So I heard good and interesting things about Amidatelion, while I haven't touched the banner yet I am tempted to pull on it because, this unit straight up deletes enemy turns...that's kinda nuts! But I am straight up lacking in tank type units I only have Galuf built, so I feel like maybe pulling on the Garland banner for Wol Is a better choice of resources?
Just pull for who you want rather than chasing metas. You can build a team you want to use rather than what you think you have to use. These guys have served me well:
Lann and Reynn
Y'shtola
Zack
Vayne
Aranea
Cait Sith
Reddit said not to bother with Lann and Reynn, but they are my go to guys for a lot of content.
You are better off saving gems for your favorite characters so you can keep using them... The meta will always shift, while solid character combos will work most of the time. Also... some things like Element Enchant/Weakness just work with... almost everything.
I was using draw tickets on Amidatelion's banner and got his LD weapon. Then decided to use gems to get the rest of his weapons... and got Squalls Burst Weapon. Then went to Squall's banner and pulled a bunch for his LD weapon... because by that point... I might as well get him. I probably won't be seriously pulling for LD/Burst weapons until Sephiroth's comes... since I really like Sephiroth's kit and he pairs well with so many support characters.
Amidatelion has a lot of framed Debuffs so he's a bit of a "jammer" character for bosses that like to give themselves lots of self buffs.
Current main Team Pool
Sephiroth
Garnet
Layle
Keiss
Zack
Aerith
Serah
Ramza
Auron
Amidatelion
Squall
For doing lots of AoE waves...
Garnet
Rinoa
Cloud of Darkness
Kudja
While I agree that one should pull for who they like, if you need or are interested in a strong support unit who helps push back enemy turns and deals strong AoE damage, Amidatelion is definitely worth pulling on.
Amidatelion is the only character who has the ability to outright delete an enemy's turn. Not lower an enemy's speed, not delay an enemy's turn, but.. Outright delete the turn entirely. One of the problems that can happen with certain delayers, is that due to some enemies having an extremely high unseen speed stat, even if you delay an enemy by say.. 3 turns, their turn will ultimately get taken within two turns.
Amidatelion removes that problem by removing their next incoming turn from the game's turn order. No character in the game does this, save for Ultimecia's Burst Weapon. Amidatelion has not appeared again within the 8 months since they debuted in Japan, so you're not gonna see their full kit appear again for a long time. I'd recommend pulling for them, or at least their LD weapon, because they makes so many fights manageable and they're one of the most unique characters in the game.
Certain characters in DOO have very unique kits or gimmicks that make them stand out. Amidatelion is one of them. If you're looking for Squall's Burst, you might get lucky and pull it as well. The banner's a good one and worth investing in.
I thankfully got Squall's Burst Weapon and LD off his banner, after throwing 400 tickets at it. I haven't spent gems on a banner since Galuf's and I felt inclined to use gems on Amidatelion's banner because I think they're that good. The next banner I'll drop gems on will probably be the Noctis Burst one which will coincide with the debut of Ultimate Odin. From there, depending on how well the pulls go, I'll go for Ardyn. I'm gonna try my damndest to get Shantotto but I won't be able to drop gems on that and keep my budget for what comes in the future. So.. Here's hoping for the best
I've so far got Lyse, Keiss, Porom, P.Cecil (had to hes a major favourite), Lenna, Lightning, Galuf, Aphmau Arciela, Seifer and Squall fully maxed out, Squall I had been waiting a while to get his ex an as I had no luck in the starter banner 4ish months ago and I was lucky that it took very little pulls for his LD, I happened to luck into his BT while aiming for Tifa's EX.
I'm still finishing, Garnet, Rosa, D.Cecil, Leo, Alphinaud, Hope, Zidane and Shadow, they're Realised but not maxed and then I have others I need to realise but lack the books to do it, I really want to get Beatrix, Ramza and Auron realised.
Keiss, Lightning, Arceila and Aphmau I pulled because I heard they were really good to have and the rest have been as favourites or I really liked the look of them as units while investigating them.
