#i think i have all the melee and physical ranged dps that i can do rn all done so thats kinda cool ngl

[zwei-rhunen]

-crawling thru the Thanalan deserts like a parched creature -

I've finally done it.. I've finished Hildibrand 2.0 (and leveled MCH to 50) ....

Now I can work on the rest of Heavensward (and try out BLU) 😋

[prettycottonmouthlamia]

Sometimes it's fun to just find a cheese strategy, even if that strategy isn't the fastest at dealing damage or what not. "The Immortal" my friend I have bad news for you.

I'm a really bad fighting game player. I subscribe to the School

OF NO BLOCK!

To explain this cheese for people who aren't aware and are wondering why my friends here aren't getting sandblasted to death, "The Immortal" has an interesting AI quirk where the attack he uses is dependent on the tile your unit is on, not whether or not he can hit them. If the enemy is on one of the ranged tiles around the map, he will hit them with his sand blast.

But if they're on a melee tile, he will always use his axe swing. This means that melee units with 0 Block can actually attack him with impunity. This means that Ambusher and Dollkeeper Specialists are at zero risk of dying to him and can freely whittle away at his HP.

There are two risks however: the first is the weather, so it might be a good idea to have a Healing Defender (like Saria) to keep their HP up. I had Thunderstorms and that can kill operators deployed, which will restore 12,000 HP to the boss, which is not great. As long as Saria doesn't damage the boss, she won't be attacked by him too. You might even be able to use her S3 instead of her S2, I haven't tested that yet.

The second is that _one_ of the Ore Guardians will decide to waltz his ass in the middle. We hate this guy. It's not super likely he kills anyone straight out since he'll also be whittled down, but importantly, it's annoying as shit. Once you see him, it's a good idea to block it with either Jaye or Lappland (since Silence turns off the retaliatory Arts damage iirc) and kill it off.

Ambushers:

Ethan: Ethan can actually damage The Immortal with his S2, but he'll only do about 250-360 damage with each swing depending on his Module progress and this is assuming E2 Max Level and Mastery 3. You'll want to use his S1 instead, because The Immortal actually has 0 RES and so the 100 Arts damage per second will be a much higher DPS.

Manticore: Manticore barely misses the 1000 DEF mark for her normal attacks to do damage, so it's best to use her S2 for this stage. She won't contribute all that much to DPS outside of doing a lot of damage to the Core Guardian, so she's not the most useful here.

Kirara: This might actually be one of the best stages for Kirara in the game, which is absolutely hilarious to think about. We've done it. We've finally broken Kirara. I'm not entirely sure whether her S1 or S2 is better, I think her S1 has better overall DPS than her S2, but her S2 boosts her survivability in the stage and she's pretty easy to position for the bonus.

Mizuki: Mizuki is actually the only Ambusher who can deal more than chip damage with his normal attack (only 97 though), but he does so much Arts damage its not really a fair comparison. You can use either his S1 or his S2 on this map, depending on which one you find has better DPS against a lone enemy.

Dollkeeper:

Bena: With Dollkeeper's, their skills don't tend to matter because they pretty much always instantly die. You might be able to get some use out of her S2, but Bena is more important due to the fact that her Substitute deals Arts damage, and a fully upgraded Bena can deal about 800 per attack, which is pretty reasonable.

Kazemaru: With proper timing, Kazemaru might actually be able to deal some damage with S1, but the big draw is the burst damage she gets off of her Substitute being summoned. This being said, she won't contribute that much damage even with her Module since the Substitute does physical damage and is just barely under 1000 ATK. Like Manticore, she's not really needed.

Specter the Unchained: This probably will not be surprising, but she's easily the best Dollkeeper for this bit. While it's highly unlikely that she'll survive to use her skills (even with the help of Gladiia and Skadi) her best one is obviously her S2, and she'll even do pretty good damage with it. Her Substitute is one of the big damage dealers here, as a full rotation will do about 17,000 damage and gradually wear him down. Skadi's Mod Y will also be a big help her for increasing her damage output.

I don't have everyone maxed out, so I can't say if this cheese can kill him within the 5 minutes for the stage. If not, it can get a good idea to supplement with a high damage Operator (they need to deal at least 12,000 damage in order to be worth it).

[tiny-cloud-of-flowers]

hi ari !! what would lorenza be like , as a trust avatar for dungeons ? how often / quick would she use the limit break, are there any dungeons post endwalker that u think she'd be a part of for the story ?

Hello, friend! Thank you so much for such a neat question! I apologise somewhat for how long the answer has ended up, but only because I was not expecting it to get this long, and I wish I could summon this same sort of ability to answer the rest of the asks in my inbox.

Hmm.. I haven't really thought about Lorenza as being a Trust avatar, but I do agree that she would be a Duty Support option for post-Endwalker dungeons. Specifically, the Fell Court of Troia, Lapis Manalis, possibly the Aetherfont, and the Lunar Subterrane - I don't think she would be part of the initial Alzadaal's Legacy expedition, only being brought into the plot after it became evident that there's a voidgate down there. She would also appear in certain alliance raids, like the World of Darkness and possibly Dun Scaith (and possibly the other two Shadows of Mhach raids as well), though probably not in playable form - it would be a bit like how the Royal City of Rabanastre starts out with Ramza and Lina Mewrilah alongside everyone. Her voiceline when selected for Trust changes depends on which dungeon you're going into - it's "I shall do what I can.." for Shadowbringers content on the First, "Let us end this." for post-5.3 and Endwalker dungeons, and "Sit back and watch the show!" for the post-Endwalker ones. This reflects her different levels of comfort in different worlds and parts of the story. Alternatively, if Zero has already been added to the party, then bringing Lorenza in as well will cause her to say "This is how it should be, here with you.." to her - which the player may well interpret as being aimed at them, but it's very clearly not >w<

In terms of how she would work, Lorenza's class as a Trust avatar would be Void Princess, a magical ranged DPS which mostly acts like a Black Mage except her actual spell effects are different (since, her magic is void-based, and her spells are either prefaced with the Void prefix or just outright called different things to show this). She is very keen to keep herself out of harm's way, making common use of Aetherial Manipulation to teleport to whoever is not going to get hit by whatever attack is coming next, instead of running away from it herself. If you have Zero in the party as the other DPS, then Zero becomes able to use the Enshroud skills of a reaper, as Lorenza is able to provide her with strength as if she were her avatar; this is about the only time she will sacrifice her personal DPS for the sake of boosting someone else's. (You may have noticed that this isn't entirely congruent with how I play as Lorenza when I play the game, since I've been playing her as a reaper post-Endwalker instead of a black mage. However, Zero already occupies the reaper-like niche as a memoriate, and magic suits Lorenza better than melee anyway.)

Alternatively, based on the fact that the Trust system currently doesn't have any physical ranged DPS options, I am also considering letting her be her Shadowbringers class, Glaivethrower - or just an alternate version of Void Princess with the Dancer icon, since I don't think all-rounders like G'raha change class name when deciding exact role. This is a ranged DPS that functions identically to Dancer, reflecting the twin-sickled fighting style she picked up from Lyna during the time she spent weakened on the First, but with a much more ominous/dark flavour to the visual effects and different attack names, because unlocking Trust means that the First has been saved and she can be back up to more like her initial power level. She will "dance partner" with the other DPS, unless that DPS is Ryne, in which case she will partner with the tank (simply because I don't think Ryne's light and Lorenza's darkness would be particularly compatible, oops). This would make her Shadowbringers appearance (or, rather, post-Shadowbringers since she'd have her hood down) her only option at level 70, leading into her level 80 glamour being her Endwalker appearance, and her level 90 glamour her post-Endwalker appearance.

Regarding the limit break.. if you (the player) are the other DPS, then Lorenza will not use the limit break unless it's either been at level 3 for a long time, or she can calculate that it will defeat the boss, at which point she uses it instantly; however, if Zero is the other DPS, she will never use the limit break in order to let Zero use it, which may or may not be the only time she actually does use them, I'm not sure. So, if you want to be the one to use the limit break, my suggestion would be to use it as soon as it hits level 3, so you're not wasting any of the gauge. I'm wondering whether Lorenza might have a stronger limit break than she should do for not being a melee DPS, simply because of the implication that limit breaks are powered by dynamis instead of aether, and voidsent are not only not subjected to any rejoinings (so have less aether than beings of the Source), but are almost always aether-starved to begin with because of how the Thirteenth is. So, wouldn't it be possible that someone from a reflection - like Lorenza - would be able to harness dynamis to more of an extent than someone from the Source - like most of the Scions? Leading to a more powerful limit break?

I hope that all of this answers your question, friend ^-^ thank you so much once again for sending it in!!!

[miqolena]

Full thoughts on DT physical ranged role questline

Below the cut. Spoilers. Warning: I'm mad.

I can't do a full play-by-play reaction to the questline because I didn't take notes (it would not have been worth taking notes, I realize now of course) but there are a few bits that really stood out to me.

Like the stealth mission. I started to see red when the game had me walk around a big boulder two times in a circle. What an utter disrespect of my time for the sake of padding out the quest to an arbitrary length.

Characters were forced to be stupid in unforgivable ways. Like my WoL and the woman who saw the antagonist originally masquerading as a merchant when he stole the artifact not recognizing him on sight by his SHORT PURPLE HAIR when he came to them in a mask-less MERCHANT disguise. gods be fucking good.

