Lurker > Kaxon

I selected it with stamps as soon as possible in both versions of the game. And yeah, definitely worth it, along with Cait Sith's.

But they still didn't add any new awakenings, lol

I kinda like the complexity but at the same time I think without the community the game would be basically unplayable. The game itself just doesn't tell you enough about what things actually do.

It's hard for me to pick a single time when I thought the game peaked. In terms of how interested I was the first six months or so we're definitely it, but I do think it definitely became a better game with more strategic depth after that. The continual power creep issues is a tough one to solve but for the most part I think they did a pretty good job. I do think the game declined a bit after Dreambreakers and 6* magicite though - those fights were all unique, but Dragonking and Odins were basically carbon copies and the Lab bosses all followed one of a small number of formulas.

6* motes have never been much or a problem, ironically 3* motes are the scarcest but they're easy to farm. Rat tails have definitely been a major barrier to realm content but they're starting to get less scarce. Right now the biggest barriers are relics (especially Cait Sith's awakening, which I will finally be able to grab on Friday), MC3s, and lenses.

Nice!

I'm still working my way through DBs, DKs, and labs... haven't gotten to d700 crystal dungeons yet.

Good luck! That's already insanely impressive.

It's not, although they might be adding it soon, they said they were adding more chains. I'm using Vaan right now, he's one of my best characters (removing chaining duty from him might help him do more damage though)

6 pulls... failed to get Cloud or Shantotto ZSB which I wanted most, but did add some useful stuff.
1/11 - Cloud DASB (good start!)
1/11 - Zack ZSB
1/11 - Zack LBC
2/11 - Shantotto LBC, dupe Zack LBC
1/11 - dupe Zack LBC
1/11 - Kuja ZSB

I like Zack but I had nothing else for him before this. I guess if I lens his AASB1 he makes my wind team, but it wouldn't be that much of an upgrade and I still don't have a lot of lenses. You really want those ZSB/DASB combos and the game isn't giving them to me, sigh

The 3 day wait between fest banners is killing me, I liked it much more when it was two. We have a ton of sync selects right now but I can't use any of them because I want to see what I draw on the actual fest banners. And the thing I need most of all is Cait's awakening but that takes 13 stamps.

1/11 - Alisaie G++
2/11 - Alisaie ZSB, Estinien DASB
1/11 - dupe Estinien DASB

Ugh, didn't want Estinien at all. Oh well, have a pretty good Alisaie now even if I didn't get her DASB or anything for Terra.

3/11 - Fujin ZSB, Fujin G++, Bartz G++
2/11 - Tyro DASB, dupe Fujin G++
4/11 - Tyro ZSB, Bartz DASB, dupe Tyro DASB, Fujin LBC

Hmm, I don't know how good Tyro's stuff is, I guess I need to figure out how to use him. Just one cap break each for Fujin and Bartz, dunno if I should do another pull or just use lenses on Fujin's awakening (and I also need her chain, which is more lenses than I have right now).

Good luck! JP fest banners have just been revealed. First one has Fujin stuff and my wind magic team currently has no chainer, so I'll be trying to get some of her stuff tomorrow and then I can lens her chain.

Buncha free tickets - the potentially useful things I pulled were Gabranth sync, Freya sync, Amarant awakening, Genesis dyad, Tidus dyad, and Strago brave awakening.

Congrats on the kills! 8A starts tonight in JP (fest banners start on Sunday). I definitely need the help to get up to the next level of content (650 Labs and Dragonkings, and 700 Crystal Dungeons)

Thanks! I finally realized yesterday the d600 realm crystal dungeons are easier than Dragonking and give lots of rat tails. So I'm finally able to get my first level 99 HCs. I thought I leveled up my VI HC, won the fight, then realized it was still at 80 and I leveled up the VII HC by mistake.

Congrats! I just got my first DK in JP, VIII in 27.80

I got Onion Knight's Zenith and Ingus's DASB off a ticket pull... pretty nice.

Zeniths sound complicated but in practice they're basically awakenings that (a) can combo with syncs and (b) give some extra buffs to your hero abilities. It seems like the best way to use them is combine with DASB to quadcast your extra-buffed HA (after the 3rd use of HA in zenith mode it gets an extra level of cap break).

