Final Fantasy Record Keeper VIII: Whale-ever

[Antonok]

DU draw was a disappointing 2/11. Krile's Beast Killer SSB and Seymour's En-Dark SSB. While I wanted the V synergy, that was probably the most disappointing thing I could of gotten just due to the range of people that can equip it, which is.... Faris. And she isn't magic based and I have her BSB bow. On the Seymour SSB; okay, so X has a dark mage now, and it is a +dark armor so can't complain too much, but still going to complain some

FFX Banner 1 100 gem got me Lulu's BSB so that was nice. Will go decent with Rikku's imperil water BSB. Banner 2 100 gem was a dud.

[Starwulf]

And this is why I do not enjoy pulling anymore. Yet another 1/11(I'm now something like 25 or 26 11 pulls, with only 4 being 2/11, and all the rest being 1/11), and it's freaking High Summoners Robe for Braska >< Absolute freaking junk. Decided to do the 11 pull on the first banner because Yuna's USB has Last Stand and that would be pretty awesome to get, + it had Tidus CSB, and then LuLu's BSB and SSB, but noooooooo, I had to go 1/11 yet again, and get complete trash.

Honestly feel another long break coming on, came back because I thought maybe my luck would have changed, but nope, it's still as crappy as ever, I haven't gotten anything I've actually wanted in so long, it's not even remotely funny anymore. RAWR!.

[Slayn82]

Hey, playground is back. How I missed you all.

Lucky draw of mine was 4/11. Got Delita's BSB, Kimahri's Magic Blink SSB, and dupes of Paine's Gloves (actually 3rd - potential 8*), and Galuf's Invincible SSB.

Later, I did a 100 gem pull on X banner 1 and got Braska's newest Staff, making him get all 3 SSBs. Only Gabranth beats his record on relics.

The U+ XII battle was tacked by a special party of Ramza, Eiko, Delita, Lighting and Bartz. Delita did elemental damage with Burst while Lighting and Bartz charged Lifesiphon. Once boss was at half HP, Lighting and Bartz used respective OSBs in sequence to close the fight.

Failed to do the Apocalypse Multiplayer battle. Sunday is too late and isn't enough time to deal with them.

On something different, started playing Yu Gi Oh Duel links. It has been fun, but going f2p is much more difficult than in FFRK. Stay warned.

[SuperPanda]

The playground is finally back!

I've had the DU LD and 2 100 gem pulls while we've been away.

DULD: 3/11 2 discos and 1 rainbow
1dupe (Ramza USB)
Faris USB
Mustadio SSB (Hyperbreak)

my first 2 hyperbreak SBs significantly ratcheting up my V team's power and giving me some interesting options for building my T team.
first 100 gem was a wash as expected.
second 100 gem was Jecht SSB (ST damage + party Crit up) which isn't bad.

My current X team is very Mage Meta focused so Jecht doesn't have alot of room to play but its nice to have physical options there too.

My current X team is:
Yuna 99 (BSB-2, HP Stock SSB, H.Regen SB)
Lulu 80 (Focus)
Wakka 80 (Official Ball)
Braska 70 (Shared Medica SB)
Seymore 70 (Default)

Barely got the XII event done in time - have been having a very busy week and missing stamina/not been in the mood for MP fights. Will try to knock the X event bonus fights out early. Tried farming U+ Hashbrown for Vitality Motes - got a lot of eggs and no motes.

[Hunter Noventa]

Good to see everyone again. Sandworm and Spherimorph are down, the latter barely mastered because even with full mitigation (Shellga/Protectga, Stoneskin II, Power/magic breakdown) he still did a LOT of damage. But bringing lots of spellblades and Shout was the key to victory.

[Jurai]

Good to see everyone again. Sandworm and Spherimorph are down, the latter barely mastered because even with full mitigation (Shellga/Protectga, Stoneskin II, Power/magic breakdown) he still did a LOT of damage. But bringing lots of spellblades and Shout was the key to victory.

The only, ONLY reason that fight wasn't such trash for me was because of TGCid's OSB. Nothing says decimation like capping with the Thunder God.

[Hunter Noventa]

The only, ONLY reason that fight wasn't such trash for me was because of TGCid's OSB. Nothing says decimation like capping with the Thunder God.

Yeah, getting Cid's OSB up for the Thunder phases was a godsend. Especially when he had enough for two in a row. I might have had a better time if I brought Terra and her OSB as well, but I didn't want to have to deal with MORE AoE damage from the magic counter.

[Deadline]

My Lucky draw back on the last dungeon update was solid, 1 rainbow and 1 disco ball!

Rainbow = Jecht's Sin's Fang SSB

Disco Inferno = The Thundergod's OSB!

[Jurai]

Yeah, getting Cid's OSB up for the Thunder phases was a godsend. Especially when he had enough for two in a row. I might have had a better time if I brought Terra and her OSB as well, but I didn't want to have to deal with MORE AoE damage from the magic counter.

