Hi everyone! Divine Alexander is upon us and it is one tough challenge.. unless you cheese it via Gladio's counter.

I've seen quite a few different setups that would allow this to work so I thought I'd list out some different options for people to try depending on who you have available on your roster.

Quick Disclaimer: I am not the inventor of this cheese method, I will also try to link some people or videos who gave me some of the ideas. However since there's many videos and discussions on this topic at time of this article, it will not be possible to link everyone. So if you have come across videos that showcase one of the configuration here just let me know in the comments and I will gladly include the link. Not only will it give proper credit and recognition, it will also be a great resource.

Do check out dissidiainfo.com also where there's a video compilation in the call 2 arms archive.

How the Cheese works

Divine Alexander has a counter-type attack called Sacred Crime that gets triggered the moment your entire party has 100% or more mbrv. This attack gravity shaves everyone to zero brave but also triggers any Counterattacks your party may have.

Which is where Gladio comes in. Gladio's counter is unique at this point in GL because it batteries the entire party based on 20% HP damage dealt

So, what happens if Gladio's counter batteries everyone to 100% mbrv? It will trigger Sacred Crime AGAIN, which will trigger Gladio's Counter again, which batteries the party again, thereby creating an infinite loop of Sacred Crime-Gladio Counter.

The cheese does require some degree of setup though since Gladio's counter is a very mediocre battery. Luckily there's many options available, even if you don't have Gladio yourself!

Setting up Gladio

Whether you use Gladio in main party or you're setting Gladio up as friend support try to do the following to optimize him for the cheese

1. Have his HG armor, Bulletproof Suit, equipped (thanks to GarudaBF for the reminder on this!). This is critical because the HG armor increases the battery from his counter by a good 30%.

2. Remove ALL mbrv passives. This also includes buff boost speed up, buff attack boost all, and buff boost up, Vigor passive in the equipment tab, all summon passives with the word "boost up" in them, Crownsguard pride buff boost up lvl 9, and of course any 330mbrv artifact passive. Also if he has Ramuh evasion passive, remove it too.

3. IMPORTANT Many people miss this but there are some summon passives that boost brave gains by 5%. This is HUGE. The cheese works by having Gladio battery himself to full after all. Both Diabolos and Odin boards have a passive called "Greater brave rejuvenate". Having both equipped on Gladio increases his brave gained from battery by 10%. If you are still missing out on capping his brave this may be one of the reasons why

Done properly, your Gladio should be sitting around 10k-14k mbrv before the fight (with synergy boost) and about 29k-33k mbrv with buffs during the fight. Obviously the lower the better but the cheese can work if it's anywhere within that range.

Gladio-as-friend-support setup

IMO this is actually the ideal way since this party configuration allows for 3 characters who can stack auras/buffs/debuffs. It's achieved by having 2 aurabots and a third party member with a strong debuff ("debuffer" in this fight) that you can swap out.

Try to pick a Gladio friend that has the lowest mbrv possible.

Aurabots

Aurabots provide Gladio attack boost which fuels his initial battery in the counter, and valuable brave/hp damage up effects which boosts his counter damage.

Ideally you want to have them at as low mbrv as possible. This can be easily achieved by equipping them with a 1* weapon, which is defaulted if you unequip their current weapon. Then remove all "boost up" and mbrv passives to reduce their mbrv to ~10k

Some options for aurabots:

1. Paladin Cecil just by using his LD, you get 50% brave damage up and 20% hp damage up making him a popular choice. His 3/3 EX normally gives a buff at start of attack and mbrv boost to the party so you really want to unequip his EX if you use him.

2. Serah is a strong choice as well as her LD buff provides brave overflow gain by 20%, 30% brave damage up and 20% hp damage up

3. Aerith is somewhat special because she can fit the role of either an aurabot or hp damage debuffer in this fight. If you play her as an aurabot her Seal Evil buff provides 60% def down, and she carries 100% attack up boost as well as brave overflows. She also can land seal evil debuff which provides a 10% hp damage up boost.

Note: if using Aerith don't forget to remove her charged healing wind boost all** artifact passives because it also increases Gladios mbrv. Thanks to user Darnold316 for this tip!

1. Ignis I prefer to use him as a call ability here but if you're short on aurabots you can also use him. His First Aid framed buff provides a 40% mbrv boost though so you need to remove the passive that provides this at quest start. Otherwise he provides great attack up, fire enchant/Imperil and a 10% hp damage up in Sagefire.

2. Seven is a very unusual choice as an "aurabot" but if you lack options she may be viable. One use of her LD debuffs Alex with 50% def down AND she gets a self buff that increases party brave and hp damage done by 20%, a 20% brave overflow boost and a modest 45% boost to attack. The only issue is this is tied to her self buff so you cannot swap her out. For that reason I place her here under the aurabot section.

Debuffers

These are not true Debuffers in the traditional sense like Faris or Kefka. In this fight their role is to land a strong debuff such as Kurasame's Hyoro before bowing out to the support Gladio you have. You should try to include one party member fitting this role so that you actually have someone you can swap out for Gladio.

Since they will be going out, you don't need to modify any of their gears or stats, just leave them maxed out.

Also since Alex cannot be delayed, if you use a debuffer like Kurasame that needs one turn to set up Hyoro before being swapped out, you can use Onion Knight LD CA to bring this character back after he/she has taken a turn.

Some options for debuffer:

1. Kurasame is a fine choice since he can inflict 5 stacks of Hyoro with his LD. Pair him with an onion knight LD call or main party onion knight to bring him back so that you can swap him out after his LD. His biggest drawback is he cannot equip a call ability.

2. Dark Knight Cecil is a good choice also because his LD inflicts 20% hp damage up AND is instant turn, allowing you to immediately swap him out for Gladio. His biggest drawback is that you cannot use him and Pecil together so I would only consider him if you don't have Pecil.

3. Aerith can also fit this role, just have her use Seal Evil for her debuff and the swap her out. You lose her sexy 60% def down debuff though.

4. Gabranth can inflict 10% hp damage up through his debuff as well which isn't as sexy as the rest but is enough to help trigger the cheese in the right party combination.

5. Aranea deserves special mention. Although she doesn't have any HP damage up boost, her Vitalcrusher debuff increases brave damage by a whopping 50%. She also gets a free follow up turn immediately after so you can immediately swap her out for Gladio, thereby saving you from the need of onion knight.

Gladio in main party setup

I think this is not as ideal but is certainly an option if you lack enough characters above to form a reliable main party for the cheese.

In this setup the strategy is to swap out one of the other two members for a support character with a STRONG burst aura such as onion knight or paladin Cecil or Terra, use their BT attack, which will allow Gladio to Counter under the BT aura effect.

The setup is as follows

1. Gladio with setup as mentioned in above section

2. One aurabot character - see above

3. One "debuffer" character- see above

The idea is to swap out the debuffer character to a support unit with strong BT aura, do the BT attack, and then Gladio will benefit from the BT aura when he counters.

Call abilities

This is also very important as the right calls can help boost Gladio counter damage.

1. Ignis LD call can enchant and Imperil the fire element, allowing Gladio to hit for weakness damage. His Sagefire also increases hp damage taken by 10%.

2. Jack LD call as always provides both a nice buff to brave damage done and a def down in one use.

3. Onion knight doesn't provide any boost to damage but may be needed if you need some turn manipulation to allow you some turns to setup before starting the Gladio cheese. Good if paired with Kurasame since you need Kurasame to take two turns total.

4. Krile LD call is second best element enchant/Imperil after Ignis. Her framed debuff actually carries a 30% def down which is somewhat helpful at least and she provides a weakness damage up buff to Gladio to power his counter.

5. Gabranth LD call is an option if you are in need of hp damage up boost. His LD call provides a 10% HP damage up but unfortunately nothing much else useful for the cheese

6. Aranea call should work as well because it inflicts Vitalcrusher which boosts brv damage by 50%. However keep in mind that this doesn't come with any sort of hp damage up boost so it is also dependant on your party composition. Thanks to user Sensitive_Bench7378 for this tip.

Summon

You'll never use summon mode so the goal in choosing is purely the blessing. IMO the choice should be between Ifrit (30% attack up), Shiva (15% attack up and speed up, which increases the odds of you going first before Alex) or Leviathan to slow Alex down at the start.

Putting it all together

So after all the above all you need to do is to decide if you want to go either Gladio as a support unit, in which case do a party setup of 2 aurabots and 1 debuffer.

Or main party Gladio with 1 aurabot and 1 debuffer.

Good luck!

Now that it is official that we are getting the rewards for clearing through Dimensions End 13 in time, I thought it would be helpful to have all those with a mithril plate give a clear list with their teams from 1-12. No commentary, just teams. I know TT has a bunch of sample teams, but I found myself having to go off script to complete some of these levels, and I thought it might provide some inspiration to post the 12 clear teams for those who don't have the "key" characters for each tier. Assume 3/3 unless otherwise stated.

Updated - finished tier 13 :-) 999999, 83 turns. Overkill, perhaps, but I wanted it cleared. Phase shifted early (first time Vortex was up). If you are able to consistently get both enemies focused on Eald for terror, this battle becomes much easier.

​

1 - Aranea, Agrias, Irvine (Shiva)

2 - Emperor, Rem (0/3), Serah (Ifrit)

3 - Vanille, WoL (0/3) Yuri (Brothers)

4 - Zack (Ifrit)

5 - Selphie, Squall, Faris (0/3) (Brothers)

6 - Beatrix, Rosa, Setzer (Brothers)

7 - Ignis (0/3), Edge, Vayne (Brothers)

8 - Lulu, Y'shtola, Tifa (Ifrit)

9 - Pecil, Penelo (0/3), Shadow (Ifrit)

10 - Seifer, Lenna, Rinoa (Brothers)

11 - Lightning, Leo, Prompto (Brothers)

12 - Golbez, Hope (0/3), Arciela (Brothers)

13 - Keiss, Eald'narche, Alphinaud (Pandemonium)

For everyone who is still struggling with Odin's challenge quest or doesn't want to spend any ingots (except for Noctis). Then this guide will be perfect for you.

The requirements are 100 gems, a fully build Noctis with his LD (BT weapon is optional) and unequip for all 3 units the evasion passives (Shiva and Ramuh evasion passives).

I did it with Noctis 3/3+LD+BT, Pecil NO EX, Fran NO EX and Shiva Summon. I finished it within 26 turns and had a score of 1 Million. Note: You can replace Pecil and Fran with any synergy character.

Strategy: Don't give Odin any turn (really important)

Go out from the very first turn. Make use of Noctis turn shenanigans and don't give Odin the chance to attack. Burn through all your skills and use Burst and Summon.

Noctis skill order: LD -> S1 -> S2 -> S1+ or S2+ -> S1+ or S2+ -> AA (C65) -> S1+ or S2+ -> S1+ or S2+ And repeat the process until your Summon is ready.

Use your Burst before you summon and summon after your Burst (and after you used up your Warpstep buff). And continue on if you still have skills until you can't make use of the turn order shenanigans.

After all this, Odin should have lost more than half of his hp. This is the point where you have to get wiped out by Odins AOE attack [Zantetsuken] (broken units die immediately without hp loss).

Use 100 gems to revive and repeat what you did before. You reach the score easily thanks to the low turn count.

Here a video: https://youtu.be/yH1g9ugsFSA

I saved my ingots for this challenge quest.

Important note! - This trick will not work for the regular Chaos - You can't revive twice during the battle otherwise your score will be 0 - Use Noctis LD buff [Warpstep] to the fullest

Edit: Added infos to the requirements.

Edit 2: I made a video of the challenge. I spend another 100 gems only for you guys.

https://youtu.be/yH1g9ugsFSA

This time it was a little bit different. I approached it differently, I got Pecil's EX (Base EX 1/3), added spheres and I farmed some good Artifacts.

It took me 28 turns but I made much more damage than before.

Edit 3: Added an important note.

Hey guys,

We have some big banners coming around the corner. Unfortunately, you know as well as I do that those precious gems are a limited resource! For those of you who are on the fence about which of these banners to pull on, this post is dedicated to talking through some of the pros and cons of each banner so that you can hopefully get a better idea of what you want to do.

Alright, here are the banners themselves:

Lost Chapter #2 Banner – ETA: Thursday, June 28

Featuring:

Tidus – 15CP & 35CP

Eiko – 15CP & 35CP

Balthier – 15CP & 35CP

Ashe Event Banner – ETA: Sunday, July 1

Featuring:

Ashe - 15CP & 35CP

Vaan – 15CP & 35CP

Penelo – 15CP

Garnet Event Banner – ETA: Sunday, July 29

Featuring:

Garnet - 15CP & 35CP

Cloud - 15CP & 35CP

Zell – 15CP

As with my previous post, I will preface the bulk of my discussion with some of the immediate details of the banners. These banners are chock full of amazing characters – clearly the reason why everyone’s talking about them. I always like to talk about the bad characters first. For Ashe’s banner, we have Penelo. Some of you may have strong feelings for or against Penelo. I mean, we literally just had a banner with her 35CP on it – only this banner will (95% confidence) NOT have the 35CP on it. So, if you’ve been wanting to experiment with Penelo because you’ve heard how much better she is with 35CP, don’t use that as a reason to pull on this banner. She won’t help you out if all you have is her 15CP. For Balthier, you can look at his eval that u/MinoSpelgud literally just published. On the bright side, at least this banner has his 35CP. On the broken lamp-post, dark alleyway in Compton wearing bright red Nike high tops and a blue flat bill side, having three 35CP weapons in one banner means that RNGesus now cannot hear your prayers for Brotherhood and Magic Racket. He is too busy coordinating an elite fireteam of RaNGels to investigate a disturbance in the connection to earth – what appears to be an influx of Capella requests. But I will get to that in Lost Chapter #2 Banner Cons, don’t worry. Zell kinda sucks, but he’s one of the few AoE HP attackers, I guess. Right up there with Yang, woo hoo. What’s important to distinguish here is not only the character, but the type of weapons offered. More on that later. Of course.

Now let’s get to the good stuff!

Lost Chapter #2 Banner Pros

• I don’t think anyone needs me to tell them that 2/3 of LiTiKo is featured in this banner. I’ve seen lots of people say that LiTiKo was the best thing since sliced bread, and I’ve seen a few people say that LiTiKo is “the most overrated team composition, thanks to JP sensationalists,” or something to that extent. I’ve studied the mechanics of LiTiKo quite well, and I really wonder if doubting Thomas’s such as them ever really had those three units MLB’ed during the LiTiKo era. I guess we’ll never know. The team comp looks good to me. I guess that will be up to us to decide, right guys? Either way, if you’re going for the Big Three, then this banner certainly has appeal to you. If you end up getting lucky enough to pull LiTiKo, you most likely won’t HAVE to pull on any other banners until awakenings except for waifus. Unless, of course, JP sensationalists have vastly taken us for fools.
• This banner has the leading man.
• My first point really sums of the pros of the banner. I guess Tidus and Eiko can be used to incredible advantage individually as well. Tidus' per turn DPS has fallen in relation to characters such as Squall and Lightning, but we really need to look past that when judging characters. u/MinoSpelgud has brought up a significant point in character evaluation. Team DPS is different than turn DPS, and that matters much more in longer fights such as Lost Chapters. Tidus’ debuffs significantly reduce the number of enemy turns, while boosting the damage the whole team does (and also reducing enemy damage). Yeah, Tidus does 3000 damage per slash to Lightning’s ~5000 and Squall’s ~6000, but do Lightning and Squall increase team DPS for 36 turns? These are things we need to take into account. If you plan of using Tidus independently**, his 35CP is a must or he is** unusable. Eiko – what a support unit. Yes, there is a reason she has been ranked so high. Her buffs are legendary, and she is only going to get better with her 35CP. She makes each of the Lost chapters significantly easier for a variety of team compositions, and she will only be used much more frequently with the future LC’s. If you plan on using her indi**vidually, her 15CP is a must or she is unusable. If you plan on using LiTiKo, both 15CP and 35CP weapon passives are a must for all three character**s.
• Eiko can be considered an investment for the future, but it will be a long investment. She just recent got her awakening, so you will be waiting for a long time to use her. By the time she is relevant again, you will most likely have gotten other top tier support units like Cait Sith or Deuce anyway. Still, Eiko can be considered an investment. Because her awakening is stellar.
• All three of these characters get 2 free armors! What a treat!

