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[Noi]

Why do I feel like this orbfest phase has even less Gigantaurs and Cactuars only drop Greater Earth Orbs.

Edit: did a #Yolo single pull after getting nothing in 4 previous ones.

The boost on it conflicts with Shout, but you know what? Fuck it, I'm not gonna complain about pulling an SSB. Zidane MC2 when.

 

[c-murph]

Why do I feel like this orbfest phase has even less Gigantaurs and Cactuars only drop Greater Earth Orbs.

I feel like it's taking me longer to level characters... Probably just grind fatigue though.

 

[Star Falcon]

Nightmare super easy like others said, only thing that did any damage was a single Flare Star. Terra, Rydia, Lulu, Golbez and ExDeath were my mages of choice...

Have had kinda bad rates for Gigantaur this phase also. Saints Cross R3 probably won't happen, but can get close to it hopefully...

 

[The Iron Yuppie]

I see a lot of people eagerly awaiting Ramza coming in, but for the life of me I can't figure out what makes him a standout. I glanced over the japanese wiki, but of course poor translation makes it hard to parse exactly what his material and soul breaks might do. Can anyone clue me in?

 

[RivalCore]

I see a lot of people eagerly awaiting Ramza coming in, but for the life of me I can't figure out what makes him a standout. I glanced over the japanese wiki, but of course poor translation makes it hard to parse exactly what his material and soul breaks might do. Can anyone clue me in?

Front row bruiser with great stats, good breath of equipment, access to top tier abilities (full break etc) and probably one of the best SSB in the game.

His unique SB's are;

40% party heal and protectga
Haste-all and 50% atk buff
6(?) hit combo and 100% stun

 

[Noi]

I see a lot of people eagerly awaiting Ramza coming in, but for the life of me I can't figure out what makes him a standout. I glanced over the japanese wiki, but of course poor translation makes it hard to parse exactly what his material and soul breaks might do. Can anyone clue me in?

Ramza on his own is a great Support, but he also brings two meta-defining relics with him:

Platinum Sword (SSB, Shout) - Hastega with a 50% Attack boost for the whole party. Combine this with BSB/SSB spam and you'll destroy most of the content in the game.

Grand Armor (SB, Tailwind) - 40% HP Medica + Protectga. The only other character with a fixed 40% HP heal is Yuffie, and having such a potent Medica on someone besides the healer opens you up to more options for what the healer can do.

Nu Khai Armband (SB, Hail of Stones) - 6x hit on a single target with guaranteed Stun. Ramza's weakest SB is still something other characters would kill to have.

Agrias herself is no slouch, being one of the best knights in the game and her SB doing an ATK/MAG -50% debuff that will stack with every Break under the sun. Her SSB isn't as desirable, ironically, but still puts out good damage and does AoE Silence/Paralyze.

 

[Razmos]

After seeing what Wakka's Over the Top SSB is like, I'm definitely doing some pulls on the X-2 banner, no matter what people say about Yuna's BSSB

 

[CuthbertAllgoodz]

Omg my 3rd draw:

It will help if you add ".jpg" to your link! Grats on Red Scorpion!

 

[Grzi]

Looks like Red Scorpion is a hit.

Ifrit won't stand a chance once he shows up in Global.

 

[Dragner]

Looks like Red Scorpion is a hit.

Ifrit won't stand a chance once he shows up in Global.

yeah Red scorpion and Rinoa BSSB are probably the best 2 relics for that fight.

 

[Grzi]

yeah Red scorpion and Rinoa BSSB are probably the best 2 relics for that fight.

And that Squall jacket. That's basically made for the fight.
That's one of the best looking SBs to me, with those slow meticulous icy slashes. I'll probably go hard on that banner.

 

[The Iron Yuppie]

Front row bruiser with great stats, good breath of equipment, access to top tier abilities (full break etc) and probably one of the best SSB in the game.

His unique SB's are;

40% party heal and protectga
Haste-all and 50% atk buff
6(?) hit combo and 100% stun

Ramza on his own is a great Support, but he also brings two meta-defining relics with him:

Platinum Sword (SSB, Shout) - Hastega with a 50% Attack boost for the whole party. Combine this with BSB/SSB spam and you'll destroy most of the content in the game.