Nice! I had a lot of tools but didn't get sub 30. Maybe if I put a bunch of time into it it might have been possible but I started focusing on JP instead. Right now I'm working on d580 labs for the tickets, neo Bahamut (he's easier than Odin, I did a few of those too) and Dreambreakers.

Beat my first neo-Bahamut (in JP), it was easier than I expected. It was with Bio so I guess I'll see if I can do some of the other elements.

I'm realizing one of the things that's really limiting me on realm content is lack of level 3 anima lenses. I can't afford to get a healer USB for every realm, much less a proshellga glint. The reason I died on T0 Gilgamesh 550 was because I was trying to make do with Deuce's weak USB1 instead of spending lenses. Part of the reason my damage is low is that I'm using Tyro for of his USB3 when I could be using Mog if I had a proshellga glint. I also haven't honed Mog's awakening yet because it would take all my L1 lenses and most of my L2s.

Everyone I'm using for top level content at least has level 50 HE, 5* dive, and 100 magia. True lots of them don't have 6* dives and level 99 HE, that would help.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/9/2/1/AAEagUAADoZx.jpg

First lab 650 down. My progression is pretty random, I still haven't finished all the 6* magicite, but this guy is easy by labyrinth standards and my Squall and Laguna are strong. (Kiros just has a sync and no other SBs)

I'm trying to do some dreambreakers, it's surprising to me how hard they are. I'm sure part of it is my shortage of rat tails and being forced to use level 65 HCs but is that all? I'm countering the full breaks but my damage still seems low.

Makes sense. I thought I wasn't going to want to do the grind (and going through all the record dungeons is tedious, realm dungeons aren't as bad but there are SO many of them). But I am enjoying going through the challenging content again. Revisiting the really old stuff like nightmare dungeons was interesting. Agree it probably won't last much longer though. I'll be reasonably happy if it lasts long enough for me to catch up to the current content and do all the stuff global never saw.

That's kinda cool. I'm surprised you didn't jump over to JP since you seem pretty into the game.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/3/6/7/AAEagUAADniP.jpg

Choco Mog does it again. This summon is so ridiculous, I love it. 4 Argent Odins down now: Bio, Earth, Ice, and Wind (weaknesses), all physical.

Vaan with sync2+dual was absolutely putting Cloud to shame here... admittedly Cloud had just his sync 3 and Choco Mog.

...I totally forgot there was a slot 2/4 gimmick, I got so used to powering through these. The problem is I don't have much of a choice but to power through and try to do most of it in one chain because my relic pools are shallow (meaning most characters only have one BDL... Lightning has awakening and dual but Queen and Gau both have one).

I did the 2 dream sync selects, maybe it's a waste but the exchange rate is good so it's like 25% off compared to what global sync selects were. Took Vaan and Laguna ATB syncs, I have duals for both of them so they should be pretty strong.

I beat bio Argent Odin yesterday and physical earth weak AOdin. Turns out bio was a really good one to start with because it gives you two copies of the magicite so you only need to beat him 4 times to get your 2 level 99 copies instead of 8 times. Then I tried lightning weak but for some reason my characters' damage was just awful even though I had a 2.5 chain, HE for everyone (although not level 99) and a hero ability for Lightning. I guess maybe the problem is infusion, since I don't have any syncs and I assume he's diffusing me. I'm only trying physical for now because I have no Aegis counter for magic teams but I could try the just wait out the debuff, I think it's only 4 seconds.

I did two pulls on bio banner and got pretty good stuff:

1/11 - Leila limit chain
4/11 - Kefka ZSB, Leila ZSB, Leila Dyad, Marcus chain

I already have Kefka's great sync and his bio awakening so I have most of a team now. But I ran into a problem where I didn't have enough of those magicite shards to buy 4 copies of Ultros. So many random currencies in this game you need to collect. I was low on gil too so I left my phone running autoing 5* magicite when I went to bed. Now I can try this Golem fight and then maybe Argent Odin? I haven't done any yet but I was trying to do at least one version of every 6* magicite yesterday... got them all except Diabolos where I think I need an aegis counter.

