Board 8 > Final Fantasy Record Keeper Topic 50: Ardyn... the final character?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Physical down as well! It was actually easier despite the slower time since I had to go slower in the middle so I didn't have to deal with the instant KO BS.



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Okay, got the physical one, it felt like it was harder than I expected considering how good my gear was. The team I used was Lightning, Ramza, Elarra, Agrias, and Orlandu. I dropped Orran once I realized Lightning could give fastcast to all my physical attackers, and added Agrias because I really needed the imperiling. Lightning's damage was surprisingly not that great... but it was a lot better than Orran's, so... I don't know how you're supposed to beat this if you don't have a ridiculously stacked team, but I'm probably just bad.

Hopefully my much weaker magic team will be able to do it now that I have the Lord's Seal: Dark on my magicite.

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Seems like the issue most people are having is sleeping on Beatrix (especially using Lightning over her, I made the same mistake) I tried Wodin with Beatrix instead of Lighting and the fight was much easier since she always broke rage letting Agrias break rage as well with her sync commands.

She doesn't have the high hit potential but I feel a lot of us forgot how bulky Wodin is because of how long it's been since the last one and we're more used to Dreambreakers where we get synergy boosts so characters like Lightning seem like main DPSs.

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Well one nice thing with Seifer awakening 2 is that you can swap Selphie for a healer that doesn't suck.



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The magic version of the fight is annoying me. Hope's chain and Cait's awakening give the same buff so one of them is wasted. I was trying to get past the first Achromatic Aegis before using Rem's Sync/Awakening but I'm not able to manage his rage enough to survive the first Argent Zantetsuken. Maybe I should just get Exdeath's sync but it seems like I shouldn't need it.

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Seems like getting Exdeath's sync might be the right thing to do if you need help with dark magic weak Wodin as well (and getting that mind boosting artifact bracer!)

Dream selects end in a week so make your choice quickly.

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So we know more about the Anima Lens update in JP. I figure that info will help some people here if they still have dream selects to pick:

- Daily mission (complete 1 dungeon) gives 150 Lvl 4 lenses per day
- 3000 lenses for a AASB, 2000 lenses for a chain
- AASBs available are the exact same as the coin exchange we just had for anniversary
- All Gen 2 chains and Gen 1 realm chains seem to be available

Looking forward to finally having Cloud's Awakening someday.

Also anyone gonna fight FF14 Bahamut next week? He's supposedly one of the easier ones with 4.5 million HP and 4 hit king rage. Here's a video of him being beaten with only 3 Awakenings (Papalymo, Mog and Alphinaud)

https://youtu.be/oM_rNnV7LJQ

I think I should be able to handle him with Alph and Ysayle awakening/sync.

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I can't even beat Lahabrea yet, so not me. The banners are no good for me either.

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I grabbed Exdeath's sync and crushed Odin. Rem is still ridiculous. For some reason I thought there were two Achromatic Aegises so I didn't counter the first one and then I realized there was no second one, oh well. On the other hand, doing it the way I did gave me plenty of time to build up Rem's SB bar so she could use her USB at the beginning of the fight and then Sync/Awakening back to back after Achromatic Aegis.

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I think that's only Earth and Lightning Wodin that uses two Aegises.

Also good call getting Exdeath sync, now you got a dark mage with two cap breaks when Dark Weak Wodin comes out (hopefully soon.)

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I downloaded this a year or two ago and only played for like an hour or so at the time. I came back to it a few days ago and man, that transition once the story dungeons stop dropping two stamina shards each and you actually have to wait for it to recharge after having gotten used to just playing continuously is rough.

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Hey everybody, last music dungeon has dropped, so it's time to make sure you clear 'em all!

that transition once the story dungeons stop dropping two stamina shards each and you actually have to wait for it to recharge after having gotten used to just playing continuously is rough.

I'm pretty sure I actually wasted a Mythril on it the first time that happened to me, lo these many years ago. That said, Stamina Potions are now a thing, so you can use one of them if you need to maintain the "my numbers went up" endorphin rush.
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Got both Holy weak Odins done fairly easily. The clears were significantly slower than I expected (both in the 45 second range), but I never really felt like I was in any danger of losing.

Bring on dark weak.

So is the Missions Screen not working for anyone else?

