Tag Teambuilding

This update introduces new ways to team-build via Equipment Sets, a few generic job updates, various ways to enhance Arts of War, buffs to Cloud and Aerith’s Limits, a buff to Curse status, some ability buffs, new gear, and a few updates to existing ones and Tactics League format updates.

Beware that a save data update is required for this patch, and updating your save data will reset all existing teams! Any incremental updates to v5.4 will be amended to this post.

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.

Make sure to always patch using an unmodified, USA-region backup of your FFT WotL ISO, and do not override an already patched copy!

Bug Fixes

• Roster Expansion: Fixed an issue with Unit Slots 25 – 28 failing to load text data while viewing abilities and equipment Help menus in Deployment, which could also result in a game crash. This fix should also apply to those garbled job names we have rarely encountered
• Fixed Chantaged procs/casts sometimes not triggering when they should
• Fixed an issue where Ghost-type monsters could mount chocobos lol
• Fixed erroneous weapon sprites being used with Iaido and Sword Spirit instead of the selected katana’s sprite
• Curse Status:
  • Fixed an issue where weapon attacks that had Absorb HP functionality were double-reduced by Curse status
  • Fixed an issue where HP absorption was not reduced by Curse status 

Quality of Life Updates

• Practice Mode (Practice-One/Araguay Woods)
  • Spawns have been adjusted to replicate the Melee mode versions (instead of spawning in corners)
  • If entering from the West (from Dorter), you’ll spawn in the Host position (this includes rare encounters)
  • If entering from the East (from Zeirchele Falls), you’ll spawn in the Guest position
    Finding the means to update the map spawning was, for the longest time, just a dream, but I stumbled upon it, and even addressing multiplayer map spawns can become a reality.
    
• Campaign
  • Poacher’s Den – You can now use this shop without needing the Poach ability slotted on a unit
    
  • Ramza
    • Updated the Ch. 2 & 3 Job title from Heretic to Squire as originally intended for story progression. Ramza’s Ch. 4 version is the only one labeled as Heretic. Monkey Grip remains on Ch. 2 and Ch. 3 versions
    • Additionally, the Tactics League save data properly uses the Ch. 4 version with the Ch. 2 & 3 spritesheet
    • NOTE: That with this corrected change, Ramza during event sequences will shift to his Ch. 4 sprite during those times
      This is to clean up the save data to properly use the Ch.4 model with the Ch. 2 & 3 spritesheet while also correcting the inconsistency that his Ch. 2 & 3 versions aren’t considered a “Heretic” yet, based on the story.
      
    • Delita
      • Reverted Sprite and Portrait from King to Holy Knight (this includes multiplayer)
        I did like Delita with the swagger, but ultimately, this is to ensure that cutscenes load and use the proper sprite so it doesn’t appear odd during those moments.
        
    • Argath (Campaign version)
      • Now uses the correct Fundaments skillset with Deathknight (All-Stars) version being fixed
      • Added Crossbows as available equipment
        
    • Elidibus (Midlight’s Deep and multiplayer)
      • Replaced Midgardsomr with Sylph (Summon)
        
• Status Effects
  • Curse – Decreased the afflicted’s damage dealt and healing received from 33% to 50%
    This buff to Curse status is to ensure it simply can’t be beaten out by other 33% sources and to increase its overall potency and usage as a debilitating effect.
    
• Battle Prompts
  • Added a Battle Prompt for Take Aim and Break Aim that warns of moving cancels the currently charged ability (huge shout-out to @Tzepish for this!)
    
• AI Behavior
  • Fixed Garment Ring equipped AI from using abilities outside of their normal means
  • Fixed Darkness skillset usability 
  • Improved AI ability prioritization 
  • Fixed AI using sword skills while not having a sword equipped due to Steal/Rend/Crush
    
• Ability Quotes
  • Removed quotes from Construct 8’s abilities
    These were added in mostly for fun, but they ultimately just repeat the ability name used, and that’s it, so I ultimately preferred to leave them out for this iteration.
    
• UI Updates
  • The post-action message pop-up now displays in the correct order, as highlighted above a unit’s head, instead of displaying in reverse order when there is a change to Power, Magick, Bravery, Faith, or Speed
    
• Text Updates
  • Help: Added rider stat context and rider status immunities to Adept Rider as a means to provide context in-game
  • Help: Replaced “ATK (Phys.)” and “ATK (Mag.)” with “Power” and “Magick” respectively
    This is to finalize a trend that was started a while back to label these stats as mentioned in various other Help menus and guides.
    
  • Help: Regen – Removed erroneous “Speed” (this ability is instant cast)
  • Removed “holy” from Chaos Blade’s flavor text (it is not a Holy-type weapon)
  • Updated various flavor text to conserve text memory (mostly campaign items, but a few save data-based ones as well)
  • Help: Added Calc to Counter Throw reaction
  • Help: Magick Counter, Shirahadori, Death Strike – Removed the “Affected Abilities” section as text memory is getting very low with the addition of Equipment Sets

Jobs

• Thief
  • Added Innate Backstabber – Increases damage done with normal attacks by 25% if attacking from behind (back attack)
    This new passive is unique to Thief as a means to give them higher damage potential with normal attacks by rewarding good positioning.
    
• Chemist
  • Labeled “Increases the potency of Potions and Ethers by 50” as Efficacy Boost (functionally no change)
  • Increased PAM from 80 to 100% (+3 Power to generics)
    
• Archer
  • Labeled “Increased critical strike chance by 5%” as Hawkeye
    
• Orator
  • Increased PAM from 85 to 95% (+1 Power to generics)
    These subtle increases in Chemist and Orator’s Power are to provide an easier time for these jobs to have better damage potential with Knives, albeit how much further this pushes that direction will be a total toss-up, as Guns are much more popular on these jobs due to build archetypes and safety.
    
    Note: neither job will receive a +Move increase to push towards melee, because their core functionality does not demand it, and to maintain skillset/positioning balance as well.

Action Abilities

• Holy Sword (Delita and Agrias)
  • Judgment Blade – Increased Vert. from 0 to 1 (still 2 Range, 1 AoE)
  • Cleansing Strike – No longer Inflicts: Doom and instead has a 25% chance to Remove: Protect, Shell, Reraise, Haste from the target
    I know Holy Sword can feel kinda lackluster, but not terrible, so I am buffing Judgment Blade so it can work better around ledges, and Cleansing Strike is a more rewarding offensive skill than trying to maybe just get rid of Reraise.
    
• Unyielding Strike (Meliadoul)
  • Abilities now scale with [Weapon]’s base calculation instead of [PA * WP], similarly to Holy Sword (“base” means, for example, using a Runeblade still scales with PA because swords are by default set to that)
    This is a nerf to scaling abilities functionally because of high WP, but otherwise Unyielding still packs a punch, including the consideration of Divine Knight’s innate Pierce and the means to utilize Vehemence easier with the Gladiator Set.
    
• Aimed Shot (Mustadio)
  • Burial (formerly Seal Evil) – Renamed to differentiate from Aerith’s Seal Evil 
  • Overload – Decreased recoil damage from ½ to ⅓
    This recoil reduction is intended to reduce situations in which Mustadio finds himself near death from using his ability.
    
