Character/Job Party Recommendations

[smileless 0]

35 minutes ago, Serafie1999AD said:

I was thinking of something like this, except Light Carlie instead of Grand Divina to get healing and Sabers earlier. In a team of Light Lise, Dark Hawk and Light Carlie, I'm still trying to decide which couples to use. Lise as a Star Lancer seems like the better choice now that Carlie is already taking care of healing.

Bishop vs. Sage:
Bishop's ultimate weapon makes her a strong fighter, Turn Undead also has its uses, and Magic Shield is great if you need to reapply defensive buffs on a single character. On the other hand, Sage gets Leaf Saber for MP restoring, Dark Force for curse effect, and Rainbow Dust against a few enemies who aren't resistant to earth, wind, ice or fire.

Ninja Master ve. Nightblade:
Ninja Master's Analyze should work well with Lise's Energy Ball, and his ultimate weapon is there to make way for Fireblaze + counter, and Lise's Aura Wave lets you have a level 1 tech ready quickly. Nightblade gets Deadly Weapon for lowering bosses' HP, and Black Rain for curse effect.

Which of these do you think would work the best?

I think Ninja Master works best with Bishop and Starlancer. You have Energyball, Analyze, Bishop is a strong caster and her final weapon makes her strong physically too with her level 1 tech and now Counters ignoring physical resistance, have NM and Bishop with their level 1 techs go wild, you got Marduke.

I think Sage would be better with anti magic user for her rainbow dust.

Edited May 12, 2020 by smileless

[rpschamp 0]

14 minutes ago, Serafie1999AD said:

I was thinking of something like this, except Light Carlie instead of Grand Divina to get healing and Sabers earlier. In a team of Light Lise, Dark Hawk and Light Carlie, I'm still trying to decide which couples to use. Lise as a Star Lancer seems like the better choice now that Carlie is already taking care of healing.

Bishop vs. Sage:
Bishop's ultimate weapon makes her a strong fighter, Turn Undead also has its uses, and Magic Shield is great if you need to reapply defensive buffs on a single character. On the other hand, Sage gets Leaf Saber for MP restoring, Dark Force for curse effect, and Rainbow Dust against a few enemies who aren't resistant to earth, wind, ice or fire.

Ninja Master ve. Nightblade:
Ninja Master's Analyze should work well with Lise's Energy Ball, and his ultimate weapon is there to make way for Fireblaze + counter, and Lise's Aura Wave lets you have a level 1 tech ready quickly. Nightblade gets Deadly Weapon for lowering bosses' HP, and Black Rain for curse effect.

Which of these do you think would work the best?

On this team in particular, I think Sage has more to offer than Bishop, since Star Lancer already covers your stat buffs pretty completely. Two spell damage elements are much better than one, and I don't think there are any enemies resistant to both Light and Dark, so your Sage should always be able to cast something. Also, you'll get these spells 20 levels earlier than Bishop's final weapon; Sage will be fully functional before you get to the God Beasts. Sage also gets a final weapon that gives passive healing (20% stronger in this update) which can be nice when plowing through dungeons. Leaf Saber has it's purposes too.

If you take Bishop, then Nightblade is important for Curse if you don't want to wear reflect armor all the time. If you take Sage though, Ninja Master vs. Nightblade is more a matter of preference/style, since Sage can Curse and Star Lancer can Silence. In general, I think Ninja Master is more complimentary to Star Lancer. As you mentioned, Ninja Master gets Analyze which is nice with Energy Ball if you're going for critical hits. Ninja Master also gets Transshape, so if you're leading with Star Lancer and using a shield, you can use her to draw and evade all melee. MT Fire Jutsu will also help boost the damage of Saint Beam, Dark Force, and Marduk. On the other hand, Nightblade has good elemental spread, and his Poison Breath should now be able to enhance Rainbow Dust by adding Leaf Coat.

In summary, I would go for Star Lancer, Ninja Master, Sage, but you won't go wrong by choosing something else.

