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[StoppedInTracks]

Having nothing better to do with 250 Mythril I did a 11 pull on he Cecil banner.

All I got was a Genji Shield and 4*/3* garbage.

Never doing a "moment of boredom" pull again.

 

[Vorpal]

I don't think maxing double cut is that important.I don't have much chance to bring more than one copy anyways.

Probably not, I just tend to run with 3 melee/1 caster/1 healer, so I like having each melee character equipped with a Double Cut plus whatever situational ability (status effect, spellsword, weapon/armor/magic break, etc.).

Against high HP bosses, it's really fun to pop Lunatic High + Song of Memories + Deprotega and just unload 6 attacks every round for upwards of 10 rounds.

 

[Falk]

O Gawd. Time to trot out my little soap box again!


Storm Dragon Elite:

- Has ~200k HP
- ABSOLUTELY NO WAY you're gonna get 3 action medals on the 4 trash stages unless you blow -ja spells per stage (I believe it's 3 actions per mob for 3 action medals at this point
- If you get 8/9 for all trash stages, you need 8/12 for the boss stage to attain Mastery
- Cyclone AOE reduces HP to 1 with an attach rate of maybe 50%, meaning more often than not it's an instant savescum because he AOEs more than half the time right after

That being said though, I found it was actually... pretty well tuned. I'm not sure if the difficulty for this was intentional some time after gives you a Zantetsuken and after Friend Summons were added (in JP) but I scraped by with about a half hour's worth of savescumming and attempts. Sentinel Grimoire saved many asses, and lasted almost exactly 100k hp, along with Kirin.

I think it's better tuned than Jenova Birth just on the sole basis that the game gave you a free 5* Record Synergy weapon, so there's a baseline power level people can attain that's RNG-independent.

The only ways I can see making this more painless would have been levelling everyone strictly to 65 (avg. level was 60 except Cyan who was 50) or going 4-mage.

Speaking of that, it's becoming more and more apparent why Retaliate was falling out of favor for 4-mage around this point in JP. Vivi and a 4* RS rod was hitting for 9.5k with Thundaga, without Mental Break, and using Concentration (as in, no additional boost from the RM). while Retaliate hits went for about 3k with Boost and Armor Break (no Breakdown, not enough uses and this was another endurance test).

I do recall that somewhere along the line, JP had a balance pass that juggled the physical damage calc incl. the soft cap, but I still don't see how that's gonna overtake 4-mage, especially when getting good melee weapons is RNG, but honing the shit out of elemental 3* and 4* spells is just grinding.


p.s. There was one hilarious attempt where I counted up to ~180k damage, and then Tidus hit Cloud with a Zantetsuken proc because I misjudged retaliate timing. Literally was the first time I hit Cloud by accident in upwards of half a dozen attempts, and Zantetsuken immediately procs. DERP.

 

[MicH]

Finally gathered 50 mythril so I could do an 11 pull. Quite disappointing. Nine 3*, one 4* and one 5*. It didn't help that four of the three stars were more dupes of stuff I had already completely maxed out At least the 5* was a Flame Sword (IV) with physical fire damage SB. Even though I only have one character-specific SB (Squall) I at least have some good generic ones: Gaia Blade (Quake, pretty bad SB though, but nice stats - good if you have a decent SB armor), Thunder Blade (thunder AoE), Gold Armlet (adds protect buff) and the Viking Coat (physical water AoE)

Not too bad!

 

[RivalCore]

Master'd Storm Dragon Elite. Finished with 8/9 medals for trash and lost two medals for the boss itself (damage and turns). Really wasn't that bad a fight in the end.

Vivi and Cloud were my main damage output. Vivi hits for over 9k with Thundaga and a 4* RS rod. I recommend honing your 3* magic abilities, they really paid off for this fight and 4* grinding isn't worth it right now, unless it's the debuffs. Cloud was hitting for 7.5k with Thundara Strike and Zantetsuken. Retaliate was for the trash and to give Cyan something to do since he's basically useless for this fight unless you need someone to apply breaks.

I had a full spectrum of buffs (Shield, Shellga & Protectga) on at all times and with Magic/Power Breakdown, the AOE damage was down to double digits and probably why I did so well with the fight.

