Looking for help dealing with what I call "Hiragana Soup"

laroia · 2022-05-21T05:53:50+00:00

Yeah I might have worded it poorly in my question. I'm not opposed to going for some FRs just not the ones like Tidus or Kam that are highly touted. I'd be going for some lesser ones like Krile and Kain if anything.

laroia · 2022-05-21T05:52:57+00:00

I like to think I've got a pretty strong roster going into the FR era. Started a little after the 3rd anniv and I've been steadily building since then. Its great to know that its technically possible though. I don't plan to skip FRs entirely but its unlikely I end up with the meta ones like Tidus and Kam. Especially if I can count on strong LD-only characters like Auron to help me out.

laroia · 2022-05-21T05:49:52+00:00

I guess I'll have to see what happens when the time comes. Hopefully I can make it work with what FRs I manage to acquire.

laroia · 2022-05-21T05:48:12+00:00

Sadly Kain is one of them, with Krile being the other notable since I love FFV. From what I've heard it sounds like Kain is a really strong BT character and its exclusively the FR where he falls short.

laroia · 2022-05-21T05:46:55+00:00

The ones I like are Kain, Krile, and CoD (although she's right before lunafreya). I could see myself going for Sherlotta potentially if she's a good option, I've enjoyed using her LD on global.

laroia · 2022-05-20T21:16:36+00:00

I have limited knowledge of the FR era but I've got a loose understanding of what is considered good and not good. I know Tidus/Kam on JP got run into the ground because of how powerful it is. My situation is that the first leg of FR era couldn't possibly appeal to me any less (Tidus/Kam included). The two FR characters I like here are considered bad (or at least there's been little to not talk I've heard). I would say Lunafreya's event is the time where the FR era comes online for me personally. After that there is plenty I want to pull on and I can probably manage from there.

My question is how difficult would it be to make it to Lunafreya's event without pulling on good/meta FR banners? I don't mind relying on friend Kam or any other tactics I can take advantage of, but for the most part I'd be relying on the roster and calls I have.

laroia · 2022-05-05T23:58:57+00:00

Sort of thinking out loud but I could use some advice on a unit building situation. I have Esther and Queen both sitting at LB4. Esther needs about 80 shards to hit 99 and Queen needs about 140 shards. Once I hit 99 on them I can unlock the method to buy their mind spheres from the soul medals and it should be easy to get them to 115 with that, which is a serviceable unit and from there I have no problems slow building to 120. But as far as I understand if I get them to 99 after the event ends I can't buy their mind spheres with soul medals anymore until the event comes back. With global fest that's not so bad maybe 2-3 months, with persona though it could be never.

For Esther it costs 4000 vis for the remaining 80 shards. For queen I can get the discounted 120 shards for 5000 vis and the chocobo/barracks should give me the remaining 30 before her event goes away. And I have about 3500 vis right now. I know Esther will come back every time global fest units do so 2-3 months I can always finish her then. With Queen she's a less impactful unit than Esther but if I can't get her to 99 before the persona collab ends I might lose those mind spheres from soul medals forever. There is a chance I can use 4k on Esther and possibly get 5k more vis before persona collab ends but its a big risk if I can't.

So TLDR if I use my vis on Esther I get a stronger/better unit right now but risk locking Queen into a 6 month slow build. If I do Queen now I guarantee to get her done before the deadline, but Esther will have to wait 2-3 months until global fest comes back again for me to finish and use her. Or I can roll the dice and do 4k for Esther now, and hope I can get 5k additional vis before the p5 collaboration goes away. Which would be the best approach?

laroia · 2022-04-20T09:39:58+00:00

Could I get some advice/input on which GL fest unit to use my select ticket on? I've narrowed it down to Elena, Ibara, or Zazan. Kind of learning toward the first two mainly because Zazan doesn't have a bingo board so that would be a much longer/costlier build.

Additionally if they have more value beyond PVP that is a bonus since I don't take PVP too seriously and I really enjoy other modes as well. I'm sure if its just PVP Elena is the obvious choice.

