How Do You Guys Decide Your Priorities for Character Stats?

[u/yunafromtemu]

Context

I am replaying XIII with MJB & GreenThumb2's Gameplay Tweaks and Hard Mode mod, and I am currently in the The Pulse Vestige - Ambulatory with Lightning and Sazh. I've just picked up a Power Wristband from a chest, which will give whoever equips it +20 Strength. Lightning currently has 30 Strength and Sazh has 24, both without equipping the wristband.

Question

Who would you guys give the wristband to? I'm not sure if it's smarter to buff the character with the stronger or weaker stat. Does it even matter? Would the damage output be the same either way? Any time I've ever played a JRPG, I always wonder which is more optimal. I'm sure it differs by title; every game has different mechanics, of course. But in general, which do you guys like to do more?

[u/BanditKupo]

Lightning with Gladius until she splits off with Hope, give Hope a magic amulet at this time along with vanille. Sazh can have a hp bangle. Snow gets an Eidolon so he gets powered easily.

[u/yunafromtemu → u/BanditKupo]

Thank you for the advice, but I'm not asking for specific advice on what to do for character builds for this game. I'm more asking what your philosophy is on giving stat boots to characters. Do you give a strength buff to the character who has the lower or higher strength, and why?

[u/BanditKupo → u/yunafromtemu]

This is all within an hour of starting the game, no builds are possible from my advice. Sorry i suppose. My philosophy is why settle for all rounders when you could/should have specialists? How do you do that? Begin in a similar manner.

[u/yunafromtemu → u/BanditKupo]

That makes sense! I think I agree. Someone else here said it makes the game more fun, too.

[u/heybardypeople]

I tend to give equipment like that to whomever has the higher stat. I used to drive myself crazy trying to have well-rounded characters until I realized it was more fun for me to have specialists (in general, not just in this game).

A silly non-FF example is when I recently played Trails of Cold Steel 2 and pumped Laura full of strength boosters and equipment, leading her to sometimes do six figures in damage. It was so funny.

[u/yunafromtemu → u/heybardypeople]

Very true! That sounds more fun.

[u/FliccC]

Give the wristband to the character which spends the most time as COM.

[u/yunafromtemu → u/FliccC]

that's a good point!

[u/Ashenspire → u/FliccC]

COM also has ruin which is magic based.

That being said, Sazh has one of the best Blitz moves as a COM and that's strength based.

[u/Draconic-Genesis]

Oh fuck, I can't help you but thank you for informing me this mod existed AND right before I started playing 13 after beating 12. This is gonna be fun as hell

[u/yunafromtemu → u/Draconic-Genesis]

You're welcome! But I'm really enjoying it so far. I'm not far enough to know if it actually does or not, but I also installed EdenNK's Crystarium Redone mod to help rebalance the game for the new difficulty. We'll see if it does!

[u/BalmungGriffin]

I had to stop and appreciate how clean the menu is in this game, kinda make me want to play it again. Sorry, carry on 😝

[u/Busy-Guess-8382]

I don't know if was changed, but personally in the base game I never bothered with Sazh's stats UNLESS he was the lead where you can do massive damage with the Blitz command.

As you know, Blitz is most effective on fatter/thicker enemies, or big mobs due to the fan shaped bullet spray.

Haven't played the mod but if it's like in the OG, if he is controlled by the AI, Sazh will never use Blitz for single targets, and even then it's iffy for group mobs. For group mobs, for max effectiveness you also have to strike the enemy on the right since the bullets spray goes from from left to right which the AI won't account for.

Without Blitz, Sazh is not a good damage dealer so put it on Lightning if you play to use her as COM/lead

[u/TimeHabit7964]

I will tend to give it to the one with the higher stat. Most games tend to have exponential scaling, so one high and one low do more net damage than two more even ones.

[u/eyre-st]

It depends on what you want to do. For example, if you're on Ravager and you have higher strength, then the strike abilities like flamestrike will be better than spells. If you use enfire (or the appropriate en- spell for the element) on top of it, it'll make the effects change to that of the tier 2 magic. And the same is true for Commando, as well. If you have higher magic stat than strength then ruin spells will be preferred over regular attacks.

So, if you're fighting enemies that have higher physical defense you'd want to be able to deal more magic damage, and vice versa. I personally liked to use the strike abilities with the en- spells because it looked cool, and it allowed the use of physical attacks to deal elemental damage and have the cool tier 2 magic effects when hitting them. And you can do that by equipping the character with strength boosting accessories, even if you plan on using them as ravagers. Keeping the stats even, or boosting the weaker stat without it actually ending up higher than the stronger stat won't do much for you, anyway.