FF5 Solos vs. Gil Turtle Part I
So I made an off-hand remark a long while back when doing Solo Cannoneer. That pertaining to Gil Turtle in World 2. What classes can take this thing on and successfully win?
That's what I'm going to find out.
Of course, there's only one appropriate name to use for this. Over the next few nights, we dine on turtle soup. I used my prior knowledge of hacking the savefile to get here quickly, no need to futz around with actually playing the game this far in just for this task. By the way, watch that you don't put in an invalid item, unless you like light shows like that.
All of these fights will be done as though it is a solo in mind, meaning I can't use the Genji Gear, and things like Level 3 Flare can't be gotten off Red Dragons, because that requires them to be controlled. (Aside, you can actually get Level 5 Death as a solo - you just need Bone Mail - though it won't help here).
I will assume no obstacles in achieving resources. So Chemist gets to "kill" Prototype 99 times (which it would do via Drain Kiss) for 99 Dark Matters. If you're setting out with the thought to kill Gil Turtle on your solo quest, it makes sense that you would prepare for it ahead of time, after all. I will try not to overly abuse Elixirs, because having too many is a bit silly. It's only a soft restriction, though - if a class needs gallons of the stuff, then it needs it. And naturally, everything that is obtained will only be obtainable as far as World 2 - so no legendary weapons, Hermes Sandals, spells only obtainable in World 3, and so on.
There's no holds barred, here. Gil Turtle is a superboss. The class can do anything within its power to achieve victory. Most will be fighting it at level 41. That's just an arbitrary level gained from a fast experience code, incidentally close to what Picard fought it at. I'll also briefly go over how the postgame changes things for each class.
Note that some of this report isn't "pure" - I discovered the Status Bug and its effects after the fact. Classes that can't equip Bone Mail were accidentally making use of its status, except White Mage. Don't really care to repeat them since it just means higher levels and taking time to heal Poison whenever it hits. Of course, it also means that any class that can equip Bone Mail can use the bug.
Let's get the appropriate music going for this report. Just set it to loop because all the extended versions got taken down...
__________
The Freelancer
The base class of the game, also known as jobless, bare, suppin, face with no makeup, or whatever. It has no natural abilities, but can equip anything in the game. That of course is mostly irrelevant here - in World 2, the only equipment of any particular note at this point that the Freelancer can really take advantage of is the Ribbon.
I first tried taking it on with a physical strategy. This necessitated being in the back row under penalty of being killed in two hits. This was very possible, but very slow. As established, the Freelancer class isn't exactly the fastest killer. Furthermore, due to the quirk of a party member attacking itself in the back row, the Icebrand + Ice Shield combo didn't suffice to heal. Having Shredder stay in the front row was absolutely out of the question at these levels for this class.
Let's speed it up AND make it safer. This is one of three classes that's capable of taking advantage of shields combined with mini, a strategy you'll remember from my solo Cannoneer. Mini can be obtained from the mages at Moore. With this, the Freelancer can break Frost Rods to its heart's content.
It took 21 of them with this strategy. I came out of mini hiding to show the boss dying as a Freelancer. Counting Cannoneer, that's 2/26.
The postgame would give Freelancer a ton of more tools to play around with. Defender for Protect, Masamune for Haste, Genji Shield for 50% evasion, Staff of Judgment to cast Dispel, and so on.
__________
The Mime
Finally done full Solo at Realms Beyond a couple times after I posted this. Because this and Freelancer gain bonuses from mastered classes, they need to be done first. They're mechanically similar to Freelancers in how their stats are the highest of all their mastered classes. They have three slots to equip abilities, but have equipment restrictions. They're probably best served for taking advantage of combos one wouldn't be able to with only two slots, like Doublecast plus two magic commands.
Mime can also take advantage of the minishield strategy, breaking a bunch of Frost Rods on the turtle as well. But if you're allergic to rod breaks for whatever reason, there's another strategy also involving minishield. Mime is capable of equipping staves, which means the Healing Staff. A weapon unaffected by size, and provides the healing for the class itself, too. Naturally, this would've worked for Freelancer too.
Actually, even better than that is just is using the Main Gauche along with the rest of the evasion pileup and throwing Hi-Potions. Due to the presence of the Healing Staff, this doesn't cannibalize Shredder's healing supply without assuming/using a ton of Elixirs, either.
There's always a small chance to be destroyed even with this strategy, though. To minimize those chances, Shredder would only attack at full health when Gil Turtle had just taken an action. So he'd only have to go through three attacks (two counters and one normal) before getting to the next round. You'll see me employing this general rule a lot with these battles.
