Final Fantasy Record Keeper II: Also FFRK IV in Japan

[SuperPanda]

Doesn't only apply to bosses.

I just set my IV team on the daily + for farming and got schooled because I'd been through it enough times to think I could multi-task while I did it. I then went back to Lunare Subterain II (Dark Bahamut) that I'd been putting off because I thought he'd take me down and found him a wimp (with Boon, Rampart, Magic Breakdown, Dispell...)

[T.G. Oskar]

Well, while I wait and see if I can handle Lunatic Pandora, let's read my expedition team's recent report, shall we? At least someone liked it!

...

Terra: Today, we decided to stroll through one of the secret dimensional dungeons that open only once per week: the so-called "Daily Dungeons".
Lenna: The stars were with us from the onset!
Terra: This time, it was on a secret location on...I wish I could knew the name, but it's the world that has the Blue Moon. Thus, we took two veterans to help us - first, the paladin Cecil.
Cecil: An honor to assist you, ladies, as it is my solemn duty as a knight and ruler of the new Kingdom of Baron.
Irvine: (And a majestic way to ****block me, ***hole)
Terra: And also, the dragoon Kain.
Kain: Perhaps this will help me atone for my sins.
Cecil: You could always go to Mt. Ordeals and...face your sins directly--
Kain: ON MY OWN TERMS! NOT WITHOUT SUPERNATURAL ASSISTANCE!
Terra: The battles were harsh, but not difficult. With sir Cecil weathering the blows...
Cecil: As any proper knight would.
Terra: Princess Lenna providing assistance from the back row with White Magic spells...
Lenna: And being the best at my job, as well.
Terra: ...and ser Kain facing the monsters with his powerful attacks...
Kain: No monster can stop my spear when in flight!
Terra: We conquered the dungeon! ...As we have done many times, right Princess Lenna?
Lenna: Right, but that usually happens with ser Balthier and sir Steiner, Knight of Pluto.
Irvine: (...What about me?)
Terra: Oh, and Mr. Irvine...
Irvine: Of course!
Terra: ...which summoned our friend from another dimension.
Lenna: *whispering* Ooh, sick burn!
Kain: *whispering* Well, what do you expect from a warrior-mage that specializes in fire?
Irvine: (Dude, where's my respect?)
Cecil: *whispering* More respect for our comrade!
Irvine: (Ah, there it is! I have worth!)
Cecil: *whispering* He may be somewhat impaired to keep up with us, but that doesn't mean--
Terra: Um, am I interrupting something?
Lenna: No, not really. Anyways, we found a treasure chest! Inside it was...
Cecil: A mysterious orb--
Lenna: Record Materia. YOUR Record Materia, in fact.
Cecil: ...fine, as you wish, your Highness. A Record Materia.
Lenna: Sir Cecil, could you explain me something? The Record Materia allows you to heal some of the wounds you take whenever you attack, but...I have seen sir Steiner--
Irvine: And I've seen Squall--
Lenna: When we need your insight, we'll ask it; thank you very much.
Terra: Actually, I've seen Celes use it as well. And so does your companion, Mr. Bartz.
Lenna: ...Oh yeah, that's right. Anyways - it's a Spellblade...well, spell that duplicates the effect of the Drain spell. But you're a Paladin, who has forsaken Black Magic and the Dark Sword; how did you got to use that ability? Wouldn't that be something fitting a Dark Knight?
Kain: Or a cheater.
Cecil: Kain! I thought we had left that behind!
Terra: This is our report!

Spoiler

Show

So yeah - got the Holy Blade Record Materia at last, and almost on time for Steiner's MC. That means I can replace his poor first RM with a more useful one, as he's quite a decent attacker and should make good use of some self-healing (particularly alongside Draw Fire). It should also work for other tanks, like Edgar, Seifer and even Gilgamesh, to remain healthy while contributing to battle. Sure, it's not THAT much, but it's something.

