Lightning, better pick ravager or commando?

[Xiaosen]

suggest?

[Xiaosen]

sazch : aldebaran have the best raw status 1.150 magic or just pick antares deluxe?
vanille : fix, I ll use belladonna wand for better chance of death, LOL
snow : I think I ll use paladin for improve guard + sombine with acc's
hope : between haweye or Otshirvani, Otshirvani have siphon boost ability for atk speed speed right? the max magic 917 vs 713
fang : fix, I ll use taming pole
lightning : edged carbine or organix?or lionheart maybe

need more advice, thanks :)

[Grim Revan]

I mostly use Vanilee as SAB as one of her weapons boosts her ability to apply debuffs. She is almost always SAB, RAV, or MED in my lineups. SAB can also slow down the Stagger bar degrading rate, but not as well as COM. I usually us COM/RAV/RAV followed by SAB/RAV/RAV for tougher mobs then finish them with damage.

Also note that once you fully fill the ATB bar you can switch to another Paradigm and it will be full, so I usually have COM/RAV/RAV twice at the top of my list. Switching while a COM is in midair skips the change animation. Buffs and debuffs on this game have huge impacts in battle, so make sure to use them on big battles. Whenever someone is struggling against a boss it is probably because they are not implementing them properly

[letir]

Originally posted by Xiaosen:

ok, thanks guys
so, what the best weapon choice for every character?

Lighthing - Blazefire (for best raw stats) or Lionheart (for Quick Stagger). Axis Blade are good for fast charge, but have really weak stats.
Sazh - Vega 42s (balanced), Deneb Duellers (more magic oriented), Antares Deluxes (bonus for RAV), Spica Defenders (for SYN Sazh). Aldebarans have Leaden/Ironstrike, don't use it.
Hope - Vidofner (for support) or Otshirvani (for speed boost).
Vanille - Belladona Wand (good magic and boost for SAB) or Healer's Staff.
Snow - Paladine or Umbra (for SEN).
Fang - Taming Pole (if you never use her as RAV), Pandoran Spear (for SAB role) and Gae Bolg (for SEN). Dragonborn and Shamanic Spear can give Ultimate Defence.

[tiornys]

Originally posted by Xiaosen:

sazch : aldebaran have the best raw status 1.150 magic or just pick antares deluxe?

As noted above, the drawback on Aldebarans is too severe. If you want raw stats, your best bet is Rigels; Stagger Lock doesn't interfere with chain building; it only stops you from triggering a stagger once you reach the stagger point. As long as at least one person can trigger the stagger, it's not a big deal.

hope : between haweye or Otshirvani, Otshirvani have siphon boost ability for atk speed speed right? the max magic 917 vs 713

The extra Magic from Hawkeye has more impact than Siphon Boost in most battles.

lightning : edged carbine or organix?or lionheart maybe

Organyx has the same drawback as Aldebarans, and should be avoided for the same reason. Lionheart is vastly overrated. Quick Stagger sounds nice on paper, but in practice it does almost nothing, leaving you with an extremely expensive weapon that has mediocre stats.

Originally posted by mar:

Axis Blade are good for fast charge, but have really weak stats.

Axis Blade's ability is almost good enough to recoup its stat disadvantage, especially if you aren't good at hitting your ATB refreshes on time.

Vanille - Belladona Wand (good magic and boost for SAB) or Healer's Staff.

Healer's Staff is terrible. The extra Magic from Vanille's better weapons adds about as much extra healing as Improved Cure (depending on other factors), and the other benefits from that Magic more than outweighs any gap.

Fang - Taming Pole (if you never use her as RAV), Pandoran Spear (for SAB role) and Gae Bolg (for SEN).

Taming Pole is just fine for using Fang as a RAV. As noted above, Stagger Lock doesn't prevent you from helping to build towards stagger or from helping to boost the chain further after staggering. Gae Bolg is poor; its stat boosts are mediocre and Improved Counter doesn't really compensate.

[Leonhart]

I used to love Light as COM, until Fang came around.
Than I used this to the end of the game:

Light: RAV / COM / MED - Equipped with Lionheart
Fang: COM / SAB / SEN - Equipped with Taming Pole
Snow: RAV / SIN / MED - Equipped with Hawkeye

I used Snow and Vanille several times, but it was very situational. Tho I liked Vanille as RAV, Hope does a better match up with Fang.

[letir]

Originally posted by tiornys:

Originally posted by mar:

Axis Blade are good for fast charge, but have really weak stats.

Axis Blade's ability is almost good enough to recoup its stat disadvantage, especially if you aren't good at hitting your ATB refreshes on time.

There is plenty of metods to restore ATB charges faster, such as Haste and -siphon's. IMO, this bonus can't compensate 2x firepower of Blazefire. Especially then Paradigm Shift can restore full ATB every 12s - with high ATB player can just use Shift after full attack animation and restore ATB immediatly.
Can be useful for any support role, but Lightning is mostly Commando\Ravager.

Lionheart have useful bonus and Gestalt property - good combo.

[tiornys]

Taking into account Haste and -siphons, Axis Blade outdamages Lightning's other weapons unless you're doing regular ATB refreshes; with regular ATB refreshes, it falls behind Edged Carbine and Gladius. This thread has a pretty thorough discussion: http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/928790-final-fantasy-xiii/64956037

[letir]

Axis Blade's bonus working when you hit the enemy. It'very good against hordes, when player can use AOE attacks and gain ATB from every target.

But it's fall behind against single enemy, especially if you use ATB refresh every time (easer on slow speed).