Board 8 > Final Fantasy Record Keeper Topic 51: Into The Labyrinth

(+) Yeah! (+)

Got Emperor 5% Armor and Weapon in the same run. Very cool. I actually have all the optimal gear from that dungeon aside from 5% Rinoa armor (and I'm not terribly interested in maximizing Rinoa anyway).

So guess all my Labyrinthing goes to the last dungeon now till I get that Tellah 5% Rod. Then I sit out till next season as I don't care about optimizing any other characters from the set

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At this point I think I'm just doing my daily labyrinth skip until the end of the season... aside from trying Kalavinka Striker more after I do my banner 5 pulls. The equipment I got is good enough, I'm not going to spend a lot of time trying to get optimal passives for characters I rarely use. I am really hoping I get Galuf's sync and/or awakening on b5 since his awakening #1 just isn't that great. And on magic having another cap break would help a lot so I'm going to grab Maria's sync with stamps.

I did three wandering Gilgameshes today - VIII, XIII, and XV were all relatively easy because I have good teams. I think I'm probably just going to leave I and XII until next time since my teams aren't good and there aren't great rewards for them.

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So I guess it looks like most of Serahs stuff (like her default LMs) assume shes an ice mage. Question: if I use voltech with it always resolving as a water spell, does it still also count as an ice spell for the purpose of her LM? (Increases magic based on how many ice spells shes used).

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So on the one hand, Lightning's hero ability is Lightning/Holy and has a chance to tri-cast if you have both of her dualcast LMRs (one works on Holy, one works on Lightning), so almost certainly

On the other that LMR's magic boost is so small that you probably won't notice the difference all that much either way, so I wouldn't know for sure

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Yeah its not a big deal either way (Id probably prefer to use chain waterja with her anyway), but I know the other LM (small ice boost) is definitely useless so I guess I may as well use this one.

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It should be easy enough to determine in battle unless you're capping all the time. It's a minor boost but if you cast 3 turns in a row and don't transition into another phase or buff more you should notice the damage go up slightly. I used to with Lulu's similarly bad Legend Materia

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So I guess it looks like most of Serahs stuff (like her default LMs) assume shes an ice mage. Question: if I use voltech with it always resolving as a water spell, does it still also count as an ice spell for the purpose of her LM? [...] I know the other LM (small ice boost) is definitely useless so I guess I may as well use this one.

Both of those LMs will interact with Voltech, whatever type of damage it is actually dealing. That wasn't always how it works, mind; I want to say that change was made around the time they gave En-Wind stuff to Terra.
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Huh, good to know!

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3/11 - Papalymo Sync, Awakening, and LMR
2/11 - Delita sync
(banner 4) 2/11 - Y'shtola Dyad and awakening
2/11 - Zidane Dyad and Glint

Pretty good pulls. The instant Papalymo pull is cool, getting both makes him good enough for my fire team and helps XIV a lot. The biggest disappointments are missing Galuf and Relm completely. Gotta figure out how to get past Kalavinka Striker with what I have. Getting Zidane's Dyad is cool, I'm pretty loaded for Sandworm with Zidane's dyad/sync/awakening and the same for Cloud. Bartz probably doesn't make the team even with Sync and awakenings 1&2.

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Time for my B5 draws

2/11: Galuf sync!, Papalymo LM
1/11: Delita awakening
2/11: Papalymo sync!, Zidane LBO
1/11: Galuf USB (dupe)

Need to do one more pull... not sure if I should do it on B4 or B5. Still more stuff I want on 5, but way more dupes too.

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Actually, way too many dupes on 5... pulling on 4:

1/11: Yshtola sync

My Thancred is pretty underwhelming, so I guess she probably takes his place?

Gonna hold off for a bit on making my sync selection; Im leaning heavily towards Rem (have her awakening), but Id be willing to hear a case for Lightning or something

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Y'shtola absolutely sucks as a DPS, I have her sync, she does more damage using Holyja than witch/Black Magic even after record boarding her (a waste of 6* motes!)

Her latest stuff in Japan's fest backpedaled her to a healer, that should tell you how good she is.

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Yeah I hadnt heard many good things about her

Oh well! Very happy about the Papa and Galuf syncs at least.

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Papalymo is the fire mage version of Zidane's sync. You'll destroy Shiva with that (and Dark Odin if you haven't beat him yet)

Y'shtola is bad because she was a pure white mage until recently, so her record spheres are way behind someone like say Vivi who was black mage from the start.

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Nice! And no I still havent beaten Odin; the best Ive done is around 50% with ice phys (that team has no syncs, though).

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Got Odin down to about 30% with Papa/Terra/Gogo/Deuce/Mog; probably could have gotten a bit farther without Mog/Gogo dying partway through. Another issue was that I was running out of ability uses; honing stuff to r4 or 5 costs so many crystals, though!

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Are you using your stamina potions to get crystals? They've become so plentiful now. Did you do all the gift dungeons as well?

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Yeah I've been doing all of the gift dungeons and have been farming crystal dungeons, but at like 6-7 crystals per 70 stamina it's pretty slow. I've also been making a ton of abilties as I put together new teams, and typically hone them to r3 unless there's an immediate reason to go beyond that.

