FFT: WOTL - Valeria 2.4 "Ivalice Remastered"

[Windows X]

FFT: WOTL - Valeria 2.4 "Ivalice Remastered"



It's been a while since the last successful update of Final Fantasy Tactics Valeria 1.5 releases. There's a big re-balance and improvements applied from years of research and playthroughs and I'm glad to hear you guys love it.

Now it's finally time to step up for the big game changer after making solid foundation of Valeria re-balance and improvements. This project will finally reach to a new pinnacle of Final Fantasy Tactics re-balance.

I thought I'd mod this game for the sake of no grind run at first. But I ended up doing a complete vanilla re-balance patch with adjustments based on Tactics Ogre and Tactics series released thereafter.

The goal of this mod is to breath new life to Vanilla gameplay with new mechanics and gameplay design. This Valeria mod will make the game more enjoyable without imposing difficulty.

I recommend to enjoy Valeria mod without excessive grinding. You can reliably beat boss battles with lower level though it maybe more challenging without cheesy tactics due to removal of some broken abilities.



>=== Reworked mechanics ===<

In this Valeria mod, I adjusted some battle machanics based on experience with Tactics Ogre and re-balance some items and equipment to be more useful and interesting.

If you're familiar with Tactics Ogre gameplay, you'll find this battle mechanics working in similar manner with some new fresh ideas while staying faithful to vanilla design.



[Re-balance speed multiplier]

Default mage jobs are way too fast, as fast as Squire and Knight and White mage is even faster ruining chance to land spells properly. By reducing speed multiplier to 90-95, they will act after other physical jobs making full use of CT mechanics.

Only White Mage, Orator and Bard will have the same speed as malee jobs. I won't decrease stats on some enemy's jobs so it won't decrease difficulty in gameplay.

I also decreased Speed Growth on Thief and Ninja so it won't have broken speed in late game fights. Thief and Ninja will have swapped speed multiplier for re-balance purposes. They're still faster units but not way too fast.



[Re-balance PA/MA Growth for generic jobs]

Most physical jobs has high PA Growth from 40-48 for basic jobs but generic jobs don't have MA Growth except Mime. So I increased MA Growth for Magic oriented jobs based on half of PA Growth decreased from base 50.

Since maximum MA bonus stats are decreased and some spells are nerfed, higher MA Growth should compensate well. I also increased PA Growth on Black Mage/Time Mage/Summoner by 5 for re-balance purposes.

For physical jobs with PA growth, they'll have MA Growth decreased by half of PA Growth gained from base 50 except some hybrid jobs that won't suffer MA/PA Growth penalty.



[Remove Brave/Faith manipulation]

Some abilities can be too powerful or useless with brave/faith manipulation. So I changed most brave/faith manipulation abilities to PA/MA manipulation instead.

Mystic and Orator's abilities are adjusted to PA/MA manipulation for different uses. This also applies to enemies' abilities. Beowulf's Chicken will temporary inflict Chicken status without lowering Brave for 16 ticks.

I also removed Brave manipulation from Ramza and Reis' abilities too leaving only stats boosting. Bravery Boost and Faith Boost reaction abilities are also removed from Bard/Dancer.



[Re-balance healing mechanics]

Cure's healing formula used to scale with 14/20/30/40 but the increment of healing factor with faith and MA makes cure spells being far from reliable with low MA/faith so using in low MA job makes cure hardly useful.

Since all other HP restoration abilities are percentage based, I decided to change healing formula into faith-based percentage based at 35/50/65/100% with Regen status added.

Aside from percentage healing and regen status added, Cure spell will heal a single target and Curaja will heal with wider effect range similar to black magic's spells too.

In other words, you'll get more reliable Cure spells without MA in consideration with shorten charge time from 4/5/7/10 to 1/2/4/6 to make it more usable comparing to other healing methods.

Potions will also be adjusted for more balanced gameplay in consideration with Auto-Potion. They will restore HP at 30/80/180 with price 100/400/1200. As level scaling will make potions becoming less useful in over grind run, this change should help a bit.

Though you may find cure spells be less effective at first but their usefulness will improve over time when story progress more. This will make other healing options become more viable like potions and summons.



[Level scaling re-balance]

This is one of the greatest challenge that often works like a double edged sword for me to consider in a long while. When you're over grind, you'll end up with stronger enemies equipping better equipment making the fight much more difficult.

After playing Valeria re-balance from early days until latest releases, I realize the potentials and capabilities of how I should scale the level with re-balance in consideration.

In general, level scaling often comes with manual adjustments and some caused difficulty spike due to adding level increment too much because they didn't consider over grind as options.

In Valeria, level scaling will have reference based on fixed level increment starting from lowest level having random level and scale up accordingly with some rules to keep scaling in moderation.

Units like boss will have 2-3 levels above and Lucavi bosses will have level scaling around 5-8 depending on chapters so difficulty won't raise too much when you over grind. Some end game bosses will have over 10+ level increment as well.

Fortunately in Valeria, bonus HP from equipment has re-balanced applied already so high level units won't gain big bonus on HP like other mods making item spike in level scaling more manageable.

I also added a new ability in Orator job called Weaken that will decrease level so you can use that in case you over grind your team too much. You can also use it on enemies too.



[Monster's ability improvements]

In original game, early monsters will have only 1-2 skills to use and useful abilities require Beastmaster ability to unlock making monster fight a lot easier.

Since Valeria 2.0 update, monsters will get at least 3 and first tier monster will have Beastmaster skill available so only tier 2-3 will need Beastmaster ability to unlock more powerful skill. Monsters will be more challenging with more skills.

Also, monster units always use Counter and that seems to be standard reaction for every monster. While some units can work well with Counter, most of them don't work well with it.

I used to play mods with changed reaction mechanics on monster and I must admit it was interesting but also exhausting. It makes fighting some monsters becoming more annoying than human.

After a lot of experience in Valeria, I decided to finally adopt this challenging mechanics and it seems to improve my enjoyment in fighting monster a lot more and I hope this won't annoy players too much as below.

Chocobo family - Cup of Life
Goblin family - Counter tackle
Bomb family - Critical: Quick
Hydra family - Nature's Wrath
Skeleton family - Soulbind
Ghoul family - Magick Counter
Jura Aevis family - Vigilance
Pig family - Critical: Recover HP
Dryad family - Mana Shield
Wisenkin family - Bonecrusher
Malboro family - Regenerate
Dragon family - Dragonheart

I still leave some of them having basic Counter reaction as it still works well for them. I hope this will help player learning how to use reaction ability better too.



[Introduce proper status infliction mechanics]

In original gameplay of Final Fantasy Tactics, you'll hardly see enemies using status infliction because they need JP to learn and they barely use good ones. Most of the time attacking does better job since chance to inflict status is on smaller side.

We saw how some mods tried to make status infliction becoming more active and it was painful to play. Status infliction changed from contributing factor into core winning factor and many modders avoided such approach to make the game more enjoyable.

In Valeria, status infliction will be used more often. Some basic abilities has status infliction and they're useful without breaking game balance or most of them aren't at annoying level.

We have Mystic and Orator as magical status infliction but we don't have any job doing physical status infliction at all. In Valeria mod, some physical jobs will also have abilities about status infliction with one that won't annoy player too much.

Squire
Bravely Charge (Inflict Chicken)

Knight
Rend Action (Cancel Defending, Charging, and Performing)
Rend Vision (Inflict Blind)
Rend Magick (Inflict Silence)

Ranger
Venom Strike (Attack with chance to inflict Poison status)
Oily Strike (Attack with chance to inflict Oil status)
Leg Shot (Inflict Immobilize)
Arm Shot (Inflict Disable)
Burial (Crystalize Undead)

Huntcraft
Charm (Charm target)
Celestial Stasis (Random stats between Stop/Immobilize/Disable)
Ink (Inflict Blind)
Bewitching Gaze (Inflict Silence)
Doom (Inflict Doom)
Guardian Nymph (Protect buff)
Shell Nymph (Shell buff)


Blind and Silence status will no longer be permanent status but still long enough with 48 ticks so the game won't be too painful to play without status recovery setup. Regen status will have ticks decreased from 36 to 32 too.

Status infliction abilities from Squire/Knight/Ranger jobs uses physical evasion in calculation so equipping shield and cloak can decrease hit rate significantly.

Aside from adding status infliction on physical jobs, I also added status infliction on some magical abilities as below.

