Summary: Exploring my party’s abilities, roles, eidolons, and “ultimates” more fully. No story or mission progress this session.
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In this session, I plan to look through my party’s abilities. I’m familiar with some basics but plan to note things that I was unfamiliar with and ideas on how to use them.
I’ll pay special attention to the “ultimate” abilities and the eidolons. [Non-rhetorical question: I’m calling that group of abilities like Lightning’s Army of One, Fang’s Highwind, and Vanille’s Death “ultimates” after that tier of ability in League of Legends. Is there another commonly-used name for these abilities in XIII?]
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Lightning:
-Her ravager’s only x-aga spell is Thundaga.
-Medic is reasonable, but only up to Cura. Has Esuna.
-Odin uses lots of lightning. Also finishes enemies off from low health.
-Army of One is her ultimate.
-I tested it a few times. Like I saw last time, it does pretty weak damage in normal circumstances, but it seems to give a big chain gauge boost when I used it on a staggered enemy.
[Non-rhetorical question: is this the primary use for the ravager ultimate abilities? If so, is it the same for Hope’s Last Resort and Sazh’s Cold Blood? (The other two ravager ultimates with similar descriptor text.)]
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Sazh
-Limited Commando abilities, many ravager. X-aga spells in fire, thunder, air. Physical fire and lightning attacks.
-Ultimate ability is Cold Blood. See notes above with Army of One.
-Synergist is really strong. Bravery, faith, haste. Shell and protect. All the En-X and Bar-X.
-Brynhildr does lots of elemental damage attacks, but interestingly, I have to activate them by casting En-X on him with Sazh. Give me some control over her abilities.
-Gestalt does lots of fire damage.
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Vanille
-Ravager’s strongest spells are Firaga and Blizzaga.
-Saboteur can do Deprotect, deshell, poison, imperil. Fog and pain. And her ultimate: DEATH. This is interesting.
Take last session’s fight against the tonberries. I didn’t win straight up – I needed deceptisol. It felt a bit cheap, but it SHOULDN’T. The game specifically made some enemies like the turtles and neochu immune to pre-emptive strikes. And it specifically left the tonberries vulnerable. It’s a valid tool.
Same with Death. I’m sure there are enemies that are immune to death… and those the game specifically left vulnerable to death.
I rarely used death abilities in my FF series, outside of Yojimbo on FFX’s Dark Aeons. Maybe it’s worth a try. And unlike FFX, I won’t have to break the bank in the attempt.
-I tested Death out on a bunch of enemy packs. Seems to have a low chance, which makes sense. I love how it still does damage even when the death effect doesn’t land.
[Non-rhetorical question: Does “Deshell” increase the chance of death landing?]
---
In this session, I plan to look through my party’s abilities. I’m familiar with some basics but plan to note things that I was unfamiliar with and ideas on how to use them.
I’ll pay special attention to the “ultimate” abilities and the eidolons. [Non-rhetorical question: I’m calling that group of abilities like Lightning’s Army of One, Fang’s Highwind, and Vanille’s Death “ultimates” after that tier of ability in League of Legends. Is there another commonly-used name for these abilities in XIII?]
---
Lightning:
-Her ravager’s only x-aga spell is Thundaga.
-Medic is reasonable, but only up to Cura. Has Esuna.
-Odin uses lots of lightning. Also finishes enemies off from low health.
-Army of One is her ultimate.
-I tested it a few times. Like I saw last time, it does pretty weak damage in normal circumstances, but it seems to give a big chain gauge boost when I used it on a staggered enemy.
[Non-rhetorical question: is this the primary use for the ravager ultimate abilities? If so, is it the same for Hope’s Last Resort and Sazh’s Cold Blood? (The other two ravager ultimates with similar descriptor text.)]
---
Sazh
-Limited Commando abilities, many ravager. X-aga spells in fire, thunder, air. Physical fire and lightning attacks.
-Ultimate ability is Cold Blood. See notes above with Army of One.
-Synergist is really strong. Bravery, faith, haste. Shell and protect. All the En-X and Bar-X.
-Brynhildr does lots of elemental damage attacks, but interestingly, I have to activate them by casting En-X on him with Sazh. Give me some control over her abilities.
-Gestalt does lots of fire damage.
---
Vanille
-Ravager’s strongest spells are Firaga and Blizzaga.
-Saboteur can do Deprotect, deshell, poison, imperil. Fog and pain. And her ultimate: DEATH. This is interesting.
Take last session’s fight against the tonberries. I didn’t win straight up – I needed deceptisol. It felt a bit cheap, but it SHOULDN’T. The game specifically made some enemies like the turtles and neochu immune to pre-emptive strikes. And it specifically left the tonberries vulnerable. It’s a valid tool.
Same with Death. I’m sure there are enemies that are immune to death… and those the game specifically left vulnerable to death.
I rarely used death abilities in my FF series, outside of Yojimbo on FFX’s Dark Aeons. Maybe it’s worth a try. And unlike FFX, I won’t have to break the bank in the attempt.
-I tested Death out on a bunch of enemy packs. Seems to have a low chance, which makes sense. I love how it still does damage even when the death effect doesn’t land.
[Non-rhetorical question: Does “Deshell” increase the chance of death landing?]
-Vanille’s synergist is low level, but can still access the Bar-X line.
-Her Medic is top notch. All the Cure line, plus Esuna and Raise.
-Hechatoncheir is about physical damage with one earth option. Mostly non-elemental.
