[Old] ALL old topics created before the FULL release (Merged together!)

[efrate]

Andramalek took way to long, it was such a grind.  I found a cheap way around though.  My faith rod sage could cast return 2 and keep him from doing much of anything. 

I could have totally done it the entire time, keeping him in ct 0 lock, but I misclicked and used despair 2 instead, otherwise I have a 93% chance of making him do absolutely nothing the entire time, and if it hits CT is just perfect that it goes off right before he gets a turn.    For fun I broke his magic to 1 as well, then watched as he kept spelling my males while my ribboned female slowly 100hp at a time took him down.  He lossed my sage once and that bastard threw an elixir at him to undo 999 HP worth of damage.  Fucking sages. 

Dyce was actually harder, Andramalak was just a long grind, but he couldn't do much even without my return 0 thing.  A few magic breaks and his damage became pitiful, and the innate 2 two swords is nice but everything seems to be prioritized over it.  Ice 4 for 29 damage is funny. 

[efrate]

Move get xp or jp would be nice if they didn't come in the sage job which by the time you've gotten that a few jp are meaningless.  I could see it being a priest or wizard skill, to give an incentive to stay in the class a bit.  It would also help keep levels down. 

I always used to catch knightswords in the DD in vanilla, I haven't quite gotten to DD yet, building cloud a bit then gonna embark on it.  4 or 5 battles a floor?  I won't do all the rare battles but I want to do everything in the DD. 

I use fly often, more than teleport, merely because its on preformer and I like them while I generally don't use time mages for much other than haste spam, especially with bosses being immune to dark, and Radd has haste as a red mage and red magic was a fine secondary through all of chapter 3 and a little of chapter 4.  Until I had to go to items for reviving because of speed disparity and charge times. 

Fly also negates all fall damage which has come into play at least once.  If finger guard could be used versus those annoying friggin kittys and stop/dm/da spam is the only way I would use it, not so much steal heart nor talk skill used.  That would be the most useful, I hate those damn cats takes so long to kill them.  No hard mind you, just tedious as fuck. 

Defends problem is the time you get it you have no class evade and no mantles, so it becomes very very useless.  5% c-ev on a chemist going to 10 really isn't enough of a jump to mean anything.  And by the time you could benefit from it a decent bit, you have much better stuff to use.  If you got some magic evade earlier I could maybe see it, since mages are beating chapter 1 and part of 2, but again by the time its meaningful you have much better stuff to use. 

Some kind of status protection support would be amazing, maybe male exclusive on performer even if it just like reduces chance of neg status by x percent.  As a foil to the women, and taking a support/reaction slot i think is at least as major if not more than than a hat slot.  By the time you get ribbons the loss of 70 or 80 HP doesn't mean much since you have 100+ HP armors. 

Maybe something that even prevent further statii from effecting you if you have one already?  Not sure if thats possible but worth considering. 

[Shade]

Andramalek took way to long, it was such a grind.  I found a cheap way around though.  My faith rod sage could cast return 2 and keep him from doing much of anything.  

I could have totally done it the entire time, keeping him in ct 0 lock, but I misclicked and used despair 2 instead, otherwise I have a 93% chance of making him do absolutely nothing the entire time, and if it hits CT is just perfect that it goes off right before he gets a turn.    For fun I broke his magic to 1 as well, then watched as he kept spelling my males while my ribboned female slowly 100hp at a time took him down.  He lossed my sage once and that bastard threw an elixir at him to undo 999 HP worth of damage.  Fucking sages.  

Dyce was actually harder, Andramalak was just a long grind, but he couldn't do much even without my return 0 thing.  A few magic breaks and his damage became pitiful, and the innate 2 two swords is nice but everything seems to be prioritized over it.  Ice 4 for 29 damage is funny.  

I bet it's hard to exceed the 1.3 version, since I found that it was best boss battle of whole game.(It was fun and hard(first time zodiac battle wasn't cheap againts it or me))

Maybe he should be faster.



EDIT:
Yeah just completed chapter 3 under 20 lv(highest level 19). So what I think. Yuguo woods were weird, those undead mages were one shotting me with their magic, and the ghosts were status raping me(also one of them did throw spirit of 6 damage), kinda caught me off guard that the status shit from ghosts were 100%. Izlude just fun fight, that's how assasination battle should be done, zalmo did not impact me much, I just ripped him part as always, first rafa save mission scared shit out me when summoner casted leviathan out of the blue and killed half of my team, but I managed win anyway, Riovanes gate battle was pissing me off after tenth time ramza and mustadio died(especially when I realized that neither agrias or mustadio had x-pots) by bow shot, wiggy was bleh, he did not intrest me at all, Velius fight was fun, but he spammed too much raise(rezloop...), elmedor was fast.

Is it still ultima that secret ability of ramza? Also beat down looks fancy. Also is quest beowulf weird or something, he has mime mastered, but only another jobs are base job(level 1) and chemist(level 1).

Now I mah going to do sidequests(something that I had hard time always when I tried it(mainly, because of low levels).

