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☢ ☢ ☢ FFT Arena AI Tournament Season 3 ☢ ☢ ☢

Started by CT5Holy, July 28, 2014, 04:08:02 pm


Reks

I don't feel that I would have won this as apparently as I had, had your units not continually lined up for all of that AoE

Dancer proves her derpiness and awkward speed messes up her jumping, but that's not a complete deal breaker. Still, you had me VERY nervous here.

GG, Vigilanti! I hate to see you go
  • Modding version: Other/Unknown
  • Discord username: Reks#0128

silentkaster

GG Fenire and GL...I loved Round one...didn't know who was taking it til the very end. Round two was a bit more decisive, though still a decent match.
You've stepped in puddles less shallow than me.

The Damned

(Thanks for doing extra work yet again, Barren, especially so quickly.)

You too, TrueLight, though I must admit the new text intros is going to take some getting used to despite doing some textual commentary in videos myself. For the record, though, you've accidentally called "compat." "compact" twice, probably because your mind is auto-correcting the abbreviation into an actual word.


(Fenire)
Team: A Knight at the Movies
Palettes: Black/White

================================

The Untouchable
Male
Sagittarius
70
40
Squire
Item
Abandon
Throw Item
Warpath
Shieldrender
Escutcheon II
Twist Headband
Power Sleeve
Wizard Mantle

Accumulate, Throw Stone, Wish
X-Potion, Hi-Ether, Antidote, Echo Grass, Maiden's Kiss, Soft, Holy Water, Bandage

================================

Sniper
Male
Sagittarius
70
40
Archer
Draw Out
Projectile Guard
Attack UP
Move-HP Up
Mythril Bow

Thief Hat
Secret Clothes
Cursed Ring

Seal Evil, Hawk's Eye
Kiyomori, Masamune

================================

First Knight
Female
Gemini
40
70
Paladin
White Magic
Counter
Magic Defend UP
Move-MP Up
Battle Axe
Diamond Shield
Platina Helmet
Robe of Lords
Setiemson

Nurse, Transfusion, Reraise
Cure 4, Raise 2, Esuna

================================

Druids
Female
Gemini
50
70
Summoner
Time Magic
MP Restore
Magic Attack UP
Pilgrimage
Wizard Rod

Golden Hairpin
White Robe
Magic Ring

Moogle, Fairy, Carbunkle, Cyclops, Zodiac
Haste 2, Slow 2, Comet, Sinkhole

================================

vs.

(silentkaster)
(silentkaster)
Team: Annoying Team
Palettes: Blue/White

================================

Archer 1
Male
Aries
40
50
Archer
Item
Auto Potion
Throw Item
Move+1
Romanda Gun
Zephyr Shield
Thief Hat
Brigandine
Dracula Mantle

Arm Aim, Hawk's Eye, Head Break, Weapon Break
Hi-Potion, Hi-Ether, Antidote, Chrono's Tear, Echo Grass, Maiden's Kiss, Soft, Holy Water, Bandage, Phoenix Down

================================

Archer 2
Male
Aries
40
70
Archer
Steal
Faith Up
Magic Attack UP
Move-HP Up
Blaze Gun
Flame Shield
Black Hood
Santa Outfit
108 Gems

Seal Evil, Armor Break, Shield Break
Quickening, Steal Heart, Steal Accessry

================================

Monk
Female
Leo
40
40
Monk
Dance
HP Restore
Equip Shield
Teleport
H Bag
Crystal Shield
Chakra Band
Earth Clothes
Cursed Ring

Secret Fist, Stigma Magic, Chakra, Revive
Nameless Dance

================================

Priest
Female
Libra
40
70
Priest
Time Magic
Counter Magic
Short Charge
Move-MP Up
P Bag

Golden Hairpin
Black Costume
Defense Ring

Cure 3, Raise 2, Protect 2, Shell 2, Esuna
Haste 2, Slow 2, Stop, Sinkhole, Balance

================================


I'll be honest: This match was rather...annoying after having just kvetched about Cursed Ring given that it was a Cursed Ring against Cursed Ring match for the second time in Losers already--since Reks vs. Dragonblade happened before this--and it seemed rather inevitable that Fenire would win. I say this not because silentkaster's team is outright bad or anything like that. No, I say it because his team is extremely single-minded and the only really threatening unit on his team is the Spellgunner, with everyone else being there literally just to support said Blaze Gunner. The other Archer picks people off who are either in Critical or revived by non-magical means when he's not channeling Hakan and trying to Oil people up with Hawk's Eye. The Undead Monk is meant to do Nameless Dance and can do very little else, especially against people immune to Death Sentence or with Reraise. The Priest is meant to support through healing, spell disruption and statuses that are mostly buffs, but she has a bit too many statuses overall and can't do jack about being poisoned, as we saw.

As such, it's unsurprising that silentkaster's team ends up running into a (demon) wall when he fights anyone whose main threat or threats can't be OHKO'd or even hit with regularity by Blaze Gun. Given that both Fenire's Summoner and own Archer fall into those two categories with White Robe and Projectile Guard respectively...yeah. For as dragged out as this was by constant reviving (via Cursed Ring), this fight was actually pretty one-sided in my opinion and the first round only really lasted as long as it did because the Summoner kept getting hit by last-minute statuses that kept her from sweeping silentkaster off the board.

Granted, silentkaster got bitten by bad luck in the first match as well with his Priest getting stuck in an irksome fatal Poison loop for way too long; yet more proof that current Poison screws over mages more than Berserk, Malroth. There was also a weird instance of his support Archer choosing to Hawk's Eye his other Archer in the back towards the end of first round for seemingly no reason, even if it did end up triggering Faith Up for a paltry 36 damage. That said support Archer did this instead of moving and using it on the Summoner was even more odd since then the other Archer would have been able to OHKO her (finally). I have no idea why the hell he did, really, even as much as we're supposed to know the A.I. to be it. It seemingly defies even the usual A.I. stupidity like what happened in second round with Hawk's Eye.

Speaking of which, similarly I have no idea why the same unit would cancel his own Hawk's Eye in the second round of this match by selecting it and then immediately moving. This especially when the A.I. has been surprisingly good about not doing that even if Hawk's Eye doesn't temporarily use up your move like how Charge did out of preventative necessity.

Speaking of the second round, that mercifully went much quicker, partly just due to how unlucky silentkaster got, what with being unable to hit Fenire's Archer at all and silentkaster's units doing a bunch of ill-advised things as a whole. I don't really like the cemetary map, though, at least with current starting coordinates since it seems like rounds there always end up one-sided due to how teams get so easily split up, especially for the person who starts nearer the graves. That was rather the case here too even before bad luck since it enabled Fenire's Summoner and Archer to pick silentkaster's team off even more easily as his Summoner didn't really get touched this round. Fenire's other two units even helped a bit, though First Knight's Cure 4s were even more pitiful on offense than defense. At least her Battle Axe didn't get destroyed this time unlike round one where it got sniped off the bat--not that the axe changed much either way.

Given the possible tone of all this, it would perhaps seem that I'm "glad" that silentkaster lost, but I'm not, really. As much as I dislike the current state of Spellguns and of Cursed Ring (and of Quickening and of...most things in existence), those aren't his fault and it was nice to see someone finally use Faith Up, especially so intelligently. It was/is also nice to see some of the newer people doing well, especially in a tournament. Given both Fenire and silentkaster are "new" (to me), I suppose however the match went down, one of the newer people would have been eliminated anyway though.