-Cure spells will also cast Regen status
-Ifrit spells has chance to inflict Blind status
-Ramuh spells has chance to inflict Silence status
-Shiva spells has chance to inflict Immobilize status
-Titan spells has chance to inflict Confuse status
-Leviathan spells has chance to inflict Stop status
-Salamander spells has chance to inflict Disable status
-Meteor/Odin/Lich has chance to inflict Dead status
-Gravity/Graviga/Gravija has chance to inflict Slow status

Some abilities are least desirable to use due to low hit rate and require zodiac compatibility and faith to make so I also raised hit rate of these abilities a bit more.

White Mage
Reraise (140 -> 200)
Protectja/Shellja (120 -> 240)

Black Mage
Poison (160 -> 200) and inflict 20% damage on hit
Toad ability (120 -> 140)
Doom ability (100 -> 140)

Mystic
Corruption ability (100 -> 120)
Delirium ability (130 -> 150)
Fervor ability (120 -> 140)
Induration ability (120 -> 130)
Invigoration ability (160 -> 170)
Trepidation ability (140 -> 160)

Orator
Entice ability (20 -> 30)
Stall ability (30 -> 40)
Condemn ability (30 -> 40)
Beg ability (90 -> 100)
Insult ability (40 -> 50)
Mimic Darlavon ability (40 -> 50)


Time Mage
Graviga ability (120 -> 140)

Summoner
Carbuncle ability (150 -> 160)
Sylph ability (150 -> 170)

Status infliction abilities from Orator job uses magical evasion in calculation now to compensate with higher hit rate although evasion will be lower than physical one.

Wearing equipment that boosts evasion will help you a lot from status infliction and I hope you'll enjoy more immersive experience with improved status infliction mechanics.



[Remove abilities that break the game balance]

Despite having Brave/Faith manipulation removed from the game, some abilities are still too powerful to use. Here's the list removed abilities for re-balance purposes.

Action
Preach - Orator
Horizontal/Vertical Jump 6-8 - Dragoon

Reaction
Shirahadori - Samurai
Faith Boost - Bard
Bravery Boost - Dancer

Support
Arcane Strength - Black Mage
Attack Boost - Geomancer

Movement
Move +2 - Thief
Jump +2 - Thief
Move +3 - Bard/Dark Knight
Jump +3 - Dancer/Dark Knight

Most of them are reaction and movement abilities that I can't adjust to make it more balanced. Offensive support abilities are also removed so the game won't tilt toward offensive side too much with decreased over all HP.

It's a hard decision to remove many useful abilities I often use but it also made me realized how much more viable other abilities can shine after removing obvious ones out.

Since Valeria 2.0, some abilities are brought back as unique job ability that is unlearnable so you can have more abilities to use on specific jobs giving them better value too.



[Re-balance stats of weapon equipment]

After playing for a while with re-balance mod, I made numerous adjustments to weapons so it'll scale better with gameplay. Some items are better and some are nerfed a bit for re-balance purposes.

Knife equipment will be more useful with extra 10% evasion added and it can work better with Parry skill. Some knife items will get bonus stats to improve unit's efficiency with different setups too.

Staff/Rod/Crossbow/Ninja Blade will get extra 5% evasion bonus so Parry ability will be more useful to have use in more jobs.

Crossbow and Bow will have weapon power scaling over time better according to chapter progression making Ranger becoming more powerful.

Axe has randomized damage with unreliable attack power so I added chance to inflict Slow status on all axe equipment to improve its usefulness. Even if you get poor damage, you still have chance to slow enemies.

Gun doesn't seem to scale pretty well in WOTL release with Balthier's gun doing 144 damage and Stoneshooter doing 256 damage. So I adjusted gun to be more balanced and decrease range from 8 to 6 for average 10x10 map size.

Polearm has standard weapon power similar to sword but it has 2 range with 1.5x damage boost on Jump attack so I decreased weapon power down by 1 except Obelisk and Holy Lance.

Flail provides terrible damage so I changed Flail damage formula to WP^2 so it can provide better damage similar to Gun +2 for stronger close range damage.

Ninja blade is meant to be next tier of knife upgrade for Ninja. Due to the nature of dual wield, its output is too high comparing to sword so I decreased weapon power by 1 for some ninja blades.

Knight's Sword is the most powerful weapon in single player game so dual wield will make break the balance. I removed Dual Wield support for Knight's Sword and add Holy element attribute.



[Re-balance HP/Evasion Rate of equipment]

Weapon Guard has low block rate but shields and cloaks has crazy high block rate during chapter 3-4. Aegis Shield giving 50% magic evasion rate is too powerful with 30% cloak and Reflexes.

Physical evasion can goes up to 40% stacking with 10-30% evasion from class meaning equipping shield will hit really hard and Concentration will be needed to make sure you'll land a hit.

However, most seasoned players will ended up using non-evadable attacks with attack bonus instead and the idea of adding Concentration to render evasion useless benefits player more than AI.

As a result, this re-balance will decrease evasion rate cap down to more reasonable level as below.

Weapon: 60 -> 35 (40 for Defender and Dancer's Cloth)
Shield: 40 -> 30 (40 for non-buyable shields)
Cloak: 40 -> 25 (30 for Invisibility Cloak)
Magic evasion: 50 -> 25

You probably won't notice significant changes during chapter 1 but you won't get to see less than 70% hit rate very often as much as before. Enemies will have Parry more frequently too.

Helmet and Heavy Armor may give more bonus HP in early chapters but bonus HP advantage later fall behind in late game with about the same amount of HP bonus rendering heavy armor useless.

In this re-balance, I'll setup HP bonus cap on buyable equipment as below.

Hat: 100 -> 50
Clothing: 100 -> 70 (80 for Rubber Suit)
Robe: 75 -> 60 (70/50 for Lordly Robe)

Sounds like a massive cap but fear not. Most items scale a lot around chapter 3 so you won't lose a lot of HP bonus until very late. Let's compare stats boosting items here for details.

Headband + Power Garb
Vanilla: 56 + 70 = 126
Re-Balance: 36 + 55 = 81
Loss: 45
Close Helmet + Golden Armor = 70 + 70 = 140

Celebrant's Miter + Wizard's Robe
Vanilla: 64 + 30 = 94
Re-Balance: 40 + 30 = 70
Loss: 24

This way mage units won't suffer much from HP bonus reduction and this will give more reason for Equip Heavy Armor to shine because it's going to give you 220 HP bonus over 80-120 HP from Hat and Clothing.

Since bonus HP is decreased a lot, I also removed offensive support abilities out from the game so player can't taking advantage of offensive tactics against enemies with lowered HP.



[Unlock useful jobs for special characters]

Most special characters join with basic jobs unlocked making them subpar most generic you own before they join. So I changed unlocked jobs to be more appropriate to story progression better.

Ladd: Chemist(6) - He'll be the best henchman as name suggested
Alicia: Monk(4) - Potentially good Samurai candidate without grinding required
Lavian: Thief(4) - Potentially good Thief to steal equipment in some battles if you don't already have one
Mustadio: Geomancer(3) - So he can advance to dual wielding gun sooner
Agrias: Dragoon(3) - Making Iaido Agrias easier to grind and can get Dragonheart too
Luso: Summoner(6) - Making use of Summon will help a lot like Golem
Rapha: Black Mage(8) - Help Marach become a Dark Knight easier
Marach: Knight(8) - Become a Dark Knight faster
Beowulf: Mystic(8) - Mystic Arts is already good but can have higher level
Balthier: Monk(8) - Martial Arts is already good but can have higher level
Reis: Samurai(1) - For Equip Katana and Iaido becoming more viable without grinding
Orlandeau: Dark Knight(1) - He holds Zodiac stone so let's give him some dark side as hidden job here
Cloud: Time Mage(8) - Swiftness will help his meme-tier limit becoming more viable
Meliadoul: Ninja(1) - Dual Wield/Reflexes and higher speed growth job is welcomed to have
Valmafra: Arcanist(1) - She's a new unit who'll join with Orlandeau who can access to Arcane magicks

I've been thinking about changing this for a long before starting version 1.4 development but I wasn't sure that it will match will with story progression and character development. Now I'm certain this will work out for the best after trying generic run.



[Toughened bosses in important fights]

Some bosses can be exploited with status ailments to make battle easier. That's fine but Lucavi bosses shouldn't be affected by negative status like Slow/Immobilize/Disable.

Many fights are easier thanks to Slow ability so you have more time to prepare before getting nuked by bosses. In Valeria mod, those bosses are immune to those status now.

I also buffed up some bosses to be harder to defeat but there's also extra merits as well.

