Final Fantasy Hacktics

Moogle did a good job nullifying my Wiznaibus spam's effectiveness, and your ninja made sure to interrupt it as often as possible with his crazy berserker damage funsies.  You have a solid team there!  GG.

Player: Andrew
Team: Super Twins Time 1
Palettes: Brown/Green
Last Revision: 2016-11-29

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Onett
Male
Serpentarius
70
50
Monk
Draw Out

Martial Arts
Move +1

FS Bag
Choice Band
Earth Clothes
Defense Armlet

Spin Fist, Repeating Fist, Earth Slash, Stigma Magic, Chakra, Revive
Masamune

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

Twoson
Female
Serpentarius
50
70
Scholar
White Magic

Magic Attack UP
Move-MP Up

Prismatic Rod
Holy Miter
Wizard Robe
Diamond Armlet

Earth Dragon, Bio, Melt, Quake
Cure, Raise, Esuna

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

Threed
Male
Serpentarius
70
50
Monk
Draw Out

Martial Arts
Move +1

FS Bag
Choice Band
Earth Clothes
Defense Armlet

Spin Fist, Repeating Fist, Earth Slash, Stigma Magic, Chakra, Revive
Masamune

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

Fourside
Female
Serpentarius
50
70
Scholar
White Magic

Magic Attack UP
Move-MP Up

Prismatic Rod
Holy Miter
Wizard Robe
Diamond Armlet

Earth Dragon, Bio, Melt, Quake
Cure, Raise, Esuna

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

Player: Andrew
Team: Super Twins Time 2
Palettes: Brown/Green
Last Revision: 2016-11-29

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

Onett
Female
Serpentarius
40
40
Paladin
Dance
Auto Potion
1/3 of MP
Maintenance
Ragnarok

Platina Helmet
Chameleon Robe
Cherche

Lay on Hands, Nurse, Transfusion, Southern Cross
Witch Hunt, Wiznaibus

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

Twoson
Male
Serpentarius
40
40
Mime
Item
Projectile Guard
Unyielding

Swift Plate
Chakra Band
Maximillian
Setiemson

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

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

Threed
Female
Serpentarius
40
40
Paladin
Dance
Auto Potion
1/3 of MP
Maintenance
Ragnarok

Platina Helmet
Chameleon Robe
Cherche

Lay on Hands, Nurse, Transfusion, Southern Cross
Witch Hunt, Wiznaibus

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

Fourside
Male
Serpentarius
40
40
Mime
Item
Projectile Guard
Unyielding

Swift Plate
Chakra Band
Maximillian
Setiemson

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

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

ESSENTIAL (would make all of the difference, and would like to see these implemented ASAP):
- Dancer gains +1 PA and access to another weapon type (Maybe katana?  Ideally, DW's reworking as well, once she fleshes it out more!)
- Male monks go down to 12 base PA  OR  lose access to bags
- Samurai gain +1 Move, +10% C-Ev, but lose 20 base HP (Go-go melee samurai!)
- Summoner and Time Mage swap base HP values

- Lay on Hands: Becomes Hit_PA+70% (It would actually be usable by units of low Brave OR high Brave!)
- Elemental skillset: Non-elemental skills go back to PA+2 bonus (My mistake... sorry, guys and gals.  :P)
- Item skillset: Various items switching what statuses they cure; new items.  (I would at least like to see Antidote/Ether/Hi-Ether changed, and for Phoenix Pinion to make it into the game.  Or, if people don't want another resurrection skill on Item, perhaps we could simply buff Phoenix Down with values similar to Pinion?)
- PRISM TRIBUTE (Weapon elemental, map-radius Lore skills.  Enough said.  Two thumbs and two big toes way up.)
- Punch Art skillset: Linear formula introduced (PA*X), remove Martial Arts, and lower Punch Art JP costs (All of this would make Punch Art a lot easier to balance, and a lot more fair for users with lower PA values!  Removing Martial Arts would also terminate its unintended interactions with certain skills, like Gil Toss.)
- Spin Fist: Goes to 0 vertical
- Roulette: Loses Frog, gains Death Sentence and HP Poison (We could always put Frog on something else, be it a skill or weapon.)
- Comet: Gains CM and CF
- Haste 2/Slow 2: Lose smart-targeting (Mostly for Slow 2; would see less spam, especially in smaller maps.)
- Esuna/Raise/Raise 2: More JP (I want White Magic users to struggle with JP, since the skillset is so damn good.)
- Holy: Moves to Black Magic (Death moves somewhere else?), MAx15
- Piety: Trigger becomes Critical-only (I designed this one to originally fill a defensive role, believe it or not!  If it's not possible to change its trigger, then change the status it gives to something else, or remove it.)
- Blind Rage: Loses Darkness (Better than my idea.)

