Vaylen

Always thought dual elements were in a... bad spot. They are cool and thematic, but, ultimately, really weak.
Personally, I'd like a system that has multi-elements as advantages. Current system, they are more on the disadvantageous side.

5 hours ago, Fein-Life said:

Jeez. Didn't know I would upset so many people by grinding.

I didn't realize the level cap was only 50 and that the script adjusts the leveling average.

I am enjoying this game thoroughly though.

How do you use a randomizer? Final fantasy 4 had free Enterprise which randomized the game for you.

I've downloaded Python and I have no idea how to randomized BNW ,nor do I understand Python.. does anyone have a video of this using and Android phone?

Look at the boards, there's a randomizer stickied there. Didn't use it myself, though... Installation seems to be via an executable.

Just be aware that, especially for Espers and enemies, randomizing may be a bad idea. As Espers are now bound to characters and cannot be equipped by everyone, which Esper you get when makes a difference - for example, getting an Esper for the Thamasa duo while not getting them for awhile would suck, as would not getting an Esper for a character already in your party.
No idea how this randomizer works in detail and if you can choose what to randomize, but you definitely shouldn't randomize Espers for BNW and stuff like monster randomizing may have some annoying side-effects.

PS: Don't think anyone here is upset, just... confused, really.

As a sidenote, levelling up past 30 is very difficult already, so that's not an easy grind. If you really wanna grind, you should wait till south figaro - the desert enemies are hard, but give lots of xp and money.
But really, as everyone here says... I'd advise against grinding. Undermines the depth of the mod by a lot. And, for the endgame, you'll likely still be just about lvl 30 anyway. Grinding Esper Levels is also way more important - which you cannot even as of right now.

1 minute ago, Fein-Life said:

Ahh. I was just trying to grind terra to 17 in the beginning cave but it's very hard in this game

Heh, yeah. I'd advise against grinding, as being OP makes a lot of the challenge negligible, but that may just be me.

47 minutes ago, Fein-Life said:

I started BNW. Pretty good so far. Can't get over how easy the opening enemies one shot you with poison . Kind of ridiculous IMO. 

I think they trigger via counter.
Many enemies have counters to specific commans like attack, magic, blitz, tool etc. etc. Those counters can wreck you hard, so you got to play around them.

In the character discussions for Gau, you can find a nice rage-list. Helped me out a lot in finding out which rages are "best".

2 minutes ago, thzfunnymzn said:

Honestly, I'm not seeing the ubiquity of Genji that you see. I've often tried to avoid Genji because I view other endgame armor as superior. The lack of magic defense and elemental resistances / immunities hurts. Its bad enough that even for people like vig Cyan, I'd consider taking the Force Armor over Genji. Course, some of that is that I tend to abuse Image tactics lategame, so I value magic defense quite highly.

Also, again, for heavy armor characters, endgame armors are just Genji and Force. Crystal, if you want to be cute. So unless you want to argue for Light Robe, Crystal Armor, Dark Gear, etc, as being endgame armors, I find it hard to wrap my head around Genji being ubiquitous when, for most users, there's little choice to begin with. I can see arguments for a buffed Mirage (+vigor), a more easily obtained Mirage, perhaps an earlier Minerva, so as to create more diversity.

Not buying any changes to Genji itself though. Not when it has clearly defined and meaningful weaknesses, and not when alternative options exist and, if found wanting, have clearly defined buffs that would make them more appealing over Genji.

You are not wrong. A lot of thhe ubiquity is in terms of Genji including locke/shadow as its users and some armors gotten very late(Minerva, Mirage). Mirage Vest being not the best thing hurts this a little more, too. Swapping some power around and giving access to a few armors a little earlier would certainly help.

So~ The ubiquity vanishes by the end, I can agree on that. At any point before, though, too many people want Genji.

6 hours ago, thzfunnymzn said:

-3 speed and no evasion on Genji brings it in line with the other heavy armors, but I argue is unnecessary. The other heavies have significantly more magic defense as well as various elemental resistances.

As far as I see  we all agree that Genji is fine for the armor users. It's hardly op on them. So changing both Genji and Mirage seems like overkill. 

Auto-Image is too much with the +20 evade methinks. Said character becomes a dodging beast in randoms, on top of the 100+ evade. I think auto-haste utility has been well argued.

Spoony, Sabin's magic blitzes need a lot more than just magic+ to be useful.