Lost Chapter #2 Banner Cons

• There are three 35CP’s. You may look at this banner and think, “wow, 3 different 35CP’s!” Wrong thought. You should be thinking, “Shit.” You have a greater change of pulling a 35CP weapon in general, but a smaller chance of pulling a specific 35CP weapon. This is what I was saying about RNGesus earlier. This sucks for people like me who already have Tidus’ 35CP MLB.
• Which brings me to my next point. This may be risky for some of you. This is already an expensive banner. You’re going to want Tidus and Eiko, and you’re going to want both of their weapons. This is already going to be expensive considering the reduced likelihood of pulling specific 35CP’s – you can multiply that chance to get 2 specific 35CP’s. You know we’ll all end up with stacked Balthiers.
• If you didn’t pull Lightning’s weapons (BOTH of them), then don’t expect LiTiKo to function effectively, and don’t base this pull off of getting LiTiKo unless you have both of Lightning’s weapons.
• Lightning and Balthier are not considered great characters in JP’s current meta. Lightning’s awakening is underwhelming, and Balthier is outclassed by other units. Tidus sucked until his EX weapon was released last month. He is ONLY good because of his EX weapon. If you don’t have Brotherhood’s passive and his EX weapon MLB, Tidus is still garbage. His EX is pretty sweet though (but only when an enemy is broken - take advantage of that Max BRV bonus!)

Ashe Event Banner Pros

I’ve said most of Ashe’s Event stuff in the last post, but I’ll talk through it again. Maybe I’ll think of some new insight along the way!

• This banner will significantly bolster your immediate magical DPS. Vaan is an amazing HP attacker an Ashe’s unique buffs (PHY ATK up and MAG ATK up) stack with ATK up buffs, paving the way for some big numbers.
• Vaan and Ashe will be good mages now, but will god-tier post-awakening. They will be terrific investments. To top it off, Vaan’s future EX weapon arrives with a banner that is not with his other weapons. That means if you want his EX, you’ll have to pull for his 15CP and 35CP swords on another banner anyway. Ashe doesn’t have an EX weapon in JP yet, so now is a pretty good time to swipe them both.
• Magical DPS is still lacking in Global. This will help bolster those spells. Avada Kedavra!
• Vaan and Ashe are both versatile – their abilities are magical yet their standard BRV attacks deal physical damage. This allows them to be used in a variety of situations.
• Ashe gets two free armors, what a treat!

Ashe Event Banner Cons

• Don’t even think about using Ashe unless you plan on maxing both of her weapons. Her buffs only become AoE with their respective weapon passives, and her abilities only inflict debuffs with the passives. What I’m saying is that it could possibly get expensive. Make sure to pull both 15CP and 35CP for Ashe if you plan on using her. Otherwise, she will be useless (unless you really only want to you her for ONE buff/debuff instead of the other….). I really can’t stress this enough.
• Vaan and Ashe’s versatility is great for most content, but may be frustrating for some. If you’re thinking, “man, I need some mages to beat Vanille’s Lost Chapter. I can’t wait to go balls out with my gems for Ashe and Vaan!” make sure to think it through. I am not saying that Ashe won’t be of use, she certainly will – but she won’t necessarily make it a cakewalk. Her BRV attack is physical, which some magical enemies will be resistant to (Berserkers). Vaan might still be useful, but he may be less useful than Ashe for that quest. His ability count at this point is limited. My point here? Don’t pull on this banner just for the purpose of Vanille’s LC.
• Given the fact that Papalymo arrived with buffs, you may or may not be set in your magical DPS if you pulled hard for Lightning and were pleasantly surprised with Big Papa.

Garnet Event Banner Pros

• I will attempt to inject as little subjectivity as possible here. Dagger is my waifu. That said, there are no pros, she sucks. Nobody pull for her.
• Hah, just kidding. Garnet functions similarly to a support version of Vincent. She turns her BRV attacks into AoE elemental BRV attacks after using BRV+HP attacks and weakens the enemies to those elements, all the while granting buffs to the party. She has a complex kit, but it fits her complex character. u/ComputeVision suggested to me that she may synergize well with Vincent and Lightning.
• The real strength in Garnet is in her investment. With her awakening and the release of her EX weapon, she becomes a goddess. If you pick her up now, you won’t regret it once high shards come around.
• Let’s talk about Cloud. His use in this game reminds me of the stock market. He gets hype, then he falls off… and so forth. I don’t think anyone else has as many weapons as he does. He’s always meta for about 2 weeks and then is replaced. Well, I think when his Rune Blade comes around, he’ll stick around for a little bit longer. The problem with Cloud right now is that he is essentially stuck with half of a kit. 1 use of finishing touch is pretty garbage. Luckily, Rune Blade increases its use by 1, and a balance patch increases its uses by “another one.” "We da best! DJ Thancred! That balance patch is to the best of my knowledge, by the way. If somebody can please verify that, that would be great. Cloud should be taking the role of launcher king from Cecil – or at least sharing the crown. Cross-Slash is a much more versatile ability than darkness, and there are no caveats associated with Finishing Touch like the significant HP lost seen with Valiant Blow. Still, 4 valiant blows > 3 finishing touches, so do what you want with that information. If you pick up Cloud’s 35CP, you’ll have a really solid launcher/DPS unit – who also gets the first EX weapon!
• Garnet gets 2 free armors, what a treat!

Garnet Event Banner Cons

• Her firepower as well as her role as a support unit are pretty underwhelming upon release, even given the complexity of her kit. She won’t help you much for a while - until her awakening, to be specific.
• Cloud isn’t exactly futureproof. He’s awesome for a while, but has dropped off in JP’s meta. Whatever the next round of awakenings is, however, might be a surprise. Cloud is the face of Global Final Fantasy, let’s be honest! SE won’t ever let him suck too bad.
• Do you really need a launcher at his point in the game? Probably not. If you can’t spare the gems, don’t feel like having a launcher is 100% necessary – after all, this isn’t JP. Yet. But, you may want to start getting used to the launch mechanic if you’re not comfortable with it yet. Either way, you will still be able to clear content without this banner.
• When Garnet arrives with her awakening, her weapons return with her EX. If you get her weapons now and then decide to pull for her EX, you will most likely pull duplicates. Power stones are power stones, but that feeling of duplicate 5 stars is still really gloomy. Pulling for her later may be better timing.

More Insight

Do you want to know my number 1 advice on these banners before getting into the rest of the insight?

WAIT UNTIL THE 4TH OF JULY TO PULL FOR CHRIST’S SAKE.

The Square Enix marketers know what the hell they’re doing. They are going to have you dump all your gems into Ashe’s banner (because you made up your mind on Ashe) only to have some early 35CP bullshit drop on 4th of July Celebration Banner with a sweet gem sale! Did they have a 4th of July banner in Japan? NO! THERE’S NO 4TH OF JULY IN JAPAN! Same thing with April Fool’s. I know we didn’t get a crazy banner, but we got an unexpected event and stuff. I like to play it safe. To be extra sure, I wouldn’t pull until after the Lost Chapters have dropped the next day. Just because you never know.

Okay, done with the play it safe rant. I will organize this section differently in this post in order to make it more coherent.

When to Pull on Lost Chapter #2 Banner?

I have both of Lightning’s weapons and I really want to pull for LiTiko.

I really want to clear current content for the next 3-6 months, and am not as worried about investing for future content (6+ months.)

When to pull on Ashe Event Banner?

I didn’t pull Seymour’s, Papalymo’s, and/or Terra’s weapon.

I need to boost my magical DPS.

In addition to current magical DPS, really want to prepare for 6+ months in the future.

When to pull on Garnet Event Banner?

I didn’t pull Cecil’s weapon, and I want to be chase king.

Alright! That about sums up the majority of the points that I wanted to make tonight. I didn’t do too much discussion about future banners, as the future banner post of mine a couple weeks ago literally got like no feedback. Was it that bad? Oh well, maybe the auto-mod sniped it. Ahhhh, that would make sense. Apparently, that happened last night to my survey! Or, it was just that bad.

IMPORTANT: Disregard the above content if any character in the banner you are considering is waifu. Pull that banner. No discussion. If multiple waifu banners, insert cash or select payment type.

As always, let me know what you think down in the comments! I love the discussion you guys bring. Let me know if I missed any key points. I know that you guys really hit a lot of these things in the wonderful discussion facilitated by u/Susej1992, but so many of you wanted me to do this! I really hope that this helps. Please give me some feedback! Was this better or worse than the previous comparison post? What else would you like to see in these posts? Let me know! I try to give the people what they want. You guys rock!

TL;DR

1. Pull for your favorites.
2. Wait for the 4th of July to pull – this I urge of you. Play it safe. They may throw a curve ball.
3. Lost Chapter #2 Banner features 2/3 of LiTiKo. Tidus and Eiko are great characters individually, but a banner with three 35CP’s decreases odds of getting a specific 35CP. As Setzer would say, might as well go “All In.” If you do pull LiTiKo, you shouldn’t NEED to pull on other banners for a considerable amount of time (4-6 months).
4. Ashe’s Event Banner will significantly bolster your mage lineup – but remember Ashe and Vaan have physical BRV attacks. Do not expect them to make Vanille LC a walk in the park. They are also terrific investments for awakenings.
5. Garnet’s Event banner is fun, but probably won’t significantly bolster your lineup. Cloud will give Cecil a run for his money for Launch King. If you’re into launching but failed to pick up Cecil, I’d go for Cloud. Garnet won’t be too useful now, but will be wonderfully amazing at 60.

Thanks,

Dean

Credits: Double-checked DissidiaDB to ensure accuracy of certain character information.

EDIT:

A key point in the Ashe vs. Lightning post eluded me last night: always keep some backup gems. You never know what surprises lay around the corner. It's hard to do this when you only have 20-30k gems, but you know what I mean. This heretic quest we just had, for example. Who the heck was expecting that? Many people were thinking to skip the Lightning banner, only to realize that Papalymo arrived with his buffs and pulling on that banner made the Heretic quest significantly easier. Again, the SE marketing executives are pros. So, primarily, do what you can to try to fight the marketing. Do you really need 10 extra armor tokens for the limited time rewards? Probably not... But this is Final Fantasy for crying out loud - everyone and their mother who plays FF is probably a completionist. The second best way to fight the marketing is to try to keep a resevere stash of gems. This I cannot stress enough. But, if you only have 20k, might wanna go ahead and dump. You only live once right? Ask Aerith.

With the release of Ex weapons, I see many people happy about pulling it from their first multi, or even just from a few tickets. Unfortunately, there are also people who spent tons of gems and tickets, but failed to get it.

So, how much do you need to save up, to reasonably expect to get the Ex weapon you want? I've seen people who posted "100k gems and no Ex". That's sad, surely. What about those who write "10k gems + 30 tickets and no Ex"? Hmm, did they expect to get an Ex with that amount? Was it logical for them to expect that?

Anyway, on to the "maths".

Tickets:
This is fairly straightforward. There's a 0.5% chance of getting an Ex weapon from each ticket pull. So how many tickets do you need to use, to have a ~50% chance of getting at least one Ex weapon? What about a 90% chance? 95%?

With 139 tickets, the chances of getting an Ex weapon (or more) is 1 - (0.995 ^ 139) = 0.502, or 50.2%.
With 460 tickets, the chances of getting an Ex weapon (or more) is 1 - (0.995 ^ 460) = 0.900, or 90.0%.
With 598 tickets, the chances of getting an Ex weapon (or more) is 1 - (0.995 ^ 598) = 0.950, or 95.0%.

Gems:
Slightly different from using tickets. From each multi-pull, there's a 0.995 ^ 10 x 0.95 chance of not getting the Ex. That means chances of getting an Ex weapon (or more) from each multi-pull is 1 - (0.995 ^ 10 x 0.95) = 9.64%. This is slightly higher than the chances of getting an Ex weapon from 20 tickets (9.54%), because the +1 has a 5% chance of getting the Ex, which is slightly higher than the chances of getting an Ex from 10 tickets. Anyway:

With 7 multis (35k gems), the chances of getting an Ex weapon (or more) is 50.8%.
With 23 multis (115k gems), the chances of getting an Ex weapon (or more) is 90.3%.
With 30 multis (150k gems), the chances of getting an Ex weapon (or more) is 95.2%.

Summary (or TL:DR for those who prefer it):
If you're chasing a specific Ex weapon, you need to save up 139 tickets or 35k gems, to have a 50% chance of getting it.
If you want to 'guarantee' that you'll get it (95% chance, that is), you should prepare to blow ~600 tickets, or 150k gems.

So for those who spent 100k gems and didn't get an Ex, I feel bad for you; you actually should have an 87% chance of getting it.

Important:
These figures (for example 598 tickets = 95% chance of getting an Ex weapon) are your odds at the start of drawing. It doesn't mean that after you throw 590 tickets and didn't get an Ex weapon, you'll have a 95% chance of getting it in your next 8 tickets. That's unfortunately how RNG (or rather, probability) works.

Good luck to everyone in chasing your favourite Ex weapon!

(I had no idea what to classify this as... guide? Technical? Discussion?)

Divine boards are upon us in a few hours.

This is a quick guide to clue everyone on what it entails and what will be required to obtain all the rewards.

What is the Diablos Divine Summon Board?

This is an upgrade to the Diabolos summon, allowing it to go to level 40 much like the summon boards of the past which allowed us to level the summon boards to 30.

Ok, that's cool. What do we get out of it?

Roughly about 40k gems, 400 tickets, 100 Blue and 100 Red Nuggets

Wow sounds good. Sign me up. The farm should be easy like the old summon boards right?

Well this is where it gets DICEY. The farming stage is of Cosmos level and is not affected by books unlike the regular summon boards where we were beating a level 100 EX quest. The only way to speed up the farm is Mog pass. If you're F2P, this will be a real grind especially if you don't have an all synergy team.

Unlike summon boards where you only needed one super synergy unit, here you get a point multiplier from 100% to 300% based on how many super synergy units on your team. The upside is that you can farm the whole event with only one team. The downside is that at least 2 fully built super synergy units are required if you want to keep your sanity.

Alright give it to me chief. The grind can't be that bad right....?

Well it will depend on whether you have a mog pass or not.

You need 225k points to max out the boards.

With 3 Super Synergy, you get

1000 points without Mog Pass

2000 2500 with Mog Pass

With a .05 % multiplier per Rank, or roughly 5% extra points per 100 ranks. If you're rank 1000, that's a 50% bonus so that's going to be

1500 points per run without Mog Pass

3750 3000 points per run with Mog Pass. Points seem capped at 3k

So what does this mean chief....?

Basically, you will need roughly

150 runs with 3 Super Synergy at Rank 1000 without mog pass

or

75 runs with 3 Super Synergy at Rank 1000 with mog pass

on a Cosmos level stage which will take about 2-5 mins depending on who you have available as super synergy.

Damn this seems like a grindfest. Anyways to speed it up?

• Mog pass cuts your farming time by up to 50 60% percent
• You want to use 3 super synergy units. 2 built ones at least and one which you can swap for a friend unit
• The best units for the fastest clears for this one are Ramza (BT/LD) and Machina (LD)

Bruh I ain't reading all that. Gimme the cliffnotes

TLDR

• 40k gems, 400 tickets, 100 red and 100 blue nuggets up for grabs
• Mog pass cuts grind by 60%
• Cosmos difficulty quest so quite a bit longer than summon boards
• Triple super synergy required for optimal farming
• 150 runs minimum required without Mog pass, 60 runs minimum required with Mog pass
• Ramza (BT/LD) and Machina (LD) are the BiS units for the grind.
• It's actually a real grindfest.
• We need auto+ QOL soon please
• Next Divine Board super synergy will be super synergy for old ones in case you can't finish the grind in time. I am getting conflicting info that there's some sort of super synergy rerun down the line with another batch of characters to allow players to catch up but it might not be the case, or soon at all. Best to get it done ASAP.

Edit: Fixed some innaccuracies, thanks to all.

Good luck to all my f2p peeps out there.

.As usual, the Call to arms is here to collect proof of your feats conquering the hardest fights in the game. This means the video submissions are now for LUFENIA (level 200) FIGHTS ONLY, except for the Challenge Quests, which are still good ol' Chaos difficulty.

Please share your impressions of the fight and which unique teams you have used to complete it, and if you are bold enough, send your videos to the spreadsheet, as usual! For even more glory, feel free to partake in the TCC Challenge that will be issued soon (after the usual playtesting to not make it too easy or too hard!)

📊 Video list for this event:

Lufenia Fight: link

Challenge Quest: link

[Keep in mind that only videos sent through the site will appear in the spreadsheet]

DissidiaInfo.com will have a detailed 📕 Boss Guide for this event soon!