And besides, we all know it's because Cecil is actually using Crusader's Strike on himself. No biggie, Kain.

[Starwulf]

So I have great news for everyone! The lucky draw on Friday has been officially announced(no longer a rumor), it will only cost 25 mythril, AND everyone that logs on to the game Friday, will be gifted 25 mythril. So they are literally giving us a free 11 pull. https://www.reddit.com/r/FFRecordKee..._black_friday/

Also, @TG: I love your posts, please continue them!

[DiscipleofBob]

Today's goal: Great Forest of Moore Elite, no synergy. Lenna's the only one close at 50. Everyone else is level 1.

Any tips or recommendations?

[danzibr]

First rule of Record Keeper:
If you're paranoid about a boss and make any halfway decent preparations, you'll absolutely destroy the boss and wonder why people said it was so hard.

Second rule of Record Keeper:
The second you let your guard down, the game serves you a Master Tonberry Knife to the face.

I absolutely agree with this. When I first started playing and posting here I pretty much never looked up bosses for events and stuff. Didn't use Sleep/Dark/Venom Buster, no slow, no break/down/s, didn't even look to see what the boss was weak to. I always got totally destroyed by anything difficulty 60 and above. Now I'll come to the thread, get scared by people posting horror stories, go do research on every aspect of the boss fights, and then think to myself "Man, that was a cakewalk, wth's going on here". I just don't plan on putting down my guard again, because like you said, the moment I do...STAB!!!! right in the face.

Seconded.

Also, I meant to say a few weeks ago, I completely expected using an MC2 to give a second RM slot. I mean, looking at the GUI, it totally looks like you can have more than 1.

EDIT: Man alive! Odin on that III elite has truck loads of hp. I mean... *so much* hp. Took longer than a +++ fight. At the very end, like 3 attacks before he died, he Zantetsuken'd and killed 3 of my people. Lost mastery because of it. I think had I S/L'ed I could've mastered the dungeon but I just didn't feel like doing that long donkey fight. I'll come back after I clear out all the stuff of lower difficulty, save it for when I have a group of 80's. 8)

[SuperPanda]

Well, while I wait and see if I can handle Lunatic Pandora, let's read my expedition team's recent report, shall we? At least someone liked it!

...

Terra: Today, we decided to stroll through one of the secret dimensional dungeons that open only once per week: the so-called "Daily Dungeons".
Lenna: The stars were with us from the onset!
Terra: This time, it was on a secret location on...I wish I could knew the name, but it's the world that has the Blue Moon. Thus, we took two veterans to help us - first, the paladin Cecil.
Cecil: An honor to assist you, ladies, as it is my solemn duty as a knight and ruler of the new Kingdom of Baron.
Irvine: (And a majestic way to ****block me, ***hole)
Terra: And also, the dragoon Kain.
Kain: Perhaps this will help me atone for my sins.
Cecil: You could always go to Mt. Ordeals and...face your sins directly--
Kain: ON MY OWN TERMS! NOT WITHOUT SUPERNATURAL ASSISTANCE!
Terra: The battles were harsh, but not difficult. With sir Cecil weathering the blows...
Cecil: As any proper knight would.
Terra: Princess Lenna providing assistance from the back row with White Magic spells...
Lenna: And being the best at my job, as well.
Terra: ...and ser Kain facing the monsters with his powerful attacks...
Kain: No monster can stop my spear when in flight!
Terra: We conquered the dungeon! ...As we have done many times, right Princess Lenna?
Lenna: Right, but that usually happens with ser Balthier and sir Steiner, Knight of Pluto.
Irvine: (...What about me?)
Terra: Oh, and Mr. Irvine...
Irvine: Of course!
Terra: ...which summoned our friend from another dimension.
Lenna: *whispering* Ooh, sick burn!
Kain: *whispering* Well, what do you expect from a warrior-mage that specializes in fire?
Irvine: (Dude, where's my respect?)
Cecil: *whispering* More respect for our comrade!
Irvine: (Ah, there it is! I have worth!)
Cecil: *whispering* He may be somewhat impaired to keep up with us, but that doesn't mean--
Terra: Um, am I interrupting something?
Lenna: No, not really. Anyways, we found a treasure chest! Inside it was...
Cecil: A mysterious orb--
Lenna: Record Materia. YOUR Record Materia, in fact.
Cecil: ...fine, as you wish, your Highness. A Record Materia.
Lenna: Sir Cecil, could you explain me something? The Record Materia allows you to heal some of the wounds you take whenever you attack, but...I have seen sir Steiner--
Irvine: And I've seen Squall--
Lenna: When we need your insight, we'll ask it; thank you very much.
Terra: Actually, I've seen Celes use it as well. And so does your companion, Mr. Bartz.
Lenna: ...Oh yeah, that's right. Anyways - it's a Spellblade...well, spell that duplicates the effect of the Drain spell. But you're a Paladin, who has forsaken Black Magic and the Dark Sword; how did you got to use that ability? Wouldn't that be something fitting a Dark Knight?
Kain: Or a cheater.
Cecil: Kain! I thought we had left that behind!
Terra: This is our report!