Gaffgarion: Added Safeguard so you can't steal/break his weapon now but you'll get Blood Sword as War Trophy after defeating him
Argath: Added Arcane Defense and wield Chaos Blade now but you can also get Chaos Blade from treasure hunt
Elmdore: Changed Brawler to Concentration but you can get Masamune as War Trophy after defeating his Lucavi form
Dycedarg: Added Safeguard so you can't steal/break his weapon now but you'll get Chirijiraden as War Trophy after defeating his Lucavi form
Zalbagg: One enemy unit will be replaced with Dark Knight but you'll get Defender as War Trophy after defeating Zalbagg in case you miss your chance to steal/poach Defender before
Aliste: Added Arcane Strength so his Iaido will hit harder but you can also steal his equipment and get Genji Glove as War Trophy instead of Genji Armor
Bremont: Added Defense Boost to his Dark Dragon form but you can also get Lordly Robe as War Trophy after defeating him

As this isn't a difficulty mod, I'll buff Argath and Elmdore's defense for story battles and buff Aliste and Bremont's offense for optional battles. You can control guest units you already recruited too.



>=== Reworked jobs ===<

I find many jobs being unbalanced for better or worse especially for Archer with uselessly long Aim and Arithmetician being too over powered with math abuse.

Magicians are as fast as malee units and White Mage is even faster. It was very hard for beginners to land magic spells on enemies without making mistakes because you need to plan and predict everyone's move ahead.

So I decided to revamp some parts of jobs that need some works with some changes and enhancenents while staying vanilla but more fun to play with proper mechanics.

Since Valeria 2.0, Valmafra will also join together with Cid with setup from Brave Story. I believe she's close to Ramza enough from ending scene so I decided to add her into roaster as Delita's proxy.



[Specialized jobs with unique job ability]

Back then when I was playing Wild Arms XF, I found each class being so useful with its unique abilities and you can learn that skill to use on other classes. Chemist with Throw Items is awesome and I wish more jobs can be like that too.

But this game can't add many skills freely so you're stuck with only one each making some abilities seem less useful than others and often ignored. Some jobs are utilized for getting abilities and move on.

The hard part is choosing the right abilities that makes job more interesting to play without breaking the balance between your units and enemies. Enemies will gain benefits too making gameplay even more interesting.

Squire: Beastmaster so weak class can make up better by boosting monster abilities and Axe with some basic abilities reworked for better uses
Specials: They used to share Squire template with different skillset but now they will gain different innate abilities to work better than little extra stats
Chemist: Throw Items/Treasure Hunter so they can walk in dungeon searching for items with other move abilities
Knight: Defend making base use of Parry and Shield with innate Defend ability
Ranger: Reequip for in-game weapon switching improving versatility between Knife/Shield/Crossbow/Bow
White Mage: Defense Boost by using divine protection to decrease physical damage
Black Mage: Arcane Defense being a magic specialist so they can defend with magic barrier
Monk: Brawler increasing capabilities of martial arts techniques
Thief: Poach/Concentration which is very useful skill to have for natural access to Poachers' Den and their attack will always hit
Mystic: Manafont/Ignore Weather improving MP recovery abilities and move on poisonous area without worries
Orator: Tame/Beast Tongue increasing chance to turn the tide by inviting foes to join our cause
Dragoon: Ignore Elevation/Ignore Terrain so they can move more freely on any height
Geomancer: Lifefont/Lavawalking for self regen and they can walk on lava
Samurai: Doublehand/Swim to improve katana damage with both hands right away
Ninja: Dual Wield/Waterwalking to walk on water with ninjutsu
Arcanist: Teleport so they can move to any tile in map with more chance to fail at far distance
Mime: Poach to match with innate Beastmaster skill as a real beastmaster
Onion Knight: Parry/Dual Wield/Doublehand/Reequip to be weapon master
Dark Knight: Vehemence for glass cannon job that trade defense for offense

Some abilities can be learned without JP cost which will allow enemies taking advantage of those abilities more frequently rather than player using those abilities alone.

Reaction: Parry/Regenerate
Movement: Treasure Hunter

These will also increase enemy's evasion rate and surviability after taking damage. If they walk on treasure tile, they have high chance to steal your loot too.

Since Valeria 2.0, jobs unlocked after Knight/Ranger/White Mage/Black Mage will have unique job ability that is unlearnable to use in other jobs as below.

Monk: Brawler
Thief: Concentration
Mystic: Manafont
Orator: Tame
Dragoon: Ignore Elevation
Geomancer: Lifefont
Samurai: Doublehand
Ninja: Dual Wield
Arcanist: Teleport
Mime: Concentration/Brawler
Onion Knight: Dual Wield/Doublehand (After mastered)
Dark Knight: Vehemence

I decided to introduce unique job ability to fix imbalance with certain setups. Some special characters will have some of these unique job abilities too so you could say I buffed specials a bit too.



[Re-balance Squire jobs]

Original Squire abilities are a bit too useless to be used with other jobs in after the first chapter. I decided to re-balance a few abilities in Squire job as below.

Focus: Changed to "First Aid" to apply Regen status to self which can also cure Poison status too.
Rush: Changed damage formula to PA/2 * PA for more reliable damage without triggering reaction ability.
Stone: Changed to "Bravely Charge" that has physical evadable 50% + MA hit rate to inflict Chicken status forcing target to retreat at range 1.

I also added PA Growth a little and decreased MA Multiplier a bit too. Squire job will become more useful through later chapters in this way.



[Re-balance Ramza job progression]

Ramza's Squire job is uber strong and always like that since the beginning of the game. So I locked PA and MA to be the same value as generic Squire in chapter 1. This applied to Delita and Argath too.

Although the fight might be harder with no stats buff but Delita will join with Longsword on first tutorial battle so it should be easy enough to clear for most people. Argath will get Bowgun instead.

After chapter 1, Ramza's Squire job will gradually become stronger over the time based on Delita's scale as a reference. These changes will also apply on Delita and Argath as guest units too.

Squire
HP Multiplier: 100
HP Growth: 11
MP Multiplier: 85
MP Growth: 13
PA Growth: 50
PA Multiplier: 90
MA Growth: 48
MA Multiplier: 80
C-Ev%: 5

Mercenary
HP Multiplier: 110
HP Growth: 10
MP Multiplier: 95
MP Growth: 12
PA Growth: 48
PA Multiplier: 100
MA Growth: 45
MA Multiplier: 90
C-Ev%: 10
Innate abilities: Brawler

Heretic
HP Multiplier: 120
HP Growth: 9
MP Multiplier: 105
MP Growth: 11
PA Growth: 45
PA Multiplier: 110
MA Growth: 42
MA Multiplier: 100
C-Ev%: 15
Innate abilities: Brawler/Doublehand

Ramza's job name will be changed over time as "Squire -> Mercenary -> Heretic". In his final upgrade, he'll have some stats increased comparing to original as below.

HP Growth: 11 -> 9
PA Growth: 50 -> 45
MA Growth: 48 -> 42
C-Ev%: 10 -> 15
Innate abilities: Brawler/Doublehand

Ramza as a Heretic will also a new ability called "Dawnblade" that will deals damage similar to Holy Knight ability with damage factor 4, Range 3, Vertical 3, Vertical Tolerance added, and has chance to inflict Slow status.

This Dawnblade ability is reworked from Shout ability which is broken PA/MA/SP stats boosting ability. As Ramza never has offensive abilities before, this Dawnblade should fit him well based on recent Wars of Visions update.

I believe this will balance out the game play experience better and also give more realistic challenges using starting Squire job without stats bonus making over all game being more enjoyable.



[Revamp Chemist Items abilities]

Chemist in Valeria mod will have innate Treasure Hunter and Equip Gun support ability so you don't have to go all the way to Orator just to get Equip Gun for other jobs.

Gold Needle and Maiden's Kiss are rarely used items in FFT and superceded by Remedy. So I changed them to Protective Charm and Maiden's Blessing for providing Protect and Shell improving Chemist usefulness.

Now your Chemist can provide buffs to a single unit immediately which makes Items being more handy to have. I also added PA Growth and buff MA Multiplier a little so you can keep using Chemist without Growth penalty.



[Rebuild Knight's Rend abilities from stats debuff to status debuff]

Rend Power/Magick/Speed are very popular as they work with dual wield and more preferable than stats debuff through magicks with instant action and can hit twice.

Since my past runs, I often use Rend Speed to slow bosses and make the game easier with dual wielding gun. Now in Valeria 2.0, these abilities are rebuilt into something entirely different as below.

Rend Action: Cancelling Defending, Charging, and Performing status
Rend Vision: Inflicting Blind status
Rend Magick: Inflicting Silence status

They still have weapon's range so you can still combo with Archer for full coverage debuff too. As Rend Action will be used by Knight with sword, 1 range won't be as annoying as Marksman's Stunning Strike.

