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Final Fantasy: Record Keeper |OT2| I HAVE NO MYTHRIL AND I MUST SHOUT

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Blah! I beat Fujin and Raijin in the event without remembering to use Edgar's SB (the only reason he's even on my team was for that). So now I have to redo it because I lost 6 stars.
 
Woo, hit this screen for the first time! Plenty of Elites to keep me busy still and bonus battles in a few days!

imagez8s35.png
 

Falk

that puzzling face
Right, if I'd been playing for 6 months or whatever it'd be a different story, but I just don't have the existing stockpile of characters and items and whatnot yet.

I've been trying to stick with it every day, even if it's only once in the morning and once in the evening just because ANY battles are still progress, and the "worst" I'm losing out on is just time, but it's still frustrating. Mainly been making sure to pick up characters and their MC's as these events have been happening at the bare minimum.

Yeah, what I'm getting at is while equipment is a pretty ridiculous power level jump, there's a lot more nuance to the game as well. Getting key 3* abilities to r4 for example let's you clear stuff you otherwise might not have.

Maybe it's not nearly a particularly good analogy here (because refreshing 180 times to farm orbs isn't normal lol) but I gained a huge power boost across orbfest despite pulling 1/44.

There were similar dry spells I had much earlier in the game where I just concentrated on key abilities (breaks and -agas at that point, we had no breakdowns/shellga/etc).

It's a little hard to give recommendations on what to focus on without knowing where your ability progression and story mode progression is at, and what kind of walls you're hitting, tho.

edit: 32 hours of wasted stamina in the past 40 hours laffo
 
Valefor and Carbuncle are worth making even if I don't yet have summoner rn2? Can make both and I think I even have enough to hone valefor to r2
 
Valefor and Carbuncle are worth making even if I don't yet have summoner rn2? Can make both and I think I even have enough to hone valefor to r2

Carbuncle yes if you have Shellga or spellbound étude already (I wish this étude came out with Shellga, it would have made for an interesting choice, now no way I'll ever create it)
Valefor no, these orbs are too valuable until you can reliably fire off valefor every round 1 of a battle with the rm.
 
Finally got Squall's RM2 to drop. It only took about 50 stamina running through the first dungeon in the event. Now the only one left to drop is Red's.
 

yasu151

Member
Woot! I've been hoarding mythril for the SSB per the recommendations in this thread. (Currently at 138, hoping to make 200 before the SSB event for 4x11 pulls.) Courtesy of google opinion rewards, I occasionally do a 100-gem pull on new events, and as luck would have it I pulled Squall's Cutting Trigger. This is the first gem pull I've done since the start of the Orbfest; only been common free pulls (with 1* & 2*) since.

I hadn't used Squall before, so I egged him to 58 (random, but wanted to hold some eggs in reserve should I pull additional 5*'s and need to level a character). While I've been pretty lucky with pulling 5*, I really haven't pulled many Soul Break relics for useful characters. I ended up trading out Sabin for Squall, and the event was pretty easy from there. I'd love to trade in Wakka, but I somehow missed his memory crystal and don't know how to level him above 50, so he'll sit in reserve until the opportunity to get his crystal arises again.
 

Red Mage

Member
We get 3 from the final part of the event, right? Looks like I will be missing 2. Let's see how lucky I get with the daily...



Tomorrow.

Thought so.

BTW, on Android my account is automatically linked to my google account, right? I'm probably going to be switching to Sprint after this month.
 

MrDaravon

Member
Yeah, what I'm getting at is while equipment is a pretty ridiculous power level jump, there's a lot more nuance to the game as well. Getting key 3* abilities to r4 for example let's you clear stuff you otherwise might not have.

Maybe it's not nearly a particularly good analogy here (because refreshing 180 times to farm orbs isn't normal lol) but I gained a huge power boost across orbfest despite pulling 1/44.

There were similar dry spells I had much earlier in the game where I just concentrated on key abilities (breaks and -agas at that point, we had no breakdowns/shellga/etc).

