Final Fantasy: Record Keeper (Smartphones)

[Anakron]

So Vivi is the best blm overall until Lulu comes out right?

He's only better by virtue of being 65 right now. At comparable levels, I would argue that he's actually one of the worst BLMs out there.

He only has 9 MAG more than Terra or Rinoa. But he's worse everywhere else:

• Gives up 700/400 HP (at 50).
• Can't equip armors or light armors.
• Can't equip any support or white magic.

Admittedly, the last two points can be minor, but the HP difference is huge.

Once you get his RM2, you can put it on Terra or Rinoa and they'll hit harder while still being more durable than a Vivi without RM2.

[Ratatapa]

Vivi has a big advtange on Terra and Rinoa atm

lv 65

[Kaslo]

He's only better by virtue of being 65 right now. At comparable levels, I would argue that he's actually one of the worst BLMs out there.

He only has 9 MAG more than Terra or Rinoa. But he's worse everywhere else:

• Gives up 700/400 HP (at 50).
• Can't equip armors or light armors.
• Can't equip any support or white magic.

Admittedly, the last two points can be minor, but the HP difference is huge.

Once you get his RM2, you can put it on Terra or Rinoa and they'll hit harder while still being more durable than a Vivi without RM2.

The problem with not being to equip those armors is that they don't give big boosts to MAG anyways, so they are effectively not worth it anyways

[Tokitoki]

The problem with not being to equip those armors is that they don't give big boosts to MAG anyways, so they are effectively not worth it anyways

Agreed with this one. I rarely use anything other than MAG enhancing armors on my BLMs. Black Cowl, Gold Hairpin, Feather Hat, etc. He can equip all those pieces.

[Diomer]

Agreed with this one. I rarely use anything other than MAG enhancing armors on my BLMs. Black Cowl, Gold Hairpin, Feather Hat, etc. He can equip all those pieces.

Survivability is more important than that extra magic. It's obviously not an issue on easier things, but on harder mobs it certainly is. Also worth taking into account that Vivi's relic doesn't enable him to do decent melee damage on the way to the boss the way that Terra and Rinoa's do. Also, that emperor's event has a piece of heavy 5* armor that comes with magic on it so if you end up pulling that... it's not even close.

[Tokitoki]

Considering I have yet to pull any character's SB weapons I really could care less what Enhancer or Valkyrie do for melee damage up to the bosses.

The only real issue is DEF and RES. Since he can wear the mage dresses (Regal Gown, etc.) he'll have enough survivability in the back row if you need to turtle up. Terra is not normal as far as equipment choices go. She not only gets a strong sword as her SB weapon, that has both good ATK and MAG, she is also able to equip heavy armor. If you're lucky enough to get her Enhancer then use her, but to count Vivi out because he can't wear a 5* heavy armor is crazy.

Going by average gear/luck/RNG, Vivi is still perfectly acceptable to use. When I use Terra or Rinoa they're wearing the exact same gear as my Vivi is because that's the hand I was dealt.

[Diomer]

Considering I have yet to pull any character's SB weapons I really could care less what Enhancer or Valkyrie do for melee damage up to the bosses.

The only real issue is DEF and RES. Since he can wear the mage dresses (Regal Gown, etc.) he'll have enough survivability in the back row if you need to turtle up. Terra is not normal as far as equipment choices go. She not only gets a strong sword as her SB weapon, that has both good ATK and MAG, she is also able to equip heavy armor. If you're lucky enough to get her Enhancer then use her, but to count Vivi out because he can't wear a 5* heavy armor is crazy.

Going by average gear/luck/RNG, Vivi is still perfectly acceptable to use. When I use Terra or Rinoa they're wearing the exact same gear as my Vivi is because that's the hand I was dealt.

Well, that's part of it too obviously. Draw luck impacts choices like these more than anything; people who got Rydia's weapon are obviously still using Rydia despite her being in the same boat as Vivi.

