FFRK - Sailing The Skies (XII) Event & Strategies

[Kirin]

Look at how long it takes them to beat Zodiark without Basch's USB. Guess you have to pull here.

"One of these days, I'll fly an airship of my own. I'll be a sky pirate, free to go where I will" - Vaan

"Futile, Basch! Long have I walked in hatred's company. As long as I can curse your name, I shall not be defeated!" - Gabranth

Vaan is part of a lost generation, trying to find purpose in a life reduced to poverty. Vaan adopts a leadership role, being the eldest among the group of orphans he spends his time in, and is seen as a fraternal figure to the younger children, particularly Kytes and Filo.

He is protective of his childhood friend Penelo, and though he hails from the Lowtown slums, Vaan dreams of becoming a sky pirate to escape the Empire's hold and roam the skies freely, but admits to Ashe that this desire stems from wanting to flee the memory of his brother who was killed during the war.

In stark contrast to Vaan's youthful naiveté, Gabranth harbors deep resentment of his brother Basch for choosing Dalmasca over their family.

During the imperial takeover of Dalmasca, Gabranth demonstrates a ruthless and cruel demeanor through imprisoning his brother and keeping him alive while informing him of every failure his former knights suffer after the Archadian occupation. Yet Gabranth remains a respectful follower to Emperor Gramis to the point the Emperor appoints him bodyguard to his son Larsa.

Event Start Date: August 9
Event Bonus Battle: August 12
Event End Date: August 19

All information is taken from a mixture of Reddit/Spreadsheets and my own obviously expert analysis.

Much info for the event comes from this thread and its related links: https://www.reddit.com/r/FFRecordKee...wn&sh=b25fcd80

Though the information provided is used as a guideline and not always taken directly from the thread. When necessary, additional thoughts on Cid Missions and battle strategies are added.

Notable Rewards:

Pheasant Netsuke - Accessory 5*: Moderate Blind and Instant KO resist.

Evil Swing - Heavy 5*: 3/5/8x ST dark element physical hits scaling with 0/1/2 Heavy Charges. Removes Heavy Charge.
(Power/Earth/Dark)

Dark Impact - Heavy 5*: 1/2/6x AoE dark element physical hits scaling with 0/1/2 Heavy Charges. Removes Heavy Charge.
(Power/Fire/Dark)

This marks the end of the long dark road of major dark orbs.

New Characters Acquired:

The Flowering Cactoid's the one up front.

Dress Spheres Acquired:

Look at it there, mocking us.

Old Characters Acquired:

Vaan
Fran
Basch
Ashe
Penelo
Gabranth
Vayne
Larsa

New Memory Crystals:

Quake mortals! You face the blade of legend!

Old Memory Crystals:

Vaan MC1/MC2
Fran MC1/MC2
Basch MC1/MC2
Penelo MC1/MC2

New Record Materia:

Ondore:

• His lies,
• Don't believe them.

New Record Dive

Seitengrat RNG manipulation.

New Legend Materia:

Spoiler: show

No New Additions:

Acolyte Archives

• Beat 'Mythril Golem 凶++' with a party consisting of FFX synergy characters.
• Beat 'Belias 滅++' with a party consisting of FFX synergy characters.

Balance Changes

I'm Captain Basch fon Ronsenburg of Dalmasca!

Relics

Really the first instance of the new torment's forcing fishing for one relic. XII was lacking a Boost/Faith combo as running a mono team for Zodiark is not really possible with a sub 30 in mind because of the palings.

XII is becoming an odd realm, no real specialists and now in the middle of a role transition to boot. Only reliable character, honestly, is Ashe or Fran. One of them is not like the other.

On top of that, the items you would want (Basch USB) carry some VERY old tech (Basch BSB, Penelo BSB) of varying use levels. High risk for sure.

Future Event Banner Comparison:

https://www.reddit.com/r/FFRecordKee..._event_relics/

Next XII banner should be late Dec to early Jan 2019.

This is one of the (so far) limited banners when JP had the format shift to off banner items being limited to units on the banner.

The banners themselves don't share much. XII is a bit odd of a realm, lots of characters but the one that really has a set role is Ashe for thunder magic. That makes these banners a little hard to judge.

On paper, the next XII (Balthier) event is a better overall banner. However, XII is a tricky realm to pull on - especially now with characters undergoing a forced role shift because of torments.

tl;dr - pulls aren't bad on either event, just consider them carefully.

