With the dust settling down after the largest update yet in Tactics League’s history, it’s time to put your skills with the plethora of new and exciting changes to the ultimate test: another live competition!
This competition utilizes Tactics League’s tried-and-true competitive Standard format, where players have access to an array of different unique characters, equipment, abilities, and jobs ALL at their disposal with limitations baked right into the patch and format. As the third competition, we have new and returning competitors looking to take on the challenges of both time, intellect, and strategy as they make their way through a single-elimination style bracket that is targeted to take approximately 5 hours.
With the PvP Patch v4.0 Beta launch, the existing map pool has also received some updates to spruce up and adjust maps based on community feedback. Let’s look at which maps are joining and which are being retired in their stead.
Sal Ghidos (replaces Dorvauldar Marsh)
Sal Ghidos is a new medium-sized map that will replace Dorvauldar Marsh entirely. The issue with Dorvauldar is that the host side can have a mobility disadvantage if they are not using movement options, such as Fly or Levitate. Though it is an incentive to use these abilities, a player shouldn’t be pigeonholed to needing these abilities to be able to engage with their opponent. Sal Ghidos features a shortened distance but with many housing or rooftops to utilize and is a great map for archery and other ranged abilities.
Mullonde Cathedral Sanctuary is a new small-sized map joining the rotation and replacing Monastery Vaults – Level 2 (the map with the bookcases). Though the host and guest spawns appear close, the coffin in the middle actually prohibits forward movement, so players will need to work around the sides to engage. The spawn heights between both players are also the same, so there aren’t any tactical advantages unlike Monastery Vaults. This map feels and plays great as a small map and is likely to be the best “small”map to play competitively on in the future.
Limberry is another medium-sized map that will be replacing Goug Lowtown. Though Goug is fundamentally playable, it does have some odd advantages for the guest player being able to get an early, vertical position on the guest. The map also didn’t feel the best to play on as echoed by several community members, so the change is to replace it with a map that promotes engagement, shorter distances but still reasonable set up time, and even some space to work off of for builds that enjoy higher sight-lines.
These maps are officially entering the map rotation on March 12th during the PvP Patch v4.0 Beta! Join the Tactics League Discord and check these new areas and all of the changes coming with this update!
PvP Patch version 4.0 Beta is the next big iteration for Tactics League multiplayer. This patch addresses several community feedback, suggestions, and additions and is solely built on the success of v3.0. This patch has been designed, tested, and iterated over the past 6 months (starting mid-October 2023) to change certain aspects of PvP and further allow diversity and creative expression in a competitive environment.
Though my modding skills have slightly improved, I want to first thank @Tzepish for guiding me and being a big part of this new update, especially with the new or changed complex mods. He is a pillar of this community and the PvP Patch and I want to personally thank him for getting us to this point.
I also want to give a huge shout-out to Discord members, @Jokerfisch, @WngMan, @Oaks, @therumer, @sandcatankh, and @dr.jay. for their suggestions and feedback throughout v3.0c. Several changes or additions you will see are from their direct perspectives and molded into the update as well.
To download the all-in-one package that includes the PPF file and save data, please visit Downloads. To learn more about how to apply the PPF patch, visit Tutorials.
This changelog is the patch notes from all work done in the 4th version of the Tactics League’s PvP Patch for both PvP and Rendezvous modes. These notes are large in scope, so please make sure to read them thoroughly!
Quality of Life
You can now rename unique characters at the Warrior’s Guild!
Damaging Iaido abilities and Unholy Sacrifice now properly preview their damage Note: The damage shown in the preview is based on what the caster would receive based on their mitigation.
Removed low Bravery and high Faith desertion warnings This change is to remove any pesky messaging about either warning in addition to the prior QoL change that Br/Fa changes are no longer permanent.
Soundtrack
Replaced the random encounter music Antipyretic with Remnants
Weather/Day System
Removed the weather and nighttime penalties affecting Bows/Crossbows
Maps (Melee Mode)
Midlight’s Deep maps (starting with The Creavase) now have brightness! This only affects the Midlight’s Deep maps in Melee currently and does not affect those found in Campaign You can finally see where you are going in Midlight’s Deep – multiplayer maps!
Update the in-battle graphics palette for weapons that have either had an updated item palette or were newly added but their battle graphic did not match Note: some items, such as Cinquedea, do not have a close/exact palette representation available to them
Story Encounters (Single Player/Campaign)
Chapter 1
Orbonne Monastery (1st battle)
Set the equipment of all enemies to Random, removing their accessibility of now endgame gear and the game-deciding the best equipment based on level Though the purpose of the PvP Patch is multiplayer, those who wish to check out the experiences in a solo setting no longer have to worry about going up against early-game foes with endgame gear.
Practice Mode (Araguay Woods)
Renamed the world map text to “Practice Mode”
All encounters on this map are now only against humans
The Bravery/Faith of all generic enemy encounters is 60/60
The level of all random encounters matches <Party Level> instead of <Party Level – Random>
All enemy builds are tailored to some popular and niche builds from past PvP experiences to make each encounter a worthy battle
Removed all War Trophies to avoid additional inventory changes; out of pre-caution, still reload your save after a battle
All 8 enemy parties have a unique character assigned to match the Standard ruleset; You can encounter the following Unique characters randomly based on the direction in which you enter Araguay Woods:
Mustadio (W) – Dark Knight, Samurai, White Mage, Mime
Construct 8 (E) – Bard, Dancer, Dragoon, Monk
Cloud (E) – Geomancer, Squire, Archer, Black Mage
Valmafra (E) – Orator, Dark Knight, Mystic, Thief
Meliadoul (E) – Archer, Geomancer, Ninja, Bard
Special Random Encounter (from any direction) – Alma, Marach, Reis, Beowulf, Luso This change is to provide a play area to test your roster offline against a fairly difficult challenge built with the Standard format in mind.
Can you survive the special random encounter vs. 5 uniques?!
Status Effects
Significantly updated the Help menus for all negative status effects to provide context on how to remove them
Protect & Shell:
Protect & Shell status now persists through KO instead of being removed on death Their duration still actively counts down while dead, but a revived unit can return with its mitigation intact. Note that you cannot remove these buffs from a KO’ed unit.
Increased the Tick of Protect & Shell from 15 to 22 and all equipment-sourced Protect/Shell are set to <Initial> instead of <Equip> Why the change to the functionality of Equip: Protect, Shell? As gear-sourced Protect/Shell is usually the go-to compared to using Kiyomori/Barrier since they persist through death and could not fall off since it is permanent, this is to change the standard of Protect/Shell; You’ll get more duration out of Protect/Shell when ability-sourced because <Initial> ticks wear off faster since it occurs at the start of the game versus being cast. But you can still benefit from gear-sourced Protect/Shell; not having to cast it early, but now with a chance of it being removed from stuff like Harmony, War Cry, Heaven’s Wrath, Maim, or Giant Axe’s attacks where it previously could not. And now with Protect/Shell persisting through death, it’ll strictly be dependent on when it was applied either ability-sourced or initially but with less fear of resurrecting without it.
Note that ability-sourced Protect/Shell will not apply on KO’ed units.
This will result in the status uptime lasting roughly 34 Actions, up from 20, when ability-sourced on the first Act, and lasting roughly 24 Actions, up from 15, when gear-sourced (aka the start of the game).
Veil (formerly Invulnerable):
The name was changed to better fit the status name traditionally used in other Final Fantasy games and to correlate the same naming convention with Tzepish’s “WotL Tweak” mod. The functionality of Veil status remains unchanged
Added the status pop-up text for Veil; you will now see when the status effect is no longer affecting a unit from Steadfast Ring! Man, what time it took to fix this 😅
Invisible:
Now doubles your evasion rates while active (similar to Defending and does stack with each other)
NPCs are less likely to attack an invisible unit (targeting de-prioritized) With AI now being able to target invisible units, Invisibility adds some additional evasion bonuses to help dodge evadable attacks and make your units less likely to be focused; but this is situational as a whole and an invisible unit can still be targeted if there aren’t any other good, valid targets in their LoS/ability ranges/damaged units.
Atheist – Reduced tick from 20 to 16 Since Atheism is difficult to remove, the duration has been reduced so that it is still impactful and viable on builds that benefit from it, but also less uptime for those negatively impacted.
Charm – Reduced tick from 18 to 12 This reduction in Charm’s status uptime is due to the high impact it can have in a game. This status debuff will last in the same timespan as Stop, lasting roughly 2 of the charmed unit’s turns.
Sleep – Reduced tick from 20 to 16 Uptime duration is reduced to allow faster removal of this infliction, though you will still want to cleanse or inflict damage in most cases.
AI Behavior
The AI can now target Invisible-status units This change provides a fix for community feedback regarding using Invisibility to de-aggro the enemy and force them to move towards a corner for later advantageous play. Note that there are later RDV mission adjustments to compensate as that was also provided feedback to help deter the need for this former strategy.
Removed the decision-making to only Bestow: Protect/Shell when an ally/self is HP Critical The removal of this vanilla function should allow the AI to consider applying these crucial buffs when needed instead of when you or a friend are about to die lol.
Random encounter units can now have Fury/Magick Boost/Adrenaline Rush/Vanish assigned
Units in random battles now have better equipment selection The AI can generate better equipment options based on their job so they feel more practical and challenging.