Please keep in mind that unit with Charging status will not have evasion at all so hit rate is fairly high for Rend Action so it can be very useful to counter Black Mage's powerful magicks.



[Rebuild Archer abilities as Ranger]

People often complain how bad archer is as they can't utilize higher than 3 so most will get some decent abilities and move on. Now archer is back as ranger, stronger than before and be more useful enough not break the game.

Aim will be changed to Precision having the following new abilities with status infliction based on later Tactics series. Original Aim is moved into Machinist's skill set with Aim re-scaling up to +12 with 8 CT.

Venom Strike: Attacking with chance to inflict Poison status
Oily Strike: Attacking with chance to inflict Oil status
Leg Shot: Inflicting Immobilize
Arm Shot: Inflicting Disable
Burial: Crystalizing Undead
Lightning Strike: Attacking with Non-evadable and reaction triggered with WP*SP damage formula

Some new spells are shared with monster abilities and Machinist/Sky Pirate job. Machinist will take take original Aim abilities with reduced CT to work with gun. You can also use Arts of War's skillset for full status coverage.

I also improve Crossbow and bow's weapon damage scaling according to chapter progression so archer will hit harder with stronger weapons now. Ranger can also equip Knife like in Tactics Ogre improving versatility too.



[Re-balance White/Black Mage abilities]

As I explained before about changes in healing mechanics on White Mage, I also made some other adjustments to make these jobs performing better in this re-balance too.

All 4-tier spells will have effect area and vertical adjusted from 1-1/1-2/1-3/2-3 to 0-0/1-1/2-2/3-3 with status infliction in consideration of powerful summon spells added later.

Since Regen will be applied on Cure and Regenerate, ability Regen will not be useful anymore so I changed it to Banish that attacks single target with attack power 16, effect area 0, vertical 0, MP cost 8, CT 3, and JP Cost 300.

I also nerfed Holy spell since some people use it to OHKO some battles. Now it has damage factor decreased (50 -> 34), CT decreased (6 -> 5), and MP cost decreased (56 -> 30).

Holy will hit slightly weaker than Unholy Darkness but have less CT and MP cost to be more efficient. Celebrant's Miter and Luminous Robe will also strengthen Holy too.

Fire/Blizzard/Thunder spells are also upgraded with better scaling for different uses. First tier spell will hit single target and effect area keeps expanding after upgrading to higher tier.

Fire will have damage scaling changed from 14/18/24/32 to 15/19/26/36 with range 0-0/1-1/2-2/3-3. They can be casted faster with CT decreased from 4/5/7/10 to 2/3/5/7 so you can land more powerful spell more frequently.

Fire spells will have chance to inflict Blind status, Thunder spells will have chance to inflict Silence status, and Blizzard spells will have chance to inflict Stop status. Status infliction for Thuder and Blizzard spells are based on Holy Sword skills.

I never need to ever use items to cure Blind/Silence status at all during my gameplay since most story battles won't have chance to inflict one except Blind Knife and Mage Masher so I hope this will make Black Magicks being more useful.



[Re-balance Monk's Martial Art abilities]

Some Monk's abilities are overpower and much more preferable than spells due to instant cast time and its effectiveness. So I added CT and adjust some abilities as below.

Cyclone/Pummel/Aurablast/Shockwave (Increase damage factor by 2)
Doom Fist (Inflict damage from amount of HP loss with CT 5)
Purification (Also cure Oil with CT 4)
Chakra (Added CT 3)
Revive (Decrease hit rate to PA+65% and restore 25% with CT 5)

This way Monk's abilities will still be useful but won't conveniently render white magic spells useless. I also adjusted Doom Fist to be more situational to use in different ways too.



[Rebuild Samurai abilities]

Samurai used to do the same type of damage from Ashura to Chirijiraden with some linear attack and that's so boring to use on top of being inflexible design to focus on MA making Black Mage/Iaido as a broken meta.

Since Valeria 2.0, Samurai's abilities are all rebuilt to become self-sustain magical warrior. Iaido will hit both allies and enemies and damage will scale from both PA and MA stats.

Offensive abilities will provide more types of attack as basic and upgraded version. Supportive abilities will apply to self as below.

-Ashura is changed to perform linear ice elemental attack with effect area 5, damage factor (PA+10)/2 * MA
-Kotetsu is changed to perform dark elemental attack on range 1, effect area 2, vertical 3, damage factor (PA+12)/2 * MA
-Osafune is changed to damage (25+MA) enemy's MP percentage as a single unit with effect area 4
-Murasame is changed to restore 25% of HP with Regen status on self
-Ama-no-Murakumo is changed to perform single target lightning elemental attack on effect area 4, damage factor (PA+18)/2 * MA
-Kiyomori is changed to inflict both Protect/Shell status on self
-Muramasa is changed to damage factor (PA+24)/2 * MA with dark elemental attribute
-Kiku-ichimonji is changed to have damage factor (PA+20)/2 * MA with fire elemental attribute
-Masamune is changed to inflict both Regen/Haste status on self
-Chirijiraden is changed to perform fire elemental single target attack based on weapon range, damage factor (PA+36)/2 * MA

I understand that some of you may not be happy with some changes like robbing Samurai's support roles but please understand that Protect/Shell and Regen/Haste that can apply to whole party immediately is too broken.

After a lot of testing and consideration, I decided to buff his offensive abilities to be more flexible and stronger while nerfing his support is good enough to keep him alive and and powerful.



[Rebuild Arithmetician as Arcanist]

The original Arithmetician is too OP and abusive with other jobs. Looking into its original state, it has terrible stats so most this job can't function by itself.

I decided to rebuild this job anew with lost magic from Lucavi demons and they can learn from story battles as blue mage. However, they still lack some interesting innate to add for their puny stats.

So I decided to rebuild this job based on Arcanist job in Tactics A2 version with poweful monster abilities. In this case, I use Lucavi spells which can be learned on hit with 100% or learn through 1200 JP.

I replaced broken abilities with lost magic from from Lucavi demons. Meltdown/Tornado/Quake can also be learned with 1,200 JP cost or learn on hit.

Gigaflare
Migardsormr
Nanoflare
Flare
Meltdown
Tornado
Quake

Arcanist comes with both Defense Boost Arcane Defense as innate abilities with highest 40 MA Growth but have 125 MA Multiplier for balanced damage output.



[Re-balance Bard/Dancer]

Default Bard/Dancer has a lot of disappointments like very low HP/MP and crappy evasion. It's like they're trying to tell you to not use these jobs more than support units.

So, in order to make these jobs actually useful as fighters, I compared stats to other jobs and try to find optimal niche it can fill in like having strongest physical attack in mage jobs and magical attack on malee jobs.

I boosted HP to only around Ninja and Summoner level with small Evasion boost so they won't break the game balance of other jobs. MP is adjusted with little higher than Mystic for Bard and Samurai for Dancer.

But that's not all, I changed hit rate of some songs and dance too. I boost effective songs and dance a bit to 60-70% and keep broken abilites down to 35-40% so it should be fine and more useful.

They also have additional equippable weapon such as Gun for Bard and Ninja Blade for Dancer. Both jobs can also equip Robe too which I think it should be within balanced area.



[Re-balance Mime job]

Original Mime has a bit too abyssal growth to for growing very strong after a few level ups. I reduced growth rate from monster level down to human level with increased multiplier to compensate as below.

HP Growth (6 -> 7)
HP Multiplier (140 -> 150)
MP Growth (30 -> 12)
MP Multiplier (50 -> 80)
PA Growth (35 -> 38)
PA Multiplier (120 -> 140)
MA Growth (40 -> 38)
MA Multiplier (115 -> 140)
C-Ev% (5 -> 15)

Mime's growth rate is still exceptional comparing to other jobs with big PA/MA Multiplier to compensate for lowered growth rate and no equipment.



[Re-balance Holy Sword skills]

Holy Sword abilities are known as over powered physical move. They're non-evadable, hard hitting with status infliction and no CT at all. The worst part is Orlandeau can hit very hard with these abilities.

In this Valeria mod, I adjusted Holy Sword skills to be usable for Agrias only. Orlandeau will no longer have access to Holy Sword or Crush skills but he can use Aegis/Dispelna/Chant/Holy instead.

Holy Sword abilities will not have Holy attribute and have damage reduction by 1-2 so that it won't be too powerful. Crush abilities also have CT added so that player can prepare to counter better.

