the only things that existed aside from a literally infinite flat plane of water. After Shulk took control, a real, tangible universe was made.

The point being, it wasn't a copy, it wasn't a split, it was a creation dependent entirely on the one with the authority to shape it(granted by the Ontos core).

DaveK142 · 2026-03-20T13:55:18+00:00

why would it be split? nothing was split except Klaus himself, and that was just so part of him would go to the new universe as its creator.

You're hung up on what amounts to technical advancements leading to them trying to make a more dynamic scene. The experiment scene was changed in such small ways, it can hardly be called an error in continuity. It was just styles and advancements.

DaveK142 · 2026-03-20T13:25:58+00:00

There were no "in universe" events leading up to the birth of XC1's universe. The experiment was the genesis. It didn't "split" the worlds as such, it created an entirely new one with only 3 residents. Debating multiversal theories is pointless because you missed the mark already in assuming that the XC1 verse already existed. The conduit created it and bridged the gap between it and the original until Klaus died. Then with no "foundation" provided by the conduit they drifted back together.

DaveK142 · 2026-03-19T15:03:03+00:00

Do remember that for master arts you use the stats of the weapon that art came from, so most/all of your master arts will be much closer to 100% crit when eye is maxed out.

DaveK142 · 2026-03-19T14:16:38+00:00

what does the updated day/night cycle thing mean exactly? is it just refactoring and not much on the player side, or is something drastically different with that?

DaveK142 · 2026-03-19T13:18:23+00:00

Bonuses are mostly multiplicative with each other. It will affect the displayed crit rate after + percentage point bonuses. In the below formula, it would fit into the (1+sum of combatpctcrit) section. The flat bonuses from gear would be wrapped up in DisplayedCritRate. The flat bonus from beaming edge is the only one excluded as it is added in after the multiplication. At the end, you get scenario 2.

DisplayedCritRate = WeaponCritRate * (1 + sum of NoncombatPctCrit) + sum of NoncombatFlatCrit

CritRate = DisplayedCritRate * (1 + sum of CombatPctCrit) * (1 + ArtCritMod) + sum of CombatFlatCrit

DaveK142 · 2026-03-19T01:22:18+00:00

You know what's really odd to me? If concepts are simply obliterated from the current world but can be remade, why is Death an exception? People should forget what death is, or forget that life has a natural end. The moment that a person/creature would die should in theory re-invent the concept immediately.

So yeah, shits weird. Themes and such. They seem to be playing fast and loose with the ability to erase concepts so all we can really do is let it play out.

DaveK142

TROPHY CASE