FFT Arena 1.42 Statistics

[Gaignun]

Hello all,

Good work with the release of patch 1.42, everybody!

I thought I would contribute to the patch in my own way: by dumping boatloads of stats on everybody.  Below I have aggregated data from both teams submitted on the forums and teams loaded in the memory card generator that is bundled with patch 1.42.  Only data available up to 1 October 2017 are considered.  Data from patches before 1.42 are not considered unless specified otherwise.

At first, I thought I would write a bunch of unsubstantiated nonsense about how I thought patch 1.42 will change the meta-game.  Now with these stats I can write a bunch of substantiated nonsense.  You can find this nonsense under the "Commentary" spoiler.

Enjoy!

spoiler: Information

Patch version: 1.42
Population size, N = 272 units
The population consists of publically available data submitted up to 1 October 2017.

Legend
#: Number of instances
%: Percentage of the population (= #/N)
AR: Adoption Rate (= #/p, where p is the number of units that have the option of learning the given ability, equipping the given shield, etc. The AR is a rough estimate of how popular the given skill/equipment is among others in its skillset/class.)

spoiler: Jobs

spoiler: Brave & Faith

Std. dev. (max): The standard deviation were every unit to choose either 40 or 70 Brave/Faith to achieve the same average.

spoiler: Recovery

spoiler: HP Healing

spoiler: MP Healing

spoiler: Resurrection

spoiler: Damage skills

spoiler: PA-based

PA-based skill: A skill with the formula PA*X, where X is an integer, or something similar

spoiler: MA-based

MA-based skill: A skill with the formula MA*X, where X is an integer

spoiler: AoE

spoiler: Ailments

spoiler: Summary

spoiler: Infliction

spoiler: Protection

spoiler: Healing

spoiler: Buffs

spoiler: Breaks

spoiler: Armor

spoiler: Shields

spoiler: Head

spoiler: Body

spoiler: Accessories

spoiler: Elements

Definitions
Offense = o/N
Defense = (a+c+0.5*h)/N

where
o: Number of units with at least one weapon or skill with the specified element
a: Number of units that absorb the specified element
c: Number of units that cancel the specified element
h: Number of units that halve the specified element
N: population (=272)


S5: AI Tournament Season 5 (Autumn 2016)
S2: AI Tournament Season 2 (Summer 2013)

spoiler: Commentary

• Year of the Fighter
  The six most popular jobs are PA-based ones (Paladin, Lancer, Archer, Mystic Knight, Monk, Thief). This trend is reflected in the distribution of Brave & Faith, where the average Brave (55.2) leads the average Faith (52.5) by nearly three whole points.
  
  At 37 units, the Paladin is by far the most popular job.  There are 60% more Paladins than the next most popular job, Lancer.  I suspect that the skyrocketing popularity of Paladins, together with the drop in average Faith with respect to Brave, is due to the introduction of Lay on Hands, which is a Faith-independent resurrection spell on the Paladin skill set, as well as the falling viability of other options (e.g., speed stacking, magic). (I will talk more about this second point later.)
  
  


• The Rise of Punch Art
  Perhaps due to its compatibility with high-PA, low-Faith teams, Punch Art has become the most popular skill set. 60 units (22% of the population) have Punch Art equipped as a primary or secondary skill set.  Chakra, Stigma Magic, and Revive are especially popular, with a minimum of 80% of Punch Art users capable of using at least one of these three skills.
  
  


• The Fall of the Mage
  Due to a variety of nerfs implemented over the last few patches (... I could go into detail), the mage is currently riding the pine pony. The three skill sets that are the purview of high-MA, high-Faith units are also the least popular: Black Magic (11 units), Summon Magic (17 units), and Lore (19 units).  Wizards have taken the biggest hit in popularity.  They are less popular now (4.0% of the population) than in the Season 2 tournament (5.7% of the population) back in 2013, and that was when Wizards didn't have Water, Dark Holy, or Nether skills, and were countered by a single piece of equipment (White Robe or Reflect Ring).
  
