Category Article

With the PvP Patch v4.0 Beta launch, the existing map pool has also received some updates to spruce up and adjust maps based on community feedback. Let’s look at which maps are joining and which are being retired in their stead.

Sal Ghidos (replaces Dorvauldar Marsh)

Sal Ghidos is a new medium-sized map that will replace Dorvauldar Marsh entirely. The issue with Dorvauldar is that the host side can have a mobility disadvantage if they are not using movement options, such as Fly or Levitate. Though it is an incentive to use these abilities, a player shouldn’t be pigeonholed to needing these abilities to be able to engage with their opponent. Sal Ghidos features a shortened distance but with many housing or rooftops to utilize and is a great map for archery and other ranged abilities.

Mullonde Cathedral Sanctuary (replaces Monastery Vaults – Level 2)

Mullonde Cathedral Sanctuary is a new small-sized map joining the rotation and replacing Monastery Vaults – Level 2 (the map with the bookcases). Though the host and guest spawns appear close, the coffin in the middle actually prohibits forward movement, so players will need to work around the sides to engage. The spawn heights between both players are also the same, so there aren’t any tactical advantages unlike Monastery Vaults. This map feels and plays great as a small map and is likely to be the best “small”map to play competitively on in the future.

Limberry Castle Inner Court (replaces Goug Lowtown)

Limberry is another medium-sized map that will be replacing Goug Lowtown. Though Goug is fundamentally playable, it does have some odd advantages for the guest player being able to get an early, vertical position on the guest. The map also didn’t feel the best to play on as echoed by several community members, so the change is to replace it with a map that promotes engagement, shorter distances but still reasonable set up time, and even some space to work off of for builds that enjoy higher sight-lines.

These maps are officially entering the map rotation on March 12th during the PvP Patch v4.0 Beta! Join the Tactics League Discord and check these new areas and all of the changes coming with this update!

PvP Patch version 4.0 Beta is the next big iteration for Tactics League multiplayer. This patch addresses several community feedback, suggestions, and additions and is solely built on the success of v3.0. This patch has been designed, tested, and iterated over the past 6 months (starting mid-October 2023) to change certain aspects of PvP and further allow diversity and creative expression in a competitive environment.

Though my modding skills have slightly improved, I want to first thank @Tzepish for guiding me and being a big part of this new update, especially with the new or changed complex mods. He is a pillar of this community and the PvP Patch and I want to personally thank him for getting us to this point.

I also want to give a huge shout-out to Discord members, @Jokerfisch, @WngMan, @Oaks, @therumer, @sandcatankh, and @dr.jay. for their suggestions and feedback throughout v3.0c. Several changes or additions you will see are from their direct perspectives and molded into the update as well.

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.

Table of Contents

• PvP Patch v4.0 Beta Changelog
  • Quality of Life
  • Known Issues
  • Characters
  • Jobs
  • Action Abilities
  • Reaction/Support/Movement Abilities
  • Equipment – Weapons
  • Equipment – Gear
• Standard v5.0 Beta (formerly Starter)
• Generics Premade v5.0 Beta
• Rendezvous v3.0 Beta
• PvP Patch – Changelog (opens a new tab)

PvP Patch v4.0 Beta Changelog

This changelog is the patch notes from all work done in the 4th version of the Tactics League’s PvP Patch for both PvP and Rendezvous modes. These notes are large in scope, so please make sure to read them thoroughly!

Quality of Life

• You can now rename unique characters at the Warrior’s Guild!
  
• Damaging Iaido abilities and Unholy Sacrifice now properly preview their damage
  Note: The damage shown in the preview is based on what the caster would receive based on their mitigation.
  
• Removed low Bravery and high Faith desertion warnings
  This change is to remove any pesky messaging about either warning in addition to the prior QoL change that Br/Fa changes are no longer permanent. 
  
• Soundtrack
  • Replaced the random encounter music Antipyretic with Remnants
    
• Weather/Day System
  • Removed the weather and nighttime penalties affecting Bows/Crossbows
    
• Maps (Melee Mode)
  • Midlight’s Deep maps (starting with The Creavase) now have brightness! This only affects the Midlight’s Deep maps in Melee currently and does not affect those found in Campaign
    You can finally see where you are going in Midlight’s Deep – multiplayer maps!
    
• Update the in-battle graphics palette for weapons that have either had an updated item palette or were newly added but their battle graphic did not match
  Note: some items, such as Cinquedea, do not have a close/exact palette representation available to them
  
• Story Encounters (Single Player/Campaign)
  • Chapter 1
    • Orbonne Monastery (1st battle)
      • Set the equipment of all enemies to Random, removing their accessibility of now endgame gear and the game-deciding the best equipment based on level
        Though the purpose of the PvP Patch is multiplayer, those who wish to check out the experiences in a solo setting no longer have to worry about going up against early-game foes with endgame gear.
        
• Practice Mode (Araguay Woods)
  • Renamed the world map text to “Practice Mode”
  • All encounters on this map are now only against humans
  • The Bravery/Faith of all generic enemy encounters is 60/60
  • The level of all random encounters matches <Party Level> instead of <Party Level – Random>
  • All enemy builds are tailored to some popular and niche builds from past PvP experiences to make each encounter a worthy battle
  • Removed all War Trophies to avoid additional inventory changes; out of pre-caution, still reload your save after a battle
  • All 8 enemy parties have a unique character assigned to match the Standard ruleset; You can encounter the following Unique characters randomly based on the direction in which you enter Araguay Woods:
    • Rapha (W) – Chemist, Archer, Thief, Geomancer
    • Delita (W) – Dragoon, Onion Knight, Chemist, Archer
    • Agrias (W) – Time Mage, Knight, Dragoon, Summoner
    • Mustadio (W) – Dark Knight, Samurai, White Mage, Mime
    • Construct 8 (E) – Bard, Dancer, Dragoon, Monk
    • Cloud (E) – Geomancer, Squire, Archer, Black Mage
    • Valmafra (E) – Orator, Dark Knight, Mystic, Thief
    • Meliadoul (E) – Archer, Geomancer, Ninja, Bard
    • Special Random Encounter (from any direction) – Alma, Marach, Reis, Beowulf, Luso
      This change is to provide a play area to test your roster offline against a fairly difficult challenge built with the Standard format in mind.
      
      Can you survive the special random encounter vs. 5 uniques?!
      
• Status Effects
  • Significantly updated the Help menus for all negative status effects to provide context on how to remove them 
    
  • Protect & Shell:
    • Protect & Shell status now persists through KO instead of being removed on death
      Their duration still actively counts down while dead, but a revived unit can return with its mitigation intact. Note that you cannot remove these buffs from a KO’ed unit.
      
    • Increased the Tick of Protect & Shell from 15 to 22 and all equipment-sourced Protect/Shell are set to <Initial> instead of <Equip>
      Why the change to the functionality of Equip: Protect, Shell? As gear-sourced Protect/Shell is usually the go-to compared to using Kiyomori/Barrier since they persist through death and could not fall off since it is permanent, this is to change the standard of Protect/Shell; You’ll get more duration out of Protect/Shell when ability-sourced because <Initial> ticks wear off faster since it occurs at the start of the game versus being cast. But you can still benefit from gear-sourced Protect/Shell; not having to cast it early, but now with a chance of it being removed from stuff like Harmony, War Cry, Heaven’s Wrath, Maim, or Giant Axe’s attacks where it previously could not. And now with Protect/Shell persisting through death, it’ll strictly be dependent on when it was applied either ability-sourced or initially but with less fear of resurrecting without it.
      
      Note that ability-sourced Protect/Shell will not apply on KO’ed units.
      
      This will result in the status uptime lasting roughly 34 Actions, up from 20, when ability-sourced on the first Act, and lasting roughly 24 Actions, up from 15, when gear-sourced (aka the start of the game).
      
  • Veil (formerly Invulnerable):
    • The name was changed to better fit the status name traditionally used in other Final Fantasy games and to correlate the same naming convention with Tzepish’s “WotL Tweak” mod. The functionality of Veil status remains unchanged
      
    • Added the status pop-up text for Veil; you will now see when the status effect is no longer affecting a unit from Steadfast Ring!
      Man, what time it took to fix this 😅
      
  • Invisible:
    • Now doubles your evasion rates while active (similar to Defending and does stack with each other)
      
    • NPCs are less likely to attack an invisible unit (targeting de-prioritized)
      With AI now being able to target invisible units, Invisibility adds some additional evasion bonuses to help dodge evadable attacks and make your units less likely to be focused; but this is situational as a whole and an invisible unit can still be targeted if there aren’t any other good, valid targets in their LoS/ability ranges/damaged units.
      
  • Atheist – Reduced tick from 20 to 16
    Since Atheism is difficult to remove, the duration has been reduced so that it is still impactful and viable on builds that benefit from it, but also less uptime for those negatively impacted.
    
