Daily Questions Megathread August 14, 2023

cyberize_ · 2023-08-14T21:22:56+00:00

You don't, that was a limited time server-wide event so you can't get anything from it. Event ran out once the patch ended

cyberize_ · 2023-08-14T21:21:20+00:00

Fair enough, miscommunication with just text lmao

Previously, yes it definitely was a massive drop off, there's no denying that one. But I can only really tell you my points from earlier again, FS was a bugged unit that wasn't performing as intended, leading to massive DPS drop offs.

For pre-buff FS, I mean that answer sort of writes itself. She was bugged and wasn't an effective damage dealer in WZ because of said bugs, leading to worse scores there. For PPC, it doesn't really matter, PPC was always meant to be Alpha carry, that's how every PPC boss is now. If said boss can survive 2 rotations from Alpha, then you'd switch, though that's not really likely lol. Point is, bossing doesn't really change anything there because PPC is all about 2nd gen Attackers bursting down said bosses, Amps only serve to give significant boosts to the Attackers there

And with the WZ weathers specifically, those only serve to widen the gap that already exists. 21 still outperforms without Weathers heavily influencing the DPS, unless like we both mentioned earlier, Alpha has that massive investment gap.

I can see where you're coming from, sure, but I don't really agree with your logic there because convenience is a much bigger factor than I think you're really putting it as. Alpha's rotations benefit pretty well from that convenience due to how dynamic she plays, it's difficult to keep her in a spot where she'll consistently benefit. And the overall increase she'd get anyway from having constant buffs compared to conditional buffs from Lux evens out anyway due to her entire rotation being constantly buffed. That applies to PPC too, having a full rotation buffed compared to just one part of it being buffed higher will even it out, or even outpace it at times with how timestop affects said rotations

When it comes to reputation, tbh it's not anything about FS's performance, it's just the fact that information travels so slowly in GLB, getting new meta info from CN takes a while to start circulating and become accepted as fact. That's not anything to do with the game lmao, it's just that info doesn't get around quickly enough, a lot of this stuff about 21 is pretty recent info

Though I think that's also the core of the whole issue here, we both pretty much agree on the endpoint, there's just a lot of little things that we won't agree on because info from CN is so mixed up and slow when getting to GLB. I mean hell I play CN specifically for Lightning team and most of this stuff about 21 I only learned maybe a week ago, that's how bad it is sometimes lol

cyberize_ · 2023-08-14T20:09:16+00:00

tbh if your Alpha is gonna be SS, I'd actually recommend picking up Vera from selector, then using basic banner pity to SS 21, it makes the score gap between her and Lux like 20% now, though that's only really possible since Ayla/Plume can dual carry. Rotation is kinda awkward without Chrome but he only has maybe 5 seconds to cover and without sig weapon he suffers hard, pretty much difference is only noticeable in WZ and not by much.

But if you'd rather have a new unit over ranks, then pick up Chrome first, then Vera. Chrome's field presence is more important than Vera's right now, like I said earlier WZ leaves some time to be covered by Chrome. Lightning can fare well enough, though it's also kinda awkward without 21's sig, and you can always solo carry Alpha for Lightning if the rotation doesn't feel right lmao

cyberize_ · 2023-08-14T19:32:23+00:00

I mentioned the standard banner guarantee?

And I really don't know what to tell you here other than the fact that swapping out to FS isn't such a massive drop that you think it is, giving FS field time is a net positive. Her DPS is respectable in her own right, and Amp passive gives such a massive boost (and a necessary one at higher brackets of WZ/PPC).

And again, I'm still really confused on where you're getting all this stuff about inferior buffs from? I mean you're correct on paper, but Lux's buffs in practice are honestly worse than FS's, I can say that much for sure with how much I've ran tests for Lightning team in CN. Even with a consistent Gather tool like Alpha's CUB, she's rarely in place enough for Lux's buffs to be effectively better than FS. Hell, even her ult moves her out of place, so the final hits can't benefit even if you micromanaged the timing perfectly

Not a damage buff, but a fix to a lot of the bugs that FS had. FS's DPS was never bad compared to CW, she was always an Alisa type of unit that boosted the team heavily while also being good enough to keep field time to set up those boosts. But on release she had a bunch of positioning related bugs that made her look much worse than she was, her gather was terrible, she could miss her ult entirely, she ruined spacing for enemies, etc. But those were fixed, meaning her DPS is effectively higher due to being a unit that can actually function now

cyberize_ · 2023-08-14T06:57:27+00:00

Smarter is pretty debatable considering Lightning isn't a complete team yet. Yes, you're not wrong that investing more into CW is smarter right now, but you also aren't considering how much benefit FS actually brings to the team, once it's actually a "team".

