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Arena battle videos and discussion

Started by PX_Timefordeath, August 04, 2010, 06:49:51 pm


formerdeathcorps

November 19, 2014, 10:17:16 am #3641 Last Edit: November 19, 2014, 10:44:18 am by formerdeathcorps
Losers was my most anti-metagame team in 137 even though when I tested my teams against themselves, the strongest teams were Heresy and then Broken (because both were explicit counters to Losers).  Good to see it still has its edge, though with the nerf to Bad Luck, it should no longer be dominating the metagame.  However, the Stall JP miscount leaves me with some things to fix on it and a few other teams.
As for luck, TrueLight's bad luck in R3 is simply payback for his exceptionally good luck in R2 (where he landed multiple 53% charms in a row) and R1 (where Mimic Daravon missed 4 people at 37-45% chance).


Barren had the initiative mostly throughout.  I think the gunner support and geo summoner on The Damned's team are too ineffective at their roles.  However, this gives me an idea: http://ffhacktics.com/smf/index.php?topic=10713.0.


The result was never in doubt, but how did silentkaster get his mages to use quickening despite having other MP-dependent spells?  Or do moves like esuna and raise2 that remove KO statii not count as "spells that use MP"?
The destruction of the will is the rape of the mind.
The dogmas of every era are nothing but the fantasies of those in power; their dreams are our waking nightmares.

Shintroy

November 19, 2014, 03:40:06 pm #3642 Last Edit: November 19, 2014, 04:49:21 pm by Shintroy
As always thanks for the matches Barren.

FDC with the tanky status and decapitate team vs Truelight's All male melee team. I predicted the set of twins taking this due to Truelight having no AOE, range, or magic based damage.
Round 1- Very lucky fight here. Missing 4 and 3 unit Daravons. Didn't get to see any blade beam, and those chemists made short work of salty rage. Managed to take out the chemists due to small map and superior speed in the beginning.
Round 2- Bigger map came into play mid round when the teams split into two 2v2 match ups. The paladins low mobility made this round longer than it needed to be, but still kept truelight in check with sleep. The chemists made the other 2v2 chaotic since there's the chance of charm. The sudden 266 blade beam proc rekindled my interest in the match easily. I think the thief would've done better without salty rage and speed save. Dragon spirit without salty rage has potential with blade beam depending on hp and regen/move HP since there will be no additional healing after Reraise. Can't say for sure though since the Wave fist ninja had the wrong katana and wave fist didn't mention being wind element in game. Temporary 6v1 due to charm almost brought it back.
Third round - Quick round. FDC was always on offense with status effects landing.
Overall it was a well executed team and strategy with experience vs a team with a few minor things that need working out like the katana.  GG to the accessories never having a chance, and GG to 45 minutes match. 


Shiva is starstorm, Mother Earth spells, Jeff still useless(never change). Match was pretty one sided. Was 4v2 most of the time. Don't recall air knife ever landing damage or profs due to high evasion. Earth Axe was the MVP when Paula wasn't down. Barren didn't need to go on the defensive much in either rounds. Just wasn't enough damage from the Earthbound team outside of quake and axe. First time seeing this team so maybe this lose will be enough for some needed changes. GG


Undead + Raise 2 vs Undead, Seal Evil and Raise 2
Incredibly bad match up for silentkaster due to high faith and compatibility(?).  Not much to comment on due to how one sided this was so ill just input on why it was so one sided.
Monk Twins vs Smite - Chakra Bands prevented undead being used against them so my Oracle's zombie spell and proc never came into play. High faith so their undead spells were 100% on half of my units, but due to not.having short charge and my team having sinkhole, sleep, and speed they never got to get it off. I believe my Chemist has holy water just in case. The Twins also have stigma magic and chakra as well as high damage resistance. Team had comet, and seal evil which meant the monks never got to take turns and go on offense.

