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Elemental affinities play a role in Final Fantasy Tactics’s story and an even more significant role in PvP. This article covers the intricacies of how these affinities work and what each type of bonus does in combat.

Table of Contents
● Different Types of Elements
● Elemental Modifiers (Boost, Halve, Absorb, Negate, Weak)
● Status Effects and Weather
● Equipment with Elemental Support

Different Types of Elements

In Final Fantasy Tactics, there are eight elements: fire, lightning, ice, water, wind, earth, holy, and dark. By themselves, they don’t mean much other than the type of damage they are considered, but once you factor gear or if you are going up against a monster things can change quickly.

Most monsters in the game are weak to a particular element and may be resistant to others. This is where elemental affinities can become an advantage in the story. In the Monsters Premade format for PvP, one of the main focuses on the roster is using elemental advantages to deal double damage so you can bring down your opponent twice as fast.

We will explore how you can take elements one step further by going more into modifiers.

Elemental Modifiers

There are five types of modifiers that can either increase or reduce or eliminate elemental damage: boost, halve, absorb, negate, and weak. It is important to know how they function especially in PvP as this can deter or enhance the damage you deal to your opponent’s team! We will cover what each one does below:
● Boost – Increases the damage done with the element by 25%.
● Halve – Decreases the damage taken from the element by 50%.
● Absorb – Restores HP instead of taking damage from the element. Whatever the damage total would be is healed instead.
● Negate – Nullifies all damage taken from the element.
● Weak – Increases the damage taken from the element by 50%.

These modifiers do not stack with themselves. For example, having 2 Boost: Fire does not mean 50% damage but still only increases your fire damage by 25%. The same applies to halve, absorb, negate, and weak.

Status Effects and Weather

Some status effects and even weather conditions can play a role in elemental affinities. Though we won’t go into too much regarding weather since we published an in-depth weather guide already, we will instead highlight weather interactions as well as how some status effects here below:
● Float status – Immune to earth attacks while also being treated 1 height higher.
● Oil status – Take double the damage from fire attacks. This status is removed once fire damage is taken.
● Thunderstorm – Fire damage dealt decreased by 25% and lightning damage dealt increased by 25%.
● Snowstorm – Ice damage dealt increased by 25%.

Equipment with Elemental Support

Now that we have gone over the types of elements and modifiers that can affect them, let’s go over the gear in the game that either deals its damage as a particular element or has a modifier built-in:

Today, we are beginning community testing of our upcoming Tactics League PvP Patch, a way to improve certain aspects of Final Fantasy Tactics without changing fundamental or core features, unless it wholesomely benefits the competitive environment. This patch co-exists with the official save data in mind, allowing us to tweak stuff like abilities, gear, and other things to further strengthen their viability in PvP while weighing in on how these changes affect the current formats. For now, the current 2.3.1 save version will be the save to test on, but once the patch is official we will release a save data update to compensate or adjust where necessary.

To view the current status of proposals and implementations visit Tactics League: PvP Patch Updates | Trello

Proposals

Proposals are the “ideas” for improving the patch. Community members in the Tactics League Discord can provide a concept of what to change, such as adjusting clock ticks of cast-time abilities or improving certain weapons for better overall choices. Once a proposal is posted and there is some discussion around it, the proposal will then go through the following phases:

• Proposal – The idea or concept a person would like to see implemented into the patch.
• Testing – The proposal is set into the patch for testing purposes. Feedback is key to moving forward.
• Implemented/Not Implemented – After testing and upvoting or downvoting it, depending on any further iterations needed the proposal may be fully implemented into the PvP patch for official use once it is fully released. If a proposal does not work out in the end, it will be moved to Not Implemented and shelved for the meantime (but this does not mean it cannot be iterated on and put back into Testing).

Cycles

Of course, we cannot put every proposal into a patch each time it is brought up otherwise we could never get proper testing done! Cycles are a way to set a timeframe to thoroughly test everything in the Testing phase so we can get some real-time responses on how they feel and play in PvP. For now, each Cycle will be set for 2 weeks, subject to change depending on the activity with playtesting.

