FFR: Solo Evoker Part III
Dec. 5th, 2023 02:45 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sirsystemerrorAleph was only level 33 at this point, so I had a while to go. The Sea Shrine was again the ideal place for this, just like with before. RAMUH could clear out groups without much trouble.
There was a problem that didn't prop up with Green. Because his damage only resolved after a charging turn, it gave R SAHAGs an extra chance to run away from the battle. Okay I mean sure, this was part of my self-imposed restrictions. But I did so in order to expose some of the flaws with the Evoker class. Not only can the enemies stay alive for one turn longer, things like this can also happen. In the grand scheme of things it was nothing more than a hassle. But it is still one that really shouldn't be something affecting Evoker.
To break up some of the monotony, I decided to see if I could take the L5 summons at level 41. SHIVA, found in the basement of the Ice Cave, had 1000 HP. She is pretty notorious among casual players because just look at this mess. However, it turned out that I had grossly overestimated her. The COCTRICEs did negligible damage whenever they attacked and all of them eventually ran away anyway: Aleph had 51 absorb so yeah. SHIVA herself had a simple pattern: ICE, ICE2, ICE3, charge, DIAMOND DUST. Much like any potential for petrification, these were neutered by wearing a Ribbon: the last only did like 90 damage. I probably could've beaten this much, much sooner with no change in strategy except having to mop up the birds after.
Aleph was close to another level so I grinded it out before heading to Gurgu for the runback. IFRIT was easier with higher absorb. The physicals did under a hundred. Might've gotten very unlucky the previous times, probably got crit and missed it. The big thing was the fire attacks and Ribbon helped to reduce the damage to manageable levels. SHIVA did excellent damage, ending the thing in six rounds. Probably about as much as it would've taken with GOBLIN spam though, and it might've even managed less.
Well, no big deal. I made it through without using them, right? The only difference they would've made is against WATERs, GHOSTs, and being a bigger badder attack to drop on whatever randoms I had to fight.
SHIVA also allowed me to defeat FAIRY. They were weak against ice. I lost the first time because they still hit hard with their wind moves (their physicals are hopelessly weak) and GOBLIN decided to do almost no damage. Something very funny happened on my winning attempt at the battle: all four of them went and charged their special at the beginning of the fight. Aleph charged SHIVA and got hit by all the attacks. He went first next round and one-shot all of them! I didn't check this time, but I'm guessing they had around 500HP each.
To my disgust, FAIRY still only healed a quarter of the damage dealt, simply landing ineffective on all the dead Bards. The stupid thing about it is that their own WHISPERWIND in the boss battle worked as expected: as I defeated more of them, the healing would not be split in between them. If they dealt 90 damage, that was how much they would be healed for. I'm guessing, hoping this is a bug to be fixed. Formal solos are supposed to be in v2.0 which might just be empty party slots which could allow this to work as expected, but those come with their own flaws (namely the corpses not being storage space). As far as I'm concerned, this should just ignore empty slots and heal only alive party members. It would be better for casual playthroughs as well.
FENRIR remained way too hard. It would be easy if I could just wipe the other enemies, but they got a guaranteed ambush for no good reason other than to make it more difficult and the FIGHTERs could cast WALL. This didn't give a resistance to wind at least. There were only two ways around that. I could cave and use Defense, but I'd gotten by without it so far. I intended to ride that until it was absolutely clear there was no other way around it. At least this one could be filed under my own decision.
ODIN was even more stupidly difficult if you can believe that. His pattern was to do two very strong attacks that had a solid chance of dealing a critical hit, charge, then use ZANTETSUKEN which seemed to have a very high chance if not a guarantee of instant death. Just like SORCERERs, no Ribbon, ProRing, etc. protected against this. Yet another example of the terrible design of many of the summon bosses. And want to know how much HP it has? 2000! As much as CHAOS! If that was a guaranteed kill, the only way I could win is if GOBLIN rolled high 4 times in a row! This is extra awful considering that like I mentioned, support for solos is being added. But if a solo can't do all of its content, there is something very wrong with it!
Here's Aleph's stats at level 50. I actually skipped gaining the last point of STR since it wasn't going to make a difference: every two points of it is one point of damage. Functionally, there was no difference between having 52 and 53. So I rolled for another INT boost instead. One thing I didn't notice until editing the report was how low his INT was. To recap, he started with 20 and had 47 at level 28. This pointed towards fixed gains for all those levels; but they dropped off at some point. Maybe my early thought about it reflecting White Mage's SAIVL table was right? They have consistent INT gains until level 30. Another disappointing thing about Evoker, I suppose. Granted this only comes into effect with solos or NG+, but the point remains.
