Final Fantasy RecordKeeper X:Listen to my pulls. This is our last chance to whale

[Red Fel]

Updates to Magicites, and I still haven't beaten the first set. Like, any of them. Ugh.

I might actually try CT this time. I think I skipped the last one? I dunno. Could be fun, possibly. On the other hand, aren't we expecting a T0 event tonight?

Side note, the Dressed event - even the bonus battles - is a lot easier than you might think. I managed on fairly un-optimized RS teams throughout.

Honestly, I find myself actually a bit frustrated with the sheer quiet in the game the past week or so. I needs me some mythril if I'm to be ready for Anni Fest, yo!

[Greg_S]

Magicites are down to 20 stamina, which is nice. We still don't have daily missions, which is really unfortunate- missing 30 mythril a month is a major loss, there's no doubt.

Magicite inheritance is out, which means those 1 and 2-star magicites finally have a use... as food for your 3 and, one day, 4* ones. Having a decent magicite deck full of max-enhanced tools can yield 60-70 points of a primary attack stat plus some elemental boosts party-wide. It's especially nice when you can use them to just cross the gap between ~540 attack to 600 attack, so a 30% boost gets you to softcap.

Going to give a few 4* magicites a try, though my lack of healer USBs for good insta-heal is going to show. Marilith, Isgebind, and Midgardsormr are the easiest, while Kraken, Ixion, and Tiamat are significantly nastier, in that order.

[Jurai]

Major 'cheevo! Three fights in a row before I lost to Atlas. He's bloody fast, getting two actions in before I can drop MOG-wall. I need to work on leveling Quina again.

[Merlin the Tuna]

Atlas, despite being theoretically a non-elemental fight, has a lot of overlap with magicite speedrunning techniques. I just cleared him with a team of Kuja, Raines, OK, Vanille, and Shelke. Essentially: get online fast, and hit him fast.

Everybody in the back row meant that I could ignore half of the Crushing Grasps, including the first one. OK LMR meant he could drop his BSB instantly and Protectga right behind it. Shelke LD meant she could entrust over to Raines ASAP and still get her BSB up in reasonable time. Raines LD meant that as soon as his BSB was up, he was churning out damage. Kuja didn't get to imperil as much as I'd like, but Gathering Storm meant he could call in wall & Unicorn quickly between his Dark Zones.

Re: Magicite inheritance. It seems like the theme of everything magicite-related being wildly overcomplicated remains intact. Some poor sap at reddit crunched the numbers a while ago though (link)/ and here's what I've drawn from it.

• You can inherit one extra passive; get it ASAP. This will not level up once its been inherited, so make sure it's maxed out already.
• Keep a copy of all the 3* magicites with activation skills. The 4* ones are NOT universal upgrades in that respect - imperils, blinks, Enkidu, Unicorn, etc. are still valuable.
• When dealing with 1* and 2* magicite, probably just level them to 50 before feeding them to a 3* or 4* magicite. If you've already combined them, either max out their current cap, or bring them to level 86 if they're on the final level break.

[SuperPanda]

I tried my hand at Kraken seeing as my Magic Lightning team was largely single target and could crank out damage once if got ramped up - it also had alot of healing stacked in.

I got thrashed so hard ... so hard.

My plan instead is going to be to start building a super 3* deck of all magi-cites starting with my most used primaries.

Currently trying to decide if I should emphasize offense or defense. The sheer brute force of Kraken is making me think I should build my lightning Magicite towards this:

Hydra (Inherit +Lightning), Humbaba (Inherit -Water), Enil (Inherit -Water), Bismark (Inherit +Water), (Any 3* +Lightning Magicite - Inherit +Magic).

Making similar changes all around - the goal for now would be to just ransack the 3* magicite, eat all the 1* and 2* variants and build a full deck of souped up 3* (maybe 1 each at max soup, others ready to be fed to 4*) and let power creep continue to build me towards tackling these.

Kraken stomped me hard and I'm not sure which other I've got a better shot at.

[Greg_S]

Agh. Had a decent run going against Marilith before ATB got in my way. Was just the annoying input delay away from Edge's doppleganger going off and refreshing last stand partywide, but instead a savage flame slash killed Edge and Ramza. If you're going to start on one of the magicites, I think Marilith's the easiest one. She spams lots of fire spells, but that's pretty much it- she's like a beefier sealion.

