Tag Updates

Greetings and cheers! It has been an exciting time here at Tactics League; we just completed our first-ever cup, and back in October 2023, our first-ever tournament. With it, a growing community has reached new landmarks in competition, and people are eager to come check out what Tactics PvP is all about.

Now the future of the Tactics League’s PvP Patch is almost here! Today, I want to share a high-level overview of what to expect in the upcoming version 4.0 beta update. This isn’t everything, but you will see more focused articles about certain changes to follow as well leading up to the public beta release.

🤩 Meet Our New Uniques: Alma and Valmafra

• This hefty update adds both Alma Beoulve and Valmafra Lenande to the uniques roster, replacing Ovelia and Balthier respectively!
• Alma – A glorified Cleric, uses her supportive Holy Magicks to provide powerful status effects to allies and additionally has access to some high-level White Magicks as well. With her base 87 Faith and innate Arcane Defense, Defense Boost, and Charm immunity, Alma is ready to provide aid and comfort on the battlefield.
• Vamlafra – A Witch of the Coven, has learned the trades of White, Black, Time, Mystic Arts, and Ja-Magicks and is likened to that of both a Red Mage and Elementalist. With her Magicks using a blend of all 5 skill sets, she can cast damaging magicks quickly thanks to her innate Swiftness.
• Both of these new characters will be available in both Standard and Rendezvous formats.

⏫ Quality of Life Updates and Practice Mode

• The Starter format (the competitive/slot 3 save) has been renamed to Standard to follow other naming conventions used in other competitive games and to set the tone that this is the main competitive format; it is still the Esports-driven format you have come to expect!
• Araguay Woods is the new home of Practice Mode – where all 8 encounters (depending on how you enter Araguay Woods) are a team of 5 led by a unique character each, tailored similarly to popular and niche setups from Standard. This is the perfect place to practice and test your new squad offline before venturing out into Melee! You might even come across a rare 5 unique character team encounter…
• You can now rename your unique characters at the Warriors Guild!
• Iaido and Unholy Sacrifice now properly show their damage/status in the damage preview.
• Night-time conditions no longer penalizes Bows and Crossbow attacks.
• Improved AI behaviors, such as better decision-making with casting Protect/Shell.

💤 Status Effect Updates

• Protect & Shell:
  • All equipment that provides Equip: Protect/Shell now all provide Initial: Protect/Shell, meaning that gear provides Protect/Shell in a duration the same way Kiyomori or Barrier does.
  • This also means that gear-sourced Protect/Shell is now interactable with abilities or attacks; such as War Cry, Harmony, and Giant’s Axe.
  • The duration of Protect/Shell has been increased.
  • Protect/Shell now persists while KO’d so you can return to the fight with it intact (but they are still on a duration).
• Veil (formerly Invulnerable) – Renamed to fit the theme better and it now has a status pop-up when it has expired from Steadfast Ring (rejoice!)
• Invisible – Doubles your evasion rates while active (until you take an action or get hit) and NPCs can now target you but at a lower priority to do so.
• Atheist, Sleep, and Charm have had their status durations reduced to lessen the duration they have over a single game, but are still impactful and worthwhile to inflict.

👥 Base Stats and Gender Equality Updates

• The base HP, MP, PA, and MA of all generic squires in all Tactics League formats have been increased to improve their stat spread transition to other jobs.
• Almost all generic jobs have also received a slight increase in their MA/PA, resulting in better viability of male magical or female physical setups with the total stat spread being no more than 2 points between either gender; you can play any job on any gender and they all can now perform well!

🧙‍♂️ Jobs Updates

• Many jobs received a slight boost in their PA/MA multipliers to better offset the disparity between male magical and female physical setups. Note that while these are stat increases, these don’t “add” any further power to any job.
• Chemist received a hefty boost to their HP and now innately increase Potions and Ethers HP/MP restore by an additional 50.
• Summoner received a boost to their maximum MP and now boasts the highest MP out of all caster jobs.
• Sage’s base Speed has been increased from 10 to 11.
• Mimes can now equip a limited set of gear and gain a new functionality in “copy weapon,” allowing them to slot the previous acting ally’s weapon temporarily; there’s a lot more potential and tricks with Mimes!
• Dark Knight now has innate Lifefont instead of Immune: Faith to reduce highly situational passives.

✨ Abilities Updates

• Meliadoul’s Unyielding Blade has been renamed to Unyielding Strike and now works with any weapon!
• All 8-range abilities have been reduced to 6-range: Dispose, Shockwave, and Kiku-ichimonji. This change is to promote engagement.
• New Ja-Magicks and further additions to Wind, Water, and Earth abilities: Aeroja, Waterja, and Quake!
• Ninja’s Throw is no longer evadable and the quantity of shuriken-type items have been reduced in Standard.
• Fixed the unarmed attack calculation and buffed the damage potential via Brawler.
• New Reaction/Support/Movement abilities: CT Boost, Critical: Flee, Replenish, Monkey Grip, Nimble, and Dexterity!
• Shirahadori has returned but has been reworked – it no longer affects normal attacks, but it now sets the hit rate of unevadable physical abilities to 60%.
• MANY improvements to underutilized abilities, such as Magick Counter now being able to trigger off of unique magic abilities, Bravery Boost and Faith Boost being guaranteed to trigger, and Lifefont and Manafont now being stackable.