Known Issues
Monkey Grip does not currently function when using Reequip in battle
Mimes will retain their gear post-battle even if it is “illegal.” Please make sure to reload your save data after an offline game to ensure competitive integrity
Characters
In this update, two new characters join the roster! Valmafra and Alma. Both will be replacing Balthier and Ovelia respectively.
Valmafra – Witch of the Coven (NEW Unique Character, replaces Balthier)
Can Equip: Swords, Knives, Rods, Staves, Hats, and Robes
65 Bravery, 70 Faith
Swiftness innately
Magicks (skillset): Holy, Graviga, Unholy Darkness, Arise, Curaga, Firaga, Blizzaga, Thundaga, Aeroja, Waterja, Quake, and Divine Ultima
Divine Ultima (Valmafra’s unique ability):
Non-Elemental
Faith-based, unlike Ramza/Luso’s Ultima
99 MP, 50 PWR, 8 tick
2 Range Self-AoE (Iaido-like), 3 Vert
Non-reflectable, Non-evadable
Enemy and Ally affected This new caster inspired by the concept of both Red Mage and Elementalist is loaded with powerful elemental magicks in her arsenal and is considered a faith-based damage dealer. Balthier is being retired for the time being as he is overall in an odd spot with the previous metagame.
Alma – Cleric (NEW Unique Character, replaces Ovelia)
Holy Magicks (skillset): Aegis, Dispelna, Barrier, Arise, Curaja, Holy, Chant By popular request (ahem Mistral ahem), Alma will take Ovelia’s place in the roster for this update. With her, some similarities but also some differences; Alma is faster but less bulky, has Charm immunity instead of Stone, has the same innate damage mitigation, and has stronger Faith, but less Bravery to contend with. Let Alma perform her clerical duties and serve as a strong support on just about any team!
Ramza
Now properly utilizes his Chapter 2/3 sprite and portrait in the formation screen and in-battle Yes, that means no more smexy butt armor to look at 🙁
Delita
Replaced his Chapter 1 formation sprite and portrait with his correct “Knight” variation that was already used in battle This was because the portrait and sprite were incorrectly matched, so I went and fixed it entirely so you have a proper and handsome-looking Delita in all his glory.
Jobs
In this Jobs update, you will come across many small multiplier increases (usually +5%). These buffs are to take the QoL base stats improvements and then combine them with PA or MA increases to improve generic female physical or male magical job builds to further tighten the total stats spread between genders. The result is that from a generic view, the difference between male and female job’s total PA/MA spread is no more than 1 point.
For abbreviation references: HPM = HP multiplier, MPM = MP multiplier, PAM = PA multiplier, MAM = MA multiplier, SPM = Speed Multiplier
Divine Knight/Meliadoul
Increased job HPM from 125 to 135% (from base 363 to 393 HP) This 10% increase is to incentivize keeping Meliadoul on her main job with her skillset now being usable with any weapon.
Netherseer/Marach
Re-added Robes as available equipment This was originally removed in PvP Patch v2 to mitigate potential MA-stacking. However, after re-assessing the PWR of his abilities and requiring Atheist/low Faith targets to become most effective, the robes change is being reverted to ultimately raise his damage potential on his main job.
Chemist
Now increases the healing of Potion and Ether-type items by 50 (this includes Auto-Potion) innately
Increased HPM from 80 to 110% (approx. +82 HP)
Increased PAM from 75 to 80% (male +1 PA)
The PA change resulted in generic Chemist as male 10/10 and female 9/11 This new Potion/Ether “passive” is a way to pull power away from slotting Items as a secondary and giving Chemists the limelight as expertise of medicinal use.
This large increase in HP is to help Chemists stand out more as a medium-speed tier job and to consider them more as an option for Items instead of falling back as a secondary on other jobs. Chemists are naturally bulky with good starting SP to boot but do not boast PA/MA.
Knight
Increased Move from 3 to 4 Movement increased to help Knights engage faster since their weapons and main abilities are all close-ranged.
Monk
Increased PAM from 129 to 135% (female +1 PA)
The PA change resulted in generic Monk as male 17/10 and female 16/11
White Mage
Increased MAM from 110 to 115% (male +1 MA)
The MA change resulted in generic White Mage as male 11/14 and female 10/15
Summoner
Increased MPM from 125 to 170% (approx. +60 MP)
Increased PAM from 50 to 55% (male +1 PA)
Increased MAM from 125 to 130% (male +1 MA)
These changes resulted in generic Summoner as male 7/16 and female 6/17 This significant buff to max MP gives Summoners an edge compared to other caster jobs in how they can easily build towards high max MP and use this to their advantage especially factoring cheaper casts thanks to innate Halve MP to offset the Mana Shield + Manafont combo.
Orator
Increased PAM from 75 to 85% (male +1 PA)
Increased MAM from 95 to 100% (male +1 MA)
These changes result in generic Orator as male 11/12 and female 10/13
Dragoon
Increased PAM from 130 to 135% (female +1 PA)
The PA change resulted in generic Dragoon as male 17/10 and female 16/11
Ninja
Increased PAM from 122 to 125% (female +1 PA)
The PA change resulted in generic Ninja as male 16/9 and female 15/10
Bard
Decreased MAM from 145 to 135% (-2 MA)
The MA change resulted in generic Bard with 12/16
Dancer
Increased HPM from 100 to 115% (+40 HP)
Decreased PAM from 140 to 130% (-1 PA)
The PA change resulted in generic Dancer with 15/13 These reductions in their MA/PA multipliers are to offset the base male/female unit PA/MA increase to better job change as a whole. This change does affect uniques PA/MA when in these jobs as well but only marginally.
Dancer’s HP increased to give better sustain to a job that is meant to be front/mid-lined and to entice the job as a pick over slotting Dance as a secondary.
Sage
Increased SPM from 90 to 95% (+1 SP) This SP increase is to put their starting SP at 10 instead of 9, resulting in less +SP stacking needed to get them to a reasonable value, while still demanding the need for it.
Mime
Removed the hardcoding that prohibits equipment; Mimes can now equip a limited gear selection!
Copy Weapon – Mimes now “slot” the Right and Left-Hand from the last non-Mime ally action (this includes attacks, using a generic/unique ability, using an Item, etc.). A couple of important notes:
Reequip is excluded (because it is sourced as a Support ability)
Copy Weapon excludes the Shield if slotted
You cannot get consecutive attacks even if you Copy Weapon dual-wielded weapons (because Dual Wield is not innate)
Copy Weapon excludes the weapon(s) from the previous ally’s Charging status since this isn’t a “fulfilled” action
Copy Weapon does not activate off of a previously used unique ability
If a Mime fails to mimic it will still have the last acted Ally’s copied weapons slotted and not the one that triggered the failed mimicry
This includes weapons that Mimes currently cannot equip in the party menu
Since this isn’t technically equipping them, <Equip> bonuses do not apply
Statuses or Casts on hit (based on their original chance) can still activate
This “bug” is a feature and can be used to make some creative plays 😉
In non-Multiplayer, the copied weapon(s) are retained after a battle, including weapons Mimes cannot normally equip. Please be mindful of this and make sure not to save illegal equipment (as per tournament regulation) and continue to reload your save data afterward (like for Practice Mode)
Decreased HPM from 180 to 150% and removed Ribbon-like innate immunities since they have access to gear These huge QoL changes to Mime ultimately allow them to adapt to your team better. I expect to see much more Mime play in the future and look forward to creative shenanigans!
Dark Knight
Replaced innate Immune: Faith with Lifefont
Increased PAM from 130 to 135% (female +1 PA)
The PA change resulted in generic Dark Knight as male 17/10 and female 16/11 The innate change is a part of past efforts to improve a job’s innate ability while not being too situational.
Onion Knight
Increased MAM from 120 to 125% (female +1 MA)
The MA change resulted in generic Onion Knight as male 17/15 and female 15/17
Action Abilities
There are various improvements to many skills and some balancing tweaks as well. One impactful change to note is that all 8 Range abilities have been reduced to 6 Range to encourage engagement. All non-White Magicks revival sources have also had their PWR (or chance) slightly reduced to create a window for them to fail, though they are still consistent enough to warrant use as a part of addressing “chain resurrection.”
Ability Bug Fixes
Unarmed attacks were erroneously using [PA * SP * (Br/100)] instead of [PA * PA * (Br/100)] This was an oversight that has been corrected and now Unarmed attacks properly scale their damage correctly.
Sky Mantra abilities and Frenzy (Fundaments):
These abilities now display the targeted status for removal during damage preview and will now pop-up statuses inflicted (affecting Celestial Void). The status pop-up excludes Charging and Performing but will still function correctly
Removed residual Faith-based checks in their formula, fixing all abilities to now properly function regardless of the target’s Faith value This rids of any final Faith checks regardless of their Faith, including Celestial Void now having a chance to properly damage Construct 8 (but will require Confuse to be successfully rolled).
Crush abilities now require any weapon instead of only sword-types
Crush abilities still retain their original properties
Crush abilities still use their ability range of 3 and are not weapon range
Updated the skillset name to reflect that it is no longer necessarily tied to a “bladed” weapon This change to Meliadoul is to give her improved build diversity with no longer requiring a sword to use her abilities and utilizing the different weapon types she can equip as Divine Knight.