  • Charm – Reduced tick from 18 to 12
    This reduction in Charm’s status uptime is due to the high impact it can have in a game. This status debuff will last in the same timespan as Stop, lasting roughly 2 of the charmed unit’s turns.
    
  • Sleep – Reduced tick from 20 to 16
    Uptime duration is reduced to allow faster removal of this infliction, though you will still want to cleanse or inflict damage in most cases.
    
• AI Behavior
  • The AI can now target Invisible-status units
    This change provides a fix for community feedback regarding using Invisibility to de-aggro the enemy and force them to move towards a corner for later advantageous play. Note that there are later RDV mission adjustments to compensate as that was also provided feedback to help deter the need for this former strategy.
    
  • Removed the decision-making to only Bestow: Protect/Shell when an ally/self is HP Critical
    The removal of this vanilla function should allow the AI to consider applying these crucial buffs when needed instead of when you or a friend are about to die lol.
    
  • Random encounter units can now have Fury/Magick Boost/Adrenaline Rush/Vanish assigned
    
  • Units in random battles now have better equipment selection
    The AI can generate better equipment options based on their job so they feel more practical and challenging.

Known Issues

• Monkey Grip does not currently function when using Reequip in battle
  
• Mimes will retain their gear post-battle even if it is “illegal.” Please make sure to reload your save data after an offline game to ensure competitive integrity

Characters

In this update, two new characters join the roster! Valmafra and Alma. Both will be replacing Balthier and Ovelia respectively. 

• Valmafra – Witch of the Coven (NEW Unique Character, replaces Balthier)
  • Available in both Rendezvous and Standard formats
  • Base 270 HP, 139 MP, 13 PA, 15 MA, 12 SP, 10% C-EV, 3 Move, 3 Jump
  • Can Equip: Swords, Knives, Rods, Staves, Hats, and Robes
  • 65 Bravery, 70 Faith
  • Swiftness innately
  • Magicks (skillset): Holy, Graviga, Unholy Darkness, Arise, Curaga, Firaga, Blizzaga, Thundaga, Aeroja, Waterja, Quake, and Divine Ultima
  • Divine Ultima (Valmafra’s unique ability): 
    • Non-Elemental
    • Faith-based, unlike Ramza/Luso’s Ultima
    • 99 MP, 50 PWR, 8 tick
    • 2 Range Self-AoE (Iaido-like), 3 Vert
    • Non-reflectable, Non-evadable
    • Enemy and Ally affected
      This new caster inspired by the concept of both Red Mage and Elementalist is loaded with powerful elemental magicks in her arsenal and is considered a faith-based damage dealer. Balthier is being retired for the time being as he is overall in an odd spot with the previous metagame. 
      
• Alma – Cleric (NEW Unique Character, replaces Ovelia)
  • Available in both Rendezvous and Standard formats
  • Base 235 HP, 146 MP, 11 PA, 16 MA, 12 SP, 18% C-EV, 4 Move, 3 Jump
  • Can Equip: Staves, Hats, Clothing, Robes
  • 39 Bravery, 87 Faith
  • Arcane Defense, Defense Boost, Immune: Charm innately
  • Holy Magicks (skillset): Aegis, Dispelna, Barrier, Arise, Curaja, Holy, Chant
    By popular request (ahem Mistral ahem), Alma will take Ovelia’s place in the roster for this update. With her, some similarities but also some differences; Alma is faster but less bulky, has Charm immunity instead of Stone, has the same innate damage mitigation, and has stronger Faith, but less Bravery to contend with. Let Alma perform her clerical duties and serve as a strong support on just about any team!
    
• Ramza
  • Now properly utilizes his Chapter 2/3 sprite and portrait in the formation screen and in-battle
    Yes, that means no more smexy butt armor to look at 🙁 
    
• Delita
  • Replaced his Chapter 1 formation sprite and portrait with his correct “Knight” variation that was already used in battle
    This was because the portrait and sprite were incorrectly matched, so I went and fixed it entirely so you have a proper and handsome-looking Delita in all his glory.

Jobs

In this Jobs update, you will come across many small multiplier increases (usually +5%). These buffs are to take the QoL base stats improvements and then combine them with PA or MA increases to improve generic female physical or male magical job builds to further tighten the total stats spread between genders. The result is that from a generic view, the difference between male and female job’s total PA/MA spread is no more than 1 point.

For abbreviation references: HPM = HP multiplier, MPM = MP multiplier, PAM = PA multiplier, MAM = MA multiplier, SPM = Speed Multiplier

• Divine Knight/Meliadoul
  • Increased job HPM from 125 to 135% (from base 363 to 393 HP)
    This 10% increase is to incentivize keeping Meliadoul on her main job with her skillset now being usable with any weapon. 
    
• Netherseer/Marach
  • Re-added Robes as available equipment
    This was originally removed in PvP Patch v2 to mitigate potential MA-stacking. However, after re-assessing the PWR of his abilities and requiring Atheist/low Faith targets to become most effective, the robes change is being reverted to ultimately raise his damage potential on his main job. 
    
• Chemist
  • Now increases the healing of Potion and Ether-type items by 50 (this includes Auto-Potion) innately 
  • Increased HPM from 80 to 110% (approx. +82 HP)
  • Increased PAM from 75 to 80% (male +1 PA)
  • The PA change resulted in generic Chemist as male 10/10 and female 9/11
    This new Potion/Ether “passive” is a way to pull power away from slotting Items as a secondary and giving Chemists the limelight as expertise of medicinal use.
    
    This large increase in HP is to help Chemists stand out more as a medium-speed tier job and to consider them more as an option for Items instead of falling back as a secondary on other jobs. Chemists are naturally bulky with good starting SP to boot but do not boast PA/MA.
    
• Knight
  • Increased Move from 3 to 4
    Movement increased to help Knights engage faster since their weapons and main abilities are all close-ranged.
    
• Monk
  • Increased PAM from 129 to 135% (female +1 PA)
  • The PA change resulted in generic Monk as male 17/10 and female 16/11
    
• White Mage
  • Increased MAM from 110 to 115% (male +1 MA)
  • The MA change resulted in generic White Mage as male 11/14 and female 10/15
    
• Summoner
  • Increased MPM from 125 to 170% (approx. +60 MP)
  • Increased PAM from 50 to 55% (male +1 PA)
  • Increased MAM from 125 to 130% (male +1 MA)
  • These changes resulted in generic Summoner as male 7/16 and female 6/17
    This significant buff to max MP gives Summoners an edge compared to other caster jobs in how they can easily build towards high max MP and use this to their advantage especially factoring cheaper casts thanks to innate Halve MP to offset the Mana Shield + Manafont combo.
    
• Orator
  • Increased PAM from 75 to 85% (male +1 PA)
  • Increased MAM from 95 to 100% (male +1 MA)
  • These changes result in generic Orator as male 11/12 and female 10/13
    
• Dragoon
  • Increased PAM from 130 to 135% (female +1 PA)
  • The PA change resulted in generic Dragoon as male 17/10 and female 16/11
    
• Ninja
  • Increased PAM from 122 to 125% (female +1 PA)
  • The PA change resulted in generic Ninja as male 16/9 and female 15/10
    
• Bard
  • Decreased MAM from 145 to 135% (-2 MA)
  • The MA change resulted in generic Bard with 12/16
• Dancer
  • Increased HPM from 100 to 115% (+40 HP)
  • Decreased PAM from 140 to 130% (-1 PA)
  • The PA change resulted in generic Dancer with 15/13
    These reductions in their MA/PA multipliers are to offset the base male/female unit PA/MA increase to better job change as a whole. This change does affect uniques PA/MA when in these jobs as well but only marginally.
    
    Dancer’s HP increased to give better sustain to a job that is meant to be front/mid-lined and to entice the job as a pick over slotting Dance as a secondary.
    