Argument is not Genji being OP, but ubiquitous. It is not good design that it pops up as an option all the time - and nigh all builds enjoy either the 7 stamina or 7 vigor really much. The option often feels like "You could take the cool specialized armor... Or you just take a ton of stats. That works too.". Genji just doesn't ever feel as suboptimal as it should feel.

I see the utility in auto-haste a bit more. And yeah, Auto-Image is really strong - it just sounds nice on paper.
 

10 hours ago, Nowea said:

Also, HasteX will eat Shadow's MP pool, so suddenly you're spending 2 turns to chug a tincture at times. And a shadow that dies even relatively frequently ends up losing a lot of time rebuffing. Lastly, Just because Shadow and Gau can reapply Haste easily via HasteX (despite it still not being optimal) there's 2 other people that can wear Mirage Vest.

After repeated edits, You can build a Shadow with over +25% HP and MP, over 100 speed, full status immunity, and one evasion at 94 and the other at 104 (depending on esper equip). This makes his evasion to where he can only get his 19% by one attack type and 27% on the other (rounding up). Just some food for thought here.

Gau and Sabin are not really taking Mirage Vest ever(Jacket/Muffler). Leaves only Locke and Shadow - and Locke can get away with less dodge anyway due to HP Esper. Only leaves Shadow and, while I see the utiliity of auto-haste, it isn't the strongest of effects on him still. And it feels strange if the, in theory, best user has the least use for the passive. I'd rather pump the power budget of the passive into defences/+health. A small +health really helps out Shadow's survivability(Say, +12.5%), but doesn't bring it over the top. He just tends to survive attacks more often with a sliver of health. An mp boost similary small is also appreciated, just to make his support set a little easier to use.
Sadly, such an effect would still not make Mirage Vest compete with Muffler/Jacket at all, while Locke doesn't really care and would prefer auto-haste.

8 minutes ago, Nesouk said:

And I say Auto-Haste prevents the need to rebuff if Shadow die (which can happen as Shadow is basically a glass-canon) and grant immunity to Slow.
And after some testing the 7 points in Vigor doesn't make that much difference in the damage dealt so it's not that big of a lost, the Evasion is better with Mirage Vest but admitadly not by a large amount same with Defense in favor of Genji difference in Damage Shadow receive isn't that high, Mirage Vest also gives Magic Evasion that Genji doesn't really, both are viable just depend of what you want.
That being said I can agree on the remove Evasion from Genji, I effectively think that Genji should be on a Tank/Heavy hitter character like Cyan or Edgar not on speedy characters like Locke or Shadow and so wonder why not give it a speed malus (like -5) to discourage using it on such characters.

 

But the need to rebuff shadow is so easily fulfilled cause of his absurd base speed. He has no qualms about "wasting" a turn or two. Overall, I think the haste on it could really be something else that works better for the squishies - even just some raw def to make them less susceptible to death.

Minus speed is a real bad idea. Think about it like that: Who could stomach having less speed? Someone with 80 speed or someone with 30? Shadow wouldn't mind that much to give up some speed for strong defences. -5 spd just makes genji underpowered as hell.
Removing evasion would still be could. I couldn't justify picking it on Shadow like that. Could get a compensatory buff to m.def or def, for example. I'd also like to see a shift in the stats it gives: Instead of 7 vig/7 stam, go 5vig/9stam. This would require a dedicated vig or vig+spd armor to equalize options... although, nigh any heavy armor user really enjoys stam, even if it is just for cover/counter.

16 hours ago, Deschain said:

My solution: An NPC in Zozo says "I've noticed Dadaluma gets lethargic after he eats..."Another NPC in Zozo says something like "I've watched Dadaluma fight. He responds to every attack with exactly the same counter!" or "I've watched Dadaluma fight. His attacks are a lot more threatening than his counters!"

Now the relevant information is not completely hidden, and it's up to the player to figure out what it means. And if they don't talk to the NPCs, well, that's on them! And it has the added benefit of not changing the fight in any way, just giving the player some extra information going into it.

 

If this were added, then when someone inevitably complains about Dadaluma being too hard, we can be like, "Did you talk to all the NPCs?" rather than "Just figure it out!" and it feels a lot better as a player, knowing it was their fault they missed it, rather than the game just hides it.

Pretty cool idea. More NPC interaction isn't bad, especially cause Zozo's so goofy with it.
I knew what Slim Jims did beforehand cause I stole them. Maybe one could make it a rare drop of one of the Zozo enemies and/or put a chest somewhere. The npcs could give more hints about his pattern in contrast to that, being a good learning experience as to what to expect from enemies in the future, too.