Use Wrath to build SB gauge.

My Lucky draw back on the last dungeon update was solid, 1 rainbow and 1 disco ball!

Rainbow = Jecht's Sin's Fang SSB

Disco Inferno = The Thundergod's OSB!

NICE Thunder, Thunder, THUNDER GODS, HO!

[Morbis Meh]

Sweet Fat Chocobo, MP Apoc Yunalesca was a nightmare! Good luck to those trying to take her on she is evil incarnate. I managed to master it with a PUG team, MVP's were Firion and Rosa for their blinks and *shudders* Khimari for his BSB dps. I feel dirty for saying that time to go weep in a scalding shower.

[Red Fel]

Yeah, Lulu's BSB was a easily the MVP of Spherimorph fight for me. Lot of water options for Sandworm, but she definitely dominated Spherimorph. With her BSB commands and Chain Thundaga, she was hitting every vulnerability.

Now, then there's the new Apoc boss run... Which did not happen. Straight-up did not. I'm just going to write that difficulty off right now, because nope.

Then there's Apoc!Yunalesca, who is giving me a nasty case of Megadeath. See, in her second phase, she uses Megadeath twice, irrespective of Sap, which basically means no can defend. I mean, not no can defend - a blink or Stoneskin 30% will cover you - but otherwise you're basically hosed, right there. It's incredibly frustrating, and I'll probably write her off soon unless I can get a good run in. It's particularly frustrating because I can otherwise burn through her fairly quickly - I have Paine's SSB for massive water damage, Lulu's BSB for same, I have a lot of things that can cause her a lot of hurt. And it doesn't matter, because in Phase 2 she straight-up murders people. Ugh.

[Jurai]

Sweet Fat Chocobo, MP Apoc Yunalesca was a nightmare! Good luck to those trying to take her on she is evil incarnate. I managed to master it with a PUG team, MVP's were Firion and Rosa for their blinks and *shudders* Khimari for his BSB dps. I feel dirty for saying that time to go weep in a scalding shower.

Kimahri Ronso is awesome. Don't doubt Hornless!

[Antonok]

My entire issue with ApocYunalesca is people bringing UltraCure. Stahp already! Don't listen to the moogle! He's secretly trying to kill you!

Also my obsession with Rikku pays off on this fight. 10 hit Imperil Water BSB ftw.

[Greg_S]

My entire issue with ApocYunalesca is people bringing UltraCure. Stahp already! Don't listen to the moogle! He's secretly trying to kill you!

Also my obsession with Rikku pays off on this fight. 10 hit Imperil Water BSB ftw.

Ultra cure doesn't remove sap. Esuna cures poison, blind, sleep, silence, and petrify. Sap is only cured by regen or, weirdly as I found on reddit, poison.

Red: This Apoc and the IV one next week are awful, but the difficulty drops notably after they're over. There was a big outcry among the playerbase and they recalibrated the difficulty level. That's not to say they're easy; the VIII one that was the first one I beat on JP is still tricky, and XIII's Proud Clad will inspire lots of rage, but they're not as unfair as the Aeon rush or Asura's constant lolnopes.

EDIT: did an 11-pull on banner 2, asked the oldest kid to give it a go. 2/11, but the right 2 for me: Kimahri's BSB and Yuna's medica.

[Red Fel]

Ultra cure doesn't remove sap. Esuna cures poison, blind, sleep, silence, and petrify. Sap is only cured by regen or, weirdly as I found on reddit, poison.

That's because all three - Sap, Regen, Poison - modify the same stat value, which is health change over time. Ergo, they don't stack.

But yeah, Ultra Cure is actually very good to bring to Apocalesca, because of all of the obnoxious debuffs she brings. It doesn't remove Sap, but removes pretty much everything else. The reason that people think it removes Sap probably has something to do with her Phase 2 Megadeath spam. Also, if you're bringing a healer, remember to reapply buffs regularly - her attacks can debuff, and do so without a helpful animation.

Speaking of, finally managed to solo her, after several tries. Put together a team that could power through Phase 2 before her Megadeath spam, if their gauges were adequately filled. Her first round of Phase 2 is Hellbiter, and her second is a mass Osmose, which gives you those two turns to get her from 75% to 50% health. So as soon as she was on the brink of 75%, I broke out every SB I brought for that purpose - primarily Paine's Liquid Steel and Lulu's Triple Threat, as well as OK's Onion Slice - to push her past that threshold fast. Once she was in Phase 3, Megadeath was limited to those who didn't have Sap, which everyone had. Mastery get, good times.

Red: This Apoc and the IV one next week are awful, but the difficulty drops notably after they're over. There was a big outcry among the playerbase and they recalibrated the difficulty level. That's not to say they're easy; the VIII one that was the first one I beat on JP is still tricky, and XIII's Proud Clad will inspire lots of rage, but they're not as unfair as the Aeon rush or Asura's constant lolnopes.

Yeah, not looking forward to Asura either. But at least by the time VIII rolls around I should have several of my VIII cast at 99.

