Version 5 introduces a way to circumvent the recruitment process for acquiring monsters (with Traitor status being removed, and it being the original only way to recruit them), and monsters are on track to become usable in the future in competitive PvP.
Hire Monsters at the Warriors’ Guild
In the Campaign article, there was a mention of there being future updates to the Warriors’ Guild. This update comes right before the version 5 public beta (huge thanks to @Tzepish <3) and it changes the system to allow for hiring both female and male Squire in one option and now introducing the new option: Hire Monster.
Hire Monster randomly generates any of the regular monsters (no special monsters sorry!) at your highest party level member so they don’t have to be grinded before they can catch up with the rest. This highest level scaling also applies to the Hire Squire option but they will still start with their preset gear and 0 JP across jobs. One neat aspect about this new feature is that generated monsters have slight deviations in their stats too, so one Chocobo is not the same as the other when it comes to stuff like HP, MP, Power, or Magick.
Since this new method fixes the ability to experience Campaign with monsters who received hefty ability updates and some stat balancing, you’ll be able to bring them alongside your journey into the Zodiac Brave Story by simply dismissing units ahead of time if space is limited, heading to the Warriors’ Guild, selecting Hire Monster, and hiring new units for a 3,000 Gil fee.
An Update to Beastmaster Ability
To improve this ability’s viability with monsters and to resolve an issue that causes the recently announced 3 range to bug out in situations, this ability will now unlock your monsters’ hidden abilities at any location on the map. Yes, that means you can get your Squeal or Gigaflare on from the other side as long as the Beastmaster unit is not KO’ed or mid-jump (from Jump) or under Sleep, Disable, Stone, Vampire, Chicken, Toad, Confuse, Berserk, Stop, or Veil.
In the picture below, here is an example of a Dark Behemoth using its hidden ability, Almagest, several tiles away from Ramza, who has Beastmaster.
A Future in Competitive
With the ability to hire monsters and they generate at your party level, there’s finally a future for them regarding competitive play in Standard. Monsters have received numerous updates in job stats and abilities to balance them better while aiming to improve them overall for Campaign and Standard.
Now to set expectations, monsters have their limitations, most do not have access to Protect or Shell, Defense Boost, or Arcane Defense (but a select few do) and will rely on their human allies in most cases to provide these buffs, but there is a potential in the future metagame. Giving up a generic human job for a monster, may or may not be worth the trade-off, but experiment now that it is a possibility. Stay tuned for potential ruleset updates regarding monsters being allowed in future competitions!
In this article, we review job changes that will impact both Campaign and Multiplayer modes, including adding innate abilities for every unique in the Tactics League roster to empower their primary job if they previously did not have one.
Changes to Uniques
With version 5, any prior unique character in the Tactics League roster that did not have an innate ability on their primary job will have one added. Additionally, select unique characters in the Campaign also received innate abilities to improve them. This affects the following characters:
Ramza (Heretic, Ch. 2 – 4) – Monkey Grip
Meliadoul (Divine Knight) – Pierce
Beowulf (Templar) – Tactical Shift
Luso (Game Hunter) – Beastmaster
Construct 8 (Automaton) – Replaced Ignore Weather (which is unusable) with Fly (enabling his jet pack! :p)
Orran (Astrologer) – Arcane Defense
Orlandeau (Sword Saint) – Swordplay abilities are usable with Katanas, Ninja Blades, and Swords-types
Byblos (Byblos) – Arcane Defense, Defense Boost, Dexterity, and Soulbind. Removed Fire Weakness. Immune: Vampire, Curse, Doom
Alongside these innate ability changes, there were a few action ability-related changes for select special characters, such as:
Ramza’s and Byblos’s (newly added) Maim now have a 35% chance to Remove: Protect, Shell, Haste, Reraise, and Regen instead, up from 19%.
Because Earthsplitter was moved to Blue Magicks, Luso’s Earthsplitter has now been replaced with Choco Meteor, using [MA * 15]. Note that because he has Beastmaster innately, he can slot Blue Magicks and still use a different Support ability, unlike other characters.
Ramza and Luso’s Ultima is now 3 ticks instead of 4, allowing for faster cast times; expect to see more Ultima being cast 👀.
Though this was mentioned in the Abilities article, Meliadoul now has Crush Shield as well to give her more targeted options to check against. Mustadio’s Disassemble does damage in addition to reducing the target’s Power and Magick by 2.
