Board 8 > Final Fantasy Record Keeper Topic 52: Our greatest foe yet... A SANDWORM?!

(+) Yeah! (+)

You need to be conservative in phase 1 before Bahamut puts up the wall. That wall is basically to waste chain and cap break time. During those 5 second you'll want to recast chain and use your sync/awakening entries to build chain so your abilities can break the savage modes. You also have to keep in mind of phase 3's King's Rage where you have to hit him with an attack that does more 20000 damage per hit to break the rage or he'll use an instant kill mega flare in 6 turns.

Kaxon posted...

Wait, why do the bottom two get the most drained? The top 3 drain happens earlier, so bottom ones have more time to use up soul breaks in phase 2.

The bottom two lose 2 bars and the top 3 lose half a bar. I usually have my slot 1 dps use their second cap break, slot 4 uses their cap break (and maybe a usb) while slot 5 uses both cap breaks as my king's rage. Since they used up most of their meter they won't have much left to lose at that point since they're spamming abilities.

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I tried XIII dragonking and got him down to 25.4% on my first try. Everything was going pretty well until I got into phase 3 and couldn't come close to breaking 20k without using AOSBs / Lightning's LBO. I wish these characters had OSBs besides Lightning... I might have to use hers.

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Finally got some stuff from the daily after a few days in a row of nothing

Sarah AASB, Cecil WHM dualcast LM (especially useful because his defaults are tank junk), and a Cyan unique.

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This XIII banner seems pretty good, I'm kinda thinking of pulling. The main downside is it wouldn't really help with elemental content, just realm.

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If you have Quina sync (and Awakening?) You probably don't need Sazh's stuff outside of realm. Vanille sync is really nice but it will also be dream selectable soon.

I got a dupe Bartz Awakening 1 on the daily. That feels really awkward because I spent so much time chasing it, until I got it recently with a ticket a couple months ago and now I dupe it on the daily. At least a rank up is nice, didn't have that benefit for Red XIII chain (but I used the gem select for that one.)

It is also one of the more popular non Mog/CS/Orran honed awakenings, but Bartz didn't make my Kalavinka Striker team and I don't think he'll make my physical fire or water team either. Still something to consider in the future.

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Yeah, I have Quina's awakening too. I'm really missing their glints and last USB though, can't wait for those to be available in the lens shop. Being able to regenga would help a lot in realms where my healer can't, and the trance + IC3 one seems great.

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I had another crash *after* finishing the fight on the now loading screen... but this time when my phone finally recovered my progress was still there, thank goodness. FFX Bahamut finally down!! That was one of the hardest fights I can remember having in this game. And not hard because I had to figure out how to maximize an underpowered team... The III torment was like that for me and I still have fond memories of overcoming that one. This time my team was nuts and the fight is just annoying as hell.



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You can't really see what's going on but that's Tidus's limit break finishing off Bahamut.

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Jeez, that fucker gave me way more trouble than I was expecting. Kinda sucks to miss 40 seconds by 0.28, but this was painful enough to get the win in the first place.

- Lightning Sync got me through phase 1.
- After lots of different versions, this winning run had Snow with TGM and he'd save his USB2 until the Slow. When I cast it earlier, I sometimes managed to get out of phase 1 before Slow, but then my Critga always ran out when I was in phase 3, and I could no longer break rage mode.
- Sazh cast his BSB and SSB for some buffing, imperiled Ice for Noel (and Snow), and entrusted excess SB gauge to Elarra.
- Phase 2, Lightning dropped USB1+AASB, Snow dropped his AASB1 and Noel combo'd AASB2+AASB1. I got out of phase 2 before Megaflare on this run.
- With Elarra USB2 for Crit damage and Snow AASB2 for weakness damage and FB counter, Noel was able to barely break 20k in phase 3.
- After Kings rage was broken, Lightning LBO took another 500k, and Bahamut was finished off shortly after.

I'm trying Sandworm again... just got dead ended in phase 4 while it still had 15.8% HP left. This was with Cloud, Zack, Zidane, Orran, and Lenna. My phase 4 damage was really low though, Zidane's dyad finisher did around 4k per hit with a max (99) chain.

I realized for the first time in years I think Elarra might not be my best healer, Lenna's brave USB is really good. Her AASB1 would be nice to have, I have her sync and AASB2 but neither of those is all that great.