And later, the whole plot led up to an INVASION OF ALA MHIGO??? WITH MAGITEK WEAPONRY??????? AND NO INPUT FROM ALA MHIGO WHATSOEVER? Where was Lyse?? Raubahn??? Why did the Resistance show up AFTER the fight was over (I know, because gameplay needed to happen, shut up). It didn't feel like the city was being invaded because they didn't show any of the effects of an invasion, like people running or soldiers fighting. I can only assume that this is because it wasn't in their budget to set up those kinds of setpieces. I'm not a game developer. But you know what I think should happen when that is the case? You need to write within your budget.

I thought that the deal with the impenetrable barriers the artifact generated was that because they explode when dispelled - which the game made a BIG DEAL out of saying a couple of times - that was why you needed to by a physical ranged dps to handle them. Because you could shoot it from afar and be far away when the explosion happened. But no. It wasn't anything like that. In the final fight it wouldn't have mattered if you were a melee or ranged, you just had to strike a weak spot formed in the shield by standing in front of it and attacking the target. Utter bullshit. There had to have been some sort of disconnect between the encounter designers and the writers to have that sort of setup happen with no payoff.

The rotten, rancid cherry on top was when the music for the final encounter was the hee hee hoo hoo silly music from DT, as it is for all the role quest finales it seems. This person literally just invaded Ala Mhigo with magitek weaponry and intends to kill people with it and the background music is hee hee hoo hoo. Fucking unbelievable.

I'm seething. No quest in the entire game which I have been playing for 8 years has made me feel so mad because of its subpar quality. Truly an achievement. Thank you Dawntrail. I cannot wait to see what slop the capstone role questline will be.

[lilyblackdrawside]

Inam - 6-Star Lord Guard

Elite 2, Level 90 Stats

2650 HP 701 Atk 380 Def 10 Res 70s Redeploy Time 20 DP Cost 2 Block 1.3s Attack Interval

Trust Boni

+400 Hp +70 Atk

Potential Boni

2 Deployment Cost -1 3 Redeployment Cooldown -4s 4 +200 HP 5 +27 Def 6 Deployment Cost -1

Talent 1 Maximize Available Assets When deployed, increases the SP recovery rate of all Vanguards by +0.2~0.4/second (only the highest effect of this type takes place) and all Vanguard Operators’ Def +10%~20%

Talent 2 Acquire Knowledge Gains +3% HP for each Vanguard, Guard, Defender and Sniper in the squad and +3 Res for each Caster, Medic, Supporter and Specialist in the squad

Rank 7/Mastery 3

Skill 1

Wicked Chop On-Attack Charge, Auto 3 SP, 0 Initial SP

The next melee attack deals 400/460% atk pure damage over 4s to the target.

Skill 2

Great Chief’s Show of Artistry On-Attack Charge, Manual 20/15 SP, 7/10 Initial SP, 16s Duration

Gain +50/80%Atk, Attack interval halved. Attacks leave a stacking mark on the target that inflicts -3/4% movement speed and -3/4 aspd per stack. One second before skill ends, the mark is removed and deals 80/110% atk physical damage per stack to the target.

Skill 3

Power of Money Automatic Charge, Manual

35/30 SP, 0 Initial SP

Consume all currently held DP to gain permanent, stacking buffs to Atk, ASPD and Phys/Arts damage reduction. +7/10% Atk, +7/10 aspd, +1/1.25% Phys/Arts damage reduction per 20 DP. If used at >=99 DP, refunds 50% SP.

Base Skill 1 Great Chief’s Coordination When stationed in a Trading Post, sets order acquisition efficiency of other Sargon operators, Gavial and Gavial the Invincible to 0 and then increases it to +35%.

Base Skill 2 Lead by Example Gains +10% order acquisition efficiency per other Sargon Operator stationed in trading posts, up to +50%.

The theme here is being a Lord Guard who doesn't do any Arts damage that she would have above average basic tankiness just through her stats. She's still not tanky-tanky, but within her subclass she's quite sturdy. She can then leverage her defensive bases by using her very strong S1 or with S3 (I'll go more into S3 in a bit). I also worked her background into the whole thing a bit.

Initially I had S1 modular with it letting her ranged attacks ricochet if she uses it not in melee, but I think this is better. It's more interesting and could incentivize different positioning. I made the dot pure damage because that's funny.

S2 is more for ranged play and designed to take down elites and bosses. It's very straightforward to use, even if it might look a bit complicated. Activate it and she goes nuts on whoever is the closest in her range and when it's about to time out her target is vaporized. I made the stats up with around 20 attacks within 15 seconds in mind. With just the halved attack delay she actually manages just above 24, but the slowing effects shouldn't be too harsh, since by the time they're stacked that high, the skill is about to expire anyway. Would be mildly busted in Integrated Strategies if you get enough aspd and stack -100% move and aspd onto an enemy, but that's okay. Don't worry about it.

Okay, S3. So that's the meme skill. It's the one you make funny videos with. Yes, she can reach 100% Phys and Arts resist. It costs 1600 DP, up to 2000 if you also go for the SP discounts. At that point she also has +800% ATK and +800 ASPD. (7 attacks/s) The earliest you could get this, going just by pure SP is after five and a half minutes. Of course you also need to generate the required 2000 DP + however much you need to deploy your operators within that time. Stages don't tend to last that long, but if you want, you can also give her some form of SP charge and go for it. Something like Ptilopsis, Warfarin, Inam, Myrtle, Elysium, Saileach and the next six best DP generators. Probably a bunch of Pioneers, I don't know. Might be problematic in Annihilation I guess, but nobody's looking.

Anyway, this was fun. I was going to do a full fake operator sheet but Krita krashed and I lost Kritacal progress so this is what I got.

[anarchypig0]

This patch I started to tank as BLU mage. I realize this is the most difficult role to fill at pf and see so many complains about BLU doesnt being a "real tank" -which is true but a lot of BLU mages aren't doing the tanking well. So here are my spells and advices for BLU mage tanking.

Disclaimer: English isn't my first language so...

For grabbing and holding aggro

#27 The Look. Amazing, it's AoE for taking aggro. But you must be aware that if the mobs move, they be outside the aoe when you finish the cast and wont ger aggroed. This happens very often because other BLU entered in their radio before you finish the cast. Thats why I recommend j Kick or Supernakha to catch their attention and then the look.

#31 Sticky tongue: draw-in spell which increased aggro. Useful for one lost enemy in the pull. But be aware of the radius of the spell.

#97 Hydro Pull: draw-in AoE spell. Be aware of the radius.

#62 Frog Legs: The BLU's provoke. Use it to reasure your aggro.

#61 Avail: The BLU's Shirk.

Advice on aggro and tankbusters:

Very important for all the party!!! some tankbusters are based on aggro (fine, you can hold it by reassuring while to while with Frog legs) BUT others are based on roles and you all are dps classes so these will be random. All BLU should have #29 Diamonback for these.

For mitigation

#77 Aetheric Mimicry /Tank) & #30 Mighty Guard. They're basic.

#32 Toad Oil: 20% more evasion. Use it in cooldown.

#29 Diamonback: Blocks 90% of the damage and nulify the knockback and drawin effects. Think about it as your invul. You cant move for 10s. With good timing you can survive to more than one mechanic with this. It's expensive in MP but has little recast time and will help your healers so much! Don't fear to use it for hard tankbusters.

#95 Dragon Force: 40% mit.

#89 Chelonian Gate: 20% mit with a relative fast recast, it reflect dmg when you take >30% of your HP. Very useful! You can mover but shouldnt since It will end the effect.

#75 Devour: Increases your HP in 20%

#107 Schiltron, #49 Veil of the Whorl or #16 Ice Spikes: These counter some dmg you take. Ice Spikes is the weakest of these, pick the one you like most.

#117 Force Field: It grants 50% physical mit OR 50% magic mit but you cant choose which one so I don't really like it. I feel you can rotate dragon force, chelonian gate, and diamondback safely and drop this.

Advices on mit:

This is important!!! Even with the tank stance and Mighty guard your HP will be the HP of a dps class so you won't have a "real tank" HP pool. You NEED to mitigate, specially the tankbusters. Plus BLU healers doesn't have the big toolset that a "real healer" has, and the res spells has a very long recast so you need to help your party by taking less damage and not dying.

Be careful because your "real tank" mits are instant and the BLU mits must be casted. You'll taking a race on which castbar ends before: your mit or the tankbusters one. So your reaction must be on time!

For Utility and support

#28 Bad Breath: Very usefull for debuff enemies, even the bosses usually take some of the debuffs.

#70 Cactguard: 15% mit for other party member. Useful if you're offtanking, you put it on the MT. Or if you're MT you can put it on healer in danger situations.

#13 White Wind , #73 Exuviation or #108 Rehydration : pick one or two healing spell for backup for your party. Exuviation is aoe and removes debuffs from your friends.

#72 Angel Whisper: Always usefull!! The res spell. Since it has a veeeeeery long recast time it's prefered to all BLUs to have it.

#57 Eerie Soundwave: remove buffs of the enemy.

For Damage:

#104 Nightbloom or #9 Song of Torment: DoT, always useful.

