Welp, I've Never Quit a Final Fantasy Before...

[Sherk]

Salamander is too annoying. I hate that his fire breath destroys your casters and he sometimes goes first, preventing you from recovering from him doing it at the end of the last turn.

Any game that forces you to endure the boredom of a grind is not worth playing. The fact that I can not win using the party that I have is absolutely insulting, because it means that I have to go out and grind different jobs just so that I might be able to tank the boss. This is unfun and bad game design.

[Sehkter]

Did you get ice equipment?

Fire breath only happens when it drops to about 1700 HP, at which point your black mage or anyone with high intellect should use an arctic wind to kill it outright. You can have everyone else throw antarctic winds while you're at it, just in case.

The trick is to carefully count your damage (up to 4000) so that you kill it during the same round you drop it to 1700 so that it doesn't end a round with fire breath, and then opens the next one with another fire breath to wipe your party.

[Sherk]

Originally posted by Michael Keaton best Batman:

Did you get ice equipment?

Fire breath only happens when it drops to about 1700 HP, at which point your black mage or anyone with high intellect should use an arctic wind to kill it outright. You can have everyone else throw antarctic winds while you're at it, just in case.

The trick is to carefully count your damage (up to 4000) so that you kill it during the same round you drop it to 1700 so that it doesn't end a round with fire breath, and then opens the next one with another fire breath to wipe your party.

Oh yeah, dude. I hecka used ice equipment on a thief and a warrior. I actually switched from monk to warrior so I could use the ice armor. It doesn't seem to mitigate the damage from Fire Breath at all, though. And honestly, it's my WHM and my BLM that need the health, since they keep my party alive and do the damage. It's just frustrating because the damn Salamander can do an attack and a fire breath and really just destroy my healer or my caster. When I am put into the position where I have to use Phoenix Downs, it's pretty much over.

[LilG]

This an old school RPG where grinding levels was necessary to beat bosses, it's not a bad design this is how it used to be, the original version was much harder. FF3 has a job system so it's best to experiment with various job combinations to beat enemies.

The remake did make some of the bosses use cheap combos since nearly all of them attack twice in 1 turn.

Ice equipment does reduce the damage a bit, but make sure you've got ice weapons equipped to your team, they do a bit more damage than normal weapons.

Warrior can equip the set, but thief I'd switch out since they're pretty squishy in this game. Salamander is lv19 so its best to grind so you're above that level & if you don't already have it get the Blizzara & cura spells from The Village of the Ancients.

[Miles]

Just asking based on the fact the only other played final fantasy you have on your profile is 14, but what FFs have you played to completion?

[Sherk]

Originally posted by Karkoff:

Just asking based on the fact the only other played final fantasy you have on your profile is 14, but what FFs have you played to completion?

1, 9, 10, 12. I do often lose interest and not finish RPGs.

[Sk≈³]

I don't blame you, this FF is long, and grind heavy. (Only posting for badge, lazy)

[LilG]

Originally posted by Yulf Amani:

I don't blame you, this FF is long, and grind heavy. (Only posting for badge, lazy)

The older FF games were really short due to NES limitations back then & this remake just added a couple of extra easy sidequests, how is this long? Grinding lvs is a mechanic in practically all RPGs even this one.

[Sherk]

Originally posted by Yulf Amani:

I don't blame you, this FF is long, and grind heavy. (Only posting for badge, lazy)

TFW beat that boss and then run into the third ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ dungeon where you have to use ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ mini/toad.

[LilG]

If you don't like old school RPG mechanics then maybe this game isn't for you.

[Sehkter]

I explained how to beat Salamander without grinding. The only grinding I did in this game was for the iron giant, the optional superboss. If your party's job selection isn't horrible and you explore thoroughly for all treasures, you can beat the game without ever stopping to grind exp or job levels.

[Sherk]

Originally posted by LilG:

If you don't like old school RPG mechanics then maybe this game isn't for you.

I'm fine with plenty of them. FF's 1, 2 and 4, DQ 1-4, Mother, the hardest ones are fine.

[Carl!!!!]

If you're having such a hard time keeping white mage and black mage alive, you might try a couple things:

Have the white mage cast cure on the whole party each round, or cura if your health is dropping.

Make sure both your mages are in the back row.

Swap warrior for knight (for the covery ability and use of level 1 white magic (more cure).

Thief should be fine. I used thief for this fight, pretty sure you get at least an ice dagger. Thief is easy to gain job levels with as well, so he was my highest damage dealer at the time.

[ditt_25]

If you're still having problems (it's been a few weeks), maybe you can try using a Red Mage instead of a White Mage for your healer? You may have to be a bit more careful on MP use since you get fewer spells per level. But the improvement in defensive gear helps prevent some of the squishy/cheap deaths and still leaves you with whichever caster (damage or healer) you need if one of the two falls. On turns where yuo don't need the healing, you can have him USE the Ice staff as an item to cause a decent amount of damage.

I actually ran two Red Mages, instead of one White and one Black, for that fight on my second playthru (first PC playthru, played DS version years ago). Yeah, individually one Red Mage doesn't hit as hard or heal as hard on a single action, BUT it gives you better bulk and the option to double up on attacking or double up healing on turns where one of the colored mages would normally have been a wasted turn. Plus even if one dies, you still have both caster roles available.

True, Red Mage is far outclassed during lategame. But for earlygame such as this, it's an extremely viable option.

[Sherk]

Originally posted by ditt_25:

If you're still having problems (it's been a few weeks), maybe you can try using a Red Mage instead of a White Mage for your healer? You may have to be a bit more careful on MP use since you get fewer spells per level. But the improvement in defensive gear helps prevent some of the squishy/cheap deaths and still leaves you with whichever caster (damage or healer) you need if one of the two falls. On turns where yuo don't need the healing, you can have him USE the Ice staff as an item to cause a decent amount of damage.

I actually ran two Red Mages, instead of one White and one Black, for that fight on my second playthru (first PC playthru, played DS version years ago). Yeah, individually one Red Mage doesn't hit as hard or heal as hard on a single action, BUT it gives you better bulk and the option to double up on attacking or double up healing on turns where one of the colored mages would normally have been a wasted turn. Plus even if one dies, you still have both caster roles available.

True, Red Mage is far outclassed during lategame. But for earlygame such as this, it's an extremely viable option.

Thanks for the tips, I actually did get far past that part I was stuck at after going back to it. Now I'm trying to get both Gungnirs. :/

[Vicky Ray]

Not sure if anyone else might find this useful but I originally had the same problem but what i did was hopped on my boat and trained up my party [blackmage/whitemage/thief/redmage] i used thief to steal a bunch of antarctic winds off the water monsters. they basically all carry them. when my team was at around lvl 21/22 and job levels in the 20s also i went back in and it was much easier. used blizzara a couple times along with some arctic winds while using white mage to cure and thief to use high potions to keep everyone up. after about 3 rounds of attacks i won pretty easy.