Element Boosts:

Spoiler: show

Banner 1:

• Wind: Vaan USB2
• Lightning: Ashe BSB, LMR
• Dark: Gabranth BSB
• Holy: Basch BSB, LMR

Banner 2:

• None

Ultra EX/Chase Type Glossary:

Spoiler: show

Rules of thumb:

1. Stat buffs from the EX mode have a unique ID and will stack with everything.
2. Many USB’s come with a built in class damage boost. These are separate from the iteration class boosts and do stack.
3. EX modes last 15 seconds, while buffs provided by the USB entry last 25 seconds. (Terra is an exception, with her EX Mode lasting 25 seconds).

Special Effects:

• General Boost: These can be anything specifically tied to the EX Mode - HP Stock, Crit Fix, Cast Speed, Element Boost, Stat buffs, and even Break Damage Limit. This will stack with every other buff on the user, including other EX Modes.
  
• Rank Boost: This provides a damage boost scaling with the rank of the ability used. The boost starts out at ~5% for R1 increasing to ~30% for R5+.
  
• Class Boost: This provides a flat damage boost for a specific class of abilities (Knight, Black Magic, etc). Generally weaker than the Rank Boost at ~15-20%, but applies to all abilities under that class - including Burst commands.
  
• Chase: Follow up attack(s) triggered by using abilities of a specific element or school while under the EX Mode. The number of these chase attacks can be random, reliant on the rank of the ability used (Rank Chase) or status of the user (Status Chase).
  
• Cycle: Unit receives a quickcast or instacast charge when using abilities tied to a specific element or school – generally meant to be used in repetition for maximum effect.
  
• Build Up: A gradient damage boost toward a specific ability school based on the number of ability uses from the start of the battle to when the EX mode is applied. This buff is not tied to EX mode duration, and will persist whenever the EX mode is active.
  
• Wind Up/Finisher: Generally applying to Summoners, this will provide additional damage based on the sum total of all type (class or element) damage done during EX mode when the mode expires. The unique aspect of this is that a recast of the USB will count toward the exit damage of the previous EX mode.
  
• Phantom Cast: This effect will auto cast an attack every few second at a set rate independent of the character. The number of attacks or potency is not reliant on any outside factors (Haste, Slow, QC) and will generally produce 4 actions per EX Mode.
  
• Cheer: This will grant a party wide effect after using a triggering ability. For example, Marche will triple the cast speed of every front row party member (himself included) for 1 turn after he uses a Knight ability.
  
• Ability Double: This will guarantee that an ability will cast 2 times per use at the cost of 2 hones. The first cast can trigger appropriate W-Cast materia for a total of 3 hits, but the additional hits will not generate SB gauge.

Banner 1:

Vaan joins Zidane in wind element thievery. His new USB is 10x ST instant wind/non damage with a self Crit Fix of 50% and EX mode 'Wings of Freedom'. Wings of Freedon carries Atk+30%, and a 'Spiral Rush' chase of 3-7 ST win/non Thief hits triggered by Thief ability use. The chase increases in his for every Thief ability used up to 5 uses and is locked to the current EX mode.

Basch, being a knight, oddly focuses his new USB on being the best spunky Al Bhed thief he can be. It is a literal copy of Rikku's USB1 (Pro/Shell/Haste/Atk/Mag), and necessary for Zodiark sub 30 runs.

Fran's new USB isn't terrible, but its in the Support role and is just ever so slightly off of maximizing her role - much like Faris. 10x random ice/lightning ranged hits with Atk/Mag/Def Breakdown and 1x self CT0.

Returning Items:

Basch: BSB
Ashe: USB, BSB
Fran: BSB2
Penelo: BSB
Gabranth: BSB

Banner 2:

A better XII generalist banner IMHO, but lacking in the Zodiark department.

Returning Highlights:

Penelo USB: Instant Curaga, P. Blink, 2k HP Stock
Larsa BSB/USB: Curaga + Astra, USB is instant
Reks BSB: Party Atk/Def + Haste

Legend Materias:

• B1 - Fran: Begin battle with fastcast x3.
• B1 - Vaan: Small chance to self-ether after using Thief abilities.
• B1 - Basch: Begin battle with en-holy.
• B1 - Ashe: Begin battle with en-lightning.
• B1 - Penelo: Small chance to w-cast White Magic abilities.