The Priest twins vs Smite - Cursed ring was, imo, the main reason this was so.one sided. The biggest threat to my team was charm, but due to speed again they didn't get to benefit from it. Plus charming any of my units, in this match up at least, wouldn't mean anything due to holy absorb and bags. The only unit there is to charm is the oracle, but again speed and it isn't likely she could get a spell off since she has healing summon magic and ky other units are fast eenough and have the range to get her out of charm.

Sorry you didn't get to showcase your team silentkastrr bro. GG. Don't think either team needs editing. Maybe heretic on the priests.


Some day my people will be free.

silentkaster

Sorry, video not going up tonight. I'm def gonna shoot for tomorrow though!!!
You've stepped in puddles less shallow than me.

FFMaster

Some information regarding Shieldrender and friends.

- Shieldrender (Shield Break) works fine, mechanics wise. If a unit has a shield though, it gets broken with no animation played. Otherwise, the 2nd hit animation is played.

- Bow Gun (Armor Break) is bugged. On an armored unit, the animation will not be played, but works fine. If the unit has no armor, no animation is played, and no bonus damage is dealt. In other words, a regular hit.
  • Modding version: Other/Unknown
☢ CAUTION CAUTION ☢ CAUTION CAUTION ☢

silentkaster

I figured this match would go this way. On this team, maybe swapping Chantage for the Monk's current accessories is necessary, but this team isn't really too strong in its own right. I'm just playing around with Quickening a bit more, and had to devise some kind of strategy to take somewhat advantage of that. Perhaps I can continue to work on it in the future...but for now, the strategy isn't too sound.


Here is the match I promised...

FFT Arena 1.39C- Reks/The Damned (PK Rocking) vs. TrueLight (Swords of Conviction)
You've stepped in puddles less shallow than me.

Reks

Quote from: Barren on November 19, 2014, 06:51:05 am
FFT Arena 1.39c - Barren (Wake Up Dead) vs Reks + The Damned (PK Rocking)

FFT Arena 1.39c - Shintroy (Smite) vs silentkaster (Two Sets of Twins)

FFT Arena 1.39c - TrueLight (Swords of Conviction) vs formerdeathcorps (Losers)
Quote from: silentkaster on November 20, 2014, 09:55:25 pm
I figured this match would go this way. On this team, maybe swapping Chantage for the Monk's current accessories is necessary, but this team isn't really too strong in its own right. I'm just playing around with Quickening a bit more, and had to devise some kind of strategy to take somewhat advantage of that. Perhaps I can continue to work on it in the future...but for now, the strategy isn't too sound.


Here is the match I promised...

FFT Arena 1.39C- Reks/The Damned (PK Rocking) vs. TrueLight (Swords of Conviction)


Thanks for the matches, guys!~

Derp choice of END there :P

Ness proved underwhelming, though Poo hits like a truck. Stall is definitely better off left out of Jeff's hands. Er, mouth. GG!


That was some GOOD back and forth. Jeff was more useful here without Stall, and even when underwhelming Ness was still somewhat useful. We will need to beef him up a bit or make him a pure support though, Damned.

GG Truelight! Your team had me biting my nails the whole time.
  • Modding version: Other/Unknown
  • Discord username: Reks#0128

TrueLight

Thanks for the videos Barren and Silentkaster.

This team looked better on paper but that wasn't the case in actual matches. Too many errors by me that I don't usually make. Time to make some changes or just straight out scrap them. GG.
  • Modding version: PSX


Shintroy

November 21, 2014, 06:25:12 pm #3649 Last Edit: November 21, 2014, 07:19:09 pm by Shintroy
Earth absorb team vs melee team
GJ with matching these two up silentkaster. This wasn't really one sided and both teams admit needing updates so one team outclassing another was not likely.
First round was pretty even. The moonlight thief got wrecked early for an early 4v3. Despite this he managed to come back and take the round tanking a faith sage, and a sniping Romana user. Easy MVP to the Bard.
Second round - Melee team's weakness is obvious here. Couldnt maneuver around the map well or compete with so much range and AoE. Moonlight thief again gets wrecked where no-one but the bard can help him. Ultimately loses the match for his team.
Third round is the same as the second round.
Truelight I think you'd have something if you switch your thief's roles around. Give Salty Rage to the Twohand Lionheart. Thief, and turn the other into an itembot or something, or if not go for dragon spirit + hidden knife or platina dagger for offhand. Looking forward to both teams when they're updated.



