e [link] [comments] WotV PvP Tactics & Mentality - Six Months of Mediena Bombs & how the Meta Evolves in PvP *** Registration is Now Open until 0/00 for the latest Live PvP tournament, organized by u/LongTimeGaming. There is no entry fee and everyone is guaranteed at least five rounds of combat! Please PM him or myself for details on how to register! *** ​ For today's entry I want to discuss one of the stronger live PvP strategies currently floating around the meta, particularly at the higher player ranks or with whales smurfing at lower ranks: The Medi (Mediena) Bomb. ​ What is a Medi Bomb? Let's start with an example formation: The non-Medi options are pretty flexible. One of the Mag VCs should be on Medi not House B for extra mag power. ​ And some idea of what AGI you should be able to see (00+) and other stats: My medi isn't close to tip top shape - I never use her in live PvP! Mediena's LB, Cosmo Plume, is well known throughout the community for its power, wide AoE range, and immediate availability. Coupled with Shukuchi Medi has a threat range of NINE squares (movement of 0 plus maximum effective range of 0) and so a forward deployed Medi can reach all possible starting locations except for two on the current PvP map: ​ Initial Deployment - Medi forward and centered. ​ From forward center Plume Medi can hit all possible squares except the back two corners - Cid and Mont are about to have a bad day! Once properly setup the execution of this strategy is as brutal as it is simple: Medi runs forward and tries to OHKO as many of the enemy team as possible. The remaining units in the Medi Bomb formation exist to provide clean-up in the event that enough of the enemy team survives to take out Medi. ​ Medi Bomb Breakdown - Synergies The Medi bomb, as it currently exists, comprises three major components: a Shukuchi Mediena, Agility, and as much Magic/Magic Attack equipment and VCs as can be mustered together. If you take away any of these components the win probability of the strategy plummets. Let's examine each in turn: ​ Shukuchi (and forward deployment) - Without Shukuchi and pushing Medi as far forward as you can you leave a lot of squares open where the enemy team can be hiding. No highly competitive team in live PvP is sticking to the default 'three across' formation! Agility - Medi's main weakness is her fragility. If Medi doesn't go first there's the chance that the opponent will have a high speed unit in place to OHKO Medi (i.e., Frederika) or will at least be able to reposition their faster units out of Medi's threat range. Shadow Runner on a Medi is a must of course, but VCs that yield AGI are crucial as well. Magic Attack - Being able to OHKO at least one enemy unit is essential - a unit with 0 HP is as dangerous as a unit with 0000 HP. A Platinum Rod +0, and a high level Trousseau are the most important elements. Mag from Ramuh is useful. You won't have Medi's own mag passive available due to needing Speed + Movement. ​ Responses to the Medi Bomb - Sample Formations So here are some sample formations I whipped up - note the screenshots are composites from my main account so levels and etc. are not going to be optimal. There are many variations possible, these are just starting points! ​ Option 0 - Go Faster than Medi ​ Gunner Girls that are faster than a Medi Bomb are close to a guaranteed win! The hardest counter to Medi bomb is a Fred that's faster than her - A properly kitted Fred can OHKO a Medi with sharpshoot off the bat without any external buffs. Because Medi + AGI VC is always faster then a Fred without, you will need to put AGI cards of your own on top of your Fred to ensure you go before the enemy Medi does. ​ Option 0 - Be able to survive the Plume ​ This is the second picture here - the first one had an impossible setup for Rain due to my photoshopping (I don't own Rain). There are of course characters that can survive a plume, even a plume from a super whaled out Medi. Rain is one of these - he's a magic tank off the bat and he has elemental advantage to Medi. Ayaka can stand your viktora back up post plume while Rain can OHKO the Medi. ​ Option 0 - Be able to Evade the Plume ​ Miranda is a super useful utility placeholder for these formations Vinera is pretty popular in live pvp these days due to her combination of speed, power, and high evade. She is essentially unhittable to teams that haven't geared with guaranteed hit options or stacked as much ACC as they can. I don't have a leveled up Vinera to test the above combination for exact hit percentages but an unbuffed Vinera should have about 000-000 evade depending on cards. Not exactly easy to hit with a plume! ​ ​ A Brief History of the Medi Bomb Finally, the changes in popularity to the Medi Bomb through time exemplifies the essential elements that define the 'meta' in live PvP: the outcome to nearly every match is a binary win or loss. Any team that is slightly better than another will win almost all the time holding all over elements equal. Medi's evolution in live pvp shows this perfectly. In the first weeks of WotV, Medi bombs were one of the most common formations available. Medi was I think the fastest launch character and once she hit level 00 she could OHKO most other units common at the time that were also at level 00 (Mont, Sterne, etc.). This meant that Medi could just run up and drop the other team. Lots and lots of Medi v Medi engagements were happening and Medi's dominance in PvE and PvP was often remarked on by jokes or commentary here and elsewhere. Flash forward to the FFT event or so and Medi bombs disappeared from competitive play. Two things happened: Frederika and increasing toughness of teams. Fred, as I said before, is a hard counter to Medi as long as she goes first and at this stage in the game almost no one had high AGI VCs so Freds melted Medis off the live PvP scene. A secondary effect was that everyone was getting to level 00 on their mains and starting to amass TMRs - Medi stopped being able to OHKO units. Medi Bombs stayed quiet for the months following FFT until Platinum Rod came out, then whales with +00% AGI off the House Beolve card could go first in most engagements and do enough damage to OHKO broad swaths of units. Now with FFT0 almost done plenty of dolphins or even minnows/f0p willing to proc 0-0 whimseys per day can have their 00% AGI cards so Medi bombs are more accessible. Essentially, the meta is an unstable equilibrium defined by a complex set of inputs and that binary output of winning/losing. As soon as Medi is one AGI slower then her hard counter *and that hard counter is common* she becomes worthless. Same with the tipping point between OHKO and survival. Right now medi bombs are fast and powerful - therefore viable against many team comps. ​ Well that wraps up today's post - this one turned out to be longer than I was expecting. Let me know if its too long in the comments and if you have any suggestions for future topics that you'd like a detailed breakdown on please let me know! ​ ​ ​ ------------------------------------------------ WotV PvP Tactics & Mentality is an irregularly updated series of posts about the most neglected aspect of WotV: Live PvP If you liked this post, feel read to my previous entries in the series: 0. WotV PvP Tactics & Mentality: Playing Ahead vs Playing from Behind 0. WotV PvP Tactics & Mentality: Getting the most out of the GUI and the OODA Loop ​ submitted by RedKnightRG to wotv_ffbe [link] [comments] An introduction to Linux through Windows Subsystem for Linux 