FFT Arena Season One Discussion Thread

[Wiz]

I kind of want to run tests, but I also kind of want to just watch it happen when it happens.

Don't, it spoils matchups.

And assuming you do make it to R2 Fantactic, you're fucked. Your team's garbage compared to mine

Have a nice day in the Loser's Bracket after I beat you \o

[Fantactic1316]

Sorry Wiz, but twin Chemists are scarier than your team. You'll probably do well in the Netherworld though. 

[CupOfOrangeJuice]

You still have to get through me first Fanatic :3

[Fantactic1316]

I'll kill you all, blow your brains out through Uranus, liquefy your souls to pour on my morning cereal, and banish your physical bodies into a dark oblivion!!!

Either that...or the exact opposite of that. I forget which. 

[Barren]

Such competition I love it!!!

[Reks]

It's not just competition, it's outright anarchy.








Gah, headache...

[Eternal]

spoiler: Leif vs. Taichii

I was impressed with how long Tai held on. Berserk was the clincher though. Good try, Taichii!

spoiler: Mucus vs. Star

Such heavy hitting magic. I was proud! ;_;

[formerdeathcorps]

spoiler

A fellow RPer has fallen.  What do you do?
[ ] Cry
[ ] Don't Care
[ ] Laugh
[X] Swear Vengeance

All kidding aside, Taichii and ST4R both did a reasonable job considering how badly synchronized both of their teams were.  That second round win at Mandalia proves why mad science is a bad idea.  As for Lief, his (lack of) damage output will hurt him in the matches to come.  They aren't going to get easier from here.

[Taichii]

spoiler: Reaction towards my match

Eternal, Even though i lost... i really became happy... cause i met what i promised XD
Its either win or make them wait a little longer~! XD HAHAHA
FDC hohoo thanks :D anyway.. i hope we get to continue our fft arena lessons , master XD i'll try better in the next season :D
lief1991.. goodgame XD i was kinda hoping that i would get the upperhand since my first battle, my opponent is already petrified with stone gun so 4v3 but your chemist was pretty quick XD and the map range advantage at zeklaus dessert too haha .. anyways goodluck on your upcoming matches XD

spoiler: Mucus Vs. St4r

yey mucus i hope we get to fight at the tournament though XD
anyway.. i wish a fellow rp'er wins the tournament >

[mucus]

spoiler: Leif vs Taichii

Oh no! Taichii's didn't get in sync!  It was just a matter of whom could wear the other team out first!
Good Job Leif!
Better luck next time Taichi!!

spoiler: st4r vs me! (mucus)

Boo yeah!  Did you see that?  Frogs dropping everywhere! 
St4r?! Where was the healing?  A revive or an esuna woulda done wonders!
It was bad when my team didn't sync up... once those mad sciences start dropping, you know it's over >_<
Thanks for the awesome fight!
I feel really good about my entry to the arena!
Thanks everyone who has made it possible!

[dinosaur]

Pleas please please, name your spoilers to which battle you are referring too!

[Fanatic]

I had some time, so I did a analysis last night of how I think my first match will go. Now to watch the first matches...

spoiler: Fanatic vs Pride PreGame Analysis

I assume that as a Mod 1 attack, Talk Skill is not subject to Fury or Faith. Please correct me if I'm wrong. That said...

First off, Pride: Awesome naming scheme. It makes this match epic.

My Team:
Each of Pride's team members is subject to a 56% Mimic Daravon from my two Samurai. This is my team's primary offensive ability (hence the Chemist's Chantage over Angel Ring)

Speed wise, my player one spot works against me: Pride's Thief will be able to mid charge my ninja's slow 2. But since we're both males, I don't have to worry about steal heart. Due to us both having low brave, his mid charge daggers ought to do about 29 hps a hit = hardly fatal, even with Climhazard.

On the other hand, my ninja, with his shortcharge, 7 space teleport and 4 range Slow 2 will likely be able to cast it on the starting area before his other two units have even got their first turn (tick 12), but after the initial haste from Mediator. Point to me there.

