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Mzbundifund posted:Why did Ramza being an oracle mean he couldn't contribute anything? I thought you could just give him black magic as his secondary, or have I been misunderstanding the rules the whole time? Not directly because he's an oracle, just the non-oracles nuked Quek before Ramza got a turn. 
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Oct 13, 2015 23:52
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Wow, that was just some unfortunate Life Drain luck (or really bad compatibility). Life Drain usually turns bosses into a complete joke.
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Oct 14, 2015 00:10
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Mzbundifund posted:Why did Ramza being an oracle mean he couldn't contribute anything? I thought you could just give him black magic as his secondary, or have I been misunderstanding the rules the whole time? AlphaKretin posted:Not directly because he's an oracle, just the non-oracles nuked Quek before Ramza got a turn. That, and the fact that Quek put him to sleep before he could even try Schwartzcough posted:Wow, that was just some unfortunate Life Drain luck (or really bad compatibility). Life Drain usually turns bosses into a complete joke. A bit of each, but two of them actually had pretty good hit rates. Still... eh. Bolt did more damage anyway.
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Oct 14, 2015 00:41
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Didn't answer the guy's second question though. Can you give people secondaries from any other classes they might've been previously?
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Oct 14, 2015 01:19
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Update Four: Lesalia Imperial Captial to Grog Hill Lenna and Faris are given guns before I go into the Lesalia battle again.  Confirmation that Zalmo carries Arrow Guard as a reaction ability. I guess it makes sense since you're so far away from Zalmo and at a height advantage that the game thinks that Archers are worth guarding against. I don't want to risk my arrows missing, so I shoot at the Monks instead, causing Zalmo to spend his turns healing. My Monks keep Alma topped up with MP as the enemy advances, while my Mediators move into attacking position.  The enemy still manages to drop Faris before Alma has a chance to use MBarrier on her. I revive her, so Alma uses her turn to thwack Faris with her staff (this heals her, since Alma is equipped with the only staff which does that).   I get unlucky with the variable damage of Repeating Fist--Galuf and Bartz both die to a single barrage. (They have Reraise, so I just leave them to come back to life on their own and continue to trade hits with the melee units.)  More bad luck--one of the Monks had the Geomancer skill Elemental in their secondary slot, and standing on grass gives them the ability to use Hell Ivy, which has a random chance of causing Stop.  Faris dies again, and so does Alma soon afterward. I bring them back to life and retreat everyone to behind the gate. This turns out to be a mistake as it splits the party and boxes half the party in an area they can't leave.  So when Lenna and Bartz die without Reraise on them, I try to carry on bravely, but it doesn't take long for me to realize that I can't revive them before one or both of them crystalize--even if one Knight leaves the doorway, another one of those units soon moves in before I can take a turn, and Zalmo's got enough HP to keep them out Critical range for more turns than I have time for. (I eat a TPK as a result of this.) (Reset!) Faris is switched to Monk (the party is now Bartz at Archer, Faris, Galuf and Krile at Monk, and Lenna at Mediator) and the Monks also get Power Wrist to boost their damage as that's more important in this battle than movement ability.  This time, Galuf is the first to die when the melee units reach me.  Even with the extra attack power, Zalmo is a powerful factor in keeping the damage race even for the enemy--I forget what he's casting, but he never manages to raise the Knight who died when Krile punched him straight off the wall. Unforunately for her, she dies soon afterward.  Galuf eats another fatal Rapid Fist while trying to act as doorjam for Alma and Lenna. I send the critical HP unit (again, I forget which one she is at the moment) to collect the crystal that drops while I slam damage into Zalmo.  The battle ends soon afterward.  Chameleon Robes are available for sale after the battle. They absorb Holy. As a Holy Knight, all of Wiegraf's skills are tagged with the "Holy" elemental (even if, in practice, they only take on the elemental of the weapon he has equipped). Unfortunately for me, only Mediators can equip this piece of armor, so I only buy three of them, along with three Green Berets to boost their Speed. Bartz gets switched to Monk, Faris/Galuf/Krile goes to Archer, and Lenna stays at Mediator as I head to Orbonne. Underground Book Storage Second Floor Map Overview Replayable as Random Encounter: No. Allies: The squad starts to the north, between or behind the bookcases. Enemies: Three Lancers, a Chemist, and two Time Mages, all male. The Lancers and Chemists are on the middle of the map surrounding the desk; the Time Mages are on the South/bottom end of the map. Objective: Defeat all enemies. Underground Book Storage Second Floor Battle Strategy Overview
