smileless

I love the duelist class, mod did justice to a class known for level 3 tech power, unlike the remake where I heard Duelist got shafted hard. And on that note I beat Dark Lich, next is the Lise/Kevin/Angela run, with Vanadise/Death hand/Archmage. Star Lancer, Dervish, Grand Divina could also be interesting, I will think of that option once I reach level 18. Edit: actually no scratch that, no mind down, going with Vanadise, Death Hand, Archmage definitely.

Didn't expect Duelist to work that well in this fight he carried hard. He dealt more damage also due to protect down + Duran's AGL capstone increasing saber spell power. Kevin had auto-buff equiped so Duran benefited from his power up, and auto-debuff set all I had to cast was mind down.

@Nesouk exactly the problem my current team has - lack of elemental coverage = Xan Bie will be a painful fight no matter which difficulty. Hopefully Duelist final weapon does decent damage to the furnace, maybe will have Carlie or Kevin with Magitech whichever ends up with the highest int. Dangaard, Mispolm, Dolan down, I think I might go for Land Umber next then Xan Bie and get over that fight.

You are right, but is it really worth to skip Exorcise in Carlie's final dungeon vs those undead enemies where it's gonna be pretty painful dealing with them physically. Tho it's doable with Duran's Lv3 tech and Kevin using counters, Carlie spams her one and only spell but I think Exorcise makes things just more comfortable for a team like this. Still confilcted if I should skip that. Ideally would have been best to skip Carlie's sabers from her previous class, my spell/capstone planning sucks lol.

On another note here on Carlie I might have to skip Power Up* instead in order to get the LUK capstone, and learn Flame Saber instead, very clutch. Either that or I will have to go with the AGL capatstone. I think it may have been better to skip the Diamond Saber on her first class change entirely and not learn it at all. Oh well, if I decide on LUK capstone for Carlie, at least with Duelist capstone team gets more power out of sabers, and at the beginning of fights Kevin will auto-buff the party with his power up.

I think it's a fair trade considering you will also have Evil Shaman's final weapon.

Yeah good point I should skip Leaf Saber. Dervish learns Power up on self, will auto-buff apply it other party members too? Yeah I think LUK capstone would be the safest option here while have Lise save TP for items instead. INT capstone for Vanadise would work mainly with passive weapons like evernate spawn, Sage's weapon and such. Could make use of Bishop's weapon too, since she's the healer maxing out PIE stat and go for counters acting as a secondary healer, but weapons like that would probably be more preferable like Starlancer. That could work too, a lot of times I prefer speed up/down combo more than having protect down. Kevin's final weapon reduces defense over time anyway, while Archmage gets still increased spell damage with mind up/down + kevin's weapon. This seems very good overall but weak on the healing side, Magus will still be your main attacker. Evil Shaman might need a heal up slot to strengthen regeneration. Is that spell at least faster than heal light when raising AGL high enough?

Don't thinkthink there are better teams for Grand Divina to her final weapon, I think Archmage with her final weapon is great without even a mind up when hitting with weakness the right enemy. I think another way to play this team would be Magus, Nightblade, Bishop (no Anti-Magic but unless really needed you got a variety of physical and magical damage) and you can do a sharet element resistance strat here as well. Or a no heal light team but relying on Regeneration spell and maxed PIE stat (which you will do that to your PIE spell caster anyway), I saw in one of Nesoul's videos Vanadise with Regeneration spell and no heal light so it's possible with that too. Magus, Wanderer, Necromancer but have one of them equip Regeneration spell ring. Self Mind up for Magus, Magic shield to cover for defenses, all stat down. Wanderer with the capstone to cover for sabers. You have Necromancers Dark Saber for shared resistance strat. In the end you could go with Archmage, Nightblade, Bishop, very straightforward but I don't want to use Archmage too many times now, I want to try more of Angela's other classes, dang it randomizer.