-Judgement Blade has decreased damage factor (2 -> 0), Vertical increased (0 -> 1), Vertical Tolerance added
-Cleansing Strike has decreased damage factor (3 -> 2)
-Northswain's Strike has decreased damage factor (2 -> 1)
-Hallowed Bolt has decreased damage factor (4 -> 2) and range decreased also (3 -> 2), Vertical increased (1 -> 2), Vertical Tolerance added
-Divine Ruination has decreased damage factor (5 -> 4)
-Added CT to crush abilities (1 for Helm, 2 for Accessory, 3 for Armor, and 4 for Weapon)

This way player can't freely spam Holy Sword skills and Crush abilities freely without restrictions. Judgement Blade is ranged and multi-hit with 0 JP cost with vertical increased so no damage bonus.



[Re-balance Dark Knight job]

Original Dark Knight job is ridiculously strong with 140 PA Multiplier. Since it takes massive grinding on high PA Growth jobs, its physical damage output ended up being ridiculously high.

So, I removed level 8 jobs requirements making Dark Knight job becoming much easier to unlock. This way it won't have high massive PA Growth to booth and I also adjust stats as below with Vehemence innate ability.

HP Multiplier (80 -> 100)
PA Growth (40 -> 45)
PA Multiplier (140 -> 120)
MA Growth (50 -> 48)
MA Multiplier (80 -> 100)

120 PA Multiplier maybe lower but MA Multiplier is increased instead. Vehemence as an innate ability will boost 1.5x damage output and taken being more glass cannon job but also strongest DPS job so far too.



[Re-balance Onion Knight job]

Onion Knight is designed to be meme tier job since you need to master all other jobs for Onion Knight to have decent stats but still be subpar comparing to other jobs due to abilities restriction and can only level up is eating bacon from Pig.

So, I decided to rework on Onion Knight with same growth rate for both before and after mastering all other jobs and set all stats Multiplier to 100 and boost to 120 after mastered.

HP Growth: 10
MP Growth: 12
Speed Growth: 95
PA Growth: 45
MA Growth: 48
HP/MP/Speed/PA/MA Multiplier: 100 (120 when mastered)

100 Multiplier may sound a bit too powerful with all equipment support but he can't level up normally and has no access to abilities so it's a good trade off from my testing run.

Speaking about abilities, it's a shame that he can't use anything but attack so I decided to give him some special abilities that can be learned without JP cost and use as below.

Ice Breath
Fire Breath
Thunder Breath
Charm
Celestial Stasis

Since he can't gain EXP/JP or assign any ability, I also added remaining slots with abilities from monster which can be useful but not too broken in story battle too.

Choco Esuna
Choco Cure
Goblin Punch
Self-Destruct
Ink
Bewitching Gaze
Doom
Guardian Nymph
Shell Nymph
Almagest
Dark Whisper

Oh. Onion can equip everything right but he can't make use of any weapon properly so I decided to change his innate abilities from buffing to abilities related to equipment as below.

Parry
Reequip
Dual Wield (Mastered)
Doublehand (Mastered)

May sound a bit too powerful to have Dual Wield or Doublehand innately but that's for mastered Onion Knight which is the last unlocked job for being the most powerful one in every area.



>=== Job leveling re-balance ===<

In this Valeria mod, level requirements for basic jobs are decreased by 1 similar to PSX version. This will allow player advancing to new jobs faster building up JP points for important abilities on time.

I also changed job progression path to be more friendly to no grind run and re-arrange job unlocking system to be more proper in my own understanding.



[Re-arrange job progression]

Why does Dragoon job require Thief job to be unlocked? Is it just me that Dragoon job is like Knight-varient? Why does Mystic unlock Orator and not Time Mage when the job itself resembles Taoist who reads the star?

And Time Mage job unlocks Summoner that talks with espers instead of Orator that can talk with Beast and specialize in Speechcraft, not to mention both jobs are superior to Orator in terms of magic.

Time Mage needs massive JP to master so it should be on the same level as Summoner and makes more sense for Mystic job to advance to Time Mage that can call forth Meteor from stars. So I changed job unlock conditions as below.

Dragoon: Knight(2) -> Monk(3)
Geomancer: Ranger(2) -> Thief(3)
Time Mage: White Magic(2) -> Mystic(3)
Summoner: Black Magic(2) -> Orator(3)

Since Monk can unlock Dragoon job directly, you can also proceed to Samurai and Ninja with linear job progression path as below.

Samurai: Knight(3) -> Monk(4) -> Dragoon(3) - No more Ranger(3) -> Thief(4) requirements just to unlock Dragoon
Ninja: Ranger(3) -> Thief(4) -> Geomancer(3) - No more Knight(3) -> Monk(4) requirements just to unlock Geomancer

This way, you can unlock Samurai and Ninja job naturally without putting extra effort as it should be. You can gain access to jobs around the time you get their items without excessive grinding required.

I also changed Dark Knight job's requirements to killing 20 enemies with Knight and Black Mage mastered only. Reaching level 8 jobs for Dragoon, Geomancer, Samurai, and Ninja is not possible without massive grinding.

The reason why Dark Knight is so powerful is due to massive grinding on high PA Growth jobs up to level 8 combined with 140 PA Multiplier. He's ridicolously strong thanks to high base PA. I also re-balanced Dark Knight too.



[Jobs' requirements summary]

Knight: Squire(2)
Ranger: Squire(2)
White Mage: Chemist(2)
Black Mage: Chemist(2)
Monk: Knight(2)
Thief: Ranger(2)
Mystic: White Mage(2)
Orator: Black Mage(2)
Dragoon: Monk(3)
Geomancer: Thief(3)
Time Mage: Mystic(3)
Summoner: Orator(3)
Samurai: Knight(3), Monk(4), Dragoon(3)
Ninja: Ranger(3), Thief(4), Geomancer(3)
Arcanist: White Mage(4), Black Mage(4), Time Mage(4), Summoner(4)
Dancer: Dragoon(3), Geomancer(3)
Bard: Time Mage(3), Summoner(3)
Mime: unlock all jobs except Dark Knight
Dark Knight: Knight(M), Black Mage(M)
Onion Knight: Squire(4), Chemist(4)



>=== Items re-balance ===<

I found some items working differently from Tactics Ogre or some being way too unbalanced crippling main jobs too much so I made some changes to make items being more useful to some jobs.

Items re-balance
-Move/Find items will be rare or better items now
-Potions has HP restoration increased (30/70/150 -> 30/80/180) and price increased (50/200/700 -> 100/400/1200)
-Ethers restore 30/60 MP
-Hi-Ether has priced lowered to 400
-Phoenix Down revives and restores up to 29HP
-Maiden's Kiss is changed to Maiden's Blessing providing Shell status and have price increased (50 -> 100)
-Gold Needle is changed to Protective Charm providing Protect status
-Remedy is buyable since start of chapter 2 and also cure Immobilize and Disable with price decreased (350 -> 250)
-Items with Regen and Reraise status will no longer be permanent

Weapon re-balance
-Knife/Ninja Blade gets extra 10% evasion
-Crossbow weapon power scaling is re-balanced so it'll gradually become stronger
-Bow has weapon power scaling is re-balanced so it'll gradually become stronger according to chapters (0/1/1/2) except multi-player only items
-Gun has weapon range decreased (8 -> 6)
-Axe has chance inflict Slow status on enemy
-Polearm has weapon power decreased by 1 except Obelisk, Holy Lance, and multi-player only items
-Katana has weapon power increased with brave formula in consideration.
-Ninja's throwing shuriken has weapon power increased by 2 with price increased (50/300/1000 -> 100/500/1000)
-Ninja's throwing bomb has weapon power increased by 2 with price increased (250 -> 400)
-Staff/Rod/Crossbow gets extra 5% evasion
-Crossbow/Gun can be used with Dual Wield now
-Cloth has evasion decreased (50 -> 40)
-Knight's Sword can no longer be used with Dual Wield but still work with Doublehand
-Flail has WP^2 formula for better damage scaling

Job equipment re-balance
-Ramza can equip Fellsword (chapter 4)
-Time Mage can equip Rod
-Arcanist can equip Rod/Staff
-Bard can equip Gun
-Dancer can equip Ninja Blade
-Bard and Dancer can equip Robe
-Machinist can equip Knife/Crossbow/Bow
-Skyseer and Netherseer can equip Knife
-Divine Knight can equip Hat
-Dragonkin can equip Clothing
-Sky Pirate can't equip Heavy Armor