(DARKANGELUXZ)
Team: DARKANGELLS
Palettes: Black/Blue

================================

DARKNIGHT
Female
Pisces
70
50
Paladin
Punch Art
Counter
Martial Arts
Teleport
Blood Sword
Genji Shield
Crystal Helmet
Chameleon Robe
Angel Ring

Nurse
Earth Slash, Secret Fist, Stigma Magic, Chakra, Revive

================================

DARKANCER
Female
Pisces
40
55
Lancer
Item
Dragon Spirit
Throw Item
Ignore Height
Dragon Whisker
Platina Shield
Platina Helmet
Platina Armor
Elf Mantle

Level Jump6, Vertical Jump8
X-Potion, Hi-Ether, Antidote, Chrono's Tear, Echo Grass, Maiden's Kiss, Soft, Holy Water, Bandage, Phoenix Down

================================

DARKSUM
Female
Libra
53
70
Summoner
White Magic
HP Restore
Short Charge
Move-MP Up
Wizard Staff

Golden Hairpin
Wizard Outfit
Magic Ring

Moogle, Cyclops
Raise, Holy

================================

DARKSAMURA
Female
Scorpio
60
70
Samurai
Time Magic
Counter Magic
Attack UP
Move-HP Up
Chirijiraden

Grand Helmet
Maximillian
Chantage

Murasame, Heaven's Cloud, Muramasa
Haste 2, Don't Move, Demi, Demi 2

================================

vs.

(DomieV)
Team: Season 3
Palettes: Yellow/Brown

================================

Paige
Male
Sagittarius
40
50
Chemist
Draw Out
Auto Potion
Defense UP
Move-HP Up
Main Gauche

Thief Hat
Black Costume
Setiemson

Hi-Potion, X-Potion, Hi-Ether, Antidote, Chrono's Tear, Echo Grass, Maiden's Kiss, Soft, Holy Water, Bandage, Phoenix Down
Kiyomori, Masamune

================================

Arthur
Male
Sagittarius
70
50
Paladin
Talk Skill
HP Restore
Attack UP
Warpath
Tactician's Blade
Zephyr Shield
Barbuta
Chameleon Robe
Cherche

Southern Cross
Blackmail, Refute, Insult, Mimic Daravon

================================

Alicia
Female
Gemini
70
70
Archer
Steal
Projectile Guard
Concentrate
Move+1
Silver Bow

Golden Hairpin
Power Sleeve
Feather Mantle

Arm Aim, Seal Evil, Head Break, Armor Break, Weapon Break
Quickening, Steal Heart, Steal Accessry

================================

Serena
Female
Gemini
40
70
Time Mage
White Magic
Damage Split
Short Charge
Move-MP Up
Rainbow Staff

Black Hood
Robe of Lords
Cursed Ring

Haste 2, Slow 2, Sinkhole, Balance
Raise 2, Esuna

================================


Unlike the above, I wasn't really surprised that this match took a while even with the severe flaws of DARKANGELUXZ's team. Even with an all-female team with some...questionable equipment and other decisions, all of them save for the Summoner have pretty high health and all of them including the Summoner can heal themselves and others. So, yeah, when combined with the fact that DomieV's team lacks any damaging AoE save for Southern Cross, which of course did a good deal of work in the first round, it's not surprising this took a while. Counter Magic proving actually useful for once by "reflecting" Slow 2 also dragged things out.

That said, outside of the fact that A.I. is still doing those weird Balances for 0 damage--why?!--in instances where it isn't breaking Charm, I like what I saw from DomieV's team. It was nice to see the high Faith on a non-Spellgun Archer pay off for once--at least twice, actually--since the proc'd Holy of Silver Bow usually does paltry damage much like with Ice Brand and its Ice 2. Here it did 141 damage, which was almost as damaging as the arrow itself.

The first round was also the far more entertaining round given the Summoner got both her Golden Hairpin and Wizard Outfit broken, leaving her at a pitiful 96 HP when she was already getting OHKO'd by Southern Cross just after her Hairpin broke. That 16 damage Jump after the Lancer's spear got broken was also darkly amusing. Geez. I can't remember ever seeing such a steep damage drop after a weapon got destroyed; even with her contrary set-up, she still did a respectable 121 damage with the Spear, so the fact that it dropped by 105 is rather...severe. DomieV had the round one in such command that I don't think the Time Mage even got damaged at all during it. Of course, damaging her just led to her slinging around Balances in round two from what I remember, so it was kind of a lose-lose situation there for DARK.

DARK's team did slightly better in the second round in general, but his team has, among other problems, the same issue as mine did in that it can't really do any damage. It shouldn't given he at least has attack magic and AoE, but given how many people absorb Holy just due to Magic Ring, how the Summoner only has Holy element magic and his easily his Samurai gets stuck in loops...yeah. Granted, those Holys hurt when did hit, OHKOing the Silver Bow Archer, but between their cost and the A.I.'s tendency to Holy itself to health when it really shouldn't, I'm not sure how worth it they were when she also had Short Charge Cyclops.

Oh well. I've thought about how to improve DARK's team since no one has really talked about that, but I'll go over that in a separate post below this.


So, ignoring the obvious presumptuousness of this between both suggesting any advice at all and taking your team names out of Caps Lock, I'll just say that I'm doing this partly out of the usual boredom but mostly out a sincere attempt to be "helpful"; also, I'm not using CAPS Lock since, among other things, it geniunely gives me a bit of a literal headache if there's a bunch of it. Regardless. it doesn't exactly help anyone to be told that they're wrong without being told how to improve or at least being told in actual detail what they're doing wrong.

As such, I'll just go through this unit by unit. I'll try to improve units while keeping them as they are, at least as far as Primary and Secondary skill sets go. For the sake of this exercise, I'll assume that we're under the usual 3000 cap, though at the same time I'll note what other abilities could be used if there was another tournament like this. Similarly, I'll be keeping all active abilities, RSMs and equipment used to one-ofs instead of the usual two-of.

Removed abilities are in parentheses, while ones suggested to be added are either pointed to by arrows if non-active or put in brackets if active:

Dark Knight: She's obviously meant to be the physical attacking unit of the team between Punch Art, Blood Sword, Martial Arts and Counter. This means that, unfortunately, she'd likely be better off as a male since female Paladins & other physical units are only really better than at Steal Heart and having access to Dance. The MP and MA boosts they get are so negligible that they're not really better at magic, as seen with the older versions of DomieV's previously all-male Famous Knights team. Still, I'll leave her and the others as female since that's obviously what you wanted.

Now, despite her initial issues, she's easily the least flawed unit on the initial team and she has a bunch of JP to work still even if we're going with the 3000 cap. First of all, she doesn't really need anything higher than 40 Faith, partly due to the revival that I'm going to use for Dark Summoner being Raise, which can get past 40 Faith easily with good compatibility and high MA. I'm fairly certain that even with 40 Faith, the Summoner can still resurrect her with Raise 100% of the time (provided her equipment doesn't get destroyed again).

So, with that done, we move on to her RSMs and equipment. Her RSMs are mostly fine and I can understand why Teleport is there, but I think she'd be better off with Warpath given she's trying to get as much mileage out of Blood Sword as possible. While Teleport lets her get behind or to the side of people more easily, it also still doesn't guarantee she'll hit them even from behind and Paladins can't get (easily) get enough movement to make Teleport all that useful. Since we're foregoing Tactician's Blade, Equip Light Blade for Knives and any form of shoes as equipment, Teleport gets the boot. (Har har.)