High evasion, offensively balanced team vs FFTA themed team.
Great match up and map choice Truelight. I think both teams were evenly matched and came down to who could use the maps better.

First round - The Damned starts off with better positioning off the bat putting my team on the defensive early. The match is even up until Red and Blue manage to push FFTA back for stage control. FFT does an excellent Job in getting rid of the leader with status and a surprise sinkhole(got upset it was so sudden and Yellow was too.busy trying to disable Mewt. After a few major exchanges Blueal manages to clutch it out with some extreme anti sandbagging.

Second Round - This map is the sole reason I always have a physical damage unit with teleport. I don't know why this happened but my team managed to keep two units from moving without don't move the entire round (save for the mediator's final turn). Red finally doing his job redirecting and being a martyr. Blue kept three units in check with Pink as support. Yellow was probably the MVP of the game with his snipe reversals and positioning. If it weren't for the drastic change to him I would have easily lost this one and scrapped the team entirely. GG The Damned and I forgot how much Mewt looks like a male mediator. (I was going to make a FFIV themed team with your same white mage / bow set up... but then I saw summoner's HP. May still go through with it. Paladin, Lancer White Mage, Summoner.


Good stuff all around.
Some day my people will be free.

The Damned

(Damn. I knew I forgot [to nag Reks about] something: PK Rocking's palettes are Yellow and Black, in memory of Buzz Buzz and all that.)

Belated thanks for the videos, Barren, silentkaster and  TrueLight. I seemed to be a popular guy with the last batch of videos despite making subpar teams; I already apologized to Reks for that, though PK Rocking clearly needs some tweaking already.

My, I forgot what a shitty map END was. Not really that surprising given that all of Deep Dungeon's maps are kind of suspect, though at least a couple of its maps are usable. END...isn't, even if it's sadly not the worst; the first map of Deep Dungeon has that dubious honor.

Still, that map was at least usable for making it clear that for all his current faults, Jeff is extremely tanky even in the face of Berserk. Of course, that obviously backfires in the case of Poo and Ness's physical healing, though I don't why the hell Ness is going for physical attacks in the first place....


Well this was a rather literal snorefest unfortunately between how utterly one-sided it was and how prominent Sleep was the cause of his loss alongside Seal Evil and Raise 2. Speaking of Seal Evil, I'm surprised that was a bigger bane to silentkaster's team  than Raise 2, especially with Stigma Magic and Esuna. Regardless, Shintory's team certainly Smited the hell out of silentkaster's team.

If nothing else, then this team was a least public proof of what silentkaster was saying about the A.I. using Quickening with some MP-using techniques. (This is just a more proof to me that Quickening should finally die, but no surprise there.)


Despite being quite a long match, this wasn't a snorefest at all. It is always a bit disappointing, however, when in a long match the deciding round ends up being so one-sided. It was also a bit disappointing to have Salty Rage get stolen three times in row first try and off the bat on top of that.

Of course, there's also the issue that formerdeathcorps just got really unlucky with Steal Heart in the second round, which almost allowed TrueLight to outright win that round despite the fact formerdeathcorps was in control for most of that round. As such, I'm bit conflicted I suppose, especially since it was pretty clear that TrueLight wanted Koga Knife instead of Iga Knife. I can only wonder how that would have changed things.

