Today, an incremental update was published to address an issue with Onion Knights reverting their mastered status after a PvP/PvE battle and an adjustment to Beowulf in Generics Premade. Read the changelog below for more information.
Note: This is not an update to Starter, but rather fixes to correct an issue.
Characters
Re-learned/Added Speechcraft ability, Entice, on all characters to resolve the issue of Onion Knight’s mastered status being reverted after any battle. Based on testing, the game checks the status only after a battle has ended. This was addressed in the event a player saves after a PvP/PvE battle (which is highly not recommended for the Starter format). To note, Entice is still banned from the Starter format.
Generics Premade 2.2
Beowulf
Swapped: Vengeance for Confuse.
Increased PA from 11 to 13.
Comment: Vengeance could be abused by dealing team damage to Beowulf early game lowering his HP and being able to deal instant, 8-range damage (upwards of 400+) from safety early on if utilized. As a [Support] he shouldn’t ultimately be able to deal massive amounts of damage from range with little risk. Beowulf’s PA was increased to up his basic attacks from 154 to 182 un-mitigated to compensate for some of his damage loss.
In this update, we make some adjustments to the Generics Premade roster, a few changes to Uniques Premade including adding Zalbaag to the roster, and balance adjustments to Competitive Starter. This will be the last major save data update for the 2022 year unless an incremental is needed for fixes. Read the changelogs below for more information.
Swapped: Nature’s Wrath for First Strike. Comment: Nature’s Wrath enabled a relatively high amount of reactive damage due to Cloud’s MA. Instead of nerfing his MA (which is essential for his damage potential with Limit) we opted to switch his reaction to First Strike instead giving him better melee counterplay.
Lancer
Reduced PA from 18 to 16. Comment: PA reduced to slightly decrease Lancer’s Jump from 324 to 288 unmitigated.
Paladin
Increased PA from 14 to 15.
Increased MA from 16 to 18.
Comment: PA increase was to improve his basic attacks from 65 to 75 unmitigated and to also slightly improve his chance to rend via Arts of War. MA increased to improve the potency of his White Magicks.
Bouncer
Swapped: Lifefont for Move +1. Comment: Between Lifefont, Soulbind, and Chakra abilities, Bouncer has a ton of passive healing that can make it challenging to out-damage her. Though that is a part of her design, we need to tone back some of the passive healing.
Guardian
Increased PA from 13 to 15. Comment: PA increase was to improve her basic attacks from 65 to 75 unmitigated and to also slightly improve her chance to rend via Arts of War. Guardian did not receive a heftier PA increase for melee bonus due to affecting Arts of War further.
Apothecary
Swapped: Ras Algethi (gun) for Mythril Gun. Comment: Being ranged support, Ras Algethi was enabling too much damage from safety. Apothecary’s basic attacks are now 64 instead of 144 unmitigated, the same as Stalwart.
Distractor
Increased PA and MA from 13 to 15 respectively. Comment: PA and MA increase was to improve her basic attacks from 130 to 150 unmitigated since she attacks from melee range. This does also slightly buff the HP/MP damage of Witch Hunt and Mincing Minuet to 34 and 24 respectively.
Timewalker
Increased PA from 14 to 21. Comment: PA increase was to improve her basic attacks from 75 to 108 unmitigated since she attacks from melee range.
Uniques Premade v1.2
Zalbaag joins the fight in the [Tank] role in this update! Zalbaag will be replacing Aliste since he was underutilized and gives us an opportunity to see how his Blade of Ruin abilities perform in PvP. To view the updated roster, visit: Tactics League: Uniques Premade
A master tactician, Zalbaag uses his Blade of Ruin skillset to reduce the enemy’s MP, Physical Attack, Magick Attack, or Speed stats drastically. This ability can also affect friendlies in the area so be careful who you target; requires cast time.
Being an expert in field strategies, Zalbaag can utilize Speechcraft to either reduce his enemy’s CT (Stall), cause death to slowly KO the enemy (Condemn) or cause the enemy to only perform attacks and lose player control via Berserk status (Insult).
Though he has a relatively low MP pool for his 20 MP-costing abilities, he can recover it by moving via Manafont.