Units I really want but haven't been around to pull on their banners are Zack, Vivi, Celes, Locke, Terra, Yuffie, Kuja, Laan and Reynn and Agrias.
I do prefer favourites to meta thats why i'm on the fence about the Amidatelion Banner because amazing as the unit is I've no particular interest in Deuce or Layle. Whereas the Garland Banner I like more.
I like the look of Noctis as a unit so I plan to pull for him but P.Cecil is the one I want the most out of all units to max out completely once his LD and BT come on the scene. Cloud, Zidane and Terra are the others i'll be aiming for to fully max out but I don't plan to chase anyone else's BT really.
I will say resources are not a problem right now as a still early days player so I can pull quite easily with either Gems or Tickets if i'm willing to work on the summon boards which with my freepass activated I am grinding away quite happily right. I heard some people say keep the free one until Odin because of the super synergy and stuff but its more benefical for me now to use it rather than wait til then for gems and tickets.
That is a very good point. There are some characters who are the only characters that can do a particular thing. And they are almost always worth pulling for to have in your back pocket.
Like... that's why I pulled for Keiss. He's the only character I know of who can force characters other than himself to Knockback enemies. Which leads to some really fun turn order shenanigans. And his debuff is fun too.
Auron too is like that. He is one of the very few characters that has the Meele Resist Down debuff and I have a lot of Meele characters.
The list goes on... but... general buffers and DPS are very common. For those... you're best off picking ones that don't overwrite each other's buffs or cause the number of buffs on people to be more than 6. Other than that, for the general DPS guys, have fun with them. They are a lot easier to pimp out to full gear and passives if you aren't chasing too many of them all at once. Get a good three or four guys going that can clear most stuff and then slowly expand your pool as draws come up.
I'm honestly not the biggest fan of the new draw system, because the way I built a lot of my non-main characters up was by getting random equips from pulls and then later leveling them up with power orbs (I probably got gear for 3/4 of all the characters in the game without drawing from banners that featured them). So I honestly see the number of characters I use stagnating rather than growing... because I'll be pulling less overall as I save up gems. As in... there's no point in spending anything on banners when there's nothing new to get... and I still have characters that are on 15cp gear. It's really the end of accumulating more gear for everyone overall in my eyes.
The new system really encourages spending lots of draw tickets/gems at once when a very specific character is up rather than nickeling and diming pulls. Which is... great if you know you want gear for a specific character. The thing is... It puts a lot of burden on the player to go research out character kits and see how they play and if they're worth spending stuff on to fit into their current pool of characters. It just feels like it kills experimenting with characters if I don't think I really need them because I have someone else that is already in their "slot". Because it'll be impossible to get gear for them from pulls that don't feature them. The only way to get them will be the Weapon Shops and like... those tokens are really hard to get and I usually skip them because clearing Chaos quests requires gems for me still. Completing them isn't in the cards at all. So I kinda can't count on those.
Like... I didn't know the change to how banners worked had happened until after I did all the Squall and Amidatelion pulls and wondered why I was only getting weapons for people in the banner (there was nothing in the patch notes that said what the change to the actual banners was). If I had known about the change... I probably wouldn't have pulled on them at all... because I didn't feel like I needed either of them and the other characters in the banner I already either had all their weapons already or never used them. There was... no reason for me to pull for Squall or Amidatelion.
IDK... obviously this change makes people spend more gems, which is the point... but I feel like it really encourages people to ignore characters that just don't get draws/banners very often because they'll have to spend coins for those weapons if they don't take advantage of the draws and those cost... a lot of effort to get. Given that there are some characters that just end up in banners way more than others do, it feels like a way to artificially limit what characters are worth paying attention to, just because getting their equipment takes a lot more effort and investment. And I think that is a shame. It's like... the only characters worth building up were the ones I got weapons for before the Draw System changed... which will... also be the only ones really worth drawing the LD/Burst weapons for... the reasoning on deciding to pull or not feels really circular.
