Final Fantasy Hacktics

KATANA
Asura Knife: Gains Strengthen: Fire, Ice & Lightning and +1 PA over just Strengthen: Fire, partly because it's outdone by the new Phoenix Blade, partly because of the change to Kaiser Plate, partly because it's always been kind of mediocre despite being the strongest physical katana and partly because between Samurai and Paladins, currently only female Samurai can make decent use of Black Robe; male Samurai and Paladins of either sex need MA boosting stuff to get the best out of the Strengthen of Black Robe, which means they can't really use it in the first place. As compensation, the new Asura Knife may "need" to lose +1 WP though.


Kotetsu Knife: Gains +1 WP and Strengthen: Holy & Dark over just Strengthen: Dark. The +1 WP is mostly just for the sake of not being weaker than freaking Sadist Whip as far as Grand Cross goes given Kotetsu Knife is only Dark weapon (of a grand total of two) to actually go off PA. The Strengthen: Holy & Dark part is because neither Samurai nor Paladin can equip Golden Hairpin without aid of the immensely popular Equip Clothing--please note the sarcasm. As such, the only way to Strengthen both of those elements otherwise for them is to use the currently way nerfed 108 Gems


Bizen Boat: Just gains +1 MA rather than the 100% Dispel Magic I was considering giving it since now I'm now no longer certain about the 100% Silence being entirely useless, if only because Mediators tend to not guard against Silence. That's still kind of dubious, but as long as it becomes the only katana capable of giving MA, people will definitely use it if only for that.


Murasame: This is probably fine as it is, though it could maybe go up another +1 WP still. Shrug.


Heaven's Cloud: Gains Strengthen: Earth, Wind & Water, but loses +1 WP since it's getting to keep its chance of 50% Slow. This would have not gotten consideration for this particular if not for the fact that Chirijiraden lost Strengthen: Earth, Wind & Water.


Kiyomori: Loses +2 MA and +1 WP and gains Immune: Poison and 50% Cast: Bio. Now other katana might see some actual use. Much like how I think Wizard Staff could be changed into something more useful and special than a literal Wizard Rod clone, (female) Samurai so hellbent on having a +2 MA weapon can just start using C Bag. After all, it can be used with Two Hands.


Muramasa: GAINS BACK ITS 100% FAITH PROC THAT SPELL EDGE SHOULD HAVE NEVER GOTTEN; MEANWHILE, SPELL EDGE GETS BACK ITS +1 MA AND 100% SPELL ABSORB CHANCE AND ALL IS LESS WRONG WITH THE WORLD. [/RAGE]


Kikuichimo(n)ji: This is fine as it is. I'm still surprised people took my Quake with Fear thing seriously, but it's worked out surprisingly well, so...yeah. Keep doing that.


Masamune: Assuming that we're trying to use the new (horrible) -2 Speed, Always: Haste, still WP: 8 Masamune as a base for changes, then at the very least that version *needs* Immune: Slow to be worth a damn. Even then it's still...meh at best since the Always: Haste doesn't *really* matter (and never will if Quickening dies like it should). Since Always: Haste doesn't do anything other than maybe making sure the A.I. has to spend less turns Hasting than it otherwise would, it's rather superfluous, so the design as a whole can and should probably be scrapped. At least we know -Stats work now between this and the newer Phoenix Blade though.

As such, I might as well just suggest going with the version of Masamune I was originally going to suggest for 1.39 before FFMaster's return: Range: 2; Initial: Regen & Haste; 20% Cast: Comet; 2H: Yes; 2S: No.

I originally had it being Forced Two Hands as well and increasing to 10 WP, but I figure that letting it stay at 8 WP justifies letting it stay boosted by Two Hands, which allows Samurai to use it "better" than Paladins would if it was the case otherwise. It also makes it less likely that its damage will be overpowered since Comet triggering is a free 100 damage for ever strike it trigger on, which can easily add up. Comet's chance for trigging may "need" to be higher though.


Chirijiraden: This can probably stay the suicidal Initial: Berserk, +1 Speed it is now I guess since people seem to actually be using it. I'm not sure if Always: Berserk, +1 Move or Always: Berserk, +1 Speed, -1 PA would be better though.

DRAW OUT
Asura: (Male) Samurai need some type of way to use this better than  either Squire or Monk (or Paladin...or Dancer...or Scholar...or...) currently can in my opinion since male Samurai have so little going for them presently anyway. Hell, the biggest upgrade they got was the change to Chirijiraden the katana, which is technically still a nerf given at very least how suicidal and one-note it is and how useful the old version of Chirijiraden the katana often was.

I'm tempted to say that the "best" solution would be to have Asura hit the user, as odd as that seems, given then that it would force the Clothes-wearing classes to forego either Power Sleeve's +2 PA or 108 Gems Strengthen: All Elements if they don't want to take damage. Sure, the new Defense Armlet would make using Power Sleeve still viable, but outside of Squire, Paladin, Geomancer and Scholar, no other class that can already use Asura better than male Samurai would get access to Strengthen: Fire anymore. Of those, Geomancer would have to forego using Power Sleeve for Black Robe while Paladin can use Asura Knife and Squire & Scholar can use Flame Rod anyway. Additionally, only Paladin can also become Immune: Oil through use of Platina Helmet while still absorbing Fire without incurring the currently fatal Weaknesses that Shields bring. (I suppose that Lancer would also join the classes that can make better use of [current] Asura if Lancers get Robes back like they should, but since that's not finalized yet....)

Shrug. I just figure that something needs to change if Asura is going to actually be worth using on male Samurai since currently male Samurai have nothing going for them in their primary save for  Kiyomori and Masamune, which a bunch of other classes also use (way) better, and their two Innate abilities.

Relatively independent of the above but not necessarily exclusive to it, I also think it would be good if Asura dropped its "Enemy Only" aspect and/or lived up to its name by being tri-directional like how currently only Houkouton is. Again, shrug.


Koutetsu: This is currently fine as it is, as evidenced by it being used quite a bit even though Kotetsu Knife sees next to no use.


Bizen Boat: Being subject to M-EV is/was a step towards fairness, but I suppose it's also true that didn't/doesn't really matter most of the time that Bizen Boat is used given that it most often happens to be used to mid-charge someone. As such, the only other thing I could see being done to balance this--given the current unfortunate restrictions on Draw Out (and Elemental/Geomancy)--would be to reduce its AoE from 2 to 1. That might not be really necessary though. Shrug.


Murasame: This, on the other, *definitely* needs to be AoE 1 rather than AoE 2 in my opinion. There's really no good reason that you should be able to do essentially X-Potion or better your entire party instantly, even if its possible for you to accidentally heal your opponent. Unless, of course, you Zombie them or, more likely, they're already Zombified due to (how popular) Cursed Ring (is still). On top of that, Mimes still being around only makes this even more overpowered and obnoxious as a form of healing.


Heaven's Cloud: If any of the Draw Out's should be "Enemy Only", then it should really be this because both this and its katana are basically nigh-worthless to Wind absorb strategies anyway given how  the only way non-Armor units can protect against Slow is Sprint Shoes. While that's personally fine with me, Slow 2 having absurdly high accuracy aside, it's part of the reason that this is easily the least used Draw Out and that likely wouldn't change even with the proposed change to Heaven's Cloud the katana if Heaven's Cloud the ability is kept as it currently is otherwise.


Kiyomori: This is...as fine as it's going to get, I guess. It's difficult to tell when Berserk status currently lasts forever given this just destroys Berserk units by just itself. The only other way to weaken it without nerfing it into the ground would be to make it subject to M-EV somehow, but I'd personally rather just try balancing Berserk status and Insult first, preferably by giving the former finite CT and making the latter less likely to hit. Beyond that, Poison's CT may need to be shortened, though that's more a general issue.


Murasama: This is fine as it is outside of my views on Death Sentence/Doom and how it could be more consistent, though that's an issue with the status itself and not this ability. So, yes, this is fine currently.


Kikuichimo(n)ji: This is also fine as it is, though losing the old version of Chirijiraden hurt it a bit. The suggested potential change to Heaven's Cloud the katana should alleviate though.


Masamune: Ugh. This ability. I still think it may likely need to be weakened, somehow, but I'll be content with weakening or excising outside factors first, i.e. eliminating Quickening from the game. Aside from that, as with Kiyomori the ability, Regen's CT (and maybe even Haste's CT) may need to be shortened, though again that's more a general issue. Currently I guess that means it's "fine" though. Grumble.


Chirijiraden: This ability is also tricky to balance. On the one hand, it "deserves" to be powerful given how much you have to spend on it and it's already subject to M-EV. On the other hand, it hits *really* horribly hard when powered-up and that it's subject to M-EV is moot more often than not, which is part of the reason that Draw Out-bot Geomancers prefer to use it over any other Draw Out even with the potential for collateral damage. The "best" thing to do might be to reduce its power slightly to MA*8. Again, "shrug" about how necessary that "actually" is for "actual" balance.

That said, It's really weird to not hear you talk on videos at this point, Barren, but I honestly don't blame you for foregoing commentary on an two-hour video.

Well, this is just another reminder that Berserk really ought not to be infinite in duration, at least as far as just adding the status goes; Salty Rage getting back Always: Berserk was much needed buff as far as I'm concerned. This match was also yet another example of just how worthless Seal Evil often is unfortunately since Shintroy honestly would have likely won at least the first round if his Archer had just kept her extremely damaging shots rather than going for that half of the time. Even with that distracting her, Otabo basically only won the first round because he won the Undead "coin flip" and his Thief "happened" to be the reviver.

There really isn't anything to say about the one-sided travesty that was the second round.

I'll admit, I expected Anima Zero to take this between superior damage output, superior healing, reinoe's generally bad luck and neither of reinoe's Squires being able to actively heal themselves. This even though reinoe had Quickening and had it on an extremely annoying unit at that. Hell, Anima Zero might well have (easily) won if the third map was different, especially given the eponymous Monk kept going "What is this strange thing you call 'evasion'? Such nonsense" and hitting (x < 53)% shots like they were going out of style even when not Berserked. Also didn't help that Quickening Steal Heart Squire who can't really do much else kept being stupid about how she was Charming; I'll admit that I had forgotten that one of the too many things Chakra Band blocks is Charm though.

Of course, given the third match was at Volcano, reinoe ended up having the advantage due to his (somewhat weird) Monk having Concentrate Earth Slash. It also didn't help that the eponymous Monk had his Salty Rage stolen relatively early again, which ended up costing Anima Zero since he spent time futilely healing that he would have otherwise spent attacking.

Even then, reinoe ultimately won that round just because Sleep lasts too damn long and once it hit the Chemist he was effectively worst than dead. That really needs to be changed and not just with regards to Mimic Daravon.

Still, this was a pretty good match and despite the narrowness of the terrain available to non-Geomancers and the still rather loathsome starting places, I think this is perhaps the most even fight that's been had on Volcano in ARENA.

Find it funny how this match by itself already had more Reflected Comets than my team specifically trying to make that happen ever had. Damn useless Mimes....