Whatever strategy is used, Mime can beat this, no problem. 3/26.
Postgame Mime gets Staff of Judgment and Sage's Staff. The former can cast Dispel, and the latter deals 8x the damage to undead enemies, which Gil Turtle is one. Needless to say, this will hurt a lot. It could even use the Wonder Wand for Protect and Shell. It's still a good idea to use minishield.
__________
The Knight
A physical powerhouse class. It can wield certain swords unique to it and the GBA exclusive Gladiator class, and can make its blows even stronger with Two-Handed. This would actually be one of the easiest classes if not the easiest to beat the turtle with in a single class challenge (not necessarily solo) - the combination of !Guard and Cover ensures the purely physical turtle would never be able to do anything ever. It's also very good in fiestas for these purposes.
Sadly, like just about everything that will be cooking the turtle, Knight needs to remain in the back row. Really doesn't seem to be a way around that.
I found the best strategy was to equip Two-Handed Icebrand and sit in the back row. Killing it quicker is always appreciated, after all, as it means the healing supply won't have to hold out as long. As usual for any physical classes, it means the turtle's 40% evasion, but it was easier on resources than using Hi-Potions. Switch in Main Gauche and Ice Shield (tied for highest evasion available at the time with Flame Shield, but that's mutually exclusive with Aegis) if healing is needed.
Guard actually had use here even though this is a solo fight. I'd use it repeatedly, and take an action when Gil Turtle made an attack shortly before Shredder got his turn. This would guarantee he would only face one attack per round and not get 1-2-3-4ed...after removing the Diamond Helmet, because it was too heavy and sometimes screwed things up. I did need to repeatedly use the command, Guard stops working when the user's turn rolls back around.
Shredder acted when Gil Turtle moved shortly before him during the cycle of Guarding. If during a cycle of attack, Gil Turtle hits, he switched in the Gauche and Ice Shield. He used a Hi-Potion or two to heal if it only hit once, used an Elixir if it hit thrice, and if it hit two times, he waited for its next attack and then used an Elixir.
Final cost was 17 Elixirs and 32 Hi-Potions. And that's 4/26.
In the postgame, Knight would notably have access to Defender, allowing it to cast Protect on itself, allowing it to survive longer. As long as it's not the iOS release or variants, anyway. For some reason among other questionable changes, they removed that spell from it in that version. Pixel Remaster? Beats me.
__________
The Thief
A support class that can steal things it can't use. Also it can do some nice things with Mug and Chicken Knife, but the latter isn't in World 2.
There's not much Thief can do but hold the Main Gauche, spam Elixirs, and force-feed the undead turtle Hi-Potions. Its naturally high speed really assists with this. Thief also wanted a higher level than 41 - Shredder wants at least enough HP just to survive a 1-2-3. And probably more than that, because you need 66 Hi-Potions to win. Even 99 Elixirs might not last that long.
An interesting feature of the Thief involves the Twin Lance. Gil Turtle will respond to multi-hit attacks with up to two counters/four hits, but the second hit of Twin Lance doesn't count towards this. Still, that's random and it does pitiful damage anyway.
This is a strategy that some classes are sadly going to have to fall back on. Not as many as you might think, though! Thief has it best, since it can simply steal the 99 Elixirs. Again, the question is whether they'll last or not. Even if you can survive a 1-2-3, you'd likely need to do some gambling to make it through. Being able to survive four hits alone is a massive step up, which is achievable at level 50 for Thief (2668HP). If you go even higher and hit levels like Jesse the Thief, it becomes even easier.
If Shredder could take four hits when he got a turn, he'd just throw a Hi-Potion. If he could take three, he'd wait until Gil Turtle took a turn and then act accordingly from there - using the potion if the turtle missed and healing if it hit. If he could take less than that, he'd wait until the turtle moved, then Elixired - using one right away of course if he'd die on the next hit.
Not the most eloquent strategy, but 5/26 all the same. Shredder finished with 58 Elixirs in stock. Plenty of them. Any class can mimic this strategy, but I'll be trying to have every class try to win on its own merits where possible.
A Thief in the postgame would have higher damage potential than just 500 at a time, by using Chicken Mug.
__________
The White Mage
The healer class and so-called insanity challenge class. It can't equip daggers, one of three classes which cannot. But it can still achieve the important float status through use of its own Charm spell.
