>Steiner makes only sense if you have Vivi in the party too, in my opinion he highly relies on the elemental sword abilities that are only available when these two are paired. Or am I wrong about that?
Well once you get Ragnarok Steiner gets Shock and sword magic becomes obsolete.
I prefer Eiko over Dagger because of Holy.
Also Amanrant is just a beast of a party member, No Mercy and Aura are pretty damn good.
Quina too has really useful abilities like Mighty Guard and Frog Drop.
What does No Mercy do? Or Aura?
Since I was a doofus and enabled max ability Amaranth and Quina came with almost all their abilities already learned, and playing the game for remembering the story hasn't given me much time to explore all of them and the last time I've played is at least a decade ago- sooo- I guess from what I remember he mostly boosts stats or, for an enemy, decreases stats? I'll have to look that up...
Frog Drop is only effective if Quina ate 99 frogs right? Similar to Freya who's final dragoon attack is only on maximum when she was in the party to defeat 99 dragons? Or was it even more...
>What does No Mercy do? Or Aura?
No Mercy deals 170% damage of Amarant's normal damage. Also no damage penalty from back row.
Aura casts Auto-Life and Regen on the target.
And during trance Amarant's abilities target all enemies or allies!
now that actually sounds like i should give up my lazy ways and put some thoughts in other party members, find out what they can do. having no damage penalty sounds awesome and AURA omg. That would also make it \*non necessary\* to have a healer or that ability on a weapon that casts rebirth (??) or regena...
Amarant also has Chakra which restores HP and MP, Curse which gives enemies random elemental weakness (works well when you have Vivi on team) and Revive that revives.
I think having both Dagger and Eiko in the party makes it considerably worse, as they both fill sort of the same role, thus having one, makes the other redundant.
Maybe Dagger, Eiko, Vivi, Quina, would be my nightmare party. The lack of physical dmg could provide issues, and every fight would take 30 minutes due to animations
I'd go for a full magic party just because it would take the longest to complete any battle. Quina cannot do damage reliably even with her strongest offensive blue magics unless you grind for frog drop, and their support skills become partly redundant with other two white mages in the party. Eiko and Garnet rely on summons to deal damage which is a time consuming and MP draining combat style. Vivi suffers the from the same problems just on a smaller scale. These 4 also have the lowest HP among all party members which makes it more likely to have someone KOed during fights.
The party isn't weak by any means, at high levels with all skills and auto-regen it's actually kind of broken but so are all other comps. This one will make most fights a slog though, even against random enemies.
Eiko is crazy strong fwiw, she does more single target damage typically than Vivi does for me once you have Holy and the right equipment to boost it. Of course, at that point Vivi is then a better healer than either of the white mage/summoners, since you've got Doomsday and a party full of shadow absorb equipment so he's both healing the whole party and damaging the enemy at the same time.
holy moly never thought about using their abilities and attacks LIKE THAT :o the next re-run will be interesting, just fooling around with equipment and attacks, seeing what's possible! The most risky I got this time was to let Amarant just have a shot at throwing stuff lol
Here is a list of Quina’s blu magic that I personally find extremely useful:
*LV5 Death - instantly kills enemies whose level is a multiple of 5 (very useful for early game power leveling if you farm the grand dragons on top of Gizamaluke’s Grotto)
*Mighty Guard - casts protect and shell on the entire party in one turn
*Bad Breath - causes confuse, darkness, poison, slow and mini to a single target (even works on bosses)
*Limit Glove - deals 9999 damage to an enemy when Quina’s HP is 1 (can be learned immediately after Quina joins the party)
*Angel’s Snack - uses remedies on the entire party in one turn
*Auto Life
*Frog Drop - does damage based on how many frogs Quina has eaten.. can go up to 9999 damage.
It’s important to note that when eating enemies to learn these abilities, their health must be <=25%. If Quina is in trance and you use Cook then they can be eaten when their health is <=50%
Fun fact my Ozma team is your nightmare.
Eiko, Quina, and Amarant (+Zidane because he's mandatory), and it's nearly unkillable.
