FFRKV: Now We Post Like Men! And Ladies! And Ladies Who Dress Like Men!

[Forbiddenwar]

Hmm, everyone who mastered EA took DG as their RW. But if I did that, I couldn't take a medica. Is having a medica for this fight important?

[Slayn82]

Well, every time you destroy each of his lens in phase 2, it explodes and deal to the party 40% of each individual max HP. And when you pass to phase 3, the boss and any remaining lens explode - boss for 25% HP, and each remaining Lens adds + 40% . You can survive one single Lens remaining with the Boss.

Do you have another source of haste, Heavy Regen or +Resist for this fight? You could use a Medica with Hastega or Heavy Regen as a compromise, in place of DG. And now Arc has a +Res Medica. Priority should be hastega > resistance > heavy Regen (because you should have healers to spare).

[Cozzer]

Well, every time you destroy each of his lens in phase 2, it explodes and deal to the party 40% of each individual max HP.

Actually, that only happens if you destroy the mirrors with Raise or similar effects. I've destroyed a couple of them with regular Diara/gas and they didn't explode. Still, I think it's almost mandatory to have at least a non-RW medica. This fight charges your SB bars very quickly and expects you to make use of them. I had three medicas and Sentinel Grimoire, and barely survived. I could probably have done it with two, but not with a single medica.

[Red Fel]

Actually, that only happens if you destroy the mirrors with Raise or similar effects. I've destroyed a couple of them with regular Diara/gas and they didn't explode. Still, I think it's almost mandatory to have at least a non-RW medica. This fight charges your SB bars very quickly and expects you to make use of them. I had three medicas and Sentinel Grimoire, and barely survived. I could probably have done it with two, but not with a single medica.

This is true. First, that the lenses only explode if either (1) you kill them with an instant-KO like Raise, or (2) you leave them alive when phase 2 ends. Second, that a medica is extremely helpful. A high Regenga can help you through the Photon Sprays, generally, but the AoEs can hit hard, and the explosion at the end of phase 2 definitely hits hard; a medica would help immensely. It's also true that SB charges fill quickly; you gain plenty of charge from healing and from targeting a weakness, and this fight lets you do both in abundance.

For the record, I didn't bring a medica. My only medicas are Tyro's and Yuffie's, and I wasn't planning to bring either to this fight. Fortunately, if enough people are packing Curaga/ja, it's less of an issue, as you can heal up quickly after a strong hit.

As is often the case, however, a wall and hastega are more important. Medica is very helpful, not mandatory; hastega is very much mandatory, or else you'll miss your Esuna window.

[Greg_S]

Hmm, everyone who mastered EA took DG as their RW. But if I did that, I couldn't take a medica. Is having a medica for this fight important?

As others have said, they're really handy. If you don't have a character one, shared are very nice too. Failing that, like Red said, pack Curaga/ja/renewing cures. You'll probably need to save ability slots this way, so consider bringing Mighty Guard (VIII) so you can leave Shellga behind, or use DG if you've got a shared SB shellga.

[danzibr]

Phew, that was close. Forgot to use Holy something on Gi Nattak. Missed 3 medals, barely got mastery.

[SuperPanda]

I'm gonna have to break some major holy orbs and up my damage output, Wall has run out before I get to phase 3 and it straight up murders me then (also my hones are running low at that point.

No hastega or wall on a white Mage is tough.

Good news though, a properly times dream stage cancels explosion- bad news - that's really hard to pull off.

[Calemyr]

Only thing I got out of my Lucky Draw was Rosa's White Dress (SB: Protectga/Shellga). Won't lie, I've had worse, but that ones's like six months too late to be relevant. On the other hand, I spent 12 Mythril on Sundaily and felt I got more than my money's worth from it. A dozen level breaks, Zidane and Beatrix halfway between 64 and 65, and three more to level 79. Absolutely, totally worth it.

[Red Fel]

By the by, I hope you're all enjoying that free Tornado Strike. Or planning to. (I know I am.)

Anyhow - didn't I promise you bonus battles? Here's what will drop in tonight's event.

