Messages

2011

Slick News / Re: Update at the trade deadline!

« on: July 31, 2008, 09:28:42 PM »

He was traded, to the LA Dodgers.

Oddly enough, when I posted that the Cubs/Brewers announced a rumor that he had been traded to the Dodgers, and not less than two minutes later ESPNews announced that it was a done deal. How's that for egg on the face?

I recommend waiting 30 minutes post deadline time for the final say. For a moment there, I didn't even think the deal would go down... freaking Marlins backed down and I thought for a moment that he was the Rays got Jason Bay...

2012

Slick News / Re: Update at the trade deadline!

« on: July 31, 2008, 07:02:05 PM »

Ok, corny joke. My apologies, but Manny Ramirez just isn't gonna get traded. *attempts to dodge pies thrown in his direction*

* Deathlike2 throws Lenophis into pie chamber.

Pies away! 

He was traded, to the LA Dodgers.

Good luck to the Dodgers, because that crappy division needs to stop sucking.

2013

Gaming Discussion / Re: FF4 - Equipment Distribution

« on: July 30, 2008, 12:54:38 PM »

I usually throw Cecil's genji helm on him once I get crystal.

I used to give Edge the Genji Helm early on, but I never gave a piece of the Genji Armor set to Cecil at all.

Ribbon - It's hard to argue over status protection in general, so this is no exception. Unfortunately, Charm status is not part of it (until FF4A, where they now make it overpowered, in addition to Berserk protection, which is lame IMO).

Yeah, the lack of confusion protection is very strange.

I chalk that up to FF5-ish status protection. Protect most stats, not all.

Masamune - Free Fast/Haste is awesome... can't argue against the usefulness of it.

Would have been far cooler if it was a multi-target haste instead of having to waste five turns to apply it to everyone though...

Well, targeting is chained to what the spell does, so bah.

I actually wonder if the Power Robe was supposed to be sold @ Baron though.. because it would be the ideal time and place to have this armor available... either that or a revised Ogre drop list...

Also, the Shadow-Iron set of weapons+armor.. if you look at how the DK equipment tables are, it seems rather intentional to me...

2014

General Discussion / Re: Gamefaqs + eternal stupidity

« on: July 29, 2008, 11:06:07 PM »

* Lenophis summons Sylph

 

*chants* Bring back Sylphs! 

2015

General Discussion / Re: Gamefaqs + eternal stupidity

« on: July 29, 2008, 10:36:34 PM »

http://boards.gamefaqs.com/gfaqs/genmessage.php?board=929937&topic=44525287 - What part of "don't use summons" do you not get?

2016

Gaming Discussion / Re: FF4 - Equipment Distribution

« on: July 29, 2008, 10:07:21 PM »

For the final bits...

Ninja Hat - Probably the few sources of equipment that gives Agility.. well there you go. The Sleep attribute is a bonus, yet unhelpful at this stage of the game.

The Extra Stuff

Excalibur - The first sword that finally distinguishes Cecil from Kain even though Kain is stronger with Jump.

Genji Armor Set - I probably need to examine the defensive difference more on Edge, it's actually pretty crappy overall for Cecil.

The Final Battle

I'll just itemize some of the final equipment that will be come across in between, with a few other notes that I forgotten somwhere...

Ninja Robe - I don't know why they decided just now to just up his pathetic magic defense stat now, but it's great. Can't argue with the defensive properties with the armor.. though it's probably missing elemental resistances...

Murasame Katana - Casting Protect is a bonus.. and although most people may dislike this weapon.. there are some less obvious stuff that people are not considering.

1) You get more stats than you lose, the overall gain is +5.
2) The Agility loss is eventually compensated by the Ninja Robe and Masamune.
3) Wisdom is more useful to Edge, since it powers his spells, plus he's not really going to have many changes in Will Power/Spirit post level 70. However, this makes him the most suceptible to Paralysis and Sleep since those stats rely on this value to reduce the effect/duration of the status.

Flame Whip - The elemental property is the most negative point, since it is useless both Red+Blue Dragons... this is arguably the most disappointing weapon since its impact is minimal ultimately.

Dragoon Armor Set - One of the few things worth doing is not giving the entire set to Kain or Cecil.. give one away to the other (probably the Gauntlet) so they can actually benefit from both elemental and Dragon resistance. It probably benefits Cecil more since Kain can Jump...

White Robe - One may argue it's worse than the Sorceror's Robe. Sure you get a boost in defense.. but you lose a bit of magic evasion for the most part, and you can gain the Will Power/Spirit by other means... and IMO, the Heroine Robe is better overall if you want Rosa to live longer.

Crystal Armor Set - There's not much to say about it, other than the Crystal Shield is not that useful IMO and that it doesn't even cover the entire range of status resistances... so you end up trading the Crystal Helmet for a Ribbon and Protect Ring for elemental protection... or even better, use the Dragoon Shield for elemental protection in addition to the Crystal Ring, which is optimal IMO... but whatever. It's still a solid set with some hole in protection...