Getting to equipment, Blood Sword obviously stays, but everything else changes. Given Barren mentioned it at least twice, there really is no reason to have three pieces of equipment that happen to block Dead. I don't think you were actually trying to do that intentionally, but that's what happened and it just ended up wasting space. Chameleon Robe especially isn't something you want on her given even if you let the Summoner keep Holy, you really don't want her to waste time, turns and MP trying to heal with Holy instead of the much quicker, AoE-hitting Moogle. Given Chamleon Robe serves no real purpose for her otherwise...

Similarly, I'm guessing that Genji Shield was there both for the +1 PA and for the minimal M-EV to not get in the way of potential Holys. Since that's no longer the case and it's best to try to take advantage of Nurse's Defending status, I figure it would likely be "best" to go kill two birds with one stone and just use Diamond Shield since that Nulls Holy (and Earth) and has higher evasion all around. It's not like a single point of anything really amounts to much unless its Speed or maybe Move, so the loss of +1 PA is insignificant, especially in the face of Warpath.

Angel Ring and Crystal Helmet are fine, but Paladins both have easy access to Blind-immunity via Diamond Armor and anti-Death Sentence measures via Reraise (the skill). As such, they're both superfluous when you can use Wizard Mantle for Don't Act-immunity instead, especially when it benefits from Nurse and when you already get Berserk-immunity from Diamond Armor--otherwise I'd be suggesting Dracula Mantle. I was initially tempted to say that her helmet "should" be Diamond Helmet just to complete the Diamond "set", but then I ended up letting your Samurai keep Heaven's Cloud (the ability) and realized Initial: Float is a bit redundant to Null: Earth, even with the Initial: Reraise. So Platina/Platinum Helm(et) it is, if only really for the Slow-immunity--feel free to go back to Diamond Helmet.

As for active abilities, she's mostly fine there. Earth Slash is kind of pointless even with the AoE and Range. She never used it anyway, so it goes, especially since she gains enough JP back to get Reraise after buying the "necessary" abilities of Consecration, Iron Will and Repeating Fist. Consecration, as much as it sucks for its expense, is largely necessary mostly due to the unfortunate amount of Cursed Ring users around and Blood Sword being unable to touch them. It's part of why Diamond Armor seems important so as not to get Berserked since you'd just end up healing those asses while killing yourself.

Even without the 3000 cap, the only thing I'd maybe change is giving her Spin Fist or Wave Fist. No real need for her to Earth Slash back and getting Transfusion is out when she already has competing healing modes by way of the "necessary" evil of having both Nurse and Chakra. Similarly, both Cross skills is right out because of how relatively weak the WP of Blood Sword is and how you have no PA boosts anymore, not that a mere +1 PA would have helped much.


Dark Lancer: I'll try to keep this shorter than the above, even though there's a lot more wrong with every unit after Dark Knight. Still, paradoxically, due to having more wrong with them, their flaws are more easily summed up. For this unit, the chief problem is this: you're trying to make an attack unit out of a unit that should just be a speedy Item-bot despite the fact that it only has 40 Brave and no equipment that boosts PA.

That's...problematic. As such, I'm ditching everything save for Platina Shield equipment-wise despite the Platinum set theme and even there I'm tempted to go with Zephyr Shield; I probably would if I wasn't letting the Samurai keep Heaven's Cloud. Instead of the Platinum armors, Dark Lancer is now gilded in Gold so she's immune to Frog, Sleep, Don't Move, Dead, Petrify and, though it doesn't matter, Silence since she's the main status-healer as Item-bot. She also now has a Dracula Mantle instead of an Elf Mantle because she's Dark like that so as to protect against the evils of Berserk. Finally, she gets a Javelin for +2 Speed because she's don't care much for actually attacking.

Aside from that, like Dark Knight, she doesn't need more than 40 Faith, even if it undermines Moogle, since she can heal herself if need be. She should also probably be Scorpio like the Samurai so as to not give Muramasa potential damage bonus since I can't remember if Murasame cares about compatibility; like Transfusion, I don't think it does. Meanwhile, under the 3000 JP Cap, her Jump ranges have to be scaled back some and she has go to with Ether over Hi-Ether, but that's fine; arguably she benefits a bit from being forced to have a Jump range that isn't longer than her Throw Item range anyway.

If there was no JP cap as is the case with this tournament, then obviously Jumps and Hi-Ether can stay. I'd also say that having Hi-Potion in addition to X-Potion would be beneficial given I think it heals everyone but the Summoner more than X-Potion. Finally, while her RSMs are mostly fine, unfortunately Ignore Height is still currently inferior to Teleport and Fly as it was in vanilla unless you're really paranoid about fall damage from random push-back. As such, replacing it with one of those would likely be for the best--I'd personally go with Teleport given Dark Knight is no longer using it. That said, since I'm giving Dark Samurai Teleport presently, Dark Lancer would have to settle for Fly.


Dark Summoner: The chief problem with this unit is even simpler: you made her mono-elementally focused, which negates pretty all of the power she has when faces the many, many units that absorb or nullify said element--in this case, it's Holy. She also weirdly has neutral compatibility with the rest of her team for some reason despite being the main reviver & thus being the main reason two units who eschew Faith have more than 40...and yet she's not Serpentarius. On top of that, she has too much Brave--she should have 40--despite having no reason to physically attack save a death wish, has HP Restore with extremely low HP, has Wizard Outfit over a superior Robe and has Holy with Magic Ring. Granted, the last thing wouldn't be a flaw if it wasn't for the fact that the A.I. unfortunately uses Holy to heal itself if it has Magic Ring on when it really shouldn't; not this is your fault or that you had much of a way of knowing this. (Despite the fact that Holy needs at least a slight nerf, I'd be fine with slightly buffing it in the form of making it no longer able to self-target.)

Anyway, those things are easily fixed fortunately. Her Zodiac becomes Cancer instead of Libra. Her Brave--well, Fury--goes to 40. Her reaction becomes Projectile Guard due to all of the Spellguns running around. Her Wizard Outfit becomes a Wizard Robe, which means she loses a mere 15 HP to gain 40 MP while retaining +2 MA still. Her Summons extend to include at least Ifrit and Odin while under the 3000 cap, even though it means she has to lose Holy, which is frankly better than losing Magic Ring in my opinion, at least presently. (Wizard Staff gets changed to Wizard Rod because it's functionally the exact same anyway, which why I'm still campaigning for Wizard Staff to die/change to something else completely, Priests & Time Mages who want to forego C Bags be damned.)

Sure, White Magic thus becomes a bit of a waste as he r Secondary, but Raise is still the most accurate magical revival, so that's something. Even without the JP cap, the only other things I think you could want would be Esuna and maybe Wall as far as White Magic goes. As for Summon Magic, though, buying basically all of the spells there would probably be for the best there, hence why part of why Summon Magic eclipsed Black Magic and Lore this tournament.


Dark Samurai: The chief problem with this unit isn't as bad as it is with the Lancer or the Summoner, but there are still problems: you're trying to split the difference between having a support unit and a unit that can attack well and only attack well, but attack on both sides. Thus you're not really achiveing much of anything due to lack of focus. There is literally no reason she should have Attack Up if she's not a male Samurai or lacks a physical secondary, especially given she (also) has no PA-boosting gear and is already dipping into Black Magic for Counter Magic, which has Magic Attack Up. Given Magic Attack Up would be much more helpful to both Draw Out and Time Magic....