#105 Goblin Punch: instaspell for basic dmg spam spell. Must be in melee range. It's single target.

#63 Sonic Boom: the basic dmg spam speel. Useful when you're away of the boss. It's single target.

#80 J Kick: Gap-closer, useful for start a pull.

#97 Hydro Pull: Pulls enemies to you, usefull for dungeon pulls. Aoe.

#31 Sticky Tongue: Pull in one enemy to you. It stuns also and increases aggro.

#78 Supernakha: Usefull primal spell, and useful for starting a pull at dungeons.

#75 Devour: It restores some HP.

#33 Ram's Voice & #92 Ultravibration: Always usefull for dungeons.

#109 Breath of Magic and #121 Mortal Flame: BIG DoTs but only one of each can be active so only one BLU must cast them. I like it to be the tank or healers so the dps has more room for other big dmg spells.

Hope some of this would be useful to you if you want to try the BLU tanking. Once you get used to the different way of aggroing at dung pulls and to casting the mits it gets very fun and challenging!

Feel free to add your own suggestions!

[hopskipandarump]

ok hold on im having Omega-related feelings real bad so i'm gonna ramble for a bit

So like, every final turn Savage/Ultimate is a what-if scenario, like how Dragonsongs Reprise was "what if Haurchefant lived", and E12S was "what if Gaia remembered her being an ascian and beat our ass" etc.

One of the things TOP takes and runs with is stuff we learnt about in Endwalker. The original Omega story ends with M/F because Omega is desperate to work out how we're so strong, but ultimately fails to learn, and in Savage, it ended with Final Omega because the story was "what if Omega tried fusing to become EVERYTHING it can think of that makes the Warrior of Light the Warrior of Light".

In Endwalker we learnt about this thing called Dynamis.

You see where I'm going right?

Phase 5 of TOP is Run: Dynamis where you fight M/F who have somehow managed to unlock Dynamis themselves and you face more and more shit as Omega goes wild with this whole new thing to consider and experiment with. And every time the boss tries to use Dynamis, its partially blocked out because Omega has no idea that it's called Dynamis, so you just have "Run: ****mi*: Delta/Sigma/Omega""

Eventually you reach the end of the phase, and the phase 5 enrage is Omega deciding they cant work it out.

(The enrage is called "Blind Faith", by the way)

When you beat the enrage in phase 5, obviously, you get to phase 6.

Alpha shows up like in the original raid. Except this time, Alpha decides to fuse with this Dynamis-infused Omega and shares his memories and knowledge. I don't see it as Alpha "betraying" us, honestly and never have, I cant imagine Alpha doing this maliciously.

Anyway Alpha-Omega now has full use of Dynamis and is desperate to get to the end of this test and finally, FINALLY, learn what makes the Warrior of Light so very unstoppable

All of phase 6 is basically a back-and-forth of you/Alpha-Omega blasting each other with Dynamis in the form of Limit Breaks, you use tank LB3, Alpha-Omega uses Bard LB3, you use melee LB3, Alpha-Omega uses Dragoon LB3, Alpha-Amega uses Black Mage LB3, you use caster LB3 and physical ranged LB3, etc etc

(The party does like 10 LB3 in one phase it looks cool as shit lmao I'm a sucker for a flashy ending but I guess if I was a DPS main I may feel differently)

Eventually when you reach Magic Number (the lead-up to the very final enrage), Alpha-Omega comes to the realisation that all along, it WAS Dynamis that makes us so strong, and they're CERTAIN that they finally understand how to use it and are going to test their final hypothesis and, basically, see if theyre finally stronger than us and able to defeat the Warrior of Light.

(Hopefully) you beat Alpha-Omega before they finish casting Run ****mi* [Dynamis, still blocked out because Omega still doesn't have a name for this mysterious power] and as Omega sits there defeated and confused, Alpha un-fuses and slowly, Omega realises that whilst Dynamis makes us strong, there are more facets to the Warrior of Light's power than just raw Dynamis strength.

Alpha talks to Omega and offers to journey together so that Omega can continue learning about the world and all the different things that make ANYBODY, not just the Warrior of Light, powerful, to continue their experiment.

And then the story continues from there as it does after the normal raids.

ok thanks for coming to my ted talk bye

[fefeman]

Now, the new gavial is far from a bad unit, with a powerful kit, and I kinda like her, but I feel this is sad that the focus of Hypergryph with her was to make her a powerful warrior first and foremost, instead of focusing on how she is a Doctor first, and extreme violence is more of a hobby to her (I mean not exactly, but she want to work in the medical field and see being a warrior as secondary to that goal.)

With that in mind, I thought about an alternative "Gavialter", a "what if hypergryph kept her a medic" scenario. I thought about her kit anyway. Do keep in mind I kinda winged it with the values, so they might be under or overtune...

I'll add my comment like this

Gavial the urgentist

After the arrival of Tomimi and Zumama at Rhodes Island, Gavial began to reconsider her relation to both her homeland's culture and her profession.

She began to research and experiment on the combination of Tiacauh arts (Tomimi's art, specifically) and the Healing arts she learned at Rhodes island, and developed a new form of healing arts.

With the support of Kal'tsit and Warfarin, she published her research in a scientific journal, under the title "The medical benefit of applied brutality". Unfortunately, the article was widely mocked and treated as the raving of a lunatic.

Still, unbeknownst to Gavial, her methods gained a cult following in Columbia, with a "brutalist medicine" movement hailing her as a visionary.

In this timeline, Stitch Canvas hears of gavial as "the star of the brutalist", and assumes she's another architect of the brutalist movement. He's bitter when he learn she has 0 architectural interest.

Kit :

Incantation medic :

Attacks deal Arts damage and heal the HP of an ally within the Attack Range for 50% of the damage dealt.

Nothing fit Gavial more than a harmacist.

Talent 1: Unorthodox methods

When skills are active, attack range changes and damages dealt become physical.

at Elite 1, the range becomes larger, and Gavial the Urgentist gains 15% attack while a skill is active

At elite two, the attack bonus rises to 25%

The idea with this talent is to show Gavial is a field medic, who keep close to the combat. To use her at her fullest potential, you have to put her very close to the frontline, right next to the defenders. But if she's there, she'll hit very hard and thus heal by a lot. By the way, the extended range compared to Tomimi is because, "gavial the invincible has expanded range too, using her tail to swing a weapon... So I feel this was something to keep: Gavial using her tail to hit further away, while Tomimi use her hand to hit people.

Talent 2 : The great chief

Obtained at Elite 2. All Acahualla operator gain Inspiration equal to 15% of Gavial the Urgentist Attack.

This one is straightforward: It's to show Gavial is an inspiration for the Acahualla population.

Skill 1 : Swift Strike Y

Increase ATK and ASPD (45% and 45 at Mastery 3)

This skill is the same skill as Reed the flameshadow, and I think it fit Gavial very well.

Skill 2 : "I'll show them all!!"

Attack interval increase (1 attack every 2 seconds), Attack all enemies in range, and attack deal 150% (mastery 3) of ATK as damages. Each attack heal every ally in range.

this skill is trying to keep a bit of "Gavial the invincible", with a way to attack multiple enemies. Also it end up being more like a stalker than a centurion. With the modified range, this make a sort of "pseudo true silverslash", with slightly reduced range and less DPS, but it heal allies.

SKILL 3 : Mights Make Right!

Passive : Gavial the urgentist can be deployed on melee tiles, and can't be deployed on ranged tiles. Redeployment time +30s

Active : On deployment, gain +100% HP, +50% Def, +50% ATK, +50 ASPD, +1 Block, and prioritize unblocked enemies with the highest HP. (Mastery 3 values)

Unlimited duration.

The principle of this skill is Gavial "Stepping in and handling it". I have to admit, this is mostly to finish with something Silly. But we know Gavial isn't above joining the frontline and breaking some neck if needs be. This skill makes Gavial a hybrid between Incantation medic and ranged guards. Her weird range allows you to be creative with her placement, for example putting her sideway so she can hit 5 tiles across, in case of leaks. You can also put her directly behind a defender, like blaze or ranged guards. But yeah, this is perhaps the one skill I think is the most worth criticizing, so don't hold back.

Anyway, That's not a serious attempt at redesign, just an idea that passed through my head.

[lifewithcake]

hello, any healing tips for lower lvld dungeons? im kinda struggling since my whm has been boosted (a gift) and i find it hard without skills such as pi and rapture etc :( thank you!

Yes! I got very long here so I divided it by section. If you need anything past Stormblood, please lmk :)

Note that Whm really fleshes out in HW, so take your time to get used to all of those new abilities since they remain an integral part of Whm's kit even now.

Sections (for navigation):

The Basics MP Management Healing DPS Members during mob pulls ARR (1-50) HW (51-60) StB (61-70) Dungeon Bosses Conclusion

The Basics

The core is basically the same as it is in ShB/EW: Keep Regen on your tank as much as needed, and use a Lily/Cure 2 when your tank is around 60-70% HP. Lilies always come before Cure 2 because they are MP free. DPS outside of this as you are comfortable.

You "wait" with Cure 2 because it has a hefty 1000 MP cost and you don't want to overheal. 75% HP is a generally good threshold to cast at because the tank will have lost enough HP by the time your cast goes off to get full value. Outside of this time, you should be using damage spells.

