It’s almost time for the PvP Patch v5 Beta. That said, there is some news to share regarding map pool changes coming to Standard and map-specific ones for the new 4v4 All-Stars format debuting on Tuesday, March 18th. This information is coming out ahead of time so there’s one less headache or news to follow with the plethora of changes coming in version 5. Let’s first talk about small map changes coming to Standard.
Standard: Oratory is out – Roof is in
The small map, Lionel Castle Oratory is being removed entirely from the map pool for this iteration and is being replaced by Riovannes Castle Roof as a new small map. Roof’s spawning is still close-quartered being separated by a 5-tile difference for both Host and Guest, however, Roof improves on aspects such as neutral spawning and height, as well as being fairly symmetrical, so neither player has an advantage initially.
Riovannes Castle Roof will be updated into Tavernmaster and a part of the ruleset changes on day 1 of the Version 5 Beta.
Riovannes Castle Roof
All-Stars Format Maps
With All-Stars being 4v4, the current v4 map pool was analyzed to determine what maps wouldn’t feel good to play on with a smaller team size. This led to adding two small maps specifically for All-Stars and not a part of Standard: Monastery Vaults – Level 1, as it is small enough for fast engagement time, but there are several quirks about the map, especially its underpasses and Limberry Castle Undercroft, with its neutral spawning, tight-quartered arena making for frantic battles likely on turn 1.
With All-Stars being 4v4, deployment positioning is more vital than ever before.
The All-Stars map pool will only feature these maps in its rotation:
Zeirchele Falls, Mullonde Cathedral Nave, The Yuguewood, Araguay Woods, Golgollada Gallows, and Mandalia Plain
Monastery Vaults – Level 1 Spawning
Limberry Castle Undercroft – Spawning
New small maps to play, a bit more neutral balancing for small maps in Standard, and tailored maps for All-Stars are all a part of making the version 5 experience a fun and successful one for the future ahead.
During the Version 5 Exhibition, Guitarmanager and Rumer showcased a brand new supported format joining Tactics League during the v5 beta launch: All-Stars, a new competitive 4v4 experience.
All-Stars is a rendition and an upgrade of an older format from back in Tactics League’s earlier days – Uniques Premade – where the roster was fully comprised of unique characters with no generics, but was limited to “play how it comes.” This is coming back but it will also combine the battle-tested and open format of Standard, allowing players to fully customize a battle party of heroes and villains across the Zodiac Brave Story. This will sunset the Generics Premade format and All-Stars will take its place.
Let’s briefly go over the all-star cast joining this uniques only format.
A Powerful Cast at Your Disposal
The All-Stars format will house 28 unique characters from the campaign and Tactics League exclusives. If you have played version 4 Standard, you will be familiar with the first three rows of units, of course with new additions: Aerith, Ashley, Elidibus, and a returning fan-favorite, Balthier, joining the Standard roster in v5. Now let’s take a look at who is joining the cast specifically for All-Stars and a brief description of what they can do each:
Orlandeau (Sword Saint)
Orlandeau received some base stat adjustments to bring him more in line for both the campaign and All-Stars.
Innate: Swordplay usable with Katanas, Ninja Blades, Swords, Knight’s Swords, and Fell Swords
Replaced the Astrology skillset (which only housed Celestial Stasis) with the original Arithmeticks skillset. Arithmeticks can now be Silenced or Reflected unlike in the original game.
CT and Height only targeting parameters
[White Magicks] Cure
[Black Magicks] Fire, Thunder, Blizzard, Scathe
[Time Magicks] Gravity, Reflect
[Mystic Arts] Umbra
Zalbaag (Ark Knight)
Innate: Lifefont and Manafont
Blade of Ruin is now all instant cast, still requires a sword-type weapon, abilities cost 40 MP each, and is faithless. Because of changes in v5 for damaging Arts of War’s Rend Stat abilities, Blade of Ruin will also deal damage on stat reduction success.
Boco (Chocobo)
Innate: Counter, Swim
As a chocobo, players can mount Boco to position faster or take advantage of rider immunities!