Mettle (Ramza)
Encourage – Decreased PWR from 200 to 70 The original 200 value was to guarantee this ability to land. As part of this update’s goal to speed up game resolution, this ability will now be set to base 70% + PA, still yielding high success rates, but now with a window for failure. Note that this ability’s %hit increases with Brawler/Attack Boost/Vehemence.
Maim – Increased PWR from 6 to 9 PWR increased since this ability is single target compared to other Geomancy-derived abilities.
Chant (Delita-Holy Sword, Alma-Holy Magicks) – Increased Range from 1 to 3 Range increased to make healing with this ability more doable without having to sacrifice too much range to do so.
Holy Magicks (Alma)
Aegis – Increased MP cost from 30 to 40 With this ability sourcing many buffs at once and typically near instant or within 3 turns, Aegis will be a bit more expensive to cast.
Aimed Shot (Mustadio)
Disassemble – Increased PWR from 60 to 80 This ability’s chance decreases against magic mitigation, so the base PWR is being increased to offset that plus increased reliability.
Nether Mantra (Marach) – Abilities will now hit 2-5 times instead of 1-5 times This change is to give Marach some lead way in the randomness of his attacks and to slightly improve both the consistency of initial damage potential and status chance when utilizing his skillset.
Sky Mantra (Rapha)
Divinity – Now Removes Performing/Charging instead of Faith/Charging This gives Rapha a reliable check against enemy Bards/Dancers while leaning Faith removal now more on Harmony and is an instant-cast, damaging version of Break Aim.
Dragon (Reis)
Increased Fire Breath, Ice Breath, Thunder Breath, and Holy Breath’s PWR from 12 to 14
Added missing Vert text to all breath attacks
Limit (Cloud)
Braver – Increased PWR from 8 to 10
Meteorain – Decreased PWR from 15 to 14
Cherry Blossom – Decreased PWR from 18 to 16 The PWR reduction in Meteorain and Cherry Blossom is to slightly reign in on damage potential since these abilities are cast from range + in large AoE.
Tasks (Construct 8)
Salvo – Switched the effect animation from Bomblet to Self-Destruct to provide a hit reaction in AoE damage, displaying all damage values to those affected (and no Construct 8 will not blow itself up by doing so lol)
Dispose – Decreased Range from 8 to 6 The court of public opinion finds an issue with the range of Dispose since it ignores LoS, so as part of nerfing the overall range of ranged abilities, this will also be reduced.
Huntcraft (Luso)
Mighty Guard – Switched the effect animation from Wall to Protect to speed up the animation time (the ability’s functionality remains unchanged) From 16s to now 7s on 5 units – enjoy Wngman 😛!
Discord – No longer hits/affects Luso on cast This buff is so that Luso doesn’t strip himself of Protect/Shell/etc. while doing so for others.
Fundaments
Frenzy – Additionally removes Reraise if the target is currently affected This adds a new counter against reraise especially if they are stacking KO/Doom/Atheist immunities.
Taunt – Increased PWR from 30 to 36 to offset the loss of chance when the target is affected by Shell/Arcane Defense
Items
X-Potion – Decreased the HP restored from 300 to 250
Hi-Potion – Decreased the HP restored from 250 to 200 The reduction in the value of these healing items is to help curb some of the potency in Items and further incentivize using a Chemist to ultimately return these items to their prior strength. Items as a secondary ability will still retain their core strengths even with this slight nerf.
Phoenix Down – This item now always revives with 20% of the target’s Max HP instead of a random value from 1 to 20 This change buffs the functionality of Phoenix Down while retaining its primary expectation – revive while retaining HP critical status. This change also plays a role in limiting Phoenix Down to 3 in Standard to reduce the overall power of Items.
White Magicks
Cure – Increased PWR from 15 to 20
Cura – Increased PWR from 25 to 30
Curaga – Increased PWR from 35 to 40
Curaja – Increased AoE from 1 to 2, remains 40 PWR, but now only affects allies These buffs to the curative spells are to improve White Magicks as a whole especially since other stuff like X-Potion and even Life’s Anthem are situationally stronger with fewer requirements. White Magicks is shaped more to be the definitive healing skillset, as it should be, especially with maximum healing potential. Expect to see some potent active healing!
Reraise – Decreased Tick from 6 to 4 and PWR from 140 to 100 (avg 70% w/ Faith or 42% without) This change is to make Reraise overall faster to cast, but a bit less reliable to land this potent buff.
Aim
Take Aim
This ability now functions similarly to the vanilla version of Aim, using the weapon’s actual [formula] instead of [PA * (WP + 5)] and adding a bonus 5 PWR to the calculated damage
A few notes about this change:
This ability is still classified as an <Ability> and not a <Attack> where the original Aim was considered a weapon attack. Golem will still not block Take Aim
Weapons with Hit=100% calcs can no longer deal damage due to this change
Doublehand does not affect Take Aim, though it does with the original Aim+X abilities. This may be addressed in a later update
Swiftness still reduces the CT of this ability
To avoid targeting complications, you can no longer move once more once you start charging
The weapon’s element, status infliction, and Cast (if applicable) are also now applied (only the element was considered in the original Take Aim)
This ability is still considered physical damage even if using MA-scaled weapons
This ability can still critically strike This change sets Take Aim similarly to Aim +3’s functionality from the original game, allowing for it to properly scale with MA-based weapons instead of being tied to weapon formulas and taking full effect of your weapon’s properties. A huge shout-out to @Tzepish for getting this working!
Arts of War
Bulwark
Decreased AoE from 2 to 1 (now cross-shape)
Increased Vert from 2 to 3
Additionally Bestows: Protect, Shell as well as Defending Bulwark grants a new way to provide Protect and Shell albeit in a smaller radius compared to Kiyomori and Barrier, but with Defending status until your next turn as well.
Mow Down – Increased PWR from 16 to 19 This PWR buff is to help give Knights a strong single-target damage option when playing up close at the cost of higher recoil.
War Cry
This ability is now single target
Increased Range from 1 to 2 With Initial: Protect, Shell being the move forward to better balance these crucial statuses, War Cry will also need a bit of dialing back from its v3.0c version.
Rend Power and Rend Magick – Increased PWR from 60 to 80 to increase reliability and since its chance reduces based on the target’s evasiveness This notable buff should make these abilities more enticing to use to lower a threat’s damage potential. Don’t sleep on this change, especially with Dual Wield/ranged weapons!
Martial Arts
Shockwave – Decreased Range from 8 to 6
Revive – Decreased PWR from 70 to 60 (avg. 75% w/o Brawler, or 85% w/ Brawler, 90%+ w/ Brawler + Attack Boost/Vehemence) This PWR reduction creates a failure window for Revive to miss, creating instances where chain resurrection when solely relying on it can break. Units with Brawler + Attack Boost/Vehemence will still have a near 100% hit rate.
Steal – All Steal Equipment abilities are no longer evadable This change is to buff the chance of stealing since it requires up close risk and limited verticality. Your target’s evasion will no longer reduce the odds of landing so you should typically have a better time trying to snatch that problematic gear off your foe while still being weary of melee-based reactions.
Summon
Moogle – Added text to the Help menu that states that this ability will damage Undead allies in the AoE (regardless if a status was cleansed or not)
Shiva, Ifrit, Ramuh, Titan – Decreased Tick from 3 to 2 Ticks reduced to match their equivalent Lv. 2 Black Magicks and to give Summoners a near-immediate cast albeit with less PWR
Faerie – Decreased PWRfrom 120 to 100 (avg 70% w/ Faith or 42% without) This PWR reduction is to place Faerie 3rd against Raise and Arise in terms of PWR, as Faerie has AoE potential whereas Raise/Arise does not, but both have better chances to revive a single target.
Throw – All abilities are no longer evadable This buff to Throw is to allow these abilities to be more plausible for use, knowing that you can now safely strike without evasion being factored and allowing Ninjas to deal reliable chip damage, but is still subject to Golem, Shirahadori, and Sticky Fingers.
Iaido
Kiku-ichimonji – Decreased Range from 8 to 6
Muramasa – Now has a 19% chance to inflict: Confuse instead of Doom This change is to provide more counter-play against Construct 8 and reduce the amount of Doom accessibility since there are several options vs. Confuse.
Bardsong & Dance
Bardsong – All abilities can no longer be cast or continue to be performed while silenced Note: you will remain in the current bardsong/performing status if silenced after you have started performing but the active bardsong will not be cast until silence is remedied.
Life’s Anthem – Decreased PWR from 90 to 70 This PWR nerf is to better inline the healing production from this ability, especially if the CT favors multiple casts before the caster’s next turn.
Nameless Song and Forbidden Dance – Increased PWR from 50 to 70 (80% chance with Performing Arts) Since these abilities double dip in RNG, their PWR has been increased to help these abilities yield better results when staying committed to them. And yes, Nameless Song is fixed 😉
Forbidden Dance:
Removed Inflicts: Sleep and added Inflicts: Blind
Increased Tick from 4 to 5 due to the higher success rate and potentially longer debilitating inflictions due to the Blind change Since Sleep blocks Dance, this change allows Forbidden Dance to continue to debilitate while guaranteeing evadable hits against those affected by Blind.
Nameless Song – Reverted the Protect OR Shell buffs Protect OR Shell (as they are separate) was added back to Nameless Song because of the Initial: Protect, Shell changes making these rolls useful now in re-upping durations. This also puts more variance in the random selection of buffs, reducing the uptick of powerful buffs, such as Reraise and Haste from happening with its increased PWR. Still, I am 100% willing to revisit Nameless’s performance post-patch.
