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Thread: WK does an FFV Let's Play?

  1. #31
    Memento Mori Site Contributor Wolf Kanno's Avatar
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    Slight change of plans, due to obtaining a five new jobs after Walse Tower, I've decided to postpone taking down Shiva and will let you guys decide my next set of jobs. Besides, there is a surprising amount of stuff to do just now in Walse.
    After doing a bit of shopping in Walse, you may enter the castle and surprisingly explore a bit. There are a few items to be found here, but the two most valuable are in the basement. Unfortunately for the player, the dungeon is crawling with a single enemy called the Jackanapes. It's an Imp looking monster with mid-game stats. In fact, you won't run into this enemy again until Castle Ex-Death nearly halfway through the game, except this version is stronger because it absorbs all elements and is immune to most status effects. They even have a Blue Mage skill but frankly, it's not worth going for it at this point because there are easier ways to obtain it later, and it's not one of the better skills to begin with. Remember when I said Thieves become really handy at a certain point? Well here we are, the Jackanapes usually show up as back attacks so Thief's Vigilance skill comes in handy here and helps you get a fighting chance at least. There is a way to beat them early in the game, but I'll need some levels first, which I don't have. A team of +Lv. 16 Monks with the Berserk status that the enemy Blue mage skill will happily provide can potentially win these fights, but I can't do this yet at my current progress. To add insult to injury, these enemies drop abysmal XP, Gil, and ABP, so they're not even worth fighting in the first place. They only seem to exist for the sole purpose of screwing you out of the full-powered Brave Blade. I'm not running, so I'll save the basement for a little later in Butz's world. Consequently, I forgot this fact during my previous play session and was promptly destroyed.
    The other point of interest here is the hidden dungeon behind the waterfall, this leads to Shiva and mainly has most of the enemies from Walse Tower in here. I'm going to choose to come back later cause the levels and some other valuables at Walse Tower will make the Shiva fight much easier when we get there. The last thing to do here before talking to the king is visit the prison. Here' you'll meet a few thieves begging to be let loose. One among them if Lone Wolf the Thief, and if you cut your teeth on FFVI before this entry, you might be fooled into letting him out. Don't. He will honestly just screw you out of a few items, a few of which are pretty decent, and you get nothing for your troubles either. So we'll just let him stew in there a little longer until the end of the game.
    After this, talk to the King of Walse. Lenna pleads with him to deactivate the amplifier but the King won't hear any of it cause the prosperity it brings (despite his dungeon crawling with demonic spiders) is too good for him to bow to rumors. The debate would have gone on longer, but a meteor crash lands not far from Walse Tower. Worried, the King and his guard rush to the tower leaving you to follow them. When you arrive, you learn a Wild Garula has gone mad and has rushed into the tower, laying waste to the Kingsguard. Interestingly enough, you can face Garula as random encounters if you bother to walk to the tower. As befit of their in-story description as docile creatures, they will actually never attack you and instead run away if they survive to the fourth round, which is very possible cause they're damage sponges. That aside, your party climbs the tower to save the crystal.
    To make things interesting for me, I've mostly kept the same classes but switched around who has what. Butz is now a Monk, Lenna is a Black Mage, Galuf is a Thief and Faris is a Knight. Part of the reason for this is because the tower is a pretty decent leveling spot, so I'll be able to gain a few more skills to play around with. Lenna is the only change-up cause we want to see that Ice Rod in action. As you can see from the images above, the rods make a huge difference.
