Arena battle videos and discussion

[Barren]

FFT Arena 1.38d - RavenOfRazgris (Rave Masters) vs TrueLight (Little Devils)

FFT Arena 1.38d - Ahong (Bard & Dancer) vs Otabo (Ultimate Magic)

FFT Arena 1.38d - formerdeathcorps (Holy Blood) vs The Damned (An Improvised Concerto)

FFT Arena 1.38d - Dol (Zombieh!) vs DomieV (Sword Masters)

[DomieV]

spoiler: me vs Dol

those matches certainly dragged on and on, not sure why my paladin wasn't using accumulate instead of yell. well anyways, I think some tweaking to my team will make it better somehow. GG Dol

[Malroth]

spoiler: "Raven vs Truelight"

The Time magic setup you found had was very similar to an experiment I ran while working on my archer team, Immortal Haste/slow crowd control with Demi self healing,  I tried for Balance nuking after revival instead of sinkhole counterspelling since i was running phoenix blade, and Your use of MP absorb ended up working much better than my use of Move MP up. On the whole you took the experiment two steps farther than I did and wound up with some really awesome units.

[RavenOfRazgriz]

spoiler

>Thief has 13 SPD
>Monk has no headgear

Yup, I was half asleep.  'Scuse me a moment.

[The Damned]

(Hurray! Curbstomped twice in two days! It's like Christmas came early...if I actaually celebrated that or any other holiday.)

Actually only-minor bitterness aside, thanks for the videos like always Barren. Thanks for the help last night. I'll see what I can do about getting that version of Excel, though at this point, given how behind I am on everything like always, I won't be posting anything before December 15th.

Not much to say about the mono-class exhibition match really. Got my ass kicked like usual and everyone already knows how effective mono-Lancer is due to the jump loophole among other things, so no point, especially since it was 1 out of 1.

I'll put the others in spoilers:

spoiler: RavenofRazgriz (Rave Masters) vs. Truelight (Little Devils)

I find it amusing how despite Raven being "tired" and noticing the lack of headgear on his Monk that this still managed to be the closest match of the four. I figured something was up with Raven's Monk not having that after Raven had extoled the virtue of the 80 HP/80 MP headgear.

I also find it funny that Raise 2 barely made a difference in this match despite the two constantly Undead units.

spoiler: Round 1

Speaking of "funny' things, I find it amusing how the one and only time that the Thief managed to get Bad Luck off, he gets the Dead status and kills the Chemist. I suppose that was only to make up for Raven's misfortune with the Archers constantly missing the Ninja with their spears as well as the Monk constantly missing the Ninja with spells as well. It didn't really help that the Thief was otherwise ineffectual besides that Bad Luck; at least it was nice reminder that Life Song doesn't damage your Undead allies.

This even though he eventually won that round, in part due to Monk being incredibly intelligent with Yin-Yang Magic otherwise between Dispel Magic and the Zombie that made the Priest kill herself. I'd argue another part was simply because TrueLight's Ninja lacks Kagesougi like 90% of Ninja have and thus was doing pretty much pitiful damage. Also helped that the one time TrueLight's Priest tried to Raise 2 one of Raven's Undead units in this round, she got hit by Sinkhole.

spoiler: Round 2

This was generally more what I was expecting after I saw that Raven's team had two Undead units and that TrueLight's had a Priest. Good to see Counter Flood actually being useful again for once, especially since it's what arguably won TrueLight the match (relatively easily).

Not much else to say about this round outside of the fact that I was unaware that Sinkhole healed Undead units. However, I can't say that I'm surprised really, since it pretty much has to use the Death formula, which is coded to automatically heal Undead; so it's not that it's accidentally "Dark" element, Barren.

spoiler: Round 3

This seemed like it got decided rather quickly, arguably as soon as the Monk got distracted by the Ninja and the Thief subsequently went down, meaning that no one was going to revive him. Just went down because Cursed Ring decided to generous about allowing Raven to seemingly always come back on the fourth turn of being dead, rather than forcing him to wait a bit more; not that the wait would have been long given the 15 Speed though.... It also helped drag it out that Raven's units came back with more than decent HP every time they revived and that Monk's Dragon Spirit despite being ineffectual otherwise.

Speaking of the Monk, I think the reason that Ninja didn't just kill him when he was Don't Act & Critical at the end was because the Ninja also saw that he had Reraise, so killing him would have just gotten rid of Don't Act essentially and allowed him to attack. The only reason that Geomancer probably stepped in was because Don't Act was about to wear off anyway before any one else on her team got a turn.

