thzfunnymzn

Yeah, problem here is that it's too easy to keep Hidonites under control. Leave all but one alive works too well. Even barring that, the player should have really strong AoE options by now, making it still a relatively simple task to clear them as they respawn.

Hmm... Hidon is definitely an example of the fight being over after the first 5 minutes. Hidon is "Clear Hidonites, See Lores, Clear all but one Hidonite, Kill Hidon." Four phases, except the first 3 go quickly while the last one is extended way past the stage that it's interesting. Therefore, Hidon has more HP than necessary. Some of the dragons are the same way, especially Water and Poison (or Fire, once you've gotten Fire gear). There's more ambiguity when it comes to the Warring Triad or harder dragons (Holy, Earth, Ice). Another complicating factor is that, by the Warring Triad, I expect that even many new players may stop sitting on their piles of Ethers & X-Potions and start using them, meaning that the available resources to consider tactically (number of puzzle-solving tools) for the Triad increases. Iunno quite how that fits in, but it seemed important to mention. >_>

For ELs, deserts (except Figaro) and the Fanatics' Tower are best, with the latter being better. For normal levels, I think Dino Forest is still best, just not as good as in vanilla. Then again, haven't grinded there since ELs were introduced, so iunno.

Hidon is pretty infamous for being very fat (tanky, bulky, high HP, etc), yet doing nothing with that fat. As an example, I had difficulty with the Soul Fires with my team in NHT just the other day because they're so fat. I couldn't rush a victory, I had trouble keeping momentum going with their attacks, and things could quickly get out of hand, and they just wouldn't die! Hidon, otoh, isn't hard because of his bulk. Once you've got his buddies under control with a good healer around, he's just a wall of HP that isn't very threatening. So the problem lies in a non-threatening script. I've thrown out a 2.0 suggestion for making Ebot's Rock as a whole a time-based dungeon, like the Imperial Banquet was, so that we see the concept again in the WoR and make Ebot's Rock / Hidon more interesting in general. (Also taking @SuperHario's suggestion of a poison-weak Hidon, though with normal mg.def, but that's another issue really). But that's just one of many possibilities. The real problem is that Hidon isn't that difficult, so his high HP feels like a chore rather than a serious obstacle to overcome. The dragons are different, as some of them are difficult (Holy, Ice, Earth), so nerfing their HP does cheapen an otherwise difficult boss fight. Same with the Warring Triad. I wasn't a fan of the nerf to HP on dragons, but then again, I also think the dragons, in general, need to be looked over, because some of them are boring (Fire, Water, Poison). Warring Triad at least had their bulk nerfed in more interesting ways (low defenses), but, again, not a fan, as they weren't boring.

Sounds like you'll kick the dragon's butt once you come properly prepared with equipment and ELs.

