Tag Teambuilding

Version 5 introduces a new and familiar mechanic that will affect Aerith (now playable in both campaign and Tactics PvP) and Cloud – the Limit Level System from the original Final Fantasy VII.

For anyone who has played Final Fantasy VII (if you haven’t by now what are you waiting for!) this system should feel and act quite at home while making some minor adjustments to fit for Final Fantasy Tactics and PvP balance and fairness. First, Let’s review how this system works and how it will impact both Aerith and Cloud in version 5.

Limit Level System Functionality

Cloud and Aerith both have “Limit” skillsets that correspond closely to their behavior in FFVII. This also means that Cloud (who we are already familiar with) had most of his abilities adjusted to mimic his FFVII counterparts in various ways where possible while ensuring there was still a physical and magick side of him that could be explored during teambuilding. We will go into more about that later when we go over the ability changes. For now, let’s go more into detail on how this system translates over to Tactics:

• Cloud and Aerith’s “Limit” is initially unusable at battle start. Abilities unlock based on the percentage of HP damage taken from only enemy attacks. Steps were added to ensure that team damage cannot influence your Limit Level. This does mean that Cloud and Aerith are both more reliant on their secondary skillset and weapon attacks initially as well, but their “counter” options vastly grow stronger and stronger the higher their Limit Level reaches up to a maximum of 4.
• Limit Levels are separated by: Level 1 = 20%, Level 2 = 30%, Level 3 = 40%, Level 4 = 60% HP damage taken
• Limit is no longer blocked by Silence status.
• Limit no longer costs MP (since there is an HP damage requirement).
• Damaging Limits cannot target/hit allies.
• Recoil damage and Poison status do not increase your Limit Level.
• Mana Shield works with incrementing Limit Level as the HP to MP conversion is still considered HP damage.
• Reaction abilities, such as Soulbind or Counter, can increase your Limit Level.
• Once a Limit ability is used, your Limit Level will reset to zero as it did in FFVII; you will need to make choices on whether to “save up” or use lower levels (which are still of great benefit).
• If a Limit ability has zero targets hit/affected, it will not reset your Limit Level.
• If Cloud or Aerith is KO’ed, your Limit Level will be reduced by 1 (instead of being reset as it did in FFVII) so that you still have the option to utilize them as long as you were at least Limit Level 2.

Cloud – Limit Abilities

As mentioned earlier, Cloud’s Limit abilities are much closer to their FFVII counterparts instead of oddly being only MA-based abilities like they were in the original FFT. With the Soldier job having innate Doublehand, this plays a bigger role and Cloud can reach further damage potential when speccing him for physical damage. For those that enjoyed a magick-based Cloud, you will find some of his abilities a bit more limited than they were in v4, but more lethal due to the buffs pertaining to Limit Level. Let’s go over his reworked skillset:

• Braver (Lv. 1)
  • An “attack-like” ability that deals 10% more physical damage with your [weapon] to one target, can now Cast or Inflict: [weapon], evadable, and can critically strike. This ability will strike twice if dual-wielding.
• Cross Slash (Lv. 1)
  • Deals cross-shape AoE physical damage based on your [weapon] + 1 PWR, 25% chance to Inflict: Stop, can critically strike.
• Blade Beam (Lv. 2)
  • Deals 3-range conal AoE physical damage based on your [weapon], uses Abyssal Blade row scaling (but does not recoil), and can critically strike.
• Climhazzard (Lv. 2)
  • Deals 70% of the target’s max. HP in single target damage, ignoring mitigation. This ability no longer triggers Magick Counter.
• Meteorain (Lv. 3)
  • Now 18 PWR instead of 14 and is still AoE magic damage (with the same range/vert.).
• Finishing Touch (Lv. 3)
  • Inflicts all of: KO, Stone, and Stop (in that order) instead of randomly one of the three, and is still single target.
• Omnislash (Lv. 4)
  • An “attack-like” ability that strikes with your [weapon] at 75% of its normal damage, but Omnislash now hits 5 times randomly within the AoE (and no longer hits allies). Can now Cast or Inflict: [weapon] and can critically strike. This ability will strike 10 times if dual-wielding.
• Cherry Blossom (Lv. 4)
  • Now 20 PWR instead of 16 and has a 25% chance to Inflict: Poison, Immobilize, or Blind per target hit (still tri-elemental).

As you have probably noticed, most Limit abilities are now influenced by your equipped weapon this time around (as most Limit abilities were enhanced “Attack” in FFVII) and Doublehand, Attack Boost, and even Brawler, affect them too so there is a plethora of ways to build Cloud and ultimately, he is even more lethal than in v4, albeit he will now need to be “pushed to his limit.”

