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[KojiKnight]

It's because they don't talk.



Nah, I beat the game. Wish I'd never bought that piece of rubbish.

Being able to use the Japanese VA for 13 on the steam release makes Vanille more bearable at least... I keep seeing everyone assigning Vanille to BM, but the game seems pretty intent on forcing her to be WM... so why fight destiny? Bye Lenna. I won't miss you.


13 OST is godly though at least.

 

[Falk]

Being able to use the Japanese VA for 13 on the steam release makes Vanille more bearable at least... I keep seeing everyone assigning Vanille to BM, but the game seems pretty intent on forcing her to be WM... so why fight destiny? Bye Lenna. I won't miss you.


13 OST is godly though at least.

She can use both rods and staves, and for all intents and purposes use all black and white magic available to people in the game right now.

If you stick the utility stuff from the opposite side that doesn't rely on stats, she makes a great multipurpose back row caster

e.g.:

rod for MAG, Quake, Raise
rod for MAG, Quake, Protectga
staff for MND, Curaga, Gravity

etc.

I think in particular Raise on a BM is gonna have quite a bit of use, considering that if someone's dead and you want to raise, you also probably want to be able to cast an actual heal on that same turn (on same person or otherwise) so having someone else step in to revive seems like it could be awesome for some situations.

edit2:

In Resonant state, Manipulators wait until all alive enemies have filled their turn bar, then start charging Resonant Magic after Anima announces 'Magical Projection'. This cycle repeats continually until both Manipulators are killed

Wat.

Someone needs to test if you can break the AI by casting stop on someone :lol

 

[Red Mage]

Being able to use the Japanese VA for 13 on the steam release makes Vanille more bearable at least... I keep seeing everyone assigning Vanille to BM, but the game seems pretty intent on forcing her to be WM... so why fight destiny? Bye Lenna. I won't miss you.


13 OST is godly though at least.

Doesn't change the fact that all of the characters are terminally stupid.

So, Retaliate is absolutely useless on Anima, since they always target her drill thingies first.

 

[Roto13]

One tenth of the way to thundaja just from a couple of hard runs lat night. Maybe I should go back to Lenna for a while. Bet I can get the rest of the shards in a week. But then there will be another event.

 

[rocketskates]

Any place to get some luck on black and power orbs?

 

[Falk]

One tenth of the way to thundaja just from a couple of hard runs lat night. Maybe I should go back to Lenna for a while. Bet I can get the rest of the shards in a week. But then there will be another event.

By my estimate there should be exactly 48 hours when Lenna ends (reclamation period) before the next event kicks in.

You can get 125000 Memory Crystals in ~18 Hard runs, not counting the first-time/mastery clear bonuses/what you have already. That's at 54 stam per run, so maybe 2-3 days, depending on how much wastage you have to sleep/work/etc.

 

[Jyrii]

That is pretty nice. I somehow thought it would take a lot longer.

 

[darkjedi187]

Did my first 11 pulls and got very lucky i think. the highlights being:

Blitz Sword
Kaiser Knuckles
another Genji Shield
Knights Armor
and ...a... Binding Rod Hell Ya!!

 

[Vorpal]

Doesn't change the fact that all of the characters are terminally stupid.

So, Retaliate is absolutely useless on Anima, since they always target her drill thingies first.

Retaliate actually targets whichever enemy has the lowest health %. If you use single-target attacks to take out one arm, and then attack the Anima body once or twice, Retaliate should only hit the main body afterward. If you hit the second arm even once, it can throw things off.

 

[Jyrii]

I just realized I can auto attack and achieve champion on every stage except Anima.

Think I am gonna ditch Terra for lower level melee character.

 

[Ashodin]

Man Anima twice on one run. Woof

 

[Negator]

Mastered Heroic without spending a Mythril! God damn it took a lot of S/L at Anima though!

 

[Razmos]

Did my first 11 pulls and got very lucky i think. the highlights being:

Blitz Sword
Kaiser Knuckles
another Genji Shield
Knights Armor
and ...a... Binding Rod Hell Ya!!

D:
"very lucky I think"

ban this man.

Spoiler

I'm so jelly

 

[darkjedi187]

D:
"very lucky I think"

ban this man.