Cleared Cyan's Soul. vig Sabin, stam Edgar, mag Relm, all level 23 - 24 Also, I made an esper reset. Celes, Sabin, Edgar, Cyan. I finally have people who have other 1,000 HP naturally, w00t!! *** First order of business is getting a Punisher Rod for dealing with the Dream Jerks. Relm's going to be MVP for the boss fights. To do that, I need either the Wing Edge near the entrance to the Phoenix Cave or the Avenger near the entrance to the Cave to the Ancient Castle, and then trade said item in the trading circle in the Colosseum. I opt for the Avenger, guarded by Master T. Team is: MP/HP Terra, mag Strago, vig Sabin, mag Relm Turns out, 'Gank' can miss now (or was it always like that). Huzzah! Does mean that this guy becomes a lot simpler: Mute, Golem, p.eva, lots of Fire damage. Morph Terra does 7k+ even without magic EL investment, Raze & Flare do 3800 - 4400, and Fire Claws are doing 4.5k. Master T crumples without a hitch, Colosseum trade goes quickly. *** First area of Cyan's Soul, I actually bother to clear a random with Meteor. Otherwise, just running to the Stooges with Back Guard + Gale Hairpin equipped. For the Stooges, courtesy of @Satarack, I have discovered Reflect Ring strategies, making these guys so much simpler. I was dreading these punks on NHT, as they normally give me trouble every game. Reflect Rings made this fight a lot simpler. Also, Relm's RegenX cuts through Reflect. ^ _ ^ Edgar's purpose is to SlowX. After that, he mostly pretends like he's mag Edgar, with Bio Blaster, Defib, Cure 2, and Battery. I didn't even equip a spear for Cover because speed (Falchion) was more important. I brought Edgar along for Cyan's Soul because he's one of my lower level dudes and has SlowX. Mog perhaps would've been a wiser choice, but you know what, oh well. Sabin's purpose was to be dps, but it turns out that Poison Claws only do 950 damage a pop (as does the proc), so...uhh...stam Edgar was outdamaging Sabin. >_< Berserk Sabin did better, but I couldn't berserk him until the top stooge is down because getting through the first part of the fight is top priority. Multiple opponents at double speed = not fun. Relm's purpose turned out to be dps. Punisher's Dark proc hit for 7k, nearly 8k, damage a pop. Granted, the rng decided it hated me most of the time, but the raw damage output compared to the Figaro Bros. couldn't be ignored. It ain't the Figaro game anymore. RNG decided it liked me for the last dude and proc'd Dark thrice in a row, ending his life quickly. Otherwise, Relm also threw out RegenX. *** Soul Train portion was handled with more Poison. Caves portion was the usual Bolt + Heal nonsense, though with some high damage killing Relm once. *** Wrexsoul, otoh, was a pill. It took me many resets. Despite improving my strategy & tactics a bit, there was still some luck to the fight. Namely, with who Wrexsoul had infected and Flare / Meteo. It's rare that I pull together a team for Cyan's Soul that can easily handle both Dream Stooges and Soul Fires, though that may also be because I keep trying to clear Cyan's Soul at lower than expected levels. >_< Sabin actually was the dps for this fight. After summoning Golem, his job was to berserk himself (so, no Reflect Ring, ; _ ; ) so that he can wail on the Soul Fires for 1.7k Ocean Claw strikes, plus the occasional critical (2.8k) and Drain proc keeping him topped off. Spreading out the damage proved useful, since the last Soul Fire going berserk proved difficult to handle, so it needs to be nearly dead when the first one dies. Relm's job was also to provide damage (Flare) and the occasional Cure 3 after setting up with RegenX and Rerise. I tried to have her Flare whichever Soul Fire had been taking less damage so as to avoid the "last Soul Fire goes berserk" problem. Relm kept a Reflect Ring on, protecting her from Flare & Lifeshaver. For the winning run, this and Relm's high mg.eva for dodging Meteo proved invaluable, as she was the one who Wrexsoul had "possessed." Reflect Ring, Red Cap, and high mg.eva meant she never died despite the Figaro Bros. dying, so I was able to win. Edgar was least valuable person here. SlowX is still nice, as was Hasting Sabin, but otherwise, he mostly sits on a full ATB until someone needs healing because I can't afford not to have someone without an active turn ready because of double speed Soul Fires. Also, Defib proved useful. I had to use 2 Phoenix Tears, an X-Potion, and an Ether in the winning run. What jerks. Ultimately, though, it's my fault for dragging some underleveled Figaro Bros along to a late WoR dungeon. Probably should've replaced Sabin with Mog, come to think of it. *** Well, I still made it through, and went straight to esper resetting Celes, Sabin, Edgar, and Cyan. For Edgar, I gave up on stam Edgar and reset him to mag Edgar. 5 Unicorn, 10 Siren. He basically was a bad mag Edgar for Cyan's Soul anyways, might as well stick with it. I'll use Umaro, Celes, or Locke if I want C/C. (Might try Shadow). Sabin has been reset to Terrato Sabin for the lulz. 15 Terrato. Probably should grab some Stray. Cyan has been reset to vig Cyan, because that's the way you play Cyan. Actually, he's still got 8 Alexander ELs, so he's still bulky. Need to grind him up, as he's only at 18/9 right now. Celes was reset to Phantom / Alexander Celes instead of Ramuh / Seraph Celes. 8 Alex, 7 Phantom, with more Phantom coming. Get to try out a bulky c/c Celes with ???. *** I have no idea what's up next. I guess the Phoenix Cave?