Ja-Magicks
Aeroja (NEW)
Wind element
3 Range, 3 AoE, 3 Vert
99 MP, 35 PWR, 4 Tick
Non-reflectable, Non-evadable
Enemy affected only
19% chance to Remove: Haste, Float per target
Waterja (NEW)
Water element
4 Range, 2 AoE, 3 Vert
99 MP, 40 PWR, 4 Tick
Non-reflectable, Non-evadable
Enemy affected only
19% chance of Inflict: Silence per target
Quake (NEW)
Earth element
4 Range, 2 AoE, 5 Vert
99 MP, 38 PWR, 5 Tick
Non-reflectable, Non-evadable
Enemy and Ally affected
19% chance of Inflict: Immobilize per target
These new Ja-spells add some elemental coverage to Ja-Magicks and introduce additional options for Water, Wind, and Earth faith-based spells. To note, Quake is intended to damage both allies and enemies in the AoE unlike other Ja-Magicks affecting only enemies.
Darkness
Unholy Sacrifice:
This ability no longer triggers Counter-Reactions since it is considered magic damage
This ability now triggers Magick Counter instead
This ability’s calculations now use [(MA * MA) + (0.29 * maxHP)] instead of [(PA * MA) + (0.33 * maxHP)] Note: the 0.29 or 29% is more accurate than the 0.33 or 33% that was previously mentioned in the calcs and was not changed but rather updated. The difference in calculating it versus the in-game tooltip is no more than 2 points of damage
This calculation change is to incentivize using female Dark Knights as PA is no longer used in the formula and this gives them a solid option even with their lower base MA especially since male Dark Knight already has Abyssal Blade for PA-based damage. Note that even with this change, male DK’s using Unholy still perform well, but females will outperform them from a damage potential standpoint.
Reaction/Support/Movement Abilities
CT Boost (NEW Reaction, formerly Gil Snapper) – Adds +5 CT after taking HP damage I’ll be keeping a close eye on abuse since this potentially affects total actions per game, however, with testing, there are moments where this shines especially on slower SP units.
Critical: Flee (NEW Reaction, formerly Critical: Recover MP) – Adds +25 CT and +2 Move after entering HP critical. Note: the Move bonus persists even if you are no longer critical This new HP critical reaction can enable interesting plays but requires you to be within the 20% maxHP threshold. The Move bonus does stack if you get multiple procs within a single game.
Monkey Grip (NEW Support) – Equip Forced Two-Handed weapons with one hand This ability allows for diversity when using Fell or Knight’s Swords, Axes, or Bows, as now you can slot a shield in the off-hand enabling greater mitigation/evasiveness/utility.
Nimble (NEW Movement) – Adds Slow, Stop, and Immobilize immunities A new way to prevent those pesky anti-mobility effects without sacrificing gear options but with no increased move/jump.
Dexterity (NEW Movement, formerly Accrue EXP) – Your C-EV now affects all sides instead of only the front. Additionally adds +1 Move and Jump This new movement ability uniquely interacts with your C-EV and allows your C-EV to function similarly to a cloak.
Shirahadori (RETURNING/REWORKED Reaction) – This reaction now reduces the hit rate of all unevadable damaging physical abilities to a flat 60% chance and is no longer affected by Bravery. Shirahadori no longer affects normal attacks from its original version. This affects the following abilities:
Holy Sword (all)
Unyielding Strike (all)
Aimed Shot – Overload
Huntcraft – Spin Punch
Arts of War – Mow Down
Aim – Sonic Boom
Martial Arts – Shockwave
Steal – Steal HP
Jump
Throw
Dance – Mincing Minuet
Darkness (all, except Unholy Sacrifice) Note: Construct 8’s Dispose and Pulverize are not flagged for triggering Shirahadori as they are not classified as physical damage (they are considered neutral-type damage) This reworked ability was something first imagined in an earlier patch but has been revisited and implemented correctly as an option vs. normally physical unevadable attacks.
Replenish (REWORKED Reaction, formerly Absorb MP) – Restores HP and MP based on quadruple the MP cost of the triggering ability Note: Replenish uses the modified MP cost of abilities cast with Halve MP, not the original value This reaction serves as a way to get back HP and MP based on the affected MP cost, akin to Chakra. For example, triggering off of Barrier (64 MP) restores 256 HP and MP to you.
Additional Abilities Flagged to Trigger Counter-Reactions – The following physical abilities can now trigger counter-reactions (Shirahadori, Bravery Boost, Dragonheart, Counter, Counter Throw, Vanish):
Spin Punch (Luso), Overload (Mustadio), Mow Down, Take Aim (is exempt from Shirahadori), Sonic Boom, Shockwave, Mincing Minuet
Magick Counter:
Additionally, damaging or negative status-inflicting magical Unique abilities can trigger this reaction. Some abilities from generic skillsets are also now flagged to trigger Magick Counter. This affects the following from each skillset:
Mettle/Ramza – Maim and Ultima only
Spellblade/Beowulf – All except Vengeance
Nether Mantra/Marach (all)
Sky Mantra/Rapha (all)
Dragon/Reis – Breath attacks only
Limit/Cloud – All except Climhazzard and Blade Beam
Huntcraft/Luso – Earthsplitter and Ultima only
Magicks/Valmafra – All except Arise and Curaga
Fundaments – Frenzy
Arts of War – Saint Cross
Aim – Charge Weapon
Darkness – Unholy Sacrifice Note: Abilities that use weapon range, like Charge Weapon, will still be countered even if your weapon would be normally out of range.
Significantly updated the Help menu to display all affected abilities from each skillset and provide additional context to its functionality This impactful change is to open more counter-play options against magic-based uniques, just as Shirahadori has done on the physical side and to greatly improve the viability of this reaction.
Bonecrusher:
This reaction no longer triggers from Critical status and will now trigger from counter-reactions instead
This reaction is Bravery% chance once more instead of guaranteed
The damage dealt is now ½ of your maxHP (rounded down) instead of your entire maxHP and continues to ignore damage mitigation and is unevadable
Notes:
Ability casts from weapons will not trigger during this counterattack since this is considered a “special attack”
If Dual Wield, you will get two counterattacks This notable change to Bonecrusher is to give life to its functionality and to present it closer to how it functions in the Tactics Advance series albeit rather differently. This reaction can no longer also trigger from any damage source that would put you into critical, and it must be from regular attacks or abilities that can normally trigger counter-reactions. Consider this a suped-up version of Counter with some differences.
Lifefont/Manafont:
Both abilities can now stack if one was already innately set
These abilities now calculate at 17% of your maxHP/maxMP up from 1/6th of your maxHP/maxMP (you’ll gain a lovely extra point restored) This means you can use Black Mage + Lifefont now or Dark Knight + Manafont and get the benefits of both!
Auto-Potion – Only checks for Potion (not Hi/X-Potion) and will not trigger if there are 0 Potions remaining This is the approach with “nerfing” Auto-Potion. Instead of nerfing the healing which is also a boon in RDV, the plan is to limit what Auto-Potion can proc off of thus allowing for reduced Potions in inventory to reduce stacking multiple Auto-Potion bearers.
Sticky Fingers:
Now additionally reduces the hit rate of HP-healing Items (Hi-Potion, X-Potion, Elixir, or Phoenix Down) only if you are Undead, still based on your Bravery Note: If you are not Undead, the hit rate of restorative items is 100% against you and Sticky Fingers is still viable to reduce Throw
Sonic Boom (which uses the Throw formula) is no longer affected by Sticky Fingers
Fixed the lie in text that caught items in multiplayer aren’t added to your inventory; you can with confidence catch an Elixir and then have 2 in stock! Sticky Fingers can now be used as a defensive measure against offensively-used Items to reduce the likelihood of situations such as Elixir/Phoenix Down vs. Undead.
Soulbind – Now deals 60% of the damage dealt (rounded down) back to the attacker instead of 50% A slight buff to help this ability reinforce its “thorn” based damage use.
Bravery Boost/Faith Boost:
These reactions no longer check Bravery and are 100% to trigger still based on their original triggering conditions (physical attack for Bravery Boost and being affected by an MP-costing ability for Faith Boost)
Increased the +Bravery/+Faith respectively from 9 to 20 These reactions got significant buffs because they were needed based on where their niche fits. You’ll get more value with fewer procs and can rely on these abilities to work enabling some potentially nifty build ideas.
Vehemence – Reverted the damage dealt from 40% to 50%, and kept the 40% more damage/healing taken; setting this ability to cause your attacks and applicable abilities to do 50% more damage/healing, and you taking 40% more damage This reversion and buff is to entice it more as a pick as you will now take a bit less damage than you would previously while giving this ability more power for increased mortality risk whereas it wasn’t worth the risk before vs. Attack Boost/Arcane Strength’s 7% difference.
Brawler – Increased the Unarmed attack damage multiplier from 50% to 70% Since unarmed attacks scale with Bravery, can’t receive bonuses from weapons (of course), and factoring physical mitigation, they tend to hit weaker than most attacks, including bags. The proposal is to use Brawler to further the damage potential with unarmed while reinforcing it as a build choice for Monks or as a likely required Support slot for other unarmed builds.
