FFR: Solo Geomancer Part III
Nov. 12th, 2024 11:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sirsystemerrorThe questions before diving into the past were this: did I want to go to 50 with this promoted character? I absolutely would for unpromoted. And second, which SAMPLE to take? It didn't take me long to settle on underwater. PRESSURE would be excellent insurance on KARY and KRAKEN, and the snakelady was still weak to water. BUBBLE CURTAIN would be fantastic on LICH, TIAMAT, and CHAOS. Finally, the water floor aside, there wasn't a lot that resisted it. As for levels, I decided no, let's do it at 41 (which I reached for the next strong HP up) and see what happens.
Look at this awful damage. Just look at it! This is why artificial terrain is bad. You could legitimately get just as much damage out of FIR2 or something. It's like CLOSE IN has a much lower multiplier than other abilities. It was thankfully sufficient on some of the water floor enemies (which had the potential to be the biggest threat), but against these menaces and their 200 magic defense? Yeah, it was bad. I just had to hope I didn't run into them.
LICH got off NUKE before I could BUBBLE CURTAIN. Wasn't too tough to kill before the second one at least, but that did not bode well. I was down to half my heal potions before the midway point. Never a good sign.
I actually bumped into the 3/64 slot on the fire floor. They were promptly washed away.
KARY got off a hit before PRESSURE, but she was reduced to uselessness from there. WATERSPOUT dealt with her. And thankfully, the water floor played nice. That was what I was most concerned about. KRAKEN got PRESSUREd before he could attack. From there, CARVE MODEL handled him.
But this was bad. I was down to just 9 potions after claiming the Masmune. I took advantage of a new item FFR added, the WARP stone, which you can claim from Coneria's king after breaking the black orb. Its intended purpose is to let anyone escape from the temple one time without needing one of the vanilla mages or a Time Mage. I instead used it to skip part of the walk back after getting the legendary sword.
Yup, WORMs ran me out, then TIAMAT attacked physically before I could get PRESSURE off. That and BUBBLE CURTAIN did neuter her offense. I just had Guo Pu buff and attack with the sword from here and eventually finished her off.
Here's the stats. And to say it again: just 135HP. I am royally screwed, needless to say.
It was die or do this (and move first which Guo Pu did), and I told the game in no uncertain terms where to shove it. I mean, it was just going to boil down to "run the temple until I don't lose too much health", and without this delicious cheese I'd just end up employing the same strategy against CHAOS I'm going to in the unpromoted game. I just felt like it wouldn't prove anything except that I had the patience to do so. And well, I did - it's just that I have other games I want to play. No need to run it a second time (and probably many more times) just for that.
After all, I was about to run through the latter half of the game a second time!
######
Waterfall was basically the same unpromoted, only that without a water SAMPLE, I couldn't easily kill these things before getting the Defense. They could hit pretty hard if Guo Pu failed enough runs.
Since I didn't take them off the table for unpromoted Guo Pu, he could merrily Zeus through the Sea Shrine just like anyone else. Later on, I could add Mage Staff and Black Shirt (if I wanted to spare the slot) into the mix. Yay spellcasting items!
KRAKEN could still be PRESSUREd. And Defense Sword was in play here too just like anyone else could use. I went with PRESSURE anyway because that renders him harmless sooner: one turn versus three. I defensed up too, because why not?
I got WarMECHed again in the Floating Castle. I knew it was coming, but I thought I could try to get across the bridge in one encounter since I had one a step before going into the bridge. Didn't happen. I tried STARDUST in desperation but nothing got rolled.
TIAMAT could be Bane Sworded just like anyone else could. I didn't need to: I could still mess with her with STARDUST. This doesn't have perfect accuracy, so this was hilarious to see. She stayed paralyzed for the rest of the battle while I tested COSMIC RAYS stacking. Results were unclear, but it made PLASMA do enough through resistance (398 on the finishing blow) together with the bell.
Blessed Bell can still be obtained with Geomancer. However, I found it couldn't be used by Geomancer! I know it could in earlier versions, so this had to be a bug, a silent nerf, or I was wrong. Either way, you really shouldn't be able to trade for it and lock yourself out of bells with the class, so I filed a complaint, heh.
KARY was confused with the Wizard Staff as usual. But she kept breaking out so I just stopped. Defense up for extra safety and attack with Geomancy anyway since even resisted it was a bit more consistent than physicals. I fought fire with fire because it did more than attacking, and got a rare roll to finish her.