You are at a noticeable disadvantage with not having spent ELs. Even a handful of HP ELs will go a good way into making you more effective in combat. Fire Dragon virtually requires Fire gear because of S.Cross.

Not at all. X is Roman numeral for 10, L for 50. Seemed simple. Most clocks I see ain't in roman numerals, so no, it didn't confuse me.

Pretty sure that, even without an elemental weakness, that berserk claws outdamage Bum Rush. Dunno by exactly how much, probably not by enough to be worthwhile when Bum Rush is all ready a good, untargettable attack. Too lazy to check right now.

In the words of some of the children I've taught, ya'll are trippin' if ya'll think claws ain't used at all. Berserk + Elemental Claws = dead boss. Sabin can even berserk himself, IIRC. Also good for hammering a foe with low p.def. Or just for hitting a specific foe in a crowd instead of hoping Bum Rush does the right thing.

Stray + Terrato is what I assume when I say stam Sabin. I generally think of a 10/10 split between the two. Terrato Sabin is more 20+ Terrato, maybe 15 Terrato with some minor bit of Stray. Not liking trying to shoehorn stam Sabin in as C/C. Just doesn't seem to work. Would rather focus on stamina's role as a stat.

C/C is definitely the good, universal use of stamina. Unfortunately, it's limited in application to peeps like Cyan, Celes, Umaro, Locke, and maybe Shadow. Excepting Terrato Sabin, Sabin just doesn't strike me as a useful Cover guy. My Force Robe suggestion certainly ain't helping stam Sabin be any better at C/C. *** OK, being fair to the people who like stam Sabin, I'm trying to understand the tactical & strategic situations in which you do want him so that I can better pinpoint where I think the problem is. To me, it seems like, painting with broad strokes, that there are three situations in which you want dedicated or semi-dedicated MP support. Using high-end, expensive, powerful magics without actually building the MP for it. Liberal use of said magics in long dungeon crawls, even on builds that build MP or manage their MP. Tech-switching a non-magic build over to magic spam for a particular (mini-)boss fight. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think for most any other situation (such as an occasional re-charge in a boss fight), the answer is usually better MP management or using Ethers, maybe a slight bit of Chakra / Battery from a Figaro who didn't build for it. I don't mention X-Locke or X-Mog as their own thing because they fall into #1 or #2 by default. #1 is probably the theoretical use for a dedicated Chakra / Battery specialist, but it also depends on whether or not the particular build in question is worthwhile, as well as how much is actually gained from going all-in, extreme magic power. X-Mog, for example, is the poster child for a character that "needs" MP support but just doesn't reward the player much for using him, whilst Mog has at least two other magical damage options (Dance, Rods) that are perfectly viable without stretching his MP at all. Terra benefits very little from even building Maduin to begin with, except for the semi-extreme scenario of building (semi-)pure Maduin for endgame Ultima spam, so she's also out. Relm can't even build her magic without building her MP, and Locke can only build MP. spd Relm counts, but then you have to factor in, what's the loss / gain of grabbing just a handful of Bahamut ELs. Setzer can build pure magic, but why? Rerise Shadow and Magic Gogo like the MP support, but I'm doubtful as to whether or not they're going completely all-in with spamming expensive magics. (Correct me if I'm wrong). Celes and Strago strike me as the only two characters with major potential benefit from going all-in with magic, although doing so for Celes turns her into a mini-Relm, sacrificing Celes' HP advantage. Oh, X-Locke likes MP support too. #2 is definitely a solid use. It's an absolute game-changer for Terra, Locke, and Mog, and very helpful for Celes and Relm. Strago likes it for AoE, but he's also got strong & cheap ST damage options, a cheap AoE status setter, and X-Zone is somewhat inexpensive too. Other characters don't really care. #3 is also a definitely solid use for people like Terra, Celes, Locke, and Mog. Also lets Shadow & Setzer be more liberal with MP usage for a particular fight. On the other hand, this is also definitely a scenario where one could argue for Ether support, or for only a semi-dedicated MP specialist (mag Edgar or hyb Sabin). So, tech-switching and liberal use in randoms are solid enough uses, but it seems to be that those alone only argue for a semi-dedicated MP specialist; someone whose well-rounded, with various options, but who isn't totally dependent on providing MP support to the team just to justify his existence. IOW, good arguments for mag Edgar and hyb Sabin, but not for stam Sabin. Also, #3 alone is easily a case of "please use your Ethers". This does argue that stam Sabin is better buffed by making him more well-rounded (stam-based Mantra & Air Blade, Force Robe, ??? universal use for stamina ???), instead of any sort of straight buff to Chakra. Though making him more well-rounded still requires that he have some other "main draw" besides just Chakra. So, it seems the main reason limiting a pure MP support specialist is the fact that few good mages honestly benefit from going all-in extreme with magic power / spamming high-end magic. Pure Shiva Celes / Strago and X-Locke are really the big ones, with Rerise Shadow & Magic Gogo as lesser ones, and X-Mog as the fail example. Also, if there's only one of said mages on your team, why not use mag Edgar instead, whose Battery is significantly stronger for a single-target than Chakra is? (And I haven't even touched on if hyb Sabin's good enough for the job even in these cases). *** So, it's either do something to make MP-less mages more desirable (Mog especially), create a wider difference in power between "freebie" moves and moves that cost MP (could be either attacking or healing), more high-end magics and/or modifying MP cost on stuff to shift them over to high-end (...Cure 3?), make stam Sabin more well-rounded such that he doesn't need to absolutely spam Chakra just to justify his existence, or make more stuff cost MP (not happening).