[smileless 0]

1 minute ago, rpschamp said:

On this team in particular, I think Sage has more to offer than Bishop, since Star Lancer already covers your stat buffs pretty completely. Two spell damage elements are much better than one, and I don't think there are any enemies resistant to both Light and Dark, so your Sage should always be able to cast something. Also, you'll get these spells 20 levels earlier than Bishop's final weapon; Sage will be fully functional before you get to the God Beasts. Sage also gets a final weapon that gives passive healing (20% stronger in this update) which can be nice when plowing through dungeons. Leaf Saber has it's purposes too.

If you take Bishop, then Nightblade is important for Curse if you don't want to wear reflect armor all the time. If you take Sage though, Ninja Master vs. Nightblade is more a matter of preference/style, since Sage can Curse and Star Lancer can Silence. In general, I think Ninja Master is more complimentary to Star Lancer. As you mentioned, Ninja Master gets Analyze which is nice with Energy Ball if you're going for critical hits. Ninja Master also gets Transshape, so if you're leading with Star Lancer and using a shield, you can use her to draw and evade all melee. MT Fire Jutsu will also help boost the damage of Saint Beam, Dark Force, and Marduk. On the other hand, Nightblade has good elemental spread, and his Poison Breath should now be able to enhance Rainbow Dust by adding Leaf Coat.

In summary, I would go for Star Lancer, Ninja Master, Sage, but you won't go wrong by choosing something else.

When you put it this way you can't go wrong with either choice really.

[rpschamp 0]

3 minutes ago, smileless said:

When you put it this way you can't go wrong with either choice really.

Yeah, this team is really just great regardless. I think Star Lancer is the only definite choice. I do think Ninja Master pairs particularly nicely with Star Lancer, but keep Curse in mind; you can only get that here through Sage and Nightblade. It's also possible to just wear reflect armor for random fights, and you'll get a 175% reflection instead of the 100% you get from Curse.

My play style leans towards spell casting, so I may have a bias for Sage, so keep that in mind too; I know Bishop is well loved. I just don't think Bishop's final weapon advantage should be the deciding factor; Sage with her Agility weapon can hit almost as hard (30/light medium vs. 32/medium). Plus, you'll probably be using her heal weapon half the time. For this purpose, I like that Sage gets two options for heal weapons: the normal heal spell/item enhancing one, and her passive 15 HP/s one.

[rpschamp 0]

44 minutes ago, smileless said:

I think Ninja Master works best with Bishop and Starlancer. You have Energyball, Analyze, Bishop is a strong caster and her final weapon makes her strong physically too with her level 1 tech and now Counters ignoring physical resistance, have NM and Bishop with their level 1 techs go wild, you got Marduke.

I did forget about that level 1 tech bonus for Bishop's final weapon. I assume that it still applies in the case of a counterattack? Regardless, it should help, but you could also just use Sage's Saint Beam or Dark Force against physically resistant enemies instead.

EDIT: Just confirmed that it does; tech bonus and counter bonus are added cumulatively, so yeah, it should be quite good against those enemy types.

Edited May 12, 2020 by rpschamp

[smileless 0]

1 minute ago, rpschamp said:

I did forget about that level 1 tech advantage for the Bishop's final weapon. I assume that it still applies in the case of a counterattack? Regardless, it should help against physical resistance, but you could also just MT Sage's Saint Beam or Dark Force against physically resistant enemies instead.

That's true. Bishop is also a caster herself so it's situational moreso where you use her spell, but only restricted to light elemental. I guess a matter of preference here, I beat the game before with Ninja Master, Starlancer and Bishop, I was thinking post update to try out with Sage now instead and see how it goes, Starlancer also has access to Light/Dark Saber and boosts Sage's saint beam/dark force to a maximum. 

My worry is just lack of antimagic to make full use of curse upgrade or Rainbow Dust but it's doable without that too.

 

[rpschamp 0]

45 minutes ago, smileless said:

That's true. Bishop is also a caster herself so it's situational moreso where you use her spell, but only restricted to light elemental. I guess a matter of preference here, I beat the game before with Ninja Master, Starlancer and Bishop, I was thinking post update to try out with Sage now instead and see how it goes, Starlancer also has access to Light/Dark Saber and boosts Sage's saint beam/dark force to a maximum. 