To view his character profile and abilities, visit: Zalbaag
Construct 8
Increased PA from 10 to 14. Comment: Construct 8’s PA was increased to incentivize its damage capabilities. Pulverize does exceed the tank damage metric, but it requires Construct 8 to be at the same height and within 1 range as the target.
Cloud
Swapped: Nature’s Wrath for First Strike. Comment: Nature’s Wrath enabled a relatively high amount of reactive damage due to Cloud’s MA. Instead of nerfing his MA (which is essential for his damage potential with Limit), we opted to switch his reaction to First Strike instead giving him better melee counterplay.
Competitive Starter 2.1
Starter 2.1 update focuses on balancing unique characters while limiting the amount of some PA/MA-stacking gear and setting a cap on WeaponPower, in order to tone down on some of the overall damage potentials in this format. To view the updated roster, visit: Tactics League: Competitive Starter
Limited and Semi-Limited Gear Restriction Update By reducing the number of available PA/MA-stacking gear on a team and setting a WeaponPower cap of 32, these changes generally bring down damage in the format. Coincidentally, these changes have also increased the viability of cast-time magicks as well as other abilities such as Auto-Potion and Doublehand allowing for more creative versatility.
Limited: Murasame
Semi-Limited: Rod of Faith, Wizard’s Rod, Runeblade, Lordly Robe, Brass Coronet, Bracer, Genji Gloves
Banned: Crown Scepter, Stardust Rod, Dreamwalker, Nirvana, Chaos Blade, Valhalla, Vesper Comment: Murasame was switched from semi-limited to limited due to its instant AoE healing that was even effective on lower MA builds. This should incentivize using White Magicks/Items and other sources for healing instead of always relying on Murasame since it is now riskier to spam cast.
Rod of Faith was switched from limited to semi-limited to help with the viability of caster-based compositions, which have improved this update from testing. Bracer and Brass Coronet in particular are semi-limited due to their +3 PA/MA-stacking value and the various staves and rods were banned due to the amount of additional MA you can get from these weapons, especially with Dual Wield.
Vesper, Chaos Blade, and Valhalla were all banned due to them being above the 32 WP cap. All other endgame weapons are closer to each other making for better options for itemization. To note, Onion Sword is an exception since it is limited in job and requires to be point-blank on target.
Characters
Removed: Speechcraft ability, Entice, from all characters in the roster as this ability is now banned. Comment: This ability was removed and banned due to limited counterplay options there were for it, potentially promoting unhealthy gameplay.
Mustadio
Increased HP from 291 to 343.
Increased Faith from 62 to 84.
Increased MA from 11 to 15.
Switched his job type from 16 Machinist to 22 Machinist, gaining innate Safeguard. Comment: Mustadio has always been overshadowed by Balthier. These buffs give him a bit more variance by now, having innate Safeguard (job only) and Mustadio being more magick-inclined while being slower and with less gear and skillset options than his pirate counterpart.
Agrias
Increased PA from 11 to 13. Comment: PA increased to improve the damage from Holy Sword abilities.
Marach
Increased MA from 11 to 16.
Reduced Faith from 31 to 3. Comment: The MA increase and reduction in Faith are buffs to improve Marach’s job skillset to be more effective as he was in a tough spot due to most opposing targets having 60 Faith, causing his Nether Mantra to scale weaker. In addition, Marach is now also the best option for using Fell Sword attacks due to their low Faith scaling.
Rapha
Increased MA from 14 to 17. Comment: MA increased to improve the viability of her Sky Mantra skillset.
Reis
Reduced MA from 19 to 17. Comment: Though Reis is limited to gear due to her job, her high base MA when coupled with MA-stacking gear makes Iaido and her Holy Breath hit very hard. This MA reduction slightly reigns in some of the power she has.
Cloud
Increased Speed from 11 to 12.
Increased MA from 10 to 17. Comment: The MA buff is to focus on raising Limit’s viability in Starter, improving the unmitigated damage of his abilities. Cloud will still need some additional investment when factoring mitigation sources.
Construct 8
Increased Speed from 11 to 13. Comment: This Speed buff was to help Construct 8 get more turns in the Starter speed metagame. Though it still cannot be affected by Haste, this does give Construct 8 an extra turn or two on average, increasing its viability as a pick. To note, Construct 8’s damage ignores all mitigation, so it always hits for 340 with Dispose.