First round: Despite neither of these being my teams, I still was tempted to slam my head into my desk upon seeing the A.I. do that stupid "hey, I can't tell this Item toss is obviously 00%" thing it tends to do on split level maps. Sigh. Why must it do that? Not that Barren would have likely won that round anyway, but still, it depress me so.

Second round: Sigh. The A.I. is so damn obsessed with Haste--unfortunately for good reason--that the Time Mage chose to Haste 2 herself and the Mediator instead of stopping Demi 2 with Sinkhole. Granted, she would have still died to the Ninja (again), but given she could have at least stopped him from going after the Mediator for a turn.... Anyway, this round was pretty night-and-day from the first round, especially as far as Demi 2 actually being useful fo goes.

Third round: And yet more proof that Kagesougi is overpowered and that Mediators are basically the only class vulnerable to Silence that don't guard against it 99% of the time. At least there weren't any Don't Acts off of Kagesougi this time though; I suppose that's partly because of how much of a quick rout this was for Barren's squad.

I honestly don't see how Malroth could win this one even though this particular team of his isn't bad. He has a severe speed disadvantage against a team that half absorbs Dark while also being burdened by a Mime.

First round: Admittedly got teams confused here for a bit somehow. Not sure how that happened given I lost to Malroth's team, but yeah. Anyway, nothing all that noteworthy here except that Malroth's Ninja does good damn with Shuriken, Shadow Shade isn't really worth a damn against 12 Gauge and Haste (1) the spell continues to suck a huge bag of roosters. There also a rare Slow 2 miss towards the end; that's noteworthy I guess given how overly accurate it is. I guess it's also notable that reinoe's chance of hitting Seal Evil on the

Second round: And this basically starts with reinoe getting a Kagesougi hits that inflicts Don't Act on the other Ninja. A status that would later be repeated on Malroth's Paladin.

*makes a face at FFMaster wherever he may be*

Not sure why this round took longer than the first since it felt oddly more decisive for reinoe's team. It might just be because this map is more spread out and and it ended up as 3v3 fairly early on. Given how quickly anyone reinoe's team crystallizes, Malroth might have been able to win if either the Scholar or Mime could revive. Shrug.

*looks at the time alloted and then takes into account the typical length of silentkaster's explanations thus far*

Shades of Satan, one of us gets destroyed. For once it's probably not me just because of how "lol, overpowered" Tornado and Quake are relative to their speed.

First round: Ah, no Hurricane proc off Windslash Bow; hmmm...now I can't remember why I gave the Archer Attack UP over Concentrate; probably because he has Execute and is mostly clean-up anyway despite going first. ...Wait, why did Tornado heal the Bard for 257? Do he and the Scholar have good or best compat.? Crap; now I really dp kind of need him to not attack.

Oh, hey. That Paralyze didn't hit three people despite my hideous luck.

...Did three people just basically get murdered by another Tornado and then "instant" Ice. Jeez. Guess that my Archer was the one that got Don't Acted then, which is good since he indeed seems to be the weakest person on the team overall.

Second round: ...Did the Oracle even get to act before she died the first time? I kind of missed it if she did. Anyway, the Bard's stuck healing again, which is good, for me at least. Between having Tornado, way more AoE in general, higher damage in general, more sure damage and not needing to set-up, yeah, I'm winning this. Sorry, Reks.

Still, it's nice to not start another losing streak, even if I do feel rather dirty for whoring out Tornado's power. What have I become?!

I'll admit that I was extremely skeptical when Barren posted that he combined all of his Wizard-element teams into one given how unnecessary that seemed. However, he appears to have hired Witch Hunter Robin post-series given she solo'd Otabo's entire team and immolated them with the blue flames of Chirijiraden until they finally stopped moving in round one. It's a shame how much of that round was Otabo losing just due to how horribly blind the A.I. to what its opponent has said opponent is actively charging, which is part of the reason that "being mage is suffering".

At least the defeat in the second round was far more of a team effort and at least mono-Summoner team won one match rather than getting destroyed there too as I somewhat expected just due to how Summoner has the lowest HP in the entire game. Winning a match at all is more than probably the majority of my teams have ever done by this point. Still, this was weirdly one-sided for how quickly everyone else on Barren's team went down in the first round, so I can completely understand being demoralized.

I suppose being me is suffering too, though at least I already knew that. Sigh. I figured that I would lose this team as soon as silentkaster posted it despite not having a problem with Stop or Stall in actuality--I just think the former is over-buffed currently screws over and screws over anyone attempting to use high Faith without Jade Armlet and the latter just has me feeling a bad for suggesting since Mediators are jackasses. If anything, then aside from Quickening and Mimic Daravon (and Kagesougi having Don't Act), then I only really "hate" Slow 2 as well and that's just because it's way too accurate and wide AoE 2 for how crippling Slow is.

But, uh, yeah. Not really much say about that this since it was pretty obvious I was going to lose as from the get-go. This was basically Baden Baden Loli vs. Girls Night Out levels of bad match-up, only Shell got replaced by Protect and Chivalry's a Virus might actually be an otherwise decent team while Baden Baden Loli currently...isn't. Well, decent outside of that little bit of Nurse idiocy in round two with the Squire stuck facing off literally the only unit on silentkaster's team he couldn't take out.

Between that, my usual horrible luck--Counter Flood Lava Ball kill from the sole (?) Machine panel that exists; dying to Odin; getting re-Slept by Sleep Sword--and dying to Death Sentence yet again when using high HP units (apparently I'm not allowed to use anything but Gold Armor if I'm not using Diamond Armor), this was usual fun affair for me.

Oh well. At least Chivalry's a Virus might be decent since it wasn't a total rout despite the usual Sisyphean nature of an uphill battle between A.I.-led teams.

Not much to say about this match except that I thought that CT5Holy would win going in and that while I still say that Gold Staff may ultimately better on the Samurai, at least if she foregoes Salty Rage, that Rainbow Staff damage is really nice (and amusing) to see.

I figured that Shintroy would lose pretty horribly as soon as I saw Mimes. And then I realized they were permanently Berserked, so...yeah. Kind of doomed off the bat there.

The only real thing of note here is the reminder that Berserk no longer (?) blocks Miming now, probably due to the change in "Can React" as far as Berserk is concerned. Hmm...I wonder if that same change would apply to Learn on Hit then. Hmm....

This was generally just a horrible match-up for my team, which makes the result for this rather unsurprising given my horrible luck. Nago probably needs to lose Pilgrimage at the very least since currently using that is suicide unless you block Stop at the same time. I should probably just change him to a Windslash Bow anyway at this point despite Blast Gun still being usable (against teams that don't absorb Lightning or come with Auto-Shell).

I'm not sure how my team's name got mangled though. I can understand getting the pronounciation wrong--I'll put a pronunciation thing next to in the teams area--and all, but it's Baden Baden Loli. I try not to make a huge deal about it, but...yeah.

Anyway, besides Nago and the general match-up issues, gods was Gii useless. Dracula Christ, what I was thinking giving that type of unit Accumulate among other things? Sigh. I'm so bad at making units/teams. Unlike with Nago, how to fix him is a *lot* less clear.

Well, that first round basically ended up for Otabo as soon one of his Mediators got hit with Frog, though ironically that he may have had a chance if that Death had hit the Frog. Still, his team held out a decent amount.

The second was similarly decided rather quickly by the fact the Oracle got hit with Berserk immediately and, like Otabo's Frogged Mediator, never got cured from it.  I'm not sure if Otabo is the first to break the "curse" of Nelveska Temple, but he's certainly one of the few to win a round there despite his team starting out in the temple itself. For some reason, it seems like starting in the temple (of doom) invariably leads to you get slaughtered.

The third round was a good end to a good match in general, especially since it was pretty close despite the fact the site of Balbanes's grave isn't one of the maps I particularly like. silentkaster mostly can back from this because Berserk backfired for Otabo, especially since Decap does way too much damage, and his Squire was able to dodge Don't Act to get off Death and then Counter Magic a fatal Odin back on the Mediator with Summon Magic. Even then, he just barely won because the first Mediator to die happened to Crystalize right before the then-Critical Squire got her turn again after everyone else on silentkaster's team had just died.

So...I could have actually won that first round, even with my bad luck, had Datum: Goofy not generally been a useless idiot throughout this entire match. That explains why I got bad feeling as soon as the A.I. decided to useless meander to right side of stage for some reason. Ugh. Even when/if I make competent teams, the A.I. just kind of sabotages them apparently even when I try to compensate for that. Joy.

Oh well. This match at least shows that Vexen does surprisingly good damage with his Ice Brand for an otherwise squishy mage.

So that makes two matches back-to-back where my team basically gives away the first round that they would have otherwise won being utterly stupid about resurrection. Sigh.

Still, I suppose I would have ultimately lost just because Stop (the spell) is that overpowered currently and because Eliza doesn't have any damn range except for useless-ass Power Ruin; at least the latter I can fix. I mean, it's not like I was going to get Counter Decapitates off of Sekhmet with my luck, especially with Anima Zero's team having a Lancer...who happened to kill my Lancer with one of the utterly weak Breaths off of a spear. So this was probably just another bad match-up for my team--surprise surprise--on top of other things. Way to go, me.

Oh well. At least it reaffirms how stupid the A.I. is about the Power and Magic Ruin unfortunately. It's funny how easily overpowered those would be if the A.I. could use those intelligently.

So...the only team of mine that even took a round of the three is the joke team that's using literally the worst element for Grand Cross in the entire game? I see. Well, that's...just...yeah.

I might have even been able to win the round as a whole if the A.I. wasn't so utterly blind to AoE or if Carlsatan had gone after the Critical Wizard as he had been doing rather than going after the Critical Archer for once. Meh. Whatever. The A.I. is always going to be this dumb unfortunately, at least within its current default restrictions.

[Insert usual, justified kvetching about Kagesougi still causing Don't Act and costing too little MP here.]

Actually, no, I'll spell that complaining out again for once since even with the Quickening & Yell mistake on the Undead Squire and even with as stupid as half of his team acted in the third round, Reks would have doubtless won if it wasn't for that Don't Act BS. Even with my general agreement about CT5Holy's assessment of the Undead Squire's set up being a more than a tad ineffectual, it was essentially a 3 vs. 4 fight in Reks favor since Anima Zero's Oracle was basically useless against most of Reks's units. At worst it was a 3 vs. 3, where the Priest couldn't overpower the enemy team wth the currently overbuffed Stop spell for once. As such, the Lancer and the Ninja were the only actual threats and the Lancer got stuck on resurrection duty too often since Reks only missed one of the ten Death spells his Squire--better than a Samurai for this--flung at the enemy. Even with Concentrate, most of the damage of the Ninja he did would have been and was recoverable until Don't Act hit.

Honestly, at this point, I think I'm looking more forward to Don't Act getting removed from Kagesougi as it should (at the very least) than Quickening possibly dying. It's just immensely dumb, especially since Kagesougi usually comes with Innate Concentrate and Two Swords. I'm not trying to take away from Anima Zero given he's using what's there and his team has other strengths; it's just frustrating that Don't Act is still there.