Heroine Robe - It's the best armor for both girls.. though more useful for Rosa, since she's always been underpowered (when you look at the stat growth potential for Rydia, it's disgusting a different)... Rydia tends to benefit less, unless you abuse the shield-Steal bug. It's arguable that the Heroine Robe is better than whatever else you can give for Rydia...

Protect Ring - This is the only way elemental protection is available for the girls and Edge. It tends to be less useful for Cecil+Kain because their Vitality growth tends to be pretty high naturally, and don't really need as much outside help.

Crystal Sword - I don't think I need to explain it, other than the Will Power/Spirit bonus tends to be the most useful attribute of the bunch...

White/Holy Spear - This weapon seems alright on the surface, but disappointing. The Holy attribute is handy, but it being a Spirit killer is a totally useless attribute.

Ribbon - It's hard to argue over status protection in general, so this is no exception. Unfortunately, Charm status is not part of it (until FF4A, where they now make it overpowered, in addition to Berserk protection, which is lame IMO).

Masamune - Free Fast/Haste is awesome... can't argue against the usefulness of it.

Other Equipment That Either Haven't Been Mentioned Yet... (Going Down The List of Forgotten Stuff)

Medusa Sword - Strangely enough, it's a nice neutral weapon that is a better han the IceBrand and Fire Swords. Too bad it's a rare drop, and may be worth someone's while if they are lucky. Unfortunately it inflicts gradual petrification, which has relatively little impact, like Poison.

Stardust Rod - I'm not a fan of the rods, and I guess if you are going rod, you want the Heroine Robe, since you want additional evasion. You lose the potential to max the magic defense, but given that you are already compensating one of the stat penalties via this method, I can't argue against this..

Lilith Rod - This weapon IMO could not possibly be that bad.. but it is. I think it helps Tellah the most, since his MP pool is rather weak, and you can't argue that. The only real negative is that the longevity of the weapon is pretty bad by design.

Life Staff - Having the power of Life1 is useless, period. If a Staff is the preference, you really should be using the Heroine Robe.. simply like the Stardust Rod, the stat gain will negate the Spirit penalty, so it's not that bad. This staff is actually more reliable than the Silence staff in producing overall damage (primarily due to hit rate).. not that the Silence Staff is worse by that much, since the anti-Mage property of that makes it more useful. Then again, the Silence Staff prevents critical hits... so take that for what it is worth.

Dragoon Spear - Luckily this isn't an ultra rare item, so it's value is actually better than the Holy Spear, despite the lower attack power. Anyone that has a brain can figure out that anti-Dragon weaponry is a good thing... do people actually notice the insane frequency of Dragons?

Gungnir Spear - This is the closest thing to the Defense Sword.. minus many different obvious attributes.

Dragon Whip - This is the only weapon that makes Rydia competitive... and arguably close if not better than Rosa (though that requires a lot of levels obviously) but the gap easily shortens up.. to the point where even Rosa's best combo barely outpaces Rydia with this weapon. That's why I'm ultimately disappointed with Rosa's offensive output late game (not just her stats).

RuneAxe - The best place to acquire is in the Giant.. since the Searcher that summons the monster that drops it makes this weapon enticing. Too bad the effort to get this weapon isn't worth it, but the EXP while you do so is great. It's an easy formation to recognize to boot (the Searcher is alone initially).

Artemis Bow - Is the rare drop worth this? I kinda doubt it. It's more like the Heroine Robe, but doesn't have the impact it could have. Additionally, it's only awesome in the FF4ET version, where it kills Dragons with ease. Probably the most disappointing ultimate weapon of the entire bunch...

Artemis Arrows - Probably the only arrow that deserves the most attention.. though requires some patience to get en masse. Oh well, at least the best option doesn't suck.

Glass Hat - The only redeeming property of the hat is high defense plus perfect evasion (though perhaps that was unintentional, but who knows). The Immune Property seems to be handled in a special way, so the benefits of a Glass Hat+Protect Ring are non-existant. Oh well.

Adamant Armor - Overpowered, but deserving due to rarity I guess...

Crystal Ring - Probably the best complementary armor for Cecil+Kain... plus the status protection set is actually complementary to the Ribbon... strongest ring of them all.

Cursed Ring - You can get it as early as Mt. Hobs, but you actually start benefit once you've reached the Tower of Zot. The purpose of the armor revolves around taking lots of elemental damage relatively frequently... so it reduces your stats so you can absorb more.. which is how the stat loss makes a lot more sense.. (which is different from the Drain weaponry, that reduces your stats because you get full healing for every point of damage).. Too bad it seems more gimmicky than anything else, and the Adamant Armor doesn't benefit (Immune has a greater priority than Absorb.. this is different in FF4A).