As I look at my team, I also found part of the reason I was struggling- Aerith did an admirable job of keeping everyone up and running despite being equipped with an Orichalcum dirk from the last time I leveled her. I thought 2800 was a really weak heal for curada.

[spectralphoenix]

You guys weren't kidding about those 4* magicites, huh? Poked my head in on kraken, Isgebind, "Maliris," and Midgardsormr. Probably came the closest versus Isgebind, I'll have to come back later after reworking my team a bit.

Any good advice going around about what passives to inherit? I'm thinking of using the elemental bonuses from the 1*s at first, because they're not worth anything else and I can change later.

Also, if anyone is interested and hasn't heard, FF12: The Zodiac Age comes out for Steam on February 1. I plan to pick it up, at least.

[T.G. Oskar]

Not worrying for the 4* Magicites, for now. Doing the 3* Magicites is a chore already.

Speaking of which - Golem is finally down! Figuring that I had a strong set of Wind magicite, I went for a similar strategy as I do with Fire, except I switched Locke for Zack, and Alphinaud instead of Onion Knight; my main Magicite was Fenrir, as I had enough healing to make Enkidu not as necessary.

Spoiler: Party Compo

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Ramza, lv. 99; Platinum Sword (7*), Keeper's Frock Coat, LOKTON LX-30; Wrath R4, Entrust R3; Ace Striker RM, Strength of Conviction & Beoulve Spirit LMs
Fujin, lv. 99; Fujin's Moon Ring, Fujin's Jacket, Inferno Bangle; Raging Storm R2, Faith R5; Stern Discipline RM, Biting Winds LM
Zack, lv. 99; Ragnarok (*7), Gaffgarion's Shell, Zephyr Cloak; Powerchain R3, Lifesiphon R4; One-Eyed General RM
Y'shtola, lv. 99; Physician's Staff (*7), Lustrous Shield, Vanille's Necklace; Curaja R2, Wrath R4; Battleforged RM, Imperfect Art LM
Alphinaud, lv. 99; Gladius (FFIII), Nabaat's Finery, Crag Amulet; Tiamat R2, Protectga R3; Dr. Mog's Teachings
RW: Fabula Guardian (Elarra)
Magicite: Fenrir lv. 99, Enkidu lv. 99, Taharka lv. 99, Wing Raptor lv. 82, Sealion lv. 99

In essence, the idea was to pull off the same shenanigans as Terra does, but with Fujin instead. With Faith and Alphi's Deployment Tactics online, followed by using her En-Wind and Zack firing up Meteor Shots (Imperil), I managed a very respectable 96k with one Overstrike. However, keeping both Deployment Tactics AND Aerial Blast wasn't manageable, so it lowered to a more reliable 68k, then 43k, then finally to 22k without the needed buffs. She was the biggest damage dealer, but Alphinaud did manage to contribute, so it worked for something.

Might need to replace Onion Knight to the field, as he can keep up the buff slightly better than Alphi does, and his Radiant Shield won't help that much. That said...3/8 Magicite complete.

Got a Shell Dragon alongside the complementary Golem, so it's not that bad at all. That said, it's gonna feel odd to have two sources of Imperil and NO En-Earth, making Hydra one of the more difficult Magicite to face IMO. Tifa can't pull it off alone, and even with Meteor Crasher and Gaia Rush (and her OSB), she's no Refia. Lack of En-Earth should hurt on the long run...

[Merlin the Tuna]

Hm, so far I've had a couple clears on Midgarsomr, right about at 1 minute. My damage output isn't spectacular, but he at least doesn't kill me as hard as the others I gave a cursory attempt at. I'm definitely finding the incoming damage to be a little overwhelming for my BSB medica commands, which is worrying. Am I finally going to have to dive a white mage? And would it be folly not to dive a double caster? Yuna BSB2 has been incredibly clutch, and I'll be sad to bench her.

[Merlin the Tuna]

Double postinggggggg~!

It's astonishing sometimes how much a minor change can make. My Midgarsomr team right now is anchored by Bartz and Cloud, and simply swapping Bartz's RM from Gathering Storm (to help mitigate and build meter early on) to a 30% damage one carved about 10 seconds off of my time. Yesterday, I was dancing above and below the 60 second mark, with a few full blown failures; this morning, I nailed it at 50 on the dot. Feels a lot more stable.