Speaking of dumbness, even with the disadvantage from Kagesougi, Reks might have actually still taken that third round if Mr. Poe had taken the time to rid himself of Blindness during one of the many turns where he didn't take an action otherwise. Minvera Christ but the A.I. is horribly blind about a lot of things, including--perhaps appropriately--Blind itself. It's not like this is anything new, but it's also still frustrating to see.

First things first, I'd quite liked the music even more than usual this round, TrueLight, so thanks.

Now, I can finally say that my losing streak is finally over after losing at least twelve games straight. A bit surprised that I managed to tkae this so handily between my bad luck--getting hit by 18% Weapon Breaks had me expecting the first round to go far differently--and Knife Nuts as a whole being weaker between both my female units losing their Two Handed Knifing abilities. At least the Thief is a real unit now though  with an actually useful secondary rather than the stupid attempt at Time Magic he had before.

Of course, it rather helped my victory that this particular team of reinoe's lacks revival and also somewhat lacks offense if not going against a team that utterly relies on their weapons, like perhaps my Chivalry as Virus team and the other Cross using teams. As stupidly powerful as Ninja can be, that's largely in part because of Kagesougi's overpoweredness, which none of the units on reinoe's team has.

Not that would have helped much with how dumb the Snipe twins were acting in the second round, but...yeah.

Oh hey, I consciously recognized both of the first two songs, right off the bat, which I think is a first: "A Ring and a Promise" and "Blue Skies." Not sure what the other two were outside of the last song obviously being a remix from Chrono Trigger.

Not much to say about how one-side the first round was as far as offense goes, partly due to the the terrain insurrng that TrueLight's team just bunched up for all the Slow 2s thrown its way. That and the Lancer getting to spam Quickening basically made it obvious TrueLight's team was losing that round. Interesting to note that Stop technically blocks Stop though. I had forgotten about that, given it's not of any real import. (I still feel a bit bad for suggesting Stall even if the A.I. just wasn't using Persuade for some reason given it seems like half of 1.39 matches is just watching people get destroyed by Stop status, but I digress.)

The second round was slightly more even despite TrueLight continuing to get destroyed by status and getting more than a tad unlucky dealing with both Undead units and the Mediator. I have to wonder how the round would have gone had that initial (and only) Seal Evil hit the Monk or if the second Poison Rod swing from the Samurai not missed and failed to temporarily kill him; at the very least she wouldn't gotten hit by that Southern Cross from her own damn teammate.

Besides that, not much else to say except that I'm still not sure what to do with Gastrafitis. Despite the big number out put here, it still seems inferior to at least Hunting Bow, Night Killer and Poison Bow even though the latter two seldom see use for some reason. Shrug. Maybe it's fine as it is so long as you max out damage.

This was basically a 3v3 surprisingly since both the Archer and the Mediator were relatively worthless for Barren and Otabo respectively and ultimately Otabo's team just did had more units that did more damage. Really not much else to say than that.

CT5Holy's team is basically what I feared about Last Dance when it comes to being able to be Mimed even though I still think Last Dance and Dance as a whole is pretty damn bad currently. Good to see it used at least, but yeah, not much else to say about this given how much Last Dance dictated the tone of this match, especially since CT5Holy was getting rather lucky with hitting it even before Mimic.

I will say that the formation for the second map didn't exactly help Andante49 either given that both of his squishier units started out facing both of CT5Holy's harder hitting units. That they died so quickly was thus unsurprising.

Sigh. I knew I was going to lose this as soon as I saw the match up, so I couldn't bring myself to watch the second round. Apologies. I'm just not in the mood right now.

That said, I honestly don't remember why I didn't give Mole Knight Awareness or Power Wrist. Meh. Not like it mattered given everyone on Malroth's team can hit through evasion anyway save for the Mediator, whose job I always get screwed over by anyway. I should probably just go with Projectile Guard on Tinker Knight since HP Restore hates me anyway, though at least it not triggering was due to Don't Act this time rather than bad luck.

[Insert usual complaints about Quickening directly boosting damage on some weapons here in addition to already indirectly boosting damage due to more turns since Speed is everything.]

Sigh. This took way longer than it "needed" to given how stupidly Anima Zero's team started acting mid-way through the second round. He could have taken it easily if the Lancer didn't suddenly start going for Wish on the Undead instead of just spearing them in the damn face or if his Ninja didn't suffer from spontaneous brain-death; as overpowered as Kagesougi and Quickening are, that doesn't matter if the A.I. just starts refusing to use them. I normally don't root for or against teams, but I admittedly just don't like "With Haste II" given how tiresome it is to see Quickening, Haste 2 and Slow 2 over and over (and over and over and...) again, much less in the same match where it's allowed to occur because his opponent's A.I. starts acting like an idiot. I suppose it doesn't much help that Anima Zero's Oracle is still a bit...awkward, especially since Bahamut isn't guaranteed to hit. At the very least, it doesn't help that the Cursed Ring units still eventually get so fast that resurrection no longer being guaranteed doesn't matter. What fun in addition to being about as fair and balanced as Fox News.

Meh. I'm not going to hate on Shintroy for winning, but  half of this match was unfortunately the A.I. acting even more like an idiot than usual. An example of this is that the A.I. almost never whiffs Jump if there isn't any outside interference. I wonder if that was due to Critical A.I. though just Jumping out of desperation though....

Haha. I guess it's appropriate that Otabo's Thief was the one to literally steal victory in round two, especially since Otabo's Bard was the one who did most of the damage in that round. silentkaster took the first and especially the third rounds really convincingly though, so there's not much else to say beyond that I guess.

Even at a glance I expected Otabo to win this just because of all the AoE he has and given that only two of the units on Shintroy's team had any AoE at all or could really attack from a distance. So what was surprising to me was that for being the class with literally the worst HP in the game, all of Otabo's Summoners have more than decent health. That certainly helped in the few instances where Shintroy's team was able to actually mount damaging offense rather than being overwhelmed by the literal flood of magic damage despite their sandbagging.

That's even more understandable given that no one on team FFX has any significant M-EV aside from Rikku, who was basically useless in this fight given she was obsessed with Stealing. I kind of face-palmed at that and at Tidus's surprisingly poor attempts at Slow 2.

Speaking of slow speed, Otabo's team being slower was actually a significant advantage here too. Just like how Tidus having Zephyr Shield kind of backfires given his lack of Short Charge. It was also nice to see that Otabo's team focused only on competently used Haste 2s despite also having Slow 2 on that unit.

And the losing streak continues, to the surprise of no one given it seemed rather obvious I was going to lose even before the telling music in the final round before that (obvious) Mimic Daravon hit. The team still has no Sleep protection after all and basically all of my reactions were useless going into this except for Auto-Potion on the most defenseless unit on the team.

Round One: Only reason I managed to win this one is because my team got lucky for once where it actually counted and basically dodged every Mimic Daravon that came their way except for the final one on Xigbar. Sniper also dodged two of those 81% would-be-fatal Harp shots, which would have otherwise slowed down things even more given that reactions kept going off CT5Holy, as witnessed by those back to back HP Restores. I'm surprised it didn't go off more than twice given it never works for me, but meh.

Round Two: I expected to handily lose this one just because it's the longest map in the game versus a team that wants set-up while Dusk and Sniper will just fly ahead to their deaths. Only thing was surprising was that I held out for long. I might have even won if I was smart enough to have given Sniper Mk. 2 Attack UP over Overwhelm now since then he would have 2HKO'd the Mediator and CT5Holy's team does kind of lose if she goes down too early. Also could have won if Tornado wasn't so fast since that basically fully healed the Chemist, but that and Quake being too fast for their power is exactly why Dusk and Sniper Mk. 2 have Flash Hats anyway. This even though Xigbar got "killed" by Sleep again--"killed" given it's fate literally worse than Death in ARENA. Finally, that 648 Harp shot was rather disgusting--I approve.

Round Three: Not much say about this bit of idiocy except that I have no idea why the hell Xigbar didn't use Maiden's Kiss and I thusly find it ironic that this is the only round he didn't get put to Sleep in. I'll also say that stuff like that with Mimic Daravon is a prime example of why I think it needs to no longer be AoE, especially since Mediators aren't as toothless without AoE Mimic Daravon as people seem to think. I'll readily admit that I'm also tired--haha--of  getting instantly murdered by Mimic Daravon off that bat such a fashion, but that should be rather obvious.

...Despite his loss, I want to say that this should count as a win silentkaster just for the pun of the team name alone and it being nice to see someone use Staves; this even if Wizard Staff is still "meh" to me and no one has tried to use White Staff. As it was, this was a good match that silentkaster lost mostly just because it was a bad match-up in Barren's advantage given how the Samurai, with her horrific damage, kept getting picked off so easily from the start. That's not even the fault of Berserk for once given it was due to Jump and Comet, which are unavoidable anyway and also can't really have their damage reduced.

Other than that, silentkaster got screwed over by Stop the over-buffed spell. My, how surprising given that fate has been happening to more and more people.

Outside of silentkaster's Scholar not strengthening Wind (which is fine given his team) and neither of his mages being Immune: Silence, both which are fine given the theme and countermeasures respectively, the only thing I'd suggest is to maybe make the Samurai into a less suicidal unit. Given she already has Focus, it might be better to give her Gold Staff and Cherche over  Rainbow Staff and Salty Rage since despite the significant drop in power, she gets evasion back, benefits more from hitting Counter (in theory) outside of "just" damage and would still be quite powerful.

Shrug.

For the most part, Reks just got kind of unlucky in this fight. It's the first fight where he's missed Death--though twice this team has fought me, so.... The unnoticed-by-me change of making Juliet into a Samurai from a Wizard probably contributed to that somewhat, though the cruelly hilarious Counter Magic Death hitting in the first round didn't help either.

There's really nothing else to say about this outside of the fact that it's nice to see someone use Houkouton. Well, that and that it's also a bit amusing that the Reraise from Phoenix Blade actually came into play given the Thief got his Cursed Ring stolen immediately in the second round.

Hunh. I too wasn't aware that you could actually run out of Potions for Auto-Potion. Then again, given both teams are "players" despite being automated by the A.I., I suppose it makes sense in a way even though the regular A.I. won't run out of items (I think). But, yeah, that screwed over reinoe even more in the first round and was easily the highlight of it. The second round's highlight was that reinoe won it and won it so quickly due to Mimic'd Secret Fist.

Meanwhile, the highlight of the third round was how disgustingly powerful the Samurai got even though she almost Crystallized due to one of the many things the A.I. is unfortunately dumb about: trying to through target through bridges if there's a target-valid panel below them despite it clearly having 00% chance of working. Sigh. The A.I. is so dumb....

Still, getting to at least 34 MA mostly from MA Save? Agni Christ.

For all that it had to go against, reinoe's team actually did decently well and was held back by the Mime's poor offense and lack of revival. 108 Gems isn't really going to cut it with Elemental, especially given the horrible, unnecessary nerf that 108 Gems took coming into 1.39. I'll suggest a different unit below though.

That's the power of Pinesol Sleep status, baby. I'd figured that Barren would win from the start just because Sleep status is kind of dumb, but geez.

