You can put together most of this build pretty early, but to get everything I explain in this work, you will need to be a little over halfway through the game. Let me know what you think! -Alex *Boomstick Gaming is a safe haven for gamers who value game mechanics and systems, because that’s what makes anything from 8-bit to 8k, equally enjoyable.*
This is actually a pretty good idea. I like it, Though one thing that is going to be an issue is long term engagements. Your allies themselves won't be swinging that often, and their ATB gauge will charge slowly. I think the best way to offset this would be to make sure to have a ATB assist materia on. When Barrett cast the same ability twice like chakra, your party will gain ATB. Allowing you to hard cast their offensive skills often.
Love the vid, my Barret build is almost exactly similar. Btw bro, Prayer does scale with MAtk stats, the heal formula is roughly 4 x MAtk (with 5% variance)
To summarise, make Barret the primary healer with: Materia: Prayer + Chakra + Time (use haste) + Barrier & Magnify linked Weapon: Big Bertha + skill 'Desperate Recovery' (to protect team) & trade off (to restore MP) Use 'Lifesaver' to take ally damage (learnt from Light Machine Gun) Accessory: Healing Caricanet to boost healing % Extra Materia: ATB Boost, ATB focus Use basic attack to fill ATB and charge with triangle to avoid reload animation. Use Prayer to Heal party and Chakra to Heal Barrett if he's getting too low.
Right at the start of the game I noticed Barret was quickly becoming my go to "support mage" thanks to his fast ATB gains. Seems I wasn't too far off in that line of thinking.
I always used Aerith as my personal healer in the original version. Up until she had to vacate the party due to personal reasons in the pool. then I just gave the heal+all to whoever had room. now I have give them to someone and maintain their abilities personally.
Yeah same. And plus his relative safe distance from enemy AoE attacks make him unlikely to get interrupted. Though I've found AI controlled characters never get interrupted when you command them? Downside is they don't build ATB quickly without manual input.
Lol, I tried to tell my buddy about this. We both were playing at the same time and I noticed that Barret was quickly becoming my Sup/tank. He kept saying, he has Aerith for that. And I was like, but on Hard mode, MP is scarce. And she sucked (imo).
You know, I do like your more straightforward style of gameplay tips. Too many channels try to inject too much of themselves into their videos, when all I want is the information. Great build, too. I'll be trying it out.
Another small tip to get the other party members to build ATB faster if you don't want to switch all the time is to give them Steadfast Block, since the AI plays more defensive, they'll build ATB faster when blocking attacks and it makes the take less damage when blocking. So, less damage on them, faster ATB when blocking.
@@yungboogaloo I've seen that happen too, maybe I was lucky but I noticed they play very defensively but every now and again they're idiots and just keep taking hits xD
The AI usually auto-blocks quite well most of the time. What you guys are probably having issues with are unblockables. The AI can’t really dodge certain moves too well, especially projectile unblockables (e.g. the insane tracking on Bahamut’s energy volley attack)
@@skorpeion1509 Yeah I know, what I mean is I noticed that sometimes they'll just derp and not block, like the Fat Chocobo's jump or is rolly poly attack, the block and then just decide not to and get hit. It happens rarely though. I find that in general they do well with blocking
Well I've noticed that the AI mostly just mimics you. So if you block they block but if you're running and they lose the sense to run, they'll tank the hit.
"If you happen to like my more straightforward approach to gaming content..." This will forever be why I avoid videos artificially padded past 10m. Have a like and a sub for valuing brevity.
VERY VERY straightforward video. And many people appreciate that. didn't take 15 mins to explain. Great advice. I learned that Barret did charge way faster than others but I guess I wasnt smart enough to think about making him a primary healer!
Another great way to heal Barret for no ATB gauge or MP is HP Absorb + Deadly Dodge + ranged weapon. He'll hit everything in a 180 degree arc for a very large distance and heal himself at the same time. It recharges the ATB gauge instead of draining it. He can do this repeatedly.
Also, Barret has a built-in ATB-up ability. If you start each battle with Barret and immediately use his Overcharge, he'll take out one enemy (or close to it), and he'll have an ATB charge ready for use. Great for throwing out an immediate Barrier on all party members, or hitting the Overcharged enemy with a souped-up mega-attack to quickly kill it off.
That's exactly how I use Barrett, he's so flexible. A good tank, healer and damage dealer. He also deals a good amount of stagger, the best all rounder.
Prayer is definitely one of the best materia in the game hands down. Quicker than a curaga, doesn't cost mana, only 1 slot to AoE heal (No need for magnify) and even without high magic it heals a good chunk of health. Definitely a must for Hard.
@@abcdef-uw3kb You need to save MP in hard mode. Prayer allows that, and that particular barret's build allows you to sustain enough (barrier + life saver = your team mates don't take too much damage, so prayer is enough despite its modest amount of HP healed and his ATB cost, chakra allows you to heal Barret with great effectiveness and is enough aswell for himself). What makes prayer unique is that it's the only skill (no mp cost) that allows you to heal your mates.
ABC def based on your response I can tell that you haven't played the game on hard mode, because hard mode you have cannot use any items, mp doesn't refill until you finish a chapter and benches dont fill mp anymore, so wasting materia slots on magnify+curaga and the amount of mp just doesn't work
kendall basically this. The shinra boxes provide decent mana regen and (big if here) you've got access to Aerith her huge MP pool with boosters and mana regen can offset it a little but it isnt worth wasting the mana usually. In Hard, you either kill the enemy in a few seconds or you end up taking more damage than you like. And at this point you should have access to LOADS of atb boosters like haste or counters ect. Which make getting 2 full atb a 2-3 combo (Tifa and Barret are both excellent at quickly/safely racking up ATB)
It never occurred to me to use the reload animation time to press triangle to charge his attack until I watched this! Going to be doing that from now on.
Cool build. One thing though: I'm pretty sure Prayer does scale on the magic stat. When I was playing, Aerith's Prayer was almost twice as effective as Cloud's.
when i saw his HP growth, both levelling and weapons i though support tank, then i saw Prayer and was thinking hmm, might be a good healer, this has shown me how good.