Give your tank a Regen before they start pulling. If your tank presses sprint, you need to sprint right behind them! Falling behind is a sure way to wipe because you'll probably panic and misuse your resources.

Holy spamming is important because it's effectively a 6 second stun in the beginning, and healer DPS significantly contributes to packs dying faster. (I use Swiftcast + Holy to get an immediate stun off :)) It may seem that healer DPS is insignificant, but I guarantee it is not so. Faster enemy deaths = less healing required

MP management

Use Lucid Dreaming around 7-8k MP and keep using it as soon as it's up again. Adjust this threshold as you get comfortable with your MP management. The later ARR dungeons have the most difficult MP management, but it gets a bit easier after that.

Healing DPS Members during mob pulls

I don't usually think it's worth it to heal DPS teammates unless they look like they're going to die. Remember that Melee/Ranged Physical DPS can heal themselves too (RIP Magic DPS). I say this because it's a lot more important to save your resources for the tank. I only heal a DPS if they're dropping dangerously low.

This also applies to yourself, the healer! I don't heal myself during packs because I trust myself not to die. If you think you'll die, then heal yourself ASAP.

In bosses, heal whoever needs it. Your resources are a lot freer.

ARR (1-50)

Cure 1&2, Regen, and Medica 1 are your bread and butter, and you just press them as needed. Drop Cure 1 once you have Cure 2. Let this be the time where you practice DPSing when healing is not necessary. Build your comfort with it over time.

Skipping to the real nasty stuff:

Stone Vigil, Dzemael, and Aurum can get rough when your tank is pulling big, so you may often have to spam Cure 2. Do not refresh Regen until their HP stops yo-yo'ing up and down. ARR tanks can die fast, so keep Cure 2 spamming until their HP feels stable enough to use Regen. Reminder to have Lucid going to keep up with the hefty MP demand.

Aurum is very painful since we don't have Medica 2. In its absence, be preemptive on Bosses 1 and 3 with your Medica 1. The debuff stacks will start to hurt a lot, so keep people topped off as often as possible. Wane off your DPS a bit if your MP is struggling to keep up here.

Cure 3 is niche use because it has a very limited range. I've never needed it in a dungeon. Medica 1 and 2 are much easier-to-use options.

[Extra info: The post-ARR 50s dungeons are mechanically creative, and since they're so rare, people seldom remember the mechanics and just brute force it instead. That said, brute forcing mechs means healers pick up the slack with extra heal spamming. Don't let the randomly massive damage scare you, just do your best!]

HW (51-60)

Don't worry if MP management felt rough in ARR because it gets easier in HW! Every new ability is MP free and some are actively beneficial to it.

Lilies now come before Cure 2 on priority list. The use criteria is the same as always.

Medica 2 is now your go-to AoE heal. You most likely only need it once, so don't spam it or your MP will suffer. If you know you need more AoE heals, use Medica 2 and then Medica 1. Refreshing Medica 2 too early is wasteful to your MP.

Benediction is great for emergencies, but you might like it better as a planned heal! Letting your tank drop low while you Holy spam will help conserve your other heals and give you a few seconds of free DPS.

Place Asylum as soon as your tank stops running. Its total value value equals a single Lily/Cure 2, plus it gives a 10% buff to all healing. This 24s buff should last you through the beginning of the pull, which is the most dangerous (most mobs alive).

Use Assize when your tank is done running to maximize its DPS and also heal some of the mob-pulling damage. Asylum/Regen will do the rest while mobs are Holy stunned.

Thin Air is primarily used on MP-heavy spells like Medica 2, Cure 2, and Raise. All are great options, but you absolutely want to use it on Raise. (You can also randomly use it on Stone, since it's often just sitting there capped. An MP gain is an MP gain.)

Tetragrammaton comes late but is a fantastic addition. This will take priority over Lily/Cure 2. Tetra is my usually my very first go-to heal. In HW, it's almost a 50% HP heal.

As for dungeon specifics:

The Vault Boss 3 is a pretty tricky one for people, so don't feel bad if you aren't DPSing as hard so you can focus on not dying to mechanics. The final phase can be a bit overwhelming, so focus on mechanics and healing until you get the hang of it.

StB (61-70)

[It's basically HW healing, so get comfortable with those abilities. I skipped PI since you mentioned it already]

Your one new ability is Divine Benison. I use it all the time since it has such a short cooldown. You can use it on the pre-pull and then whenever you want basically. It's very open-ended use.

Jumping straight to dungeon specifics:

Shisui: Watch out for the long hallway between Boss 1 and 2. Tanks can pull the whole thing, so have a heavy-duty heal plan ready.

Bardam's: This whole dungeon is a healing trip, so you may be Cure 2 spamming more than usual. The first section is the most infamous, but I'd stay on my toes throughout the whole thing.

Doma: The section before the first boss can catch you off-guard because the tall robot with the sword can actually cleave the whole group. Yes, this is more on the tank to face it away, but you can make up for their lack of preparedness with your own! Make sure you stay behind that giant robot. This is also where Melee DPS tend to die, so watch them too.

The Burn: Damage comes very fast in Boss 3, so do not let it catch you off-guard. This is an infamously difficult boss for a reason. That ice puddle that does damage-over-time hurts a lot (even on tanks) so watch out. This boss also has a mid-damage raidwide.

Dungeon Bosses

In ARR-StB, non-tanks will typically only take damage for a failed mechanic. You will basically bounce between Medica 2 for party damage and Tetra/Lily/Cure 2 for single-target healing. You may also opt to use Regen.

Bosses will occasionally throw out unavoidable partywide (raidwide) damage, which can almost always be healed with a single Medica 2. (Remember you also have Asylum and Assize as options, though I prefer to use Assize for DPS. Asylum will buff your Medica 2 if you need heavy healing.)

Practice your DPS here, because you're going to have a lot of downtime between heals. I also urge you to get used to reading the boss's cast bar. This is a vital skill for everyone but healers especially. Pay attention and you will start to memorize patterns. Soon, nothing will catch you off guard. (For example, I have never forgotten The Vault's raidwide is called "Altar Pyre." I always have Medica 2 ready to go for that :))

Conclusion

A typical pull in StB will look like this:

Pre-pull regen + Benison -> (run with tank) -> Asylum/Assize -> Holy x 3 -> Tetra -> Regen refresh if needed -> Holy spam -> Lily/Cure 2 as needed -> Holy spam

If all else fails, spam Lilies and Cure 2. This will get you through mostly anything, with only your MP as the limit. Remember that Thin Air can save you up to 2000 MP through this. Hopefully you can stall for enough time to kill the pack or for another heal like Tetra to come back up.

If you wipe, don't let it shake you! Everyone has wiped, and I myself have caused wipes many many times. You can only get better, so please keep trying.

Apologies for a bit of long-windedness, but I hope the explanations have helped you at least somewhat. It may seem overwhelming right now, but after practice it will basically become instinct. I wish you the best on your journey! :)

[motheatenscarf]

Putting off Eden Raids until this weekend when I can maybe run them with friends so just slowly progressing the Post-Shadowbringers patch content.

It seems to be taking me about a month to get through an expansion in total, 2 weeks for base, then another 2 weeks for patch content. I think they're releasing a big/the final patch for Endwalker in June, so if I keep at this pace, I'll be just in time to finish Endwalker just as it's, well, ending.

Then I can wait along with everyone else for the next expansion and finally, FINALLY, try to catch up on all the things I've been neglecting so far, like other classes, crafting, housing, gpose, trust leveling, etc.

Unfortunately, me being the trash that I am, almost all of the classes I'm interested in trying out are melee dps which is... bad, because I need to find a caster dps, healing, and ranged physical dps class each to do these fucking role quests.

But the only things I want to try are Dragoon, Samurai, and maaaaaybe Dancer.

Speaking of dragoon, it let me do a roleplay fight as Estinien, and MAN. It's reminding me of that Musuo Warriors games bullshit, big nostalgia bomb. Actual dragoon probably isn't that absurd, but man it was fun. Glad to have another NPC around who gives Talia well meaning shit like friends do, because whether he likes it or not, Estinien is now her best friend and wingman forever, he knows the Aymeric secrets and he's the Stitch to Alphinaud's Lilo, so we have to keep him no matter how dumb he is about summoning up Nidhogg's power when he REALLY SHOULDN'T BE.

Wish he'd actually, y'know, STICK AROUND to be part of the narrative, but apparently I don't get that unless I play dragoon. So :T

Like, god. I just need him to stick around long enough until the Scions wake up because I NEED him to meet Alisaie. I don't even know what I want to happen, I just need them to meet. She would either grok him immediately and it would destroy Alphinaud that his senpai gets along with his sister better, or she would H A T E him because only she is allowed to pick on Alphinaud and would absolutely destroy him verbally and probably kick him in the shins and leave him unable to hop for a week. There would be no in between and either would be highly entertaining.

But yeah, stream of consciousness that is this post, holy fuck, go Alisaie for figuring out a treatment for tempering, that's my GIRL!! And she says she's not as smart as Alphinaud!!! GODDAMN!

[brineffxiv]

So while I was dicking around, deciding whether or not to move this liveblog to tumblr or quit it altogether, I procrastinated by leveling all my classes to 70. Of course, I've already maxed out my DoH/DoL classes too. I think at this point I can give a little summary of my thoughts.

