Final Fantasy Hacktics

i'll take that slot, just gimme a bit to throw together a team

I approve of this compat mechanics change, for the same reasons as PX

Just to be clear, Grand Cross is flagged as Requires-Sword, correct? Because i've never been able to use it in tests where I was equipping weird weapons to get off the wall elemental attacks, like blast guns and the like.

actually, unless something has changed, Concentrate would become available ONLY as a mime innate ability, rather then being removed entierly

I feel like mimes might be better served by having Overwhelm instead of Martial Arts as a support, they would benefit more overall, even with the loss of power for their attack command. They also still feel a little too easy to kill for a unit that is entirely reliant on others to heal itself, and they still have 1 support slot left, so why not put Unyielding in there?

quick call for clarification about the Awareness hack. In the arena tables it says it lets W-ev and C-ev apply to sides and back, but the description here is simply "perfect evasion from all sides" which would imply shield evasion as well, which is it?

I agree with giving the ice/lightning bows a MA boost, without it, even max +MA gear female archers can only achieve 12 MA. let's compare best case scenarios

with +2 MA boost from bow
max MA gear female archer with Overwhelm - 8 PA, 6 MA, +6 MA from gear, +25% boost from Strengthen: Thunder, +20% boost from Overwhelm = 9 PA, 18 MA

Female scholar with Equip Ranged - 7 PA, 13 MA, +6 MA from gear, +25% boost from Strengthen: Thunder = 7 PA, 23 MA

without +2 MA boost from bow
female archer - 8 PA, 6 MA, +4 MA from gear, +25% boost from Strengthen: Thunder, +20% boost from Overwhelm = 9 PA, 14 MA = -4 MA from above example

female scholar - 7 PA, 13 MA, +4 MA from gear, +25% boost from Strengthen: Thunder = 7 PA, 21 MA = -2 MA from above example

since I love undead so much, here is another potential Ice monster in the Revenant (Skeleton)

Revenant
Always: Undead
Immune: Dead, Blind, Poison, Regen, Sleep, Don't Move, Death Sentence
Absorb: Dark, Ice
Half: Thunder, Water
Weak: Holy, Fire

Reaction: Meatbone Slash
Support: Two Swords
Movement: Any Ground, Move Underwater

Skillset - Cold Terror

Knife Hand - basic physical attack, may cancel Haste, range 1v3

Heartbreaker - Spell inflicts 75% hp damage to a unit afflicted with Charm, Dark/Ice element, range 4 area 0

Frozen Soul - deals PA+8/2 * MA ice-element damage to a single target at range, range 4, area 0

Icy Glare - lowers the brave of multiple units by 10 points each, range 3, area 1v0

5th move - ???

my five cents

earlier on, you made an edit to critical-dependant reactions to not require critcal status, so i'm wondering, whould it be possible to edit a non-critical dependant reaction to become critical dependant? I'm thinking specifically of MP Switch, Hamedo and possibly Blade Grasp. MP Switch might actually be BETTER with such a change, since it would only activate in an emergency, allowing casters to equip it without fear of having their entire mp guage depleted after the first hit they suffer. Likewise, Hamedo and Blade Grasp I feel would be much more balanced if you had to risk death to trigger them.

in regards to balancing a PA * [WP + Y] version of charge with other weapons, specifically katana, why not remove the lower level charge skills completely? This would make attempting to use them in melee much more difficult, even with short charge support.

here's the basic armor ideas i'm currently playing with. I think they make a nice base spread of abilities for store-bought armor. Each armor type has a base form, while each unique region of ivalice also sells it's own variation to the base form that specializes in a particular ability (yes I kind of stole this idea from the now defunct Ivalice Arena project).  Another thing I was playing with was the following equipment pardigm

Clothing - Highest HP, Moderate MP, stat boosts biased towards speed/mobility (balanced to perform adequately in all areas of offense and defense)

Armor - Moderate HP, Low MP, Always: Protect, stat boosts biased towards PA (the lower HP coupled with Always: Protect just emphasizes the PA bias for armor, it's better then clothing for both PA offense and physical defense, but worse then clothing for MA offense and magical defense)

Robes - Low HP, High MP, Always: Shell, stat boosts biased towards MA (Robes have low defense overall, but are better then armor and at least equal to clothing at magical defense, and the flat best at MA offense)

Helms - Moderate HP, Low MP, stat boosts biased towards PA

Hats - Low HP, Moderate MP, sats boosts biased towards MA


of course, the hp/mp values can be tweeked up/down for the level of toughness you want for units. Mine are high because i'm slashing the stat growth of human units down to the very minimum, also, my MP values are very high because of two things, 1)i'm removing almost all forms of MP recovery and 2) MP Switch is becoming the low-tier mage job reaction ability, making up for the crappy hp modifier of robes compared to armor.

update tables? I want to see what this new ninja skill "Houkouton" is about

FFMaster

email: http://www.youtube.com/user/SkipSandwich

By all means Zodaic, take all the time away you need, but I do hope that you'll come back sooner or later, even if not in as quite an active role. I've been reading over all the drama that has happened in recent days, culminating in Voldemort's SECOND Ragequit resulting in the unwaranted destruction of other people's work.

*sigh*

anyhow, for what its worth, I have always felt that your admistration of the site has been nothing short of exemplary, and I still have trust in you and your leadership.

just piping up again, regarding bombs. Bombs to me have always been the Gambler of monster classes, so they're a perfect opportunity to include gambler type skills in Arena.


Bomb
Absorb: Fire
Half: Wind, Ice
Cancel: Earth
Weak: Water

Reaction: Critical Quick
Support: Overwhelm
Movement: Float

Skillset - Kamikaze

Bite - basic physical attack, may inflict Oil status, range 1v3

Living Flame - Throws fire about randomly, range 0, area 2v5, hits 4 times, deals MA/2 * MA fire element damage, Flame attack effect, direct attack (should achieve a better then expected hit rate via hitting units by targeting panels directly behind them), does not target self or allies (but could still hit allies via indirect targeting, this needs testing, however)

Shrapnel - Sacrifice health to deal non-elemental damage, range 3, area 0, unevadable, deals PA * 12 damage, take 1/3 backlash damage, small bomb effect

Self Destruct - classic skill, range 0, area 2v1, shock damage + Oil/Blind/Silence status

Meltdown - self-destruct variant, focuses blast in a single direction to gain greater range and pierce through protective magic, range 5, area 5v1, linear attack, shock damage + cancel Protect/Shell/Reflect/Haste/Regen/Reraise

I agree with philsov, 1-2-2-1-1-2-2-1 is the best arrangement

The presence of the ARH means that we can get really creative in assigning restrictions to the use of various abilities. For example, we can make Shuriken only useable while Throw Item is also equipped, or only usable while under Transparent status or only  usable while equipping knives or ninja swords, for example.

@pokeytax RE: Stone Guns
i'm pretty sure what you saw there was an example of good compat + 70-70 fury + attack UP, in other words, the worst case secenario.

Maybe instead of or in addition to Initial: Petrify, they could have Always: Slow and Immune: Haste, they should probably be forced 2-hands as well