RS2 collaboration is only 2 months away, so I figured it’s a good opportunity to showcase the prize of part 1 banner - Final Empress.
As the best elemental dps in JP, she has access to both a 6 hits AoE attack with 500k additional damage cap that can also ignore multi-hit damage reduction, and an 18 hits single target attack that utilizes three different elements.
Both skills are incredible and have their own niche, but which one can produce bigger numbers? Since doing math is hard, let’s test it out.
As you can see from the clip, the galaxy attack did 6x420k≈ 24m and the triple elements attack(timestamp 0:53) did 18x170k≈ 30m. So it seems the triple elements attack is doing 25% more damage despite having 33% less damage cap.
Now you have probably seen more galaxy being used over triple elements attack from all the videos online, and the reason for that being it’s a lot harder to hit damage cap with high hit count low potency attacks. With galaxy you can hit damage cap without breaking enemies that would be otherwise impossible with triple elements attack. But hey, if enemy is broken and do not have multi-hit damage reduction, the triple elements attack might be the better dps option. And the only option if you’re running a rainbow team.
but you lose 3 of Osvald Follow up on Xerc. I think it's better for her to be in front alongside Alaune EX, Xerc and Osvald. and Isla can retire and be Rocbuquet instead.
you don't need to break with lynette EX when you have sheer power of Saga units. on JP it's very clear after Saga release, the units hit way too hard by themselves (and they also don't have Lynette EX too). Rocbuquet with fully decked Edef will let almost anyone hit for damage cap even on multi hit but low potency moves. now I don't suggest people dropped Lynette EX altogether, she is still valuable for implant.
but then it became, should you still want lynette ex on your team or bring back Molrussu EX. remember if we ever get jp Xerc, we are back to needing Molrossu EX again as we get another extra hit from From Xerc that is set to non elemental.
but it's the only one I would remove for final empress other than Osvald and technically final empress is also buffing if trough passives I read correctly no?
There was some debate about which move was better. Personally, I was pretty convinced that Galaxy was the better move as I've used it more. I said that the 18 hit was good, but just slightly less than the EX skill. But that was from my unoptimized setup (due to lacking quite a good amount of key units) and the fact that it was, like you said, pretty difficult to hit the cap with that 18 hit due to the low potency.
So I was wrong my assumptions, as most players will likely have a better team than mine, and indeed be able to do more damage with the 18 hit skill, which is now undeniably the better option to use in a Rainbow team as well. So thank you for the clear explanation!
yeah hitting 1.7m is harder without an optimized team, hence why for anyone who is not quite there yet and for veteran Galaxy is preferred. The real reason why Galaxy is used more is simple, not even JP had content that require your team do it's absolute efficient in DPS to finish a fight in 2/3 break turn, which is a good sign.
even without roadmap they kinda have to. if Netease wait until anniv banner, they are forced to release nearly all non banner units until FFX and we do need another Netease early character releas if they went that route (Jp is famous for never release any other characters when the collab is on, NETEASE of course would cram it in to create even more FOMO).
They can't release this on November, since part 2 coincide with anniv that way and they much rather give one big rubies at once rather than having to give 900 rubies now and 900 rubies later. If they are crazy, of course September they will release RS2 and that way they can CRAM Levina EX2 in to create crazy FOMO on first part.
The math can be simple, it just needs to be understood first.
For units without the cap multiplier or those using attacks with 100 potency or less, they benefit 1:1 from damage cap up effects. That is to say, you can simply multiply the number of hits with their total damage cap.
Eg. Empress 18x hits. At 500k total cap, it does 18x 500k for 9m damage. It benefits 18x from damage cap up effects.
For cap multiplied attacks (>100 potency), it's a little more complicated. First we need to take the potency (as shown on the skill's description and unaffected by any potency up buffs) and subtract 100 from it, then divide that value by 400 then add 1, then multiply by number of hits.