Oddly, I was at the end of the game at a lower level than I was with Elementalist: 33 vs 41. Fighting less and trying to figure out a bug will do that. But I went ahead and took him to 50 anyway on the VAMPIREs. It only occurred to me that I should've been listening to a Castlevania soundtrack, but Sonic 3D Blast is a good one too.
Here's what Guo Pu's stats looked like before starting the descent. Could I have gone lower? Yes. Didn't feel like it, though, and I had something extra in mind.
It's ToFR where things started to get different. Geomancer Guo Pu would have one big advantage over Elementalist Guo Pu: spellcasting items, meaning the ability to Defense and Heal Staff. I wouldn't have to worry about running out. However, the huge downside was limited spell charges and being limited to that awful artificial set.
Turns out that spellcasting items really do simply and homogenize things. I had Black Shirt ready for Gas Ds, but none showed up. PHANTOM got killed in two CARVE MODELs. Nothing helped against LICH so I just splattered him with two CARVE MODELs too.
But KARY and KRAKEN's physicals could still be dealt with with Defense. That is the other side of the spellcasting item coin: without them, against KRAKEN specifically, it's just "reset until he doesn't kill you". It's subjective which option is better. But more importantly, so could everything else's physicals be annulled. I didn't even need to bother with that flimsy Heal Staff. Guo Pu simply had enough potions to make it through.
I actually used geomancy against TIAMAT. I wanted to save the big stacks for CHAOS. True, Power Gauntlet exists, but there was a very convincing reason not to use it in this case. I was just past six hours on the game clock when I started the final battle.
I didn't talk about or use the FORGED IN spells very much. They're better suited for supporting a party than a solo Geomancer. FORGED IN IRON increases power and, more importantly, critical hit chance by 10%. This was how I intended to beat CHAOS last time and how I had to this time. CARVE MODEL only does so much, and I'd have to resort to TERRAIN rolling eventually due to only have six spell charges at max. That would be more than enough time for CHAOS to kill him with accumulated damage into a NUKE.
Defense thrice, and once SLO2 didn't land (first try, woo!), that was basically game set. He used a lot of his skills at first; Guo Pu got to resist SWIRL and TORNADO due to a change to the Ribbon in this version that hasn't yet been walked back and might not be. They're now of the water and wind element respectively, and as of 2.1, Ribbon's resistances expanded to include those (not WALL, though). Even if this wasn't the case, I still could've resisted SWIRL by equipping the Water Armlet from the Sea Shrine at least.
The first attack stunk, but then the criticals started rolling in. Actually, he hit for 1220 damage on one swing before CUR4 negated it. But with this, Guo Pu swiftly brought an end to things.
And that's solo Geomancer complete, both with and without promotion. This was one that I wanted to do for a while, just because of how good it is in FFR compared to that awful FF5 Geomancer. It's funny how while it's still very much recognizable in its luck-based roots, just a couple small changes turn a class into a legitimate force of nature. Allowing you to cast geomancy directly is huge, and yet, it kept a shackle on with the limited spell charges. You eventually do have to start rolling with TERRAIN if you want to keep going. It's pretty neat design, and like I said in my job comments - while Geomancer technically has unlimited spell charges, the same can be said about any mage who holds a spellcasting item. Any new class that can break from ITEMS spam is good in my book. I do think artificial terrain sucking so bad and being so prevalent was taking it too far, but the good outweighs the bad here.
I liked the idea of doing a run where I promoted and another where I didn't. Probably not going to do it for every challenge I do, that said. But in this case, they played differently enough to make both runs worthwhile. SAMPLE does a lot to help Elementalist in elemental dungeons, makes for interesting gameplay, and it didn't feel out of place. No terrain really stands out over another, and most have at least one good reason to take them. I personally felt it made for the more interesting run.
Is that it? No, there was still one last thing to do before I could call it a challenge.
EAT SHIT. That said, this took a bit of luck to take it on without PRESSURE's nonsense, even at a higher level. I tried to get STARDUST to land but it never did. It boiled down to Guo Pu not getting ambushed, and then an insanely lucky WarMECH miss on turn 1 after just one Defense use. After three, I used COSMIC RAYS and attacked away with PLASMA. I just had to hope it didn't use NUCLEAR too much, and it didn't.