I got him to use Prayer, Chakra and item heal boost thing (in case things get nasty). His pretty damn good at that role. At start i try to use him as damage dealer but his pretty sucks at that.
in hard mode when your mana pool is super restricted, you can add enemy skill to this build for the essence drain to recover bits of mp when you have time
Great tips! I love that he starts off every battle with Overcharge, its pretty much a guaranteed ATB charge. Also, thanks for mentioning to charge when he is reloading. Theres almost no delay!
This is cool, I was already running a very similar build on Barret. His atb build is insane and sticking prayer on him makes him quite the no mp healer. You're absolutely right that character switching is key else the pc controlled characters do no real damage or atb build themselves.
@@karl343 I don't really mind having to switch. What I do mind however is the near instant 100% aggro switch on all enemies to whoever you're controlling about 1 second after you switch to them.
@@feinne7652 Exactly. There are two things I don't like about the combat. 1. The instant aggro switch and 2. The lose of ATB bars if you get hit while useing skills/magic. Imo it's just annoying and adds no real value to difficulty. Although I wouldn't mind if they also improved aerial combat for the next game.
There is a way to do this as well to help in hard mode. Ensure that every member has Prayer, you might just have two if you haven't gotten to the Corneo treasure again. Save your ATB for the end of every fight and use it just before it ends to help heal your party. But you can use this to help save MP in hard mode. I started this and it helped a ton.
@@kern180 yep I wasnt expecting it to but it did ans I was glad. It is a game changer get for sure! I almost have every achievement for the game now. I just need to beat the last level on hard mode and I am done!
Love it because I have been healing this way since I started HARD PLAYTHROUGH because mama is hard to come by.... love it that others are seeing this method ... and it’s sooo easy to get 2 ATB with Barrett ... great video dude :D
It never occurred to me that Barret would be a candidate for main healer given his naturally low MP and magic. Thank you for this insightful video, sir. You rock! 👍
dude.............your content is consistently top shelf status! ESPECIALLY the stuff u drop that regards tips..tricks..strategy..builds..etc..... i know i’m not alone when a new game comes out n my “recommended feed” is full of nonstop “ # things i wish i woulda known be 4 playin / # things..insert game title..doesn’t tell you” videos from different creators that r allllll basically 90% packed with unhelpful unoriginal copycat things most people ALREADY KNOW be4 playin / things the game absolutely DOES tell you clickbaity bs! not knockin those other creators or claiming they don’t work hard..,it’s a “don’t hate the player...hate the game” type deal....if the get shit out asap strat to max view potential works...so be it please know...that YOU...the stick that booms...r HANDS DOWN...leagues above all the competition when it comes to the actual substance in the helpful hints category...always unique and original but never for the sake of simply tryin to be unique n original! love all ur other shit too keep on boomin!
n jus to clarify...when i say “competition”....i don’t mean to claim there aren’t other creators out there also puttin out OG quality shit...nor do i view youtube in general as a “competition” between the millions of uploaders... jus talkin about my personal list of channels i subscribe to...of which there are plenty...and all the algorithm based recommended crap that gets shoved in my face on daily bases...pass! lookin forward to more FF7 builds if ya have any ya feel worth sharin...deuces!
Love this game so much. I have not been disappointed by the wait :) great start here, man. Love that this game has switched the meta up and made barret our go to healer!
I think it was a fortunate accident lol. Barret is a good choice for any high value ability that costs ATB instead of MP. The gear still seems to favor Tifa as a magic user, so this is almost an exploit (not a new one, o.g.'s knew this from back in the day). That said, Tifa's ATB stacks up pretty quick too and without the reload delay or need for haste, so you could probably apply the same tactic to her and boost Barrett's dmg instead.
So something that could help improve this build actually is materia you don't necessarily throw on barret. A single provoke on another ally could help keep the enemies off you while you do your thing casting buffs and healing the team. Of course with Lifesaver this would have to be carefully planned but basically youd use your allies as bait in a long drawn out fight where they would draw most of the aggro and you could sit back and just heal in peace and quiet from a distance.
Thanks for the tip, I didn't know about being able to charge after a normal combo. I would recommend slight changes for hard mode though. Remove barrier, magnify, and prayer from his kit. Magnify is better used for cure or attack magic on your mage, barrier cost to much MP for Barret when he is limited in the sim and hard mode, and magnify cure on on the mage is overall better than prayer for late game. Replace those materia with HP up until you reach 9999, steadfast block (highly under rated), ATB assist to help the party, and skill master (you were missing the sixth slot on the weapon). You could also use provoke, or defense element depending on play style or fight ( hard mode Shiva). This makes Barret a pure self sustaining tank.
@@paulboh1417 depends on the fight, but generally I use Barret to draw focus from the enemy and then swap to my damage dealer to build ATB. When Barret loses focus I swap back and regain it again. I try to manage my other teammates abilities while controlling Barret. If I use provoke then I will play more aggressive with my damage dealers.
Very good, subscribed! At first Barret felt the least fun and dull but later he gets so much better. Still prefer to play as Cloud but it's nice switching to Barret too. I might do some of this if I struggle with anything.
2 hours ago I started playing with builds and decided I liked Barret as support character because Tifa and Cloud were hitting so hard without him. I made a build pretty close to this, but this will help me round it out. Thanks!
So basically tank healer build for Barret & cheesing the enemies with the "soft-aggro" default which enemy AIs always prioritize in attacking controlled character.
@@badera3083 yes, I know about lifesaver skill. That's why I said "soft-aggro" for the controlled char trick, not "hard/force-aggro" like a proper skill/ability.
Christopher Cline The problem with provoke is it has a cool down and only procs when another character hits low HP while you aren’t controlling Barret.
Solid video! I made Barret my healer as well. I just stuck magnify on maxed out healing materia and that was that. However, I was thinking about hard mode where items can’t be used. This load out is perfect for that. Had everything almost the same except for the chakra materia. Didn’t know skipping the animation on Barret. Very good tips all around.