From this point on, I have recorded video of most of my battles, but they're all without sound (and feature a lot of me jiggling the cursor around while I make decisions), so I'm reluctant to upload them.  I really should have reset as soon as I realized that I forgot to equip Krile. I didn't bother screencapping the rest of the battle, either--it was a cavalcade of bad decisions that led to me dying repeatedly, and in the end I couldn't sandbag fast enough to save myself from three Lancers ganging up on my party. (I TPK eventually.) I fight one battle to grind, then upgrade gear for my entire party.  On the retry, I change my strategy to taking out the Lancers first.  Bartz spends almost the entire battle as a healbot, since Chakra does better than Hi Potions (and almost as good as an X Potion on Faris, who he has best compatibility with). It might've been more efficient to have him punch things to death, but I figured everyone else needed to catch up in terms of experience.  Everybody eats so much damage from regular attacks that the Lancers don't bother with Jump. This makes it slightly easier to keep them alive, but Galuf still eats a death because I didn't have him run away far enough. (I forgot to rotate the camera to check if I could see him--people being blocked by stage geometry is a weakness of the isometric perspective I don't think about unless I'm making an LP.)  Again, this may be my nostalgia talking, but I like these randomly triggered spellchants. Even if the English is a little suspect on them, they almost all still sound sufficiently arcane and mysterious.  Even one of the Lancers packing Item isn't a major issue for me (and he only warrants this screencap because I specifically checked to see he was the only one packing Item before I kill him). I focus on one of them at a time, taking them out in two or three turns each.   With the last Lancer in Critical and about to die, I have Lenna start talking her Brave up.  Bartz can punch harder than most of the casters have HP at this point.  Since I don't nearly have as many Jobs unlocked as I would otherwise in this point in the plot, the crystallized Lancer only has Steal Heart as an ability I can learn--but it's not legal, so I pass it up. The battle ends when I chase down the Chemist. I go into the next map without changing Jobs. Underground Book Storage Third Floor Map Overview Replayable as Random Encounter: No. Allies: The squad starts in the North-West corner of the map. Enemies: Izlude (Knight Blade), a Summoner, two Archers, two Knights, all male. Izlude and the Knights are in the North-East corner, the Archers in the South-East, and the Summoner in the South-West. Objective: Defeat Izlude. Underground Book Storage Second Floor Battle Strategy Overview
 I always forget which way the squad ends up in certain levels, since the formation screen isn't necessarily oriented in the same direction as where the camera ends up, but having everyone in the far corner isn't too bad.  Turn 1, Lenna moves up and crit-shots Izlude. The Summoner moves forward to cast, so I have one of my Archers go up on the wall and shoot him while casting.  This hurts, but it's not fatal so long as I don't give the Summoner a second turn. (And I don't.)  Izlude is the major threat in this map, as he can Jump for 120 damage from fairly far back. While he's jumping, my party gets turns, so I reconvene my party in order to feed them Potions while Bartz continues forward.  I forget if all classes have innate 5% evade from the front or if it's a feature restricted to certain classes; either way, it's a pleasant surprise to see Bartz not get stabbed.  As soon as Izlude comes back down, I have my Archers shoot him, and Bartz finishes him off with a Wave Fist.  Galuf, Lenna, and Faris are switched to Mediator and given Chameleon Robes and Green Berets. Bartz stays at Monk and Krile at Archer. Underground Book Storage First Floor Map Overview Replayable as Random Encounter: No. Allies: The squad starts at the East side of the map on the ground, "visible" to the enemies behind the doorway. Enemies: Wiegraf (Holy Knight), two Knights, two Archers, and one Wizard, all (generics) female. wiegraf is directly behind the center doorway with one of the Archers nearby, one Knight each is close to the upper North and South doorways, the other Archer is close to lower South doorway, and the Wizard is close to the lower North doorway. Objective: Defeat Wiegraf. Underground Book Storage First Floor Battle Strategy Overview
  Are all of my Guests doomed to be kidnapped, killed, and/or betray me? This battle is definitely annoying on a Kill Em All run, but I'm not doing that in this challenge. I'm still underleveled.  Wiegraf moves forward but does nothing. The Archer goes next, shooting one of my Mediators through the door, and eating a Counter. (I would've changed to Arrow Guard, but I wanted to make sure that Counter for guns and bows work on long-range physical attacks.)  Everybody gets a chance to hit Wiegraf except Bartz, who dies to one swing of his sword.  I use a Phoenix Down on him without checking if any units get to move before he has a turn and he gets dropped by the other Archer.  The Wizard raining spells on me wouldn't have been an issue if my party hadn't been softened up by the Knights earlier. This drops Lenna.  The enemy Knights carry blades that trigger Sleep. I only get unlucky once in the battle.  The other Knight finishes Faris off. In the meantime, Galuf puts Wiegraf into Critical.  Galuf also manages to dodge an arrow without Arrow Guard!   I was hoping Krile could finish Galuf off, but he's stuck himself in the back corner of the map; instead, she first gets her armor destroyed and then a sword in the back.  