She similarly neither needs nor wants 60 Brave when 40 will do, especially now with more damaging Draw Outs via Magic Attack Up. She should be sticking with debuffs for support Time Magic if she has Time Magic at all, especially since Slow 2 helps this particular team way more than Haste 2 does, particularly the Summoner. Slow 2 also usually makes much more impact on a single unit than Haste 2 does, especially on a team where one or more of your allies might be Jumping out of the way of Haste 2. Finally, she's also vulnerable to Silence in her initial set-up, though that's not horrible since she has Draw Out to fall back on.

Regardless, she loses Move-HP Up for Teleport mainly because it costs way too much JP under the 3000 JP cap for relatively little benefit on this type of unit. Admittedly, I don't think I'd give Move-HP Up back to her even without the cap despite Samurai having the same movement "issue" I brought up under Paladin with regards to Paladin. Samurai at least has the benefit of larger AoE that isn't driven by Brave/Fury on top of that. As a consequence of that Movement change, she has no more reason to use Grand Helm(et) or Maximillian, especially as weak as they are presently. So instead she gets Mythril Helmet to primarily to prevent Slow as well as Robe of Lords for a lot more MP--Slow 2 is expensive--and to prevent Silence.

Speaking of MP-drain, her initial set-up had her using the dubious Counter Magic with only about 96 MP, even though Counter Magic drains your MP to, well, counter magic. Between that, the fact that Counter Magic often backfires and the fact that Counter Magic is currently too expensive for how often it backfires, she loses it for Chrono Trigger. Granted, Chrono Trigger is also currently overpriced, but at least it has compatibility with being immune to Slow, being a Slow-causing unit and helps deal with the "lack" of Masamune (the ability).

Chirijiraden (the katana) and Chantage are fine, though she doesn't really have the JP to get Kikuichimoji alongside Chijiraden (the katana) unfortunately and Chantage could maybe be something else, like Setiemson. Shrug. She gets Sinkhole since she's mostly support and since the Demi spells are largely redundant to Draw Out, especially on a team where no one absorbs Dark element for all the DARK in their names; even if they did, Kotetsu would still be be preferred given its instant activation, wider AoE and the drop in the Paladin and Lancer's Faiths.

Without the 3000 JP, I'd only probably give her Kikuichimo(n)ji and Comet as additional abilities. She could maybe get Asura, Bizen Boat and Kiyomori, but that seems like that would be pushing it. No Masamune because, again, if there's only one Haste-adding support unit on a team, it usually wastes too much of its time to trying to Haste everyone, often because it's forced to do so over separately rather than all in one go; Haste 2 can forego this at times, but, like I said, it's difficult to use as it is, much less on a team where a unit has Jump.



Yadda yadda yadda. One hour later, here are my arrogant suggestions. Gaze upon them and weep, ye mighty:


Team: Jessica Albas Dark Angels
Palettes: Black/Blue

================================

Dark Knight
Female
Pisces
70
50 --> 40
Paladin
Punch Art
Counter
Martial Arts
Teleport --> Warpath
Blood Sword
Genji Shield --> Diamond Shield
Crystal Helmet --> Diamond Helmet --> Platina Helmet
Chameleon Robe --> Diamond Armor
Angel Ring --> Wizard Mantle

Nurse[, Consecration, Iron Will, Reraise]
(Earth Slash,) [Repeating Fist,] Secret Fist, Stigma Magic, Chakra, Revive

Total JP: 500 + 250 + 100 + 250 + 800 + 1050 = 2950
[Already well under 3000 cap by 500+ JP even with Teleport.]

================================

Dark Lancer
Female
Pisces --> Scorpio
40
55 --> 40
Lancer
Item
Dragon Spirit
Throw Item
Ignore Height
Dragon Whisker --> Javelin
Platina Shield
Platina Helmet --> Gold Helmet
Platina Armor --> Gold Armor
Elf Mantle --> Dracula Mantle

Level Jump6, Vertical Jump8 [Level Jump 4, Vertical Jump 4 under 3000 cap.]
X-Potion, Hi-Ether, Antidote, Chronos Tear, Echo Grass, Maiden's Kiss, Soft, Holy Water, Bandage, Phoenix Down [Ether instead of Hi-Ether under 3000 cap.]

Initial Total JP: 500 + 300 + 250 + 300 + 850 + 1300 = 3500


================================

Dark Summoner
Female
Libra --> Cancer
53 --> 40
70
Summoner
White Magic
HP Restore --> Projectile Guard
Short Charge
Move-MP Up
Wizard Staff --> Wizard Rod

Golden Hairpin
Wizard Outfit --> Wizard Robe
Magic Ring

Moogle, [Ifrit, Odin,] Cyclops
Raise(, Holy)

Initial Total JP: 500 + 750 + 400 + 750 + 350 + 500 = 3250

New Total JP: 500 + 550 + 400 + 750 + 650 + 100 = 2950

================================

DARKSAMURA --> Dark Yojimbo Samurai
Female
Scorpio
60 --> 40
70
Samurai
Time Magic
Counter Magic --> Chrono Trigger
Attack UP --> Magic Attack Up
Move-HP Up --> Teleport
Chirijiraden

Grand Helmet --> Mythril Helmet
Maximillian --> Robe of Lords
Chantage

Murasame, Heaven's Cloud, Muramasa
(Haste 2,) [Slow 2,] Don't Move, [Sinkhole] (Demi, Demi 2)

Initial JP Total: 500 + 550 + 650 + 500 + 600 + 900 =  3700

New JP Total: 500 + 300 + 650 + 300 + 600 + 650 = 3000

===============================



(TristanBeoulve)
Team: Season 3
Palettes: Blue/White

================================

Tristan
Male
Pisces
70
70
Paladin
Punch Art
PA Save
Two Swords
Move-HP Up
Platinum Sword
Moonlight
Grand Helmet
Maximillian
Diamond Armlet

Nurse, Iron Will, Reraise
Spin Fist, Earth Slash, Secret Fist, Stigma Magic,  [Chakra,] Revive

================================

Ziggy
Male
Sagittarius
60
70
Ninja
Draw Out
Counter
Attack UP
Fly
Hidden Knife
Ninja Knife
Thief Hat
Secret Clothes
Germinas Boots

Tsuzumasuku, Kagesougi
Masamune

================================

UlfricStormcloak
Male
Scorpio
70
70
Bard
Item
MA Save
Throw Item
Float
Bloody Strings

Black Hood
Rubber Costume
Reflect Ring

Cheer Song, Battle Song, Nameless Song
Ether, Hi-Ether

================================

Alice
Female
Sagittarius
60
70
Chemist
White Magic
Damage Split
Half of MP
Move-MP Up
Blaze Gun

Golden Hairpin
Earth Clothes
Cherche

Hi-Potion, X-Potion, Antidote, Chrono's Tear, Echo Grass, Maiden's Kiss, Soft, Holy Water, Bandage, Phoenix Down
Cure, Cure 2, Cure 3, Cure 4, Raise, Raise 2, Regen, Protect, Protect 2, Shell, Shell 2, Wall, Esuna, Dia, Holy

================================

vs.

