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

(+) Yeah! (+)

Took down the D450... pretty sure I wouldnt have been able to get the sub-30 without that dyad

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Seems like I once again underestimated the difficulty of endgame content. The no healer option isn't really possible because of dispel, and my realm healers don't have enough to do the job. (Their proshellga glints aren't in the shop yet and they're kinda necessary because of that dispel). With Lenna I got him down to 2.5% but got dead ended. My damage completely collapsed in late phase 3 so I think I need to refresh Orran's BSB, since I can't think of any other reason for it, although I'm surprised how much difference it made. Also I think I'm going to try to work in Delita's party crit fix unique, that should help.

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Woah that sucks, you had Delita awakening so I figured you'd have an easier time than I would. I guess we take healers for granted with how much we rely on Mog/Orran/Cait Sith these days because I would always groan when I get Ovelia stuff, but looks that was the thing that got me the win.

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Ovelia used to be my go to healer for a while! Back when her USB1 was enough to make her good.

Anyway, I got the clear, took me 44.61. I had to use OSBs to end King's Rage, which really slowed down Agrias and Orlandu's damage (Agrias didn't even get to user her awakening until around 38 seconds). I think there must be a better way to do this with what I have, but this is good enough for now. I'll wait until Ovelia's G+ is added to the lens shop and then I'll try a full party team.

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Got a ticket from 95 cardia clears and used it on earth... 1/11, Rinoa LBO

Guess that helps my ice magic and VIII a bit, but it wont do anything for my earth teams...!

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Also just got Core DB a bit below 60 to at least pick up the 3x 30% DB rat tails. Shadowsmiths incoming damage seemed pretty insane; I could only keep up because I used both Elarra and Mogs awakenings in P1 (which obviously would not have been ideal had I been aiming for the win).

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I think Shadowsmith is supposed to be the toughest dreambreaker. When I tried him he had crazy damage, he's one of two I haven't beaten yet (the other is FF1).

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Leviathan down in 28.98!

Had to have the person in slot 1 (Tyro) hit an air bubble once, but that was it. Lightning sync is indeed crazy, but it helped that I also had her AASB. Aranea as secondary DPS was decent, and Prompto with chain and imperils was quite helpful. Tyro AASB and Aeris sync/USB1 rounded out the team.

I guess its Ifrit next. I have a fairly strong FFX water team in itself, need to look through my other options also. Tidus sync/AASB will likely anchor the team

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Congrats!

I haven't done Ifrit myself, but my understanding is that he's one of the harder ones

Kaxon posted...

I think Shadowsmith is supposed to be the toughest dreambreaker. When I tried him he had crazy damage, he's one of two I haven't beaten yet (the other is FF1).

For some reason I was under the impression that he was supposed to be on the easier side, but yeah it seemed like he demanded an aoe heal basically every single turn

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Ifrit's defenses are fairly low compared to other 6*s, but his damage output and the micromanagement are straight hell.

Finally got some actual FFRK time in today, as I was fairly busy the past few days.

I used my "free" Dreambreaker Overdrive on Sin, whom I was able to sub-30 with that boost. It still took me 28 seconds to get that win, so I absolutely couldn't have done the sub-30 without the free OD.

I also beat physical Ice-weak Odin. I won on my first attempt, but it was ugly and hella slow (58 seconds). I'll clear the physical fight a second time to get the Wind Seal on my magic Odin, because I don't feel ready for a magic clear.

100 cardia ticket was a bust (Tifa G+, Dr. Mog LMR)

Think thats the last easy ticket I had left to get!

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Used a ticket I got for some mission or another on FF14:

1/11 Yshtola USB dupe

Also, damn Ifrit is no joke. Micromanaging everything is crazy, and sap sucks. Got him to just starting phase 3, but died.

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Pulled on the other FFT banner since it was half price and has Orrans AASB

1/11, Agrias AOSB :/

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1/11 also, though it got me Agrias sync

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I wasn't sure whether I should pull, since I had quite a few dupes, but I went for it:

3/11
Orran AASB, Gafgarion AASB, Agrias Sync (dupe)

That went pretty well.

