Category Format

In this update, we officially release the PvP Patch as a part of the Tactics League formats and update all Premades and Starter save data in unison with the newly released patch. As the community has reached a pivotal finale in beta testing, we are confident in releasing the latest competitive save with new offerings. This will be a hefty changelog, so make sure to read over each change in each format listed below. The PvP Patch must be enabled when playing with our formats as they have been balanced and adjusted around it (guides are available in Tutorials).

A massive shout-out to the following Discord members for helping shape the PvP Patch and thoroughly testing to ensure this patch is battle-ready!
Mikey_TacticsLive, jokerfisch, Dark Claw, Wngman, Salcy, and others that have contributed ideas and suggestions

Note: From this point forward, competitive saves will include the PvP Patch as an all-in-one download.

To download the official version 2.4 save data, go here: Download Version 2.4
Optionally, a text patch is available to download using the FFTactext application (part of the FFTPatcher suite). Visit the Text Patch Tutorial Guide for more info.

PvP Patch Changelog (opens in new tab)
Competitive Starter 3.0 Changelog
Generics Premade 3.0 Changelog
Uniques Premade 2.0 Changelog
Monsters Premade 2.0 Changelog

Competitive Starter 3.0

Zalbaag (NEW)

• Replaced Balthier with Zalbaag. With the metagame shifting more towards Speed and less accessibility to Haste, Balthier was overperforming in certain aspects in addition to some exploitations that could put him in a class of his own. Balthier is very similar to Orlandeau in terms of being overpowered, so the approach is to retire him for this update. We are always welcome to return Balthier to the roster in a future update depending on community feedback and potential adjustments.
  
  For more information on Zalbaag’s stats, job, and skillset, visit Zalbaag.

Construct 8

• Decreased Speed from 13 to 12.
  Comment: Speed reduction due to the lower accessibility of Haste and Speed modifiers to bring Construct 8 more in line with the rest of the roster. A chunky robot shouldn’t be able to outspeed most generic jobs by default! Originally, the plan was to reduce it to 11, however, after evaluating the increase of Haste sourcing, it still needs some extra to remain competitive in usage.

Luso

• Decreased PA from 18 to 16 and increased MA from 11 to 13.
  Comment: With Huntcraft now having a mixture of PA and MA abilities, a little bump in his MA would help increase the potency of Choco Cure, Earthsplitter, and Ultima. Spin Punch was negatively affected by the PA reduction but also received a boost in PWR to compensate.

Inventory

• Removed any item in the inventory not considered endgame or was not adjusted by the PvP Patch. This has significantly reduced clutter and the amount of time it takes searching for gear to equip characters.
• Removed Ether from the inventory. Ether was removed to reduce the amount of MP restoration items a player has in tandem with Mana Shield. There is still 10x Hi-Ether and 1x Elixir available for use with Items.

Limited and Semi-Limited Gear Restriction Update

• Most equipment has had adjustments via the PvP Patch and the restriction list has been updated to accommodate for such adjustments as well as re-evaluating where some gear is in the current limited/semi-limited/banned list. In general, many banned equipment has now returned as options due to the adjustments caused. Below are the new additions to the restrictions list:
  
  • NEW Limited – Materia Blade (equipped to Cloud but can be removed), all Fell Swords (Arondight, Chaosbringer, Deathbringer, Balmung, Valhalla), all Knight’s Swords (Defender, Ragnarok, Excalibur, Save the Queen, Durandal, Chaos Blade), all Guns (Fomalhaut, Stoneshooter, Blaze Gun, Glacial Gun, Blaster), Sage’s Robe, Luminous Robe, Onion Armor, Ribbon, and Sage’s Ring
    
  • NEW Semi-Limited – Minerva Bustier, Septième, Brigand’s Gloves, Featherweave Cloak, Invisibility Cloak
    
  • NEW No longer restricted (up to 3) – Gae Bolg, Staff of the Magi, Grand Armor, Brave Suit, Crystal Shield

Comment: The metagame has changed significantly from Starter 2.1 once the PvP Patch was created; opening new opportunities to standardize, balance, and adjust many equipment options to get into the hands of the player. Ribbon and Sage’s Ring in particular has been limited since they offer a ton of value compared to other equipment that has been overlooked (Barette, Cachusha, and Vampire’s Cape for example), ideally putting more thought into decision-making instead of going with the usual go-to’s. All Guns are limited due to the recent removal of Shirahadori since they are unavoidable. We will be monitoring their performance and adjusting if needed in a future update.

