Which weapons to upgrade!

[Sarial]

I think 95% of people playing this made the mistake of starting upgrading Gladius. It was just so appealing at the time.

/ (/sigh)

Chapter 11, starting my Axis up now

Kind of on topic--kind of off. Where do you find Fang's Taming pole? I know what chapter, just not where. Don't want to have missed it.

[Edgie]

I did gladius for story and lionheart for endgame, worked well.

[LinktheDeme]

how much of a damage increase is paladin when above 90% hp? Wondering if it'd be better than wild bear

[miokomioko]

You only get High HP: Power Surge if you pair Paladin with a rather crappy bangle (like HP+100?)... but I couldn't tell you the exact amount of dmg increase... no official word on it.

[Spira]

out of curiosty what did everyone upgrade for Sazh? I was thinking Spica Defenders cuz they have the second best stats (besides Rigels which have Stagger Lock) as well as Augment Maintenance for his SYN, but I'm really not sure since there are a bunch of decent bonuses on his other weapons.

edit: also the guide is well worth the money, there are a few things it doesn't detail but unlike previous FF guides (which have all been BradyGames, this is Piggyback) there are virtually no errors and it has really clear and detailed information, especially in regards to drop rates and upgrading.

I've decided to go with Antares for Sazh.
Figured that in the end, I'd probably tailor each character to their speciality, including their unique attack. Offensively, Sazh is still best as a RAV, so I went with Antares for Chain Bonus + his Cold Blood ability

[Korietsu]

Quick question on upgrading weapons. I upgraded pearlwind to max level, then went to pop it up to the next teir, and the stats went down. Wondering if I used the wrong catalyst?

[Elcura]

No, that happens to pretty much all weapons. The bonus is that now you can upgrade it far past where you could have before, so it all works out. Don't worry about it.

[Kiarax]

It's not possible to use a wrong catalyst either. Only one catalyst works on any item and you wont be able to use any that aren't the correct one.

[Korietsu]

I don't understand why it totally trashed the stats on the item =(. I lost 100 mag upgrading to t2. Didn't happen with Light's weapon at all, I actually got a stat boost.

[Kiarax]

I haven't seen any weapon have anything but a drop in stats when upgrading. Initially they are worse, so it's not worth upgrading unless you can afford to level up the new weapon a bit as soon as you change it.

[Julian]

The "low-stat but special effect" weapons actually receive a boost when you upgrade them, because the multiplier increases by a decent amount. For "high stat" weapons, the stat multiplier is already pretty high and doesn't increase by too much, (or rather, since the low stat one's was already so low, going from 3 to 6 is basically multiplying it, but when you go from 8 to 11, it's not actually much of an increase) so you usually lose stats since the weapon is lower level. But, since the multiplier is a bit higher (although not by much), by the time you reach the level that the previous weapon was, your stat will be higher.

Example, made up numbers:

Let's say Lionheart gets +2STR/MAG per level, initial values of 20/20, and caps at level 20. So at level 20, Lionheart has 60STR/60MAG.

Upgrading Lionheart to Ultima weapon drops it to level 12, Ultima weapon has the same 20/20 start, but a +5STR/MAG per level, so at level 11 it has 20+55=75STR/MAG.

Now let's say you're using a Gladius, which has +8 STR/level, starts at 30. So at level 20, you have 190 STR. You transform to Helter-Skelter which has +11STR/level, starting at 30, so at level 11 you have 151STR, but you gain an extra 3 STR per level, so you somewhat quickly catch up.

I think this is how it works anyway, don't quote me on it or anything <_< just my own experience from what I've seen.

[Gokulo]

I still can't decide what to upgrade for Light :/ Fang has Taming Pole upgraded and Vanille Belladonna Wand. I think I should go with Axis but I just dunno... >.<;

[Elcura]

I'm upgrading Lionheart to Omega, Instant Chain is nice, but Quick Stagger is always more useful for me. On the other hand, Enkindler with +20% ATB is fucking rape, and you never know when you need the lower STR/MAG for 5 stars.

[Julian]

Axis would be pretty good for all of the +ATB even if you're controlling Fang and not her, hell, especially if you're not controlling her, since the AI will actually be able to input as fast as the queue becomes ready.

Although, since at Omega weapon you lose the +ATB benefits, and you only get the bare skill which I don't think is that good..