Incidentally, the chance of slow 2 (and stop) hitting is:
Mediator: 88% (54%)
Priest: 80% (51%) Damn you Ice Shield
Dancer: 88% (54%)
Thief: 88%. (54%)

No immunities. I REALLY hope the Ninja opens with slow 2. He sometimes opens with stop though (Tick 13). Bad Ninja. I think it will depend on whether Mediator uses Masamune on those 8 speed units.

Low Brave across the board, and defense up, means my team is going to be on status mode full time, including the Samurai. I pity the host on this one.

Samurai's attack damage by target (sleeping) is:
Mediator: 141 (212)
Priest: 226  (340)
Dancer: 170 (255)
Thief: 226 (340)

Evasion will play a huge factor in how well I do. That priest is packing a shield and a mantle. I foresee many misses on her. But if she's sleeping, its a OHKO. Same with Thief.

Dancer is going to problematic. Stigma Magic is going to undue my sleep, and I fear that due to low damage projections, I'm not going to KO the dancer anytime soon. I guess I need to count on hitting her first with the Mimic Daravons. If I get her, I'm pretty sure my Ninja can neutralize Priest.

Pride's team:
Mediator will spam Kiyomori mostly, saving Blackmail for when he's out of range or needs a mid charge - but note, that only applies to Raise 2 from my Chemist. My Samurai will counter with Masamune. Many wasted actions I see. Point to Pride.

Priest:
Holy will hit the Samurai for 211 a pop. Ninja gets by with only 191, and Chemist is immune. As for paralyze, Ninja is immune (hence Rubber Shoes), But Samurais will get hit at 77% (ouch) and chemist at 62%. I had to drop bandage for fear of Petrify, and Pride might make me pay dearly for that. If Priest gets hasted, she'll go before my two Samurai, and hopefully she'll charge holy on the Ninja. And if I'm lucky, I'll have a shot at Mimic Daravon, or even refute, to block her. If the battle goes on long enough, my ninja might hit her for a silence proc. That would be sweet.

Dancer:
Death Sentence is a doubled edged sword. I have no protection, but sleep is a worse than a OHKO in many respects. We'll se how this plays out. Wiznaibus might actually end up healing the Ninja.

Thief:
Steal heart... oh how I hate it. I need to hit Pride hard enough to knock his Thief into sandbag mode early. If charm hits early, I'm in trouble. The only reason I don't use charm based teams is because of how luck based it is. You get lucky, you win big, and there is very little your opponent can do. You get a little unlucky, and you've got a unit that basically does NOTHING, and it's as if you were outnumbered from the get go.

Overall: The tone of this match will be set from the get go. I have far more raw damage than Pride (which I believe will be decisive in a long game), but he has greater status potential with both DA and Charm. If one or the other of us hits earlier with status effects, the match will end early. Otherwise, I predict each round will be 10 minutes or more.

MAPS:
Assuming I'm battle 24... I like windmill shed. MD all around. This will be a quick fight, especially if MD misses and Pride counters with Paralyze. Poeskas lake? Not so much. Paralyze will gain some power on that map, but Ignore Height will help. Peak is a clusterfuck for me. One of my Samurai will probably spend the match idling out of range, but at least the Ninja and the Other Samurai will be able to take high ground quickly. I think we might both we well suited for the maps.


[Dynablade]

spoiler: Leif vs. Taichii

Ninjutsu and a 250+ damage guaranteed gunshot is brutal on anyone. Cement their deaths by insulting the healer and/or separating the healer from the Samurai and you get this.

spoiler: St4rw4k3r vs Mucus

Frog, goddamn. Small maps are amazing for Mucus' squad, especially if the enemy can only advance on their first turn. But I happen to be a collector of Petrified Frogs, so this was a gold star battle. But even one Frog would have ended either battle really quickly, considering that Star has no way to cure status. With so many people running at least one type of status effect (and most of them, several types), curing status is huge.