Overall, I think Dark Knight is my favorite - there's something about the smooth, slow animations that really appeals to me. Syphon Strike and Souleater restoring MP and HP respectively is also perfect for my playstyle of getting distracted and forgetting to look at bars.

I've been slowly warming up to the healer classes, and I think so far I prefer Astrologian of the four of them - though obviously I haven't had much time to get used to Sage yet. Healing gives me such anxiety, lol, it's the most nerve wracking role to play. I'm always terrified I'll let my party down. As for the DPS, I enjoy the Physical Ranged trio equally; they're all pretty fun and intuitive for me to play. Melee classes on the other hand... well, they're definitely my weaknesses. Ninja especially. My dyslexia makes it a pain in the ass to hit the mudras correctly in the heat of battle, and I'm pretty sure no matter how hard I practice it'll always be a stumbling block. Similarly, I'm also forever forgetting which direction I'm supposed to hit the positionals from. Ugh. Magical Ranged is fun. Blue Mage is clearly it's own thing, so I don't count it for the purposes of this post, but next to DRK my other favorite has got to be Red Mage. Which I totally didn't expect when I picked it up! The abilities don't neatly fit how I prefer to set up my bars, but I tell you that dualcast ability is just beautiful. So fast and zippy. I've also developed an appreciation for Summoner and how hard it hits. Nothing else like the power trip of summoning freaking Bahamut to blast your foes, lol. I feel like Black Mage could be equally fun, but I just can't seem to get the rotation down. I'll keep practicing at it, and maybe when I do a lv 80 check-in I'll have improved some.

[sorcerornobody]

After I made this post, I decided it might be fun to do a follow-up post to show some of Sumi's outfits, and her siblings.

Casual glamour.

Tank glamour. This was absolutely designed with Gunbreaker first and foremost in mind, but works well enough for all tanks.

Healer glamour. I wanted something that felt healer-y without being robes. I like robes! But I'm tired of healer gear just being robes.

Melee DPS glamour. For this one I primarily had Monk in mind, but it works well for all melee jobs, and I love it with Viper.

I don't have a ranged physical DPS glamour, as Bard, Machinist and Dancer have pretty different vibes, so I've not managed to come up with something that suits all three yet. [30/08/24 update] Ranged physical DPS glamour. This was a tricky one! But I came up with something I like that I feel works for all three jobs, and I think it comes down to having a few elements that suit each of them without ruining the vibe for the other two. And I love that the boots have a second dye channel and it's the laces! Again, I went for stuff that was all no higher than level 80, in this case as a precaution just in case Beastmaster turns out to be ranged physical.

Ranged magical DPS glamour (as seen in the original post). The one big restriction I placed on myself when designing this one was no gear over level 80, due to the Blue Mage level cap. I don't feel this was at all detrimental to the result, as this probably gives me the strongest vibe of Sumi's personality of all my combat glamours.

Crafter glamour (just the Pactmaker's crafting set) – this was the gear that made me realise how much she likes to show her scales.

Gatherer glamour (just the Indagator's gathering set).

Sumi's siblings all have variations on her eye colours, which allow you to tell them apart even without their differing hairstyles. To start off, here's a closeup so you can see Sumi's heterochromia – the left eye is a slightly brighter purple than the right.

Kasumi (inverted heterochromia).

Makoto (matching eyes the same colour as Sumi's right eye). Yes, she dyes her hair black as part of her aloof façade. Yes, the magenta highlight colour somehow persists, she doesn't carefully dye around it or even dye it back in, it just Does That.

Chihaya (matching eyes the same colour as Sumi's left eye).

Keiho (same heterochromia as Sumi).

Kansui (inverted heterochromia).

[capsicrew]

Get ready because I like to ramble. Just workin out my thoughts on the potential new jobs coming in 7.0 before we have any official announcements.

All we know as of writing this is that the 2 new jobs will be a physical melee class, and a ranged magical class.

I just want to go over my thoughts on potential classes which already exist in other titles.

Cut because I tend to type a lot--

Casting Jobs:

Geomancer: A classic job, which already exists in the lore of FFXIV. Mentioned off-handedly with regards to, like, The Swallow's Compass dungeon--but if you haven't done the AST quests; Geomancer exists as a practice in the Far East (shown in both Hingashi and Yanxia, at the least). It sort of exists in opposition to Astromancy-- AST derives power from the stars and heavens while Geomancer derives similar powers from the earth. Further--Geomancy in 14 seems to highly derive from 3 elements--wind, water and earth, which also makes it extremely similar to Conjury in Eorzea. In short--Geomancer already exists so hard in the lore as a sort-of Far Eastern take on conjury, it doesn't really have an identity outside of its relation to these other 2 jobs. But! I wouldn't say its impossible. "Geomancy" has such far-reaching potentiality, the opportunity still exists. Black Mages focus on Fire, Ice and Lightning, so it could be interesting to see a BLM variant that instead focuses on Earth, Wind and Water and could potentially provide party buffs as well, maybe similar to Bard. So--while I don't find it likely, I still have some hope as a fan of Geomancer. Bell weapons would be great.

Time Mage: Extremely unlikely. Most "Time Mage" skills were wrapped into Astrologian, so I don't see Time Mage being a unique job, even as a name for a new type of job. While I'm at it, the "Oracle" job falls into a similar niche, wrapped in AST's "fortune reading" aspects. A magical DPS job could be built with these names, but I feel like there's other options that are far more likely.

Chemist: Still a lot of hope for Chemist. I think the potential still exists for a "potions" themed class like this, but I think it more likely to be a healing class. So, probably not coming this time around.

Necromancer: After how much hype and hope there was for Necromancer as an EW class, I'm surprised I haven't seen more of it this time around. Necromancer has a lot of potential. If you aren't aware--Necromancer is an actual class that was added to the Advanced version of FF5. It has two skills, one is "Oath" which summons a random "demon" (of 4 potential results) to perform a single attack. And "Dark Arts" which is a list of powerful spells a Necromancer can learn by defeating specific enemies (similar to Blue Mage, but the enemy just has to be defeated by the Necromancer, rather than waiting for them to use the spell and Learn it). The trade-off is that Necromancer inherently has the "undead" status, meaning they cannot be healed by items and healing spells (except White Wind). In practice, for 14, it'd just be a sort of darkness-themed casting job, similar to Dark Knight and Reaper. The only refraining point is that Black Mage is a casting job that already deals heavily with the Void. Buuuutttt... "darkness" need not specifically be void-related. What would be amusing-- the 2 new jobs would start at level 80. Just slap the requirement to beat 5.0 MSQ to unlock it and the job teacher could be an Ascian looking for something else to do now that Emet-Selch is gone, lol. We DO still have convocation members we haven't seen or heard from at all lol  (though considering we're supposed to be "done" with the whole ascians/zodiark/etc saga, maybe they wouldn't pull that out).

Pictomancer: Seen it mentioned a few times. If it becomes reality, its likely just to be a whole new job based on the name, rather than including Relm's actual drawing ability (which was, like, a sort of weak Beastmaster catch/release skill). But just casting spells out of art supplies would be neat, aesthetically. Maybe worth mentioning that both Krile (XIV) and Relm (VI) are both adopted granddaughters. And Krile is due for a job change, I think. Would be great if she did. Cause if Pictomancer was really added, I'd be sorely tempted to make it one of Beutiq's main classes and its something he and Krile could conspire with lol

Melee Jobs:

Beastmaster: Been sing a lot of hope for Beastmaster as job. It wouldn't quite have the freedom of capturing any monster you want (unless its turned into a Limited Job, but I think we've all been too disappointed by "limited job" before). However, I could easily see Beastmaster being a physical job similar to Summoner in 14--where you're able to call upon a rotation of specific beasts/monsters which can attack and/or augment the player's attacks in certain ways. The slow phasing-out of "Pets" over the last few expacs gives me pause, but maybe that could be an excuse for Beastmaster to stand out. Again, though, I could easily see Beastmaster also being added as a "limited job," where you can capture and train from a list of monsters a la Pokemon--level them up and select specific skills, like the Chocobo companion. But... I'd really rather see it as a full job. My favorite class of all being a limited job already makes me sour on the whole concept, lol Also, I could see Beastmaster reasonably using the Scouting gear. I only mention this because common theory right now is that the new melee class will use the Scouting gear, since Ninja is the only "scouting" class atm--after Reaper was added to share Dragoon's gear last time. As an alternate method to capturing monsters, I could see Beastmaster combined with the Morpher job of FFTA, or Gau's abilities in 6--where the player channels the abilities of beasts/monsters (or actually transforming, in the case of the Morpher) to augment their attacks. Again, likely in the same line as Summoner where the Beastmaster has a set of routine skills that change execution depending on the active "beast."

Puppetmaster: Mentioning this one right after Beastmaster, because I could see it being added in exactly the same capacity. Moreso, perhaps, in that FF11 Puppetmasters were melee-ranged fighters along with their machines. Now, ideally... I'd like to see Machinist take on a form where its automaton is incorporated more into its kit, rather than a whole new class added. I was slightly disappointed when the autoturret "pets" were removed in ShB. Adding some more "puppetmaster" vibes to that part of the job would be interesting. It would create a nice trio of classes with Beastmaster-- Summoner as a casting pet-job, Machinist as a ranged pet-job, and Beastmaster as a melee pet-job.

