Ultra VGF Four Job Fiesta IV

[X-3]

For knowledge's sake, here's how Time Magic is calculated:

SpellHit%=SpellHit%+AttackerLevel−TargetLevel
Evade%=TargetMagicEvade%

If the spell is multi-targeted the Spell Hit% is halved. Spells that are naturally multi-target do not suffer the penalty. If the target has Shell, the Spell Hit% is also halved, and if the target is a Toad its Evade % is reduced to 0.

The game generates two random numbers between 0 and 99.

If N1 >= Hit%, the spell misses
If N2 < Evade%, the spell misses

Atomos is naturally immune to slow. Meanwhile, Exdeath has a Magic Evasion of 85.




"And then he turned himself into a splinter."
"...Whatever."
"Evilest **** I've ever seen."

Afterwards I ventured through the pyramid, rescued Lenna from Mary Jane, made a visit to the Phantom Village, picked up three Legendary Weapons and, most importantly:





Sensibly, I went after Bahamut next. It took me about four tries. On the fourth try I managed to afflict him with Slow which meant he was able to only get a single Poison Breath off before he croaked.

Bahamut's Level: 99
Magic Evasion: 33

Afterwards I climbed the Phoenix Tower and got two pairs of Running Shoes to drop. Nice.



Pretty easy fight due to Haste 2+Slow 2. From there I just had to guess which one is the real one. It took his copies around two minutes to realize that the fight was over which was kind of annoying.

Wendigo's Level: 7
Magic Evasion: 10

Fork Tower: I actually had a fair bit of trouble with the Minotaur guy. It was still a oneshot, but a close one. Equipping the Knight with the Defender came in clutch several times.

As for Omniscient, he was kind of a joke due to being vulnerable to Old and Slow. His low-health Flare still hit damn hard though.

Omniscient's Level: 53
Magic Evasion: 0

The Three Stooges: This one took me a few Resets to get down and I didn't get a screenshot. They were vulnerable to Demi/Quarter but their decent Magic Evasion made that unreliable. Humorously one of them revived just before I could fire off a spell that finished off the other two.

Their Levels: 37/20/39
Magic Evasion: 60/60/60

With that I got Meteor, which is kind of like Walmart X-Fight. With gambling.

Damage=((50..200)−MagicDefense)∗M, M=14

Even with hard-hitting Bolt 3s and Quick Meteors, this took a few tries due to the Tidal Waves. Ultimately, throwing on a Coral Ring that dropped earlier helped me live long enough to finish the job.

Leviathan's Level: 37
Magic Evasion: 70



I cut it close due to how much time magic eats up. Quick Haste 2+Meteor alone eats up like 20 seconds.

Odin's Level: 2
Magic Evasion: 80



I'm investing the bulk of my fortune in Flame Rings in the hopes that they'll come in handy for some AOE healin' during the final boss.

[smol Kat]

finally beat that stupid sandworm, had to grind to level 18 to do it but w o r t h
also beat Adamantoise at 18. Was originally going to power through using Ice2 instead of breaking rods but then he double hit one of my mages so I broke two rods out of salt

man, shoutouts to the aerial defense system keeping your progress if you go to heal, I literally healed every fight. Soul Cannon (party level 18) was comically easy; my two mages broke a thunder rod apiece then everyone just whaled on him with Bolt2/Coral Sword/my poor monk that tried so hard. No damage fight ftw!

...Archeoavis is going to make me upset again though isn't it

EDIT: So I think what I'm going to do is have a Monk (with Guard maybe), two Knights (with Counter), and BM (probably also with Guard). Maybe?????