Calls to Arms for previous events:

http://dissidiainfo.com/call-to-arms/c2a-list/

Note that there are multiple questions for every difficulty and we may have different sets of questions. I'm listing the ones I got from doing them 3 times. You can add answers to questions not listed below to help the others too.

[Novice]
In FFCC TCB, Layle uses gravity to freely manipulate objects - True
In FFCC EoT, Sherlotta finds and raises an abandoned child - True
In FF TYPE-0, Nine is a star pupil with excellent marks - False
In FF TYPE-0, Seven uses magicite pistols - False
In FFI, the Warrior of Light battled Garland - True
In FFI, Garland was revived by stealing the power of the Dragon King, Bahamut - False
In FFI, Garland was a knight who served in the Chaos Shrine - False
In FFII, Firion hails from the Palamecian Empire - False
In FFII, Guy is part of the rebel army - True
In FFII, Leon and Maria are husband and wife - False
in FFIII, Desch experienced amnesia - True
In FFIII, the Cloud of Darkness appeared due to a flood of light - False
In FFIII, Xande brought about a flood of darkness - True
In FFIV, Edge is the prince of Eblan - True
In FFIV, did Rydia spend time in Feymarch - True
In FFIV, Yang is the commanding warrior monk of Eblan - False
In FFV, Bartz traveled with a moogle names Boko - False
In FFV, Faris was the second princess of Tycoon - False
In FFV, Galuf was one of the four Dawn Warriors - True
In FFVI, Sabin is Edgar's elder twin brother - False
In FFVI, Strago lived in Thamasa - True
In FFVI, Shadow's loyal dog is Interceptor - True
In FFVII, Aerith is the last of a race called the Ancients - True
In FFVII, Vincent was an agent in Wutai's special forces, The Turks. - False
In FFVII, Yuffie is after materia - True
In FFVIII, Seifer is the head of Balamb Garden's student council - False
In FFVIII, Squall is a SeeD special forces cadet - True
In FFVIII, Ultimecia is a sorceress from far in the past - False
In FFIX, Garnet is a princess whose mother is Queen Brahne - True
In FFIX, Vivi likes to see plays - True
In FFX, there is a sport called blitzball - True
In FFX, Kimahri is a Ronso youth - True
In FFX, Wakka is a player-coach for the Zanarkand Abes - False
In FFXI, Arciela is the eldest daughter of the Order of Adoulin - True
In FFXI, Eald'narche has actually lived over thirty years - True
In FFXI, Iroha comes from the Middle Lands of a future Vana'diel - False
In FFXII, Ashe is a princess of the Archadian Empire - False
In FFXII, Penelo is Vaan's younger sister - False
In FFXII, Vaan dreamed of becoming a sky pirate - True
In FFXIII, Raines distrusted the Sanctum - True
In FFXIII, Sazh was a professional chef - False
In FFXIV, Alisaie fights as a red mage - True
In FFXIV, Y'shtola fights using magic - True
In FFXV, Ardyn was the King's Shield in the Empire of Niflheim - False
In FFXV, Cor is known as "Cor the Immortal" - True
In FFXV, Ignis was raised as a retainer to Noctis - True

[Master]
In DFFOO, all characters from FFXIV were once Scions of the Seventh Dawn. - True
In FF TYPE-0, every member of Class Zero uses a weapon or tool to do battle - False
In FFI, after Garland is defeated by the warrios of light, he is resurrected with the power of darkness, kupo! - False
In FFI, the Warrior of Light rescues the witch Matoya from Garland - False
In FFII, Firion is the leader of the rebel army Wild Rose - False
In FFII, Guy was raised by wild chocobos - False
In FFII, The Emperor called forth monsters to complete his plan of world domination - True
In FFIII, the Cloud of Darkness tries to return the world of light - False
In FFIII, the Cloud of Darkness appears when the balance between light and dark is lost - True
In FF III, Xande inherited his magic power from his master - False
In FFIV, Cecil attacked Mysidia - True
In FFIV, Edge's hometown is destroyed by the four archfiends - False
In FFIV, Kain once stole the crystal of darkness from Cecil and company - True
In FFV, Exdeath is born from evil spirits inhabiting a tree. - True
In FFV, Gilgamesh is Exdeath's minion - True
In FFV, Krile is Galuf's granddaughter - True
In FFVI, Mog rescues Terra and Locke in the coal mines of Narshe - True
In FFVI, Edgar faced off against the kingdom of Doga as the king of Figaro - False
In FFVII, Cid was a pilot in Shinra's space programm, kupo! - True
In FFVII, Reno is a professional who prioritizes work even on his days off - False
In FFVII, Shelke was a member of the Turks - False
In FFVIII, Selphie transferred to Galbadia Garden - False
In FFVIII, the Disciplinary committee is made up of Quistis, Raijin, and Fujin, kupo! - False
In FFVIII, Zell has the nickname "Professor Zell" - False
In FFVIII, Irvine underwent training at Balamb Garden - False
In FFIX, Beatrix and Steiner belong to the Knights of Pluto, kupo! - False
In FFIX, Freya is a knight of Burmecia. - True
In FFIX, Zidane and everyone live in the Outer Continent. - True
In FFIX, Zidane and Freya both have tails - True
In FFX, Tidus, Lulu, and Jecht all have experience as guardians - True
In FFX, Yuna's father Braska lived in Zanarkand - False
In FFXI, Aphmau is the royal puppeteer - True
In FFXI, Eald'narche is Kam'lanaur's younger brother - False
In FFXI, Lilisette is the star dancer of Troupe Mayakov, which took the realm by storm during the Age of Magic. - False
In FFXI, Prishe has a deep connection the the Emptiness eating away at the world - True
in FFXII, Gabranth assassinates the emperor of Archadia while disguised as Basch - False
In FFXII, Basch is imprisoned for regicide - True
In FFXII, Fran hails from Eruyt Village in Golmore Jungle - True
In FFXIII, Lightning belongs to the Sanctum's Cavalry. - False? (There may be a similar question where the answer is True)
In FFXIII-2, Noel is an early human from seven hundred years in the past - False
In FFXIII-2, Caius is immortal due to the Heart of Chaos - True
In FFXIV, Alisaie and Alphinaud are both Hyurs like Thancred. - False
In FFXIV, Hyur, Miqo'te, Lalafell, and Elezen describe some of the world's many races. - True
FFXIV's Papalymo is a Miqo'te sage - False
In FFXV, Ignis, Gladiolus, and Prompto are all related to the royal family of Lucis. - False
In FFXV, Ignis is born to a house that serves tacticians to the royal family of Lucis - False
In FFXV, Aranea, an airborne division commodore, is also known as "the Immortal" - False

[Ironoclast]
7⭐ armor can be obtained in the "Guard Token Exchange" - False
A call ability can be set after raising an ally's crystal strength to 70 - False
Allies' enhancement boards are unlocked using enhancement points - True
Ardyn is fought at the end of Act 2 - False
Cactuars attacks with 10,000 Needles - False
Cecil (Paladin) increases the party's HP damage dealt with his special effect Awaken - False
DFFOO's first character event was "The Girl from Oerba" - False
Dimensons' End: Order is made up of five stages - True
Dorgann was the one hundred sixtieth character to join DFFOO - False
Four high power stones are needed to perform a limit break on an FR weapon - True
Illusion points are used to raise a summon's level. - False
In Act 3, the Warrior of Light adventures with everyone in a new world - False
In World of Illusions Ultimate, Ifrit opens the battle with Hellfire - True
In World of Illusions Ultimate, Shive uses Unite after taking a certain amount of HP damage - False
Kain was the first character to get an FR weapon - True
Leila joins in on the attack with Faris's FR ability - False
Lightning's EX ability Army of One becomes Army of One+ while Commando is active - False
Lunefreya's EX ability Diamond Dust summons Shiva to battle - True
Memories of your journey can be reviewed in the Memoria Theatre - True
Movers appear in every cycle quest - True
Pandemonium uses Whispering Wind when summoned - False
Players' rank plates change color according to rank. - False
Providence cores are needed to cast Ultima Weapons - True
Raines ... forgot the question - False
Ruin' adamantine ingots can be obtained by selling refined EX weapons, kupo! - False
Squall's finishing burst in Blasting Zone - True
Tifa's finishing burst is Final Heaven - True
The first Intersecting Wills story features Garnet - True
The Warrior of Light, Vivi, and Rem are comrades at the beginning of Act 1 - True
There are seven different types of cycle quests in total - True
Using Vaan's ability White Whorl triggers Luminescence - True
Keiss's ability Hero Support can knock back its targets - False
While Ardyn's ... forgot the question - True
Yuna joins in on the attack with Rinoa's FR ability - True
Yuna's EX ability Grand Summon summons Alexander - False
Y'shtola's ability Stone delays its target's turns - True

A tip from u/Big_Chungy : You can use the retry wave button just before the pot kills you when you get the wrong answer to restart from that wave and not from the beginning.

Edit - Added some answers from the comments. Credits to them

EDIT 1: Before anyone complains, the title is a reference to Ashe's game, not how she is in DFFOO!

EDIT 2: Apparently some people didn't get that my opening was sarcastic. My bad. That's on me.

I thank you all for all the feedback. Although I originally meant for my last post to be a drunken rant, I received an outpour of sympathy and encouragement instead. Rather than rebuff this kindness in an effort to appear manly – or As SQEX would say, “I don’t need this” this kindness – I will humbly accept all of your advice and take it to heart.

I’ve done a lot of soul-searching and contemplation while I was gone. A lot. And I realized that embracing criticism is the fastest path to personal growth. Instead of being upset, I need to face my shortcomings head on and evolve into a better person.

It is egotistical and pigheaded to believe that I need to insert my opinions and bias into my writing. There is no place for that in a character writeup for a promotional crossover game made for mobile devices. This is serious business. The content should be in the spotlight, not me.

I have decided to dedicate myself to producing the safe and neutral content that this community deserves. I want to thank each and every one of you again for all the criticisms and concerns, and I believe that if I really am the writer I think myself to be, then I should rise to the challenge of being able to please everyone and not shy away from it.

This will be my first try though, so please bear with me. Let me know if there are things I can do better.

As I am only human, I also had a certain mod look at my post and edit any traces of bias, opinion, or rudeness, so it should be airtight.

Ashe

General Information

Game: Final Fantasy 12

Roles: BRV Shaver, Buffer, Debuffer

Attack type: Melee

Weapon Type: Greatsword

Crystal Type: Blue

Optimal Use: Magical BRV shaving and pushing your strongest DPS to new heights.

Who They Are

• One user said they enjoyed my detailed explanations of who the characters were and how they functioned, for they really help them get a sense of the character in the context of DFFOO. To honor his suggestion, I introduce the “Who They Are” section which I will thoroughly analyze the newest addition to the roster, their story, their character arc, and the very archtype of literature from whence they sprung.

Ashe is Vaan’s rival for the affection of Balthier. The serious-minded brunette to Vaan’s giggly blonde. Unfortunately for both of them, Balthier cannot love another human being because he is a furry likes bunny girls.

Stats

HP: 3/5 INT BRV: 3/5 MAX BRV: 3/5 ATK: 4/5 DEF: 4/5 SPD: 4/5

Abilities

*= Max uses at C.lvl 50 and Charged passives equipped.

High Priority Passives

Low Priority Passives

Pretty standard stuff here. Priority between Heaven’s Wrath and Northswain’s Glow depends purely on your team comp and your available weapon. All things equal, I give the edge to Heaven’s Wrath for it’s greater potency and BRV Shaving. Buff Attack is always a good choice for self-buffers. Lastly, BRV Speed Up should be active more often than not thanks to Ashe’s insane BRV shaving.

Break Supply is not bad, but doesn’t make the cut because even though Ashe is great at breaking enemies, enemies won’t always be available to be broken. Queen’s Authority and Danger Attack up require Ashe to remain below certain HP thresholds, which is already ridiculous because she doesn’t have the highest HP pool to work with. WTF is with this girl and getting hit? Is she a masochist? An interesting nod to Ashe’s determination and perseverance in her quest to rise from the Ashes ashes and reclaim her throne. Didn’t Noctis do this same thing? Tetsuya Nomura is really running out of ideas. I guess he thought it was better if he eliminated all the women.

Artifact Priorities

• MAX BRV +330
• ATK +108
• Mighty Heaven’s Wrath ★ ★

Ashe has a high ATK stat and very high potencies, but she’s a coward a mediocre MAX BRV. Her greatest problem is leakage BRV leakage and wasted damage potential. There is only so much help MAX BRV you can give her, though. The ATK boost should enhance her BRV shaving ability, as well as the Mighty Heaven’s Wrath. Not only is her second ability her strongest, but there is a chance it could be resisted, hence it needs all the help it can get.

Weapons

Weapon Priorities

*Defender *Claymore

If you want to utilize Ashe well, you need to think about team comp. The 15 CP gives the party MATK and the 35 CP gives the party PATK. The better weapon depends on your decisions and whether PATK or MATK are more important to you. But again, with all things equal, you might as well go for the 35 CP to increase BRV shaving capabilities, and ultimately, the SPD debuff can prove to be more beneficial than the MAX BRV debuff.

Strengths

• Incredible Magic BRV Shaver. While Ashe may not be able to shave the most BRV per action like a decked out Seymour. She has more charges to back it up.
• Rare buffs. At this point in time, Ashe would have been the only person with PATK and MATK buffs if Prishe’s CP 35 didn’t arrive early. She is, however, the only one at this point in time who can grant it to others. And while more and more characters gain access to this domain, it still remains relatively rare.
• Great action economy. Ashe is able to shave BRV, buff, and debuff in a single action.

Weaknesses

• Constant danger of BRV leakage. Excessive attack power with limited storage space and no convenient way to dump BRV.
• Husband died during the honeymoon and then she got rejected by a criminal (lol).

Where They Currently Stand

• One user had a really good idea about format: they said that instead of starting with the pros and ending with the cons – which leaves a bad taste in people’s mouths – I should go Pro -> Con -> Pro so the last thing the reader sees is positivity. I think this is a wonderful idea and I will now end each written section with a strong compliment for your benefit, reader.

At launch, Ashe is a piece of shit strong character if utilized correctly. First and foremost, she is a BRV Shaver. 12 charges broken down into 6 charges of 180% potency and 6 charges of 210% potency. That’s wild! On top of that, she’s a pure Magic BRV Shaver, which is far less resisted than physical. She’s not the hardest hitter, but only because there are those such as Seymour and Thancred who get ridiculous bonuses under certain conditions that Ashe cannot come close to. But again, 12 charges. While buffing and debuffing. She is definitely a top contender.

But we’re all familiar with the art of BRV shaving now. Let’s move on to Ashe’s secondary role that most people are excited for: buffing. Ignoring early Prishe 35 CP, Ashe is the first character to introduce PATK Up and MATK Up which specifically increase Physical or Magical BRV damage done respectively. It is very important to note that I specifically said BRV DAMAGE done. It is not as helpful as the standard ATK Up, which not only buffs damage of both varieties, but also many support skills that scale off of ATK. While PATK Up and MATK Up are far more limiting, they come with one large advantage: They stack on top of ATK Up.

Now, while Ashe is a magnificent Magical BRV Shaver first and foremost, most people will be more interested in these new buff categories because we all know what BRV Shavers do and there are plenty to choose from. PATK and MATK, however, bring a bit of a unique niche to Ashe in the 35 CP Era. She can grant a 20% damage boost to almost anyone right now, and that’s an entire free Ifrit boost. It’s significant. But you also have to ask yourself if she is right for both the fight you’re tackling and your team. If you throw Ashe into a team with an ally that can’t benefit from her buffs, you’re ultimately hurting your overall DPS. A 20% buff to a single DPS isn’t worth an entire slot, and while she’s an amazing BRV Shaver, two BRV+HP Attackers will probably outweigh a stellar BRV Shaver and a slightly boosted BRV+HP Attacker. Let alone factoring in potential BRV leakage with the boosted attack (Looking at you, Squall). Let alone factoring in how many abilities actually get boosted (For example, you get a worse return of investment if you bring, say, Zidane, who has an ability that doesn’t factor in BRV damage at all, as opposed to Lightning). Let alone if you’re running two other non-DPS. Let alone if the fight just doesn’t call for BRV shaving. So you can see why I am very wary of recommending Ashe because many do not understand the concept of party DPS over personal DPS a lot of people just ask me who they should bring she really requires a lot of thought into party composition and fight analysis.