The problem with "cutting loose" is it hits on the problem that Nowea pointed out. Because the game's magic users have such easy access to MP+ and MP management options, they don't really sacrifice a lot of power or turn efficiency to manage their MP. (Also, the efficiency and power of the team has to be account for having one guy who ain't contributing anything power-wise and is also probably a net negative turn-wise because of his single-mindedness). Therefore, the difference in power / efficiency between cutting loose and managing MP is fairly small, or at least, much reduced from what you'd expect for a jRPG. Therefore, since the difference in power is small, the reward for cutting loose is small, which means that it's probably not worthwhile to dedicate a whole character build so that the other three members can cut loose. It's perhaps a decent argument for hybridizing a vigor Sabin with some stamina, but it means there's no reason to actually run stam Sabin proper. In terms of building or equipping a character for cutting loose, there's really not much of a difference at all between "MP management" and "cutting loose." Much of the same equipment you use for beefing up your magical power is also the same stuff you use to increase MP pool or MP efficiency: Soul Saber, Circlet, Magic Cube, Soulgem Box, Crystal Orb, Sage Stone, Hero Ring (did I miss any?). Red Cap is really the only outlier. Also, a handful of MP ELs is immensely rewarding for any given character, whereas sacrificing those MP ELs for a little extra magic power is generally not very rewarding. Perhaps it's maybe, kinda-sorta rewarding for mag+2 folks come endgame (Celes, Strago), but Terra? Nope. Relm can't even de-couple her magic growth from her MP growth. And this only concerns the 4 main mages. X-Mages? Two of them (Mog, Strago) are seen as below average set-ups to begin with, so why dedicate a whole 'nother character to them? It's only X-Locke. Course, there's still Setzer and Shadow, who have strategies that prefer Chakra support. Tactically, for randoms & dungeon crawls, you have to judge whether or not there's a benefit to cutting loose vs. simply spamming status spells. (And then there's Strago, whose go-to mid-WoR move, Raze, is pretty cheap). If you can kill the enemy quickly, there's a benefit, but some enemies just plain need to be status'd, in which case, the benefit is much reduced. On top of all of this, remember that Mana Battery exists, works even better for a single-target, and Edgar has more to him other than Battery spam. So, having Sabin not be so single-minded (better Mantra, stam-based Air Blade even if ST, Force Robe) is definitely something that needs to happen, but even still, you're specifically setting up a team of 2-3 mages for stam Sabin to really shine.

