[GL] Team Overview – “Triple Threat” (Squall, Vaan, Sazh)

If you don’t mind, I’d like to share with you one of the teams I’ve been using a lot lately. Not because this is the best team in the world, but because it is so fun to use! I have written this team overview primarily from a beginner/intermediate standpoint. Alright, here it is!

Triple Threat

Sazh + Squall + Vaan

Required Materials: Sazh 35CP, Squall 35CP, Vaan 35CP

15CP passives strongly recommended, but team effectiveness can be achieved without them.

As the name implies, Team Triple Threat gets down to business – and that business is mindless brute force. Alone, Squall and Vaan are most potent melee and magical DPS units in Global, respectively. Adding Sazh to the team increases their damage to values that we had only thought we could reach once 60/60 awakenings came along. This is an extremely versatile DPS team – there is one memeber per damage type. Squall can pummel the enemy with melee abilities, Vaan’s magical skills melt through physical-resistant enemies while inflicting debuffs, and Sazh deals ranged damage from afar. This team specializes in dealing maximum damage as fast as possible, and because Opera Omnia’s scoring system preferentially awards points to completions with the fewest turns, Triple Threat excels.

As everyone knows (and complains about), Squall is no long-distance runner.

His abilities have some of the highest potencies in the game, but he burns out of juice relatively quickly if you don’t play your cards right. Although Solid Barrel and Blade Flurry – um, excuse me, Renzokuken – are powerful moves, they come with a catch. They are only top-tier moves if Squall uses them at 250% iBRV or less. When this condition is met, they become Solid Barrel+ and Renzokuken+. This means that you need to be paying attention to his BRV during the battle. Depending on your artifacts, this value could be very different from user to user – to be sure, check your Squall’s iBRV value and multiply it by 2.5 to see the value under which your current BRV must be to trigger the stronger versions of his moves. An average MLB Squall typically needs to be under 3000 BRV. Now let’s talk about the actual moves! Solid Barrel is one of the best BRV shavers in the game; if the enemy’s BRV is lit up with purple flames, chances are a good Solid Barrel will save your team from certain death. Renzokuken does almost as much BRV damage, but with the added bonus of following up with HP damage as well. Renzokuken grants Squall a bit of an extra kick with a mBRV boost and max ATK boost, but both of these buffs are child’s play compared to what Sazh will give him – we’ll talk about that in a minute.

Tip: You don’t have to calculate Squall’s iBRV. I just recommended doing that ahead of time. When in doubt, His skill commands will say “Solid Barrel+” or “Renzokuken+” on the right.

Vaan, Vaan, Vaan.

Like Squall, people like to think of Vaan as “a great support unit, but not much else.” I’d beg to differ. There are two aspects of Vaan’s kit that set him apart from other top DPS units. First, he debuffs. Sure, his DEF down debuff isn’t of Vanille potency, but it’s accompanied by insane amounts of damage. If you have no other debuffers on the team, he’s also boosting team DPS. So much for “selfish DPS.” He also occasionally – and when I say occasionally, I mean that 2/8 skill uses he has a “high chance” – inflicts blind to an enemy. If you can proc blind, and blind actually does what it’s intended to, you will be a very happy person. It’s always satisfying to see a giant, lumbering, blinded berserker miss a deathblow. The second aspect of Vaan’s kit that sets him apart is his unique ability to bypass maximum BRV. After 2 uses of his skills, Vaan “masters” them which triggers a follow up attack – doing HP damage twice. I am sure you can see why he is capable of incredible amounts of damage. Even though only 4/8 of his ability uses will trigger follow up attacks, he still essentially deals 12 BRV+HP attacks in 8 turns. Similar to Squall, he grants himself a small ATK up buff if you have his 15CP passive to be overshadowed by Sazh’s beneficence.

Sazh, God Emperor, Daddy.

