Barnacle_Ed

Character/Job Party Recommendations

518 posts in this topic

Yeah, I was kind of thinking that her spells would be better for direct targeting. The only enemies a reflect strategy might help her with are Power Boulders to get around their spell repel. 

Rune Master is great; crazy against mobs and able to sneak around resist/immunity (DOLAN). Once you've memorized the status immunities she becomes a huge help as mobs get tougher in the second half of the game. Snowman and Petrify just can't be reproduced at her efficiency with any other class.

If forced to rank Angela's classes, I would still probably put Grand Divina on top for her versatility, Rune Master second, Archmage third, Magus fourth. I used to love Archmage, but I find that her final weapon leaves her without many options when she can't find a weakness, making her awesome in most situations but not so great in some of the more difficult ones (DOLAN). But she still has great support abilities. I haven't given Magus nearly as much of a shot as these other classes; Mind Up and Power Up are always nice, but for pure MT spell casting I'd still almost always go with Rune Master for the statuses.

Paladin/Grand Divina/Nightblade gives you three low- or no-damage status/reflect spells and plenty of damage options; I may keep this file around in case I decide to go back to it. Since I haven't played a Paladin to his final weapon, could someone tell me what kind of damage to expect out of Turn Undead? Is there a spell level associated with it? Is it on par with Black Rain? Is it controlled by spirit or intelligence (or both)?

I passed my defense today, so I'm rewarding myself with a couple of beer/video game days this weekend before they start to look around for me back in lab :-) Time to finally get this Duran/Angela/Carlie team going!

Edited by rpschamp

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My opinion with Magus is while the Rune Master is probably her best class for handle mobs, Magus is the best nuker overall but I think Magus can potentially be the best boss buster class in the game, Deathspell for guaranteed 999 is really a thing if one can keep being around the same level of the bosses (or reduce their LV with Red Moon Horn) and to shorten the boss fight further she has Lunatic to reduce their Max HP (now I imagine that with Evil Shaman's Final Weapon for a total of 30% Max HP reduction with Lunatic then a 999 deathspell spam, definitly looks like the noob strat XD).

I do agree however that Magus lack utility compare to Angela's other classes, Gran Divina is an awesome support, Arch Mage is a really good magic damage dealer and great support for physical fighter thanks to Anti-Magic and Aura Wave and Rune Master is IMO her best class to deal with mob fight.

Edited by Nesouk

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On 2/27/2020 at 11:13 PM, rpschamp said:

Paladin/Grand Divina/Nightblade gives you three low- or no-damage status/reflect spells and plenty of damage options; I may keep this file around in case I decide to go back to it. Since I haven't played a Paladin to his final weapon, could someone tell me what kind of damage to expect out of Turn Undead? Is there a spell level associated with it? Is it on par with Black Rain? Is it controlled by spirit or intelligence (or both)?

I passed my defense today, so I'm rewarding myself with a couple of beer/video game days this weekend before they start to look around for me back in lab :-) Time to finally get this Duran/Angela/Carlie team going!

Congrats on the thesis defense and hopefully this party has treated you well this weekend!

If I'm ranking Angela's classes for myself...I'd put Grand Divina on the bottom, if only because I feel like its identity is all over the place whereas her other 3 classes have more clear-cut roles. Magus is a boss killer and heavy nuker who doesn't need to rely on hitting weaknesses. Rune Master is a crowd clearer with LV3 elemental spells and elemental saber support for the party. Archmage is a debuffer and weakness-exploiting spell nuker. Divina is kind of a healer but also gets lv1 spells but also can do sabers eventually, but honestly I find it really rare that I personally want/need all of these things on a single character in a party. I'd rather make her a Rune Master then have a light Duran/Kevin if I want a nuker who can saber, or make her an Archmage then pair her with dark Duran or light Carlie for saber support in a magic team. It's cool that she has the option to fill many roles but I honestly would much rather have a better defined individual Angela who focuses hard on spell damage and leave the healing to someone else.