Spoiler

Show

So yeah - got the Holy Blade Record Materia at last, and almost on time for Steiner's MC. That means I can replace his poor first RM with a more useful one, as he's quite a decent attacker and should make good use of some self-healing (particularly alongside Draw Fire). It should also work for other tanks, like Edgar, Seifer and even Gilgamesh, to remain healthy while contributing to battle. Sure, it's not THAT much, but it's something.

And besides, we all know it's because Cecil is actually using Crusader's Strike on himself. No biggie, Kain.

Tellah: Well the method described is certainly one way of achieving the affect, through the dark magics of siphoning an opponent's life force. The same effect could be cause by charging the weapon with holy energies that have a restoritive effect but sending the charge into the hilt and pommel instead of the blade as a spell-blade would.
Kain: That's a lot of words to say cheater.
Palom: Show some respect for the world's second greatest mage (beyond myself of course).
Porom: Palom *wack* its rude to interupt these moments before we've been officially added to the game.
Palom: Oh come on! They added Golbez before me! Clearly there is no sanity in the design.
Gilgamesh: Sorry... Got stuck babysitting... I'll put them back where I found them.
Porom: We're sorry for interupting, carry on.
Palom: Later!
Tellah: And we should be off as well Kain. No, not you Kain, I'm talking to Kain. Parallel dimensions get confusing at times.
Kain: This time can we not get an entire team confused and attacking me?
Tellah: Well, considering your history can you really blame them?
Kain: ...
Squall: (That's my line).

[danzibr]

Oh yeah! I got so worked up about Odin's obscene amounts of hit points in my previous post I forgot to mention: got Luneth's MC! Now I just need Ranger, Summoner, and Irvine to get the most desired RM.

[SuperPanda]

Cloud: We got a new Mission.
Vaan: Man, no need too be so serious about it. We went off to the sandsea to find a great treasure.
Lenna: Don't jump to the end.
Ashe: To complete the expedition into the Dynast King's tomb I've accepted what help I could find.
Tifa: The stars were with us from the beginning.
Vaan: The tomb was underground, the stars didn't come with us.
Ashe: Just ignore him, its what I did.
Lenna: That does sound a little harsh.
Cloud: It was suppose to be a difficult mission.
Tifa: We couldn't bring our normal protective spells.
Tyro: I did help!
Vaan: Yeah you did kid.
Tyro: Thanks Vaan!
Lenna: Who was that again?
Vaan: Didn't you notice that giant shield that dropped down and helped us? Anyway, thanks to me it was too easy.
Ashe: The Daemon wall did fall rather easily, but Raithwall's treasure still lay within.
Vaan: It was suppose to be another glowy stone like the one that got stolen from me.
Ashe: *ahem*
Vaan: I stole it first!
Tifa: Lets break it up shall we.
Tyro: That's when I had to go, I called in Sazh to help instead.
Cloud: We made camp and took stock of our abilities.
Lenna: The wards preventing protective spells had dissipated.
Ashe: We proceeded with caution.
Vann: And found the treasure - it was a big monster!
Tifa: Together we were able to overcome it!
Lenna: We didn't find a dusk shard, but we did find a Stamina shard! Also a map to a mansion in a different realm.
Vaan: Yeah, when do we get to do something else in my realm?
Tifa: Sorry so say this to you Vaan, I don't think Tyro's found any more record halls in your realm... it seems his people didn't care for your story.
Vaan: What? Nah. It just means that ours is the most important. See, saving the best for last.