Weapon stats re-balance
-Blind Knife/Mage Masher/Platinum Dagger/Assassin's Dagger has weapon power increased by 1
-Platinum Dagger has +1 MA bonus added
-Main Gauche has evasion decreased (40 -> 35)
-Orichalcum Dirk has +1 PA bonus added
-Air Knife has +1 Speed bonus added
-Blood Sword has weapon power increased (8 -> 9)
-Runeblade has evasion decreased (15 -> 10)
-Nagnarok has weapon power increased (1 -> 8) and evasion decreased (50 -> 35), and +1 MA bonus added
-Materia Blade has weapon power increased (10 -> 15), evasion increased (10 -> 25) and +2 PA/MA bonus added
-Defender has block rate decreased (60 -> 40) and has equip Shell status added
-Excalibur has weapon power decreased (21 -> 20), halves Holy damage instead of absorbing, and have equip status removed
-Ragnarok has equip status changed (Shell -> Haste)
-Chaos Blade is changed into Fellsword has weapon power decreased (40 -> 21)
-Knightslayer/Crossbow have weapon power increased by 1
-Poison Bow has weapon power increased (4 -> 6)
-Hunting Bow has weapon power increased (6 -> 8)
-Gastrophetes has bonus +1 MA
-Ice Bow/Lightning Bow/Mythril Bow/Windslash Bow have weapon power increased by 1
-Artemis Bow/Yoichi Bow/Perseus Bow have weapon power increased by 2
-Artemis Bow has +2 MA bonus added
-Yoichi Bow will be equipped on enemy level 45
-Ashura/Kotetsu/Osafune/Murasame/Ama-no-Murakamo has weapon power increased by 1
-Kiyomori/Muramasa/Masamune has weapon power increased by 2
-Kiku-ichimonji has weapon power increased by 3
-Ashura has Ice element attribute
-Kotetsu has Dark element attribute
-Osafune has Earth element attribute
-Kiku-Ichimonji has Fire element attribute
-Kiyomuri has Wind element attribute
-Muramasa has Dark element attribute
-Ama-no-Murakumo has Lightning element attribute
-Masamune has Holy element attribute
-Chirijiraden has Fire element attribute
-Battle Axe has weapon power increased (9 -> 10)
-Giant Axe has weapon power increased (12 -> 14)
-Slasher has weapon power increased (16 -> 20)
-Francisca has weapon power increased (24 -> 26)
-Golden Axe has weapon power increased (30 -> 32)
-Iron Flail has weapon power decreased (9 -> 8)
-Flame Mace has weapon power decreased (11 -> 10)
-Morning Star has weapon power decreased (16 -> 12)
-Scorpion Tail has weapon power decreased (23 -> 16)
-Vesper has weapon power decreased (36 -> 20)
-Javelin II has weapon power decreased (30 -> 20)
-Ninja Longblade/Spellbinder/Sasuke's Blade/Iga Blade has weapon power decreased by 1
-Ras Algethi has weapon power decreased (12 -> 10) and will be equipped on enemy level 35
-Stoneshooter has weapon power decreased (16 -> 12) will change effect to have chance to petrify unit on hit

Shield evasion re-balance
-Round Shield has Block Rate changed from 19/0 to 15/5
-Mythril Shield has Block Rate changed from 22/0 to 18/5
-Golden Shield has Block Rate changed from 25/0 to 20/8
-Ice Shield has Block Rate changed from 28/0 to 22/0 and halves Ice damage
-Flame Shield has Block Rate changed from 31/0 to 24/0 and halves Fire damage
-Aegis Shield has Block Rate changed from 10/50 to 10/25
-Diamond Shield has Block Rate changed from 34/15 to 25/12
-Platinum Shield has Block Rate changed from 37/10 to 27/10
-Crystal Shield has Block Rate changed from 40/15 to 30/15
-Genji Shield has Block Rate changed from 43/0 to 35/0
-Kaiser Shield has Block Rate changed from 46/20 to 37/18
-Venetian Shield has Block Rate changed from 50/25 to 40/20
-Escutcheon II has Block Rate changed from 75/50 to 40/25

Hat's bonus re-balance
-Plume Hat has HP/MP bonus changed from 16/5 to 14/5
-Red Hood has HP/MP bonus changed from 24/8 to 20/8
-Headgear has HP/MP bonus changed from 32/0 to 24/0
-Wizard's Hat has HP/MP bonus changed from 40/12 to 28/12
-Green Beret has HP/MP bonus changed from 48/0 to 32/0
-Headband has HP/MP bonus changed from 56/0 to 36/0
-Celebrant's Miter has HP/MP bonus changed from 64/20 to 40/20 and strengthens Holy element with bonus MA increased (1 -> 2)
-Black Cowl has HP/MP bonus changed from 72/0 to 50/0
-Gold Hairpin has HP/MP bonus changed from 80/50 to 50/50
-Lambent Hat has HP/MP bonus changed from 88/15 to 50/15
-Thief's Cap has HP/MP bonus changed from 100/0 to 50/0 with bonus Speed decreased (2 -> 1), add +1 PA, price lowered to 20,000

Hair Adornment's bonus re-balance
-Cachusha has HP bonus changed from 20 to 30
-Barette has HP bonus changed from 20 to 30

Clothing's bonus re-balance
-Leather Plate has HP/MP bonus changed from 18/0 to 16/0
-Ringmail has HP/MP bonus changed from 24/0 to 20/0
-Mythril Vest has HP/MP bonus changed from 30/0 to 26/0
-Adamant Vest has HP/MP bonus changed from 36/0 to 30/0
-Wizard Clothing has HP/MP bonus changed from 42/15 to 36/15
-Brigardine has HP/MP bonus changed from 50/0 to 42/0
-Jujitsu Gi has HP/MP bonus changed from 60/0 to 50/0 and no longer has PA bonus
-Power Grab has HP/MP bonus changed from 70/0 to 55/0 with bonus PA decreased (2 -> 1)
-Gaia Gear has HP/MP bonus changed from 85/0 to 60/0 and halves Earth damage
-Black Garb has HP/MP bonus changed from 100/0 to 70/0
-Rubber Suit has HP/MP bonus changed from 150/30 to 80/30
-Mirage Vest has HP/MP bonus changed from 120/0 to 70/0 and will be equipped on enemy level 44

Robe's bonus re-balance
-Wizard's Robe has bonus MA decreased (2 -> 1)
-Chameleon Robe halves Holy damage instead of absorbing
-Black Robe has HP/MP bonus changed from 60/30 to 55/40
-Luminous Robe has HP/MP bonus changed from 75/50 to 60/50 and strengthens Holy element
-Lordly Robe has HP/MP bonus changed from 100/80 to 70/50 with bonus PA decreased (2 -> 1)

Accessory's bonus re-balance
-Rubber Boots is changed to Soldier Boots with bonus +1 Move and +1 PA, rare poached item replaced with Winged Boots, price increased (1,500 -> 10,000) and available in the last outfitter
-Hermes Shoes has bonus +1 Move
-Bracer has bonus PA decreased (3 -> 2) and price decreased (50,000 -> 30,000)
-Nu Khai Armband also strengthens Dark element
-Mage's Cloak has Evade Rate changed from 18/18 to 17/17
-Elven Cloak has Evade Rate changed from 25/25 to 20/20
-Vampire Cape has Evade Rate changed from 28/28 to 22/22 and add +1 PA
-Featherweave Cape has Evade Rate changed from 40/30 to 25/25
-Invisibility Cloak has Evade Rate changed from 35/0 to 30/0
-Tynar Rogue has PA/MA bonus decreased (3 -> 2) and equip Haste replaced with +1 Speed



>=== Jobs and abilities re-balance ===<

I find switching to new jobs and have unusable main abilities unacceptable so having some skills that can learn immediately will help a lot. So I'll make basic abilities for each job usable and decrease JP cost for some abilities.

I won't change stats more than necessary like other mods as it might break the original game balance. Some jobs may have significant adjustments but won't go beyond original role to keep vanilla feel.

My changes won't affect game mechanics too much. It's still faithful to original design, just to make sure that it doesn't go overboard. I also add JP Boost with no JP cost required so everyone can learn and equip JP Boost to level their jobs even faster.

Since changes and improvements are too long to be listed in this main thread now, please download full Valeria update from this link below for more details about Valeria Job System.

https://www.mediafire.com/file/vl9y0dfl1p89w6t



>=== Download ===<

My patch comes in PPF format and available for both USA and EUR clean ISO. I also applied slowdown fix thanks to helpful members in FFHacktics.

FFT: WotL - Valeria 2.4 (PSP USA)
FFT: WotL - Valeria 2.4 (PSP EUR)


I hope you'll enjoy this Valeria mod as much as I do and thanks FFTPatcher team so much for this awesome utility that can help us enjoy Final Fantasy Tactics again.

[Windows X]

Version 1.0.1 is now released with some fixes and corrections as below.