These are the following start and end dates for each cycle as of this post:

• Cycle 1 – 9/20 – 10/3
• Cycle 2 – 10/3 – 10/17
• Cycle 3 – 10/17 – 11/1
• Cycle 4 – 11/1 – 11/14
• Cycle 5 – 11/14 – 11/29
• Cycle 6 – 11/29 – 12/12

Be a part of the community and help us shape the future of Tactics League competitive PvP! If you have not joined the Tactics League Discord, join us today, get set up for multiplayer, and experience our PvP offerings!

Today, an incremental update was published to address an issue with Onion Knights reverting their mastered status after a PvP/PvE battle and an adjustment to Beowulf in Generics Premade. Read the changelog below for more information.

To download official version 2.3.1 save data, go here: Download Official Save Data

Competitive Starter 2.1

Note: This is not an update to Starter, but rather fixes to correct an issue.

Characters

• Re-learned/Added Speechcraft ability, Entice, on all characters to resolve the issue of Onion Knight’s mastered status being reverted after any battle. Based on testing, the game checks the status only after a battle has ended. This was addressed in the event a player saves after a PvP/PvE battle (which is highly not recommended for the Starter format).
  To note, Entice is still banned from the Starter format.

Generics Premade 2.2

Beowulf

• Swapped: Vengeance for Confuse.
• Increased PA from 11 to 13.
• Comment: Vengeance could be abused by dealing team damage to Beowulf early game lowering his HP and being able to deal instant, 8-range damage (upwards of 400+) from safety early on if utilized. As a [Support] he shouldn’t ultimately be able to deal massive amounts of damage from range with little risk. Beowulf’s PA was increased to up his basic attacks from 154 to 182 un-mitigated to compensate for some of his damage loss.

In this update, we make some adjustments to the Generics Premade roster, a few changes to Uniques Premade including adding Zalbaag to the roster, and balance adjustments to Competitive Starter. This will be the last major save data update for the 2022 year unless an incremental is needed for fixes. Read the changelogs below for more information.

To download official version 2.3 save data, go here: Download Version 2.3

Generics Premade v2.1 Changelog
Uniques Premade v1.2 Changelog
Competitive Starter v2.1 Changelog

Generics Premade v2.1

To view the updated roster, visit: Tactics League: Generics Premade

Cloud

• Swapped: Nature’s Wrath for First Strike.
  Comment: Nature’s Wrath enabled a relatively high amount of reactive damage due to Cloud’s MA. Instead of nerfing his MA (which is essential for his damage potential with Limit) we opted to switch his reaction to First Strike instead giving him better melee counterplay.

Lancer

• Reduced PA from 18 to 16.
  Comment: PA reduced to slightly decrease Lancer’s Jump from 324 to 288 unmitigated.

Paladin

• Increased PA from 14 to 15.
• Increased MA from 16 to 18.
• Comment: PA increase was to improve his basic attacks from 65 to 75 unmitigated and to also slightly improve his chance to rend via Arts of War. MA increased to improve the potency of his White Magicks.

Bouncer

• Swapped: Lifefont for Move +1.
  Comment: Between Lifefont, Soulbind, and Chakra abilities, Bouncer has a ton of passive healing that can make it challenging to out-damage her. Though that is a part of her design, we need to tone back some of the passive healing.

Guardian

• Increased PA from 13 to 15.
  Comment: PA increase was to improve her basic attacks from 65 to 75 unmitigated and to also slightly improve her chance to rend via Arts of War. Guardian did not receive a heftier PA increase for melee bonus due to affecting Arts of War further.

Apothecary

• Swapped: Ras Algethi (gun) for Mythril Gun.
  Comment: Being ranged support, Ras Algethi was enabling too much damage from safety. Apothecary’s basic attacks are now 64 instead of 144 unmitigated, the same as Stalwart.

Distractor

• Increased PA and MA from 13 to 15 respectively.
  Comment: PA and MA increase was to improve her basic attacks from 130 to 150 unmitigated since she attacks from melee range. This does also slightly buff the HP/MP damage of Witch Hunt and Mincing Minuet to 34 and 24 respectively.

Timewalker

• Increased PA from 14 to 21.
  Comment: PA increase was to improve her basic attacks from 75 to 108 unmitigated since she attacks from melee range.