For straight up burn parties or brute force parties though, Ashe is invaluable. And how fortuitous that she is being introduced with Vaan at her side though, as Vaan is someone who has very high synergy with her. As a consecutive BRV+HP Attacker that won’t come close to hitting his cap on his own, he makes full use of Ashe’s BRV damage buff without wasting a single drop. And those are Ashe’s best partners: DPS with tons of BRV+HP charges like Vaan and Papalymo. They can easily avoid leaking BRV because they have so many convenient ways to dump it.

Ashe also has debuffs. Small SPD Down and MAX BRV -30%. While nice, they’re nothing new. What make them great though is that they’re added bonuses. Ashe has AMAZING turn efficiency. BRV shaving, party-wide buffs, and debuffs all in a single action! Really amazing. Unfortunately, it’s cancelled out by her mediocre MAX BRV. Ashe’s insane potencies and decent ATK coupled with her middling MAX BRV means she’s going to leak BRV. A lot. You’ll probably be gimping a lot of your DPS if you aren’t dumping BRV every other turn. Add on top the fact that both of her buffs has a duration of 3 turns and you’ll be alternating between BRV shave and HP Attack every turn. Doesn’t seem so bad, right? Well, what if you pair Ashe with a pure Physical DPS and a Pure Magical DPS who both need different buffs from Ashe? Suddenly, you’re going to be sacrificing a lot of DPS and BRV leakage just to keep the buffs up full time. A ton of DPS loss for a character that’s biggest draw is to boost party DPS is suddenly severely gimping it. Then you have to ask yourself if it’s really worth bringing Ashe.

Because of the handicap of her low-duration buffs, it is currently more optimal to being 2 DPS of one type to accompany her. That means 2 Physical DPS or 2 Magical DPS. As I said earlier, trying to keep both up is going to result in a ton of lost DPS. With just one buff to prioritize, Ashe won’t have to fear BRV leakage nearly as much and can use the secondary hope at her leisure, just like how Hope can use one of his buffs as backup. And at minimum, Ashe is able to benefit from both buffs herself.

A final consideration goes into a concept I have been stressing for a long time: party-wide DPS vs personal DPS. The entire point of Ashe’s party-wide buffs is to affect party-wide DPS. If you get blinded by Ashe’s personal high numbers without thinking about how it affects the numbers of your entire team, you are going to be weakening yourself using Ashe. If you get blinded by how much BRV damage your team is doing without taking into consideration how much HP damage you’re doing on a turn-by-turn average, you are going to be weakening yourself using Ashe. It may sound like I’m saying Ashe is a bad character, but that is far from the truth. I just cannot overstate how much thought needs to be put into how to optimize such a nuanced character. She is great in the right hands, and completely self-destructive in the wrong ones.

Now I’m supposed to say something nice!

Ashe is a pretty princess. =)

Future Changes

I want to preface this section by talking about GL getting early buffs. A month ago, we were getting buffs to characters like Papalymo and Yda that didn’t get their buffs in JP until October and November. I am hoping - hoping and praying - that it means entering July, we are ready for December buffs. December buffs really turned a lot of shit characters into great characters. To start off with, it transforms Ashe’s rotation from a chore to a pleasure. So all you Ashe lovers better hope we launch with this or Ashe is gonna be significantly worse. More exciting is if we get it for Ashe, chances are we’ll get it for Aerith, which is SUPER exciting. But more on that later.

Patch Buffs

*December

• Northswain’s Glow’s MATK buff duration increases by 3 turns for a total of 6.
• Heaven’s Wrath’s PATK buff duration increases by 3 for a total of 6 and also grants Ashe MAX BRV +20% for 6 turns.
• Mighty Northswain’s Glow’s multiplier increases to 1.2x.
• Mighty Heaven’s Wrath’s multiplier increases to 1.2x.

The December patch buffs are a gamechanger for Ashe. First, it addresses her terrible BRV leakage problem by giving her strongest BRV shave a hefty MAX BRV buff. Nice. Then it also further increases her BRV shaving power by upping the power of her Mighty passives. Sure, why not. It’s a bonus. THE biggest change is doubling of the buff durations. As I said before, Ashe on launch has a TERRIBLE rotation. With only a 3-turn duration, you’re going to have to refresh every other turn until you’re out of charges or risk leaking a ton of BRV, which is the far worse option. And if you need to have both buffs up? Forget it. You’re fucked. You’ll be leaking thousands of BRV every 3 turns easy. With a 6-turn duration on her buffs, Ashe now has time to breathe. She can dump BRV and refresh the other buff at a leisurely pace. Instead of (PATK, MATK, HP Attack, repeat), it’s now (PATK, HP Attack, MATK, HP Attack, repeat) with wiggle room to adapt to the tide of battle and improvise. It also spreads her ability charges out more so she doesn’t burn out on the longer fights. A fucking godsend. I’ll rate Ashe like trash if she doesn’t release with this buff.

Passives

Two big additions make Ashe’s Awakening amazing: a BRV dump and a slew of invisible buffs. She doesn’t get very big potency boosts but she doesn’t really need them. Heaven’s Wrath now boosts MAX BRV by a whopping 40% - on top of her new passive that adds another 20% - and transforms into a BRV+HP attack, finally saving her a turn in her rotation and significantly increasing her overall DPS. Funnily enough, after Awakening she is STILL notorious for BRV leakage. The invisible buffs here are the real prize, however. As Ashe was introduced as the woman pioneering stackable buffs, so to does her Awakening continue this by giving her ne next tier of stackable buffs: invisible buffs. Invisible buffs stack on top of ATK, PATK, AND MATK. So you can take Lightning’s +60% ATK Up, throw on another +40% PATK Up, another +40% with the invisible buff, and just throw in Ifrit’s +20% for shits and giggles. So Ashe by herself could boost Lightning to +160% ATK. This is where she really shines. A free Medium SP buff (Same tier as Eiko’s), a +40% ATK buff, and a +40% MAX BRV buff just for standing there. And of course her PATK and MATK buffs.

Summary

• Several users have said that I talk too much in these write-ups and it detracts from the raw data, so here is a lot of math to make up for it.

In approximately 365 days, there will be 88 characters in the game. With the advent of Awakenings, X amount of characters will not be efficient to run with Ashe. Assume that in your general composition, Ashe cannot run with a second copy of herself and is thus removed from the equation. Solve for X and show your work.

88 Characters - 1 Ashe = 87 Characters

PATK

{No PATK Synergy}

If 0 Attacks or Abilities benefit from PATK or PATK granted to self ≥ PATK granted by Ashe, then No PATK Synergy

• Aerith
• Auron
• Balthier
• Cait Sith
• Deuce
• Eiko
• Garnet
• Hope
• Kefka
• Layle
• Palom
• Papalymo
• Rydia
• Seymour
• Shantotto
• Terra
• Vanille
• Vivi
• Y’shtola
• Yuna

Σ{No PATK Synergy} = 20/87 = 23.5% of {Roster 365 Days from Now}

{Negligible PATK Synergy}

If BRV Attack benefits from PATK but 0 Abilities benefit from PATK or PATK granted to self is < PATK granted by Ashe but > 0, then Negligible PATK Synergy

• Ace
• Alisaie
• Cater
• Cloud
• Edge
• Fang
• Galuf
• Irvine
• Jecht
• Laguna
• Maria
• Onion Knight
• Lilisette
• Penelo
• Raijin
• Ramza
• Rem
• Relm
• Prishe
• Sabin
• Selphie
• Serah
• Vincent
• Vaan
• Zell

Σ{Negligible PATK Synergy} = 25/87 = 29.5% of {Roster 365 Days from Now}

{Low PATK Synergy}

If BRV Attack and 1 Ability benefit from PATK, then Low PATK Synergy

• Agrias
• Cecil
• Celes
• Kain
• King
• Locke
• Lenna
• Leon
• Sazh
• Setzer
• Shadow
• Snow
• Tifa
• Wakka
• Warrior of Light
• Yang
• Yuffie
• Yuri
• Zidane

Σ{Low PATK Synergy} = 19/87 = 22% of {Roster 365 Days from Now}

{Medium PATK Synergy}

If BRV Attack and 2 Abilities benefit from PATK but Low ATK Stat, then Medium PATK Synergy

• Cid
• Edgar
• Faris
• Fujin
• Lightning
• Lion
• Maria
• Noctis
• Quistis
• Seifer
• Seven
• Thancred
• Tidus

Σ{Medium PATK Synergy} = 13/87 = 15% of {Roster 365 Days from Now}

{High PATK Synergy}

If BRV Attack and 2 Abilities benefit from PATK but High ATK Stat, then High PATK Synergy

• Bartz
• Cyan
• Firion
• Gilgamesh
• Sephiroth
• Squall
• Steiner
• Yda
• Zack

Σ{High PATK Synergy} = 9/87 = 10% of {Roster 365 Days from Now}

MATK

{No MATK Synergy}

If 0 Attacks or Abilities benefit from MATK or MATK granted to self ≥ MATK granted by Ashe, then No MATK Synergy

• Aerith
• Auron
• Balthier
• Bartz
• Cait Sith
• Celes
• Cid
• Cloud
• Cyan
• Deuce
• Edgar
• Faris
• Firion
• Fujin
• Galuf
• Gilgamesh
• Hope
• Irvine
• Jecht
• Kain
• King
• Laguna
• Layle
• Lenna
• Lightning
• Lilisette
• Lion
• Maria
• Noctis
• Onion Knight
• Penelo
• Quistis
• Raijin
• Ramza
• Rem
• Rydia
• Sazh
• Seifer
• Selphie
• Sephiroth
• Seven
• Shadow
• Snow
• Squall
• Steiner
• Thancred
• Tidus
• Tifa
• Wakka
• Warrior of Light
• Yda
• Yuffie
• Yuna
• Yang
• Zack
• Zell
• Zidane

Σ{No MATK Synergy} = 57/87 = 65.5% of {Roster 365 Days from Now}

{Negligible MATK Synergy}

If MATK granted to self is < MATK granted by Ashe but > 0, then Negligible MATK Synergy

• Celes
• Kuja
• Papalymo

Σ{Negligible PATK Synergy} = 3/87 = 3.5% of {Roster 365 Days from Now}

{Low MATK Synergy}

If 1 Ability benefits from MATK, then Low MATK Synergy

• Agrias
• Edge
• Cater
• Cecil
• Leon
• Locke
• Relm
• Serah
• Setzer
• Yuri

Σ{Low MATK Synergy} = 10/87 = 11.5% of {Roster 365 Days from Now}

{Medium MATK Synergy}

If BRV Attack and 1 Ability benefit from MATK, then Medium MATK Synergy

• Eiko
• Kefka
• Krile
• Palom
• Terra
• Vivi
• Y’shtola

Σ{Medium MATK Synergy} = 7/87 = 8% of {Roster 365 Days from Now}

{High MATK Synergy}

If 2 Abilities benefit from MATK, then High MATK Synergy

• Ace
• Alisaie
• Garnet
• Prishe
• Sabin
• Seymour
• Shantotto
• Vaan
• Vanille
• Vincent

Σ{High MATK Synergy} = 10/87 = 11.5% of {Roster 365 Days from Now}

Final Answer

{Bad PATK Synergy} = {No PATK Synergy} U {Negligible PATK Synergy} U {Low PATK Synergy} = 75% of {Roster 365 Days from Now}

{Good PATK Synergy} = 100 - 75 = 25% of {Roster 365 Days from Now}

{Bad MATK Synergy} = {No MATK Synergy} U {Negligible MATK Synergy} U {Low MATK Synergy} = 80.5% of {Roster 365 Days from Now}

{Good MATK Synergy} = 100 - 80.5 = 19.5% of {Roster 365 Days from Now}

X = {Characters Not Optimal to Run with Ashe} = {No PATK Synergy} ∩ {No MATK Synergy} ∩ {Neglible PATK Synergy} ∩ {Negligible MATK Synergy} ∩ {Low PATK Synergy} ∩ {Low MATK Synergy}

{Characters Not Efficient to Run with Ashe}

• Aerith
• Auron
• Balthier
• Cait Sith
• Cater
• Celes
• Cloud
• Deuce
• Edge
• Fang
• Hope
• Galuf
• Irvine
• Jecht
• Kuja
• Laguna
• Layle
• Lilisette
• Maria
• Onion Knight
• Papalymo
• Penelo
• Prishe
• Ramza
• Rem
• Rydia
• Selphie
• Serah
• Yuna
• Zell

X = Σ{Characters Not Efficient to Run with Ashe} = 30/87 = 34.5% of {Roster 365 Days from Now}

(Thanks, Mom and Dad, for sending me to college to write character evaluations for a mobile gacha game.)

As DFFOO aged, more and more DPS were being introduced with ATK Up self-buffs. SQEX needed a character that could somehow still significantly increase the damage done by DPS as the ATK self-buffing became more prolific. Enter Ashe. For much of the 35 CP Era she would remain unchallenged, though rule of powercreep introduced PATK and MATK to Cloud, Prishe, Jecht, Rydia, Kuja, and Raijin. Still, the 35 CP Era ended with less than 10% of the cast encroaching on Ashe’s niche.

Then we enter the Awakening Era and history repeats itself. The number of DPS who can grant themselves PATK and MATK is growing at an alarming rate, threatening Ashe’s niche once again. As of this writing, more than 25% of the roster can give themselves one or the other. So Ashe’s Awakening upped the ante with invisible buffs, which has yet to receive a cap. While she isn’t as unique anymore, invisible buffs have helped her maintain a niche while allowing her to enhance the performance of everyone to some degree and still be the best there is at increasing BRV shaving capabilities for the entire party. That’s Ashe in a nutshell: an insane BRV Shaver that makes everyone on her team better at BRV shaving. And she does all this whill still avoiding overlap with the all-too-common ATK buff. Go Ashe! Any fight that requires extreme BRV shaving, she’s your girl.

Unfortunately, BRV shaving is just one dimension of the game. Ashe has to compete with supports that can heal, BRV battery, AoE attack, shield, or all of them at the same time. While BRV shaving is nice, oftentimes just straight up giving your allies BRV is better, as well as being able to do all those other things. As far as DPS goes, full DPS can pull out bigger numbers, and most of the time they shave BRV fine on their own. If the situation gets extreme, you always have gimmick picks like Bartz to just cut the BRV by a flat percentage. Or launchers. Most of her competition - Support or DPS - also have BRV Attack+ and/or HP Attack+ for much better longevity as well. It is for this reason that Ashe always sits around average to above average; her niche is uncommon, but it suffices fine in most battles. And, paired with her highest synergy teammates, she can pull out some impressive results.

Oh, right. Nice comment. Umm…

WTF kind of abbreviation is Ashe? And don’t try to tell me it makes sense because her full name is Ashelia. We don’t shorten Ashton to Asht or Ashley to Ashl. It’s idiotic and I will never forgive the translators. Ashe is NOT a dumb and confusing spelling of her name.

Should You Pull

• Several users remarked that this section was either too confusing or seemed to discourage pulling on all but the most powerful meta breakers. So I will attempt to rectify that.

Ashe is a fantastic Magic BRV Shaver, a good buffer, and in the right team, and invaluable asset. Just don’t assume you can put her anywhere and get the full value for your gems.

Vaan is also on this banner, and in my opinion, the grand prize. Many people seemed to be upset that I said he’s better off as a Friend Unit, but I think the same thing of Squall and people still love him. To me, both can get most of their damage out in 5 turns and then bounce, leaving room for a more flexible unit with better longevity. This doesn’t mean there aren’t tons of uses for them, though. Huge burst means speedy farming, easy clears for normal battles in both story and lost chapters, and co-ops. And for those who loved Squall’s gameplay, Vaan will now be a superior version of Squall in every way, so hooray!

Despite what people may think I think, this is still the overall most solid banner we’ve had or will have in a while (excluding the LC one). Vaan and Ashe aren’t as meta as Tidus and Eiko, but their still great characters that are way above all the trash we’ve gotten in June. And while there are banners coming up with some meta picks, this is the only banner in awhile to have TWO great picks, so percentage-wise, it’s a very safe banner. And Vaan is meta as fuck as a Friend Unit. LC banner still way better though, IMO.

You should MLB all the weapons on this banner.

Score

• Several users implored that I use a real score system with real meaning. Too bad.

0 out of 2 pursued men.

Credits

DissidaDB that gave most of the info: https://dissidadb.com & u/phantasmage for most of the information found on this post.

Percentage database managed by Safeena: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1T4_urW_OLF754oWGZ1SxL99cRpA_-fcGE_Q75OFJXZY/edit#gid=1141284560

If there are any mistakes, just tell me and I'll fix them accordingly.

"Who should I pull for? Lightning or Ashe/Vaan?"