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I think Lenna's Awakening 2 is good, it's just not as good with Orran, great with Mog though! And yeah, I think Elara fell to medicore when the Dreambreaker era started. Now almost every healer has a clone or variant of her USB1 and for me Deuce took her job as a-team healer because she has stoneskin on her awakening while Elara struggles against anti heal. Elara can dance and crit damage boost over Deuce but Mog and Cait Sith can also dance and Orran can crit damage boost with his BSB or Larsa with his USB that also has quickcasts.

I got 5/5/8 equipment for Marcus and Gau now, though I only have Gau's awakening and no cap breaks for Marcus, but still no 5% damage armor for Freya. Damn RNG!

Also maintenance was announced for the 28th! Looking forward yet dreading it since that means more Bahamuts are coming...

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I think Lenna's AASB2 would be good if every healer including Lenna didn't have a proshellga glint. Its main value is on the first turn of the fight but there's just no reason to spend 500 SB points when you can get the important part for free. But other times the lack of entry healing or last stand makes it risky (although if you know when to time it the awakened mode is still useful.)

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I got 5% armor for Wedge and Vaan and the 8% accessory for Wedge. Still looking for the others!

Speaking of which, Wedges weapon gives an equal amount of ATK/MAG and he naturally gets a bit more MAG than ATK. For using him on a physical team would I just have to suck up him being in MAG mode until buffs went up unless I wanted to use a worse weapon? Actually my current buffs are all symmetric in ATK/MAG since I use a RW chain; I guess I would be forced to bring the +ATK bard song?

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Kaxon posted...

I think Lenna's AASB2 would be good if every healer including Lenna didn't have a proshellga glint. Its main value is on the first turn of the fight but there's just no reason to spend 500 SB points when you can get the important part for free. But other times the lack of entry healing or last stand makes it risky (although if you know when to time it the awakened mode is still useful.)

It's probably like that because FFV Bahamut uses a dispel in phase 1 so you can use the awakening 2 to get back proshellga after that.

LordoftheMorons posted...

Speaking of which, Wedges weapon gives an equal amount of ATK/MAG and he naturally gets a bit more MAG than ATK. For using him on a physical team would I just have to suck up him being in MAG mode until buffs went up unless I wanted to use a worse weapon? Actually my current buffs are all symmetric in ATK/MAG since I use a RW chain; I guess I would be forced to bring the +ATK bard song?

You don't have Zack or a gen2 wind chain? Those give a 50% attack boost. Or you can use the support ability boost on Wedge to give him a 25% attack boost.


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Nope, I have few chains in general and no wind chains specifically!

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Oh, there's going to be a wind black Chocobo event in about 4 months, I think you should be able to get Zack's chain there with greens.

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You can get Freya's gen 0 chain in the lens shop, it's better than nothing... but on the other hand if you don't have a lot of lenses it might be better to just wait for a better one.

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Second Dark Odin down
Apparently taking a machinist is the difference between wiping repeatedly and an easy 20 second clear!

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Ive been trying lightning-weak Odin and he seems impossible with my current setup (Lightning/Xezat/Cater/Deuce/Mog or Tyro). First I brought Mog and esunad the petrify with his AASB2 chase, but apparently petrify strips buffs for an extra fuck you. So I lensed Tyros USB1 and then found out that Odins next attack after the petrify basically demands last stand, and if I put that up with Deuce ahead of time I wont have the gauge to heal up before he does another huge attack the next turn.

From what I understand Edge has an SSB and USB I could lens that gives both last stand and blink (presumably letting me get through this bullshit opener), but all I have for him is his other USB so he would probably be pretty useless for DPS (and Id have to give him Mogs DMT, too). Is there any other way to get through this part? It not, is it better to give up Xezats critfix or Caters imperils?

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Do you have Larsa awakening or sync? That gives both astra and last stand.

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I got Lulu's awakening on the daily today. I don't see myself using it unless I get something else for her too, but still a nice draw.

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If I learned anything from the FFX dreambreaker and Bahamut it's way better to go mage in the future because Dena wants to screw over physical water users as much as they can, yet Seymour, Lulu and Braska can sub30 Sin with just their awakenings since the bar water and defense buffs are just free turns to them.

I got Celes to 200 magia by auto grinding on the FF13 Dreams, she's needs all the help she can get if she's going to be used for Enkidu, or even Wodin. And unfortunately her, Fran and Squall are my only physical ice users with two cap breaks (actually 3 for Celes, I got her two awakening and sync through dumb luck)

Still that makes me nervous taking on a superboss with Celes and Fran as DPS's.