As demoralizing a curb-stomp this most likely was, at least it was quick. Given how dumb the A.I. can be about things, it was mercifully over rather soon instead of the A.I. meandering around like aimless asses even though the battle's already effectively won just because the enemy is Sleeping. Then again, given how much damage the Monk was doing even before Sleep's damage bonus, I suppose that's the chief reason why that didn't happen.

Even before the whole "it's never been Direct issue", Wave Fist being Wind element now is still, uh, up in the air for me. On the one hand, it's even stronger now despite still having Punch Art's inevitably problematic quadratic formulas and now can heal on top of its power, as my match against Otabo right after this show. On the other hand, now it's affected by Flash Hat, anything that absorbs Wind and anything that nullifies Wind unless Oil is applied. Hmmmm....

And thus the foddering begins.  I mean, me, get unlucky in a battle that's already an uphill battle where I start a disadvantage? No way, that never happens, especially in the face of Quickening, the ability that is the very epitome of balance, on maps that both larger ones that give Quickening time to (instantly) go off.

Sarcasm aside, I figured I would lose this from the start just due to the speed advantage and the team not being changed much from the form it had in the tournament with no JP cap. This despite the already figuring the Samurai would remain lackluster, which remained true--male Samurai...I swear; I'm just going to give him Talk Skill instead I guess and probably get rid of Projectile Guard.

That said, I'm surprised I actually (painfully) hung in there as long as I did, though it's mostly because Sleep status is almost as overpowered as Quickening. I also a bit surprised I even might have managed to win if my luck was not predictably horrible when it actually mattered. I would most likely won the first round if that single Secret Fist at 70% towards the Thief had landed given how stupidly fast he already was by that point and given how neither of the Mediators has revival or were an actual threat to most of this team while the Monk was already dying. Similarly, I might have even won the second round had that Blackmail hit the Thief given how often all Otabo's other units kept getting put to Sleep.

Oh well. If nothing else, then this match serves as fine example of how stupid both Quickening and the current Sleep status are.

Flamenco
Male
Serpentarius
40
40
Mime
Basic Skill
Counter Flood
Overwhelm
Move-HP Up


Diamond Helmet
Light Robe
Power Wrist


Accumulate, Bullrush, Throw Stone, Heal, Wish

Total JP: 500 + 450 + 650 + 500 + 0 + 650 = 2750

Stats: 303 HP | 103 MP | 8 Sp | 10 PA | 7 MA | 4 Move | 4 Jump | 51% front P-EV and 30% side & back P-EV | 0% M-EV | Always: Regen; Initial: Float & Reraise.


Even with the shift over to the male gender, the jump in PA isn't all that significant for Wiznaibus damage, but every point counts. This unit doesn't actively use Elemental anymore, so the drop in MA and lack of Strengthening is relatively neglible since you were mostly just using Elemental to fish for status clearly. Besides, Accumulate and Overwhelm will bring up Elemental's damage as well and eventually surpass the damage the female Mime was doing if enough Accumulate goes off.

As it is, Accumulate is thusly the only thing this Mime uses MP for. I wouldn't bother with Yell on him despite Haste obviously being really good (read: borderline necessary unfortunately) still since a) he would be the only unit on the team capable of Hasting, meaning he would spend (read: waste) all his time and MP on it instead of using Accumulate, and b) this team doesn't really benefit from Haste anyway really.

I was originally going to give him Move-MP Up so he would theoretically "infinitely" Accumulate, but then I remembered both of your Dancers are currently using that, so he gets (read: has) to keep Move-HP Up. I also originally gave him Attack UP, but I can't remember if that actually affects Dance--I think it does, weirdly enough, despite not affecting Jump. There's also the fact that I'm relatively sure that Overwhelm boosts Elemental's damage more than Attack UP does, though I think Attack UP does actually work on Elemental--not sure about that though.

Beyond that, using an alternate piece of headgear like Platina Helmet, Crystal Helmet, Grand Helmet, Choice Band or even Focus Band is rather valid. The same goes for choosing Unyielding, Magic Defense UP, Two Swords or even Half of MP instead.

Regardless, good luck with getting a Mime to work for you as it is.


P.S. The name change is just because I thought it would it fit better with your team's named theme of being named after dances that were presumably solitary. I was unimpression that waltzing is a strictly couples-based dance, but I admittedly know of dance since I don't like dancing. Still, what little I've seen of professional flamenco dancers has tended to be quite good and it tends to get ignored in the U.S. outside of some stereotypical instances, so....

Yes, with 8 CT, that wouldn't happened with Quickening, at least if we assume that like with Cheer Song, the A.I. would most often be stupid enough to cancel Quickening past 13 Speed instead of letting it continue. Similarly, yes, that would be far more effective change than just increasing the JP of it by 50% and calling it a day, though as much as Quickening is the only thing I'd really call FFMaster "out" for, I can even understand that to a (very) slight degree as an attempt to perhaps see if just nerfing Cursed Ring would make Quickening balanced. Newflash: it didn't. especially on larger maps where a unit is basically guaranteed to be able to get at least two instances of it off.

"Too bad", though, that even with 8 CT, it would still be hideously overpowered for what it actually does, especially if there's no way to prevent Short Charge from affecting it. While 4 CT isn't instant or even fast, that would still let units with Steal like the one Otabo's using and the others before him have used before him get to 25 Speed. As much as I want to avoid going on (another) rant about Quickening, how can anyone think it's possibly fair to even be able to get to that much speed? Especially when the ability comes innate to what is now hands down the fastest class in the game given the nerf to Mime's stat and when more than half of said skill set is basically unusable in most instances, one of them (Speed Ruin) particularly because of Quickening?

No, Quickening isn't an auto-win move--I've never said it was, to my recollection, and if I have then that was my mistake and I issue a retraction. It's just hideously, blatantly overpowered, which has been from the beginning which is why it's the only thing I've flat out told FFMaster to his I find to be a stupid decision on his part despite all his efforts. I'm not going to blame anyone for using it despite it being annoying to see, basically hijacking both Steal and all of the meta-game of at least 1.38, since it's there to use and thus "valid". I just don't see why anyone would  still want it around given there's no real way to balance. As much of a severe pain in the ass as Phoenix Blade was, that was at least novel and interesting up to a certain point; Quickening is neither and never has been.

It's not like we'd lose anything by getting rid of Quickening either. Even without it, a unit can still get up to an effective 20 Speed, which already makes about thrice as fast as 8 Speed units and literally twice as fast as 10 Speed units. That at least takes investment though and is vulnerable to breaks and theft. There's really no counter to Quickening given Slow Dance's abysmal hit rate, though I'm an increasingly of the mind that Slow Dance and Cheer Song should likely die and be changed anyway given Dance and Song clearly need to be overhauled to some degree.

And before you say that no one will use a Thief with Short Charge just for Quickening, keep in mind that if Bad Luck becomes an actually usable skill, then that's affected by Short Charge too, so....

Given it's already been a couple of weeks at least since I watched this, I honestly don't remember much outside of the third round being a fine example of why I think that map where you get that hint from Zalbag about Dorter (I) is a bad and why I dislike it: the team that doesn't start on the bridge always loses. It's because the A.I.'s keen intellect causes the non-bridge team to split up and then have half of the team try to trek through middle of the map in order to regroup. Given that the middle of the map is made of water, this maps that a failure unless the units coming from that side have Fly, Teleport, Float, Walk on Water (read: have Ninja as primary) or Move in Water (read: have Samurai as primary). Given that those are all at least decent options, it might be so bad if the bridge team tended to, more often than not, stick together and funnel to the left towards higher ground, further giving them an advantage that I don't think anyone has yet to surmount.

That said, I fully except that Night of the Comet was a crappy team as a conceived, being too dependent on the Time Mage staying alive and being offensive despite being the main healing. Coupling that with a Mime and a  Squire often being too busy (preemptively) to attack with Necromonicon and...yeah.

Man, RedWorld got hugely unlucky with HP Restore triggering basically every time it could for Shintroy in the first round. She might have even still won if it wasn't for her Scholar being an idiot towards the end there and charging towards the Monk while Charging Cure 2 after her Reraise went off. Sigh. A.I., why are you so dumb about so many things?

Still, I suppose that RedWorld barely lost there was rather telling that she would go on to win the next two rounds, even if the Squire meandering away from everyone in the second round somewhat helped with that. Sure, Shintroy's team got to set-up quite a bit during the round due to the larger map in general, but the Mimes charged ahead and got themselves killed first and repeating, which is what ultimately won RedWorld that one. As for the third round, she won the straight-out slugfest because, for the most part, Shintroy didn't get to set up anything.

His team still hits pretty hard off the bat though, and it's nice to see Chaos Blade and Asura being used, even if I'm still a bit bummed about Asura being so meh on male Samurai even with the change compared to other classes. Speaking of male Samurai, RedWorld's set-up for hers is a bit...odd, but it seems to actually work for the most part, at least as male Samurai go. It's kind of telling that you have to use the new Muramasa with Two Swords though. The sheer amount of irony there....

...Well, this match was basically made bearable solely by CT5Holy's amusing style of commentary on it. This is especially true of the first round given it's rather...annoying how despite that map easily being the fairest of the three Dorter maps that exist, it is conversely the worst one for spectating given how often the houses will block the screen if units are on that one end of the map. The A.I.'s various idiocies only extended both rounds (much) longer than they "needed" to be.

At least it wasn't nearly as boring as the matches with Raven's "Derp" teams, though his version of Phoenix Blade being dead helped prevent that tremendously. It was also yet more evidence that Mimes are probably more trouble than they're worth to keep around unfortunately. The Necromonicon sharing by the enemy Mimes was extremely weird though. I'll have to note that in "guide", even if I'm not sure what the hell to say about it.

I'm not going to lie. I skipped at least a quarter of this just because it was clear the first round was going to take a while when it got down to two weapon-less Paladins vs. a Talk Skill Priest who couldn't do anything against them due to Genji Shield acting up and an Undead Archer hitting for low damage. So I can't say I'm surprised the first round dragged for half an hour.

The second round, from what I paid attention to of it, at least seemed more bearable if one was to watch all of it. All of Malroth's team stayed up. Otabo's Berserk Thief basically impaled himself on them repeatedly until he finally stayed down, though he at least got 400+ fatal critical hit on the Mime. Otabo's Archer ran away for most of the map and refused to move from the corner even after everyone on her team died, which extended the match for eight more minutes that it didn't need to be going; I think she may have merged with the wall or gone beyond the boundary or...something since the lower part of that map is buggy. And Otabo's Squire and Priest did support that obviously wasn't enough in the face of only the Thief doing damage and Malroth seeming to get inevitably "lucky" with Zombie from Necromonicon, CT = 0 from Last Dance and -1 Speed from Slow Dance.

Well, this went about as well as could recently be expected on my end given it was two really squishy themed teams, with one side being universally faster and harder hitting than the other on top of having better status and instant abilities. Yeah...not much to say about this one at all aside from the fact that getting killed by the fall damage from the first critical hit was actually pretty amusing. That certainly hasn't happened in quite a while.