Galuf has enough speed that he finishes the battle without needing to bring Bartz back to life. The Orbonne gauntlet done, I run down to Goug Machine City to check if they have new guns (they do), running into a random battle along the way that I deal with no issue. Then, I save-state-scum my way back to Lesalia and keep the same Job distribution, making sure all of my ranged units have Counter. Grog Hill Map Overview Replayable as Random Encounter: Yes. Allies: The squad starts at the South end of the map. Ramza's placement doesn't matter, as he always begins one square North of the center column. Enemies: Two male Squires, two male Chemists, a male Archer, and a female Thief, all along the middle North end of the map. Objective: Defeat all enemies. Grog Hill Battle Strategy Overview
 This battle almost always plays like a game of whack-a-mole. This time around, the enemy's aggressive sandbag is nothing more than a temporary annoyance, as I have plenty of both damage and healing on my side, but this encounter can still wipe a party of careless adventurers.  Get used to seeing this, a lot. But with Counter going off pretty much every time I get hit, I also do a lot of extra damage on the enemy.  One of the Chemists definitely can use X-Potions. And enemies have an infinite store of usable Items. (This is why the infamous FFT 1.3 hack gives just about every human enemy Item as a secondary Ability.)  Bartz takes a break from heal-botting to drop this Thief before she becomes a major issue. Then he goes back to spamming Chakra.  See what I mean about whack-a-mole? Galuf drops the Thief again on his turn.   This Archer can have a variety of secondary Abilities; this time, he came with Item. After this, my video glitched out (and I was relying on the video to get screencaps from), but at this point, I've all but won the battle. The Archer continues to spam Phoenix Downs until he dies, so I just have whoever drop the Chemist in the dirt again. The Mediators take this time to do some more stat changes, dropping their Faith levels some more. Next update probably will take a little bit longer since I've got another project to work on during the week and I might need to grind for the battles at the end of Chapter Three.
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Oct 14, 2015 01:56
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Mediators are kinda like worse Oracles who get to use guns. Have you picked up Mimic Daravon or anything? Instant AoE sleep with ~50% hit rate can go a long way towards taking the heat off you when you've got grouped up enemies, like that Zalmo fight.
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Oct 14, 2015 04:55
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RareAcumen posted:Didn't answer the guy's second question though. Can you give people secondaries from any other classes they might've been previously? My oracles have been running black magic secondary for the entire chapter. So I certainly hope so! That arrow guard is still hilarious. Surprisingly tense battle(s) with him, though - I've never known him to be more than a speedbump... though I guess you don't have much in the way of ranged damage and such (except for  archers ). Expecting quite a bit of pain at the hands of those lancers, personally.Schwartzcough posted:Mediators are kinda like worse Oracles who get to use guns. Still, anything that lets you run around and Hamedo people at 97% is pretty neat.
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Oct 14, 2015 22:56
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I'm also in chapter 3 now!   9: Superbly Sprited
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Oct 15, 2015 01:21
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That was a... what was that? I know its probably impossible, but I hope we see a guest bust out Galaxy Stop out of loving nowhere.
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Oct 15, 2015 01:33
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Yesssss.  It begins!  ...there needs to be a combination of those two.
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Oct 15, 2015 04:22
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I remember I had a playthrough where Olan would straight up not use Galaxy Stop. Not even to save his life. I'm pretty sure I'm the only person whose gotten a Game Over on that map in a straight playthrough.
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Oct 15, 2015 04:57
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Ugh, a 20 hit to Brave in a challenge run would probably just make me reset. Then again, your team doesn't care about reactions that much, so eh. Also, the Diamond Bracer is as good as the magic gauntlet for geomancy sometimes. Geomancy runs on the formula [(PA + 2) / 2] * MA. It's best to have equal PA and MA, or slightly more MA. Also, the square brackets mean rounding down, so you only get the benefit from EVEN PA values. 8 PA is treated like 8 PA, while 7 PA gets rounded down to 6 PA. Therefore if you've got 9 PA and 9 MA, the diamond bracer will bump you to 10 PA and 10 MA, doing 60 damage, while the magic gauntlet will bring you to 9 PA, 11 MA, doing 55 damage. However, if you've got 8 PA and 8 MA, the diamond bracer puts you at 9 PA (which gets rounded down) and 9 MA for 45 damage, while the magic gauntlet puts you at 8 PA and 10 MA for 50 damage. So sometimes one is better, sometimes the other is. drat math making equipment choices difficult.