It's a little hard to give recommendations on what to focus on without knowing where your ability progression and story mode progression is at, and what kind of walls you're hitting, tho.

edit: 32 hours of wasted stamina in the past 40 hours laffo

As far as Story mode progression my next/only mission is FFX Mushroom Rock Road which appears to be the first level of DU6 if that's more helpful. It's the mission where I get apparently everyone's favorite Kimahri!

Based on responses here while obviously more levels and better gear is helpful it seems like I need to be focusing more on getting orbs to hone and get new/better abilities, especially since you have no real control over gear drops. Right now outside of obviously pushing forward on Classic Dungeons I'd like to be able to relatively easily clear daily dungeons on Heoric; I can do it sometimes but it's dicey and often luck of the draw on who my RW is, what I dodge and enemy types etc. I can clear a stage if nothing else abusing a RW, but beating the whole dungeon is a toss-up, much less Mastering it (which I've done on one or two but not most of them). And clearing Heoric Dailies will give me shots at higher level orbs as well. Other than that I'd like to be able to make sure I get all of the characters/MC's from special events; I've been successful up to this point with varying degrees of difficulty, the current Gilgamesh one is the first one I hit a wall with, and I don't have the orbs needed to craft the Death spell it recommends which is the first time I didn't have an enemy's weakness option.

So I guess to put this a different way - right now I have or let's assume I have all of the Breaks (Mental/Power/Magic/Armor) at r2, all of the base level elemental sword skills (Fire Strike etc) at r2, Double Attack at r3, and all of the base level attack -ga spells at r2 (Firega etc). I also have Valefor and a few other oddities from quest rewards (Waterga Strike etc). Based on that what are say 5-10 must-have skills I specifically work on getting next, or what do I have now that I should hone? I know people recommend Ruinga, Proctega/Shellga, and the Breakdowns but I'm not sure what else? Like on the last page someone had recommended for my Archaeovis troubles I could use Silence Buster or Silencega, then Pressure Point or Iai Strike and I've never really seen any of those mentioned before. Also seen Tempo Flurry mentioned as an option? Skimming my options right now I'm able to make all of the 3* Busters, Power Breakdown, Mental Breakdown, Diara/Diaga, and Comet. I seem to be mostly lacking regular Black Orbs, all of the 4 and 5* orbs I obviously have virtually none of but I seem to be lacking Greater Earth and Dark the most.

Also are any of the -ja spells actually worth making? I can make Curaja but none of the other elemental ones yet; seems like largely a waste since so far in any serious encounter between weaknesses and/or Breaks I don't know that I'd get that much more damage out of them over the -ga spells.

I'm motivated again to play and will be min/maxing my Stamina as much as possible for a while here, especially since I kinda need the break from Fallout 4 here and there at this point lol. Going to try to focus on a mix of Classic/Elite dungeons for progress and Stamina, event stuff as applicable (only worried about getting chars/MC's really) then daily dungeons if I think it has orbs I need (or the EXP dungeon).
 
So I guess to put this a different way - right now I have or let's assume I have all of the Breaks (Mental/Power/Magic/Armor) at r2, all of the base level elemental sword skills (Fire Strike etc) at r2, Double Attack at r3, and all of the base level attack -ga spells at r2 (Firega etc). I also have Valefor and a few other oddities from quest rewards (Waterga Strike etc). Based on that what are say 5-10 must-have skills I specifically work on getting next, or what do I have now that I should hone? I know people recommend Ruinga, Proctega/Shellga, and the Breakdowns but I'm not sure what else? Like on the last page someone had recommended for my Archaeovis troubles I could use Silence Buster or Silencega, then Pressure Point or Iai Strike and I've never really seen any of those mentioned before. Also seen Tempo Flurry mentioned as an option? Skimming my options right now I'm able to make all of the 3* Busters, Power Breakdown, Mental Breakdown, Diara/Diaga, and Comet. I seem to be mostly lacking regular Black Orbs, all of the 4 and 5* orbs I obviously have virtually none of but I seem to be lacking Greater Earth and Dark the most.

Also are any of the -ja spells actually worth making? I can make Curaja but none of the other elemental ones yet; seems like largely a waste since so far in any serious encounter between weaknesses and/or Breaks I don't know that I'd get that much more damage out of them over the -ga spells.