[Pierce]

MP Restore you could make it like it is in Arena; whenever you're hit you regain all your MP, regardless of critical or not.

[RavenOfRazgriz]

Take Move-Get JP and Move-Get EXP and put them on Squire.  Make them really cheap, like 50-100 JP.  They're suddenly a whole lot better and usable for a good chunk of the early game on all your characters.

Fly is again mostly useless because of how it becomes available.  Fighters can get Ignore Height and mages can get Teleport, but Fly requires the Performer.  If Fly were on the Time Mage and Teleport on the Performer, you'd see people using Fly a lot until a lot closer to the end game.

Defend sucks because it takes your Support Slot for something that only lasts until you do not-Defend.  That sounds silly to say but it's true.  If you make not Acting not give you bonus CT for your next turn then make Defend innate on everything, people will use the command.  It's "I don't need to do something this turn, I can have a free Abandon while I set up my integral turn," and that's nothing to scoff at.  Abandon itself is pretty hilariously powerful, after all.  It's why early game enemies with Caution can end up being so annoying.  Competent gear + Caution on a defensively set up unit can take a lot of slugging to get through.

Gilgame Heart is good for hard-grinding, but I'd remove it just for being a gateway for allowing you to break the game in terms of gil with little effort.

MP Restore would be better as If Damaged and MP < 50%, restore all MP.  That's annoying though, so you can easily use that hack (that I believe is from FFMaster) to make it work against any damage.

Finger Guard / Catch are trash, though Finger Guard makes a good boss innate for blocking Br/Fa modding if that's relevant.  If it is, you may want to keep it for that reason alone.

[efrate]

What about having MP restore work like auto-potion but with ethers?  Would that be reasonable to implement?

[Dome]

Take Move-Get JP and Move-Get EXP and put them on Squire.  Make them really cheap, like 50-100 JP.  They're suddenly a whole lot better and usable for a good chunk of the early game on all your characters.
Good idea...I think I'll use it

Fly is again mostly useless because of how it becomes available.  Fighters can get Ignore Height and mages can get Teleport, but Fly requires the Performer.  If Fly were on the Time Mage and Teleport on the Performer, you'd see people using Fly a lot until a lot closer to the end game.
Teleport doesn't exist in my patch, but I'll make the player able to get fly earlier :-)

Defend sucks because it takes your Support Slot for something that only lasts until you do not-Defend.  That sounds silly to say but it's true.  If you make not Acting not give you bonus CT for your next turn then make Defend innate on everything, people will use the command.  It's "I don't need to do something this turn, I can have a free Abandon while I set up my integral turn," and that's nothing to scoff at.  Abandon itself is pretty hilariously powerful, after all.  It's why early game enemies with Caution can end up being so annoying.  Competent gear + Caution on a defensively set up unit can take a lot of slugging to get through.
Giving everyone defend as an innate doesn't look like a bad idea...20 ct or double evasion if you don't have to do anything...

Gilgame Heart is good for hard-grinding, but I'd remove it just for being a gateway for allowing you to break the game in terms of gil with little effort.
Gilgame heart is crap

Finger Guard / Catch are trash, though Finger Guard makes a good boss innate for blocking Br/Fa modding if that's relevant.  If it is, you may want to keep it for that reason alone.
I was thinking (Dunno if it's possible) about merging Catch - Arrow guard (In 1.4 arrow guard block gunshots as well)

What about having MP restore work like auto-potion but with ethers?  Would that be reasonable to implement?
This would be awesome

MP Restore you could make it like it is in Arena; whenever you're hit you regain all your MP, regardless of critical or not.
Isnt this a bit OP?

[RavenOfRazgriz]

Gilgame heart is crap

I dunno man, I like infinite Gil.  I can use the exact same strategy I use for level grinding too.

It's crap in the normal game, but it's a grinding godsend when used correctly.  Infinite Gil makes the game a lot easier, after all.

[efrate]

I think a better balance between randoms and story battles should be worked on.  Some randoma are quite difficult, some are ridiuclously simple, but most story missions are way less threatening than randoms.  I don't know if it since monsters don't have equips they tend to be quite a bit more powerful do to the only way to alter is with skills and stats, but its kinda insane.  I may not do much for a while, started workign on my own patches again, though I still play daily it not all day as it was.

[efrate]

Thief hat doesn't prevent don't move don't act. 

[efrate]

Well the next to last series of battle were quite difficult, so maybe just worry about the ones before that.  As for the DD, well I keep fighting this regulator with like 6k or so HP by the looks of it, but with teleport and a move of 5 I am not sure how I can beat him without just dying to ja-magic and meteor.  I can drain all his MP, at least I am pretty sure, 4k or so was easy to grab then he stopped meteoring, just using mini ultima and galaxy stop.

