Category Article

Today’s article focuses on some new and exciting changes coming to Dragoon, Mime, and a new accessory called the Garment Ring. Let’s dive into how each impacts the following jobs and playability!

Dragoon’s New Skillset, Dragon Tech

Dragoons get a new, shiny set of abilities to play with in version 5, giving them more tools to combat with instead of strictly just Jump and Attack, while also adding Jump as a tertiary action command so it isn’t out of the equation. The new Dragon Tech skillset is inspired by the Final Fantasy Tactics Advance series of Dragoon jobs, giving them more options and creativity to build both for magic and physical specs.

Here’s a rundown of how each new ability operates (note that these breath changes also affect Reis’s Dragon skillset as well):

• Ice Breath – Deals 2-line ice magic damage with a 19% chance to Inflict: Immobilize
• Fire Breath – Deals 2-line fire magic damage with a 19% chance to Inflict: Poison
• Thunder Breath – Deals 2-line lightning magic damage with a 19% chance to Inflict: Blind
• Luna – Self, 100% Berserk
• Lancet – 2 Range, 33% HP Absorption
• Tail Sweep – 2 Range Conal, Deals physical damage with a chance to critically strike

As mentioned earlier, not only does Dragoon gain a new skillset that isn’t strictly just “Jump” but it also adds Jump back in as a tertiary as their signature and most damaging skill. Jump will also be affected by your Jump stat in the future, so you can invest in more damage (and more pain) by building towards the Jump stat as well!

Dragoons got a flexibility buff in version 5, and I can’t wait to see what creative builds you take with them!

Become a Blue Mage (sort of) with Blue Magicks

With version 5, Mimes got a change to their Mimic skillset (which was technically just a dummied skillset by default) which allows them to finally learn select monster abilities in battle akin to how Blue Mages work in other Final Fantasy titles. With this change, Mimes can now use their exclusive skillset, Blue Magicks, to wield a variety of utility and damage options in addition to still being able to mimicry. Mimes did receive a bit of stat reductions to compensate for this change as this allows them to use functions outside of Attack on their turn. Other non-Mime jobs can use Blue Magicks, but you will need to slot the updated Beastmaster support ability to do so (this is also for balance purposes).

With 14 new abilities in their skillset, Mimes and Blue Magicks in general, is a contender option for flexibility and having a toolbox of plays when you need it most. Part of the changes going into it is that these abilities felt good to use, but also aren’t as powerful by default as is the nature of Blue Magicks in other games. Let’s do a quick brief on what each does:

• Cat Scratch – 1 Range, physical damage with 100% knockback based on position
• Choco Pellets – 4 Range, physical damage with a chance to critically strike
• Choco Esuna – 1 AoE, Removes: Stone, Blind, Silence, Poison, Stop, Immobilize, Disable
• Goblin Punch – 1 Range, deals damage based on your missing HP
• Dread Gaze – 3 Range, reduces target’s Bravery by 20
• Spark – Iaido-Range, deals fire magic damage to all targets, including yourself
• Vampire – 1 Range, deals 33% max. HP absorption with a 25% chance to Inflict: Vampire
• Mind Blast – 3 Range, chance to Inflict: Confuse or Berserk (at 25% chance each)
• Ice Anima – 4 Range, deals ice magic damage with a 19% chance to Inflict: Slow
• Earthsplitter – Iaido-Range, deals earth magic damage
• Goo – 1 Range, Inflicts: Immobilize, Slow, or Stop randomly (at 25% chance each)
• Heave – 1 Range, inflicts physical damage with a 19% chance to Inflict: KO
• Magick Nymph – Self, 1 AoE, restores MP to all nearby targets (excludes yourself)
• Tri-Breath – 3-Directional, deals 2-range damage based on 40% of the target’s max. HP per target

As you can see, Blue Magicks is loaded with a plethora of options, but it can only be accessed by either playing Mime directly or slotting the Beastmaster support ability which then unlocks it for slotting as a secondary command. Since Luso is considered a Blue Mage under his Game Hunter job, he will have Beastmaster innately, allowing you to slot Blue Magicks as a secondary if you choose to do so automatically while still keeping your Support slot open.