Also pretty wild: just how much stronger 4* passives are than 3*. A level 65 4* has equal empower element (10%) to a level 99 3*. For dampen elements, they hit parity (6%) at level 50 vs level 99. Yeah, raw levels matter, but what I'm getting from this is that most of my 3*s will be obsolete very quickly. Kind of a shame, too, because I've still only gotten 3 of them to level 99.

And I'm going to split the difference between PSA and brag by pointing out that the earth quadstrike ability is finally available as a reward for the Type-0 event's +++ battle. At a personal level, this is deeply relevant because it means Bartz can provide some deeply, deeply relevant physical support to Ingus and the earth chain. That should make teambuilding for Ixion blessedly more simple.

[SuperPanda]

Did a round of Magicites this morning before I realized that what I really need to do is finish leveling all my 3*s so I can beef up some inheritance gems to complete them, still have most at level 80 rather than 99.

Managed my first sub 30 though. Liquid Flame 23 seconds and chance.
Tidus (USB, LD); Yuffie (USB, BSB, LD); Bartz (BSB2, LD), Rosa, Ramza (USB, LD, Entrust). RW: +atk/mag/haste This was a very good RNG run for the team so I don't know if sub 30 is reliable - I can swap RW to wall and Ramza to BSB2 when attempting the 4* one later on.

Physical lightning got within a hair's breath of 30 (30:50) against Bismark and there is room to improve my ability use and hones to push that a little closer. Mage lightning is a comfortable ~40 second clear while Physical is a nailbiting 30:50 clear. Mage lightning got stomped hard against Kraken, haven't tried physical yet.

I've got the motes to LD one more mainline attacker Vit/Dex and one more mainline mage Spr/Wis thanks to crystal tower, I've not yet decided on who.

Spoiler: Mage thoughts

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Maria (II): Has BSB, corner stone of Earth team. Mixed thoughts on LM 2, on the one it lets me pack double cast and leave devotion at home. On the other, it feels underwhelming.

Rydia (IV): Has BSB1, LMR, Ice Whip+, Nostalgia+. Would be a strong member of Magic Earth team -
if I had one of those. Looks like a solid dive which works well with her LMR. Not sure its worth the motes.

Krile (V): Has BSB1, CSB. Honestly - I haven't considered her till just now, need to look again.
My "go-to" fire team doesn't yet have her in it even with her chain.

Terra (VI): Has OSB, BSB1, enfire-SSB - Haven't looked at her seriously for this.

Edea (VIII): Has BSB, corner stone of Ice team. Same LM as Maria only less good as she uses Witch abilities for meter build.

Garnet (IX): Has BSB2, BSB1, SSB (haste/Res+/Regen), powerhouse in Mage Lightning team, questionable LM

Vivi (IX): Has BSB2, secure spot on Ice Mage team, LD focuses on Fire while I have him spec'd for ice. LM2 looks situationally great.

Penelo: Used in a lot of teams outside Magicite as Dancer with small sage boosting BSB.
Looks like a good dive all around. Think there is still better.

Rapha: Has BSB, SSB. Third member of the all girl power squad which is Mage Lightning.
Has Nostalgia+ like Rydia.

my thoughts:
Rydia opens up the options for a full mage meta magicite run (Yuna BSB2, Maria, Rydia, Papalymo Ley Lines), Alphinaud SSB) but requires a lot of orb investment (time to hone Titan).

Rapha's double cast could bring Mage-Lightning closer to sub-30 and would generally provide increased healing (BSB Command 1) and survivability to an already very strong team. Competes against Physical lightning team which is equally obscene at the moment.

I love both Garnet and Vivi - Vivi is probably the smarter dive of the two, he might even replace Rapha in some of the lightning teams (neither en-lightning, their buffs are comparable, his double trance ~ her healing by situation).

Right now I'm holding on to the motes because my first choice out of all of them is Alphinaud (XIV) with his BSB and SSB he's on more teams than anyone else in my roster save Ramza (second Dive I made) and Y'sthola (First dive). Rosa is close but her Dive doesn't seem to do anything for her current role as the 3* Magicite enabler.

Holding my motes for now - physical motes still wandering between Cloud and Laguna but won't get assigned to one until it is likely to matter (i.e. until one gets in a magicite team. Laguna is more likely to get a seat on that account, physical Bismark he's currently benched for Reks while Ramza entrusts Lightning and Kain - Laguna might be a better output. Mage wise Alphinaud is probably my best choice and I don't know when his spheres unlock.

[huttj509]

Dropped *another* 50 mythril on the ff3 banner.