-Added Slowdown fix for USA by Nexus and EUR by Eternal
-Crystalization causing game crash is now fixed
-Defend/Counter Tackle innate abilities are added to Delita/Argath too
-Improved Cure/Cura healing efficiently a bit to scale better and reduce Curaga MP cost a little
-Increased Monk's physical attack a little but still nerfed with default's PA Growth
-Reduced Fire/Blizzard/Thunder CT by 1
-Reduced Meteor CT by 5
-Potions will heal at rate 30/70/160

http://www.mediafire.com/file/9r4b2d657ncqj61/FFT+WotL+-+Valeria+1.0.1+(PSP+USA).ppf
http://www.mediafire.com/file/ekfdhimb8mn2miy/FFT+WotL+-+Valeria+1.0.1+(PSP+EUR).ppf

I play my mods for a while and found something like Auto-Potion being too powerful so I reduced it back with respect to original's abilities design and scaling. Cure/Cura are boosted based on +6 +8 +10 similar to damage spells at +4 +6 +8.

[Nyzer]

Innate Reactions, in my experience, prevent the player from equipping their OWN learned Reactions. (Possible workaround: no learnable Reactions - they only exist as innates. They might still appear equipped after changing Jobs until entering battle though.)

Allowing weapons with different ranges to be Dual Wielded can result in stuff like swords having gun range. (Possible workaround: remove all Equip Weapon Type abilities, and never allow any Job to equip more than one kind of dual wielding weapon.)

[Windows X]

Really? I thought having multiple reactions will randomly allow which one to trigger. I'll test it in details. Maybe I'll change to support and move abilities only. Thank you.

Regards,
Keetakawee

[Windows X]

You're right. Innate reaction will be enforced during Battle and learn after battle. I'll change to support/move abilities only now. I'll probably need to move some abilities to balance things out a bit.

As for dual wielding gun with Sword for range, I think it's acceptable glitch to exploit as seen in a few games I've played before. They can equip with only Pistol which is a basic gun to gain range instead of two powerful swords. Not that I encourage them to do so though.

[Windows X]

I checked the job's weapon type today and realize that only job with innate dual wield like Ninja can equip stuff like Ninja sword and Flail with gun. Others are Chemist, Orator, and Bard that I added.

Ninja needs Equip Gun support to wield both gun and Ninja blade. Chemist and Orator can equip knife with gun. Bard can't equip instrument with gun. Others can't have both dual wield and equip gun at the same time. I think this is still in safe region enough to add dual wielding pistol, only basic pistol that can do that.

[Windows X]

Hi everyone. It's been a while. I'm so busy with big project I'm working on but now I have some spare time to finish this update with bugs I need to fix and stuff I need to revise and improve.

Let's start with Archer again. After revising Aim to be more balanced and enemies sure use it well with Aim +2/3 on me. However, I find Aim +10/15 charges too long and ridiculous for JP cost to learn.

I checked Final Fantasy Tactics Advance and it looks like Archer over there is OP with cheat abilities. I noticed Arm/Leg shot from Machinist was there too. It looks like we get crippled Archer and Machinist here.

So, to balance things out a little bit. I removed Aim +10/15 and replaced with Arm/Leg shot. I also add Aim abilities up to Aim +5 on Machinist so this job will be more like Archer variant. This applies to Barich and Undead Archer too so be careful.

Next is about innate reacion ability bug. We can't add it so I replaced innate reaction abilities to something else available. I also moved some abilities between jobs to balance things out better.

Some support abilities can be quite and might break the game so it needed to be tested for a while. Fortunately I found it's still within safe region thought it may increase challenges and make things a bit easier sometimes.

Squire: Defend/Beastmaster so they can always defend and enhance beasts
Chemist: Treasure Hunter since Chemist already has Throw Items
Knight: Reequip improving versatility to re-equip weapon depending on situation
White Mage: Arcane Defense increasing surviability against magicks
Black Mage: Arcane Strength making Black Mage becoming more threats
Monk: Lifefont increasing tanking capabilities
Orator: Defense Boost so to work as physical oriented mage job better
Geomancer: Attack Boost/Lavawalking and Geomancer abilities won't hit your friends now
Dragoon: Ignore Elevation so Dragoon can move at any height with his jump
Bard: Faith Boost improving magical efficiency during battle
Dancer: Bravery Boost improving physical efficiency during battle
Mime: Poach to match with innate Beastmaster skill as a real beastmaster
Machinist: Safeguard because machinist always keep things safe

Black mage will hit you a lot harder enough to OHKO some of your units but still manageable. Moving Reequip to Knight was a great decision as he can change elemental weapon without support skill required now, very nice.

Orator now has innate Defense Boost from Mystic so he can keep shooting and taking damage while enticing your foes to support your cause. Equip Guns is moved to Chemist now so you can pick to learn this or Throw Items support.

Next is about improving Squire's abilities. Some people added Tailwind so it won't become too useless but I disagree with this idea. Everyone casting Tailwind will break the game balance literally so leave those talk skills it to Ramza and Luso.

I revised Stone to use PA/2*MA for damage formula with chance to inflict Oil status so mages can cast fire spells for more damage though chance aren't that high but still fun bonus to add.

After adding inflict status with Stone, I also added status infliction on other high level spells like Regen with Curaja, Disable with Firaja, Immobilize with Thunderja, Stop with Blizzaja and some other spells including only enemies ones.

After playing for a while, I feel current version stable and balanced enough so I'm releasing version 1.1 here for both USA/EUR ISO as usual. Here's summary of changes in version 1.1

1.1
-Added Aim abilities for Machinist up to Aim +5
-Changed innate abilities on some classes to Support/Move only (Please re-read again)
-Moved Reequip from Chemist to Knight job (So he can use it as an innate skill)
-Moved Equip Guns from Orator to Chemist job
-Moved Defense Boost from Mystic to Orator job (Orator is like physical mage type so this should fit him better)
-Rush damage formula is now 50% of physical attack (Random 25-100% is too unreliable)
-Stone's damage formula is now PA/2 * MA. It will also have chance to inflict Oil status
-Increased Rend Speed's speed reduction by 1 for more viable effects in early chapters
-Curaja has chance to inflict Regen status
-Firaja has chance to inflict Disable status
-Thunderja has chance to inflict Immobilize status
-Blizzaja has chance to inflict Stop status
-Meteor has chance to inflict Dead status
-Gravija has chance to inflict Stone status
-Flareja has chance to inflict Confusion/Berserk status
-Reverted Cyclone damage boost
-Potions will heal at rate 30/80/180
-Changed Archer's Aim +10/20 to Leg Shot and Arm Shot

http://www.mediafire.com/file/e8eswq88dtktckj/FFT%20WotL%20-%20Valeria%201.1%20%28PSP%20USA%29.ppf
http://www.mediafire.com/file/3kar9kvkc44ts5u/FFT%20WotL%20-%20Valeria%201.1%20%28PSP%20EUR%29.ppf

You can patch with original USA/EUR ISO and enjoy Veleria 1.1 mod. I thought I wouldn't mess with special jobs but Machinist is too pitiable to ignore. If you have any suggestion for further improvements with this mod, please let me know.

Regards,
Keetakawee

[Nyzer]

Pretty sure you can't use default Aim skills and normal skills in the same skillset.

Also, making Mustadio an Archer copy is redundant, as he already has access to the Archer job in game. I'd recommend instead expanding his potential body part targets (ex. Eye to blind, Vitals to KO, Mouth to cancel casting, Throat to silence), while the Archer becomes a venom specialist to produce different effects (Toxic Venom to poison, Lethargic Venom to slow, Tranquilizer to sleep, Cursed Venom to stone).

That's just an example, of course. Do things however you like, but just making Mustadio an Archer copy... I mean, by the time you get him, your generics with Archer JP will already do what he does, but better than he does. A bit of overlap is fine IMO (though I do know some who would disagree) but that much... no.

[Windows X]

Thank you for your suggestion. There's part I don't quite understand here so could you eloborate it?

"Pretty sure you can't use default Aim skills and normal skills in the same skillset."

I checked Archer in Tactics Advance and A2 seeing how Archer was improved there and brought some of those improvements back to the original.

I also agree that Archer and Machinist is redundant the way things are now. I also considered making Mustadio more useful with status infliction but that'd stray from original gameplay too much.

I'll try to fix Mustadio job abilities in future updates. Adding status infliction too much will break the usefulness of mage jobs so I'd like to avoid that.

[Nyzer]

Thank you for your suggestion. There's part I don't quite understand here so could you eloborate it?

"Pretty sure you can't use default Aim skills and normal skills in the same skillset."

