When taking on your first Melee (what Tactics call its Player vs. Player mode), here are a few tips to consider that we have listed below:
Buffs are important
In certain Tactics League formats, such as Starter or Generics and Uniques Premade, damage can be fairly high without applying these critical buffs to your allies. Start applying them within the first few turns of the game so they receive less damage, get more turns more often, and sustain for a long battle ahead:
● Protect and Shell status – These positive status effects reduce physical and magick damage taken by 33% respectively.
● Haste status – This positive status effect increases how often your CT (known as Charge Turn) gauge fills up, resulting in your unit’s turn. Haste will increase the rate at which your CT increments by 50%, which is based on your unit’s Speed stat.
● Reraise status – Though a bit less commonly used, Reraise automatically resurrects a KO’d ally once their CT gauge reaches 100, returning them to play with 10% of their maximum HP, rounded up.
● Regen status – Restores 1/8 of your maximum HP at the end of the unit’s turn. Passive healing adds up, especially in the mid-to-late game.
Maps and how they affect team composition
Each map does affect who to bring and what as the distance between engagement affects set up time and how often you can get “buffs” on your party to increase their effectiveness. We will list each map size below and note the average amount of time before engagement:
● Small – close quarter and limited turns to set up cast time abilities before engagement. Ideal for aggressive compositions (engagement time average 1-2 turns).
● Medium – a bit of distance between both teams allowing for set-up time before engagement. Ideal for high-Speed characters to progress quickly and ranged characters to make up the distance (engagement time average 2-3 turns).
● Large – spacious maps with the most advantage towards ranged characters; plenty of turns to set up before engagement (engagement time average 3-5 turns).
For more information regarding the maps, visit Settings.
The Importance of Utilizing Turn Order
Turn order is especially useful in PvP because it allows you to plan ahead of what kind of actions you can make before an opposing character gets to act or when an ability is going to be cast so you can take advantage of it. Here are the general reasons to always or occasionally check the Turn Order:
– When cast time abilities will be cast and if you or the opposition can move away from it.
– If a support ability can be used in a way that you gain an advantage. For example: if your opponent is casting Cura near a character and one of your own can position itself near the target beforehand to benefit from the healing.
– Generally which character is going to act within the next 2 turns so you can strategize.
– To potentially perform a combo, stringing different abilities in unison to KO or cripple a foe.
There are several ways to view the Turn Order (or in FFT WotL known as Turn List). We will provide button configurations for PlayStation, Xbox, and Keyboard layouts:
To view during one of your character’s turns:
1. Press Circle (on PS controller) / B (on Xbox controller) / X (Keyboard default) to cancel the action menu.
2. Then press Triangle (on PS) / Y (on Xbox) / S (Keyboard default) to bring up the sub menu.
3. Select Turn List to view the current turn order from the current acting character. Press your cancel button when done and then Cross (on PS) / A (on Xbox) / Z (Keyboard default) to return to the acting character’s action menu.
To view the turn order when about to perform an ability:
1. During your character’s turn and selecting an ability, press Right D-Pad to pull up the turn order. This will show when the selected ability will cast.
2. Press Circle (on PS) / B (on Xbox) / X (Keyboard default) to return the ability menu.
Utilizing the Combat Forecast
The combat forecast or predicted results is another important tool you can use to determine how much damage or healing you can cause, the success rate of a status effect (if just using a status ability like Poison), and if a status effect is immune to the target. The forecast will display each time you target an ally, enemy, and even tile(s) before confirming the action. Here are a couple of extra things to watch for when reading the forecast:
– If an ability or attack displays a 0% chance then this is either because the ability has a height requirement that was not met or there is a character/object in the “path” of the attack (which may end up taking the damage/healing instead).
– The damage value displayed does not show the chance to critically strike.
– The percentage shown is the “chance” for the ability or attack to hit or miss. Most abilities should be used from either the sides or rear of the target to have the best chance and reduce evasiveness. For example: The Rend abilities in Arts of War work best from behind the target but is still subject to the target’s P-EV.
– If using a main status ability, like Poison, it will display the chance the status effect will apply to that target.
– If using an ability with a secondary status effect, like Judgment Blade, it will not display the chance to apply the status effect but will display if the target can be affected by it based on its immunities from gear/job. For example: Cloud’s Ribbon in premades grants him all status immunity so if targeting him with an ability that does cause one it will not display a red text in the forecast of the status but he will still take the forecasted damage.