Still, it was at least relatively decent struggle through and through and not a boring curbstomp. Also, the above Iga Knife mistake confirmed something that I've been wondering for a while: for some reason the A.I. of a Two Swords unit won't attack a unit that nullifies (or also presumably absorbs) one of their weapons even if its first weapon is an off-elemental or non-elemental weapon. That's...weird.

***

The aforementioned Iga-Koga Knife thing has me wondering if we partly because of that. Granted, our team got rather fortunate with evasion regardless, but the lower damage on Wave Fist helped somewhat. Still, at the same time, Koga Knife would have been otherwise worse on against PK Rocking since it would have just been absorbed and then the Ninja would have had nothing *except* for Wave Fist. Again, I'm conflicted.

As it is, I'm still rather surprised we won given how quickly south that third round started out for us given TrueLight's Berserk unit didn't start next to Jeff like he did in the first two rounds, which led to a lot of (lethal) pain for the other boys. Jeff himself was also acting rather...stupid at times, at least when it comes to running *away* from Paula despite being her being far squishy than him, but I guess that's fault him having a gun and the A.I. subsequently reacting to that.

Oh well. We still somehow managed to win mostly because of evasion. I "blame" it on Reks.

The only thing I'll blame myself for is being greedy when it comes to Paula and not just going all out with Faith Rod. There were so many places where Magic Attack UP would have made both of this team's matches go much better.


...Because, I mean, clearly, evasion hates me otherwise. Sigh. This match was a perfect example of why I'm usually paranoid enough to give half of my team protection from Don't Act, though that wouldn't have helped in the second round at all. I could have won the first round, perhaps, even with all the other issues for this team, but that second round....

Sigh. That second round just had me "yelling" at my team for being idiots content to sit in the corner and eat Chirijiraden for breakfast, lunch and dinner, M-EV be damned. Such abject idiocy.

This team gets one more patch job before I either change it completely or just scrap it entirely should it fail again. At this point, Eternal's version that I thought was interesting but a bit flawed is far superior to mine. At the very least, if I really do want Monteblanc actually use the damn Muramasa Spell Edge, then he needs to not be the healer on the team on. (Especially since that Thief sprite using Item is so bad since it and Scholar's sprite types are still mixed up. Gods that's just painful to look at.)



Among the many other things I've learned, I've learned the obvious: Don't bother using Faith Rod unless it's with status spells or with the absolute max MA set-up you could have otherwise in addition to using Magic Attack UP. It doesn't seem much worth it otherwise, even as long as Faith (and Innocent) last.


Anyway, good game to Barren, TrueLight and Shintroy.
"Sorrow cannot be abolished. It is meaningless to try." - FFX's Yunalesca

"Good and evil are relative, but being a dick cannot be allowed." - Oglaf's Thaumaturge in "The Abyss"

"Well, see, the real magic isn't believing in yourself. The real magic is manipulating people by telling them to believe in themselves. The more you believe, the less you check facts."  - Oglaf's Vanka in "Conviction"

Barren

I know its been a few days since I did any arena vids (give thanks to Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire) and I know everyone is busy. I can resume arena matches after Cyber Monday. Until then, Happy Thanksgiving to you all!
  • Modding version: Other/Unknown
You dare cross blades with me?


Shintroy

November 28, 2014, 03:59:00 pm #3653 Last Edit: November 30, 2014, 03:24:55 am by Shintroy
Green Thieves and a Mime vs Overall balanced team with some absorb and status immunity
Round 1 - Glad I got to see mime and spell gun at work. 144 damage on a mime is pretty sick. Too bad about the weapon bug though. If it wasn't for kiyomori wasting so many of Andante's turns this would've easily been a loss for me. Pretty unfortunate the wizard only got off 3-5 spells including the full bolt heal on my time mage. Overall I think the round was fair. My Mime can easily become a burden having pilgrimage with no status immunities or faith based attack. The Lancer got free turns having death immunity, but couldnt revive past poison with phoenix down alone. A paladin with a tactician's blade and some white magic could've done more and still have the status coverage and immunities probably. Meatbone slash also never went off for some reason.
Round - Went the same way without any charms landing. Andante got an early lead, but couldn't dish out any damage to keep it. Those Asura draw outs were doing an absurd amount of damage to my mime. Maybe I'm not aware of it being faith or PA based, or maybe that's just because muh status has a white robe. No idea.
MVP probably goes to the monk or me thief. Ridiculous Asura damage vs repel proc and charm mimicry. GG. If this was My Me version one I would've lost this one easy. Thief was a lot squishier and didn't have the repel knife. Mediator didn't have kiyomori either so Andante would've had a lot more turns on offense.