Long story short, I just see myself pulling less on draws then ever before which will result in less characters with anything more than an 15cp weapon. And that's... not a fun realization to have...
From looking at the JP time-line... you're probably looking at this list of characters getting weapon draws. The number of asterisks indicate if they get more than one banner in this time frame....
This started around mid-November of last year until now... so... 8 months. In that time... nearly all the characters have been on a banner at least once... but around 44% of the characters have only had one banner in that time. If you bump that up to characters with one or two banners, that's around 75% of the characters. So like... this really pushes people to draw on character they might want... and once that banner is over, people had better hope that character comes up again. And once that banner is gone... good luck getting those weapons in a way that don't invovle tokens.
It's... probably not a good thing I don't think the new characters coming out are going to be worth investing in... when I have a bunch of EX weapons to Realize and LDs/Burst for characters that are allready fully developed to pull. Unles you really are spending money, leveling up the EX weapons is... annoying.
I actually don't mind the new draw system, but the benefit I did indeed find with the off banners was it got me CP 15 weapons for units I didn't have yet so automatically introduced them to me which made it more fun to have a go with them and get to know a bit more about their kit but had also given me the benefit for if their actual banner does roll around again I have them fully leveled (and crystalled if they're a favourite) so don't need to put so much work into them apart from pulling their EX weapons or CP 35s.
Oh yeah one thing I find very grindy that I guess is the only thing I don't like only a small thing mind, is levelling from 50-70 even on Sundays with the golden cactuars is a bitch even with a book on when its not a character with x2 EXP currently going for them.
The problem is I haven't played long enough to accumulate tokens but its not a big deal.
So far I think Eald'narche I regret, I know he's very recent but I pulled for him because of his ability to delay and people were going on about how good he was but I actually find him difficult to use rotation wise and his actions are slow so he's sorta just sitting there waiting to be realised but finding at the moment I don't want to use him.
Golbez as well, was super excited to get him cause its FFIV but was disappointed by his kit and now he just sits there unused.
Edit: So I went into full ticket mode 300 tickets later WOL and Garlands full sets, and Amidatelion's EX
Time to start summon board grinding again for those tickets
I'm not pulling on Shantotto... Not because I don't like her... but because I have a fully built up Sephiroth. And his LD and BT weapons (and effects) are really, really good. So I'm saving up gems/tickets to pull like crazy for him when his stuff eventually comes out. Also... I have a ton of magic characters already. Many of which are fully built up. I don't need any more of them.
List of characters with LD and BT weapons in JP
53 out of 143 characters (37 % of characters)
Reno
Keiss
Penelo
Ceodore
Kurasame
Ardyn
Gabranth
Desch
Ciaran
Bash
Machina
Noctis
Lightning
Ramza
Firion
Onion Knight
Vaan
Warrior of Light
Guy
Gladiolus
Jack
Caius
Exdeath
Belatrix
Garland
Cecil (Paladin)
Sephiroth
Celes
Squall
Cecil (Dark Knight)
Cloud
Xande
Strago
The Emperor
Aerith
Krile
Shantotto
Rude
Gau
Eight
Hope
Aranea
Nine
Kimahri
Edward
Amidatelion
Eald'narche
Arciela
Kam'lanaut
Ultimacia
Rinoa
Kefka
Kudja
17 out of 143 characters (11.88 % of characters)
Ardyn
Noctis
Lightning
Ramza
Firion
Onion Knight
Vaan
Warrior of Light
Cecil (Paladin)
Sephiroth
Squall
Cloud
The Emperor
Shantotto
Ultimacia
Kefka
Kudja
It should be noted you can only use one Burst Phase per fight, so you don't really need as many characters to have BT Weapons... but that does mean you really do want to take a character with a Burst Phase to every fight and that limits what combinations of characters you'll want to bring with them...
