Arena battle videos and discussion

[formerdeathcorps]

SCC Monk team is a terrible choice.  I made it once, and it lost really badly.
Reasons:
1) Cannot use weapons or robes innately (so the only way to boost elements is 108 Gems)
2) 9 SP means being midcharged by ALL 8 SP mage classes because Monk needs 12 SP + haste to midcharge such mages; that is not possible without either quickening or EQ Clothes
3) Too hard to invest in magical damage so the team is very easy to wall

[Fenire]

spoiler: me vs vigilante

well I was hoping that all blood weapons would be more effective.

[TrueLight]

FFT Arena 1.38D - Zotis (Medusa) vs. Silentkaster (Thieves Guild)

[Elmdork]

spoiler: zotis vs. silentkaster

THE IRONYYYYYYY!!!!! That is a  great scc team, the damage seems a little low, but they got the job done.

[silentkaster]

spoiler

Haha yeah the damage is a little low...I guess I was expecting slightly more but I didnt calculate I suppose. Also, comet kinda wrecked me due to 100% accuracy! I probably would have been at a severe disadvantage if my white mage thief didnt avoid petrify three times in round one.

My sister has posted a team!!! If ever you have us in a match up, for the first one, please use signs of aging as my first team, then after first match idc whatever team  you want to use. I also request FF8 "Force Your Way" as the background song

[Elmdork]

spoiler

Commet didn't wreck shit. notice the paladin getting all her stuff broken and dying WHILE GUARDING?! I was more surprised by that than anything.

Nice to see yet another new face! I take it's rare to see so many new additions to the forum. SO, for any of you living in canada or the northern states, you may have noticed the ice storm completely ruining the infrastructure and leaving a lot of people without power/internet. My internet just came back today after about 2 1/2 weeks, and just before the storm i bought/assembled a $800 gaming computer which has been collecting dust up until just now.

my point is i have been secretly plotting to get all the software i need to host exhibitions here, and i'll try to get that ball rolling when i get back from work. no more sitting at timmy's with a bloody tablet just to watch a couple fft arena matches!! woo!

[Malroth]

I'm assuming Redworld is your sister Silentcaster, I ran a match against her and should have it rendered and uploaded in an hour or two


Edit:
Silentcaster "signs of aging" vs Redworld "anything you like"

[Zotis]

spoiler

GG silentcaster, I like your team.  Everything flows very well.  My team felt awkward.  It's just so jagged around the edges... hmm... what to do, what to do...

[silentkaster]

Malroth thanks for running the match! Music was perfect, and even some bonus treats in there from FF8! Thanks again.

spoiler

Yeah, when my sister introduced me to this site, she had me play off against her tournament team. Knowing nothing, I built a tanky team with no stat immunities and eventually her charming, don't acting death sentencing units killed me. But Signs of Aging's original was item bot lancer, a talk skill priest, two handed oracle (which the rod I gave her initially couldnt even be held with two hands <.<) and a thief. A few of those concepts changed, obviously. GG sis...next time I see you, maybe we can make a double dare team!!

[Barren]

Welcome back to Arena RedWorld. Though unfortunately things didn't go well for you. If you ever need help tweaking your team let one of us know and we'll help you out

[Barren]

FFT Arena 1.38d Rivalry Series - reinoe vs Rouroni Elmdor

I did also take note Rouroni Elmdor with your no foolin' team but I did the match before you made the update so I hope you don't mind

[reinoe]

FFT Arena 1.38d Rivalry Series - reinoe vs Rouroni Elmdor

Thanks a lot Barren.

spoiler

The whole summon magic+pump up magic attack just doesn't work for me.  This is the second time I've tried to pull it off and it's just not been successful.  There's one more edit to the team I could consider but the question is whether or not it's worth doing.

Oh, and despite move-1 that idiot priest still somehow charged ahead of the team and got his dumbself killed.  Time to give him a Healing Staff.  Which should work out fine enough  I suppose.  Angel Song will hit twice like instead of once.

And Abandon doesn't really seem to help at all.  So I can ditch Escutcheon 2 for Kaiser Plate.

[Malroth]

Abandon diddn't help much because you had reflect rings,  replace them with a mantle (and maybe cyclops for blind) and you'll see a whole lot more misses from your enemies.

[RedWorld]

@Malroth: Yes, silentkaster is my brother. xD

spoiler

And yeah, I would assume my team would lose this time around. It was kinda rushed and my mind was kinda clouded with Pokemon and the like, thus the name Whatever You Like, but anyway! Yeah, I was trying to make the Chemist heal the Wizard by using the Blaze Gun and the Wizard to heal herself, but it looks like that didn't seem to work too well! As for the others, I was making the Samurai a bit of a powerhouse and the Knight to go her own way. Looks like I'll have to recreate the whole team by scratch or make a few major changes once my Pokemon phase is done and over with! Thanks for the advice Mal!

@Barren: Yeah, I kinda assumed things wouldn't be in my favor. xD But thanks! I would love to have some help! And I wouldn't mind talking to you over Skype again!

[Barren]

Let me reinstall skype first

[Elmdork]

Awesome! Thanks barren, i enjoy your commentary as always! I don't mind if the video is a little old, they behave the same. Though, i haven't seen rock with reflect mail in a long time. if you have a database for them, could you look over order and highwaymen? i won't be changing them anytime soon, though i'm not so sure about them ladies.

spoiler

I am actually happy with no foolin'. I needed to see them against a speedier team, and i got it! Some days they'll just rain hell like nobody's business, some days a ninja smacks you in the face. i have never seen steel basilisk lose, and they just didn't want to die. but DAT DAMAGE holy crap reinoe's team deals a thousand a round, no sweat.