Now the only thing left to do was to get the remaining summons. The first stop was the Sea Shrine. This was where LEVIATHAN resided. As you would expect, it deals water elemental damage. The WALL spell does not grant any resistance to that, either. Therefore it was the best option for taking on FENRIR's cronies.
But even doing this was difficult. On one hand, the Water Armlet (which I had procured in the Waterfall) provided resistance to the elemental moves used by the boss. Yet the sea serpent came accompanied by six WATERs. They hit way too hard, especially when Aleph was charging up for SHIVA. She would most often wipe them out, but by that point, Aleph was at critical HP and there was no way he was finishing the battle from there.
So I decided it was time to stop messing around.
The only reason I was abstaining from using the spellcasting items was for memetic purposes anyway. I would still not be using any of the offensive ones. However, if using the Defense was the only way to get through this fight, then so be it! Indeed, I won the battle on the very first try after I used this tactic. LEVIATHAN could use BUBBLE CURTAIN to cut the damage from Aleph's spells in half. But with the enemies unable to damage him much, winning was just a matter of time. I employed KIRIN here for regen status; it would restore a little under 30HP per tick. It made up for some of the chip damage taken from LEVIATHAN'S spells.
FENRIR was a non-threat with this evasion boosting. Actually, some of the enemies ran away because Aleph was so high level. It ultimately only made the battle just a little easier. Since the boss was physical only, once the MAGEs were down, there was no threat.
That left just ODIN and PHOENIX. There was no way around the former. The good news was if this didn't work, it wasn't a big deal. His spell is to charge and deal AoE non-elemental instant death. Certainly not nearly as high accuracy as it seems to be in the boss battle. Again, my only option was GOBLIN. The spell's damage was wildly variable: I actually had one ridiculous moment in the Sea Shrine where it took four castings to defeat a GrSHARK! Even if I dropped the restriction on items, Thor Hammer wasn't the answer either. It did far too little damage. And since everything else had a charging turn, they wouldn't work either. I resolved to give it at least a few tries before throwing up my arms and saying "screw this" and complaining.
And...just like that, I win. I was so stunned I got this on the first try at level 50 that I completely beefed the capture. I thought for sure that even though I got the first three high rolls, either ODIN was going to go first or the game was going to slap me in the face. I couldn't believe my luck. I'm still complaining and maintain that this is a terribly designed fight when considering a solo character. It was just sheer stupid luck here, nothing else. I think the way around it would be a new piece of equipment that prevents any and all instant death.
One left. PHOENIX appeared to be a regenerative enemy with 2000HP - I didn't need to check this one. As mentioned, it spammed FIR3 which was manageable. Aleph used KIRIN here and used LEVIATHAN to deal damage. Once PHOENIX was defeated, it used its special to restore 1000HP; half of the max like its spell if it works the same. It then started using things like BLAZE and INFERNO instead. Also yes, INFERNO! That's useful information for anyone running a Blue Mage; instead of having to hunt down the rare fight, they can just get it here if they're in the same party as each other. In any case, I was still able to win and claim the last summon Aleph would be getting.
PHOENIX takes one turn to charge, then it heals 50% of max HP. Needless to say, this is pretty good. However, it can also revive in battle. This is a problem: can't have the solo reviving their allies. But there's a solution: get them petrified instead. How to go about it?
Like this! SAURIA was the perfect enemy to get the bards petrified instead of dead. I didn't have to worry about them fleeing with the bards in front since it checks the party leader's level, but they have 200 morale so it wouldn't have mattered anyway. Gold Bracelets plus ProRings gave them enough absorb so they could resist the damage the lizard dealt, and KIRIN took care of the rest. It wasn't long before they were all statues. This did mean that UNICORN couldn't be used since it would cure their ailment, but with the precedent set by using Defense, I decided I would return to Ordeals to pick up the Heal Staff.
Now, I could have class changed for BAHAMUT. Two things dissuaded me. First, his Astral Plane consists of a gauntlet of dragon fights; a four pack of all kinds in a row followed by the big dragon himself. I seriously doubted a solo Summoner could handle him. Second, even if I could, it would break what's left of the game. I had to keep at least a little challenge.
