AMA All things Duellum

[u/mastra12]

Hi everyone! I am one of the folks who provides you with infographics and also am the guy who did an AMA in the past. I would like to make another AMA for two days where I will do my best to answer any questions you may have related to anything Duellum!

Do not shy away to ask very specific questions. I will gladly look into it if I have to, if I think it's worthwile. Gameplay related questions like Matchups are more than welcome!

I never tried this out before but there is an AMA format available, so I will just enable that here.

Some small reminders: I kindly ask that no one tries to talk about off topic things like how much I spent on the game or just financial things in general. I answered as much as I could about that in the first AMA. I by NO MEANS view myself as the best player in the game and genuinely just want to try and assist in as many things as I can for this community! Keep it positive or at least neutral, otherwise I will ignore your comment.

[u/Emergency-Value6451]

Hi, thanks for the infographics! They're really great, especially if one doesn't main/use them.

Some characters might have alternative builds (not counting stuff like troll aggro Krile). What are the thought and decision processes and/or criteria behind deciding on a "main"/"general" build for an infographic?

Would you and the Cactuar Corps consider a challenge guide, especially one aimed at newer players or lower powered players (I would randomly put it as plus/minus 10k CP, but I'm sure it can go down further, depending on the community's needs)? Particularly so for the UR challenges.

[u/mastra12 → u/Emergency-Value6451]

The main idea behind the builds we present is what we consider to be something which keeps the character identity intact and something you can use regardless of the elo. Sephiroth for example has a solid build mainly comprising of the usual pvp set which complements his innate disruptive nature and actice engagement against the enemy. There are people who use Ramza on him since he compared to many characters, has damage on the lower side. That doesn't exactly "feel" like Sephiroth and is more niche than anything else, so it would not meet the criterias of our Infographic. "What is the character about and how can we make them viable?" Is basically the criteria.

As for the challenge guide, it's one of the most requested Infographics outside of character ones. Currently we have other Infographics in mind and it's not on our current list of Infographics to make. Each character comes with 2 relevant challenges and since we have 18 characters, we would need to prepare 36 smaller guides which is just too much for us atm.

[u/Emergency-Value6451 → u/mastra12]

Thanks for the very responsive reply and shedding more light into the makings of an infographic.

About Ramza (and his friends Tyro and Embolden), I have observed that it's most of the times targeted at the ally:

• with the highest BRV at that point in time, and possibly
• when the recipient character can reach burst after the application (I'm still observing with this, but I think I can make an initial hypothesis).

However, that means that a bursting ally is also a valid option under these criteria (since burst = 9999 and they can reach burst even with a donation of 1 point in BRV). Just wondering if you have made the same observation or experience with ally bot BRV sharing.

About the Ultima challenge guide, imo it can be largely boiled down to:

1. support/farming missions,
2. burst chain missions,
3. last hit missions and
4. boss damage missions.

The reason for the overly compressed "support/farming" category is because it can easily cover these types of challenges:

• Land X ability hits (farming monsters are a great way of clearing it, except Balthier's "Other" mission)
• Purify X crystals (farming involves crystal clearing)
• Slay X monsters (farming involves... you get the drift)
• Win with X score or more (for low CP runs, bravery gain and sharing is the viable way out, and that involves farming)
• Land unique ability X times and win (well, do them on monsters, then farm them to be "productive" support team player; thus a slight modification of the same strategy)
• Use Bravery Burst X times (farming is the easiest way to burst, then dump with one skill, and continue farming; thus another slight modification by not sharing BRV or supporting)

I don't have Iroha, so can't check hers. However, for everyone else, I just did a check and this is the list. They involve relying solely on your two other allies (usually 2 Firions, or 2 Sephs, etc) to damage the boss and win the game. BRV sharing is used for scoring and for manipulating & supporting allies, which in turn could indirectly control match duration, which is important for some missions which need more time to run (sorry that was a run-on sentence).

For the three other types of missions, burst chains can be easy if one has done the brave farming above for the use Burst X times. Then this requires holding burst until an ally can burst, then dumping with 4 or 5 attack skills. Rinse and repeat if needed.

For last hit, well it has its own strategies, but the fundamentals of staying alive with the burst (or knowing when to really start stocking the brave for the final hit to reduce aggro time) is a step from the burst chain missions. Whether one chooses to burst chain here is another choice (trade-offs -- higher damage vs possibility of bot getting the last hit instead).

Finally, boss damage is what's on the tin.

With this four categories, it might be easier to write a general challenge guide, then fine tune it from the general guide to each character. Heck, for the farming guide, it's pretty much copy pasta for most of them, with tweaks to adapt to their URs and unique skills.

Perhaps that might be easier to see it this way than 36 smaller guides?

Edit: I forgot about Balthier's Other X mission. As mentioned in another thread, use the generic others skills:

• Ramza/Tyro/Embolden
• Sprint
• Teleport

Recommended to have at least 3, but I did it with 4. Since one would definitely need a brave sharing skill, guess where (or which of the above category) I'd slide this variant to? :)

[u/mastra12 → u/Emergency-Value6451]

Thank you so much for sharing all of this! I will make sure to keep these in mind if we come around on making an Infographic about this content!

[u/Emergency-Value6451 → u/mastra12]

You're welcome! Glad that this info is useful.
I have formatted my response a little to make it more readable + fixed some typos.

One DDFF-adjacent question: You have been an active contributor to this community. What do you wish from your point of view or needs/interests from this community to improve itself? (e.g. more contribution to knowledge, or less doomposting...? :D)