In the campaign, slotting Beastmaster (which is learnable on Squire) allows you to start mastering select monster abilities guaranteed as long as you were hit or affected, so this is a great way to start your Blue Magicks journey even in the beginning and it now extends the hidden ability unlock range from 1 to 3 tiles!

You can Bardsong or Dance with the Garment Ring

The Garment Ring is a new accessory joining the Tactics League inventory in v5 which allows you to access the unique, Perform command while slotted. Perform includes all of Bardsong and Dance abilities so you can finally do Bardsong on a female unit, or Dance on a male, whichever suits your needs!

This limited-item ring inspired by Final Fantasy X-2 gives its user the power to utilize both skillsets all in one, allowing you to have greater flexibility for situations. With greater power, you still should consider Performing Arts support ability to enhance your effectiveness with Bardsong and Dance, but even with select abilities, you can get away with a decent time performing your way to victory. Perform is considered a quaternary command, so you can still use both your primary, secondary, and tertiary (if slotted) alongside it. And yes, even Onion Knight can perform too!

Conclusion

Dragoons have more to do than just jump and poke, Mimes can use an array of abilities on their turn, and the Garment Ring allows you to perform however you choose. Version 5 is aimed to be a wild ride for sure!

The fifth and final iteration of the Tactics League PvP Patch will soon enter public beta, and with it comes a massive amount of new updates, changes, and quality of life for what will be the end of the series of updates.

In the first Focused article, we will explore a significant change coming with version 5: the Party Roster Expansion (which utilizes the previous 4 reserved Guest slots for the story) allowing for four additional unique characters to join the Standard and Rendezvous roster! Let’s go more into an overview of what makes each of these units special and how you will be able to wield them each in competitive PvP.

Ashley Riot (from Vagrant Story)

One of the more talked about characters from different (but similar) video game universes in the Tactics League Discord, Ashley will finally make his debut in version 5. As a Riskbreaker, you will utilize his Break Arts to dispatch highly damaging situations at the cost of your HP (similarly to how Dark Knight’s Abyssal Blade and Unholy Sacrifice work).

Each weapon has an associated Break Art that the Riskbreaker job can equip, and thankfully, Ashley joins the fight with innate Reequip and a plethora of accessible weapons to make changes on the fly for the battles ahead. Ashley can equip: Swords, Knight’s Swords, Fell Swords, Crossbows, Staves, Flails, Axes, Knives, Polearms, Shields, Robes, Clothing, and Hats.

If you are familiar with Vagrant Story, Ashley’s Break Arts should feel at home. Abilities like Vile Scar (Swords), Shadoweave (Knives), and Advent Sign (Knight’s Swords) are at your disposal but you will need to carefully juggle Ashley’s HP as each one taxes him depending on their overall power. There are 11 Break Arts to use with them being weapon-specific, so building into him requires consideration as well. The Break Arts skillset includes some of the Fundaments abilities from Squire, such as Focus, Stone, Salve, and Throw Dagger, but Frenzy and Taunt are excluded.

Scythe Wind (requires Polearm) – Deals devastating conal Wind damage (and can even mix with your weapon’s element) in the area for 60% of your max. HP.

A shout-out to Valkirst from FFHacktics for the awesome-looking sprite and portrait, Tactics style!

Aerith Gainsborough (from the Cloud event in Final Fantasy Tactics and Final Fantasy VII)

The lovely flower girl you come across during the event sequences with Cloud in the story is finally becoming a fully playable character in the PvP Patch. She joins the roster not only as a support character but also with a unique Quality of Life change coming that not only affects Aerith but also Cloud: the Limit Level System.

Without going off track entirely for this article, essentially Aerith and Cloud’s skillset behavior closely resembles the one in FFVII, taking enemy damage results in increased Limit Level, unlocking stronger abilities as you continue to do so, which can change the tides of battle quickly. We will dive more into that and Cloud’s changes in a specific article, but for now, note that that change is coming and I carefully wanted to make sure it is as rewarding as it is thoughtful and fun tactfully.