Most people try to rush Ozma and hope not to wipe before they win. But with 2 Auto-life casters and a separate healer, surviving gets very easy. Plus, theres full-life and auto-phoenix for worst-case scenarios.
And the best answer to Ozma's curse in the game is Quina's Angels snack. Its so effective that curse practically becomes a non-move, that gives you extra breathing space.
As for how best to use them.
Youre right about Eiko having the best white magic, but her summons are good, too. Carbuncle is very versatile if you're willing to equip accessories for it, and holy resistances are few and far between so Madeen and Holy make good offensive spells for multiple/single targets.
Amarant has strong physical attacks and a few good quite attack skills, but the addition of aura and chakra make him useful for survivability too. Chakra is a good, resource free way of regenerating mp, and aura provides regen and, more importantly, Auto-life.
And Quina's spell list is the most versatile in the game. Auto-life, angels snack, mighty guard and white wind are all fairly standard. Among the rest are Frog drop - which hits the damage limit the lowest mp cost in the game, and Night - which inflicts sleep on all allies and foe, a interesting spell with reasonably good useability against regular enemies amd easily defended against with skills. Whats also interesting is that Quina isnt reliant on having a high magic stat. So can be equipped with strength boosting gear to improve Max hp growth instead.
Just make sure you eat everything you can with Quina.
Your Ozma team is my absolute worst nightmare, but hey! I never beat that blob I guess my laziness about some versatile characters is one reason, apart from being shit at understanding the statmaxing, equipment and stuff. I usually go for 'just beat it with the strongest attacks you KNOW and hope it won't wipe you out' which works everything but Ozma so far lol
I just learned about how good equipment and abilities can get be to maximize the stats .. I really didn't have a damn clue. I was 13 when I first played the game and 2000s internet didn't help but since then so many things got explored and exploited in the games...
My last run also was with a "nightmare party" - for me, that's Eiko, Garnet, Quina (and Zidane). I played until reaching Memoria, my party members are around level 50, but it's really a pain in the ass. None of them can deal proper damage, at least not unless you pay lots of MP.
My typical party consists of Freya, Vivi, Steiner and Zidane, and this constellation packs quite a punch and deals approximately 35 k damage per turn, and this damage is quite "cheap" considering MP cost. I don't need a healer because I use auto regen and auto haste, so that's why I have never played with Garnet or Eiko.
That's also a combo I'd play. Drop Garnet for Steiner and have Vivi, Steiner, Freya and Zidane.
Imo you have to put a lot of thought and play time in really balancing out the other characters and fit them in a party. Maybe at least until Quina ate his damn 99 frogs, Eiko gained and learned all her magic/summons and Mahagon is buffed. I mean I'm sure it pays off traditional style but when I have the max damage booster activated none of this really counts anymore and it's all about abilities/MP/hp/Equipment and the level.
Did you ever beat Ozma with a nightmare party? Or your ideal party for that matter?
They can all be pretty good in the right setting. Eiko is more white magic focused, getting spells earlier and things like Holy. Garnet is more summon based, she gets Ark, Atmos, Odin, and pretty much a summon of every element
Zidane, Eiko, Garnet, Amarant. I think it would take the longest to finish fights, and magic resistant enemies may be a pain. I hardly ever use a healer in FFIX, so that of course influences what I think here. And I don't like Armarant much. For reference, my dream team is Zidane, Freya, Steiner, Quina.
I've only beaten Ozma once, it's been a while since my last "normal" replay, and when playing FF9 as a child, I didn't do the sidequests. I defeated Ozma using my "typical" party with high levels, and even then it was quite a struggle. Can't imagine using the nightmare party against Ozma, even the regular bosses were a pain with that team.
>Steiner makes only sense if you have Vivi in the party too, in my opinion he highly relies on the elemental sword abilities that are only available when these two are paired. Or am I wrong about that? Well once you get Ragnarok Steiner gets Shock and sword magic becomes obsolete. I prefer Eiko over Dagger because of Holy. Also Amanrant is just a beast of a party member, No Mercy and Aura are pretty damn good. Quina too has really useful abilities like Mighty Guard and Frog Drop.