Zidane: I know exactly what you mean!

[DiscipleofBob]

Bandwagonning! All the cool kids are doing it!

Cloud: Today I led another mission.
Cecil: It was a great forest in a realm where none of us were familiar with.
Garnet: It reminded me of the forest near my home kingdom.
Vivi: Don't remind me! It was scary!
Squall: ...
Cecil: We needed to find and destroy four evil crystals.
Cloud: We brought Cecil because he's excellent at making crystals disappear.
Cecil: Hey!
Garnet: There were many strange ghosts and goblins.
Vivi: I took care of most of them with my magic! Cecil didn't even have to fight in his underwear!
Cecil: HEY!
Garnet: (Wrong franchise Vivi!)
Squall: ...
Cloud: We found the four crystals. I let everything attack me first.
Luneth: I helped! No one helps advancement as well as I do!
Garnet: Sir Cecil and I made sure no one was hurt too badly.
Vivi: My magic Ruined the crystals. I kind of feel bad.
Squall: ...
Squall: (I wish I could Retaliate)
Cecil: It was a well-fought battle.
Cloud: Among other things I found Materia for Nanaki!
Vivi: (I don't think that's Materia...)
Cecil: I protected the princess and combined forces with Vivi.

*elsewhere*

Steiner: Why do I feel like there's something I should be doing instead today?

[Jurai]

This is totally how they should do the after-battle XP and Loot screens for the Tactics event.

[DiscipleofBob]

Finally got to 120 stamina!!!

Now I can do two full sweeps of those Heroic+ dungeons at a time.

[danzibr]

Finally got to 120 stamina!!!

Now I can do two full sweeps of those Heroic+ dungeons at a time.

Grats! I'm only at 117. Close though, close.

Got Summon Spring II. And otherwise cleared like... 6ish dungeons today. At this rate I'll have FuSoYa in a week of non-event, non-Sunday stuff.

[Red Fel]

Well, event is up, but I'm only just getting started.

Rolled on the banner, and got... Defense Veil. A stat-stick hat for X.

Yeah, that's X. Not IX. Just X.

I, uh, think the banner's broken, you guys.

[DiscipleofBob]

Well, event is up, but I'm only just getting started.

Rolled on the banner, and got... Defense Veil. A stat-stick hat for X.

Yeah, that's X. Not IX. Just X.

I, uh, think the banner's broken, you guys.

To be fair, it's not like the lottery excludes all other relics, just makes the relics on the banner more likely.

[danzibr]

Well, event is up, but I'm only just getting started.

Rolled on the banner, and got... Defense Veil. A stat-stick hat for X.

Yeah, that's X. Not IX. Just X.

I, uh, think the banner's broken, you guys.

To be fair, it's not like the lottery excludes all other relics, just makes the relics on the banner more likely.

I did an 11-pull on the first VIII banner and got a single 5*: a dagger from VI.

EDIT: I just realized... I'm so glad the second Orbfest is between Rift of Recollection and the Ultima event. Should be able to get 6 people up to 80, and of those 6 you can form a balanced party. Not ideal (no support 5, only Tyro for a white mage), but decent.