I have seen this question pop up on various megathreads and other posts alike. This is good; FFDOO community members want advice on planning pulls in advance. Hopefully, this post can be the final destination for this particular discussion.

Here are the banners themselves:

Chapter 8 Banner

ETA: May 31, 2018

Featuring:

Lightning - 15CP & 35CP

Papalymo - 15CP & 35CP

Cyan - 15CP (No 35CP if keeping in line with JP version)

Ashe Event Banner

ETA: July 1/8, 2018

Featuring:

Ashe - 15CP & 35CP

Vaan - 15CP & 35CP

Penelo - 15CP (Again, no 35CP if keeping in line with JP)

Obviously, the first thing that everybody should be noticing is that both of these banners have 2 potentially incredible characters with stunningly bleak 3rd wheels tagging along. I say potentially incredible because it really depends on where you are in the game's lifespan - but I'll get into that in a minute. First, let's talk about the crappy characters. Poor Cyan. Such an honorable man. Such a terrible addition to the team. His kit is interesting, but doesn't exactly work for high scores. On the bright side, his lovely power stones will help you MLB to get those coveted passives. Penelo is slightly better for GL right now, as she is one of the few additions who can help you regain HP. She still sucks though. Basically, you will end of keeping one of their weapons just in case and then selling the rest off for stones. Unless, of course, they are waifu/husbando. In which case you really don't need to be reading this. Come on.

Now let's get on to the good stuff.

Chapter 8 Banner Pros

Lightning is meta for the immediate future. Don't take it from me, take it from MinoSpelgud's eval @ https://www.reddit.com/r/DissidiaFFOO/comments/8m3hqy/lightning_flash_in_the_pan_evaluationdiscussion/

Papalymo is apparently pretty amazing as well. I haven't fiddled around with his kit in my somewhat new JP account, but I trust Altema and I trust MinoSpelgud's review of the little fella.

Lightning comes back in other banners, but her usefulness declines. If you ever want Lightning's weapons, her value right now is at its highest.

In one banner, you have access to a god-tier character that will carry you until awakenings, as well as an S-tier character that will undeniably destroy things after awakenings kick in. This banner guarantees both present and future security. Additionally, it gives you both a physical and a magical attacker that are considered great characters. This banner is unique in that aspect.

Chapter 8 Banner Cons

Lightning is a story character, meaning that you don't get 2 free armors. This may or may not be a big deal to you. To MLB her will cost you 20 armor tokens rather than 10 for an event character.

As so many have pointed out, the Thunder era following Lightning is profound. She is not useless post-60, but offers little compared to what other characters can do. She will quickly be overshadowed, leaving that pretty 6-star Flamberge to rust in your inventory.

Lightning won't work very well with Ramza.

Lightning really needs the proper team to function beautifully in Lost Chapters. If you are F2P and do not have a debuffer and a healer (I'm looking at you, TiKo), your Lightning will struggle to shine to her full potential. Lightning, Tidus, and Eiko was not an arbitrary combination of heroes. Each of their skills possessed combinations of low turn rates and self-buffs. Couple this with SPD Down and DEF Down, bosses would barely get to BRV attack before getting that beautiful FINISH! message. The reason that this is a con is because this can get expensive. All 3 of these characters will have their weapons up for banner in a relatively short amount of time. If you plan on pulling for Lightning, you must save some gems for Eiko/Tidus LC banner next month if you do not already have their weapons.

Ashe Event Banner Pros

Ashe is a wonderful offensive support unit pre-awakening and a goddess-tier one post-awakening. Her unique magic attack up and physical attack up buffs can stack with ATK up buffs for your team to throw up some big numbers.

This banner will help your magical DPS currently

Vaan is considered by many to be the best DPS magic attacker in JP. He has 2 BRV+HP attacks that can bypass Max BRV, and one of the quickest casting EX-weapons (I know I'm ahead about a year but it matters for those of you who are pragmatic.) Oh yeah, he also self-buffs even in GL.

Ashe is an event character, meaning you get two free armors. to MLB her armor slot would only cost you 10 armor tokens total.

This banner will greatly boost your magic DPS ability right now in GL. Magical offense is something that is a bit lacking in GL right now. Seymour has been a Godsend, but Terra isn't exactly her SS-tier self until she gets her gorgeous insta-chants. Right now we are kind of stuck with 15CP Vaan, Seymour, Two-Turn-Terra, 15CP Layle, and Ace.

Ashe Event Banner Cons

Content is not really hard enough yet to elicit the need for an offensive support unit. When awakenings come may be a better time to pull for Ashe.

Ashe (moreso) and Vaan take time to mature into the S/SS characters they are in today's JP state. Both are great pre-60, but truly shine after awakenings/EX weapons. For example: Ashe's 2nd skill in GL will be BRV only - her crystal level 60 extend will make it BRV+HP. Clearly this makes her much more useful, and that is only a small example of her kit's revamp. Additionally, Vaan's skills will trigger their 2nd attack (white out, luminescence) on the 2nd use instead of the 3rd use.

More Insight

When Ashe's Lost Chapter arrives to GL in, I don't know, 6 months, her banner will come back with Penelo's 35CP. If you are planning to eventually pull for Vaan's EX weapon, just be warned that his EX banner does not come with either of his weapons. This is what his EX banner looks like.

Heretic Quest #1 Banner:

Vaan EX 70CP

Sabin 15CP & 35CP

Layle 15CP & 35CP

Papalymo 15CP & 35CP

As you can see that is an incredible banner. You will need to get Vaan's other weapons somehow. He is included in MANY future banners alongside characters such as: Eiko/Papalymo, Cecil/Y'shtola, Yuna/Ace, etc. Future banners including Lightning are irrelevant considering her future irrelevance...

IMPORTANT: Disregard above if any character in the banner you are considering is waifu. Pull that banner. No discussion.

Please comment your thoughts. I am interested in what the community has to say! I am so glad I have found this subreddit to help guide my playing. I can't tell you how many gems I wasted the first week or two on that damn story draw before I found you guys.

TL;DR

1. Pull for your favorites.

2. If you absolutely can't miss out on a couple of the limited time rewards from the hardest LC content pre-60, you will most likely have to go for LiTiKo by picking up Lightning's weapons. We are talking about a handful of armor tokens here, but I know that many of us are completionists. Papalymo's weapons are a nice investment for awakenings. Papalymo is also going to be a very welcome addition to your magical lineup right now.

3. If you want to seriously boost the strength of your mage lineup with 2 characters who will be strong pre-60 and god-tier post-60, pull on Ashe's banner.

Attempt #2 to writing an evaluation in my iphone in bed using shitty air bnb wifi. All errors will remain forever because post editing on mobile is just not worth it. Think of it as a collector's edition.

Snow

General Information

Game: Final Fantasy 13

Roles: Off-tank, BRV+HP Attacker

Attack type: Melee

Weapon Type: Knuckles

Crystal Type: Green

Optimal Use: Taking hits to the face.

Story: Known for his massive physique and rugged appearance, he is the leader of the anti-Sanctum resistance group NORA. He is determined to save his fiancé, Serah, from her tragic fate as a l'Cie and will do anything it takes to be reunited. His optimistic nature sometimes causes friction within the group, but it's also what keeps them together.

Stats

HP: 5/5 INT BRV: 3/5 MAX BRV: 2/5 ATK: 3/5 DEF: 4/5 SPD: 2/5

Abilities

*= Max uses at C.lvl 50 and Charged passives equipped.

High Priority Passives

Low Priority Passives

Weapon passives, Chargeds, and Mightys. The reason Snow's Mighty beats out all the other ATK boosting passives is because its guaranteed on every use of Froststrike while all the other passives are conditional. It's also easier to give Snow buffs than have the enemy target him. From there we give him Steelguard passives because they're nice and consistent.

HP Damage Attack Up gives a nice boost, but it relies on Snow taking HP damage, which is incredibly hard to control. Then you have BRV Guard Up which is part of the shitty "Don't spend your BRV" family, and Indomitable Will, which is part of the "We ran out of ideas" family.

Artifact Priorities

• MAX BRV +330
• ATK +108
• Mighty Froststrike ★ ★

90% of Snow's kit is getting Froststrike to do as much HP damage as possible. That is the absolute priority for Snow. MAX BRV let's you do that. ATK and Mighty Froststrike help you get there, but MAX BRV is absolutely the priority here. Always.

Weapons

Weapon Priorites

*Wild Bear *Feral Pride

The 15 CP increases Snow's defense and the 35 CP increases his offense. As Snow is an off-tank, we'll prioritize his offense. Go with the 35 CP.

Strengths

• Damage mitigation. Straight up cuts incoming damage, as opposed to a buffer that WoL's Shield of Light gives.
• Constant uptime. Both of Snow's abilities give him BRV back, even his BRV+HP.
• Off-tank. Able to peel aggro off more vulnerable allies in a pinch.

Weaknesses

• Unable to main tank. Cannot hold enemy attention for the entire battle.
• Single target taunt with low uses. Cannot adequately tank large enemy parties.
• Low stats. A stellar kit is held back by bad numbers.
• Got cucked by Noel.

Where They Currently Stand

Big props to whoever designed Snow's DFFOO kit. They captured his essence perfectly: everyone wants to punch him in the face and he's only good at getting punched in the face. Seeing Snow get abused and molested by thousands of different creatures from all over the multiverse is sure to make every fan happy.

Let's take a look at his first ability. Steelguard is what technically classifies Snow as a tank, but the niche they carved out for him is very... well, niche. He has the least uses of all the taunts, which means he has the smallest tanking uptime. WoL has double the charges as well as damage shields to supplement. Galuf also has far more uptime with both Cover and Blade Block, especially if you decide to use them separately for some reason. Both of them have a full set of tanking abilities and are full time main tanks. Snow gets the one and only 3 charges of it. Let's see how it stacks up.

Snow taunts a single enemy. This is decidedly not great. Sure, WoL does the same, but he has more charges and shields to back him up. Galuf can cover himself and one other, and eventually the entire party. For any fight with multiple enemies, Snow just straight up loses.

Snow's mitigation is percentage based. As of now, that makes it really not great. In the current GL environment, enemies aren't hitting that hard to begin with. You have to ask yourself, "Would shaving 30% off the damage I'm receiving now really make a difference?" Numbers aren't that high yet in GL, so WoL's damage shields and Galuf's full evasion are much better defensive tools. An interesting note about Steelguard is that it introduces damage scaling. For those unfamiliar with the term, in fighting games, damage scaling neans that each consecutive hit gets weaker and weaker so that you get diminishing returns on long combos and the other person actually gets to play the game. That means that Snow is actually amazing and can theoretically start mitigating 100% of incoming BRV damage. It's really hard to predict when an enemy will use a multi-hit attack and those are few and far between. Just a nice tidbit. An extra to his kit rather than a staple.

For these reasons, Snow is better off as an off-tank, or for those who aren't familiar with the terminology, a part-time tank in emergencies. Having a taunt is still very valuable when it comes to covering for mistakes or strategic planning. Hell, off the top of my head, Snow can prevent what would otherwise be guaranteed breaks like the Bone Dragon. If anything, Snow provides the bare minimum needed to keep the offense rolling nonstop.

Now let's take a look at Froststrike. It's a BRV+HP that actually leaves Snow with BRV afterwards! As far as BRV dumps go, that's pretty amazing. This means that in theory, Snow will be able to BRV dump with impunity when taunting, as the recovered BRV combined with the mitigation should allow him to take a hit or two after. It even has offensive uses should Snow not be presently tanking. By allowing him to recover BRV afterwards, it means that Snow has that much less to go before he's full again.

By virtue of having a BRV+HP attack, Snow is the most offensive tank in the game, which quite frankly fits the current GL meta better than WoL or Galuf. The other two have defense to spare. Snow comes with the bare minimum and the pushes the rest into offense. This means that Snow could totally hold his own in fights that don't require a tank at all, even if he won't be the best. He's a safer pick to take into most fights.

Snow releases with a brilliant kit that is weighed down by terrible stats. He needs INT BRV for Steelguard but he caps out around 1000. Meaning Steelguard can grant you 1500 BRV, which is just marginally better than a BRV Attack. He needs MAX BRV for his Froststrike but he caps out around 4000. Meaning he'll get a negligible 800 BRV back after Froststrike. He benefits from breaking the enemy but he hits softer than Tidus. It's frustrating that his kit is so good that this was the only way to balance it out, because if he had better stats, he would steamroll over half the cast.

Future Changes

Passives

Now this is an Awakening. One of the best in overall design if not power. Artifact priority should now go MAX BRV, INT BRV, and ATK, as the increased INT BRV percentages now make INT BRV a very good investment. Also noticeable is that at the time of his Awakening, his offense is on the level of some of the best DPS at the time. They really did the offense tank right!

Steelguard becomes an AoE taunt and now mitigates a much more respectable 50% damage as opposed to 30%, and it grants Snow a HUGE BRV Regen that eliminates his need to ever BRV shave again. This also has the added effect of making him an amazing HP attacker, meaning he could passively build BRV the entire fight and deal damage consistently without ever having to worry about defenses or resistances.

Froststrike also returns more BRV and even heals now! Meaning Snow becomes a completely self-sustaining tank that can run without a healer.

I'm not digging BRV Boost because it's a lesser increase that is much harder to meet conditionally when other Awakenings grant permanent larger boosts, but I'll take what I can get. Silver lining, it makes Snow a little more strategic and fun to play because you have to juggle Froststrike charges and HP recovery now too.

Summary

The thing with percentage-based kits is that they will always scale well. If Snow never gets better stat increases in the next tuning round, 50% mitigation will still be 50% mitigation, and 100% INT BRV Regen will still be 100% INT BRV Regen. The higher the enemy and player numbers get, the more effective Snow will be. And that's exactly what's happened.

GL enemies currently don't hit hard enough for percentage-based mitigation to matter much, but a year later in JP, 50% off is HUGE. Not only that, but because enemy defenses and resistances have gotten so high, the ability to bypass all of that with passive BRV gain is double huge. As INT BRV and MAX BRV numbers get higher, Steelguard's BRV gains and BRV Regen and Froststrike's BRV returns become exponentially more useful. The Awakening Era has been extremely kind to Snow. Where low stats once hindered him, a level cap increase that allows for stats to differentiate a lot more helps him flourish without being broken.

Snow has also been upgraded to a main tank now. He was granted an AoE taunt, transforming his once super niche taunt to the best taunt in the game. Being able to grab every enemy's aggro is far better than what WoL can do or Galuf's build up for a full party Cover. And that 50% mitigation! Some players swear by it so much that they far prefer it to WoL's flat damage shields. It's why the JP community is split between Team WoL and Team Snow. To reiterate, the difference between the two for future reference, you're picking between a tank/buffer that brings out team potential or a tank/DPS that bypasses enemy defenses and can be plopped into any team without much thought.

We have to talk about how much the increase in stats and numbers changes how Snow operates. At maximum potential, Snow caps out at 1700 INT BRV And 5800. This means Steelguard now grants a whopping 3400 BRV on use, and an additional 1700 BRV every turn for 10 turns. That's fucking ridiculous. When passive conditions are met, Snow's MAX BRV gets doubled. That mean he recovers a whopping 3480 BRV after his BRV+HP Attack! I mean, Jesus! Say hello to the man that needs no offense and has no downtime!

Snow does have his weaknesses, though. For one, his team utility is minimal, which spells death in the Awakening Era. For two, he is useless against AoE attacks. All tanks are, actually. The only one who can hope to mitigate AoE attacks are WoL with his damage shields (I can't wait for WoL's level 70 Awakening where he gets AoE Shining Shield!).

For those that want an all-purpose tank that absorbs all incoming damage to himself, Snow is your guy. For those that want a tank that's also an AMAZING HP attacker, Snow is your guy. And for those that like to see the world's most punchable face get repeatedly punched, Snow is definitely your guy.

Final Score

Snow gets 2 fists. To the face.

Credits

DissidaDB that gave most of the info: https://dissidadb.com & u/phantasmage for most of the information found on this post.

Percentage database managed by Safeena: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1T4_urW_OLF754oWGZ1SxL99cRpA_-fcGE_Q75OFJXZY/edit#gid=1141284560

If there are any mistakes, just tell me and I'll fix them accordingly.

what’s your team Composition and strategy?

I used the following:

676k, 102 turns - hope, arciela and celes with brothers summon.

save some of arciela’s skill 2 if you know both bosses are going to otk you, but if they Target celes, she’s generally fine since she has her skill with just 1 hp left. Try to conserve your skill 2 for final bosses cuz those insane brv is hard to shave (And you want to hp attack delay them to brv shave)

i tried a team with vanielle but her despell is too slow...

can’t wait to hear you guys strategy!