Cup of Life – Changed the effect animation from Potion to Cure so that it can now display the overhealed amount on affected allies instead of just the original target for the overhead
Attack Boost/Defense Boost/Arcane Strength/Arcane Defense/Brawler/Vehemence – Added additional text to their Help menus to provide more context on what these abilities modify
Persuasive – Fixed the issue where Charm infliction was not possible if the weapon attack damage was greater than the target’s maxHP The outcome of the attack will now decide this and not just “well your maxHP couldn’t take this hit.” Tzepish’s skill with ASM is unmatched <3
Ignore Weather/Ignore Terrain/Treasure Hunter – Removed these abilities from their skillsets/menus since they currently have no reasonable use in the patch Maybe in the future these can be revisited/repurposed for something greater 🙂
Equipment – Weapons
In this update, there are many new weapons as well as some changes to existing weapons to spruce up the existing catalog and create new experiences and builds. Let your theorycrafting go wild!
Additionally, one specific change to KO immune gear is that it now also had Doom immunity added to it, except Angel Ring, as these statuses work hand and hand together.
All previous <Equip> Protect and Shell-status weapons are now considered <Initial>, resulting in Protect/Shell statuses being potentially removed by various abilities, and these status effects now have a duration before their mitigation bonuses are removed. This affects the following gear:
Weapons – Pantherskin Bag, Muse’s Harp, Save the Queen, Crystal Shield
Books
Veil of Wiyu – Additionally Boosts: Earth, Water
Fell Swords
Decreased WP standardization from 24 to 22 This change is to reduce power creep caused by the job PAM increases which specifically affects unique characters.
Apocalypse (NEW):
18 WP and 20 Block
Dark-Element
Casts: Celestial Void (50%, Sky Mantra – 25% chance per each status to inflict random statuses and inflict 50% targetMaxHP if at least 1 status rolled) Apocalypse purposefully has lower WP than the WPS of other Fell Swords since it can potentially shave 60-70% of a target’s HP if Celestial Void casts + regular attack damage.
Guns
Tiny Bee (NEW):
13 WP and 5 Block
4 Range
Non-Magick Gun that can uniquely be dual-wield
Adds +1 PA
This new dual-wieldable gun adds some ability utility similar to what the Hunter’s Mark crossbows have achieved.
Katanas
Zanmato (NEW):
25 WP and 10 Block
Non-elemental
Adds +2 MA
Casts: Intimidate (-20 Br, 50%, MA, Speechcraft)
This unique Katana (which isn’t paired with an Iaido skill) brings a new way to lower target Bravery while dealing damage to your foes.
Ashura:
Added Doom immunity since it already has KO immunity
Replaced the +1 MA with +1 Speed The change in this item is to entice it as a viable Katana but it is now also limited in Standard/Rendezvous.
Muramasa:
Now Absorbs HP on weapon attacks
Replaced Immune: Doom with Immune: Confuse while equipped As part of sprucing up the current weapon variety, this katana now functions like Blood Sword.
Knight’s Swords
Decreased WP standardization from 22 to 20 This change is to reduce power creep caused by the job PAM increases to better serve male/female units.
Caladbolg (NEW):
20 WP and 20 Block
Water-element
Adds +1 PA/MA
50% chance to cast Leviathan (Summon)
FFX’s Tidus’s celestial (or ultimate) weapon inspires this new Knight’s Sword.
Excalibur – Increased +Speed from 1 to 2 With Knight’s Swords WP being lowered and the amount of Holy-elemental attacks this weapon can both absorb and boost, this weapon has received a substantial buff in just providing more Speed to work with for Knights in general.
Defender – Added Immune: Stop, Slow, Sleep This weapon could use some additional bonuses with it being a forced two-handed weapon and now has crucial crowd control immunities.
Knives
All Knives can now be doublehanded to expand build diversity Due to some Knives having increased WP this update, Doublehand does grant the most damage potential vs. Attack Boost/Vehmence if you desire to focus on maximizing the knife damage dealt.
Thief’s Knife (NEW, formerly Orichalcum Dirk):
Increased WP from 13 to 16
Removed Slow infliction
Dual Wieldable
Casts: Mug (50% on hit), which randomly casts a Steal Equipment ability (note that Safeguard still prevents theft)
Mug is guaranteed to steal as long as it procs (bypasses hit%)
Updated the item’s palette
This reworked Knife provides a new avenue to deal damage and potentially rob your enemy at the same time!
Mage Masher:
Increased WP from 13 to 16
Now Absorbs MP on weapon attacks
This Knife could use some love, so it is being changed to further be a tool against MP-reliant targets while still afflicting Silence status on hit. Note that this change does mean that this weapon no longer deals HP damage, but that is intended by this weapon’s utility. WP increased to increase the MP absorption value.
Air Knife – Increased WP from 13 to 16 This knife has no status infliction and with it being Wind element, it could have the highest damage potential among other Knives.
Ninja Blades
Kunai (RETURNING):
14 WP, 5 Block
3 Range
Weapon Attacks are flagged as <Direct> instead of <Striking> and attacks use line of sight
This multi-purpose “tool” gives Ninjas new ways to play especially utilizing ranged melee attacks when Kunai is in the main hand.
Polearms
Gungnir:
Now Casts: Thunder Breath (MA x 14, Reis’s Dragon ability) instead of Thundaga
Updated the item’s palette
Poles
Changed damaging weapon calculations from [MA * WP] to [greater of PA or MA * WP]; this weapon type now uses either your PA or MA, whichever value is greater This formula change gives Poles a unique way to be utilized, now scaling with whatever attack stat is best and enabling it to be used in a variety of different build types.
Zephyr Pole (NEW, formerly Cypress Pole):
Removed Halves: Fire, Ice, Lightning, Earth
Wind-element
16 WP
Adds +2 PA/MA
Forced Two-Handed
Updated the item’s palette
This reworked pole opens up not only damage potential with pole attacks but also benefits your damaging stats to utilize for your primary and secondary skillsets.
Eight-Fluted Pole – Removes: Doom now properly functions and additionally Removes: Atheist, guaranteed This item is the most reliable way to cleanse Atheist status off of a unit as well as a fix for the Doom removal that was erroneously mentioned in v3.0c.
Musk Pole – Increased WP from 14 to 16
Whale Whisker – Increased WP from 16 to 19
Rods
Crown Scepter (RETURNING and REWORKED):
Removed +4 MA
8 WP, 4 Block
Equip: Atheist
Effect: Reverses Faith-based magicks calculations to use [(100 - Faith)/100 * (100 - targetFaith)/100] instead of [Faith/100 * Faith/100]; this effectively changes all magicks to calculate similarly to how Marach’s Nether Mantra functions This reworked item opens up new possibilities with leading an Atheist-based team while still giving options to utilize magicks you normally could not due to effective 0 faith.
Shields
Aegis Shield – Increased +MA from 1 to 2 This buff sets Aegis Shield as a choice option for not only evading magicks but also buffing your own magickal power.
Kaiser Shield – Additionally Boosts: Earth, Water This shield now strengthens all elements except Holy and Dark.
Staves
Nirvana (RETURNING and REWORKED):
10 WP, 20 Block
No longer Holy element
Now Bestows: Protect, Shell 100% on hit (no damage)
Immune: Atheist, Doom This returning weapon now serves as a defensive option to apply or re-up the duration of Protect and Shell as well as a boon against atheism and doom.
Healing Staff:
This weapon and its formula (Formula 7) are no longer checked by mitigation (Protect/Defense Boost) or damage modifier sources (Attack Boost/Vehemence/Doublehand) as well as statuses; attacks will always deal true healing
Corrected the text that states the weapon attacks are evadable; they are not checked by the target’s evasion sources
Increased WP from 10 to 14 One issue with Healing Staff before is that its potency was reduced when the target has Protect/Defense Boost or both. This resolves this issue but also removes the bonuses from Attack Boost/Vehemence from further buffing the healing potential if the target is sleeping/toad/chicken or if the bearer is berserk.
Swords
Increased WP standardization from 16 to 18 This buff to one-handed swords is to help lower the gap between them in Fell/Knight’s Swords while still retaining the benefits of shields and dual wield.
Flametongue (NEW):
18 WP, 10 Block
Fire-element
50% chance to Cast: Fire Breath (MA x 14, Reis’s Dragon ability, evadable)
Coral Sword (RETURNING and REWORKED):
18 WP, 10 Block
Water-element instead of Lightning
50% chance to Cast: Quicksand (water-elemental Geomancy)
This item’s element and Cast were updated since “Coral” sounds more water-based than lightning/Thundaga and to also introduce another Water-elemental weapon.
Icebrand (RETURNING and REWORKED):
18 WP, 10 Block
Ice-element
50% chance to Cast: Ice Breath (MA x 14, Reis’s Dragon ability, evadable) Not only added back by request, but also the PvP Patch changes have greatly improved the viability of Cast-based weapons, and some additional elemental access wouldn’t hurt for creativity.
Updated the item’s palette This new “cursed” weapon grants Ribbon-style immunities while also prohibiting positive statuses as well. This item is limited in Standard/RDV.
Runeblade – Now uses MA * WP calculations instead of PA * WP This new formula may make way in the future with new weapons and allow for better attacking with MA-focused jobs.
