EOX Rantage

[Maxine MagicFox]

Even though it released as "Etrian Odyssey Nexus" I still feel the shortened version should be EOX. I just got used to typing it that way. What do you guys think?

[zamisk]

I prefer EOX as well.

As for the inaugural EOX rant in the EOX Rant age thread; I spent 4 hours selecting my party of 5 before I went to bed last night. I love all this customization but damn! That's a lot of decisions to make.

For now I have:

Landsknecht/Protector/War Magus
Zodiac/Arcanist

I initially tried having the Zodiac in the front instead of the Magus to boost elemental chases as well as her spells but she was too squishy for now. I also had an Imperial instead of a Landy originally but forgot how inaccurate they were. I think this will be a good blend of crowd control and boss busting.

[Maxine MagicFox]

My team is

Hero / Shogun
Zodiac / War Magus / Survivalist

I'm a bit on the squishy side, though. I'm actually seriously thinking of looking into replacing the Shogun with something else if she doesn't shape up, but I think I've made an error myself with some of the skill choices. I'm not too impressed so far, though I'm hoping the damage output eventually increases and their HP levels out a bit more.

[Sigma]

I'm running: Hero, Farmer, Highlander -- Sovereign, Medic

I was fairly undecided in terms of the Sovereign and kept flip flopping up until the game arrived on whether to do that or a Dismiss Blow/Blast focused Arcanist. Settled on Sovereign figuring they would better synergize with what I'm intending to do, time will tell. The Sovereign will eventually transition to Element Bomb use. As of now, they are primarily focused on using Attack Order and Freeze Arms; also with a detour into testing Negotiation's effectiveness for possible prolonged exploration.

At the moment, I do feel as though I may have too much healing going on by battles-end. My Hero heals just using skills, my Highlander heals by killing, my Sovereign is healing by being at full health, and Medic is randomly healing as needed while also having Patch Up. It's working though and fortunately no brutal gang ups yet on the Farmer.

[zamisk]

^I hear you about the over healing, there's so many valid options! I made sure to just have 2 to focus the rest of the squad on damage and defense.

I'm still rocking the

Landsknecht/Protector/War Magus
Zodiac/Arcanist

crew, just bopped the first big guy you encounter early on at level 6, (though it did kill me after a long, drawn-out battle at level 5).

I try and keep the whole party attacking most turns to keep the Landy doing full damage, but sometimes the Protector tosses out a line guard or defends someone about to die, the Magus heals or debuffs once the Arcanist lands an ailment, the Zodiac is either blasting with a spell or just attacking to conserve TP, and the Arcanist chucks down a circle every three turns to keep the party healed up and lock down the enemies for the Magus to cripple. I'm trying to stagger the party's non-attacking turns to get minimum 4 chases, but sometimes I give the Landy a break and do a full round of everyone buffing up and locking down the enemies and ect.

This party seems to be effective at boss busting as well as random encounters and TP management, I can't wait to see how it holds up.

This game is sweet.

[Sigma]

I've found my party's bane: Mandrake. They love arm binding my Hero and Highlander any chance that they get and prolong the fight. Even worse when they are paired with an Angry Baboon and 2 Rollers.

The Farmer has made me over confident in taking on FOEs. The reason being is that Flee maxes out at 4 points with a 100% guarantee. Of the FOEs currently available there is only one so far that this party can not tackle (). I can get it down to about 70% before things go horribly wrong, but I do like the mechanical changes they made to this FOE.

I've encountered Maxine's guild twice so far; similarly to what was done in EO5. Also encountered my first party-wipe and it was totally worth it.

[WillowWolf]

Playing on expert and running:
Sovereign, Hero, Nightseeker
Zodiac, Arcanist

Plan to do some pretty typical subclassing once I get there- especially for the Arcanist who I plan on having as a healcanist like I did in 4, but not 100% sure on the other four party members for now. Might get everyone to level 5 or so and play with different party layouts as well.

That dang trap floor in really messed me up lmao. Tried to make a break for it to get to the exit, but fleeing from the battles were not in my cards today. Ahhh Etrian's unforgiving nature, just as I remember from my first jaunt through 2

[Maxine MagicFox]

So I restarted the game and am back to where I was before. My other team was WAY too squishy and I wanted to do a complete switch out. I think it was mostly the Shogun's fault, but I was also not getting a lot of healing (ironic saying that since you guys are right and there's a lot of healing in the game to be had). I also felt more confident when I realized that the Afterimage of the Heroes is not affected by the row they appear in, or at least don't seem to be.

Hero / Paladin /Pugalist
Zodia / Medic

I MIGHT switch out Paladin later on in the game depending on how necessary I feel that he is, and the Medic will prolly be switched out for a War Magus. Is there going to be subclassing? Since I didn't hear anything on this, if there is, my choices may be influenced by that. But I'm much happier with this team. I made quicker work of the first labyrinth and even have a good money cache building up. What took me five hours took me just 2 this time.

[Sigma]

[WillowWolf]

I feel like I'm making good headway so far. I did similar to what Maxine did, sans full restarting. The original party I posted felt like it was just a little too fragile with too few dedicated healing options for that specific set up. I still feel like that group will be fun, but I'm going to wait until after I get sub-classing unlocked until I bring back the arcanist at least (healcanist, how I love thee..)
Now I'm running:
Pugilist, Ronin, Hero
Survivalist, Medic

Much more survivable! I found that item that lets you share exp with the guild so I got the main party to about level 18 before tackling the first boss. Wandering through the second strata and worked my way up to level 22/23... I feel a taaaad bit over levelled lmao. Despite pulling by on the first boss by the skin of my teeth.

EDIT: To whoever has Kincaid and the Blades guild, you're the only guild I run into and thanks for all the medicine xD

[heprea]

QR CODES, QR CODES EVYRYWHERE!
and not only that, MOST OF THEM DONT EVEN WORK! D:

Other than that, nothing to rant about.
Maybe the lack of necromancer and hexer class(can still use their portraits tho at least).

[WillowWolf]

[heprea]

[WillowWolf]

[Maxine MagicFox]

I'm very disappointed with the elemental damage. My Zodiac flies through TP and then is dead like the rest of the 75% of the dungeon run. I want to get rid of them, but then I'm worried if I do how will I take care of enemies like Rollers and other elemental-based enemies might come up as I go further.

How's everyone else handling them? Any tips or pointers?