FFV Four Job Fiesta 2020: Berserker is an Essential Job

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Deki: May 12, 2008; It's Hammer Time!

Blue mage, Time mage, Summoner, White mage.

Squishy but strong.

# ? Jun 15, 2020 13:46

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# ? Jun 8, 2024 05:19

Ben Soosneb: Jun 18, 2009

So err. Did RegChaos. First job Geomancer, fair enough. Freelance my way to the next crystal.

Just getting through the shipgraveyard and thought I'd have a little sneaky peek at my water crystal job. Geomancer again. Yay!

Never had to freelance all the way to the fire crystal before (did the fiesta once a few years ago and had much kinder jobs). Anything I should look out for?

# ? Jun 15, 2020 13:50

Vil: Sep 10, 2011

Freelancer / Berserker / Time Mage / Monk in a pure chaos risk run. Should be interesting.

# ? Jun 15, 2020 13:51

Admiral Joeslop: Jul 8, 2010

Vil posted:

Freelancer / Berserker / Time Mage / Monk in a pure chaos risk run. Should be interesting.

The things you can't beat to death, you can rod to death. The things you can't do either to, you can Quick Leak.

# ? Jun 15, 2020 13:56

Archenteron: Nov 3, 2006

Ben Soosneb posted:

So err. Did RegChaos. First job Geomancer, fair enough. Freelance my way to the next crystal.

Just getting through the shipgraveyard and thought I'd have a little sneaky peek at my water crystal job. Geomancer again. Yay!

Never had to freelance all the way to the fire crystal before (did the fiesta once a few years ago and had much kinder jobs). Anything I should look out for?

Crack the carwen frost rod over Magissa's head. When you get the dragon, swing back down to tycoon castle for the healing staff and katana. Use the whip from magissa to stun garula for an easy kill. 750 liquidflame to death.

Freelancers can basically moonwalk through the first 2/3 of world 1

# ? Jun 15, 2020 13:59

Hackan Slash: May 31, 2007; Hit it until it's not a problem anymore

Samuel Clemens posted:

Hermes Sandals on everyone and plenty of Phoenix Downs. Shinryu is fast, but with everyone Hasted you'll still be able to outpace him. Don't even need Magic Lamp shenanigans for the opening Tidal Wave (which wouldn't work anyway since it can't be reflected), because your Wonder Wand user will go before him.

Thanks. For some reason I thought Carbuncle had shell as well.

Does spellblade last between deaths? I want to hit him with flare blade but if I have to reapply it that doesn't seem worth it.

# ? Jun 15, 2020 14:13

MagusDraco: Nov 11, 2011; even speedwagon was trolled

Purechaos berserker risk gave me Ranger / Berserker / Black Mage/ Knight.
Gonna be somewhere between a little and very annoying trying to kill omega but at least I can wonder rod shinryu and use a ton of phoenix downs.

# ? Jun 15, 2020 14:19

Jose Valasquez: Apr 8, 2005

blue/berserker/mime/beastmaster

I've never used Mime before so this should be interesting

# ? Jun 15, 2020 14:22

Hackan Slash: May 31, 2007; Hit it until it's not a problem anymore

Jose Valasquez posted:

blue/berserker/mime/beastmaster

I've never used Mime before so this should be interesting

Does Mime give you free releases? If so that could be fun.

# ? Jun 15, 2020 14:23

Mr. Maltose: Feb 16, 2011; The Guffless Girlverine

Both Shinryu and Omega are vulnerable to Quick Leak strats, right? I�ll probably end up with faster ways to dunk at least Shinryu but it�d be a good backup plan if I�m feeling too lazy to work more complicated ways.

# ? Jun 15, 2020 14:26

Admiral Joeslop: Jul 8, 2010

Mr. Maltose posted:

Both Shinryu and Omega are vulnerable to Quick Leak strats, right? I’ll probably end up with faster ways to dunk at least Shinryu but it’d be a good backup plan if I’m feeling too lazy to work more complicated ways.

Correct.

# ? Jun 15, 2020 14:30

apophenium: Apr 14, 2009; Cry 'Mayhem!' and let slip the dogs of Wardlow.

Thief / Time / Summoner / ZERK

Seems like an easy Triple Crown, though QuickLeak is probably my only good strategy against Omega.