Diamond Sword – Increased +PA from 1 to 2
Vitanova – Updated the item’s palette
Equipment – Gear
All previous <Equip> Protect and/or Shell-status gear are now considered <Initial>, resulting in Protect/Shell statuses being potentially removed by various abilities, and these status effects now have a duration before their mitigation bonuses are removed. This affects the following gear:
Gear – Cursed Armor, Onion Armor, Lordly Robes, White Robe, Black Cowl, Red Hood
All Cursed gear has their enemy level set to Lv. 50, resulting in NPCs no longer being able to equip themselves in early single-player Though the PvP Patch isn’t catered towards the single-player experience, since some items were repurposed, especially early-game ones, their enemy level has been increased to avoid situations where you would encounter these “endgame” pieces of gear in the early game.
Heavy Armor – HP Standardization – Increased the minimum +HP of all Body-type Heavy Armor gear from 150 to 160. This does not affect Heavy Helms. This affects the following equipment:
Carabineer Mail
Genji Armor This is to slightly widen the gap between the maximum +HP cap of Clothing versus Heavy Armor.
Robes – HP Standardization – Increased the required +HP of all Robes from 75 to 85. This affects the following equipment:
Lordly Robe
Luminous Robe
Silken Robe
Sage’s Robe
Wizard’s Robe
White Robe
Black Robe
Chameleon Robe
Sage’s Robe
Chaos Helm (NEW helm) – +150 HP, Boosts: Holy, Dark
Cursed Garb (NEW clothing) – +100 HP, +2 PA, and +1 SP – Equip: Undead, Poison, Immune: Regen, Reraise, Haste A new, enticing option for those who wish to dabble in more undead shenanigans.
Peytral (NEW heavy armor) – +160 HP and Initial: Protect, Shell
Ever Coat (NEW clothing) – +120 HP and Boosts: Fire, Ice, Lightning, Wind, Earth, Water elements
Ringmail (RETURNING clothing) – +120 HP and Initial: Protect, Shell Between Ringmail, Peytral, and Lordly Robe, all armor weights now have access to Initial: Protect & Shell if desired.
Samite Coat (NEW robe) – +120 HP, +40 MP, and +1 MA This new robe is a way to bulk up caster jobs HP directly while sacrificing the slot for other more magic-oriented gear. It is by design the same HP metrics as clothing.
Silken Robe – Additionally extends the duration of Haste from 10 to 16 ticks while equipped As a way to entice this item as a considerable pick, this robe now extends the duration of Haste while being equipped from roughly 2 unit turns to 5 turns while still retaining low stat density.
Hair Adornments
Barette – Added Doom immunity since it has KO immunity
Cachusha – Added Oil immunity since Barette gained an immunity
Crystal Helm – Additionally Halves: Earth, Water
Rubber Suit – Additionally Negates: Water
Black Robe – Additionally Boosts: Earth, Water
White Robe – Additionally Halves: Earth, Water
These elemental affinity updates are to increase accessibility in both offensive and defensive needs instead of limiting them.
Chameleon Robe – Added Doom immunity since it has KO immunity
Gold Hairpin – Added Oil immunity
Red Hood – Replaced +1 Move with +1 SP, removed the +1 MA, and increased the +HP from 60 to 80 (now +80 HP, +44 MP, +1 SP, Initial: Shell) Its cousin, Black Cowl, formerly beat this item out due to the amount of utility it provides so this has been changed to make Red Hood more competitively even.
Sage’s Robe – Increased +MP from 100 to 130 due to its limited quantity
Minerva Bustier – Increased +HP from 90 to 110 due to its limited quantity
Accessories
Chantage (REWORKED perfume) – Sets weapon attack’s cast and status effect chance from 50 to 100% This new limited perfume can open up a ton of build varieties by being able to guarantee your procs/status effects on hit.
Bravely Armlet (NEW armlet) – Increases your Bravery by 10 at the end of your Active Turn Note: Poison/Regen take priority on the text pop-up, but the Bravery regeneration is still occurring if you are affected by either status This new unique item is a way to increase your Bravery throughout the battle slowly.
Elven Cloak (RETURNING cloak) – Now adds +12% Physical/Magical A-EV and +1 Speed A new +Speed option while gaining additional evasion from all sides.
Thief’s Gloves:
Now enables Steal Equipment abilities to bypass Safeguard instead of increasing Steal Equipment success rates
Now adds +1 SP instead of 15 Physical A-EV Though this is a reduction in chance in the previous iteration, now with Steal Equipment no longer being evadable (which in turn adds some of the loss % increase back into the abilities directly) this change now allows for the exclusivity to get around Safeguard when using Steal abilities and potentially hinder builds that rely on it to keep their gear safe, opening up a new way to counter-play.
Sortilege – Extends the duration of Protect & Shell from 22 to 36 ticks while equipped Note: This also extends ability-sourced Protect & Shell. The duration of Protect/Shell when sourced via Sortilege can last almost 40 Acts. This change gives Sortilege a unique use and more incentive to consider it for team-building!
Battle Cloak (formerly Mage’s Cloak) – Adds +1 PA and MA instead of only +1 MA and retains its 28% Physical/Magical A-EV Changed and renamed to give better aid towards build diversity.
Cursed Ring – Removed Immune: Protect, Shell and added Immune: Invisible This change allows units equipped with Cursed Ring to be affected by ability-sourced Protect, Shell while giving a trade-off of no longer being affected by ability-sourced Invisible.
Magepower Gloves – Increased A-EV from 15 to 25%
Guardian Bracelet – Added Doom immunity since it has KO immunity
Jade Armlet – Added Silence immunity to match Guardian Bracelet’s number of immunities
Germinas Boots – Added 8% Physical and Magic Accessory Evasion in addition to its +1 Move/Jump
Standard v5.0 Beta (formerly Starter)
Format naming convention change! This change is to better align with the principles used in other competitive games that this format is the main entry point into our Esports-driven scene. This is just a name change though; the format is still tried and true to previous Starter iterations.
Generic Characters (Applies to both Standard and Rendezvous Formats):
Increased the base HP value of Male Squires from 277 to 285 (+8 HP)
Increased the base MP value of Female Squires from 81 to 90 (+9 MP) This increase is to offset the HP/MP differentials between male and female units and to give males a slight boost in their brawn whereas Females have a slight boost in their acuity especially when transitioning to other jobs.
The base PA/MA values of Squires have been adjusted to:
Male – 13/12 from 13/11
Female – 12/13 from 11/13
The +/- spread between an individual stat is no greater than 2 points
Note: the PA/MA and HP/MP changes strictly only affect generics and not unique characters This adjustment is to better transition both male and female Squires to different jobs, resulting in better stat alignments. It is still optimal to spec a male for physical jobs or a female for magic jobs, but the difference is much closer than before and you can perform well with a Male Black Mage or Female Monk!
Beowulf
Decreased PA from 18 to 17
Increased Bravery from 45 to 50 PA reduced to slightly lower physical damage potential on other jobs while now giving Beowulf a 50/50 shot on his reaction rolls.
Rapha
Increased base HP from 258 to 298
Increased Bravery from 31 to 51 These buffs to Rapha are to help her overall survivability and enable her to be better at relying on her Reactions. With all of these patch and base character changes, don’t overlook her!
NEW Semi-Limited – Silken Robe, Diamond Sword, Crown Scepter
NEW No longer limited: Scorpion Tail, Zeus Mace
NEW Vaulted (removed entirely from inventory): Rubber Boots
With Item Attribute space being at capacity, an item needed to be vaulted from the inventory for the time being to make room elsewhere.
Consumables:
Potion – Reduced from 20 to 10 (Rendezvous/SLOT 2 unaffected) With Auto-Potion now only working if Potions are available, this nerf is to reduce stacking multiple bearers with the skill. You can safely run 2 Auto-Potion users per team with a third pushing the availability limits in the late game.
Phoenix Down – Reduced from 5 to 3 (Rendezvous/SLOT 2 unaffected) With Items playing an integral role in late-game attrition, this reduction is to reduce the power of the skillset especially when leaning on fast revival plays, and to hopefully lower the number of Ties via units alive.
Ethereal Tonic – Reduced from 5 to 3 (Rendezvous/SLOT 2 unaffected) With evasiveness likely to play a bigger role in this update, the accessibility of being able to bypass it via Invisible status is also being toned back a margin.
Yagyu Darkrood and Fuma Shuriken – Reduced from 10 to 5 each With Throw being unevadable, these throw weapons have been scaled back in quantity to avoid situations where players could stack a high amount of Throw on their team to reduce spamming.
New items will appear at the top of the inventory instead of being sorted automatically
Generics Premade v5.0 Beta
Generics Premade has been reworked and will be exclusively a “generics only” format still catered as an entry-level format for Standard and limited accessibility due to the nature of premades. At a later date, a community-driven event will occur to look for new, creative builds based on the new additions of version 4 to add new premades to the roster, stay tuned!
At this time, the Generics Premade/SLOT 1 has been renamed Generics instead of G-Ramza and will be updated at a later date after the event ends.
Characters
Removed Unique characters Ramza, Delita, Beowulf, and Cloud from the roster
Added Tags for each character’s role to their unit name as [DMG], [TNK], [SPT] This is so that it is easier to determine the play style of each build and also if future changes or competitions allow for role restrictions.