• Limit (Cloud)
  • Meteorain:
    • Increased AoE from 2 to 3
    • Increased PWR from 18 to 20
      
  • Cherry Blossom:
    • Increased AoE from 2 to 3
    • Increased PWR from 20 to 22
      A trend you will notice between Cloud and Aerith is that several AoE skills have greater area coverage. This is for several reasons; one, because these skills have lower “activation use” typically in a game, and two, it should feel a bit more rewarding to use your Level 3 or 4 Limits. The PWR increase to the magick Limits is to give them more oomph, even if you opt out of non-magick specs, and a bit more power if you choose to build for it.
      
• Limit (Aerith)
  • Healing Wind, Breath of the Earth, Fury Brand, Pulse of Life, and Great Gospel – Increased AoE from 2 to 3
    As a means to improve Limit’s performance and as a support-type, this AoE range buff gives Aerith greater coverage of her Limits, ultimately making them more impactful as they should be with their built-in limitations.
    
  • Seal Evil – Increased Range from 2 to 3
    I was skeptical about this ability being 3 range on original release, but as a support-type, Aerith shouldn’t need to get in the fray too up close to use her skills.
    
  • Pulse of Life – Decreased PWR from 70 to 60 due to the increased AoE
    
• Break Arts (Ashley)
  • Vile Scar (swords) – This ability now Inflicts: Poison and Slow on success instead of separate 25% rolls for each
  • Ignis Wheel (flails) – Increased Oil chance from 33 to 50%
    
• Huntcraft (Luso)
  • Added Venom Fang (cats), Breathe Fire (minotaurs), and Twister (Behemoth) abilities
  • Assigned JP Costs to each respective ability for story progression as: 200, 400, and 600
  • Reorganized the skillset
    These enhancements are to make Huntcraft feel more unique regarding past changes to monsters and Blue Magicks to ensure Luso has more flexibility in his kit.
    
• Piracy (Balthier)
  • Fires of War – Added 19% Inflicts: Poison
  • Tides of Fate – Added 19% Inflicts: Silence
    
• Blade of Ruin (Zalbaag, All-Stars)
  • Magicksap, Powersap, Speedsap, Mindsap – Increased Vert. from 0 to 1
    These abilities already come with a hefty MP cost and sword requirement. Increasing the Vert. makes it a bit easier for Zalbaag to neuter grouped up targets.
    
• Arts of War
  • Saint Cross – Increased Vert. from 1 to 2
    
  • Rend Speed/Power/Magick – While unarmed and with Brawler, damage calculates as [PA * (PA / 2)] instead of zero WP, which previously resulted in no damage, but still damaged stat.
    This creates viability with Monk or unarmed builds wanting to use Arts of War Rend abilities.
    
  •  Rend MP:
    • This ability now deals MP damage based on [weapon] calculation and can additionally critically strike. NOTE: This change also affects Blade of Ruin’s Magicksap ability
      
    • The Brawler change above with Rend Speed/Power/Magick does not affect Rend MP and instead uses the traditional Power and Bravery calc for unarmed damage
      Though the percentage of max. MP could net more value in certain situations; this change ultimately makes Rend MP more weapon agnostic and should result in more damage than before, in addition to factoring in critical strikes.
      
• White Magicks
  • Regen – Increased Vert. from 0 to 1
    
• Black Magicks
  • Curse – Decreased PWR from 75 to 60 to account for the buff to Curse status
    
  • Doomsday:
    • Decreased PWR from 180 to 42 to accommodate the change from status magick to damaging magick (still retains its 19% Doom chance)
    • Increased MP cost from 52 to 64
      The intention for the original Doomsday was to essentially be a Dark Graviga with Doom chance added. Though it functionally wasn’t an issue, this change and buff to it are to strengthen it as an option in the Black Mage’s kit and ultimately consider it as one of their greatest sources of AoE damage.
• Summon
  • Midgardsomr – Removed this ability from Summon and from Elidibus’s The Dark (campaign only)
    This ability filled the role of Wind magick, but with the change to Sylph going that route and needing ability space for the future, Midgardsomr was put on the chopping block.
    
  • Moogle:
    • Additionally Removes: Curse
    • Increased MP Cost from 20 to 32
      This change was to make sure there was an additional source to counter Curse status and to increase the cost on non-Summoners.
      
  • Leviathan – Added 19% Inflicts: Doom 
  • Salamander – Added 19% Removes: Protect, Shell, Regen
    These two summons have always been in an odd spot. Though they have a few unique differences, they tend not to find popularity. The “role play” is for Leviathan’s tidal wave to near-drown enemies, and Salamander’s fire being able to cleanse important buffs.
    
  • Sylph:
    • This ability now deals faith-based, Wind-elemental magic damage in addition to retaining Silence infliction
    • Hardcoded the status chance to 75% to ensure that its niche is functionally the same, but its hit rate is no longer affected by caster/target Faith values (thus it can never 100% Silence, but with a small fail window).
      NOTE: 80% was the average hit rate before Faith status
    • Decreased PWR from 180 to 30 to accommodate the change from status magick to damaging magick 
    • Increased MP cost from 26 to 42
    • Increased Tick from 3 to 4
    • This ability is now flagged to trigger Nature’s Wrath since it is Wind-elemental damage
    • This ability replaces previous instances of Midgardsomr
      Though it has a niche (and the intention was to preserve it), Sylph was notoriously viewed as the “Wind” summon, but wasn’t treated as such. This change shifts this designation away from Midgardsomr and allows me to make room for new abilities.
      
    • Lich – Added 19% Inflicts: Undead
      A thematic change and one that grants AoE Undead as an option once more (previously from Ama-no-Murakamo).
      
• Ja-Magicks
  • NEW Curseja (replaces Blindja):
    • Faith-based “t-shaped” AoE Curse infliction instead of Blind
    • Decreased PWR from 200 to 120
      This change was done to provide an AoE, faith-based Curse (and more reliable than Ama-no-Murakamo), with Blindja practically unused.
      
• Blue Magicks, Monsters, and Monster Abilities
  • Blue Magicks 
    • Goblin Rush (and Goblin family) – Increased the recoil from ¼ to ⅓
      Though the damage from this ability is supposed to be a lighter version of Mow Down, it also dealt next to no recoil damage with its past iteration.
      
  • 🦑Squid Family
    • Removed Ink ability from all monster skillsets
    • Squidkraken and Mindflayer – Added Swiftness innately 
    • Piscodaemon – Replaced Ink (Hidden Ability) with Dischord
    • Squidkraken and Mindflayer – Replaced Ink (2nd Ability) with Leviathan (Summon). NOTE: casting abilities as a monster ignores MP cost
      Ink is just one of those abilities that doesn’t bring enough value to even consider using one of the squid monsters. Piscodaemon, having Dischord, gives another option to utilize it with naturally higher Speed. Leviathan replaces Ink as these monsters are considered caster-style beasts, so giving them magick felt more appropriate here. 
      
    • 🐷Swine Family
      • Snort – Increased PWR from 10 to 20
        This is to ensure that Snort becomes the best option to charm with and even stronger against unmitigated targets.
        
    • 🥗Malboro Family
      • Malboro – Increased PAM from 105 to 125%
      • Ochu – Increased PAM from 110 to 120%
      • Greater Malboro – Increased PAM from 125 to 135%
        These increases to their Power are to ensure Tentacles hits fairly well mitigated considering their base bulk at 60 Bravery.
        
