FFIV Stat-Maxing Superior Setup

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Joanna Larken Shosmyth
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FFIV Stat-Maxing Superior Setup

Post by Joanna Larken Shosmyth » Sat Jul 05, 2014 4:42 am

Note that this is not applicable to the iOS version. Sorry, Apple-humpers, but you'll have to look elsewhere.

Many of you are already aware of how stat-maxing works in IV, so I won't go into great detail. If you don't or you're telling someone else about it, you can quote me on this:
Stat-maxing is an off-putting subject to many players, but it's actually rather easy and, in a way, somewhat fun in IV. Rather than just grinding five enemies for days on end in order to get hundreds of stat-boosting items, there's a system that revolves around equipped Augments, the abilities in the game, at the time of level-up after reaching level 70. For more information, refer to Action's guide here and use CTRL + F: http://www.gamefaqs.com/ds/939425-final-fantasy-iv/faqs/54117

Now, most of us that have seen more than one stat-maxing guide are aware that Action's recommendations are the best, as they are easy-to-follow, convenient, flexible as to the second Limit Break recipient (One should obviously go to Kain, and the other to either Cecil or Rydia.), demonstrated in concise charts, and result in a high yield of HP and MP.
What if you want more?
Hey, me, too! I came up with this setup to accomplish several tasks while still ensuring that all stats meet 99 naturally:
There is a high HP yield, minimizing necessary Silver Apple farming. Silver Apples are easy enough to farm from Liliths, not to mention the fact that you'll accumulate a ton from farming the dragons that give you rare tails, so it's a small benefit.
There is a high MP yield, minimizing necessary Soma Drop farming. Farming Soma Drops from Dark Sages is very time-consuming (even after getting some Ribbons, Minerva Bustiers, and even an Artemis Bow), and Bog Witch farming is an even bigger joke.
Cecil is free to take Dualcast, Omnicasting, and Piercing Magic, turning him into a very effective white mage, which is completely impertinent, but also neat to see if you like to maximize magical effectiveness, as I do.
You only have to switch your Augment selections a few times. In fact, if you're using Level Lust and blazing through the game, it's likely enough that your chars' levels will be tilted just right so that you can switch them over all at the same time, or awfully close.
You also get some neat, little themes. Cecil gets the ability of the Autarch of Flame because he personally rules over the Red Wings in the beginning and shows great self-control to become a paladin. Kain gets Whirlwind because "You're not the only one who can ride the wind, Barbariccia!" Rosa gets everything but Curse because light-darkness, life-death, assistance-ailment, contrast blah blah. Rydia lacks Tsunami because Leviathan already loaded her up on water enough for one lifetime. Edge gets everything but Inferno because screw Rubicante; that's why!

Before I continue, a lot of credit goes to Action. His guides are pretty consistently helpful and accurate (In fact, in the IV guide, I only found one treasure that he didn't, and there were few other errors, such as Counter being marked as an Augment that yields STR and INT, while it's actually STR and STA, as one would expect.), and it was his charts that gave me the necessary information. Again, his stat-maxing guide is also really good, but I wanted to soup it up a bit more, mostly because I saw opportunities when Cecil didn't have both Limit Break and ????'s Love, and I wanted to optimize HP and especially MP gains. This is the result.

If you're viewing this on Gamefaqs and not my website, you have to go to the next post because the character limit for posts here sucks.

I keep stressing MP because of the following comparison:
The HP limit is 10 times the MP limit.
Level-ups only give 2 times the HP boost as MP boost per corresponding Augment, not including MP +50%.
Silver Apples have 5 times the numeric effect of Soma Drops.
Silver Apples are more than 2 times as easy to obtain than Soma Drops, and that's just comparing Liliths to Dark Sages.
Silver Apples are obtained en masse from the rare dragons.
Silver Apples are obtained more frequently as treasures than Soma Drops.
Silver Apples are assisted by the rarer version, Golden Apples.
What I'm saying is that MP is a lot harder to max.