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IMO Gran Divina is the closest thing this mod has of the Red Mage class in Final Fantasy series, and the Red Mage is my favorite class in FF so I might be bias here, but I love a spellcaster that is balanced get a little of everything without being specialize, which is why I like Gran Divina you can just tuned her however you like depending of the situation and her teammates, you can either focus on support with Sabers, Heal Light, Tinkle Rain, Speed Up and Transshape or use her as a nuker, with LV1 Spells being cheap and fast to cast, give her an armor that allow to deny counter to avoid counters as much as possible and she can nuke mobs very efficiently, and she can ehance herself with the Sabers and if all fail she have a Neutral Spell that is quite powerfull and fast to cast if there is no weakness to exploit. So IMO she isn't a specialist like her other classes, but her Jack of all tricks nature make it so she can make herself usefull in virtually any situation.

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1 hour ago, Nesouk said:

IMO Gran Divina is the closest thing this mod has of the Red Mage class in Final Fantasy series

I think Vanadise fits that bill better.
RM also can handle physical combat which GD clearly can't.

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38 minutes ago, praetarius5018 said:

I think Vanadise fits that bill better.
RM also can handle physical combat which GD clearly can't.

Except RM is also suppose to have at least the low tier elemental spell, which Vanadis doesn't, Vanadis can also be specialize for doing good physical damage, and due to good defensive stat and shield can act as a tank so IMO she is closer to Kain's Holy Dragoon class in FFIV : The After Years (basically Paladin but with Spears instead of Sword) than a Red Mage.
GD can't handle physical combat really well which is why I insisted on "closet thing to a Red Mage" her spell selection is really close to a Red Mage, but she lack the physical part of Red Mage.

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to me a RM is equally inept with physical (ideally sword) and magic, can heal and knows some status related spells (most often armor buff, poison and mute)

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Alright decide to start my No Heal Light playthrough picked Lise, Hawk and Angela, of course the early game will not be different from a regular playthrough, just want to add however for Jewel Eater I found the helm sold at Dwarf Village to be really usefull against him making him even safer than before I manage to beat with my character never getting on critical HP xD, as his physical attacks are more dangerous than his magical one, so add that to my little early game guide I make earlier.

(PS : Also small note to early game cause I'm also testing that Dervish, Arch Mage, Bishop party that come to my mind earlier on, Kevin's prologue has a little advantage, his prologue is fill with Bound Wolf so if we are lucky he can get a Moon Coin for Full Metal Hugger, and it makes Full Metal Huger a joke, got probably the fastest kill I ever done on him thanks to that xD, tough I don't recommend grinding for it (I wasn't looking for it just get it by luck) as it can be annoying to get and the early game on hard already require to grind enough consumable as it is but it's good to know, as if Kevin wasn't already the best character for early game enough xD)

Anyway for my No Heal Light team decide to do thing a little differently than what I was planning earlier here's my team plan :

-Lise is going to be Fenrir Knight, obviously would be crazy to not go for this class on such a party, so that give me all debuffs a good shield user obviously her most attractive feature is her Final weapon for it healing on counter effect, but also Moon Saber for Draining HP.

-Hawk : Now this is where I'm gonna be bold, upon thinking it his Dark Classes seems like a good pick, Ninja Master could open counter for Fenrir Knight, and Nightblade could give Curse and good nuking with Black Rain, but I don't want to be stuck on Invert Armor with Lise, and so considering she already bring the debuff I don't think Dark Hawk will bring much.
And so I'm gonna do something different and go for his Wanderer class for a few reasons. First off his spells will give a lot of tools to play around, in a no Heal Light game I think Life Booster might prove more usefull, also has Lunatic (only class with both Life Booster and Lunatic by the way) he also has Transshape so Transshape + Shield combo will be a thing with Lise, Aura Wave will allow Lise to get her LV1 Tech ready faster, Anti Magic will prove usefull to on some fight (I'm going all out in this run as you can see XD), Mind Up is the most important buff for most of the boss fights (and will strengthen Angela) and on top of all this utility Dual Hitting Counter with Fireblaze is still a thing, also get a cheap fast to cast spell with Arrow, a guaranteed fix damage with Half Vanish and his Final Weapon, as well as Body Change while not wanted on regular playthrough if things get ugly I will not mind losing EXP to make mob fight easier. 