Despite this, White Mage actually has this fight real easy. Protect neuters the physicals and Blink can stop them outright (and doesn't get used up when Elven Mantle procs). Unfortunately, neither Curaga or Staffs of Light work: the former acts like instant death single-target on undeads, and so misses the Heavy turtle. It's also immune to holy-elemental attacks, even though said staffs are the only available option for Holy damage by the time you reach it in the main game. So fighting it is slow.
The Healing Staff was the way to deal with the turtle this time. It dealt fairly respectable damage, more than a Hi-Potion with the White Mage's magic stat. It also kept Shredder healed, with Elixirs only being needed when Gil Turtle landed several hits in a row.
This was when I first ran into troubles with the Gil Turtle's Turtle special. With Bone Mail status immunities active, it inflicts HP Leak. Without, it inflicts poison and darkness. With poison immunity from Angel's Robe, it...well. I'll get to that with Chemist. It means the magic classes besides this one should have had a more plodding fight, due to needing to heal Poison over and over.
For this class, it just meant using Esuna every now and then. For others, it'd be antidotes - thankfully, they would be able to mostly ignore darkness. Against all the healing and defense in the world, what can you really do? Flounder around and eventually die miserably, that's what. 6/26.
White Mage against postgame Gil Turtle would have access to Dispel, allowing it to get rid of Gil Turtle's initial Protect and Shell and increase its damage potential - which will be higher because of the higher levels, too. It would also have Sage's Staff to deal 8x damage against this thing. Just keep in mind, it's a weapon, so it would have to contend with darkness status.
__________
The Black Mage
The magical powerhouse class. It can sling high-powered magic of the basic three elements to decimate targets. Especially single-target ones. A solid class, unless you like that one extra point of magic Summoner gives, in which case you may as well master Oracle.
Black Mage has one of the highest, if not the highest damage potential against Gil Turtle of all solo classes, but has problems with defense. Weapon switching was therefore in order: use the Main Gauche when healing, use a Frost Rod when slinging Blizzagas. I needed to take this class higher than 41. I pushed Shredder to 47, so he had enough to survive a 1-2-3 in the class. And actually, he actually was hit with a 1-2-3-4 once. I guess it isn't always a guarantee, but thankfully, that seems to happen rarely.
There really wasn't a lot to this one besides that. It would've really had to heal Poison sometimes, but not a huge problem. There was no need to be shy with Elixirs since the fight didn't last long enough to really chop into them, so Shredder mostly used them at-will, only using Hi-Potions when he'd only taken one hit and Gil Turtle had just moved.
One of the fastest kills, that's 7/26.
Black Mage doesn't gain too much when fighting Gil Turtle in the postgame, besides naturally higher levels. Flare is weaker than boosted Blizzaga. Maybe the Wonder Wand for Dispel to kill it even quicker.
__________
The Blue Mage
White Mage is the master of healing and protection. Black Mage is the master of elemental offense. Blue Mage is the master of mostly weird and situational stuff. Of course it really shines in other areas, but none of those are applicable here.
Blue Mage can also take advantage of the minishield trick, even being able to mini itself to save the trouble. But has a nasty technique of its own: getting Dark Spark to land on the turtle, and following it up with L2 Old. This works regardless of immunity, although due to the turtle's undead nature, Shredder can't time a L5 Death to one-shot it from there. This is furthermore one of the classes that can equip shields and equip the Gauche without cannibalizing its offense.
One way of dealing damage quickly is through ????, but it's not an auto-hit move and the turtle does have 40% magic evasion to make that hard to land. Either way, the turtle is helpless, so Blue Mage Shredder has it at his mercy. That said, even if Turtle does 0 damage, it still inflicts its status. Whether the status bug is being used or not, it's not a big deal. And if Shredder's HP did get low, White Wind, potions, or even self-cast Vampires worked to heal.
Practically speaking, the best way to go about it is to mix the two strategies up. Nothing else the Blue Mage does will really deal significant damage, the exception being Goblin Punch with Excalipoor at Level 57. Without the 8x level bonus at the usual level 41, even with a bunch of Off-Guards, this was doing inferior damage to even Hi-Potions.
8/26. And why yes I am showing off here.
Not much would change for the Blue Mage in the postgame. It does get access to several more spells that are of use, though - L3 Flare adds an additional option for minishield strategies that don't use Dark Spark/L2 Old. And 1000 Needles works to deal damage without breaking rods.