🗡️ Equipment Updates

• A plethora of new weapons have been added: Apocalypse, Caladbolg, Tiny Bee, Zanmato, Kunai, Thief’s Knife, Zephyr Pole, Crown Scepter, Nirvana, and Flametongue!
• Many existing weapons have received updates to improve their viability, such as Nagnarok functioning like Ribbon but with positive status immunities included, or all Poles now scaling with the greater of your PA or MA * WeaponPower.
• Ringmail (clothing) and Peytral (heavy armor) are new additions that provide Initial: Protect/Shell as options; this greatly expands on gear-sourced selections, especially for jobs that need it!
• New additional gear as well, such as Chaos Helm and Cursed Garb.
• All “Boosts” or “Halves” element equipment that previously affected Fire, Lightning, Ice, and Wind now affect all elements, except Holy and Dark.
• New accessories to deck out your team, such as the guaranteed weapon cast/status effect with Chantage, increase your Bravery over time with the Bravely Armlet, and some evasiveness while gaining +1 Speed with the Elven Cloak. Also, look out for several reworked or improvements to existing accessories.

📝Addressing Community Feedback

• This update’s long-term goals are: to further expand theorycrafting, improve game or match resolution in competitions, and improve many underutilized abilities/jobs/gear.
• The Protect/Shell changes are from feedback about the typical desire to need always gear-slot Protect/Shell. The <Initial> change, increased uptime, and persistence on death are all about improving these vital buffs as a whole. Additionally, Ringmail and Peytral (alongside Lordly Robe) provide all jobs access to gear-sourced Protect/Shell so you can further your theorycrafting without making sacrifices.
• Addressing revivals or chain-resurrection: The potency of Ramza’s Encourage, Martial Art’s Revive, and Summon’s Faerie have all seen a slight reduction to create a margin of error to reduce chain-resurrection and to demote the push for draw games. Phoenix Down has also been reduced to 3 in Standard, but now restores 20% of your maxHP to compensate. Reraise’s spell speed has been reduced slightly to incentive pushing towards bestowing the reraise status but with more counter-plays.
• Bardsong’s Life Anthem has received a slight potency reduction to reduce total healing done in situations where you get back-to-back casts.
• Forbidden Dance and Nameless Song’s hit rate increased significantly, though Forbidden Dance is slower now but more consistent. Nameless is also more consistent, but Protect or Shell has been re-added to reduce the opportunity for constant Reraise or Haste rolls.
• With changes to incentivize weapon attacking and the reworked Chantage accessory, evasiveness will play a more important role in the future.

As the fall season approaches, the work, playtesting, and iterating of the 3.0 Beta builds are complete and today we are releasing the official update that we have been testing over the course of the past few months.

As stated in the v3.0 beta update article, this update includes Tactics League’s first-ever software modifications for Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions (PSP), focusing on improving both Melee and Rendezvous modes for a complete multiplayer experience.

Since much time has passed from v3.0 to v3.6 Beta, we won’t go over all that has been changed here but instead provide the changelog for what this official update brings. If you are curious about the work done, please head to the PvP Patch – Changelog.

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 v3.0 Official Changelog
  • Quality of Life Updates
  • Jobs
  • Abilities
  • Equipment – Gear
• Competitive Starter 4.0
• Rendezvous 2.0
• Generics Premade 4.0
• PvP Patch – Changelog (opens in new tab)

PvP Patch v3.0 Official Changelog

Our beta testing period is over, and with it comes a very jam-packed update. Not much has changed at the closure, but there is still a few tidying up to be done, and one quality change to make your battles even more intense!

Quality of Life Updates

• Soundtrack
  • The random battles background music has been refreshed and will now randomly play one of the following nostalgic battle themes, fitting the theme of PvP much better than ever before. Note that this change also affects random encounters in the world:
    • Trisection
    • Back Fire
    • Decisive Battle
    • Antipyretic

Jobs

• Holy Knight (Agrias)
  • Reverted the temporary HP multiplier from 160 to 140% now that her base HP has been increased to better transition it between jobs
  • Reverted the temporary PA multiplier from 120 to 100% now that her base PA has been increased to better transition it between jobs
    
• Samurai
  • Increased Move from 3 to 4
  • Increased HP multiplier from 85 to 100%
    A buff to Samurai to help it perform better; especially since they require to be up-close for both weapon attacks and Iaido. Samurai is now decently bulky with a higher base HP can be increased further with their access to heavy armor.

Abilities

• Tasks (Construct 8)
  • Dispose and Pulverize – Increased the recoil damage from ¼ to ⅓
    Recoil damage increased to increase the penalty Construct 8 receives from using its primary damaging abilities.
    
• Vengeance and Blade Beam (Beowulf/Cloud)
  • Increased the damage cap from 70 to 80% of your missing HP
    This should give these abilities more room but still restrict abuse where a player lowers their HP through team damage.
    
• Time Magicks
  • Gravity – This ability is now single target and instant cast
    This gives Time Mages an instant damaging spell if necessary, still subject to evasion/reflect, but potentially devastating against high HP targets.
    
• Bardsong
  • Nameless Song – Removed Bestows: Protect or Shell chance from this ability, improving the odds of Haste, Reraise, and Regen
    Since this ability doesn’t bestow both Protect and Shell together and this ability isn’t usually cast for these buffs that can be obtained via gear or Barrier/Kiyomori/Ward, this ability will no longer provide Protect or Shell improving its viability for the other buffs.

Equipment – Gear

• Cursed Robe – Increased MP from 100 to 150
  Since Wizard’s Robe had an increase in overall bulk due to the recent MP buff, Cursed Robe also needs a bit more, but its bearers should consider Mana Shield since they gain 0 HP from this item.

Competitive Starter v4.0 (Slot 3)

• All Characters
  • Learned Unholy Darkness (Mystic Arts)
    
• Agrias
  • Increased HP from 401 to 481 (+20% HP)
  • Increased PA from 13 to 15
    These changes are to adjust her stats as it was previously stated in v3.5.1B. The end result is that Agrias has a net gain of HP and 2 more PA that will transition to other jobs rather than being forced on Holy Knight if desired.

Rendezvous 2.0 (Slot 2)

• Luso – Set PA/MA to 15/15 to match Starter
  
• All Competitive Starter changes, including Unholy Darkness, have been applied to this slot
  
• Gear Restriction Update
  • NEW Banned – Invisibility Cloak
    Because the AI retains its vanilla functionality of not targeting invisible units, this item permanently removes such targeting allowing players to bypass aggression. Items that provide temporary/Initial: Invisible will remain as is since they wear off after action.