- Scorpion Tail: 11 WP (I'd still be scared of 12 WP even if we removed the HP Poison proc.)
- Hidden Knife: Remove from the game (Unevadable magic... enough said.)
- Holy Lance: Gains 1 Move, loses 1 Speed
- Javelin: Gains 1 Speed (I feel that adjusting Holy Lance and Javelin would "complete" spears, and thus Lancer as a whole.  Spears define Lancer, making it unique amongst the rest of the jobs.  This would be the icing on the cake.)
- Spell Guns: WP reduction or turn into books (Magical books that shoot... magic.  It makes sense!)

- Golden Hairpin: Halves Dark/Holy, new robe made for strengthening

- Cursed Ring: Loses Fire weakness

- Critical hits no longer knock-back (Two reasons: Unfair for units with Two Swords, since if they crit with their first attack and knock-back occurs, the second attack will not land.  Also, the crit knock-back has a strange interaction with weapon skills, as it can cause the affected to go out-of-bounds; that is, push them out of the map, and thus bugging the match up.)


NON-ESSENTIAL (would be nice to have, but can wait for a later patch):
- Heal: 2 range and gains Undead removal
- Luck UP: 60% bonus
- Poison: Gains MP Poison, 12 MP cost
- Consecration: Speed+90% accuracy
- Misogi: Gains Faith removal
- Raiton (NEW): Same as the other -tons, but Lightning elemental.  Who likes the idea of blasting things with electricity?  This guy right here.
- Shuriken: Reverts to pre-140 version
- Hawk's Eye: 0 MP
- Heretic: Move to Ninjutsu, 2 CT, 0 MP
- Mind Ruin/Power Ruin: Combine, move to another skillset, possible name change
- Bahamut: MAx13
- Caution: Combine with Awareness
- Cyclops: JP reduction
- Titan: 4 CT, MAx8, 100% cancel Charging/Performing
- Protect/Shell: 100% hit

- Unarmed: PAx10 (Plays well with linear Punch Art.  May not be necessary, but "10" seems to be the magic number in Arena.)
- Bags: Become WPxWP
- Crossbows: I like increasing the status crossbows' proc chances.  One-handed Gastrafitis would be nice, as well.
- Healing Gun: 6 range
- Black Staff: 33% proc chance
- Platinum Sword: Gains Slow, loses Berserk
- Rune Blade --> M Bag (Everybody should be allowed in on the MP regeneration love.)

- Aegis/Crystal/Genji reworkings (Aegis is too good, while Crystal and Genji are definitely lackluster.)
- Swift Plate: Gaining Slow, Stop, and Haste immunity, but losing its Speed
- Severed Head (NEW): 10% P/M-Ev, always Berserk and initial Haste (Would allow for evasive Berserkers.  The lack of Two Hands/Two Swords would be noticable, but since Berserkers can evade now, it could have some fun uses!  I feel that the initial Haste isn't necessary, though.)

- Accessories: Various attribute switching (Not happy with how accessories are currently.  Certain ones, like Defense Ring, still need to be toned-down and I think simply swapping status immunity attributes around should balance this problem out just fine.)