Luso
Increased PA from 16 to 18. Comment: Luso is notably an inferior version of Ramza when compared directly. This PA buff makes him stand out as one of the hardest-hitting physical unique characters while having drawbacks (mainly lower Bravery/Faith and lower MA compared to Ramza).
Balthier
Reduced PA from 17 to 11. Comment: Besides Balthier having a very diverse skillset and stats/gear options, this nerf was to bring down some of his damage when utilizing Barrage with high-powered weapons (the biggest offender being Saggitarius Bow since it synergizes so well with his stats). The goal was to reduce his “one-shotting” potential, which is still doable with investment and Attack Boost/Vehemence. His overall total damage done with Barrage is down roughly 9% with this iteration.
Inventory
Removed: Potion and Hi-Potion (Chemists still have these learned for mastery purposes).
Increased X-Potion from 10 to 20. Comment: Due to the overall team damage reduction that was the focus of this update, Auto-Potion’s viability has improved when compared to Soulbind. When factoring incoming damage and these Br% reactions both proccing off HP loss, Auto-Potion is better healing when the damage taken is 300 or less, and Soulbind is better when the damage taken is 302 or higher. The removal of Potion and Hi-Potion was to reflect X-Potion being used in tandem with Auto-Potion at all times since damage is high in this format.
Did you know that certain weather conditions can actually affect battles? In this article, we go over how the random elements of weather can play a role in battles and how you should take advantage of it if you come across it.
What Are Weather Effects and the Ivalician Calendar
Weather effects can occur randomly on outdoor maps only and have a few positive and negative effects depending on the weather. Weather cannot stop or change once it has been started. Here are a few tidbits regarding weather depending on the mode you are playing Final Fantasy Tactics in:
● In story missions and multiplayer Rendezvous mode, each battle has its weather determined and is not randomized. ● In random battles, the weather is considered random and follows the Ivalician calendar. In multiplayer Melee mode, weather on outdoor maps is considered random and does not seem to follow the Ivalician calendar. ● Indoor maps and the Midnight Deep dungeon cannot have weather. There are also no accuracy penalties against Bow and Crossbow attacks in these locations.
Ivalician Calendar
Month
Date Range
Dry or Wet Month?
Aries
Mar. 21 - Apr. 19
Dry
Taurus
Apr. 20 - May 20
Dry
Gemini
May 21 - June 21
Wet
Cancer
June 22 - July 22
Wet
Leo
July 23 - Aug. 22
Dry
Virgo
Aug. 23 - Sep. 22
Dry
Libra
Sep. 23 - Oct. 23
Dry
Scorpio
Oct. 24 - Nov. 22
Dry
Sagittarius
Nov. 23 - Dec. 22
Wet
Capricorn
Dec. 23 - Jan. 19
Wet
Aquarius
Jan. 20 - Feb. 18
Wet
Pisces
Feb. 19 - Mar. 20
Dry
Chance for Weather (Day or Night)
Weather
Dry Month %
Wet Month %
Daytime - Clear
55
25
Night - Clear
25
5
Daytime - Rainstorm
10
15
Night - Rainstorm
5
5
Daytime - Thunderstorm
2.5
40
Night - Thunderstorm
2.5
10
Clear Weather (Indoor and Outdoor)
Weather can sometimes not occur on an outdoor map and it cannot happen at all on indoor maps. All indoor maps are treated as “clear” as well as the Midnight Deep dungeon areas. ● During night-time with clear weather, the evasion rate against Bows and Crossbow attacks is multiplied by 1.80. Note: Midnight Deep does not increase the evasion rate against Bows and Crossbows even though the area appears dark.
Rainstorms and Thunderstorms
Rainstorms and thunderstorms are both similar in nature; the game depicts them as heavy rainfall and thunderstorms add flashes occasionally to the background to indicate it as such. The following positive and negative effects occur during rainstorms and thunderstorms: ● Evasion rate against Bows and Crossbows attacks are multiplied by 1.33 (or 1.80 if at night). ● Fire-element damage is reduced by 25%. ● Lightning-element damage is increased by 25%. ● Movement through swamp tiles costs 2 Move per tile in rainstorms and 3 Move per tile in thunderstorms. These movement penalties can be ignored via Mystic’s Ignore Weather movement ability. ● Don’t be confused by light rain, it is depicted as slower-moving rainfall animations and is considered “clear” weather, causing no positive or negative effects.