Uniques Premade v1.2

Zalbaag joins the fight in the [Tank] role in this update! Zalbaag will be replacing Aliste since he was underutilized and gives us an opportunity to see how his Blade of Ruin abilities perform in PvP. To view the updated roster, visit: Tactics League: Uniques Premade

Zalbaag (NEW)

• Immune: Slow, Stop, Immobilize (via Empyreal Armband)
• A master tactician, Zalbaag uses his Blade of Ruin skillset to reduce the enemy’s MP, Physical Attack, Magick Attack, or Speed stats drastically. This ability can also affect friendlies in the area so be careful who you target; requires cast time.
• Being an expert in field strategies, Zalbaag can utilize Speechcraft to either reduce his enemy’s CT (Stall), cause death to slowly KO the enemy (Condemn) or cause the enemy to only perform attacks and lose player control via Berserk status (Insult).
• Though he has a relatively low MP pool for his 20 MP-costing abilities, he can recover it by moving via Manafont.
• To view his character profile and abilities, visit: Zalbaag

Construct 8

• Increased PA from 10 to 14.
  Comment: Construct 8’s PA was increased to incentivize its damage capabilities. Pulverize does exceed the tank damage metric, but it requires Construct 8 to be at the same height and within 1 range as the target.

Cloud

• Swapped: Nature’s Wrath for First Strike.
  Comment: Nature’s Wrath enabled a relatively high amount of reactive damage due to Cloud’s MA. Instead of nerfing his MA (which is essential for his damage potential with Limit), we opted to switch his reaction to First Strike instead giving him better melee counterplay.

Competitive Starter 2.1

Starter 2.1 update focuses on balancing unique characters while limiting the amount of some PA/MA-stacking gear and setting a cap on WeaponPower, in order to tone down on some of the overall damage potentials in this format. To view the updated roster, visit: Tactics League: Competitive Starter

Limited and Semi-Limited Gear Restriction Update
By reducing the number of available PA/MA-stacking gear on a team and setting a WeaponPower cap of 32, these changes generally bring down damage in the format. Coincidentally, these changes have also increased the viability of cast-time magicks as well as other abilities such as Auto-Potion and Doublehand allowing for more creative versatility.

• Limited: Murasame
• Semi-Limited: Rod of Faith, Wizard’s Rod, Runeblade, Lordly Robe, Brass Coronet, Bracer, Genji Gloves
• Banned: Crown Scepter, Stardust Rod, Dreamwalker, Nirvana, Chaos Blade, Valhalla, Vesper
  Comment: Murasame was switched from semi-limited to limited due to its instant AoE healing that was even effective on lower MA builds. This should incentivize using White Magicks/Items and other sources for healing instead of always relying on Murasame since it is now riskier to spam cast.
  
  Rod of Faith was switched from limited to semi-limited to help with the viability of caster-based compositions, which have improved this update from testing. Bracer and Brass Coronet in particular are semi-limited due to their +3 PA/MA-stacking value and the various staves and rods were banned due to the amount of additional MA you can get from these weapons, especially with Dual Wield.
  
  Vesper, Chaos Blade, and Valhalla were all banned due to them being above the 32 WP cap. All other endgame weapons are closer to each other making for better options for itemization. To note, Onion Sword is an exception since it is limited in job and requires to be point-blank on target.

Characters

• Removed: Speechcraft ability, Entice, from all characters in the roster as this ability is now banned.
  Comment: This ability was removed and banned due to limited counterplay options there were for it, potentially promoting unhealthy gameplay.

Mustadio

• Increased HP from 291 to 343.
• Increased Faith from 62 to 84.
• Increased MA from 11 to 15.
• Switched his job type from 16 Machinist to 22 Machinist, gaining innate Safeguard.
  Comment: Mustadio has always been overshadowed by Balthier. These buffs give him a bit more variance by now, having innate Safeguard (job only) and Mustadio being more magick-inclined while being slower and with less gear and skillset options than his pirate counterpart.

Agrias

• Increased PA from 11 to 13.
  Comment: PA increased to improve the damage from Holy Sword abilities.

