Category Updates

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.

The fifth and final iteration of the Tactics League PvP Patch will soon enter public beta, and with it comes a massive amount of new updates, changes, and quality of life for what will be the end of the series of updates.

In the first Focused article, we will explore a significant change coming with version 5: the Party Roster Expansion (which utilizes the previous 4 reserved Guest slots for the story) allowing for four additional unique characters to join the Standard and Rendezvous roster! Let’s go more into an overview of what makes each of these units special and how you will be able to wield them each in competitive PvP.

Ashley Riot (from Vagrant Story)

One of the more talked about characters from different (but similar) video game universes in the Tactics League Discord, Ashley will finally make his debut in version 5. As a Riskbreaker, you will utilize his Break Arts to dispatch highly damaging situations at the cost of your HP (similarly to how Dark Knight’s Abyssal Blade and Unholy Sacrifice work).

Each weapon has an associated Break Art that the Riskbreaker job can equip, and thankfully, Ashley joins the fight with innate Reequip and a plethora of accessible weapons to make changes on the fly for the battles ahead. Ashley can equip: Swords, Knight’s Swords, Fell Swords, Crossbows, Staves, Flails, Axes, Knives, Polearms, Shields, Robes, Clothing, and Hats.

If you are familiar with Vagrant Story, Ashley’s Break Arts should feel at home. Abilities like Vile Scar (Swords), Shadoweave (Knives), and Advent Sign (Knight’s Swords) are at your disposal but you will need to carefully juggle Ashley’s HP as each one taxes him depending on their overall power. There are 11 Break Arts to use with them being weapon-specific, so building into him requires consideration as well. The Break Arts skillset includes some of the Fundaments abilities from Squire, such as Focus, Stone, Salve, and Throw Dagger, but Frenzy and Taunt are excluded.

Scythe Wind (requires Polearm) – Deals devastating conal Wind damage (and can even mix with your weapon’s element) in the area for 60% of your max. HP.

A shout-out to Valkirst from FFHacktics for the awesome-looking sprite and portrait, Tactics style!

Aerith Gainsborough (from the Cloud event in Final Fantasy Tactics and Final Fantasy VII)

The lovely flower girl you come across during the event sequences with Cloud in the story is finally becoming a fully playable character in the PvP Patch. She joins the roster not only as a support character but also with a unique Quality of Life change coming that not only affects Aerith but also Cloud: the Limit Level System.

Without going off track entirely for this article, essentially Aerith and Cloud’s skillset behavior closely resembles the one in FFVII, taking enemy damage results in increased Limit Level, unlocking stronger abilities as you continue to do so, which can change the tides of battle quickly. We will dive more into that and Cloud’s changes in a specific article, but for now, note that that change is coming and I carefully wanted to make sure it is as rewarding as it is thoughtful and fun tactfully.

Now let’s take a closer look at our lovely lady who has the power to convene with the planet itself:

Aerith’s job, Ancient, grants her Innate: Halves: All Elements, and as you can see from her stat sheet, she can be theory-crafted in various ways fairly easily. Her Limit abilities closely resemble that of the Final Fantasy VII (not the remake versions) ones giving her an array of commands to aid her team to victory. These abilities require incoming enemy HP damage (no team cheesing sorry :p) to gain access to them and Limit is initially locked until you have taken at least 20% for Level 1. Let’s take a look at a few:

Fury Brand (Limit Level 2 – Take 30% HP Damage or more to unlock)

Planet Protector (Limit Level 3 – Take 40% HP Damage or more to unlock)

As mentioned earlier, we will dive directly into the Limit Level System – QoL update in its separate article, including changes to Cloud, coming with PvP Patch v5.

Elidibus, Serpentarius Lucavi (secret boss from Midlight’s Deep)

Though this probably ruined the secret (sorry if it did!), Elidibus is joining the Tactics League roster as the second monster alongside Construct 8. As a boss and Lucavi, I wanted to make sure he stood out on his own, especially against the coveted Construct 8 to not only make him a threat but to fit the title of “secret boss.” If you are familiar with Elidibus, then you will be quite familiar with him in this rendition, balanced for PvP playability but he is nothing to scoff at. Let’s take a closer look:

As a monster, you cannot equip or change his job or abilities, but he is loaded with innate abilities to offset these limits. Elidibus’s innate abilities are Bonecrusher, Instant Cast, Manafont, and Dexterity. Yes, he does have Instant Cast which makes all abilities in his kit be, well, immediate! He also has an array of status and elemental innates or immunities, listed in the second picture.