So into the temple I went. The first attempt fell to my nemesis, Gas Ds. This really demonstrates just how bad Evoker's charges are. Sure, Aleph blasted some of them for over 700 damage, but one of them took like 250 instead and killed him on the next round. Here was the encounter order on the run that followed:
- 3 Frost Ds. Run.
- 8 BADMAN. Run.
- 4 Gas Ds. SHIVA did her job this time and I took much less damage in general.
- PHANTOM. I used FAIRY here. Did over 400 and spattered him.
- CHIMERA, JIMERA. Run.
- 2 ZombieDs. IFRIT.
- 1 WORM. FAIRY.
- 3 MudGOLs, 1 RockGOL. It was a preemptive so I ran.
- 3 EARTHs. IFRIT.
- 6 GrMEDUSAs. Run.
LICH did a physical and got blasted by FAIRY! He is, in fact, weak to wind.
KARY's floor only dished up a single R.GIANT before her. I used FENRIR as insurance, but she only used spells. LEVIATHAN hit for 698, which was not enough to kill her. She has 700HP. So I finished her with a FIGHT.
- A GrSHARK and WzSAHAG group. Run on preemptive.
- 3 WATERs. SHIVA.
- A GrSHARK and WzSAHAG group. This one was bigger so I used CAIT SITH and RAMUH.
I got up FENRIR before KRAKEN could start to physical. Actually, he loved using his spells and skills. I tried to meme on him with ODIN but it missed. So I used FAIRY. I wavered a bit when two failed to kill him. I instead used Defense three times and finished him with a RAMUH.
- 2 RockGOLs. Run.
- 3 WORMs. I played this very safe with CAIT SITH, Defense, and even popped a PHOENIX.
- Masmune claimed. 6 VAMPIREs, 1 WzVAMP. Again, I had to play this safe: CAIT SITH and IFRIT.
- 4 RockGOLs. Preemptive, run!
- 5 AIRs. Confused them and ran.
And then, TIAMAT one-shot Aleph off a double critical hit. I missed it, but it did over 600 damge. Bullshit, absolute bullshit. It did more than Aleph's max HP. That was literally the only way I could've lost and I did.
I promptly stormed back through the temple. I didn't bother keeping track of my encounters this time around. You can get a general idea of my strategy from the above anyway. If I could run, I ran. If I couldn't, I used a summon. If it was dangerous, use Defense and/or CAIT SITH. PHANTOM and LICH went the same as before. I just tried to LEVIATHAN KARY outright and nearly died for it when she used two physicals in a row. Needed to use a GOBLIN just to survive. Then KRAKEN was a dumpster fire because the FAIRYs did low damage and ODIN didn't work when I tried again. I neglected Defense and the fight became a chaotic mess that saw all my L6 spells drained between FAIRY deciding to suck and all the FENRIRs I had to use. Should've just buffed while I could.
Air floor played nicer this time. This time, I used Defense thrice and chopped TIAMAT to bits. The problem was, I'd run out of HEALs! I could still heal in battle of course. Except I forgot on RockGOLs that showed up. Well, Aleph was only missing like 40HP. Surely that wouldn't be the difference against CHAOS, would it? At least the L6 spells being gone didn't matter. CHAOS resists wind and water, just because.
Turn 1 saw CHAOS use CRACK while Aleph got up a Defense stack. CHAOS used INFERNO for 50 while Aleph got up a second, and finally a third while CHAOS hit with SWIRL for 254. Thankfully his next move was a physical, allowing Aleph to charge PHOENIX. But CHAOS used TORNADO and did...115, thank goodness. A big chunk of HP restored. If I fail again, I might use the Water Armlet just to block SWIRL; it should be water elemental now. ProRing is irrelevant when I have Ribbon and Defense to make the extra absorb irrelevant. If physicals can't hit, it doesn't matter how much or how little you have.
40 damage physical and 37 damage ICE3 were exchanged. 47 damage LIT3 and another irrelevant physical. Jeez, so much for all that STR grinding. Why can't I get any criticals?! Was this going to come down to GOBLIN? If so, I hope the rolls were good. I used CARBUNCLE next turn, CHAOS used CRACK. CHAOS skipped the SLO2 and cast CUR4. No problem. Aleph charged PHOENIX, took a 76 damage INFERNO, then got up to 552HP.