• +: Boss Rush. You'll need a way to reduce Mag, and a source of Blind. This one's tricky, because one of the bosses is Mag-heavy, and the other is solely Phy-based. Victory gets you orbs, the 4-star Mememto Mori ability, and Zidane's MC2.
  • Lani. Medals for not getting KO'd and for reducing her Mag. Half of her attacks are single-target physical, the rest are magic (single-target and AoE). Reducing her Mag is very helpful, obviously. So is Blinding her, since she's susceptible to that. Between Magic Break(down) + Shellga and Blind, she should be cake.
  • Scarlet Hair. Medals for not getting KO'd and for Blinding him. His attacks are all physical, so Blind completely trivializes the fight. That said, he still has that super-annoying front row / back row mechanic, which is a pain.
• ++: Valia Pira. Medals for not getting KO'd, not letting Zidane get KO'd, and using Wind damage. With a full IX party, it only uses magic attacks and Reflect, and is weak to Wind and susceptible to Slow, Sleep, and Blind (which is useless). Mage meta is an option, but your Wind attacks are probably physical, so there's that. Still, with full IX, it should be a cakewalk, particularly now that you have Tornado Strike. Victory gets you orbs and Beatrix's MC2.
• +++: Garland. Medals for not getting KO'd, reducing Garland's Mag, and using Holy damage. He deals primarily physical damage, so be sure to mitigate that, but also has an AoE Stop and a single-target Flare. Mitigation is key, because he hits hard. Bring a Knight for an easy source of Holy damage. Victory gets you orbs, a Rosetta Stone, the 5-star Dark Zone ability, and Kuja's MC2.

The U and U+ for this event look very... Interesting. We'll see how those go. In any event, happy hunting.

[Antonok]

Good news though, a properly times dream stage cancels explosion- bad news - that's really hard to pull off.

This was my plan of attack thinking on it. Arc with his SSB. Him being damage focused would get his SB gauge up fast enough to have it up in time. Do have to say I'm loving Arc. If he had a higher BLM skill he'd be my top choice. At 76 with his RM 2 hes over 300 MND and MAG and has not had any trouble hitting 8k+ on most things with Diaga/-ja spells. Just wish summons were a bit more useful.

In other news, is the IX event out yet? Mithril is burning a hole in my pocket, tho I should really save it for banner 2 in hopes of getting Beatrix's SSB, or anything on that banner really. Would all be useful

[Calemyr]

Wow. Zidane getting Mechanist skills will make him wonderfully handy against Scarlet Hair. High chance of blind, ranged attack, does more damage on a blinded target... Yeah, Zidane is earning his MC2 for me. Meanwhile, I'm going to enjoy combining Beatrix and Steiner for some holy knight action against Garland (Banishing Strike + Saint Cross) while Steiner is going to really enjoy that Tornado Strike. I like.

[Antonok]

while Steiner is going to really enjoy that Tornado Strike.

Is he getting a buff to 5* spellblade? Cause if not, then no, he is going to be sitting back with every other 4* spellblader longing for a buff

[Calemyr]

Is he getting a buff to 5* spellblade? Cause if not, then no, he is going to be sitting back with every other 4* spellblader longing for a buff

Ah, dang. Fair point. He's still going to have fun with Aero Strike.

[Forbiddenwar]

Woot. Mastered EA. I dug up an old cure level shared medica I forgot I had (prayer) and Garnet was terrible without synergy, (hard to keep alive, only did 2k damage, etc) so I put her on Esuna duty. First try I missed an Esuna and ran out of steam on holy spells. Only expert. Second try with more holy finished and mastered it.

So, what was the plan for the current U+ again? All I remember was tornado strike.

[danzibr]

I too mastered EA. And grats to everyone else who did.

My party was quite similar to others. I had Aerith with Dragon Force, Relm with her brush, Penelo with nothing special, Yuna with nothing special, Tyro with SG. Dragon Force was actually *really* nice since it makes both Explosion and his physical AoE whiff. Relm's brush was a godsend.

I had a lot of fun with the battle. Several S/L's and once I had to exit out to switch around abilities and do some more honing, but overall it was really fun.