I also had Rinoa's SB, but I should have replaced that with Red XIII since I didn't need the extra damage in the end. If you hone your lighting abilities, I recommend stocking up on damage mitigation. 200k isn't actually that bad for this boss, since he's actually vulnerable to something (unlike the shitty Jenova fight).

 

[Azusa]

Finally gathered 50 mythril so I could do an 11 pull. Quite disappointing. Nine 3*, one 4* and one 5*.

Pulled 5* and disappointed. Huh?

 

[MicH]

About to finally take on Judge Ghis. Brought a bunch of breaks and berserk. Hopefully I can get through! (Tidus 65, Balthier 50, Fran 50, Vivi 55, Garnet 55)

Pulled 5* and disappointed. Huh?

I was more disappointed in the amount of three stars and dupes, but you're right - a new five star is always great to get

 

[Falk]

Vivi and Cloud were my main damage output. Vivi hits for over 9k with Thundaga and a 4* RS rod.

I find it hilarious that your Vivi is an EXACT carbon copy of mine, right down to the equipment, level and abilities (probably different use counts though). The best part about The Burninator is on bosses with vulnerability you literally don't need to bother with Mental Break/Breakdown unless it's got an absurd amount of RES or you're rolling 3* rods.

edit: Is that a Gravity Rod? Can't tell.

 

[Razmos]

Did my final mythril pull on the Balthier banner and lost my breath when I saw that I got a 5* item.
It was a Kaiser Shield (Protect All)

Still it's a pretty good item and I'm sure it will come in handy at one point.

I also got a really good item, a powerful 4* FFIV staff that increases holy damage.

 

[RivalCore]

edit: Is that a Gravity Rod? Can't tell.

Indeed it is!

Spoiler

I'm actually Falks alt account

 

[Nohar]

Did my final mythril pull on the Balthier banner and lost my breath when I saw that I got a 5* item.
It was a Kaiser Shield (Protect All)

Still it's a pretty good item and I'm sure it will come in handy at one point.

I also got a really good item, a powerful 4* FFIV staff that increases holy damage.

Pretty much my reaction when I saw two 5* items floating around, only to discover it was two Gladius. That being said, they turned out to be very useful weapons.

Sitting on 63 Myhrils ATM. It probably won't be a problem to reach the 100 mark before Lightning's banner is up (I hope to reach 150+, but I'm afraid they won't give that much Mythril in the interlude).

 

[show me your skeleton]

balthier ends today (12th) right?

 

[Pejo]

balthier ends today (12th) right?

Yep, I just did the Ex boss rush this morning. It was way easier than what I was expecting. I was going to ignore it until I saw that it dropped a major wind orb, which I needed to craft Valefor after skipping it on an old boss rush, haha.

 

[Reszo]

Ugh I'm trying to get to Balthier but I cant beat the stage before it. It's when you fight the two judges. I keep dying. They say silence them but silence keeps missing.

 

[Road]

Ugh I'm trying to get to Balthier but I cant beat the stage before it. It's when you fight the two judges. I keep dying. They say silence them but silence keeps missing.

Are you talking about the classic battles?

Bring any of the non-elemental AEO roaming warrior (Spiral Cut, Shadow Flare, Hell's Gate, Deprotega). The two usages should be enough to kill them both.

I think it's better tuned than Jenova Birth just on the sole basis that the game gave you a free 5* Record Synergy weapon, so there's a baseline power level people can attain that's RNG-independent.

Haven't fought it it, but just by having an elemental weakness Storm Dragons seems a million times easier than Jenova Birth.



Did any of you people who have finished or are closing to finishing all the story dungeons used mythril to recover stamina to speed up the process? I swear it'll take me two weeks to finish everything without that.

 

[SpaceDrake]

Ugh I'm trying to get to Balthier but I cant beat the stage before it. It's when you fight the two judges. I keep dying. They say silence them but silence keeps missing.

Don't bother with the silence - it's faster to mostly beat them to death, or use Intimidate and Berserk to make them predictable (and they can also be Blinded easily, which will then make the berserked Judge a wuss). Just remember to use non-elemental spells - they resist everything (though Quake still wrecks them regardless).