Hope everyone is having fun! If you're new, please come to the Discord and ask a lot of questions. Certain parts of this strange, wonderful game can be confusing and difficult and I'd hate for people to bounce off of it because they didn't know about breaking rods or something.

# ? Jun 15, 2020 14:39

Feldegast42: Oct 29, 2011; COMMENCE THE RITE OF SHITPOSTING

Is there a good steal list around here somewhere?

# ? Jun 15, 2020 14:51

Admiral Joeslop: Jul 8, 2010

Feldegast42 posted:

Is there a good steal list around here somewhere?

https://ff5.mega64.net/index.php/drop-steal-guide

# ? Jun 15, 2020 14:58

Vil: Sep 10, 2011

Admiral Joeslop posted:

The things you can't beat to death, you can rod to death. The things you can't do either to, you can Quick Leak.

Oh yeah, I'm not too worried. There's a pretty good variety of options for everything except magic damage (rod breaking, Comet, and Meteor basically). And Freelancer in particular opens a lot of doors on the equipment side that I normally don't think about.

# ? Jun 15, 2020 15:04

Bregor: May 31, 2013; People are idiots, Leslie.

White Mage / :black101:

/ Bard /

Guh

# ? Jun 15, 2020 15:06

Kyrosiris: May 24, 2006; You try to be happy when everyone is summoning you everywhere to "be their friend".

Bregor posted:

White Mage / / Bard /

Guh

it's free triple crown estate

# ? Jun 15, 2020 15:28

Bregor: May 31, 2013; People are idiots, Leslie.

Kyrosiris posted:

it's free triple crown estate

Yeah but W1 blows.

Oh well, here we go!

e: And I'm definitely doing

Aerdan posted:

The Skald
$1 per run, up to $20, for each run wherein a Bard hits an enemy with an axe.

# ? Jun 15, 2020 15:33

BisbyWorl: Jan 12, 2019; Knowledge is pain plus observation.

Blue Mage/Berserker/Beastmaster/Dragoon

At least getting the support blue magic will be a breeze.

# ? Jun 15, 2020 15:33

fool of sound: Oct 10, 2012

Beastmaster, Ranger.... double Chemist lol

# ? Jun 15, 2020 15:42

theshim: May 1, 2012; You think you can defeat ME, Ephraimcopter?!?

You couldn't even beat Assassincopter!!!

Chaos run and my first job is White Mage.

Please don't make me do 4WM Byblos again :ohdear:

# ? Jun 15, 2020 16:22

Losem: Jun 17, 2003; Slightly Angry Sheep

Anyone has advice for beserker and bard for the sandworm fight?

# ? Jun 15, 2020 16:26

Mustached Demon: Nov 12, 2016

I got knight as first on my chaos run. I accept bashing everything with a sword until I get zerky.

# ? Jun 15, 2020 16:26

Funktastic: Jul 23, 2013

Losem posted:

Anyone has advice for beserker and bard for the sandworm fight?

kill the zerker and slowly plink away with the bards

# ? Jun 15, 2020 16:27

ultrafilter: Aug 23, 2007; It's okay if you have any questions.

Losem posted:

Anyone has advice for beserker and bard for the sandworm fight?

Funktastic posted:

kill the zerker and slowly plink away with the bards

Either this or grind.

# ? Jun 15, 2020 16:32

Jose Valasquez: Apr 8, 2005

Funktastic posted:

kill the zerker and slowly plink away with the bards

kill the bard and plink away with the zerkers :black101:

# ? Jun 15, 2020 16:34

Nihilarian: Oct 2, 2013

# ? Jun 15, 2020 16:48

Weird BIAS: Jul 5, 2007; so... guess that's it, huh? just... don't say i didn't warn you.

Mime start, hoo boy.

# ? Jun 15, 2020 17:05

ultrafilter: Aug 23, 2007; It's okay if you have any questions.

Mime/Mime/Mime/Mime might actually be the worst party.

# ? Jun 15, 2020 17:12

Admiral Joeslop: Jul 8, 2010

ultrafilter posted:

Mime/Mime/Mime/Mime might actually be the worst party.

Mimes can break rods and wear most if not all armor, including shields.

They're a worse Freelancer but better than Geomancer overall, and at least some others.