The Dark skillset is quite familiar if you have experienced against it before, bringing about devastating Toad and Poison status in Poisonous Frog, a lowered PWR version of Zodiark (which also cannot be uniquely mimicked for balance purposes), a hard-hitting 2-range attack in Snakecharm, and the life-ending Vengeance to net killing blows based on your damage taken.

Mentioning the MP costs in his skillset, you will need to carefully play around his limited MP pool as though he has Manafont, he will only recover so much per move so you will need to build in proportion to how effective you want Elidibus to be.

I can’t wait to see some crafty plays and AoE annihilation once the v5 Beta starts!

The Leading Man Permanently Returns, Balthier (from Final Fantasy Tactics: the War of the Lions and Final Fantasy XII)

Oh man, Balthier has had the most ins and outs in the Tactics League roster than any other character in history. With the struggles between the original Barrage, trying to find ways to adjust his stat spread and ultimately having low playability, to giving up his spot for another unique, Balthier has once stolen the show and then not so much after. But with version 5, I have taken the time to hone in on various feedback and pain points that players have had with him in the past and he can finally return to competitive play as the Sky Pirate we all love. And he is still menacing as ever (and don’t sleep on him)!

Balthier doesn’t return with Safeguard innately like he originally had, but rather, he now has Mug: dealing unarmed damage with successful Steal Equipment abilities. With Thief’s Gloves and even his initial or increased Bravery, not only can you rob someone of their precious gear, but they take a hefty amount of damage while doing so (and it can crit too)!

First, let’s address one of his signature issues from the past: Barrage. It is finally back, but it is now: a 2-hit instead of a 4-hit, it costs 60 MP as a means to check it directly, it is evadable (based on the weapon type), and it hits for 60% of the total power a normal attack would have done. Now don’t let that fool you, with the right setups and plays, Barrage can still cripple and down targets, especially with weapons having an initial 50% chance to activate their ability cast and even more so when you add the reworked Chantage (100% chance instead).

Second, the FFXII Quickenings that were added to replace Barrage, Leg Shot, Arm Shot, and Seal Evil in version 3 are coming back for version 5 too. With it, an array of options you can build Balthier for. Slotting Brawler lets Elements of Treachery and Fires of War damage propel to greater heights. But you can also build Balthier as a magic-spec with a reworked Tides of Fate and crush the opposition with conal water damage.

Third, the Plunder abilities have been replaced by the Steal Equipment ones (Thief’s versions) to make room for many new abilities that you will come across in later articles. With recent updates to Steal and as a “master thief” these mesh well with Balthier as a whole and allow him to play his job rightfully so.

I am glad he is finally able to come back, especially in the final series of updates, and I cannot wait to see the shenanigans he can do in the hands of our best players!

Conclusion

The Party Roster Expansion opens up new and exciting leaders to your future version 5 teams. This is just the beginning of what is in store for the ending series of updates. There is even more to explore, but we will save that for a future article. Stay tuned for more version 5 news to come!

A new competitive season, Academy, Sanctioned Events, and a new game update to coincide with today’s Season 2 launch, and this update focuses on some improvements and fixes after feedback and requests from players.

To download this update, head over to Downloads.

Bug Fixes

• Protect/Defense Boost – Set the damage reduction percentage from 34 to 33% resulting in less physical damage loss once these mitigation values are applied as intended
  When doing calculator math side-by-side some damage values appear lower than in-game but usually it’s a marginal 1-3 point difference due to rounding. However, for most physical attacks/abilities this resulted in abnormal damage loss (like 20-40+) causing select physical damage to deal even less damage than intended (such as Holy Sword, Darkness, and weapon attacks).Shell/Arcane Defense was unaffected. Thank you for bringing this to my attention @WngMan.

Text Updates

• Removed the “%” from calcs on Steal Equipment abilities as it is purely SP + PWR chance and not a percentage of your SP
• Updated Bad Breath’s chance from 19 to 25% per each status rolled
• Updated Crushing Blow’s Stop infliction chance from 19 to 25% (erroneously reported before but uses the Holy Sword 100% into 25% separate status infliction)
• Updated Purification’s Help removal that it includes Oil (this was missing from a past changelog)
• Updated Nether Mantra’s calcs
• Updated Take Aim’s Help and calls

Jobs

• Cleric/Alma
  • Added Rods as available equipment
    Along with the White Mage change, as a “White Mage” style job, Alma too now has access to Rods on her main job.
    