      • Purify (formerly Lick, Malboro and Ochu):
        • No longer Bestows: Protect, Shell, Reflect
        • Now Removes: Stone, Blind, Silence, Curse, Oil, Toad, Poison, Slow, Stop, Sleep, Immobilize, Disable, and Doom, and restores 50% target’s max.HP if a status was removed (the healing damages the undead)
        • Increased Range from 1 to 2
        • Decreased Vert. from 3 to 2
          This gives Purify usable utility, similar to Summon’s Moogle, covering more statuses plus a heal, but single target and not influenced by faith.
          
        • 🐮Minotaur Family
          • Breathe Fire:
            • This ability is now a 2-range cone attack instead of a 2-range line
            • Increased PWR from 12 to 14
              These changes are to set it apart from Dragon’s Fire Breath and Tri-Flame.
              
        • 🌴Dryad Family
          • Dryad, Treant, Elder Treant – Added Sleep immunity
            
        • 🐂Behemoth Family
          • Almagest (Dark Behemoth) – Reverted AoE size from 1 to 2

Reaction/Support/Movement Abilities

• Poach (Support, REWORKED):
  • This ability additionally now grants a 50% chance to smartly randomly Steal Equipment (like Thief’s Knife) with normal attacks versus humans within 2 range. “Cast” from weapon attacks will not proc this way, but Status Inflictions can still happen.
  • This ability still “poaches” critical or KO’ed monsters to the Poacher’s Den
    • Note from earlier that you no longer need to slot Poach to use the Poacher’s Den
      This change is to give this ability some functional use in multiplayer. Being a classic-derived skill from Thief, this ability allows you to trade weapon casts for equipment removal. Note that this ability is not innate to any job, so there is a trade-off for using this skill.
      
• Catch Projectiles (Reaction) – Additionally reduces the hit rate of incoming Book attacks or abilities that use its range
  Guitar and Wngman had brought this up a while back, and reasonably, Books should be counterable by this reaction.
  
• Brawler (Support) – As mentioned in the Action Abilities section, this ability allows unarmed Rend Stat attacks to calculate with [PA * (PA / 2)] instead of normally treating unarmed as 0 WP

NEW Equipment Sets

Equipment sets are new and inspired by Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together (or Reborn), taking mostly uncommonly sought-after or thematic gear and providing special bonuses if you have all 3 pieces equipped in their respective Head, Body, and Accessory slots. Sets never require weapons or shields to activate. These sets are powerful once they’re active, but with their own limitations on base stat gains and becoming subject to being broken or stolen to lose their effect (ahem, Safeguard ahem). There are 9 sets as of this update:

• Iai Strike – +20% critical chance and HP-damaging Iaido can critically strike
  • Genji Helm, Genji Armor, and Genji Gloves
    
• Tactician – Restores your Move command after a successful KO
  • Gaius Helm, Grand Armor, Gaius Calgae
    
• Duelist – Increases the critical chance of Rend Stat abilities (from Arts of War and Blade of Ruin) by 50% if used in melee range (within 2 tiles), and a KO with one increases your CT by 50 and Power by 1.
  • Close Helm, Maximillian, Brigand’s Gloves
  • NOTE: For Zalbaag’s Blade of Ruin, abilities will trigger the “melee range” even if cast outside of the normal 2 range 
  • NOTE: The CT and Power bonuses apply to kills outside of 2 range
    
• Gladiator – Reduces Vehemence damage taken by 30%, but your movement range is reduced by 1
  • Vanguard Helm, Carabineer Mail, Bravely Armlet
  • NOTE: This only affects the Move command and not other sources like Throw’s range
    
• Healer – Cure abilities additionally restores 50% MP of the HP restored (excludes caster), and triggering a Cup of Life doubles the overflowed healing
  • Red Hood, White Robes, Red Shoes
  • NOTE: Vs. Undead, Cure still damages HP, but Cup of Life continues not to do so
    
• Master Thief – Steal Equipment’s range increased to 2, and Steal Equipment bypasses Reaction ability 
  • Thief’s Cap, Black Garb, Thief’s Gloves
    
• Arcane Spirit – Reduces the charge time of generic skillset Magicks (White, Black, Time, Mystic Arts, Summon, Ja-Magicks) by 2
  • Celebrant’s Miter, Sage’s Robe, Empyreal Armband
  • NOTE: This does not affect magicks placed in other unique skillsets. For example, Curaja in Alma’s Holy Magicks is unaffected by this; this only works within the original, generic skillset
  • NOTE: This Set does stack with Swiftness
    
• Martial Spirit – Physical attacks and abilities are unevadable and damaging Martial Arts (or abilities that use its formula) absorb HP
  • Headband, Jujitsu Gi, Battle Boots 
    
• Terramancer – Geomancy is single target, doubles effective Power (in calculation only and affects abilities that use its formula), and has a 50% status chance 
  • Lambent Hat, Gaia Gear, Japa Mala

Equipment – Weapons

• Bows
  • NEW Seventh Heaven (limited):
    • 20 WP, 8 Block
    • Holy Element
    • Casts: White Magicks’ Holy with a 50% chance to Remove: Reraise, Regen, Haste (compared to the normal 19% chance)
    • Uses Magick instead of Power in the standard Bow calculation [(MA + SP) / 2 * WP]
      This is the introduction of a “magic” bow that plays very well with Magick-based jobs, and of course, as well with female Archers.
      
  • Perseus Bow:
    • Decreased WP from 20 to 14
    • Attacks with this weapon now ignore the target’s mitigation but are still subject to damage reduction sources, such as Curse or Resilience
      
• Cloths
  • NEW Moonsilk (limited):
    • 20 WP, 20 Block
    • Dark Element
    • +1 Speed and Initial: Veil
    • Effect: Polka and Heathen Frolic lower Power or Magick by an additional 1
      
• Crossbows
  • Gastrophetes – Increased WP from 16 to 18
    
  • Hunter’s Mark – This weapon’s normal attacks deal 10% more damage to monsters
    This is to give the crossbow a bit more utility and some more campaign viability, with monsters being overall bulkier and tougher to fight.
    
• Harps
  • NEW Angel Lyre (limited):
    • 20 WP, 6 Block
    • Holy Element
    • +1 Magick and Move
    • Effect: Battle Chant and Magickal Refrain additionally increase Bravery by 3
      Both Moonsilk and Angel Lyre were designed as damaging-capable weapons in addition to enticing the less-used +/- Power and Magick Bardsong and Dance for added potency.
      
• Guns
  • Ras Algethi – Added Initial: Invisible
    I felt Ras Algethi needed a little more stand-out, so this gives the gun an option to ignore evasion for select, instant ranged abilities.
    
  • Tiny Bee – Added Casts: Trigger Happy (50%, uses 1…10 * PA random scaling with Knockback if possible)
    These iconic guns didn’t feel as iconic to use, so now they have the potential for more firepower at the cost of RNG. 
    
• Knight’s Swords
  • Defender – This weapon now passively causes Rend Stat abilities to deal [Weapon] damage. This additionally affects Blade of Ruin Rend Stat abilities
    • For example, with Defender, Rend Power deals [PA * 22] (Defender WP) instead of [(PA * WP) / 2] in addition to -3 Power
      Though the Defender has great overall stat passives (Defending and status immunities), this change is to empower it as a Knight’s weapon for Arts of War busting.
      