The problem is if he moves his max distance I cannot keep up with him unless I give up elemental resistance when means I'll just die since his speed is ridiculous.  Also, 631 HP regen every 3 to 4 of my guys turns when i cannot reach him is unovercomable.  Wanna try a few things before saying screw it and just finishing the game, but the lack of being able to use hat slot to prevent don't move/don't act short of females makes things odd.   Women cannot put out the damage to keep that regen in check, since flare 2 takes too long to cast and ends up nuking my own people.  GOnna keep trying, a few more ideas need to be tested.  I understand is supposed to be difficult, but the 5 move really gets me, if it was 4 I would be ok, since I can actually reach him each turn. 

[Dome]

Thanks, fixed

[Dome]

Regulator is level 99, don't fight him unless you aren't level 99 too

Remember, DD is meant to be HARD, because it's completely optional

Randoms will get worked on...which one are the hardest in your opinion?

[Eternal]

In the first battle at Orbonne (before Gariland), Agrias had a White Robe equipped. Is this supposed to happen?

[efrate]

I am level 99.   Today I learned that limit can be counter magiced.... oops.  Otherwise I think I would have had him.  Its not an issue with him killing me, I can outlast him, but that regen and that he double turns not the most infrequently mean I need 1200+ damage each round of turns to be just to make any progress. 

That wouldn't be bad with a move of 4, but I cannot do any hi damaging attacks that are quick enough to not nuke my team, then my the time I heal all my work is undone.  Worst compat with Ramza that last run was a bitch as well, with chaos blade and PA tricked as heretic I did a whopping 170-some damage. 

I am forced to use spells, limits and randomagic because of range.  Or if I get 5 move, then I have the joys of being taking ridiculous damage from instaspeed melt, tornado and quake.  I try to set up with 2 members not absorbing the element and keep everyone together hoping the AI sees 2 guys it can hit and goes with it, then I can use countermagic to at least negate regen, and once I get a good couple hits cloud becomes a star.  Forgot he could equip ribbons, makes a huge difference. 

Also, does he have infinite MP?  I spell absorbed him 4x for 999 each time, and that takes 1/3 of total each time, and another time for good measure for leftovers after rounding, but he was still casting meteor.  I popped open patcher and meteor does have a MP cost, and since I cannot really do anything to mitigate that damage, that hurts.  It one shots my ribbon wearers normally.  I'm using 2 people's secondary just to drain and I'd rather have something else, but I can deal with everything but meteor.

Also, I am assuming holocost is not counter-magicable? 

As for randoms, most noticably ones with lots of goblins or undead.  Goblins without any PA saves one shot everyone who doesn't have 600 or more HP fairly consistently, and kills everyone who is charging if they midcharge. 

Cats are annoying since they prioritize status over everything but they aren't hard just tedious.  Black chocos are free turns since they always use choco ball and it almost never connects.  I've only encounted one behometh so far so I don't know about them, but hydras outside of nelveska aren't too bad, same with dragons.  Trees sandbag well but with the exception of the treehugger battle in sweegy aren't too bad. 

Squid and birds are annoying but magic ring makes them mostly ineffectual.  Eyeballs are a crap shoot, sometimes their statii attacks are like 97% to hit, other times they are like 30.  Not sure if I'm just getting weird zodiac or what.  Morbols hit almost as hard as goblins, but they're slower and generally start farther away, and they don't have a lifebreak attack so those aren't too bad. 

Basically any random with 8 or more monsters is drastically more difficult than pretty much every story battle.  I love seeing humans because despite item spam they are non-threatening.  Zombag was a bit of a pain, but cloud did his thing and it was no biggie.  Just took me a few tries to arrange speed well so once I died I angel ring raised and got a turn before anyone else did and could climhazard or blade beam him to death.   

Not sure what hit rate on Demi and Demi 2 is but even with a really good magic evasion shield +mantle I don't think I've ever evaded it, malak did once I think which I am attributing to his horrid faith screwing the equation. 

[efrate]

Also are you supposed to be able to night sword zombag and heal?

[Eternal]

IIRC, Zalbag isn't technically an undead in that battle, even though his nickname would imply elsewise.

[Shade]

In goland underground(save reis), I am happy about the prizes that you give.

Knights were anoying just, because I had steal the swords, before I could deal damage.

Engineers are easy and hard at the same time, cause without ice shield I think I can't survive 500 damage 100% shots of death. Guns are very strong againts me ,because I am so low level(19), and my max hp is under 400, so only that could survive those shot for little while in Malak, so I did not have a choice there. Guns are very strong at my levels, since they use pure WP formula, so they don't require stats, and at low levels for high damage it's usually must high stats.

I will always hate assasins and their seal.

Last battle was kinda fun, the demon is hard to deal, since you have to have very fast team that at his first turn he will target your guys with 100 damage and it still hurts, but malboros cause diffuculties by using their status, and that demon where sandbagging them pretty hard. I just realized btw that demon doesn't have the immunities from dark and from status, so I found funny when malbaros where using bad breath and and poison hit at the demon. then next was sleep status. Kinda easy if you know this and are prepared with faith rod, I wasn't so yeah, did not get to use his weakness.

[Shade]

I think beowulf is bugged, he has mime unlocked, but nothing else is unlocked(expect the two starting classes).

[efrate]

^ known issue, Orlandu is the same way.