Spoiler

I'm so jelly

Guess I should put Vanille in and hopefully get out of the rut I've been in. Either Aerith of Terra needs to go.

 

[RellyRell28]

Used the 15 Growth eggs on Vanille to get her to 28 her stats are higher than Black Mage who was a few levels higher. Well she's in my party now. Also with Retaliate I should be attcking the person with the attack with a mage or someone who does little to no damage to make him do the attack right.

 

[Jyrii]

Also with Retaliate I should be attcking the person with the attack with a mage or someone who does little to no damage to make him do the attack right.

Yes, but generally you should attack with heroes that can use double cut.

 

[RellyRell28]

Yes, but generally you should attack with heroes that can use double cut.

Does this make the retaliator attack twice

 

[Jyrii]

Yep

 

[Falk]

Also it means that effectively things like one use of Boost will increase the damage of that one Retaliate person person a.k.a. your whole party.

 

[Red Mage]

Retaliate actually targets whichever enemy has the lowest health %. If you use single-target attacks to take out one arm, and then attack the Anima body once or twice, Retaliate should only hit the main body afterward. If you hit the second arm even once, it can throw things off.

Ah, all right. I did a double cut with Snow before Seph had Retaliate on, and one of the attacks hit the arm. >_>

 

[cpp_is_king]

Been thinking about the boss fights some more. I'm not sure Retaliate is the way to go for Anima. The arm you leave alive you have to keep Magic Break on it or else it's AoE thunder will do too much damage. As you continue to use magic break on it though, you will damage it, which causes your retaliate target to switch to the arm soemtimes. It's very annoying. To make matters worse, there's a good chance that your retaliater won't be all that strong. I had Cloud yesterday doing about 1200 per hit non-boosted. If you have someone stronger it seems best to just keep Power Break on the boss and let the other person double cut him directly and eat the counter attacks. If you have Protectga (and everyone should, after the Lenna event) his counter attacks won't do that much damage, and if you get unlucky and get the double Anima fight you can alternate Protectga / Power Break to make sure you have some juice left for round 2.

 

[Roto13]

By my estimate there should be exactly 48 hours when Lenna ends (reclamation period) before the next event kicks in.

You can get 125000 Memory Crystals in ~18 Hard runs, not counting the first-time/mastery clear bonuses/what you have already. That's at 54 stam per run, so maybe 2-3 days, depending on how much wastage you have to sleep/work/etc.

Yeah, no problem. I've got nothing better to do.

That is pretty nice. I somehow thought it would take a lot longer.

That's because the Japanese version requires twice as many shards. We got a break. Maybe because there's already a grindy event going.

 

[Falk]

Been thinking about the boss fights some more. I'm not sure Retaliate is the way to go for Anima. The arm you leave alive you have to keep Magic Break on it or else it's AoE thunder will do too much damage. As you continue to use magic break on it though, you will damage it, which causes your retaliate target to switch to the arm soemtimes. It's very annoying. To make matters worse, there's a good chance that your retaliater won't be all that strong. I had Cloud yesterday doing about 1200 per hit non-boosted. If you have someone stronger it seems best to just keep Power Break on the boss and let the other person double cut him directly and eat the counter attacks. If you have Protectga (and everyone should, after the Lenna event) his counter attacks won't do that much damage, and if you get unlucky and get the double Anima fight you can alternate Protectga / Power Break to make sure you have some juice left for round 2.

This is how Anima works:

- At >50% HP, attack mode. Arms will hit someone every time their ATB bar fills up. Anima counterattacks anything targeted at him
- At <50% HP, magic berserk mode. Arms will wait for the 'magic resonance' (or whatever) dialogue box and wait for entire living party's ATB to fill up and then AOE thunder. Anima counterattacks anything targeted at him
- At any point, if both arms are dead, Anima will take either 2 turns (>50% hp) or 1 turn (<50% hp) to regenerate his arms. In this state, he doesn't counterattack, but that's a moot point considering how short a duration this is. He also takes slightly less damage because he has slightly more stats for whatever reason while regenerating his arms.

