Edit: lol, it took me so long to type that up, that you've already got a wealth of information.
gaf seniors, another shout for help..
now..
team is starting to shape up, but..
magic&abilities
I'm totally in the fog about magic..
and i think it would be in my best interest to understand it, as i have two casters in the party (quina with her Golden Hairpin ssb) and ashe ( with her osb), so it would be beneficial if I use them as caster and not as auto-attacker all the time
soo..
what are the abilities I should chase? is there something like "protect+shell" combined? is there something like ffbe with full break? is there the concept of buffing (say with individual stat buff, or global like ramza's ffbe song??)
enlighten me!
PARTY
also, i have both eiko osb and vanile bsb.. i have 2 spare hero soul, who shoul i pick out of those two?
currently my party is
63-65: orlandu (with his osb), quina (using vanille weapon bsb and her own ssb), beatrix (random 5* relic), their cap is 65
50 : ashe (osb weapon), i have no memory lode 1..
cloud: 39 (random 5 * relic), i think i should sub him.. maybe vivi? or amarant? or kuja?? i have their crystal to break their first cap to 65...
WEEKLY TASK
which dungeon of the weekly one should i try to farm? given the abilities I should prioritise, which mote i'm interested in, if any?
so well, go ahead and give me the enlightenment!
1. Magic: I'm not sure exactly what you're asking, but I'll try to answer what I think you're asking.
Generally you're going to have 2-3 melee. For me, I create one as a tank character focusing on defense. The second one I create as pure damage. The third I create as "filling holes" if I need a particular ability or something. Then usually 1 healer (later on you'll possibly need two healers for some content) and 1 or 2 black mage/summoner types. There is fights where you'll have all melee or all magic, but in general that is what I run.
For the abilities they use. As you've learned, they're all made and "honed" with orbs. You will never reach a point in this game where you have enough orbs. Even people playing for over a year need more Major (5star) Orbs.
When I first started I used almost all 3star abilities, and had a couple 1star abilities. Group Buffing: Protectga and Shellga are Group Buffs that is something like half damage from melee (Protect) and half damage from magic (Shell) I'm not sure if that's the correct percentage in -this- game, but it's a staple in all Final Fantasy games for the most part. I hope I'm not telling you stuff you already know.
Those are invaluable though because they are group buffs, and they last about 2-3 rounds (turns) depending on a few factors. You can google it to get exact info.
The lower-end version of the spells Protect/Shell are pretty much useless in my opinion. I created them, but even at the early stages, I never used them. I never wanted to waste a turn buffing 1 person of 5, or take 5 turns to buff everybody.
There isn't really a group haste, except for Soul Breaks. You'll get Record Materia (if you don't know what that is or something, just ask). where you can have party members start out with different buffs, such as haste.
Key Abilities off the top of my head:
You need all the breaks. Well except maybe Mind Break. It's a newer spell, I rarely use it or the higher version Breakdown.
Later on there will be 5star abilities such as Multibreak or Fullbreak which will debuff everything in one shot. Those are godsends when you reach that point.
Meteor and Ruinga are good for taking out multiple enemies. Flare or Comet or Holy are not as useful since they are single target. Holy (and Dia/Diara/Diaga) will get some use though as there are many holy-weakness enemies.
The spellblade spells are useful. Things like Element-Strike, to include Drain Strike.
I didn't find too many of the Monk abilities too useful besides Kick, but I still use them from time to time.
Dragoon abilities are very nice as well, only flaw is they are single target.
Ask more if I didn't help you any, again I wasn't sure quite what you meant.
Party: All the characters you mentioned are pretty useful at first glance. Out of that, it really depends on if you have a favorite character or final fantasy, or just a certain relic or something you would be dumb not to use.
I prefer Eiko over Vanille personally. But I also have like 5 soulbreaks for Eiko, plus I like that she can be a dancer if I need a stat debuff.
Cloud is useful. He's not the best, but almost all spellblades are pretty useful for damage since they can attack elemental weaknesses.
If you need a black mage or a Summoner, pretty much magic DPS, then the ones you are listed are fine too.
You will slowly get more than enough crystals and memory lodes. You'll get the majority through the events that come out every Thursday (with Hardmode update on Sundays)
Dungeon Farming?
My opinion of course, you're probably not in any shape to really farm any realm dungeons really. I mean, for those, you should just use your stamina to clear as many as you can, especially while they're "half price" I've been playing a year and a half, and this is the first time I can recall them ever being half-stamina. So that's about to end, and you'll definitely miss it.
Now, Daily Dungeons are there for exactly that -- to farm. Each day has different ones, and you should do them all right now just to get a mythril for completing one the first time. Right now mythril might seem abundant but that times is going to come to an end very soon. Also, as someone pointed out, on the 19th of this month, we're getting a pretty nice upgrade to the daily dungeons.
Last thing to say about abilities. I used mostly 3 star abilities for the first few months of the game. I didn't have enough orbs really for my 4star abilities to have more than 2 uses. Nowadays I'm pretty much only using 4 and 5 star abilities. But that takes a long time to get to that point.
You can skip a lot of the 1 and 2star abilities. You just may find you need certain things like Sleep or Silence to get you a perfect on a boss.
Hope this helps.