[Calemyr]

Egad, getting MC2 RMs is like pulling teeth. I'm doing the first stage of FFIV's Tower of Zot - Spire. 7 Stamina for 5 rounds. I've got a party of five people looking to get their RM before my stamina matters again, and I just finished my 19th run with out a single one dropping. 95 fights, 5 chances each fight. And yet nothing. Those are pretty crappy odds, aren't they?

[danzibr]

Egad, getting MC2 RMs is like pulling teeth. I'm doing the first stage of FFIV's Tower of Zot - Spire. 7 Stamina for 5 rounds. I've got a party of five people looking to get their RM before my stamina matters again, and I just finished my 19th run with out a single one dropping. 95 fights, 5 chances each fight. And yet nothing. Those are pretty crappy odds, aren't they?

Yup, they're crap alright. I personally do it in Mist Cave battle 2. It's unclear whether the number of mobs or waves contribute to the probability of getting RM.

Anyway. Looking ahead, the next Nightmare looks like it'll be a nightmare indeed, but the one after that isn't so bad.

[Hunter Noventa]

Well at least I have a full IX party for the ++ boss, I just hope everyone being around 50-52 is good enough.

[Friv]

GDI, Tiamat.

She keeps getting two attacks off before my mitigation is up. First time, it was "Rake the support user, then breath" a moment before my Shellga and Full Break went off, killing the breaker and leaving me without second-tier defenses. The second time, it was "Rake the white mage, then breath" between Shellga and Full Break, which was enough to kill Aerith. At which point the game was over, it was just a matter of how many rounds I could last before various Breath attacks killed me.

[Antonok]

Tiamats down but I didn't go for mastery. First thought on it is ouch. The fight would of been much easier but Arc and Wakka were near useless outside breaks/SBs (this was mostly because reflect and Tia resisting everything but earth, the element we have very little in the way of). Took 2 attempts, first one I had Arc bring Diaga and Dispel, not a decent combo as diaga was only hitting around 2500. Second attempt I switch those out for Comet and an R2 Manduin. Slightly better but I think I should of stuck with Diaga over comet.

Gi Nattak is still yet to be attempted but I'm not too greatly worried about him. He seems the easiest out of the lot. Plus I have a decent amount of fire resist gear and now a major fire resist accessory.

Edit: Gi Nattak is down. Was insanely easy. Edgar with Banishing Strike and SC, Arc with Diaga, Fully decked out Cloud with FO. Wait til 2 people get possessed, unleash hell. 1 medal lost to damage taken.

[tyckspoon]

Are we expecting more Spellblade 5 users in the near-ish future? I kind of want to hone Tornado Strike, but as is it's only usable by 3 characters (discounting Keeper, because he's never gonna be much good with physical abilities.) Thankfully they're all pretty good characters, but that's not a lot of options for such a major investment.

[Greg_S]

Are we expecting more Spellblade 5 users in the near-ish future? I kind of want to hone Tornado Strike, but as is it's only usable by 3 characters (discounting Keeper, because he's never gonna be much good with physical abilities.) Thankfully they're all pretty good characters, but that's not a lot of options for such a major investment.

Eventually, via the record dive system, a few characters will get updates to spellblade 5. Looks like those are Cloud, Lightning, and Balthier, though I have heard that the fragments are tough to come by initially.

[Antonok]

Hmm. First attempt at EA did not go so well. Phase 2 wrecked me hard. Everyone was full health after the first mirror, second mirror decided to kill 4 ppl because I didn't get dispel off in time. This could prove to be tricky...

[Red Fel]

Hmm. First attempt at EA did not go so well. Phase 2 wrecked me hard. Everyone was full health after the first mirror, second mirror decided to kill 4 ppl because I didn't get dispel off in time. This could prove to be tricky...

Phase 2 is the real test. Phase 3 is just "Phase 1, now with buffs!" But Phase 2 is the beast.

Honestly, on my successful run, I didn't even bring Dispel. I either tried to nuke lens 2 while lens 1 was prepping, or I just soaked the damage. Even augmented by lens 2, with Shellga, DG and wall up, Photon Spray dealt between 300-400 a hit, which I could heal through if he didn't decide to focus fire on one person the whole time. (He did that once. It sucked.)