In other news, I finally went back to beat Affliction Break Nightmare. Omega Drive is still eluding me, however. Argh.

[Merlin the Tuna]

The good news for Asura is that Grand Cross/Indo Blade look to put a major damper on the fight by eating most of Asura's actions and a decent handful of Leviathan's, so if you've got one of those you should be off to the races. If you don't... eep. At least a bunch of you had thunder god OSBs to fall back on.

Speaking of, should I expect great things out of Grand Cross for Yunalesca, or just so so things? The full AI thread isn't up, and I haven't given it a try yet.

Beyond that, Spherimorph CM is down, so I should be all set for pulls on this one. Key detail on this one was learning that while his weakness changes, he never absorbs/resists anything, which gives a lot more latitude to blasting. So I brought Lightning Dive on Kimahri, Tidus's BSB for water (and actually cast the BSB twice to get the most damage during his weakness rotation), and Fira Strike + Gaia Cross on Paine. That meant that I had to be ready to finish him off during his ice-weak phase, but the Draw Fire effect made up for not having Protectga. Definitely got caught by surprise at how many physical attacks he threw out this time around.

[Morbis Meh]

Speaking of, should I expect great things out of Grand Cross for Yunalesca, or just so so things? The full AI thread isn't up, and I haven't given it a try yet.

First phase it is useful since it eats her Holy blasts and all of her counter statuses but it is almost useless for phases 2 and 3 since she spams Holy on 3 people at a time or AoE Mindblast.

[Slayn82]

Can't we OSB phase 2 to dodge the Super Megadeaths straight into the just annoying Megadeaths? Also, Yunalesca used to be cheesable with silence in phase 1. Is that still viable? I'm going to deal with those battles tomorrow. Worst case, planning to put Beatrix, Kimahri and Firion together to Magic Blink everything.

[Jurai]

Can't we OSB phase 2 to dodge the Super Megadeaths straight into the just annoying Megadeaths? Also, Yunalesca used to be cheesable with silence in phase 1. Is that still viable? I'm going to deal with those battles tomorrow. Worst case, planning to put Beatrix, Kimahri and Firion together to Magic Blink everything.

I had a pretty good 160, but 220 Pugs suck.

[SuperPanda]

I am not looking forward to Yunalesca. I don't have any good water damage to bring though I've got solid support+ healer options.

I'll get a chance to try tomorrow but I'm leaning towards Faris and Relm for my contribution. I give up bringing wall in exchange for a last stand effect and a lot of layers of debuff.

Plan to try Faris with mug bloodlust/life siphon (mako might). LS>USB>LS>BSB>com1&2>LS (repeat). Should do okay damage while keeping yunalesca debuffed. Relm will have Last Stand from her BSB and the instant cast command 1 to help keep people up along with either pro or shell and ultra cure. Will report on success tomorrow when I try.

[Merlin the Tuna]

Everything down except for Apocalesca, which I should be able to try tonight or tomorrow evening. Theme of the event has been "Tidus's BSB may be old, but it's still perfectly fine."

For U+ Yunalesca, it was pretty much Tidus all the way, with Gilgamesh in a supporting role courtesy of Gaia Cross, Demonsblood, and his OSB. Special guest star this time around was Arc, whose instant medica+pblink took care of Ultimate Megadeath. I'm, uh, not thrilled with this design, given that you pretty explicitly need stoneskin, last stand, or blinks to proceed. Related question: does HP Stock work in this case, or do you need to survive for the stock to have a chance to take effect? I guess that it being a MP fight mitigates the specificity of the gacha needs, but still - boo urns.

The Aeons fight came a little down to the wire, but I actually had less trouble with it than I expected to. Meet the team:

Tidus: Lifesiphon, Power Break (BSB) - Battleforged
Delita: Lifesiphon, Gaia Cross (BSB) - Ace Striker
Tyro: Mag Breakdown, Full Break (Wall) - Dr. Mog's Teachings
Vanille: Curaja, Shellga (BSB) - Mako Might
Eiko: Diaga, Protectga (BSB) - Doublecast WHT
RW: Shout

See? It's as simple as having wall and 4 BSBs, including two of the best healer ones.

But more seriously, there are pitfalls throughout. For Valefor, I started by slogging threw the first half of her HP so that I could Shout after her scripted slowga. This was... not great, with Eiko looking like the main DPS, at least until Delita had meter to get his BSB (and more importantly, the associated haste) up. Still, nothing too scary here once that was rolling. After that, Ifrit likewise was a pretty straightforward tank and spank. Delita's BSB not having an en-element does hold it back somewhat, but it was close enough to an ice BSB to speed things along, especially with Eiko's crit boost active at that point. My only regret here was getting impatient and casting one more Tidus BSB than I probably should've; my DPS throughout the fight was only so-so, and I worried about stalling out prior to making it to Ixion.