  • Caladbolg – Replaced Casts: Leviathan with Maelstrom (Sky Mantra, Removes: Float and Haste and deals 50% max. HP if removed)
    Taking inspiration from Apocalypse, this change gives Knight’s Swords access to a Sky Mantra skill with better payoff if targeting ability-sourced Haste or Float.
    
• Knives
  • Mage Masher – Inflict: Silence now happens 100% of the time instead of 50%
    This buff is to fulfill this item’s niche, especially since it has its moments but is usually not sought after as a counter-type weapon.
    
  • Main Gauche – Added, “normal attacks bypass reaction if final strike”
    NOTE: While dual-wielding, the off-hand must be Main Gauche to be considered the final strike
    NOTE: This excludes Mana Shield due to the nature of how it triggers and always-on Reactions
    This gives this limited weapon a bit more usability with attacks and pairs nicely with Thief’s innate Backstabber.
    
• Poles
  • Whale Whisker (semi-limited):
    • Increased WP from 19 to 24
    • Now adds +1 Move and Jump while equipped
      Whale Whiskers’ niche in vanilla was to be coupled with Doublehand, so I am envisioning that same purpose here: making it more appealing for raw attacks as well as easier to get into range for said attacks.
      
• Rods
  • Stardust Rod – Added +1 Move and Magick
    
• Shields
  • Adamant Shield – Renamed for shorter naming convention
    
• Staves
  • Dreamwaker – Added Sleep immunity
    
• Swords
  • Coral Sword
    • Now Casts: Water Anima [MA * 14] instead of a special version of Quicksand

Equipment – Gear

• Accessories
  • Jade Armlet and Guardian Armlet – Added +1 Speed
    Similar to Nu Khai Armband, these armlets were decent before, but the Speed bonus definitely gives them better appeal, especially if seeking status coverage.
    
• Clothing
  • Black Garb – Added Stone and Blind immunity
    
• Hair Adornments
  • Headband (Changed from Hat, now limited) – This item has been re-classified from Hat to Hair Adornment, notably now equippable on Monks. This change also makes it easier to consider Martial Spirit Set on Monk, and this item is now usable across all jobs, specifically Heavy Armor jobs, though note that Vanguard Helm outshines it on those jobs due to increased HP
    Headband has decently been viewed as a hair adornment or an item that would fit Monks well, but they could never equip them since they cannot equip Hats. This does give Monks higher damage potential, but they are a damage-dealing job, and this item will be limited across all formats.
    
• Hats
  • NEW Regal Plume (limited):
    • +80 HP, +64 MP, +1 Power and Magick
    • Adds Red Magicks as a quaternary command, which includes:
      • Cure, Cura, Esuna, Regen, Fire, Thunder, Blizzard, and Bio
        This is a means to be able to make Red Mage-based builds without stepping too much into White or Black magicks. Note that as a 4th command, it will override Garment Ring if both are slotted. 
        
  • Thief’s Cap – Increased +HP from 70 to 80
    
  • Acacia Hat – Increased +HP from 60 to 70
    
• Helms
  • NEW Gaius Helm (limited):
    • +175 HP, +1 Power
    • Effect: Rend Stat abilities ignore the target’s evasion (applies to Arts of War and Blade of Ruin skillsets). 
    • NOTE: Rend Stat abilities still have a separate hit rate calculation that is based on their PWR, so the ability can still fail to hit, but is no longer affected by evasion.
      
• Heavy Armor
  • NEW Adamant Armor (limited):
    • +255 HP, Initial: Slow, and Barette immunities (KO, Stone, Confuse, Vampire, Curse, Berserk, Stop, Charm, Sleep, Doom)
    • Effect: Reduces Movement range by 1 (does not affect abilities that scale with Move, such as Throw)
      
  • Cursed Armor – Added Absorbs: Dark
    
  • Platinum Armor (Peytral) – Renamed and reassigned to Peytral, as it was formerly the same item, but for Campaign/Practice Mode use
    
• Robes
  • Cursed Robe:
    • Increased +MP from 150 to 200
    • Decreased +Magick from 3 to 2
    • Added: “Sets undead revive counter to 1”
      Cursed Robe could use a change to set it apart from the other variants; this one allows you to have an even faster revive chance, but still at a 60% window to do so.
      
  • Samite Coat (limited):
    • Increased +HP from 140 to 150
    • Added: “Caps incoming HP damage to 300” (after all other multipliers)
    • This item is flagged as Rare to avoid AI from selecting it as equipment
    • Moved from Ch.2 “Save Ovelia” to Ch.4 Start to treat it as endgame gear
    • Increased Gil Cost from 10,000 to 65,000 Gil
    • This item is now limited across all formats

4v4 All-Stars Format Updates (Slot 1)

• Boco (chocobo)
  • Increased base Magick from 14 to 17
    
• Zalbaag
  • Fixed missing Death Strike from base skillset
    
• Celia and Lettie
  • Decreased base Magick from 17 to 16
    
• Byblos
  • Increased base Magick from 20 to 24
  • Added Gigaflare [MA * 11] to skillset
  • Reordered the skillset list so that Gigaflare appears first and Chant appears last
    
• Argath (Deathknight)
  • Now uses the Deathknight portrait in Formation and Deployment to help discern this as a different (and deader) version of Argath
  • Assigned Fell Sword skillset, making the skillset viewable within all menus instead of previously only in battle
  • Added Confuse and Curse immunities
  • Increased Move from 3 to 4
  • Added Crossbows to equipment
  • Added Rend MP, Rend Speed/Power/Magick to Fell Sword 

Limited and Semi-Limited Gear Restriction Update

• NEW Limited: Gaius Helm, Regal Plume, Adamant Armor, Seventh Heaven, Angel Lyre, Moonsilk, Headband
  
• NEW Semi-Limited: Whale Whisker, White Robe, Japa Mala
  To specifically address Cashmere: I am glad to finally see it getting some use, but out of safety to avoid trolling/griefing, I am scaling this item back to limited because of the nature of the “stun lock” it has.

The next (and only planned) major update for 2026 arrives on June 3rd. With it comes a new system that furthers theorycrafting and team-building: Equipment Sets! Let’s take a closer look at what this entails and how it affects the landscape of build “specializations.”

What are Equipment Sets?

As you probably guessed, Equipment Sets are a unique way to gain powerful effects or means to augment abilities by equipping select gear on your units. Inspired by Tactics Ogre: Reborn (or specifically Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together), equipping certain Headgear, Body Armor, and Accessory enables new passives that one can take to focus more on their build craft or inspiration. Equipment Sets will never require specific weapons or shields to be equipped.

Though these sets are designed to be powerful (as you are locked into certain equipment to enable them), there are drawbacks for each one; some include a direct drawback within its passive, while others have statistical drawbacks, such as being a slower Speed unit because the Set doesn’t enable high Speed values, not having gear-sourced Protect and Shell, or lack of elemental or status mitigation.

Keep in mind these 9 Equipment Sets aren’t intended to be “necessary” for all cases in the metagame. The intention is to provide new ways to bolster specific specializations, with costs associated with each. Let’s preview all nine Equipment Sets and their strengths and weaknesses so you can plan which ones may be of interest once update 5.4 launches!