-Angela : Gonna go to Rune Master, the goal on this party will be trying for mob fight to minimize damage as much as possible, and so Rune Master being able to cripple mobs with Statut Effects is a no brainer for me, Wanderer's Antimagic will allow her to bypass immunities, and for boss fight she will mostly use her LV2 Spells.

Will see how it will turn out.

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On 3/7/2020 at 1:14 PM, Nesouk said:

Anyway for my No Heal Light team decide to do thing a little differently than what I was planning earlier here's my team plan :

-Lise is going to be Fenrir Knight, obviously would be crazy to not go for this class on such a party, so that give me all debuffs a good shield user obviously her most attractive feature is her Final weapon for it healing on counter effect, but also Moon Saber for Draining HP.

-Hawk : Now this is where I'm gonna be bold, upon thinking it his Dark Classes seems like a good pick, Ninja Master could open counter for Fenrir Knight, and Nightblade could give Curse and good nuking with Black Rain, but I don't want to be stuck on Invert Armor with Lise, and so considering she already bring the debuff I don't think Dark Hawk will bring much.
And so I'm gonna do something different and go for his Wanderer class for a few reasons. First off his spells will give a lot of tools to play around, in a no Heal Light game I think Life Booster might prove more usefull, also has Lunatic (only class with both Life Booster and Lunatic by the way) he also has Transshape so Transshape + Shield combo will be a thing with Lise, Aura Wave will allow Lise to get her LV1 Tech ready faster, Anti Magic will prove usefull to on some fight (I'm going all out in this run as you can see XD), Mind Up is the most important buff for most of the boss fights (and will strengthen Angela) and on top of all this utility Dual Hitting Counter with Fireblaze is still a thing, also get a cheap fast to cast spell with Arrow, a guaranteed fix damage with Half Vanish and his Final Weapon, as well as Body Change while not wanted on regular playthrough if things get ugly I will not mind losing EXP to make mob fight easier. 

-Angela : Gonna go to Rune Master, the goal on this party will be trying for mob fight to minimize damage as much as possible, and so Rune Master being able to cripple mobs with Statut Effects is a no brainer for me, Wanderer's Antimagic will allow her to bypass immunities, and for boss fight she will mostly use her LV2 Spells.

Will see how it will turn out.

Sounds good, I agree that Wanderer has advantages here. He's more of a caster than Dark Hawk and will compliment Rune Master's MT direct damage with single-target direct damage spells Arrow and Half Vanish which can cast cheaply and quickly while Fenrir Knight keeps the casters safe with her shield. You can also try Sleep Flower self-cast / reflect armor / Wind God Bracelet here that you wouldn't have access to with Dark Hawk. For heavy physical damage fights you can just buy Bulette's Scales get the the Protect Up.

My Duran/Angela/Carlie group is going well so far; I should hit my second class change this week. Having Light Angela and Dark Carlie on the same team is just really nice mid-game; you can either have two MT dilrect damage or one MT and one heavy ST direct damage caster, depending on the situation. Apart from nuking mobs, this works well in multi-boss fights like Bill & Ben and Machine Robos where Angela can keep bringing heavy damage to all bosses at once while Carlie can focus on one at a time to stagger when they hit their 25% HP attacks.

I'm thinking of going back to a Lise/Angela/Carlie group afterwards to compare with this run, but I want to see how Duran and invert-Necromancer work out first.

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I don't plan on using Sleep Flower + Reflect Armor strat considering that I already have Rune Master which with her Final Weapon should be better for setting Statut Effects, not mentionning Snowman and Petrify are better statut if you want to cripple mobs. Also I plan on trying the Armors and accessory that greatly increase Defenses but make Heal Light and item hurt, already confirm with Praetarius that HP Drain, Fenrir Knight's Final Weapon and Mad Beast Fang should still work. Wanderer main point really are all his utility spell which should come handy in a no Heal Light run.

Bulette's Scales will be farm indeed, at least Ogre Box should be easy to farm from trap chest (easier than Kaiser Mimic at least), we will see.