Isilud (Nightblade)
Innate: Concentration
Renamed his skillset to Dark Arts (from Arts of War), which combines various abilities from Arts of War and Darkness. While Nightblade, also adds the Jump command as a tertiary skillset:
[Arts of War] Bulwark, Rend MP, Rend Speed, Rend Power, Rend Magick
Sword Spirit skillset functions entirely like Samurai’s Iaido. While Ark Knight, also adds the Vampire command as a tertiary skillset (which only has Vampire ability, 25% chance to Inflict: Vampire)
Celia (Assassin)
Innate: Death Strike, Dual Wield, Immune: KO, Stone, Chicken, Toad
Equip: Knives and Ninja Blades (to showcase the difference in gear with Lettie)
Subdual Arts was reworked to make room for other abilities and is now:
Note: To avoid complications with the campaign, this sprite is using the “Squire” version of Argath, and though Fundaments skillset shows up in the menus, in battle he has Fell Sword instead.
4v4 Competitive Battles
Besides using unique-only characters in All-Stars, this format also is specific to a 4v4 experience, intending to have faster-paced games, with thrills and chaos to be had. All gear, jobs, and abilities are unlocked and follow the basics and limitations of the Standard format so jumping from one format to another should be fairly easy.
All-Stars is a fully supported competitive mode and will become a part of the competition rotation for sanctioned events in the future!
All-Stars format will be available on March 18th during the Version 5 Public Beta and will require a save data update, included with the v5 patch file.
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!
As we inch closer every passing day to the March 18th version 5 public beta, this article covers what you need to know about new and updated equipment coming soon to your inventory.
New Hair Adornments – Circlet and Extension
Two new hair adornments will become a part of the Tactics League itemization ecosystem in version 5: Circlet and Extension. All jobs will be able to use these new hair accessories, which are expected to become essential in future teambuilding due to previous efforts to reduce the genderization of both male and female equipment. Let’s go over what these items do by simply checking their Help menus:
Circlet
With Circlet using the headgear slot, this provides a unique way to get Initial: Protect, Shell coverage with permanent Regen to boot. +100 HP and MP aren’t anything to scoff at either.
Extension
Extension is part of new ways to enhance your critical strike chance on applicable abilities and normal attacks. Stackable critical chance is a new way to build, albeit it is limited in scope, but with Extension, Death Strike support ability, and the base 10% critical chance netting a total of 80% critical chance, someone is going to feel pain soon enough. Both hair adornments will be limited in Standard.
New Weapons and Shield – Earthbreaker, Excalipoor, and Adamantoise Shield
Version 5 introduces a new axe, Earthbreaker, a new, but familiar one-handed sword, Excalipoor, and a new shield. Let’s look at what these weapons and shield can do.
Earthbreaker
The Earthbreaker is a two-handed axe that is Earth elemental, scales with Magick instead of the typical Power other axes use, and its goal: up your critical damage by 10% while slotted. Geomancers and Knights will find great enjoyment in crushing their enemies with this new weapon. This item is capped at three in Standard.
Excalipoor
An artifact you can acquire in the campaign (but originally not an actual weapon), Excalipoor is the second weapon that will be newly joining the Tactics League inventory and formats. This sword is essentially a “low bravery attack” where its damage is based on how low you can go with your Bravery, but be careful to not get chickened! This item is limited in Standard.
Adamantoise Shield
The Adamantoise Shield is a limited new Shield that is a part of the “damage reduction” additions in version 5, such as Curse status and Resilience. This shield reduces all incoming damage taken by 10% but because it is so heavy, you’ll start Initially: Slow at first (gotta figure out the best way to hold it you know?). 10% automatic damage reduction is quite noticeable once you factor in stuff like basic mitigation in Protect and Shell or even damaging Rend Stat abilities in Arts of War now as these are ways to empower players with how to check “high-end” damage or add another playstyle to the vast varieties of the sandbox.
Adamantoise Shield does not add any Shield Evasion to your stats so keep in mind that you will need to rely on your weapon’s Block or slot an accessory that ups your evasiveness.
New Accessories – Pearl Rouge and Garment Ring
Pearl Rouge
It’s a bummer that in the original game, there was only one accessory classified as Lip Rouge, and that was Agrias’s Tynar Rouge you bought for her birthday. With version 5, a new one is being introduced and it somehow made its way from the otherworldly land of Treno to Ivalice.