What you might consider is not killing the lenses in order. I had my Esuna user throw that on the first lens, while my nukers immediately started in on the second lens. By the time the second lens was ready to fire, it was dead.

Also, keep in mind that you don't have to wait until the lens links up to use Esuna/Dispel - you can use it immediately, and the lens will simply lose its power temporarily. My Esuna user would go down the line and Esuna the lenses; with Hastega, she was de-powering them faster than EA could link up with them. He'd link up with a lens, and just spit a regular Photon Spray.

[Antonok]

Phase 2 is the real test. Phase 3 is just "Phase 1, now with buffs!" But Phase 2 is the beast.

Honestly, on my successful run, I didn't even bring Dispel. I either tried to nuke lens 2 while lens 1 was prepping, or I just soaked the damage. Even augmented by lens 2, with Shellga, DG and wall up, Photon Spray dealt between 300-400 a hit, which I could heal through if he didn't decide to focus fire on one person the whole time. (He did that once. It sucked.)

What you might consider is not killing the lenses in order. I had my Esuna user throw that on the first lens, while my nukers immediately started in on the second lens. By the time the second lens was ready to fire, it was dead.

Also, keep in mind that you don't have to wait until the lens links up to use Esuna/Dispel - you can use it immediately, and the lens will simply lose its power temporarily. My Esuna user would go down the line and Esuna the lenses; with Hastega, she was de-powering them faster than EA could link up with them. He'd link up with a lens, and just spit a regular Photon Spray.

Well tried to just burst EA down as fast as I could and ignore the mirrors since I don't have any damaging SSBs. Might have to cave and hone some ninja magics for Tyro

[danzibr]

Here's what I did in phase 2:

I forgot about the top mirror (or lens, whatever). Did 4 blasty spells on mirror 2, which killed it before its Photon Spray went off, then 4 blasty spells on mirror 3, then 4, and I actually left mirror 1 alive. I did a Medica + Regen after the second Photon Spray from mirror 1, then had Dragon Force up and blasted EA. The end result was only taking a single Explosion when everyone was almost at full health, *and* it saved me some blasty spells.

[Red Fel]

Well tried to just burst EA down as fast as I could and ignore the mirrors since I don't have any damaging SSBs. Might have to cave and hone some ninja magics for Tyro

No, no, that's definitely a bad idea. When I said "not killing them in order," I didn't mean "not killing them." You definitely want to kill them. When phase 2 ends, any lenses still alive explode for a proportion of your HP; if enough of them are alive, you straight-up die.

Don't ignore the mirrors. Just nuke them quickly. Also, don't bother with damaging SBs - your best damage will come from your Nightmare synergy WHMs armed with Diara, Diaga, and Curaga. Instead, use defensive SBs, like wall, hastega, medica, and regenga. Buffing SBs will help you over an extended period; damaging SBs will help you once and that's it. (Not to mention that if they're SMN, BLK, or PHY types, you're going to have a bad time.)

Ninja magics aren't a bad idea, but they're just not great. They don't add much to this fight. Diara takes nice, solid bites out of this guy, and it's easy to hone. Diaga is even better, and can generally burn down a lens in about three hits, although it's harder to hone. You don't need middling damage AoEs that ignore Res; you need single-target Holy damage that hurts and stings.

Bonus points if you use dualcast RMs.

[Forbiddenwar]

Who has Dreamstage? I would really like to summon a few for future U+, especially this one. Since I already have a few hastegas, major regenga, and boostjas, I think my favorite RW will be a medica+blink

[Hunter Noventa]

Who has Dreamscape? I would really like to summon a few for future U+, especially this one. Since I already have a few hastegas, major regenga, and boostjas, I think my favorite RW will be a medica+blink

You mean Dreamstage? That's on Selphie, and yes it's a Medica + Magic Blink and why she's my primary healer.

[Antonok]

snip.

I'm aware. Plan was Arc SSB one (should work since dreamstage does), with war dance and celebration grimoire for healing the damage. Or even replace tyro for yuffie if going ninja route for an even better medica.