It's not able to load anything. It keeps saying "An error has occurred. Reloading..."

It's really annoying that I'm not able to claim my daily mythril.

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I'm not having that problem. But your daily mythril should get dumped in your item chest tomorrow if you don't collect it today.

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LordoftheMorons posted...

I downloaded this a year or two ago and only played for like an hour or so at the time. I came back to it a few days ago and man, that transition once the story dungeons stop dropping two stamina shards each and you actually have to wait for it to recharge after having gotten used to just playing continuously is rough.

I think they're getting rid of the stamina shards soon and just making the default stamina 999 for everyone. Or at least it should have been soon since that was supposed to come with an update Japan should have already gotten event wise but it wasn't in the last datamine (the final bosses in Record Dungeons will finally be added)

I got Golbez's dualcast LMR on the daily today! That's one I was eventually gonna get but I always went for another LMR instead. Nice to have even though I prefer CoD as my dark magic chain, and Golbez was benched in favor of Emperor when I got his sync.

Still it will be good for the Dark labyrinth when that comes out.

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That actually sounds a lot worse for people catching up (unless they also upped the regen rate); having 999 at the start would be nice, but at 70ish stamina (about where you stop being able to continuously regen from stamina leveling up) its only like 13 more levels to match that, and then after that youd be better off under the current system

(unless of course youre blowing through mythril/stamina potions, which would be much stronger with a 999 cap)

Unrelatedly, I was surprised to see just how insanely expensive gems were in this game. I find it kind hard to believe that charging people 50 bucks for an 11 artifact draw is the revenue maximizing rate...!

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Yeah it's only really worth paying for Dream selects and good luckies. But some people put like 300 bucks into hyped banners so I guess they're still making money. I don't mind paying once in a while if it helps support the musicians that make the amazing remixes

I did bite on the current lucky. I go Ardyn sync and Awakening! Awesome! I should dive and start grinding Magia on him, he should be good for Dark Weak Wodin, physical Ice Giant and Bahamut!

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LordoftheMorons posted...

That actually sounds a lot worse for people catching up (unless they also upped the regen rate); having 999 at the start would be nice, but at 70ish stamina (about where you stop being able to continuously regen from stamina leveling up) its only like 13 more levels to match that, and then after that youd be better off under the current system

(unless of course youre blowing through mythril/stamina potions, which would be much stronger with a 999 cap)

Unrelatedly, I was surprised to see just how insanely expensive gems were in this game. I find it kind hard to believe that charging people 50 bucks for an 11 artifact draw is the revenue maximizing rate...!

In fairness its 30 dollars!

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I got the sub30 on XV Ifrit with the new Ardyn goodies!



Damn Arydn is good! Imperils on his Awakening, overstrike command 2, 2 free ATB bars trance on his sync- He's definitely going on the Dark weak Wodin team!

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Dream selects are almost up, I picked Terra's sync for Bahamut since it has an overstrike command 2.

I can almost sub30 the Ice Dragon, but I'm always 1-2 seconds short I could probably get it if I level up the historia crystal but I should save those rat tails for 14 Bahamut tomorrow just in case.

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So having trouble deciding between Sync and Awakenings

Sync options are down to
Warrior of Light
+ Have his awakening
+ FF1 and Light Phys need help
- They might need too much help for this to move the needle much
- Don't have his Dualcast LMR

Sephiroth
+ Have his awakening, both of them, as well as most of his stuff aside from any source of empowered dark
- Doesn't slot on my Dark teams currently, which doesn't need a lot of help anyway as they beat both 6* magicite. Possibly not wodin viable yet but I'm actually thinking they may be.
- In FF7 team I use him as fire

Rikku
+ Have pretty much all her other stuff
+ Phys water and FFX are two of my stronger teams and she may push them over into the next level of beating dragonkings/wodins
- Not sure? Leaning her anyway

Awakening on the other hand is way more broad. Are there any top tier awakenings out there I may not be thinking of?

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List of awakenings I'm currently considering, open to other suggestions tho

Thief
Maria
Edward
Barbaricia
Celes
Sabin
Shadow
Kefka
Yuffie (water)
Sazh
Gladiolus
Cinque

Get 2. Most are just things I want due to having Sync pair

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Warrior of Light doesn't have a dualcast LMR. He just has a weird counter 3 hit thing.