My worry is just lack of antimagic to make full use of curse upgrade or Rainbow Dust but it's doable without that too.

 

It's funny, but in terms of the update, I think that Bishop got the best bonus; her final weapon is now more important due to new counter power against physical resistance. Also, even though I've always liked Sage, I've always hated Rainbow Dust and almost never used it; I get that it fits thematically (philosopher of the elements; a doctor of Ancient Greece, perhaps), it's just that it's rare to find a situation where it's actually effective, and at 11 MP, it's way less useful than Black Rain, which costs 8 MP and can add Curse. With the update though, I'm wondering how much it can be boosted with Leaf Coat (I couldn't find it in the mechanics). If it's at least a 50% boost, it might be nice to throw after Nightblade hits the target enemy with a Poison Breath; this will help the damage modifier come out positive in those situations where the enemy has both a resistance and a weakness. In this way, spells that can add Leaf Coat may helpful in enhancing Rainbow Dust's ability to actually kill enemies it can already damage, rather than using Antimagic to reduce immunities to resistances in enemies it might not kill anyways. This is all conjecture though; I haven't seen anyone posting about Leaf Coat yet.

Edited May 12, 2020 by rpschamp

[smileless 0]

19 minutes ago, rpschamp said:

It's funny, but in terms of the upgrade, I think that Bishop got the best bonus; her final weapon is now more important due to new counter power against physical resistance. Also, even though I've always liked Sage, I've always hated Rainbow Dust and almost never used it; I get that it fits thematically (philosopher of the elements; a doctor of Ancient Greece, perhaps), it's just that it's rare to find a situation where it's actually effective, and at 11 MP, it's way less useful than Black Rain, which costs 8 MP and can add Curse. With the update though, I'm wondering how much it can be boosted with Leaf Coat (I couldn't find it in the mechanics). If it's at least a 50% boost, it might be nice to throw after Nightblade hits the target enemy with a Poison Breath; this will help the damage modifier come out positive in those situations where the enemy has both a resistance and a weakness. In this way, spells that can add Leaf Coat may helpful in enhancing Rainbow Dust's ability to actually kill enemies it can already damage, rather than using Antimagic to reduce immunities to resistances in enemies it might not kill anyways. This is all conjecture though; I haven't seen anyone posting about Leaf Coat yet.

I only ran Sage once but I don't think I used Rainbow Dust more than once or twice and that just for fun, otherwise I kept using the curse upgrade and spammed dark force while Dragonmaster with her empowered antimagic making any monster with a weakness making weak to everything, Death Hand had Dark Saber, Magic Shield.

Bishop was pretty powerful on my run with Lord and Dragonmaster, that was before the current update, that party with the current updste should work even better. Lord uses his level 2/3 tech to open up a counter, Lise and Carlie set with their level 1 techs and when possible equipping fireblaze on bosses. Dragonmaster inflicting poison to mobs and/or debuffs and with the empowered antimagic making use Bishop's lack of elemental spells (only light). And man I hate those Dragon Zombies, Turn Undead took care of them.

I think that was one of the teams I enjoyed playing the most so far. Only difficulty I had was against Dolan because none of them are double hitters but just set to no tech use for all characters for better tech management for that fight. It might take longer but safer.

Edited May 12, 2020 by smileless

[praetarius5018 111]

15 minutes ago, rpschamp said:

With the update though, I'm wondering how much it can be boosted with Leaf Coat (I couldn't find it in the mechanics). If it's at least a 50% boost, it might be nice to throw after Nightblade hits the target enemy with a Poison Breath

huh, I really forgot to write that down...

Spoiler

Lv2/3 tech with fire saber gets x1.5 damage
fire spells get x1.25 attack before defense

 

[rpschamp 0]

5 minutes ago, praetarius5018 said:

huh, I really forgot to write that down...

  Reveal hidden contents

Lv2/3 tech with fire saber gets x1.5 damage
fire spells get x1.25 attack before defense

 

Well, that should be about 2.5 x the saber effect, so not so bad. It might also be more effective for high level spells like Rainbow Dust since the spell level modifier actually decreases with level before defense is subtracted.