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Hey, I'll be tackling Ice Odin (whenever he drops) with Firion, Noel and Snow as dps. And that's the version I actually feel good about.

I'll be choosing between Squall, Ayame, Delita, and Fran. Sync+awakening for all of them, sync+ 2 awakenings in the case of Fran. No dyads. I think I'm leaning toward Delita/Ayame and Laguna for chain/imperil, but I could try Delita/Fran with Celes chaining.

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Jesus that was annoying

Decided to have Edge replace Mog instead of a dps since hed need to take DMT anyway and Cater also has a full make AASB. Solo healing was very rough; had to restart a ton of times to have all of the healing timings work out, and I barely won here (chain had just run out with Odin at 3% and I killed him with a Ramuh summon).

SSJSephirothGokuX123 posted...

Do you have Larsa awakening or sync? That gives both astra and last stand.

Nope, nothing for Larsa!


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Got ice-weak down too after wiping at 1%

Not sure I have fifth I can do... I guess once I get enough lenses for another HA I could probably do earth with Red/Galuf/Biggs and Reds HA?

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I forget, do you have Red's sync? If so I think you could definitely take down dark Odin.

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Yeah, I do. I probably should just give it a try with that mixed team even without the imperils (I don't really have anyone else for earth besides Rydia/Tifa with just dyads... though Rydia's dyad did wreck King Behemoth!).

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You were right; took down earth-weak Odin even with screwing up Galufs sync commands!

I also realized I actually do have a third earth-phys dps; for some reason I thought Xezat was only ice/lightning

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Xezat debuted as primarily as ice/lightning to avoid competition with Bartz but then they added earth and "old man synergy" with the other Dawn warriors.

His hero gear also comes out next labyrinth group.

Also when it comes to Dark Odin you can still use Alphinaud with his Awakening in all elements since it's summon dualcast.

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Ah yeah I've used him on several of my 5* magicite teams where I was short on coverage, though I wasn't sure he'd be good enough for Odin while losing the benefit of infusion for off-elements

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Alphinaud is still very good for Dark Odin, he doesn't have the infusion damage penalty 6* magicite or Wodin have. Dark Odin came out when there was only a handful of awakenings out and we didn't have 6* motes, dyads and syncs either, we used to "cheat" by using characters like Terra with Valigarmanda or Meltdown for elements we were lacking in. Alphinaud and Rydia were considered the best characters in the game back then since they were dualcast summon awakenings and could hit all elements (besides lolbio of course.)

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Im actually having kind of a hard time imagining doing these without awakenings/syncs; the time limit to do the last 30% feels pretty tight even now (though I guess it would be easier if I started my cap breaks/chains a bit later) and theres a lot of rage to break.


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I thought we did have awakenings by the time of dark Odin. Doing 5* magicite without awakenings was tough. I remember when Syldra came out I had top of the line ice for the day - Celes's doublecast USB, Squall's USB2 and his BSB (if you weren't playing then it was one of the best BSBs with a build up and then a 7 hit command), and Laguna's gen 2 chain, and I couldn't beat it.

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I did say we had awakenings when Dark Odin came, but only a handfull. It was only like what, Bartz, Terra, Tidus, Kain, Orlandeau, Zidane Sephiroth and the Kingdom Hearts ones? (oh gee I almost forgot Kingdom Hearts characters were in the game) But at that time Awakenings were the hot new relic type and most banners only had 1-2.

I remember I beat Syldra without awakenings. I had Squall, Laguna and Sora, it was rough but I did manage it. Adamantoise was the only one I needed an awakening to beat when I got Terra's.

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I hadn't thought about that Squall BSB in a long time but that thing was amazing. 7x1.25 would still be an amazing ability today, if you didn't need to use a BSB and 2-3 turns of build up to get it.

And 5* magicite was the time when Vivi was top tier in six elements, with doublecast USB and 50% doublecast trance. I love Vivi.

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I do have one dualcast USB... but its the one that kills Tellah at the end

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Squall's sync3 is basically his BSB2 but updated (and switch draw so he can go fire or ice) I think that comes out with the Ice Labyrinth in a few weeks.

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That's cool, I love those callbacks like that.

I'm thinking about whether it's worth doing an awakening select before they go away. Would Zack's second one help enough with Sandworm to be worth it? I already have his sync and imperil G+. Or do I just need a better chainer and shouldn't invest more in Zack? What about Lenna's awakening 1, worth it to complete her or is there a better healer I should use?