Sephiroth sync might still be worth considering because remember Alexander is one of the easiest magicite so I wouldn't base a Wodin victory off him. Rikku might be best though for the crit change boost though against Wodin/Bahamut she's be lucky to break cap even with that.

Probably should ignore Maria and Celes awakenings as they will be anima lens selectable.

Edward and Sazh are good support awakenings you'll probably get the most bang for your buck. DPS wise Gladiolus is probably the best because his Awakening gives him a physical damage boost that lets him break savage modes easily and cap damage even at low chain.

Do you have Caith Sith Awakening yet? That's probably the most must-have of the selectable awakenings till Mog Awakening 2.

Also I did a last minute bite on the Legend Materia dream select for Ysayle dualcast since FF14 Bahamut is tonight. I got Sarah sync on the grab bag! My first healer sync! And more healing for FF1 is always welcome because of how fast the dreambreaker is.

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Have Mog AASB1 and AASB2 (got this on the actual draws for the luckies which was super cool) so doubt I'll ever use Cait Sith for anything

Going with Edward + Sazh + Rikku based on input. I'll keep Gladio in mind for later draws but I think my earth phys and FFXV are too weak right now for it to matter much

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You see both of them being used against Labyrinth bosses over healers and one thing Cait has over Mog is that his glint+ overwrites the annoying mind/def/res buff most endgame bosses use nowadays (and if they don't use it's still useful for the instant cast and debuff)

Also I got an easy sub30 on the FF7 Dreambreaker with Red/Cait/Vincent even though I have a pretty stacked Sephiroth and Cloud sync I still couldn't beat him with that.

There's also going to be another dream select later this month (or early June, before the next maintenance) in case you want to get something for FF14 since the Dreambreaker rat tails mission is going to refresh tonight.

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I did several of these 15 mythril elemental pulls and got a few 6* relics for some characters I don't even have:

Femme Fatale (I) [Meia]
Guard Staff (FFT) [Montblanc]
Fujin's Moon Ring (VIII) [Fujin]

Are any of those worth actually using that character? Currently the only character I have with a 6* is Snow (Wild Jaguar); I did switch out Galuf for him to make use of that SB and it was worth it.

On another note, what do I do with all of this low rarity equipment filling up my inventory? I went ahead and traded in all of my 1* and 2* stuff for rainbow shards, but I also have a ton of 3* stuff; googling suggested that maybe some of it could be situationally useful for realm bonuses until I got more 5*s, but I don't know if that's outdated.

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Monblanc sucks, but Fuji and Meia are good, but those are old relics.

Most old equipment is obsolete by artifacts, junk anything below 6 unless it's an elemental boosting relic. You can get better equipment from the Record Laboratory anyway.

Also it's better to use mythril on current event banners than the 15 mythril banner ones, because it's going to refresh with updated relic pools in a month or two.

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Hmm okay, good to know. I assumed that the current banners were better, but I wasn't sure if they were enough better to justify spending 50 mythril instead of 15 when I don't have much of anything.

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Yeah current banners are 6* relics and better (with a 5* glint or Legend Materia here and there) Awakenings and Syncs are much, much stronger than random BSB and USBs.

Also new kind of dungeon, Labyrinth is coming out soon that will have special hero relics that more powerful than anything else in the game. They are obtainable from lower level difficulties too (but less likely to drop)

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Are any of those worth actually using that character? Currently the only character I have with a 6* is Snow (Wild Jaguar); I did switch out Galuf for him to make use of that SB and it was worth it.

Snow's Wild Jaguar is an AASB/Awakening Soul Break, which is about two tiers of power creep over the other stuff you just got.

Femme Fatale and Fujin's Moon Ring are the OSB (Overstrike Soul Break) for those characters: one big cap-breaking hit, costing half a bar. I would venture to suggest that they will overall outperform most 5* Soul Breaks, but once you get some good Ultras (or, better yet, Awakenings and Syncs), OSBs will just be a supplement, convenient to have in your pocket when the boss is stacking defense buffs that only breaking the damage cap can abate.