If this is the classic-mode Judges, though, you may just need more levels/gear if you're new. The classic Judges aren't super hard (and happily, Ghis is a bit easier especially with AoE). Though if you're new enough/were out of it long enough that classic Judges are a struggle, the Quake advice may be a bit premature :v as Road said, on classic a Spiral Cut/Shadow Flare/etc Roaming Warrior should at least weaken them enough to the point where you can handle the rest.

balthier ends today (12th) right?

It does indeed, going through the EX rush now. I'll probably need to spend a mythril at Ghis, but one mythril is worth a Rose Corsage, especially when I still have a ton of portrait dungeons to clear and my login reward tomorrow is two myth regardless.

I just man-moded the trash with 4 melee with Mythril Sword++s

Autobattling actually increases your odds of getting hits off before taking damage.

This is actually extremely good advice - the computer will always target faster than you can, and those half-seconds can matter. For trash, auto-battling is often the right decision, or flipping it off and on to micromanage.

 

[Falk]

Did any of you people who have finished or are closing to finishing all the story dungeons used mythril to recover stamina to speed up the process? I swear it'll take me two weeks to finish everything without that.

Don't think anyone on GAF (or at least who posted about it) has completed both Cecil event and the story dungeons. It's either one or the other.

Me, I've finished Cecil, and am working my way through the Elites now. Done Storm Dragon Elite just because it's the hardest, but I'm waiting on Cecil boss rush for free Raise to cheapshot King Behemoth because I'm a scrooge.

In the meantime I'm completing all the Elites that give Stamina Shards so I can hit max Stamina ASAP, and then I'll do the rest of the Elites at my leisure.

 

[pancakesandsex]

Posting another chat link, quote to reveal:





I haven't completed either the story missions or the cecil event! Working on the latter though.

 

[Ashodin]

Farming RMs. Got gore stained blade 2, now going after healer.

 

[show me your skeleton]

will i find the last elite boss in balthier's event tough? help me gaf-i wan kenobi, you're my only hope.

 

[PixyJunket]

*sigh* Guess I'll get back to those Elites.

EDIT: I think I'm ready to quit this game. I'm out of patience for bosses with eight gazzilion HP that drain all of your Actions Taken medals just because they refuse to die. And I'm sick of dealing with this slow-ass interface to tweak and perfect my party before going into every single overpowered boss battle. I just spent like 15 minutes fighting Lost Number and I beat him after a huge slog and only got silver on the dungeon because everything has too much HP. And I lost two damage medals because of reasons, despite the fact that he spent most of the battle stopped and/or paralyzed and barely got any attacks in.

That's a fucking stamina shard I missed out on. Christ.

Dude, bro, the balance in this game is super perfect excellent and radical and if it was changed they would lose money from whale and octopus.

 

[SpaceDrake]

will i find the last elite boss in balthier's event tough? help me gaf-i wan kenobi, you're my only hope.

If you can kill dual judges, you can probably master Ghis.

And boy howdy you can kill Ghis with that setup. If nothing else, his buddies will die by the second Quake. After that just berserk him and it'll be like disciplining an angry child.

 

[StoppedInTracks]

Yeah, moving on is a valid solution.

I moved on even from Balthier's Judge Gish battle. I brought 4x Quake, 2x Bladeblitz and destroyed his lackeys in 2 rounds + blinded him in the 2nd round (luck!). Then wailed at him for about 10 minutes, blind went off so I blinded him again (mega luck!!!) and wailed at him again for another 10 minutes (full party, full health because of TONS of Curaga/ Curajas stocked on my Tyro). His blind went off again and he killed me in the end... 2nd time I lost ~80 Stamina on this dungeon :/ and countless minutes save scumming the trash mobs so that they do not hit me at all (possible).

I simply cannot beat him - I hit him for 400-600 damage near the end and without HP BARS I have no idea if he has 1000 HP or 10 000 HP left... and I read here some guys kill him before the first Blind ends...

I can upgrade Blind Strike (3*) to R2 but then I will have to use 80 Stamina *again* and pray *again* this time for 3 Blinds to stick on him. And the whole save scumming the trash mobs ehh... not worth it.

Party consists of LVL50 Tyro, LVL49 Wakka, LVL 46 Vivi, LVL50 Cloud and LVL49 Tidus.

