PvP Patch v4.0 Focused: Status Effects
This article is focused on going over the plethora of status effect changes you will encounter in PvP Patch v4.0 Beta. Although status effect changes are considered Quality of Life, because there are some major changes, in particular, Protect and Shell, these deserve their segment, especially considering Standard and Premades set the minimum need of both buffs as a part of the damage balance.
This is a must-read especially for those currently familiar with PvP Patch version 3.0!
Protect and Shell
As Protect and Shell set the damage mitigation standard for Tactics PvP, there has been community feedback on mostly the interaction and need of either playing it safe and using gear-sourced (or Equip) versus using ability-sourced (such as Kiyomori or Barrier). There are several areas of improvement needed for the ability-sourced versions to make it viable and ultimately a better choice when considering the action spent to cast.
In version 4, to better balance both sides of gear-sourced and ability-sourced Protect and Shell, the following key changes will occur:
- Gear-sourced Protect and Shell will now use <Initial> instead of <Equip>. This means that Protect and Shell are no longer permanent unless the gear is broken or stolen and now exist on a duration like Kiyomori or Barrier currently does. Because you are granting these buffs via gear, the cost is now a shorter duration versus being ability-sourced, and depending on how long a game goes, you may need to reapply it mid-game.
- Protect and Shell’s duration has been increased from 15 to 22 game clockticks. Gear-sourced Protect and Shell will expire around the 24th Act and ability-sourced around the 34th Act.
Note that the more units that are KO’d the faster the ticks speed up just like any other status effect with a duration so the Act in which they expire is ultimately variable. - Protect and Shell now persist while KO’d – This change is because, in version 3, ability-sourced versions are removed when a unit dies in battle, making it even more perilous than its gear-sourced equivalent. Sourcing it either through gear or an ability, you now have one less worry to contend with but keep in mind that Protect and Shell can “fall off” since its duration runs even while dead.
- Because of the <Initial> change to gear-sourced Protect and Shell, Protect and Shell is now interactable the same you currently can with ability-sourced. That means you can now use abilities like Rapha’s Heaven’s Wrath, Luso’s Dischord, Arts of War’s War Cry, Mystic Arts’s Harmony, and Giant’s Axe attacks to properly remove these buffs from a target. This change is to set better expectations with how these interactions work instead of “Well I can’t use these since they are using <Equip>.”
- Additionally, Arts of War’s Bulwark now grants Protect and Shell with Defending as a new ability option, but in a “t-shape” AoE and the Sortilege accessory now grants extended Protect and Shell duration from 22 to 36 ticks (lasting 40+ Acts), as a part of a new status extension system that will come with version 4.
Atheist, Charm, and Sleep Uptime Reduction
These three status effects have had their duration reduced in version 4. The changes were ultimately because they create high-impact/effect scenarios:
- Atheist’s duration has been reduced from 20 to 16. This change was due to the fact that there isn’t a ton of sources that can directly remove it, though the Eight-Fluted Pole can now do so with a single attack on an affected target. The status duration also needs to be plentiful for builds that benefit versus Atheist, such as Marach’s Nether Mantra.
- Sleep’s duration has also been reduced from 20 to 16 to give a bit more leniency on a well-slept target, though you are still going to want to hit them with HP damage or cleanse it as they do take 1.5x more physical damage.
- Charm’s duration has been reduced from 18 to 12. Because of the potential that Charm has in swaying an outcome, an affected unit will now be freed from it in roughly 2 unit turns, the same as Haste. Once more, it is still usually better to HP damage or cleanse Charm to avoid a bad time!
Invisible
A few changes has happened with Invisible status, notably that NPCs can now target you whereas before they could not until you took an action. This change is mostly due to community feedback regarding “de-aggroing” enemy NPCs in Rendezvous and allowing them to position in an advantageous spot for AoE damage. Here are the gist of the changes:
- Doubles your evasion rates while active – this functions similarly to the Defending status and Invisible and Defending can both stack on each other creating low hit windows against incoming physical damage. Invisible still ignores the evasion rates of a target both physically and magically.
- NPCs can target you but you are de-prioritized while Invisible. With doubled evasiveness, NPCs may consider not engaging an Invisible unit in the future, but that doesn’t mean that they won’t alright if the conditions dictate you are still the best target/in range/taken prior damage.
Veil (formerly Invulnerable)
By request and as an effort to improve interactions in the game state, Veil (which was formerly Invulnerable and sourced only via Steadfast Ring) has been renamed to fit the naming convention better from other Final Fantasy games and now has a proper status pop-up when it has expired! Note that Veil will typically expire shortly after its bearer has taken an action/turn so make sure to take advantage of its short window of opportunity!
PvP Patch v4.0 Beta will be released on March 12, 2024. Be sure to join the Tactics League Discord for a heads start on the update and be a part of our growing community!
