Version 5.2 Competitive Update

The second incremental update to competitive version 5 comes thematic for Halloween, bringing about a big pass on monsters and monster abilities, improving Ashley Riot’s survivability, some equipment enhancements, addressing some rarer bugs, and implementing the Ability Quotes from Final Fantasy Tactics – The Ivalice Chronicles (thank you to @Tzepish for these)!

The notes for the minor update v5.2.1 on November 4th can be found here.

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

  • Reequip:
    • Fixed certain stat resets after performing a Reequip
    • Fixed Reequip not respecting Dual Wield
  • Fixed an issue that resulted in berserked monsters not attacking. They will now deal 1.5x uncontrollable damage as originally intended
  • Fixed a bug that could cause you to regain Move with Tactical Shift if you died from Poison status
    You are supposed to be dead, not able to move, somehow!

Quality of Life Updates

  • Systems
    • The camera is now freely rotatable while viewing the Turn List target areas
  • Ability Quotes
    • Implemented all official ability quotes from Final Fantasy Tactics – The Ivalice Chronicles. Note that some abilities did not receive an updated official quote, in particular, the WotL-exclusive abilities and Tactics League-exclusive ones
      • The -ara Black Magicks use the Lv.3 and -aga uses Lv.4 quotes due to past ability condensing
      • Retained the Iaido ability name in quotes instead of the “weapon” that was stated in TIC, as that sounds better, and because it replaces the normal ability name pop-up if triggered
    • Added a delay before the ability name for improved readability
  • Text Updates
    • Updated the crystal learning text to state that you acquire all of the abilities to clarify how that mechanic works
    • Added “all” to Pierce support ability’s Help menu to improve context
    • Items and help menus that state Absorb/Halves/Boosts of all elements now state “All Elements” instead of each element
    • Fixed Sinkhole and Tanglevine’s ability descriptions
    • Tutorial – Updated instances of text to be accurate based on PvP Patch changes
    • Additional text improvements or enhancements
  • Campaign
    • Reduced Throw Dagger’s Chance to Learn (affecting AI JP buying) from 90 to 50%
      Throwing knives can be fun, but it can also be cumbersome, especially in the early game, which reduces AI engagement behavior and makes it more tedious for players to reach their targets. The goal here is to reduce the buy chance so that it becomes roughly 3/5ths of the opposing team with it learned. 

Jobs

  • Riskbreaker/Ashley
    • Increased job HPM from 100 to 105% (from 368 to 386 base HP)
      This job HP increase is solely to entice Ashley’s main job as a pick over other jobs, as the gap is a bit tighter in certain cases, while having the most weapon flexibility.
  • Mime – Restored Beastmaster innate ability
    Beastmaster was removed at the time when Mime had Fly implemented, but looking at the ability now and its niche, it can have this innate restored as a means to provide support for monster allies. 

Action Abilities

  • Nether Mantra (Marach)
    • Increased PWR of all abilities from 2 to 4
      Even with the prior 2 PWR change from back in v4, Marach still didn’t feel quite right in base-damage potential on his main job, factoring in the possible up to 5 hits in a single target, too. After re-assessing where his damage lies against 60 Faith, I buffed all of his abilities to compensate for this, while obviously strengthening his potential against low faith/atheist targets.
  • Magicks (Valmafra)
    • Replaced Empowerment (Mystic Arts) with Gigaflare (ability from Behemoths)
    • Gigaflare:
      • Instant non-elemental, 4 range, 2 radius [MA * 11] attack
      • Gigaflare’s former AoE was reduced from 3 to 2, but its Vert was increased from 0 to 2 (this affects all monsters that have access to this ability)
      • Gigaflare can now be Magick Countered but is unevadable
        This ability replacement is to remove the lesser-used Empowerment for a weaker, but non-elemental skill in Val’s skill as an instant option against elemental mitigation.
  • Break Arts (Ashley)
    • Reduced the recoil of select abilities from 40 to 30%:
      • Shadoweave, Vile Scar, Accursed Umbra, Sanctus Flare, Gravis Aether, Ignis Wheel, Retribution, Sunder
        A pain point I’ve noticed with Ashley is survivability with most of his kit, so to address it, I have reduced the recoil of most of his skills so that with Regen/well-timed Life’s Anthem or Cure, you aren’t losing much at all, greatly improving his survivability without neutering the power of these abilities.
    • Sanctus Flare – Increased status chance from 19 to 50%
    • Ignis Wheel – Increased status chance from 30 to 33%
  • Aim
    • Sonic Boom:
      • Removed 20 MP Cost
      • This ability now deals double damage to targets affected by Float status
        Reassessing Sonic Boom, the MP cost is no longer warranted, and the float damage buff is to give this ability a bit more uniqueness that can’t be found elsewhere.
  • Mystic Arts
    • Empowerment – Increased MP absorption from 33 to 50%
      Draining ⅓ of a target’s MP tends not to yield any positive counterplay, so this value is going up ½ instead, giving this ability more use-cases where it can serve.