As for the Thunder Goat Kid, I came in with a fresh Wall, a fresh Shout, a bar and a half on Tidus, and almost 3 full bars on Vanille. Each of Tidus's BSBs was talking off ~25% of his HP, so while things got a little touch and go between all of the dispels flying around, I had plenty of tools left for damage control. I do heartily recommend Gaia Cross, as always - Ixion did sprinkle in a basic attack or two after his dispels, and this remains a great Protect substitute for just those occasions.

Short version: Gaia Cross is still rad, now is a great time for Full Break R3, Wall 100% required, double healers pretty handy for a dispel happy fight.

[oxybe]

Yeah that Aeon fight was something else.

I tried with conventional mage and physical teams (3xDPS, 1xSup, 1xWht) but i just didn't have the long-term sustain for it with either setup.

So, like Merlin, I settled on a dual-white mage setup.

Vaan - Lifesiphon R4, Mug Bloodlust R2 - Ace Striker - Ark Blast
Squall - Lifesiphon R4, Lifesiphon R4 - Battleforged - Ifrit SkipSub-Zero Blast
Tyro - Engulfing Twinstrike R1, FullBreak R3 - Mako Might - Sentinel Grimoire
Eiko - Curaja R4, Protectga R2 - Dr.Mog - Prayer of the Lost
Aerith - Curaja R4, Shellga R2 - Knight's Charge - White Materia
RW - Ramza : Shout

The first go went swimmingly until partway through the start of phase three Proshellga & a Wall recast stopped working at the same time and the whole party was unceremoniously nuked to oblivion from near full health.

The second time I delayed my ifrit skip just a wee bit to give me some time to recast Proshellga.

Towards the end of the fight though, it got dicy. I was forced to pop my 2nd shout pretty early on when Valefor slowed the entire party, so the last stretch against Ixion was done both without haste and the boostga on Tyro and Squall (since Vaan, Eiko & Aerith could just burst to give themselves haste).

Either way, It was mastered with 3 medals lost. I also never noticed it was Apocalypse tier.

Will be skipping Spherimorph CM. While March of the Moogles was a fantastic help during the winning fight, It's not enough to carry the fight.

The U+ Yunalesca wasn't hard thanks to a good team with an insta cast to heal up immediately after getting a PC dropped to 0. a bit long but, as I said: i had a good party for the clear, and a new toy I got on Sunday just before the FFXII event ended: Fran's burst, courtesy of a 100 gem pull.

Front - Vaan - Lifesiphon R4, Mug Bloodlust R2 - Mako Might - Ark Blast
Back - Fran - Wrath R5, Full Break R3 - Dr.Mog - Gaze of the Void

Now trying to get a party for Apoca!Yuna... oi. This has been a trying time and I'm debating giving up on it. But I really want those motes ;__;
----------------------------------------------------
So let's talk Ceodore. Specifically, I've never played the FFIV Sequel "The After Years" so I can't speak about him personally. I can check Kongbakpao and Reddit to grab his numbers

Ceodore's skillset is Wht5, Com5, Sup4, Kni5. Nothing too fancy, can do the knight shenanigans of drawing attacks, act as a secondary healer/proshellga user, has access to lifesiphon & wrath for meter generation as well as the breakdowns to act as a secondary support.

Which means that without relics he's a strait upgrade to Pecil. As a funny side note, disregarding having shooter added to her skillset Ceodore's basically just "take Pecil's best 2 skills (combat 5, knight 5) and Rosa's 2 best skills (Support 4, White 5) and smush together", which is why i think the "is better then dad without relics" is less intentional and more of a happy(?) accident

His release relics are:

SSB - Force Armour - 5xAoE holy/non phys damage + EnHoly
BSB - Enhancer - 8xST Holy/Non phys damage, AoE 40% MaxHP
Attack-> 4xST Holy/Non phys dmg, heal 1 ally 25% MaxHP
Defend-> 2xAoE Holy/Non phys dmg, Esuna 1 ally

Very White mage-y. I'm guessing this is the synthesis of when a White Mage and a Paladin maek babby? He lacks Pecil's raw defenses but trades that in for nice damage and ability to support the party white mage via healing & esuna. I can see myself running wrath on him, a few rounds of wrath followed by SSB>BSB. Do note that surprisingly non of his gear are holy+ though, so you'll be requiring a few hand-me-downs from daddy pecil if you want that sweet bonus damage. his armour does boast dual minor resistances to ice and (with rs) lightning.

This will also mark our 2nd Event-based Apocalypse fight, this time VS the wombo combo of Asura & Leviathan, who boast a combined 620k HP you'll have to take down as you fight both bosses simultaneously. Asura also absorbs fire, ice, lightning & water, while Leviathan sports a lightning weakness, absorbs ice+water and resists fire, earth & wind. Asura can be slowed and both are vulnerable to interrupts.

