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« on: July 21, 2023, 03:06:04 AM »
FFT Fiesta Chapter 3 (priest, monk, mediator, samurai, dancer)
Before going anywhere, got to unlock Samurai. In addition to the usual gear upgrades, I also pick up a Mytrhil Bow, a Mythril Spear, and an Ancient Sword as people will be spending time in Knight, Archer, and Lancer during the grind. (already have a Platina Dagger for Thief) I also do a few propositions to get JP for the prerequisite classes while leaving any randoms to the second stringer squad of Rad, Alicia, Lavian, Agrias, Mustado, and the Chocobos. Also make my way down to Goug to replace the broken gun. Did about 4-6 grind fights to unlock Samurai on all 5 units. Did a bit of Brave boosting during those grind fights; team is around 73-75 Brave at the time I choose to mov on. Pick up 5 Asuras for Draw Out and head off to Goland, not bothering to do any skill grinding for my newly unlocked job.
Goland Coal City (1 reset)
"This is an easy battle, what could go wrong?" Thinking this was going to be easy peasy, went with two Samurai in this fight. Yeah, turns out mediator and thief both stabbing Olan midcharge drops his HP frightfully quick and he died before I could get the priest in position to toss a cure up at him. Olan waiting until his second turn to Galaxy Stop didn't help matters and it missed both enemies up on the roof leading to his death.
Next attempt, I'm more careful with my priest's positioning. Still start things off by focusing down the thief that comes to stab/steal from Ramza and then a chemist. Help Olan kill off the mediator as well as the other two thieves. The last Chemist, I intend to invite for his gear. Olan is generally helpful with Galaxy Stop. I gain the Main Gauche from the high level thief and the other Chemist's Mythril Gun from boxes. Mediator drops a crystal; monk Ruby snags it gaining Persuade and Negotiate. Um, sure, I don't really see either ever being relevant but still, free skills. Land the Invite before the other two thieves death countdown expires.
Lesalia (0 resets)
I'm running the two males as monks but only have one Judo Outfit for them, oh well. Teach Artemis Earth Slash. Only Nall can Chakra for 30 or more MP on Alma which complicates my intention of keeping the MBarriers coming but I'll make do. General strategy is keep Alma able to cast while beating up generics until Zalmo is opened up. Coral sword knight shows up with Elemental, making him a priority target. This could have gone badly if he landed status procs as I've been stingy with status healing so far relying on Alma's Deathspell 2 isn't ideal. (forgot she had it didn't you; it's OK, I forget all the time) But I'm able to get him down before any geomancy statuses land. My non-Holy offense is still slow so getting swarmed is a bit of a concern when enemies are approaching both sides of the balcony. Mediator Felicia lands a midcharge gunshot on Zalmo for 144 around this time though and (thanks to MBarrier Haste) quickly shoots Zalmo for a regular 96 best compat gunshot and he bails.
Getting that second Mythril Gun saves me a trip to Goug so all I'm doing is picking up the relevant equipment upgrades before heading to Orbonne. Judo Outfits are very welcome for monks and Holy Miters for preists and mediators, Chameleon Robes for manipulating Wiegraf AI (and instant death protection which will come into play in C4). Got to make sure I have enough spares in case things get broken/stolen. Have enough cash to afford an extra of key stuff so no problems there. Also grab two Germinas Boots.
Other prep: Teach the females Earth Slash. Nall buys Hamedo. Went ahead and taught Regenerator to the other two generics. Luna picks up Mimic Daravon and Invitation for UBS2.