Okay, now that's it. Don't expect more soon: I have to save Concordia and become the hero Erdrick, and am way overdue with killing the Seven Heroes. My next FFR challenge might be something of a party variety. I have a few different ideas. Thanks for reading, and see you then!
Index
Look at this awful damage. Just look at it! This is why artificial terrain is bad. You could legitimately get just as much damage out of FIR2 or something. It's like CLOSE IN has a much lower multiplier than other abilities. It was thankfully sufficient on some of the water floor enemies (which had the potential to be the biggest threat), but against these menaces and their 200 magic defense? Yeah, it was bad. I just had to hope I didn't run into them.
LICH got off NUKE before I could BUBBLE CURTAIN. Wasn't too tough to kill before the second one at least, but that did not bode well. I was down to half my heal potions before the midway point. Never a good sign.
I actually bumped into the 3/64 slot on the fire floor. They were promptly washed away.
KARY got off a hit before PRESSURE, but she was reduced to uselessness from there. WATERSPOUT dealt with her. And thankfully, the water floor played nice. That was what I was most concerned about. KRAKEN got PRESSUREd before he could attack. From there, CARVE MODEL handled him.
But this was bad. I was down to just 9 potions after claiming the Masmune. I took advantage of a new item FFR added, the WARP stone, which you can claim from Coneria's king after breaking the black orb. Its intended purpose is to let anyone escape from the temple one time without needing one of the vanilla mages or a Time Mage. I instead used it to skip part of the walk back after getting the legendary sword.
Yup, WORMs ran me out, then TIAMAT attacked physically before I could get PRESSURE off. That and BUBBLE CURTAIN did neuter her offense. I just had Guo Pu buff and attack with the sword from here and eventually finished her off.
Here's the stats. And to say it again: just 135HP. I am royally screwed, needless to say.
It was die or do this (and move first which Guo Pu did), and I told the game in no uncertain terms where to shove it. I mean, it was just going to boil down to "run the temple until I don't lose too much health", and without this delicious cheese I'd just end up employing the same strategy against CHAOS I'm going to in the unpromoted game. I just felt like it wouldn't prove anything except that I had the patience to do so. And well, I did - it's just that I have other games I want to play. No need to run it a second time (and probably many more times) just for that.
After all, I was about to run through the latter half of the game a second time!
######
Waterfall was basically the same unpromoted, only that without a water SAMPLE, I couldn't easily kill these things before getting the Defense. They could hit pretty hard if Guo Pu failed enough runs.
Since I didn't take them off the table for unpromoted Guo Pu, he could merrily Zeus through the Sea Shrine just like anyone else. Later on, I could add Mage Staff and Black Shirt (if I wanted to spare the slot) into the mix. Yay spellcasting items!
KRAKEN could still be PRESSUREd. And Defense Sword was in play here too just like anyone else could use. I went with PRESSURE anyway because that renders him harmless sooner: one turn versus three. I defensed up too, because why not?
I got WarMECHed again in the Floating Castle. I knew it was coming, but I thought I could try to get across the bridge in one encounter since I had one a step before going into the bridge. Didn't happen. I tried STARDUST in desperation but nothing got rolled.
TIAMAT could be Bane Sworded just like anyone else could. I didn't need to: I could still mess with her with STARDUST. This doesn't have perfect accuracy, so this was hilarious to see. She stayed paralyzed for the rest of the battle while I tested COSMIC RAYS stacking. Results were unclear, but it made PLASMA do enough through resistance (398 on the finishing blow) together with the bell.
Blessed Bell can still be obtained with Geomancer. However, I found it couldn't be used by Geomancer! I know it could in earlier versions, so this had to be a bug, a silent nerf, or I was wrong. Either way, you really shouldn't be able to trade for it and lock yourself out of bells with the class, so I filed a complaint, heh.
KARY was confused with the Wizard Staff as usual. But she kept breaking out so I just stopped. Defense up for extra safety and attack with Geomancy anyway since even resisted it was a bit more consistent than physicals. I fought fire with fire because it did more than attacking, and got a rare roll to finish her.
Oddly, I was at the end of the game at a lower level than I was with Elementalist: 33 vs 41. Fighting less and trying to figure out a bug will do that. But I went ahead and took him to 50 anyway on the VAMPIREs. It only occurred to me that I should've been listening to a Castlevania soundtrack, but Sonic 3D Blast is a good one too.