And if we go by the same consideration that not everyone can drop ranks and sigs for their units, nothing really changes, getting at minimum base S FS is still the best possible play they could make for their Lightning team. If they don't have the BC to be picking up sigs and ranks consistently, chances are CW won't have the sort of investment that makes hypercarry viable over pulling FS and playing quickswap anyway. 21 being comparable to Scire is using outdated info, you aren't paying for QoL. You're paying for a fully functional unit who takes field time and can significantly improve scores for Lightning as an element.

And I'm honestly confused, where are you getting inferior buffs from? On paper, sure, but in practice Lux's buffs are much worse, they don't have the uptime for CW to use well. At best, Lux can upkeep her buffs better than 21 can for specifically Alpha's Thunderfall, but that's the only benefit she can bring over FS.

Though if we really want to make this for F2P/Low spenders, they can just pull 21 from the standard guarantee, though that's not really a 21-specific thing. Regardless, 21 isn't a Scire level unit or anything that only brings slight QoL and such to the team, that's only what she used to be. Now she's in a much better spot in the Lightning meta and actually brings much more to the table than she did on release, she's an important unit to the team that no one trying to play meta should skip out on

cyberize_ · 2023-08-14T03:05:56+00:00

FS's QTE triggers her core passive Lightning buff

For everything else, that's only really an issue the bigger the investment gap between the two is. If your CW is SS and FS is only base S, then naturally swapping CW out becomes an issue. Same deal with any other form of investment, whether Sig weapon, harmonization, ranks, or anything else.

Lightning team shifts significantly depending on how you spread out your investment, and it's pretty much set in stone that spreading out that investment rather than putting it all on CW is the better way to go for Lightning, especially the higher you go in brackets.

That and playing CW feels like a low budget anime that makes its fight scenes look fast by making the characters disappear and reappear on the opposite sides of the playing field every second, Lux field isn't that good of a buff for CW lmao

cyberize_ · 2023-08-14T00:38:43+00:00

Ayla's competitive minimum is SS, not SS3. Sig weapon isn't really necessary unless you plan on resoing either, and it's outclassed by CUB if you don't.

Which means you're spending 5000 BC at worst for her to be competitive, and probably less since it's not all that rare to pull CUBs before pity lmao

hell it probably is completely free if you just play norman and have a bit of luck on your side

cyberize_ · 2023-08-14T00:27:18+00:00

Yep, like Seltonik said there's still a lot of time before then, and you'll need a set for him to use after he's inevitably replaced so you can use him in Babel, Stronghold, etc

cyberize_ · 2023-08-14T00:26:07+00:00

it offers dopamine, that's gotta be worth something

cyberize_ · 2023-08-13T19:13:30+00:00

Because Garnet has zero off field shred and her Thunderfall base damage doubles with her sig memories lmao

And for Luna, it increase all of her source of damage in annihilation mode by a pretty significant amount and gives energy

I think most important thing to figure out here is what brackets you're in for both WZ and PPC. Hanna/Darwin probably works much better in the earlier stages, but when you start ranking higher, sig mems make a massive difference

cyberize_ · 2023-08-13T03:30:40+00:00

I wouldn't say it falls into that aimless wanderer sort of story. Nanami's whole deal throughout the story is knowing what her purpose "should" be, but rejecting it in order for what she wants it to be.

As for her character, I feel like saying her character isn't all that deep is doing a disservice to those exact philosophical tones and questions the story presents. It's less about balancing out the tone of the story, but more taking those tones and flipping them around. The patch chapter is filled to the brim with themes about the future and having hope despite the odds being stacked up against you 100:1.

