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[MicH]

Yeah, I love seeing what other people pull even if it makes me a tad jealous To be honest, if it weren't for the community surrounding this game (on GAF in particular) I probably wouldn't play this game. A good community means everything for me, especially when it comes to mobile/gacha games

 

[Hours Left]

I think it's important to remember that even if you don't get the "best" relics, you can still do well in this game. There's a bit of an all-or-nothing attitude that surrounds this game sometime, and that's not the most productive way to think.

I wouldn't say that I've had bad luck, but I certainly haven't been as fortunate as some of the other players here, and I've been able to Master all the Ultimates so far. (A few were a bit harrowing, but once I got over the fact I didn't have the latest shiny SSB/BSSB I could still make it work.) Up until just before the SSB fest, I had zero SSBs, one unique Medica (Aerith's first), and no native Hastega or Wall. It required more work, and some extra planning, but it wasn't insurmountable. Now I have a couple SSBs (no melee ones though), another Medica, and a Hastega, and I'm happy about that, but even if I didn't I'd keep going. It sucks to save and save and get nothing, I've been there, but most of us here have enough tools to get the job done even if it doesn't seem like it at first. (And if you have a Wall and/or a BSSB, and you're sufficiently leveled, you're in a pretty good place already, so don't get too stressed out about missing out on Shout if you did. I don't have any of those yet and I'm not sweating it.)

There may come a time when some of us reach a fight that's just too much, but it's not the end of the world. And I don't think anybody here completed the first FFVIII Elite event, so none of us have perfect records anyway. (And if you did, great job.)

 

[firehawk12]

I think Falk is right though. The problem is that JP players have already min/maxed the content that's coming up and there's this optimal strategy that everyone should aim for. It was retameta for a while and now it's shout meta. If we had no idea about upcoming banners and ultimates and whatnot, it'd probably be a completely different story.

 

[Falk]

knight 5,
knight 4

Truly the most OP

 

[Dragner]

Yeah I remember my first ultimate. No hastega, wall, or medica, terrible hones and still managed to do it (5 myhtril later xD). The game is still fair and doesnt require a lot of gear to function. I think honing skills is the most important thing and can be as effective as SSB spamming. The only thing that gives SSB an edge is that it allows you to have lower hones.

Truly the most OP

Ops, I changed it, I meant White 4.

 

[Falk]

Yea, the FFT characters are like that. Maybe alluding to it being a job-based game?

Also 30%, outside of stat buffs as opposed to damage buffs, is the highest in the game right now, more or less?

(Stat buffs are running up against double softcap now - Magic maybe a little less than Attack)

 

[Star Falcon]

Talking of Global foresight, is Cagnazzo U+ the next 'tougher than usual' boss? Most FF4 gear is Mage-y, so figure it'll be tough pulling off a full Physical team for it.

 

[Hours Left]

I think Falk is right though. The problem is that JP players have already min/maxed the content that's coming up and there's this optimal strategy that everyone should aim for. It was retameta for a while and now it's shout meta. If we had no idea about upcoming banners and ultimates and whatnot, it'd probably be a completely different story.

It's nice to have that framework (Global is very lucky in that regard), but the most effective strategy isn't the only strategy. People were hyping up the huge turning point that was Bahamut SIN, and while it was definitely difficult, and I felt some initial frustration, I was able to beat it without a single physical FFVII SB, Wall or a beefed up Medica. (Just Aerith's no frills Healing Wind and a Hastega/Boostga RW.)

I think the best advice is to focus on what you do have, even if you're not as strong as someone else, you're probably still strong enough if you have an understanding of this game. Identify the biggest hole in your gear/skills for each fight, use a RW to fill that, and just do your best to make do with what you have, you might be surprised.

 

[Falk]

It says something that a lot of the earlier Ultimates were tricky because people were doing TOO much damage too fast and pushing bosses over thresholds with scripted attacks that you couldn't deal with in time. In more than a few cases you had to stop dps to get enough SB for 2nd wave of mitigation.