Casual players forgetting to dip into their Ether / tincture supply is definitely a thing. It means that stam Sabin is valued more heavily by players who don't dip into this stuff, but because stam Sabin is also the oddball Sabin build who lacks for HP, he's also anti-synergistic with casual player use. I'm not going to comment on which MP nerf is most fair for all players. Simply presenting ideas. I will comment that I think more could be done to make Strago appreciate Chakra a little more, like Relm does: not totally dependent on it, but it's still a nicety, whereas right now, he almost doesn't care. Even if Mantra and Air Blade get modified or buffed (they should), stam Sabin still ain't the best attacker or HP healer. In fact, by Chakra supporting magic users, he's supporting other people who are better at healing and attacking. So, as ya'll touched onn, the core problem of being defined solely by Chakra is still there. Only two solutions exist for that though: another stam-based Blitz (replacing something currently there), or another (actually good) universal use for stamina. Only ideas I've had are status related, and I and some other (seibaby, I think) mentioned some ideas in Discord. Guess I forgot that my Force Robe idea does give stam Sabin some identity as being bulkier magically than vig Sabin, though, like Mantra and Air Blade, it's still not going to be enough if Chakra support, his core, isn't perceived as useful. I'm not totally convinced that Chakra spam, in and of itself, is bad, as it sounds great to have an infinite MP supply in a jRPG. But I can see the other side, too, and I do support giving stamina a better identity with actually good universal uses, instead of what it currently is. Also, hyb Sabin exists.