- Bullrush: Loses recoil and Haste removal, PAx10, 100% knock-back, 100 JP (Something that myself, DW, and CT5 created earlier today.  Intentional knock-back that can actually benefit its user and their team.  Knocking the enemy into a charging spell's AoE, or off of a cliff for some hefty damage... the possibilities are endless!  Muhahahaha!)
- Counter Tackle: 100 JP (If Bullrush changes.  Could become a nice defensive tool for squishies.)
- Yell: Affects user, as well (Would use one of Dokurider's newest ASMs.)
- Muramasa: Becomes PA*8 (Maintains its Death Sentence proc.  Would make the skillset more appealing to use by male samurai/other physicals.)
- Murasame: Heal_([MA+PA/2]x13) (Would make Draw Out more friendly for physical/hybrid builds, in addition to the Muramasa suggestion above.)
- Counter Flood --> "Counter Comet": 70 damage, 200 JP, goes to Time Magic (DW's idea.  So solid.  No more fury bug, either!  Would function like Comet in that it would be ranged, unmitigable, and unavoidable.)
- Tsumazuku: 0 MP, gains MP Regen removal (CT5's idea, with input from myself and DW.  The AI would actually bother to use it more due to it costing 0 MP, and would be an effective anti-Regen and anti-Masamune!  I think that this alone would justify it staying at 200 JP.)
- Stop: +1 CT or -accuracy (Slower means more opportunities for redirection!  Screeeew this skill.)

- Poison Bow: Becomes a crossbow again and gains the ability to inflict HP Poison, as well (DW's idea.  Dual Poison funsies!  Would be very annoying to deal with.)
- Masamune: Gains Stop immunity, +1 PA, and +1 MA, but loses its other properties (Something Alfa and I came-up with together.  Who wouldn't want more Stop protection?  Also would pair up nicely with Geomancy and/or the Muramasa and Murasame skill ideas of mine.)

- Chantage: Loses absorb Water, but gains initial Protect and Shell (Something DW and I came-up with a few days back.  Would make Chantage similar to the other perfumes again.  While Undead immunity, initial Reraise, initial Protect and initial Shell may sound like much, it also wouldn't take much to dispel these statuses, leaving the user with a measly single status immunity for the rest of the fight.  Could be good for units that need to get into the fray quickly with as little as possible stopping them.)
- Elf Mantle --> "Aqua Glove": Absorb Water; Don't Move, MP Poison and Petrify immunity (DW and I feel that the Chantage's Water absorb could go to a new accessory that gives enough status immunity diversity to fill in the gaps for many types of units who are building for status protection.  The Elf Mantle is the perfect accessory to replace; I honestly don't remember the last time I've seen this one in action, as people are much more inclined to use the Leather Mantle or even the Feather Mantle.)

- MP Poison: Becomes 1/4th (DW, myself, and others were talking about this one.  MP Poison in its current state sucks, even if it were to be combined with HP Poison... not that I fancy that idea one bit.  At least with it becoming 1/4th, the affected's team would have to spend more turns restoring MP, actually giving something back to the team that afflicted it in the first place.)

I was player 1.  GG.  LOL.  Seriously though, dangerous team you've got there, Mudvayne.  Good luck with future matches.

I knew that I was going to have trouble against your team due to the evasive chemist and two earth absorb units.  Very solid team you've got there, Barren!  Your archer will probably face a Projectile Guard user soon, though.  :P  GG.

Would need a damage increase if it wants to compete with Swords Dance.

Melt and Witch Hunt are the only sources of AoE MP damage.  I feel that Witch Hunt would need a minor MP damage boost for it to compete with Melt.

Has the potential to be very powerful, especially against tanky units.  Would probably need a substantial MP cost and/or -1 AoE.

I'm completely fine with this one.

This could be really good against Piety spell gunners because of how much I hate them.

In addition to dispelling Faith/Innocent, I would love to see Tap Dance dispel Charging/Performing, since there's no AoE way to do so.  Would make the skill pretty unique.

I think 3-4 CT would be fine.  It's like Southern Cross, but has a larger AoE and a CT.

I'm not a fan of 2 AoE Slow, since it can really mess-up teams.  Maybe if it was only -25% instead, but eh.

2 AoE Haste is a little more tolerable than 2 AoE Slow, but still not a huge fan.

The AI will be spammy with this skill regardless of what you do to it, since it's inflicting -100 CT.  I don't really know how to approach this one.