[Eternal]

spoiler: Me vs. Dacheat

Wish there had been some more Zodiac action, but your mages hit very hard. Good job! :D

[Havermayer]

I kind of half-assed my team. I wouldn't have done it if my little bro hadn't pushed me. I aimed at long range crossbow and bow units. I just um, like that. But I fully expect to go down hard.

[dacheat]

spoiler: Me vs. Dacheat

Wish there had been some more Zodiac action, but your mages hit very hard. Good job! :D

spoiler: Me vs. Eternal

Round 1: Wat.
Round 2: Scary Zodiac is scary.

Good games Eternal. If I hadn't gotten those Summoners so quickly I would have been in big trouble.

[st4rw4k3r]

spoiler: @FDC

Hahaha
Sadly I forgot all about arena until the day after the entry date so I pulled some random team out of the blue by clicking random things in gaignun's spreadsheet :P

May Vengeance be swift and enjoyable

spoiler: @Mucus

Great Fight!
I Liked the Frog thing you had going there.
And I do not know why my priest was not healing. I'm quite disappointed about that, since its going to give RoR a reason to continue making fun of my healers >.>

Goodluck in the rest of the tourny!

[Fantactic1316]

spoiler: Eternal vs. dacheat

I really liked the Mime team. Saw them on the list and immediately spotted Asura and Summon as good choices for Mimic. I've been playing with Mimes a bit too and it's a lot of work trying to make units that work well with them. Shame to see them go down so quick. I hope they do well in the Netherworld. I'm always intrigued by a good Mime team.

spoiler: LightningHax vs Kihaku

Romanda Gun + Equipment Breaks = Run as far as you like, you'll never escape. Now to try to fight at your base HP! Love it!

[The Damned]

(Thanks for the speed of this, Barren.)

[Insert my usual comment about not burning yourself out doing this here.]

spoiler: Leif1991 vs. Taichii

Not much to say despite how long the match ended up being except that Ninjutsu doing that much damage, especially to a unit with that much Faith, is rather disgusting. I assume there has to be something to that power beyond "just" Innocent. The same goes for Stone Gun, though at least it's somewhat refreshing to see people use that again as opposed the other "magical" unavoidable moves. That's kind sad in and of itself.

spoiler: st4rw4k3r vs. mucus

I feel like an idiot for not noticing the Dragon Whisker Two-Hand. Even though it was totally st4rw4k3r's fault for not doing it himself and even though I felt like mucus was going to win from the beginning, I can't help but feel that going with that Javelin kinda screwed him over even though he arguably won the second round because of it. Meh.

spoiler: Eternal248 vs. dacheat

Despite being surprised about how Mimes are being used in this tournament, I honestly expected Eternal's team to do a bit better. I'm sure the Mimes having Move 5 didn't exactly help matters?

spoiler: LightningHax vs. Kihaku_FTW

As I said on Youtube, this is easily the match I like the most so far, even as...annoying as it is to see Stigma Magic back to being AoE 1 again; that still seem extremely unnecessary, but whatever.

Nice to see Comet, Zombie, Climhazard and the various breaks used to such effectiveness.

[formerdeathcorps]

spoiler: Damned

I know I can't share your tastes, but are you trying to say that the only enjoyable match is one where 1HKO/2HKOs do not occur?
Back to ninjitsu, are you saying that the only "fair" mechanics are those that have Br/Fa hard-counters?  We tried that back when 40 faith was actually reducing magic by 60% (and 70 faith reducing ninjitsu by 70%), it simply caused only two types of teams to predominate: heavy tanking and faith/innocent spammer because the variance on spell damage was ridiculously high.  However, because of the multiplicative nature of the damage formulas [and because X^2 > (X-Y)(X+Y)], it still favored tanking a bit too much.  All the while, status oriented teams were getting completely walled off by very low hit rates against 40 faith.  If someone invests an entire setup to optimizing ninjitsu, it should only be fair that your units need equal devotion to block it.
As for stigma magic and chakra, they are well balanced with esuna and cure because they trade range for speed.  With innate martial arts removed and the formulas changed, Monk as a class is balanced despite their high stats because of their lack of weapon capacity.