If only the AI was that smart all the time.

spoiler: Ahong (Bard & Dancer) vs. Otabo (Ultimate Magic)

The problems that still exist in Ahong's team aside, I actually still expected this to be a lot closer due how horrifically strong that Dancer was. Therefore, it's no surprise that this was utterly one-sided with the Geomancer being able to kill her off the bat both teams via Flare and then Ahong's team falling back into ineffectual sandbag mode pretty much automatically.

I mean, this entire match was basically a 3v3 because the Dancer was dead more often than not and Otabo's Samurai--I must admit I chuckled at her name being "Silver"--literally did nothing but Masamune (because we totally don't see enough of that skill).

So, the only real noteworthy thing was, as I said on Youtube, that was nice to see someone finally use Wall again, especially with the Reraise being used more & more and costing less than it and being instant and not being subject to Silence.

spoiler: formerdeathcorps (Holy Blood) vs. Myself (An Improvised Concerto)

As I also said on Youtube, I figured I was screwed between just seeing the time and formerdeathcorp's teams set-up, particularly those stupid Bards with Overwhelm. It's pretty difficult to fight against instant healing of 800 HP even before Bloody Strings reminds you how overpowered it still is. This is to say nothing of double Masamune and Botan, like her namesake, deciding to act like a complete idiot and step forward into the limelight where Dance wasn't involved when she should have stayed back. Continuing to have Dragon Spirit & Kagesougi rarely proc for me compared to everyone else also didn't help, though at least Shion & Magaki were competent this time around as opposed to their "Pink Concerto" selves.

Sigh. Oh well. At least it confirmed that Southern Cross was a mistake as I suspected it would be, so I can fix Mukai easily. Botan on that other hand.... I might have to give her Teleport and change her primary completely.

spoiler: Dol (Zombieh!) vs. DomieV (Sword Masters)

That said, as much as I'm dismayed about getting (constantly) curbstomped, I'm glad that most of mine tend to be brutally quick rather than...drawn out like this was. I honestly expected Dol's team to do a bit better despite being disadvantaged from the get-go even before Masamune and Kiyomori figuring into the picture since DomieV's team was faster and less squishy and only the Samurai had AoE.

The Samurai getting that much MA in the second round and then getting put down without being able to do anything was kind of cruel...but fuck Murasame anyway.

Speaking of the second round, yeah, it's been quite a while since either Desert map was used. I find it ironic that the first time one gets used in months, none of the units have Geomancy/Elemental or even just Counter Flood.

Not much else to say besides that other than Dol had a lot of Flare procs go off. I wonder if the proc rate for the book is what it's supposed to or if Dol just got rather lucky (to no avail).

[TrueLight]

spoiler

Geomancer is pretty useless with the exception of the occasional decap proc. Priest continues to die while Chemist is stuck sandbagging. That leaves the Ninja to do all the work. It looks like its time to improve this team's DPS. GG Raven.

[Otabo]

FFT Arena 1.38d - Reinoe (Short Circuit) vs. The Damned (Cuchulainn & The Heroes of Ulster)

FFT Arena 1.38d - Barren (Final Fantasy Mystic Quest) vs. Otabo (Sonic Speed)

FFT Arena 1.38d - Ahong (All Kind Range Combat) vs. Dol (Counter)

[Barren]

spoiler: me vs otabo comments

I'm surprised my team lasted as long as it did but yea Death Sentence really did me in. GG Otabo, very good team

[Dokurider]

spoiler: Reinoe vs The Damned

Simply put, The Damned got out-Lored. Without Earth Dragon, he lost his main source of healing and his whole strategy fell apart in short order.

spoiler: Barren vs Otabo

Even I have to admit, that book using Monk worked out a lot better than I thought it would. I still it's because Quickening carried Sonic through. I think it would be much unit if it was using a more conventional build, i.e. Martial Arts instead of Book.

And I'll comment on the last match when I get back.

[reinoe]

spoiler: Match 1

I was really nervous about how the team would perform once I saw the tiny map.  Unfortunately for T.D. Lore absorb spam is almost a direct counter to dance spam.  It was almost like a rock/paper/scissors match.  I was scissors and T.D.'s team was paper.  There just wasn't much he could do.

GG TD

spoiler: Match 2

Round 1
The small map and the draw outs were crazy.  So much damage getting thrown around.

Round 2
I think the deciding factor came in two parts in the same turn.  When the priest survived the ninjitsu I though he was going to use HP Restore, but it was MP restore instead.  Then while Phoebe the scholar was charging Shadow Shade, sonic the monk missed his charm.  He got a "Quick" to take effect and then he missed the charm again.  Fate sealed.