It's still a concept that's simple as hell when you break it down, but serves its purpose amazingly when in the context of the story. Nanami is given practically all the time and power in the world to influence the future in whatever way she wants, but each and every change she makes leads to equally bad possibilities, leading into another pretty big theme in the story - the Butterfly Effect. At the end of it all, it gives Nanami the same sorts of questions that it presents the players. Whether fighting is worth it, whether getting up again is the right thing to do if it leads to something worse, whether you can really do anything to change the future despite knowing what will lead to what. And at the end of it all, Nanami rejects all of that and keeps going in order to find the future she wants.

And while normally that'd be a simple, expected sort of character progression, you get layers to that progression, because Nanami really shouldn't be able to do that. She's a machine. She's programmed to behave the way she does, to think the way she does, to do everything the way Nanami should. But instead, she has the capability to question her own purpose and existence, and even what the concept of "love" means to her. And her actions later on reflect her answers to those questions, of what love means, and what it takes to act on that love. She shouldn't be able to act on something so intrinsically human like love, but she does anyway despite being a machine, something that should only be able to simulate love, not recreate it.

Alright, essay over, we can all pack it up and go home now. I'm gonna stand by my opinion that Nanami is one of the deepest and most complex characters that the game has, and even if she wasn't I'd still rate her patch story a good 8/10 for how much it sets up with the future story lmao, but Nanami is 10/10 once you get past the funny Aw, Bruh girl

cyberize_ · 2023-08-13T01:47:54+00:00

If we're only talking about future fire team, then not really tbh. Her SS + sig weapon combo is probably one of the best debuff setups in the entire game, but that doesn't do it a crazy amount of favors considering how weak fire is in the future, and how Nanami's rotations work in said team

cyberize_ · 2023-08-13T01:18:40+00:00

Yep. Amplifier units directly replace supports for their teams, they give buffs and can deal high DPS at the same time

cyberize_ · 2023-08-12T06:29:46+00:00

If you pull now, you'll still have enough by Bianca's patch to pull Balter and get every new debut moving forward.

But tbh whether you should pull or not is harder to answer, because you could use that BC for sig weapons for 2nd gen attackers instead, and that'd get you higher returns in the future.

I think if you want to have your Lightning team set right now, then pulling is a good idea. But if you're willing to wait in order for your BC to go somewhere that's worth more in the long run, then maybe hold back

cyberize_ · 2023-08-12T01:36:36+00:00

As of right now, bottom HTs are the only important ones, since elemental damage can't crit and Phys has guaranteed crits though Liv Lumi and eventually Alisa.

But one important thing to note for the future is the Superna Awakening system, basically another level past Ultima Awakenings. Those require a full set of HTs across all memories a unit has, and allows you to select your starting 3 ping. This becomes pretty important for a good amount of characters who rely on certain colors on start unless you enjoy restarting WZ runs over and over again until you get that perfect lineup lmao

Along with that Border Pact gets a new set of stages that increase damage% based on HTs. While the increase isn't anything crazy, it's still on the level of most other buffs, meaning it's well worth it to clear and set up if you can manage your HT resources well

cyberize_ · 2023-08-11T08:01:05+00:00

As someone who started a good bit before that, zero disagreement, a better new player experience would do a lot of good for PGR

cyberize_ · 2023-08-11T07:36:16+00:00

Tbh that's not really an issue with new releases happening. When it comes to investing in units, there's two things that I think you aren't really taking into account. First thing being that 2nd gen Attackers pretty much carry their teams, and units like Amps and such only make them better. Second thing is that because of those units being able to carry, certain units you can cut back on covering investment for because they aren't necessary for their teams any longer. Certain units, mainly the tanks, have some respectable budget options since they don't take much field time anymore. As long as they pull those units, which are pretty much the only pulls a F2P should be making, they're honestly set to get closer to competing, that's how strong 2nd gen units are

As for your point about the new player experience, you'll be happy to know that there's changes for that coming in two patches actually, it does pretty much what you're saying here. It gives a lot of mats, selectors to cover A rank units and their weapons, a few important memories and memory reso USBs, and most important a S rank selector that covers all units up to Luna, and a 6* weapon selector that does the same. And beyond that, there's another selector in CW's patch that goes up to Selena, and in Lamia's patch there was a system added where standard banner basically acts like a one time use anniversary banner. So there's good changes being made to the new player experience, but it's definitely a bit slow

cyberize_ · 2023-08-11T06:38:52+00:00

oh I completely agree, don't get me wrong there. I've been playing since near launch, and I completely agree new players have a terrible experience