Now let’s take a closer look at our lovely lady who has the power to convene with the planet itself:

Aerith’s job, Ancient, grants her Innate: Halves: All Elements, and as you can see from her stat sheet, she can be theory-crafted in various ways fairly easily. Her Limit abilities closely resemble that of the Final Fantasy VII (not the remake versions) ones giving her an array of commands to aid her team to victory. These abilities require incoming enemy HP damage (no team cheesing sorry :p) to gain access to them and Limit is initially locked until you have taken at least 20% for Level 1. Let’s take a look at a few:

Fury Brand (Limit Level 2 – Take 30% HP Damage or more to unlock)

Planet Protector (Limit Level 3 – Take 40% HP Damage or more to unlock)

As mentioned earlier, we will dive directly into the Limit Level System – QoL update in its separate article, including changes to Cloud, coming with PvP Patch v5.

Elidibus, Serpentarius Lucavi (secret boss from Midlight’s Deep)

Though this probably ruined the secret (sorry if it did!), Elidibus is joining the Tactics League roster as the second monster alongside Construct 8. As a boss and Lucavi, I wanted to make sure he stood out on his own, especially against the coveted Construct 8 to not only make him a threat but to fit the title of “secret boss.” If you are familiar with Elidibus, then you will be quite familiar with him in this rendition, balanced for PvP playability but he is nothing to scoff at. Let’s take a closer look:

As a monster, you cannot equip or change his job or abilities, but he is loaded with innate abilities to offset these limits. Elidibus’s innate abilities are Bonecrusher, Instant Cast, Manafont, and Dexterity. Yes, he does have Instant Cast which makes all abilities in his kit be, well, immediate! He also has an array of status and elemental innates or immunities, listed in the second picture.

The Dark skillset is quite familiar if you have experienced against it before, bringing about devastating Toad and Poison status in Poisonous Frog, a lowered PWR version of Zodiark (which also cannot be uniquely mimicked for balance purposes), a hard-hitting 2-range attack in Snakecharm, and the life-ending Vengeance to net killing blows based on your damage taken.

Mentioning the MP costs in his skillset, you will need to carefully play around his limited MP pool as though he has Manafont, he will only recover so much per move so you will need to build in proportion to how effective you want Elidibus to be.

I can’t wait to see some crafty plays and AoE annihilation once the v5 Beta starts!

The Leading Man Permanently Returns, Balthier (from Final Fantasy Tactics: the War of the Lions and Final Fantasy XII)

Oh man, Balthier has had the most ins and outs in the Tactics League roster than any other character in history. With the struggles between the original Barrage, trying to find ways to adjust his stat spread and ultimately having low playability, to giving up his spot for another unique, Balthier has once stolen the show and then not so much after. But with version 5, I have taken the time to hone in on various feedback and pain points that players have had with him in the past and he can finally return to competitive play as the Sky Pirate we all love. And he is still menacing as ever (and don’t sleep on him)!

Balthier doesn’t return with Safeguard innately like he originally had, but rather, he now has Mug: dealing unarmed damage with successful Steal Equipment abilities. With Thief’s Gloves and even his initial or increased Bravery, not only can you rob someone of their precious gear, but they take a hefty amount of damage while doing so (and it can crit too)!

First, let’s address one of his signature issues from the past: Barrage. It is finally back, but it is now: a 2-hit instead of a 4-hit, it costs 60 MP as a means to check it directly, it is evadable (based on the weapon type), and it hits for 60% of the total power a normal attack would have done. Now don’t let that fool you, with the right setups and plays, Barrage can still cripple and down targets, especially with weapons having an initial 50% chance to activate their ability cast and even more so when you add the reworked Chantage (100% chance instead).

Second, the FFXII Quickenings that were added to replace Barrage, Leg Shot, Arm Shot, and Seal Evil in version 3 are coming back for version 5 too. With it, an array of options you can build Balthier for. Slotting Brawler lets Elements of Treachery and Fires of War damage propel to greater heights. But you can also build Balthier as a magic-spec with a reworked Tides of Fate and crush the opposition with conal water damage.

Third, the Plunder abilities have been replaced by the Steal Equipment ones (Thief’s versions) to make room for many new abilities that you will come across in later articles. With recent updates to Steal and as a “master thief” these mesh well with Balthier as a whole and allow him to play his job rightfully so.

I am glad he is finally able to come back, especially in the final series of updates, and I cannot wait to see the shenanigans he can do in the hands of our best players!

Conclusion

The Party Roster Expansion opens up new and exciting leaders to your future version 5 teams. This is just the beginning of what is in store for the ending series of updates. There is even more to explore, but we will save that for a future article. Stay tuned for more version 5 news to come!