• Sage
  • Increased SPM from 90 to 95% (+1 SP)
    This SP increase is to put their starting SP at 10 instead of 9, resulting in less +SP stacking needed to get them to a reasonable value, while still demanding the need for it.
• Mime
  • Removed the hardcoding that prohibits equipment; Mimes can now equip a limited gear selection!
  • Can equip: Bags, Clothing, Robes, Hats, Hair Adornments, Cloaks, Shoes, Perfumes, Lip Rouge
  • Copy Weapon – Mimes now “slot” the Right and Left-Hand from the last non-Mime ally action (this includes attacks, using a generic/unique ability, using an Item, etc.). A couple of important notes:
    • Reequip is excluded (because it is sourced as a Support ability)
    • Copy Weapon excludes the Shield if slotted
    • You cannot get consecutive attacks even if you Copy Weapon dual-wielded weapons (because Dual Wield is not innate)
    • Copy Weapon excludes the weapon(s) from the previous ally’s Charging status since this isn’t a “fulfilled” action 
    • Copy Weapon does not activate off of a previously used unique ability
    • If a Mime fails to mimic it will still have the last acted Ally’s copied weapons slotted and not the one that triggered the failed mimicry
    • This includes weapons that Mimes currently cannot equip in the party menu
    • Since this isn’t technically equipping them, <Equip> bonuses do not apply
    • Statuses or Casts on hit (based on their original chance) can still activate
    • This “bug” is a feature and can be used to make some creative plays 😉
    • In non-Multiplayer, the copied weapon(s) are retained after a battle, including weapons Mimes cannot normally equip. Please be mindful of this and make sure not to save illegal equipment (as per tournament regulation) and continue to reload your save data afterward (like for Practice Mode)
  • Decreased HPM from 180 to 150% and removed Ribbon-like innate immunities since they have access to gear
    These huge QoL changes to Mime ultimately allow them to adapt to your team better. I expect to see much more Mime play in the future and look forward to creative shenanigans!
    
• Dark Knight
  • Replaced innate Immune: Faith with Lifefont
  • Increased PAM from 130 to 135% (female +1 PA)
  • The PA change resulted in generic Dark Knight as male 17/10 and female 16/11
    The innate change is a part of past efforts to improve a job’s innate ability while not being too situational.
    
• Onion Knight
  • Increased MAM from 120 to 125% (female +1 MA) 
  • The MA change resulted in generic Onion Knight as male 17/15 and female 15/17
    

Action Abilities

There are various improvements to many skills and some balancing tweaks as well. One impactful change to note is that all 8 Range abilities have been reduced to 6 Range to encourage engagement. All non-White Magicks revival sources have also had their PWR (or chance) slightly reduced to create a window for them to fail, though they are still consistent enough to warrant use as a part of addressing “chain resurrection.”

• Ability Bug Fixes
  • Unarmed attacks were erroneously using [PA * SP * (Br/100)] instead of [PA * PA * (Br/100)]
    This was an oversight that has been corrected and now Unarmed attacks properly scale their damage correctly.
    
• Sky Mantra abilities and Frenzy (Fundaments):
  • These abilities now display the targeted status for removal during damage preview and will now pop-up statuses inflicted (affecting Celestial Void). The status pop-up excludes Charging and Performing but will still function correctly
    
  • Removed residual Faith-based checks in their formula, fixing all abilities to now properly function regardless of the target’s Faith value
    This rids of any final Faith checks regardless of their Faith, including Celestial Void now having a chance to properly damage Construct 8 (but will require Confuse to be successfully rolled).
    
• Unyielding Strike (Meliadoul, formerly Unyielding Blade)
  • Crush abilities now require any weapon instead of only sword-types
  • Crush abilities still retain their original properties
  • Crush abilities still use their ability range of 3 and are not weapon range
  • Updated the skillset name to reflect that it is no longer necessarily tied to a “bladed” weapon
    This change to Meliadoul is to give her improved build diversity with no longer requiring a sword to use her abilities and utilizing the different weapon types she can equip as Divine Knight.
    
• Mettle (Ramza)
  • Encourage – Decreased PWR from 200 to 70
    The original 200 value was to guarantee this ability to land. As part of this update’s goal to speed up game resolution, this ability will now be set to base 70% + PA, still yielding high success rates, but now with a window for failure. Note that this ability’s %hit increases with Brawler/Attack Boost/Vehemence.
    
  • Maim – Increased PWR from 6 to 9
    PWR increased since this ability is single target compared to other Geomancy-derived abilities.
    
• Chant (Delita-Holy Sword, Alma-Holy Magicks) – Increased Range from 1 to 3
  Range increased to make healing with this ability more doable without having to sacrifice too much range to do so. 
  
• Holy Magicks (Alma)
  • Aegis – Increased MP cost from 30 to 40
    With this ability sourcing many buffs at once and typically near instant or within 3 turns, Aegis will be a bit more expensive to cast.
    
• Aimed Shot (Mustadio)
  • Disassemble – Increased PWR from 60 to 80
    This ability’s chance decreases against magic mitigation, so the base PWR is being increased to offset that plus increased reliability.
    
• Nether Mantra (Marach) – Abilities will now hit 2-5 times instead of 1-5 times
  This change is to give Marach some lead way in the randomness of his attacks and to slightly improve both the consistency of initial damage potential and status chance when utilizing his skillset.
  
• Sky Mantra (Rapha)
  • Divinity – Now Removes Performing/Charging instead of Faith/Charging
    This gives Rapha a reliable check against enemy Bards/Dancers while leaning Faith removal now more on Harmony and is an instant-cast, damaging version of Break Aim.
    
• Dragon (Reis)
  • Increased Fire Breath, Ice Breath, Thunder Breath, and Holy Breath’s PWR from 12 to 14
  • Added missing Vert text to all breath attacks
    
• Limit (Cloud)
  • Braver – Increased PWR from 8 to 10
  • Meteorain – Decreased PWR from 15 to 14
  • Cherry Blossom – Decreased PWR from 18 to 16
    The PWR reduction in Meteorain and Cherry Blossom is to slightly reign in on damage potential since these abilities are cast from range + in large AoE.
    
• Tasks (Construct 8)
  • Salvo – Switched the effect animation from Bomblet to Self-Destruct to provide a hit reaction in AoE damage, displaying all damage values to those affected (and no Construct 8 will not blow itself up by doing so lol)
    
  • Dispose – Decreased Range from 8 to 6
    The court of public opinion finds an issue with the range of Dispose since it ignores LoS, so as part of nerfing the overall range of ranged abilities, this will also be reduced.
    
• Huntcraft (Luso)
  • Mighty Guard – Switched the effect animation from Wall to Protect to speed up the animation time (the ability’s functionality remains unchanged)
    From 16s to now 7s on 5 units – enjoy Wngman 😛!
    
  • Discord – No longer hits/affects Luso on cast
    This buff is so that Luso doesn’t strip himself of Protect/Shell/etc. while doing so for others.
    
• Fundaments
  • Frenzy – Additionally removes Reraise if the target is currently affected
    This adds a new counter against reraise especially if they are stacking KO/Doom/Atheist immunities.
    
  • Taunt – Increased PWR from 30 to 36 to offset the loss of chance when the target is affected by Shell/Arcane Defense
    
• Items
  • X-Potion – Decreased the HP restored from 300 to 250
  • Hi-Potion – Decreased the HP restored from 250 to 200
    The reduction in the value of these healing items is to help curb some of the potency in Items and further incentivize using a Chemist to ultimately return these items to their prior strength. Items as a secondary ability will still retain their core strengths even with this slight nerf.
    
  • Phoenix Down – This item now always revives with 20% of the target’s Max HP instead of a random value from 1 to 20
    This change buffs the functionality of Phoenix Down while retaining its primary expectation – revive while retaining HP critical status. This change also plays a role in limiting Phoenix Down to 3 in Standard to reduce the overall power of Items.
    
• White Magicks
  • Cure – Increased PWR from 15 to 20
  • Cura – Increased PWR from 25 to 30
  • Curaga – Increased PWR from 35 to 40
  • Curaja – Increased AoE from 1 to 2, remains 40 PWR, but now only affects allies
    These buffs to the curative spells are to improve White Magicks as a whole especially since other stuff like X-Potion and even Life’s Anthem are situationally stronger with fewer requirements. White Magicks is shaped more to be the definitive healing skillset, as it should be, especially with maximum healing potential. Expect to see some potent active healing!
    
  • Reraise – Decreased Tick from 6 to 4 and PWR from 140 to 100 (avg 70% w/ Faith or 42% without)
    This change is to make Reraise overall faster to cast, but a bit less reliable to land this potent buff.
• Aim
  • Take Aim
    • This ability now functions similarly to the vanilla version of Aim, using the weapon’s actual [formula] instead of [PA * (WP + 5)] and adding a bonus 5 PWR to the calculated damage 
    • A few notes about this change: 
      • This ability is still classified as an <Ability> and not a <Attack> where the original Aim was considered a weapon attack. Golem will still not block Take Aim
      • Weapons with Hit=100% calcs can no longer deal damage due to this change 
      • Doublehand does not affect Take Aim, though it does with the original Aim+X abilities. This may be addressed in a later update
      • Swiftness still reduces the CT of this ability 
      • To avoid targeting complications, you can no longer move once more once you start charging
      • The weapon’s element, status infliction, and Cast (if applicable) are also now applied (only the element was considered in the original Take Aim)
      • This ability is still considered physical damage even if using MA-scaled weapons
      • This ability can still critically strike
        This change sets Take Aim similarly to Aim +3’s functionality from the original game, allowing for it to properly scale with MA-based weapons instead of being tied to weapon formulas and taking full effect of your weapon’s properties. A huge shout-out to @Tzepish for getting this working!
        