Round 3
That Priest was having some unfortunate luck.  But in the long run multiple quickenings from the monk may have done it.  It's tough to say because multiple speed gains don't have an obvious or immediate effect.  But for a theme deck like Barren's he put up an excellent fight considering that his book using monk was not an optimum build.

spoiler: Match 3

Because I have a dirty mind, Otabo saying "Oracle is going to poke the priest" seemed hilarious.  But Ahong's archer was doing a ton of damage as Otabo predicted.  Even though Dol's Paladins were quite tanky, they couldn't withstand the onslaught.

Round 2
The blind contributed to the Archer missing.  Unfortunately when he did hit he hit really hard.  When the Dol's Chemist went down he didn't have any other way to reliably resurrect.  Speaking of reliable, that Oracle had plenty of time to cast Fairy on the Chemist but didn't.  The 4v3 disadvantage wasn't helping things.

[Ahong]

Thx for the video Barren and Otabo.

spoiler: me vs Otabo

Well as you said, i use summon magic, but forgot to change the faith. And, my dancer down very fast, out from my predict (when i still test it). Anyways, GG Otabo

spoiler: me vs Dol

Ouch, from Dol's paladin, Counter from Dol's Paladin that made my paladin knocked out. Made me got scared that i think my team lost in 2nd round. And, your Zombie skill from Oracle made my archer's re-action hurt itself. Uhh, GG Dol

I'll re-edit my 2nd team soon. Stay Tune.

spoiler: Match 3

Because I have a dirty mind, Otabo saying "Oracle is going to poke the priest" seemed hilarious.  But Ahong's archer was doing a ton of damage as Otabo predicted.  Even though Dol's Paladins were quite tanky, they couldn't withstand the onslaught.

Round 2
The blind contributed to the Archer missing.  Unfortunately when he did hit he hit really hard.  When the Dol's Chemist went down he didn't have any other way to reliably resurrect.  Speaking of reliable, that Oracle had plenty of time to cast Fairy on the Chemist but didn't.  The 4v3 disadvantage wasn't helping things.

Well, lucky me that my Priest didn't become a zombie.

[The Damned]

(...I wonder why that gray bar is in my signature now and why it won't go the hell away.)

Thanks, Otabo...even if that makes three times in as many days. If I weren't so used to this by now, then it might actually be depressing.

spoiler: Reinoe (Short Circuit) vs. Myself (Cuchuulain & The Heroes of Ulster)

As I said on Youtube, this was less a match and more a molestation. Reinoe's Lore-spam, which is already trouble because Lore can't be dodged and all his units heal each other with every action, is literally the worst team currently that this team can fight. So it was as much a foregone conclusion as my "Give Some Space, Roxas!" team fighting the Gun Neutralizer team...in an area that screwed over my Berserk gunner even harder.

I guess it's a good thing that it was quick, but it's still kind of...annoying, especially since I can't really do anything to improve that team aside from overhauling their absorb completely or taking out Projectile Guard for Auto Potion. (And then getting brutally murdered by spellgun team.) I guess I could also take Equip Shield to deal with the obnoxiousness of Mace of Zeus, but I'd probably end up getting screwed over by the lack of Defend UP just because I stopped using that, especially since Performing & Charging seem to obviate M-EV (now?) as well. Of course, even if ended up using Equip Shield, then I'd probably get murdered by Rime Bolt--I remember when that was the most used Lore, once upon a time--or Shadow Shade.

What gets me the most, though, is that somehow, my "luck" with the AI being an idiot extended to the Mime, who didn't even bother trying to punch the Geomancer when he could. Good times when the AI only has two choices, to punch or not to punch, and chooses invariably to do the latter.

spoiler: Barren (Final Fantasy Mystic Quest) vs. Otabo (Sonic Speed)

Nice to see this team of Barren's finally fight. I don't think I've seen it fight before, so I'm not sure if it's really fought at all, much like his Book team which I think has only fought once. It's also nice to see someone besides me use the N-Kai Armlet.

Also nice to be reminded of the Saturday Morning Sonic cartoon. I seriously started humming "The Fastest Thing Alive" after Sonic got hit with multiple Quicks.

That said, you should feel deep, deep shame for naming one of those characters "Silver", Otabo. There are just some things you don't reference, especially when "Shadow" was still available as a name.

Still, nice to see someone be more successful than me--not like that's difficult--with the whole Equip Magegear Monk thing. You even used Necromonicon AND got it to inflict Undead finally after so many battles where it just wouldn't, so it's nice to know that actually works on some level.

spoiler: Round 1

This match was pretty much over soon as that Mimic Daravon got off on two people, even with Geomancer spamming Koutetsu and the Paladin being a stubborn bastard about things. So things weren't really "curb-stomp-y" even with that Sleep going off, though that's when I say victory was attained.

spoiler: Round 2

This was easily the most one-sided round of the three, to the point where I'm not sure that the Scholar ended up Charmed would have meant anything by the time the Monk decided to try. This seems especially true because the female Geomancer was unable to be hit by Charm even if he had managed hit the Scholar with the first one, so at best he might have been able to Death Sentence her with Secret Fist again before the Paladin slew him again.

spoiler: Round 3

As I said on Youtube, I'm really not sure why the hell the AI uses Refute to get rid of Performing sometimes. I really, really don't understand it and it seems unnecessary anyway.