Aerith – Limit Abilities

As Aerith is a support-type unique character, most of her skillset is centered around supporting her allies to victory, but don’t sleep on her abilities as they can quickly turn the tides of battle!

• Healing Wind (Lv. 1)
  • Restores HP to allies in an Iaido ranged-AoE. Heals undead instead of damaging them.
• Seal Evil (Lv. 1)
  • 3 range, single target, 100% Inflicts: Silence and Stop.
• Breath of the Earth (Lv. 2)
  • Iaido-ranged, removes all negative effects from allies.
• Fury Brand (Lv. 2)
  • Iaido-ranged, increases allies’ Power and Magick by 2.
• Planet Protector (Lv. 3)
  • Single ally, Bestows: Protect, Shell, and Veil.
• Pulse of Life (Lv. 3)
  • Iaido-ranged, ally revive at % = PA + 70. Restores 50% HP on success per target.
• Great Gospel (Lv. 4)
  • Iaido-ranged, fully restores HP and MP, and Bestows: Protect, Shell to allies.

Though the majority of Aerith’s skillset is support-based, her stats on her Ancient job allow her to dive into either physical or magick abilities or attacks, as well as having innate Halves: All Elements, so not only is she tanky-capable, but also offensive too!

With these changes, I am hoping not only for further creativity especially for Cloud, but also your opponent will need to be cautious about how they play against either Cloud or Aerith as pushing their Limit at the wrong time could be disastrous for them!

Academy is a new, guided approach to helping newcomers to Final Fantasy Tactics or story-experienced players learn the important steps to fast-track their success in Tactics League PvP.

Headed, in part, by Tactics League member, Mistral, who now goes by The Countess, This program is split into five courses, ranging from basic teambuilding and getting familiar with unique characters and generic jobs, to testing your new team into Practice Mode, refining the team some more to improve it, and eventually working your way into setting up ZeroTier and having your first Melee, which is the PvP mode.

Academy is a Tactics League Discord-exclusive program as it is also entwined with various channels and links to help you throughout your curriculum.

If you have ever been interested in trying out our PvP offerings, join the Tactics League Discord, experience Academy, and be the next competitive challenger!

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The last of the PvP Patch v4.0 Focused series, this article focuses on the new equipment in version 4 in tandem with its included save data, hosting a plethora of new weapons and gear at your disposal – there are many new toys to use and new ways to build up your units! Additionally, several existing gear received updates to improve their viability, but for this article, we will focus on the many new equipment options.

New Weapons

The next major update has 10 brand-new weapons that are accessible in both Standard and Rendezvous. Many of these weapons are designed to incentivize attacking with them as they all have potentially powerful effects or can be built to do so. With the guaranteed cast in Chantage, attacking is even more powerful and considerable; the same goes for evasiveness.

As a general reminder, all weapons that have a “Casts:” line defaults to a 50% chance to trigger their ability.

Lastly, the WP standardization of all sword-type weapons have been adjusted:
Fell Swords from 24 to 22, Knight’s Swords from 22 to 20, and Swords from 16 to 18.

• Apocalypse (Fell Sword)
  • 18 WP and 20 Block
  • Dark Element
  • Casts: Celestial Void (from Rapha’s Sky Mantra, 50% max. HP damage if at least 1 status was inflicted)
    
• Tiny Bee (Non-Magick Gun)
  • 13 WP and 5 Block
  • 4 Range
  • Can be uniquely Dual Wielded
  • Adds +1 PA
    
• Zanmato (Katana)
  • 25 WP and 10 Block
  • Adds +2 MA
  • Casts: Intimidate (Speechcraft, -20 Bravery)
  • Note: There is no corresponding Iaido ability with this katana and is purely for attacking
    
• Thief’s Knife (Knife, formerly Orichalcum Dirk)
  • 16 WP and 5 Block
  • No longer Inflicts: Slow
  • Dual Wieldable
  • Casts: Mug (smartly randomizes a Steal Equipment ability on hit, guaranteed to activate if triggered)
    
• Caladbolg (Knight’s Sword)
  • 20 WP and 20 Block
  • Water element
  • Casts: Leviathan (Summon)
  • Adds +1 PA and MA
    
• Kunai (Ninja Blade, reworked weapon)
  • 14 WP and 5 Block
  • 3 Range
  • Weapon attacks are flagged as <Direct> and not <Striking> (attacks check Line of Sight)
  • Usable to create “ranged” melee attacks if in the Right Hand
    