Generics Premade (Slot 1)

• Inventory
  • Removed Faerie Harp as an equipment choice for Armiger since squires can no longer equip instruments
    
• Replaced Movement abilities for most builds since Move/Jump +1 is no longer accessible. This will mostly improve mobility for most builds. This affects the following:
  • Ramza – Move +1 > Manafont
  • Delita – Move +1 > Lifefont
  • Balthier – Jump +1 > Fly
  • Beowulf – Move +1 > Lifefont
  • Shadow – Move +1 > Move +2
  • Hunter – Move +1 > Move +2
  • Parivir – Move +1 > Manafont
  • Armiger – Move +1 > Fly
  • Bouncer – Move +1 > Move +2
  • Sentinel – Move +1 > Move +2
  • Guardian – Move +1 > Move +2
  • Cleric – Move +1 > Manafont
  • Apothecary – Move +1 > Levitate
    
• Ramza
  • Replaced Resilient (Parry) with Soulbind
    
• Shadow (Damage)
  • Replaced Assassin’s Dagger with Chaos Mace since knives can no longer be dual-wield
  • Replaced Headgear with Green Beret
  • Reduced SP from 15 to 14
    
• Lancer (Damage)
  • Reduced SP from 15 to 14
    
• Sentinel (Tank)
  • Reduced MA from 20 to 12
    
• Specter (Tank)
  • Replaced Sage’s Robe with Cursed Robe to give back his original undead theme
  • Reduced MA from 25 to 19
  • Added Delirium and Unholy Darkness
  • Added Venetian Shield since Mystics can now equip shields innately
    
• Distractor (Support)
  • Replaced Parry with Reflexes
  • Reduced PA from 20 to 15

Today, we release a PvP Patch update that includes making changes to FFT WotL’s Rendezvous mode (co-op) to be up-to-date with the changes and additions we have for Melee mode and setting up Rendezvous for a more challenging experience than ever before.

To read about all of the Rendezvous changes: check out our Rendezvous Guide.

✅Setting Expectations and Endgame Rendezvous

The goal with these changes to Rendezvous missions is to set them to “endgame-level” rather than how they were originally designed based on them being unlocked through story progression. Similarly to how Tactics League’s PvP is considered endgame, this mode is also getting the treatment; making a fun and more challenging experience when coupled with the balancing of the PvP Patch. This is what to expect when playing with our modified version of Rendezvous:

• Missions are considered “endgame” instead of being originally based on the main story progression and party level.
• Includes all of the changes from the PvP Patch, including balancing, Weapon Power standardization, item limitations, jobs and abilities unlocked, gear gender equality, and some skillset changes, such as the reworked Aim.
• NPCs are all set to Level 99, with all generic units set to 60 Bravery and Faith.
• Bosses and unique characters will have their own uniquely set Bravery and Faith.
• Most NPCs have Protect/Shell gear to further their resilience.
• NPCs are all assigned abilities and gear instead of it being randomized.
• NPCs will have a random zodiac sign, but because the Tactics League-defined party roster is all Serpentarius, there is always neutral compatibility.

⚙️User Interface Changes

In addition to updating the missions with the PvP Patch changes, some of the UI elements were also updated. The flavor text has been removed for updated missions and will now display the mission’s objective and 5-star conditions. Missions that are currently updated will also have a BETA tag associated with the mission name to communicate which ones have been changed, starting with the first five as of the version 3.4 Beta update. Once we have made adjustments based on feedback and we are out of this current beta phase in its entirety, the BETA tags will be removed during the official update.

🏆Challenges Ahead

As previously discussed in a past article, the long-term goal is to create a competitive scoring and leaderboard system for Rendezvous. Harnessing the changes sought by the community via the PvP Patch, we can make a better, balanced, and impactful Rendezvous for all that will require strategy and careful planning to get those ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐and bragging rights once we have a leaderboard system in place.

If you have not joined the Tactics League Discord, this is definitely the time to hop in, playtest with other members with these new beta missions as they continue to be updated, provide feedback, and really put your strategic skills to the test in what is easily the hardest PvE battles you will ever come across in Final Fantasy Tactics.

As we approach near summer, our first-ever software modification for Final Fantasy Tactics: the War of the Lions is ready for beta testing, shaping the future of Tactics PvP.

This update is a VERY feature-packed one, as there have been many adjustments towards improving Reaction, Support, and Movement abilities for the first time, and making evasion and attacking more viable than ever before. In addition, we are also supporting the PPF format for making it easier to apply patch updates directly to your game, which in turn will make it easier to stay up to date and less hassle than our previous patching methods.

Because this update is large in scale, we are asking for all hands on deck to come to test this update out thoroughly and provide feedback in the Tactics League discord. The save data’s focus is testing all new content in Starter (save slot 3) and we will update accordingly as we exit the beta phase.

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 v3.0 Beta Changelog
  • Quality of Life Updates
  • System/Mechanics Updates
  • Text Updates
  • Jobs
  • Abilities
  • Equipment – Weapons
  • Equipment – Gear
• Competitive Starter v4.0 Beta
• PvP Patch – Changelog (opens in new tab)

PvP Patch v3.0 Beta Changelog

This next, big iteration of the PvP Patch includes ASM modifications that allow for further changing of the game’s systems and mechanics, opening up the possibilities for much more refined, competitive play. As this update is very large in scale, each section will be separated accordingly.