Well some last gasp attempts complete with frantic summon board mining on Squall banner yielded two Squall EX (which I already have max LB), two Auron 35, another Squall 35, Squall and Steiner 15s, Squall LD and ... a Steiner EX? No Auron EX which is what I was really hoping for but at least he doesn't just have his 15CP anymore and Squall LD is nice, as for Steiner it's not like I don't like him, he might have his day to shine depending and when that day comes it'll be nice to have him kitted?
I went to play the JP version for a while but I still have time for the Shantotto and Amidatelion banners. For Totto I need the BT and LD and still need the LD and EX for Ami. I would also really like Krile EX which I've been trying to get forever but it keeps evading me, Aerith needs her sphere! However Alisaie is on the other banner and apparently she is very good with her EX+ now so it depends how things go maybe I'll be able to switch banners if Krile EX drops early or I might try the other banner first. WOW never mind I just logged in to check I got the number of Squall EX right, collected some rewards from the push back challenge, used the tix and got Krile EX!
I'm skipping Alisaie, she seems kinda fun but tricky to use rotation wise from what I heard, but I do like Krile have her partially built but not sure if I want to go for her.
But yay for Ultimecia and Paine.
Ultimecia Is a bit of a favourite so I want her, looking forward to playing her LC at the mo too and I've always liked Paine and her story in X-2 even if shes not the best going in terms of characters so she's a bonus.
I was going to hold back some reserves but I want both of these guys, I can always go back to summon board farming will want to to get ultimecia and Paine mastered at any rate.
Edit: woo first 10+1 banner pull Ultimecia's Ex ? and and the second one gave me her cp 15 and cp35 thats lucky ?
I've had a lot of accidental luck with banners. When Aerith came out first, I pulled on her banner about 4 times and got nothing for her but enough to LB Steiner's 15 and 35. Steiner's EX comes and I pull for that...get nothing but Beatrix EX, after I'd already EX+ it.
Pulled for Noel when he came out, got nothing. Pulled for Caius, and in 2 pulls and about 10-20 tickets I get enough to MLB Noel's 15,35 and 2LB his EX.
Not interested in Alisaie, but 2 pulls and some tickets on Shantotto's banner while going for Eiko gets me her 15, 35 and EX dupes.
I didn't get anything for Paine either, but just managed to get her EX while trying to get Ultimecia's.
I've had a lot of accidental luck with banners. When Aerith came out first, I pulled on her banner about 4 times and got nothing for her but enough to LB Steiner's 15 and 35. Steiner's EX comes and I pull for that...get nothing but Beatrix EX, after I'd already EX+ it.
Pulled for Noel when he came out, got nothing. Pulled for Caius, and in 2 pulls and about 10-20 tickets I get enough to MLB Noel's 15,35 and 2LB his EX.
Not interested in Alisaie, but 2 pulls and some tickets on Shantotto's banner while going for Eiko gets me her 15, 35 and EX dupes.
I didn't get anything for Paine either, but just managed to get her EX while trying to get Ultimecia's.
Here's a forecast until April. These change constantly depending on what we get in comparison to JP. You'll find a few of them around the subreddit, but this guy's is a little easier to understand:
https://dissidiadb.com/ General DFFOO database, great place to look up weapons, characters and artifact passives.
https://www.tonberrytroupe.com/ General infographic site. Has a lot of good advice about strategy, team comp, etc. Has a really good timeline of all the JP banners so you can plan your pulls efficiently!
https://dissidiainfo.com/chocobo-panel-missions/ List of all the Chocobo Panel Missions; most importantly, where you can always find certain monsters. Also has a good timeline of upcoming events based on JP.
This is a pretty exciting update also I love doing hunt quests in ff12 so this is a nice change.
My next units I really want are Rinoa, Edward, Zack's banner is coming back with the Turks and I want his EX, I also want the Turks, and P.Cecil Ld and Burst when he comes around. They're my next future favourite units that I have books set aside and ingots for.
WOL I went all out on when Garland's LD Banner came while he's not a favourite as such I have this need to complete his kit.