# ? Jun 15, 2020 17:27

Jose Valasquez: Apr 8, 2005

Sulla did a solo mimic run and ranked it 21 out of the 26 classes for solo runs.

Thief, Bard, White Mage, Geo, and Zerker were below it.

Having multiples helps some of those jobs though

# ? Jun 15, 2020 17:41

Nemo2342: Nov 26, 2007; Have A Day; Nap Ghost

Does anyone still have the breakdown of what skills are good to put on your berserker?

# ? Jun 15, 2020 18:03

ZenMasterBullshit: Nov 2, 2011; Restaurant de Nouvelles "À Table" Proudly Presents:
A Climactic Encounter Ending on 1 Negate and a Dream

Chaos run, zerk zerk chemist mystic knight.

# ? Jun 15, 2020 18:11

Look Sharp!: Mar 24, 2013

Nemo2342 posted:

Does anyone still have the breakdown of what skills are good to put on your berserker?

W.T. Fits posted:

Forgot to repost this last year, so here it is this year - for those joining us for the first time, I present my

List of Abilities You Want to Give Your Berserker

As we all know, the Berserker is uncontrollable in battle, meaning that most active commands are useless for it. So what do you fill that extra ability slot with when you're setting up your job? Well, there are a number of options that may surprise you, but let's just go down the list, job by job.

Knight: Two-Handed and Equip Swords are the main draw here. Most axes in the game are flagged to be compatible with Two-Handed, which can really pump up your damage numbers. On the other hand, if you want your Berserkers to actually land hits with some consistency, Equip Swords gives them access to a better weapon class and also bumps up their Strength by a few points, just to let them hit even harder. A Berserker with Equip Swords is one of those rare niche cases where you might want to actually consider grabbing the Brave Blade, assuming you don't have other classes that can easily use the Chicken Knife. So in the end it comes down to do you want the potential for huge burst of damage on occasion? Give them Two-Handed. Do you want consistent damage output? Give them Equip Swords.

Monk: Basically, either HP+30% or Bare Handed. As far as HP+30% is concerned, you actually probably don't need it; Berserkers have the second highest Stamina stat in the game, meaning that their HP numbers are actually almost on par with Monks, who beat them in the Stamina department by a single measly point. The practical upswing to this is that unlike Monks, who are stuck in light armor and thus need that extra buffer of HP to survive more than two hits, Berserkers can wear real armor and shields that will allow them to tank hits without immediately folding like wet cardboard. So while extra HP can be nice, it's not really necessary.

Bare Handed on the other hand is always useful for Berserkers, both early and late game. Early game, you can just have your Berserkers punch poo poo to avoid having to put up with the accuracy penalty of axes/hammers or the weaker damage of daggers, with the added bonus of possibly scoring critical hits. However, it's important to note that just because Bare Handed gives you the option to use your fists, you're not required to do so. So later in the game, once you've got some of the better axes and hammers and the damage from fists starts to drop off because of the poor scaling, Bare Handed is still useful because it bumps your Strength up to the same score as a Monk would have.

Counter is a trap. Avoid Counter. The reason being that the Berserk status you're constantly locked into prevents Counter from going off.

Thief: Artful Dodger is really your only option here, mostly due to the fact that all the other passives are redundant by virtue of already having a thief in your party. Artful Dodger doesn't really do anything except give your Berserker the same Agility score as a Thief, which is arguably more useful in the versions where the ATB for Berserkers isn't buggy, but there are still plenty of better options out there.

White Mage: Surprisingly, you want to give your Berserker !White 6. Even though you can't cast spells in battle, giving your Berserker this ability boosts their Magic stat to be on par with a White Mage's, which in turn increases the amount of MP you have available, and also affects your damage output for two late game axes, the Rune Axe and the Gaia Hammer. As an added bonus, you can still have your Berserker use their healing spells outside of battle to top off your party if you feel like you need to, thus conserving your real White Mage's MP for actual combat situations.

Black Mage: You want !Black 6 for the same reasons as !White 6, minus the whole "can heal the party outside of battle" part of it.

Blue Mage: Either !Blue for the same reason as the other two mages, or Learning, just so that you have an extra body on hand to help learn Blue Magic spells.

Summoner: You want !Summon 5 for the same reasons as !Black 6.