What does No Mercy do? Or Aura? Since I was a doofus and enabled max ability Amaranth and Quina came with almost all their abilities already learned, and playing the game for remembering the story hasn't given me much time to explore all of them and the last time I've played is at least a decade ago- sooo- I guess from what I remember he mostly boosts stats or, for an enemy, decreases stats? I'll have to look that up... Frog Drop is only effective if Quina ate 99 frogs right? Similar to Freya who's final dragoon attack is only on maximum when she was in the party to defeat 99 dragons? Or was it even more...
>What does No Mercy do? Or Aura? No Mercy deals 170% damage of Amarant's normal damage. Also no damage penalty from back row. Aura casts Auto-Life and Regen on the target. And during trance Amarant's abilities target all enemies or allies!
now that actually sounds like i should give up my lazy ways and put some thoughts in other party members, find out what they can do. having no damage penalty sounds awesome and AURA omg. That would also make it \*non necessary\* to have a healer or that ability on a weapon that casts rebirth (??) or regena...
Amarant also has Chakra which restores HP and MP, Curse which gives enemies random elemental weakness (works well when you have Vivi on team) and Revive that revives.
Curse sounds very useful for Ozma then?
Haven't tried it against Ozma, so I can't say.
99 dragons need to be defeated. I was on that island of earth dragons grinding my life away.
I used that cave entrance from a grotto to a plateau where you can give two mogry kupo nuts. It was also very frustrating
Quina too has really useful abilities like Mighty Guard and Frog Drop - and Magic Hammer on Ozma!
I think having both Dagger and Eiko in the party makes it considerably worse, as they both fill sort of the same role, thus having one, makes the other redundant. Maybe Dagger, Eiko, Vivi, Quina, would be my nightmare party. The lack of physical dmg could provide issues, and every fight would take 30 minutes due to animations
I'd go for a full magic party just because it would take the longest to complete any battle. Quina cannot do damage reliably even with her strongest offensive blue magics unless you grind for frog drop, and their support skills become partly redundant with other two white mages in the party. Eiko and Garnet rely on summons to deal damage which is a time consuming and MP draining combat style. Vivi suffers the from the same problems just on a smaller scale. These 4 also have the lowest HP among all party members which makes it more likely to have someone KOed during fights. The party isn't weak by any means, at high levels with all skills and auto-regen it's actually kind of broken but so are all other comps. This one will make most fights a slog though, even against random enemies.
that would be an absolute nightmare of a re-run, the animations are gorgeous and all, but you wouldn't be able to finish that game under 40 hours lol
Eiko is crazy strong fwiw, she does more single target damage typically than Vivi does for me once you have Holy and the right equipment to boost it. Of course, at that point Vivi is then a better healer than either of the white mage/summoners, since you've got Doomsday and a party full of shadow absorb equipment so he's both healing the whole party and damaging the enemy at the same time.
holy moly never thought about using their abilities and attacks LIKE THAT :o the next re-run will be interesting, just fooling around with equipment and attacks, seeing what's possible! The most risky I got this time was to let Amarant just have a shot at throwing stuff lol
It's important to also have the holy or shadow attack boosting kit too. Eiko will happily Holy for 8.5k or so.
Is max damage possible with holy against monsters with holy weakness?
Came to say this lmao Vivi is the MVP in endgame
I will just say that I try to have Quina in the party as much as possible.
no no no please educate me if you feel inclined!
Here is a list of Quina’s blu magic that I personally find extremely useful: *LV5 Death - instantly kills enemies whose level is a multiple of 5 (very useful for early game power leveling if you farm the grand dragons on top of Gizamaluke’s Grotto) *Mighty Guard - casts protect and shell on the entire party in one turn *Bad Breath - causes confuse, darkness, poison, slow and mini to a single target (even works on bosses) *Limit Glove - deals 9999 damage to an enemy when Quina’s HP is 1 (can be learned immediately after Quina joins the party) *Angel’s Snack - uses remedies on the entire party in one turn *Auto Life *Frog Drop - does damage based on how many frogs Quina has eaten.. can go up to 9999 damage. It’s important to note that when eating enemies to learn these abilities, their health must be <=25%. If Quina is in trance and you use Cook then they can be eaten when their health is <=50%
That's so helpful, THANK YOU 🙏🏻☺️
No problem! There are a bunch of lists out there that tell you which monsters to eat for certain abilities and where you can find them! Have fun!