Got Ifrit down to 15%, but still can't beat him. These goddamn pillars are going to be the end of me.

Tried with just Aeris as healer, and Tyro supporting. Then tried with both Aeris and Elarra. Tidus sync/AASB, Bartz AASB4/AASB1, Rikku CSB/AASB are the core of this team. I guess maybe using Tidus USB1 or 2 to use on one of the pillars in phase 1 may be best, instead of his sync. Too much damage is a huge hinderance in this ridiculous fight.

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Did you try the Yuffie BSB trick? Since Ifrit is frail enough that 1 DPS with two cap breaks can beat him, have Yuffie with ace striker RM use her BSB and hydroburst to kill all the pillars then use reraise/arise to revive her, when the pillars come back repeat.

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Hmm, have not tried that. Doesnt hydroburst only hit once though?

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I totally forgot about the daily cardia missions for a while. I don't know how much mythril I lost, but ugh.

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Yuffie should cap on the pillars if you record board her. Also an alternative to hydroburst is to have someone use a summon/ultima (IE Aerith, Deuce) to weaken the pillars so Yuffie's BSB can kill them all with just one turn.

Yuffie is fast enough she doesn't need haste if she's gonna die anyway, but it helps if you have a soul break that revives and hastes.

I always keep a magia farming party ready for cardia missions and do that once per day to get the cardia missions done.

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I have Elarra AASB but thats one time use. Both Elarra AASB and Aeris sync (and her USB2) have last stand also.

I wonder, is it viable to go double healer, yuffie, Rikku chain/AASB, and Tidus sync/AASB/USB1/bUSB? Ifrit seems squishy enough that if Yuffie is dealing with the pillars, 1.5 DPS may be enough?

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You should be able to beat him with just 1 cap break. You can also stall in the first two phases with USBs if you're worried about going too fast. Yuffie's still a pretty decent DPS with her USB 2 I think? The one with 4-8 chase hits depending on blink stacks.

You can also get Aria's USB from the lens shop and that has 100% HP fire stoneskin to help with survivability.

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I have Arias USB somehow lol. Elarra/Aeris should hopefully be good enough. Gonna try him again soon.

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Time is running out on the current Cardia campaign, so I decided to re-beat Dragonking VII today. Time improved from ~52s to ~48s, thanks to the additional record board tiles unlocked by the first clear. ...Come to think of it, though, I forgot to equip the artifact armor that the first clear gave me. I'm gonna do that now and save the new copy of the team so I don't forget about it again.

On an unrelated note, I have finished setting up four mixed, dual-elemental auto-battle teams so that I can cover all the weekly "Defeat This Magicite" objectives with only four recorded parties. (I ended up with the elemental pairings Wnd/Drk, Eth/Hly, Wtr/Lit, Fir/Ice.) I'm sure it'll shock no one to learn that Syldra was the most vexatious enemy; the Fir/Ice team ended up running Seven with AASB+Mako Might just to remove Syldra's Haste.
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There haven't been any banners I was that enthusiastic about since last fest, but there are a bunch coming up now. I like fest banners 1 & 3 a lot, but there's the bio banner at the same time, and I need to draw there if I want to be able to do Bio Odin any time soon. 3 weeks after that is the XII banner focused on Balthier with stuff for Vaan, Larsa, and Basch. That would be one of the best ways to improve my physical fire team and also help one of my weakest realms. Then there's the VII banner with Cloud's new hybrid sync and awakening, and sync/awakening for Vincent, which is the best help for my fire magic team. There are a couple others (I really need wind magic help and there's a FBC event) but I don't know how I'm going to allocate my mythril for all that when I definitely want 10 pulls for winter fest!

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MalcolmMasher posted...

Time is running out on the current Cardia campaign, so I decided to re-beat Dragonking VII today. Time improved from ~52s to ~48s, thanks to the additional record board tiles unlocked by the first clear. ...Come to think of it, though, I forgot to equip the artifact armor that the first clear gave me. I'm gonna do that now and save the new copy of the team so I don't forget about it again.