Time Mage: Did you guess "!Time 6" for this one? Give yourself a gold star. Though Equip Rods is also there as a comedy option if you're bored.

Red Mage: Same deal as the other mage classes, give yourself !Red 3 to boost your Magic stat. In theory, you could also achieve the same results with !Dualcast, but in practice if you were to do that, I'm pretty sure everyone else in this thread would personally track you down and slap you upside the head for it.

On that note, if you happen to roll into multiple Mage jobs alongside your Berserker, here's how you'll want to prioritize which ability to give him: !Summon > !Black > !White > !Time > !Blue > Equip Harps > !Red. Yes, Red Mages actually have worse Magic stats than Bards.

Mystic Knight: I suppose you could give your Berserker !Spellblade 6 if all else fails; you're not going to get a huge increase to the Magic stat, but it's better than nothing. You don't really benefit from the Strength boost, since as a Berserker you have a natively higher strength to begin with. Magic Shell's not really worth bothering with - if the enemy can knock you down to low enough health for it to trigger, something has gone horribly wrong somewhere and you're probably about to die anyway.

Bard: You want Equip Harps for ~~three~~ four reasons:

1. It boosts your Agility, so you're not slow as poo poo anymore.
2. It boosts your Magic, which powers up the Rune Axe and Gaia Hammer.
3. You can give your Berserker the Apollo Harp and let them shred dragons with it.
4.

Ranger: Equip Bows is pretty good. It helps you by giving your Agility a boost, and also gives you the option to shove your Berserker in the back row with a Bow instead of an Axe, making them even harder to kill. It should be noted that bows tend to have accuracy issues similar to axes, so there's honestly no reason not to do this if you have the bows to spare and you don't need anything a given axe might offer you in return.

On a related note, Rangers themselves can actually make pretty good use of Equip Axes before you pick up !Rapid Fire to replace it. It'll boost their Strength to be on par with a Berseker's, and their innate !Aim command makes axes' poor accuracy a non-issue.

Beastmaster: Equip Whips is a solid choice for when a problem comes along. They don't have much to offer in the way of attack power, but they'll let you sit in the back row and potentially paralyze enemies you hit with them. And it's a fairly significant chance to paralyze, too. A Berserker with a whip can legitimately keep a fair number of encounters completely locked down with surprising frequency, especially if you also have your Beastmaster whip it good. Also, most whips tend to deal bonus damage to certain kinds of enemies, and there's plenty of them to go around so you won't really be stepping on your Beastmaster's toes when it comes to endgame weapon selection. It also gives you a slight boost to your Agility, but it's not as big a deal as it is for Artful Dodger, Equip Bows or Equip Harps.

Ninja: Dual Wield. Like with Thieves, the other passive offered by a Ninja is redundant, since you'll already have a Ninja providing it for you. You'll take a slight hit to your durability, since you're giving up the protection of a shield for another weapon, but your damage numbers will generally make up for it, since you won't be taking hits from dead enemies.

Geomancer: This class has nothing to offer you; the passives skills it teaches are redundant since you'll already have a Geomancer in your party. And that hippie poo poo !Gaia won't pass along the Geomancer's Magic stat, unlike real magic commands. I mean, gently caress, even the goddamn Red Mage gives you a boost to your Magic stat, and when a loving Red Mage outclasses you at something, you know things are pretty goddamn dire.

As for the Geomancer itself, it's another class that can get some good mileage out of Equip Axes, because it still has a beefy innate Magic stat, so it can put out some decent damage with the Rune Axe or Gaia Hammer.

Samurai: Can't decide between the consistency of Equip Swords or burst potential of Two-Handed? Consider Equip Katanas! Like normal swords, they have a consistent damage formula and aren't hampered by the same accuracy penalty axes suffer from. But they also have innate chances to crit, meaning you can still suddenly explode a random enemy's face out of nowhere on a lucky swing! It's the best of both worlds!

Alternately, Shirahadori/Blade Grasp makes for a fine defensive passive if you feel like you need to worry about enemy physical attacks. Giving a Berserker the Aegis Shield, the Main Gauche, an Elf Mantle and Shirahadori on top of their already insanely high HP totals and high defense scores from heavy armor makes them insanely difficult to kill with physical hits... and since you've got the Aegis Shield on there, you're also avoiding nasty enemy spells 33% of the time.