R/S/M Abilities

  • REWORKED Catch Projectiles (formerly Sticky Fingers):
    • Combines both Sticky Fingers and Ranger’s Bane functionality in full
    • Increased Catch Projectile’s JP Cost from 200 to 300
    • Additionally lowers the hit rate of Harp attacks (as a core change to Ranger’s Bane)
      These abilities are both great against their requirements but fall short otherwise, so combining the two makes the most sense and gives a better feel of usability. Thank you to @Tzepish for letting me steal his idea lol.
  • NEW Auto-Reflect:
    • Grants Equip: Reflect at all times
    • Added to Mystic’s skillset for 300 JP
  • Equip Lunging (formerly Equip Poles) – Renamed to include Cloths, which is considered a lunging-type weapon
  • Equip Bows – Added Harps (formerly known as Instruments) as available options

Monsters and Monster Abilities or Blue Magicks

  • Removed all prior elemental Weaknesses from generic monsters. This change is similar to that of Flame/Ice/Lightning Shield and even Byblos – to improve their viability without concern of taking double damage right away, while putting the only main emphasis on their need for ability-sourced Protect/Shell and reinforces Oil status as the premier “weakness” source. This excludes all campaign-only bosses or monsters (such as Reavers).

    To log which monsters this affects:
    • Goblin, Black Goblin, Gobbleydgook – Removed Weak: Ice
    • Bomb, Grenade, Exploder – Removed Weak: Water
    • Red Panther, Coeurl, Vampire Cat – Removed Weak: Earth
    • Piscodaemon, Squidkraken, Mindflayer – Removed Weak: Lightning
    • Skeleton, Bonesnatch, Skeletal Fiend – Removed Weak: Fire, Holy
    • Ghoul, Ghast, Revenant – Removed Weak: Fire, Holy
    • Floating Eye, Ahriman, Plague Horror – Removed Weak: Ice
    • Jura Aevis, Steelhawk, Cockatrice – Removed Weak: Earth
    • Dryad, Treant, Elder Treant – Removed Weak: Fire
    • Wisekin, Minotaur, Sekhret – Removed Weak: Water
    • Malboro, Ochu, Greater Malboro – Removed Weak: Ice
    • Blue Dragon – Removed Weak: Fire, Red Dragon – Removed Weak: Ice
    • Hydra, Greater Hydra, Tiamat – Removed Weak: Ice, Wind
      In order to provide an avenue for monsters to exist in the metagame, this is a big shift from their original version. The emphasis that monsters in the campaign mostly don’t have Protect/Shell already means that they are usually easy to defeat without much hassle (but are more dangerous than ever!), and this change is purely for the competitive environment that this mod prioritizes.
  • The following monster abilities are considered “status attacks” and can no longer trigger counter-reactions as they are already physically or magically evadable:
    • Venom Fang
    • Death Touch, Sleep Touch, Drain Touch, Oily Touch
    • Beak
    • Glitterlust (this ability is not evadable, but has a flat 60% hit)
  • 🐤Chocobo Family:
    • Yellow Chocobo – Reduced HP Growth from 8 to 6, resulting in higher base HP at Lv. 99 and reducing the gap between it and other chocobo-types
    • Black Chocobo – Reduced HP Growth from 7 to 4, resulting in the highest base HP comparatively
    • Red Chocobo – Increased HP Growth from 4 to 5, resulting in the lowest base HP comparatively
    • NOTE: You’ll need to “hire” new chocobos for this to take effect
      The result of these HP growth changes is that Black is the bulkiest and strongest physically, Red is the most acute for magic, and Yellow is caught up HP-wise to the rest while still being the fastest.
    • Choco Beak – Now uses [(PA + 10) / 2 * PA] instead of unarmed
