Final Fantasy XII

CodeMonkey

Orizio wrote:

Even if you chain the quickenings(I have 8 altogether and all my characters are lev 26) together against bosses the complete loss of MP leaves you pretty limited for the rest of the battle.Not worth it in my opinion.

The aim is to kill the boss with quickening chains or get it almost dead. Well it works for me. I got 10 quickenings all together now between 5 characters and just killed Enkelados (in Ozmone) doing a 7hit chain, 7hit chain, 5hit chain and hitting it once or twice. I didn't even start with full mist charges (can usually get 1st chain higher for more damage if everyone is full) and I didn't need any healing at all. Then again that's an easy mark and I've yet encountered a mark I can't kill this way.

I even killed the first demon wall at the tomb but I needed to reload a couple of times for that to get the timing right. My 3 chains would only take off about 3/4 of its hp bar. Had to do the rest the hard way. Finally did it when I berserked Vossler before the fight so he can whack it hard after the chains Otherwise my guys couldn't damage it quick enough.

If you can tackle the bosses head to head without abusing quickening then I don't see why not.

Orizio

Yeah I see your point.I've started to understand how to put chains together better and without quickenings Bergin would have continously handed me ass wuppings.

Anyone know a particularly good place to level up?Just defeated Bergin.

CodeMonkey

Orizio wrote:

Yeah I see your point.I've started to understand how to put chains together better and without quickenings Bergin would have continously handed me ass wuppings.

Anyone know a particularly good place to level up?Just defeated Bergin.

I'm actually leaning towards not abusing quickening chains from the start of the fight now cause some bosses (usually none story ones with silly amount of hp) won't go down easy with my old method. Different method for different bosses I guess. With those I try to take them down as much as I can with the main guys. Use proper tanking gear too like main gauche, gauntlet etc. When every's MP are gone then swap in the subs one at a time and try to end it with 3 chains (now all my guys have quickenings).

As for leveling, I just found an efficient way to level. I am sure this is quite obvious and documented in faqs too but...get 3 golden armlet accessory (they double LP gained). Find an area with lots of same mobs that gives good exp and good loot and chain them.

I was chaining coeurls/panthers at the start of that jungle. They give about 300 exp i think (can't really remember now) and coeurl pelts sells for 400+ gil each. Just zone back out to ozmone (don't touch crystal), zone to next area where you see black/red chocobos and then head back to the jungle. The coeurls would've reloaded.

I did 2 50+ chains there in relatively short time in my opinion, broke chain to sell 99 coeurl pelts at that verra village. They drop 2-3 pelts at a time a lot when you have big chains. Gained some levels, got lots of LPs, got lots of gil which I really needed to upgrade equipment and buy spells etc. Haven't really seen any other place yet with all these advantages.

Retr0gamer

I'm just past the snowy mountain and fear i might have to level up since im getting my ass kicked by normal enemies. Only made it through the last few bosses by the skin of my teeth. Characters are all about LVL 22 - 23. Quickenings arent as effective anymore. Story isn't all that great. The politics are interesting but the mystic stone stuff is generic as hell.

CodeMonkey

Retr0, that area with the coeurls might be good for you too. If you can't kill them easy doing it the normal way you can just use multi hit quickening chains. Just do 3 hit chains for inferno. They're usually in groups of 4/3, sometimes 2, so the area damage from chains would kill them. Run back out and touch crystal to replenish MP. Repeat.

Yeah, the story is not wowing me.

steviec

Is there a way to know the stats of weapons before you buy them? I seem to be only able to tell attack power but often they have effects on other statistics and it would nice to know beforehand. For example I just bought Hornito hand bombs, mainly for the name , but they looked great based on attack power and then you equip and discover there's a massive penalty to evade which is kind of annoying.

Think I'm in roughly the same place as Retr0, just past the snowy bit, had some cut scenes, and outside a temple just to the south now. Went away for a while to level up though, killed lots of marks and my team are all at level 27 now so think I should be better prepared. Also learnt some quickenings, if nothing else the boost to MP is quite nice Managed to chain 7 together against a mark in the snow just now too, very nearly killed it with one chain and it was easy to finish off, after it had killed me on my previous few attempts.

So hopefully I'm better prepared as I move forward with the story now, I can barely remember why I'm out here looking for this ancient something or other, hopefully things will start to pick up!