Quality of Life Updates

• Slowdown fix is applied automatically during patching
• Males can now equip previously female-only gear
• Br/Fa values reset after each non-multiplayer instance allowing for testing without having to worry about your save
• Smart Encounters – You are guaranteed a random battle when moving to an area that supports random encounters
• Innate abilities are now greyed-out in the Ability menus
• Bardsong/Dance abilities now forecast their damage, healing, %chance, etc. before executing

System/Mechanics Updates

• Critical Strike Chance increased from 4 to 10%
• Critical Strike Damage increased from random to 150%
• The proc chance of abilities to cast from weapon attacks increased from 19 to 50%
• Knockbacks will now only occur at the end of a multi-hit attack
• Weapon block rates are always on and factor into your physical evasion
• Magick Guns and Books cast rates changed so that Lv. 1 = 25%, Lv. 2 = 50%, and Lv. 3 = 25%
• Poison and Regen now damage/heal for MaxHP / 4 instead of MaxHP / 8
• Blind nullifies your evasion in addition to increasing the defender’s evasion rates if attacked
• You can evade while Performing (Bardsong/Dance)
• Undead always revive on zero during the KO counter instead of a 50% chance

Text Updates

• Added proc chance for cast abilities or statuses, including PWR and damage scaling in the Help menu
• Added damage formula for all weapons in the Help menu
• Added 10% critical chance text in Help menus to abilities that have a chance to crit: Holy Sword, Darkness (except Unholy Sacrifice), Unyielding Blade, select Martial Arts, Saint Cross (Arts of War), Fires of War (Piracy), and Spin Punch (Huntcraft)
• All “glove” accessories are now plural (lol)
• Added “magic damage” to Unholy Sacrifice to clarify its damage type
• Added text to Heretic/Ramza stating he is Knockback immune (even non-Heretic)

Jobs

• Game Hunter (Luso)
  • Removed innate Poach
    This removal was made due to changes with Persuasive (formerly Tame).
    
• Squire
  • Removed Instruments/Cloths from their equipment as these items are now Bard/Dancer exclusive
    
• Archer
  • Increased MA multiplier from 80 to 100%
    The increase is to have better scaling when using MA/Faith-cast-based weapons.
    
• White Mage
  • Removed Instruments from their equipment as these items are now Bard/Dancer exclusive
    
• Knight
  • Added Axes to their equipment
    Knights have come full circle gaining accessibility to their former Rend abilities with the change to Axes for a more fair experience.
    
• Thief
  • Increased MA multiplier from 60 to 90%
  • Removed Poach from the skillset
    The increase is to have better scaling when using MA/Faith-cast-based weapons.
    
• Dragoon
  • Increased MA multiplier from 50 to 80%
    The increase is to have better scaling when using MA/Faith-cast-based weapons; matching Knight/Dark Knight
    
• Ninja
  • Increased HP multiplier from 70 to 80%
    With changes to Mana Shield, Ninja needs a bit more HP to survive. However, this increase is very subtle as their niche is fast and strong physical damage with less regard to their defense.
    
• Bard/Dancer
  • Increased Bard/Dancer’s HP multiplier from 85/90 to 100%
  • Bard – Increased PA multiplier from 50 to 95% and MA from 115 to 145%
  • Dancer – increased PA multiplier from 110 to 140%
  • Replaced innate Arcane Strength/Attack Boost with Performing Arts (NEW support). This support ability doubles the effective MA/PA of Bardsong and Dance abilities that scale with these stats
    This innate change is to actually provide value to these jobs that oddly did not benefit from their previous innate abilities (Bard only benefited from Arcane Strength with Rousing Melody). Though the PA and MA multiplier values appear high, these increases are to set these jobs on par with other jobs that fit the highest base PA/MA in their gender (Male = Black Mage, Female = Dark Knight)
    
• Sage
  • Removed Instruments and Cloths from their equipment as these items are now Bard/Dancer exclusive and added Rods and Staves instead
  • Removed innate Halve MP
    This change is to target a nerf to Sage’s performance without impacting the intended goal of the job; an effective caster but only able to get so many turns in due to their low Speed. Now you will need to consider slotting Halve MP to keep up with high costs or sustain in Ja-Magicks or their potential secondary.

Abilities

• Aimed Shot (Mustadio)
  • Added Overload – Instant, Weapon Ranged, ignores mitigation attack using PA x 14 and deals PA x 14 / 3 damage to himself afterward
  • Added Recharge – 2 range, Restores MP to the target using MA x 4
  • Seal Evil – Increased PWR from 70 to 90
  • Added Disassemble – MA + 60 chance to -2 PA and MA the target at Weapon Range
  • Added abilities also extend the available skills in Onion Knight/Mastery Arts (go Mustard Onion go!)
    Though Mustadio’s kit is mostly focused around status, I added some more abilities to Aimed Shot so he felt more unique and to also finally solve the problem where he was the only unique character that couldn’t fully utilize Mastery Arts
    
• Nether Mantra (Marach)
  • Fixed the inverse bug of Atheist/Faith; if the target has Atheist, Nether Mantra will deal maximum damage. If the target has Faith, it will deal 0 damage
  • Adjusted the hit table that affects the probability of random hits. Abilities will now only hit up to 5 times
    
• Sky Mantra (Rapha)
  • Removed the KO immunity check with abilities. Abilities will now properly work even if the target is KO immune innately or via gear (but is still Fa-scaled).
    
• Vengeance/Blade Beam (Beowulf/Cloud)
  • These abilities now deal 70% of the caster’s missing HP rather than the entire missing HP
    A cap has been imposed on how much damage these abilities can deal especially when factoring high HP builds.
    
• Huntcraft (Luso)
  • Bad Breath – Replaced Toad with Immobilize
    With Bad Breath being AoE and instant cast, the plan is scaling back one of the stronger debuffs it is capable of inflicting
    
• Dragon (Reis)
  • Dragon’s Gift – Increased PWR from 100 to 255 to ensure it doesn’t fail as long as the target is statused
  • Dragon’s Speed – Now a flat 50% chance to grant 50 CT with 30 MP cost. This ability is unaffected by modifiers
    The difference between Dragon’s Speed and Time’s Quick is that this is an instant cast with added MP cost to add counter-play (the prior counter was to Atheist Reis). This ability’s chance does not scale up with MA as originally planned.
    