I'm motivated again to play and will be min/maxing my Stamina as much as possible for a while here, especially since I kinda need the break from Fallout 4 here and there at this point lol. Going to try to focus on a mix of Classic/Elite dungeons for progress and Stamina, event stuff as applicable (only worried about getting chars/MC's really) then daily dungeons if I think it has orbs I need (or the EXP dungeon).

I'll just throw together a list of some of the abilities I have that have seen the most use throughout my time.

*-ga spells: Stepping stones to -ja spells, but until you get -Jas to R2/R3, a good R4 -Ga spell will overall prove more useful.
*Spellblades: Serve a similar purpose to -ga spells, but better if you have better physical relics. At the very least, Drain Strike is a fantastic filler ability for any Spellblade user.
Sleep R5: There's a decent number of bosses that you can sleep and nuke, and this lil' 1* spell is the best there is for that purpose.
Stop/Intimidate: Similar to Sleep, but you can use melee attacks without fear of waking them up. Recommend having one guy dedicated to this purpose, and everyone else going for DPS.
Blindga/Silenga R2+: Can easily and reliably neuter many bosses that are vulnerable.
*Curaga/Renewing Cure: Mostly a matter of taste, either will serve you well.
*Protectga/Shellga R1: Double your team's survivability against bosses and, once you get the White Mages RM2, against all the enemies up to the boss as well.
*Valefor/Maduin/Alexander: I personally use Valefor and Alexander, but whatever your orbs permit is fine. With the Summoner RM2 and Black Mage RM2 and enough magic power, you can waltz your way to almost any boss with full ability charges for everyone. Also great for dailies!
*Boost/Double Cut/Retaliate: For when Advantaliate is a favored strategy.
*Breaks & Breakdowns: Like Protectga/Shellga, these will make a big difference in your survivability in boss fights. Switch to Breakdowns when the ones you need are R2.
*Draw Fire: A great way to completely neuter the physical aspects of a boss when they deal exclusively in single-target attacks. Good armor + Draw Fire + Back Row + Defend = laughable damage. Any additional mitigation and you'll be seeing double-digits.
Mana's Paean/Rallying Etude: If you're focused on one type of damage or the other, this is a great way to significantly boost your DPS. Right now, Eiko is probably the one to go with for this purpose, unless you have Edward & his harp.

And don't forget, Classic & Elite dungeons start to give out 3 & 4* orbs like candy! When I caught up on my dungeons, my 4* orb supply swelled significantly.
 

Xetherion

Member
Daravon, I highly recommend you craft and hone Retaliate and Boost, and craft and hone at least one more copy of Double Cut. Before I got the gear and hones I have now, I relied heavily on the Advantaliate strategy to carry me through hard content.

The key thing about Retaliate strategy is that when you hit your retaliator with Double Cut and the first counter hit kills the last remaining enemy of the current wave, the next counter hit carries over to the next wave and happens immediately, before the enemies have a chance to act. If you can get your retaliator's Atk high enough to 1-shot enemies (this is where Boost comes in), this strat greatly reduces the damage you take on your way to the boss as, starting on wave 2 of each floor, one enemy per wave will die before it has a chance to act.

Then when you get to the boss, have your retaliator use your RW Advance, and watch their damage skyrocket. With your other party members Double Cutting the retaliator, the damage output is truly insane. Bosses will melt before the onslaught of 6k or more damage per hit.

Advantaliate can carry you through Dailies even if you want it to, but as someone said earlier you should really focus on clearing Classics/Elites right now, both to get your stamina cap up and because Clear/Mastery Rewards start to give a lot of orbs once you get far enough. If you hit a wall on Classics, make sure you check earlier Elites because some of them are actually very low difficulty.

RocketDarkness provided a good list of high priority abilites, but I wanted to add that -ja black magic is absolutely needed eventually, as some later bosses have such high Res that -ga spells still only hit for 7k even when hitting a weakness, probably even less if your mages don't have 5* or RS mage weapons. Ruinga and Quake are great 4* spells for AOE trash clearing, but I would craft the -ja spells first before going for those.