Marach

• Increased MA from 11 to 16.
• Reduced Faith from 31 to 3.
  Comment: The MA increase and reduction in Faith are buffs to improve Marach’s job skillset to be more effective as he was in a tough spot due to most opposing targets having 60 Faith, causing his Nether Mantra to scale weaker. In addition, Marach is now also the best option for using Fell Sword attacks due to their low Faith scaling.

Rapha

• Increased MA from 14 to 17.
  Comment: MA increased to improve the viability of her Sky Mantra skillset.

Reis

• Reduced MA from 19 to 17.
  Comment: Though Reis is limited to gear due to her job, her high base MA when coupled with MA-stacking gear makes Iaido and her Holy Breath hit very hard. This MA reduction slightly reigns in some of the power she has.

Cloud

• Increased Speed from 11 to 12.
• Increased MA from 10 to 17.
  Comment: The MA buff is to focus on raising Limit’s viability in Starter, improving the unmitigated damage of his abilities. Cloud will still need some additional investment when factoring mitigation sources.

Construct 8

• Increased Speed from 11 to 13.
  Comment: This Speed buff was to help Construct 8 get more turns in the Starter speed metagame. Though it still cannot be affected by Haste, this does give Construct 8 an extra turn or two on average, increasing its viability as a pick. To note, Construct 8’s damage ignores all mitigation, so it always hits for 340 with Dispose.

Luso

• Increased PA from 16 to 18.
  Comment: Luso is notably an inferior version of Ramza when compared directly. This PA buff makes him stand out as one of the hardest-hitting physical unique characters while having drawbacks (mainly lower Bravery/Faith and lower MA compared to Ramza).

Balthier

• Reduced PA from 17 to 11.
  Comment: Besides Balthier having a very diverse skillset and stats/gear options, this nerf was to bring down some of his damage when utilizing Barrage with high-powered weapons (the biggest offender being Saggitarius Bow since it synergizes so well with his stats). The goal was to reduce his “one-shotting” potential, which is still doable with investment and Attack Boost/Vehemence. His overall total damage done with Barrage is down roughly 9% with this iteration.

Inventory

• Removed: Potion and Hi-Potion (Chemists still have these learned for mastery purposes).
• Increased X-Potion from 10 to 20.
  Comment: Due to the overall team damage reduction that was the focus of this update, Auto-Potion’s viability has improved when compared to Soulbind. When factoring incoming damage and these Br% reactions both proccing off HP loss, Auto-Potion is better healing when the damage taken is 300 or less, and Soulbind is better when the damage taken is 302 or higher. The removal of Potion and Hi-Potion was to reflect X-Potion being used in tandem with Auto-Potion at all times since damage is high in this format.

Did you know that certain weather conditions can actually affect battles? In this article, we go over how the random elements of weather can play a role in battles and how you should take advantage of it if you come across it.

What Are Weather Effects and the Ivalician Calendar

Weather effects can occur randomly on outdoor maps only and have a few positive and negative effects depending on the weather. Weather cannot stop or change once it has been started. Here are a few tidbits regarding weather depending on the mode you are playing Final Fantasy Tactics in:

● In story missions and multiplayer Rendezvous mode, each battle has its weather determined and is not randomized.
● In random battles, the weather is considered random and follows the Ivalician calendar. In multiplayer Melee mode, weather on outdoor maps is considered random and does not seem to follow the Ivalician calendar.
● Indoor maps and the Midnight Deep dungeon cannot have weather. There are also no accuracy penalties against Bow and Crossbow attacks in these locations.

Ivalician Calendar

Chance for Weather (Day or Night)

Clear Weather (Indoor and Outdoor)

Weather can sometimes not occur on an outdoor map and it cannot happen at all on indoor maps. All indoor maps are treated as “clear” as well as the Midnight Deep dungeon areas.
● During night-time with clear weather, the evasion rate against Bows and Crossbow attacks is multiplied by 1.80. Note: Midnight Deep does not increase the evasion rate against Bows and Crossbows even though the area appears dark.