• B2 - Vaan: Increase duration of buffs by 30%.
• B2 - Larsa: Small chance for target to gain Astra after using ST White Magic healing abilities.
• B2 - Reks: Small chance for Spellblade abilities to heal 40% of an allies HP.
• B2 - Fran: Terrible. My condolences.
• B2 - Balthier: Small chance to w-cast Machinist abilities.

Relic Discussion
https://www.reddit.com/r/FFRecordKee...63&sh=be5d8248

[Kirin]

I'm out of brain lubricant. Will post in the AM.

Don't die to Zodiark.

Edit: And by AM, I meant a week later. And in the afternoon.

Ultimate + Apocalypse Battles

Imperial Arsenal
凶Dr. Cid (w/Rook x2)
HP: Dr. Cid: 250,000 - Rook: 80,000
Target Score:

• Defeat Dr. Cid with 3 or more heroes not KO'ed.

Weak: Fire, Holy
Absorb: None
Resist: None
Null: None
Status Vulnerabilities: None

Notes: Dr. Cid is an entirely physical fight, but the Rook's do have a ST magic attack. Weaker teams will want Shellga, but don't need to worry about much beyond that.

Not as dangerous as previous Dr. Cid fights. The battle will end when he alone is defeated, so you can ignore the Rooks entirely if you wish. It is also smart to bring along a method to dispel Cid's potential to cast Pro/Shell/Haste/Regenl on himself.

Magickal Construct +
凶Mythril Golem
HP: 360,000
Target Score:

• Defeat the Mythril Golem with at least 3 characters not KO'ed.

Weak: Water
Absorbs: None
Resists: None
Null: None
Vulnerabilities: None

Notes: Carries both physical and magical hits, but the trouble attacks are piercing physical. Focus on that.

Main mechanic to worry about is some front/back row shenanigans. Wild Charge, the piercing physical attack, is decently strong for this difficulty level and can stun the front row at a 48% rate. Alternatively, the back row attack is a weak AoE piercing dark magic attack but it carries a Mag-30% debuff for 10 seconds. There is also a scripted haste at 51% HP - so consider a Dispel.

Acolyte Archive:

The water weakness isn't very prominent in XII, with enemies tending to be the ones who use water attacks. But, XII does have competent mages and spellblade users, which can exploit water very handily.

Penelo can mitigate the front row stun dangers with her USB, so either having her in a main healing role or a debuff role with something like Ace Striker is a good idea. And as mentioned, Ashe and Reks can handle the elemental damage.

Spirit of Flame (Apoc +)
滅firemane
HP: 480,000
Target Score:

• Defeat Firemane with 2 or more heroes not KO'ed.

Weak: Water (20%)
Absorbs: Fire
Resist: None
Null: None
Vulnerabilities: None

Notes: Straightforward, but also carries piercing attacks in both the magical and physical variety. You'll want dedicated breakdowns.

However, the fight isn't necessarily difficult. The only main threat is Ultimate Rush which targets 2 units and stuns at a 78% rate. All of Firemane's AoE abilities also carry a poison % chance, but who cares about that.

With just Poison and Stun to worry about, you are free to pack in the fire resit accessories.

Hellfire (Apoc ++)
滅Belias
HP: 590,000
Target Score:

• Defeat Belias with 2 or more heroes not KO'ed.

Weak: Water (20%)
Absorbs: Fire
Resist: Omni (50%)
Null: None
Vulnerabilities: None

Notes: Mixed mitigation is warranted, but magic mitigation shines due to the piercing magical attack - which all happen to be fire - are the threats.

On phase transitions (and at the start of the fight), Belias will spend 2 turns buffing himself with Saber (Atk 20%) and Great Barrier (Pro/Shell). When you see those go off, try to be ready with a dispel and singular Atk break on separate characters so you don't suddenly see a big incoming damage burst.

Firaja can also hit you with imperil fire, so if you can afford the slot then Affliction Break can save some incoming damage too.

Acolyte Archive:

Like the Mythril Golem, water is the order in a realm with a lighting and holy focus. Mileage out of Reks or Ashe may vary at this difficuly, especially with the Omni resist. That said, a fully decked out Ashe can still churn out decent lightning damage as can Basch, Gabranth, or Vayne with their respective elements. Vaan can really shine in mitigation being able to carry a lot with his BSB and then Mug Bloodlust/Power BD combo.

You can get by on BSB healing, but be cautious of when you use it at higher imperil-fire levels on your team. Quick B2B Firaja's or physical hits can deal some hurt and add up quick. Having stuff like Curaga Medica + Astra/P. Blink with Larsa or Penelo goes way further in mitigation than you think.