Congrats! 18.15 on a dragonking is pretty impressive considering the 5s damage resist and everything.

Yeah, that would be fun. Vivi is one of my favorites and I had Papa's ATB sync so magic would be good too. Hopefully I'll be able to build a good enough fire team for it in JP.

Congrats on the sub 30s! And yeah, Locke was amazing.

Impressive! You have a lot more lab sub 30s than I do at this point.

I got dyads for Terra and Celes with my ticket... wish there was going to be a chance to use them! If there's no more tickets after this there's not much reason left to keep logging in for me. I'll probably keep doing it out of habit but I'm not sure, since I do have JP now to do.

I started to make some serious progress on 6* magicite in JP today. Until now I had just done 1, magic Leviathan. Today I did both Ramuhs, Magic Ifrit (my Lunafreya is a beast), and Magic Shiva. I also beat a couple 550 Greg's and Behemoths but failed at dreambreakers today (I've only done one so far I think)

I tried Salamander yesterday thinking it should be an easy sub 30 after doing Bahamut Zero but it wasn't. It still takes time to get going and then the 5 second invulnerability really makes sub 30 tough. I also tried 1 Dragonking and that fight still sucks. So I probably won't put a lot of effort into improving my times, especially since I'm going to have to do those fights again in JP. I still have 20 tickets though, I'm not really sure what I should spend them on.

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing about her HA. That might move her ahead of Bartz (especially if I was able to pull her dyad too).

Did a bunch of pulls on 1, mostly looking for Meia's dyad but also wanted Thief's Sync.

3/11 - Echo awakening, dupe Wol BUSB, dupe Wol USB
2/11 - dupe Echo Awakening, dupe Wol Awakening
3/11 - Garland dyad, Fighter LMR+, Fighter LMR
1/11 - Fighter USB
2/11 - dupe Master sync, dupe Meia OSB
2/11 - Echo LMR, dupe Meia BSB
1/11 - dupe Thief AOSB
1/11 - Fighter dyad
2/11 - dupe Master sync, dupe Meia AOSB
1/11 - Fighter LBO
4/11 - dupe Meia sync, dupe Matoya AASB, Garland LMR, dupe Master BSB
1/11 - dupe Fighter AASB
3/11 - Master g+, dupe Garland OSB, dupe Fighter LMR
1/11 - dupe Garland OSB
2/11 - dupe Fighter LBG, dupe Meia USB
1/11 - dupe Garland dyad
1/11 - Echo G+

Not much of use, but at this point there's no fights left (although plenty to sub 30, but I'll just do the ones I feel like). 20 tickets left now.

Aw yeah... Got em


https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/2/4/AAEagUAADlAo.jpg

I couldn't figure out how to fit Paine in after all... Bartz is too much of a beast to take out even with the wrong DASB and dyad, Wakka and Rikku are both filling specific roles... and Tidus is Tidus. The early turns are lined up perfectly so Wakka takes him to 80 with his second attack under DASB and then immediately breaks aegis with the chase. This time Bartz actually got ahead of him because of fast cast so basically wasted a turn, but in the end it didn't matter. I almost want to go for a sub 30 but I don't know how I would cut 5 seconds off this.

Pretty good Record's End pull today:

5/11 - Paine DASB, Bartz 7* realm chain, Garland Awakening, Shelke Awakening 2, Cloud of Darkness G+

Gotta figure out how to work Paine into my team now.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/9/9/AAEagUAADkyL.jpg

Argh, this fight is ridiculous. Lost my chain at the end and Rikku didn't have enough gauge to refresh it for a round and a half. Tidus's limit chain (or Wakka's) would have prevented this.

Ah that is annoying. But still, it has a chase that imperils and is an aegis break. His sync is a crit fix so I think I'm going to try him instead of Quina.

So far I've done 20 pulls on the water banner, since it seemed like that had a higher chance of helping me than any individual realm. I improved my magic team a lot but so far I don't think I've gotten what I need for my physical team.