So much Dance used in this match, which is especially jarring after the utter lack of it in Arena 1.39 thus far. A bunch of Death Sentence flying around in yet another match too, yet again made awkward by the whole "Genji Shield isn't working as it should" should thing that's generally been extending matches longer than they should be. Of course, the lucky Sleep status from the Counter Flood Gusty Wind in the first round only needlessly extended things given Dance hasn't changed from vanilla when it comes to being unable to affect the Sleeping.

This generally just took way more time than it needed to since reinoe's team doesn't really do significant damage even as many times as Wiznaibus gets repeated and the PA Save-having Dancer never got to directly attack for one reason or another despite being the most damaging person on Malroth's team. It's rather telling that the final round basically came down to Local Quake.

Speaking which, I'll say this in favor of this match: that Counter Flood Local Quake from the Mime in the third round that simultaneously healed and Petrified the Geomancer was hilarious, especially since he never got healed from it. How monstrously strong the Dancer got in that round was also pretty comical too. Shame that it was of no avail given the Paladin does no damage and at the same time has no resurrection. Malroth would have most likely been able to win if either his Geomancer had gotten healed from Petrify or if the A.I. chanced using Revive when Wiznaibus was on-going.

Oh well. Listening what I presume was Yuki Kajiura during the end of the third round made it far more bearable.

[Litany of curses redacted.] Rosa's chance to hit Raise 2 is supposed to be 100% for that very reason since my luck is obviously completely crap; I guess my bad math extends in everything nowadays if I screwed up that calculation too so as to be off by one (percent). Of course, my generally horrible luck is also further evidenced by getting hit by Death Sentence when it actually matters and having Charm only hit for me when it never will matter. Good times.

Sigh. Good to see Witch Hunt actually be relevant though. Figures that going for more MA on Rydia instead of MP, which is part of the reason I forego being an even squishier Summoner, may have screwed me over in that second round. "Weird" that Rydia that didn't bother going for Ice when she got enough MP back, but given she was acting like the dumbest person on the team and Black Magic users in general suddenly seem even dumber than usual when targeting in this version of Arena, I can't even say I'm surprised.

Man, Andante49's luck is almost as bad as my luck given how that third round just slipped away from him and how the second round just snowballed from the start. Still, that 700+ HP shot might be the strongest damage from a Flail there's been, so, uh, congrats there I guess.

Sigh. I'm still rather tired of seeing Cursed Ring Thieves, though that's in part because of their (and Scholars') sprites being so "off" still.

[Insert usual complaints about Kagesougi being overpowered, especially since it can still inflict Don't Act for some reason, here.]

To be honest, I expected TrueLight's team to win here even before Kagesougi given that Shintroy's team needs (a lot) of time to set-up since Mimes' stats sans evasion are frankly pitiful now. Given that Shintroy's team never got that time...yeah. That the team also got rather unlucky with Counter Magic didn't help things either.

Also, part of the reason I expected TrueLight's team to win was because I expected Shintroy's White Magic Mime to be utterly ineffectual given that any Mimic would interrupt Raise. Curiously, that never happened, though it obviously didn't change the outcome.

I find it darkly amusing that pretty much the only element that Otabo's Squire on this team doesn't have any resistance against is Ice given the team's name and theme. That arguably ended up being her undoing, at least in the end of the second round since it was probable that the Undead Archer was going to revive yet again.

Redworld's team took this more smoothly than I thought she would given that her Samurai was essentially reduced to a Masamune bot with only the Otabo's Thief not Absorbing Fire. Of course, given Otabo's team sans said Thief is basically support units for said Thief, once said Thief went down, Otabo's team tended to get stuck in sandbag mode very easily. [/"said thief"]

That said, Redworld's team also did get a tad lucky against Talk Skill in the first round and against the Thief's would-be-OHKO shots in the second round.

[Insert usual complaints about Kagesougi being overpowered, especially since it can still inflict Don't Act for some reason, here.]

For being a match against two gimmicky theme teams, this was...kind of decent. Reks might have been able to win if the Berserker Archer could get through evade like the Berserk Ninja could. Either that or if Berserk didn't eliminate the afflicted's evasion. Either way his team was at a rather marked deficit as far as evasion goes, even before all the Don't Act that hit. His team actually wasn't too far behind at healing at least.

Thanks for this. I figured I would lose after seeing the massive chances reinoe made and indeed I couldn't compete with the superior healing, especially given how overpowered Murasame still is/can get. Meh. Not like I care since I was going eliminate this team anyway regardless of how it formed. I guess it did better than I expected all things considered, but that's not saying much.

Ugh. So much temporal status and so little offense during this match. Still, it wasn't as boring as it could have been, partly because Critical Quick ended up going off a lot due to Comet. It was also close for a while in the first round, though Andante49 did get kind of unlucky with Demi missing.

Still, there was entirely too much Haste 2 and Slow 2  including and that first round really dragged. Thankfully the Insult backfired just enough to Speed up that round.

Gods, you are an idiot, Rosa. Yes, let's charge forward just to hit a Raise 2 you could have hit by not going to towards the Dancer with absurd damage output in the first round. I guess it wouldn't have changed much that round given Mimic Daravon hates me, but still.

Only reason I even got to a round three is because Cecil actually blocked and Countered something in round two, which killed the actual problem on Otabo's team. Of course, afterwards everything went south between my team not being able to finish the Dancer quickly or avoid Mimic Daravon. And then Kain of course got hit by Charm. Sigh. Why do I bother?

(Also, Obelisk still kind of sucks, doesn't it?)

[Insert usual complaining about Quickening here.]

[Insert usual complaining about Mimic Daravon here.]

[Insert usual complaining about all-Thief team here.]

Really not much to say about this given how one-sided it unfortunately was. The only real (amusing) things of note that happened in the first round were the Mimic Fairy sending the Undead Scholar into Critical and Xemnas the Paladin instantly Reraising to get one last shot in before dying to Poison anyway, just like his boss encounter that refuses to end in Kingdom Heart II. Otherwise...yeah, rather one-sided unfortunately.

So, this match was a prime example of the problem with making a Projectile-using Berserk unit that I've been expecting to see happen again eventually. That incident of "friendly fire" in the first round happened at the worst possible time really since it just cascaded for Reks from there. That's ultimately what cost Reks the match as a whole given his team had no way of winning on the third map with that damn orrery in the way. At least friendly fire didn't happen in that round though I guess, especially since it happened even well after Reks's team had otherwise won the second round.

Ugh. The A.I. is so dumb in how it responds to Charmed units. That Antidote in the first round was literally the worst possible option that Lancer could have done in response to the Squire being Charmed. I guess it's on par with Andante having horrible luck.

This was rather one-sided so there's not much to say except verify that what Barren said about Meatbone Slash is true: if it activates, then someone's getting hit for a lot of damage.

Oh well. It's nice to see Speed Ruin and Magic Ruin used, even if Magic Ruin is still mediocre at best.

*eyebrow twitch*

So perhaps male Samurai aren't as bad as I thought and there's more just me being extremely bad. Anima Zero's team not having much in the way of offense comparatively though, especially from a distance, despite having squishy, mostly slower units isn't exactly swaying my opinion heavily though. This especially given the split nature of that second map caused his team flounder even more.

Sigh. Given I was behind on watching videos as it is, I didn't get a chance to change this horrible team before it got used again. There's literally nothing else to say here except that Mimes unfortunately still seem pretty damn useless for Dance, Song, Lore or Quickening spam despite their many changes. How disappointing.

Despite the issues that I think exist with the current version of Anima Zero's team, he really did get supremely unlucky with Projectile Guard not working against an all-Archer team more often than not. There's not much else to say about it since this team "just" fought against "Fallen Samurais" (for me). Oh well, at least Midnight Platoon lasted longer against reinoe's team and had a decent back and forth against it.

Did Anima Zero request to fight nothing but Mime teams?

Weird that the audio for the very first round was slightly off. Thankfully it was only in that round though.

This was another good back and forth, though I'd argue it was another 3v3 in essence given how much of a burden both Berserk units and Mimes can be. Neither were the most dangerous units on their teams anyway; the most dangerous unit on silentkaster's team was the Monk and on Anima Zero's team it was easily the Bard. The Berserk Monk might have been more dangerous had he been able to hit anything half of the time, but most of silentkaster's team has pretty good evasion and his Chemist just doesn't give a damn about physical damage, so ultimately Anima Zero's team had more dead-weight.

As such, it's kind of appropriate that the third round was mostly decided somewhat early the Mime finally hitting a Talk Skill that wasn't his rare success with the overpowered Mimic Daravon. I'm a bit annoyed he didn't try for Insult on the Bard much earlier since then silentkaster might have won the first round, but that's the A.I. for you.

Oh well, at least silentkaster's Mime(s) have damaging AoE support now since Mimes honestly aren't worth using with that unfortunately.

Whoa. I had to rewatch the beginning and end of this given I was up for more than 24 hours, so I kind of...zoned out while watching it the first time around. Looking at the set-ups in the beginning, I'm not surprised that Shintroy ultimately won between my increasingly viewing Mime as a crutch and the fact that everyone Shintroy's team has 10 or greater Speed, which somewhat obviates any true effectiveness Last Dance could have. The latter also meant that Shintroy had the Speed advantage in general even as many times as Last Dance hit.  The last round also showed how easily the female Monk will run herself out of MP if she's ignored  in terms of damage, especially since she's still vulnerable to at least Sleep and Death Sentence.

So, yeah, Shintroy's team winning isn't too surprising even if his Time Magic Squire couldn't really hit a spell to save her undeath. Guess I'm not the only person who can't hit Stop (currently).

Of course, CT5Holy might have been able to win the last round had his male Monk gone to raise the Dancer right after female Monk's last Last Dance hit. Even with the Mime dead and effectively already doomed to becoming a Crystal, the Dancer certainly hits hard enough for to have helped quickly kill any of the Shintroy's units save for the Cursed Ring one and for that one she at least has Item.

Shrug. All I know is this match showed how annoying Last Dance can be with the buff that it did frankly deserve due to Mimes, but I'm not entirely sure if Last Dance can be any more than "annoying". After all, it's really easy for any unit to hit 10 or more Speed, which is part of when Last Dance's foothold starts slipping. Still, a valiant effort by CT5Holy and it's nice to see a couple of people at least trying to use Last Dance now. Too bad Dance is just a kind of terrible skillset, probably the worst, right now.

(Unrelated, but Wave Fist not being a Direct attack has always rather bugged me, even going back to vanilla. It just looks...weird at the very least.)