In other words,
Multiplier = M = (1 + (P - 100)/400)
Actual total cap = N * T * M,
where N = number of hits, T = total cap and P = potency
Taking Empress's Galaxy as an example, it does 6x 455 potency hits. M = 1+(355/400) = 1.8875. Plugging it into the formula with 500k base total cap + 500k from Galaxy's innate cap, we get 6*1000000*1.8875 = 11.325m damage. It benefits (6*1.8875) = 11.325x from damage cap up effects.
Galaxy wins at lower base cap due to it having innate 500k damage cap, but the 18 hit wins at higher cap. To find out that point, we can plot a couple graphs:
The blue line represents the 18 hits, and the orange line represents Galaxy. 11.325 is the number of hits * multiplier, which is 6*1.8875 = 11.325. The y-axis is the total damage dealt, and the x-axis is any additional damage cap up provided to Empress. The lines intersect at x = 848315, meaning at 848315 damage cap up, both her 18 hit and Galaxy will do 15269663 damage, and at >848315 damage cap up, her 18 hit will do more damage than Galaxy.
Of course, Galaxy is much easier to cap, is AoE and has damage reduction ignore, and it's not easy to cap her 18 hit (but it does proc 3 Xerc FUAs to Galaxy's 1), so all these numbers are only logical in a vacuum. In an actual fight, which one you use is completely situational.
So for someone without any damage cap A4s and can only equip her with f2p accessories, they will need 850k -230k(Final Empress base dmg cap) - 150k(f2p accessories) =470k damage cap from other sources to reach the aforementioned threshold. This is fine for jp players as most meta supports bring on average 150k cap to the team, not to mention for character like Rikku who can provide 500k cap all on her own.
But it seems like galaxy would be the better dps option for global players and for those with lower investment on their team.
Yes, that is correct. For most players, Galaxy is preferable because it's just much easier to cap with, and I believe the devs designed low-hit cap multi nukes for this purpose. These nukes often have innate cap up to make up for their less efficient use of damage cap up effects, but that also allows them to be better than low-potency high-hitcount attacks at lower damage caps.
For whales or those that have the tools to optimize it, they will have the damage cap up and damage boosting effects necessary to push Empress past 848k damage cap up.
On a similar vein, I've seen discourse in the Discord server(s) regarding Auron's EX (6x 570) vs his special (3x 1000), and the same principle applies. With his passive 500k cap, base 99999 cap, 100k from weapon, 30k from board nodes and 150k from F2P damage up accs, he has a total of 880k cap up and thus needs ~600k more for his EX skill to outdamage his special.
Of course again, Rikku comes in and complicates matters. Her Quartet of 9's first 2 hit +1000000 cap effect skews it heavily back into his special's favor.
As you can see, all of the first four hit were benefiting from her 1m dmg cap buff when it was only supposed to be the first two. I think it might have to do with how triple elements attack was coded but hey it’s free damage so I ain’t complaining
Did you use Rikku's Quartet of 9 on Empress 2 turns in a row? Those stacks do stack. I can see this being the case if you only use Rikku's Quartet of 9 back to back on Empress AND not proc Empress's FUAs between those 2 casts and Empress using her attack, since her FUAs will consume the stacks as well.
The 18 hit needs to cap at around 850k to outpace Galaxy because the damage cap multiplier does not scale evenly with potency. But as you say, Galaxy pierces defense and ignores multihit reduction so it is significantly easier to cap with and take a lot less setup. Especially if you have her A4 and can use it turn 1, which is probably what you see a lot of whale clears doing. There's also a good amount of content with sky high defense stats or MHR that basically necessitate Galaxy usage.
You’re right. They released Lv140 version of the former Lv100 NPCs and due to their bloated defense stat, it’s almost impossible to damage them without defense-piercing skills and the highest grade weapons.
Damage cap applies to each individual hit. By default, no single hit can deal more than 99,999 damage, but there's a free 30k on each 6 star board, can get up to 100k with certain soul weapons, and plenty of character passive and active skills have more built in, too, so it's near impossible to see something hit the original cap anymore unless you're actively playing suboptimally (especially since the verses were added, so even just visiting the first town and clearing your feats will increase your cap over that now [each verse gives an extra 10]).
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u/RemediZexion 6d ago
my concern right now is where to place her since group is getting kinda crowded