Could've done better if the my mime kept his gun the entire round. I chose to copy Leif's team because out of all the top s3 teams his could work best with Mime due to the new blaze gun range. I think the AI would have a lot more talk skill and time magic mimicking situations with the range.


If this mime set up doesn't work out due to pilgrimage and blaze gun unequipping, I'll have to make a unit that wouldn't use melee attacks like an FS bag wielding martial arts monk. Not a fan of sandbaggy teams and this wouldn't win S4 without the blaze gun. Me Thief would probably go back to secret clothes over black costume.
There are probably ways around mime and weapon bug if it can't be fixed.
How would +1 to PA and MA fair? Seems like a sound buff if weapon support abilities dont work out.
Maybe mime with the 138 inate effects and no JP access with 139 stats and the ability to equip armor and accessories.

Thanks for the upload Truelight. The first music track was in sync with the mimicking at times. Was too good to not be intentional.

---------------
Tornado vs Nether Fire.
Pretty one sided. Poison paired with OHKO damage and phoenix down units at its finest. Tornado and quake weren't nerfed from 138? That's a lot of damage without faith rod given its range and speed without short charge. Not much to comment on really. It was really a 4v1 match up despite the amount of units standing on Dokurider's side. Stilll a fan of Strange. GG.
...
..
.
Did that chemist choose to sing instead of X Potion healing strange due to poison and critical status? That wasnt cheer song was it?



Extremely offensive earth absorb team and Jeff vs Squire/Thief, Chemist, White Mage, and Time Mage with Masamune

First off I'm not sure what type of team silentkaster has going on here. I like the poison rod, repel knife combo a lot. Samurai never used Draw out outside.ofMasamune making time mage with draw out a better choice due to higher speed and armor options imo. The oracle and chemist are well built as well.

First Round - Starts off strong for PK Rocking with a best compatibility seal evil and dead oracle. The samurai wasted a lot of turns in the beginning with Masamune and not acting at all. The chemist only got to use talk skill once the entire game which didn't connect. Mid round, after the oracle crystallized, the squire comes back with a high 70% charm on Jeff and could've turned the game around for silentkaster, but didn't have the stopping power or status to pull it off. Was really a 4v3 the entire round.

Round 2 - Small map should've benefited silentkaster and almost did, but the oracle missed her don't act on two units. Everything after that was a slaughter in the corner.

GG and GJ to Reks and the Damned for making the right calls on your team. Ness did a lot better as a sage. Jeff was probably the MVP surprisingly.

3 videos so sudden. Good stuff Truelight
Some day my people will be free.


Andante49

Thanks for the videos TrueLight

Really strong team you've got there, and a pretty bad match up for my squad. A lot of damage resistance and disrupting status kept momentum mostly on your side, and the weapon bug made your mime spam secret fist which was very effective despite the genji shield oddity. Thought death and death sentence immunity always came together to prevent the possible AI exploit, although my lancer wasn't able to really capitalize on it *shrug* GG Shintroy


Shintroy

December 02, 2014, 11:05:47 pm #3657 Last Edit: December 06, 2014, 08:47:37 am by Shintroy
Wow FOUR matches? Looks like Xmas came early this year. Thanks for these Barren.