Essentially, then, there's 2 stages to the fight. You shouldn't be touching the other arm with anything until Anima is below 50% hp. THEN you hit it with Magic Break, and that should be the first thing that damages the arm, and its HP% will still be higher than Anima (unless your Magic Break hits for 7k or something lol)

While I've killed Anima on heroic only twice (in the same run Jesus), the total attempts on the first kill was nearing a dozen, and I never had Retaliate hit anything other than the main body (unless I screwed something up)

But yes, Protectga + Power Breaks are another completely legitimate tactic to unload your strongest abilities on him and tank the counters. Preferably if you have Kirin or Lenna soul break.

 

[cpp_is_king]

Also, is there a way to tell when Retaliate will wear off? I fucking hate double cutting my retaliater only to find the ability wore off in the middle and I proceed to smack the shit out of him.

 

[MicH]

Is there a certain way you're supposed to kill Anima? I keep destroying the turbine thingies and they just respawn seconds later

EDIT Oh, I see an explanation above. Excellent

 

[Shahadan]

Yeah I'm amazed they don't even display the duration of half the buffs

 

[Falk]

From being a retaliate aficionado, there's kind of a rhythm to it really.

________|____1________2________3________4________5____
DPS-----|--Br-------DC-------DC-------DC-------Br-----
CASTER--|------T--------T--------T--------T--------T--
RET-BOT-|-----R--------T--------R--------T--------R---
HEALER--|----B--------T--------T--------T--------B----
DPS-----|---Br-------DC-------DC-------DC-------Br----

Br - Breaks
R - Retaliate
DC - Double Cut, on Ret Bot
B - Boost, cast on Ret Bot
T - Whatever, meaning:
---- caster may do additional debuff, or attack retaliate guy, or nuke a vulnerability
---- healer either tops up, or attack retaliate guy, or in the cases of paralysis-vulnerable bosses even stop to apply Intimidate
---- Ret-bot on alternate turns either attacks, soul breaks, or whatever

I know that's awful to read, but bear with me:

Timeline goes left to right, with turns marked out. The horizontal displacement sorta tries (lol) to show turn order. It's hard to get going at first and often requires some S/L just so your break guys can get defensive debuffs (Power/Magic break) up ASAP. Turn 5 is identical to turn 1 and repeats.

- Retaliate lasts slightly over two turns.
- Breaks last slightly over four turns
- Boost I'm not too sure how long it lasts, but just for the sake of simplicity I've recast it on the same timing as the breaks.

Because of the 2 and 4 turn rhythm, you can fall into a kind of autopilot pattern. Retaliate bot alternates between Retaliate and his own attack (usually a soul break), buffs/debuffs get recast every 2 retaliates.

edit: Also, Boost and Retaliate itself can carry over from the previous round if it's not a 1-round stage like Vanille event currently, which shaves off some setup time.

 

[Jyrii]

Would Slow on the Retaliate hero be actually beneficial?

 

[Falk]

I'm not entirely sure slow would affect the duration of buffs/debuffs, but retaliate wears off even if you don't do anything. I guess it might have been more accurate to say "retaliate lasts around the time two full turns take" than to say it lasts two turns.

Someone with more OCD than me would need to fully test it, though.

 

[Yogg]

Well I had to use a mythril to complete on heroic Anima, I was out of pretty much every skill. Got expert on it and on Behemoth before that, but thankfully I still got overall mastery.

I'm definitely not doing it again, I don't think I can ever finish it without added mythril with my current honed abilities. I'll finish the event on hard mode, that should be 3 more days at most.

 

[Shouta]

Well.. that's certainly not awful. Except for the fact that hardly any characters use spears. and the fact that I didn't get any FFXIII equipment at all, which I was hoping to get so I could farm this event.

Eh. It also netted me another 5*:

Also I guess the IceBrand sword might be pretty cool for the Lenna event.

You'll be fine. Edgar, Mog, and Kimahri are coming down the road as well as a few other chars that use spears. You should have Kain already too.

 

[Razmos]

You'll be fine. Edgar, Mog, and Kimahri are coming down the road as well as a few other chars that use spears. You should have Kain already too.

Yeah I switched out Dark Cecil for Kain.

