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.

Tactics League-sanctioned events award competitors with Competitor Points (CP) based on their finished ranking after the conclusion of the event. As of yesterday, Season 1 has officially closed and we are finalizing plans for the upcoming Competitive Season 2. Let’s take a look at all of the events we have hosted over the year:

• 2023 Opener
  • Date: October 8, 2023
  • Number of Competitors: 5
  • Event Runtime: 9 hours and 15 minutes
  • Rebroadcast: https://youtu.be/D-Fb3TdCN4Y
  • Tournament Data: https://tacticsleague.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Tactics-League-2023-Opener-Tournament-Data.pdf
    
• 2024 – Starter Winter Cup #1
  • Date: February 11, 2024
  • Number of Competitors: 8
  • Event Runtime: 4 hours and 58 minutes
  • Rebroadcast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFHN_ooy-VA
  • Tournament Data: https://tacticsleague.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Tactics-League-2024-Starter-Winter-Cup-1-Competition-Data.pdf

Competitor Points – Final Ranking (Standard)

Ranking is determined by accumulative CP awarding from past events based on your event’s placement.

• 1st – @WngMan – 1500 pts.
• 2nd – @jokerfisch – 1100 pts.
• 3rd – @dr.jay. – 800 pts.
• 4th – @therumer – 600 pts.
• 5th – @pista – 400 pts.
• 6th – @sandcatankh – 400 pts.
• 7th – @mikey_tacticslive – 200 pts.
• 8th – @hewhostandsalone, @space_monkey00 – 200 pts.

Based on the Regulation Rulebook, certain tiebreaker rules are in place to resolve where members sit when it comes to tied rankings. This is also why some members above have the same points, but different placements:

• 1st – Round Finished
• 2nd – Total Games Played in the finished series (up to 4)
• 3rd – Your Opponent’s Seeding/rank
• 4th – Units Alive Per Game cumulatively

With Season 1 at its end, I want to thank everyone who has participated in the past events and even those who were anticipating the now canceled 2024 Fall Cup, for being a part of the competitive scene I look forward to new heights, new players, and new competitions to come with Season 2, starting on October 15, 2024!

Copied directly from the Tactics League’s Discord
It is with a tough decision to announce that the upcoming Standard – 2024 Fall Cup for October 6, 2024 is now canceled. This event is canceled due to not reaching the minimum number of fully eligible competitors for it to proceed.

The reason the minimum number of 6 is there is to avoid a short event or potentially starting out in Semi-Finals; the goal is to put on a show and showcase Tactics League in a LIVE manner, though it is not an ideal look when the event falls short of players and has a short ending to its beginning.

What Comes Next?

Since the event did not meet its required expectations, we will move forward. This event was the last of ⁠Season 1 – Competitor Points and thus the future is now set for Season 2. This means that CP will be reset and all past competitors will restart at zero CP. As mentioned earlier in the beginning process of Competition 3, the next event to plan for is the Generics Premade format. As a Tactics League official format, this format needs an opportunity to be showcased in a LIVE competition and that will be the goal going forward.

Season 2 Initial Changes

I do apologize to anyone that took time off or had to plan around to participate in this event. One issue that stemmed that did become a problem was relying on “interests” to fully gauge participation levels. This is still feasible, but will not be the core decider for future events; Sign-Ups will start earlier and will close earlier to give at least 1 – 2 weeks ahead of time before the event date to give plenty of time to determine if we are good to go or not. This also gives people more time to respond in the event of a cancelation instead of it being last minute.

Thank you to all who were interested in competing or were planning to help with Sunday’s event and I apologize once more for the cancelation in the matter.

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.

As the last event in the first competitive season, we are hoping you will join this presentation and watch it LIVE at either Tactics League Discord or the Tactics League Twitch channel (or both)!

This event will take place on October 6, 2024, starting at 12:30 PM EDT.

For more information about this event, please visit our Events page.

This incremental update combines bug fixes, text corrections, a buff to Monk, ability balancing, and a few new changes ahead of the 3rd competition.

Note: If you already have the previous v4.0 save data, you can simply apply this patch to your unmodified ISO to be up to date. The included save data is still the 4.0 version. To download the official version 4.1 PvP Patch and save data, visit Downloads.