And finally, I should make a point that Protectga/Shellga should be crafted the instant you have the orbs for them, mitigation is that important. Don't hone them though, once you get White Mage's RM2 you will be able to recharge 1 cast per floor, which will be all you need.
 
RocketDarkness provided a good list of high priority abilites, but I wanted to add that -ja black magic is absolutely needed eventually, as some later bosses have such high Res that -ga spells still only hit for 7k even when hitting a weakness, probably even less if your mages don't have 5* or RS mage weapons. Ruinga and Quake are great 4* spells for AOE trash clearing, but I would craft the -ja spells first before going for those.

Yep yep, that first bullet point should really just be "BLACK MAGIC" in big caps, especially if you get a 5* rod or two to really amp up the potency of the spells. Transition over to -Jas once they get to R2, but remember that hitting a weakness with -Ga will do more damage than a neutral -Ja. My elemental priorities are something like Water/Thunder first, followed by Fire/Ice/Bio, and lastly, Drain/Dark. Water is easiest to hone since it splits the orb load, and Thunder seems to hit all sorts of things. Fire/Ice/Bio should be created/honed based on whatever hurdles you're facing at the time, but they can all come in useful (even though I still haven't crafted Blizzaja, haha). Dark-weak enemies are few and far between, but I'd go with Drain over Dark since if you're hitting weaknesses, the lower damage is irrelevant and the healing can really help out. Ruinga only really becomes useful once you have enough firepower backing it up to 1-shot enemies up to difficulty 90 or so, but it can then serve a valuable purpose for AoE bosses and dungeon trash.
 

Wazzy

Banned
Finished VIII event easily yesterday and now just working on elites to build up some mythril. I'll be saving for SSB fest. I might still do a pull on this banner for CT but otherwise I need to start saving up, esp for Quistis and Rinoa's SSB's.
 
Finally got the summoners memory crystal, I probably could have gotten it earlier but was weary due to how annoying the various Seymour fights are, first time in awhile I ran out of skills and had to resort to auto + speed 5 to win. Still got mastery

Time to grind out Summoner's RM2 and Squall's RM2 in the Seifer event's first dungeon
 
Jenova Life/Death is a dick. And that's only on Classic.

I've nearly cleared out all of the elites and Jenova Death is the hardest battle I've mastered that I was geared for (great FF7 synergy). Of course, this was before somebody informed me that Jenova Death is vulnerable to Sleep, so I made it harder than it needed to be.
 
Summon spring 2 and squall rm2 get! So I guess now I should ask again? Is it worth making valefor and honing him to r2? Is Maduin even worth considering how comparable are valefor and maduin?
 

Falk

that puzzling face
MrDaravon: I think you should also consider beefing up your 3* abilities. Breakdowns are only a fraction better than breaks to be honest (and can be used by far more people), so a higher priority would be getting those up to ~r4. The game right now is in a state where 3* orbs are plentiful - about 10x as much as 4*s, so while 4*s are good to have, there's far more effective short-term ways to beef up your ability pool.

re: Valefor/Maduin

Maduin: You're not going to have 100+ 4* summon orbs any time soon, period.
Valefor: Much more obtainable short-term, but also uses 4* wind orbs which are a very in-demand commodity.

(Those are for r5 long-term maths in mind, but can be scaled down for r4, r3 or r2 comparisons between the two since it's proportional)

I originally wanted to do 2x Valefor, which would have been much faster but would have taxed my ability pool in other ways (Bladeblitz, Dismissal, Curaga, thief and celerity abilities all use Wind), so I'm being a little more patient with a Valefor+Maduin setup. I've found that they both have pretty equal opportunity cost.

In the long run, you probably want two of Valefor/Maduin/Alexander for a catch-all AOE that no bosses will resist/null/absorb (first two former better than latter in that regard), but even short to medium turm one of the two at r2 or r3 will get a lot of mileage especially in terms of clearing trash.
 