It's too bad Jormungand doesn't Leaf Coat all enemies instead of Poison, I'd love to follow that up with Rainbow Dust or Rune Master's MT Blaze Wall!

[rpschamp 0]

48 minutes ago, smileless said:

I only ran Sage once but I don't think I used Rainbow Dust more than once or twice and that just for fun, otherwise I kept using the curse upgrade and spammed dark force while Dragonmaster with her empowered antimagic making any monster with a weakness making weak to everything, Death Hand had Dark Saber, Magic Shield.

Bishop was pretty powerful on my run with Lord and Dragonmaster, that was before the current update, that party with the current updste should work even better. Lord uses his level 2/3 tech to open up a counter, Lise and Carlie set with their level 1 techs and when possible equipping fireblaze on bosses. Dragonmaster inflicting poison to mobs and/or debuffs and with the empowered antimagic making use Bishop's lack of elemental spells (only light). And man I hate those Dragon Zombies, Turn Undead took care of them.

I think that was one of the teams I enjoyed playing the most so far. Only difficulty I had was against Dolan because none of them are double hitters but just set to no tech use for all characters for better tech management for that fight. It might take longer but safer.

This makes me think now that since Ninja Master can open up counters with his final weapon, Bishop can take advantage of that, maybe even with a Fireblaze.

Well, you have convinced me a bit, I now see it like this:

- Star Lancer, Ninja Master, Bishop: Ninja Master opens counters, Energy Ball/Analyze, everyone goes wild; best physical team, but no Curse. Reflect armor is better anyways! Transhape/shields.

- Star Lancer, Nightblade, Bishop: Curse, so more armor choices, but no ability to open counters in the late game. 

- Star Lancer, Ninja Master, Sage: Strong MT spell damage with MT Fire Jutsu followed by Saint Beam/Dark Force and Marduk, Curse, passive heal option. Energy Ball/Analyze, Transhape/shields.

- Star Lancer, Nightblade, Sage: Strong MT spell damage with Black Rain or Poison Breath to enhance Rainbow Dust, Curse, passive heal option.

I would personally go for Star Lancer, Ninja Master, and then Bishop for better boss fighting or Sage for better mob fighting.

Edited May 12, 2020 by rpschamp

[smileless 0]

29 minutes ago, rpschamp said:

This makes me think now that since Ninja Master can open up counters with his final weapon, Bishop can take advantage of that, maybe even with a Fireblaze.

Well, you have convinced me a bit, I now see it like this:

- Star Lancer, Ninja Master, Bishop: Ninja Master opens counters, Energy Ball/Analyze, everyone goes wild; best physical team, but no Curse. Reflect armor is better anyways! Transhape/shields.

- Star Lancer, Nightblade, Bishop: Curse, so more armor choices, but no ability to open counters in the late game. 

- Star Lancer, Ninja Master, Sage: Strong MT spell damage with MT Fire Jutsu followed by Saint Beam/Dark Force and Marduk, Curse, passive heal option. Energy Ball/Analyze, Transhape/shields.

- Star Lancer, Nightblade, Sage: Strong MT spell damage with Black Rain or Poison Breath to enhance Rainbow Dust, Curse, passive heal option.

I would personally go for Star Lancer, Ninja Master, and then Bishop for better boss fighting or Sage for better mob fighting.

 

Those are all fantastic teams imo, it all depends on personal preference on how they want to play. Can't go wrong with any of them really.

Edited May 12, 2020 by smileless

[Serafie1999AD 4]

Thanks for the advice! In normal conditions, I'd take Bishop instead of Sage, but here Sage might be more versatile: Star Lancer already covers buffs and Saint Saber, so Bishop has overlap with her skills, and Star Lancer gets both Saint and Dark Saber, so she can boost Sage's Saint Beam and Dark Force. Bishop becomes a strong fighter when you are able to farm her ultimate weapon, but what about before that?