Barrett is great. He also is a stagger beast, hard enemies would get pressured off one overload and one attack round then right into focused strike and they are basically staggered right away
Aerith actually is my main damage dealer. Her magic stat and abilities are real offensive types. Using the ray skill melts everything lol. And the double casts
In terms of raw damage, nobody can touch Aerith when using Arcane Ward. Her damage is absolutely disgusting. She IS in fact the best healer in the game and her ATB guage does fill faster than Barret's, but you spend so little time with access to her, you're better off focusing on Barret. If you use the accessory on her that allows her limit gauge to fill when using MP, she can keep the party topped up and deal mega-damage in any fight.
Prayer was my go to as well, usually on barret/aerith and tifa. Tifa with the atb building materia and haste then quickly switch to another character to fire off her prayer uninterrupted. Some form of healing on every character to fire off a curaga in emergencies. Got through hard mode this way. Love how there is a place for most of the skills, especially counterstance. Only thing i never got to grips with was atb boost with L1 + R1.
I did a similar build with Tifa. Equipped her with Time-Magnify, ATB boost, First Strike, ATB Stagger, Chakra, and Prayer. I was tired of depending on items to heal in between fights so this was my way to get around that. I made Tifa Party Leader and I would usually either start a fight with a Prayer to get everyone's HP up if necessary. If they were already full I'd open with a Magnified Haste. But you might have a better setup considering Tifa is really good for using her ATB for other reasons like Staggering. This setup didn't work for me in the final fight though. Actually not entirely sure how I got through it but I'd wager putting Auto-Cure, Prayer, and Healing on Aerith made a big difference.
you never need items in any FF if you can cura out of fight, no wall of text needed to save your items. In hard mode they cannot be used anyway and I'm sitting on 20 elixirs that cannot be used now.
@@rail7646 You can't use abilities outside of battle. I would often just use Cure outside of battles in the original. I almost never needed to cure during fights. VII:R is different. Also that isn't a wall of text, that's my answer to the videos question when he asked for input form the audience. It's how I talk. No one required you to read it. I'm well aware of not being able to use items in hard mode as I'm going through it at present, but I discovered this materia combination in normal mode as a response to circumvent needing to use healing items since I'm prone to heal in between battles rather than during them for most of my Final Fantasy playthroughs. Since VII:R doesn't allow you to use magic between battles, I was over relying on healing items. Not using Prayer or Chakra will still eat away at your MP reserves so having a healing setup that doesn't rely so heavily on MP is far superior than just using Cure. Cure spells should be reserved for emergency situations in battle, not as a top up maintenance between fights.
Well fuck me. Could've sworn I tried that way early on the game it it was greyed out. Probably had no MP and just didn't give it a second look. Just hopped in and gave it a shot and sure enough. Still better to conserve MP whenever necessary especially for hard mode.
I have been doing a very similar build in the end game content with Barret and love it. I am always tilted replaying the story chapters in hard and he isn't around since he is so good at everything
I love this. Instant sub. I look forward to what you put out next. I've been tooling with the setups for the characters for a bit now but haven't settled on a build. I like what you put together and will definitely try to emulate this!!
If you're going up against a tough boss that uses a particular elemental damage (lightning, fire, ice, etc) you can also use the 2 spare slots to link that element with an elemental materia, in the armor section (must be linked). If they are both maxed out, you will get a lot of healing from the enemies elemental attacks, on top of everything else.
Same here. At first, I just figured prayer was just like chakra. never took noticed, prayer, heals the entire team. Definitely changing my tactics for battle now.
@@kjw51687 And it's an absolute staple for hard mode, so putting all that AP into it in early possible will pay off massive dividends in the long run. I haven't used prayer at all and I'm in chapter 14, but I know it's a necessity for hard mode, so It's been equipped ever since Aerith first joined my party with it.
I let the AI play him as a healer/tank/support. I find him better that way. You should have 9 materia slots in total; 5 from weapon (weapon can go to 6 slots, if you get it to Level 6 weapon) and 4 from armor. You'll want Provoke, Prayer, Chakra, ATB Stagger, Steadfast Block, Skill Master, Refocus, ATB Boost. With the last slot(s) be whatever you want or need. Barret will go into red hp often, which is when you make use of the critical heal boost. That also mean his limiter will get activated sooner than others, this is where refocus will extend his ATB to 3 bars and if you have Rank5 ATB Boost, he can get 2 ATB bars every 120secs (this is just mainly for emergencies; such as being able to activate it and then use Prayer if party is in a pinch). You'll want to use Lifesaver, so he can take the damage and build up his limiter to activate refocus. To break it down: Provoke is for him to maintain aggro (when the character you're controlling is down to 25% hp) Chakra is for his self heal Prayer is for party heal ATB Stagger, Steadfast Block, Skill Master is his way to earn ATB quickly (without having to control him) Refocus is for him getting a 3rd ATB Bar ATB Boost allows him to use his abilities he needs in a critical situation He has Steelskin which doesn't stack with Barrier and since Provoke pretty much focus aggro on him, there's no need to magnify barrier for the team. Steelskin and Steadfast Block is more than enough to make him extremely tanky.
I eventually built Barret as a support mage too because Shinra had Aerith for a pretty long time. My setup isn’t as optimized as yours but I think I did fine. Eventually became useful when the party split up!
I usually just use healing+magnify. It's simple and it works. Aerith for example using the silver staff can heal the party for over 2k HP for 3mp. There was a fight on hard in the train graveyard that I needed to figure out a healing method that wouldn't reflect, Eligor casts reflect on the entire party. I did use prayer and chakra, and Barret would have been nice to shoot that thing down, but unfortunately he's not around for that fight, lol. When Barret is in the team I usually just whip out lifesaver if someone drops into the red, my current setup for him just uses the champion belt, big bertha, and a single HP plus, to give him over 9k hp.
Fantastic build. I was dying for a way to exploit his lifesaver ability as it has saved my team on many occasions without being built around. Thanks, Boomstick!