What Rainstorms and Thunderstorms look like
Snowstorms and Light Snow
Battles that take place on snowy terrain have a chance to cause light snow or snowstorms. When either of these weather conditions occurs the following takes place: ● Snowstorms are depicted by horizontal and vertical snowfall animations and increase the damage of all ice-element attacks by 25%. ● Light snow is depicted by only vertical snowfall animations and is treated as “clear” weather.
Are you looking to get into your first Competitive Starter game? A seasoned Tactics PvP player looking for some tips for your next Starter matchup? This article gives some essential tips to help lead you to your upcoming victory in this fast-paced format.
💊 Buff-Up Early
With the Competitive Starter format being considered an endgame-based PvP mode with access to endgame gear, it is even more important to get your defenses and other beneficial effects early onto your team so they can perform and sustain damage as best as they can. Some of the best ways to go about this are to either:
● Use Iaido’s Kiyomori to provide Protect and Shell (33% damage mitigation from physical and magick attacks). ● Use Iaido’s Masamune to provide Haste and Regen (faster turns and passive healing over time). ● Equip gear that has Protect, Shell, or Haste innately, such as Lordly Robe or Brigand’s Glove.
Kiyomori’s Purifying Breeze applies Protect and Shell instantly in an area.
📑Team Composition and Adjusting to the Map
The overall goal of your 5-unit team and how they synergize is very important, but also don’t forget that the map plays a role in certain picks as well. Small maps, such as Lionel Castle Oratory, are very close-quartered and the opponent is usually in range to strike first turn if they plan to, so bringing slower characters or builds that require set-up time is not ideal. As a suggestion, usually have 1 or 2 extra units set up to swap in quickly into your team concept.
⚔️Know the Meta Abilities
In the current (and likely foreseeable future) metagame, there are 3 commonly used skillsets: Darkness, Iaido, and Throw. Each of these abilities can easily hit hard so knowing how to prepare against them is one part of the battle ahead and we will briefly go over each one and a few counters:
● Darkness – Skillset is entirely physical damage so Protect or Defense Boost support ability are the best defensive options. ● Iaido – This magick-based skillset’s damage can be mitigated using Shell or Arcane Defense support ability. ● Throw – This physical damage ability scales up with the user’s Speed as well as the damage of the thrown weapon. Lowering the target’s Speed is one way such as Rend Speed, but damage can also can be mitigated through Protect, Defense Boost, and the summon Golem. Also to note that Throw is evadable whereas Darkness and Iaido are not, so Shirahadori reaction ability and good evasion stats play a role as well.
⚠️Glass-Cannon is Not Always Best
Sure, in Competitive Starter you can opt for your builds for full damage or stat-stacking well into 30+ Physical or Magick Attack to do some insane damage, but you run the risk of being frail and if your opponent is defensively built or can slow the pace of the game down through status effects, you may quickly become crippled in offensive power and lose your damage-specced units as a result. Here are some tips to consider:
● The map will play a role in how risky you can spec for a glass-cannon-like build. ● Outside of team-comp predictions, it is typically ideal to have at least 2 units be fairly bulky; meaning they have a marginally high amount of HP, elemental or status resistances, and passive recovery methods, such as Manafont + Mana Shield, Soulbind, or even Lifefont to keep them sustaining damage. ● If you are running full damage specs, consider using Ovelia for her Aegis (for reraise specifically), slotting Dragonheart reaction, or using White Magicks to apply Reraise instead.
Hopefully, these tips get you on the road to success in your next Starter match. If looking for more ways to get prepared for the format, also check out the Starter: Abilities for Any Team guide for additional resources.
As we have reached the end of the Tactics PvP Job Series, we have our final discussion about generic jobs’ competitive viability in PvP, ending with the mastered Onion Knight job.
PvP Performance Statcard
Effectiveness
⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 3 out of 5.
Stats
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 5 out of 5.
Overall
⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 3 out of 5.
Based on the above ratings, mastered Onion Knight seems to be a decent option for PvP. Let’s expand more on that below.