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Oct 15, 2015 06:33
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FeyerbrandX posted:That was a... what was that? A Holy Explosion, of course! It said so right on the screen, so it has to be true. quote:I know its probably impossible, but I hope we see a guest bust out Galaxy Stop out of loving nowhere. We just saw that this update, though  I'll never be able to lp anything again without random beards showing up. It's a curse.  Rabbi Raccoon posted:I remember I had a playthrough where Olan would straight up not use Galaxy Stop. Not even to save his life. Yeech. The AI in this game can be surprisingly good at times, but sometimes it's more A than I. Schwartzcough posted:Ugh, a 20 hit to Brave in a challenge run would probably just make me reset. Well I'm not going to let a little thing like that add to my death/reset counter  quote:Then again, your team doesn't care about reactions that much, so eh. ...and also there's that.
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Oct 15, 2015 12:47
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vilkacis posted:I'm also in chapter 3 now! Never stop being you Vilkacis  By the way, Ramza probably makes the best Geomancer in the game just by virtue of being the main character, so he gets male PA and female MA. In a regular game you can easily spam Scream over and over and hit triple digits with Elemental, but Scream is just plain broken with everything so it doesn't really matter much. Also please slap Attack Up on your Oracles with maximum MA boosting equipment at least once, it is never not hilarious
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Oct 15, 2015 18:50
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Oh man, Vilkacis has done it again. The beards are happening! I'm so glad. Also that was indeed a Holy Explosion.
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Oct 15, 2015 20:05
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No idea when my next update will be. Zaland is royally kicking my rear end. My next attempt will be #5...
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Oct 16, 2015 00:00
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vilkacis posted:I'm also in chapter 3 now! I'm glad to see Teta's death didn't have a lack of effect on Alma. Good to see her taking steps to be able to defend herself.
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Oct 16, 2015 00:11
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How Rude posted:Never stop being you Vilkacis Of course, I have no idea what else I might become if I stopped being me, so it just seems like a bad idea for a number of reasons. quote:Also please slap Attack Up on your Oracles with maximum MA boosting equipment at least once, it is never not hilarious I might be able to handle that. Blaze Dragon posted:Oh man, Vilkacis has done it again. The beards are happening! I'm so glad. I'm not sure Alma is quite as happy, though.  Kheldarn posted:No idea when my next update will be. Zaland is royally kicking my rear end. My next attempt will be #5... Looking forward to the pain! RareAcumen posted:I'm glad to see Teta's death didn't have a lack of effect on Alma. Good to see her taking steps to be able to defend herself.  A little bird told me what happens to cute, harmless girls affiliated with the Beoulve family, and it inspired me to take certain measures. Suffice it to say that if some disreputable gentleman points a crossbow in my direction... I'm ready for the motherfucker.
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Oct 16, 2015 03:12
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 Rock & Roll All Knight!
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Oct 16, 2015 17:57
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quote:How you gonna rock & roll the next night?  quote:I was going to use Shield Break on this guy, but then I remembered to check his gear. He has no Shield to break, but I have a 67% chance to Break it... They should have programmed it to be 0% when the item in question isn't equipped... It appears you have a 67% chance to hit him where he should be wearing a shield and dealing damage to him. If there's something breakable, it goes like  but otherwise I guess it just acts like a normal attack. quote:I wonder if Gaffef is related to Algus... Gaff isn't a classist rear end in a top hat, he kills everyone equally. He can't possibly carry any of Algus' genes. quote:Bart Company  Dang, that was some bad luck with the Mustard fight, but at least Bariaus went well! I would have expected the opposite, normally. Challenge runs!
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Oct 16, 2015 21:33
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Welp. That's the end of my run. I was an idiot, and backed myself into a corner. I saved before the Execution Site, with no grinding backup saves available. Gaf & co. badly outnumber me, and murder my face so fast it's stupid. I can't make any progress at this point. Also: This doesn't end my participation. I have another challenge I'll be doing. Kheldarn fucked around with this message at 04:12 on Oct 17, 2015 |
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Oct 17, 2015 02:22
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If you need to grind, you can fight random battles in the area where you picked up Agrias! Though, I can't exactly blame you if you decide that the execution site can go gently caress itself anyway.
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Oct 17, 2015 05:26
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vilkacis posted:If you need to grind, you can fight random battles in the area where you picked up Agrias! Though, I can't exactly blame you if you decide that the execution site can go gently caress itself anyway. Oh, crap. I totally forgot Bariaus Valley was a green dot. For some reason, I was thinking my only options were the 2 cities, and the execution site.