Our MP Apocalypse fight is none other then fan disfavourite: the Friend of Wet - Caggy Manturtle himself. I say this in a joking tone because this fight has usually be been a headache, requiring you to use on him multiple lighting-based abilities while he's preparing his tsunami so as to interrupt it... noting that it's ability uses and not actual hits, so the Witch 5 "hell thunder" is one use, not six. And in his neutral and defensive forms, he resists lightning. The first event I fought him in ended in my thorough trouncing and upon his re-release in a boss gauntlet I had the relics and party makeup to beat him. But this is going to be Cagnazzo on a whole 'nother level.

The one where you (potentially) need to work with 3 others in a PuG. sigh.

[Merlin the Tuna]

It seems like the consensus among JP players is that this take on Caggy isn't as bad as he has been in the past. I wonder if some of that is just a result of having more characters and less annoying medal conditions. (IE, no need to poison him). Sounds like it's pretty much magic mitigation, water resistance, runic if you've got it, and you're set.

I'm also surprised to report that I didn't have a tough time with Yunalesca at all. My first non-disconnect-shortened try had 2 Tiduses and a Rikku spamming BSBs with support from a Ramza and a whole mess of healers. We somehow managed to not have a copy of Shellga thanks to lobby fakeouts, but Wall, holy resist, and a couple Asylums was enough to get us through. She's actually surprisingly straightforward - for having multiple phases, it all still boils down to the same general pattern.

As for the TAY event, despite Ceodore seeming to be an upgrade to Pecil, I'm going to pass on his banner simply because I don't think adding a second swath of all-holy-all-the-time is what I need for my FF4 team. Both banners are kind of awkward - lots of Cid and Yang, an archaic medica for Rosa, and formatting oddities like Edward's harp being a mage-team item on a banner with no mages. I'm leaning towards B2 for being a little more general-use, even though I've got a lot of character-level overlap. (Current FF4 SBs: Pecil BSB, Edge's water+interrupt unique, Palom's lit/non SSB, and Rosa's Proshellga unique.)

Also worth pointing out; very few of these items are useful for the CM, which is another fight against Baigan. Cid's AOE pentabreak roughly makes up for the lack of a dancer in realm, Palom's SSB provides an AOE MAG/RES break means more mitigation and slightly more damage on summon spam, and Edge's SSB means you can survive an arm self-destructing. But nothing really jumps out as a gamechanger.

[Greg_S]

Yeah that Aeon fight was something else.

This will also mark our 2nd Event-based Apocalypse fight, this time VS the wombo combo of Asura & Leviathan, who boast a combined 620k HP you'll have to take down as you fight both bosses simultaneously. Asura also absorbs fire, ice, lightning & water, while Leviathan sports a lightning weakness, absorbs ice+water and resists fire, earth & wind. Asura can be slowed and both are vulnerable to interrupts.

Let's talk about what makes this fight so nasty.

Spoiler: Asura/Leviathan are evil

Show

1. Asura packs both ST slow and dispel. It's just a regular dispel, but losing pro/shell and haste is very bad. You can counter with grand cross.
2. Asura has a 65% chance to counter with a nasty physical attack. Expect 1300+ through wall. It's not bad on its own, but it quickly adds up. You can counter with draw fire or tauntaliate.
3. Asura will protect, shell, and I think haste the two of them. You'll want to cut those down because 620K HP is enough as it is. So bring dispel or banishing strike- but she absorbs holy, so enjoy healing her with that.
4. Slowing Asura's a good idea, as oxybe mentioned.
5. Meanwhile, Leviathan's pounding you with ice and water attacks. He has a physical water attack as well to keep you on your toes.
6. AoE Lightning attacks like Kain's BSB only make this tougher, since Asura will absorb them, and you have to kill her first.

So what you want for this battle is:

• Grand Cross
• Tauntaliate (Gilgamesh's BSB is perfect here- tauntaliate plus non-elemental dispel, and you don't waste two slots)
• protect/shell
• hastega
• boostga
• wall
• lightning damage
• the usual heals/breakdowns
• a third stack of magic breakdown for Leviathan

You have 5 character slots, 10 ability slots, and 2 casts of roaming warrior to fit all that in there. Read the comments from the JP boss guide. They're not pretty.

Beat the CM. Auron brought the 3* knight memento of protection, and I have to say, I'm impressed. Adding that 50% def/res boost is notable when you can't wall up. Lightning dive + Braska's chain-gas did most of the damage, and Auron hailstormed twice for the ice phase. Next up? Aeon Rush.

[T.G. Oskar]

Oh hey, forums are back! I spent ll time CTRL+F5 trying to see if the forums were online, to no avail, and then lights go out on my house. Using the phone I realize that, indeed, the forums were online about 3 days ago. I could have done this update before, but...well, infodump!

BTW: lights are still out, but...

1. I live close to a mall (in fact, I work in one of the mall's restaurants)
2. The mall has electricity. Yay charging!
3. The mall has free Wi-Fi. Yay Internet!

Therefore, I can do this update with refreshments, AC and Internet while I recharge everything.