MrDaravon

Member
Thanks for the responses everyone, that helps a lot! I think just getting the BM/WM/SM RM2's along with maybe Ruinaga/Protectga/Shellga would be an immediate and huge gamechanger for me, I'm just not quite far enough along to get those yet (but I think I'm pretty close). I've spent a bunch of time today making some progress on the current events but also in going back and clearing some of the earlier dungeons that I can do now on Elite that I couldn't before.

I have Double Cut & Retaliate up to r3 I think and I have Boost but I don't think I've honed that. I also do have a few other Double Cuts but not honed at all I think. Also I am super dumb and didn't realize that if you attacked the Retaliator with Double Cut he counter attacked twice lol >_>. I do need to nab an Advance RW off Reddit though, I still have not naturally seen one yet. If you're doing that strat though how many other people in the party do you want with Double Cut, or is that just a bonus? I'd been more or less sticking with the recommendation of the Retaliator (in my case Cloud since he's level 58), 2 melee attacks, a WM and a BM. I know I need to get a summoner in there at some point as well. Are there a lot of those roles that can also equip Double Cut, or is that just a bonus if they can or something?

The various skill recommendations are very helpful as well. As a quick question though, if you put an enemy to sleep they don't wake up if you attack them? I would have assumed they would, so putting an enemy to sleep then going to town on them never even occurred to me.
 

Stumpokapow

listen to the mad man
assume an enemy has no weakness or absorption and i have the same number of casts of each: comet or -aja?

also: -ara strike, or Drain Strike?
 
-aja. Comet's damage is somewhere around elemental -aga levels. I don't recall if it's slightly more or less.

-ara strike if it's an elemental weakness (x1.8 without taking weaknesses into account), otherwise go for Launch (x2.0) if you can use 3* Combat and can't exploit a weakness. Drain strike is neat and I made a fair bit of use of it when first started playing, but its multiplier is slightly lower (1.7x) and it doesn't heal so much as to be vital.
 

WarAdept

Member
Well I've finally completed all Classic dungeons so far since I've started playing around June. I thought I'd have to mithril refresh for Ultima Weapon, but turns out, he's got fuck all HP. With a paltry 96 stamina, it's time to tackle the Elites.

And navigate the mess of RM, Bonus Quests to recruit characters and Memory Crystals that a splattered everywhere.
 

MrDaravon

Member
Physical attacks wake up enemies. Sleep + mages are cheese for quite a few encounters.

So physical attacks wake them up but magic doesn't? makessense.jpg

What about elemental attacks like the sword Strikes, do those wake them up? Guessing so, just want to verify.
 

Xetherion

Member
I have Double Cut & Retaliate up to r3 I think and I have Boost but I don't think I've honed that. I also do have a few other Double Cuts but not honed at all I think. Also I am super dumb and didn't realize that if you attacked the Retaliator with Double Cut he counter attacked twice lol >_>. I do need to nab an Advance RW off Reddit though, I still have not naturally seen one yet. If you're doing that strat though how many other people in the party do you want with Double Cut, or is that just a bonus? I'd been more or less sticking with the recommendation of the Retaliator (in my case Cloud since he's level 58), 2 melee attacks, a WM and a BM. I know I need to get a summoner in there at some point as well. Are there a lot of those roles that can also equip Double Cut, or is that just a bonus if they can or something?

If you're going to Advantaliate a boss and don't need/have mages for AOE trash clearing, you can skip BM and SUM characters. An example Advantaliate party:

Cloud: Retaliate, Tempo Flurry/Double Cut
Aerith: Protectga/Shellga, Curaga
Wakka: Power/Magic Break(down), Double Cut
Sazh: Armor Break(down), Double Cut
Pecil: Boost, Double Cut

If you get Josef's RM2, you can put that on Aerith to make her basic Attack hit twice. Thus you can have every single character's action causing Cloud to hit the boss twice. With Advance, Boost, and Armor Break(down) you can often get Cloud to do 9999 dmg per hit, so just think how quickly the damage adds up when every character's turn means the boss takes 20k damage (not counting turns when they need to apply breaks or buffs).