Tactician

The Tactician Set allows you to restore your Move command after you defeat a unit with either an attack or ability. It is similar to the Tactical Shift movement ability, with the exception that this works for all abilities and not just getting a KO with a normal attack. Note that with Tactician (and even Tactical Shift), choosing to Wait instead of using your restored Move command conserves CT at the end of turn, allowing for a more robust strategy in regaining your turn faster.

• 📃Requires: Gaius Helm (NEW), Grand Armor, Gaius Caligae
• ➕Caters to the “in-and-out” playstyle
• ➕High Movement with Gaius Caligae
• ➖Very little offensive power and no Speed gained with the set, so KO timing is paramount
• ➖No Status immunities or elemental mitigation

Iai Strike

For those who enjoy Iaido or the Samurai job, really love the aesthetics of the Genji equipment, or just hearing that critical hit sound effect, this Set boosts your critical chance by 20% (so 30% starting), and HP-damaging Iaido gain an additional effect of being able to critically strike! Like other critical chance-increasing sources, the chance is stackable with other means, such as Death Strike support.

• 📃Requires: Genji Helm, Genji Armor, Genji Gloves
• ➕Enables higher burst potential with Iaido and even with Samurai’s Doublehanded attacks
• ➕Good overall stat density between all required gear: +HP, MP, Power, and Magick – you are tanky and damaging
• ➖No Speed or Movement gained with the Set; consider +Speed weapons and Move +2 or other +Move abilities
• ➖No Status immunities or elemental mitigation

Martial Spirit

For those who enjoy playing Monk, utilizing Martial Arts, or even embracing the spirit of Liu Kang, Martial Spirit causes all of your physical attacks and abilities to become unevadable and any HP-damaging Martial Arts ability you use (or even abilities that use the [(PA + PWR) / 2 * PA] calculation) absorb HP on hit afterwards (Note that for multi-target abilities, the last damage tick results in the HP restored, not accumulative). And with this update, the Headband is now treated as a Hair Adornment, allowing for Monk to finally equip this item and make use of this new Set as a commonly requested change.

• 📃Requires: Headband, Jujitsu Gi, Battle Boots
• ➕Gain Power, immunities to KO, Doom, and Curse, and an additional Movement and physical evasiveness
• ➕Really fun to use even on non-Monks, a great way to guarantee physical attacks to land without needing invisibility or flanking
• ➕Offers great sustainability with damaging Martial Arts restoring HP
• ➖Trouble versus Undead, as the HP absorption bonus now damages you in reverse
• ➖No elemental mitigation or increased Speed

Arcane Spirit

For those who love casting magicks, Arcane Spirit reduces the base charge time of magicks by 2. This only affects magicks within the specific skillsets of White Magicks, Black Magicks, Time Magicks, Mystic Arts, Summon, and Ja-Magicks. These same abilities that are associated with unique skillsets are excluded from this charge time reduction, such as Valmafra’s Curaga from her “Magicks” skillset. You’ll need to slot and use White Magicks to get this bonus reduction.

What makes this Set really potent is that this causes magicks with a Speed of 2 or less to become instant-cast. So for example, Black Magicks’ Fira is now instant like its Lv. 1 counterpart already is by default. And Arcane Spirit’s reduced charge time also stacks with Swiftness support, enabling very fast casting potential when you need it most.

• 📃Requires: Celebrant Miter, Sage’s Robe, Empyreal Armband
• ➕Magicks with Speed 2 or less become instant cast, changing the dynamics of strategic play or offensive actions (and further speeds up slower magicks too!)
• ➕Full elemental mitigation with Sage’s Robe and +1 Speed with Empyreal Armband and additional status immunities
• ➖Prevents commonly used Luminous Robe and Cherche – jobs that do not have access to Rod of Faith struggle more and more demand on MP upkeep with Manafont or other +MP sources
• ➖No Silence immunity and typical caster issues such as versus Atheist/low-faith or MP damage

Terramancer

For those seeking an alternate way to use Geomancy, Terramancer makes the once AoE version of Geomancy become single target instead, doubling your Power stat in the calculations (this specifically also affects other abilities that use the [(PA + PWR) / 2 * MA] calc), and increasing the status chance from 19% to 50% instead, enabling a more powerful and devastating Geomancy at the cost of a wider radius.

• 📃Requires: Lambent Hat, Gaia Gear, Japa Mala
• ➕Alternative playstyle for Geomancers; more damage and coin-flip status odds
• ➕Elemental boost ensures all Geomancies have further damage potential, and additional Magick and Speed from Lambent Hat correlate to more offensive capabilities
• ➖Though it is a clear trade-off, not having AoE capabilities can hurt, especially against early game stacking or opportune moments
• ➖No elemental mitigation, but you do have Earth absorption and a broad coverage of status immunities

Duelist

For those who value opportunity and stat breaking, Duelist empowers Rend Stat abilities from Arts of War (and Zalbaag’s Blade of Ruin from All-Stars format) to have a 50% increased critical chance if used within two range (so 60% before other critical chance sources) and defeating a unit with one increases your CT by 50 and you gain an additional +1 Power; spoils for a timely attack. Note that the +CT and Power portion applies to ranged Rend Stat, but the critical chance boost only works in melee to incentivize the Knight’s playstyle.

Rend Stat abilities typically hit for half damage compared to a normal attack, so seizing the moment to strike an injured foe and successfully KO’ing them will yield faster turns and higher strength, allowing you to nearly Rend Stat attack (or Act) again in a row.

• 📃Requires: Close Helmet, Maximillian, Brigand’s Gloves
• ➕Rewards timely kills with Rend Stat to ensure almost back-to-back turns with greater Power
• ➕Increased Movement and the most +Speed you can get in gear helps keep you engaged
• ➖Rend Stat abilities require a weapon (otherwise it calcs as zero damage) and deal approximately half the damage from a normal attack; losing your weapon diminishes the set’s usability. Consider Protect removal first or other statuses that cause increased damage taken to enable better Duelist usability
• ➖No elemental mitigation, no increased Power gained, and very low status immunities

Healer

For the build that specializes in supporting their allies in dire need, the Healer Set boosts others’ sustain and strongly incentivizes the “active healing” playstyle, putting greater power behind White Mages or their White Magicks. Using any Cure ability restores 50% of the HP healed as MP, and a unit with this set targeting and triggering a Cup of Life doubles the overhealed amount, which still affects all allies regardless of their location!

• 📃Requires: Red Hood, White Robe, Red Shoes
• ➕Great way to serve as a “battery” to allies, recharging their HP and MP, especially for those who use Mana Shield or are MP-reliant
• ➕Basic elemental mitigation, gear-sourced Protect and Shell, increased Speed, Movement, and Magick; all fit the demand and needs of a clerical role
• ➖Undead, Curse, and Reflect status really cause trouble with healing with Cure or receiving healing
• ➖No Silence or Status immunities

Gladiator

For the playstyle that chooses risk, bravery, and brawn, the Gladiator Set reduces the damage taken of Vehemence by 30% (so only 10% increased damage taken but 50% more damage dealt) but reduces your Movement Range by 1 (this does not affect the range of Throw, and this only affects the use of the Move command, not the “Move” stat). With each of your passing turns increasing your Bravery by 10 thanks to the Bravely Armlet, your ability to react better and fight harder can help sway the mid-to-late game battle.