Valmafra’s Gravity has been replaced with a reworked Manaburn, which now does damage equal to your current MP (the original version was your target’s MP), and spending your current MP as a cost afterward.
As mentioned in the Uniques, New and Familiar article, Balthier’s Plunder abilities have been replaced by Thief’s Steal variants (as they were ultimately redundant), and any successful Steal now deals unarmed damage to the victim as well. Balthier no longer has Safeguard like he did in the original game.
Orran’s Astrology skillset, which only housed Celestial Stasis, has been replaced with the original Arithmeticks skillset, supporting only CT and Height parameters, as well as now being Reflectable and Silence-able, and being able to arithmetick:
[White Magicks] Cure
[Black Magicks] Fire, Thunder, Blizzard, Scathe
[Time Magicks] Gravity, Reflect
[Mystic Arts] Umbra
To tone down Orlandeau’s capabilities, and not just be a “better version” of Agrias/Delita and Meliadoul, his Swordplay skillset now only includes:
There are several adjustments to select generic jobs as well going into version 5, mostly to improve their stats, especially all caster job’s base Power which was too little to try to do any hybrid-based skillsets effectively. Let’s dive more into what changes to expect during the beta:
Generic Caster Job HP, MP, and PA multiplier adjustments – The general bulk of casters have gone up slightly and their MP has been reduced slightly to compensate for it. These changes are to improve their base HP for stuff like HP Boost and reaching certain HP thresholds, while not interfering with their MP pool drastically so they can still build into MP for Manafont/Mana Shield or the Cherche accessory. The following changes shown are from a generic male going from v4 to v5:
White Mage – 228 HP ➡ 256 HP / 121 MP ➡ 111 MP / 11 PA ➡ 13 PA
Black Mage – 213 HP ➡ 242 HP / 121 MP ➡ 111 MP / 10 PA ➡ 12 PA
Time Mage – 213 HP ➡ 242 HP / 121 MP ➡ 111 MP / 6 PA ➡ 11 PA
Summoner – 228 HP ➡ 256 HP / 172 MP ➡ 151 MP / 7 PA ➡ 12 PA
Mystic – 242 HP ➡ 256 HP / 111 MP ➡ 106 MP / 10 PA ➡ 13 PA
Sage – 256 HP ➡ 285 HP / 121 MP ➡ 111 MP / 13 PA ➡ 14 PA
White Mage: Flails were added as equipment based on past community requests and to match various other Final Fantasy titles that White Mage can utilize them innately.
Knight: Knights received some minor changes that mostly affect unique characters as part of efforts to tone down their scaling. Note that because their innate, HP Boost, was increased from 20 to 25% the base HP multiplier reduction is lesser in scale:
Generic Knights are approximately 11 HP less bulky, Unique Knights’ HP loss is variable in scale but is approximately 10% less.
Unique Knights have had their Power decreased by no more than 2.
Unique Knights have had their Magick decreased by no more than 2.
Thief: The Thief job received some buffs to improve their damage potential alongside buffs to Knives. We will go over Knives more in a future Equipment article.
Thieves are approximately 14 HP bulkier.
Thieves had an increase in Power by 1.
A very small 1% Speed multiplier reduction was applied that does not affect any generic or unique character other than Balthier (this is part of efforts to ensure Balthier’s Speed on Thief or Ninja (which is also 1% less Speed) doesn’t exceed 14 Speed by base).
Dragoon: With Dragoon getting a new skillset and with the Jump stat being a factor into the Jump ability, Dragoons received the following changes:
Dragoon had a decrease in Power by approximately 1 for generics and at most 2 for uniques.
Dragoon had an increase in Magick by 2 to improve their ability to build into their Breath attacks.
Ninja: To improve the viability and versatility of Ninja, they received the following adjustments, including one major change to the job’s equipment:
Re-added Knives as weapons.
Ninjas are approximately 28 HP bulkier.
Added Innate: Waterwalking as this movement ability has rare utility in PvP and because it is a part of their job progression.
Samurai: To ensure female Samurai can utilize Iaido competitively the following changes were made including an added movement innately for flavor:
Increased Power by 1, only affecting female Samurai (starting 16 Power, 15 Magick).
Added Innate: Swim as this movement ability has rare utility in PvP and because it is a part of their job progression.
Bard and Dancer: Both these jobs received a slight increase in Power or Magick to improve their hybridization potential:
Bard – Increased Power by 1.
Dancer – Increased Magick by 1.