• Arts of War
  • Bulwark
    • Decreased AoE from 2 to 1 (now cross-shape)
    • Increased Vert from 2 to 3
    • Additionally Bestows: Protect, Shell as well as Defending
      Bulwark grants a new way to provide Protect and Shell albeit in a smaller radius compared to Kiyomori and Barrier, but with Defending status until your next turn as well.
      
  • Mow Down – Increased PWR from 16 to 19
    This PWR buff is to help give Knights a strong single-target damage option when playing up close at the cost of higher recoil.
    
  • War Cry
    • This ability is now single target
    • Increased Range from 1 to 2
      With Initial: Protect, Shell being the move forward to better balance these crucial statuses, War Cry will also need a bit of dialing back from its v3.0c version.
      
  • Rend Power and Rend Magick – Increased PWR from 60 to 80 to increase reliability and since its chance reduces based on the target’s evasiveness
    This notable buff should make these abilities more enticing to use to lower a threat’s damage potential. Don’t sleep on this change, especially with Dual Wield/ranged weapons!
    
• Martial Arts
  • Shockwave – Decreased Range from 8 to 6
    
  • Revive – Decreased PWR from 70 to 60 (avg. 75% w/o Brawler, or 85% w/ Brawler, 90%+ w/ Brawler + Attack Boost/Vehemence)
    This PWR reduction creates a failure window for Revive to miss, creating instances where chain resurrection when solely relying on it can break. Units with Brawler + Attack Boost/Vehemence will still have a near 100% hit rate.
    
• Steal – All Steal Equipment abilities are no longer evadable
  This change is to buff the chance of stealing since it requires up close risk and limited verticality. Your target’s evasion will no longer reduce the odds of landing so you should typically have a better time trying to snatch that problematic gear off your foe while still being weary of melee-based reactions.
  
• Summon
  • Moogle – Added text to the Help menu that states that this ability will damage Undead allies in the AoE (regardless if a status was cleansed or not)
    
  • Shiva, Ifrit, Ramuh, Titan – Decreased Tick from 3 to 2
    Ticks reduced to match their equivalent Lv. 2 Black Magicks and to give Summoners a near-immediate cast albeit with less PWR
    
  • Faerie – Decreased PWR from 120 to 100 (avg 70% w/ Faith or 42% without)
    This PWR reduction is to place Faerie 3rd against Raise and Arise in terms of PWR, as Faerie has AoE potential whereas Raise/Arise does not, but both have better chances to revive a single target.
    
• Throw – All abilities are no longer evadable
  This buff to Throw is to allow these abilities to be more plausible for use, knowing that you can now safely strike without evasion being factored and allowing Ninjas to deal reliable chip damage, but is still subject to Golem, Shirahadori, and Sticky Fingers.
  
• Iaido
  • Kiku-ichimonji – Decreased Range from 8 to 6
    
  • Muramasa – Now has a 19% chance to inflict: Confuse instead of Doom
    This change is to provide more counter-play against Construct 8 and reduce the amount of Doom accessibility since there are several options vs. Confuse.
• Bardsong & Dance
  • Bardsong – All abilities can no longer be cast or continue to be performed while silenced
    Note: you will remain in the current bardsong/performing status if silenced after you have started performing but the active bardsong will not be cast until silence is remedied.
    
  • Life’s Anthem – Decreased PWR from 90 to 70
    This PWR nerf is to better inline the healing production from this ability, especially if the CT favors multiple casts before the caster’s next turn.
    
  • Nameless Song and Forbidden Dance – Increased PWR from 50 to 70 (80% chance with Performing Arts)
    Since these abilities double dip in RNG, their PWR has been increased to help these abilities yield better results when staying committed to them. And yes, Nameless Song is fixed 😉
    
  • Forbidden Dance:
    • Removed Inflicts: Sleep and added Inflicts: Blind
      
    • Increased Tick from 4 to 5 due to the higher success rate and potentially longer debilitating inflictions due to the Blind change
      Since Sleep blocks Dance, this change allows Forbidden Dance to continue to debilitate while guaranteeing evadable hits against those affected by Blind.
      
  • Nameless Song – Reverted the Protect OR Shell buffs
    Protect OR Shell (as they are separate) was added back to Nameless Song because of the Initial: Protect, Shell changes making these rolls useful now in re-upping durations. This also puts more variance in the random selection of buffs, reducing the uptick of powerful buffs, such as Reraise and Haste from happening with its increased PWR. Still, I am 100% willing to revisit Nameless’s performance post-patch.
    
• Ja-Magicks
  • Aeroja (NEW)
    • Wind element
    • 3 Range, 3 AoE, 3 Vert
    • 99 MP, 35 PWR, 4 Tick
    • Non-reflectable, Non-evadable
    • Enemy affected only
    • 19% chance to Remove: Haste, Float per target
      
  • Waterja (NEW)
    • Water element
    • 4 Range, 2 AoE, 3 Vert
    • 99 MP, 40 PWR, 4 Tick
    • Non-reflectable, Non-evadable
    • Enemy affected only
    • 19% chance of Inflict: Silence per target
      
  • Quake (NEW)
    • Earth element
    • 4 Range, 2 AoE, 5 Vert
    • 99 MP, 38 PWR, 5 Tick
    • Non-reflectable, Non-evadable
    • Enemy and Ally affected
    • 19% chance of Inflict: Immobilize per target
    • These new Ja-spells add some elemental coverage to Ja-Magicks and introduce additional options for Water, Wind, and Earth faith-based spells. To note, Quake is intended to damage both allies and enemies in the AoE unlike other Ja-Magicks affecting only enemies.
      
• Darkness
  • Unholy Sacrifice:
    • This ability no longer triggers Counter-Reactions since it is considered magic damage
    • This ability now triggers Magick Counter instead
    • This ability’s calculations now use [(MA * MA) + (0.29 * maxHP)] instead of [(PA * MA) + (0.33 * maxHP)]
      Note: the 0.29 or 29% is more accurate than the 0.33 or 33% that was previously mentioned in the calcs and was not changed but rather updated. The difference in calculating it versus the in-game tooltip is no more than 2 points of damage
      
      This calculation change is to incentivize using female Dark Knights as PA is no longer used in the formula and this gives them a solid option even with their lower base MA especially since male Dark Knight already has Abyssal Blade for PA-based damage. Note that even with this change, male DK’s using Unholy still perform well, but females will outperform them from a damage potential standpoint.
      

Reaction/Support/Movement Abilities

• CT Boost (NEW Reaction, formerly Gil Snapper) – Adds +5 CT after taking HP damage
  I’ll be keeping a close eye on abuse since this potentially affects total actions per game, however, with testing, there are moments where this shines especially on slower SP units. 
  
• Critical: Flee (NEW Reaction, formerly Critical: Recover MP) – Adds +25 CT and +2 Move after entering HP critical. 
  Note: the Move bonus persists even if you are no longer critical
  This new HP critical reaction can enable interesting plays but requires you to be within the 20% maxHP threshold. The Move bonus does stack if you get multiple procs within a single game.
  
• Monkey Grip (NEW Support) – Equip Forced Two-Handed weapons with one hand
  This ability allows for diversity when using Fell or Knight’s Swords, Axes, or Bows, as now you can slot a shield in the off-hand enabling greater mitigation/evasiveness/utility.
  
• Nimble (NEW Movement) – Adds Slow, Stop, and Immobilize immunities
  A new way to prevent those pesky anti-mobility effects without sacrificing gear options but with no increased move/jump.
  
• Dexterity (NEW Movement, formerly Accrue EXP) – Your C-EV now affects all sides instead of only the front. Additionally adds +1 Move and Jump
  This new movement ability uniquely interacts with your C-EV and allows your C-EV to function similarly to a cloak.
  
• Shirahadori (RETURNING/REWORKED Reaction) – This reaction now reduces the hit rate of all unevadable damaging physical abilities to a flat 60% chance and is no longer affected by Bravery. Shirahadori no longer affects normal attacks from its original version. This affects the following abilities:
  • Holy Sword (all)
  • Unyielding Strike (all)
  • Aimed Shot – Overload
  • Huntcraft – Spin Punch
  • Arts of War – Mow Down
  • Aim – Sonic Boom
  • Martial Arts – Shockwave
  • Steal – Steal HP
  • Jump
  • Throw
  • Dance – Mincing Minuet
  • Darkness (all, except Unholy Sacrifice)
    Note: Construct 8’s Dispose and Pulverize are not flagged for triggering Shirahadori as they are not classified as physical damage (they are considered neutral-type damage)
    This reworked ability was something first imagined in an earlier patch but has been revisited and implemented correctly as an option vs. normally physical unevadable attacks.
    