__________
I did skip one, yes. But that one is a special case that will be handled in a roundup at the end. Shredder will be taking most of the Water and Fire Jobs next time.
Next | Index
That's what I'm going to find out.
Of course, there's only one appropriate name to use for this. Over the next few nights, we dine on turtle soup. I used my prior knowledge of hacking the savefile to get here quickly, no need to futz around with actually playing the game this far in just for this task. By the way, watch that you don't put in an invalid item, unless you like light shows like that.
All of these fights will be done as though it is a solo in mind, meaning I can't use the Genji Gear, and things like Level 3 Flare can't be gotten off Red Dragons, because that requires them to be controlled. (Aside, you can actually get Level 5 Death as a solo - you just need Bone Mail - though it won't help here).
I will assume no obstacles in achieving resources. So Chemist gets to "kill" Prototype 99 times (which it would do via Drain Kiss) for 99 Dark Matters. If you're setting out with the thought to kill Gil Turtle on your solo quest, it makes sense that you would prepare for it ahead of time, after all. I will try not to overly abuse Elixirs, because having too many is a bit silly. It's only a soft restriction, though - if a class needs gallons of the stuff, then it needs it. And naturally, everything that is obtained will only be obtainable as far as World 2 - so no legendary weapons, Hermes Sandals, spells only obtainable in World 3, and so on.
There's no holds barred, here. Gil Turtle is a superboss. The class can do anything within its power to achieve victory. Most will be fighting it at level 41. That's just an arbitrary level gained from a fast experience code, incidentally close to what Picard fought it at. I'll also briefly go over how the postgame changes things for each class.
Note that some of this report isn't "pure" - I discovered the Status Bug and its effects after the fact. Classes that can't equip Bone Mail were accidentally making use of its status, except White Mage. Don't really care to repeat them since it just means higher levels and taking time to heal Poison whenever it hits. Of course, it also means that any class that can equip Bone Mail can use the bug.
Let's get the appropriate music going for this report. Just set it to loop because all the extended versions got taken down...
__________
The Freelancer
The base class of the game, also known as jobless, bare, suppin, face with no makeup, or whatever. It has no natural abilities, but can equip anything in the game. That of course is mostly irrelevant here - in World 2, the only equipment of any particular note at this point that the Freelancer can really take advantage of is the Ribbon.
I first tried taking it on with a physical strategy. This necessitated being in the back row under penalty of being killed in two hits. This was very possible, but very slow. As established, the Freelancer class isn't exactly the fastest killer. Furthermore, due to the quirk of a party member attacking itself in the back row, the Icebrand + Ice Shield combo didn't suffice to heal. Having Shredder stay in the front row was absolutely out of the question at these levels for this class.
Let's speed it up AND make it safer. This is one of three classes that's capable of taking advantage of shields combined with mini, a strategy you'll remember from my solo Cannoneer. Mini can be obtained from the mages at Moore. With this, the Freelancer can break Frost Rods to its heart's content.
It took 21 of them with this strategy. I came out of mini hiding to show the boss dying as a Freelancer. Counting Cannoneer, that's 2/26.
The postgame would give Freelancer a ton of more tools to play around with. Defender for Protect, Masamune for Haste, Genji Shield for 50% evasion, Staff of Judgment to cast Dispel, and so on.
__________
The Mime
Finally done full Solo at Realms Beyond a couple times after I posted this. Because this and Freelancer gain bonuses from mastered classes, they need to be done first. They're mechanically similar to Freelancers in how their stats are the highest of all their mastered classes. They have three slots to equip abilities, but have equipment restrictions. They're probably best served for taking advantage of combos one wouldn't be able to with only two slots, like Doublecast plus two magic commands.
Mime can also take advantage of the minishield strategy, breaking a bunch of Frost Rods on the turtle as well. But if you're allergic to rod breaks for whatever reason, there's another strategy also involving minishield. Mime is capable of equipping staves, which means the Healing Staff. A weapon unaffected by size, and provides the healing for the class itself, too. Naturally, this would've worked for Freelancer too.
Actually, even better than that is just is using the Main Gauche along with the rest of the evasion pileup and throwing Hi-Potions. Due to the presence of the Healing Staff, this doesn't cannibalize Shredder's healing supply without assuming/using a ton of Elixirs, either.
There's always a small chance to be destroyed even with this strategy, though. To minimize those chances, Shredder would only attack at full health when Gil Turtle had just taken an action. So he'd only have to go through three attacks (two counters and one normal) before getting to the next round. You'll see me employing this general rule a lot with these battles.