• White Mage
  • Added Rods as available equipment
    At request, White Mages have access to Rods which notably means they can build towards Faith away from Luminous Robe and can reliably cast at Atheist via Crown Scepter.
    
• Monk
  • Increased Move from 3 to 4
  • Decreased Shockwave’s Range from 6 to 5 to compensate for the trade-off
    It was hard to justify increasing Monk’s Move when they have access to a 6-range ability. So after testing a means to give them more mobility, the goal was to take 1 Range for 1 Move which ultimately makes playing Melee-Monk more playable and still allows for ranging with Shockwave albeit having to be a tad closer than before.

Action Abilities

• Nether Mantra (Marach)
  • Increased the PWR of all abilities from 0 to 2
  • Abilities can no longer target Marach
    Though Marach’s abilities have a 2 – 5 hit window, with the average Faith being 60, his abilities still struggle to deal good mitigated damage in various cases. I am returning some PWR to them to help damage output.
    
• Sky Mantra (Rapha)
  • Abilities can no longer target Rapha
  • Heaven’s Wrath – Decreased maxHP damage from 50 to 40%
    Since this ability strips a target of vital defensive buffs and does a hefty amount of damage, it will deal slightly less, especially for the window of opportunity it creates with follow-up damage.
    
• Black Magicks
  • Death – Decreased Tick from 5 to 4
    With this ability having a base low accuracy, the Speed can be slightly faster and this also aids undead teams that may rely on it as an on-demand revive.
    
  • Flare – No longer evadable (but still reflectable)
    Flare is being treated in a similar fashion as Holy/Unholy Darkness where it can no longer be evaded but is equally deflectable.
    
• Iaido
  • Chirijiraden – Decreased PWR from 18 to 17 (approx. 20 less damage)
    PWR decreased to bring it slightly closer to Muramasa at 15 PWR while still retaining the “most-powerful” Iaido cast.

Equipment – Weapons

• Knight’s Swords
  • Caladbolg – This item grants +1 MA and +1 SP instead of +1 PA/MA
    The Speed addition at the cost of PA is to better serve as a new option for Knights to build into Speed and push towards elemental damage.

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

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

Bug Fixes

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

Text Updates

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

Jobs

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

Action Abilities

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

R/S/M Abilities

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

Equipment – Weapons

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

Spanning almost 5 months, the Tactics League’s fourth version of the PvP Patch, which changes and updates the game for the competitive Melee and Rendezvous environment, has finally reached its official launch today and is the last major update for the 2024 year. Version 4 was by far the biggest patchwork put into our mod and it opens up many new avenues of play, creativity, and challenges for the competitive scene. Let’s review the last of the changes coming with this update.

If you are curious about ALL of the changes that have gone into version 4, make sure to read up on the https://tacticsleague.com/ruleset/pvp-patch-changelog/ as this contains all changes from the original War of the Lions to the updates with the PvP Patch.

To download the all-in-one package that includes the PPF file and save data, please visit Downloads. To learn more about how to apply the PPF patch, visit Tutorials.

Table of Contents

• PvP Patch v4.0 Official Changelog
  • Bug Fixes
  • Jobs
  • Abilities
  • R/S/M Abilities
  • Weapons
  • Gear
  • Quality of Life
• Competitive Standard v5.0
• Generics Premade v5.0
• PvP Patch-Changelog (opens in a new tab)

PvP Patch v4.0 Official Changelog

Bug Fixes

• “KO” status will now properly display in the preview when using Phoenix Down to revive a target
• Defending perma-status has been resolved on Mime (the sprite was previously in perma-defending state via Bulwark, though they were not currently affected by Defending status)

Jobs

• Dragonkin/Reis
  • Added Clothing as available equipment
    The Dragonkin job has limited equipment due to the volume of stats Reis has while on her original job. However, this is being expanded a bit instead of just having only Minerva Bustier as an armor option.
    
• Netherseer/Marach
  • Removed Staves from equipment
  • Added Rods, Knives, and Ninja Blades as available equipment
  • Added Death Strike innately
    
• Skyseer/Rapha
  • Removed Books from equipment
  • Added Katanas, Rods, and Knives as available equipment
  • Increased Skyseer PAM from 100 to 130% (+3 PA)
  • Added +1 Move and Jump
  • Added Death Strike innately
    These changes to Marach and Rapha is to entice them to use their primary job more than to just job change them. Because there is flexibility in their skillsets, the idea is to delve more into their Assassin archetype and provide more options for build variety while using their main job. Note that Rapha’s PA increase is solely based on Skyseer and the bonus does not transition to other jobs.
    