Guard Staff is Montblanc USB (Ultra Soul Break), which does... some damage, Protect and Shell, and an enemy debuff. Well, you do want Protect and Shell pretty much constantly, and if you don't have a better source then Montblanc will do. With that said, once you get a healer Glint+ with "free instant Haste Protect Shell" (and pretty much every healer has one, nowadays) you should ditch Montblanc and never look back. Poor Moogle is a fire-ice-lightning mage from a realm that's focused hard on holy physicals.
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OSBs still have their niches for stuff like Titan's walls and Bahamut's king rages. And if your character has run out of awakening/sync time they can also help keep rage levels down.


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Is there an easy way to tell in-game what "tier" different relics with the same number of stars are?

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LordoftheMorons posted...

Is there an easy way to tell in-game what "tier" different relics with the same number of stars are?

kind of, they have articles telling you what they do. But each type of relic has a symbol on its soul break which will tell you which it is, so once you know the list its easy to see

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I think he might mean like what is better between something like OSB, USB, CSB, Arcane, and Awakening for 6* relics.

And from that, it's really based on the context of the relics themselves from what I recall. I don't closely follow the meta though, I just casually run through the events.

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Wait, is there no event this week?? Just a Bahamut fight and a banner?

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This FF14 event was a Halloween event in Japan, so they probably delayed that to October.

I got to the third phase of FF14 Bahamut, hoping I can get a day 1 win but he's annoying bulky in phase 2

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Okay, I did two pulls off of the XIV banner and I guess Im using Yda now!

I also should probably add a real healer to my team...

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Is there an easy way to tell in-game what "tier" different relics with the same number of stars are?

I don't think you can usually tell from the relic, but the icon for the Soul Break itself will have a symbol indicating whether it's a SSB, AOSB, ADSB or what have you. Let me see if I can whip up a list.

Not Worth Caring About
Unique Soul Break "Unique" - 5* relic, no marking, only one bar to use. Obsolete.
Super Soul Break "SSB" - 5* relic, yellow plus, two bars to use. Obsolete.
Burst Soul Break "BSB" - 5* relic, red fireburst, two bars to use. Obsolete to veterans, but the Burst Commands they grant have infinite uses and are stronger than 4* abilities; if resource concerns prevent you from routinely using 5* abilities, then BSBs may be more helpful to you than they are to us.

Can Supplement Other Relics
Legend Materia Relic "LMR" - 5* relic, pink circle, grants a passive Legend Materia to a character instead of a Soul Break. Some are very useful (particularly "25% to doublecast ___ abilities" type stuff), others not so much.
Legend Materia Relic + "LMR+" - 6* relic, same pink circle. Stronger effects than LMRs, as you'd expect, but they're still nothing that can carry a character solo.
Glint Soul Break "GSB" - 5* relic, green comet, only one bar to use but limit three uses per battle. Glints always cast instantly. They're highly situational, but endgame fights looove to force some of the situations.
Glint Soul Break + "GSB+" or "G+" - 6* relic, blue comet, free to use but limit 1/battle. These can have a wide range of effects (for example, "instantly get two Soul Break bars", a sterling example of something that is awesome once you have another good SB but pointless until then.)
Overstrike Soul Break "OSB" - 6* relic, green up arrow, only one bar to use, can deal up to 99999 damage. Most OSBs follow the same template, only the element (and whether it counts as physical or magical) changes. Nice backup option, as mentioned before
Arcane Overstrike Soul Break "AOSB" - 6* relic, triple chevron and gold up arrow, three bars to use, limit one use per battle. Arcanes come in two flavors, 3-hit (all overstrike) or 21-hit (only the last hit is overstrike), and otherwise have even less variation than OSBs. Expensive, but helpful for hurrying bosses through a dangerous part of their script.
Ultra Soul Break "USB" - 6* relic, two yellow pluses. Some of these are pretty meh, some are great, a few are still top tier relics. Definitely look these up to see what they do.
Arcane Dyad Soul Break "ADSB", or "TASB" from their JP name - 7* relic, triple chevron and double red circle. Dyads can be activated twice per battle; first time works like a GSB+, second like an AOSB. They might belong in the next tier, but I am skeptical about the effectiveness of a character with only a Dyad. (They combo really well with other SBs, though!)