FIR3 did 27 as I decided to shift to using GOBLIN instead. That's more like it! ICE2 did 25, and the next GOBLIN did 547, even better. Who needs the Masmune?! Yeah, in retrospect, if I was to go back in time, I'd have tried to manipulate INT gains instead of STR when the latter were no longer fixed. I had been careful to save L1 spell charges throughout the temple just in case this was necessary. CHAOS did FAST, GOBLIN did 553. 544 left. But next was NUKE, and he could still use SWIRL too.
Aleph went first...2 short!
But the SWIRL was weak!
And for the first time in this playthrough, I used a spellcasting item, just as an "eff you" to finish it off! Yeah, I was still pissed about that critical.
I thought about taking on BAHAMUT, but I decided it wasn't going to be very interesting. It would boil down to fighting through his dragons with a summon on each for an attempt at him. Unless CARBUNCLE could reflect his special, which I highly doubt it would because reflect just sucks in FFR, I would have to hope GOBLIN rolled high and the MEGAFLARE rolled low. And if I lose, do it all over again for another shot.
I stated in my job comments that I believe the Evoker to be the worst class in Final Fantasy Renaissance. Having done a solo challenge run with it, I stand by that claim. Sure, the Green Mage has flaws, but they are surmountable ones and the job is due a rebalance in the next version. Plus it can do its job well, which is more than can said about the Evoker. Furthermore, there was the issue of having to fight multiple superbosses in order to obtain its spells. Seriously, these bosses are absolutely balanced for Renaissance's shenanigans and are certainly much worse in NG+, which makes them stand out that much more against the vanilla game's stuff. If you don't have anything particularly broken to deal with them, they're awful to fight. Evoker itself doesn't fall into this category either.
The reward for doing so are spells that are just as strong as black magic at the same level when you factor in they're being cast across multiple turns. Contrast with other magical jobs, which can just buy them at a store, or in Blue Mage's case, hunt down most of them with far less hassle. The stats of the enemies in the main game line up to where the same-level black magic is often enough on groups. Which ironically makes Evokers better at fighting bosses; if they're not using their support instead. BAHAMUT which breaks from the pattern comes very late in the game and can only be cast so many times unless you grind very high. Some playthroughs may not even reach level 25, which is when mages get their first L8 spell charges. And ideally they would get higher than that to actually cast it more than once.
The niche of potentially saving on spell charges wasn't coming into play even in this solo challenge. Dead in one cast is still dead in one cast. Even if that cast takes two turns. And that's the big problem with Evoker. The numbers are not in its favor. It is seemingly balanced for NG+ stat bloat. That said, I'm honestly surprised that it ended up not being as big of an issue as I thought throughout the main game. Still, like that last battle in the Ice Cave, a Black Mage would have just been able to kill the enemies outright instead of having to flip a coin and go through a charge turn. Or an Evoker using Zeus. It's sad that its most reliable offense is in fact spellcasting items. Just like many other jobs.
That said, how does Evoker perform as a solo? If I were to make a comparison to anything else when it comes to a solo Evoker, it would be a hybrid of a Thief and a Black Mage. Like the former (and similar to the latter in vanilla), copious amounts of grinding is required. However, the job eventually starts to come into its own power like the latter and by the end of it. And unlike either once you factor in SLEP being fixed (very relevant on the PIRATEs for BLM), insane amounts of grinding is necessary early on. Evoker has it even worse because it needs to grind to even make it out of Coneria. However, it's better off than both classes in the late game, and maybe some others. The real problem are the summon superbosses. I would rate this one as the third, maybe fourth-hardest solo in Renaissance: it's better than Thief and Bard, but still not very good. Most of the challenge in this one boils down to the grind. The only other question mark is Time Mage (not Wizard), and I'm in no hurry to test that one out. It is also notable for not being affected by lack of class change much. It just means BAHAMUT access if you can actually beat him and being able to equip the Wizard Staff for a stronger beatstick.
And like I ranted earlier, if solo support is going to be formally added to FFR, there should be a few concessions made. The things I would change are: some sort of mulligan for GOBLIN, maybe killing a certain amount of IMPs. Letting FAIRY heal full HP. Maybe a Fire/Ice Armlet that can be obtained without Thief. And a piece of equipment to resist all forms of instant death for ODIN.
That said, did I enjoy this? Once I got by the hellish early grind: actually, yes. As difficult as Evoker was to play, it still managed to be interesting. It's more than can be said about Thief or Bard which are just painful the whole way through.