Mime: With Mimes having a usable command in Blue Magicks on their turn, some balancing was needed to adjust their ability to use abilities on their turn and still mimic. Additionally, their job requirements in the campaign were lowered so you can experience them faster albeit you will still need to learn select monster abilities on hit to use them:
Decreased Power and Magick by 1.
Decreased Move from 5 to 4.
Decreased their Class Evasion from 25 to 10%.
Set the requirements of Squire, Chemist, Summoner, Thief, Orator, Geomancer, and Dragoon from variable levels to Level 3 on each job.
Dark Knight: These changes only affect the job requirements due to itemization restrictions in the campaign (they cannot equip Knight’s Swords like they could originally and their Fell Swords are gated behind multiplayer):
No longer requires 20+ confirmed kills.
Now unlocks after reaching Lv. 5 Black Mage and Lv. 5 Samurai. Thank you to Xjamxx for the hack needed to make this work!
Onion Knight: Since the base version is very inferior even if you unlock it early, some overall bulk and strength were increased to make them better than what they were in the original game:
Set the HP, MP, PA, and MA multipliers to 100%.
Increased Move and Jump from 3/3 to 5/4 to match the mastered version and improve their mobility.
Conclusion
With all unique characters having an innate ability on their main job, new and improved abilities, and stat and job adjustments to generic jobs, version 5’s goal is to make it possible to play in almost any way possible to your heart’s desire. The public beta begins on March 18th!
As we approach the March 18th public beta date, it’s time to highlight some action ability changes with version 5. This article will focus on some of the major changes that you will need to know about ahead of time so you can start planning for the future. This will be a decently long read, but one worth having from start to finish.
Distinction in Elemental Abilities
Abilities like Fira, Blizzara, and even Reis’s Breath abilities (except Holy Breath) essentially acted the same in version 4, where there was no distinction between choices. That changes in version 5, with select elements and abilities now having a 19% status chance associated with them; making choices even more impactful than ever. Let’s do a quick rundown about what was changed:
Fire – Inflicts: Poison (Black Magicks, Summon’s Ifrit, Dragon Tech, and Reis’s Fire Breath)
Dark – Inflicts: Curse (Mystic Arts’s Unholy Darkness)
As mentioned, these distinction updates only affect the listed abilities. They also affect weapons that cast their ability, like Vitanova (Holy) and even Glacial Gun (Black Magick’s Blizzard series)!
A Reworked and Improved Black Magicks
One skillset that wasn’t as performant was Black Magicks. Between the distinction updates listed earlier and a reworking of the abilities and even new ones, Black Magicks will be a future contender in a competitive environment for Black Mage and as a secondary for casters. First, let’s go over how the skillset was reworked:
Level 1 Black Magicks (Fire, Blizzard, Thunder) got a PWR increase from 18 to 25 each.
Level 2 through Level 4 abilities were condensed and restructured. What this means is that:
-aja variants (Lv. 4s) have now become the -aga (Lv. 3) variants, copying over all ability data, including costs and AoE. After this copy, their cast times were reduced from 5 to 4.
– aga variants (Lv. 3s) have now become the -ara (Lv. 2s) variants, copying over all ability data as well. After this copy, their cast times were reduced from 3 to 2.
This ultimately removes the original four-step progression of these abilities and leans the skillset. More importantly, it gives space to introduce 3 NEW abilities to take over those slots!
With 3 new ability slots, I aimed to diverse and strengthen the kit as a whole, bringing about new ways to play Black Mage, and to utilize their destructive arsenal with the following, including an upgrade to the original Poison ability:
Scathe – Consider it a faith-based Kiku-ichimonji (from Iaido), at 1 speed and non-elemental damage at 25 PWR. This ability does not damage allies in the line.
Doomsday – This 3 ranged, Iaido-AoE, Dark-elemental magick deals 40% max. HP damage to those affected and has a 19% chance to Inflict: Doom.
Curse – This instant single target ability has a variable chance to Inflict: Curse, the new negative status. Curse lowers the target’s damage done and healing received by 33% and is permanent until cleansed.
Bio (Poison upgrade) – The original Poison ability got a massive upgrade, as this ability uniquely does not calculate with Faith, and is guaranteed to Inflict: Poison as long as the target was not immune with a 50% HP loss to boot! This ability is the only “magick” in the game that can be cast on low-faith/Atheist targets as a means to give Black Magicks an option when normally countered. This ability has a 3-speed cast time.
With faster cast times, more power, and more options, Black Magicks is much better and more appealing than ever before!
