Gaming fiend playthrough

Recently got through the WoB and starting WoR I wanted to share some thoughts.

With the exception of Dadaluma, WOB simply feels more polished but not significantly more challenging than Vanilla. Until floating continent..

I chose Locke, Terra and Celes as my team, a classic trio. For all 3 I focused on HP Espers due to their propensity towards dying in battles. Celes is pure Seraph, Locke is Kirin and Terra is Unicorn, all with approximately 10 EL by the time I reached Atma. The path to Atma was brutal, and the extra HP was a god send.

I gave Icebrands to Locke Celes and Terra (with mystery veil for proc chance), leaving Terra morphed in the front row, Locke in front, Celes in back slamming Ice 2. Shadow struggled to stay alive and played a surprisingly supportive role with float and the image scroll, then went crazy hurling Ninja Stars and casting Dispel when Atma changed forms. I realized this team had no way to set Sap on Atma that I knew of, which was a mistake… but the Terra morphed did insane damage, especislly with icebrand proc.. so bzerked and hasted her. Lockes damage was terrible at this point, so he went to back row and healed almost every turn, desperately trying to keep Morph Terra alive. We’re it not for the unicorn levels she surely would not have. Celes was back up healer and provided reliably Ice 2 damage. Eventually Atma fell, it was satisfying, extremely difficult and glorious.

Had done it over again, I may have brought Setzer instead of Locke to provide healing and Sap through his CHOCObo slots.

WoR The random encounters quickly ramp up. Sabin / Celes we’re taken by surprised in the cave leading up to the Tentacle boss and died a few times. Having not give Sabin any ELs, I put them all into Golem for survivability, fire Dance and Ice 2 with Celes large mp supply helped get through the difficult encounters, along with sufficient mp for healing. I honestly couldn’t imagine Celes without Seraph at this point, the tankiness is a godsend and she needs all the MP badly.

the Tentacles were Tough… I had to reset and gave Celes Flametongue and Sabin double Hell claws to make quick work of the fire weak tentacle. Golem summon was amazing here. Edgar was very weak so he mostly used drill to sap the tentacles and provide emergency Cure 2.

Skip ahead now to Daryl Tomb. I love facing undead enemies, so many weaknesses to exploit, despite the cave being quite challenging. Dullahan, once again double Hell Claw, Edgar is pure Siren with flame tongue and jump, Celes with flametongue. Setzer full time healer. Took a couple of tries to figure out this strategy but ensuing fire damage incinerated Dullahan back to hell.

also, Jump plus Elemental swords is INCREDIBLE with magic Edgar. Had no idea he could do that much damage.

Goal at this is to go through and collect the team facing as few bosses as possible.

Cyan Gau Mog Gogo we’re first on my list… Zoneseeker fucking DESTROYED me though… will need to reorganize myself and plan for him better. Also picked up Terra since Phunbaba isn’t too insane, I was pleasantly surprised to see Terra entered morphed and knew Fire 3.

Updates as I face some of the major bosses going forward

Nice, keep up the updates!

Next up, I decide to tackle the Ancient Cave! The random encounters though were brutal! There are those things that cast Wavecannon and the others with Tsunami, plus the mephistos with Quake.  A lot of resets and trial and error involved in this run. I went through with Celes Mog Edgar and Sabin

Two Mini-Bosses in the Tonberry and Samurai guy. The Mana-battery was VERY disappointing. Even with a magically invested Edgar going pure Siren, it's just a glorified "free" tincture. Doesnt really heal enough to be worth it. Beating the Tonberry was fun, and one of the few battles where a well timed use of Palidor really paid off!

The enemy titled WEAPON in the ancient cave was a bitch. I attempted the dragon for lawls, got absolutely creamed, and will make a return trip to the ancient cave to battle that SOB at a later date.

I then went to recruit Umaru in Narshe. Sabin with double Hell Claws, Pure Staina Gau with Mantodea/schrapnel, Edgar and a Freshly leveled Cyan. Not the strongest team for the fire weak dungeon, so it was quite a challenge. Tritoch's magic was devastating, and I really wish I had waited to get Relm/Strago so I had someone to use the Zoneseek esper in this battle, but I got through it.

Umaru...despite having access to both Golem and Fenrir, was even more difficult. His physical attacks were insane! Sabin was MVP for damage with DOuble Hell Claws, threw Gau with the Hornet Rage + Bone Club (3x dmg and chance of setting Blink, which was a god send when Fenrir wore off), Edgar on Firetongue jump and Heal duty...and Mog couldn't survive any physical attacks so I had hi whack with the Fire rod and pray that he could proc Fire 2...which would do a MASSIVE 7800 dmg when it landed. Umaru eventually fell.