Power Robe - This armor is more useless than the Glass Hat.. and at least the Glass Hat has some use. It almost seems like it was designed as an afterthought.

Ok.. that's pretty much every  opinion I have on the topic. I'll  for a little bit... because my brain is operating like... 

2017

Gaming Discussion / Re: FF4 - Equipment Distribution

« on: July 29, 2008, 07:36:43 PM »

you buy all the diamond equipment?  i usually pick up a pair of the helmets, and add those to the mixed ice/flame equipment cecil and kain already have, so that they resist all 3 elements.

I end up just buying the Shield+Armor... The mixed resistance sounds nice, except when you realize that number of monsters that use them are kinda minimal. Rotating the shields tends to be a better option.. but whatever I guess.

I've already mentioned that I upgrade the dancing dagger to a chain whip here, Rydia does better damage and paralysis occurs fairly often. What I don't understand are the people who say you should never give her whips because she isn't an attacker...how much ether do these people burn through? If I had her cast magic every battle I doubt I'd make it through any of the dungeons down here without running out of MP, even the Cave of Summoned Monsters.

I don't remember burning much MP (in fact, I play the game as if I was losing MP per second, so I'm nuts that way). I'm Psych/Osmose biased though... the paralysis does make up for her offensive impact, but I kinda wished her offensive impact was better than that. Oh well... Bio's alreadys a cheap spell to use at anytime...

The diamond equipment is something I buy out of habit that I should really stop doing, just pick up the shield.

The Diamond Armor+Aegis Shield is still good.. unless that extra Black Belt is preferable...?

I have the avenger equipped on Kain from the time I get it until he leaves, then when he comes back for most of the battles. It's the best weapon in the game but most people overlook it for some reason. When I was reading the DS version walkthrough they actually said it was a "novelty weapon," then suggested using berserk on fighters during the demon wall battle...see the problem here? It may be a few points weaker than what else you'd be using (Probably the poison axe believe it or not, when it's not two-handed it's actually pretty good) but you certainly get an edge by not having to wait for Rosa to cast Berserk on him.

It's not a novelty weapon if it's the best mindless weapon ever that needs a slight attack power boost.

Nothing to add really. You didn't mention the light sword, that might be coming in the next post but I find it outclasses the defender in the sealed cave, and that's the last place I use it because of Excalibur. Part of me actually wishes it wasn't possible to get Excalibur before the Giant of Babil, so some of these weapons would last a little longer.

I actually forgot about it for a bit... the Light Sword is weaker than the Defender, unless you want to factor in the Holy elemental property... still, I don't find it dramatically better. Only one monster can be taken advantage of in the Sealed Cave.. whereas you can do better with the Mute Knife with Edge...

Light Sword - It's lasts long enough to leave virtually no impact..

Mute Knife - It's the best option for Edge, since his weapons are usually weak themselves, and the attack power isn't wasted.

Kain's elemental lances bother me. Or maybe it's the elemental swords, either way it seems like a real waste to have two nearly identical weapons for both elements. The lances are a little better with their anti-aerial element and level 2 magic. Maybe it's just the fact that Kain can equip both the swords and lances that bothers me.

Well, the lances are better in general, since like one monster resists the Air elemental. His weapons are just better.. and cheaper. I'm not sure if that's the spite Cecil or anything.

The dwarf axe is really cool, it is odd that it's not anti-aerial. I used to equip this on Cecil and throw him in the back row until I got the icebrand, of course now that I know about the back row bug I could easily leave him back there with the icebrand... It's too bad there's nothing this is really good against, it got an upgrade in the DS version so it's stronger than the ice-elemental weaponry at least, so you'd want to use it over them when not hitting a weakness.

The unfortunate tradeoff is losing the ability to dish critical hits. Cecil's ultimate sword enforces that anyways, but it doesn't have to be the case for Kain. Then again, the Silence Staff has this attribute too (so it's a second thought for Rosa)... Rydia's Whips enforce no crits at all, so go figure there.

2018

Gaming Discussion / Re: FF4 - Equipment Distribution

« on: July 29, 2008, 06:06:26 PM »

Ok, back to Tomra..

The Town With Lava is Water...

Drain Sword - I forgot about this, but this weapon is better than its counterpart, the Drain Spear. At least it doesn't share the same negative properties...

Ogre Axe - If you don't have an appreciation for the Drain weaponry, you get this. If we go by the FF4 stats, this weapon primarily is supposed to be an Ogre option, not the "Ice Weaponry Replacement" that it is in FF2 or FF4ET...

Chain Whip - It becomes a tough decision to try this weapon over the Dancing Knife, but the Dancing Knife's impact has diminished at this point...

Mute Arrows - Useless once you get the Elven Bow, but it is a good option if the Elven Bow didn't exist... Mage killing is worth it, given its distribution at this point of the game.