Bug Fixes

• Resolved the issue where Mimes could illegally retain gear provided by a prior Equip X ability after job change

Text Updates

• Sky Mantra – Removed the “Chance” text from all abilities as the chance for these abilities is 100% when their conditions are met.
• Death Strike – Significantly updated the Help menu to include applicable abilities and the game’s global critical damage (which is not affected by Death Strike)
• Thief’s Gloves – Updated the Help menu that this item only affects Steal Equipment abilities
• Chaos Blade, Climhazzard, Blade Beam, Vengeance – Updated the calcs for each to show missingHP instead of currentHP (which sounds more appropriate)

Jobs

• Monk – Increased HPM from 135 to 145% (approx. +29 HP)
  Okay, Monk bulk has been a topic here and there so I compared them to other similar physical jobs. Without access to Hats, they are marginally behind, and with 3 Move, they “may” have a tougher time engaging (may is loose here because they have a 6-range ability). So without buffing their mobility or giving them Hat access, they will get 10% more starting HP to work with which puts them less on the squishy side, and a bit more flexibility in Clothing options and secondary jobs and are comparable to other similar jobs in terms of bulk.

Action Abilities

• Spellblade (Beowulf)
  • Syphon – This ability no longer has an MP cost
    An oversight that was not adjusted when the MP changes were made with Mystic Arts’ Empowerment.
    
• Magicks (Valmafra)
  • Divine Ultima:
    • Changed calculations from [(MA * PWR) * (fa/100) * (tFa/100)] to [MA * PWR], making this ability now faithless like Ramza & Luso’s Ultima
    • Decreased PWR from 60 to 28
    • Decreased Tick from 6 to 4
    • No longer affects allies
    • There have been various changes with Divine Ultima throughout the beta period and it seems to still be a bit behind on viability. So I reset the drawing board while aiming purely for “viability and user-friendly” on her signature skill. Ultimately, the design is to keep it from being drone-casted, but also remove the risk that Val could harm nearby allies (a key difference from Ramza/Luso’s), while having better timing on being able to hit targets regardless of Faith/Atheism. These are the last changes to Divine Ultima. 
      
• Items
  • Remedy – Added Removes: Berserk as an additional source to do so
    
• Martial Arts
  • Fixed the critical chance for abilities that use [(PA + PWR) / 2 * PA] from 4 to 10% (which was originally erroneously stated but is now properly set) and abilities that use this formula respect the global critical strike code
    After some discoveries, damaging Martial Arts and Spin Punch was not respecting the global crit chance because they use their own separate roll, so this has been fixed so that you always get at least 10% crit chance with it and it properly scales up with Death Strike.
    
• Aim
  • Beso Toxico – Decreased PWR from 70 to 60 (now % = PA + 60)
    PWR decreased since it inherits weapon range.
    
  • Break Aim – You can no longer Move once you start charging (similarly to Take Aim)
    This change provides better consistency in how these both operate.
    
  • Aim Vitals – Decreased PWR from 50 to 40 (now % = PA + 40)
    Though there are accessible ways to check Doom status, the PWR of Aim Vitals is being brought down slightly to curb some of its spamming potential and that it inherits weapon range.
    
• Summon
  • Salamander – Increased PWR from 36 to 38 (avg. 410 w/ Faith, or 246 w/o Faith)
    After comparing Salamander to Leviathan as Tier 3 spells, Salamander will have a bit more PWR whereas Leviathan has better AoE. This also affects the Dragon Whisker polearm.
    
• Speechcraft
  • Condemn – Decreased PWR from 60 to 50 (now % = MA + 50)
    Alongside the Aim Vitals nerf, Condemn is also getting a slight PWR reduction though it should be a bit more potent with it having range limitations.
    
• Throw
  • Shuriken – Decreased WP from 18 to 17 (now 17 * 17)
    Though Shuriken is a flexible option to entice slower jobs with a reliable, ranged attack, the margin for Shuriken vs. Fuma/Yagyu is too close between the two. Since Throw is primarily about Speed, this nerf is to keep Shuriken as a reliable chip/finisher ability, but also widen the gap for Fuma/Yagyu to be more prominent. 
    
• Dance
  • Mincing Minuet – Decreased PWR from 100 to 80 (now PA + 80 or (PA * 4) + 80 w/ Performing Arts)
    To reduce the oppression capabilities this ability can cause with its faster ticks, the PWR is being scaled back to bring it more in line with Life’s Anthem and to reduce total damage done when it can hit near back-to-back.
    