  The declining popularity of mages is reflected by not only the above drop of average Faith, but also the declining prevalence of MA-based damage skills.  There are more units using the damage skills of Punch Art alone (35) than those using all MA-based, Faith-based skills put together (30).
  
  Mages have not altogether disappeared.  In addition to the above 30 remaining mages still casting damage spells, there are a few dozen mages fulfilling support roles, using helpful skills like Raise, Esuna, Haste, and Regen, and status spells like Slow, Sleep, and Paralyze.
  
  


• Is this the time to write Death Sentences in our Death Notes?
  With only 30 units protecting against it and 18 units able to cure it, Death Sentence is one of the easiest status ailments to spread around.  This is of little surprise to me: Following the loss of Chameleon Robe, the only means for the shieldless to protect themselves from this calamity is with the perennially unpopular Angel Ring, whose other immunity -- Darkness -- is irrelevant to those who do not use PA skills (e.g., mages, which is why you'll almost never find a mage with Death Sentence protection.)  Of course, turning yourself undead with your choice of Cursed Ring or Reaper's Robe can also keep you from having your name written in a Death Note, but the permanently undead have their own set of problems to worry about.
  
  Death Sentence is also becoming a more popular ailment to inflict.  I have hardly seen anyone use Secret Fist before; now there are 12 units who use it!  Perhaps the overall drop in maximum damage due to the reduction of elemental boosting and the nerf to Attack UP are encouraging people to find less conventional ways of bringing down their opponents.
  
  


• Donny, you're out of your element!
  Although our elemental shields (e.g., Flame Shield, Dewdrop Shield), clothes (e.g., Flash Hat, Golden Hairpin), and accessories (e.g., Aqua Treks, N-Kai Armlet) have been lovingly redesigned this patch, they are hardly being used.  Only 13 of 107 shield users have equipped a shield that absorbs an element.  Meanwhile, only 19 units are wearing clothes and 15 are wearing hats that protect from elements.  The biggest representation of elemental protection is in the category of accessories, where 44 units are sporting an accessory that absorbs an element. (The Magic Ring is the most popular with 13 units, followed by the Tough Ring with 9 units.)
  
  It seems that players are eschewing elemental defense in favor of maxing out their base stats.  There are more people using stat-boosting body armor (e.g. Power Sleeve, Wizard Robe) alone than there are people protecting themselves from elements with any piece of equipment.  This is sensible: Stat-boosting armor works 100% of the time.  In contrast, elemental protection works only when facing opponents who use that element, which is around 10% of the time at best.  And even then, units typically carry more than one element and/or non-elemental attacks, so it is likely that the elemental protection will be effective for an even smaller fraction of the time.  Spending up to 50 points of your maximum HP (e.g., 130 HP Brigandine versus 80 HP Santa Outfit) at those odds tends not to be worth it.  Up until last patch, one could add some reliability to elemental protection by using it to heal one's own units. However, this technique has become unattractive now that absorption clothes have disappeared and evasion has been added to absorption accessories. Hence, in comparison to past tournaments, we are seeing from a 4% to a whopping 22% reduction in elemental defense across the entire population.
  
  Elemental offense has gone up and down. Elemental offense has always been sparsely represented among populations, but several elements are sinking to a new low.  Fire, Ice, and Lightning are particularly rare, with only around 6% of the population representing one (a drop of 2~5% compared to Season 5 one year ago).  The only element that became more represented by any significant amount is Wind; its representation increased from 4% to 10%.  This is most definitely due to the change to Wave Fist, whose element was changed from Holy to Wind.  Holy itself plummeted from 20% to 10% partly as a consequence of this change.
  
  

[Kurosabes]

I don't see the stats, I thought I should point that out since no one else seems to have done it.

[Gaignun]

Thank you for notifying me, WKW.

The images appeared properly embedded for me, so I thought there was no problem.  I am using DropBox for the first time, and it appears that I screwed up the file permissions.

The images are now embedded using different links.  Let me know if these links don't work, either.