EOX Rantage

[Maxine MagicFox]

That's what I was going to use it for. Later game (post game) when we are prolly reseting levels and stuff like that. But otherwise, I don't wanna break the game with some cheap dlc. It will be used, but not yet.

[Myssdii]

Same, waiting for postgame to get the exp and money DLC quests. I don't want to get tempted into using them to bypass any difficulty during the main game ^^

On another note... I unlocked the subclasses! So this is what I went with:

War Magus/Hero -> extra passive healing on hit and elemental sword skills (and access to aoe damage), considering shield skills also, I'll see about this later.
Highlander/Shogun -> aimed for Warrior Might shenanigans in post-game when I can afford the HP cost.
Imperial/Nightseeker -> well, all EO4 players know how broken this combination is. Extra 20% damage against ailing enemies, chance to double Accel Drive, what else?
Harbinger/Survivalist -> Harbinger is mostly self-sufficient, so... I went with extra backrow damaging/support skills to replace the scythe skills (and half level Blind Arrow has a better ailing chance than full-level Blind Reap). Also, turn-order influence and Scapegoat access for when my Ninja has enough dodge power.
Ninja/Landsknecht -> still don't know what to use for my Ninja, since right know she needs so many extra SP to invest in her own tree... Will probably change later once I figure out if I need more damage or support from her.


I won't spoil how I unlocked them, but right now I'm level 49 and starting to see some plot...

[WillowWolf]

[Sigma]

So I did a rest on my entire party before entering the 4th Labyrinth. The reason being is that I wanted to redistribute 10 SP on my Farmer. It was starting to feel like having Earth's Bounty being maxed was kind of a waste now that they have more options. The party was near 25 after dealing with some cartography upkeep and just a did a FOE rush to push them into it. The reset of 2 levels also helps balance out what felt like a slightly over leveled party from that side dungeon during the 3rd Labyrinth.

The following is probably long, so I condensed into a spoiler box. Party musings (so far):

[WillowWolf]

Really debating on swapping out my Ronin for a Nightseeker a little early, especially since I swapped in Harbinger earlier and I'm sure they will have great synergy (if harbinger could land his @#!*ing ailments for me). Ronin just seems waaaay too squishy compared to everyone else, especially since I'm not running a dedicated tank.

Still not sure what I'm going to do for a lot of my party once I get subclassing, but that's my goal for tonight/tomorrow to get. Might spend a little time on a skill planner for EOX to play with my subclassings( if anyone hasn't already found it). Will share once I decide

[Theresia]

I've reached the 3rd Labyrinth.
I'm running a party of Hero/NS/Highlander on front and Arcanist/Gunner on the back, with the Nightseeker dancing between front and back to land ailments safely/cast Cloak without getting killed every two turns.
At first I had a Zodiac, but his damage output was subpar in relation to TP consumption, so I opted for a Gunner instead.
It works wonders.
I got busted by a

because my party met it with half of TP remaining, no Amrita and so now way to lock it down when it was almost dead, but I'm planning to give it another try today.

[Myssdii]

I just reached the last island (north-east part of the world map), this game is long but so good at the same time, I feel like I'm starting to become a masochist (but aren't all EO players?).

Team works wonders (right now they are level 59), now that I unlocked some AOE spells from the Hero class on my War Magus, random encounters are melting (Ninja uses Ninpo:Daggers for a full sleep, then I go full AOE with Highlander and War Magus after a Harbinger debuff, they all die).
Bosses are kinda easy now, my Imperial doing like 8-9k burst damage all by herself. Starting to unlock Follow Trace right now, this is gonna be so good <3

Still no idea which subclass will be best on my Ninja, I have a few ideas with Arcanist or Ronin, or even another Nightseeker sub, but I haven't decided yet...

Some spoilers below:

[WillowWolf]

I've finally done it and decided. It only took me almost a full day after getting subclassing to decide what I even really wanted to do with everyone xD. While they are subject to change, I think I like my setup (despite some derp classnames):

Azuul - Harbinguard:
A Harbinger sub Protector. Honestly love him, but I'd relegated him to basically debuffs once I got mah boi NS in the party. So I decided to have him run full support. Figured access to shields and more defence wouldn't hurt, while his miasma armor would give him some extra action speed. We'll see how this one plays out.

Ghost - Shadowseeker:
Nightseeker sub Ninja. I really debated on this one between Ninja and Ronin, who I've seen recommended on other forums. In the end, the Status+, regular attacks possibly being instakills, and TP regen from evasion really enticed me.

Monster - Charging Hero:
(Forgive the dumb character name, I named some of my guildmates after prominent pets in my life <3)
Hero sub Imperial. Afterimage. Drives. Need I say more? Really excited to see if the damage potential is really what I think/hope it will be!

Snow - Element Gunner:
Gunner sub Zodiac. Was really hungering for more elemental damage that was cheaper than Gunner's charged shots for less-intense FOEs and random battles. Hoping I don't need to equip a staff, but I'll cross that bridge when I get to it!

