Is this where the difficulty spike starts?

Fate/Grand Order FGO Fluff
#1

So, just beat LB3. If I had to sum up my overall thoughts of it, I’d say it was as uninteresting as the previous 2 LBs as far as the story goes. The boss fights on the other hand, were quite something, especially the gauntlet of 3 fights from 15-3 to 16-2. I think they’re about as tough, if not tougher, than the Shimousa bosses albeit for very different reasons. Overall, I think all of the boss fights were very well designed as far as the gimmicks went, though a tad bit much for my wimpy ass lineup since I had to CS during the Li fight. Wasn’t sure I was gonna make it past the next 2 but somehow did it, after a few attempts. Completely unlike the previous 2 LBs where the bosses were fairly easy as I don’t really remember struggling through them like in LB3. The only boss I recall giving me trouble was Surtr.

Anyway, I was wondering if this is when the difficulty starts to ramp up for the LBs. Would appreciate if any JP players or such can give me a general sense of how much harder the future chapters will be since I think I’ll need to maybe get a few more units to cover up some of the weaknesses in my lineup which were made very apparent in LB3 lol.

I read a bit about LB3 before it came out and tbh everything I read was pretty accurate in terms of its difficulty. I haven’t read anything about LB4 since I wanted to avoid spoilers but at this point I care more about just being able to beat them, so I’d appreciate any tips or heads up.

Thanks in advance.

#2

Yes. Have fun. You shouldn’t worry about story fights for awhile, anyway. Lostbelt four doesn’t come out for months.

#3

I’m avoiding future LB info as well, but the real difficulty with most of these fights is in not knowing ahead of time which gimmicks will be deployed.

If you’re really concerned when LB4 comes around that you might struggle, consider looking at something like the GP boss guide right before you go in. Some spoilers are inevitable, but they’ll be limited to that fight’s mechanics.

Also, part of this LB’s challenge was just not being able to use MC skills at the start. No T1 plugsuit buff stacking or emergency swap for taunt, invuln, buff removal, or ignore invuln.

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#4

Also, part of this LB’s challenge was just not being able to use MC skills at the start. No T1 plugsuit buff stacking or emergency swap for taunt, invuln, buff removal, or ignore invuln.

This is literally the one thing that’s enabled me to beat all the previous LBs without much struggle lol. I doubt it’ll be a repeat mechanic so maybe the next ones won’t be as bad.

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#5

I don’t remember LB4 being too difficult, but the ending was pretty harsh. LB5 other hand, it’s like Camelot, especially LB5.2. The difficult spike raises too much in these two lostbelts.

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#6

That’s a little concerning but I hopefully will have my own Merlin and Tamamo by the time they drop along with maybe a better selection of DPS units. Thanks for the heads up.

#7

I can only imagine the difficulty spike that will come with LB 5.5 and onwards.
There has to be a reason, as to why they implemented this new item to do a full party-revive during story battles. I mean, other than helping players save Command Spells and SQ.

#8

Well, that was implemented for new players so they can rush the story, my guess. Despite being a lot harder than other lostbelts, I didn’t need to use CS or revive my party in these lostbelts.

#9

This. I got into a node where I brought AOE damage servants assuming I was fighting lots of enemies when I needed an ST to take down a boss. Second time, I knew what I needed, so the fight was an easy clear.

I know I could have looked up what I was facing, but that takes some of the fun out of it for me.

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#10

Well JP folk were saying for a long time (like, way before LB5.2 was out) that Tamamo and Jeanne would be useless yet they still aren’t? Has the difficulty increase been exaggerated? Anything to do with people and their inferior JP accounts (compared to their NA ones)? Perhaps some Skadi bias?

#11

I said due to Clairvoyance EX on NA, we have the ability to see what banners are coming up and knowing which ones to roll, making it easier to get and prepare servants (as long as you get them in your rolls) for the upcoming difficulty.

Compared to a lot of gacha, 2 years are really far down the line. Most games only have a year or half difference, some of them even catches up to their JP version.

#12

They weren’t totally wrong, though. Literally useless, of course not; of decreased value compared to before, arguably yes. In this LB alone, enemy Xiang Yu activates his s3 and bypasses Jeanne’s wall except for her defense buff, which is negligible for anyone not using a whaled Jeanne.

Grain of salt, maybe, but there’s some truth to those claims already.

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#13

The new stuff enables you to have an easier time generally, but people (especially JP players) are often too quick to throw out their old toys in favor of their new ones to the point of exaggerating their relative usefulness. The only truly useless strategy here is charmlocking seemingly because DW got tired of that particular cheese strat and made it impossible in most of the situations where it would be useful. Otherwise a player who knows what they’re doing and has a decent account can probably get by with the stuff they like to use even if that doesn’t involve Skadi.

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#14

Funny how, in more current content, the likelihood of Charm working is inversely proportional to how badly you want it to work.

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#15

na. true that the mystic code skills locked for a couple of turns, every fight could be handled if you leveled your servants, both low rarity and your expensive ones.

the actual difficulty starts happening next lostbelt, and then the 5th lostbelt is wher you’re gonna have to have all of your servants leveled and you’re gonna have to deal witth forced mash and many forced support that in no way helps you with the battle and is very much a hindrance to alot of strategies.

#16

I heard there is a story fight with forced support in Yuga Kurukshetra/LB4. That enemy has ignore invincibility and crits hard. Probably the hardest battle in LB4.

#17

Eh, don’t worry guys. As long there’s CS & SQ, there always be a way :fgo_gudako:

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#18

I managed to beat all of the LB3 fights without tapping my bond 10 units, partly because Skadi is still bond 9. Though by the time LB4 drops I should have enough bond grails to drag Waver/Merlin out of retirement.

I can see how some of these fights would be challenging to newer players with less developed rosters though. I basically just overpowered everything with SSR units (Melt + 2 Skadi for 15-3, Dantes + 2 Skadi, backline Melt + Sitonai + someone I forgot for 16-1, Shinjuku doggo + 2 Skadi, backline Melt + Sitonai + Gorgon for 16-2). Even if I couldn’t min-turn like in those meme videos, usually I’d have broken a couple of bars or done quite a lot of damage before the backline steps in.

#19

My bad habit of neglecting to change my backline got me into some tighter fights than I’d like (turns out level 3 Sitonai isn’t much of a Saber killer - who knew!), but now I have a proper 6-slot strategy rather than banking on my frontline I can normally pull out a win, even with a full lineup of bond-boosting CEs on everyone bar my key DPS and Cu Alter in the anchor slot.

The difficulty is continuing to creep upwards but so is the power level of new Servants and the number of tools available to counter gimmicks, provided you target your pulls carefully. Plus, 3 years into the game, it’s more a question of information than power, as many have noted - who do you bring to each fight? That’s unavoidable, otherwise the game becomes untolerably stale very quickly or you suffer massive powercreep with things like 6* Servants coming in and invalidating the entire rest of the roster.

#20

The idea of 6* servants scares me. I would probably quit if they ever did that.

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