Diamond Armor Set - It's actually not that good, outside of the shield and the armor... the bulk of it is pretty unimpressive, especially when all of the armor pieces have lightning protection. The Diamond Ring is most beneficial on Edge, since the Tiara already covers such protection, plus it's not that much better overall defensively.. let alone the stat boosts (which they are non-existant)... I don't understand why there isn't any Mech protection.. which would've been useful later...

If You Like Areas That Abuse Statuses..

Elven Bow - These make every arrow insta-Mute Arrows. It is the best bow overall, particularly late game where you don't need Aim anymore... plus you get a free Shell...

Charm Rod - Underrated and underused... I don't know how to explain this weapon further.

Avenger Sword - Probably the best weapon if you don't need to do monster harvesting... it's a great Sealed Cave option, especially when you need to make every hit count.

Fullmoon Boomerang - This is a dramatic upgrade, up to the level of the Long Sword, with a slightly lower hit rate. Plus, "it's good to keep up with the Joneses" or whatever that quote was supposed to be.

The Three Headed Bitch and The Tidal King..

Samurai Bow/Arrow - Nothing worth speaking about, although the Bow is strong.. it's not that impressive IMO.

Defense Sword - It's hard to argue against one of the stronger weapons, plus the additional free Protect magic is always an awesome bonus.

Poison Axe - One of the more disappointing weapons that exist... the additional Poison weapon-spell doesn't excite anyone. Being 2-handed is a drag... but if you need the extra anti-Giant power, go for it.

Ninja Katana - This is a nice weapon since you have to get out of your way to obtain it.. just like the Defender.

Long Katana - It's not special, and you can't throw it.. and you eventually get a free pair of them in the end... completely useless IMO compared to the Fullmoon Boomerang.

Lunar Staff - It's unimpressive, since Dispel is unimpressive, and the Silence Staff is better.. but this weapon is overall unimpressive... just like FuSoYa too. Doesn't it feel wrong to put down shitty equipment?

Charm Arrows - It's nice, but I get the feeling it's unimpressive, yet underrated. Killing a few Giant monsters is nifty, but Charm status itself is the most unimpressive at this point in the game.. and the damage isn't too worthy of mention IMO.

Blitz Whip - Unimpactful, but I guess that's better than all other previous Whip options... the elemental property isn't useful either

Aegis Shield - This is probably the best shield in the game... if only because it provides a decent status to protect (don't want those Karys/Moon Goddesses to be that close) and provides the most magic defense of any shield (not magic evade, but it's not that bad either way). Plus, the extra Wisdom/Intelligence can't hurt magic defense.

Sorceror's Robe - Good for everyone that can use it, and strangely, it has better stats than some of the late armor you can get. Strange, but true.. Undead protection and Lightning resistance is hard to argue against... better than the Diamond Armor.

Final Equipment and End Rants To Be Addressed Later...

2019

Gaming Discussion / Re: FF4 - Equipment Distribution

« on: July 29, 2008, 04:42:58 PM »

There was this one point in time where I thought having two FireClaws was better than one. 

Anyways..

If you bothered with Eblan Castle..

Slumber Sword - It's certainly worth the gamble, since it is a gap weapon between the Fire Sword and Silver Sword. Since Sleep is primarily level based, it's success is tough to gage sometimes.. although FF4A made it pretty overpowered by design (making Sleep work 100% of the time).

Mute Arrows - You'll buy them later, but for only a small set, it's primarily non-impactful.. although it's best day is if you use it vs the Magus Sisters. It's amazing how a 4x attack power modifer shreds stuff quickly.

Drain/Blood Spear - There was a point that I used this exclusively, but stopped when I wanted reliability. I guess it's the answer for the Flans/Pudding you meet at the Tower of Bab-il (underground), but meh. Although, this is my favorite weapon vs the Mad Ogres... especially when it comes to monster harvesting. There's a lot to be said when it comes to "free healing"... though the Ogre Axe and its complement, the Blood Sword is actually more reliable.. which make shock some people.

A Lot of Trash Later and the Invisible Tower of Zot

Prisoner's Robe - I forgot about this, but the Sleep property may be worth it, but it's more or less like a Cloth that actually has some value. It's nice that you get a pair, (Is Rosa sexier in stripes? Cid probably says no.)

Charm Claw - It's got to be the most awesome, overpowered, and yet perhaps balanced weapon for Yang. The hit rate is the equivalent of fist, but Charm status is worth the bonus, even if your overall damage is lowered as a result.. you can trash Ogres and other Giants like candy. Plus, it boosts Agility, which cannot be said for any weapon up to this point in the game.

Strength Ring/Power Wrist - A common drop by Ogres is actually worth over the crappy Mythril/Silver Gloves. You're not giving up much... too bad it's still metallic.

Zeus/Giant's Gloves - Even better than the above option, and isn't metallic.. it's actually pretty damn good for gloves, until late game. The lack of magic defense is not a big deal, considering the alternatives, plus feeling overpowered is good. However, this is a rare drop and is "much easier" to obtain in the Tower of Bab-il via Cave Eblana...