Fair enough. *** So, uh, back to Chakra. I've said that I think stam Sabin's critical issue is that Chakra's synergy with mages isn't as desirable as it ought be because of either the abundance of methods for said mages to be fairly independent (as Nowea and I have pointed out: MP+50%, MP+ espers, lategame Ether / Tincture supply, Gem & Soul Box, Raid / Osmose, Love Sonata). Too few magic users needing Chakra support = statistically unlikely for Chakra to find use in natural play (aka, requires pre-planning a specific party set-up). So, thinking specifically of whose synergy with Chakra ought to be looked at: Terra. Chakra definitely helps in the mid-WoR b/c of the price tag on tier-3's and Life 2. In theory, she'd also like Chakra for Ultima spam as well. But she's got a lot of MP+ options, plus Gem Box for the endgame. Seems pretty simple: look at MP+50% availability, endgame Ether / Tincture supply, and perhaps consider a slightly weaker Gem Box (2/3 cost, instead of 1/2?). Heck, even changing Cure 3's price tag is an option here, but that's another can of worms entirely. Celes...OK, like Terra, she does care for Chakra support mid-WoR b/c of the price tag on Ice 3. She also can't grow her MP as fast as Terra. It would seem like addressing Terra would address Celes as well, except Celes' endgame magic is different from Terra's. Unlike Ultima, Holy is the same power as earlier magics (Ice 3), but cheaper and defense-ignoring, while her healing is still Cure 2 & Rerise just scaled b/c of Celes' stats and possibly the Crystal Orb. Bolt 3 comes endgame, but, eh. So...uhh....something, something, Merton? Except Sabin's somewhat counter-synergistic with Merton, being unable to equip a Flameguard to get Merton healing. Also, Think's new patch makes Sabin even more counter-synergistic with Merton (can't even get immunity anymore). So....uhh....yeah, aside from whatever happens with Terra, synergy with Celes is a bit of a lost cause. Locke definitely appreciates Chakra support if he's going X-Magic, as it fuels more heavy usage of higher tier magic. What's more, Sabin certainly appreciates higher tier healing, what, with his high HP but low defenses. (Oh, and Fire immunity + fire magic = painless de-Frost). So, good synergy all ready exists. Nice. That said, this is only for X-Locke; other Locke set-ups need Chakra support less, if at all. So, the synergy here depends on how popular X-Locke use is. X-Mog, in theory, likes Chakra support. In fact, if he wants to use the Crystal Orb, he has to give up Moogle Charm, which means he pretty much needs Chakra (or Battery) support. Sabin even comes with Float for helping Mog use Quake, while Mog's Haste is helpful for the slower stam Sabin build (esp since Mirage Vest is unlikely). Problem is, X-Mog is unpopular, generally seen as (below) average, perhaps borderline satisfactory. Doesn't help that mag Mog has a plethora of other uses that don't care for Chakra support. So, something, something, X-Mog. Relm, with Osmose's nerf (this version, or previous? I forgot), less enemies having millions of MP (a change a few versions ago), and expensive magics, definitely does appreciate Chakra support nowadays. Strago, otoh, doesn't so much. While he's also been hurt by the Osmose nerf and the enemy MP changes, he's still got Raid. Actually, though, Raid might only be a secondary issue, especially considering its miss rate. Primary issue, I think, for Strago, is that most of his WoR magic and most of his support Lores are relatively cheap. Raze, X-Ice2, Refract, Holy Wind, Bad Breath, all pretty cheap. Dark and X-Zone are borderline, leaving his expensive magic limited to Tsunami, Black Omen, Shield, and Zoneseek. The expensive buffs aren't set frequently, so, uh, unless you're going for an ultra-high magic build with Crystal Orb equipped for Black Omen spam, Strago doesn't need Chakra too badly. It helps for the long stretch in Kefka's Tower, but more synergy could happen. Rerise Shadow likes Chakra support, but that's it from Shadow. Setzer uses magic, but really only healing magic, and Cure 3 is pretty inexpensive while being very powerful while Go Fish is a free Cure 2. He's not a bottomless pool of MP, but he can stretch his MP pretty far. Gogo appreciates Chakra support on certain set-ups, though Gogo can also equip Tools for some self-sustaining with Battery. His battery ain't the strongest though, while Life 2 works regardless of Gogo's magic, so, uh, yeah, he likes Chakra support on some set-ups. Edgar, Cyan, Gau, and especially Umaro and Sabin himself, are all lol. Not every single character needs a change, just enough such that there's a statistically significant chance that stam Sabin will find a team to support in natural play (aka, without specific pre-planning to make him useful). Characters I'm eyeballing here are Terra, Setzer, Mog, and Strago. I wouldn't even know where to begin on anyone else. *** Course, this is all assuming that I've got the right idea or even got the best arguments with those specific characters. Also, I'm essentially suggesting nerfs (except for Mog), which is never a fun time, and over-nerfing is just as big a potential problem as over-buffing (Relm's potentially in danger of being over-nerfed?). Furthermore, I'm suggesting such things based on character-character synergy and character-Item-equipment synergy, not just one character looked at solo, making this all the more difficult to analyze. Still, thought I'd throw it out there.

The problem with everyone having a use for their 4 main stats is that, well, both vigor and magic are really just "offense" stats, so it's only natural that some folks just only care about one offense and not the other. Strago / Relm really don't care all that much for their vigor stat, and Sabin really doesn't care all that much for his magic stat. Not really any way to avoid that without expanding one of the two stats into something besides "offense."

Huh. I'd have thought that be more of a problem for Relm. Shadow's mostly good to go once he comes back. He'll have Ninja Mask, Fenrir is simple to grab, Rogue Cloak is in another easy dungeon, his buyables are available right there in Jidoor, Dark Gear is buyable and practically endgame worthy. It's mostly a few ninja blades he doesn't have access, I think mostly just the one in Cyan's Soul. He's also got more WoB availability than Relm, and he performs well in the WoB. All in contrast to poor Relm. Then again, Shadow is one of the few characters without an AoE heal and he's also the frailest character, being unable to even equip shields, so that probably weighs against him as well.