1 hour ago, thzfunnymzn said:

Hmm, I find Locke the least susceptible to an untimely death from a physical. There may be a build difference here. I like stacking Phoenix ELs on my fighter Locke, ignoring Ifrit, alongside equipping the Genji Shield for auto-Safe. With that bulk and 100+ evade from everything he's equipping, I'm normally more concerned about his mg.def. Which is something the Mirage Vest would help out with with its +20 mg.eva. It's just a hard trade to make at the Colosseum to get one and I'm losing vigor doing so. For Locke, at least, the only recommendation I'd give for Mirage Vest would be +3 or +5 vigor. The extra vigor would also make it more desirable for all-in glass cannon Locke set-ups.

I'm not supportive of HP+ or MP+ on Vest. Sabin & Gau all ready have HP+ options and have no need of MP+. Locke has a personal HP/MP equipment in the Phoenix equip, Sage Stone, and Rogue Cloak anyways. Shadow's meant to be frail and has little need for an MP booster.

For Sabin, Royal Jacket's HP+ is really hard to beat, seeing as how Sabin's defense is in stacking lots and lots of HP. Jacket's also giving +20 p.evade, better p.def, Fire immunity, and +5 vigor. Mirage Vest's only advantage here is the +20 mg.eva and the speed...

Oh, WOW, Mirage Vest's defensive attributes are horrid. It's like the Chocobo Hide, just with an extra 10 in each evade instead of a couple of resistances. With defenses that low, I think I support giving Mirage Vest +7 vigor. Might give Gau and Shadow an actual reason to equip it.

Vigor+ aside, another option for Mirage Vest is to give it a quirky elemental immunity. While Gau won't care and I'm unsure how it'll affect Sabin, Locke & Shadow have little else in terms of magical bulk besides the Lazy Shell. Counter-argument is that the Vest is all ready giving +20 mg.eva and so said immunity might be over-buffing the Vest if it's also getting +vigor (which it should).

Shadow really enjoys bonus MP for rerise spam(With his high speed, it really is a strong option on him). But that's just a small thing.
Mirage vests defences are really just not... endgame material. Add the lackluster boni it grants and it becomes really iffy. I'd like to see its defences boosted by 5 and granting +vigor. A change of any kind on its passive would simply be appreciated. I'd still like auto-image to be set, it just sounds so good and fits well. Would also allow the defences to be leaning more heavily towards m.def.

The reason I thought about +hp is that it simply is a strong effect. It would also mean it could compete better with jacket/muffler - as the +hp is such a good effect. That said, I generally think +HP is kind of a OP stat, as well as heavy HP espers... So there's some bias, I guess.

1 minute ago, thzfunnymzn said:

Something to consider is that the Mirage Vest is also supposed to be an endgame equipment for Sabin and Gau. For Gau, Locke, and Shadow, yeah, auto-haste is more of a nicety rather than a real selling point, though Locke likes it a little more than the other two. For Sabin, it's more interesting, though it has to compete with Royal Jacket's HP+, which is really, really nice in terms of keeping Sabin alive (also gives vig+, IIRC).

I'm not sure I'd want to lower Genji's evade. Remember that Genji must also be balanced for heavy armor front-row characters, to whom the extra evade isn't a bad thing.

Evade removal can be compensated rather easily, though. It would just make it a lot more unappealing to the dodge-characters.
Sabin and Gau have little use for mirage vest. Dragon Hide, Snow Muffler and Jacket are all outshining it, I'd say. Locke and Shadow both feel very susceptible to an untimely death without more defence. Shadow doesnt benefit from auto-haste, too. So that leaves only Locke, who often prefers force armor anyway and, when dual wielding, probably enjoys the defences of Genji more.
Maybe Mirage armor could just give hp/mp plus. 25% HP goes a long way on all of these characters as a good anti-one-hit option. Think I currently even use stat stick on shadow, just to boost his stats a little for survivability and rereise >.>

7 hours ago, Nesouk said:

Mirage Vest VS Genji for Shadow is more of playstyle the speed bonus + Auto-Haste greatly increase Shadow's number of turn and so increase is potential DPS more than 7 Vig point and increase his potential with Throw or Item usage as he will act more often, that being said with Safe and Shell and a HP bonus from Hero Ring I found Shadow to not die to often that couple with the higher Evasion that Mirage Vest gives and end-game I was mostly wearing Mirage Vest end-game, I think it just a matter of playstyle wether you pick Mirage Vest or Genji but I honnestly found High Evasion way better than High Def for Shadow, and also Mirage Vest is better for Cover/Counter since he will die if he takes to many hit by covering his allies you want him to Evade rather than taking hits in that set up.