• Mime
  • Decreased HPM from 140 to 125% (approx. -43 HP)
  • Mimes can no longer mimic/cast MP-costing abilities for free and are subject to MP costs (will flag “❌MP” if insufficient)
  • Mimicked Throw or Items (if undead) now respects the target’s Sticky Fingers (removed Mime bypass check)
    The first HP reduction towards Mime’s bulk was small scale but also did not reach the goal at reducing their total bulkiness, so an additional reduction was made to ensure they are a bit easier to kill while still retaining some bulk necessary for robes.
    
    The removal of some of these vanilla functions is to balance some of Mime’s “free actions” and have them be more in-line like the other generic jobs instead of getting freebies just because it is a Mime.
    
• Onion Knight
  • Increased Move from 4 to 5
    Looking in regard to the mobility of Mime and as a special job, Onion Knights will have increased Move to give them the ability to get into a fight quickly if melee, or faster engagement time if ranged.

Abilities

• Holy Magicks (Alma)
  • Aegis – Increased Tick from 2 to 3
    This slowdown on Aegis is to reduce the spamming potential of this ability to provide a bit more window of countering its charging. With Swiftness, it can still be cast quickly around 1-2 turns, but cast times in the current CT flow can cause Aegis to cast a little slower than it did before.
    
• Dragon (Reis)
  • Holy Breath:
    • Reverted calculation from [MA * 14] to [(MA + 14) / 2 * MA]
    • Changed from Linear AoE (line) to 1-tile “t-shaped” AoE
    • This ability can hit 1 – 5 times randomly within the AoE (and is still magic evadable)
    • Changes are ultimately similar to Omnislash’s behavior except the number of hits is entirely random and function closer to the vanilla version of Holy Breath
      When the Breaths were changed to function the same way, Holy Breath ultimately lost its uniqueness as a skill. These changes brings back some of the randomness of how it originally operated but within a tighter AoE and 1 cast could only hit 1 time upwards to 5 hits.
      
• Spellblade (Beowulf)
  • Zombie – Increased PWR from 100 to 130
  • Berserk – Increased PWR from 120 to 130
  • Confuse – Increased PWR from 130 to 155
  • Disable – Decreased PWR from 185 to 145
  • Break – Decreased PWR from 120 to 110
  • After re-assessing Spellblade, some abilities received a bump in PWR to be over the 50% hit chance without Faith status and Disable and Break received reductions to fall in-line better with the strengths of these statuses.
    
• Magicks (Valmafra)
  • Added 3 new faithless abilities previously exclusive to monsters: Thunder Anima, Water Anima, and Wind Anima.
  • Important notes about Anima abilities:
    • Each ability is 14 PWR and calculates using [MA * 14]
    • 4 Range, single-target
    • No MP cost, unevadable, can trigger Magick Counter, direct line of sight, and can be cast while silenced
  • Thunder Anima – Lightning magic damage with a 19% chance to Inflict: Blind
  • Water Anima – Water magic damage with a 19% chance to Inflict: Doom
  • Wind Anima – Wind magic damage with a 19% chance to Inflict: Confuse
  • Removed Firaga, Blizzaga, Thundaga
  • Added Death (Black Magicks), Empowerment, and Invigoration (Mystic Arts)
  • Rearranged instant-casting abilities to the top of the Magicks skillset
    Why were the anima abilities added? Based on feedback one of Valmafra’s biggest drawbacks is that her entire skillset is faith-based, and all have charge time excluding Gravity. Diving more into the Elementalist side of things, these new Anima abilities were added to give Val more flexibility with building her as you can purely build for MA now and disregard faith entirely if you choose to OR continue to build more into faith for devastating AoE potential.
    
    The Firaga/Blizzaga/Thundaga removal is because these abilities are ultimately redundant in scope especially with the changes to Boost/Halve gear.
    
• Aim
  • Take Aim:
    • This ability now increases the bonus damage dealt by 33% instead of 5 PWR. This is initially slightly less damage (approx. 1-2% less), but now scales higher with damage modifiers
    • Doublehand now works with Take Aim
      The addition of Doublehand now means that Take Aim is as close to vanilla’s Aim+ as possible, while the 33% bonus instead of 5 PWR makes it fairer, easier to calculate, and ramps up better when you have Attack Boost/Vehemence/Doublehand.
      