EDIT EDIT: Oh wait, of course we might be getting more MC2's between now and then. Derp. Yup, here it is: https://www.reddit.com/r/FFRecordKee...er_of_release/

It looks like here are those who will have a MC2 available by the second Orbfest: Cloud, Squall, Rinoa, Tyro, Tidus, Pally Cecil, Sephiroth, Lenna, Wakka, DK Cecil, Lightning, Red XIII, Steiner, Fran, Terra, WoL, Galuf. And of them 3 will be solid for the Ultima dungeon.

[Red Fel]

To be fair, it's not like the lottery excludes all other relics, just makes the relics on the banner more likely.

I did an 11-pull on the first VIII banner and got a single 5*: a dagger from VI.

Yeah, yeah, I know. It would just make me feel better if it were broken, because then DeNA might come along and issue a fix and refund.

Instead, stat-stick X hat from a frankly solid IX banner. I am disappoint.

[SuperPanda]

I won't be able to start the event until tonight but I am jazzed about it for one simple reason - The MCs! I currently have 0 IX characters level broken and I'll soon have 4 (I have enough MCs to bring Zidane up to 50 right off) with one more working his way up. ViVi gets to join my ranks of level broken blasters with Eiko joining my level broken healers (becoming my only level broken bard save Thancred who doesn't really count) and Steiner becoming my latest level broken tank.

Easily the most excited for ViVi of the three though Eiko's Shellga SB is nothing to sneeze at (nor is her ability to pack summons and Bard skills). I'm not as big a Steiner fan but until I get P.Cecil's MC he might be my go-to knight (Gilgamesh being there for taunt-retaliate specifically and Seifer being... not likely to ever get off the bench. Snow ... is less likely to get chosen than Seifer despite having an awesome default SB).

Won't be rolling till banner 2 for this event (well that an Lucky Draw) - but I'll be happy to have some items I can upgrade/combine again (I think everything in my inventory is max level for the first time ever).

[Jurai]

In regards to non-event happenings, Lunar Subterrane Pt. 1 and Tomb of Raithwall Pt. 4 are my new stonewalls. I need Bioga for LS and I need more Water Damage Sources level broken.

[SuperPanda]

In regards to non-event happenings, Lunar Subterrane Pt. 1 and Tomb of Raithwall Pt. 4 are my new stonewalls. I need Bioga for LS and I need more Water Damage Sources level broken.

I went through both of those dungeons yesterday and might be able to offer some help:

White Dragon also takes a beating from Comet and Ruinga - so bio isn't required with a good mage and mage weapon. I had a a 3* ++ IV sword, Kain's Spear, Tellah's Rod (though he was stuck only healing) and Rydia's whip - so I had good RS. I didn't have any IV armors though - with Sentinel Grimorie up White Dragon wasn't hitting too hard (Vaan helped out with magic breakdown while Tellah had Protectga).

It was a pretty straight forward fight once mitigation is up. I'd recommend Lenna over Tellah for the healer though since Regen would go a long way to helping your healer keep people up. Retaliate also helps a good deal since it helps bypass counters.

On Belias - My XII RS is much weaker and my only source of water damage was Waterga (R4). Ashe having her relic helped alot - but my 4* sword and spear were helping Cloud and Vaan do ~4000 a hit anyway (Vaan' with breakdowns/Dismissal and Cloud with armor break/retaliate). Tifa was doing less but still laid in the hurt.

Again with Mitigation he wasn't hitting too hard on Classic (Have not tried these on Elite yet). Ashe was hitting with waterga and ruinga for solid cap or near cap damage without using her magic boost SB. Lenna's regen helped a great deal with the AoEs.

[danzibr]

In regards to non-event happenings, Lunar Subterrane Pt. 1 and Tomb of Raithwall Pt. 4 are my new stonewalls. I need Bioga for LS and I need more Water Damage Sources level broken.

I'm jealous of your progress. You're much closer to FuSoYa than I (and much closer to FuSoYa than me, for that matter).