Mystic Knight: I would love this, hahaha. Mystic Knight is probably my favorite non-casting class. The main challenge is that a potential Mystic Knight's weaponry would already fall into the same class of weapons Paladins use. But they pulled it off with Dark Knight--and I'm sure there's plenty of bladed sticks I'm not familiar with, so I feel like the potential still exists. It would probably be a whole new class with the sort of "feel" of 5's Mystic Knight, but the potential skills and abilities would be pretty easy to craft, I'd think. Maybe with a little feel from Monk were you can infuse the blade with a certain element which augments your stats to either focus on attacking, defense or speed. Or just a cycle similar to Summoner with just a sort of flavor of execution among different elements. When I think of Mystic Knight/Spellblade as a job in 14, though, I tend to think of it as a Tank, due to the comparable 11 class, Rune Fencer. However, based on my observation, I think 11's Rune Fencer was eventually worked into 14's Dark Knight (with 11's Dark Knight looking like its more comparable to Reaper). So just wanted to... point that out I guess. Totally could be a DPS job. Give it the Scouting gear, who cares lol The Warrior of Light wielding a sword with no shield in the teaser trailer gives me some hope, but it could've just been an "anything" filler before the new classes are officially announced.

Cannoneer/Blitzballer: Similar classes in concept. But most likely ranged classes, so not this expac. Only mentioning because I see people still talking about Blitzball lmao

Corsair: I've seen a lot of people talk about 11's Corsair being added as the new class. Which--doesn't seem at all likely to me? I think only because they see the Carribean influence on this central America-themed region and make the automatic association to the pirates. But, buddy, I just don't see it happening here. I think the furthest corsair's influenced has reached 14 is the gun symbol at the marauder's guild where they might've planned on putting a corsair starting class that would maybe evolve into Machinist at level 30. In the MCH quests, too, the guy who teaches you the basics is also a Lominsan pirate-type guy. So I just don't see Corsair being added as a class in its capacity as a job in 11. Plus the new job was announced as melee range, and I don't see guns being that. Granted, however... the 14 team could just develop a whole new class and CALL it "Corsair."

Juggler: Including because I think it would be really funny. Juggler is a sort of thief/ninja class exclusive to Moogles in FFTA. A clown-themed job would be great. Do whatever with it. Stabbing and tools. Melee machinist.

Other: Of course, the opportunity exists for them to do what they did with Sage. Take a job that exists and just ... make something completely new out of it. With that potential, even jobs that are just variants of existing jobs have potential, like Knight, Viking, Evoker, Devout, Magus, Illusionist ... even Green Mage, which is, like... nothing ! lmao

[nightzap]

I would say it's Dreadnoughts, because they are the most straightforward take on the idea of being a melee damage dealer.

I also think that Specialists don’t have a default since they are intended as gimmicky and have many different roles that are each doing their own thing instead of being deviations of each other. If anything, I would call Shifters the default, since the first guaranteed Specialist players get is Shaw, and Shifters have much more unique mechanics due to their focus on pushing and pulling enemies, while the other Specialist branches can be used for more straightforward combat.

@ ihaventdecidedonaname True, now that I think about it, the melee classes seem less defined than the ranged ones.

Ranged operators are seperated into physical damage, arts damage, debuffs, and healing.

Meanwhile the four melee classes seem to categorized by stats, with Vanguards being weak but cheap, Guards being damage focused, defenders tanking focused, and Specialists having unusual mechanics like fast redeploy-mobility or moving enemies around.

But then we have Duelist and Fortress Defenders who aren’t used for tanking, but damage, meanwhile the Centurion Guards’ 3 block and use of heavy equipment like chainsaws makes them seem closer to being defenders. And then there’s Vanguards, who didn’t even exist during the beta and instead some Guards had DP generation skills, with Fang being one such Guard. Guards was even more of a catch all term for melee combatants at that point.

What is the "default" archetype for Guards?

Every other class in Arknights feels like it has a default, or standard by which most other archetypes feel like deviations from Vanguards have Pioneers Medics have "Medics" (aka Single-target Medics and yes that archetype is called "Medic" in game so they are Medic Medics) Defenders have Protectors Supporters have Decel Binders Specialists have Executioners Casters have Core Casters Snipers have Marksmen But- Guards don't really have an archetype that feels like a default, or standard? There are really only three candidates, Lords, Dreadnoughts, and Centurions Lords feel like they are DQ'd immediately because their whole schtick is attacking from range- including against aerial targets, something other Guards or most Melee operators in general cannot do with normal attacks Dreadnoughts almost fit since Melantha feels like she's intended to be the introduction to the class as a whole, but their first six-star rep was a post launch operator (Skadi) and yes she was the FIRST post-launch six star but post-launch is not the same as at launch! And then there are Centurions, who not only miss a six-star at launch but also missed a three-star at launch.

It's probably still Dreadnoughts but just- this is weird, y'all think this is kinda weird for the biggest class of Operators in the game, right?

[dear-wormwoods]

Did you ever write that meta about the roles Kyle and Stan choose to play in RPGs?

No, but I will right now!

Basically I just think it's interesting/cute that Kyle always chooses ranged/support classes and Stan always chooses melee DPS classes, because the two complement each other and reflect aspects of their personalities as well as how they see themselves as people.

In Stick of Truth, Elf King Kyle has a variety of ranged attacks that sometimes call on other people to do the damage on his behalf (like Ike or elven archers), and he also has a rallying cry that gives bonuses to the party. In TFBW, his class is a blaster/elementalist hybrid, which are both ranged and/or support classes. He has a ranged laser attack, but he also has healing capabilities and provides protection to allies. In Phone Destroyer, Kyle is a ranged card 100% of the time, and each of his cards offer support abilities instead of damage dealing ones. Gunslinger Kyle gives an attack buff to allies, Human Kite shields allies, Bounty Hunter Kyle both buffs attack and heals when his ranged attacks hurt/kill an enemy, The Master Ninjew gives an attack buff, and Kyle of the Drow Elves grants allies invincibility. Unrelated to the RPGs, but in World of Warcraft he chooses to be a mage, which is also a ranged/support class, physically weak but powerful from afar.

Kyle's purpose in games is not to be on the front lines taking hits, like a tank would, or dealing high face-to-face damage like a fighter or an assassin. He stands back and lets others do the damage while aiding them with buffs, heals, and shields. All of his characters are physically weaker (though the Elf King does have high health in SoT) than most, but he's a critical part of the party. This might seem counter to how Kyle presents in the show, since he does like to hit Cartman when he's especially frustrated, but in general Kyle doesn't like to resort to violence - he uses his brain, or his heart, to appeal to people's logic and emotions. He fights his battles with passion and intelligence rather than just putting himself in harm's way, and he tends not to take on leadership roles generally (when he does it's usually as a martyr or it just doesn't go well). Kyle doesn't see himself as a direct damage dealer or a leader, he sees himself as someone who can heal, protect, and buff others. This attitude is shown repeatedly throughout the show - he has a nurturing instinct and an innate need to help people.

On the other hand, Stan is always a fighter/melee class. In SoT, Knight Stan's abilities are primarily melee sword abilities, though he also has the ranged discus attack. Toolshed is an interesting one, because in TFBW he does better at range but in Phone Destroyer he's a fighter card. He's a Fighter 100% of the time in Phone Destroyer and all of his special abilities have some kind of negative effect on enemies (contrasted with Kyle, who buffs allies). Stan of Many Moons has an AOE (area of effect) attack, Toolshed puts down a chomper (damage dealt when activated), Program Stan has a freeze/damage dealing attack, Poseidon Stan slows enemies, and Stan the Great reduces attack of all enemies. All of Stan's characters deal moderate damage and have moderately high health. In World of Warcraft, he chooses to be a warrior, which can be melee DPS or a tank depending on specialization (I assume Stan would prefer DPS to tanking though).

Stan's roles reflect his protective nature and his tendency to put his own safety on the back burner for the sake of helping others. That isn't to say that Stan gets into physical fights very often, because he doesn't, but he will risk himself to help the people, animals, or causes he cares about. He's genuine in this aspect, but on top of that he is under a lot of pressure from society and from his family to conform to masculine gender roles. He sees knights and power tools as masculine, and he sees fighting enemies head on as masculine, so he aspires to perform those roles. Compared to Kyle, who consistently puts himself into more traditional "gamer girl" roles (healer, magic user - support classes), Stan has always chosen stereotypically Manly party roles. This is because in canon Stan has more expectations to be masculine compared to Kyle, whose nurturing instinct and emotional expressions are fostered and encouraged by his mother. Stan expresses his feelings only when they fester enough that he fails to hide them anymore and is generally determined to be tough and strong, so he gravitates toward fantasy roles that are also seen that way.

I know you only specified Stan and Kyle, but I have some thoughts on Cartman and Kenny too.