I'd argue that Auto-Haste is rather useless on a character with HasteX that always goes first ^^" and a speed bonus of 7 vs a vigor bonus of 7 shouldn't make much of a dps difference.
I find mirage vest a tad underwhelming as an "ultimate" armor. I do think, though, that I would take it over Genji if Genji wouldn't give 10 evasion.

2 hours ago, thzfunnymzn said:

Restricting Genji to heavy only means that Shadow and Locke lose out on equipment options, without really changing how the other six users work. Might I counter-propose that Mirage Vest gives +3 or +5 vigor, perhaps with at least one Mirage Vest obtainable without the Colosseum? The former is more important I suspect, since it makes Mirage Vest strictly better than the Dark Gear, while reducing the argument for Genji down to Stamina and P.Def, instead of Vigor as well. The latter would be nice, but I'm not qualified to say if it's strictly necessary.

I agree, Dark's a bad ultimate magic.

Yeah, you are not wrong. It just feels strange to see Genji even as an option for Locke and Shadow. Mirage Vest adding some vigor would be really nice. Genji losing it's evade would also make mirage better by contrast. I'd think about changing Mirage's passive effect from auto-haste to something else. Auto-image kinda sound fun and fits the "mirage" theme. On Shadow, this wouldn't be that powerful even. On Locke probably, though..

3 hours ago, JohnFuklaw said:

If Terra or Celes are using apocylumina or other spell-swords then the Oath Veil is a better helmet, there's also the Circlet for if you want MP and the Minerva is better armor hands down. For a magic build you might also want to use the Light Robe or Force Armor over Genji. Also Force Armor is just better if you want magic defense/power over physical.

Genji is great for tanky Locke and Vigor Locke/Shadow, but I prefer the speed and evasion from Mirage Vest and either the Counter from Ninja Mask or the bonus HP and MP from Red Cap.

On Edgar its great unless you're running Siren Edgar, in which case the Dragon Helm or Stat Hat and the Force Armor are significantly better, and even on Vigor builds you'd want the Dragon Helm if he's jumping.

Setzer usually will prefer Force Armor unless you're doing his Stamina build and in that case you'll probably prefer the Skull Cap to the Genji Helm.

Then there's Mog, who vastly prefers Circlet and Force Armor if he's magic, and even for his Vigor build you'll probably want to go with Dragon Helm and Snow Muffler.

That just leaves Cyan and... yeah, Genji stuff is the best gear for the samurai hands down.

Mh, I am not talking about Genji-Helms at all. As mentioned somewhere: Genji helm is much less competitive, as they are so many rare helmets with strong effects(Oath Veil, Circlet, SKull Cap, Red Cap, Stat Hat, Dragon Helm). Much more variety there.
You often won't need a lot of m.def on the girls, due to their headgear especially.
Talked lots about shadow/locke further up. Simply put: Genji Gear does give very competitive stats for vigor/speed builds in terms of dps. And Genji allows them to actually take a hit before dying. Mirage Vest is just overall a bit lackluster for an "Ultimate" armor. It is good, but not on the same powerlevel as Genji, I feel.

Different element would at least make the spell.. useful. But yeah, not everyone needs everything. Dark just feels especially bad cause it is supposed to be your "ultimate" spell, together with Black Omen. X-Magic Strago still has use for Black Omen: Ignoring Def, AoE, Poison resistance. Non X-Magic Strago has absolutely no use for Dark except for very, very niche cases(Phoenix Cave).

Genji still pops up an awful lot as a desirable option, doesn't it? I'd propose rebalancing it slightly, maybe restricting it to heavy only and creating a new medium and/or light armor.
Also, just got a mirage vest and... man, Shadow is paper. Guess that's what he is meant to be, but I feel safer equiping Genji. Not to mention, 7 Vig is really strong on Shadow anyway. Think that's one of the things that makes Genji so ubiquitous: Usable on many, strong defensive stats that can pull up the low def characters and the sheer amount of stats... + those stats are widely useful, both on offence and defence... oftentimes even utility, due to all the Stam scalings scattered around.

And yeah, Genji is really nice for most counter-attackers. Just a strong stat combo for them.