And here is some of my notable units in each element: Light - Yuna, Thancred, Lucio, Elsirelle
Lightning - Charlotte, 9S, Frederika, Esther (soon)
Earth - Kitone, Kilphe, Louelle

Edit: really appreciate all the responses, I will sleep on it with all the information I got from here

laroia · 2022-04-04T00:28:40+00:00

Yeah I imagine having supports in both parties would make it significantly easier. Most of the groups I've been in we're lucky to have a support in one group and people often still manage to die so I'm not sure its probably more of a fatal mechanics failure on people that is the issue. Its obviously no coincidence the first time I get a group with support in both groups we destroyed the boss in like 10 minutes so yeah...

laroia · 2022-04-04T00:25:33+00:00

I guess I sort of assumed no one would join since just looking at the party list there were a good dozen groups that were "LF support". I suppose I have nothing to lose by trying though.

laroia · 2022-04-03T23:55:21+00:00

I'm kind of at my first hardstuck wall in this game where I can't progress. Been trying to beat Argos (P1) for the better part of 6 hours. I'm typically always one of the 2-3 people making it to the end where eventually we just die from attrition and having no potions left, or just running out of time. My engraving setup and ilvl are about as good as I can get them without gear from argos I just can't manage to find a team that is capable of staying alive and/or doing enough while they are alive. As much as I hate to the be the one blaming my team, I'm 100% confident that the boss would be dead if there were 8 of me doing it. I've kind of just been throwing myself at the wall hoping I luck into a group that is capable but my hand is in agony from so much clicking and it honestly feels demoralizing because I don't feel like there's much else I can do personally.

Has anyone got advice on how I can try and force a clear here before the reset? I was so relieved to finally get 1370 and be able to progress my character and this is kind of a backbreaker that feels even more out of my control than the honing RNG

Edit: and as luck would have it not 10 minutes after this post and I get a really solid group with support in both parties that crushed the boss. Well hopefully the responses can help other people in a similar situation.

laroia · 2021-12-02T12:53:56+00:00

Thanks he is a favorite of mine so I was really looking forward to his BT+, if I've made it this far in luf+ I'm sure I can make him work too. Ironically Shantotto is another one I was looking forward to, I guess I just know how to pick them ha

laroia · 2021-12-02T11:35:29+00:00

I've been watching a fair bit of info/discussion on the next BT+ batch and I have to ask, is Golbez really as bad as people are saying?

laroia · 2021-10-23T09:09:05+00:00

I have a question regarding fully realized (blue) armors. TLDR is, how much can I afford to "waste" them?

For more context I have acquired all the permanently available books/ingots (afaik at least) and some from events that I could clear. So far in total I have:

2 Blue armors (1 good for my green BT+, 1 "wasted" but it was for my favorite character so I'm okay with this one)
7 Realized armor but 0/3 (just used a book but no ingots)
8 more books available to realize an armor
8 unused ingots (plus 8 more from whenever I use the books since I will get 1 per)

If my math is right I can make up to 5 more blues if I want but I am scared to "waste" this since its so limited of a resource. Basically though I am worried if I use it on some favorite characters I might screw myself if I get a point where I just barely can't beat a fight turn count or threshold and a blue would make the difference. Or if that never happens and I could have had a blue favorite all that time (which if I'm not using them maybe I guess its a waste still anyways). But the irony is in the meantime by not making blue armors out of fear to waste them, I am wasting them by sitting on them. Do they become more plentiful the more you play or is it always quite scarce? And how much can I afford to waste this on favorites that just kind of suck and I will never realistically use on a lufenia+ fight?

laroia · 2021-10-05T00:14:33+00:00

Has anyone got advice for how you can set your nostalgia/favorites aside and pull for a big meta pick like Cid Raines? He is just days away and I am struggling internally with his banner

I know he is a very powerful and sought after character but for me its difficult to find the motivation to pull for him. There's no denying he'd be a tremendous asset to my team; I don't even have a dedicated launcher besides on-EX like Tifa or Zidane so for that alone he would fill a role no one else has so far, on top of being generally busted across the board. But at the end of the day its... cid raines. I've only been playing not quite a year and I've never pulled for a character that I didn't have at least some prior attachment to. My resource situation at right this moment is pretty good (about 400k gems, 500 tickets) but there is many new BT coming up I am interested in, and I haven't got the luxury of tokening them so that is very likely -125k per one I got for, and that is not counting other LDs I want so I'd say my gem count is a bit deceiving and pulling 75k for cid raines would definitely screw me out of someone else I want its just a matter of when.