Player Summary
X-3: Black Mage - Knight - Time Mage - Geomancer
Val: Monk - Berserker - Mystic Knight - Red Mage
Kat: Knight - Berserker Monk - Black Mage - ??? (Donation Total: $24)

[smol Kat]

LOL OKAY APPARENTLY THAT WAS A GOOD STRAT BECAUSE DID YOU GUYS KNOW THAT IF YOU KILL A FORM VIA COUNTER THE FIGHT IS OVER
AND I DID IT FIRST FORM FIRST TRY I was not actually expecting that to work omg lmao (party level 23)

MY FINAL JOB IS BLUE MAGE YES YES YES ok I know I have to wait a bit to have heals but HOLY CRAP ON A CRACKER I WILL TAKE IT.

e: wait a heckin minute I can just literally teach everybody wampire I know that's only self healing but IT'S SOMETHING

Player Summary
X-3: Black Mage - Knight - Time Mage - Geomancer
Val: Monk - Berserker - Mystic Knight - Red Mage
Kat: Knight - Berserker Monk - Black Mage - Blue Mage (Donation Total: $24)

[smol Kat]

Decided to attempt the meteor bosses over lunch. Purobolos were laughably easy; all it took were a couple Aqua Breaths, a AoE Ice2, and Kick. Did Manticore next because I'm afraid of Titan and his Quakes with Knight/Monk/Blue Mage, which was also really easy--Missile and a Focus attack took it right out.

Then I conveniently ran out of lunch break and have to go back to work now. Probably keeping this party for Titan but probably also grinding a bit. Ideally I'd have the physical classes at more than 1k HP (I'm level 24/25 right now).

Player Summary
X-3: Black Mage - Knight - Time Mage - Geomancer
Val: Monk - Berserker - Mystic Knight - Red Mage
Kat: Knight - Berserker Monk - Black Mage - Blue Mage (Donation Total: $24)

[X-3]

After getting the save-point by Omega I went back and grinded for this bad boy. It boosts all elemental damage save Water (Leviathanbros...) so it's essentially a second Wizard Rod.

As for Omega, I tried a bit and it seems nearly impossible for my team. Mission failed, we'll get 'em next time.

Omega's Level: 119
Magic Evasion: 90
Magic Defense: 150



All you really need to do is reapply Float and he'll keep casting Gravity 100. Poor guy.

Catastrophe's Level: 77
Magic Evasion: 33



I don't know how this fight works.

Twintania's Level: 39
Magic Evasion: 10 (lol)



I remember using Break Blade on his barriers last year, so this year I casted Reflected Breaks. It worked pretty well, though the Breaks have an uncanny habit of targeting Necrophobe instead. Sadly, he instantly respawns.



BarrierChamp

Barrier's Magic Evasion: 10
Necrophobe's Magic Evasion: 75



This isn't a Crystal Dragon, I swear!

Anyway, when I first drew Knight I pictured myself using Guard+Cover to protect the team for this fight and that's pretty much exactly what happened. Tense, but not terribly difficult unlike last year where there was a lot of RNG.

Shinryu's Level: 97
Magic Evasion: 95

[smol Kat]

Titan was fine. He did get one Earth Shaker off that wasn't the death cast, but my monk survived. I'd like to pick up a few more rods of each type, juuuust in case...but I blew most of my funds on Ethers in Lix, sooooooo

Player Summary
X-3: Black Mage - Knight - Time Mage - Geomancer
Val: Monk - Berserker - Mystic Knight - Red Mage
Kat: Knight - Berserker Monk - Black Mage - Blue Mage (Donation Total: $24)

[smol Kat]

Decided 8 of each rod was enough to see me through World 2. Also apparently my Manticore fight didn't save so I had to do it again but w/e it was just as easy the second time as the first

Also, I figured I could beat Abductor with Guard/Counter and was definitely right. I know winning that fight is optional but Arse is an alpha and has an ego to maintain. :P Then we sent up the superbatsignal. Hell's bells, indeed. Galuf (23) in his salt Missiled Gilgamesh as a Blue Mage.