Cirice - Healcanist:
My oft-mentioned Arcanist sub medic <3. Really hoping she's as awesome as she was in 4, though I don't see why she wouldn't be. Might have to cheese her up to 50 with the EXP DLC item to match her to my current party, and to get some extra points to put into bind circles (since NS has ailments covered and Gunner gave up her bind shots for the elemental dmg at the moment).

Really debating on whether or not to bring in my Sovereign, Bathory, in place of Azuul the Harbinger, but I'm not sure if I am willing to give him up lol. I also wouldn't have a clue what to sub her as since I often see her recommended as sub Hero, but I don't want them fighting over afterimage slots and sub protector seems so bland...

Edit: And Myssdii up there brings up the good point of Imperial/NS. Will consider after I've run at least one dungeon with this setup to see what's going right and wrong with my party as it stands.

[Myssdii]

Hero/Imperial (or Imperial/Hero, both are similar, it's just a matter of if you prefer Afterimage stability versus chance of more insane damage), is a very popular choice.

Imperial/Nightseeker is the golden girl of potential nuke (with a lucky Follow Trace proc), and I only went for her over Imperial/Hero since I potentially need the extra slot for my Ninja's clone.

Also finished the extra dungeon I was missing from the second island. The boss fight, , was like walking on a tightrope since I was probably under level, and it kept going off my lockdown. Barely managed to petrify it a second time and a lucky Follow Trace proc on my Imperial/NS for the kill.

EDIT: for Sovereign, I see Shogun as a recommended class for commands when you aren't buffing, or Zodiac to boost Elemental Bombs damage. It's also a better support for Imperial if you use Elemental Drives over Accel Drive (I prefer Accel Drive, but that's more a matter of team building).

[WillowWolf]

Thanks for the tips, I appreciate it. Hmmm, might just go with Sovereign/Zodiac. I like the elemental stuff. 2/5 of my team will be ailments and binds, 2/5 will be elemental damage, and the last one will be support for all. I like it. It's got a nice balance to it.

Looking forward to more leisurely playing now. I had subclasses as my goal... and I'm a tad sad it didn't happen two to three dungeons earlier. I feel like I rushed through too many dungeons to get it lol. I can always go slower on my expert playthrough, though, nbd. I am excited to see what they do with this story

[Sigma]

The 5th Labyrinth plus the side dungeon were interesting to say the least. Both had bosses that pushed me into item reliance more than I'm used to. Beat the labyrinth boss on my first attempt, but with problems. The team barely pulled out the win and were running on fumes, ready to collapse at the slightest breeze.

The side dungeon boss on the other hand... Let's just say that took them to the cleaners a few times. Wiped 3 times, but succeeded on the fourth attempt. After the second wipe I had decided to test, with the expectation of another wipe, how well both the boss and my party could handle a long drawn out battle. It became clear that my Farmer could not sustain the TP demands, but that the boss was much easier this way. The solution to the last attempt was an excessive amount of items being brought along: 14 Hamao, 8 Therica B*, 2 Amrita (my last ones), and 10 Sleep Gas.

*The reason for this was to lighten the load on the Medic. On the basis that only one person in a row got hit with a status. Never ended up really needing them in the end.

The intent was to abuse (and did) the Farmer's Force Boost for double items to restore the party's TP as needed. The constant damage the Farmer came under either by AoE or Poison (rarely) kind of prevented their passive to regenerate TP. One added benefit from their Force Boost came from having Sleep Gas on standby. It was a nice way to disable the boss when they would .

The party is at level 38 before going into the 6th Labyrinth. To which, I'm heavily looking forward to just 2 more levels.

[Wolkenritter]

I finally got my copy of the game. Gonna run Hero, Nightseeker, Harbinger, Princess and Gunner in my party. Hero and Gunner probably have little synergy with the rest of the team... but maybe it'll work out~

[sebberu]

No copy yet, but theorycrafting with the calc is still fun. Once again, I decided to go for a chase/link setup. Right now it's:

- Landsknecht/?
Uses Links of course. Maybe Ronin with Drawing Stance + passives as subclass?
- Protector/Highlander
Shielding their allies while retaliating for some Links.
- Pugilist/Nightseeker
Cross counter, single target bind skills, Corkscrew and Following Strike augmented by the NS passives.
- Sovereign/Shogun
Sweet elemental buffs, Prevent Order, healing + Commands when not in buffing mode.
- Gunner/Hero
Multishot + Afterimage shenanigans.

Not sure if that setup would be overkill though, since there's a maximum of 8 Links per turn (as far as I can see). Any thoughts?

[WillowWolf]

[Wolkenritter]

The biggest obstacle in the 2nd labyrinth boss is the turn counter. Don't be me; don't accidentally get Cross Countered to death because you didn't realise it was turn 10 and thought you could finish him off then and there.

Pretty easy otherwise which is kinda surprising since I always found to be one of the harder bosses in his debut game. His damage output is surprisingly low, even on Heroic.