    There are a few enemies to look out for in this dungeon. The Ice Soldiers drop RegalCutlass, but you can steal the superior Mythril Sword from them as well. The Wyvern enemies have Mythril Knives to be stolen and are a guaranteed drop for potions, which is nice cause these guys have that nasty Wind attack the first boss had, so running into two of them can be dangerous. By far, the most dangerous enemy in this dungeon is the wizard ladies. They have nasty time magic spells like Slow and Stop at their disposal and their Drain spell will take 180hp from a character which can be more than half their health depending on their job. They only carry Rods, so don't waste time stealing from them and instead kill them ASAP. Course the rewards for doing so are grand. A group of three of them will give you 3 ABP, the highest amount we've gotten from a steady random encounter so far, even more important is that they will sometimes drop the super useful Fire Rod, which will come in handy for the Shiva battle later. I actually lucked out and managed to get two while traveling the tower. The last enemy you'll run into here is the Elf Toad, this unassuming enemy is the key to making this dungeon into a bit of a joke. See, if you kill all but one of them, the guy will use Frog Song on you, you would be amazed how many enemies in this dungeon are susceptible to this spell.
    I steal the items I need, gain a few job levels, and once Lenna reached the first level of Black Mage, I switch her over to Blue Mage to double my chances of getting Frog Song to hit my party. I ended up gaining a few more levels than I meant to because the Elf Toad didn't want to show up for a fight. Also, if you ever low on healing items and not using a white mage or its skill set, you can still just quickly change a character to one to do a little maintenance if need be. I usually make my melee characters do so since their MP is mostly going to waste anyway. The dungeon is kind of kooky, with the player having to climb the overgrown vines in order to reach certain treasures and the next floor. It's pretty snazzy and otherwise the dungeon is pretty straightforward.
    On the top floor, we watch the Wild Garula face off against a strange man before charging its way towards us. The Garula can be a tricky battle for a low level team. He'll counter most of your melee attacks with his own and he's surprisingly fast. With that said, if you're packing enough firepower he'll go down super easy, and in fact I killed him before I could show off another more fun strategy for beating him so I had to reset and redo the fight. Since Garula only has a Hi-Potion or regular potion for stealing, I switch Galuf to a White Mage and throw him in the back row with Lenna. Lenna has Black 1 as her sub-job and is equipped with the Ice Rod to boost her Ice magic damage. When the fight opens, I have Butz and Faris guard while I have Galuf cast Mute/Silence on the boss. He has only one spell, but it's designed to bork this strategy if you don't mute him first. I then have Lenna cast Frog Song and voila! Garula Toad, and he's now completely harmless. He can't even damage my mages in this state. He does know the Toad spell which is why you need to silence him but if you're ever doing a low-level run, this is an easy way to get around this guy and the first of many ways where a Blue Mage is going to be the bane for bosses in this game. By the time Silence wears off and he's able to change back, Faris finishes him off with Focus powered sword attack.
    With that over, the mysterious soldier reveals he knows who Galuf really is but dies before he can tell it to him. Doesn't that just figure? The Crystal shatters anyway cause of the amplifier and the party collects the shards and the new job classes. Before we can pick up the last one though, the tower begins to shake as the destruction of the crystal is now causing a massive earthquake which will sink the entire landmass and tower into the ocean. Perhaps this is ExDeath's doing and the first sign of his revival but it might also just be for dramatic effect. Their is no way to reach the last crystal and instead an exit opens up. The team escapes but falls into the sea where an injured Syldra appears and rescues the team. Unfortunately, the strain is too much for the old girl and she dies for real now, leaving the team a little shaken. The scene is surprisingly sad actually, but I think it's because I'm a big softie when it comes to animals.
    The team appears next to the Walse Meteor and the Hiryuu. If you properly explored earlier, you will no doubt had noticed that the party is landloclked. The Hiryuu can't pass over any of the tall mountains and so we've explored what's available in the world now. If you visit the Walse Meteor, Klutzy Butzy will trigger a teleporter inside of it that transports the team to the Karnak Meteor, which is our next destination in the plot, but first we head back to Walse to go pay a visit to an Ice Goddess living rent free in Walse Castle and in serious need for an eviction notice.

