Yeah, enough with the notes.

A bit of a break from typing and summarizing notes. Been playing out my files, and I just finished the previous run out of pure frustration of forgetting to do a quest. I forgot to talk to the Duke between the Bases because I was a little preoccupied with gathering HP values for The Seven and Cyclops. Whoops. Wasn't too bad though, since I went ahead with killing The Fallen and trouncing almost everything in The Ancient Ruins. The Demigod would have killed the team without trouble, even with the help of an Assassin and 2 Cachexia unions. Didn't even try the Observer because I wasn't sure about how to rearrange my teams to deal with rotating them for my usual strategy. And to hell with fighting it in the Mystic Seal formation. While I do want to replicate that hellish encounter (it was fun, OK!), wasn't feeling too confident in my team.


Anyways, this time... FOR THE GLORY OF ATHLUM!

Yep. It's Athlum only. The team breakdown isn't exactly pretty, and starting on Hard Mode was probably one of the worst ideas I've had in a while. Just barely got through the beginning. Having only McGrady, Thelma and Oakes isn't what you would consider a decent strike team. Getting them started to go Combat to increase their damage output, because quite frankly? They're going to need it. Plus, the extra ATK on the Parrying/Shielding variety of weapons will help with their damage when using the WAs.

Anyways, the team.
Union of the Golden Chalice

Unit	Weapon	Skill
McGrady	Glaive	Remedies
Thelma	Tataraichi/Soulshield	Evocations
Oakes	Bladebreaker	Herbs
Marty	Bluesteel/Towershield	Combat Arts
Permia	Scythe/Targe	Combat Arts
Ripley	Javelin	Potions
Jodo	Tataraichi	Potions
Vega	Tataraichi	Remedies
Perneth	Tataraichi	Hexes
Hematea	Glaive	Invocations/Hexes
Liza	Bluesteel	Combat Arts
Demi	Scythe	Combat Arts
Aquarius	Tataraichi	Psionics/Wards

Ring of the Labyrinth

Unit	Weapon	Skill
Leonard	Demonblade	Combat Arts
Opus	Broadaxe/Soulshield	Invocations
Nielson	Tataraichi	Traps
Sycune	Blackjack	Combat Arts
Hyenn	Imperator's Axe/Buckler|Targe	Combat Arts
Swift	Quarterstaff	Evocations

No one in Athlum knows Lotions, so that means that I have to rely on Bards to deal with Status Effects. They're the only ones with Debuff Duration, and it only goes to [Debuff Duration] -4. Hopefully that will be enough to get rid of Curse since that ailment lasts 5 turns IIRC. The other option is to craft the Idol Amulet for someone to take, which gives [Debuff Duration] -5. The only problem with that is that it'll lock out other accessory requests since it's such a high level item (Rank 140). It's better off given to a mage, but most of the ones on the team are already combat-focused.

Went through Blackdale with some trouble. The only way they would have survived is if the David's and Torgal's unions were alive at the end of the first 3 turns and flanked a lot. If they die, it'll get extremely messy since it's not very likely that the union can revive yet (requires lv.3 Herbs, 70EXP needed, ~20 uses). The union practically fell apart, but made it out in the end. Lost track of how many times I had to restart. Was much easier on Normal. Did it on my first try.

Ran to Elysion after. No problems in the Catacombs after recruiting Perneth. And you needed to do was step foot into the area, get the Metal Black/Shadow Metal, run back to Athlum's guild, and recruit. Vega required the killing of 12 Quien, which was done after entering Numor Mines. Speaking of which, the power difference from Namul Niram was huge. Assault Energy Lv.5 and Shine Missile could nearly kill Emma on Hard, while it barely made much of a scratch on Normal. Not even Heavensflight did more than 300 on a crit. The only way she would survive any of that would be to have better equips and Rush constantly healing. If he were in the Healer class before the fight, then it would be much easier to get the "Recover your health!" command. It was also pretty much required to have Emma faster than Rush, both in formation and base stats to keep Rush out of deadlock. If he engages them, he's as good as an Overkilled corpse.

Then it's off to the Ramparts, then to Nagapur. Already did the meeting, so it's off to grind my team of 11. I already have all the healers, but only one reviver at the moment. It won't be until midway through the 2nd part that I will be able to use Divine Echo reliably. I think for end-game, I might need to rely on Speed Boost formations to get my mages to move faster. I currently have no idea how they're going to survive the Nest of Eagles. I need to keep Oakes alive for reviving (will probably go into the Belt or Unicorn formations), but I also don't have enough units to pull off Blackout. Will have to go about this the hard way then.


So... Why am I doing this? Because Grand laid out a challenge for me: Defeat Validus at BR7 with exactly one union. I just added to it by going to Hard Mode and Athlum only. I would have an easier time if I just went ahead with using Uniques, but it still would have been similar to what the X360 guys would do. At that point, they have access to 6 leaders. So they would deploy 5 (or less than 5 with heavy hitting soldiers like Pizza Paddle Parker). I think it would have been something like Rush/Emmy/Glenys/Caedmon/Baulson. So I decided to take it up. Should be fun. To add another layer of fun, I'm not crafting anything for them to take. Again, it's to mimic X360 progression. Wouldn't be fair if I gave them their Glaives and Tataraichis right off the bat, now would it? Actually, come to think of it, it's probably damn near impossible on Hard unless I give them end-game equips... An attack already does 1600 damage, while the breath attack outright kills the union if it hits everyone. I'll still continue my Athlum only challenge on Hard anyways.


By the way. Jhana Royals? They pulled out Blackout Lv.5 during the first wave. IT HURT. Holy hell that was scary. Then they died at the armor.


EDIT: Oh my. Japan still wants The Last Remnant on the PS3. Rank 14...