25 minutes ago, thzfunnymzn said:

Ease of obtaining Genji Armor is an interesting point, though I don't think it's too dramatic except in the case of the Mirage Vest and Minerva. Minerva is meant to be endgame; I think its supposed to be slightly op? The Mirage Vest especially is rather hard to obtain while not exactly being super amazing for those who can equip it. (Gau & Sabin want HP+, Locke & Shadow have enough speed, Shadow has HasteX anyways; though the mg.eva+ is very interesting). Assuming your doing things in the "normal order", you'll get a Snow Muffler and possibly at least one Force Armor shortly after you've "gotten both" Genjis. Wind Dragon's also not too bad to kill early, so that's another Force Armor.

Eh, iunno Vaylen. It seems not too difficult to have both Force Armors about the same time as both Genjis. For Mog, the Muffler should come around the same time to. I will, however, grant that the Mirage Vest is an utter pain to get with small reward, which means Locke & Shadow either take Genji, Dark Gear, or equip the Lazy Shell.

On another note, you're not the first person to note that only X-Locke feels particularly solid. That's how it's been for a long time now. X-Mog is sorta coming around as of 1.9, but he's not quite there yet. (Non-elemental Quake when?).

I'm not sold on stamina Dark. I'd like stamina to actually be a useful defensive stat, instead of just being a third attack stat (vigor and magic being the other two). Stamina's mediocre as a defensive stat right now outside of Cover and some heals / Chakra, but I'd still like to fix that problem, instead of completely giving up on stamina.

Tbf, the only alternative I have to suggest is to slightly raise Dark's power but significantly raise its MP cost. The other X-Mages are damage spikers who can't sustain their elemental barrage for too long, so why not move Dark in that direction as well? For the magical equivalent to Cyan, Strago's missing a real dps magic, so his best builds tend to be supporter builds with back-up aoe magic or elemental sniping. (Either that, or Punisher Black Belt Strago, but that's still kinda the same thing as well, just more MP efficient and with potential for crazy counterattack shenanigans). It'd help differentiate Dark from Raze and Black Omen, and Locke's X-Fire3 shows that there's room in BNW for absurd elemental damage striking a weakness.

 

Is there even a mirage vest outside coliseum? Same question for Minerva, tbh.
Force Armor is much more specific than Genji Armor, making them compete rarely with eachother. And if they do, one often wants Genji over Force, cause of how good Stamina is for some characters/builds. Nigh every character actually has a build that really enjoys stamina... Also, it is easy to get more Genji Armor through Coliseum(Especially as Genji Helm isnt nearly as competitive as the Armor, due to all the good, specific headgear for most).

Dont get me wrong, force armors are still good and it is nice to make a difficult choice between force and genji... It is not as nice if I have to make the choice 4 times and have others, as Shadow, that don't even get the freedom of choice for a long time.

Yeah, it would be nice to have a defensive/supportive benefit on Stam Strago. I find his support set to be a tad wonky, too... Put up zoneseek+shield and that's basically it. Strong, sure, but quickly gotten over with. I just built him with some MP and full magic, dishing out great numbers due to absurdly high magic.

But what I am really asking for is to make Dark useful outside of X-Magic. Strago would enjoy it being a fire instead of poison type spell(undeads), a stronger ice option or basically anything he doesn't cover way too good already with his Lore.

Just now, Nesouk said:

This is true but there is an exception to this which is call "First Time" when you fight a boss for first time it can differ, such can be the case with Dadaluma the first time I fight him I was uninform and so not perfectly prepare and altough I win on the first try it tooks me like 15 minutes and let face it Dadaluma isn't that diversify of a fight so I can see how one can get old of him, however yeah if you lose on your first try yes you should try other strategy and set up and eventually pass it. 

Yeah, first try can be hard. On the first try, I tend to jusk fuck around: Use all status available, all commands available(To check for counters) and stuff like that.
I remember Wrexsoul wrecking me pretty hard, cause my team lacked good offence or defence against it the first fight.
Sabin's random targeting made him useless.
Terra was my big damage dealer with morph n fire 3 - but she was also my best reviver/healer.
Edgar's damage just isn't that high to capitalize on Wrexsoul's short appearances.

After changing the setup a little - hell claws, more M.Def for Sabin(He'd get one shot by flare and nigh one shot by meteor) and keeping terra dead when he has posessed her, so she can't get re-posessed... he went down real quick.

So yeah, first time, fight seemed unbeatable. Second time, it was pretty quick.
Same goes for some other bosses which I fought pretty underlevelled. Wrecked Holy D thanks to Celes' runic, for example...