Iaido 2.0
One skillset that has always been performant even in the original game is Samurai’s Iaido. However, with that being said, Iaido was never really competitive on its own derived job, so there have been pretty sizable changes to it.
Damaging abilities will now use [(MA + PWR) / 2 * PA] calculations instead of [MA * PWR]. This change is to not only buff Samurai’s signature skillset for their use but also widen the number of jobs, including physical ones, that can utilize Iaido. Yes, this is a nerf to Magick-stacked jobs, like the tried-and-true Iaido Black Mage, but with some additional base job PA enhancements, mage jobs can still utilize Iaido effectively, albeit they will need to go more into PA this go around instead of stacking straight into Magick. Jobs that can hybridize their stats well, like Samurai and Geomancer, will find newer heights in this reworked Iaido. Let’s look at the PWR changes to compensate for this new hybrid formula:
Ashura – from 10 to 14
Kotetsu – from 12 to 16
Ama-no-Murakamo – from 13 to 18, now Inflicts: Curse instead of Undead at 19% chance
Muramasa – from 15 to 18
Kiku-ichimonji – from 14 to 16
Chirijiraden – from 17 to 22
Additionally, the break chance of Iaido has gone up from 33 to 50% per cast. This is to reduce same-ability spamming, especially with the skillset having a wider audience to use it. The Safeguard support ability will additionally lower the break chance of Iaido to 25% if slotted. With an increase in break chance, the “support” Iaido abilities, Murasame and Osafune, respectively got a slight PWR (14 and 16) increase in potency and still use [MA * PWR].
Lastly, based on community feedback, the Zanmato katana now has an ability assigned to it called “Advent of Might,” which increases the Bravery of all allies affected by 4. This katana is still limited in Standard, and being able to improve your group’s Bravery in a single cast can be advantageous not only to Samurai and unarmed Monk but to better reaction chances too at the start of a fight.
Damaging Stat Reduction Abilities
To improve Arts of War’s Rend Stat abilities (Rend Speed, Rend Power, Rend Magick specifically), these abilities will now deal minimal damage using [PA * (WP / 2)] on hit in addition to their stat reduction. With being able to apply chip damage mitigated and lower a unit’s vital stats in one go, Rend Stat abilities got an enticing buff that not only improves Knight but the skillset as a whole.
Additionally, Mustadio’s Disassemble ability deals minor damage too but uses [PA * (MA / 2)] instead in addition to lowering a target’s PA and MA by 2.
The Safeguard ability will also lower these stat reductions by 1, so getting hit by Rend Power would be a -2 Power loss instead of 3 for example.
Don’t sleep on these abilities, especially for openers and high-threat targets!
Mastery Arts is a Fully Slottable Secondary
With version 5 being the last, major update series, it is fitting to get the Onion Knight’s skillset to become usable as a secondary, especially since it is considered a generic job. You will now be able to wield Mastery Arts on any character, including Uniques, which uniquely grants them access to Focus for the first time.
Additionally, Mastery Arts is fully viewable from the skillset menu too, so you can find out what exact abilities they have instead of having to wait to go into battle.
Updates to Sword Skills
Some changes went into select “sword skill” skillsets and abilities to improve their viability in general.
First, Holy Sword and all abilities, except Unholy Sacrifice, in Darkness, now scale with [weapon] instead of [PA * WP]. Because these abilities already require a “sword-type” weapon and these weapons use [PA * WP] anyway, you won’t see any changes to their output. However, when using abilities with dual wield or with other weapons, these will use that weapon’s base calculation. A prime example of this is using a katana in the main hand and a one-handed sword in the off-hand for Darkness Ninja. Though katanas have more WP than a sword, because of Bravery scaling, the damage will be a bit less upfront unless you can reach near-max Bravery.
Abyssal Blade got a buff in its row scaling now using +2 PWR for the first row, +1 PWR for the second, and divide by 2 for the third. These changes impact Cloud’s Blade Beam as well.
Meliadoul’s Crush Helm and Crush Armor abilities now deal the max HP difference properly so there isn’t a “loss” in damage due to hitting these equipment. This is a fairly notable buff to Meliadoul’s toolkit and damage potential. Additionally, based on requests, she now has Crush Shield too!
Beowulf’s Spellblade got a hefty change where though it still requires a sword-type weapon, it no longer calculates against his and the target’s Faith, allowing for Spellblade to be more versatile against Atheist and lower-faith targets. PWR changes were made to these abilities as they now use [% = MA + PWR] to determine their status chance, but it should be roughly near the same as it was in version 4 with some slight deviations, like Break having a bit lower chance due to a technical KO in Stone infliction.
