Test:51

In the previous guide, I have covered our strategic goal. In this guide, we will take smaller, but more numerous steps to achieve that goal in the world of tactical planning.

Strategic goal: Getting stronger by having as many Constructs, into as many complete teams as you can, using as few/many resources as you are able to, and willing to spend.

Tactical goal: Know your missions, know your teams and choose the appropriate lineup/loadout for each mission based on your resources.

The difference between strategic & tactical: Strategic planning lays out the long-term, broad goals that a Commandant wants to achieve. And tactical planning outlines the short-term steps and actions that should be taken to achieve the goals described in the strategic plan. Say, you want to get stronger - you will need upgrade materials. Where do we get upgrade materials? From various contents, most of them include fighting. Win those fights with what you currently have, earn more materials, get stronger, rinse and repeat.

Know your mission(s):

Have you ever gone to a presentation? How long did you prepare for it? (School slackers can skip this question lol). How about a date? A chance talk with your crush? How many times have you imagined the encounter in your head, practicing every word and every scenario you can possibly think of, and how to reply each time?

That is what knowledge and preparation is for. Where you are going to What opposition you will face How many of them there are In what line up they will appear What kind of attack patterns they will have… At the same time, How many members do you have in your roster? What are their individual strengths/weaknesses? How do they complete each other? choosing the lineup that will counter your opposition from the pool of resources that you have…

All of that will contribute to your success.

Let’s take a look at some examples:

PPC: You find out which boss you are going to do. This week’s roster: Tifa. Alright, Kamui Tenebrion, Vera Rozen, Luna here we go. Oh wait, Camu’s right next to Tifa… And every character has only 5 stamina… Well I better split my Dark team between the two, for Chaos & Hell tiers only. Lower tiers will have to make do with off-element teams. How about I bring Alpha - Rosetta - Nanami Storm for Knight tier? Aww naw, Tifa has Physical resistance - Physical team will only be viable for Camu then. Another prime example being the last Babel Tower stages. (Assuming the same level of investment across the board and a full roster) BP-1: the easiest stage of the 3. You can use one Transcendant in each of the first 2 levels, and 2 your weakest, least invested Constructs in the third. Since you can heal using orb skills, a healer is not needed here. With this info, prominent candidates include: Camu, Qu, Lucia Lotus, Lee Palefire, Bianca Zero. BP-2: Lots of elite mobs around, surrounding you in all directions. For this one you will need a team with the following traits: high mobility (to evade hits and avoid getting cornered by the Arctic Soldiers); burst damage capable (to quickly focus & vaporize small group of mobs before they spawn more and make the battle impossible to avoid taking lethal damage); AOE capability (in order to hit as many targets as you can); survivability, grouping and healing (to focus your damage, heal your wounds). With these traits in mind, this stage favors the traditional lineup: Tank (to shred def) - DPS (damage) - Support (utility & survivability). Prominent DPS choices including: Watanabe Astral (blue orb skill can teleports you behind enemies’ back within a certain range, his dodge can go through enemies, small AOE) with Kamui Tenebrion and Vera Rozen; Alpha (high burst damage, small AOE with core and can go through enemies in a line) with Rosetta & Liv Eclipse; Lucia Plume (high burst damage, skills in Arctic mode move you around, medium-high AOE) with Ayla and Liv Lux; Bianca Veritas (high damage, core attack has small AOE and can go through enemies in a line, her yellow orb can be a substitute for dodge in times of need) with Chrome and Liv Lux (note: I provide 4 teams but there are only 3 levels, and you can’t choose 2 teams that both need Liv Lux). Why choose DPS first? Because you can choose the tanks and supports to go with them, since this stage favors the traditional lineup. A small note: some of you might have seen people using 3 healers for this stage, the reason being one of the buffs in BP-2: any excess healing will turn into damage to the enemies, and this damage goes through enemies’ defense. This is another prime example of knowing your mission - strongly not recommended to new and inexperienced Commandants though, as you will lock 3 much-needed healers into this single level, leaving your other teams in other levels without support. BP-3: This stage has one boss and two elite mobs, with 2 available buffs: a damage increase if all the characters in your team are the same class; and activating QTE will heal your on-field character. With these info, the optimal lineup you’d want: full team with 3 Constructs of the same class (to trigger the damage increase), DPS and Tanks only, no Support Construct (because excess healing won’t be converted to damage like BP-2, thus bringing 3 supports here will doom you to an eternity of suffering, thus not worth doing under any circumstances (not to mention locking them in just one level like BP-2), and 3 of your supports will be locked on BP-2 already, which is the majority of healers in your roster); thus the final goal: one of them must hold a set of Da Vinci memories (because your only source of healing in this stage is through QTE skills - the more QTE you activate, the more healing you receive). Dump the rest of your roster in here: Nanami Storm - Kamui Bastion - Nanami Pulse - Changyu, Watanabe Nightblade - Lucia Dawn - Lee Entropy - Karenina Ember - Karenina Blast, plus one Attacker you save from BP-1 and one full team you didn’t choose from BP-2 - don’t forget to pick same-class in the same team!

