PvP Patch v5 Focused: Uniques, New and Familiar
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!