First, XII event. This was so long ago, I forgot most of the battles, but here goes. Ultimate (Bergan? Vossler? I don't remember) was done CM-style, using Penelo as my healer. Not so difficult, mostly taking advantage of Basch the Tauntaliator. Shemhazai (U+) was ALSO done through CM, taking advantage of Ashe's Burst and Larsa as healer (IIRC, Shemmy absorbed Holy, so no go there), though by the time I activated her Burst, the fight was almost over. U++ also passed - no biggie. Apoc!Hashbrown was done with the unlikely combo of Cid Highwind and the Keeper, the former with his SHOUT!!!clone and his Burst, and the Keeper with Wall and Dispel and Gust and whatnot. U++ was not just completed, but I even tried to farm some Vitality motes from him - to no avail, though I did get a ton of Gysahl greens for the trouble.

Then: Dungeon Update! I slot my 25 Mythril...2 rainbows, no disco balls. So, once again, no THUNDER GOD SWORD. I'm so unlucky with Overstrikes... Anyways, the spoils were:

• Dorgann's Winds of Home! Well, Dorgann is a Tauntaliator that chooses to do the minimum on Samurai, so he's not that awesome even though he works. He provides a Boostga/Faithga for the V team, which means I should try him for Torment CM (which has yet eluded me).
• Rikku's Machinations! Her dagger, at full level, is weaker than her SSB fist, but this is a huge welcome addition because it's the cornerstone of a potential Water team. Not only that, it's incredibly flexible, as Command 1 has an AoE interrupt and Command 2 is essentially a 2-hit Mug Bloodlust. Of course, I notice a problem with this immediately, but it doesn't become apparent until...

FFX event! While I would have normally skipped the Banners, I noticed that Banner 1 had absolutely NO dupes, and any item other than Braska's was welcome, so...I threw my caution to the wind and made an 11-pull. Once again, 2 rainbows, no disco balls. In fact, the draw was pretty similar to the DU Lucky Draw, as you'll soon see:

• Rikku's Al Bhed....whatever. Mixture? Brew? Anyways, that's the SSB Boostga/Faithga that will be replaced soon enough by her USB, so it feels like a dud. Sure, it's not THE duds (Braska's items), but it feels like one. I'll explain this later on.
• Auron's Tornado! As you can see, I get a Boostga/Faithga SSB, and a X realm Burst. This was actually the relic I was aiming for, because Auron is pretty awesome, and he was part of the X team because Tauntaliate. This gives him a chance to be the Fire team's tank, though it's pretty crowded there (Terra with her En-Fire SSB and Burst, Papy's Burst and Faithga/Hastega, Locke with Imperil Fire, Refia with her blazing Burst, and the Keeper as healer/debuffer/wall-user. Anyways, there might not be many Fire Samurai attacks (barring Fire Blossom), but there'll be two Fire Samurai abilities in the future, including a ST Retaliate + damage effect, which should make Auron very happy. So, a win.

Anyways, I mentioned that Rikku had a dilemma, right? She has joined the group of characters that has three or more relics to their possession (Keeper has SG, Celebration, Healer's, Cyclone, Keeper's Tome AND the Frock Coat for Warder's Apocrypha; Terra has Magitek Missile, Fire Beam and her Burst AND WHY IN HEATHENLY TARNATION AM I DEPRIVED OF HER OVERSTRIKE!! STOP FLAUNTING IT, YOU GUYS!; Krile has Wind Dragon's Roar, Unspoken Bond and Sheepsong; Agrias has Cleansing Strike, Holy Dragon's Charge and OSB Holy Blade; Ramza has Tailwind, Hail of Stones and Shout), but she has two problems. First, all of her Relic Soul Breaks are good (super Mug Power, Boostga/Faithga, and Imperil Water ultra-flexible Burst) - Krile on the other hand has Sheepsong as her saving grace. The other is that Rikku's eclectic mix of abilities (Dancer 5, Thief 5, Machinist 5, Bard 4, Celerity 5...*gasp*...Support 3 and Sharpshooter 4) doesn't allow for a gauge-booster, unlike Terra (Support 4; Wrath), Agrias (Combat 4; Lifesiphon), the Keeper and Ramza (both), so she has to recharge her gauge the old-fashioned way. Third, one of her slots is saved for Bard!Protectga, and the other one usually gets reserved for Multi Break, so she has no other slots to play with - ergo, her best way to recharge her SB gauge is through...a normal Attack. Combine all three, and you notice the dilemma - Rikku's Burst, being the most flexible, is pretty much THE better choice around, so her other Soul Breaks, which are great, are also entirely pointless.