Additionally, Spellblade’s Drain and Syphon now scale with [weapon] too but at 70% of the damage done, as a slightly weaker version of Sanguine Sword and Infernal Strike, to give him more physical options in his kit. With these changes, Beowulf is certainly able to “check” select uniques and generics better and is a more flexible combatant.
New and Improved Reaction/Support/Movement Abilities
One big goal of version 5 is to improve on lesser-used R/S/M abilities so that it empowers players with even more options than they already had! Of course, with a major update, new abilities are being added, so let’s look at these first, starting with Supports:
2 NEW Support Abilities – Pierce and Power Throw
Pierce – Normal Attacks, Magicks, Jump, and Throw bypass Golem and Reflect.
Power Throw – Increase damage with Throw by 43%.
3 NEW Movement Abilities – Tactical Shift (by Tzepish), Stealth, and Athleticks. Note that Tactical Shift is an upgraded Treasure Hunter that allows you to still find hidden items in Campaign:
Tactical Shift – Restores your Move command after a killing blow with a normal attack.
Stealth – Bestows: Invisible after moving at least 5 tiles at once.
Athleticks – Increases your Power and Magick by 1 for every 5 tiles moved at once.
Improved R/S/M Abilities:
Resilience (Reaction – formerly Resilient) – Applies an 8% damage reduction at all times while slotted (this affects normally mitigation ignored sources). While charging, remove the physical damage penalty and reduce all damage taken by 50%. Notably, this includes incoming magic-based abilities with this change too, and not just physical.
Ward (Reaction) – Grants Curse and Doom immunity at all times while slotted.
Earplug (Reaction) – Grants Confuse and Charm immunity at all times while slotted.
CT Boost (Reaction) – Increased CT gained from 9 to 12.
Critical: Restore (Reaction – formerly Critical: Recover HP) – Additionally restores MP as well HP to full if triggered while in critical.
First Strike (Reaction) – Now can trigger against all incoming Steal abilities.
HP Boost (Support) – Increases base HP from 20 to 25%.
Safeguard (Support) – Additionally lowers Iaido break chance to 25%, reduces Stat Reduction loss by 1, and prevents items from being stolen or broken.
Concentration (Support) – Uses additive calculations instead of multiplicative, improving hit rates by approximately 10% more.
Equip Bludgeon (Support) – Now includes Knives.
Monkey Grip (Support) – Now fully works with Reequip.
Beastmaster (Support) – Extends the range of friendly monster’s hidden abilities from 1 to 3 and slotting Beastmaster enables the slotting of Blue Magicks as a secondary ability.
Nimble (Movement) – Added +1 Move.
Conclusion
There are even more ability changes than what was previewed today but this highlights the most notable ones. With only a week left, version 5 is changing the game and opening up new possibilities for creativity. See you all on the 18th!
Today, we go over how the fifth and final version of the PvP Patch will finally support the Campaign so you can embark on a single-player adventure with one of the greatest stories in video game history and suit up afterward to take on some of Tactics League’s best players in competitive PvP. Let’s go over these changes below.
Party Roster Expansion
Though this was first mentioned in the v5 Focused series, the roster expansion is a very important detail for those looking to progress the story once more or for the first time. The expansion unlocks the four reserved Guest slots to be fully usable, expanding the party limit from 24 to 28. Leveraging this also allows for more unique characters to join your party permanently in the story and for Tactics League PvP, but there are a few important notes to share:
Guest characters are fully deployable (for the first time) in both story and random encounters. Note that because of this, you can have duplicate Guest characters in a mission, such as two Delitas in the Chapter 1 fight in Garland. If you want to keep things true to form, avoid deploying these Guests where they normally would already spawn.
Guest characters are also fully dismissable now so keep cautious of this and always remember to save in between battles.
NPC-controlled mission-based Guest characters do update their stats, gear, and abilities if they already exist in your party.
Progress Faster with Always-On EXP and JP Boost
Everyone loves being able to build their party and further explore the creative offerings of Final Fantasy Tactics, and version 5 is supporting that by ensuring that the EXP and JP Boost support abilities are always enabled – you won’t need to slot these abilities to quickly start watching your units grow in levels and unlock abilities faster.