Whatever strategy is used, Mime can beat this, no problem. 3/26.
Postgame Mime gets Staff of Judgment and Sage's Staff. The former can cast Dispel, and the latter deals 8x the damage to undead enemies, which Gil Turtle is one. Needless to say, this will hurt a lot. It could even use the Wonder Wand for Protect and Shell. It's still a good idea to use minishield.
__________
The Knight
A physical powerhouse class. It can wield certain swords unique to it and the GBA exclusive Gladiator class, and can make its blows even stronger with Two-Handed. This would actually be one of the easiest classes if not the easiest to beat the turtle with in a single class challenge (not necessarily solo) - the combination of !Guard and Cover ensures the purely physical turtle would never be able to do anything ever. It's also very good in fiestas for these purposes.
Sadly, like just about everything that will be cooking the turtle, Knight needs to remain in the back row. Really doesn't seem to be a way around that.
I found the best strategy was to equip Two-Handed Icebrand and sit in the back row. Killing it quicker is always appreciated, after all, as it means the healing supply won't have to hold out as long. As usual for any physical classes, it means the turtle's 40% evasion, but it was easier on resources than using Hi-Potions. Switch in Main Gauche and Ice Shield (tied for highest evasion available at the time with Flame Shield, but that's mutually exclusive with Aegis) if healing is needed.
Guard actually had use here even though this is a solo fight. I'd use it repeatedly, and take an action when Gil Turtle made an attack shortly before Shredder got his turn. This would guarantee he would only face one attack per round and not get 1-2-3-4ed...after removing the Diamond Helmet, because it was too heavy and sometimes screwed things up. I did need to repeatedly use the command, Guard stops working when the user's turn rolls back around.
Shredder acted when Gil Turtle moved shortly before him during the cycle of Guarding. If during a cycle of attack, Gil Turtle hits, he switched in the Gauche and Ice Shield. He used a Hi-Potion or two to heal if it only hit once, used an Elixir if it hit thrice, and if it hit two times, he waited for its next attack and then used an Elixir.
Final cost was 17 Elixirs and 32 Hi-Potions. And that's 4/26.
In the postgame, Knight would notably have access to Defender, allowing it to cast Protect on itself, allowing it to survive longer. As long as it's not the iOS release or variants, anyway. For some reason among other questionable changes, they removed that spell from it in that version. Pixel Remaster? Beats me.
__________
The Thief
A support class that can steal things it can't use. Also it can do some nice things with Mug and Chicken Knife, but the latter isn't in World 2.
There's not much Thief can do but hold the Main Gauche, spam Elixirs, and force-feed the undead turtle Hi-Potions. Its naturally high speed really assists with this. Thief also wanted a higher level than 41 - Shredder wants at least enough HP just to survive a 1-2-3. And probably more than that, because you need 66 Hi-Potions to win. Even 99 Elixirs might not last that long.
An interesting feature of the Thief involves the Twin Lance. Gil Turtle will respond to multi-hit attacks with up to two counters/four hits, but the second hit of Twin Lance doesn't count towards this. Still, that's random and it does pitiful damage anyway.
This is a strategy that some classes are sadly going to have to fall back on. Not as many as you might think, though! Thief has it best, since it can simply steal the 99 Elixirs. Again, the question is whether they'll last or not. Even if you can survive a 1-2-3, you'd likely need to do some gambling to make it through. Being able to survive four hits alone is a massive step up, which is achievable at level 50 for Thief (2668HP). If you go even higher and hit levels like Jesse the Thief, it becomes even easier.
If Shredder could take four hits when he got a turn, he'd just throw a Hi-Potion. If he could take three, he'd wait until Gil Turtle took a turn and then act accordingly from there - using the potion if the turtle missed and healing if it hit. If he could take less than that, he'd wait until the turtle moved, then Elixired - using one right away of course if he'd die on the next hit.
Not the most eloquent strategy, but 5/26 all the same. Shredder finished with 58 Elixirs in stock. Plenty of them. Any class can mimic this strategy, but I'll be trying to have every class try to win on its own merits where possible.
A Thief in the postgame would have higher damage potential than just 500 at a time, by using Chicken Mug.
__________
The White Mage
The healer class and so-called insanity challenge class. It can't equip daggers, one of three classes which cannot. But it can still achieve the important float status through use of its own Charm spell.