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Oct 17, 2015 14:11
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Nope. That ain't gonna cut it. I am badly out numbered, Gaf has murderface compatibility with Kodo Filia, so he always goes after her first, the Time Mages lock me down, the Knights break my gear, and the Archers pick me off. I don't have any kind of AOE or Ranged Attacks to fight back with. I'm sure someone out there can do it, but I can't. I'll write up the end, then go to work on my Classic Regular challenge. (I'm not up to a Natural challenge) The way I'm looking at it is: There's no FFT equivalent of Red Mage/Wizard, which works out fine. Fighter will be Squire, Thief will be Thief, Black Belt will be Monk, Black Mage will be Wizard, and White Mage will be Priest. Fighter/Squire will upgrade to Knight, Thief will upgrade to Ninja. There's no Master/Wizard job, so Monk, Wizard, and Priest will stay the same. Chapter 1 will use Squire, Wizard, Priest. Chapter 2 will add Monk and Thief. Chapter 3 will upgrade Squire to Knight, and Thief to Ninja.
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Oct 17, 2015 15:19
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 Goodknight Sweetheart And yes, I had a list of other Night > Knight songs: Lynyrd Skynyrd: Saturday Night Special Van Halen: Dance The Night Away AC/DC: You Shook Me All Night Long DeBarge: The Rhythm of the Night The Kinks: All Day And All Of The Night Slaughter: Up All Night Cinderella: Night Songs CCR: Hey Tonight Patti Smith: Because The Night Phil Collins: In The Air Tonight Judas Priest: Livin' After Midnight Scorpions: Big City Nights Monty Python's Spamalot: Knights Of The Round Table/The Song That Goes Like This (Reprise)
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Oct 17, 2015 15:52
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I wouldn't want to try it myself without decent ranged attacks ( black mages ) but I imagine the main thing to focus on would be breaking the weapons of primarily Gaff but preferably also his knight escorts before they cut everyone's faces off. Primarily knights with martial arts to prevent weapon breakage might be the best way.As said though, can't blame you for not pressing on - that fight's a pain even on a normal run. E: Whoops, new post while I was typing! Liking that music list... the last one is almost as good as the soundtrack for the final post. Good effort, can't say I would have done things differently. vilkacis fucked around with this message at 16:02 on Oct 17, 2015 |
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Oct 17, 2015 15:54
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Sorry to see you go, but you aren't the first and won't be the last to meet their (challenge run) end at the execution site. Not sure the best way to approach that one with Knight/Monk... definitely breaking Gaf's sword (hopefully not too bad with best compatibility). Against single strong opponents things like Speed Break are king, but against a huge mob I don't know if it'd be worth the effort. Ah well, thanks for your contribution!
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Oct 17, 2015 19:53
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Without grinding, that fight's just about getting lucky breaking a whole bunch of weapons. Knights are kind of boring and unrewarding to use so I wouldn't sweat it.
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Oct 18, 2015 01:35
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Fights like that are why I'm going with my altered run that is using accelerated class gains. It is far too easy to end up with that battle nearly unwinnable with a bad class combination.
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Oct 19, 2015 17:49
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Progress report: I've hit the infamous Inside Riovanes Castle battle and I'm getting walled hard by Wiegraf. I'm going to grind a bit to unlock Hamedo to see if that'll help me stay alive longer, but until that happens, do you guys want the failure reel, or would you rather see me succeed with one try?
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Oct 20, 2015 01:56
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We want to see the suffering, of course. ...Speaking of, here's part 10 of my run.  10: Some Light Reading
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Oct 20, 2015 02:45
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dotchan posted:Progress report: I've hit the infamous Inside Riovanes Castle battle and I'm getting walled hard by Wiegraf. I'm going to grind a bit to unlock Hamedo to see if that'll help me stay alive longer, but until that happens, do you guys want the failure reel, or would you rather see me succeed with one try? Failure reel, as long as it can be kept relatively concise. Like, you could show a couple of your attempts if they had different strategies, and telling how they went wrong. But it's not as interesting to see the same strategy attempted and failed repeatedly. vilkacis posted:We want to see the suffering, of course. Ah, the old Froggy grinding method. I often like to find a high-faith decent-compatibility target at the beginning of battle, and single them out for froggitude. Nailing them with frog is usually as good as killing them, and then you don't have to worry about leaving a dangerous target alive while you collect chests and crystals. Not useful for assassination missions, though, obviously.
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Oct 20, 2015 04:39
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Here we go. Warning: The first part has a lot of  setting things up. Update 01
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Oct 20, 2015 20:31
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But I'm allergic to words  Interesting challenge, but it's not properly FE1 unless one of your mages ends up with Equip Knife and the Masamune  Schwartzcough posted:Ah, the old Froggy grinding method. ... Not useful for assassination missions, though, obviously. It's hilarious for assassination missions, though.
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Oct 21, 2015 22:20
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vilkacis posted:Interesting challenge, but it's not properly FE1 unless one of your mages ends up with Equip Knife and the Masamune What does Shadow Dragon have to do with this? Yeah I know what you mean E: Huh never noticed that namedrop of Elidibs before. I'm vaguely disappointed you didn't go with a joke about Finn causing the end of chapter image just after saying he was MVP.