Retr0gamer

My big problem is that my MP is too low to cast Cura or Curaga and cure just isn't cutting it anymore. If I take too much damage I end up in a curing loop resulting in no MP. I think I'll take out some marks later so I feel I'm at least achieving something and get some easy LP from some weaklings so I can get the last few quickenings.

Have to agree with steviec. Bought a big ass weapon for balthier but it heals undead enemies so is useless now since I'm in an area crawling with undead.

I have to say that the battle system worked rather well for the last few bosses, lots of tactics needed to beat them. However there isn't much tactics needed for the normal guys.

CodeMonkey

Yeah, some of the boss fights are fun, normal guys are easy like the old FF games which is why I appreciate the new system. Instead of just mashing buttons to always attack in random battles (that's almost always all that's need in older FF games), the gambit system automates it for me.

About weapons, found that if you use the weapons with same elements as the monster then it heals them. If you are using weapons with elements the monster are weak to takes double damage Those coeurls I was blabbering on about are weak to ice so if you have icebrands equipped (a reward from a mark or available after snowy mt.) then you can one shot them. Makes for easy leveling and pelt gathering. All pretty obvious but I never thought about it until I saw Vaan hitting those coeurls for 1800+ damage, I was like...woah, what happened to Vaan.

As for running out of MP. The augments part of the board helps. There are tons of augments that helps you get MP back like:
- mp back if you cause damage
- mp back if you take damage
- mp back if you kill enemy
- a couple augments reduces MP costs
etc
They all add up. And of cause more MP tanks from having more quickening.

CodeMonkey

steviec wrote:

For example I just bought Hornito hand bombs, mainly for the name , but they looked great based on attack power and then you equip and discover there's a massive penalty to evade which is kind of annoying.

I just checked some stats. The Hornito bombs don't have penalty to evade. It just doesn't have any evade bonuses while every other weapon type has +evade. The main gauche has a lot of +evade (34) which is why it's a great tanking weapon early on. Unless you don't mind your meat shield taking hits.

The_Hustler

Thanks alot for telling me about these quickenings. The cluckatrice was kicking my ass, then I used my LP to get a couple of quickenings and beat him in one shot.
I only got it at the weekend so I'm way behind yous.

Gizzle

Please help. Everyone in my party is at least level 23, but I keep getting eaten alive in the Gheywood. Well, I don't really need help, it's just so infuriating when you're trying to find Mt Bur Omisace and keep ending up there. Spleen vented.

CodeMonkey

Gizzle wrote:

Please help. Everyone in my party is at least level 23, but I keep getting eaten alive in the Gheywood. Well, I don't really need help, it's just so infuriating when you're trying to find Mt Bur Omisace and keep ending up there. Spleen vented.

From the ozmone zone, enter the jungle, then east all the way, south, east, zone. Then east, north or north, east, can't remember but you should see some none aggro treants. A bit further from here you should get some story cutscenes involving Fran.

funky penguin

Highest Quickening chain? I gots meh 18, plus the Black Hole finisher against the second demon wall (which I must add, made me all teary eyed as I reminisced about FF7).

CodeMonkey

Nice, I've only managed the Windburst finisher. Not every have trip quickenings yet

The_Hustler

The most I've gotten is 9, but only 2 of my characters have more than one, and they both only have 2.

sme

holy elemental batman! i hate those *entities* (sub your favourite swearword) twice those f***ers have killed me in the feywood.
like, you arrive and they are all pacifist and sh*t, and then you get into a fight and they're all over your ass. either they are your enemy or not, that ambiguity pisses me off.

Orizio

sme wrote:

holy elemental batman! i hate those *entities* (sub your favourite swearword) twice those f***ers have killed me in the feywood.
like, you arrive and they are all pacifist and sh*t, and then you get into a fight and they're all over your ass. either they are your enemy or not, that ambiguity pisses me off.

Basically they will stay docile until you use elemental magic around them-if you piss them off flee like mad.

The_Hustler

Do the hunts available not depend on how far you are through the game?

See my problem is most of my party is level 18, and most bosses would drop after a set of quickenings or two. When I was told to go south through the wet giza plains to some village I decided to get the hunts that were available close by first. Some were fairly easy but I had an awful time defeating the White Mousse. Then when I got the key the boss in the sewers called Cúchulainn (funny) is impossible for me. I also had a very hard time fighting the Earth Tyrant after getting the windvayne.