    So to give an overview of the team.

    Butz: Knight Lv. 3, Monk Lv.2
    Lenna: Thief Lv. 3, Black Mage Lv. 1, Blue Mage Lv. 2
    Galuf: Blue Mage Lv. 2, Thief Lv. 3, and White Mage Lv.1
    Faris: Monk Lv. 3, Knight Lv. 2

    The new classes we just unlocked are:
    Red Mage
    Time Mage
    Summoner
    Berserker
    Mystic Knight

    Ideally, I would use a team of two Mystic Knights and Two Black Wizards for Shiva, but what team should I use for the next real portion of the game. I'll do overviews for the classes picked.


  2. #32
    Slothstronaut Recognized Member Slothy's Avatar
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    Berserker and Mystic Knight for sure since I rarely use them. And because I don't hate you completely toss in a time mage and dealers choice on number four.

    And I can't specifically remember with certainty, but odds are good I let lone wolf out every time.

  3. #33
    Memento Mori Site Contributor Wolf Kanno's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Slothy View Post
    Berserker and Mystic Knight for sure since I rarely use them. And because I don't hate you completely toss in a time mage and dealers choice on number four.

    And I can't specifically remember with certainty, but odds are good I let lone wolf out every time.
    Honestly, I feel the Mystic Knight is the best of the bunch and Berserker is underrated. There is one class in this grouping I feel is kind of troutty but not the one people would think. Not a bad lineup though.

  4. #34
    Witch of Theatergoing Karifean's Avatar
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    I'd say start off with 4th choice Red Mage and switch to Summoner after getting Shiva to show it off better ^^

    Alternatively stick with Red Mage for now. I'm sure Summoner will have plenty of opportunity to be shown off later especially with getting Shiva now (*cough* Ifrit *cough*)

    Also, is it the Time Mage you're not fond of?

  5. #35
    Memento Mori Site Contributor Wolf Kanno's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Karifean View Post
    I'd say start off with 4th choice Red Mage and switch to Summoner after getting Shiva to show it off better ^^

    Alternatively stick with Red Mage for now. I'm sure Summoner will have plenty of opportunity to be shown off later especially with getting Shiva now (*cough* Ifrit *cough*)

    Also, is it the Time Mage you're not fond of?
    I'll tell you when I do the overview. It's not even a terrible class, but it has some glaring problems compared to the other available classes in the game.

    I'm liking the idea of a Mystic Knight, Berserker, Time Mage, and Red Mage to take down Shiva. Though I'm still leaving the door open for any other suggestions.

  6. #36
    Do Myself a Mischief Vermachtnis's Avatar
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    I'm for seeing a Mystic Knight, Berserker, Time Mage, and Red Mage.

  7. #37
    Radical Dreamer Fynn's Avatar
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    Definitely want to see Mystic Knight and Berserker in the line-up since they’re my favorite of the bunch, and a red Mage and time Mage feel like a good way to round up that party.

  8. #38
    Memento Mori Site Contributor Wolf Kanno's Avatar
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    Sorry this has been quiet, I had a rather eventful weekend which ate into time and mood to play. So before my next update, let's do a run down of the four new classes I'll be using. I'll do one for Summoner when I finally use it.

    **************************************************************************************************** *******
    FF5-MysticKnight.png
    Mystic Knights spellblade masters who enchant their weapons for stronger attacks.

    Stats
    Strength: +14
    Agility: +14
    Stamina: +14
    Magic: +1
    Ability: Spellblade
    Innate: Magic Wall
    Class Type: Give and Take
    Weapons: Knives and Swords
    Armor: Shields, Heavy armor and helmets, gauntlets, and Cloth

    Debatable the best class of the bunch, Mystic Knights are one of two classes in the base game (four in the GBA one) that gives all positive stat increases. While it's not as significant as specialized classes, it's high enough to give the class some wiggle room with abilities. Interestingly enough, their spellblade skill grants the user both a strength and magic bonus, though the magic one is kind of not great. The real strength of this class is how kind of broken their spellblade abilities are.

    So right off the bat, a weapon imbued with magic will ignore Reflect status, though if the enemy has natural defenses against an element (resists, immune, absorb) then the damage algorithm are treated the same as if being hit with a spell. On the other hand, if the enemy happens to be weak to the element, they will take significantly more damage depending on the spell used and ignores their defense.


    • Fire, Ice, Bolt, and Poison do 2x damage if enemy is weak to it.
    • Fire, Blizzara, and Thundara do 3x damage
    • Firaga, Blizzaga, Thundaga, Bio, and Holy will either instantly kill the enemy regardless of health unless they have the "Heavy Status" in which case they do 4x damage.
    • Flare works differently and is the great equalizer, it adds +100 to battle damage power and ignores 75% of the enemies defense making it always do high damage regardless of their defenses.
    • Status spells will hit for 100% if the enemy doesn't have immunity, and Drain/Osmose will only work if the damage of the attack is greater than one.


