EMD Rantage!

[Kimiko]

Is that so? I think the characters who stayed at home didn't level up at all during my first dungeon run. That ended in a total wipe though, maybe that's why. The ones who died kept their levels though

[Jarelo]

[Hong]

[Fluffernuff]

i havent tried soloing with EVERY class yet, and i havent done the full story so depending on THAT, it might shape my current perception.. but i would say;

Protector > Dancer > Wanderer > Ninja > Medic > Hexer=Runemaster > Landy > Gunner > Sovereign

my PERSONAL list depending on what ive played/the content ive gotten through. though i would like to point out ive yet to run into anything that just shuts down or ruins any single class.
the ONLY class i've had ANY difficulty soloing with is Soveriegn, and thats PURELY because their orders dont work half the freaking time. waste of a turn, TP, and in the thick of a fight? thatll get you killed



EDIT: just to clarify, thats my opinion on SOLOING, not a ranking of the classes period. should be obvious, but... yknow... clarification. for lurkers. or future lurkers. and stuff..... yknow

[Jarelo]

By soloing, do you also mean DOEs and bosses? I feel like it might be possible to solo the entire game, if you have A LOT of good items to use on yourself and throw at DOEs and bosses. I haven't had a chance to try this yet, but I will eventually just to see the viability.

[Hong]

Don't know how to say this, but this game is hilariously easy.

DOEs? Shut down with items. Sleep, poison, confusion, etc. makes them a laughing stock.
Bosses? I guess they can hurt squishies, but in theory you can just keep healing yourself and poison them eventually and win easy. Especially with a certain Blast skill you get.
Regular enemies? Worst thing you'll face for the main game is hypnotism. Undesirable enemies can be dealt with Blowback or Escape sigils.

Items are TOO good and you'll get way more than you know what to do with. I don't even think you'd need a lot if you deal good enough damage. For instance, I really only have one pure damage dealer.

Even without items, a lot of the bosses are too easy. Want to know how I beat the last boss?
This is coming from a player who has done no grinding, and has only stayed on a particular dungeon or another to finish quests.

When I look at my Protector, I see someone who didn't need any help for anything she has faced. I'd imagine a well-built Wanderer or Dancer is similar if the stories are true.

[Jarelo]

Yeah, I do find the game really easy. The only time I've gotten a game over so far was by accidentally shutting off my 3DS on the first floor of a dungeon... So far DOEs and the bosses have been jokes, but I was just wondering how viable soloing the entire game is because I haven't beaten it yet.

[Hong]

Don't know what the post game is like solo, but you'll find it the man game doesn't really get any harder. Certain enemies have absurd defensive stats which can result in a slow fight, at worse, but you can either status them or ignore them and just act accordingly. In the event of overwhelming odds, the solo character can make use of teleportation to get into a corridor and the AI will never stand a chance if they can't attack en masse.

And yeah, you get the idea with DOEs. I've had times where my Runemaster is attacking a DOE I am not fighting yet and it's already dead before the rest of my party gives it any attention.

[Kimiko]

Pff. That was one exhausting dungeon run. Problem with these missions is that you unlock a new dungeon and have to go all the way through it and fight a boss at the end right away. Would've been nicer if we could use the new dungeon to level up some, get to know the monsters and stuff, and then when we're ready go and fight the boss.

This was the fourth dungeon/first DOE one (btw, did we ever learn what 'DOE' stands for?). We were already running low on TP when we got to the lower levels. Hazuki's a little trigger-happy with her Power Word, even when it's not really needed. I know we could tell her not to use it, but it's saved our hides a few times. Likewise for Honoka's Refresh and Setsuna's Waltzes. Gusilla held back on using TP, only using her Guard Order or Attack Order when we were surrounded with monsters. Even letting Hazuki, Honoka and Setsuna gather all the yellow tiles (Gusilla had a Someii Rice at the restaurant, so hunger wasn't a problem for her) only barely kept them from running dry on TP. And with all those tough new monsters, looking around for more helpful things would've been counterproductive. We carefully avoided that DOE as instructed (although it got two levels ahead when we had to go up and down the stairs once to avoid powered-up monsters).