• Replenish (REWORKED Reaction, formerly Absorb MP) – Restores HP and MP based on quadruple the MP cost of the triggering ability
  Note: Replenish uses the modified MP cost of abilities cast with Halve MP, not the original value
  This reaction serves as a way to get back HP and MP based on the affected MP cost, akin to Chakra. For example, triggering off of Barrier (64 MP) restores 256 HP and MP to you.
  
• Additional Abilities Flagged to Trigger Counter-Reactions – The following physical abilities can now trigger counter-reactions (Shirahadori, Bravery Boost, Dragonheart, Counter, Counter Throw, Vanish):
  • Spin Punch (Luso), Overload (Mustadio), Mow Down, Take Aim (is exempt from Shirahadori), Sonic Boom, Shockwave, Mincing Minuet
• Magick Counter:
  • Additionally, damaging or negative status-inflicting magical Unique abilities can trigger this reaction. Some abilities from generic skillsets are also now flagged to trigger Magick Counter. This affects the following from each skillset:
    • Mettle/Ramza –  Maim and Ultima only
    • Spellblade/Beowulf – All except Vengeance
    • Nether Mantra/Marach (all)
    • Sky Mantra/Rapha (all)
    • Dragon/Reis – Breath attacks only
    • Limit/Cloud – All except Climhazzard and Blade Beam
    • Huntcraft/Luso – Earthsplitter and Ultima only
    • Magicks/Valmafra – All except Arise and Curaga 
    • Fundaments – Frenzy
    • Arts of War – Saint Cross
    • Aim – Charge Weapon
    • Darkness – Unholy Sacrifice
      Note: Abilities that use weapon range, like Charge Weapon, will still be countered even if your weapon would be normally out of range.
      
  • Significantly updated the Help menu to display all affected abilities from each skillset and provide additional context to its functionality
    This impactful change is to open more counter-play options against magic-based uniques, just as Shirahadori has done on the physical side and to greatly improve the viability of this reaction. 
    
• Bonecrusher:
  • This reaction no longer triggers from Critical status and will now trigger from counter-reactions instead
  • This reaction is Bravery% chance once more instead of guaranteed
  • The damage dealt is now ½ of your maxHP (rounded down) instead of your entire maxHP and continues to ignore damage mitigation and is unevadable
  • Notes:
    • Ability casts from weapons will not trigger during this counterattack since this is considered a “special attack”
    • If Dual Wield, you will get two counterattacks
      This notable change to Bonecrusher is to give life to its functionality and to present it closer to how it functions in the Tactics Advance series albeit rather differently. This reaction can no longer also trigger from any damage source that would put you into critical, and it must be from regular attacks or abilities that can normally trigger counter-reactions. Consider this a suped-up version of Counter with some differences.
      
• Lifefont/Manafont:
  • Both abilities can now stack if one was already innately set
  • These abilities now calculate at 17% of your maxHP/maxMP up from 1/6th of your maxHP/maxMP (you’ll gain a lovely extra point restored)
    This means you can use Black Mage + Lifefont now or Dark Knight + Manafont and get the benefits of both!
    
• Auto-Potion – Only checks for Potion (not Hi/X-Potion) and will not trigger if there are 0 Potions remaining
  This is the approach with “nerfing” Auto-Potion. Instead of nerfing the healing which is also a boon in RDV, the plan is to limit what Auto-Potion can proc off of thus allowing for reduced Potions in inventory to reduce stacking multiple Auto-Potion bearers.
  
• Sticky Fingers:
  • Now additionally reduces the hit rate of HP-healing Items (Hi-Potion, X-Potion, Elixir, or Phoenix Down) only if you are Undead, still based on your Bravery
    Note: If you are not Undead, the hit rate of restorative items is 100% against you and Sticky Fingers is still viable to reduce Throw
    
  • Sonic Boom (which uses the Throw formula) is no longer affected by Sticky Fingers
    
  • Fixed the lie in text that caught items in multiplayer aren’t added to your inventory; you can with confidence catch an Elixir and then have 2 in stock!
    Sticky Fingers can now be used as a defensive measure against offensively-used Items to reduce the likelihood of situations such as Elixir/Phoenix Down vs. Undead. 
    
• Soulbind – Now deals 60% of the damage dealt (rounded down) back to the attacker instead of 50%
  A slight buff to help this ability reinforce its “thorn” based damage use.
  
• Bravery Boost/Faith Boost:
  • These reactions no longer check Bravery and are 100% to trigger still based on their original triggering conditions (physical attack for Bravery Boost and being affected by an MP-costing ability for Faith Boost)
    
  • Increased the +Bravery/+Faith respectively from 9 to 20
    These reactions got significant buffs because they were needed based on where their niche fits. You’ll get more value with fewer procs and can rely on these abilities to work enabling some potentially nifty build ideas.
    
• Vehemence – Reverted the damage dealt from 40% to 50%, and kept the 40% more damage/healing taken; setting this ability to cause your attacks and applicable abilities to do 50% more damage/healing, and you taking 40% more damage
  This reversion and buff is to entice it more as a pick as you will now take a bit less damage than you would previously while giving this ability more power for increased mortality risk whereas it wasn’t worth the risk before vs. Attack Boost/Arcane Strength’s 7% difference.
  
• Brawler – Increased the Unarmed attack damage multiplier from 50% to 70%
  Since unarmed attacks scale with Bravery, can’t receive bonuses from weapons (of course), and factoring physical mitigation, they tend to hit weaker than most attacks, including bags. The proposal is to use Brawler to further the damage potential with unarmed while reinforcing it as a build choice for Monks or as a likely required Support slot for other unarmed builds.
  
• Cup of Life – Changed the effect animation from Potion to Cure so that it can now display the overhealed amount on affected allies instead of just the original target for the overhead
  
• Attack Boost/Defense Boost/Arcane Strength/Arcane Defense/Brawler/Vehemence – Added additional text to their Help menus to provide more context on what these abilities modify 
  
• Persuasive – Fixed the issue where Charm infliction was not possible if the weapon attack damage was greater than the target’s maxHP
  The outcome of the attack will now decide this and not just “well your maxHP couldn’t take this hit.” Tzepish’s skill with ASM is unmatched <3
  
• Ignore Weather/Ignore Terrain/Treasure Hunter – Removed these abilities from their skillsets/menus since they currently have no reasonable use in the patch
  Maybe in the future these can be revisited/repurposed for something greater 🙂

Equipment – Weapons

In this update, there are many new weapons as well as some changes to existing weapons to spruce up the existing catalog and create new experiences and builds. Let your theorycrafting go wild!

Additionally, one specific change to KO immune gear is that it now also had Doom immunity added to it, except Angel Ring, as these statuses work hand and hand together.

• All previous <Equip> Protect and Shell-status weapons are now considered <Initial>, resulting in Protect/Shell statuses being potentially removed by various abilities, and these status effects now have a duration before their mitigation bonuses are removed. This affects the following gear:
  • Weapons – Pantherskin Bag, Muse’s Harp, Save the Queen, Crystal Shield
    
• Books
  • Veil of Wiyu – Additionally Boosts: Earth, Water
    
• Fell Swords
  • Decreased WP standardization from 24 to 22
    This change is to reduce power creep caused by the job PAM increases which specifically affects unique characters.
    
  • Apocalypse (NEW):
    • 18 WP and 20 Block
    • Dark-Element
    • Casts: Celestial Void (50%, Sky Mantra – 25% chance per each status to inflict random statuses and inflict 50% targetMaxHP if at least 1 status rolled)
      Apocalypse purposefully has lower WP than the WPS of other Fell Swords since it can potentially shave 60-70% of a target’s HP if Celestial Void casts + regular attack damage.
      
• Guns
  • Tiny Bee (NEW):
    • 13 WP and 5 Block
    • 4 Range
    • Non-Magick Gun that can uniquely be dual-wield
    • Adds +1 PA
    • This new dual-wieldable gun adds some ability utility similar to what the Hunter’s Mark crossbows have achieved. 
      
• Katanas
  • Zanmato (NEW):
    • 25 WP and 10 Block
    • Non-elemental
    • Adds +2 MA
    • Casts: Intimidate (-20 Br, 50%, MA, Speechcraft)
    • This unique Katana (which isn’t paired with an Iaido skill) brings a new way to lower target Bravery while dealing damage to your foes.
      
  • Ashura:
    • Added Doom immunity since it already has KO immunity
    • Replaced the +1 MA with +1 Speed
      The change in this item is to entice it as a viable Katana but it is now also limited in Standard/Rendezvous.
      
  • Muramasa:
    • Now Absorbs HP on weapon attacks
    • Replaced Immune: Doom with Immune: Confuse while equipped
      As part of sprucing up the current weapon variety, this katana now functions like Blood Sword.
      
• Knight’s Swords
  • Decreased WP standardization from 22 to 20
    This change is to reduce power creep caused by the job PAM increases to better serve male/female units. 
    