Cannot beat: Materia Keeper, Jenova, Two Judges and Judge Gish. Swimming through Heroic Dailies w/o Save Scumming.

No shame, no fucks given.

Drop Bladeblitz and Blind. Bring retaliate and berserk. It will still be a long enough fight, but berserk brings Ghis on to your side.

So with the last moments of the Balthier event I retried the Judge Gish Elite battle, mainly for Waterja.

Here is my top of the tops party (ok Cloud is LVL50 but that makes no difference with LVL47 Squall) with FF12 RS gear:

Yeah that is a 3* Rod that Vivi is using... and that Genji Shield is 1/20. You can imagine how it could possibly go:

(Balthier is LVL1)

Berserk was a waste in the end because I casted it *after* he put Great Barrier on himself, ehh. Only 2 of Wakka's 4 Blinds connected. In the end I was doing 600-800 damage per attack (1100 for SB i.e. Tidus' Delay Attack or Wakka's Magic Buster).

I even used a Mythril for the pre-boss Heal. No fucks given, tho, because I got my prize:

Personally, this is a major breakthrough for me! I've never been able to complete the last boss of any kind of event going back to Rinoa's Event (did not even try T-Rex Elite). I do not own Phoenix, Valefor, Waterja, Firaja, Leviathan etc. nor any reward for finishing (not even mastering, ha) any last Elite boss.

Today Waterja is mine And I can hone it already! I hope it will be useful for the Cecil event because I need that Firaja... (only 2 final Elite Stages left with Scarmiglione (I will use FIRAGA on that bitch) and Dark Cecil).

 

[Ashodin]

Waterja is godtier JA spell. Very very few things absorb or resist water.

 

[SpaceDrake]

Congrats!

Waterja is okay on Milon-Z, but you absolutely don't want to use Firaga on him; part of the gimmick of full mastery for that one is that you can't hit him with fire (though you can still use holy/cure as a weakness). He's still not too tough, though, because most of the bosses in the Cecil event don't have a ton of HP (and the final fight with the Dark Knight has a gimmick everyone should know :3).

 

[show me your skeleton]

fucking did it. merely completed ghis but mastered the boss rush. my first fully finished event, huzzah! thanks everyone!

(and the final fight with the Dark Knight has a gimmick everyone should know :3).

gimmick? what is this!? I MUST KNOW

 

[Xetherion]

gimmick? what is this!? I MUST KNOW

The boss gains Death status on his 20th round, so all you have to do is Defend and wait for him to die. Bring Protectga to make surviving a little easier, cast Curaga if necessary but otherwise just have everyone Defend once and wait for victory.

 

[show me your skeleton]

The boss gains Death status on his 20th round, so all you have to do is Defend and wait for him to die. Bring Protectga to make surviving a little easier, cast Curaga if necessary but otherwise just have everyone Defend once and wait for victory.

huh, that's odd. cheers for that!

 

[rhophiehalul78]

fucking did it. merely completed ghis but mastered the boss rush. my first fully finished event, huzzah! thanks everyone!



gimmick? what is this!? I MUST KNOW

Congrats. This is also the first event boss rush I cleared. I refreshed my abilities though by consuming mythril. I think I'm still underhoned.

 

[eastx]

So with the last moments of the Balthier event I retried the Judge Gish Elite battle, mainly for Waterja.

Personally, this is a major breakthrough for me! I've never been able to complete the last boss of any kind of event going back to Rinoa's Event (did not even try T-Rex Elite). I do not own Phoenix, Valefor, Waterja, Firaja, Leviathan etc. nor any reward for finishing (not even mastering, ha) any last Elite boss.

Today Waterja is mine And I can hone it already! I hope it will be useful for the Cecil event because I need that Firaja... (only 2 final Elite Stages left with Scarmiglione (I will use FIRAGA on that bitch) and Dark Cecil).

Inspired entirely by StoppedInTrack's victory, I decided to go ahead and make a last minute attempt at the Judge Gish Elite battle myself. Victory!



I wouldn't have bothered with it if I didn't see somebody with similar abilities succeed, so I'm grateful to Stopped. This is my first time beating a dungeon boss too. Shame about waiting till the event's about to end, otherwise I'd try the boss rush. Will have to go all the way with Cecil's event next.