 

4 hours ago, rpschamp said:

 Two spell damage elements are much better than one, and I don't think there are any enemies resistant to both Light and Dark, so your Sage should always be able to cast something.

I can think of only one enemy that resists both Light and Dark, namely the Evil Shaman.

 

2 hours ago, smileless said:

I only ran Sage once but I don't think I used Rainbow Dust more than once or twice and that just for fun, otherwise I kept using the curse upgrade and spammed dark force while Dragonmaster with her empowered antimagic making any monster with a weakness making weak to everything, Death Hand had Dark Saber, Magic Shield.

Bishop was pretty powerful on my run with Lord and Dragonmaster, that was before the current update, that party with the current updste should work even better. Lord uses his level 2/3 tech to open up a counter, Lise and Carlie set with their level 1 techs and when possible equipping fireblaze on bosses. Dragonmaster inflicting poison to mobs and/or debuffs and with the empowered antimagic making use Bishop's lack of elemental spells (only light). And man I hate those Dragon Zombies, Turn Undead took care of them.

I think that was one of the teams I enjoyed playing the most so far. Only difficulty I had was against Dolan because none of them are double hitters but just set to no tech use for all characters for better tech management for that fight. It might take longer but safer.

Rainbow Dust is indeed one of the least useful ultimate spells since usually an enemy resists at least one of the 4 elements, essentially making the spell subpar. It's still useful against some dangerous enemies, such as Mushrooms, Wizards, Kaiser Mimics, Crawlers and Carmillas. I wonder if Rainbow Dust can benefit from the armor that turns every spell into neutral element. Dragon Master's empowered Anti-Magic could be great with Rainbow Dust, but then this team needs some major changes, as Ninja Master and Dragon Master have massive overlap, and it probably isn't worth it to use invert armor on DM, when you could use Star Lancer instead. As for Bishop, Lord and Dragon Master, that's also a very effective combination, especially after Bishop got MT Power Up in the latest update, but it only has single-hitters and no AW, so bosses like

Spoiler

Dolan and Mispolm

can be really hard to beat. Bishop, Lord and Dragon Master are also heavily reliant on their ultimate weapons, making their best strategies not applicable for roughly 90% of the game.

[smileless 0]

9 minutes ago, Serafie1999AD said:

Rainbow Dust is indeed one of the least useful ultimate spells since usually an enemy resists at least one of the 4 elements, essentially making the spell subpar. It's still useful against some dangerous enemies, such as Mushrooms, Wizards, Kaiser Mimics, Crawlers and Carmillas. I wonder if Rainbow Dust can benefit from the armor that turns every spell into neutral element. Dragon Master's empowered Anti-Magic could be great with Rainbow Dust, but then this team needs some major changes, as Ninja Master and Dragon Master have massive overlap, and it probably isn't worth it to use invert armor on DM, when you could use Star Lancer instead. As for Bishop, Lord and Dragon Master, that's also a very effective combination, especially after Bishop got MT Power Up in the latest update, but it only has single-hitters and no AW, so bosses like

 

10 minutes ago, Serafie1999AD said:

can be really hard to beat. Bishop, Lord and Dragon Master are also heavily reliant on their ultimate weapons, making their best strategies not applicable for roughly 90% of the game.

Well you can start getting the weapon/armor seeds after you beat three god beasts.

How I did it in my current play:

Beat third god beast - get a weapon/armor seed

Beat another one - get another W/A seed

Beat another one for one more W/A seed, getting the 3 final weapons that way.

Before that fot Carlie you could use the weapon that boosts heal light+items, Lord running on the PIE weapon, Lise maybe use one of those weapons from the dwarf village seems pretty nice to restore hp when yellow damage occurs.

Spoiler

As for Dolan it will only take longer to beat him, as long as you set to use no tech you will have better tech management that way, weapon that gives 2 tech points + if possible the ring that increases tech points also, at least on one character, you are set. It took long to beat but it is a safe strat, unless the text goes crazy and slows you down which can happen with any party really.