Beatrix for example. STOCK BREAK STOCK BREAK STOCK BREAK LOL

 

[Dragner]

They talk bad things about Ultimate Rufus on Vincent event. People say is harder than bahamut sin...

 

[Falk]

Talking of Global foresight, is Cagnazzo U+ the next 'tougher than usual' boss? Most FF4 gear is Mage-y, so figure it'll be tough pulling off a full Physical team for it.

That's pretty tricky because you need to land 3 lightning attacks with very little prior warning. What happens is if you select an ability, then Cagnazzo gets his water up, you're sunk because you won't be able to get your next turn, ATB and all, before time is up. On the other hand you can't just spam Lightning nonstop since he NULLs it outside of his water state.

It's more of a mechanic fight than a numerically hard one, but this is one fight where you're in luck if you have a Hastega on a character that can Lifesiphon, since that takes his AOE slow out of the equation for savescumming.

Personally I'm looking at Cid missions as the peak of content - party loadout is EXTREMELY limited for those, although on the flipside you don't really need to worry about medals.

Rinoa BSSB Cid mission (G.F. Bahamut, full FFVIII party) looks brutal. But even then there's some videos of people doing it with like a lv50 Quistis using Breakdowns (lol)

 

[Star Falcon]

Yeah sounds like there will definitely be a few rounds of angst. I guess Edge might be handy as the Lightning scrolls could be quick enough to burst through the Water (not sure how long it takes for him to charge it). Looking forward to it though, along with the Cid Missions! I like to try and bring synergy characters where possible anyway.

They talk bad things about Ultimate Rufus on Vincent event. People say is harder than bahamut sin...

I'd imagine they fixed it for this version, but doesn't Odin instantly KO the dog?

 

[Entropia]

Wooo! Single pulled the right Platinum Sword!


I've never even really played FFT. I rented it way back in the day, but I got bored of it within minutes. :s

 

[Noi]

I think it's important to remember that even if you don't get the "best" relics, you can still do well in this game. There's a bit of an all-or-nothing attitude that surrounds this game sometime, and that's not the most productive way to think.

This is something that I've slowly been learning as I play the game longer. Back during the FF7 AC event, there was this sense of dread looming about future Ultimates, how tough SIN would be and what the best relics for the anniversary would be. With that in mind, I planned out and budgeted my mythril, but still took chances with pulls in banners that weren't "optimal".

What I was hoping to get ever since the FF7 AC Banners:

Any Hastega relic.
1st Fusion Sword
Excalibur (V)
Valiant Knife
Riot Blade
Sentinel's Grimoire
Genji Blade
Any of the FFT SSBs

What notable relics I got, along with comments about it.

Master Fist (VII) - which is the sole reason I managed to clear Bahamut SIN. Potent fist weapon even when lacking synergy. Dolphin Blow is incredibly strong, often leading to 9999x4 hits when under the ATK+50% boost.

Masamune (II) - Guaranteed blind has been incredibly useful, it's my strongest off-synergy sword at 123 ATK.

Moore Branch (V) dupe - While I was salty about it initially, I kept it in combined and it's worked great any time I need to double mage it up. Once I do combine it, it's gonna be my strongest caster stick.

Orchalcum (IX) - SSB doesn't play nice with Shout, but it's still a really strong dagger on its own.

Organics (VII) - It's no Fenrir Overdrive, but having a toy for Cloud Keeper is never a bad thing.

Wizard Staff (VII) - While the SSB itself is a bit of a stinker, FF7 caster gear is incredibly rare and it's now my most potent MIND stick when lacking synergy.

Peacemaker (XIII) - Your typical damage SSB, but on a solid gun which lots of new characters can get use out of.

Wutai Headband (VII) X2 - This made me cringe initially, but I haven't even needed to use the SB itself yet to make use of it. Combined, it's my single strongest piece of mage armor, Exdeath hat buff when.