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http://www.myspace.com/armcannon This particular myspace page specializes in rock music. Pretty good stuff.

http://downloads.khinsider.com/ Like Galbadia Hotel this place has nearly everything.

http://www.eightecs.com/infinitegamemusic/ A site that puts together compilations of a lot of old-school game music. Gotta love the CD covers they come up with. And really, who doesn't love free DLs?

http://8bitpeoples.com/index.html You'll love this site. They've come up with original music... using 8-bit NES hardware. Freaking excellent stuff here.

http://www.xocmusic.com/ A page with sweet site with remixes and links to other cool places.

http://www.lonian.se/deadzombie/ A good remix site with fully downloadable albums. This guy works on stuff that doesn't get remixed too often in addition to the regular stuff. Sounds pretty sweet.

http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=coNsPirAcy83&p=r con's YouTube remix page. He likes to make remixes but keep them close to the original form.

http://explod.tumblr.com/ Specializing in classic gamesoundtracks.

http://www.ptesquad.com/ Chiptunes off the chain!

http://www.sound-test.org/ mp3s, midis, arranges, remixes. DL whole albums or single songs. Don't even need to register!

http://www.redwingsmusic.com/ A UK band that does video game covers in rock.

http://www.mrmonkeyman.com/treasure/music.html Your source for music from Treasure games.

http://www.ost-center.fr/ost/jeu-video/all.php
This site has game music as well as anime music.

http://sorasoundtracks.blogspot.com/search/label/Videojuegos Sora's Animation & Video Game Soundtracks.

http://soundtracks-mp3.blogspot.com/search/label/game soundtracks Another blog with game soundtracks.

http://serenesforest.net/music/ Your source for Fire Emblem soundtracks

http://sonixgvn.blogspot.com/ Another sweet soundtrack blog

http://www.soahcity.com/music/index.php Sonic music source.

http://music.mslugdb.com/dl/index.html Metal Slug music source.

http://www.youtube.com/user/NightShader1 NightShader1's YouTube Channel. Guy has some great piano versions of VGM.

http://www.gaming-gen.com/vgsounds/ Not as big on the selection as other sites, but it's growing.

http://soundtest-rizen.blogspot.com/ Soundtrack blog.

http://www.gamemp3s.net/ One of the best sites out there for those that love VGM in torrent form.

http://einachi.blogspot.com/ Old-school anime music.

http://hi.92wy.com/vgm/ A Japanese site that has a nice selection of music.

http://go-go-gst.tumblr.com/ This one seems fairly new with a selection of older and newer gamerip soundtracks.

*Ramza and his team of badasses stride forth onto the molten planes of Bervenia, whereupon they find Three four Ninja milling and jumping about with three Bombs floating lazily nearby. One of the Ninja stops in his tracks, looking straight at Ramza.*

Ninja #1: "Hmmm...my keen, totally sweet Ninja senses tell me we have an audience."

*Ninja #1 turns around then turns back to Ramza, as if seeing him for the first time*

Ninja #1: "Aha!"

*The other Ninja turn to look out Ramza too now; the three Bombs couldn't care much less*

Ninja #2: "Hey, you're right, Ripster! Your 'Xtreme!' Ninja senses have done it once again!"

Ninja #1/Ripster: "Hey, what can I say, Bends? I'm just awesome like that."

Ninja #3: "Don't you mean...you're 'jawesome like that'?"

Ninja #4: "Haha! Alright! Excellent pun bro!"

Ninja #3: "Jeah!"

*Ripster & Bends and Ninja #3 & Ninja #4 turn to "high-five" each other while one can easily imagine Ramza and co. getting incredibly confused*

Ramza: "...Right. Would you guys happen to be the ones who call themselves the 'Street Sharks'?"

*all Ninja turn back to Ramza*

Ripster: "Oh, right. You're still here, Audience Bro Guy. So you've heard of us then?"

Ramza: "Vaguely, yes."

Ninja #4: "Sweet!"

Ramza: "Not so much, actually. I'm here to investigate claims that you're planning to make Bervenia Volcano erupt. Is there any truth to that?"

Ripster: "Totally! If you want get in on it, that's mondo cool and all, but we only have enough boards for ourselves. I hope you brought your own."

Ramza: "...Boards? Please start from the beginning. Why do you want to make the volcano erupt? What possible good could from that?"

Ripster: "Only the world's most extreme surfing, of course. We can't really get any good waves up here even with my Geomancy and use of the Bombs that Jabberjaw tamed."

Ninja #3/Jabberjaw: "That's me!"

Ramza: ".... Please, if you would, tell me I have this correct: You want to cause a volcanic eruption. Just so you can surf. On lava. Briefly. In the extremely unlikely case you don't instantly die. ...Is that correct?"

Ripster: "Pretty much, bro. That's spot on. Good plan, isn't it?"

Ramza: "Wa--no! No, it is not a good plan! It is the exact opposite of a good plan!"

Bends: "Wow. Really harsh vibes there, trashing my plan and all."

*Ripster turns to Bends*

Ripster: "I know, right? Some people are just rude like that."

*Ripster turns back to Ramza*

Ripster: "Okay, Mr. Buzzkill Bro, if you don't want to join us, then why are you here? To stop us or something?"

Ramza: "Yes. With words preferably, though I'll use force if I have to do so. I can't let you endanger innocent people, especially for your own thrill-seeking."

Ripster: "Man, I figured it might come to this. So the new king finally took notice of us, did he?"

Ramza: "No, Del--he didn't. I'm just a concerned citizen is all."

Ripster: "...Okay then. Mr. Concerned Citizen, let's make a deal. If you can prove your strong enough, then we'll stop. Otherwise, we're going to pop this top until it just doesn't stop and you're going to get more than burned if you stay here without a board."

*Ripster turns to the others*

Ripster: "Alright! Street Sharks roll call!"

Bends: "Bends! The brainy one!"

Jabberjaw: "Jabberjaw! The jokey one!"

Streex: "Streex! The speedy one!"

*Ripster turns back to Ramza*

Ripster: "And Ripster, their leader, the muscly main man!"

Ramza: "...Sigh. So be it then."

*Ninja are all face down, but start to get up back*

Ripster: "Ow. My coolness hurts."

Jabberjaw: "Know that feeling, bro. My everything hurts."

Shreex: "Wiped out before we got started."

Bends: "Man, this plan blew up in our faces and not in the way we wanted."

*all the Ninja look at Ramza*

Ripster: "Man, you are a lot stronger than you look, Mr. Buzzkill. Who exactly are you?"

Ramza: "Like I said, I'm just a concerned citizen. Now, run along and don't try this again. Volcanos are dangerous to be around as it is. Just stick with regular surfing if you want thrills."

Ripster: "Yes, mom."

*Ripster turns to the others*

Ripster: "Man, let's go you guys. Maybe we can catch some waves out by Igros or something."

*Street Sharks teleport out, only to get mauled to death a kraken off-screen days later, explaining why they're never heard from again*

Ramza: "Honestly, kids these days."

1. Oil no Longer Adds Elemental Weakness: This is overall mostly a good thing as it no longer makes Oil basically an instant-death status while not undermining its ability to get past Absorption, Nullification or Halving of non-Holy, non-Dark elements. Unfortunately, while the weakening of Oil was merited, this same nerf makes Nameless Dance and especially the new Bad Luck rather toothless. I'll talk more on the latter later; the former has basically  already been explained with the talk about Dance in the past page.

2. More Item Attribute Space: This is always good. It's a shame that we didn't get as much Item Attribute space as we got Inflict Status space, though I suppose I should just be grateful that we didn't end up with as little Inflict Status space as we did Item Attribute space. Regardless, even with the noted risks for the version of extend hack, good job with getting it working at all.

3. Changes to the Previously Two-Handed Knives: I was a bit surprised to see that you made these no longer usable with Two Hands even with all the BS that was Cursed Ring Air Knife Thieves. Mind you, I was pleasantly surprised given that I figured these would remain Two Hands since you could have potentially balanced things, however precariously, while keeping it, at least in theory. Well, so long as Air Knife lost its random, accidental Sleep proc, which it's currently kept. I'm still not quite sure about that, in part due to the new Kaiser Shield, but meh, it's probably fine since it lost Two Hands.

4. Hidden Knife Being Weakened: "Finally" is all I can say if we're going to be stuck with an auto-Concentrate weapon that's innate to a class with Innate: Two Swords that made it the fastest class in the game. No way should it have had evasion, much less have boosted Speed. Thank you. (Now if only Kagesougi lost Don't Act and took more MP....)

5. Phoenix Blade v2.0: While this new Phoenix Blade is probably at least slightly overpowered--too much evasion, for one--and we didn't really need a better, slightly stronger version of the already great Icebrand, that this is not the old Always: Reraise Phoenix Blade is already the best news possible. Thank you for changing that.

6. Tactician's Blade W-EV Increased to 20: Good to see this weapon get a boost since it was already decent before, but it really did need more evasion if you were having units essentially rush in with it.

7. Parry Edge's Conversion into Mystic Blade: Of course, Parry Edge dying helped enable the above and it just goes to show how mediocre at best Parry Edge was even before noticing how it was also holding back other things like the above and also arguably Slasher. Mystic Blade, for the most part, seems like a decent enough weapon. I'm just not sure if it can out-do Lionheart or Rune Blade though, even on Geomancer; it doesn't seem it will be able to, to be honest, which is a shame. I guess this is part of why you said you were (re-re-re-)balancing Swords in 1.40 though, so....

8. Coral Sword: Although it's yet another weapon that no one has really used currently, it's good to at least see that it's previously nigh-useless proc is no longer holding it back. Now it actually has some power.

9. Buffs to Knight Swords as a Whole: I'm glad to see these buffed despite Paladin easily being one of the better, more used classes already and also still not really thinking that Excalibur needed a buff. Then again, it's difficult to tell given I've been the only person to use Excalibur (or Chaos Blade) and my one team that uses them both got curb-stomped in a horrible match-up where it didn't get to do anything, so shrug. As it is, the changes to Defender, Save the Queen and Ragnarok seem both balanced and for the better, so that's what important since those are the Knight Swords people are actually using.

10. Slasher v2.0: Nice to see Slasher is finally worth using even if Battle Axe's proc is still laughably broken. As laughable as people found the Two Swords idea that someone randomly suggested, I figured it would work and it looks like it has, so that's good.

11. Rainbow Staff got +2 WP and Immune: Oil: Positive changes all around, though it arguably steps on Gold Staff a bit by being more powerful than it, especially when mages that use Rainbow Staff will most likely use it either for the Neutral: All Elements or Immune: Oil aspects rather than its WP. Mind you, I don't think that Gold Staff needs the most WP of Staves; it probably shouldn't have that, really, given its proc is 100%.

Shrug. All I know is that it still says Rainbow Staff is All Elements in the Master Guide even though it isn't and hasn't been for over a year. Please change that in 1.40/140.

12. Stone Gun and the Spellguns are now 4 Range, Forced Two Hands: Thank you for this. It's rather telling that the Spellguns, despite having the same level of power, are actually balanced now that their range got reduced by a third and users don't get a free buff from Shields (named Kaiser Plate) on top of all that power. Black Magic is actually currently kind of useful now and I can make mages that don't automatically need Projectile Guard just to not die. Hurray. I'm not entirely sure Stone Gun needed the exact same restrictions, but I can see why you would do that, so meh.

13. Silencer got +2 WP: In theory, this is a buff. In practice, no one is using it still unfortunately. Only reason I'm not putting it under "The Middling" with all the other buffed yet ignored weapons is because there's really not anything more you could do to improve this before it became unreasonably overpowered. Even changing it to 100% Add: Silence won't really do much due to 99% of mages blocking Silence.