 

[Ashodin]

huh, that's odd. cheers for that!

you need to play FF4 heathen!

 

[eastx]

Does the Dreadnaught Leviathan end in 12 minutes or 72 minutes?

 

[HungOverOnATues]

Does the Dreadnaught Leviathan end in 12 minutes or 72 minutes?

4 hours

 

[Road]

gimmick? what is this!? I MUST KNOW

The boss gains Death status on his 20th round, so all you have to do is Defend and wait for him to die. Bring Protectga to make surviving a little easier, cast Curaga if necessary but otherwise just have everyone Defend once and wait for victory.

This was my fight: https://photos.google.com/share/AF1...?key=UmpBZGNzZzcxRTh3NDhuaEN0TWJGaEVxYUJya29n

I was going to go with only the ff4 group, but decided to bring in Lenna to speed up the process (and for mass regen, but it was completely unnecessary).

Inspired entirely by StoppedInTrack's victory, I decided to go ahead and make a last minute attempt at the Judge Gish Elite battle myself. Victory!



I wouldn't have bothered with it if I didn't see somebody with similar abilities succeed, so I'm grateful to Stopped. This is my first time beating a dungeon boss too. Shame about waiting till the event's about to end, otherwise I'd try the boss rush. Will have to go all the way with Cecil's event next.

Congrats. I don't know how well honed your abilities are, but you have the equipment to take on any boss rush. =P

Don't think anyone on GAF (or at least who posted about it) has completed both Cecil event and the story dungeons. It's either one or the other.

Me, I've finished Cecil, and am working my way through the Elites now. Done Storm Dragon Elite just because it's the hardest, but I'm waiting on Cecil boss rush for free Raise to cheapshot King Behemoth because I'm a scrooge.

In the meantime I'm completing all the Elites that give Stamina Shards so I can hit max Stamina ASAP, and then I'll do the rest of the Elites at my leisure.

I was actually talking about the previous dungeon update, not this last one. I'm sooo behind... In fact, I was doing the ffvii dungeons and saw they skipped Midgar Zolom. Wasted opportunity. It should have a mechanic where you have to use Chocobo summon as target score. haha

 

[StoppedInTracks]

Inspired entirely by StoppedInTrack's victory, I decided to go ahead and make a last minute attempt at the Judge Gish Elite battle myself. Victory!



I wouldn't have bothered with it if I didn't see somebody with similar abilities succeed, so I'm grateful to Stopped. This is my first time beating a dungeon boss too. Shame about waiting till the event's about to end, otherwise I'd try the boss rush. Will have to go all the way with Cecil's event next.

Congrats eastx! Sometimes all we need is that little extra push. Glad we both did it in the very last hours of the event.

 

[SpaceDrake]

gimmick? what is this!? I MUST KNOW

As stated, the Dark Knight will disappear after a certain amount of time. This is a callback to FF4, where the entire point of that plot beat was Cecil fighting the apparition of his Dark Knight self alone, and the entire point was to not actually give in to violence anymore to prove Cecil should be a Paladin, and just let the Dark Knight use Darkness until it ran out of HP (since it consumes HP on cast).


Meanwhile, page 300 is the "full-cleared an event including boss rush for the first time" page, as I too just pulled off a master clear of the Balthier boss rush. Didn't quite pull it off for the Garnet, Squall and Sephiroth events (though I got close with Garnet), but it came together here. Doesn't feel too bad, given that I started playing a couple months ago, around the time Vanille came out and after Rinoa's event ended, and haven't played too hardcore. I had to spend a mythril between Ba'gamnan and Ghis, but it was worth it, especially since I get two mythril for tomorrow's login reward.

Now to get EXP in people today (I really need to get White Mage and Black Mage to 50 and get their materia), and then polish off Cecil's event at my leisure and farm the crap out of black orbs when they become available and chip away at the portraits.

The real question is: what's going to be next? Will it be Yuna as JP order might suggest, or will they push Edgar/Sabin or Quistis/Selphie first? Or Lightning/Sazh and make everyone flip out over not having a chance to save up mythril? :V

Does the Dreadnaught Leviathan end in 12 minutes or 72 minutes?