Grand Armor and Kaiser Shield (FFT) - Do I even need to

Other relics pulled include Rune Mog, both of Zell's fists, Ebon Armor, Basilisk Claw, a Skycutter dupe and TONS of useful fully combined 4* relics, the unsung heroes of the game.

So while I didn't get a single thing I was hoping I would get, I still made out with a great haul that's gonna let me play around with tons of options that were previously unavailable to me. The lack of a hastega still stings, but that's been lessened by Wall not being as necessary for Ultimates as it used to be. I've managed to clear everything since Adel with just normal mitigation and good Hastega RW use. Obligatory / essential relics be damned. If I only listend to reddit's most optimal suggestions, I wouldn't have gotten as much mileage out of Exploding Fist R2 as I have.

 

[Falk]

I'd imagine they fixed it for this version, but doesn't Odin instantly KO the dog?

Does it? I was under the assumption it applied a regular Death effect, and the dog doesn't seem to be vulnerable to Death.

 

[Razmos]

I've done 5 pulls on the tactics banner so far. Trash mostly though I did get a second Zantetsuken which is cool. Better than no 5 stars at all!

Not that I'm particularly fussed for this banner though.

 

[Noi]

The very first thing this jerk did was apply Haste to himself, then protect on his next turn. Despite that, Lightning w/ Shout did ~7.7k damage per SSB hit, then 9k+ when I landed Full Break. Praise the goddess indeed.

The initial setup to the fight could have gone awry at any moment. Forget Tsunami, it was the bleedin' 3k damage double Blizzagas raining down relentlessly that almost got me, and that was with Shell cast before his fight. Thank god for HotF + Tailwind.

 

[ZangBa]

For me, Bahamut Sin lived up to the hype. I couldn't even clear it. The power boost I gained should help me catch up with everyone else now.

 

[Jarekx]

I forgot my 100 gem pull on Tactics. I did it and got Grand Armor....so now I have all 3 of Ramza's relics. I may just RW shout and use Tailwind with Lifesiphon to keep everyone healed.

I would've rathered it been Agrias' Shield (have lightnings SSB and like the debuffs), but I'm happy with it.

 

[Lights and Waves]

My 100 gem pull got me Ramza's soul break! Not shout though, the other one T_T

 

[Dragner]

My 100 gem pull got me Ramza's soul break! Not shout though, the other one T_T

There are 2 other ones.

But both are pretty good.

 

[MrDaravon]

Got enough for another 3-pull, got another generic off-banner relic (FFXIII's Feral Pride light armor). These off-banner rates seem weird, but it's impossible to say if they're actually off or not really.


Anyway, my overall SSB/Orbfest results!

Pulls:

-From the 3 Lucky Draws: Ras Algethi, Healer's Robe, Masamune, Maduin's Horn, Healing Grimoire
-Banner 1: Oak Staff, Emerald Shield, Lullaby Rod, Yoshiyuki
-Banner 2: Hawkeye
-Banner 3: Organics
-Banner 4: Valiant Knife
-Banner 5: Ebon Armor, Peacemaker

145 total mythril spent on banners not counting lucky draws which were a wash, so I'm pretty darn happy overall with my pulls given that amount of mythril put in. Except for the Emerald Shield NONE of these were duplicates. Maduin's Horn was probably my most wanted item in the game (Terra is my bae and a staple at 80 for me) so I'm super happy about that, Cloud has also been sitting at 80 for me with no character relic so that Organics was actually a nice pull for me. Also very happy about the Valiant Knife and Peacemaker, and having another Medica in the Healer's Robe certainly isn't a bad thing (although she won't replace my level 70+ Yuna with Hymn of the Fayth anytime soon). I already had Sentinel's Grimoire so no worries there for me.

Total number of 5* orbs gained including conversion and rewards for the first 4 phases (128 refreshes total, didn't bother tracking mats):

Black - 23
Dark - 23
Lightning - 30
Power - 26
Non-Elemental -36
Wind - 34
White - 22
Holy - 20
Earth - 18
Summon - 15
Fire - 21
Ice - 16


-Leveled 61 characters from level 1-50 (every character I had not already at 50)
-Leveled 45 characters from level 50+ to 65
-Mastered all the miscellaneous Unique SB I hadn't bothered to yet, somewhere around 20 or so.


