building around 3 guests in my party

[igniz13]

So I'm approaching the 5th strata and I'm thinking of keeping the special guests in my party as I've been using them all until now.

My frontline would be
IR/BD/??

And then

A?/??/??

On the back rank. At the moment my A is an AR but I want my IR to take over those duties. They would mainly handle elemental defence and damage with their drives.

I'm not sure what to do with the other spots or what subclass to give my A

I've got a NL, SA and MF looking for spots though I could also bring back my L.

My NL was handling elemental attacks but that's a little redundant now.

Any suggestions?
Sorry for the messy post, I'll try and clean it up later

[Tumalu]

I have to question the BD, since if you're using it for extra normal attacks it would sync better with the Nightseeker subclass and if you're using it for actual dances then I have to wonder why you're picking a pure damaging class that also has painfully, painfully low max TP at all points of the game.

Then again, I guess the dances are so amazing that just forcing it in -somewhere- is too good to resist. I can't blame someone doing that.

N/L is better for just smashing faces in and using Auto-Spread Venom Throw then for elemental attacks. The arcanist can lie down an ailment circle and the NL can use Vanguard and then Swift Edge for massive damage, since their enlightment is literally like a 300 or 400% damage boost. That glove you get from a chest with Charge is good for trying to get another turn in for the ailment to land. Or maybe you could have the N max a status throw that isn't venom, too, that's more depending on your playstyle. But seriously, venom throw on turn one wipes almost every random battle in the entire game, and swift edge is good damage even when a status hasn't landed.

Arc should probably sub Medic, since it's good to have a medic sub -somewhere- on a class with decent TEC and revive+auto-revive is forever nifty, and they have plenty to do when not healing anyway.

SA can be pretty effective if you're using Releasal Spell to repeatedly bind the most dangerous part of a boss. It's funny to bind the dragon's heads over and over and over. I don't know what a M/F is even trying to do, though.

[igniz13]

The bd was providing refresh waltz and some other buffs to the frontline, the b skills were focused mainly on auto attacks so they could trigger tp and hp regen, multiattacks and cover their own tp expenditure.

I needed the links for my nl as that was the most efficient form of elemental damage in strata 3 and 4.

The mf was literally there for the strike/elemental guards, bolt strike and being a little less squishy , I'mnotsure what I'd do with them Now though.

My a was providing the poison, but now it's probably more efficient if a na gets it. I'm not keen on my n being the applicant and attacker as it wastes their turns.

[Tumalu]

Nightseeker IMO should get venom throw just to make randoms hilariously fast and easy whenever auto-spread triggers. Applying it on a boss is just a bit of an extra, especially when you have an arcanist to apply statuses on the boss instead.

N/A would still be the applicant and attacker, it's just you'd be relying more on Foul Mastery to increase damage than all the effects of the subclass. It'd trade a good chunk of damage for increased status accuracy. I mean, what else is the N/A going to do after you land a status effect but attack the enemy? The enlightenment bonus is way too good to pass up, anyway- the damage is still pretty big even without an offense subclass.

And, wait- you had a main class L, but used an N/L to do the links instead? I don't get it D: I guess Ns are kind of awkward until they hit lv40 and unlock all their amazing abilites all at once.

[Kimiko]

Please change the topic's title to avoid spoilers.

[igniz13]

The L is too slow to really use links on their own. You need to use vanguard and later improved link to make it worth while, or lots of slow attackers in your party.

By the time you can subclass, an N is inherently fast enough to not need vanguard and arguably doesn't need improved link if an a can provide the status effect. I can't see an L ever being better at links than a NL except maybe as an LD or maybe LI.

I think it's clear that I'll be getting an AH and then I have to figure out the other slots.

I had a crazy idea with a NS applying ailments and then using the bow attacks to follow up, or I could make a chasing nd.

Had some weird ideas for a nr and a sd but I'm not sure what my team might be missing

[Tumalu]

>An AH
An Arcanist... what? I think you typo'd :V

I see what you mean about the links now, though. Since you can only activate a single link without using Improved first, I had always just used my Fort to trigger it- but most classes aren't slower then a landsneckt. Some equipment management with boots and such could probably make a few other classes slower, though.