I ended my journey retackling the Zone-Eater who kicked my ass before, once again with Sabin using Frostgore and Ocean Claw, Terra morphed in the Front row using the Ice Brand (even though I forgot I have Tritoch now and could have learned Ice 3 lol) Setzer for healing and Mog tagging along still due to his being underleveled, using Water Rondo and Snowman Jazz. It was very satisfying to kick the Zone Eator's ass for sweet revenge..

Gogo will soon be mine.

ANny suggestion on where to next? I was considering recruiting Relm and Strago following Gogo

I did the Ancient Cave later in my play through.  I totally didn't think about the cheeky evasion with Palidor!  I'll have to on the next one.

Weapon was rough - even doing it at later levels so don't feel too bad.  There are some nice things in there so be sure to go back (including one of the dragons).

Umaru was rough too, just so much damage.  I wiped more than once against him.  

You seem to like Gau in as a damage dealer (not something I went with) so that's fun - I totally missed Mantodea rage in my playthrough   I didn't make the best use of Sabin/Claws... tending to enjoy the Blitz's more.  

Strago is easy to get after Realm - and yea, I think that's a good call.  After that, maybe the Pheonix Cave for Locke (who may be the last person to pick up)?

I did just this! First however I tackled Gogos cave. Picked up the invaluable Red Cap and Aegis Shield. Random encounters here were surprisingly difficult!

To the contrary, the random encounters in Jidoor mansion were quite easy! I brought Terra Mog Sabin and Setzer. The Cats were weak to water and instantly fell to Storm, and the Dahling event weak to poison supplied by Setzer and mog. 
 

Chardarnook is an easy boss when you understand not right attack the goddess, using that as healing / buffing time. Once again obliterated by double Hell Claws! A lot of fire weak enemies / bosses this mod. Sabin has been my MVP boss slayer. Morphed Terra with Fire 3, and Mog / Setzer took a supportive and healing role
 

I forgot the exact prizes but Nirvana Band was a huge find, and chocobo hide. In hindsight, I wish I had tackled this dungeon earlier, having Starlet earlier would have been very nice.

Recruited Strago right after. Didn’t realize you could buy Alexander here for 32,000 gil and feel like a dope for missing it. Got Holy for Celes ?.  Both Strago and Relmare very low leveled. I had them sit in the airship while a team of Umaru with the Storm Orb and snow muffler, Terra Sabin and Celes providing Fire 3, double Hell claw and Holy to take down the DREADED doom Gaze and grab Relm her Bahamut esper so she can starting beasting.

currently working on leveling Strago and Relm and getting them to learn all their spells, I also acquired Odin in an earlier update at ancient cave for Strago. Once they are at a reasonable level, I’ll move onto my next destination.

Made it through the Phoenix Cave. Pretty fun, was an intricately designed dungeon in a huge fan. Left that Red Dragon for later.

Finally got illumina for Celes, then tackled the Cave on Veldt and finally recruited Shadow. Now I just need to get underleveled characters up to speed and tackle those Dragons!

Will probably first attempt Cyan Dream, and the Fanatic Tower

Yea - Realm/Strago can be found earlier than many others.  But it sounds like you have the whole gang now?

Cyan's dream has a tricky boss but some great steals from some of the humanoid random encounters.  Frantic Tower has a dragon also but I had to come back for it later.  
 

18 hours ago, copperflame said:

Yea - Realm/Strago can be found earlier than many others.  But it sounds like you have the whole gang now?

 

Cyan's dream has a tricky boss but some great steals from some of the humanoid random encounters.  Frantic Tower has a dragon also but I had to come back for it later.  
 

I haven’t been taking advantage of the steals! Anything good this late?

You might find one on your return to the Ancient Castle. Anything else of note can be found on your way up Kefka's Tower. Though none of it is anything you need to worry about. It's mostly all detailed in the unlockme, which you'll get the password for after you beat the game — so worst case you can always experiment on a subsequent playthrough, or backtrack to see what you missed.

Like Sir said - the 'end game steals' are well, end game.  Don't be too picky, save it for a second play through after you get the unlock or you may fall into trying to do everything in one go and not enjoy it as much (I fall into that trap too often).  I found a nice item in Cyan's dream so it sticks out to me.  NOTE - not necessary but it was a cool score.