Fire Armor - It is put in the most interesting spot, if only to allow you to rape yourself when you fight the FlameDog for the Fire Sword. Amusing nonetheless.

Fire Sword - Burrrrnn. Its best attribute arguably can be its worst attribute later on. Go figure.

Flame Shield - This is handy if you want to use this later for elemental protection... it's best in shield form IMO.

Poison Claw - The status effect is useless, which is the same as my opinion on Poison Arrows, which I forgot to mention earlier, but it's worth pointing out here... the major benefit is increasing the hit rate, if not allow balancing out with the Charm Claw, which has a weak hit rate. Strength boost is more of a "meh" bonus.

Poison Arrows - Dropped by the entire set of Hydra enemies (and a few Naga varients)... it's stronger for when you have it, but Poison is the most non-impactful status on a weapon that there ever was, unless used against you...

Earth Hammer - Making it Fire elemental is perfect for what you need it for.. plus a free Quake spell is insta-Flan killer (it's better than other alternatives, which includes Yang using is Build Up/Power command).

Wizard Robe - This is the only time that Tellah looks actually competant with his Cure3/Curaga (well, particularly if it is single targeted)... too bad he still sucks.

Rune Ring - If you fight a lot of those Marion guys, you may get a few of these. The longevity of this ring can extend to the Lunar Subterraine as the Diamond Ring is not really impressive. Silence protection plus some stat boost may even make Tellah look like a genius.. for two seconds. Plus, the Mage protection would be a bonus if you do a lot of monster harvesting to boot.

Silence Staff - This is one of the few weapons worth looking to acquire, given that relative to Rosa's other weapons for a time period, this is actually a good weapon (well, you will auto-abuse the back row bit right?) Plus, Silence is a handy spell (although it's cheap to cast) plus it will be better than any staff you could buy, up to a point. This is worthy of a look. At least you are given many chances of acquiring this....

Wind Spear - I wonder why it can't be thrown (I mean who's dumb idea is this?)... it's only close to the Slumber Sword, but not by much.

The Dwarves and Their Freaky Eyes

Flame Spear - Free Fire2 makes killing Dark Imps a breeze. It's not that handy overall, but I like free stuff...

Dwarf Axe - I often wonder why this doesn't have the Air elemental, especially given the weapon itself. Oh well, at least there's a nice axe throwing animation (via the Throw command) that normally gets seen in FF4ET... This weapon is underrated, but annoying at the same time. I don't like the Agility loss in addition to the Wisdom/Will/Intellgence/Spirit loss... but oh well. These are better weapons vs those FlameDogs, and particular the damned Chimera.

Darkness Arrows - As I said before, they are underrated primarily because Ice Arrows tend to be more effective at killing many of the underground's vile. This is one of the few status afficting weapons that are worth it if you want a monster's counter or spell to become far weaker... if they aren't resistant.

Wizard Hat - Undead resistance is a nice bonus.. anyone who doesn't recognize the massive undead usage is crazy. Plus, Cecil can equip this.. which is an improvement over all the previous options.

Medusa Arrows - Very powerful stuff, if you are overleveled...

Black Belt - It's an improvement over the Karate Robe (I didn't realize it until many years later) but can be used to improve Rosa's offense, though sacraficing Will Power/Spirit bonuses... though Kain+Cecil can definately benefit...

I forgot to mention...

Charm Harp - This harp is better for Edward obviously.. but for the Battle @ Fabul.. it is useless vs the General.. since he'll make his soldiers attack. The Dreamer Harp is still better for stopping the General...

Back to everything else...

CatClaw - You could probably get it early via lucky drops.. but it's a pretty damn good option for putting most monsters to Sleep.. since Yang tends to gain levels quickly, he will make short work of monsters anyways.

IceBrand - Better than the Fire Sword, but the Fire Sword may have a few uses before you really want to sell it.. elemental blades vs Chimera = poop.

Blizzard Spear - Ice2 is a nice Tofu killer.. especially in the few formations they appear in. Still sucky vs Chimera.

Ice Shield - The best attribute is protection against Reptiles.. but an even better idea is to use them in conjunction with the Fire Armor for great elemental protection (except if Cecil or Kain hit themselves, which actually can be very devastating).

Ice Armor - The shield is better.. but it's best to pair with the Fire Shield. You know, those Chimera and FlameDogs don't look so tough then (except everyone that is not named Kain or Cecil will be torched).

Bandanna - It's an improvement over the Headband, but I'd still keep the Headband for later...

Archer Bow - Another Meh.. even though the boost is nice.

After The Cannon Goes Kaboom!...

Black Robe - The weirdest armor ever when it isn't the original FF4... go figure. Ultimately I believe this was supposed to help Rydia survive Rubicante.. but eh.. it's not that helpful.