To a large continent connector! Now this was kind of annoying because I forgot that Moon Flute berzerks your party...NOT your opponent. Luckily I have the Ancient Sword, so I can at least hamper him a little bit. OF COURSE IT WOULD BE REAL COOL IF THE EFFECT WOULD, YOU KNOW, TRIGGER
i mAY have broken a couple Thunder Rods out of salt, the jerk cost me $2

Speaking of money, I don't really have any but there's a lot of shiny new stuff...so I did some minor grinding for better armor and the 3 black spells. Then I played Moogle Rescue Team, which cost a few minutes and a Phoenix Down. and also my dignity, my dignity for a moogle suit and a fancy knife

And with that, I'm at the grindy castle!!! will spend some time figuring out what I want my party to look like, and then several years grinding. Wish me luck!

EDIT: Well, turns out it's really easy to grind when your physical jobs have limited synergy, I spent like 20 minutes on this

Player Summary
X-3: Black Mage - Knight - Time Mage - Geomancer
Val: Monk - Berserker - Mystic Knight - Red Mage
Kat: Knight - Berserker Monk - Black Mage - Blue Mage (Donation Total: $26)

[Valigarmander]

My Berserker was surprisingly handy during this fight. I had everyone else healing the Crystals to prevent their HP from falling into the danger zone while I waited for the Death Sickle to proc.

Almost done with the second world. But before heading to Exdeath I wanted to give the Gil Turtle a try, and I knew that as-is my party was too weak for that. A little bit of grinding in Bal Castle's basement later...



That sweet, sweet Dualcast. How does my party fare in the fight?



...I mean, I technically beat it.

Berserker had to stay dead to avoid causing counterattacks. My Mystic Knight attacked with Blizzaga spellblade while my Monk and Red Mage healed. I had to rely on Hi-Potions a lot because Cura simply wasn't healing enough damage.

It's finally starting to sink in how much the last third of the game is going to suck for this party. Berserker has to sit out a lot of fights. Monk can't make a dent in enemies with high physical defense and is better off as a healer sometimes. Red Mage's spell selection is starting to feel obsolete. Protect is the only buff I can cast, and I don't have access to high-level offensive or healing spells. Dualcast only helps so much: two Curas are not equal to a Curaga.

Here goes nothing, I guess.

Player Summary
X-3: Black Mage - Knight - Time Mage - Geomancer
Val: Monk - Berserker - Mystic Knight - Red Mage
Kat: Knight - Berserker Monk - Black Mage - Blue Mage (Donation Total: $26)

[smol Kat]

Made quick work of Drakenvale/evil plant by way of Missile and other such things. Not sure what I'm doing later this evening yet, but this run is definitely coming along!

Player Summary
X-3: Black Mage - Knight - Time Mage - Geomancer
Val: Monk - Berserker - Mystic Knight - Red Mage
Kat: Knight - Berserker Monk - Black Mage - Blue Mage (Donation Total: $26)

[smol Kat]

I just got some horrible news that has inspired me to match my total to benefit the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. As such,

Player Summary
X-3: Black Mage - Knight - Time Mage - Geomancer
Val: Monk - Berserker - Mystic Knight - Red Mage
Kat: Knight - Berserker Monk - Black Mage - Blue Mage (Donation Total: $52 | $13 to Child's Play |$13 to Baltimore Safe Haven | $26 to NSPL)

No game updates in this post. I need to veg.

[smol Kat]

thank goodness for staycations. time to beat up some more bad guys!

Starting with Gilga on a boat aaaaand he's on a boat. I opted for L5 Death strats because of course. He still yelled at Enkidu for buggering off, which I found hilarious.

someone needs to teach Galuf what puns are plzkthx

btw, I'm doing L5 Death strats on Atomos, too, which means it better not kill one of my casters >:[ or I could just give everyone !blue but honestly too late for that l m a o Also learned Time Slip and L4 Graviga relatively easily, but Off-Guard.... that took some doin'.

Anyway it did in fact kill one of my casters so I said HA HA SCREW YOU and revived her and let it kill Arse instead. The rest was cheese.

Now I have sea travel again so maybe this is the time to learn some more blue spells???

Player Summary
X-3: Black Mage - Knight - Time Mage - Geomancer
Val: Monk - Berserker - Mystic Knight - Red Mage
Kat: Knight - Berserker Monk - Black Mage - Blue Mage (Donation Total: $52 | $13 to Child's Play | $13 to Baltimore Safe Haven | $26 to NSPL)

[X-3]

Owari da.