7 hours ago, Miasmir said:

The concern I have with the Dadaluma fight isn't so much its difficulty but the unpleasant play experience it creates if he spends as much time in the air as on the ground.  It's just so much time during which you can't interact with the boss.  The situation I found myself in when I first attempted the fight (in 1.6, so grain of salt) was that I clearly could win, eventually, I just got bored before he died.  A friend of mine had a similar experience just a few weeks ago in his first playthrough (1.9); he did win on his first attempt, it just took a very long time, mostly because he was using fight with multiple characters on many turns.  I don't think it would be realistic to expect the player to discover the effects of their commands on Dadaluma's behavior; after a while, they're just trying to get in as much damage as possible between jumps.

My suggestion would be to make him jump slightly less often, maybe by changing the condition that causes him to jump from a counter of 3 to 4.  On the other hand, that does make him less dangerous.  To address that, maybe he could randomly jump 2/3 and elbow drop 1/3 along with the slim jim?  That's not really consistent with the joke/gimmick of the fight, though.  Just brainstorming.

Once you've studied the fight and understand the manipulations, there's no problem at all.  Even a level 3 party doesn't find Dadaluma to be a stumbling block (well, the fight is much easier than many other things in such a challenge.)  So I don't think his HP or regen or damage needs a nerf.  I just get annoyed by enemies that become invincible too often.

But isn't it par for the course that, when you get to a boss, you save, you try everything you can and then die, going in with more information next time?
Of course, being unable to always easily switchh characters is a bit of a bummer. But I think just about every party setup has some sufficiently strong stuff vs Dadaluma.

6 hours ago, thzfunnymzn said:

One downside to the Genji is its low magic defense and lack of any special bonuses. Force Armor grants a nice boost to magic and significantly stronger mg.def, alongside Fire/Ice/Bolt resists. Minerva grants a nice mix of def & mg.def and immunity to said three elements. Snow Muffler grants very nice balanced defenses alongside Ice/Wind immunity and an HP+. For Locke and Shadow, Dark Gear has the vigor+ alongside speed+ and evasion+; Mirage Vest loses the vigor+ but grants auto-haste. For Shadow, there's also a hidden stealable armor that may or may not be good depending on your playstyle.

Genji is good, but I think it's only really a "definitive" equip for Edgar, Cyan, and Setzer.

As for Dark, I'll refrain from going to much into it (I'm...infamous sometimes for my opinions >_>). Suffice to say, I think that it's highly niche as a spell outside of a few specific instances thanks to Raze & Black Omen (or even the more niche Punisher Rod), even assuming the Sage Stone. It's not possible to balance Dark for non X-Magic builds so long as Raze exists, and Raze is just too useful of as spell for Strago throughout the WoR to axe it. Also, the Fire/Poison dual element is unique, something I'd rather not see disappear.

Snow Muffler doesn't compete with Genji gear, though. And for Shadow.... you mean lazy shell? Only hidden armor I could think of.
But to clarify: I am not saying Genji Gear is overpowered. Just that it is very often the best option. This is only aided by the fact, that most of the comparable/better gears are gotten very late or only via coliseum trading(Which, in turn, is highly dependant on what you actually can trade without compromising a build). And also... Dark Gear is very clearly in a low Tier than Genji in terms of sheer power. You lose only 10 eva for a whopping 30 defence. And in terms of stat, you gain 2 vigor and 7 Stamina for 5 speed. Surely, speed is the more useful stat(on most Dark Gear users). But at the same time, it is kinda very obsolete - Locke and Shadow, for example, usually have enough speed to not prioritize gearing for it and instead want higher defences, evasion and damage. And I'd say... if 10 eva wasn't worth 30 def, something's strange in the balancing of the stats.
Thinking about Genji Gear, it is the best armor for a TON of builds.  Namely, basically all builds that like Stamina and nearly all builds that enjoy Vigor. It even gets used on the light armor dudes simply cause of the superior defence+the sheer amount of bonus stats.

And I don't mind your infamous opinions, I guess I have sometimes rather... strong opinions myself. But I see you are kinda agreeing with me on Raze, so there's that. And honestly? I don't find X-Magic very appealing on Strago. X-Magic on Locke looks much more appealing to me, for example(Despite him lacking support spells).
 

2 hours ago, A Dummy said:

Actually there is an ultimate evasion armor if that's what you're looking for, the Mirage Vest, but it's at the Colosseum so you have to give up some other powerful gear in order to get one.

Yeah, but... it seems strange to me that I need to jump through hoops to get a good light armor, while heavy equipment is just scattered about everywhere. It feels kinda... dumb, I guess?