• 📃Requires: Vanguard Helm, Carabineer Mail, Bravely Armlet
• ➕Provides a great amount of potential with little drawback with Vehemence support ability
• ➕Slightly increased damage taken and Bravery over time appeal to Soulbind and “Critical” reactions
• ➖Reduced Movement Range demands Move +2, weapons that grant additional movement, or jobs that have base 4 Move to offset the movement reduction
• ➖No Status immunities or elemental mitigation

Master Thief

For the build that specializes in equipment theft, Master Thief (masterfully) empowers Steal Equipment abilities to have their Range increased to 2 and avoids the victim’s ability to use their Reaction, which would normally trigger against Steal (so no First Strike, Counter, or even Dragonheart, for example). In addition to the effect of Thief’s Gloves bypassing Safeguard and enhancing the hit rate, Steal’s success (or failure) solely relies on luck; your opponent ought to say a prayer to the gods before it’s too late.

• 📃Requires: Thief’s Hat, Black Garb, Thief’s Gloves
• ➕Enables the most potent form of Steal Equipment – bypassing Safeguard and Reactions and with a 2 range reach
• ➕Excellent increased Speed puts a generic Thief at 15 Speed, risky but potentially rewarding if needed; Master Thief is the best counter to all other Sets and weapon-reliant builds
• ➖Lower total bulk puts the unit at high risk of dying, especially if attempting an early-game Steal
• ➖No elemental mitigation or Initial: Protect, Shell – necessary for survivability for turn-one plays
• ➖For either you or the enemy, RNG decides the outcome

I hope you all explore new heights and theorycrafting when Equipment Sets launch with competitive version 5.4 on June 3rd! The Preview Team had a chance to test out new creations with this new system ahead of time to help squash bugs and prepare this new way to play for public availability.

Note that this update will require new save data, so your existing teams will be reset! Take the time to jot down or take note of your favorite compositions so you can explore your teams with this new system soon.

With the upcoming Competitive v5.3 Update soon to be released on December 22nd, this article goes over an important change to the Mime job and why the course has been set to transition it as a Blue Mage, another well-known job in the Final Fantasy universe. Let’s take a deeper dive into what this means for the job change, the reasoning behind this change, and the future of Blue Mage and competitive Tactics PvP.

Why the Job Change?

First, I want to preface that for the few that enjoyed Mime and utilizing their powerful mimicry (which allowed them to copy generic abilities and attacks right after an ally performed them), I understand this change comes as rough news and changes up some of the deeper-driven strategies you utilize in your party by having Mime(s). If the means existed to just add a job instead of overwriting one, that would have been the route easily taken, but please take a moment to understand the reasoning for this job shift:

• Mimicry imposes a “grey area” that enables a player to effectively gain extra actions that do not count towards the 40-action limit. In a competitive environment where every action counts towards a limited amount shared between both players, this can and has led to, on numerous accounts, a lopsided advantage towards the player who has Mimes versus a player that does not. This does not always mean “Having Mimes = Win.” At the sake of fairness, mimicry fits well in single-player, but for PvP, it can create balancing issues.
  
• At the start of version 5, Mime gained access to a usable skillset in Blue Magicks. This was the first part of “Mimes to Blue Mages,” but still retained their mimicry capabilities back then and additionally gained limited equipment as well. This change is to complete the initial work that was done to Mime and to fully flesh out those changes while aiming to ensure Blue Mage remains competitive and fun to use, even without mimicry.
  
• With numerous efforts being made to support monsters as fully viable and capable allies for PvP, comparatively to the original game and even the earlier versions of the mod, Blue Mage thematically fits the theme and synergizes with bringing monster support through innate Beastmaster (this was a carryover from Mime), as well as being able to become customizable with abilities. Even if you don’t use monsters in your party, Blue Mages can hold their own without fear of misplays that could be caused by mimicry, allowing for a broader audience to explore and understand them.

A Deeper Look at Blue Mage

Blue Mage has big shoes to fill, and even though it won’t fully replace Mime in essence and their ability to mimic previous actions, they are a force to be reckoned with; not necessarily the best at damage, but moreso the status and control game. They have gone through the full rework treatment – new abilities, gear choices, and even new sprites too! A big credit to Elric (originally from the Journey of the Five mod – Final Fantasy Hacktics community) for the amazing “Animist” sprites used for Blue Mage.

First, let’s look at their innate abilities. They have Beastmaster, which enables the unlocking of all ally monsters’ hidden abilities regardless of location. They also have Concentration, which not only increases your hit rate by 50% physically of the target’s evasion, but also affects magics as well with this update. And lastly, they have a new support ability, Status Boost, which increases the 19% chance of statuses to 27% instead, great for Ice Anima’s Slow, Earthsplitter’s new Immobilize chance, and even Heave’s KO. This additionally works with other abilities like Geomancy, Iaido, and even Black Magicks, but does not enhance the hit rate of Spellblade or Speechcraft, for example.

Next up, their equipment options. Blue Mages have a variety of equipment choices with Knives, Rods, Swords, Shields, Hats, Clothing, Robes, and, of course, all regular accessories (where Mime was limited in accessories previously). The amount of customization and build choice is certainly not limited with this job.

Unveiling the Preview Team and Their Favorite Blue

Starting with the v5.3 update and onward, a group of hand-selected members in the Tactics League Discord were invited to privately test this update, provide feedback on changes, and help shape the future for both Blue Mage and other changes coming alongside this update. The v5.3 Preview Team was composed of @TheCountess, @Guitarmanager, @WngMan, @acook10, and @DUBZONLY. Preview members are only invited to test and help iterate the upcoming changes on a “per update basis.” Being actively involved with the community and helping others can net you an invitation in the future, too!

As the Preview Phase was wrapping up, some of them shared their favorite Blue Mage build and why they enjoyed playing it to help give some ideas once this patch is released for you all to explore as well!

Countess

“Status Quo”
Blue Mage has become a personal favorite job of mine for a slew of reasons, and I’d like to explain why with a favorite build of mine! With Blue Mage coming equipped with “Status Boost” as an innate ability, I’m personally someone who enjoys the disruption and initiating route when it comes to battles! Blue Magicks offers a nice set of different ways to status your opponent out, from Slow, to KO, to Vampire, Immobilize, and more!

With status boost increasing our 19% chance abilities to now have a 27% chance, this mage also comes equipped with the “Iaido” skillset as well. While your damage isn’t anything grand, don’t let that stop you from Iaido being a nice way to deal with units surrounding you, or ones who happened to stay a bit too grouped up together. And having “Safeguard” further helps this out, by not only keeping her gear safe for the most part, it also offers her Iaido abilities a lower chance of breaking! For a reaction ability, I find Nature’s Wrath to be a solid option, because Geomancy abilities also fall into the “19% status” category!

And lastly, she comes equipped with a lovely Ebon Blade and Nu Khai Armband to boost not only the initial hit, but the following Unholy Darkness, which has a possible chance to inflict a poor soul with the Curse status! And thanks to Blue Mage’s having innate “Concentration,” this makes using proc-based weapons a good option when thinking about your weapon of choice. All around, this Blue Mage’s goal isn’t to do an absurd amount of damage but instead to try and remain a constant nuisance to the enemy team by attempting to inflict them with different and multiple status effects depending on the situation! The innate “Beastmaster” is also a nice little cherry on top if you choose to run a monster or two on your team! Just remember, give her a nice protect/shell before sending her into battle!