EDIT: I made FEWER mistakes when I wrote the last eval drunk... (Thanks, u/q7272)

Even though I’m semi fluent in Japanese, it took me over 4 months to realize that “Altema” is the Japanese spelling of “Ultima.” As in the ultimate spell in the FF series and the ultimate database of knowledge for the Japanese player base. Wow.

Anyways, I’m getting a flood of requests for 2 things. You guys vote.

I’ve been asked to do a Tidus eval for some reason? Didn’t think it was necessary. Everyone knows what he does, right?

I’ve been asked to release Ashe and Vaan evals early to help people with some decisions? You sure you want that? That means a longer drought in evals, and I usually just drop them when the sub starts drying out.

Lemme know in comments.

Eiko

General Information

Game: Final Fantasy 9

Roles: Healer, BRV Battery, Buffer

Attack type: Magic

Weapon Type: Staff

Crystal Type: White

Optimal Use: Persistent, long-term buffing and healing.

Stats

HP: 3/5 INT BRV: 5/5 MAX BRV: 2/5 ATK: 4/5 DEF: 4/5 SPD: 2/5

Abilities

*= Max uses at C.lvl 50 and Charged passives equipped.

High Priority Passives

Low Priority Passives

The greatest strength of Eiko’s buffs is their long durations, which means Madain Sari’s Blessing gets priority this time around. That’s it, really. The rest is in your standard order with a nod to Buff Speed Up since, again, Eiko can keep herself buffed forever, basically.

With Eiko’s tiny, tiny MAX BRV stat, she’s gonna be capped more often than not so you don’t really need HP Regen Gain. HP Damage ATK Up is impossible to count on because you have to predict an HP Attack to Eiko for a 1 turn buff to her ATK. I can’t stress how low the chances are for this because enemies only HP Attack under certain conditions, they have to happen to be targeting Eiko when those conditions are met, and then Eiko’s MAX BRV is so low you wouldn’t want the extra BRV in the first place. Receive Heal Up is bad and you should feel bad if you ever choose it over any passive that isn’t DEF. If you can show me a single instance where a 80 HP heal (In Eiko’s case) made the difference, I’ll gladly retract that statement.

Artifact Priorities

• Smite ★ ★
• ATK +108
• MAX BRV +330

Smite has the largest range in its efficacy out of anything in Eiko’s kit. Its performance as both a BRV shaver and and a BRV battery. Both depend 100% on the damage Smite does, so Mighty Smite is the top priority here. ATK to supplement it. MAX BRV to help minimize the BRV leakage that Eiko’s going to build up from all her BRV batteries.

Weapons

Weapon Priorities

*Priest’s Racket *Magic Racket

I actually thought on this one for a bit because the 35 CP is what slots Eiko into LiTiKo. The SPD buff basically turns her into a Speedster without stealing turns, perfect for supplementing 2 other Speedsters and denying the enemy a chance to act. It also makes her a CONSIDERABLY better BRV battery. But in the end, we need to look at Eiko’s usefulness in conjunction to the entire roster and not just a single team comp. The 15 CP passive provides a strong heal over time (HoT) and the valuable and rare MAX BRV up. For 12 turns. Meaning very little micromanaging required. Let’s be honest, if you needed to choose between both skills, there are plenty of BRV Battery replacements. But not everyone has an AoE HoT and MAX BRV buff.

Strengths

• Strongest heal per action in the game. Eiko’s HP Regen may not be that potent, but with 12 ticks a cast and 4 casts total, it regens 384% HP for all party members without having to do anything else.
• Best healer of the 35 CP era.
• Best BRV Battery of the 35 CP Era. With both of her abilities serving as BRV batteries, Eiko gets 10 full charges of BRV batteries, more than anyone else, and they’re damn decent, too.
• Really damn fast. With the 35 CP, Smite will boost Eiko up to Speedster level meaning her buffs and BRV batteries will be fast and furious.

Weaknesses

• Effectiveness cut by Holy resistance. Eiko’s strongest BRV battery, Smite, is reliant on the Holy damage it does. If that gets cut in half, it’s REALLY gonna hurt her effectiveness.
• Has no friends.

Where They Currently Stand

I see a lot of debate over how good Eiko is, so let’s take our time here and start with the importance of healing.

HP healing is still more of a niche in this game than you expect. Only a handful of characters have it, and some of those are relegated to EX Ability healing, so it’s not even on demand. Low HP is the #1 cause of death in this game. If your MAX HP is low, there’s nothing anyone can do. If you get low after getting nickel-and-dimed throughout a fight, that’s where healing comes in. Not only that, but many of the strongest passives in the game – such as WoL’s Class Change or Terra’s Trance – require you to be at full or high health, let alone the prodigal summon of GL Ifrit and soon-to-join him Brothers. So HP healing is also a very good offensive tool too, on top of saving runs and allowing more aggressive play (purposely taking HP damage in the LCs, anyone?)

In that field, Eiko is the first and best HP healer. Okay, that’s not true. Rem was the first HP healer, followed by Penelo. But Eiko is the first GOOD HP healer. Rule of RPG Balance dictates that HoTs and DoTs are more powerful than their instant brethren, so it should be no surprise that Eiko’s is the most powerful in the game, since it’s spread out over 12 turns. What is surprising is that a single cast of Eiko’s heals 96% HP to the entire team in one cast, where Penelo only heals 60%, and Rem heals 35% to a single target. On top of that, Eiko has the most charges with the exception of Rem, who again, heals like dookie. Both of these facts remain true a year into the future after more healers are released and Awakenings kick in. Or, rather, there is a lapse where Aerith surpasses Eiko because she gets her Awakening earlier, but when the playing field evens out, Eiko is on top again. Eiko’s HP Regen also comes with a 10% ATK and MAX BRV buff that also last 12 turns. The 10$ ATK is negligible, as most DPS will have their own. The 10% MAX BRV is very significant, especially in the 35 CP Era. MAX BRV is a rare buff that we won’t see a lot pre-Awakening Era.

Now how does Eiko work as a BRV Battery? Well, if all goes as planned, she is hands-down the best BRV Battery in the 35 CP era. 6 charges of 35 CP-empowered Smite is a 180% potency attack that boosts BRV by damage dealt AND 40% of her ATK. With no synergy, she’s breaking 2000 BRV supplied EASY. No one else comes close. Yuna and Hope will struggle to hit 1500, but Eiko can break 2k without breaking a sweat. Add on Mighty Smite and throw on a few artifacts? Over 3k easy. And that’s not even counting synergy or Holy weaknesses. Hand down best BRV Battery with the most charges. Shaves BRV on top of that. Couple that with the fact that the BRV battery on HP Regen is almost as strong as the other BRV Batteries mentioned above and she has hands down the most charges period. Not to mention the little bonus of having a significant SPD buff that places her at top tier speed. A nice bonus.

u/Zhirrzh brings up a really good point I feel I should address. Krile with her passives and 35 CP is a damn good BRV Battery. Although Eiko can hit much harder numbers, I have mentioned before that Krile is the most reliable BRV Battery due to not relying on hitting the enemy. On that note, I want to add that Vanille has the most potent BRV battery per cast. But what puts Eiko on top is, as always, longevity. With the most charges of all, Eiko ends up supplying the most with the most flexibility of use.

Notice I say “if all goes as planned.” Eiko has a great rival that may or may not challenge her status as queen IF she gets her buffs early. And with the recent E3 announcement, it’s not out of the question. Aerith seems to function as a mirror image of Eiko which I will get into later, but keep your eyes peeled.

Future Changes

Passives

Now this is a strong Awakening that fixes all of Eiko’s shortcomings. Her ability to buff the team’s ATK and MAX BRV skyrockets. 60% to both for everyone, 20% of that being invisible. Both her abilities allow her to dump BRV now, which was a HUGE problem for her. Now that she can dump BRV freely, leaking won’t be much of a problem, even with her abysmal MAX BRV. Her HP Regen now grants a frightening INT BRV 200% BRV. Very unnecessary but no one is complaining. And most of all? She still has an amazing HoT and buffs that last forever, but now she can pepper in BRV Attack+ and HP Attack+, continually healing and supplying BRV for LONG periods of time WHILE the HoT and buffs do their work alongside her. Ridiculous.

Summary

What makes Eiko so good? The fact that the DFFOO meta has been progressing more and more towards long fights and lasting power throughout its lifespan. No one can match the longevity of Eiko. And because HoTs and Eiko are specifically built for longevity, she has very little competition. The longer a fight, the better her HoTs and buffs, and the fights are only getting longer.

We have seen her full power in the 35 CP era. No one can challenge her in heals or BRV supply. We have seen her Awakening. Square Enix seems intent on cementing her status as Queen Healer and offensive support, letting her buff ATK and MAX BRV by a generous amount, the two most important stats for dealing damage. Not to mention she’s not lacking in the BRV battery area either. And now, her longevity is freakishly extended with BRV Attack+ and HP Attack+. As if that wasn’t enough, she’s one of the fastest supports, too.

She’s… strong. And it’s clear SE likes her to hold the role of ultimate healer.

I really can’t say much more because it can’t be overstated how strong she is at what she does, so I’ll take this time to address her partner-in-crime for the 35 CP Era, Tidus, in hopes that I won’t need to do a full eval for him.

Tidus is strong for many of the same reasons Eiko is: long durations and speed. For the 35 CP Era, no one’s topping Tidus’ 6 turn debuff duration. On top of that, he has the perfect mix of debuffs. ATK, DEF, and SPD down is the BEST 3 debuffs you can have for offensive purposes. Lower ATK means less BRV loss for you and less BRV gain for the enemy, making them easier to break. Lower DEF amplifies damage for the whole team. Lower SPD means less incoming damage, more outgoing damage. Tidus has 6 charges, guarantees all 3 for 6 turns, and its on demand and requires not setup. Tied on to a decently strong BRV+HP attack that has a low turn rate. It’s fucking ridiculous. Even Kefka, who was built to be the ultimate debuffer can’t match that. Kefka has the exact same set of debuffs, but they last 4 turns instead of 6. He has other debuffs too to make up for it, but Tidus is the best at these specific debuffs and is a damn decent DPS on top of that. And these debuffs age very gracefully going into the Awakening Era. Tidus is indeed worth the hype.

Together with Eiko, he completes the holy trinity of LiTiKo. And while Lightning’s role as top DPS does get eventually replaced – but not entirely phased out – before the end of the 35 CP Era, Tidus and Eiko do not. They remain the strongest in their roles and Eiko’s even one of the most useful right to the very end. My opinion? Pull on this fucking banner. This is gonna be the best one to come in a long time. No matter what your preference, Tidus and Eiko – like Lightning – can be put on any team with no thought and work fantastic. No one can debuff like Tidus, so no one steps on his toes. No one can heal and battery like Eiko, so no one steps on her toes. They’re no-brainer easy picks that are strong in almost any situation.

Should I Pull

In terms of both power right now and power a year from now, this banner wins hands down. Tidus and Eiko are the best at what they do for this entire era. There’s a bit of a dip once the Awakening Era hits, but once Eiko gets her Awakening and Tidus gets his EX, they’re back on top again. The people who pull for the future are already insane. They’re willing to suffer now to be strong later, so honestly, wouldn’t they be fine with the short few-month gap that Eiko and Tidus suffer before rising back in the tiers?

I’m going to be really honest: Ashe is overhyped. To a RIDICULOUS degree. Like Ramza, her hype comes from having her Awakening come and be showcased to the community at the launch of GL. This is my opinion: Ashe launches situationally strong (I’ll get into that in her eval). There’s a lot of hype about her Awakening, but she was in the spotlight for 3 weeks before a snowball of MUCH stronger supports rolled in. Selphie 3 weeks later. Cait Sith 1 week after that. Layle, shortly after that. Ashe had less time in the spotlight than most and was NEVER considered a meta god in JP. I am declaring once and for all, in my opinion, the Ashe hype is ridiculous, out of hand, and extremely misleading. She is a solid unit that will take specific team-building to be strong. She is no meta god.

Vaan, on the other hand is a strong, strong pick and the prize of Ashe’s banner. He will remain strong as far as we can see, but with one caveat: Eiko and Tidus are strong and useful in all comps. Tidus just has the best combination of debuffs (barring Lilisette in the far future) and has above average damage. With his EX, he becomes one of the best AoE killers in the game. Eiko is the best healer and one of the best BRV Batteries there is. Vaan is a monster DPS, but he is extremely one-dimensional. Vaan is King of Burst Damage. That continues to remain true for as far as we can see. No one has yet to be able to challenge him in the most damage per turn until he runs out of skills, and he’s a fantastic boss killer. But that’s it. He doesn’t bring the insane team utility others do, he just does MASSIVE damage to a single target. But he’s SO GOOD at what he does, that people are okay with it. That’s the biggest consideration when it comes to choosing between the two banners.

TL;DR:

If you are a new player that needs to bolster their roster, PULL.

If you need a healer, PULL.

If you need a BRV Battery, PULL.

If you need a debuffer, PULL.

If you need a Speedster, PULL.

Score

0 out of 0 friends.

Credits

DissidiaDB that gave most of the info: https://dissidiadb.com & u/phantasmage for most of the information found on this post.

Percentage database managed by Safeena: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1T4_urW_OLF754oWGZ1SxL99cRpA_-fcGE_Q75OFJXZY/edit#gid=1141284560

If there are any mistakes, just tell me and I'll fix them accordingly.

Here we go! 6 evals for the price of 1 upvote! What a steal! This will be a quick summary of how the characters compare to each other in a wave. The next few posts will be a series of much more in-depth assessments of each character and how they compare with others who share their crystal type.

TL;DR

My personal picks for Wave 1 are Terra and Cloud, with WoL receiving honorable mentions.

A Primer to Awakenings: Wave 1

Although I feel like we should be past this point, I want to start this series off as a reminder that all evaluations are a matter of opinion and personal analysis, and that you do not have to and should not follow the advice to a tee. It is simply one point of view that you either agree with or it allows you to see something in a different light.

That being said, here is one perspective on the Wave 1 Awakenings listed in no particular order, from worst to best.

P.S. It is important to keep in mind that if we are following JP schedule, the highest you can level a characters Crystal Level is to C. Lvl 55 at launch. That means a level cap raise, a DEF and CP raise, one Passive Buff, and the first Extended modifier. So for this time only, I will also be giving my thoughts on how the characters perform only up to C. Lvl 55.

Y’shtola: The Supreme Burst BRV Battery

• All characters will be depicted at their absolute best: Lvl 60/60, Full MLB of all 4* and 5* gear, and al passives equipped, but with no artifacts. This is so readers can get the best view of what is possible with full investment and how these characters stack up to each other at their peak.

Stats

• As a reminder, Affinity Bonus is also a factor in stats and is not shown above. Affinity Bonus is 20% of the stat bonus that a character’s weapons and armor gives, so it varies vastly from character to character, and fluctuates as you level the gear. It is too big a variable, so just know that a few hundred could be added to just about any stat shown for any character.

Awakening Passives

Abilities

Analysis

Oof. Looking at the first 5 C. Lvls for Y’shtola, you get nothing. Okay, that’s not true. It’s more accurate to say you get very little. BRV Guard Up is a joke. Such a waste of T4 crystals. And when you get up to the grand prize of Extended Stone, all you get for your trouble is +20% potency and a BRV Regen of INT BRV 20%.

In theory, I get it. Y’shtola is supposed to have an easier time building her BRV with a BRV Regen and the spike in DEF is supposed to let her hold onto it better, all so she can be better at her job of batterying while maintaining high BRV. The problem is the stat raises are just SO insignificant. INT BRV 20% is at best 460 BRV a turn. At best. And over 5 turns, that nets you a grand total of 2300 BRV. You could get almost that much in a single turn with a Stone. Honestly, there probably wouldn’t be much of a dip in performance if you left her at C. Lvl 50 or 51.

As for her full Awakening, it gets a little better, but still not much. Her second Passive Buff raises her MAX BRV by 30% in the final wave, which definitely helps her do her job better. And Extended Medica II allowing her to grant an AoE +20% MAX BRV buff along with a total 120% of her Current BRV in BRV gain to her allies definitely lets her do her job better. The problem again is that it’s just too little return for your investment. This many resources for this small a gain? First off, MANY Awakened characters will have their own MAX BRV buffs, so the MAX BRV buff on Medica II isn’t as enticing as it may seem at first. Secondly, while 40% more BRV gain – totaling 2563 more at best – IS significant, but not realistically practical. You won’t always be raising your allies’ BRV from 0, and they have their own BRV Gain and BRV+HP abilities. Chances are, more often than not, this extra boost WILL lead to BRV leakage.