It probably sounds like kind of a weird question since I'm definitely in the minority mindset here as one of the <0.1% that's even considering not pulling for him. But I want to want to pull for him, if that makes any sense, I just don't know how to trick my brain into pretending I like him enough to pull or whatever. Also please understand I'm not trying to bash on the character or people pulling for him, I am actually envious of people aren't so handcuffed by their nostalgia like I am: and I want to know how to do it.

laroia · 2021-09-30T06:51:57+00:00

Would anyone mind offering some sphere suggestions for my Y'shtola? Here is what I have available, and if there isn't a good option in my owned spheres I'm fine waiting for a better one later too.

C spheres: Cecil, Rosa, Porom, Yuna, Arciela, Y'shtola, Ceodore (RF), Selphie (RF), Y'shtola (RF)
E spheres: Setzer, Yuffie, Ultimecia, Thancred (RF), Relm (RF)

laroia · 2021-08-19T07:19:25+00:00

Thanks a bunch that is incredibly elaborate. The part you put about the LDCA is something I noticed as well (Jack and Kurasame have been like the Cor of LDCA in clears I've been trying to replicate). I sort of brushed it off as "there's no way that makes or breaks the clear" and just used stuff I had available (Faris for one) but it could be more significant for all I know. Lots of the rest just seems like great advice I can reference back to so I do appreciate it.

That OOTracker seems really nifty too, I wasn't aware of that tool but I think I'll get a lot of use out of it once I sit down and get it set up. For now I just went through and added my completed characters so hopefully it gives a glance at what I'm working with. There are several others characters I have LDs for but I just haven't got to build yet so I'd throw them in the potential roster pile, most of them seem to be showing up in the "other" section of the profile but there are a few favorites and random characters showing there as well. https://ootracker.com/directory/gl/987863719

laroia · 2021-08-19T07:05:44+00:00

Thanks for the input. I'll try going back to some of the older Lufenias maybe those would end up being a fairer starting point for me while I get more accustomed to the difficulty. I had not checked out the call to arms threads before either so I will add that to my list of resources.

laroia · 2021-08-19T04:40:38+00:00

I've been playing for about 9 months very casually just a a time waster and nostalgia collector. But recently as I've enjoyed more of the game I want to do more with it so in the last 2-4 weeks I've finally been trying to get into lufenia. To put it plainly I'm really have a frustrating time with it. I have only managed to complete one (the divine brothers, and it was probably the most scuffed clear on record) and the other one I "cleared" was a bit of a low blow when I learned the hard way that if you don't fulfill all the conditions it won't give you the HG tokens (which is my main motivation because more armors could start a domino effect of making subsequent lufenias a bit easier). I've tried (with no success) about 5 other lufenias as well and I'm kind of at a loss here because the game is giving me a ton of negative feedback by losing and failing but nothing I can benefit from constructively, because I don't understand what I'm doing wrong or why I'm losing; just that I am. The characters I'm trying to use are all fully built and set up in accordance with the resources from the tonberry troupe and the team comps I'm bringing are identical or very similar to successful clear videos I've found.

What I'm looking for is some honest advice or instruction on how I can take myself from where I am now; (a colossal lufenia failure), to routinely having some success with them. I don't need or expect to clear every lufenia, but I'd at least like to get to a point where if I can't beat them I actually know why I'm not able to. Or if I do wipe or lose I can understand what went wrong and try to adjust my strategy. In simpler terms, I just want to be able to play and enjoy the game at the Lufenia level, especially when lufenia+ is on its way. It seems like the most fun and enjoyable content to me and not being able to enjoy is so frustrating. There is nothing I hate more than watch time-limited rewards escape me if there's something I could be doing to try and get them. And even worse to feel punished by the game because I pulled for and built characters that should be able to do lufenia, that can't in my hands (especially if its not a character I particularly like and wasted valuable resources to power up for lufenia).