  • 👺Goblin Family:
    • Black Goblin – Increased Move from 4 to 5
    • NEW Goblin Rush (replaces Goblin and Gobbledygook’s Eye Gouge):
      • 2 Range, 2 Vert.
      • Deals mitigation-ignored [PA * 16] damage with ¼ of the damage being self-inflicted (similar to Mow Down)
      • Unevadable, Direct, and triggers Counter-Reactions and Nature’s Wrath
        Eye Gouge replaced with something a bit more meaningful for our goblin brethren.
  • 💣Bomb Family:
    • Bite – Now uses [PA * 16] instead of unarmed
    • Flame Attack – Increased PWR from 7 to 20 and added 19% Inflicts: Oil (hidden ability and single target)
  • 🐱‍👤Cat Family:
    • Red Panther, Coeurl, Vampire Cat – Replaced Ignore Elevation with Dexterity and Counter with Catch Projectiles
    • Red Panther – Replaced Death Strike with Brawler for better damage consistency
    • Claw – Now uses [PA * 18] instead of unarmed
  • 🦑Squid Family:
    • Piscodaemon, Squidkraken, and Mindflayer – Replaced Bonecrusher with Magick Counter and replaced Tentacles with Water Anima
    • All have added Blind and Oil immunities
    • Piscodaemon:
      • Removed innate Brawler as it no longer has abilities that take advantage of it
      • Increased MPM from 120 to 180% for Magick Counter MP costs
    • Squidkraken – Increased MP from 115 to 155% for Magick Counter MP costs
  • 💀Skeleton Family:
    • Skeleton, Bonesnatch, and Skeletal Fiend – Replaced Counter with Counter Throw
    • Skeleton – Added Brawler
    • Bonesnatch – Increased Move from 3 to 4
    • NEW Dark Slash (replaces Chop):
      • Dark elemental physical damage using [(PA + 16) / 2 * PA]
      • 19% Inflicts: Doom
      • Physically evadable, triggers counter-reactions and Nature’s Wrath
  • 👻Ghost Family:
    • Ghoul and Revenant:
      • Replaced Shirahadori with Mana Shield
      • Decreased MP Growth from 30 to 5, resulting in higher +MP at Lv. 99 (requires rehiring)
    • Ghast:
      • Decreased HP Growth from 7 to 5, resulting in higher +HP at Lv. 99 (requires rehiring)
      • Replaced Shirahadori with Soulbind
      • Switched Drain Touch to 3rd ability and added Death Touch as hidden
    • Revenant:
      • Increased HPM from 93 to 102%
      • Increased MPM from 64 to 84%
    • Ghoul:
      • Increased HPM from 89 to 96%
    • NEW Death Touch (replaces Zombie Touch):
      • Functions as Death (black magicks) with 110 PWR (including the reviving and healing of undead)
      • Still calculates using the target and caster’s Faith
      • Magically evadable
      • NOTE: This ability is not reflectable  and can be cast while silenced, unlike Death
    • Ectoplasm – Now uses [MA * 7] instead of unarmed
  • 👁Ahriman Family:
    • Removed Persuasive from all and replaced it with innate Halves: All Elements and added Doom and Curse immunities
    • Wing Buffet (Ahriman family) – Now uses [PA * 14], increased Range from 1 to 2, and flagged Direct 
    • Floating Eye – Increased HPM from 90 to 98%
    • Ahriman – Increased HPM from 95 to 105%
  • 🦅Bird Family:
    • Jura Aevis, Steelhawk, and Cockatrice – All have Adrenaline Rush instead of Counter or First Strike, and added Blind immunity
    • Cockatrice – Added Concentration 
    • Steelhawk – Increased HPM from 94 to 98%
    • Talon Dive – Now has a 50% Remove: Protect, Shell, Reflect using unarmed calc
    • Featherbomb – Increased PWR from 9 to 12 and added 19% Inflicts: Berserk
  • 🐷Swine Family:
    • All have added Confuse and Sleep immunities
    • Pig – Replaced CT Boost with Ward and Persuasive with Defense Boost
