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[Hours Left]

Another great part of Lulu's Hairpin is the added RES boost, since you can also stack it with a bunch of other buffs. It has saved my hide many times since I don't have a native wall.

For the Gigas Trio for example, I stacked it with Shellga and Garnet's Divine Guardian (a RW), and it helped immensely in mitigating the heavy magic damage.

 

[LucaMac]

Holy cheesecake Batman, now I'm extra super happy. Completely forgot that it would stack.

I reckon I could take on the new BM and the Sum Abyss' with my global account now. They are the only two I haven't been able to beat in Japan because magic has gone downhill so much with rising resistances.

 

[Starwolf_UK]

this is a little random...

anyone have any suggestions on what to do with my growth eggs? All my chars that have their mc are 6x. The chars that have their mc2 are all 7x. Is it worth it egg chars that are 72 or 73 to say, 78 or so even though i don't plan on using them? For a note, i have over 50m xp in eggs...

In the future some characters get their MC2 in the event they debut in. As a result if you want them at level 65 ASAP you're going to have throw a lot of eggs down (possibly they could solo ++ Sunday and ace pilot activates enough).

 

[Noi]

I'm half-convinced that this phase's single Cactuars only drop Greater Earth Orbs. Also that Gigantaur are a myth.

 

[Grzi]

I'm half-convinced that this phase's single Cactuars only drop Greater Earth Orbs. Also that Gigantaur are a myth.

I've gotten 3 MHO in the last 3 runs.
Too bad I need Earth.

But still, I agree that this phase has been a bit stingy with orbs.

 

[Nohar]

Spent nearly all of my Rosetta stones on Excalibur. Having a sword with 142 ATK (241 in the FFV realm) feels good (that's probably overkill...).

Should I unlock Vivi's MC2? I'm wondering if his Materia 3 is worth it.

 

[Noi]

I couldn't resist the temptation anymore, so I went and made this. I blame Falk.

Lvl 80 Tifa with Lifesiphon + Exploding Fist and her SSB's 50% Boost is quite the powerhouse.

 

[broz0rs]

^ Been meaning to ask, but is the damage (multiplier?) on Exploding Fist the same as Thief's Revenge?

 

[Falk]

Hei

"does this SB give more MAG than that SB?"

"does this ability do more than that ability?"

Go to OP, find the "Quick Info" reddit spreadsheet link and use it.

Spoiler

we actually don't know for certain for Exploding Fist

 

[LucaMac]

Spent nearly all of my Rosetta stones on Excalibur. Having a sword with 142 ATK (241 in the FFV realm) feels good (that's probably overkill...).

Should I unlock Vivi's MC2? I'm wondering if his Materia 3 is worth it.

It's great for autobattling with a black mage in the party. Particularly as we've an orbfest on I'd say go for it. If you're autobattling and full partying the orbfest of course. I often leave it on my black mage that needs leveling for dailies too. Been using it non stop in japan since I got it.

 

[Noi]

Google says much lower. I can't find individual hit multipliers, but Exploding Fist is 290 total Potency with a 20% crit chance per hit while Thief's Revenge is 350 Potency at 170 speed.

Since FFRK wants me to have every Monk weapons up the wazoo though, I figured I may as well oblige.

 

[Balphon]

Google says much lower. I can't find individual hit multipliers, but Exploding Fist is 290 total Potency with a 20% crit chance per hit while Thief's Revenge is 350 Potency at 170 speed.

Since FFRK wants me to have every Monk weapons up the wazoo though, I figured I may as well oblige.

Exploding Fist will average 3.2x due to the increased crit rate (20% crit rate on 5 hits means one of them will crit on average, so one of the hits will be for ~0.9x rather than ~0.6x). Thief's Revenge will hit for slightly more (3.5x) with all 5 hits and slightly less (2.8x) with 4, in addition to the drain effect. Really, they are comparable enough that it comes down to whether you want to use a monk or a thief.

 

[jasminlovesyoux]

Gotta be honest I crafted and honed Exploding Fist once after I acquired Tifas Boostga relic and I'm pretty disappointed with its damage. I wish it crit as much as Clouds BSSB stuff because when it crits its sweet. There's plenty of times I've used Exploding Fist and thought to myself wow, thats it? The cost of orbs to effectiveness just wasn't worth it imo.