So small problem with the video off the bat. Prayer absolutely scales on your magic stat. I used my Cloud for a test. Level 4 Prayer materia, 1 level 3 Magic Up Materia, and my Twin Stinger with 58 MAtk equipped. This gave my Cloud a total of 290 MAtk, which resulted in a 2000 heal Prayer. I then changed to the Nail Bat (30 MAtk), and removed the Magic Up materia, giving him 232 MAtk. This resulted in a 1500 heal Prayer. Then I switched to the Mythril Saber (114 MAtk), re-equiped the level 3 Magic Up materia as well as a level 1 Magic Up, giving him a total of 356 MAtk. This resulted in a 2600 heal. Finally I switched to Aerith with the Mythril Rod (140 MAtk), gave her both Magic Up materia (level 3 and level 1) as well as the Level 4 Prayer, which gave her 402 total MAtk. Using Prayer resulted in a 2900 heal. So a difference of 170MAtk between Cloud with the Nail Bat and Aerith with the Mythril Rod resulted in an extra 1400 points of healing.
i'm right there with you and have had Barret doing heals and support for a while now. I appreciate your in depth strategy though as I have not played Hard Mode yet.
How i use Barret is equip Crescent Moon Charm - Reduces damage taken when equipped by non-active characters quickly gain 1 atb, use lifesaver and chakra whenever his health gets low. Boom, tanks all party damage.
Tifa ATB Stagger, ATB Assist, Deadly Dodge, Parry, Steadfast Block, Time, no one fills ATB or stagger faster than her with feathered gloves or metal knuckles (even Barret). Switch to her after you stagger enemy. Make sure you have used unbridled strength up to 2 times before stagger. Once staggered press triangle twice, and then true strike. Stagger % will be super high. Use R2 to finish with cloud's infinity end and hit the damage cap Cloud with a transference module and nail bat. ATB Boost, Refocus, Skill Master, First Strike, Deadly Dodge=HP Absorb, Steadfast Block, Luck Up, Luck Up. With luck maxed out on the nail bat cloud will kill trash mobs ridiculously fast. Clouds weapon abilities are mostly all strong, this build lets you build up limit guage quickly by spamming weapon abilities with module, then refocus for more spam.
@@BoomstickGaming hey us gamers gotta stick together bro If memory serves there is a similar build for the original, although I have long since forgotten the material combinations
You can put together most of this build pretty early, but to get everything I explain in this work, you will need to be a little over halfway through the game.
Let me know what you think! -Alex
*Boomstick Gaming is a safe haven for gamers who value game mechanics and systems, because that’s what makes anything from 8-bit to 8k, equally enjoyable.*
Need some team weapon builds for hard mode and challenges
Need some help with customizing builds for Aerith, Cloud before Chapter 10.
This is actually a pretty good idea. I like it, Though one thing that is going to be an issue is long term engagements. Your allies themselves won't be swinging that often, and their ATB gauge will charge slowly. I think the best way to offset this would be to make sure to have a ATB assist materia on. When Barrett cast the same ability twice like chakra, your party will gain ATB. Allowing you to hard cast their offensive skills often.
Pop Steelskin for more damage reduction.
Love the vid, my Barret build is almost exactly similar. Btw bro, Prayer does scale with MAtk stats, the heal formula is roughly 4 x MAtk (with 5% variance)
To summarise, make Barret the primary healer with:
Materia: Prayer + Chakra + Time (use haste) + Barrier & Magnify linked
Weapon: Big Bertha + skill 'Desperate Recovery' (to protect team) & trade off (to restore MP)
Use 'Lifesaver' to take ally damage (learnt from Light Machine Gun)
Accessory: Healing Caricanet to boost healing %
Extra Materia: ATB Boost, ATB focus
Use basic attack to fill ATB and charge with triangle to avoid reload animation.
Use Prayer to Heal party and Chakra to Heal Barrett if he's getting too low.
To summerize your summery, watch the video its only 5 minutes.
Final Cam to summarize the summarization of that summary, read the comment It only takes 15 seconds, but also hook up my boy and watch his video.
@@Bigoso1011 why woild anyone need to read that comment if they watched the video tho
TL;DW lol
@@finalcam1740 because he takes 5 minutes to tell you 15 seconds of info...
Aerith: You can't be the party healer, you have no magic!!
Barret: haha machine gun go brtrtrtrtrtrt
Got my sleeping cat to jump a foot off the bed, b/c I laughed at the brtbrtbrt part hahaha.
It would be a waste to have Aerith healing with the insane damage she can do.
@MSFL_Cardinals Idk about endgame, just boost her magic attack and melt stuff with arcane ward and optionally magnify for aoe.
@MSFL_Cardinals just cast magic within arcane ward
@MSFL_Cardinals yeh, it maked you cast everything twice, also works other party members.
Right at the start of the game I noticed Barret was quickly becoming my go to "support mage" thanks to his fast ATB gains. Seems I wasn't too far off in that line of thinking.
Definitely me...I was definitely considering him with the more powerful heals instead of cloud
I always used Aerith as my personal healer in the original version. Up until she had to vacate the party due to personal reasons in the pool. then I just gave the heal+all to whoever had room. now I have give them to someone and maintain their abilities personally.
Yeah same. And plus his relative safe distance from enemy AoE attacks make him unlikely to get interrupted. Though I've found AI controlled characters never get interrupted when you command them? Downside is they don't build ATB quickly without manual input.
I just had ff7 original in my head so i went to tifa in place of Aerith
*Hes a Paladin not a mage. Mages dont get defense and cover. Paladins do.*
Shame the accessory equipped doesn't display on the character. Barrett would of looked lovely with that neckpiece on.
wait for mods on pc
You mean he would have looked like a midgar Mr. T
@@ncolvin05 Wait, he doesn't already?
@@codybeames1534 he really is only missing the jewelry.
Holy shit, I always had this on him and this was my EXACT thought!
“With that, it pretty much sums up my go to healer support bro; Barret“
You earned my subscription with that last line,
Sincerely,
Your support bro
Brooo I knew I wasn't crazy making Barret my healer. Thanks for the vid, I got a couple changes to make now
This was my setup back in the day. And aries was my 2nd muscle lol next to cloud and tifa was a magic expert lol I was young and new
Lol, I tried to tell my buddy about this. We both were playing at the same time and I noticed that Barret was quickly becoming my Sup/tank. He kept saying, he has Aerith for that. And I was like, but on Hard mode, MP is scarce. And she sucked (imo).
Weeb Lord I need to do this! I’ve been using Tifa but I feel like I was screwing myself now
He is not just a good healer, but a great tanker...