Refia BSB dupe.
OK legend materia (2 turns no action delay)
aaaand Refia Legend Materia (25% fire doublecast)

That last one is worth the 50 mythril, and might be worth the 150 I've dropped on the banner total (dupe of CoD's legend materia, and Arc's healing BSB). My Refia is a freaking beast on anything not resistant to Fire, and giving her a doublecast chance is very nice.

[SuperPanda]

Marallis (4* Fire) is down (just barely 1 min - nail biting finish - had wrong main magicite equiped so I can probably do better in the future).

Complete rating - Sword shower wiped everyone but Yuffie (blink)

Spoiler: Team

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RW: Wall.
Tidus (USB) Shooter abilities. Ace Striker. Full LD.
Yuffie (USB+BSB) Ninja Abilities. Mako Might. Full LD + LMR
Bartz (BSB2) Spellblade abilities. Double cast spellblade. Full LD.
Rosa (USB) Shellga/Wrath. Battleforged.
Ramza (BSB2) Entrust. Life Siphon. Dr. Mog. Full LD.

Round 1: Tidus uses RW, Yuffie uses Ninja (2 hit + Blink), Bartz uses spellblade (4x Water), Rosa uses Shellga, Ramza uses BSB2.

Round 2: Tidus auto attacks (hone issue), Yuffie uses USB, Bartz uses spellblade, Rosa uses Wrath, Ramza uses life siphon

Round 3: Tidus auto attack, Yuffie+Barts attack with best options, Rosa Wrath's, Ramza Entrusts Tidus.

Round 4: Tidus USB is up, Y&B carry on, Rosa USB is up, Ramza back to meter gain.

At different points in the fight Ramza was feeding meter to Yuffie (heal/Imperil), Rosa (Heal+mBlink+Stock) or Tidus (Big damage). Bartz was doing reliable numbers on his own and didn't need the charge.

I'd had Unicorn as my main Magicite (agaist liquid flame it's astra serves as insurance against paralyze) but if I switch it to Bismark I'd have both a fire-blink and some extra damage output. Yuffie was making a heck of a show

I got two copies of the same 4* to level along with all my other magic rocks. That should give me a decent damage boost for my fire team.

[Merlin the Tuna]

Really feels like we've settled into a lull, doesn't it? Which seems doubly odd since there's so much magicite-ing to do.

Speaking of, it turns out that my earth team is pretty boss these days. After a few rounds with Midgarsomr, I learned that I could clear Ixion in a paltry 31s last week. OK BSB+LMR is just really good, and Penelo USB is generally enough to blink past his dispels. One Sunday of pumping up my 4* Catastrophe later, I'm pretty confident I can start grabbing crystals while I farm up copies from him and make my way around the circle. So that's pretty neat.

I'm not really sure what else I can do to keep my momentum/interest in the game though. I've started getting a little bit looser with my Legend Diving - Shantotto and Rinoa got theirs over the weekend on the grounds of "Welp, chains are good" but it's feeling like a bit of a rut.

[Antonok]

Really feels like we've settled into a lull, doesn't it? Which seems doubly odd since there's so much magicite-ing to do.

If you have no interest in the 4* magicite, then we have entered a lull. We have 3rd Anniversary next month but after that, we have ~4 months of wait until anything new comes along. We don't even have the incentive to run 3 missions yet

Granted after that 4 months, life shall be endowed once again into the game, barring DeNA being DeNA of course.

[Red Fel]

Really feels like we've settled into a lull, doesn't it? Which seems doubly odd since there's so much magicite-ing to do.

Yeah, things are back into a bit of routine. That should last about a month and a half, because 3rd Anni's gonna hit like a hammer.

By one calculation, there's a bit over 250 mythril between now and the start of 3rd Anni. Another calculation puts it a bit over 150. Kind of a worrisomely big difference. Either way, I'mma be saving up.

I'm not really sure what else I can do to keep my momentum/interest in the game though. I've started getting a little bit looser with my Legend Diving - Shantotto and Rinoa got theirs over the weekend on the grounds of "Welp, chains are good" but it's feeling like a bit of a rut.

Save for CidScension. Dive the Lightning God!

Seriously, though, there was recently a Reddit post about this - one of the nice things about FFRK is that you can take breaks when you hit lulls, and aren't heavily penalized for it. It's a good way to avoid burnout.

[Greg_S]

Really feels like we've settled into a lull, doesn't it? Which seems doubly odd since there's so much magicite-ing to do.