• Black Magicks
  • Fire/Blizzard/Thunder – Increased PWR from 15 to 18
    After re-assessing their PWR and Cure’s recent bump, these abilities could use a bit extra damage especially for instant-cast builds.
    
  • Death:
    • Reverted this ability (and formula) to its vanilla version, dealing maxHP damage if successful causing KO infliction through HP loss instead of attempting to just inflict KO status
    • Note: this ability still respects KO immunity and will “zero out” if so
    • Due to this reversion, Death can now fully heal living undead units
    • Additionally, added a 25% maxHP revive only when targeting undead units as a unique means to revive them before their counter reaches zero (no other ability can revive undead)
    • Increased MP cost from 24 to 34
    • Added text to the Help menu stating this ability can revive undead
      Based on feedback, cursed gear’s biggest drawback was that utilizing undead minions meant you only had the 50% (now 60%) means of waiting for the 2-tick countdown for them to come back to life. Now, players have an option to bring them back on demand, while still needing to do some specific team-building to cater to their weaknesses. As always – a legend, thank you @Tzepish.
      
• Mystic Arts
  • Induration (stone) – Increased Tick from 3 to 4
    Tick increased slightly since stone infliction yields a technical KO.
    
• Steal
  • Increased the Vert of all Steal Equipment abilities and Steal HP from 1 to 2
    Since Steal requires you to be point-blank, the verticality of these abilities are being increased so there’s a bit more flexibility to land the art of thievery.
    
• Summon
  • Golem – Increased Tick from 4 to 5
    Tick increased to reduce the potential spamming of this ability.
    
• Iaido
  • All Iaido abilities now have a hardcoded 33% break chance instead of being based on the Katana’s WP
    This nerf to Iaido is create a bit more room for breakage as it is now shifted into a ⅓ chance vs. ¼.
    
• Bardsong and Dance
  • Decreased the PWR of all abilities, except the HP/MP ones, by 10 to offset the 20% increase in Performing Arts. This changes the following:
    • Rousing Melody – from 50 to 40
    • Battle Chant/Magickal Refrain – from 60 to 50
    • Nameless Song – from 70 to 60
    • Finale – from 34 to 24
    • Slow Dance – from 50 to 40
    • Polka/Heathen Frolic – from 70 to 60
    • Forbidden Dance – from 70 to 60
    • Last Waltz – from 34 to 24
      The adjustment in PWR is to reinforce needing Performing Arts on non-Bard/Dancer though some abilities are still fairly performant even with the PWR reduction.
      
  • Nameless Song – Increased Tick from 5 to 6
    This increase in cast time is so that this ability fires slower, and reinforces Rousing Melody’s place in terms of the premier Haste bardsong.

Reaction/Support/Movement Abilities

• Monkey Grip – Added a warning to Monkey Grip’s help menu that it does not work with Reequip (this may be addressed in a future incremental and requires further discovery of the optimize equipment code)
  
• Counter Throw – This reaction now triggers from HP Loss instead of physical attack sources
  This reaction now activates on all HP damage taken so you can get a bit more value out of slotting it. Keep in mind that while Throw Dagger is random, it does scale with Brawler/Attack Boost/Vehemence.
  
• Doublehand – Increased the Forced Two-Handed bonus from 40 to 43%
  This small buff is to aid the rounding behind the math when using this ability so its value feels more true than the previous version.
  
• Performing Arts – Increased the chance this ability improves with Bardsong/Dance abilities from 10 to 20%
  This change ultimately keeps the ability hit chance the same as they were in v4.4B except the base PWR of Bardsong/Dance has been lowered to compensate and further enforce this ability or Bard/Dancer to have the best effectiveness.
  
• Nature’s Wrath – This reaction now additionally also triggers on any physical or magic ability that is Fire, Lightning, Ice, Wind, Water, or Earth where it previously only either triggered on physical attacks or Geomancy. This is flagged for the following abilities:
  • • Dragon – Breath attacks except Holy Breath
    • Nether Mantra – All except Corporeal Void
    • Limit – Cherry Blossom
    • Huntcraft – Earthsplitter
    • Magicks – Thunder Anima, Water Anima, Wind Anima
    • Black Magicks – Fire – Firaja, Blizzard – Blizzaja, Thunder – Thundaja
    • Summon – Ifrit, Ramuh, Shiva, Titan, Salamander, Leviathan
    • Ja-Magicks – Aeroja, Waterja, Quake
      This buff to Nature’s Wrath is to further expand this reaction as a viable choice with it now being able to trigger off of non-Holy/Dark elemental damage from either damage type. Note that Nature’s Wrath triggers as AoE Geomancy still using the offender’s tile.