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Fang
-omg she rides a chocobo side saddle <3
-Her ultimate commando ability is Highwind. I tested it out a few times. I now interpret the “damage varies by situation” descriptor to mean: okay without stagger, FUCKING OBLITERATES staggered enemies.
p.s. SHE LOOKS SO BADASS
It also clears the chain gauge, so I should ideally use it just before stagger wears off.
-OH RIGHT! I just noticed on this sentinel page: “Bonus: Damage Reduction.” I forgot that the sentinel makes the whole party take less damage. That’ll probably be super helpful in some tougher fights.
-Reprieve looks great: “If HP is above a certain threshold, retain 1 HP when an attack would otherwise KO you.” Could be helpful against Gigantuar’s opening 10,000 Needles.
-Her saboteur seems different than Vanille’s:
Vanille but not Fang: Deprotectga, Deshellga, Imperilga, Poison/Poisonga
Fang but not Vanille: Slow/Slowga, Fogga, Painga, Curse/Cursega
The better saboteur will depend on the enemy’s vulnerabilities.
-Bahamut focuses on non-elemental damage. Ultimate is Megaflare, massive area damage.
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Hope
-Top notch Ravager. Access to ALL the X-agas.
-His ultimate is Last Resort. Much like Lightning’s and Sazh’s ability, it seems to do a decent job of raising the chain gauge by a lot (almost 200%) when the enemy staggered.
-His synergist is the same as Sazh. Medic is the same as Vanille.
-Alexander is all about pure physical damage.
-His gestalt provides some interesting combo potential. Can launch enemies and chain the launch. Also can cast Deshell and Deprotect abilities. His ultimate, Divine Judgment, deals weakness-specific damage to all enemies.
That sounds useful against a pack of enemies with different weaknesses.
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Snow
-Last but not not least, Snow.
-His ultimate, Sovereign Fist, seems similar to Highwind.
Titanic damage against staggered targets that clears the chain gauge.
[Non-rhetorical question: Are both Highwind and Sovereign Fist single-target abilities or does either of them hit multiple enemies at once? I can’t tell visually.]
-Ravager includes Blizzaga and Waterga, Frostrike and Aquastrike. Full sentinel set.
-Stiria is all about healing and frost magic. Nix does physical damage and a bit of frost magic.
-Their gestalt is a mix of damage, including an ultimate ice ability of Diamond Dust.
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Okay, good. I know I didn’t progress this session, but I now feel much more comfortable with my party members, their ultimate abilities, their roles, and their eidolons.
In celebration, I bought some components and upgraded each party member’s main weapon to start level (around level 60) of its first transformation.
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Next time: Titan’s Trials.
-Her Medic is top notch. All the Cure line, plus Esuna and Raise.
-Hechatoncheir is about physical damage with one earth option. Mostly non-elemental.
---
Fang
-omg she rides a chocobo side saddle <3
-Her ultimate commando ability is Highwind. I tested it out a few times. I now interpret the “damage varies by situation” descriptor to mean: okay without stagger, FUCKING OBLITERATES staggered enemies.
p.s. SHE LOOKS SO BADASS
It also clears the chain gauge, so I should ideally use it just before stagger wears off.
-OH RIGHT! I just noticed on this sentinel page: “Bonus: Damage Reduction.” I forgot that the sentinel makes the whole party take less damage. That’ll probably be super helpful in some tougher fights.
-Reprieve looks great: “If HP is above a certain threshold, retain 1 HP when an attack would otherwise KO you.” Could be helpful against Gigantuar’s opening 10,000 Needles.
-Her saboteur seems different than Vanille’s:
Vanille but not Fang: Deprotectga, Deshellga, Imperilga, Poison/Poisonga
Fang but not Vanille: Slow/Slowga, Fogga, Painga, Curse/Cursega
The better saboteur will depend on the enemy’s vulnerabilities.
-Bahamut focuses on non-elemental damage. Ultimate is Megaflare, massive area damage.
---
Hope
-Top notch Ravager. Access to ALL the X-agas.
-His ultimate is Last Resort. Much like Lightning’s and Sazh’s ability, it seems to do a decent job of raising the chain gauge by a lot (almost 200%) when the enemy staggered.
-His synergist is the same as Sazh. Medic is the same as Vanille.
-Alexander is all about pure physical damage.
-His gestalt provides some interesting combo potential. Can launch enemies and chain the launch. Also can cast Deshell and Deprotect abilities. His ultimate, Divine Judgment, deals weakness-specific damage to all enemies.
That sounds useful against a pack of enemies with different weaknesses.
---
Snow
-Last but not not least, Snow.
-His ultimate, Sovereign Fist, seems similar to Highwind.
Titanic damage against staggered targets that clears the chain gauge.
[Non-rhetorical question: Are both Highwind and Sovereign Fist single-target abilities or does either of them hit multiple enemies at once? I can’t tell visually.]
-Ravager includes Blizzaga and Waterga, Frostrike and Aquastrike. Full sentinel set.
-Stiria is all about healing and frost magic. Nix does physical damage and a bit of frost magic.
-Their gestalt is a mix of damage, including an ultimate ice ability of Diamond Dust.
---
Okay, good. I know I didn’t progress this session, but I now feel much more comfortable with my party members, their ultimate abilities, their roles, and their eidolons.
In celebration, I bought some components and upgraded each party member’s main weapon to start level (around level 60) of its first transformation.
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Next time: Titan’s Trials.