In Stick of Truth, Cartman has low health and elemental attacks, but in TFBW he has higher health and melee attacks that cause bleed effects. He's super effective as a damage-dealer but has no defensive abilities. Compare that to Phone Destroyer, where his cards are always tanks. His cards always have very high health but deal less damage, and he's slow moving, which sets him up as a protective force for his ranged and assassin allies. Sheriff Cartman has an AOE attack, The Coon gets an attack buff from other superheroes, Awesome-O 4000 freezes enemies, Zen Cartman pulls nearby enemies away from attacking other allies, and Grand Wizard Cartman has a magic attack. His Phone Destroyer cards are all about defending his allies and chipping away at enemies. In World of Warcraft, he is also a warrior, like Stan, but takes on the leader role in the episode, implying that he's also the tank there. I think that this is all a reflection of how Cartman sees himself - as a leader and a hero. Whereas Stan puts himself on the front lines because he genuinely is a protective person, Cartman puts himself on the front lines because he wants to be seen that way, even if the reality is that he's more selfish than anyone. Cartman also, like Stan, struggles with toxic masculinity. Cartman has some really intense, messed up ideas about what it means to be manly, so of course he'd want the "manliest" role in any game they're playing - whether it's simply to be the king, or another form of leader, or just the tank in a party.

Kenny is an interesting one, because I think at least Princess Kenny and Mysterion, if not all of his characters, are reflections of different aspects of himself. Princess Kenny has no melee abilities in SoT, and in TFBW Mysterion has mostly melee abilities. On the surface, they're both different not just in their skill set but in their look too - Princess Kenny is bright and cute (despite ultimately being the Big Bad) and Mysterion is dark and angsty (despite being the most traditionally heroic character in the franchise). But both characters utilize Kenny's curse - with Princess Kenny resurrecting as a buddy and returning as Zombie Kenny in the final boss battle, and Mysterion having Ghost Form. All of Kenny's characters in Phone Destroyer are assassins, and all of them have a unique 'upon death' ability - Inuit Kenny kills the enemy that killed him, Cyborg Kenny mind controls the enemy that killed him, Hermes Kenny increases energy gain upon death, Princess Kenny depletes her killer's attack level, and Mysterion revives himself repeatedly. Kenny's cards all have very low health, which reflects his reality in the show too, but deal high damage, which also reflects the type of person he is. Kenny tends to stay out of drama and falls by the wayside a lot in canon, but when he does get involved it's really effective and done on a grand scale.

I just think their Phone Destroyer roles are an important reflection of how the Broship functions. In order to have a well-rounded deck you need to have all four class types - tank, fighter, ranged, and assassin. The main four boys balance each other out, and they're all pretty much fucked without the unique skillsets they each provide. But... Stan and Kyle in particular complement each other. But that's just me. :)

[waheelawhisperer]

Come to think of it, V8's 'Ace Ops mug Penny' fight & Elm in general still intrigue me a bit. 'Specially Elm's elephant-launching, robot-detaining arrrmssses. About the only non-terrifying things about her are limited semblance utility & the rocket hammer's lack of rapid fire. Which Marrow could complement fiendishly with the STAYblance & boomerifle. Dunno if I'd *ship* 'em post V8, but holy shit could they clean up as a duo, and Reformed!Harriet would make HEM even more broken.

Since you asked about Elm (and Marrow and Harriet, I guess), I might as well roll this into the Ace-Ops vs. RWBY analysis and then tack on the Ace-Ops vs. Penny fight and make it all one post. Spoilers below.

We'll start off by analyzing the Ace-Ops and how they fight, both on an individual and a team level. These guys tend to be a bit more specialized than Team RWBY, though not to the "does one thing, and only one thing, but does it well" level that word tends to imply. Ironwood assembled them with the intention of having them fight as a team, rather than as individuals, because Atlas loves nothing more than stamping out individuality. As a result, I honestly don't think any of them can take a fighter of Yang's caliber in a duel without factoring in a specific matchup advantage, but their effectiveness rises to or even beyond that level in a teamfight.

Let's start with Harriet, mainly because she'd throw a fit if we didn't. Harriet's limited to fighting in melee, but her gapclosing abilities are so powerful that that isn't as much of a liability as it seems. Her weapon, Fast Knuckles, lets her do some serious damage once she closes with an enemy. Between that and her Semblance, she's one of the better melee fighters in the series, even capable of going toe-to-toe with Qrow during a brief exchange in Volume 8. She doesn't really have any glaring weaknesses besides her temper and competitive nature, given that her speed lets her nullify an opponent's ranged advantage. That said, she's still somewhat dependent on favorable terrain in a way that, say, Ruby isn't. She needs to be able to build up speed and is best when she can move in a straight line toward a target, so someone who can manipulate the battlefield can give her trouble. Her reaction time doesn't quite seem to line up with her speed, so someone who can anticipate her moves can bait her into a counter. In general, Harriet's well-equipped to stick to high-priority targets and pump out damage, and she's partnered with a Huntsman that helps her do just that.

Harriet's partner, Marrow, is all about the lockdown. His Semblance allows him to freeze enemies in an area in front of him, which is pretty damn solid in duels and incredibly powerful in teamfights. Seriously, Marrow's effectiveness goes up exponentially if you pair him with a damage dealer and his Semblance can do a great deal to enable a relatively immobile damage dealer in turn, both by opening up opportunities for them to attack and by crowd controlling divers to protect the DPS. Marrow is a competent fighter even without his Semblance, but his fundamentals aren't as strong as, say, Yang's and are probably at or below the level of someone like Blake when she isn't wholeheartedly committed to demonstrating the Worf Effect in real time. Really, Marrow's on-screen showings revolve so heavily around his Semblance that it's hard to talk about him as a fighter without factoring it in.

The Ace-Ops like to split into DPS/utility pairs, and their partner combinations are structured around combining lockdown with someone who can just beat the hell out of a target. This theme is so prevalent, in fact, that we even see it between Qrow and Clover during their 3 vs. 1 fight against Tyrian when they initially capture him. Anyway, Elm is the damage dealer in her partnership, eschewing Harriet's mobility in favor of sheer destructive capability. She's probably one of the two or three physically strongest human characters we've seen so far, only matched by the likes of Hazel or Yang in terms of baseline physical strength, and her Semblance allows her to make full use of that by preventing her from being knocked off her feet and giving her the stability to use the wrestling holds we see her break out a couple times. Her Semblance isn't particularly good in a vacuum, but it's good for her, and it compliments her fighting style, build, and equipment well. Elm is the tank of the team and joins Yang in the ranks of characters to have launched multi-ton monstrosities like goddamn ping pong balls. Seriously, don't let this lady hit you if you can help it, especially since she can do it from range with Timber's rocket launcher configuration. She pairs well with Vine, who likes to maneuver around the battlefield in three dimensions, because she can just park herself somewhere in the middle of the fight and let Vine drive the enemies to her.

As for Vine, I've got less to say about his fighting style, given that his showings were the least impressive of all the Ace-Ops and he mostly either slaps people with his rubber Gumby arms, swings around the battlefield, or just gets straight dunked on. His fighting style revolves around keeping his distance, staying mobile, controlling high ground, and using the range afforded by his Semblance to restrict an opponent's movement, but the limited use he makes of his weapon and the way he hasn't been overly successful in fights makes it hard for me to rate him highly as in either duels or teamfights.

Now that we have a basic idea of how the Ace-Ops fight, we can start getting into their clash with Team RWBY. The first thing I want to note is that Team RWBY played it incredibly well in terms of matchup. Like, they could not have given themselves more favorable matchups in this fight. At all. Every single member except Ruby hard countered their respective opponent (Weiss/Marrow, Yang/Elm, Blake/Vine, Ruby/Harriet), and even Ruby was able to stalemate Harriet until her teammates could win their matchups and arrive to assist. I'll go into how the matchups work below:

Let's start with Weiss/Marrow. Marrow's Semblance is powerful, but it has clear countermeasures. There are two immediately obvious ways to beat Freeze: flanking Marrow and having the mobility to avoid getting caught in it to begin with. Between her summons and her glyphs, Weiss can do both. Her summons can attack from different angles, and her glyphs let her shoot around the battlefield like a human pinball, making her harder for Marrow to lock down. She's also got a third, less obvious way to counter his Semblance: he needs to see his target to stop it in its tracks, and, well, Weiss's ability to manipulate Dust means she has access to a number of different vision-denial tools. On top of that, use of Marrow's Semblance puts visible strain on him. We'll see all of this come into play when we go through the actual fight.

Frankly, every single member of Team RWBY is a poor matchup for Marrow, given that they all have access to the mobility tools to avoid his lockdown. Ruby and Blake can quickly change direction with their Semblances and weapons, keeping him from CCing them. Yang is Marrow's best matchup, not because she's slow, but because she doesn't have a Semblance that offers her a movement buff the way all three of the others do. She's still a crap matchup for him because her gauntlets enable some pretty damn quick lateral movement, and lateral movement is precisely what she needs to stay out of his field of vision and prevent him from getting off a "Stay!".

Yang's a terrible matchup for Elm because of a couple simple reasons. The first is that Elm needs stable ground to root herself, and attacking the terrain to throw an opponent off balance and open them up to attack is one of Yang's established tactics. The second is that Yang is the only member of Team RWBY (and one of the only characters in the whole damn series) to match or even exceed Elm's physical strength, which we see her do during the fight. On top of that, Yang is noticeably faster than Elm and can use her own rockets to counter Elm's. None of the other members of Team RWBY have Yang's raw damage potential, meaning that they can stall Elm for a bit, but lack the ability to really cut through her Aura the way Yang can.