• Fundaments (Squire)
  • Focus – Fixed the original formula to +1 PA/MA/SP instead of only +1 PA
  • Stone – Can 100% knockback when physically able
  • Throw Dagger – Increased random PWR from 1…10 to 1…15 and can 100% knockback when physically able
  • Fervor – Removed the KO immunity check with this ability. Haste will be removed even if the target is KO immune innately or via gear (but is still Fa-scaled).
    This is the closest I could get to 100% Knockback as the checks for this system are also tied to critical hits (which are still Br-based). Stone will also cause knockback instead of switching formulas because it can be used to proc certain reactions early so it is added counterplay in causing potential miss-position.
    
• Items (Chemist)
  • Ether – Increased MP restore from 20 to 50
  • Hi-Ether – Increased MP restore from 50 to 100
  • Adrenaline – No longer provides Haste, and removes Slow/Stop status instead. Changed the animation to Float to better serve its new effect.
    Adrenaline did enable a bit more power to Items since its inception and has been toned down to aid in what it is useful for, instead of cleansing slow/stop and gaining Haste too.
    
• Aim (Archer)
  • Sonic Boom – Is now unevadable
    With WP being generally lower across the board, Sonic Boom can fit a better role in dealing unevadable damage, especially with its MP cost.
    
• Arts of War (Knight)
  • Saint Cross – Reduced PWR from 16 to 14
    A slight damage nerf due to this ability’s damage and AoE potential when stacking high PA.
    
• Martial Arts (Monk)
  • Cyclone – Increased PWR from 0 to 5
  • Pummel – Increased PWR from 0 to 15. This ability still has a random roll in determining its damage modifier
    Adding some love to Martial Arts abilities that definitely could use some buffing as these always felt little to be desired.
    
• White Magicks (White Mage)
  • Raise – Reduced PWR from 180 to 160 (avg. 72 to 65% OR 100% w/ Faith)
  • Arise – Reduced PWR from 160 to 130 (avg. 64 to 54% OR 89% w/ Faith)
  • Regen – Increased MP cost from 8 to 12
  • Holy – Reduced PWR from 50 to 40, reduced tick from 5 to 4, and reduced MP from 56 to 42
    The nerfs to the PWR/chance on Raise/Arise are because these abilities are contributing heavily towards the battle of fighting for KO counts before the game’s end recently. I am willing to revert them if there is collective underperformance, but the goal is to create more room for error, especially with Faith. The changes to Holy are twofold; one to address the damage output on Vitanova/Holy Lance and two to empower White Magicks damaging spell to be more cast-friendly but with less damage.
    
• Black Magicks (Black Mage)
  • Death – Switched formula to 0A. This will result in the ability to try to cast KO status instead of [Damage = TargetMaxHP] (resulting in KO through damage) and allows the fixing of KO immunity checks with Sky Mantra and Fervor.
    An off-note about Toad; Toad (the ability) will not have any changes initially as it is single target with slightly higher PWR than Toadja. I will be monitoring its performance and will adjust if needed.
    
• Time Magicks (Time Mage)
  • Float – Is now instant cast
  • Quick – Now adds 50 CT to the target instead of 255
  • Meteor – Reduced MP cost from 70 to 65 and PWR from 40 to 38
    Since Meteor is non-elemental, the PWR on this ability is being scaled back slightly to rank it below Lv. 4 magicks but with a wider area.
    
• Mystic Arts (Mystic)
  • Umbra – This ability is now single target
    
• Summon (Summoner)
  • Bahamut – Reduced PWR from 42 to 40
  • Faerie – Reduced PWR from 150 to 120 (avg. 60 to 50% OR 83% w/ Faith)
  • Zodiark – Reduced Tick from 15 to 12 and PWR from 90 to 70
    
• Steal (Thief)
  • Steal HP – The ability is now properly flagged as physical damage for the purpose of proccing counter-reactions
    
• Speechcraft (Orator)
  • Hush (reworked Beg) – MA + 60 chance to inflict Silence on a target
    
• Bardsong (Bard)
  • Seraph Song – Increased PWR from 20 to 30
  • Life’s Anthem – Increased PWR from 50 to 100
  • Rousing Melody – The ability chance no longer scales up with MA as the 50% Haste is now hardcoded into this ability. Reduced the tick from 5 to 4.
  • Finale – Increases CT by 50 instead of 255
    
• Dance (Dancer)
  • -MP/HP abilities now use PA + PWR instead of Unarmed calc
  • Witch Hunt – Increased PWR from 20 to 30
  • Mincing Minuet – Set PWR to 120
  • Last Waltz – Decreases CT by 50 instead of setting it to 0
    Mincing Minuet’s damage will ignore mitigation sources
    
• Ja-Magicks (Sage)
  • Toadja – Increased MP cost from 70 to 99 and Reduced PWR from 160 to 100. (avg. 64% to 43% OR 71% w/ Faith)
    As a part of addressing the debilitating effects of Toad, Toadja’s PWR is reduced to create room for error when factoring Faith since this ability has sticky/AoE potential.
    