(TrueLight)
Team: Season 3
Palettes: Red/White

================================

Akashi
Male
Aries
70
50
Ninja
Item
Auto Potion
Defense UP
Move-HP Up
Repel Knife
Platina Dagger
Flash Hat
Black Costume
Angel Ring

Hi-Potion, X-Potion, Hi-Ether, Antidote, Chrono's Tear, Echo Grass, Maiden's Kiss, Soft, Holy Water, Bandage, Phoenix Down

================================

Crimson
Male
Leo
70
50
Mediator
Punch Art
HP Restore
Attack UP
Warpath
Stone Gun

Thief Hat
White Robe
Cherche

Refute, Mimic Daravon
Stigma Magic, Revive

================================

Alizarin
Male
Leo
40
50
Bard
Draw Out
Counter Flood
Magic Attack UP
Teleport
Orichalcum

Golden Hairpin
Brigandine
Red Shoes

Asura, Koutetsu, Bizen Boat, Murasame, Masamune, Chirijiraden

================================

Scarlet
Female
Aquarius
40
70
Priest
Time Magic
Damage Split
Short Charge
Move-MP Up
P Bag

Black Hood
Robe of Lords
Setiemson

Raise 2, Esuna
Haste 2, Slow 2, Comet, Sinkhole, Balance

================================


Ah, crap. This means I missed Chakra on TristanBeoulve's team when I was tallying things. I've fixed that now then.

Otherwise, there's really not much to say about this match. Barren basically summed up the chief problem with TristanBeoulve's team in introductions: his Ninja tends to run ahead and get himself killed. This even though said Ninja oddly doesn't really have the attack power to really back it up even with, well, Attack UP. Really, he should at least have max Brave if being so suicidal and probably have Power Sleeve, if not also Twist Headband. If you really wanted Thief Hat, then it probably have been best to use a Short Charge Lore unit with Maelstrom or Earth Dragon and given him Dragon Spirit as well over Counter. After all, there is probably no point in having Counter since he's likely to die to get 2HKO'd at best to against most things, but I can see why it's there I suppose.

That said, I'd argue that TristanBeoulve's Chemist was almost as big a liability. White Magic Chemist just don't work between being mostly redundant and usually making the Chemist more vulnerable to spells than they "need" to be. Speaking of which, she similarly didn't need anything higher than 40 Brave, just like how no one on this team really ended up benefiting from 70 Faith, but meh. The Bard's set-up isn't exactly useful either, but at least isn't an active detriment like the two above units outside of when he's facing Undead...which there are a lot of due to Cursed Ring being everywhere. Oops.

Speaking of Cursed Ring (again), sadly, this is the first match in a while to not have the damn thing in it after like...ten in a row and that's ignoring the fact that this match should have been up a while ago sequentially. Ugh. Oh well. The brief break from Curses was nice even if the match-up was one-sided, especially since Stone Gun hurts even if it's largely overshadowed by Spellguns.

Not really much to say about the actual match except that I'm still surprised whenever Sinkhole misses and I legitimately laughed at Barren's "and now this is where he becomes an idiot" comment about Tristan's Ninja and his suicidally rushing/flying off in the second match. The latter was helped by the dorkiest song in Super Mario 64 coming on right at that moment.

As much as I've been seemingly chewing out TristanBeoulve's team, it's a shame to see him having been eliminated so early between it being nice to see someone (finally) use the set-up he has on Tristan and his being one of the few teams without Cursed Ring. Oh well.



(Reks)
Team: Season 3
Palettes: Black/White

================================

Luke
Male
Taurus
70
40
Squire
Steal
Abandon
Defense UP
Move-HP Up
Hunting Bow
Escutcheon II
Green Beret
Santa Outfit
Feather Mantle

Throw Stone, Heal, Wish
Bad Luck, Quickening, Steal Heart, Steal Accessry

================================

Cynthia
Female
Capricorn
40
70
Samurai
Lore
MP Restore
Magic Attack UP
Pilgrimage
Chirijiraden

Cross Helmet
Linen Robe
Magic Ring

Bizen Boat, Murasame, Masamune, Chirijiraden
Tornado, Quake

================================

Azra
Female
Virgo
70
40
Dancer
Jump
PA Save
Equip Polearm
Warpath
Dragon Whisker

Twist Headband
Black Costume
Cursed Ring

Level Jump6, Vertical Jump8

================================

Reksalya
Female
Virgo
40
70
Priest
Time Magic
Counter Flood
Short Charge
Move-MP Up
Wizard Staff

Thief Hat
White Robe
Setiemson

Cure 4, Raise, Regen, Protect 2, Shell 2, Esuna
Haste 2, Slow 2, Don't Move, Comet, Sinkhole

================================

vs.

(Vigilanti)
Team: Harem
Palettes: White/Red

================================

Aki
Male
Capricorn
70
55
Paladin
Jump
Dragon Spirit
Maintenance
Move-HP Up
Defender

Barbuta
Carabini Mail
Leather Mantle

Nurse, Transfusion, Iron Will
Level Jump6, Vertical Jump8

================================

Aoi
Female
Taurus
40
55
Geomancer
Draw Out
Counter Flood
Magic Attack UP
Move+1
Rune Blade
Escutcheon II
Holy Miter
Earth Clothes
Magic Gauntlet

Local Quake
Bizen Boat, Murasame, Kikuichimonji, Masamune, Chirijiraden

================================

Asuna
Female
Taurus
40
55
Chemist
Talk Skill
Auto Potion
Defense UP
Teleport
Main Gauche

Thief Hat
Wizard Outfit
Defense Ring

Hi-Potion, X-Potion, Hi-Ether, Antidote, Chrono's Tear, Echo Grass, Maiden's Kiss, Soft, Holy Water, Bandage, Phoenix Down
Blackmail, Death Sentence, Refute, Insult, Mimic Daravon

================================

Ayase
Female
Virgo
40
70
Squire
White Magic
Damage Split
Short Charge
Move-MP Up
Wizard Rod
Aegis Shield
Golden Hairpin
Wizard Robe
Genji Gauntlet

Ultima
Cure 3, Raise 2, Protect 2, Shell 2, Esuna, Holy

================================


Unlike Reks, I'm not really that surprised he won given he and Celdia constantly underestimate themselves and his Samurai and his Dancer hurt a lot. The fact that said Samurai basically effortlessly murders Vigilanti's chief damage dealer, Ayase the Squire, is largely why Reks took this. Granted, Reks got overall luckier with status between all the Don't Move flying around in the first round and that Charm on Ayase in the second round, but I don't think it would have changed much otherwise. Asuna getting nuked by her own unit in the second round certainly helped on that front, as did being the first and so far only person to in tournament to actually get a Dead proc off of Bad Luck; at least, I think he is....

I say this given that the A.I. has the frustrating tendency to group together even when it shouldn't given it's aggravatingly blind to any AoE the enemy may have unless it's actively charging. This even if such abilities have used immediately before. [/eternal complaint]

I suppose Reks did also get somewhat lucky with his Undead Pole(arm) Dancer coming back not in Critical in the first round as well given she has no way to heal herself. Even without her helping, however, he would likely have won the first round still. She was acting kind of weird anyway, at least in the second round.

I mean, why the hell didn't the she just Jump on Vigilanti's Knight Paladin from the get-go given he was Don't Moved instead of going for two 12% pokes that of course missed? Sigh. The A.I. Why? It was made even "funnier" since the Squire got in a single 12% shot right after those two misses before she finally just jumped on the Paladin anyway for a rather absurd 352 damage, especially since I think it was through Protect.

That said, again, Reks winning is slightly marred by him eliminating one of the more interesting teams from the tournament. Farewell, Ultima and Defender. You will be missed.