 

[broz0rs]

Hei

"does this SB give more MAG than that SB?"

"does this ability do more than that ability?"

Go to OP, find the "Quick Info" reddit spreadsheet link and use it.

Spoiler

we actually don't know for certain for Exploding Fist

I probably should have phrased it better, but I wanted to see a discussion on Exploding Fist vs. Thief's Revenge, especially since the thief ability has had its fair share of mentions in this thread while the monk ability has not. It seems there's good reasons why not many people here are not crafting Exploding Fist.

 

[Falk]

In most head-to-head metrics, it simply loses out:

- Crit-based damage means it's (within reason) easier to lose out damage by 9999 cap
- With average crit taken into account, still comes out about 10% short vs Thief's Revenge
- Thief's Revenge will more or less heal you to full

But that's not taking orb types and available gear into account. Monk characters also can AOE while many Thief characters can't Bladeblitz.

 

[Razmos]

Holy shit the Gigas fight is crazy. There is no way to mitigate that much damage and so quickly. I had them consistently slowed and blinded for the entire fight (until they started casting Esuna) and they still absolutely wiped me out.

Also fuck the Doublecast materia for consistently activating on Blizzaja rather than Meteor, and the second one always restoring the Ice Gigas' health.

 

[Dragner]

Holy shit the Gigas fight is crazy. There is no way to mitigate that much damage and so quickly. I had them consistently slowed and blinded for the entire fight (until they started casting Esuna) and they still absolutely wiped me out.

Also fuck the Doublecast materia for consistently activating on Blizzaja rather than Meteor, and the second one always restoring the Ice Gigas' health.

Yeah the gigas battle is savage. For me hardest one so far, I breathed through everything so far but the gigas took me more than 30 S/L. So much RNG, I suppose that it helps to have synergy weapons (I didnt).

The key of the fight is hastega. Hastega > Wall, garnet SSB as RW if you dont have haste heavy regeneration helps a lot. Its what I used on my clear after trying with wall.

 

[Star Falcon]

Are you AOEing them or single target 1 by 1? Either way Hastega is important, i went with a 1 by 1 strategy and getting the first Gigas down asap was the toughest phase.
Mitigation wise, i didn't bother with Breakdowns or Dances this time. Instead, i took 2 white mages with the following:

Y'shtola (Wall) Shellga + Diaga
Minwu (AoE Curaga) Curaja + Protectga
RW: Divine Guardian (Garnet SSB)

That seemed like the best setup with the tools i had, and it mitigated them pretty excellently. Rest of the group could then focus on nuking 1 by 1 ( Firion, Maria + Terra). If anyone in your comp. is particularly squishy try giving them the Adel or Necrophobe accesory if you have it.
It was a tough Ultimate for me, took a bit of experimentation and party changes to make it click. Only Vossler and Bahamut SIN gave me more trouble. Good luck!

 

[Falk]

If you're having problems with mitigation, AOEing them down seems like it'd just make it worse considering they actually hurt significantly more below half HP.

t-e-a-m-n-o-2-r-s

 

[ZangBa]

One of the easier Ultimates for me. I used an all mage team with a mix of AoE and Jas. Once one of them died, the next was hitting 50%. That way I was doing a lot of damage overall, but not getting myself hammered by multiple weak phases.

 

[BassForever]

I aoe'd them down with wall and hastega, they weren't that scary most annoying part was getting the status to land.

 

[Dragner]

Next ultimate is simmilar to this one, luckily blind makes this much easier, but Leblank has mass dispel so yeah.

So many AOE ultimates lately (Tactics is also AOE).

 

[Kain]

Next ultimate is simmilar to this one, luckily blind makes this much easier, but Leblank has mass dispel so yeah.

So many AOE ultimates lately (Tactics is also AOE).

Don't tell me the Tactics Ultimate is a Lucavi plus a couple of those nasty demons? Ugh

 

[Dragner]

Don't tell me the Tactics Ultimate is a Lucavi plus a couple of those nasty demons? Ugh

Is basically Riovannes Castle(yai)

 

[Kain]

Is basically Riovannes Castle(yai)

Hahahahaha that battle gave me nightmares years ago (honestly because of Wiegraf more than because of Belias) and now he's coming back? OK, I want to master that son of a bitch.