On an unrelated note, I have finished setting up four mixed, dual-elemental auto-battle teams so that I can cover all the weekly "Defeat This Magicite" objectives with only four recorded parties. (I ended up with the elemental pairings Wnd/Drk, Eth/Hly, Wtr/Lit, Fir/Ice.) I'm sure it'll shock no one to learn that Syldra was the most vexatious enemy; the Fir/Ice team ended up running Seven with AASB+Mako Might just to remove Syldra's Haste.

You only need to do 10% damage to clear that objective btw

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So I have been amassing relics for awhile now with not too many end game objectives in mind, I just like logging in and when I am bored doing a new piece or two of content and also wasting all my mythril on not getting Tidus's dyad (the best of hobbies)

I just realized I have Delita's sync/AASB and have tried him out today.

All hail to the fucking king.

That is all.

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Finally ended up doing XIII Dreambreaker

Super easy actually. Could easily optimize this down to close to sub 30. Apparently I forgot to give Fang her dualcast lmr and Sazh his and was spamming Lightning Sync command 1 rather than alternating 1 and 2, and also wasted Sazh meter on USB3 when I could have used that on his realm chain



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Took down transcendent Shadowsmith. It was a sloppy 32 secondish kill though (with my fire magic team since it's one of the only ones on which I have an actual chain user), so I'm not too optimistic about being able to set up an auto team to farm gil!

Hmm actually maybe I can after all; I tried again switching out Terra for Cater (since relying on Ifrit for imperils made building gauge too slow) and killed him in 22; Vivi's still not doing much besides putting up chain, though

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Okay, got the auto-kill in 27.5 seconds (though Im not yet sure if its stable against bad wcast rng)

One thing I did notice: Vivi kept recasting his chain of whenever he got the bars for it, which was actually several times in P3 (its his only SB other than an ultra-trash unique or something). Is there any way to avoid that? Like if I had a second SB on him, would it use SB1>2>1>2 etc, or just repeatedly use 1? Ive only used auto for completely trivial content in the past so Im not sure exactly how the AI works.

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LordoftheMorons posted...

Like if I had a second SB on him, would it use SB1>2>1>2 etc, or just repeatedly use 1? Ive only used auto for completely trivial content in the past so Im not sure exactly how the AI works.

AI uses the leftmost break whenever they can, as soon as they can.

So generally you want to have the stuff you want to cast first further left.

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Did the FF6 Dreambreaker using overdrive to get the mission. Basically chose the one that seemed most obnoxious of the ones I haven't done that seemed doable

I guess it helps that my stronger FF6 characters are not fire based mostly. Had Edgar doing Poison damage (he was mostly just there to use his realm chain though)

Kinda funny that the fight almost discourages you from going full on realm. That tail attack was enough to make me sub out Mog for Vanille but I think that was for the best. Vanille just heals better.

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Ah okay, so I guess there's probably not a great way to avoid it then

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Well I've done some dumb tricks with say like Rikku, going Awakening -> Meter Glint -> Chain in the first 3 slots and starting her with a bar so she still gets to do some good damage in auto while still casting chains

Vivi doesn't have a meter glint but if you have Vivi's Overstrike or Glint you could put that right of the chain and then he'll repeatedly use those after the chain of whatever (since they only cast half a bar). Not sure that's worth it but it's something to do if you don't want to recast a chain

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Ah got it. Yeah I think this auto team isn't quite fast enough for one chain so ideally he'd do C-->X-->C which doesn't look doable. It's now worked three times in a row though so I guess it's probably good enough as is

(I might play around with giving him a non-gauge RM like TGM or something to delay subsequent chains, though that might not be worth it since then I think he'd be the one to use Ifrit and the first chain will be delayed anyway).

Oh wait I'm dumb, TGM is reduced delay not ATB; I'll see if that helps

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Yeah, the rechaining thing is annoying. One thing I've done for anyone using DMT or a 500 SB glint is give them a 5* ability instead of 6* so they build gauge slower.

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Also if the boss is using moves that do multiple hits to certain slots, make sure your chainer isn't in that slot.

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Guess its the price you have to pay to be afk!