Am I taking these guys on far too early in the game, is it possible to go back and fight them later. Or is it that I'm a much lower level than I should be at this stage?

CodeMonkey

Well the White Mousse is a rank 5 mark and so are some of the other ones you have access to at this stage. You don't have to defeat them now. It's probably available as a challenge for people who wants tougher bosses to fight. Later on you will have access to easier ones like right after the snowy mountains you have access to some more rank 3 marks.

steviec

I think I'm going to stop playing the game completely. Lots of training, lots of levelling up, lots of reading of guides, finally well on top of the battle system and got through the boss I was stuck on. It was followed by another boss, and another, and another, and then a teency tiny little insignificant piece of story, and now another massive cross country journey I must embark on which would doubtless be another 20 or 30 hours of play before I find out what happens next and I'm just tired of it.

I've forgotten why I cared about the characters at this point so it doesn't seem worth it. I know the game was probably an answer to people who say 'Final Fantasy is nothing but cut scenes' but I enjoyed the cut scenes. I enjoyed the minigames. I enjoyed running around cities talking to people and working out what to do next. Fighting millions of enemies just isn't the game I wanted, if I want to spend all my time fighting stuff I can play crackdown, it's a hell of a lot more fun.

Orizio

The_Hustler wrote:

Do the hunts available not depend on how far you are through the game?

See my problem is most of my party is level 18, and most bosses would drop after a set of quickenings or two. When I was told to go south through the wet giza plains to some village I decided to get the hunts that were available close by first. Some were fairly easy but I had an awful time defeating the White Mousse. Then when I got the key the boss in the sewers called Cúchulainn (funny) is impossible for me. I also had a very hard time fighting the Earth Tyrant after getting the windvayne.

Am I taking these guys on far too early in the game, is it possible to go back and fight them later. Or is it that I'm a much lower level than I should be at this stage?

Cuchulainn is my level(34)so you shouldn't be going near him.Little suprised you beat the White Mousse tbh.You can fight them later anyway.

I like the game but I don't see myself going through it again.Leveling up and the lack of cash are both ridicously annoying.

sme

anyone know how to get hastega? it says ina couple of walkthroughs that it can be purchased in dalmasca estersand. i assume it is from the unlucky merchant that it is bought, but he is only selling weapons and amulets.

do i need to do something before i can buy it? i have already rescued the father from the cactoid and cured the sick bangaa guy. also i'm at the first ascent of the pharos lighthouse.
do i need to be further along in the game? it would be really useful as i have protectga and shellga.

AnCapaillMor

Hastega, I have'nt come across it yet, but i do know theres certain things magics etc you can buy in the shop on the airships to different destinations. BTW the 'Nihopalaoa' is the coolest thing ever. It reverses everything, so i f you threw a remedy at an enemy while this is equipped you'll hit him with every status effect remedy cures.


Elementals do what i did, level up like crazy and obliterate them. I've been obliterating them since lvl 40. LVL 54 and 48's at Feywood. Same as all FF's once your at a high level, you'll walk through the regular game. Actually the one thing i liked about VIII was the creatures had levels too.

As for the game taking too long, FFX was longer for me, bltizball games that took ages, not too metnion the very annoying dodge 200 lightning strikes. no lvl 99, you just kept levelling up. Took me 170 hours to get to the right level to take out all the dark aeons. altho i do agree on losing track of the story with XII. Levelling ups part of all the games(apart from 9 because i did'nt give a crap), christ i remember trying to get knights of the round to master.

Have'nt really got into quickenings yet, although i bloody well needed it against king bomb.

sme

ok, to answer my own question: hastega can be accuired after defeating the lighthouse of pharos, buy it from unlucky merchant in dalmasca estersand (teleport there, it's a long walk from the strahl!)

i've just finished the story section of the game, not trying to ruin it for anyone but for the last 2 chapters i didn't use any quikenings. bosses are too easy in this game. the only bosses i had trouble with (i.e. i didn't kill them first time) were judge ghis and arhiman.

granted i still have some hunts (i've only 25 so far) to do and i have't explored nabudis yet, the game only took 59 hrs, compared to ffx which took 85hrs the first time and ffvii which took 120hrs.