5 hours ago, ronlyn said:

I have a suggestion which may or not sound kind of crazy but here it is nonetheless: Dark could be a magic spell that deal physical damage instead of magic damage 

This would both make the spell more unique since target with a exceptional m.defense tend to be quite fragile against physical attacks and would also put the spell apart from Black Omen (Or if it's possible, make the spell power being calculated from stamina)

Making it physical wouldn't really do anything(Sides from X-Magic, but thats not the point). Omen is already a defence ignoring nuke, so there is still no point in using Dark like that.
Making it being a Stamina-based attack, though... that seems interesting. My Strago currently has a ton of stamina  - even though I put 0 points into it. Stam Strago would really be cool if he had some extra support.

It's annoying what a balance conondrum Dark is thanks to X-Magic... add to that, that X-Magic feels a tad lackluster anyway.

18 minutes ago, BTB said:

Against a typical enemy, Dark is roughly equivalent to spamming Black Omen. The MP cost is roughly the same, but there are a few other factors. One is that Dark respects defense, so can be stronger (or occasionally weaker) depending on the target. It can also hit a weakness or a resistance. Black Omen is the "safer" of the two because of this, but Dark is frequently the more powerful.

(Of course, Black Omen is also MT, so it wins hands down as a sweeper.)

I try to avoid having too much specialized equipment because that begins to wear down at the possible different combinations of equipment setups in the endgame. For example, if everyone's equipment was completely specialized, then the best final setups would be a lot less interesting than if more or it was shared, or at least that's the philosophy I approached it with.

Also, stamina is useful for any character since it acts as a defensive stat. There's some debate as to *how* useful it is, but it's by no means a wasted stat. In fact, the cover/counter changes in 1.9 were implemented specifically because I wanted to see more meaningful synergy between vigor and stamina (specifically with regards to Phantom Celes).

I dont compare dark to black omen, but to raze. They are very similar and, barring a few edge cases, raze is always better(Except X-Dark, of course). That's my problem with dark on Strago, as it is only useful as X-Strago and has next to no use in other cases.

Equipment should not be too specialized, yeah. While it feels nice to have stuff like snow muffler and radiant gown, it would be more interesting if there were options. That said, Genji Armor is too general. If something is generally very good and often times among the best, it becomes ubiquitous and frustrating. Having instead another bucket for ultimate, say, evasive gear(In different forms, limited) would create more choice, as it wouldn't need to compete vs the raw stats of Genji.

To put it short: I don't want to think "K, so, basically... 5 of my toons do best with Genji Gear". That sucks.

14 minutes ago, BTB said:

Each character's spell list was created to compliment their special skill, and in Strago's case his special skill is "more magic", so it ends up in an odd place. Like Nowea said, his offensive spell list is pretty sparse since Lore mostly fills that role and assumes the use of the Sage Stone in order to be competitive with Lore. The rest of his spells - like Shell/Reflect/Osmose - are perfectly serviceable without the Sage Stone.

I classify the Genji armor set as "medium" rather than heavy armor, which is why the list of users also include Locke and Shadow. It's a solid defense option for them, but it sacrifices evasion in turn - and these are two characters built around dodging attacks rather than taking a hit (well, Shadow at least. Locke is a different story.)

I'll answer any other questions you have, but it would be better if you just posted them in that initial thread you made instead of making new ones.

Well, I will do that. Thought "new questions, new topic".

Genji armor does offer a high amount of bonus stats, though... In addition to decent raw defence. I believe it would be more beneficial to reduce the possible users and compensate by adding more specialized armors. Additionally, Genji armor is very strong for any stam user and vigor user, but those two do not mesh together as well as one would expect. I'd call for a shift of power there.

I see the point of Dark now, but... it still stands that it is a nigh useless spell for non X-Magic Strago.. and that just feels bad. Dumb reasoning, I know, but having something marginally useful would just feel a ton better.

1 hour ago, Shax said:

This might be a bit late, but Setzer is absolutely useful as a back line attack user. It's something he can almost always fall back on regardless of his build. Setzer has a special relic that makes the attack option more juicy, and can be an absolute tank if you want. The new cover/counter buffs is something he can actually take great advantage of thanks to a +2 stam esper and the type of equipment he uses. It likely won't replace GP toss or slots, but it's not bad damage.