AlphaKretin fucked around with this message at 23:11 on Oct 21, 2015 |
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Oct 21, 2015 23:06
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AlphaKretin posted:E: Huh never noticed that namedrop of Elidibs before. I'm vaguely disappointed you didn't go with a joke about Finn causing the end of chapter image just after saying he was MVP. That never even occured to me. I am not good at this LP Narrative thing.
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Oct 21, 2015 23:56
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AlphaKretin posted:What does Shadow Dragon have to do with this? Nothing, this is a thread for good SRPGs 
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Oct 23, 2015 03:41
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Update Five: Yardow Fort City to Yuguo Woods, Plus Riovanes Castle Failure Reel Yardow Fort City Map Overview Replayable as Random Encounter: No. Allies: The squad starts at the South-East corner of the map. Rafa starts just South of the gate. Enemies: Malak (Hell Knight), three male Ninjas, and two female Summoners in the fort. Objective: Save Rafa. Yardow Fort City Battle Strategy Overview
 Parked myself on the back end of the map to give myself more room to maneuver. This means that Rafa, as usual, charges on the group of Ninjas in the fort and then runs away.  The enemy Ninjas move first, one throwing a Magic Shuriken at Rafa before her turn and another charming Krile, who gets a rock to the head so she doesn't hurt herself further on my gun-packing Mediators.   Then the Mediators move forward to shoot the Ninja, except the fort wall blocks their ability to do so.  Rafa (who gets fed a potion from Krile to keep her HP up) scores a kill as the RNG works in my favor.  Malak moves forward to Un-Truth Rafa, but his numbers are not nearly as impressive. One of the surviving Ninjas then exits the fort to throw another Magic Shuriken at Krile.   The Ninja on the wall throws a fire ball at Galuf, and I was very pleased to see that my intuition was correct: guns being able to counter certain ranged physical attacks.  Malak (who has Item) feeds the Ninja on the wall (who'd gone into Critial thanks Galuf's Counter) a potion. Lenna shoots him back down to Critical (causing him to run away on his turn), while Galuf shoots at the other Ninja. Rafa's attempt to Asura that Ninja fails completely, so I have Krile shoot at him, putting into Critical. Unfortunately for me, one of the Summoners is packing Moogle and heals him back up.  Krile doesn't survive getting double stabbed by the Ninja she'd shot; Galuf revives her, Lenna feeds her a potion, and Bartz avenges her by punching that Ninja to death.  Meanwhile, the other Summoner has moved into position to start laying down the hurt, and Malak is casting Heaven Bltback at the party, but on Bartz's next turn he heals the most gravely injured characters with Chakra.  I thought that moving to the back row would keep me safe, but I'd forgotten that the Summoners can and will leave the relative safety of the fort to give chase. Once again, Bartz is relegated to healbot duty.  The others shoot at Malak until he runs away. Good riddance. At this point my video glitched out (again--I think it happens if I try to record for too long, so I'll keep that in mind for the future), but I win without too much of an issue as Bartz can keep everyone topped off. Galuf is switched to Monk so that Rafa can switch to Chemist and have his gun, while Faris and Lenna learn Mimic Daravon. I decide against buying Reflect Rings, since those are expensive and I need to save my money for other things. Yuguo Woods Map Overview Replayable as Random Encounter: Yes. Allies: The squad starts at, Rafa. Enemies: Two female Time Mages, two male Wizards, and one each of Gust, Ghoul, and Revnant. Objective: Defeat all enemies. Yuguo Woods Battle Strategy Overview
 I checked a translation of the original script, and I think what Rafa meant to advise the ghosts to let go of their attachment to this life so they could be reincarnated into the next.  Bartz has been gaining quite a few levels in Monk, so even his Throw Rocks hurt like hell.  Rafa moves forward to shoot one of the ghosts and deftly dodges a Drain Touch.  The Mediators get to shooting at the enemies close to them, but since I'm still not great at positioning one of the shooting attempts fail.  Bartz counters the Time Mage who whacked him in the head with her staff and puts her into Critical (when Krile gets her turn she finishes her off).  At this point it hadn't occurred to me to drop my Faith levels yet, so not only do I eat damage from the Wizards, one of the Time Mages succeeds in rooting Lenna and Krile to the spot.  Exhibit A on why I almost always change Rafa to Chemist and give her a gun for this battle: she shoots and kills one of the Wizards (who I'd weakend with the rest of the squad) for me.  More ghost-busting via fist.  One of the ghosts packs Sleep Touch, putting Faris to sleep.  Rafa wakes her up and kills that ghost with Asura.  By now all that's left to do is clean up the last straggler and end the battle, which is what I do. The party switches to Arrow Guard before tackling Riovanes Castle. At the Gate of Riovanes Castle Map Overview Replayable as Random Encounter: No. Allies: Squad 1 (Ramza + 1 Generic) starts on the East side of the bridge in front of the castle entrance along with Rafa, while Squad 2 (3 Generics) starts on the East side of the moat. Enemies: Three male Knights, three female Archers, and Malak (Hell Knight). The Archers and Malak begin at the top of the castle to the West, one Knight is on the bridge, one is in the moat (floating over the water), and one is on the West side of the moat. Objective: Defeat all enemies. At the Gate of Riovanes Castle Battle Strategy Overview