Additionally, the Bard and Dancer jobs both now support spillover JP whereas they originally did not and Onion Knight Base and Master versions can now accrue EXP and JP as well; all a part of making sure you can progress in the way you choose to.
Warriors’ Guild Changes and Zodiac Signs
A few changes also went into the Warriors’ Guild unit recruitment. Such as:
New hires are always 60 Bravery and 60 Faith to conform to the Tactics League Standard format.
Female-generated Squires will start with an Oak Staff instead of a Dagger since their Magick scales better with this starting weapon.
New hires always have the Serpentarius Zodiac Sign.
The hiring cost is now a flat 1,500 gil instead of being 1,000 gil + equipment price.
There may be additional changes to follow with the Warriors’ Guild in a later update during beta.
Additionally, the Zodiac Compatibility system is fully disabled. This change is to follow suit with the Serpentarius-neutral sign that is already used in Tactics League game formats to set expectations early that this system no longer plays a role in this mod. Units with different signs that you come across in the Campaign did not have their signs changed.
Errands Unit Customization
Ever deployed a unit on an Errand and maybe forgotten to remove gear from them beforehand? Or do you want to deck them out in the latest fashions while they are away? Or even change their job or abilities while unavailable? Now you can with this quality of life change! The picture below is a screenshot of being able to use the Outfitters on “unavailable” units deployed on an Errand.
Encounter Updates and Monster Improvements
One of the main goals of the Campaign is to set some expectations heading into Melee. Additionally, one area that I felt needed improvement was monsters and monster abilities. The following changes have been made to story and random encounters in general:
All non-unique units are set to 60 Bravery and 60 Faith, including monsters.
Monsters in story-based encounters and Midlight’s Deep now use Party Level +2 level scaling unless they were already assigned a higher value by default; this is to improve their combativeness while not hopefully making them overbearing for most players.
Many monster abilities have been improved, notably in their PWR (which dictates its base damage/healing or chance); you should see more non-attack-like monster abilities happen due to this change and monsters are a bit more challenging, especially in mid-to-end game encounters!
One of the bigger goals was to avoid changing encounters from their original design; besides the NPCs now having access to stronger gear and abilities due to the PvP Patch, the majority of fights are familiar as intended. However, with access to new stuff, some battles may require a bit more strategy and careful planning as some can be quite surprising to handle if you are not prepared, such as Argath’s battle at Fort Ziekden.
With Aerith joining the Tactics League roster in Standard, a change was made to Cloud’s Sal Ghidos event that now has her staying instead of fleeing and fighting alongside Cloud and friends. Aerith will now also join your party roster alongside Cloud after a successful finish now scaled with your party level instead of the original Level 1 join-in!
Tactics League-Exclusive Abilities and Equipment Balancing
Efforts were made to all Tactics League-exclusive abilities to now have a JP cost associated with them to ensure they are a part of the campaign progression and some equipment balancing was made to reduce getting your hands on powerful gear early game, such as moving the updated Knives, such as Blind Knife or Tiptaptwo later into Chapter 1 instead of being a part of the starting Chapter 1 inventory. Keep in mind, that with some changes, the “balancing act” isn’t perfect, but suitable for those wanting to go from start to finish with the PvP Patch in Campaign.
Conclusion
Though the PvP Patch was originally multiplayer-focused only, community feedback and requests stoked a change in heart with version 5 to ensure that those who wanted to enjoy this mod in a single-player setting could now from start to finish, with bigger hopes that you can become better accustomed to changes and more ready to enter the true endgame: PvP.
In the fourth article of the Version 5 Focused series, we go over one of the bigger aspects of what this newest update focuses on: major quality-of-life changes that improve and add various aspects to not only the PvP Patch but to Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions in general. There’s a lot to cover, so we will focus on the bigger highlights you want to know once the public beta is out. Just to note, though Campaign received several QoL changes, we will focus on that in a separate article later this week.
⚙ Customized Options
PvP Patch v5 will add a requested feature that is scarcely available in other FFT mods; the ability to change your team’s battle color via the new “Battle Palette” Option! Helmed by @Tzepish, this modifies the previous Cursor Repeat Rate setting to now allow you to change your generic unit’s color according to the various enemy factions you encounter in the campaign. You’ll be able to finally put some extra customization with your team in addition to being able to change your unit’s name via the Warriors’ Guild from a previous update.
Additionally, with Spell Quotes being reintegrated, the “Display Ability Names” setting is now named “Ability Names and Quotes” which disables or enables ability name display and Spell Quote pop-ups. This setting is enabled by default.