  • Caladbolg (NEW):
    • 20 WP and 20 Block
    • Water-element
    • Adds +1 PA/MA
    • 50% chance to cast Leviathan (Summon)
    • FFX’s Tidus’s celestial (or ultimate) weapon inspires this new Knight’s Sword.
      
  • Excalibur – Increased +Speed from 1 to 2
    With Knight’s Swords WP being lowered and the amount of Holy-elemental attacks this weapon can both absorb and boost, this weapon has received a substantial buff in just providing more Speed to work with for Knights in general.
    
  • Defender – Added Immune: Stop, Slow, Sleep
    This weapon could use some additional bonuses with it being a forced two-handed weapon and now has crucial crowd control immunities.
    
• Knives
  • All Knives can now be doublehanded to expand build diversity
    Due to some Knives having increased WP this update, Doublehand does grant the most damage potential vs. Attack Boost/Vehmence if you desire to focus on maximizing the knife damage dealt.
    
  • Thief’s Knife (NEW, formerly Orichalcum Dirk):
    • Increased WP from 13 to 16
    • Removed Slow infliction
    • Dual Wieldable
    • Casts: Mug (50% on hit), which randomly casts a Steal Equipment ability (note that Safeguard still prevents theft)
    • Mug is guaranteed to steal as long as it procs (bypasses hit%)
    • Updated the item’s palette
    • This reworked Knife provides a new avenue to deal damage and potentially rob your enemy at the same time!
      
  • Mage Masher:
    • Increased WP from 13 to 16
    • Now Absorbs MP on weapon attacks
    • This Knife could use some love, so it is being changed to further be a tool against MP-reliant targets while still afflicting Silence status on hit. Note that this change does mean that this weapon no longer deals HP damage, but that is intended by this weapon’s utility. WP increased to increase the MP absorption value.
      
  • Air Knife – Increased WP from 13 to 16
    This knife has no status infliction and with it being Wind element, it could have the highest damage potential among other Knives.
    
• Ninja Blades
  • Kunai (RETURNING):
    • 14 WP, 5 Block
    • 3 Range
    • Weapon Attacks are flagged as <Direct> instead of <Striking> and attacks use line of sight
    • This multi-purpose “tool” gives Ninjas new ways to play especially utilizing ranged melee attacks when Kunai is in the main hand. 
      
• Polearms
  • Gungnir:
    • Now Casts: Thunder Breath (MA x 14, Reis’s Dragon ability) instead of Thundaga
    • Updated the item’s palette
      
• Poles
  • Changed damaging weapon calculations from [MA * WP] to [greater of PA or MA * WP]; this weapon type now uses either your PA or MA, whichever value is greater
    This formula change gives Poles a unique way to be utilized, now scaling with whatever attack stat is best and enabling it to be used in a variety of different build types.
    
  • Zephyr Pole (NEW, formerly Cypress Pole):
    • Removed Halves: Fire, Ice, Lightning, Earth
    • Wind-element
    • 16 WP
    • Adds +2 PA/MA
    • Forced Two-Handed 
    • Updated the item’s palette
    • This reworked pole opens up not only damage potential with pole attacks but also benefits your damaging stats to utilize for your primary and secondary skillsets.
      
  • Eight-Fluted Pole – Removes: Doom now properly functions and additionally Removes: Atheist, guaranteed
    This item is the most reliable way to cleanse Atheist status off of a unit as well as a fix for the Doom removal that was erroneously mentioned in v3.0c.
    
  • Musk Pole – Increased WP from 14 to 16
    
  • Whale Whisker – Increased WP from 16 to 19
• Rods
  • Crown Scepter (RETURNING and REWORKED):
    • Removed +4 MA 
    • 8 WP, 4 Block
    • Equip: Atheist
    • Effect: Reverses Faith-based magicks calculations to use [(100 - Faith)/100 * (100 - targetFaith)/100] instead of [Faith/100 * Faith/100]; this effectively changes all magicks to calculate similarly to how Marach’s Nether Mantra functions
      This reworked item opens up new possibilities with leading an Atheist-based team while still giving options to utilize magicks you normally could not due to effective 0 faith.
      
• Shields
  • Aegis Shield – Increased +MA from 1 to 2
    This buff sets Aegis Shield as a choice option for not only evading magicks but also buffing your own magickal power.
    
  • Kaiser Shield – Additionally Boosts: Earth, Water
    This shield now strengthens all elements except Holy and Dark.
• Staves
  • Nirvana (RETURNING and REWORKED):
    • 10 WP, 20 Block
    • No longer Holy element
    • Now Bestows: Protect, Shell 100% on hit (no damage)
    • Immune: Atheist, Doom
      This returning weapon now serves as a defensive option to apply or re-up the duration of Protect and Shell as well as a boon against atheism and doom.
      
  • Healing Staff:
    • This weapon and its formula (Formula 7) are no longer checked by mitigation (Protect/Defense Boost) or damage modifier sources (Attack Boost/Vehemence/Doublehand) as well as statuses; attacks will always deal true healing
      
    • Corrected the text that states the weapon attacks are evadable; they are not checked by the target’s evasion sources
      
    • Increased WP from 10 to 14
      One issue with Healing Staff before is that its potency was reduced when the target has Protect/Defense Boost or both. This resolves this issue but also removes the bonuses from Attack Boost/Vehemence from further buffing the healing potential if the target is sleeping/toad/chicken or if the bearer is berserk.
      
• Swords
  • Increased WP standardization from 16 to 18
    This buff to one-handed swords is to help lower the gap between them in Fell/Knight’s Swords while still retaining the benefits of shields and dual wield.
    
  • Flametongue (NEW):
    • 18 WP, 10 Block
    • Fire-element
    • 50% chance to Cast: Fire Breath (MA x 14, Reis’s Dragon ability, evadable)
      
  • Coral Sword (RETURNING and REWORKED):
    • 18 WP, 10 Block
    • Water-element instead of Lightning
    • 50% chance to Cast: Quicksand (water-elemental Geomancy)
    • This item’s element and Cast were updated since “Coral” sounds more water-based than lightning/Thundaga and to also introduce another Water-elemental weapon.
      
  • Icebrand (RETURNING and REWORKED):
    • 18 WP, 10 Block
    • Ice-element
    • 50% chance to Cast: Ice Breath (MA x 14, Reis’s Dragon ability, evadable)
      Not only added back by request, but also the PvP Patch changes have greatly improved the viability of Cast-based weapons, and some additional elemental access wouldn’t hurt for creativity. 
      
  • Nagnarok:
    • Added Negative Immunities (Ribbon): KO, Undead, Stone, Traitor, Blind, Confuse, Silence, Vampire, Berserk, Toad, Poison, Slow, Stop, Charm, Sleep, Immobilize, Disable, Doom  
    • Added Positive Immunities: Reraise, Regen, Protect, Shell, Haste, Invisible
    • Updated the item’s palette
      This new “cursed” weapon grants Ribbon-style immunities while also prohibiting positive statuses as well. This item is limited in Standard/RDV.
      
  • Runeblade – Now uses MA * WP calculations instead of PA * WP
    This new formula may make way in the future with new weapons and allow for better attacking with MA-focused jobs.
    
  • Diamond Sword – Increased +PA from 1 to 2
    
  • Vitanova – Updated the item’s palette

Equipment – Gear

• All previous <Equip> Protect and/or Shell-status gear are now considered <Initial>, resulting in Protect/Shell statuses being potentially removed by various abilities, and these status effects now have a duration before their mitigation bonuses are removed. This affects the following gear:
  • Gear – Cursed Armor, Onion Armor, Lordly Robes, White Robe, Black Cowl, Red Hood 
  • Accessories – Tynar Rouge, Protect Ring, Magick Ring, Sortilege
    
• All Cursed gear has their enemy level set to Lv. 50, resulting in NPCs no longer being able to equip themselves in early single-player
  Though the PvP Patch isn’t catered towards the single-player experience, since some items were repurposed, especially early-game ones, their enemy level has been increased to avoid situations where you would encounter these “endgame” pieces of gear in the early game.
  
• Heavy Armor – HP Standardization – Increased the minimum +HP of all Body-type Heavy Armor gear from 150 to 160. This does not affect Heavy Helms. This affects the following equipment:
  • Carabineer Mail
  • Genji Armor
    This is to slightly widen the gap between the maximum +HP cap of Clothing versus Heavy Armor.
    
• Robes – HP Standardization – Increased the required +HP of all Robes from 75 to 85. This affects the following equipment:
  • Lordly Robe
  • Luminous Robe
  • Silken Robe
  • Sage’s Robe
  • Wizard’s Robe
  • White Robe
  • Black Robe
  • Chameleon Robe
  • Sage’s Robe
    
• Chaos Helm (NEW helm) – +150 HP, Boosts: Holy, Dark
  
• Cursed Garb (NEW clothing) – +100 HP, +2 PA, and +1 SP – Equip: Undead, Poison, Immune: Regen, Reraise, Haste
  A new, enticing option for those who wish to dabble in more undead shenanigans.  
  
