Which Parter Cards do you typically use?

[UnLucky]

We all know NPCs can't do nearly as much as a real player, but do you still take them mainly for the extra damage they dish out?

If not, what else do you look for?

If you just like that particular player/character and want to give them FUN points or just enjoy having them around, do you ever wish they had set up their class combination differently?

Assume you had a large list of NPCs to choose from who all have every single class maxed out. What kind of party would you form?

It just gets me thinking whenever I see an AI FO/FI doing negligible damage and a GU/RA being fairly useless outside of the occasional misplaced Weak Bullet.

Would you take a RA/TE NPC purely for support? A bunch of melee to hitstun mobs? Or just try to gain favor with Lisa in hopes that she won't eventually kill you?

[FacelessRed]

I am making my own alt character to use as a my exclusive almost always with my partner. I generally use my friend cards.

[Requiem Aeternam]

I normally use NPCs so larger swarms of enemies appear or to draw some attacks away from me. As for the ones I pick to take with me I just pick 3 from my Friend List or non-friend NPCs to improve their happiness. I don't really care about the class of the character. The FUN points are also a nice bonus ^^

[Enforcer MKV]

Cornelia, JOE, Farrid, Lorilae, Serizawa (Wayu)

All player characters. I don't have Revelle or Furie unlocked yet, or I'd use those too. ^^;

[UnLucky]

I am making my own alt character to use as a my exclusive almost always with my partner. I generally use my friend cards.

Which class did you decide to make for that purpose? Did you choose simply because it's a different class than your main that you always wanted to try? Or specifically to help your main class in some way?

[Punisher106]

I normally run solo. NPCs tend to screw everything up.

[Cyron Tanryoku]

No one uses Cyron

She's creepy

[UnLucky]

I normally run solo. NPCs tend to screw everything up.

How so? Knockback/knockdown/repositioning (WL, Zondeel), or bad weak bullets?

What if you had a friend who went totally unarmed and only buffed and healed you? Would that screw everything up for you? (I'm legitimately curious, this is not rhetorical)

[Tachesis]

I tend to be roleplaying in my head when i'm doing that, so whoever suits the moment, with their idioms in check; For instance, I only take zeno and echo if both are going, barring a quest which requires me to take one and only one. I usually take alfin, because he's the protagonist's pard. I only take lisa if everyone else is a ranger.

etc, etc.

[Jakosifer]

I use Alfin, Jean, Lisa cuz WB's
Or a waifu squad of assorted kawaiis that have varying levels and abilities, the most useful ability being to brighten my day by having the best looking characters in the game. *_*

Also, 3 NPC's is better than being solo, least you get a bit more spawns.

[Z-0]

I use whoever I play with on my friendlist.

Don't really have anyone specific: It's who I fancy taking at the time.

[Vintasticvin]

Haree
Cornelia, JOE, Farrid, Lorilae, Serizawa (Wayu)

All player characters. I don't have Revelle or Furie unlocked yet, or I'd use those too. ^^;

*Cough Hareem King *cough cough* Just kidding lol.

@Topic I usually Take Luna Ralenz, an old good friend from PSU, Link KD, fourth slot is reserved to who I wanna use on a whim (Psych bich we all fear, Rogue Synthetic, Cornelia (how I got her carx is beyond me lol), random friend, or myself)

[BIG OLAF]

I use the bots of people that use mine often. Only fair. Others, not so much, if ever.

[VANNO]

If it's in the first few hours of playing I'll rotate to give everyone FUN points and relations. After that I like to use people who I'm close to or Enjoy seeing.

[blace]

3 accounts, 3 characters. All different classes.

[yoshiblue]

Enforcer , Neona, and Fortuna: Team Heal Boat

Or

Serizawa (Wayu) , Davith, and Fear: Team Skull Buster

[LK1721]

Playing as a RA/TE I usually tend to pick NPCs that will make decent meat shields or Zondeel spammers. For my HU alt I take along my main for WB and heals followed by even more healers.

[Punisher106]

How so? Knockback/knockdown/repositioning (WL, Zondeel), or bad weak bullets?

What if you had a friend who went totally unarmed and only buffed and healed you? Would that screw everything up for you? (I'm legitimately curious, this is not rhetorical)

Well, Melphonise kind of supported this reason, when she blew up a barrel next to me in chapter 7, effectively one-shotting me.

There's also Echo and her horribly weak Zonde, where I'm trying to pull all the mobs in, and she zaps one of the ones I pulled in with Zondeel, thinking her whole 12 points of damage is helping. They also tend to randomize a mob's focus, so I can't really anticipate their next move correctly, knowing they might go for an NPC instead of myself. I could be leaping in the air, about to RW, say, a Mizer, and by the time I launch myself at them, they suddenly turn off to take out one of my partners, leaving me to faceplant into the metal floor. Don't forget that when I'm a RA or a GU, and I WB a weak spot, Afin tends to go "HURR DURR I HELP" and weak bullet, say, a Ragne's claw, or a Vol Dragon's wing.