Why don't we change Float so that it nulls Dark and Holy instead of Earth?  They're hard to counter due to the lack of half: X for them, easy to strengthen due to Golden Hairpin, and are often desirable to pair with one another (Bizen Boat/Kotetsu; Holy and Dark Holy).  So, wouldn't this change be the most appropriate?  People would be running Float much more often!  In case you weren't aware, I'm definitely kidding about this, since it would be *much* more feasible to simply change Golden Hairpin's strengthen Dark+Holy to half: Dark+Holy (and then introduce a new robe that grants Dark+Holy strengthening) than to do something like that.

Pre-140, I understood why Float nulled Earth, and it was mostly due to how OP Quake was at the time.  So, since Quake was already nerfed appropriately... why does Float still null Earth?  I think that the answer is Diamond Armlet & Earth Clothes.  Diamond Armlet provides some very handy status immunities (Oil+Slow), +1 PA, +1 MA, *and* absorbs Earth.  Earth Clothes absorbs *and* strengthens Earth, something that is only seen elsewhere on the Mace of Zeus, and for Lightning instead.  Why is Mace of Zeus rarely used despite doing this?  Because it's a weapon with low WP, and is limited to jobs that can equip staves, while Earth Clothes is body armour that can be worn by most jobs.  So, it's plain to see that these two pieces of equipment make Earth absorb team building a breeze.

If Float were to lose its null: Earth property, then Diamond Armlet & Earth Clothes could safely be nerfed with no consequences balance-wise.  Diamond Armlet could simply lose its +1 MA, which would promote Diamond Armlet to a physically-inclined accessory, and would mirror Magic Ring nicely.  Earth Clothes could go 100 HP/10 MP, lose its Earth strengthening, and gain Fire absorb; Black Costume could lose its Fire absorb and gain Water absorb; Rubber Costume could lose its Water absorb and gain Holy absorb.  There, all of the clothes would provide absorb options for all elements, and were swapped around to avoid OP absorb stacking for certain skillsets.

So, if the above changes were to happen, what benefits would Float provide still?  It would increase the affected's height by 1 and allow them traverse over water unimpeded.  That's nice and all, but hardly relevant due to the lack of maps with large bodies of water.  Float (movement) would be a disappointing waste of space, and Float (status) could simply be stripped from Diamond Helmet and it would still be a great choice, since people used the Crystal Helmet pre-140 and all it did was provide Don't Act immunity.

While we were developing 140, there were hypothetical suggestions for providing Float with alternate boons if its null Earth property was removed: WKW suggested that it could gain +1 Move and +1 Jump, but this would make the Float Movement skill incredibly desirable over Move +1 or Jump +1.  If there were others, I don't remember them, because they were (probably) not good enough *to* remember.  I still feel that simply removing Float's null Earth property, making the above changes to Diamond Armlet/Earth Clothes, and limiting its access to Bombs and Ghosts (two monster families that need always Float in order to not look glitchy) would be the most appropriate change we could make.

Actually, your Bard at 70 Fury synergized well with his Monster Dict... he got off a couple 200s throughout the match.  I feel that if he focused on book shots, he could have put enough pressure on silentkaster's team to force them into defensive action, opening a window of opportunity for your squire to run on in and start smashing faces.

I feel that your main problem is that every single one of your teams uses Bahamut.  While it can work sometimes (your triple mime team), other times it just doesn't work (this team you just had a match with, even if the Bard had 70 Faith).

Currently, Bahamut is rather underwhelming, and will probably receive a buff in the next version of Arena (140b).  Until then, why don't you try making a few teams that don't have Bahamut?  Maybe this will improve your W:L ratio!

Don't give up,

- Andrew

P.S. If you *really* want to stick with Bahamut, you would benefit from making your Bahamut user dedicated to spamming Bahamut.  High MP (or average if you have good MP restoration), decent MA, Short Charge, high Faith, maybe even Piety to push out some extra damage.  An alternate route would be using Equip Lightgear for Hidden Knife, which would make Bahamut unavoidable.  Just some thoughts.