I wish they had an option to switch out all the stuff on one character to another. Went from Rydia to Vivi this morning, so many button pushes.

[Chen]

In regards to non-event happenings, Lunar Subterrane Pt. 1 and Tomb of Raithwall Pt. 4 are my new stonewalls. I need Bioga for LS and I need more Water Damage Sources level broken.

For most non-gimmick high end fights it pretty much comes down to:
- Stack defenses: Sentinel Grimoire + protectiga/shellga + breakdowns - this reduces the enemy's damage output to almost negligible amounts.
- High attack: So boost + retaliate with a decent synergy or 5* weapon (ideally 5* synergy of course). Or multiple mages with -ja spells or -ga spells against weakness. Or full physical party with decent synergy or 5* weapons and Hand of the Emperor/Planet Protector/other attack boost. Hand of the Emperor is better than Planet protector both for the defense boost and because it stacks with Boost. For the full physical strategy you kinda need one of those boosts natively else you won't be able to Sentinel Grimoire + attack boost.

The standard fight, take big hits and heal after them is not a great strategy as the difficulty increases. Mitigating damage down to a couple hundred is a much better strategy overall.

[Jurai]

I went through both of those dungeons yesterday and might be able to offer some help:

White Dragon also takes a beating from Comet and Ruinga - so bio isn't required with a good mage and mage weapon. I had a a 3* ++ IV sword, Kain's Spear, Tellah's Rod (though he was stuck only healing) and Rydia's whip - so I had good RS. I didn't have any IV armors though - with Sentinel Grimorie up White Dragon wasn't hitting too hard (Vaan helped out with magic breakdown while Tellah had Protectga).

It was a pretty straight forward fight once mitigation is up. I'd recommend Lenna over Tellah for the healer though since Regen would go a long way to helping your healer keep people up. Retaliate also helps a good deal since it helps bypass counters.

On Belias - My XII RS is much weaker and my only source of water damage was Waterga (R4). Ashe having her relic helped alot - but my 4* sword and spear were helping Cloud and Vaan do ~4000 a hit anyway (Vaan' with breakdowns/Dismissal and Cloud with armor break/retaliate). Tifa was doing less but still laid in the hurt.

Again with Mitigation he wasn't hitting too hard on Classic (Have not tried these on Elite yet). Ashe was hitting with waterga and ruinga for solid cap or near cap damage without using her magic boost SB. Lenna's regen helped a great deal with the AoEs.

It wasn't that, I was just running out of reasonable ways to damage it without auto-battling until SBs were charged. That's all.

I'm jealous of your progress. You're much closer to FuSoYa than I (and much closer to FuSoYa than me, for that matter).

I wish they had an option to switch out all the stuff on one character to another. Went from Rydia to Vivi this morning, so many button pushes.

I know, especially since I flip attackers/supporters in and out all the time.

For most non-gimmick high end fights it pretty much comes down to:
- Stack defenses: Sentinel Grimoire + protectiga/shellga + breakdowns - this reduces the enemy's damage output to almost negligible amounts.
- High attack: So boost + retaliate with a decent synergy or 5* weapon (ideally 5* synergy of course). Or multiple mages with -ja spells or -ga spells against weakness. Or full physical party with decent synergy or 5* weapons and Hand of the Emperor/Planet Protector/other attack boost. Hand of the Emperor is better than Planet protector both for the defense boost and because it stacks with Boost. For the full physical strategy you kinda need one of those boosts natively else you won't be able to Sentinel Grimoire + attack boost.

The standard fight, take big hits and heal after them is not a great strategy as the difficulty increases. Mitigating damage down to a couple hundred is a much better strategy overall.

It's not just that, I ran out of abilities, as mentioned earlier. I literally couldn't keep up with Belly Drum and his ability to hit MY ENTIRE PARTY AT ONCE.

Also, just finished Castle Hein- Elite and now I have both Concentration II and Mana Spring II.