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I honestly think that Dervish, Arch Mage, Bishop party is going to out-preform my current Warrior Monk, Rune Master, Evil Shaman team overall. This group isn't bad by any means - it really excels on boss fights since they start with a decent percentage of their health knocked away by Evil Shaman's final weapon and Lunatic before you blast them with elemental spells up the wazoo - but even though the team has sabers it's pretty lacking in physical damage. Warrior Monks is also honestly a weaker healer than I expected it to be...this isn't a huge deal for this particular team however.

On the other hand, Arch Mage is a plenty strong solo caster to support Dervish and Bishop smacking things to death while saber'd up.

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Actually I think your team should be better for mobs, due to Rune Master statut spells.

I was also disappointed with Warrior Monk, honnestly think it's Kevin least good class, it has good buffs spells, but God Hand is better at healing thanks to Counter Magic, also better Saber, can be use for Counter strat with his final weapon, Warrior Monk's Final weapon seems worthless to me, if you want better healing weapon that boost Heal Light is better. And for damage his Dark Classes are far better.

That said continue Kevin, Angela, Carlie team, completly wreck Gorva with Bashkar and Sorceress, Moon Coin then Bashkar with Steel Armlet on Salamando day deals a lot of damage to the guy and Sorceress spam Holy Ball, manage to beat him before he even use Black Rain so deathless fight.

For seashore cave Bashkar with Bunny Egg, Sorceress with Evil Gate destroy the mobs, Priestess is honnestly kind of useless tough ^^".

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So, through a failed hard drive and a couple of careless decisions, I ended up deleting my Duran/Angela/Carlie game without having a backup. Luckily I lost no major work in this process, so no big deal. But I will probably not be continuing with the Duelist/Grand Divina/Necromancer plan. I wanted to give Dark Duran a chance, but after playing with him up through about 40% of the game, it's clear that his advantages do not appear until the late game. Light Duran gets Heal Light and Protect Up at the first class change, two hugely useful abilities that you learn when just when the battles start to get more difficult. Dark Duran's sabers are just not as useful when you need them to be.

I did, however, fall in love with Dark Carlie. I raised her spirit, then luck, then agility; the luck increase surprisingly added something like 40% to her spell damage. Having both Light Angela and Dark Carlie mid-game was much more powerful than Light Angela/Light Carlie I used on a previous team; I could handle most groups of mobs in two or three spells, and Dark Carlie was out-damaging Angela pretty regularly for boss fights.

I plan to keep Angela/Dark Carlie as the backbone of my team when I get a new game going, but I'm thinking to change the main character. Light Duran is the obvious choice for early Heal Light, Protect Up, and shields, but the devil inside me is urging me to give that aborted Hawk/Angela/Carlie team another chance. Lise is another option of course. I will report back once I get the game going and make some progress.

EDIT: Just passed FMH with Hawk/Angela/Carlie. If Nesouk can be brave enough to try a No Heal Light run, I can be brave enough to try this star-crossed team.

Edited by rpschamp

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For now just beat Tzenker and got the first class change, with the No Heal Light.

Tzenker is still an easy boss, Molebear's Claws + Diamond Missile, Ranger attacking when she is on range and Arrow when off-range and Lise debuff her with Speed Down.

Funny cause for me Dark Duran was a huge help mid game on my Duran, Angela, Lise party, I didn't have Heal Light until Vanadis using his Sabers on corresponding day give a huge boost to damage, pretty usefull especially in the Desert area actually where a lot of ennemies are weak to either Earth or Wind.

Also for Angela and Dark Carlie actually how about Magus + Evil Shaman just these 2 give you the most important Buffs and Debuffs and elemental damage, all you need is a Heal Light user as a third member.

EDIT : OK I finally test the Dwarf Village's Armor that allow to deny counter on Bill and Ben with Angela and... goddamn this armor is really in that particular fight for Angela, she can finally be relevant in this fight as thanks to this armor she proc Shadow Dive a lot less, as a result she can bombard spell as ever and geez just having Angela being able to do that make this fight a LOT faster, best way for this fight is probably coming on Salamando Day use the Steel Armlet for the physical hitter and Fireball with Angela.

