Grinding this exploration is already getting annoying. I'm just going to stop Refia at level 85 (learns encourage) and then she will just get her last 15 levels naturally from use. The only thing she gains from 85 -> 100 is arise, which is amazing, but I've gone this long without really using res, so I can go a bit longer without it.
Supposedly the maze is in a week anyway (next weekend) and if that's accurate, it will be way better for leveling.
I'm jealous. Not so much that you got Luneth (I don't really expect to pull 5* base units) but because you got Garland. Despite multiple amounts of pulls, I can't get the good "common" units like Garland, Zidane, Hayate, Chizuru, etc. Currently my trust farming team is a few good things like Excalibur and Dualcast, but then overall kind of "meh" TM rewards like Kaiser Knuckles or Magi Staff. I really want to have a solid lineup of 5 strong TM's I can grind out over the next month.
My luck will turn around... someday...
Fun fact: I've been playing since pre-release, and I've never seen a rainbow crystal. Ever.
Look at the rank. That's my lightning alt. I mean my main has a much higher rank, all 2* espers, more event gear, significant TM progress, etc, but god damn.
With any luck the BF collab banner will come before the FF13 event, giving me a brief window of max value for selling this account, since Lightning is supposed to be coming back for FF13.
So... don't take along a dark knight cecil as the carry friend when using a high level exploration to level like aquatic cove, even if he did have 680 atk. At least not if you like to mindlessly hit autobattle while watching tv with auto-limit turned on. I forgot his limit dealt himself 20% of his health per use, which kind of killed him since I wasn't really watching lifebars... Solo Refia not strong enough to beat the last boss! bye bye 10 energy, lol
Also, just realized I have 8 sacred crystals left, and need 60 to evolve all 4 Arcs.... fuck
Used some more tickets today and got nothing but 3* but at least I picked up 2 Arcs and another Edgar that I won't be retarded and merge this time.
I thought I was doing ok on sacred crystals, having farmed a stockpile of 50+, but after awakening Cecil to 4* I'm going to be 12 short of what I need to awaken him the rest of the way along with Refia, 2 Arcs, and Edgar. And of course Exdeath #2 needs another 15 on top of that. Here's to hoping that when we get the maze again we get the second part of it that JP players say solves all crystal problems forever.
Time for another round of checking how good or not future cheap upgraded units are. Today I checked out Bartz 6*, and for comparison, I checked him against Cloud's 6* form. For equipment and espers, I assume you have both units, and run both on the same team, so they can't use the same gear that's unique. Cloud's on Ifrit, Bartz is on Diabolos. Their equipment for comparison, all of which is non-TM:
Bartz 6* on Diabolos
Equipment: Enhancer, Stellar Shield, Creepy Mask, Magi Robe, Hero ring x2
Materia: Mag +10% x4
Damage with Gale Barrage vs 500 def: 16,900 wind damage
Damage with Cyclone Strike vs 500 def/spr: 25,529 wind damage
Cloud 6* on Ifrit
Equipment: Lunar Pestle, Tiger Mask, Black Belt Gi, Hero Ring x2
Materia: Atk +10% x1
Damage with Barrage vs 500 def: 20,788 physical damage
Damage with Void Invitation: 18,190 dark damage
Cloud 6* on Ifrit using Rising Sun + Doublehand (just for comparison)
Equipment: Rising Sun, Tiger Mask, Black Belt Gi, Hyper Wrist x2
Materia: Doublehand, Atk +10% x1
Damage with Barrage: 33,949 physical damage
Damage with Void Invitation: 29,705 dark damage
Summary: If you have no TM's at all, and only currently obtainable free gear, Bartz 6* will actually outdamage Cloud of Darkness against non-humans (assuming neutral resistance to wind and/or dark elements). Even when compared to a decently geared CoD with some TM equipment, Bartz 6* with no TM at all is pretty damn close.