Despite this, White Mage actually has this fight real easy. Protect neuters the physicals and Blink can stop them outright (and doesn't get used up when Elven Mantle procs). Unfortunately, neither Curaga or Staffs of Light work: the former acts like instant death single-target on undeads, and so misses the Heavy turtle. It's also immune to holy-elemental attacks, even though said staffs are the only available option for Holy damage by the time you reach it in the main game. So fighting it is slow.
The Healing Staff was the way to deal with the turtle this time. It dealt fairly respectable damage, more than a Hi-Potion with the White Mage's magic stat. It also kept Shredder healed, with Elixirs only being needed when Gil Turtle landed several hits in a row.
This was when I first ran into troubles with the Gil Turtle's Turtle special. With Bone Mail status immunities active, it inflicts HP Leak. Without, it inflicts poison and darkness. With poison immunity from Angel's Robe, it...well. I'll get to that with Chemist. It means the magic classes besides this one should have had a more plodding fight, due to needing to heal Poison over and over.
For this class, it just meant using Esuna every now and then. For others, it'd be antidotes - thankfully, they would be able to mostly ignore darkness. Against all the healing and defense in the world, what can you really do? Flounder around and eventually die miserably, that's what. 6/26.
White Mage against postgame Gil Turtle would have access to Dispel, allowing it to get rid of Gil Turtle's initial Protect and Shell and increase its damage potential - which will be higher because of the higher levels, too. It would also have Sage's Staff to deal 8x damage against this thing. Just keep in mind, it's a weapon, so it would have to contend with darkness status.
__________
The Black Mage
The magical powerhouse class. It can sling high-powered magic of the basic three elements to decimate targets. Especially single-target ones. A solid class, unless you like that one extra point of magic Summoner gives, in which case you may as well master Oracle.
Black Mage has one of the highest, if not the highest damage potential against Gil Turtle of all solo classes, but has problems with defense. Weapon switching was therefore in order: use the Main Gauche when healing, use a Frost Rod when slinging Blizzagas. I needed to take this class higher than 41. I pushed Shredder to 47, so he had enough to survive a 1-2-3 in the class. And actually, he actually was hit with a 1-2-3-4 once. I guess it isn't always a guarantee, but thankfully, that seems to happen rarely.
There really wasn't a lot to this one besides that. It would've really had to heal Poison sometimes, but not a huge problem. There was no need to be shy with Elixirs since the fight didn't last long enough to really chop into them, so Shredder mostly used them at-will, only using Hi-Potions when he'd only taken one hit and Gil Turtle had just moved.
One of the fastest kills, that's 7/26.
Black Mage doesn't gain too much when fighting Gil Turtle in the postgame, besides naturally higher levels. Flare is weaker than boosted Blizzaga. Maybe the Wonder Wand for Dispel to kill it even quicker.
__________
The Blue Mage
White Mage is the master of healing and protection. Black Mage is the master of elemental offense. Blue Mage is the master of mostly weird and situational stuff. Of course it really shines in other areas, but none of those are applicable here.
Blue Mage can also take advantage of the minishield trick, even being able to mini itself to save the trouble. But has a nasty technique of its own: getting Dark Spark to land on the turtle, and following it up with L2 Old. This works regardless of immunity, although due to the turtle's undead nature, Shredder can't time a L5 Death to one-shot it from there. This is furthermore one of the classes that can equip shields and equip the Gauche without cannibalizing its offense.
One way of dealing damage quickly is through ????, but it's not an auto-hit move and the turtle does have 40% magic evasion to make that hard to land. Either way, the turtle is helpless, so Blue Mage Shredder has it at his mercy. That said, even if Turtle does 0 damage, it still inflicts its status. Whether the status bug is being used or not, it's not a big deal. And if Shredder's HP did get low, White Wind, potions, or even self-cast Vampires worked to heal.
Practically speaking, the best way to go about it is to mix the two strategies up. Nothing else the Blue Mage does will really deal significant damage, the exception being Goblin Punch with Excalipoor at Level 57. Without the 8x level bonus at the usual level 41, even with a bunch of Off-Guards, this was doing inferior damage to even Hi-Potions.
8/26. And why yes I am showing off here.
Not much would change for the Blue Mage in the postgame. It does get access to several more spells that are of use, though - L3 Flare adds an additional option for minishield strategies that don't use Dark Spark/L2 Old. And 1000 Needles works to deal damage without breaking rods.
__________
I did skip one, yes. But that one is a special case that will be handled in a roundup at the end. Shredder will be taking most of the Water and Fire Jobs next time.
Next | Index