Edited by Nesouk

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On 3/12/2020 at 11:00 PM, Nesouk said:

Also for Angela and Dark Carlie actually how about Magus + Evil Shaman just these 2 give you the most important Buffs and Debuffs and elemental damage, all you need is a Heal Light user as a third member.

EDIT : OK I finally test the Dwarf Village's Armor that allow to deny counter on Bill and Ben with Angela and... goddamn this armor is really in that particular fight for Angela, she can finally be relevant in this fight as thanks to this armor she proc Shadow Dive a lot less, as a result she can bombard spell as ever and geez just having Angela being able to do that make this fight a LOT faster, best way for this fight is probably coming on Salamando Day use the Steel Armlet for the physical hitter and Fireball with Angela.

I honestly thought for a long while about making Angela a Magus for my current party, but decided the AoE status effects and sabers of Rune Master won out. I think it'd do best with a Lord or Paladin with dual shields to draw aggro off the casters.

I'll have to remember the counter-deny armor the next time I play a caster-heavy playthrough on Bill And Ben...Kevin carried my current party hard in that fight without said armor xD

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Why Dual Shield ? One shield is enough (the aggro effect doesn't stack). Light Duran, Magus, Necromancer could be a cool party actually.

Also as said on the discord beat the Machine Golem with my usual solo strat and without using any Healing Items, stacking armor that make Heal Light hurt (best defense among armor), Blackshade Ring and Dragon Ring for stealing HP with Protect Up really is a good strat that allow to tank damage much better, can't wait to get Moon Saber to be able to equip 2 Blackshade Ring for max defenses ^^

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On 3/13/2020 at 2:00 AM, Nesouk said:

EDIT : OK I finally test the Dwarf Village's Armor that allow to deny counter on Bill and Ben with Angela and... goddamn this armor is really in that particular fight for Angela, she can finally be relevant in this fight as thanks to this armor she proc Shadow Dive a lot less, as a result she can bombard spell as ever and geez just having Angela being able to do that make this fight a LOT faster, best way for this fight is probably coming on Salamando Day use the Steel Armlet for the physical hitter and Fireball with Angela.

That armor is a life-saver for a caster team through the early and mid game. Angela and Carlie can essentially juggle bosses like Bill & Ben and Machine Golems to death without fear of too much retribution. I use it on almost every boss except the few with weak/no counters.

Got my Hawk/Angela/Carlie team up to the ice fields. This is the team I've been looking for and I'm really happy I came back to it; I love playing these characters and gave up too early on them the first time. Shields, while helpful, are not necessary for a decoy; you can get a similar effect without them if you play your lead character correctly, just less room for error. I went light for Hawk and Angela and dark for Carlie, and plan to go Wanderer, Grand Divina, Necromancer (or Evil Shaman) at this point. Magus/Evil Shaman would also be a nice choice if Hawk had a class that learns Heal Light.

I'm glad to know the No Heal Light team (Team Zombie?) is working out! I'd like to hear how much the game changes once you get Fenrir Knight's final weapon. Some of the death score weapons/armor might also be interesting to try here, maybe to boost Wanderer's damage in the late game?

Edited by rpschamp

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Not really team Zombie, I will not give such armor and accessorie to Angela, cause she is mostly casting so she can't take advantage of HP drain, also it's not safe on some fights, Bill and Ben for instance combo you way to fast to make HP Draining Zombie viable.

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Paladin, Death Hand. Necromancer would be good. Get the six main Saber, Black Curse could make Death Hand final weapon worth it for boss fight, Necromancer also bring elemental damage, Magic Shield for defense, Black Rain and Death Hand LV3 Tech for mob cleaning as well as Turn Undead once Paladin get his Final Weapon. Also antimagic for good mesure.

Edited by Nesouk

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Just an update on my Wanderer, Grand Divina, Evil Shaman/Necromancer team. I'm at the final class change and I'm playing around a bit with both Evil Shaman and Necromancer, trying to decide which one to take. This is a tougher decision than I thought it would be because they both seem pretty awesome, so I tried to think of who had the advantage in different functions and apply an arbitrary rating to be added up (+1-5 for the winner in each case, out of 15 total for defense and 15 total for offense; the advantages Evil Shaman might have in support spells don't really apply here, since Wanderer and Grand Divina already cover everything she offers).