So yeah, all in all pretty happy, especially with my leveling which I really wish I could have done more of. With one exception I have everyone at 65 who currently has a MC2 available, and I'm going off of the reddit listing of upcoming MC2's and leveling people in that orde, right now I'm already like 10 or so events ahead of that curve.

 

[BassForever]

JEEBUS FUCK DISASTER

*rage*

Dunno if anyone tried final dungeon in this update, but the boss has a move called disaster which is basically bad breth and can confuse/blind/silence your whole party

 

[Star Falcon]

The shock I had with the Leviathan FF3 fight was his immense health pool. I was out of abilities by the end of it. Draw Fire + Retaliate did a good job of nullifying his Petrify.

Does it? I was under the assumption it applied a regular Death effect, and the dog doesn't seem to be vulnerable to Death.

I'm pretty sure it worked on a previous iteration of Rufus + Dark Nation. I could be wrong.

JEEBUS FUCK DISASTER

Amazing

So yeah, all in all pretty happy, especially with my leveling which I really wish I could have done more of. With one exception I have everyone at 65 who currently has a MC2 available, and I'm going off of the reddit listing of upcoming MC2's and leveling people in that orde, right now I'm already like 10 or so events ahead of that curve.

Yeah looks like you reaped the Spring Festival pretty well, time to boss through the Ultimates! Did you get LeBlanc down already?

 

[Negator]

That fight was infuriating. Had to SL a lot and got a fight where he just didn't use it.

 

[Falk]

I'm pretty sure it worked on a previous iteration of Rufus + Dark Nation. I could be wrong.

Oh hahaha, I thought you meant the JP Ultimate.

Yeah, I think you can Death the dog in Elite dungeon.

JEEBUS FUCK DISASTER

*rage*

Dunno if anyone tried final dungeon in this update, but the boss has a move called disaster which is basically bad break and can confuse/blind/silence your whole party

https://www.myinstants.com/instant/its-a-disaster-6mil-echoslam/

 

[Jarekx]

Leblanc down. Actually decided to make and hone both Meteor to r3 and Bahamut to r2 because YOLO. Gave both to Rinoa and she laid down the hurt along with Auron running Yukikaze and Flashing Blade, and Lightning using Ace Striker and Crushing Blow.

Took a couple resets from unlucky slow / blind procs. I finally gave up on Tempo Flurry and had Rinoa do it with Angel Wing Quake late in the fight.

When do Ultimate+ battles start? Do we get Cid Missions from the go or does that come later down the line?

 

[ActStriker]

Probably gonna attempt the Ultimate tomorrow. Back to Black/Power Orb day

 

[BassForever]

Shout into Auron ssb with synergy gear doing 9999 x 5 mah gawd

 

[Dragner]

Shout into Auron ssb with synergy gear doing 9999 x 5 mah gawd

Yeah I had the same feel with Bartz SSB 5 x 9999 dmg. Welcome to scream meta .

 

[Mknzy]

Wow. I hoped after my bad luck with the lucky draws, it would turn around for the Tactics banner. I had enough saved up for 3 ten pulls, went 1/33, and the one wasn't shout. I think my luck just sucks.

 

[Star Falcon]

When do Ultimate+ battles start? Do we get Cid Missions from the go or does that come later down the line?

The Vincent event has the first Ultimate+, which is 2 events from now (against Hojo by looks of it).

Cid Missions don't start for a while still.

 

[Dragner]

Cid missions start at Braska event. Still a while until that.

 

[Kouriozan]

Yeah I had the same feel with Bartz SSB 5 x 9999 dmg. Welcome to scream meta .

Yeah, seeing Cloud doing 8x 9999 damages feels so good.

 

[MrDaravon]

Yeah looks like you reaped the Spring Festival pretty well, time to boss through the Ultimates! Did you get LeBlanc down already?