• Miscellaneous/Weapon-cast only
  • Rend Helm/Rend Shield/Rend Armor – Set PWR to 255 so they are guaranteed to rent as long as the weapon attack successfully procs
  • Unholy Darkness – Reduced PWR from 50 to 40
  • Tornado – Reduced PWR from 37 to 35
    
• Equip X Updates
  • Equip Swords – Swords + Katanas
  • Equip Knives (formerly Equip Katana) – Knives + Ninja Blades
  • Equip All Armor (formerly Equip Heavy Armor) – Access to all armor weights/types
  • Equip Two-Handed (formerly Equip Axes) – Axes + Knight’s Swords + Fell Swords
  • Equip Bows (formerly Equip Crossbows) – Bows + Crossbows
  • Equip Poles – Polearms + Poles
    
• Resilient (NEW Reaction)
  • Reduces physical damage taken by 50% while charging
    
• Death Strike (NEW Support)
  • Increases your critical strike chance from 10 to 40% while slotted
    
• Performing Arts (NEW Support)
  • Doubles the effective PA/MA of Bardsong and Dance abilities that scale with these stats (added innately to Bard and Dancer)
    
• Persuasive (Reworked Tame)
  • Guarantees Charm status when using weapon attacks against the enemy while they are Critical or would enter Critical
    Outside of immunities, Charm is guaranteed to inflict as long as you use weapon attacks. The game will forecast Charm status if you do enough damage to put them/keep them in Critical.
    
• Concentration
  • Now increases your physical hit rate by 50% against the target’s total physical evasion rates instead of just ignoring physical evasion
    This change is to bring evasion/blocking a bit more proactive instead of being something that was least considerable. This change also affects Steal abilities as you will have reduced hit rates from the front or sides (as previously you could steal from any facing and there was no penalty). Ultimately, ignoring evasion is left to either the attacker being Invisible or the target being Blinded.
    
• Reflexes
  • Now increases your total physical and magic evasion by 25% instead of 50%
    In tandem with Concentration changes, Reflexes now provides less total value as it previously did, but also still adds more towards evasiveness the more you stack into it. Note: Weapon block rates now contribute towards total physical evasion (which is still done additively).
    
• Doublehand
  • Reduced damage bonus from 200 to 160%
    This passive was slightly overperforming when factoring high WP + PA builds.
    
• Vehemence
  • Reduced the damage taken and damage dealt bonuses from 50 to 40%
    This passive enables a ton of damage though with risk. As a part of nerfing general damage output, this ability got a 10% reduction.
    
• Mana Shield
  • Damage will now overflow into your HP if it is greater than your current MP
    This change is to effectively nerf Mana Shield’s “can stop all damage for only 1 MP.” With this change, max MP is more important to create a larger pool of damage to protect against, and overall bulk is equally important since damage can now bleed through.
    
• Ranger’s Bane (Reworked Archer’s Bane)
  • Now includes Guns/Magick Guns in addition to Bows and Crossbows in reducing hit rates based on your Bravery
    
• Earplugs
  • Completely nullifies all incoming Speechcraft abilities while slotted
    
• Bonecrusher
  • No longer checks Br% and instead is guaranteed to proc as long as conditions are met (in critical within weapon range of attacker)
    Lessening the conditions for this Reaction to proc by removing the Br% chance from it. One interesting note with Bonecrusher is that it procs off any HP damage taken while these conditions are met. Maybe it’s finally time to crush bone?
    
• Lifefont/Manafont
  • Increased the +HP/MP from 1/10 to 1/6
    Lifefont in particular is much more considerable than ever before! Keep in mind that these do not stack (Black Mage innate in particular).
    
• Bravery Boost/Faith Boost/Magick Boost/Fury
  • Abilities are no longer job-locked; they are acquired via Bard and Dancer
  • Fury and Magick Boost – +2 PA/MA instead of +1
  • Bravery Boost and Faith Boost – +9 Br/Fa instead of +3
    Bravery Boost can proc from weapon attacks including attacks that use Hit=100%
    

Equipment – Weapons

• Weapon Block Rate Standardization
  Standardized weapon block rate guidelines due to innate Parry with specific weapon exceptions. High Block is 20, mid is 6 – 10, and low is 5 or less:
  • Axes – 8
  • Bags – 0
  • Books – 3
  • Bows – 8
  • Cloths – 20
  • Crossbows – 5
  • Knight’s Swords/Fell Swords – 20
  • Flails – 5
  • Guns – 5
  • Instruments – 6 (w/ the exception of Muse’s Harp at 20)
  • Katanas – 10
  • Knives – 5 (w/ the exception of Main Gauche at 20)
  • Ninja Blades – 5
  • Polearms – 10
  • Poles – 10 (w/ the exception of Eight-Fluted Pole at 20)
  • Rods – 4
  • Staves – 8
  • Swords – 10 (w/ the exception of Nagnarok at 20 and Onion Sword at 15)
    
• Axes
  • Reduced WP standardization from 28 to 20. Each Axe now has a 50% chance to “rend” equipment instead of guaranteed status inflictions, except Giant’s Axe which retains its 100% remove Protect/Shell
  • Golden Axe – Rend Weapon
  • Francisca – Rend Helm
  • Slasher – Rend Shield
  • Giant’s Axe – Removes Protect/Shell (100%)
  • Battle Axe (NEW) – Rend Armor
    
• Bags
  • Reduced WP standardization from 12 to 10
    
• Books
  • Reduced WP standardization from 26 to 20
  • Bestiary – reduced +MA from 2 to 1 since it can be dual wield
    
• Cloths
  • Reduced WP standardization from 20 to 15
  • Weapons are now Dancer-exclusive
  • Removed the standardized +1 Move & Speed from Cloths, except Wyrmweave Silk, and added the following bonuses:
  • Damask Cloth – Immobilize, Disable, Sleep immunity
  • Cashmere – +2 PA
  • Wyrmweave Silk – Retains +1 Move & SP
    
• Crossbows
  • Reduced WP standardization from 16 to 14
  • Gastrophetes – from 18 to 16 WP
  • Knightslayer – will remain 22 WP due to its close-quarter role
    
• Instruments
  • Reduced WP standardization from 24 to 15
  • Weapons are now Bard-exclusive
  • Added bonuses to existing Instruments in addition to their prior effects:
  • Faerie Harp – +2 MA
  • Muse’s Harp – added Remove: Toad and 20 Block
  • Lunar Harp – +1 Move and +1 SP
    