Pearl Rouge is notably a nice addition on caster jobs that want Silence protection, but don’t also scoff at the multiple bonuses this accessory grants, and this item synergies well with Caladbolg and Sage’s Waterja or Black Mage’s Blizzard series of spells. Pearl Rouge is a limited item in Standard.
Garment Ring
Showcased in PvP Patch v5 Focused: Dragon Tech, Blue Magicks, and Perform, the Garment Ring is a limited accessory that enables the quaternary action command, Perform. Perform combines both the entirety of Bardsong and Dance abilities all in one, allowing any gender to recite poetry or show off their best dance moves. Keep in mind, that for the best results for any ability, you will want to be either a Bard, Dancer, or slot Performing Arts as a support ability to increase your potency or hit chance of abilities.
Changes to Existing Equipment
With Curse status being introduced and Vampire status being accessible, some existing gear received updates to gain immunity against these statuses. Note that it is purposeful that Curse specifically doesn’t have a ton of gear immunity coverage, but the Ward reaction grants it to ensure equipment doesn’t always counter its time of need.
Additionally, there are a few more critical chance sources to enable “crit builds.” Let’s dive into the more important changes coming below:
Knives
Have been reverted to allow for dual-wielding.
Removed doublehand capability.
Increased WP standardization from 13 to 16 for all status-inflicting knives.
Status Knives now are set to 50% infliction chance down from 100%.
Note that because of these changes and Ninja re-gaining Knives, there are more ways to build for customization, and Chantage – dual knives are possible.
Magick Guns – Decreased WP from 22 to 20 to make up for the buffs to their applicable Black Magicks.
Ninja Blades
Increased WP standardization from 16 to 18 to maintain competitiveness versus knives on Ninja.
Artemis Bow (bow)
Increases your critical strike chance by 10%.
Knightslayer (crossbow)
Now ignores the target’s damage mitigation.
Decreased WP from 22 to 17 due to this change.
Murasame (katana)
Heals allies on attacks and no longer deals damage.
Adds +1 Power and +1 Speed.
Osafune (katana)
Absorbs MP instead of HP damage with normal attacks.
Save the Queen (knight’s sword)
Holy Elemental alongside Durandal.
Gokuu Pole (pole, limited item)
Reverted to deal “no damage” with attacks and is no longer evadable to ensure it is a viable tool for Crown Scepter builds/teams or Marach, or as a means to counter faith-based casters.
Stardust Rod (rod, limited item)
Now Casts: Graviga instead of Gravity.
Zeus Mace (staff, limited item)
Now forced two-handed.
Now grants +3 Power and Magick instead of +2 Power and +1 Magick.
Onion Sword (sword)
Onion Sword is now doublehandable, but not dual-wieldable.
Standardized Block from 15 to 10.
Ras Algethi (returning, gun, limited item)
Increased WP from 12 to 15.
Increases your critical strike chance by 10%.
Dreamwaker (returning and reworked, staff, limited item)
Removed +4 Magick from the original version.
12 WP and 8 Block.
Uses the Sky Mantra calculation to Remove: Sleep on target and deal 70% max. HP damage if the target was sleeping. Note that this weapon deals no normal attack damage, so there isn’t “extra” damage from this ability cast.
Samite Coat
Removed +1 Magick.
Increased +HP from 120 to 140.
Steadfast Ring
Added +1 Speed due to its previous shortened Veil duration.
Diamond Bracelet
Removed Slow immunity.
Grants +1 Power, Magick, and Speed.
Spiked Boots
Removed +1 Move and Power. Now adds +4 Jump.
Germinas Boots
Grants +1 Move and +2 Jump (instead of +1 Jump) in addition to its 8% Accessory Evasion.
Curse-immune equipment:
Deathbringer (fell Sword)
Ama-no-Murakamo (katana)
Nagnarok (sword)
Jujitsu Gi (clothing)
Cachusha and Barette (hair adornments, note that Ribbon specifically does not have immunity)
Vampire-immune equipment:
Japa Mala (accessory, re-added)
Vampire Cape (accessory)
Conclusion
With new ways to build critical chance, customize gear-based Protect/Shell coverage, ways to build for Jump stat for Dragon Tech’s Jump, and many more, these equipment changes give a bit more ways to play in the sandbox that has been in years in the making. These new and changed equipment additions will be in your hands on March 18th!
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!