 

[Razmos]

Yeah the gigas battle is savage. For me hardest one so far, I breathed through everything so far but the gigas took me more than 30 S/L. So much RNG, I suppose that it helps to have synergy weapons (I didnt).

The key of the fight is hastega. Hastega > Wall, garnet SSB as RW if you dont have haste heavy regeneration helps a lot. Its what I used on my clear after trying with wall.

Are you AOEing them or single target 1 by 1? Either way Hastega is important, i went with a 1 by 1 strategy and getting the first Gigas down asap was the toughest phase.
Mitigation wise, i didn't bother with Breakdowns or Dances this time. Instead, i took 2 white mages with the following:

Y'shtola (Wall) Shellga + Diaga
Minwu (AoE Curaga) Curaja + Protectga
RW: Divine Guardian (Garnet SSB)

That seemed like the best setup with the tools i had, and it mitigated them pretty excellently. Rest of the group could then focus on nuking 1 by 1 ( Firion, Maria + Terra). If anyone in your comp. is particularly squishy try giving them the Adel or Necrophobe accesory if you have it.
It was a tough Ultimate for me, took a bit of experimentation and party changes to make it click. Only Vossler and Bahamut SIN gave me more trouble. Good luck!

If you're having problems with mitigation, AOEing them down seems like it'd just make it worse considering they actually hurt significantly more below half HP.

t-e-a-m-n-o-2-r-s

Very good points, thank you. Didnt even think to burst them down one by one. I just love Blade Beam spam too much

 

[ActStriker]

My only 5* I've pulled during SSB fest so far is Yuna's Lullaby Rod (Hymn of the Fayth)

At least it's a AoE Heal so I don't have to rely on Mystery Veil Shared SB

 

[Pejo]

It's been so long since I actually tried a hard fight past the level 90/99 stuff that I auto attack through on events, that I'm actually getting antsy about trying. I want to, at the very least, beat the Dreadnought for my extra Memory Lode II. Ideally I'd also like to try for Firion's MC2 before it disappears. I also have read a few strategies for the nightmare boss for Ultima, that seem attainable.

I was reading up a bit on the newest Meta which seems to be to put Gilgamesh in with retaliate and draw fire, Advance on RW then just do the standard Retaliate stuff, would that be a good strat against Dreadnought?

 

[jasminlovesyoux]

I was reading up a bit on the newest Meta which seems to be to put Gilgamesh in with retaliate and draw fire, Advance on RW then just do the standard Retaliate stuff, would that be a good strat against Dreadnought?

Retaliate + Advance is a great strat for everything (ok maybe 90% of the content lol). Just slow and/or blind that boss as well and I think you'll have zero issues.

 

[Lights and Waves]

Waiting to use my last 2 MC2 lodes on whoever I get relics for with Banners 4 and 5. This wait is making me anxious!

 

[Kain]

Just mastered Ultima buster. Very, very, very easy with the following:

- RW with hastega (even Red's works because you will receive no damage)

- Carbuncle honed to R2

- Ninja abilities (fire and thunder)

That's it, I killed the guy two times because the first time I forgot to hit the mana sphere with Comet and Waterga, thus failing at the mastery.

The key are the ninja abilities if your mages are not hitting hard enough, and they are very cheap to create and hone, too.

It's cool that it only takes 1 stamina to try the boss, that way you can experiment a lot. I spent maybe 5 stamina in total.

 

[Entropia]

Not sure who to use my 3 MC2 crystals on. The only person I've broken to 65-80 is Garnet.

 

[Lights and Waves]

Not sure who to use my 3 MC2 crystals on. The only person I've broken to 65-80 is Garnet.

Wait until after your banner pulls at the end of SSB Fest. Give it to whomever you got a SSB for.

 

[Entropia]

Wait until after your banner pulls at the end of SSB Fest. Give it to whomever you got a SSB for.