GG Reinoe! ain't no shame in being beaten by a master!

[formerdeathcorps]

spoiler: @Malroth/Reinoe

In general, a mage shouldn't worry about evasion because while charging, her evasion is 0.  Thus, dropping reflect for MEV is almost always the wrong choice.  The only time I'd argue otherwise is if you're using the mage explicitly to bait the AI (like what Mando did in S5), but in that case, optimizing MEV would come secondary to optimizing PEV and any spell with CT > 5 (Raise 2, Holy, Flare, most summons) should not be used.
As for priests "charging forward", that is typically a problem on pure support priests and time mages because the AI has no better offensive action to perform, though normal mages may also do that if they cannot kill anyone AND they cannot cast a spell without getting midcharged (but the latter is a product of either a bad matchup or poor team synchronization).  The AI's stupidity is why I prefer aving mages that aren't purely support.
Also, if you insist on keeping the pure support, healing staff is also not a good idea because although it allows protect on allies (since the healing staff eliminates all of the WM / TM's offensive options except vs. Cursed Ring users), just having protect (or just having shell) renders me vulnerable against half of all teams, while having both on one unit makes the AI stupid (because the AI will not appropriately cast protect / shell except to midcharge attacks).  Compared to stop / slow2 / holy, which affects all enemies, why bother with a strategy that only works half the time?

[TrueLight]

FFT Arena 1.38D - Otabo (Night Fight) vs. Rouroni Elmdor (Ladies of the Night)

FFT Arena 1.38D - ShadowDragon15 (Darkness Rises) vs. Reks (W.A.S.P)

FFT Arena 1.38D - Silentkaster (Signs of Aging) vs. ShadowDragon15 (My Lady Love's Emotions)

[Otabo]

spoiler: vs. Rouroni Elmdor

Oracles. One of two jobs in Arena I love and despise at the same time (the other being Chemist). Anyway, good match, though. I figured that would be the outcome since my team has no status removal other than the thief. Also, I cringed at all of the missed opportunities the mediator and the paladin had when some of them were charging; but nope - let's walk up and melee them rather than do something to attempt to stop the incoming spells. At least the squire did exactly what I made him to do, and that's good. I'm starting to like Healing Staff more and more as of late, I might have to find more uses for them. GG.

[reinoe]

spoiler: @Malroth/Reinoe

In general, a mage shouldn't worry about evasion because while charging, her evasion is 0.  Thus, dropping reflect for MEV is almost always the wrong choice.  The only time I'd argue otherwise is if you're using the mage explicitly to bait the AI (like what Mando did in S5), but in that case, optimizing MEV would come secondary to optimizing PEV and any spell with CT > 5 (Raise 2, Holy, Flare, most summons) should not be used.
As for priests "charging forward", that is typically a problem on pure support priests and time mages because the AI has no better offensive action to perform, though normal mages may also do that if they cannot kill anyone AND they cannot cast a spell without getting midcharged (but the latter is a product of either a bad matchup or poor team synchronization).  The AI's stupidity is why I prefer aving mages that aren't purely support.
Also, if you insist on keeping the pure support, healing staff is also not a good idea because although it allows protect on allies (since the healing staff eliminates all of the WM / TM's offensive options except vs. Cursed Ring users), just having protect (or just having shell) renders me vulnerable against half of all teams, while having both on one unit makes the AI stupid (because the AI will not appropriately cast protect / shell except to midcharge attacks).  Compared to stop / slow2 / holy, which affects all enemies, why bother with a strategy that only works half the time?

Thanks for the tips FDC.

spoiler

re: the priest...I'm probably going to have to have him go down to 9 speed anyway.  I was iffy on 10 speed because I thought Angel Song would go off twice.  It didn't for some reason.  That's a really key factor, because angel song going off only once+Mime is not enough MP restoration.  Otherwise there's no point to angel song+Mime.

I want my squires to be able to fully utilize shields so I have three options...
Aegis Shield give me Silence protection, +1MA, and decent magic evasion.
Escutcheon gives me decent evasion overall
Kaiser plate will boost summons.

After Ruminating over it, I'm going with Aegis Shield, 108 Gems and Leviathan+Salamander.  The unlimited height granted by Zodiac is just not enough when those two elemental spells can be boosted and have occasional procs.  Unlimited height so rarely matters in Arena anyway.

Priest is losing his H-BAG and getting Heal Staff.  He's also losing his -1 move because if the A.I. is going to wade into combat, nothing can discourage them.  Using the saved JP for Pilgrimage.

Lastly, the squires are losing Abandon and are gaining Absorb MP, because I don't want them running out of MP like they did in the video.  Magic Song and Angel Song should help fuel them.

spoiler: @Rouroni Elmdor

Sorry I got so caught up in my own personal drama.  I really really like what you've done with "No Foolin".  I was worried both matches and I'm surprised I went 2-0 against them. 

It was a long hard slog against your "Basilisks" team and they have impressive chops.  My "Windchill Factor" had many embarrassing losses before it became competitive.  Losses so bad and embarrassing that I considered not making teams anymore.  Basilisks are very impressive.  It just wasn't their day.

A nice win from the Zirekile Highway men.  In case you hadn't noticed "Hyper Livestream Final Fight" is similar to your No Foolin'.  The difference being my idea hasn't panned out yet.  Good luck in the future for all your matches.

GG Rouroni!