• Peytral (NEW heavy armor) – +160 HP and Initial: Protect, Shell
  
• Ever Coat (NEW clothing) – +120 HP and Boosts: Fire, Ice, Lightning, Wind, Earth, Water elements
  
• Ringmail (RETURNING clothing) – +120 HP and Initial: Protect, Shell
  Between Ringmail, Peytral, and Lordly Robe, all armor weights now have access to Initial: Protect & Shell if desired.
  
• Samite Coat (NEW robe) – +120 HP, +40 MP, and +1 MA
  This new robe is a way to bulk up caster jobs HP directly while sacrificing the slot for other more magic-oriented gear. It is by design the same HP metrics as clothing.
  
• Silken Robe – Additionally extends the duration of Haste from 10 to 16 ticks while equipped
  As a way to entice this item as a considerable pick, this robe now extends the duration of Haste while being equipped from roughly 2 unit turns to 5 turns while still retaining low stat density.
  
• Hair Adornments
  • Barette – Added Doom immunity since it has KO immunity
  • Cachusha – Added Oil immunity since Barette gained an immunity
    
• Crystal Helm – Additionally Halves: Earth, Water 
• Rubber Suit – Additionally Negates: Water
• Black Robe – Additionally Boosts: Earth, Water 
• White Robe – Additionally Halves: Earth, Water
• These elemental affinity updates are to increase accessibility in both offensive and defensive needs instead of limiting them.
  
• Chameleon Robe – Added Doom immunity since it has KO immunity
  
• Gold Hairpin – Added Oil immunity 
  
• Red Hood – Replaced +1 Move with +1 SP, removed the +1 MA, and increased the +HP from 60 to 80 (now +80 HP, +44 MP, +1 SP, Initial: Shell)
  Its cousin, Black Cowl, formerly beat this item out due to the amount of utility it provides so this has been changed to make Red Hood more competitively even.
  
• Sage’s Robe – Increased +MP from 100 to 130 due to its limited quantity
  
• Minerva Bustier – Increased +HP from 90 to 110 due to its limited quantity

Accessories

• Chantage (REWORKED perfume) – Sets weapon attack’s cast and status effect chance from 50 to 100%
  This new limited perfume can open up a ton of build varieties by being able to guarantee your procs/status effects on hit.
  
• Bravely Armlet (NEW armlet) – Increases your Bravery by 10 at the end of your Active Turn
  Note: Poison/Regen take priority on the text pop-up, but the Bravery regeneration is still occurring if you are affected by either status
  This new unique item is a way to increase your Bravery throughout the battle slowly.
  
• Elven Cloak (RETURNING cloak) – Now adds +12% Physical/Magical A-EV and +1 Speed
  A new +Speed option while gaining additional evasion from all sides.
  
• Thief’s Gloves:
  • Now enables Steal Equipment abilities to bypass Safeguard instead of increasing Steal Equipment success rates
  • Now adds +1 SP instead of 15 Physical A-EV
    Though this is a reduction in chance in the previous iteration, now with Steal Equipment no longer being evadable (which in turn adds some of the loss % increase back into the abilities directly) this change now allows for the exclusivity to get around Safeguard when using Steal abilities and potentially hinder builds that rely on it to keep their gear safe, opening up a new way to counter-play.
    
• Sortilege – Extends the duration of Protect & Shell from 22 to 36 ticks while equipped
  Note: This also extends ability-sourced Protect & Shell. The duration of Protect/Shell when sourced via Sortilege can last almost 40 Acts.
  This change gives Sortilege a unique use and more incentive to consider it for team-building!
  
• Battle Cloak (formerly Mage’s Cloak) – Adds +1 PA and MA instead of only +1 MA and retains its 28% Physical/Magical A-EV
  Changed and renamed to give better aid towards build diversity.
  
• Cursed Ring – Removed Immune: Protect, Shell and added Immune: Invisible
  This change allows units equipped with Cursed Ring to be affected by ability-sourced Protect, Shell while giving a trade-off of no longer being affected by ability-sourced Invisible. 
  
• Magepower Gloves – Increased A-EV from 15 to 25%
  
• Guardian Bracelet – Added Doom immunity since it has KO immunity
  
• Jade Armlet – Added Silence immunity to match Guardian Bracelet’s number of immunities
  
• Germinas Boots – Added 8% Physical and Magic Accessory Evasion in addition to its +1 Move/Jump

Standard v5.0 Beta (formerly Starter)

• Format naming convention change! This change is to better align with the principles used in other competitive games that this format is the main entry point into our Esports-driven scene. This is just a name change though; the format is still tried and true to previous Starter iterations.
  
• Generic Characters (Applies to both Standard and Rendezvous Formats):
  • Increased the base HP value of Male Squires from 277 to 285 (+8 HP)
  • Increased the base MP value of Female Squires from 81 to 90 (+9 MP)
    This increase is to offset the HP/MP differentials between male and female units and to give males a slight boost in their brawn whereas Females have a slight boost in their acuity especially when transitioning to other jobs.
    
  • The base PA/MA values of Squires have been adjusted to:
    • Male – 13/12 from 13/11
    • Female – 12/13 from 11/13
    • The +/- spread between an individual stat is no greater than 2 points
    • Note: the PA/MA and HP/MP changes strictly only affect generics and not unique characters
      This adjustment is to better transition both male and female Squires to different jobs, resulting in better stat alignments. It is still optimal to spec a male for physical jobs or a female for magic jobs, but the difference is much closer than before and you can perform well with a Male Black Mage or Female Monk!
      
• Beowulf
  • Decreased PA from 18 to 17
  • Increased Bravery from 45 to 50
    PA reduced to slightly lower physical damage potential on other jobs while now giving Beowulf a 50/50 shot on his reaction rolls.
    
• Rapha
  • Increased base HP from 258 to 298
  • Increased Bravery from 31 to 51
    These buffs to Rapha are to help her overall survivability and enable her to be better at relying on her Reactions. With all of these patch and base character changes, don’t overlook her!
    
• Gear Restrictions List Update
  • NEW Limited – Apocalypse, Caladbolg, Zanmato, Cursed Garb, Nagnarok, Chantage, Bravely Armlet, Ashura
  • NEW Semi-Limited – Silken Robe, Diamond Sword, Crown Scepter
  • NEW No longer limited: Scorpion Tail, Zeus Mace
  • NEW Vaulted (removed entirely from inventory): Rubber Boots
  • With Item Attribute space being at capacity, an item needed to be vaulted from the inventory for the time being to make room elsewhere. 
    
  • Consumables:
    • Potion – Reduced from 20 to 10 (Rendezvous/SLOT 2 unaffected)
      With Auto-Potion now only working if Potions are available, this nerf is to reduce stacking multiple bearers with the skill. You can safely run 2 Auto-Potion users per team with a third pushing the availability limits in the late game.
      
    • Phoenix Down – Reduced from 5 to 3 (Rendezvous/SLOT 2 unaffected)
      With Items playing an integral role in late-game attrition, this reduction is to reduce the power of the skillset especially when leaning on fast revival plays, and to hopefully lower the number of Ties via units alive.
      
    • Ethereal Tonic – Reduced from 5 to 3 (Rendezvous/SLOT 2 unaffected)
      With evasiveness likely to play a bigger role in this update, the accessibility of being able to bypass it via Invisible status is also being toned back a margin.
      
    • Yagyu Darkrood and Fuma Shuriken – Reduced from 10 to 5 each
      With Throw being unevadable, these throw weapons have been scaled back in quantity to avoid situations where players could stack a high amount of Throw on their team to reduce spamming.
      
• New items will appear at the top of the inventory instead of being sorted automatically

Generics Premade v5.0 Beta

Generics Premade has been reworked and will be exclusively a “generics only” format still catered as an entry-level format for Standard and limited accessibility due to the nature of premades. At a later date, a community-driven event will occur to look for new, creative builds based on the new additions of version 4 to add new premades to the roster, stay tuned!

At this time, the Generics Premade/SLOT 1 has been renamed Generics instead of G-Ramza and will be updated at a later date after the event ends.

• Characters
  • Removed Unique characters Ramza, Delita, Beowulf, and Cloud from the roster
    
  • Added Tags for each character’s role to their unit name as [DMG], [TNK], [SPT]
    This is so that it is easier to determine the play style of each build and also if future changes or competitions allow for role restrictions.
    