It's probably because of their frailty, neither being freely usable until the WoR, and being resource heavy (Relm is MP intensive, Shadow's big physical throwables are GP intensive). Relm is a little underrated too, yes, though it's Shadow's low votes are strike me a little more than Relm's. Sabin, Celes, and Setzer don't surprise me. Locke's lost a lot of votes since previous poll, but w/e.

Guess I'll chime in that, looking at the poll results, I think Terra is overrated, while Edgar and Shadow are underrated.

I'll add on that at least part of my thinking is subjective: Strago by design is frail and slow, a reason people have pointed out for disliking stam Sabin as a healer. However, he's not slow. With Odin, Thunderguard, Dark Hood, Moogle Hide, and various relics such as Zephyr Cape, Stat Stick, Black Belt, White Cape, Knight Cape (back row only), he can break 50 speed without really sacrificing anything equipment wise. (Because, let's face it, without extreme set-ups or specific battles, Strago's not a top-tier or even upper-tier dps character, so losing Crystal Orb, Sage Stone, or extra mag+ / MP+ isn't really that big of a loss for him. Also, his support skillset is cheap and he's got Raid). This is all unlike Cyan, who has to make some sacrifices to even break 40 speed. Lose Genji Helm, lose Power Glove or Nirvana Band, etc. Strago's design looks and feels like he's supposed to be tankier than Shadow and Relm, not trying to run as fast as them, so I'm suggesting a minor endgame HP esper alongside the loss of at least some speed equipment access (Dark Hood being, by far, the easiest). Honestly, I don't see HP Strago as breaking anything. Gau's got Snow Muffler, with +60 p.def, Ice/Wind immunity, and HP+25%, which means he can then go an equip a helmet better than Red Cap. Run spd ELs for 90+ speed and Tumbleweed Rage (status immunites, auto-regen, Water absorb), and healer Gau is lightning fast and surprisingly bulky. Even if Strago gets the game's weakest HP esper, I'm not sure he's necessarily getting any bulkier than what all ready exists in the game for the frail characters. So, while I understand the argument, unless you also argue for something happening to Gau, I see the argument as null and void. Or take Relm. Unlike Strago, she still has a strong AoE heal (RegenX) that also heals herself when she equips the Black Heart, unlike Holy Wind. Combine with her various status resistances (shields, hides) and spd+, stam+ (stamina actually making her heal better), and healer Relm is arguably just as bulky as this hypothetical HP Strago while also being faster and having a significantly superior heal option. (This whole set-up being stam Relm's one good use). So, again, HP Strago isn't actually anything that the game doesn't all ready give for the frail characters. An actual HP esper is more readily accessible to a new player, rather than these set-ups (esp. that Relm one), true, but it's also counterattacked by how late the esper comes, its slow growth, and the fact that HP Strago's lack of magic makes him somewhat single-minded (spam Refract, Shell, and Holy Wind, with minor contributions from X-Zone and elemental sniping). Also, HP Strago is still significantly below the likes of heavy armor HP+30 characters (Terra, Setzer, Edgar; Edgar also having an HP+50% spear). I'm doubtful as to whether or not he'd actually rise up the bulkiness level of even Locke, Sabin, or Cyan. This change honestly brings him up from being tied with Shadow & Relm for being frailest to being tied with Gau for second frailest, without going outside of what the game all ready gives. I don't think that can happen without a significant change to what stamina does universally or a significant change to Strago. Even then, Strago's naturally high stamina may still mean he's perfectly fine with a stam+1 esper, which is what I'm still giving. Course, that's also speculation on my part. It could turn out that a better stamina means Strago really does want stam+2. I'm doubtful, but it could. Thing is, stamina or Strago has to change first, so it's a question of when, or even if, that ever happens.

My idea was HP +15 to match Golem (or +20, whatever it is that Golem is now). For someone like Strago, that's still enough for 3-5 ELs to be useful on any build, but it limits how tanky he can become. (Pure Odin would gut his attacking stat without being quite as rewarding as it would be with a stronger HP esper). He's definitely supposed to be tankier than Relm & Shadow, what, with that absurd stamina of his. And he'd still get absurd stamina, but also some a little more HP to boot. Might still be an idea that works best of Strago has an actual defensive use for stamina, but at least it isn't purely dependent on such. Being a useful dip for his mag build is also very important, considering how late Odin is "generally" gotten.

