Tag Teambuilding

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!

As part of our community mission to provide a home for multiplayer Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions, we wanted to include a save that hones in on some of the game’s toughest PvE battles that you can take on with a buddy online wherever you have an internet connection and ZeroTier/PPSSPP. This supported save is included with our latest v2.5 save data update which you can read more about here.

✅Features

• All 15 Rendezvous missions unlocked (game cleared)
• This save is built similarly to how Starter is; the inventory is limited in quantity and characters have all jobs and abilities unlocked
• Ramza is listed as R-Ramza so you can track multiple Rendezvous saves within the Tactics League save data if needed

📃Important Details

• The PvP Patch must be disabled as this mode was designed with “vanilla” or original gameplay in mind
• It is highly recommended to have an original version of your FFT WotL backup ready so you can play with original text/descriptions
• Characters on the roster should not be modified, except via gear and abilities, and should retain their original Br/Fa values and stats
• Any stat changes, including EXP/JP, while in Rendezvous are reset after the mission ends
• Arithmeticks are disabled automatically in Rendezvous
• Characters that “crystalize” are not permanently removed from the party roster
• Multi-part missions, such as Brave Story, do not reset HP/MP, KO’d characters or status effects, inventory changes (such as katana breaks)

🏆Challenge and Scoring

You can always take on these missions with a friend casually, but why not add a little extra difficulty for added fun and strategy? The game’s Treasure Wheel dictates not only how many chests you get from completion but also your “Star Rating.” This Star Rating or the number of chests increases the fewer units you and your partner take on a mission together in addition to completion.

To go for a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐score:

• Ideally, both players bring no more than 1 unit each. However, this may vary from mission to mission
• Have zero party members KO’d by the time the mission ends (reviving does not penalize scoring)
• KO as many enemy characters as possible

At a later date, we are working on featuring a competitive-style Rendezvous challenge for everyone in the Tactics League Discord to participate in, so make sure to start learning these missions and prep to show your PvE prowess. If you have not already joined our Discord hop in and find a partner!

Elemental affinities play a role in Final Fantasy Tactics’s story and an even more significant role in PvP. This article covers the intricacies of how these affinities work and what each type of bonus does in combat.

Table of Contents
● Different Types of Elements
● Elemental Modifiers (Boost, Halve, Absorb, Negate, Weak)
● Status Effects and Weather
● Equipment with Elemental Support

Different Types of Elements

In Final Fantasy Tactics, there are eight elements: fire, lightning, ice, water, wind, earth, holy, and dark. By themselves, they don’t mean much other than the type of damage they are considered, but once you factor gear or if you are going up against a monster things can change quickly.

Most monsters in the game are weak to a particular element and may be resistant to others. This is where elemental affinities can become an advantage in the story. In the Monsters Premade format for PvP, one of the main focuses on the roster is using elemental advantages to deal double damage so you can bring down your opponent twice as fast.

We will explore how you can take elements one step further by going more into modifiers.

Elemental Modifiers

There are five types of modifiers that can either increase or reduce or eliminate elemental damage: boost, halve, absorb, negate, and weak. It is important to know how they function especially in PvP as this can deter or enhance the damage you deal to your opponent’s team! We will cover what each one does below:
● Boost – Increases the damage done with the element by 25%.
● Halve – Decreases the damage taken from the element by 50%.
● Absorb – Restores HP instead of taking damage from the element. Whatever the damage total would be is healed instead.
● Negate – Nullifies all damage taken from the element.
● Weak – Increases the damage taken from the element by 50%.

These modifiers do not stack with themselves. For example, having 2 Boost: Fire does not mean 50% damage but still only increases your fire damage by 25%. The same applies to halve, absorb, negate, and weak.

Status Effects and Weather

Some status effects and even weather conditions can play a role in elemental affinities. Though we won’t go into too much regarding weather since we published an in-depth weather guide already, we will instead highlight weather interactions as well as how some status effects here below:
● Float status – Immune to earth attacks while also being treated 1 height higher.
● Oil status – Take double the damage from fire attacks. This status is removed once fire damage is taken.
● Thunderstorm – Fire damage dealt decreased by 25% and lightning damage dealt increased by 25%.
● Snowstorm – Ice damage dealt increased by 25%.

Equipment with Elemental Support

Now that we have gone over the types of elements and modifiers that can affect them, let’s go over the gear in the game that either deals its damage as a particular element or has a modifier built-in:

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.

📑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.