Today is the official start of our second competitive season. With it, comes a new feature to make Game 2 dynamic in a best-of-3 series, Sanctioned Events program, and tiered Competitor Points awarding. Let’s break down each addition below.

Game 1 Loser Map Select

The match structure and regulation rulebook have been updated to allow the loser of Game 1 in a best-of-3 series to declare any legal map in the Tactics League map pool for Game 2, either medium or small-sized, as long as it is a map that does not already exist in the map selection for that match. The 3rd game’s map would then become the opposite map size chosen to still have 2 medium and 1 small map in the match. This is a break away from the traditional Medium > Small > Medium map structure that was presently used in Season 1’s competitions and allows for Game 2 to be dynamically played shaking things up from our previous static rotation.

Sanctioned Events Program

As detailed more in its separate article, the Sanctioned Events program is a means of supporting grassroots events as Tactics League-supported, giving the tournament organizer access to a plethora of resources to ensure the event’s success. Competitions that are approved for sanctioning are eligible for Competitor Points awarding allowing for a hopeful increase in annual competitions, hosted directly by Tactics League and the community as well!

Tiered Competitor Points Awarding

Alongside the Sanctioned Events program, also includes an update to Competitor Points (CP) scaling and there are different point awards based on the bracket size of sanctioned events, allowing for more flexibility:

• Tournament-Style (large pool)
  For Double Elimination & Round Robin Allocations for 7+ Competitors
  • 1st = 2000 pts.
  • 2nd = 1600 pts.
  • 3rd = 1400 pts.
  • 4th = 1200 pts.
  • 5th – 8th = 800 pts.
  • 9th and lower = 600 pts.
    
• Tournament-Style (small pool)
  For Double Elimination & Round Robin Allocations for 4-6 Competitors
  • 1st = 1400 pts.
  • 2nd = 1200 pts.
  • 3rd = 1000 pts.
  • 4th = 800 pts.
  • 5th = 600 pts.
  • 6th = 400 pts.
    
• Cup-Style (large pool)
  For Single Elimination Allocations for 7+ Competitors
  • 1st = 800 pts.
  • 2nd = 600 pts.
  • 3rd – 4th = 500 pts.
  • 5th – 8th = 300 pts.
  • 9th and lower = 200 pts.
    
• Cup-Style (small pool)
  For Single Elimination Allocations for 4-6 Competitors
  • 1st = 500 pts.
  • 2nd = 400 pts.
  • 3rd = 300 pts.
  • 4th = 200 pts.
  • 5th and 6th = 100 pts.

With all of these changes starting today, we are excited to take Tactics League and competitive play to new heights!

A new competitive season, Academy, Sanctioned Events, and a new game update to coincide with today’s Season 2 launch, and this update focuses on some improvements and fixes after feedback and requests from players.

To download this update, head over to Downloads.

Bug Fixes

• Protect/Defense Boost – Set the damage reduction percentage from 34 to 33% resulting in less physical damage loss once these mitigation values are applied as intended
  When doing calculator math side-by-side some damage values appear lower than in-game but usually it’s a marginal 1-3 point difference due to rounding. However, for most physical attacks/abilities this resulted in abnormal damage loss (like 20-40+) causing select physical damage to deal even less damage than intended (such as Holy Sword, Darkness, and weapon attacks).Shell/Arcane Defense was unaffected. Thank you for bringing this to my attention @WngMan.

Text Updates

• Removed the “%” from calcs on Steal Equipment abilities as it is purely SP + PWR chance and not a percentage of your SP
• Updated Bad Breath’s chance from 19 to 25% per each status rolled
• Updated Crushing Blow’s Stop infliction chance from 19 to 25% (erroneously reported before but uses the Holy Sword 100% into 25% separate status infliction)
• Updated Purification’s Help removal that it includes Oil (this was missing from a past changelog)
• Updated Nether Mantra’s calcs
• Updated Take Aim’s Help and calls

Jobs

• Cleric/Alma
  • Added Rods as available equipment
    Along with the White Mage change, as a “White Mage” style job, Alma too now has access to Rods on her main job.
    
• White Mage
  • Added Rods as available equipment
    At request, White Mages have access to Rods which notably means they can build towards Faith away from Luminous Robe and can reliably cast at Atheist via Crown Scepter.
    