• Zephyr Pole (Pole, formerly Cypress Pole)
  • Removed Halves: Fire, Ice, Lightning, Earth
  • 16 WP and 10 Block
  • Wind element
  • Forced Two-Handed
  • Adds +2 PA and MA
  • Note: Damaging poles now use [greater of your PA or MA * WeaponPower] instead of [MA * WeaponPower]
    
• Crown Scepter (Rod, reworked weapon)
  • Removed +4 MA from its original version
  • 8 WP and 4 Block
  • Equip: Atheist
  • Effect: Reverses Faith-based magicks calculations to use [(100 - Faith)/100 * (100 - targetFaith)/100] instead of [Faith/100 * targetFaith/100]
    
• Nirvana (Staff, reworked weapon)
  • No longer Holy element
  • 10 WP and 20 Block
  • Bestows: Protect, Shell on hit (guaranteed, can trigger certain Reactions)
  • Immune: Atheist, Doom
    
• Flametongue (Sword)
  • 18 WP and 10 Block
  • Fire element
  • Casts: Fire Breath (from Reis’s Dragon, using MA * 14)

New Gear

There are also new additions to headgear, body armor, and accessories in update 4, furthering your theorycrafting potential!

• Chaos Helm (Helm)
  • +150 HP
  • Boosts: Holy, Dark
    
• Cursed Garb (Clothing)
  • +100 HP
  • Adds +2 PA and +1 SP
  • Equip: Undead, Poison
  • Immune: Regen, Reraise, Haste
    
• Peytral (Heavy Armor)
  • +160 HP
  • Initial: Protect, Shell
    
• Ringmail (reworked Clothing)
  • +120 HP
  • Initial: Protect, Shell
    
• Ever Coat (Clothing)
  • +120 HP
  • Boosts: Fire, Lightning, Ice, Wind, Water, Earth
    
• Samite Coat (Robe)
  • +120 HP and +40 MP
  • Adds +1 MA
  • This new robe is set to be a “bulky” option for casters and is similarly designed to Celebrant’s Miter and uses the same HP metric as clothing-type items
    
• Chantage (Accessory)
  • Sets your weapon attack’s Cast and Status Effect chance to 100% (up from 50%)
  • Note: This only works on regular attacks and does not augment the status chance of abilities
    
• Bravely Armlet (Accessory)
  • Increase your Bravery by 10 at the end of each of your Active Turns
    
• Elven Cloak (returning Accessory)
  • 12% Physical and Magical Accessory Evasion
  • Adds +1 SP
    
• Thief’s Gloves (reworked Accessory)
  • Removed the increased multiplier to Steal Equipment abilities
  • New Effect: Steal Equipment abilities now bypass a target’s Safeguard while equipped
  • Adds +1 SP
  • Note: Steal Equipment abilities will no longer be evadable in version 4

With new weapons and gear to equip and build off of, PvP Patch version 4.0 Beta is looking to further expand theorycrafting! This update will launch on March 12th!

In PvP Patch version 4, there are a ton of current ability adjustments going into to improve abilities that were underperforming or to better fit select abilities in line with the patch’s goals. This article will focus on the brand-new abilities coming with the update, the Reaction, Support, and Movement abilities, and a few new ones in Ja-Magicks.

Conjure Up New Elemental Spells in Ja-Magicks

To increase the accessibility of wind, water, and earth abilities, Ja-Magicks (Sage’s skillset) gained new faith-based abilities in Aeroja, Waterja, and Quake.

These abilities still follow the same rules as other magicks in the skillset; they cannot be cast while silenced, can trigger Magick Counter, unevadable, and mimicable.

Let’s take a closer look at how each one functions:

• Aeroja
  • Wind element
  • 3 Range, 3 AoE, 3 Vert. (enemy only)
  • 99 MP, 35 PWR, 4 Speed
  • Non-reflectable, Non-evadable
  • 19% chance to Remove: Float, Haste per target
    
• Waterja
  • Water element
  • 4 Range, 2 AoE, 3 Vert. (enemy only)
  • 99 MP, 40 PWR, 4 Speed
  • Non-reflectable, Non-evadable
  • 19% chance to Inflict: Silence per target
    
• Quake
  • Earth element
  • 4 Range, 2 AoE, 5 Vert. (enemy and ally)
  • 99 MP, 38 PWR, 5 Speed
  • Non-reflectable, Non-evadable
  • 19% chance to Inflict: Immobilize per target

New Reaction/Support/Movement Abilities

Version 4 also brings about 6 new non-action abilities, furthering build-crafting and new strategies! Let’s take a look at each one:

CT Boost (Reaction)

This new reaction has a Bravery% chance to increase your current CT by 5 after taking any HP damage. Though this value appears small, it can add up quickly factoring that your unit’s Speed also normally affects your CT gains and this can be used to close the gap faster.