there is anoher tread running here about the hardest normal monster in ff, in this game the hardest normal monster, dar liom, is vivian unless you have your gambits set up correctly, ok there is the lyndwyrm with 59000hp but its makicks are ****e.

my stats for finishing the game were:

vaan lv58 hp4122 mp591 3xquickening equip bubble belt
balthier lv58 hp4052 mp522 3xquickening equip bubble belt
fran lv57 hp3871 mp380 2xquickening equip bubble belt
basch lv09 hp292 mp31 0xquickening
ashe lv12 hp319 mp53 0xquickening
penelo lv16 hp448 mp69 0xquickening

i was worried during certain parts of the game that not leveling the charatcers that i did not like would backfire, but as brent pope says, live the sword, die by the sword.

AnCapaillMor

Jaysus you did'nt like Basch, ashe or penelo at all. just going into the pharos and my guys are lvls 54,48,50, 49, 49, 48, then again i've 75 hours so far. Vivians i found no problems, i'd problems with the coulters in the crystal. One attack knocked off about 1500-2000 and inflicted every status efffect under the sun.

CodeMonkey

sme wrote:

i've just finished the story section of the game, not trying to ruin it for anyone but for the last 2 chapters i didn't use any quikenings. bosses are too easy in this game. the only bosses i had trouble with (i.e. i didn't kill them first time) were judge ghis and arhiman.

I haven't finished the game yet but I've found all story bosses to be very easy, quickening chains will one shot them but I can easily fight it out most of the time if I wanted to. I only need to depend on the quickening with high level marks.

Question I have for you is that did you spend any time leveling up your characters at all? I am asking this cause there seems to be this myth here that you need to spend excessive amount of time leveling to get anywhere. Retr0gamer mentioned this on the other FF12 thread. I never felt I had to spend hours leveling up the characters to fight bosses. Fighting the monsters getting to the next story area I am supposed to be in will net me the right amount of exp to get the levels I need. Only time I spent fighting monsters for an hour or 2 were to get money instead of exp.

In fact compared to other FF games, I think you spend less time fighting normal monsters. It's random battles all the way getting from one area to the next in the older games and it's especially bad if you need to back track plus you have to micro manage every attack even though every fight are the same. In FF12 you normally just fight the normal monsters once and gambits gets rid of the tedious repetition unless you are fighting something tough for your level. If you want to back track to explore other parts of the area the monsters won't be there again unless they have respawned and you can flee and avoid all fights. So, is it fair to say that players spend a large amount of time in FF12 leveling?

AnCapaillMor

I do, been doing it since the 2nd time i played VII. More out of habit. i'll go out of my way to find monsters. BTW with FF12 if you go beyond 2 areas and go back the monsters will be there again. did this alot in the mines for undead to get exp and cash. More so since i got the double EXP accesory.

CodeMonkey

Yeah I know monsters respawn straight away if you zone out twice. They also have a respawn timer though which means they all come back after a while even without zoning out. I also know you're doing a lot of leveling since all your characters are nearly the same level. That kind of leveling is more of a personal thing for you though instead of needing everyone at tip top levels to progress through the story.

AnCapaillMor

Keeping them at the same level is a pain in the bottom alright. Alot with the levelling up and whats great about the FF games, is the extra monsters. I finished FFX with around 90 hours but spent another 70 getting up the levels in order to take on the dark aoens. Same with ruby and emerald weapon in VII. VIII i tried Omega weapon and just went screw that and left it at finished. I'm trying the same on FFXII have my levels ready for the bonus creatures.

sme

the only time i specifically leveled was against judge ghis where i ran around the leviathan for about 2 hrs. this is one of the best areas in the game to level quickly as the imperials just keep coming and you can get some really high chains.
mostly i just killed every monster in every area i went to, and lots of the same monsters got killed again when i was doing hunts.

except for on bahamut and the third ascent in pharos i had the characters alternating embriodered tippets (double exp) and thiefs cuffs. so everybody was levelling twice as fast.
also, something i noticed when reddas was with the group. he takes some of the exp when fighting monsters. so what i did was turn off my status:petrify=stona gambit cast petrify on him, and when he turned to stone turn back on the stona gambit. and hey presto the exp is only being split 3 ways not 4. although you have to kill him again after each save point. also death works, but only if you don't have a gambit ko=raise or ko=arise as he will automatically come back to life.

now that i'm finished i am going try and get all the espers and hunts.