Ugh. I keep wanting to put space in TrueLight's name and call Fury "Brave".
"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"

CT5Holy

Winner of the 1st FFT 1.3 AI Tourney

Leif1991

August 28, 2014, 04:10:03 pm #165 Last Edit: August 28, 2014, 04:44:47 pm by Leif1991
Awesome, we need about six more Doomtrain matches to be caught up with the winner's bracket.
Season 3 A.I. Tournament Champion

Barren

I'll begin doing rounds 2 and 3 of the loser's bracket matches tomorrow. Meanwhile enjoy the winners bracket
  • Modding version: Other/Unknown
You dare cross blades with me?

DARKANGELUXZ




Unlike the above, I wasn't really surprised that this match took a while even with the severe flaws of DARKANGELUXZ's team. Even with an all-female team with some...questionable equipment and other decisions, all of them save for the Summoner have pretty high health and all of them including the Summoner can heal themselves and others. So, yeah, when combined with the fact that DomieV's team lacks any damaging AoE save for Southern Cross, which of course did a good deal of work in the first round, it's not surprising this took a while. Counter Magic proving actually useful for once by "reflecting" Slow 2 also dragged things out.

That said, outside of the fact that A.I. is still doing those weird Balances for 0 damage--why?!--in instances where it isn't breaking Charm, I like what I saw from DomieV's team. It was nice to see the high Faith on a non-Spellgun Archer pay off for once--at least twice, actually--since the proc'd Holy of Silver Bow usually does paltry damage much like with Ice Brand and its Ice 2. Here it did 141 damage, which was almost as damaging as the arrow itself.

The first round was also the far more entertaining round given the Summoner got both her Golden Hairpin and Wizard Outfit broken, leaving her at a pitiful 96 HP when she was already getting OHKO'd by Southern Cross just after her Hairpin broke. That 16 damage Jump after the Lancer's spear got broken was also darkly amusing. Geez. I can't remember ever seeing such a steep damage drop after a weapon got destroyed; even with her contrary set-up, she still did a respectable 121 damage with the Spear, so the fact that it dropped by 105 is rather...severe. DomieV had the round one in such command that I don't think the Time Mage even got damaged at all during it. Of course, damaging her just led to her slinging around Balances in round two from what I remember, so it was kind of a lose-lose situation there for DARK.

DARK's team did slightly better in the second round in general, but his team has, among other problems, the same issue as mine did in that it can't really do any damage. It shouldn't given he at least has attack magic and AoE, but given how many people absorb Holy just due to Magic Ring, how the Summoner only has Holy element magic and his easily his Samurai gets stuck in loops...yeah. Granted, those Holys hurt when did hit, OHKOing the Silver Bow Archer, but between their cost and the A.I.'s tendency to Holy itself to health when it really shouldn't, I'm not sure how worth it they were when she also had Short Charge Cyclops.

Oh well. I've thought about how to improve DARK's team since no one has really talked about that, but I'll go over that in a separate post below this.


So, ignoring the obvious presumptuousness of this between both suggesting any advice at all and taking your team names out of Caps Lock, I'll just say that I'm doing this partly out of the usual boredom but mostly out a sincere attempt to be "helpful"; also, I'm not using CAPS Lock since, among other things, it geniunely gives me a bit of a literal headache if there's a bunch of it. Regardless. it doesn't exactly help anyone to be told that they're wrong without being told how to improve or at least being told in actual detail what they're doing wrong.

As such, I'll just go through this unit by unit. I'll try to improve units while keeping them as they are, at least as far as Primary and Secondary skill sets go. For the sake of this exercise, I'll assume that we're under the usual 3000 cap, though at the same time I'll note what other abilities could be used if there was another tournament like this. Similarly, I'll be keeping all active abilities, RSMs and equipment used to one-ofs instead of the usual two-of.

Removed abilities are in parentheses, while ones suggested to be added are either pointed to by arrows if non-active or put in brackets if active:

Dark Knight: She's obviously meant to be the physical attacking unit of the team between Punch Art, Blood Sword, Martial Arts and Counter. This means that, unfortunately, she'd likely be better off as a male since female Paladins & other physical units are only really better than at Steal Heart and having access to Dance. The MP and MA boosts they get are so negligible that they're not really better at magic, as seen with the older versions of DomieV's previously all-male Famous Knights team. Still, I'll leave her and the others as female since that's obviously what you wanted.

Now, despite her initial issues, she's easily the least flawed unit on the initial team and she has a bunch of JP to work still even if we're going with the 3000 cap. First of all, she doesn't really need anything higher than 40 Faith, partly due to the revival that I'm going to use for Dark Summoner being Raise, which can get past 40 Faith easily with good compatibility and high MA. I'm fairly certain that even with 40 Faith, the Summoner can still resurrect her with Raise 100% of the time (provided her equipment doesn't get destroyed again).

So, with that done, we move on to her RSMs and equipment. Her RSMs are mostly fine and I can understand why Teleport is there, but I think she'd be better off with Warpath given she's trying to get as much mileage out of Blood Sword as possible. While Teleport lets her get behind or to the side of people more easily, it also still doesn't guarantee she'll hit them even from behind and Paladins can't get (easily) get enough movement to make Teleport all that useful. Since we're foregoing Tactician's Blade, Equip Light Blade for Knives and any form of shoes as equipment, Teleport gets the boot. (Har har.)

Getting to equipment, Blood Sword obviously stays, but everything else changes. Given Barren mentioned it at least twice, there really is no reason to have three pieces of equipment that happen to block Dead. I don't think you were actually trying to do that intentionally, but that's what happened and it just ended up wasting space. Chameleon Robe especially isn't something you want on her given even if you let the Summoner keep Holy, you really don't want her to waste time, turns and MP trying to heal with Holy instead of the much quicker, AoE-hitting Moogle. Given Chamleon Robe serves no real purpose for her otherwise...

Similarly, I'm guessing that Genji Shield was there both for the +1 PA and for the minimal M-EV to not get in the way of potential Holys. Since that's no longer the case and it's best to try to take advantage of Nurse's Defending status, I figure it would likely be "best" to go kill two birds with one stone and just use Diamond Shield since that Nulls Holy (and Earth) and has higher evasion all around. It's not like a single point of anything really amounts to much unless its Speed or maybe Move, so the loss of +1 PA is insignificant, especially in the face of Warpath.

Angel Ring and Crystal Helmet are fine, but Paladins both have easy access to Blind-immunity via Diamond Armor and anti-Death Sentence measures via Reraise (the skill). As such, they're both superfluous when you can use Wizard Mantle for Don't Act-immunity instead, especially when it benefits from Nurse and when you already get Berserk-immunity from Diamond Armor--otherwise I'd be suggesting Dracula Mantle. I was initially tempted to say that her helmet "should" be Diamond Helmet just to complete the Diamond "set", but then I ended up letting your Samurai keep Heaven's Cloud (the ability) and realized Initial: Float is a bit redundant to Null: Earth, even with the Initial: Reraise. So Platina/Platinum Helm(et) it is, if only really for the Slow-immunity--feel free to go back to Diamond Helmet.

As for active abilities, she's mostly fine there. Earth Slash is kind of pointless even with the AoE and Range. She never used it anyway, so it goes, especially since she gains enough JP back to get Reraise after buying the "necessary" abilities of Consecration, Iron Will and Repeating Fist. Consecration, as much as it sucks for its expense, is largely necessary mostly due to the unfortunate amount of Cursed Ring users around and Blood Sword being unable to touch them. It's part of why Diamond Armor seems important so as not to get Berserked since you'd just end up healing those asses while killing yourself.