Critical: Flee (Reaction)

Critical: Flee is a rework of Critical: Recover MP. This ability now has a Bravery% chance while HP critical (20% of your max. HP or less) to increase your CT by 25 and your Move by 2. One interesting note with Critical: Flee is that the Move bonus persists even if you are no longer critical, KO’d, etc. so this ability can have a long-lasting effect in a single game!

Replenish (Reaction)

This rework of Absorb MP now restores HP and MP equal to 4 times the MP cost of an MP-costing ability that you were affected by either from damage or from a beneficial ability. For example, White Magick’s Barrier would restore 256 HP and MP to you at a Bravery% chance to trigger.

Monkey Grip (Support)

A fan favorite from the Tactics Advance series, Monkey Grip allows all forced two-handed weapons (Axes, Bows, Knight’s Swords, and Fell Swords) to become one-handed, allowing for the slotting of a shield in the opposite hand. This passive is great for enabling utility through your shield, as you gain evasiveness and any other additional properties your shield provides. Note that Doublehand (Onion Knight in particular) does not add the damage bonus since you are wielding a two-handed weapon in one hand. This ability is not innately set to any job for balance purposes.

Nimble (Movement)

Nimble is a brand-new movement ability that provides three important status immunities: Slow, Stop, and Immobilize. With Nimble providing 3 status immunities in the Movement slot, you do not gain any additional Move or Jump stats.

Dexterity (Movement)

Dexterity is the second brand-new Movement ability that interacts with your Class Evasion (C-EV), allowing it to be treated from all sides instead of just the front against incoming physical attacks and evadable abilities and additionally grants +1 Move and Jump stats. Dexterity is especially potent on jobs that have a solid C-EV baked in, such as Thief, Ninja, or Monk, and even for unique characters, such as Agrias, Mustadio, or Cloud.

With new abilities to cast in Ja-Magicks and a plethora of new Reaction, Support, and Movement abilities, PvP Patch version 4 is bringing new, creative ways to play both Standard and Rendezvous formats!

In version 4, two new characters in Standard and Rendezvous formats join the unique roster: Alma and Valmafra! These two will be replacing Ovelia and Balthier respectively. Let’s dive into each character’s profile so you can learn more about them and what makes them unique in their own way.

Alma, Cleric

Alma joins the version 4 roster, replacing Ovelia. At first glance, with Alma and Ovelia both having Holy Magicks, it may appear as to why she replaced Ovelia in the first place. Let’s compare the two stat-wise and you will see that Alma is different in her own right:

Ultimately, Alma has better stats to work with, notably her Faith and Speed. Because she has high Faith, she doesn’t necessarily need Faith status via Luminous Robe to have excellent casts though you can still of course opt for the Faith route if needed. Her 12 Speed also means she needs little to no investment in that category and she can typically be built in whichever way you choose allowing for better build versatility compared to Ovelia. The trade-off for these stats is lower HP bulk and Bravery, but that is intentional for balance’s sake.

Alma has the same innates as Ovelia, except Charm immunity instead of Stone immunity.

Alma can equip the following: Staves, Hats, Clothing, Robes.

Lastly, let’s take a look at her abilities in Holy Magicks:

• Aegis – Bestows: Protect, Shell, Haste, Reraise, and Regen on one target. The cost was increased from 30 to 40 due to the amount of buffs it bestows at once.
• Displena – Removes: Stone, Blind, Confuse, Silence, Oil, Berserk, Toad, Poison, Stop, Charm, Sleep, Immobilize, Disable, and Doom statuses from one target.
• Barrier (from White Magicks) – Large area Bestows: Protect, Shell to nearby allies.
• Curaja (from White Magicks) – Large area HP healing that only affects allies (ally only change in v4.0 and Iaido-like)
• Arise (from White Magicks) – Revives a fallen ally with full HP restored.
• Holy (from White Magicks) – Deals holy-elemental magic damage to a single target.
• Chant – Restores 2/5th of your max. HP to a nearby ally at the cost of 1/5 of your max. HP (range increased to 3 in v4.0)

Valmafra, Witch of the Coven

Valmafra is the second unique addition to the Standard and Rendezvous roster in version 4, replacing Balthier. In the original game, she was not assigned anything as she was considered a “dummied” character – the opportunity presented itself by making her a new and exclusive character that rivals other unique characters.