UBS2 (0 resets)
Alma's Red Shoes go on the priest. Nall is a monk with Hamedo. Ruby is a Samurai with Punch Art. Artemis ended up as the Priest this rotation. Luna is the mediator and Felicia is a second monk with Alma's Barette. Enemies advance, one Lancer poking Nall because I was too lazy to change his starting spot in the PBF. Time Mages are leading off with Hastes, which could be worrisome but the first Hastes whiff. Nuke one Lancer with Holy, Nall Chakras himself, attack the Lancer who poked Nall with gun and Earth Slash the low offense mean they fail to drop him. I do take care to position Nall to bait a Lancer into trying attack him from the side. AI obliges and while Hamedo is blocked by shield, that one less hit of spear damage, which matters because one of the Partisan Lancers is a Taurus and has good compat with 3/5 of the team. Time Mage goes for a Haste on the Taurus Lancer. This round, I am able to get through the evasion and drop him while putting Nall and Ruby into the effect area. Miss on Nall because he has worst compat with the time mage, lands on Ruby. Artemis does some curing. Another spear poke baited into a Hamedo, shield guarded again. Next round of actions from my team, Luna puts the last Lancer to sleep with Mimic Daravon and I do some recovery while going after the Chemist and the Time Mages. They're kind of a nuisance with one having Stop and the other one with Summon magic. Turn order and positioning worked out favorably for me though with a Wave Fist from Nall and an Asura from Ruby dropping the summoner time mage without him being able to launch any Summons. Other Time Mage did land a Stop or two but it was too little, too late with him unsupported. Chased him down and ended him.
And all the while, third lancer has been snoozing away. Before I got around to dealing with him, Ruby got a Lancer crystal and a bunch of Vertical Jump skills. (possibly relevant during the Dancer unlock grind) Other Lancer dropped a box with his Ice shield, which I didn't even notice until later. Finally getting around to the last Lancer, had Ruby wake him up with Wave Fist and Luna lands Invite first try. Hey, I wanted that helmet and I'm not complaining about a free Diamond Armor and N-Kai Armlet.
UBS3 (0 resets)
After the dragged out previous battle, this was ultimately a straightforward assassination. Take out the Summoner with gunshots and Earth Slash. I still have one unit left to lob an Earth Slash at Izlude. Next round, I'm able to tag Izlude with Holy, another gunshot, and some more Earth Slash bringing him down to critical. The Germinas Boots were a huge help here for mediator and samurai, enabling them to line of attack they wouldn't be able to otherwise.
UBS1 (0 resets)
I had a unit with the Lv 23 Speed point so she was one of the monks. Chameleon Robe on the priest. Wiegraf goes and Stasis Sword on two, no Stops. Fantastic. 8 Speed monk Chakra on the two hit. Enemies go. Archer shoots the priest; others just advance. My turn: samurai moves two panels behind Wiegraf and Asura on him and archer. 2nd Monk Earth Slash on Wiegraf. Mediator shoots him. Priest uses Holy. The combined damage brings him down in a single round.
Power Sleeves are now buyable. Oh yes, this is a large improvement for monk damage. White Robes can be useful if expecting to face a lot of elemental damage. Bought one Gold Staff for completion though don't expect to be using it.
Grog Hill (0 resets)
Just a bunch of deserters in basic classes, oh shit they killed the mediator on their first set of turns. Priest uses Raise; other three units beat on thief and a squire. Enemies kill the mediator again.
Priest casts another Raise on mediator; other units finish off the thief. Chemists are still hanging out of reach to effectively gang up on them. Chemists and Archer snipe down the mediator another time.
Oh no, not again. Priest casts Raise on mediator. I'd like to supplement this with some Chakra but I need my other units' turns to finish off a squire. Enemies kill the mediator again and also down a weakened monk.
God damn it. This pattern keeps continuing while I try to concentrate enough offense on a Chemist to get it out of play. It takes another round or two and I do bring down a Chemist but at the cost of another unit getting sent into the dirt. Somehow, I manage to recover from having only a samurai, a priest, and three units on the ground but hoo boy is it a frustrating fight. Landing a Mimic Daravon on the other Squire is the start of the turnaround and I'm eventually able to get everyone back up and chasing down that pesky archer on the high ground. Whew, this was a rough one.