Dragoon: Equip Spears is... eh, it's fine. It's fine, really. I mean, it's more consistent than Axes, and there are a few that have elemental properties that can hit weaknesses, or deal extra damage against dragons, I guess. I mean, ideally you'll have better options than this, but if you don't, it's fine. Equip Spears is fine.

Dancer: The misleadingly named Equip Ribbons actually gives you the ability to equip the four Dancer-specific pieces of gear in the game - the Ribbon, the Man-Eater dagger, the Rainbow Dress and Red Shoes. Of the four, the Ribbon and Man-Eater are really the only ones worth considering. Ribbons give you +5 to all stats (mostly you just care about the Strength) and immunity to a host of debilitating status effects. The Man-Eater, despite being a dagger, is coded to deal damage as a spear, and also effectively crits any enemy that's humanoid. You have better options for armor and accessories than the Rainbow Dress and the Red Shoes, both of which basically only offer you Confusion immunity (Berserkers are innately immune to Confuse due to permanent Berserk status) and an increased chance of getting Sword Dance when using !Dance (which Berserkers can only do randomly if you give them the Dancing Dagger).

Chemist: Since you can't use Items in combat as a Berserker, you don't get any benefit from Pharmacology. That said, it doesn't really matter because you have a loving Chemist in your party, which means you have access to !Mix, and have basically already won the game, so what you choose to give your Berserker is immaterial at that point.

# ? Jun 15, 2020 18:27

Ace Transmuter: May 19, 2017; I like video games

Nemo2342 posted:

Does anyone still have the breakdown of what skills are good to put on your berserker?

Equip Skills:
Equip Swords - Slight strength boost, HUGE boost in being able to equip better weapons
Equip Bows/Whips - Solid Agility boosts. The weapon types (at least whips) are more reliable, if not stronger
Barehanded - Best Strength boost, and cheap too. Punching damage falls off quick though.
Equip Harps - Solid Agility & Magic boost; only ability that boosts both, which are the Berserkers' weakest points.
Equip Katana - Crits are nice

Magic Skills:
Any and all magic skills will boost their Magic stat, which helps them with certain end-game weapons. !White lets them heal out of battle, which is always nice.

Other:
Artful Dodger - Huge Agility boost.
Equip Ribbon - Ribbons are always nice, if nothing else
HP + 10%/20%/30% - Obviously we're reaching at this point.
Shiaridori - Good dodging is better than nothing
Two Handed - Solid damage boost; Equip Swords is probably better than
Dual Wield - Double the Zerking

I might be missing something; these are the main ones

# ? Jun 15, 2020 18:30

JerikTelorian: Jan 19, 2007

White, Red, Geo, Chemist.

That's two years in a row I've gotten red/geo (and last year I had monk which made it even worse). At least with chemist I can get my revenge.

# ? Jun 15, 2020 18:45

ultrafilter: Aug 23, 2007; It's okay if you have any questions.

!Gaia adds some offense to your White Mage early on, and later you get staff-boosted Dualcast Holy. That's a pretty good team.

# ? Jun 15, 2020 18:48

Saigyouji: Aug 26, 2011; Friends 'ave fun together.

First job of my Pure Chaos Risk run is Dancer, so we're off to a stellar start here!

# ? Jun 15, 2020 18:57

grieving for Gandalf: Apr 22, 2008

for the third fiesta in a row, I have Summoner for Water. thank you, I suppose. one of these days I should actually try to triple crown a run, but I just normally don't have the patience by the time I'm at the end

# ? Jun 15, 2020 19:41

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# ? Jun 8, 2024 05:19

DeathSandwich: Apr 24, 2008; I fucking hate puzzles.

ultrafilter posted:

!Gaia adds some offense to your White Mage early on, and later you get staff-boosted Dualcast Holy. That's a pretty good team.

I had a decent amount of use with gaia when I rolled monk/time/geo/sam in world 1 to shore up the time mages damage pre-comet (and even after, considering it was mp free). Granted, Soul Cannon was a loving nightmare that I only got through by the skin of my teeth, but once I got Sam rolling things got quite a bit easier.

# ? Jun 15, 2020 19:45

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > FFV Four Job Fiesta 2020: Berserker is an Essential Job

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