Thanks for reading. This is definitely the last thing I do in FFR before 2.0, which is supposed to release before Christmas 2023. May it bring better tidings.
Index
There was a problem that didn't prop up with Green. Because his damage only resolved after a charging turn, it gave R SAHAGs an extra chance to run away from the battle. Okay I mean sure, this was part of my self-imposed restrictions. But I did so in order to expose some of the flaws with the Evoker class. Not only can the enemies stay alive for one turn longer, things like this can also happen. In the grand scheme of things it was nothing more than a hassle. But it is still one that really shouldn't be something affecting Evoker.
To break up some of the monotony, I decided to see if I could take the L5 summons at level 41. SHIVA, found in the basement of the Ice Cave, had 1000 HP. She is pretty notorious among casual players because just look at this mess. However, it turned out that I had grossly overestimated her. The COCTRICEs did negligible damage whenever they attacked and all of them eventually ran away anyway: Aleph had 51 absorb so yeah. SHIVA herself had a simple pattern: ICE, ICE2, ICE3, charge, DIAMOND DUST. Much like any potential for petrification, these were neutered by wearing a Ribbon: the last only did like 90 damage. I probably could've beaten this much, much sooner with no change in strategy except having to mop up the birds after.
Aleph was close to another level so I grinded it out before heading to Gurgu for the runback. IFRIT was easier with higher absorb. The physicals did under a hundred. Might've gotten very unlucky the previous times, probably got crit and missed it. The big thing was the fire attacks and Ribbon helped to reduce the damage to manageable levels. SHIVA did excellent damage, ending the thing in six rounds. Probably about as much as it would've taken with GOBLIN spam though, and it might've even managed less.
Well, no big deal. I made it through without using them, right? The only difference they would've made is against WATERs, GHOSTs, and being a bigger badder attack to drop on whatever randoms I had to fight.
SHIVA also allowed me to defeat FAIRY. They were weak against ice. I lost the first time because they still hit hard with their wind moves (their physicals are hopelessly weak) and GOBLIN decided to do almost no damage. Something very funny happened on my winning attempt at the battle: all four of them went and charged their special at the beginning of the fight. Aleph charged SHIVA and got hit by all the attacks. He went first next round and one-shot all of them! I didn't check this time, but I'm guessing they had around 500HP each.
To my disgust, FAIRY still only healed a quarter of the damage dealt, simply landing ineffective on all the dead Bards. The stupid thing about it is that their own WHISPERWIND in the boss battle worked as expected: as I defeated more of them, the healing would not be split in between them. If they dealt 90 damage, that was how much they would be healed for. I'm guessing, hoping this is a bug to be fixed. Formal solos are supposed to be in v2.0 which might just be empty party slots which could allow this to work as expected, but those come with their own flaws (namely the corpses not being storage space). As far as I'm concerned, this should just ignore empty slots and heal only alive party members. It would be better for casual playthroughs as well.
FENRIR remained way too hard. It would be easy if I could just wipe the other enemies, but they got a guaranteed ambush for no good reason other than to make it more difficult and the FIGHTERs could cast WALL. This didn't give a resistance to wind at least. There were only two ways around that. I could cave and use Defense, but I'd gotten by without it so far. I intended to ride that until it was absolutely clear there was no other way around it. At least this one could be filed under my own decision.
ODIN was even more stupidly difficult if you can believe that. His pattern was to do two very strong attacks that had a solid chance of dealing a critical hit, charge, then use ZANTETSUKEN which seemed to have a very high chance if not a guarantee of instant death. Just like SORCERERs, no Ribbon, ProRing, etc. protected against this. Yet another example of the terrible design of many of the summon bosses. And want to know how much HP it has? 2000! As much as CHAOS! If that was a guaranteed kill, the only way I could win is if GOBLIN rolled high 4 times in a row! This is extra awful considering that like I mentioned, support for solos is being added. But if a solo can't do all of its content, there is something very wrong with it!
Here's Aleph's stats at level 50. I actually skipped gaining the last point of STR since it wasn't going to make a difference: every two points of it is one point of damage. Functionally, there was no difference between having 52 and 53. So I rolled for another INT boost instead. One thing I didn't notice until editing the report was how low his INT was. To recap, he started with 20 and had 47 at level 28. This pointed towards fixed gains for all those levels; but they dropped off at some point. Maybe my early thought about it reflecting White Mage's SAIVL table was right? They have consistent INT gains until level 30. Another disappointing thing about Evoker, I suppose. Granted this only comes into effect with solos or NG+, but the point remains.