    As you can tell, that's quite a doozy of some damage potential and its not uncommon for a Mystic Knight to see the damage cap before the other classes. The class honestly doesn't have too many weaknesses and they work great with doublehand and dual-wield abilities or Rapid Fire. The only real weakness I can give them besides Magic Wall kind of being a crappy ability in general is their limited weapon selection. One look at regular swords will make you notice their is a bit of a drop off with their damage potential towards the middle as the game expects you to switch over to Knightswords. The other issue is that like other mages, your damage potential is based purely on where you are in the game what spells you've found. There is an odd point around the end of Galuf's world and the beginning of the Merged World where the class may be lacking due to poor weapon and magic selections but they become serious powerhouses towards the end of the game. I guess the other issue here is that you need to have good knowledge of enemy elemental resistances as their spellblade bonus doesn't mean much without it.

    Since they have great stats overall, you can sub a lot of abilities with them and make them have more traditional magic as well unlike other warrior classes that usually need the magic boost from the abilities to cut into their steep magic deficit. Still, it's probably best to focus on their damage output, but there are few enemies in this game where a team of Mystic Knights can't solve the issue. I think the most telling thing about this classes brokeness is how little it shows up in for later entries. I mean X-2 had a neutered version of the class with Warrior, but TA2's Parivir and 4 Heroes of Lights Spell Fencers are considered game breakers.

    ****************************************************************************************************
    FF5-Berserker.png
    Berserkers are animal skin wearing death machines on the battlefield.

    Stats
    Strength: +21
    Agility: -9
    Stamina: +25
    Magic: -23
    Ability: None
    Innate: Berserk
    Class Type: Take
    Weapons: Knives, Axes, and Hammers
    Armor: Heavy armor sets, cloth, and shields

    My vote for the most underrated job class in the game. Most players ignore this class due to the nature of it making it boring but practical. Vets on the other hand will likely see that this class has a a lot of hidden potential with the right builds. Despite having the second highest strength in the game, Berserkers are pretty much the best damage dealers in the first world and with the right setup, they can carry you until the Merged World and then some. A large part of this is that their stats lie. Berserk status adds a 50% percent bonus to damage and their primary weapons of Axes and Hammers scale with strength and ignore 75% of the enemy's defenses. It is not uncommon for this class to be the first to see four digit damage. Add in the fact that many of their weapons have great secondary effects and you have a real beast on your hand. Obviously standard abilities like Doublehand and Dual-Wield are their best sub-abilities but if you want to take real advantage of weapons like the Gaia Hammer and Rune Axe, you can give them Black or Summon magic to boost their magic ability as well.

    The real joy of the Berserker class is pretty much in the set-up and watching it wreak havoc on the battlefield, but most players find this boring cause they prefer choosing commands even if the only thing Berserker is really built for is hitting things really really hard. The real problem with the class is that it's abilities are kind of useless for other classes overall, and by endgame, high level summons, spellblade abilities and rapid fire will overtake their damage potential. Throw in the fact that the Rune Axe is hardly an ideal "ultimate weapon" for the class, and it becomes obvious that you probably will want to drop this class by end game. Still, they are a terror in Butz's world and one of the key classes needed to get around some of the early game demonic spiders like the Jackanapes and Metal Nutkins.

    **************************************************************************************************** *******
    FF5-TimeMage.png
    Time Mage is the team support unit helping players master the ATB system.

    Stats
    Strength: -5
    Agility: +2
    Stamina: -3
    Magic: +24
    Ability: Time Magic
    Innate: None
    Class Type: Give and Take
    Weapons: Rods, Staves, and Knives
    Armor: Hats, Robes, and Armlets.

    Tied with Blue Mage and Samurai as my favorite long term classes to debut in this entry, Time Mages are a different kind of mage which specializes in support magic with a few non-elemental if quirky spells to give them a more well-rounded build. Time Mages are all about manipulating the flow of battle. That might seem like a given since most people know about Haste and Slow, but the arsenal of tools at the classes disposal in this entry is much more varied. Speed for instance will change the Battle Speed to 5 for that battle, meaning if you're playing on the fastest speed setting like I will, it will lower how fast the enemies get their turn. The game breaking Quick spell appears in this game allowing a character to effectively get two turns in with the right build. Return is one of the cooler spells that I wish had appeared in more entries, it basically restarts the battle from the beginning which is great for dealing with battles that go south, if a character is erased by the ability Encircle, or when attempting to get a rare steal. Their selection of status magic is also nice with Regen being a decent healing ability and spells like Old and Silence being useful against certain enemies. Their offensive push is a mixed bag. The Gravity spells do percentile based damage but since gravity isn't an actual element in this entry, the only thing it doesn't work on are enemies with the Heavy Status like most bosses. This means the spells work on more enemies than players are used to, but as usual, not on the ones where it would be useful. Comet and Meteor do randomized damage making them powerful but inconsistent moves and X-Zone is a pretty snazzy instant death spell. Overall, I feel the class has a pretty strong bag of tricks going for it.