Defense:

Party buffs: Evil Shaman gets Protect Up, and Wanderer, Grand Divina, Evil Shaman can cast Mind Up, Speed Up, Protect Up one-two-three. This is incredibly fast and effective, but requires three Whitelight Rings. On the other hand, unless I give Necromancer invert armor, her party will be missing Protect Up. I can see inverted Black Curse being useful in some situations, but in order to get the whole party buffed she will have to cast three inverted Black Curses wearing invert armor and probably Rune Earrings to access the MP. Until she can get her cast time way down, this will occupy her and leave her vulnerable for quite some time. Evil Shaman definitely has the advantage here. (Evil Shaman + 4)

ST debuffs: Necromancer has the advantage here with Black Curse, but it's really only an advantage for random enemies. For bosses, it's not difficult to manipulate the game into feeding you Bottles of Ashes from ??? seeds, and even before the second class change I have enough in my inventory for almost all the remaining boss fights. Necromancer also gets an additional debuff through her Dark Saber, described below, which in some cases can more than make up for the lack of Protect Up. (Necromancer + 3)

MT debuffs: Evil Shaman can cast Ghost Road and Demon Breath, both useful for both defense and offense. Evil Shaman's final weapon also contributes to this purpose, though it's usefulness may decrease towards the end of the game as stat decreases become less meaningful. Necromancer gets Dark Saber, which can be cast on a group of enemies to take advantage of dark resistance. This is a surprisingly convenient strategy for this group, since Wanderer and Necromancer both naturally resist dark, and Grand Divina can add dark resistance with her Mananan Robe. Still, Evil Shaman has the advantage here due to the simplicity and flexibility of her spells. (Evil Shaman + 3)

Offense:

ST damage: Necromancer has the advantage here due to damage diversity (more elements, a non-elemental spell, and a HP-based spell). Plus, her final weapon looks pretty damn effective, but I've never used it before so I'm not really sure. Could someone who has used Necromancer tell me how much extra damage to expect with her final weapon if, let's say, an endgame Necromancer is down 400 HP and casting one of her level 2 ST summons? HP armor and Wanderer's Life Booster should also be useful here. (Necromancer + 3 to +5, depending on how effective her final weapon is)

MT damage: Evil Shaman's MT damage through Demon Breath or Ghost Road should hit almost as hard as Necromancer's Black Rain, since the damage stat is a little higher. Demon Breath also enhances Angela's subsequent spells by 25%, which is a big boost since Grand Divina can fire off multiple spells in quick succession, even at moderate agility. All in all, I think Evil Shaman has the advantage here due to Demon Breath; plus, she can mix in Ghost Road to debuff the enemies further. (If only Hawk's spirit weapons hit against magical defense!) (Evil Shaman + 2)

Curse: Evil Shaman cannot apply Curse, but Grand Divina can apply it with Evil Gate and Necromancer with Black Rain. Evil Gate is faster, but Grand Divina's accessory slots are more precious due to her greater dependency on the Whitelight Ring and Protect Earrings. Assuming Necromancer can get her speed up, freeing up one of Angela's accessory slots should give her the advantage here; plus Black Rain is the more powerful spell. (Necromancer + 2)

Overall/Questions:

Overall, Evil Shaman gets a +4 for defense, while Necromancer gets between a +3 and +5 for offense, depending on how much her final weapon can add to her spell damage. Pretty evenly matched! So, would a team of Wanderer, Grand Divina, Evil Shaman/Necromancer better profit from enhanced defense or enhanced offense? My feeling is that for the second third of the game, due to my vitality stat running low while I fill out my spell roster, Protect Up will be really nice to keep myself alive when I need it, and Ghost Road and Demon Breath will make random battles easier, giving Evil Shaman the advantage. For the final third of the game, I would like to ask anyone who has used Evil Shaman or Necromancer what you think of their final weapons. Does Evil Shaman's final weapon stay useful up through the final boss? How much damage does Necromancer's final weapon add to her spells, and how does the damage boost compare to other methods (e.g. Mind Up, equipment boosts, etc.)? Based on my estimation from the mechanics files, Necromancer's final weapon should be able to boost her spells as much as Duelist's final weapon boosts his level 2/3 techs (up to +250 damage before multipliers), which seems like A LOT, with the caveat that she has to be able to function at low HP. This may give her the advantage in the end.