Makes sense. I think the only person I have an SSB for is Red XIII

 

[Razmos]

Had a perfect run of the Gigas fight, managing to take down both the Fire and Ice Gigas, and then the thunder Gigas singlehandedly wiped out my entire party by spamming spark over and over and managing to hit my healer with a boulder through blind.

Thats 15 minutes of my life i'm never getting back.

Edit: amazing. Another perfect run with no problems, then suddenly the ice and thunder Gigas team up their attacks and burst Cloud down from full health before I can heal him

 

[Grzi]

Decided to fight the Gigas just so I can switch up my strategy tomorrow if I mess something up.

Fight starts, just have to activate Mighty Guard and we good, but no, we're not good because I forgot to put Mako Might on Quistis. Yeah, not even gonna try, now I gotta wait for my stamina to refill.

 

[Razmos]

Beat the Gigas fight finally and mastered it, I might have fist bumped the air. The Lightning Gigas tried it's hardest to get me down at the end but it fell to the might of Planet Protector boosted Blade Beam and Thief's Revenge.

I can't believe that so long ago I got Locke's Rising Sun and thought it was a terrible relic on a terrible character, and now look at him, all grown up at level 80 using his lower tier Soul Break to slow all the Gigas at once at 100% chance and then burning down the lightning Gigas with a 15k damage Thief's Revenge. Beautiful.

Anyway, started on the FFX-2 event and gave my Rikku the Thunder stroke RM. At autobattle speed level 5 she's sometimes hitting twice before any other characters get an action lol

 

[Ahnez]

5 mythril - Hope's SSB

I don't even have Hope unlocked.. But a SSB relic is always welcome

 

[Jarekx]

I've started JP and I keep rerolling on the abyss banner. Send Halp.

 

[Negator]

Can you reroll on the W Burst banner or not enough Mythril?

 

[Jarekx]

Can you reroll on the W Burst banner or not enough Mythril?

I do the free five pull from the cid mission on the current BSB banner. Just got Squall's BSB from that pull so I'll probably stick with this account. I could probably build up 50 but idk if I want to put in the time for it.

 

[Kain]

I tried the Gigas fight and oh boy, is it a trainwreck. In one of the tries the three of them spammed their Blaze/Thunder/Blizzard bullshit at the same time. Each hit was between 2-3ks and they all hit at least twice. Yeah.

I'll try a couple more times tomorrow and then I'll give up, I don't need that shit in my life xD

 

[MrDaravon]

Just spent a good while going through my inventory and cleaning house as well as upgrading and combining, feels great to be cleaned up there. 3++ armor pieces for the most part still have a place for me, but I've got so many natural 4++/5/5+ weapons that for a lot of realms and weapon types 3*s are straight to the trash now.

Wish we'd be through the SSB banners, I want to know which MC2s I'm getting from the Hall of Rites. I'll probably feel obligated to grab Hope's since I got his SSB, but past that not sure. Bartz and Gilgamesh seem like general all around good picks, but I don't have any character relics at all for Gilgamesh and only Brave Blade for Bartz. I'd love to grab Locke's so I'm secretly hoping I get his SSB on Banner 4 with my 100 gem pull or something, but most of that banner sucks and I wasn't planning on doing any pulls really :/

 

[WarAdept]

I just went straight for Bartz and Gilgamesh because not only are they top tier characters, their RM3s are potentially useful for me.

The other two MCII lodes was a bit harder. I went Locke because I've already committed to Thief's Revenge (and it's super awesome!).

Last went to Tifa. I have her SSB. I considered Vivi (my favourite) or Hope (got Brutal Sanction) but I tend to only bring one mage to most content and Terra is already superior.

 

[MrDaravon]

I just went straight for Bartz and Gilgamesh because not only are they top tier characters, their RM3s are potentially useful for me.

The other two MCII lodes was a bit harder. I went Locke because I've already committed to Thief's Revenge (and it's super awesome!).

Last went to Tifa. I have her SSB. I considered Vivi (my favourite) or Hope (got Brutal Sanction) but I tend to only bring one mage to most content and Terra is already superior.