Grand Armor (SB, Tailwind) - 40% HP Medica + Protectga. The only other character with a fixed 40% HP heal is Yuffie, and having such a potent Medica on someone besides the healer opens you up to more options for what the healer can do.

Nu Khai Armband (SB, Hail of Stones) - 6x hit on a single target with guaranteed Stun. Ramza's weakest SB is still something other characters would kill to have.

Agrias herself is no slouch, being one of the best knights in the game and her SB doing an ATK/MAG -50% debuff that will stack with every Break under the sun. Her SSB isn't as desirable, ironically, but still puts out good damage and does AoE Silence/Paralyze.

Whelp......ok. Completely understandable as why he'd be desireable. I've just had such bad luck drawing character defining SB gear, I will not be holding my breath.

 

[ZangBa]

Does anyone know if Orthros' blind chance is 10% per hit, or is it like 10% with all 8 combined? I'm guessing it's per hit, but I'm not about to use 60 stamina on a guess.

 

[Dragner]

And that Squall jacket. That's basically made for the fight.
That's one of the best looking SBs to me, with those slow meticulous icy slashes. I'll probably go hard on that banner.

I have Seifer Jacket that is not bad for the RES up, and Dreamstage that is MVP, but damaging that thing could be difficult.

Does anyone know if Orthros' blind chance is 10% per hit, or is it like 10% with all 8 combined? I'm guessing it's per hit, but I'm not about to use 60 stamina on a guess.

you can try with blind shell, it works wonders if you have a machinist.

 

[ZangBa]

you can try with blind shell, it works wonders if you have a machinist.

It's not compatible with this party. If Orthros isn't reliable, I'd have to use Blindga, and I definitely rather use Orthros.

 

[LucaMac]

I have Seifer Jacket that is not bad for the RES up, and Dreamstage that is MVP, but damaging that thing could be difficult.

I beat it in Japan last week. Bringing it down and mastering it wasn't as tough as I thought it would be with my A team...but that Cid mission. You definitely need FF8 soulbreaks out the wazzo (maybe that phrase should be changed to 'out the Wazzy' in this case). Red scorpion is a good start as Quistis is mandatory.

 

[Starwolf_UK]

Mastery thanks to new toys (though considering I now have 2/3 trinity and some offensive RS it's not much of an accomplishment compared to previous ultimates):

RW was obviously SG. What's that, no 6* accessory that resists thunder? Yeah kinda forgot to get that after all. My stamina went form 4>20 and I took some short breaks. My SB timing probably wasn't great (as in used things too early or maybe even too much, better safe than sorry).

I had one attempt end with counter boulders when Thunder was 1 turn away from running out of HP. That was a bit sad. Worst thing is I had shared SB protectga so had I used that I could have won much sooner. Second worst thing was I had not bother to re-apply blindga.

My first attempt had Zack KOd shortly after the fire gigas was defeated. I got surprisingly far without him...

Don't diss thunderstroke on Yuna (I chose that over double hit as I wanted her to quickly be able to re-apply slowga, drop a curaga or start the long hymn of faith). She got the last hit in, who knows what could have happened otherwise...probably me feeling that I threw it all away via arrogance as before that I was sitting there with Quistis doing nothing thinking "ha Selphie you smack Gilgamesh and it's over...still alive, WHY".

Esura is a blessing in the AI. In the successful attempt Thunder did that twice.

Possible changes? I don't know, you would think Bio strike for Thunder but thing is Zack needed a boost to hit damage cap with weaknesses on the other two (was hitting ~7.5k otherwise) and besides that would slow down the building of the air strikes as I wouldn't be able build SB gauge on on Ice.

I really can't see how I would have managed without the relics I recently pulled.

Note to self. Must re-do the Chinera battle (I didn't blind them) as you don't want to lose out of two major lighting orbs and Arise.

Does anyone know if Orthros' blind chance is 10% per hit, or is it like 10% with all 8 combined? I'm guessing it's per hit, but I'm not about to use 60 stamina on a guess.