This is how planning for your tactical goals will look most of the time. Remember: find out where you’re going, who your enemies are, and what you can do. Three simple steps to help with victory.

Let’s put your understanding so far with a little exercise. Please give the question a few minutes, come up with your own answer, and then click on the hidden answer to see if it matches. (This is not a school, and I’m not grading you. So relax, and take your time.)

KI.GAL Archive 1st round.

Battlefield conditions:

Condition 1: Gain 20% Extra damage bonus for every different Energy type of Constructs deployed. Condition 2: Members in combat deal reduced damage over time: 30% reduction after 10 seconds, and 50% reduction after 20 seconds. Deploying/Switching to another member will reset this condition.

To maximize damage...

You'll have to pick Attacker Constructs from 3 different elements. Coupled with condition 2, those Constructs must also be able to dump all their orbs/skills as fast as they can because of the 10 seconds full damage window. That will leave you with: Lucia - Plume, Alpha, Rosetta, Luna, Bianca Veritas, Karenina Ember. Secondary choices: Kamui Tenebrion, Chrome Arclight.

To maximize damage, but also including survivability into the mix…

Bring a Support Construct with a different element than your other 2 members. For example, if your team includes Lucia Plume & Alpha, bring Liv Lux; for Luna (Dark) & Bianca Veritas (Lightning), bring Liv Eclipse (Physical - for lots of heal) or Liv Luminance (Physical - for a mix between healing and dealing damage, as well as high survivability due to her kit).

For high skilled players, you can play 3 Attackers and switch between them. For beginners, you can use 3 Attackers team on the normal stages in order to clear mobs faster, and switch 1 Attacker for a Support on Nightmare stages for the extra survivability.

If you want to mix a Tank in…

Use a Tank with the same element as one of your Attackers, at the cost of 20% Extra damage bonus.

Off-element Tanks won’t work for Elemental members because of the element difference, and the Tank class skill (lower the target’s extra damage reduction) will only be beneficial for your sole Physical member (the other has to be of another element).

If you don’t care about condition 1:

You can run a traditional Tank - Attacker - Support lineup from a single element, or just run any other lineup you prefer.

Now, the second part.

Know your members:

Attackers:

Lucia - Lotus frame.

Straightforward and easy to use. Her Yellow orb can knock the target airborne in front of her, while Blue orb boosts her attack damage with extra 10-20% Fire damage. Pinging any number of Red orbs within 4 seconds of any 3-ping (preferably Yellow & Blue) to enter her core mode. She is quite vulnerable during core mode as you’d want to dish out as many attacks as possible and the skill effect is quite colorful, so be aware of your surroundings and remember to evade incoming attacks.

Lucia - Dawn frame.

Apply “Marked” status on your target(s) by using Yellow/Blue orbs (in any order) - further attacks against targets with “Marked” status will have an increasing chance (based on the number of marks) to deal extra Lightning damage. Yellow orb AOE is a circle, while Blue orb AOE is a (roughly) 30 degree arc in front of Lucia. You can trigger her flurry of attacks by activating her ultimate, and further reactivation while the duration of the previous one is still on will allow you to instantly reset the duration without going through the lengthy animation. Both sides have their own pros and cons: skipping the animation will allow you to deal continuous damage without interruption (preferably when other buffs are in place) while going through the animation will allow you 3 precious seconds of respite to regenerate your Dodge gauge if you have exhausted it before.

Lee - Palefire frame.

The easiest character to operate in the Gray Ravens team. All you have to do is ping any number of Yellow orb, followed up by any number of Red orb to activate his Core mode, and use Blue orbs as you will. There are 3 things to consider during Core mode:

1. The Core mode attack pattern is in a straight line, so you will have to line up your targets in order to damage as many enemies as possible.

2. The end point of his Core mode is your current targeted enemy. For example: 1-2-3-4. You are at position 1, and the other positions are enemies. If your current target is in position 2, your Core will only hit that target. But if your current target is the one in position 4, your Core will hit every target from position 1 to position 4. So remember to manually target the last enemy in your firing line to achieve maximum damage.

3. You can move around during Core mode, but do so only if you are threatened to get hit by enemies. As explained in point 2, lining up your targets is important to dish out damage, so try not to lose that advantage.