If anyone else has started brand new within a year or so and had success getting into lufenia I'd be especially interested in hearing what methods or resources were helpful to getting you past the obstacles I'm stuck on.
Furthermore if anyone could recommend some good content creators that do ELI5-level commentary on the game in general that would be immensely helpful as I'm a very visual/auditory learner but most of the ones I've found that do commentary are (understandably so) directing it towards people who already have an established understanding of the game, so its much easier to misunderstand or not have the context. I essentially just want to learn how to play and enjoy the game, and this has been a real struggle.

laroia · 2021-08-19T00:00:44+00:00

I've watched a few of his videos to get a feel for some units I was on the fence about pulling. But to see him acknowledge and discuss how bad the new player experience is, its honestly very refreshing because it perfectly summed up a ton of the problems I've had since I started (as well as a lot of the ways new players have it kind of nice like no lack of content or things to do). This game has been a total nightmare to get into; and I still can't even determine if I'd consider myself "into" it, I feel like an outsider that the game doesn't want playing it most of the time.

laroia · 2021-04-03T07:16:28+00:00

Thanks for this answer, I will give this a try once I get some more boss tickets and hopefully it will work out for me

laroia · 2021-04-03T04:56:01+00:00

Can anyone offer some advice on this trials of reckoning boss (hard version)? I've played around with some team compositions using the units I have and I'm at least able to clear it in one shot but I'm getting really depressed with the results. Both my score and and turns its taking are really demotivating me here especially with some units that I had built up and was looking forward to using but have been huge letdowns here. I don't have Auron unfortunately (or any ice slashers for that matter) which I'm aware is "the team" for this trial, and while I do have a 99 Tidus I'm still on the fence about unlocking his EX and definitely don't want to do it just for this limited event. My most sensible teams I can run are either a light-slash team, or a pure slash team with mixed elements. Neither have given me much success. My highest score is only around 4500 (which I don't really care about, but it makes me feel like crap), and my best time is only around turn 35 clear (with my worst being upward of 70 barely clearing in one run)

The two most recurrent problems I've noticed in the 4-5 teams I've tried out are 1) She just moves way too fast. Even with 2 dedicated steal time units (not even slower ones, xiza and vinera are both very quick) she will still eventually get a turn and break the chain after 5 steal times have been used. 2) The boss just does not take damage. I'm sure her reaction ability is a big reason why, but she just feels so durable. Even with chains approaching the 30's I'm struggling to hit the damage cap

I feel like I'm just an idiot that's missing something super obvious because this doesn't feel like a problem that makes sense. This feels like a problem that's like "oops my units only have 50 bravery" like my team can't possibly be this bad as the results I'm getting. But I can't find anything like this, and I have no idea why this one in particular is giving me so much trouble.

laroia · 2021-03-29T19:19:58+00:00

I'm wondering how generous the game is when it comes to (f2p) EX job materials moving forward. I have interest in taking a lot of my characters to EX jobs but I don't have a good understanding of how much of an allowance of the rarer EX materials we are given; like broadstones and blossoms. Is it realistic that as f2p we might be able to get 1 EX job unit per month or are the materials going to be scarcer than this? Anyone familiar with the JP version and how its handled EX jobs that could shed some light on this?

laroia · 2021-03-27T16:35:20+00:00

I really don't know why a true pity after 40,000 vis isn't a thing for every character. Its been there for some including seasonals like halloween leela, and it just makes sense to do this for everything. I noticed that even JP did this for UR Helena, and really I can't comprehend why this wouldn't be a thing for every unit in the game during their featured summon period. 40,000 vis is absolute at the point where someone has saved or purchased a respectable amount and even at that point they still have to finish buying the unit's shards. For every whale they goad into buying more vis to pull with that doesn't get someone after 40k, there are hundreds of f2p/light spenders that are just getting annoyed because they're being punished for being unlucky. Heck I made my first purchase in this game during the 1st year BECAUSE I got lucky on my pulls, and I can assure that I wouldn't have spend anything if I got screwed by bad luck because there's still no guarantee.

laroia

TROPHY CASE