Now the only thing left to do was to get the remaining summons. The first stop was the Sea Shrine. This was where LEVIATHAN resided. As you would expect, it deals water elemental damage. The WALL spell does not grant any resistance to that, either. Therefore it was the best option for taking on FENRIR's cronies.
But even doing this was difficult. On one hand, the Water Armlet (which I had procured in the Waterfall) provided resistance to the elemental moves used by the boss. Yet the sea serpent came accompanied by six WATERs. They hit way too hard, especially when Aleph was charging up for SHIVA. She would most often wipe them out, but by that point, Aleph was at critical HP and there was no way he was finishing the battle from there.
So I decided it was time to stop messing around.
The only reason I was abstaining from using the spellcasting items was for memetic purposes anyway. I would still not be using any of the offensive ones. However, if using the Defense was the only way to get through this fight, then so be it! Indeed, I won the battle on the very first try after I used this tactic. LEVIATHAN could use BUBBLE CURTAIN to cut the damage from Aleph's spells in half. But with the enemies unable to damage him much, winning was just a matter of time. I employed KIRIN here for regen status; it would restore a little under 30HP per tick. It made up for some of the chip damage taken from LEVIATHAN'S spells.
FENRIR was a non-threat with this evasion boosting. Actually, some of the enemies ran away because Aleph was so high level. It ultimately only made the battle just a little easier. Since the boss was physical only, once the MAGEs were down, there was no threat.
That left just ODIN and PHOENIX. There was no way around the former. The good news was if this didn't work, it wasn't a big deal. His spell is to charge and deal AoE non-elemental instant death. Certainly not nearly as high accuracy as it seems to be in the boss battle. Again, my only option was GOBLIN. The spell's damage was wildly variable: I actually had one ridiculous moment in the Sea Shrine where it took four castings to defeat a GrSHARK! Even if I dropped the restriction on items, Thor Hammer wasn't the answer either. It did far too little damage. And since everything else had a charging turn, they wouldn't work either. I resolved to give it at least a few tries before throwing up my arms and saying "screw this" and complaining.
And...just like that, I win. I was so stunned I got this on the first try at level 50 that I completely beefed the capture. I thought for sure that even though I got the first three high rolls, either ODIN was going to go first or the game was going to slap me in the face. I couldn't believe my luck. I'm still complaining and maintain that this is a terribly designed fight when considering a solo character. It was just sheer stupid luck here, nothing else. I think the way around it would be a new piece of equipment that prevents any and all instant death.
One left. PHOENIX appeared to be a regenerative enemy with 2000HP - I didn't need to check this one. As mentioned, it spammed FIR3 which was manageable. Aleph used KIRIN here and used LEVIATHAN to deal damage. Once PHOENIX was defeated, it used its special to restore 1000HP; half of the max like its spell if it works the same. It then started using things like BLAZE and INFERNO instead. Also yes, INFERNO! That's useful information for anyone running a Blue Mage; instead of having to hunt down the rare fight, they can just get it here if they're in the same party as each other. In any case, I was still able to win and claim the last summon Aleph would be getting.
PHOENIX takes one turn to charge, then it heals 50% of max HP. Needless to say, this is pretty good. However, it can also revive in battle. This is a problem: can't have the solo reviving their allies. But there's a solution: get them petrified instead. How to go about it?
Like this! SAURIA was the perfect enemy to get the bards petrified instead of dead. I didn't have to worry about them fleeing with the bards in front since it checks the party leader's level, but they have 200 morale so it wouldn't have mattered anyway. Gold Bracelets plus ProRings gave them enough absorb so they could resist the damage the lizard dealt, and KIRIN took care of the rest. It wasn't long before they were all statues. This did mean that UNICORN couldn't be used since it would cure their ailment, but with the precedent set by using Defense, I decided I would return to Ordeals to pick up the Heal Staff.
Now, I could have class changed for BAHAMUT. Two things dissuaded me. First, his Astral Plane consists of a gauntlet of dragon fights; a four pack of all kinds in a row followed by the big dragon himself. I seriously doubted a solo Summoner could handle him. Second, even if I could, it would break what's left of the game. I had to keep at least a little challenge.