Damn yeah I need to do that, will need to figure out a party for that. Right now I'm running through the new Classic dungeons, for DPS I've swapped out Red XIII for Locke since I've got his Valiant Knife and I can just unload Full Break on Tyro instead of Red XIII. Also finally just did some hones post-orbfest, got Full Break up to R2, got another Life Siphon up to R3, rounded out my last two -jas at R3 as well as made Drainga and got it up to R3. Feels good, higher hones are always better but I don't feel like I'm specifically lacking in anything at the moment that I desperately need. On the other hand I don't run Summons lol.

What's a decent gameplan for Locke with Valiant Knife, thinking Thief's Revenge (which I have at r2) + either Life Siphon or Steal Power maybe? I haven't really touched any of the thief characters so far. Also not sure what RM I should rock with him, thinking either a +dagger damage one, or maybe Mako Might or auto-Haste?

 

[Star Falcon]

Dragoon's Determination would play nice with Thief's Revenge.

 

[Falk]

If you're gonna steal power and have RS gear, Locke's 20% knife damage (or w/e your thief is using) would probably be better than DD.

 

[MrDaravon]

Dragoon's Determination would play nice with Thief's Raid.

Hmm, I'm already using that on Cloud, but unless I use a Fenrir RW for him Locke is probably going to wind up being more of a damage dealer anyway. Right now Mako Might is decent for Locke since its giving me a free Valiant Strike. Pirates' Code maybe a good option as well, need to look up how much extra damage that gives.

 

[Brandson]

Doesn't Steal Power conflict with Shout atk-buff-wise?

 

[Balphon]

Doesn't Steal Power conflict with Shout atk-buff-wise?

They'll overwrite each other but are the same potency.

Still, you're better off with Power Breakdown if you intend to run Shout even with the slightly lower duration.

 

[MrDaravon]

I fucking give up on this Ultimate. I honestly wish there was some kind of way to link to my entire account character/gear/ability/etc wise because I just honestly do not fucking understand why I can't even come close to doing this and I know I should be able to. Draw Fire is fucking me, even with Blind Shell or Blindga (I've tried both now) it often takes two applications to get Blind on Ormi, then often two again to get it on Logos, and by this point I've already wasted so much time getting that set up along with my own mitigation that Leblanc is doing the group AoE attack, and Ormi just constantly is getting rid of his own Blind every time he does Draw Fire. Like even trying to zerg it the closest I've gotten is everyone down to like 60%. I've tried Death Blossom RW (for the AoE slow) as well as Fenrir Overdrive for my own DPS and I'm just getting absolutely nowhere. Takes me too long to set up and then I just get blown the fuck up, I can't keep up with all of the mitigation and applying Blind to them on top of doing any sort of damage. Have wasted the 60 Stamina 3 separate occasions on this now, fuck it.

 

[Balphon]

If you're going to RW an AoE slow you should look for somebody with Desperado. It's the best one at the moment.

Ormi will use draw fire fairly predictably (i.e. he will almost certainly counter with it on the first or second attack on Leblanc) and it has a cooldown of sorts, so your goals are to blind him and kill Leblanc before she can use no love lost more than once. You can probably just ignore Logos completely since blind doesn't actually seem to be very effective on him anyway.

 

[ultra7k]

Pulled 2 Platinum Swords yesterday on my first and last draws. It's probably better to wait and combine them after the FFT event right?

 

[Brandson]

I fucking give up on this Ultimate.

I mastered it with a party of Squall, Faris, Cloud, Lenna, and Red XIII, with a wall RW. Using wall, Faris' aoe ATK/MAG debuff, and protectga is quite effective, plus whatever breaks you can manage after that. If you have native wall or an aoe atk/mag debuff, RW the other. If you don't have either of those, then RW wall and try to apply whatever AOE status debuff SB you have.