[Anakron]

The only real issue is DEF and RES.
...
If you're lucky enough to get her Enhancer then use her, but to count Vivi out because he can't wear a 5* heavy armor is crazy.

Going by average gear/luck/RNG, Vivi is still perfectly acceptable to use. When I use Terra or Rinoa they're wearing the exact same gear as my Vivi is because that's the hand I was dealt.

Nobody is counting him out, and certainly not because of armors. Armors was one of the two points which I said could be minor.

I responded to a post that asked if Vivi was the best BLM until Lulu comes out. The answer to that is no, because before Lulu comes out, we're going to get at least three level 65 black mages who have much better stats (Terra, Rinoa, and Ashe). Anything that you can put on Vivi, you can put on those three.

The real issue is not about DEF and RES. The real issue is HP. After a 4* Rod and an Accessory, it's going to be be ~200 MAG vs ~190 MAG, a 5% difference. If you have 5* gear, that MAG difference will be even more marginal. But ~3300 vs ~2600 HP (at 50)? That's a 25% difference. At level 65, Terra will have almost 1000 more HP than Vivi, and only 11 less MAG.

If you like Vivi, or happen to have his relics, then by all means use him. But he is objectively worse than at least three other black mages. Which was the question I answered.

[Julian]

Fair point on Rinoa, but terras requires front row, which throws a hammer on the defense issues.

Vivi is still a really strong BLM, and double meteor is easily the most epic black mage soul break

[Diomer]

Fair point on Rinoa, but terras requires front row, which throws a hammer on the defense issues.

Vivi is still a really strong BLM, and double meteor is easily the most epic black mage soul break

It doesn't though; she takes just as much in the front row with a good helm/heavy armor as a back row does with lighter armor, but has the higher HP cushion. Moreover, this is where formation juggling comes into play with her where you can swap her to back row for boss. Just don't forget to do that Basically whoever's relic you pull is going to be your main BLM unless you have multiple choices. It's really that simple, but in terms of who I'd rather have... I personally like having my BLMs be able to contribute something to melee damage on the way to boss without using abilities.

[Tokitoki]

Nobody is counting him out, and certainly not because of armors. Armors was one of the two points which I said could be minor.

I responded to a post that asked if Vivi was the best BLM until Lulu comes out. The answer to that is no, because before Lulu comes out, we're going to get at least three level 65 black mages who have much better stats (Terra, Rinoa, and Ashe). Anything that you can put on Vivi, you can put on those three.

The real issue is not about DEF and RES. The real issue is HP. After a 4* Rod and an Accessory, it's going to be be ~200 MAG vs ~190 MAG, a 5% difference. If you have 5* gear, that MAG difference will be even more marginal. But ~3300 vs ~2600 HP (at 50)? That's a 25% difference. At level 65, Terra will have almost 1000 more HP than Vivi, and only 11 less MAG.

If you like Vivi, or happen to have his relics, then by all means use him. But he is objectively worse than at least three other black mages. Which was the question I answered.

The three you named do not have "much better stats." They may have better HP, but overall they also have other stats that are lesser than Vivi's. Since Terra is the main point of contention being that she is the other BIS BLM; Terra has less RES and MAG than Vivi does. So those magic AoEs the bosses will be doing are going to hit Vivi for slightly less. He does however have less HP (700 less) and DEF (5 less) than Terra so physical attacks will hit slightly harder and overall he cannot tank as much damage.

But again, Terra is a rare case so far. Rinoa has only 400 more HP than Vivi but significantly less RES (30 less) as well as less MAG. I'd argue that the stats are fairly well balanced considering his superior MAG and RES stats.

You're right. 1000 HP is a lot, but so is 11 MAG. For every character level up you get about 2. Vivi will essentially have 5 levels worth of MAG over Terra with the same equipment. The worst case will be bosses with heavy AoE, but most of the situations where you're overcoming one character that has less HP than others can be dealt with by S/L. I can't rightly comment on how significantly the additional RES will reduce damage from magic AoEs, but I would have to guess it would make up for at least 1-200 HP of the 700 he lacks versus Terra.