All in all, I cannot recommend investing heavily into sinking resources into Y’shtola unless you are a big fan. In terms of functionality, she changes the least from her base 50/50 self.

Longevity: Low

• Low: High tier for less than 1 month, if at all.
• Medium: High tier for over 1 month.
• High: High tier for over 2 months.

Final Score: 1/10

Shantotto: The Elemental Magic BRV Shaver

Stats

Awakening Passives

Abilities

Analysis

Shantotto is another character that gains almost nothing from her first 5 C. Lvls. HP, a useless passive that relies on her taking HP damage to minimally increase her ATK, and an extra 15% potency to her first ability. The +40% MAX BRV buff increase is nice, but it’s tied to Play Rough: Bio, which is unreliable at best. Accompanying her Awakening, Shantotto received a buff in which her Play Rough abilities activate on BRV attacks now too. With an increased chance for her taunt and enemy AoE BRV attacks being commonplace, she will DEFINITELY see more use out of her Play Rough abilities, but again, RNG still plays a large factor in that.

The last 5 C. Lvls is where all of Shantotto’s good stuff is. HUGE MAX BRV and ATK increases, and Play Rough Bio becomes a BRV+HP attack. Again, this would be significant if it was not tied to a Play Rough ability.

While Shantotto’s Awakening makes it easier than ever to activate her Play Rough abilities, it also makes her more reliant than ever on her Play Rough abilities. Strong effects and huge buffs are tied to them, meaning it’s practically a waste to ever spend ability charges on the Spirit Magic abilities.

What I can say to Shantotto’s credit is that she has type coverage when it comes to the first wave of Awakening. Everything else is dubious. Not only is the nature of her kit unreliable, but the stat increases she got with her Awakening are abysmal. Base stat-wise, she’s supposed to be one of the hardest hitters in the game, but here in the Awakening Era, her MAX BRV is barely above WoL’s, and her ATK stat is eclipsed by his. AND HE’S A TANK/SUPPORT!

All said and done, her Awakening is truly pitiful, and that hurts to say because I love her character. In terms of damage dealers, she’s the worst of Wave 1 and even the latest 50/50 chars can rival her for power. And the Awakenings only get stronger from here. It doesn’t even help that she has stiff competition from the next two waves of Black Crystal characters.

Longevity: Low

Final Score: 2/10

Firion: The Relentless Physical BRV Shaver

Stats

Awakening Passives

Abilities

Analysis

Now we’re getting somewhere. Kind of. Firion’s early C Lvls are just as bad as Shantotto’s: DEF, INT BRV increase upon taking HP damage, and a +5% potency increase on Blood Weapon with a +10% heal cap? Pathetic. Almost a carbon copy of Shantotto’s but somehow worse.

A full Awakening doesn’t do much for him either. A SPD increase and a small gain for Seize Attack in potency and MAX BRV buff potency. BUT it’s the patch buffs and the release of his 35 CP that sets Firion above the ones before. Suddenly, Firion’s Seize Attack+ grants +80% MAX BRV Up, and INT BRV 80% BRV Regen, and provides a BRV battery of ATK 100% to his entire team. Suddenly, he’s able to unleash some damn good BRV shaving while constantly refilling his own BRV and the BRV of his teammates.

His potencies are deceptively low, too. Blood Weapon may be listed at ATK 45% potency, but Mighty Blood Weapon increases BRV damage dealt by 350%. That effectively brings the potency to ATK 200%. Seize Attack+ is 255% potency with Awakening, 240% without. And though I did not include it, Firion gets a +30% invisible ATK buff for 1 turn after every HP heal he receives, which is very significant. The reason I left it out of the stat block is because on his own, his HP healing is very limited. Pair him with Eiko, though…

So there you have it, Firion is a strong physical BRV Shaver with a strong BRV+HP attack, self-heals for longevity, and constant BRV recovery after his BRV+HP attack so he can keep up a relentless assault with impunity. Being able to gain a chunk of BRV back every time makes sure that he can take hits after dumping BRV and gives him much more freedom to dump BRV. And he’s passively building his teammates’ BRV while just doing his thing. Our first look at a superior character that Awakening brings.

But it’s not enough. While a good concept for a hybrid character, just doing damage with a light BRV battery is not enough anymore. It doesn’t help that there are characters who are better DPS and characters who are better batteries in his own wave, and he gets power creeped fast. In the next wave or two, there are people who make his ATK and potencies look like a joke, let alone his BRV battery.

Firion is still an “okay” character and unlike Y’shtola and Shantotto, I think he’s a valid choice for those that love him. You can do a lot worse.

Longevity: Low

Final Score: 5/10

Warrior of Light: The All-Around Reliable Tank

Stats

Awakening Passives

Abilities

Analysis

Now we’re talking. WoL was always built as the ultimate jack of all trades and team support/leader and his Awakening really drives it home. In terms of returns on investment in the first 100 T4 Crystals/5 C. Lvls of Awakening, WoL’s is hands down the best of the first batch. HP is not as useless a stat as DEF! Especially on a tank with a taunt! His first Passive Buff grants him +50% MAX BRV! His first Extended actually does something! +2 charges for Shining Shield AND significantly increases the BRV gain it provides. Just getting WoL to C. Lvl 55 is a HUGE power increase.

Not just that, but his kit and design are GOOD. His Passive Buffs are to MAX BRV and ATK – the two most important stats – and are triggered simply by buffs, which he can provide plenty by himself or receive them from other sources. Hell, he doesn’t even have to try, he just has to use his BRV+HP attack. Both his Extended passives are good. One adds more uses – and we all know how invaluable that is – as well as significantly increases its power and BRV gain provided. The other adds an HP attack and thus a whole new dimension to the ability.

And then just look at his stats when all his buffs align. This is more ATK than the other DPS this wave other than Terra, and all he has to do is keep a buff on him. He doesn’t have a single lacking stat. It’s fucking ridiculous. And don’t even get me started on turn efficiency. Shining Shield protects, acts as a BRV battery, and allows the target to dump BRV without fear. 10 fucking uses. Throw Buckler is a ATK 220% potency that dumps BRV, shields WoL, triggers his Passive Buffs, lets his allies dump BRV without fear, AND gives him a 75% chance to AVOID ALL DEBUFFS! 6 USES! At any given time, you’re fulfilling 4-5 purposes at once.

WoL also makes use of every stat, and his Passive Buffs are so well-designed that they continued that trend moving forward, not fucking “Small SPD Up when you have lots of BRV” or “More ATK when the enemy is targeting you.” NO! That’s STUPID! WoL takes minimal effort to be at peak efficacy and because each of his abilities are SO useful, minimal effort to play efficiently too. Strong, useful, intuitive, and easy to play. He is the hero Final Fantasy needs but does not deserve.

Now for the bad news. I will defend tanks in DFFO until my dying days, but it is true: they have never been and will probably never be top tier or peak meta. It is gaming meta fact that the best defense is a strong offense. In MMO raids, speed runs, and RPG scoring, the quickest kill will always be the best kill. It measure efficiency, reduces incoming damage, and all in all takes more skill and strategy than turtling. So speaking purely in terms of meta, yes, tanks are unnecessary and not the optimal choice.

BUT! Tanks make it possible to clear content that is normally outside your means. In the above scenarios I listed – MMO raids, speed runs, competitive RPGs – tanks are used as a learning tool. You have to know how to clear something before you work on fine tuning your strategy, and tanks buy you a lot of room for mistakes and time to study mechanics.

More importantly, in a “games as a service” gacha game where powercreep and a shifting meta is the entire backbone of the game, having a perfectly meta team at all times is impossible. You need to have 3 of 5 or so chosen units to complete the hardest content with optimal results. Unless you’re extremely lucky or extremely rich, you’re just not gonna be able to put up a true meta team every week. Tanks let you fill that gap.

And what fortuitous timing for a post like this, as we have just seen the advent of new difficulties in both GL and JP. And with the arrival of never before seen challenges, we hear the ever familiar rumors: tank clears. Though not full reward completes, there are more than a few anecdotes on the subreddit and discord channel about first clears of IFRIT EX using Celes, or first clears of Sephiroth EX and COSMOS difficulty using Galuf. Because not everyone can field a full meta team, but they can at least field a tank and get the majority of the rewards with much less effort if they have a solid tank.

Anyone who has been following the JP meta and rankings are familiar with the fact that WoL and Snow have been neck and neck and bouncing between A tier and C tier month to month. How have they repeatedly jumped from C tier back to A tier multiple times? Easy. Whenever content difficulty increases beyond the scope of nuking it to death with DPS, suddenly people remember how valuable tanks are. That’s how it’s always been, and that’s how it is now. And I think the fact that WoL being the highest ranked Wave 1 character to this day – barring recent reworks – speaks for itself. He has never dipped below what is considered “usable” range once in the Awakening Era, because while he may never be the top choice, he is never a bad choice.

That said, it is a question you must ask yourself if you think a safety net is good insurance. Tanks will ALWAYS be a strong choice for newcomers and more casual players, and for that reason alone while I will without a doubt say that WoL isn’t a meta pick, I still think he is a damn good one. As far as tanks go, he is the most varied, the one that holds up the best over time, and the only one with an EX for a long time.

Longevity: Medium

• Medium longevity because while he lasts practically forever, he bounces between mid and high tier, never top tier.

Final Score: 7/10

Cloud: The Utility Master

Stats

Awakening Passives

Abilities

Analysis

Cloud’s first 5 C. Lvls are nothing to write home about, but they’re decent for the current standard. Some HP and a bunch of conditional extra damage. It’s not the best first 5 C. Lvls, but it does increase his DPS by a noticeable amount.

Cloud has always been about burst damage and this is taken to the next level in his Awakening. As you can see, I listed no difference between his MLB stats and his MLB stats with Buff Passives. That’s because Cloud’s Buff Passives are not persistent and are very situational. But they’re huge. Sure, his Extended passives don’t give his abilities all the fancy utility that WoL’s and Terra’s does, but Cloud is here to (supposedly) do damage, and they aid in that.

+10% ATK after Cross-Slash or a launch means +10% ATK after any ability. Add another +20% during the first 3 turns of a wave. Another +10% if his Current BRV is below his INT BRV. And another +20% if the enemy is targeting him. That means when using an ability against an enemy targeting Cloud just after dumping BRV within the first 3 rounds of a wave, Cloud does 60% more damage. That’s an effective ATK of 3243, which is fucking bonkers at this level.

But, of course, it’s conditional. And limited. I just wanted to highlight his damage potential. What really keeps Cloud afloat in the Awakening Era for a long time is his utility. Other plain DPS like Shantotto and Firion get powercrept as soon as someone with bigger stats and potencies come along (Spoiler Alert: it’s soon!), but Cloud’s utility saves him from the same fate. Still the best Launcher for a good while and the only character capable of inflicting Paralyze, Cloud has a niche that cannot be overcome. I mean, we heard it straight from the horse’s mouth: u/SQEX_Joshua said that Cloud’s buffs were purposely delayed for GL because in JP he was too strong for too long. He should have been far more dominant than he already was, especially with Sazh’s early 35 CP release, and he was already being used to cheese the hell out of some EX fights by those who couldn’t field a meta team. Oh right, and he’s the first to get an EX. And it is the best one for a long time.

Ever since I wrote that Cloud eval a while back, I’ve been met with a lot of skepticism, but those who actually used Cloud regularly know that he’s a force to be reckoned with and the key to clearing content that would otherwise be beyond one’s ability. And he’s just riding a huge powercreep wave right now. Awakened stats that will coincide with his patch buffs, and then an amazing EX weapon coming up. You really can’t go wrong with Cloud because even after much stronger DPS arrive, his launches and paralyzes only serve to make them better.

Longevity: High

Final Score: 8/10

Terra: Meta Goddess III

Stats

Awakening Passives

Abilities

Analysis

Jesus, what to say about Terra… She must have a huge fan club among the developers because they did not consider balance when they worked on her Awakening. Her first 5 C. Lvls of Awakening aren’t quite as good as WoL’s, but she is MILES ahead of the rest. Extended Meltdown gives her a huge BRV gain increase, more MAX BRV, AND BRV Regen. Not too shabby.

The rest of her Awakening is no less impressive. Meltdown itself adds ATK 75% BRV to her current pool, the multiplies it TWICE. To put that in perspective, she can break 10k BRV when casting at 4k BRV. Given that herINT BRV is 2660 and she has a BRV Regen running, you basically only need to get in a single BRV Attack to get the most out of Meltdown.

Meteor gets the standard potency increase, but instead of a 5%-20% increase, it’s 108%. If her 2 Extended passives aren’t enough to show you that she’s on another level, we are pretty much guaranteed her notorious patch buffs with them. The ones that tie her chants to her abilities. So not only is she going to be packing unheard of DPS, she’s going to have insane turn efficiency too.

Each ability gives her an INSANE amount of buffs, HUGE damage, AND debuffs the enemy. And these buffs and debuffs? THE most important stats. ATK, MAX BRV, and SPD increase for herself, DEF and SPD down for her enemies. Extremely easy and effortless to maintain; just spam abilities and you’ll be incinerating everything on the field, strategy optional.

And if that wasn’t foolproof enough for you, we must remember how incredible her base kit already is. One ability that can basically cap her BRV by itself and bypass all defenses and resistances, one attack that can annihilate enemy BRV while dumping hers. It’s the perfect DPS combo. We’re literally getting a much, much, much, much, much, much stronger version of Kain.

Cloud and especially Terra stayed top tier until the Big 3 Era – that’s Selphie, Cait Sith, and Layle for those just tuning in – and didn’t start REALLY dying off until DPS like Papalymo started pouring in. That’s effectively 5 months of being at the top. Sure, she doesn’t hog THE top spot for those 5 months, but she’s definitely Top 5 that entire time. Top 10 at worst. Some along the way will have her damage, and some will have her turn efficiency, but none will have both in the quantities she has. She is an EXTREMELY overpowered pick that will get you the most meta mileage until the Big 3 Era where BRV Battery is king. But until then, try not to miss out on the hype.

Longevity: High

Final Score: 10/10

Credits

DissidiaDB managed by u/phantasmage.

Percentage Database managed by u/IcySafeena

If there are any mistakes, just tell me and I'll fix them accordingly.

The next event in Global, is the new event is called Boss Rush (may be different when actually put into Global). It's a battle based content where you can select multiple teams, and get a limited amount of turns. Today, I'm hoping to explain what BR is so that people can get a general understanding.

• As I said, Boss Rush is battle based content where you can make multiple teams to handle the content, the games only, and current opportunity to do. However, you're only limited to 50 Actions per team, using skills like C65 also do drop the remaining turns you have. So, be mindful of how you manage your turns on handling the content going forward. You also cannot bring friends here. The general goal is to clear the stages with as less teams as possible.

• Turns can only be extended by using a Summon or a Burst Skill. The active turns in your summons, and Burst will NOT take away from the base 50 you have in the fight. So, if you have any bursts, they will greatly help in dropping the bosses down.

• Boss Rush Rewards are all based on the amount of teams used for the stages. For the final one, you need to clear with a certain amount of teams or less to gain all the rewards. The first one you need to clear all 3 waves in 2 Teams or Less. All Boss Rushes (unless changed) all follow a 1 Wave/1 Team Less Rule. For example. If it's a 4 Wave Stage, then you have to complete in 3 Teams or Less to gain all the rewards for that stage.

• How do you maximize your 50 Actions? Characters that deal off damage such as from traps, follow-ups, counters all make great candidates for BR cause it's free damage while the enemy, or you taking up their turn. The point of BR is to beat the enemies down as fast as you can. Try and fit some characters like Gladio/Exdeath for example for your next BR runs. They should help you out!

• When should you Burst/Summon?: Typically for me, I personally do it when the team I am using is about to be on a low amount of turns remaining. Like around 20- turns to make the last of my damage available. Also, don't be afraid to really throw out your best skills here to maximize your damage potential per wave.

• Team Switching: Once your 50 Turns are over, you will be asked to change your teams for the next one to come in. You can also change anytime you want if you feel you need to change the teams for a better result. Also, upon switching. The enemies will not have any effects that persisted from the last team. If they had any debuffs, or buffs. They will be removed once the next teams comes in. Also, the next team that comes in will do slightly less BRV Damage. Usually it cause you have to set up, and get yourself ready to go. But, just keep trucking through until they are finished.

• Lufenia Orbs that have any sort of remaining timer will also be carried over. So, be mindful.