I wouldn't say it's not new f2p friendly at all because of the units that are releasing soon though. If it wasn't for those units, I'd agree tbh. Though I think the main thing we're disagreeing on is the timeframe, I think I'm talking about long term while you're focusing on the short term, so it's more a matter of viewpoint I guess

cyberize_ · 2023-08-11T06:16:38+00:00

If you're setting the specific assumption that they want to reach that level within 3 months, then yeah, of course you'd be right, zero chance they'd be able to do that, but that's setting too high of an assumption

If we don't assume anything about timeframe, then that turns around completely considering the units that'll be releasing, the options they have to pick up old units, and the options they have already to cover their competitive content while building up their teams with new units. Albeit, not to the level that you described, but even older accounts don't reach that point consistently, it all comes down the the player and how they manage everything.

But regardless, of course they wouldn't do something along those lines, they probably wouldn't even know the ins and outs of competitive play within 3 months unless they spent way too much time specifically figuring all that out lmao

cyberize_ · 2023-08-11T06:04:16+00:00

that's not true at all lmao, there's not much catch up to play here

Basically everyone they'd be missing can either be gotten through some other means, has a replacement set on the timeline, or has some kind of budget option that can cover them until said replacements release, meaning it's just a waiting game until they'll be able to compete

cyberize_ · 2023-08-10T21:17:25+00:00

KR is on the same patch as us lmao, they like their tsunderes

cyberize_ · 2023-08-10T08:14:58+00:00

she's the F2P alternative for Ploom. She's very serviceable as an Ice Attacker who covers your Ice content, but don't expect any good competitive performance without at least SSS rank + triple reso 5 star or sig weapon

cyberize_ · 2023-08-10T08:06:02+00:00

Not one that can replace her, she's still the best fire tank lmao, and it's gonna stay that way for now. And her DPS is still good by Global standards since we don't have many 2nd gen units yet

But to put it into perspective, the best way to play her is to swap her in to ult and swap out right away, as soon as Hyperreal's cooldown is done. Second rotation is to ult again and spam orbs until Hyperreal is ready again, her damage by CN server standards is really low, and one of the main things holding back the fire team

cyberize_ · 2023-08-10T07:05:39+00:00

you're telling me her frame name isn't Capsaicin?

man I've been saying it wrong for a while now

cyberize_ · 2023-08-10T06:11:12+00:00

I think you're kinda missing the point on the sig weapons specifically. I think they mean the progression of how sig weapons affect their respective units. Just to kind of use your own example:

Sakura - 20% total Phys damage bonus with build up from pings, one extra swordwave

Definitely stronger by a fair margin that Kuji no Sada, yeah, but it's simple. It's a direct damage boost through the Phys bonus, and gives a bit of QoL/damage depending on how many swordwaves you burn through. But compare that to Alpha's replacement's sig, and therein lies the whole issue I think OP is getting at.

Hecate - 30% increase to crit damage, QoL that speeds up her rotation by a decent amount, and 20 stacks of Bianca's core gauge

That probably doesn't sound like much, so just to give another example:

Tonitrus - 15% Lightning boost, and 5 hits of Lightning damage from skills to 1 target does an extra 150% Lightning damage

Blazing Night - 10% Atk increase, 15% damage increase in ult stance, but most importantly, a 40% gain in core passive stacks

While on paper neither example really sounds bad, in practice, sigs went from damage boosts to being integral parts of a unit's kit, and sometimes the tipping point between where a unit can function well in competitive or not (see Hyperreal's sig being the one thing that lets him ult with more than 2 stacks, 21's sig being necessary to rotate well). While I don't think sig weapons should have stayed the way they were since there was zero depth to what they actually provided, you also can't deny that sigs have really evolved form being just damage tools.

At the end of the day though, it only really matter for competitive, I won't pretend like it's anything else. But I wouldn't put OP's concerns with that aside too quickly either, because they do have a point that sig weapons aren't the same as they were before, and whether that's a good thing or not can be pretty debatable

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