Inventory
Removed the 8x Red Hood as they were erroneously added
Phoenix Down – Reduced from 5 to 3
All premade characters now have gear equipped that grants Initial: Protect/Shell by default. This affects the following and their replaced equipment:
DMG-Shadow – Jujitsu Gi > Ringmail
DMG-Sorcerer – Barette > Red Hood (for Shell), Rubber Boots > Protect Ring
DMG-Warden – Ice Shield > Crystal Shield
DMG-Zen – Hempen Robe > Lordly Robe
DMG-Hunter – Added Crystal Shield (due to slotted Monkey Grip)
DMG-Berserker – Jujitsu Gi > Ringmail
DMG-Parivir – Genji Glove > Sortilege
DMG-Lancer – Black Garb > Ringmail
DMG-Armiger – Mythril Shield > Crystal Shield
TNK-Sentinel – Magepower Glove > Sortilege
TNK-Specter – Leather Clothing > Lordly Robe
SPT-Cleric – Wizard’s Hat > Red Hood (Protect provided by White Robe)
SPT-Distractor – Septieme > Sortilege
SPT-Stalwart – Power Garb > Ringmail
SPT-Timewalker – Septieme > Sortilege This change is to reduce the need to select certain premades to cast Protect/Shell while still incentivizing them for the mid-game (since it now has a duration), improving the damage expectation, and also making aware to newcomers what gear options can provide these vital buffs for transitioning later into Standard.
DMG-Shadow
Replaced Dual Wield (support) with Concentration
Replaced Pummel with Cyclone in Martial Arts skillset
DMG-Sorcerer
Replaced Hempen Robe for Rubber Suit This change is to maintain the playstyle of Sorcerer being able to dronecast herself with Thunder magicks.
DMG-Warden
Replaced Wizard’s Hat with Gold Hairpin
DMG-Hunter
Replaced Safeguard with Monkey Grip
Added Crystal Shield due to Monkey Grip
Added Throw Dagger and Salve to Fundaments skillset
DMG-Parivir
Replaced Reflexes with Shirahadori
DMG-Armiger
Replaced Equip Shields with HP Boost
Replaced Platinum Sword with Iron Sword due to the item slot being repurposed (Iron Sword’s WP has been increased from 6 to 12 to compensate)
DMG-Lancer
Replaced Elven Cloak with Thief’s Gloves
Replaced Reflexes with Critical: Flee
Replaced Lifefont with Dexterity
TNK-Paladin
Replaced Wizard’s Hat with Close Helmet
Replaced Lordly Robe with Peytral
TNK-Bouncer
Added Cachusha to equipment
Replaced Rend Power with Rend MP in Arts of War
TNK-Specter
Replaced Runeblade with Ancient Sword
SPT-Cleric
Replaced Healing Staff with Nirvana
Replaced Cup of Life with Replenish
SPT-Apothecary
Replaced HP Boost with Arcane Strength
SPT-Stalwart
Reduced PA from 74 to 34 Though this was a substantial buff to Chakra, this change has been reverted to keep Stalwart’s healing potential in check.
Rendezvous 3.0 Beta
With the many combat changes from PvP Patch v4.0, the general consensus is to tone down some higher damage builds, reduce some enemy mobility in most missions to give players a bit more time to set up, and for the most part, players will need to take more methodical approaches than in version 3 when aiming for 5-Star clears. Achieving 5-star completes for most missions is harder in version 4 than the previous iteration, but still doable with proper strategy, planning, and communication!
Chocobo Defense
Chocobo 1 & 2 (Guests)
Added Defense Boost innately since most damage is physical and to offset some incoming damage for slower teams; it is still recommended to build for higher Speed
Squire 3
Replaced Lightning Shield with Venetian Shield
Replaced Wizard Clothing with Ringmail
Chemist 1
Replaced Celerity with Auto-Potion
Chicken Race
Knight 2
Replaced Reequip with Safeguard
Archer 1
Replaced Ninja Gear with Ringmail
Archer 2
Replaced Genji Gloves with Spiked Boots
Black Mage
Replaced Mana Shield with Magick Counter
Replaced Black Robe with Lordly Robe
Rofocale (Time Mage)
Replaced Black Magicks skillset with Mystic Arts
Treasure Hunt
Updated the mission objectives that this can be 5-starred with 3 units
Thief 1
Replaced Lifefont with Dexterity
Thief 2
Replaced Safeguard with Dual Wield
Replaced Panterskin Bag with 2x Thief’s Knife
Replaced Ninja Gear with Ringmail
Replaced Hermes Shoes with Jade Armlet
Thief 3
Replaced Move +2 with Nimble
Replaced Thief’s Cap with Black Garb
Replaced Black Garb with Ringmail
Now equipped with Assassin’s Dagger
Replaced Safeguard with Throw Items
Monk 1
Replaced Move +2 with Levitate
Replaced Jujitsu Gi with Ringmail
Monk 2
Replaced Fundaments skillset with Arts of War
Squire
Replaced Defense Boost with Arcane Defense
Replaced Black Cowl with Thief’s Cap
Replaced Hermes Shoes with Battle Cloak
Archer 1
Replaced Time Magicks with Steal
Teioh
Updated the mission objectives that this can be 5-starred with 3 units
Lost Heirloom
Updated the mission objectives that this can be 5-starred with 3 units
Knight 2
Replaced Critical: Quick with Replenish
The Fete
Updated the mission objectives that this can be 5-starred with 3 units
Littering
Updated the mission objectives that this can be 5-starred with 3 units
Ninja 6
Replaced Gaia Gear with Ringmail
Ninja 7
Replaced Ignore Terrain with Dexterity
Ninja 8
Replaced Doublehand with Brawler
Removed Scorpion Tail so this unit can be Barehanded
Ninja 9
Replaced Spiked Boots with Chantage
Desert Minefield
Govis (Guest)
Replaced Rubber Boots with Elven Cloak
Shades of the Past
Updated the mission objectives that this can be 5-starred clear with 3 units
Milleuda
Replaced Resilient with Shirahadori
Knight 1
Replaced Move +2 with Nimble
Replaced Bracer with Sortilege
Knight 5
Replaced Doublehand with Persuasive
Replaced Move +2 with Fly
Replaced Ragnarok with Ancient Sword and Venetian Shield
Replaced Carabineer Mail with Genji Armor
Knight 6
Replaced Vehemence with Arcane Defense
Replaced Move +2 with Nimble
Archer 1
Replaced Defense Boost with Dual Wield
Replaced Reflexes with Nature’s Wrath
Replaced Power Garb with Ringmail
Replaced Gastrophetes and Crystal Shield with 2x Hunter’s Mark
Replaced Steadfast Ring with Cherche
Archer 2
Replaced Ranger’s Bane with CT Boost
The Knight’s Templar (multi-part mission)
First Trial
Isliud
Replaced Move +2 with Nimble
Replaced Vampire Cape with Battle Cloak
Archer 2
Replaced Move +2 with Fly
Archer 3
Replaced Move +2 with Levitate
Archer 4
Replaced Death Strike with Defend
Forth Trial
Loffrey
Replaced Bracer with Genji Gloves
Knight 1 – 3
Replaced Move +2 with Nimble for each
Knight 1
Replaced Battle Axe with Chaos Blade
Knight 3
Replaced Slasher with Save the Queen
White Mage 1
Replaced Critical: Recover MP (no longer available) with Replenish
All-Star Melee
Reis
Replaced First Strike with Shirahadori
An Ill Wind
Updated the mission objectives that this can be 5-starred clear with 3 units
The last of the PvP Patch v4.0 Focused series, this article focuses on the new equipment in version 4 in tandem with its included save data, hosting a plethora of new weapons and gear at your disposal – there are many new toys to use and new ways to build up your units! Additionally, several existing gear received updates to improve their viability, but for this article, we will focus on the many new equipment options.
New Weapons
The next major update has 10 brand-new weapons that are accessible in both Standard and Rendezvous. Many of these weapons are designed to incentivize attacking with them as they all have potentially powerful effects or can be built to do so. With the guaranteed cast in Chantage, attacking is even more powerful and considerable; the same goes for evasiveness.
As a general reminder, all weapons that have a “Casts:” line defaults to a 50% chance to trigger their ability.
Lastly, the WP standardization of all sword-type weapons have been adjusted: Fell Swords from 24 to 22, Knight’s Swords from 22 to 20, and Swords from 16 to 18.
Apocalypse (Fell Sword)
18 WP and 20 Block
Dark Element
Casts: Celestial Void (from Rapha’s Sky Mantra, 50% max. HP damage if at least 1 status was inflicted)
Tiny Bee (Non-Magick Gun)
13 WP and 5 Block
4 Range
Can be uniquely Dual Wielded
Adds +1 PA
Zanmato (Katana)
25 WP and 10 Block
Adds +2 MA
Casts: Intimidate (Speechcraft, -20 Bravery)
Note: There is no corresponding Iaido ability with this katana and is purely for attacking
Thief’s Knife (Knife, formerly Orichalcum Dirk)
16 WP and 5 Block
No longer Inflicts: Slow
Dual Wieldable
Casts: Mug (smartly randomizes a Steal Equipment ability on hit, guaranteed to activate if triggered)
Caladbolg (Knight’s Sword)
20 WP and 20 Block
Water element
Casts: Leviathan (Summon)
Adds +1 PA and MA
Kunai (Ninja Blade, reworked weapon)
14 WP and 5 Block
3 Range
Weapon attacks are flagged as <Direct> and not <Striking> (attacks check Line of Sight)
Usable to create “ranged” melee attacks if in the Right Hand
Zephyr Pole (Pole, formerly Cypress Pole)
Removed Halves: Fire, Ice, Lightning, Earth
16 WP and 10 Block
Wind element
Forced Two-Handed
Adds +2 PA and MA
Note: Damaging poles now use [greater of your PA or MA * WeaponPower] instead of [MA * WeaponPower]
Crown Scepter (Rod, reworked weapon)
Removed +4 MA from its original version
8 WP and 4 Block
Equip: Atheist
Effect: Reverses Faith-based magicks calculations to use [(100 - Faith)/100 * (100 - targetFaith)/100] instead of [Faith/100 * targetFaith/100]
Nirvana (Staff, reworked weapon)
No longer Holy element
10 WP and 20 Block
Bestows: Protect, Shell on hit (guaranteed, can trigger certain Reactions)
Immune: Atheist, Doom
Flametongue (Sword)
18 WP and 10 Block
Fire element
Casts: Fire Breath (from Reis’s Dragon, using MA * 14)
New Gear
There are also new additions to headgear, body armor, and accessories in update 4, furthering your theorycrafting potential!