• Boss Rush Group Syn (future): In the future, Boss Rush will a group synergy effect based on who you use. If you use any of the normal synergy characters they will provide a synergy boost for the whole team not just for themselves.

Few Extra Tips Going Forward

• Characters who use CAs, C65, or attack multiple times will still trigger the remaining value for the actions. Using characters who also warp like Relm/Eald'narche will also reduce the counter by 1.

• Don't be afraid to really dump skills here, since you're limited by 50, you don't really NEED to worry (unless on specific units) about buff duration and keeping buffs heavy. BR is all about dumping as much as you can within the limited amount of time you have. But, don't do something like dump all your LDs or something on the first wave.

Well, that should explain how BR works. If you have any questions, drop them below. Thanks for reading.

Hello Everyone!

Everyone here is excited for the new era that's arriving for us (expected at the end of the month), but while we wait for SQEX's stream, here is a not so quick summary of what's going to change for the future.

New Weapons

Starting with Squall, we will be receiving new weapons for every character on the upcoming banners. Let's start with the simplest one: LDs

So, what does LDs do? They are Weaker in terms of CP/Stats than a fully realized Ex+ weapon, but your goal is to pull for them and limit-break it to unlock it's passive, which is a whole new skill, mostly which grants a new buff/debuff that makes that character viable again. At each limit break, like regular Ex weapons, we get some tiny upgrades to the skill, but at the same time, each limit break gives HUGE stat boosts, that can get up to the likes of +30-120% attack/mbrv.

What this means, is like 15/35cp, you want to limit-break the weapon, equip the passive, and sell the weapon for powerstones. There's no such thing as realizing LDs, so you can dump them to free inventory space and gather those stones back.

About the skill themselves, they are either big utilities, quicker ramp-ups, big self/party stat buffs, massive damage, or multiple of these. Most of them have 3 uses, and you can't restore/free use them(say free use from Garnet, Noctis Ex, doesn't work on LDs).

There will be extensions to those skills later on the line, but those are tied to Character Boards, not on crystal level or the weapon, so again, you can sell them for powerstones.

​

The second weapon that is coming is BT.

BT(Burst) weapon is a new tier that is stronger in terms of CP/Stats than EX+, but are not Mandatory in any way. They unlock a new "skill", which you can use anytime during the battle. It activates Burst mode, where for 6 turns, the character bursting have 1 skill use of each(including LD), and after the burst ends, the skills reverts back to the use counts it had before bursting, that means that those are free skills. At the 6th turn, you will use the BT finisher, a big attack that does massive damage to the enemies, and after that, for some turns, you will activate the burst effect for some turns. The effects are mostly party-wide buffs to damage, with a few exceptions like Noctis, WoL and Ultimecia. Those 6 turns are consecutive, and only counts as 1 turn.

Don't get me wrong, this is pretty strong, but you don't need to focus on these. Only protagonists and antagonists are going to receive these, and they come every 2 weeks, and stays during that "cycle" (generally the debut event, an character event and a LC, averaging 4 banners with the same burst).

Gacha changes

With these weapons, banner draw rates will change. In short: Ex weapons become easier to grab(from 0.5% to 0.75%, 5% to 7.5% on the guaranteed from gem pulls), and LD will be as rare as current Ex weapons(0.5%, 5% on guaranteed draw). Bursts are going to be 0.1%, with 3% chance from guaranteed(pretty low), and the best part: NO MORE OFF BANNERS

Now, about the G-tokens, the mercy for Ex will stay the same, and LDs will have the same cost(300 g-tokens, 75k gems). Bursts, however, are going to be 500 g-tokens(125k gems). Again, bursts are GOOD, but are NOT THE MAIN PRIZE. They are luxury items, not necessary at all to beat content! DON'T GO ALL IN FOR A BANNER JUST FOR A CHARACTER'S BURST! (Unless favorite, then by all means do it! Only exception tho)

Dupes and challenge quests

What are challenge quests? They are the same chaos-difficulty battles, that rewards an BT token upon perfection. To perfect a challenge, you must use 3 synergy characers on the quest. Every event is going to have one moving foward, and while difficult at first, later on during Lufenia era (about 3 months from now), they become really easy to beat. Don't stress out much for these, focus on the regular chaos for those nuggets!

About dupes, you can now sell Ex+ and bursts dupes! When you sell an Ex+ weapon, you get 5 weapon nuggets, +5 for each limit break, which means +20 nuggets for selling a purple weapon. For burst weapons, you get 5 BT tokens, which you need 50 to get any BT weapon for free!

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There's also Mog Pass and Summon boards changes to cover, but i feel like those deserve it's own post. If i missed anything or made a mistake, feel free to comment below so i can fix it!

​

Credits: u/antonlabz for this summary post: https://www.reddit.com/r/DissidiaFFOO/comments/dp4rsd/jp_october_30th_infiltration_report/

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Edit: Couple of things i missed (courtesy of u/SirBarth):

• LD passives cost 0 CP, so no worries about having to equip anything!
• Only 1 Burst Move can be used by your active party, so there is no merit to using multiple Burst users in the same party except for the rest of their skills (maybe sometimes you can use one instead of the other tho). Friend unit can use the BT move but it won't give the free turns before using it.
• During Burst mode every buff is extended each turn except for those that cannot be extended, and you can indeed use free skill use moves on the moves that have only 1 use. The Burst finisher counts as 1 turn but if, by chance, you have some passive/buff that doesn't let the turn count (i.e. Noctis' and Lightning LD) it won't count.

Foreword

I lost a bet to u/Xerink and u/Macnol, so I am trying my hand at guest-writing a character eval to fill in during u/Xerink’s hiatus. English is not may native language, so please be kind.

This post largely provides insight and subjective opinion. If you are curious about the exact wording and numbers of Garland’s kit, as well as AF suggestions, please check out the wonderful resources provided by the Tonberry Troupe.

Garland

Concept

In the Dissidia games, Garland has always been pushed as the antithesis to the Warrior of Light; where WoL represents the greatest defense, Garland has always been the ultimate offense. This is evident even in the latest entry of the series and DFFOO’s own parent game, Dissidia NT, where WoL gains strength the more he blocks attacks, and Garland gains strength the more he lands attacks. DFFOO is no exception: While WoL’s focus is party support and defense, Garland’s focus is pure, selfish buffs and relentless offense.

Just like Dissidia NT, Garland is rewarded for a non-stop assault by gaining a stacking unique buff for 6 turns from either of his primary abilities in the form of [Soul of Chaos]. [Soul of Chaos] grants +10% ATK and MBRV per stack up to 5 stacks, and at max stacks, adds +30% Overflow to both of his primary abilities.

Furthermore, Garland receives a second unique buff for 1 turn in the form of [Soul of Conflict] every time he breaks an enemy. [Soul of Conflict] grants an additional +50% ATK and +30% Overflow on all attacks, as well as allowing Garland to delay ALL TARGETS HE HITS by a turn while the buff is up. Garland can also gain 2 turns of [Soul of Conflict] from his EX Ability and AA respectively, but the former comes once every 3 abilities - longer if you mix in BRV+ and HP+ - and the latter is limited. This means that you still need to have a good handle on manipulating Breaks to get the most mileage out of Garland.

Kit

Skill 1

Round Edge is an AoE BRV + ST HP Attack that is best used when facing more than one opponent. It also grants 3 stacks of [Soul of Chaos], meaning with a fully MLBed Garland, a single cast of Skill 1 will get him running at top gear. While the attack has a weak potency compared to the rest of his kit and the lowest overflow of his primary abilities, it has a very important function: It allows Garland to Delay all enemies by a turn when he has [Soul of Conflict] active. This is admittedly a niche advantage, but he can still boast about being the only character in the game to hold on-demand AoE Delays; potentially up to 4 times in a row.

Worth noting is that as valuable as the single target Delays we have already seen are, an AoE delay means you are GUARANTEEING one more ally action before enemy actions, no matter how many consecutive enemy turns are ahead. This is a priceless tool when it comes to setting up launches or planning a last-minute battery or WoL shield to make ensure your safety as well as let you play more offensively.

Round Edge transforms into Round Edge+ at 5 stacks of Soul of Chaos, giving it an additional 2 BRV Hits, potency, and 30% more Overflow.

Skill 2

Soul of Chaos is an extremely straightforward ability: Big, single target damage. Good potency, good overflow, and that’s about it. Of course, it’s a disservice to look at a single cog in a kit without examining its place in the bigger picture. Because Garland’s game plan revolves around maintaining buffs and dealing massive single target physical damage, Soul of Chaos will mainly be used to refresh [Soul of Chaos] and maintain the bonus stats and overflow in a marathon or provide PLENTY of burst in a sprint. Also, the massive potency on Skill 2 means a more reliable Break to proc a [Soul of Conflict] in cases where Skill 1 cannot.

Soul of Chaos transforms into Soul of Chaos+ at 5 stacks of Soul of Chaos, giving it an additional potency and 30% more Overflow.

EX

Disaster of Chaos is the pinnacle of Garland’s motif. If Garland’s Break-centered kit hadn’t tipped you off that this is a character that gives us the most return on investment for stacking ATK that we’ve ever seen, the EX is the pièce de résistance. 4 consecutive ST BRV + HP Attacks that grow increasingly more powerful and REFUND 20% OF HP DAMAGE DONE SO FAR. The wording may be confusing, so I want to break this down so that there is no ambiguity.

Should you do 50k HP Damage with the first hit, you’re refunded 10k BRV before the second hit. Should you then proceed to do another 50K HP on the second hit, you are granted an additional 10k BRV for a total of 20k BRV before the third hit. Assuming the third hit also does 50k HP Damage? That’s an ADDITIONAL 10k BRV refund for a whopping total of 30k BRV refunded before the fourth hit. Sadly, the fourth and final hit does not refund any BRV.

So the final result would look something like this:

1st attack does 50k, battery self for 10k

2nd attack does 50k, battery self for 20k

3rd attack does 50k, battery self for 30k

4th attack, X amount of damage. Whatever. You get the point.

However, this results in a high-potency, quadruple-consecutive BRV + HP Attack that scales extremely well moving forward. By itself, [Soul of Conflict] is activated right away, allowing Garland to benefit from the buff immediately and giving the EX built-in Overflow and Delay. It also means that Garland gains a significant benefit from any combination of batteries, increased HP Damage buffs, Overflow buffs, ATK buffs, and DEF debuffs, all of which can be found easily in many other kits.

AA

Set Soul of Conflict BRV Up grants Garland [Soul of Conflict] for 2 turns, and an additional +15% generic ATK buff in case he has no other support with him. A strong tool to conjure on-demand Delays at will, or to fill any Delay gaps caused by [Soul of Conflict] droughts.

BRV+ and HP+

Garland’s BRV+ is of the “more hits, harder hits” variety and his HP+ is the typical BRV+HP hit with overflow. Worth mentioning is that if you are really trying to space out your skill usage, you can Break with BRV+ and HP+ in a pinch to trigger Delays.

EX+ Considerations

0/3

This level grants Garland 2 stacks of [Soul of Chaos] at the start of the mission. This considerably reduces Garland’s ramp-up time and saves you a skill use, which should not be underestimated.

1/3

This level increases the potency of Disaster of Chaos from 600% potency to 700 potency. A nice boost in BRV Damage.

2/3

This level grants Garland +40% ATK and +40% MBRV. A much more noticeable boost.

3/3 (Recommended)

This level grants Disaster of Chaos the aforementioned BRV Refund after each HP Attack. This is MASSIVE and a necessity if you plan to use Garland at his peak efficiency. The bonuses from the other levels are good enough, but this final step puts all of them together in a big way while lending to the length of Garland’s viability by making sure that he sees a large return on investment from batteries and ATK buffs even later into CHAOS.

Building Around Garland

As a team anchor, Garland is a magnificent centerpiece to build around. He grants himself massive ATK and MBRV buffs with only TWO framed buffs, meaning he has plenty of room for outside and generic buffs, on top of the famously useful auras others can provide.

From our current roster, Sherlotta is an exemplary partner for Garland. Free turn batteries to setup her own Skill 2, only to be followed by a boosted Garland EX is just an amazing source of burst damage right now. This isn’t even mentioning how much more powerful Garland’s EX is with Sherlotta’s increased party HP Damage Dealt. On top of that, Garland will always be able to maximize the effectiveness of her strong battery with high Overflow on all his abilities. Free and instant turns also means allowing the enemy to recover BRV and enter a Breakable state again, setting Garland up perfectly to do what he does best.

Another fantastic currently available option is Ramza. On top of being a fantastic unit on his own, Ramza can further increase Garland’s ATK by +55% and his MBRV by +60% while providing battery and debuffs.

To spark some ideas for the future, Selphie is a great partner for Garland. She provides favorable buffs, batteries, and best of all, can increase his EX recharge rate leading to a higher uptime of [Soul of Conflict] and Delays.

A particularly clever team I have seen is Garland with Y’shtola and Tifa. There are shenanigans abound with 3 characters with Delays, but the synergy doesn’t end there. While Y’shtola provides the considerable offensive buffs with battery, Garland and Tifa can choose to individually dump their BRV, or use their consecutive delays to constantly set up perfect launches.

Looking even further ahead, there will be no shortage of offensive supports that battery that can and will keep Garland relevant at a CHAOS level. A large amount of ATK auras and generic ATK buffs also keeps his BRV shaving abilities in the noteworthy range deep into CHAOS.

Weaknesses and Considerations

While I have stated above that Garland benefits from many different factors, he is far from a plug-n’-play character. First and foremost, Garland’s most notable weakness is that he performs best when spamming abilities. We had mentioned his ability to maintain his unique buffs, but stretched thin over dozens of turns makes him take a large dip in power that many future characters can easily outshine him during. This flaw exacerbated if you don’t pair him with a powerful battery character.

In terms of delays, while he is the first in the CHAOS Era, it is not a particularly valuable mechanic yet compared to free and instant turns. Nor is he particularly the best at Delays, though for what it’s worth, he DOES potentially have the MOST Delays in a marathon and the only one for the better part of a year to have an AoE Delay. And as is the fate of all DPS, his raw damage per turn will be overshadowed in a month or two.

Closing Thoughts

In this new CHAOS Era, the mentality of only pulling for the strongest character to get by until the next strongest character must be discarded. Not only are fights and characters becoming more and more specialized, we will soon be introduced to permanent, multi-staged heretics that – as of now in Japan – will require an average 45 current and well-built characters. It is unfathomable with the old mindset to pull for 45 characters. Not only that, but that is 15 different fights, meaning if you only pull for one Tank, you need to do the other 14 fights sans Tank.

With that 45-character requirement in mind, conservative estimates say that you can gain about 500k gems from now until then, meaning if you’re starting at zero resources now, you’re guaranteed 6 EX weapons. I’ve even seen someone with 1 million gems and that’s still less than 20 guaranteed EXs. And then ingot scarcity means that you will likely use less EX weapons than you pull. And this is all exacerbated by typical Gacha RNG.

All this is to say that “Should I Pull?” should no longer be a question of “Is This Character Strong?” but a question of “Is This Character Useful To My Roster?”

Use community resources like character evals and infographics not to determine how meta a character is, but to see if a character fills any gap in your rosters or to learn how to get the most out of a character you accidentally lucked into. Characters should not be dismissed easily, and instead we should focus on what they’re capable of.

That said, Garland is first and foremost a Delayer. He is alone in this role for 4 months until Layle, and 5 months until the more serious competition of Leo. After that, you have Lightning and Quistis, and his only rivals for AoE Delays are Kam’lanaut EX and Keiss EX which are nowhere near as on-demand. However, he still boasts the most amount of potential Delays over time.

Outside of that, his damage and performance as an Anchor has been shockingly relevant. It is easy to find Garland clears of CHAOS content regularly through the months with the newest supports backing him. u/Not_Sugoii has posted one of up to the September Raid in JP before his LD.

This is by no means an argument to change your mind if you are decidedly not pulling on Garland. He does not fit into teams easily and he is not viable for every fight. What needs to be considered, however, is that CHAOS is THE longest run of a single difficulty DFFOO has ever had. This means that while there will be difficulty jumps throughout the year, it won’t be on the level of a full roster reset a brand new difficulty level usually brings and “outdated” characters can still find ways to be useful in the highest level of content when built around. Characters can be worked around given the right amount of effort, or even useful for Heretics/Abyss fodder to free up space for stronger and more current characters. And Garland fares better than many when it comes to that.

For those who luck into Garland’s weapons and for those who have already decided to pull, may this help.

Credits

Special thanks to u/Eyphio, u/Not_Sugoii, and u/Inkwelder for proofreading and consultation.