Equipment – Weapons

• Axes
  • Slasher – Increased WP from 18 to 19
    Since this Axe has a random Rend ability while others are specific, the extra point of power is to entice using this while not having full control over what it breaks.
    
• Fell Swords
  • Apocalypse – Increased WP from 18 to 20
    Though this weapon is purposefully lower WP than the other Fell Swords, this bump in WP is to help aid initial mitigated damage even if Celestial Void does cast and also gives a bit more damage on Darkness abilities that scale with WP.
    
• Katanas
  • Changed calculations from [PA * WP * (Br / 100)] to [PA * WP * ((Br + 2) / 100)]
    With the buff to swords, Katanas are a bit behind in “effective WP” potential so this pulls them ahead after a +20 Bravery investment. Thank you to @Dr. Jay for highlighting the initial damage discrepancy.
    
• Ninja Blades
  • Orochi – Added Inflicts: Poison (50%)
    Since Orochi doesn’t offer any specific value outside of Absorb HP, this ninja blade now has a chance to apply damage-over-time to targets hit while healing from each successive strike and this now sets it a part from Blood Sword and Muramasa.

Equipment – Gear

• “Cursed” equipment – Removed Reraise immunity and Help menu text from all equipment as Undead and Reraise status are already immune to each other by default 
  This change is made to clarify this interaction which was already there in the original game. The only way you can perma-dead a unit is if you have Angel Ring + Cursed gear equipped.
  
• Cherche:
  • Removed +1 PA/MA and Equip: Float, Regen
  • This item now restores 20% maxMP per end of turn
  • Added +1 Speed
    Honing in on the “refreshing” aspect of this item’s flavor text, this now has a unique utility that stacks with Manafont or can allow casters to not lean typically on Manafont and change their mobility options entirely.
    
• Thief’s Gloves – Additionally increases the Steal Equipment chance by 12%
  Originally, this was removed when the Safeguard and +1 Speed additions were added. However, after assessing the calculations of Steal and the need for high Speed in order to really move the hit%, this item will have some added Steal chance added back in to reinforce its theme and to further help remove pesky gear. This accessory also enables lesser Speed jobs to potentially slot Steal as a secondary as well.

Quality of Life

• Status Effects
  • Faith/Atheist – These statuses when ability-sourced now persist through KO
    Instead of KO removing these “inflicted” statuses on death, these statuses will now persist and will continue to wind down on their duration while dead similarly to how Protect/Shell operates now.
    
  • Undead – Increased revival chance from 50 to 60%
    This 10% bump is to make the automatic revival a bit more in your favor when the 0-counter hits and a bit less concern about attempting to build with “cursed” setups.
    
  • Oil – This status effect is now removed if the target was KO’d
    Previous oiled-up targets could stay Oiled if the damage was greater than their remaining HP on death. This change addresses that so that this debuff is no longer persistent through death which previously allowed for consecutive bonus elemental damage if the unit was revived later.
    
• Practice Mode (Araguay Woods)
  • Delita Team (West)
    • Replaced Archer with Samurai (F)
      • Equip: Ice Bow, Close Helmet, Lordly Robe, Elven Cloak
      • Abilities: Iaido, Items, Dragonheart, Equip Bows, Dexterity
        
  • Mustadio Team (West)
    • Mustadio – Replaced Arcane Strength with Swiftness
      
  • Cloud Team (East)
    • Cloud
      • Replaced Iaido skillset with Aim
      • Cloud now prioritizes using Limit abilities
    • Archer
      • Replaced Ward with First Strike
      • Replaced Death Strike with Concentration
    • Squire
      • Replaced Nagnarok with Toadsong
      • Replaced CT Boost with Reflexes
        
  • Valmafra Team (East)
    • Thief – Replaced Blind Knife with Cinquedea
      
  • Meliadoul Team (East)
    • Archer – Replaced HP Boost with Death Strike
    • Ninja
      • Replaced Move +2 with Dexterity
      • Replaced Cherche with Invisibility Cloak
    • Bard – Replaced Arcane Strength with HP Boost
      
  • Special Encounter Team
    • Marach – Replaced Defense Boost with Attack Boost
      
• Single Player/Campaign
  • Adjusted item prices and all following items are only available at Chapter 2’s start (except Steadfast Ring which is already available at the start of Chapter 3):
    • Cursed Helm – 200 to 20,000
    • Cursed Armor – 800 to 30,000
    • Cursed Robe – 300 to 20,000
    • Cursed Garb – 500 to 20,000
    • Cursed Shield – 400 to 30,000
    • Escort Guard – 150 to 30,000
    • Steadfast Ring – 10,000 to 50,000
      Prices were exponentially increased to reduce players from being able to buy these at the start of the game and to make these grind worthy. This change is to only address feedback about these items’ accessibility if venturing forth in the story with the PvP Patch.