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You gotta start honing abilities to r5 because bosses have so much HP at Dark Odin and beyond tier.

You should invest in Delita's HA if crystals are a problem. His HA is 4 elements and his awakening provides infusion for all of those.

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Wow I 100 gem'd Delita sync! I can replace Ramza as a third DPS for Bahamut, hopefully I can also get his Awakening somehow.

I got Fang Awakening with today's ticket, meh.

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Used my ticket on XV. Got a dupe Prompto LMR and Cor's USB. So many relics in that pool that would actually help me, but I keep getting the garbage.

I need help picking my sync selection. I looked ahead to the next fest and the banners look kinda bad to me overall. Banner 1 is probably the best but banner 3 is second and has Maria's sync on it (and Dyad). So I'm not sure if I should take Maria now, although I also don't want to wait 3 months to beat Kalavinka Striker.

Anyway, my main options:
Maria - helps beat Kalavinka Striker now, and would help my weak II team for Bahamut.

Onion Knight - would give me a magic water character with sync & awakening, the only one I'd have besides Edge. Also I haven't even beaten the III dreambreaker yet. I also have his dyad.

Rydia - also helps with Kalavinka Striker, but probably a bit worse than Maria, but I like her more.

Alphinaud - The next Labyrinth boss is weak to wind and my magic wind team is bad. I have Alphi's chain and awakening... the downside is I have his healing sync and you can't bring both at the same time. Also I doubt I could beat Sandworm even with this, I'd need to get another sync somewhere.

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Rydia can help with the Armor Constrict labyrinth boss too if you want to take that into consideration.

There's supposed to be a Dream select before next maintenance as well. I plan to get Ultimecia's sync for Sandworm there so you can pick Alph's now and get Ulti's later?

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Good point, I forgot about the IV labyrinth.

Ultimecia would definitely help, although I was leaning toward one of the ATB syncs I don't have, which means either Red or Tidus 2. If I take Red then I also don't need another earth sync here so that would mean either Alphinaud or Onion Knight.

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Welp, guess I'm probably not going past floor 50 of spiraling depths... these guys are way too bulky.

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Finally picked up Mogs HA. I was thinking of honing his awakening, but for some reason I thought scrolls of honing gave two levels instead of one; I only have like 30k rank 1 lenses so that would force me to use a lot of 2s or 3s :/

Tried fire weak Odin again and once again ran out of steam and got destroyed in part 3. Maybe Ill try again with wind since Wedge and Alph actually have multiple cap breaks.

Actually I guess another possibility is that I could replace Gogo with Yda since Odin allows mixed teams? Gogos not doing much besides his awakenings entry buff (which I can put up with Mogs USB anyway)

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It's worth using up the 2/3 lens to hone Mog awakening 2, having two uses is a game changer and lets him use mixed parties more efficiently.

Don't forget to change your RW to a water chain! Water black Chocobo is tonight. Gogo V gets a water imperil Hero Ability tonight as well!

Dark Weak Wodin is tomorrow as well! I should be good for both physical and magical.

Seph sync and awakening
Ardyn sync and awakening
Siefer chain and both awakenings

Vayne sync and awakening 1
Emperor sync and awakening 1 (and hero gear )
CoD awakening, chain, glint+ and LBO

The main problem will be going too fast and getting into the halfway point where Wodin jumps to rage level 3.

Finally that mind boosting gauntlet will be ours!

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Dark weak Odin could be kinda difficult. I'm kinda lacking in double-bdl characters: only Sephiroth for physical and emperor for magic.

It might still be good enough, but it won't be an auto-win.

I should be set for physical Odin, my team is Shadow (Sync/AASB), Seph (Sync/AASB), and Seifer (Chain/AASB). I'm not as sure about magic, I have Exdeath (Sync/AASB) and Golbez (Chain/Sync) but I'm not sure about my 3rd. It'll be someone with just an awakening, either Raines, Nabaat, Kuja, or someone I'm forgetting.

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FFVI Bahamut has been defeated after spending several hours on him: 42.63 sec. The Mog & Cait Sith combo works pretty well.

FFVI Bahamut has entirely too much HP, so there's no way I can sub-30 him, but I might be able to get sub-40 with the bonus RB nodes.

I couldn't end phase 2 before the Megaflare, but a well timed Cait Sith USB allowed me to survive it. The second chain ran out when Bahamut was around 10%, so the final 10% was a bit of a slog, but I got it.

Yeah it's crazy they gave 6 Bahamut so much HP, obviously it's because of Mog Awakening 2, Kefka sync and Terra dyad but that stuff is gacha locked until Mog AASB2 recently. What's silly is that the Type-0 Bahamut only has 5 million HP despite everyone having Rem sync/awakening by now and Ace's ATB sync is dream selectable.

Also whoops apparently it's Lighting Black Chocobo tonight, not water. I saw Soggy Magicite and thought it was water. Well make sure to switch to lightning chains for RW (going with Queen for the instant cast)

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I think the most annoying part of the FF VI cardia fights for me is the resist fire move (+3 levels!). Terra and Locke are two of my three best characters in the realm (and I only have fire stuff for Terra).