Boomerang - This weapon is perhaps worth a look. There's a number of enemies that can be exposed by it, despite it being weaker overall, but can easily expose the Back Row bug for Edge... probably one of the few underrated weapons.

Power Staff - If they kept the Berserk spell of this staff, it would've been more useful. There are very impactful consequences when Berserking enemies on hit, even though this allows Rosa to be a better fighter.. with a staff... it may not be worth that hassle. Berserk tends to be a benefical status, and people who don't realize that need to rethink the number of times they use the Fight/Attack command...

Middle Katana - If it's actual impact is to allow the Short Katana to be thrown away, that's about it.. I don't get why more of his Katana can't be thrown away. I can understand the elemental swords, but not this? Go figure.

More to come later... in a separate post starting @ Tomra.

2020

Gaming Discussion / FF4 - Equipment Distribution

« on: July 29, 2008, 02:18:31 PM »

For clarification, unlike the Bow+Arrow thread, which did have a bit of personal bias, this thread very likely will end up having more. I will try to be objective, but I cannot guarentee that it will cover all bases.. I'll try to nonetheless. A lot of this will obviously be based on existing data, but will apply some logic that some may not have thought about when it comes to impact of a piece of equipment relative to a portion of a game.

Ok, so onto the info...

Shadow+Iron armor set - Initial Equipment

Simply non-impactful, with the Shadow set being better IIRC than the Iron set (then again Kain has Jump, so it's a wash). One of the rare underrated weapons is the Spear, since it gives Kain 99% hit rate.. and unless he's in the back row (and not Jumping), he's technically doing a lot more reliable damage than Cecil will up to a certain point.

Rydia's initial equipment + Weapon+Armor shops @ Kaipo...

Rydia already has optimal equipment, but won't be able to take advantage of the armor's evasion until her Agility is at 8. The Rod has a decent initial weapon-spell, which has a decent initial spell power, but has a 1x spell multiplier. This can still be stronger than the other elemental Rods when it is vs magic defense, which tends to actually increase overtime with newer monsters, unlike defense. The Bow+Arrow setup is only there for Rosa, unless you like torturing yourself. The Staff is also completely useless, since Poison status isn't exploited until Milon-Z/Scamaglione (undead version). I'm surprised they never made this a White Magic spell. The other strange thing is why the hell are they selling the Cloth Robe... when it has no positive attributes over the Leather Robe...

Cave of the Octomammoth..

IceRod - Once in a blue moon, you may want to try your luck with Rydia hitting, but it's best when she has at least a 2x attack multiplier to increase the chances of a hit. At least you have an alternative to cast a kinda weak Ice-1, but it has a better spell multiplier.. even though the spell power of Ice 1 is weak. It depends whether you want concentrated fire with the Rod vs the potential split damage that the IceRod can provide.. which can be useful for eliminating Zombies which tend to survive a pathetic Tellah's Fire1 or Cure2.

Silver Ring - If you're fortunate, you may get this via a drop by the TinyMage. This has actual impact once you get it, since there are a number of Spirit enemies you face before being able to buy this @ Mysidia.

Leather Hat - One of the few peeves I have is that this armor is only findable early on, yet buyable @ Toroia of all places... it bothers me when the early party is put in a really bad position of "who gets the crappy Cap".

Darkness equipment set - I've got lots of meh, although the weapon is probably the most impactful of them all.

At the Spoony Bard's Domain..

RubyRing - This is a good time to just store them up.. though I can't say it's that useful.. until version 2 of the Dark Elf's battle.. which is most likely when you are not equipping this piece of equipment. I get the feeling this ring needs a stat boost, other than the rarely used Piggy status...

CrossBow - Just for Rosa please.

Bard's Robe - Initially, I thought it was a good idea to just sell this... after finding out it provides Silence resistance.. I was a tad reluctant to do so. There isn't really a technical merit for keeping it over the Leather Robe, but for the small chance that you want Edward to keep singing, Silence protection should be there. It probably needs a stat boost though...

Yang and "The Claw"

Sometimes it seems annoying, but having the FireClaw is great because his hit rate increases, but there are a few monsters that simply aren't receptive to that attack (damn you Spirits+Souls).  Oh well, no big deal I guess.

Once you are able to buy the Black armor set and the oddly priced Claws.. especially when they don't have varying hit rates or anything to justify price differences... it's another meh.

Black Sword/Deathbringer - Great weapon, kills everything that's "underleveled". It's a great weapon to bond with Twins when you're exposing the area north of Mt. Ordeals.

The Town With the Awesome Theme

Paladin equipment set - It would've been nice if they hinted that you should buy this stuff before going up the mountain.. so idiots would not have a right to be stupid. There's only a few peeves that I have with this set, primarily because the next set (the Silver/Mythril set) is effectively the most useless armor set in the game, and I've explained why on the monster type distribution argument thread I wrote a while back. Spirit protection is great if.. you fight them more often than not.