• Monk
  • Increased Move from 3 to 4
  • Decreased Shockwave’s Range from 6 to 5 to compensate for the trade-off
    It was hard to justify increasing Monk’s Move when they have access to a 6-range ability. So after testing a means to give them more mobility, the goal was to take 1 Range for 1 Move which ultimately makes playing Melee-Monk more playable and still allows for ranging with Shockwave albeit having to be a tad closer than before.

Action Abilities

• Nether Mantra (Marach)
  • Increased the PWR of all abilities from 0 to 2
  • Abilities can no longer target Marach
    Though Marach’s abilities have a 2 – 5 hit window, with the average Faith being 60, his abilities still struggle to deal good mitigated damage in various cases. I am returning some PWR to them to help damage output.
    
• Sky Mantra (Rapha)
  • Abilities can no longer target Rapha
  • Heaven’s Wrath – Decreased maxHP damage from 50 to 40%
    Since this ability strips a target of vital defensive buffs and does a hefty amount of damage, it will deal slightly less, especially for the window of opportunity it creates with follow-up damage.
    
• Black Magicks
  • Death – Decreased Tick from 5 to 4
    With this ability having a base low accuracy, the Speed can be slightly faster and this also aids undead teams that may rely on it as an on-demand revive.
    
  • Flare – No longer evadable (but still reflectable)
    Flare is being treated in a similar fashion as Holy/Unholy Darkness where it can no longer be evaded but is equally deflectable.
    
• Iaido
  • Chirijiraden – Decreased PWR from 18 to 17 (approx. 20 less damage)
    PWR decreased to bring it slightly closer to Muramasa at 15 PWR while still retaining the “most-powerful” Iaido cast.

Equipment – Weapons

• Knight’s Swords
  • Caladbolg – This item grants +1 MA and +1 SP instead of +1 PA/MA
    The Speed addition at the cost of PA is to better serve as a new option for Knights to build into Speed and push towards elemental damage.

Academy is a new, guided approach to helping newcomers to Final Fantasy Tactics or story-experienced players learn the important steps to fast-track their success in Tactics League PvP.

Headed, in part, by Tactics League member, Mistral, who now goes by The Countess, This program is split into five courses, ranging from basic teambuilding and getting familiar with unique characters and generic jobs, to testing your new team into Practice Mode, refining the team some more to improve it, and eventually working your way into setting up ZeroTier and having your first Melee, which is the PvP mode.

Academy is a Tactics League Discord-exclusive program as it is also entwined with various channels and links to help you throughout your curriculum.

If you have ever been interested in trying out our PvP offerings, join the Tactics League Discord, experience Academy, and be the next competitive challenger!

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With the start of Competitive Season 2 on October 15, 2024, Tactics League is opening up a new way to drive community-inspired gatherings and events so we can empower the competitive scene further with community Discord members.

The Sanctioned Events program is a means to fully back community-made events by providing the tools and support needed for growth, participation, and success as well as more ways to award Competitor Points throughout the current season and future. To do so, Members propose their idea as a Roll Call, filling in all the details first and publicizing it so that everyone is aware of what goals they want to achieve with their event. Once the Roll Call gains momentum and more and more people become interested, the organizer can reach out to the Tactics League administration to request to be sanctioned and receive further support, including Competitor Points awarded post-event.

But what does sanctioning offer in terms of incentivizing your grassroots-based event? Tactics League will offer support and resources with the following:

• Basic banner/logo creation for your event (if needed)
• Tailored Competitions Registration form for your event to provide sign-ups
• Access to the Roster Registration form (if you are enabling Roster Lock)
• Access to the Post Game Report (PGR) needed to report match data for official records (this can be additionally provided to multiple assigned Officials as needed)
• Official Announcement updates via Discord, added to Discord Events for notifications, and the Tactics League website’s Events page
• Official/Staff Discord role so you have partial moderator powers as well as Staging channel operability (this is granted on the day of or the day before the event)
• Priority support from Tactics League administration during your event’s runtime (as much as possible)

The end goal for the Sanctioned Events program is to give the tools for more competitive events annually and sow the seeds to further Tactics League PvP into the future and beyond. If you are interested in hosting an event and potential sanctioning, please join the Tactics League Discord today.