Chaos Helm (Helm)
+150 HP
Boosts: Holy, Dark
Cursed Garb (Clothing)
+100 HP
Adds +2 PA and +1 SP
Equip: Undead, Poison
Immune: Regen, Reraise, Haste
Peytral (Heavy Armor)
+160 HP
Initial: Protect, Shell
Ringmail (reworked Clothing)
+120 HP
Initial: Protect, Shell
Ever Coat (Clothing)
+120 HP
Boosts: Fire, Lightning, Ice, Wind, Water, Earth
Samite Coat (Robe)
+120 HP and +40 MP
Adds +1 MA
This new robe is set to be a “bulky” option for casters and is similarly designed to Celebrant’s Miter and uses the same HP metric as clothing-type items
Chantage (Accessory)
Sets your weapon attack’s Cast and Status Effect chance to 100% (up from 50%)
Note: This only works on regular attacks and does not augment the status chance of abilities
Bravely Armlet (Accessory)
Increase your Bravery by 10 at the end of each of your Active Turns
Elven Cloak (returning Accessory)
12% Physical and Magical Accessory Evasion
Adds +1 SP
Thief’s Gloves (reworked Accessory)
Removed the increased multiplier to Steal Equipment abilities
New Effect: Steal Equipment abilities now bypass a target’s Safeguard while equipped
Adds +1 SP
Note: Steal Equipment abilities will no longer be evadable in version 4
With new weapons and gear to equip and build off of, PvP Patch version 4.0 Beta is looking to further expand theorycrafting! This update will launch on March 12th!
In PvP Patch version 4, there are a ton of current ability adjustments going into to improve abilities that were underperforming or to better fit select abilities in line with the patch’s goals. This article will focus on the brand-new abilities coming with the update, the Reaction, Support, and Movement abilities, and a few new ones in Ja-Magicks.
Conjure Up New Elemental Spells in Ja-Magicks
To increase the accessibility of wind, water, and earth abilities, Ja-Magicks (Sage’s skillset) gained new faith-based abilities in Aeroja, Waterja, and Quake.
These abilities still follow the same rules as other magicks in the skillset; they cannot be cast while silenced, can trigger Magick Counter, unevadable, and mimicable.
Let’s take a closer look at how each one functions:
Aeroja
Wind element
3 Range, 3 AoE, 3 Vert. (enemy only)
99 MP, 35 PWR, 4 Speed
Non-reflectable, Non-evadable
19% chance to Remove: Float, Haste per target
Waterja
Water element
4 Range, 2 AoE, 3 Vert. (enemy only)
99 MP, 40 PWR, 4 Speed
Non-reflectable, Non-evadable
19% chance to Inflict: Silence per target
Quake
Earth element
4 Range, 2 AoE, 5 Vert. (enemy and ally)
99 MP, 38 PWR, 5 Speed
Non-reflectable, Non-evadable
19% chance to Inflict: Immobilize per target
New Reaction/Support/Movement Abilities
Version 4 also brings about 6 new non-action abilities, furthering build-crafting and new strategies! Let’s take a look at each one:
CT Boost (Reaction)
This new reaction has a Bravery% chance to increase your current CT by 5 after taking any HP damage. Though this value appears small, it can add up quickly factoring that your unit’s Speed also normally affects your CT gains and this can be used to close the gap faster.
Critical: Flee (Reaction)
Critical: Flee is a rework of Critical: Recover MP. This ability now has a Bravery% chance while HP critical (20% of your max. HP or less) to increase your CT by 25 and your Move by 2. One interesting note with Critical: Flee is that the Move bonus persists even if you are no longer critical, KO’d, etc. so this ability can have a long-lasting effect in a single game!
Replenish (Reaction)
This rework of Absorb MP now restores HP and MP equal to 4 times the MP cost of an MP-costing ability that you were affected by either from damage or from a beneficial ability. For example, White Magick’s Barrier would restore 256 HP and MP to you at a Bravery% chance to trigger.
Monkey Grip (Support)
A fan favorite from the Tactics Advance series, Monkey Grip allows all forced two-handed weapons (Axes, Bows, Knight’s Swords, and Fell Swords) to become one-handed, allowing for the slotting of a shield in the opposite hand. This passive is great for enabling utility through your shield, as you gain evasiveness and any other additional properties your shield provides. Note that Doublehand (Onion Knight in particular) does not add the damage bonus since you are wielding a two-handed weapon in one hand. This ability is not innately set to any job for balance purposes.
Nimble (Movement)
Nimble is a brand-new movement ability that provides three important status immunities: Slow, Stop, and Immobilize. With Nimble providing 3 status immunities in the Movement slot, you do not gain any additional Move or Jump stats.
Dexterity (Movement)
Dexterity is the second brand-new Movement ability that interacts with your Class Evasion (C-EV), allowing it to be treated from all sides instead of just the front against incoming physical attacks and evadable abilities and additionally grants +1 Move and Jump stats. Dexterity is especially potent on jobs that have a solid C-EV baked in, such as Thief, Ninja, or Monk, and even for unique characters, such as Agrias, Mustadio, or Cloud.
With new abilities to cast in Ja-Magicks and a plethora of new Reaction, Support, and Movement abilities, PvP Patch version 4 is bringing new, creative ways to play both Standard and Rendezvous formats!
In version 4, two new characters in Standard and Rendezvous formats join the unique roster: Alma and Valmafra! These two will be replacing Ovelia and Balthier respectively. Let’s dive into each character’s profile so you can learn more about them and what makes them unique in their own way.
Alma, Cleric
Alma joins the version 4 roster, replacing Ovelia. At first glance, with Alma and Ovelia both having Holy Magicks, it may appear as to why she replaced Ovelia in the first place. Let’s compare the two stat-wise and you will see that Alma is different in her own right:
Ultimately, Alma has better stats to work with, notably her Faith and Speed. Because she has high Faith, she doesn’t necessarily need Faith status via Luminous Robe to have excellent casts though you can still of course opt for the Faith route if needed. Her 12 Speed also means she needs little to no investment in that category and she can typically be built in whichever way you choose allowing for better build versatility compared to Ovelia. The trade-off for these stats is lower HP bulk and Bravery, but that is intentional for balance’s sake.
Alma has the same innates as Ovelia, except Charm immunity instead of Stone immunity.
Alma can equip the following: Staves, Hats, Clothing, Robes.
Lastly, let’s take a look at her abilities in Holy Magicks:
Aegis – Bestows: Protect, Shell, Haste, Reraise, and Regen on one target. The cost was increased from 30 to 40 due to the amount of buffs it bestows at once.
Displena – Removes: Stone, Blind, Confuse, Silence, Oil, Berserk, Toad, Poison, Stop, Charm, Sleep, Immobilize, Disable, and Doom statuses from one target.
Barrier (from White Magicks) – Large area Bestows: Protect, Shell to nearby allies.
Curaja (from White Magicks) – Large area HP healing that only affects allies (ally only change in v4.0 and Iaido-like)
Arise (from White Magicks) – Revives a fallen ally with full HP restored.
Holy (from White Magicks) – Deals holy-elemental magic damage to a single target.
Chant – Restores 2/5th of your max. HP to a nearby ally at the cost of 1/5 of your max. HP (range increased to 3 in v4.0)
Valmafra, Witch of the Coven
Valmafra is the second unique addition to the Standard and Rendezvous roster in version 4, replacing Balthier. In the original game, she was not assigned anything as she was considered a “dummied” character – the opportunity presented itself by making her a new and exclusive character that rivals other unique characters.
Valmafra is designed as an offensive magick caster, the first of the type. Her skillset is a combination of both the classic Red Mage and Elementalist, having abilities from 5 faith-based magick skillsets: White, Black, Time, Mystic Arts, and Ja-Magicks, we will go into that more in a bit.
First, let’s take a look at her stats profile:
Valmafra boasts a modest 13 PA and 15 MA, allowing her to utilize her stats for both physical and magical setups. She also has 12 starting Speed, which doesn’t require much more investment if at all.
Valmafra also has innate Swiftness in her Witch of the Coven job allowing for flexibility in either offensive or defensive Support and can equip: Swords, Knives, Rods, Staves, Hats, and Robes.
Lastly, let’s take a closer look at her Magicks skillset, including her signature ability, Divine Ultima:
Holy (from White Magicks) – Deals holy faith-based magic damage.
Graviga (from Time Magicks) – Deals 50% of the target’s max. HP.