I'm trying to keep the format simple while still showing you options that make no difference in case you already delegated some Augments differently, so I'm just putting "Super" for Limit Break or ????'s Love and "Mana" to signify an empty spot that can be filled with anything that increases MP (which often means that you get overkill INT and possibly SPR, but that's fine because optimal efficiency should have some overkill, in this subject), or you can substitute it with an HP-increasing Augment if you're just trying to build up to be able to handle Proto-Babil, not going for a real maxing session. That, or you're getting close to 999 and can afford to change an MP=booster with an HP-booster without really losing MP. I'll also just put "SPD" to represent any of the SPD-increasing Augments that aren't Inferno or Whirlwind. All the others increase only SPD, always by 1, and vary according to what you are or are not multi-tasking. Rosa has a built-in SPD Augment, Aim, and Cecil should bear Treasure Hunter, Gil Farmer, and Level Lust, so you should have no trouble making a selection. Remember that the only things that matter are the Augments that you have at the exact moment of level-up, so you can use those utility Augments freely, then switch to an appropriate setup right before the given char gains a level.
If I don't put a number after an Augment, that's because you should keep it on for all 29 level-ups after Lv70. I'm not showing every stat increase for every Augment or every alternative because, again, you should refer to Action's chart (Remember that Counter is just STR and STA!) to understand what's going on.
I am, however, including Lv70 base and Lv99 final stats (excluding whatever you get from Mana selections, demonstrating the fact that your selections there don't matter and can often remain as whatever they were before the switch), so that you can readily see what you can change up according to your own design if you do get it. All stats are in order of STR/SPD/STA/INT/SPR, just like the in-game status screens. I will denote any noteworthy variables. MP yields are stated at the end of each section. In parentheses are the amounts of additional MP that you receive for using MP +50% as your Mana Augment. Because, as I have explained, HP gains are tertiary, there isn't much variance: Everyone gets 290 from the Items command, a Super will give another 290 to whoever uses it, and, well, you can figure out what any deviations would case by examining Action's chart.

Here is the actual chart to refer to, but please read the text so that you understand:
Cecil
73/41/70/36/41
Dualcast
Twincast/Omnicasting (anything for INT and MP) - 5, Mana - 27
Inferno
Super
131/99/128/99/99 or 128
Inferno is strictly overkill on two of its three stats, but it's the only non-Whirlwind way to gain MP with SPD. With two chars requiring Whirlwind with pretty much no alternative and the other two competing fiercely for its usage, wasting it on such a flexible grower like Cecil is short-sighted.
580(135)

Kain
71/54/56/12/39
Whirlwind
Super
Tsunami
Curse - 2, Mana - 27
131/112/116/99/99
Clearly, Curse is just there for 2 SPR. If you put an MP +50% on Kain, you could just spend one level on Pheonix, then 28 on mana, and you'd skip Curse entirely without losing any MP, but, damn it, the third Curse is just not very useful elsewise. At least you can be sure to have an MP +50% for Cecil, this way.
580(135)

Rydia
36/33/34/72/54
Mana
Inferno
Super
Curse - 16, SPD - 8, Mana - 5
120/99/108/101/99
You could shave 9 levels off Curse as long as you get that much SPR from your mana selections, or you could totally scrap it as long as you get at least 7 levels of Last Stand or something else for STR and STA. As long as she has a Super, Rydia is vastly flexible.
540(145)

Rosa
48/32/42/22/73
Whirlwind
Inferno
Tsunami
SPD - 9, Dualcast/Twincast - 19, Mana - 1
106/99/100/99/122 or 102
535(5)

Edge
61/72/48/35/24
Whirlwind
Tsunami
Curse
Phoenix - 9, Ninjutsu/Twincast/Recall - 6, Mana - 14
119/101/107/99/100
535(70)

Note: Especially because base HP/MP is noticeably randomized and you may have gotten lucky on Cecil's or already have dumped some Soma Drops into Cecil, you may find that the MP boost of Inferno isn't all that helpful, so you may end up leaving it off for or switching with, say, Treasure Hunter, sacrificing up to 145 MP in order to get more Soma Drops or other rare items while gaining these last levels. It could very easily prove to be worthwhile, especially if you're using the time to hunt for Soma Drops. Then again, you could apply this to any Mana selection, or you could just do things the smart way, which is what I wrote above about switching between utility Augments between level-ups and switching to stat-oriented Augments right before level-ups.
If you don't mind Cecil not having Dualcast/Omnicasting/Piercing Magic (Remember that Piercing Magic is the only one that doesn't increase MP, so it should only be used if it's the only one that's available.), you can put it on Edge for 18 levels, then something for Mana for the remaining 11, and that solves his 4th slot dilemma. Likewise, Kain can take one in place of Whirlwind, as Action demonstrates, but he'll need 16 levels of SPD in stead of Mana to compensate for it. If Cecil's MP is high enough at Lv70 that you don't think that he'll need Inferno, you can give it to Kain, allowing Kain to gain MP with his SPD. That also allows Kain to subtract Tsunami as long as he replaces it with something else that gives INT and preferably MP, like Twincast. The extra Tsunami doesn't really help anything major, though. Going back to that Whirlwind that Kain saved, we have a couple options: We can give it to Cecil, which means that he doesn't need a SPD Augment that doesn't give MP (you know, since we took his Inferno) and that Twincast/whatever for 5 levels can be any Mana junk, which is basically no change at all. We could also give it to Rydia, which means that she gets to replace the Mana and last slot with Whirlwind for at least 8, Curse/Tsunami/Last Stand/anything that gives STR and STA for at least 7, and the other 45 levels of whatever you want, which isn't honestly a whole lot different from what she has right now. Ultimately, I think that you can see why I decided to stick Whirlwind on Kain.
This all assumes that you have Supers on Cecil, Kain, and Rydia, because they're the only three who can give you any real freedom as a result, and they're also the only three with whom it is practical to have Limit Break.
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