Blake, honestly, does almost everything Vine does, but better. Her clones (if she'd actually fucking use them...) and weapon let her move around the battlefield more quickly and easily than Vine, and there's no need to throw chunks of rubble when you can just throw Yang. Based on what we've seen from the two of them, Blake carves him up in melee. Ruby and Weiss are also bad matchups for Vine because of their mobility, but Blake is better in melee than either of them and isn't the optimal choice against Weiss and Ruby's opponents. As with Marrow, Yang is the matchup Vine is best equipped to handle, not because he actually matches up well with her, but because she's not quite as slippery as the rest of her teammates.

Finally, Ruby is the worst duelist on her team, while Harriet is the best duelist on the Ace-Ops. This doesn't sound like a winning matchup, but Ruby's Semblance allows her to stall Harriet and rely on her teammates to win their own matchups, which results in the worst member of Team RWBY at fighting other humans preventing the most dangerous member of the Ace-Ops from making meaningful contributions to the fight. It's a brilliant display of strategy on all their parts, and yet somehow we still have people arguing that these four young women aren't intelligent.

Once we get into the fight itself, Ruby immediately isolates Harriet by exploiting her competitive nature, and Harriet spends most of the fight chasing Ruby around instead of going after a target she could've done more to suppress. If she'd abandoned Ruby, she could've potentially locked down Yang or Weiss long enough to turn the fight in her team's favor, but Ruby played to her temper and isolated her instead. After that, the fight breaks into the separate matchups. We know Team RWBY selected their own matchups deliberately because Weiss initially engages Vine and Blake engages Marrow, but they swap opponents at some point by the time Yang has driven Elm back into the open area outside Ironwood's office.

As much as I loved Yang's Star Platinum impression, I've already talked about how she played this fight here, so I won't go into too much depth regarding her actions during the fight. Instead, I'll talk about what this brief Bees vs. Ace-Ops segment tells us about Blake, Elm, and Vine. We see Elm rooting herself to strike back at Yang, taking advantage of the stable terrain to anchor herself and avoid being knocked off balance. We also see Blake demonstrate her mobility and stay away from Vine until she forgets how to use her clones twice and gets caught. Yang gets in Elm's head pretty nicely and Blake gets pasted against the wall, because talking Ls is her purpose in the realm of RWBY choreography at this point for some reason. I haven't been secretive about my belief that whoever's planning out the fights from about Volume 6 onward is doing Blake dirty, and we see it in this fight with her refusal to use her clones.

The viewpoint moves to Weiss and Marrow, where we see Weiss using her glyphs to keep Marrow on his toes and prevent him from lining up a clear shot with his Semblance by staying mobile and attacking from several different angles (the first counter I mentioned). She shows that she learned from her absolutely putrid dogshit showing against Vernal by using her Dust attacks to get Marrow off balance and obscure his vision (the third counter I mentioned) and opening up a chance for her to summon instead of just spamming the shit out of her summons and getting shut down before she could complete it every single goddamn time. Not only has Weiss learned from her mistakes, she's come up with a solution (recreating Freezerburn on her own) and integrated her summons effectively into the fighting style she'd been using before she gained access to them.

Once Harriet enters the room, we get a nice little argument between Marrow and Harriet that tells us a lot about these two characters. Marrow points out that yes, he's holding back, because his goal is to arrest Team RWBY, not kill them, while Harriet argues that the level of force she's using isn't excessive if it's necessary, and it's hard for me to say either of them is wrong. In a law enforcement context, officers are expected to use the minimum amount of force necessary to control or contain a situation (guess how often that happens, especially in fucking America...), and the use of force must cease the moment the need for it also ceases. This minimum amount of force does include lethal force if there is no other way to prevent the subject from doing harm to others. Harriet is correct in the sense of generally applicable law (necessary force is not, by definition, excessive), while Marrow is correct in that using lethal force is not necessary or appropriate in this specific context. This is the first big indication that the Ace-Ops are not on the same page, which is a key factor leading to Team RWBY's eventual victory.

We get the second bit of evidence a moment later, when the fight cuts back to the Bees. Elm gets a nice moment where she turns the tables on Blake and Yang for a bit. Again, she's staying rooted and keeping her stance stable, using her hips and legs to add power to her blows. Elm is a power fighter who's very good at putting her whole body into her blows, and we see that here. As I mentioned earlier, we see Yang overpower her for a moment, which I don't think Elm was expecting, because she doesn't root herself beforehand. Elm and Vine have themselves a little argument, which is the point where the momentum of the fight swings firmly in Team RWBY's favor for the first time.

I loved those little smirks the Bees shot each other after that exchange. These ladies are smart. They've seen the disconnect between Elm and Vine. They know that their opponents aren't in sync, while they are. They know they've got this in the bag.

We see that synchronization in the following sequence, when they flawlessly dodge Elm and then use their teamwork to set up the finisher on Vine. Just... don't ask me how the hell Blake got the grenades onto her clone, because I will never understand that as long as I live.

Once we get back to Weiss, our favorite heiress demonstrates some clever use of her glyphs and Dust to put Marrow on the defensive and then implements the second counter I was talking about earlier by using her Arma Gigas to flank him. We see how this keeps him from using his Semblance effectively and forces him to constantly switch targets, draining his stamina and Aura until Weiss can land an attack and remove him from the fight.

In the meantime, Ruby's still stalling Harriet, which means Elm is screwed and she knows it. If you slow down the fight and pay close attention to Elm's facial expressions, you can see the realization sink in as she notices that she can't use her Semblance effectively anymore and that Yang is the faster gunslinger. It's almost heartbreaking, honestly. Props to the animation team for capturing her desperation so well. Elm goes down, Harriet pulls out her best Black Widow hurricanrana and then runs into a wall, and the fight is done.

We learn in Volume 8 that the Ace-Ops were holding back (or at least Marrow says they were, and we have no reason to disbelieve them. It's clear how conflicted Marrow, Elm, and even Vine were during that fight, at any rate), but I don't agree with the people who think they would have won if they'd been at their best. I think the matchup advantage that Team RWBY has over the Ace-Ops is enormously difficult to surmount, as Team RWBY is too slippery for anyone but Harriet to stick to or pin down, and every member of Team RWBY has a countermeasure for her. Weiss and Yang can both manipulate the terrain to cause her to lose her balance, Yang has already been established as an effective counter fighter who is good at baiting enemies into attacking and exploiting the resulting openings, and Blake can combine Dust with her clones to leave traps behind every time Harriet tries to close into melee. Yang is superior in melee to every member of the Ace-Ops except maybe Harriet, Ruby offers better precision long-range support (and better long-range support in general than anyone on the opposing side except the tank), and Weiss has a better support toolkit than anyone on the Ace-Ops and the ability to generate her own frontline. I just do not see the Ace-Ops finding ways around those disadvantages.

Penny vs. the Ace-Ops, on the other hand, is a bit of a better showing for Ironwood's elite squad. We see them actually work together, and they save each other from nasty falls a few times throughout the fight. Their strategy here revolves around opening up opportunities for Harriet to get in close until Marrow can hit her with his Semblance.

Once the Ace-Ops fight through Penny's initial gust of wind, the fight proper starts with Vine distracting her and letting Harriet close into melee range and knock Penny around until Penny demonstrates the veracity of a point I made earlier: Harriet is vulnerable to an opponent who anticipates her attacks because she can't stop fast enough to dodge, which Penny exploits by clotheslining her. Unfortunately, this leaves Penny open for Elm, because she is fighting a 4-v-1 and her opponents are smart enough to flank her. We see it repeatedly throughout the fight: one member of the Ace-Ops distracts her, and another one hits her from behind. It's basically how the Ace-Ops make their headway in this fight, and it gives us a good idea of how to fight a Maiden in-universe. This goes on until Elm grabs Penny. Penny breaks free with her Maiden powers, but she slows down enough for Marrow to land his Semblance, and the fight would've been over right there if Nora hadn't been strong and hit stuff.

At this point, Penny has backup, and we see another example of an interesting trend throughout the series: Team RWBY does not perform well when split up. We see it as early as Mountain Glenn. Once Ruby gets captured, things fall apart - Yang and Weiss lose their fights and the train crashes into Vale. Things don't go well from the end of Volume 3 until about the end of Volume 5, the main stretch of time during which the four main characters were separated. Neither Ruby's group nor Yang's group are overly successful during Volume 8, either, and things really go to shit once Yang falls off the walkway at the end of the Atlas storyline.

Anyway, Vine yeets Ruby, Weiss, and Blake off a walkway, despite all three of them having abilities and equipment that could've prevented their fall. Like Blake's Bouldering Bonanza in Volume 6, this feels to me like a narrative beat that wasn't smoothly integrated into the fight. Penny's sword needed to be stolen so she could be hacked, which meant RWB had to be removed from the fight, but this was honestly a sloppy way to do it, imo.

Not a whole lot for me to break down in this fight, to be honest, but I hope this was close enough to what you wanted to hear my thoughts on. The real things that stood out for me were the way the Ace-Ops leveraged their numerical advantage and the way the environment influenced the fight. Let me know if there's anything you think I didn't cover adequately or want me to expand on.

I've still got another post or two I'd like to get done this weekend before addressing more asks, but I promise I'll get to anything that's still in my box at some point. As always, thanks for reading.