You have to hit someone other than Ormi first, then blind him, otherwise he clears the blind instantly when he casts Draw Fire. If you blind him after he already did Draw Fire, he won't Draw Fire again until blind wears off. Landing blind once (with dark buster even) was enough for me to kill both of the others before it wore. I slowed Ormi at the end after the others were dead for the medal requirement, so I didn't waste turns trying to land that while he was blinded. I preferred killing Leblanc first, and re-applied buffs just before Leblanc died, otherwise Russian Roulette hurt too much from the third guy.

 

[Advocatus Diaboli]

Ultimate Leblanc went down easy enough without much planning. Tyro with Blind Shell/Banishing Strike and SG was the real MVP, along with Yuna and HotF and Diaga. I brought along Terra and Vivi for AoE magic spam, and Tidus was just sort of there to Tempo Flurry and use a Protectga SB.

Still a little salty about not having a dual-buff SSB, but I'm managing for now - Orbfest really helped my hones, levels, and RM unlocks. I guess I can start tackling the massive backlog of Elite dungeons now.

 

[Dragner]

I fucking give up on this Ultimate. I honestly wish there was some kind of way to link to my entire account character/gear/ability/etc wise because I just honestly do not fucking understand why I can't even come close to doing this and I know I should be able to. Draw Fire is fucking me, even with Blind Shell or Blindga (I've tried both now) it often takes two applications to get Blind on Ormi, then often two again to get it on Logos, and by this point I've already wasted so much time getting that set up along with my own mitigation that Leblanc is doing the group AoE attack, and Ormi just constantly is getting rid of his own Blind every time he does Draw Fire. Like even trying to zerg it the closest I've gotten is everyone down to like 60%. I've tried Death Blossom RW (for the AoE slow) as well as Fenrir Overdrive for my own DPS and I'm just getting absolutely nowhere. Takes me too long to set up and then I just get blown the fuck up, I can't keep up with all of the mitigation and applying Blind to them on top of doing any sort of damage. Have wasted the 60 Stamina 3 separate occasions on this now, fuck it.

I feel you I had terrible rng on this fight, failing 4 times in a row Blind shell several times, and other bullshit, when I finally landed blind on both ormi and logos at first try I did it. RNG fiesta.

 

[Valus]

I fucking give up on this Ultimate. I honestly wish there was some kind of way to link to my entire account character/gear/ability/etc wise because I just honestly do not fucking understand why I can't even come close to doing this and I know I should be able to. Draw Fire is fucking me, even with Blind Shell or Blindga (I've tried both now) it often takes two applications to get Blind on Ormi, then often two again to get it on Logos, and by this point I've already wasted so much time getting that set up along with my own mitigation that Leblanc is doing the group AoE attack, and Ormi just constantly is getting rid of his own Blind every time he does Draw Fire. Like even trying to zerg it the closest I've gotten is everyone down to like 60%. I've tried Death Blossom RW (for the AoE slow) as well as Fenrir Overdrive for my own DPS and I'm just getting absolutely nowhere. Takes me too long to set up and then I just get blown the fuck up, I can't keep up with all of the mitigation and applying Blind to them on top of doing any sort of damage. Have wasted the 60 Stamina 3 separate occasions on this now, fuck it.

Go back a few pages and use Razmos' RW. It will blind and poison all 3 instantly. It lasted basically the whole fight for me. As others said, make sure Ormi uses draw fire first before doing it.

 

[Nohar]

I did 3x11 pulls. I am quite happy to welcome Ramza and Agrias to my permanent roster.
Also, Agrias's SSB is pretty. Deadly pretty.

Below are my pulls (note: this may be salt inducing):

Spoiler

Got 2 Platinum Sword, 2 Defender, 1 Nu Khai Armband, 2 Ice Rod, 1 Chameleon Robe, 1 Coral Sword (FF9, off banner), 1 Eden Vest (FF7, off banner).
So, yeah, 10 out of 33 were 5*.
Back to hoarding for at least 6 months.

 

[DXLelouch153]

recommended abilites for Yuffie?

 

[Dragner]

recommended abilites for Yuffie?

dismissal + thiefs revenge