Edit: Also, most of the Advance RW on reddit are probably at max followers. There are several gaffers who have it, for example Negator has it, friend code 9Waj. I know War Adept and a few others do too, can you guys give him your friend codes if you still have room?
 

johnsmith

remember me
I think I'm burned out on the game. I haven't played in 2 days. Have no desire to do dailies or finish up the elites. Will just focus on the events for now, but I can see myself completed quitting soon.
 

Red Mage

Member
I think I'm burned out on the game. I haven't played in 2 days. Have no desire to do dailies or finish up the elites. Will just focus on the events for now, but I can see myself completed quitting soon.

We're ahead on the dungeons than we are on events, so the Elites are actually harder for us. That's why I'm chilling with them.
 

Vorpal

Member
I think I'm burned out on the game. I haven't played in 2 days. Have no desire to do dailies or finish up the elites. Will just focus on the events for now, but I can see myself completed quitting soon.

I'm kinda with you there. I'm sure I'll be back when the UI overhaul rolls out, but I'm just not feelin' it right now for some reason!
 

Nohar

Member
Well, after a while the game becomes very repetitive, and there are a lot of more interesting games to play (not saying FFRK is bad, mind you, just very limited). No wonder people are burned out. And, well, that awful UI isn't doing the game any favors.
 

Meier

Member
I have like 55 mythril now. Anyone know if there is a chance we'll get another instance where you get an 11 pull for 25?
 

Falk

that puzzling face
Yeah, even on an SSB event, it's a slump period. It's not going to get better any time soon either. On the other hand, even the ++++ fights don't seem all that tough, and I've overprepared, so it's not like I really care. Dailies are still a pain in the ass even if two rounds pretty much empty an entire bar, I'm doing Tuesdays and Sundays though.

(Been leaving a lot of stam to rot, and not just because of dev conference hahahah)

We've (RKGAF) also been shedding people like crazy. Ashodin etc. don't even post anymore.
 

Gravijah

Member
I'm only a few weeks into play, my hones/abilities are bad, so it's not even worth mentioning them. I'm working and building up around the Retaliate meta (of course), so I'm coming to my first conundrum.

I've mastered everything up to (and including) Castle Exdeath elite in the FF5 event. I could probably do Big Bridge Showdown, but I'm not extremely worried about that. I'd like to get Squalls MC2 in the FF8 event, but I'm not going to be too bummed if I miss out, especially with Rift of Recollection to prepare for.

I can craft Shellga, but I can't craft Protectga, as I only have 3 Greater Earth Orbs. With the FF8 event in mind, and maybe other upcoming things, would it be better to craft Shellga now and get some use from it, or to hold out and attempt to craft Protectga?

For what it's worth, I'm able to farm the first stage in Heroic+ dailies.
 

Falk

that puzzling face
You could always beef up on Lunatic Highs in your friends list for the fights you need Protectga on. Having one of Shellga/Protectga means for the fights that you need Hastega/Shellga/Protectga, Boon or LH will give you 2 out of 3 and you can bring the third along.

(So yeah, Shellga's good)
 
yeah full break to r2 as well. not sure what to do with major orbs now that full break and meteor are r2. maybe work towards the major quests or just stockpile for months to get them to r3.

only had to s/l the final fight and that was only once b/c edea used maelstrom 2x in a row and then nuked one of my dudes.

I thought my lucky pulls were mediocre, but they really helped with this one, revolver for offense, morningstar for party heals and vivi's staff for the double poison hit, which was overkill.


100 gem pull was a crystal helm, so I have that at 4++ crazy rs stats, 44 atk, 169 def, 147 res in VI dungeons.


yeah, I'm not sweating dropping a handful of stam hours here and there either. Its getting a bit dry. I will probably do a 50 pull on the Zidane banner due to only having a 4+ dagger there for retaliators. not enthused about the banners for the festival, will probably only do a 3 pull on each and save mythril and money. Having Thyrus and Vega and 5 star retaliate weapons in all but I, II, V, IX, XII, XIII (V and XII I have 4++ weapons that are nearly as good), means that besides shooting for Cloud's SSB, i dont' see much of interest for me personally.
 
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