Speaking of, it turns out that my earth team is pretty boss these days. After a few rounds with Midgarsomr, I learned that I could clear Ixion in a paltry 31s last week. OK BSB+LMR is just really good, and Penelo USB is generally enough to blink past his dispels. One Sunday of pumping up my 4* Catastrophe later, I'm pretty confident I can start grabbing crystals while I farm up copies from him and make my way around the circle. So that's pretty neat.

I'm not really sure what else I can do to keep my momentum/interest in the game though. I've started getting a little bit looser with my Legend Diving - Shantotto and Rinoa got theirs over the weekend on the grounds of "Welp, chains are good" but it's feeling like a bit of a rut.

There're some fun battles that hit at 3rd anniversary, but yeah, it's pretty slow right now outside of the occasional change of pace fights like the broken soul fights or crystal towers.

Eventually they give us D260 event bosses, which are fun and hectic. Then, they add CMs to those... and those are great. The first two (Dark Cecil and Diablos (VIII)) are puzzle bosses without the usual "here's a ton of damage every round" schtick that magicites have. Dark Cecil dooms you and his attacks all lower your doom counter, while Diablos can be blinded, so it's just a matter of timing your heals to avoid piercing gravigas.

I think they've gotten themselves into a rut with the whole speed meta. It's possible to drop most enemies in under 30 seconds now, and that imbalances a whole lot of already existing roles. Realm CMs are a good start for breaking out of this, but I don't know how they swing the pendulum away from parties that can drop hundreds of thousands of damage in just a few rounds without breaking the experience for everyone else.

I'm not doing dailies right now, and am just logging in to periodically clear events, need to stay low for a bit.

[SuperPanda]

I've abandoned 4* magi-cite attempts. I got lucky, once and repeated attempts have shown me how RNG dependent that luck was.

I have run down my stockpile of lodestones farming the 3*s and will do that again when the month changes. What I really need to do though is keep hitting xp daily to level those suckers. I need to get some high level inheritance bonuses to fit my teams.

My T-0 team managed the ultimate but I might abandon the idea of the U++ CM this event.

I still need to clear out lots of classic dungeons - but those 4* magicite are taunting me. I feel like I have more than enough hones / gear / and team comps to crack them but I simply take to much / don't deal enough damage to bring them down.

Marallith is the one I managed but I've been unable to repeat that victory. Tidus ran out of hones on the original run and while I've added two more uses to Sapphire Shot, I can't reliably entrust him into his USB early without risking loosing the whole fight. I need to look at my ability spread again, I might be able to lessen the RNG, but it won't matter much - the Ice magicite flat out dominated my physical fire team and my magic fire team didn't get revved up enough to try (will try again).

[Merlin the Tuna]

My T-0 team managed the ultimate but I might abandon the idea of the U++ CM this event.

In case you missed it, the CM only requires 3 Type-0 characters, not a full team. One of those flex spots pretty much needs to be a support, but if you can bring a strong darkness unit for the other, you can probably pull out the CM.

[Antonok]

MVP email:

Spoiler

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■ Dissidia Collaboration Event Coming Soon!
The Training’s End event will open at 5:00 PM 1/30 PST (1:00 AM 1/31 UTC). In this event, you’ll face a gauntlet of fierce Dissidia opponents including Squall, Cloud, and Tidus. Test your teams’ mettle against these daunting heroes!

■ Double the Gysahl Greens Campaign
From 12:00 AM 2/1 PST (8:00 AM 2/1 UTC), the number of Gysahl Greens dropped by enemies and available as completion rewards will be doubled for a limited time.
This means you can earn twice the greens for the same amount of stamina, so don’t miss this opportunity to stock up!

■ FINAL FANTASY XIV Event: The Dragonsong War ? Dreams of Ice
The Dragonsong War ? Dreams of Ice event will start at 5:00 PM 2/7 PST. Three Heavensward favorites?Haurchefant, Estinien, and Ysayle- will make their debut in FFRK as heroes!
Haurchefant and Estinien’s Ultra Soul Break and Burst Soul Break will also be available in the event’s Relic Draws.

Haurchefant’s Soul Break, Live to Serve, includes an effect that evokes his personal mantra and shields allies in need?a stalwart addition to any FINAL FANTASY XIV fan’s team!