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Guitarmanager

“Lady Death”
Lady Death takes advantage of the Status boost from Blue Mage for increased status chances in Iaido (Ashura 😈).

Running up against a character with Ribbon, then give Ama-no-Murakumo a shot for a chance at cursing them. Construct 8, no problem, just go for a Muramasa for that sweet confusion proc. She also has some nice support abilities that shouldn’t be slept on for healing, buffing, and status removal.

Mind blast is a great ability for shutting down a lot of units, but it works particularly well for dealing with mages and support characters. If the blue mage gets low, Goblin Punch deals a ton of single-target damage, especially when rocking a high HP blue mage with Angel ring/Dragonheart.

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DUBZ

“Quale”
Quale was named after the character, Quinna, from FFIX (which was also a Blue Mage-type of character). This build is centered around the idea of using Cashmere attacks for guaranteed Disable & Immobilize with Chantage or Mystic Arts; generally just being a pest with the numerous status skills both Blue Magicks and Mystic Arts have. Innate Concentration also helps with landing both regular attacks and even Mystic Arts casting. I didn’t get a ton of testing in with this build but it is a really fun way to interrupt the opposition.

The third major beta update of version 5 is now released, sporting a few new system-related enhancements and other combat changes.

If you are already on version 5, you DO NOT need to update your save data.
Make sure to always patch using an unmodified, USA-region backup of your FFT WotL ISO, and do not override an already patched copy!

To download this update, please visit Download.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue where Steal Limelight/Glitterlust/Snort would sometimes display -20 CT instead of -30 CT in the forecast (visual bug fix)

Quality of Life Updates

• Melee Mode
  • Midlight’s Deep multiplayer map variants now have their lighting fully restored, while ensuring campaign variants still require crystals for brightness
    
  • Increased the Timer from 12 to 13 minutes (this affects all Tactics League competitive rulesets)
    Based on feedback, I want to compromise in the middle by adding an extra minute, but am still wanting to have a slightly shortened timer due to improved time-per-game. I will be monitoring both replay and spoken feedback in the future.
    
• Systems/Limit Level System (Cloud & Aerith)
  • Cloud and Aerith now start battles with Limit Level 1 unlocked. Some changes occurred to Level 1 abilities now that they are no longer initially locked:
    • Braver – Decreased damage bonus from 10 to 5%, still evadable
    • Seal Evil – Decreased Range from 3 to 2
      This is a change to the LLS I want to explore. Going into v5, I suspected that players would try to “not go after” either of these characters to avoid triggering their limit (and rightfully so), which ends up making their unique effectiveness a bit less than I would like. Weary of this and currently seeing these results happening, the goal is to test both of these uniques with their Level 1 abilities unlocked at battle start, still giving you merit to preserve Limit Level if so (and reaching lv. 4 faster too as a result), but also they can use their initial skills right a way as well.
      
• Systems/Traps
  • Improved the traps found on tiles for both campaign and melee formats. Thank you to Tzepish for this hack and improvement. Here are the following changes:
    • Degenerator – No change, still -1 Lv.
    • Death – Inflicts: KO instead of Doom
    • Hypnogas – No change, Inflicts: Sleep
    • Sten Needle – Inflicts: Immobilize & 25% max. HP damage instead of only 20% max. HP damage
    • Mine – Inflicts: Oil & 50% max. HP damage instead of random minor damage & Oil
    • Mossfungus – Inflicts: Poison and 25% max. HP damage instead of only Poison (will not deal damage if poison immune)
    • Cursed Stone – Inflicts: Curse instead of Undead
    • Updated the Help menus for each trap during the Trap Placement screen (melee) with these changes
      These improvements to traps should make them a bit more impactful and dangerous during encounters, especially for melee when played for fun.
      
• Systems/Mechanics
  • Bow Arrow Animations
    • Improved the animation queuing with abilities that have an effect assigned. Abilities with an effect will no longer display the “arrow” and will only play the effect on target one time (to continue to remove double damage display/effects). Abilities with no effect, such as Attack, Take Aim, or Barrage, will still display its arrow visually en route to the target
      
  • Added missing status text for Veil and Curse in the Reequip – View List screen

Jobs

• Bard
  • Increased HPM from 100 to 105% (generic 285 to 299 HP)
  • Increased MPM from 50 to 100% (generic 50 to 101 MP)
    These stat adjustments to Bard are to ensure that the job can better compete against the recent Garment Knight builds to provide better “stat” options on job choices. The intention is that though Bard is less bulky than Knight, they have Performing Arts innately, so they can build more into HP Boost or any other support option than Garment Knight can. This also puts Bard in a better position for spellcasting. 

Action Abilities

• Break Arts
  • Sunder:
    • Increased PWR from 4 to 6
    • Increased Range from 2 to 3
    • Updated the spell quote
      During Alpha, Sunder was originally 6 PWR, but it was scaled down due to the +HP armor difference change that is no longer active in crush abilities, so I am reverting the PWR to its original state to enforce this as the hardest “hitting” single-target Break Art. The range buff is to get it up to standard with other bladed weapons’ range, especially with recoil.
      
• Piracy
  • Tides of Fate – Changed animation to use Waterja’s effect
    This was changed due to not getting proper hit reactions when it hit multiple targets in the cone.
    
• White Magicks
  • Regen – Increased PWR from 170 to 180 (approx. 3% increased hit rate)
    
• Black Magicks
  • Bio – Decreased MP cost from 60 to 48
    
• Time Magicks
  • Hasteja and Slowja – Increased MP cost from 30 to 48
    Ability cost increases to justify their wide-area impact, excellent hit rate even without Faith, and ally/enemy only targeting capabilities. This also puts pressure on non-caster jobs to build a bit more for MP.

R/S/M Abilities

• Reflexes – Additionally increases your Class Evasion (C-EV) by 8% while slotted
  With Reflexes being half the value than vanilla, this buff is to fit the theme of improving your endurance by strengthening your class evasion automatically which in turn is also factored into the increased evasion rates. This is the only method that can enhance class evasion.
  
• Bravery and Faith Boost – Both abilities additionally now increase your Bravery or Faith by 10 while slotted
  This is to improve these abilities and provide an option to augment your Bravery or Faith stat pre-battle as the only means of doing so.
  
• Celerity – This ability now grants Initial: Invisible
  This was added to give it a “passive” effect like Ward and Earplug, albeit this isn’t an immunity.

Equipment – Weapons

• Magick Guns – Decreased WP standardization from 20 to 19
  Mag guns are overperforming slightly, so I am going to dial down the WP a tad and re-assess from there, keeping in mind they are still stronger due to Black Magicks.
  
• Staves
  • Nirvana – Added +1 Power and Magick

Practice Mode

• Ashley Team (West)
  • Improved Ashley’s decision making to use more of his abilities and not focus mostly on Items

During the Version 5 Exhibition, Guitarmanager and Rumer showcased a brand new supported format joining Tactics League during the v5 beta launch: All-Stars, a new competitive 4v4 experience.

All-Stars is a rendition and an upgrade of an older format from back in Tactics League’s earlier days – Uniques Premade – where the roster was fully comprised of unique characters with no generics, but was limited to “play how it comes.” This is coming back but it will also combine the battle-tested and open format of Standard, allowing players to fully customize a battle party of heroes and villains across the Zodiac Brave Story. This will sunset the Generics Premade format and All-Stars will take its place.