@@alexfamie5255 back in the day loo
Every time I feel like replaying FF7R, I come back to this video to make sure I'm not missing anything. Great vid, 10/10
You know, I do like your more straightforward style of gameplay tips. Too many channels try to inject too much of themselves into their videos, when all I want is the information. Great build, too. I'll be trying it out.
Another small tip to get the other party members to build ATB faster if you don't want to switch all the time is to give them Steadfast Block, since the AI plays more defensive, they'll build ATB faster when blocking attacks and it makes the take less damage when blocking. So, less damage on them, faster ATB when blocking.
Johan Naudé Lol AI blocks? Mine legit be taking hits getting KOd
@@yungboogaloo I've seen that happen too, maybe I was lucky but I noticed they play very defensively but every now and again they're idiots and just keep taking hits xD
The AI usually auto-blocks quite well most of the time. What you guys are probably having issues with are unblockables. The AI can’t really dodge certain moves too well, especially projectile unblockables (e.g. the insane tracking on Bahamut’s energy volley attack)
@@skorpeion1509 Yeah I know, what I mean is I noticed that sometimes they'll just derp and not block, like the Fat Chocobo's jump or is rolly poly attack, the block and then just decide not to and get hit. It happens rarely though. I find that in general they do well with blocking
Well I've noticed that the AI mostly just mimics you. So if you block they block but if you're running and they lose the sense to run, they'll tank the hit.
I love this!! I knew Barret had this amazing potential and you just finalized everything I needed. Thanks for this.
"If you happen to like my more straightforward approach to gaming content..." This will forever be why I avoid videos artificially padded past 10m. Have a like and a sub for valuing brevity.
VERY VERY straightforward video. And many people appreciate that. didn't take 15 mins to explain. Great advice. I learned that Barret did charge way faster than others but I guess I wasnt smart enough to think about making him a primary healer!
Another great way to heal Barret for no ATB gauge or MP is HP Absorb + Deadly Dodge + ranged weapon. He'll hit everything in a 180 degree arc for a very large distance and heal himself at the same time. It recharges the ATB gauge instead of draining it. He can do this repeatedly.
Also, Barret has a built-in ATB-up ability. If you start each battle with Barret and immediately use his Overcharge, he'll take out one enemy (or close to it), and he'll have an ATB charge ready for use. Great for throwing out an immediate Barrier on all party members, or hitting the Overcharged enemy with a souped-up mega-attack to quickly kill it off.
This kind of stuff is why I love these games. You can have simple builds and beat the game, but with some thought you can be boss.
That's exactly how I use Barrett, he's so flexible. A good tank, healer and damage dealer. He also deals a good amount of stagger, the best all rounder.
Prayer is definitely one of the best materia in the game hands down.
Quicker than a curaga, doesn't cost mana, only 1 slot to AoE heal (No need for magnify) and even without high magic it heals a good chunk of health.
Definitely a must for Hard.
no prayer is garbage 2 atb required for subpar healing compared to magnify + curaga lol save the atb and use it on something else
@@abcdef-uw3kb You need to save MP in hard mode. Prayer allows that, and that particular barret's build allows you to sustain enough (barrier + life saver = your team mates don't take too much damage, so prayer is enough despite its modest amount of HP healed and his ATB cost, chakra allows you to heal Barret with great effectiveness and is enough aswell for himself). What makes prayer unique is that it's the only skill (no mp cost) that allows you to heal your mates.
ABC def based on your response I can tell that you haven't played the game on hard mode, because hard mode you have cannot use any items, mp doesn't refill until you finish a chapter and benches dont fill mp anymore, so wasting materia slots on magnify+curaga and the amount of mp just doesn't work
kendall basically this. The shinra boxes provide decent mana regen and (big if here) you've got access to Aerith her huge MP pool with boosters and mana regen can offset it a little but it isnt worth wasting the mana usually.
In Hard, you either kill the enemy in a few seconds or you end up taking more damage than you like. And at this point you should have access to LOADS of atb boosters like haste or counters ect. Which make getting 2 full atb a 2-3 combo (Tifa and Barret are both excellent at quickly/safely racking up ATB)
@@Lord_Nikon33 lol im only doing monsters of legend and level 7 secret bosses buddy. Try those in Hard with prayer strat and get rekt.
It never occurred to me to use the reload animation time to press triangle to charge his attack until I watched this! Going to be doing that from now on.
I've been using Barret with pray because his ATB builds up so fast... but this is way beyond what I would have ever thought of doing! Thanks!!!
Cool build. One thing though: I'm pretty sure Prayer does scale on the magic stat. When I was playing, Aerith's Prayer was almost twice as effective as Cloud's.
i noticed this as well. i considered maybe it scales with the users health, but Aerith has the lowest HP in my party. so it can't be that.
Yea it scales off magic. Similar to several weapon skills (blade burst, chi trap, etc).
when i saw his HP growth, both levelling and weapons i though support tank, then i saw Prayer and was thinking hmm, might be a good healer, this has shown me how good.
i still cant get over the fact the black guy who acts like a preacher is the best one to use pray on...
Marcos Danilo lok i love the irony of it, i love how damn tanky he is and can dish out some damage too
I got him to use Prayer, Chakra and item heal boost thing (in case things get nasty). His pretty damn good at that role. At start i try to use him as damage dealer but his pretty sucks at that.
in hard mode when your mana pool is super restricted, you can add enemy skill to this build for the essence drain to recover bits of mp when you have time
So glad to you covering final fantasy the info provided is great! Can’t wait to try it out
Great tips! I love that he starts off every battle with Overcharge, its pretty much a guaranteed ATB charge. Also, thanks for mentioning to charge when he is reloading. Theres almost no delay!
Barret was always my main healer back in the original through every playthrough.
Good to know that hasn't changed.
Pretty smart build. Some battles may drag a bit with this but it's a surefire way to get through tougher battles without much trouble. Nice one!
This is cool, I was already running a very similar build on Barret. His atb build is insane and sticking prayer on him makes him quite the no mp healer. You're absolutely right that character switching is key else the pc controlled characters do no real damage or atb build themselves.
Rubbish that you can't set up A.I. controlled characters to do what you want, while you only use Cloud. You could do that in older FF games.
Karl it would be pretty broken if you could.