 

My personal favorite way to play Setzer is angry dice throwing maniac. Dice always hit and ignore defense but the damage is a literal dice roll and only scales with his level. Well, that and berserk which gives a 50% damage boost right at the end. Rolled 500? Now 750. Rolled 6,666? Now 9,999. All ignores defense.  Between berserk and his special relic, his damage is much more consistent and can actually hit pretty hard. It also scales at the endgame with fixed dice which was already good damage without berserk. I usually have him married to the hyper wrist for the convenience of auto-berserk however black belt could be really good with his high stamina and proper support. It's not a build that blows things out of the water except on a good dice roll against tanky opponents or bosses. Unless the idea of tanky uncontrollable character doing semi-random damage is off putting to you, I suggest you give it a spin. I really hope I'm not the only one who enjoyed this so much.

That sounds like fun. I currently got him as a healer/tank with GP toss and built on stamina. GP Toss REALLY hits hard, gotta admit. But thanks for the input!

28 minutes ago, Nesouk said:

Regarding Genji it all depends of your builds like for instance with Celes if you build her as a mage Genji isn't that usefull on her as you might prefer equipment that increase magic, for Shadow I argue that Genji aren't the best option for him the thing with Shadow for me defensivly it's better to invest toward his Evasion as he has the best natural evasion out of all the character so equipment such as Dark Gears and Mirage Vest are better in my opinion it makes a good Evasive Tank with Cover Counter due to his high Evasion + Interceptor being able to block hits

As for the Dark spell as Nowea said X-Dark is actually really good but I do agree that Dark come maybe a little to late due to having to get Odin, but I think it is willingly a late game option.

High evasion is great. Actually taking a hit and surviving coupled with decently high evasion is preferred, I say. Also, stats: Genji Armor gives 7 vigor, which is huge on someone like Shadow. Of course, Genji armor is not ALWAYS the best. But way too often, it your best option, despite being suboptimal in one way or another. The huge boosts to stamina and vigor make it a strong armor on most of the cast - and that it can be worn by most of the cast too just makes it feel strange(Isn't it supposed to be heavy armor...?).
I'd rather have it a bit more limited in users, so it is not such a competitive piece of armor and/or create armors comparable in strength for evasion and/or stamina builds specifically.

2 minutes ago, Nowea said:

It's less that "Dark is only there for X-Magic" and more "His spell list assumes X-Magic". This is helped a bit by his Lores serving as his more powerful 'single cast' spells. If it was possible to have some spells that don't work with X-Magic (in a way that the player easily understands instead of just having spells grayed out or missing at random) then something like that would be feasible.

But shouldn't his spell list also compliment a non-X-Magic build? Most of his spells do(Except bio, usually). That his "ultimate" non-lore spell winds up close to useless without X-magic just feels really bad and isn't wholly necessary. Simplest solution would be to add a useful effect to it and/or change it into another element he doesn't already cover very well. I doubt this would make him super OP all of a sudden, albeit, it's still a bit of a buff.

Just now, Nowea said:

Regarding Genji Armor, I don't have any strong opinion one way or the other.

A single Raze is better than a single Dark, yes. However, Strago's magic menu is balanced around the use of Sage Stone for X-Magic. As is, X-Dark is Strago's best single target damage spell (before weaknesses and such).

Ah,  forgot about that... Guess Sage Stone is in fanatics or gogo's dungeon, as I do not have it.

But yes, this makes dark more appealing. But still not exactly good - if Dark is only there for X-Magic, you could just as well give him something else that has at least some use on non-X-magic strago. Probably not one of hte other top-tier spells, as they are stronger than Dark, though. If Dark just had a different element, he'd already enjoy it much more. Any element but water would fly there really. Even Fire would be better, cause Raze can't deal with undeads.

Hello there.

There are two oddities I noticed...

First is: Genji armor is one of the best armors on nigh everyone that can equip(Which is close to everyone). Feels especially strange that someone like Shadow can equip it. Shouldn't there be another option? Especially cause its stats can feel so awkward on many characters, as many do not care for one stat or the other - yet it is still their best option. Feels like the game is missing an armor to accomodate for that. It is nice to make a choice as to which character gets which armor... It is less nice when the choice is always the same.

Secondly... The Dark spell seems kind of pointless. Only rarely will one use it over Raze. And it is gotten on Odin~ Making it kind of a "meh" pickup. Celes' Merton is similarily of little use usually, but Crusader is at least important for a build of hers. Odin's equip bonus is very nice at least, but you often want Zoneseek for the summon(imo).
I'd propose giving the Dark spell to some other characters(Setzer/Mog, maybe?) and giving Strago something with actual use for him. Could be anything, really... Maybe something stamina-scaling to make that more of a build option(Fittingly coming with Odin).