Competitive Standard v5.0

• Characters
  • Valmafra
    • Increased base PA from 13 to 14
    • Increased base MA from 15 to 17
    • Increased Move from 3 to 4 (as Witch of the Coven)
    • Changes affect Rendezvous/SLOT 2
      Based on feedback, Valmafra’s base PA/MA is being buffed a bit to help not only her offensive capabilities but to also better transition her onto either physical or magic-based jobs. She plays a lot more hybrid-like and is much more of a force to be reckoned with. Thank you all for the feedback regarding her state in earlier updates and I am hoping to see more Valmafra playability!
      
• Limited and Semi-Limited Gear Restriction Update
  • NEW Semi-Limited – Gae Bolg
  • NEW No Longer Limited – Cursed Helm
  • Note: all limited/semi-limited updates affect Rendezvous/SLOT 2
  • Consumables
    • Shuriken, Flameburst Bomb, Snowmelt Bomb, and Spark Bomb – Decreased from 10 to 5 (also affects Rendezvous/SLOT 2)
      Cursed Helm being at 3x is treated similarly to Onion Helm and allows for a bit more accessibility for Undead-themed teams while still retaining helms limitation in jobs.

Generics Premade v5.0

4 new premade builds join the roster in this official update to make the Generics Premade/SLOT 1 format a generics-only format! Additionally, some previously “lower” level gear that was equipped primarily as filler has been swapped out with gear that is also accessible in Standard and Rendezvous to improve item consistency and availability across all Tactics League formats. Stats have been adjusted ultimately to avoid adding “power” to builds and the goal is mostly for aesthetics and consistency.

• Characters
  • DMG-Aquafina (NEW by @Mistral)
    • Role – Damage
    • Female Knight
    • Equipment:
      • Caladbolg, Kaiser Shield, Genji Helm, Luminous Robe, Sortilege
    • Abilities:
      • Arts of War – Bulwark, War Cry, Rend Speed
      • Ja-Magicks – Waterja
      • Reaction – Replenish
      • Support – Monkey Grip
      • Movement – Dexterity
        
  • DMG-Red Mage (NEW by @Rumer)
    • Role – Damage
    • Male Black Mage
    • Equipment:
      • Runeblade, Red Hood, Black Robe, Protect Ring
    • Abilities:
      • Black Magicks – Fira, Blizzara, Thundara
      • White Magicks – Cura, Raise
      • Reaction – Mana Shield
      • Support – Equip Swords
      • Movement – Move +2
        
  • TNK-Echo (NEW)
    • Role – Tank
    • Male Mime
    • Equipment:
      • Hydrascale Bag, Celebrant’s Miter, Black Garb, Sortilege
    • Abilities: N/A
      
  • SPT-Agent (NEW)
    • Role – Support
    • Male Orator
    • Equipment:
      • 2x Tiny Bee, Acacia Hat, Ringmail, Elven Cloak
    • Abilities:
      • Speechcraft – Entice, Praise, Intimidate, Preach, Enlighten, Hush, Insult, Mimic Darlavon
      • Time Magicks – Haste, Slow, Immobilize
      • Reaction – Vanish
      • Support – Dual Wield
      • Movement – Move +2
        
  • TNK-Souleater (NEW, replaces TNK-Guardian)
    • Role – Tank
    • Female Dark Knight
    • Equipment:
      • Arondight, Grand Helm, Peytral, Nu Khai Armband
    • Abilities:
      • Darkness – Sanguine Sword, Infernal Strike, Abyssal Blade, Unholy Sacrifice Black Magicks – Poison, Death
      • Reaction – CT Boost
      • Support – Arcane Strength
      • Movement – Dexterity
        
  • DMG-Shadow
    • Replaced Kodachi with Iga Blade
    • Replaced Reflexes with Vanish
    • Replaced Move +2 with Dexterity.
      