So we were really looking forward to finding a nice exit at the bottom of the dungeon. Wouldn't you know it, there's a boss there waiting for us. And a nasty one too. Those dangerously poisonous bees? It kept summoning more of them. Hazuki got good mileage out of her Poison Curse though. Not only did it soften them up a bit before they got to us, it even slows them down so the poison is more effective. She had to resort to throwing items most of the time though to conserve TP. Setsuna's dancing wasn't very useful, what with everyone standing a few tiles apart. Her speed let her do most of the damage to the boss though, so maybe it was for the better that she didn't have any distractions. Poor Gusilla had the hardest time. Not only did she have to keep everyone's buffs up, she also had to get up close to the boss to help defeat it. Good thing it stopped summoning more bees after a while and we had plenty of Yggdrasil Leaves, or Gusilla wouldn't have survived to the end. Honoka had to use one of our precious Amritas (yeah, next time we'll bring more; our lives are more important than money) to keep everyone healed, even with Gusilla's Reinforce skill helping now and then (she should learn not to heal monsters with it though; those beetles are hard enough to damage without her healing them back).

Just like before though, when you're getting desperate that this fight's going to be your last, the boss finally bites the dust. It was Hazuki who got in the last hit with an Icycle Sigil. So glad it's over and we could get out of there. Fresh air, sunlight.. Time to sell all the materials we collected at Chano's, then it's straight to Kasumi's for some much needed rest. Those shiny new weapons and armor can wait until later.

[Maxine MagicFox]

[Kimiko]

I've used a fort somewhere in the middle of dungeon three for that, but leveling up slows down if you don't fight tougher monsters.

And can you actually go back to town if a DOE is coming up? I'd experiment more, but this kind of game auto-saves before and after each dungeon.

As for Ariadne Threads, I dunno, my storage at Kasumi's is full of them. I seem to find one or two each run and never use them.

[Hong]

If you go into town via warp, be it Ariadne Thread or Geomagnetic Pole, the DOEs will remain 100% still if they are not on the floor you are on. DOEs will advance, and will ruin your forts, if you either use stairs, or you leave while they are on the same floor as you. Warping out while it's a defensive battle in particular counts as a defeat and the fort will fall.

Surprised you're worried about levelling, though. I find the game overlevels you a bit, granted you fight whatever attacks you along your journey.

I follow Maxine's strategy and I usually venture until I'm out of TP or my inventory is full, in which I then build a fort and use the Geomagnetic Pole to head back to town. It's like making a bookmark.

[Kimiko]

So, how do I make DOEs go away if I don't want to meet them? I built a fort on the first floor, but it still says [DOE] on the map overview, and the fort hasn't been destroyed. I thought I'd go into another dungeon and go up and down stairs a few times to make time advance, but that didn't work.

[Hong]

After a DOE has reached a fort that is undefended, they'll destroy it and retreat to the depths of the labyrinth. That is, they must physically reach the floor the fort is on. If you really want to get rid of them fast, you can build forts literally above the floor they are on and they'll probably destroy it in short time. That said, it's best to just let them reach the highest most fort and destroy it then to buy the most time. It only cost 1500 en for the most basic fort.

Don't see what's wrong with being on the same floor as a DOE, though. If you really don't want to fight them, you can just go around them or status them. Figure if you don't have a Runemaster for paralysis, you probably have a bunch of items that inflict the same. The first few times I ran into DOEs, I just went around them until I felt more comfortable taking them on.

They'll never go away permanently until you fight them, though.

[Maxine MagicFox]

^ What Hong said. And it doesn't seem that a DOE advances every time I change a floor. It feels like every two floors it advances.

Seriously, I've had no trouble with DOEs. The first time a dungeon opens up I immediately bring enough gold to build a fort on the very first floor. Then after that just pay attention to your map and your radar.

I once had no DOE on my map being shown and then stepped on a floor and it was there. No idea how that happened. Whatever. For one second it was there in my way on its way to the stairs, I just avoided it until it passed me by and I went around. Was definitely not the most scary moment I've had in the game. I'm more afraid of random monster houses than I am a DOE.