I forgot about Kimhari, he should be a good one to level up in case Blue Magic does become a thing.

 

[Balphon]

You'll be fine. Edgar, Mog, and Kimahri are coming down the road as well as a few other chars that use spears. You should have Kain already too.

You mean to tell me Edgar doesn't exclusively use chainsaws?

That is a missed opportunity.

 

[Roto13]

You mean to tell me Edgar doesn't exclusively use chainsaws?

That is a missed opportunity.

He *must* have a chainsaw soul break.

And an autocrossbow.

 

[LevelNth]

Too bad they'll never allow you purchase certain items. I'd pay $5 for the Buster Sword on the spot, but there's zero chance I'm playing with real money and the gachas.

Money lost for SE/DeNa then.

 

[Shouta]

He *must* have a chainsaw soul break.

And an autocrossbow.

Auto-crossbow is his default. His first unique weapon gives him Bio Blaster.

 

[Yogg]

An interesting topic on reddit mentioned farming Vanille's event heroic stages 1 and 2 for greater orbs from Warmech and Behemoth. Their droprate seems to be rather high (I know I got 2 greater orbs from them in my only heroic clear). I'm curious to see more stats on that. At 12 stam a stage it could be very rewarding.

 

[Razmos]

All of the enemy sprites in this event are just fantastic.

As is the music.

 

[Stumpokapow]

Too bad they'll never allow you purchase certain items. I'd pay $5 for the Buster Sword on the spot, but there's zero chance I'm playing with real money and the gachas.

Money lost for SE/DeNa then.

the idea is that for every you, or for every few of you, there's a <link to guy spending $500 trying to gamble on Buster Sword>. that's the underlying assumption for the whole business model. you seem to think that losing your money means they're losing money period.

 

[Falk]

An interesting topic on reddit mentioned farming Vanille's event heroic stages 1 and 2 for greater orbs from Warmech and Behemoth. Their droprate seems to be rather high (I know I got 2 greater orbs from them in my only heroic clear). I'm curious to see more stats on that. At 12 stam a stage it could be very rewarding.

Reddit generally has no concept of sample sizes. There was that one guy who was arguing that cpp's stats-gathered ~200 runs sample size was not significant enough because his ~30 runs didn't match up (lol)

Unless/until there's a pool of data large enough for the event, I'm going to say it's too early to be conclusive either way. A bunch of people posting "yea it dropped for me too" out of an arbitrary total number of Redditors is not solid evidence.

But yes, assuming even at the generally 20% Elite boss drop rate, rerolling for WM/Behemoth at 12 stam a pop is already better than most other methods available now. We'll have a better idea what % this is gravitating towards when cpp's data starts rolling in.

2.8 &#8594; 2.8 &#8594; 1.4 &#8594; 2.2 &#8594; 1.5 &#8594; 1.5 &#8594; 1.5 &#8594; 3.3 (26,909)
2.8 &#8594; 2.8 &#8594; 1.4 &#8594; 2.2 &#8594; 1.8 &#8594; 1.5 &#8594; 1.5 &#8594; 3.3 (32,294)
2.8 &#8594; 2.2 &#8594; 1.4 &#8594; 2.2 &#8594; 1.5 &#8594; 1.5 &#8594; 1.5 &#8594; 3.3 (21,157)
2.8 &#8594; 2.2 &#8594; 1.4 &#8594; 1.5 &#8594; 3.3 &#8594; 1.5 &#8594; 1.8 &#8594; 3.3 (38,082)
1.4 &#8594; 1.5 &#8594; 1.5 &#8594; 2.8 &#8594; 2.8 &#8594; 2.2 &#8594; 1.8 &#8594; 3.3 (32,281)
1.4 &#8594; 1.5 &#8594; 1.5 &#8594; 1.8 &#8594; 2.2 &#8594; 2.8 &#8594; 3.3 &#8594; 3.3 (38,063)
1.4 &#8594; 1.5 &#8594; 1.5 &#8594; 1.8 &#8594; 2.2 &#8594; 2.8 &#8594; 2.8 &#8594; 3.3 (32,294)
1.4 &#8594; 1.5 &#8594; 1.5 &#8594; 1.5 &#8594; 2.2 &#8594; 2.8 &#8594; 2.8 &#8594; 3.3 (26,935)

edit: Based on the above, if there's 8 different routes and they all have an equal chance to show up, when Warmech (2.8) is Stage 1, it appears that there's a 50-50 chance of Warmech and Behemoth (2.2) being Stage 2.

