How do you like my team?

Back again for my biyearly playthrough and I always try to use something I haven’t before. This time it’s a mime. After some more grinding this will be the team

ramza
jumping squire with equip spear

female
dancing ninja with sunken state/attack up

male
mime

male
mediator/bard

geo agrias

I’m going to refrain from nameless song/dance for the sake of it. The plan is to use slow dance and battle song because everyone besides the mediator benefits greatly from attack.

I know I can’t mime holy sword but eh, whatever

let the ninja start slow dancing, pop sunken state then make her way to the back line while gaining attack. Then attack when the time is right. Perfect for assassination battles

I don’t have much healing so I may still have a few resets to keep it interesting

just my opinion, but i like a lot of these build ideas individually... but i think together they're setting you up for some very slow gameplay. if you're good with that going in, then this looks like a lot of fun.

RAMZA
i'm always hesitant to sub squire on anything for the temptation to just abuse it. but if you're A) planning to abuse it, or B) have something else in mind, lancer is always a good base for a physical character.

FEMALE
i've never been a huge fan of dancers, even (or especially) after my Dc(Bd) SCC. i like the idea, and i they could use the basic Attack while dancing it would change my entire opinion of the class. but you've basically got one of your heaviest hitting characters sitting around doing nothing for several turns, hoping for the 50% change to slow the enemy. again, if you're good with that going into it, then have at it.

MALE
mimes are... weird. if you're going to heavily feature a mime, then i think this is about the ideal party. i believe a mime will mimic every bard song and every dance, regardless of gender, but i've never experimented with it myself. if so, then this is going to be the crux of your party. if not... then mime will likely be a source of frustration. if you've not used them extensively, they're analogous to beginner programming classes. the damn machine is going to to exactly what it's supposed to... but you as the user will still be frustrated and surprised 10% of the time.

MALE
i really like this character idea. i've always struggled fielding both bards and mediators, because they both feel like "half a class". they've each got stuff to do... but their class-direct contributions seem too little too late. for example, you're better off doing almost ANY action with any other class than singing a bard song; and the same is true for mediator. 38% chance to set Doom on an enemy? ok... a lancer would have taken out over half that enemy's health from six squares away. all that said, sticking these two almost useless classes together actually brings out the best in both. sit back and buff the party until such time as someone needs to have CT reset, or needs to be finished off at long range. i'm still thinking chemist/ bard would be better, but again, this is just my opinion.

GEOGRIAS
always solid.

so yeah... i know this was almost a month ago, so hopefully you've made good progress and are enjoying it, but i'm seeing this going one of two ways:
1) you have 3 characters standing around chanting like Temple of Doom while ramza and agrias tank and survive as best they can.
2) dancing becomes a distant second priority for your ninja. sure, you use it now and again... but really often enough to justify having it subbed. that also means your mime will now be doing far more attacking than in the first scenario.

Thanks for the response I took a break and picked it back up last night so your timing was actually perfect lol. Just got to bethla garrison part 2

my slow dance strategy turned out to be.. interesting lol. If the map is big enough for me to get 2 rounds of slow dance and their mimics off, then it’s a wrap. After that, slow dance snowballs out of control and all enemies get stuck in time.

the mime is also.. interesting lol. First time using one and I mainly focus on him landing jumps with ramza which is cool. And yes I’ve killed my own party members a few times, and with no healing it’s usually a reset. All in all I like him.

my biggest issue is chapter 4 archers two shotting Mr Mime. I didn’t realize how frail mimes are and how much enemy ai hates them. Makes sense cause they’re naked but s*** lol.

on more cramped maps the song and dance strat can go out the window quickly but I’ve got 3 big damage dealers to scrap it out with before mime gets crystallized

its a fun team. I may end up making the mediator into a chemist if I get hard stuck later on. Because I have a tendency to rarely finish files I start on this game and I’d like to see this one through

as you've noted, the map structure will change things a lot, but you can always have the mime hang back and just mimic the songs/ dances.

now, bards DO have a healing song... it's not much, but it's a 100% hit rate periodically (iirc it ends up being approximately twice a turn, but i don't remember the CT offhand) and mimicking it might make it viable.

5th_riff posted...

All units should be designed to have passive haste with either excalibur or setiemson. That means the best singers are either ramza, beowulf, cid, or cloud, unless you plan to delevel a generic male for a high MA knight. That also means the best jumpers are female ninjas. Agrias is best as ninja because hammers on top hand is used for holy sword damage, with scorpion tail being stronger than excalibur. Sing does nothing, and dance is 10 times worse than yin-yang magic.

This is just my opinion, but there's no point of going through the hassle of mime just for dance when you can just have a whole team of dancers. Mimes can't get passive haste and can't do anything when team is dead or incapacitated.

I mean I guess I could have a team of barehanded ninjas, but I get more enjoyment out of a flawed team that I liked coming up with. A shred of difficulty in one of my rare playthroughs these days is welcome it keeps me engaged

igor140 posted...

as you've noted, the map structure will change things a lot, but you can always have the mime hang back and just mimic the songs/ dances.

i was surprised to find out how much you actually can’t keep your mime back and sing and dance lol

ninjas or archers with high ground in chapter 4 murder him so often before he can even find cover as soon as the battle starts.

I like it though. He’s kind of comic relief at this point. He’s either making clutch plays or getting deleted or killing one of my units. I named him Mr. Mime ffs, and I think he behaves accordingly

Not to bad.

Ramza with with Equip Spear is only good if you got Javelin II. Maybe with the Holy Lance as well since it has a chance to proc a Holy cast. I’d make Ramza a Dragoon instead. Put the Mettle as secondary and change Equip Spear into something like Attack Boost, Doublehand, or Vehemence.

Geo/Agrias is not a bad combo at all. However she already has powerful long range attacks with her Sword Skills. IMO I prefer her having some support abilities to supplement her already Uber attacks like White Magick, Time Magicks, Iaido (Samurai), or just Item.

Is your Mediator/Bard going to be a Knife or Gun user?If Knife might want Dual Wield for more damage.

Mime they can be fun, but I use them mostly for stat growth.

Interesting set ups. Always cool to see how others play. 😎👍🏿