    The other bonus for the class is its high magic bonus which makes it great to sub other magic skills and the fact it can use the mage trifecta of Knives, Rods, and Staves which means they can get elemental bonuses for every known elemental type making them really good with said magic skills. Oddly enough, much like the Blue Mage, their magic stat doesn't play a whole lot in their spell algorithms outside of Comet and Meteor, meaning their high magic stat isn't terribly useful for using their spells, meaning that Time Magic can even be given to classes with crippling magic penalties and still do alright with it. Equipping Time Magic will also garner your character a bonus to their own magic stat depending the level of the skill. The only bad thing about the class is that despite the high magic bonus, their ranked fourth overall in the base game for magic power, meaning that it's a much better idea to transfer their skills sets to a classes. The real oddity of the class is that they have the Equip Rod skill. As mentioned before, the real merit of Rods are their elemental boosts they give, and yet Time Mages never learn any spells that can take advantage of it, nor do they get much benefit from Magic boosts from them either making it really weird that Square decided they should teach this ability since the class can only take advantage of Rods if you give them Black or Summon magic.

    **************************************************************************************************** *******
    FF5-RedMage.png
    Red Mages are the Master of None class

    Stats
    Strength: +8
    Agility: +5
    Stamina: -6
    Magic: +8
    Ability: Red Magic
    Innate: None
    Class Type: Give
    Weapons: Knives, Rods, Swords and Staves
    Armor: Hats, Clothes, Robes, and Armlets

    Well you wanted to know which one I felt was kind of crap and here we are. Red Mages have fallen quite a ways since their last appearance in FFIII and with the exception of FFXI and XII:TZA, I don't feel this class ever quite recovered from the nerf they suffered in this entry. Granted "nerfed" is a strong word in this case. In truth Red Mage has simply been balanced to work like it was suppose to in past games and that presents us with a very mixed class. Red Mage is a truly a class that can do a bit of everything, but is certainly not a master of any of its traits. The stat gains it has are not bad by any stretch of the imagination, but they're not great either, making the class fall behind any class that pools all of its points into a particular stat. Not helping it here is that the class can only learn up to Lv. 3 spells for both White and Black Magic, and while those are generous spell selections and the class no longer has to pick and choose which spells to use, a combination of the meager stat upgrade and the fact you'll gain these spells not long after you acquire the class leaves very little room for the Red Mage to feel like a class that grows. In truth, Red Mages are pretty awesome when you first get them and will likely start to fall quickly behind other classes around the time you jump to Galuf's world, making this one of the classes that has a very short usability window.

    It's not all bad news, on the brightside the class has access to all of the weapons needed to give them elemental bonus damage for their spells which gives them a bit more longevity, and likewise, the class can use up to three magic types with the subjob system. Ironically, Red Mage suffers from being undermined by other mage classes. You're better off giving their Red Magic skill set to another mage class so they can use three different types of magic. In fact the Blue Mage ultimately undermines this class cause it can frankly do their job better than them. Blue Mages have almost the same equipment pool with the major exception being that Blue Mages can equip shields while Red Mages can't, giving them better survivability along with the elemental bonus. While Blue Mages are not terribly great melee fighters, their significantly higher magic stat, allows them to use the Red Mage spell lists on a closer caliber to their respective mage classes. Hell if you don't care about shields, then the Time and Summer classes also have similar advantages over Red mage where they can equip all of the elemental boost weapons and have higher base magic stats. This pretty much means the only strength the Red Mage has is that they are a decent fighter who can use magic unlike their magical brethren, but the subjob system undermines this advantage cause you can easily give a Knight or better yet, a Ninja some magic as their sub-job and get equivalent results.