■ Realm Dungeon Lucky Relic Draw
The Realm Dungeon Lucky Relic Draw that opens at 5:00 PM 2/6 PST (1:00 AM 2/7 UTC) will include equipment with Legend Materia OR Super Soul Break or higher Soul Breaks for FF VI, VII, IX, or XII heroes! One 5★ Relic is guaranteed in the once-only Relic Draw x11, so use this chance to pick up relics you’re lacking for heroes in these realms!

■ And now for something different...
We have exciting news for all of our players, but we’re not quite ready to announce it yet… Keep an eye out for more details at the beginning of February!

Any guesses as to this exciting news?

[Merlin the Tuna]

My first thought was that it'd be the Realm Dungeon rewards overhaul, but on reflection that doesn't make much sense. People throwing money at the game presumably are keeping on top of the realm dungeons, so that wouldn't really be relevant for them. Maybe it's Daily Missions? Or those Record Missions that JP got ages ago that we skipped for some reason?

[Maryring]

Whatever it is, I hope it comes soon. The game's gotten... boring. 3* Magicites are a chore to do. 4* Magicites are too difficult to do. So I'm stuck in a limbo with nothing to do but grind through endless, easy events.

Small aside, but does anyone know if Rem and Deuce are together on the next Type-0 banner? I'm inevitably gonna need some Type-0 relics, but I really don't want anything Machina if I can avoid it.

[Greg_S]

Whatever it is, I hope it comes soon. The game's gotten... boring. 3* Magicites are a chore to do. 4* Magicites are too difficult to do. So I'm stuck in a limbo with nothing to do but grind through endless, easy events.

Small aside, but does anyone know if Rem and Deuce are together on the next Type-0 banner? I'm inevitably gonna need some Type-0 relics, but I really don't want anything Machina if I can avoid it.

Next T0 banner breakdown is King, Cinque (who gets a new ability school, heavy charge, that's going to get forgotten like witch), Rem, and a little of Ace. B2 is Nine, Machina, Queen, and Deuce's BSB/LMR.

As for the secret event? I'm not sure what it'd be. The new UI and record dungeons is too far off- I expect them to at least somewhat follow the JP timeline because merging new code branches out of order onto GL could get pretty messy. So record missions are a possibility, but those would be extremely dull for us to get now. They were just some basic "do this early story dungeon solo with this character" missions. Free 5* motes, sure, but more tedious than anything. Story dungeon revamp's a possibility, though that'd be kinda early.

The dream? Free 30-pull or something else. Gimme some extra relics.

[Maryring]

Next T0 banner breakdown is King, Cinque (who gets a new ability school, heavy charge, that's going to get forgotten like witch), Rem, and a little of Ace. B2 is Nine, Machina, Queen, and Deuce's BSB/LMR.

As for the secret event? I'm not sure what it'd be. The new UI and record dungeons is too far off- I expect them to at least somewhat follow the JP timeline because merging new code branches out of order onto GL could get pretty messy. So record missions are a possibility, but those would be extremely dull for us to get now. They were just some basic "do this early story dungeon solo with this character" missions. Free 5* motes, sure, but more tedious than anything. Story dungeon revamp's a possibility, though that'd be kinda early.

The dream? Free 30-pull or something else. Gimme some extra relics.

Thanks. That's a pity. At least I'll save mythril on Type-0. I got Rem's Ultra, and that and Deuce's BSB (which I figure I'll just pick up when we get to pick our Healer BSBs) are the only Type-0 SBs I've been interested in. I was thinking about pulling, just for realm synergy. But I'll manage somehow.

Small aside, I *did* dream the other day that the "surprise" we'll be getting is the 5 myth OSB pull. I do not believe this at all, but if it turns out that is the surprise I'm totally gonna say "I told you so".

[Greg_S]

I think the surprise is the datamined Training's End banner 2. Let's be fair, too: this is probably the best banner in the history of the game. It's what a player's choice selection should look like. The contents:

• Chain: Tidus
• USB: OK x2, Cloud
• BSB: Ramza 2, Squall 2, Y'shtola, Vaan
• LMR: OK (instacast 2), Tidus (enwater), Squall (enice), Ramza (full ATB + instacast 1)
• SSB: Noctis, Ramza (shout)

If you're a new player, throwing 100 mythril at that is likely to get you a huge leg up. The downside is that a lot of players are going to have a ton of dupes.