So into the temple I went. The first attempt fell to my nemesis, Gas Ds. This really demonstrates just how bad Evoker's charges are. Sure, Aleph blasted some of them for over 700 damage, but one of them took like 250 instead and killed him on the next round. Here was the encounter order on the run that followed:
- 3 Frost Ds. Run.
- 8 BADMAN. Run.
- 4 Gas Ds. SHIVA did her job this time and I took much less damage in general.
- PHANTOM. I used FAIRY here. Did over 400 and spattered him.
- CHIMERA, JIMERA. Run.
- 2 ZombieDs. IFRIT.
- 1 WORM. FAIRY.
- 3 MudGOLs, 1 RockGOL. It was a preemptive so I ran.
- 3 EARTHs. IFRIT.
- 6 GrMEDUSAs. Run.
LICH did a physical and got blasted by FAIRY! He is, in fact, weak to wind.
KARY's floor only dished up a single R.GIANT before her. I used FENRIR as insurance, but she only used spells. LEVIATHAN hit for 698, which was not enough to kill her. She has 700HP. So I finished her with a FIGHT.
- A GrSHARK and WzSAHAG group. Run on preemptive.
- 3 WATERs. SHIVA.
- A GrSHARK and WzSAHAG group. This one was bigger so I used CAIT SITH and RAMUH.
I got up FENRIR before KRAKEN could start to physical. Actually, he loved using his spells and skills. I tried to meme on him with ODIN but it missed. So I used FAIRY. I wavered a bit when two failed to kill him. I instead used Defense three times and finished him with a RAMUH.
- 2 RockGOLs. Run.
- 3 WORMs. I played this very safe with CAIT SITH, Defense, and even popped a PHOENIX.
- Masmune claimed. 6 VAMPIREs, 1 WzVAMP. Again, I had to play this safe: CAIT SITH and IFRIT.
- 4 RockGOLs. Preemptive, run!
- 5 AIRs. Confused them and ran.
And then, TIAMAT one-shot Aleph off a double critical hit. I missed it, but it did over 600 damge. Bullshit, absolute bullshit. It did more than Aleph's max HP. That was literally the only way I could've lost and I did.
I promptly stormed back through the temple. I didn't bother keeping track of my encounters this time around. You can get a general idea of my strategy from the above anyway. If I could run, I ran. If I couldn't, I used a summon. If it was dangerous, use Defense and/or CAIT SITH. PHANTOM and LICH went the same as before. I just tried to LEVIATHAN KARY outright and nearly died for it when she used two physicals in a row. Needed to use a GOBLIN just to survive. Then KRAKEN was a dumpster fire because the FAIRYs did low damage and ODIN didn't work when I tried again. I neglected Defense and the fight became a chaotic mess that saw all my L6 spells drained between FAIRY deciding to suck and all the FENRIRs I had to use. Should've just buffed while I could.
Air floor played nicer this time. This time, I used Defense thrice and chopped TIAMAT to bits. The problem was, I'd run out of HEALs! I could still heal in battle of course. Except I forgot on RockGOLs that showed up. Well, Aleph was only missing like 40HP. Surely that wouldn't be the difference against CHAOS, would it? At least the L6 spells being gone didn't matter. CHAOS resists wind and water, just because.
Turn 1 saw CHAOS use CRACK while Aleph got up a Defense stack. CHAOS used INFERNO for 50 while Aleph got up a second, and finally a third while CHAOS hit with SWIRL for 254. Thankfully his next move was a physical, allowing Aleph to charge PHOENIX. But CHAOS used TORNADO and did...115, thank goodness. A big chunk of HP restored. If I fail again, I might use the Water Armlet just to block SWIRL; it should be water elemental now. ProRing is irrelevant when I have Ribbon and Defense to make the extra absorb irrelevant. If physicals can't hit, it doesn't matter how much or how little you have.
40 damage physical and 37 damage ICE3 were exchanged. 47 damage LIT3 and another irrelevant physical. Jeez, so much for all that STR grinding. Why can't I get any criticals?! Was this going to come down to GOBLIN? If so, I hope the rolls were good. I used CARBUNCLE next turn, CHAOS used CRACK. CHAOS skipped the SLO2 and cast CUR4. No problem. Aleph charged PHOENIX, took a 76 damage INFERNO, then got up to 552HP.