    Overall, the only point in using a Red Mage is to get Doublecast. The class is so mediocre to be almost worthless which is kind of sad really. Again, it's not a terrible class, but the subjob system and it's inherent mechanics completely undermine the point of the class. If Doublcast had been an innate ability, or if the class had a better stat boost, it could have remained relevant, but frankly it's not worth using other than getting doublecast and to dress a character in the always stylish Red Mage outfit. One fun fact though is that equipping Doublecast on a character gives them Red Mages spell power despite not having access to their spell list, unless you equip the class with a magic power with higher base magic ability. In the end, master this class for doublecast and to hand their magic over to a better mage so you can have a bit more versatility, but I would honestly only use the class in Butz's world and then leave it until the end of the game so you can quickly master it for the final skill.

  9. #39
    Radical Dreamer Fynn's Avatar
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    I like how Bravely Default made Red Mages viable in this type of job system again simply by changing their focus to a new mechanic introduced in BD.

    But yay for Mystic Knights and Berserkers! I was sure I was pretty much the only person who liked them. Honestly, all you do with your physical fighters is attack anyway so why not have it automated? Same reason why I absolutely adore Umaro in FFVI

  10. #40
    Slothstronaut Recognized Member Slothy's Avatar
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    Note to self: use mystic knights and berserkers because they sound so much more awesome than I thought they were.

  11. #41
    Do Myself a Mischief Vermachtnis's Avatar
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    My favorite thing about the Berserker is how the girls have tiger heads and the boys have wolf heads and tigers are more aggressive of the two. Even little Krile has a tiger pelt.

  12. #42
    Memento Mori Site Contributor Wolf Kanno's Avatar
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    Just pulling a Squenix by announcing a future announcement. I've had real life get in the way this past week from doing a proper update, but I'm almost finished with he next block of the update I want to do which will do part of the Karnak segment as well as taking down Shiva. I've been using the team suggested so far as it works pretty solid for what I need done. Assuming I don't have any more drama today, I'll try to get to a stopping point and post the next update tonight or tomorrow night.

  13. #43
    Memento Mori Site Contributor Wolf Kanno's Avatar
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    Sorry this took so long. I did the Shiva segment awhile ago and then rl drama kept me from getting back to the playthrough until the last few days. I'm posting this update now, but I'll add pictures later when I have more time.
    So I turned Butz into a Berserker since he knows Doublehand already. Lenna becomes a Time Mage with a Fire Rod and Black Magic 1 as her sub ability. Galuf became the Red Mage with Learning as his sub ability. Faris is the Mystic Knight with Chakra as her sub-ability. With Walse Tower done, the team heads back to the castle and we discover the king did in fact make it out alive and that another meteor landed near Karnak. We also head through the backdoor and find the area where Shiva was sealed away by the Water Crystal. The dungeon is pretty straightforward with no treasure.
    The real challenge of this fight comes down to when you fight her and how you're going to get around her bodyguards. She's accompanied by Ice Commanders which are Ice Soldiers with better stats, they even carry the same loot and are also vulnerable to Frog Song. A low level party with no access to Lv. 2 magic like myself could find this battle a bit of an uphill battle, but thankfully there are some easy tricks to win this fight without putting this off until I finish Karnak. The easiest way to beat her this early in the game is to simply use a Fire Rod as an item on her. As I mentioned earlier, Rods when used as items tend to cast Lv. 3 magic and at this time frame in the game, that can pretty much kill her outright.