However, this hasn't prevented her from hogging the WHOLE spotlight, after all. Sandworm? She had to wait until her Burst came online, and I needed a few tries, but I could do a CM run of the Ultimate with her dealing the most damage (plus, Interrupt is SO good!) U++!Spherimorph CM was completed (though NOT Mastered) thanks, once again, to Rikku - she could deal Water AND Lightning damage, which helped everyone else (Auron focused on fire, Lulu on Ice and Lightning) - the battle began slowly, but once Rikku's Burst was online, damage flowed like a river. Then came Apoc!Aeons - the first instance of Apocalypse difficulty in normal events. This time, I said "A-Team - Lenna and +Vanille, I choose you!", but once again, because of the utter flexibility, Rikku had to be there. I mean, her Imperil Water Burst was the PERFECT foil to Ixion, whose Aerospark used mostly physical attacks. Felt a bit bad that Terra had to sit that fight out, but it was for the best as the THUNDER GOD hit cap with the Twinstrikes, Keeper made sure everyone was well-protected, Onion Knight debuffed everyone like a BOSS and provided damage boosts, and Vanille...she healed quite nicely (darn, why does Transcendant Dream has to be so friggin' good...) Rikku, once again, provided debuffs and used her Burst to maximum effect - Shockstorm may be just two hits, but the added vulnerability meant she dealt quite a bit of damage, particularly after A-P/A-Shell sucking up the Aeons' physical stats for further devastation. And U++!Yunahag? Once again, Rikku was on front, making sure she was promptly debuffed and weakened. Haven't done Apoc!Yunahag, but I give you 2 chances to figure out who'll be on front, and the first one doesn't count.

So yeah, that's basically it. 75+ Mythril saved for ExtremeFest/next DU Lucky Draw, and I'm getting to DU 19 on Elite Dungeons, so I'm progressing quite well. Poor Ultima Weapon was CMed by a Power-Creeped team...

The end result? It seems that Rikku has gone Yandere on me. Gee, I should work that on a story, shouldn't I?

[spectralphoenix]

I have Rikku's burst and love it. Did A+ Yunalesca with OSB Tidus in front and Rikku (wielding one of Jecht's blitzballs and a newly honed blue deep to build meter) in back. Another player had BSB Tidus and BSB Rikku in back. I didn't quite cap out on Energy Rain, but with the stacking weaknesses I was north of 98k. Made that second phase go real fast. Rikku herself was also cleaning up with some big shockstorm hits.

All in all, I consider Rikku to be a "special teams" player. She's not the right answer for every fight, but she does brilliantly against the right opponent.

[oxybe]

Sorry to hear about the power Oskar. I can feel for you though.

There was about a week's time between moving to my current location and my old place where I frequented the nearby starbucks, bought a slice of banana bread, the cheapest black coffee on the menu and mooched all their internet while I nursed that cup as my utilities were being shut off one at a time at the old place and I was waiting for the landlord to drop off the key so I could move my stuff.

I will say this about FFX banners... they always land up at the worst time for me.

I want to pull for actual gear, but it's two weeks away from Squall BSB2, which I'm putting on a "hope for the best, expect the revolver" mentality because it's pretty good and another bit of gear for a character I already have 3 relics for (Revolver, Twin Lance, Punishment) and willing to make a larger investment in should I get this BSB as being able to make use of EnIce into a Sub-Zero Blast is very tempting.

though I may just wait until the next FFVIII event to pull for it as it has a stronger squall/seifer focus, featuring squall's USB, BSB2 and LM relics as well as Seifer's weird USB, BSB, LM & SSB2 relics on the same one banner... the (latter) man is nothing if not unconventional.

Seriously Seifer... you weird.

the previous FFX banner was just before Orlandeau's release banner and oh look there went my mythril.

The FFX event before that was smack dab between Waifu4Laifu Ashe's BSB release (Which I failed to get alongside Vaan's... and got both on a DU... Actually, I got most of Ashe's relics on DUs when I think about it) and OK release banner (where I did actually put quite some mythril and really shored up my FFIII RS).

[Merlin the Tuna]

Let's talk about what makes this fight so nasty.

Spoiler: Asura/Leviathan are evil

Show

1. Asura packs both ST slow and dispel. It's just a regular dispel, but losing pro/shell and haste is very bad. You can counter with grand cross.
2. Asura has a 65% chance to counter with a nasty physical attack. Expect 1300+ through wall. It's not bad on its own, but it quickly adds up. You can counter with draw fire or tauntaliate.
3. Asura will protect, shell, and I think haste the two of them. You'll want to cut those down because 620K HP is enough as it is. So bring dispel or banishing strike- but she absorbs holy, so enjoy healing her with that.
4. Slowing Asura's a good idea, as oxybe mentioned.
5. Meanwhile, Leviathan's pounding you with ice and water attacks. He has a physical water attack as well to keep you on your toes.
6. AoE Lightning attacks like Kain's BSB only make this tougher, since Asura will absorb them, and you have to kill her first.

So what you want for this battle is:

• Grand Cross
• Tauntaliate (Gilgamesh's BSB is perfect here- tauntaliate plus non-elemental dispel, and you don't waste two slots)
• protect/shell
• hastega
• boostga
• wall
• lightning damage
• the usual heals/breakdowns
• a third stack of magic breakdown for Leviathan

You have 5 character slots, 10 ability slots, and 2 casts of roaming warrior to fit all that in there. Read the comments from the JP boss guide. They're not pretty.