 

[rpschamp 0]

4 hours ago, Serafie1999AD said:

I wonder if Rainbow Dust can benefit from the armor that turns every spell into neutral element. Dragon Master's empowered Anti-Magic could be great with Rainbow Dust

The neutral spell element armor would boost the damage, but only half a level, since the spell levels are capped at 3.5. Still, it would be better than the 75% modifier you get from resistance plus weakness or worse you get from immunity. As for Dragon Master's Antimagic, I used to think it would net you four weaknesses, i.e. 150%^4 = 506%, but the game only counts one weakness or one resistance; still, 150% is a nice modifier.

[smileless 0]

@rpschamp I have been using your idea by casting saber on enemies for my Ninjamaster/Vanadise/Duelist run. Very helpful for the final arena so far, bought the whiteline ring for Duran, and the armor for Duran and Lise that resist earth, while NM naturally resists earth. 

Basically Diamond Saber on mobs + Protect Up + Water Jutsu

Should have done that with Jagan fight for that annoying Bloody Wolf and Camilla. Oh well, you learn the hard way.

 

Edited May 13, 2020 by smileless

[MoonlitKnight 0]

Is there any sort of high-level description of what the various classes' niches are? In the vanilla game, it’s fairly easy to understand the strengths of the classes because they’re pretty simple. The reworked classes seem much more complex and I’m having a hard time pigeonholing them. Of course, that might be intentional

[praetarius5018 111]

There are no such clear cut roles here, at least not by intention.

Going by how good most (de)buffs are that was some necessity to make them available on multiple characters, and if multiple classes were just "clones" like dark-Hawk, dark-Lise and necro-Charlie are as debuffers all with the same full set it'd get boring fast. So mix and match it was.

[rpschamp 0]

5 hours ago, smileless said:

@rpschamp I have been using your idea by casting saber on enemies for my Ninjamaster/Vanadise/Duelist run. Very helpful for the final arena so far, bought the whiteline ring for Duran, and the armor for Duran and Lise that resist earth, while NM naturally resists earth. 

Basically Diamond Saber on mobs + Protect Up + Water Jutsu

Should have done that with Jagan fight for that annoying Bloody Wolf and Camilla. Oh well, you learn the hard way.

 

One takes so much melee/tech damage in the endgame, I feel like any team should be designed to have this option open. All it needs at minimum is one person with one saber spell in one of the six major elements. Also, it's not really my idea, Praetarius suggested it in an old post on this forum :-)

After playing around with this Hawk/Kevin/Carlie team, I'm thinking now of a larger project: running a melee/tech-damage focus team and a spell-damage focus team side-by-side. I'd like to experience how each strategy functions at different points in the game. Right now I'm thinking:

- Ninja Master/Dervish/Sage: I'm extremely curious about Dervish's Berserker wolf form; the attack boost looks insane. Dervish can add Protect Up and Speed Up to Sage's Mind Up with invert armor, Ninja Master and Dervish can go for critical hits with Analyze and Energy Ball, and Dervish can Boost Sage's Rainbow Dust with Antimagic and Poison Breath/Leaf Coat. Plus, this team will have Moon Saber and Leaf Saber which I'd like to explore more; Moon Saber together with the yellow damage HP rasp weapons and Sage's passive heal could be just enough to keep two double-hitters afloat in the endgame.

- Wanderer/Grand Divina/Necromancer: Grand Divina/Necromancer is a great combination for spell damage in the six major elements and Heal Light. Plus, Grand Divina can switch to team leader once her spells become instant, allowing three casters with Wanderer and Necromancer sniping away threats with Half Vanish/elemental/Leaf Coat damage. The major question for me is whether this team can work smoothly without shields. Star Lancer would be good option in place of Wanderer to address this problem, but at the moment, I think I'd rather have Wanderer's double hit and spell versatility than Star Lancer's shield option and useful but MP-heavy summon. I will think on it some more.

This will be a longish project since I only really get to play on weekends, but a fun one I think :-)

[rpschamp 0]

On 5/12/2020 at 8:22 AM, Nesouk said:

I actually run Gran Divina, Star Lancer, Necromancer an all around great team, that has almost everything cover, just lack some physical damage.