Actually, now I realize you mean you're using links with the status effect boost from Enlightenment. I can see how that would get pretty high. The thing is, though, an LR or LB in a decently set up linking party can reach high enough numbers to kill pretty much all the FOEs and bosses in 2 turns of linksmashing (3 for final boss) after hitting lv40 and maxing Link Mastery as it is- although before that... huh, links might not be half bad on a N after all.

Nightseekers are hilarious. The class that can one-shot a dragon in a solo party. It's pretty great.

I don't know what the point of a NS or ND would even be, though. NS is just "why" because are you really that desperate for binds, and ND chaser seems awfully gimmicky of a way to try to use the N's enlightenment boost when there's much easier ways to go about it.

Anyway, as for what your party is missing, more damage never hurts, and it sounds like you're planning on protecting your party via binds and/or ailments. Between the N and S and A, you could totally pull that off.

[igniz13]

I meant am not ah, got healer in my mind.

NS and NR are ideas for back rank N's.

The improved accuracy of an NS and squall volley could prove potent against groups and solo's if someone else applies the poison.

Similar with nr but probably stupider.

[igniz13]

No, boosting the damage of the R spells though I'm not sure the proficiency works for that. It's not a serious build idea.

[Tumalu]

Squall Volley is really, really inaccurate. Speed Boost wouldn't make a huge difference, although with that plus a 4+ accuracy forged weapon and the 8 accuracy forge accessory you'd be about at 100%+ hitrate. But you're just about there with a normal sniper equipped that way regardless.

The bigger thing is that the loss of the Sniper's enlightenment means Squall Volley's damage isn't anything special. Yeah, the N's enlightenment is even better (not by a -whole- lot though, sniper is already getting 200% damage increase I think) but you'd be better off just using it with Swift Edge instead of trying to be gimmicky with Squall Volley. Even if all the hits connected, it probably does less damage, and you have to sacrifice so many damage boosting forges on equipment to even get it to hit. Suggesting to use an Accuracy buff would be even worse unless you really have nothing else to use that buff slot, and having to have leg binds or Paralysis makes it more gimmicky, as Ns should still do decent damage without status effects on.

You keep suggesting ways to use the N's enlightenment with other classes skill's... but Swift Edge is a perfectly devastating option as it is :V If you want to be stronger then use a sub that boosts damage by a lot like L or B, as that's vastly more effective then trying to sub for a stronger attack to use. You haven't suggested anything else you'd be wanting in that front slot, and having the N in the front really shouldn't be an issue durability-wise.

Checked the numbers- subclass-maxed Squall Volley is 200%~450% damage, and Swift Edge max is 440%-550%. This isn't counting how much damage you have to sacrifice from forges for accuracy even if you DO use a subclass-grade Spotter. That's an average of 325% compared to 490% (almost 1.5x more) before considering how many more damage forges you can have with Swift Edge, plus if you used a damage-boost subclass you could increase that by over 1.5x more easily.

Also, you say "someone else can inflict the poison", but the thing is, the nightseeker's poison will literally kill almost every non-boss enemy in the game in a single tick of damage. It deals 700 per turn, and has a very high infliction rate. Auto-spread procs 70% of the time at max, and the Venom only costs 3tp. If you have an N, your arcanist has better uses for skillpoints than poison circle.

N is a pretty godly class, it's almost stupid. All they need from a subclass is a powerup to their current abilities. L/B can up damage and A can help with ailments, although A is less useful of a sub when you have a main A already. And subbing I can work...

As for Garrett, you use an N/I, inflict sleep, and make use of the Charge skill glove. Sleep doubles damage for the hit, ontop of charge doubling it, ontop of the N's enlightenment... in tandem with an elemental drive hitting weakness. I don't think you need to hope for Follow Trace to hit, as it'd hardly do damage due to loss of literally all 3 of those boosts. The video I saw used Black Mist to ensure sleep didn't wear off after a turn.

[igniz13]

I actually tried venom toss and it makes everything else pointless, it's actually disgusting.

My main issue with swift edge is that it's single target and the n has no aoe attacks (beside spread throw). So I was using nl aoe attacks to wipe out groups. Now that I've got a NI, all I need to do is not die.