@@ZxChrono No it wouldn't, devs could just adjust the enemy A.I. and make it more difficult.
@@karl343 I don't really mind having to switch. What I do mind however is the near instant 100% aggro switch on all enemies to whoever you're controlling about 1 second after you switch to them.
@@feinne7652 Exactly. There are two things I don't like about the combat. 1. The instant aggro switch and 2. The lose of ATB bars if you get hit while useing skills/magic. Imo it's just annoying and adds no real value to difficulty. Although I wouldn't mind if they also improved aerial combat for the next game.
There is a way to do this as well to help in hard mode. Ensure that every member has Prayer, you might just have two if you haven't gotten to the Corneo treasure again. Save your ATB for the end of every fight and use it just before it ends to help heal your party. But you can use this to help save MP in hard mode. I started this and it helped a ton.
you can have 3 prayer materia? i only have 2 after finishing the story and i finished all side quests.
@@kern180 yeah, you get one with Areith, then one collectingnin Don Corneo vault on normal, then there is another one there when you do it on Hard.
Max Martez oh so it respawns in that quest. Nice. I know certain materia don’t respawn but I’m glad this is not one of them
@@kern180 yep I wasnt expecting it to but it did ans I was glad. It is a game changer get for sure! I almost have every achievement for the game now. I just need to beat the last level on hard mode and I am done!
This strategy a little hard to maintain on hard mode seriously when you have to maintain your mp a lot. and boss hit like a truck 😂
It never ceases to amaze me how you and others come up with these builds so quickly.
Love it because I have been healing this way since I started HARD PLAYTHROUGH because mama is hard to come by.... love it that others are seeing this method ... and it’s sooo easy to get 2 ATB with Barrett ... great video dude :D
It never occurred to me that Barret would be a candidate for main healer given his naturally low MP and magic.
Thank you for this insightful video, sir. You rock! 👍
dude.............your content is consistently top shelf status! ESPECIALLY the stuff u drop that regards tips..tricks..strategy..builds..etc.....
i know i’m not alone when a new game comes out n my “recommended feed” is full of nonstop “ # things i wish i woulda known be 4 playin / # things..insert game title..doesn’t tell you” videos from different creators that r allllll basically 90% packed with unhelpful unoriginal copycat things most people ALREADY KNOW be4 playin / things the game absolutely DOES tell you clickbaity bs!
not knockin those other creators or claiming they don’t work hard..,it’s a “don’t hate the player...hate the game” type deal....if the get shit out asap strat to max view potential works...so be it
please know...that YOU...the stick that booms...r HANDS DOWN...leagues above all the competition when it comes to the actual substance in the helpful hints category...always unique and original but never for the sake of simply tryin to be unique n original! love all ur other shit too
keep on boomin!
n jus to clarify...when i say “competition”....i don’t mean to claim there aren’t other creators out there also puttin out OG quality shit...nor do i view youtube in general as a “competition” between the millions of uploaders...
jus talkin about my personal list of channels i subscribe to...of which there are plenty...and all the algorithm based recommended crap that gets shoved in my face on daily bases...pass!
lookin forward to more FF7 builds if ya have any ya feel worth sharin...deuces!
Awesome, Thanks!
Love this game so much. I have not been disappointed by the wait :) great start here, man. Love that this game has switched the meta up and made barret our go to healer!
I think it was a fortunate accident lol. Barret is a good choice for any high value ability that costs ATB instead of MP. The gear still seems to favor Tifa as a magic user, so this is almost an exploit (not a new one, o.g.'s knew this from back in the day). That said, Tifa's ATB stacks up pretty quick too and without the reload delay or need for haste, so you could probably apply the same tactic to her and boost Barrett's dmg instead.
So something that could help improve this build actually is materia you don't necessarily throw on barret. A single provoke on another ally could help keep the enemies off you while you do your thing casting buffs and healing the team. Of course with Lifesaver this would have to be carefully planned but basically youd use your allies as bait in a long drawn out fight where they would draw most of the aggro and you could sit back and just heal in peace and quiet from a distance.
Thanks for the tip, I didn't know about being able to charge after a normal combo. I would recommend slight changes for hard mode though. Remove barrier, magnify, and prayer from his kit. Magnify is better used for cure or attack magic on your mage, barrier cost to much MP for Barret when he is limited in the sim and hard mode, and magnify cure on on the mage is overall better than prayer for late game. Replace those materia with HP up until you reach 9999, steadfast block (highly under rated), ATB assist to help the party, and skill master (you were missing the sixth slot on the weapon). You could also use provoke, or defense element depending on play style or fight ( hard mode Shiva). This makes Barret a pure self sustaining tank.
do you control him most of the time or u control your dmg dealer mages to magnify element spell?
@@paulboh1417 depends on the fight, but generally I use Barret to draw focus from the enemy and then swap to my damage dealer to build ATB. When Barret loses focus I swap back and regain it again. I try to manage my other teammates abilities while controlling Barret. If I use provoke then I will play more aggressive with my damage dealers.
Very good, subscribed! At first Barret felt the least fun and dull but later he gets so much better. Still prefer to play as Cloud but it's nice switching to Barret too. I might do some of this if I struggle with anything.
2 hours ago I started playing with builds and decided I liked Barret as support character because Tifa and Cloud were hitting so hard without him. I made a build pretty close to this, but this will help me round it out. Thanks!
nice build-up for Barret, I think this is the perfect build for him
This is a crazy cool self sustaining build! Love it!
So basically tank healer build for Barret & cheesing the enemies with the "soft-aggro" default which enemy AIs always prioritize in attacking controlled character.
He’s not switch for demonstration purposes, but even then you could make him use the lifesaver ability to redirect damage from your party to him
@@badera3083 yes, I know about lifesaver skill. That's why I said "soft-aggro" for the controlled char trick, not "hard/force-aggro" like a proper skill/ability.
I think you can also use provoke does that draw aggro
Tank healer is called a *Paladin.*
Christopher Cline The problem with provoke is it has a cool down and only procs when another character hits low HP while you aren’t controlling Barret.
Always thought about making Barret be the healer but never dig get back to that line of thought, now I see the result of it.