For magic: Strago's dual-element sync and water dyad. This gives him a Sync/Dual combo and he was already my chainer. Meia's ATB sync (I have her Dual), and Arc's sync (I have basically everything except his dual). I might try for a better time, probably with Rydia/Strago/Meia but maybe Arc. Also got Quistis sync and awakening but she probably doesn't make the team (unless she replaces Mog?) and Edge's dyad but I think his days are past.

Physical: Wakka's sync, giving him sync/dual combo, which are basically the strongest thing in the game right now. But he really needs at least one more cap break, ideally his aasb2 since it's an aegis break. Got Rikku's sync 2 but I'm not sure it's better than her sync 1. Also got Yuffie's sync and LBO but I don't really see how she makes the team. Her LBO is only 3 hits which seems bad. Nothing relevant for Leila or Lion or Paine.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/1/9/5/AAEagUAADkkD.jpg

Hell yeah, Safer Sephiroth beaten. I only did two ticket pulls, got Sephiroth's LBO and decided to try it again. Ended up not needing to use the LBO.

Just physical water Bahamut Zero to go as far as clears. After that, whatever sub 30s I feel like doing. Any suggestions for what ticket banner to pull on for Phy water? Tidus is definite since I have his ATB sync, DASB, dyad, 2 awakenings, and LBO. Elarra and Quina are pretty definite. Then I probably need a chainer and an imperiler. Right now Rikku is doing both but her damage kinda sucks, while Bartz is my last one with sync, awakening, and off-element DASB (triplecasts his HA and I overwrite the infusion). I do have chain/sync/2 awakenings for Paine (no dyad or DASB). And I have sync/awakening/off-element DASB for Leila who can imperil. Not really sure they would be an improvement over Bartz/Rikku though even if I did manage to draw the relics they have in the pool.

Dr. Mog's HA is insultingly bad, worse damage than Meltdown and Voltech... but I still had to get it because his SBs are such a mess. One awakening is infuse water, his sync is infuse whatever the rest of the party has which is wind and earth... so they don't even work with Voltech.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/9/4/5/AAEagUAADkgJ.jpg

Last DK down. I did 8 pulls and got Dr. Mog's sync and Bigg's awakening, everything else was a dupe. I got one ticket back for clearing every cardia dungeon so I have 63 now. Of course if I beat the last two crystal dungeons I can use them to try to sub 30 some labs (or Dragonkings... shudder)

@LordoftheMorons I think I've only been saving for about 4 months, maybe 5. They give out a lot of tickets, 4 for every elemental lab boss and 2 for every realm lab boss.

Maintenance would be tonight if it were happening, no announcement, so time to spend my tickets. I have 70 of them. There are 3 fights I haven't beaten yet.

Safer Sephiroth:
I think I can probably get this with what I have, but help is always nice.

Things in the pool that would definitely help: Seph dyad, Barret sync.

Things in the pool that might help a bit/nice to have: Barret realm chain, Barret LBO, Cloud Sync 3, Cloud Awakening 3, Aerith sync, Aerith awakening 1.

Physical Bahamut Zero:
I'm not even sure what's in the pool that would help here. Maybe Leila's CSB+? What I really need is Paine's dual awakening.

Core Dragonking:
The core pool kinda sucks, which is a big reason I put off this fight.

Things in the pool that would definitely help:
Dr Mog sync, Biggs sync and awakening (but only if I get both of them, otherwise he's not an upgrade over Rain.)

Guess maybe I should start with Core since that's the smallest pool and hopefully the easiest to beat.

This site has a pretty nice way to see what's on all the banners:

https://www.rk-squared.com/relicDraws/group-group61

Argh, after a few tries I got him to 5.7% before Zenith Endless Fantasy. All my awakenings expired at the end. I know this is doable though.

Ah cool, thanks for the tips. I'll try something similar, although my relics are a little different. Sounds like the main keys are slow roll the first phase, build a lot of bar for Cloud, and go all out in the spacetime phase.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/2/4/1/AAEagUAADkFh.jpg
Probably my last 50 mythril pull in global, got two of the most useful things for trying to beat Safer Sephiroth. Guess it's time to see if we can do this. I'm thinking doing more damage during the spacetime phase is the key to not having totally nerfed damage in phase 3?