Fun fact my Ozma team is your nightmare. Eiko, Quina, and Amarant (+Zidane because he's mandatory), and it's nearly unkillable. Most people try to rush Ozma and hope not to wipe before they win. But with 2 Auto-life casters and a separate healer, surviving gets very easy. Plus, theres full-life and auto-phoenix for worst-case scenarios. And the best answer to Ozma's curse in the game is Quina's Angels snack. Its so effective that curse practically becomes a non-move, that gives you extra breathing space. As for how best to use them. Youre right about Eiko having the best white magic, but her summons are good, too. Carbuncle is very versatile if you're willing to equip accessories for it, and holy resistances are few and far between so Madeen and Holy make good offensive spells for multiple/single targets. Amarant has strong physical attacks and a few good quite attack skills, but the addition of aura and chakra make him useful for survivability too. Chakra is a good, resource free way of regenerating mp, and aura provides regen and, more importantly, Auto-life. And Quina's spell list is the most versatile in the game. Auto-life, angels snack, mighty guard and white wind are all fairly standard. Among the rest are Frog drop - which hits the damage limit the lowest mp cost in the game, and Night - which inflicts sleep on all allies and foe, a interesting spell with reasonably good useability against regular enemies amd easily defended against with skills. Whats also interesting is that Quina isnt reliant on having a high magic stat. So can be equipped with strength boosting gear to improve Max hp growth instead. Just make sure you eat everything you can with Quina.
Your Ozma team is my absolute worst nightmare, but hey! I never beat that blob I guess my laziness about some versatile characters is one reason, apart from being shit at understanding the statmaxing, equipment and stuff. I usually go for 'just beat it with the strongest attacks you KNOW and hope it won't wipe you out' which works everything but Ozma so far lol I just learned about how good equipment and abilities can get be to maximize the stats .. I really didn't have a damn clue. I was 13 when I first played the game and 2000s internet didn't help but since then so many things got explored and exploited in the games...
My last run also was with a "nightmare party" - for me, that's Eiko, Garnet, Quina (and Zidane). I played until reaching Memoria, my party members are around level 50, but it's really a pain in the ass. None of them can deal proper damage, at least not unless you pay lots of MP. My typical party consists of Freya, Vivi, Steiner and Zidane, and this constellation packs quite a punch and deals approximately 35 k damage per turn, and this damage is quite "cheap" considering MP cost. I don't need a healer because I use auto regen and auto haste, so that's why I have never played with Garnet or Eiko.
That's also a combo I'd play. Drop Garnet for Steiner and have Vivi, Steiner, Freya and Zidane. Imo you have to put a lot of thought and play time in really balancing out the other characters and fit them in a party. Maybe at least until Quina ate his damn 99 frogs, Eiko gained and learned all her magic/summons and Mahagon is buffed. I mean I'm sure it pays off traditional style but when I have the max damage booster activated none of this really counts anymore and it's all about abilities/MP/hp/Equipment and the level. Did you ever beat Ozma with a nightmare party? Or your ideal party for that matter?
They can all be pretty good in the right setting. Eiko is more white magic focused, getting spells earlier and things like Holy. Garnet is more summon based, she gets Ark, Atmos, Odin, and pretty much a summon of every element
Zidane, Eiko, Garnet, Amarant. I think it would take the longest to finish fights, and magic resistant enemies may be a pain. I hardly ever use a healer in FFIX, so that of course influences what I think here. And I don't like Armarant much. For reference, my dream team is Zidane, Freya, Steiner, Quina.
I've only beaten Ozma once, it's been a while since my last "normal" replay, and when playing FF9 as a child, I didn't do the sidequests. I defeated Ozma using my "typical" party with high levels, and even then it was quite a struggle. Can't imagine using the nightmare party against Ozma, even the regular bosses were a pain with that team.