I heard it was per hit making cumulative chance around 56% (maybe more if it hits go onto different targets at the cost of less per a given target)...blindga is 60% and has more uses and if you're like me you needed those uses (the 1/3 chance of esuna being used in the weak phase I found handy). However, I have seen a few masteries using that summon though, tends to honed to R3 and accompanied with an R5 Maudin or something.

 

[ZangBa]

I heard it was per hit making cumulative chance around 56% (maybe more if it hits go onto different targets at the cost of less per a given target)...blindga is 60% and has more uses and if you're like me you needed those uses (the 1/3 chance of esuna being used in the weak phase I found handy). However, I have seen a few masteries using that summon though, tends to honed to R3 and accompanied with an R5 Maudin or something.

Thanks, I'll take those chances. I have Orthros at Rank 4, so I feel comfortable with those odds. I just want the blind for mastery nut I need the damage with it, too.

 

[MrDaravon]

Can anyone clarify how we get additional Memory Crystal/II lodes outside of Nightmare Dungeons? Dragner said they start giving them out in events but I'm not seeing this information anywhere or listed as drops from events months out unless I am totally missing something?

 

[Balphon]

Can anyone clarify how we get additional Memory Crystal/II lodes outside of Nightmare Dungeons? Dragner said they start giving them out in events but I'm not seeing this information anywhere or listed as drops from events months out unless I am totally missing something?

Yuna event should have one unless they change it.

Yuna event also adds Auron to the HoR, though, so it's a bit of a push.

 

[MrDaravon]

Yuna event should have one unless they change it.

Yuna event also adds Auron to the HoR, though, so it's a bit of a push.

Okaaaaaaaaaay I see it now, I was looking here for example:

http://ffrk.kongbakpao.com/gunner-yuna-event/

and it's not listed under the rewards summary at the top for the entire event but it is listed under the individual stage you earn it on. Well....that's annoying. Going forward is it a general rule that every event has like one empty MC and one empty MC2 or does it vary? I hate being this specific, but I'm missing a lot of MC2s and have multiple characters that are worthwhile for me to get the MC2 so I need to make tough decisions if we aren't getting these every event.

Edit: That site only lists one empty memory crystal, and doesn't even specify it's an MCII or not. Not sure why I'm having such a hard time with this one piece of information lol.

 

[Starwolf_UK]

Yeah kongbakpao can also sometimes mix between Japanese translation and English terms.

Can anyone clarify how we get additional Memory Crystal/II lodes outside of Nightmare Dungeons? Dragner said they start giving them out in events but I'm not seeing this information anywhere or listed as drops from events months out unless I am totally missing something?

Next event after FFX-2 with a blank MC2 is the FFVIII Edea event (I doubt we're getting the Faris collab).

In slightly less than 3 months we should get the summon hit buff and the new daily dungeons (which were a total reset meaning mythril for all) with the Gysahl Greens drops which can exchanged in the Fat Chocobo shop for two MC2s (along with other things like stamina shards, any orb type and some old accessories).

Edit:https://www.reddit.com/r/FFRecordKeeper/comments/419mia/mc2_order_of_release_repost/
and even that timeline misses the greens

 

[MrDaravon]

Yeah kongbakpao can also sometimes mix between Japanese translation and English terms.


Next event after FFX-2 with a blank MC2 is the FFVIII Edea event (I doubt we're getting the Faris collab).

In slightly less than 3 months we should get the summon hit buff and the new daily dungeons (which were a total reset meaning mythril for all) with the Gysahl Greens drops which can exchanged in the Fat Chocobo shop for two MC2s (along with other things like stamina shards, any orb type and some old accessories).

Edit:https://www.reddit.com/r/FFRecordKeeper/comments/419mia/mc2_order_of_release_repost/
and even that timeline misses the greens

Hmm okay, good to know. Gonna have to make some hard decisions :/. Long term they'll still need to either start recycling MC2s and/or make empty MC/MC2's available another way though.

 

[BassForever]

Hmm okay, good to know. Gonna have to make some hard decisions :/. Long term they'll still need to either start recycling MC2s and/or make empty MC/MC2's available another way though.