Let’s briefly go over the all-star cast joining this uniques only format.

A Powerful Cast at Your Disposal

The All-Stars format will house 28 unique characters from the campaign and Tactics League exclusives. If you have played version 4 Standard, you will be familiar with the first three rows of units, of course with new additions: Aerith, Ashley, Elidibus, and a returning fan-favorite, Balthier, joining the Standard roster in v5. Now let’s take a look at who is joining the cast specifically for All-Stars and a brief description of what they can do each:

• Orlandeau (Sword Saint)
  • Orlandeau received some base stat adjustments to bring him more in line for both the campaign and All-Stars.
  • Innate: Swordplay usable with Katanas, Ninja Blades, Swords, Knight’s Swords, and Fell Swords
  • Swordplay skillset now only includes:
    • [Holy Sword] Judgment Blade, Cleansing Strike, Hallowed Bolt
    • [Unyielding Strike] Crush Helm, Crush Accessory
    • [Fell Sword/Darkness] Sanguine Sword, Infernal Strike
      
• Orran (Astrologer)
  • Innate: Arcane Defense
  • Replaced the Astrology skillset (which only housed Celestial Stasis) with the original Arithmeticks skillset. Arithmeticks can now be Silenced or Reflected unlike in the original game.
    • CT and Height only targeting parameters
    • [White Magicks] Cure
    • [Black Magicks] Fire, Thunder, Blizzard, Scathe
    • [Time Magicks] Gravity, Reflect
    • [Mystic Arts] Umbra
      
• Zalbaag (Ark Knight)
  • Innate: Lifefont and Manafont
  • Blade of Ruin is now all instant cast, still requires a sword-type weapon, abilities cost 40 MP each, and is faithless. Because of changes in v5 for damaging Arts of War’s Rend Stat abilities, Blade of Ruin will also deal damage on stat reduction success.
    
• Boco (Chocobo)
  • Innate: Counter, Swim
  • As a chocobo, players can mount Boco to position faster or take advantage of rider immunities!
    
• Isilud (Nightblade)
  • Innate: Concentration
  • Renamed his skillset to Dark Arts (from Arts of War), which combines various abilities from Arts of War and Darkness. While Nightblade, also adds the Jump command as a tertiary skillset:
    • [Arts of War] Bulwark, Rend MP, Rend Speed, Rend Power, Rend Magick
    • [Darkness] Sanguine Sword, Infernal Strike, Abyssal Blade
      
• Elmdore (Ark Knight)
  • Innate: Safeguard,  Immune: KO, Undead, Stone, Vampire, Reraise, Invisible, Berserk, Chicken, Toad, Doom
  • Sword Spirit skillset functions entirely like Samurai’s Iaido. While Ark Knight, also adds the Vampire command as a tertiary skillset (which only has Vampire ability, 25% chance to Inflict: Vampire)
    
• Celia (Assassin)
  • Innate: Death Strike, Dual Wield, Immune: KO, Stone, Chicken, Toad
  • Equip: Knives and Ninja Blades (to showcase the difference in gear with Lettie)
  • Subdual Arts was reworked to make room for other abilities and is now:
    • Conceal (NEW, 100% self-invisible), Death, Curse, Ultima, Entice
      
• Lettie (Assassin)
  • Innate: Death Strike, Dual Wield, Immune: KO, Stone, Chicken, Toad
  • Equip: Knives and Katanas (to showcase the difference in gear with Celia)
  • Subdual Arts was reworked to make room for other abilities and is now:
    • Conceal (NEW, 100% self-invisible), Suffocate, Dark Whisper, Ultma, Entice
    • Note: Suffocate now uses [% = SP + 40] and not 100% like the original version
      
• Byblos (Byblos)
  • Innate: Soulbind, Dexterity, Arcane Defense, Defense Boost, Immune: Vampire, Curse, Doom
  • Removed Fire Weakness and can now enter water tiles
  • The Byblos’s skillset is now: Chant, Manaburn, Vengeance, Maim
    
• Argath (Deathknight variant)
  • Innate: Equip: Undead, Monkey Grip
  • Fell Sword includes: Sanguine Sword, Infernal Strike, Throw Dagger, Salve, Frenzy, and Taunt
  • Note: To avoid complications with the campaign, this sprite is using the “Squire” version of Argath, and though Fundaments skillset shows up in the menus, in battle he has Fell Sword instead.

4v4 Competitive Battles

Besides using unique-only characters in All-Stars, this format also is specific to a 4v4 experience, intending to have faster-paced games, with thrills and chaos to be had. All gear, jobs, and abilities are unlocked and follow the basics and limitations of the Standard format so jumping from one format to another should be fairly easy.

All-Stars is a fully supported competitive mode and will become a part of the competition rotation for sanctioned events in the future!

All-Stars format will be available on March 18th during the Version 5 Public Beta and will require a save data update, included with the v5 patch file.

Version 5 introduces a way to circumvent the recruitment process for acquiring monsters (with Traitor status being removed, and it being the original only way to recruit them), and monsters are on track to become usable in the future in competitive PvP.

Hire Monsters at the Warriors’ Guild

In the Campaign article, there was a mention of there being future updates to the Warriors’ Guild. This update comes right before the version 5 public beta (huge thanks to @Tzepish <3) and it changes the system to allow for hiring both female and male Squire in one option and now introducing the new option: Hire Monster.

Hire Monster randomly generates any of the regular monsters (no special monsters sorry!) at your highest party level member so they don’t have to be grinded before they can catch up with the rest. This highest level scaling also applies to the Hire Squire option but they will still start with their preset gear and 0 JP across jobs. One neat aspect about this new feature is that generated monsters have slight deviations in their stats too, so one Chocobo is not the same as the other when it comes to stuff like HP, MP, Power, or Magick.

Since this new method fixes the ability to experience Campaign with monsters who received hefty ability updates and some stat balancing, you’ll be able to bring them alongside your journey into the Zodiac Brave Story by simply dismissing units ahead of time if space is limited, heading to the Warriors’ Guild, selecting Hire Monster, and hiring new units for a 3,000 Gil fee.

An Update to Beastmaster Ability

To improve this ability’s viability with monsters and to resolve an issue that causes the recently announced 3 range to bug out in situations, this ability will now unlock your monsters’ hidden abilities at any location on the map. Yes, that means you can get your Squeal or Gigaflare on from the other side as long as the Beastmaster unit is not KO’ed or mid-jump (from Jump) or under Sleep, Disable, Stone, Vampire, Chicken, Toad, Confuse, Berserk, Stop, or Veil.

In the picture below, here is an example of a Dark Behemoth using its hidden ability, Almagest, several tiles away from Ramza, who has Beastmaster.

A Future in Competitive

With the ability to hire monsters and they generate at your party level, there’s finally a future for them regarding competitive play in Standard. Monsters have received numerous updates in job stats and abilities to balance them better while aiming to improve them overall for Campaign and Standard.

Now to set expectations, monsters have their limitations, most do not have access to Protect or Shell, Defense Boost, or Arcane Defense (but a select few do) and will rely on their human allies in most cases to provide these buffs, but there is a potential in the future metagame. Giving up a generic human job for a monster, may or may not be worth the trade-off, but experiment now that it is a possibility. Stay tuned for potential ruleset updates regarding monsters being allowed in future competitions!