EDIT:

It doesn't though; she takes just as much in the front row with a good helm/heavy armor as a back row does with lighter armor, but has the higher HP cushion. Moreover, this is where formation juggling comes into play with her where you can swap her to back row for boss. Just don't forget to do that

I understand you responding to Julian, but since we're talking about BLMs in general... If you give Terra a helm/heavy armor her MAG will be even further behind Vivi's. Of course, if you're using her to clear trash with melee then it makes sense, but even if you're doing that I'd venture to guess that she isn't one shotting the higher difficulty trash and will need someone to do clean up.

[Azull]

I have gotten the Gold Armlet as my only 5 star for 2 x11 pulls in a row.

[Ratatapa]

shit is situational

[Tyrath]

Man people comparing all this stats BS.

My only 2 considerations when choosing characters for roles:
- How much do I like the character?
- Do I have special weapon for someone?

[Anakron]

The three you named do not have "much better stats." They may have better HP, but overall they also have other stats that are lesser than Vivi's.

You're right, I never noticed how low Rinoa's RES is. Ashe and Terra have about 10% less RES, but 10% more DEF, which is an even trade-off.

But the point is that gear will add a lot of MAG, DEF, and RES, while nothing will add HP. Damage caps out at 9999, so MAG isn't going to matter nearly as much as HP will.

[Tokitoki]

But the point is that gear will add a lot of MAG, DEF, and RES, while nothing will add HP. Damage caps out at 9999, so MAG isn't going to matter nearly as much as HP will.

We're talking about same gear though, so we should basically just look at raw stats. Unless you're using the -ja line, which I admittedly do not have honed yet, you're probably not hitting 9999 on the EX bosses. I believe I was in the 7000-8000 range.

Like Rat said, though, shit's situational. I wouldn;t take Vivi to a boss fight with a lot of physical AoE or attackers, like the Tidus EX fight. If I can keep him safe, mostly from single-target abilities, I'd send him in to fire away.

[Deathbringer]

Time to burn mythril on this event before it ends :/

[Julian]

Auto attack weapon on black mages will soon mean pretty much nothing. (for the more difficult content, anyway. For the easier stuff it hardly really matters.)

Once BLM RM2 is out, you will be (should be) clearing more difficult trash with quake (ruinga in the future). Sword damage wont matter, unless you want to be lazy and auto-attack. And in that case, the trash mobs are where you're going to be taking the most damage, so sitting your black mage in the front row for trash fights is not the best idea, and will likely lead to medal losses.

Although, we will reach a point where quake/ruinga no longer one shots trash. While you're near that border, black mages like Vivi shine since they'll let you squeeze a few more levels of difficulty until you can no longer 1 shot waves. This is the point where I'm at right now. (For reference, we're about to get dungeon update 4, I'm talking about an elite at the very start of dungeon update 6. There are currently 13 dungeon updates out right now iirc. (They've been getting smaller and smaller though, due to increased release frequency. This is actually about 45~50% of the way through the currently available content.) Once we pass that point... idk! Double black mages spamming AOE? >_>

[Melena]

Ok real dumb question here about optimizing equipment when going into a level, will it pull equipment from members who are not in your party to use. I.E. if I tossed a piece of equipment on wakka who is not in my party, would tidus get it from optimization if it's better?

[Anakron]

Ok real dumb question here about optimizing equipment when going into a level, will it pull equipment from members who are not in your party to use. I.E. if I tossed a piece of equipment on wakka who is not in my party, would tidus get it from optimization if it's better?

No, the game will not. The optimization is pretty bad in general. For example, it likes to gear Celes as a BLM, and it ignores character-specific relics, often equipping them on other characters.