Gaea Hat - This arguably is better than the Paladin Hat... you get evasion, an additional boost to Wisdom/Intelligence (for more magic evasion), and magic defense over the meh-for-defense.

Gaea Robe - I'm not sure who wrote the fucking manual, but it's protection is against gradual petrification... this would've been nice if that was available before Mt. Hobs where the Cockatrice is worth fearing.

Holy Arrows - These are possibly most underrated arrows that people don't bother using for the Twins. They are worth their usage (and it's all fucked up in FF4A anyways) all will mow everything down, minus the Liliths. These become temporarily useless at the Baron Waterway...

Cure Staff - It's better than seeing Tellah fight.. make him and maybe Porom useful.. and play more defensively/conservative if you like to keep guys alive.

Flame Rod - An increased spell multiplier (3x), but it will take some time to kill certain monsters, minus the monsters that absorb this.. either way, you have a choice between reliability vs insta-kill gambles with the Bow+Arrow setup.

Back @ Baron...

Tiara - Taking that extra trip to Mist is worth it. Obviously this is best used on Rydia, but the added extra defense (magic too) with Dragon resistance (which starts being useful at the Tower of Bab-il via Cave Eblana) and Lightning resistance (which is also a benefit vs the same monster) cannot be understated.

Change Rod - This is the best monster neutralizer. It's obviously not going to work for every monster, but since weapon-magic is nearly realiable, you can't really argue against it, plus it makes Tellah a better Black Magic user (to actual reasonable levels).

Whip - Meh since Rydia comes back with one.

Dancing Dagger - This has a decent life span until you reach Tomra. The simple fact this weapon-spell ignores Reflect and has a reasonable better spell power base than the elemental Rods but not the level 2 elementals is a nice boost.

Thunder Rod - Meh, a 4x spell multiplier doesn't give me any "shock" value. It doesn't have the same impact that the Dancing Dagger has.

Karate Robe - Although expensive, it is the best armor available for the Magnetic Cave. You can easily justify the value over the lacking Gaea Robes.. but it won't beat out the Paladin Armor IMO. Besides, it's cheaper that way. Once the twins leave, the extra pair of Robes will go to Cid and Cecil.. which is financially sane. The Strength Boost is a nice bonus.

Headband - This is one of the few pieces of equipment that one should considering buying a set for the entire party. Charm protection is worth the price. The nifty Strength bonus is even better, and this piece of equipment easily beats out the Leather Cap when you are considering equipment options for the Magnetic Cave. In fact, you combine the Karate Robe with the Headband, you get an insta-attack multiplier boost.

Ancient Sword - The only letdown is that this weapon should at least attempt to be stronger than the Legend Sword.. since the status afflication doesn't provide impact until the next attack.

Once You Get the Airship...

Elemental Arrows - They are not impactful for the Magnetic Cave, despite being stronger in attack power. Holy Arrows hold their own much better.

GreatBow - It's reasonable at this point of the game to use, and it's fairly reliable.

Silver Armor Set - Virtually useless set, as the defensive boosts are of minimal impact IMO.

Silver Weapon Set - Most of these are useless.. the Knife is a nice throwaway weapon, the Staff heals like the Unicorn Horn (which is nothing worth speaking of), the Sword is surpassed by the Slumber Sword easily, and the Hammer is a nice bump.. but if the Wooden Hammer kept its Lit-2 weapon-spell property, ths Silver Hammer would be useless to me. In fact, it would make the trek through the Tower of Zot much easier (especially with the Pudding/Flan monsters).

*Hand Axe - Although this was never included in the original, after testing this out in Paladin's hack, I believe this weapon sucks if it was inserted in this scenario (it would suck more than the Legend Sword too).. primarily because of its shit-for-hit-rate. This weapon is not better than the original Wooden Hammer, and it's metallic to boot.. so even if you have Cid with the best defense, he couldn't hit a lick.

Edit: More to be added later.

2021

Gaming Discussion / Re: FF4 - Bow+Arrow Impact

« on: July 29, 2008, 12:51:44 PM »

The bats in the sealed cave absorb lighting, I think Miss Vamp does too.

Those bats die quickly though. Miss Vamp isn't, but the rare Yellow Dragon is. Still few and far between for impact.

i'd be interested in reading it. 

Yeah, me too.

I guess I'll post it, relative to the original game in which you obtain the equipment.

2022

Gaming Discussion / Re: FF4 - Bow+Arrow Impact

« on: July 29, 2008, 12:00:27 PM »

The Blitz Whip was underpowered (like every other whip she had)... the Mech property would've been nice it that were added... would've made her bearable in the Giant. Then again, all her whips are kinda underpowered... at one point, I felt that Bows+Arrows for her were a better idea, but that's only true once she gets the Elven Bow...