[Chen]

Ah yeah well low hones can definitely be a problem. For those higher end classic dungeons I'd recommend something of the following if you don't have many high honed abilities and your gear isn't the greatest:

Char 1 (retaliator/physical): Retaliate (R4) + armor break (R3)
Char 2 (physical): Double-cut (or tempo flurry) R3 + spare (could be boost, dismissal, support/spellblade for mastery etc)
Char 3 (support): magic break R3 + power break R3
Char 4 (White/utility): Curaga R5 + defense/utility (protectga, shellga, boost, intimidate etc)
Char 5 (Black): -ga spell R3 + AoE R2-3 (2 if you have BM RM2, 3 otherwise)

This type of setup will get you through pretty much any content up to level 100 and probably even some past that. High 90s and 100s will be risky and you could still get wrecked by bad RNG so S/L will be required as you keep increasing the level. Retaliate is really what lets you hit above your weight class. You can use it to clear the trash and then use it against the boss once you've run out of spells.

If you don't want to use retaliate, then you need to compensate with hones and/or better gear. Add one rank to all the hones mentioned above or keep the same hones but jump up a level (breaks to breakdowns, -ga spells to -ja spells).

Now that's purely in terms of most effective way to clear things. If you want to make sure you're always using full parties from the realm you're in or the like, things will be more difficult, but can also be done. You just again need more hones and more relics. I personally play games like this using the most efficient and effective ways to clear things (powergaming way). There's nothing wrong with not being of that mindset, it's just it'll take more grinding to get to the point where you can clear the same content. In those cases farming dailies with your A team to get 3 and 4* orbs is probably your best bet (barring throwing a bunch of money at the game :P).

[Forbiddenwar]

What is FuSoYa?

I'm starting to get to the point where I can fill a team with synergy characters, especially with the current event.

Is it better to have a party full of terrible characters with synergy than a party of top in their class without synergy? At equal levels it seems yes, but they are rarely the same level. At what point does the non synergy team beat the synergy team?

In short, if Cloud is 70 and zidane is 30 who should go?

[Chen]

What is FuSoYa?

I'm starting to get to the point where I can fill a team with synergy characters, especially with the current event.

Is it better to have a party full of terrible characters with synergy than a party of top in their class without synergy? At equal levels it seems yes, but they are rarely the same level. At what point does the non synergy team beat the synergy team?

In short, if Cloud is 70 and zidane is 30 who should go?

FuSoYa is an FFIV sage. He's nothing special but his RMs are Concentration and Mana Spring combined (restore both white and black magic uses). I think we're still a couple of dungeon updates away from his memory crystal though.

Synergy for characters adds 10 levels worth of stats to them, nothing more. So sub-level 50 synergy chars are going to be worse than almost any level-broken chars even with their effective level boost, due to not being able to use RMs. Depending on the RMs I'd take a level 50 non-synergy but level broken char, over a level 49 synergy char. I believe, currently, level 80 Cloud and Squall without synergy have higher attack than any level 65 char WITH synergy.

Synergy for equipment is a much bigger deal than character synergy.

[Forbiddenwar]

FuSoYa is an FFIV sage. He's nothing special but his RMs are Concentration and Mana Spring combined (restore both white and black magic uses)..

Forgive my ignorance, but why? What's the point of that? I never have my blaster curing or my healer blasting.


Unless you want 2 blasters, or 2 healers. And the flexibility to switch.

Oh.

Oh.