• Knives
  • Reduced WP standardization from 15 to 13 to better fit their power between Bags and Swords
  • Blind Knife (Returning) – 100% inflict Blind status
  • Air Knife – Now +1 SP instead of +1 Move/Jump
    
• Magick Guns
  • Reduced WP standardization from 24 to 20
    
• Polearms
  • Reduced WP standardization from 25 to 20
  • Javelin II from 26 to 22 WP
  • Gae Bolg from 24 to 19 WP
    
• Poles
  • Musk Pole – Reduced WP from 16 to 14 and is now 50% Confuse instead of 100% Silence
    
• Rods
  • Now calcs using MA x WP and reduced WP standardization from 12 to 8
  • Toadsong – reverted to MA x WP instead of 100% hit; has a 50% chance to Toad and retains Initial: Slow and is subject to evasion
  • Dragon Rod – reduced WP from 15 to 12
  • Fire/Ice/Thunder Rod – reverted cast from Lv.4 to Lv.3
  • Stardust Rod – reverted cast from Graviga to Gravity
    
• Shields
  Reduced the P-EV of select shields to reduce stacking high evasion with Reflexes and/or innate block rates:
  • Escutcheon II – from 75 to 50
  • Onion Shield – from 80 to 60
  • Kaiser Shield – from 46 to 30
  • Venetian Shield – from 50 to 30
    
• Swords
  • Ultima Weapon (reworked Materia Blade) – Renamed to dissuade Materia Blade’s requirement for Limit. Reduced WP from 20 to 16 and now has a 50% chance to cast Ultima at 18 PWR (opposed to Ramza/Luso’s 25)
  • Diamond Sword – Now provides +1 PA instead of being focused on higher Block

Equipment – Gear

Just to note, undead units with reraise immunity means they cannot be resurrected with Phoenix Down or Revive and can only return after the KO counter reaches zero.

• Escort Guard (NEW clothing) – +200 HP and Halves: Lightning/Water/Earth
• Cursed Helm (NEW helm) – +100 HP, +1 SP, Equip: Regen, Undead, Immune: Haste, Stop
• Cursed Armor (NEW heavy armor) – +250 HP, Equip: Protect, Shell, Undead, Immune: Haste, Regen
• Cursed Robes (NEW robes) – +0 HP, +200 MP, +3 MA, Equip: Undead, Immune: Haste, Reraise
• Cursed Shield (NEW shield) – 60 P-EV, Equip: Atheist, Undead, Immune: Haste, Reraise, Sleep
• Rubber Suit – Added Oil and Poison immunity
• Thief’s Gloves (NEW accessory) – Increases Steal chance by 20% multiplicatively. Adds 15 P-EV

Competitive Starter 4.0 Beta

As this format is in beta, additional changes may occur based on feedback post-beta testing.

Cloud

• Reduced MA from 17 to 16

Inventory

• Added all new additional gear: such as Battle Axe, Damask Cloth, and Cashmere into the inventory since they changed by the PvP Patch

Limited and Semi-Limited Gear Restriction Update

• NEW No longer restricted: Golden Axe
• NEW Limited: Minvera Bustier, Escort Guard, Invisibility Cloak, Cursed Robe, Cursed Armor, Cursed Shield, Cursed Helm
• NEW Consumable Quantities – Adrenaline, Ethereal Tonic, Hermes Tonic, Stimulant, Carbuncle’s Tear are at 5 each

In this incremental PvP Patch update, we address issues with Fervor (originally Furor) not affecting hasted targets, removed dual wielding from Knives, Haste and Slow are now single target and instant casts, and made a few other adjustments.

Note: If you already have the previous v2.5 save data, you can simply replace your PvP Patch file, update your text patch with the new one, and be up to date. The included save data is still the 2.5 version.

To download the official version 2.5.1 save data including the latest PvP and Text Patch please visit Downloads.

PvP Patch – Version 2.5.1 Changelog

Sky Mantra (Rapha)

• Increased the HP damage of all abilities from 33 to 50%.
  Note: Sky Mantra abilities will have a 0% chance to hit if the target is KO-immune.
  Comment: Since Rapha’s abilities require non-equipment sourced status effects in order to hit, there should be a higher payout, especially factoring from a unique skillset.

Fundaments

• Fervor (previously Furor) – Fixed an issue where the ability sought to remove Faith or Atheist instead of Haste. Note: Fervor will have a 0% chance to hit if the target is KO-immune. This ability was also renamed to Fervor as that was what it was commonly named in the Discord :p

Time Magicks

• Haste and Slow – Both abilities are now single target, instant cast, and increased their MP costs from 8 to 16 MP.
  Comment: This change was because Item’s Adrenaline was the go-to for applying targetable Haste whereas these abilities have had little usage since the updates to Chemist’s repertoire. Adrenaline still has a place where it is 100% Haste but limited to 5, where Haste (Time Magicks) is now instant, not limited, but is based on Faith.
  
  
• Meteor – Decreased tick from 10 to 6.
  Comment: Closely compared to Bahamut (Summon) in terms of AoE and PWR, this ability could use a cast-time reduction to be more performant and highlight as the Time Mage’s main “nuke” in their arsenal.

Equipment

• Knives – All Knives can no longer be dual-wielded to reduce status effect stacking due to their guaranteed status effects on hit.
  
  
• Gokuu Pole – Now 100% Atheist on hit, but no longer deals damage with weapon attacks (still 16 WP for calculating against certain abilities).

Miscellaneous

• Updated the Delita sprite in the Party Roster menu to use the Chapter 1 version. Note: this does not affect the sprite used in the Battle Formation menu.
  
• Updated the color palettes and icons for the following items: Glacial Gun, Blaster, Blaze Gun, Ebon Blade, Vitanova, Chaosbringer, Deathbringer, and Arondight.