14. RLamia Harp got +2 MA in Exchange for Kosing 33% Add: Stop: I approve of this since now it means RLamia Harp and Madlemgen actually differ, which is good. Now if only RLamia Harp got its name fixed from vanilla's Engrish like happened with Oberlisk.... *eye twitch*

15. Sticks' Formula Changed to Max[PA/MA]*WP: An excellent change. Pity you haven't made this particular hack public as of yet. *cough*

16. Shields' Changes: While Kaiser Plate's particular changes still make me scratch my head since I'm still not sure about why that particular elemental combination--the Dark part is throwing me--was chosen, I generally agree that these are likely for the better. This even if Platina Shield making Demi 2 instant-death is hilarious. At the very least, the changes to Diamond Shield and Platina Shield help give Small Mantle and Vanish Mantle more worth than they previously had.

17. Helms' Changes: The change to Mythril Helm is good--it's just a shame that mages can't equip Helms normally. The change to Cross Helm and Grand Helm are pretty great, even if no one (else) is really using the latter (yet). The Platina Helm change might have gotten a somewhat lukewarm reception despite no longer overlapping with Mythril Helm if it wasn't for the introduction of Stall and the over-buffing of Stop; we'll talk about those two skills later though. (Also thank you for fixing that "Immunel" typo Mythril Helm had in the Master Guide. It was maddening to me.)

18. Hats' Changes: I agree with all of these as well, especially the nerfs to Golden Hairpin, Flash Hat and Thief Hat. The latter two were especially obnoxious in how overpowered they were and how much they both gave mages the finger oh so casually while also powering up Cursed Ring, which really didn't need the help.

19. Heavy Armor's Changes: I generally agree with the changes to both Genji Armor and Maximillian, even if no one (else) has been using the latter (yet).

20. Clothes' Changes: I generally agree with the slight buffs to all of these as well.

21. Silk Robe's MP Increased to 40: Hunh. I had forgotten this gave only 25 MP, partly because it's so rarely used. I was going to say that I'm more conflicted about this given that it thus has the same MP as the also rarely used Linen Robe and slightly less rarely used Wizard Robe, but then I was reminded that Linen Robe already has almost as much HP as Silk Robe in addition to +1 MA, so this is probably a good thing. Probably.

22. Accessories' Changes sans 108 Gems: These are all very much for the better, especially the necessary weakening of Cursed Ring, which basically was literally on half of all teams in Arena 1.38 after a certain point. So glad that's begun to taper off at least somewhat with this much need change. While Talk Skill is actually stronger than it was before, the  change and overall weakening of Defense Ring rather was needed, if only to enable Water to an element actually worth using for offense.

23. Squire's Changes: I agree with all of these. It's nice to see that Yell and Wish no longer suck and to be able to know that Alacrity Focus is actually going off. Now if only we could make Ultima worth using again....

24. Chemist's Changes: I agree with the slight buff to X-Potion and the slight nerf to Auto-Potion. Despite being 10 HP in different directions, they've both changed quite a bit.

25. Paladin's Reraise Weakened: I am so glad this is no longer instant even if it's still really fast. Thank you for that.

26. Archer's Changes: I agree with these for the most part, especially the more "normalized" formula that Cover Fire has now. The only thing I don't agree with is Hawk's Eye being CT 1 now even with the weakening of Oil and the increase to 12 MP. Then again, I'm not sure it actually is 1 CT since it's still listed as 3 CT in the Master Guide....

27. Monk's Changes: I agree with these and am glad that we didn't go with Raven's changes, at least when it came to switching around elemental aspects, despite my initial agreement with them.

28. Priest's Changes: I agree with these, though Regen could honestly probably go down to 50 JP since no  one's really using it still. Wall being instant is a lot less problematic than I figured it might be and it's nice to see people actually using it now.

29. Wizard's Changes: See above, though replace "Regen" with "Poison" if we insist on Priest and Wizard keeping those respective spells instead of giving them to Time Mage or something. Flare could also maybe stand to become 6 CT, if only because Holy is still kind of quick for its power, relatively speaking.

30. Demi's AoE Increased to 2, X Reduced to 80: This is one of only two changes to Time Mage I can find myself whole-heartedly liking, which is ironic given how much I kvetched about Time Mage needing improvement. Careful what you wish for I suppose.

31. Critical Quick JP Reduced to 200: Good to see this no longer be so expensive. The same thing probably needs to happen to Chrono Trigger given how many more reliable sources of Haste there are and given how even the balanced version of Speed Save is basically a (much) better version of it.

32. Summoner's Changes: While I'm not sure that Moogle needed to be increased to 3, I generally agree with these changes.

33. Mediator's Changes: Aside from the facts that I think I've helped you inadvertedly helped you create a monster by suggesting Stall, that I think Refute would still be better off if it was split in half and that Mimic Daravon & Sleep the status likely need a nerf, these changes are good. Even if no one is using Move -1, it definitely fits on Mediator way better than it did on Paladin.

34. Counter Flood's JP Reduced to 200: I would put this under "The Middling" if it wasn't for the fact Counter Flood does tend to usually do relatively abysmal damage, so it not costing 250 JP is ultimately a good thing.

35. Ignore Height's JP Reduced to 150: Given it's basically an inferior version of Fly and Teleport in most instances, it's good to see this get its cost halved. Jump +2 could maybe reduced to 50 JP from 100 JP, but I'm not sure that's actually necessary since Jump +2 will occasionally give units some additional horizontal movement unlike Ignore Height. (It would be really nice if Lancers got Robes back in 1.40/140 though. Hint hint.)

36. Bard & Dancer's Changes: Grouping these together since you kind of have to talk about Bard and Dancer together. People are finally using Last Song, Last Dance and Faith Up, so these changes are obviously for the better. Of course given the Song & Dance talk I brought up that we're still having, Last Song and arguably Last Dance might still be better off being buffed even more (so long as Last Dance can't be Mimicked since Last Song effectively can't be Mimicked anyway). Shrug. Baby (dance) steps.

1. Mage Masher's Proc Rate Reduced to 25%: Not really sure why Mage Masher's proc got reduced even with as good as Bizen Boat the ability can be given most of the classes with access to Knives have piss-poor MA. Mage Masher just probably needs to change completely really given it's always been the worst Knife. Even if something has to be, it's easily the worst Knife by far. Still not exactly huge concern or even issue, but it's definitely there.

2. Spell Edge's Stealing Muramasa's Everything: I try not to explicitly question your decisions for things despite and given how much I nag you and generally kvetch about various (every)things, especially since you're generally doing all this stuff alone and free of charge. That said, as insolent as it seems, I really do have to question what made you think it would be a good idea giving two of the fastest classes, who already generally hit harder than they "should", innate access to a weapon that 100% adds Faith, especially when one of those classes already had innate access to an auto-Concentrate weapon and Two Swords. I just...what.

Please, please switch these back. Otherwise we're going to be stuck with Short Edge + Spell Edge until the end of days, especially since nothing really has Immune: Faith (or Immune: Innocent) that's readily available.

3. Katana changes: I'll be blunt here as well, partly because it's directly related to the above: I don't like any of these changes, especially since Katana already suck(ed) for male Samurai, who generally are already middling at best as it is. It was a bit of damning faint praise when I said that I like the change to Masamune the katana better since that katana is still a kind of bad, trap-like weapon in its current state that's best used by Paladins anyway. At the very least it needs something else, like Immune: Slow or Always: Regen or something to make up for the severe speed drop that necessitates either defending against Slow or becoming auto-useless when you're inevitably hit by Slow (2).

As for the other two, Chirijiraden the katana might not be so bad if it was Always: Berserk, though I'm not sure if that would "break" it or not admittedly. This even if that would still mean that the best thing male Samurai could do is be suicidal. As it is now, despite the damage potential behind it, the only thing that's good about it to me really is that gives the was-always-good Giant Axe more room to shine now that Chirijiraden isn't essentially a non-elemental version of it (which I was fine with).

The new Muramasa just sucks though. I can totally see what you were going for, but between female Samurai not really ever physically attacking, male Samurai having weaker MA & MP, Samurai generally not having much MP in general, the Spell Absorb being "only" a 50% chance, Kiyomori the katana still having that +2 MA and Muramasa's old proc being overpowered as hell on Spell Edge due to Thief and Ninja...yeah. This needs to change back please.

4. Wizard Staff got +1 WP: Hunh. Didn't really notice this until now, partly because of no one really using Wizard Staff anymore due to how good Healing Staff is now. Despite that, I'm putting this under "The Bad" because I still think Wizard Staff could change into something more useful than a carbon copy of Wizard Rod that's it now basically a better version of for some reason. It doesn't help that Wizard Staff is among the Staves that out-damage Gold Staff. Meh. I still think this would be fine as the Dark mirror to White Staff, but that may just be me.

5. Mythril Bow's Conversion into Atheist Bow: I'm not exactly sad to see Mythril Bow leave, even if it seems like it became a part of all the elemental bows sans Silver Bow, but Atheist Bow seems even worse...in theory. This if only because Innocent does what Silence can't: it actually cripple mages. Granted, Wizards, Priests, Time Mages and Summoner can still do something if they get hit with Innocent, but between Innocent obviating most of their options while still leaving them open, meaning the A.I. will still try to use them, unlike Silence and Innocent not being blocked by anything that mages can actually wear...yeah. Granted, this hasn't been nearly as problematic as I was expecting due to you having the foresight to make this have the least range of any Longbow. I just think that, as I was saying a year ago, at the very least that Immune: Innocent (still) needs to exist on at least one accessory, especially if this stays around.

6. 108 Gems Lost All Its Immunities: Given this was nowhere near as powerful as the two other accessories to get nerfed--Defense Ring and Cursed Ring--going into 1.39, I really don't see why this lost its immunities. Given Oil was weakened, I could see it losing that, sure. Similarly, I could even see it losing Frog just because Chantange already has a lot of competition with Angel Ring currently being the only accessory Grand Cross users can wear so as to avoid inflicting Blind on themselves. That and Defense Ring still blocking Sleep, which Defense Ring needs to do, especially if Sleep status is still so unfair. Losing both Poison and Undead as well seems a bit...much though, especially since the loss of the former means that now no accessory has Immune: Poison. Even with the change to Cure, that's rather...bad, especially since 108 Gems is one of the more mage-friendly accessories.

I think the best solution would be to give 108 Gems back Immune: Poison & Immune: Undead as well as to give it Immune: Faith & Immune: Innocent. That seems like it would kill two birds with one stone, though that may just be me.

7. Haste & Slow the spells' Changes vs. Haste 2 & Slow 2's Changes (or Lack Thereof): While the slight increase to Haste and Slow's accuracy--gods, their X's used to be 60?--is appreciated as well as the general reduction in JP costs for Time Mage overall, it really isn't enough to stop Haste and Slow from being obviated by Haste 2 and Slow 2 respectively. This especially since Slow 2 is still rather...overly accurate. Honestly, the "best" solution to this is probably just to switch the Level 1 and Level 2 spells' accuracies with each other, even if the Level 2 spells might then need their Xs pushed to 75. Shrug.