• Ja-Magicks
  • Gravija – Decreased PWR from 160 to 130 (avg. 53% w/o Faith, or 89% with Faith)
    With Gravija having the ability to set any unit’s HP down to 1 in an AoE, its PWR is being lowered to introduce a fail window, though on Sage it still has good odds.

R/S/M Abilities

• Equip Bludgeon – Now includes Books
  Though Books are used as ranged weapons, they do make the case for a good thumping beside one’s skull 🙂

Equipment – Weapons

• Books
  • Veil of Wiyu – Decreased WP from 20 to 18
  • Omnilex, Papyrus Codex, and Battle Folio:
    • Reverted weapon calculations from [magick gun] to [(PA + MA) / 2 * WP]. Notably, these weapon attacks are evadable once again
    • These books are no longer elemental and no longer Boost their respective element
    • These books are no longer dual wieldable
    • Reverted the flavor text to vanilla 
    • Set the following WP:
      • Battle Folio – 12 WP
      • Omnilex – 10 WP
      • Papyrus Codex – 10 WP
    • 100% Casts the following Faith-based ability on successful weapon attack hit:
      • Battle Folio – Thundaga (35 PWR, magic evadable)
      • Papyrus Codex – Unholy Darkness (40 PWR, unevadable)
      • Omnilex – Flareja (38 PWR, unevadable)
      • Note: Abilities cast this way are still single target even if the base ability is AoE
        Though the concept of Books being treated as magick guns was cool, there was some clunkiness to using them in dual wield and they were rarely used, so I wanted to find a unique niche for Books that also fit their “theme” of being able to cast a spell when they hit. The initial damage is meant to be chip and the follow-up Cast can have high damage potential. Now get to studying!
        
• Flails
  • All Flails now ignore the target’s physical damage mitigation (Protect, Defense Boost, Resilient) in addition to being unevadable
  • Reworked WP Standardization to 13, with Scorpion Tail being the strongest option (still WP * WP):
    • Scorpion Tail – From 16 to 14
    • Vesper – From 14 to 13
    • Morning Star – From 15 to 13
    • Flame Mace – From 15 to 13
      
  • Flame Mace (previously Chaos Mace):
    • Reverted to its original version
    • Casts: Firaga instead of Fira (magic evadable)
    • Removed +1 PA/+1 MA
    • Fire element
      Flails could use some love in the limited accessibility they have so they are now like axes, but do not scale with PA, but are also unevadable.  
      
• Knight’s Swords
  • Chaos Blade:
    • Re-added Equip: Regen
    • Increased WP from 20 to 22
      Though the Chaos Blade has a niche, its niche relies on certain variables for it to shine. The buffs to it are to give its bearer passive healing over time and is now the strongest Knight’s Sword WP-wise which can be more considerable for certain abilities though keep in mind this sword still does [targetMaxHP - targetMissingHP] damage with its attacks.
      
• Ninja Blades
  • Orochi – Removed Dark element (it is supposed to be non-elemental)
    Whoops, but no one caught on 😉
    
• Rods
  • Dragon Rod:
    • Decreased WP from 14 to 12 (Rod WP standardization)
    • Removed +1 MA
    • Now Dark Element
    • Now has a 50% chance to uniquely Cast: Dark Whisper (originally from Tiamat monsters)
    • Updated the item’s palette
    • Notes regarding the Dark Whisper ability:
      • Calc: (MA + 4) / 2 * MA
      • Magic Damage, Dark Element
      • 25% chance each to Inflict: Stop, Sleep (Note: Chantage does not increase the status chance of ability-sourced inflictions)
        After the plethora of weapon changes, Dragon Rod ultimately fell behind in terms of where it fits in usability. These changes give it a unique feel, a new Dark elemental weapon, and a unique cast to fit the name and theme.
        
• Swords
  • Nagnarok – Decreased Block from 20 to 10
    The Block reduction is to normalize Nagnarok alongside other Swords especially with it being a powerful item and normally equippable with Shields.
    
  • Coral Sword – This weapon uses a 9 PWR version of Quicksand instead of the default 6 PWR Geomancy
    Besides this item seeing low playability, the Cast on Quicksand needs a bit of a PWR buff when comparing what jobs can equip Swords and their average starting MA.