Yardow (0 resets):
After the mess at Grog, this actually went smoother. Nall and one other as a monk, 1 of each class for the others. Nall sets Hamedo while the rest are still making do with Regenerator. Magic Defend Up on most of my team in anticipation of summons. One Ninja comes up on wall to throw something at my team and the others do the usual. Malak charges up a Sky Demon Back with Rafa in its range; Sky Demon being exceptionally rare to appear given his Job level of 4. Samurai Chakras whoever got hit, Priest nukes the ninja on the wall with Holy, monks Earth Slash at lined up ninjas, and mediator tries to line up to take a shot at them. Rafa does some damage with Heaven Thunder, no kills though. Summoners toss Moogle at the injured ninjas. Next round has the ninjas filing out. I'm only able to kill one of them on my team's next round of actions and there's a Summon or two coming as well. It's alright though; ninja's next turn was swinging at Nall and Hamedo denied it. Take it down while doing some healing from the summons and Malak stick pokes. Battle is pretty much wrapped up with my full team up. All that's left is chasing down the summoners while staying ahead of their damage and Malak poking with stick for 40-50. Ninjas crystalize before I finish the mopup; leaving two boxes and one crystal which provides Stigma Magic for the lucky recipient.
Doing all the equipment upgrades entails traveling back to Dorter. Got some randoms along the way and did a bit of Brave raising while clearing them. Everyone is now between 75-78 Brave. After a bit of thought decide to grab a Bracer, which depletes most of my remaining funds.
Yuguo Woods (0 resets):
Was undecided on what to do with Rafa but did settle upon turning her into a Chemist for this fight. I won first try but still ended up redoing it to see if I could engineer something where Rafa gets more than one action. White Magic > undead and I have Punch Art support too so the victory was never in doubt. Still, I tried to have things play out where I got more midcharge physicals in and less getting multiple people caught in a single spell. I had Solution learned on the mediator but didn't end up using it on the winning attempt.
Change Rafa back to Heaven Knight with Item for the next battle. Nall has the JP for Blade Grasp so he learns and sets it. Pick up Invitation and Mimic Daravon for him as he's going to be inviting someone in the next battle.
Gates of Riovanes (0 resets)
Nall is a Mediator. Artemis and Felicia are monks. Ruby is the requisite priest with Draw Out secondary leaving Luna as a Samurai with Punch Art. (for lack of anything more impactful since it's not doing much with 7 PA) Luna is starting with Nall in squad 1. Generics are making do with Regenerator as none of them have the JP for Blade Grasp and Hamedo isn't going to be much help against the rain of arrows. Malak goes first, not in range to do anything as usual. Rafa also moves and does nothing on turn 1. My monks go and poke at the far left knight with Earth Slash while staying out of range. Priest does nothing. Knights amble towards my party while archers go and pick on Rafa. Their combined gangup sends her running and Malak follows.
I want a Crystal Helmet so I intend to invite one of the Knights. I pick the high level one with the Platina shield as my target. Nall's main role is to kite him and try to put him to sleep with Mimic Daravon. This leaves the other units free to beat on the other knights. It takes a while due to my low offense. Actually make use of Protect here as insurance against archers all picking on the same unit and dropping someone. Feather Boots knight provided the most trouble since I can't peck at him from outside his threat range with Earth Slash and his shield blocks most of my team's attack options. Things worked out for me though; got off a Holy without being pincusioned by archers and enough followup attacks got through the evasion so that he only got one swing at a Protected unit, keeping the overall damage manageable.
With two knights down and the third finally put to sleep after 4 tries (at 56% even because of good compat), time to chase down the archers. Just as feared, at one point all three archers charge up on Artemis. First arrow knocks him back with a critical sparing him the damage from the other two. Probably could have recovered even if they all hit but a welcome bit of random chance. While the rest of the team is trying to line up some offense, the archers are bunching up so I fish for some Mimic Daravon but am not landing any even when I can target 2-3 of them. And when I finally do land a sleep or two, the rest of the team has caught up and it's unneeded at that point.