Considering mc3s are coming I imagine mc2s will become a lot more common

 

[Falk]

Kongbakpao started off by basically lifting info off Muketsu and running it through Google Translate.

It's gotten a lot better since a few prominent redditors stepped in, but things still fall through the cracks - such is the life of a community information site being done pro bono and having a translation be its basic building block rather than from-scratch.

edit: About MC3s, here are my updated predictions in how the game flows in the coming year: (Again, talking out my ass, but a lot of prior things did come to pass like summons becoming double hit because I'm nostrafalkus)

- Getting to 65 will be super easy, getting to 80 will be like getting to 65 currently, and most characters will exist between 80 and 99, with a steep increase in XP required (prediction: 3x, making the entire grind 4-5x as long due to extra 4 levels right at the top
- MC3 gives Break Damage Limit
- With the diminishing returns on both buff stacking and raw stats (essentially a double dip), BDL is now feasible without people zooming right to 99999 multi-hits when they break. Foreseeing that some formula would be tweaked (ATK softcap increasing based on levels starting from 80, for example) and especially physical vs magic balance revisited.
- 6* gear starts appearing. A tier above BSSB, and the next power upgrade. The power jump will follow SBs -> SSBs -> BSSBs in that they're a ~2 to 2.5x increase in raw output.
- Record Drive gets expanded upon. It's obviously in vestigial stages right now.
- Crystals become farmable. 6* abilities start entering actual usage rather than being status symbols.

And here's the really zany predictions:
- Nightmare hitting 12th crystal opens up new story content, most likely:
- Elites as they are become extremely easy thanks to BDL and 6* RS. A new tier is introduced above Elite for all dungeons, opening up a lot of content at a much higher difficulty. Elite stamina values are tweaked slightly downward.
- Events finally get an overhaul with the bonus battles being condensed. Boss rush as the first bonus battle probably stops becoming a permanent fixture.

The whole idea is that 1) adding a carrot on a stick in terms of power level needs to happen to retain current playerbase and 2) that makes it harder and harder for new players to reach endgame content which creates a high entry barrier. These are two completely antagonistic goals towards each other. The only games that have succesfully pulled it off basically make it easier to blow through all old content and reach a 'intended progression start point'. A really good example of this being handled decently is WoW throughout its lifespan - each expansion resets progression and makes it easy for newcomers to get to a startpoint for that current expansion.

FFRK historically has seen shakeups every six months or so. SSBs (a little late) and BSSBs marked the large gear jumps 6 and 12 months in. I don't think the game can really go much further beyond what BSSBs do now, with the 9999 limit without some kind of larger reset, which both BDL, lv99 cap and 6* gear would bring.

p.s. feel free to bookmark this post and then come back to laugh at me in a year's time.

 

[B.K.]

I crafted and honed Meteor to R2 today and I'm already regretting it. So many 5* orbs gone.

 

[BassForever]

I crafted and honed Meteor to R2 today and I'm already regretting it. So many 5* orbs gone.

Meteor r2 has been pretty vital for me during the last few ultimates with multiple foes, being able to hit everything at 7-8k is pretty excellent

 

[B.K.]

Meteor r2 has been pretty vital for me during the last few ultimates with multiple foes, being able to hit everything at 7-8k is pretty excellent

I must have not had high enough MAG when I used it in the Ultimate fight in Minwu's event. I was only getting about 5k out of it. I wasn't really getting much more damage from it than I was Ruinga.

 

[BassForever]

I must have not had high enough MAG when I used it in the Ultimate fight in Minwu's event. I was only getting about 5k out of it. I wasn't really getting much more damage from it than I was Ruinga.

Hmm I mean I'm probably not a good source of info since I have either a natural 5 star magic rod for the realm or 5+ magic rod and a 5 star magic armor with natural 124 magic combined with a level 80 rinoa with +10 magic :X

 

[Random Painted HIghway]

So I pulled Quistis' red Scorpion in a lucky pull and Bartz Excalibur from the 100 gem pull and was really thinking I would take my earmarked 100 mythril and save it for banner 5 and tactics, but then I got itchy and rationalized that all but one of the relics are extremely useful to me even if realm specific (excluding the sazh gun as I have vegas already)

so I yolo'd and this happened:

So now I have 3/4 of the SSBs featured in this banner and Yuna's HotF which will be very useful in cid missions and the new event tonight. Revolver is combined to be a + and very strong weapon in VIII and a weak dagger that means I can drag anyone into VI and be competent fighters (Tifa with flaming arrow for instance). And I have my first offensive physical relics for V and IX, very powerful ones at that.