 

[Yogg]

Reddit generally has no concept of sample sizes. There was that one guy who was arguing with cpp that his ~200 runs sample size was not significant enough because his ~30 runs didn't match up (lol)

Unless/until there's a pool of data large enough for the event, I'm going to say it's too early to be conclusive either way. A bunch of people posting "yea it dropped for me too" out of an arbitrary total number of Redditors is not solid evidence.

I agree on the lack of sample size, I just found the idea rather good, and I'm curious to see if it ends up being interesting. I have no idea about the appearance rate of behemoth on the second stage, but Warmech on the first stage can be cycled the same as flans, and even a 10% or 15% droprate would make it more interesting for 12 stam than the regular alternative.

 

[Razmos]

Warmech would also be super easy to farm since you can just whale on him with Thundaga/Thundaja/Thunder Strike

 

[KojiKnight]

Hmm... looking at the cost of Thundaja.... I already have 44 greater dark, and 3 greater lightning... If I really wanted it, I could just grab the rest of the orbs I need from lenna's event faster than trying to max out Vanille's... that said, I don't think I'm in a rush to get it either way. Any event coming in the near future that makes that strong of a lightning spell worth while?

 

[Balphon]

Warmech would also be super easy to farm since you can just whale on him with Thundaga/Thundaja/Thunder Strike

I think you just jinxed yourself into getting hit with Wave Cannon 4 times the next time you run into one.

Hmm... looking at the cost of Thundaja.... I already have 44 greater dark, and 3 greater lightning... If I really wanted it, I could just grab the rest of the orbs I need from lenna's event faster than trying to max out Vanille's... that said, I don't think I'm in a rush to get it either way. Any event coming in the near future that makes that strong of a lightning spell worth while?

Given the damage ceiling I'd imagine Thundaga will be more efficient overall.

 

[Razmos]

I think you just jinxed yourself into getting hit with Wave Cannon 4 times the next time you run into one.

haha, I faced one just after I said that and it went fine

Also I'd imagine Thundaja would be more useful against enemies that aren't weak to lightning, to deal a hefty amount of damage.

 

[KojiKnight]

haha, I faced one just after I said that and it went fine

Also I'd imagine Thundaja would be more useful against enemies that aren't weak to lightning, to deal a hefty amount of damage.

I'd rather just pump more into comet since it's non-elemental even if it's a weaker spell. Very few things are immune to non-elemental spells.

 

[Mobius and pet octopus]

In case people didn't figure it out, the no retreat rule is that you cannot flee from a battle you have started. So once you commit to a fight you must win or you lose all the memories you have earned that run.

 

[Jyrii]

In case people didn't figure it out, the no retreat rule is that you cannot flee from a battle you have started. So once you commit to a fight you must win or you lose all the memories you have earned that run.

Yes, but you can save scum and choose not to continue the battle. That way you go back to the level menu and retreat with memories.

 

[Balphon]

haha, I faced one just after I said that and it went fine

Also I'd imagine Thundaja would be more useful against enemies that aren't weak to lightning, to deal a hefty amount of damage.

I'd rather just pump more into comet since it's non-elemental even if it's a weaker spell. Very few things are immune to non-elemental spells.

Yeah, the use case for the elemental -ja spells seems fairly narrow given the current state of things:

1) If it has an elemental weakness, the corresponding -ga spell will probably get close enough to the damage cap to render -ja fairly inefficient.
2) If it has an elemental weakness but obscenely high RES, you are probably better off dropping the mage for a second Spellblade user.
3) If it has no elemental weakness, Comet is probably more efficient.

 

[Purple Cheeto]

RNGesus is on my side today. Pulled a 3* Air Knife from the common pull. I have now crafted an Air Knife++. Farming Lenna just got even easier.

Has everyone moved on from Lenna to strictly doing Vanille?