Insane Difficulty: Your Team - Insane Difficulty

I'd like to hear the teams you guys like to use -- or would like to use -- and why. My goal is to make all teams somewhat viable, but also have clear strategic value for each character. Options is the name of this game, ladies.

As I've mentioned before, I want areas to be doable by most parties, but I want there to be clear advantages for each fight, just not to the point where it pigeon-holes you into using a certain character.

I'll start us off.

Ryu, Nina, Rei/Garr

Ryu because mother fucking Ryu.

Nina because well I feel she's iconic to the series and I like her. I know a lot of people don't like Nina for her squishyness and lack of defensive options; this will be changed. She won't go down as easily, and while her natural defensive abilities certainly won't be as high as Ryu or Momo, she'll still be an asset in that fashion.

Also, on the subject of defensive abilities, healing spells -- particularly the lower tier ones -- are going to be buffed a little bit so they can keep up. Not to where they're all the same of course, but just a little more in line. I can give examples on this if you guys want.

Rei is just a badass. You guys know it. His spells will be more viable.

Garr is pretty sweet too. He's gonna get a few defensive spells, and I'm thinking of doing something special with Breaths that he can possible benefit from.

Ryu / Peco / Garr. Pure physical damage.

I usually use everyone but the most common teams I use is Peco/Ryu/Momo in Attack Formation with Peco leading it. Peco with his super high tanky stats+counter rate+attack formation will tank like a boss and dish the damage with counters. Ryu will Ryu and Momo will buff/heal/Shadowwalk. About the strongest all around team in the game number wise.

Other is Rei/Ryu/Momo in Chain Formation mostly for super bosses or when I want as little challenge as possible. With Rei's speed and Chain Formation everyone will at least outspeed the bosses, often EX turning random battles to take 0 damage. With Rei using Resist to become unkillable, he will tank everything while Ryu and Momo will do their usual and kill everything.

Ryu, Nina, and Rei.

Ryu - Duh.

Nina - Because I enjoy offensive magic users and...you know you want some of that.

Rei - Becuase he's just pretty damn cool.

Ryu, Rei, Garr

Ryu - He serves a dual purpose. One, he's able to heal anyone in a pinch, possibly the entire group if needed. Two, he can give all of that up and utilize his dragon forms for boosted power. Quite flexible if you ask me.

Rei - Fast as goddamn fuck with reasonable attack power. It's not unreasonable for him to get EX turns on his natural agility growth alone. If that isn't enough, then he could toss a Speed on himself. His speed makes him the ideal item user or caster of useful support spells like War Shout. Much like Ryu, he can give that all up in favor of the unpredictable, but very powerful Weretiger form (Which you can control with Intimidate mind you).

Garr - Remember how I said Captain Rex laughs off physical attacks while spearing everything in the face? Garr is that but better. Put him under Fahl and laugh at the face that he's not dying from physical attacks unless he uses Last Resort or runs into a Berserker. He also can cleave large amounts of hp from everything. That helps too.

In the early days: Ryu/Rei/Garr. The badass/offensive powerhouse team.

Later on: Ryu/Rei/Peco. I like Peco for tanking, and since my end-game strategy revolves around the chain formation anyhow, that last slot can pretty much be filled by anybody.

Lately: Ryu/Nina/?. I've found that I'm starting to like Nina for casting. Give her some levels in Meryleep to cement her speed advantage and then just focus hard on INT/AP gains to end many fights before they even start. Granted, this build ends up with Nina being powerful more by virtue of being overleved, but meh. I was just getting sick of spamming Rei and wanted to try something new.

Nina's magic might not be the most powerful in vanilla, but come on, how do you not want a nice caster in your party?

I think it'd be worth looking at and (if possible) messing with each character's innate Counter rate.

People use Peco in the front line because he's got 70% Counter rate, right? (IIRC?) and Garr has 50? or something?

Anyway, you should keep different Counter rates as I think that adds uniqueness to each character, but maybe look into tweaking them.

For example, a very strong character can have a lower rate, but a weaker character can compensate with a 75% counter rate or something/

Archael, on 07 October 2013 - 11:35 AM, said:

That does sound like a pretty decent idea. Anyone for Nina 100% counter, anyone?

Garr has a very low counter rate (so does every character, Advent can probably find the real number. I'd say it's probably 10%)

Peco has a 50% counter rate.

What XtraT said. Peco/Ryu/Momo. It hits up the standard triangle of tank, damage, and heals/buffs respectively.

XtraT, on 07 October 2013 - 11:54 AM, said:

Whelp is 100, Ryu (Both) is 12, Teepo is 12, Nina (Both) is 0 ( ), Momo is 0, Garr is 16, Peco is 50.

And I don't think playing with reprisal rates will be necessary for what's being planned.

Was close enough, not bad.

Advent, on 07 October 2013 - 12:18 PM, said:

50% is huge

If anything, Garr should have 50, because Garr

Archael, on 07 October 2013 - 12:30 PM, said:

It won't be.

Advent, on 07 October 2013 - 12:31 PM, said:

Archael, on 07 October 2013 - 12:32 PM, said:

Enemies will all be designed after characters are done in order to preserve that balance. Enemies are going to be balanced around the characters themselves, not the other way around.

Advent, on 07 October 2013 - 12:35 PM, said:

Oh that's cool. I just hope we get to see people doing Reprisals, still. Always fun to see (even if not at 50% rate).

Archael, on 07 October 2013 - 12:41 PM, said:

I might look into it. Shouldn't be too hard to find since I know what the rates are.

nina with 100% reprisal plz