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You can lens Terra's wind USB (and glint?) Still even fire focused Terra can do good damage in the first and second phase of both dragons. Her sync command 2 is an overstrike and her HA still breaks cap even if the dragons have +6 null fires. How I use her is sync> fire awakening>wind awakening.

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Got XIV torment 3 down to 13.3 seconds with Papa no longer being useless

Too bad I don't have an in-realm healer so I can't bring Mog to the DB!

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People beat the 14 Dreambreaker with just Y'shtola USB2, her awakening isn't even that good anyway.


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By the way, does Kalavinka Striker disappear when the Labyrinth rotates to group 2?

I beat XIV dreambreaker with my new stuff (mostly Papalymo). I think I could sub-30 but I got distracted and used Orran's FB counter before actually hitting phase 3, oops.

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No those bosses are permanent, the other labyrinths around them change but the superbosses will always be there. The mission for the treasure maps does expire though (and that's not a biggie anyway. You have to do several labyrinth trips to get the 5% damage Hero Artifacts unless you get really lucky, and even then you'll probably get extras through daily record markers.)

Speaking of which Sandworm is next week huh, nice of Dena to hold back ice weak Wodin so we don't have the gauntlets and lord's seal


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I tried a few different things against physical Kalavinka Striker, but so far no luck. I tried a team with Orran as the only healer (Noctis, Gladiolus, Bartz, Galuf, and Orran) because I saw some other people made it work, but I'm not able to survive the Labyrinth Hellstorm Bolts. I tried using Gladiolus's chain so I could cut Galuf for Bartz... that gives me great DPS for the first 2-3 phases but we run out of steam late. I also tried Quina instead of Orran for the crits, but we lose too much time by not being able to counter the phase 2 Crushing Thunder buff.

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Got wind-weak dark Odin down!

Missed the sub-30 by half a second, but I guess there are no rewards for that?

Anyway, I know the 6* magicite active abilities are substantially better than 5* ones, but do I immediately replace one of the 5*s with the level 65 6*? And if so, is it the dampen 5* that I'm replacing, e.g. Syldra-->Titan etc?

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Sub30ing Dark Odin is just for bragging rights and an estimate of how well you do on later bosses. 6* magicite are kinda their own thing so 5* magicite aren't obsolete yet. But dampen magicite are basically obsolete with 6*'s elemental boost and even more with Wodin's lord seals. Empower elemental is still decent despite the diminishing returns. But I prefer to have two HP boons on my 6* magicite so that way they're always useful.

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Used my 15 day login ticket on VIII

Selphie sync and Raijin LM. I have heard that Selphie is not great, but a syncs a sync!

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Her Sync doesn't seem bad. She's not top-tier by any means, but you are likely to use her in realm content at least, and this should make her useable. It's mostly her lensable relics that are underwhelming.

Selphie's sync is her only great relic so congrats on that! A lot of people (me included) have a hard time with the dreambreaker because Selphie is scattered compared to other healers and Cerberus is way too fast for her to keep up.


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Made a new topic since this is gonna die with a new Wodin coming out tonight.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/79556370

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Yeah the relic itself does look like a fine sync and letting me bring Mog to VIII stuff is definitely a win in and of itself

Because I lack the self control to actually save mythril I did four more of my 15 mythril pulls

I: three glints and a Sarah USB

IX: Garnet AOSB and Eiko proshellga G+ (I actually have a ton of Eiko relics now)

Ice: Rinoa AASB and Cater's second AASB!, Noel USB, Laguna LM. Cater's AASB2 seems to be another full break counter if I'm reading it correctly?

Lightning: OMG, Lightning sync!!!!


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Anyway, I know the 6* magicite active abilities are substantially better than 5* ones, but do I immediately replace one of the 5*s with the level 65 6*?

If you're taking on 6* Magicite, definitely yes. Let's say you're going up against Valefor (6* Wind). You want Shiva as your main magicite, because it does tons of fixed damage and applies minor imperil ice on follow-up attacks. You want Valefor as a secondary magicite, because bringing a 6* Magicite to fight itself buffs your party (along the lines of 10% damage dealt and -10% damage taken, IIRC, before considering that they'll provide some Dampen <Element>.). And then you want some combination of 5* ice magicite and Madeens (no 6* has, or can acquire, Madeen's "damage increases as HP increases" passive.) Offhand, probably two Madeens and a Manticore, but that I'm less sure of.

Cater's AASB2 seems to be another full break counter if I'm reading it correctly?

+Atk/Def/Mag/Res, so yep, it'll counter Full Break. You'll still want Mog or suchlike in other realms, but you can consider using Cater instead in Type 0 - or use both in Type 0, so that you can counter both the weaker Phase 2 and the stronger Phase 3 debuffs even before honing Mog AASB2.
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This Odin is tough. Best run so far (physical) got him to 1.8% but then I got dead ended.

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Yeah this Wodin is extra bulky because of Sephiroth. Some people are even dropping him because he struggles to break cap, let along hit over 20000 in favor of characters with overstrike sync commands like Ardyn and Vayne, or even Gaffgarrion.

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