[Red Fel]

I think the surprise is the datamined Training's End banner 2. Let's be fair, too: this is probably the best banner in the history of the game. It's what a player's choice selection should look like. The contents:

• Chain: Tidus
• USB: OK x2, Cloud
• BSB: Ramza 2, Squall 2, Y'shtola, Vaan
• LMR: OK (instacast 2), Tidus (enwater), Squall (enice), Ramza (full ATB + instacast 1)
• SSB: Noctis, Ramza (shout)

If you're a new player, throwing 100 mythril at that is likely to get you a huge leg up. The downside is that a lot of players are going to have a ton of dupes.

Crapbaskets. Well, so much for saving up. I am whaling on this bad boy.

Perhaps ironically, I think I only have three relics on this (Squall BSB2, Y'shtola BSB, Ramza SSB). So, yeah. Whaling ho.

[Merlin the Tuna]

I'm actually struck by how awkward that banner is.

OK & Ramza have 6 items on there. And to be fair, they're all great. (Which is crazy since Shout is like 2.5 years old now). But we just had a shot at OK's on a great banner three days ago, so any mythril chasing that has probably been spent. And Ramza's BSB2 + LMR show up on a spectacular banner in 2 weeks.

Then they're Vaan BSB and Noctis SSB, items that are good but not terribly relevant for 4* magicite.

Ysh BSB is pretty good, but USBs are taking the spotlight these days, and even among BSBs I got more use out of Vanille's, Eiko's, and Larsa's. But this is solid.

Basically, this feels like a banner for chasing Squall, Tidus, and Cloud stuff, where there happen to be a bunch of great consolation prizes. That's certainly something, but... eh.

[Maryring]

Personally I won't be pulling on the banner. Sure it's got no really weak relics, but none of them are really key relics either. At least not for me, considering I have so many variants of boostga+hastega already.

[SuperPanda]

I really don't know if I'm pulling on Dissidia NT banner 2

Tidus Chain - This would make my water team even more deadly - Chain into USB after healthy entrusting with doublecasting ninja Yuffie and doublecasting spellblade Bartz. The only relic now which would make it even more splashy death is a random chicken-knife. Really tempting.

Cloud USB - Have his OSB and BSB2, have the motes to dive him and really considering it - this would be aweome.

Onion Ninja USB - Got this on a Gem Pull. Dupe1

Onion Sage USB - This would be awesome, it doesn't compete with much and I lack a support focused sage buff + Haste option.

Ramza BSB2 - Dupe2 Shoutastic Boogaloo

Squall BSB2 - Awesome. I have his OSB and Snow's CSB though my physical Ice team is still very awkward. Hadn't planned to LD Squall though this would make a good case for it.

Y'shtola BSB - Dupe 3 (I think I have it at 5*+ so Reforge?)

Vaan BSB - Dupe 4 - secret franchise reboot.

OK LMR - Ramza just lost his support spot on a whole lot of teams.

Ramza LMR - No, he just got it back and is keeping it 4eva.

Tidus LMR - Okay, honestly not as impressive since my only relic for him is his USB which covers this but it still ups his damage plenty while I get that fired up and ups his initial casting damage.

Squall LMR - pairs very nicely with his OSB and 6* spellblade.

Ramza Shout - Already reforged, so a rossetta stone. Would be seriously put-out to 1/11 with this.

Noctis SSB - No idea what it does, would be my first and only XV relic.

Counting Rainbows as 2 points (Twice as likely) and Discos as 1 point that is:

Want 9pts
Would like 4pts
Dupes 9pts.

Pulling a Disco makes it very unlikely that I'll get upset, pulling a Burst makes it very likely that I will, pulling a LMR is practically guaranteed to satisfy, if not seriously excite, and pulling an SSB will either disappoint or infuriate.

Currently at ~88 mythril with a good number of elite dungeons to conquer.

Tidus, Onion, Squall, Cloud and Ramza are the potential big winners for me here.
Tidus - Fully Dived and a powerhouse already.
Onion - Probably should be replacing Ramza already
Squall - Potent but often benched when not in VIII currently.
Cloud - Already potent and a strong candidate for my next LD already.
Ramza - Fully Dived and a powerhouse already.

This looks like a smart banner for 50 mythril... but I'm not sure.

[Red Fel]

This looks like a smart banner for 50 mythril... but I'm not sure.

Seriously, has anybody managed to figure out how many mythril between now and 3rd Anni? If it's roughly 150, that's a pretty tight squeeze; if it's closer to 250, that's a lot more wiggle room, particularly with the mythril we're expecting to get during the event.