If you're asking "do I have enough time to get Sky Pirate Showdown done without a stamina refill", the answer is not quite. I might even say it's worth spending a mythril on the refill, though - not only just for clearing a boss rush for the first time, but because the Rose Corsage is a killer healer accessory that gives good +Mind and silence protection. You might need a second mythril for that heal between Ba'gamnan and Ghis (they're both basically the Elite version, so you need lots of AoE for both of them) but it'd still be worth it, even then, doubly so if you can swing the mastery. And that's not too hard because the first three bosses are relatively easy.

 

[pancakesandsex]

Which stages in the cecil event drop upgrade mats?

 

[PixyJunket]

Which stages in the cecil event drop upgrade mats?

As regular drops?

I think that any of the Elite stages do.

 

[SpaceDrake]

Which stages in the cecil event drop upgrade mats?

The weapon ones? Any elite one has a small chance, IIRC.

It's really small, though. You're better off waiting for a daily if you want to farm mats.

 

[eastx]

If you're asking "do I have enough time to get Sky Pirate Showdown done without a stamina refill", the answer is not quite. I might even say it's worth spending a mythril on the refill, though - not only just for clearing a boss rush for the first time, but because the Rose Corsage is a killer healer accessory that gives good +Mind and silence protection. You might need a second mythril for that heal between Ba'gamnan and Ghis (they're both basically the Elite version, so you need lots of AoE for both of them) but it'd still be worth it, even then, doubly so if you can swing the mastery. And that's not too hard because the first three bosses are relatively easy.

Great advice! I went ahead and refilled my energy, then took on the boss rush. Only got Mastered on the Mimic Queen as I didn't bring any ice spells along. Then I spent another Mythril on the heal after the Ba'gamnan as you suggested (which allowed me to let loose with spells on the Ba'gamnan fight).

Results:



First Boss Rush attempted and won! I did better against Judge Ghis thanks to taking along a friend's Sephiroth, which kept the minor judges and Ghis blinded the whole time.

Thanks for the encouragement and tips, SpaceDrake and Road. I always feel a bit underpowered for these events, but everything lined up right this time. Glad you cleared it too, SpaceDrake!

 

[show me your skeleton]

you need to play FF4 heathen!

oh i've played! just never realised they put that in to this game.

 

[MMBosstones86]

Finally beat the Hard exp dungeon...woot.

...I have a ways to go.

 

[ShalashaskaEx]

Every Sunday I say that I'm going to grind the Exp dungeon but I only make it through about 2 rounds and then I'm bored. I was going to try and boost up WM but said screw this and egged her to 50.

How difficult is elite Beatrix?

 

[Road]

Still deciding on my Cecil boss rush team. This is where I waste more time on this game (and the terrible UI doesn't help).

Every Sunday I say that I'm going to grind the Exp dungeon but I only make it through about 2 rounds and then I'm bored. I was going to try and boost up WM but said screw this and egged her to 50.

How difficult is elite Beatrix?

I found her really easy, but I have a Diamond Sword (IX), which made me choose Advance + Retaliate. With Slow, Power Break and Protega she wasn't doing much damage at all (I don't have 5* IX defense).

 

[ShalashaskaEx]

Boss rush is up!

 

[B.K.]

I did an 11 pull last night on Balthier's banner hoping for some decent XII gear and got this:

That's my third or fourth 11 pull and it's my worst so far.

 

[forgrim]

Boss rush finished, easiest of them all. Now just to wait for the new events, and finish classics/elites.

 

[ShalashaskaEx]

Sigh....missed mastery on the boss rush. Wtf, I'm terrible. >_>

 

[Random Painted HIghway]

I did an 11 pull last night on Balthier's banner hoping for some decent XII gear and got this:



That's my third or fourth 11 pull and it's my worst so far.

Three four star weapons in realms with poor weapon synergy is your worst, you've had a charmed keeper life! Heh.



......

The Cecil boss rush is really easy compared to what we've seen before. Only got a summon orb from dark Cecil, not even greater.

 

[Ben Morales]

Boss rush finished, easiest of them all. Now just to wait for the new events, and finish classics/elites.

What was your party setup?