I do stall out the fight to let the Earth Clothes archer crystalize. The knights have also crystalized so I send some units to pick them up. Felicia gets Secret Fist off one while Artemis adds Spin Fist to his Punch Art collection. No Earth Clothes by the way. All this stalling has given the snoozing knight time to wake up. Well, I needed him awake anyways to have Nall invite him onto the team. Those 144 swings on 4/5 of my team could hurt but 78 Brave Blade Grasp does its job, denying those painful physicals. Invite lands on the second attempt and battle is won.
Inside Riovanes (1 reset)
Priest Ramza with Draw Out setup here. Wizard Staff, Gold Hairpin, Chameleon Robe, Red Shoes gives 10 MA and the important silence immunity for Velius. Artemis is a monk, Ruby a mediator, Luna a second priest, leaving Felicia as the samurai. Magic Defend Up on all for protection. Artemis learns and sets Hamedo.
One Holy and one Asura take care of Wiegraf. Tried to bait a physical but he's not inclined to go for a 20% chance at 100 damage, instead sticking with Wave Fist for 60. Move-HP up is recovering 20 HP a move to undo some of that Wave Fist damage leaving Nall at about120/200 going into Velius.
Nall gets first turn so I have him toss another Holy at Velius. He gets the turn after that too so I have him retreat. Velius charges forth a locks a Cyclops on Artemis. Being good compat with him, it gonna oneshot him even with Magic Defend Up. Artemis lands a punch on Velus for 210. Luna casts Shell on herself and Nall. Two demons go, do nothing of significance. Ruby shrugs and shoots Velius for 96. Felicia Chakras Nall for a bit of MP. I have Nall not act on his next turn to realign CT as he's not getting off spells otherwise. Velius drops Loss on the priests, uh oh. Not good as it prevents me from Raising Artemis. Get a bit of luck as confused Luna charges an Esuna on Nall. Demons are closing in to do a bit of chip damage to non-confused units. Felicia Wave Fists Luna for 24 to break confusion. Ruby goes for a three demon Mimic Daravon... dammit forgot to teach it to her. Lands a Persuade at 35% but it still isn't enough in the end. Nall is finally free to Raise Artemis but Velius opts to smack Ruby into the stone as the demons have softened her up enough for a melee kill. I'm scrambling to try to bait Velus into Artemis' Hamedo. Demons are upon my remaining team members though and Shells are wearing off. When Velius Seals Felicia, I abandon hope and concede defeat.
Next try, I toss the Bracer on Artemis and remember to teach Mimic Daravon to Ruby but no other adjustments. Wiegraf is the same as before. Instead of having Nall use Holy right off, have him Move/Wait twice to get his CT aligned to be able to get Cure/Raise off without Velus interrupting him. Velius goes to nuke Artemis with Cyclops as before. Artemis midcharge punch with Bracer does 390. Holy from Luna takes off another 210 or so. Gunshot for 96 and Chakra for a bit of MP like the last attempt. Demons get a bit of hurt in with Giga Flare. Nall Raises Artemis. Velius doesn't take the bait instead punching out Luna. Well damn, Had carelessly left her where she'd take a Giga Flare and it was enough for a kill. I opt not to revive her. Artemis gets a 260 punch in. Felicia Chakras Nall for another 15 MP back. Ruby goes to Mimic Daravon on demons landing one sleep. Nall doesn't go for revival on his turn opting for support. This time, Velius obliges my manipulation and goes for a physical on Artemis. Hamedo for 260 wins the fight right there.
Riovanes Roof (4 resets)
Have Artemis sit out to reduce potential Allure targets. I stick on Chameleon Robes and Judo Outfits and Alma's Barrette for instant death protection in preparation for this fight.