    I don't need to really resort to this thankfully. Since I acquired two Fire Rods in the last area, both Galuf and Lenna do respectable damage with fire spells though Galuf will primarily be a healer. Shiva and her escorts are all weak to fire so the 2x damage from Fire Sword makes Faris one of the best damage dealers in this battle. Butz with his Greataxe being doublehanded and hasted by Lenna also results in him being able to kill the Ice Commanders with a single blow making him just as effective as Faris in this fight. The fight goes by pretty smoothly to be honest as long as you focus on high damage. If I backtracked after Karnak I would have access to Fire 2 which would have made this fight even more ridiculously easy.
    With that done, the team heads to the Walse Meteor and uses it to teleport to the Karnak Meteor. There isn't much to explore yet on this continent so head towards the castle. There are three enemies to look out for on your way there. Grass Turtles are uncommon enemies that drop Turtle Shells which are a valuable Mixing item for Chemists. Thankfully it's a 100% drop for them so fight a few if you can. The Zuu's are the toughest enemies on the map with more health than they deserve. They drop Elixirs but I would honestly not bother farming them. The real important one are the dog enemies fought in the forest areas on the map. These guys have the Blue Mage Skill ????. This skill does damage based on the difference between your characters current health against their maximum. So if your character has 150/300 of their health, the spell will do 150 damage. Not terribly useful this early in the game but the potential will make it quite useful by the third world or when you finally get access to a chemist...
    Karnak is under martial law due to monsters trying to invade the castle, including a werewolf who emerged from the meteor who is thought to be the ringleader. Head into town, several shops are closed and others are selling great gear at ridiculously low prices but before you can buy something, your party is arrested due to a citizen spotting you emerging from the meteor making everyone assume your with the werewolf.
    In Karnak jail, you meet FFV's Cid who lives in Karnak and is responsible for a lot of its technological achievements including the Fire Ship. He also discovered his machine was cause the crystals shattered and was arrested when he tried to deactivate the device. Cid tries to escape his cell using gunpowder but instead just winds up in your cell. Luckily the Prime Minister arrives to free Cid because gosh darn it, he was right and the Fire Crystal started to crack and now the Fire Ship is acting up cause it's still trying to drain energy from the crystal. Cid asks your party to look into it.
    From here we can finally return to the city and actually buy some stuff. Unfortunately, the cheap prices are gone since they were only that cheap due to the Fire Crystal making it easy to make. Luckily the magic shop is open and we can get access to the Lv. spells, and Life/Raise. Most of the gear is great and all the magic is useful as well. There is another piano in the Pub needed for the Hero Song quest. Now it's time to head to the Fire Ship.
    The Fire Ship is one of my favorite dungeons in FFV, it's way less straightforward than previous ones and has more puzzles in it as well which makes it stand out. The black ghost enemies teach Flash, but I already obtained it earlier. The only enemy to look out for is the dragon/gargoyle looking creature. The enemy isn't special and like most enemies in this dungeon, they don't have anything useful to farm/steal, but if you defeat is last in a battle, two puppet robots show up which nets you more Gil and XP. These guys are the first enemies to have the Blue Mage spell Exploder/Self-Destruct and funny enough, this is one of the few entries where this move actually has a purpose, but that will be much later in the game. Unfortunately, getting Blue Magic with a team having a Berserker is kind of tough but thankfully they will always use the move if you hit them with Bolt magic, at which point you just have to hope it lands on your Blue Mage.
    There are a few nice items in this dungeon, the most important of which is the Thieves Gloves, which raises the success rate of Steal/Mug. You'll eventually reach a point where you have four chutes to choose from which leads to a conveyor belt that sends you to four different paths. The far left path sends you back to an earlier section of the map. The chute next to it sends you to the save point and where you need to go to finish the dungeon, and the other two lead you to treasure.
    When we reach the end, we discover the missing Queen of Karnak is causing the ship to still drain power from the crystal. She appears to be possessed and we get our first true foreshadowing of Exdeath. He summons Liquid Flame to fight us. LF is pretty much the first real nasty boss in this game, especially if you either don't know what you're doing or have not taken time to properly level/equip your team. He switches from three different forms: Humanoid, Tornado, and Hand. Two forms are weak to Ice, one no-sells it and all three hit you with a nasty counter when you hit him. Humanoid uses Blaze which is a nasty group hitting fire attack, Tornado heals itself but uses Magnetic Polarity which will force back row teammates to move forward and if the character is already in the front row, it hits them with Stop instead. The last form counters with Fire 2. Since he doesn't have any blue magic skills, I switch Learning with White Magic 1 on Galuf in order to boost his healing magic cause I'm going to need it. Interestingly enough, all three forms drop a different item, I advise taking out his Tornado form as it drops the Flame Bow, while I beat him the first time, and won it, my second attempt got me a flame scroll from beating his human form instead.

