EOV Rantage!!

[Dangerus]

Finally got passed that blasted 23rd floor!

[sebberu]

*necromancing* Lemme revive this topic!
After having some fun in Nexus, I decided to come back to EOV again. I dunno why, but it didn't quite click with me the first time, but now I really appreciate it somehow.
Since I forgot most of the stuff I did in my last save, I deleted it (chain party, got up to 29F) and started a fresh run, mostly with classes I didn't play the first time:

Harbinger / Pugilist / Masurao
Necromancer / Shaman

Finished the first stratum recently, Amalgolem was much easier than expected. The combination of debuffs, binds, ailments and Shaman+Masurao buffs is almost ridiculous and so refreshing after having a Dragoon 2 years ago.
Planning on making the Harbinger a Deathbringer (ailments+Frigid Reap), the Pugilist a Barrage Brawler (binds galore), the Masurao a Blade Master (Helm Splitter+Spirit Sword) and the Shaman a Divine Herald (passive healing and buffs, the only character I also used in my last playthrough).
I'm not certain what to do with the Necro, though. Broker sounds pretty good to me for a mixed supporter (dmg sponges, dmg dealing, Life Exchange).

[WillowWolf]

With this pandemic craziness I got laid off (temporarily until more work is available, thank goodness). Picked this game up again with my newfound free time! I've been meaning to get back to it to actually beat it, but it's been so long since I played I just decided to restart and pick Advanced mode instead of Basic this go of it. Picked Basic mode last time. Might be why I put it down before.

Another reason is that I can't for the life of me pick a party to stick with. I love such a weird hodgepodge of characters that dont really mesh well. I also love all of the classes and designs so that's a double whammy hahaha.

Been running:
Pug/Reaper
Necro/Tank/Herb
But swapped tank for rover today to get the binds and a little more synergy, iirc they have a path that focuses on those???

Also tried elemental theme with:
masuro/link
Shaman/Warlock/(tank or herb)

Which seems fun but a little more dependent on more skill points, so may have to wait until I can grind them up a bit to use this more often...

I remember this game really picking up for me once the branching classes became unlocked so I'm at this point just trying to get there again before I get too invested in one group. Warlock, shaman, masuro and pugilist are grand, later I might have to make more of that happen, too.

I thought, when this game came out, that I'd just love reapers to death, and theyre not the worst -great for ailments and debuffs iirc- but they just don't mesh with me quite as much as I thought they would. Ah well, I can always slow myself down even more and keep swapping characters around

[WillowWolf]

I think I found my (mostly) permanent crew today!
Bind Pugilist, Chase Fencer, Deathbringer Harbinger
Herald Shaman, Broker Necromancer

Really loving the chases I'm getting, just absolutely destroying most things in second strata while I go through my missed or skipped quests, though without a real dedicated healer I'm a bit nervous for boss & FOE survivability, but I can always swap to my botanist instead of the Necro for those if needed.
Kinda wish I would have given this layout a go in my first play through... Probably would have liked it a lot then, as well. The Fencer and Shaman really bring the group up a notch for me, and Shaman was one of the few classes I didn't fiddle with too much in my first go at the game, along with Warlocks and I always start with a Dragoon but they fall off when my Necro starts wanting those limited summon slots... Hyppogryph didnt give my initial party (pug, harbringer, rover, necro, botanist) a big deal of trouble at level 33, though I was missing bigger damage numbers for a bit in the fight since it took a bit to beat the thing.
Here's to hoping the next strata doesn't destroy my newfound satisfaction with this party lmao

[Wolkenritter]

If survival is a concern you could run Evoker on your Necromancer instead for Tombstone Vice. A lot things in the game are very vulnerable to petrify plus it adds an extra Chain Killer proc for your Fencer, provided you are rotating the ailment priority. You also still have the Golem Coffin for excellent dmg mitigation, if you don't care about your Necro's dmg.

Assuming the Pug's binds don't miss though, survival isn't actually much of an issue at all with that group.... I mean I did run it in my first run of the game ehe.