Here's what Guo Pu's stats looked like before starting the descent. Could I have gone lower? Yes. Didn't feel like it, though, and I had something extra in mind.
It's ToFR where things started to get different. Geomancer Guo Pu would have one big advantage over Elementalist Guo Pu: spellcasting items, meaning the ability to Defense and Heal Staff. I wouldn't have to worry about running out. However, the huge downside was limited spell charges and being limited to that awful artificial set.
Turns out that spellcasting items really do simply and homogenize things. I had Black Shirt ready for Gas Ds, but none showed up. PHANTOM got killed in two CARVE MODELs. Nothing helped against LICH so I just splattered him with two CARVE MODELs too.
But KARY and KRAKEN's physicals could still be dealt with with Defense. That is the other side of the spellcasting item coin: without them, against KRAKEN specifically, it's just "reset until he doesn't kill you". It's subjective which option is better. But more importantly, so could everything else's physicals be annulled. I didn't even need to bother with that flimsy Heal Staff. Guo Pu simply had enough potions to make it through.
I actually used geomancy against TIAMAT. I wanted to save the big stacks for CHAOS. True, Power Gauntlet exists, but there was a very convincing reason not to use it in this case. I was just past six hours on the game clock when I started the final battle.
I didn't talk about or use the FORGED IN spells very much. They're better suited for supporting a party than a solo Geomancer. FORGED IN IRON increases power and, more importantly, critical hit chance by 10%. This was how I intended to beat CHAOS last time and how I had to this time. CARVE MODEL only does so much, and I'd have to resort to TERRAIN rolling eventually due to only have six spell charges at max. That would be more than enough time for CHAOS to kill him with accumulated damage into a NUKE.
Defense thrice, and once SLO2 didn't land (first try, woo!), that was basically game set. He used a lot of his skills at first; Guo Pu got to resist SWIRL and TORNADO due to a change to the Ribbon in this version that hasn't yet been walked back and might not be. They're now of the water and wind element respectively, and as of 2.1, Ribbon's resistances expanded to include those (not WALL, though). Even if this wasn't the case, I still could've resisted SWIRL by equipping the Water Armlet from the Sea Shrine at least.
The first attack stunk, but then the criticals started rolling in. Actually, he hit for 1220 damage on one swing before CUR4 negated it. But with this, Guo Pu swiftly brought an end to things.
And that's solo Geomancer complete, both with and without promotion. This was one that I wanted to do for a while, just because of how good it is in FFR compared to that awful FF5 Geomancer. It's funny how while it's still very much recognizable in its luck-based roots, just a couple small changes turn a class into a legitimate force of nature. Allowing you to cast geomancy directly is huge, and yet, it kept a shackle on with the limited spell charges. You eventually do have to start rolling with TERRAIN if you want to keep going. It's pretty neat design, and like I said in my job comments - while Geomancer technically has unlimited spell charges, the same can be said about any mage who holds a spellcasting item. Any new class that can break from ITEMS spam is good in my book. I do think artificial terrain sucking so bad and being so prevalent was taking it too far, but the good outweighs the bad here.
I liked the idea of doing a run where I promoted and another where I didn't. Probably not going to do it for every challenge I do, that said. But in this case, they played differently enough to make both runs worthwhile. SAMPLE does a lot to help Elementalist in elemental dungeons, makes for interesting gameplay, and it didn't feel out of place. No terrain really stands out over another, and most have at least one good reason to take them. I personally felt it made for the more interesting run.
Is that it? No, there was still one last thing to do before I could call it a challenge.
EAT SHIT. That said, this took a bit of luck to take it on without PRESSURE's nonsense, even at a higher level. I tried to get STARDUST to land but it never did. It boiled down to Guo Pu not getting ambushed, and then an insanely lucky WarMECH miss on turn 1 after just one Defense use. After three, I used COSMIC RAYS and attacked away with PLASMA. I just had to hope it didn't use NUCLEAR too much, and it didn't.
Okay, now that's it. Don't expect more soon: I have to save Concordia and become the hero Erdrick, and am way overdue with killing the Seven Heroes. My next FFR challenge might be something of a party variety. I have a few different ideas. Thanks for reading, and see you then!
Index