8. Stop the spell's Changes: I still don't understand why this was so heavily buffed when it wasn't that weak in the first place. It was just over-expensive JP-wise. If it remains as accurate as it is now (and it really does seem higher than X = 70), then it probably needs to slowed down to CT 5 given how overly powerful Short Charge + Stop is seeming. Shrug.

9. Bad Luck's Changes: Time for more bluntness: This is somehow even worse than it already was now and it was already pretty bad. At least before it could be a serious threat sometimes with its ability to maybe instantly kill or Stop or Slow despite its slow CT and frankly exorbitant MP cost (for the class it's in and its nonexistent range). Now it doesn't even have that save for Stop, which is done way better and more reliably by Stop the spell and the new Stall, and Oil got weakened, which is added more reliably by Spell Edge now. Even if Oil's weakening affected Nameless Dance too, Oil's weakening affected Bad Luck more even more than Nameless Dance since at least Nameless Dance a) hits all enemy units, b) can be done from anywhere on the map, c) doesn't trigger Reactions and d) costs less MP.

Steal already had and still has so few abilities worth using as it is and all of the ones it has currently are only worth using because they're frankly either borderline overpowered (Steal Heart, Steal Accessory), which is fine, or actually overpowered (Quickening, Spellbreaker), which...isn't. Everything else is much pretty trash and Bad Luck is now king of that junk pile, even over Magic Ruin.

The "original" suggested plans for 1.39 were making it have a chance of adding multiple statuses via Separate rather than the (unclear) Random Add it currently has and making the statuses that it caused choose from among Blind, Silence, Stop, Immobilize (Don't Move), Disable (Don't Act) and Doom. This while also no longer being countered by Counter Flood since it would already still have enough potential issues with its 1 range, CT 3 and MP 6. Well all that and possibly changing its name to Tough Luck. I'd like to think that would still work.

At the very least, it would be a much better alternative than the current Bad Luck, which is completely obviated by Stop the spell, Stall and various weapons including the newly changing Spell Edge when it comes to adding one probably not crippling status after waiting longer than literally half of the damaging spells that exist. Pleasefix Bad Luck/Tough Luck in 1.40/140.

10. Quickening's General Continued Existence: I've kvetched about Quickening enough that I really don't--well, shouldn't--have to say anything else here outside of again saying that increasing the JP to 300 doesn't change much and it will forever be broken, at least if it remaining instant; I've already stated that I doubt giving it CT would work either, though it would at least be better. Really, Quickening was weakened far more by Cursed Ring's nerf, which only weakened it a tad, than it was by the JP cost increase. It's basically still obnoxiously overpowered and undermines a bunch of things, including Phoenix Blade's only current drawback. So...yeah. Something has got to give otherwise Steal might as well only have four active abilities.

11. Scholar's Lack of Changes: I'll break my "vow" to not talk specifically focus on something that didn't change, but given that both Quake and Tornado were already thought by many to be problematic...yeah. I feel bad for harping on this particular point since I think you did say already that you were planning on making some adjustments to Scholar in 1.40/140, but yeah.... Please change at least those two things. (I also think, beyond the Wizard+ stats issue, that Bio 2 really shouldn't be able to potentially add AoE Frog.)

1. Dual Cutters got +1 WP: I'm still not really sure this is necessary, but thus far it doesn't seem to be breaking anything or even making much of an impact. Shrug.

2. Short Edge got 100% Add: Oil: I'm...not sure how I feel about this either still, even with Oil itself being weakened. I'd probably fine with it if it wasn't for the change to Spell Edge, honestly.

3. Ninja Edge got Minor Buffs While Losing 1 WP: I'm not sure losing 1 WP was really merited given  Ninja Knife's still superior strength, Kagesougi's ability to inflict Don't Move (among other things) and the 50% chance of Don't Move both not being guaranteed & on a close-range squishy unit. It's rather difficult to tell how much the boost to W-EV and its proc even help given that no one is using it because the current go-to equipment for Ninja is either Short Edge + Spell Edge or some (Repel) Knife + Hidden Knife if Ninjato are being used at all.

4. Shieldrender's WP Reduced to 7: It's difficult to tell whether this was "merited" or not given that it's one of those (many) weapons no one is using for various reasons. I still wouldn't be surprised if this and Bow Gun have to be completely changed ultimately despite finally knowing that they're both technically working.

5. Lionheart's W-EV Increased to 10: For the record, I'd place this under "The Bad" if anyone was really using this since I don't agree with it. As it is, I haven't seen enough evidence one way or the other given I think only a couple of people have used it oddly. Might just be due to how powerful Phoenix Blade v2.0 is though. Well that and other factors like how Dancers have all but disappeared in Arena going into 1.39/139 when they were generally the primary users of this sword.

6. Thunder Rod & Ice Rod got +1 WP: Hard to tell how significant a change this is between Rod users usually being squishy, non-melee units and no one really using these anyway. Shrug.

7. White Staff got +1 WP and Holy Element: See above except replace "Rod users" with "Staff users" and "these" with "this".

8. Healing Staff got +1 Speed: This is among the numerous things that I'm not sure about how to ultimately feel still. I kind of think it may be doing too much currently between the boost to Speed, having so much WP, making it so that mages generally won't stupidly melee a unit they shouldn't (often at the worst possible time) and boosting both Dia and Holy. It may just be the weird, unresolved Speed situation of both Time Mage and Priest though along with Holy still being a little too fast for its power, especially comparative to Flare. Regardless, to me, right now the 1.39 Healing Staff feels like the new version of Golden Hairpin really.

9. Gold Staff's W-EV Increased to 20: As I figured, this buff isn't "enough" unfortunately, as evidenced by people trying to use Healing Staff or Rainbow Staff as the melee Staves of the group. I think this just needs +1 Move so that Staff user can just get in range to actually hit with the Staff. Shrug.

10. Longbow Changes sans Atheist Bow: I've not come to a conclusion about these yet either despite people generally using all of these save for Ultimus Bow and despite getting my ass kicked by them and despite somewhat agreeing that Silver Bow, Ice Bow, Lightning Bow and Windslash Bow might be slightly over-buffed. Shrug.

11. Choice Band v2.0: This is an interesting change. It's a damn shame that it's still not really worth using compared to Chakra Band still blocking too many serious negative statuses, even with Chakra Band not blocking Petrify as it apparently still should. This could probably stand to be Immune: Slow at least, at least given Slow 2. Shrug.

12. Equip Armor & Equip Heavy Blade got Lower JP Costs: Honestly hadn't noticed these until now despite Equip Armor's JP drop being by a whole 100 JP. Hunh. Still difficult to tell whether it's "enough" despite at least one person actually using Equip Armor given no one has ever really used Equip Clothing as of yet and that would be the "best" thing to compare this one to, even with Equip Clothing's continued lack of access to "Headbands". Shrug.

As for Equip Heavy Blade, it could probably stand to get access to Flails though and I'm not just saying that because I think Flails would "work" on Paladins, even if one of them should maybe change. That's for later though.

13. Comet and Sinkhole's Buffs: I'm still not really sure either of these were "needed" per say, especially the former in light of the weakening of Auto Potion. Shrug. I'm not exactly up in arms about them though.

14. Speed Ruin's X Increased to 100: I'd put this under "The Good"...if Quickening's existence didn't still basically completely obviate it, buffed or not. It's at least the most usable Ruin currently, but that's really not saying much.

15. Samurai's Changes: The change to Asura's damage would be good...if male Samurai were worth using otherwise and if they could come close to getting the most damage about of it, but...they aren't and they can't respectively. I have suggestions about these that can wait until another, Samurai-focused post though that will likely be coming soon anyway.

16. Ninja's Changes: It's nice to see Tsumazuku working now that the A.I. knows to actually use it. It's just a shame that it's both not very good at what it's supposed to do and inferior to both the-still-overpowered Kagesougi and even just regularly attacking with Ninja. Maybe if there's some way to at least make sure that Reraise is canceled even upon a lethal hit--would changing the Order work?--I could see if being useful enough to stay around, but if not....

As for Houkouton's change, it's difficult to tell how much the vastly different formula has done for it given that no one is using it still.

17. Mime's Vast Overhaul: For the most part, I do think this would qualify as "The Good" even with the ever-increasing issues that seem to be cropping up with them on top of that fact that no one on FFH--myself included--still has looked into why Mimes aren't 100% Miming things despite that being the case since vanilla. The only reasons I'm putting this here are because I think Mime's stats were overly nerfed out of a well-intentioned abundance of caution, making a lot of RSMs flat-out worthless on them and making them...really awkward to put on most teams beyond the usual Song, Dance or Lore spam, which is just more of the same. On top of that, I still think it would likely be ultimately better to just replace them with Blue Mage if possible, especially if you're still ultimately planning to try to put monsters into Arena since Blue Mages can act as "test cases" for monsters despite also being competition.

Not much to say about this aside from my surprise that this lasted as long as it did given how hard both of these can hit. Well, as hard as Dorter's Most Wanted used to hit, before the necessary nerf to Air Knife and before the female Thief became a Main Gauche support wench. Meh. It probably took so long because of the Cursed Ring users on both sides generally getting back up relatively quickly.

Still, Dokurider's team did well enough aside from the backfiring Berserk and Goland Coal City's map generally being the site of vicious curbstomp.

This match, on the other hand, was shorter than I expected despite silentkaster's high speed and Andante49's team being a well-tuned engine of death. The latter in part because of the fact that Quake is overpowered, though we can all complain about that in the Balance thread. As it is, by Hades, I think that the second round was the first time I've seen "Old Gimmickry" not get off Solution's Innocent proc on the Monk.

Currently, Andante49's "Old Gimmickry" team is now making me hear the "Who can stop this fighting machine?!" sound bite from Alpha 3 that Skullgirls makes reference to among other things.

Hunh. I hadn't noticed that Barren's Hammer of God team got such a massive overhaul given its previous Holy focus is kind of incidental now and only Mary hasn't really changed. I guess the change is decent, but Abigail the now-Wizard not having an AoE damage spell is super awkward in my opinion, even with Faith Rod being better with status spells. It only gets more awkward given Abigail has no spells to actually take advantage of Oil, though I suppose that's more for Gabriel's sake, which is...fine I suppose. I'm kind of tempted to make a Holy absorb team myself now....

As it is, she only used Frog on her own team after being Charmed despite no one on Guys Night Out being immune to Frog. I think that lack is a key factor, if not the most important factor, to why his team lost given his team couldn't really make up for the severe Speed difference with only Asura as its AoE. His fastest unit, the Ninja, often being focused on healing rather than attacking didn't help either.

As it is, though, silentkaster's Mediator getting absurdly lucky with hitting Death Sentence hardly helped Barren either. Seriously, the amount of luck reminded of how annoyed I got, I think, towards the end of the last match in the marathon that TrueLight posted a while ago where a similar thing happened; this after missing a decent amount of Talk Skill myself. Some people have all the luck.

Besides that, I suppose it was decently close all things considered, if only because silentkaster's Thief did miss a bunch of attacks against most of Barren's units whether they had Abandon or not.