Speed vs Speed

Even if Balanced II was used the outcome would've been the same since all I changed was Zypher Shield to Crystal Shield. Fire weakness never came into play so the first version if the team with 15 speed +1. Anyway on to the comments.

Round 1 -The only round where zombie came into play. Really evenly matched teams outside of the Death Sentence abuse. I don't recall the mime getting any slow dances off because I didn't realize Andante had a mime until round 2 despite the quickening mimicry. Got really lucky with the charms landing Not much to say about this round.

Rounds 2 and 3 - Did not enjoy these. I believe Genji shield is the oboy piece of equipment thst only cancels dead and not dead and death sentence. Really unfortunate to see a good match up come down to AI being clumsy. I like Andante's team concept though. Would've been sick if Slow 2 came into play. With that my oracles would've been down to 2 speed in round 2.

I don't think I can pull off high speed units without undead. My other units would've have the tools to keep them alive. They don't have haste so if paired up against a team with any sort of casting disruption they would crystallize easy.

GG though. Hopefully Genji Shield gets updated to also cancel death sentence as well.



Tank Monk sand Death Sentence vs Mortar Monks and Stat boosting

Didn't get to see what silentkasters could do last time so I didn't bet on the outcome for this.

Round 1 - Huge Map, singing, and the mime played a huge part here. The teams collide after some of Dokurider's units gained 2+3 PA and speed giving him a huge advantage, most importantly, OHKO potential. Easy win here.

Round 2 - Tanking at its finest. Great start for Dokurider on tutorial 1. Starts off with a decent advantage to get a quick lead. Questionable decisions from the AI when its down to a 4v1 were all silentkaster.needed to bring it back though. Identical tanks for units who could easily two shot him for well over 10 turns. A few death sentences here and there with fraternal twins serving as great distractions evens the score. Probably the best 139 round so far.

Round 3 - No stat advantage for Dokuroder this time around. So when silentkaster's team is brought down to 4v2 again its not as bad. Brings it back a lot quicker this time and gets to use Zombie which seals Dokurider's fate. Spell absorb played a big role this round. That turn the mime spent using ether instead of killing the monk for the win probably did it too.

GG. (Changed my mind on My Me being my S4 team. Going with Smite to avoid these two strategies.


Speed vs Move. Bettig on Move because I lost to Otabo's 8 move team.
Round 1 - Long round. Otabo took it due to his superior range. Like Barren said there was no escaping that archer and depending on the map and other team's move it counts for all of his units. Ultimately Reinoe didn't have the tools to tank Otabo's offense. Cursed ring helped for a while, but seal evil and steal accessory cost too many turns to deal with.

Round 2 - The one and only reason this took so long is because of the squire being charmed. Most of the round was Otabo's units on clean up duty. Also it was curtains for the thief when he killed the squire using esuna. Getting rid of blind would have most likely got him a 3rd round. Oh well though. Shoulda woulda coulda.

GG. I prefer speed over move still after all that. Can't ever go wrong with too much speed.



Two Faith/Oil and Fire 2 combo pairs vs Tanky Paladin team.

Not much to comment on. The Damned didn't have the recovery to compete against this combo. A good offense is a good defense... good status is both offense and defense, but I also appreciate themed teams.

Requesting Smite vs FDC's team or something similar. Cursed Rings won't work out too well vs smite but something as offensive would work.

I like the 40/40 Ninja stats. If my Ninja on "The Wild" was an undead I'd take after it since he has scorpion and platina.



GGs.

-----------

Sleep and DA vs Sleep, DA, and Charm

Don't know if its possible for a twin team to beat smite without armor for anti status. I bet everything on a 2-0 since there's only phoenix down revival on Burial.

Round 1 - Pretty fair map since both teams have ranged units. Match ups like these tend to go to the first team to get an advantage. FDC got pretty unlucky on not getting any sword procs this round. The thieves probably depend on those going off so when in enemy territory, they aren't the primary focus of the AI. The female thief fell victim to this and went out insanely quick with no chance of revival. Smite is designed to win if they ever get the active unit advantage, so no reason to further comment.