Solid video! I made Barret my healer as well. I just stuck magnify on maxed out healing materia and that was that. However, I was thinking about hard mode where items can’t be used. This load out is perfect for that. Had everything almost the same except for the chakra materia. Didn’t know skipping the animation on Barret. Very good tips all around.
Absolutely brilliant. This allows you to run a black mage build on pretty much everyone else. Nice.
This is awesome pleas do more videos like this.
Wow! Amazing build. Please do one for the rest of the characters
Very informative, to the point and great visuals - subscribed!
That's the awesome part of this game, the number of materia combinations possibilities, u always end up being surprised.
I like how versatile Barrett is. This healing build looks fun can't wait to try.
This build is excellent! Would you be willing to do build fro each party member? That would be awesome!
Complete story on normal last night, just about to throphy hunt and conquer hard mode. Great video dude 👏
Barrett is great. He also is a stagger beast, hard enemies would get pressured off one overload and one attack round then right into focused strike and they are basically staggered right away
When your long range machine gunner makes a better support healer than the straight up mage, lol. Awesome video!
Thanks!
She is by far the best damage caster though mostly due to arcane ward
Aerith actually is my main damage dealer. Her magic stat and abilities are real offensive types. Using the ray skill melts everything lol. And the double casts
In terms of raw damage, nobody can touch Aerith when using Arcane Ward. Her damage is absolutely disgusting. She IS in fact the best healer in the game and her ATB guage does fill faster than Barret's, but you spend so little time with access to her, you're better off focusing on Barret. If you use the accessory on her that allows her limit gauge to fill when using MP, she can keep the party topped up and deal mega-damage in any fight.
Awesome, going to make this build tomorrow
NICE BUILD, works really good, thx. I was looking for a good heal build.
Prayer was my go to as well, usually on barret/aerith and tifa. Tifa with the atb building materia and haste then quickly switch to another character to fire off her prayer uninterrupted. Some form of healing on every character to fire off a curaga in emergencies. Got through hard mode this way. Love how there is a place for most of the skills, especially counterstance. Only thing i never got to grips with was atb boost with L1 + R1.
I did a similar build with Tifa. Equipped her with Time-Magnify, ATB boost, First Strike, ATB Stagger, Chakra, and Prayer. I was tired of depending on items to heal in between fights so this was my way to get around that. I made Tifa Party Leader and I would usually either start a fight with a Prayer to get everyone's HP up if necessary. If they were already full I'd open with a Magnified Haste. But you might have a better setup considering Tifa is really good for using her ATB for other reasons like Staggering.
This setup didn't work for me in the final fight though. Actually not entirely sure how I got through it but I'd wager putting Auto-Cure, Prayer, and Healing on Aerith made a big difference.
you never need items in any FF if you can cura out of fight, no wall of text needed to save your items. In hard mode they cannot be used anyway and I'm sitting on 20 elixirs that cannot be used now.
@@rail7646 You can't use abilities outside of battle. I would often just use Cure outside of battles in the original. I almost never needed to cure during fights.
VII:R is different.
Also that isn't a wall of text, that's my answer to the videos question when he asked for input form the audience. It's how I talk. No one required you to read it.
I'm well aware of not being able to use items in hard mode as I'm going through it at present, but I discovered this materia combination in normal mode as a response to circumvent needing to use healing items since I'm prone to heal in between battles rather than during them for most of my Final Fantasy playthroughs. Since VII:R doesn't allow you to use magic between battles, I was over relying on healing items.
Not using Prayer or Chakra will still eat away at your MP reserves so having a healing setup that doesn't rely so heavily on MP is far superior than just using Cure. Cure spells should be reserved for emergency situations in battle, not as a top up maintenance between fights.
@@Rhomagus ummm, what are you talking about? When you are just walking around, hit X and use your cure magic.....
Well fuck me. Could've sworn I tried that way early on the game it it was greyed out. Probably had no MP and just didn't give it a second look.
Just hopped in and gave it a shot and sure enough.
Still better to conserve MP whenever necessary especially for hard mode.
This build was fun to play, saved me from later battles and bosses. Looking forward for tifa, cloud and aerith. Big thank you.
That's some big brain build you got there
This is a Godsend for Hard mode. Thank you!
@Lady Aranea it's efficient.
In hard mode you can't use items at all, and benches don't refill mp.
This build was amazing dude. It carried me all the way to chapter 17 hard mode, I had to switch it up there
I have been doing a very similar build in the end game content with Barret and love it. I am always tilted replaying the story chapters in hard and he isn't around since he is so good at everything
Glad I'm not the only one that uses him as a main healer!
Love this, will be using for my hard playthru, cant wait for more endgame builds like this for the other characters.
I love this. Instant sub. I look forward to what you put out next. I've been tooling with the setups for the characters for a bit now but haven't settled on a build. I like what you put together and will definitely try to emulate this!!
Best advise thus far 😁✌️, subscribed Alex!
Great video! Loved it. Very clever build.
If you're going up against a tough boss that uses a particular elemental damage (lightning, fire, ice, etc) you can also use the 2 spare slots to link that element with an elemental materia, in the armor section (must be linked). If they are both maxed out, you will get a lot of healing from the enemies elemental attacks, on top of everything else.
Great build. I'm definitely gone run it. Thank you for the share
I had the Chakra - Lifesaver combo figured out, but I was totally neglecting the Prayer materia.
Same here. At first, I just figured prayer was just like chakra. never took noticed, prayer, heals the entire team. Definitely changing my tactics for battle now.
Same. I didnt know this is the build i was working to till i saw it
@@kjw51687 And it's an absolute staple for hard mode, so putting all that AP into it in early possible will pay off massive dividends in the long run. I haven't used prayer at all and I'm in chapter 14, but I know it's a necessity for hard mode, so It's been equipped ever since Aerith first joined my party with it.
Rhidian Dimas honesty in the last 5 hours I’ve been playing prayer has been my best friend, but it’s just cause all the enemies hit much harder now
@@Ir1shman I'm actually just getting into hard mode now. I absolutely see what you're talking about. Definitely going to be a huge game changer.
Do more build man!! I’m subscribing and looking forward to more builds!!