The “Display Earned EXP/JP” setting now affects the enemy team’s EXP/JP display as well as disabling or enabling the celebration they do when they gain a job level as a means to speed up battles.
💬Spell Quotes Integration
A feature disabled in the original War of the Lions, Spell Quotes have returned and are fully usable in both Campaign and Multiplayer modes. There are a few caveats with Spell Quotes returning to ensure it doesn’t impact live gameplay performance in general. Thank you to @Tzepish and @3lric for the translated text and optimizations!
Spell Quotes can occur 35% of the time
Invisible, chicken, or toad-status units or Mimes cannot quote
Some generic abilities, such as Steal and Speechcraft, do not have quotes set
Quotes, when triggered, are fairly short-lived so that they do not take away much time from Melee. Note that quotes do not consume a player’s timer while being displayed
☠ Status Effects
Version 5 introduces Curse status – a new negative effect that reduces the target’s damage dealt and healing received by 33% while affected denoted by a new status bubble. Curse status is a new form of “damage reduction” that affects mitigation-ignored sources, like Axes or Knight’s Mow Down, and lowers the HP restored from sources like Regen or Elixir. Additionally, Curse is a permanent debuff until removed via Esuna or Holy Water. Curse is accessible via the following abilities:
Curse (NEW Black Magicks) – variable status chance to single target Inflict: Curse, instant cast
Ama-no-Murakamo (Iaido) – 19% status chance to Inflict: Curse in an AoE
Unholy Darkness (Mystic Arts or Ebon Blade) – 19% status chance on hit
Accursed Umbra (Ashley’s Break Arts – Axe) – 100% status chance on hit
Float status increases your effective Height from 2 to 4; this change affects Longbow’s variable range by 1 depending on targeted tiles, allowing your bow and arrow to go further distances even if the map is not as favorable!
Reflect status now has a status bubble to show units affected and Veil additionally displays a yellow-invisible tint to improve status messaging. Poison and Vampire’s status bubbles have been removed to allow for Curse and Reflect, but these still have their respective status color.
⏰Updated Melee Mode Timers
As part of efforts to speed up gameplay and overall competition total time-per-game, Tactics League’s Standard ruleset will now use a 12-minute timer with a 20-second reset time instead of the previous 15-minute timer with a 15-second reset time. Though the initial time window is shortened per player, the 20 seconds on reset if you reach zero on the main timer gives a bit more flexibility with decision-making making and the extra 5 seconds surprisingly cuts down on those “nail-bitter” situations where you only have a few seconds to spare to commit to an action. I will be monitoring these timer changes as a whole going into the beta and am hopeful that it will help game time and reinforce the need to think ahead more off-turn.
Conclusion
With v5 being the final series of updates, Quality of Life changes are a bit focused on ensuring the final product is ready for the future and beyond. There are a handful of other lesser-important QoLs (but still impactful nonetheless!) that will be mentioned going into v5’s changelog.
Version 5 introduces a new and familiar mechanic that will affect Aerith (now playable in both campaign and Tactics PvP) and Cloud – the Limit Level System from the original Final Fantasy VII.
For anyone who has played Final Fantasy VII (if you haven’t by now what are you waiting for!) this system should feel and act quite at home while making some minor adjustments to fit for Final Fantasy Tactics and PvP balance and fairness. First, Let’s review how this system works and how it will impact both Aerith and Cloud in version 5.
Limit Level System Functionality
Cloud and Aerith both have “Limit” skillsets that correspond closely to their behavior in FFVII. This also means that Cloud (who we are already familiar with) had most of his abilities adjusted to mimic his FFVII counterparts in various ways where possible while ensuring there was still a physical and magick side of him that could be explored during teambuilding. We will go into more about that later when we go over the ability changes. For now, let’s go more into detail on how this system translates over to Tactics:
Cloud and Aerith’s “Limit” is initially unusable at battle start. Abilities unlock based on the percentage of HP damage taken from only enemy attacks. Steps were added to ensure that team damage cannot influence your Limit Level. This does mean that Cloud and Aerith are both more reliant on their secondary skillset and weapon attacks initially as well, but their “counter” options vastly grow stronger and stronger the higher their Limit Level reaches up to a maximum of 4.
Limit Levels are separated by: Level 1 = 20%, Level 2 = 30%, Level 3 = 40%, Level 4 = 60% HP damage taken
Limit is no longer blocked by Silence status.