Round 2 - This map is why I use teleport on ranged units so I didn't expect this round to go any different. Got an early 3 unit sleep with sealed the win early here. An early zombie followed by some seal evil and raise 2 action to waste the thief's turn followed by the chemist with her new talk skills instead of steal heart was what I wanted to see most. The charmed oracle too because my archer can't remove charm since the only two units thatcan be charmed absorb holy.

Never played Warcraft 3, but I'm going to guess the soundbyte at the end was from it. Kudos to you Truelight for the video like always.
Some day my people will be free.

The Damned

(I'll try not to come off crotchedy as I feel during this wonderful holiday season.)

For the record, Barren, the kNiGHTS team has nothing to do with DomieV, though I was initially tempted to try to give one of them Balance just because of Paladin's HP. It's just a general SCC team with just a name reference to an apparently more esoteric character than I thought; the female Paladin is reference to Florence Nightingale, down to her function and Zodiac Sign. You were right about Knighty Knight's concept though and it's not like I'd mind that team fighting DomieV's team--it would at least wouldn't get curbstomped as hard.

Regardless, thanks to you and TrueLight for the videos.

Also, good games to Dokurider, silentkaster and formerdeathcorps.


I admittedly remember this match the least given that it's been a week since I watched it, though I do remember being distinctly disappointed to see that Genji Shield apparently is acting up. I was also disappointed to see that's what was meant by a Mime's weapon disappearing. I'll have to edit that into the other post sometime this weekend.

That aside, it was a decently good back and forth overall and I think that the first round may have been the longest round ARENA has had on the fourth underground floor of Orbonne.


Given that this was Strangers from the Lake against new team of mine again, I was expecting to get my ass kicked by Strange again. This even though Edward Blizzardhands is a much better team than the Prom team ever was since Nether Fire from Strange hurts. Hell, I basically only won the first round because I got uncharacteristically very lucky with several dodges, including what would have otherwise been a fatal stab/slash from the Chemist on the Scholar, who did that instead of healing.

Such is the power of Tornado (and Quake), though, as I've been repeatedly expressed worry about.

At least the second round was a guilt-free exchange for me. Not my fault that the Chemist decided to use Nameless Song at the worst possible time just for the sake of a Reraise that I figured would hit but ended up not being worth it anyway due to Poison. I have to give a "shout-out" Yell for actually being useful for once, allowing me to essentially take control of the match due to Ororo Chaser getting a redirect in the first place. I'm glad to not regret using Haste for once.


Sigh. Ness's damage output is still kind of lacking, but it's still better than it was and I suppose as good as it's going to get for a male mage with losing anything or turning him into a Bard. Still, clearly he needs to get his ass to Magicant.

I feel kinda dirty that we won on the first match, if only because I think that's a bad map in general since whichever team that suffers less from getting split up pretty much tends to win from the get-go; that's why I personally tried to not use it when I was recording. So our team having far more range than silentkaster's just made it kind of foregone conclusion. I mean, it's rather telling that Seal Evil worked for as long as it did.

Still, there are worse maps and it was actually decently close, if only because silentkaster's Chemist refused to die. I also think it's my first win on the map at all, though that's probably because I made the team with Reks.

Not much to say about the bar fight except that I'm still somewhat surprised that Paralyze from the Oracle missed Ness while he was charging Earth Dragon. The Oracle on silentkaster's team was just generally kind useless against our team, especially since his Samurai was the far better spell-casting.