Anyway, I farmed about 50M; I had some bad runs end up taking like 33s due to characters dying or Papas sync running out before Shadowsmith dies, but the only thing Ive seen so far that actually tanks a run is Papa dying to his opening attacks (I guess his HP is just low enough to possibly die from incoming damage fluctuations).

I also just noticed I have about 800 +lenses; not sure which HAs to get next! Right now I have them for Alphinaud, Mog, Red, Lightning, and Rem.


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Tried phys-weak Leviathan once and got him a bit below 30%.

I had a few major screw ups (Delita suffocating at the beginning of P2, Cater getting her only infusion quickly removed, Lightning dying at the beginning of P3) so hopefully I can turn it into a win

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Tried a few more times and got him to 6%, but I cant seem to get to phase 2 fast enough to save Delita

Im pretty sure I must be missing something. Is there a way to get an air bubble in P1? Because when the doom counter drops to 5 Im typically just getting Lightnings sync and Delitas awakening online; getting through 25% of his hp, targeting the bubble, and acting in like 5 seconds seems like it would have been impossible pre-power creep.

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I don't think ther's a way to spawn an air bubble before the 5 second doom screws you.

The usual strategy was putting Kain in slot 1 and having him use a Jump ability to dodge the attack. You could also equip Kimahri's RM (turn attack into Jump) on whoever is in that slot.

Alternatively, Raise is always an option.

Hrm I guess ideally I could raise him with Elarras AASB, but Im not sure I can survive that long without using it beforehand (especially since I would also want to hold off on using Mogs since then Delita would be missing buffs).

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Mog could equip a Jump ability to dodge it. That is, if you don't need 2 other abilities on him.

Ahh yeah I forgot he was technically a dragoon!

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Thanks for the suggestion; I got the kill!

Barely missed the sub-30; Lightning ran out of her sync and I had to rechain mid-P3, but Delita was somehow still capping at low chain anyway!

Used the ticket on earth... Galuf chain!!
(though my Galuf is my main earth phys dps with a sync and both AAs, so finding the gauge for him to chain might be difficult...)

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Yiazmat down

That was an interesting fight!

(Also Zeromus, which was dumb and seems like it would have been very annoying pre-power creep)

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Dream selects coming up right before fest, hmm. There are definitely some relics that would help me but I'm not sure if I want to spend money on them. I think the only new ATB syncs are for Valvalis and Shantotto. Shantotto's seems like the worst kind of ATB sync since you can't control it, while I have nothing else for Valvalis and no real interest in using her. The awakenings would probably benefit me more like Lenna's and Zack's.

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Meia's sync is there too, that one I'm most likely getting since it's the strongest FF1 relic right now so I can at least sub30 the dreambreaker with it hopefully. I also plan to use it for magic weak Salamander.

Awakenings, hmmm... With new Bahamuts almost done I think I'm good for awakenings, maybe Aria if I'm having too much trouble with FF3 Bahamut. Faris Awakening 2 for FFV Bahamut is maybe too, seems like every winning run has that for the weakness damage to get through the extreme bulk of phase 2.

Fire Chocobo event is tomorrow too! A really good banner, Rubicante is great for both FF4 and magic weak Ice Giant so I'm gonna do 2, maybe 3 pulls.

Don't forget to change your RW to a fire chain!

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FINALLY took down Ifrit!

Time was 37.59, but I dont even care. Fuck that fight. Got hit with his 25% hellfire and then perdition painflare literally immediately afterwards. Thank god for multiple last stands and a queued up Elarra USB1 at the time.

Will look at putting a fire team together for Shiva tomorrow. Cant imagine going back to magic Ifrit any time in the next century lol

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For Shiva, I'm rolling with:

Noctis (SASB/AASB/AOSB2)
Quina (AASB/BSB)
Aeris (SASB/USB2/G+/G+2)
Balthier (CSB/multiple USBs/AOSB)
Locke (AASB/G+/LB/USBs/AOSB)
MM: Ifrit

It looks like freeze and blizzaga are the only non-piercing moves, so I wonder if I'm fine with just proshellga? Also, how viable is it to just skip the walls?

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