I combined the Excaliburs and dumped rosetta stones into it and it now sits at 151 Atk damage with a whopping 268 atk in V realms. Saint's Cross, here I come.

Bummer that Zidane's MC2 is so far off.

 

[Falk]

I must have not had high enough MAG when I used it in the Ultimate fight in Minwu's event. I was only getting about 5k out of it. I wasn't really getting much more damage from it than I was Ruinga.

Meteor does 50% more damage than Ruinga.

Spoiler

okay, well, 52.54%

If you were doing 5k with Meteor, you'd have been doing 3.3 with Ruinga. There's no really complex formula behind it other than a simple ratio of their multipliers. (9 vs 5.9)

edit:

Tickles me that you can't recruit Tidus from an X-2 event. Dey got it right!

 

[Razmos]

9 single pulls on the FFX-2 banner got me Rikku's Fist.

A single 11-pull got me Wakka's SSB. I'm quite happy about this. Wish I'd gotten Yuna's gun though

 

[B.K.]

Tickles me that you can't recruit Tidus from an X-2 event. Dey got it right!

No they didn't!

Spoiler

You can recruit him in X-2 Internationa/HD as part of the creature creator.

 

[Falk]

RIKKU CAN USE BLITZBALLS

HOORAY

 

[Xetherion]

Wow, those changes to medal requirements really made a difference. Didn't lose a single medal on the Gigas trio, not even on damage taken!

 

[BassForever]

No more then 100 gems on this banner, complete junk of course

I still don't have amazing FFX synergy but nothing here really wows me to want to pull

 

[MrDaravon]

Nah Falk I pretty much completely agree with your predictions. I did think they were gonna drag out the leveling though and have MC3 get you to 90 and then later MC4 to hit 99.

 

[Razmos]

Well, decided to do 3 single pulls on the SSB banner and got Quistis' Red Scorpion. It's a shame she's so terrible.

 

[Xetherion]

Well, decided to do 3 single pulls on the SSB banner and got Quistis' Red Scorpion. It's a shame she's so terrible.

People need to get it through their head that Quistis is not that bad. 4* BLM and 4* SUP is plenty to find use from. I got her Red Scorpion back during the event it released, and she's been a permanent member of my Ultimate party ever since. Having native hastega/shellga/high regen is invaluable. Don't underestimate the high regen especially. It basically removes the need for a medica. I use Selphie as my healer because I have her first medica, but in the last couple Ultimates i never used it because the high regen from Mighty Guard did so much healing that i only needed single target heals. I'm actually thinking about just using RS healers from now on, even if i don't have Medicas with them.

 

[B.K.]

I REALLY need a good medica. All I have are weak generic medicas. I do have Y'shtola's robe, but who knows how long she's going to be stuck at 65.

 

[Balphon]

I REALLY need a good medica. All I have are weak generic medicas. I do have Y'shtola's robe, but who knows how long she's going to be stuck at 65.

About 4 months. Hers is one of the better non-SSB AoE heals, though.

Relm's SSB is coming up if you want to invest mythril in it. It comes on a banner with Shadow's SSB, too, which is equally excellent.

 

[Falk]

People need to get it through their head that Quistis is not that bad. 4* BLM and 4* SUP is plenty to find use from. I got her Red Scorpion back during the event it released, and she's been a permanent member of my Ultimate party ever since. Having native hastega/shellga/high regen is invaluable. Don't underestimate the high regen especially. It basically removes the need for a medica. I use Selphie as my healer because I have her first medica, but in the last couple Ultimates i never used it because the high regen from Mighty Guard did so much healing that i only needed single target heals. I'm actually thinking about just using RS healers from now on, even if i don't have Medicas with them.