I usually give her a dancing dagger until Tomra, where I buy the chain whip, that one's pretty useful until bahamut's cave and the subterrain.

The Dancing Dagger is probably the coolest weapon spell.. too bad its impact is lessened over time. It's hard to quantify the actual difference between the Chain Whip and Dancing Dagger at that point in the game. No Blitz Whip though in between though.. not that its impact was improved.. plus the elemental property has literally no impact at that point in the game.. I think there were 0 monsters by that point in the game that are weak vs lightning, but there is only 1 monster that's resistant (Manticore from the Sealed Cave) comes to mind... that's "no impact" for you.

Anyone interested in an overall equipment analysis for the game? I'm up for writing that out.

2023

Gaming Discussion / Re: FF4 - Bow+Arrow Impact

« on: July 28, 2008, 08:46:00 PM »

I kinda find it gimmicky, even if it is effective on one particular monster. I prefer to conserve the Holy arrows, since I tend to level up on Mt. Hobs for Rosa (to learn Cure2/Cura).

Yeah, they should really give the angel arrows to you at Eblan, so you can take advantage of them for the mad ogres. I usually gain a few levels at Mt. Hobs too, you can always just use the holy arrows for the bombs, undead, and spirits and swap the iron on for anything that's flying.

Well, Mute Arrows would just be as effective.. though the Silence Staff has a good chance of being available/dropped.... which is just as effective (well, almost anyways).

Well, the Darkness arrows are underrated, though monster presence somewhat limits their usefulness (plus this status is useless vs most, if not all undead monsters)...

Maybe a death arrow "Hades Arrow", as a complement to the Medusa Arrows. Revamping the Holy, Fire, Ice arrows... Holy being effective vs Spirits, Fire being effective vs Undead, Ice being effective vs Reptiles... add a Drain Arrow perhaps? Allow it to be effective vs Flan/Pudding... Have a Sleeping Arrow? There are a few untapped statuses that could work out... Perhaps the Poison Arrow gets one extra added status of Paralysis could revitalize it. Curse status is underused.. it could be added to the Darkness Arrows (and it may need a new name to boot) as the ultimate monster weakener...

The dark arrows are dark-elemental now, in addition to causing darkness status. Dark weaponry is set to do extra damage against humanoids (Yeah, I played around with the races a bit) so they should be pretty useful around the time you get them.

Instant death is something I already considered, but on a rare bow instead of an arrow. Basically it would be able to turn any arrow, including useless iron, into an instant death weapon. Wasn't sure if I actually wanted to do it or not though.

Personally, those weapons need to be weak to compensate for the semi-overpowered... which was planned correctly in the original game. I'm not entirely a fan of stuff being a "drop only" or steal option, particularly arrows since I have a preference buying en masse... I'd prefer it in arrow form, but a limited rare drop can't be all that bad.

I usually don't think to add stuff to bows, but maybe there should be a Bow that inflicts Piggy status (would be useful vs the BlackCat monsters since they auto-counter with Bluster)... perhaps revise the Artemis Bow to be a Dragon killer like FF4ET... create a Bow that is effective against both Giants and Mechs (basically something for the Giant of Bab-il to replace the slightly less effective Lightning Arrows at this point in the game).

I think that about covers it though.

I stole the piggy's stick from FF4ET and made it a rare drop, everyone except Yang can equip it despite it being a sword, so that plays the same role as the piggy bow would. The Artemis bow has anti-dragon properties now but if I add the one I mentioned above it will be the Artemis bow that gets cut - I favor replacing the rare items with new rare items. The anti-mech/giant idea is a good one but I added a special weapon for Rosa right before the giant that already serves that purpose and Rydia's blitz whip got an upgrade to do extra damage against mechs too.

I hope I haven't said too much about my hack, I don't mind people knowing this stuff but I think it'll be more fun if everyone goes in blind. Then again this is nothing more than what will be included in the instruction manual-type readme I have planned anyway.

The Blitz Whip was underpowered (like every other whip she had)... the Mech property would've been nice it that were added... would've made her bearable in the Giant. Then again, all her whips are kinda underpowered... at one point, I felt that Bows+Arrows for her were a better idea, but that's only true once she gets the Elven Bow...

2024

Gaming Discussion / Re: FF4 - Bow+Arrow Impact

« on: July 28, 2008, 05:24:26 PM »

Here's some reference posts:

Rosa's Best Equipment Options Analyzed: http://slickproductions.org/forum/index.php?topic=175.0
My Equipment Rebalancing Wishlist: http://slickproductions.org/forum/index.php?topic=445.0

Part of my ideas originally involved rebalancing arrows, so they are useful all game... the other issue is that I didn't quite factor in the back row bit (or the bug that can be abused)... but they normally would be solid options... I'd have to rethink it a tad anyways.

2025

Final Fantasy IV Research & Development / Re: DS Version Research

« on: July 28, 2008, 05:19:20 PM »

Post 666?