Limit no longer costs MP (since there is an HP damage requirement).
Damaging Limits cannot target/hit allies.
Recoil damage and Poison status do not increase your Limit Level.
Mana Shield works with incrementing Limit Level as the HP to MP conversion is still considered HP damage.
Reaction abilities, such as Soulbind or Counter, can increase your Limit Level.
Once a Limit ability is used, your Limit Level will reset to zero as it did in FFVII; you will need to make choices on whether to “save up” or use lower levels (which are still of great benefit).
If a Limit ability has zero targets hit/affected, it will not reset your Limit Level.
If Cloud or Aerith is KO’ed, your Limit Level will be reduced by 1 (instead of being reset as it did in FFVII) so that you still have the option to utilize them as long as you were at least Limit Level 2.
Cloud – Limit Abilities
As mentioned earlier, Cloud’s Limit abilities are much closer to their FFVII counterparts instead of oddly being only MA-based abilities like they were in the original FFT. With the Soldier job having innate Doublehand, this plays a bigger role and Cloud can reach further damage potential when speccing him for physical damage. For those that enjoyed a magick-based Cloud, you will find some of his abilities a bit more limited than they were in v4, but more lethal due to the buffs pertaining to Limit Level. Let’s go over his reworked skillset:
Braver (Lv. 1)
An “attack-like” ability that deals 10% more physical damage with your [weapon] to one target, can now Cast or Inflict: [weapon], evadable, and can critically strike. This ability will strike twice if dual-wielding.
Cross Slash (Lv. 1)
Deals cross-shape AoE physical damage based on your [weapon] + 1 PWR, 25% chance to Inflict: Stop, can critically strike.
Blade Beam (Lv. 2)
Deals 3-range conal AoE physical damage based on your [weapon], uses Abyssal Blade row scaling (but does not recoil), and can critically strike.
Climhazzard (Lv. 2)
Deals 70% of the target’s max. HP in single target damage, ignoring mitigation. This ability no longer triggers Magick Counter.
Meteorain (Lv. 3)
Now 18 PWR instead of 14 and is still AoE magic damage (with the same range/vert.).
Finishing Touch (Lv. 3)
Inflicts all of: KO, Stone, and Stop (in that order) instead of randomly one of the three, and is still single target.
Omnislash (Lv. 4)
An “attack-like” ability that strikes with your [weapon] at 75% of its normal damage, but Omnislash now hits 5 times randomly within the AoE (and no longer hits allies). Can now Cast or Inflict: [weapon] and can critically strike. This ability will strike 10 times if dual-wielding.
Cherry Blossom (Lv. 4)
Now 20 PWR instead of 16 and has a 25% chance to Inflict: Poison, Immobilize, or Blind per target hit (still tri-elemental).
As you have probably noticed, most Limit abilities are now influenced by your equipped weapon this time around (as most Limit abilities were enhanced “Attack” in FFVII) and Doublehand, Attack Boost, and even Brawler, affect them too so there is a plethora of ways to build Cloud and ultimately, he is even more lethal than in v4, albeit he will now need to be “pushed to his limit.”
Aerith – Limit Abilities
As Aerith is a support-type unique character, most of her skillset is centered around supporting her allies to victory, but don’t sleep on her abilities as they can quickly turn the tides of battle!
Healing Wind (Lv. 1)
Restores HP to allies in an Iaido ranged-AoE. Heals undead instead of damaging them.
Seal Evil (Lv. 1)
3 range, single target, 100% Inflicts: Silence and Stop.
Breath of the Earth (Lv. 2)
Iaido-ranged, removes all negative effects from allies.
Fury Brand (Lv. 2)
Iaido-ranged, increases allies’ Power and Magick by 2.
Planet Protector (Lv. 3)
Single ally, Bestows: Protect, Shell, and Veil.
Pulse of Life (Lv. 3)
Iaido-ranged, ally revive at % = PA + 70. Restores 50% HP on success per target.
Great Gospel (Lv. 4)
Iaido-ranged, fully restores HP and MP, and Bestows: Protect, Shell to allies.
Though the majority of Aerith’s skillset is support-based, her stats on her Ancient job allow her to dive into either physical or magick abilities or attacks, as well as having innate Halves: All Elements, so not only is she tanky-capable, but also offensive too!
With these changes, I am hoping not only for further creativity especially for Cloud, but also your opponent will need to be cautious about how they play against either Cloud or Aerith as pushing their Limit at the wrong time could be disastrous for them!