Spoiler.

This took me about eight tries. At first I went in with all Fire Rings, but after a few tries I went back to the standard Running Shoes/Elf Capes load out. The healing is nice but Neo Exdeath can cause so much damage that it's better to just leave Time Mage in perma-Haste so they can try to get the party back on their feet with Quick.

The first issue was the bottom target, the one that casts Almagest early in the fight. One casting is enough to cripple the party with its sheer damage. Luckily, it's vulnerable to Petrify, so I could cast Break and insta-kill it. It has a high level and Magic Evasion (all of the targets have high magic Evasion, I didn't bother with Slow at all) though, so it's much more luck-based than Break Blade from last year. Before my winning attempt I grinded the Wonder Wand for a bit so it would cast Break when I attacked...and then I ended up getting a successful normal Break off before I could actually use it. So I have no idea if Wonder Wand's Break even works reliably.

The second issue was the top target, the one that casts Grand Cross. Grand Cross can afflict your party with random status ailments which can cause things to spiral out of control depending on the dice rolls. My strategy was to just pull off enough DPS to avoid Grand Cross entirely, and on my winning attempt I pulled it off.

The final two targets were a battle of attrition, same as last year. I casted AoE Black Magic and had the Time Mage use Quick to use Phoenix Down/Haste if anyone died. When only one target is alive it casts Meteo; unlike last year, I managed to avoid this entirely. So, all-in-all a very lucky fight. It took about 17 minutes which is actually a bit slower than last year's fight by like two minutes. Go figure.

The Jobs:

Spoiler.

Like last year, Black Mage carried me through pretty much all of the game. Its shortcoming is, as always, enemies with Reflect, a weakness pronounced by my party having only one physical damage dealer. I wonder if I can even beat the game without Summoner/Black Mage...

You'll notice that I didn't teach them Time Magic even though Quick+BM is an obvious powerful combo. I'll explain exactly why in a bit. Instead I chose Equip Shield, which was very handy and is aesthetically cool. On a side note, I hate Bartz's Black Mage sprite. God those pants look like ****.



Knight is pretty good due to its wide range of equipment options and hard-hitting attacks. I didn't use Guard+Cover that much but using it to kill Shinryu is good enough for me. Mission accomplished.



Busted. If it had Haste and Slow alone it'd be amazing, but it also has Demi/Quarter, Exit, Reset, Quick and Meteo. It can also equip staffs which lets it use the Healing Staff, giving it the ability to bonk teammates to heal them. This definitely feels like one of the creator's pet jobs and it's probably my favorite job in the game.

Its shortcoming is damage output. For most of the game it buffs and then twiddles its thumbs, giving it a distinct "TIME TO...do nothing" kind of feeling in a lot of random battles. Late-game it gets Meteo which can hit very hard but is luck-based, gets stopped by high magic defense (Omega) and hits random targets. (Necrophobe and especially Neo Exdeath)

As for why I didn't give Black Mage any Time Magic? Well, Time Magic doesn't really use magic power in its spells, so a Black Mage with Time Magic is basically the same as a Time Mage, maybe even slightly better. And I think that diminishes the coolness of the Time Mage.



I called the Geomancer job bad but I guess it's alright. Geomancy/Terrain is kind of nice for random battles, and it has decent Magic Power and the Rune Chime. In endgame it's pretty much a slightly faster Black Mage.

[smol Kat]

Got a bunch of blue spells etc. and headed into the forest. Death Claw strats kind of worked (man that spell hits like garbage), but 3 of the 4 crystals got their near-death spell off. Which was scary, especially with a countering Monk, but I was also able to spam items so I wasn't in any real danger.

