Final Fantasy Hacktics

So I'm probably a bit halfway through clearing quests/being ready for the final tower, though just one chapter away from the final story chapter vs Illua and this is my main setup in this mod

1) Luso
Keeper
Seer
Bonecrusher
Geomancer

He went from being an OP 300 damage plus statuses elemental melee unit in Vanilla to an OP 700 damage elemental caster unit, Doublecast Mist Charge/Recharge on first turn, next turn he has 70ishMP ready for doublecasting Flare Star, Aero, Darkga, Water or Cura. Plus can Raise and Esuna if needed. Early game he was my Thief making sure to Loot until Adelle joins and takes that over and begins to make the full transition to caster. Seer is really the way to go with Luso in this mod.

2) Adelle
Heritor
Thief
Strike Back
Dual Wield

Not much change from vanilla, except Thief is actually useful in this mod, always Vanish for Evade bonus at start of battle then go on to wreck hell with dual attacks, Lennart or Wermut from afar if needed though she rarely has a need to do ranged attacks.

3) Hurdy
Juggler
Bard
Critical: Vanish
Ribbon-bearer

Not much change from vanilla either, the MP Battery and Smile support Hurdy is still just as viable. Moogles are alright early, once you get Air Render they're decent frontliners with 100% wool but lack of good damage modifier passives and lower stats than Bangaas makes them fall off. Once they get outclasses by Humes and Bangaas at meele units there's not much reason to use one until you get Hurdy. You can transform it into a Fusilier but won't make much impact.

4) Viera
Red Mage
Elementalist
Reflex
Turbo MP

Or

Viera
Red Mage
Summoner
Reflex
Halve MP
I change this unit depending on what laws are there or if I feel I need more support or more damage, likely the latter. With Doublecast gone the main thing for Vieras to keep up with Luso is Turbo MP, it turns Red Magic and Elemental Magic into -Aga strength spells plus extra sting from Rapier attack when paired with Magick Frenzy. I don't use Assassin for this because their abilities turn crazy expensive with Turbo MP, whereas Elementalists provide every element save Holy.

Without Blood Price there isn't much point in using Assassin either I think, maybe a melee status condition unit paired with Spell Blade but Elementalist with MP Turbo does that much better, ranged and will most likely inflict the better status condition of them all instead: Death from 0 HP.
edit: I forgot about Last Breath, you can make a murder machine like vanilla with Halve MP, use Vanish then have a 90% acc killing unit. You can compliment with Archer.

Another cool unit that didn't make it to my final team could be Fencer with Turbo, makes puny vanilla Swamstrike into a 300 damage nuke for just 8 MP.

5) Hume
Paravir
Paladin
Bonecrusher
Geomancy

The classic OP Paravir, I gave this to Frimelda and turned her into a holy damage tank.


6) Nu Mou
Alchemist
Time Mage
Evade Magick
Item Lore

OR

Bangaa
Cannonry
Sacred Blade
Magick Counter
Tank
This one I'll change depending on mood, its role is to essentially give an Ether to the Viera and then give Haste to the rest of the team or support with some damage.

Because Attack↑  and Pugilist don't seem to work I've found melee unit Bangaas pretty underwhelming, Cid has been benched for most of the game, I haven't gotten the armor for Unscarred to see if that one is any good. Was only doing decent damage during the mid-game with Bishop's Aero and Water but now I find better use in support with a Cannoneer. Just like vanilla, Grias and fatties join pretty late, by the time my party is 15 levels higher so I don't feel much desire to level one up to be able to see if this mod has made them any cool or worthwhile to use outside dispatching.

I just got up to Grazston and I've been enjoying this mod in Hard Mode!

My only complaint was how in vanilla you don't get to make that much out of the bazaar until the last third of the game and wished how you could do more with it early on like in a Clan's Journey but then I got the Loot skill in the Camoa arc and feel satisfied, was hoping to loot items that would let me get weapons with Keeper skill but no luck. Would be cool to have earlier access to Grias and the fatty ones though.

I also felt a bit resistance early on that Luso is more of a caster with Free Energy than a physical attacker but got used to it, I think I'm going to make him my doublecaster since that got moved to Humes.

Soldier bugs aside, loving this so far!

EDIT: Some modifiers don't seem to work, not seeing a damage increase with doublehand and sidewinder does the same as regular damage against monsters

Just realized Geomancy does work, I thought it wouldnt because Black Mages are illusionists now, sorry about that. I've been hooked on this mod

Quote from: Zeke_Aileron on October 02, 2017, 05:49:43 am
i don't think i removed Geomancy from the Hume jobs since i didn't see it game breaking, but i did move it to a different job class to learn it in the current build i'm still working on, however i did remove a lot of passives and reactions that were overpowered, and you can't learn Dual wield at all from any hume jobs anymore, the only units that can learn "Dual Wield"
in the current build(that i haven't released yet) is Luso(has it by default, he has a sword and a book in the beginning), Adelle's Heritor job, Vaan Sky Pirate's job, Frimelda by default(re-adding it back to her), The Tactician is pretty interesting when you get more of their abilities, and Pavivir's abilities were nerfed quite a bit in this.

Really love the sound of that! And I think Geomancy is gone from Humes in the build that is posted since they can't learn Black Mage skills anymore, unless you made Geomancy also an Illusionist support skill in another robe somewhere, will keep looking in that case

I've been having fun with this mod, still fairly early in the game after Cid is incapacitated, my observations so far:

* Cannon Mages are somewhat useless/unfun early, since the cannon mage's early game options to do damage are Bomb! (Which is outclassed by Black Mage's Fire), and Prime not doing much of a difference and Nu Mou's normally having low atk damage (since you start with a Mage one) the class feels a bit wasted early.
* Its nice to get a Gria early, I remember years ago when I last played FFTA2 by the time I had access to a Gria my fighting party would be so built-up in skills that I had no use for one and would just relegate it to dispatch, and the Hunting skill was very useful early but eventually the class stalls because it cannot change jobs.
* I missed not having a Bangaa for a while, would've preferred for the Hume soldier to be a Bangaa, we already have Luso as the Hume of the party.
* Seeing that Black Mage Humes are gone am def gonna miss the Paravir Geomancy. At first sight there doesn't seems to be much of incentive to have a Hume that isn't a Tactician or Heritor/Seer dual wielder. With Geomancy gone for Luso it'll be interesting to see what setup to use to make the most of the Tactician's skills (I type this but I'm still gonna have a Paravir for nostalgia sake).
* With cool sounding names like Skyfury Blade, Hoarfrost Blade, etc, Wet Blow feels a bit underwhelming, here's some ideas from water-type abilities through-out other FF games:
   - Cloudsea Blade from FFT Samurai's Ame-No-Murakumo skill "Cloudsea Curse"
   - Maelstrom Blade, from FFT Sky Mantra water element ability
   - Tidal Wave, the name of Leviathan's summon attack
   - Aqualung Blade, enemy skill from FF7
   - Aquastrike Blade, from FF XIII Ravager water attack

I love how this patch reads, you didn't go down the road to make new made-up bs skills and sticked to just re-balancing the original game, would you make a similar mod for FFTA2?

Whats a myrmidon? never seen it in FFT or other FF games

I really liked this project, its the only FFTA2 rebalance that appeals to me, but the lack of dual wield was a dealbreaker to me, I would like to teach myself how to tweak with these kind of hacks, I'd be adding Dual Wield back.

Also it seems like past a point the game can't be played because of the issues with level cap, as well as the one shot cockatrice in that quest. Anyone having any other issues?