  • DMG-Sorcerer
    • Increased base HP by 31
    • Increased base MA from 21 to 22
      
  • DMG-Warden
    • Replaced Papyrus Codex (book) with Icebrand (sword) since this weapon is normally disallowed via job (geomancer)
    • Replaced Wizard’s Robe with Black Robe to retain Boosts: Ice
      
  • DMG-Hunter
    • Added Break Aim to Aim skillset
    • Removed Throw Dagger from Fundaments skillset
    • Replaced Headgear with Green Beret
      
  • DMG-Berserker
    • Replaced Francisca with Slasher
    • Replaced Headgear with Green Beret
      
  • DMG-Parivir
    • Replaced Diamond Helm with Genji Helm
      
  • DMG-Armiger
    • Added Aim skillset as a secondary which includes Take Aim and Break Aim
    • Replaced Iron Sword with Diamond Sword
    • Replaced Headgear with Headband
    • Replaced Leather Armor with Ringmail
  • DMG-Zen
    • Removed Mythril Shield
    • Replaced Equip Shields with Doublehand (doublehanding Whale Whisker)
    • Increased base MA from 13 to 15
      
  • DMG-Lancer
    • Added Steal Weapon and Steal Accessory to Steal skillset since this character is the only one with access to Steal
    • Removed Borrowed Time from Steal skillset
    • Increased base HP by 30
    • Decreased PA from 16 to 14
    • Decreased SP from 15 to 14
    • Replaced Obelisk with Gae Bolg
      
  • TNK-Sentinel
    • Replaced Platinum Helm with Vanguard Helm
      
  • TNK-Guardian
    • Replaced Brass Coronet with Grand Helm since this gear is normally disallowed via job (knight)
    • Replaced Platinum Armor with Peytral
      
  • SPT-Apothecary
    • Replaced Geomancy with Throw skillset, which only includes Bombs
    • Replaced Arcane Strength with Safeguard
    • Replaced Leather Cloak with Elven Cloak
      
  • SPT-Stalwart
    • Replaced Mythril Gun with Muse’s Harp
    • Replaced Equip Guns with Brawler
    • Decreased PA from 34 to 25
      
  • SPT-Distractor
    • Increased MA from 1 to 14
      
  • Inventory
    • Added 3x Fuma Shuriken for DMG-Shadow to use with Throw
    • Decreased Flameburst Bomb, Snowmelt Bomb, and Spark Bomb from 10 to 3 each
    • Decreased Ethereal Tonic from 10 to 3
    • Decreased all other Chemist “tonics” from 10 to 5

With the PvP Patch v4.0 Beta launch, the existing map pool has also received some updates to spruce up and adjust maps based on community feedback. Let’s look at which maps are joining and which are being retired in their stead.

Sal Ghidos (replaces Dorvauldar Marsh)

Sal Ghidos is a new medium-sized map that will replace Dorvauldar Marsh entirely. The issue with Dorvauldar is that the host side can have a mobility disadvantage if they are not using movement options, such as Fly or Levitate. Though it is an incentive to use these abilities, a player shouldn’t be pigeonholed to needing these abilities to be able to engage with their opponent. Sal Ghidos features a shortened distance but with many housing or rooftops to utilize and is a great map for archery and other ranged abilities.

Mullonde Cathedral Sanctuary (replaces Monastery Vaults – Level 2)

Mullonde Cathedral Sanctuary is a new small-sized map joining the rotation and replacing Monastery Vaults – Level 2 (the map with the bookcases). Though the host and guest spawns appear close, the coffin in the middle actually prohibits forward movement, so players will need to work around the sides to engage. The spawn heights between both players are also the same, so there aren’t any tactical advantages unlike Monastery Vaults. This map feels and plays great as a small map and is likely to be the best “small”map to play competitively on in the future.

Limberry Castle Inner Court (replaces Goug Lowtown)

Limberry is another medium-sized map that will be replacing Goug Lowtown. Though Goug is fundamentally playable, it does have some odd advantages for the guest player being able to get an early, vertical position on the guest. The map also didn’t feel the best to play on as echoed by several community members, so the change is to replace it with a map that promotes engagement, shorter distances but still reasonable set up time, and even some space to work off of for builds that enjoy higher sight-lines.

These maps are officially entering the map rotation on March 12th during the PvP Patch v4.0 Beta! Join the Tactics League Discord and check these new areas and all of the changes coming with this update!