More randomizer team choices for my next runs - long clusterfuck of a post: Lise (main), Kevin, Angela Vanadise Spells: Skip Fire Saber, Power Up. INT capstone - can equip any weapon and armor LUK capstone - party takes 1/8 less damage from spells Weapon: L3 armor break/Heal Up Helm: Depends Armor: Auto-Buff Ring 1: Meta: Multi Ring 2: Depends or heal up Death Hand Skip Dark Force, Demon Breath INT capstone - sword magic +atk gives 20% (party) Or LUK - party takes less damage from critical hits - if I choose Lise's INT capstone this one for sure then. Weapon: L3 Armor Break Helm: Lv2/3 tech up Armor: Depenss Ring 1: TP gain up Ring 2: Trials Skill (cursed) Archmage Skip Body Change, Aura Wave AGL capstone - party casts 20% faster Weapon: Exploit Weakness/Magic Up Helm: Magic Up Armor: MP regen Ring 1: depends Ring 2: Meta: Curse Funky set up lol, unsure if I will comit to double L3 Armor Break users, a bit too risky, but if yes Lise's PIE should still be maxed out for Heal Light, her purpose will be mainly healing, but if she can sneak a level 3 tech to reduce targets defenses then good, but maybe I will play more defensively and let Kevin do his job there Kevin (main), Duran, Carlie Dervish Skip Power Up^, Half Vanish VIT capstone - draw agro and turn him into a tank so Duran is free from that job. Tho the AGL capstone sounds nice too - when a weapon attack can inflict a status effect even if immune, subtract another 30 or 40 hp on critical, while the party has energy ball and analyze honestly I might consider the AGL capstone. Might go for Auto-Debuff equipment set for the most part, when not needed I will just up his defenses or offer status protection, have him wield crit weapon. Duelist Skip Anti-Magic, Protect Down AGL capstone - sword magic +atk gives 20% (party) Weapon: CQC Tech/Lv3 Tech up Helm: Lv3 tech up Armor: Depends Ring 1: TP up Ring 2: Trials Skill (cursed) Bishop Skip Flame Saber, Energy Ball, Ice Saber AGL capstone - enemies spawn with -20 evade or the LUK capstone with spells costing less MP Weapon: Heal Up Helm: unsure Armor: unsure Ring 1: Heal Up/varies Ring 2: Spell: Resist (cursed) Angela(main), Hawk, Carlie I want to try something different than Archmage for the 20th time, so what I got so far: Grand Divina Skip Evil Gate, Sleep Flower As for capstones am thinking of either of the three: AGL capstone - party cats 20% faster VIT capstone - primary elemental (fire, ice, earth, wind) spells heal party by 50 HP INT - pierce 35 m.def Weapon: Dual Tech Helm: Magic Up Armor: Heal Up? Ring 1: Dark resistance (when mob fighting) Ring 2: depends Wanderer Skip Body Change (do that from first class change) and Aura Wave INT capstone - when a weapon can inflict a status effect even if immune, subtract another 30 or 40 hp on critical Weapon: Crit by TP Helm: Crit Up? Armor: Depends Ring 1: Status infliction ring Ring 2: Depends Necromancer Skip Half Vanish, Black Rain or Great Demon, more thinking needed on that, probably will keep Black Rain for curse. LUK capstone - spells cost less MP Weapon: Magic Up Helm: unsure Armor: MP regen Ring 1: Magic Up/Meta: Multi (for dsrk saber Ring 2: Meta: Curse None of them as access to protect up so you need at least a Magic Shield user, and maybe do some sharet resistance strat by equiping resist dark on Angela, having Carlie cast Dark saber on enemies. I am not entirely sure on this party, mind up no capstone to increase the saber power, for a spell casting team this might be a weak one in terms of damage. Maybe I should try Magus/Nightblade/Bishop.

Well more of a subjective opinion, I personally don't see it that way in Normal. You can easily buy seeds if you don't get the desired class change item from the seeds you farmed even if you don't get seeds at all. Weapon/armor seeds are probably harder to come by but for the most part you really only need one/two at best, you rarely would need to get for all three characters class weapons, or prioritize which one you need the most. By the near the end of the game I still manage to get about 2-3 more weapon seeds unless you skip enemies. As for bosses if you find them too easy on normal or don't find them fun well maybe go on the tough difficulty then.

Man the Black Rabite still remains the most painful fight in the game, I find dealing with it harder than any boss, my least favorite fight, majority of the times I switch to easy difficulty just for that, and I still manage to lose, in the end I still beat it.

Some things you have to find the hard way out

Oh that's convenient, shouldn't travel all the way to fucking wind corridor anymore.