Rainstorms and Thunderstorms

Rainstorms and thunderstorms are both similar in nature; the game depicts them as heavy rainfall and thunderstorms add flashes occasionally to the background to indicate it as such. The following positive and negative effects occur during rainstorms and thunderstorms:
● Evasion rate against Bows and Crossbows attacks are multiplied by 1.33 (or 1.80 if at night).
● Fire-element damage is reduced by 25%.
● Lightning-element damage is increased by 25%.
● Movement through swamp tiles costs 2 Move per tile in rainstorms and 3 Move per tile in thunderstorms. These movement penalties can be ignored via Mystic’s Ignore Weather movement ability.
● Don’t be confused by light rain, it is depicted as slower-moving rainfall animations and is considered “clear” weather, causing no positive or negative effects.

Snowstorms and Light Snow

Battles that take place on snowy terrain have a chance to cause light snow or snowstorms. When either of these weather conditions occurs the following takes place:
● Snowstorms are depicted by horizontal and vertical snowfall animations and increase the damage of all ice-element attacks by 25%.
● Light snow is depicted by only vertical snowfall animations and is treated as “clear” weather.

Are you looking to get into your first Competitive Starter game? A seasoned Tactics PvP player looking for some tips for your next Starter matchup? This article gives some essential tips to help lead you to your upcoming victory in this fast-paced format.

💊 Buff-Up Early

With the Competitive Starter format being considered an endgame-based PvP mode with access to endgame gear, it is even more important to get your defenses and other beneficial effects early onto your team so they can perform and sustain damage as best as they can. Some of the best ways to go about this are to either:

● Use Iaido’s Kiyomori to provide Protect and Shell (33% damage mitigation from physical and magick attacks).
● Use Iaido’s Masamune to provide Haste and Regen (faster turns and passive healing over time).
● Equip gear that has Protect, Shell, or Haste innately, such as Lordly Robe or Brigand’s Glove.

📑Team Composition and Adjusting to the Map

The overall goal of your 5-unit team and how they synergize is very important, but also don’t forget that the map plays a role in certain picks as well. Small maps, such as Lionel Castle Oratory, are very close-quartered and the opponent is usually in range to strike first turn if they plan to, so bringing slower characters or builds that require set-up time is not ideal. As a suggestion, usually have 1 or 2 extra units set up to swap in quickly into your team concept.

⚔️Know the Meta Abilities

In the current (and likely foreseeable future) metagame, there are 3 commonly used skillsets: Darkness, Iaido, and Throw. Each of these abilities can easily hit hard so knowing how to prepare against them is one part of the battle ahead and we will briefly go over each one and a few counters:

● Darkness – Skillset is entirely physical damage so Protect or Defense Boost support ability are the best defensive options.
● Iaido – This magick-based skillset’s damage can be mitigated using Shell or Arcane Defense support ability.
● Throw – This physical damage ability scales up with the user’s Speed as well as the damage of the thrown weapon. Lowering the target’s Speed is one way such as Rend Speed, but damage can also can be mitigated through Protect, Defense Boost, and the summon Golem. Also to note that Throw is evadable whereas Darkness and Iaido are not, so Shirahadori reaction ability and good evasion stats play a role as well.

⚠️Glass-Cannon is Not Always Best

Sure, in Competitive Starter you can opt for your builds for full damage or stat-stacking well into 30+ Physical or Magick Attack to do some insane damage, but you run the risk of being frail and if your opponent is defensively built or can slow the pace of the game down through status effects, you may quickly become crippled in offensive power and lose your damage-specced units as a result. Here are some tips to consider:

● The map will play a role in how risky you can spec for a glass-cannon-like build.
● Outside of team-comp predictions, it is typically ideal to have at least 2 units be fairly bulky; meaning they have a marginally high amount of HP, elemental or status resistances, and passive recovery methods, such as Manafont + Mana Shield, Soulbind, or even Lifefont to keep them sustaining damage.
● If you are running full damage specs, consider using Ovelia for her Aegis (for reraise specifically), slotting Dragonheart reaction, or using White Magicks to apply Reraise instead.

Hopefully, these tips get you on the road to success in your next Starter match. If looking for more ways to get prepared for the format, also check out the Starter: Abilities for Any Team guide for additional resources.