Bartz gets a lot of hate about being a bad dps because he's not on the same level of OP as units like Lightning or Luneth, but for those of us commoners who don't have any 5* base units, Bartz 6* is a pretty solid addition to your team when he comes out. I also didn't calculate if you added in imperil (extra 20% damage taken from wind), which would boost his cyclone strike even further.
My personal team once he upgrades will be:
Cecil (tank, backup heals, green magic, focus)
Cloud (dps)
Bartz (dps)
Agrias (fullbreak, green magic) -- Rain 6* replaces her later
Refia (godmode healer, cheer)
Yeah, I think my phys team will end up the same except with Lightning in Bartz's spot. I'll probably skip Bartz because in JP they got Rain and Chizuru 6*'s less than 3 weeks after Bartz and Exdeath, followed by Firion three weeks after that. Firion is the one I really want anyway, he'll take the CoD/Chizuru spot against everything except human bosses until we get enhancements.
Why only 1 ATK on CoD though? We will almost certainly have the recipe before we get Bartz's 6*. FFV is probably the third or so event in the queue after BF (GL-exclusive Elza was just datamined so it seems like it's happening really soon) and XIII, and there's a good possibility that there will be one or more holiday ones in there to mess things up too.
I just used what was available right now. You're right that by then we should have the atk 10% recipe. Doesn't really change much though, aside from making the non-tm CoD probably more dps than bartz baseline since that gives her an extra 45 atk. I'll still be using both on my team either way. I'll have to put in new values in my spreadsheet to see what ends up more damage for Bartz, full stacking magic stat like in my earlier calculations, or going 4x atk materia and swapping in more atk gear as well. That's something to worry more about after his release though, since we'll likely have a few more pieces of gear worth using from events by then.
Twilight was joking about the 5x Bartz team, but amusingly enough, if someone did in fact run 5 or 6x Bartz (and had enough gear to properly equip them all) it would actually be kind of effective due to elemental chaining on his cyclone strike. Not that I'd ever recommend someone commit the resources to maxing out 5x bartz for what is basically a funny gimmick, but it's a neat thought anyway.
Refia - Healer
Cecil - Tank
WOL - Full Break or can be swapped out based on fights
Chizuru, Bartz. 2, COD - Physical Damage
Exdeath x2, Terra, Kefka - Magic Damage
I've got no 5 star bases but I'm pretty happy with how my team is coming along.
It's going to take awhile but the TMs I'm working on are
Rising Sun for COD
Excalibur
Miyuki's katana for Chizuru
Dual Cast for Refia
Lenna's Staff for Refia
Twilight was joking about the 5x Bartz team, but amusingly enough, if someone did in fact run 5 or 6x Bartz (and had enough gear to properly equip them all) it would actually be kind of effective due to elemental chaining on his cyclone strike. Not that I'd ever recommend someone commit the resources to maxing out 5x bartz for what is basically a funny gimmick, but it's a neat thought anyway.
I'm back in savings mode. Since we are no longer getting the 100 a day Lapis it's going to be harder to build up a stockpile. Im only missing Luneth from the current banner and the odds of getting him are way too low. So I'll just save for the next REALLY good banner. My team is solid enough right now.
Assuming the next three banners are BF, XIII, and V there's nothing REALLY good in sight. Tilith is a must-have, even more so than Refia was, but only if her 6* is available right out of the gate. If it isn't, then pull casually and if you don't get her then just wait to pull hard when BF comes back around with her 6* upgrade and Vargas.
I do agree that if you already got Refia and a few Arcs there's not much reason left to pull right now. I'm just really bitter that my 50% chance to get Luneth turned into one of the absolute shittiest 5* units in the fucking game. My last rainbow turned into Roselia instead of Dark Cecil too.
My first was Exdeath after rerolling my account about 7 or 8 times at launch.
My second was similar to your experience. My 50% Luneth chance turned out to be Miyuki. I really wanted her for her TM katana on Chizuru but not from a super rare rainbow egg.