I like Normal mode the most, not too easy or not too difficult. For ??? Seed farming I try to get to Snowfields as low leveled as possible without being complete fodder and farm them till around pevel 36/37, go buy whichever intended class item I didn't get and change class after beating Machine Golems (or you could travel to Wind Stone if you feel you are going to overlevel to 39 after beating the Machine Golems before class change). Takes more time but hey you pretty sure we all have fast forward buttons for quick travelling. Anyway I beat Dark Lich

Heavy spell casters in general seem to benefit from Magitech weapon, I personally like to conserve the TP on healers for healing items for the most part, well depending on team composition. I might change that approach and give that job mainly to other character whichever one has a way to build TP faster.

You know what, nothing wrong with playing more defensively, Lise's LUK capstone might be a good pick. Didn't know Poison Bubble works on Xan Bie, if it works then it's a good alternative then. Necromancer def seem to be doing a lot of damage really fast with that set up, to some enemies with around 50%hp give or take when hitting weakness it deals near 999 and to some 999 damage, and having no source of offensive part of mind up that's a good alternative to some fights especially if you lack sabers (with Hawk's PIE capstone that set up wasn't needed but for mob fights perhaps). Carlie's biggest strength still remained the curse upgrade through Gremlin/Black Rain. I tried actually Magitech on Hawkeye, works really well actually, I decided to keep that for the rest of the run, good source for TP regen also (should have equipped that on him that before the Mirage Palace). On Heath after Lunatic/Black Curse, I just used Arrow, one of Carlie's 4 main elemental summons, Duran heals, once Hawk's tech bar filled the weapon worked really well for this fight, or for item use. All that's left is Dark Lich.

I love counter based teams that involves Lord final weapon. One fight this team is going to suffer the most is pronably Xan Bie, but I am not sure how effective counters will be effective on the furnace this time, but they will probably work more than usual physical attacks, and you have half vanish too. And Crit resistance will probably still be valuable for Normal but with Fenrir Knights weapon might be better to attack more often instead, also helps healing. Almost done with Necromancer/Paladin/Wanderer, just beat Deathjester, onto the final area, and just bought the life saver armor for Carlie will see if it's worth to give her two Magic Up equipment or her final weapon (spell revenge) with the life saver armor and blood magic ring (cast from HP) for damage, quick cast helm. I feel like two magic up slots would outpower that setting as you need lower HP for higher spell damage. I will probably feel more comfortable with the more simple setting but will see.

For some reason physical attacks stopped connecting on Zable Fahr blue head, reminded me similarly of Genova in early versions of 2.0

Was too dumb for that, but at least it wasn't a big fuck up and able to work around my mistake. This might be better choice too lol.

Lol, small correction here as I nadr a mistake (almost cost me good I realized sooner), you can't skip protect up from Paladin as he already learns that as Knight, so might well multi target it, will skip Sleep Flower instead too. Might consider now teaching Wanderer the Resistance spell, since there's no need for two Magic Shield users anymore. Carlie gets the Meta Curse ring (Cursed), Hawk the Spell Resist ring (Cursed), Duran the healer and buffer gets the Constant regen Helm (cursed), each character at least one cursed equipment. Maybe I will give Duran the Auto-Buff Armor too.

Take 2 doing it more organized Nesouk's style after more carefully looking at equipment: In terms of equipment Hawk, as the ultimate support for most part will probably aim to regain MP fast as well as quick cast (while gain some TP as he supports with his spells), Quick Cast helm is questionable as party has speed up and speed down, it will probably vary most of the time. I might also go for Meta Curse ring for Carlie. Thinking maybe I should skip Paladin's Sleep Flower and teach Regeneration with the cursed ring instead, but I think I will probably just equip remove weakness helm or armor equipment when necessary. I think I am now set for the next run.

A question on this to be sure, in order for that to work do those accessories need to be equiped on Hawk or it doesn't matter who equips them?

This looks very good and well planned also. Both Death Hand and Paladin have Speed Up, maybe skip Paladin's Speed Up instead for another spell? Tho from what I can see it learns only single target Sleep Flower so maybe having another Speed Up user is better than just learning single target sleep flower.

Auto Buff Armor/Auto Debuff set are so convenient for mob fights, I think most set ups should probably aim for that especially if you play on harder difficulties.