Besides that, this had a really nice back and forth, even if it was a bit more drawn out than it otherwise would have been because of Undead on the Ninja briefly "backfiring" until he got put down for good.

spoiler: Ahong (All Kind Range Combat) vs. Dol (Counter)

I'm surprised that Battle Axe's overpowered proc only went off once here. I wonder if it going off more would have really changed things, though, considering how much that Archer does and the Paladins not really dodging that many Summons. Then again, Ahong's Paladin with Chaos Blade hurt a lot and the Chemist was shooting Dol's Paladns for absolutely pathetic damage....

spoiler: Round 1

Ahong rather got the advantage out of the gate here considering he was able to pretty effortlessly murder one of Dol's Paladins as soon engagement happened and then Ahong's Paladin was able to keep murdering the Oracle. So, for all her speed, Dol's Chemist just got stuck on "sandbag" duty to little avail despite the Paladins' resistance to Ahong's Chemist and own sandbagging ability with Iron Will & Reraise.

spoiler: Round 2

This one was a lot closer than I thought it would be given the first match, though that was partly because the Oracle lived a lot longer and was rather smart about things (and somehow kept dodging gun shots). If only she had been smart about resurrecting the Chemist before she crystallized, as relatively mediocre at best as Dol's Chemist was.

Regardless, things were sealed way before Ahong's Paladin started causally hitting for 400+ HP with Chaos Blade.

[Otabo]

That said, you should feel deep, deep shame for naming one of those characters "Silver", Otabo. There are just some things you don't reference, especially when "Shadow" was still alive available as a name.

I honestly forgot all about Shadow.

[The Damned]

(Hmmm...apparently the gray bar was caused by "Antlion/Bug" having a slash, which was just enough for monster to go over the limit but not to the next line. Weird.)

Ugh. That last post was full of way too many typos, even more so than usual. That's what I get for trying to finally respond when I'm even more dead tired than usual. It's fixed now.

I honestly forgot all about Shadow.

That's arguably even worse and I say this not even really liking Shadow. Literally almost any character is better than Silver though, even Cream.

[Otabo]

It's just a name. No big deal.

[The Damned]

(Gee, that came up as more melodramatic, bitter and whiny than intended. My apologies, though I can't promise I'll be any better once I come back on Saturday. Depending on how the next four days go, I might even be worse.)

Oh, yeah. It's definitely not a big deal or anything. It just seemed kinda of surprising considering I was under the impression that people hated Silver second only to hating poor, giraffe-necked Princess Elise when it comes to that game.

Hell, I'm pretty sure Mephiles and (the combined) Iblis itself are more generally liked than Silver. So, yeah, a bit surprising to see that name in that context even if it doesn't ultimately mean anything.

"It's no use!"

[Barren]

FFT Arena 1.38d Trifecta Series - Jumza (Down to Earth)

[reinoe]

FFT Arena 1.38d Trifecta Series - Jumza (Down to Earth)

Very nice job on your first outing.  I've always wondered about how min-maxing would work out for a spellcasting team but it worked out alright for your scholar.  Initially I thought your damage was exclusively Earth, but your Chemist has a blaze gun, and the Paladin has a sword.

[Dokurider]

spoiler

Me versus Jumza: Well met, Jumza. You out blitzed my blitz team. One hell of an interesting set of matches they were. But like everyone else was saying, mono elemental teams, especially Earth, have a way of biting back.

Damned verses Jumza: A dance and sing team gets swept. Eh.

FDC verses Jumza: Jumza would have won just as easily had that Paladin not have been running Small Mantle.

[Jumza]

spoiler

Wow, I did so much better than I expected.
Match One: Two hands+Air knives scared me. A lot. The instant slaughter of these 2 teams was really interesting to watch, but I was definitely in a better position in round 3.

Match 2: Dancer, Bard, Mime combo made me think I was gonna win a lot faster than I did. That bard constantly healing himself causing the mime to heal himself was really annoying.

Match 3: I was not expecting to win that last one, with earth not being able to hit either knight, but as soon as the AI on my team started focusing the chemist and oracle it was all over. Also if silence song had hit more than I probably would have lost.

GG all! I'm glad that despite my teams obvious weaknesses due to being mono elemental I did so well. (especially with my first team!)