Aim is a special skillset that doesn't use normal skills. Like Jump or Arithmeticks. And last I checked you can't just throw skills like that together with normal ones and have it function properly in game.

Also, it doesn't break the usefulness of mages. Weapon-based, single-target debuffs are different enough from a mage's AoE spells to make both worthwhile. And that's just as a generic. The argument completely falls flat when you're talking about special characters, considering Swordskills are broken as fuck.

[Windows X]

I see. Thank you. I didn't know there was something like that. What do you think about swapping between Archer and Machinist abilities? Archer in Tactics Advance is more like Machinist.

[Nyzer]

Honestly I don't remember the TA Machinist.

Whether or not you want to do that to Mustadio is up to you and how close you want your mod to be to the base game. I would say changing the Archer is arguably necessary because its skillset sucks for even a second tier job (though it's considerably better in Jot5 where it's on the Squire instead and most other skills now cost MP). But there are many potential ways to approach that adjustment.

[Windows X]

I agree. Right now I mix some abilities like you suggested (Poison/Oil/Disable/Immobilize/Petrify Undead). I used ability from Monster with for time being. It works but didn't show animation for Poison/Oil.

Machinist has Focus and Rend Helm/Armor added as hybrid class (which Argath also has). I hope this sounds OK. I thought about using CT 0 hack with Aim +20 abilities but that wouldn't sound fun and all so I dropped it.

[Windows X]

Hi guys. Version 1.2 is out now. I've finished my big projects so I can focus on finalizing 1.2 release. This time it's another big update on spell improvements in this re-balance.

Back then spell tier are classified strictly with less favorable merits. Upgrading to -ra spells is OK but -ga spells are some what redundant and make people feel like I should save up for -ja spells instead.

In this re-balance, I added extra merits to -ga and -ja spells to make it more worthwhile. I increased effect area on -ga spells and added status effects on -ja spells so you can use -ga spells as shorter chant version with the same effect area.

I also add increased effect area and vertical range on Cure spells and all other status spells including spells on -ja spells for enemies too along with some other minor spell improvements.

As I was informed about Archer's Arm/Leg Shot bug not working with Aim skillset in previous release, I decided to build a new skillset for Archer. This new archer abilities will have the follow abilities.

Venom Fang
Oily Touch
Leg Shot
Arm Shot
Seal Evil

I tried playing optimized aim with CT and power for a while but gotta say it's dull and boring. So I decided to make archer abilities around status inflicting instead based on Machinist and monster abilities.

I also increased physical attack multiplier to make up for missing aim abilities. Archer will hit a bit harder than vanilla version but not too broken like Tactics Ogre but can be fearsome with Focus/Tailwind added.

1.2
-Added status infliction to abilities' description
-Changed Archer's Aim abilities to Venom Fang/Oily Touch/Leg Shot/Arm Shot/Seal Evil
-Increased Archer's physical attack a bit
-Changed CT time of Wall ability to 6 and no more additional MP cost
-Revised Cure spells MP cost to 5/10/16/24
-Cura has 2 Vertical range now
-Curaga/Curaja have 2 Effect area range now
-Protect/Shell has 1 Vertical range now
-Protectja/Shellja have 2 Effect area range now
-Holy has chance to inflict Blind status and reduce damage by 20% and cost 48MP
-Thundera MP cost is now 12 like others
-Firaga/Thundaga/Blizzaga spells have 2 radius now
-Haste/Slow/Stop has 1 Vertical range now
-Hasteja/Slowja have 2 Effect area range now
-Graviga spells has 2 Effect area range now
-Changed Meteor CT to 16
-Kotetsu is now Dark element attack
-Adjusted Arithmetician's physical/magical attack to be little weaker than Chemist
-Changed Machinist new abilities to Focus/Rend Helm/Rend Armor
-Toadja/Gravija/Flareja/Blindja/Confuseja/Sleepja have 2 Effect area range now
-Innate abilities also be apply to more enemies' jobs variants like Undead and others
-Elmdore's Safeguard innate skill is replaced by Arcane Strength
-Move/Find items will be rare or better items now

http://www.mediafire.com/file/ecd3ai1o99lv948/FFT%20WotL%20-%20Valeria%201.2%20%28PSP%20USA%29.ppf
http://www.mediafire.com/file/rogvat6p0c3wre3/FFT%20WotL%20-%20Valeria%201.2%20%28PSP%20EUR%29.ppf

In this release, I also tested abilities and performed test run with 1.2 changes to make sure everything is working and also balanced. Machinist also works great with Focus ability now that I wish Mustadio should have it as every generic can do with guns.

[Windows X]

It's been a while since last release and I've been testing and working on re-balance and improvements on various jobs. 1.3 will have a big update with real effort to keep things more balanced and improve enjoyment.

Since there's a lot of changes going on in 1.3, I'd appreciate if anyone can test my mod before releasing. Please let me know if you're interested and I'll send current Valeria 1.3 update for you. Here's some main ideas.

-Archer will have abilities similar to aim with status infliction added
-Some spells has been adjusted and reworked
-Monk has some offensive abilities reworked for situational use and adjusted support abilities not to render spells useless
-Summoner receives magical attack and spells boost now
-Holy Knight and Sword Saint abilities is now nerfed to be more balanced
-Some adjustments on items making ranged weapon be more useful and balanced

This new patch will totally change the way you play the game since tutorial. Ladd can be hit by Archer. Sword skills won't work right away and hit weaker. It may raise the game difficulty a little but also make some fights easier too.  Please let me know what do you guys think about these changes and have fun.

[mleimnek]

It's been a while since last release and I've been testing and working on re-balance and improvements on various jobs. 1.3 will have a big update with real effort to keep things more balanced and improve enjoyment.

Since there's a lot of changes going on in 1.3, I'd appreciate if anyone can test my mod before releasing. Please let me know if you're interested and I'll send current Valeria 1.3 update for you. Here's some main ideas.

-Archer will have abilities similar to aim with status infliction added
-Some spells has been adjusted and reworked
-Monk has some offensive abilities reworked for situational use and adjusted support abilities not to render spells useless
-Summoner receives magical attack and spells boost now
-Holy Knight and Sword Saint abilities is now nerfed to be more balanced
-Some adjustments on items making ranged weapon be more useful and balanced

This new patch will totally change the way you play the game since tutorial. Ladd can be hit by Archer. Sword skills won't work right away and hit weaker. It may raise the game difficulty a little but also make some fights easier too.  Please let me know what do you guys think about these changes and have fun.

send it to meeee!!! ill play it today and have you know any comments asap!

[lessen]

When you release 1.3, would you please please include a version with the Unstretch patch included? I play in an emulator on a large screen and Unstretch is the only way I can play at 1x resolution (best performance) and not have hideous pixel distortion.

[Windows X]

Saw news about FFT today making me realized that I haven't finished my FFT Valeria 1.3 release yet. Here's my current progress and I'd like to ask for your opinions for new changes.

Archer
Inflict status with MP cost, have 6 range Long Bow and hits harder.

Black Mage
Fire - Double damage with Oil
Blizzard - Reduced MP cost
Thunder - Reduced CT
Poison - Mini Gravity (12%) with chance to inflict status

Summoner
Basic summons hits a bit harder with increased vertical range

Monk
Offensive abilities have more damage but support abilities will have CT added.

Arithmetician
Arithmeticks replaced with Red Mage abilities having CT 0 innate.

Holy Knight
Sword skills and Crush abilities has CT added

I'll release it soon after having some test runs.

[Windows X]

When you release 1.3, would you please please include a version with the Unstretch patch included? I play in an emulator on a large screen and Unstretch is the only way I can play at 1x resolution (best performance) and not have hideous pixel distortion.

What is untretch patch? Will it affect normal PSP gameplay?

[Windows X]

Hi. Today I've finally finished updating my Valeria 1.3 version. It's like creating a new patch with everything changed. If you play this mod before, I recommend to start over and enjoy the whole new experience again.



>=== Download ===<

My patch comes in PPF format and available for both USA and EUR clean ISO. I also applied slowdown fix thanks to helpful members in FFHacktics.

http://www.mediafire.com/file/q3tc4915dws5az7/FFT%20WotL%20-%20Valeria%201.3%20%28PSP%20USA%29.ppf
http://www.mediafire.com/file/5sy1ghtopj6b8mj/FFT%20WotL%20-%20Valeria%201.3%20%28PSP%20EUR%29.ppf



I hope you'll enjoy this Valeria mod as much as I do and thanks FFTPatcher team so much for this awesome utility that can help us enjoy Final Fantasy Tactics again.