Based on what I'm seeing on Reddit, this version of Asura appears to not absorb holy. That opens up teambuilding options a bit, since it puts paladins back on the table. With that in mind, the theorycrafting doesn't look too shabby for me.

Pecil: Banishing Strike, Protectga (BSB)
Agrias: Gaia Cross, Shellga (BSB)
Exdeath: Meltdown, Chain Thundaga (Grand Cross)
Vanille: Curaja, Slowga (BSB)
Tyro: Dances (Wall)
RW: Vessel of Fate/Shout

As always, YMMV, but I'm optimistic.

And Oskar, holy butts, your power's been out for literal days? I don't remember hearing about any natural disasters or anything of that sort; is this just general slowness/incompetence that's had you out of commission?

Finally: Cid Missioned the FF7 Torment! Vincent carried me to victory, with his Chain Shot SB and Memento Mori providing the buffs, Meltdown providing the damage, and an Indo Blade RW providing the longevity. I had forgotten how hard Gi Nattak hits in his weakest phase - the entire team aside from Vincent actually got blown up just prior to the killing blow - but then, I'm not mastery hunting here. I'm getting unfortunately used to Hit & Running a bit for each of these, but it was admittedly very helpful to have Zack's Hastega and Yuffie's PBlink for AOE trash clearing and general not-dying.

[T.G. Oskar]

And Oskar, holy butts, your power's been out for literal days? I don't remember hearing about any natural disasters or anything of that sort; is this just general slowness/incompetence that's had you out of commission?

Not that much, to be honest - lost power on Tuesday close to 5 PM, then recovered it yesterday, only to have a minor blackout today before going to work. It's just that I didn't realize until Tuesday evening that the forums had returned, so that's how long it took. However, I did CTRL + F5 like crazy on Sunday and Monday - so had to update on Wednesday, during the blackout. That said, lights are back again. It was because of a huge truck taking down power lines that took a few blocks' worth of electricity, and they had to replace those lines and poles (yeah, old-school power system). The blackout hiccup was due to the power company checking if the repairs were dealt with.

Then again, the disaster isn't exactly natural. More like political.

Will see if I can fight Apoc!Haglesca today; holding on to today's event before spending Stamina, tho. Approaching closer to 100 Mythril, as well.

[Greg_S]

Based on what I'm seeing on Reddit, this version of Asura appears to not absorb holy. That opens up teambuilding options a bit, since it puts paladins back on the table. With that in mind, the theorycrafting doesn't look too shabby for me.

Pecil: Banishing Strike, Protectga (BSB)
Agrias: Gaia Cross, Shellga (BSB)
Exdeath: Meltdown, Chain Thundaga (Grand Cross)
Vanille: Curaja, Slowga (BSB)
Tyro: Dances (Wall)
RW: Vessel of Fate/Shout

As always, YMMV, but I'm optimistic.

Interesting. If she doesn't absorb holy, that does makes things much more interesting. I figure to go:

Kain: Dragoon Jump, Lightning Dive, BSB
Eiko: Curada, Protectga, BSB
Keeper: Dances, Wall, maybe BSB for magic blink if I get a bunch of SB charge
Agrias: Gaia Cross, Banishing strike, BSB/cleansing
Miscellaneous slot: Probably OK for hastega, could go with slowga/shellga
RW: Grand Cross on Eiko so she can keep spamming curadas.

The tricky part's going to be clearing Asura out, but that's what Kain is for. Plus, if Asura doesn't absorb holy, I should have enough SB on Agrias to start using divine ruination.

That's similar to the party I brought to the Aeon rush, and after a few false starts with Valefor, I rolled right over Ifrit and Ixion. Slayers of the fayth:

OK: Water Veil, Shellga, BSB
Keeper: FB, MBD, Wall, + RW summoner
Arc: Curaja, Protectga, SSB1, 2
Agrias: Lifesiphon, Blizzaga Strike, BSB/cleansing
Raines: Wrath, Power Breakdown, BSB
RW: Setzer BSB (turned out to be redundant, should have used Vaan's)

MVP was easily Arc. He got off 3 perfectly timed words of kindness. I started with OK's BSB and got aggressive. Arc had just enough SB gauge by the halfway mark to use blink #1, and make sonic wings miss. Blitzed through Valefor and had a magic breakdown timed for Ifrit's entrance. Another cleansing strike and he became harmless. Arc got his second SSB off as Ixion entered, so no dispelling. I hammered him with all the breaks- between that and my buffs, Thor's hammer was doing ~500 damage, and ultimate Thor's hammer ~800. Ixion got a second ultimate Aerospark off, but that one was also blinked. From there, Imperil Holy + Raines wore horsey down, and bang, one of the toughest fights so far is all over. Now to prep for Asura, and a little bit down the road, the dreaded Proud Clad.