 Since I'll be replaying this battle several times as part of the Riovanes Castle gauntlet, this will be the only time I'll give a detailed battle report, as any retries will be using a similar strategy (kill/severely wound the Knights, then go up the castle walls to deal with the Archers, and then finish off any stragglers).  Rafa eats several arrows only after a single turn, putting her into Critical and causing her (and Malak) to run away.  Bartz moves forwards and blasts the Knight on the bridge with a  I took this screencap to showcase one of the downsides of Charge--if you take too long and the enemy has moved, you've wasted and arrow.  The Knight who started across the moat from Squad 2 was packing Martial Arts as well, but Galuf manages to dodge the Wave Fist thrown his way before returning the favor.   The other Knight, who very cleverrly packed Float Boots so he could hide in a nook the wall over water, had Item in his secondary this time.  Galuf has lower Brave compared to the rest of the party, so to no-one's surprise he fails to dodge an arrow.  Only I'm allowed to be a sandbagging rear end in a top hat, dang it!     Whoops, forgot to change the camera angle back, and I didn't have the sound on, so I have no idea who got shot in these screencaps.  To my surprise, one of the Archers was packing Charm. I have one of my Mediators shoot Bartz to snap him out of it.  More failed dodging from Galuf, but at least he's still alive.  How that all that's left is to take care of the Archers, I have my Mediators start dropping everyone's Faith. We'll be pretty staunch atheists for the remainder of the run.  I think Galuf was about 50/50 on dodges this time.  The AI will go and collect chests if they can do so, not that they need it, but to deny the player precious loot.  Krile nabs a Diamond Armlet (that I don't keep, because I have to reset).  I finish the battle on her turn. Lenna and Faris are switched to Train to see if I can turn the Archaic Demons to my side (verdict: nope), Bartz is switched to Mediator so he can equip a Chameleon Robe, and everyone except Lenna (who doesn't have enough JP to learn it yet) is switched to Speed Save as their Reaction ability. Inside of Riovanes Castle Map Overview Replayable as Random Encounter: No. Allies: Squad 1 (Ramza + 1 Generic), Squad 2 (3 Generics). Ramza's placement doesn't matter as he always begins at the bottom of the stairs and then moves to the middle once he's beaten Wiegraf in the duel battle. Enemies: Battle 1: Wiegraf (Holy Knight), who starts at the top of the stairs. Battle 2: Wiegraf (Zodiac Boss) and 4 Archaic Demons, who all start at the top of the stairs as well. Objective: Defeat Wiegraf. Inside of Riovanes Castle Battle Strategy Overview
This is one of the more infamous battles of the entire game. Wiegraf (either form) will probably end your existence on your first playthrough (and remains a challenge many playthroughs later) and, if you didn't make a backup save, render your game unwinnable. Since I have Speed Save as a reaction ability, my strategy isn't all that different from what I would do normally (if I wasn't trivializing the battle with Ninja + Martial Arts, or Samurai + Magic Attack Up, or...): hope Speed Save triggers, heal myself, and kite Wiegraf around the (rather small) battle arena until I have enough speed to get multiple turns on him--in non Job Fiesta attempts, I would naturally also be using Yell and Accumulate to make myself even more powerful. Try 1: Mediator, Punch Arts, Martial Arts, Speed Save, and Jump +1 Result? I couldn't heal fast enough (and I don't think I would have even with Move HP UP). Wiegraf simply hits too hard. (Reset!) Try 2: Monk, Guts, Concentrate, Speed Save, and Jump +1 tl;dr version:  1. Wiegraf will use Lightning stab.  2. Bartz will (more likely than not) react with Speed Save, raising his Speed by one.  3. Bartz then heals himself with Chakra.  4. And runs away, beyond Wiegraf's current range to do anything. (With Float Boots in the accessory slot, Wiegraf will not use Earth Slash.) On his next turn, he heals again and moves to a spot where Wiegraf will Lightning Stab again and then retreat up the stairs. 5. Rinse and repeat. It took a while (and I got bored of the back and forth so I ended up experimenting with where I could go), but eventually I thought I'd built up enough speed to move onto the next phase of the fight. What results is a cavalcade of failure at 2x speed and set to whimsical music. In retrospect, I really should've thought more like the AI and sandbagged more aggressively, especially since Bartz had built up so much speed. I'm going to need more levels if I want to try something other than this Benny Hill esque chase sequence. (Reset!) Two extra grinding battles later, Bartz and Galuf have enough JP to learn Hamedo and I have enough money to buy some more gear. Highlights from the Outside Riovanes battle:  I've never managed to trigger it myself, but there's a graphical glitch where, if you spam the Confirm button just as Barinten stands up, he disappears temporarily. (Not sure if it is a Japanese version exclusive glitch or not, but I've seen it happen sometimes on this guy's speedruns, and I don't always pay attention to which version of the game he is playing.)  