Generics Premade 3.0

Armiger (NEW)

• Armiger [Damage] joins the roster in this update! This Squire-in-training will be replacing Ranger [Damage] to bring a new addition and playstyle to Generics. Using his innate Reequip, Armiger can swap out his Platinum Sword and Mythril Shield into one of the various weapons available in the inventory: Poison Bow (crossbow), Assassin’s Dagger/Blind Knife/Mage Masher (knives), Lamia’s Harp (instrument), Flame Mace (flail), Slasher (axe), Gokuu Pole (pole), or Nagnarok (sword). Coupled with an excellent 8 Move, Armiger is formidable in mobility so he can quickly get in range to attack and strive to become a Master-at-Arms!
  
  Note: Using Reequip in multiplayer will reset the gear back to his initial build afterward. Always continue to reset the game after completing a battle for integrity purposes.

Characters

• Many equipment and stat adjustments were made in this update due to the changes caused by the PvP Patch. Not all character changes will be listed, but major changes will be listed separately.
• Reduced the MP of characters utilizing magicks due to the cast-time adjustments from the PvP Patch. In general, most characters affected are around 160 MP or less.
• Re-adjusted the Speed of some characters to compensate for the removal of Haste-equipped gear. For the most part, the Speed of characters is the same as they were in v2.2, with Shadow/Lancer/Stalwart/Timewalker being the fastest on the roster.

Inventory

• Added 2x Ama-no-Murakamo for Sentinel [Tank], and 1x each of Poison Bow, Assassin’s Dagger, Blind Knife, Mage Masher, Gokuu Pole, Slasher, Nagnarok, Flame Mace, and Lamia’s Harp for Armiger [Damage].

Shadow [Damage]

• Decreased PA from 20 to 11.
• Swapped: Attack Boost for Dual Wield, reducing his damage potential by factoring the Assassin’s Dagger WP increase.
• Removed Knives from Throw due to their WP increase.

Hunter [Damage]

• Swapped: Ignore Elevation for Move +1 since Ignore Elevation is now innate.

Parivir [Damage]

• Decreased PA from 18 to 12 due to innate Doublehand and katana WP increase.
• Reduced MA from 24 to 19 to offset the +4 MA from Kiku-ichimonji.
• Reduced MP by 49.
• Swapped: Lv. 1 Black Magicks with Lv.2 variants.
• Swapped: Doublehand with Arcane Strength.
• Swapped: Shirahadori with Reflexes.

Zen [Damage]

• Increased HP by 70, and decreased MA from 34 to 15 due to innate Faith in her job.
• Swapped: Luminous Robe for Hempen Robe due to already having Faith.
• Swapped: Ivory Pole for Whale Whisker.
• Arithmeticks is now replaced with Ja-Magicks due to the PvP Patch. Removed Gravija from her Ja-Magicks skillset.

Lancer [Damage]

• Added: Borrowed Time (formerly Steal Gil) to her abilities. This ability is a self, instant-cast Haste.

Paladin [Tank]

• Decreased PA from 15 to 6, decreased MA from 18 to 10, increased HP by 22, and decreased MP by 40.
• Swapped: Longsword for Durandal, gaining Faith and improving his White Magicks.
• Swapped: Celebrant’s Miter for Wizard’s Hat.
• Added: Protectja and Shellja (White Magicks) abilities.

Sentinel [Tank]

• Increased MA from 11 to 13, decreased HP by 50.
• Swapped: Ashura for Ama-no-Murakamo (Iaido) ability.
• Swapped: Lifefont for Move +1 since Lifefont is gained innately.

Guardian [Tank]

• Swapped: Longsword for Ancient Sword (immobilize chance).
• Decreased PA from 15 to 10.

Cleric [Support]

• Decreased MA from 17 to 15, decreased MP from 229 to 58 (will be increased by gear adjustments).
• Swapped: White Staff for Healing Staff (restore HP on attacks).
• Swapped: Celebrant’s Miter for Wizard’s Hat.

Timewalker [Support]

• Decreased PA from 21 to 5 due to innate Doublehand, decreased MP by 137.
• Swapped: Luminous Robe for Silken Robe.

Ramza [Damage]

• Added Reprisal, Parley, and Manaburn abilities to Mettle.
• Switched to the Ch. 4 version in order to preserve Shout and Ultima skillsets due to the added abilities.

Uniques Premade 2.0

Characters

• Many equipment and stat adjustments were made in this update due to the changes caused by the PvP Patch. Not all character changes will be listed, but major changes will be listed separately.