Even without the 3000 cap, the only thing I'd maybe change is giving her Spin Fist or Wave Fist. No real need for her to Earth Slash back and getting Transfusion is out when she already has competing healing modes by way of the "necessary" evil of having both Nurse and Chakra. Similarly, both Cross skills is right out because of how relatively weak the WP of Blood Sword is and how you have no PA boosts anymore, not that a mere +1 PA would have helped much.


Dark Lancer: I'll try to keep this shorter than the above, even though there's a lot more wrong with every unit after Dark Knight. Still, paradoxically, due to having more wrong with them, their flaws are more easily summed up. For this unit, the chief problem is this: you're trying to make an attack unit out of a unit that should just be a speedy Item-bot despite the fact that it only has 40 Brave and no equipment that boosts PA.

That's...problematic. As such, I'm ditching everything save for Platina Shield equipment-wise despite the Platinum set theme and even there I'm tempted to go with Zephyr Shield; I probably would if I wasn't letting the Samurai keep Heaven's Cloud. Instead of the Platinum armors, Dark Lancer is now gilded in Gold so she's immune to Frog, Sleep, Don't Move, Dead, Petrify and, though it doesn't matter, Silence since she's the main status-healer as Item-bot. She also now has a Dracula Mantle instead of an Elf Mantle because she's Dark like that so as to protect against the evils of Berserk. Finally, she gets a Javelin for +2 Speed because she's don't care much for actually attacking.

Aside from that, like Dark Knight, she doesn't need more than 40 Faith, even if it undermines Moogle, since she can heal herself if need be. She should also probably be Scorpio like the Samurai so as to not give Muramasa potential damage bonus since I can't remember if Murasame cares about compatibility; like Transfusion, I don't think it does. Meanwhile, under the 3000 JP Cap, her Jump ranges have to be scaled back some and she has go to with Ether over Hi-Ether, but that's fine; arguably she benefits a bit from being forced to have a Jump range that isn't longer than her Throw Item range anyway.

If there was no JP cap as is the case with this tournament, then obviously Jumps and Hi-Ether can stay. I'd also say that having Hi-Potion in addition to X-Potion would be beneficial given I think it heals everyone but the Summoner more than X-Potion. Finally, while her RSMs are mostly fine, unfortunately Ignore Height is still currently inferior to Teleport and Fly as it was in vanilla unless you're really paranoid about fall damage from random push-back. As such, replacing it with one of those would likely be for the best--I'd personally go with Teleport given Dark Knight is no longer using it. That said, since I'm giving Dark Samurai Teleport presently, Dark Lancer would have to settle for Fly.


Dark Summoner: The chief problem with this unit is even simpler: you made her mono-elementally focused, which negates pretty all of the power she has when faces the many, many units that absorb or nullify said element--in this case, it's Holy. She also weirdly has neutral compatibility with the rest of her team for some reason despite being the main reviver & thus being the main reason two units who eschew Faith have more than 40...and yet she's not Serpentarius. On top of that, she has too much Brave--she should have 40--despite having no reason to physically attack save a death wish, has HP Restore with extremely low HP, has Wizard Outfit over a superior Robe and has Holy with Magic Ring. Granted, the last thing wouldn't be a flaw if it wasn't for the fact that the A.I. unfortunately uses Holy to heal itself if it has Magic Ring on when it really shouldn't; not this is your fault or that you had much of a way of knowing this. (Despite the fact that Holy needs at least a slight nerf, I'd be fine with slightly buffing it in the form of making it no longer able to self-target.)

Anyway, those things are easily fixed fortunately. Her Zodiac becomes Cancer instead of Libra. Her Brave--well, Fury--goes to 40. Her reaction becomes Projectile Guard due to all of the Spellguns running around. Her Wizard Outfit becomes a Wizard Robe, which means she loses a mere 15 HP to gain 40 MP while retaining +2 MA still. Her Summons extend to include at least Ifrit and Odin while under the 3000 cap, even though it means she has to lose Holy, which is frankly better than losing Magic Ring in my opinion, at least presently. (Wizard Staff gets changed to Wizard Rod because it's functionally the exact same anyway, which why I'm still campaigning for Wizard Staff to die/change to something else completely, Priests & Time Mages who want to forego C Bags be damned.)

Sure, White Magic thus becomes a bit of a waste as he r Secondary, but Raise is still the most accurate magical revival, so that's something. Even without the JP cap, the only other things I think you could want would be Esuna and maybe Wall as far as White Magic goes. As for Summon Magic, though, buying basically all of the spells there would probably be for the best there, hence why part of why Summon Magic eclipsed Black Magic and Lore this tournament.


Dark Samurai: The chief problem with this unit isn't as bad as it is with the Lancer or the Summoner, but there are still problems: you're trying to split the difference between having a support unit and a unit that can attack well and only attack well, but attack on both sides. Thus you're not really achiveing much of anything due to lack of focus. There is literally no reason she should have Attack Up if she's not a male Samurai or lacks a physical secondary, especially given she (also) has no PA-boosting gear and is already dipping into Black Magic for Counter Magic, which has Magic Attack Up. Given Magic Attack Up would be much more helpful to both Draw Out and Time Magic....

She similarly neither needs nor wants 60 Brave when 40 will do, especially now with more damaging Draw Outs via Magic Attack Up. She should be sticking with debuffs for support Time Magic if she has Time Magic at all, especially since Slow 2 helps this particular team way more than Haste 2 does, particularly the Summoner. Slow 2 also usually makes much more impact on a single unit than Haste 2 does, especially on a team where one or more of your allies might be Jumping out of the way of Haste 2. Finally, she's also vulnerable to Silence in her initial set-up, though that's not horrible since she has Draw Out to fall back on.

Regardless, she loses Move-HP Up for Teleport mainly because it costs way too much JP under the 3000 JP cap for relatively little benefit on this type of unit. Admittedly, I don't think I'd give Move-HP Up back to her even without the cap despite Samurai having the same movement "issue" I brought up under Paladin with regards to Paladin. Samurai at least has the benefit of larger AoE that isn't driven by Brave/Fury on top of that. As a consequence of that Movement change, she has no more reason to use Grand Helm(et) or Maximillian, especially as weak as they are presently. So instead she gets Mythril Helmet to primarily to prevent Slow as well as Robe of Lords for a lot more MP--Slow 2 is expensive--and to prevent Silence.

Speaking of MP-drain, her initial set-up had her using the dubious Counter Magic with only about 96 MP, even though Counter Magic drains your MP to, well, counter magic. Between that, the fact that Counter Magic often backfires and the fact that Counter Magic is currently too expensive for how often it backfires, she loses it for Chrono Trigger. Granted, Chrono Trigger is also currently overpriced, but at least it has compatibility with being immune to Slow, being a Slow-causing unit and helps deal with the "lack" of Masamune (the ability).

Chirijiraden (the katana) and Chantage are fine, though she doesn't really have the JP to get Kikuichimoji alongside Chijiraden (the katana) unfortunately and Chantage could maybe be something else, like Setiemson. Shrug. She gets Sinkhole since she's mostly support and since the Demi spells are largely redundant to Draw Out, especially on a team where no one absorbs Dark element for all the DARK in their names; even if they did, Kotetsu would still be be preferred given its instant activation, wider AoE and the drop in the Paladin and Lancer's Faiths.