They're not wrong in terms of pure stats (even if the SSB mastery bonus does help).

As in, it's an amazing SB, which completely outweighs being on a B-tier character, but you can't deny that it'd be better on another character (e.g. Sazh or any other support-focused character). Her damage output is less than pure damage dealers (admittedly this doesn't matter as much with 9999 cap and -jas), and she can't use Full Break.

It's not really just Quistis though. Blue mages in general are gimped, in the 'there's something missing here skillset-wise' way, the same way Dark Knights were gimped. At least Dark Knights had good stats (Cecil sup) and could fall back on 5* combat.

On the bright side, though, if you have it, it's an excellent hastega, AND it's a really good RW, meaning just like Advance back in the day you're gonna have first pick of RWs since people are more likely to follow you back than not.

 

[BassForever]

They're not wrong in terms of pure stats (even if the SSB mastery bonus does help).

As in, it's an amazing SB, which completely outweighs being on a B-tier character, but you can't deny that it'd be better on another character (e.g. Sazh or any other support-focused character). Her damage output is less than pure damage dealers (admittedly this doesn't matter as much with 9999 cap and -jas), and she can't use Full Break.

It's not really just Quistis though. Blue mages in general are gimped, in the 'there's something missing here skillset-wise' way, the same way Dark Knights were gimped. At least Dark Knights had good stats (Cecil sup) and could fall back on 5* combat.

On the bright side, though, if you have it, it's an excellent hastega, AND it's a really good RW, meaning just like Advance back in the day you're gonna have first pick of RWs since people are more likely to follow you back than not.

I mean at the end of the day you can always throw magic/power break down on her have her role just be mitigation and build sb meters for her ssb. If you have someone with retaliate she can still deal respectable damage hitting that character.

 

[Falk]

Again, my point is that's the fact that the SB is really, really good, rather than her character not being sub-par.

She's serviceable. Not Kimahri-tier. Better than Strago. But good Lord the whole lot of them really, really feel like they're missing a skillset.

 

[c-murph]

11 x Pull. Got Tidus' Seeker's Shield.

Yay! Need more 5* Amour as I have very little. What's it's usefulness GAF? Apparently, it gives Haste and 1 ability back?

 

[Xetherion]

Again, my point is that's the fact that the SB is really, really good, rather than her character not being sub-par.

She's serviceable. Not Kimahri-tier. Better than Strago. But good Lord the whole lot of them really, really feel like they're missing a skillset.

I never said she wasn't sub-par. I said she's not that bad, after Razmos called her "terrible". Terrible is Core characters. Blue mages are sub-par due to missing skillset, yes. Though Strago is actually not bad because they bumped him up to 5* black. I do wish they'd do the same for Quistis.

 

[greyshark]

Wasn't sure if I'd pull on the SSB banner but did an 11 pull anyway - got Excalibur, Red Scorpion, and Sabin's fist!

 

[Noi]

I'd begrudgingly use Quistis if I got her Red Scorpion, but it's still kind of annoying cause she's not as good a caster as others and if I use her as support, I can't bring my Full Break R2 with her.

11 x Pull. Got Tidus' Seeker's Shield.

Yay! Need more 5* Amour as I have very little. What's it's usefulness GAF? Apparently, it gives Haste and 1 ability back?

Hastega on a X character for those pesky future Cid's missions that ask for parties with full synergy. Plus that extra ability stock means you can actually bring along stuff like low hone 5* skills and get more use out of them.

 

[c-murph]

I'd begrudgingly use Quistis if I got her Red Scorpion, but it's still kind of annoying cause she's not as good a caster as others and if I use her as support, I can't bring my Full Break R2 with her.



Hastega on a X character for those pesky future Cid's missions that ask for parties with full synergy. Plus that extra ability stock means you can actually bring along stuff like low hone 5* skills and get more use out of them.

Ah, right. That makes so much sense. Thanks! Making Tidus learn that as we speak.

I just realized I can put like Dr.Mog's Teachings on him to start with one bar of energy and I can spam the move every time it fills.

 

[Grzi]

No one got Yuna's BSB? Damn, people really hating on this banner lmao