Can Carry A Character On Their Own
Chain Soul Break "CSB" - 6* relic, golden chain. Chains apply stacking damage bonuses to all attacks of a given element (or, for realm chains, from characters belonging to a given realm) for... 14 seconds, I think. Not all chains are created equal, but even the weaker chains are still "I should consider the possibility of using this character in every party I make revolving around this element/realm", at least until you can upgrade to a better chain.
Arcane Awakening Soul Break "AASB" - 6* relic, double chevron and gold silhouette, two bars to use but 1/battle only. AASBs take some type of ability ("Ice-element" for Snow AASB) and supercharge it, with infinite hones and assorted other perks. There is some variation between AASBs, and I recommend you investigate every one you receive to see just what it does.
Synchro Arcane Soul Break "SASB" - 7* relic, double chevron and stylized gold S, two bars to use but 1/battle only. Synchros replace Attack and Defend, like Bursts (although Sync Commands are around 6.5* power); you will probably find them to be more powerful than Awakenings for that reason. Like Awakenings, Syncs care what abilities you're using (it'll try to use one of your 'real' abilities after each Sync Command) and you should always look them up to learn the specifics.

I Just Remembered Limit Breaks Also Exist
Some Relics grant your characters Limit Breaks, which run off a shared party Limit Gauge (which is only visible if you deployed someone with a Limit Break). They're still activated through the Soul Break menu, but they consume Limit Gauge instead of SB bar to use. There are Limit Break Glints and Limit Break Overstrikes, both of which are 1/battle only, and which I will summarize as as "GSB+, but even more situational" and "free AOSB, but don't use it until you're 25+ seconds in."

TL:DR

Awakenings, Syncs, and Chains are all "unlock this character if you haven't already, and seriously look into making them part of your A-team for the appropriate realm and/or element". Ultras are sometimes enough to make a character worth using, also, particularly on healers or buff/support type characters. Most other relics are not exciting nowadays, at least not until you have a couple that can work together.
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Very helpful, thanks!

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Ugh I'm gonna call it a night, I can't seem to beat the 14 Bahamut, he's too bulky in the second phase and that eats up the awakening/sync time that I can't finish him off in phase 3. I stack Mage's hymm, Papalymo and Alph supers and it barely breaks cap on Bahamut after 70 hit on the chain.

Seems like every clear has Mog Awakening 1+2... but I don't have 2 so I'm mostly screwed by the phase 3 full break unless I want to bring Minfilia over Papalymo and full break Alph and Ysayle, but keeping up with the healing is gonna be tough without Orran.

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Aidyn: The First Mage

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I really wish one of these XIV banners was a good mage and healer banner. XIV has so many good mages and I need to upgrade my healing.

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14 is a mess with it's healers because they made Y'shtola an offensive mage (which she sucks at) and Alphinaud into the healer (which is awkward) It's part of the reason why Bahamut is so hard because I can't skip the mega flare and the pain makes it too easy to die in phase 3 because Y'shtola is like a year behind as a healer (and she was already behind other healers before that!)

We finally got some new realm dungeons tonight and 4 myhtril for the hard version of the final boss, nice!


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Oh nice maybe I can actually get enough stamina shards to continuously spam dungeons again now that theyre half price

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Finally managed to kill the 140 enemy in the FFII event that had previously been wrecking me!

Wonder if Ill have any luck with the 180...

Edit: oh the 180 was actually easier...!

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Event bosses should crumble with ease if you got syncs/Awakenings from the FF14.

Are you making sure to mote/crystal water your characters?

Also I don't know what I'm doing wrong with FF14 Bahamut, phase 2 is destroying me because this team doesn't build meter fast enough and I can barely break cap in the second phase, I have no idea how people are doing it so easily. P2 Mega Flare is always fucking me up with the pains even if I do get to phase 3 I don't have the meter to stay alive. I'm even using Mog awakening 1 to try and at least out DPS the mega flare and even that barely breaks cap.

I feel like I'm getting desperate enough to pull on one of these 14 banners but Yda or Haurchefant stuff would be useless to me.

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I am using some motes/waters, but Im probably being a bit too conservative holding off on using them on characters Im not sure will be in my team long term. And yeah I got Ydas armor from the banner which has been helping a lot.

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3-5* Motes are so plentiful spend them and max any characters you use. Plus you can always farm more at the mote dungeons.

6* motes you want to be more conservatives with those.

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