No, Strago has no business Covering allies, not with his low p.def and HP. Sides, he's got Refract for that. HP is because HP is an actual, you know, tanking stat.

X-Mage Locke, offensively, is mostly good for Fire weak bosses. The raw power of 108 x2 x2 will melt said bosses very quickly. In all other cases though, he needs immense MP support to maintain any decent offense. X-Locke is mostly the game's ultimate healer. Speedy, tanky, all the best heals, Rogue Cloak to boost his effectiveness, and X-Magic with said heals. He's undeniably strong, but I find that it's all overkill. Hence, I much prefer a mixed Ramuh / Phoenix build so as to have good, reliable offense with the bulk and healing.

No MP growth in the WoB is a very unfortunate flaw with Locke. Thankfully, he comes back with his MP+ esper, though Phoenix Cave is "traditionally done late," so you never really see the fullness of Locke's gameplay until late in the game. Phoenix also has slow MP growth, which does limit his total MP (lest X-Life2 and the like become too easy), but it does exasperate the the flaw just mentioned. No real way to fix that. Sadly, his healing capacities in the WoB are mostly limited to a hidden item.

OK, I'm emotionally conflicted, b/c I'm happy that my Odin = HP/Stam idea is catching on, but I give a big no to fundamentally changing stam Sabin's design. Chakra is unique. AoE isn't. Even outside BNW, Chakra is pretty unique for a jRPG. Chakra deserves to be in the fore-front, not put on the back burner. Any Blitz gotten at lvl.30 might as well not exist. Chakra coming that late is a sad end to a unique skill. There's all ready a lot of AoE options, many of them quite strong. Relm, Strago, Mog, Setzer, Shadow, Gau, and Edgar (half the cast) are all quite strong in terms of AoE. While there are balance issues here (see: Adamantite Rage), I'm not seeing room for adding an 8th dude into the mix (even 7 feels like a stretch), especially one whose whole identity is based around AoE. (After all, of those 7, who among them is completely defined strictly by their AoE?) If we did add an 8th person, Terra or Celes would be more fitting. Sabin's magic is a joke. 24 base, only enough equip options for 48 total, but if equipping the Nirvana for the precious +25% power, you can only get 41 magic. That's simply too low to make any WoR magic of Sabin's be useful (not without the spell power being equal or even stronger than endgame summons like Tritoch). Magic-based Fire Dance is fine, the numbers of the early game allow it to be useful despite Sabin's garbage magic stat. Ultimately, I didn't recommend stamina-based Air Blade because of wanting stam Sabin to be an attacker. I recommended it so that he at least had some means of offense for the late WoR, after Aurabolt had dropped off. Air Blade can't even hit for 1000 damage in Kefka's without building Sabin for magic (lol). It's a joke. I'll even take Air Blade just having Aurabolt's power but being in AoE version, but it can't do even that without de-coupling it from his magic stat (and vigor ain't happenin'). Course, issue here is that Sabin isn't supposed to have good AoE. He only has Fire Dance because most your AoE dudes come late (give Celes an early game AoE, get rid of Fire Dance? It's more appropriate thematically). So perhaps the issue here is that there Air Blade shouldn't be AoE, or perhaps not exist at all, being replaced with something else entirely. Single-target Air Blade is easy enough: little extra power then Aurabolt, actually learn it in decent time, boom, done. Some other blitz? I'll let the creative people have fun, as creativity ain't my forte. *** I'm sorry if I come across very rudely, abrasively, or like I'm putting you down despite being a newbie. Not my intent. I love and am grateful for seeing new players, I love the discussion ya'll have started, and ya'll have presented good ideas. I'm, for better or worse, very opinionated, stubborn as a mule, and have a tendency to dominate the conversation. (It's genetic). I hope you can look past my bull-headedness and forgive a veteran coming down hardly on a new guy to see why I'm concerned with what you presented.