In this update, we officially updated the PvP Patch to official version 2.0, removed Uniques and Monsters Premade saves due to low popularity, updated Generics Premade to be up to date with the PvP Patch, returned Balthier to Competitive Starter, and added a fully-unlocked Rendezvous save for those to explore and challenge themselves to some of the game’s most formidable PvE offerings. To note, each save has Ramza listed differently to mark which one is which: G-Ramza = Generics, R-Ramza = Rendezvous, and S-Ramza = Starter. This is done to make it easier to mark which saves are in case you make multiple saves in the future.

To download the official version 2.5 save data including the latest PvP Patch, please visit Downloads

Optionally, the Text Patch has been updated to the latest PvP Patch changes and is highly recommended to be patched with your ISO to be up to date with text and ability changes. Please visit either Downloads or Text Patch Tutorial Guide for more info. If you are only playing with the Rendezvous save data (SLOT 2) please disregard patching or use an original ISO as that is meant to be played without the PvP Patch.

PvP Patch Changelog (opens in new tab)
Competitive Starter 3.1 Changelog
Generics Premade 3.1 Changelog
Rendezvous – Addition and Challenges

Competitive Starter 3.1

Balthier (RETURNING)

• After community feedback, Balthier has returned to competitive play with adjustments caused by the PvP Patch, swapping his position back from Zalbaag. To learn more about changes that affected Balthier, please view the PvP Patch Changelog – Jobs

Mustadio

• Reverted back to original Job ID, 16 Machinist now that the job has innate Safeguard added in by the PvP Patch

Delita, Marach, Rapha

• Reduced their base job’s Speed from 13 to 12 to reduce the bonus Speed these characters gain when switching to Ninja/Thief

Luso

• Set PA/MA from 16/13 to 15/15 to make better use of his hybridized skillset

Inventory

• Sorted the entire inventory selection by type, making it easier to find specific items while browsing
• Added 1x Materia Blade directly into inventory as the item was removed from Cloud since it is no longer required for Limit
• Added all gear that has been adjusted by the PvP Patch

Limited and Semi-Limited Gear Restriction Update

• NEW Limited – Toadsong, Vesper, Barette, Cachusha, Onion Gloves
• NEW Semi-Limited – Zeus Mace
• NEW Consumables Quantities – Potion x 20 (only accessible via Auto-Potion), X-Potion x 10, Adrenaline x 5

Comment: With Barette, Cachusha, and Onion Gloves granting similar broad immunities like Ribbon against most status effects, each has been limited to reduce the total availability of stacking in a party of five. Potion/X-Potion reductions are due to the buffs to the healing done with these items, and Adrenaline has been reduced as it is great for granting a powerful benefit, but it shouldn’t be the necessary go-to for hasting allies or upkeeping the effect.

Generics Premade 3.1

Adjustments made in general to get the premade roster up to date with the v2.0 Official PvP Patch. Basic changes, such as only stats, may not be listed here.

Apothecary/Distractor/Beowulf

• Swapped Ether with Hi-Ether for all 3 characters
• Apothecary – Added Remedy with 10x in inventory

Ramza

• Swapped Defender and Lightning Shield for Ragnarok

Delita

• Swapped Defender for Vitanova
• Swapped Parry for Adrenaline Rush
• Increased PA from 11 to 13

Cloud

• Reduced MA from 25 to 19 now that Limit is instant cast
• Reduced PA from 15 to 10 to adjust for innate Doublehand
• Removed Diamond Shield
• Removed Martial Arts; Cloud’s main focus is either his Limits or hard-hitting weapon attacks
• Removed Finishing Touch from Limit
• Swapped Swiftness for Doublehand (no passive change)

Balthier

• Swapped Holy Lance for Ras Algethi since this build concept no longer works without Barrage (disabled by the PvP Patch 😭)
• Increased PA from 3 to 16
• Added Quickenings to Piracy
• Swapped Jump for Aim, adding Take Aim and Beso Toxico abilities
• Swapped Waterwalking for Jump +1

Hunter

• Decreased PA from 19 to 14
• Added Aim abilities: Take Aim, Sonic Boom, Beso Toxico

Warden

• Swapped Ebon Blade (formerly Icebrand) for Papyrus Codex

Berserker

• Decreased PA from 14 to 12
• Swapped Golden Axe for Francisca (guaranteed Poison and Blind)

Zen

• Added Black Magicks as a secondary skillset: Fira, Thundara, Blizzara, Aeroja

Armiger

• Swapped Lunar Harp for Faerie Harp in the inventory for Reequip
• Swapped Counter with Counter Throw

Paladin

• Added Saint Cross to Arts of War
• Swapped Magepower Glove for Japa Mala

Sentinel

• Decreased PA from 13 to 6
• Swapped Horizontal/Vertical Jump 3 for Jump 4

Guardian

• Decrease MA from 20 to 12 due to Speechcraft PWR buffs
• Swapped previous Rend abilities for Bulwark, Mow Down, War Cry abilities

Specter

• Added Umbra to Mystic Arts

Cleric

• Added Barrier to White Magicks
• Removed Faerie from Summon as it provided too many resurrection capabilities

Inventory
The following adjustments have been made to the Generics Premade inventory:

• Set Potion to 10 for Auto-Potion (Apothecary)
• Set Remedy to 10
• Set Hi-Potion to 10
• Set X-Potion to 2
• Set Hi-Ether to 10
• Removed Fuma Shuriken and Yagyu Darkrood from Throw Consumables (Shadow)
• Set all Katanas for Iaido to 2 each
• Replaced Lunar Harp (formerly Lamia’s Harp) with Faerie Harp (Armiger)

Rendezvous – Additions and Challenges

At Tactics League, providing a place and community for multiplayer WotL is our mission. However, one area that hasn’t been supported previously was the Rendezvous mode (Co-Op PvE) and we are looking to change that with the addition and support of a Tactics League-catered Rendezvous save in Slot 2! We have a whole article dedicated to this that you should read more about here!