Three-in-one. From meme to king. If you don’t have his 35CP weapon, then I don’t have confidence that you should be reading this guide. What makes Sazh even playable is the utility he receives with his 35CP. This weapon not only drastically boosts the DPS potential of the team (60% ATK up, 60% mBRV up, Large Crit. Rate Up), but converts Sazh from a ranged BRV shaver into a straight up DPS unit himself by turning his HP attack into a single hit BRV+HP attack (with high turn rate). For free. This is pretty wild, and it’s fun to spam. Sazh is the glue of this team – he takes two of the strongest DPS units in GL and makes them stronger. By giving them a giant ATK buff – and a giant mBRV buff to accompany more damage – he allows them to become damage dealing machines. Sazh himself won’t be doing most of the damage – unless you’re taking on some “ferocious” flying creatures. However, he will easily be dealing HP damage at maximum BRV every 2 turns given the fact that Aim is a 180% potency skill and his HP attack will preface with a 1-hit 100% potency BRV attack. A good father can take care of his team as well as himself.

Overall, the brute force “strategy” has been a long-time favorite of mine. Back in grade school when I wouldn’t even think about wasting a turn using that gross “protect skill,” I knew that fast, high damage was the way to go. Now I understand more of the strategy of turn based RPG’s, but boy is it fast to see enemies go down fast to high numbers. That said, I know that this approach isn’t for anybody.

Variations

This team is really based around Sazh, so you can build it around him to suit what you needs are. You can focus the team to make it melee, ranged, or magical. I would recommend keeping a DPS debuffer in the team in addition to another DPS unit who may or may not have additional utility. Here are a few options:

Buff Maximization Specialize

Sazh + Lightning + Papalymo

Switching Squall and Vaan for Lightning and Papa is probably one of the most effective/economical changes you can make. The reason Lightning is so effective is because her Commando buff grants her 20% increases to ATK and mBRV, but here’s the kicker – it’s unique. This means that her 20% increases stack with Sazh’s buffs, giving her a total of 80% boosts to ATK and mBRV. Papalymo has a similar system. He has 2 unique buffs, one for each of his skills. His Astral Flame buff grants him stackable increases of ATK and mBRV. Again, add Sazh and see Papa wreck things. See what I’m getting at here?

Magical Debuff Specialize

Sazh + Seymour + Papalymo

Pretty self-explanatory here. Seymour and Papalymo are heavy-hitting mages. This is obviously amplified by Sazh. Seymour’s debuffs (DEF down, ATK down, mBRV down) keep the enemy doing less damage to you while the whole team does more damage to the enemy. Sazh’s buffs are stacked with Papa’s unique buffs, granting added synergy to this lineup.

Physical Debuff/Launch Specialize

Sazh + Tidus + Cloud

Similar to the team above, Tidus’ debuffs (ATK down, DEF down, SPD down) allow less damage to be coming in while more damage goes out. An alternate name for this team might be “Shock and Awe,” simply because the enemy will have very, very few turns to act. Tidus inflicts SPD down II and has high turn rate skills. Sazh has incredibly high turn rate skills. Cloud not only has several chances to stun an enemy to skip its turn entirely, but also is capable of launching the enemy at will which grants extra turns. Cloud’s launch mechanism here has several uses. In allowing Sazh and Tidus to dump extra BRV gained from Aim and Quick Hit plus break bonuses, Finishing Touch grants Cloud a Physical ATK up buff. This stacks with Sazh’s ATK up buff to increase Cloud’s damage even further.

Most Damage Possible

Sazh + Kain + Vaan

Kain and Vaan are the two DPS units who are capable of the most HP damage in one turn, period. When combined with Sazh, the numbers become gif-worthy. Thanks to Kain’s unique buff that stacks with Sazh’s buffs and Vaan’s follow-up turns, enemies won’t have much time to try to figure out what just hit them.

Well that’s all I have for you for now, guys! I hope you have enjoyed it! If not, tell me why! Let me know what you think! I know a lot of people pulled for Vaan and Squall but may not use them that much anymore because people have said that they are only great support units!

TL;DR:

Use Sazh and 2 other people.

Take care guys.

Special credit: exxtradean