• Inventory
  • Removed the 8x Red Hood as they were erroneously added
  • Phoenix Down – Reduced from 5 to 3
    
• All premade characters now have gear equipped that grants Initial: Protect/Shell by default. This affects the following and their replaced equipment:
  • DMG-Shadow – Jujitsu Gi > Ringmail
  • DMG-Sorcerer – Barette > Red Hood (for Shell), Rubber Boots > Protect Ring
  • DMG-Warden – Ice Shield > Crystal Shield
  • DMG-Zen – Hempen Robe > Lordly Robe
  • DMG-Hunter – Added Crystal Shield (due to slotted Monkey Grip)
  • DMG-Berserker – Jujitsu Gi > Ringmail
  • DMG-Parivir – Genji Glove > Sortilege
  • DMG-Lancer – Black Garb > Ringmail
  • DMG-Armiger – Mythril Shield > Crystal Shield
  • TNK-Sentinel – Magepower Glove > Sortilege
  • TNK-Specter – Leather Clothing > Lordly Robe
  • SPT-Cleric – Wizard’s Hat > Red Hood (Protect provided by White Robe)
  • SPT-Distractor – Septieme > Sortilege
  • SPT-Stalwart – Power Garb > Ringmail
  • SPT-Timewalker – Septieme > Sortilege
    This change is to reduce the need to select certain premades to cast Protect/Shell while still incentivizing them for the mid-game (since it now has a duration), improving the damage expectation, and also making aware to newcomers what gear options can provide these vital buffs for transitioning later into Standard.
    
• DMG-Shadow
  • Replaced Dual Wield (support) with Concentration
  • Replaced Pummel with Cyclone in Martial Arts skillset
    
• DMG-Sorcerer
  • Replaced Hempen Robe for Rubber Suit
    This change is to maintain the playstyle of Sorcerer being able to dronecast herself with Thunder magicks.
    
• DMG-Warden
  • Replaced Wizard’s Hat with Gold Hairpin
    
• DMG-Hunter
  • Replaced Safeguard with Monkey Grip
  • Added Crystal Shield due to Monkey Grip
  • Added Throw Dagger and Salve to Fundaments skillset
    
• DMG-Parivir
  • Replaced Reflexes with Shirahadori
    
• DMG-Armiger
  • Replaced Equip Shields with HP Boost
  • Replaced Platinum Sword with Iron Sword due to the item slot being repurposed (Iron Sword’s WP has been increased from 6 to 12 to compensate)
    
• DMG-Lancer
  • Replaced Elven Cloak with Thief’s Gloves
  • Replaced Reflexes with Critical: Flee
  • Replaced Lifefont with Dexterity
    
• TNK-Paladin
  • Replaced Wizard’s Hat with Close Helmet
  • Replaced Lordly Robe with Peytral
    
• TNK-Bouncer
  • Added Cachusha to equipment
  • Replaced Rend Power with Rend MP in Arts of War
    
• TNK-Specter
  • Replaced Runeblade with Ancient Sword
    
• SPT-Cleric
  • Replaced Healing Staff with Nirvana
  • Replaced Cup of Life with Replenish
    
• SPT-Apothecary
  • Replaced HP Boost with Arcane Strength
    
• SPT-Stalwart
  • Reduced PA from 74 to 34
    Though this was a substantial buff to Chakra, this change has been reverted to keep Stalwart’s healing potential in check.

Rendezvous 3.0 Beta

With the many combat changes from PvP Patch v4.0, the general consensus is to tone down some higher damage builds, reduce some enemy mobility in most missions to give players a bit more time to set up, and for the most part, players will need to take more methodical approaches than in version 3 when aiming for 5-Star clears. Achieving 5-star completes for most missions is harder in version 4 than the previous iteration, but still doable with proper strategy, planning, and communication!

• Chocobo Defense
  • Chocobo 1 & 2 (Guests)
    • Added Defense Boost innately since most damage is physical and to offset some incoming damage for slower teams; it is still recommended to build for higher Speed
      
  • Squire 3
    • Replaced Lightning Shield with Venetian Shield
    • Replaced Wizard Clothing with Ringmail
      
  • Chemist 1
    • Replaced Celerity with Auto-Potion
      
• Chicken Race
  • Knight 2
    • Replaced Reequip with Safeguard
      
  • Archer 1
    • Replaced Ninja Gear with Ringmail
      
  • Archer 2
    • Replaced Genji Gloves with Spiked Boots
      
  • Black Mage
    • Replaced Mana Shield with Magick Counter
    • Replaced Black Robe with Lordly Robe
      
  • Rofocale (Time Mage)
    • Replaced Black Magicks skillset with Mystic Arts
      
• Treasure Hunt
  • Updated the mission objectives that this can be 5-starred with 3 units
    
  • Thief 1
    • Replaced Lifefont with Dexterity
      
  • Thief 2
    • Replaced Safeguard with Dual Wield
    • Replaced Panterskin Bag with 2x Thief’s Knife
    • Replaced Ninja Gear with Ringmail
    • Replaced Hermes Shoes with Jade Armlet
      
  • Thief 3
    • Replaced Move +2 with Nimble
    • Replaced Thief’s Cap with Black Garb
    • Replaced Black Garb with Ringmail
    • Now equipped with Assassin’s Dagger
    • Replaced Safeguard with Throw Items
      
  • Monk 1
    • Replaced Move +2 with Levitate
    • Replaced Jujitsu Gi with Ringmail
      
  • Monk 2
    • Replaced Fundaments skillset with Arts of War
      
  • Squire
    • Replaced Defense Boost with Arcane Defense
    • Replaced Black Cowl with Thief’s Cap
    • Replaced Hermes Shoes with Battle Cloak
      
  • Archer 1
    • Replaced Time Magicks with Steal
      
• Teioh
  • Updated the mission objectives that this can be 5-starred with 3 units
    
• Lost Heirloom
  • Updated the mission objectives that this can be 5-starred with 3 units
    
  • Knight 2
    • Replaced Critical: Quick with Replenish
      
• The Fete
  • Updated the mission objectives that this can be 5-starred with 3 units
    
• Littering
  • Updated the mission objectives that this can be 5-starred with 3 units
    
  • Ninja 6
    • Replaced Gaia Gear with Ringmail
      
  • Ninja 7
    • Replaced Ignore Terrain with Dexterity
      
  • Ninja 8
    • Replaced Doublehand with Brawler
    • Removed Scorpion Tail so this unit can be Barehanded
      
  • Ninja 9
    • Replaced Spiked Boots with Chantage
      
• Desert Minefield
  • Govis (Guest)
    • Replaced Rubber Boots with Elven Cloak
      
• Shades of the Past
  • Updated the mission objectives that this can be 5-starred clear with 3 units
    
  • Milleuda
    • Replaced Resilient with Shirahadori
      
  • Knight 1
    • Replaced Move +2 with Nimble
    • Replaced Bracer with Sortilege
      
  • Knight 5
    • Replaced Doublehand with Persuasive
    • Replaced Move +2 with Fly
    • Replaced Ragnarok with Ancient Sword and Venetian Shield 
    • Replaced Carabineer Mail with Genji Armor
      
  • Knight 6
    • Replaced Vehemence with Arcane Defense
    • Replaced Move +2 with Nimble
      
  • Archer 1
    • Replaced Defense Boost with Dual Wield
    • Replaced Reflexes with Nature’s Wrath
    • Replaced Power Garb with Ringmail
    • Replaced Gastrophetes and Crystal Shield with 2x Hunter’s Mark
    • Replaced Steadfast Ring with Cherche
      
  • Archer 2
    • Replaced Ranger’s Bane with CT Boost
      
• The Knight’s Templar (multi-part mission)
  • First Trial
    • Isliud
      • Replaced Move +2 with Nimble
      • Replaced Vampire Cape with Battle Cloak
    • Archer 2
      • Replaced Move +2 with Fly
    • Archer 3
      • Replaced Move +2 with Levitate
    • Archer 4
      • Replaced Death Strike with Defend
        
  • Forth Trial
    • Loffrey
      • Replaced Bracer with Genji Gloves
    • Knight 1 – 3
      • Replaced Move +2 with Nimble for each
    • Knight 1
      • Replaced Battle Axe with Chaos Blade
    • Knight 3
      • Replaced Slasher with Save the Queen
    • White Mage 1
      • Replaced Critical: Recover MP (no longer available) with Replenish
        
• All-Star Melee
  • Reis
    • Replaced First Strike with Shirahadori
      
• An Ill Wind
  • Updated the mission objectives that this can be 5-starred clear with 3 units

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

New Weapons

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

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

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

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

New Gear

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

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

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

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

Conjure Up New Elemental Spells in Ja-Magicks

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

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

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

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

New Reaction/Support/Movement Abilities

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

CT Boost (Reaction)

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

Critical: Flee (Reaction)

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

Replenish (Reaction)

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

Monkey Grip (Support)

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

Nimble (Movement)

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

Dexterity (Movement)

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

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

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

Alma, Cleric

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

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

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

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

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

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

Valmafra, Witch of the Coven

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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