FIR3 did 27 as I decided to shift to using GOBLIN instead. That's more like it! ICE2 did 25, and the next GOBLIN did 547, even better. Who needs the Masmune?! Yeah, in retrospect, if I was to go back in time, I'd have tried to manipulate INT gains instead of STR when the latter were no longer fixed. I had been careful to save L1 spell charges throughout the temple just in case this was necessary. CHAOS did FAST, GOBLIN did 553. 544 left. But next was NUKE, and he could still use SWIRL too.
Aleph went first...2 short!
But the SWIRL was weak!
And for the first time in this playthrough, I used a spellcasting item, just as an "eff you" to finish it off! Yeah, I was still pissed about that critical.
I thought about taking on BAHAMUT, but I decided it wasn't going to be very interesting. It would boil down to fighting through his dragons with a summon on each for an attempt at him. Unless CARBUNCLE could reflect his special, which I highly doubt it would because reflect just sucks in FFR, I would have to hope GOBLIN rolled high and the MEGAFLARE rolled low. And if I lose, do it all over again for another shot.
I stated in my job comments that I believe the Evoker to be the worst class in Final Fantasy Renaissance. Having done a solo challenge run with it, I stand by that claim. Sure, the Green Mage has flaws, but they are surmountable ones and the job is due a rebalance in the next version. Plus it can do its job well, which is more than can said about the Evoker. Furthermore, there was the issue of having to fight multiple superbosses in order to obtain its spells. Seriously, these bosses are absolutely balanced for Renaissance's shenanigans and are certainly much worse in NG+, which makes them stand out that much more against the vanilla game's stuff. If you don't have anything particularly broken to deal with them, they're awful to fight. Evoker itself doesn't fall into this category either.
The reward for doing so are spells that are just as strong as black magic at the same level when you factor in they're being cast across multiple turns. Contrast with other magical jobs, which can just buy them at a store, or in Blue Mage's case, hunt down most of them with far less hassle. The stats of the enemies in the main game line up to where the same-level black magic is often enough on groups. Which ironically makes Evokers better at fighting bosses; if they're not using their support instead. BAHAMUT which breaks from the pattern comes very late in the game and can only be cast so many times unless you grind very high. Some playthroughs may not even reach level 25, which is when mages get their first L8 spell charges. And ideally they would get higher than that to actually cast it more than once.
The niche of potentially saving on spell charges wasn't coming into play even in this solo challenge. Dead in one cast is still dead in one cast. Even if that cast takes two turns. And that's the big problem with Evoker. The numbers are not in its favor. It is seemingly balanced for NG+ stat bloat. That said, I'm honestly surprised that it ended up not being as big of an issue as I thought throughout the main game. Still, like that last battle in the Ice Cave, a Black Mage would have just been able to kill the enemies outright instead of having to flip a coin and go through a charge turn. Or an Evoker using Zeus. It's sad that its most reliable offense is in fact spellcasting items. Just like many other jobs.
That said, how does Evoker perform as a solo? If I were to make a comparison to anything else when it comes to a solo Evoker, it would be a hybrid of a Thief and a Black Mage. Like the former (and similar to the latter in vanilla), copious amounts of grinding is required. However, the job eventually starts to come into its own power like the latter and by the end of it. And unlike either once you factor in SLEP being fixed (very relevant on the PIRATEs for BLM), insane amounts of grinding is necessary early on. Evoker has it even worse because it needs to grind to even make it out of Coneria. However, it's better off than both classes in the late game, and maybe some others. The real problem are the summon superbosses. I would rate this one as the third, maybe fourth-hardest solo in Renaissance: it's better than Thief and Bard, but still not very good. Most of the challenge in this one boils down to the grind. The only other question mark is Time Mage (not Wizard), and I'm in no hurry to test that one out. It is also notable for not being affected by lack of class change much. It just means BAHAMUT access if you can actually beat him and being able to equip the Wizard Staff for a stronger beatstick.
And like I ranted earlier, if solo support is going to be formally added to FFR, there should be a few concessions made. The things I would change are: some sort of mulligan for GOBLIN, maybe killing a certain amount of IMPs. Letting FAIRY heal full HP. Maybe a Fire/Ice Armlet that can be obtained without Thief. And a piece of equipment to resist all forms of instant death for ODIN.
That said, did I enjoy this? Once I got by the hellish early grind: actually, yes. As difficult as Evoker was to play, it still managed to be interesting. It's more than can be said about Thief or Bard which are just painful the whole way through.
Thanks for reading. This is definitely the last thing I do in FFR before 2.0, which is supposed to release before Christmas 2023. May it bring better tidings.
Index