Argath [Damage]

• Swapped: Time Magicks for Aim (with Aim +1 – 3 abilities) due to the Equip: Atheist change in Fell Swords.
• Swapped: Swiftness for Defense Boost since he no longer has magicks.

Luso [Damage]

• Added all Huntcraft abilities, but removed Ultima to reinforce his other MA abilities and Iaido.
• Swapped: Chirijiraden with Kotetsu due to the reworking of his skillset.

Zalbaag [Tank]

• Swapped: Swiftness with Arcane Defense due to the PvP Patch’s reduced cast-time changes.

Reis [Tank]

• Added: Dragon’s Gift and Dragon’s Might (Dragon) abilities since they now affect anyone.

Monsters Premade 2.0

Inventory

• Removed items that were in the inventory that are not accessible for any reason in this format.

Yuna [Tamer]

• Swapped: Orator job for Summoner job, adding Moogle, Ifrit, Shiva, Ramuh, and Titan abilities. This change was made to do a better service to her character inspiration from Final Fantasy X.
• Reduced MA from 13 to 11 to reduce the damage/healing of Summons.
• Reduced PA from 6 to 5 to compensate for the Dragon Rod WP increase.
• Swapped: Ras Algethi for Dragon Rod and Celebrant’s Miter for Wizard’s Hat.

Leis [Tamer]

• Swapped: Minerva Bustier for Sage’s Robe.
  Comment: Minvera Bustier was negating damage from Fire/Wind/Lightning effectively being a hard counter to monsters that dealt those types of damage. Sage’s Robe fits the theme of reduced elemental damage taken without outright blocking certain types.

Fynn [Tamer]

• Reduced MA from 18 to 16 due to the PvP Patch.
• Swapped: Nature’s Wrath for Critical: Quick.
• Swapped: White Staff for Serpent Staff so he can deal damage with attacks.
  Comment: Nature’s Wrath can do a ton of unmitigated damage for this format when procced including status effects which should be relegated to monsters, not a reaction ability. Because of reduced cast times, Critical: Quick can come in handy for a fast Esuna or Cura mid-to-late game.

Squall [Support – Chocobo]

• Reduced MA from 23 to 7 due to the Choco Cure PWR increase.

Rancor [Damage – Sekhret]

• Reduced MA from 24 to 7 due to the Earthsplitter and Breath Fire PWR increase.

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

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

Competitive Starter 2.1

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

Characters

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

Generics Premade 2.2

Beowulf

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

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

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

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

Generics Premade v2.1

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

Cloud

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

Lancer

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

Paladin

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

Bouncer

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

Guardian

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

Apothecary

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

Distractor

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

Timewalker

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

Uniques Premade v1.2

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

Zalbaag (NEW)

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

Construct 8

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

Cloud

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

Competitive Starter 2.1

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

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

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

Characters

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

Mustadio

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

Agrias

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

Marach

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

Rapha

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

Reis

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

Cloud

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

Construct 8

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

Luso

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

Balthier

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

Inventory

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

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

💊 Buff-Up Early

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

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

📑Team Composition and Adjusting to the Map

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

⚔️Know the Meta Abilities

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

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

⚠️Glass-Cannon is Not Always Best

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

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

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

Today, we released an update that fixes a few bugs and addressed inventory counts in the SLOT 4/Starter save file. Read the changelog below for more information.

To download official version 2.2.1 save data, go here:
https://mega.nz/file/h4dSFLbZ#LzMaLdoC2hMGc4K2HMY0LlkfF4QYEk3UbnC4wQGXElc

Ramza

• Rollback his Chapter 2/3 sprite to Chapter 4 as it was disabling Shout and Ultima abilities when switching off his Squire job. The sprite is tied to his skillset so he needed to be swapped back in order to have access to his full abilities.
  
  Note: He will still use his Chapter 2/3 sprite in Generics and Uniques Premade since he is played as is without job switching.

Alicia (Female Generic)

• Fixed a previous issue where she had higher Physical Attack than the rest of the generic roster in Starter. She is now no longer stronger than the rest.

Inventory

• Reduced Materia Blade from 3 to 2 since Cloud had one slotted (originally making the inventory count a total of 4).

Looking at making your first Competitive Starter team? Already have one but looking for tips to improve it? This article covers the abilities that are battle-tested and should be considered when theory-crafting your next PvP squad. We will break each section by ability type and you can jump to each one using the table of contents below. Now, let’s get right to it.