Player Summary
X-3: Black Mage - Knight - Time Mage - Geomancer
Val: Monk - Berserker - Mystic Knight - Red Mage
Kat: Knight - Berserker Monk - Black Mage - Blue Mage (Donation Total: $52 | $13 to Child's Play | $13 to Baltimore Safe Haven | $26 to NSPL)

[Valigarmander]

Exdeath took me quite a while, but I managed to make it through without wiping once. I'm finding that a lot of major fights using this party end up being endurance matches. I don't have any flashy or powerful abilities, but I'm able to lay the damage on in small increments and spread out healing duties among the entire party (minus the Berserker). As long as I'm stocked up on items, I seem to be able to make it through okay.

Antlion was no trouble thanks to Sleep Spellblade. The Gargoyles were trickier because I have no multi-target attacks that do more than pitiful damage, but I got lucky in the end. The Zephyrus enemies in the Pyramid gave me some trouble until I realized I could Toad them.



Spellblade worked wonders on Melusine, but the fight still took a while because I had to keep changing elements.

Went to the Phantom Village and spent all my grinding money on elemental rings and Hermes Sandals. For my three sealed weapons I got the Magus Rod and Sage Staff for my Red Mage to juggle, and the Rune Axe for my Berserker. Monk and Mystic Knight don't get a sealed weapon because the former is barehanded and the latter can only equip vanilla-ass swords apparently.

Player Summary
X-3: Black Mage - Knight - Time Mage - Geomancer
Val: Monk - Berserker - Mystic Knight - Red Mage
Kat: Knight - Berserker Monk - Black Mage - Blue Mage (Donation Total: $52 | $13 to Child's Play | $13 to Baltimore Safe Haven | $26 to NSPL)

[smol Kat]

weeeelp, I decided to attempt Gil Cave. I did not get far. Meh, I have plenty from the grindy basement.

Player Summary
X-3: Black Mage - Knight - Time Mage - Geomancer
Val: Monk - Berserker - Mystic Knight - Red Mage
Kat: Knight - Berserker Monk - Black Mage - Blue Mage (Donation Total: $56 | $14 to Child's Play | $14 to Baltimore Safe Haven | $28 to NSPL)

[Valigarmander]

Had zero trouble with these losers.



Minotaur was manageable when I put my Monk on healing duty. Even then the Monk got KOed at one point, and the Berserker had to finish the fight alone.



Used Mute Spellblade and this guy couldn't do **** about it.



Went to Istory Falls to grab the Enhancer for my Mystic Knight. Decided to kill Leviathan for **** and giggles. Having a bunch of Coral Rings helped.

Off to the Void I go!

Player Summary
X-3: Black Mage - Knight - Time Mage - Geomancer
Val: Monk - Berserker - Mystic Knight - Red Mage
Kat: Knight - Berserker Monk - Black Mage - Blue Mage (Donation Total: $56 | $14 to Child's Play | $14 to Baltimore Safe Haven | $28 to NSPL)

[Valigarmander]

Easy fight. Mute Spellblade left the boss defenseless.



Another year, another bunch of failed Omega attempts. Thundaga Spellblade did great damage in the rare instances it was able to connect. I had no way to debuff the boss, and my Red Mage's puny Curas couldn't keep up with the damage Omega was dealing. My Berserker was less than useless.

I made a number of attempts, changing equipment and tactics, but nothing was successful. Oh well.



Apanda and Azulmagia went down quick thanks to Firaga Spellblade and Bio Spellblade. Catastrophe, on the other hand, gave me my first (non-Omega) challenge in the Rift, since I don't have a way to cast Float on my party or to recover heavy damage. I just had to hope Catastrophe would be courteous enough to space out its Earth Shakers.



CAN'T TURN MY PARTY INTO FROGS IF EVERYONE'S ALREADY A FROG HA HA HA



Coral Rings kept my party healthy throughout the fight. Once the boss started charging Giga Flare, Holy Spellblade was able to OHKO it.

Player Summary
X-3: Black Mage - Knight - Time Mage - Geomancer
Val: Monk - Berserker - Mystic Knight - Red Mage
Kat: Knight - Berserker Monk - Black Mage - Blue Mage (Donation Total: $56 | $14 to Child's Play | $14 to Baltimore Safe Haven | $28 to NSPL)