I personally would go with either the balanced weapon or the gladius, probably the balanced one. Balanced caps at 620/620, Gladius at 723/210. To compare, Axis caps at 315/315 and Lionheart at 508/508, so Lionheart probably wouldn't be TOO bad. The Early Trigger ability is still kinda useful to save a few seconds staggering mobs, but idk.

So I'd say either Lionheart or Balanced.

Hauteclaire is a decent choice, caps at 711/711, but if you're already using Taming Pole on Fang I wouldn't recommend it.

[Appie]

I went with Blaze Edge upgrade myself. Considering she's an allround character and I pretty much use her as such too, picking the balanced weapon looked like a good choice. Taming Pole and Belladonna as other weapons.

[Araelus]

I don't understand why it totally trashed the stats on the item =(. I lost 100 mag upgrading to t2. Didn't happen with Light's weapon at all, I actually got a stat boost.

It appears that XP is never lost until you get to the final final ultimate absolute last ★ form.

For example, if you put in way more XP than is needed for Gladius to ★ (54800 from zero) when you use a Uranium catalyst, the resulting Helter-Skelter could be level 50 or more right away.

I'm not sure if it backcalculates the lower XP a higher tier item gets from the same item, otherwise you could plug in 2,181,777 XP to a level 1 Axis Blade and it should transform to Enkindler★ then directly to Omega★.

I think that would be about twenty x3 boosted Ultracompact Reactors in one go?

[Atreides]

interestingly enough, with a 3x multiplier for some of the Tier2 weapons it's actually cheaper to buy 2-3 ultracompact reactors for 50k each and go way over the EXP cap, than it would be to buy the 10k ones. For 5 times the gil you get more than 5 times the exp.

[Zumi]

Should I upgrade Fang's starter weapon or should I go with Taming Pole?

[Elcura]

Taming Pole seems like a good choice, common for a DD Fang since COM kinda sucks for building Chain. Another good choice would be the speak with better counter rate for when you know she's going to be on SEN, but if you don't have the money for that, I'd go with Taming Pole.

[lilfoo]

You only get High HP: Power Surge if you pair Paladin with a rather crappy bangle (like HP+100?)... but I couldn't tell you the exact amount of dmg increase... no official word on it.

From a dmg calculation guide from the JP version:

 ________________________________________________________
| Type | Ability                                   Effect|
|========================================================|
| Both |  High Voltage ............................ +20% |
| Both |  Powerful when Critical .................. +20% |
| Both |  Powerful when Critical(upgrade) ......... +40% |
| Both |  Ally KO -> Power Up ............. +110% - 220% |
| Both |  Ally KO -> Greatly Power Up ..... +130% - 260% |
| Both |  Power Up when Healthy ................... +20% |
| Both |  Power Up when in Danger ................. +50% |
*========================================================*

All applicable effects from this table are taken as a sum before increasing 
the amount damage dealt.


Table B:
 _____________________________________________
| Type | Status Effect                 Effect |
|=============================================|
| Phys | Brave ........................ x 1.4 |
| Phys | Braveda ...................... x 1.8 |
| Phys | Debrave ...................... x 0.1 |
| Mag  | Faith ........................ x 1.4 |
| Mag  | Faithda ...................... x 1.8 |
| Mag  | Defaith ...................... x 0.1 |
*=============================================*
Most of the effects from this table counter-act each other. You can only have 
1 of either faith, faithda, or defaith. Likewise, you can only have 1 of 
either brave, braveda, or debrave at any given time. Given the fact that no 
abilities use both magical and physical attack in the calculation, the 
effects in this table will never compound.


Table C:
 ________________________________________________________
| Type | Ability                                  Effect |
|========================================================|
| Both | Commando Role Bonus ................ +5% - 180% |
| Both | X Affinity% Up ....................  +20% - 50% |
| Phys | Physical Damage greatly lowers ........... -50% |
| Phys | Physical Damage lowers ................... -30% |
| Mag  | Magical Damage greatly lowers ............ -50% |
| Mag  | Magical Damage lowers .................... -30% |
| Phys | Revenge Mode ...................... +10% - 300% |
| Phys | Revenge Charge .................... +30% - 150% |
*========================================================*

The X Affinity% Up abilities are Chain Equip abilities which effect one 
element. This bonus only applies in the case that the attack in question is 
of that element. The damage dealt by Revenge Mode and Charge is the damage it 
deals at the end of a turn in which the Sentinel used those abilities. 

Including the Commando Role Bonus, the upper limit for the Revenge type 
abilities is +300%.

Edit: added the rest of the multipliers since they could be asked next.