[Jurai]

Ah yeah well low hones can definitely be a problem. For those higher end classic dungeons I'd recommend something of the following if you don't have many high honed abilities and your gear isn't the greatest:

Char 1 (retaliator/physical): Retaliate (R4) + armor break (R3)
Char 2 (physical): Double-cut (or tempo flurry) R3 + spare (could be boost, dismissal, support/spellblade for mastery etc)
Char 3 (support): magic break R3 + power break R3
Char 4 (White/utility): Curaga R5 + defense/utility (protectga, shellga, boost, intimidate etc)
Char 5 (Black): -ga spell R3 + AoE R2-3 (2 if you have BM RM2, 3 otherwise)

This type of setup will get you through pretty much any content up to level 100 and probably even some past that. High 90s and 100s will be risky and you could still get wrecked by bad RNG so S/L will be required as you keep increasing the level. Retaliate is really what lets you hit above your weight class. You can use it to clear the trash and then use it against the boss once you've run out of spells.

If you don't want to use retaliate, then you need to compensate with hones and/or better gear. Add one rank to all the hones mentioned above or keep the same hones but jump up a level (breaks to breakdowns, -ga spells to -ja spells).

Now that's purely in terms of most effective way to clear things. If you want to make sure you're always using full parties from the realm you're in or the like, things will be more difficult, but can also be done. You just again need more hones and more relics. I personally play games like this using the most efficient and effective ways to clear things (powergaming way). There's nothing wrong with not being of that mindset, it's just it'll take more grinding to get to the point where you can clear the same content. In those cases farming dailies with your A team to get 3 and 4* orbs is probably your best bet (barring throwing a bunch of money at the game :P).

I need to hone some abilities, anyway. I've got a Double Hit and a Tempo Flurry each at Rank 5, and I try not to run full realm parties, since I tend to focus on one or two characters from a given realm, V being the only exception because Lenna was already Level 50, and I pulled Gilgamesh and Galuf's relics. Speaking of characters, I'd like a good melee fighter that can use Support 4 and Celerity 4, if not 5 each. That way I can pound face, slow, dismiss, and breakdown foes with one slot instead of two.

[danzibr]

Also, just finished Castle Hein- Elite and now I have both Concentration II and Mana Spring II.

Grats! The game is going to become so much easier.

Forgive my ignorance, but why? What's the point of that? I never have my blaster curing or my healer blasting.


Unless you want 2 blasters, or 2 healers. And the flexibility to switch.

Oh.

Oh.

Ahh 'dat FuSoYa.

[Jurai]

My setup was
Terra (Level 63): Firaja, Blizzaja, Magus Rod (VI), Witch Hat (XIII), Earrings (VII), Hidden Power I
Black Mage (Level 50): Ruinga, Thundaja, Magus Rod (VI), Dragon Armlet (VII), Earrings (VII), Vow of Vengeance
Barret (Level 53): Double Hit R5, Double Hit R2, Running Fire (VIII), Oath Veil (VI), Power Belt (IX), Composure
Thancred (Level 60): Tempo Flurry, Aim, Kaiser Knuckles (V), Hypnocrown (V), Hyper Wrist (VI), Gunblade
Lenna (Level 57): Curaga, Protega, Healing Staff (V), Estharian Helmet (VIII), Angel Ring (V), Concentration II
and the RW was something I didn't even use.

Double Hit and Tempo Flurry roll to hit twice, so that reduced how bad his evasion was, and Aim ramps up accuracy to excessive levels. Ruinga was for clearing trash, and the -jas are for making Hein regret becoming a lich. Protega was just there, and Curaga because it's my highest ranked healing spell.

[Chen]

I need to hone some abilities, anyway. I've got a Double Hit and a Tempo Flurry each at Rank 5, and I try not to run full realm parties, since I tend to focus on one or two characters from a given realm, V being the only exception because Lenna was already Level 50, and I pulled Gilgamesh and Galuf's relics. Speaking of characters, I'd like a good melee fighter that can use Support 4 and Celerity 4, if not 5 each. That way I can pound face, slow, dismiss, and breakdown foes with one slot instead of two.

Vaan and Fran both have Celerity 5 and Support 4. I think Fran gets updated to Support 5 at some point too. That said I tend to have both Power and Magic Breakdown on my support so there's no real room for anything else anyways. For a fight that doesn't need one of the two, I tend to throw in Armor breakdown instead.