The Float Boots Knight had Elemental in his Secondary this time, and Water Ball turns Galuf into a frog who can't dodge arrows nearly as well.  Rafa survives much longer this time, even managing to score some kills.  Once again, I take the time to drop my Faith levels.   The alternate dialogue you get if Malak drops first. It doesn't flow as well narrative-wise into the Roof of Riovanes Castle pre-battle cutscene, but having Rafa around was worth it.    And I'd been doing so well dodging arrows up to this point. Still, I finish the battle without too much of an issue and move into the next battle. I was so pumped to preemptively shoot Wiegraf before he could lay a finger on me. Except Hamedo doesn't work on Punch Arts. (Reset!) So it was back to the old Monk strategy. I bungle in the dumbest way possible (Reset!), but run #2 goes successfully much in the same way the earlier attempt does. How'd I do on the Zodiac Boss battle? Not well. This was especially heartbreaking because I think I was about 100~200 HP away from killing Wiegraf. Looks like I still need more levels. (Total Party Kills: A Lot. I think I may have doubled my TPK count in this part alone.)
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Oct 23, 2015 22:03
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Ouch, yeah, Weigraf is a battle that often times just requires resetting until things work out. A crucial dodge here, a status landing there, figuring out movement and ATB manipulation, etc. So I don't know if you've won yet, but some ideas to play with: Weigraf part: 1. You could try giving Mediator Ramza a twist headband in addition to the Chameleon Robe. The +2 PA might make a significant difference in Chakra healing. 2. You could try playing very defensive, and not moving as much to save on ATB. In the Mediator video, you got two turns in a row on Weigraf, and then a third turn when he couldn't reach you. You used the third turn to shoot him. Alternately, just select WAIT instead. When you move and act, your ATB is reduced by 100. If you just move, or just act, it's only reduced by 80. So if you'd waited instead of shooting, you might've gotten two turns in a row again for healing. Your main plan is to build up speed at the beginning, not to kill him. Once you have enough speed, killing him is trivial. Similarly, if he moves and hits you, try and figure out if he'll be able to reach you on the next round if you move. If he will, don't bother moving- wait again, to have more ATB. The AI will ALWAYS attack AND move when it can. So there's if Weigraf moves and then attacks you, on the next round he may attack you and then run away. The next round he'll move forward and attack again, then attack and run away. He's wasting ATB the whole time, while you're just waiting and healing. Anyway, not saying it will work, but you only need to survive a few rounds of attacks with Speed Save activating before you'll be able to run circles around him. When that happens, consider continuing to just heal and building up more speed, and only killing him when you've got enough speed to triple- or quadruple-turn him. Velius part: 1. It'd be much better to have Ramza as a mediator, actually, if for no other reason than you can probably get Ramza somewhere that he can't get punched to death. If you can force Velius to move foward and charge a summon instead, you can have your whole team unload on him for extra damage while he's charging. Makes a huge difference. 2. I think the demons are vulnerable to sleep. You might be able to Mimic Daravon them to take them out of the equation. 3. You can use Doubt Faith offensively, too. Hit Velius with it, say, twice, and suddenly his Summoning is a LOT less threatening. Similarly, he can be Threatened to reduce his physical attack damage. But you have to be careful not to reduce his summon/attack damage TOO much, or he'll just spam his instant status moves, which are arguably more threatening. I dunno if any of this will help; just a bit of brainstorming.
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Oct 24, 2015 00:58
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Schwartzcough posted:2. I think the demons are vulnerable to sleep. You might be able to Mimic Daravon them to take them out of the equation. FFTPatcher lists them as being immune to Invite, Blood Suck, Float, and Transparent, so Sleep should work. Schwartzcough posted:3. You can use Doubt Faith offensively, too. Hit Velius with it, say, twice, and suddenly his Summoning is a LOT less threatening. Similarly, he can be Threatened to reduce his physical attack damage. But you have to be careful not to reduce his summon/attack damage TOO much, or he'll just spam his instant status moves, which are arguably more threatening. Warlock is listed as being Immune to Innocent, so I don't think Doubt Faith would work on him...
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Oct 24, 2015 01:47
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