    • RETURNING Bequeath Bacon:
      • Targets Self
      • Self-KOs caster to 100% Create: Crystal. This crystal behaves like any other crystal after death and can be used to restore HP/MP fully to friend or foe
      • Bequeath Bacon is added as a 3rd ability to all swine monsters
    • Swine – Replaced Counter with Bonecrusher
    • Snort – Now is a [MA + 10] chance to Inflict: Charm instead of -30 CT. This ability is unevadable and flagged Direct. Note that this ability is the highest chance to Charm someone especially without mitigation!
  • 🌳Treant Family:
    • All have Cup of Life reaction instead of previously assigned reactions (Mana Shield/Cup of Life/Resilience)and added Stone immunity
    • Treant:
      • Increased HPM from 130 to 165%
      • Increased SPM from 114 to 124% (12 starting Speed)
      • Added Magick Nymph as a 3rd ability
    • Dryad – Added Life Nymph as a 3rd ability
    • Elder Treant – Increased HPM from 175 to 180%
    • Leaf Rain – Unflagged for Nature’s Wrath, but flagged for Magick Counter (this ability is magical in nature)
    • Guardian Nymph (Dryad and Elder Treant) – No longer Bestows: Defending, Regen. Now has a [MA + 5] chance to Bestow: Reraise, Regen to a single target within 1 Range
  • 🐂Minotaur Family:
    • All have added Slow immunity
    • Wisenkin and Sekhret – Increased Move from 3 to 4 to match Minotaur
    • Wisenkin – Added Pierce and increased Jump from 3 to 4
    • Pickaxe – Now uses [PA * 20] instead of unarmed
    • Breathe Fire – Increased PWR from 10 to 12 and added 19% Inflicts: Poison
  • 🥗Malboro Family:
    • Tentacles – Now Absorbs HP using unarmed calc
    • [Blue] Goo – Added Oil and Poison status inflictions
  • 🐕‍🦺Behemoth Family:
    • All have added KO, Doom, Stone, Stop immunities
    • Behemoth – Increased SPM from 117 to 125% (+1 Speed, fastest)
    • Behemoth King – Added Concentration
    • Dark Behemoth – Replaced Counter with Nature’s Wrath
    • Gore – Now uses [PA * 20] instead of unarmed
  • 🐉Dragon Family:
    • Dragon, Red Dragon, and Blue Dragon – Replaced Counter with Dragonheart
    • Dragon:
      • Replaced Lancet with Luna now that Berserk is working on monsters (and uniquely the only monster that can cast it)
      • Increased PAM from 136 to 147% (average +1 – 3 PA)
      • Increased SPM from 118 to 132% (+2 Speed, 14 starting Speed)
      • Added Absorb: Lightning and Blind immunity
    • Red Dragon:
      • Added Poison immunity
      • Decreased SPM from 132 to 124% (-1 Speed to match Blue Dragon at 12 Speed)
    • Blue Dragon – Added Immobilize immunity
    • Tri-Thunder – Increased PWR from 12 to 24 to match Tri-Flame
  • 🐍Hydra Family:
    • Hydra:
      • Replaced Counter with Fury and added Brawler
      • Added Tail Sweep as a second ability
    • Greater Hydra – Replaced Counter with Dragonheart
    • Tiamat – Replaced Counter with First Strike
    • Tri-Attack – Now uses [PA * 17] instead of unarmed
  • Charge (Goblins, Pigs, Dragons):
    • Now uses [PA * 17] instead of unarmed
    • Changed the effect from Charge to Tackle to have it appear more so as a basic attack
      This “Halloween-timed” update focuses on further improving monsters in a way that addresses several issues they face entering the competitive environment, and gives them a bit more flourish in their limited kit to make them more considerable. Many “attack” based abilities were improved, and several were moved away from the unarmed calc as those leaned too heavily on Bravery to be effective. 