Valmafra is designed as an offensive magick caster, the first of the type. Her skillset is a combination of both the classic Red Mage and Elementalist, having abilities from 5 faith-based magick skillsets: White, Black, Time, Mystic Arts, and Ja-Magicks, we will go into that more in a bit.

First, let’s take a look at her stats profile:

Valmafra boasts a modest 13 PA and 15 MA, allowing her to utilize her stats for both physical and magical setups. She also has 12 starting Speed, which doesn’t require much more investment if at all.

Valmafra also has innate Swiftness in her Witch of the Coven job allowing for flexibility in either offensive or defensive Support and can equip: Swords, Knives, Rods, Staves, Hats, and Robes.

Lastly, let’s take a closer look at her Magicks skillset, including her signature ability, Divine Ultima:

• Holy (from White Magicks) – Deals holy faith-based magic damage.
• Graviga (from Time Magicks) – Deals 50% of the target’s max. HP.
• Unholy Darkness (from Mystic Arts) – Deals dark faith-based magic damage.
• Arise (from White Magicks) – Revives a fallen ally with full HP restored.
• Curaga (from White Magicks) – Restores HP to nearby allies and enemies.
• Firaga/Thundaga/Blizzaga (from Black Magicks) – Deals fire/lightning/ice faith-based magic damage.
• Aeroja (NEW from Ja-Magicks) – Deals large area wind faith-based magic damage with a 19% chance to Remove: Float, Haste.
• Waterja (NEW from Ja-Magicks) – Deals water faith-based magic damage with a 19% chance to Inflict: Silence.
• Quake (NEW from Ja-Magicks) – Deals earth faith-based magic damage with a 19% chance to Inflict: Immobilize. Affects allies and enemies.
• Divine Ultima – Self-Iaido-ranged faith-based non-elemental magic damage. Affects allies and enemies.

Join the Tactics League Discord for the PvP Patch version 4.0 Beta launch on March 12th!

In PvP Patch version 3, many gender equality changes were made to close the gap between male and female build varieties; hair adornments, bags, perfumes, and the Tynar Rouge accessory were now accessible to males. Additionally, the reaction abilities, Fury and Magick Boost, that were gender-locked to Bard and Dancer were added so that either gender could use either ability. These improvements were well-received and opened up build diversity in a positive way. However, there is one outlier that version 4 is addressing – the gap between male magical and female physical specs.

The changes you will read more about are centered around improving the male and female Squires in both Standard and Rendezvous and have minimal impact on unique characters.

To resolve this task, this required a two-pronged approach:

• First: Fixing the stat disparity by adjusting PA/MA values of the base Squire stats – the result is that male Squire will now have 13/12, and female Squire will now have 12/13, a +1 stat increase from version 3.
  
• Second: Fixing the PA and MA multipliers (also known as PAM and MAM) marginally; most jobs received a 5% bonus to these multipliers depending on needs. For example, White Mage’s MAM was increased from 110% to 115% which resulted in generic male White Mage specifically getting an extra +1 MA.
  
• Combining the base Squire stat increase and job PAM/MAM resulted in:
  Male White Mage – 11/14 (+1 MA)
  Female White Mage – 10/15
  
• Lastly, to make sure being a male or female gender still played a role in the higher HP or MP spread, male Squires received +8 HP and female Squires received +9 MP.
  
• The accomplished goal of these changes is that the total stat spread (between PA and MA) is no more than 1 point between either gender. You can still build “optimally” and use a female White Mage, or you can choose for whatever reason (aesthetics, sprite design, wanting to use the additional PA) and go male White Mage instead and perform well and with a bit more added bulk!

The result of these adjustments to male White Mage for example is:

Another example of these base stat and job PAM/MAM adjustments are female Monks. In version 3, running a female Monk was very much not desirable, because there was realistically little to be gained from doing so (comparing Martial Arts, a female Monk had a marginally better Doom Fist).

In version 4, this changes quite differently, as you will now see that a female Monk is viable and even plausible for running secondary Dance or Arts of War:

And lastly, to quell any worries about how these job PAM/MAM changes affect unique characters let’s compare Agrias as a Dark Knight in version 3 and version 4:

Dark Knight’s PAM was increased from 130% to 135% resulting in a +1 PA value for female Dark Knights. This ultimately sets generic female Dark Knights to 16/11 while male Dark Knights retain 17/10 and the +1 PA translates as a minimal difference here with Agrias.

In PvP Patch v4.0, you can truly play any gender, and any job and perform well competitively. I look forward to seeing new builds and creations once we enter public beta on March 12th!