Well, this was a most--*thinks of a way phrase this politely since it's almost solely the A.I.'s fault--unfortunate match where Genji Shield being back to its unfortunate Vanilla origins most definitely played a role. In fact, I'd argue that Genji Shield not being Immune: Death Sentence as it "should" be was the chief reason that Shintroy's team lost, especially since the "Death Sentence ignores Immune: Dead" hack apparently isn't being used either. As it was, Death Sentence on the Paladins made it so that the Oracles refused to target them with Zombie, which was basically the only thing that would have let Shintroy win the match as a whole. Official lack of Immune: Death Sentence also meant Shintroy's Thieves just wasted a bunch of turns in general.

Of course, Shintroy's Oracle weren't completely blameless victims given that Sleep and Beguile were generally useless in this fight and yet they insisted on using them more than Zombie. The former was especially problematic when it hit a Death Sentenced unit and froze their countdown, effectively increasing the time that they were "invincible."


Unfortunately this match was a prime example of the two chief problems with Cheer Song: it's basically completely by Quickening (how surprising) and, as seen towards the end of the first round, the A.I. becomes basically incapable of using it past 13 Speed. With regards to the latter, that one at least has a semi-valid excuse since for some reason the A.I. does the idiotic thing of not letting Charging or Performing moves resolve should it get another turn before such moves would. As for why Quickening is still around when it's clearly such an exciting and balanced ability though, I can't answer that.

Regardless, it's a bit amusing that right after a match where Death Sentence is completely ineffectual, it ends up winning a match where it's basically the sole source of offense if silentkaster's enemy isn't Undead.

Still, it was nice to see someone at least attempt to use Cheer Song, even if it, Slow Dance and Quickening are doubtless better of dead/changed. It was nice to also see Spell Absorb used too, even if much of the time it was being used it was just because the A.I. felt it had nothing better to do, including Wait, rather than it actually making much of a difference. Oh well.

(Also doesn't help that Dokurider's Mime had a bunch of outright failed yet would-be valid Mimics, even if most of them wouldn't have helped much.)


Sigh. Why does Kagesougi still inflict Don't Act again?

*makes a face*

Even without that bit of advantage, for a supposedly "gimmick" team, Lucky Seven is actually quite threatening, though this version seems rather weaker than an early version of it. The Squire in this version certainly seems like a weak link, even just with access to Raise 2, and not just because of the fact that she kept getting hitting by Steal Heart; that happens to even the best units (who foolishly forsake Nu Khai, Lady of All).

Shrug. All I know is that the way that matched ended due to Quickening was extremely dumb and another reason why I loathe that ability, even if it doesn't guarantee victory. It really makes no sense for a unit to end up so fast that it basically ends up having Auto-X-Potion simply due to Regen.


So yeah. This was just a horrible match-up, which seems to happen to me a lot. Pretty obvious that my team was going to lose when my evasion is rendered moot and it's outranged. Rather annoying, especially since one of the Paladins decided to walk into Fire 2 in round 2 when he absolutely didn't have to. It really shouldn't still be so grating that A.I. is such an idiot about not bunching up for AoE, but maybe that's just because it seems to happen to my teams a lot, especially brand new ones. Whatever. It's doubtless my fault.

At least we got to see a level 2 spell used since usually the level 1 ones are better.

More importantly, I still don't agree with Muramasa's old proc being moved onto Spell Edge at all, even if Faith didn't play a huge role in this particular match. It especially bothers me between Thief & Ninja already being strong enough and since the new Muramasa blows & is basically inferior to Kiyomori.



It seems that Genji Shield and Gold Armor are among the things that got broken in the update to 1.39 because I'm decently sure that they both blocked Death Sentence in previous versions (like they should). Meh. Noted as something else to bother FFMaster about.
"Sorrow cannot be abolished. It is meaningless to try." - FFX's Yunalesca

"Good and evil are relative, but being a dick cannot be allowed." - Oglaf's Thaumaturge in "The Abyss"

"Well, see, the real magic isn't believing in yourself. The real magic is manipulating people by telling them to believe in themselves. The more you believe, the less you check facts."  - Oglaf's Vanka in "Conviction"