[Xaeris]

Generally, I'll take whoever. Sometimes I'll specifically take a bot that I know is good at burning/poisoning things when I'm doing missions where that would be helpful.

[UnLucky]

Well, Melphonise kind of supported this reason, when she blew up a barrel next to me in chapter 7, effectively one-shotting me.

There's also Echo and her horribly weak Zonde, where I'm trying to pull all the mobs in, and she zaps one of the ones I pulled in with Zondeel, thinking her whole 12 points of damage is helping. They also tend to randomize a mob's focus, so I can't really anticipate their next move correctly, knowing they might go for an NPC instead of myself. I could be leaping in the air, about to RW, say, a Mizer, and by the time I launch myself at them, they suddenly turn off to take out one of my partners, leaving me to faceplant into the metal floor. Don't forget that when I'm a RA or a GU, and I WB a weak spot, Afin tends to go "HURR DURR I HELP" and weak bullet, say, a Ragne's claw, or a Vol Dragon's wing.
Well, you could take Zeno or Marlu! They don't use Zonde or Weak Bullet. You'd also get heals and buffs. I understand, though, that NPCs can be a pain sometimes.

[Railkune]

I don't always use Partner Cards, but when I do, I bring Echo.

[Hrith]

Damage from NPCs or FPs is irrelevant, I only get them for their relative utility roles.

If I do not have Resta, I get healers. NPCs suck at healing, but FPs set to 'healer' AI are damn good healers, better than most human players, that's how sad it is. Too bad the morons forget to remove anything annoying from their palettes such as Razan or Zondeel, it really ruins the game.

If I have Resta, I am therefore not gunner or ranger, so I get WB users, both NPCs (Lisa, Aki, Jean, Affine) and FPs use WB quite regularly.



If you want your FP to be useful, know a few things: your FP will use the weapon in slot 1 95% of the time and the PA in slot 1 of that weapon 95% of the time too, so if you want to be useful:
-Rifle: have a good SE on it and use One Point.
-Launcher: Cracker Bullet.
-Machineguns: preferably a pair with a good SE and Infinity Fire - do not use Elder Rebellion on your machinegun-using FP.
-Gunblade: nothing good or bad. Slash Rave tends to disable targets very effectively without being too annoying. If you have a good SE on it, use Addition Bullet.
-Sword: Sonic Arrow.
-Wired lances: Holding Current.
-Partisan: Speed Rain.
-Daggers: Dark Scherzo.
-Double saber: Deadly Archer or Acro Effect.
-Knuckles: Pendulum Roll.
-Rods/cards/wands: anything but Zondeel and Razan. Megid for poison is a good choice.

Even if you do not use those PAs yourself, they are usually the best ones to use on a FP.


Important note: people, remove Zondeel, Razan and other unbelievably annoying shit from your palettes (main and sub) and disable auto-words before updating your card, khtxbai.

[Jungo Torii]

I actually haven't used any partner cards in a long time.

If I wanted to they'd probably be the friends I've made within my team most of the time.

(Especially Tajima because he's OP)

[MetalDude]

Tsundere with Savior is really nice. Supports you when you get hurt and there's always that slight chance they can revive you (they will in fact revive players on the rare occasion).

[ReaperTheAbsol]

I pretty much always bring Yuri, Luna Ralenz and Ciel, but I give my other friends a chance since I usually stock up on FUN. I also bring myself along at times so I can get a build suited to my needs.

[UnLucky]

I pretty much always bring Yuri, Luna Ralenz and Ciel, but I give my other friends a chance since I usually stock up on FUN. I also bring myself along at times so I can get a build suited to my needs.
feel like I gotta pry this outta everyone
What kind of build do you find useful for an NPC Parter?

[Blackheart521]

Nassandra, Ce'Nedra and Cornelia because all of those folks are cool in my books ^^;

[fires2dust]

When I run out of fun points to earn from bringing friends, I switch to npcs. I use them all.. mostly just to raise affection parameters because their way of speaking towards you the higher it is, is different. It makes me curious to know their responses.

If I were using my main TE/Fo, I'd mostly pick Zeno. Mostly because he doesn't go down easily compared to others (...and character bias, mostly). *cough* If I were using Ranger, I'd pick Force or Techer characters. But I still wouldn't pick Marlu if I didn't need to, her evasive skills are next to none, she goes near enemies, her holy attacks aren't that great imo... and she's my least favorite character so.. yeah.

[Temprus]

I have two other accounts (none of my characters are on the same account), so unless I'm doing a CO or actually playing with people, I'm always bringing along my own NPCs.





Important note: people, remove Zondeel, Razan and other unbelievably annoying shit from your palettes (main and sub) and disable auto-words before updating your card, khtxbai.

Don't like autowords? Disable them yourself in your own options. The rest of us will use them and update FPs with them to add character.