First go: Elmdor Muramasas Rafa. Rafa pokes Lede with stick. Celia Shadow Stitch on Rafa. Lede kills Rafa with physical. If you've ever played FFT this far, you've probably seen this exact sequence dozens of times.
Next attempt: Muramasa on Rafa. Rafa pokes Lede. Assassins kill Rafa before anyone on my team gets a turn. Gave Over.
3rd try: Muramasa on Rafa. Rafa pokes Lede. Assassins kill Rafa before anyone on my team gets a turn. Gave Over.
4th try: This time Rafa tries a Diamond Sword at Elmdor and retreats. Celia goes for a Charge +1 physical. Lede targets Rafa with Ultima. To my dismay, my priest is a Virgo and a Cure will not do enough to save Rafa from the incoming damage (and Cure 3 is too slow). Wave Fist, gunshot, and 64 damage Wizard Staff whack are not enough and Rafa still dies, just 5 clockticks later than the previous failures.
So I'm pretty much not winning this way. Strategy change time. Swap out Felicia for Artemis to be the mediator. Have samurai Nall and the priest swap jobs as Nall is better suited for supporting Rafa having best instead or worst compat with Rafa. Also, as an added bit of insurance, I remove Artemis' armor leaving just his hat.
On this go, Rafa retreats with a Heaven Thunder on Elmdor. Celia goes for an Ultima on Artemis, just as I planned. Because the damage only brings him to critical, Lede is also drawn to Ultima him. Holy from Nall and Wave Fist from the monk are enough to bring Celia down.
New Skills
Priest: Cure 3, Esuna (most)
Monk: Earth Slash (all), Hamedo (Nall, Artemis, Luna)
Mediator: Invitation (Nall, Ruby, Felicia), Threaten, Mimic Daravon (all), Praise (Nall), Solution (Artemis)
Samurai: Asura (all), Blade Grasp (Nall)
That really is it for Samurai due to not getting lots of Samurai JP with all the assassination missions.
Class thoughts:
Priest: Enemy HP has been rising faster than Holy damage so not as dominating on that front. While not as much MA as I like in a caster class, Draw Out has strengthened the class' overall usefulness. Pulls decent numbers even with dinky Asura. The Speed multiplier does tend to come in handy only possibly being awkward on turn 1 against opposition exactly 1 Speed slower. Been getting by with the basic set of Cure, Raise, and Holy, only occasionally dipping into Protect/Shell/Esuna. (most fights status not being relevant, guarded by equipment, or something not covered by Esuna/Stigma Magic)
Monk: With PA armor showing up, this class is a lot better being one of the heavy hitters of the party. Higher levels means better relative HP too. Earth Slash is the main workhorse skill here with Wave Fist for floaty or earth absorbing targets. Chakra for HP/MP support with Revive as backup revival. Hamedo is very nice when one can bait the enemies into physicals.
Mediator: They get a gun upgrade this Chapter so they're a bit better. 64 damage at 8 range isn't a whole lot but usually enough to contribute. More of their skillset got use too. Invitation for nabbing early gear upgrades. Mimic Daravon to attempt to put groups to sleep. Praise for Brave raising. Solution to weaken undead wizards in Yuguo if I can't interrupt an incoming spell with brute force. Still mostly meh by itself as a class and debatably the weakest of the tier 3 options but the Brave raising pairs well with the powerful Reactions that Monk and Samurai have.
Samurai: To no surprise to a FFT veteran, Samurai is meh and very so-so with its own skillset. This is exacorbated by a drought of JP when rushing through the chapter. Blade Grasp is amazing of course but only Ramza acquired enough spare JP for it. Samurais ended up being inferior Monks due to me giving them Punch Art. Martial Arts would have helped, were I not so stingy with monk JP and also wanting Gained JP up on any Samurai to get them to Blade Grasp faster. Pretty much stuck to heavy armor for them; the Wizard Robe not feeling worth the loss of HP when they only have Asura learned.