Man, hadn't even thought about RM3s as a consideration, I'll need to do that. I used one for Rinoa so I still have 3 left but I'm missing either 12 or 13 MC2's . Only character I'm missing that I have a SSB for is Hope so I'll probably wind up doing him. Vivi's also mildly temping since I have an okay relic for him (Oak Staff) but I've already got my bae Terra at 80 with Maduin's Horn soooo

Is Locke still worth breaking just for Thief's Revenge even if you don't have any of his relics? I feel like I really need to look into upcoming meta, I only in passing understand the Scream meta and some of the other stuff, should probably educate myself before using any more lodes.

 

[Grzi]

Even though I did it on the first try, I'd still say this was one of the harder Ultimate fights. Quistis SSB basically saved my life, my first hastega and I don't know how I've managed so far without it.

Things that would've made the fight easier:
- putting that lightning resist accessory from the Nightmare dungeon on Penelo, but I forgot.
- using Spellblades instead of Black Mages, especially since I have Penelo's Medica + Boostga. Only Cloud benefited from the Boost in this setup, but it helped a lot. The damage from Fenrir Overdrive was crazy - 45k on the Thunder Gigas, plus 18k with Quad Cut. Still, if I had used Spellblades and gave Penelo Dr. Mog's teaching, I would be doing crazy damage from the start.

Setup, with just a single RS accessory lol:

RW was SG of course.

 

[WarAdept]

Is Locke still worth breaking just for Thief's Revenge even if you don't have any of his relics? I feel like I really need to look into upcoming meta, I only in passing understand the Scream meta and some of the other stuff, should probably educate myself before using any more lodes.

Thieves are going to lose some value with Scream nullifying half of what makes Steal Power so good, however there are several realms where the resident Thief can't reach 170 speed, even with synergy. Some don't even have a Thief. For me, that's more than enough to double break Locke.

Easy to equip (swords) as well.

It really depends on your general party make up. Thieves have always been my melee damage dealers with Steal Power and Tempo Flurry serving to buff and debuff physical and also inflict Slow (which is a super common requirement). Now I'll basically have a self sufficient fighter that deals high damage by replacing Steal Power with Thief's Revenge and contributes to status /requirements via Tempo Flurry.

 

[Balphon]

Is Locke still worth breaking just for Thief's Revenge even if you don't have any of his relics? I feel like I really need to look into upcoming meta, I only in passing understand the Scream meta and some of the other stuff, should probably educate myself before using any more lodes.

Thief's Revenge is still very powerful at 4 hits, which Locke and the other top-SPD thieves will get in the low 60's or so. I wouldn't prioritize Locke over someone you use a lot or someone with a RM you need/want.

Locke's RM2 is quite good if you find yourself using daggers a bunch, though.

 

[Falk]

I forgot to mention

I actually pulled Banner 1 again and retroactively made the 0 5* skunk my Banner 2 pull.

Sephiroth SSB, Sabin's (B-tier) boostga and Oak Staff.

GUYS I GOT AN SSB.

on the other hand getting 0 5* on Banner 2 sucks

but i'm now a time traveller and pulled banner 2 half a week ago

 

[MrDaravon]

Hmm, thanks for the responses. I'll just have to weigh my options after banners are over.

Also for posterity, Orbfest Phase Three totals, did 23 refreshes and the gains do include the Mastery Rewards so you'd need to subtract 3 each on the MO to determine how many actually dropped.

3* White - 120 -> 664
4* White - 95 -> 162
5* White - 24 -> 33

3* Holy - 40 -> 551
4* Holy - 8 -> 71
5* Holy - 10 -> 19

3* Earth - 191 -> 714
4* Earth - 81 -> 145
5* Earth - 16 -> 23

About on par with previous phases so can't complain, especially since half the reason I'm doing this is for level grinding; I got everyone to at least 50 last phase, this phase I got 15 people from 50 to 65 lol. Almost kinda glad phase 4 is about to start, I'm super happy with getting everyone leveled up but burnout is starting to hit pretty hard. I've largely been doing this while watching FGC streams etc, but even then it's starting to get to me. Will probably do about the same amount of refreshes next phase, likely won't do any refreshing on the mat phase outside of maybe a few to cap out whatever party I have going at the time or something. Still happy to be playing catchup in that regard.