[MetalDude]

I want to disable specific players' auto-words, not everyone's. I play with people who are generally conservative with them. Getting into character is cool, but seeing an auto-word for every attack, PA, code occurrence, code completion, heal, support, and damage taken is excruciatingly obnoxious.

[Scale of Judgment]

I use fp that annoy friends in my group just for entertainment purposes. Other than that, I mostly solo and take target partner for co.

[MetalDude]

I like to bring those kind of FPs along to make a point and be annoying at the same time. I'd just get sick of my own character spewing 100 phrases a mission.

[luca_maygrinn]

I make it a point to use ALL of my friends on my list who are at my same level. Since the game matches their levels to mine, it makes it all the easy to get them all for whatever mission that needs to be done. those that fall below my level for a week's time tend not to be chosen until I've exhausted the list of same-level Friend Partners.

People take time to add me on their friends list, so I make it a point to let them know that I appreciate it. A quick use of their Friend Partner allows me to do that without a lengthy email. And they get FUN points to boot.

It doesn't really matter what they have to contribute as Friend Partner. If that friend is currently offline and/or unavailable to party with, my default response is to just add their NPC.
I only go solo if the game doesn't allow me the partner option.

[Syklo]

When I'm using friend partners for FUN only: The highest leveled characters, without regard to class since they're mostly useless anyway.

When I'm done FUN Farming- switch to npcs.

Assuming that I've achieved the "Clear 100 times with ___ NPC" titles for each partner, i'd' either go with:
Revelle, klotho and Marlu (Sexy voices <3)
OR
2 Rangers + a Force.

[TaigaUC]

I used to use Marlu and Echo, but now I use my alts. I find that Forces are the most useful partners by far - healing, buffing, AOE and ranged with splash. I'm under the impression that melee and gun-based partners spend too much time pointlessly strafing and using regular attacks.

I have two high level Force alts configured for support and casting spells with splash damage effects (RaFoie, Megid). I've recently been experimenting with using "Lonely" instead of "Tsundere", in conjunction with area-of-effect spells that have elemental effects such as freeze, or RaFoie to keep enemies in hit stun. These kinds of secondary effects are far more useful than pitiful damage.

One of my Forces is a Ranger main, so I've set their subclass to Ranger to have them use Weak Bullet occasionally. Only useful when there isn't another Ranger, of course. I don't have them use Zondeel because it often pulls enemies away from carefully aimed attacks. Megiverse can also be useful at times, since the AI doesn't always heal when you need it.

[BIG OLAF]

Important note: people, remove Zondeel

WHAT.

[Kondibon]

WHAT.I can actually see where he's coming from. Having npcs vacume up all the mobs while you're in the middle of using melee PAs and then having them wiff sounds annoying.

I'm certainly not as adamant about it as he is though.

[Hrith]

[...] seeing an auto-word for every attack, PA, code occurrence, code completion, heal, support, and damage taken is excruciatingly obnoxious.This.
No one gives a shit about RPing to begin with, let alone when summoning an AI.


WHAT.Zondeel is THE most hindering technique a party can suffer, it's even worse when it's not a real human player using it.

[Temprus]

It would be nice if we could script a little bit for our NPCs so that they could use Zondeel effectively. Only on a rare occasion does my Karyna as an NPC actually ignite it with a zonde. Just a little bit of FFXII linking of attacks would be nice. Zondeel -> Zonde/Gizonde 100% would be perfect.

[Crysteon]

I invite anything that can use WB randomly >_>

And lol at Zoldeel complaining. It's not that bad, really.

[Resanoca]

I invite anything that can use WB randomly >_>

And lol at Zoldeel complaining. It's not that bad, really.
You invite me though, right? >:

Also, how is that tech so bad...? lol I love when forces use it. Allows me to insta-rape everything.

[UnLucky]

Zondeel is THE most hindering technique a party can suffer, it's even worse when it's not a real human player using it.

Thank you for your earlier reply, it was exactly what I was hoping to see in this thread.

But Zondeel, when used effectively and regularly, can be extremely good for all players. If you can recognize when someone would want to Zondeel, you can make great use of it, even- no, especially as a melee class.

NPCs can often get it entirely wrong, though, like catching only a single mob at a time. That much I understand, so it's a good idea to keep in mind how your own Partner Card will behave with your setup, and adjust accordingly.

[Cyron Tanryoku]

Apparently those with rifles tend to get stuck in sneak shoot....even when it's not set (Me seeing my npc do moves I didn't set)
So I tend to prefer only launchers for NPCs

[Syklo]

It would be nice if we could script a little bit for our NPCs so that they could use Zondeel effectively. Only on a rare occasion does my Karyna as an NPC actually ignite it with a zonde. Just a little bit of FFXII linking of attacks would be nice. Zondeel -> Zonde/Gizonde 100% would be perfect.
Yes.

Give us a gambit-like system!

[TaigaUC]

Zondeel is bad on bosses that are affected by it when you're trying to setup a weak bullet. "Ahh yes, I have its weak point in my sights..." *ZZIPP!*