    After this, the party heads to the underground duct to the castle basement where the Fire Crystal is held. We meet up with the werewolf who recognizes Galuf but the conversation is interrupted by a possessed guard who activates the amplifier and causes the crystal to shatter. Unfortunately, this causes a chain reaction that is now going to make the castle explode in ten minutes...
    If I had to list off places where the dev team are purposely trolling the player, this might make it to the top of my list. Most players hate timed sequences anyway, even worse in RPGs with random battles, but the amount of dickery built into Karnak Castle is on a whole new level. The castle is filled with treasure, of which almost 90% of them are Monster-in-a-box with enemy types designed around eating up your clock. While a good 80% of the treasure are simply Elixirs, those are not bad items to get either. The enemy groups in this area are actually really great for ABP farming as they all drop 3ABP per battle, the mage enemies have Mage Mashers and Gaia Gear you can steal, the Gygas has easy to steal Elixirs, and the guys also have the Aero and Aero 2 spells for Blue Mages. This place was just designed to eat away your time and tempt you. Also heaven help you if you start trying to run away from battles unless you're going after the Chicken Knife instead. I actually got killed due to the timer running out by expoloring the castle more than I should have. I sadly got Aero 2 on this run but failed to achieve it the second run through.
    There are fifteen treasure chests scattered about the castle but you only really need six of them. Once you start at the Save point, backtrack to the pot in the earlier room cause it will restore your whole party. Save. For this sequence, I switched around a few things. Lenna was turned into a Thief so I can have the Dash and Steal abilities and I have time magic as her secondary. Galuf is switched to a Blue Mage with Red Magic 2 as his secondary cause as I stated before, the Blue Mage is better at being a Mage than a Red Mage. The two treasures in the dungeon are gimmies for the most part with money and a elixir. On the B3 floor, hit up both treasures here for a Shuriken and a Ribbon, just try not to linger in the battles for too long. Ignore everything and climb to the second floor where the castle diverges onto two paths leading outside to the outer wall and into two towers on either side. In the right tower is a Main Gauche, which is a fantastic knife weapon, and the left tower contains an Elven Mantle which is a great accessory. Ignore all the treasure chests on the way and use the shortcut on the inner second floor areas to save time. Head back to the first floor and pick up the two treasure chests here. One contains a Lightning Scroll, while the other has the White Magic Esuna spell. Hopeful you have over two minutes left on the clock. Head outside to hit a scripted battle. Before that though, I turn my whole team into Blue Mages. The boss of this castle has a a rare Blue Magic ability that won't be available until Galuf's World but the ability is more useful in Butz's world so you need to grab it now. Butz has double-hand sword, Lenna remains a thief but I switch out time for Learning, Galuf remains the same, and Faris is a blue mage with Sword Magic 2.
    The encounter feels like a redo of the typical random encounters of the Sergeant and dog enemies, but if you kill all the dogs quickly, the game hits you with an overly long conversation for a time limit segment before he transforms into Iron Claw. The boss is actually pretty weak with low HP and no immunities. He has the Blue Mage spell Death Claw which reduces and enemy to single digit HP and inflicts paralyze. Once he uses it, I go all out and crush him. If you don't care about the spell, a Berserker can potentially kill this guy with one blow using a double-handed Mythril Hammer.

    With Iron Claw gone, the team escapes and we watch Karnak Castle explode. The shards of the Fire Crystal scatter, but three land by the heroes, granting us Geomancer, Mediator/Beastmaster, and Ninja. From there I head into town to save and rest in the inn.

    I have three new classes and I still have Summoner which was never used as well, so who should my new team be?


  14. #44
    Radical Dreamer Fynn's Avatar
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    Hashed berserkers with doublehand are great

    Idk, I think you should stick with this party for now, personally. I was never a fan of the three initial fire crystal jobs. The ninja is great but Beastmaster is overwhelming and Geomancer is far better in III. Though I guess one ninja couldn’t hurt. I always maxed the berserker on someone before changing them to ninja and giving the equip axe. Stuck with it until around the end of world one since axes are pretty spiffy at the start.

  15. #45
    Memento Mori Site Contributor Wolf Kanno's Avatar
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    I'm definitely itching to change Galuf's job, Red Mage was certainly the weak link in this team build. Beastmaster certainly has some issues, but it also has a few fun tricks if you know a few things about them. Geomancers can be useful if you have the right build for them and Ninja's are an upgrade from IV but not their usual game breaker either. I still have Summoner as well.

    If I have access to a certain location soon, I'll probably do a bit of Job grinding so I can make some more interesting builds. Karnak would have been perfect but the timer and the fact it keeps going even when you're in the menu screen meant I couldn't take much advantage of it. Sadly the best leveling spot isn't available until Galuf's World.

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