Just curious, how often were you using Star Lancer's aggro shields by the endgame with this team?

[Nesouk 49]

Lise was my tank in this set up, so I had pretty much always her with a Shield to allow Angela and Carlie to nuke ^^

[rpschamp 0]

24 minutes ago, Nesouk said:

Lise was my tank in this set up, so I had pretty much always her with a Shield to allow Angela and Carlie to nuke ^^

I'm thinking of a spell-damage team, similar to yours, where a tank or a shield wouldn't be necessary; since Angela can cast her spells instantly, she should always free to knock enemies back, thus having no need for a shield. With her in the lead position, her two partners would be free to cast their own spells, maybe Wanderer and Necromancer to add to the damage, or Star Lancer to summon, or even someone to cast a Heal Light in case an enemy manages to get through.

Edited May 14, 2020 by rpschamp

[praetarius5018 111]

1 hour ago, rpschamp said:

Angela can cast her spells instantly

Where does this idea come from?

[rpschamp 0]

25 minutes ago, praetarius5018 said:

Where does this idea come from?

I was referring to Grand Divina's level 1 damage spells; at max agility she can fire them off more or less instantaneously, at least last time I played her on a previous version of this mod. I'm not sure if the cast times of her level 1 spells have been lengthened in the current version.

I have always run Angela with a shield user, but once she maxes out her agility, wouldn't her lack of a cast time obviate the need for a shield? I may be thinking too optimistically. In any case, it would help to have a shield user around during the time when she is reaching that level as Grand Divina.

I'm imagining two types of spell-damage teams: one with longer cast times that requires shields, and one with at least one character with short to zero cast time that can operate without a shield by constantly knocking enemies back with instant or close to instant damage spells.

Also, one more question while I have your attention: Does invert armor flip crit rate buff/debuff spells like Energy Ball and Analyze?

Edited May 14, 2020 by rpschamp

[smileless 0]

Agreed, the moment you use melee/tech damage in endgame you get just too much damage to tank mormally by just buffs and debuffs even on Normal, this strat worked like a charm to me. At least melee heavy teams should have this strat open, if you have a caster or two you can get around mobs fine enough, stall them or just nuke them.

21 hours ago, rpschamp said:

Ninja Master/Dervish/Sage: I'm extremely curious about Dervish's Berserker wolf form; the attack boost looks insane. Dervish can add Protect Up and Speed Up to Sage's Mind Up with invert armor, Ninja Master and Dervish can go for critical hits with Analyze and Energy Ball, and Dervish can Boost Sage's Rainbow Dust with Antimagic and Poison Breath/Leaf Coat. Plus, this team will have Moon Saber and Leaf Saber which I'd like to explore more; Moon Saber together with the yellow damage HP rasp weapons and Sage's passive heal could be just enough to keep two double-hitters afloat in the endgame.

Never played Dervish, but this sounds like a pretty damn powerful team for him. I wonder if by having a stronger wolf form also imcreases his lv3 tech. While his final weapon I assume only effects normal hits and level 1 tech I suppose?

21 hours ago, rpschamp said:

Wanderer/Grand Divina/Necromancer: Grand Divina/Necromancer is a great combination for spell damage in the six major elements and Heal Light. Plus, Grand Divina can switch to team leader once her spells become instant, allowing three casters with Wanderer and Necromancer sniping away threats with Half Vanish/elemental/Leaf Coat damage. The major question for me is whether this team can work smoothly without shields. Star Lancer would be good option in place of Wanderer to address this problem, but at the moment, I think I'd rather have Wanderer's double hit and spell versatility than Star Lancer's shield option and useful but MP-heavy summon. I will think on it some more.

Sounds nice, but you should be willing to cast Magic Shield on all 3 chars but on the upside it boosts magic and physical defense along with healing power for Grand Divina. It has also Speed up which all benefit ftom these two spells.

There is no mind up for this team keep in mind but once Grand Divina gets her final weapon she could boost spell damage using her spells as sabers, so I would aim to get her final weapon as soon as W/A seeds become available to get.

Edited May 14, 2020 by smileless