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If Lenna is going to be your main healer for out of realm fights then it's worth it. Unless you're really desperate to beat FFV Bahamut.

I'm gonna focus on upcoming Bahamut with my selects, I plan to pick Orlandeau sync, Ace Awakening (though still iffy since T-0 is the easiest Bahamut) and Arc awakening.

Wish I could get CoD's sync and Arc Awakening 2 or sync with the selects though.

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Todays the last 10x daily draw, right?

If so, I closed it out with another 10x nothing!

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Yeah, today was the last day. I finished with 3 rainbows, but nothing that's actually useful.

I got a lot of 6*s during the campaign, but not much that's actually all that useful: mostly USBs, Glints and a couple AOSBs.

I was hoping to end on a bang like last time where I got Onion Knight Awakening 2 but I got monkey paw'd and a 1/10 Elena super, which is a grenade.



Wap wap waaaaahhhh

At least it's new.

I did get 4 new Awakenings from the dalies during this though, Lenna 2, Edgar, uh dark Cecil and another one I forgot (or maybe I'm confusing it with a fest ticket.) and a rank up for Alphinaud and Bartz1 so I got out of it pretty well. Also Seven dualcast LMR which will be helpful for T-0 Bahamut.

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My last pull was a 1/11 Shinra Helmet, which is basically the FF VII version of Barbut.

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Did my dream select picks as planned. I also got the sub30 on Two Headed Dragon!



At first I used my old team with Luneth and Deuce because I used her awakening early for last stand, but I kept missing the sub30 by 1-3 seconds. So I saw a strat where if you use defend with OK on turn 2 he can survive the first attack and have Aria use reraise on herself to survive the phase 2 attack.

This team is basically too fast to get enough meter with Mog to use his second Awakening 2 at the start of phase 3 if I use the first one to overwrite the second phase full break, but Arc being a mind based DPS and OK sync command 2 and CoD's HA kept rage low enough that I was able to muscle through the last phase anyway and got the win!

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I got the sub30 on the FF9 Dreambreaker as well! This one was still took a lot of retries for me despite how squishy he is. Dealing with 3 70% full breaks and phase 2 turn 1 death sucks, and Garnet's awakening sucks too but Vivi's sync tore through most of phase 2 anyway and I used Quina's chain to overwrite the second full break and then Mog Awakening 2 to overwrite the 20% HP full break.



Sweet! All the multiple 70% full break dreambreakers are sub30'd! Only have 1, 10, 11 and core left to sub30.

Ooh half off lucky draw. *sees that it's Eistien, Angeal and Ricard focused with two Vaan relics, one being a dupe*

Uh yeah you're gonna have to try harder than that Dena if you want people to actually pay real money.

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Yeah I could really use that Vaan chain, but I have the AASB and I really don't care about Estinean/Angeal/Ricard stuff

(not that I pull on gem banners anyway)

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MVP mail is out!

Oh for fuck's sake they actually are gonna release Ice Weak Wodin (8/24) after Enkidu! (8/12) Though at this point I guess the fact we finally have a release date for the last Wodin is relieving at least.

So it says the next FF8 event is set on schedule and Bahamut will be Thursday, anyone gonna try to beat that one? I plan to go mage with Rinoa (ice sync/Ice Awakening/Earth bUSB/glint+) Ultimecia (wind sync/awakening, dark dualcast) Fujin (awakening 1) Mog and Selphie (unfortunately) On paper that seems like a day 1 one win but we'll see, wish I had another cap break for Fujin but she has a good USB at least.

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I'll try, but I'm not quite sure I have enough fire power.

Mage team could be Rinoa Ice AASB for phase 1.
Phase 2+3 would be Rinoa Earth Sync, Fujin AASB, Quistis AASB. All 3 have AOSBs as potential finishers and OSBs to help break King's rage if necessary. That team easily dispatched Cerberus, but it might be lacking for Bahamut.

Alternatively, there's potential for a physical team with the BDL HAs for Ward and Raijin, with help from Kiros. They shouldn't need AASBs for phase 1, and all 3 have their AASB for phase 2+3

There's also the issue of Selphie being a bit lacking, but with Mog as backup, she should still be ok.

Does this one resist ice? My best DPS is probably Squall/Rinoa/Laguna, but for the dreambreaker ice resist was too annoying and I did a team with Rinoa(earth), Fujin, and Ultimecia. The last two only have one cap break each so that's probably not enough for Bahamut.

I was hoping we'd get Odin this morning. No idea why they're dragging it out for so long.

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