Without the 3000 JP, I'd only probably give her Kikuichimo(n)ji and Comet as additional abilities. She could maybe get Asura, Bizen Boat and Kiyomori, but that seems like that would be pushing it. No Masamune because, again, if there's only one Haste-adding support unit on a team, it usually wastes too much of its time to trying to Haste everyone, often because it's forced to do so over separately rather than all in one go; Haste 2 can forego this at times, but, like I said, it's difficult to use as it is, much less on a team where a unit has Jump.



Yadda yadda yadda. One hour later, here are my arrogant suggestions. Gaze upon them and weep, ye mighty:


Team: Jessica Albas Dark Angels
Palettes: Black/Blue

================================

Dark Knight
Female
Pisces
70
50 --> 40
Paladin
Punch Art
Counter
Martial Arts
Teleport --> Warpath
Blood Sword
Genji Shield --> Diamond Shield
Crystal Helmet --> Diamond Helmet --> Platina Helmet
Chameleon Robe --> Diamond Armor
Angel Ring --> Wizard Mantle

Nurse[, Consecration, Iron Will, Reraise]
(Earth Slash,) [Repeating Fist,] Secret Fist, Stigma Magic, Chakra, Revive

Total JP: 500 + 250 + 100 + 250 + 800 + 1050 = 2950
[Already well under 3000 cap by 500+ JP even with Teleport.]

================================

Dark Lancer
Female
Pisces --> Scorpio
40
55 --> 40
Lancer
Item
Dragon Spirit
Throw Item
Ignore Height
Dragon Whisker --> Javelin
Platina Shield
Platina Helmet --> Gold Helmet
Platina Armor --> Gold Armor
Elf Mantle --> Dracula Mantle

Level Jump6, Vertical Jump8 [Level Jump 4, Vertical Jump 4 under 3000 cap.]
X-Potion, Hi-Ether, Antidote, Chronos Tear, Echo Grass, Maiden's Kiss, Soft, Holy Water, Bandage, Phoenix Down [Ether instead of Hi-Ether under 3000 cap.]

Initial Total JP: 500 + 300 + 250 + 300 + 850 + 1300 = 3500


================================

Dark Summoner
Female
Libra --> Cancer
53 --> 40
70
Summoner
White Magic
HP Restore --> Projectile Guard
Short Charge
Move-MP Up
Wizard Staff --> Wizard Rod

Golden Hairpin
Wizard Outfit --> Wizard Robe
Magic Ring

Moogle, [Ifrit, Odin,] Cyclops
Raise(, Holy)

Initial Total JP: 500 + 750 + 400 + 750 + 350 + 500 = 3250

New Total JP: 500 + 550 + 400 + 750 + 650 + 100 = 2950

================================

DARKSAMURA --> Dark Yojimbo Samurai
Female
Scorpio
60 --> 40
70
Samurai
Time Magic
Counter Magic --> Chrono Trigger
Attack UP --> Magic Attack Up
Move-HP Up --> Teleport
Chirijiraden

Grand Helmet --> Mythril Helmet
Maximillian --> Robe of Lords
Chantage

Murasame, Heaven's Cloud, Muramasa
(Haste 2,) [Slow 2,] Don't Move, [Sinkhole] (Demi, Demi 2)

Initial JP Total: 500 + 550 + 650 + 500 + 600 + 900 =  3700

New JP Total: 500 + 300 + 650 + 300 + 600 + 650 = 3000

===============================


Leaving aside the ingredient sarcasm,
I am grateful for the opportunity and I'm learning a lot from you, greetings
luck to all

silentkaster

As a side note, if you disappear again, The Damned, I will be very sad. I appreciate and enjoy reading your thoughtful commentary.
You've stepped in puddles less shallow than me.

Reks

Quote from: silentkaster on August 29, 2014, 03:27:24 pm
As a side note, if you disappear again, The Damned, I will be very sad. I appreciate and enjoy reading your thoughtful commentary.

Funny, as he pointed me out in particular when he mentioned them before.

Actually, I get a bit... Fanatical, after a few matches have been posted. I'll refresh over and over waiting for them.




You might think I am kidding you. I am not.
  • Modding version: Other/Unknown
  • Discord username: Reks#0128

Xander

Would someone be so kind to point me to an explanation of all this awesome?  From what I see...  You build a team with one of's, and the let the AI "flawless" battle to see who has better planning?


Otabo

After the atrocity that Mallory pulled in the match with CT5Holy, she decided to get her act together for this match. Good girl. Seriously though, Don't Moves everywhere. But yeah, I figured that this would be the result. Reks's team simply has too many weaknesses for my team to exploit; specifically berserk. Although the samurai and dancer could do some pretty significant damage, once Insult and/or Death Sentence landed on that samurai and the dancer neutralized, in the long run, it wouldn't have mattered what the priest or squire did. Also, lulz at the 27 damage Tornado on Mackenzie and the 98% missed Steal Accessory. Pretty one-sided match overall. GG Reks.

Now if they can get past a certain Attack Up ninja and a certain Two Handed Thief, I think we might just make it off the doomtrain. *prays to RNG goddess* Please, oh PLEASE don't let Mallory be stupid next round...

Fenire

This is my stop. GG reinoe and GL


Celdia


Round 2 was a fun bit of RNG but my luck totally ran out with those misses in Round 3. Was very happy to see a Kiyomori proc in there at least once.

I came, I saw, I caused havoc. It was a good run.

GG, Shadowstrike. Good luck getting off the DOOM TRAIN!  Why don't we have an emote for that? We totally should.
  • Modding version: PSX
  • Discord username: Celdia#0

Barren

September 01, 2014, 07:06:56 am #176 Last Edit: September 01, 2014, 02:04:54 pm by Barren
Just to let everyone know that I just spoke to Zotis and he told me that he can no longer assume the responsibility to upload anymore of the loser bracket matches. I will get started on the rest of round 2 loser's bracket tomorrow because I got one more long day of work today. If anyone want to help out and take over for zotis let me know please. Thanks everyone for your patience and sorry for any further delays

And if anyone wants you can commentate some of the loser's bracket with me (if you have a skype account). Figured it would be cool :D
  • Modding version: Other/Unknown
You dare cross blades with me?

Reks

Quote from: Barren on September 01, 2014, 07:06:56 am
Just to let everyone know that I just spoke to Zotis and he told me that he can no longer assume the responsibility to upload anymore of the loser bracket matches. I will get started on the rest of round 2 loser's bracket tomorrow because I got one more long day of work today. If anyone want to help out amd take over for zotis let me know please. Thanks everyone for your patience and sorry for any further delays

And if anyone wants you can commentate some of the loser's bracket with me (if you have a skype account). Figured it would be cool :D


I'd love to co-commentate (I have to limit my internet usage too much to reliably upload things like videos)

The mere thought of it made me nervous, but hey.

*EDIT: Forgot to mention, but because of my still-no-job status, I'm available at all hours to do so.
  • Modding version: Other/Unknown
  • Discord username: Reks#0128

TristanBeoulve

Barren, I wouldn't mind skyping. Although, since school starts tomorrow for me, what time do you have in mind for the match?
"There is blood on my hands, how long till it lies on my heart?"

Barren

Anytime after 6pm. pm me your skype account and ill friend request you
  • Modding version: Other/Unknown
You dare cross blades with me?