EDIT: Regarding casting sabers on enemies and using resist gear: After reviewing the mechanics files, it seems that the greater the difference between the enemy's attack and your defense, the greater the percent damage reduction, approaching 45%. Let's look at some examples (I'm not sure if these values make sense, but the examples should make the point):

Enemy attack 300, player defense 100: Normal damage = 200, sabered/resisted damage = (330-100)/2 = 115 = 42.5% reduction

Enemy attack 300, player defense 150: Normal damage = 150, sabered/resisted damage = (330-150)/2 = 90 = 40% reduction

Enemy attack 300, player defense 250: Normal damage = 50, sabered/resisted damage = (330-250)/2 = 40 = 20% reduction

Enemy attack 300, player defense 280: Normal damage = 20, sabered/resisted damage = (330-280)/2 = 25 = 25% increase

The funny thing is that in low damage situations, you can actually end up increasing enemy damage this way. The important thing is though that in high damage situations, when you really need it, you can reduce enemy weapon or tech damage by close to 45%. So, when enemy weapon or tech damage is your main source of damage and they are doing a lot of it (werewolves, knights, ninjas, Lugar, Bigieu, etc.), a saber/resist option may be even more useful than Protect Up.

 

Edited by rpschamp

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On 3/31/2020 at 3:22 PM, rpschamp said:

The important thing is though that in high damage situations, when you really need it, you can reduce enemy weapon or tech damage by close to 45%. So, when enemy weapon or tech damage is your main source of damage and they are doing a lot of it (werewolves, knights, ninjas, Lugar, Bigieu, etc.), a saber/resist option may be even more useful than Protect Up.

 

I'm playing with a friend right now a party of Ninja Master, Dervish and Paladin, and that strat intrigues me, but I'd need a Demon Neckband to turn Hawk resistant to dark (and it lowers defenses), so I'm wondering if it'd be worth it. Don't remember if that can be bought before Lugar (I think the cats only appear when you're doing the god beasts?), but I think I'll try it against Bigieu (looking forward to but also fucking scared of that fight)

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Demon Neckband can only be bought from the cats when you're fighting the God Beasts, so not yet.  With your team, since Duran is a Paladin, I would stick with Protect Up for most situations since that gives a 25% reduction on all physical damage without the extra equipment. But for those heavy melee/tech damage situations when you want the extra defense, your easiest path is through Dark Saber: Duran can wear Swordsman Armor or Demon Neckband, Hawk can wear Demon Neckband, and Kevin, who naturally resists dark, has the option to wear Whitelight Ring if you want to target all enemies.

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21 minutes ago, rpschamp said:

Demon Neckband can only be bought from the cats when you're fighting the God Beasts, so not yet.  With your team, since Duran is a Paladin, I would stick with Protect Up for most situations since that gives a 25% reduction on all physical damage without the extra equipment. But for those heavy melee/tech damage situations when you want the extra defense, your easiest path is through Dark Saber: Duran can wear Swordsman Armor or Demon Neckband, Hawk can wear Demon Neckband, and Kevin, who naturally resists dark, has the option to wear Whitelight Ring if you want to target all enemies.

Yes, that's what I was thinking on doing, thanks for the heads up.

Also I'm kinda torn up between Paladin and Lord (we didn't get to the second class change yet); we're going for crit and evade on our guys (Duran with a shield and geared for evade plus the AI evade bonus makes for a very durable tank against random mobs), so MT Speed up (and a second energy ball caster) from Lord would be very nice on this team. However, not choosing Paladin means I don't get Saint Saber/Turn Undead (which are huge on Hawk's route), and also Anti-magic which is expensive at the black market.

Maybe choosing Lord just for MT Speed up isn't worth it since Ninja Master already has MT debuffs, but I dunno. Thoughts?

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