YouTube video/audio version of this guide: https://youtu.be/l6QvfMG0KU4

Action Abilities

Iaido

● Kiyomori – For Protect and Shell; 33% damage reduction from physical and magical attacks.
● Masamune – For Regen and Haste; healing-over-time at the end of each of your turns and faster turns to act more frequently.
● Chirijiraden – Strong melee area magic damage.
● Kiku-ichimonji – Strong line-based magic damage up to 8 tiles away.

Darkness

● Sanguine Sword – HP sustainability and damage while in melee range.
● Unholy Sacrifice – Considered a “bomb,” deals a ton of damage in melee but the caster also takes a ton of damage in return; good against tight formations.

Summon

● Golem – Covers all allies with a damage shield equal to the caster’s max HP that absorbs damage from basic attacks, Throw, Jump, and Aim.
● Zodiark – Though it has a long cast time, it can be used as a “walking bomb” on an ally for later turns, dealing massive magic damage to all enemies in the area.

Martial Arts

● Shockwave – Line-based earth physical damage up to 8 tiles away.
● Aurablast – Ranged single-target physical damage.
● Revive – Instant resurrection of a fallen ally. Both the caster and the target need to be on the same height.
● Chakra – Instant area healing that also restores MP. Can also be used in conjunction with Mana Shield.

Throw

● Instant ranged damage that is based on the caster’s Speed and the Power of the weapon being thrown. Useful for high damage with tossing end-game weapons, like Chaos Blade or Excalibur.

Jump

● Deals delayed damage to a single target. Handy at pre-emptively avoiding incoming damage and effects since the character is “out of play.” Jump scales best when equipped with a polearm.

Reaction Abilities

● Mana Shield (Time Mage) – Bravery% chance to absorb incoming damage to your MP instead of HP. Very good at sustaining hard-hitting moves as long as you have at least 1 MP left.

● Shirahadori (Samurai) – Decreases the chance of being hit by incoming types of damage (like Throw, Jump, Attack, Guns, Bows) by reducing the hit rate of those types of attacks. Higher Bravery will further reduce the chance of being hit.

● Reflexes (Ninja) – Doubles the character’s physical and magical evasion rates at all times. Works best in tandem with shields like Escutcheon “II” to evade the front and sides or when equipped with cloaks as they provide the best evasive coverage regardless of side.

● Soulbind (Arithmetician) – Bravery% chance after taking HP damage to restore HP equal to half the damage taken and return that amount as damage to the attacking character. A good option for bulky and defensive characters and can be used to punish ranged abilities such as Kiku-ichimonji and Shockwave.

● Dragonheart (Dragoon) – Though there are sources to get the reraise status (White Magicks or Ovelia’s Aegis), being able to have an option to get it from taking physical damage is also a boon especially when most damage you will see is likely to be physical-type. Being able to revive in the mid-to-late game can be crucial to making a comeback. This ability is also Bravery% chance.

Support Abilities

● Arcane Defense/Defense Boost – Great magic or physical damage mitigation by 33% respectively that stacks with Protect and Shell. Also good options for when you predict your opponent is stacking heavy into things like Iaido (use Arcane Defense) or Darkness/Throw (use Defense Boost).

● Arcane Strength/Attack Boost/Vehemence – Arcane Strength (for magic) and Attack Boost (for physical) are great options, especially when stacking damage potential. Vehemence is risky as it causes you to take 50% more damage, but it also increases your damage dealt by 50%, sacrificing sustain for power.

● Dual Wield – Being able to have two one-handed weapons equipped for stat stacking or optimization can be pretty important when min-maxing builds. This is also a handy option with Arts of War since each ability has two chances to rent gear or reduce stats instead of one.

● Swiftness – This ability is very important when focused on using magicks or Summon, as this reduces the Spell Speed of those abilities in half, rounded up. Since Starter is primarily about speedy plays and magicks are naturally slower, Swiftness is crucial for magicks to compete against instant cast abilities.

Movement Abilities

● Manafont – Being able to restore MP from simply moving at least 1 tile can be potent when also combining this ability with Mana Shield.

● Move +2/Jump +2 – Traversing the map quickly is king, so having more options is always a plus. Move +2 in most cases should always be your go-to for movement.

● Teleport – A bit more of a niche ability, Teleport enables the unit to be able to traverse anywhere on the map, with the chance of it failing by 10% per tile past their normal Move stat. This can be handy in risky plays with things like Chirijiraden or Unholy Sacrifice or even immediately placing a Summon “bomb” into the enemy stack quickly before it goes off.