I let the AI play him as a healer/tank/support. I find him better that way. You should have 9 materia slots in total; 5 from weapon (weapon can go to 6 slots, if you get it to Level 6 weapon) and 4 from armor. You'll want Provoke, Prayer, Chakra, ATB Stagger, Steadfast Block, Skill Master, Refocus, ATB Boost. With the last slot(s) be whatever you want or need. Barret will go into red hp often, which is when you make use of the critical heal boost. That also mean his limiter will get activated sooner than others, this is where refocus will extend his ATB to 3 bars and if you have Rank5 ATB Boost, he can get 2 ATB bars every 120secs (this is just mainly for emergencies; such as being able to activate it and then use Prayer if party is in a pinch). You'll want to use Lifesaver, so he can take the damage and build up his limiter to activate refocus.
To break it down:
Provoke is for him to maintain aggro (when the character you're controlling is down to 25% hp)
Chakra is for his self heal
Prayer is for party heal
ATB Stagger, Steadfast Block, Skill Master is his way to earn ATB quickly (without having to control him)
Refocus is for him getting a 3rd ATB Bar
ATB Boost allows him to use his abilities he needs in a critical situation
He has Steelskin which doesn't stack with Barrier and since Provoke pretty much focus aggro on him, there's no need to magnify barrier for the team. Steelskin and Steadfast Block is more than enough to make him extremely tanky.
Sounds very solid. Anything good for cloud or tifa?
I eventually built Barret as a support mage too because Shinra had Aerith for a pretty long time. My setup isn’t as optimized as yours but I think I did fine. Eventually became useful when the party split up!
finally! some great battle synergy tips. More plz!
Omg thank you, I've.subscribed, as you have just helped me to pass Behemoth with such ease!!!!!!
love using barret as my healer too
I usually just use healing+magnify. It's simple and it works. Aerith for example using the silver staff can heal the party for over 2k HP for 3mp. There was a fight on hard in the train graveyard that I needed to figure out a healing method that wouldn't reflect, Eligor casts reflect on the entire party. I did use prayer and chakra, and Barret would have been nice to shoot that thing down, but unfortunately he's not around for that fight, lol. When Barret is in the team I usually just whip out lifesaver if someone drops into the red, my current setup for him just uses the champion belt, big bertha, and a single HP plus, to give him over 9k hp.
Fantastic build. I was dying for a way to exploit his lifesaver ability as it has saved my team on many occasions without being built around. Thanks, Boomstick!
Awesome, thanks for the good content.
Welcome!
Thank you so much for this video I’m going for it with Barret on hard mode and it’s the only chapter I haven’t replayed yet!
This game is so deep it’s al,most overwhelming. Thanks for the video.
This build works like a charm. I'm only lv. 33 with Barret and it's already proving itself.
Love the idea behind this build. Definitely going to play around with it a bit.
Seen a couple of your vids now. This one made me a subscriber 🤙
Yay! Good to know my guy barret is getting some love 😊
So small problem with the video off the bat.
Prayer absolutely scales on your magic stat.
I used my Cloud for a test. Level 4 Prayer materia, 1 level 3 Magic Up Materia, and my Twin Stinger with 58 MAtk equipped. This gave my Cloud a total of 290 MAtk, which resulted in a 2000 heal Prayer.
I then changed to the Nail Bat (30 MAtk), and removed the Magic Up materia, giving him 232 MAtk. This resulted in a 1500 heal Prayer.
Then I switched to the Mythril Saber (114 MAtk), re-equiped the level 3 Magic Up materia as well as a level 1 Magic Up, giving him a total of 356 MAtk. This resulted in a 2600 heal.
Finally I switched to Aerith with the Mythril Rod (140 MAtk), gave her both Magic Up materia (level 3 and level 1) as well as the Level 4 Prayer, which gave her 402 total MAtk. Using Prayer resulted in a 2900 heal.
So a difference of 170MAtk between Cloud with the Nail Bat and Aerith with the Mythril Rod resulted in an extra 1400 points of healing.
i'm right there with you and have had Barret doing heals and support for a while now. I appreciate your in depth strategy though as I have not played Hard Mode yet.
Great video man.
This will probably help me take on Leviathan. Thank you!
How i use Barret is equip Crescent Moon Charm - Reduces damage taken when equipped by non-active characters
quickly gain 1 atb, use lifesaver and chakra whenever his health gets low. Boom, tanks all party damage.
Very cool, going to try this.
great concept. gonna have to try it now.
With two ATB bars, queueing a second chakra before the first one goes off gives you the same healing on both.
Wow. Damn dude. Thats actually good advice. Thanks. I'll give it a try
Thanks for the guide. More guides please, I'm stuck on hard mode.
I've been using him as the healer already due to how quick he is, but adding Prayer is brilliant
Love this channel man! Good work!
Nice... gonna use this for a hard mode play through.
Would love to see some builds with tifa and cloud
Yeah, they could have some good damage builds
Tifa going full attack and unbridled strength + starshower is pretty insane as it is
@@Alron112 As long as you don't swap and have everything agro onto her.
Tifa ATB Stagger, ATB Assist, Deadly Dodge, Parry, Steadfast Block, Time, no one fills ATB or stagger faster than her with feathered gloves or metal knuckles (even Barret). Switch to her after you stagger enemy. Make sure you have used unbridled strength up to 2 times before stagger. Once staggered press triangle twice, and then true strike. Stagger % will be super high. Use R2 to finish with cloud's infinity end and hit the damage cap
Cloud with a transference module and nail bat. ATB Boost, Refocus, Skill Master, First Strike, Deadly Dodge=HP Absorb, Steadfast Block, Luck Up, Luck Up. With luck maxed out on the nail bat cloud will kill trash mobs ridiculously fast. Clouds weapon abilities are mostly all strong, this build lets you build up limit guage quickly by spamming weapon abilities with module, then refocus for more spam.
@@JerBear0328 only problem with that build is an ugly bat weapon
Great tips
Thanks man!!
Now, I'm gonna try the hard mode without trying to die on the first chapter.....
Excellent build bro
Ty
@@BoomstickGaming hey us gamers gotta stick together bro
If memory serves there is a similar build for the original, although I have long since forgotten the material combinations
Nice, this was very close to what I did to beat leviathan. Although I didn't have big bertha yet. That woulda made life easier to be sure.