Equipment – Weapons

  • Cloths
    • Damask Cloth – Increased WP from 15 to 20
    • NOTE: Cloths are universally accessible via Equip Lunging support ability
  • Harps (formerly Instruments)
    • Renamed because the only type of instrument are harps (lol)
    • Muse’s Harp – Increased WP from 15 to 20 
    • NOTE: Harps are universally accessible via Equip Bows support ability

Equipment – Gear

  • Hair Adornments – Increased the +HP of the following items:
    • Ribbon – from 10 to 30
    • Cachusha and Barette – from 20 to 50
      These items have loss some favor due to a slightly higher need for reaching certain HP thresholds and would only befit mostly bulky uniques. These slight HP updates are to still keep in mind they provide a ton of immunities, but also opens up the window for lesser bulk jobs to accommodate for them better and synergizes very well with HP Boost.
  • Accessories
    • Nu Khai Armband – Added +1 Speed

Practice Mode (Araguay Woods)

  • Special Encounter Team
    • Balthier – Replaced Wizard’s Robe with Lordly Robe to ensure he has Protect/Shell

Incremental Update v5.2.1

This minor update addresses bugs found from the v5.2 update, introduces the first magic ability that can critically strike – at the disposal of Balthier, and a few more monster buffs. 

Bug Fixes

  • Fixed an issue where stealing/breaking a weapon or shield would result in it failing/zeroing out
  • Fixed Shirahdori not reducing the hit rate of Jump and Throw as originally intended
  • Fixed Barrage and Take Aim not respecting Catch Projectiles if used with an applicable weapon type (lingering barrage code would bypass this reaction check)

AI Behaviors

  • Bombs will no longer switch to “Coward” mode while critical, improving the chance for them to Self-Destruct you instead (thank you @tzepish for the code from WotL Tweak)

Action Abilities

  • Piracy (Balthier)
    • Tides of Fate:
      • This ability can now critically strike with a base 10% chance, the only magic ability that can uniquely do so
      • This ability scales its critical chance with Death Strike and any other sources that normally provide “increased critical strike chance”
        I’ve always wanted to do something unique with this skill. Still, I couldn’t find a landing – until I came up with the idea that if this ability is about “fates,” then let’s set the foundation to make it have a chance to crit, an idea that several have brought up in passing in general in the past.

Monsters and Monster Abilities

  • 💣Bomb Family:
    • All now have innate Critical: Quick instead of the previously set Fury/Adrenaline Rush/Magick Boost
    • All have added Poison immunity in addition to Oil
    • Bite – Reverted to unarmed calc but now has a 50% chance to Inflict: Oil
      Though the stat gains of the former reactions are nice, Crit: Quick puts more emphasis on their volatility through Self-Destruct, and your opponent (or yourself) will have to be careful on how they approach bombs. 
  • Bewitching Gaze (Ahriman and Plague Horror) – Added Curse infliction to the list of statuses that can be randomly rolled
  • Cursed Touch (formerly Oily Touch – Ghoul (hidden) and Ghast):
    • Now Inflicts: Curse status instead of Oil at [MA + 55]
    • Magically evadable
    • Changed the effect from Oily Touch to Nightmare
      Though I love oil shenanigans, this provides another accessible source of Curse status via monsters this time around. 
  • Death Touch (Ghast and Revenant, hidden ability):
    • This ability now only calculates using [MA + 25] instead of the prior v5.2 faith-based calculation (caster/target Faith no longer applied)
    • This ability is still magically evadable
      As suggested by @therumer, I can agree that this ability doesn’t need Faith holding it back since it is sourced only from monsters and gives Ghast/Revenant a unique position on undead teams.
  • Guardian Nymph (Dryad and Elder Treant, hidden ability) – Increased PWR from 5 to 10
    PWR increase to offset the average MA of Dryad and to make Elder Treant typically the best odds of casting it, albeit at slower Speed.
by Tactics League Article, Format, PvE, PvP, Updates