For more information on this job, visit the job link: Onion Knight For the scope of this article, we will be covering the mastered version of Onion Knight as that would be the most considered option for PvP.
Onion Knights do not have abilities nor can they slot any, but they can equip every piece of gear, weapon, and accessory in the game. Where their effectiveness lies in is their gear versatility, though how well they perform will vary because they are limited to only Move and basic physical attacks which can be mitigated or evaded. Since they cannot slot reaction abilities, it is ideal to slot a highly evasive shield such as Onion Shield or Reverie Shield (reduces elemental damage by half which can be used against abilities like Unholy Sacrifice) to help them evade attacks and abilities.
They do have 30% class evasion which further helps with their evasiveness and 4 Move and Jump which can be paired with Gaius Caligae or Germinas Boots to further their mobility since they cannot slot a movement ability.
Conclusion
For the amount of work it takes to get a mastered Onion Knight (14 mastered jobs except Squire, Chemist, Dark Knight, and Mime), they do not bring much to the table for such an accomplishment and not having access to other slottable skills limits their potential. Onion Knights do hit very hard with their high PA when paired with physical-based weapons, but their overall results will vary.
As we are nearing the end of the Tactics PvP Job Series, we discuss the competitive viability of the Dark Knight job as the main role in competitive PvP.
PvP Performance Statcard
Effectiveness
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4.5 out of 5.
Stats
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 3.5 out of 5.
Overall
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4.5 out of 5.
Dark Knight is a very solid option for PvP game modes. We will expand more on the reasoning below, starting with their abilities.
For more information on this job, visit the job link: Dark Knight
Abilities
Dark Knights use their Darkness skillset to absorb the HP or MP from foes or deal massive single target or area damage. Some of their abilities, such as Abyssal Blade or Unholy Sacrifice damage the caster after use, but they will still typically leave a dent in whoever they damage if they aren’t already KO’d from their attacks. Dark Knights are the only generic job that can equip Knight’s Swords or Fell Swords so they are the closest thing to unique sword users such as Orlandeau or Agrias. It is very important to note that they must have a Sword, Knight’s Sword or Fell Sword equipped to use their abilities and all of their attacks have a 100% hit rate. Now let’s take a closer look at their abilities:
Sanguine Sword (action) – Absorbs HP from the target. This simple skill is one of the best ways to sustain long-term fights as it directly heals you for the damage done.
Crushing Blow (action) – This hard-hitting ability does a ton of single-target damage with a 25% chance to inflict stop status.
Abyssal Blade (action) – This conal attack deals more damage the closer the target is to the caster. Inflicts 20% of your maximum HP to yourself afterwards.
Unholy Sacrifice (action) – Considered a “bomb,” the user deals dark area damage around themselves and inflicts 30% of their maximum HP to themselves afterwards. Works best around loosely stacked or tightly stacked enemy formations.
Vehemence (support) – Increases your damage dealt by 50% and increases your damage taken by 50%. This is a risk/reward support ability that incentives the “glass cannon” playstyle, trading sustain for raw damage. Works well on both physical and magick builds.
HP Boost (support) – Increases your maximum HP by 20%. The more a character is stacking into HP through job and gear, the futher your sustainability increases.
Move +3 (movement) – Though this ability is not available in the Starter format, this is the quintisential mobility option if looking at easily traversing the map.
Dark Knights are the most substantial physical attack job out of all generics with their 140% PA. With great strength, they do have some downsides; they have zero class evasion, standard Move and Jump of 3, and not a ton of HP bulk. They are the only generic job that can equip Knight’s Swords and Fell Swords (Knight’s Swords are better in most situations due to their access to buffs and having access to a shield or dual wield, whereas Fell Swords are two-handed). Dark Knights do have access to helmets and armor to increase their 80% HP to fairly robust values or robes, such as Lordly Robe if speccing for a mixed build. Since they have high Physical Attack, they can utilize Martial Arts or Jump as well.
Conclusion
Dark Knights are one of the top choices in PvP due to the sustainability and damage of their Darkness skillset. Though they are very strong, they have to be within a range of 3 tiles to effectively use their kit, so smart opponents will likely try to cripple them early but if they get in range, they can do some serious damage to the opposition quickly.
